The Bride of Christ

"I do."

Those are two words which I look forward with great anticipation to saying, to know and be known through and through by a woman with whom I can share everything that I am, every hurt and every joy, every laugh and every cry. And yet, how much more should we long for that kind of relationship with our Lord? Ultimately, that's the purpose of marriage; to portray to the world the kind of relationship that we will have with the Son. He is the ultimate Bridegroom, and we, The Church, are the Bride of Christ.

This is one of the reasons why divorce is so destructive . It's not just two people breaking a convenient that they made before the Almighty God, but because their marriage is so much more then that. God didn't institute marriage simply as a means to propagate the human race, nor to make us happy. He designed it to be a picture of something that is much more, something beyond us. Marriage is a picture of the relationship that the Son will have with his Church! This is the reason why there are such harsh punishments for people who divorce and who commit fornication, it's a blatant violation of the marriage covenant, and what the marriage represents!

The culture has really lost sight of the holiness and sanctity of marriage in our day and age. So let us be the shining lights in this dark world of what marriages should really look like!

Paul

It was Monumental

"Hmmm, maybe I should post this on my blog" I thought as I wrote in my journal, the sound of tapping key's filling my ears. So here it is. Let me know if you have any thoughts on this subject! I'd love to hear from you!

March 17, TuesdayMonumental.That’s the name of the movie that we saw tonight, Kirk Cameron’s new movie about the founding of America. Not the founding fathers, but before that: the Pilgrims. It was a very though provoking film and centered around the reasons why the Pilgrims left England for America. There were quite a few that I didn’t know about, like the fact that King James had tripled the national debt and had declared that he had the "divine right of kings," a phrase that he invented. I won’t go into all the details here because there were so many but it’s a movie well worth watching, and a subject that I will have to study in more depth at some point in the near future.The point that I found to be the most intriguing actually didn’t have to do with the Pilgrims but with the economic and moral state that England was in during the early 1600s. They had what would now be called a "church-state." King James (The successor to Queen  Elizabeth) controlled the church, and thus, wouldn’t allow people to diverge from its teaching. Having the Bible in English was capital crime, and punishable by death by tortuous means. On top of that, he tripled, yes, tripled the national debt! After hearing about all of these things, it really makes our situation look pretty rosy. Not saying that we’re on an upward slope, but we certainly don’t have it as hard as they did back then. People who say “Oh it’s never been this bad, the end must surly be near!” obviously have not been a student of history. It’s good to keep things in perspective. Our nation is sick, and we as christians need to reclaim our Christian heritage. The Lord has greatly blessed this nation because it was founded in the fear of God. Yes, some of the founders were not God-fearing men (Some of them were flat opposed to him!), but that doesn’t mean that we are not a nation built on godly principles! We as Christians should be shining lights in this time of darkness, the salt of the earth, if you will. God doesn’t work through majorities (usually), but through dedicated minorities. It doesn’t take much leaven to leaven the whole loaf (Galatians 5:9). 

So get out there and be the light, salt, and leaven of the world!
"Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid" (Mat 5:14).

Extinguished Churches

“Stop by.No one’s burst into flames yet.”

I read that as I leafed through the few items in the mail today. I was like, “Huh?!?” so I flipped over the large card stock ad to read the back side. The last part of it said,

“Come to [our church] this Easter, wear whatever you want, and be yourself. We really want to show you how much fun getting to know God can be!”

It was a flyer for a church in our area. I still haven’t figured out how the front relates to the back, though maybe it served its purpose: to get me to flip it over and read the back. Though I have to wonder, by "No one's burst into flames yet," are they implying that they're just luke warm? Anyway . . .

I think that this is probably the most watery presentation of why one should come to church that I’ve ever heard (though I haven’t been around for very long, so I guess that that’s not saying much). Where’s the command to repentance? I don’t recall any section of the book of Acts in which the apostles told everybody how much fun getting saved was going to be. If “fun” is the only reason why people should “get to know God”, than I can see why it would be lower then a football game in most peoples lives. 

~Paul

Liberty vs. Safety

A while back, I was going through security at the airport, and I remember a lady thanking one of the security officers for "keeping us safe". "Because we're too incompetent and weak to do it ourselves" I thought.
Benjamin Franklin said this nearly 300 years ago, and it's exactly what's happening today:

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety"

The Government can't be everywhere at once (Thank goodness!), so they can't protect you in every circumstance. The purpose of the law isn't to catch criminals in the act as much as it is to bring them to justice afterwards. It's the citizens responsibility to protect himself, his family, and look out for those around him.
So the next time you hear a politician talking about how we should "give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety", think of this quote.
~Paul

Only God knows . . .

Here's a really good one:

"Captain, my religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed. God has fixed the time for my death. I do not concern myself about that, but to be always ready, no matter when it may overtake me." He added, after a pause, looking me full in the face: "That is the way all men should live, and then all would be equally brave"

Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson

Civil War Era Quote

So I've given you the time period, but do you know who said this? The answer will surprise you. Take a guess in the comments, but don't look it up and then answer, I'll tell you in a few days.

“I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races – that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything.”

Ladies First

Those are two words I don't hear very often in the outside world (I.E. outside of the Christian homeschooling crowds that I live in). The feminists have done a very good job at what they think is equalizing women, namely, elevating women, because according to them, working a 9 to 5, is so much more prestigious then being a homemaker. But what they've really done, is pull men down, and try to make them switch rolls. They may say that they simply want equality, but if that were really the case, then you would expect that at least half the time, they would be holding doors for men. But no.

In they're minds, 'equality' means 'identical', or ('congruent' to use the math term). Yet you can ask any doctor, any counselor, or any married person for that matter, and (if they're honest) they will have to admit that there are differences. Try as one might to mask it, their always will be. But is that Bad? Let me ask you this, is an ax head more important then the handle which holds it? Is the trim on a house more important then the studs which support it? They are both vastly different, and yet, they both need each other. If the studs in a house decided that they wanted to be trim as well, then the whole house would come down. Yet if it had no trim, the house would simply be a building. neither would be very comely to look upon. If the ax handle decided that it wanted to be a head, then both would be useless. They both need each other. God designed the genders to be complimentary. Equal, yet distinct. 
This blog has some really good insights into feminism, I've found it to be really helpful, he has some really good insights.


Anyway, Back to the title of this post. I thought about all of this because I was at a business lunch the other day, and when the waiter came to take our orders, she said "Ladies first" and started with the woman at the table. I was pleasantly surprised when she did so, it's not something I hear often at restaurants, probably because the waitress's are concerned that they might offend the feminist demographic. But I think that the lady at the table was appreciative.
So go hold a door, offer your umbrella, and be generally courteous to the women in your life, wether they're 5 years old or 85 years young, they'll appreciate it.
~Paul

Pandoras Box

Through an interesting set of circumstances, I ended up staying at a hotel in between connecting flights on my way back to MI from Mexico. So I'm here all alone, with internet, and a television set, nobody with me to see what I'm doing, or what I'm watching. Now the battle starts. If I do turn on the TV, will  watch edifying things, or will I succumb to my fleshly desires? We don't get TV at home, or in MI, so I don't really know what's on when, what are good shows, etc, so I would have to do some channel surfing, and who knows what might flash by as I'm doing so?
So I decided to simply leave it off altogether. The amount of lousy programming that's on there isn't worth wading through to see if there is anything worth watching. I know how easy it is to slowly slip into watching something slightly objectionable, and once you start sliding, it's hard to stop.
I'm not saying that if you have a TV in your house, then your are evil. There is nothing inherently wrong with television, and if you know which channels have good programming, then you don't have to wade through the muck and the mire.
There is such reward in overcoming the temptation to lust. If you can overcome that, then there isn't any temptation that you (with the Lords help) can't overcome. Lust is probably one of the strongest forces a man will face. Look at how many businesses, churches, and families that have been brought down because the Boss, Pastor, or Father fell into the sin of lust. The number is stagering.
But you can't just leave a time vacuum in the TV's place, so I did other productive things that were on my mental list of "to do's". I finished a lengthy email (which I love doing), and made some phone calls to family and friends back in Oregon. Time is valuable, and it's the one thing that all people have the same amount of. How will you use yours?
~Paul

Ron Paul for President!

I support Ron Paul. (and with that statement, I offend many people)
There is a plethora of reasons why, his constitutional consistency, his Christian beliefs, his workforce experience (as a doctor, OB, having delivered over 4,000 babies). Even if I disagreed with him on more things (and I do disagree with him on a few things), all of the other options on stage right now are much less appealing. (with Gingrich being the worst of the lot).
Voddie Baucham gives a very concise, to the point explanation of why he will vote for Ron Paul, and I think that it's very helpful, plus it has lots of footnotes (I'm a sucker for footnotes. There just something about being able to show where you got your info that is so reassuring).
http://americanvisionnews.com/1278/voddie-baucham-answers-why-ron-paul
Give it a read. I'd love to hear what your thoughts are.

The Value of Family

I sit here in Michigan, the house is empty because my older brother has yet to return, having just finished reading through the list of blogs that I follow, and I'm stuck by how much I miss my family. One of the blogs I follow is by a mom who's blog posts are almost always pictures and stories about her family. What they've been doing, the good and bad things that have happened, things like that. I love they're family, and reading about what they've been up to, but not as much as I could ever love my own! I know the phrase "you never miss it till it's gone" it cliché, but it still rings true. My days now consist of sleeping, reading my bible, working, blogging, math, piano, working on my car, and various others minor things, so my time is filled (maybe too filled, I've already worked 30 hours this week, and it's only Wednesday), but even though I'm busy, several times a day, I'll be doing something, and it will remind me of what a family member has, or would do in that situation. Or I'll be working on my car, and be searching the internet because I can't figure something out on it, and I'll think "I bet dad would know how to fix this, to bad it's 5am back home". I know that I often took them for granted, but now, where I only get to see them on short vacations, it makes my time with them so much more valuable. One day all my siblings will be married, we'll all live in different houses, and we'll only see each other on occasion. But right now, accept for Ross, they're all conveniently living in one place. I can't wait until this march when I'll get to go back and visit.
So I guess what I'm trying to say with all of that is this: God gives us a limited amount of time with our families, and we don't know when that time will pass, so appreciate it right now! Don't wait until tomorrow to tell your mom that you love her, or your dad that's he's awesome, do it right now! They have sacrificed more then your or I can ever imagine for they're children, and a quick "I love you" can be remembered for years to come.
~Paul