John was like a burning and shining lamp, and you were happy to enjoy his light for a while (John 5:35 NCV)

In John 5:35, Jesus informs us about something too crucial to look the other way. He says that when John the Baptist first came on the scene and announced the good news about the coming of Jesus (His ministry and kingdom), the people who heard him were “willing to rejoice FOR A WHILE. . .”

Interesting. The phrase, “for a while,” indicates that at some turning point, the people had stopped following John due to the fact that they had changed their minds about what they were hearing. What was it that caused the people do stop rejoicing over their commitment to follow the Lord via the ministry of John?

The answer is simple: It was John’s message of repentance. Read Luke 3:7-14. Three groups of people come to John asking what to do – the multitudes (v. 10), tax-gatherers (v. 12), and some soldiers (v. 14). But here is the dirty little secret: When John informs each groups what they had to do in order to follow the Messiah, there is no record given of their response! We are not told if each group had actually done what John had told them to do. In fact, there’s good evidence to show that they had not “brought forth fruits in keeping with repentance” (Luke 3:8), because when Jesus comes on the scene, were there any tax-gatherers, soldiers and multitudes of people ready to follow Him at the premier of His ministry? None! Jesus had to go and choose twelve in order to get the ball rolling.

Also, notice that in verses 10 and 14 of Luke 3, the multitudes and soldiers were “questioning Him.” The bible does not say that these groups were asking Him questions, but that they were “questioning Him” – do you see the difference?

If you were teaching and I ask you a question, that would not be a problem. But if you were teaching and I started “questioning you,” then that would be a problem because I would be seeking to pick an argument with you.

The idea is that the people were not asking Jesus questions about repentance, but they were “questioning Him” about it. “What do you mean this is what I got to do? Who gives you the right to say these things?” “Where are your credentials?”

And as you remember the story about John’s life, he was quickly arrested and put into prison for his “preaching of repentance” (Matt. 14:3-4). Later he died there (14:6-12). For a while, John was believed, until he started talking about repentance and changing one’s life, then he needed to be silenced!

Earlier Jesus pointed out to the multitude (Matt. 11:7) that they had been saying about John, that “he had a demon” (v. 18). What would give people that idea? John was not a glutton or a drunkard the text says. So why would he be characterized as someone who possessed a demon? Because when people do not like someone and the message that he is expounding, and they cannot logically refute it, the next best thing is to try to discredit the messenger by labeling him with something bad to demean his character.

Oftentimes people are not able to stand toe-to-toe with a Christian as he uses the Word of God to confront a moral issue. God’s wisdom is always right and if used well will come out as the most logical and influential idea in any argument. Therefore, since God cannot be shown to be wrong, let’s discredit the messenger by labeling him with bad names, such as: “he’s possessed with a demon.” It doesn’t matter if his life is holy and pure such as was the case with John the Baptist. Let’s just give to him a bad name so others will hear about it and not pay any attention to what he is saying.

The same thing was said of Jesus but using different analogies. Although John did not drink wine and had a very strict diet, but was nevertheless labeled as a “demon-possessed” person, Jesus on the other hand did drink wine and was not on any ceremonial eating plan (Luke 11:19). Yet Jesus was labeled as a glutton, a drunkard and worse of all, A FRIEND OF SINNERS!

Again notice that no effort is being used to discredit Jesus’ message, because they could not. So the unbelievers were throwing out immoral labels onto Jesus seeking to discredit his character.

If you oppose homosexuality then you are a homophobe. If you are not in favor of affirmative action then you are a racist. If you do not favor the war in Iraq then you are insensitive and mean-spirited. If you don’t agree with Hillary Clinton then you are a sexist. If you are a conservative then you are a bigot. If you are suspicious of Arabs and Muslims while in a crowded area or at an airport, then you are xenophobic and racially profiling. The list goes on.

But my point is this: Why did the people only follow John for a while? Because as soon as he started demanding of the people repentance and a change life if they were seeking to be true and authentic followers of Jesus Christ Himself, they abandoned ship and tried to justify their decision of doing so by labeling John with bad names.

This commonly happens today. People will come to church all excited and emotionally charged! As soon as they hear a message that pertains to them personally about the need to repent of a particular sin that they do not want to give up for the love of Christ, they move on telling themselves and others that there is something wrong with the pastor or the church.

This is not only true of sheep – I need to make this clear, but also of shepherds. No one likes to be told to change their ways especially if they like their ways even though such ways may be evil and suspicious.

But the bottom line behind it all is this: Jesus stated, “You search the Scriptures. . .that bear witness of Me, but you are UNWILLING TO COME TO ME that you may have life” (John 5:39-40).

Most of the time it is not the messenger’s fault or some faulty reasoning in the kernel of the message, rather it is the “unwillingness” of the listener to appropriate “fruits in keeping with repentance.”

A woman goes to the post office to buy stamps for her Christmas cards. She says to the clerk, "May I have 50 Christmas stamps?"

The clerk says, "What denomination?"

The woman says, "Has it really come to this? Okay, give me 6 Catholic, 12 Presbyterian, 10 Lutheran and 22 Baptists."

Yes, it “really has come down to this!” Personal repentance on a daily and regular basis is a necessity for following the Lord (1 John 1:9). A refusal to do so, reveals the spiritual condition of one’s heart and also the motive for following Jesus or a commitment to a church “for a while.”

 Marriage should be honored by everyone, and husband and wife should keep their marriage pure. God will judge as guilty those who take part in sexual sins (Heb. 13:4 NCV)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Conservative leaders voiced dismay Wednesday at news that Mary Cheney, the lesbian daughter of Dick Cheney, is pregnant, while a gay-rights group said the vice president faces "a lifetime of sleepless nights" for serving in an administration that has opposed recognition of same-sex couples.

Mary Cheney, 37, and her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe, 45, are expecting a baby in late spring. Mary and Heather's decision to have a child is an example that families in America come in all different shapes and sizes. The bottom line is that a family is made up of love and commitment (The Salt Lake Tribune, Dec. 14, 2006).

There is and always has been since the start of marriage by God in the Garden of Eden an assault on the sanctity of marriage. By marriage, I mean the sacred union of oneness between a man and a woman.

Opponents seek to redefine marriage. Gay marriages are promoted and even recently we have seen polygamy in the news with the arrest and trial of polygamous sect leader Warren S. Jeffs.

But God makes it clear – Marriage between a man and woman is to be honored among all. All other situations imaginable that the corrupt human nature can conceive of that is outside of God’s plan, the bible says in Hebrews 13:4, “God will judge.”

Now, I know that the opponents would say, “But marriage among heterosexuals does not work very well either when it comes to raising kids and staying married. Just look at how many couples end up getting a divorce. And notice how many fragmented heterosexual families are out there. So how can you say Rich, that heterosexual marriage works best when the data shows that it has a very serious track record?”

The breakdown of traditional marriage and the family in this country does not mean that traditional marriage and family is somehow broken. It simply means that the rules and principles that God has given to govern and orchestrate a successful marriage and family are not being followed.

God says to husbands, “Love your wives as Christ love the church and gave Himself up for her” (Eph. 5:25). God tells wives to “Submit to their own husbands, as to the Lord” (Eph. 5:22). God further tells kids to “obey their parents in the Lord for this is right” (Eph. 6:1). If these rules are not obeyed and seriously worked on in a committed manner, there will be fractures and breakdowns within marriages and families. Again, this does not mean that traditional marriages and families where there is a father and mother are becoming obsolete. Attention is to be on the participants within marriages and families. These are the responsible parties. The failure to live according to the standards set forth in the bible in making a marriage work and families successful is not to be tied into redefining marriage and family.

Here’s what’s happening. We are not able to measure up to God’s standards for marriage and family, so we have chosen to redefine marriage and family in order to bring it down to our level of living. Rather than rising up to God’s standards, we have chosen to lower the standards for successful marriage and family by redefining what is a marriage and what is a family.

We must not try to be politically correct. We must not try to be politically cute. Make no bones about it – Traditional marriage between a man and woman is an institution ordained by God and should be honored AMONG ALL. This is what Hebrews 13:4 states. Those who try to buck this institution and redefine it so as to engage in all sorts of deviant behavior, the passage says, “God will judge.”

What does this mean? Two things: Success in this life will not be possible, because God’s hand of mercy and help will be drawn away, and second, success in the life to come will certainly be met with wrath. So even if alternative unions do somehow succeed to a degree here and now, the eternal outcome will be one of judgment.

Let’s take our three branches of government. We know for certain that the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches have had some rotten apples, both past and present. However, should we rally and suggest that all three branches of government should be redefined? The Office is still considered sacred and holy even if someone who occupies it is less than admirable and successful. It is not the fault of the Office or branch of government, it is the fault of the ones who are in it.

Let the politically correct crowd fire off their name calling – homophobes, bigots, mean-spirited, etc. That’s okay. It doesn’t change what God says is right. Truth is not culturally defined, it is biblically known and understood. We are not to give in. We are not to be intimidated. We are not to buckle under the pressure to conform.

We are to seek to better our marriages and families. We are to practice what we preach, because this surely helps our cause and gives God a good name. But even in our feeble attempts and failures to have successful marriages and families, we must honor and uphold traditional marriages and families. If we cannot agree on this, it doesn’t change the truth of what God says about marriages, families and the certainty of judgment on those who do otherwise.

In a little devotional booklet titled Christmas: The Miracle of God With Us (J. Countryman), Billy Graham writes: "Christmas is not just a date on the calendar. It is not just an annual holiday. It is not a day to glorify selfishness and materialism. Christmas is the celebration of the event that set Heaven to singing, an event that gave the stars of the night sky a new brilliance.

"Christmas tells us that at a specific time and at a specific place a specific Person was born. That Person was (in the words of an ancient Christian creed) 'God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God' -- the Lord, Jesus Christ.

"From the lips of Him who came fell these words: 'The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost' (Luke 19:10). Like piercing trumpets, these words heralded the breaking in of the Divine to human history. They declare that Heaven has come to our rescue and that God has not left us to stumble alone on Earth's pathways. What a wonderful and glorious hope we have because of that first Christmas!"

And what a privilege we have: to be called to proclaim that Good News!

Telling others the meaning of Christmas ought not to be a hard thing for any of us to do. We ought to know by now the reason for the season. But for some, getting beyond the basics of what Christianity is all about is not something easily done.

The writer of Hebrews wrote to a group of believers and said, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food” (Heb. 5:12).

In 5:12-14, I see three principles concerning spiritual maturity.

First, mature Christians are self-taught (v. 12).

Notice that the writer said that they ought to be teachers by now. In other words, with all the time they had spent learning the bible, they ought to be able to – watch this – TEACH THEMSELVES the bible!

You see, all Christians are to teach others (cp. Col 3:16; 1 Pet. 3:15; Deut. 6:4-7; 2 Tim. 3:14-15). Which means that all Christians ought to come to the place in their lives in which they can also FEED THEMSELVES and not rely completely on anyone else to do so.

This is why in the very next phrase, right after he says that you ought to be teachers, he says, “YOU HAVE NEED AGAIN for someone to teach you. . .”

In other words, when will you get to the place in your Christian experience where you can TEACH YOURSELF?

It was said of the Bereans: “These people were more willing to listen than the people in Thessalonica. The Bereans were eager to hear what Paul and Silas said and studied the Scriptures every day to find out if these things were true” (Acts 17:11 NCV).

The Bereans did not wait for someone else’s commentary on whether or not Paul was giving to them the truth. They had reached the level of being self-taught. They studied the Word to see for themselves whether they were being taught the truth or not.

Here is how the writer of Psalm 119 puts it:

Verse 97: How I love your teachings! I think about them all day long.

Verse 100: I have more understanding than the older leaders, because I follow your orders.

Verse 148: I stay awake all night so I can think about your promises.

To be self-taught begins with a “love for the Word.” Then it filters into a commitment to “follow God’s orders.” Finally, there is a strong determination to stay awake ALL NIGHT in order to THINK ABOUT GOD’S PROMISES!

How often when we read the Word we fall asleep? We can talk all day and gab into the night with little to no effort. But as soon as we open the bible, the eyelids become heavy and we succumb to the temptation of falling asleep. No wonder we can be a Christian for years and still rely on getting only the milk of the Word.

Isaiah tells the people of his day to: Look at the LORD's scroll and read what is written there (Isa. 36:16 NCV).

This is not rocket science, but notice how we come together once a week on Sundays to feed on a message from the bible. Then the other six days of the week guess what? We have to feed ourselves. Do you think this is by coincidence?

Mature Christians become such because they do not rely solely on others to teach them the oracles of God. They have gotten to the place where they can “teach themselves.”

Second, mature Christians feed on solid foods (vv. 12-13).

The writer says that as a result of not being mature, “you have come to the need of milk and not solid food.”

What is milk? Simply put: Reading the scriptures and not applying it. What is solid food? Simply put: Reading AND applying the Scriptures. You say, “How do you know this?” Look at verse 14: “But solid food is for the mature, who because of PRACTICE have their senses trained. . .”

What distinguishes milk from solid food? PRACTICE! Application! Appropriation! Obedience! Call it what you want, it is all the same. No Christian ever reaches the level of maturity apart from reading the Word and OBEYING it!

We tend to think that the “meat” of the Word has to do with understanding certain doctrines of the bible, such as: Predestination, election, prophecy, the Trinity, etc. Not so. The whole bible is said to be – watch this – “MILK.”

“Like newborn babes, longing for the PURE MILK of the Word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation” (1 Pet. 2:2).

Peter is simply telling us that we need to have the kind of appetite for God’s Word that new born babies have for milk. But the point here is that Peter calls the Scriptures milk. You see, it only becomes solid food when we apply it to our lives.

Paul said the same thing but in a different way.

(1) My friends, you are acting like the people of this world. That's why I could not speak to you as spiritual people. You are like babies as far as your faith in Christ is concerned. (2) So I had to treat you like babies and feed you milk. You could not take solid food, and you still cannot, (3) because you are not yet spiritual. You are jealous and argue with each other. This proves that you are not spiritual and that you are acting like the people of this world (1 Cor. 3:1-3 CEV).

Why could these Christians only feed on milk? Verse 3 – Because they were living fleshly lives which means that they were not applying the Word to their circumstances.

You see, don’t think of milk and meat as various doctrines of the bible that some come to understand more than others. Christians drink the milk of the Word and then once they begin to apply it, the milk becomes solid food in their hearts. The difference has to do with application, not by knowing and understanding a deeper level of theology.

Third, mature Christians are discerning (v. 14).

The writer says, “because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil” (v. 14).

How do you know when someone is teaching you the Word, or that what is being said is right or wrong? Some say, “Because of the Holy Spirit.” Partly true, but the Holy Spirit is only one part of the equation. Read the verse again: “Because of practice have their senses trained. . .”

To know the difference between biblical teaching and false teaching comes by PRACTICE! What does this entail? Some times you get it right and sometimes you get it wrong. But in the end, because you continue to practice reading the Scriptures and applying it in your life, you eventually come to the point where you get it more right than wrong.

Some people set out on a hunt for the “perfect” bible teacher. Then they put that person on a pedestal and cling to him as the only person they can trust to deliver the true teaching of the Word.

But this is not what God had in mind. Yes, God did give to the church gifted people (Eph. 4:11) to equip us to do ministry (v. 12), and to enable us to go onto maturity (v. 13). But a truly gifted teacher will be the first to tell people that the one and only person who is truly capable of being his or her spiritual instructor is Jesus Himself.

But to get to know Jesus and understand His Word and Ways will take discernment. This can only occur and develop through experience – reading and adjusting your beliefs to the bible.

I can tell you that there are scores of times that I have had to rethink some of the things I use to believe and teach in the past. As God allowed me more additional light on a subject or verse, and as He showed me a better interpretation over time, I had to revise some of my views. My point is this: Don’t wait to take a stand on something unless you think you understand it completely, because you won’t. Take a stand on an issue from the bible and believe it with passion. God is all for you. If you are a little off or misguided, He will certainly bring you around in due course. This is how we get our “senses trained to discern good and evil.” It takes experience, practice and a better understanding of the Word. Therefore, maturity takes time.

Don’t think for one moment that maturity is something that will merely fall upon you as you get older. If you are not moving into the direction of being self-taught, applying what you read and know from God’s Word, and training your senses to discern good and evil by repeated experiences, then spiritual maturity will pass you by.

The greatest threat to spiritual maturity is to be “dull of hearing” (Heb. 5:11). This primarily means a failure to apply the Word to the necessary areas of your life.

Remember, most people want to soar without first being seasoned. God has given to each of us a “gift” to use in building up of the body of Christ. But “fruit” is something that comes with maturity and this takes time and practice on our part.

I want you to know how hard I work for you, those in Laodicea, and others who have never seen me. 2I want them to be strengthened and joined together with love so that they may be rich in their understanding. This leads to their knowing fully God's secret, that is, Christ himself (Colossians 2:1-2 NCV).

When Jesus stated that the second greatest commandment in the bible is to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:39), He had in mind more than personal acquaintance. For example, earlier Jesus had said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, ‘Love your enemies.’” The idea is that we are to love beyond a mere personal acquaintance.

Again, in describing who is our neighbor, Jesus talked about a Samaritan who helped a total stranger to recover from wounds he had received while traveling (Luke 10:30-37). This Samaritan not only helped out a total stranger, but most likely someone of a different race.

This brings me to Paul’s example in Colossians 2. Paul did not know or had met any of the believers at Laodicea. Yet he was concerned for them. His desire and prayer was for them to be encouraged in their faith, unified in love, and experience all they could of their profound relationship in Christ. You can be sure that Paul put his feet to the task and prayed for these believers whom he had never met. He struggled for them (v. 1).

Interestingly, you will not find Paul ever visiting the church at Colossae in the Book of Acts. Apparently, Epaphras has told Paul of some of the struggles going on there with reference to false teachings, so Paul wrote the letter to the Colossians as a means to deal with this issue.

So both churches, Colossae and Laodicea were churches Paul had never been to yet he had a deep profound concern for their welfare and spiritual maturity.

Here’s my point: How many of us would be concerned with members of another church than the one we attend or within our denomination?

If a small struggling church needed some financial support and we got wind of it, would we take up a love offering to help them out? Or would we wait and hope with glee for the demise of the church so we can score their people and have one less church in the area of compete with? Now we would most likely be prone to help a struggling church in a third world country that’s far from us, but what about one in our neighborhood?

Let’s say a new church in town was going to have their first service on Sunday? Would we go to them and offer our help? Probably not. Why? Because of the so-called competition factor.

Paul, in chapter 2 of Colossians, did not have a competition factor in mind. Instead, he was concern with churches he had never been to and with people he had never met. This is taking Jesus’ command to love your neighbor to the degree it was intended to be practiced.

 “Always be thankful” – Col. 2:7 (NCV)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (December 4, 2006) A Jacksonville man said his life was spared when a Bible stopped a bullet from hitting him, but weeks after the shooting he said it's not his life but his charitable cause that's in danger.

Bill Henry said he was ambushed by two men with a rifle while he was carrying out the trash in early November, but two small Bibles in his shirt pocket stopped a bullet and possibly saved his life.

Do you think after this ordeal that this Jacksonville man was extremely thankful? You bet he was! Who wouldn’t be?

The other day I read through the book of Colossians and began to see how it contained many references on “thankfulness.” Here’s what I had found:

1. We ought to be thankful in praying for others.

In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (1:3).

2. We ought to be thankful for the spiritual progress of others.

“We always thank God. . .because we have heard about the faith you have in Christ Jesus and the love you have for all of God's people” (1:4).

3. We ought to be thankful in our trials.

“God will strengthen you with his own great power so that you will not give up when troubles come, but you will be patient. And you will joyfully give thanks to the Father who has made you able to have a share in all that he has prepared for his people in the kingdom of light” (1:11-12).

4. Being thankful is used as a gauge for spiritual progress.

“As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so continue to live in him. Keep your roots deep in him and have your lives built on him. Be strong in the faith, just as you were taught, and always be thankful” (2:6-7).

5. We ought to be thankful for the diversity in the church.

“Let the peace that Christ gives control your thinking, because you were all called together in one body to have peace. Always be thankful” (3:15).

6. We ought to be thankful while serving the Lord.

“Everything you do or say should be done to obey Jesus your Lord. And in all you do, give thanks to God the Father through Jesus” (3:17).

7. We ought to be thankful to God.

“Continue praying, keeping alert, and always thanking God” (4:2).

Also, how often should we be thankful? “Always” (1:3; 2:7; 3:15; 4:2). And what is the means of giving thanks? “Joyfully” (1:12).

We may not have had the experience of dodging a bullet or having one stopped short of harming us because of a bible in our shirt packet. Nevertheless we ought to be people of thanksgiving for so many things that we often take for granted.

I know the news can be often doom and gloom. I know that for some, Christmas is not the best time of the year mainly because of a past tragedy that occurred in the around the Christmas holidays. I also know that we do not have to spend a lot of energies on not being thankful. But it takes a little more effort for us to change our minds and hearts and focus on what we can and ought to be thankful for.

Perhaps, these passages and principles written by a man who was in prison at the time he wrote Colossians will help us to be thankful no matter what our outer circumstance is like.

While it is true that misery loves company, it is also true that a thankful heart is a heart that God loves to dwell. Who would you prefer to be in company with?

What if Christians did spiritual warfare the way some of our politicians want to fight the war on terrorism? Would the church be better off?

America has not "won" a major war since World War II. The Gulf War cannot be considered a victory; it returned the situation in the Middle East to the status quo. The aggressor in that war, Saddam Hussein, would remain in power for another dozen years. The Vietnam War was surely a loss. The Korean War ended in stalemate; North Korea, the aggressor in that war, remains militant and dangerous 50 years later.

If a Christian had not won a spiritual battle in his life for sixty years, would he be better as a result?

It has been six decades since we emerged fully victorious from a major war. Why is this so? Perhaps, it is because the very definition of war has changed. War use to be where a military goes into a county to conquer. This means that things are destroyed and people are killed. There is a shock and awe philosophy. It is done quickly and decisively. At the same time, the conquers tear apart the enemy's motivating ideology by its roots. The United States in WW2 was the aggressor. They not only started well, but they equally had the will to finish well too. There was no concern over what others thought. A job had to be done and it got done. When the dust settled, the United States was on top.

If the Christian church fought spiritually the way America (under the leadership of some our Washington leaders) seems to be fighting militarily, could the church survive? Hardly so! Our Commander-in-Chief would not stand for it.

So what is going wrong? Well for one thing, we seem to capitulate on using force. We got the means, but not the will to fight. It appears that the men and women in the military have such a will, but those in charge do not. That’s because they are more concern with election results, appeasing constituencies and setting in stone their own legacy in a positive light. It is as if they wait to see which way the wind is blowing and then set their sails toward the wind.

Second, we have taken on the modus operandi of reacting to the enemy rather than taking steps to properly respond. In other words, we get tough only after some tragedy occurs. Rather than taking steps to avoid such things, we seek to negotiate, make concessions, compromise, and hope that we will be liked and understood for trying. If such things do not work in our favor, we brace ourselves for an attack, while living in fear. So when we are attacked first, then we feel justified to use force as the last alternative. Nevertheless, we are made to feel guilty for even wanting to respond to an attack. We go forth with fury, but then taper off because we are not to suppose to flex so much of our muscles on anyone including those who have considered us their enemy.

But again, if Christians fought their spiritual battles in this way, would the church win over the kingdom of darkness?

Next, we try to illicit the help of others with similar ideologies as our enemy. Why are we so determine to negotiate with Iran and Syria? Is not Syria behind Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iran behind the terrorist insurgency in Iraq? Would such countries want to partner with the great Satan (i.e. the U.S.) without coming out a head themselves in some way?

What to do, for example, with the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who directly threatens the United States? He said, "God willing, with the force of God behind it, we shall soon experience a world without the United States and Zionism." Only recently, he elaborated. In talks in Qatar with Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, Ahmadinejad said, "The Zionist regime was created to establish dominion of arrogant states over the region and to enable the enemy to penetrate the heart Muslim land." Haniyeh said Israel was "on the verge of disappearing." "There is no doubt the Palestinian nation and Muslims as a whole will emerge victorious," the Iranian president had said.

What would happen to the church if Christians got together and asked the religious groups that denied the fundamentals of the Christian faith (justification by faith, substitutionary death of Christ, bodily resurrection of Jesus, sufficiency of the Scriptures, blood atonement, etc.) to partner with it in order to do spiritual warfare? Would that fly with God?

Perhaps, we Christians would have a better life, less trials, and more prosperity and blessings, if we just partnered with the devil. Give him what he wants while we still name the name of Christ.

How does one negotiate with someone who believes that “lying” if done under the right circumstances can be used to advance one’s cause?

In Brigitte Gabriel's excellent book, ''Because they Hate'' she quotes the renowned classical Islamic scholar and theologian Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali (1058-1111). He instructs that ''[s]peaking is a means to achieve objectives,'' and that ''it is permissible to lie if attaining the goal is permissible.''
She goes on to quote Amir Taheri, author of many books on Islam and the Middle East, who states according to Islam, ''Muslims have every right to lie and to deceive their adversaries, and a promise made to non-Muslims can be broken whenever necessary.''

According to Abdullah al-Araby, ''within Islam there are certain provisions under which lying is not simply tolerated, but actually encouraged.'' The book, ''The Spirit of Islam,'' by the Muslim scholar Afif A. Tabbarah states, ''Lying is not always bad, to be sure; there are times when telling a lie is more profitable and better for the general welfare, and for the settlement of conciliation among people, then telling the truth. To this effect, the Prophet says: 'He is not a false person who [through lies] settles conciliation among people, supports good or says what is good.'''

Gabriel points out in her book, ''Since the sacred goal of jihad is to make Islam 'supreme in the world' every lie told to achieve that goal is not only permitted, but sanctified.'' She does an excellent job of describing how ''taqiyya and kithman'' are used to lie and deceive in the name of Allah. Her book should be required reading for all in America, especially members of the Iraq Study Group who believe you can negotiate with the likes of Ahmadinejad or Baashar al-Assad who are allowed, if not encouraged, by their faith to lie for Allah.

Look back at history and you will clearly see the ability of Muslim leaders to lie and deceive. Yassar Arafat, grandfather of the modern day suicide bombers, had an Allah-given gift for telling lies. Not one Muslim country welcomed his ''Palestinians.'' Look at what the Palestinians did to the once peaceful and beautiful nation of Lebanon. Do the names Hezbollah or Hamas ring a bell? How about Saddam and the weapons inspectors or his ability to honor the terms of the Gulf War cease-fire that allowed him to keep breathing? I thought Iran didn't have any nuclear ambitions? Now they do? Lies work with the West and our enemies know it.

So I ask again, how would the church of Jesus Christ do today, if we tried to strike a deal with our spiritual enemy whom Jesus called the “father of lies” (John 8:44)? Should we even consider such a proposal?

Brigitte continues: Tolerating evil is a crime. Appeasing murderers doesn't buy protection. It earns one disrespect and loathing in the enemy's eyes. Yet apathy is the weapon by which the West is committing suicide. Political correctness forms the shackles around our ankles, by which Islamists are leading us to our demise.

If you want to understand the nature of the enemy we face, visualize a tapestry of snakes. They slither and they hiss, and they would eat each other alive, but they will unite in a hideous mass to achieve their common goal of imposing radical Islam on the world.

We are fighting a powerful ideology that is capable of altering basic human instincts. An ideology that can turn a mother into a launching pad of death. A perfect example is a recently elected Hamas official in the Palestinian Territories who raves in heavenly joy about sending her three sons to death and offering the ones who are still alive for the cause. It is an ideology that is capable of offering highly educated individuals such as doctors and lawyers far more joy in attaining death than any respect and stature, life in society is ever capable of giving them.

America cannot effectively defend itself in this war unless and until the American people understand the nature of the enemy that we face. Even after 9/11 there are those who say that we must “engage” our terrorist enemies, that we must “address their grievances”. Their grievance is our freedom of religion. Their grievance is our freedom of speech. Their grievance is our democratic process where the rule of law comes from the voices of many not that of just one prophet. It is the respect we instill in our children towards all religions. It is the equality we grant each other as human beings sharing a planet and striving to make the world a better place for all humanity. Their grievance is the kindness and respect a man shows a woman, the justice we practice as equals under the law, and the mercy we grant our enemy. Their grievance cannot be answered by an apology for who or what we are.

. . . if we don't believe in ourselves as Americans and in the standards we should hold every patriotic American to, we are going to pay a price for our delusion. For the sake of our children and our country, we must wake up and take action. In the face of a torrent of hateful invective and terrorist murder, America’s learning curve since the Iran hostage crisis is so shallow that it is almost flat. The longer we lay supine, the more difficult it will be to stand erect. (from Brigitte Gabriel's speech delivered at the Intelligence Summit in Washington DC, Saturday February 18, 2006)

Don’t be fooled by the terms you are hearing coming from Washington. Terms such as “consensus.” Remember this: Consensus is simply an absence of leadership. Also, the Irag Study Group uses the term “Success” in place of “victory.” You see, “success” can be defined anyway one chooses. But victory means you got to win the war!

All we can do is pray for our leaders in office and ask God to help them to make right choices. We can also pray for our men and women serving in the military. They are the ones caught in the middle of all this. But as Christians, let’s not ever fight our spiritual battles the way our country fights its wars within the last six decades.

Winston Church once said: “The nation had to choose between shame and war. We have chosen shame. We shall get the war as well."

Later he said: "There is no merit in putting off a war for a year if when it comes it will be a worse war and harder to win."

What would our Commander-in-Chief do? “God stripped the spiritual rulers and powers of their authority. With the cross, he won the victory and showed the world that they were powerless” (Col. 2:15 NCV). This is victory and this is leadership.

I never paid much attention to the kidneys until I started detoxing and read literature on how important the kidneys are to the body. The kidneys, notes one scientist, are the "master chemists" of the body. Regulating acid and salt levels, producing and maintaining hormones, the kidneys also carry out the life-sustaining task of cleansing the blood. Every minute more than two pints of blood enter the kidneys through the renal arteries, filtering out waste and toxins while keeping in protein and red blood cells. After the blood is cleansed, it flows back into the body through the renal veins. No doubt, our kidneys play a strategic role in maintaining the quality of health that our bodies need to function with.

In a book titled From Fish to Philosopher, Dr. Homer Smith makes a fascinating comment about the role of the kidneys in life. He writes:

Recognizing that we have the kind of blood we have because we have the kind of kidneys we have, we must acknowledge that our kidneys constitute the major foundation of our physiological freedom. Only because they work the way they do has it become possible for us to have bones, muscles, glands, and brains. Superficially, it might be said that the function of the kidney is to make urine; but in a more considered view, one can say that the kidneys make the stuff of philosophy itself.

We have clean blood because of the masterful work of our kidneys. How is it, then, that we have these intricate kidneys? I am reminded of the Nobel Prize winning physicist Freeman Dyson, who once noted that it seems as if "the universe must in some sense have known that we were coming."

In all of the wonder that exists behind such a statement, in a universe so intricate where the margin of error is so minute that the odds of it all just coming together on its own is virtually incomprehensible, is it so inconceivable to conclude that the universe is so because there is one who designed it to be this way? Peering at the sheer complexity of organs that work so intricately and efficiently, can we reasonably conclude that we are products of chance? Indeed, this is the stuff of philosophy.

But the kidneys set me thinking in yet another direction. We are indeed complex creatures with intricate working bodies, but there is also a awareness that we are so much more. We are people who get hurt feelings and hurt other peoples' feelings. We hold appetites for things we claim not to want; we harbor bad motives and can fool ourselves into believing that we don't. As our bloodstream must be continually cleansed lest we die from pollution, what of the pollution in our lives? What of our hearts and minds? What cleanses us? As the kidneys cleanse the blood, what cleanses you from the pollution of the world, the pollution of your heart and mind?

When Jesus washed His disciples’ feet, He illustrated to them what He was doing with these words: “He who bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, BUT NOT ALL OF YOU” (John 13:10). One of His twelve was about to betray Him. This is why He said, “Not all of you are clean” (v. 11).

Here Jesus was talking about spiritual cleansing from sin that is a once and or all bath. Remember, Jesus said that he who bathed needs only to wash his feet (v. 10). It is only the feet that become dirty after a bath because it is only the feet that touches the ground. Judas not only had dirty feet, but he also had an unclean life. He was still in his sins and had never been bathed in the blood of Christ.

Once a person receives Jesus as his or her Lord and Savior, all that is needed afterwards is a wiping of the feet. No need to be saved over and over again from the penalty of sin. What we do need is to be saved continually from the power of sin. Just like our kidneys provide our bodies with a continual cleansing, so God’s Word provides us with a continual cleaning of our lives (feet) that become dirty now and then by contact with the world (Eph. 5:26).

We must take care of our kidneys in order to keep them functioning properly so they can continue to cleanse our blood. Likewise, we must continue to read the word faithfully and obey it diligently so as to bring spiritual benefit to our lives. God gave to us two kidneys to help cleanse our blood. So He also gave to us one book with two testaments to bring washing and renewal to our souls.

Don’t overlook the working power and benefits of your kidneys and likewise the benefit and awesome power of God’s word on your behalf. Why don’t you right now dust off your bible and start reading it. It has been a few days since you last had your devotions. Don’t let another minute go by. Isn’t your life worth the cleansing?