And darkness cannot hide.
Do you want to be free?
Lift your chains
I hold the key
All power on heav'n and earth
Belong to Me
You are free
You are free
You are free
"Set Me Free" by Casting Crowns
It hasn't always been this way
I remember brighter days
Before the dark ones came
Stole my mind
Wrapped my soul in chains
Now I live among the dead
Fighting voices in my head
Hoping someone hears me crying in the night
And carries me away
Set me free of the chains holding me
Is anybody out there hearing me?
Set me free
Morning breaks another day
Finds me crying in the rain
All alone with my demons I am
Who is this man that comes my way?
The dark ones shriek
They scream His name
Is this the One they say will set the captives free?
Jesus, rescue me
As the God man passes by
He looks straight through my eyes
And darkness cannot hide
Do you want to be free?
Lift your chains
I hold the key
All power on Heav'n and Earth belong to me
You are free
You are free
You are free
This song, with it's gripping melody and simple - yet deep lyrics - could be considered a haunting one - if it were not also profound in how it teaches that Jesus came to rescue us.
Within the lyrics, we have the Truth of the Gospel.
Jesus is the only One who can rescue us from our sin. He is the only One who holds the key to the chains that keep us in darkness.
What might look like "freedom" to some, is actually bondage - bondage to darkness - whether we want to admit it or not.
The bondage of sin is like chains keeping us from being set free in Jesus Christ.
Why would anyone pass up the opportunity to be free from their sins?
Jesus - the God man - passes by each of us.
How?
In the form of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit of God knocks on the door of our hearts - urging us to let Him in.
If you have never accepting the invitation to be born again in Christ, now is the day of salvation.
Why wait?
No one ever knows the day nor the hour of the end of one's own life here on earth. Some may live to be 100 years old. Others, may only have 100 minutes left.
Where you will spend eternity depends on what you do here on earth concerning Jesus' question, "Who do you say that I am?"
Remember - there is No Greater Love than Jesus!
Hi Ted,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reminder about the case. I have been praying every day for a miracle that will save us from the most radical and dangerous, Marxist administration ever.
The Media of Mass Deception (MMD)isn't about to destroy their "marketing blitz" and image of Obama that they want the public to hold.
I don't think that they will ever report on the issue unless they absolutely have to.
Why?
Lots of reasons!!!
I have been reading a book called, Media Revolution which exposes the tactics that were used in the pro-Obama media campaign. There is much more detail in each of these categories, but for now, I will just list them and briefly describe them.
1. The Name Game
This tactic uses semantic twists and turns that seek to take a term with positive connotations and use it to promote a concept previously viewed with distaste. One of the best examples is the use of "pro-choice." The cold-blooded willingness to kill an innocent child in the womb was coined with the word, "pro-choice" in the 1960's and 1970's in order to convince Americans that killing babies in the womb was a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution. Pro-abortion wouldn't work - but using the term "choice" appeals to Americans' deeply ingrained sense of liberty and fairness. The term deflects attention away from the murder of an unborn child. Even Christians have become willing accomplices in the "pro-choice" name game. How utterly sad it is that they have fallen for an absolutely repugnant lie!
This is why I often call it the "pro-death movement." Because that is exactly what it is!
Obama is the most radical, pro-death-to-unborn-babies, leftist liberals in the Senate. For him to have been elected to POTUS is astonishing. A certain percentage of Christians and Catholics voted for him. They completely ignored his pro-death to babies in the womb policies. Such a terrible shame!
2. The blitz.
No one can deny that the pro-Obama story blitz was extraordinary in its volume of repeated messages (hope! change!) it's bombardment and constant barrage of the same idea or action step and the advertising that backed Obama practically at a 100% level on T.V., newspapers, magazines and even in many areas of the Internet.
People succombed to this mesmerizing hypnosis without truly investigating the man and his more sinister purposes.
Unfortunately, many of the Americans who voted for Obama were "garbage-in, garbage-out" people (though, some may not have known they were being had). They were heavily infuenced by what the MMD (and the Obama campaign) put into their minds over the course of this election cycle.
I'd like to remind my fellow Christians (especially those who may have voted for Obama) that God instructs us to meditate on the Scriptures night and day. In Joshua 1:8 the Lord commands Joshua, "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it." In Psalm 1:1-2 we read, "How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.
I won't go heavily into the rest of it here, but suffice it to say that a statistic shared by the author (Brian E. Fisher) states that most Americans spend almost 3 hours per day watching T.V. and only 7 minutes per day on religious and spiritual activity. What a sad statistic!
3. Say What?
This tactic takes a half-truth and promotes it as a broadly acknowledged fact. I think that this one fits extraordinarily well with the Obama birth certificate/ U.S. citizenship debacle.
This tactic is also constantly being used by groups like the ACLU which promote the "separation of church and state" lie (which, btw, ISN'T IN THE CONSTITUTION!) by taking it out of context to promote their own agenda.
The truth is, our Founding Fathers had no intention of evicting God from government - as so many have done today. The men who drafted our Constitution considered the Christian faith to be essential to good government.
4. A Major Rewrite
This tactic is used by the MMD to revise history to suit contemporaray purposes. This can also be considered a tactic used by the DNC, Obama campaign, and supporters in order to have avoided the proper vetting process of Obama's citizenship. If this case goes on to the full Supreme Court review (I PRAY IT DOES!) then the Obama side will try and argue that the 14th Amendment "takes away" the natural born citizen clause in Article II. From what I have read, that may be a tough sell. There is also the dual-citizenship issue at stake.
5. That's Un-American
Basically, this tactic is used against people (who passed Proposition 8 in CA) who may stand up against what they believe is wrong (e.g. the judges in CA who created "gay" marriage out of thin air by judicial fiat in CA); yet, opponents who wanted "gay" marriage - are now busy protesting (rabidly) and labeling all who voted for YES ON PROPOSITION 8 as bigots and haters (and every expletive you could think of) because they perceive this as being a "right" taken away from them. We have been told the lie that restricting anything that anyone wants to do is "un-American."
I think that this tactic is being used by the MMD right now - in their complicit silence on the pending Supreme Court meeting on the Obama et al eligibility issue.
This tactic is also (very unfortunately) being used to allow child pornography under the guise of "free speech."
6. Odd Man Out
This is a BIG ONE! The MMD uses this tactic to make the viewer/listener feel that his or her traditional biblical values are isolated and idiosyncratic. They want biblically-based Christians to believe that we are all alone in our objections to anti-biblical values.
Why do you think that Obama's "Christian faith" is acceptable to the MMD? Because he doesn't follow the traditional biblical values in God's Word - that's why! His political views are just like "the world's" - not accountable to God's written Word and certainly not accountable to Jesus Christ. Jesus told us, "if you love me, keep my commandments."
Obama has broken (politically speaking) almost every commandment and has shown the world this by exposing his hard-core liberal/licentious worldview for all to see.
7. Silence of the Lambs
The MMD bullies people who hold traditional values - thus, some Christians keep quiet because they don't want to be seen as intolerant or hateful people.
Examples of this are so numerous, it would take me hours to type them all out. Suffice it to say that each incident of such "silencing" is a tactic employed to create the inaccurate stereotype that all Christians are obnoxious, violent prudes who are a danger to a free society. The truth is, however, that true Christians are the most loving, compassionate, truthful people on the planet.
Though Christians (and churches) are not without mistakes, the truth is that the countless acts of grace, charity, assistance, love, commitment, fidelity, faith, and hope is not being portrayed correctly by the MMD. If they ever did report the truth, there would be a monumental shift in public attitudes towards evangelical Christians.
8. Didn't Moses Build the ARk?
This tactic includes diversions meant to keep us distracted from the basics of our faith.
The fact that Obama does not overtly practice true biblical Christianity appeals to all of the detractors of true Christian faith. They like the "Christian-faith-light" (meaning - not geared towards evangelism, true adherence to Bible truths, or, any mention of the cross of Christ) mindset of Obama. His particular "brand of faith" is not threatening to them (unlike the true Christian faith shown by Gov. Sarah Palin - thus the MMD endless attacks against her).
They don't even mind the Catholic-light-faith of Joe Biden! If Biden had adhered to many of the Catholic church teachings (such as pro-life, pro-traditional man and woman marriage) do you think that the MMD would have attacked him? You betcha! But, of course, a pro-life Democrat would never get the V.P. pick in the first place.
The questions raised in this tactic are:
Overall, is the church impacting the culture?
Or has the culture been far more effective at absorbing and silencing the church?
Christians have become fearful to offend. That's the bottom line, people. Why do you think that the "seeker-sensitive" church boom is so effective? Yes. It's effective - at producing false converts! Why? Because before the Good News of the Gospel is preached, the bad news of our sinful condition must be realized. Unfortunately, Christian believers today are so caught up in the worldly mantras of "never offend anyone" they are of no earthly good for the Gospel of Christ!
When it comes to proclaiming eternal truths that actually might offend a sinner in need of the Savior, Jesus Christ, we shy away out of fear they may not "like us."
Well guess what?
The Gospel IS OFFENSIVE to those who are perishing! If we don't repent of our sins, then we are only guilty of "amusing ourselves to death."
The proclamation of true godly principles often hurts and offends. Period.
For every person who is humbled and changed by the truth, there are ten who reject it, scorn it, and hate it.
Think about this. Who in the Bible acted according to the principle of making everyone around them feel comfortable when it came to the subject of confession of sin and repentance? Can you name even one?
Sharing the truth is an act of love and obedience on our part!! Please don't ever forget that!
Christians may never do such a task perfectly (no one can), but our Lord Jesus has given us the Great Commission here on this earth and NOTHING should divert us from that task.
[Notes paraphrased from Media Revolution: A Battle Plan to Defeat Mass Deception in America by Brian E. Fisher]
Hello Christine...I found your blog by way of Jim's blog, Journaling for Growth.
ReplyDeleteI am thankful that my Sweet Hubby knew the Lord and is now rejoicing with all the saints gone before. And thanks to the promise of the Resurrection, I know I'll be joining him when the Lord calls me Home!
Hi Christine,
ReplyDeleteI want to thank Ted for staying informed of what has been going on with the "Usper elect" (borrowing from you. But, It is true.).
Also, thanks for sending those links last night.
Now, I have come to visit you for a very specific reason. And, as I look at the word verification beneath your comment composition box, I see the word "realise". Not spelled correctly. But, this is strange to me. Because, I just wanted to come and ask you to visit my wife's blog at We Really Do Need Each Other.
Some times, God speaks to her or through her in very obvious ways. She was working on a blog this weekend. When she went to post it in Blogger, she had only one line from the center of her text. She labored to try and find what happened to it and then fell asleep. I was on my computer answering your comment when I heard her fussing over what had happened to her Word file. The Word File is gone from her computer. She had already saved it yesterday.
When I posted a comment on her blog, I read the word verification. It seldom has any sense to it. But this time, the word verification said, CURED!
Have you been noticing a trend for the word varification to actully have something sensible and not just random letters?
Jim
"Overall, is the church impacting the culture?
ReplyDeleteOr has the culture been far more effective at absorbing and silencing the church?"
The church has silenced itself--out of embarrassment.
Once upon a time, the Church didn't just impact the culture; it controlled it.
In collaboration with kings and emperors, the church ruled. The cross and the sword marched together.
The kings could only isolate those who disagreed, but the church could interdict them, guaranteeing isolation in this world and the next. The emperors could merely execute troublemakers; the church could excommunicate them, forbidding even Christ from saving them.
Churchmen could start wars in those days, and sometimes did: "Deus vult" (God wills it) was once as common in the mouths of Christians as "Allah akbar" is in the mouths of Muslims today--and for the same reason.
Once upon a time, the church's impact upon the culture was nearly universal.
A moment's nakedness was considered sinful, so millions lived with dirt and body lice rather than offend a God who already knew what their bodies looked like. (Queen Isabella of Spain was said to have bathed only twice in her life--at her birth and at her wedding--and if she lived like that, imagine how the commoners did!)
The lending of money was disparaged and discouraged, so no Christian practiced it; it fell upon the Jews of Europe, who had no such prohibitions. The result was that the Jews became influential out of all proportion to their numbers, leading to a resentment of them that persists to this day. Meanwhile, the economic development of the Western world was retarded for centuries.
Since a moment's nakedness was a sin, there was no medicine apart from herbal remedies and the sawing off of broken limbs. It was believed that women had one more rib than men due to Eve's origin; an autopsy would have proved the truth, but no one dared to look. The most incompetent doctor of today knows more about the human body than all the midwives and poultice-makers put together, but 'God's temple' was off-limits to examination...even for repairs.
Once upon a time, the church's impact on society affected the culture broadly. The church came down firmly on both sides over the question of slavery. For every Quaker or Moravian who denounced it as evil, there were many Catholics, and all Southern Baptists, who declared it to be divinely ordained. After all, Ham saw his old man naked and drunk...so naturally, all his descendants, forever, had to pay for that.
The church says that we are all God's children...except that God never says that; he likes only one small group of people among all the billions of mankind, and everyone else has to fight and grovel in attempts to win his favor. He hated Esau; he hates homosexuals, and the uncircumsized; he doesn't particularly care for women; and anyplace over the horizon from the Mount of Olives is not a safe place.
For the past couple of centuries, the church's grip has grown weaker. Seeing this, it has attempted to build a parallel world in place of the real one. In many places, especially the USA, it has largely succeeded. It is possible to read newspapers without ever encountering a contrary idea; to watch TV shows or listen to radio programs in blissful ignorance of other points of view. They may manage to keep it going for only another generation...or until the return of their Christ...whichever comes first.
But once upon a time the church ruled the world. History knows it as the Dark Ages.
Hi Gigi,
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for coming over to Talk Wisdom!
I didn't realize that your sweet hubby had gone on to be with the Lord until this moment.
God's promise of the Resurrection gives us such assurance and comfort when loved ones pass away. I am sorry for the loss of your husband's presence here on earth; yet, rejoice with you in the knowledge that one day you will certainly be reunited with him in eternity.
Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, keeps his promises. What an awesome God we love and serve!
It is late right now so I plan to visit your blog tomorrow. God bless you and goodnight!
In Christ,
Christine
Hi Jim,
ReplyDeleteI just visited Vicki's blog and left a comment there.
Come to think of it, I did notice that the word verification at your blog (yesterday) spelled out a word. I'm sorry but I can't recall what it was!
That is unusual that words are being spelled out instead of just random letters. In the past, I have noticed such a phenomenon occasionally. However, it looks like it is happening much more often these days!
Jim - have you heard about the full page ad requesting that Obama show his citizenship papers that is coming out in a Chicago paper over the next few days? I heard about it via Digg. Go to We The People Foundation and click on the link to the PDF file copy of the ad.
I really think that the MSM is not going to be able to remain silent about this issue once the Supreme Court meets on Dec. 5th. It will be very interesting to see if SCOTUS upholds our cherished Constitutional right for we, the people, to petition against, and demand proof of, a person who hasn't shown the electorate whether or not he is eligible to be POTUS!
Christine,
ReplyDeleteof course, I have had other ideas concerning the filing of these blog entries and comments.
I have signed the We The People petion. Thanks for bringing this to my attention again. They are in need of funds, so, I sent the link to everyone in my address list.
Jim
"But once upon a time the church ruled the world. History knows it as the Dark Ages."
ReplyDeleteA gross exaggeration at best, however, let's move on to a "more enlightened" time. There was and is a time when atheists rule large areas of the world. They only come down on one side of slavery: You will do as you are told or you will do it in prison. You will inform on anyone, family, friends, spouses, etc., that you suspect of being disloyal to the ruling atheists. You have no value beyond what you can produce for the good of the state.
Despite the anger whipped up at the atrocities of the church as listed in inquisitions and crusades, the actual number of people killed is well under a hundred thousand. As a Christian, I weep in my heart for these lives taken in ignorance and in direct defiance to the will of our Lord. From a purely humanistic standpoint, however, I must point out that this number pales into near insignificance when compared with the 30 million killed by atheists under Stalin, who knows how many killed and "re-educated" under Mao, and at least 6 million Jews (and a lesser number of Christians) targeted by the National Socialists of Germany.
If the church presided over a "dark age" than future historians will strain to come up with a descriptor horrific enough to describe what happens when atheism rules unchecked.
GM, why don't you educate yourself of who the real killers are?
"GM, why don't you educate yourself of who the real killers are?"
ReplyDeleteOh, I have, Mr. Baker, I have.
We could talk about the Inquisition, where many were tried and convicted of heresy, and where many more were threatened with it. Galileo was one, of course, sentenced to house arrest for the remainder of his life; and Copernicus, whose De Revolutionibus Orbium Celestium was not published until after his death, where even the church could not reach him. Even before that, there was John Wycliffe, a contemporary of Chaucer, who translated the Bible from Latin into English. It wasn't a great translation, but it was in the common tongue. Although Wycliffe died peacefully at home some years after this, 44 years later the Church dug up his bones, burned them, and dumped the ashes into a nearby river for his "crime". Just because he thought that, since the Bible was meant for all men, all men should be able to read it. Radical, huh?
The very fact that the church could come down on both sides about slavery demonstrates the Bible's unreliability as a guide to life. People on both sides of the debate consulted the same texts, quoted the same scriptures, and reached opposite conclusions (rather like us here). Clearly, the Bible can be made to say whatever its interpreter wants to make it say...just as some others do with the 'prophecies' of Nostradamus.
National Socialism had its roots in a frustrated form of nationalism, as well as a yearning for an idyllic past that never was. Rather like fundamentalism in the USA.
While tha Nazis attempted to supplant Christianity for a more 'folkish' paganism (they tried to revive worship of the old Nordic/Germanic gods), they were most certainly not atheists. Hitler made it clear that by his persecution of the Jews he was doing "the work of the Lord" and in fact he believed that religion was useful for a society. He just felt Christianity was wrong, since in his view it had made the Germans weak, but that never stopped him from using Christian imagery in his speeches. Even then, the mass murder of Jews was merely an extension of the 'blood libel' against them that had gone on for centuries--always practiced by Christians, seeking revenge against the 'murderers' of the Savior. Martin Luther, a few centuries earlier, thought that burning the homes of Jews was a good idea.
I'm sure you're aware that Luther was no atheist. I'm also sure you're aware that the German churches went along with the Nazis. Men like Martin Niemoller are remembered because they didn't go along...but such men are always rare.
Although I know of no instances where Hitler attended any church services after World War I, he was raised a Catholic, and even after the Holocaust became known, neither he nor his top lieutenants were ever excommunicated, nor even threatened with it.
"You will do as you are told or you will do it in prison. You will inform on anyone, family, friends, spouses, etc., that you suspect of being disloyal to the ruling [powers]. You have no value beyond what you can produce for the good of the state."
This is common in all totalitarian regimes, not just the communist ones. See Oliver Cromwell's rule as "Lord Protector" (during which time the celebration of Christmas was outlawed), or any of the great witch hunts in late medieval Europe, or the era of Senator J R McCarthy in this country, or Iran in the 1980s, where denunciation of innocent neighbors was the order of the day.
I have educated myself of who the real killers are, Mr. Baker...and I wasn't even talking much about killing!
If you want to pursue this further, you should go over to our hostess's Forums site. She's been trying to get some fresh blood over there for months, and I prefer the atmosphere there to here; we could thresh this out to your heart's content. Otherwise, I'll stop here. Blogposts tend to get stale after a week.
GM,
ReplyDelete"We could talk about the Inquisition, "
We could, but that wouldn't change the fact that atheistic governments killed thousands of more times more people, enslaved entire societies, and continues to do so up to this very day. Think about that: Several orders of magnitude more. And a lot of this terror and aggression wasn't against enemies. It was against their own citizenry.
"The very fact that the church could come down on both sides about slavery demonstrates the Bible's unreliability as a guide to life."
No, GM. That simply indicates that people will use whatever is at hand to attempt to achieve their goals. Rather like the way atheists take phrases out of context to this day to attempt to prove their points.
"National Socialism had its roots in a frustrated form of nationalism, as well as a yearning for an idyllic past that never was."
The roots are hardly relevant though, are they? They used nationalism and prejudice as pretense, but the goal was strictly socialist and atheist. Take control of the means of production, make the individual nothing more than a servant to the state. And where nationalism may appeal to a past idyllic state that never was, atheism points to a future idyllic state that will never be.
"Hitler made it clear that by his persecution of the Jews he was doing "the work of the Lord" and in fact he believed that religion was useful for a society."
And if you believe he was sincere, you'll send me your life savings. Seriously, while he (Hitler) did show some fascination for the occult, his writings show clearly that he considered it a tool at best. He referred to Christianity as a plague on the earth, vowing that the Germans would be the first innoculated against it. If that were not his belief, he would have not have spent so much time pulling the German youth away from the church.
"This is common in all totalitarian regimes,"
Which in the greatest number happen to be states that espouse atheism. While states that allow free worship definitely have their bad times from a rights and liberty standpoint, history clearly shows those embracing Christianity as steadily improving in civil rights and equality. Other religions are a mixed bag, with Islam tending toward strict authoritism. Atheist rule seems to inevitably head toward the conclusion that people are cattle.
"I have educated myself of who the real killers are, Mr. Baker...and I wasn't even talking much about killing! "
Again: Atheists over Christians by at least three orders of magnitude. And that's just on the murder side. That doesn't even account for the fact that most charitable actions and donations are made by believers, whereas atheists tend to the miserly, whether they are liberal or conservative.
The bottom line is that people do evil if they want to. Evil people in a theist society may try to use God as an excuse or reason. People in atheist societies don't even need that excuse.
You did make an interesting point up there about how people who don't go along with the murder of innocents is rare for Christians. Judging from the lack of heroes we have that revolted against the atheist killings, I have to assume that it is much rarer. That is probably why they go after the Christians first.
You also mentioned something about the church presiding over the dark ages. Do a little historical review as to what happened to the educated people when the Chinese atheists came to power. You throw individual cases at me, I throw mass graves at you.
I have requested registration access to the forums. Let me know when you would like to discuss it. Frankly, though, I really don't see how you can overcome that three order of magnitude differential, however. If you took all of the murders deliberately performed by theists for theist reasons, it wouldn't equal the body count that Stalin made in a few years while trying to maintain his worker's paradise.