Salt and Light Blog

Yesterday Kermit Gosnell was found guilty on three of the four charges of baby murder. Much rejoicing was seen on social media and some not so Christlike comments followed on. While I understand the desire for vengeance, no one fights this urge greater than me, we must remember that we have a God of justice even when injustice seems to rule the land. Solomon reminds us:

“Moreover I saw under the sun: in the place of judgment, wickedness was there; and in the place of righteousness, iniquity was there. I said in my heart, ‘God shall judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.’” (Ecclesiastes 3:16-17)

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Technorati Tags: hope

This year I finally bit the bullet and joined a fantasy baseball league. Those who know me know how big of a San Francisco Giants fan I am. I love baseball and I’ve heard all the horror stories of baseball fans getting involved in fantasy leagues to the point of ridiculousness. Some even go as far as lose contact with reality and start neglecting all other things for the sake of their “team.”

I can almost see how that can happen. My fantasy baseball team is not doing so well; in fact it’s the worse team in the league. Now the majority of my team is made up of San Francisco Giants players so one would naturally think that the actual Giants team is probably in last place too. While they are not playing up to their potential, especially their pitching staff, they are still 13-7 and one game out of first place in the National League West Division.

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Last night I presented this question to my social media followers and blog email list:

“What does the Bible think about social issues? Is it inclusive and welcoming? Is it concerned with limiting its ability to attract young people and others, including many women, who agree with the Bible on some but not all issues?”

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Why redemption? Why do we need a Redeemer? I think we answered the part of the price of sin and its unquenchable cost. But what of after we are saved? Do I still need a Redeemer if I have salvation in hand? How does Christ the Redeemer help me after I am saved?

We, although saved from it, we are still living in a fallen world. And if the world looked like Hiroshima after a nuclear strike, then no doubt we would not be enamored with it. And yet we live in a lovely world, a lustful world filled with wonders and wants that our flesh greatly desires even after redemption. We still look at the world with loving and longing eyes and we do so for only one reason.

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Technorati Tags: redemption, worldliness

I was at a Men’s Prayer Breakfast about 11 years ago and the speaker asked all of us to come up with one word to describe Jesus. The word that immediately came to mind for me was Redeemer. For me to love Jesus with all my heart, mind, and soul I need to always remember that He is my Redeemer.

I should always have an attitude of gratitude when it comes to Christ. imagine someone coming to you and telling you that they want to write you a check that will make you debt free. No car payment, no mortgage, no medical bills, no outlandish credit card balances. Totally debt free. No doubt that person would be at least very appreciated by you if not esteemed.

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Technorati Tags: heaven, redemption

It is Day 3 of the Year 2013 and some of you may have already broken your New Years Resolution; others may be regretting them by now. Some may be like me and have not made any or even narrowed it down to one. Others may be going strong in their resolution. Whatever may be your case, I want to share with you what God put on my heart this morning.

In fact He awakened me at 3 am.

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Technorati Tags: redeemed, redemption

My strongest spiritual gift is the gift of criticism. What’s that? Criticism is not a spiritual gift? You could have fooled me with how naturally it comes to me, especially when I got my Christian on. I cannot only inspect some fruit, I can tell you how it was planted, on my worse days that is.

Being judgmental is so easy, it’s like I have a fault radar that sweeps out to a range of 50 miles finding all the faults of others all the while me being at the main bang (the center of the radar as we air traffic controllers call it) and missing any notice of me.

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Technorati Tags: Judging others

So by all accounts the earth is still spinning on its axis and evil has not prevailed. You would think that evil had triumphed by looking at the headlines, but evil is just having its heyday. As I wrote earlier, Satan knows his time is short and he is emptying out hell. But his time is short, nevertheless. Solomon wrote of evil’s fullness and finality:

“For I considered all this in my heart, so that I could declare it all: that the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God. People know neither love nor hatred by anything they see before them. All things come alike to all: One event happens to the righteous and the wicked; to the good, the clean, and the unclean; to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As is the good, so is the sinner; he who takes an oath as he who fears an oath. This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: that one thing happens to all. Truly the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil; madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.” (Ecclesiastes 9:1-3)

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Technorati Tags: peace on earth

How do we deal with the horrors wrought about the people of Newtown, Connecticut and our nation as a whole? Where do we turn to in such dark times? The ever-present punditry are spewing out their normal tripe, be it right or left-leaning, like an unstoppable sewer. Neither side has it right because each is looking to man.

It is my natural inclination to look to my own wisdom and opinion to determine the right course in such dark times but I am trying to learn to no longer rely solely upon myself. I am untrustworthy; at best I am a depraved man saved by grace and molded by the Holy Word of God. So that’s where I’ve turned these last few days; to prayer and my Bible.

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Technorati Tags: Connecticut, Newtown

I wanted to share an encouraging note I received from one of my devotional readers; she is somewhat new to our group (now numbering 212). Tara wrote in response to my taking a devotional hiatus, and I publish this somewhat unwillingly because I do not want to draw attention to myself, but I felt a strong urging from the Lord to share this with you.

This dear sister-in-Christ so clearly addresses what we all struggle with; how to best serve the Lord. Here is her response:

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So once again we are watching the circus live and in color on our television sets. The stage? Congress and the White House and the looming fiscal cliff. It is amazing to see after what was called the most important election of our lifetime that nothing has changed in Washington D.C. All the old leaders are the new leaders and you could not fill a bus up with those serving who are righteous in the sight of God. It reminds me of the old Rolling Stones song “We Won’t Get Fooled Again” where it ends with “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”

I was asked by some, and accused by others, if I was looking for perfection in a candidate. My answer to both is I am looking for righteousness in our public servants. Those, whether or not they are Christians, who have a sense of responsibility to their electorate and more important to “the laws of nature and nature’s God.” As my buddy Steve Deace always says, “We want people of convictions, not positions.”

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I have the honor of corresponding with Dr. Alan Keyes who has over the past couple of years gave me counsel and encouragement on occasion. I never miss his Friday columns on World Net Daily and visit his blog Loyal to Liberty often.

I struggled with writing yesterday’s devotional because I knew I was missing the mark on what I was trying to explain. Alan responded to my devotional and has wonderfully written of what I was only beginning to figure out. Without understanding it, it was the imperfection of which Alan writes that I was trying to allude. Alan has given me permission to publish his response.

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Technorati Tags: Alan Keyes

That’s the topic of this week’s The Truth Newsletter. It seems that we can not only break God’s 6th Commandment, “You shall not murder,” but we can also disobey God’s 8th Commandment, “You shall not steal.” You can do these things if America’s survival is at stake. At least that is what I am being told by Christians and a Tea Party Leader.

I obviously have a very strong opinion about this that most of you could probably state verbatim. However, my opinion in and of itself means nothing if it is not grounded in Biblical truth. God’s 2nd Commandment is the second longest of the ten and I think it is most overlooked by American Christians. I know for me it is the commandment hardest for me to keep because I allow so many things in this world to become an idol. Here’s what God wrote:

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So here we go starting a new work week. What are your goals for this week? To make so much profit? To make so many sales? To land that one elusive client you’ve been after for months? To finally get the courage to ask your boss for a raise? To finally find a job? None of these in and of themselves are wicked. Goals are not wicked, only hearts are. Goals are, however, fleeting, just as the treasures these goals can bring are fleeting. So what’s the answer?

“Treasures of wickedness profit nothing, but righteousness delivers from death. The Lord will not allow the righteous soul to famish, but He casts away the desire of the wicked.” (Proverbs 10:2-3)

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For a politician to be attractive to a voter, at least according to his or her consultants, you must first sell despair before you can secure disciples. We must be told of how desperate our situation is and then be convinced that deliverance is only possible in the man or woman seeking your vote. Of course they give the empty platitudes of “together we can do this” and “lift ourselves up by our bootstraps,” but do they ever really come through as promised? Of course not!

The deliverance they are offering is found only in Christ.

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Technorati Tags: discouragement, encouragement

Is truth by itself all that is needed to defend the faith, share the gospel, and be the salt and light Jesus calls us to be?

Or must truth be measure and mixed with something more for it to be effective?

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Even though I am a child of God, adopted into His family, I am still very capable of selfishness and self-righteousness. I can easily get to the point that I believe I have all the answers for my life. My flesh and my adversary will be cheering me the whole way. The height of man’s arrogance, pride, and sinfulness is self-reliance. We get to the point where we believe we can compartmentalize where and when God should have sovereignty over our lives. I may have misread this in the Bible or been mistaught by my pastor, but I’m sure God wants to rule in all aspects of my life and that I am to make all decisions in light of His precepts and providence.

The areas of my life that I don’t want God to be a part of are the areas where the Holy Spirit needs to do the most work. If I’m suffering from stinking thinking, then the Word of God can cleanse my mind. In fact His Word says that if I’ve allowed stinking thinking to rule the day then I can make a change:

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Technorati Tags: Dependence upon God

Today’s devotional will be solely made up from one of the responses I got to yesterday’s devotional. This dear sister-in-Christ actually gave a testimony. I pray it blesses you as much as it did me:

Dave,

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Technorati Tags: Prodigal Son

So often I hear Christians say, “Well, what this passage in the Bible means to me…” and then they go on to give an inaccurate analysis at best and heretical at worse. When reading the Bible it is not up to us to determine its meaning rather to discover it. We must keep in mind to whom the writer is writing, what the meaning was to them, how it applies to life today in general and to each of us specifically. To simplify that, an old way of saying it is:

What did it mean then?
What does it mean today?
What does it mean to me?

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Technorati Tags: Prodigal Son

The wonderful outpouring of support for Dan Cathy’s stand on traditional marriage resulting in world record single-day retail sales for Chick-fil-A was and still is all the talk of the blogosphere and social media. As for the mainstream media’s coverage of it I have no idea as I do not watch any news most of the time. I would suspect it was scant and slanted if covered at all.

But I think we need to get to the root of the issue that caused the supposed firestorm and that is the blatant, evil hatred of the Left who support the homosexual agenda. Steve Deace commented yesterday on his show and website that gay activists cleverly used victimhood as a ploy to gain sympathy to their cause painting those who oppose their lifestyle as intolerant and bigoted. In fact they are still using this ploy but it is now backfiring on them. The reason is they have become intolerant and bigoted. And they should; they are lost people swimming in a pool of debauchery guided by a reprobate mind:

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Technorati Tags: chick-fil-a, gay agenda