"Preach the Word,

We all watched in horror as planes crashed into those majestic towers. When damaged, they eventually plummeted to the ground. Yet under the debris there was a foundation not destroyed. Yes, our nation has been attacked. Buildings destroyed. Lives lost.
But now we have a choice - whether to implode and disintegrate as a nation, or to become stronger, to rebuild on a solid foundation. I believe we are starting to rebuild our nation on that foundation. And that foundation is our trust in God.

[Editor: this speech was given by a pastor within days of 9/11]

A Sure Foundation

Psalm 54:1-4, 7

Save me, O God, by thy name,
and judge me by thy strength.
Hear my prayer, O God;
give ear to the words of my mouth.
For strangers are risen up against me,
and oppressors seek after my soul:
they have not set God before them.
Behold, God is mine helper...

For he hath delivered me out of all trouble:
and mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies.

The Public Broadcasting System (PBS), probably the most liberal network in America, will present a program this fall entitled "The Bible's Buried Secrets". This is supposed to be an investigation that says the Old Testament is a bunch of made-up stories that never happened. This show is scheduled to air on November 18 and says the Bible is not true.

Producer Paula Apsell said, "...It's [The Bible's Buried Secrets] designed for intelligent people who are willing to change their mind. …it will give intelligent people who want to read the Bible in a modern way a chance. If we insist on reading the Bible literally, in 25 years, nobody will read it any longer."

The Bible gives us the answer to PBS and these intelligent people - "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools...." Romans 1:22


Some of the 'invesigative' highlights of "The Bible's Buried Secrets" are:

• The Old Testament was written in the sixth century BC and hundreds of authors contributed.
• Abraham, Sarah and their offspring didn't exist.
• There is no archaeological evidence of the Exodus.
• Monotheism was a process that took hundreds of years.
• The Israelites were actually Canaanites.
• The Israelites believed that God had a wife.

"The Bible's Buried Secrets" is simply one more reason Congress should stop supporting PBS with our tax dollars. Congress gives PBS hundreds of millions of tax dollars to help support the network.

I preached this on Sunday and boy what an impact it made on me. Coming from a military background where everything was a competition to be the best and brightest; in order to get the next promotion and ideal posting to aid a person in their next promotion...and so the cycle repeated itself. It was understood that everyone successful in the military was a 'self-made man (or woman)'. So this message was one of those preached at me to stand guard against this attitude of Saul and especially many people of our current society have this self-made, I-did-it-my-way attitude. Our text is I Samuel 9:1-21 (primarily 1-3 & 15-21).

We see that King Saul epitomizes many of the values that Americans hold dear. He would have fit right into our political system and idea of the 'prefect candidate'. Understand that this sermon was not preached because of this election period we are in, nor was it aimed at any particular candidate since many from both sides of the aisle could fall into this description. Back to Saul, he represents a person who arose from a background of personal obscurity to become not just a figure of prominence, power, and prestige, but the political head of an entire nation. Saul was an effective leader and warrior. During his reign, Israel reclaimed much land lost to the Philistines. The Bible speaks of his great height. Apparently Saul was a person of athletic build, charismatic personality, and handsome appearance. With his success, Saul remained a persona of conscience. On more than one occasion he admitted his guilt. It takes a 'big' person to do that. 'Small' people do not admit their errors. It would be easy to assign the tag of "self-made man" to Saul.
Yet Saul's life ended in shame and failure. His biography is one of the great tragedies of the Bible. Saul appears in the Bible as a man in the prime of life who had already realized much of his potential. Saul had it all, but he let it slip away. We cannot read of Saul's life without thinking of the little boy giving his dad the sports news of the neighborhood softball game: "We had 'em 18-0 but blew it in the bottom of the first!" That was Saul. Saul was beset by some of the sins of a self-made man.

I. Thinking too little of yourself. Result: Playing to other's approval.
We see that Saul didn't think much of himself (vs. 21). Later we see him hiding among the 'stuff' (I Sam. ). This is an ongoing issue for Saul and leads to his disobedience against God and ultimately his downfall and the disappearance of God's leading in his life. We see one example of this disobedience in I Sam. 15 when he is told to utterly destroy the Amelekites and he doesn't; when the prophet Samuel says something to him, Saul blames the people. In reality it was him giving in to the peer pressure, real or imagined. He was the King. He was the ultimate authority in the land (outside of God). So how is it the 'people made him do it?' Sounds like Adam blaming God for 'that woman He gave to Adam.' This is a terrible side effect of thinking too little of yourself. Saul had it all going for him. We already looked at everything going for him...his stature...his looks...his ability...his personality. Saul also forgot he was God's chosen man and that should have been enough but it wasn't and he gave into the trap of trying to please others even to the point of disobeying God.

II. Thinking only of yourself. Result: Leaving God out of your life.
Thinking only of yourself and your world leads to failure to see yourself and your world with the eyes of faith. Saul thought only of himself. He did not see that God was a part of the picture of reality too. Sadly, we see this proven by Saul's actions in I Sam. 13:8-14 while camped at Gigal preparing for war with the Philistines. Saul had been instructed not to begin the military campaign until Samuel had made the proper sacrifice. After waiting seven days for Samuel to come, Saul took matters into his own hands and made the sacrifice himself. He evidently thought, "Sacrifice is a mere formality anyway. Who needs God when you have a sharp sword? I can pray as well as any prophet. Let's make the sacrifice and get on with it!" By Saul's actions we can see that he left God out of his worldview and took a dangerous 'self-made' attitude of "I can handle this one by myself." The danger with telling yourself that you really are self-made man is that sooner or later you are likely to believe it.

III. Thinking too long by yourself (away from God). Result: Failing to view life with God as an ongoing relationship you must nurture.
Self-made people may think that they do not normally need God. Oh they are OK with those who do need God but that is something that lesser people need not me...the self made man. Saul stayed away from God too long. He did not see his life with the Lord as anything more than a panic measure to which he could resort in case of an emergency. Saul would have been wise to heed the warning of the prophet Samuel. We would be wise to heed the Scripture...Matthew 16:24 - "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me." I Sam. 28:3-14 shows us the last days of Saul's life. Samuel the prophet had died, and a new Philistine invasion threatened Israel. Without Samuel to advise him, Saul was afraid. He had banished all the mediums and spiritualists from the land, but when he had inquired of the Lord and found no answer, Saul in desperation sought the witch of Endor to conjure up Samuel from the dead. Saul had stayed away too long away from God. Now god was through with Saul. An emergency arose, and Saul had no relationship with God to see him through it. Saul literally self-destructed. His death is the only suicide recorded in the Old Testament. Our relationship with Christ is something to nurture daily. We cannot stop giving time to this relationship at age fourteen and come back to it at age thirty-four and expect much to be there.

So in conclusion, spiritually speaking, a self-made man is a terrible tragedy. We do have an option: the Christ-made person. When we finally confess our own inability to find fulfillment, purpose, and true life in and of ourselves, Christ beckons us to try life His way. You can find God's help today.

I'm amazed at the hatred people display towards President Bush and the excitement that people display towards Barack Obama. I have heard enough blasphemy from his lips (read my "Obama the Christian?" article) and that of his pastor, Rev. Wright to convince me that he is a scary man with a self-serving attitude and is a 'tickler' of the ears (II Timothy 4:3-4).

Now this video really perplexed me as it was listed on YouTube as a Pro-Obama video and it seems to fill that role as the pastor preaches regarding the 'specialness' of Obama's candidacy and the idea that he is being attacked and hindered in his candidacy because God put him in this position and by implication that anyone against Obama is against God's will. But scarier than this obvious Obama frenzy is the blatant heresy that is being espoused by preachers these days, especially this man.

Let me say that I don't know this man and I think he ministers in the Detroit area. I watched his whole video and want to point out that in his introduction he means Psalm 68 not 38. And of course, he does preach his sermon from Zephaniah 3. In both his introduction and in his message he seriously takes these verses out of context.

Let's look at Psalm 68:31 first, the 'princes that are coming out of Egypt and those from Ethiopia' in Psalm 68 are bringing gifts to the Hebrew King and the Temple of God because they are acknowledging God as the One True God. [editor: He misquotes the verse's ending he says, "Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands to her God;" but oddly the verse doesn't say "her God"...but simply "unto God." So could they be worshipping their God, Jehovah, or just acknowledging the Hebrew God?] Either way this is a good historical passage for the situation that David and Solomon ruled under...many peoples came to honor them and worship at Solomon's Temple. [Editor: this passage is also a great picture of Christ's Second Coming.] So I don't see that in this context that this is a statement that black people will be raised up to rule and be used by God anymore than any other nation or people that surrenders to God's will. I do believe that God is the One True God and that He of course is the God for all peoples. We understand that God will use anyone of any color, culture, or background as long as they come to Him on His terms and in His way; which is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. God is no respecter of persons. He accomplishes His will through the poor and outcast as well as He can use the rich and influential. But to imply that Obama is fulfilling some "prophecy" from Psalm 68 is definitely stretching the context at best or is blatant heresy at worst.

Now this preacher shares a video from one of his sermons out of Zephaniah 3 regarding this ongoing theme of some sort of "prophetic" claim of black people from Africa. He implies that the calling of those from Ethiopia is the spiritual "Chosen of God" but this passage is specifically talking about God calling back His people the Hebrews (the Jews) back to Him after they are to be taken into captivity. A little bit of background here, Zephaniah a prophet in Judah [editor: who's name means "Jehovah has treasured"] was a contemporary of Jeremiah (who was a prophet in Israel) before the nations were taken into captivity by the Babylonians, is often accredited with the mini-revival that Judah underwent during the rule of King Josiah. Sadly, the revival didn't last long and Zephaniah's prophecy that they would be taken into captivity just like Israel had been years earlier became reality. Thankfully God in His goodness allowed Zephaniah to show that God would restore His people back into their land. [Editor: The book of Zephaniah is also a passage that paints a wonderful picture of the messianic kingdom when all nations shall serve the Lord, and restored Israel will finally be "a name and a praise among all people of the earth" (3:20).] So for this pastor to use this verse in 3:10 to claim some special prophecy for Africans or African-Americans is a serious breech of context and shows a lack of understand of this book and the Old Testament's relation of the Hebrews as God's 'Chosen People.' He also takes a leap regarding the nation of Ethiopia in particular as being a blessed people with a gift in their hand from God that contradicts Zephaniah's previous judgment on the Ethiopian nation. Zephaniah 2:12 tells us, "Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by my sword." I don't know how you get from a judgment like this to a special blessing for the Ethiopians being the 'spiritual chosen people of God' as he implies. [Editor: Chapter 2 shows us that other nations were being judged not just the Ethiopians]. Confusing the meaning of Scripture or taking it out of context is indeed dangerous territory as the Lord proclaims judgment on those you add to His Word (Rev 22:18).

I say all of this not as a political tool or to trash any one's culture, heritage, background; but to point to the importance of knowing the Word enough to defend against heresy and to be wary of false teachers.

This is not all of this man's message. I have listened to the other two parts and he continues to take Scripture out of context and insinuates correlations between Barack Obama and the story of Jeremiah the Prophet. Christians you bear a responsibility to be in the Word and to know the Word so that you may be able to counter the lies of false teachers and pastors what a responsibility we have to preach the whole counsel of God.

Proverbs 30:5-6, "Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar."

I wish I could write with the eloquence of a speech-writer and the beauty of a poet. But either way I appreciate that others have the talent to sum up how I feel so many times. So Bob Benson put it this way-

We are a generation in a hurry, captured by a desire to finish it up, to get it done. We hurriedly take our place in today's horn blowing, door slamming, rib jostling society. To speed us on our way, we've devised condensed books, instant coffee, and tv dinners. We want to ride on the freeway; any little delay in the middle lane, and we are filled with impatient acts, unkind words, and unprintable thoughts. This must be part of the reason it's sometimes hard to walk with God. He doesn't seem to get in a hurry. His plan may turn us off through sorrow's valley, or across monotony's plain, or up pain's winding hill. For in His wisdom, He sees there are some things you cannot do quickly. There are some places you cannot be in an instant. He knows it takes delay and dark nights, setbacks and sad hours mixed with sunshine and blessing, freeways and bypasses.

And learning slowly, I am prone to pray, "God, send relief! I cannot bear the sorrow, pain, and tears." But with time's passing, I have come to pray, "God, I want to learn quickly; I want to know Thy way." So let Him have His way. Let Him slow you down or hold you still or back you up. He will get you there, in His time and in His way.

I couldn't agree more and I strive to teach this to my church. I strive to make the Word of God relevant to them through successes and failures through sorrows and joys. For me personally, I pray that God gives me the wisdom to recognize the good and bad times that He has me go through and the maturity to learn the lesson the first time.

I get reports from Sitemeter [a website monitoring company] that people visit my blog, but hardly anyone ever leaves comments...which I guess is your prerogative but I would like to see who is actually visiting and reading my blog. So for the next few weeks [until September 27th] I'll be running one of these "Giveaway" contests that I see many other bloggers doing. So if you leave a comment in this article you will be automatically entered in my giveaway.

"What am I giving away?" you ask. Well, I offer up the latest book authored by Dr. Bill Monroe, "The Good News is a Verb. GO" This is an insightful and timely book that points out the simplicity of the commission of Christ to "go into all the world." In this book, Pastor Monroe counters this simple, easy-to-understand, often preached about 'Great Commission' with the sad fact that today we have nearly an absolute failure of Christians to heed Christ's command and to actually 'GO'.

I have read this book and it has re-ignited my spark for evangelism and personal soul-winning. I hope you will realize it is more than just having a good testimony and clean lifestyle...it is a conscious decision accompanied by physical action. I believe this book will be a blessing to you and I want to give it away...so this blog giveaway is a two-fold means to do that! First, I'll get an idea of who visits and secondly, I can give away a good, solid book.


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