Life on earth

Life seems hard because we’re not made for this life!

Nevertheless, God wants us to do good and not become weary

If our Lord sees us getting too comfortable here, He will send trials to shake us from the love of this world so we may long for Heaven.

He sends us the trials that we would know that we are not happy here, because this is not our home. The greatest tragedy is to be satisfied here in this life. We were not made for earth.

The decent way to Eternal destruction
A decent, flowery, down-hill
way to eternal destruction!

(John Angell James, "Christian Hope" 1859)

Christ is . . .
the supreme object of a true Christian's love,
the chief source of his felicity,
the highest end of his life.

The first object of a Christian's desire, pursuit
and expectation--is the salvation of his soul.

Our great business on earth--is to fit for heaven.

Our main concern in time--is to prepare for eternity.

The world is, indeed, a very dangerous foe to the
believer. To very, very many, it is the most destructive
one. They are not so likely to be subdued by 'open vice'
as by worldly-mindedness.

Worldliness is the sin of the age, and has deeply
infected the church of Christ.

"Do not love the world or anything in the world.
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father
is not in him." 1 John 2:15

This verse ought to ring through all Christendom,
and make the ears of millions tingle--and their
hearts to palpitate with fear and alarm!

What is the world?

Not merely open sin and vice, profligacy, idolatry,
infidelity or heresy. Oh no! The world contains many
things besides the lust of the eye, the lust of the
flesh, and the pride of life--things . . .
more decent,
more innocent,
more rational,
more commendable,
than these vile objects!

Everything on earth, however fair, laudable and
excellent in itself--everything besides God, is the
world.

Your business is the world,
your family is the world,
your comfortable home is the world,
the wife of your bosom is the world,
the children whom God has given you are the world.

"What! then," you exclaim, "are we not to love these?"
Yes, in proper degrees--but not more than God. You are
not to seek your highest happiness from them. You are
not to be more solicitous to secure them, than heaven.
It is of a 'supreme love' which the apostle speaks.

"Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is
not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter
more than Me is not worthy of Me." Matthew 10:37

Christian professors, there is need to have these solemn,
yet righteous demands, sent with a voice of thunder into
your places of business and scenes of domestic comfort.
You have need to be told that . . .
all this engrossing solicitude about business;
all this eager haste to be rich;
all this ambition for larger houses;
all this taste for elegance, show and fashion;
all this competition for name and fame,
which leads to a neglect of salvation, to departure from
God, to indifference to heaven--is the love of the world,
which is incompatible with the love of the Father!
And not less so . . .
that supreme concern about domestic enjoyment,
that taste for fashionable amusements, or even
that more refined and simple love of home-bred delights,
which leaves out God, salvation, heaven and eternity!

Here, here, I repeat, is your peril.

Here the enemy with which you have to do battle!

It is not vice.

It is not profligacy.

It is worldly-mindedness!

Do we not see mere professors throwing
themselves wholly--body, soul, and spirit . . .
into their trade,
into the cherished objects of their ambition,
into their entire devotedness to a worldly life.

In these things, and for them, they live!
These things . . .
bind round and overgrow their heart,
stifle all serious thoughts,
smother all heavenly desires.

The road that leads to destruction is broad enough
to comprise many parallel paths. And there is one path
crowded with professors of religion, walking in company,
with cheerful appearance, and elegant attire, and elastic
step--but still walking to perdition! Oh, yes, there is a
way 'through the church'--a decent, flowery, down-hill
way to eternal destruction, and there are many who
take that road!

The Religious Right scares me.
I Am A Conservative Christian, And The Religious Right Scares Me

by Chuck Baldwin

For those readers who are unfamiliar with my biography (http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.sketch.html), let me here provide a thumbnail sketch of my conservative bona fides: I attended, graduated, or received degrees from fundamentalist Christian schools such as Midwestern Baptist College in Pontiac, Michigan, Thomas Road Bible Institute (now known as Liberty Bible Institute at Liberty University) in Lynchburg, Virginia, Christian Bible College in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, and Trinity Baptist College in Jacksonville, Florida. I am currently in my thirtieth year as the Senior Pastor of the Crossroad Baptist Church (Independent) in Pensacola, Florida. I was the Executive Director of the Florida Moral Majority in the early 1980's. I was an active member of the local Christian Coalition. I have marched and protested against abortion clinics. I have led several pro-life rallies and even led our church to construct A Memorial To Aborted Babies (http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/abortion_crosses.html). I have conducted small and large (some drawing crowds numbering in the thousands) pro-life, pro-family rallies and meetings in the Pensacola area and in many towns and cities across the state of Florida. When Ronald Reagan was running for President, I helped Dr. Jerry Falwell register more than fifty thousand new conservative voters in my state. I have attended White House functions with former President Reagan and former Vice President George H.W. Bush. I supported and defended Chief Justice Roy Moore and his fight to display a Ten Commandments monument at a pro-Ten Commandments rally in Montgomery, Alabama and even on national television. I am an annual member of the National Rifle Association and a life member of Gun Owners of America. I have been the featured speaker at several pro-Second Amendment rallies. No one can honestly question my commitment to pro-life, pro- family, conservative causes. That being said, the Religious Right, as it now exists, scares me. For one reason, on the whole, the Religious Right has obviously and patently become little more than a propaganda machine for the Republican Party in general and for President G.W. Bush in particular. This is in spite of the fact that both Bush and the Republican Party in Washington, D.C., have routinely ignored and even trampled the very principles, which the Religious Right claims to represent. Therefore, no longer does the Religious Right represent conservative, Christian values. Instead, they represent their own self-serving interests at the expense of those values. It also appears painfully obvious to me that in order to sit at the king's table, the Religious Right is willing to compromise any principle, no matter how sacred. As such, it has become a hollow movement. Sadly, the Religious Right is now a movement without a cause, except the cause of advancing the Republican Party. Beyond that, the Religious Right is actively assisting those who would destroy our freedoms. On the whole, the Religious Right comports with those within the Bush administration and within the Republican Party who, in the name of "fighting terrorism," are actually terrorizing constitutional protections of our liberties. The Religious Right offered virtually no resistance to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, the passage of the Patriot Act, or the recently created position of National Intelligence Director. Neither did the Religious Right offer even a whimper of protest as President Bush and Republicans in Congress created a first-ever national ID card in the new intelligence bill, which eerily has more in common with early Twentieth Century German and Russian intelligence institutions than anything envisioned by America's Founding Fathers. Another disconcerting feature of today's Religious Right is its attempt to Christianize political entities, which it supports, and to demonize political entities, which it opposes. This trend is especially scary. When people are told that they are voting "Christian" by voting for Republican Party candidates, it is being intimated that they are voting non-Christian by voting for any other candidate. This is not only silly on its face, it is downright dangerous! I don't remember anyone saying people voted "Christian" when they elected the outspoken Christian candidate, Jimmy Carter, President. Yet, Carter, in his personal life, demonstrated as much, if not more, Christianity than does George W. Bush. If you recall, Carter even taught Sunday School in a Southern Baptist Church while President. However, in spite of the fact that President Bush and the Republican Party in Washington, D.C., have repeatedly supported copious unchristian (not to mention unconstitutional) programs and policies, Christians act as if Bush and his fellow Republicans have ushered in the Millennial Kingdom. More than that, the Religious Right appears to believe that G.W. Bush is the anointed vicar of Christ. But instead of wearing the garb of a religious leader, he wears the shroud of a politico and a military commander-in-chief. As such, in the minds of the Religious Right, Bush's war in Iraq is a holy crusade. America is fast taking on the shape of the old Holy Roman Empire and President Bush is quickly morphing into a modern day Caesar. The willingness of the Religious Right to give President Bush king-like subservience is easily seen in the way they demonize anyone who dares to oppose him. This is very unnerving. Are we heading for a modern day religious inquisition, this one led not by the Catholic Church but by the Religious Right? Are we witnessing the type of marriage between Church and State that America's founders originally feared? I used to believe that liberals were paranoid for being fearful of conservative Christians gaining political power. Now, I share their trepidation. Of course, the sad truth is, neither George W. Bush nor the Republican Party in Washington, D.C. represents genuine Christian or even conservative principles. If they did, they would take their oaths to the Constitution seriously and then neither liberals nor conservatives would have anything to fear, for the U.S. Constitution protects the rights and freedoms of all men. Unfortunately, when the seed of Bush's unconstitutional policies come to fruition, it will produce large-scale fallout economically, socially, and politically. And sadder still will be that, instead of blaming Bush's infidelity to constitutional government and conservative principles, people will blame Christianity and conservatism itself. The result of this miscalculation will doubtless be a massive tide of support for more and greater unconstitutional government, but only under a different name. ? Chuck Baldwin NOTE TO THE READER: Chuck Baldwin's commentaries are copyrighted and may be republished, reposted, or emailed providing the person or organization doing so does not charge for subscriptions or advertising and that the column is copied intact and that full credit is given and that Chuck's web site address is included. Editors or Publishers of publications charging for subscriptions or advertising who want to run these columns must contact Chuck Baldwin for permission. Radio or television Talk Show Hosts interested in scheduling an interview with Chuck should contact chuck@chuckbaldwinlive.com. Please visit Chuck's web site at http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com. When responding, please include your name, city and state. And, unless otherwise requested, all respondents will be added to the Chuck Wagon address list. To subscribe to these columns, send a message to majordomo@chuckbaldwinlive.com with the words subscribe chuck-wagon in the body of the message. To unsubscribe put the words unsubscribe chuck-wagon in the body of the message.

Prolife all the way
A convicting thought from Jim Wallis of Sojourners Magazine:

"If you support protecting an unborn life but don't provide the necessary support to the mother and child in poverty after birth, how can you logically call yourself pro-life?"

This applies to individuals and to governments also..
Both are accountable to God.

What happened to the power of the Word?
What happened to the power of the written Word.

Regarding the recent film the Passion of the Christ,
Daniel Southern of the American Tract Society commented, "It may be one of the biggest opportunities in the last 2000 years that we've had so far to really get out our message across in a way that makes sense. "

I only have two things to say about this: The gospel found in the Written Word of God is sufficient in power to reveal the Good News of Christ's death, burial and ressurection. "...
for it (the gospel) is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth..." Romans 1:16

Was God waiting around these last 2000 years for an accurate movie in order to save many? Or has not the Holy Spirit "made sense" to the simple heart of believing sinners of what Jesus did on the cross on their behalf? If you have been saved by the grace of God, think about it. You know how He revealed Jesus in your heart and you knew what He did for you. We walk by faith not by by sight as in films,icons and statues. May God be praised, Amen.

Milt Poulos
Dec. 26, 2004

The religion which I want
The religion which I want

(Letters of J. C. Philpot)

I am quite sick of modern religion--it is such
a mixture, such a medley, such a compromise.
I find much, indeed, of this religion in my own
heart, for it suits the flesh well--but I would
not have it so, and grieve it should be so.

The religion which I want is that of the Holy Spirit.

I know nothing but what He teaches me.

I feel nothing but what He works in me.

I believe nothing but what He shows me.

I only mourn when He smites my rocky heart.

I only rejoice when He reveals the Savior.

This religion I am seeking after, though miles and
miles from it--but no other will satisfy or content me.

When the blessed Spirit is not at work in me,
and with me, I fall back into all the . . .
darkness,
unbelief,
earthliness,
idleness,
carelessness,
infidelity, and
helplessness
of my Adam nature.

True religion is a supernatural and mysterious thing.

The more lovely does Jesus appear!
By J. C. Philpot, "Spiritual Mysteries" July 14, 1844

The poor believer feels, "I continually find all kinds
of evil working in my mind; every base corruption
crawling in my heart; everything vile, sensual, and
filthy rising up from its abominable deeps. Can I
think that God can look down in love and mercy
on such a wretch?"

When we see . . .
our vileness,
our baseness,
our carnality,
our sensuality,
how our souls cleave to dust,
how we grovel in evil and hateful things,
how dark our minds,
how earthly our affections,
how depraved our hearts,
how strong our lusts,
how raging our passions;
we feel ourselves, at times, no more
fit for God than Satan himself!

"You see, at just the right time, when we were
utterly helpless, Christ died for the ungodly!"
Romans 5:6

Christ does not justify those who are naturally
righteous, holy, and religious.

But He takes the sinner as he is, in all his filth
and guilt; washes him in the fountain opened
for sin and uncleanness; and clothes the naked
shivering wretch, who has nothing to cover him
but filthy rags, in His own robe of righteousness!

The gospel of the grace of God brings glad tidings . . .
of pardon to the criminal,
of mercy to the guilty, and
of salvation to the lost!

That the holy God should look down in love on
wretches that deserve the damnation of hell; that
the pure and spotless Jehovah should pity, save,
and bless enemies and rebels, and make them
endless partakers of His own glory; this indeed
is a mystery, the depth of which eternity itself
will not fathom!

The deeper we sink in self-abasement under a
sense of our vileness, the higher we rise in a
knowledge of Christ. And the blacker we are
in our own view, the more lovely does Jesus
appear!

visit Grace Gems at http://www.gracegems.org/

Moral Majority and Forgiven Minority
It's been said that there is a moral majority. And by worldly standards there may be. Many are the religious, claiming to believe in God. It can be said that our world is drowning in religion. But this religion does not save the soul. Men can seem righteous, on the surface (by their standards) but God's standards for true righteousness (the one that gains entrance to heaven)are higher and defined as follows:

"..unless your righteousness EXCEEDS the righteousness of the (ed. religious)scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdomm of heaven"-Matthew 5:20

Man looks at the outside but God looks upon the heart. The way to EXCEED the morality of religious people is to be accounted righteous and forgiven by a holy God, through faith in the blood of Jesus alone. Romans 3:24,25

Also, Jesus tells us that FEW will find this way of true righteousness, in Matthew 7:13,14. Because this path is the narrow way of humiliation and true faith and not that of religious pride, and few are willing to "stoop" this low. But this is necessary for salvation. Just because by their mouth the moral majority invokes God's Name, it is no guarantee that they will enter His kingdom. Matt 7:21

So then it can be said, that since true believers are few, as compared to the vast number of religious:
It is not the MORAL MAJORITY but rather the the FORGIVEN MINORITY that will enter God's kingdom.

Let God be found true and every man a liar

-Milt Poulos

His Presence
Men never paint a picture of Jesus until they lose His Presence in their hearts.
--Anonymous

"Covenant of Grace"
But the New Covenant makes it clear that the "house of Moses" is finished, and now we are in a house whose Head is Christ (Heb.3:5-6). The Kingdom with Christ as its Mediator is "not of this world"(John 17:14; 18:36). It can never be identified with any secular political order. The church in this "evil age" is always a separate entity in society, and never equated with the geographical boundaries of a society. The Mosaic era was inferior and preparatory, and it was never intended to be an "eternal" political model. The course of redemptive history was ordered so that the national theocracy and its shadows gave way to a Kingdom whose subjects would experience the realities promised, and offer "spiritual sacrifices" (1 Pet.2:5; Heb.13:15-16).

Excerpt from Is There A "Covenant Of Grace?"
By Jon Zens