"Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we."


— G.K. Chesterton


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The Blaze

September 28, 2011

by Billy Hallowell

Iranian Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani continues to very literally fight for his life in Iranian courts. As the Blaze reported back in July, Nadarkhani was arrested in October 2009 and charged with apostasy (the total abandonment of one’s religion) following a conversion from Islam to Christianity.

As we have already reported, Nadarkhani, now 32, made this conversion years ago when he was a teenager. While this has become the basis for the Iranian case against him, his initial arrest surrounded his public opposition to Christian schoolchildren being forced to participate in Islamic religious education. The Christian Post has more about how the pastor first came to the attention of authorities:

The case began in October 2009 when Nadarkhani protested at the local school of his two sons. The government had recently passed a law stating that Islam must be imposed on children in local school, and even on Christian children.

Nadarkhani publicly protested at the school, stating the law was unconstitutional because it did not allow the free practice of religion. His protest caught the attention of the police and government.

The details surrounding the legal handling of the case are complicated. According to some accounts, there was a glimmer of hope earlier this summer when Iran’s Supreme Court reportedly offered a recant or die option. In this instance, the government would avoid executing Nadarkhani if he “repented.”

Read this story at theblaze.com ...

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David Jeffers

The American Church does not understand the concept of faith. What so many Christians today consider faith is nothing more than common sense. What’s wrong with that you ask?

Plenty!

Faith is from the spiritual world and common sense is from the natural world.

Now don’t get me wrong; if more people would use common sense today we wouldn’t have the economic mess we have today. Nevertheless, we Christians rely on common sense over faith and the former normally will contradict the latter.  Most times it does not make sense to trust Jesus Christ, first for salvation and then for sanctification. But trust is the bedrock of faith; when we trust God we obey Him.

Do you think those around the tomb of Lazarus actually believe Jesus would bring him back from the dead? Lazarus’ sister Martha was a woman of great faith but her common sense made her respond to Christ that rolling away the stone would cause a terrible smell. Why? Because he had already begun to decompose. Jesus response?

“Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” (John 11:40)

Let’s be honest with ourselves. If we were standing where Martha and the others were, we would not have believed Jesus was going to literally raise Lazarus from the dead. How can I say that with all confidence? We the American Church do not even believe God can raise godly men and women to represent us if we stop compromising on abortion. Our common sense makes us believe we have to vote for the lesser of two evils and incrementally purify our nation.

How about you incrementally bathe this week, only attending one part of your body each day and get back to me on Saturday? Just don’t do it in person.

A person who will compromise on life and support abortion with exceptions, be it rape, incest, mother’s life in danger, sonograms, heart beats, whatever...that person will definitely compromise on taxes, raising the debt ceiling, unnecessary government spending. You see, if you can compromise on the life of an unborn baby you can compromise on anything.

How about we stop compromising on issues of principle? Do you think God might just bless us if we for once trusted Him?

Just sayin...

That will never work Bro Dave. That is an unfounded and untested statement. We have never tried that approach and stuck to our guns, we always give in. Oswald Chambers puts it best:

Can you venture heroically on Jesus Christ's statements when the facts of your common-sense life shout - "It's a lie?" On the mount it is easy to say - 'Oh, yes, I believe God can do it'; but you have to come down into the demon-possessed valley and meet with facts that laugh ironically at the whole of your mount-of-transfiguration belief. Every time my program of belief is clear to my own mind, I come across something that contradicts it. Let me say I believe God will supply all my need, and then let me run dry, with no outlook, and see whether I will go through the trial of faith, or whether I will sink back to something lower.

As Christians, as the Body of Christ, as a voting bloc, as a movement across America, we always sink back to something lower. Would to God we would once in our history willingly go through the trial of faith.

You do realize there is no other hope for America? Will we stop worrying about our 401k and start worrying about the salvation of Aunt Kay? Will we stop concentrating only on Washington DC and start witnessing to our Uncle Billy? Would not turning the hearts of lost Americans to Jesus and demanding of Christians fidelity to Christ bring what we so desperately need in America?

My Bible says yes but my common sense tells me no. Which will I choose?

“And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15)

In Christ
Dave
Ps. 37:4


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