Appeal to Heaven: Politics, Culture & the Media: 2015

Saturday, December 26, 2015

The Chief Danger for Christian Charities

I think the chief concern for any major charity organization, especially one based in Christianity ought to be to maintain a conservative Christian stance. Many organizations have faded from their Christian origins, like Goodwill, the Red Cross, YMCA, and many others. Many universities founded as Christian organizations, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia were secularized slowly over time by misguided people in high leadership positions. The conservative giant, the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary once was faced by a growing liberal theology turning from all the core precepts of the faith, and it took Albert Mohler, a young Christian placed at it's head to bring a sea change. In fact during Mohler's venture there was a sort of "vote of no confidence" in the seminary leader, Mohler, and at the time only 4 faculty members voted for Mohler, the other 86 voted to oust him. But Dr. Mohler won the day, and the institution was returned, right at the brink, from turning into something else entirely. Thank God for that, otherwise it might being turning out secular humanist chaplains today, like Harvard does. Scary stuff. Gotta stay grounded.

D'Souza Explains What The Democrats & A Gang Of Criminals Have In Common

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Merry Christmas: The entry of Jesus Christ into Human History

Merry Christmas: The entry of Jesus Christ into Human History

Merry Christmas! May the Lord Jesus
Christ be at the center of your celebrations this holiday season. Truly
truly Christmas is all about Jesus Christ.

Does the date really matter? Not
really. Are some of the Christmas traditions rooted in paganism? Yes
they are. Yet despite those concerns, this Christmas can and is all
about Jesus Christ in my heart. It should be the same for you. Set new
traditions and new standards within your home, to make Jesus Christ the
center of your Christmas celebration. There is nothing wrong with
that. There is nothing pagan about that.

In the Bible God taught us to observe
days of thanksgiving to remind ourselves how God has shown us love and
mercy. Feast dates were instituted by the nation of Israel to remind
them of the moments in history when God had helped them, like the exodus
from Egypt. There isn't anything wrong with using the calendar year to
keep our hearts and minds centered on Christ.

Christ is great. Christ is the real
deal. We need to make sure we never forget, and always focus deeply on
Jesus Christ. We humans are people of habit. When we get in the habit
of recalling Jesus in this time, we can keep him front and center.

God came into human history. He suited
up in the form of a person, Jesus Christ, to save his people. He went
on a rescue mission to save humanity.

There was no hope before Jesus Christ,
there was only sin and the rule of evil. Evil has destroyed our planet.
It's given birth to every horror imaginable: child sex slavery,
starvation, diseases, abortion, genocides perpetrated by secular
dictators, divorce, broken families, wars of greed and wealth, racism,
sexism, violence against those with differing views, and even the horror
of the genocide of entire races of people. Think of the Jews during
World War II, the people of Cambodia during the genocide, and millions
of Africans during the Rwandan civil war.

Many get so upset when Christians say
that the world is an evil place. They seem to think there is no
evidence. Yet there is so much evidence all around us! Have they not
lived in the terrible 20th century? They have, but they are blind.
They have their secular humanist glasses on. Many today can't see past
the borders of the United State's wealth and affluence. Despite their
own propensity to bash and mock the American way of life, they live in a
cocoon of safety provided by it. Despite the rhetoric, the problem of
sin and evil is obvious.

God didn't make those things. We did
those things. God gives us the choice. He lets us choose how to live.
Do we do good or do evil? Most today choose passive selfishness. And
apathy is the same thing as doing nothing. It's not helpful. Some
choose good though. They're the ones constantly mocked on television,
internet, and newspapers. They're labeled as crazies for standing for
things like religious freedom, conscientious objection, faith lived in
public life, or standing for Christian sexual ethics. They're even
mocked for praying.

Jesus Christ came into the world to save
people like us, lost, self-destructive, addictive, selfish,
consumerist, and given to random sexual encounters at bars on Friday
night. We've prostituted ourselves at bars, at parties with friends, to
people we hardly know, just for the fun of it. How deep is our moral
confusion, how inexhaustible is it? Yet Jesus came for people like us.
He came to save us who go from divorce to divorce, for us who give
ourselves to every stranger we catch feelings for. He even came to save
the LGBTQ activists celebrating their sinful behavior in a parade, who
spat on a Christian minister who accidentally walked too close to the
procession. I saw a graphic describing the evolution of gay rights, it
said: 1990 - we want tolerance. 2000 - we want equality. 2015 - bake
the cake bigot! And the graphic showed a rainbow colored gun pointed to
the head of the baker. Oh how the oppressed have become the
oppressors. Yet Jesus came to save us who oppress the innocent. Jesus
came to save us who abused and mocked the gay community. Jesus came to
save those lost within the gay community. He came for us all, and we
would only turn to him.

He came to save a culture that considers
ministers less than scum, and Caitlyn Jenner as heroic. He came to
save those who were actively in rebellion against everything he stood
for. Jesus came to save us, the ones lost in sin.

The message of Jesus Christ is that it's
never too late. You're never too far gone. You're still completely
open to the chance of calling out to Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of
all sin, to turn from your old ways and embrace the way of holiness.

Sin has destroyed our world. Sin has
destroyed us in many ways, some more than others. Yet the most terrible
situation of sin is that whenever we do evil and live in these awful
ways, we sin against God himself. God understands perfectly, right from
wrong. He knows all the right ways to live. And he's told us those
ways. Yet we didn't listen. We mocked the Bible, despite how history
had hung around it. We mocked the Christian faith, despite how our
country was founded on it's precepts. I've done those things
personally. I was once the chief mocker of the Christian view. But now
I'm an advocate. I sinned against God himself, the creator of the
universe. Have you done the same? Have you contributed to the evil
state of our world?

If so, it's not over for you. It
doesn't matter what you've done. Have you had an abortion? Jesus will
remove that sin. Have you engaged in homosexuality? Jesus will remove
that sin. Have you hurt your family? Jesus will remove that sin. Have
you stolen from others? Jesus will remove it. Have you been lazy and
selfish all your life? Jesus will free you from that. Have you raped
someone? Jesus will remove that sin. Have you been hateful? Jesus
will remove that too. Have you killed someone? Jesus will remove that
sin too. Have you hated God and mocked his name? Jesus will forgive
that sin too. He will make you white as snow, gifted in his
righteousness, and set you on a new path of repentance from all evil.
He will change you into a person who lives in holiness. He will wash
away all your sins and give you new birth into a living hope.

This incredible sage began about 2,000
years ago in a little town in the middle east. A baby boy was born in a
manger because there wasn't any room at the motel. Isn't it ironic
that the one who made the world from nothing couldn't find a hotel room?
Much less a hospital for a safe birthing procedure!

We've all heard of the wise guys who
showed up right? I imagine they were quite perplexed for some time.
Maybe they had dreams about the birth of a special person who would
change the world. I've often had strange dreams that leave me wondering
for days. Maybe they dismissed those dreams as simply the odd
clamorings of a human mind. Until one of them noticed a bright star.
Perhaps he had seen it in a dream. And he started to follow. And the
others followed. There they found the new born Jesus Christ.

Could they have comprehended the
mystery? I doubt they understood fully. They probably looked down on
the baby and thought: "I wonder what this could mean?" Yet I bet there
was also an incredible sense of awe, though they didn't quite understand
the awe, they were compelled within to worship this child as their
Lord. Amazing, isn't it?

It isn't always easy to fully
comprehend. I still have my doubts at times. I think about the Bible,
the life of Jesus Christ and the current state of the world... and I
wonder to myself: What is all this? Does it really make sense? How can
the birth of one man, God, and his life, death, and resurrection free
me from sin? How can it give me eternal life? Why this way? Why not
another formula? Jesus Christ took my place? God's wrath for me fell
on Christ? Isn't that a bit intense? Why would God want to slaughter
me, and send me to hell if he's good and loving? I still ponder those
questions. But there is something else too: Today I'm willing to admit
that I don't fully comprehend all of it. I'm willing to be humbled by
life and circumstances to the point that I can receive it, and see it
working in my life. I'm willing to leave the door open to further
thought, while confidently trusting in Christ.

I'm a human person, I'm not God. I
can't see every angle. In fact family and friends have more than once
called me out on areas of my life that need to change. And they were
right. I can't see certain things because of my own prejudice. It's
the same way when I look at the cross of Jesus Christ. I can't perceive
the full meaning and majesty of it. Often when I look upon it my gut
reaction is to look with my old eyes and see an anachronism. But in the
Spirit, I can see the iceberg beneath the surface of the meaning of it.
I can't see all of it. But I can see more, in the Spirit.

My questions remain, but so does my
faith. I've put my trust in Jesus Christ. He is my savior. Do I
understand every verse and every passage? No I don't. Do I see the
work of Jesus Christ in my life? You bet I do. Do I feel the
connection to him? Yes I do. Do I sense a greater implication in the
mystery of his life, death, and resurrection? Yes, yes, yes I do.

I don't understand all the Bible. But I
trust every word of it. And I'm willing to put the Bible above my own
opinions. The Bible is right and if I disagree with something in the
Bible guess whose wrong? I am. You are. God's word is true, time will
show it to be true.

The mystery of Jesus Christ changed the
world forever. If I can't perceive the fullness of it, that's a Justin
problem, that's not God's problem and I don't need every single detail
to make an informed decision for reasonable faith in a reasonable God
who has reasonably saved me from a just penalty for my own iniquity.

God came into human history. Emmanuel
means "God with us." God came. He lived a perfect life. He went to
the cross for us. He died for us. He was bodily resurrected for our
salvation. He came to perfect us. Jesus declared victory over death
when he bodily resurrected. Jesus Christ is alive today, resurrected
and glorified seated in authority at the right hand of God the Father.

And in the future he will present us to
God the Father in perfect holiness, and present to us a perfect
reality. A reality with no more sin, death, and misery. No more death!
I've been working in nursing homes for months now serving there, and
I've seen the horror of death. And something about it seems wrong.
Death is wrong, death should not be.

Death is a disease and Jesus Christ is the cure.

So God the Father will remake reality
itself a mystery called the coming of the Kingdom of God. He will build
a new Earth and a new universe freed from the plagues of death and sin.
There we will live with God forever in peace, joy, and unending life.
Is it really so unbelievable? I don't think so. God made the
universe. We messed it up. He's given us a chance for redemption. We
receive it, stand as pillars of it in this temporal universe and then
when we pass through the shadow of death (physical death) we will live
eternally is a recreated universe where death has no place. That works
for me.

I hope it works for you too. It's the
truth about everything. It's the hidden formula of life, behind all the
piffy doctrines of humanism, naturalism, and the false realities of
this world. None of them make sense, they don't add up, and they don't
adequately interpret the observable universe. Christianity does in fact
adequately explain all facets of life: origin of life, meaning of life,
morality of life, and the destiny of humanity and the universe.
Origin, meaning, morality and destiny. Test and observe. Naturalism
can't touch that. It's garbage, half-baked presuppositions based on
false beliefs.

Despite the secular revolution in our
country, Christians are pushing back. They are appealing to heaven, to
God, to change our nation. God is answering those prayers. Jesus
Christ is the center of life. He is the center of all we do as
Christians. I urge you to use this holiday time to delve a few steps
closer to the mystery of his life and his gift to us, his chosen
people.

Focus on Jesus Christ this Christmas, he
is truly the savior of the world. We don't seem to fully understand
how much he's done for us, but that's OK, we can praise him and worship
him anyway. Over time we will grow closer and closer to the wonderful
savior. Amen.

source

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Believing in the Miraculous: The Work of Jesus Christ on the Cross

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Philosophy, Science, Logic, and History: Presentations on the Truth of Christianity from Multiple Disciplines

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Declaration of Worldview (What we Believe)

Reasonable Evidence for Christianity

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

15 Reasons Why the Obama Presidency has been a Gross Failure

It's been almost eight years since
Democratic President Barack H. Obama took office. We the American
people had been exhausted by the corrupt Bush administration and were
desperate for something different. We thought we had found it in Barack
Obama, an inspiring junior Senator who spoke very well from the
podium. Yet little has changed in America, and it seems our would-be
watershed dissolved into a bucket of trouble.

It should be noted that in 2007 and 2008
I identified as a Democrat. In the 2008 presidential election I voted
for then Senator Barack Obama. I was a member of a local Young
Democrats group and participated in canvassing for Barack Obama in that
election year. As a young man with diverse views, and a man who was not
an enemy of President Obama, but supported and voted for him, I believe
my testimony here should be considered sincere and legitimate.

These are the reasons that I feel and
believe that the Barack Obama presidency has been a gross failure and
disappointment to young, idealistic voters who believed in the phrase
"Change We can Believe In."

1. Obama campaigned heavily on
returning to the Constitution, reigning in the surveillance state, and
curbing the assaults on civil liberties. Instead during his presidency
we've seen increased surveillance, more wiretapping, and increased
regulation in every area of industry. Even further we've had the IRS
scandal, the NSA wiretapping scandal, and various other increases in
surveillance on everyday Americans. Recently libertarian conservatives
in the Senate fought to allow the corrupt Patriot Act to expire. During
2008 Obama campaigned against the Patriot Act and the liberty
violations within it. Yet as libertarians in the Senate fought to allow
the Patriot Act to expire, President Obama came out in the national
media urging the Senate to re-authorize the Patriot Act. He became the
chief apologist for the legislation he once decried as unconstitutional.
(Source 1: The Guardian. Source 2: USA Today)

2. Obama campaigned on reforming the
health care system. There are many views on how this should be done.
Yet how it was done was very simple: The big insurance companies and
medical industry got together to write a bill that in essence, forces
Americans to purchase health care. This is not a single payer system
like many European nations have. It is instead a forced purchase,
leaving no incentive for the medical industry or insurance companies to
lower prices. The result? Skyrocketing medical costs and insurance
rates. Attached to this ugly legislation is the congressional
exemption, meaning Congress wanted out of Obamacare, at least for
themselves and their families. That includes the president and his
family. The exemption is a blatant violation of the Constitution. In
addition, Obama perpetrated the lie of the year when he said, "If you
like your doctor you can keep your doctor." That turned out to be a
lie. (Source 1: The Daily Caller. Source 2: Politifact - Lie of the Year 2013)

3. Obama said that lobbyists would have
no place in his administration, yet today his administration is packed
to the brim with lobbyists from every industry imaginable. (Source: Business Insider)

4. Obama said that whistleblowers need
to be protected and campaigned on protecting whistleblowers. But the
fact is his administration has gone after whistleblowers even more
severely than the corrupt Bush administration. It's a disgrace.
(Source: The Guardian)

5. Senator Obama fought hard against
corporate welfare, but once President he has consistently supported
corporate subsidies. In fact the entire Democratic party, aside from
Bernie Sanders has followed suit. Do Democratic voters want corporate
welfare? Absolutely not! Do Republican voters want corporate welfare?
Not at all. No one wants corporate welfare, aside from the lobbyists on
K street. So the Cromnibus passes and people are dumbfounded. What in
the world is happening? It just doesn't make sense and stinks of
corruption. President Obama could've been the man to take a real stand
against corporate welfare, while he gave it lip service, he did quite
the opposite. Very disappointing. (Source 1: The Huffington Post Source 2: International Business Times)

6. In 2008 Obama ran against the poor
record of George W. Bush. Included in that poor record Obama
consistently pointed to Bush's unconstitutional executive orders. Yet
now President Obama has written just as many executive orders, many of
them pushing hard into the area of making law, which executive orders
may not do. It's more corruption and illegal extensions of power.
(Source: WhiteHouse.Gov)

7. Obama campaigned on discontinuing the
imperialist nation building in the middle east. Yet his drone wars in
Pakistan and Yemen killed thousands, and his carpet bombing of Libya
triggered an unstable situation in the region leaving a gap for groups
like ISIS to flourish. President Obama underestimate ISIS, calling them
contained just before they made serious attacks in Paris. (Source 1: CNN. Source 2: Fox News, 60 Minutes)

8. The redefinition of marriage
perpetrated by Obama's cronies on the Supreme court is a disturbing
example of the most extreme form of judicial activism. It's lawlessness
and it's wrong. It sets a terrible example for the rest of the world,
who look to the United States as an example to follow. The worst part
of this is the growing attacks on religious businesses, religious
organizations, and individuals in public positions who are open about
their Christian faith. The Obama administration has repeatedly done
nothing to halt this shift against Christianity. In fact the Obama
administration has pushed for the curtailing of religious liberty.
President Obama openly supports the idea that gay rights must trump
religious liberty. It's madness. And it's the cruelest intolerance
from gay activists who so desperately wanted legitimacy and tolerance.
Now that they have it, they seem bent on punishing Christians who stand
up for their faith. It's a classic case of the abused becoming the
abuser. (Source 1: The Washington Post. Source 2: Liberty Institute)

9. When Pope Francis came to visit the
United States, President Obama invited gay pastors, trans-gendered
ministers, pro-abortion priests, and others to the point that the Pope's
media team asked the White House to balance things out because Pope
Francis didn't want it to appear he was endorsing a certain lifestyle
when he visited. What an embarrassment for our nation. (Source: The Wall Street Journal)

10. The Fast and Furious Scandal. (Source: CNN)

11. The IRS Targeting of Conservative Groups. (Source: The Washington Post)

12. The refusal of the Obama justice
department to open an investigation into Planned Parenthood is quite
astonishing. Even more astonishing is how the mainstream media
carefully ignored the videos. The only news outlet that covered them in
any serious way was Fox News. Even after the release of the undercover
videos, which documented crimes being committed by the organization,
still no investigation was opened by the Obama justice department.
Simply shocking, and highly partisan. (Source: LifeNews.com)

13. President Obama campaigned on ending
the corruption on Wallstreet and dealing with the special interest
groups in Washington. His magnanimous speeches in 2008 inspired us.
Instead we got a disturbing bait and switch. We got business as usual
with lobbyists in charge for another eight years. Obama lended vocal
support to the Occupy movement, while the occupiers were quietly
bulldozed out of the cities where they protested. Obama did nothing.
He failed activists fighting for what they believed in. (Source: The Guardian)

14. President Obama doubled the debt during his presidency (currently at 18.792 trillion dollars.)
There are plenty of political magicians and talking heads out there who
try to minimize the debt problem by talking about Obama reducing the
deficit. It's so easy to take an angle on statistics to make your work
appear successful. But the debt is the elephant in the room compared
with the mouse-sized deficit concern. Though it certainly is a valid
concern. (Source: Politifact)

15. The Obama administration policies
have led to over 93 millions Americans no longer participating in the
job market. This number is so often ignored, probably because it's so
shocking. In addition the number of Americans on food stamps has risen
by over 15 million during the Obama years. (Source 1: Bureau of Labor Statistics. Source 2: Washington Times)

In conclusion, President Barack Obama a
massive bait and switch by the Democratic establishment. They fooled me
during my college years in 2007-2009. I really believed what he said.
It turns out he was a liar. President Obama will go down in history as
a corrupt shill. He will be remembered as the quintessential liar n'
chief who stood for nothing but corruption and business as usual in
Washington D.C.

President Obama has really been a
blessing though, to the Republican party. In the past eight years of
the Obama administration no less than 910 Democrats have been replaced
by Republicans in local, state, and national level legislatures. But
our problem in the USA is not a left vs. right problem. It's not about
Democrats vs. Republicans. It really comes down to a fight between
establishment candidates and grassroots candidates. The sooner
Democrats and Republicans wake up to the career politicians in both
parties, and take a stand against them, the better chance we will have
at salvaging this catastrophe. We have to stem the tide of corruption,
lies, and moral decay.

I pray everyday for a better tomorrow,
and for God to raise up principled men and women to replace the shills
in Congress, the Supreme Court, and the White House. I hope you'll join
me in prayer for our nation. Stay informed and stay active, your
country needs you today.

(It's
true that not all the blame can fall on the president when decisions
are made, but it's true that the president is not only the accountable
leader of the country, he is also the commander in chief. He holds at
least some responsibility, if not all, in these circumstances.)

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Friday, December 18, 2015

A Lifestyle of Peace: The Last Hopeful Revolution of a Generation Lost

The divine overarching story of humanity and the universe itself are playing out right before our eyes. It's happening everyday. It's all around us. You can feel it. It's like a
song in the backdrop. It's like a quiet melody on the wind. You can feel it when you stare down an empty road in the midst of night. You can sense it as you stand alone in a wooded forest, listening to the timbers creaking. You feel the enchantment of it, staring up into the star filled sky. On the way to work it's happening. These are the moments of life itself. Maybe we'll talk about them in the future. Maybe it'll just be written down somewhere, and we'll never think of it again.

As I watch a group of pigeons fluttering about on the pavement, I'm amazed. Deep down I know something so complex couldn't arise from disorder and nothingness. Such harmonious complexity takes a divine personality. God is at work, especially when I'm not noticing.

The beauty of the wind swept moments are breathtaking, but just as prescient is the sorrow of the darkness of this world. By darkness I mean struggle. I can feel that so powerfully. I have a mind where it takes off, and I can slide down into it, contemplating the incredible scope of the deceptions in this world. They are massive, entrenched, and powerful. Over such a short period of time the truth seems to have been entirely swept aside and
every manner of filth, depravity, sin, and corruption have taken it's
place. So quickly it seems, so quickly. One can build such good, and it can be circumvented so totally, so quickly.

I am the future generation, the millennials, generation Y. Yeah, it's interesting. It surely is interesting. We've grown up, at least I've grown up hearing in the backdrop of my daily life, adults whispering: "I feel sorry for the next generation." Or "I'm glad I'll be gone because the future is bleak." And then theres my generation... well. They drink and drug and party quite a bit. They think they're brilliant artistic anti-establishment. But a lot of them are dumb brainwashed pleasure junkies who parrot whatever the media tells them to think. They puke out liberal sentiments programmed into them by the television. They go all out on
party, wealth, selfishness, and sex. They are so assured there will be no consequences, and they live in denial when the consequences crash down upon them. It's such a lost generation. And nothing I can say changes it, at all. I could weep for them day and night. It wouldn't change anything. Many of them are nothing more than dead walking.

In sexual encounters at random, in drug highs, in drunken bashes, the trick was this: We thought we were taking. But it was taking from us. It's very simple, but profound.
Every single time, every high, every sexual blitz, every crazy night
out, we were losing something. And so many of us have ended up hollowed
out. This world took something precious from us. It took the sacred
from us. The sacred is like a soft wind, a soft calm, a sort of blanket
over the moment. Warm and fuzzy. Why? Because it's true, it's moral,
it's right. It's a peacefulness, a closeness with being good. And
being good feels so good. It feels so great. And with all that sinful
depravity we stripped ourselves of the sacred for the sake of trite
pleasures and those pleasures, appearing like sugary treats turned out
to be meat hooks that dug into our flesh and turned us into slaves to
desires we could never truly fulfill. There is no end to the need for
depraved encounters, sex addicts and porn addicts will tell you they
need more and more depraved and twisted imagery to keep themselves
sufficiently titillated. You will hear much the same from the drug
addict. More and more. It's never enough.

We thought we were so wise to turn from
all the foundations, to write our own faustian story. But it wasn't the
real story. It was a lie.

And thank God that I discovered the real
story. The story has to be true to change the world. It has to be
true to change me. That story is the saga outlined in the divine
revelation known as the book. The book changes the world. Yet it's so
hard for us to accept. It was for me. Why? Because it tells me the
unvarnished truth about myself. It tells me all the things I don't want
to hear. It tells me about how I'm the problem. It won't let me play
it off on government, big business, banks, poverty, conditions, or
anything else. It forces me to realize something very simple: What's
wrong with the world is me. I'm the problem. And I've got a just
reward in front of me because of my own selfish choices: total
disconnection from God. That drives people crazy, how could God send me
away from him? How could he send me to "hell"? God doesn't want evil
people around him.

Do you think there's something good
about people? Do you think people are good? I'll quote the famed
atheist scholar John Gray who wrote in his book Straw Dogs, and I quote:
"Humanists think there is something good about humanity? Why don't you
try reading a newspaper?"

Taking a look at the Fox News website
(I'm a millennial I don't have a physical copy) the current top story on
Fox News is the ongoing investigation into the San Bernardino terrorist
attack. One could pick up a newspaper on any given day, and find the
truth about humanity.

The truth about humanity is that we need
a savior. Thank God that we have a savior. This is the truth about
life: I need to reconnect to the divine architect of the universe. The
very meaning of life itself is to live in permanent relationship with
God. Can you perceive it? Can you sense it? Can you feel it? Can you
philosophically conceive of it? Can you scientifically see the
patterns in supposed chaos? Can you understand the love of God? And
the most important question: Can you humble yourself, to that of a
child, to receive this kingdom that is coming into the wreckage of this
world?

It is a divine mystery, the coming of this kingdom.

Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, ²¹nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.” -Luke 17:20-21.

The kingdom of God is within you. The kingdom of God is coming into this world. Can you see it?

Sometimes
when I'm standing there, in the darkness at night, examining the
streets, watching the roads, listening to the wind and the air.. I can
feel it. I can feel the anticipation. I can sense the divine poetry of
the moment. I can sense the poetic mystery playing like a song no one
can learn. It's beauty knows no depths, and it sings out, it shouts
from every corner of the land, the buildings, the concrete, the trees,
the grass, and the waters of the lakes and rivers. I can see it.

Yet this life is so fearful. There are so many giant mountains in the
distance. Just like Atreyu. Just like Luke Skywalker. Just like
Frodo. Just like Jesus. We have narrative minds. We're drawn to the
story. We're drawn to the heroic, the great leader, the great hero on
his journey to save that which as been lost. Our own cinema and books
often reflect the divine overarching meta-saga of paradise lost,
humanity lost in the dark wilderness, and the redemption of mankind
through the God-man Jesus Christ. It's beautiful. It's epic. It's the
truth about life. It doesn't change. It's not one of many truths,
it's the only truth.

The stakes are exceedingly high, so high, so high, the souls of mankind
hang in the balance everyday. So many are led astray. So many evil
forces and terrifying strongholds exist. It makes me want to shutter in
fear, and shut down completely!

"Do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs.Do
not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.
Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows^{." -Matthew 10:26-31}

Jesus said, "Don't be afraid, I'm with you." He says the same to you and I today: "Don't be afraid, I'm with you."

Jesus Christ changed everything in my life. He took me from the king of
clowns, a drug addict with serious mental issues, to putting me on the
front lines of an intense spiritual battle for the hearts and minds of
the people of the world. And we're not winning, in fact we're
thoroughly losing on just about every front.

I entered former strongholds of light and the power of the Spirit to find
the systems of defense crumbling. I found the guards on the walls were
elderly, and no young men had come to take the places of the aged and
infirmed. I found women lost in sex, drunkenness, and selfishness. I
saw beautiful women, with wisdom in their eyes, and zeal for changing
the world, I saw them lost, broken, addicted, driven mad by the half
baked philosophy of this world, run amok, turned into sex toys for
depraved men, and destroyed completely. And I can only think why Lord, I
can see the goodness in them, yet they are addicted, lost, emotionally
destroyed, and so far gone. Is there any hope I wondered? I found the
old women passing out of this world, leaving no legacy, because their
children had all turned from the faith of the old. I found broken
lines, crusted entrenchments, empty, all the enthusiasm gone, all the
zeal collapsed, and I found in fighting, despairing, and crumbling of
the foundations of the hope of humanity, the Christian faith itself!

Yet I realized something. God is still at work. He hasn't gone anywhere.
And even if I see so few young people, so few millennials willing to
take up the call... I realized. I took up the call. I'm standing
here. I've taken up my spiritual armor, I've taken up the sword of the
Spirit. I've taken up the cause of Jesus Christ in this world, to share
the gospel, to be preservation and moral goodness to this world. Even
if no one else does, I'm here. And I'll keep fighting.

Every leader has to understand this over-arching narrative, this story. But
it's not just a story, it's not just a narrative. It's the truth about
life. It's the history and personality of humanity. It's the full
description of the universe around us. It exists, and so do we. So
does God. And we need God. Jesus Christ brings us home to God. In
Jesus Christ we can change the world. But when we try to build a
peaceful paradise outside of Jesus Christ, it crumbles in our hands. So
many in this world want peace, but they don't want the prince of
peace. And there can be no peace without the prince of peace Jesus Christ.

The time is now friends. This is our great moment. We millennials have
been so led astray by the liberal media, by secular universities in this
country, we've been led astray by philosophical lies, we've been led
astray by arrogance. We've been led astray by drugs, alcohol, by the
sex revolution, and by the selfish consumer society. But it's not too
late! It's not too late! It's not too late! We can stand here. Now.
We can change the world. But we can't do it alone. If and when we
choose to place the Christian faith, Jesus Christ at the center of our
efforts to change this world, then we will bring about the greatness we
wish to see. We want change. We want to help people. This is the
mission. This is the message. People need to humble themselves, and
come to Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness we wish we didn't need. But
we do need it. Call upon Jesus Christ. Take up the banner of the
truth! Start a movement. Start a revolution!

The hour is late friends. The forces of darkness are moving in all
directions. Our own defenses have been corrupted and crippled. Our
generation has slipped into many traps, and deadly snares. But it's not
too late. If you can believe that Jesus Christ really is who he
claimed to be. Then there is a chance. Can you believe? Can you
really believe? Can you accept it? Can you accept that and receive
Jesus Christ is the son of God, the redeemer of humanity, can you
perceive it? Can you sense it? Can you see it in every moment? Can
you read it in the pages of the book? Can you live it? Will you repent
of your old ways? Will you turn to Jesus Christ? Will you take up
your spiritual armor and fight against the lusts of your own desires?
Will you build boundary walls in your mind? Will you fight your sinful
desires which fuel the self destruction of the human race? Will you
receive the son of God as your redemption, your righteousness, the
remover of your sins? Are you ready for a new life? Are you ready to
be born again? Are you prepared to know the deepest truths in the
universe? Are you prepared to encounter God himself?

Today is day.

There is still hope.

The light shines in the darkness.

And my generation, young people will come to know it.

Because my generation deserves to know, like our parents and our grandparents
came to know, that they are designed creatures, created beings, designed
and crafted by the beautiful, enchanting artist, an architect, a quiet
being lingering in the backdrop, listening, loving, and caring for us...
the God who made the universe itself. Can you understand the full
weight of that? Can you perceive the expansive meaning behind that?
God is real. You should be free to know him. Like I've been made free
to know. By calling out to Jesus Christ for help, like I called out to
Jesus Christ for help.

I write this because I want you know in the most sincere way the meaning I
had ached for so desperately that I almost died several times filled to
the brim with pills, drink, and drug. Jesus Christ is the truth. He
is the answer. In him is the real truth of life. It's not a game.
It's not an old superstition. It's really real.

I want you to know so badly, because it's so hard to see behind all the
televangelist nonsense, the megachurches, the false teachers, and the
way Christianity is portrayed in the media as a sort of backward
superstition of the foolish. But I found something very different.

I encountered God himself. He's real. You can be with him through his
son Jesus Christ. You don't have to like it, but it's the truth.
Please receive it. Please trust in him. Please call out to him. We
have much work to do, the hour is late in these spiritual battles. We
need you now. Join the resistance, join the revolution.

May the grace and peace of Jesus Christ be yours, always, amen.