What did you wear to Church today?

If you went to church... Here, in the post-Bible belt, it is traditional to put on one's "Sunday Best" to go to church. It is so strong a tradition, it is not unheard of that people have been turned away at the door for not dressing respectfully enough for God. More commonly, instead of the direct refusal of admittance, people who are unable or unwilling to meet the standards are treated poorly and made to feel unwelcome in order to drive them away.

Mat 25:31-46 KJV When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: ³² And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: ³³ And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. ³⁴ Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: ³⁵ For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: ³⁶ Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. ³⁷ Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? ³⁸ When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? ³⁹ Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? ⁴⁰ And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. ⁴¹ Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: ⁴² For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: ⁴³ I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. ⁴⁴ Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? ⁴⁵ Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. ⁴⁶ And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

The church of the goats is alive and well, here in the South. But fortunately, God has preserved a remnant, as He always seems to do. If you find yourself turned away from a church, consider that they are in a worse peril for their souls than you are, and go look for another church. And if you find yourself in a church that begins to turn away the lost and needy, speak to it's leaders and if they refuse hear or change then flee that church.

Leave the suit-and-tie of self-righteousness in the closet, and come to church in the blood-washed robes of the Lamb if you have them. Or come to church in the dirty rags of your repentance and the Lord will gladly exchange them for fresh spotless clean robes. As long as you choose to hang on to that suit of self-righteousness then you are refusing to admit your need of the Lord. See that suit for what it is, dirty rags, and let it go.

It's so easy to try and slip back into the suit of self-righteousness. "Really Lord, it's okay, I can take it from here"; I seem to catch myself saying, in deeds, if not in word. But I can't, I slip and fall in the mud, then from the mud I look up and there is Jesus, not ready to berate me, but willing to reach down and take my muddy hand and lift me up and clean me up once again! Why do we choose to keep slogging through the mud; to grab another handful of mud and start trying to wipe ourselves clean?

That is how a church of the Lamb becomes filled with goats. When the lambs all stray after their own ways, what conviction is there for the goats? When christians put on their suits of hypocrisy, then the non-christians are only convinced that the whole thing is worthless talk.

So let's leave the suits of hypocrisy and self-righteousness at home, or bring them in to exchange them for new, blood-washed robes. The only way to take control of the local church back from the goats is for the lambs to truly begin to follow the Shepherd again. This means that all of us need to use our God-given gifts for His cause in His church. Not just the pastors, but all of the people of God. But most of all

1Co 13:1-13 KJV Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. ² And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. ³ And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. ⁴ Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, ⁵ Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; ⁶ Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; ⁷ Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. ⁸ Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. ⁹ For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. ¹⁰ But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. ¹¹ When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. ¹² For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. ¹³ And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

For those not versed in "King James English", the word "charity" is more correctly translated "love" in modern English. In chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians, Paul teaches that all the gifts are necessary, but here in chapter 13, he shows that all of that is useless without it being done in a spirit of love. That's is where we need the Lord's help more than anywhere else. Whether we preach, teach, or even encourage; we must be filled with and motivated by the Spirit of love or we will fall on our faces.

And, if you find yourself unexpectedly on your face; your best bet is to just go ahead and pray. Then let the Lord lift you up and set you about His business.

Tag(s): fashion; love

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Crucify Him!

I stand in the crowd, surrounded by the religious and the profane, alike. Pointing my finger and yelling at the top of my lungs; "Crucify Him!" With every wilful sin, I add my agreement to the crowd. Another chorus of "Crucify Him", made by voices that were designed to praise God, not curse Him.

As He drags His beaten body, oozing blood from the many whip-made lacerations, up the road toward the "Place of the Skull", we mock and spit on Him. Every action I take, out of my own strength adds to the spittle festooning His shredded skin. Every bit of pride I take in "my good words" is so much more mockery added to the jeers and catcalls.

And as He hangs on the cross, we stand at His feet agreeing on the best ways to divide up the cast-off soiled clothing. He is suffering pain so intense that a new word was coined to bear it's meaning, excruciating (out of, or as if, being crucified). He sees us, there, casting the dice; even actively adding to the burden He was bearing and He pities us. "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Finally in that confluence, where ultimate Love met ultimate Justice, the Lord called out "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" (My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?) and we think He is calling for Elias the prophet. He hangs, cursed on a tree, paying for every wrong thing we will ever do, say or even think; and yet we miss it. We think that He must be pointing back to the Law and the Prophets. "Yeah, I know Jesus died, but I'm sure that God will accept me if I just go to church more."

His body is taken down and laid in a tomb, and we try to go back to "life as normal", and forget about this whole weird affair; but He won't stay dead! Some actually see Him up and walking around, and they are indeed blessed. But to us He says "blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."

We are party, with every wrong action, word, and thought, to the most heinous crime ever committed; that of executing a perfectly innocent man in place of ourselves. And yet that man, who is God Himself, freely offered Himself in agreement with the death sentence True Justice demands so we do not have to pay ourselves. Because the debt has been paid, we are offered a pardon. But a pardon cannot be accepted, unless we first admit our guilt. I am guilty, and pardoned. And the only thanks that I can give is to turn my life over to Him. He bought it, it was broken and soiled, yet He bought my life with His own. I'm definitely a fixer-upper. Even though, I stood in the crowd, spit on Him, mocked Him, beat Him and crucified Him, He overcame it all and still wants me. Even though I still spit, and mock, and beat Him, I am forgiven. And you, if you will admit your guilt, and your total inability to pay the price on your own, may be forgiven as well.

Tag(s): Gospel

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RC5 for Jesus

After a period of inactivity, I find that RC5 for Jesus is still going on. RC5 for Jesus is a team participating in the RSA Lab's RC5 Encryption Challenge via distributed.net. The challenge is seeing who can "crack" the encrypted message first. Distributed.net is an organization that figured out how to split up very large tasks among as many computers as will join in. So, what has this to do with Jesus?

Well, directly, nothing. However, some Christian who is technically savvy saw just how popular the Top 100 Teams page is and thought what better way to put his computer to use that by putting Jesus name on that page. The RC5 for Jesus homepage has instructions on how to join, if you have a computer that tends to be left on. The application runs at the lowest priority level so as not to interfere with your normal usage.

Oh and a warning, the distributed.net client will show up as "undesirable" to most anti-virus programs. This is because the desire to be on the Top 100 page is so strong, that some participants had attempted to include the distributed.net client in a Trojan Horse to hijack unwitting computers into participating on their behalf. As long as you download the program directly from distributed.net, then it is safe, no matter what the anti-virus program may say.

Why try to put Jesus name on a page that only gets looked at by computer geeks? Because computer geeks need the Gospel, too.

I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.
(1Co 9:22b-23 KJV)

They even (once you've submitted some completed work) give you your own stats page with a convenient place to put your testimony or favorite verse. And the link shows up on your neighbor's pages.

Tag(s): distributed computing, Jesus

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In the company of Peter and John

In September, a United States Navy Chaplin was convicted for praying while in uniform.

You can read the World Net Daily article here.

So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard."
(Act 4:18-20 ESV)

Congress, considered and then failed to provide the protection for religious free speech which had been added to the Defense Appropriations Act. Currently, while not "against the rules" officially, it is within the ability of Chaplin's superior officers to order them to not pray "in Jesus name" anywhere outside of their Sunday Chapel services. and, as can be seen by the case cited above, there are those in authority who are more than willing to so order.

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