Can you trust the snake?

     It is an often told story, but it won't hurt to repeat it again.  A traveler high up in the mountains in the winter came across a rattlesnake that was just about frozen.  The rattlesnake said to the traveler, "Pick me up and take me down where it is warm."  The traveler said, ""I am afraid you will bite me."  "Oh, no," said the snake, "I would never do that."  The traveler picked up the snake and placed him inside his coat where it was nice and warm.  When they got down to the base of the mountain the traveler felt a sharp prick in his side.  He unzipped his coat and saw that the snake had bitten his side.  "Why did you bite me after you promised that you would not bite?"  The snake replied, "You knew what I  was when you picked me up."
     I think it is time that Christians wake up to the fact that the entire world is at enmity with God.  I think everyone expects the atheist to oppose Christianity, but fail to realize that many of the other religions of the world also come under that category.  It is time that Christians take a good close look at the Muslim religion.  Remember the snake above.  Now take a look at the countries where they are in control and see how they treat people of other faiths.  So they arrive in a country of religious  freedom that is based on the Judeo-Christian concept.  A country that has stood for over 200 years under that concept and has provided a quality of living that is unsurpassed in the entire world.
     The news today carries the story of Muslim students enrolled in a Catholic university and are protesting the placement of the cross on their own property.  The poor mistreated Muslim students are offended by the cross.  I would suggest that they find a Muslim university to attend if they are offended.  If a Christian was in one of the Muslim countries he/she would not even have the freedom to complain about a perceived offensive object.
     Where ever they go, they make demands for things to be done that will accommodate their religion.  If they want any accommodations let them accommodate themselves.  The Catholics pay for all of the expenses of their own university and I hope and pray that they do not bow down to their stupid requests.  It is high time for us to "let God be true and every man a liar."
     They would like to be able to impose their laws so as to supersede the laws of our nation that enabled us to become great.
     If you are still reading, I probably will lose you here, but so be it.  President Obama is as guilty as any man, if not more so, in contributing to the downgrading of Christianity and the upgrading of the Muslim religion.  What is that he said, "America is not a Christian nation."  He downplayed a day of Christian prayer and honored a day of Muslim prayer.  The very idea of the president of a Christian nation bowing down to a leader of a lesser nation.   The question has come up on whether or not he is even a Christian.  That question could easily be put to rest by his acknowledgement that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.  I have difficulty believing that a Christian could set under the filthy mouthed preacher as he set under for so many years and be classified as a Christian.  I use the term not as to his eternal destiny but as to his being Christlike.
     I know it is not politically correct and I fear no longer religiously correct to say this but, it is either Jesus Christ is God or he was a liar.  If he is not God then each one of us has helped keep a lie going for centuries.  I for one, believe that He is the Son of God.  Elijah challenged the religious world of his day on Mt. Carmel, the choice was whether Jehovah was God or Baal was God.  There was no mistake in the answer.  We have come once again to a Mt. Carmel and the question is the same, "Is Jesus Christ to be God in your life or is Muhammad, Buddha. or some other fake icon to take that place.

Just Saying It Does Not Make It So

     Years ago in New Orleans, while it was still unlawful for Catholics to eat meat on Friday, there lived a lone, solitary Jew in the midst of a Catholic neighborhood.  Each Friday he would fire up his outdoor grill and proceed to permeate the neighborhood with the aroma of the grilling steaks.  Thus, in defense of their sanity, the neighbors began a campaign to convert the Jew to the Catholic religion.
     After several months of fervently witnessing to the Jew their efforts were rewarded. The Jew joined the Catholic church.  The father, dipped a rose in water and sprinkled the Jew with the words, "You were born a Jew, you were raised a Jew, but now you are a Catholic."
     The community breathed a collective sigh of relief.  That is until the next Friday.  As they prepared to eat their fish, there drifted through the neighborhood the aroma of steaks being grilled.  They converged on the Jew-Catholic and immediately asked, "Don't you know you can't eat beef on Friday?"
     He responded, "What beef?  Then with a flair he dipped his brush into the barbecue sauce and said, "You were born as beef, you were raised as beef, but now you are fish."
     I fear that something like that happens regularly in the church world.  By adjusting key words here and changing intent there, we come up with the same type of logic.  I am thinking especially of the simple concept of baptism.  No seriously thinking person will try to convince anyone that the use of the word baptidzo (best I can do on an English keyboard) meant anything else than dip, plunge or submerge in a liquid.  Oh, I know, pouring is such a beautiful symbol of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and sprinkling is such a beautiful simple service that can be performed anywhere, but what about the fact that baptism is supposed to portray the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
     Make no mistake about it, when interpreting the scripture, "Let God be true and every man a liar."