A reader asks:

I am going through some things… problem after problem. My boyfriend (my kids father) is in church and fully dedicated. Am I hindering him if I am not in church as well? Should I become more familiar with the Word if I am trying to serve GOD the right way. It feels like every time I try to serve GOD and be dedicated something negative comes my way and I am distracted. Please give advice.

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It’s hard sometimes to find a balance when answering questions like this. I do not know the reader. I don’t know the situation. I don’t have any real way of knowing where they are at spiritually or what history they have. I only have these few facts to go on. So I’ll respond to each sentence rather matter-of-factly, and you can take from it whatever lessons that you might find of use.

I am going through some things… problem after problem.

Matthew 6:34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (NKJV)

Such is life for all humankind. Whether Christian or unsaved, life is all about facing and dealing with the problems that this sin cursed world produces. The difference is, Christians do it with joy and purpose… the unsaved do it with despair and hopelessness.

My boyfriend (my kids father) is in church and fully dedicated.

If your boyfriend is a fully dedicated Christian, and is the father of your children, I hope that he has confessed the sin of fornication, and before the Lord, is doing whatever he can to be responsible for his actions, and seeking God’s direction in what he should do (marriage?). If you are still fornicating with him, then neither of you can be labeled as “fully dedicated” Christians, assuming that you have knowledge that God disapproves of sexual immorality (if you didn’t, you do now; Gal. 5:19–21; Eph. 4:17–19; Eph. 5:5; Col. 3:5; 1 Thess. 4:5)

Am I hindering him if I am not in church as well?

If by “in church” you mean that you are not seriously living a Christian life, then YES. If you are implying that showing up to church is the same thing as being a Christian, you have missed the true meaning. You are not equally matched in belief, devotion and purpose, so of course, that will cause you to be a hindrance if he is truly following God, and you have no care for it.

2 Corinthians 6:14-16 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people.” (NKJV)

Should I become more familiar with the Word if I am trying to serve GOD the right way?

That’s like asking “should I drink water if I want to be healthy?” or “should I BREATHE if I want to live?” God’s Inspired Word is paramount to our spiritual and emotional health, not to mention the only way that we can find out what is pleasing to God. Think about it… the CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE wrote down what He wants us to know, practice, teach and live by – and yet it is routinely ignored or given only cursory attention even by those who claim to love God.

As a side note, it is this steady erosion of diligence towards Scripture that has allowed all manners of false teaching to flourish in the Church, as well as fuel the decline of power in the lives of Christians. We increasingly turn to fads, gimmicks, false teaching, humanist ideas and personalities looking for some magic trick to a deep, consistent, stable life that is pleasing to God when the “secret” to having ALL things we need to live a Godly life is sitting on our coffee table gathering dust:

2 Peter 1:3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, (NKJV)

2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. (NKJV)

It feels like every time I try to serve GOD and be dedicated something negative comes my way and I am distracted.

Well of course! What do you expect? Satan will not bother you while you live for your SELF. He only gets interested when you try to make some step towards God. Satan is not all powerful, or all knowing… but he is most skilled in knowing what it takes to discourage, deceive or side track us when we turn towards God. The very fact that you are experiencing “something negative” when you make an effort to be Godly, is PROOF that you are on the right track!

Do not let this distract you. See it as a sign that you are on the right course. Do not let this “negative” be your excuse to quit.

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Matthew 25:23 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ (NKJV)

Hebrews 12:1-2 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (NKJV)

First, you need to turn to God yourself. Then, if your boyfriend, father of your children, is truly dedicated to Jesus as well, I would consider finding some spiritually mature Christians to help guide you and pray with you, as you seek to do what is right for your own lives, and the lives of your children.

What are your questions about living a Godly life?

The video below is Barack Obama personally, not his racist "pastor". He is mocking Christians and rank-and-file Americans about the understanding of the Bible WHILE pulling short snippets of Bible verses out of context to use them for political gain.

This is not just insulting to serious Christians, it’s insulting to every American who lives by Judeo-Christian principles. It’s even more insulting to be mocked by someone who attends a racist, America-hating church; a man who obviously knows LITTLE TO NOTHING about the Bible, except to prooftext portions of verses for political gain, and from someone who gives so little regard to Scripture, that he voted against a bill that would protect the life of aborted babies who survived the attempted murder. He doesn’t want to impede the right of the mother to “choose”. How brave.

Evidently, it’s above his “pay grade” to think babies born alive even after abortion are entitled to protection. It’s bad enough to think that one minute, a baby in a womb who could survive a birth is a candidate for extermination… then magically, outside the womb they are now a “baby” and not a “fetus”. That is bad enough… but then to want to deny an aborted-but-living baby any protection, that is INFANTICIDE, plain and simple.

And this man mocks you and I by saying, “evidently you haven’t been reading your Bible” because we believe the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount and the “good citizen” principles presented by the Apostle Paul are NOT things we should consider when making laws for America. See for yourself:

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McCain certainly has his problems, and even he will represent a far too liberal and compromising presidency... but he is unequivocable in his answer about abortion ("life begins at conception"), his courage to defend America, and his respect for the people and religion that founded and made America the greatest nation on earth: CHRISTIANITY.

We live in tough times, spiritually speaking. There is no doubt that America, and the world, is long past deserving of God's judgment for all the spilled blood, debauchery and mockery of the Creator. It is scary on the one hand knowing God's hand of judgment is sure to fall sooner, rather than later... but we rejoice on the other knowing that we are reaching a time "as in the days of Noah" when Jesus says He is soon to return.

I've received several inquiries lately to this effect:

"I keep hearing about this book 'The Shack' and people are even talking about having a study based on it. What can you tell me about it?"

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This book is another fad sweeping through Christianity, like “The Secret” or the latest “something of purpose”. I get discouraged at a level of discernment and Scriptural knowledge that allows such obviously unScriptural materials to be welcomed into the church such as:

- Mary Baxter’s cultic and extra-Biblical “Divine Revelation of Heaven”

- The metaphysical, new age success book “The Secret”

- Pop psychology Bible paraphrases like Eugene Peterson’s “The Message”

- Any number of books full of humanistic positive-thinking and “success”

It seems that Christians today get easily bored with the Bible, and very little time passes before the next “craze” begins. The latest, and I’m sure not the last, is this blasphemous tale entitled “The Shack”.

The author, William Young, who otherwise appears to be sincere in his love for God, portrays God as a cool talking, hip, occasionally crude black woman. This is apparently supposed to convey that God understands us, and is ready to relate to us on our level. Jesus is a very human middle eastern fellow and the Holy Spirit is an Asian woman.

That information alone should be enough to have Christians immediately reject the book. But no… this has become the latest fad to make God more real and understandable to an ever-increasing Biblically illiterate and entertainment-minded church. Christians have jumped on board with this “cool” book and sales have surpassed one million.

Sadly, book reviews and testimonies frequently speak of how this has "changed their life" and "other than the Bible" is the most important book they ever read. Churches all over are starting study groups centered on this book. For those who want to characterize this book as an innocent parable or allusion, the fact that this book teaches theology, on purpose or not, is betrayed in the many comments by people that it "changed how I see God".

Even if nothing else about the book is considered, IDOLATRY is the most obvious transgression with the author creating his own image of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. He doesn’t use some Biblical symbolism such as a Lions or a Rock… he actually re-creates the Godhood in unbiblical and sinful human form. How can Christians by the millions stomach such insult to their God and Savior?

The vocabulary and dialog is at times crude, and blasphemous. Jesus is kissed by “god” and enjoys “her” humanness. Throughout the book, “god”, “jesus” and the “spirit”, are shown to be very human and very much like you and me… supposedly allowing us to relate them better, and increase our knowledge about their true nature. If that's not teaching doctrine and theology, I'm not sure what is. In light of that, this book must be judged for theological accuracy, where it fails.

Here we have another problem: a man assigning words to God’s mouth. We cannot create “dialog” for God, Jesus or the Spirit without taking the words directly from Scripture. This is tantamount to declaring divine revelation, and at a minimum, is certainly an exercise in teaching a theological viewpoint. Think about it: how presumptuous of any human to think they can write and print words they THINK God would say (unless they are directly derived from what Scripture declares)?

Even if we could get past the idolatry issue, and call it something akin to "Pilgrims Progress" (which Eugene Peterson, author of the humanist paraphrase 'The Message' does indeed imply), the issue then becomes the fact that the book is full of Biblical theological error, some of it simply heretical. For more complete explanation of the theological errors, download this PDF.

Satan is not stupid. He knows that people will read these types of books, and actually think it is either something God did say, or would say. More and more, movies, dramatizations, psychology and these types of information are replacing the sufficient Word of God.

Just like the movie “JFK” by Oliver Stone leaves crowds of gullible people thinking “that’s what really happened”, movies like Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” and humanistic paraphrases like Peterson’s “The Message” leave multitudes of nominal Christians thinking “that’s what God is really like” or “that’s what really happened”. We should never take license with anything about God. We should only illuminate and expound on what Scripture reveals to us. Again the fact that "god" speaks in this book, is absolutely teaching theology, whether or not that is the author's intention or not.

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This book is another of Satan’s long line of attempts that have successfully undermined Christian’s knowledge and trust in the sufficiency of God’s Word. When people commonly say "it changed my life" and "I'll never think about God the same way again", you can bet the book is theological statement. Sadly, it is an unBiblical theological statement. The less we know about the Bible, the easier it is to be bored and go after these fads… and not to recognize something dangerous that SHOULD be easy to discern.

People who speak out against these fads become increasingly rebuked, isolated and dismissed as they dare to warn other Christians about the relentless onslaught of things that are undermining the Bible, the Gospel and Christianity (ie. entertainment, psychology, humanism, positive thinking, new age techniques, extra Biblical revelation, etc)… things that should be recognized and shunned by Christianity, but sadly, have been embraced with open arms (and pulpits).

How far can this dangerous hoax of global warming and “climate change” go? Anyone with a fraction of brain, and an ounce of genuine desire for truth can easily research the indisputable fact that:

1. global warming is not science, it is a political agenda;
2. there is NO proof of ANY type that MAN can affect the climate AT ALL to any appreciable degree;
3. natural warming and cooling periods occur naturally primarily because of sun cycles (remember the 1970’s? GLOBAL COOLING was going to kill us all before the end of the century);
4. Al Gore’s movie was a piece of propaganda, distorted quasi-science and flat out fabrication
5. the real issue is extreme liberal activists hijacking an emotional issue to both destroy the U.S. economy, and exponentially increase government and special interest control
6. if you repeat a lie long enough, enough times, a lot of people will believe it because they “trust” the media (which often is done in innocence, and often from laziness)

I just saw a commercial about rap star “Ludacris” (an appropriate name given his “music” and liberal views) and the paragon of decency and virtue, Tommy Lee, the rock star drummer for Motley Crue whose claim to fame includes being married to Pamela Lee (whose latest commercial says the two most important things to her are children and animals rights; I would have sworn it was indecency and publicity).

Anyway, these two scientists, I mean doctors, I mean public servants, I mean researchers… I mean… I don’t know what I mean… they are nothing but typical, ludicrous (is that how you spell that? I get confused by the new rap dictionary), Hollywood bleeding heart, liberal-robot entertainers… or, giving them the benefit of the doubt, they are simply great publicity hounds latching on to the latest lame brained, media fad… where was I…

Oh yeah, Ludacris and Tommy Lee are battling it out to see who can be the most “GREEN”. What hogwash, claptrap, horse puckey, nonsense. They are battling to save the planet by:

• Finding fast food restaurant grease to power luxury touring buses
• Conducting the “world’s largest shower” to “save water” which is obviously going to be nothing more than an excuse to get girls into bikinis

Of course the predictable stream of the usual liberal suspects will make guest appearances and everyone will gush about how wonderful this entire absurd circus is and they will all pat themselves on how much they are doing to “save planet earth” (too late… Nancy Pelosi LITERALLY announced last week she was already taking care of that; yes, she really said she was “busy saving the planet”).

Meanwhile… the production of this stupidity will produce FAR MORE greenhouse gas, and do FAR more “damage” to the “planet” in energy use, depleted resources, increase stupidity and wasting otherwise productive time… not to mention furthering the expensive (for you and I who work and pay taxes), government-empowering HOAX of “climate change”.

But no one will mention that part because this is HOLLYWOOD and ENTERTAINMENT… where HYPOCRISY is a necessary evil to educate the rest of us peasants and celebrity-worshippers about 1) how LITTLE we personally do to “save the earth”, and 2) how much WE need to sacrifice of our relatively modest lives while they go on touring in their “biodiesel buses”, and using eco-friendly light bulbs in ALL of their mansions.

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You know the REALLY SCARY part of all this? The true issue here is MONEY, and this “entertainment” would never make it to a television screen if there weren’t enough Americans out there willing to watch it to make it profitable. No matter how altruistic these liberal cable channels want to appear (Planet Discovery), the bottom line is MONEY. They will do more “harm” to “planet earth” than the show will do “good” (especially if you factor in the actual continued propagation of a hoax)… but who cares as long as it makes a buck?

Of course, the whole “climate change” joke is a sick lie anyway… so the real aggravation is how many people will be further brainwashed by this type of propaganda-entertainment.

Sigh… I keep hoping all this liberal lunacy will get SO SILLY that people will wake up and reverse the disastrous course our great (once great?) country is on.

Only because my readers ask, I will occassionally comment on the presidential race. There are plenty of others talking about it, but if my own readers want my opinion, I'll throw it out there.

One thing I think that is both funny, and revealing, despite the "Messiah Mania" that Obama currently enjoys, is how EMPTY his campaign is.

"Change". "Hope". "New". That last "great President" to employ those marketing skins was none other than the worst president in American history (Jimmy Carter in case you were confused).

Every single time an Obama supporter, or disciple, or convert (you choose) is asked "what has Obama done? what are his accomplishments? what is his experience?"... you know what you get?

Crickets. Chirping. Silence. Glazed eyes. Then they launch into what he says he's GOING to do even though they can never produce ONE SINGLE SUBSTANTIVE EXAMPLE of his experience or accomplishments.

Of course they ignore his only real accomplishments: hobknobbing with corrupt politicians and fanatical race-baiting preachers... and racking up the THE MOST liberal voting record in Congress; more liberal than Hillary and Kennedy.

But he's bringing "change". He's renewing "hope". He is so wonderful that even his own wife is FINALLY proud of America.

Think I'm exaggerating? Try not to laugh so loud you can't hear this entire video: