Month: September 2017

prayer · Uncategorized

Have you ever prayed to God for something and directly gained what you wanted?

Bob SnyderLeave a comment

Yes, but only when our will is conformed to God’s will. When we pray for what has already been decreed, it is a certainty. For instance, if one of the Apostles would have prayed for Christ to not be crucified, it still would have happened because it was decreed by God to happen. Does that mean there was some lack of sufficient faith on behalf of the Apostle?  No, of course not.  Our will is not sovereign.  God’s will is.  He accomplishes that which He intends to do.  He doesn’t try and fail like man.  If that Apostle would have prayed like Christ, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.” Then, the Apostle’s prayer would have obviously been answered. Prayer is not proof that there is, or is not a god. Prayer is something someone does who already believes there is God.

cultural · God · government · Uncategorized

What does, “Give me your tired,” mean?

Bob Snyder2 Comments

Statue of Liberty

We are all familiar with the poem, “New Colossus” on the Statue of Liberty. If not the entire poem, at least this portion of it,

“Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

To many it has become a mandate as if it were part of the, United States Constitution. In actuality it is just a nice sentiment expressed in a poem, on a statue given to us as a gift by the French. It is a noble ideal, but does it include those who would seek to destroy our nation, and way of life? Does it include criminals entering our country illegally? Does it include criminals fleeing justice from their own countries? Does it include religious fanatics seeking to impose sharia law, and overthrow our Republic?

This country was built on the labor, and force of will executed by immigrants seeking a better life, freedom to worship God as they chose, not as they were compelled by the government. We enjoy our reputation of being the land of the free and home of the brave. We like the idea that people endeavor to come here to better their circumstances, to enjoy the American dream. We tend to forget though that it isn’t our Christian duty to offer sanctuary to any and all comers, all of the time. There are times when our national security and the safety of our allies supersede our desires to open our doors and arms to immigrants.

When it is prudent, and reasonable to allow immigration, we should. As Christians, we should want goodness for others. We should be glad to extend the hand of friendship to them. There is nothing wrong with rewarding those who seek to do it legally and for the right reasons. There is also nothing wrong with not rewarding those who would exploit us and enter in illegally. When I talk with liberals, many of them seem to think it is a moral mandate to accept even those who would kill us. They insist that we reward people who are here illegally, people who have knowingly flaunted our laws in our faces.

It seems they have changed the poem to,

“Give me your lazy, your poor,

Your malevolent masses yearning to spill blood,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the criminal, radicalized Islamic flood,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

I’m pretty sure the moral of the poem isn’t to accept every person who wants to come, but rather to extol the virtues of a nation that has been a land of opportunity for people looking for a better life.  I hope people can understand this notion before they tear down the statue of liberty as a misplaced symbol of their ire.

cultural · gay marriage · gospel · heresy · homosexual marriage · Theology · Uncategorized

Who is surprised over the lost world’s response to the Nashville Statement?

Bob SnyderLeave a comment

WeddingatCana_StainedGlass

Who is surprised over the lost world’s response to the Nashville Statement? I’m not. I don’t believe any of the signers are surprised either. The liberal, “Christians” are shocked and surprised by the Nashville Statement. I don’t know why they are so shocked. It isn’t like we changed our tune. We’ve been affirming scripture over culture all along. As is often the case with liberals, it boils down to the redefinition of words.

It is almost like they have a different religion than we do… They call themselves, “Christians” yet they deny the authority of scripture. (Think God’s Word is wrong.) They say silly things like, “The table is a little bigger than that.” “The path is broader than you think.” “God’s love trumps theology.” “Love is love.” You get the idea. None of it is biblical. When you remind them that, (Matt 7:13, 14) “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” they insist that their feelings about God’s love trump what the scripture actually says.  They say, “My God isn’t as small and black and white as the way you understand her/him/x to be.” 

I talked with one who claims the Bible says nothing about homosexuality being a sin. When confronted with scripture from the Old Testament, he denies it and claims we are under a new Covenant. We are in a New Covenant, but the scripture from the Old Testament is pertinent. It demonstrates what God says about homosexuality. God is immutable. He doesn’t change. What was sin years ago is still sin.

So with that argument dismissed by the liberal, I moved to the New Testament. I cited scripture where homosexuality is listed along with other sins making it evident that it is included as sin. The liberal dismissed this as an interpretation problem on my behalf. He insisted that this is only about homosexual sex outside of marriage and that homosexuals at that time were being married in the Church and that their union was not sinful. When I asked him how he got there from what the scripture says, his response was less about scripture and more about how his view is from our modern context, and love. He also presumed to imagine how he though Jesus would respond now.

It is evident that liberal Christianity is just a redefining of the word, “Christian.” It isn’t Christian at all. They may claim Jesus as their savior, but they don’t really trust or believe Him. They deny His word, and they deny Him the ability and authority to define what sin is. They reserve for themselves the ability to define what sin is and is not. If you don’t know what sin is, how can you truly repent? If you don’t see yourself as a sinner, why would you want a Savior?

At the end of the day, don’t be alarmed by your liberal family, or friend’s response to the Nashville Statement. Understand that they are more than likely still in the dark and lost. Try to correct them from scripture. Pray for them. Don’t be swayed from the truth by their strange arguments. Even if their arguments manipulate your emotions remember, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Trust God’s word, not your feelings.