Being Christian In A Hostile World

>>  BLOG Friday, January 8, 2016 Jeff Lampl I really liked the following comments by Michael Gerson and Peter Wehner, both former speechwriters and advisors to President Bush 2.  I hope you take the time necessary to read their words in light of the reality of Paul's explanation (1 Cor. 25:25) of what Jesus is doing in the world right now.   God bless,   Jeff  Christ will rule until he puts all his enemies under his power 1 Corinthians 15:25 (CEV) Is America slouching toward Gomorrah? "When it comes to cultural analysis, many evangelicals have sex too much on their minds. Some perspective on American society is in order. Things Are Getting Better By many indicators, our society has gotten better. The divorce rate has been declining since the early 1980s. Since 1990, the rate of abortions has fallen by more than a third, and the number of abortions each year has fallen by more than half. This year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the percentage of teens having sex has declined significantly over the past 25 years. Crime, violent crime, and rates of homicide are down by more than 50 percent from the early 1990s. Of course, areas of concern remain. Today more than 40 percent of children are born to unmarried mothers. Marriage is increasingly a class-based institution, destructively weakening among working-class Americans. But our broader culture has shown, in some areas, a remarkable ability to mend itself. Many evangelicals mistake alarming legal trends for across-the-board cultural decay. Further, Christian public engagement has hardly been ineffective. Evangelicals were part of a coalition to dramatically increase funding for the global fight against HIV/AIDS, helping more than nine million Africans to gain access to life-saving treatment. In their best abolitionist tradition, evangelicals have helped to place sexual trafficking on the global agenda. They have advocated for persecuted religious minorities in the Middle East. At home, they have provided foster families and adoptive homes, visited prisoners, advocated for criminal justice reform, opened crisis pregnancy centers, and championed the rights of unborn children. America is not slouching toward Gomorrah. And the duties inherent in democracy remain. Cultural retreat would betray our faith, because it would betray the call and responsibility to seek the common good. "Though I have had to speak at some length about sex, I want to make it as clear as I possibly can that the centre of Christian morality is not here. If anyone thinks that Christians regard unchastity as the supreme vice, he is quite wrong. The sins of the flesh are bad, but they are the least bad of all sins. All the worst pleasures are purely spiritual: the pleasure of putting other people in the wrong, of bossing and patronizing and spoiling sport, and backbiting; the pleasure of power, of hatred. For there are two things inside me, competing with the human self which I must try to become. They are the Animal self, and the Diabolical self. The Diabolical self is the worse of the two. That is why a cold, self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute. But, of course, it is better to be neither.                                                                                                                         C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity Christianity's greatest period of vulnerability and political weakness was the time of its most explosive growth. "In many books, sociologist of religion Rodney Stark has described how a tiny and obscure Messianic movement in the 2nd and 3rd centuries became the dominant faith of Western civilization. He points to early Christians' "communal compassion" and social networks; their care for the sick, widows, and orphans; their welcoming of strangers and care for outsiders; their respect for women (who were considered second-class citizens); and their connection to non-Christians. This summer, nine African Americans were gunned down during a Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The gunman, Dylann Roof, was motivated by racism. Less than 48 hours after the killings, the victims' families were allowed to speak directly to Roof at his first court appearance. The family members spoke in honest, unaffected ways about their grief and heartache. Yet they bestowed forgiveness upon the man who had killed their loved ones. It was an extraordinary moment. The greatest and most powerful Christian distinctive is not the exercise of power; it is the offer of grace.  Comment For more:           follow on Twitter @jefflampl             This is a regular communication from Christian Life Center. If you would like to add, modify, or delete your email address from this list please email us atclcfamily125@gmail.com  Christian Life Center 125 Saginaw Road, New London Twp., PA  19352

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Is Church Relevant?

>> Blog
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Jeff Lampl

Is Church Relevant?

Okay, I can't remember where I found the following details about the early Christian Church, but I can say they are all true and well researched (see the work of Sociologist Rodney Stark for example).   As you read these accounts of the first Christians, ask yourself if the church is relevant to people's everyday lives?   Ask yourself if Jesus has made a difference in the world.   (a great book to detailing how Christianity changed the world is What's so Great about Christianity by Dinesh D'Souza). Jeff

"At no other time in the history of Christianity did love so characterize the entire church as it did in the first three centuries. And Roman society took note. Roman historian Tertullian reported that the Romans would exclaim, "See how they love one another!"

Justin Martyr sketched Christian love this way: "We who used to value the acquisition of wealth and possessions more than anything else now bring what we have into a common fund and share it with anyone who needs it. We used to hate and destroy one another and refused to associate with people of another race or country. Now, because of Christ, we live together with such people and pray for our enemies."

Clement, describing the person who has come to know God, wrote, "He impoverishes himself out of love, so that he is certain he may never overlook a brother in need, especially if he knows he can bear poverty better than his brother. He likewise considers the pain of another as his own pain. And if he suffers any hardship because of having given out of his own poverty, he does not complain."

When a devastating plague swept across the ancient world in the third century, Christians were the only ones who cared for the sick, which they did at the risk of contracting the plague themselves. Meanwhile, pagans were throwing infected members of their own families into the streets even before they died, in order to protect themselves from the disease.

Another example illustrates both the brotherly love of Christians and their uncompromising commitment to Jesus as Lord. A pagan actor became a Christian, but he realized he had to change his employment because most plays encouraged immorality and were steeped in pagan idolatry. Furthermore, the theater sometimes purposefully turned boys into homosexuals so they could better play the roles of women on stage. Since this newly-converted actor had no other job skills, he considered establishing an acting school to teach drama to non-Christian students. However, he first submitted his idea to the leaders of his church for their counsel.

The leaders told him that if acting was an immoral profession then it would be wrong to train others in it. Nevertheless, since this was a rather novel question, they wrote to Cyprian in nearby Carthage for his thoughts. Cyprian agreed that a profession unfit for a Christian to practice was also unfit for him to teach, even if this was his sole means of support.

How many of us would be so concerned about righteousness that we would submit our employment decisions to our body of elders or board of deacons? How many church leaders today would be so concerned about offending God that they would take such an uncompromising position?

But that isn't the end of the story. Cyprian also told this neighboring church that they should be willing to support the actor if he had no other means of earning a living-just as they supported orphans, widows, and other needy persons. Going further, he wrote, "If your church is financially unable to support him, he may move over to us and here receive whatever he needs for food and clothing." Cyprian and his church didn't even know this actor, yet they were willing to support him because he was a fellow believer. As one Christian told the Romans, "We love one another with a mutual love because we do not know how to hate." If Christians today made such a statement to the world, would the world believe it?

The love of the early Christians wasn't limited simply to their fellow believers. Christians also lovingly helped non-believers: the poor, the orphans, the elderly, the sick, the shipwrecked-even their persecutors. Jesus had said, "Love your enemies ... and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you" (Matt. 5:44). The early Christians accepted this statement as a command from their Lord, rather than as an ideal that couldn't be actually practiced in real life.

Lactantius wrote, "If we all derive our origin from one man, whom God created, we are plainly all of one family. Therefore it must be considered an abomination to hate another human, no matter how guilty he may be. For this reason, God has decreed that we should hate no one, but that we should eliminate hatred. So we can comfort our enemies by reminding them of our mutual relationship. For if we have all been given life from the same God, what else are we but brothers? ... Because we are all brothers, God teaches us to never do evil to one another, but only good-giving aid to those who are oppressed and experiencing hardship, and giving food to the hungry."

The Scriptures teach that a Christian shouldn't take his brother to court. Rather, he should suffer fraud at the hands of his brother, if need be. (1 Cor. 6:7) However, as an attorney, I've seen that Christians today don't hesitate to sue their brothers and sisters in Christ. A particularly disturbing case happened recently in the town where I live. A student at a local Christian school worked on campus in his spare time to help pay his tuition. One day he was overcome from the fumes of some insecticide he was spraying in the school building, and he was briefly hospitalized. The school's method of applying the insecticide was apparently improper. The result? The parents sued the Christian school for more than half a million dollars. In contrast, early Christians not only refused to take their fellow Christians to court, most of them refused to take anyone to court, since they viewed every human as their brother or sister.

It's no wonder that Christianity spread rapidly throughout the ancient world, even though there were few organized missionary or evangelism programs. The love they practiced drew the attention of the world, just as Jesus said it would."

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11 Christians Who Risked Everything

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Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Jeff Lampl  

11 Christians Who Risked Everything

In his book No Fear: Real Stories of a Courageous New Generation Standing for Truth , Family Research Council President Tony Perkins highlights 11 instances when young men and women risked everything to defend the biblical truth and their religious beliefs from intense societal, political, cultural and spiritual opposition.

As we consider our personal commitment to the Lord, it is an encouragement to know that risks that we take in trusting God put us in good company.  Jeff

Chad Farnan

In 2008, 16 year-old Chad Farnan of Mission Viejo, California, filed a federal lawsuit against his history teacher and charged that the Capistrano Valley High School teacher made a habit of mocking Christianity by saying things like "Jesus glasses" obscure truth. 

The lawsuit states that the teach violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment by promoting irreligion over religion.

Although a federal court ruled in 2009 that the teacher did violate the First Amendment, the ruling was overturned by a federal appeals court in 2011.  The Supreme Court declined to review Farnan's case in 2012.

"Increasingly, more and more ordinary people like Chad will be faced with the same decision," Perkins wrote.  "Do I stand on the sidelines as my faith and values are threatened?"

(Photo: Courtesy of LiveAction.org) Lila Rose, founder of Live Action, a pro-life nonprofit organization based in Arlington, VA.

Lila Rose

Rose, who at the age of 15 began pro-life activism by founding the organization Live Action, made a name for herself during her college days at UCLA by continuously standing up to many of America's largest abortion providers.

Rose produce many undercover videos that targeted Planned Parenthood and attempted to prove that, in many cities across the U.S., officials of the abortion provider were covering up abuse and prostitution of underage children, as well as sex selective abortions.

Considering that Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry had much to lose from the Live Action videos, Rose was faced with death threats and lawsuits.  Despite the threats, she continues her pro-life activism and her role as president of Live Action.

"The threat from a billion-dollar abortion giant was more real to this young woman with only two hundred dollars in her bank account; It was overwhelming."  Perkins wrote, "But Lila refused to yield to fear, no matter how strong the attacks against her."

(Photo: Facebook/Moriah Peters) Christian recording artist and former American Idol hopeful, Moriah Peters.

Moriah Peters

Peters, a Texas girl who always dreamed of a career in show business, moved to Los Angeles in 2001.  Being a devout Christian, she had her own policy of waiting until marriage to kiss.

Peters, 23, auditioned for American Idol in 2010 but was turned away by the realy show's judges - Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, and Avril Lavigne.  She was told that her image was too wholesome.

Lavigne told Peters that she should go experience the world, "feel sexy" and "kiss a guy" in order to make it in the music business.

"God opened doors for me to get this far and then closed them, and I am not going to question it because I know He has bigger things for me." Peters said in an interview during the show.

Despite comments from the judges, Peters stayed true to her convictions and eventually earned a record deal on her own.  She has released two albums: I Choose Jesus, which debuted in 2012, and Brave, released in 2014.

(Photo: Aaron Wong/Capital Life Church - Ryan Bombergerger speaks at OneVoiceDC on January 21, 2015

Ryan Bombergerger

Bombergerger who is a product of his biological mother choosing to proceed with per pregnancy after being raped, was blessed to have been adopted by very loving and caring parents.

After Bombergerger had gotten older, he grew upset by the large number of abortions in the black community, claiming that African-American babies are five times more likely to die of abortion.

Bombergerger started a pro-adoption campaign called the Radiance Foundation and initially placed 80 pro-life billboards aroung the Atlanta area.

The NAACP went on the attack, accusing Bombergerger, who is black, and his group of being racists.  The NAACP accused him of trying to create the impression that "Planned Parenthood kills black babies", and filed a lawsuit against Bombergerger.

"God was giving me an opportunity to take a stand for life by showing what had become of a once-great organization that fought for the rights of black Americans," Bombergerger was quoted as saying.

Sarah Crank

In 2012, 1 14 year-old Crank testified before the Maryland State Senate in opposition to a bill legalizing same-sex marriage.  She told the largely liberal legislative body that it is important for every child to have access to a mother and father.  She added that gay marriage would put more kids in danger of growing up without a balance family life.

"I really feel bad for the kids who have two parents fo the same gender," she told the senators.  "Even though some kids think it's fine, they have no idea what kind of wonderful experiences they miss out on."

Following the testimony, Crank was ridiculed by many LGBT activists and became the victim of extreme cyber-bullying.  One comment from YouTube stated, "If I ever see this girl, I will kill her.  That's a promise."

(Photo: Screenshot/Brian Dismuke's YouTube video)  Valedictorian Roy Costner of Liberty High School in Pickens County, South Carolina tears up his pre-approved graduation speech and recites the Lord's Prayer at his graduation ceremony on June 2, 2013.

Roy Costner IV

Atheists groups throughout the United States have been steadfast and largely successful in their attempts to use the court systems to silence prayer in public schools.

When Pickens County High School in Liberty, South Carolina was pressured by a local atheist organization to ban student speakers from offering references to God in their commencement speeches, Costner, the school's 2013 class valedictorian, ripped up his pre-approved speech and boldly recited the Lord's Prayer instead.

"I'm so glad that both of my parents led me to the Lord at a young age," Costner told the commencement audience. "And I think most of you will understand when I say … 'Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name …'"

Rebekah Richardson

After the Freedom From Religion Foundation complained that a Texas high school's cheerleaders were violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment by writing Bible verses on football game banners, the school banned them from writing the verses because they felt that cheerleaders were representatives of the school and could not exercise their personal freedom of religion.

Despite the ban on Bible verses on banners, the cheerleaders continued to include the Scriptures.

Led by Rebekah Richardson, the team of cheerleaders took the Kountze Independent School District to court and charged that it had violated their rights to free speech.

Although a Texas district judge ruled that the school had violated the students' free speech rights by banning Bible verses from banners, the case has progressed all the way to the Texas Supreme Court, where a ruling has yet to be decided.

(Photo: FACEBOOK/BENHAM BROTHERS)
David (l) and Jason Benham (r).

The Benham Brothers

Things were going great for twin brothers Jason and David Benham in 2014 when they had established a successful business of flipping houses and were awarded a show on HGTV called "Flip it Forward."

In the first days of filming, the network canceled the show after liberal activist groups pressured the network about the brothers' open and conservative views opposing gay marriage and abortion.

"The fear inside of us wanted to say, 'Hey, it's okay. We'll stop tweeting. Whatever it takes, we're going to keep the show because it will give us so much influence for Jesus,'" the book quotes David Benham as saying. "But that was Satan luring us out of the fight, something we weren't able to let happen."

(Photo: Family Research Council/Carrie Russell) Aaron and Melissa Klein, Former owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa bakery in Oregon, speak at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C., September 26, 2014

Aaron and Melissa Klein

The Kleins, who owned the Sweet Cakes by Melissa bakery in Gresham, Oregon, discovered this summer that standing up for religious convictions in today's secular society can cost a pretty hefty price.

The couple was fined $135,000 by the state after they refused to serve a wedding cake to a same-sex couple in 2013 on the grounds that doing so would violate their religious beliefs.

After refusing to provide cake to the couple, the Kleins were forced to shut down their shop due to harassment from LGBT activists.

"We sold birthday cakes to homosexuals and probably a lot of other people whose lifestyles we disagree with, but we draw the line at marriage," Aaron Klein explained. "We once had someone come in and wanted us to design a cake celebrating her divorce, but we refused. Marriage is sacred to us."

Angela Hildenbrand

In 2011, an agnostic family filed a lawsuit that resulted in a federal judge banning speakers at Medina High School's graduation ceremony from issuing any type of public prayer.

Being that the Texas high school had a longstanding tradition of beginning graduation ceremonies with an invocation and ending with a benediction, student Angela Hildebrand was not going to let extreme opposition or the threat of jail time deter her from issuing her own prayer at graduation.

"I had seen a copy of the ruling, and it was clear that anyone who violated it would be incarcerated," Hildenbrand said.

Fortunately for the high school senior, an appeals court overturned the federal judge's ruling and determined that prayer issued by students does not mean that they are "school-sponsored."

(Photo: Screen Grab via Fox News) Meriam Ibrahim, 27, on Fox News.

Mariam Ibraheem

In May 2014, the Sudanese Christian mother was arrested for apostasy because a court ruled that she should have followed the religion of her Muslim father.

Ibraheem was given three days to renounce her faith, but refused. She was then sentenced to death by hanging.

"I am Christian and will remain Christian," Ibraheem told a Sudanese judge. During her detention, she was shackled to a wall with iron chains and forced to give birth to her second child while her legs were chained together, which she claims caused her baby to be born with disabilities.

Ibraheem was released in June 2014 by order of a Sudanese appeals court.

"The situation was difficult, but I was sure that God would stand by my side," Ibraheem recalled during an interview with Fox News' Megyn Kelly.

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Which Pill Will You Take? Which Pill Have You Taken?

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Monday, January 4, 2016
Jeff Lampl  

Which Pill Will You Take?  Which Pill Have You Taken?

Then Jesus spoke:
You're blessed when you've lost it all.
God's kingdom is there for the finding.
You're blessed when you're revenously hungry.
Then you're ready for the Messianic meal.
You're blessed when the tears flow freely.
Joy comes with the morning.

"Count yourself blessed every time someone cuts you down or throws you out, every time someone smears or blackens your name to discredit me.  What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and that that person is uncomfortable.  You can be glad when that happens -- skip like a lamb, if you life! -- for even though they don't like it, I do....and all heaven applauds.  And know that you are in good company; my preachers and witnesses have always been treated like this.

But it's trouble ahead if you think you have it made.
What you have is all you'll ever get.
And it's trouble ahead if you're satisfied with yourself.
Your self will not satisfy you for long.
And it's trouble ahead if you think life's all fun and games.
There's suffering to be met, and you're going to meet it.
Luke 6:20-25 (MSG)

The main character in the movie The Matrix  is Neo (literally “new” from the Greek neos),  a man haunted by the possibility that there is something more to his life than the meager and unsatisfying existence he now endures.  

He encounters Morpheus (literally the changer also from Greek) and begins to get clarity on this thing called the matrix, the non-real oxymoronic ‘virtual reality’ in which he currently exists.  

Neo is invited to come face to face with his dilemma, choose real life or continue existence in his false non-real world.   He is offered two pills.   Much like in the scripture above Neo can choose either the real or the false life, the happy or doomed life. 

The red pill is the former and the blue pill is the latter.   There’s no going back it’s either the one or the other.  If he takes the blue pill he’ll never again know that there was another realm, another world, an actual reality beyond his current virtual non-life world. 

The blue pill is the easy pill, the one that most everyone takes.    However, If he takes the red pill he embarks on the life that is truly life, the life where he discovers what life actually is, the life that escapes all the elaborate matrixes which we construct in order to avoid facing reality.   

Either way there’s no going back.

Which pill would you take?   Which pill have you taken?   Reread Luke 6:20-24, do some self-examination.   If you’ve been living the blue pill life you’ve just now been given a second chance at the red one.  Perhaps you’re one of the many who have been trying to live the red pill life without ever taking the red pill.   

Take a moment, take a deep breath and then swallow it, asking God to take you for whatever ride he has had planned for you since before the beginning of time.  

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RENEW!!! Don't Miss This Sunday!!!

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Saturday, January 2, 2016
Jeff Lampl  

 
"Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?
Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?
If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
Luke 11:11-13 (NIV2011)

The old joke goes like this

A man named Jack was walking along a steep cliff one day, when he accidentally got too close to the edge and fell. On the way down he grabbed a branch, which temporarily stopped his fall. He looked down and to his horror saw that the canyon fell straight down for more than a thousand feet.

He couldn't hang onto the branch forever, and there was no way for him to climb up the steep wall of the cliff. So Jack began yelling for help, hoping that someone passing by would hear him and lower a rope or something.

HELP! HELP! Is anyone up there? "HELP!"

He yelled for a long time, but no one heard him. He was about to give up when he heard a voice. Jack, Jack. Can you hear me?"

"Yes, yes! I can hear you. I'm down here!"

"I can see you, Jack. Are you all right?"

"Yes, but who are you, and where are you?

"I am the Lord, Jack. I'm everywhere."

"The Lord? You mean, GOD?"

"That's Me."

"God, please help me! I promise if, you'll get me down from here, I'll stop sinning. I'll be a really good person. I'll serve You for the rest of my life."

"Easy on the promises, Jack. Let's get you off from there; then we can talk."

"Now, here's what I want you to do. Listen carefully."

"I'll do anything, God. Just tell me what to do."

"Okay. Let go of the branch. "What?" "I said, let go of the branch. Just trust Me. Let go."

There was a long silence.

Finally Jack yelled, "HELP! HELP! IS ANYONE ELSE UP THERE?"

 

What are you unwilling to let go of, if God were to ask?   How do you connect your answer to Jesus words in the passage above?

Learn more tomorrow at 9:00 and 10:30!

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January 1, 2016 - RENEW!!!

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January 1, 2016!!!!!!!!
Jeff Lampl

 
'Behold, I am making all things new"
Revelation 21:5

It’s come!  2016 is actually here!!

Now what?  

For us, the CLC family, January will be Renewal Month.  We, your entire staff, have  done our best to plan a month which will help you to experience renewal with God, with the church, and with God’s purpose for you, your family and your work.

Each Sunday will be special. 

All you need to do is to be there.   From Communion on the 3^rd, to a 21 day time of prayer beginning the 10^th, to discovering your place in ministry in the world, to reconnecting to others in the CLC family, to reengaging in the Bible and prayer, you will have no demands put on you, but you will have plenty of opportunities to take life changing actions that will  grow you up in Jesus Christ. 

The way to begin is simple.  Make a commitment to attend worship particularly during the first 4 weeks of January and ask God to guide you into the exact kind of renewal that God has specially planned just for you.

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