Oral Roberts - Dead but not gone

Tulsa TV evangelist and university founder, Oral Roberts, died yesterday with complications from pneumonia. He was 91.

I have incredibly mixed emotions about Oral Roberts. Personally, I think he was a fake and his "healing" ministry was a sham. I am sickened by his "health, wealth, and prosperity" fake gospel. Unfortunately, that will be his legacy.

The "gospel" he preached claimed that God didn't want you to be sick or poor. SHOW ME IN THE BIBLE WHERE GOD EVER SAID THAT!!!!!

I heard a story from one of my older church members that goes like this:

"Back in the 1950's I went to get a haircut in Tulsa. The barber asked me if I had ever heard of Oral Roberts. We talked about him for a while and he admitted that he was Oral's father-in-law. We had a nice chat. Later that same week, I was watching Oral Roberts on TV from a crusade in Florida. A man so crippled that he could hardly walk came to the front. Oral exclaimed, "my beloved father-in-law! What has brought you to this pitiful circumstance?" At that, he seized hold of his father-in-law and "healed" him. He left the arena no longer limping or walking with a crutch."

My member told me that once he saw "that baloney" on TV, he knew Oral Roberts was a fake.

I know that there are multitudes who love him and his ministry. I know that there are countless people who have been saved through his ministry and praise God for that. I know that many people attribute healing from God through Oral Roberts. I sympathize with those who will miss him; any loss is a true loss. However, I just wish his false doctrine would have died with him.

Trans Siberian Orchestra

I took Sally and the girls to the Trans Siberian Orchestra last Friday night as part of their Christmas presents. We really had a good time.

The light/laser show was incredible.

The music was REALLY loud!

I was impressed with an element of the first part of the concert; it was the Christmas part. They sang Christmas carols and seemed to actually emphasize the birth of Jesus. The narration was a little hinky and kind of hard to follow, but you could tell that Christmas was about Jesus!

The second half of the concert was actually best. They had pyrotechnics that were unbelievable. The picture above shows a platform that was raised 25 feet or so in the air. Pretty cool.

I might consider going again next year. Tickets were expensive ($48 each) and I'm not sure I'm willing to do that again.

Jesus WILL Return: Resistance is Futile

"Jesus WILL Return: Resistance is Futile" - I saw that on a church sign yesterday. It made me smile.

I don't like corny church signs. There is a church in town that has little sayings on it each week; some okay, some downright silly.

I think that if you are going to put messages up on a church sign it should either be announcements, Scripture, or bits of Truth.

Church signage can be a real ministry; it can also give churches a bad image. It takes a lot of effort to go out and change a message on a sign; you might as well make it "worth" your trouble.

In my own estimation, I've put out one "corny" sign; it was the first message on our new church sign that we installed last year. Here it is:

Growing Pains

I'm very excited that our church is experiencing growing pains. It has had a very difficult previous ten years. However, I believe that God has taken us off the shelf, dusted us off, and is now beginning to use us!

Some of the difficulties in re-growing a nearly dead church is organizational problems. Since I arrived here, none of our committees have truly functioned as committees. People have seen a need and they just take care of it. In some ways, that isn't too bad. A problem comes when we start to have more people and everyone just starts doing what they want.

This summer, we completely re-vamped our committees and they now have an expectation that they are to meet and to function for the good of the church. So far, so good! I'm pleased with the way people are "owning" the responsibility of making the church run.

After two years, we now have "in place" Sunday School classes and teachers for all ages of people. We have devoted nursery workers, and teachers for toddlers through Youth. We have a new guy who is committed to our youth and have seen many kids brought into the church for the very first time in the past several weeks. In fact, 6 of them have been saved and four should be baptized this next Sunday!

One real problem is space. We have used one of our empty Sunday School classrooms for our Food Pantry Ministry. One was used for storage. One is needed for a Youth Office. We have plans to have an additional 2-3 new classes beginning after the first of the year. We don't have the space for it. We can empty out the one room that was used for storage- no problem. One class will need to meet in the fellowship hall. If there is a third class, they can meet in the sanctuary.

At our Annual Church Thanksgiving dinner, we all but packed out our fellowship hall. It only seats about 100 people and then not too comfortably. If God continues to work in our church as He's been doing lately, we won't have room for everyone next year to be seated in the fellowship hall!

One real problem that I want to avoid is having new people slip through the cracks. While we are having lots of people visit and join, our goal is to not just grow our church in numbers. The Great Commission says to "go and make disciples" not just members or attenders. I want to make sure that we have the resources in place to take care of our new people and not let them out the "back door". This concerns me more than anything about our church growth.

I am excited at the prospect of our church growing. I think the future holds a building program for us to increase the number of classrooms and for a larger room that can function as a fellowship hall and activity center. I'd love to see us change our current fellowship hall into our nursery because of the proximity to the sanctuary. I'd love to see a new suite of offices to handle current and future staffing needs.

I am very happy with the way things are going! God is doing amazing things here at Immanuel Southern Baptist Church! If you are in town, come join us!

17 Years and counting

Seventeen years ago today, I married the love of my life, the former Miss Sally Ann Bridges of Vinita, OK.

Seventeen years ago today, a rare early December snowstorm struck Northeastern Oklahoma. Many people could not come to the ceremony, including my own sister (who was great with child).

Seventeen years ago today, my life changed for the better. God allowed me to marry the woman He had prepared just for me!

I love you, Sally!

Christmas "Mood"

I'm not yet in the Christmas "spirit" or "mood". I'm trying, but I just can't seem to get there. Perhaps it is the insane way that Christmas has become so commercialized that you find Santa Clauses and Jack O' Lanterns in the same aisle at Target.

We put up our Christmas lights on the house the week before Thanksgiving, because the weather was good. But, I didn't turn them on until AFTER Thanksgiving. (like you are supposed to) That didn't help. We put up my mother-in-law's Christmas tree the Friday after Thanksgiving then ours later that same evening. That didn't help either. We observed the First Sunday of Advent with the lighting of candles and the singing of Christmas songs in church last Sunday. Still not so much in the mood. I started listening to Christmas music. I suppose that has helped ever-so-slightly.

So, what's the deal?

I don't know. I'm not Scrooge, that's for sure. Historically, I've been more like Clark W. Griswold. But not this year.

Maybe I'm just tired of the commercialism. Maybe I'm tired of the secularization of Christmas. Maybe I'm just tired!

In any case, soon, I'll get a picture of our house all decorated up in lights and ribbons. It is a little different than last year, mainly in that I didn't put lights around the windows this year.

Christmas isn't a feeling or a state of mind; it is the observation of the birth of our Savior.

Muskogee Regional Medical Center Stinks!

Back when I was sick, I had to go to Muskogee Regional Medical Center for a CT Scan. Had I known it was there, I would have requested another location.

While the actual person who did my CT Scan was professional and personal, the rest of my experience was less than stellar. The woman behind the outpatient desk seemed more interested in talking to her coworkers than helping me and I didn't get back to the CT until one and a half hours AFTER my appointment.

After all this time, I finally got a bill for my part of the CT Scan LAST WEEK. My part of the bill is more than the entire bill for a CT Scan in Thailand. This is absolutely absurd to be paying these kinds of medical bills WITH INSURANCE!

I got a phone call just now from some bill collector outfit in Ohio asking me when I was going to pay my bill!

OHIO!!!

MRMC was sold to some "for profit" health care conglomerate in Tennessee or Kentucky; Capella Health System, or some such name, and has probably been sold again.

I'll do everything in my power to make sure no one I know goes to Muskogee Regional Medical Center. It just isn't worth it.

I just can't wait to see what Obamacare does. I'll bet it makes them even better.


/rant

Gun in the Bible?

I'm not sure T-Dog is reading the same Bible. Watch this for a prank pulled on a KJV call in cable-TV show.



[HT: Monday Morning Insight]

If they really are out to get me, does that still make me paranoid?

I was accused by a commentor of being paranoid when I wrote about the Terrorist Shooting at Ft Hood. It led to a friend of mine asking about a statement I made regarding "new rules" regarding hate speech. While this CBS news story is not addressing this specifically, it IS related.

According to this story, the Justice Department is asking (as in subpoena) for a news website's visitor data, including registered users, emails, etc.

Why isn't the ACLU making a fuss over this? It certainly appears that liberties are being taken... perhaps away.

Big Brother comes to mind.

[HT: Steven's World via Neil Simpson]

2012 - A Movie Review

Sally and I went to see the movie 2012 this weekend. It had GREAT movie special effects, the acting wasn't great, but not bad either, but the premise was just way too unbelievable for me. I can't tell you why, or I'll spoil the end, but let's just say that "God wouldn't destroy the Earth that way". You'll have to see it to understand, otherwise email me and I'll tell you.

Necessarily, for the plot, the movie includes many people praying that they would be spared from the impending disaster, all to no avail. It shows triumph of the "good" in mankind over selfishness. It showed mankind's desire to continue and survive. It even had interesting references to Biblical accounts of other disasters.

My hope for this movie, however, is that is scares the bejiggers out of people and makes them seek God, before it IS too late. I hope it stimulates all kinds of discussions toward spiritual matters between Believers and pre-Believers. I can see how this movie can be very, very scary for people who have no hope; for people that don't know their destiny.

All in all, I would recommend this movie. I'm not sure I'd take my kids to see it as it is very graphic and very violent, but it does make for good entertainment, and maybe an opportunity to witness...

Worst Terrorist Attack in US Since 9/11 - Ft. Hood

I wasn't the first to say it, but I do agree with it.

Here is Lt. Col. Raph Peters on The O'Reilly Factor had to say:



[HT: jonjhunter]

Ft. Hood Shootings and Domestic Terrorism

My heart goes out to the families of the soldiers and civilian police officer killed by Nidal Hasan yesterday at Fort Hood, Texas. We should be in prayer for their families and the others who were wounded.

It came out this morning that Hasan was not killed as previously reported.

According to news reports, Nidal Malik Hasan has recently been under investigation for extremist Islamic views and has been reported to have been happy when an American soldier was recently killed on a military base in Arkansas. He had reportedly said that "suicide bombers were like a soldier that threw themselves on a grenade to save their comrades" and that "maybe people should strap bombs to themselves and go to Times Square."

What is alarming to me is that very quickly after the shootings began, the FBI declared that the shootings weren't terrorist related.

Let's see...a Muslim in a military uniform with extreme Islamic views killing American soldiers on American soil. How can they call it ANYTHING but terrorist related?

I've read some tweets from some bleeding-hearts who are sad that this "will turn into an Islam thing instead of being a mental health thing that it is." Gimme a break! We have got to wake up and quit being so politically correct! We must understand that Islam IS NOT a religion of peace. We are allowing our enemies to quietly infiltrate our country and even our military and perhaps even our government. We are handing it to them on a silver platter all under the pretense of trying to not offend them. How preposterous!

AND, quite frankly, many are scared to say anything about it because of the new "rules" of our own government. They are afraid to criticize Islam for fear of "hate speech." They are afraid to criticize our government or the FBI for fear of being on some sort of "domestic terrorist watch-list".

Well, baloney! I'm tired of being afraid in my own country! I lived under oppressive regimes overseas where I couldn't say anything. Well, this is my own country. I pay my taxes. I stand up and place my hand over my heart when I SING the National Anthem. I vote. I do not break the law. I am a responsible member of society and do not condone violence in any way (except, of course, in protecting your family). I support our government and our policies, for the most part. We pray for our elected officials at church every Wednesday evening. I don't hate anyone. I certainly don't hate Muslims. Many are good folk (and good Americans) and deplore the violence.

However, I'm tired of politically correct liberals telling me that I can't speak out against the things I oppose. Uh, did they not ever hear of a little something we like to call the First Amendment!?!

I know that some of you who read this are going to disagree with me. That is completely Okay! We are in America. You have the right to your opinion. I have the right to mine. That is one thing that makes America great. Some of you will think that my views divide and separate us from Muslims. Sorry to tell you, but we are already there. Some of you will think I am a closed minded bigot. You have the right to think that of me, even if you are wrong.

However, if we don't stop the tide of Islamic extremism right here in the homeland, we may soon lose the right to even have our own opinion.

Gay Marriage Failure

So called "gay marriage" has been voted down by Maine, making it having failed in all 31 states that has brought it before a vote of the people. This speaks louder than words, especially in Maine, a liberal morals state where homosexuals hoped that the trend would end.

However, the continual failure of the bill that would legalize a contract in immorality should signify to legislators, governors, and supporters that there is still some moral fiber left in the United States.

Supporters think that people who choose to live a lifestyle that is vehemently opposed to traditional values should be able to "marry" persons of the same sex. In my opinion, and evidently the opinion of the voters in Maine and 30 other states, they are wrong in their presumption.

Homosexuality is a sin, just as gossip, murder, drunkenness, idolatry, pornography, adultery, gluttony, lying, stealing, and coveting. In God's eyes, the eyes that ultimately matter most, there is no difference; they are all sin.

Our society is quietly decaying. Here in Oklahoma, in my lifetime, I have seen changes in liquor and gambling laws, even to the point where we have a State sponsored lottery. Church attendance is down, generally, until a national crisis happens, then all of a sudden, everyone "needs" God. God hasn't changed, nor have His views of sin.

Make no mistake: even if so-called "gay marriage" is ever voted as "legal", it will still be illegal in God's plan.

Bubba and Edith

Bubba and Edith are bona fide rednecks. They live down in Southern Alabama, out in the woods.

After having nine children, they decided to go to a doctor to see about Bubba getting "fixed". The doctor makes all the necessary preparations and everything is set to go.

Before proceeding, however, the doctor inquires, "Why did you wait until you've had nine children before deciding to take care of this?"

Bubba answered, "Well Doc. We've heard that one out of ten children born in the United States are Mexican and we don't speak Spanish."

Early Christmas

I updated my Facebook status last night with "some goober down the street already has his Christmas lights on!". I was amazed at how quickly I had responses and how many I had! Two of the commentors mentioned that there are radio stations that are already playing Christmas music 24/7. One mentioned that we should celebrate our Lord all year long. (good comment, btw)

Here's my deal. First off- I LOVE CHRISTMAS! I really do. I always have. I'm a whole lot like Clark W. Griswold in that respect. Second- let's get through Thanksgiving first! (not to mention Halloween) Third- I don't understand the motivation to have your Christmas lights up and on in early November. Most (or at least many) people I know use Thanksgiving weekend to put the lights up. I know I'm usually itching to put them up about that time. Fourth- the motivation for Christmas music on the radio this early IS TO STIMULATE THE ECONOMY! At least that's what they said on the news this morning. We all have known for a long time that Christmas in America has ceased being a religions holiday and is widely used as a marketing tool. BUT IN NOVEMBER???

I'm only half-way joking when I say that it is a sign of the last days.

Marantha, Lord Jesus!