Is Our Compass Broken, Or Are We Just Failing To Use It?
Recently, a denominational minister and professor (name withheld) has publicly described her own abortions and has stated in sermons that “abortion is a blessing, an act of love, and a moral good”. Unbelievable.
Another minister (of the same unnamed denomination), a male chaplain for Planned Parenthood, made this statement – ‘women terminate pregnancies because . . . of their high regard for new life’. Seriously?
On the other side of the coin, a pastor in our very own (not local) HR camp recently implied that a person might be a ‘Christian’ but not necessarily saved/born again if not ‘keeping Torah’. What does that even mean?
For almost 25 years now, Rhonda and I have been tasked with teaching and promoting the pure and simply profound Gospel of Messiah Yeshua/Jesus the Christ from a Biblical, non-denominational perspective.
During those years, we have been referred to as ‘too churchy’, ‘too jewish’, too simple, too shallow and basic, unteachable, not apt to teach, as well as too complicated and confusing ?!?! And in the face of that scrutiny, we have striven to remain focused on this fundamental question – What’s The Word Say?’, allowing the Bible to interpret the Bible, rather than allowing societal and cultural trends or theological misapplications interpret The Word, as do the examples given at the outset of this short rant.
The Apostolic Writings (New Testament) speak of ‘not becoming bogged down’ with ‘disputable matters’, endless genealogies, fictional religious narratives or the ‘commandments of men’. The Bible also makes it crystal clear that there are certain truths that are fundamental and nonnegotiable, and upon those Truths we are to stand firm without equivocation.
There is a short list of practices The Word refers to as ‘abominable’. The shedding of innocent blood – of which abortion is a type – is one of those practices, according to Proverbs 6:16-19, Jeremiah 32:34-35, and other passages. To say that abortion – the killing of the innocents – is somehow ‘a blessing, an act of love, and a moral good’ . . . to believe that ‘terminating pregnancies shows high regard for new life’ . . . to promote and support these abhorrent doctrines as somehow ‘Biblical’ is as far from the Truth of God and His Word as the east is from the west.
And as important as it is to fully understand there are certain practices we absolutely are NOT to be involved in, it is equally important to know there are certain changes and transformations that we canNOT accomplish and bring about by our efforts, no matter how hard we try. And ‘Salvation’ is the most important and everlasting of those transformations.
Salvation – reconciliation, redemption and atonement – are gifts of the Father’s Grace and Mercy, paid for by the shed Blood and broken Body of Messiah on the cross, and received through surrendering to the drawing, convicting and convincing power of the Holy Spirit, and not by any works we do. And this Truth was fully and simply exemplified when Yeshua/Jesus spoke these words to the thief on the cross in response to his heartfelt cry to be remembered – ‘Today, (Yeshua said) you will be with Me . . .’
There was no list of qualifying practices, no expounding of theological or doctrinal treatises, no jumping through manmade hoops. The only thing required, the only thing that would be deemed acceptable, was this thief’s desperate, repentant and surrendered heart cry from the very depths of his soul and being that the Savior of the world would not forget him.
And that longing, that dry and thirsting outcry from this broken and contrite heart is what The Savior heard and answered.
For either we are saved by grace, or we are not. Either we can call upon the Name of the Lord and we will be saved, or we are not. IF anything is added to either of those statements, we have declared ‘another gospel’.
Is there obedience mandated for God’s people? Absolutely! But we do not become God’s people by obedience. We obey because we have become God’s people, and we become God’s people through Messiah Yeshua/Jesus the Christ, and no other way. For no one comes to the Father except through the Son. John 14:6
So what’s the purpose of this little rant? Just to say this –
Just because someone (who says they are speaking for God) says something that sounds warm and fuzzy and ‘loving’ or authoritative and religious – if that something that is being said does not line up with The Word of God, it is at best a distraction, and at worst it is a lie . . . both of which are of the enemy. Shalom

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