The Sound Word

Do We Really Grow Up To Become Our Parents? Matthew 10:42 "And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward." Last night my family and I attended the Western Washington Fair in Puyallup. What a great time we had, but boy, it can be an expensive trip. By all standards of reference, attendance was down in all areas near as I can tell from reports. But hey, let's face it; the economy isn't the greatest right now. People are in dire straits. Ends are hard to meet or are not meeting at all. At any rate, discretionary income is at its lowest level in years, and so everyone is cutting back. The one good thing about that is this - it's less crowded, and the lines for everything are shorter. As we walked around I noticed quickly that there were fewer vendors. Trade show type exhibits were smaller, and some of the people that we have seen there for years ar...

Because Barak Obama knows that without the vote of the Hispanics in the next election that he has no chance whatsoever of getting reelected, he is hard at work. Not only is he doing all he can to legalize (and thereby give the right to vote) to the estimated 13-15 Million illegal aliens in the US from Mexico (along with who knows how many Muslim and Al Quida members and supporters), he has now filed suit with the United Nations claiming human rights abuses against his own State of Arizona! In any previous generation, this would have been viewed as TREASON , and it should today. I cannot fathom in my mind a sitting President of this nation SUING a State within this Nation that he has sworn to protect and serve, in a Federal Court via the United Nations! it's simply incomprehensible and the word needs to get out. This monster we have for a President, must go. I pray for him and this nation continuually. I honor and respect his office, but I dispise tha man and his obvious agenda ...

Psalm 39:5 "Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, And my age is as nothing before You; Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor. Selah." I am always inspired by the writings of Thomas a Kempis. The Lord so leads and guides when we seek Him, I just had to share my morning devotional with you today. The following is chapter 40 of book 3 of his book, Imitatio Christi - The Imitation of Christ . I have edited it just to update some of the language as it was originally written in Latin in around 1418. Keep in mind that this is wriotten in the first. To better understand, put yourself as the person writing this note. I Hope you are as blessed as I was. LORD, what is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that You visit him? What has man deserved that You should give him Your grace? What cause have I, Lord, to complain if You were to desert me, or what objection can we have if You do not do what we ask? This I may think and say in all truth: ...

This idea of materialism is tied in with apathy in faith, not working out their faith with fear and trembling. We are going to study through James next (in our church), and we will see how people react to ‘ faith without works is dead’ because there are a lot of dead people in the church today. I was reading a book called The Divine Commodity by Skye Jethani (Zondervan 2009). I was a bit leery of it because it is endorsed in part by Brian McLaren, Phyllis Tickle (both leaders in the Emergent Church movement), but he had some great things to say about consumer Christianity. He stated that, “We have abandoned the vision that Christianity is an alternative way’ , and ‘ the emergence of a Christian sub-culture that parallels the secular culture in every way reveals the captivity of our imaginations ”. Now the Emergent Church movement has ironically  taken this truth so far that they are redesigning Christianity in their own manner of consumerism and in the process leaving the inerra...

It's not that this is a huge topic that needs to be covered because of a particular personal issue or burning desire to speak up on the subject. But it has cropped up from time to time, and I wanted to share an extensive paper that was done on this topic by a friend of mine. Allow me to introduce Claude Stauffer, Sr. Pastor of Calvary Chapel of Hope , in Amittyville, NY. Being a pastor in the Calvary Chapel fellowship of churches, claude and I, along with a group of as many as 300 other pastors have bentered thoughts and idea back and forth for a couple of years now. It's always a blessing to see Claude weight in in topics, and his offering related to a recent discussion on tattoos not only mirrored ny thoughts and concerns on tatooing, but more then anything else, his heart for honoring God in all that we do, putting Him first, and seriously considering the effects of our actions on others, really made me stand up and take notice. He and I are kindred. This little treatise...

James 4:2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. James was my devotional reading for the last couple of weeks. I kinda figured I’d be through it in a couple of days but the Lord thought otherwise. I found myself reading with greater depth, and going back through verse after verse for more of what God was trying to say to me. One of the biggest struggles I see in the church today is materialism. Not just the individual, but for the churches themselves too. On the side of the church, greed for ‘stuff’ is taking hold in the way we evangelize. So much to that we will spend God’s money – even going into debt, so that we can be more relevant to the crowd, or present a better experience, or God help us, so that we can provide a better ‘experience’ for our visitors in hopes that we can attract more visitors that the church down the road. Individually, our greed drives some of us to unrecoverable deb...