"Why y'all dressed up?" the African-American man asked me, waiting for his drink at the bar.

"We're missionaries," I said, unbuttoning the coat of my tuxedo and leaning on the bar.

"Y'all are missionaries?" he asked, his eyes wide as he sipped his martini.

"Yep." I couldn't help but grin. I looked around to see if anyone else was nearby. Nope. It was just the two of us.

A few long minutes ticked by without a word. The sound of laughter and clinking glasses in the background made the silence even more uncomfortable. I cleared my throat.

Then, after glancing around the reception hall full of black ties and long dresses, he turned back to me. "Why?" he asked, earnestly.

It was a simple question, and I knew what he was asking. Why all this — this hoopla — for a bunch of missionaries? Why the largesse? Why the fanfare?

The irony of the situation didn't escape anyone present. No one felt comfortable in those penguin suits, picking hors d'ouevres off a silver plate. This is the same question others have asked, the same one that, admittedly, haunted me. FULL POST

There is a reason why Robert Abernathy's book, The Walk to Walden Hill: Rescued in Forgiveness, won an award in Athanatos Christian Ministry's Christian novel contest- it is quite good!

Full disclosure:  my ministry awarded this book second place in its 2011 Christian novel writing contest and has since entered into a marketing agreement to promote the book.  

I was drawn to the story for a variety of reasons, but I believe the primary reason is that the book had a beating heart;  it is the heart of the author, of course, but it is evident throughout that the story is a manifestation of real doubt, real grief, real suffering- and real heroism.  For the story behind the story (which is itself compelling) you should just follow up at Robert Abernathy’s blog, where he has been slowly unraveling it.  Here is his website:  http://waldenhill.net/

The Walk to Walden Hill begins with tragedy:  the orphaning of the protagonist, Josh Billows.   His mother dead, his father jailed, Josh ends up in foster care.  As just a young child he is forced to grapple with issues that are known to shipwreck adults, even if he doesn’t understand the real issues that are in play.  For example, one of the questions that Josh struggles with is how to become a man if there isn’t a father to show him the way.  His foster father is not much help, and of course his own father is in jail.  Josh flails about in search of a man to guide him into manhood- without knowing that this is what he is trying to do- and gravitates  towards Brent, the oldest of the foster children in the family.  Brent, of course, is just seventeen- better than nothing, I suppose, but still not quite suitable for the task that Josh would have him fulfill. FULL POST

“God is not trying to change you.  He’s trying to kill you!”

I read this today and it rang a bell in me.  It isn’t change that I need to worry about.  I’ve working against myself for 42 years trying to change myself into the man of God that I have pictured before me as my goal in life.  No, I just gotta die.

This is not about being a better Christian or volunteering more at church.  It’s not even about reading more Bible or fasting and praying more so that you will become a stronger man of God.  It ain’t about you.  It’s about others.  It’s about surrender.  It’s about giving up your vision of yourself and giving in to Him.

A lot of folks look at me and think I’ve got this whole thing all wrapped up in a neat package, but I’m as scared as the next guy about letting go and stepping into the unknown.  How do you just drop all the stabilizing things in your life and step off the edge of the cliff?  Is that what it means to die? I just have to shut off the switch that is labeled “Me”?

No one realizes how scared every time I am called to stand up before even the smallest groups of people in the remotest of villages. Every time.  No matter how many hundreds of messages I have preached or how many hundreds of churches have been ignited or how many hundreds of people have been saved and healed, “Lord, will I be able to deliver your Word with the Anointing that will change their lives?  When they ask me to pray for them, will they actually get healed? Are you gonna show up?  Cause, honestly Lord, I don’t know how to do this.” FULL POST

I spend a lot of time speaking about the hunger for God that I continually find in the churches I visit in Africa. I suppose it is not true for every church over there. I probably miss the ones that are not hungry for revival because I refuse to give thousands of dollars so I can come preach at your church. I have two reasons for that.

One is that I hate con artists, especially Christian con artists. We've got plenty in the U.S. splattered all over the television, selling oil and rags, holy water and thinly disguised indulgences, while they pat each other on the back and invite each other to their programs so they can pump up the audience to give more money. I call them the C.C.A.A – Christian Con Artists of America. I'm sure you know exactly who I'm talking about. Their slick cousins over in Africa are simply learning the trade from their American masters.

The other reason for me not giving thousands of dollars to pastors for them to create some organizational extravaganza is that I am not looking for great numbers. I am only looking for those hungry souls who are willing to overcome any obstacles that are in their way to receive the fire of revival. Those are the ones who will carry the torch and light the rest of Africa – the others will just go home after they have been entertained and had their free meal. FULL POST

One of his supporters yelled out to him, “Give ‘em Hell, Harry!” Truman responded, “I don't give them Hell. I just tell the truth about them and they think it's Hell.”

That is precisely the reason why there is a war on Christians waged by members of the secular media.

Christians speak the truth about God’s best for humanity as it applies to morality, laws and governing principles, but the secular media views these truths as Hell.  Truth always feels like Hell to those who reject, deny, or hate the truth.

When Bible-believing Christians share that there is only one true God who is lovingly inviting people to believe in Him and receive His redemption, or face His coming judgment, that is Hell to those who view themselves as their own gods—masters of their own fates. Many of these self-made gods control our media.

As gods, they want no competition. They reject the truth that God is God alone and that He will hold them accountable for mocking Him and His followers. Thus, the truth is Hell to them, even before they get there. They express their hatred for God’s truth by heaping venom on anyone who declares God’s truth. FULL POST

Read my reflections on a recent op-ed in the New York Times by a 'dragon mom' which I posted as president of Wisconsin Lutherans for Life:

Someone pointed me to an op-ed in the NY Times by a 'dragon mom.' Her son, born with Tay-Sachs, is not expected to live beyond three years old. And yet, despite this- or is it because of this?- the joy she has with him is immense and incalculable. Our society bends over backwards to 'spare' children and mothers of this joy, offering a quick and easy termination. But if you read this article, you see that even in the face of impending grief, joy prevails every time.

Of course, if we're honest, we understand that we all face certain griefs. First of all, we know that death awaits all of us, eventually. And yet we continue to build friendships, have children, and otherwise ensure that someone, somewhere, at sometime, will experience grief and suffering. We do this because we know that the joy of relationship does in fact triumph over the griefs that follow us throughout our existence.

Finish Reading FULL POST

"Take counsel, execute
judgment; make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the
outcasts; betray not him that wandereth."
(Isaiah 16:3)

There comes a time when you are called to make a stand
against things that are wrong, and answer the call to fight against the
oppression of the weak and innocent. God
calls us to first take counsel and understand what you are doing and why. Whenever you stand up to resist the
oppression of darkness, you need to understand that you will pay a price for
your convictions, but stand anyway because it is the right thing to do. You may not win, you may not come out of it
unhurt, you may pay a higher price than you'd like to, but there is a point
when, knowing and realizing what the price may be, you make that decision anyway. It is a determined call that rises out of
your soul that cries out that this is right and that is wrong, and you refuse
to give in to the intimidation of iniquity. Count the cost and make a decision
that you will stand for that which is right.

When you do stand, it will be in stark contrast to the
landscape around you – as the shadow of night in the midst of the bright noon
day. There is no mistaking who you are, what
you are doing, and what you are standing for.
There is a boldness to righteousness that fuels a faith that is defiant.
It is a David kind of faith, the kind he took out into the field to defy Goliath;
the kind that galvanized his feet to stand in that field of barley in
1Chronicles 11 with his two friends and defy the entire Philistine army. It is the type of defiant faith that Jonathan
declared as he rose up to scramble up the rocks that "there is no restraint to the LORD to
save by many or by few."
These were men of faith to whom the odds did not matter. It was not about winning or losing, or
personal safety or advantage. It was not
about blessings and prosperity. It was
that "Damn the torpedoes!" call to a battle for righteousness. What were the
odds against David when he and his two friends faced down an army that was so
fearsome that the entire army of Israel had fled? Who cares? They stood to fight for the honor
of God and it didn't matter what the odds were!
Did it matter to Jonathan that there were only two swords among all the
Israelites to fight over 30,000 men of war?
Not hardly. To men such as these, the victory belongs only to God. The only thing that matters is what is right. FULL POST

When Americans elect a president without doing the hard work of examining his background, beliefs, or ideologies:

America is soft

When Americans elect someone who has no respect for human life and who considers the issue of abortion "above [his] pay grade":

America is soft

When Americans elect a president who tells them in black and white that he will radically transform America, but they never ask what direction the transformation will take:

America is soft

When Americans elect a president who for 20 years sat under the preaching of an anti-American pastor and thinks that none of that will rub off on him:

America is soft

When Americans vote for a president who, when he held elected office, voted "present" time and time again, determining not to take a stand on so many issues lest he offend one of the special interest groups:

America is soft

When Americans elect a president who has friends with checkered histories, to say the least:

America is soft

When Americans elect a president whose wife, the recipient of so many of America's blessings, declared that she was ashamed of America: FULL POST

An old woman of 90 from Valdres, Norway had a vision from God in 1968. The evangelist Emanuel Minos had meetings (services) where she lived. He had the opportunity to meet her, and she told him what she had seen. He wrote it down, but thought it to be so unbelievable that he put it in a drawer. After 30 years, he understood he had to share the vision with others.

The woman from Valdres was a very alert, reliable, awake and credible Christian, with a good reputation among all who knew her. This is what she saw:

"I saw the time just before the coming of Jesus and the outbreak of the Third World War. I saw the events with my natural eyes. I saw the world like a kind of a globe and saw Europe, land by land. I saw Scandinavia. I saw Norway. I saw certain things that would take place just before the return of Jesus, and just before the last calamity happens, a calamity the likes of which we have never before experienced.

She mentioned four waves:

1. "First, before Jesus comes and before the Third World War breaks out there will be a 'détente' like we have never had before. There will be peace between the super powers in the east and the west, and there will be a long peace. [Remember, that this was in 1968 when the cold war was at its highest]. In this period of peace there will be disarmament in many countries, also in Norway and we are not prepared when it (the war) comes. The Third World War will begin in a way no one would have anticipated - and from an unexpected place. FULL POST

The ANC [American News Commentary] reported in its September 21, 2011 issue that the ACLU is defending the right of Muslims to exercise prayer in public schools in San Diego... Really?

Is that a change of heart or the expression of a cowardly and terrified heart? It is most likely the latter. Let me explain.

Over the last 40 years or so, the ACLU has terrified many school boards, school administrators, and school children by threatening to drag them into court if they pray in public.

A few years ago, they terrified many coaches and sporting event coordinators by warning them that if they dare pray in public, the ACLU would bring about the full weight of their false interpretation of the Establishment Clause.

For many years, they have sent their emissaries across the land, "Gestapo-like," checking out every small city council, lest they open their meeting with prayer.

But now they are coming out of their closets and are supporting Muslim students praying in public schools.

If you think that this defies every aspect of human logic, you would be right.

Fear is a powerful factor – fear devastates logical thinking, fear decimates consistency and their support for Islamic prayer in public schools in San Diego is a clear indication of that fear. They know all too well what will happen to them if they exercise their clever maneuvers on Muslims. They will not see the love and forgiveness they have received from Christians. Rather, they will see the end of the sword. FULL POST