Central Ave. United Methodist Church Campaign - "Gay is a Gift from God" a Spirit of Error

The Bible tells us that in the last days there would be those who would love and follow teaching that is not sound Biblically. Central Ave UM Church in Toledo, Ohio has "come out" seeking to up the ante and increase the dialogue. In preaching and teaching such error they threaten the United Methodist Connection that is found in West Ohio United Methodism. They are attacking the Church and giving Christ and Christians a "black eye". The pastor said in the interview when asked about the Leviticus passage forbiding homosexuality that the passage was taken out of context... it is the pastor who is out of context...he should not be a pastor or allowed to return to this or any other UM pulpit. But that is in a world where Church Discipline is practiced. Unfortunately, not much Church Discipline is practiced in the UM Church. Bishops practice "correct politi-speak" instead of spiritual leadership on these matters. The uncertain trumpet of the Bishops undermines and shipwrecks the faith of young Christians and is chasing more mature believers away as well. Even in the first day after this tragic announcement and campaign I have younger believers wrestling with what their future place is in the UM Church. There are many pastors and lay people who are committed to stay in the UM Church and stay at the table as missionaries in these times where the Church is under attack and is being co-opted by the Reconciling Movement. But missionaries must speak the truth and speak to power or else they may find themselves joining in the sin and tolerating evil and that is something that Jesus frowns on...(see Jesus' letters to the churches in John's Revelation). The United Methodist Church has made tolerance an idol to be worshipped. Let the Church be the Church of truth. Proclaim God's Word boldly that God does not tolerate nor accept sin. Let me make this perfectly clear...God loves the homosexual but he does not tolerate nor accept homosexuality. There are many places in the Bible that tell us exactly what God thinks on the matter. God calls all to sexual purity...heterosexuals and homosexuals alike. The sexually immoral will not enter heaven. Those are not my words, they are the words of scripture. God meets us exactly where we are without any strings attached but He does not accept us as we are, He longs to change us one and all...heterosexual and homosexual alike. He never leaves the sinner in the condition that He finds us. He does not accept nor tolerate homosexuality. He does not tolerate nor accept homosexuals who determine to remain in their sin and say that "God made me this way...no need to change." Let me make this perfectly clear, He does not allow the heterosexual to remain in their sin and stay the same either, unrepentant and unreconciled. He won't and does not tolerate it. God is an equal opportunity God who can change and transform. God calls us all to holiness, without which no one will see God. It is not our holiness but the holiness of Christ. But He calls us to put off the "old man" and the "flesh" to put on Christ as "new creation".
This campaign by Central Ave. Unied Methodist Church and their "pastor" is an abomination to God. They are calling evil...good, and wrong...right...they are calling right...wrong. They are calling sin, homosexuality..."not sin"...but a good and valid grace gift...it is not, cannot and will never be honored or accepted by God and should not be by the Church.
Are homosexuals welcome in the Church...yes...as are all sinners in need of redemption. Come, hear and be transformed. Let the Church speak the truth in love and hold this Church accountable before God. If Church Discipline does not occur in this situation it makes the larger Chruch a willing accomplice. I will not be that. And I hope you will not be either. Blessings.

Letter of response to Retired United Methodist Bishops from West Ohio UM Annual Conference

A Response to the Statement by the Retired Bishops April 4, 2011
Recently, a group of 33 retired Bishops of the United Methodist Church produced a letter calling for the General Conference to change the Book of Discipline (subsequently, they were joined by three additional Bishops). The Bishops write an impassioned plea for the Church to recognize the gifts and graces of homosexual persons and “open the doors” for ordination. Following their letter and call for change a variety of responses have come from active Bishops, Good News, the Confessing Movement and others.
As a group of clergy and lay people from the West Ohio Annual Conference, we believe that the General Conference has gotten it right over the last 40 years in stating that homosexuality is incompatible with Christian living. It would be a severe breach of the connection that holds the United Methodist Church together for this position to be changed by General Conference. We the people of the United Methodist Church, look to our Bishops to “blow a certain trumpet “ with a consistent Biblical message and appropriate leadership when the Church has spoken on this issue over such an extended period of time. The Church has rejected the ordination of homosexuals not only in recent church history but for nearly 2000 years. We fear that changing this historic position will break the final strands of grace that hold the United Methodist Church together. The Church is in a fragile place and the “table of fellowship can be broken”. That is why it is so disappointing for us to experience the call of the retired bishops for such change. We expect more of our bishops, whether active or retired. We expect more of our own bishop. His silence on this matter is deeply disappointing. The retired bishops are wrong on both their call and their belief that this will make the Church a more just and holy place. The Bishops are wrong in their belief that a person can be a practicing homosexual (clergy or lay) and rightly be in a position of spiritual leadership with spiritual integrity. Practicing homosexuals are not able to live lives that please God without repentance and transformation. Sin blocks the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit that open the door to effective ministry. Homosexuality is sin. It is not the only sin, but it is sin. The Scripture is clearer on this than the bishops would like to admit and the Church is divided on this. The retired bishops are wrong in thinking that such a change at General Conference will bring either unity or a healthy atmosphere in the global United Methodist Church. The bishops talk about “the God we know” leading them into a new place for the Church. This is not the “God we know”. In making this call the retired bishops break their own rule of “first, do no harm”; they have harmed the Church at large with this call.
We call on the Council of Bishops to speak up decisively on this matter and to stop sending mixed messages. The silence of the Council of Bishops as a body on this matter while speaking up on so many other issues is inexcusable. We call on active Bishops to either wholeheartedly enforce the Book of Discipline or to retire. Lead or get out of the way. We call on the General Conference to do whatever it takes to address the “civil disobedience” being practiced (that of encouraging homosexual ordination) by churches, bishops, clergy and laity and to bring this conversation to a close. We call on General Conference to adjust the Book of Discipline to force the hand of Annual Conferences and Bishops to investigate and hold those Church trials that should be held. We call on our General Conference delegates to call for a moratorium in dealing with this issue for the next quadrenium so as to be able to focus the energies of the Church on those issues of eternal significance that will re-establish the United Methodist Church as a Holy Spirit led movement that can be used by God to transform not only this nation but the World for the Kingdom of God. Homosexuality and issues of ordaining homosexuals should not be the pre-emminent issue of this or any General Conference.

Join me in commenting and affirming this letter so that a copy of those who join together can have this letter sent to the Council of Bishops to seek to influence change. Rise up people of God.

Council of Bishop's Silence in Their Own Words

A report on racism includes this quote by one of the United Methodist Bishops, Wisconsin Bishop Linda Lee, a member of the council’s Task Force on Racism, said it was urgent that the Council of Bishops call for greater compassion in human relations because of intensifying rhetoric and violence against racial, ethnic and religious minorities around the globe.

“At this moment in history in the U.S. and elsewhere, our silence is a statement,” she said. “So if we don’t make a statement in writing, it could be seen as complicit with what is happening. . . . We will have lost an opportunity to speak to our churches at a moment when they need to have an idea what we believe.”
She is right of course that silence can speak as loudly as the things we actually say. For instance the silence of the Council of Bishops on Churches, Annual Conferecnes and Jurisdictions that keep fighting the Church's established position on homosexuality speaks volumes in and of itself. When churches and annual conferences with active and retired clergy and bishops practice civil disobedience and say that they plan on conducting weddings in or outside of the walls of the church they are violating the heart of our Book of Discipline and our connection. When individual Bishops have spoken out on the issue they have sent mixed messages that when combined with their overall silence on the issue at hand throughout the connection it becomes clear that the Council of Bishops is more of one mind on this than we want to believe and their oneness and "gentlmens agreement" not to criticize or discipline one another speaks to many of us reminding us that in this matter the Council of Bishops has chosen to forfeit it's spiritual leadership. They cannot lead us into a unifying experience for the 2012 General Conference because they are in the words of the Book of James "double minded and unstable in all their ways." There are a growing number of United Methodists who no longer look to the Council of Bishops, the Churches Agencies and Boards to speak for or represent us. There is a growing United Methodist "Tea Party" happening and the Holy Spirit is on the move to reform and revive not from the United Methodist "super structures" but from the local Church. What we now need is even one or two Bishops with the heart and grit to take a stand and rise up from within the Council of Bishops. Come on Bishops, there has to be a couple of you willing to rock the boat and be a dissenting voice that speaks a "God Word" into the debate. We are waiting and long to be led or we will write you all off as not the leaders we had counted on. So go ahead and speak out on racism...you should. But if you are silent when it counts on the other you may as well not bother on racism either.

Lessons from the NFL...Dropped Passes and Missed Opportunities

Well the Buffalo Bills almost beat the Pittsburg Steelers this last weekend. But then the receiver dropped the "easy" pass that would have won it. He was crushed and the game was lost. Later that day the young receiver "tweeted" on the internet communicating his disappointment that God had let him down and wondered "why?". The news people who heard about his "tweet" wondered about his putting his doubt out there like that. I must confess, I too struggle with his "tweet" and his choice to put his faith out there like this at such a vulnerable moment like feeling crushed because "his prayers had not been answered like he had wanted". He had "foreseen" and envisioned a different outcome. He had seen victory in the game as he confidently ran down the field, as he lifted his hands to catch the pass...a "sure thing" and easy for such Christian athlete like him. Did God let him down? Following the tweet in which he questions God passionately in which he said "really", I can picture God saying "Really? You are putting this out there for all to see, as if I had failed you? After all, you dropped the pass. I gave you the skill and the ability to catch it and you didn't and now you are blaming me? Really?" "You are willing to blow your Christian testimony as well as the game? Why couldn't you have just praised me. I understand your frustration. I get frustrated too...it's tough to watch your spiritual children being given so much, so many gifts and just blow it time after time. I give you such easy passes and tasks to accomplish and you just keep blowing it. Still I love you. Practice more on focusing on the ball. Work harder. Trust me and don't base your faith on whether a game is lost or won. Don't make the game or your victories and losses in such an idol. I love you and have a bigger plan for you than you can imagine. If you can't handle the game and keep it in proper perspective, maybe you should quit and live your life for me in a different way..." - signed,God. It is an interesting thought and imagining. What do our games really mean to God? How disappointed does God get when we drop a pass? How disappointed does God get when we publically "diss" Him, in a "tweet" or on Facebook, on a text over the phone or with our mouth? After all we just used the computer "code" language for the profanity and didn't actually say it. We say we are Christians and I think that this Christmas season it is time we start living, talking, tweeting, texting, and Facebooking like it. Just a thought after watching some football this weekend. I hope the young man has other opportunities to catch passes that win big games. But mostly I pray that when the opportunity comes to be a good witness for the King of Kings he takes it and doesn't let his emotion carry him away to say things that matter and hurt the cause of Christ. And perhaps more appropriate for all of us "non-NFL types" I pray that I can be faithful when I have these opportunities to praise Him and give thanks in all things. Blessings in the House. "Come On, Man, Somebody Praise Him."

The Disenfranchisement of the Military Voter

So let me get this straight; New York and the Chicago area can't get absentee balloting right for military voters? It seems to me that if the White House were going to sue someone...say a state or city that this would be a good time. It is not just inconvenient...it is a national disgrace to see this happening. If the Department of Justice cannot get this right...perhaps they should cease to exist for they serve no great purpose if they cannot protect the vote of the military voters. But perhaps the White House and Democrats do not like how military people have tended to vote, so it is inconvenient at best for them. In any event it seems to me, having served 29 1/2 years in the Army that the military has been what has allowed valid voting to take place from the beginning, so this must be made right. The last couple of presidential elections there was much talk about the disenfranchisement of ethnic and minority vote. People are enraged if the poor cannot vote. Systems are put into place to make sure that people are not disenfranchised. ACORN and similar community organizers exist to get out the vote. But, who is really watching out for our great military people and their right to vote and have it count? Sure it is hard to make sure that they get a chance because they are frequently put into situations like overseas deployments that put their lives at risk protecting our freedoms. I know we have the technology to make this happen. We just don't seem to have the will nor the backbone. But somebody should stand up and make some noise about this and protest vigorously. Those who cannot make this happen should be replaced and lose their jobs whether they are politicians or beaurocrats. If the Department of Justice needs shaken up because they can't seem to get their act together over the Black Panther voter scandal and disenfranchisement of white voters then perhaps the person to take the fall should be at the top of that, Mr. Holder. Eliminate anyone who cannot figure this out and make it right...simple. Or it should be. We trust our military NCOs and Officers to lead our soldiers in combat...trust them as vote monitors and send back the tallys with accompanying information through electronic means to whatever state, city or municipality. It could be validated and used as provisional ballots at the vary least until the accompanying hard ballot arrived. Make it happen, we can and should do this. It is rediculous that thousands of military ballots are not counted each election cycle and we talk about it but do nothing about it. I am SICK AND TIRED of it. I guarantee you that if Mr. Obama thought that most of these votes were going to democrats that there would be hell to pay and they would find a way for the Justice Department to get really involved instead of the lame efforts that they have made so far. Go ahead, Mr. President, make my day....make the military ballots all count throughtout this great land. Stop the Disenfranchisement of American Military voters now.

Bill Maher Mocks Christians and Those Who Believe

It should come as no surprise to those who have ever listened to what "passes for intelligence" from Bill Maher's mouth that he mocks our God and our Christ. He speaks as faith being a conscious suspending of rational processes to believe. He could not be further from the truth, either about God, Christ or his bogus definition of faith and belief. These days, people like Bill Maher, qualify as the intellectual elite of our times. But they are neither elite nor intellectually sound. They suspend belief for rational processes and thus deny a large part of the image of God that was placed in them in creation. By mocking what he clearly does not understand, he shows the smallness and deadness of his spirit. I do not hate or hope that Mr. Maher goes to hell. I would not wish this on anyone...I do pray that he could come to a spirit of repentance and hear the call of God for his own life. I pray that he has not blasphemed the Holy Spirit in such a way as to be beyond grace. But those who mock must be careful because he could come to a place where he couldn't see a blessing or a call from God were it to happen right in front of his face. In C.S. Lewis final book of the Chronicles of Narnia, there is a scene in which some dwarfs refused to believe in Aslan had him right in front of them speaking to them and they could not perceive it. They were beyond grace because of their own insistence and mocking that the Great Aslan did not exist and could not deliver. They were wrong and so is Bill Maher and his ilk of unbelieving scoffers. We should not be surprised because the scripture tells us that in the last days there would come scoffers and mockers. This is just another witness from God that the end times are upon us. Come quickly Lord Jesus. And every knee will bow and confess that Jesus is Lord...and that includes you, Mr. Bill Maher. By the way I am not really sure that Bill Maher really exists. He is spiritually dead and in need of resurrection. Hopefully he can find grace and forgiveness for leading many astray. He is a false prophet and people should both understand that and understand his threat.

Jesus Seminar Marks 25 Year Anniversary

The Jesus Seminar marks it's 25th anniversary this year. This "group of scholars" decided that Jesus only actually said 18% of what the New Testament ascribes to him. They color coded his words and determined that some things were most likely added on later by others with an agenda. But what agenda did the "Jesus Seminar" have...get people talking about the historical Jesus...but if Jesus only said 18% of what the scriptures have him saying then we don't have the scriptures at all just a careful myth and hoax...and that is not what we have. These "scholars" have undermined the faith and are heretics who should not maintain clergy credentials if any of them have credentials. How a denomination allows heretics to continue in their midst without trying them for heresy is beyond me...but then again how some United Methodists are not tried for heresy as bishops and as clergy and as lay people is beyond me. It is not okay to believe just anything and all things are not just equal. There is truth and there is error. All scripture is God breathed and not open to the whims of man in its writing. So I say on their 25th anniversary that some of us conservative clergy got together and voted to figure out if the lives of these scholars has amounted to anything for the good of the kingdom and it has been determined that the "scholars" have been deemed and voted on as irrelevant for this current church age..."blah, blah, blah...did someone say something about Jesus...not anything that someone with wisdom or spiritual ears might listen to." These scholars need to repent and turn to God so that they not fall into eternal wrath and damnation for leading people astray. They are false teachers and dried springs that promise water but cannot deliver. The scriptures warned about false teachers and deceivers and in the dictionary one might find under the word "heresy" see Jesus Seminar. They are a modern parable and byword for liberal, progressive rot spiritually and the church is poorer for their presence. So there are some of us who do not celebrate in any way a 25th anniversary of such heretics. This anniversary is to be "celebrated with a "Woe unto this generation." from God.