Heretic’s Hideout

Oh Lord, You are beautiful
Your face is all I see
And when Your eyes are on this child
Your grace abounds to me

I want to take Your Word and shine it all around
But first help me just to live it, Lord
And when I’m doing well, help me to never seek the crown
For my reward is giving glory to You

I’ve always liked this song. We used to sing it at my church years ago, though we sing more traditional hymns these days. But I do have a problem with the last two lines there. Many people have the idea that it is wrong to seek rewards from Christ, that we should only serve Him out of love and that opportunity is reward enough in itself. There is nothing wrong with being motivated by His great love toward us, in fact we should be.

1 John 3:16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

But some have begun to teach that it is wrong for Christians to serve the Lord in humble expectation that He will reward His servants for their obedient service. They don’t deny that the Lord does reward his servants, but they think it seems a mercenary affair to be motivated by the desire to receive a crown or to reign with Christ. We must remember that we are even commanded to do just that.

Luke 6:22-23
22 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.
23 Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.

Luke 6:35 But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.

The hope of reward is something that the Bible tells us we must have if we would be found pleasing to God.

Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

There is a danger in downplaying the future reward. Paul tells us that we are in a race for a crown.

1 Corinthians 9:24-26
24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:

How effective would a runner in a race be if he did not desire the victory? If his opponents were single minded in their focus on the crown, and he just ran for the love of running? He may put forth a good show, for a time, but he is likely to tire of the effort before the end, especially when you consider that this is a race that continues until you die or the Lord comes back! Paul kept his eye on that crown, and at the end of his ministry he tells us that he knows there is a crown laid up for him, because he ran a good race.

2 Timothy 4:7-8
7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

2 John 1:8 Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.

We should not imagine that it is enough just to enter the race. We must, like Paul, finish the course if we would have the crown. Please understand that salvation in eternity is a free gift, and you must be saved by believing on Christ before you can even begin to run the race. But there are things that God has in store for His children who will do His will that will doubtless be well worth the effort. Let us look forward to those rewards in earnest hope that He is willing to give them to us if we will trust Him and apply His grace in our lives to keep His commands and to live the lives that He has ordered for us to live.

From News.com.au (click this link for full article):

TASER electronic stun guns are a form of torture that can kill, a UN committee has declared after several recent deaths in North America.

“The use of these weapons causes acute pain, constituting a form of torture,” the UN’s Committee against Torture said.

“In certain cases, they can even cause death, as has been shown by reliable studies and recent real-life events,” the committee of 10 experts said.

…

Portugal “should consider giving up the use of the Taser X26,” as its use can have a grave physical and mental impact on those targeted, which violates the UN’s Convention against Torture, the experts said.

It will be interesting to see if this has any impact on the US. It seems like we hear about a new Taser related death every few days.

I was surfing, looking for chords to this song, and I ran across this video and it just blessed me to hear it. So I hope it will bless you too.

Maybe one day I will be able to play like this. I guess I better practice more.

From the New York Times:

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 — The Supreme Court agreed today to consider an issue that has divided politicians, constitutional scholars and ordinary citizens for decades: whether the Second Amendment to the Constitution protects an individual right to “keep and bear arms.”

The justices agreed to hear an appeal from the District of Columbia, whose gun-control law — one of the strictest in the nation — was struck down by the lower federal courts earlier this year. The case will probably be argued in the spring.

This will be an extremely important hearing. The right to keep and bear arms is essential to liberty, and also for defending one’s home and family against unlawful people. We need to pray that the Supreme Court justices will refrain from any judicial activism in this matter, and that the Constitution will be upheld as it is written. What part of ’shall not be infringed’ is so hard to understand? Click this link for the complete article.

I must admit that at times I am a little concerned over the divergence between what appears to be real grass-roots support for Ron Paul and the numbers that get reported in the polls. I believe Dr. No’s support to be considerably higher than the 1-3% that we are constantly shown in the media. Various explanations have been floated to account for this phenomenon, but this article at PrisonPlanet.com has got to be the most astonishing thing I have read regarding this whole business. Paul Joseph Watson quotes an unnamed reader who claims to have participated in a Zogby poll, and he found the questions in the poll took on a decidedly bizarre turn after he confirmed that he was supporting Ron Paul.

“The first part of the poll was about which candidate one prefers, with candidates from both parties being available as choices. Great! However, after I finished answering positively for Ron Paul, the poll got very interesting,” he writes.

“As anyone who is familiar with how polls work is aware, polls are branching in their structure. Answers you give to one section of the poll will determine what questions you will receive in the next section of the poll.”

The reader then relates his confusion about the fact that the poll threw up 20 questions about cooking rice before another extensive set of questions regarding personal sexual behavior.

“This went on for a number of pages and was rather intrusive,” he writes. “It dealt with sexual positions, sexual fantasies, sexual preferences and similar intimate subjects. Of course neither rice cooking or sexual behavior have very much to do with presidential elections or politics in general. Or at least it shouldn’t!”

I would have to take this with a grain of salt, but it sure does make you wonder. The article also exposes some standard polling industry practices that would easily explain why Ron Paul does so poorly in the polls. We can only pray that this type of manipulation will not heavily influence the outcome of the upcoming primaries. I know who I’m voting for.

2 Corinthians 6
17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.
18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
2 Corinthians 7
1 Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Does not this passage present the very real possibility that if we refuse to come out, to be separate, that God may not receive us? This is a conditional promise. Paul exhorts us, based on this promise, to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. How contrary is this to modern Christian teaching?

I believe that there is a sense in which all believers have already been received. This is not speaking about being eternally saved. This is speaking of eternally saved, blood bought believers who need to remove themselves from their worldly associations that are going to keep them from being accepted by God. Paul is speaking here to believers. In verse 14 of chapter 6, he warns his audience not to be ‘unequally yoked together with unbelievers’.

Is there a sense in which God may not receive a believer? Indeed, we find in the same book that we labor to be accepted at the judgment seat of Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:9-11
9 Wherefore we labor, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
11 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.

The terror of the Lord, being rejected at the judgment seat of Christ, ought to be our motivating fear just as it was for Paul. Why do Christians make provision for the flesh and flirt with the unclean things of this world? It is because the fear of the Lord is not in them. If Christians believed that they could be found unacceptable to God at the judgment seat of Christ, how seriously would they take Paul’s admonition to cleanse themselves and to perfect holiness in the fear of God? How many contentions would dissolve? How many ‘gray areas’ would become black and white? Truly, the fear of the Lord is still the beginning of wisdom.

I think I may have a new full-time obsession. Ok, its not that bad, but I had a great time and I’m looking forward to getting back out there and playing again soon. Hopefully I can shoot somebody next time, too.

The field we played at was DFWPro Paintball Park (website here) and I was very impressed. This was my first time playing, so I didn’t really know what to expect, but the folks at DFWPro have created an incredible environment to play in. They have trenches and bunkers all over the place, wooded areas with lots of cover, and open fields for all-out war. The refs were great and all the people playing seemed to have good attitudes. The only disappointment I had was with the rental gun that I was using. It wasn’t horrible, but the balls shot very inconsistently which made it hard for me to draw a bead on anyone. They have two different guns to rent, and I had the cheap one. Next time I will definitely spend the $10 extra to get a better one, if I don’t have my own gun by then.

They took some pictures and posted them on their website. Here’s one of me pinned down in the grass getting ready to be pelted by multiple paint balls:

Here is the whole group together:

I’m definitely going back!

From the New York Times:

Re “Clinton Plans to Consider Giving Up Some Powers” (news article, Oct. 24): The American Freedom Agenda, an organization of conservatives founded last March 20 to restore checks and balances and protections against government abuses, requested all presidential aspirants, including Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, to sign an American Freedom Pledge.

They were asked to renounce the following powers if elected: torture; presidential signing statements; indefinite detentions of American citizens as enemy combatants; military commissions that combine judge, jury and prosecutor; spying on American citizens in contravention of federal statutes on the president’s say-so alone; kidnapping, imprisoning and torturing suspected terrorists abroad; executive privilege to shield the executive branch from Congressional oversight; prosecuting journalists under the Espionage Act for exposing national security abuses; listing organizations as terrorist groups based on secret evidence; suspending the writ of habeas corpus during the conflict with international terrorism; and invoking the state secrets privilege to deny victims of constitutional wrongdoing any judicial remedy. Senator Clinton has balked at signing the pledge, as have all other candidates except Representative Ron Paul.

Bruce Fein
Chairman, American Freedom Agenda
Washington, Oct. 24, 2007

Is there something on that list that should keep someone from signing that pledge? I guess you never know when you might have to torture someone who has been indefinitely detained.

I never gave much thought growing up to where money comes from. I got money from relatives for my birthday, and spent it to purchase the things that I wanted. I suppose I had acquired the idea somewhere that money was backed by gold locked up in an impenetrable fortress somewhere, but doubtless I believed the paper bills that I and others passed back and forth had some intrinsic value. I have learned, however, that the modern central banking system that we have allowed to come to pass in this nation is a wicked fraud.

The Federal Reserve Notes in your wallet are what is known as ‘fiat money’. That is to say, it has no real value other than the value that the government says it has, by fiat (or ‘because we said so’). There is no promise to redeem your money for real tangible gold or silver. It is merely issued out of thin air by banks who loan it out, and then collect interest on the debt. The ‘value’ of the notes is depreciated when the banks issue more money, increasing the money supply and driving up the prices of goods. This is called inflation, which we are all familiar with, but what it does is it transfers the real wealth from the lower and middle-class working folks into the hands of the bankers. The love of money is the root of all evil, and the Federal Reserve system is no exception.

For an interesting, understandable explanation of this issue, see this article from the Idaho Observer (click here.) Many folks have opposed Ron Paul’s ideas of returning to a gold standard, but from a moral standpoint, I think it is the best recourse for our nation. We should return to the system of money authorized by the Constitution, and take the power to create money out of the hands of the bankers.

I’m going to play paintball for the first time tomorrow. I’ve always wanted to try it. I spent my formative years playing video games, which everyone knows is training for killers, so I should do well. Sophek is celebrating a belated birthday (happy belated birthday, Sophek!) and wanted to get some folks to go play with him. There will be twelve of us men from the church I think, and it should be a good time. I’ll give an update of my lumps and bruises next week.