Thinking on Women in Leadership

I thought this blog was interesting in light of the Palin VP role in politics. I pulled this off another site just for my recall.
In case you might not know Golda Meir was the fourth prime minister of the State of Israel.


The Bible looks favorably on the competence of the Queen of Sheba and the legitimacy of her secular rule over her gentile nation (1 Kings 10:1-10). Such national leaders as Elizabeth I in England, Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom, and Golda Meir in Israel are examples of competent women who have admirably led their respective nations. It’s interesting how the latter two were both given the nickname “Iron Lady,” indicating that their mettle was uncharacteristically strong for their gender. Steely firm toughness, an essential trait for effective ruling, is typically more pronounced in men (1 Corinthians 16:13). It’s interesting how David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, called Mrs. Meir “the only man in his cabinet.” [ii]
It is difficult to imagine a high-ranking female politician’s being able to conscientiously fulfill her priority obligations as a helpmeet to her husband and a mother to her children. Golda Meir broke off her political responsibilities for four years to stay at home and raise her two children. However, upon returning to public life, her enormous workload contributed to the collapse of her marriage in 1945.[iii]

Red Mountain Church

I found some new music to listen to and really enjoy. The CD to the left is called the The Gadsby Project. I just copied and pasted the following exerpt from their website:
Gadsby’s Hymns, published in several stages during the first half of the 19th century, is a collection of hymns from multiple writers containing songs dating back to the 17th century. Some of the 1,156 songs in this hymnal are familiar, but most of these great lyrics have simply been forgotten in the modern church. Our primary goal for this record is to reintroduce 14 of these great hymns so believers can incorporate them into public worship again. Interestingly, William Gadsby (the original compiler of the hymnal, a great preacher and hymn-writer) was against the use of instruments in public worship. This mindset aided in making many of the original tunes and melodies unknown for these hymns. There is a companion tune book for Gadsby’s Hymns, but it wasn’t published until 1927. It is very possible that these hymns have had multiple tunes and arrangements over the years. We like to believe that our small work on these hymns is a part of something much bigger, that we are simply another group of believers falling in line with generations who have gone before us, modernizing and singing these great hymns once again. The tunes that we have applied are our way of interpreting the text in our own time and place, and it is exciting to think that the tradition of putting hymns to new music is a tradition that has gone on for many generations. We hope that you love these hymns as much as we do and that you are able to sing them again in your church. One last thing: Go buy a copy of Gadsby’s Hymns. Then go buy a bunch more, and give them to all your friends. May this exceptional hymnal feed your soul the way it has fed ours.
Also you can find some of their stuff on utube along with a taste of their personalities.
If you enjoy solid food from our King and Lord Jesus Christ in the form of His Word, go and feast on the music of Red Mountain Church.
I think if I had to choose the best CD they sell and I couldn't buy but one, then I would choose "Help My Unbelief". http://www.redmountainchurch.org/rmm/alb/g2clips/track03.mp3
All the lyrics is reformed. You won't find one song that repeats the chorus over and over and over and over...
You can say these are not typical of most church songs where you'll find the lack of content made up by some kid trying his lead guitar skills on all who will suffer through it. It reminds me of a Todd Bentley false prophet concert where there was more bouncing than God's word proclaimed. Oh wait, God's word was never proclaimed, it was another gospel! sorreeeee:)'
Go check out their music at the link above. If anything it might be too folk like for you but the words are spot on.

McDonalds Sunday or 4am Wake-up

All I was thinking last Thursday was, I will be getting a call Friday morning at about 4a.m. That's fine I could do that. Go to bed a little earlier, get up, shower, coffee, and I''m out the door. Sounds easy to me and sounds easy to you, right. If that's all I had to do then life is a bowl of passion oranges just right for eating while you kick back and eat up.

God is a God of mercy and grace and justice and wrath and judgment and power and wisdom and peace and wisdom and so much more. So in serving our Lord who is all these things at the same time and is never not any of these things at all times. Im thinking that what He has called me to do is simple even in my feeble mindedness, my unbelief, my unwillingness, my unforgiveness, my wretchedness and so much more of "ness".

Thinking through these things makes for me a balance in Christ to do the work of an evangelist.

Either stay home knowing what I need to do the next day or go out to do the work I comitted to do for my Lord, proclaim His gospel to the perishing. It's His gospel that must be shouted from the roof tops, it's His gospel that must take front and center of our thoughts and actions. I know it's not like that for me at all times, especially after work when I'm am so tired. But when Thursday rolls around I need to go and do the work Christ beckones me to do.

In all human standards going to the truck stop was a miserable failure in terms of how many people I talked to and how many tracts I passed out. I took two rubberbanded stacks of tracts and gave out maybe less than 10 individaul tracts! I told a guy to read through one and it had a good message on the back, he said he would. I said the same thing to a lady walking by (not a lot lizard), then approached a truck with a husband wife team. That's it! I camped there for close to an hour I think, maybe more. The couple is pictured here. This is Eugene (he said I could call him that) and Jeannette Whaley from Virginia Beach. Both are in the "kinda" catagorie. Kinda new Christians but kinda not. They've been saved for about 3 years. They know enough to be saved and maybe know a little theology without knowing they know theology, you know?

So at this point I would say to Eugene and Jeannette to find someone to teach them more diligently the things of God. Find someone who can take the Word and exegete each and every word and line in the scriptures. The difinition of exegesis is this:
"critical explanation or interpretation of a text or portion of a text, esp. of the Bible". Very few pastor teachers lack this ability. It takes hours of study to exegete small portions of text. That's why some pastor/teachers aren't willing to do it. In fact do a study on how Paul himself exegeted scriptures. You've got to know God's word so well that if anyone like me comes along and asks you anything at all within reason, you will have an answer from God's Word not our opinion which counts for nothing in the day of judgment. Look at this text and this may be what I did Thursday night with you:
Act 18:26
and he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.

You see, I'm not suggesting anything other than getting yourself trained in the Way of God more ACCURATELY. This should be the only goal up to the point of being teachers yourself. Know God's word with accuracy. Dissect it, meditate on it, day and night.

The text above if you read it reflects a man who was "mighty in the scriptures". If he was mighty and did not accuratley proclaim God's word then how much more do we need to do to soak in the wisdom of His word.

Thank you Eugene and Jennette for the fellowship and patience with me. Can I say it? Keep on truckin, in Christ alone.

Thanks for the offer of the Micky D's sunday, my brain and body told me it was getting late with an early day coming fast. Maybe next time. Be careful out there.

Oranges for My Lunch

I was thinking that there is really nothing in all the earth that you can give without God giving it to you first. What? Try giving a watch to someone. Now let's break it down. A good watch is made of metal, crystal, and precious jewels right? Now the metal came from the ground that God made, the crystal from the (sandy) ground that God made, the jewels came from the ground that God made.

Now you paid for the watch with the money you earned or stole and you give the watch away. The money you earned was earned with the eyes God gave you, the hands God gave you, the brain God gave you, the feet, ears, bones, muscles, cells, blood, and on and on and on. We could start at the beginning to say that it was God that gave you life, to earn the watch that God provided years before you were born in the form of minerals, stones, metals and such.

So if you were to give to someone, anything at all, you would have to say it was from God first then from the person who worked for it. If you refuse this line of thinking then try this: start by making yourself. What do you need first, do you need muscles before you bones or your bones to hold up your muscle. You need blood for life but it needs to be oxegenated, so how do you pump oxegen into the blood and what is suppose to hold the blood in the areas the muscle and bones need to make use of it. Did you forget your head? Don't lose your head because you need a head. The blood can't leak out or you will die. But hey! From what did you make the life giving blood? What materials were used for blood! So even now you would be an earth glob of nothing.

All this to say is that I talked to Omar and Aquilarobles at the truck stop. Omar claimed to be a 7th Day Adventist.
I asked Omar a simple question (no not yet), I asked him what he knew about the Gospel. I said to Omar, it's the most important message to know for eternal life right Omar? He agreed. So I asked him again what he knew about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Omar basically would have gotten an F on his "last day on earth exam". So from there you must assume Omar to be lost, a sinner without Christ as his savior, and as of now, not chosen by God for eternal life in Himself.

Now knowing that Omar had some kind of teaching (enough to keep him deceived about his eternal state) I asked him to listen to what I would say to others. It goes like this: Are you a good person?, have you ever lied?, have you ever stolen?, have you ever blasphemed God's name?, have you ever looked on a woman with lust?. So it was yes to all of them, even murder! Omar would you go to heaven or hell if God judges you based on those commandments. Hell of course right? You see Omar you transgressed an eternal law made by an eternal being so your judgement will be eternal. If you don't believe me look at Revelation 21.8. Thats a good start.

Omar is getting it, he has understanding without great command of English.

I told Omar about the Cross Christ shed His blood, and the legal transaction that takes place when Christ opens your mind to His word to cause repentance and trust in Him alone for salvation. His own Father punished Him more than any man could, He was crushed as to powder. Christ bore the sins of those that would come to Him and became sin on their behalf therefore taking on the sins as a sinner without any sin in Him. He became sin but was not a sinner at anytime. At the very moment He took on sin He gave to us (the repentant) His righteousnes. We are not righteous, He is, and it is His righteousness that His Father sees on us that makes us His child, His redeemed. Although Christ never sinned His Father looked on Him as though He did! The eternal Father had to punish the perfect Lamb of Himself to accept wretched vile undeserving filthy worms like us and in Christ God now looks on us without our perishing. God cannot tolerate sin. In Christ we are now worthy to go to the Father.
2Cr 5:21
He made Him who knew no sin {to be} sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Omar understood and thanked me. All I did was to deliver the message of eternal life, the Holy Spirit must do the Hard work to regenerate a dead man.

So what about the oranges Ron?

Omar was so thankful that he gave me a bag of oranges. Oranges that came from a seed that God made, that was planted by hands that God made, that grew to a tree with the help of water and minerals that God made then picked by hands that God made, bought by a trucker who heard the Gospel. Christ is the Gospel because the Gospel is the good news and there is only one really true good in anything that exists and that is Christ, the good news.

So there you have it, oranges for my lunch. GOOD oranges God Made for me.

Well, maybe the last ones aren't so good, I think they are bitter that God made them.