Soldiers Without Swords: July 2013

Thursday, July 25, 2013

"Re-Creating Church with Feats of Strength" by Gary Laws

"Re-Creating Church with Feats of Strength" by Gary Laws

I attended church services this past week with my son and his family. My wife and I are visiting them in Enid, Oklahoma.

The music was loud, even raucous at times. You could hardly hear yourself think. However, as I looked around I noticed how engaged everyone was in the service of worship and it's music....not in some sort of 'pied piper', reckless way, but all seemed to be enjoying what they considered to be their sincere form of worship.

The guest preacher was an 'athlete' who breaks bricks and bends iron re-bar rods then bends sturdy fry pans into unrecognizable shapes. He is a Christian with a passion to reach the youth for Jesus.

While none of this is my particular 'cup of tea', I must admit that God was in that place. It's congregants were honoring the God who had saved them. There was, in my view, the unmistakable presence of God's Holy Spirit.

More power to them.

Saturday, July 20, 2013

The Reality of Jesus Christ

Thinking of the old TV classics. Leave it to Beaver, Father Knows Best, I Remember Mama....etc. There are those in society today who would have us believe that such families never really existed in real life. We know better though, don't we? I grew up in a 'Father Knows Best' type family. It was wonderful. So have millions of others also.
Such families were very real. They are real today!

There are also those who would have us believe that Jesus Christ is only a myth and that He never really existed. They tell us that such things as abstinence or respect for life never really worked and they were part of a mythological lifestyle that did not exist. They would say that living a righteous lifestyle is all poppycock.

Well, these folks are wrong about family life in days gone by and they are wrong about how they characterize our religious faith. The Bible teaches us to hold on to those things that are true. As for the world and their cynical view? They shall have their reward. GDL

My Statement of Faith

We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God, and that they only constitute the Divine rule of Christian faith and practice.

We believe that there is only one God, who is infinitely perfect, the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of all things, and who is the only proper object of religious worship.

We believe that there are three persons in the Godhead - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, undivided in essence and co-equal in power and glory.

We believe that in the person of Jesus Christ the Divine and human natures are united, so that He is truly and properly God and truly and properly man.

We believe that our first parents were created in a state of innocency, but by their disobedience, they lost their purity and happiness, and that in consequence of their fall, all men have become sinners, totally depraved, and as such are justly exposed to the wrath of God.

We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has by His suffering and death made an atonement for the whole world so that whosoever will may be saved.

We believe that repentance toward God, faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and regeneration by the Holy Spirit are necessary to salvation.

We believe that we are justified by grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and that he that believeth hath the witness in himself.

We believe that it is the privilege of all believers to be wholly sanctified, and that their whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We believe in the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, in the general judgement at the end of the world, in the endless punishment of the wicked and in the eternal happiness of the righteous.