Friday Night Notes

freeeezing c-c-cold!!!

It's had been awhile, but we finally made it out for our Friday night street preaching ministry. It "good" to be back at it. I say "good" because, let's face it, things aren't too good for evangelists in these dark days, but it definitely is good to serve the Lord by working at the Great Commission. I am also thankful for the protection and the utterance the Lord provided for us tonight.

It was seriously cold out tonight. Every year is the same: at the beginning of Fall, I always wind up terribly under dressed on the street, and then I get to spend 3 hours shivering in the cold. The temperature dropped down to 5 degrees Celsius tonight (that's 41 degrees Fahrenheit for my American readers), so yes, I froze in my little Fall jacket.

The cold probably kept a lot of the usual marketplace crowd at home tonight, because it was pretty quiet all night long tonight. There was a steady enough stream of people, but nothing like the myriads of souls we've seen in the summer months. Now, I'm not complaining... I'm definitely not complaining. While having large crowds is good in that we have more people to preach to, it also means that the mockery, the cursings and the possibility of violence is seriously increased. On a night like tonight though, things were pretty tame and under control. Praise God.

Here are some lingering memories of our time out:


Why does he always speak English?

A group of Francophones walked by me tonight as I was preaching. For the record, I almost always preach in English since I represent an English local church; I do preach in French from time to time, when I see that I'm dealing with a mostly French audience. Anyway, as the group walked by me, one of the women raised the following complaint:

"Pourquoi est-ce-qu'il ne parle pas en français celui-là ? On l'écouterait peut-être bien!" (translation: why doesn't he ever speak in French? Perhaps we'd listen to him if he did!)

Well! I wasn't going to let that "hypocrisy test" just walk by. I looked at the women and said:

"Restez une minute, madame, et je vais vous parler en français; ça m'ennurais pas du tout!" (translation: Just stay a minute, miss, and I will speak to you in French, it won't bother me one bit)

They all rejected my offer by laughing me to scorn. They didn't even slow their walk. Still, I'm glad I called this woman out for her hypocrisy. I'm glad I showed to everyone watching that she was without excuse: the preacher was there, he was willing to share the Gospel of Life with her, and she said: "No."

The Lord be deal with this woman as He sees fit.


Dealing properly with the false teacher:

A man walked by me, again, as I was preaching the Gospel and asked me:

"What kind of Christian are you?"

"I'm a Baptist by denomination," I answered directly.

"We're Jehovah's Witnesses," he replied pointing to his companion.

The man just stood there, as if he was waiting to see how I would respond to that piece of information. Knowing that the Bible warns Christians about dealing with false teachers, I just said:

"Well, I've been to the "kingdom hall" for a number of months, and in the end, I just didn't buy this "New World translation", I don't believe it's a faithful translation."

"What Bible do you use?" he asked calmly.

"I use the King James version, as in the Received Texts."

"Alright," the man answered.

And that was it. It was great. No striving about words to no profit, no vain babblings (2 Timothy 2:14-26). I gave him ONE key matter that divided my faith from his, and that was it. Going any further would have been a complete waste of time, so long as he clung to his false religion, and praise be to God, he didn't even try to argue his nonsense.

Let us pray that this poor soul will, as I have, start to question the veracity of his fraudulent Bible version, which isn't based on any legitimate texts. Let us pray for the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit.


One tender heart:

Just a few seconds after that French group left me, their mocking laughter still in the background, an older woman walked up to me and asked:

"Are those people making fun of you?"

I then explained what had just transpired and shrugged my shoulders in resignation. The woman seemed perplexed.

"I don't understand," she said. "You're not doing anything wrong. Why are they mocking you? You're just speaking of your faith, something you truly believe in, and that's a good thing. Why don't these people just leave you alone if they don't want to hear what you have to say?"

I must admit, I was kind of touched by this stranger's empathy. I assured her that the others had not caused any hurt feelings on my part, and that she shouldn't bother herself too much over this incident.

"Well, okay," she replied. "Keep on speaking. You're doing something good here."

If she isn't already a sister-in-the-Lord, I pray that, as she had been gracious towards me, the Lord would show her great kindness, grace and mercy.


And that's the notes for tonight. I should already be in bed, tomorrow my church is having a hike in the mountains and a picnic; I don't want to be tired for all that outdoor activity.

Goodnight, dear readers,


Rand

My Charismatic Experience - Part 2

I actually do know what I'm talking about...

(Make sure you read part 1 before reading this post)

My mother went through weeks, perhaps even months, neglecting to take any medication for her terrible ailment, since it had been made clear to her that she had been healed by the Holy Spirit. All she had to do, was believe. The prophecies were uttered, the prayers were made, the hands of healers had come and gone. The deal was done.

One problem: my mother was as sick as ever.

If anything, my poor mother was in the worst shape ever since she had stopped taking her medications which had brought her some relief. She soldiered on for some time thinking (perhaps hoping) that the Lord was just testing her faith, but it didn't take too long for us to conclude the very obvious: my mother was never healed of anything.

It wasn't long after this realization that my mother went back on her medications which brought her some physical relief, but ushered in some serious aggravation from some of her "Christian brothers and sisters". You see, in everyone's eyes, my mother's decision could only mean one of three things:

1- The prophecies/healings were 100% bogus.

2- My mother had some terrible sin in her life which kept the Holy Spirit from doing His work.

3- My mother lacked the long-term faith necessary to attain unto the said healing.

For months, my mother investigated all three of the above possibilities, causing her much heartache. I wasn't so thorough. At this point, possibility # 1, as far as I was concerned, was the most likely explanation, but I was no slouch, the young scientist in me took over. Every prophecy, every tongue babbling, every miracle claim was observed, analyzed and even scrutinized.

The results of my "charismatic experiment" was a real disappointment, and the conclusion was unquestionable: charismatic "churches" are NOT faithful, New Testament churches. Are there true, born-again saints in charismatic churches? Certainly. Are they faithful churches? Absolutely not.

What has brought me to such a conclusion? What, exactly, is it that I have observed which has brought me to such a cut and dry conclusion? Click here!


Rand

Labels: Charismatic Movement

My Charismatic Experience - Part 1

before anyone claims I don't know what I'm talking about...

When the Lord had saved my mother and I, we started attending a small Baptist church in our home town. The teachings there were pretty good and before long, both my mother and I were prospering spiritually.

A year or two later, the Lord saved my father. For a short period of time he too attended the local Baptist church, but we eventually moved to a Pentecostal church in a neighboring town. This move wasn't caused by any disagreement with the positions of the Baptist church, but rather, my father had trouble understanding the sermons. You see, we're French Canadians, and while I have been well immersed in English culture since I was a young boy, my dad wasn't. So in an attempt to get more out of church services, we moved on to a French church, the Pentecostal church.

From the very beginning, I must admit, I had serious doubts about these "spiritual gifts" that were being exercised at church meetings. People were babbling in what seemed to be foreign tongues, there were "prophecies" where people would claim to have a message directly from God, and finally, there was the "Spirit falls" (in French "Tomber dans l'Esprit) where people got so overwhelmed by the "filling of the Holy Spirit", they fall flat on the ground.

For a year or two, my parents were as skeptical as I about these occurrences, but after that period of time, they too practiced these "gifts". At that time, I got kind of worried. I thought to myself: "why is the Holy Spirit not working these gifts in me?" I read my Bible every morning, sought the Lord in prayer everyday, my affection and love for the Lord was unwavering, and yet, no "speaking in tongues, prophecies or Spirit falls" for Rand. I asked my Sunday School teacher about the matter and I was told that I had to "earnestly desire" these gifts; I had to put meditate on these gifts until I received "the blessing".

So I did. I clearly remember on particular meeting where, with all my effort, I begged God that he would bless me with these "great gifts", that I too may worship Him "in the Spirit". During this time of feverish meditation and supplication, I put together some babble sounds and started uttering them repeatedly. I totally made the sounds up, but I thought I'd try to get things started to see if the Holy Spirit would then get involved.

He didn't.

In a matter of weeks, I had not only forgotten the babblings I had made up, but I had pretty much given up on the whole thing. I figured I probably wasn't "spiritual" enough, or perhaps I had some sin in my life that grieved the Holy Spirit so much, He wouldn't bless me. This was a common way of dealing with a lack of these "spiritual gifts" in the Pentecostal church. I bought these explanations for a couple of months.

Then my mother got grievously ill.

This changed everything. You see, when my mom got ill, the "spiritual gifts" that were professed at the Pentecostal church were put to the test. Prophecies were uttered showing my mother the way to healing. Prayers of healing were uttered. Healers actually laid hands on my mom and claimed she had been made whole. All she had to do now, was believe.

And let me tell you, she believed.

She stopped taking the medication that the doctors had prescribed for her condition and put her faith in the claims uttered by the "faith healers" and the "prophets".

to be continued...


Rand

Labels: Charismatic Movement

No Notes Tonight

sick... again...

I really, really wanted to be out street preaching tonight, since I had missed last week's Friday night evangelism due to a camping trip with my eldest son, but I guess it just wasn't meant to be. A nasty cold has gone through my whole family this week, and it's final stop was in me. I woke up this morning with a really bad throat ache and it just got progressively worse throughout the day.

So, there was no street evangelism for old Rand tonight and therefore, there is no Friday Night Notes for you, dear readers. Lord willing, I will be back at it next Friday night.

Remember me in your prayers, my brothers and sisters-in-the-Lord, since I will be, once again, preaching at our Sunday evening service this Lord's Day.

Later,


Rand

Extremely Busy

so much to do... so little time...

I wish I had more time to blog, dear readers, but this week, I simply don't. There is so much I would like to blog about, but in order to do a good job of it, I would have to put in time I simply do not have. I hope to be able to put together a brief "Friday Night Notes" this coming Friday, if the Lord will have it that I be out street preaching.

In the meantime, why don't you all go check out my young brother-in-the-Lord's new weblog at In Much Wisdom Is Much Grief. I just added him to my blog links. Some of you will recognize his nick, Mosaic Antinomian, from past comments here.

Later,


Rand

More Hypocrisy

so much of it...

Romanism (again):

So it would seem the "unholy father" (a.k.a the pope) has gotten himself into some hot water with the moon-god people.

As I read through the various accounts of what took place, what I found terribly sad is that for a rare moment, the pope had actually proclaimed something that was true. This is an excerpt of the pope's speech which started the Islamic firestorm:

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached".

That statement, dear readers is 100% true. Islam is an evil religion. It is inhuman in that it has a terribly poor esteem for human life (you don't buy this? just remember 9/11 and the abomination which took place in Beslan). Now before you all pass out from reading that I am in agreement with a papal speech, well consider this retraction of sorts from the unholy father, which just came out:

"As for the opinion of the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus which he quoted during his Regensburg talk, the Holy Father did not mean, nor does he mean, to make that opinion his own in any way. He simply used it as a means to undertake - in an academic context, and as is evident from a complete and attentive reading of the text - certain reflections on the theme of the relationship between religion and violence in general, and to conclude with a clear and radical rejection of the religious motivation for violence, from whatever side it may come."

Interpretation: "He quoted it, but he didn't mean it."

And, in the same statement, issued by the Vatican after the pope's speech, we have this wicked nonsense:

"The position of the Pope concerning Islam is unequivocally that expressed by the conciliar document Nostra Aetate: “The Church regards with esteem also the Muslims. They adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all-powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth, Who has spoken to men; they take pains to submit wholeheartedly to even His inscrutable decrees, just as Abraham, with whom the faith of Islam takes pleasure in linking itself, submitted to God. Though they do not acknowledge Jesus as God, they revere Him as a prophet. They also honor Mary, His virgin Mother; at times they even call on her with devotion. In addition, they await the day of judgment when God will render their deserts to all those who have been raised up from the dead. Finally, they value the moral life and worship God especially through prayer, almsgiving and fasting."

Interpretation: "Following Christianity or Islam... it really doesn't matter in the end... we are one big happy religious family."

The wicked nonsense.


Dawson College:

Another school shooting, another "goth". I have been told by the MSM, that there is ZERO association between the "goth" culture and violence in youth. Even Michael Moore, in his trite and shallow documentary "Bowling For Columbine", made sure to point out that there was no reason (no reason at all) to believe that just because the young men who carried out the shooting in Columbine wore trench coats, loved Marilyn Manson and everything about the "goth" culture, there was any connection between the two facts.

Warped goth culture, shock-rock/heavy metal music, violent movies and video games... nothing to do with school shootings and other forms of youth violence. That's the line anyway. Yet, when we look at the young man who carried out the shootings at Dawson College in Montreal, what do we read:

"Postings on a goth website by Kimveer Gill, the trenchcoat-wearing gunman behind the fatal shootings at Montreal's Dawson College, paint a suicidal portrait of the 25-year-old."

"In a blog on VampireFreaks.com, an online hub of goth culture, journal entries made in Gill's name speak about the hatred he feels toward society and his obsession for guns."

"He says "heavy metal rulz," and lists Natural Born Killers as his favourite movie."

"Gill describes life "as a video game, you've got to die sometime.'' He says he is a fan of the controversial and violent video game series "Postal," in which the targets are everyday human beings completing everyday errands."

"But to be more specific," he continues, he hates jocks, preps, country music, Hip Hop, "bible-thumping know-it-alls," God and "all those who oppose my rule." (CTV.ca News)

If you ever take the time to look up the profile of the Columbine killers, you will find the exact same kind of people. But hey! no reason to think there is any relation... naw... don't get paranoid now! (yes... I'm rolling my eyes right now)

I would like to think that this shooting could serve as some sort of wake-up call. That contrary to Columbine, the people of Montreal could truly realize that our godless youth are is serious trouble because THEY ARE GODLESS. But then I read this statement in the very same article I took the above quotes from:

"Jethro Berelson, who owns VampireFreaks.com, said Gill's shooting rampage should not lead the public to condemn goth culture." (CTV.ca News)

And I just KNOW, my dumb-dumb countrymen will buy this nonsense. Why? Because:

"And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." (John 3:19)


Rand

Labels: Pure Evil, Romanism, Stupid

Perfectionism and Pride

By Twinklemoose

Rand is camping for a few days with our eldest son, and I happen to have a post in my back pocket, so ...



Perfectionism is the attitude we get that doesn't let us do anything imperfect. For the most part, it simply stops us from doing anything at all. When it comes to Christian service, God is glorified in our imperfection. It's because we are imperfect vessels, that we can't and don't get puffed up with pride when we serve God with obedient hearts.

Pride is the attitude we get that permits us to:
*take credit for our Christian service
*compare ourselves to other Christians to see how we are doing in relation to them
*claim to be serving God when we are really rebelling against Him (this was Cain's first sin)

Perfectionism is a kind of pride. Perfectionism is me trying to do good works to impress other Christians. At one time in my Christian life, I went door to door leaving Bible tracts in mailboxes. Did I do it out of compassion for the lost, to lead souls to Christ? No. I did it out of a sense that I needed to evangelize to measure up with Christians around me. I did it because it was a way to get my points without speaking to people directly. After a while, I stopped doing that type of evangelism, partly because I knew my heart wasn't right. But perfectionism prevented me from doing anything at all. I felt I needed to speak with people to share the Gospel - that would be better than leaving mailbox tracts. But both can be equally used of God. And however imperfect my efforts, the tracts are way better than doing nothing. So now I'm back to leaving tracts - when I go out of the house, I bring some and find places to leave them. And this time I know I am in Christ. I desire to do this work.

If anyone tries to tell me I'm not doing a good thing because I'm not speaking with people, I will say God can use my imperfect efforts, and if they are not doing something to evangelize, they should stop being such a perfectionist and get busy.

If anyone tries to tell me I am doing a good thing, I will say I'm not gaining any extra points with God, and man's approval is really worthless. My future in heaven with Christ is already assured, and I just want to bring as many people along with me as I can.

Nonetheless, if you pray for me, pray God will loosen my tongue to speak with the lost more.

9/11 Memories

as I experienced it...

I was parking the van at my work when I heard the report on CBC radio. It was 9:00 am. I just listened long enough to know that there had been some sort of plane crash in New York city. I more or less shrugged off this bit of information, and quickly leaped out of the van; it was time to start the work day. It was a whole half hour later that my colleague, Don, walked in my office and said:

"Are you aware of what is happening in the U.S.?"

"Yeah, some sort of plane crash in New York, right?" I answered.

Don's eyes opened wide as he said:

"Oh! I think it's a whole lot more than just a plane crash, Rand. I think you better come listen to what the radio is reporting."

And that's where I went, and spent much of the day. By the time I started listening to the radio reports, both towers of the World Trade Center were burning and it was just reported that the Pentagon was hit. A short time later, we found out of a fourth hijacked plane crashing north of Camp David. At that time, it was supposed that United 93 was shot down by the U.S. Air Force.

I was shocked. There was a heaviness in the air that just crushed me. I felt terrible for the families and friends of these people who were in the hijacked planes, and the destroyed buildings. I knew, like everyone else in the world, that this terrible day would not only bring great grief to the U.S., I knew it would bring great hardship throughout all the Free World. I was also 100% positive that it was a question of time before American missiles started falling on some Arab country. It was clear that the future would be difficult, and sadly, bloody.

The Lord have mercy on our poor, totally depraved world.

(I thought about adding to this post some personal thoughts on the various events that lead to 9/11, and the aftermath of that terrible day, but I changed my mind. The fact of the matter is 9/11 has been cheapened enough by everyone injecting by exploitive movies, docu-dramas, and other forms of ignorant babbling to no profit. I think that on this day, it's best to keep it at simple: God be merciful and grant us as much peace in the world as He is willing to show.)


Rand

Friday Night Notes

The Lord controls the weather... no doubt!

I had to wait a while before beginning to write this post. There are times when I come back from our evangelistic effort with a very downcast attitude. Judge me all you want, but I have alot of trouble imagining how a saint could watch thousands of people cursing God and pursuing all manner of ungodliness and come out of the experience feeling "chipper". Believe me, I know EXACTLY what Peter meant when he said this of Lot:

"And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds)." (2 Peter 2:7-8)

Let me tell you, my soul may not be terribly righteous, but it sure gets vexed.

Now here are some echoes from our three hours of street preaching tonight:


The rain and the garbageman:


These are two things I am thankful to the Lord for tonight. First, the rain, or lack thereof during our street preaching. It rained cats and dogs just prior to our evangelistic effort, and it started raining heavily minutes after we had called it a night. The Lord indeed wanted us out preaching tonight!

Second was a city worker who was cleaning out the public garbage cans in the marketplace. As he wheeled a large, wheeled container past me, he had a look at my Gospel sign and briefly listened to my preaching. After just a few seconds, he spoke up, and with such heart, said:

"You are truly doing a great thing here, man! Keep it up."

Looking at this dirty, though hard-working garbageman, the following verse came to mind, and I glorified God and thanked him for this dear souls encouragement:

"For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in his presence." (1 Corinthians 1:26-29)


The Romanist/Church of God/I-don't-have-a-clue Man:


A man claiming to be a born-again Christian came by to have a conversation with me tonight. He told me he was an American, who was spending the week in Canada for work. He started to share his testimony with me, here are some of the highlights:

-he was a nominal Romanist.
-his life became a huge mess.
-he started asking "the Lord" to help him by praying the Rosary.
-he claimed that he heard (audibly) the Holy Spirit tell him that everything with him was going to be okay.

Right at this point I said: "No." I explained to him that there was ZERO chance I could ever believe his testimony because it contradicted Scripture. To be honest, I thought the man would just puff up with pride and leave, but to my surprise, he stuck around, wanting to know why I rejected his account. So I continued:

"Sir, you did not hear the Holy Spirit speak to you audibly for all prophecies are complete. In 1 Corinthians 13, it is made clear that when the Bible would be completed, personal prophecies would end; and Revelation 22 also gives dire warning against adding to prophecy."

Again, at this point, I was certain he'd leave, preferring to cling to his fables than the Word of God, but he again surprised me, so I just kept at it:

"Also, Sir, I know you didn't hear the Holy Spirit or anyone holy because you weren't worshipping God when this experience took place, you were committing idolatry. The Bible says: "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me", and you sir were committing a great sin before God, so I know that whoever spoke to you wasn't of God. Remember sir, "Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light."

Considering I had completely refuted his salvation account, he took it all pretty well, in that he heard me out. He didn't get excited or irritated, he just paid close attention to what I had to say. As he left, I wasn't at all convinced that the Lord was doing anything in this man, but one thing is for sure, he heard the Truth, and I certainly gave him quite a bit to think about. Let us pray that he'll be doing a lot of thinking this week-end.


They cut me to the heart:


While I or my pastor were preaching:

-a barely dressed, young lady yelled: "F**k God!"
-a sodomite put a filthy, immoral magazine up to his face.
-a man violently smacked my hand to cause me to drop my Gospel tracts.
-a woman made all manner of signs of disgust at the sound of the Bible preaching.
-two sodomites kissed each other in front of us.
-a group of young people mocked us and yelled, repeatedly: "Go home! we don't want you here!"


And that's the notes for tonight. Friday's are such long days, it's time for me to get some rest. May God bless your week-end, dear readers, and give you a refreshing Lord's Day.


Rand

Terrible Two?

blogiversaries...

Two weeks ago, I noticed that I had missed my own blogs second year anniversary. Yep, August 15th, 2004 was the beginning of A Pattern of Sound Words, which later morphed into the KJV equivalent, A Form of Sound Words.

Unlike missing a wedding anniversary, or my wife's birthday, forgetting my blogiversary didn't earn me a week on the couch, or even a cold shoulder from my PC, but I have to admit feeling a measure of embarrassment at forgetting all about this cool milestone. So rather than admitting my lack of memory, I decided to just let the second anniversary go without a mention.

Then Scott happened.


Scott is an acquaintance of mine who lives in my city; he is the owner of the Crusty Curmudgeon blog, which is now 3 years old (as of September 4th, 2006). In his entry on the day of his third blogiversary, Scott said:

"Best of all, I didn't forget my own blogiversary for two weeks, like last year."

I laughed so hard when I read this, I decided to make a post on my own forgotten "year two". The way I see it, if I'm a forgetful old geezer... well... I have company.

LOL!


Rand

Ps: for those of you who have visited the Crusty Curmudgeon before, you will notice that Scott has changed his template; he's got some pretty cool 3D graphics up on there! Make sure to compliment his computer graphics know-how.

Taking Cheap Shots From The Peanut Gallery

walk a mile in my shoes...

I know that this post is a complete waste of time. It's a waste of time in that the very people for which it is written will have more chance of being hit by lightning 6 times in 5 minutes, than taking even part of the post into consideration. That being said, I continue. Why? I don't know. Maybe I just need to gripe.

All too often, I get comments and e-mails that resemble this:

"Oh, Rand, you shouldn't be so negative..."

"Oh, Rand, you shouldn't be so judgmental..." (this one is my personal favorite... so blind are those who send me such nonsense, they can't even see that they themselves have just passed judgment on me)

"Oh, Rand, you need to be more loving/compassionate/patient/caring/(enter another sweetheart epithet here)..."

Does it happen that I am a bit too "glass-half-empty"? Surely, yes. Does it happen that I may be too quick to judgment? It's probably happened. Do I need to grow in love, longsuffering and compassion? Definitely yes.

So what's my problem?

My problem isn't with being chastised/corrected. My problem is with the hypocrites who try to dish it out. The Bible says:

"Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." (Matthew 7:1-5)

Too often this passage is used by the unbelieveing to do away with any and all forms of judgment. This is foolishness since if one continues to read Matthew 7, they will notice that Jesus actually commands his people to judge sound judgment. So if this passage isn't a ban on all forms of judgment, what is it saying? Simple. It is saying: "be fair in your judgment." What do I mean by this? I mean before you judge a brother/sister, make sure that you are doing right yourself. Anything less makes you a hypocrite.

Let me give you an example. Some time ago, I expressed a desire for the Lord's judgment to fall on sodomites that were preparing a "gay pride parade". It was a stupid thing to say, and I knew it when I said it; unlike James and John, I know what spirit I am of (Luke 9:54-56). It was the words of a man who really didn't want to put up with the aggravation and hardship of bringing the Gospel at the said parade.

You want to take a guess as to who gave me the hardest time over my dumb statement? It was a person who not only had never given the Gospel out to sodomites at a "pride parade", but a person who would never do it in a million thousand years. Actually, come to think of it, the person in question probably wouldn't give out the Gospel at any event! Ever!

Are you following me? This is beyond the "whether the person is right or not", this has to do with "is the person in any position to rebuke anyone?" There are plenty of people who come to my blog who love to challenge me on my Christian way of life, as well as my doctrinal views. Plenty of Christians (or so-called Christians) even. My response to this is simple:

"You come and follow me for a week."

Is this a prideful statement? I am saying that my spiritual conversation is so great that I am above reproach. Nope. What I am saying is that while I am, for the most part, a poor excuse for a saint, most of my brothers and sisters-in-the Lord are worst off than I am; and that's truly pathetic.

Walk in my shoes for a week. Do what I do. See what I see. Hear what I hear. Perhaps, afterwards, you will be in a position to judge me. There are men and women in my life who have and are walking the righteous path, who have taken up their cross and are being conformed to the image of Christ. Men and women like Pearl, Brother John, Pastor Tim, Brother Pascal, Pastor Tom, Pastor Smith, Twinklemoose, Brother Pete, and Brother Eric; when such souls rebuke/question me, I pay attention. Why? Because they are credible. Pure and simple.

So, again, while I am sure this post is a complete waste of time, my request is simple: before judging/rebuking me, make sure you've done your homework; and that goes out to Christians, those who think they are Christians, as well as to unbelievers. I am allergic to fools and hypocrites.


Rand

Allergies

what a curse...

Every year is the same. End of August to mid-September, I go through boxes of Kleenex tissues and I pop back all manner of anti-histamine, but there is no relief. Itchy eyes, puffed up face, runny nose and all that sneezing!

I've hardly slept at all this week. I don't think I've ever been this tired and still not manage to get any kind of quality sleep.

Anyway, this pathetic gripe is my way of explaining why there is no Friday Notes tonight. I just didn't have it in me. My body is exhausted and the out-of-control-sneezing simply made it impossible for me to spend 3 hours preaching the Gospel.

Please pray that I would get some relief on the Lord's Day, I'm scheduled to preach the evening service. What a disaster it would be to get a sneezing attack during my sermon...

Later,


Rand