That Whosoever Believeth…

There were shepherds "out in their fields, keeping watch over their flock" perhaps in route that very night to the Passover, shepherds who heard the angelic message: "... unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior..."And this shall be a "sign" unto you... "the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger."

"They came with haste, and found" the babe swaddled in strips of cloth used for wrapping the dead, and cradled in a feeding trough, perhaps one of their own. That night, they alone understood this was "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world," and they BELIEVED and "made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds" (cf., Luke 2:8-20).

The "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" has already paid the debt for every sin we have ever committed or will yet comment (cf., 1John 2:2), BUT ONE MORE THING IS REQUIRED:

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever BELIEVETH in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that BELIEVETH on him is not condemned: but he that BELIEVETH not is condemned already, because he hath not BELIEVED in the name of the only begotten Son of God" (John 3:16-18; emphasis added).

How can I be saved?

The Night Before Christmas

Raiders of the Lost Menorah

The pontiff, in negotiations earlier this year urged the release of U.S. held communist spies to improve U.S.-Cuban relations. A few hours ago President Obama announced a Cuban-American agreement that included that provision.

However, the Vatican has yet to urge the release of Jonathan Pollard, 30 years into his radically disproportionate life sentence for spying “for” an American ally. Unfortunately, Rome has a 2000 year history of Semitic bias:

Rome’s Arch of Titus depicts the triumphant return of Roman’s legions from the destruction of Jerusalem. Titus, on horse drawn chariot, accompanied by the winged goddess Victoria leads a laurelled procession carrying the temple menorah, the symbol of the Nation of Israel. Biblical Archeology Review (July/August 2005), with cover featuring that relief, recounts a meeting between Israel’s Minister of Religious Affairs Shimon Shetreet and Vatican officials: A “tense silence” was reported when Shetreet suggested that Israel’s golden menorah may be in a Vatican storeroom and requested the Pope’s assistance in its location. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs explains why this and similar requests have met with a similar response:

The requests by Shetreet, the president, and the chief rabbis reflect the long-held belief that the Catholic Church – as the inheritor of Rome, took possession of the empire’s booty – as documented by the Arch of Titus. … This is not to say that 2,000 years or so have been enough time for the [Vatican’s] Foreign Ministry to formulate a policy on the matter. Unofficially at least, we look forward to the restoration of the treasures of the Jewish people … but do not anticipate this will occur before the coming of the Messiah.

How can I be saved?

Little Red Riding Hood

“The Good Book says don’t throw stones at glass houses…” Our President advised during his recent in-your-face justification of executive amnesty nullifying our Union. His “extra-biblical” “glass houses” quote was intended to allude to the passage that begins with the verse that every spiritual reprobate knows by heart and in the King James no less; “Judge not, that ye be not judged….” (cf. Matthew 7:1-5 ).

However, once again his army of ghost writers let him down as on a 2010 pre-election campaign stop:

"I came to my Christian faith later in life and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead. Being my brother's and sisters’ keeper, treating others as they would treat me..." (President Barack Hussein Obama during a pre-election campaign stop in Albuquerque, N.M.).

Remember Little Red Riding Hood and that one particularly intense moment when she says: "Grandmother, what big teeth you have"? No matter how hard the big bad wolf tried, there are some things a wolf just can't fake.

Same with President Obama today. Even with an army of ghost writers scripting the answer for an obviously staged question, faking faith just isn't easy. Here are just a few of the words of Scripture Team Obama got woefully backwards:

"Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them..." (Matthew 7:12).

How can I be saved?

The Prodigal

That’s my father on the right with a string on his finger. On the left his younger brother David on leave from the Navy. Together again with their sister on that all so familiar Missouri farm late in November. The “Dust Bowl Days” were past and “Great Depression” over. It had been a wonderful time, that Thanksgiving of 1941. And it was after 2 AM as my father gently triggered the camera shutter. A few hours later, the “prodigal” was again on his way.

The U.S.S. Oglala, bucking the waves under full power, being urgently propelled toward its Pacific destination. It had to arrive at the appointed time. However, fatigue eventually took its toll on the minelayer, a WW1 converted passenger steamer. Silently adrift, it summoned assistance. After a tow cable was attached and the feverish pace resumed, David commented to his superior: “If we go any faster that cable is ‘gona’ snap.” And “snap” it did!

The U.S.S. Oglala entered Pearl Harbor during the early morning hours of December 7, the last to arrive. It moored “side by side” with the U.S.S. Helena, completing the formation of "Battleship Row."

And as the sun rose on “December 7, 1941,” most of the Oglala crew, including her commanding officer, were still “out on the town.” However, the men in the boiler room, the cook, the second in command, and a few others including David were at their stations. When the sound of revving planes and whistling bombs punctuated the morning tranquility, General Quarters was sounded. The second in command screamed, “Man the Guns”! David screamed back: “What guns”! Someone found the keys, unlocked the magazine, and after some fumbling a 3"/50 cal. A.A. gun and three .30 cal. machine guns were manned and returning fire.

Then as several enemy planes strafed the deck, a buddy standing immediately behind David was struck in the face, then a Zero flying low and amidships, then a torpedo and its contrail as it converged on the Oglala. It would soon be over! The Oglala lifted out of the water, but he was still alive! The submerged munition had gone under the Oglala and struck the Helena on the other side.

They continued firing, reporting some “definite hits.” However, the Oglala’s hull had ruptured and was flooding rapidly. For an hour and a half the meager crew was uninterrupted in returning fire as the Oglala continued to list to her port side. 5°, 10°, 15°, 20°. Then as the commanding officer finally returned, the Oglala listed to its side, and those who could swam away.

Back on a farm in Missouri, a family had but one thought: “Is he alive.” The phone was never unattended. A speaker in the kitchen was connected remotely to the wireless in the library. And as hours turned to days, a mother listened and waited. And during the days before Christmas, sleep was haunted by the thought of “tapping” sailors trapped in the hulls of sunken ships….

In the years that followed David never forgot that day or his buddy, and the question: "Why him, not me?" The “prodigal” returned to the soil, married, had children, and as aimless years went by, he was haunted by the question: "Why not me"?

Then one night in a small church, down on his 70 year old knees, he found the answer:

“I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son.... And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him…. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found….” (Luke 15:18-24).

Not long ago, his pastor was at the hospital with his wife and son. "Dad, you are the best father a son could ever have." David, gasping for breath from the decadence of earlier years, with effort and in kind responded "you are the best son a father could ever have." And as final exchanges waned, his pastor ask: "David, do you want the service at the church or the funeral home?" Then David with joy and peace and a smile consistent with his latter years shot back: "SURPRISE ME"!

"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us" (Hebrews 12:1).

How can I be saved?