But we let the dead bury the dead. I'm just here to share what's going on out there.

Excerpts from today's Christianity Today with my comments:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/008/13.31.html

"The Protestant reformers named three marks by which the true church is known: the preaching of the pure doctrine of the gospel, the pure administration of the sacraments, and the exercise of church discipline to correct faults." ---So much for what the reformers believed! Today, Protestant leaders teach just the opposite: that church discipline is the mark of a false church. Just a bad memory I guess..--------------------------------------Who killed church discipline? The article tells us that the megachurch can't keep track of membership, let alone members' personal lives. Explaining in such a church you can't be sure of the members, as opposed to "church-hoppers or perennial visitors", and other "free-floating Christians without accountability." The article implicates others as well: "Despite the efforts of responsible evangelists from John Wesley to Billy Graham" converts accept salvation at some stadium and only secondarily get to a church. This teaches the new convert that "salvation is separate from accountable membership in a congregation"....The real killer of church discipline today is none other than the early reformers. Surprise, surprise. That's right, the same guys who couldn't find the true church of their day, so they did their best to create it. "Luther, for example, never instituted an order for church discipline, saying that if the state did its job of dealing with offenders, the church wouldn't need to. Calvin used the authority of the state to deal with both morals in Geneva and the doctrinal heresies of Michael Servetus"...Three generations ago, some evangelicals still possessed a moral code worth standing up for. "In conflict with liberals or "modernists," many evangelicals withdrew from mainline churches. --------------------------------------------------
The article concludes "It doesn't make much sense to bring people into Christ's way in the first place if the church then fails to make every effort consistent with the gospel to bring back into Christ's way those who are straying from it." Dah! That is the very kind way of saying that the orthodox Christian Church...every one of them.....have lost the way. And their membership with them!
It is societal mores and practices that rule the pulpit, rather than the teaching and later holding members accountable to Scripture (especially that of the New Testament). This is moral laziness and a clear indication of the loss of divine authority. For all of you getting the hardcopy of the magazine: Copyright © 2005 Christianity Today..August 2005, Vol. 49, No. 8, Page 31

Truth is more disgusting than fiction

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/144/22.0.html

The Anglicans pretend to be seriously wounded by allowing their own whoredoms. I'll be breaking up this article with my own comments with brackets:

Christianity Today magazine begins the article:"
Some 103 top Anglicans, amid tight security and a media blackout, gathered last week on Egypt's Red Sea coast for the third Global South to South Encounter to address disunity in the 75-million-member Anglican Communion, the world's largest and one of the most influential Protestant bodies.--------[LOL - So much for an open forum - One is left to wonder if the bulk of the 75 million are aware they are Anglican]

"Gay ordinations, same-sex unions, and acceptance of the homosexual bishop, V. Gene Robinson, have sharply increased tensions among Anglicans worldwide. Talk of schism is no longer speculation." [And we probably have some of our own blogging ministers that can provide scriptures in support, sneaking up behind us, as it were.)

"The world's leading Anglican, Rowan Williams, archbishop of Canterbury, joined the conference for a day. He gave little or no open encouragement to conservatives that the Episcopal Church (USA), the Anglican Church of Canada, or any other Anglican province would face meaningful penalties for participating in gay ordinations, same-sex unions, or the consecration of Robinson as bishop."

[Hello!?!?! This is the Episcopal Churches of North America defending profound sexual deviancy as, suddenly now, sanctified behavior. And worse, the Mother Church shows itself accomplices. Is this the direction the rest of my North American Orthodox Christian latte lovers are going? Heck, you wouldn't know if they surprise you from behind. The leadership meetings are closed for YOUR own good. When they are done with their revisioning, you become an accomplice with them. ]

"After five days of meetings, the group issued an eight-page statement, in which the delegates said:

"Our own Anglican Communion sadly continues to be weakened by unchecked revisionist teaching and practices, which undermine the divine authority of Scripture. The Anglican Communion is severely wounded by the witness of errant principles of faith and practice which in many parts of our communion have adversely affected our efforts to take the gospel to those in need of God's redeeming and saving love." [Butt we're just gonna be quiet about the weird in our family, After all we're all pretending at authority anyway. Nobody respects any of it.]

The delegates made the following commitments

"We express full confidence in the supremacy and clarity of Scripture and pledge full obedience to the whole counsel of God's Word. We in the Global South endorse the concept of an Anglican Covenant (mooted in the Windsor Report) and commit ourselves as full partners in the process of its formulation. We are seeking a covenant that is rooted in historic faith and formularies and that provides a biblical foundation for our life, ministry, and mission as a communion."

"We reject the expectation that our lives in Christ should conform to the misguided theological, cultural, and sociological norms associated with sections of the West."

[BUT THEY WILL DO NOTHING. We have American Episcopalians who have held a "service of consecration" at the National Cathedral in Washington for the gay religious community and want everyone to watch how they reform Christianity. They are reforming without scripture and Mother is taking it just like a corrupt mother would.]

"The Episcopal Church (USA) intends to send a signal that they are going in a certain direction and will not turn back," Noll said. "It confirms our sad realization that the Episcopal Church as it is now constituted is unreformable. It is a sad day to see your own birth mother fall away."-------------

Early Christians understood that only the actions of lawfully-ordained priesthood holders were valid. Ignatius, the second bishop of Antioch, writes to the Church of Smyrna that no baptism is legitimate lacking the bishop’s consent: “It is not right either to baptize or to celebrate the agape apart from the bishop; but whatever he approves is also pleasing to God--so that everything you do may be secure and valid.” He continues: “He who is within the sanctuary is pure; he who is outside the sanctuary is not pure -- that is, whoever does anything apart from the bishop and the presbytery and the deacons is not pure in conscience.” Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, stated that “it is incumbent to obey the presbyters who are in the Church” and referred to the “the order of the priesthood.” Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, affirmed that “Only they who are set over the Church and established in the Gospel law, and in the ordinance of the Lord, are allowed to baptize and to give remission of sins [cf. John 20:21-23]; but that without, nothing can either be bound or loosed, where there is none who can either bind or loose anything. Nor do we propose this, dearest brother, without the authority of divine Scripture, when we say that all things are arranged by divine direction by a certain law and by special ordinance, and that none can usurp to himself, in opposition to the bishop and priests, anything which is not of his own right and power." Cyprian refers to "the office of our priesthood"; "the vigor of the priesthood"; "hands were placed upon the repentant by the bishops and clergy"; "the Church is founded upon the bishops, and every act of the Church is controlled by these same rulers"; "it behooves the deacon . . . to acknowledge the honor of the priest, and to satisfy the bishop set over him with full humility."

News will be arriving this Sunday at your local church that there have been too much contention between Christian believers concerning what is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our religious leaders have gathered and fearing, they say, that the Hoopleheads will begin to riot over their differences, the following edict has come down: Revelations is too far out of character with the bulk of the other sacred works. It is being taken from the canon. Likewise, Paul is over represented so the Corinthian letters and Ephesians have been seen as most redundant. But most of the venim came against the Book of James with his comments on works; the men of the cloth saying it was a mistake having included him from the beginning. Both Proverbs and Psalms are out of step with what real Christians are doing in their worship services. A smaller set of scriptures should be greater comfort to carry for a younger congregation who don't normally bring scriptures. A new level of Good News has arrived. Its about time we did this again. How long has it been? Certainly a thousand plus years. Now it'll be easy to defend the faith when more of us believe less of it.

Imagine having survived a severe earthquake only to discover most of your neighbors had not or cannot be accounted for. For several days, even weeks after you feel grateful for being spared and as many more weeks pass by, you come to realize that the devastation was widespread and that over 50,000 had died and you are one of 3,000,000 survivors / 550,000 families without a place to live. It is approaching November and without a tent you have nothing, sitting on the ground with the Himalayan winter approaching. You are one family in the most difficult relief operation the world has ever faced.- in total you are among three times as many people that were displaced as those affected by the Indian Ocean tsunami last December. ----------------------------You can only sit and wait for the World to help----------- The United Nations estimates that tens of thousands will be required to survive the Himalayan winter without shelter. --------------This is not because we do not have the resources. It is because each of us are not pulling our load. Let the humility sink in as you sit where you are. ------------------------------------------------------Most Christian Churches do not enforce tithing by their members, let alone teach them from their youth to take a day a month and fast. Then after the fast take that money saved and provide it for a special relief offering. The truth is if every Christian tithed (10%) of there gross income and if they refrained in obtaining a burdensome mortgage on their church building. The destitute of the world would be cared for, easily.------------------------------------The member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who tithes are the only members considered to be "in good standing". In the face of all those who would malign us, we quietly do our part.------------If you tithe in your church you know the Lord blesses you for the sacrifice----------I don't have to say "God Bless You" because you know he already has.