HILLSONG'S NAKED COWBOY IS BACK~EXCEPT NOW IT'S NAKED SANTA!

 

HILLSONG'S NAKED COWBOY IS BACK~

EXCEPT NOW IT'S NAKED SANTA!

SEE: http://pulpitandpen.org/2016/12/21/hillsongs-naked-cowboy-is-back-except-now-its-naked-santa/; 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

Earlier this year Pulpit & Pen brought you the story of Hillsong, NYC’s youth pastor, Diego Simila, who posed as the infamous “Naked Cowboy” at a Hillsong women’s conference. There were also other more than questionable appearances of debauched characters at various other Hillsong conferences during that time, including the sex pervert, Austin Powers, who showed up at the London conference. Hillsong received quite a bit of backlash for these lewd acts of moral degeneracy including from Montanist apologist and noted Hillsong defender, Michael Brown.
As if these salacious acts weren’t enough to turn any biblically-minded Christian away from the perversion of the Bride of Christ that is Hillsong, Diego Simila is back–posing once again in an obscene display of lasciviousness, as a nearly-naked Santa.
On Esther Houston’s (wife of NYC Worship Leader, Joel Houston) Instagram site (click with caution), you’ll find the following festival of flesh.

This comes as no surprise since Hillsong is known for its debauchery and trashy performances, watered down gospel, and compromise on nearly everything Christians stand for. Several weeks ago, Joel Houston, son of Hillsong CEO, Brian Houston, posted on Twitter that he found Jen Hatmaker’s affirmation of gay marriage “refreshing.” In 2015, the same NY-based branch of Hillsong put on what many dubbed Hillsong’s Sleazy Silent Night, where a woman was paraded on stage in a seductive manner wearing provocative clothing. Carl Lentz, lead pastor of Hillsong NYC, was recently interviewed on Oprah’s television show where Lentz denied that you must be a Christian to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Lentz’ church also had two openly gay members of his congregation serving in the choir–one as the choir director.
All of this anti-Christian, anti-gospel vulgarity and compromise for the sake of pleasing man instead of God is what makes Hillsong famous. It’s no wonder SBTS president, Al Mohler says that Hillsong is “a prosperity movement for the millennials, in which the polyester and middle-class associations of Oral Roberts have given way to ripped jeans and sophisticated rock music…What has made Hillsong distinctive is a minimization of the actual content of the Gospel and a far more diffuse presentation of spirituality.”
Hillsong isn’t a church. Michael Brown says that this is simply an “exaggerated picture of the church of America.” But sadly, this is not exaggerated. This is commonplace and is quickly becoming the mainstream. The true church in America is the minority. It’s time the true church separate completely from the world and Hillsong.

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. –2 Timothy 4:3-4

_______________________________________________________

 

Hillsong’s ‘Naked Cowboy’ Appears as Half-Naked Santa at ‘Christmas Tropical Party’ 

BY HEATHER CLARK

SEE: http://christiannews.net/2016/12/24/hillsongs-naked-cowboy-appears-as-half-naked-santa-at-christmas-tropical-party/; 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

 The youth leader at Hillsong NYC, who generated controversy earlier 
this year after appearing at a Christian women’s conference as a 
look-alike to the city’s famed “Naked Cowboy,” recently was photographed
 at a “Christmas tropical party” again half-naked—a photo that was later
 deleted following concerns.

Esther Houston, the wife of Joel Houston, who serves as the leader of the popular worship band Hillsong United and co-pastor of Hillsong NYC, posted the photo to her Instagram this week with the caption “When the Christmas tropical party is lit.”
The photo featured youth leader Diego Simila with his shirt completely unbuttoned to bear his chest and short cut-off jean shorts, while wearing a Santa hat and having a tropical drink. Adjacent to Simila is Houston, a former Brazilian model, posing in a manner that exposed up her thigh.
Some of the commenters under the photo found the snapshot to be humorous.

“Hahahaha @diegosimila!! I’m crying!” one wrote. “Diego, you make my life complete.”
“@diegosimila me and @strazzabeatdown are dying right now!!!” another exclaimed.
But one woman expressed concern about the example that Simila and Houston were setting as professing Christians.

“How is this glorifying to Jesus Christ?” she asked, and pointed to 1 Thessalonians 5:22, which admonishes Christians to “abstain from all appearance of evil.”
“God will hold you accountable for your poor example to young Christians,” she opined.
One viewer shot back at the woman, stating that she was being “ridiculous,” and contending that there was nothing sinful about the photograph.
But blog sites also picked up on the matter, noting a pattern of concerning behavior within Hillsong.
“Still no sign of Hillsong bearing fruit in keeping with repentance. Just a false Jesus endorsing their sinful lifestyle,” opined the site Church Watch Central.
Houston has since deleted the photograph without explanation.
As previously reported, Simila raised controversy in May when he appeared at Hillsong’s Colour Conference as a “Naked Cowboy” lookalike—a popular New York City figure who walks the streets shirtless and without pants.
“I usually don’t expect to see a near-naked cowboy gyrating from the stage of a Christian women’s conference. … Indeed if I were of the world, I’d expect these sights and sounds to come from a giant bachelorette party at a strip club,” wrote Amy Spreeman of Berean Research.
Hillsong Co-Founder Brian Houston, while expressing concern, refuted those who referred to Simila as being the “Naked Cowboy” since he wasn’t completely naked.
“He was wearing proper shorts, not underwear, and he had a flag draped over him—bare-chested and perhaps inappropriate, certainly unexpected and unauthorized; but not naked,” he said in defense, adding that he and others were not aware of the plan.
“Some well-meaning person just made a silly decision,” Houston asserted. “It won’t happen again.”
Hillsong likewise raised controversy last year over its sold-out Christmas services in London, which included dancing elves, mini-skirt-wearing flappers, shirtless men pounding on drums, Santa Claus and more.

MATT MAHER'S & MATT REDMAN'S DOCTRINELESS ECUMENICAL ALLIANCE

MATT MAHER'S & MATT REDMAN'S DOCTRINELESS ECUMENICAL ALLIANCE 

SEE: http://pulpitandpen.org/2016/12/19/matt-mahers-and-matt-redmans-doctrineless-ecumenical-alliance/; 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

Two of the most popular artists in Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) are Matt Maher and Matt Redman. The two have produced many popular songs that can be heard in just about any church of any flavor around the world today. Songs like Redman’s Here For You, with references to the charismatic belief of a separate baptism of the Holy Spirit, and Maher’s Lord I Need You, with references to the Roman Catholic doctrine of infused righteousness would ring familiar in almost any modern Christian’s ears.
While it may appear that the music popular CCM artists like Maher and Redman glorify God with the production of music that has been so widely accepted by the church, most Christians have no idea the background and agenda of these men. I wrote an article last year entitled Matt Maher is Not Saved, Stop Singing His Music in Church. The article describes Maher’s Roman Catholic background and his alignment with the damning doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, and why promoting his music in the pews neither does the church, nor Maher himself any favors–let alone glorify the Risen Lord.
Maher and Redman, however, produced a song together, Remembrance, for the purpose of worshiping and having communion together–people from completely different doctrinal backgrounds. In an interview with Family Christian Bookstores, Maher says,

Like Matt Redman and I wrote a song about communion together. He comes from an Anglican or Evangelical background and I came from a Catholic background. We have completely different doctoral[sic] teachings about communion and about the Eucharist. Does that mean that we can’t write a song together about the importance of communion. Or that when Jesus says in the Bible, “Remember me … do this in remembrance of me… that we can’t. What we can say is let’s try to serve the Church with a song that somehow reflects truth and leaves a little bit of room for the mystery of faith.

Maher is correct that he and Redman have completely different doctrinal teachings about communion and the Eucharist. The Roman Catholic teaching is blasphemous and idolatrous–God hates it. Further, and more importantly, what Maher failed to say is that he and Redman also have completely different doctrinal teachings on salvation. In fact, Maher’s church anathematizes any, like Redman, who claim to believe in salvation by grace alone through faith alone. The Roman Catholic Church explicitly denies Matt Redman’s supposed “evangelical” beliefs in the Council of Trent which is held to be one of the most important councils in the history of the RCC.

• Canon 12. “If any one saith, that justifying faith is nothing else but confidence in the divine mercy which remits sins for Christ’s sake; or, that this confidence alone is that whereby we are justified; let him be anathema.”
• Canon 24. “If any one saith, that the justice received is not preserved and also increased before God through good works; but that the said works are merely the fruits and signs of Justification obtained, but not a cause of the increase thereof; let him be anathema.”
• Canon 30. “If any one saith, that, after the grace of Justification has been received, to every penitent sinner the guilt is remitted, and the debt of eternal punishment is blotted out in such wise, that there remains not any debt of temporal punishment to be discharged either in this world, or in the next in Purgatory, before the entrance to the kingdom of heaven can be opened (to him); let him be anathema.”
• Canon 32. “If any one saith, that the good works of one that is justified are in such manner the gifts of God, as that they are not also the good merits of him that is justified; or, that the said justified, by the good works which he performs through the grace of God and the merit of Jesus Christ, whose living member he is, does not truly merit increase of grace, eternal life, and the attainment of that eternal life, …and also an increase of glory; let him be anathema.”

Why don’t the two artists do a joint production on that one? Sadly, Redman’s association with Roman Catholics is not a new phenomenon. Redman has held several joint concerts with Maher and last year he spoke and played at one of the largest Catholic youth gatherings in the U.K., which was replete with the idolatry of the mass. The Protestant Standard writes:

Throughout the day Roman Catholics speakers will bring messages to the young people gathered there, and at the conclusion of the day Cardinal Vincent Nichols will lead everyone in a time of Adoration i.e. the Mass. None of this is unusual, or worthy of special comment for it what we would expect at a Roman Catholic event. This issue which attracts our attention on this occasion is the presence of a leading Contemporary Christian Music artist, Matt Redman.

And Redman promoted the event on his own Twitter account.

Sadly, Redman is neck deep into the false belief system that doctrine doesn’t matter as long as you can set that aside and hold hands and sing together. Matt Redman was interviewed by Tony Cummings and said,

You’ve got Catholics there, you’ve got high church Anglican, you’ve got house churches, Baptists, Methodists and no one even cares. Denominations don’t even register on anyone’s radar. They are all there centering around God. It’s great.

Yes, Matt. That is great. We’re so glad that God’s truth doesn’t matter in your world, and we’re so glad that your millions of followers are being taught to have a shallow understanding of God and center their worship around their emotions and personal experiences instead of God’s truth. Cummings then posed the following to Redman:

I remember interviewing David Watson and he was one of the key figures in the development of charismatic renewal within the Anglican church and I was quizzing him about Catholics on his platform and that kind of thing and he had a very simple rationale. He said anybody who confesses faith in Christ in sincerity and isn’t simply using Christian profession but actually meaning something else – like a cult might do – should be accepted as a Christian. It’s not for him to argue the finer points of doctrine with them.

To which Redman responded:

I’ve got a friend in America called Matt Maher and he wrote a song called “Your Grace Is Enough” which Chris Tomlin recorded and that song has been sung all over the world. But Matt is a Catholic guy, full-on. It’s funny isn’t it? Some people would think that “Your Grace Is Enough” is probably the most unlikely title to come from a Catholic guy. But that is what God is doing in the Church. It’s a unity thing and unity comes when you all look in one direction, doesn’t it? Worship is always going to be a very unifying thing. The moment we take our eyes off all these differences between us and we look in one direction, towards the Son of God, worship is going to unify.

But the unity is false. It isn’t around the true God or Jesus of the Bible, and Matt Redman is putting up with it “readily enough.”

For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. – 2 Corinthians 11:4

The Scriptures teach that unifying with unbelievers and those who proclaim a false Gospel is an abomination to God. Roman Catholics are idolaters. Roman Catholics bear the name of brother. 1 Corinthians 5:11 commands us not to even eat with such people as it gives a false impression of their acceptance into the body of Christ and it compromises the truth of the Gospel. Redman has chosen to be unequally yoked with unbelievers (2 Corinthians 2:14) instead of, as commanded in Scripture, exposing their unfruitful works to the light of God’s word (Ephesians 5:11). Matt Redman has chosen to align himself with the doctrineless and fruitless works of darkness masquerading as members of the church deceiving himself and others (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).
Matt Redman and his Catholic counterpart, Matt Maher, are leading millions of people astray–into the outer depths of darkness. Their ecumenical alliance is not glorifying to God. Jesus Christ and His truth is the foundation of the church and if that is set aside to build a divided house, it will not stand (Mark 3:25). To know God is to love Him, and you cannot know Him without knowing His revealed truth found in Scripture alone. Holding hands and singing songs with those who do not know God is not what biblical unity in the body of Christ is. We are to avoid those who hold to a false doctrine because it is they that cause divisions.

I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. –Romans 16:17

If you truly want unity in the body of Christ, separate from those, like Roman Catholics, who hold to a false Gospel and proclaim a false Jesus. Stop holding hands with false converts. Stop setting aside sound doctrine for warm fuzzy feelings with apostates. And stop anathematizing the few out there who are willing to stand up and contend for the faith that was once and for all delivered to the saints.

I question if hell can find a more fitting instrument within its infernal lake than the Church of Rome is for the cause of mischief. And your church will in its measure, be the same if bereft of the Spirit. — Charles Spurgeon

SAINT NICHOLAS RAISED THE DEAD; SO CAN WE: CHARLATAN PROTEGE OF BETHEL CHURCH

 

ABOVE: 
St. Nicholas of Tolentino Reviving a Child by Garofalo, circa 1530

SAINT NICHOLAS RAISED THE DEAD; SO CAN WE: CHARLATAN PROTEGE OF BETHEL CHURCH

BY BUD AHLHEIM

SEE: http://pulpitandpen.org/2016/12/22/st-nick-raised-the-dead-so-can-we-charlatan-protege-of-bethel-church/; 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

Have you heard of the DRT?   The Dead Raising Team? It’s an independent ministry operated by Tyler Johnson as part of his One Glance Ministries. As its name implies, the “ministry” focuses on raising the dead.  Johnson is a graduate of Bethel Church’s “School of Supernatural Ministry.”   Because … where else would you go for heresy, blasphemy, and Scriptural defiance but Bill Johnson and Kris Vallotton’s portal of demonic doctrines?
(For more on Johnson, go HERE. For more on Bethel, go HERE.)
Johnson just sent out a blanket email of a Christmas YouTube video he published last year entitled “Did Santa Raise The Dead?” The subtext of his email answers this with the affirming question “Did you know that St. Nic raised the dead?”

Chapel of The Holy Arms of St. Nicholas

According to the charismatic false teacher Johnson, “It’s said that he [St. Nick] raised 100 children from the dead.”
This isn’t a new tale. It’s been popular mythology in Roman Catholicism for hundred of years. The apostate Catholics, like the apostates coming out of Bethel, laud anything miraculous regardless of their Scriptural veracity or Biblical compliance. According to CatholicCulture.org, the Chapel of the Holy Arms in Tolentino, Italy even has the two severed limbs of St. Nicholas’ enshrined. The arms of the inspiring “saint” behind Santa Claus were rediscovered there in 1926.
Here’s the story that Johnson tells in this, “oh, by the way, buy our new book” video.
“St. Nick was in prayer in an area where there was a famine. He got a word of knowledge that there was a wicked innkeeper who, because he couldn’t give meat to the people staying in his inn, went out into the street and found three children, butchered them up – cut up their bodies – and then stuck their bodies in a brining barrel to cure the meat.”
It is, by the way, this “word of knowledge” that Johnson sources as the notion of Santa’s omniscience.   “He knows if you’ve been bad or good,” according to the children’s Christmas tune, comes from this dead raising tale of the Catholic saint.
“St. Nick sees this whole thing in a vision, goes into the town, finds the inn that he was in the vision, confronts the wicked innkeeper. The wicked innkeeper takes him down to this barrel. St. Nick prays over the barrel and then tells the innkeeper to open the barrel. The innkeeper opened the barrel and three children crawled out alive and well.   Raised from the dead.”

The purpose of Johnson’s retelling of this Catholic myth is to point to the many “creative miracles” that God is still doing. According to Johnson’s website, his own “ministry” claims “15 resurrections to date,” evidence that God is still creating miracles by re-creating and re-animating the dead.
Johnson gives the argument so often heard when a charismatic is challenged for a Biblical proof text that “signs and wonder” gifts are continuing today.   Jesus was dead for three days, he says.  Lazarus was dead four days, but God brought them back to life “because God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (We’d offer Andrew Rappaport’s response to this claim HERE)
“Sometimes we can feel like Santa threatens the real meaning of Christmas,” says this charlatan.   “But in reality, if we understand where Santa Claus came from, St. Nick points to Christ. His whole life honors God.”
Umm. No. Just No.
It’s following this when Johnson encourages the viewer to buy his latest book. I, of course, do not encourage you to buy his book.
Instead, I encourage you to do as Christ exhorted, “abide in my word.”  (John 8:31)  Then you won’t be, like so many, likely to wander off the narrow path with the ear-tickling doctrines of demons (1 Timothy 4:1) that come from the likes of Bethel and its protégés.

THE GIFT THAT TRULY KEEPS ON GIVING

THE GIFT THAT TRULY KEEPS ON GIVING
SEE: http://newswithviews.com/Nelson/kelleigh380.htm; 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

By Kelleigh Nelson
December 25, 2016
NewsWithViews.com

But let all who take refuge in You be glad, let them ever sing for joy; And may You shelter them, that those who love Your name may exult in You. —Psalm 5:11

Glory in His holy name; Let the heart of those who seek the LORD be glad. —Psalm 105:3

When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. —Matthew 2:10

Our Fallen Human Nature

There is no chicken little (the sky is falling) when you have Jesus. We rejoice because no matter our circumstances, the Lord is with us. Philippians 4:4.

As I write this, our newly elected president has not yet even taken his oath of office and people are deciding he’s not “draining the swamp” the way they expected him to do. There is no patience, no waiting on God, there is an immediate rush to judgment.

Stop it! Wait on the Lord! We believed our new president, now let’s see what he can do. Realize that he may make some mistakes! Haven’t we all!

Why is it that our fallen human nature immediately runs to negativity? Why is it that we immediately want to destroy any hope or promise God has given us? It’s our nature…that old sinful nature. And the Lord knows just exactly how we are! We so often fail to rest in HIM!

Remember Abraham and Sarah? The story starts in Genesis 11:30. The promise of God to Abraham would take twenty-five years to come to fulfillment. Of course, Abraham would never have known that it would take that long. He trusted God and knew that He would keep His word, and until then he must wait on the Lord. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to wait. Sometimes waiting for an answer to prayer is often part of the answer. We are far too impatient and want answers now, yet God in His gracious plan and purpose allows us to wait until His time.

Sadly, Abraham listened to his wife Sarah rather than waiting on God to do what He said he would do. Sarah thought she needed to help God, not understanding fully that with Him, all things are possible, and His promises are forever. Believers know the rest of this story.

Wait on the Lord, and wait on Him in prayer.

Rejoicing in Adversity

True joy comes from knowing the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and His Son, Messiah Jesus. Here is the true story of a Chinese pastor who was imprisoned for 18 years by the Communists because of his faith. Day after day, year after year, he was assigned to work in the prison camp's cesspool.
Every morning he had to wade into that stinking hole and spend his day scooping out the human waste. He was given this job as a special punishment because he kept holding tenaciously to his faith.

The pastor was grateful for the assignment because of the solitude he had. The stench was so bad that even the guards stayed far away. So, the pastor had the freedom to pray aloud, sing hymns to the Lord, and recite Scripture. The cesspool had become a garden of communion with God. And what did he sing? In the Garden, by Charles A. Miles, a 1913 hymn.

I come to the garden alone,
While the dew is still on the roses,
And the voice I hear falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses.

Refrain:

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

He speaks, and the sound of His voice
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing.
I’d stay in the garden with Him,
Though the night around me be falling,
But He bids me go; through the voice of woe
His voice to me is calling.

Out of the hardest of circumstances and worst of situations this man’s experience is a testimony of how God is in control no matter how horrible the situation might be.

If Pastor George Chen was willing to do all this to stand for his faith under such adversity; how can we even complain about the small adversities in our daily life?

Fire and Loss in East Tennessee

Drought struck our area this summer, with high temperatures and no rain. Our Smoky Mountains were timber waiting to burn. The fires started, caused from arson by two underage teens, burning 17,000 acres of the Smoky Mountains. In the tourist area of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, thousands of homes and businesses burned to the ground; the latest count is 14 dead. I’ve never seen a summer here so very hot and dry, not in the nearly 30 years we’ve lived here.

Tennessee is the Volunteer State, and rebuilding will take place, but the loss to so many is heartbreaking and devastating. The Fire Chief lost his own home while helping others. The Mayor of Gatlinburg lost his home as well as his resort which was extra income. Yet, their worries were all for their own people, and prayers for rain, which we received the next day. We rejoiced, and praised the Lord for His mercy.

Now comes the cleanup and the much-needed help. Dolly Parton is giving $1,000 a month to every family who lost their homes. This will go on for six months. She has also donated $1 million to help rebuild, and she has even bigger plans.

This is the buckle of the Bible belt, and the majority of people know the Lord, and trust in Him, even through tears and loss. One man lost his wife and two daughters, and has written a letter of forgiveness to the two teens, stating that this is what Jesus would have him do.

December is a huge tourist month for Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge. They’re back open, and beautifully decorated for the season, won’t you please come!

Corrie Ten Boom

Corrie was a Christian who, along with her father and other family members, helped many Jews escape the Nazi Holocaust during World War II. She was imprisoned for her actions. She watched her sister, Betsy, die in Ravensbruck concentration camp.

In 1947 she had come from Holland to defeated Germany to give a talk about forgiveness. Everyone filed out in silence after her speech, and then a man walked up to her and asked her if she really meant what she said about forgiveness. She saw the man as he had been, a guard at Ravensbruck who had watched her and her sister march by him naked as their clothes and shoes lay strewn in a pile on the floor.

She saw him and memories flashed in her mind. Her natural hatred and revulsion made her stiffen and she fumbled in her pocketbook. The former guard told her he had become a Christian and he reached out his hand to her. Corrie said that her arm felt like lead, and that she didn’t know if she could lift it.

She had told the audience of Germans, “When we confess our sins, God casts them into the deepest ocean, gone forever.”

“You mentioned Ravensbrück in your talk,” the man said. “I was a guard there.

But since that time,” he went on, “I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well Fräulein,”–again the hand came out– “will you forgive me?”

Corrie said she stood there, and she remembered what the Lord has said, “If you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.” She prayed, “Father, help me.”

Finally, her wooden arm reached up to grasp the man’s hand, and she said, “The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.”

“I forgive you, brother!” she cried. “With all my heart!” [Link]

The Birth of Our Savior

Christmas is here. The birth of our King of Glory is celebrated every year for one month of joyous preparation, and one special day reminding everyone of His gift to us. It is the season where we say, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS! We rejoice in the knowledge of our amazing Salvation through Christ the King who came in the simplest and humblest of wrappings.

 Jesus is God’s gift to all humanity. The perfect sinless gift. The gift of eternal life. The King of Kings, the Lord of Lords! The Lion of the Tribe of Judah!

Life is about what happens beyond the grave. Life is about knowing the God who made you and who gave you the greatest gift you will ever receive.
When you are shopping for gifts, when you are decorating your home, when you are baking and cooking, when you are opening those gifts from under the tree, when you are celebrating with family and friends, remember the perfect everlasting gift, the gift that truly keeps on giving, throughout our lives, and then into eternity.

Despite what we may live through, if we have the King of Glory in our lives, He is the blessed gift who holds us up in both joy and trials.

May your Christmas and your heart reflect the exultation of knowing Him and receiving His special gift. For it is by grace…

CHRISTMAS IN AMERICA AGAIN~THANKS TO PRESIDENT ELECT TRUMP

CHRISTMAS IN AMERICA AGAIN~

THANKS TO PRESIDENT ELECT TRUMP

SEE: http://newswithviews.com/Anghis/roger405.htm; 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

By Pastor Roger Anghis
December 25, 2016
NewsWithViews.com

Election night in 2008 a dark cloud fell over the United States. It began a time of almost hopelessness and despair. Barack Obama had become the 44th president of the United States and the research I had done on him left a sinking feeling in my gut. He was not the man he said he was and he was not the man MSM portrayed him to be. I found it difficult to understand how a man of this low character had been able to win over the people of America.

My assessment of him had nothing to do with the color of his skin so don’t write me letters and claim I’m a racist. Remember that he is half white too! I have just as many friends that are black as I have that are white. I knew that America was going to go down a path that we really didn’t want to go. Obama stated a few days before the election that “we are a few days away from fundamentally changing America.” America needed change but not what this man and his policies were going to bring. I knew that we were in for at least four years of hell when Obama to Cantor “I won.” It ended up being eight years of hell. His upbringing was not clothed in American values. He was raised muslim. His grandparents who raised him were communists. The freedoms of America and the rights we have, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of press, bearing arms did not sit well with him. I remember him stating in a private fund raising event in California that too many Americans ‘cling to their guns and their religion”. I wonder if he notices the irony of how the radical muslims cling to their guns and religion?

Obama began his fundamental transformation almost immediately. He signed an executive order to close down Gitmo, a place that should stay open. He then began to release the jihadist that was in there. There have been about 60% of those released that have gone back to killing Americans in the Middle East. To me that is treason. He is releasing more in the next few days even one that has declared that when he gets out he will kill as many Americans as he can. He has been the most destructive president to the military of this great nation that we have ever had. Our levels of preparedness are below pre-WWII and this is while we are still in a war with Islam. He has stated that we are not and never will be at war with Islam. That, again, is a treasonous act because Islam has stated that they are at war with us. He ‘negotiated’ a deal with our enemy, Iran, giving them a path to a nuclear bomb. That’s like giving Japan a way to develop a nuclear bomb during WWII. All this time Congress sat on its backside and did nothing to curb in Obama’s overreach of his executive authority.

Obama’s immigration policies have devastated the American workplace. He has refused to enforce our immigration laws, wrote a few of his own, which he does not have the authority to do. His Attorney General decided which laws he was going to enforce. Voter ID was not allowed to take hold in any State that tried to implement them. Eric Holder also stopped States from cleaning up their voter rolls, which was a requirement by law. As a result in 2012, 2014 and 2016 there were almost seven million people registered in more than one State. Again, Congress did nothing. I believe that it was political correctness that kept them from stopping Obama. But as I’ve stated for years, if you’re politically correct you’re probably wrong.

Obama has put a regulation strangle hold on American businesses by adding about sixty new regulations a day since he took office. These regulations cost businesses time and money that only restricts how a company can operate and grow. Government is supposed to create an environment that will allow a business to thrive. I have yet to see a Democrat administration that does that in the last century except for the Kennedy administration in the 1960’s. The Obama administration has yoked businesses with restraints like we have never seen: The Obama Administration is responsible for an unparalleled expansion of the regulatory state, with the imposition of 229 major regulations since 2009 at a cost of $108 billion annually (using the regulatory agencies’ own numbers). The actual costs are far greater, both because costs have not been fully quantified for a significant number of rules, and because many of the worst effects—the loss of freedom and opportunity, for example—are incalculable. The need for reform is urgent.

The White House, Congress, and federal agencies routinely breach legislative and even constitutional boundaries, and increasingly dictate lifestyle choices rather than focusing on public health and safety. Immediate reforms should require legislation to undergo an analysis of regulatory impacts before a floor vote in Congress, and require congressional approval of each major regulation before it can take effect. Sunset deadlines should be set in law for all major rules, and independent agencies should be subject—as are executive branch agencies—to the White House regulatory review process.[1]

The list of atrocities this man has done to America would take several columns to discuss. His healthcare disaster that almost destroyed the best healthcare system in the world, his demand that abortion be taxpayer paid, his shoving down the throats of Americans the homosexual marriage agenda makes him the most ungodly man to ever hold that office. There are only 27 days of this hell left. Our new president, who is not perfect, but did wake up 81% of the evangelicals who had been in a coma for the last two presidential elections will begin the process of turning all this around. He plans to defund Planned Parenthood, build our military back up so we can defend ourselves, deregulate businesses so they can operate again and get rid of the worst healthcare system in the world. He will shut down Obamacare. The only problem that he will face is we returned to office 94% of the people that helped create the problem we are in by their inaction and refusal to hold Obama to his Constitutional pledge. But I still have hope. We dodged another Clinton presidency that would have completely destroyed America. That is a miracle in itself. We have people that will be directing our economy that have actually been very successful in business. Obama only had 6% in his cabinet that had run a business. Trump has 100%. We have people who know how to do things and we have a leader who has been successful himself and that can coordinate all of it.

I felt that dark cloud lift on the evening of November 8th this year. The left is still in its death throes over this election. The Russians did it, voter fraud, fake news and whatever else they may try to come up with. Death threats to the Electoral College and our great AG Loretta Lynch refuses to prosecute those people threatening the EC. Congress still does nothing. But I still have hope. This election is like opening a present at Christmas and it was exactly what you wanted. We finally have a man that is for the American people, who will stand for them and their constitutional rights. A man who is more interested in making America what the Founders intended it to be, a man who will look out for the best interests of the American people instead of allowing our enemies to prosper at our expense.

He may not accomplish everything that he said he would do but it will be the fault of Congress if he doesn’t. Hopefully we will be able to clean out some of the carrier politicians that have been in D.C. for 20-40 years. They are the problem. They get entrenched and try to gain power and wealth for themselves. They get rich in their legislation. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been in D.C. since 1978 and has now an annual salary of about $165,000 a year but is worth $17 million.[2] How do you accumulate that kind of wealth on that kind of salary? Harry Truman said that you have to be crooked to get rich in politics. Look at the Clintons. Proof positive of that statement.

 Trump doesn’t have to make money. He is wealthy on his own. People that do business with him verify that he is honest. The last president we had that was honest was Reagan.

When Reagan was running for re-elected in 1984 his campaign declared ‘It’s morning in America.’ Trump may not be perfect but neither was Churchill during WWII. He was crass, sometimes drank too much, told off color jokes and even insulted a woman who berated him for being drunk. He told her I may be drunk but you’re ugly and in the morning I’ll be sober, but you’ll still be ugly! He wasn’t perfect but he was the right man for the job at that time in history. I believe that Trump is the right man for the job today. We weren’t electing a pastor but a leader who would be willing to stand up for America and all her greatness and even bring some of that greatness back that we lost over the last 30 years because of gutless politicians that support globalism instead of Americanism.

Yes, it’s not just morning in America again, it’s Christmas in America again!

CHRISTMAS DAY: DON'T FORGET THE PAIN AND SORROW

CHRISTMAS DAY: DON'T FORGET THE PAIN AND SORROW

BY DEVVY KIDD

SEE: http://newswithviews.com/Devvy/kidd754.htm; 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

By: Devvy
December 25, 2016
NewsWithViews.com

"I hold the precepts of Jesus, as delivered by himself, to be the most pure, benevolent, and sublime which have ever been preached to a man." Thomas Jefferson to Jared Sparks, November 4, 1820

Today is the big day. Christians around the world are celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Lots of cheer, the Christmas tree, gifts and too much snow in many places. I hope everyone is able to be with their loved ones this day. Family is what makes our lives worth living, at least for me. Of course, our troops are still not home, but I'm not going to use this column for any commentary on the war. Just wish to say God bless our troops and their families. I also wish to send God's blessings to everyone and hope this day brings joy in your heart.

Know one of the things I think about today? I think about the Blessed Mother and her pain of bringing forth a child into the world knowing that one day she would see her son die in the most horrific manner because that is what Almighty God intended:

John 3:16-17 (KJV) 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.

Mary must have treasured each day with Jesus as He grew to manhood. The pain the Blessed Mother went through as she watched her son die a slow agonizing death must have been beyond what most of us can imagine. As I mother, I cannot even imagine such pain and sorrow. When my daughter had surgery (three times), I just sat there like a lump praying to God that He keep her safe through the operations. The agony of Mary bringing forth the savior of the world for you and me knowing the outcome. How can we not weep to think of it?

Our Heavenly Father promised us through his son, Jesus Christ, that if we lived by his commandments and repented of our sins, our reward when we leave this human body would be greater than any earthly riches. As I am fond of saying, eternity is a long time.

God commands us not to sin: Kill, lie, cheat, steal, commit adultery, worship false gods, honor our parents and so on. Unbelievably, today's modern pastors of these mega social houses called churches who make millions of dollars personally, care no more about saving souls than they do about an ant on the sidewalk. This may offend some, but I've read a load of material on Rick Warren and Joel Osteen (who gives me major creep factor) and I wonder what Bible they preach from? I see these IRS sanctioned churches of all denominations who have allowed themselves to be silenced and instead, preach feel good rhetoric instead of what each of us must do to enter the Kingdom of God. Heaven forbid they should chastise their congregation and remind them of God's commandments and the price they will pay for ignoring them!

For those who admire Rick Warren, I say to you, beware of this wolf cloaked in "good works":

"Best-selling author, social activist and megachurch pastor Rick Warren described the social gospel supported by many of the mainline churches as “Marxism in Christian clothing. [W]e don't need to care about redemption, the cross, repentance. All we need to do is redeem the social structures of society and if we make those social structures better the world will become a better place,” explained Warren as he described the beliefs behind those who support the "social gospel," in his interview with Beliefnet.com, which was posted Monday. “Really in many ways it was just Marxism in Christian clothing,” he criticized."

We don't need to concern ourselves with redemption, asking God to forgive our sins? We don't need to care about the cross where Christ met the most horrible death? The cross is the symbol that has given hope to billions for over two thousands years by reminding us of Jesus' sacrifice for us. What shocking words from a pastor.

I would say given the state of the world and our republic, that mankind has failed miserably in keeping God's Commandments. We are all sinners, but we can ask for God's forgiveness. He knows what is really in your heart no matter how you try to fool Him.

I know people have great hope following Donald Trump's election, but I'm sorry, 2017 is going to be a rocky one - especially the economy. Millions will cry, "Please God, help me with the rent or my car payment or just some money to buy food for my children!" It's natural to ask for God's help, but I am wondering what He thinks about these same people who ignore His commandments and then expect a miracle on demand?

 If we desire God's blessings can we expect them if we lie, cheat, steal, kill unborn babies in the womb, use His name as a curse word, wallow in the filth of sexual deviancy, sleep around like dogs on the street and worship mega pastors who lead their flocks astray? Can we expect God's blessings by picking and choosing which of his commandments we like even though the act of disobedience brings the stain of sin upon our soul? Can we expect God's blessings by forgetting His gift to the world, His son, Jesus Christ - except when we want something material?

I know secularists in this country disparage people of faith and that my questions are most likely considered corny. The good news is, I really don't care. Secularism is a system of political or social philosophy that rejects all forms of religious faith and worship. Those who believe in nothing are but one heart beat away from eternity. I would not wish to be in their place.

We dearly love our spouses, parents, children and good friends, but God's love above all is what we seek through his son, Jesus Christ. I believe that's what today is all about, isn't it?