Are You Salt or a Moron?

We read Matthew 5:13 in church this morning:  You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. I wondered about the word tasteless and what it meant? Thanks to modern technology I soon had my answer. It comes from the root word μωρóσ. Transliterated it is moros from which we get our word moron. Aside from tasteless, the other shades of meaning are foolish, dull or stupid.

So we can be a positive influence in the world around us by making things more savory and acting as a preservative or we can be foolish, dull and stupid and end up being worthless and trampled under the feet of the world.

I think the difference is made by knowing and living what the Bible says.

What do you think? Any examples of "Christian" moron behavior?

Philip

The Real Reason Behind Civil Unions and Homosexual Marriage

Most stories pushing the homosexual union/marriage agenda start with a sad story of some poor couple denied something because they didn't have the same rights as married people. This is used to gain sympathy from a gullible public - why should we deny this to people who love each other, etc.

How about if the story started out this way: "We are gay, we are out of the closet, and we will not be satisfied until we shove all of the Christians into a closet. We want to force you to violate your religious beliefs. If you own a bakery we will force you to make a cake to celebrate our union. If you are a photographer we will force you to celebrate our union by taking pictures of it." Do you get the point? These are real things that are happening and not the only examples.

The way the story is spun many times determines how people will feel about it. The truth is that homosexual activists do have an agenda. It's not that we tolerate them, accommodate them, accept them, etc. The agenda is to silence all opposition and force it into submission.

We can still love them and reach out to them but we should not be fooled by them.

Philip

Why I Care About Abortion

11 weeks from conception

I have been involved in direct action against abortion for many years. That means I am actively doing things to stop abortions. Through the years that has included picketing, getting arrested, passing out literature at local high schools, and leading a prolife ministry.

Something happened in 1990 that forever changed me. One of the things I have done through the years is dig through the trash of abortion clinics to gain information about them. One cold Saturday morning I was going through bags of trash. As I opened up a wad of paper and gauze I was stunned and devastated. There before me was the foot of a child. It looked just like the picture above these words except that it was more lifelike. It was about 1/2 inch long and severed above the ankle.

We tolerate abortion because it is just a word to many of us; a controversial subject that we are tired of hearing about. The number of 50,000,000 abortions done in the United States since January 22, 1973 are just a statistic lost in the busyness of our lives.

So can you let your mind wander or wonder for a minute? I am holding a child's foot, cut from its body which has been destroyed in the "procedure." This child was around 12 weeks old from conception. What was the previous day like for this baby? What kind of people are we that can barely conjure up a yawn at the thought of this?

The blood of these children cry out for justice. The judgment of God will fall on those who commit these acts and those who ignore them.

Our silence allows this holocaust to continue, allows many more women and children's lives to be ruined and prevents the surviving parents of these children from finding the available forgiveness and healing.

I will continue to fight and hope that you will join with me.

Philip

Husband Lovers - φίλανδρος

Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children.... Titus 2:3-4

A type of love was being talked about in Sunday School yesterday. Not agape that we are so familiar with but phileo. John 20:2 speaks of the disciple whom Jesus loved - not agape but phileo. The encouragement was to understand that Jesus wants to love us in this way. He wants to be our friend, he is affectionate with us, wants to be close to us and dare I say, kiss us.

I was reminded of another passage where phileo is used. Cited above Titus 2:4 says that older women are to teach the younger to love their husbands and children. The words used are philandros and philoteknos. I thought it very interesting that they are not told to agape husbands and children but that they needed to be taught to phileo them.

There is probably a lot that needs to be drawn out of this thought but I think I will leave that to others.

Would love to hear what you think about this.

Philip