Glenn Beck hates Jesus—or "progressive Christians" hate the truth?

With the health care nationalization debate heating up this week, complete with President Obama’s whining and Speaker Pelosi’s sleight-of-hand attempts at railroading the legislation through Congress (hey, Matthew 25 Network: how about a “Speaker Pelosi, Put Away Deception” campaign? Oh, I forgot—you only attack GENUINE Christians), an interesting slander was pulled off by Obama’s legions among “progressive Christians” against talk show host Glenn Beck this past weekend. According to a Time magazine article by Obama “spiritual advisor” and acolyte Jim Wallis, Beck now “hates Jesus.”

First off, I need to state that I have tons of theological problems with the heresies of the Mormon Church, to which Beck belongs. It must also be noted that Beck is gracious to evangelical Christians appearing on his Fox News TV show; in fact, Joel Rosenberg appears periodically on the show to discuss biblical prophecy as it relates to the Middle East. The criticism against Beck’s exposing the progressive movement’s destruction of America amounts to little more than ridicule of his methods. You hear about his crying on the air, for example, but you never hear where he is wrong on anything of substance (except when his enemies—including among the “progressive Christians” who apparently forget about all those Bible verses about bearing false witness—twist the truth to slander him).

Looks like Wallis’ attack is a desperation shot against Beck’s unmasking the health care nationalization campaign for what it truly is: a power grab by progressives, who want to tell us how to live our lives (Wallis’ clever slander may have also been calculated, counting on evangelicals to stay mum in defending Beck). And the resulting e-mail campaign against Beck by “progressive Christians” is truly pathetic, similar to the one Matthew 25 Network aimed at Dr. James Dobson and Focus on the Family last year. One letter after another (featured on M25N’s website) talked about how the writer loved the “Adventures in Odyssey” radio show while on the mission field, but gosh darn, how awful Dobson and his ministry had become for opposing Obama’s far-left agenda (you know, with all those people being missionaries, you would think the world would have been converted three times over by now).

It’s ironic that, with droves of people awakening to abandon the Obama altar, the ones who stay steadfast in their worship of him claim to be Christians! Maybe they should heed the words of a Christian who was forced to oppose his nation's idolatry of a leader—Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “Should the leader allow himself to succumb to the wishes of those he leads, who will always seek to turn him into an idol, then the image of the leader will become the image of the misleader. This is the leader who makes an idol of himself and his office, and thus mocks God” (from a 1933 speech).

“Little children, keep yourselves from idols,” the Bible warns in 1 John 5:21. That includes political idols, Mr. Wallis.

Obama "trashes" Dalai Lama

For those of you who stil cling to the illusion of our having a "spiritual" president: Here is a picture of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet, after his meeting with President Obama last week. Note the Dalai Lama is being escorted out the BACK door, and the lovely bags of garbage there to greet him.

Why this back door shuffle? Our brave president doesn't want to upset China, who wanted the meeting cancelled (and who owns about $700 billion of our debt). Regardless of your religious beliefs, you cannot escape the fact that this picture is a slap in the face of the Dalai Lama and the oppressed people of Tibet.

And to those American "spiritual" leaders who supported and campaigned for Mr. Change: how much more proof do you need, to see that Obama is simply a Chicago politician who will dump YOU like garbage at the first opportunity, if it furthers his political interests or pleases his cheerleaders on the left?

Palin and Israel

President Obama's abysmal foreign policy--where he appeases dictators who mock him while stabbing our allies in the back--has created an especially precarious situation for Israel. Now that Iran is well on the way to developing nuclear weapons (according to the UN's atomic energy commission), it's all the more fitting that Jewish Americans reconsider their blind support of Obama.

Follow this link here to an excellent article by Israeli columnist Caroline Glick, on why American Jews should support Sarah Palin and her clear-headed opposition to Obama's destructive foreign policy towards Israel.

"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! May they be secure who love you!" (Psalm 122:6, ESV)

Go Tebow!

Check out this article here by CBS legal analyst Jan Crawford, on the hypocrisy of NOW and other women's rights groups in trying to ban the pro-life ad by Tim Tebow and his mother Pam ("Celebate Family, Celebrate Life") during the Super Bowl. I got to witness some of this stammering hyposcrisy the other day, when a "women's rights" advocate attempted to defend her position during an interview with Bill O'Reilly. Even the wolves-in-sheeps-clothing Matthew 25 Network is jumping into the game with a "campaign" of their own against CBS.

You see, when women want to discuss why they went through with pregnancy when others told them not to (in Pam Tebow's case, for medical reasons), NOW's response is the same as the worst male chauvinist: Shut up and sit down! THAT choice is not part of their so-called "pro-choice" universe. And their whining is only doing the opposite: brining more attention to the ad sponsored by Focus on the Family.

Is it too late for America?

Is it too late for America?

Right now I should be encouraged. People are waking up to the hard fact that their political savior Barak Obama is little more than a Chicago-style politician, who will do and say anything to hold onto power. The lapdog media’s disdain for the Tea Party movement shows the movement’s power in exposing the unbelievable arrogance of the Democrat-controlled Congress in ramming health care enslavement down our throats.

Right now, Republican Scott Brown may be taking a Senate seat held for 47 years by the late Ted Kennedy. And even in the massive tragedy in Haiti, we see the overwhelming benevolence of our nation in aiding the Haitian people—compare the $100 million that President Obama generously pledged to help (in addition to the assistance from many aid organizations) with the “generous” pledge from superpower China ($1 million) and the assistance being given by Venezuela’s moron Marxist dictator, Hugo Chavez ($0).

And yet, for a while, I have sensed we may be seeing great reform in our nation without true revival. I sense we’re seeing the same “reform without revival” that Judah’s kings saw in the Old Testament. Even the two greatest kings, Hezekiah and Josiah, who did not fear to take down the “high places” of idol worship that other kings left alone, ultimately could not change the people’s hearts--making them ripe for deception and corruption by the next evil king.

It’s happening in churches and is happening in our nation: we get a big move of God, a great change of leadership, a great moral victory—only to see no true revival, with people’s hearts left unchanged.

Obviously, it’s all the more reason to continue to uplift Jesus in our everyday life, instead of following the early 20th-century Fundamentalists, who forfeited their influence in society to “progressives” who eagerly filled the power vacuum after their humiliation in the Scopes evolution trial.

I still remember the words of Winston Churchill, who was faced with Britain’s invasion by the overwhelming forces of Nazi Germany in 1940. At the end of his speech on the BBC, popularly known for his famous phrase, “As conquer we must, as conquer we shall,” he uttered an ancient prayer that summed up the resilience of the British people:

“Arm yourselves , and be ye men of valor, and stand in readiness for the conflict. For it is better for us to perish in battle than to look upon the outrage of our nation and our altars. As the will of God is in heaven, even so, let Him do.”

And yet, it’s incredible that such a sacrificial spirit could be all but forgotten within several decades, after Britain and America’s incredible victory over the Nazis in WW2. An odd place to find this evidence is in the 1964 Beatles movie A Hard Day’s Night, in a scene when the Fab Four are playfully tormenting a stuffy fellow train passenger. “I fought the war for your sort,” the passenger blurts out. “Bet you’re sorry you won,” Ringo Starr shoots back.

I was told recently about a theory about how America is always 50 years behind whatever Britain does. If the theory holds any water (which it might: the US abolished slavery decades after England did, and conversely, we’re now on course to enslave America with a disastrous nationalized health care system, roughly 60 years after Britain established the National Health Service), we're in for some rough water. For example, the thought of our society being gradually Islamified--as is happening in Britain--should send shivers up our collective spines.

I never want to give up on praying for America to experience true revival through changed hearts (and not just having spiritual goose bumps). Are we on the verge of a move of God on people’s hearts—or just seeing reform without revival?

Random Christmas thoughts

First off, here's wishing all of my readers a very Merry Christmas! I pray for God's blessings upon you and your loved ones, as we celebrate the turning point in history, the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Just some random thoughts about Christmas time:

*I recently read a good commentary about the three great Christmas movies that came out in 1946. You definitely know It's a Wonderful Life (unless you live in a cave on an uninhabited island) and also Miracle on 34th Street, starring little Natalie Wood. But the OTHER movie that isn't as well known is also worth a viewing: The Bishop's Wife with Cary Grant as the angel Dudley and David Niven as the troubled bishop (the 90s remake The Preacher's Wife was okay, but you can't top the original). The best scene is when Dudley (with a typewriter that typed with unseen hands) dictates a sermon for the bishop, about the One who ususally DOESN'T have a Christmas gift under the tree every December 25. That scene alone is worth watching the entire movie.

*Many Bible readers have yawned their way through the numerous names in Jesus' geneological trees recorded in Matthew (his step-father Joseph's side) and Luke (Mary's family line). And yet (as I found out in a wonderful message yesterday by my former pastor), there are very powerful truths God is speaking through those parts of scripture, if we would only take a look. For example, look at the four women listed in Matthew's list (three of them, by the way, were Gentile): one acted like a prostitute in desperation (Tamar); one WAS a prostitute (Rahab) who saved the Israeli spies at Jericho; one was from a people,the Moabites, that the Jews were forbidden to intermingle with (Ruth), and the last was an adulteress (Bathsheba). And yet, all four are in the holy scripture as part of the line of Jesus Christ!

The lessons: 1) God doesn't focus on what you've done, but what you can become; 2) the wonderous Christmas story comes to us through horribly inperfect people; 3) As Pastor Gray illustrated, every instrument in God's orchestra matters to Him! What a lesson of hope for us all!

*I'll end this with my list of favorite Christmas movies:

Best all time: It's a Wonderful Life.
Best Christmas Carol version: A Christmas Carol, the 1951 English version.
Best innovation on Santa Claus: Ernest Saves Christmas. You read that right. It's the first Christmas movie I can remember with a "renewable" line of Santas (The Santa Clause came out several years later). And yes, the movie IS hilarious.
Best TV Christmas movie: A Christmas Memory with Truman Capote (PBS), funny and tear-jerking at the same time (Capote's narration of his classic gives it extra impact). A Child's Christmas in Wales (also PBS, based on the Dylan Thomas classic story), comes in a close second.
Best Christmas cartoon: a four-way tie between A Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (all released in the 60s). The kids STILL drop everything to watch them. They just don't make them like that anymore.
Best modern Christmas classic: A Christmas Story, complete with kids getting their tongues frozen on poles and a turncoat store Santa: "A BB gun? You'll put your eye out!"
Best underrated Christmas movie: The Nativity Story, which got a ton less publicity than it deserved.

New US health care "reform" critic: China

With all the so-called health care nationalization "debate" (read: railroading) cluttering the airwaves in Washington, you might have missed a critique of Obamacare from an interesting source: no, not Rush, Hannity or Beck, but CHINA. You read that right. The homeland of Anita Dunn's favorite inspirational leader is expressing its concerns over the viability of the plan, according to Reuters' reporter James Pethokoukis:

"Guess what? It turns out the Chinese are kind of curious about how President Barack Obama’s health care reform plans would impact America’s huge fiscal deficit. Government officials are using his Asian trip as an opportunity to ask the White House questions. Detailed questions.

"Boilerplate assurances that America won’t default on its debt or inflate the shortfall away are apparently not cutting it. Nor should they, when one owns nearly $2 trillion in assets denominated in the currency of a country about to double its national debt over the next decade."

Get that? China owns $2 trillion in US debt. Our lender, if you will, is raising a red flag--it's a like a banker noticing that you're behind on your car payments, and wondering why you suddenly have a hankering to buy a boat.

President Obama and his health-care nationalizers should check out the Bible (which would be a great start) and consider Proverbs 22:7 (ESV): "The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender."