Florida For Marriage is an ongoing attempt to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot in the state of Florida defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. For such a vote to take place, 611,009 signatures are needed. We're currently 13,000 short. If you have not signed a petition, now's the time. We're ninety days away from the deadline if it's to be on the 2008 ballot.
Exactly 490 years ago today, the reformation was begun. As Christians, October 31 is a day to celebrate. We may not agree with everything Luther believed, but we acknowledge the spiritual debt we owe to Luther and how we have benefitted from him. To learn more, click here.
Let's be in prayer for the members of our Supreme Court. Yesterday they heard arguments regarding the ban on child pornography. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals already struck this law down, so pray that the Supreme Court will reinstate it.
Those who wish to toss the child porn ban cited their concern that free speech would be eroded or that people not engaging in or circulating child pornography would be charged. They argued that the movie "Titanic" could fall under the category of child porn. Some claimed that grandparents could be imprisoned for emailing pictures of toddlers wearing pajamas while sitting in bed. These, of course, are sham arguments made by people who care nothing about the safety of children. Congress did not pass this law to go after Leonardo Dicraprio. If this ban remains overturned, the message will be loud and clear: No attempt to prohibit the sexual exploitation of children will be respected by our courts. The implications are far reaching. If we raise a generation of children brought up exposed to smut, we'll reap what we've sown. Expect to see steep rises in rape and other sexual crimes. All because a handful of people and a few judges care more about the "rights" of online predators than they do the well being of children.
Few cases that our court addresses are as big as this one, in my opinion. Pray. Pray. Pray.
PS - I find it interesting that on the same day that this is going on, a transgendered "clergyman" is allowed to remain in his/her pulpit. See any connection here?
For those of you who don't already know, the Southern Baptist Convention is the nation's third largest disaster relief organization. Teams are currently meeting vital needs of those impacted by fires in southern California. Here's the Baptist Press article below. If you want to donate to the southern California efforts, you can do so by clicking here. Baptist relief units already serving victims of devastating wildfires burning in So. California
Oct. 23, 2007
By Mickey Noah Baptist Press
SAN DIEGO, CALIF. (BP) – North American Mission Board missionary Dan Cookson’s San Diego home is safe for now, but the out-of-control wildfires blackening Southern California came too close for comfort.
“We’re fine for now and our home is okay,” said Cookson, the day after he, wife Tammy and two children were forced to evacuate the home they’ve shared since 2002. They spent Monday (Oct. 22) night in the local Vision San Diego office.
Cookson is a church starting strategist at Vision San Diego, where his wife also works.
“A friend called about 10 p.m. last night to say he was looking at our house and it was still standing,” Cookson said. “He was traveling around taking pictures for Baptist Press and sneaked into our neighborhood to see if our house was okay.
“We’ll try to go back this morning to change clothes, take showers and see about the air quality. If it all seems okay, then I guess we’ll stay at home. We’ll have to see if they will even let us back in or not.”
Cookson said he feels confident that his home will survive the fires because it is constructed of stucco and cement roofing tiles. Wood structures with cedar shake roofs are far more vulnerable, he explained.
North American Mission Board president Geoff Hammond pledged the agency’s assistance and asked Southern Baptists to be in prayer.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the residents of California as they endure this tragic fire and the devastation it’s caused,” Hammond said. “Please be in prayer as well for the local churches as they minister and the Southern Baptist disaster relief volunteers who are being activated.”
Don Hargis, men’s ministry specialist for the California Southern Baptist Convention and state disaster relief coordinator, said three kitchen units have been set up at First Baptist Church, Newhall, Calif., in north Los Angeles County, and cooking is already under way there.
Two feeding units at Bethel Southern Baptist Church in Escondido, and First Baptist Church of Mira Mesa -- close to an evacuation center at Mira Mesa High School – have also been deployed. A shower unit is also headed to the Escondido site.
“But both of these sites may have to be evacuated, so now we’re in a state of flux,” Hargis said. “We’re looking for a new place to deploy them.”
Working with Mickey Caison, NAMB’s director for disaster relief and adult volunteer mobilization, Hargis said plans call for an “incident command center” to be established in the Riverside area, located in the center of the 25 fires which have torched about 270,000 acres between the 130-mile stretch from Malibu south to San Diego, and 70 miles eastward into the California mountains.
“Four years ago, we had another fire that destroyed a million acres and 3,000 homes,” Hargis said. “That took six months to clean up, so we expect the same length of time for these fires.”
About 100 disaster relief volunteers have been mobilized so far, primarily to cook and serve food to firefighters and victims.
“We’ll be mobilizing a lot more volunteers before we’re through,” Hargis said.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the wind-fueled fires had destroyed about 900 homes and businesses in Southern California by the end of the second day. More than 500,000 people in San Diego County alone – like the Cooksons -- were told to evacuate.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called the fires “a tragic time for California,” and has declared a state of emergency in seven counties.
Here is the link to a message I recently preached at FBCH on the Sanctity of Marriage Sunday, which we observe once a year.
How we understand marriage will not only shape our attitude towards it, but it will greatly determine the success or failure of a marriage. This message looks in Hosea 1-3 and illustrates the difference between seeing marriage as a contract and seeing it as a covenant.
By the way, this is also my first ever podcast sermon. Since it's an experiment, let me know if you have any problems. You have three options on the right, which include itunes, downloading it or establishing an RSS feed. Thanks to Joe for showing me how this is done.
Here's some good news for those who worry about the declining influence of Christians upon the culture. A recent article by Chuck Colson indicates that Christians in America have far more babies than non-christians. The Christian birthrate is 41% higher than the non-christian birth rate and Christians have 78% more babies than "secular liberals."
It's no accident that "God-haters" also hate large families. But in an upcoming generation there will be a "boom" of Christians who vote, work, pay taxes and hopefully, evangelize.
Two observations: First, God wants us to grow by regeneration, not just generation. We don't have to wait for all these babies to grow up in Christian homes to have an impact. We can grow God's kingdom by bringing the lost to Christ. Secondly, the above impact depends upon Christians reaching their own children for Christ. We allow way too much of the world into our homes and many college freshmen raised in Christian homes quickly abandon the church.
Overall, I think it can be said that Christians often thrive in history by being faithful to the command to "be fruitful and multiply." Children are not only a gift from the Lord, but they are arrows (Psalm 127:3) to be shot as weapons into the spiritual darkness.
Mike Huckabee is the man. He's the accomplished former Governor of Arkansas, and like another US president, is from a town called Hope. ("All I ask is, give us one more chance.") He is also running for president.
I want to encourage everyone to seriously consider voting for Gov. Huckabee in the upcoming primaries. This is an endorsement from me, not from the First Baptist Church of Homestead, which does not endorse candidates, of course. Let me tell you why I like Mike.
* Mike Huckabee does what's right, not what's convenient or popular. * Mike Huckabee epitomizes "compassionate conservatism," much more so than the guy who first coined the phrase. * Mike Huckabee has the smarts and eloquence to compete on the national stage. * Mike Huckabee is strongly pro-life, but unlike some, he doesn't stop caring about children once they're out of the womb. * Mike Huckabee addresses issues like the environment, corporate greed and social injuctice in a manner that reminds me of the boldness of Old Testament prophets. * Mile Huckabee has some great ideas on taxes and health care.
Here is a sample of Huckabee's quotes. Note in particular his response to the evolution question during a republican presidential debate. Here is his web site.
