Pastor Pusch

The Intro: Last week I received an email from a friend of mine in Michigan. Actually, Iit was a forward he sent from the American Family Association (AFA). I typically do not open forwards (regardless as to who they are from), but the subject line captured my attention. The subject made reference to the “Day of Silence” protest that will take place tomorrow, April 17 in most public schools, primarily Jr. and Sr. High schools. The conservative Christian response to the ”Day of Silence” has caused much debate, even among friends, so I was immediately intrigued.

The Background: The “Day of Silence” protest is sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and it calls for silence among the gay and lesbian student community (and supporters) for the whole day, even during class times/instruction. This is an effort to promote their socio-political position in their schools and communities.

(Just a side note: I will be interested in knowing how the media will cover this protest as opposed to the Tax Day Tea Party protest that took place yesterday.)

The Issue: The American Family Associate (AFA) sent out an Action Alert to their membership concerning a response to the GLSEN “Day of Silence”. Obviously, I am a PRO-FAMILY guy. I am not totally opposed to the AFA, they do a lot of great things to raise awareness and offer a number of great resources for families. However, I do happen to disagree with their approach to this “Day of Silence.” The AFA has suggested those parents, who stand in opposition of the “Day of Silence” that they keep their children home tomorrow if their school plans to recognize this protest. This is where I disagree.  The AFA also suggest that parents call their child’s school and voice their dissatisfaction. I would agree with that action.

The Disagreement: I agree that this sort of protest should not be happening in our schools and the “politicalization” thereof. I do believe, however, in the First Amendment and the right to “peacefully assemble.” One may say, “it’s a day of silence, how can silence disturb the peace?” I would submit to you that in this particular setting it would be a complete disturbance in the classroom, not only for the students not participating, but for the teachers as well (a great disrespect to them). My problem is not necessarily with the protest; they have that right, as I do. My problem is with the Action Alert coming from the AFA calling for parents to keep their kids home. What kind of message does this send? This is another classic example of the conservative/Christian community on the run. Should we not send our children to be an example? Nobody is forcing them to have to participate. I would love for those who stand oppose to the “Day of Silence” to BREAK the SILENCE by their words and actions (by action, I am not suggesting violence). We should strive to LIVE and LEAD by example. I wish Jovie were old enough to attend school tomorrow, I would send her as a proud parent, knowing that I have taught her what I believe to be true and right and they she can take a stand and lead by example. By the way, if we were to keep our children out of school tomorrow, would we not be increasing the silence? One cannot speak, if one is not there. The Liberal movement is so good at ignoring the conservative movement that the Liberals press on as if we do not exists. The reason for this is that we have allowed them to walk all over us because we cut and run. Would not keeping our children home from school tomorrow be a victory to the GLSEN? It would be another strike in the win column.

The Conclusion: Take a stand! Be an example of the believer! Make this a day of living out loud. The public school may not be allowed to talk about the love of God, but your student can. Perhaps your child can have an impact on others by simply reaching out and displaying the love of God by leading by example.

The Small Print (just not small): I am by no means suggesting that I agree with the day of protest or homosexual behavior. While I believe that homosexuality is a sin, I do believe that we should reach them, love them, and have compassion on them. I heard a response once that we should pray that God would reveal to them their sin; I pray that God would reveal my sin and that I would be a living sacrifice in this lost and dying world.

David said, “Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way of everlasting.” If this sort of prayer is coming from one God considered a “man after His own heart,”  then I’ve got some serious praying to do.

Today, not only will millions of people submit their taxes to the IRS, they will also stand out and protest on this Tax Day Tea Party. I have to admit that I haven’t been following this thing too closely. What I do know is that liberal media is down playing it as garbage and wasteful thinking, while conservative arenas are praising its efforts. Surprise, surprise, surprise… there’s disagreement. I wonder if the left side will cover the events? For more information, click  here.

Are you making plans to attend your local Tax Day Tea Party protest today? If so, where are you from and what are you thoughts the issue?

What say you?

Today is Monday, April 13 and Easter has come to an end. That means the Lenten season is now over. Today many will pick up where they left off on February 24, the day before Ash Wednesday. In my article entitled, Live Like Hell Today, I made reference to the significance of Mardi Gras, Ash Wednesday, and the Lenten season. I will spare you the details or you can back and read it here.

I applaud the efforts of those who made strides in their spiritual walk over that last several weeks. That is what the Lenten period is all about. It’s not merely about giving up M&Ms or chocolate. It’s not about giving up something for the sake of giving up  to say we have sacrificed and participated. In the area I grew up (Greater Detroit), that’s what it was all about. I would hear stories all the time about those giving up Peanut M&Ms only to replace them with Plain M&Ms. I suppose that is why I was always turned off to the season of Lent.

I would encourage all of us to keep up with our commitments and desire to know God more and to follow Jesus more closely. Sure, we’ll fall. We’ll make mistakes (as I have already). That’s not the point. The point is that with God’s help, we get up and continue to strive. I would be fooling myself, and you, to say that I’ve got it all figured out. The truth is that I fall constantly. It’s not always easy. However, I am reminded of the words of Paul in Romans 7,

“For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate… For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me” (15; 17-20).

It was also Paul who said to the church in Philippi,

“Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 3:12-15).

That is the ticket. To press on, regardless. To get up and strive.

Stay Connected and Be Encouraged,
PastorPusch

“I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I want to be. I am not what I hope to be. But still, I am not what I used to be. And by the grace of God, I am what I am.”  - John Newton (writer of Amazing Grace)

The Nicene Creed

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.

Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.

And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets.

And I believe one holy apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.

“…when I see the blood, I will pass over you.”

The Blood of Christ - Hebrews 9:11-28

When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance-now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living. This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood. When Moses had proclaimed every commandment of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.” In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

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There has been much discussion and debate as to when Jesus was actually crucified. While the timeline has no bearing on His actual death and the significance thereof, it is indeed an interesting conversation. The discussion surrounds Christ’s words in Matthew 14:39-41 and the day in which He was crucified.

But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.

Tomorrow is Good Friday; the day of remembrance; the day when Christ took upon the sins of the whole world and was crucified over 2000 years ago. When we take the words of Christ found in Matthew and Good Friday, some debate that the two cannot go together and that Jesus must have been crucified and buried on a Wednesday or Thursday. I’ve heard this argument made in several arenas. In order for Jesus to have been buried 3 days and 3 nights, some would say that it could not have happened on a Friday.  There is no discussion concerning the day when Christ rose up from the grave, as all four gospels make it clear that it happen early on the first day of the week, Easter Sunday.

Last Tuesday, I brought this discussion up with a good friend and coworker. One of our college interns over heard us talking and joined as he mentioned that this topic came up in one of his Bible classes. I brought up the Thursday theory and we all discussed different points of view and things we have heard concerning the issue. My friend, who falls on the side of Good Friday, brought up some good commentary made by John MacArthur that helped him  in this very discussion. Here is what MacArthur says about the passage in Matthew.

three days and three nights. Quoted from Jonah 1:17. This sort of expression was a common way of underscoring the prophetic significance of a period of time. An expression like “forty days and forty nights” may in some cases simply refer to a period of time longer than a month. “Three days and three nights” was an emphatic way of saying “three days,” and by Jewish reckoning this would be an apt way of expressing a period of time that includes parts of 3 days. Thus, if Christ was crucified on a Friday, and His resurrection occurred on the first day of the week, by Hebrew reckoning this would qualify as “three days and three nights.” All sorts of elaborate schemes have been devised to suggest that Christ might have died on a Wednesday or Thursday, just to accommodate the extreme literal meaning of these words. But the original meaning would not require that sort of wooden interpretation. See note on Luke 13:32.

Obviously, the bottom line in all this in found in the Apostle Paul’s writings in I Corinthians 15:1-8.

Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you-unless you believed in vain.
For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.