Some housekeeping

If you access this blog by first going to amischapel.com (as many do), you'll soon have to update your links as the blog will no longer be listed there. Sunday in the South's address is http://genebrooks.blogspot.com.

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Tricky Dick's Nemesis

The Prankster who Outfoxed Tricky Dick

When Nixon sought the presidency, his opponent, John F. Kennedy, hired a mole named Dick Tuck to play pranks on him. The day after the first debate (a contest many felt Nixon had won), Tuck spun the results by hiring an elderly woman wearing a Nixon button to hug Nixon in front of reporters and console him for losing the debate.

Two years later, when Nixon ran for governor of California, Tuck had children in Los Angeles' Chinatown greet him with a sign reading "Welcome Nixon" in English and beneath the greeting, "What about the Hughes loan?" in Chinese--a reference to a controversial loan Nixon's brother had received. Nixon, who didn't understand Chinese, posed smiling next to the sign, then tore it up in front of reporters when Tuck told him the translation.

During a whistle-stop train tour on the same campaign, Tuck disguised himself as a conductor and ordered Nixon's train to pull away from the station just as Nixon had begun a speech to the crowd.

Worst of all, when Nixon ran for President in 1968, Tuck hired pregnant women to show up at his rallies wearing T-shirts that read "Nixon's the One."

Nixon, who'd mastered the art of dirty tricks early in his career, came to both despise and begrudgingly admire Tuck. During his 1972 presidential re-election campaign, Nixon ordered aides to develop a "Dick Tuck capability." -- David Borgenicht and Turk Regan

Source: mentalfloss.com

Cletus take the Reel

Or is it Jesus take the wheel?
click

Energy crisis an evangelism opportunity

Energy prices are sapping the life-blood out of the poorer among us. In this situation are grand opportunities for local churches to minister and lead many to faith in Jesus Christ. Consider Harry Jackson, Jr.'s bullet points.

• Median-income families devote about a nickel on every dollar of income to energy costs, while poor families must devote as much as 50 cents on their dollar.

• High-energy prices are one of the single biggest drivers of homelessness.

• The nation's low-income population pays three to seven times more on energy than non-low income households.

• In order to cope with higher home energy and gasoline costs, 70 percent of households have reduced food purchases; 30 percent reduced purchases of medicine and 20 percent changed plans for their own or their children’s education.

• Eight percent of households with incomes between $33,500 and $55,000 have had their electricity shut off this year due to non-payment.

• Rural counties in the South and West are hit hardest. Families in many southern counties, and several in Wyoming, are spending 10 to 15 percent of their income on fuel.

• Escalating energy prices have a disproportionate impact on the elderly. In a recent survey, more than two-thirds of people 65 and older said that the recent rise in gas prices has caused them a great deal or a fair amount of financial hardship. Given their median household income is less than $30,000 a year seniors have been forced to make significant changes to their daily schedules and spending habits.

• Rising gasoline prices have severely affected the volunteer base, which serves the poor and needy. Meals on Wheels reports that 58 percent of its centers have “lost volunteers due to gas prices” and 48.3 percent reported that “increases in gas prices had forced them to eliminate meal delivery routes or consolidate meal services”

• The National Association of Area Agencies on Aging reported that over 73 percent of agencies said it is more difficult to retain volunteers and over 74 percent said it is more difficult to recruit volunteers.

Source: Harry Jackson, Jr.

Chilloprinin 256

Chestnut Ridge Moving Co.

Here are pictures from the July 5-6 visit by incredible friends from Chestnut Ridge Baptist Church who helped us through a very difficult time as we resigned from Amis Chapel Baptist Church. These pictures are from Roxanne's camera (link to all the pictures is below).

In one weekend, the ladies drove 5 hours from SC, packed our whole house to move, and drove back home. Their husbands tended to their children while they were away. They did incredible work. By contrast, Amanda and I just yesterday finished going through all our storage in the parsonage basement to get it ready to move out next weekend.

Here is Luke, Amanda, and Rachel eating the pizza from Pizza Pub that we got for supper on Saturday night.



Here are the ladies eating pizza across from Amanda and the kids.
L to R is Stephanie Quarles (Financial Peace University expert), Katelyn Mann (facebook expert), Selah Mann (nursing expert), and Tracey Wilson (music expert).


Luke is being silly with Margaret, the new CFO at Laurens County (SC) Hospice.



Here is Tracey Wilson helping pack the parsonage kitchen.


Katelyn bathed Rachel. Rachel wants to know, "Why are you taking my picture?"


Rachel enjoyed Katelyn -- and the sucker she gave her.


Luke enjoyed Margaret. Here they are at my desk while I am at church resigning on July 6. Margaret is trying to find thomasthetankengine.com on dial-up. Good luck.


Here are the ladies. L to R: Amanda, baby Ava-Grace, little Rachel, Tracey with Roxanne's baby Selah, Stephanie, and Roxanne Mann.


Roxanne took this picture of church friends who came over to the parsonage after my resignation while I was getting ready to grill lunch on July 6 for our guests.

These were the first wave of kind folks who came across the road as soon as the church business meeting ended. L to R: Donna Perkins, Sally Brewer, Richard Glasscock, JoAnn Brewer carrying Rachel, Jason Talley, Caroline Talley, Lori Puckett, Patty Ayers hugging Amanda, me, Joan Ellen Vaughan, Dana Vaughan, and Courtney Vaughan.

So many came, weeping, sad, upset, angry, apologizing, and disappointed, that the ladies ended up grilling their dinner. In fact they left at 2:30pm to head back to South Carolina, and it was 4:30pm before I finished lunch myself. It was a very emotional day, but the Lord sustained us in His grace.

These are not all the pictures Roxanne took. All Roxanne's pictures can be found here

WIC promotes racist Planned Parenthood

The following is from this blog:

Visit the USDA's WIC Learning Center, the U.S. government's Women, Infants, and Children program, and you'll find a link to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America website.

That's because a hefty chunk of the $5 billion in taxpayer funds for the program designed to help feed and provide health care for low-income pregnant women, new moms, and young children go to Margaret Sanger's organization.

Since some 61 percent of WIC recipients are nonwhites, WIC's efforts to steer them towards Planned Parenthood dovetails neatly with the efforts of the nation's No. 1 abortion provider to prevent births in the black and Latino communities.

The full article is available here.

"We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We do not want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members."

---- Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, in a letter in 1939 to Clarence Gamble, a partner in her plan to promote birth control and abortions in the black community.

Codex Sinaiticus online!

Codex Sinaiticus has gone online! What is that? It is a copy of the Old and New Testaments from as early as A.D. 350. Having such a copy on the internet for anyone to view and use in Biblical research is immensely important. A codex is a hand-made book. Sinaiticus means it was discovered at the monastery at Mount Sinai in the 1800s.

From the Codex Sinaiticus About page: "Codex Sinaiticus, a manuscript of the Christian Bible written in the middle of the fourth century, contains the earliest complete copy of the Christian New Testament. The hand-written text is in Greek. The New Testament appears in the original vernacular language (koine) and the Old Testament in the version, known as the Septuagint, that was adopted by early Greek-speaking Christians. In the Codex, the text of both the Septuagint and the New Testament has been heavily annotated by a series of early correctors.

The significance of Codex Sinaiticus for the reconstruction of the Christian Bible’s original text, the history of the Bible and the history of Western book-making is immense."

Blessed. Very blessed.

We've been blessed like this lately, and we thank the Lord.

Bush almost assassinated in Jan 2008?

An email I received today from Eagles Wings Ministries quoting Arutz-Sheva, an Israeli newspaper, tells of an al-Qaeda operative at Hebrew University who watched a helicopter land at the university stadium with the intent of shooting it down in January 2008. That helicopter was an American government aircraft with a "senior American official" on board. FYI - President Bush visited Israel in January 2008.

Below is the article from Eagles Wings.

AL QAEDA CELL UNCOVERED AT HEBREW UNIVERSITY

____________________________________________________________________

The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and Israeli police have arrested and charged six Israeli-Arabs, among them Hebrew University students, for planning an Al-Qaeda attack on a senior US official. The group, including four residents of eastern Jerusalem, are suspected of operating an al-Qaeda cell in Israel's capital and planning to shoot down a helicopter carrying a senior US official.

Two of the suspects were identified by police as: Ibrahim Nashef, 22, of Tayibe: Physics and computer sciences student at the Hebrew University; Muhammad Najem, 24, of Nazareth: Chemistry student at the Hebrew University. All of them were under 25 years old.

The indictments, filed against them on Friday, reveal that the six used to meet at the al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem's Temple Mount. They allegedly surfed al-Qaeda websites, where they found instructions for producing explosive devices.

According to evidence, one of the detainees, Muhammad Najem, lived in a Hebrew University dormitory overlooking the university's stadium, which also serves as a helicopter landing pad. Najem watched the landing ground as a Presidential helicopter touched down in the course of President Bush's January 2008 visit to Israel, with the intent of shooting it down. At the same time, the suspect allegedly sought instructions on the internet for shooting down a landing helicopter, and he took mobile-phone pictures of the presidential helicopter's landing. A "senior American official" was on board the helicopter at the time. (Excerpt from Arutz-Sheva, 7/18)

Feel good sermons

"I fear that sometimes people in our church, and even our pastors, want to be flattered more than they want to hear the truth. When you go to the doctor, do you just want a good report so you feel good when going home or do you want the truth?"
-- Mark Dever, Capital Hill Baptist Church, Feb 26, 2008, Southeastern Seminary Chapel

"The early church was met with persecution. Modern churches are met with a yawn."
-- Frank Page, SBC President and pastor of Taylors First Baptist, Taylors, SC, Feb 12, Southeastern Chapel

Martin Luther on Inerrancy

"It is impossible that Scripture should contradict itself, only that it so appears to the senseless and obstinate hypocrites." (1)

"Therefore, we either believe roundly and wholly and utterly, or we believe nothing. For it is the fashion of all heretics that they begin first with a single article, but they must then all be denied together, like a ring which is of no further value when it has a break or cut." (2)

Sources: (1) Harold Lindsell, God's Incomparable Word, (Wheaton: Victor, 1977), 55. (2) John Gerstner, "The Church's Doctrine of Biblical Inspiration," The Foundation of Biblical Authority, ed. James Montgomery Boice, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1978), 35.

Ridgecrest Pictures

Here are pictures that Roxanne Mann took of our family during National Discipleship and Evangelism Week at Ridgecrest during the week of the 4th. 1- Amanda and Rachel at Denny's. 2- Us (in the middle) with our friends (Tracey and Rhett Wilson on left, us, and Lewis and Roxanne Mann on the right). 3- All our children in one place for 2 seconds. Ours were not cooperating as you can see. 4- Rachel in her sunglasses. 5- All of us at Biltmore. All Roxanne's pictures are here, here, and here.

Augustine on Inerrancy

"For it seems to me that most disastrous consequences must follow upon our believing that anything false is found in the sacred books; that is to say, that the men by whom the Scripture has been given to us, and committed to writing, did put down in these books anything false . . ."

Source: Harold Lindsell, God's Incomparable Word, (Wheaton: Victor, 1977), 55.

John Wesley on Inerrancy

"Nay, if there be any mistakes in the Bible there may as well be a thousand. If there be one falsehood in that book, it did not come from the God of truth."

Source: Harold Lindsell, God's Incomparable Word, (Wheaton: Victor, 1977), 77.

Crazy thankful

This has been a crazy and thankful couple of days.

A number of ladies from Chestnut Ridge came over the weekend and helped us pack the house. We plan to load Thursday and move what will not go into storage on Friday.

Yesterday Sunday after we resigned, people came to the parsonage and wept and talked and told us of their love for us until four o'clock. Several came by and called today and tonight.

Today at the seminary, the housing office assigned us to our new home, an apartment in Flaherty.

The kids have been resilient. Amanda and I are emotionally exhausted. We could both sleep for three days. We have alternated between scared to death and weeping with gratitude. The Lord's promise from Malachi 3:10 and 4:2 is happening.

If any readers know of employment on the seminary campus or near Wake Forest, NC, please email me for a resume or tell me where I can take one. My email address is here.

My resignation letter

RESIGNATION FROM AMIS CHAPEL BAPTIST CHURCH
JULY 6, 2008

It is with a sense of great relief and deep grief that I tender my resignation today as your sixteenth pastor.

Last week we sensed the Lord’s strong leading from His Word in this direction. It was followed by a number of personal and circumstantial confirmations.

To those of you who have loved us through the tough times, Amanda and I want to express our deep love and affection. Thank you for your smiles, your friendships, for keeping and loving our children, and for your sincere commitment to Jesus Christ. Our gratitude to you and our love for you will continue unchanged.

My only ambitions since I have been here have been to teach and preach the Word of God to the best of my ability and to love you with a full heart.

Our hearts are broken, but our spirits are strong in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Your church by-laws state in Article 11-A, Section 1, that “at least thirty days’ notice shall be given of termination of the relationship [between pastor and church], unless otherwise mutually agreed upon, with both the pastor and church seeking to follow the will of God through the leadership of the Holy Spirit.”

Therefore, I submit a 30-day notice to the church today. I am, however, willing to allow today to be my last Sunday with you, should the church desire it. In either case, we plan to move the family out of your parsonage as soon as possible.

Psalm 2 - Kiss the Son

Opening thought: It’s 1775. The year 1787, with its novel constitution and separation of church and state is a long 12 years away. At the moment, you and your friends are just a bunch of outlaws.

You’ve heard the debates in Parliament over taxation and representation; you’ve seen British troops enforce royal supremacy at the point of a bayonet. Your king, George III, and Parliament have issued a declaration asserting their sovereignty in “all cases whatsoever” in the colonies.

When understood in its own times, the American Revolution was first and foremost a religious event. In fact, not only was it right for colonists to resist British “tyranny,” it would actually be sinful not to pick up guns.

How did they come to this conclusion? They fastened on two arguments.

First, they focused on Parliament’s 1766 Declaratory Act, which stated that Parliament had sovereignty over the colonies “in all cases whatsoever.” For clergymen, especially Baptists, this phrase took on the air of blasphemy. These were fighting words not only because they violated principles of representative government but even more because they violated the logic of sola Scriptura (“Scripture alone”) and God’s exclusive claim to sovereignty “in all cases whatsoever.” This king was claiming God’s place and authority!

From the first colonial settlements, Americans were accustomed to constraining all power and granting absolute authority to no mere human being. For Reformed colonists, these ideas were tied up with their historic, covenant theology. At stake was the preservation of their identity as a covenant people. Not only did Parliament’s claims represent tyranny, they also represented idolatry. For colonists to honor those claims would be tantamount to forsaking God and abdicating their national covenant pledge to “have no other gods” before them.

In a classic sermon on the subject of resistance entitled A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission, Boston’s Jonathan Mayhew, a liberal (he favored Unitarianism), took as his text Romans 13:1–6, in which Paul enjoins Christians to “be subject unto the higher powers.”

For centuries, rulers had used this text to discourage resistance and riot. But circumstances had changed, and in the chilling climate of impending Anglo-American conflict, Mayhew asked if there were any limits to this law. He concluded that the law is binding only insofar as government honors its “moral and religious” obligations. When government fails to honor that obligation, or contract, then the duty of submission is likewise nullified. Submission, in other words, is not unlimited.

Rulers, he said, “have no authority from God to do mischief.… It is blasphemy to call tyrants and oppressors God’s ministers.” Far from being sinful, resistance to corrupt ministers and tyrannical rulers is a divine imperative. The greater sin lies in passively sacrificing the covenant for tyranny, that is, in failing to resist.[1]The passage we have today teaches something similar: that the rulers of the nations plot in vain. The Messiah is enthroned above all.

Pray and Read: Psalm 2

Contextual Notes: The word psalm means song and has the connotation of a prophetic song. It speaks of something to come. It is prophecy. Psalm 1 and 2 form the introduction to the entire book of the Psalms. Psalm 1 prophesies the Righteous Man who is to come. Psalm 2 predicts the failure of the nations’ plots to keep that Righteous Man from taking His rightful place as King.

This psalm’s twelve verses divide neatly into 4 groups of 3 stanzas each.

In the first stanza, verses 1-3, the kings of the earth speak rebellion against the Lord and his Messiah.

In the second stanza, verses 4-6, the Lord in heaven establishes his own King on Mount Zion.

In the third stanza, verses 7-9, the Messiah Himself speaks, telling of the Lord’s decree establishing Him as King, granting Him Sonship and authority over the nations.

Then the final stanza, verses 10-12, ends with the kings of the earth warned to submit to the Lord and His Messiah-Son.

There is a tight ABB’A’ construction. The two outside stanzas are on the earth and speak of the rebellious kings of the earth who are warned to submit to the Messiah. The two inside stanzas are in heaven and speak of the enthronement and authority of the Messiah.

Key Truth: David wrote Psalm 2 to teach that Jesus Christ will rule the rebellious nations.

Key Application: Today I want to show you what the Bible teaches about the rule of Christ over the nations.

Sermon Points:

1. Rebellion is dumb (Psalm 2:1-3)

2. Rebellion is dangerous (Psalm 2:4-6)

3. Rebellion is destructive (Psalm 2:7-9)

4. Rebellion is discouraged (Psalm 2:10-12)

Exposition: Note well,

1. REBELLION IS DUMB (Psalm 2:1-3).

a. Acts 4:25-26

b. Verse 1 points directly to a pre-meditated plot to kill the anointed one, pointing straight to Christ.

c. APPLICATION: When you stand against God’s purposes in your life, in your children’s lives, in your church, you are doing it in vain. It is not smart.

2. REBELLION IS DANGEROUS (Psalm 2:4-6).

a. Psalm 37:13; John 1:49

b. He laughs. He scoffs. He rebukes. He terrifies. He installs His Man on the throne.

c. APPLICATION: Standing against God’s purposes and working to stop or overcome his work is dangerous.

3. REBELLION IS DESTRUCTIVE (Psalm 2:7-9).

a. He rules the rebellious. He dashes the rebellious.

b. The nations which rebel against Him will be possessed by Him.

c. Verse 7: 2 Samuel 7:14; Psalm 110:1; Acts 13:33-36; Colossians 1:18; Hebrews 1:5; 5:5

d. Verse 8-9: Revelation 2:26-27; 12:5; 19:5

4. REBELLION IS DISCOURAGED (Psalm 2:10-12).

a. The wise thing to do is submit to Him (2:10).

b. The wise thing to do is serve Him (2:11)

c. The wise thing to do is adore Him (2:12)

d. The wise thing to do is take refuge in Him (2:12)

Invitation: The founding fathers’ rallying cry from pulpits across the land was, “No King but Jesus,” and they meant that no human ruler would take what is rightfully Christ’s – the souls of men. Won’t you submit to Him today? Serve Him today? Adore Him today? Take refuge in Him today?

Preached: Sunday, July 6, 2008 at Amis Chapel Baptist Church, Oak Hill, NC

---

[1]http://www.ctlibrary.com/ch/1996/issue50/5011.html

Slightly used

Happy 4th!

Eat plenty of barbecue and thank the Lord for our freedom!

No drinking