If my days were untroubled and my heart always light
Would I seek that fair land where there is no night?
If I never grew weary with the weight of my load
Would I search for God’s Peace at the end of the road?
If I never knew sickness and never felt pain
Would I reach for a hand to help and sustain?
If I walked not with sorrow and lived without loss
Would my soul seek sweet solace at the foot of the cross?
If all I desired was mine day by day
Would I kneel before God and earnestly pray?
If God sent no “Winter” to freeze me with fear
Would I yearn for the warmth of “Spring” every year?
I ask myself this and the answer is plain—
If my life were all pleasure and I never knew pain
I’d seek God less often and need Him much less,
For God’s sought more often in times of distress,
And no one knows God or sees Him as plain—
As those who have met Him on the “Pathway of Pain.”
(--Helen Steiner Rice)
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
"SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT..."
“SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT…”
An article on the current city council prayer controversy in the Roanoke Times Sunday January 11 intimates that Larry Atkin, Minister of Edgewood Christian Church, had agreed to avoid using all objectionable words or phrases when he prays at the February 2 city council meeting. The suggestion is that I will avoid using the Name of Jesus Christ in that prayer. That is untrue. The following is the substance of my reply to this article and subject.
I never spoke with the authors of the newspaper article. The person from the mayor’s office who is alleged to be quoting me I have never spoken to. I did speak by telephone with a clerk in the mayor’s office who told me that an official policy on prayer at city council was being developed by the city government and that when it was complete I would be contacted to see if I could comply with it. I said I would be happy to receive the guide lines and look at them. Like Harold Sumner, I likewise do not seek to stir up controversy. But, also like Sherman Lea and Harold I told the clerk “I will not be told by anyone how to pray or in whose name to pray.”
This is typical of how the news media operates in my opinion. I do not intend to make any public statements through the Roanoke Times. They have proven themselves to me time and again to be unreliable and unfavorable to conservative Biblical Christianity.
When the promised prayer guidelines arrive, should they require the one praying to omit the Name of Jesus Christ, it is almost certain my invitation from the Mayor to open city council with prayer on February 2 will be rescinded. So be it. I would never intentionally so dishonor Jesus, and do absolutely refuse to comply with such a restriction.
This is clearly an infringement of our guarantees to Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion in America. The atheists, humanists, pagan religionists, and false Christians are flexing their muscles. The stalking lion is beginning to roar. Christians, prepare!
Larry Atkin, Preacher
An article on the current city council prayer controversy in the Roanoke Times Sunday January 11 intimates that Larry Atkin, Minister of Edgewood Christian Church, had agreed to avoid using all objectionable words or phrases when he prays at the February 2 city council meeting. The suggestion is that I will avoid using the Name of Jesus Christ in that prayer. That is untrue. The following is the substance of my reply to this article and subject.
I never spoke with the authors of the newspaper article. The person from the mayor’s office who is alleged to be quoting me I have never spoken to. I did speak by telephone with a clerk in the mayor’s office who told me that an official policy on prayer at city council was being developed by the city government and that when it was complete I would be contacted to see if I could comply with it. I said I would be happy to receive the guide lines and look at them. Like Harold Sumner, I likewise do not seek to stir up controversy. But, also like Sherman Lea and Harold I told the clerk “I will not be told by anyone how to pray or in whose name to pray.”
This is typical of how the news media operates in my opinion. I do not intend to make any public statements through the Roanoke Times. They have proven themselves to me time and again to be unreliable and unfavorable to conservative Biblical Christianity.
When the promised prayer guidelines arrive, should they require the one praying to omit the Name of Jesus Christ, it is almost certain my invitation from the Mayor to open city council with prayer on February 2 will be rescinded. So be it. I would never intentionally so dishonor Jesus, and do absolutely refuse to comply with such a restriction.
This is clearly an infringement of our guarantees to Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion in America. The atheists, humanists, pagan religionists, and false Christians are flexing their muscles. The stalking lion is beginning to roar. Christians, prepare!
Larry Atkin, Preacher
Monday, January 5, 2009
"SLANDERING THE HOLY SPIRIT"
VOLUME XXVII I JANUARY 05, 2009 #01
“Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will receive forgiveness; but for him who slanders the Holy Spirit there will be no forgiveness.”
(Luke 12:10 New English Bible)
These words have puzzled believers and terrified men for centuries. A sin for which there is no forgiveness? Truly frightening! Jesus is “the Way” to salvation. If you are at first mistaken about Him, then repent, you can be forgiven. But not if you “slander the Holy Spirit.” Is the Holy Spirit then greater than Jesus? Mysterious words, indeed!
I am no theologian nor a skilled interpreter of scripture or doctrine. Nor would I presume that my thoughts upon this text or subject are exhaustive or exclusive. But I would venture one idea.
The Holy Spirit is the inspirer of scripture, and scripture records the facts, testimony, and proof of Jesus’ identity, mission, and purpose. One can possibly misinterpret, misunderstand, or be misled by others in the correct meaning of this data about Jesus, and therefore fail to believe upon Him and be saved. Later, discovering his error, he can then repent, believe, obey, and be saved.
But suppose one absolutely, finally, and maliciously rejects the scriptures themselves, of which the Holy Spirit is author and inspirer? How then can he find forgiveness from the One whom he has rejected, since he has totally refused to believe upon Him, doubting Jesus’ very existence, denying His Deity, refusing the sacrifice on Calvary, thinking the resurrection a myth?
Can you throw away the handbook of Heaven and still get there? Can you discard the key to the Kingdom and still enter the door? Can you refuse to hear and heed the words of the Spirit and, on your own, or by relying upon uninspired men, still take possession of eternal life?
There is merciful forgiveness with the Lord! One can unintentionally err in understanding about Jesus, repent and find pardon. But what about the man who throws the Bible away, the Word of the Holy Spirit, how is he even to know the terms of forgiveness, which are found exclusively in the Bible? Without the Bible how is he even to know about God’s mercy?
To reject the Holy Bible is to consign oneself to a hopeless state. Eternally! That is scary!
Larry Atkin, Preacher
“Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will receive forgiveness; but for him who slanders the Holy Spirit there will be no forgiveness.”
(Luke 12:10 New English Bible)
These words have puzzled believers and terrified men for centuries. A sin for which there is no forgiveness? Truly frightening! Jesus is “the Way” to salvation. If you are at first mistaken about Him, then repent, you can be forgiven. But not if you “slander the Holy Spirit.” Is the Holy Spirit then greater than Jesus? Mysterious words, indeed!
I am no theologian nor a skilled interpreter of scripture or doctrine. Nor would I presume that my thoughts upon this text or subject are exhaustive or exclusive. But I would venture one idea.
The Holy Spirit is the inspirer of scripture, and scripture records the facts, testimony, and proof of Jesus’ identity, mission, and purpose. One can possibly misinterpret, misunderstand, or be misled by others in the correct meaning of this data about Jesus, and therefore fail to believe upon Him and be saved. Later, discovering his error, he can then repent, believe, obey, and be saved.
But suppose one absolutely, finally, and maliciously rejects the scriptures themselves, of which the Holy Spirit is author and inspirer? How then can he find forgiveness from the One whom he has rejected, since he has totally refused to believe upon Him, doubting Jesus’ very existence, denying His Deity, refusing the sacrifice on Calvary, thinking the resurrection a myth?
Can you throw away the handbook of Heaven and still get there? Can you discard the key to the Kingdom and still enter the door? Can you refuse to hear and heed the words of the Spirit and, on your own, or by relying upon uninspired men, still take possession of eternal life?
There is merciful forgiveness with the Lord! One can unintentionally err in understanding about Jesus, repent and find pardon. But what about the man who throws the Bible away, the Word of the Holy Spirit, how is he even to know the terms of forgiveness, which are found exclusively in the Bible? Without the Bible how is he even to know about God’s mercy?
To reject the Holy Bible is to consign oneself to a hopeless state. Eternally! That is scary!
Larry Atkin, Preacher
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