The Cross and the Switchblade

The Name Of Jesus Has Become A Dirty Word In Politically Correct America

In the United States today, there are very few words that provoke as much outrage as the name of Jesus.

It is being banned from graduation ceremonies, chaplains all over America are being forbidden from using His name in their prayers, and many school officials all over the nation have become absolutely fanatical about eliminating every trace of Christian expression from their schools.

One elementary school in North Carolina even ordered a little six-year-old girl to remove the word “God” from a poem that she had written to honor her grandfathers.

Political correctness is spreading like a cancer in this country, and our “freedom of religion” is rapidly being transformed into a guarantee of “freedom from religion” for those that hate the Christian faith.

Without a doubt, there is a war on the Christian faith in America today. It is being waged in classrooms, courtrooms and churches all over the nation.

The following is an excerpt from a speech that Rand Paul gave earlier this year…

There is a war on Christianity, not just from liberal elites here at home, but worldwide.

And your government, or more correctly, you, the taxpayer, are funding it.

Evidence of this war on Christianity is everywhere these days. The following are just a few examples…

-The Ohio Statehouse banned Christian pastors from using the name of Jesus when they open up the daily sessions with prayer.

-The use of the name of Jesus was also forbidden in all prayers opening sessions of the North Carolina State-House.

-Last year, a federal appeals court ruled that prayers before commission meetings in Forsyth County, North Carolina that included the name of Jesus were unconstitutional.

-Earlier this year, a Florida Atlantic University student that refused to stomp on the name of Jesus was banned from class.

-A student at Sonoma State University was ordered to take off a cross that she was wearing because someone “could be offended“.

-A teacher in New Jersey was fired for giving his own Bible to a student that did not own one.

-An open air preacher in Illinois was recently threatened with arrest for “scaring people” with the message of the gospel.

-A high school track team was disqualified earlier this year because one of the runners “made a gesture thanking God” once he had crossed the finish line.

-Volunteer chaplains for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department have been banned from using the name of Jesus in their public prayers.
Sadly, this is not an isolated incident. Chaplains all over the nation are now being banned from using the name of Jesus.

More here... http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2013/August01/011a.html

THE MIRACLE OF WEAKNESS

by Carter Conlon

Hebrews 11, often considered the chapter of faith, speaks of those who were greatly used of God in times gone by: “Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens” (Hebrews 11: 33–34).

The writer then goes on to make a phenomenal statement: “Women received their dead raised to life again...” (Hebrews 11:35). This refers to a specific power that, throughout the course of history, God had put into the hands of women to raise back to life that which was considered dead. Although the writer of Hebrews does not elaborate with specific examples, there are many in the Old Testament—one in particular in the Book of Ruth.

 “Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem-judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons. And the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons Mahlon and Chilion...” (Ruth 1:1–2).

The name “Elimelech” means kingly or mighty, signifying that he most likely had some kind of relationship with God. An inheritance was given to him—a heritage of knowing the ways of God. However, we see that Elimelech led his family into the land of Moab. Now the Moabites were the descendants of Abraham’s nephew, Lot, who had escaped Sodom and Gomorrah and ended up having an incestuous relationship with one of his daughters. This was how Moab was birthed—a place of spiritual mixture.

Elimelech must have been aware of the history and known that Moab was not the place of blessing that God had promised through Abraham to His people. Nevertheless, he proceeded to lead his family there during this season of famine. He is a type of those who claim to love God but are still living in mixture—half following God and half being led by their own senses.

As they ventured out from Bethlehem, perhaps Elimelech and his wife, Naomi, anticipated a prosperous and wonderful future awaiting them. Little did Naomi know that she would end up suffering the loss of almost everything, including her husband.

More here...https://www.tscnyc.org/sermon_newsletter/2013/August/2013-08_Carter_Conlon_The_Miracle_of_Weakness.html