Clydisms - Original quotes

Clydisms: Original or thought to be original quotes My prayer for today: Lord, today I will lock eyes with the despairing, Let them depart from me thinking, "There goes a man who leaves hope." Today, I will lock eyes with a businessman, Let him depart from me thinking, "There goes a man of honesty." Today, I will lock eyes with a person of color, Let him depart from me thinking, "There goes a just man." Today, I will lock eyes with a woman, Let her depart from me thinking, "There goes a pure man." Today, I will lock eyes with a child, Let her depart from me thinking, "There goes a kind man." Today, I will lock eyes with the poor, Let them depart from me thinking, "There goes a compassionate man." Remind me, dear Lord, that it is You I must represent, not I. Let me present the same Christ on this Monday that I presented to the people on Sunday. Sunday was but the lesson, Monday is the test. - CMH Like the boy who cried wolf, we dilute real racism by cheapening it by accusing all disagreements to be rooted in it. At what point do we cry racism over and over until we become the racist ourselves? - CMH "Render unto Caesar things due Caesar," was spoken by our Lord during a period when citizens had no right to direct the affairs of government, let alone choose their leaders. Yet Christ gave this commandment in reference to paying taxes. How much more would Christ demand this in a world where Christians have the opportunity to assure God's basic moral laws are codified into law! - CMH A beggar sought compassion from a liberal, "Let me show you our welfare department, we'll give you all you need" he proudly said. Then the beggar met a conservative, "I can give you a job and you'll have all you need," said the conservative. He asked a politician and was told, "Vote for me and you'll have a chicken in your pot everyday." He asked the businessman and heard, "Let me give you some advice." From the policeman he received warnings. From passerbys, he received quarters, but then he stumbled upon another person who "I once was lost, but now I'm free. I once was poor but now I'm rich. I once was hungry, but now I'm nourished. I once was damned, but now I have assurance. While the others offered you relief for the moment to get you out of their life, let me show you One who promises you the future if you get into His life. Go home with me. Not only will that give you a hot meal and a warm shower, but I'll show you how to begin the journey. - CMH. A good appearance does no more to make a saint than does the act of putting aircraft paint on a jalopy make it fly. - CMH A lot of people miss Heaven by only 18 inches: the distance between their head and their heart. Others miss Heaven by a hundred feet: the distance between the curb of the road and the door of the church. What are you doing to build a bridge over that gap? - CMH A man with a truck is never without friends. A woman with an oven is never without children. A man in leadership is never without enemies. - CMH A mark of a man is his ability to make a kitten purr and a baby smile. - CMH to his grandson. A mechanic once told me that 90% of being a mechanic is in knowing how far to tighten a bolt. Although an exaggeration, that is akin to leadership which is largely knowing how much power to use in varying situations. - CMH A person who uses three-syllable-words is probably a high school graduate. A person who uses four-syllable-words probably has a Bachelor's degree. A person who uses five syllable words .... a person who uses five syllable words probably doesn't know what they mean. - CMH A rumor is yet worse than a vicious jungle animal, seeking to devour. The jungle creature is fierce because it's life long nature has been to kill to exist, but the rumor exists to kill. It is dependent upon being intentionally loosed upon its prey. Truth has no relevance. Justice has no seat. Mercy has no part. If ever a rumor is proven untrue, those who first released it will have no remorse, excusing their actions with a puny "I thought it was so," so don't blame me," leaving its victims with a lifelong stain of a tarnished reputation. Could it be that Hell holds its hottest cells for those who so brutally murder another without regret? - CMH A superior idea inevitably loses when presented with an inferior attitude. - CMH All this talk about sacrifice — did not we surrender our all on the altar of salvation? Can a man ever be so foolish as to surmise he can sacrifice something that is no longer his? - CMH An actuary is a person hired by insurance companies to study the average lifespan of certain demographic segments of the population. There has yet to be produced data indicating that persons worshiping in Health-Wealth churches live a minute longer on earth than those with similar lifestyle habits. If you follow their wording carefully, they are actually preaching a doctrine called “eternal life in the flesh.” Thus far, 100% of the adherents of that doctrine eventually change that to “eternal life in the spirit.” Strangely enough, God never expects us to put our brain in idle to make it to heaven. But He does expect His ministers to be honest in what they preach. - CMH As a Christian, you don’t vote with the sinners anymore than you would drink with the drunks, carouse with the playboys, or gamble with the gamblers. A Christian who stands by and watches his country being turned over to babykilling, perversion loving politicians, or even worse, votes for demonically led politicians is... not only worthless, but an accessory to Hell's most potent instruments. For a preacher or denominational leader to claim to take the high road and remain silent on politically charged moral issues of the day may deceive himself and his mindless followers, but not the devil who depends on such cowardly silence. To him, it is more about keeping the peace and keeping votes and tithes than living for God. – CMH Bayer Aspirin recently stopped putting cotton in their aspirin bottles which had been in bottles since 1914. They discovered their aspirin would hold up quite well without the nuisance swab of cotton which requires spindly fingers to extract. It reminds you of the church which props up programs more out of tradition than practicality. - CMH Because Christ exemplified the full potential of deity, I can exemplify the full potential of humanity. - CMH Bitterness is a cancer of the heart. It will gnaw away until all remnants of grace, toleration and peace are gone. It's justification comes from its own self-righteousness, not from God. It's motivation is a desire to win rather than a desire to do right. It's first victims are relationships with others which sentences the possessor to the dark isolation cell of loneliness. Like a rabid beast, it lashes out before it draws you in. Its only celebration, a poison party, an attempt to draw you deeper into its web. It is the leach of life, sucking out any residue of life and hope. To it, all is lost. To it, all is gloomy and despairing. In its naiveté, everyone one else is out of step and to blame. All responsibility lies with others. Its self-preserving defense is denial. After relationships go, lives go. Churches are destroyed, evangelism lost. Sinners are repulsed for in their quest for forgiveness, they see only eyes of judgment. Bitterness is the antithesis of grace, the enemy of hope, a tool of Satan, and the fodder of despair. - CMH Charismatic choreographed dancing will become less suspect when they appropriate fat preachers to dance instead of petite, ballerina wannabees. - CMH Children run to their Sunday School class. Young teens walk to their Sunday School class. Teens avoid their Sunday School class. – CMH Christ elevated humanity to the highest level by dying on the Cross for individuals. This is the basic difference between the god of this world and the God we all seek to know. - CMH Christ is the answer for the world, but only through us. - CMH Church Historian Martin Marty said that the National Association of Evangelicals was founded on the premise that felt that evangelism was being impeded due to anti-intellectualism and judgmentalism. Churches that disdain learning and growing are the most susceptible to legalism which gauges its success on the numbers being excluded more so than the numbers being included in the church. - CMH Concerning secular colleges: Evangelicals send their kids into the lions den with wooden swords. Why not send them to a lion-taming school first? - CMH Conservatives drink the tea, liberals drink the Kool-aid. - CMH Dare we seek to honor those gone before with mere words and pictures? Don't we mock their lives by accepting them as religious fanatics, but loving while we live our lives far removed from their passion for God? How is it possible that we walk around on earth, carrying the DNA of our ancestors with nary a thought of their Jesus, let alone a transformed life in Him? - CMH David "The battle is the Lord's," but who was it that stooped down and picked up five smooth stones? David knew the battle would not be won by throwing prayers, but by throwing stones that were directed and empowered by God Himself! - CMH Despair is sinful. - CMH Determinates of a successful life: How much of God will you internalize? How much education will you obtain? Who will you marry? The more you believe you are gifted enough to overcome poor choices in these areas, the more likely you will end your life greatly disenchanted with life itself. - CMH Did you hear about the man so conceited, when he discovered who first "Nobody's perfect," sued him for slander. - CMH Don’t you think that if they brought back stoning false prophets, there’d be a lot less funny business in today’s church? - CMH Don't go around patting yourself on the back. That's a good way to get your hand stabbed. - CMH Dr. Joyce Brothers said, “It is no exaggeration to say that a strong, positive self-image is the best possible preparation for success in life.” We church people often confuse that with a call to ministry. - CMH Every man is stubborn. But over what he is stubborn over is the greatest test of his integrity. – CMH First they came for the banks, and I did not speak out—because I was not a banker; Focus on the great things, keep peripheral things in the periphery. - CMH For every ballot for a liberal member of Congress that hits the bottom of the box, approximately 5,660 unborn babies will die. Voting has consequences. Those who don't vote, as Pilate, think they have washed their hands of the mess, only to walk through this world with the blood of the unborn dripping behind them.- CMH God allows beauty to fade because by then He expects Christian husbands to have matured so that they cannot see past the inner beauty to the other. - CMH God has no grandchildren, so He enjoys ours instead. – CMH God is not looking for a new method, but a new commitment! - CMH God would have never chosen for Himself the title of Father had He not expected biological fathers to be great examples. A poor father is a slander against our Heavenly Father. - CMH God's church is like an oven. If you're a man, you might put a frozen turkey in an oven turned all the way up. After the smoke has cleared, you pull out a turkey burned black on the outside, yet still frozen on the inside. When we treat converts like that, we'll lose them every time. But God "cooks" more like a microwave, from the inside out. With His way, if you're done on the inside, it'll always show on the outside. - CMH Had Jesus preached the way a lot of preachers do today, he would have turned the boat over. - Donald Hughes Happiness is to joy what weather is to climate. – CMH Have you ever noticed that those who need to pose as the most spiritual are often the least? - CMH Holiness people have championed a moral order and have rejected a relational order while the modernists have championed a relational order at the expense of a moral order. God is seeking a people who will walk with His daily tension — the struggle between love and justice: the love of humanity balanced by the demands of a great moral code. - CMH How is it that churches and districts concentrate so hard on doing business when they're not businessmen at all? One would think they'd concentrate on doing church, since they're churchmen — doing prayer and worship, since they'll men and women of prayer and worship — doing fellowship, since they're creatures of fellowship! - CMH I believe in eternal security – whenever it comes to resignations. When a person blows up and resigns a position, to allow him to be restored to his position without personal cost is a sign of weakness in leadership. Such actions more often fit into a pattern of behavior rather than a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. - CMH I came up with a new diet called the Closed Mouth Diet. I eat whatever I want and you're to keep your mouth closed about it. - CMH I can physically outperform 90% of the people who have ever lived. (Most of them are dead.) One thing I keep coming up short in: outvoting a dead Chicagoan. - CMH I don't believe in doing anything I'm too old to do, don't know how to do, or can't afford to do. - CMH I have a photographic memory, I’m just always out of film. – CMH I once bought a car for less money than a tank of gas now costs. - CMH I suppose if Pentecostals are guilty of confusing noise with anointing, formal churches may be just as guilty at confusing deadness with reverence. - CMH If all men are imperfect, part of the reason is that women get to define perfection. – CMH If all the dreams of past twenty-year-olds were fulfilled, the world would see little of hunger, war, despair, and even little of sin. But somewhere, on the road to each of our utopias, came the detours of distraction and the attrition of energy and resolve proving the shallowness of our commitments. While the goals ma...y have been Christ's, the detours were Satan's. - CMH If blood is thicker than water and it causes you to gloss over family sin, then it must mean that blood is shamefully thicker than your faith. Sin is sin regardless who commits it. - CMH If God is not a circumstantial god, how can we serve Him with a circumstantial faith? - CMH If God is on our side, why shouldn’t we. - CMH If God is your construction partner, you can draw your plans big. - CMH If no one has ever discovered your own new Biblical interpretation, don't you think there might be a reason why they haven't? The problem with a lot of big name and little name preachers, they have to come up with a distinctive that makes them appear more spiritual than the guy on the next channel, the one in the tent ...across town, or the one in the church across town, such as blowing people down or laughing. (God must have a short attention span, for who's doing that now?) A lot of ministries have adorned themselves with so many newfangled additives, they look as foolish as the bebopper with $10,000 worth of boom boxes and florescent running board lighting on his $600 4 cylinder Nissan. The cheaper the vehicle, or the ministry the more it needs dolled up to become attractive. The more valuable a ministry, the less it needs manmade enhancements. – CMH If some Pentecostals can't get to church early enough to get a back seat, they like to get there late enough to miss the offering. - CMH You know you’re going to have a bad service ….. If prayer request time takes more time than the prayer time, you’re having a bad service. When people start bringing lab reports to read during prayer requests, you’re going to have a bad service. If your prayer request time depresses you too much to pray, you’re having a bad service. When testimonies include tearful descriptions of Grandma’s white gravy, you’re having a bad service. If your special singers begin with, “You all pray for me. I haven’t had time to practice,” you’re having a bad service. If you are struggling to find something special in the special singing, you’re having a bad service. If you’re preaching against every sin in the book and the guy on the back row is taking down some new ideas, you’re having a bad service. If you thought having no piano player was bad, then two walk in; you’re going to have a bad service. If the deacon’s wives held a prayer vigil outside the boardroom, you’re going to have a bad service. If the board meeting lasted ten minutes into service time, you’re going to have a bad service. If you were overheard saying the deacon’s wife needed saved, you’re going to have a bad service. If your wife walks out on your preaching, you’re having a bad service. If the honkytonk down the street has more going on than your church, you’re going to have a bad service. If your off-duty policeman/usher pats his underarm holster to encourage giving, you’re having a bad service. If the deacons are running a pool about how long you’ll last, you’re having a bad service. If you received a gift certificate for Christmas from U-Haul, you’re going to have a bad service. If preachers at your church leave due to resignation, termination, or death and your people have no preference, you’re going to have a bad service. If the preacher just ran off with the pianist, you’re going to have a bad service. If the preacher just ran off with the pianist, and they’re both men, you’re going to have a really bad service. - CMH If the Rapture took place during a typical church business meeting, there's be little noticeable difference in the attendance. - CMH If you want to know the history of an organization, follow its leaders for the history of a movement is inalterably associated with its leadership. - CMH If there a production to be introduced into a church building or place of ministry it should be a smash hit for the glory of God. Otherwise place it an atmosphere or location in more conducive to its content. – Linda Hughes If there is a hell, and there is, all religions can find the fastest way there. – CMH If you knew of but a fraction of the patience and grace secretly extended to you this year by just your family and friends, this would be the greatest Christmas you have ever had. - CMH If you need to lighten up it may just be because you're a bit dense. - CMH If your listeners are not responding to your lessons and sermons, is it because they are hardened or is it because you have not developed your skills to the point of impacting them? If we did less complaining about our parishioners and more improving ourselves, our world would be a better place to minister. – CMH If you've jumped on the bandwagon, it's probably because you missed the boat. - CMH In 54 years of churchgoing, I don't recall a single sermon on apologetics. Preachers always begin with assumptions. Thusly, when their kids go to college, or even the typical high school biology class, the only coping mechanism we have provided them was one of denial of the lessons. A miniscule few are able to intelligently defend their faith which explains the casualness young adults have in keeping their faith in Christ. If doctors possessed the same success record, they would be sued for malpractice over and over and some would be imprisoned. - CMH In most instances, the gullible become the guilty. Wisdom prevents a person from being sucked into the schemes of the conniving. Lacking wisdom is a vice that makes the naïve coconspirators with the trickster. - CMH Is it possible to be a better Christian than one is a gentleman? - CMH It is good that old men dream dreams and young men shall see visions. But how much better is it that they see dreams and visions materialize? And how much better that young men lay the foundation in the disciplines of prayer, work, and study to see their visions come true! – CMH It is impossible to be a true Pentecostal and not be missions minded. - CMH It is not our past with Him, but our passion for Him that gains His respect! - CMH It's also a shame that all the people who know how to run a church are too busy beating around the bush, running people down, and jumping to conclusions. - CMH It's too bad a Gift Certificate from U-Haul doesn't come with a pastor's public display of temper because it's most likely to be needed soon. - CMH I've yet to see an insurance company have a separate actuarial column for the name it-claim it preachers. - CMH Jesus “I am the way the truth and the life.” But He can be none of these unless He is all of these. He cannot be the way or the life without the truth for all things are predicated upon the accuracy of the claims of truth. If He is a lie, He is a fraud and all His claims are fraudulent. It goes without saying that He cannot be the truth and not be the way and life. All our hopes rest on the accuracy of the Word. - CMH Jesus came when time was full that we might be full of Him. - CMH Leadership, as in boxing, requires running toward pain as opposed to running away from pain to win. - CMH Like the toddler finally relenting and sitting down in the corner for punishment who said, "I may be sitting on the outside, but I'm standing on the inside," we may put a gun to a teen's head and keep the tattoos off, the immodest clothing in restraint, and language subdued, but only the few who have internalized a true love for God will carry it into their twenties. - CMH Management is the art of getting three men to do the work of three. Leadership is the art of getting two men to do the work of three. - CMH Many a pastor has conquered the great theological truths, homiletical principles, and even a connection with his God, but lost his pastorate because he forgot to love his people. – CMH Many churches remind me of the custom cars in the sixties with painted flames on the fenders simulating hot wheels. Artificial flames in worship are not the same thing as a fire from God. True fire results in a convicted spirit, reformed behavior, and changed lives. Painted flames are seen on the outside. Inward flames keep simmering until the actions of a church become more obvious than all of its paint and glitter. - CMH Many women marry, hoping to get an Ozzie Nelson but too often end up with an Ozzie Osborne. - CMH Masking cursing through cute abbreviations on Facebook is sort of like when I was little turning a cow pie into a birthday cake by sticking sticks in the top like candles. It looked better, but breaking the crust of the thing, the inside was still manure. Watering down using God's name in vain may help you fit in with your friends, but still offends God. - CMH Ministry is built upon credibility. One place to start is to acknowledge that the average age of death among Pentecostals/Charismatics mirrors that of the non-smoking/non-drinking unchurched. The same goes for illness statistics. Yet, we must reconcile this to a genuine conviction toward divine healing. - CMH My New Year’s Resolution is to gain weight. That’s right. If it goes the way previous resolutions have gone, I’ll be healthier this time next year. - CMH My prayer for today: Lord, today I will lock eyes with the despairing, Sunday was but the lesson, Monday is the test. - CMH Nature teaches us that power will rise as a check to power, and therefore is limited; but grace will give rise to more grace, and therefore is unlimited. - CMH Never pray, in a restaurant if you’re not going to give the waitress a good tip. Your risk of getting poisoned is much less than the probability of being a despicable witness. - CMH Next to God, the thing I fear most is disappointing my children. - CMH Normalcy is only a frail man's perspective of the expected. – CMH Nothing is so liberalizing and softening to rigid rules as grandchildren. - CMH Nothing liberalizes a legalist like being a grandparent. This is God's way of putting a human face on our rigidity. - CMH Nothing unites as effectively as a common enemy - unless you're the church. - CMH People are difficult. Some days I'd like to commit suicide, but why should I let the rascals outlive me? - CMH People who are never prepared for their valleys were sleeping on the mountaintops. - CMH Perhaps the greatest flaw with Pentecost is that young leaders seek more after a coup than to create their own ministries. - CMH Pluralism is non-pluralistic about non-pluralism. – Ligon Duncan (Pluralism is the belief that all religions are equal and should have equal rights. Duncan is alluding to the philosophy that all religions have rights except those who believe they are the true religion, such as Christianity. – CMH Power doesn’t corrupt. It simply exposes resident corruption. – CMH Prayerless work and workless prayer lead to the same results. – CMH Preachers no longer wear out leather to build their churches. One, shoe soles are now made of more comfortable rubber. Two, they no longer think it is their responsibility to that sort of thing to build their churches. - CMH Profanity is an effort of a feeble mind to express itself forcibly. - Sign on a wallpaper store wall that I read when I was about 10 years old. - CMH Progress is greater things built upon yesterday’s greatest. – CMH Prosperity preachers attempt to turn God into a prostitute by teaching, "If you do this for God, He is required to do such and such for you." What a travesty and offense to an omnipotent and holy God! Shame on them! God is not into negotiated contracts. You must accept His covenants or nothing. Divorce, extra-marital sex, lying, theft, etc. are also attempts to corrupt His holiness by bringing Him down to your standard. How is it that when we decide we cannot rise to His expectations that we try to drag Him down into our filth? It isn't very creative is it? Someone else tried that and his name was Lucifer. - CMH Seeker sensitive churches allow the desires of a lost world to frame their philosophies and methods, thus will always be linked to the lowest common denominator of spiritual life. Godly churches will be attuned to what is most effective in reaching the lost, yet need never compromise on Truth or lower God's expectations for either conversion or discipleship. Seeker sensitive = world sensitive. But it is impossible to truly God sensitive and not be cognizant of the needs of a dying people. - CMH Separation implies prejudice. Prejudice implies the presence of sin. – CMH Since the commencement of the War on Poverty, America has spent $7 trillion of poverty. That is the equivalent of 7,000 boxcars filled to the brim with dollar bills. 7,000 boxcars would reach over 66 miles or the distance along the road from the Conference Center to King’s Island. - CMH Some categorize religious groups into three divisions: 1st Person, 2nd Person, and 3rd Person churches. The former celebrates the awe-inspiring concept of God, usually referring to the historic, but orthodox churches. The second group concentrates on the personhood of Jesus and Christ. The latter concentrates on the Person and work of the Holy Spirit. Since the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are co-eternal and co-equal, it is a horrific abuse to either separate their function and person or to elevate One over the Others in ministry. In a human perspective, the worlds were created to worship God, the Cross created to facilitate man's worship, and the Spirit given to empower that worship. Shame on us when we foolishly attempt to rearrange that perfect balance. - CMH Some men get their pornography from TV, others on the web, as many as 49% of church men do. Others just go to the pool or beach where "Christians" have devolved their standard of modesty to the point there is a place to be modest and a place to be immodest. Studies show 90% of men are allured by such sights, and good portion of the remaining 10% are looking at other men. One Supreme Court justice said he could not define pornography, but he knew it when he saw it. At what point of undress does it cross the line between modest and immodest and at what point does it cross the line between immodest and indecent? And, just who are we trying to impress? So we've always done it that way? Do we set our standards by popular vote or by the standard, “How would God be mostly pleased?” Yes, I am being “judgmental.” But have you ever heard the following used by those casting the judgmental accusation: “Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.” (Romans 14:13) Sort of puts a different spin on the judgmental charge, doesn't it? You are not responsible for another's actions? You are when your actions become so blatant the weaker brother would have to be legally blind to avoid. We have ditched nearly every external distinction in the church between Christians and non-Christians. May this one be the line in the sand. After all, what else have you given up for Jesus? - CMH Some people act like they’ve been baptized in vinegar and given a transfusion of pickle juice. – CMH Some preachers confuse their Napoleonic complex with a vision from God. - CMH Spirituality is like a pot-bellied stove. When there's a good fire in the belly, you'll see the glow on the outside. - CMH St. Peter was making his monthly report and he sounded discouraged. He reported, "I think it all started with Lucifer when he tried to supplant God and was kicked out of here. Then Eve got the idea that God was not to be taken seriously, that her way was better than His. Cain tried to write new rules. David replaced love for God with lust. Men tried to get away from the reach of God at Babel. Aaron was party to idolatry. Judas thought he could sell God the Son. James and John thought so highly of themselves that they actually thought they could sit beside Jesus on His throne. The Catholic Church thought they had the keys to Heaven and burned people at the stake who disagreed. Denominations and churches split, all touting more of God and truth than their competitors. The Latter Rain people thought they were special creations, manifested sons of God. Now we have self-appoint apostles with an exclusive ear to God. (They only have one step farther to go.) Self-worship has been an effective tool. But what is really sad, somebody reading my report today is going the same way. They're actually going to take direction today from what they want, things, thrills, fun, and sin rather than actually surrendering their will back to God today." - CMH Taking the line of least resistance makes rivers and men crooked; children rogues; and churches impotent. - CMH The bed – a powerful magnet when young becomes the curse of the aged sick. – CMH The bombing of the U.S.S. Cole reminds us that many a Christian has taken on fuel at the enemy's port. - CMH The challenges of the day will soon become the growth periods of the past. - CMH The chief problem of Pentecostals is one of definition. The goal of God for our life is not to make new Pentecostals. Rather, God has ordained us to use Pentecostal power to make new Christians. Once we begin to do this, the numbers of new Pentecostals will grow naturally because there is never energy expended that is not energy caught. As converts sense that the enthusiasm that enabled their evangelists was key to bringing them their new life, they will be drawn to a faith of power and away from all dead faith. - CMH The Church is not a gallery for the better exhibition of eminent Christians, but a school for the education of imperfect ones." (Henry Ward Beecher)“The Church is the only cooperative society in the world that exists for the benefit of its non-members.” - Archbishop William Temple The church's chief threat is God. If the church makes itself unblessable by God, then God is its chief threat. By losing its integrity, it betrays the Cross. By forfeiting its prophetic voice in society, it defies the Gospel. By losing its evangelistic effectiveness, the church loses its only right to exist and should be removed as a blight to a shining Gospel. - CMH The devil's minions never prayed to take prayer and Bible reading out of school. They didn't pray to make gay marriage legal in several states. They never prayed to kill 45 million babies in America. They never prayed about protecting pedophiles. They never prayed about legalizing drugs and pornography. They never prayed about removing the 10 Commandments from government properties. They never prayed about taking our Founding Fathers out of school textbooks. They never prayed about their prejudice against Christianity and favoritism toward Islam; cloning, promoting condoms over abstinence, forbidding censorship of porn from library computers, the horrendous bombardment on our kids of illicit videos, games, books, music, etc.; inventing the concept of Separation of Church and State; gay adoption; etc., etc. etc. No, they didn't pray, the devil's people voted! And you're telling me that we should not as Christians learn to think right, pray right, and vote right? Could it be that you are aligned on the wrong side of the fence? Could it be you are listening to ..... Oops, I'm saying too much. - CMH The God of Genesis never created a white elephant. - CMH The greatest challenge of teaching and leading may be one of definition. We are not housewives, business leaders, and shopkeepers who happen to be teacher — rather, we are ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ who happen to be stationed as housewives, business leaders, and shopkeepers. - CMH The hardness of the world about us is only formidable to a soft gospel. - CMH The last time I was asked to give up carbs, at least I was given fuel injection. - CMH The Law of Supply and Demand is one of the most fundamental economic principles. It makes or breaks a business more than any other factor. It presumes that if a product is desirable, it will be purchased. The principle also works for churches. Whenever a church produces a product that is either needed or desirable, it will attract users. If a church is not attracting users, it is most generally because their package is more repulsive than attractive. Yet it is inconceivable that the Gospel is repulsive. So it must be our presentation of Christ and His Gospel. – CMH The Lord asked me if I would still trust Him if had to endure a dozen unbearable crises. I said I would. He asked if I would still trust Him if I had to endure two dozen terrible crises. I gasped and said I would. Then He asked me if there was a limit on what I would bear for Him. He is still waiting for an answer to that because He knows if ever there is a limit to our trust in Him, we can’t be trusted by Him. - CMH The more a person says he hears from God, the less I want to hear from him. - CMH The mountain which looks tall as we begin to scale it, diminishes in its awesomeness as we are moving beyond the other side. CMH The news today talked about 3 year olds being overweight. Perhaps there is more preacher material developing than previously thought. – CMH The only compassion a needy person sees is the money from your wallet and the effort from your calendar. - CMH The only thing worse than no pianist is two of them. - CMH The only way I've found to endure a long and boring sermon is to make sure you're the one giving it. - CMH The principle flaw with Sunday school is that teachers inevitably believe their chief responsibility is to transfer information from their head to the head of the student with the naive belief that to know is to live. On the contrary, the chief task of a Sunday school teacher is to transfer Christ from their life into the life of their student with the realization that to live is to know. The chief flaw in many youth ministries is that leaders feel that if youth are having either a fun or relational experience they experiencing God, therefore; leaders confuse a relationship with them with a relationship with God. What is needed is first level appeal to a hierarchy of needs that attracts carnal youth and a transition to a second level appeal which invites youth to a confrontation with Christ, without which no ministry has taken place. - CMH The word "I" is not appropriate in any situation other than accepting responsibility. - CMH The world is going to hell in a hand basket because we have tokenized our faith instead of internalized it. – CMH Then they came for me—and there were too few working men to make a difference. – Adapted by CMH Then they came for the auto industry, and I did not speak out—because I was not an industrialist; Then they came for the insurance companies, and I did not speak out—because I was not an insurance executive; Then they came for those making $250,000, and I did not speak out—because I was a working man; There are dreamers who never succeed, but no succeeders who never dreamed. - CMH There are three kinds of church members: those who attend church, those who want to have church, and those who want to be the church. - CMH There are two kinds of people: Those who accept personal accountability and succeed and those who invent excuses and fail. - CMH There is a table of Kool-Aid set for people who follow any leader blindly. - CMH There is no nepotism, favors granted to relatives, at the gates of Heaven. God has no grandchildren, only sons and daughters. All the rest are those who have rejected His Son on the Cross. It’s not possible to hang on to our loved one’s coattails at that point. Those coattails were left lying on the ground when they took off their old garments and put on the new. No one has ever entered Heaven on the basis of their bloodline. On the train to Glory, there’s no difference in the fare. Red, yellow, black or white; son of saint or son of a prostitute, we all enter the world equal and will depart this world equally requiring the Blood of Christ covering us. We all have to come by the foot of the Cross and surrender for ourselves. It’s a road you’ll have to walk by yourself, no one else can walk it for you. So while your heritage has given you a great advantage as does a compass point the way, having a grandpa or grandma who was a saint gives you no more chance at Heaven than having a prostitute or terrorist. There is one great difference. The offspring of a prostitute doesn’t disgrace her when they don’t follow Jesus. - CMH There is this tendency for youth to demand that the church cater to their whims and fads feeling that the church should be about them. This is the grossest form of self-worship. Of course, the same goes for older church members who think church should be about their wishes. Church must first be about worshipping God in forms that edify His Name and not our carnal desires. Secondly, church must be about reaching the lost. Anytime we place our needs before either God or His lost, we have fallen into self-idolatry. - CMH This age is calling for a new breed of spiritual pyromaniacs who think little of being burned out or burned up but only burning brightly. - CMH Those who make fun of old-fashioned saints usually end up being made fun of by the Devil. - CMH To remove one’s self from the struggle between right and wrong is always to plunge oneself into the fight for wrong. – CMH To those who would seek wisdom, may you first pray for a love of people, from out of which most wisdom grows. - CMH Unworthy, but fit. If you think yourself worthy of God's calling or blessings, you are not. Only Christ is worthy. He is not seeking out worthy vessels, just fit ones. We become fit by becoming pure and from that, He makes us fit. - CMH We have allowed a rushing might wind to become a draft of wind. - CMH We presume that the churches with the most integrity speak the least about money. But we err. Stewardship is an integrity issue. For a Christian to withhold what is God's is a lack of fundamental integrity. The real issue is who gets the money, God or the preacher. A church who does not preach and teach about money encourages a lifestyle of robbing God and is the opposite of a life of integrity. Some have said that Jesus spoke more about money than he did about heaven or hell. If He did it was because He was trying to place a claim on our treasure. So as it is with individuals, it is the motive of a church which speaks about money. Is it manipulating the people for the church's gain or is it motivating people to purely give to ministry? Ways to be sure include a full financial statement available to parishioners, a focus on others rather than the comfort of the members, a pastor whose income is reflective of the typical income in the church, and a Biblically sound doctrine presented each week to the people. - CMH What God gives in vision, He always gives provision for and causes to be fully utilized. - CMH What makes preachers the best hunters? They'd never let a buck get away. - CMH What this organization needs is not so much a leader who performs 100% more, but each of its 150 ministers performing 1% more. - CMH When I was little, mothers tried hard to be fair. Each child got a different toy. Nowadays, fairness means giving each child a different last name. - CMH When the government becomes the source of all a citizen's benefits, food, loans, healthcare, jobs, and total livelihood, the citizen then, beholden to his benevolent compassion of the king, becomes silent to protect his benefits. He will endure progressively brutal abuses until the point he has no voice and is enslaved. - CMH When you come to the end of your life, 80% of what you are and what you've accomplished will be the result of the choices you have made, while about 20% will be the result of what life has handed to you. Quit making excuses and start making a life. - CMH Where there is no vision, they'll be no parish. - CMH Where were all these self-ordained prophets on September 10? Maybe we are not supposed to think. - CMH Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you'll be right either way. - CMH Whoever wrote the song "Breaking Up is Hard to Do" had never used a cell phone. - CMH Why is deer hunting good for a preacher? It's the only time he can pass up some doe. - CMH Why is it that the more someone "hears from God" the less you want to hear from him? - CMH Why would a Christian purchase “Christmas” gifts at a “holiday” sale? – CMH You can grow a church with charisma and without integrity, but you grow disciples with integrity and not charisma. - CMH If you are surrounded by fools, you must be spinning them off! - CMH Those who attempt to keep separate faith from their politics or business do so quite effectively. For if their faith can be divorced from any aspect of life, they have no faith, only a hobby. - CMH People often are led by God as to what they should do. Many fewer ever listen to Him as to how to do it. This is why potential is still far on the horizon for most of God's people and why education is critical for the "how to's" of God's will. We should always value a passion for God over education, but nothing matches a well prepared man or woman with a heart sold out to God alone. - CMH Does anybody use concordances nowadays? It used to be Strong's for the strong; Young's for the young; and Cruden's for the crude. - CMH from an old saying If blood is thicker than water and it causes you to gloss over family sin, then is must mean that blood is shamefully thicker than your faith. Sin is sin regardless who commits it. - CMH To those who would seek wisdom, may you first pray for a love of people, from out of which most wisdom grows. - CMH A shortcut to godly and effective leadership: absolute commitment at any cost; the disavowment of all pride, putting the needs of all others before you; consecrated prayer; intense study; a willingness to outwork all those around you and years of the ultimate faithfulness to build credibility. All other shortcuts are the devil's scams. - CMH Death is a would-be suitor who flirts with us all. - CMH If slavery is one man living at ease off the fruits of the unwilling labor of another, then what is welfare? - CMH A church growth principle: You must keep people with the same methods in which you won them. If you won them with candy, glitter, and a magic show you will never keep them with broccoli, spinach, and meat. Any slick talking circus barker can get a decision, but it takes a true disciple to make a disciple. - CMH The great heroes of faith risked health, life, limb, fortune, and fame for the Gospel. They would dig out a church without a penny of support, work all night for days, ride thousands of miles on horseback, scale any mountain, and face any devilish man for God. Today, a sacrifice is opined if a large brick church doesn't await them after college (if they had the grit to even go,) all the funding they wish isn't handed to them, a deacon questions their methods, or somebody defriends somebody on Facebook. And we wonder why the world is going to hell in a handbasket. It is not because the devil has waxed worse and worse, it is because God's army moves on its stomach and glands rather than on its knees and with its muscle. - CMH In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, 'Make us your slaves, but feed us. (Dosteovsky's Grand Inquisitor.) And Sam will say, "Yes, I will give you a food debit card and you will give me your dignity. Yes, I will send into your home a monthly check, and you will send out your husband and your children's father. For your life of ease your children will die on the streets and in the prisons and will have their own children as nonchalantly as an alley cat has litters because your God has been shunned away and I will become your god. Because I will pa...y you, you will be my slave and the more I pay you the more you will vote for me. Your mind will be mine and your heart will no longer be yours. The slavemaster's whips are now intertwined within your head and heart. You possessed the greatest opportunities of any people and sold it for a bowl of pottage. Sadly, sadly, more than any generation, you have been duped." - CMH

THE LAST FULL MEASURE

THE LAST FULL MEASURE
By Clyde M. Hughes

Out in the ages came a confrontation. On one side, Freedom's Voice represented the hope of humanity opposed by the powerful Oppression's Sting. What followed was the epic of all wars BB the struggle between oppression and freedom. Oppression boasted to Freedom, "I have ruled this world for millennia and I will always rule. My forces have oppressed and beaten down peoples since Creation. Tyrants are my tools. Evil is my plan. War, famine, pestilence, disease, genocide, prejudice, slavery and persecution are my methods. Misery is my goal. My success is measured in the millions of widows and orphans I make. I will always rule!" But Freedom retorts, "Not so fast, Oppression. There is a seed of desire deep in the heart of every human that will be your end. You can only abuse the weak. My people will rise and defeat you." Oppression laughed and said, "What you speak of requires a great price, a price yours will never pay." "What is your price?" said Freedom. "First," he said, "You will need a body of citizens who will do their duty as good citizens. They will have to express their views in voting. They will be required to pay duties to their governments. They will have to work hard and be loyal. They will raise their children to be citizens of a larger community, to learn, to work, and to live productive lives. That's what it takes to be a good citizen. It'll take millions to make that happen. Can you meet that?" "No problem," said Freedom. "That was just the start. You will need to spend and spend to defend your freedom. You will send your sons and daughters off to war and separation. You will suffer economic hardships. Can you meet that?" Freedom answered, "Sure, we can meet that." "But that's not all," said Oppression. "You will see your soldiers at Valley Forge, shoeless and frostbit in record low temperatures, chewing on shoe leather just to stay alive. You will see the same frozen scene repeated at Bastogne as your men spend weeks outdoors in terrible conditions for the cause of freedom. Thousands will die of hunger, disease, and murder on the Bataan Death March. There will be days when blood runs like spring water on an April day. You will see amputated limbs, piled like cord wood. The groans of thousands dying with no medical care will forever ring in your ears. Multiplied thousands will return wounded and maimed. Can you meet that?" Gasping a bit, Freedom said, "Yes, we can meet that." "But that is not all," was the reply. "You will suffer more than a million dead BB your fathers, sons, brothers, husbands, future leaders, future businessmen, future workers: the best you have to offer." Painfully, Freedom said, "We will still do it." "You will see your men cut off young without ever fulfilling their goals, having that gleam in their eyes as they watch their bride come down the aisle. They will never feel the matchless pride as they hold their newborn for the first time. Hundreds of thousands of wives will never see their loves again. Aging mothers will send their babies off to battle to see their worse fears realized. You will have hundreds of thousands of children who will never see their fathers again. Many will be destined to poverty after losing their fathers. Can you afford that cost?" said Oppression. Sadly, Freedom said, "Yes, we will bear any cost. Freedom is worth it all."
The majestic mosaic of America has been brought to each of us through the courtesy of the many millions who have gone before us. A wise person once said, "Every present success is built upon a past sacrifice." The great founders such as Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, Adams; the great leaders such as Hale, Henry, Lincoln, the Roosevelts, and more recent leaders; the great entrepreneurs and industrialists, with all their faults; the great artists like Harriet Beecher Stowe who fanned the flames of freedom for the disenfranchised; and equally so the commoner such as the farmer, the seaman, the laborer; and as much as any, the great sacrificial mothers who gained no fame but built the character of the new nation. All those who played whatever their role are owed a terrific debt of gratitude by every person in America today. Somewhat however; they, like each good citizen of today who works, loves his or her family, pays their taxes, votes regularly, and cares for the unfortunate, were doing their duty, often in a heroic fashion. They gained survival, family health and the continuation of the great dream. No one should be discounted for menial work or an honest effort at survival.

WHAT GRANDCHILDREN HAVE TAUGHT ME ABOUT CHURCH

WHAT GRANDCHILDREN HAVE TAUGHT ME ABOUT CHURCH

By Clyde M. Hughes

Grandparents are great! Someone said the reason why grandparents and grandchildren are so close is they share a common enemy. Could it be that grandkids are God's reward for not killing your own kids? Maybe not, but I was afraid of my grandfather. He was a giant of a man.(I recently found his fishing license and discovered he was nearly my current exact weight and height.) He had a gruff voice and didn't seem to know how to relate to a shy little boy. He died when I was eight. Since, my cousins have told me he was a very kind and gentle man. It must be true. For most of the years of his marriage, he housed his parents, in-laws, grown children or grandchildren.

In years since, I have come to see my grandfather as a type of the typical American church. They are filled with good, kind, and generous people but are viewed with suspicion. So what have I learned?

1. A church must bring up the perception of the neighborhood to reality. People don't stay away from your church because they don't like God. Most people like God. They stay away from your church because they don't like you! So there you sit, week after week, thinking, “We are good people. This is a good church. Why don't people come here?” You are right. Your church is good. You have a great doctrine. You have good people who have proven themselves faithful. God loves you. You want to help your community. Your desire is to see souls saved. What to do?

One church was concerned about their past problems holding them back. I told them they were a bit conceited. I said most people in this county don't even know this church exists, let alone know about its history. Thousands of books have been written telling churches how to become more known in the area. Door-to-door, advertising, making thousands of phone calls, starting a bus ministry are just a few ideas taught by the experts of the past. Nowadays, churches grow by the old-fashioned method of word of mouth. Your people must accept their responsibility of spreading the good news of your church! But first, they have to be excited about their church, excited enough to be proud and excited enough to want their friends to have what they have. Someone said evangelism is one beggar telling another where he found bread.

2. Feeling bad about my grandfather is one of the things I regret most about my childhood. But I learned much from the experience and vowed to not have my grandchildren be afraid of me. So, I attempt to let them see me smiling when I greet them. A smile melts the fear. Thus, at least for a short time, I've earned the nickname of “My Friend Grandpa,” or “Grandpa Shaky.” I'm sure I seem grumpy or starchy to a lot of church folk, but to my grandchildren, I am the person who tickles, shakes, gives piggyback rides, swings, sits on the ground under a tent, or whatever the situation calls for. That's why churches should have greeters. It's the first impressions that tells a visitor whether they will feel welcomed or not.

I had driven for 200 miles on snow to one of our churches, only to find the service had been canceled. All of our other churches had canceled services to. So not wanting to miss church, I found a Baptist church to attend. I remember walking through the foyer as if it were yesterday. Going by the secretary's office, I heard her ask, “Who is that?” The tone of voice immediately told me visitors better beware. I reckon she had never become a grandparent! Another time, I had driven with my family nearly all night long. There was no air conditioning in our van and it was a terribly hot day. My wife had cleaned the kids in a gas station rest room and I stopped and purchased cereal from a grocery which we ate in the van. After arriving at the church, I suppose the kids had been shuffled off to class and it seemed like a long period that I was sitting in the sanctuary old women's class before I recognized all the men had departed to the men's class in the back of the church. I reckon they hadn't discovered the grandparent rule either.

Visitors are very fragile. You only have one shot at proving yourself to them. While I don't recommend giving them a noogie, it wouldn't hurt to prove to them you feel honored they chose your church to visit that day! There is no law saying an unchurched person must come to your church. Those who visit but don't return are often labeled "churchhoppers," "drifters," "spiritual hobos," or other uncomplimentary names. Seldom has a church turned the tables and asked themselves, "Why should anyone come to our church?" Why should they come to your church? Sure, you believe they should, but why should anyone pass up a hundred other churches in your town to get to yours? They shouldn't, unless you have earned the right to their attendance by earning their trust!

3. Sometimes, grandkids are like cats. They will give you their attention on their timetable, not yours. Visitors are the same way. It has never crossed their minds that here stands a little church on the corner which needs their help. The questions they have are more in line with, "What does that church have to offer us and our children?" Many churches have responded to that question with framing the entire program of the church around satisfying the wants of the unchurched. The Biblical church will consider the non-negotiables of a church such as their set of beliefs and principles which cannot be compromised. Then, and only then, will they begin to consider what the unchurched are looking for and seek to incorporate them into their program as long as they do not compromise the core principles of the church. We have no right to concede any ground which is based upon Biblical values, but every responsibility to cede our traditions which may stand as a stumbling block to the lost.

4. Grandkids like their grandparents' house for a reason. Grandkids sense a freedom with their grandparents they don't in their parents because their parents are principally charged with the discipline as well as love for the child. Grandkids like the treats which flow more freely. They know the emphasis is more on grace than justice at Grandma's. But they know there are limits, as well. People like to hear about grace and love. They prefer churches known more for their love than justice. Grandkids, know they're expected to do right at Grandma's. Churches can't be expected to be as lenient as Grandma, but discipline tempered with love is the best they are expected to be.

5. It's hard to leave Grandma's house. If we are doing church right, it will be hard for people to leave the church. It is at once, an oasis, a refuge, a place to be fed, a place to play, a place to learn, and a place to grow and be equipped for a life of world living.

6. When grandchildren are visiting, the opposite works. All is right with the world when a grandchild is on your knee. The church fills good when its pews are filled with people who are hungry and growing!

7. Grandparents like to show off their grandchildren who just always seem to be the most wonderful kids in the world! Nothing makes a child as smart as having grandparents. God is proud of us when we obey Him. We become the Apple of His eye!

8. It is at Grandparents' house where we make memories. When we grow away and the world flies in our face, we always long to go back to Grandma's or Grandpa's. Church is a memory making place. It is where we first found peace, where God spoke to us, and where we grew and where we were loved and developed relationships with people who helped us rise to our potential.

9. It is at our grandparents' feet where we learned the great lessons of life. We may have learned out to hunt, fish, milk a cow, ride a horse, plow a row, bake a pie, or mend a dress. But as my grandson was getting baptized, his testimony revealed that it was his grandmother who first told him about Jesus. Church is a learning place. That is why God said pastors must be teachers. Preaching provides the inspiration for what has been previously taught. If our grandparents' home was a place of higher learning, church is the place of the highest learning.

10. Grandparents are a source of much wisdom. Their age has provided a great variety of experiences, good and bad. Wonderful celebrations and tragic losses line the membranes of their hearts. How many times has it been said, "Ask Grandpa. He knows everything!" Church is a warehouse of the wise, at least the learning. Its Book is the reservoir of wisdom and the church is where wisdom is dispensed.

11. Grandparents are our link to our far distant pasts. My grandparents were born two centuries back. Probably half of the veterans of the Civil War were alive when they were born! They lived through two World Wars, went to church in a horse and wagon and lived without running water, electricity, or a telephone. Church connects us with the great spiritual warriors of the past, the prayer warriors who can tell us of all those who sacrificed to keep the church going in lean times. Church is where we learn of the heroes of faith, living and death and the great heroes of the Bible who teach us of God's faithfulness through the centuries.

12. Grandparents are symbols of grace. Although we nearly never learn of the unsaved pasts of these special people, the people we know are not often the people they were in their teens and twenties. Ages mellows and grace cleans. They have shucked their pasts many years ago and have become the people we love so dearly. And because God reached down many decades ago and saved them, He can reach down to us and lift us up to Him.

13. I spoke of my paternal grandfather but I have another who was killed a few years before I was born. Manytimes, I have wondered about what kind of man he was and how different my life would have been had he lived. Fortunately for me, mentors came into my life who served as surrogate grandfathers. There a host of people in your community who have never had a church or Christian examples to guide them. Who will show them the way? Who will love them? Who will exemplify the best of humanity to them? Unless you rise up and love and guide them, no one will! The grandest mission a person has to do is to make Christ known. Be a GRANDparent and a GRAND example!

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IPCC LIFE
Monday – May 11, 2009 Volume 20, Number 18
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Today’s News and Culture
Through the Lens of a Christian Worldview
By Bishop Clyde M. Hughes

THIS WEEK’S NEWS AND COMMENTS:

* LARRY AUSTIN REPORTS ON REVIVAL IN PRISON
* NATIONAL YOUTH DIRECTOR MINISTERS AT JAMESTOWN IPCC
* KING’S COMMISSION GRADUATION
* IPCC MINISTER GRADUATES FROM LAW SCHOOL
* I AM THE IPCC
* BRAZIL TRIP
* ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND CAMPMEETING, July 20 - 23, 2009
* PENTECOST SUNDAY
* IPCC WOMEN’S MINISTRIES AND PASTORS’ RETREATS
* DARLA WINN AVAILABLE FOR SERVICES
* MILITARY HALL OF FAME PRAYER REQUESTS
* 26 SIMILARITIES BETWEEN AMERICA AND NAZI GERMANY
* PRESIDENT REFUSES TO ALLOW DAY OF PRAYER EVENT
* DAISY CHAIN, Protecting the ‘Least of These’ from Abuse (Abuse in the parsonage)
* D.C. CITY COUNCIL PASSES GAY MARRIAGE BILL
* ARE THE EPISCOPALIANS CRAZY OR JUST REPROBATED?
* SENTENCE SERMONS & QUIPS

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LARRY AUSTIN REPORTS ON REVIVAL IN PRISON - The reason why so few souls are reported converted is according to one study, 98% of non-professing Christians never go to church and according to Bill Bright, 95% of Christians never witness. Larry Austin has found a way around those shameful statistics: Go where the greatest percentage of sinners congregate. Some would call that prison. He has reported that revival has broken out in his services at the prison in Carson City, MI. He says they "had a mighty service, the one that one really enjoys, where the Holy Spirit has control…. From the very start the presence of the Lord was so mighty the men fell right in worshipping the Lord. The Spirit was moving, it could be felt in such a mighty way. And I did not have to preach it was of those kind of services." Often a minister will say he has no place to minister. Or, they want to start a church, become a missionary, or do a great work while driving by hundreds of opportunities each week and doing nothing where they are planted. Brother Austin is a witness of the potential to fill needs easily discovered by simply opening our eyes to the needs right before our eyes.

NATIONAL YOUTH DIRECTOR MINISTERS AT JAMESTOWN IPCC - Jimmy Brockway ministered yesterday to the folks at Jamestown, OH. I’m sure they were appreciative of his ministry.

KING’S COMMISSION GRADUATION - An impressive group of people came to London to witness the third commencement of King’s Commission, our intensive nine month discipleship training program. The atmosphere was positively charged as the graduates were challenged to pursue their quest for God. About 90% of high school graduates leave the church. KC offers courses on Old and New Testament Survey, Developing a Christian Worldview and IPCC History, Marriage and the Family, Personal Development, Personal Evangelism, and Leadership. Probably more important is the daily regimen they develop for personal devotions and Bible study. Brent Hubbard pours his life into the students. In addition, Ervin Hargrave, Aaron Turner, and myself have been the teachers this year.

IPCC MINISTER GRADUATES FROM LAW SCHOOL - Dustin Hughes received a Juris Doctorate with Track Honors from the University of Dayton School of Law Saturday after pursuing the intense program while helping care for his quadruplets. Track Honors reflects a GPA of more than 3.5 in courses within a track of study. Of the approximate 150 graduates, he was the only one who gave thanks to Jesus Christ in the printed program, although 4 others thanked God. About 1% of Americans hold a doctorate degree. He will take the Bar Exam in July. 92% of the school's graduates pass the exam on their first try, the second highest record of the 9 law schools in Ohio. When he passes, he will become the first IPCC member ever to become an attorney and will join former IPCC ministers Horace S. Ward, Jr., and Richard Edwards in having an earned doctorate from a fully accredited institution in our 92 year history. One of the reasons he chose law was to assist in the various legal needs of the IPCC. One sign of getting old is seeing your kids outstage you. But when you have eight who surpass you in some form or manner, you feel really old. There was a day when it seemed about everyone thought I was too neglectful of my family, out slaying imaginary dragons, but I didn’t know how to get out. Yesterday, on Mother’s Day, I was once again reminded of a mother who bore much of the weight of raising eight kids on a very meager income, getting them ready for school or church, chipping the ice off a van which had little or no heat in it, and loading them up alone many times for church, enduring much of the typical teen years, etc. So my pride in my children includes the acknowledgment that the credit goes to the grace of God who covers for the misguided, but sincere; and a near supernatural mother. And, that is no statement of false modesty.


BRAZIL TRIP - You are invited to join Global Missions Board Member Richard Blevins, Field Secretary for South America Damron Bradshaw and myself on a quick trip to Brazil to the Quadrennial Convention of the Pentecostal Church of Christ of Brazil. We will depart July 12 and return July 19, the day before our Annual Conference and Campmeeting. The convention of the Brazilian church is thrilling, to say the least, with tremendous music, great preaching, and fellowship with people unsurpassed in both their friendliness and zeal for God. You will be impressed! Travelers would be expected to pay all their expenses and promote IPCC missions on their return. While our tickets have been purchased, there may still be time to share a flight on the overseas portion of the travel.

ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND CAMPMEETING, July 20 - 23, 2009 - Years ago I was scheduled to speak at a service in the Brazil convention and one of the ministers said, "God is going to speak tonight!"

I’m not sure He did that night in the way the minister thought, but God is planning on speaking at the upcoming Annual Conference and Campmeeting. We have cleared the business schedule in the mornings to hear from one of the most recommended campmeeting speakers in our history, B. H. Clendennin. If you recall Glyn Lowery, the Assemblies of God speaker who was the best of a combination of being a great proponent of holy living yet very evangelistic in his outreach, he recommended his mentor, Bert Clendennen. Although he will easily be the oldest campmeeting speaker we have ever had, he requested more than the puff job of evening speaking. His Schools of Ministries are now in a hundred nations and his theme is getting back to God. He is known for his fervor for God. This is one campmeeting you can dare afford to miss.

PENTECOST SUNDAY - Many churches celebrate Pentecost Sunday in their liturgical calendar. Which churches celebrate it the least? Pentecostal churches! Thus, we are calling on all IPCC churches to set aside Pentecost Sunday, May 31, 2009, for a Celebration of Pentecost. No, we are definitely not trying to bring in formality or a stodgy liturgy into our churches, just seeking to have our main distinctive highlighted. A surprising percentage of Pentecostal believers neither know or practice Pentecostal distinctives. No programs will be provided. You should use your own creativity to arrange the service. After all, isn’t that partly what Pentecost is about?

IPCC WOMEN’S MINISTRIES AND PASTORS’ RETREAT REGISTRATIONS BEING RECEIVED – May 21 - 23, 2009 are the dates of this year’s WM Retreat. The Pastor’s Retreat will precede that retreat covering May 20 - 21. The charge is only $10 with the remainder of the costs being furnished by the WM Department. Contact Janice Boyce for information or registration at jwboyce@intelliport.com

DARLA WINN AVAILABLE FOR SERVICES – IPCC evangelist and pastor Darla Winn will be in the Michigan/Ohio area from May 20 to about June 20. She is interested in planting a church in California and is seeking services in the area and partners in the effort. You may reach her at 951-704-3794 or e-mail at buildingppl@yahoo.com.

MILITARY HALL OF FAME - The IPCC wishes to honor the soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and Coast Guard members from within IPCC churches. Churches and members of the IPCC are encouraged to send a 5x7 photo along with the name, rank, and relationship to the church or member of the service member. Particularly, we would like to have participation on behalf of service members who are members of IPCC churches, but immediate family members (spouses, parents, children, siblings, and grandchildren) of IPCC members may be included. We also welcome pictures of discharged veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Digital photos may be sent. And, just because we honor our vets does not mean their good works can ever replace the need for Christ's redemptive work within them.

PRAYER REQUESTS – Jane Auxier, Robert & Thelma Cannon, Clifford and Eunice Edwards, Bettie Erickson, Pauline Ferguson, JoEllen Keeton, Dean Kuhn, Former General Overseer and wife Tom and Hattie Grinder, Lucille Hardeman, Stella Hargrave, David Howes, Arlene Hughes, Ed Hunt, Alma McCarty, Annie Miller, Mike Rice’s mother, Jim Sawyer, Sr., Robert and Margie Stover. We need to be much more serious as we pray for the children of ministers and for the health of all of our ministers. Please pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

26 SIMILARITIES BETWEEN AMERICA AND NAZI GERMANY, Three Forces Destroying the America We Know (Brannon Howse, www.worldviewtimes.com) - Even the most nominally aware person knows all too well that our nation-and the world-is engulfed in a major economic catastrophe. Thanks to the variety of factors at work, some observers have characterized it as the perfect economic storm. Yet this drama is a mere thunder shower by comparison with a far more devastating potential that threatens to wreck not just the American dream but the entire American ideal. If this maelstrom reaches its full power, liberty and justice for all-to say nothing of the pursuit of happiness-will be wiped from the face of the earth. A perfect cultural storm is developing from the convergence of three forces, any one of which would seriously harm our way of life. But together the y portend the near certain doom of the most cherished American values. Socialism, pagan spirituality, and pragmatism have come together over the last several decades to produce a cataclysm waiting to happen. Socialism imposes the redistribution of wealth and private property through an all-powerful, freedom-robbing central government. Pagan spirituality embraces the worship of nature along with occult practices and beliefs. Pragmatism proclaims that the truth or worth of an idea is based solely upon the results it brings (pragmatists believe that truth is relative, situational, and that a desired end justifies any means required to reach it). All three of these political, spiritual, and intellectual systems have taken a dominant place in the American worldview. It's been said that if we don't learn from history we are doomed to repeat it. There are those who have even compared the rumblings in America today as similar to those in pre-Nazi Germany of the 1930s. While I don't buy the notion that our government might be ready to estab lish concentration camps, the storm clouds heading this way have brought ideas into our public policy, laws, and national consciousness that bear a frightening resemblance to what has gone before-in the worst of times. This same collection of worldviews laid a foundation for the atrocities and godless government of Hitler's Germany. Adolph Hitler, you'll recall, established the National Socialist German Workers' Party. He also bought into what I call One World Spirituality, a merging of the three worldviews of evolutionary humanism, Hindu pantheism, and occultism. Atheism in America is no longer in vogue among our "intellectual elite." It's being replaced by the far more insidious pantheism-insidious because it is more acceptable to the masses than outright disbelief in God. Pantheism is on track to become the dominate worldview in America and around the world in very short order. Please understand that I'm not sensationalizing when making these observations. First Chronicles 12:32 says men of the tribe of Issachar were called wise because they "understood the times and knew what God would have them to do." To help you make your own assessment of the situation, I've distinguished 26 benchmark issues that clearly define the intensity of the tempest that is nearly upon us. And yes, there are obvious comparisons with the growth of Nazism in Germany. I will point them out unabashedly because it's only reasonable to say so if something that looks similar to an earlier, dangerous historical parallel actually is similar. After all, storm warnings, by nature, foretell bad news. As you read through my list, I invite you to understand the times and prepare to respond with a Biblical worldview.
1. Hitler outlawed school prayer in Germany. In 1962, The U.S. Supreme Court did the same for us.
2. Hitler eliminated Christian holidays in the schools first by calling Christmas "Yuletide." Most American public schools now call Christmas vacation a "winter break."
3. Hitler took Easter out of schools and instead honored that time of year as the beginning of spring. It has likewise become common for schools in America to refer to time off at Easter as "spring break."
4. Hitler controlled the church using intimidation and threats. A half-century ago, U.S. Senator and Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Baines Johnson, promoted a bill that included an amendment to use the Internal Revenue Service to remove the non-profit status of a church that speaks against the election of any specific political candidate.
5. Hitler enticed thousands of pastors to promote paganism in their congregations. Neopaganism is one of the fastest growing religions in America, doubling every 18 months according to a June 2008 article in The Denver Post. Many American church-goers practice paganism such as "Christian" yoga, contemplative prayer, and walking a labyrinth. As evidence that church doors continue to open further to aberrant beliefs, a 2008 survey found that 57% of evangelicals do not believe Jesus Christ is the only way to God.
6. Hitler was an environmentalist and vegetarian. Marriages performed by the Nazi state frequently included blessings of "Mother Earth" and "Father Sky." Today Americans increasingly accept radical environmentalism, pantheism, and the celebration of Earth Day.
7. Hitler was fascinated by eastern mysticism. Today an increasing number of American pastors encourage their followers to become "mystic warriors".
8. Hitler believed in reincarnation. He even convinced SS officers that by murdering millions of Jews and other "undesirables" they were allowing them to get on with the reincarnation process and come back more quickly in an advanced status. Americans increasingly accept the idea of reincarnation as well as good and bad karma.
9. Hitler's holocaust killed between 8 and 11 million Jews and non-Jews. Americans have killed an estimated 50 million babies since abortion was legalized through the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973. According to a July 7, 2008 article on worldnetdaily.com "An abortionist who claims to have destroyed more than 20,000 unborn children and who once was Hillary Clinton's OB-GYN says he is doing 'God's work' when he terminates a pregnancy…He admits that abortion kills a human soul."
10.Hitler killed 270,000 handicapped people through active euthanasia.[1] America and the courts are rushing toward the same with the murder of individuals such as Terri Schiavo. Oregon voters passed their Death with Dignity Act in 1994 and re-affirmed it in 1997. Washington state voters legalized doctor-assisted suicide on November 4, 2008. In December 2008, a Montana judge ruled terminally ill residents of that state have the right to physician-assisted suicide, and "death with dignity" is gaining acceptance in other states as well.
11.Private schools were abolished by Hitler and all education placed under Nazi control. There is constant pressure from federal and many state education authorities to require that Christian schools use state-mandated, humanistic textb ooks. The Home School Legal Defense Association is fighting numerous battles at any given time to prevent parents from loosing the right to educate their children as they see fit. In August 2008, a federal district court ruled that the state of California university system may choose not to recognize the diplomas-and thereby deny college entrance to-students who attended a school using textbooks that express a Biblical worldview in the areas of history and science (i.e., Christian schools).
12.Hitler prevented dissenters from using radio to challenge his worldview. Many powerful liberals in America have made clear their intent to reintroduce the "Fairness Doctrine" that would require conservative and religious radio stations to offer equal time to anti-Christian, anti-conservative worldviews.
13.Pastors who spoke against Hitler's worldview and his murderous regime found themselves on trial and frequently imprisoned for "Abuse of Pulpit." In America, hate-crime legislation has the potential to criminalize Christians and pastors who speak out against the homosexual agenda.
14.Many Christians in Germany justified their allegiance to Hitler through a belief that "Their duty to God was spiritual; their duty to the state was political."[2] Man y American Christians now have bought the lie that their worldview can be divided between the secular and the sacred-the politician has one area of responsibility, the pastor another, and never shall the two meet. Yet the Bible teaches that all issues are fundamentally spiritual.
15.Hitler outlawed the cross and replaced it with the swastika. Today many churches, Christian colleges, and universities have willingly removed the cross from their buildings. Numerous court cases sponsored by the ACLU have required the removal of the cross from public grounds. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that the Ten Commandments cannot be posted on public grounds for religious purposes.
16.Hitler was fascinated with Friedrich Nietzsche and distributed his writings to his inner circle. Nietzsche promoted Nihilism, the belief that life has no meaning, and he is best known for his position that "God is dead". Nietzsche is presently one of the most widely read authors by American college students.
17.Hitler exploited the economic collapse of Germany to take over as dictator and usher in his brand of socialism. America's financial crisis has given liberals in both political parties the opportunity to grow the size of government and imp lement freedom-robbing socialism at lightning speed.
18.Hitler was obsessed with globalism, and many of America's most powerful political leaders are willing to subjugate American sovereignty to contemporary globalism.
19.Many Germans responded to Hitler by retreating into neutrality. Today most Americans prefer to remain neutral on moral issues that they think don't affect them personally.
20.On trial after World War II, Hitler's henchmen used the defense that they had not broken any laws. True, they had not defied the laws of Germany since those had been re-written to fit the goals and objectives of Hitler. The Nazi leaders were nevertheless found guilty because the courts at the time recognized a "law above the law." Yet now the U.S. Supreme Court has rejected the law of nature and nature's God by claiming that as society evolves, morals evolve, and so the law, too, must evolve.
21.Calling upon Darwinian evolution, Hitler convinced the German people that purging millions of people was acceptable because of the need to create a pure race; also referred to as eugenics. American students across the board have been educated in Darwinian evolution because the Supreme Court has ruled that creation cannot be taught in our schools-even if both creation and evolution are taught side by side.
22.Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood in America became acquainted with the doctors and scientists that had worked with Nazi Germany's eugenics program and had no quarrel with the euthanasia, sterilization, abortion, and infanticide programs of the early Reich.[3] Sanger even published several articles in Birth Control Review that reflected Hilter's White Supremacist worldview. Planned Parenthood now grosses one billion per year.
23.In Germany, pastors often cited Romans 13:1-2 to encourage Christians to obey the Nazis. Today in America, many pastors have a false view of Romans 13:1-2 and have convinced millions that to disobey governing authorities is to disobey God. This poor training would facilitate Christians here doing just as the German Christians did if faced with similar challenges.
24.Germans accepted socialism to avoid pain. Today's Americans are rejecting capitalism in exchange for government-sponsored "free" healthcare, education, and countless other government handouts.
25.Many Americans accept what I call, One World Spirituality. This is actually an amalgamation of the three worldviews of evolutionary humanism, Hindu pantheism, and occultism. I noted earlier that Hitler embraced all of these.
26.America is rushing toward government-sponsored, national healthcare. We already have a form of this in Medicare and Medicaid. Hitler, too, expanded and centralized Germany's healthcare system. As Melchior Palyi explained, "The ill-famed Dr. Ley, boss of the Nazi labor front, did not fail to see that the social insurance system could be used for Nazi politics as a means of popular demagoguery, as a bastion of bureaucratic power, [and] as an instrument of regimentation."
If the church in Germany had truly acted like the Church of Jesus Christ, if Christians had understood and lived out a Biblical worldview, Germany would never have accepted Hitler. I believe he would have been rejected and overthrown within weeks of his true worldview coming to light.
Most American church members today are simply reflect the culture instead of cor recting and changing it. If we are to quiet the brewing storm, apathy, political correctness, and intellectual laziness must be replaced with a passion for Biblical truth, sound reasoning, logic, and the desire to lead.
Becoming a leader does not mean you must be on the radio, give speeches, or even stand up in front of a group. An effective influencer leads through his or her actions and lifestyle. Lovingly defending and proclaiming truth in a world bent on political correctness is being a leader. Even in private conversation, leadership can take the form of lovingly correcting someone's false beliefs or ideas.
America needs Christians now more than ever to take the lead. If not, the perfect storm is ready, and annihilation is what it portends.
1] Holocaust Museum Unveils New Eugenics Exhibit by Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express, April 22, 2004.
[2] Dr. Irwin Lutzer, Hitler's Cross, (Moody Press, Chicago, IL, 1995) p. 111.
[3] George Grant, The Family Under Siege: What the New Social Engineers Have in Mind for You and Your Children (Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1994), p 62.

PRESIDENT REFUSES TO ALLOW DAY OF PRAYER EVENT - The President refused to follow precedent and welcome a Day of Prayer in the East Room of the White House, choosing rather to pray privately. Shirley Dobson, leader of the National Day of Prayer said, "We are disappointed by the lack of participation by the Obama administration. At this time in our country's history, we would hope our president would recognize more full the importance of prayer." The event was started in 1952 by President Truman after a six week Billy Graham Crusade was held in DC. Presidents Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43 all had official White House events for the day. Obama did issue a proclamation on the Day of Prayer. The anti-Christian organizations across the country were delighted by the President's decision.
Linda and I attended the local National Day of Prayer service at the county courthouse. About 8 churches participated with a crowd of about 75 people.

DAISY CHAIN, Protecting the ‘Least of These’ from Abuse (Chuck Colson, Breakpoint) - Recently, I discussed the very disturbing topic of abuse in Christian homes. Overall, the feedback I received from listeners was very positive—many expressed their gratitude that we would speak about such a difficult but important issue. Others, however, were distinctly uncomfortable that we aired two commentaries on the subject. I certainly didn’t set out to make anyone uncomfortable, and I definitely don’t want to sensationalize what is a painful subject. But at the same time, I believe we Christians do neither ourselves nor the cause of Christ any favors when we try to sweep bad behavior under the rug.
Every time we do this, the truth tends to come out anyway, and we always look worse for having tried to hide it. And, worst of all, in the process, we often fail to protect the "least of these"—the innocent victims wh o need our help. Still, some ways of dealing with tough topics can be easier to handle than others. Sometimes we can learn as much about a topic through the arts—movies or theater or a good novel—as we can by reading a study or a newspaper. Mary DeMuth’s new novel, Daisy Chain, which is published by Zondervan, is a good example. DeMuth is a Christian and an award-nominated novelist whose books often deal with issues of abuse. Yet at the same time, they intertwine themes of grace and hope. Daisy Chain tells the story of a young boy named Jed who’s struggling with both his best friend’s disappearance and his father’s abuse. On the surface, Jed’s father looks like the model pastor and family man. Only his wife and children know what happens at home when his rage spirals out of control. DeMuth herself is a survivor of a different kind of abuse, having been molested as a child. Her goal in writing about abuse, she once said in an interview, is "to show folks two things: That God can heal even the most horrific abuse. And to educate parents and professionals about abuse." I’m not a big fan of "message" books, where the writer neglects his or her craft and just concentrates on pushing an agenda. But Mary DeMuth is not that kind of writer. Her books are beautifully and sensitively written, and her characters are realistic and well-developed. She has a t rue gift for showing how God’s light can penetrate even the darkest of situations, and start to turn lives around. Even her villains are not beyond the reach of God’s grace. Perhaps one of the characters in Daisy Chain puts it best when she tells Jed, "Sometimes parents don’t act right. Sometimes . . . they flat-out do the wrong thing. If you let them wallow in that sin, don’t oppose it, you’re not really loving them, are you?" I feel the same way. Ignoring the problem of abuse in Christian homes is failing to show God’s love to both abusers and victims. If you want to learn more about a Christian perspective on the subject, visit BreakPoint.org and click on this commentary to find out how you can buy your own copy of Daisy Chain. It may not be your typical light summer reading, but it might help change your whole perspective on Christians’ responsibility to the silent sufferers among us.

D.C. CITY COUNCIL PASSES GAY MARRIAGE BILL - By a 12-1 vote, the District of Columbia City Council today passed a bill that would recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere in the U.S. Bishop Harry Jackson, of the High Impact Leadership Coalition, whom I’ve met, said, "Never before have the most privileged in a city so repressed the wishes of a ... fluent majority … The democratic process works best when the people's wishes are honored and due process is observed. In the name of civil rights reform, the Council has abridged the civil rights of the masses." Arguing that civil rights are not "sacred rights," Jackson said the cross-section of mostly African-American ministers are gearing up for what may be the nation's most significant marriage battle. Because Congress has final say over the district's laws, Jackson and others believe the bill will force a review of the Defense of Marriage Act, which prevents states from having to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. Congress will get 30 days to consider the bill if district Mayor Adrian Fenty, who supports gay marriage, signs it.

ARE THE EPISCOPALIANS CRAZY OR JUST REPROBATED? Best known for her radical pro-death stance on abortion and her status as an outspoken lesbian, the Rev. Katherine Ragsdale will soon become the first female president of Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She has said, "Abortion is a blessing and our work is not done!" To her, the blessing of abortion includes when the woman is pregnant due to "violence," when the fetus has "anomalies," when the woman hasn't an education or a "sustainable job," and even when a woman has a "loving, supportive, respectful relationship" with "every option open to her" but knows the child will compromise "one's education, life's work, or ability to put to use God's gifts." To her, even partial birth abortion is a blessing whenever it is desired. She included in one of her "sermons," "I want to thank all of you who protect this blessing of abortion -- who do this work every day: the health care providers, doctors, nurses, technicians, receptionists, who put your lives on the line to care for others (you are heroes -- in my eyes, you are saints); the escorts and the activists; the lobbyists and the clinic defenders; all of you. You're engaged in holy work."

SENTENCE SERMONS & QUIPS – Repetition is the mother of learning, the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment. - Zig Ziglar

One of these days is none of these days. - An English Proverb

A word out of season may mar a whole lifetime. - A Greek Proverb

Taking the line of least resistance makes rivers and men crooked; children rogues; and churches impotent. - CMH

The potency of prayer has subdued the strength of fire, it has bridled the rage of lions, hushed anarchy to rest, extinguished wars, appeased the elements, expelled demons, burst the chains of death, expanded the gates of heaven, assuaged diseases, repelled frauds, rescued cities from destruction, stayed the sun in its course, and arrested the progress of the thunderbolt. Prayer is an all-efficient panoply, a treasure undiminished, a mine that is never exhausted, a sky unobscured by clouds, a heaven unruffled by storm. It is the root, the foundation, the mother of a thousand blessings. - St. Chrysostom

If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else. - Yogi Berra

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Edited by Clyde M. Hughes