World News Through the Third Lens: Public Prayer

Christian Leader to Plead "Not Guilty" at Arraignment after being arrested for praying on a public sidewalk outside of a Planned Parenthood Clinic in Washington, D.C. (www.christiannewswire.com June 29, 2010). The article goes on to say that Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, Director of Christian Defense Coalition, was charged with "unlawful entry" as he was praying and reading his Bible on a public sidewalk, several dozen feet from a Planned Parenthood Clinic in the nation's Capital. Rev. Mahoney stated, "This marks the first time in the history of our nation's capital that prayer and First Amendment activities have been prohibited and banned on the public sidewalk. Sadly the city of Washington, D.C. has chosen to protect the abortion industry and Planned Parenthood rather than the First Amendment. These actions should send shock waves to all Americans who cherish free speech and civil liberties."

Rev. Mahoney has pleaded, "Not Guilty!" to the charges and will be represented by the American Center for Law and Justice." He further stated, "As I plead not guilty to these outrageous ad baseless charges, I am affirming the power of the First Amendment and free speech and joining a long, proud tradition of Americans who refused to keep silent and go quietly into the night and surrender their God-given rights and liberties."

Rev. Mahoney can be contacted at (540)-538-4741 for more information.

Through the Third Lens of Scripture: This is not the first time, nor will it be the last, that a Christian gets in trouble for praying publicly. In Daniel 6, as King Darius was about to place Daniel in charge of all 120 of his governors, the governors got jealous and wanted to see Daniel convicted of some sort code of conduct violation. They concluded. "We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God." (Daniel 6:5) So the governors went to the king and hoodwinked him. Appealing to his pride and vanity, they convinced him to make a decree that for 30 days, no one in the kingdom could pray to any god or man except the king. The penalty for violating the decree would be an overnight stay in the Hungry Lion Motel. Their motive is revealed five verses later.

"Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows faced toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before." (Daniel 6:10) Daniel got to stay at the Hungry Lion Motel, but the power of God that attended him made the lions a whole lot more sleepy and content, than hungry. The attack against Daniel was at its roots an attack against the God Whom he worshipped. It is no different with Rev. Mahoney.

This explains why, in our Nation's Capital, a city filled with public prayer, Rev. Mahoney was arrested. Sessions of Congress open with prayer; sessions of the Supreme Court open with prayer; and references to the Bible, Almighty God and prayer are inscribed in granite all over the city. But that's old stuff. It's OK - it's part of the pluralism which is running rampant in the land. This year - 2010 - Tony Perkins was disinvited to pray at Andrews Air Force Base; Franklin Graham was disinvited to pray at the Pentagon; and there was no National Day of Prayer observance at the White House. More and more it is becoming clear that to allow public prayer to the One True God is to acknowledge that He may in fact exist, and if He exists, then we might just be accountable to Him........And that is unthinkable in these days of secular humanism, socialism, Marxism and all the other "isms" which are an affront to Holy God.

My encouragement to the body of Christ is to pray all the more. Yes, pray in your prayer closet, for we are admonished to do so (Matthew 6: 5-15). The real point here was not so much to pray in a closed room where no one could see you, but to not pray so as to curry favor and admiration from men. So go ahead, pray in public also. Pray corporately; don't just be "led" by a celebrity prayer. Pray with and for others - even your enemies (Matthew 5:44). Let your light shine; individually like a candle set upon a stand and corporately like a city set upon a hill (Matthew 5:13-15). How much better, as a follower of Christ, to be arrested for Patrick Mahoney type behavior than for running a red light or neglecting our kids. (1 Peter 2:20).

Practical Application: Coming this fall (Sept. 22 - Oct. 31) to a city near you is a 40 Days for Life event. Get involved.

World News Through the Third Lens: Judging and Being Judged

"Judge not, lest ye be judged," (Matthew 7:1) is a Scripture often quoted by people who respect neither God nor His word, just to silence someone who may be speaking Biblical truth. I wish to say at the outset, that i do not set myself up as judge over Supreme Court nominee, Elena Kagan - the Lord is more than capable of doing that. However, He will judge according to his revealed word. He is not going to pull out some ancient rule book that no one has ever seen and judge everyone according to some secret code. The general principle behind this statement can be seen in these two antithetical promises of God found in Deuteronomy 28.

"If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all His commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God." (Deuteronomy 28:1-2) The antithesis: "However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all His commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:" (Deuteronomy 28:15).

It should come as no surprise to you that there are judges in the modern world who place themselves above God, and judge according to some undefined standard that changes and evolves through time. They judge according to situational ethics or relative truth; meaning that there is always a surprise lurking in their judgment. There is some serious evidence that the current Supreme Court nominee, Elena Kagan, is one of those judges. There is evidence abounding that she is anti-life/pro-abortion; that she is pro-LGBT while at the same time supporting Sharia concepts which condemn LGBT people to death. It looks like she is for anything that is against Christianity and the bedrock truths of the Bible, which will never pass away. (Matthew 24:35) The video clip at the following link is evidence of this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZNQ7qcQ4&feature=player_embeded

Through the Third Lens of Scripture: The judges of Israel, who refused to judge according to the word of God wound up high on God's own judgment list. The directives given to judges was clear, as in this passage from 2 Chronicles. "He (Jehoshaphat) appointed judges in the land, in each of the fortified cities of Judah. He told them, 'Consider carefully what you do, because you are not judging for man but for the Lord, who is with you whenever you give a verdict. Now let the fear of the Lord be upon you. Judge carefully, for with the Lord our God there is no injustice or partiality or bribery.....You must serve faithfully and wholeheartedly in the fear of the Lord. In every case that comes before you from your fellow countrymen who live in the cities - whether bloodshed or other concerns of the law, commands, decrees or ordinances - you are to warn them not to sin against the Lord; otherwise His wrath will come on you and your brothers. Do this and you will not sin......Act with courage, and may the Lord be with those who do well.'" (2 Chronicles 19:5-7, 9-10, 11b)

God's view of those who take the law into their own hands and judge with partiality is clear throughout Scripture. "Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly." (Leviticus 19:15) "So I have caused you to be despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not followed my ways, but have shown partiality in matters of the law." (Malachi 2:9).

Lawlessness is already running rampant in the land. The executive branch of the federal government has been usurping powers not granted to it by the Constitution, and we have seen several signs of a judiciary legislating from the bench. The people have become confused and don't know where to turn. "We all growl like bears, and moan sadly like doves; we look for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. Justice is turned back and righteousness stands afar off; for truth is fallen in the street and equity cannot enter." (Isaiah 59:11,14). Read the rest of Isaiah 59. Apart from God, and His Savior - the Lord Jesus Christ - there is no help. But they who put their trust in Him will not be disappointed.

World News Through the Third Lens: The Economic Consequences of Abortion

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernake warned on Wednesday that "the federal budget appears to be on an unsustainable path".....Bernake, testifying before the House Budget Committee also recognizes that an "exceptional increase" in the deficit has been necessary to ease the pain of recession. To Republicans, he offered warnings about the fiscal perils of an aging population and the potential threat of soaring long-term interest rates. (Source: World Watch Daily, Koenig International News, June 11, 2010)

The picture above is of me and a good friend Vinny, standing in front of a place in Bridgeport, CT called the "Women's Summit" which is nothing more than an abortuary - where innocent babies are killed and women (and some men) are scarred for life - sacrifices made to the god's of greed, fear, and convenience. The picture that Vinny (who with other faithful saints come to this killing place twice a week, every week, regardless of the weather) is holding, as gruesome as it is, is real, truthful evidence of what happens when a baby is surgically dissected and ripped from its mother's womb. Few people, when they see these graphic pictures, just shrug them off. Praise God, across this land they arrest the attention of thousands of mothers before they enter the killing fields. What usually happens then is that the sidewalk counselors give them literature, encouragement, and genuine offers of real tangible and spiritual help. In Bridgeport alone, 120 mothers changed their minds and brought their babies to full term. Many of these mothers also entered into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, and made life-long friends.

The other side of that praise report is that last year, about 1500 babies were killed at the Bridgeport abortuary, and since January 22, 1973 over 50,000,000 babies have been killed because of the legalization of abortion on demand. The number of surgical abortions in the country has dropped somewhat in the last decade. Many abortuaries have closed. It's hard to tell whether that represents on any increased appreciation for the sanctity of life, or whether just more and more abortions are being performed by "the morning after pill." A conservative guess would be that at least 20-25,000,000 of those aborted babies would now be in the workforce, all contributing to social security and medicare (two huge unfunded liabilities carried by the federal government). They would also be consumers, helping to drive the economy.

Through the Third Lens of Scripture: God's dealings with the people of Israel, from the time of Moses, until the last king (until King Jesus returns) in the line of David serve as an ongoing object lesson for us (see 1 Corinthians 10: 1-11). We can see from Israel's history that time and time again they were judged when they turned to idolatry, often accompanied by child sacrifice. "They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons. They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was desecrated by their blood. They defiled themselves by what they did; by their deeds they prostituted themselves. Therefore the Lord was angry with his people and abhorred his inheritance. He handed them over to the nations and their foes ruled over them." (Psalms 106:37-41) Without citing the many times that it actually happened, let this prophetic illustration suffice to show what happens to nations who reject God. His judgment often begins with some sort of financial disaster, which in an agrarian society would include famine. "Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. ..... They will devour the young of your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine or oil, nor any calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks until you are ruined." (Deuteronomy 28:47-48, 51)

Judgment is beginning - its footprint is all over the land, in the halls of government and in the so-called citadels of justice. One "pro-choice" (which really means "pro-death") advocate caught sight of one of those graphic signs, being held by a mother defending life, and yelled out, "How can you allow children to see those horrible pictures?" To which the mother rightly responded, "How can you allow children to become these awful pictures?" In an effort to stem the tide of judgment (or at least be a witness to the fact that God is both just and merciful) I am joining with Personhood USA to help bring the personhood initiative to Connecticut. Abortion must stop. If not now, when? If not through us, through whom? This is the first step towards financial reform - not Senator Dodd's proposed legislation.

World News Through the Third Lens:The War of Gog & Magog?

RUSSIAN, IRANIAN AND TURKISH LEADERS MEET, reads the headlines today (AP/RIA Novosti, June 8, 2010). "As Israel becomes increasingly isolated from the world, Russia, Iran and Turkey are meeting today in Istanbul, Turkey to discuss how to form a closer alliance......Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov told RIA Novosti Monday that in Istanbul, Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan will also discuss bilateral cooperation....Putin said he will meet with Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Istanbul Tuesday ahead of a UN Security Council vote to impose a fourth round of sanctions on Tehran."

Through the Third Lens of Scripture: I will make very little comment here, other than to point out some of the modern names for countries listed in Ezekiel's prophecy. While there is not unanimous agreement among Bible scholars, the majority seem to agree on these names. Most also agree that Ezekiel is not describing the Battle of Armageddon (Revelation 16, 19) nor any other event which takes place during the 70th week of Daniel, but rather some yet future event which will precede this last 7 years of human history as we know it.

Ezekiel 38 begins with these words: "Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 'Son of man, set your face against God, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him, and say, 'This says the Lord God: "Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws, and lead you out with all your army, horses and horsemen, all splendidly clothed, a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords. Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya are with them, all of them with shield and helmet; Gomer and all of its troops; the house of Togarmah from the north and all its troops - many people are with you....After many days you will be visited. In the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate; they were brought out of the nations, and now all of them dwell safely." (Ezekiel 38:1-6, 9)

Ezekiel goes on to describe a vicious war in which God intervenes, wiping out the combined forces arrayed against Israel, granting her victory. To understand how today's headlines might be a portent of this event, it helps to know the modern names of the nations.

Gog probably refers to the name of the ruler of Magog.

Magog was identified by Josephus as the land of the Scythians, now occupied by Russia.

Rosh, Meshech and Tubal - parts of modern Turkey.

Persia - Iran

Ethiopia - Ethiopia and northern Sudan

Libya - Libya

Gomer - Eastern Turkey

Togarmah - part of Turkey bordering with Syria

Land of those brought back from the sword - modern Israel

This is not a time to be caught up in the temporary pleasures of the world. It is a time to remain prayerful and alert. It is a time for watchmen to mount the walls and blow the alarm. "....When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from their territory and make him their watchman, when he sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the people, then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning will save his life." (Ezekiel 33:2-5)

World News Through the Third Lens: A Stench Rising to Heaven

The Book of Revelation describes an angel offering the smoke of much incense mixed with the prayers of the saints on the altar before God's throne. (Rev. 8:3:4). Immediately after this beautiful picture is described, the wrath of God is unleashed on the earth, as a censer, filled with fire from the altar is hurled to the earth, unleashing the seven trumpet judgments which contain also the seven bowl judgments. (v.5-6). While the prayers of the saints are described as a sweet incense before God, I can only imagine what a stench to His holy nostrils the wickedness of mankind must be.

Three items in particular which were in the news over the past few days caught my attention. The first was one in which I was caught right in the middle, so to say. Last week I had the privilege of attending the Watchmen on the Wall Briefing in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Family Research Council. They are a class organization, led by some classy people who love the Lord and who love this country. During the 3-day briefing, those who had made arrangements, were given an opportunity to visit with our congressmen on Capital Hill. Since both Senator Lieberman (D-CT) and Rep. Courtney (D-CT) were busy with legislative matters, I had arranged to meet with their legislative aid and chief of staff, respectively. I was received with courtesy and was allowed to read Isaiah 59 in each office, pray for the congressmen and their staffs, and to make a plea for the nation to be returned to a foundation of righteousness. In short, I did everything that God laid on my heart to do.

To my dismay, Friday's news revealed that the House of Representatives had voted to repeal the Military's mandate of "Don't ask; Don't tell." This policy, implemented during the Clinton administration, while a far cry from the moral virtue of years gone by, it still allowed the military to function with a modicum of moral decency. So that's stench #1.

Today I received a video of vicious beatings suffered by innocent Christians in Asam, India. This was followed shortly thereafter by a very disturbing article concerning child trafficking and prostitution - also from India. The radical Hindus apparently are allowed to go on rampages with little or no intervention on the part of the police. The video showed unarmed people being beaten to death by club-wielding fanatics, while the police just stood on the fringes. Later, the police came in and supervised the removal of the corpses! If that isn't bad enough, www.Examiner.com of Hartford reported "hundreds of children are trafficked to Amur, Rajasthan region from Delhi and other regions in India. According to the report, girls as young as six months old are trafficked into the villages, where they were given sexual hormone shots, oxytocin, to accelerate their sexual maturity to enter prostitution. ......The Rajasthan police denied the allegation." These are stench #2 and #3.

Through the third lens of Scripture: How can you possibly extract anything biblical from such nasty news, and then publish it on a site entitled "End-Times Encouragement News?" My answer to that, in the vernacular, is that God is not a "sandbagger." Webster defines the slang use of this term as "to deceive (an opponent) by deliberately playing poorly. Some of you may remember Paul Newman, in the movie "Cool Hand Luke" getting his knuckles busted because he "sandbagged" by playing pool poorly when the stakes were low, suckering people in to bet the big bucks, only to clear the table. God does not do that. He does not sucker us into "summer time and the living is easy" life styles, only to hammer us when we are ill-prepared. That's the ploy of the devil, and I hate to say it, but too many sermons feed into his game plan. Godly encouragement comes from looking with open eyes at the things God has said concerning the end-times and preparing accordingly.

The majority of congress is acting with abject stupidity. How else can you describe educated, experienced people who defy nature and nature's God, by imposing their own warped thinking on our nation's military. There are a lot of commandments in the Old Testament which involve ceremonial law - those very detailed matters of worship which all pointed to the Messiah. Jesus was/is that Messiah and He fulfilled the entire Law. Consequently, Christians do not embrace any form of sacrificial worship. Many of the other commandments were in the category of "good advice" from the all-wise Creator. Obey them and you will reap natural benefits; disobey them and you will reap natural detriments. These include such matters as diet, sanitation, crop rotation and sewing patches on garments. Other commandments are what we would describe as God's moral law. As Christians we do not always live up to the high standards of God's moral law, but we should always aspire to do so. And we must never call God's moral law as evil and man's substitute as good (Isaiah 5:20). God calls "man lying with a man as one lies with a woman" (homosexuality) a detestable thing. (Leviticus 20:13)

Now, here's a passage of Scripture which describes those who thing that repeal of "Don't ask; don't tell" is something noble. "For though they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.... Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.... Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men.... Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them." (Romans 1:21-32). This sounds awfully harsh, perhaps making the one who quotes it appear over the top in piety. So please let me remind you that in this same letter to the Romans we read: "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption which came by Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:23-24). The problem is not that homosexuality is so much greater than the sin of some straight person; it's that the sin of homosexuality has been normalized and even placed in a category of special rights and privileges, and now is being forced on our military. This is just plain wrong! I urge you to let your congressmen know so.

The beatings of innocent, defenseless people is nothing but demonic. There is no logical explanation of such behavior. Jesus gives an apt description of the spirit behind such horrific activities and the people who commit them. "You are of your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies." (John 8:44) For us who have not yet faced such persecution, let us "Remember those in prison, as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as you yourselves were suffering." (Hebrews 13:3) Keep in mind Jesus' promise: "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven..." (Matthew 5:10-12)

And what can we say regarding the poor little ones being used to satisfy the lusts and greed of men? Pray for them as Hebrews 13:3 exhorts, and remember that those who harm such little ones will reap their due reward (Matthew 18:6). The entire godless economic system, which the Bible calls "Babylon the Great" will suddenly come crashing down under the wrath of God (Revelation 18:2, 17). At the end of the list of all the merchants who suffer loss are those who "traffick in the bodies and souls of men." (Revelation 18:13) Divine justice will be satisfied, and the innocent little one, beginning with those conceived in their mother's wombs will be recompensed, for "...in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 18:10)

Be encouraged by Christ, that you might encourage one another. Rev. Les Young is the founder and director of Encouragement for End-Times Ministries, www.endtimesencouragement.com His teachings concerning the end-times and how we must live can be accessed from the website or directly at www.endtimesencouragement.blogspot.com