A word from Fraklin Graham for the former speaker of the house

Here is the post from Facebook.

11 year old home school student fights crime

Home school student Chris Gaither, 11, was alone in his Alabama home Wednesday morning when he heard a noise.
Someone had broken into his house and walked upstairs. 
Gaither said he was scared, but wanted to be prepared so he grabbed a nine-millimeter hand gun.
“When he was coming down the stairs, that’s when he told me he was going to kill me, f-you and all that,” Gaither said.
The intruder made it out the front door with a hamper in hand.
That’s when Gaither started firing off bullets. As the intruder was about to jump a fence in the front yard, Gaither’s 12th and final shot hit the suspect in the leg.

( More )

Why Jerry Falwell Jr. and Joel Osteen Are Wrong About Donald Trump

Many evangelical leaders including Russell Moore and Albert Mohler have expressed outrage and disappointment at the number of Christians who publically support Donald Trump. Moore went so far as to write a Washington Post op-ed about why this election cycle is causing him to no longer want to be identified as an evangelical.
All the more strange is the endorsement of Trump by Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University. Not only has Falwell endorsed Trump, but he’s said he has compared Trump to King David, a man after God’s own heart. Bible scholars feel free to weigh in here, but this seems like a bit of a stretch.
On the other end of the theological spectrum sits Joel Osteen, who told FoxNews radio that Donald Trump is a good man and an incredible communicator.

( Read more )

A lady is used to change a killer

Ashley Smith was just getting her life back together. As a 26-year old single mom, she had had a pretty rough journey. A Christian upbringing but a youthful rebellion – brushes with the law, some drug issues, jobs found and lost – and finally marriage and a little girl. Four years earlier, her husband had died in her arms from stab wounds in a violent attack. On that night in March of 2005, she was just getting settled in the apartment she had moved into two days earlier. When she returned from her 2:00 A. M. run to the store, accused killer, Brian Nichols, forced his way into her apartment at gunpoint.
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Our Identity Is in ChristTHE JUSTIN WELBY STORY

Listen to the commentary here.Or read it below. 

By any reasonable standard, Justin Welby’s life story is a compelling one. Born into what he describes as a “dysfunctional family” with two alcoholic parents, he overcame those obstacles to become a successful executive in the oil industry.
Then, at age 33, he left it all behind to follow God’s calling to become a priest in the Church of England. This “second act” culminated three years ago when he was named the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Until recently, he had no reason to doubt that Gavin Welby, who died in 1977, was his father. His parents’ marriage had ended when he was only three years old, and after the divorce young Justin was placed in his father’s custody—although like many Englishmen of his age and social class, he spent most of his childhood away at boarding schools, including the legendary Eton.
But there were those who had their doubts about the identity of Justin’s father. They noticed the strong resemblance between young Justin Welby and Sir Anthony Montague Brown, Winston Churchill’s private secretary. What’s more, Welby’s mother worked alongside Brown up until her marriage to Gavin Welby in 1955.
So, to put this matter to rest once and for all, rather recently the Archbishop agreed to a DNA test, and the results shocked both him and his mother. Anthony Montague Brown, not Gavin Welby, was the Archbishop’s father. Justin Welby was the result of a brief affair his mother had with Brown just before she eloped with Gavin Welby.
If that were all there is to the story, I wouldn’t be talking about it here on BreakPoint. What makes the story worthy of your attention was the Archbishop’s response.
While calling the DNA results “a complete surprise,” Welby added that, “There is no existential crisis and no resentment against anyone . . . My identity is founded in who I am in Christ.”
The Archbishop pointed out that he and his wife, Caroline, had experienced “far worse,” including the death of their seven-month-old daughter in 1983. He called that tragedy “a very dark time” for him and Caroline, which, he said, “in a strange way . . . actually brought us closer to God.”
The reaction to Welby’s response to the revelation was overwhelmingly positive.
Julian Fellowes, creator of “Downtown Abbey,” said that Welby had bolstered his “street cred” with the British public. He said that “it’s good to see a spiritual leader tested spiritually and meet the challenge as eloquently as he has. He is an example to us all.”
He’s an example to us on this side of the pond, too. Think about it. We live in a culture that is obsessed with identity. Whether that identity is racial, ethnic, political, sexual or lifestyle choice, they are all an attempt to answer the question “who am I?”
As Welby reminded us, for the Christian the answer is “who I am in Christ.” As Paul told the Colossians, “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). As he told the Corinthians, “we no longer regard anyone from a worldly point of view.” That’s because, as he tells his readers, we are new creations in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:16-17).
This is the Gospel! This is the good news! Jesus offers a world badly in need of deliverance from the dead-end of self-actualization a secure answer to the question “who am I?”
God has a “second act” for us all that will bring us through even the darkest, world-rocking times—just as it did Archbishop Welby.

Did Christopher Hitchens convert to Jesus before his death

writer Christopher Hitchens was contemplating converting to evangelical Christianity before his death, according Christian author and friend Larry Alex Taunton. Taunton details his conversations with sharp-tongued wit in his new book, The Faith of Christopher Hitchens: The Restless Soul of the World’s Most Notorious Atheist. 
As the book’s blurb says, “Taunton traces Hitchens’ spiritual and intellectual development from his decision as a teenager to reject belief in God to his rise to prominence as one of the so-called ‘Four Horsemen’ of the New Atheism.” Most intimately, Taunton shares his own personal relationship with the late columnist.
“At the end of the day, the most powerful apologetic is love.” Larry Alex Taunton

Taunton, founder of the Christian ministry Fixed Point Foundation, became friends with Hitchens in 2008 when the God is Not Great author set out to debate Christians. Hitchens found more than he bargained for, gaining a new appreciation for people of faith. “For the first time in his life, he was engaging evangelical Christians,” Taunton told The Huntsville Times (AL.com). “He found them to be different from the veneer of Christianity in Britain. When he began debating these evangelicals, he began to like them.”
One of the Christian apologists Hitchens debated was Jay Richards, now The Stream’s Executive Editor.

( Billy’s thoughts – Did Hitchens convert to Jesus before his death. Only the Lord knows. I do hope he did. Read the rest of the above story here. )

A word for Gov. Huckabee on Trump

Here is a video that shows another soul who is willing to support Trump ,even though he has no proven record of supporting those things us on the political right believe in. Trump is about to destroy the GOP. Huckabee don’t say you were not warned. Gov. Huckabee you have always been a big backer of right to life but yet you are backing a man who says planned parenthood does wonderful things. Could you explain that to the rest of us in the pro life camp. Thanks Gov. Huckabee. 

So much for a nicer Trump

Trump Rips Kasich, ‘I Have Never Seen A Human Being Eat In Such A Disgusting Fashion

Know the culture not just the Bible

( Read the commentary below or listen to the audio of it here. )

I meet folks all the time who sense that things have changed. What Francis Schaeffer and Chuck Colson once called “a post-Christian” culture has become a “post-Christian-and-darn-proud-of-it” culture. Living out your faith is, well, difficult these days. And it’s frustrating.
Yet here we are. We, like every other generation of Christ followers, are still called to share our faith in this cultural moment. We’re still called to live our faith out in our communities, places of work, neighborhoods, etc. But how do we do this?
The most important thing, Chuck Colson believed, was to be equipped in Christian worldview, with the ability to communicate it in what he sometimes called “prudential language.” Here’s Chuck describing what that means.
While we have to be immersed in scripture and understand it fully, we also have to know when and how to use it in public discourse.
Let me give you an example. G. K. Chesterton, the famous British writer, was once invited to a meeting of the leading intellectuals in England. They were asked if they were shipwrecked on an island, what would be the one book they would want to have with them. Everybody expected Chesterton, a prominent Christian, to say “the Bible.”
When it came his turn to speak, however, Chesterton said that if he were shipwrecked on a desert island, he’d like to have “Thomas’s Guide to Practical Shipbuilding.”
The point is that oftentimes we need to understand things that aren’t covered in the Bible. And we need to understand things that help us apply biblical teaching to all of life. This is why I teach biblical worldview.
A man once told Oswald Chambers that he read only the Bible. Listen to what Chambers said:
“My strong advice to you is to soak, soak, soak in philosophy and psychology, until you know more of these subjects than ever you need consciously to think. It is ignorance of these subjects on the part of ministers and workers that has brought our evangelical theology to such a sorry plight…The man who reads only the Bible does not, as a rule, know it or human life.”
And when it comes to making a biblical case on any hot topic—taxes, the deficit, homosexuality, whatever—we need to understand the issue and how to make that case in a way that is accessible to believers and non-believers alike.
The sad fact is that today, starting a conversation with “the Bible says” will often cause the listener to stop listening. So what you do is make arguments based on what the Reformers called common grace, or what historically has been known as natural law.
This is what Paul did when he gave his famous sermon at Mars Hill, his first foray into the Greek culture. He quoted Greek poets; he referred to Greek artifacts. He thoroughly engaged their culture. And then he used their beliefs to lead directly into the gospel.
This is why we’ve got to study biblical worldview, to compare how the Bible works out in life versus how other systems of thought do. I assure you: You will see that the biblical way is the only way to make sense of the world, to live rationally in the world, and eventually, your friends will see this as well.

 That vision led Chuck to start an exclusive nine-month training program for Christians that is now known as the Colson Fellows. The program is intense: reading the best worldview books, participating in teleconferences with top Christian leaders, and attending three in-person residencies with the best worldview teachers in the country. Now it’s not for everyone, but if your heart is being tugged to go deeper in the way that Chuck described, it may be for you.

A message for Target stores

Here is something that was posted on Facebook. I am not into most boycotts but if Target doesn’t change it’s mind on this ,I just might give careful thought to not shopping at my local Target store anymore. Sadly  Target might not be the last to do this.

( Read the FB Post.)