Abortion Archives | Page 2 of 2 | Bad Days Better

by Josh Monda | Dec 12, 2013 | Uncategorized

This is something I recently read concerning Obama.

David Freddoso:

When Barack Obama spoke on the Illinois Senate floor in 2001 against Illinois’ born-alive protection bill, did not say that a pre-viable baby is not a “person.” He argued, rather, that even though the state should perhaps provide care for these babies, any recognition of their personhood would create unacceptable consequences. Again, his words, at length, so there’s no uncertainty about context:

There was some suggestion that we might be able to craft something that might meet constitutional muster with respect to caring for fetuses or children who were deliever in this fashion. Unfortunately, this bill goes a little bit further, and so I just want to suggest, not that I think it’ll make too much difference with respect to how we vote, that this is probably not going to survive constitutional scrutiny. Number one, whenever we define a previable fetus as a person that is protected by the equal protection clause or the other elements in the Constitution, what we’re really saying is, infact, that they are persons that are entitled to the kinds of protections that would be provided to a – a child, a nine-month-old – child that was delievered to term. That determination then, essentially, if it was accepted by a court, would forbid abortions to take place. (Taken from the transcript of the Illinois 92nd Assembly, Mar. 30, 2001.)

Wow. Did you catch that? Since Roe vs. Wade is threatened, then we are allowed to commit murder? You would think it would be the other way around, right? We should not be allowed to kill babies that are born alive from survived abortions and if Roe vs. Wade is threatened, then so be it. Does that logic not follow? But Obama’s stance is as follows: If we have to sacrifice some born alive infants to make sure “women have the right to choose” then that’s what we’ll have to do. How backwards is that?

Read this again: “Number one, whenever we define a previable fetus as a person that is protected by the equal protection clause or the other elements in the Constitution, what we’re really saying is, infact, that they are persons that are entitled to the kinds of protections that would be provided to a – a child, a nine-month-old – child that was delievered to term…” 

You would think that if you read this paragraph in isolation that what would come next is, “so we need to do exactly that. Protect these persons.” But sadly, it’s not. For Obama, our personhood is not defined by anything specific other than the need to uphold Roe vs. Wade. I think the basis of our personhood should be rooted in ground that is much more solid than the pragmatic need to see the Democratic ticket upheld. Would you not agree? Does this not follow for you Obama voter?

Friends, this man has morally disqualified himself on this issue alone. Don’t drink the Obamalaide.

Last-night on “Hannity and Colmes” Gianna Jessen shared some of her story.  If Obama was president at her birth she would be dead.  She handles herself well.  Check out the video.  This issue is going to heat up in this election especially with the fact that Sarah Palin’s baby Trig being born with Down Syndrome.  It is estimated that between 80 and 90 percent of all pregnancies diagnosed with Down Syndrome are murdered.  Watch the video below.

Shepherd The Flock (Thoughts of a Former Youth Pastor turned Pastor)

by Josh Monda | Dec 12, 2013 | Uncategorized

Since becoming a pastor this verse has stuck out in my head.  Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; (1 Peter 5:2, ESV).  Personally I believe there is a very good reason why this is the case.  You see, since becoming a pastor it seems that anytime someone calls me or stops into my office they always apologize.  I am not really sure why they apologize but this seems to be the case the majority of the time.  For whatever reason they seem to think that they are an inconvenience.  Honestly, this is somewhat bothersome to me on many levels.

It seems like the modern pastor has come into this mentality that their job is to advance their agenda.  I am not quite sure where this comes from or at what point this began to happen.  Pastors are busy writing books, perhaps preparing sermons, etc. and have little time for the people.  Honestly I somewhat understand this with a Mega Church naturally a pastor can’t have time to see thousands of folks on a daily basis, but I do not understand this in smaller churches.  To be clear, for me, a smaller church would be any church under 1000.  Seriously, why is it that our people sometimes have to wait weeks to see there pastor or to schedule an appointment weeks in advance.  Before you think this is only in Mega churches it is not.  I can list churches running under 500 right now where this is the case.  I often wonder what it would have been like if this is how Jesus did ministry.  If he said “set up an appointment with my secretary”.  Seriously, at what point did we stop shepherding and become so snobbish that we can’t have time for the people we are to be leading.  Am I so arrogant to think that the only time I shepherd the flock is when I stand in the pulpit?  How foolish we are to think this way.

Honestly, my mind can’t help to think of Jesus and the numerous times He is thought of as a Shepherd in scripture.  I think of those times when He saw the masses and said they were like sheep without a shepherd.  Yet as pastors we want to go in our office and close our door and continue to let our sheep wander.  We constantly see Jesus with the people and we see this at all times of the day, morning, noon, and night.  Shepherding takes place on a constant basis.  Jesus did life with his disciples they hung out all of the time, and from there he did even a little more with three of them.  In addition to the disciples he spent a ton of time with people, the masses were constantly pressing in on him.  Yes he took time away, but why is it we constantly see Him respond to the needs of people?  Because he loved them.  Because He was the chief Shepherd.  As pastor’s we must love our people enough to shepherd them.  We must spend time with them.  They should never feel guilty about coming in to see us, and we should never make it so difficult for them to see us.  I want to shepherd is such a way that the people I am leading know I love them.  I pray this is the case.

faith Archives | Bad Days Better

by Josh Monda | Dec 12, 2013 | Uncategorized

I am sure you have probably heard of Christopher Hitchens but have you heard of his brother Peter Hitchens. Peter Hitchens has a book coming out on May 1st entitled The Rage Against God: How Atheism Led Me to Faith you can pre-order the book by clicking the Title.  I found this video on youtube giving a preview check it out.

Today I was reading back through Mark 9:14-29 and it was impressed upon me how these verse deal greatly with spiritual immaturity.  I believe spiritual immaturity is a perpetual problem in the Christian life and we often struggle with this.

I picture the beginning of this passage of scripture where Jesus is coming down the mountain and he draws closer to the crowd he hears these scribes just ripping into the disciples.  I am sure the scribes were belittling the disciples and questioning their ability to even minister.  We know the Scribes did not like Christ and they had probably hoped that if they could discredit the disciples then they would be able to discredit Christ as well.  

What I think is great here is that Christ steps right into the middle of the scene.  Instead of tearing into his disciples for their lack instead he steps in and draws the attention away from them.  In essence he delivered them from humiliation.  We could take a great lesson from this.

When Christ asks what is going on it is the father of the child that responds to him.  Then when the father explains what is going on Christ responds with a rebuke.  In this passage of scripture we see weak faith.  The father displayed weak faith in fact he was part of the faithless generation that Jesus mentions in verse 19.  In addition to this Jesus says “if you can believe” in verse 23.  This is followed by the cry from the father saying “help my unbelief” in verse 24.  

This child had not been healed because faith was weak.  Sometimes we like to harp on the disciples in this passage but it was not just the disciples that displayed that weak faith.  There was a crowd there and no one had enough faith to heal the child.  The father did not have the faith, neither did the disciples, and certainly not the scribes.

However we also have to take notice that the disciples seemed powerless in this circumstance.  We all know what that is like.  The disciples are the very people that should have been able to heal this boy.  There were nine disciples there when the man first came but not a single one of them was able to heal the boy because they lacked power to do so.

Now before we get on a high horse and think we are better then others we must notice the rebuke Christ gave.  He looked directly at that generation standing before Him and rebuked them.  But can we really think we are any better.  I mean isn’t every generation faithless and in reality are we not all being rebuked for it.

I must confess I have often been spiritually immature.  I am not talking about I have failed to pray or read my Bible or something like that but what I am saying is that I have failed to express faith at times.  So often I let my circumstance control me rather than my faith.  But that is why I am thankful for these two verses here 

When He came into the house, His disciples began questioning Him privately, “Why could we not drive it out?”And He said to them, “This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer.”

These verses let us know that Spiritual Power is available and we do not have to me immature.  The disciples wanted to know why they had failed.  They wanted to know the cause.  Jesus had already given them power over evil spirits and they had already cast out evil spirits so what was the problem this time.  Why did they fail when they had succeeded before.  Then Christ gives the answer.

Immaturity and powerlessness an be conquered through prayer and fasting.  Jesus pointed out this one thing the disciples were not living close enough to God.  They were not praying and fasting enough, they did not seek him enough, they did not put Him before all things.  we must crave God so much that other things pale in comparison.

I sit and think how often I have been spiritually immature and let other things step in front of my relationship with the Lord.  How often I have not put him before all things and have put my problems in front of my God.  But it is all taken care of if I only put Him before all things.

Barak Obama Archives | Bad Days Better

by Josh Monda | Dec 12, 2013 | Uncategorized

An excerpt from John Piper’s message on Sanctity of Human Life.

I recently read Eric Redmond’s reflections on the election of Barak Obama to the American presidency. It’s the wonderful articulation of the election of Barak Obama I would encourage you to read it.

Though I do not support Barak Obama I can’t say that I buy into the whole ideals that everything I am is wrapped up in the political process.  I remeber my Sunday School class discussin politics briefly and many people say they fear what will happen if Obama is elected.  My question was and still is why?  When i notion the fact that if Obama is president it is because God has allowed him to be people some how can not fathom such a thing.  I would challenge those who believe in Jesus Christ to let their vote count but also let their life count.  As usual I think John Piper has said it well in this short clip.

Russell Moore’s sermon manuscript, Joseph Is a Single-Issue Evangelical: The Father of Jesus, the Cries of the Helpless, and Change You Can Believe In, is now online. Here’s how it closes:

The question for us, then, of whether we are truly pro-life or not, has very little to do with how many signs are in our yards or what bumper stickers we put on our cars. Indeed, it may be the case that after this election the abortion debate will be over in this country politically. 

But even if that’s the case, it’s not over. Our churches are to follow in the walk of faith, which means that–like Joseph walking away from stability and comfort–our churches must be different, they must be counter-cultural, the kind of place where the teenage mother is welcomed and loved, where abandoned children are received, and where a culture that is in love with death can come and hear a message saying that life is better than death because there is a man, an ex-corpse, a former-fetus, who is standing as the ruler over all the nations and the universe. And he is not dead anymore. 

 What we must have is a church in which the gospel we give is the kind of gospel that leads people out of death and despair and toward the kind of life that is found in confessing a name–a name that was first spoken by human lips by a day-laborer in Nazareth, “Jesus is Lord.”

 If we follow this kind of pure and undefiled religion, it doesn’t mean we will be shrill. It doesn’t mean we will be culture-warriors. It doesn’t mean we’ll be belligerent. It will mean that we will have churches that are so strikingly different, that maybe in ten or fifteen years the most odd and counter-cultural thing a lost person may hear in your church is not, “Amen,” but is instead the sounds of babies crying in the nursery.

 And hearing the oddness of that sound, when they look around at the place in which all of the Lord Jesus’ brothers and sisters are welcomed, protected, and loved, the place in which the lies of a murderous and appetite-driven dragon are denied, the lost person might say, “What is the sound of all these cries?” And maybe we’ll be able to say with our forefather Joseph, “that’s the sound of life. That’s the sound of hope. That’s the sound of change.”

 You might even say, it’s “change you can believe in.”

You can also listen to the MP3 online.

Have you seen this video yet.  In it the Nation of Islam Leader Louis Farrakhan calls Obama the Messiah.  There is one Messiah and he has come and will come again and it is not Barak Obama.

disciples Archives | Bad Days Better

by Josh Monda | Dec 12, 2013 | Uncategorized

Recently I listened to an interview with Rick Warren and whether you like his stuff or not he had some good things to say in the interview.  In this interview he commented on many things.  For instance he spoke on stages they try to take people through at Saddleback.  They were first to “Know Christ”,Then to Love Christ’s family, then to grow in Christ, then to serve Christ, finally to share Christ.  This is a process that they attempt to take people through.  I enjoyed what he had to say about this because it seems in many churches their is not a process, or even a plan for that matter.  It seems more like a somewhat organized Chaos with no real plan.  On top of that when asked to put their plan into words most churches can not primarily because they do not have a plan.  This can be and is counter intuitive to many churches.  If the people do not know where they are going or where they are being lead then “aren’t they following blindly”.

Really what impressed me most was Warren’s comments on discipleship.  Warren spoke that Saddleback was built on a series of five covenants.  The first is their entry point “Come and See” he said there is no commitment to “Come and See” the only thing you have to do is show up.  You can sit wherever you want, you don’t have to sing any songs you are not forced to say anything you just come and see.  Warren was quick to point out that Jesus never left the people there.  

“From “Come and See” Jesus would take them through consistent steps.  During this time Jesus is constantly turning up the heat.   As they begin to follow Him Jesus begins to say things like You’re my disciple if…He redefines commitment.  ”You’re my disciple if you love on another.”  ”You’re my disciple if you bear fruit.”  ”You’re my disciple if you take up your cross, deny yourself,  and follow Me.”  And on and on Jesus is turning up the heat.”

“In those days, nobody took up a cross unless the Romans were going to nail him to it. So He’s saying, “Come and die.” There’s a huge difference in commitment between “Come and see” and “Come and die.” He doesn’t say “Come and die” at the very first. He takes three years into a relationship with them. And He’s moving them.”

“Churches have not understood that commitment is sequential, systematic, and processed. And to move them from “Come and see” to “Come and die” is what Purpose Driven is all about.”

“What happens is churches tend to be one or the other. You’re either a “Come and see” church or a “Come and die” church. And the “Come and see” churches bring them in the front door and win a lot of people to Christ, but they don’t deepen them to deeper levels of maturity. The “Come and die” church doesn’t reach anybody for Christ, and they’ve got their frozen chosen that they keep taking deeper and deeper and deeper. But those people have koinitis. They’re so close no one else can break into it.”

“What a church has to do is see that “Come and see” and “Come and die” is the whole spectrum. And how do you get people from “Come and see” to “Come and die?” There are classes. There are covenants. There are commitments. There are cells. There’s coaching.”

“It’s not just one-on-one. It’s not just one to small group. It’s not just one to big crowd. There is a combination. And you have to take into account that people learn in different ways. Most churches have not built the levels of learning into discipleship.”

 So often we have no plan.  Our plan is watch this movie, read this book, take someone else through this book.  That is not really discipleship.  So often there is no process to grow someone in Christ.  They either “Come and See” and never get moved beyond that or we as them to “come and die” and they are not ready for that.  Why is it we seldom move people through a time of discipleship.  Rarely do we really take time to get to know those we are supposedly discipling so how do we really know where to start?  We really need to revolutionize how we look at discipleship and stop wasting time.  We need to strip discipleship of all of its protective gear and stop worrying about people seeing the real us and stop pretending to be something we are not and start invading peoples lives with who Jesus Christ is.  We need to be willing to stick it out for a long haul and show them whatever way it takes for them to understand who Jesus is and move them into the direction of “come and die” then we will have radical committed disciples of Jesus Christ.

Please not that the quoted text are the words of Rick Warren in the interview.