42,642 people lost their lives in car accidents last year according to The National Highway Safety Administration. A big congratulations to a member of our evangelism team, “Righteous” Richard Chavarria, who—as of this morning, 9am—has preached 22 weeks in a row to the captive audience in line at the Torrance Department of Motor Vehicles. At
Every now and then, there is some good news to report when it comes to our religious/free speech rights: Florida Judge Dismisses Charges Against Gideons Charges have been dropped against two individuals after they were accused of trespassing on a sidewalk outside of a Florida public school. The two men had been handing out Bibles.
Two 90 year old men, Moe and Joe, have been friends all of their lives. When it’s clear that Joe is dying, Moe visits him every day. One day Moe says, “Joe, we both loved baseball all our lives, and we played minor league ball together for so many years. Please do me one favor, when you get to Heaven, somehow you must let me know if there’s baseball up there.”
Joe looks up at Moe from his death bed,” Moe, you’ve been my best friend for many years. If it’s at all possible, I’ll do this favor for you.”
Shortly after that, Joe passes on.
I”ve been disturbed by a video… Over 500,000 people have watched the YouTube ad encouraging people to blaspheme the Holy Spirit by denying Him. Ne’er-do-wells, hardened profligates, and the rest of their atheist ilk (wannabe’s, too) have uploaded thousands of videos firmly placing their faith in nothing by denying the one who was, and is,
Famous Lost Words: Joel Osteen
Famous lost words don’t always come from atheists; they can also be uttered by nice people, well meaning—but seriously wrong people.
This is an excerpt from a June 20, 2005, interview between talk show host Larry King, and the pastor of the largest church in America, Joel Osteen, from transcripts available at CNN.com (The italics are mine.)
KING: Is it hard to lead a Christian life?OSTEEN: I don’t think it’s that hard. To me it’s fun. We have joy and happiness. Our family — I don’t feel like that at all. I’m not trying to follow a set of rules and stuff. I’m just living my life.
KING: But you have rules, don’t you?
OSTEEN: We do have rules. But the main rule to me is to honor God with your life. To live a life of integrity. Not be selfish. You know, help others. But that’s really the essence of the Christian faith.
KING: That we live in deeds?
OSTEEN: I don’t know. What do you mean by that?
KING: Because we’ve had ministers on who said, your record doesn’t count. You either believe in Christ or you don’t. If you believe in Christ, you are, you are going to heaven. And if you don’t no matter what you’ve done in your life, you ain’t.
OSTEEN: Yeah, I don’t know. There’s probably a balance between. I believe you have to know Christ. But I think that if you know Christ, if you’re a believer in God, you’re going to have some good works. I think it’s a cop-out to say I’m a Christian but I don’t ever do anything …
KING: What if you’re Jewish or Muslim, you don’t accept Christ at all?
OSTEEN: You know, I’m very careful about saying who would and wouldn’t go to heaven. I don’t know …
KING: If you believe you have to believe in Christ? They’re wrong, aren’t they?
OSTEEN: Well, I don’t know if I believe they’re wrong. I believe here’s what the Bible teaches and from the Christian faith this is what I believe. But I just think that only God will judge a person’s heart. I spent a lot of time in India with my father. I don’t know all about their religion. But I know they love God. And I don’t know. I’ve seen their sincerity. So I don’t know. I know for me, and what the Bible teaches, I want to have a relationship with Jesus.
He continues this wishy-washy line of thinking in another part of the interview.
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