HAS GOD MADE THEM LOONY?

Miracles sometimes come in strange packages. Here are a few examples: Abolish air travel. Spend 20 trillion dollars. Ban meat. Give the Boston Bomber the right to vote from prison. Jesus was not Jewish. Shut down the energy producing companies. Get rid of all private insurance companies. Give free health care and college to all illegal aliens.  Kill babies after they are born. I kid you not. These are the exact words coming from politicians in the Democrat Party.

They seem like they are under the influence of something that forces them to act in their own worst interest. Are we watching a miracle like the night Trump won the election? Is the Democrat Party a tower of Babel where God has come down to confound their language?

They spout utter madness with a straight face. All the loony ideas the Democrat Party used to filter out or hide among themselves in smoky back rooms are now front and center. It seems they can’t help themselves. Even when they know it damages them, they keep talking crazy. Even when they are presented with incontrovertible facts, they hold to what are patent lies.

The Democrat Party alienates mainstream America. Why don’t they care? I believe it is because of God. I believe we are seeing an answer to prayer. The Bible says, “2 Thessalonians 2:10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the Truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie…”

But another kind of judgment has fallen on them: division.    We are watching a good old fashioned Old Testament event, just like when God confused the enemies of Israel and caused them to be divided among themselves.

Here’s the post where I predicted that this would happenhttps://mariomurilloministries.wordpress.com/2019/01/24/a-lying-spirit/

Remember the first miracle we saw the night Trump was elected? Every media outlet except Fox News guaranteed a Clinton victory.  As the evening wore on, a shift began to take place. None of the Leftists could believe it. Soon their dismissive expressions turned to dismay as the seemingly impossible was happening right before their eyes.

Are we watching another miracle? As the Mueller investigation stumbles into oblivion with nothing to show for the millions of taxpayer’s dollars they wasted—as the tide turns in what only a couple of weeks ago seemed a devastating time for both Trump and Republicans— are we seeing prayer being answered right before our eyes?

There is a law of war that says “never stop your enemy when they are making a mistake.” That is happening right now. And it means it’s time for the church to take action. It means we must reach out with greater fervency. Now is the time for mass soul winning−because God has set back the Leftist threat to our freedom. This is no time for overconfidence or apathy. New threats are coming. This is a moment we have been waiting for–when the minds of Americans can change. You have a part in this miracle. You must speak up. You must pray. The fields are white unto harvest. There is no time like now to spread the Gospel!

 

 

THE CHURCH CAN BE MIGHTY IF

Two dumb ideas used by celebrity preachers as an excuse to remain silent when they should be mustering the army of God to do her duty.   She is losing influence every day because a confused view of her duty.

These ideas are putting the church back into Obama era apathy at the worst possible time.  Think of what is at stake.  The Supreme Court, the economy, national security, and everything we hold dear will be lost.  Everything Trump tried to do will vanish in an instant. The floodgates of immorality will open.

Here are the two bone-headed ideas.  1. All government is from God and we must submit and not mention politics.   2. A candidate must be sinless or we are choosing the lesser of two evils. 

And here are the verses abused to justify those two bone-headed ideas:

Romans 13: 1 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. ² Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.  “For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. 4 For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.”

1. It’s dumb to say stay out of politics and submit to government not matter what:  No sane Christian believes Hitler was God’s will for Germany.  God raised up divine retribution on him through the nations of the world.  God works through people to restrain evil.  The church must do her duty to restrain evil.

“The authorities that exist”: This phrase means authority from God, not rogue authority.  Satan is rogue authority.   God has always balanced the threat of tyranny with authorities He raises up: “God’s minister to execute wrath.”

Moreover, it says “No ruling authority from God is a terror to good works.”  They do not persecute God’s people or enact laws to ban the Gospel.  So what do you call authority that is a terror to good works?

German believers abused these same verses to justify their apathy.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer could not open the eyes of the German church about the horrors of Hitler.  His radio addresses warned Germany.  Ironically, he blamed the fad of cheap grace and their blind submission.  They rejected his warnings and the consequence was the bloodiest world war and 6 million Jews annihilated.

Again, the point is that God works through people to stop evil.  The church’s silence in the face of evil is not noble or virtuous, it is itself evil.

 

Nations can and do pick evil leaders.  Even Israel picked an evil leader: 1 Samuel 8:6 “But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” So Samuel prayed to the Lord. 7 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.”   Obama was never God’s choice for America.   We have a mountainous stockpile of wreckage to prove it.  

When evil reigns, God begins a complicated process to reestablish justice. Human history is messy.  God works in that mess.  We want story book endings but humanity is complicated.  Jehovah works like a surgeon skillfully cutting around vital organs to get at the cancer.  Jesus spoke of the wheat and tares having to grow together until the end—otherwise the wheat would also be lost.   We have a Biblical mandate to discern and get involved in the work God is doing to save our nation.

2. It’s dumb to waste your vote because you “refuse to pick the lesser of two evils.”  You must discern where God is working and support it.  God uses flawed people: Daniel was probably shocked to discover that God choose to use Nebuchadnezzar.

Instead of asking who is without sin, we should be asking where is God working?  

Look at what Paul did:  Acts 23:6 “But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question. 7 And when he had so said, there arose a dissension between the Pharisees and the Sadducees: and the multitude was divided. 8 For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both. 9 And there arose a great cry: and the scribes that were of the Pharisees’ part arose, and strove, saying, We find no evil in this man: but if a spirit or an angel hath spoken to him, let us not fight against God.”

Jesus said that the Sadducees and Pharisees were both evil.  So was Paul choosing the lesser of two evils by siding with the Pharisees?  Or, was he discerning where God could work?   Right now it is Trump He can work with.  But Trump needs a Congress he can work with.  We had better work with God in this next election. 

Still don’t know what you must do?  From Nancy Pelosi to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrats have vowed to open borders, seize guns, redistribute wealth, skyrocket taxes, and force the church to “evolve.”  The American church still does not see the danger, and that itself is the danger.

Evil is not hard to spot.  It hates, Israel, Christianity, and Biblical morality, the family, and the unborn.   The Democratic Party wears this badge of hate proudly. What else do you need to know?

These dumb ideas are not scriptural. They will play into the hands of those who would take away our rights and forever change America’s system of government.  It will be impossible to withstand the wave of falsehood and hatred in the next election if we do not repudiate these crippling dumb ideas.

But if we see them for what they are, rebuke them and submit to the Holy Spirit…even a small number can create a mighty transformation.

 

7 REASONS ALL THE ATTACKS ON TRUMP WILL FAIL

Every day someone comes up with a new reason to think Trump is finished.  However, the FBI found out conspiring against the President backfires.  The media went for ratings bashing Trump only to lose ratings and credibility.

Mueller’s witch-hunt investigation is flaming out as political disaster.  Americans can see the insanity of it.   Here it is in a nutshell: We can prove that Hillary colluded with the Russians to produce a fake dossier that was used to start an investigation into Russian collusion with Trump that can’t be proven.  Got it?

-Comey said his new book would do Trump in.  Instead, it was spit balls at a battleship.

-CBS believed it had the silver bullet to kill Trump.  They gleefully believed that a Sunday night interview with a porn star would be the end of Trump.  Monday came, and they joined a long list of disappointed Trump haters whose weapons did not prosper.

-The Mueller investigation

-Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen and Omarosa Manigault Newman supposedly have some tapes.  This too will fail.

-400 newspapers declare war on Trump.  You know what will happen.

 

Trump will not be impeached.  He will not even be censured.  You don’t need to worry about Donald Trump.   Let me give you 7 reasons why all the attacks on Trump will fail.

1.The poll numbers are skewed against him. Scientists have shown that when people have a favorite candidate who is attacked by the press they go silent. They still support the person, they just won’t tell you.  Many, many more than we hear about still support Trump.

Even so, Democratic pundits are dismayed at the way Trump survives.  They were counting on a major drop in support after Trump’s meeting with Putin. It just never happened.

2. Americans have a deep sense of fair play.  They go for the underdog.  People see the flagrant, wanton and disgraceful attacks on Trump by the media.  They are giving him a break for that.  They also understand his rookie mistakes, he is not a politician… we didn’t want a politician, remember?

Uber liberal director Rob Reiner denounced Robert De Niro and other celebrities for their remarks against President Trump, saying it only helps the president. Reiner is right.

Today someone destroyed Trump’s star on the Hollywood walk of fame.  Do you think it made more people dislike Trump? Acts like these are why a growing number of independent voters say they are disgusted by the unfair treatment of Trump.

3. It’s the economy. Unemployment is at a 16-year low, and the consumer sentiment levels are at near record highs. When all the background noise settles, and the voter, with a good paying job, stands before the lever to vote—the thought of returning to an Obama economy will horrify.

4. He has plenty of time to win back those who have turned against him. Listen to Jake Novak senior editor at CNBC: “Both party establishments still need a vote-getting leader and President Trump already has the White House leadership role they covet. He has enormous executive power at his fingertips and the ability to win over some doubters with just the passage of time.”

5. The other side still looks way worse. Chuck Schumer annoys his base, let alone the rest of us.  Elizabeth Warren is a shrill throated hater of the white middle-class worker.  Bernie Sanders’ economy from Mars plays well only because pot has been legalized on campus.  Maxine Waters is a VOTE FOR TRUMP machine.  Nancy Pelosi is, well, Nancy Pelosi.

6. Millions are praying for our nation. There is no way that the fervent prayer of millions will go unheeded in heaven. Sometimes the early stages of revival look as if things are getting worse before they get better.

I know Satan is writhing in agony right now.  He knows his time is short.  He knows what God is about to do.  He is in a futile rage against the inevitable answer.  He is spewing deception to make the anointed vessels of God think that no answer is coming.

7. This is the big one: Trump is here by divine appointment. Trump will survive.  Not because he’s perfect.  Not because his base is fiercely loyal.  He will survive even though he is hard for some Christians to take.  He is here by divine appointment.  Can you hear heads exploding?  Yes, you heard me right—he is here because God set him in the White House.

Today Maxine Waters said God has raised her up to bring Trump down.  See if you can guess how that is going to turn out.

He is here to wreck and dismantle. He is here to here to apply strong medicine to a self-destructive nation.

Nothing else explains why he is still standing after the cruelest and most unrelenting attack on any leader in American history.  More importantly, nothing else explains why none of this has broken his spirit.   Deal with it.  Someone way bigger than you and me wants him right where he is doing just what he is doing.

Ruthless and impetuous describes Trump.  Nevertheless, he is here until he fulfills his purpose.

Urgent final remarks:  To all the intercessors who cried out for a national miracle—you got it.  It’s just a much rougher package than you imagined.

He is about to put another conservative in the Supreme Court.  He is standing with Israel.  He is against abortion.  He is working to stop other nations from abusing and harming us.

Thoughtful believers see past the fog.  They see what I see, they are praying for his protection, for wisdom and for God’s continued favor.

The big question is why is Trump here?  Here comes the chilling answer:  Trump is buying time for the sleeping church to wake up and do her job.  Trump is a divine stop-gap that appeared out of mercy.

Nothing could be worse than for us to waste this miracle.  Nothing could be more grieving to God than for the American church to be ungrateful for a man—a rough customer to be sure—who is taking the hits for standing for all the values that we love.

As I said before, he will not be impeached.  He will not even be censured.  The next four years and more are his.  Hate me, laugh at me, despise my writing…it does not matter, I know it’s true.

Burning down our house

I don’t mention any names in this blog.  I wanted you to see—if you get to see—how extreme things have gotten.  Censorship is no longer just about what you say, it is about what they think you are saying.  Soon they will censor what they think you are thinking.  Consider yourself fortunate if this information is not blocked—or if you got to it before it was. 

I am about to talk to you villains who are burning down our house.  They are using lies and bankrupt ideas to set their fires.  I will use another vehicle that is new to me: I am going to direct this blog directly to the guilty.  I am going to rebuke them.  You may think that is unloving…maybe even unchristian.  That hits on why we have lost so many moral battles. 

To win them—we were told—we must be nice.  We couldn’t have been nicer.  We didn’t win them.  In fact, our niceness made them hate us more.  Love sometimes delivers a “thanks I needed that” message.  Occasionally, the truth should hurt…especially when a nation is at stake.

Wicked people have torched the truth and it’s your children’s future that’s on fire.  It’s time you realized that something truly dark is looming on the horizon. 

Is there hope?  There is great hope.  In fact, it was at a low ebb of faith like this that the Jesus movement exploded.

–Mario Murillo

You doused America with flammable lies.  Every room, every stairway, every doorway soaked in combustible falsehoods.  Then you struck the match.  Now the house is burning down.  A five-alarm fire.

Like crazed villagers, you scream “it is for the greater good” as you torch everything in your path.  History chases you pleading: “this has never worked, and it will never work.”  But do you listen?  Reason hunts you down and cries, “you will make the world worse than it was before.” But it doesn’t matter.

You’ll will enforce truth by lying?  You’ll conquer hate with what, new hate?

You’re attacking evil?  Please explain:  After you tell every lie, break every law—and evil not only survives but turns back on you—what truth or law will be left to protect you?  What love, justice, and mercy will be left to build that better world?

I hear some teens declare, “My parents are idiots so ban all the guns.”  Or, “if I can get an AR 15, what’s to stop me from getting a nuclear weapon?”  The entire military maybe?  All this money and attention is being thrown at you because you’re a pawn.  To them you’re no timeless warrior.  To them you’re the flavor of the month.  To them you’re 15 minutes are almost up.

Then there’s the older protesters. The revolution is going to usher in the better world?  Your claim to be “woke” feels more like a joke.  You are flush with hate.  Will you magically be fair—with justice for all—once you have the power?  Face it, you don’t want to end oppression.  You want to be the new oppressor.

You scream “by any means necessary!”  But do you know what is necessary?  Truth, justice, equality, and prosperity come from God—from honoring His Word.  We’ve reaffirmed it for thousands of years.  The only time it has ever gone right for America is when we’ve honored these self-evident truths.  But, does history matter to a mind high on mythical ideology or pot?

You claim science is on your side.  But it is science that refutes you. It is science that knows you falsified your research on gender, weather, and so many things in order to sell your agenda.

Insanity is when you keep doing the same thing over and over again hoping for a new result.  Hate is when you keep the same thing over and over again—even though you know it doesn’t work—because it hurts the right people.

You see nothing wrong with censorship.  You’re fine with rioters shutting down free speech.  You’re okay with sanitizing a religion of hate and twisting the golden words of the Carpenter of Nazareth into hate.

Then there are the sophisticated arsonists.  Governors, special counsels, media CEOs, late night comedians, Senators, all spouting the party line in robotic unison.  You spew the same mantras.  You claim the same sanctimonious ramparts.

“We must make America like California!”  Have you tried to educate a Christian child there?  Have you tried to run a small business there?  Have you tried to eat, sleep, breathe, or find shelter there?  Have you tried to get over the murder of your son, or daughter by someone who wasn’t supposed to be there?  Why would you wish California on the rest of America?

Next is the fire starter who got fired and decided to write a book.  It’s no revelation, it’s a pouty, whiny, rag filled with self-congratulation, half-truths and hate.  A thousand chimps on a thousand typewriters given eons of time could not create such a tower of self-pity and victimhood.

Then there’s you—the sore loser playing with matches.  The crashing bore who stayed at the party too long.  You would rather contaminate the narrative with your delusional entitlement, than let the nation move on.

Finally, there’s the arsonist who couldn’t leave power gracefully.  You were afforded the highest honor and you turned it into a tool to dismantle a nation.  You’re the angry tenant who trashes the apartment.  Only you go one better…you leave toadies in governmental sleeper cells to do your bidding.  You started all the fires you could to keep bringing down the nation.

To all of you comes a solemn warning.  America is not just a country.  There’s something deep in our soil. Something too deep for a Marxist to understand.  And if your hopes and dreams rest in bringing this nation down you just might end up fighting God Himself.  There are millions of people praying at this hour.  They don’t want your brand of country.  They don’t want angry values and hollow promises.  They want freedom.  They fear the Lord…and He watches over them.  You are trying to burn down our house just remember, its not just our house…it’s His.

WHY NONE OF THE SCANDALS WILL BRING TRUMP DOWN

 

Democratic leaders already know.  It is foolish to bet against Trump.  The FBI found out conspiring against the President backfires.  The media went for ratings by bashing Trump only to lose those ratings and their credibility.  Mueller’s witch-hunt investigation is flaming out as political disaster.

Comey says his new book will do Trump in.  Instead, it will be spit balls at a battleship.

CBS believes it has the silver bullet to kill Trump.  They gleefully believe that an interview with a porn star this Sunday night is the end of Trump.  Come Monday, they will join a long list of disappointed Trump haters whose weapons did not prosper.

The endless slander—the constant dredging up of scandal—the blatant lies are utterly disgraceful and should be condemned by every freedom-loving American.  Here’s the thing…none of it is going to work.

He has been called every vile name there is and it bounces off.  He has been insulted more vilely anyone and he just shakes it off and moves on.

Trump will survive.  Not because he’s perfect.  Not because his base is fiercely loyal.  He will survive even though he is hard for some Christians to take.  Bless your heart, I think you probably just never met someone from New York.

He is here by divine appointment.  Can you hear heads exploding?  Yes, you heard me right—he is here because God set him in the White House.  And as my friends in Lubbock say, “there ain’t nuthin you can do about it.”

He is here to wreck and dismantle. He is here to here to apply strong medicine to a self-destructive nation.

Nothing else explains why he is still standing after the cruelest and most unrelenting attack on any leader in America leader in history.  More importantly, nothing else explains why none of this has broken his spirit.   Deal with it.  Someone way bigger than you and me wants him right where he is doing just what he is doing.

Many church going folk don’t like Trump.  They can’t imagine God using him.  Habakkuk felt the same way.  When God told him that Babylon would be an instrument of divine work he couldn’t fathom it.  Here is what the Habakkuk 1 says, “ 5 “Look at the nations and watch—and be utterly amazed.  For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.  6 I am raising up the Babylonians,that ruthless and impetuous people…

Ruthless and impetuous describes Trump.  Nevertheless, he is here until he fulfills his purpose.  To all you intercessors who cried out for a national miracle—you got it.  Its just a much rougher package than you imagined.

But what is Trump here to do?  Now here comes the chilling answer:  Trump is buying time for the sleeping church to wake up and do her job.  Trump is a divine stop-gap that appeared out of mercy.

Nothing could be worse than for us to waste this miracle.  Nothing could be more grieving to God than for the American church to be ungrateful for a man—a rough customer to be sure—who is taking the hits for standing for all the values that we love and that the left hates.

The leftist media is now irrelevant to America. Let me prove it to you.

The leftist media is irrelevant to America.  Let me prove it to you.  More than that, let me show you why it matters to you.  The proof is glaring, and the left can no longer run from it.  Here’s the proof:

CBS, NBC, MSNBC, ABC, CNN, The Washington Post, The New York Times, along with the not so subtle help of Youtube, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, every late night talk show host, backed Obama.   They were praising, pumping, and drooling.  They called anyone racist who didn’t support him. Yet, at this point in his presidency—he had a 43% approval rating among likely voters.  With all that firepower they simply could move the needle above 43%.

Now the wrath of that entire media cabal is being poured out 24 hours a day on Trump and his supporters. Yet, Trump’s approval is at least 5 to 6 points higher than Obama at the same point.  What does that mean?  It means they are irrelevant—and they have been for years.   They have a hardcore following but things are getting worse.

Reality came on election night.  Crestfallen and dismayed they wailed, cried, and sank horrified.  Not just because Trump won but because they were repudiated. They petulantly signed off telling us it was the end of the world.  That didn’t happen either.

On the other hand, Fox News continued to dominate ratings—commanding an audience that is larger than many leftist medias combined.  Most damaging to the left is the fact that conservative outlets tend to change minds. There’s a reason.

The left rants and spouts slogans but rarely makes a common sense case.  Conservatives ask disturbing questions. Here’s an admittedly oversimplified example: Left leaning broadcast: “You are racist!”  Conservative site: “Chicago has the strictest gun laws in America and a high murder rate. Why?”

But nothing is costing the left more than the Mueller investigation i.e. witch hunt.  The left’s towering hypocrisy is front and center for all to see.  They decry foreign influence on our election while they are fighting to let illegals vote.

Here are other signs that the left leaning media is running out of gas:

-Tonight Jimmy Kimmel said he will tone down the Trump bashing as he hosts the Academy Awards.

-The NFL, The Olympics and every other sport hijacked for the left is suffering ratings collapse.

-Even the L.A. Times, printed an article yesterday saying California should not be obstructing federal law when it comes to illegal immigration.

-Abortion is becoming abhorrent to many young people.  Planned Parenthood is panicking and dropping tens of millions of dollars to elect democrats.

What does this mean?  It means there is a growing audience for moral absolutes and a message of personal responsibility.

What does that mean to you?  It means that the church has preached a muted Gospel for no good reason.  It means, the idea that the public didn’t want a message of love and repentance was a myth.

It means that throughout history, the church has never looked worse than when she tried to reflect cultural thought.  And, she never looked better than when she shined the unfiltered light of the Gospel.  We just laid to rest living proof of this fact: Billy Graham.

It means most of all that there is great opening for us. We don’t know how long it will last so we better jump on it.  My final statement can make the devil pull a muscle in his head:

God is looking for people—maybe you.  He is not looking for better technology or methods.  He doesn’t pour out His Spirit on technology or methods…but on people.  People who will pray for fire, wisdom, courage and opportunity.  If God has heard of you, who cares if anyone else has?

Today, a voice filled with love, truth and the Holy Spirit will cut through this culture like a hot knife through butter.  The Gospel is not just relevant—it is timeless.  It can answer the evil of today and also what is to come. Amen.

At some point, we must offend.

There are reasons the original 12 were so bold.  There are reasons they preached letting the chips fall where they may.  They understood that at some point, they must offend.  They disregarded their personal safety—and for good reasons.  Those reasons escape today’s motivational-speaker-preachers who live not to offend.  They just don’t get it.

At some point, we must offend

By Mario Murillo

There are reasons the original 12 were so bold.  There are reasons they preached letting the chips fall where they may.  They understood that at some point, they must offend.  They disregarded their personal safety—and for good reasons.  Those reasons escape today’s motivational-speaker-preachers who live not to offend.  They just don’t get it.  Here is how A.W. Tozer described the true preacher, “they serve God and mankind from motives too high to be understood by the rank and file of religious retainers who today shuttle in and out of the sanctuary.”

Before some lazy reader jumps to a wrong conclusion let me say—we are not to try to offend.  We are not to give offense.  My point is that leaving truth out to avoid offending is a disaster—when it is wildly successful, it is an even greater disaster.  Spurgeon said, “It is a very ill omen to hear a wicked world clap its hands and shout ‘Well done’ to a Christian man.”

It is a great evil when congregations reward you, yea enrich you, and raise you to superstar status because you keep God’s rightful demands off them.

When you take aim at a vastly successful far-flung enterprise, you are easily rejected because how can you deny its effectiveness?  How can you keep from sounding petty and jealous?

The reason it is hard to see why it is valid to criticize attraction churches is because we don’t know what might have been.  We don’t know how America would look like today had we obeyed the Holy Spirit instead of the laws of marketing.

They did not offend and they also did not stop the moral avalanche.  On their watch, we lost marriage—we lost millions of unborn—we lost so much that we cannot even recognize America.  And most ironically, after all the efforts to avoid offending, the public hates the church more than ever.

Here are the reasons we must offend:

Preaching the entire Gospel releases power. 1 Corinthians 1:18 “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

Romans 1: 16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes…”

Why is the phrase power of God in two verses that deal with the offense of the Gospel?  Why would Paul even use the qualifier “I am not ashamed?”  Because, as a top-flight intellectual, he was keenly aware of the parts of the Gospel that tweak the human brain, and offend “proper society.”  He welcomes the tweak because it releases great power.

The American Church has a day of reckoning with American culture.  The clash is inevitable because our society has become an open sewer, a bastion of banality where madness has the microphone.  We have the one message that should not be hidden or redacted.

When the suffering soul tastes peace that passes understanding, and joy unspeakable—when marriages are healed—when suicidal teenagers are filled with a will to live—when the lame walk, the blind see, cancers vanish and addictions break in one-step instead of 12, then the Cross, the Blood, and repentance become—what they truly are: the best thing humanity has ever heard.   We must offend in order to heal.