Bible Challenge 2009 - Week 43

The Bible Knights Quest! - Bible Challenge 2009 - Week 43 - 01/31/2010

Sunday --- Matthew 20
Monday --- Matthew 21
Tuesday --- Matthew 22
Wednesday --- Matthew 23
Thursday --- Matthew 24
Friday --- Matthew 25
Saturday --- Matthew 26

Knights and Ladies,

Then [Jesus] said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."
Matthew 22:21 (15-22)

Give to God what is God's! Do not bend to worldly cultural influences. Be a light of the Gospel at all costs!

"Going back to the earliest days of the church, Christians have refused to compromise their proclamation of the gospel. In Acts 4, Peter and John were ordered to stop preaching. Their answer was, 'Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.' Through the centuries, Christianity has taught that civil disobedience is not only permitted, but sometimes required. There is no more eloquent defense of the rights and duties of religious conscience than the one offered by Martin Luther King, Jr., in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Writing from an explicitly Christian perspective, and citing Christian writers such as Augustine and Aquinas, King taught that just laws elevate and ennoble human beings because they are rooted in the moral law whose ultimate source is God Himself. Unjust laws degrade human beings. Inasmuch as they can claim no authority beyond sheer human will, they lack any power to bind in conscience. King’s willingness to go to jail, rather than comply with legal injustice, was exemplary and inspiring.

Because we honor justice and the common good, we will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other anti-life act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family. We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. But under no circumstances will we render to Caesar what is God’s."
"Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience" November 20, 2009 www.manhattandeclaration.org

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Accept the challenge, take the quest!

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
(2 Timothy 3:16-17)

A prayer for the use of Holy Scripture:

O Gracious God and most merciful Father, who has granted us the rich and precious jewel of Your holy word, assist us with Your Spirit, that it may be written in our hearts to our everlasting comfort, to reform us, to renew us according to Your own Image, to build us up, and to instruct us into the perfect building of Christlikeness, sanctifying and increasing in us all heavenly virtues. Grant this, O heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.
(adapted from the “1599 Geneva Bible” Tolle Lege Press, 2006-2007)


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Swedish government taking children by U.N. authority

In June, 2009, Swedish authorities forcibly removed seven-year-old Dominic Johansson from his parents, Christer and Annie Johansson, on a plane they had boarded to move to Annie’s home country of India. (The family had decided to head to India to do missionary work with orphanages there.) The officials did not have a warrant nor have they charged the Johanssons with any crime. Their only stated motive for seizing the boy is that they believe his parents home-schooled him … and in Sweden, home schooling is deemed inappropriate. Inappropriate enough, it seems, that government officials feel they can do a better job of raising Dominic than his parents can.

“It’s one of the most disgraceful abuses of power we have ever witnessed,” said HSLDA attorney Mike Donnelly. “The Swedish government says it is exercising its authority under the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child (a document that many would like to adopt here in the United States) in their unnecessary break up of this family. In addition, the Swedish Parliament is considering [what is] essentially a ban on home schooling. We have heard that other home-schooling families in Sweden are having more difficulty with local officials. We fear that all home-schooling families in that country are at risk.”
Full Article: How One Government Justifies Taking Children From Their Parents

U.S. Justice Candidate a Threat to Parental Rights!

Original Post: Feb. 2009:

When government intrudes into the bedrock of society, our families, we are in grave danger!

A message from Homeschool Legal Defense Association:

David Ogden has been nominated by President Barack Obama to the position of deputy attorney general of the United States, the second highest position in the Justice Department. His hearings are scheduled for today, February 5, 2009.

The most important reason to oppose Ogden’s nomination is his belief that the rules found in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child are already binding on the United States under the doctrines of international law.

In the Supreme Court case of Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551 (2005), Ogden argued in a brief that the rules banning the juvenile death penalty contained in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child were customary norms of international law “binding on all states.”

For background information on this doctrine, see Michael Farris’ article, “A Deeper Understanding of the Threat of International Law” in the November/December 2007 Home School Court Report.

This means that Ogden believes that the legal rules contained in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child are already binding on the United States, even though this treaty has never been sent to the U.S. Senate for ratification.

Homeschoolers have long understood the dangers of this international treaty, which contains the core principle that the government may decide what it believes is best for each child without any proof of wrongdoing by the child’s parents. Ogden promoted the use of this UN treaty in the Supreme Court to reach the conclusion that America’s courts have the power to overrule state law, using international law as their guidepost for constitutional interpretation. Unfortunately, he was successful in doing so in the Roper case.

It also means that Ogden is a proven advocate for the position that international law should be used to interpret the Constitution of the United States and bind the decisions of our elected officials.

If this weren’t enough, Ogden has a history of representing Playboy and other purveyors of pornography in high-profile legal cases. He also challenged the legality of using filters on library computers to protect children from seeing pornography. It would be hard to imagine how Ogden would faithfully enforce the nation's pornography laws if he is placed in this position at the Justice Department.

The United States Senate needs to understand right now that the American public will not countenance the idea of the nation being led by people who believe that international law trumps American law.

Please call both of your U.S. Senators today to register your opposition to David Ogden.


Contact your senators now!
Note: It would be best to call the local offices of your senators in your state, as phone lines on Capitol Hill are tied up by voters concerned about pending economic stimulus legislation.

Home School Legal Defense Association urges all of its members to immediately telephone both U.S. senators from your state to oppose the nomination of David Ogden.

HSLDA: Justice Candidate a Threat to Parental Rights





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Bible Challenge 2009 - Week 42

The Bible Knights Quest! - Bible Challenge 2009 - Week 42 - 01/24/2010

Sunday --- Matthew 13
Monday --- Matthew 14
Tuesday --- Matthew 15
Wednesday --- Matthew 16
Thursday --- Matthew 17
Friday --- Matthew 18
Saturday --- Matthew 19
 
Knights and Ladies,
 
In his name the nations will put their hope.
Matthew 12:21 (a quote of Isaiah 42:1-4)

In Jesus' name the nations, also translated Gentiles, will put their hope! For there is no other name by which we are saved!

“. . . can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath.”
- Thomas Jefferson, 1781

“It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the Providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor.”
- George Washington, October 3, 1789

President Washington also had this warning, “. . . the foundations of our National policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality . . . [so] we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven, can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained.” Or as King Solomon said in Proverbs 14:34, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.”

“Brethren, we came to this country to practice our religious liberties, and if we don’t get involved, we’re going to lose them.”
- John Peter Muhlenberg, Pastor, General, and Senator

“I desire to bless and praise the name of God most high for appointing me my birth in a land of Gospel Light where the glorious tidings of a Savior and of pardon and salvation through Him have been continually sounding in mine ears.” - Robert Treat Paine, Military Chaplain; Signer of the Declaration of Independence.

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Accept the challenge, take the quest!

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
(2 Timothy 3:16-17)
 
A prayer for the use of Holy Scripture:
 
O Gracious God and most merciful Father, who has granted us the rich and precious jewel of Your holy word, assist us with Your Spirit, that it may be written in our hearts to our everlasting comfort, to reform us, to renew us according to Your own Image, to build us up, and to instruct us into the perfect building of Christlikeness, sanctifying and increasing in us all heavenly virtues. Grant this, O heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.
(adapted from the “1599 Geneva Bible” Tolle Lege Press, 2006-2007)
 


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Manhattan Declaration: Truth, Justice, and the Common Good

It's one of the most dramatic scenes in a really great movie. The movie is Amazing Grace. The scene is the House of Commons in the latter years of the eighteenth century. William Wilberforce stuns his parliamentary colleagues by unrolling an enormous scroll down the aisle. On the scroll were the signatures of 390,000 Englishmen, demanding that Parliament abolish the slave trade—the greatest moral issue of the day. . .

Two hundred years later, in the spirit of Wilberforce, Christians across this country are affixing their signatures to another document as a way of saying "enough!" . . .

The church needs to get over this business that "we can't get involved in politics." That's an excuse. It needs to understand that bearing witness about the sanctity of life, the traditional family and religious liberty isn't political - it's profoundly moral. It's about who we are as a church and our relationship to the rest of the culture. . .

By telling them that we will not render to Caesar what is God's we can break the stranglehold that the abortion lobby has on Congress and the stranglehold of the gay rights movement on politicians. . .

The church in America must say "enough!" We must strive to overcome the reluctance and hostility we face. Whatever else the supporters of the status quo may own, they do not own our consciences.
("A Petition of Christian Conscience: The Manhattan Declaration" by Chuck Colson)

We are Orthodox, Catholic, and evangelical Christians who have united at this hour to reaffirm fundamental truths about justice and the common good, and to call upon our fellow citizens, believers and non-believers alike, to join us in defending them. These truths are:

1. the sanctity of human life
2. the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife
3. the rights of conscience and religious liberty.

Click the image below to learn more and sign the declaration!:

The Manhattan Declaration

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2010 Blogs for Life Webcast!

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Bible Challenge 2009 - Week 41

The Bible Knights Quest! - Bible Challenge 2009 - Week 41 - 01/17/2010

Sunday --- Matthew 6
Monday --- Matthew 7
Tuesday --- Matthew 8
Wednesday --- Matthew 9
Thursday --- Matthew 10
Friday --- Matthew 11
Saturday --- Matthew 12

Knights and Ladies,

A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham:
Matthew 1:1

I don't think we always grasp just how important our families are in the big picture. Are you obeying God, teaching your children, and leaving a legacy for God?

This has been God’s plan from the very first family commanded to be fruitful and multiply (Adam and Eve, Genesis 1:28), to the one righteous family that God used to start over (Noah, Genesis 9:1), to the father of God’s chosen people (Abraham, Genesis 18:18-19), to the Savior of the world born of the Holy Spirit and a humble virgin and raised by a carpenter (Jesus, Matthew 1), and to our family today!

The reason God hates divorce so much is because families are His primary discipleship group, church, or small group if you will. Families are a primary part of His plan for evangelizing the world! (Malachi 2:13-16, Malachi 4:4-6, Luke 1:16-17)

Our primary duty to our Savior God is to love Him with all of our heart, mind, and strength; to keep his commands in our hearts, and to pass them on to our children! (Deuteronomy 6:5-7 quoted by Jesus in Matthew 22:36-40)

Families, and specifically children or “posterity”, are so important that our founding fathers wrote them into the founding documents of the United States of America.

Dr. Alan Keyes, Constitutional Scholar, explains, “. . . the ultimate stated goal of the U.S. Constitution is ‘to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.’ [Posterity = unborn offspring] When it comes to the blessings of liberty, the Constitution places our posterity on an equal level with ourselves.”
(Alan Keyes: "‘Abortion rights’ and the moral threat to freedom")

Religious Freedom Day January 16th! http://www.religiousfreedomday.com/


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Accept the challenge, take the quest!

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
(2 Timothy 3:16-17)

A prayer for the use of Holy Scripture:

O Gracious God and most merciful Father, who has granted us the rich and precious jewel of Your holy word, assist us with Your Spirit, that it may be written in our hearts to our everlasting comfort, to reform us, to renew us according to Your own Image, to build us up, and to instruct us into the perfect building of Christlikeness, sanctifying and increasing in us all heavenly virtues. Grant this, O heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.
(adapted from the “1599 Geneva Bible” Tolle Lege Press, 2006-2007)


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Bible Challenge 2009 - Week 40

The Bible Knights Quest! - Bible Challenge 2009 - Week 40 - 01/10/2010

Sunday --- Revelation 2
Monday --- Revelation 3
Tuesday --- Matthew 1
Wednesday --- Matthew 2
Thursday --- Matthew 3
Friday --- Matthew 4
Saturday --- Matthew 5

Knights and Ladies,

"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come." . . . "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being."
Revelation 4:8-11

The life force that flows through all living things has a name, and is the Designer, Creator, Giver and Sustainer of all life. The giver of the breath of life is God, also known as: I AM, Yahweh, Jehovah, Immanuel, Jesus, the LORD, God Almighty!

My wife and I saw the movie Avatar in 3D this weekend. Great action and great 3D effects. Once you filter out the geo-political (do no wrong liberal environmentalists vs. greedy corporate fascists) spin, it even had a great good vs. evil story. But unfortunately and probably unknowingly to most viewers, it pushes a religion. It tries to push a New Age, Cosmic Humanist religion that worships the creation, not the Creator. (Not that we aren't supposed to care for the creation, Genesis 2:15)

It's very unfortunate, and makes me very sad. The Earth and all it's diverse and interdependent life is majestic, but not worthy of worship itself. Instead, it's majesty should direct our attention to the Designer and Creator! Only He is worthy to receive glory and honor and power, for He created all things, and by His will they were created and have their being! Only He gives the "breath of life." (Genesis 1:30, 2:7)

Take birds for example: "The irreducible complexity associated with bird feathers and other components of bird physiology are enough of a challenge to the Darwinian notion of natural selection to render it impractical. However, when one considers the system level implications of morphing flight, and the necessity of simultaneous development of multiple combinations of these physical components, natural selection as an explanation for morphing flight capability is seen to be absolutely irrational."
("Morphing Flight: Beyond Irreducible Complexity" by Jerry Fausz, Ph.D. Aerospace Engineering, A.P. auxillary staff scientist) http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/240286

"Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said: 'Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. . . Does the hawk take flight by your wisdom, and spread his wings toward the south? Does the eagle soar at your command, and build his nest on high?"
Job 38:1-3, 39:26-29

"The failure of the church to stand on God’s Word has brought devastation to countless lives. . . It’s time that believers made their voices heard, nailing Genesis 1–11 on church doors and secular buildings across the world! We need to take God at His Word and return to the 'simplicity that is in Christ.' Then we can watch the power of God’s Word transform lives and influence the culture."
("Is It Time for a New Reformation?" Ken Ham, founder and president of Answers in Genesis-USA.) www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v2/n4/new-reformation

Religious Freedom Sunday - January 10, 2010
"Proclaim liberty throughout the land." Lev. 25:10
http://www.religiousfreedomsunday.com/

Accept the challenge, take the quest!

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
(2 Timothy 3:16-17)

A prayer for the use of Holy Scripture:

O Gracious God and most merciful Father, who has granted us the rich and precious jewel of Your holy word, assist us with Your Spirit, that it may be written in our hearts to our everlasting comfort, to reform us, to renew us according to Your own Image, to build us up, and to instruct us into the perfect building of Christlikeness, sanctifying and increasing in us all heavenly virtues. Grant this, O heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.
(adapted from the “1599 Geneva Bible” Tolle Lege Press, 2006-2007)


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