Mike Huckabee on Health Care Reform

Christianity Today has a great interview with Mike Huckabee that spans a wide range of topics from health care, Sarah Palin, foreign policy, Christmas and much more.  I voted for Huckabee in the primary and wish I could have voted for him as president.  He gave a great answer in the interview about health care reform which you can read below.

Would you vote for the health-care bill if the Stupak amendment [that bans funding for abortion] was retained in the final version?

Absolutely not. First of all, I don’t have any confidence that the Democrats in the House plan to honor that in the long term, and secondly, if abortion wasn’t even a part, it’s still going to create huge deficits. It’s a job-killing bill. It intrudes into an area of people’s responsibilities and rights as citizens. I think the bill on its face is unconstitutional, in that it requires the purchase of a product for a person to exercise his or her rights as a citizen. We already decided that’s unconstitutional when we outlawed the poll tax that required people to pay money in order to vote, because the Supreme Court declared that you can’t make people pay money in order to enjoy the rights and benefits of citizenship. That’s exactly what this bill does, and I think it’s an outrage and an insult to the Constitution and to the citizens of the United States.

You can read the rest here: Q & A: Mike Huckabee | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction.

Tiger Woods

C.J. Mahaney has a great reflection on Tiger Woods being hunted by the media and sin at the Sovereign Grace blog.

This is a big story with a big audience and it’s a story that will not disappear soon. Tiger Woods is being hunted by the media.

But let us make sure we do not join the hunt. A Christian’s response to this story should be distinctly different. We should not be entertained by the news. We should not have a morbid interest in all the details. We should be saddened and sobered. We should pray for this man and even more for his wife.

And we can be sure that in the coming days we will be in conversations with friends and family where this topic will emerge. And when it does, we can avoid simply listening to the latest details and speculations, and avoid speaking self-righteously, but instead we can humbly draw attention to the grace of God in the gospel.

You can read the rest here: Hunting Tiger Woods.

Why and How To Read The Bible

“We talk about the problems of ‘applying the Bible to our lives,’ which often means modifying the Bible somewhat adjectivally to fit the assumed ‘reality’ of the life we live ‘in the real world.’ What would it mean to apply our lives to the Bible instead, assuming the Bible to be the reality – the real story – to which we are called to conform ourselves?” – Chris Wright

More of Jesus

Jesus Christ you are my reward
In you I glory and find strength.
You fill me with your Spirit
And give me access to the Father.

Jesus Christ you are my King,
The One who I live for
And seek to find myself worthy of.
In your kingdom is my hope.

Give me eyes of faith to keep this perspective.
This world can be filled with temptation,
I do not want to believe the lies
Which is why I need more of you,
For you are the way, the truth and the life.
By your atoning death I have joy to the full.

Prayer for Sanctification

Oh God my Father
You are my rock and salvation.
I run to you as my refuge and stronghold.
You have delivered me from sin and death
And provide a shield against satan’s attacks.
In you I find my life,
So I continually cry to you.
You are strong and might to save.
I praise you for you are faithful
And have never failed me.
You have chosen to delight in me.
This is a mystery of mysteries.
Fill me with your Spirit so I can live blameless and pure.
Enlarge my heart so I can receive your word.
I want to know your word and live by it
Because it is perfect as you are perfect.
Only by your grace am I made strong.
Without your goodness and support I can achieve nothing.
Help me to trust you more,
My desire is to experience more of your nearness.

Boice On The Church Today

Image courtesy of tenth.org

“The problem is that the evangelical movement in America today is shallow. It speaks of salvation, but it does not grapple with sin. And since it does not grapple with sin, there can be no true repentance.” James Montgomery Boice

 

Repentance Vs. Public Relations

Kamilla Ludwig has a good reflection on Carrie Prejean and how she shouldn’t be the face of conservative Christianity.  (ht: Bayly Blog)

Being Where Jesus Would Have Us to Be

“The place that Christians wish to be in, is not always the place which is best for their souls…What we like best is not always best for our souls, that the seed of grace needs winter as well as summer, cold as well as heat, to ripen it for glory…That place and position is most healthful for us in which we are kept most humble-most taught our own sinfulness-drawn most to the Bible and prayer-led most to live by faith and not by sight.  It may not be quite what we like. But if Christ by His providence has placed us in it, let us not be in a hurry to leave it.  Let us therein abide with God.  The great thing is to have no will of our own, and to be where Jesus would have us to be.”

J.C. Ryle

A Thanksgiving Poem

I could never exhaust the praise
that king Jesus rightly deserves.
Words fail to express the Thanksgiving
Which is in my heart for your death on my behalf.

All glory, honor and thanks is Jesus’
For by His blood He ransomed people for God.
You are holy, holy, holy, there is none like you.
All creation is yours and by your will we exist.

When you bring your redeemed to the new heaven and earth
We will spend all eternity giving thanks for who you are
And that you have called us to yourself
So that we can be complete and satisfied in you.

John Stott On Leadership And The Home

Here are a couple of quotes from “The Cross of Christ” that should be the anthem of every Christian husband.

“The symbol of an authentically Christian leadership is not the purple robe of an emperor, but the coarse apron of a slave; not a throne of ivory and gold, but a basin of water for the washing of feet.”

“Christian homes in general, and Christian marriages in particular, would be more stable and more satisfying if they were marked by the cross.”