Randy

SaveCalifornia.com Blog//

Archives for the ‘Christians’ Category

Will you care more for what’s right than atheists care for what’s wrong?

Saturday, September 28, 2019, 9:20 am | Randy Thomasson

After hearing about something harmful or wacky done by some politicians, have you ever asked, “How could they do that?” or “What are they thinking?”

But I’m finding it easier these days to understand Democrat politicians — and Democrat voters. Because the evidence is, both are increasingly anti-Bible and anti-reality.

Did you know that the New Atheism has been completely embraced by the Democratic National Committee, which now even claims atheism as the Democrats’ identity?

On August 27, 2019, the DNC, meeting in San Francisco, passed a resolution affirming the “religiously unaffiliated” as sharing their party’s values and being “the largest religious group within the Democratic Party.” 

The unanimously-passed resolution also criticized “religious views” and “religious liberty,” stating, “WHEREAS, those most loudly claiming that morals, values, and patriotism must be defined by their particular religious views have used those religious views, with misplaced claims of ‘religious liberty,’ to justify public policy that has threatened the civil rights and liberties of many Americans, including but not limited to the LGBT community, women, and ethnic and religious/nonreligious minorities.”

As you can see, with the Democrats, it’s good-bye to your First Amendment freedom of conscience before God.

Less Bible, worse voting

The evidence is, the less” Christian” you are, or claim to be (except for black Americans), the more likely you are to vote for Democrat candidates. See this chart.

So the more a voter drifts from the Bible as his standard of authority, the more we get elected representatives who are anti-family, anti-Constitution, anti-Christian. It’s simple math.

The solution, obviously, is for pastors who say the Bible is their authority, to train church congregants to vote biblically and help other people vote for good government too. 

For how can we have good government unless people who know what is truly good are the main influencers of government? 

‘High time’ to love God and neighbor

I believe it’s high time for professing Christians to repent of not loving their neighbor (strangers in their community, state, and nation) and not loving the Savior Jesus Christ as He requires. For if The Greatest Commandment is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind,” where shall you not love God? Not in voting? Not in government? Not as your Master?

With all the latent armies of professing Christians gathered together every week, the ability to sincerely repent of sin and to passionately love Jesus and neighbor is abundantly present. Who will light the spark that gets this fire going?

A biblical pastor who has abandoned fear of man will teach his flock how to vote biblically, will hold annual voter registration drives, will distribute principled, pro-family voter guides, will organize volunteers to support good candidates, and will even recruit candidates for local office from within the congregation.

  • Do you agree that it’s time for pastors to identify and reject their own fear of man, and replace it with holy fear of God and sacrificial love for strangers?
     
  • Do you agree that it’s time for supporters of the Bible to reform their congregations, so that we can improve our culture, by speaking the truth with a heart motivation of faith, hope, and love?
     
  • Do you agree that it’s time for pastors to have biblical worldview classes, offered to all congregants and with completion required for church members?

Ultimately, our local, state, and national governments will be run by godly, principled people, or by those who aren’t. The choice belongs to the churches. We have to ask ourselves, who “cares” more for their neighbors and for “good government” — professing Christians or die-hard atheists?

Wise people will start planning now for the 2020 election. For with diligent preparation often comes great victory.

“There are times to encourage, but there are also times to contend for what is right—that time is now. Let it not be said of us today: ‘And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord.'”
“Have Consciences in California Been Seared?” by California Christian Shane Idelman

Wow! Children in public schools being taught about Jesus

Friday, August 9, 2019, 10:28 am | Randy Thomasson

If you’ve been tracking with SaveCalifornia.com for a while, you probably know that children are being ruined in today’s immoral and increasingly unsafe culture.

Every social ill that would have shocked your grandparents is now the norm. Children and teenagers today are in a moral free-fall, and all the social indicators are deadly serious. 

This is why nothing other than aggressive, decisive, life-changing action will save kids. Remember, these are precious boys and girls, created in the image of God. You and I and others can save them from a myriad of harmful lies if we first help to save their souls and give them a rock-solid standard of truth.

Let me tell you about an exciting opportunity that, if you’re a Christian, you’re going to like. You can help reach children and put them on Jesus Christ’s straight and narrow path, right in your community!

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 3b4b382a-ce65-4d72-a8a1-30450d97ddc3.jpg

“Good News Clubs” are specifically permitted by the U.S. Supreme Court (acknowledging the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech and freedom of religion) to meet on public-school campuses. These are “Christian” clubs that use an existing classroom after school has been let out for the day. Is one of these calling your name?

I’m told there are Good News Club chapters in every county in California. Such is the spiritual need and heart-felt hunger, these Good News Clubs are growing in number, and need loving, true Christians to receive the pleasure of participating!

Here’s how Good News Clubs work:

Who: Anyone who has true faith in Jesus Christ as God in the flesh and the Only Way to be saved, and who believes the Bible is the sole source of authority for Christian faith and practice, can be approved and trained to be a Good News Club teacher or helper. Then you’ll learn the ease and joy of starting, or participating with, a Good News Club at an elementary school campus near you. Retired (or “re-fired”) Christians who love children are perfect for this. Even current public school teachers can and do lead and participate in Good News Clubs. Depending on your strengths, you can either organize, assist, or teach. There’s a place for all types of volunteers and each Good News Club has a team of adult volunteers who work together.

What: A 60-90-minute interactive program teaching children ages 5 to 14, who either know English or are learning English, to learn about, receive, worship, and serve Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. In an environment of fun and friendship, along with snacks, children are taught what’s right in God’s sight. Volunteers use easy-to-teach and simple-to-grasp lessons from both the Old and New Testaments. The curriculum, written by the Good News Club sponsor, Children Evangelism Fellowship, is so good, it does the teaching, and adult volunteers merely follow it. 

When: Immediately after school classes end, for 60-90 minutes, one day a week, for 26 weeks. These Good News Clubs are popular with public-school families, including many parents who are motivated to receive free after-school childcare.

Where: At a K-6 or K-8 public school near you. Serving as the Good News Club location is an empty classroom with adjoining outdoor space. After the first week, children will know where and when to show up!

Why: Most children in public schools, and most children initially attending Good News Clubs, do not come from churched families. They have probably never heard the Gospel (Jesus Christ’s Good News for their bad news of sin). Perhaps the most significant thing you can do this year is to volunteer for a Good News Club to help save children’s souls, teach children God’s ways, and plant a memorable seed of Christianity and morality in their minds that will stick with them for life. Remember, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise” (Proverbs 11:30).

How: Whether you’re interested in volunteering, or just want to learn more, simply fill out this easy web form and a local Good News Club chapter leader will get in touch with you. In the message field, write “I want to volunteer for” or “I want to know more about volunteering for” or “I want to visit and learn more about” … “a Good News Club in my community.” Ask your questions and tell them SaveCalifornia.com sent you! New Clubs are starting up in September and training is happening this month of August, so right now is a great time for you to make a significant difference for the souls of children near you.

And here’s something else to remember: If you’ve ever helped teach Sunday school, this is like it, but better. The focus and friendship and fruit of Good News Clubs are of such good reputation, no wonder the atheist groups tried to stamp them out (they lost at the U.S. Supreme Court in 2001). 

Children in your community need Jesus Christ and they need you. Please reach out to a Good News Club leader in your area — or become one yourself — and step out in faith, hope, and love!

Learn more:

Video of a Good News Club in action
See samples of their excellent curriculum

Then they also brought infants to Him that He might touch them; but when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to Him and said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.”
Luke 18:15-17

Deliver those who are drawn toward death,
And hold back those stumbling to the slaughter.

Proverbs 24:11

5 reasons why stealing is always wrong

Saturday, August 3, 2019, 8:42 am | Randy Thomasson

“It’s mine!” Remember hearing this from a young child or saying it yourself?

Little children know stealing is wrong — as long as they’re the victim of the theft. Otherwise, it’s all too easy to fall into self-deception and “justify” a little stealing here, a little pilfering there, nothing that will be easily
noticed or missed. But God sees it all, doesn’t He?

Likewise, a liberal in an immoral city might claim there’s no absolute truth. But steal from him or lie to him and he’ll say that was absolutely wrong to do!

Because theft is rampant in our culture and our government, and because we’ve all stolen something (no matter how small), SaveCalifornia.com urges you to teach your children and grandchildren that stealing is absolutely wrong because:

1. Stealing always disrespects an owner. Instead of caring what the owner’s free will is, the thief will take what he wants, even if the owner has not given his voluntary, non-coerced consent. For this reason, stealing always devalues the person, deeming the thing to be taken more important than the person it’s being taken from.

2. Stealing always harms an owner. Theft always decreases a legal owner’s profit, use, or enjoyment; theft causes a rightful owner to suffer loss, no matter how small. Because stealing always subtracts from what an owner owns. Whether the owner knows or doesn’t know you stole from her, God sees and knows what you did.

3. Stealing always harms the character of the perpetrator. By agreeing to sin, and agreeing to harm an owner, a thief immediately lowers his standards, becomes untrustworthy, and finds it all the easier to steal more often, in greater amounts. This is the hardening of the heart, the scarring of the conscience, and the depravity of the soul.

4. Stealing always grieves Creator God. From Genesis to Revelation, the Word of God calls stealing a sin and prohibits it. This is why Western Civilization reflects God’s laws when it makes it punishable to steal, beginning with “petty theft” or “larceny,” whenever someone takes or uses property without the owner’s informed consent (the very definition of theft). As the Author of morality, God views any stealing as a crime against Himself, for He cannot fellowship with sin.

5. Stealing always begins with coveting. Security experts know that if a thief can’t see something or doesn’t know it exists, it’s less likely that theft will occur. In the same way, the Bible informs us that all sins start on the inside before they manifest on the outside.

As Christian writer Tim Challies writesOne way of looking at things is to see the tenth commandment as the internalization of the eighth commandment. Just as adultery of the heart is lust, and murder of the heart is hatred, so theft is the heart of covetousness. When Achan stole some of the devoted things from Ai, he first “coveted them” and then “took them” (Josh. 7:21). Likewise, James says, “You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel” (James 4:3).

Types of stealing

Petty theft
Burglary
Robbery
Embezzlement
Knowingly receiving stolen property
Cooperating with thieves
Identity theft
Intellectual property theft
Illegal Entry
Shoplifting
Looting
Vandalism
Dishonest business practices
Cheating on taxes
Refusing to pay debts
Keeping property you found without making an effort to find the owner
Claiming the work or knowledge of others to be your own
When politicians defraud voters
When union bosses coerce money from workers
When stealing anything from your employer
When stealing food or drink from a restaurant

The Early Church had a high moral standard against all forms of theft: “…they were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by oath, not to some crime, but not to commit fraud, theft, or adultery, not falsify their trust, nor to refuse to return a trust when called upon to do so.”

Show your children and grandchildren this and then talk about it, especially what moral standard kept some people from stealing: LA Riot Looters: ‘A Colorblind Orgy Of Wrecking And Taking’ (national news report of 1992 Los Angeles riots)

David Pratte explains what the Bible says about stealing: “When I was about 6 years old, my family visited a neighbor down the street. I saw lying on the floor a toy Mickey Mouse watch — it didn’t really even tell time, but it looked like a wristwatch. I wanted it, so I picked it up, put it in my pocket, and took it home. Of course, I felt terrible, because I knew better. Besides, I couldn’t wear it without my parents asking me where it came from. Next time we visited that neighbor, I took it back and put it where I had found it. I never told anybody, and nobody ever said anything about it, but I learned my lesson. Most people do not want to think of themselves as thieves, because they know stealing is wrong.”


    SHARE EMAIL:   | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | BLOG | E-BULLETINS | DONATE