August 18, 2010 by Sal Termini.

How many really close friends do you have? How many acquaintances do you have?

If you’re like most people, acquaintances far outweigh your close friendships. Close friends are those you spend time with and trust. Close friends are people you love deeply and share your life with. Close friends are those you communicate with frequently and share intimate things about your life.

Acquaintances are people you like. They are people you are friendly with and see once in awhile. They are not people you can’t live without or really need to be with. You enjoy them when you see them but they are not significant to your life. While Acquaintances are nice, what we all need are close friends we can love and trust.

We were created to give love just as much as we were created to receive love. Relationships are important to all of us. Without having people in our lives who care about us life would be cold, sterile, and meaningless. Loving others and being a part of their lives is part of true human fulfillment. We all must have meaningful relationships. Parents, siblings, and close friends are those relationships that nurture us and hopefully we nurture them. We all desire to love and be loved.

What is your status in your relationship with God? Is God a friend or an acquaintance? While God does not need a relationship with us, He desires one. God does not want to be an acquaintance. To do this would break the first and greatest commandment to love God with your whole heart, soul, mind, and strength.

He is worthy of our love and friendship. To treat God as an acquaintance is like mistreating a parent, sibling or a really caring, trusted friend. A relationship with God is the ultimate relationship. To ignore that fact or to take it too lightly is a catastrophic mistake. If we mistreat God while on earth do you think we will be accepted as a close friend when we die? Begin today to put God on your friends list.

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August 10, 2010 by Sal Termini.

Lady Gaga, the newest symbol of sexual freedom, poses nude for Vanity Fair magazine. I guess the title says it all, “Vanity.” The dictionary defines vanity as conceit, narcissism, self-love, self-admiration, self-absorption, self-regard, egotism; pride, arrogance, boastfulness, cockiness, and swagger. We live with eyes wide open but see so little. The very title of the magazine is open for all to see and understand. What draws us to vanity?

Vanity is foolishness dressed up as wisdom and meaningless as importance.

Lady Gaga’s shameless self promotion mocks us all into believing there is value in her over-the-top antics. Her pictures and videos are filled with nudity. It seems talent is not enough — we need the masses gawking at us with prurient interest. The natural tendency of people is to look at the naked body when it is unclothed. The exploitation of this fact is in itself a meaningless act. Anybody can do it but too many crave the spotlight.

The unclothed body was designed by God to illicit sexual desire. The immediate visceral response is desire. Desire is the foundation of modern advertising. What we desire is sex, money, power and pleasure, all without a value system. What we get is destruction and pain. Yet we advertise by pulling on the basest human emotions. Like lemmings we fall off the cliff over and over again. The multitude of people parading around nude for attention has now reached the status of serious mental illness for our culture, obsessed with such icons. The desire for sexual freedom from repressive religious belief has now turned into a unhealthy obsession.

God is not anti-pleasure. God created pleasure. He puts pleasure in a context where it brings value to the human soul. The problem is sexual desire left unchecked becomes perversion. The more outrageous a person’s behavior, the more interest seems to be created in that person. The same old tactics are used over and over again: nudity, attraction and perversion equals wealth.

The man who created Girls Gone Wild is nothing more than a video voyeur. The same vanity, need for attention and pleasure without value lures us like moths to a flame. It is meant to draw out of us perverted prurient desires for the purpose of fame and profit. Its damage to society and people are ignored, overlooked, or rejected. Madonna, who perverted a generation of young people, is now trying to protect her child from the corruption that media produces in the younger generation. The glaring hypocrisy is missed by her hordes of adoring fans.

We tempt with evil desires to create success. The price and the cost is, we all become diminished, dehumanized, humiliated, and lessened by coarse ideals. The problem is, we are pleasure driven so we struggle to condemn many things that are evil. We like evil. We want to participate in it. In doing this we justify it, and ourselves, as normal or innocent. Standards are lowered and society is self-destructing. We keep falling for the same old thing over and over again. Nothing new, good, or creative will ever come out of seeking to elicit the lowest and basest part of our being. Who will have the courage to ignore or reject those who exploit us for their own ends. We make them rich and famous while we remain poor in spirit, character and moral truth.

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August 3, 2010 by Sal Termini.

John 4:23 - Indeed, the time is coming, and it is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. The Father is looking for people like that to worship him.

We are created to worship God. We are created to be fully engulfed in God’s love for us. The discovery of that love is the foundation of worship and a meaningful life. When we discover His love for us we will respond with rich praise and thanksgiving for who God is. Too may people are distracted by life and never seek to truly know and love God. Many fail to understand that the true significance of life is to place God at the center. Money, work, ambition, pleasures, and things cannot love us back. The things we desire and love most cannot give meaning, virtue, hope, lasting joy, or purpose to our lives. We love the temporal things that have little meaning and are passing away. We must learn to love the things that are eternal even more. The world is suffering because it has failed to worship God’s character, which reveals a love that gives us a standard to live by. If we live, loving as God loves, evil would be eradicated. All that is good in life comes from God.

Our neglect of worship for God is like a man who builds a beautiful house for his wife and she falls in love with the house and decorating it more than her husband. We fail to love and appreciate God who made us and gave us all things pertaining to life. We take for granted that we have been born, have life, exist, make choices, and can choose our destiny. All this is a gift from God. In essence we have become idolators replacing a deep intimate love and friendship with God with our natural life. Instead of living life with Him we live it without him treating him as a stranger and in some cases as an interloper.

God should be our hero – the person we want to be like and most emulate. We should want to live like God lives, holy, joyful, victorious, meaningful, truthful, loving, hopeful, eternally minded, and purposeful. We need to admire His attributes, character, and love. God is so misrepresented that He is ignored or despised. If you saw the goodness of God and understood His ultimate purpose for you, you would fall in love with Him. God’s plan is for us to spend eternity with him, reveling in His love and enjoying His creation with Him. God desires a passionate love as real and as powerful as any we can experience in this world. We are so enamored with all things of the earth that we fail to see the supremacy of a heavenly life and a spiritual love.

A recent survey asked people if they believed in God. 90-percent of those people said yes. They then were asked, how many make God an important part of their lives. Only 12 percent answered in the affirmative. If we make God a stranger while living in His earthly home we will not be invited to His heavenly one.

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July 17, 2010 by Sal Termini.

“The great masquerade of evil has played havoc with all our ethical concepts. For evil to appear disguised as light, charity, historical necessity, or social justice is quite bewildering to anyone brought up on our traditional ethical concepts, while for the Christian who bases his life on the Bible it merely confirms the fundamental wickedness of evil.”

On the American coin we read, E PLURIBUS UNIM. The phrase means out of many one. The desire of the founders was that America with all her individuality and diversity would become a people unified. Today we find ourselves in a clash of cultures. We are in a battle over philosophical ideologies. When I look at the words above I am deeply troubled as an American and as a Christian that we as a nation will never be unified again. The paragraph above was written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer while in a Nazi prison. Only the most narrow ideologues would not consider him a hero. Yet Dietrich became an enemy to many people for the sake of God and country.

The great outworking of evil, its design, and purpose is to appear as something good. In Genesis Satan tells Adam and Eve that they will become like God. Anyone who has studied the Scriptures knows that the ultimate purpose of God is for us to be like Him. His desire has always been that we become more like him in every aspect of life. Satan’s purpose was to twist the truth, implying that by doing something evil good would come of it. Betray God, disobey him, reject him, doubt him, and most of all see him as afraid and evil for withholding the best creation has to offer. In one act sin becomes personal. It is against another who is good. It is a lie acted upon. David said, “Against you and you only have I sinned.” Real evil begins its journey against God and all that has been revealed to be true and good.

Evil must reinvent ways of appearing good. Abortion is good, it is a woman’s right to choose. Deny all thoughts of murdering the unborn. Sex education with a political agenda, teach kindergarten children perversion as knowledge. Should not the youngest child understand the mechanics of sex without its morality? Is this not a good thing? Should we not push the aberration of the gay agenda, after all it is equality we are after? Partial-birth abortion is the correct thing to do when we are burdened down with consequences and responsibilities of our actions. We must make all these things appear good.

Let’s begin by rewriting American history. Let’s also begin by overthrowing American history with new forms of social engineering that have failed the world over. Let’s use the ideologies that have murdered millions. Let’s call it equal distribution of wealth. It should be up to each man’s conscience to decide how to help the least fortunate among us. Instead we will force our will and our narrow, immoral, ideology on others and call it American.

While marriage declines for heterosexuals, homosexuals are seeking its sanctity. While we as a nation are becoming more promiscuous, as couples live together, the battle rages over what is traditional marriage. The irony of such a struggle is heartbreaking. The Scriptures reveal this,”If the foundations are destroyed What can the good do.” It is the desire of evil to create anarchy. It is the desire of evil to remove truthful moral foundations and rebuild a world in its own image and likeness.

The simple temptation in Eden was far more insidious than the deceived man and woman could ever have imagined. The battle has never changed. Satan hidden, dark, evil, deceptive, murderous, and a liar, his real agenda, is to remake the world, in his image and likeness. In that beautiful story in Genesis 1 we discover God is the creator of all things. Now science with all of its knowledge tells us the infinite impossibilities against our existing without a creator are possible given enough time. The most wicked regimes in the world must erase God, or twists him into a dictator. Philosophies, ideologies, and religions are now as never before through the power of unlimited communication able to remake the world as Satan had intended in the image and likeness of evil.

Science now finds itself the enemy of religion. Islam finds itself the enemy of science. Two diametric forces that seem to oppose one another but yet are deeply unified, Their enemy, Christ and Christianity. Islam creates a God no one wants or would possibly want to serve. Science replaces God with time and chance. There is a pincer movement presently at work in the battlefield. Islam gathers the religious for a cause. Science erases the knowledge of God. In the end the showdown will come were the two ideologies compromise and kill all who oppose them. The enemy has not changed, it is still Cain and Able replayed again throughout the centuries. The ultimate showdown is where good fights evil. Jesus said, “when I return will I find faith on the earth.”

Hebrews 11:13-16 “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better countryÑa heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”

Heb 11:35-40 “Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreatedÑthe world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.”

I tell you this wickedness must have its day, it must come to it’s full fruitfulness. There awaits for all those who believed to have triumphed in their evil to face a day of judgment.

Isaiah 5:20-21 “How horrible it will be for those who call evil good and good evil,Êwho turn darkness into light and light into darkness, who turn what is bitter into something sweet and what is sweet into something bitter. How horrible it will be for those who think they are wise and consider themselves to be clever.”

To call what is good evil, and what is evil good is both the first and last evil. It had its beginnings in Genesis and it will have its end, at God’s appointed time. Dear friend where do you find yourself? Like Dietrich Bonhoeffer I would rather be the friend of God than the friend of those who rebel against God. So dear friend what is our mission? Is it to become like them and hate? No! This is the hour to love them ever more deeply and warn them with all your heart to turn to God and to Jesus Christ who can cleanse us to the very depths of our being from every evil. Jesus said,” I have not come to condemn the world but to save it.” We all need a Savior to deliver us from the evil that so deceives us and controls us. In that day when God cleanses the universe from evil you will have chosen to be saved from evil or to serve it. The choice has always been yours. We cannot make the excuse as we revel in our weakness, when God has supplied the overcoming strength.

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June 15, 2010 by Sal Termini.

In the movie, A Few Good Men, a top military commander is being questioned in a courtroom. He is being told he must tell the truth. He answers in a now famous statement, “You can’t handle the truth.” This statement is true of every one of us. Truth is both frightening and overwhelming. To know the truth means we are now responsible to measure up. It is the purpose of life to come to grips with the truth as God has revealed it to us. We may think we are fighting philosophies, religions, ideologies, but in reality they are mechanisms to cope with the truth we don’t want to face.

Jesus said, “The truth will set you free.” We will stand before God’s court one day and we will be asked whether or not we received and obeyed the truth. Jesus said, “Light came into the world but mankind loved the darkness rather than the light.” Jesus came so we could face the truth, obey the truth, and live the truth. I know the Bible is God’s word because it is so contrary to human nature. Yet through Jesus Christ we are brought to the truth. If we surrender to it, a term the Bible calls repentance, we will be set free from theconsequences of living a lie.

I have heard many times, church is for weak people. I believe the opposite is true. To join the church takes extraordinary courage and faith. We who follow Christ have faced the truth and have overcome all excuses, weaknesses, fear, and hypocrisies to love the truth and walk in it. The church encompasses people who are noble and brave.

To walk outside the truth is to sin against God and all that is good. The truth is the highest morality and ethics.

Truth is love, lived out every day.

Truth honors God.

Truth is loving God.

Truth is loving one another as human beings.

To not walk in the truth is to be found guilty, and we will one day be held accountable. We need forgiveness because of the suffering we have caused to others, and the violence we have done to God’s kingdom and purposes. We need forgiveness because of all the people we hurt by not walking in the truth. Jesus came to bring us the forgiveness we need so we can have a fresh start, walking in the truth. Ask Him to forgive you by His death on the cross and you will be forgiven and given power through His Spirit to walk in the truth.

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June 8, 2010 by Sal Termini.

It is early in June and a beautiful summer day. I am heading for the beach at Ditch Plains in Montauk NY. The wind is blowing about 20 to 25 miles an hour. The waves are shoulder high and peeling beautifully. The waves are mostly breaking near the shore because of the wind. The strong northwest wind is keeping the waves from breaking farther out. I put on my wet suit and take my paddle board and head out to catch some waves. I paddle through the whitewater barely making it through the heavy breaking waves near the shore — called beach break.

I struggle to find a place to catch some waves that are not too close to the shore. I then paddle about a quarter of a mile down the beach and find a wave thats breaking about two football fields from the beach. I smile knowing this means nice long rides. The wave driven by a northwest wind is moving quickly at a severe angle to the beach. This makes the wave harder to catch because you have to paddle hard against the wind, and at the right angle, as the wind tries to spin you in the wrong direction. It is going to be a challenge just to catch a wave, not to mention to try and surf well.

I catch a wave and paddle to my left, for me it’s what surfers call backside. My back is to the wave as I try to turn into the curl. On a paddle board you must lean heavily on the paddle to turn this way, making it harder than on a conventional surfboard. I turn as hard as I can but it’s not enough and the breaking wave slams into my body. I could not get past the part of the wave that is breaking called a section. I’m now under water and swimming to the surface to find my board and try again. I get my board, grab my paddle, jump back on, stand, and then steady myself so I can try and paddle past the strong surging whitewater.

I barely make it out over two big breaking waves. I see the next group of waves, called a set, and paddle myself into position to catch the biggest wave of the set. I catch the wave start down the face and begin my turn, when the wave starts to break. I ride whitewater instead of the wave. It’s not my best wave but I turn and head back out to try again. While paddling back out I see a beautiful set of waves forming. I quickly turn my board and paddle at an angle to make the steep drop, I set may paddle deep in the wave and begin my turn. To my great joy I am turning perfectly into the curl of the wave. I turn slightly more and go up the wave for more speed and height to make the next section. I zoom down the wave staying ahead of the whitewater all the way to the beach. I am so excited that I almost fall off my board trying to get back out and do it all over again.

My greatest passion in life is telling people about Jesus Christ. I am excited every chance I get to share with others about His love and power. There are times when I have to work hard just to do what is right. Sometimes everything seems to line up against my faith, like the wind and the waves did today. Then suddenly it all comes together into a moment of perfection. You see, just like when I surf, I am always striving for perfection. Serving Jesus Christ is like that perfect wave. It brings incredible satisfaction and joy. I know I cannot always be perfect, whether I am serving God or surfing, but the greatest joy comes when I hit that sweet spot of perfection. No striving for perfection, no joy, no satisfaction, and no glory.

Don’t be discouraged by your momentary failures to serve God or do what is right because in the end there will be moments of perfection and you will never forget them. This moment of perfection is what we are all looking for. It is a far greater reward and pleasure to do it for God than anything this world can offer. To feel the pleasure and love of God because you succeeded in pleasing Him is like no other feeling I have ever had. We are created to strive for perfection. We were created to succeed. All this is only possible if we refuse to quit. Perfection is only possible if we strive for it. It was a very challenging day of surfing. Anything really worthwhile will be challenging. Yet it was worth it. Perfection is the goal of any endeavor and the pursuit of it is the reason we are given a lifetime.

Give God your best, just like you would anything else in life to succeed. Don’t neglect God. The most perfect joy you can ever know is when you experience His love.

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May 5, 2010 by Sal Termini.

Culture has its many icons such as South Park, John Stuart, Bill Mahr, O’Reilly, and even the Simpsons. On any given day culture speaks loud and bold about what they believe. If you watch any of the shows above no one is shy about sharing what they believe. Hollywood and the music industry through their popularity and power shout their beliefs from the rooftops. Politics and satire is delivered daily on every news show. Today the line between politics, commentary, satire, humor, and political opinion is blurred.

There exists one glaring hypocrisy which tells us religion is a private matter. For culture and politics to tell us we cannot share our core convictions is censorship of the worst kind. Anyone who watches television will see peoples’ beliefs being displayed through culture and politics. Religion is mocked and ridiculed but must remain silent. We can watch the sexual opinions of people acted out in movies, plays, cartoons, opinion shows, and through satirical commentators. Yet in all their proselytizing, religion is commanded to be silent and private. I don’t know about you but I’m outraged and I’ve had enough. We as a nation are able to spew every unkind idea, hateful speech, anti-religious rhetoric, vulgar and obscene opinion, but religion must be silent, and remain a private matter.

The bullies tell us that religion is a private matter which is another of their great bogus arguments. They spread this propaganda because religion is a powerful force. Religion is a core value, it is what many people truly believe with all their hearts. It is a tactic to silence a huge segment of the population, people who have every right to share their beliefs with others. Therefore it is an attempt by bullies to marginalize those who believe in religious values. Calling religion a private matter is their way of keeping religion out of the marketplace of ideas, because it will challenge their beliefs and ideologies.

In many of our institutions of higher learning atheism and the teaching of evolution, is in the majority, and they want to keep it that way. This is changing in philosophy, science, and in the marketplace of ideas. If religion is permitted to speak the bullies know they will lose their power. It is religious values that are the conscience of a nation. Most people that I know, know the difference between right is wrong. When religion begins to tell people what is right is wrong by expressing its opinion, it is ridiculed, rejected, and mocked as intrusive. What they forget is they intrude on our values daily without regard for our rights or beliefs. Culture and politics are able to tell us what is right and wrong but religion must be silent. It is time for religious people to be bold and courageous. Culture and politics want to make you feel embarrassed by mocking what you believe, This is their way of silencing you. The apostle Paul said almost two centuries ago, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” The double standard of making us feel ashamed for our beliefs while we are not allowed to make them feel ashamed for theirs must not continue.

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April 26, 2010 by Sal Termini.

In my life I have had three encounters with bullies that really stand out. The first one happened when I was in eighth grade. A bully named Jack was very jealous that some of his friends liked me. Everyday he would threaten me and tell me he was going to beat me up. He was very loud, obnoxious, and cruel. He would get right in my face and make fun of me in front of my friends. I told him to leave me alone. He said, “make me.” I said, “I don’t want to fight you.” I guess I was afraid he would knock my block off. One day on my way home he blocked the side walk so that I was unable to get by him. What happened next was a blur. He swung and I ducked. As I ducked I managed to get behind him and got him in a headlock. I held on with all my might trying not to let him go. So for about 30 minutes we kept going around in a circle. He was trying to get free and I was trying to hold on with all my might. Finally he asked me to let him go. I said, “only if you let me go.” He promised he would, and the fight ended.

The second time I had a fight was in 10th grade. I had never played soccer before, and every time I tried to kick the ball I would either miss it or step on it falling backwards. I was new to the school having come from Queens to Long Island. I didn’t have any friends at that time. A boy walked over with a group of his friends and started mocking me. The next thing I knew, he shoved me to the ground. I jumped up and yelled leave me alone. With that he looked back at his friends and with a smirk across his face whirled around to punch me as he did I ducked and by accident hit him with an uppercut. He fell backwards stunned. I noticed the other boys started moving closer towards me. To my good fortune the gym teacher came over and broke everyone up.

The third time I was playing softball and a huge blonde haired kid with scars on his face said to me, “I’m taking your turn at bat.” I said to him, “I waited all day to play. I want to bat for myself.” I later found out he bit the eyebrow off another kid in school. He sent two other kids to the hospital with injuries. He was a brutal and cruel person. He looked at me and probably liked my spunk and walked away taking another kids turn at bat.

I watch with great interest the debate between theists and atheists. Atheists claim possession of something they do not own: reason. They are loud, boisterous, cruel, unkind, and have a mocking attitude similar to the bullies I’ve described above. Many of the great colleges and learning institutions in this country began with Christians who believed that God gave man the power of reason. Atheism now makes claim that religion is devoid of reason. Like bullies in any given place, they are trying to rob what rightly belongs to all men — religious or irreligious. Some of the greatest scientists and scholars, past and present, believe in God. It is sad that because atheists are loud, cruel, and entertaining many think that they’re right. There numbers are greater in our colleges, so they believe might makes right.

It is just more proof that atheism has no code of conduct or respect for other people who believe differently than they do. These people claim diversity and pluralism until there belief system is seriously challenged. They then revert to bad behavior. People who believe in God need to stand up for themselves. Atheism is trying to dominate the market place of ideas by providing crude entertainment in the form of mockery. They demean people who believe different than they do. Like ancient Rome the atheist sees himself as the lion in the Coliseum with the Christian as the victim. In a society today where a lot of our entertainment is vulgar, atheism has found a willing audience. Just because it is loud, boisterous, and mocking doesn’t make it right. The co-opting of reason from Christianity is a fallacy that must be overthrown. Scripture reveals that God himself invites man to speak to God with these words, “come let us reason together.” It is the Christians search for truth that founded the educational system in our country. It is time to give rightful place to people who believe in God as equals in powers of reason, and that they are equal if not smarter than those who profess atheism. Well over 75% of Americans believe in God. We must not let a small vocal minority lie about reason being the possession of atheists or bully the rest of us. There are a great many brilliant people, equal in intellect and powers of reason, that could easily shame by argument, education, and civility those who are atheists. So I say to the atheists, stop your bullying and come let us reason together.

We who believe in God must not allow atheists to threaten us to make their point. We must not allow their cruel taunts to go unanswered. We must not be afraid of the fight. In fact apostle Paul wrote, “fight the good fight of faith.” In all three instances in my life, bullies wanted to demean and humiliate. I was very fortunate to come out unscathed in these three instances. I think it’s time that we fight for what we really know to be true. Sooner or later as the truth comes out they, too, will smirk and walk away, picking on someone weaker. Dear believer, know that what you believe in is important, not just for yourself, but for all of us to stand unified in our faith. The value system of our faith has made America great. Our faith has greatly helped contribute to America’s greatness. Atheism, like Jack, is very jealous that a lot of people like what you believe. To those atheists, the fight is not about truth but about popularity. In the second instance we are in the territory of science and philosophy where they think they are in charge. They may think our arguments are clumsy but we can surely hold our own. Dear friends, standup for what you believe, in these evil times. Without an audience the bully, like the atheists, will give up. They can go back to their surly views, fighting each other. Like their belief in evolution they can devour one another in a contest for the survival of the fittest. There are plenty of analogies in the above stories. I think the moral is to stand your ground knowing that truth sets free, even for atheists.

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April 15, 2010 by Sal Termini.

A recent study by the university at Groningen in the Netherlands found that the environment effects people’s behavior both negatively and positively. The study shows disorder in an environment causes people to be less moral. In one part of the study the environment was made to reflect a run down neighborhood with graffiti on the walls.The people littered and did more socially unacceptable behavior. In the second part of the study the same area was made clean, the walls were repainted, and the area ordered to reflect a better environment. People acted with a higher sense of morality reflecting the neighborhoods cleaner and ordered appearance.

Two important lessons we should learn from this study

1. Do you change your environment for the better?
2. Do you stand up for what you believe no matter where you are?

Know what you believe

It is amazing how may people will give in to bad behavior when in a poor environment or are put under social pressure. It is important to know what you believe in and then be faithful to those principles regardless of our environment or social pressures. Sociologists tell us we act out of our core beliefs. Few of us take the time to really know what we believe and why. Safety, prosperity, and security will come to a neighborhood, a society, a culture, even a nation that have people who will act on good core beliefs and not on a morally corrupt environment or society.

Know what to believe

To many people accept as normal a world that easily adapts to compromised moral principles. In fact many people live in a double standard knowing what is good but acting out of their weaknesses rather than our core beliefs. Many in America, in our culture and as a society live by morally corrupt self interests further diluted by morally compromised cultural norms. In the end we all will suffer the consequences. A good example is our economy which is suffering a deep recession because of unscrupulous lenders and borrowers. In the final analysis as in any moral breakdown in a society or a culture we all pay the debt. To make moral decsions we need a guidline to what good and evil really is. We live in a world of moral confusion and ignorance. When I am looking what to believe I read the words of Jesus. In His words I find not only moral perfection but compassion which is the foundation for all justice.

Know when to change

Our country needs to return to the Judeo Christian belief system of our founding fathers. In that belief system people are taught adhere to the the highest kind of morality. This morality was based upon God’s character reflected by His laws. God’s never dilutes His morality by selfish motives or cultural norms. The standard is the highest and the best because we will all derive benefit from it when we stand firm in our belief of those standards. These moral principles are the glue that hold a nation together without defrauding and hurting one another. These laws are love and prosperity in action. It is important to stand up for what you believe regardless of the consequences that is true heroism and is sadly lacking today. We live in a climate were it is socially acceptable to mock God’s laws like the Ten Commandments. The time to change our hearts and direction is now before its to late

Know what to do

We as Americans must not give in to a compromised and coarse culture, we must become the agents of worldwide and national change. We must model and uphold the standards God has set for the human race. There will be mockers and scoffers who want through their own corrupt motives to profit them through human failure. It is up to us as individuals to stand up for what we believe not bowing to pressure to compromise our beliefs. The Judeo Christian ethic is meant to change the world around us for the better. We can become part of the solution or become part of the problem. People who mock morality and people with religious convictions do so because they fear the truth. They know their behavior is based upon corrupted and morally bankrupt ideals give short term pleasure but will unleash long term suffering and negative consequences. The buzz words freedom and choice are misused and misrepresented. They fear that truth will win out and that a society with superior morals and ideals will put positve pressure on them to do what’s right. The fear of morality and the arguments against it are used instead to entice and deceive people. If acted upon these corrupted moral principles will and have left us a culture depleted morally, financially, and socially. We are living under the weight of negative consequences of this compromised morality .The Judeo Christian ethic and morality is meant to be the liberating conscience of a nation. It is our last hope to prick the conscience of those who seek to overcome healthy limitations to human greed, selfishness, and corruption.

Know when to act

In Germany before World War 11 the people were motivated to go to war and commit atrocities for freedom, prosperity,and national pride. It is not always society and government that is right or good morally. It is written in scripture, Blessed is the nation who God is the Lord.” A nation can become evil because it compromises its moral and spiritual principles. It is up to us as a people, as Americans to choose what we will become as a nation. America’s greatness came about because our forefathers believed if we adhered to the judeo Christian principles we would prosper. Our respect for God in those principles would result in a respect for one another and bring guidelines of decent conduct to every American citizen. In turn those principles would bring prosperity to America and all its citizens. We were to be an example to the nations of the world of a shinning city on a hill. Today we see every nation in moral, spiritual, and economic collapse because we have rejected moral truths which are the bedrock of human productivity, civility, and success. The time to act is right now before it is to late.

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January 30, 2010 by Sal Termini.

(from an article by NY Times writer James Wood)

“Terrible catastrophes inevitably encourage appeals to God. We who are, at present, unfairly luckier, whether believers or not, might reflect on the almost invariably uncharitable history of theodicy, and on the reality that in this context no invocation of God beyond a desperate appeal for help makes much theological sense. For either God is punitive and interventionist (the Robertson view), or as capricious as nature and so absent as to be effectively nonexistent (the Obama view). Unfortunately, the Bible, which frequently uses God’s power over earth and seas as the sign of his majesty and intervening power, supports the first view; and the history of humanity’s lonely suffering decisively suggests the second.”

The writer James Wood is commenting on Pat Robertson’s remarks that Haiti made a pact with the devil and is today suffering the consequences of that action. In his article he is reflecting on one of the most hotly debated issues in the history of the world. Is there a God? If there is why does he allow evil?

A Perspective on Death

We who have been struck by tragedy suffer the terrible pain of loss. The loss only exists because we love. I believe, as the saying goes, it is far better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all. The loss of a loved one in an atheistic world view is permanent and catastrophic. In a Christian view it is a painful but temporary loss that will be overcome by Jesus Christ’s glorious triumph over death.

1 Cor 15: 53, “For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54, When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory. 55, Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”

To a Christian death is the passage of a person into eternity. We pass through death and the sorrows of life as one would pass through hostile territory to reach a place of safety. In view of our temporary condition we should live life getting to know God with whom we will be spending eternity. We should also do our best to do what is right knowing that life is to be lived in the light of eternity. Have we lived our lives loving God and people? The point is in Christ, death does not have the final say, but is part of our journey as human beings.

Our lives are temporary as we are called to live fulfilling God’s purpose for our lives until we are again united with Him.

2nd Cor 4:17, “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18, So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

We must never minimize the suffering of others because to do so would be callous. It is also not the Christian ideal to blame people for their suffering while they are hurting and in pain. Christ delivered, healed, and blessed many who were far from God in the midst of their suffering. To do so is a sign of God’s saving love and grace. It is God’s way of demonstrating His love so that people will remember it and serve Him. Jesus also warned them, “Go and sin no more lest something worse come upon you.”

The bigger question is not whether God caused the tragedy in Haiti, but are we ready to face God in death? If you believe in eternity the sting of death is removed. It is by the triumph of eternal life given to the world as a gift when we put our faith in Christ’s power to conquer death for us. The question I pose is not who is worthy or what religion is right but one of power. God invested the power to conquer death in Christ. Faith in Him breaks deaths power over our lives. His resurrection proved that.

The Christian world view mitigates the pain with a promise from God that death is God’s last enemy to be destroyed. (1 Cor 15:26) The love of God in the Christian worldview is about taking tragedy and turning into triumph. God cared so much that He came to the earth in Jesus to teach us the way out of death. Jesus wept when He was at the tomb of a friend named Lazarus. Jesus was saddened by death’s power over our lives and our doubt that He has the power to deliver us from death. God hates death and does not delight in the death of the wicked. (Ezekiel 33:11) In a Christian worldview death is leaving the world of hatred, pain, suffering, war, disease, and sorrow to be eternally in the presence of God. In the Christian worldview God sees death as a release from a fallen and sinful world. He allowed death so humanity would have relief from evil. Imagine sickness, war, disease, and suffering with no end. In God’s plan death puts an end to all suffering and death.

1st Thess 4:13, “Brothers and sisters, we want you to know about those Christians who have died so you will not be sad, as others who have no hope. 14, We believe that Jesus died and that he rose again. So, because of him, God will raise with Jesus those who have died. 15, What we tell you now is the Lord’s own message.

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