Pester Brat's Saint and Sinner Hypocrisy Blog

Earlier today, I was brought into a discussion involving someone's concern about potential abuse and whether they should call Social Services or not. In this particular case the concerned person says that one of the Elders of a church is the one potentially involved in the alleged abuse, and the other Elder is supportive of his co-Elder. Also, the church is an independent church that does not associate with other churches. The question put to our Reformed Baptist List that has mostly active or inactive pastors on it, is what should he/she do. It certainly causes me thought on how to handle such situations should I ever be more directly involved in it in our community here in Mountain Home. I received an e-mail from one of the other members of the List and we discussed it together briefly, with both of us bringing out some biblical pricipals and other concerns: 1. We need to remember the biblical admonition to submit to the government's authority in situations like these. They a...

Today, one of the customers at the bank I also work at came in to do business. He and I have been talking about "biblical issues" about every other time he has come in. He is the pastor of Jesus Name Tabernacle in the same town of where I live and minister. I'm sure those that worship the Lord at our church know the church I am referring to. He has invited me to come out to his church several times and did it again today. However today, he gave more information that he hadn't done previously. Several times he has mentioned that they only baptize in Jesus' name, but ii do believe that there are some churches who do that but are still Trinitarian. Well this pastor and church is not Trinitarian. I know that because he made mention that the Trinity was a creation of the Roman Catholic Church. This is not the first time I have heard this of course, and it is a common error made by Oneness Pentacostals and Watchtower's Jehovah's Witnesses. Now of course, I agree...

While I was at my job outside of the church today, I ended up in an interesting discussion with one of my co-workers (K). It began in the morning when another co-worker forwarded an e-mail involving the Dai-Lama. I deleted the e-mail after I realized who it was from and what it was about. Well, in the afternoon, K went to read that e-mail and asked if I read it. She knows I'm a Christian pastor, but that didn't seem to matter when she wondered why I had a problem with the ole Lama (and she professes to be a Christian as well). It was slow in the bank, so I was able to discuss several issues with her, that she still doesn't agree with: That good works has nothing to do with salvation, that Christ and His sacrifice is the only way to Heaven, and that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. It also came out that K doesn't believe the whole Bible is the word of God. Of course it is too much to cover in a message of one worship service, let alone in 10-15 minutes on the job. She s...

This morning right before I walked out the door to go to my job outside of the church, I received a phone call. The Caller ID showed the name of a person that I worked with for about 13 years, and whom the Lord used to get me the gospel while He was drawing me. Someone called me earlier last year and told me he was having some marital problems. In December I called his home, and had to leave a message. His wife was on the other end of the line this morning, and after saying who she was, asked me if her husband ever called me. I told her that I had not heard from him. She proceded to tell me that he died of a massive heart attack last night. Interestingly, a pastor friend in Kentucky told me in a Christian Chat Channel that the Lord had given him a burden to pray for me the last couple of days. Well, when a Christian tells us that, let alone a pastor, I think we need to be ready and watchful. Such is the case with me today, as we also found out that our oldest daughter went to the h...