How Big Is Your God?

HOW BIG IS YOUR GOD?  ~   "Bill, that is a silly question!  God is God, all knowing, all powerful, everywhere present.  Are you asking a rhetorical question, or a serious question?"  Glad you asked.  No, it is not a rhetorical question, it is a very serious question.  There are folks who will sincerely proclaim faith in God, but then feel that they must help Him, or correct His decisions.  "What do you mean, Bill?"

Before I answer that question, let me take you back about 25 years to the Filipino-American Church of Corona, aka, Fil-Am Church of Corona (later renamed CICF).  It was a relatively new church planted by Pastor Sam Lacanienta, a daughter church of the Fil-Am church of Irvine (FACI).  We were visited by a Caucasian missionary couple, Steve & Leslie, who had been commissioned by FACI as missionaries to the Philippines. 

During their 12-year Philippines ministry, they would annually return to the U.S., as required by the American Immigration Service, and use that time to visit supporting churches in America to give an update, and to seek continued ministry support.  On one yearly visit circa 2000, they came to our fellowship in Corona and Steve's message has really stayed with me, for it gave us a unique perspective on the Great Commission.

Let me refresh your memory on the Great Commission, which through the apostles, Christ gave to ALL believers throughout all time.

Matthew 28:18-20, "And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me  Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.' "

That with Acts 1:7-8 comprises the Great Commission, "But He said to them, 'It is not for you to know periods of time or appointed times which the Father has set by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and as far as the remotest part of the earth.' "

To summarize the Great Commission:  "Go, Make disciples, Baptize them, Teach them . . . And you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria, and in all the earth."

Let's not overlook a key word:  BOTH!   Christ makes Jerusalem the highest priority as He tells us, "you shall be My witnesses BOTH in (1) Jerusalem, [highest priority] and (2) in all Judea, and Samaria, and as far as the remotest part of the earth."   He gives a strong priority, first is your Jerusalem where He has placed you.  And THEN to all Judea, Samaria, and all the earth.  That tells me that God wants you to concentrate the vast majority of your efforts, especially your initial efforts, where He has placed you - Your Jerusalem!

Steve's message was:  You as a believer are responsible for carrying out the Great Commission.  To accomplish that, your order of priority, as Christ taught it, is:  First, your Jerusalem:  your family, your local fellowship, and your community.  THEN your Judea:  your city and state ~ your Samaria:  the nation in which God has call you to serve ~ And finally in all the earth which is self explanatory.

I realize that traveling to other countries to plant churches "in all the earth" may seem more exciting.  During my many years in the computer industry, I loved traveling all over America and to other countries.  It was exciting.  But for all believers, but especially pastors and elders - is that God's priority for you? 

Or does He want you to cultivate your Jerusalem, your family, your local fellowship, your community - first?  The answer to that question is very simple:  How many daughter churches have YOU planted in your local community, once your initial local fellowship where God put you has become self sufficient?  Have YOU planted any local daughter churches?  If not, why?

Is that where God called you to serve?  Did He bring you to this country - so that you could then travel back to other countries to plant new churches?  If so, I have to ask, "Is your God too small to raise up pastors or church planters in those countries, without your help?" 

Notice in Acts 1:7-8, "in all the earth" is His final priority, not His first.  Why?  Because God can raise up pastors wherever He wants them.  He does not need your help to do that.  He brought you here.  Do you doubt that He can raise up pastors in those countries, like He did you in America - without your help?

So what should be done when God plants a person as a pastor or as a mature believer in a new location, maybe a new country?  Let's say God has called you to relocate to America.  Where is your new Jerusalem?  It is the local fellowship and community - in America - where God has planted you.

Your first priority is Your Jerusalem - getting your family and your local fellowship on a solid Christian foundation.  Then your task is to saturate your local community.  That done, you move on to your next priority, saturating your city, then your state with the Gospel.  Part of saturating your local community, city, state with the Gospel - is planting daughter/sister church fellowships in those locations. 

That does not mean that you have to be the pastor of all those church plants.  We know that God wants new church fellowships - and we know that our God is big enough to raise up a pastor to lead that new church fellowship - while you go back to your Jerusalem and begin planning your next local church plant.

If your local church has been established in America for 10, 15, 20 years and it has NOT planted more church fellowships in your Jerusalem - are you really living the Great Commission?  Really?

Let me give you two great examples of God planting pastors in Orange County, California.  It was the same year, 1965.  The two new churches were about 10 miles apart.  But their Great Commission impact was far more separated.

Robert Schuller came from the Midwest to plant a Reform Theology church in Orange County - and he began his Great Commission calling well, with fire and imagination.  Not having a church facility, he first started Sunday services preaching from the roof of a drive-in theater concession stand.  That unique approach caught the attention of a lot of folks and his new church plant began to take fire. 

Pretty soon the Garden Grove Community Church was born and he carried forward the drive-in theater approach by allowing folks to sit in their cars and hear the sermon on their car radios, with a large door which opened so that Schuller could be seen by folks inside the sanctuary and at the same time, by folks in their cars.  Again, that unique approach caught on and many people began to attend the Garden Grove Community Church.  No doubt a good number were saved during its years.

Down the road in Costa Mesa, God had called Chuck Smith to pastor a floundering, small Calvary Chapel fellowship of only about 20 members.  Not very long after becoming pastor of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, Chuck and his wife, Kay, became aware of the large number of Hippies living in Orange County, many of whom were seeking something better than the drug and free love scene of the 1960s.  Chuck and Kay went to the streets, embraced the Hippies, many with their minds virtually blown by years of drug use, and began to bring them to Calvary Chapel Cost Mesa,  Soon that fellowship was overflowing.

Chuck knew that music was another way of reaching the Hippies, but not hymnal music. Hymns were too deep for their drug-messed minds.  He and Mike McIntosh began to seek out young musicians who could write and play a simpler music which contained the Gospel message.  They began to make cassettes of this new music and Mike McIntosh with cassettes in the trunk of his car began to visit all the Christian book stores. 

Thus Maranatha! Music was born with Mike initially as the director.  That became the Contemporary Christian music and praise choruses we know today.  That was all part of the Jesus Movement of the early 1970s, begun by Chuck and Kay Smith at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa.

Then Chuck Smith began to send out young converts to lead Bible studies in other areas.  Greg Laurie came to Riverside when he was 18 or 19 years old to lead a Bible study - and from that grew Harvest International Ministries.  Mike McIntosh went to San Diego to lead a Bible study - and Horizon Christian Fellowship was born.  Jon Courson went to Oregon and Applegate Christian Fellowship was born. 

And all went on to plant daughter churches within their subgroups. These three are example of what grew out of the Jesus Movement which emanated from Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa - and that kind of Great Commission spirit spread all across America and into every free nation of the world.  One church fellowship, one Great Commission pastor who knew where God planted him and what he needed to do to fulfill God's calling - in his Jerusalem, then beyond.

Over the years Chuck Smith replicated those ministries all over America and in virtually all countries in the free world.  No, Chuck Smith did not travel to all those cities and other counties.  Chuck trusted God to raise up new pastors and Bible teachers whom he could send out to begin new Great Commission ministries.  And when each was planted, they began to plant daughter churches in their areas.  That is the kind of Great Commission Steve spoke about at our Fil-Am Church of Corona in 2000.

Robert Schuller's Garden Grove Community Church flourished in the beginning, but no daughter church fellowships were being planted.  Then Schuller decided he needed a Crystal Cathedral platform for preaching his Reform Theology.  Instead of planting daughter churches, he built a cathedral.  Was that what God wanted - or what Robert Schuller wanted?

In the late 1970s Schuller spent $!8 million (equivalent to $145 million today) to build the Crystal Cathedral.  And only in later years were two other church fellowships to come out of the Garden Grove Community Church / Crystal Cathedral - one by his son, Robert Schuller Jr, who planted a church in San Juan Capistrano, California - and another by Dr. Harold Leetsma in Laguna Hills, California.

RESULT:  Over the decades before it went into bankruptcy, Robert Schuller and the Crystal Cathedral planted only two other "your Jerusalem" churches. If he had concentrated on doing the Great Commission instead of building a cathedral - that ministry might still be serving the Lord today.  Instead it went into bankruptcy.

RESULT:  Since Chuck Smith came to Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa in 1965 - there are literally thousands of Calvary Chapel fellowships across America and in virtually every free nation.  Chuck Smith was truly doing the Great Commission the right way.
 
Now let me get back to my initial question:  "How big is YOUR God?"  And the point I am making is that if God brings a pastor to America, or from one part of America to another, that is his new Jerusalem.  That is where God wants to see his Great Commission flourish.

God brought Pastor Sam Lacanienta from the Philippines in 1971, planted him in Orange County, and told him, "This is your new Jerusalem.  Be faithful to your Great Commission!"   Okay, that is my paraphrased version of how I would imagine God would have spoken His wishes to Pastor Sam.  And as you will see later in this blog - Pastor Sam was faithful in obeying God's command.

When God brings a pastor to America as He did Pastor Sam, that is His implied command:  That he should be faithful in accomplishing the Great Commission in America.  Not in the country where his pastoral journey began.  I do not believe that God brings a pastor to America from another country -  only to have him doing all his church planting in his old home country. 

That would imply two things:  First that God made a mistake in bringing him to America.  Second that God is not capable of raising up pastors to plant churches in the old country - so our new American pastor must travel back to his old country to do what God is not big enough to do without him.  In other words, his God is not big enough and needs his help.  My God is not that small.

So, how big is your God?  If He plants you in California, does that mean He wants you to plant churches in California - OR - does that mean He needs your help to plant churches back in the country where you were before He moved you to America?  Does He REALLY need your help back there?  Or does He want to see more local church fellowships in California?

Let me give you a wonderful example of a true and very successful Great Commission Pastor:  Pastor Sam Lacanienta.

Sam Lacanienta attended the Far Eastern Bible Institute and Seminary (FEBIAS), founded in the Philippines in 1948 as an interdenominational Bible school and later changed to FEBIAS College of Bible.  He was ordained and began to pastor a church in the Philippines.  In 1971 God brought the pastoral couple, Pastor Sam and Ida, to America, and planted them in Orange County, California, where Pastor Sam became an associate pastor at a small Southern Baptist church in Santa Ana, California.

A couple of years later, Pastor Sam moved, becoming an associate pastor at Woodbridge Community Church in Irvine, California, which is affiliated with the Baptist General Conference, home of Bethel University, a Baptist seminary founded in 1871.  A friend referred him to the Almeda family.  He and Ida began a Bible study in the Almeda home, where he led the family (Fred, Nattie, and their children, Audrey and Arnel) to faith in the Lord. 

That family of four became the core of a new church plant. That Bible study in the home of Fred & Nattie Almeda grew and soon became the new Fil-Am Church of Irvine (FACI), a daughter church under Woodbridge Community Church.  FACI was Pastor Sam's first church plant in America.

In 1987 I met Pastor Sam & Ida Lacanienta at a Saturday evening social at the home of Lolita & Meinrad Mueller.  That evening changed my life forever.  I was not a believer when we met - but I could see and feel the love of God in this pastoral couple.  The next day my wife, Dory, and I attended the Fil-Am Church of Irvine (CA) worship service - and I could feel the love of God flowing through Pastor Sam, permeating the whole congregation, and I was caught up in it. 

That Friday we attended their Family Bible study at the home of Ed & Ligaya Nibut - and I found the same Godly love there.  Because of the love I experienced, we continued to attend their worship services and Family Bible studies.  And after about six months, I gave my life to the Lord.  I cannot give you a definite day and hour when I believed, for my salvation was a six month process.  The more I learned about Jesus Christ in those discussion style Family Bible studies - the more I knew that I needed Him. 

During that six months, most of my Bible knowledge was learned in our discussion Bible studies - although Pastor Sam's sermons and Sunday School classes were also a big part of my maturing process over the years.  So you can see why I place such importance on interactive, or discussion style, Family Bible Studies.  Without the FACI discussion style Friday Family Bible Studies, I may never have found my way to the cross.

Side note:  Pastor Sam was also responsible for me finding my calling to do Christian writing, when he encouraged me to write a story about an earth worm I shared at our Friday Bible study.  But I will save that story for another blog.

In the early 1990s, a young man from the Philippines, Lito Carag, was attending our FACI services while preparing to attend Westminster Theological Seminary in Escondido, California.  Through Pastor Sam, our church arranged to give a used car to Lito so that he would have transportation while attending Westminster Seminary.  Today that young man is Dr. Anacleto S. Carag,  M.Div and D. Min., president/director of FEBIAS College of Bible, Pastor Sam's alma mater.  Another great example of the Great Commission, paying it forward.

While still functioning as our local pastor, Pastor Sam Lacanienta became Director of Church Planting for Filipino churches of the Southwest District of the Baptist General Conference.  In that role, he began working to plant new Filipino-American churches in California and other western states.  

One of the first he planted was the Fil-Am Church of Long Beach.  One of the young couples in our College/Professional Group at FACI was Charles Patam and May Egenias who would soon marry while Charles was attending Talbot Seminary at Biola University.  Pastor Sam commissioned (could not be ordained until graduation from seminary) Charles as the pastor of the Fil-Am Church of Long Beach.

In December 1998, Dory and I were both in the hospital with the flu. Being married we were able to share a room, which kind of shocked the male nurse the first morning.  When he looked at us, the first thing he said was, "I sure hope you two are married!"   And I assured him we were indeed married.

A few days later I was feeling better, and was reading my Bible when our male nurse came in - and this encouraged a conversation with him.  He was interested in finding a Fil-Am fellowship, even though he was Caucasian, in the Long Beach area.  I told him about Pastor Charles Patam in Long Beach, but did not have the address or phone number with me at the hospital.  Later that day I did get the information, but went home the next day and never had an opportunity to give him the info in person.

After that fiasco, I was determined to not let it happen again.  When I got home from the hospital, I created a tract for our Fil-Am churches and put the graphic image below on the back.  Those are the Baptist General Conference affiliated Fil-Am churches which Pastor Sam planted in Southern California.  There were also others in Washington, Arizona, etc.

"Bill, what is your point?"   Thank you for getting me back on track to answer my initial question:  "How big is your God?"

In 1971 God planted Pastor Sam & Ida Lacanienta in Orange County, California, as an implementer of His Great Commission.  In other words, God put Pastor Sam in that location - because that is where God wanted him to produce eternal spiritual fruit.  God did not want him traveling to the Philippines or other countries to plant church fellowships, for God could raise up other pastors there for that task.

Pastor Sam spent a couple of years at the Southern Baptist Church in Santa Ana, California, becoming familiar with the Christian communities in America.  Then he moved to the Baptist General Conference affiliated Woodbridge Community Church about 10 miles down the road.  At Woodbridge Community, he began implementing his Great Commission ministry, fulfilling the task God had put him in Southern California, to accomplish.

Over all Pastor Sam & Ida Lacanienta planted over a dozen daughter church fellowships in California and along the West Coast.  To the best of my knowledge those church plants did not put any financial burden on our FACI church fellowship, with Pastor Sam traveling by car most of the time.

In 2005, Ida retired from her teaching job in the Unified School District in Orange County.  As a young girl, Ida and her siblings had been in an orphans home in the Philippines and the missionary lady, Mom Lynip, who had run it all those years was in her 90s and needed help. 

After visiting the orphans home and their elderly friend, Mom Lynip - Pastor Sam & Ida felt that God was calling them home to help her.  We had a sad send off service at another Fil-Am church fellowship plant, the Church On The Solid Rock in Aliso Viejo, California, knowing that wherever God planted Pastor Sam & Ida, they would continue to be an outstanding Great Commission pastoral family.

At the Send Off Service, most of us stood and gave testimony of how this couple has touched our lives.  But the most touching for me was when Ida shared that her young granddaughter, Bethany, concerned about her grandparents moving back to the Philippines, asked, "Will you still be my Lola?"  A child's heart is pure and straightforward.

Back in the Philippines, they began their Great Commission there, their new Jerusalem - helping Mom Lynip, who ran the Bethany Children's Home in Mindanao, and who took care of Ida and her brother and sister when they were young. 

Pastor Sam also functioned as the Resource Speaker for Word of Life Seaside Bible Camp, was doing radio broadcast messages, doing Inspirational Messages inside several large Manila corporations - and Ida was busy planting the Talakag Church on the Solid Rock fellowship (the only church where she took the initiative to plant a fellowship), a sister church of the Church on the Solid Rock, Aliso Viejo, California, which Pastor Sam had planted.

In 2012 we celebrated the life and ministry of Ida Lacanienta as she was promoted into the presence of God.

And in 2016 Pastor Sam continued his Great Commission Ministry when he planted the Talakag Church on the Solid Rock's sister church - Maigtang Outreach Church. He planted over a dozen churches in America - and after serving the Lord for 34 years in America where God had planted him in Southern California - he went home to the Philippines.

But he did not retire nor rest on his laurels. He continued planting churches and creating ministry opportunities. With his Talakag Church on the Solid Rock fellowship they built a beautiful church building to house their fellowship and ministry. Today, in 2024, Pastor Sam is still very actively working where God has planted him, continuing to pastor their church and looking for other places where he can do his Great Commission Ministry. Now, my question to YOU: How big is your God? When was your local church fellowship established? How many years has your local fellowship been worshiping together in your present community, city? How many daughter church fellowships has your fellowship planted in Your Jerusalem? How many in Your Judea? If none, what have you been doing?

Think about what Jesus meant when He said, "Go, Make disciples, Baptize them, Teach them . . . And you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria, and in all the earth."

God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill

Click on the images to enlarge: 

 

Lesson In Societal Effects And Moral Changes Learned At Our Local Shopping Mall

Lesson In Societal Effects And Moral Changes Learned At Our Local Shopping Mall ~  What I learned in the Tyler Mall in Riverside, California, last week.  It has been a while since I visited our local shopping mall and I was reminded how celebrities and Hollywood minions can make changes in our moral values and attitudes.

"Bill, Bill, Bill, there you go on another of your rants.  What changes have you seen in our societal morals and values at the shopping mall?"

Glad you asked.  This past week I went to JC Penneys in the Riverside Tyler Shopping Mall to pick up a product I had ordered online.  Since moving to Corona to live with our daughter, Lana, I don't visit the mall as much as when I lived only two blocks from it and walked there for relaxation and exercise.  And I did see changes, new stores, new pedestal ads, new kiosks, it was interesting to walk around and just take in the changes, some improvements, some not so much.

Walking through the mall, my mind went back to an event from the past. One afternoon about 15 years ago, I was enjoying my walk inside the mall when I noticed a well dress, clean cut black man seeming to be stalking me.  I began taking diversionary moves to test if he truly was following me, zig-zagging down the mall aisle looking in different store window, this side of the aisle, then cross over to the other side - and he stayed about 10 foot behind me all the way.  I stopped at a kiosk in the main aisle to browse, he stopped at a nearby kiosk browsing and watching me.

My kiosk had a phone, so we called security and they came - but until he actually did something, they could only watch him.  In the meantime I found a way to quietly exit the mall.  Later that week, the same guy shot and killed a young Asian couple (the male a son of a police officer) sitting in their car in Orange County. 

Then he ambushed two police officers in their squad car in Riverside County. Finally the police killed him in a shoot-out in the mountain town of Big Bear.  I never knew why he chose to stalk me, but he had been fired from a Los Angeles police department - and maybe I reminded him of someone.  I will never know, but I thank God for good mall security that day.

But back to my mall strolling this week.  As I walked, I found myself walking behind two young ladies - and believe it or not I could tell what kind of panties they were wearing just walking behind them. 

No!  I am not some kind of pervert!  But the young lady on the left had a nice shape and was not jiggling, while the one on the right appeared to have a larger butt which was dancing and jiggling.  Girl on the left must have been wearing normal bikini panties from the 1990s/2000s - while the girl on the right was obviously wearing what Jay Leno comically called "butt floss" panties, relating them to dental floss, but for the other end.

Walking behind them I saw the effect of "celebrity influence" on our society.   "Come on, Bill, what are you ranting about now?"

Think about it.  When did the jiggling and bigger butt come into style?  When did the name Kardashian become a household word?  Yes, Robert Kardashian was one of O.J. Simpson's lawyers in the famous 1994-95 Murder Trial of the Century.  Do you remember the famous line lead attorney, Johnnie Cochran, told the jury, "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit!"  He was speaking of the bloody glove found by police at the murder scene - and it was way too small for O.J.'s large hand.  He was acquitted.

But the Kardashian name found a way to live on, through his daughters and his ex-wife.  His ex-wife married Bruce Jenner, Olympic God Medal hero.  And you know how that turned out.  Maybe a year or so later Robert Kardashian's daughter, Kim, found herself in a sex tape scandal. 

She and her boyfriend had made a personal tape of themselves being very intimate.  When the boyfriend became her ex-boyfriend, and the name Kardashian was still famously on people's minds around the world - the ex-boyfriend sold their sex tape and it was all over the internet and flying through the cyberworld around the globe. 

Most people would slink away, maybe buy a cabin in the mountains and hide away until the sudden infamous notoriety died down.  But Kim Kardashian seemed to have business smarts - and she turned that embarrassment into what eventually became a billion dollar business.  Using her beautiful face and her elephantine butt, she became a business mogul - and young ladies around the world wanted to have a Kim Kardashian elephant butt. 

How to do that without expensive surgery?  That problem was solved by other market-wise person or persons - who know that by giving people what they want - and most often convincing them that a gross look or gross clothing will make them beautiful, the entrepreneurs become wealthy.  It has also been my thought that gay clothing designers have long been playing a game on folks.  "How so, Bill?"

Glad you asked once again.  Years ago my wife, Dory, and I were watching TV and Madonna came on the screen wearing her bra on the outside of her clothing.  I told Dory, "Just watch, in no time young ladies will be wearing their bras outside their clothing."   And sure enough, I don't believe it was a week later we saw young ladies wearing their bra as an outer garment - and then it became more intimate clothing on the outside.

I told Dory, "If Madonna was seen walking down the street with a pile of dog poop on her head, the next day we would see a million young girls doing the same."  And the bra and panties as outer garments proved my point.  I didn't wait for the dog poop.

Fast forward a few years after Madonna, and Kim Kardashian's elephant butt became the rage.  Every gal wanted an elephant butt.  Again, how to do it with less expense?  Some marketing genius, or some gay guy who wanted to have the world laugh at his romance competition, females - created the Butt Floss Panties!  Then it became the Butt Floss Bikinis on the beach. 

Take an attractive woman with a good figure and put her in a Butt Floss Bikini and you have a good imitation of the Kim Kardashian elephant butt.  And it does look gross.  Not because women who are normally larger look gross - but when a young slender lady purposely imitates Kim Kardashian by wearing a Butt Floss Bikini, that, to me, should be a big turn-off for any man.  Kim cannot help her size, but to pay money to imitate her when it is not normal, does look gross.

If I were a young man of dating age, two things would turn me off, no matter how beautiful the young lady:  (1) An Imitation Elephant Butt, and (2) Tattoos all over her arms and body.  A small tattoo, which I still think is silly, but would be acceptable.  But tattoos covering a large part of the body - definitely is a no-no!  Someone once joked when looking at a group of tattooed young ladies, "Imagine if you can, those same ladies as wrinkled grandmothers 40, 50 years down the road - with wrinkled, faded tattoos all over their bodies.  Yuk!"  

Back to the Butt Floss Panties/Bikinis.  Picture an image of your plumber leaning over to work - and that big old butt crack staring at you.  Believe it or not, I actually saw a man showing his plumber's butt crack walking in Walmart that same day.  Gross, but it explains what Jay Leno and I mean by Butt Floss Panties - making the buttocks look larger and jiggle like jello.

Thinking back to when I was a wee bit younger and dating, if a woman had a butt which was a wee bit on the jiggle side, she would wear a figure control garment, some needed girdles, others just a simpler control garment.  But definitely no jiggle allowed!  And the younger, firmer ladies needed no garment help to look good.

But once again I might suggest that gay women's clothing designers, not liking women who may be seen as competition - designed clothing to make the pretty young ladies look silly and often gross - and laughed all the way to the bank when the ladies flooded the store looking for his/her designs.

Next phase!  Mr/Ms. Celebrity has a favorite pair of jeans - but, alas, over time those treasured jeans began to rip and wear.  What to do?  Throw them away and buy a new pair?  Or just take a carefree attitude and wear them with the holes and rips.  Paparazzis shoot photos of Mr/Ms. Celebrity in those ripped and torn jeans - and Voila!, suddenly it is high fashion to wear ripped and torn jeans. 

The manufacturers are happy, they can now take their flawed seconds, rip them, and sell them as more expensive, more stylish jeans - for a lot more money.  The gay designer is happy, laughing at, not with, those silly customers - the manufacturers are happy because they no long had disposable seconds, but instead expensive new products - and the customers are happy because they do not realize they have been played the fool big time.

And to round out my Lesson In Societal Effects And Changes from my mall stroll, in Macy's I saw knit sweaters with big holes in them. Not just small holes, but 1 to 2 inch glaring holes!  And they were priced at $50 and up!  If I had a sweater with big holes in it, it would go in the trash, or be used as a work sweater when working around the house or yard.  But not in today's world.  Today that flawed manufacturer's second sweater with holes - becomes a high fashion sweater - to go with those old worn out high fashion jeans full of holes. 

As I put on my old "ripped and worn" jeans which I use when I am doing work which might soil good clothing, I told Dory, "I like to wear my expensive jeans for work.  I paid $20 for them years ago, but today these same jeans, with those rips and holes - might cost $100 or more."

Years ago, Bob Dylan sang, "The times they are a'changin!"  He had no idea how prophetic that song became.

Another thought inspired by this tale of Societal Effects And Moral Changes - and some folks may get upset with me - but, my Friends, most people are like puppets being led by a nose ring and leash.  Our societal changes and changing moral values show this to be true.

And it is not just individual people being led like lambs to slaughter.  Big corporations, major educational institutions, many politicians, especially the Democrats, but also a number of Republican RINOs - are being led to the slaughter by organizations such as the United Nations, the Globalists, the Dark Agenda, etc.

In his 2019 published book "Dark Agenda: The War to Destroy Christian America" -  David Horowitz shares insights into the war against Christianity and he names the Global Radicals, Leftist Democrats, and money-hungry fat cats of Hollywood and Wall Street as responsible for it. 

Horowitz, a sensible American voice - one that is not Christian, but Jewish - stands up to the rantings of those who want to tear down our faith and destroy the Christian bedrock of American values.  In his book, David Horowitz delivers a plea for the restoration of political sanity in America, a perspective which in past years made America great, by respecting the faiths of Americans and the authority of fathers and mothers.

In his 2006 book "The Beast on the East River: The U.N. Threat to America’s Sovereignty and Security" my Friend, Nathan Tabor, argues that the United Nations hopes to establish a “new world order” which will limit the sovereignty of the United States.  He urged that the U.N. be abolished and replaced with an organization that allows for dialogue between nations but does not have the power to infringe on the rights of the United States and its citizens.  He also talked about (the United Nation's) threats to education and moral values.

I have long advocated for the United Nations to be evicted from American soil.  The UN is the bastard offspring of the League of Nations.  During World War 1, a very extreme Far Left Liberal, Colonel Edward Mandell House (the Colonel was an honorary title, not an earned one), the right hand man and I believe the puppet master of President Woodrow Wilson - led the effort to create the League of Nations, a One World Government organization. 

But because it was headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the American Congress rejected membership, effectively killing it.  But House and his group continue to pursue their dream of a One World Government organization - and after World War 2, they first met in Rome and there decided that to have America become involved, the new organization must be located in America. 

In 1945, they met in San Francisco, the Rockefeller family donated land in New York City, on the East River - and because the newly formed (from the old skeleton of the League of Nations) organization now headquartered in New York City - was approved by Congress and America joined it.  Thus began the effort to remove the sovereignty of America.

You may think that David Horowitz and Nathan Tabor are just modern day versions of Don Quixote, the man of La Mancha, fighting against imaginary windmills.  But if you recall when Obama was in office, he pursued and presented a major threat of surrendering America's sovereignty to the United Nations - which would have made America a puppet state under the UN - and making the Secretary General of the UN, the world president.

Not a believer yet?  Keep in mind that Edward Mandell House and his gang of Globalist met in San Francisco in 1945 - and the United Nations as we see it today was formed - land in New York City was given by the Rockefeller family - and they built their U.N. World Headquarters.  Effectively an enemy of the American way of life and freedom - headquartered on American soil.

Obama was born to a middle class American Caucasian female college student and a Kenyan male college student.  Obama was born in 1961, but was he born in Hawaii, Kenya, or Indonesia?  His authentic birth certificate is still hidden to this day.  He was schooled in Indonesia and then Hawaii - and eventually lived with his middle class Caucasian grandparents in Kansas.  How did that young man, from that middle class family, afford to attend, first Columbia, then Harvard - two of the most expensive universities in America?

Was he chosen, as a small child, primed and schooled to be a United Nations Puppet American President?  One who would deliver America to the Globalist United Nations with a red gift bow tied to the White House?  Think about it.  And if I were you, I would read David Horowitz's book "Dark Agenda" and Nathan Tabor's book "The Beast On The East River" - and then decide if the United Nations is a Pro-America organization or an Anti-America international organization.  I vote for Anti-America.

Yes, many Societal, Moral, Educational, and Religious changes have occurred in America during the 20th Century and have become even greater in these 21st Century years in which we live. 

In the 1970s Jimmy Carter was elected president, a very intelligent man, but an extremely weak leader.  His religious views were very Liberal and his biggest flaw, in my opinion, was his Antisemitism.  Yes, Jimmy Carter believed and wrote in support of Replacement Theology, that the Christian church has replaced Israel as the Spiritual Chosen People of God.  Study Genesis 12:1-3 and you will find that God disagrees with Jimmy Carter.

Ronald Reagan was a great Conservative President.  But then he was followed by two RINO Bushes, an amoral Bill Clinton, the UN puppet Obama, and now dementia ladened Joe Biden.  And the Leftist Democrats have been forced to put new lipstick on the very ineffective Vice President - and present her as their Great Brown Female Hope - as she cackles her way through Word Salad interviews and speeches.

America's Societal, Moral, Educational, and Religious values have taken a great blow since Reagan's presidency in the 1980s.  It began to recover during Donald Trump's first term - and has now gone down the toilet under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

You cannot do anything about the Butt Floss Panties and Bikini bathing suits.  You cannot do anything about the ripped, torn, and treasured clothing worn by this generation.  But YOU CAN do something about Making America Great Again and setting her on a positive course once more, after all those Liberal Left Failures.

In Nov 2024 - Vote Conservative, On All Issues And For All Candidates!

In Nov 2024 - Vote To "Make America Great 'ONCE' Again!"  Vote MAGA PLUS!

In Nov 2024 - Vote For Trump/Vance!  MAGA PLUS! All The Way!

God Bless America,

Bill

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What Is Happening In Our Christian Churches?

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN OUR CHRISTIAN CHURCHES? ~ The video below reminds me that not all Christian churches have the same Biblical goal. Many churches I agree with completely - some not so much - and others I feel that we have a disconnect. The ones mentioned in the video and I definitely have a disconnect.

We all have seen this in action, churches more focused on filling pews, raising money, traveling around the world to evangelize rather than working where God planted you, enough programs to fill a book, and depending upon the latest "marketing" scheme learned in seminary.

About 10-15 years ago, I read a story about two churches in Southern California. They were located about 10 miles apart and began at about the same time.

One church using all the latest marketing plans learned in the pastor's fairly recent seminary training took off and really began to grow, all kinds of programs, all the latest tech tools, seats were ready to overflow. But then, the pastor began to see more and more empty pews, and was perplexed - what was happening, why was his attendance beginning to shrink? Why was his "marketing" plan not working now?

The other church 10 miles south began slowly, growing from a Home Bible Study - and continued to grow. The pastor from Church One asked him, "What marketing programs and plans are you using to grow your church?"

The pastor of Church Two told him, "None. I was driving on the freeway and praying about planting a new church, but not sure where. Suddenly I felt an urge to get off the freeway and drive around a local community. Driving in that community, I felt a strong desire to start a Bible Study in this neighborhood. I did, and eventually that Home Bible Study grew into the healthy church we have today."

The moral of that story is: Forget YOUR marketing plans - and seek GOD's marketing plan - which most often begins with a Home Bible Study.

One more thought. A great example is the church where I was saved in 1987, the Filipino-American Church of Irvine (CA). In 1971, God brought a young pastoral couple from the Philippines, Pastor Sam and Ida Lacanienta. He planted them in Orange County, CA, where Pastor Sam worked as an associate pastor in two different Baptist churches.

Circa 1975, Pastor Sam was an associate pastor at the Woodbridge Community Church in Irvine. Serving in that capacity, friends recommended he contact the Almeda family who were looking for a church. They met with the Almeda family and began a Bible Study in their home. That Bible Study grew and soon the Fil-Am Church of Irvine was born, becoming a daughter church of Woodbridge Community.

Over the next few years, Pastor Sam & Ida began to plant other churches in California and along the West Coast. Together they planted about 12 new churches in the "harvest field" where God had planted them. And their planting efforts virtually cost our church nothing, for they traveled by car, stayed with friends, and were frugal.

God planted the Lacanientas in California and they did His work in California and nearby states - a dozen churches, each with its own local pastor.

Moral of my story: Work where God plants you - do not try to second guess Him, thinking He put you here - but really needs you working on the other side of the world.

When God needed a Fil-Am pastor in Orange County, California, He planted the Lacanientas in that location. In the same way, when He needs a pastor in another country, He CAN raise up and plant a pastor there.

You just be content to work where He has planted you. And keep in mind that a local church and pastor has two goals given by God: Feed His local flock, THEN GO, use the resources of your local church, and honor His "marketing plan" by planting Daughter churches in nearby communities.

That is the formula: "NURTURE your local flock - PLANT new daughter churches in neighboring communities."

Then guide the pastor of that new church plant that he is to follow the same guidelines for church planting and growth from his new church plant.

Forget the other side of the world, God can take care of them, without you. YOU work where He planted YOU!

IF YOUR CHURCH has been active in your community for years - and apparently has not planted any daughter churches in neighboring communities - YOU should ask your pastor one very important question: "Has our church planted any daughter churches in neighboring communities? If not, WHY NOT?"

I do not know much about the gentleman who made this Video Short other than what he tells us in his video. But in this small snapshot of his ministry, I do agree with him. After watching the Video Short, do you agree with him? Is your church and your pastor planting daughter churches? If not, WHY NOT?

Church Growth - Stats %
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vgF37xsDYfs

God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,

Bill 

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Should "YOU" Vote Democrat Or Republican?

SHOULD "YOU" VOTE DEMOCRAT OR REPUBLICAN?  ~  As Allen Parr suggests in the video below, and I agree with him, we should vote our Christian conscience - but we should not get angry nor divide from friends, loved ones, and family who have chosen to not vote the same. 

Share this video with them, have discussions with them - but do not build a wall between you and them over your choices of candidates and parties.

This video is a wee bit long, but the advantage is that Allen Parr takes the key, most important, issues and breaks then down - from a Democratic worldview and from a Republican worldview. 

Rather than belabor you with all my thoughts on this video, let me just share three key points in his summation which spoke to me:

1. "Do not vote based upon Race, (Skin Color), or Culture."

My Thoughts:  Far too many folks get caught up in emotion, pride of sameness, and far too many vote just for the sake of voting - without any real knowledge of the candidates for whom they are voting or the policies of those candidates.  They check to vote for or against an issue, with little or no knowledge of what it is and what it will, or will not, do to them and to our American nation.

2. "Be careful how you post on Social Media - discuss policies and issues you stand for, do not spend your time with personal attacks." 

My Thoughts:   As a career computer salesman for 35 years, I learned early in my career to not spend my sales face-time degrading and knocking my competition.  Spend that time more productively, telling your prospective client how well YOUR product will do his job. 

When I was making a sales presentation, if the client asks about a particular competitor - I would merely say something like, "They have a nice product" - and then get back to telling the client about the features of my product and how those features will fit his company's computer needs very well.

3.  "Do not allow your politics to override your Christian faith.  Let your posts and conversations reflect more of Christ, than your party."

My Thoughts:    You may have noticed over recent years that, although I call myself a Christian Apologetic Writer - I have been doing more and more Political Opinion Writing also.  A while back we visited a church Dory and I used to attend and where we have many friends. 

After the service the pastor asked to speak with me privately, where he told me, "Brother Bill, Since I have been on vacation the past few weeks, I have had time to read your blogs.  And for a Christian writer, you are too political.  That troubles me.  Let me pray for you."  I did let him pray for me, then Dory and I left.  I have never been back to that church since. 

We cannot remove all Christian faith from the halls of government.  While religious faith cannot be a criteria for holding office, a Christian believer should absolutely weigh the moral position and faith values of any person whom you are considering voting into office.  America should, and must, have a balanced level of Christian influence to stand with the secular movements within the halls of government.

If we do not, we will have an anti-God secular government - which is just another name for an Atheist / Communist government.  Russia and China are good examples of such governments - and we do not want that in America.

In another vlog I shared, Pastor Alton of Memphis, Tennessee, tells us in his sermon, "When you vote, if you compromise by deciding that you will just ignore the morally anemic values of the candidates - then they get into office and put into practice all those anti-God policies - YOU are responsible for making it possible for them to be in office, pushing their Immoral, amoral, and unGodly secular policies on our families."

So my Friends and Christian brethren, gather your family and friends and share this video with them - to prepare all of you for how YOU will vote in the very critical upcoming 2024 President Election.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Should Christians Vote Democrat or Republican?  
THE BEAT by Allan Parr -  Sep 3, 2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fopT9BnKVQY

Should Christians vote Democrat or Republican in the upcoming 2024 presidential election?  In this video, Allen Parr gives a detailed breakdown of each party’s policies, and discusses which one more closely aligns with the Bible.

In his e-mail offering this video, Allen Parr tells us:  For this video, I did something I've never done before. I recorded this one three different times. With a topic like this, it was more important than ever that I said everything with carefully chosen words and the right tone. This may be the most controversial video I've ever done.

Today, we're going DEEP into the question of how Christians should vote.  With the election right around the corner, you're going to want to watch this whole video before casting your vote.  The video gives a very thorough and balanced BIBLICAL take on whether Christians should vote for Democrats or for Republicans.  And, as well, the video gives reasons why Christians who worship the same Jesus, read the same Bible - yet often choose to vote for one side or the other.

And, at the end, I'll tell you the issues that are most important to me and how I'm going to vote.  Now take a deep breath, view the video with an open mind - and if you choose to make a comment, please keep it kind and respectful!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,

Bill 

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And They Said It Wouldn't Last! ~ Our 47th Wedding Anniversary - And Counting!

ABOUT 50 YEARS AGO, I saw a movie which changed my life completely.  The movie was "No Man Is An Island."   It was a true story, modified of course by Hollywood, of an American sailor, George Tweed, who was trapped on Guam when the Japanese invaded the island in World War 2. 

A Filipino family living on Guam hid the sailor from the Japanese for several years - until the Americans came and drove out the Japanese, and in the process rescued George Tweed.

The part which got my attention, was also the part added by Hollywood.  To have romance, Hollywood invented a daughter for the Filipino family, played by Barbara Perez, known as the Audrey Hepburn of the Philippines.  Hollywood's added touch was that Tweed and the daughter fell in love.  That was all false since George Tweed was a happily married man serving in the Navy. 

But thanks to Hollywood, Barbara Perez got my attention.  After watching the movie, I told myself, "Bill, that is the woman you have been seeking - the fire of the Latina, with the femininity of the Asian - the perfect woman.  But where do I find her?"

Watching that movie, I made the decision that the perfect woman for me was a Filipina.  But I had a major problem.  I had no idea where to meet Filipinas, or at least, one I could take home to mom.  That was long before I was a Christian believer, so my happy hunting grounds were the bars and night clubs I frequented.  No luck there.

Someone suggested I try church.  But that did not fit my schedule.  And I was too healthy to need a doctor, clinic, or hospital - the Filipina nesting place.  And no one told me that wee bit of useful information.  So my search was in vain.

Until one fateful Wednesday evening in 1977, I was in the lounge at the Saddleback Inn Hotel, the main conference and meeting place in the Santa Ana, California area.  Plus it had a terrific lounge with live music for dancing.  I was there with that "little old gang of mine" - Marge, Lupe, and Dick. 

As we were waiting for the music to start, Lupe looked toward the lobby and saw two ladies, one a Filipina, who had just come out of a Red Carpet Real Estate meeting.  Lupe told me, "Bill, there is Rita" - a Filipina I was dating off and on.  I looked and told Lupe, "No, that is not Rita - but I am going to find out who that beautiful lady is and how I can get to know her."

And that is how I solved my Filipina search problem.  I went to the hotel lobby, pretending to casually notice the two ladies as I introduced myself.  We chatted for a while, I got her business card - and about two weeks later, on a Saturday evening, we were on our first date. 

We went to Bobby McGee's, a club in Newport Beach, briefly, to say hello to a friend.  Then to the Newporter Inn for dancing.  When the band took a break we walked outside by the hotel's tropical pool - and there we had our first kiss.  The next morning I went with her to church at the Garden Grove Community Church, then we went to see the new movie "A Star Is Born" with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson at Fashion Island in Newport Beach, and then finished the day having dinner at the Quiet Cannon in Dana Point. 

The Quiet Cannon (now just called Cannons) sits on a hilltop overlooking the Dana Point harbor - and in the early evening the scenery of the boats and the ocean was amazing - almost as beautiful as the lady sitting beside me.  After that day, we never dated anyone else.

And that is how September 2, 1977, became my lucky day.  That is the day I first married my beautiful Filipina bride.

I can see that piqued your interest.  "Bill, what do you mean the day you FIRST married your beautiful Filipina bride?"  Glad you asked.

When we were married on September 2, 1977, we only had time for a quick weekend honeymoon in Ensenada.  You can see that from the donkeys we are riding in my 1977 collage below.  But please ignore my 1970s shirt!  That is something I do not want to remember.  On our third anniversary, even though I was still not a believer, I knew that a church wedding was important to Dory.  We had the time so we arranged to have a wedding and proper honeymoon in Hawaii - on the same September 2 - but in 1980.

We wanted it to be authentic, so we did the whole thing over - blood test, wedding license, etc.  Even the pastor did not know it was our second wedding.  But Dory momentarily forgot!  After the wedding when we were signing the license, Dory wrote as her pre-married name, Dory Gray - and then had to scratch it out and write Daludado.  "Oh, what a tangled web we weave / When first we practise to deceive!"  (Sir Walter Scott).  Yet that only makes our 1980 wedding license unique.

That year, 1980, September 2 fell on Tuesday because of Labor Day.  So although we had made the wedding arrangements with a local pastor and church - we still had to get the Hawaii wedding license (blood test we did in California, and no waiting period required in Hawaii then), arrange for flowers, and arrange for a photographer. 

The wedding license first, unlike California where they are obtained at the court house, back then in Hawaii, we had to go to the Department of Health to get a wedding license.  On the street when we asked directions to the Health Department, folks would look at Dory and say, "You know."  And Dory would have to say, "No, I am from California and we are lost."

By late Tuesday morning we had everything arranged except the photographer.  When we told him the wedding was that evening, no can do - but he did refer us to a photographer who could - so all was on schedule.  That evening we had a beautiful wedding in a Honolulu church, attended by the pastor, his wife, and their friend.  After the wedding I invited them to dinner at a restaurant on the top, 32nd floor, of a downtown building with a full view of Honolulu.  Breathtaking! 

Driving to the restaurant to meet them, Dory told me, "Honey, he is a pastor - so you cannot order a drink."  When we were seated, the waitress come over asking if anyone would like a drink - and the first person to speak was the pastor, who ordered a cocktail.  I looked at Dory, smiled, then ordered my Chivas Regal on the Rocks.  Later a couple who saw that we were newlyweds, sent over a bottle of champagne.  The perfect ending to a perfect day - September 2, 1980.

Then we truly began our Hawaiian Honeymoon with a a traditional Hawaiian Luau, a first for both of us.  The next evening Dory insisted we go to see the Society of Seven Show at the main showroom of the Outrigger Waikiki in Honolulu.

That was my first time to see their performance - and a few years later when I had become a Christian believer, Jun Polistico, lead singer with the group we saw that night in Honolulu - had also become a believer.  He left the group and was recording Christian music.  As two new believers, Jun and I became close Friends and Christian brothers who love to share the Gospel - he through his musical talents and me through my writing.

That is why September 2nd is my Lucky Day.  Tomorrow, Monday, September 2, 2024 - Dory and I will celebrate our 47th WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to my beautiful Filipina bride.  One of the many blessings God has bestowed upon me.

God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,

Bill

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