You are here: Home / Archives for Ken Blue

RICK WARREN’S HEALTH PROGRAM

by

 

By Ken Blue

 I am the last person in the world qualified to write about diets, health foods, and weight loss. I break all the rules and it is evident. I eat what I want. I don’t take vitamins and I don’t exercise. I am overweight; I have heartburn, and high cholesterol. So you see, you don’t want to follow my advice or example when it comes to healthy living.

However, when it comes to the brethren, I don’t need a stethoscope or a microscope to understand their health. Most of them love those who join them and despise those outside “their camp.”

Rick Warren has fallen under the wrath of some because of his new health objectives for his church members. Now, I have no interest or intent to defend Rick Warren. My objective is to point out the hypocrisy and inconsistency in our own “camp.”

Over the years I have been inundated by evangelist and preachers attempting to sell me, and our church members their diets, vitamins, supplements, and barleygreen, while “our camp” has been as quiet as a cemetery. Something is rotten in Denmark, and it ain’t the cheese.  

Some will purposefully distort my intent and accuse me of defending Rick Warren. I am not! He makes a big target, so go ahead, and shoot. However, don’t be a hypocrite and ignore the little foxes in your own backyard. You don’t get as much attention when you shoot them, but it should be done.

THE WEEPING SAVIOR

by

By Ken Blue

 

“Jesus wept.” John 11:35.

And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Luke 19:41

“Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;” Hebrews 5:7.

The key to each account of our Lord’s weeping is found in the context. Each one revealed the human side of Jesus Christ.  

 In John 11, the Lord is in Bethany at the tomb of Lazarus. Our lord is not weeping for Lazarus. He is about to raise him from the dead. However, when he looks about and sees the sorrow and brokenness of those He loves, He cannot constrain Himself. His is not the loud wailing usually associated with funerals in that part of the world, but a silent weeping of a broken heart. Let us take comfort that He weeps with those who weep.

The second account of our Lord’s weeping is recorded in Luke 19:11. There we see him weeping over the city of Jerusalem. He is weeping for them because of the impending doom awaiting them, their city, and their temple. Their ignorance was willful, and thus they closed their eyes to their Scriptures and their visitation of salvation. This led to a blindness, which hides the future and present to them as a nation to this day. This passage reminds us of the lamentations of Jeremiah over Jerusalem. Our Lord’s vision of the destruction that was soon to be inflicted by Titus moved Him to great weeping and wailing.

The third account of His weeping is found in Hebrews 5:7. We are confident these three are not the only times our Lord wept. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. However, the Holy Spirit had His purpose for recording these.

The weeping in this account took place just prior to our Lord’s death on the cross. This entire passage must view Jesus from His human nature. He was made man that He might taste death for every man. He is not praying that He would not die. He came for that purpose and knew it. Jesus was praying that He would be resurrected out from among the dead. It is very difficult to reconcile His humanity with His deity, but both are true, and He must be seen in the capacity of a man. Again, we suggest that the entire chapter in Hebrews be read for fuller understanding of why our Lord wept and prayed in the garden.

Jesus did not do any miracles that could not be done by the Twelve, whom He had chosen. The Twelve were only men, yet they were empowered to perform mighty miracles. Jesus laid aside His deity and served the Father as a man, and always obeyed Him. This should help explain His prayers and weeping prior to His death.

THE CIRCLE OF REASON

by

By Ken Blue

 

Every person has a circle of reason. I am not talking about circular reasoning, but the circle or circumference of one’s reasoning. When we allow ourselves to be pulled into the other mans circle, we are at his mercy and under his rules. A Christian must not fall for this tactic.

Faith that God exist helps us believe the Bible, and faith in the Bible helps us understand and believe God. The starting place is that God exists.

I am reminded of a situation in a science class at a secular university. The teacher drew a circle on the board and proceeded with his questions and diagrams to “prove” to the students that God could not exist. A student raised his hand for permission to speak. It was granted. “Professor, the problem with your argument is that you have confined God to your circle. God is outside your circle of reason and intellect.”

And so it is. If you can believe in a God of creation, you can believe the Bible, and if you believe the Bible, you will understand the God of creation. Don’t allow yourself to be confined to the circle the atheist, the agnostic and the scoffers have drawn for themselves. God is outside the puny little world of man’s reason which they have drawn for themselves.

WOULD I USE OTHER BIBLE VERSIONS

by

Under what conditions would I use other Bible versions?

By Ken Blue

Recently I was asked if I would use any Bible other than the King James Version if it meant reaching someone for Christ. My response was that I would not. However, my answer was in the context of my pulpit ministry.

As pastor of Open Door, I always believed and used the King James Bible only. However, I never insisted that others agree with me to be my friend, or for fellowship.

Under what conditions would I use other versions? Let me give some hypothetical situations. Let’s suppose I was in the home of a Catholic and was given permission to present the gospel to them. However, they had a large Catholic Bible on the coffee table, and ask if I would use it. In that situation, I would have no problem showing the gospel to them in their Bible. It is there.

If I was a missionary in another country and they did not have a Bible in their language true to the King James, I would present the gospel from their Bible and attempt to win them to Christ. Where their version deviated, I would correct it as needed. “ For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.  And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;” 1 Corinthians 9:19-20.

Many, who will not bend to win a soul to Christ, think nothing about quoting or singing songs written by those who taught you can lose your salvation, sprinkled babies, and did not embrace the infallibility of the King James Bible themselves. Since we cannot be consistent, let’s hope God will cut us a little slack when trying to keep a lost person from going to hell.

ONE MORE PEACE-LOVING ACT OF ISLAM

by

‘Harry Potter’ Actress’ Brother Sentenced in Her ‘Honor Beating’

Fox news January 21,2011-Fox news.com

The brother of the Muslim actress Afshan Azad, who played Padma Patil in the “Harry Potter” films, was sentenced to six months in prison Thursday for beating his sister after he heard her talking to her Hindu boyfriend.

 Ashraf Azad, 28, called his sister a “prostitute” and screamed ”Marry a Muslim or you die!”

During a three-hour beating, during which, the actress said in a Manchester, England court, she feared for her life. Afshan Azad, 21, was punched, strangled, and dragged by her hair by her brother, but she still pleaded for the judge’s leniency during the sentencing hearing, and asked he not be jailed.

Judge Roger Thomas would not hear of it, noting, ”The background to this offense lies in the concern that you, and perhaps other family members, had about Afshan’s relationship with a young man who was not of the Islamic faith.”

The judge also pointed out the “persistent attack was accompanied by serious and very hurtful abuse and threats. It must have been a miserable and frightening experience for your sister.”

”This is a sentence that is designed to punish you for what you did and also to send out a clear message to others that domestic violence involving circumstances such as have arisen here cannot be tolerated,” the judge said.

Afshan Azad’s family members recounted in court a harrowing night in which her father and mother also called her names, made threats and started making plans to give her away in an arranged marriage to a Muslim man in Bangladesh.

“I’m going to kill you. I’m actually going to kill you,” the brother said, according to court testimony. He was then heard shouting, “Where are the knives?”

Apparenty his own wife had already hidden them.

“She was told she had to marry a Muslim or you die,” prosecutor Richard Vardon said. Afshan Azad snuck out a window the next morning. “She realized she would have to leave and felt she could not live any longer in that environment,” Vardon said.

Note: These are not the actions and threats of radicals who have “hijacked” Islam. These are the beliefs and behavior of all Muslims.