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Volume 19 Issue 10 - October 2004 SAMMY "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith." (Galatians 3;24) Having arrived home safe and sound from our Walk Across America, our family now turns to ministry opportunities in Waco, TX. We have several plans in the works, but the one I want to make you aware of is our production called "Sammy." The inspiration for Sammy began with our homeschool, University of Righteousness about ten years ago. Liz and I were teaching the significance of God’s Law and were training our children to memorize the Ten Commandments. Three things emerged from this excursion. Number one, Liz wrote a song based on the Ten Commandments. It was the simplest way to memorize God’s Holy Law. Secondly, my daughter Shekinah, who was four or five at the time, suggested that she wanted to walk our neighborhood and knock on doors to see if our neighbors knew the Ten Commandments of God. Thirdly, this was the basis for writing the play Sammy. Sammy is somewhat a modern-day version of the life and ministry of Samuel the Old Testament prophet. Just like Samuel of old, young Sammy, a freshman in high school, is visited by God Almighty. God declares to Sammy, "You are a chosen vessel, Sammy, and I have appeared to you for this reason. (Sammy slips out of bed and falls to his knees on the floor.). This nation has forgotten that I am Holy. (Sammy's heart breaks and he begins to cry) They have cheapened my grace, grieved my Spirit and broken my Holy laws. Laws of love and not of bondage, laws of protection not of oppression. Therefore I am sending you, Sammy, to this generation. (Sammy looks up to Heaven) I am sending you to herald my Law once again. SAMMY: (gulps) Herald your law? But I don't even know what your law is.. Besides I'm too young. VOICE OF GOD: (firmly) Say not you are young! (Sammy jumps back on the bed) For you shall go where I send you and you shall speak what I command. Only be strong and of a good courage, for I am with you." The play chronicles Sammy’s journey from the school house to the court house as He stands for the Gospel of the Kingdom and God's law in the midst of the lies, injustice, perversion, and bloodshed that marks his generation. This production speaks to the burning issues of the day that are corrupting and defiling our young in America and presents God's word as the only solution to what is ailing us. Our plan is to rehearse through the months of October and November and then hold two performances starting at 7 pm on Saturday, December 4th, and Sunday, December 5th, at Church of the Open Door in Waco. To help draw in young people to witness this drama which will prayerfully move them to laughter and tears and ultimately to the Lord, we are going to conduct a week long outreach at our local high schools. Each day we will show up with flyers to hand out announcing the production and giving them an invitation. We will be also handing out Bibles and certain tracts that covers different themes that will be highlighted in the play, themes, such as, the word of God and Biblical worldview, America's Christian History, Abortion, Homosexuality, and God's salvation message. The last time we went to the schools to challenge and invite the students to a rally, we had over 100 students show up and twenty one publicly confessed Christ as their Lord as a result. We only spent two days at the schools and our message back then was "Why Are Kids Killing Kids In School." The young people were hungry to find out. The harvest fields are ripe and prayerfully God will use this production and outreach at our local schools to bring in a mighty harvest of souls that will be birthed into God's Kingdom and added to His Church. If interested in being involved in any capacity whatsoever, you can respond by contacting us by phone at (254) 836-1037-home or (254) 715-3134-cell. We need adults and young people to be involved with the production and we need laborers and prayer warriors that will join with us at the schools. The following is a tract I wrote to hand out on the first day of the outreach. If interested, I’ll send you a hard copy to make copies to hand out at your high school or community. Also, if you are interested in performing Sammy, I’ll send you a copy of the play as well. the indestructible book
"Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." -Jesus- In our modern age, it has become quite vogue to accept the philosophy of relativism. Relativism is a belief system that pervades much of our culture, government, and schools. It’s premise is based on the fallacy that all ideas, philosophies, and religions are of equal value. According to relativism, there is nothing that is superior in knowledge, wisdom, and understanding and nothing inferior. All ideas are equal and all cultures have merit. So, if some cultures teach "love thy neighbor as thyself" and some cultures practice eating their neighbors who are we to judge the values and practices of others? After all, all roads (no matter how perverse, deceptive, and false) lead to God and heaven, right? WRONG! Dead wrong! My friend, in this life, it is self-evident that not all belief systems are of equal value. Obviously, people who love their neighbors and people who eat their neighbors should never be considered equal. One is superior and one is most definitely inferior. In fact, if all belief systems were equal then nothing would be of any value to man. To help clarify this point, the example of precious metals may help. The concept is "rarity determines value." In other words, if gold, silver, and precious jewels were accessible and available as rocks, they would lose their worth. It is the scarceness of these precious metals that adds to their luster. This proposition is also true when it comes to the Bible, the Word of God. Many religions and so-called enlightened philosophies either claim divine inspiration or conventional wisdom in an attempt to answer man’s eternal questions; questions, such as, "Why am I here?" "Where did I come from?" "What am I to do with my life?" and the most plaguing of all "What happens to me when I die?" Most religions and philosophies of men were established to try an answer these daunting questions that torment men’s minds. Each believes its writings to be sacred, true, or one that provides reliable answers to solve man’s quest for meaning in this vain, fleeting life. But are their claims true? The answer is a resounding NO! It is self-evident that there are concepts in the human experience, such as, truth and lies, honesty and deception, time honored principles and falsehoods. The burning issue is where in this crazy, mixed up world can we find a reliable guide to distinguish between these conflicting traits that run rampant in the human condition? TRUTH IS PARAMOUNT The world considers Christianity a faith or just one of the world’s major religions. Biblical Christianity, however, claims to be the truth with a capital T. Not just a truth out of the many truths that run to and fro throughout the earth; no, it claims to be the only truth. Thus, any idea, philosophy, or teaching that does not originate and proceed from the Bible, it condemns as lies, idolatry, and deceptions that will surely destroy the souls of men. Jesus declared, "He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad (Matthew 12:30)." With that statement and many others besides, Jesus smashes all neutrality, relativism, and the idol of tolerance which America worships today. Is it any wonder why we crucified Him (Isaiah 53)? Is it any wonder why our nation increasingly seeks to censor the Gospel of the Kingdom and remove the knowledge of God from the public life of our nation? Is it any wonder why our Supreme Court banished prayer, Bible reading, and the Ten Commandments from our schools? Is it any wonder why everything, no matter how perverse is tolerated, except One, who is Jesus, the the Christ of God and His Holy Word? A good friend of mine, Flip Benham, national director of Operation Save America, penned these words, "The truth of what one believes is far more important than how much he believes it." This is an important statement. Our beliefs, no matter how sincere, does not determine truth. The Truth must determine man’s belief. Those who boarded the Titanic sincerely believed it wouldn’t sink. History records they were sincerely wrong. The nineteen Muslims who crashed airplanes into our buildings and brought America to its knees, sincerely believed they were serving their god, Allah. Their belief brought many innocent people to an untimely death. If these murderers could come back from the dead, they would reveal a horror much worse than the Twin Towers collapsing. Rather than joining 72 virgins as promised by the religion of Islam, they would scream of the torments of hell. Instead of entering a paradise, they find themselves in a place of eternal damnation that they cannot escape. They can’t even commit suicide again to be released and no belief in the Koran will deliver them from the severe consequence of the lies they believed. In John 14:6, the Word of God states, "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." Jesus declared that He as a Person was the truth. He declared that God’s Word was the truth (John 17:17) and that the Holy Spirit was the Spirit of truth (John 16:13). Truth is paramount, because truth liberates (John 8:32). It breaks the chains of sin and bondage within man that are reinforced by the lies, vain philosophies, and false religions that enslave man from without. The Bible teaches that all Scripture is inspired or God-breathed. In other words, when God exhaled, His word went forth and it is alive and full of power to transform the souls of men. God’s wisdom and the time-honored truths contained in the 66 books of the Bible are more valuable than silver, gold, and treasures of every sort. The God who created you and the Savior who died for you chose to record His Word, Will, and Way in one book. Out of all the books in the world, there is only one where truth, God’s revelation can safely be discovered. Rarity does indeed determine its value. The Bible is a self-authenticating book as well. It declares that God’s Word came by holy men of old as they were moved by the Holy Ghost (2 Peter 1:20,21). God, therefore, does not need man’s opinions or approval to validate His Word. The creature can never stand as judge over the Creator or His holy, inspired Word. Unfortunately, today, we believe we can. We are taught that what we think, our opinions, cultural trends, our many experiences, science, and reason trumps the authority of God’s Word. Man is thus left to construct his own brand of truth apart from the revelation of God’s objective truth contained in the Bible. As a result, God’s word must be bent, denied, or changed if it doesn’t conform to our modern day culture and practice. As a result of this folly of becoming a law and god unto ourselves, we are hurling ourselves against the unchanging, immutable, and innerant Word of God. The hard lesson, however, is we can’t break God’s Word and His moral law, it eventually breaks us. This accounts for much of America’s woes, such as, divorce, unruly children, abortion, homosexuality, and false religions that are flourishing and defiling our beloved but broken nation. A Roman political leader, Pontius Pilate, once asked the question of the ages, "What is truth (John 18:38)?" He asked it of a Man who claimed to be truth incarnate, our Lord Jesus Christ. He asked it of the very One whom the Bible describes as the Word of God become flesh (John 1:1-14). He asked it of Immanuel, which is interpreted God with us (Matthew 1:23)! The truth is, apart from Jesus and His Word, sin, Satan, and this illegitimate world system that is in rebellion to God’s loving rule will offer you many answers and choices to determine truth for yourself. Every single one of them, if embraced and believed, will rob your God-ordained destiny here on earth and damn your eternal soul. Jesus declared, "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me ." Jesus describes two kinds of men, one wise and the other foolish. How can we distinguish the one from the other. The wise hears and applies the Word of God to his life, the foolish hear, but refuses to apply the truth to his life (Matthew 7:24-27). The wise will stand and the foolish will fall. I encourage you to read, study, believe, and apply the word of God to your life. It is alive and full of power to transform you from the inside out. It will save your soul!
HOMOSEXUALITY ON PARADE "Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet." (Romans 1:21-27) Homosexuality is a sin, a crime, and an abomination. This is the clear teaching of the Bible, God’s Holy Word. No awards banquet, parade, and ecumenical meeting can change these truths. Homosexuality will destroy those who practice this perverse behavior and a nation that condones it. (Sodom and Gomorrah anyone?) Taking a cue from America’s holocaust, abortion, the homosexual agenda seeks to wrap its perversion in the American flag. Utilizing principles of marketing and psychology "Gay" activists have been developing a three-pronged strategy to lower America‘s resistance to their evil agenda: Desensitize … Jam … and Convert. Paul Rondeau describes this strategy in Selling Homosexuality to America. "Desensitization is described as inundating the public in a continuous flood of gay-related advertising, presented in the least offensive fashion possible," he says, "Jamming is a psychological terrorism meant to silence support for or even expression of dissenting opinion." Conversion "means the conversion of the average American's emotions, mind, and will, through a planned psychological attack, in the form of propaganda fed to the nation via the media." Biblically, God paints an entirely different picture. The acceptance of homosexuality means the burning out of man. Historically, rampant homosexuality has been one of the social malignancies that has preceded the fall of nations (Greece, Rome, etc.). The city of Waco, the state of Texas, and America is in the process of succumbing to the spell being cast by the homosexual agenda. Thus we will learn the hard way why for four thousand years sodomy was a sin to be repented of and a crime to be punished by law. For more information and interviews contact Rev. Rusty Lee Thomas: 836-1037 or 715-3134. OPERATION: SHINE THE LIGHT "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light ." (Ephesians 5:11-13)Recently, Jim Sedlak from STOPP, which is an acronym that stands for Stop Planned Parenthood, came for a visit to Waco. Jim is one of the leading, if not the foremost authority, concerning Planned Parenthood and their wicked agenda. He came to unveil a new campaign against the champions of death and immorality. It is called, "Planned Parenthood Steals Souls." His premise was even if Planned Parenthood stopped murdering children in their mother’s wombs today, there still would be a mandate to resist and defeat them. Jim contends we must fight against Planned Parenthood because they sell their pagan sexual philosophy as bait to our young that ultimately steals their souls. In other words, Planned Parenthood is not just a threat and danger to the unborn, but to the born as well. One represents a physical danger, the other a spiritual threat. By far, the most ominous, of course, is the spiritual foe. A physical enemy can only kill the body, a spiritual enemy destroys the soul. Planned Parenthood participates in both! The Bible makes this same connection. The Apostle Paul warns, "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind (homosexuals), Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God...Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body (1 Corinthians 6:9-18)". Jim details from Planned Parenthood’s own documentation that when their philosophy of sexual immorality takes root in a nation, the young people drift from Church and reject Christianity to the damnation of their souls. Thus the phrase "Planned Parenthood Steals Souls." Jim also shared a powerful testimony that became the inspiration for our newest project, Operation: Shine The Light. He told of a town in South Carolina that was being targeted by Planned Parenthood to set up their grisly business. Jim went in, along with other Christian/Pro-life ministries, to educate and warn of Planned Parenthood’s evil agenda. As a result, the community rose up to resist the efforts of Planned Parenthood. Being the tenacious enemy, however, Planned Parenthood still set up their shop of horrors. To Planned Parenthood’s horror, though, not a single resident patronized their death camp. Normally, Planned Parenthood will take three years to pull the plug on one of their facilities that is not making money. It only took nine months to shut this one down. Praise Be To God! As I was listening to this testimony, the idea came to write a tract that exposes the hidden works of darkness that is perpetrated by Planned Parenthood and send it to every home in the greater Waco area. The timing for this could not be better. The Waco media is doing propaganda articles celebrating the 65 years of Planned Parenthood and all their ‘wonderful" achievements. By doing a bulk mailing, we by-pass the media spin and take the hard truth into every home throughout our city. I just finished writing the tract and we are preparing a plan to start this project. With a lot of labor and about 5,500.00 the light of truth will shine into Waco. The tract exposes the three main evils of Planned Parenthood, abortion, their racist genocide agenda, and their cover up of sexual predators and pedophiles. The tract lists all the documentation, and websites with the actual tape recordings that the people can listen to as Planned Parenthood from their own wicked lips condemn themselves. The tract challenges parents and grandparents to protect their children. They must not have any contact with Planned Parenthood whatsoever. It concludes with ways the people can oppose and defeat Planned Parenthood in our city. If any of you are in the battle against Planned Parenthood and you would like a copy of the tract, feel free to contact us. We will send it out to you right away. Brethren, please pray over these ministry outreaches. May God use them powerfully to break demonic strongholds, rebuke the oppressors, rescue the innocent, and set the captive free. The Lord richly bless you! IN KING JESUS' SERVICE, Rusty, Liz, and the Thomas Nation |
