Pastors and Politics

Recently, Republican presidential candidate John McCain rejected Pastor John Hagee's endorsement of him. Hagee, who pastors San Antonio megachurch Cornerstone Church, said the endorsement was as an individual and not as a pastor. Apparently, McCain took issue to some of Hagee's comments regarding the Catholic church and the Holocaust. Hard to say. Bottom line is, McCain's people determined that Hagee's comments were simply bad for business.

Hagee, meanwhile, has announced his withdrawal of his endorsement for the Arizona senator.

The un-endorsement is fitting, since Hagee should not have given it in the first place.

I'm not saying it because I'm an independent conservative who has problems with McCain, but rather for these reasons: a pastor's job is three-fold: to evangelize (i.e., preach the Gospel), to edify or encourage other believers through discipleship and to teach the Bible. If anything gets in the way of these, they need to be halted.

Feeling frustrated in your walk? You might be onto something

It's easy to get discouraged in the Christian walk. I know that happens to me periodically. If you get the chance, check out Bruce Carroll's song "Something Good is Bound to Happen." Basically, the song talks about how the devil doesn't bother the inactive Christians. If you find a lot of things seeming to go wrong, it's possible the devil sees just how much you can do for God and is doing everything he can to hinder you. It's something to ponder and get encouragement from.

Horrible dream about hell

A few nights ago I had one of those dreams that made me so glad I'm a Christian who will never have to experience eternal punishment. In the dream (which, thankfully, I knew was a dream), I died and went to hell. I came face-to-face with this man who apparently was Satan. I remember soemthing about a red face, yellow eyes and horns. I turned away from him and in every direction I turned I came face-to-face with an absolutely hideous creature. The ugliness I saw terrified me, in a way that told me there was zero hope.

It makes me wonder what it's like for people who die and go to hell. I can imagine they find themselves praying someone will revive them while others will quickly pray the sinner's prayer in a vain hope that it's not too late.

As far as hell/lake of fire, here's what I know: It's an eternal assault on your five senses; you'll spend all of eternity reliving all the countless opportunities you had to escape; you grapple with unbelievable, unrelenting agony from extreme heat, thirst, pressure and suffocation.

In other words, hell is as terrible as heaven is wonderful. Do whatever you can to avoid eternal punishment.