Bread of Life Team Ministries

10/18/2024

Coming November 1&2 Dr. Doug Carr to Bread of Life Friday @ 7:00 PM and Saturday 9:00 AM 3726 Fortune Blvd. Saginaw, Michigan.48603

09/28/2024

Ask the pastor of an underground church in China or Syria if being engaged in governing political systems would be considered not important to the furthering of the gospel. We have examples in scripture of how citizenship in nations can be leveraged to help reach out with the gospel.

09/21/2024

Some have asked me and questioned me about being so vocal concerning political issues.
I have been called names by those who misinterpret my posts as to my content and motivation in demanding context.
I often read of different evangelicals saying as a pastor you should be quiet about politics because you will offend people.
Often these remarks are wrapped in superior self-righteousness or piousness. They imply that political engagement is inherently defiled. That it is an field left un-tilled, not fit for those serious about sharing the gospel.
In this election season, we are bombarded with television ads, campaign mail and negative or flat out lies from political campaigns. However, accepting lies is not a Bible-believing, gospel-loving position that Christians. It can or should not ever be accepted because it is not in alignment with Scripture.

In a very real sense, politics is one of the most important areas in which Christians demonstrate love to their neighbor.

In fact, how can Christians claim to care about others and not engage the arena of politics that most profoundly shapes basic rights and freedoms?

Caring for those in need such as the hungry, thirsty, naked, sick and lonely is important to Jesus and should be important also to His followers. Jesus said, “As you did it to one of the least of these you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40).

Fulfilling the biblical mandate to love neighbor and care for the “least of these” should be a priority for every believer. In "How Christianity Changed the World", Alvin Schmidt documents Christian influence in government. He gave examples which included outlawing infanticide, child abandonment and gladiatorial games in ancient Rome, ending the practice of human sacrifice among European cultures, banning pe******ia and polygamy, and prohibiting the burning of widows in India. Historically we also see William Wilberforce, a committed Christian, was the force behind the successful effort to abolish the slave trade in England.

Her in the United States, it is reported that two-thirds of abolitionists were Christian pastors. In the 1960’s (my HS and college days, Martin Luther King Jr., a Christian pastor, helped lead the civil rights movement against racial segregation and discrimination. He once said very prophetically: "The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become a social club without moral or spiritual authority."

Carl Henry, an evangelical American theologian, rightfully stated that Christians should “work through civil authority for the advancement of justice and human good” to provide “critical illumination, personal example, and vocational leadership.”
This has been the historic witness of Christians concerned about government promoting good and restraining evil. This can sometimes be accomplished through humor, but most often it takes uncomfortable confrontation.

Our Founding Fathers did not give the government its power, without it being derived by the "consent of the people", which would make it powerless, and could not act legitimately.

Just to be clear, I do not advocate a theocracy, but a moral government of men and women based on biblical principles and values that are derived from God. Excerpted from upcoming sermon I titled "Christians and Politics".

08/22/2024

This site has been hacked!

08/22/2024

08/07/2024

In this age which is obsessed with fads, fad diets, quick fixes, and remarkable new tools and methodologies, it is good to be reminded that going back to basics is usually the best maneuver when following the pattern provided by Jesus.

08/01/2024

Pastors and church leaders be aware.

07/13/2024

Under the Biden administration, Executive Order 14067 was passed, promoting a new central banking digital currency. And if you ask why this should be concerning, Tucker Carlson summed it up by saying... " If the government were to digitize currency, your freedoms would evaporate, they could zero out your bank account and make you impoverished for being disobedient."

It is not that outlandish... It's already happening across the globe.

Europe is one of the latest to release a central bank digital currency and along with it, new cash rules. Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank, shared "Now we have in Europe this threshold, above 1,000 euros you cannot pay cash... if you get caught you are fined or you are going to jail".

Definitive step to what is written in the scripture of Revelation 13:16-17 (ESV) 16 Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, 17 so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.

07/05/2024

Come on believers it is up to us for 2 Chronicles 7:14-14 says: If My people who are called by My name humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. We can not have God's blessings without obedience to His word.
John 14:15, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

Michigan's 10 Most Dangerous Cities to Visit After Dark - 9. Saginaw, Michigan
City: Saginaw
PropertyClub’s Rating For Michigan City to Avoid After 9 p.m.: 9
Population: 47,954
Violent Crime: 707
Murder and Non-negligent Manslaughter: 9
R**e: 34
Robbery: 51
Aggravated Assault: 613
Property Crime: 743
Burglary: 245
Larceny Theft: 421
Motor Vehicle Theft: 77
Arson: 20

Read More: Michigan's Most Dangerous Intersection Named Deadliest In America |

The most dangerous intersection in Michigan lands on the list of one of the deadliest in America.

07/03/2024

The “soul” of a nation

Yesterday marked the anniversary of the shooting of James Garfield, the twentieth president of the United States. Garfield was a preacher, attorney, Civil War general, and nine-term House of Representatives member before becoming the only sitting member of the House to be elected president. He was shot in 1881 by a disillusioned office-seeker and died eighty days later.

Learning about him, I was struck by this statement:

“Territory is but the body of a nation. The people who inhabit its hills and valleys are its soul, its spirit, its life.”

Here we find a paradoxical reason I’m grateful to be an American. I agree with Mr. Garfield: our national “soul” is not our territory or those who govern it. We are not the presidents or other elected officials who serve us. Our nation is defined by its culture—“its soul, its spirit, its life.”

And, while you and I can do very little to change our leaders or resolve the political turmoil of these days, we can contribute directly to our national “soul.”

“Cultures were religious in character”

Yesterday we noted the statement by the brilliant sociologist James Davison Hunter that “all healthy societies are bound together, not by the power of a state and its military, but by the power of a culture.” He added, “Through most of history, cultures were religious in character.”

In his new book, Democracy and Solidarity, Hunter explains why. Citing the work of sociologist Émile Durkheim, he notes that “pre-contractual” understandings and obligations bind us together. These were “found in a shared moral code, often oriented around the sacred, the shared rituals that enacted those shared beliefs, and the trust that all of these interactions generated.”

He laments that these sources “have largely unraveled,” taking our cultural cohesion with them. Accordingly:

If there is little or no common political ground today, it is because there are few if any common assumptions about the nature of a good society that underwrite a shared political life. If we cannot find a way beyond our political stalemates, it is because we cannot find the cultural sources of common hopes in ways that transcend those impasses and lead us beyond them.

This is an urgent moment: the ideals and practices of democracy that “possess the inherent potential for self-correction” themselves depend upon “a modicum of solidarity because common goods depend upon at least some common understandings, common loves, or common purposes.” The more this solidarity fractures, the more our common future is imperiled.

“Let no man lose the faith”

Dr. Hunter’s analysis offers eloquent commentary on the ancient question, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3). Here’s the good news: if we draw closer to Christ, we draw closer to each other. If you place a chair in the center of the room and everyone moves toward the chair, they move toward one another.

The key is therefore as simple as it is transforming: love your Lord and love your neighbor (Matthew 22:37–39). The more you do the former, the more you’ll do the latter.

Here’s the problem: we cannot make ourselves love someone, not even our Lord, much less our neighbor. You can choose to like or respect a person, but you cannot choose to love them. The same is true of Jesus, as Oswald Chambers noted:

To be a disciple is to be a devoted love-slave of the Lord Jesus. Many of us who call ourselves Christians are not devoted to Jesus Christ. No man on earth has this passionate love to the Lord Jesus unless the Holy Ghost has imparted it to him. We may admire him, we may respect him and reverence him, but we cannot love him. The only Lover of the Lord Jesus is the Holy Ghost, and sheds abroad the very love of God in our hearts.

In response, let’s take three biblical steps today:

Since love is a “fruit” of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), ask him to impart a genuine love for Christ in your heart, then spend time worshiping your Lord as his Spirit guides you.
Since feelings follow actions, seek ways to serve your neighbors and thus eventually to love them (John 13:35).
Since people change culture, renew your hope for America as you become the change we need to see (Matthew 5:13–16).

In a devotional urging us to believe that God can use each of us, the statesman and pastor Paul Powell quoted Martin Luther: “Let no man lose the faith that God wills to do a great work through him.”

Do you have such faith today? Excerpt Denison Forum