“The U.S. Preventive Task Force caused quite a stir recently when they revised their recommendations on the frequency and age for women to get mammograms.  Many have speculated on the timing for this government-funded report, with the Senate vote on health care looming, and cost estimates being watched closely.  Just the hint that the government would risk women’s health to cut costs is causing outrage on both sides of the aisle.

Even the administration is alarmed at its own panel’s recommendation.  One official, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius told women to ignore the new guidelines, keep doing what they are doing and make the best decisions for themselves after consulting with their doctors.

This sounds like an excellent idea to me.  As a physician myself, I understand the importance of ensuring that patients are able to consult their doctors and make their own decisions without interference from government bureaucrats or government-favored corporations…”

Click here to read the full article:  http://www.house.gov/paul/index.shtml

This week we again enter the realm of theological controversy by discussing the topic of dispensationalism.  Are there two peoples of God?  Should we be expecting a secret rapture of the church at any moment?  Is this the position of historic Christianity?  How does this system effect how we live and act in the light of the Lord’s coming?  We will ask these questions and more to an outspoken critic of dispensationalism, Dr. Gary Demar.  Brother Demar is the President of American Vision (www.americanvision.org), the author of numerous books, and the host of the Gary Demar Show. 

Broadcast – Understanding Our Times

Website - http://www.blogtalkradio.com/understandingourtimes

Time – Saturday, November 28, at 6:00 pm EST/5:00pm CST

Length – 30 Minutes  

Call-in Number - (347) 945-7171

You can join us live Saturday evening at 6:00 pm EST, or download the broadcast in mp3 format at a time more convenient for you.

“Understanding Our Times” is an interactive, live Internet talk-radio show that focuses on current events from a distinctly Biblical worldview. Host Kevin Thompson offers listeners timely discussion of meaningful issues with a variety of different guests each week. Callers are encouraged to call (347) 945-7171 to listen or ask questions. The stream and archives are available at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/understandingourtimes. The show is live every Saturday evening at 6:00 p.m. Eastern/ 3:00 p.m. PT. The show is hosted on BlogTalkRadio.

About an hour ago, my wife and I returned from our church’s Thanksgiving service.  It was a wonderful time of corporate worship.  However, what I take away most from this service was Pastor Bixby’s closing remarks.  His message was specifically addressed to those who will be celebrating Thanksgiving with unsaved family members.  I want to share with you just a few of the notes I took down tonight, slightly edited for blog usage.

Text:  Romans 1:16ff

You can expect there to be conflict for the gospel will be present at the table along with those who are under the wrath of God.

You can expect there to be difficulty.  Something is not going to go right.  One of your children may wake up on the wrong side of the bed and display just the wrong kind of behavior you don’t want your unsaved relatives to see.  Your testimony this day might not be the greatest for many reasons.

As we strive to have just the right testimony before our unbelieving loved-ones, we must remember that our righteousness is not in our testimony, but in the gospel itself.  We are not a perfect people.  It should not be our desire to act as if salvation depended upon our own works.   Though we would never say that, perhaps we do want to show that.  A gospel of grace does not require us to always live perfectly before the unsaved.  It is ok to admit we are imperfect sinners.  It is ok even to admit that at times the unsaved act better than we do.  People do not reject God because of your testimony.  According to Scripture, they already have been given enough evidence for God.

Let thankfulness be your testimony.  Relax in front of your relatives.  We don’t need to perform for the unsaved.  Instead we ought to show forth God’s grace through our genuine spirit of thankfulness for all that He has done. 

Wow.  I am amazed that my pastor had the courage to preach this message.  I cannot recall how many sermons I have heard that was the polar opposite of this sermon.  How many stories have I heard about Christians losing their testimony in front of the unsaved, thus giving them ample reason to reject God and His salvation?  I still remember Tom Farrell giving such an illustration about Gandhi. 

Besides, a person’s reputation may not always be an accurate reflection of one’s inward character.  The Pharisees all had wonderful testimonies, but where turning their converts into twice the children of hell they were themselves.  We all know examples of modern-day Pharisees who know the right words to say and put on just the right performance when needed.  Their hypocrisy is not a help to the gospel.

On the other hand, Jesus had the reputation of eating and drinking with lowlifes, but also secured the salvation of who would believe.   Sometimes, a godly person will have an undeserved, misunderstood reputation.  I think all of us who live for the Lord has experienced this at some point to some degree.

People don’t go to hell because they see Christians mess up.  That is not to say that Christians have a license to sin without worry.  But I guess I fear the danger of good Christians forever living with  the guilt of possibly sending people to eternal damnation more than I fear the danger of Christians living without any moral restraint (possibly because I would also doubt that such people would be genuinely regenerated). 

Perhaps what our relatives need to see is that God saves imperfect people.  They need to see that grace is greater than any sin and any sinner.  Grace is what it’s all about.  I can be thankful that God would have mercy on me, a sinner deserving His wrath and condemnation. 

Thank you, Pastor, for reminding me of this in such a powerful way.

I had no idea the President was so thankful for me.  I did not realize I had been such a help to him.  Furthermore, I don’t know if that is a good thing or a bad thing…  Here is the e-mail he personally sent me.  It has my name on it and everything!

Kevin –

Tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day, Americans across the country will sit down together, count our blessings, and give thanks for our families and our loved ones.

American families reflect the diversity of this great nation. No two are exactly alike, but there is a common thread they each share.

Our families are bound together through times of joy and times of grief. They shape us, support us, instill the values that guide us as individuals, and make possible all that we achieve.

So tomorrow, I’ll be giving thanks for my family — for all the wisdom, support, and love they have brought into my life.

But tomorrow is also a day to remember those who cannot sit down to break bread with those they love.

The soldier overseas holding down a lonely post and missing his kids. The sailor who left her home to serve a higher calling. The folks who must spend tomorrow apart from their families to work a second job, so they can keep food on the table or send a child to school.

We are grateful beyond words for the service and hard work of so many Americans who make our country great through their sacrifice. And this year, we know that far too many face a daily struggle that puts the comfort and security we all deserve painfully out of reach.

So when we gather tomorrow, let us also use the occasion to renew our commitment to building a more peaceful and prosperous future that every American family can enjoy.

It seems like a lifetime ago that a crowd met on a frigid February morning in Springfield, Illinois to set out on an improbable course to change our nation.

In the years since, Michelle and I have been blessed with the support and friendship of the millions of Americans who have come together to form this ongoing movement for change.

You have been there through victories and setbacks. You have given of yourselves beyond measure. You have enabled all that we have accomplished — and you have had the courage to dream yet bigger dreams for what we can still achieve.

So in this season of thanks giving, I want to take a moment to express my gratitude to you, and my anticipation of the brighter future we are creating together.

With warmest wishes for a happy holiday season from my family to yours,

President Barack Obama

I think it is also interesting that in this whole thanksgiving e-mail, out President never told us who he will be giving thanks to.  No metion of God whatsoever.  Interesting…

I suppose that I have needed to write this article for quite some time now.  I guess for me, it’s not easy.  This is an area I have struggled with for quite some time.  But I believe now is the time to declare – I no longer consider myself to be a dispensationalist, at least not in the way I have always considered myself to be.  Allow me to explain.

Most of my life, I have believed that God has had two distinct peoples with two distinct plans – Israel and the Church.  Human history may be divided up into at least seven distinct periods of time in which God dealt with His people using a particular test requiring a particular response and resulting in a particular failure on behalf of man.  For most of my life I would distinguish between the Rapture of the Church and the Second Coming of Christ.  They are two separate events with a literal seven year tribulation in between them.  Life is to be lived with the conscious awareness that the Rapture could take place at any second. 

While these were my stated beliefs, secretly for quite some time now, I have been harboring some doubts.  For example, why is it that verses concerning the rapture and verses concerning the Second Coming sound very similar and almost identical?  How can there be such a sharp distinction between Israel and the church after reading Galatians 3 or Romans 9-11?  What about church history?  If dispensationalism is the correct way of interpreting Scripture, why was this whole system of theology only brought to light in the 1800’s?  How could God’s people have missed something so obvious for so many years?  I understand that doctrine does come about through process and is refined and systematized as years pass.  But just how many theologians, preachers and men of God before the mid 1800’s preached or taught that God had two distinct peoples?  These doubts have never been answered fully or satisfied in my mind. (I am open to the idea of further research answering these questions if anyone would like to point me to some good references on the topic.)

I think more than anything else, what has really concerned me about this system of doctrine is the results I see from it.  When I ran for congress two years ago, I received most of my criticisms not from secularists, but from my fellow believers.  They insisted that I was wasting my time.  Christian have no business entering into politics because this world is just going to burn up anyway.  Jesus is coming back soon and all my work will be for not.  Though they often preach against the evils of modern culture and society, they have no plan to engage, challenge or change said culture and society.  Their only battle plan is retreat, excuse me, rapture. 

This fact was hit home for me this past weekend.  I attended a worldview rally in Rockford, IL.  One of the speakers was David Reagan of Lion and Lamb Ministries.  His comments absolutely shocked me.  He declared there was no hope for America.  He then proceeding in telling us just how bad things have got here in our nation since the 1960’s.  We are clearly headed to destruction as God has already began to judge this nation for its terrible sin (the worst of which seemed to be our lack of complete support for the nation of Israel).  In fact, things are so bad here that Dr. Reagan announced that the only hope Christians living in our country have is the rapture. 

After this presentation, Brannon Howse spoke on how secular and ungodly philosophies have crept into our educational system and our national way of thinking as a whole.  An interesting lecture.  One point that stuck out is that these evil men (such as Karl Marx and Tom Dewy) decided to advance their agenda “not by revolution but by evolution.”  In other words, they had a long-term plan that actually worked. 

Soon after this presentation, I had the chance to speak with Dr. Reagan and ask him the following question, “If a secular humanist agenda is successfully advanced by a long-term plan, how can Christians counteract with a long-term plan if they are all convinced Jesus is coming any minute and have abandoned any hope?”  His answer was that we are to live as if Jesus were coming back tomorrow, but plan as if He were not coming back for a thousand years.  If I had the chance to talk with him further, I would like to have asked how successful it is to live for one thing and plan for another.

Many modern dispensationalists (of the ilk of Ryrie and others) would have us curse the darkness, but a candle is out of the question.  We cannot engage our culture, only preach against it.  But, the natural question that arises in my mind is why would we expect anything but complete depravity of our culture if Christians are completely removed from it.  Darkness exists when light is absent.  But because Jesus is coming any second, we just don’t have the time…

What I fail to see in such line of thought is any mention of the sovereignty of God.  The imminent destruction of America and other doomsday scenarios do sell books, but whatever happened to a God who is in control of all things?  A common theme of dispensational thought seems to be the worsening of not only the world, but of the church.  They seem at times to be joyful at the thought of God’s church being defeated and the world getting worse as these are signs of the end times.  To me, this makes the church to be weak, God to be on defense, and the world to be winning.  Now, we are told that in the end God wins, but we have to endure till then.  This does not seem to fit with the picture we see in Romans 8:31-39 of a victorious people conquering through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Is God in charge or not?

That night, Sunday night, I believe the dispensationalist in me died.  It was clear to me that I am not the person I once was.  I think differently and even pray differently.  I can no longer accept what I do not belief to be Biblical or practical. 

This does not mean I have an agenda now to crusade against dispensationalism or dispensationalists.  I have great respect for many dispensationalists.  I will still buy their books and listen to their sermons.  This is not an issue I will break fellowship over. 

So where does that leave me?  I have yet to embrace covenant theology, though I am beginning to lean in that direction. I would like to look more into progressive dispensationalism to see if there is a happy, Biblical median there.   I have still not settled on a historic premill, amill or post-mill position.  To be honest, I am just a student of Scripture who is wrestling with some difficult questions.

Just a few minutes ago, I finished watching the final episode of John and Kate Plus Eight.  Here are a few thoughts wondering around in my head at this moment:

• How sad it is to see this marriage come to an end.  The break up of any marriage for whatever reason is a terrible ordeal to watch. 
• Just can’t help thinking about those kids.  Kids in similar situations often grow up always wondering why their parents got divorced.  Few of them have video footage of how it happened. 
• When news of this divorce first hit the news, I can’t help but thinking if Kat’s rudeness and overbearing attitude pushed her husband away.  However, since the break-up, we have seen Jon reveal his true immaturity.  There is no innocent party here.  There rarely is.
• I am glad to see the show finally come to an end.  This family clearly needs to take time to evaluate things and seek the Lord for guidance.  Perhaps the end of this program may be the best thing that ever happened to them.
• I wonder which of these kids will be the first to grow up and write a tell-all book of growing up Gosslin. 
• One terrible ramification of all this is the effect it will have on unbelievers.  Earlier in this program, this family was shown going to church and Jon was even seen wearing Bible verse references on his clothing.  Kate wrote a book in which she expressed her faith.  To the world, this is just another example of Christian hypocrisy. 
• As much as I complain that this TV show itself played a large role in the destruction of the marriage, I still watched it.  I guess that makes me just a big of hypocrite.
• Finally, I must end with the thought that there but for the grace of God…  I can sit here and scrutinize Jon and Kate’s marriage all day – but how would my marriage stand if video cameras were installed in my house?  What would people be saying about Jill and I if our every words were spoken in front of a weekly audience of millions?  Do I really have any experience, expertise, or warrant to be critical of this couple?  Yet, I do it.  I’ve done it already in this blog piece.  Why?  It’s a TV show.  I critique it just like I would critique the latest plot line of NCIS or shout out answers during a game show.  Its not real.  But it is real.  These are real people with real lives facing real challenges.  What a mixed up world.
• Ok, just one more – despite all the media requests, agent calls and public demand – Jill and Kevin Plus Seven will never hit the airwaves. 

I could not agree more with Congressman Paul’s ideas as to how to fix healthcare.  Get the government out the system, allow people to keep more of their money, thus enabling them to purchase competetively priced insurance packages based on their own determined needs.  Oppose socialism, embrace liberty and freedom!

Thanksgiving is wonderful time of year we set aside to recount all the wonderful blessings God has bestowed upon us.  But, are we thankful for all that God has bestowed upon us?  At times it is hard to be thankful as the storms and trials of life overwhelm us.  Join us this week in the Understanding Our Times Broadcast as we look at James chapter 1 to see how we can even be thankful for situations and experiences we are not generally thankful for.

Broadcast – Understanding Our Times

Website - http://www.blogtalkradio.com/understandingourtimes

Time – Saturday, November 21, at 6:00 pm EST/5:00pm CST

Length – 30 Minutes  

Call-in Number - (347) 945-7171

You can join us live Saturday evening at 6:00 pm EST, or download the broadcast in mp3 format at a time more convenient for you.

“Understanding Our Times” is an interactive, live Internet talk-radio show that focuses on current events from a distinctly Biblical worldview. Host Kevin Thompson offers listeners timely discussion of meaningful issues with a variety of different guests each week. Callers are encouraged to call (347) 945-7171 to listen or ask questions. The stream and archives are available at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/understandingourtimes. The show is live every Saturday evening at 6:00 p.m. Eastern/ 3:00 p.m. PT. The show is hosted on BlogTalkRadio.

Dear Friends,

As we approach Thanksgiving, my mind naturally begins to think about all the blessings God has given me.   This year at Thanksgiving, I want to especially thank the Lord for all of those who have prayed and sacrificed just so I can have a part in preaching the gospel in Costa Rica this summer.  I cannot tell you how humbling it is to receive your notes of encouragement, your prayers to the Lord, and notes concerning your financial gifts.   Thank you. 

Yet, what humbles me even more is just the thought that a sovereign, omnipotent God can use me to deliver His life-saving gospel.  What a blessing it is to inform fallen sinners that there is a Savior who has satisfied all the demands of a holy God.  I get to tell people of the free gift available to all who will call upon the name of the Lord.  Praise the Lord!   

Much has taken place since the last time I wrote all of you.  I can now report a little more on the details of the ministry we will have in Costa Rica.  Here are just some of what we will have a part in:

• We will conduct a one-day VBS-style meeting in the small town of Alajuela.  This will be a great Saturday morning outreach to the children and give our Rock County Christian School students to use their talents in His service.  However, this will also serve in getting the news out about a new church that will be planted in that area. 
• We will also be conducting a marriage seminar featuring our own Dr. Phil Allen (pastor of the Daystar Christian Fellowship in South Beloit, IL and our school board president).  Students will be out in the community passing out flyers as well as providing music at the event itself.
• What has really got me excited is that I have been asked to preach the Sunday morning service at Comunidad Biblica de la Gracia in San Antonio de Belen.  I have never preached through an interpreter before, it should be interesting!

There are many other things we working on as well, including a chance we may have to actually go into a local public high school and present the gospel to students there! 

Upcoming Events

If you live in the area, be sure to stop by the McDonalds on Prairie Avenue here in Beloit  on Thursday, December 3.  Our missions team will be there running the registers, serving the food and trying to raise funds for the trip.  McDonalds will be donating 20% of all the sales generated from 5:00pm to 8:00pm.  Come on out and help the team!

Needs

By May, I will need to have raised $1000; $500 of that needs to be in by the end of December.  Currently, I have raised about $235 so far.  Again, I would ask you to prayerfully consider giving whatever the Lord leads upon your heart.  Even a gift of $5 would bring me that much closer to my goal.  I have greatly appreciated what you all have done this far and am confident that God will bless despite the economic problems that challenge us all.  Though things may not look good now, I still serve the God who is “able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.” (Eph 3:20) 

All donations are tax deductable.  Make checks out to Rock County Christian School. Please include this slip with the check.

Mail checks to:  Rock County Christian School (write Mr. Thompson Missions on the memo line)
                             916 Bushnell Street
                             Beloit, WI 53511

I also need to obtain my passport.  I already have all the paperwork, but just need the to get the $100 that it costs. 

Another big need that I have is prayer partners.  Each of going on this trip is required to have five people committed to praying for me and this trip now during our planning/fundraising stage and in June when we actually head out.  Would you consider taking on this very important task?  If so, please e-mail me as soon as you can.  The power of prayer cannot be underestimated.  Some are able to give money, but perhaps some can help me even more by committing to be a prayer warrior on my behalf. 

Again, I thank you all for your prayers and financial support. I will continue to keep you all updated on the latest news concerning this trip.  Of course, you can always check out our missions trip blog at http://rccsmissions.wordpress.com for more details, pictures and other information. 

Until Next Month,

Kevin Thompson,
Rom 1:15