This summer I have been living with a couple outside of DC and every Friday I have been going with the husband to his men's Bible Study that meets weekly at Panera Bread for breakfast, fellowship and devotion. They have been going through a book called "In Christ Alone: Living the Gospel Centered Life" by  Sinclair Ferguson, a Scottish professor of systematic theology at Redeemer Seminary in Dallas, Texas. He is a reformed/Calvinist Christian, which as any of you who know me well enough know, I strongly am against that deceptive teaching. Regardless of that, in a chapter of Dr Ferguson's book, he writes about the assurance of salvation. This is something that is totally backed up by scripture that Catholic teachings are against. I have also met many reformed/Calvinists who are against it. Heck, the entire reformed/Calvinist teaching of salvation is completely contrary to having and knowing assurance of salvation. However, I digress... Despite Dr Ferguson's un-biblical beliefs, his writing comes across as very biblical and is spot on. I guess that goes to show that the Lord can work through and speak through even the most flawed teachings and theologies. Anywho, I wanted to share this chapter with y'all.

“The Greatest of All Protestant Heresies”?

by Sinclair Ferguson

"Let us begin with a church history exam question. Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542–1621) was a figure not to be taken lightly. He was Pope Clement VIII’s personal theologian and one of the most able figures in the Counter-Reformation movement within sixteenth-century Roman Catholicism. On one occasion, he wrote: “The greatest of all Protestant heresies is _______ .” Complete, explain, and discuss Bellarmine’s statement.

How would you answer? What is the greatest of all Protestant heresies? Perhaps justification by faith? Perhaps Scripture alone, or one of the other Reformation watchwords?

Those answers make logical sense. But none of them completes Bellarmine’s sentence. What he wrote was: “The greatest of all Protestant heresies is assurance.”

A moment’s reflection explains why. If justification is not by faith alone, in Christ alone, by grace alone — if faith needs to be completed by works; if Christ’s work is somehow repeated; if grace is not free and sovereign, then something always needs to be done, to be “added” for final justification to be ours. That is exactly the problem. If final justification is dependent on something we have to complete it is not possible to enjoy assurance of salvation. For then, theologically, final justification is contingent and uncertain, and it is impossible for anyone (apart from special revelation, Rome conceded) to be sure of salvation. But if Christ has done everything, if justification is by grace, without contributory works; it is received by faith’s empty hands — then assurance, even “full assurance” is possible for every believer.

No wonder Bellarmine thought full, free, unfettered grace was dangerous! No wonder the Reformers loved the letter to the Hebrews!

This is why, as the author of Hebrews pauses for breath at the climax of his exposition of Christ’s work (Heb. 10:18), he continues his argument with a Paul-like “therefore” (Heb. 10:19). He then urges us to “draw near … in full assurance of faith” (Heb. 10:22). We do not need to re-read the whole letter to see the logical power of his “therefore.” Christ is our High Priest; our hearts have been sprinkled clean from an evil conscience just as our bodies have been washed with pure water (v.22).

Christ has once-for-all become the sacrifice for our sins, and has been raised and vindicated in the power of an indestructible life as our representative priest. By faith in Him, we are as righteous before the throne of God as He is righteous. For we are justified in His righteousness, His justification alone is ours! And we can no more lose this justification than He can fall from heaven. Thus our justification does not need to be completed any more than does Christ’s!

With this in view, the author says, “by one offering He has perfected for all time those who come to God by him” (Heb. 10:14). The reason we can stand before God in full assurance is because we now experience our “hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and … bodies washed with pure water” (Heb. 10:22).

“Ah,” retorted Cardinal Bellarmine’s Rome, “teach this and those who believe it will live in license and antinomianism.” But listen instead to the logic of Hebrews. Enjoying this assurance leads to four things: First, an unwavering faithfulness to our confession of faith in Jesus Christ alone as our hope (v.23); second, a careful consideration of how we can encourage each other to “love and good works” (v.24); third, an ongoing communion with other Christians in worship and every aspect of our fellowship (v.25a); fourth, a life in which we exhort one another to keep looking to Christ and to be faithful to him, as the time of his return draws ever nearer (25b).

It is the good tree that produces good fruit, not the other way round. We are not saved by works; we are saved for works. In fact we are God’s workmanship at work (Eph. 2:9–10)! Thus, rather than lead to a life of moral and spiritual indifference, the once-for-all work of Jesus Christ and the full-assurance faith it produces, provides believers with the most powerful impetus to live for God’s glory and pleasure. Furthermore, this full assurance is rooted in the fact that God Himself has done all this for us. He has revealed His heart to us in Christ. The Father does not require the death of Christ to persuade Him to love us. Christ died because the Father loves us (John 3:16). He does not lurk behind His Son with sinister intent wishing He could do us ill — were it not for the sacrifice his Son had made! No, a thousand times no! — the Father Himself loves us in the love of the Son and the love of the Spirit.

Those who enjoy such assurance do not go to the saints or to Mary. Those who look only to Jesus need look nowhere else. In Him we enjoy full assurance of salvation. The greatest of all heresies? If heresy, let me enjoy this most blessed of “heresies”! For it is God’s own truth and grace!"

Susan B. Anthony List Hosts First Annual Intern Strategy Summit

Last Tuesday, conservative college students interning in Washington DC attended the first annual Susan B. Anthony List Intern Strategy Summit. The event was hosted at The Heritage Foundation and was put on by SBA List, The Heritage Foundation, and Alliance Defending Freedom. There were 4 different discussion panels that the speakers sat on, covering topics. The first panel was called “Standing for Truth: The Battle to Preserve Religious Liberties.” Speakers talked about the growing attacks on religious liberties in America. Penny Nance from Concerned Women for America and Sarah Torres of The Heritage Foundation discussed the social aspects and attitudes of the Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood cases, the Benham Brothers controversy, as well as the supposed “War on Women” that the left keeps talking about.  “There’s an ideological line that women are supposed to tow,” said Nance, “and they [liberals] hate it if you think for yourself.” Jordan Lorence of ADF spoke on those issues from a legal perspective and gave helpful legal insight about the establishment clause in the First Amendment. “I’m going to tell you something that most people do not know. Only the Federal Government can violate the establishment clause. Accommodating religious people is not the government endorsing religion,” said Lorence.

  L-R: Kate Bryan, Jeanneane Maxon, Kristan Hawkins, Marjorie Dannenfelser

On another panel entitled “Taking Life on Offense : A Time for Heroes”, sat three women considered heroes by many conservatives , Kristan Hawkins of Students For Life of America, Marjorie Dannenfelser of SBA List, and Jeanneane Maxon of Americans United for Life. These women discussed the issue of abortion and how pro-life students can make a difference in the world.  “You’re not on the losing side! We have a chance to win!” Hawkins exclaimed. “This is the greatest human rights struggle our world has ever known and even though you might not be a hard core activist, there is a place for you in the pro-life movement.” Dannenfelser, coming from a political side, encouraged the interns to get out of their comfort zones.  “You need to think of yourselves as someone who will not take a comfy seat in this movement.” She warned, “You may have to go in and do things that you may not feel comfortable doing- like running for office - If you are not going to do that, you need to get involved in the party that most needs your strength- that is the Republican Party”.

The most anticipated speaker of the Summit was Princeton University McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Robert P. George. Professor George was interviewed by Marjorie Dannenfelser on how to prepare intellectually for standing up for beliefs “There is a cost of discipleship and the price is getting higher and higher,” George explained, “You’re going to be asked, if you stand up for what is right, to put things at risk,”

Other speakers at the Summit included Maggie Gallagher and Frank Cannon of the American Principles Project, Brian Brown of Nation Organization  for Marriage, Ryan Anderson of  The Heritage Foundation, with Kate Bryan of APP and Mary Powers of SBA List moderating.

The interns that attended the Summit left feeling united and encouraged to stand for Life, Religious Liberty, and Marriage.

Women Against Women Against New-Wave Feminism?

http://totalsororitymove.com/tsm-responds-to-women-against-feminism/

Many of you have probably seen this making rounds on Facebook and Twitter. It's an article attacking girls who are a opposed to the "new-wave" sex-fanatic Feminism. 

I agree that true feminism is about equality, but this author has it all wrong. What these girls are protesting against is the modern "new wave" feminism that is taking over academia. I have friends who have encountered these on their campuses. Women who host masturbation workshops, sex workshops, sell sex toys on campus, post child porn around campuses, bring porn stars to speak at campuses, who believe that motherhood is equal to being a slave, that women should be allowed to kill their children if they are a burden to them, and much more.  

My friend recently was honored by my university to attend a national women's conference in DC and she said that most of what was discussed was this crazy disgusting branch of so-called feminism.  These groups of these people claim you can't be a feminist of you don't support those things. 

THAT is what these girls are referring to. 

This is my friend's blog telling what was being taught as "feminism" on the national academic level. As you can see, none of the true attributes about feminism were talked about. This is the very thing that these girls were talking about 

http://college.studentsforlife.org/2014/06/24/put-900-pro-life-feminists-in-a-room/

I recently went to a Feminists For Life seminar of a group of women who stay true to the true meaning of feminism: Non-Violence, non discrimination, and equality for all human beings. That's what the original and real feminist foremothers like Susan B Anthony, Phyllis Schlafly, Dr Elizabeth Blackwell, Dr Charlotte Lozier, Elizabeth Stanton, Alice Paul, and many others all believed and fought for.

I believe whole heartedly in these true aspects of feminism that these amazing women believed in and fought for. Not what is being taught as feminism now adays 

Hobby Lobby: The Facts and What Happened

It seems that the news and most of Americans don't fully understand what the Hobby Lobby case was about. They claim that it denies women birth control. That couldn't be more WRONG. But that's the media for you, liars. Here are the FACTS:

Hobby Lobby already provides 16 out of the 20 birth control methods required by Obamacare under their employees' insurance plans. But they refused to provide 4 other types. These 4 that they refused to provide are abortion causing drugs that have been declared by the World Health Organization to be cancerous carcinogens dangerous to women's bodies. The whole case was over 4 harmful and lethal drugs. The Obama Administration was telling them that if they did not provide these 4 drugs, then they would literally fine them until they couldn't stay open. 

These are the 16 forms of birth control that are already covered under Hobby Lobby's insurance plan. There are only 4 that are not covered: Plan B, Ella, and two kinds of inter-uterine devices (IUD)

The religious aspects that these families held dear to that caused it to be a religious freedom case are the beliefs that it is wrong to murder. One of the Ten Commandments, "thou shall not murder". That's the religious belief that the Obama Administration told them that they had to lay aside. You may be asking, what does "thou shall not murder" have to do with this? 

It is a scientific fact that every abortion kills a human being. 

And these 4 drugs cause abortions, therefore, these drugs kill human beings, that is why the 2 families were against providing these 4 drugs. 

I was there at the Supreme Court today setting up for the press conference with Students For Life of America. 

The pro-abortion choice folks from NARAL showed up screaming and yelling about fighting. One guy was screaming at the top of his lungs in my friend's face. For a guy who claims to respect women, he certainly didn't respect her.

Pro-Lifers with use the slogan "Women In Control", citing that Women are in control of their own bodies and do not need birth control to be equal with men or to be in control of their lives. While Pro-Abortion advocates use "Not my boss's business". Ironically, If birth control is not your boss's business, why are you forcing him to pay for harmful forms of it that also kill children?

Their signs were illogical. They were claiming that it was "not their boss's business".....let that sink in. The people who are demanding that the bosses of the 2 companies pay for 4 abortion causing drugs that were declared cancerous carcinogens by the World Health Organization, to be provided to them free of charge via insurance are chanting that it is none of their boss's business. The irony and lack of logic there astounds me. 

Even though these people were angry and borderlined hostile and violent, i found that I wasn't angry with them, I pitied them because they sincerely believe the horrid lies they have been fed, they are victims if evil, and they have been talked into promoting evil. It's sad. There is no logic behind their arguments. None. But I pray for them and that The Lord will work on their hearts and they will find the truth .

Me (President of Mississippi State University Students For Life) with Claire Chretien (President of Bama Students For Life at the University of Alabama)

It is a scary thing when the President  of a Country bullies a family business into closing if they do not provide free lethal drugs to their employees. This is WRONG. We escaped England because of attack on simple religious principles like this, and we built this country on the grounds that that would never happen again. Luckily the Supreme Court acknowledges the 1st Amendment. This what a huge win for freedom of religion and separation of church and state today! 

This decision gives me a little more hope and confidence in our courts, not much, but some. 

Our president, Kristan Hawkins said this about the ruling:

"Thankfully, the Supreme Court protected our basic First Amendment freedoms today.  No government should force its citizens to pay for and distribute potentially life-terminating drugs and devices and that is exactly what this government was trying to do. We are grateful that the Supreme Court upheld this core American freedom."

Me and my fellow SFLA Missionaries 

                              ***

A Personal look at how the Liberal Media works

This weekend I had the privilege of attending the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority conference. I was working at the Students for Life of America booth in the exhibit hall and our booth was set up where we could see the speakers and screens very clearly. The speakers included Rick Santorum, Gary Bauer, Lt. Gen.William Boykin, Chris Christie, Steve Green, Rabbi Daniel Lapin, Michele Bachmann, Kevin McCarthy, Michael Medved, Rand Paul, Ralph Reed, Lila Rose, Dinesh D’Souza, Evan Sayet, Mike Huckabee, Herman Cain, our president Kristan Hawkins, and many more. A fantastic lineup of amazing patriotic conservatives.

I could go on and on about the speakers and their speeches, which I was tempted to do in this post, but I figured that I would touch on something that happened behind the scenes that not many people heard about. Something that I saw and was disgusted by. Something that really brings to light the lowest of levels that the liberal media will stoop to in order to make a good story.

Friday night I was browsing through Twitter searching the hashtag #FaithandFreedom and #RTM2014 , to see what was being said by reporters at the event about the speakers. With Twitter being a very common media used by reporters, I figured I could find some great quotes that the speakers had. What I saw next was interesting. I was scrolling through the tweets and I came across a picture of a Barrack Obama cartoon figure in a urinal. I admit, I thought the picture was funny, distasteful and disrespectful, yet humorous. The caption under the photo was “Scene from a Faith & Freedom restroom #RTM2014” and was posted by Igor Bobic (@igorbobic). Mr Bobic is the Associate Politics Editor at The Huffington Post. I didn’t give it much thought at first, but then I kept scrolling and saw more stuff about that picture and lots of people retweeting it and talking about it. Liberals were saying that all the urinals of the men’s bathrooms at the conference had Obama urinal cakes. The people attending the conference were being made fun of and bashed by the liberals on Twitter. The tweets ranged from insults and cursing, to hostile verbally attacking. The original tweet had over 200 retweets, mainly by other liberals bashing the conference.

I went in the bathrooms and looked, there was nothing of the sorts in the urinals. Where it might be true that all of the attendees of the conference strongly dislike the president’s actions, they are patriotic Americans who want nothing more than the country to go back to abiding by the constitution, and they would not sink so low as to put Obama figures or urinal cakes in the bathrooms. That is just nasty. Although I cannot say for certain, it seems obvious that Mr. Bobic put that there to stage it to make a great news story, and that’s exactly what it did. As I said, I cannot know for certain, as I did not actually witness him in the bathroom, but I can say for sure that after he tweeted that, I checked and there was nothing there. By the next day there were featured articles using Bobic’s tweet published by Time, MSNBC, New York Daily News, and countless others. All of these articles were bashing the conference and the attendees for not acting like Jesus, being hypocritical and being bigots and racists.

Now, I am a communication major with an emphasis in public relations and last fall I took an Intro to Newswriting class. One of the key things that I learned in the class about newswriting was that you should always report the truth and should always research the topic and have multiple sources. You should also try hard not to have a biased story. You should address both sides of the issue equally and fairly. Of course hardly anyone does this. Take a look at MSNBC, Fox News, and CNN, all of which have a biased leaning in their reporting. I have had run ins with reporters before who have misquoted me and taken things I said out of context, but that was small town stuff. I wasn’t surprised at the comments made about the attendees and the conference, but I was shocked to see just how low the liberal media would stoop in order to make a good story, gain popularity, and to make the innocent people look like monsters. I mean, I know that’s what they do, but seeing the outright lie and no further research done by the authors of the stories made me furious.

I guess I should expect something low and immoral like that from the liberals, After all, they are always fighting to tear down the morals of the world. They teach that women aren’t good enough to make it on their own without government help, that children should be forced to stay in failing schools not learning anything, that human life is not valuable, that if you disagree with someone then you are an intolerant bigot. But why then, am I so shocked and disgusted by this? It is because I was there and saw it all unfold before my eyes. One of my biggest pet peeves is people who lie. If you are going to talk bad about a candidate or group of people, you should use true things to talk bad about them, not make up things. 

Simply Believe

Before Jesus, sin was what separated us from God. It was a great divide between us and God. When Jesus died, he died for every single human being on earth. He took our sins upon himself. Everything bad that we will ever do was paid for on that cross. Jesus paid the price for all of our sin. So, sin is no longer the problem nor is it what separates us from God. He bridged that divide creating a way for us to get to the father. He tells us that if we simply believe in him that we will have eternal life with him. The word believe is the same Greek word for faith or trust, and it simply means to believe something to be true. We simply believe that He is who he said he was and that what he did accomplished what he said it accomplished. We take God at his word. No actions or changes of life that we do have anything to do with obtaining salvation. It is by God's GRACE alone that we are saved, through FAITH ALONE in Jesus Christ alone. This salvation comes from nothing else but faith. No good works. Scripture tells us that since we are saved by Grace, then we are not saved by works. And if we were saved by works, then it could not be by Grace. The word Grace means an undeserved gift, meaning nothing we do can obtain it. Works and Grace are complete opposites. If any type of works are tied into salvation, (good deeds, baptism, saying a prayer, confession, turning from sins, going to church, ect) then that is NOT the salvation that is offered in the Bible. That would be a salvation that depended on something we did. Works CANNOT be part of salvation. We are saved by Christ's FREE GIFT. We accept it by simply believing in Him. Once we put our faith in him, we can then start our journey in our Christian life. 

* Matthew 7:21-23, John 3:16, 6:29, 8:24, Acts 16:30-31, Romans 3:19-31, Galatians 2:16, 4:2-5, 11:6, Ephesians 2:8-9, Titus 3:4-7, 1 John 3:23, 

Missionary For Life Entry 1: Working in a House of Cards

My first 2 weeks as a Missionary For Life have me stationed at the Capitol Hill working with Congressman Andy Harris of the First District of Maryland. The majority of my days consist of answering calls and putting the Chief of Staff’s business cards into a contact sheet on excel. It has been very mundane and boring work, but it has opened up my eyes to the real politics that run our great nation. Being on the Hill, I have not got a lot of opportunities to talk to folks about abortion. My congressman is pro-life, of course, but I haven’t had the opportunity to discuss the topic with many people.

            The legislative assistant (LA) that handles pro-life issues for the congressman knows that I am very pro-life and has given me several tasks that deal with the issue. She handed me Live Action’s new investigative report on the illegal activities at Planned Parenthood and I am currently about half way through reading it. It is appalling! She also delegated me the task of looking through various pro-life and abortion bills that are in the House and making a chart on whether the congressman is on their co-sponsor list or not. The same LA has allowed me to attend a Values Action Team meeting with her. The VAT meeting consisted of various other conservative republican congressional staffers and the head of government affairs for the Family Research Council. In the meeting we discussed the recent report on Planned Parenthood, abortion bills, sanctity of marriage bills, and freedom of speech and religion issues. At that meeting I was made aware of the fact that the congressman I am interning for is working on an anti-cloning bill, which of course, is pro-life related in the fact that in the process of human cloning, many embryos will be killed during the research. I received an invitation at the VAT meeting to attend a lunch lecture hosted for March For Life and the American Conservative Union entitled, “Women Know Best – Conservative Solutions Work”. I am very excited to attend this meeting this coming Tuesday and will undoubtedly discuss it in my next entry.

            Of the two weeks I have been in the congressman’s office, there have been several hot topics amongst the constituents calling his office. The first week it was the whole Bergdahl terrorist swap and the second week it was the Eric Cantor and Child Immigration Amnesty thing. I have always heard people talk about calling or writing congressmen, but I never knew people actually did that. I am now convinced that the people that do repeatedly call their congressmen have absolutely nothing else better to do with their time. They just call and rant and rave and complain. I have lost count of all the “Impeach Obama!” calls I have gotten. I take back what I said about all the calls being long rants, I’ve only had like three of those so far, but they are the main ones that stick out in my mind. Today we had one crazy lady call talking about how she was kidnapped and drugged and brainwashed by the Chinese using UK Ultra in 1978. She was going on about how these kids coming into the US from Central America have been kidnapped, drugged, and brainwashed just like her. She is convinced that these kids will come and shoot up schools. She went as far as to say that she wouldn’t be surprised if one of them showed up at one of our costal campaign offices and shot everyone. She called like four times because she kept forgetting to tell us things. The Capitol Police and the people in my office have had issues with her before and have her on a list. So I had the pleasure and honor of transferring her call directly to the Capitol Police when she called back for the fourth time. One of the staffers at the costal campaign office said the police had to escort her home because of that. Although, at the DC office we were unable to tell if she was joking or not.

            Sadly, this week I was out for three days with a bad cold. I was willing to come into work, but the staff at the office asked me not to come in until I was not coughing because we are all packed in the office in tight quarters and they don’t want to risk others getting sick. This was odd and different for me because I am used to school and my work back home wanting you to come in even if you were a little sick.

            During my sick days, I did what any college student in this day and age would do, I curled up in bed with my ipad and watched Netflix. I got caught up on the third season of BBC’s Sherlock series and I started watching House of Cards. I find it funny that I started watching House of Cards while working on the Hill for a congressman, because the whole show is about a corrupt and manipulative congressman. A lot of the terms thrown around in the show are what I hear at the office every day and a lot of the locations in the show are exactly where I am on Capitol Hill. Although, the atmosphere and people are far less evil, rude, and mean…..or at least they seem to be that way on the surface.

Anywho, I guess that’s it for my intro blog about my internship. Stay tuned throughout the summer for more interesting tidbits about my Summer as a Missionary For Life