Gaza: Putting a Human Face on It

On By Robert W. PeckIn Blog1 Comment

While sitting in front of a television viewing a distant war, one can get caught up in cheering for a favored side like it’s a sporting event. It’s far too easy to forget the human realities of thousands of innocent civilians being killed and millions displaced from their homes. That’s why I’m sharing the article below, to put a human face on the inhuman reality in Gaza.

While governments and political factions initiate hostilities, those who suffer most are usually ordinary people who just want to be left alone to live their lives. People don’t generally kill other people once we see another human face like our own. It usually takes propaganda to convince us that the other religious, political, or ethnic group are subhuman animals who want to kill us, then we’re good with dropping bombs on them. 

Whatever our feelings might be toward the factions that are fighting, it’s worth remembering that in Gaza, and Ukraine as well, tens of thousands of ordinary people like ourselves are being killed by munitions that say “Made in the USA.” Yes, via our tax dollars, you and I are participating in killing people, destroying cities, and sending hundreds of thousands of families fleeing from their homes, and unlike watching a sporting event, I’m not cheering.

‘Israel is killing us without mercy’: As the fighting in Gaza continues, civilians are starting to lose hope
Amid a humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Palestine that no international organization can cope with, locals tell their stories of survival
(Read the article at: https://www.rt.com/news/590125-israel-kills-us-without-mercy/)

I also found this article to be of considerable interest. It discusses the history of Christianity in Gaza and Christian/Muslim relations there.

Under Israeli attack: Who are the Christians of Gaza?
They’re small in number, but with deep roots that they are unwilling to leave behind.
(Read the article at: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/1/under-israeli-attack-who-are-the-christians-of-gaza)

There’s No Condemnation for Sin but There Are Consequences

On By Robert W. PeckIn Blog, Christian7 Comments

Part 4 in the series “Knowing the Truth About Sin Will Set You Free”

Message delivered to ZChurch.life August 19, 2023

In part one of this series, we learned that Christ offered one sacrifice for all sin for all time and that there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in him. If you really get that message, it might leave you wondering, “why not just go ahead and sin then?” In part two, we’ll answer that question. Learn a New Testament definition of sin and discover how to walk free of the corruption and calamity in this world.

PREFACE

The Old Testament law system is based on works.

New Testament Christianity is based on a free gift.

Most of Christendom has unwittingly mixed the two, receiving salvation by grace, then thinking we have to keep it by works. It’s nothing new, Paul dealt with it in his day too (Galatians 3:3).

In part one of this series we learned that:

  • Christ offered one sacrifice for sins forever (Hebrews 10:12).
  • That sacrifice so paid the price for all sin for all time that there’s nothing left that can ever again condemn anyone who is in Christ (Romans 8:1).
  • Therefore, the Old Testament law system has been made obsolete (Hebrews 8:13), nailed to the cross, and taken out of the way (Colossians 2:14).
  • There is no longer a works based system in effect under which men can be judged.
  • We are either condemned for not believing in Christ (John 3:18), or there is no condemnation to us if we are in Christ (Romans 8:39).

Does that mean there is now no such thing as sin?

Continue reading “There’s No Condemnation for Sin but There Are Consequences” →

An American Covenant

On By Robert W. PeckIn Blog, Christian, Political3 Comments

When the expedition that founded Jamestown, Virginia, landed at Cape Henry, expedition chaplain Robert Hunt offered this prayer.

“We do hereby dedicate this Land, and ourselves, to reach the People within these shores with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to raise up Godly generations after us, and with these generations take the Kingdom of God to all the earth. May this Covenant of Dedication remain to all generations, as long as this earth remains, and may this Land, along with England, be Evangelist to the World. May all who see this Cross, remember what we have done here, and may those who come here to inhabit join us in this Covenant and in this most noble work that the Holy Scriptures may be fulfilled.”

As I heard that prayer read aloud in church this past Sunday, it occurred to me that God honored it. Most of the Bible printing, evangelizing, and mission work that has gone out around the world has come from America.

However, one may be tempted to look at America’s current political, moral, and spiritual ills and think Chaplain Hunt’s prayer has failed us and become a mere relic of history. I say quite the opposite. 

The continued fulfillment of that prayer does not depend upon who is in the White House, the general morality of society, or even a majority of the population. The continued fulfillment of that prayer depends upon each of us who is willing to take it up and make it our own, praying:

“Lord, I join myself with Chaplain Hunt and those of his expedition in the covenant they made with you over 400 years ago. Regardless what others may do, as for me, with the resources of the land that you put in my hand and under my power, I will mark this land deep and wide with the gospel of Jesus Christ and take the Kingdom of God to all the earth.”

No Condemnation for Sin

On By Robert W. PeckIn Blog, Christian5 Comments

Part 1 in the series “Knowing the Truth About Sin Will Set You Free”

Message delivered to ZChurch.life June 10, 2023

“You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). Knowing the truth about sin will make you free – free from condemnation for sin and free from bondage to sin. First, we need to know the truth of what sin really is. Sin isn’t just a list of dos and don’ts; our spiritual standing with God isn’t just a balance sheet of credits and debits. All your debts have been paid, and nothing more can ever be laid to your charge. But that’s only where the story of life in Christ begins.

Message Outline

WHAT IS SIN?

Is it a system of dos and don’t? If so, is it just the top ten? But there’s a bunch of other commandments in the Bible. Then there’s all the things that our religious traditions have taught us to think are sin. There ends up being more dos and don’ts than a person can keep track of, so how do you identify what’s sin and what isn’t?

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

One definition for the word translated sin is “to miss the mark.” The mark is the glory of God. Anything outside the circle of God’s perfect glory in the center of the target is sin.

If you want to live by a system of dos and don’ts, then the do is to do all the fullness of the glory of God, and the don’t is don’t do anything inconsistent with the perfect glory of God.

Continue reading “No Condemnation for Sin” →

Gorsuch Condemns COVID Policies for Violating Civil Liberties: Where Are the Rest?

On By Robert W. PeckIn Articles, Blog, Political4 Comments

In a statement relating to the case of Arizona v. Alejandro Mayorkas (Secretary of Homeland Security), US Supreme Court Justice, Neil Gorsuch, condemned government-imposed COVID policies that turned the legal and legislative process on its head and violated civil liberties. The justice’s review of actions taken by local, state, and federal governments over the past three years reads like a report on human rights abuses from the socialist Soviet Union era. Previous generations of Americans would have thought the justice’s statements were from a dystopian novel, not current events.

Here are some key passages from Justice Gorsuch’s statement.

Continue reading “Gorsuch Condemns COVID Policies for Violating Civil Liberties: Where Are the Rest?” →

Question Everything… Even God

On By Robert W. PeckIn Blog, Christian2 Comments

Message delivered to ZChurch, March 11, 2023

It has been said, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” God says that His people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Whether the deficit stems from ignorance of the facts or the error of thinking a thing to be true that just ain’t so, the results are just as deadly. You can avoid a world of hurt by learning to question preconceptions and confirm the truth that will keep you from the pitfalls of the enemy.

MESSAGE OUTLINE

Question Authority?

There used to be a bumper sticker that said “Question Authority.” It was understood to mean “question the government,” or “rebel against the established order.”

I went from not questioning the government, to questioning some taxes and regulations, to questioning unconstitutional acts of government, to questioning where government got its authority from, to discovering government got its authority from we the people but then questioning where we got our authority from.

Continue reading “Question Everything… Even God” →

In the Name of Jesus

On By Robert W. PeckIn Blog, ChristianLeave a comment

This message was presented to ZChurch.life, August 6, 2022 (see full service at https://youtu.be/ym2nYxgiqLI)

Most Christians are accustomed to ending their prayers “in Jesus’ name, Amen.” Many have even been told that we are to cast out devils and heal the sick “in Jesus’ name.” But what does it really mean to do these things in Jesus’ name? Is the name “Jesus” the Christian equivalent of a magic word? Is it like saying, “abracadabra, devil go away… in Jesus’ name?” Do we automatically get what we ask for in prayer simply by uttering the sound of Jesus’ name?

It may surprise you to know that there is no power in the mere letters, syllables, and sound of the name “Jesus.” Nevertheless, all authority both in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus and made available to the new covenant church through Him.

Learn where the real power of the name of Jesus lies and how to access it in this message by ZChurch elder, Robert Peck.

___________________

In the Name of Jesus

Most Christians are accustom to ending their prayers with “in Jesus name, amen.” Many have even been told that we are to cast out devils and heal the sick “in Jesus name.” We get this from passages like:

Continue reading “In the Name of Jesus” →

An Open Letter to My U.S. Senator Re Abortion, Rights, and Our Own Bodies

On By Robert W. PeckIn Articles, Blog, Political9 Comments

Dear Senator Murray:

In a recent email to your constituents addressing what you call the “right to abortion,” you ask, “do you support a woman’s right to make her own decisions about her own body?” I regret that I cannot answer that question with the simple “yes” or “no” requested as the way it is presented constitutes a false premise.

The trouble is that we’re not talking about the woman’s “own” body, but another body that happens to be inside the woman at the time. This is a body with its own unique DNA that is distinctly different from that of the woman and therefore is clearly not the woman’s “own” body. The body we’re discussing aborting has its own genetic markers that distinguish it from the woman’s body as certainly as if a car parked in my driveway had a VIN number different from the one I hold title to – even if it happens to be in my driveway, it’s not my car and not mine to dispose of.

Whether a body is inhabited by a person at conception as some believe, or at birth as others might believe, it is nevertheless a unique human body that is clearly not that of either the mother or the father as it has DNA that is distinct from each. A human body can only be the possession of the one to inhabit it and no one not inhabiting that body may rightly claim it as their own.

Continue reading “An Open Letter to My U.S. Senator Re Abortion, Rights, and Our Own Bodies” →