A Pastor's Thoughts

Psalm 4 was written by David when he was falsely accused of something.  The circumstances are not revealed in the Psalm.  Some have speculated that it was when Absalom came against him, turning the people against him.  We don’t know. David starts, like he does with all his lament Psalms by appealing to God.  He realizes, as we need to know, whatever events are happening on earth, God is our ultimate help.  It has been said that one of the common experiences everyone has is being falsely accused.  Whether a misunderstanding or someone who believes the accusation, false accusation is part of the human experience.  It is normal to be defensive when accused of something.  If we are shocked by the outlandish false accusations that can come, it is normal to want to vindicate ourselves, prove our innocents and prove the accuser wrong, for good measure. David starts by going to God.  He cry out to God in desperation.  He recounts when God ha...

Psalm 3 shows a classic progression of Christian thought.  Psalm 3 is a four stanza poem.  It was written as David fled from his son Absalom. In the first stanza, David describes the problem.  There are too many foes and people are saying that God cannot help. In the second stanza, David accurately describes God.  God is a shield that encompasses David.  God is David’s glory.  David has no glory for himself.  God will lift David’s head, back to the throne and back to a place where David can see the mighty works of God.  David then cries out loud to the listening God In the third stanza, David rests.  With the peace of God in the midst of trouble, David can sleep and wake knowing that God sustains him.  David declares that he will not fear the thousands that are coming against him. In the final stanza David makes his request of God to arise and strike his enemies.  David has moved from a place of overwhelming defeat to a plac...

Carl Truman in his article in First Things, entitled “preparing for Winter” builds a case that any church that gains benefit from the government must also support the views and teachings of that government.  His article focuses on the sexual immorality of same-sex-marriage and transgender issues.  His thought is that a time will be coming when churches who preach against sin as sin, no matter what that sin is, will loose tax exempt status, will have their 501(c).3 status cancelled and will stop receiving any subsidies for helping the homeless or running social programs.  In other words, churches that have a relationship with the government will eventually be required to be government churches.  This is already happening in Canada where churches are receiving operating money from the government. My church situation is that the county has removed our tax exempt status, so we have to pay a tax bill of close to $64,000.  Their claim is that our church is a commer...

Today I heard that the IRS, even under President Trump is targeting small, vulnerable churches with small congregations and deleting their 501(c).3 because the IRS is declaring them non-charities.  I am forming an open letter to Alameda county to use when I finally get the charges.  I will post the charges and my open letter of response on every social media platform I can find.  This nit-picking harassment on small churches needs to stop.  Part of my open letter follows: I became a pastor in March of 2005.  Another church was already renting and so I continued the practice.  This other church saw the change of pastors as a chance to take over and they were asked to leave June of 2005.  The county never got involved.  In 2007, A neighbor family said they wanted to have a quinceanera for their daughter,  We had never rented the hall before and so we charged them $145 for a few hours.  Between 2007 and April of 2010 we rented our hall to...

Today, President Donald J. Trump made January 16, every year, religious freedom day.  Many websites popped up instantly giving guidance and support for that this means. Apparently this declaration has been going on since 1786 when the state of Virginia lead the way with religious freedom week, leading up to January 16. One thing that baffles me is this:  The president has to declare one day for religious freedom?  I thought America was all about religious freedom.  The First Amendment to the constitution reads Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances The very first part is all about religious freedom.  There are two parts to the religious freedom claims.   Part one :  The government cannot choose a particular religion...