Author: pastorwardclinton

Pastor Ward has authored several books. They may be seen at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com

Where’s the Beef?

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Where’s the Beef?

 

  Do you remember a popular television commercial of some years ago that featured an older woman looking at a hamburger?  With an expression of bewilderment on her face, she asked the server in the fast-food restaurant, “Where’s the Beef”?  Her predicament is somewhat analogous to the feelings of persons who look for the substance of holiness in the lives of Christians today.  Where the beef of holiness?  Where’s that thing that makes Christians different from non-Christians?  Where is the Christ-likeness?  That ingredient of Christian experience that John Wesley described as religion itself.  Where’s the beef of Christianity?  Where is that similarity to the spirit and mind of Christ?

 

  Look at what poll after poll; study after study, says about the conduct of those who call themselves Christian compared with those who do not.  The divorce rate is reported to be slightly higher among those who call themselves Christian.  Of course, not everyone who calls himself a Christian actually is.

 

  The Holy Spirit inspired the writer of the gospel of Jesus according to Matthew to preserve these words of Jesus from His Sermon on the Mount: 7:19-23 “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.  Therefore by their fruits you will know them.  Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.  Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord,’ have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?

And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”

 

  The Calvinistic claim “I sin every day in thought, word, and deed; can’t help it – that’s just the way it is” sounds very much like standing on sand.  Where’s the Beef of Christianity?  Most of the Christ followers stuck in that rut don’t intend to justify their carnality they just haven’t been shown the considerably more firm footing of Holy Spirit empowered heart holiness.   It is a footing that allows us to stand firm and reflect Christ-likeness so that others will say “there it is!  That thing that makes Christians different from non-Christians.”

 

Sin is spoken of in the Bible as filthiness or defilement of the body, mind, or spirit.  Purity in Religion must mean, therefore, the absence of such filthy things as drunkeness, gluttony, dishonesty, cheating, falsehood, pride, malice, bad tempers, selfishness, unbelief, disobedience, or the like.  In short, to be pure in soul, signifies deliverance from all and everything which the Lord shows you to be opposed to His Holy Will.  It means that you not only possess the ability to live the kind of life that He desires, but that you actually do live it.

 

Holiness Possible

  The Church of The Nazarene believes in holiness.  Holiness is our distinguishing tenet.  That’s what we are all about – perfect love, Christian perfection, being filled with the Spirit, entire sanctification. The Church of The Nazarene is not a generic church.  We are not all things to all people.  We believe that God teaches that regeneration is the work of God’s grace, preceded by repentance and obtained by faith.  We also believe regeneration is to be followed by another work of grace – entire sanctification, that act of God that frees believers from original sin and brings them into a state of complete commitment to God.  Entire sanctification is provided by the blood of Jesus and wrought by the Holy Spirit to this experience the Holy Spirit bears witness.

 

Sanctification begins when a person is justified by faith, converted, and progresses as a believer who grows in God’s grace and conforms more and more in obedience to Christ.  Believers are entirely sanctified when they are filled with the Holy Spirit, cleansing them from a sinful nature.  This experience is available to the seeking Christian.

 

We must not allow the failures of others to persuade us that holiness is impossible.  We must not justify our own uncleanness of heart and become callused in sin.  We must not settle for an experience and a lifestyle that is less than holy.  When this happens we begin to blame others for our moral failures, or we blame environments and situations.  All the while we continue to be jealous, manipulative, proud, dominating, unkind, critical, and self-serving.  All the while those who don’t have time for church continue to say “Where’s the Beef?”  They are pleading for us to be the salt and light which Christ called us to be.

 

  J. B. Chapman said, “I got saved so I could get sanctified.”  Phineas Bresee said, “A sanctified life is a delight to Jesus, a joy to the soul, a benediction to the home, a power in the church, a terror to sin, and a continual disappointment to the devil.”

 

Eph 2:8-10

    For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast.

    For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.  (NAS)

 

Matt 7:19-23

            “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

            “So then, you will know them by their fruits.

            “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.

            “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’

            “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’  (NAS)

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Hakeem the Treacherous

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Hakeem Jeffries says we will never allow anyone to “whitewash treachery,” but what he’s really demanding is blind obedience to a story Democrats wrote for themselves. Calling the entire event a “violent mob” with a singular mission ignores reality and erases the fact that the vast majority of people there were not violent at all. This kind of language is designed to shut down debate, not tell the truth. When you have to scream “free and fair election” over and over, it usually means you’re trying to convince people who no longer believe you. And let’s be clear, there are serious, unresolved questions about 2020 whether Jeffries likes it or not. Millions of Americans still think something was deeply wrong, and shouting “extremist” at them doesn’t change that. Maybe Trump is right. Maybe the election was stolen. Either way, the real whitewashing is pretending doubt itself is treason. Jeffries isn’t defending democracy, he’s defending a narrative, and he’s terrified of anyone who won’t fall in line.

Coffee Shanty

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https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1Nkj9NYraq/

Too cute, if it works…

Hakeem Still Pushing False Narratives

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Hakeem Jeffries says we will never allow anyone to “whitewash treachery,” but what he’s really demanding is blind obedience to a story Democrats wrote for themselves.

Calling the entire event a “violent mob” with a singular mission ignores reality and erases the fact that the vast majority of people there were not violent at all.

This kind of language is designed to shut down debate, not tell the truth. When you have to scream “free and fair election” over and over, it usually means you’re trying to convince people who no longer believe you.

And let’s be clear, there are serious, unresolved questions about 2020 whether Jeffries likes it or not. Millions of Americans still think something was deeply wrong, and shouting “extremist” at them doesn’t change that.

Maybe Trump is right. Maybe the election was stolen. Either way, the real whitewashing is pretending doubt itself is treason. Jeffries isn’t defending democracy, he’s defending a narrative, and he’s terrified of anyone who won’t fall in line. – The Federalist Papers

Sorry, Dollar Store Obama, you narrative has been proven false multiple times.

Venezuela Responds to Maduro Arrest

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While Democrats are whining the people of Venezuela are celebrating.

Chuckie Schumer

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That’s Chuckie

Maduro Captured

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Drug lord dictator arrested.

Drug lord Maduro Captured

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I don’t see a war. I see a fast, decisive action that worked. Venezuelans are in the streets tearing down Maduro posters and celebrating, not hiding in bomb shelters.

This is exactly what voters have been begging for after decades of failed foreign policy disasters. Americans rejected Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya because they were endless, stupid, and costly.

What’s outrageous is the political class acting like every use of force is the same while they happily bankroll permanent conflict.

If America can’t act decisively here, what do we say when Xi moves on Taiwan or Putin grabs another country? Weakness invites chaos.

We don’t need lectures, we need more statesmen like President Trump who put America first, avoid forever wars, and stop confusing paralysis with principle. – The Federalist Papers

The Learing Center in MN

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This story doesn’t just raise questions, it keeps changing its own answers. First we hear from an investigative reporter that the daycare receiving taxpayer dollars is not open, there are no kids. Then the director of the brand-new Department of Children, Youth and Families says it’s been shut down for more than a week. Hours later, a reporter shows up and finds vans unloading kids. Now suddenly the explanation is that this place only operates from 2 to 10 p.m. for after-school care. Which is it? Closed for over a week, or open and busy? Those two things cannot both be true, and the fact that officials can’t keep the story straight should concern anyone paying taxes into this system.

It gets even stranger when you consider the timing. Schools are out until after the holidays, meaning there is no after-school dismissal at 2:15 or 4:30 right now. Working parents would either need adjusted hours or no care at all during holiday break, yet we’re supposed to believe van loads of kids are showing up on a schedule that doesn’t align with the school calendar. Add in the misspelled name, the shifting explanations, and the defensive finger-pointing at the reporter who exposed it, and this stops looking like a misunderstanding and starts looking like a cover story in motion. When the facts keep changing by the hour, the public is right to ask what else isn’t adding up.

Laura Ingalls Wilder

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I grew up reading the Little House on the Prairie Series. Did you as well?

Laura Ingalls Wilder never intended to become one of the most influential storytellers in American history. She wasn’t thinking about books or fame.
She was simply trying to survive a childhood shaped by hunger, hardship, constant movement across the American frontier.

Born February 7, 1867, in a 1 room cabin deep in the Big Woods of Wisconsin. Her father, Charles Ingalls, Pa was a man who loved wilderness and disliked neighbors. If another family’s chimney smoke appeared nearby, Pa felt crowded.

The family packed their wagon and moved, again and again, from Wisconsin to Kansas, then to Minnesota, lowa, and eventually to Dakota Territory. Laura grew up in covered wagons, half-built cabins, always on land barely settled before they moved on.

Their house had dirt walls, a dirt floor, and a roof made of sod. Grass grew overhead while insects dropped through cracks in the ceiling. It was small, dark, and alive with creatures Laura didn’t want to meet. But it was shelter, and the frontier rarely offered anything better.

During the terrible winter of 1880-81, blizzard after blizzard battered the town of De Smet. Snow buried homes and blocked every supply train.

Without fuel, families twisted dried hay into tight sticks to burn. Without provisions, they ground wheat in coffee mills to make coarse flour.

Weeks passed in darkness and cold so deep the wind seemed to cut. Some families froze or starved. The Ingalls family endured.

Another blow came earlier, when Laura was 13, her sister Mary was 15. Mary fell ill with a severe fever.

When it passed, she was blind. The loss reshaped the family, and Laura tried to become Mary’s eyes, describing the world in careful detail. The habit of noticing everything-the curve of a hill, the way sunlight touched grass—would decades later shape her unmistakable writing style.

At 18, Laura married Almanzo Wilder, a homesteader ten years older. She hoped their life would be different from her childhood-steady, predictable, rooted. But within the first few years, disaster followed disaster.

Diphtheria left Almanzo partially paralyzed. Their barn burned. Crops failed in punishing weather. Their baby boy died before he was a month old. They lost nearly everything and eventually left SD to start over in Missouri.

The farm they named Rocky Ridge would become their final home. Laura raised chickens, kept accounts, and stitched together an existence through frugality and hard work. In her 40s and 50s she began writing short articles for farm papers— practical, clear, and surprisingly elegant pieces on rural life.

Their daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, a successful writer and journalist, urged her mother to record her childhood memories. Laura hesitated. She was in her 60s. She had no formal training. Why would anyone read her stories of log cabins, dugouts, blizzards, and pioneer struggles?

Rose helped transform these manuscripts into publishable books—how much shaping she did remains debated, but the vision was Laura’s. The first book, Little House in the Big Woods, 1932.

Farmer Boy, Little House on the Prairie, On the Banks of Plum Creek, and many others followed.
They were based on real events but arranged with storytelling instinct.

Laura continued publishing into her late 70s. She lived to see her books adopted in classrooms, cherished by families, and woven into the fabric of American childhood. She died at 90, on the farm she and Almanzo had built from nearly nothing.

Wilder didn’t simply write children’s books. She preserved a vanished world. She documented ordinary families endured hunger, weather, grief.

She showed survival required discipline, courage, and tenderness. And she proved that it’s never too late to tell your story. At sixty-four, she picked up a pencil and changed American literature.