Obama to Appoint Pastor to Faith-Based Office

justBear »

Sun Feb 01, 2009 10:05 pm Agree: 1   Disagree: 0

Sorry for the multiple posts. This site apparently will not paste past text that has dashes and apostrophes and I have to keep editing them in order to get them to post the whole comment!

Obama to Appoint Pastor to Faith-Based Office

justBear »

Sun Feb 01, 2009 10:03 pm Agree: 0   Disagree: 0

To the weekenderman and Sawnay-Rah comments of January 29th and 30th, let me clarify that I cannot answer to, or offer any explanation pertaining to, what was heard or not heard during the campaign in Iowa, but I can share this. I was a campaign staffer in many States during the primary and general election campaigns. I have discussed this very issues with many other staff, specifically full time staff in Faith Coordinator positions and have confirmed that then candidate Obamas personal Christian testimony was documented in writing on official campaign literature and was circulated to hundreds of thousands of believers in churches all across the country (where ever their respective Pastors requested the materials). I have personal knowledge of President Obamas profession of faith; to wit that he personally repented of his sins to God and accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior and strives to walk daily as a believer in Christ.

It is in light of your comments, that I feel the obligation as a brother in the Lord, to share this knowledge with you. I am not offering proof other than my testimony of his. Anyone is free to believe me, or him or to disbelieve, if that is their conviction. I am willing to accept President Obamas profession of faith just as I am willing to accept yours. I trust God to know President Obamas heart (not lean on my own understanding) and I trust the Holy Spirit to lead President Obama in personal conviction in those areas he may need further discernment or development.

Let me ask all my Brothers and Sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ, to hold up the earth our God created and said was good, our Country as one nation under God, our new President, Barack Hussein Obama and all other members of our government. Let us pray that Thy Will be done on Earth.

Obama to Appoint Pastor to Faith-Based Office

justBear »

Sun Feb 01, 2009 10:00 pm Agree: 0   Disagree: 0

I spent some time considering a thoughtful response to the remarks here and I pray that I can share in a manner that every reader can hear. I could be mistaken, but I distinctly get a sense from some discussion here that there may be a derisive commitment operating in the background of some comments posted here. It is as if some might go further than sharing, agreeing to agree or disagree and to teach and edify. That some may wish to contemptuously trash or judge someone personally who has a different understanding of how that Holy Spirit is speaking to them than how we understand the Holy Spirit to be speaking to us. I do not intend to disappoint or offend anyone here, but I am exhorting us to the possibility that we may rightfully and justly leave to the Lord our God, the entire task of understanding what is in a man or womans heart or whether he or she should be condemned. Let me offer or suggest that God alone is the only one fit or Holy enough to pass judgment at all. As minister of the Gospel, I am reminded that I have known many born again Christians who have held beliefs I found not to be legitimately based or supported in scripture, but who, over time and with the working of the Holy Spirit, transformed those beliefs as their walk with the Lord matured. That never suggested to me that those Christians were not true believers simply because their understanding of Gods Will in their lives was not yet developed or discerned. More specifically on point, while there are areas our President continues to develop spiritually (who among us does not have that), he is a Christian who demonstrates many gifts and manifestations of the Holy Spirit.

Obama to Appoint Pastor to Faith-Based Office

justBear »

Sun Feb 01, 2009 9:59 pm Agree: 1   Disagree: 0

I spent some time considering a thoughtful response to the remarks here and I pray that I can share in a manner that every reader can hear. I could be mistaken, but I distinctly get a sense from some discussion here that there may be a derisive commitment operating in the background of some comments posted here. It is as if some might go further than sharing, agreeing to agree or disagree and to teach and edify. That some may wish to contemptuously trash or judge someone personally who has a different understanding of how that Holy Spirit is speaking to them than how we understand the Holy Spirit to be speaking to us. I do not intend to disappoint or offend anyone here, but I am exhorting us to the possibility that we may rightfully and justly leave to the Lord our God, the entire task of understanding what is in a man or womans heart or whether he or she should be condemned. Let me offer or suggest that God alone is the only one fit or Holy enough to pass judgment at all. As minister of the Gospel, I am reminded that I have known many born again Christians who have held beliefs I found not to be legitimately based or supported in scripture, but who, over time and with the working of the Holy Spirit, transformed those beliefs as their walk with the Lord matured. That never suggested to me that those Christians were not true believers simply because their understanding of Gods Will in their lives was not yet developed or discerned. More specifically on point, while there are areas our President continues to develop spiritually (who among us doesn’t have that), he is a Christian who demonstrates many gifts and manifestations of the Holy Spirit.

Obama to Appoint Pastor to Faith-Based Office

justBear »

Sun Feb 01, 2009 9:58 pm Agree: 1   Disagree: 0

I spent some time considering a thoughtful response to the remarks here and I pray that I can share in a manner that every reader can hear. I could be mistaken, but I distinctly get a sense from some discussion here that there may be a derisive commitment operating in the background of some comments posted here. It is as if some might go further than sharing, agreeing to agree or disagree and to teach and edify. That some may wish to contemptuously trash or judge someone personally who has a different understanding of how that Holy Spirit is speaking to them than how we understand the Holy Spirit to be speaking to us. I do not intend to disappoint or offend anyone here, but I am exhorting us to the possibility that we may rightfully and justly leave to the Lord our God, the entire task of understanding what is in a man or womans heart or whether he or she should be condemned. Let me offer or suggest that God alone is the only one fit or Holy enough to pass judgment at all. As minister of the Gospel, I am reminded that I have known many born again Christians who have held beliefs I found not to be legitimately based or supported in scripture, but who, over time and with the working of the Holy Spirit, transformed those beliefs as their walk with the Lord matured. That never suggested to me that those Christians were not true believers simply because their understanding of God’s Will in their lives was not yet developed or discerned. More specifically on point, while there are areas our President continues to develop spiritually (who among us doesn’t have that), he is a Christian who demonstrates many gifts and manifestations of the Holy Spirit.

Obama to Appoint Pastor to Faith-Based Office

justBear »

Sun Feb 01, 2009 9:55 pm Agree: 0   Disagree: 0

I spent some time considering a thoughtful response to the remarks here and I pray that I can share in a manner that every reader can hear. I could be mistaken, but I distinctly get a sense from some discussion here that there may be a derisive commitment operating in the background of some comments posted here. It is as if some might go further than sharing, agreeing to agree or disagree and to teach and edify – that some may wish to contemptuously trash or judge someone personally who has a different understanding of how that Holy Spirit is speaking to them than how we understand the Holy Spirit to be speaking to us. I do not intend to disappoint or offend anyone here, but I am exhorting us to the possibility that we may rightfully and justly leave to the Lord our God, the entire task of understanding what is in a man or woman’s heart or whether he or she should be condemned. Let me offer or suggest that God alone is the only one fit or Holy enough to pass judgment at all. As minister of the Gospel, I am reminded that I have known many born-again Christians who have held beliefs I found not to be legitimately based or supported in scripture, but who, over time and with the working of the Holy Spirit, transformed those beliefs as their walk with the Lord matured. That never suggested to me that those Christians were not true believers simply because their understanding of God’s Will in their lives was not yet developed or discerned. More specifically on point, while there are areas our President continues to develop spiritually (who among us doesn’t have that), he is a Christian who demonstrates many gifts and manifestations of the Holy Spirit.

Obama to Appoint Pastor to Faith-Based Office

justBear »

Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:01 pm Agree: 2   Disagree: 3

dgnymn,

Please consider that hyperbole may discredit you. It is OK for good men to disagree. My intention is not to be right or make anyone else feel wrong, I simply wanted to share some personal knowledge that Barack Hussein Obama's professes to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, has repented as a sinner and accepts Him as his Lord and Savior. That is something we all can rejoice in.

Obama to Appoint Pastor to Faith-Based Office

justBear »

Thu Jan 29, 2009 5:36 pm Agree: 2   Disagree: 4

No, I am not related, but came to know of his faith on the campaign.

Obama to Appoint Pastor to Faith-Based Office

justBear »

Thu Jan 29, 2009 5:21 pm Agree: 3   Disagree: 7

My bothers and sisters in the Lord, I have seen for myself closeup that President Obama is a man of God and a born-again servant of the Lord. To knock, criticize or belittle another brother who is giving testimony to this fact does no one good.

There is no provision anywhere in the U.S. Constitution or Bill of Rights that prohibits our government from supporting and collaborating with faith based programs and ministries. No where in those founding documents are there any words that say that the church and state must be separate - our founding fathers were much wiser than that, for they themselves were men of faith. Rather there is the prohibition that the government shall make no laws that prohibit the free exercise of religion in our great nation. A very different scenario. It is impossible for the notion of "separation of church and state" to be violated if it only exists as a concept, a notion, and does not actually exist in either of our founding documents (which it does not).