My Writings. My Thoughts.
Who Cares if a Pastor Has an Affair?
// September 23rd, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Relevant Faith
This is a letter to all Pastors.
You may be wondering, “who cares if a pastor has an affair?” Well, we all should. Why? Because our leaders are held to a higher standard than the rest of us. Because the world looks at pastors as examples of Christ-likeness. Because Paul said follow me as I follow Christ. That means, if we look at Paul and his life, we should see someone living out what the Bible says. Because they are teaching us how to behave and react to this world –and when they stumble, it sets us back. Because we, as believers, need our pastors to be strong for us.
Pastors, please understand the role you play in our lives. Please realize that we need you to be strong in the midst of overwhelming temptation. Our very lives –and nations– depend on there being good, strong, Bible-believing, leaders to guide and direct us. When you fall, we all fall. When you stumble, the world not only looks down at you but also second-guesses the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Pastors who cheat on their wives has become a pandemic that has to be stopped. It has to be reigned in or we will be crippled, as a Church Body, for years.
Yes, God is still sovereign and can overcome any stupidity we, as believers, throw out there, but He relies on us to be His hands and feet, and we can’t do that if non-believers can’t trust us to do what we say we will do.
Sincerely,
A believer who desperately wants to see the role of Pastor be restored to God’s original intent.
royb
Book Review: You Were Born For This: Seven Keys to a Life of Predictable Miracles
// September 22nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Book Reviews, Relevant Faith
His New York Times phenomenon The Prayer of Jabez changed how millions pray. Now Bruce Wilkinson wants to change what they do next.
Anyone can do a good deed, but some good works can only happen by a direct intervention from God. Around the world these acts are called miracles—not that even religious people expect to see one any time soon. But what would happen if millions of ordinary people walked out each morning expecting God to deliver a miracle through them to a person in need? You Were Born for This starts with the dramatic premise that everyone at all times is in need of a miracle, and that God is ready to meet those needs supernaturally through ordinary people who are willing to learn the “protocol of heaven.”
In the straightforward, story-driven, highly motivating style for which he is known, Wilkinson describes how anyone can be a “Delivery Guy” from heaven in such universally significant arenas of life as finances, practical help, relationships, purpose, and spiritual growth.
You Were Born for This will change how readers see their world, and what they expect God can do through them to meet real needs. They will master seven simple tools of service, and come to say with confidence, “I want to deliver a supernatural gift from God to someone in need today—and I expect to!”
You Were Born For This Can Be Purchased at Amazon.com
Author Bios:
One of the world’s foremost Christian teachers, Bruce Wilkinson is best known as the author of the New York Times #1 bestseller The Prayer of Jabez. He is also the author of numerous other bestsellers, including A Life God Rewards, Secrets of the Vine, and The Dream Giver. Over the past three decades, Wilkinson has founded several global initiatives, including organizations that recruited and trained thousands of Americans to address hunger, AIDS, and poverty in Africa. Bruce and his wife, Darlene, have three children and six grandchildren. They live outside Atlanta.
David Kopp has collaborated with Bruce Wilkinson on over a dozen bestselling books, including The Prayer of Jabez. He is an editor and writer living in Colorado.
Book Review: If God is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil
// September 22nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Book Reviews, Relevant Faith
Every one of us will experience suffering. Many of us are experiencing it now. As we have seen in recent years, evil is real in our world, present and close to each one of us.
In such difficult times, suffering and evil beg questions about God–Why would an all-good and all-powerful God create a world full of evil and suffering? And then, how can there be a God if suffering and evil exist?
These are ancient questions, but also modern ones as well. Atheists such as Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and even former believers like Bart Ehrman answer the question simply: The existence of suffering and evil proves there is no God.
In this captivating new book, best-selling author Randy Alcorn challenges the logic of disbelief, and brings a fresh, realistic, and thoroughly biblical insight to the issues these important questions raise.
Alcorn offers insights from his conversations with men and women whose lives have been torn apart by suffering, and yet whose faith in God burns brighter than ever. He reveals the big picture of who God is and what God is doing in the world–now and forever. And he equips you to share your faith more clearly and genuinely in this world of pain and fear.
As he did in his best-selling book, Heaven, Randy Alcorn delves deep into a profound subject, and through compelling stories, provocative questions and answers, and keen biblical understanding, he brings assurance and hope to all.
You Can Buy it Here, Amazon.com
Author Bio:
Randy Alcorn is the founder and director of Eternal Perspectives Ministries and a bestselling author. His novels include Deadline, Dominion, Edge of Eternity, Lord Foulgrin’s Letters, The Ishbane Conspiracy, and the Gold Medallion winner, Safely Home. He has written eighteen nonfiction books as well, including Heaven, The Treasure Principle, The Purity Principle, and The Grace and Truth Paradox. Randy and his wife, Nanci, live in Oregon and have two married daughters and four grandsons.
royb
Kiss Me Again: Restoring Lost Intimacy in Marriage Book Review
// September 21st, 2009 // No Comments » // Book Reviews, Relevant Faith, society in general
If you’ve ever wondered why God says not to have sex before we are married, Kiss Me Again: Restoring Lost Intimacy In Marriage, by Barbara Wilson, answers your question, and it addresses all the obstacles women face when they decide not to wait for marriage before they have their first sexual experience. In Song of Songs 2:7, we are instructed not to “awaken love until the time is right”. Why? Because there is an actual Invisible Bond that forms when two people share a sexual encounter.
The whole gist of the book is why women, who couldn’t resist sex before they were married, now that they have tied the knot, don’t want to anymore. It talks about why that happens and what to do about it. The thing that struck me the most is the fact that there is an actual reason for it. It is something that is fixable, women don’t have to live that way.
She uses actual real-life examples. Kiss Me Again addresses different problems or obstacles that women face in their sexual relationship with their husbands and gives steps for women to follow in order to allow God to begin the healing process.
It talks about the bonds that occur when two people have sex and how it affects the marriage later on. It isn’t just an emotional bond, it is a chemical bond that can bring serious, unneeded, baggage into a marriage.
No matter what is in your sexual past, God can heal your wounds and restore you marriage. God can heal the sexual issues you are struggling with in marriage. He can reignite your desire and deepen your emotional bond with your husband. (Barbara Wilson)
I recommend this book for anyone who has the desire for a deeper “physical and emotional closeness with their mates.”
In Kiss Me Again, Wilson:
· Shares her own story of healing and renewed desire
· Helps women forgive themselves and their husbands for past choices
· Shows readers how to break free from “invisible bonds”
· Explains God’s plan for helping a husband and wife to re-bond
· Includes conversation helps for both wives and their husbands
· Helps couples reignite the passion that they thought was lost
Barbara Wilson is the author of The Invisible Bond and former director of sexual health education for the Alternatives Pregnancy Resource Center in Sacramento. She speaks nationwide to youth and adults with her message of sexual healing, and she teaches frequently in the women’s ministry at the multi-campus Bayside Church in Northern California. Barbara and her husband, Eric, have been married for twenty-eight years.
Just a Quick Roybauer.com Update
// September 16th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
I looked at the numbers for this blog today. Roybauer.com has been active for just over a year now and, if anyone is curious, I’m going to post the total number of visits, number of unique visitors, total pages that have been viewed and the number of countries that they’ve come from.
Total Times this Site has been Visited: 2,381
Total Number of Unique Visitors: 653
Total Pages that have been Viewed: 7,845
Total Number of Countries People have Visited From: 45
That’s the yearly update. We’ll do it again, September 2010.
Roy Bauer
The Book That Made America: How The Bible Formed Our Nation
// September 7th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // Book Reviews, Relevant Faith
There is much debate going on about what principles the United States of America was founded. Was it founded by a bunch of capitalists who just happened to be moralists? Or, was it founded on Judeo/Christian principles that were established thousands of years earlier in the Bible? You would think this would be a no-brainer, but somehow atheists (and others) have their own version of why there are so many references to God and the Bible in the early writings and lives of our founding fathers.
In his book, The Book That Made America: How the Bible Formed Our Nation, Jerry Newcombe sets out to prove that our nation was indeed founded on Christian principles, and it is those same principles that we’ve strayed away from.
royb
The Book That Made America: How the Bible Formed Our Nation (Nordskog Publishing) by Jerry Newcombe is a definitive volume on the Christian roots of our nation. Those who want to restore knowledge of our Christian heritage have their work cut out. As secularism continues its stranglehold on American education, we move further and further away from retaining our Christian roots. The Book That Made America will challenge anyone to know the true origin of our Nation and to fight to keep it. Newcombe hopes to educate Americans by providing the facts of history, proving that America began as a Christian nation and American’s have every right to preserve and uphold that heritage.
All that is positive in our foundation can be traced back to the Scriptures. Recently, President Obama declared that America is not a Christian nation, while Newsweek announced the demise of Christian America. This book is the answer to America’s critics with the facts of history.
Click here to buy this book at Amazon.com
And/Or
You can win a free copy. I have one copy to giveaway to someone. Leave a reply stating why you think this book would be a good read and I’ll pick one entry to send a free book to.
Jerry Newcombe, D. Min., is senior producer for Coral Ridge Ministries and has produced or coproduced more than fifty documentaries. The host of two weekly radio shows, he has also been a guest on numerous television and radio talk shows – including Fox Business News, C-Span, USA Radio and Moody Radio. He is the author or coauthor of twenty two books, including with Dr. Kennedy, What If Jesus Had Never Been Born?, How Would Jesus Vote?, and The Presence of a Hidden God.
A Letter from Dr. Charles Hull Wolfe
President, Plymouth Rock Foundation
Dear Christian Friend,
Recently President Barak Obama, while on a trip abroad and without giving the matter sufficient thought, casually declared that the United States is not a Christian nation. If the President had been a little more analytical, and especially if he’d read the remarkable new book you now hold in your hands, in all probability he would never have made such a statement. For page after page, from the beginning to the end, The Book that Made America by the gifted and scholarly Dr. Jerry Newcombe tells us America was born a Christian nation and has been one ever since.
This book begins by exploring America’s Christian roots with the Bible as the country’s basic textbook, the Bible’s law and covenant illustrated in the lives of the Pilgrims and the Mayflower Compact, becoming our guide to individual self-government, structured constitutionalism, and a free market. If you turn all the way back to this book’s Appendix, what do you discover? The United States Supreme Court made it official: America Is a Christian Nation!
No matter what books you now own about our Christian history, I encourage you to get this one! – for an adult Sunday School or Teen Sunday School, for your pastor, or simply for your own edification. Become a more knowledgeable Christian citizen! After you learn about the significance of the Pilgrims, come visit their home in Plymouth. — CHW
Praise for The Book That Made America…
Say that America is a Christian nation and you’ll be brought up on hate crime charges – or at least thought an ignoramus. But what are the facts of history? The Book That Made America demonstrates that there once was a Book even more integral to this nation than Al Gore’s Earth in the Balance. I recommend Dr. Newcombe’s book highly!
— Ann Coulter, New York Times #1 Author
The Book That Made America is a most welcome addition to the growing literature that documents the foundational and pivotal role that the Bible played in the founding of our nation and the forming of our government. Dr. Jerry Newcombe combines accurate scholarship and careful analysis with engaging writing. This arsenal of historic wisdom from our Judeo-Christian heritage should be in your library. If you have funds to buy only one book on this topic, this is the one!
— Peter A. Lillback, Ph.D. Prof. of Historical Theology, Pres., Westminster Theological Seminary, Pres., The Providence Forum, Sr. Pastor, Proclamation Presbyterian Church, Bryn Mywr, PA
Historical revisionism is alive and well in our nation’s classrooms and in the media. So what has been the Bible’s role in American history? It certainly had a profound impact on the founding of this country as well as in the framing of the government. And where did we go astray as a nation? How can we return to our Biblical roots? Jerry Newcombe answers these and many other questions in The Book That Made America. Read this book to learn the history our nation has forgotten.
— Kerby Anderson, National Director, Probe Ministries International, Host of “Point of View,” USA Radio Network, and author of many books and articles
Jerry Newcombe has created a masterpiece of apologetics that skillfully portrays the power of Scripture in the transformation of the American wilderness into the world’s first Christian constitutional republic. His writing is profound and well documented, yet easy to read. This great book will become a timeless educational resource that catapults the centrality of Christ and His Word back to the heart of our civilization where it belongs.
— Marshall Foster, D.D. Founder and Pres., The Mayflower Institute and World History Institute, Speaker, and Coauthor of The American Covenant: The Untold Story, Thousand Oaks, CA
In The Book That Made America, Jerry Newcombe quickly cuts through the fog of agenda driven rhetoric to give a brilliant and unbiased examination of what made America unique among the nations of the world. Jerry’s commanding knowledge of history provides clear and undeniable evidence that the Bible was a key formative influence in America’s culture, economy, and form of government.
— William J. Federer Best-selling author and speaker, nationally known radio host on AmericanMinute.com, Pres., Amerisearch, Inc., St. Louis, Missouri
Jerry Newcombe has furnished Christian believers with a major weapon for the moral and spiritual civil war we are waging for the soul of America. He carefully provides us in a readable and engaging way with quotable evidence of the Christian roots of our nation. This book should be in the home of every American patriot.
— Peter J. Marshall Evangelist, speaker, and co-author of best-selling books, including The Light and the Glory, Cape Cod, MA
America is Waking Up and Liberals Are Scared
// August 28th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
If you follow this blog, you’ll know that I’m not scared to share my opinion on something, but I rarely go all out. However, when I feel I have to, I will. This is one of those times.
You can call it a prediction or an observance, but what I’m about to share is happening and will only get worse with time, unless something drastic takes place.
America is becoming more and more divided by the day. I can feel it, like an undercurrent, and it is getting stronger.
Like a soft rumble, the volcano that is America, is about to explode.
For years, the conservatives have been in some sort of major leadership position in this country. Whether it was the presidency during Reagan and the Bush’s or the Legislation during Clinton, conservatives have had a voice –albeit, small at times– for the past 29 years or so. There has been some sort of accountability for the those with a liberal agenda and that’s kept this country from nose-diving into irrelevance.
America has prospered for the past 30 years and have had relative calm between the people. But, since Obama was elected, this country has become more divided than I can ever remember. And it has happened fast.
For years, liberals have attacked everything that conservatives have done and, for the most part, the conservatives have just accepted it and let it go. Political ads compared Bush to the Joker and Hitler. But, it was all coming from one side and the conservatives just shied away from the battle and retreated, for some odd reason. Maybe they were scared. Maybe the conservative leadership were pansies, who knows? The point is: for the past nearly 30 years, liberals have had free run to bully anyone who disagreed with them and no one took them to task. And out of that, has come the biased slant towards liberal thought for most major networks and news organization.
But, the conservatives are getting their collective voice back and they are starting to make some noise. They have finally had enough and have decided to take their country back. America electing the most liberal politician ever, was a wake-up call for the people of America. In poll after poll, you can see that Obama’s approval rating is dropping like a rock. In a recent Gallup poll it says:
PRINCETON, NJ — Barack Obama’s latest job approval rating is 51%, according to Aug. 23-25 Gallup Daily tracking. Should his rating continue its downward trend and fall below 50%, he would — like most post-World War II presidents — have less-than-majority approval at some point in his presidency. However, Obama, in his eighth month in office, could hit this mark in a shorter time than has typically been the case. If his rating falls below 50% before November, it would represent the third-fastest drop to below majority approval since World War II, behind the declines for Gerald Ford (in his third month as president) and Bill Clinton (in his fourth month).
We, as Americans, have done some weird things –like voting for Obama in the first place— but the fog is lifting and the rumble is growing louder. Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) said recently in The Express-Star, “People are not buying these concepts that are completely foreign to America," Inhofe said. "We’re almost reaching a revolution in this country.”
But like any revolution, there will be opposition. And the liberals aren’t going down without a fight. Like never before, the animosity towards the American people and the country itself, is under attack. Bill Maher (a rabid-liberal) in an interview with Wolf Blitzer said:
BILL MAHER: I don’t know about a presidential candidate but I would never put anything past this stupid country.
…
BLITZER: So people are already complaining that you’re calling the United States a stupid country and I’m giving you a chance to clarify.
MAHER: I don’t need to clarify. It is.
As a conservative, I’ve know for years that liberals felt this way. That for some odd reason they hate the country they live in. I, for the life of me, can’t figure out why. But, if America is so stupid and ignorant, I’m sure Venezuela or Cuba or China would love to have you. Just be careful not to get trampled by all of the people leaving there for a chance for a real life here in America.
People, listen. It is only going to get worse. As the True, American voice starts to reverberate across the country, the liberals will fight it with all that is in them. And that, my friend, will be ugly and hate-filled.
We already have a president who has called the police “stupid” for arresting a black man. There is a liberal governor (N.Y.) who says he is being attacked because he is black (ABC News). Liberal pundits are calling America stupid. Liberal politicians are shoving, literally, health care reform down our throat, knowing good and well the people of America don’t want it. Not because we don’t want everyone to have health insurance, but because government run anything is a bad idea. Go ahead, cutoff the free market in America and see where that leads us. Stymie the American entrepreneurial spirit and see what happens.
As an American, are you ready to fight for what you believe in? Are you ready to, for once, take a stand and not let crack-pot, liberal theology bring down a once, great nation. Then please, let your voice be heard. Let your political leaders know how you feel. Learn how you can get involved and make a difference.
Roy Bauer
Concerned Citizen
Book Review: Deadlock by Al and Joanna Lacy
// August 25th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
The Zarbo brothers are seasoned outlaws with a reputation for killing. Already wanted in two states, they set their sights on Colorado and a string of bank robberies. They don’t count on running into Chief U.S. Marshal John Brockman.
John arrests Lee Zarbo, but his brothers remain in hiding. Lee’s sentence to death by hanging incites them to desperate measures. They’ll do anything to get him out alive. Even kidnap the Chief U.S. Marshal’s daughter.
When John learns of his young daughter’s captivity and the conditions for her release, he must turn to the Lord for direction. It takes all the faith he can muster to wait for the answer. Without freeing a dangerous criminal, can John find Ginny before they kill her?
Al Lacy is an evangelist and author of more than one hundred historical and Western novels, including the Journeys of the Stranger, Angel of Mercy, and Mail Order Bride series, with more than three million books in print. JoAnna Lacy, Al’s wife and longtime collaborator, is a retired nurse. The Lacys have been married over forty years and live in the Colorado Rockies
You Can Buy The Book At: Amazon.com
royb
Book Review: Meltdown by Chuck Holton
// August 17th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
If you love techie, adventure, military, guy movies or books, Meltdown is for you. From the very beginning, this book is full of adventure. With adrenaline pouring out of the pages, Meltdown seeks to take the reader on an adventure from one end of the world to the other.
The story follows an elite group of Special Ops guys (and girls) as they track down a serious, very deadly threat to the world. With traces back to Chernobyl in the Ukraine, this weapon has the potential to bring the U.S. to its knees.
I admired the writing style because the author, Chuck Holton, was able to bring adventure and excitement to the reader without becoming provocative or disgusting. In many books and movies, writers use every chance they get to include either a sex scene or a decapitation, in order to shock the readers or viewers. Chuck Holton keeps us on the edge of our seats with plenty of action to go around, and doesn’t stoop to that level.
The book is fairly short but you really have to pay attention to keep up with all that is going on. The only concern I had were the amount of characters and how often it jumped back and forth from scene to another. But, if you can keep up with it, it is well worth it.
I would suggest reading the first two books of this series, but this book does stand on its own and can be enjoyed anyway. Mr. Holton does elude back to things that happened in those books, but if you haven’t read them, like I haven’t, it won’t deter you from keeping up with this one.
Summary:
TASK FORCE VALOR
Explosive Ordnance Disposal — The Bomb Squad
The global war on terror has reached catastrophic proportions, leading the U.S. Special Operations EOD team—Task Force Valor—to Chernobyl, where ghosts of past disasters are nothing compared to the nuclear nightmare about to unfold.
With CIA Agent Mary “Phoenix” Walker heading her first Special Ops mission and Master Sergeant Bobby Sweeney fighting demons on and off the battlefield, Task Force Valor races to stop a terrorist threat in the Ukraine before Europe is turned into a radioactive wasteland.
But when the terror reaches American shores, the team is powerless to help until they can save themselves. And when they finally track down the source of the chaos, what they find is worse than anything they could have imagined.
Chuck Holton has traveled the world, experienced combat, served in the Elite 75th Ranger Regiment, and is the author of six books, including Allah’s Fire, Island Inferno, Bulletproof, Stories From a Soldier’s Heart, and A More Elite Soldier. His journeys have taken him from the depths of the Atlantic, to the mountains of Burma, from the dogsleds of Alaska, to skies of Iraq. Chuck lives in Appalachia with his wife, Connie, and their five children.
You can purchase the book at online at: Amazon.com
royb
Cycling Devotion: Follow My Example
// August 15th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized
When I first started riding a bike rather seriously, I was lucky enough that a local bike shop owner kind of took me under his wing. Not that I was any different than anyone else, he just knew that if he showed me some things there was a good chance I would keep riding and not stop, like many people do.
Well, 2 1/2 years later I’m still riding.
As I began doing longer rides and bigger group rides, two things became very obvious: I had to learn how to ride in a group and how to refuel as I rode. Paul, the bike shop owner, talked with me for a long time, numerous times, and I got the gist of it, but I still felt like something was off. He said I had to learn how to eat on a bike and how to pull (lead) on a bike.
His solution, which was fantastic and Biblical (but he doesn’t know that part) was for me to follow him. He told me to ride with him and when he eats I eat, when he drinks I drink, and when he points out something on the road, I need to take notice and learn to spot it as well.
Paul knew that talking was good but probably not the best way of communicating, so he took time out of his very busy day to literally teach me how to ride a bike properly.
On these rides, and there were a couple, I learned how to signal for a pedestrian, how to tell someone I’m slowing down, how to tell someone I’m passing someone else, how to slow down without out causing a sudden stop for the guy right on my wheel. But he also showed me how often to drink and eat and how to do it efficiently, without losing momentum. I also learned how to draft properly and how far away to be from the tire in front of me, and I learned where to draft (echelon) when the wind is blowing.
Everyone can learn these things in time by riding with groups and picking up little stuff here and there, but Paul wanted me to be the best rider I could be and the best way to do that was to have me follow him and do what he did.
It’s a Biblical Principle
God put Adam and Eve on earth and had a glorious, personal relationship with them, and they sinned. God has been trying to reestablish that relationship ever since. Through Noah, after the flood, then Abraham and then Moses with the commandments, He has given us every chance to be the people He created from the beginning. But we kept turning our backs on God and put how other people see us over our true identity. (i.e. Pharisees and Sadducees)
So, God sent His only son to earth to be the sacrificial lamb, the perfect sacrifice. And in doing so, Jesus lived on earth for 33 years dealing with heartache, abandonment, chastisement, loneliness and loved ones being sick. And through all of that, He taught (showed) us how to handle situations. And if that wasn’t enough, when he went back up to the Father, the Holy Spirit was sent to live inside of us to teach and guide us along the way.
Not only do we have the Bible to tell us what God has for us, we also have a guide that is with us 24/7 showing us as well.
Well, like I said, my bike friend Paul was teaching me a Biblical principle and didn’t even know it. If I will allow God to mold me and shape me into the person He created me to be, I will learn much faster and perhaps skip a lot of mistakes.
If I simply do as what I see Jesus do and act the way Jesus acted, I’ll be fine. And how do I know what Jesus does and how He acted…..read the Bible.
royb
