KKLA Magazine - Issue 3

Life is full of storms. For the Fuller family of Simi Valley, it occurred Septem-ber 12th when their father, Walt, did not make it home on Metrolink train #111.

How did the Fuller family cope with this storm? In their pastor’s words “they dealt with their loss with many tears and with the peace of God.” They will sorely miss their husband and father, but the Fullers know Walt is rejoicing today in the presence of God. And with that confidence they are experiencing supernatural peace when many are falling apart.

What a difference it makes when we go through storms in the hands of God. Je-sus said “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you: not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled.” (John 14:27)

So how can we prepare for the unexpected storms of life that are coming our way? We build a foundation of faith now before the trials come.

The biggest lie that satan whispers in our mind is that God’s word cannot be trusted. It started in the garden when the serpent told Eve “Has God indeed said ‘you shall not eat of every tree in the garden?’ ” If our confidence can be shaken in God’s word, then our whole life will fall like a house of cards.

Here’s a promise that I hold onto when trials hit me: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your re-quests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all under-standing, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7).

I pray and believe (by faith) God’s word despite my fears and feelings. My prayer goes something like this:

“Father, I feel very anxious and fearful right now. You have commanded me to not be anxious, and You have promised to give me peace when I pray and cry out earnestly and humbly to You. Even though my mind does not understand how this situation is going to resolve itself, I choose now to believe by faith that You love me and have me in Your hands. So Lord I thank You in advance for giving

me Your peace.”

Perhaps the best instruction for weathering storms comes in Jesus’ instructions to his disciples:

“Therefore whoever hears these words of Mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock; and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall; for it was founded on the rock.” (Matthew 7:24-25)

Storms are temporary, but we will stand and triumph because we know the final outcome: we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us! (Romans 8: 37)

04 KKLA Magazine Issue 3

Terry Fahy, Vice President/

General Manager

When the storm comes

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p.18

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KKLA Magazine Issue 3 05

In this issue...I S S U E 3

06 | Character: It’s been buried long enough

14 | KKLA 2008 Program Guide

18 | Believing God

24 | Matt Damon, Sarah Palin, Dinosaurs and “Divine Deception”

by Charles R. Swindoll

by RC Sproul

by Frank Pastore

p u r p o s eEnduring Truth with Pastor Paul Sheppard

Weekdays 12:30pm on 99.5 FM

To challenge and inspire America to know God’s

son, apply God’s word, and fulfill God’s purpose.

BY CHARLES R. SWINDOLL

It’s been buried long enoughCharacter:

onsider the words of Sol-omon: “He who walks in integrity walks securely, but he who perverts his ways will be found out” (Proverbs 10:9). Before reading on, go back and read that again.

By the time Job had reared his family, estab-lished himself in the business world, and got-ten up in years, he had become “the greatest of all the men of the east” (Job 1:3).

Joseph became Potiphar’s personal servant and later was put in charge over all Potiphar owned (Genesis 39:5). Whether before the workers or handling large sums of money or serving a large group of guests or all alone in the home with Mrs. Potiphar, Joseph could be trusted.

Daniel also comes to mind. He came up for promotion to prime minister, and those who envied him “began trying to find a ground of accusation against Daniel” (Daniel 6:4). No dirt. They struck out. After every attempt to dig up some questionable issue, “they could find no ground of accusation or evidence of cor-ruption” anywhere (6:4). Like Job and Joseph, Daniel walked securely in his integrity. He never feared being “found out.”

What is it that these men had in common? Perfection? No, each person I have named was far from perfect. Easy times? Hardly. A closer look will reveal heartaches and hardships that would make your head swim. Well, how about an impressive presence, carefully choreo-graphed by a public-image department? Don’t make me laugh. So, how about slick rhetoric? Wrong again. We can dream up a half dozen

C[ ARTICLE ]


Character:

other possibilities that some might suggest, but they would be as far off target as the four I’ve mentioned.

What they had in common was character. Each man I have selected from the Scriptures had high moral character. It is easy to overlook that essential ingredient among leaders in our times . . . especially during an election year.

Unfortunately, we have grown ac-customed to shrugging off secre-tive and deceptive lifestyles. We have heard so often that finding people who value honesty and model responsibility, who pro-mote fairness, accountability, loyalty, and respect for others, and who hold to strong, upright convictions is not realistic. As one air-headed soul said recently, “We’re voting for president, not pope.” To such an analogy I reply, “Hogwash.”

Call me old-fashioned or idealis-tic if you wish, but my passion-ate plea is that we unearth and restore the concept of character. It’s been buried long enough. It belongs first on our list when

searching for employees in the workplace. It must be a nonne-gotiable among those we place into leadership positions in our schools, our cities, our state . . . and, absolutely, in our churches and in our nation. Character is what wholesome parents strive to cultivate in their children. It is what great moms and dads look for and long for among those their teenagers date. It is the founda-

tional quality that all of us expect from the circle of professionals and laborers who serve us. We may not say it every time, but deep down in our souls, we long for and expect character. When it is lacking, we feel it; we resent it. Character is the ìgivenî in great-ness.

Then why, may I ask, is it so seldom mentioned? Could it be because most have come to be-lieve we have no right to expect it? After all, “nobody’s perfect.”

It is character we require, I repeat, not perfection. From our nation’s beginnings, back when great men and women, albeit imperfect, occupied places of lead-


Call me old-fashioned or idealistic if you wish, but my passionate plea is that we un-

earth and restore the concept of character.

It’s been buried long enough.

With a two story house full of aluminum windows, Bill and Kathleen, owners of American Vision Windows, were constantly bat-tling drastic temperature difference between upstairs and downstairs. Also, with a new baby in the house, they were tired of always feeling a draft near his crib. Seeking a resolution, they embarked on a window buy-ing adventure, just as you may be about to do. Unfortunately, what should have been a pleasant and exciting experi-ence, turned out to be nothing short of a stressful disaster. After three months of contractors showing up late or not at all, and having many calls avoided, they became disgrun-tled and disappointed customers. The only positive outcome is that Bill and Kathleen were inspired to create what would eventually become the largest window sales and installation company in California, and one of the largest in the nation.

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American Vision Windows is a faith-based family owned business that began with the sole purpose of revo-lutionizing the window installation industry. They began, just as you are now, as customers, seeking informa-tion about something they had heard little about, “vinyl windows”.If you have old wood, aluminum or even vi-nyl windows, and enjoy saving money and the feeling of a well insulated, secure, efficient home, then you may be in the market for new vinyl windows and doors from American Vision Windows.

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ership, public officials exhibited true virtue . . . dignity, self-mastery, resoluteness, determination, strength of will, moral purity, personal integrity, and sacrificial patriotism. They were selected and elected because they were examples in public leadership and in private life. Because some have failed to live up to the minimal standard has not changed the ideal.

Solomon was right. Those with integrity walk securely . . . with no fear of being “found out.” If men such as Job and Joseph and Daniel could demonstrate character in the worst of times, you and I can do so now—today.

And because we can, we must.

U Hear Insight for Living with Charles R. Swindoll weekdays at 7am & 8:30pm on 99.5 FM

Insight For Living with Chuck Swindoll

Weekdays at 7am & 8:30pm on 99.5 FM

Committed to excellence in communicating the truths of Scripture and the person of

Jesus Christ.

Adapted from Charles R. Swindoll, “Buried Long Enough,” in The Finishing Touch: Becoming God’s Masterpiece (Dal-las: Word, 1994), 332–34. Copyright © 1994 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.


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believing

god

[ ARTICLE ]

RC Sproul

believing

god

e live in an age of spin and propa-ganda. We no lon-

ger weigh careful arguments and reach our conclusions judiciously. Instead, we inhabit what one cultural critic called a “sensate culture.” We do not think, we feel. We do not decide, we choose. We do not deliberate, we do. Our choices are made for us by the master manipulators. They tell us through images, through associa-tions, but never through logic, what toothpaste we will use, what shoes we will wear, and what party we will vote for.

Consider, for a moment, our own self-image. Christians, in the West at least, tend to see them-selves in terms of cultural trade-offs. We may not, we reason, be as smart as the unbelievers, but we are nicer. We may not be quite as sophisticated as the unbeliev-ing intellectual crowd, but we are cleaner. We may not read their highbrow authors, attend their ponderous films, or frequent their trendy galleries. But we read nice, clean historical romance novels, watch rapture-fever mov-ies, and have paintings of nice, warm cottages hanging over our mantels.

There is some truth to this self-image. After all, has not the apostle Paul told us, “For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the

flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things that are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence” (1 Cor. 1:26–29 NKJV). For those of you keeping score, that’s us — we are the foolish, the weak, the ignoble, the despised.

Fools that we are, we sometimes seek to undo this arrangement. We look across the battlefield at the seed of the serpent. We see their sophistication, their wisdom, their nobility, their strength, and we seek to imitate them. We think that in order to win the debate, we need first to win their approval, to demon-strate to those outside the prom-ises of God that we are just as together, just as hip as they are. We take our gnawing hunger for approval and baptize it, turning it into being “all things to all men” (1 Cor. 9:22).

We have need of two things. First, we must jettison this approach to winning the lost. We will never “cool” anyone into the kingdom. The more we pander to them, the more we persuade them that they are what really matters. The more we mimic them, the more they delight to see themselves in our mirror. The more we become like them, well, the more we become like them. We end up, as

W


we seek to shine our own lights, under a bushel. We become savor-less salt, good for nothing but being trodden underfoot.

Second, we need to have a better, more biblical understanding of those with whom we are dealing. The image shows us learned men and women, sitting in endowed chairs at prestigious universi-ties. They have letters after their names. We pay tens of thousands of dollars a year to have our chil-dren listen to them. They appear on C-Span and PBS. They write

for The New York Times Book Review, as well as writing books reviewed therein. They are gradu-ates of elite universities, and now teach at elite universities. And God says that they are fools. The new atheists are, in the end, not appreciably different from the old ones, of whom God said, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Ps. 14:1). Their image is power and glamour. The reality is that they are mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging rubes. We, when we enter into the arena of truth, are not facing Goliath. We are not coming face to face with the chariots of Pharaoh. Instead we do battle with frightened and foolish little children who already

know what we are seeking to prove.

As Christians called to seek first the kingdom of God — to make known the glory, the power, and the beauty of the reign of Jesus Christ over all things — we must do far less than trying to fit their image of what it means to be urbane, but we must do far more than merely believing in God. Instead, we are called to believe God. He is the one who says they are fools. He is the one who says that in Christ we are more than conquerors (Rom. 8:37). Our call-ing is to be as unmoved by their image as we are by their “argu-ments.” Both are mere folly.

Jesus told us to set our worries aside. Wherever we find our-selves, whether we are walking through the valley of the shadow of death or engaged in the battle of ideas on Mars Hill, we ought have no fear. He, after all, is with us, even unto the end of the age. Our calling is not to seek grand victories. He will not, after all, share His glory with another. Our calling is fundamentally simple — to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Then, and only then, will all these things be added unto us. May God grant wisdom to His fools, that by them more fools might be brought into His kingdom.

We must do far less than try to fit their image of what it means to be ur-bane. We must do far

more than merely believe in God. Instead, we are

called to believe God. He is the one who says they

are fools.

U Hear R.C. Sproul on “Renewing Your Mind” weekdays at 12:00 Noon on

99.5 FM. From Ligonier Ministries and R.C. Sproul © Tabletalk Magazine.

www.ligonier.org/tabletalk | [email protected] | 1(800)435-4343


FINISHED

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n Sep-tember 10, 2008, a video of actor Matt Da-mon was released to the press that

quickly got posted on YouTube, and has now gotten over two mil-lion hits. Here’s what he said:

I think there’s a really good chance that Sarah Palin could

be president, and I think that’s a really scary thing because I don’t know anything about her. I don’t think in eight weeks I’m gonna know anything about her. I know that she was a mayor of a re-ally, really small town, and she’s governor of Alaska for less than two years. I just don’t understand. I think the pick was made for political purposes, but in terms of governance, it’s a disaster. You do the actuary tables, you know, there’s a one out of three chance, if not more, that McCain doesn’t survive his first term, and it’ll


O

Matt Damon, Sarah Palin, Dinosaurs & “Divine Deception”

[ ARTICLE ]

By Frank PastoreHost of The Frank Pastore Show heard weekdays at 4pm on 99.5FM KKLA

be President Palin. And it really, you know, I was talking about it earlier, it’s like a really bad Dis-ney movie, you know, the hockey mom, you know, “I’m just a hockey mom from Alaska”—and she’s the president. And it’s like she’s facing down Vladimir Putin and, you know, using the folksy stuff she learned at the hockey rink, you know, it’s just absurd. It’s totally absurd, and I don’t understand why more people aren’t talking about how absurd it is. I ... it’s a really terrifying possibility.

The fact that we’ve gotten this far and we’re that close to this being a reality is crazy. Crazy. I mean, did she really—I need to know if

she really thinks dinosaurs were here 4,000 years ago. That’s an important … I want to know that. I really do. Because she’s gonna have the nuclear codes, you know. I wanna know if she thinks dino-saurs were here 4,000 years ago or if she banned books or tried to ban books. I mean, you know, we can’t have that.

Before I was a Christian, I could have easily said the same kind of things as Matt Damon. In fact, I probably did say similar things, often—and especially to Christians. Like: “How can these

people believe in things like, ‘in the beginning God,’ Adam and Eve, Noah’s ark and that man walked around with dinosaurs a few thousand years ago?” I can still hear myself mocking Christi-anity as I type on my laptop.

But the truth is, Matt Damon, like so many people (and like me) was probably never given a chance to hear the case for Chris-tianity. A sizable cross-section of our country hears only the case against Christianity—presented in nearly every classroom across America, from grammar school to university. Matt Damon has the added benefit of his “education” within the Hollywood elite.

Generally speaking, Matt is opposed to anyone who is not a liberal. Therefore, he’s opposed to anyone opposed to Obama. But he claims to oppose Sarah Palin due to her lack of experience and her young earth views. I bet he’d be bothered by me having the nuclear codes as well. I, too, be-lieve the earth is thousands—not millions—of years old. But I don’t believe many Christians today be-lieve in a strict 4,000-year age of the earth. That number is rooted in something known as Ussher’s chronology from the 17th century,


Matt Damon, like so many people (and like me) was probably never

given a chance to hear the case for Christianity.

Our Curriculum Will Lead Your Small Groups Through Transformation

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RAD-IO.pdf 9/24/08 4:19:23 PM


in which James Ussher argued the date of creation was October 23, 4004 B.C. It has now been discredited.

Let me say that most of the Chris-tian leaders and pastors I know are “young earthers” who also believe the earth is thousands, not millions, of years old. There are a number of “old earthers” that I still respect. I just disagree

with them. What I especially oppose are the improper motives of people on both sides who say, essentially, “It’s got to be my way or it’s heresy.” I know young earthers who say, “If you believe the earth is more than 10,000 years old, then you’re not taking the Bible literally, you probably don’t believe in inerrancy and you might not even really be saved.” I’ve met old earthers who say, “If you don’t believe the Earth is billions of years old, then you’re rejecting God’s second book—that of general revelation—and since you’re unwilling to synthesize your beliefs about theology with the facts of science, then you’re the Christian equivalent of a flat earther or a Holocaust denier.

There are good cases to be made for both sides. And, based upon evidence and argument, I could be persuaded out of my young earth position. In my view noth-ing essential rests upon it. I can believe in a young man on and old earth thesis (as does Hugh Ross), and have no problem with it bibli-cally or scientifically. I’m just not there.

Let’s face it, the impetus for the “old man, old earth” thesis is the time necessary for man to evolve from an ape. But, if you believe God created man a few thousand years ago, then all the skull and tooth fragments from any alleged “missing link” (that’s still miss-ing) will never prove modern man is the descendant of apes. It can only prove similar design, not common descent.

The biggest problem for my young earth view is the age of light and, in critical terms, what I call the level of “the divine deception.” Ask a Christian junior high group if God can make trees out of noth-ing and you’ll get a quick agree-ment. Ask them to suppose that God creates a giant sequoia right

They’d prefer to believe there is no “deception” - that the universe is

billions of years old (the earth too) and perhaps that man is millions of

years old rather than thousands.


in front of them right now. Ask if the tree would have bark, limbs, roots, and leaves. Again, a hearty yes. Then ask about whether there would be tree rings inside and some of the kids drop off. Why? Because tree rings mean time and time can’t have trans-pired if He just created the tree in front of you. Ask those who accept the tree rings why they think so, and you’ll hear, “Because God can create with the appearance of age.”

In fact, there’s almost nothing you can think of that doesn’t have the “tree ring” element to it. To create something means you must give it an age—and it always could have been younger. Even light. I’m no astrophysicist, but I read that light itself has ele-ments of age to it and that distant starlight has these elements of decay or age. I used to say about distant starlight that “God had created the light in transit”—and I was intellectually satisfied, with no reservations. Now, however, I learn that the divine deception extends to the atomic level; the light is “aged” at the level of infin-itesimal minutia. For many, that is a level of divine deception too great for their plausibility level. They’d prefer to believe there is no “deception”—that the universe is billions of years old (the earth too) and perhaps that man is millions of years old rather than thousands.

I, on the other hand, prefer to think of it not as deception, but as consistency. Adam could have been created a toddler, those

trees in the Garden could have been seeds and those animals could have been newborns. But none of this would have served God’s perfect will and purposes. He was concerned with the “Who” not the “how.” The repeated refrain in Genesis 1—“and God said”—doesn’t give much detail on the how. God spoke. At the end of his creative work, God looked at it all and saw that “it was very good.” When you have infinite material and infinite energy, the “how” isn’t really an issue.

For me, once I was persuaded there was a Creator, the “how” of the creation became a matter of reduced importance. I wonder if Matt Damon’s God could have created man and the dinosaurs and allowed them to be contempo-raneous. If not, why not?

More than likely, Matt doesn’t believe in God at all. In that case, he’s not really against Sarah Palin—or even Christians. He’s against the Creator himself. U National Religious Broadcast-ers “Talk Show of the Year”, The

Frank Pastore Show is heard weekdays 4-7pm on 99.5 FM.

866-SEEK COUnsel


Frank Pastore

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KKLA Magazine - Issue 3