*Wade heard Dinesh D’Souza’s story dealing with his commitment to the faith and asked him to speak.
This is not a political sermon/statement. Please see it in that light.
This is a church service, not a debate. I found his presentation quite interesting.
For Light to Follow You (440AD) link
O Lord,
direct our steps this day into the way of peace,
and strengthen our hearts to obey your commandments.
May the Dayspring visit us from on high and give light
to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death,
that they may adore you for your mercy,
follow you for your truth, desire you for your sweetness,
for you are the blessed Lord God of Israel, now and forever.
Amen.
For Faithful and Prepared Lives-—Thomas à Kempis
Who can tell what a day may bring forth?
Cause us, therefore, gracious God, to live every day as if it were to be our last,
for that we know not but it may be such.
Cause us to live so at present as we shall wish we had done when we come to die.
O grant that we may not die with any guilt upon our consciences, or any known sin unrepented of,
but that we may be found in Christ, who is our only Saviour and Redeemer.
Amen.
Mozarabic Liturgy link
O Holy Spirit, Comforter,
with the Father and the Son
you live as one God.
Descend to our hearts this day,
that while you make intercession for us,
we may call on our Father with full confidence;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Psalm 1 NIV link
Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.4 Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.
Benediction-—Francis of Assisi
Now to that God, who has suffered so much for us, who at one giving has conferred on us so many good things,
and will yet confer so many more, to this God let every creature who is in heaven or upon the earth,
in the sea or in the depth of the abyss, render praise, glory, honour and blessing.
He is himself our virtue and our strength. He alone is good, lofty, almighty, admirable, and glorious;
the only holy, worthy of praise and blessed through ages of ages.
Amen.
1
Please don’t give serial liar, adulterer, and convicted felon Dinesh D’Souza a platform. Shame on you.
Thanks so much Wade for inviting Dinesh to preach based on his own testimony. I have been listening to so many interviews with him and his own talks and have really liked his stance. I did not know what his spiritual beliefs were until today though. I am so encouraged.
Birds of a fellow actually do flock together.
Paul D.,
Paul D.
Listen to Dinesh. He’s not a pastor. He’s sharing his testimony of faith – how he came to believe in Jesus as the Christ. There are character qualifications for those in the ministry, but the LORD is in the habit of saving serial liars, adulterers, and felons.
King David is an example.
Paul also called himself “the chief of sinners.” It’s difficult for me to feel I am the chief of sinners (which I do) if I’m pointing fingers at others.
Let me know what you think of what he says. I already know what you think of who he is.
No shame at all Paul.
TWW is a free speech and free press enclave.
Beholden to none and safe podium to all.
Paul D.,
Dinesh has repented and spoken openly of his past. Is there no hope for anyone who goes down this path?
dee,
Please don’t, Dee. Dinesh Souza’s twitter is full of inflammatory language about people who disagree with his politics. I do not doubt his faith, but he continues to try to use it as a weapon against those who vote differently than he does.
I agree with Paul D. that giving Dinesh a platform here demonstrates poor judgment. Though Dinesh does not preach the word of God, he is similar to megachurch pastors (NOT serving pastors) because he is a figure with a public speaking platform who depends on a certain self-image to gain followers and earn revenue.
Dinesh should be treated the same as Ravi, Driscoll, Tullian, etc. Is he beyond hope? No. Can he change his spots? I mean, it is a possibility. However, character change, taking responsibility for harmful actions, and healing the harm one has done is hard work that takes years, and should happen it private. It doesn’t deserve a public platform.
You actually had convicted felon Dinesh , serial liar and agitator speak on his ‘faith’? He professes to believe and all his past sins no longer matter? That he is an active participant in the war to divide and anger us against each other does not matter? The Jesus get out of all responsibility card strikes again. You have only furthered the divide by giving this charlatan a platform in the name of small ‘c’ christianity. You are disgusting as he is for this.
dee,
Has he shown any true repentance? No, he continues to lie, continues to divide in service to the most dishonest and traitorous president this country has ever seen. But, as long as he says the right things, not actually mean or practice them, all is well. This is the hypocrisy that drives us out of churches in droves. How is giving cover to this man any different than the churches that cover up abuse?
dee,
Dee, Mr. D’Souza is on Twitter every day using pretty vitriolic language against Christians like me, who did not vote for the candidate he supports. I don’t doubt he is a brother in the faith, but I wish he’d recognize me as a sister.
I would gently encourage those who feel Dinesh should NOT have spoken at Emmanuel Enid to listen to what Dinesh said. Interestingly, several intellectuals who typically don’t “attend” church, came to hear Dinesh. Three of them gave their lives to Christ after listening to Dinesh explain how he came to faith in Jesus Christ. God is able to use frail people with multiple faults to lead sinners to Jesus. I appreciate your comments.
This is not the normal tone for dialogue on TWW. It’s much more like what one finds on FB.
Ken F (aka Tweed),
Call them like I see them, holding up Dinesh D’Souza as an example of Christianity is disgusting. The man will say and do anything to stay relevant and giving him a platform on this site, one that is supposed to be about exposing abuse in the churches, is disgusting. This site is giving D’Souza the same cover as the churches it exposes. Disgusting.
If you knew the half of my sordid history, it sounds like you’d insist that I be thrown out on my keister too.
Respectfully expressing disagreement and rationale is fine. Calling Dee and/or Wade disgusting is not. Attacking someone’s identity is very different than confronting their actions. Are you here for dialogue?
Thank you for sharing this. It was very encouraging
I think this is one of those James 3:1 situations.
https://frenchpress.thedispatch.com/p/the-cultural-consequences-of-very
MOD: This is an essay about Politics and Religion in the election.
Note: Please put in a sentence or two when posting links like this.
Dana Adams,
Did you listen to what he said? I did before I posted it. If this had been a political screed, it would not have been posted.
Dana Adams,
Since you believe that I am disgusting for posting one man’s discussion of his Christian faith, I think it might be best if you stop commenting. This is supposed to be a church service, not another debate. But, I guess that anything goes when it comes to finding politics in everything that is being said.
I wonder if you would have gone into a church and done the same thing.
Dana Adams,
I decided to check your commenting history at TWW in order to understand you more. Except for this post, you commented on another post that you have left the Christian faith. That helps me to understand why you might believe it is appropriate to interrupt a church service to call me disgusting. It is evident that political viewpoints are incredibly important to you. I certainly understand that. It is what is left.
I have posted sermons from Wade’s church for years. Wade listened to DSouza discuss his faith and felt it was valid to listen to what he had to say. I’m sorry that it caused you such pain. ccording to Wade, DSouza has repented. I know you don’t believe that but choose to trust Wade for that.Politics is terribly ugly and I have chosen to not allow discussion of that on this blog. There are a number of people to there who do not believe that I am a Christian because of what I do.
If we are all beyond repentance for the things we have done in our lives, then we are all to be pitied. Perhaps you have done better than most of us.
Dinesh doesn’t include a case for belief in Holy Spirit indwelt gifts in all members so that we shall be God’s providence to each other. Superapostles ration us to only what (mainly) distorted gifts they allow us (or none). Hence the Christian life AFTER getting round the problem of God’s forgiveness, is what He is going to ask us about. The form of religion without its power will appear to interest one or two momentarily, as is reported; we don’t get to hear about the quality of follow up, especially in hard times. Don’t American Christians need providence?
Dinesh’s voice and hands go all over the place when he is insecure. He should ask his publishers for an advance for a tailored suit: he needs to flagrantly disobey Spangler and go baggy. In England unlike America the “right wing” are out and out atheists. I particularly appreciated Wade B’s series on Psalms.
I meant to also say that I think the case Dinesh is making is for a slightly christianised emotional acquiescence to qismetic monolithic brahmanism, perhaps a kind of sufism. That is a sentence I meant to insert after the sentence about Holy Spirit and the course of Christian living.
As I see it, most evangelicals (and increasingly, RC) are stuck solely at prior works. God wants to get interested in our subsequent ones, namely fruits, discernment, prudence and guidance, and those are what the world longs to see, otherwise there will not be hope: indeed this is why Christians have no hope already.
Wade B. what I value about your own presentations is that you give us Holy Spirit belief for subsequent living. “Love believes all things” and you evidently hold to that.
Dinesh’s talk per se could be titled “some of a case for some points around Christianity” perhaps. What he did say was worth pointing out in itself.