KennethBow's Blog

The 36th annual Albion Youth Camp.

This camp sits on 6 acres in northern Indiana. It is sponsored by about 12 churches and has an attendance of about 400-500 nightly.

The Tabernacle

Main building and kitchen/dining hall.

Speaker for 2010: Rev Kevin Archer.

Tuesday night Holy Ghost explosion!

Alex Jones received the Holy Ghost. Alex is the son of Pastor Casey and Sister Lisa Jones of Westmont, Illinois.

Camp director Rev Randy Geans

Sound in 2010 is done by Rev Tim Bass

Pastor Ben Archer and Pastor Doug Kelley

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Apple company stands against pornography

Cupertino, CA – June 8, 2010. In the never-ending battle of the technological titans, score one for Steve Jobs. No, the CEO of Apple hasn’t come out with yet another groundbreaking iProduct, at least not since the iPad.

But he’s done something even more extraordinary—he’s brought good values into the mix.

Jobs has made it clear that he wants to keep pornography off Apple products as much as possible. Obviously Apple can’t control everything its users do, but it can make porn scarcer on its products, and it has done just that.

A British newspaper, The Guardian, reports, “So insistent is Apple [on this policy], many magazine publishers developing ‘apps’ for the new iPad . . . have had to self-censor.”

As you might expect, this has triggered a frenzy among some critics. Ryan Tate, a writer for the Gawker website, sniped at Jobs about suppressing his customers’ “freedom,” prompting Jobs to respond, “Yep, freedom from programs that steal your private data. Freedom from programs that trash your battery. Freedom from porn. Yep, freedom.”

When Tate replied that he didn’t want “freedom from porn,” Jobs answered, “You might care more about porn when you have kids.” In a correspondence with a consumer, Jobs went even further, speaking of his company’s “moral responsibility to keep porn off the iPhone.”

How refreshing it is to see someone who actually gets it—that yes, there are those of us who prefer to be free from the storm of smut that assaults us from every television, computer, and phone screen. The supply of pornographic material is so overwhelming that access to it is certainly not an issue of “freedom” anymore, if it ever was.

Jobs has pointed out that people who want to see porn on their phones, and who want easier access to it on their computers, can easily get all they want if they buy other companies’ products. But as he said in a press conference, “That’s a place we don’t want to go—so we’re not going to go there.”

What Jobs seems to understand, and what his critics seem to be ignoring, is that there’s so much more to pornography than just issues of economics or free speech. It shouldn’t even need to be explained, but apparently for some people it does: Pornography is an ugly, poisonous, degrading business for everyone involved, whether they’re making it, using it, or selling it.

As my colleague Kim Moreland recently mentioned on our blog, The Point, new studies are demonstrating yet again just how dangerous and addictive it can be. It tears at the fabric of marriages and families and of society itself. Its use is connected from everything to higher divorce rates to human trafficking to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

Aside from the occasional reference to protecting kids (which is enough), Steve Jobs didn’t go thoroughly into the reasons for his policy. But for whatever reason, he truly is demonstrating corporate responsibility, the kind that we desperately need more businesses to show in this sex-obsessed society.

May he continue to stand by his principles, and may his tribe increase.

Note: This commentary delivered by PFM President Mark Earley.

Thanks for reading today!

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I am attending my High School reunion in a few days. As I look at the people I will be seeing I am struck by how some were expected to achieve, and did.

There were others who never did much with their life, even though at the time it looked like they would indeed be a world changer.

The most amazing ones to me are those who showed no signs of becoming the achiever they are today!

I am reminded of the drafting of football players into the NFL from college. One player was not selected until the third round. There were 98 other players taken first. The gurus and experts passed on him three times.

He went on to greatness in the NFL. He started and won four superbowls! He was all-pro, MVP, and countless other awards. He was voted by sporting news as the third greatest NFL player ever. Yet those who judged at the time thought 98 other player had more potential.

Today most sports fan have heard of Joe Montana.

Another draftee was chosen even later in the draft process. He was selected in the sixth round. The gurus selected 198 players before him.

To date he has played in four superbowls and won three. Set numerous records and the name Tom Brady is very familiar.

Maybe we can all realize what someone will become is not always recognizable today!

Maybe God sees potential in you others will never see.

Do not accept the value others place on you, seek the value God puts on your life.

Just because you are not drafted in the first round does not mean you have no future.

You might be surprized what God will do with your life if you make yourself available to Him!

How about it? Live the words to that familiar chorus,

Here I am Lord, here I am,
I give all myself to you
Here I am,
Here I am Lord, here I am,
Let your spirit move through me,
Here I am.

Thanks for reading today!

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I admit I am an Apple product fan!

I started way back with the Apple 2e, then the Apple 2c.

When the first Macintosh came out I anted up.

So when the iPhone was announced I planned on getting in line and purchasing one.  I was blessed by Dr. Scheel who bought me my first iPhone.

I remember reading the authorities and gurus.  There were many who said it will never be a major player in the cell phone world.

Their reasons were myriad. It would only serve a small customer base, yada yada yada.

Well they were wrong! To date there have been 51.15 million iPhones sold.  8.75 million sold just this last fiscal quarter.

Then the big discussion on the iPad! All the authorities weighed in.  They hashed and wrote and forecasted!

They said it will have no place in the market, it is a glorified Kindle, etc.

Well they were wrong again!  The iPhone took 73 days to sell one million phones.  The iPad sold one million iPads in just 28 days!  There were 15 million applications sold for the iPad in that time and 1.5 million ebooks!

My point is the so called authorities got it wrong.

Well let me tell you something else they are wrong about….

The Bible says….In the last days scoffers shall come saying where is the promise of His coming?

They make light of Jesus return.

Well they are wrong about that too, because Jesus is coming!

They say it is just christians and their silly pie-in-the sky beliefs.

My reply is ….

Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!

Jesus is coming!

Thanks for reading today!

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Saul.

Samuel anointing Saul

The first king.

No man among Bible men had so many chances to make a success of life and still missed it.

He was humble in the beginning 1 Samuel 10.22.

• He did not tell his own family he had been chosen as King
• He hid himself when the time to be introduced arrived
• He held his peace when the sons of Belial mocked him as a new King
• After his first great victory he showed kindness and mercy to all

Then self will began to surface 1 Samuel 13.12-13.

He became disobedient 1 Samuel 15.11-23.

Jealousy took over 1 Samuel 18.8, 19.1.

He turns to the very things he destroyed as a new King 1 Samuel 28.7.

He ends up a suicide 1 Samuel 31.4.

Apparently Saul never knew the man of God.  His servant knew where the man of God lived, but Saul was unaware.  Saul did not recognize the most recognizable face in Israel.  The whole nation knew who Samuel was and his fame, except for Kish and his son!

It seems his family was totally caught up in raising donkeys!

The Bible says the spirit of God came upon Saul and he also received another heart.  It would seem the spirit rested upon him at times but never got into his heart.  The new heart appears to be the heart of a statesman, not the heart of a man who loved God?

This man who had the opportunity to become a great man in God’s kingdom never made the grade.  The javelin of jealousy went straight to his heart!

As they sang Saul has killed his thousands, David has killed his ten thousands, jealousy hit the bulls eye.  From that moment on he was forever changed!

David spares Saul

These are the tragedies I see in Saul’s life….

1. Saul accused David of thoughts and actions David never had or thought.
2. Saul tried to kill David for these imagined offenses.
3. Saul was never able to see that David was in fact the best friend he had.
4. Saul never saw that David did not take Saul’s life when it was in David’s hand.
5. Saul died convinced the best friend he ever had was his worst enemy!

Are there any Saul’s in your life?

Don’t touch them.

They throw javelins.

They slander.

Saul pulled the javelin of jealousy from his heart and threw it at David!

Thanks for reading today!

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The Gospel of John

The Apostle John

John was Jesus’ first cousin and His best friend for 3 ½ years.  Jesus’ mother and John’s mother were sisters.  No man on earth knew the story of Jesus better than John.  His gospel is a magnificent treatise to the life of Christ and it’s impact on planet earth.

His gospel is different than the others.  Very different! It is written like John is sitting under a shade tree with his feet propped up, just daydreaming about the life of Jesus.  He only selects vignettes, short insights or events, from 20 days in the life of Christ.

John uses the simplest words, and a small vocabulary to plunge us into the deepest mysteries of God.  John uses the vocabulary of a six year old child.  A child learns about 100 words a year and John uses about 600 words in his writing.

The words John selects are powerful words.  He uses words like world, father, light, and truth. He uses the simplest words to paint a profound God and His plan.

Matthew writes to the Jew, so he begins his gospel at the lineage of Abraham.  Luke writes to the gentile Roman world, so his lineage begins at Adam.  John writes to the church, so he reaches all the way back to eternity.  He begins with, “In the beginning”.

.John reaches back to the inky blackness of eternity, before there was the brush of an angel’s wing.  He reaches back before there was the first blazing shaft of light that shattered the darkness.  When there was nothing but God.  In the beginning was the logos, the word, the thought, the intent.  And the logos was God.

John does not cover the same material as the other three gospels do.  The only miracle he repeats is the feeding of the 5000.  He writes to the church about 50 years after the other writers.  The church was facing many challenges.

When John wrote, there were those who said Jesus never really existed.  There were others saying Jesus was not a human, but rather a phantom.  Other views at that time proclaimed Jesus did exist but he was just a man with divinity projected upon him by his disciples.  It was into this morass that John wrote his gospel.

John writes of no parables, and uses 7 signs to build his story of Jesus.  He explains things like no other writer.  When he tells a miracle, he often explains why he used that miracle.  An example would be the feeding of the 5000.  He tells us Jesus is the bread of life.  The other three writers did not explain the connection for us.  When Jesus heals the blind man, John explains Jesus is the light of the world.  It is his explanations that give his gospel an added dimension.

He also includes things of immense importance.  Consider how important John chapter three is to the doctrine of the new birth.  The story of Nicodemas is the bedrock of salvation.  Ye must be born again.  That one inclusion validates the day of Pentecost and the doctrine of the New Testament church.  Chapter by chapter, John gives the church a gospel for the ages.  He delivers the most profound insight into Jesus the man, of any writer of history.

2/3 of John’s book is about the last week of Jesus’ life.  Fully 1/3 of his book is about the last 24 hours of Jesus’ earthly life.  After 60 years, the need was for a complete record of the importance of calvary.  A whole generation had arrived that were not eye witnesses to the events of Jesus’ death.  Someone needed to write it down and John succeeded as Heaven’s emissary.

We have the gospel of John and it is indeed  magnificent!

Thanks for reading today!

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The reason “Reason” is the reason!

There are so many questions today.  Where is America headed?  What is our future? What is the cause of America’s current direction?

Then there is the church.  Where is the church headed? What is the future of the Apostolic movement? What is the cause of the church’s current direction?

Will Durant wrote a series of books over a period of fifty years.  He wrote a volume every five years.  The set is called the Story of Civilization.  The series begins with “Our Oriental Heritage”, and continues through “The Age Of Napoleon.”

This series is what put the publishing house Simon and Schuster on the playing field as one of the major publishing houses in America.  One of the volumes of this series of books is “The Age OF Reason Begins.”  It is the story of the struggle of faith verses reason.

In the big picture of the last three hundred years this seems to me the root cause of this world’s drift and problems, as well as the church’s drift and problems.

It seems to me we deal with a closer view and say things like television, or worldliness, or carnality is the cause of the current drift of the church.  I readily admit these are the visible manifestations of the problem, but I am suggesting the cause is deeper and more long standing.  I am suggesting it has been the undercurrent of the Prince of this world for hundreds of years.

One of the proponents of Reason was the philosopher Descartes.  It was his writings and contributions that played a monumental role in Reason attacking faith.  He began to put forth the idea that free will was mans destiny, not blind faith.  “It is Descartes….who gave us a new method of reasoning, much more admirable than his philosophy” (Will Durant), The Age Of Reason Begins, page 645.

Reason stood up, introduced itself, and stepped to the center of the stage.  It is my opinion it has never sat down.

Reason has produced its many children.  Children like evolution, and abortion are easily identified.  Reason has also had some children that have been bene vixit qui bene latuit, (he has lived well who has hidden well).

These are the children that are hard to see and identify.  Hence these children are not removed for our lives, but remain and consequently grow stronger every generation.

These children of reason hide and hence they live well.  For the last three hundred years men have began to question everything.  They have questioned the universe, this world, laws, but most all authority!  These hidden children of reason gave birth to many movements that continued to have children, then grandchildren, to the present day.

Some of this reason was justified because of the excess of the Catholic Church.  Things were done in the name of God like the selling of indulgences, or the worship of Mary.  The advocates of reason seized these and held them up for the world to see and placed all faith in the same light.  So reason claimed superiority.

The battle of reason against faith continues today bene vixit qui bene latuit.  Yes we see the obvious.  We see the destruction that Hollywood brings, the emergent preachers and their liberal views.  Satan loves his hidden long-range plans of reaching the day where everything is questioned.

Satan longs for the day when every single child of God will question every thing possible.  Satan wants all of us born again believers to question every standard, every value preached across the pulpit.  It is the long-range plan of Satan to cause reason to triumph.

Faith and reason cannot co-exist!  There are simply things God expects us to accept by faith.  God created this world.  That is what faith says.  Reason says evolution is an option.

Faith says there are absolutes in life.  Reason says question homosexuality as right for some people.

Faith says give God ten percent.  Reason says share the wealth with those who do not work.

Faith says ye must be born again.  Reason says all good intentioned people will go to heaven.

Faith says there is a heaven and a hell.  Reason says that went out with the dark ages.

Faith says your gender is how you were born.  Reason says your sex is determined by your choice.

All of these are reasons why “reason” is the reason!

Reason is the reason that the world is out of control and the church is headed for apostacy!

“But without faith it is impossible to please God”

Thanks for reading today!

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