Frankly Speaking...

Barack Obama's Mission To Rebuild The American Dream
Frank Allnutt (January 25, AD 2012)--President Barack Obama, in his State of the Union speech last night, began by citing the Navy Seals’ assassination of Osama bin Laden, under his command, as an inspirational model for all patriotic Americans to work together as a team, and to embark, under his ongoing leadership, upon a mission of destiny to rebuild the American Dream. Coincidently (as some might see it), I posted the article below (“A Rocky Marriage”) on my web site only hours before the President’s speech. In it, I examined the same brand of Establishment rhetoric that has tickled the ears of so many Christians since America’s Colonial days.  More >

A Rocky Marriage: Those 150 Evangelical Leaders
Frank Allnutt (January 24, AD 2012)--That recent conclave of 150 Evangelical Leaders, which resulted in the endorsement of a candidate for President, raises serious questions about motives, missions, and manifestations.
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Tim Tebow And Those Other 3:16's In The Bible
Frank Allnutt (January 9, AD 2012)--By now, the whole world has watched sports highlights of Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos in their stunning first play in overtime win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. In Doing so, Tebow silenced those who have been saying he can’t pass! Look at his stats: 316 yards in the air, with an average of 31.6 yards per pass. Great stats! But that’s not the reason why they have been given so much air time, ink, and tweets. It’s because those stats have the uncanny numbers of Tebow’s favorite Bible verse, John 3:16--a verse he painted on his eye black when he played football in college. Now, I hope God loves football (forgive me Lord if you don’t), because I want to start off with what could be seen as some “football 3:16’s" in the Bible.  More >

Will Jesus Return In 2012?
Frank Allnutt (December 30, AD 2011)--One of Newsmax magazine’s most read issues in recent years is “The Jesus Question: Will He Ever Return?” Published in April 2010, it continues to sell well as a back copy and as a gotta-have gift to hook new subscribers. I have not consulted that issue of the magazine, so I don’t know how its writers answer the question. However, as a keen observer of world conditions and the visible Church, and as student of the Bible for many years, I have been persuaded to address the question posed by Newsmax in this lengthy, though certainly not exhaustive, essay. In it, I share compelling insights germane to that question—insights which have been granted to all of us who love the truth of God’s Word.  More >

Your Christmas Meal
Frank Allnutt (December 27, AD2011)--Christmas Day brought Christian families and friends together to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Like so many others, did you share a Christmas meal? Did you drink and eat? Of course, you did! And when you drank of the cup did you remember that the cup represents the new covenant of His blood which was shed for you? Or, when you ate the bread, did you remember that bread represents His body which was broken for you? Perhaps you remembered. Perhaps all who partook of the meal with you remembered. But, perhaps that was not the case.  More >

The Fat Hearts of Christmas
Frank Allnutt (December 20, AD2011)--The Christmas season should be a joyous time to reflect upon and celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But, for many, it has become a season of unhappiness because of worldliness. If you have been a regular visitor to my web site, you know I’ve been writing on the parable of the sower, as taught by Jesus. In two previous articles, I wrote on His teachings about hard-hearted Christians and shallow-hearted Christians. Now, continuing on in the parable of the sower, Jesus next spoke of “the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns.” He explained, “this is the man who hears the Word, and the worry of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches choke the Word, and it becomes unfruitful” (Matthew 13:22).  More >

The Dark Depths Of Shallowness
Frank Allnutt (December 13, AD2011)--Shallow heartedness is common among new “babies” in the faith, but also among those who have experienced stunted spiritual growth. They are superficial—soulish or fleshly—Christians who lack spiritual depth. They may talk the talk, but they don’t walk the walk. Many attend churches that advertise themselves as “Bible-believing,” but in reality are pastor-believing. Those who affiliate with such churches are not being nourished by the Word, but by Word substitutes—synthetic theologies that are little more than ear candy and eye candy for the flesh.  More >

The Missing Message of Christmas
Frank Allnutt (December 9, AD2011)--There are Christians who lament that the true message of Christmas gets lost in the secularization, commercialization, culturalization and hustle and bustle of the season. I count myself among them. I am deeply concerned also that many Christians miss the hidden meaning of Christmas. Now, most Christians will probably agree that the message of Christmas is capsulated in the pronouncement of the angel of the Lord that first Christmas: “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). Indeed, Jesus Christ the Lord is our Savior! We hear that message not only at Christmas time, but throughout the year in our churches. Yet, there is more to the Christmas message than that. More >

Hard-Hearted Women and Bull-Headed Men
Frank Allnutt (Dec. 6, AD2011)--“I warned her about going with that scuzzbag, but she’s a hard-headed woman. Now, she’s pregnant—and he’s nowhere to be found.”...“I told him to see his doctor about that cough, but you know how bull-headed he can be. Now, he’s in the hospital with pneumonia.”...“Hard-headed,” “bull-headed,” or just plain “stubborn”—call it what you want. The Bible calls it “hard-heartedness.”  More >

Before Dawn At Double Cross Ranch
Frank Allnutt (Nov. 22, AD2011)--I was roused from my sleep early this mornin’. I walk outside the old ranch house. Them cows is louder than ever, and somewhere out there in a dark and distant pasture their hungry babies is cryin’ back. Then, my ears perk up to forlorn cries out south on the mesas.  More >

Christian, Be Thankful You Are A Slave!
Frank Allnutt (Nov. 18, AD2011)--Have you every thanked God that you are a slave? Do you even know that you are a slave? The Bible tells us that God is our “Master” (Colossians 4:1) and that we are “enslaved to God” (Romans 6:22). And yet Jesus said He came to set us free (John 8:22). Is there a contradiction here? How can we be both enslaved and free?  More >

The Heart of the Jailer
Frank Allnutt (Nov. 8, AD2011)--Christians who read and study the New Testament are familiar with the story in the book of Acts about the “conversion” of the jailer. As the story is all too commonly taught, the jailer was confronted by two of his prisoners, Paul and Silas. The gist of the popular interpretation is that the jailer was "converted" to Christianity on the basis of his belief in Jesus Christ. Read on, and you will discover that the truth of its message runs much deeper than simply a story of "conversion by belief."  More >

What Jesus Taught About The Heart
Frank Allnutt (Oct. 29, AD2011)--America and other nations—collectively, the “world”—are beset by economic, political, and a variety of other “social” problems. So acute are those problems that some believe civilization itself is on the brink of catastrophe. Those problems dominate public concern. Understandably, there is a plethora of proposed changes to fix the problems. But those problems are but symptoms of the root cause. And that cause—which is mostly unseen or ignored—is the heart of man.  More >

My GOP dream team
Frank Allnutt (Oct. 25, AD2011)--It was but a few minutes before the umteenth GOP Presidential Debate. The candidates squeezed into a tiny dressing room only steps away from the expansive, light-flooded and glittering stage where they would soon gather before the eyes of the world to once again face-off with one another in a TV show of one-upmanship. Or, would it be different this time? For they were there to meet briefly with their invited guest, Tim Tebow. More >

Our next Christian President
Frank Allnutt (Oct. 14, AD2011)--As it frequently does, religion has once again become a presidential campaign issue. It made headlines recently when Pastor Robert Jeffress of the 10,000-member First Baptist Church in Dallas said candidate Mitt Romney “is not a Christian” and that his Mormon religion is a “cult.”  More >

What else is in that "cup"?
Frank Allnutt (Sept. 30, AD2011)--I remember what it was like when I was a child back in the mid-1940s, sitting with my family in a tent church where my uncle was the pastor of the small Disciples of Christ congregation. It was Communion Sunday. Time came for the Lord’s Supper, and trays filled with “cups” of Welch’s Grape Juice (I still think they resemble mini shot glasses) were passed from one person to another down the rows of people sitting in folding chairs, until a tray was handed to me. I reached for one of the “cups” of grape juice. But my mother cut me off by taking the tray from me and whispering, “You have to be baptized first.”  More >

That other kind of circumcision
Frank Allnutt (Sept. 13, AD2011)--San Francisco wanted to criminalise circumcision of boys, and in a Christianity Today online article David Neff wrote that “We have secularized the ancient Jewish rite—but it is still inescapably religious.” He re-travelled circumcision’s familiar paths of biblical, medical and social proclivities, including the controversy between the Apostle Paul and the Galatians. That spat, as you might recall, opened the door for Paul to teach on the “circumcision of the heart.” More >

Who do you really work for?
Frank Allnutt (Sept. 5, AD2011)--Who do you really work for? The Bible has answers...and you might be shocked at what God's Word has to say.  More >

What is a Christian?
Frank Allnutt (Aug. 8, AD2011)--The New York Times has labeled Anders Behring Breivik, the 32 year old Norwegian accused of the mass murderer of at least 76 people, a Christian. And other liberal media types have hopped on the bandwagon of the Time’s smear campaign against Jesus and His Church, referring to Breivik as a “Christian Fundamentalist,” “Christian extremist” or “Christian terrorist.” I’ll let the Bill O’Reillys deal with Time and its ilk; my concern is to answer the question: “What is a Christian?” More >

Passivity
Frank Allnutt (July 25, AD2011)--One of the most frequent traits of half-heartedness or fleshliness among Christians is passivity. And it's one that is often undetected because it is relatively easy for deceptive fleshliness to disguise itself as righteousness. In doing so, passivity can be disguised as Christian virtue—such as humility, resting in God, or loving God and others. More >