My heart breaks over this latest shooting, the one that claimed the lives of 20 children and 28 overall at the Sandy Hook Elementary school in Connecticut. I have a son in kindergarten, and I cannot imagine seeing him off to school and later than day losing my son in such a senseless tragedy. I am grieved over the direction this country is headed and alarmed at the continued acts of violence. Sadly we no longer are caught by surprise, but instead live in unease wondering where it will happen next. What is most alarming is each shooting seems to be more and more evil as if the gates of hell are being unleashed and get stronger each time.
Most though are incorrectly thinking the issue is about better gun control or getting more treated for mental health. Yes, if no one had guns theoretically you would not have mass shootings. However, this is not just a matter of one or two nuts losing it and since they had a gun then they became a menace. This is a symptom of a country that is out of control, forgetting and numbing it's moral compass, and quickly spiraling out of control. 100% gun removal and Prozac in the water will not fix the country. Instead of removing the guns, we need to realize America has removed God. As in the Lord Jesus Christ, who created the heaven and the earth.
Right now, police are busy looking for a motive for the killer. Does it matter? Let's say something terrible happened --- he was abused by the husband of a teacher there, or his school bullied him and no one did anything about it. It does not matter. People can choose how to respond to injustices in life. People can blame the abuse and live their whole lives bitter for how their lives turn out or they can look to the God that promises to make all unfairness and tragedies work out for his glory and good if we trust him. We don't have to be victims. We don't have to get revenge. We don't have to live repressing anger and hurts and then when someone gets on our last nerve, it is ok then to snap. But we cannot do it in our own power. America, when will you realize the path you are on is leading to more and more destruction? What is it going to take to get you to wake up? And church, do you care yet? Or is this just one more reason to cocoon ourselves and hide behind church doors and keep being be a pew potato.
We live in a sin cursed world, but originally that was not the case. God put Adam in charge before sin entered in. The world was one that was created perfect. When the actual head of all the human race, Adam and Eve, literally sinned it literally brought death into this world, and the devil became the god of this world in that moment. We are born on the devil's team, and the devil goes about seeking whom he can devour, working in the children of disobedience and blinding their minds. The same spirit that produces the suicide bombers in Iraq and the middle east is the same spirit producing the mass shootings in the rest of the world.
We either are carrying out the desires of our flesh and hence the devils desires, or after we are saved yielding to God and fulfilling the desires God wants us to have. It is that simple. You naturally serve yourself and your desires. If you fill your head with enough wickedness and violence and continue to harbour evil and anger and hurts it is not so much "the devil made me do it" as your heart wants and wants and is never satisfied and hatred and murder are the natural fruits. Think of it as indirect demonic influence. The only hope one has for the evils in his heart is to be born again and have his sins forgiven and his guilt removed. And then to walk in that freedom and let God live through you. To be forgiven much produces much love.
The alternative is the modern medicine which says it is a disease or a disorder and you only have to blame your parents or take this medicine or take this therapy. It makes you a helpless victim. You are forever doomed. However anger and hatred are sins. They can be repented of. There is hope because if you are the one responsible you have control over your actions, and your destiny. In the sense you cannot save yourself, but you can look to the one that does the saving if you will take responsibility and see your actions as wrong. The Bible is our moral compass and kicking that book out has taken our accountability away. We think we are our own god's now and accountable to no one. That is a lie, right from the devil. But Jesus is the TRUTH!
Jesus is soon returning to reclaim his earthly kingdom, but now is the time to look for the way out. Jesus said "I AM THE WAY." He is THE and THE ONLY WAY and only hope we have. The problem is the world is not looking to him and America is not looking to him because most in the church do not look to him. Most of us professing Christians deny the very God we claim to believe in on a daily basis.
Our country is in trouble because it's churches are in trouble. The heathen have no fear of God because professing Christians have no fear of God. There are no restraints in the minds of men, and there are no restraints in the church house either. God's people would before live for God and wouldn't tolerate sin in their neighborhoods, and took a stand for God and a stand for holiness and God's blessings would overflow and touch everybody else. Now we are in a pressure cooker. We don't look to God to save us, we look to more gun laws or we look to medicating our children or we look to homeland security. We don't need the government to take away more of our rights. We have a right to bear arms, and it was set up to protect us from the government becoming corrupt. We have a right to defend our homes.
200 years ago, did people have guns? Yes. Texas teenagers would have loaded shotguns in the back of their pick up trucks 50 years ago. There was a day you did not lock your door. Did they go and have shooting rampages? The best offense is a good defense. You don't protect a country and it's people by becoming effeminate and disarming and turning our guns back to the government. The government today is using any senseless tragedy to take more and more of our rights away. It wants a police state. It wants people in fear and having no one to look to but them. It wants you neutralized and helpless and dependent on them. If they feed you they own you.
Folks gun control never made a difference. The shooters at Columbine broke 13 gun laws. More laws are not the answer. More God is. Where was God in this latest shooting? America you kicked him out of your school! He is not allowed there! Prayer is not welcome there! Do you like the fruit of that decision? Now it is too late, but America you don't want him anyway, but you will take comfort from the government promising to protect you. They don't want to protect you, they want you a slave. Jesus is the truth and only the truth can set you free.
We need God to restrain our wicked and sinful and lustful hearts. We need to get back to the God our country was founded upon--- and that is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even better than God's restraint is the fact that anyone that gets saved God's way becomes a new creature with a new heart and new desires. Most churches today produce false converts, who come to God with selfish motives and for what God has and not WHO he is. Jesus is God and is worthy of our worship and worthy to surrender our lives to. When you see you broke his laws -- lust is adultery, hatred is murder, and one lie makes you a liar -- you can see your need for him. Then repent --turn with all your heart from your sin to the Lord Jesus-- and trust him to save you. You don't need medication more than you need eternal medicine dispensed by Jesus the great physician. You don't need a shrink you need Jesus the wonderful counselor. You don't need booze you need the Bible. You don't need whiskey, you need to drink of Jesus the living water. Our country needs Jesus plain and simple.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
It starts with you my friend. Do you see your need for him?
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Friday, November 30, 2012
Can ye not discern the sign of the times?
HOW WE SHOULD REACT TO THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES (Friday Church News Notes, November 30, 2012, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143 by David Cloud ) -
The signs of the end times are everywhere. Our upcoming book The Bible According to the Future contains a large chapter on these. The strange thing is that believers often react to the signs the very opposite of how God intends for us to react. As we witness such things as the spread of globalism, the building of a one-world church, the increase of wickedness, the breakdown of the traditional family, the destruction of that priceless bastion of liberty called America, the normalization of homosexuality, the callous murder of babies, the filthy pop culture, the breathtaking increase in governmental surveillance, we become fearful, uncertain, frustrated, angry, and discouraged, but this is because our minds and hearts are too focused on things of this world rather than things above.
Too often we have the same short view that “conservative” unbelievers have rather than the long view that comes from the light of Bible prophecy. Doubtless there will be frustration and discouragement, because we aren’t spiritual robots who are unaffected by our environment, but our response should be tempered by the truths of God’s Word. We should respond to the times in a dramatically different way than our unsaved friends and neighbors. When we consider what is happening in the world, we should respond in at least the following ways.
First, we should rejoice greatly in our salvation. “But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy” (1 Pet. 4:13).
Second, we should be comforted that Christ’s return is drawing near. “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” (Lk. 21:28).
Third, we should be encouraged that God is in control. “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way” (2 Th. 2:7).
Fourth, we should stand in the confidence that the present evil is exceedingly temporary and will soon be cut down. “Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace” (Psa. 37:7-11).
Fifth, we must do more praying. “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time” (1 Tim. 2:1-6). Desperate times call for more praying, but we are witnessing a dearth of prayer in the typical Bible-believing church. There is lots of partying and lots of activities and fun but not a lot of praying. 1 Timothy 2 ties prayer together with living a quiet and peaceable life and the liberty to preach the gospel, the very things that we want.
Finally, we should be busy in the harvest fields. “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:8-9). The Bible plainly says that Christ is waiting because He wants to save souls. Instead of fretting at the signs of the times, we need to rededicate ourselves to proclaiming the gospel to every person in every nation and building sound Bible-believing churches where God’s people can be protected, edified, trained, discipled, and where godly Christian homes can be built and children can be prepared as arrows in the hand of the Lord to go out and do battle against the forces of evil.
The signs of the end times are everywhere. Our upcoming book The Bible According to the Future contains a large chapter on these. The strange thing is that believers often react to the signs the very opposite of how God intends for us to react. As we witness such things as the spread of globalism, the building of a one-world church, the increase of wickedness, the breakdown of the traditional family, the destruction of that priceless bastion of liberty called America, the normalization of homosexuality, the callous murder of babies, the filthy pop culture, the breathtaking increase in governmental surveillance, we become fearful, uncertain, frustrated, angry, and discouraged, but this is because our minds and hearts are too focused on things of this world rather than things above.
Too often we have the same short view that “conservative” unbelievers have rather than the long view that comes from the light of Bible prophecy. Doubtless there will be frustration and discouragement, because we aren’t spiritual robots who are unaffected by our environment, but our response should be tempered by the truths of God’s Word. We should respond to the times in a dramatically different way than our unsaved friends and neighbors. When we consider what is happening in the world, we should respond in at least the following ways.
First, we should rejoice greatly in our salvation. “But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy” (1 Pet. 4:13).
Second, we should be comforted that Christ’s return is drawing near. “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” (Lk. 21:28).
Third, we should be encouraged that God is in control. “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way” (2 Th. 2:7).
Fourth, we should stand in the confidence that the present evil is exceedingly temporary and will soon be cut down. “Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace” (Psa. 37:7-11).
Fifth, we must do more praying. “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time” (1 Tim. 2:1-6). Desperate times call for more praying, but we are witnessing a dearth of prayer in the typical Bible-believing church. There is lots of partying and lots of activities and fun but not a lot of praying. 1 Timothy 2 ties prayer together with living a quiet and peaceable life and the liberty to preach the gospel, the very things that we want.
Finally, we should be busy in the harvest fields. “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:8-9). The Bible plainly says that Christ is waiting because He wants to save souls. Instead of fretting at the signs of the times, we need to rededicate ourselves to proclaiming the gospel to every person in every nation and building sound Bible-believing churches where God’s people can be protected, edified, trained, discipled, and where godly Christian homes can be built and children can be prepared as arrows in the hand of the Lord to go out and do battle against the forces of evil.
Monday, November 26, 2012
Thursday, November 22, 2012
The Example of Joseph. (Article I found today I wanted to share)
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Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Make no provision for the flesh, but put YE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
here is a great great article By Dr. Jack Graham
The continuously unraveling scandal that has toppled the director of the CIA David Petraeus and has entangled the top NATO commander in Afghanistan as well as an FBI agent sounds more and more unfathomable by the minute. But, really, it’s a prime example of the severe consequences of immorality.
It only takes a small pin to burst a balloon. When trust is gone and when there is a leak in the integrity and character of a person, the explosion is quick and even startling. What has taken a lifetime of hard work to build disintegrates swiftly with an act of immorality, an act of indiscretion. You sacrifice your integrity, lose your credibility, and forfeit the right to lead.
I often speak to men about the sin of adultery and perversion because of the seemingly tolerant attitude in society toward this sexual misbehavior. And once you cross that line, once you go over the boundaries into sexual sin and engaging in immorality, it becomes easier and easier to justify it.
There are 12 points I share with men on how to maintain their moral purity.
It takes time to restore trust and credibility and integrity. It takes time, it takes counsel, it takes the Word of God working in your life and cleansing your heart and your soul and your mind and your will, and standing you back up again so that you can make a comeback in your life by the grace of God. And we’re forever grateful for that grace that covers and cleanses all sin.
Dr. Jack Graham is Pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church, a 32,000-member church near Dallas, Texas. His popular book, A Man of God, challenges men to live with purpose and passion.
The continuously unraveling scandal that has toppled the director of the CIA David Petraeus and has entangled the top NATO commander in Afghanistan as well as an FBI agent sounds more and more unfathomable by the minute. But, really, it’s a prime example of the severe consequences of immorality.
It only takes a small pin to burst a balloon. When trust is gone and when there is a leak in the integrity and character of a person, the explosion is quick and even startling. What has taken a lifetime of hard work to build disintegrates swiftly with an act of immorality, an act of indiscretion. You sacrifice your integrity, lose your credibility, and forfeit the right to lead.
I often speak to men about the sin of adultery and perversion because of the seemingly tolerant attitude in society toward this sexual misbehavior. And once you cross that line, once you go over the boundaries into sexual sin and engaging in immorality, it becomes easier and easier to justify it.
There are 12 points I share with men on how to maintain their moral purity.
- Recognize your potential for moral failure. Don’t say, “It can’t happen to me.” Don’t say, “I’m immune to this” because you’re not. And if you’re not careful, if you don’t watch and pray, if you don’t develop spiritual disciplines in your life, you’re more than vulnerable.
- Realize you don’t have to give in. Don’t say, “The living Christ is in me and yet I couldn’t help myself.” You have the power of God’s Spirit; the Spirit of the living God lives in you and will enable you and empower you.
- Resolve to be pure; purpose in your heart not to defile yourself. And if you have fallen, you can start over again. And you can say, “From this day forward, God, make me pure and make me clean.”
- Remove all bitterness from your life. Often, when a person becomes bitter, he’s upset about something that becomes an excuse or a rationalization to say, “Well, I deserve this pleasure.”
- Restrain the flesh in all areas. Paul said in Romans 13:4: “Make no provision for the flesh.” That speaks for itself.
- Refuse to give in even for a moment. Fight this all the days of your life. I’ve known men who have lived in moral purity all their days and then at the end of their life made some foolish mistake.
- Run from every form of evil. The Bible says to abstain from every appearance of evil.
- Resist the devil. He’s the author of these lies. He’s the ultimate enemy. And in the name of Jesus Christ you can resist the enemy.
- Rely on the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
- Renew your mind in the Word of God. Saturate your heart and your mind. Renew your mind in the washing of the water of the Word of God.
- Rejoice in the goodness and the grace and the forgiveness and the love of God. When you praise God, you are empowered to be pure. Worship Him! Praise Him! Because in the praise … the act of praise itself, we are enabled to overcome the work of the enemy.
- Remember that you will give an account before a holy God and that’s a sobering thought. Paul said, “Don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? You were bought with a price, the precious blood of Jesus.”
It takes time to restore trust and credibility and integrity. It takes time, it takes counsel, it takes the Word of God working in your life and cleansing your heart and your soul and your mind and your will, and standing you back up again so that you can make a comeback in your life by the grace of God. And we’re forever grateful for that grace that covers and cleanses all sin.
Dr. Jack Graham is Pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church, a 32,000-member church near Dallas, Texas. His popular book, A Man of God, challenges men to live with purpose and passion.
Monday, November 12, 2012
Little Psalm 1 Nugget
My Preacher always will write, "Always Remember Psalm 1". Psalm 1 has some amazing truth to it, and it is a great section of scripture to memorize and meditate on. God is always in the dividing business, dividing the goats and sheep, wheat and chaff, lost and saved, those walking in the spirit and those walking in the flesh, Godly and Ungodly, hell-bound and heaven-bound. I was reading it today and God gave me a little nugget that I wanted to share. Verse 1 says, Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. That is a powerful truth. I thought I was doing that well. I refuse to pay a shrink $150 to listen to my problems and give me ungodly "blame your parents for your problems" counsel. I didn't listen to CNN for who to vote for. I wouldn't go to a Priest to find out how to be saved. I wouldn't ask a Hindu what it means when Jesus said he is the only way. I won't go to Hollywood to learn how to raise a family nor go to a divorcee for marital advice. And I wouldn't ask an Ex-Church member for advice when I am having a disagreement with someone at the church house.
Here though is where this verse took on a whole new level. The Bible says in Isaiah 55:8 that "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord". Proverbs 3 says to lean not on your own understanding. Galatians says to walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Jesus shall be called wonderful, counselor, all Mighty God, Prince of Peace. The Bible says to hold every thought captive and cast down imaginations. And Jesus said, "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies;" (Matthew 15:19).
Isaiah 55:7 says Let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord,and he will have mercy upon him. Jesus said He is the TRUTH. Jesus said you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.
Back to that first verse in Psalm 1, Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. God was showing me that while it is good to separate from all ungodly counselors like those above, it is even more important to not walk in my own counsel. The Bible says the heart is deceitful ABOVE ALL THINGS AND DESPERATELY WICKED. The world says follow your heart. The Bible says if you trust your own wicked heart you are a fool.
All the things that come out of my heart that are not Godly need to be rejected. My pity parties, anger, bitterness, hurts, feeling rejected, "lust, greed, envy," pride, covetousness, thoughts how horrible I am and thoughts how wonderful I am, thoughts of quitting on God, thoughts of hopelessness, thoughts of self righteous indignation, fantasies, wicked ideas, hatred, thoughts of running from the problems. I need to reject those thoughts that seem natural in times of stress and hurt just as I would reject the counsel from ungodly influences above. My worst enemy is within. It seems we don't have as much concern over that ungodly counsel and that is the one that has the most influence over us.
I must keep my mind on him, and know that God will keep me in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee. I must keep my heart clean and keep short accounts with God. I must confess my mental failures and not obey the thoughts that come unless I filter them through God's word first. I must stay in the Word and meditate on it to cleanse my heart and cleanse my thoughts. I must yield to God and want his will over my own. And I must fix my eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith.
If I am thanking God instead of whining about things that seem unclear or unfair, and have a heart of worship, I will have a heart that desires Him more than things that I want. I must count the cost and see it is worth it to be a clean vessel. God can use us if we are clean, thankful, and yielded. My thoughts say I can't. God says not only "You can," but "I will do it through you.". I say it is too hard. Jesus says there is nothing too hard for me and my yoke is easy. I say this world is too far gone and it is too late to do anything. God says the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. I say no one is interested. Jesus says If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto myself.
Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. Often the ungodly is myself. Praise God for showing me that. I must let this mind be in me, the Mind of Jesus, instead, (Phil ; 2: 5-8) I made up my my mind, by the grace of God, to want his instead.
Here though is where this verse took on a whole new level. The Bible says in Isaiah 55:8 that "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord". Proverbs 3 says to lean not on your own understanding. Galatians says to walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Jesus shall be called wonderful, counselor, all Mighty God, Prince of Peace. The Bible says to hold every thought captive and cast down imaginations. And Jesus said, "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies;" (Matthew 15:19).
Isaiah 55:7 says Let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord,and he will have mercy upon him. Jesus said He is the TRUTH. Jesus said you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.
Back to that first verse in Psalm 1, Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. God was showing me that while it is good to separate from all ungodly counselors like those above, it is even more important to not walk in my own counsel. The Bible says the heart is deceitful ABOVE ALL THINGS AND DESPERATELY WICKED. The world says follow your heart. The Bible says if you trust your own wicked heart you are a fool.
All the things that come out of my heart that are not Godly need to be rejected. My pity parties, anger, bitterness, hurts, feeling rejected, "lust, greed, envy," pride, covetousness, thoughts how horrible I am and thoughts how wonderful I am, thoughts of quitting on God, thoughts of hopelessness, thoughts of self righteous indignation, fantasies, wicked ideas, hatred, thoughts of running from the problems. I need to reject those thoughts that seem natural in times of stress and hurt just as I would reject the counsel from ungodly influences above. My worst enemy is within. It seems we don't have as much concern over that ungodly counsel and that is the one that has the most influence over us.
I must keep my mind on him, and know that God will keep me in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee. I must keep my heart clean and keep short accounts with God. I must confess my mental failures and not obey the thoughts that come unless I filter them through God's word first. I must stay in the Word and meditate on it to cleanse my heart and cleanse my thoughts. I must yield to God and want his will over my own. And I must fix my eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith.
If I am thanking God instead of whining about things that seem unclear or unfair, and have a heart of worship, I will have a heart that desires Him more than things that I want. I must count the cost and see it is worth it to be a clean vessel. God can use us if we are clean, thankful, and yielded. My thoughts say I can't. God says not only "You can," but "I will do it through you.". I say it is too hard. Jesus says there is nothing too hard for me and my yoke is easy. I say this world is too far gone and it is too late to do anything. God says the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. I say no one is interested. Jesus says If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto myself.
Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. Often the ungodly is myself. Praise God for showing me that. I must let this mind be in me, the Mind of Jesus, instead, (Phil ; 2: 5-8) I made up my my mind, by the grace of God, to want his instead.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
You are invited to my pity party!
Good evening. I am having a pity party and you are welcome to come. I had balloons for it but they burst and the pizza was burnt so I was going to have just plates and snacks but the chips fell and the ice melted and the chicken wings tasted like frogs and the frog legs tasted like chicken and the roast beef sandwiches were supposed to be on weck but the weck was wrecked when the little black things all fell off and it was now only a salted roll. The condiments couldn't cut the mustard and there was food poisoning from the miracle whip, and those that were deathly ill were all rushed to the Mayo Clinic and had a miracle and survived. The punch lacked pizazz, and the pizazz lacked punch. The company was bitter and the coffee was too and we only had a fourth of the half and half left which didn't leave very much. I thought I had enough Coke, but the 2 liter was only half full. And most thought it was half empty so we just ended up drinking Canada Dry, but really we didn't, as the Falls were still going on as far as I could tell. Though I didn't want to rain on anyone's parade, so instead I just threw some mud. My pity party was so pitiful that even Humper Humperdink sent in a cancellation and he had better things to do. I invited the Republicans and they were all excited and promised they would come. Then someone else was having a bigger pity party and they were also invited and they said they would be there with bells on. They couldn't decide which party to commit to so they went to neither and spent the evening writing what a wonderful time they had and how much better we were all because they were invited. The democrats were too drunk to come as they already had been celebrating. They were excited about our pity parties, and sent a representative to the party. He stayed for 5 minutes and took 5 of the 6 sheet pizzas and distributed them around the neighborhood. He then sent me a bill for the gas he used to deliver the pizzas. I had to furnish the stamp to mail the bill out. I invited fellow Christians to my party too, and they were all excited, because misery loves company. We spent the night whining and bellyaching about how the next 4 years it is going to get worse and worse and there is no point to go on. We were going to play Russian roulette and end our sorrows but recently they had passed some new gun laws outlawing guns. When someone held us up at gunpoint, \we reminded us of the new ban on guns. They thanked us and put the guns away and instead held us up at knife point. Well my pity party over all of sudden. I had invited the Lord Jesus but didn't think he could come. He showed up last minute just when all hope seemed gone. He showed up with the food as well. And he made the non-alcoholic punch out of a mop bucket of water. It is amazing what he will bring to any pity party.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
More ObamaNation
Yes President Obama won the Nov. 2012 presidential elections. Yes it looks bleak. Someone said the difference between the 80's and today is then you had President Ronald Reagan. And you had comedian Bob Hope and you had folk singer Johnny Cash. Now we have President Obama and we have no cash, and no hope. There is not much we can hope for from a supposedly Muslim president who is AntiAmerican, pro-abortion, pro-sodomy, anti Isreal, and socialist. The problem with socialism it is said is that you eventually run out of someone else's money.
America, we are in trouble. But I am not overly disturbed about Obama's camp. You know where they stand, you know what they are for. They are proudly and openly for everything the Bible is against. They are unashamedly against everything the Bible is for. They could care less about who is offended, and they sincerely believe they are the answer to America's problems. They won't stab you in the back, but they might slice off your head.
My bigger concern is how much main stream Bible believing Christianity is so against Obama that they were willing to turn to a Mormon former Pastor for help. Mormonism is a cult. Mormons teach a false doctrine, and this presidency has caused the average Christian to embrace a cult leader for help because we can't stand 4 more years of Obama. My question is which is worse? You know where Obama is coming from. You may not like his stand but it is clear. He represents the average lost person today.
Romney represents today's Christians. No discernment. No clear stand when the pressure hits. Tells people what they want to hear. Self-deceived. Thinking what he is doing is pleasing to God. Abortion is horrible, but every aborted baby is in heaven. How much worse are the souls Mormonism is damning to hell? And the more souls now exposed to this cult now that it comes across as a respectable alternative religion?
My question is where were the Christians running to Jesus these past 4 years for our country? If enough Christians were desperate enough to get through to God with payer and fasting and prayers of repentance for our sins who knows what God would have done. He could have raised up a true Bible believer to help turn our nation around. But the bottom line is our hope is not in Obama, nor killing Osama nor Chelsea Clinton's Mama. Our hope needs to be built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness.
I think our problem in America is the Christians are so busy committing spiritual adultery with the gods of our land that they honestly can't cry out against sin. We are luke warm hypocrites. We are getting abortions and fornicating and drinking and lusting and gambling and divorcing and laughing at the perverts on TV and renting filthy PG-13 and R rated movies and sports addicted and junk food addicted and video game junkies and prescription pill abusers and gluttons and covetous and bitter and jealous and gossipers and whore mongers and full of wrath and hypocrisy and self righteousness and we wonder why we don't cry out against the sins of this land.
We are rich blind and naked and as long as the money is flowing we don't care who is in office or where the next hurricane hits, as long as it doesn't affect "me". It is affecting you and you can't see it. And it is going to affect you in a much more personal way very soon. Wake up America. Wake up Christian. The problem right now is far too few know they are asleep.
America, we are in trouble. But I am not overly disturbed about Obama's camp. You know where they stand, you know what they are for. They are proudly and openly for everything the Bible is against. They are unashamedly against everything the Bible is for. They could care less about who is offended, and they sincerely believe they are the answer to America's problems. They won't stab you in the back, but they might slice off your head.
My bigger concern is how much main stream Bible believing Christianity is so against Obama that they were willing to turn to a Mormon former Pastor for help. Mormonism is a cult. Mormons teach a false doctrine, and this presidency has caused the average Christian to embrace a cult leader for help because we can't stand 4 more years of Obama. My question is which is worse? You know where Obama is coming from. You may not like his stand but it is clear. He represents the average lost person today.
Romney represents today's Christians. No discernment. No clear stand when the pressure hits. Tells people what they want to hear. Self-deceived. Thinking what he is doing is pleasing to God. Abortion is horrible, but every aborted baby is in heaven. How much worse are the souls Mormonism is damning to hell? And the more souls now exposed to this cult now that it comes across as a respectable alternative religion?
My question is where were the Christians running to Jesus these past 4 years for our country? If enough Christians were desperate enough to get through to God with payer and fasting and prayers of repentance for our sins who knows what God would have done. He could have raised up a true Bible believer to help turn our nation around. But the bottom line is our hope is not in Obama, nor killing Osama nor Chelsea Clinton's Mama. Our hope needs to be built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness.
I think our problem in America is the Christians are so busy committing spiritual adultery with the gods of our land that they honestly can't cry out against sin. We are luke warm hypocrites. We are getting abortions and fornicating and drinking and lusting and gambling and divorcing and laughing at the perverts on TV and renting filthy PG-13 and R rated movies and sports addicted and junk food addicted and video game junkies and prescription pill abusers and gluttons and covetous and bitter and jealous and gossipers and whore mongers and full of wrath and hypocrisy and self righteousness and we wonder why we don't cry out against the sins of this land.
We are rich blind and naked and as long as the money is flowing we don't care who is in office or where the next hurricane hits, as long as it doesn't affect "me". It is affecting you and you can't see it. And it is going to affect you in a much more personal way very soon. Wake up America. Wake up Christian. The problem right now is far too few know they are asleep.
Friday, October 26, 2012
What Home Schoolers miss out on. By Ray Comfort (Livingwaters.com)
Home-schooling in the U.S. has become very popular in recent years. For a number of reasons, it's also becoming more accepted, not only in Christian circles but also in the secular world. I have met many kids who have been educated by their parents (using what one atheist on my blog called "idiot" home-school textbooks), and I have found that they are consistently respectful, well-adjusted to life, sociable with their peers, and extremely knowledgeable. This is because those that are educating them deeply love them, and they have the ability to care for them as individuals, rather than as a class of young people. Studies have shown that children whose parents are directly involved in their education are more apt to excel in academics. That's the positive side. But there are some things that home school kids miss out on.
By not being educated by the public system, their kids will miss out on learning how to communicate using filthy language. They will also miss out on the use of illegal drugs. According to a survey by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, "Millions of U.S. teens attend 'drug-infested schools' where students routinely see drugs used, sold or kept on schools grounds . . . Thirty-one percent of high school students -- more than 4 million -- see drug dealing, illegal drug use or students high or drunk at least once a week on their school grounds."
Home schooled kids will also miss out on sexual promiscuity, contracting sexually transmitted diseases (statistics show that one in four U.S. females has a sexually transmitted disease), being bullied, and maybe being shot to death (to date, there have been shootings resulting in the deaths of students in 76 different U.S. public schools). According to the National Conference of State Legislatures an incredible one in five kids in public schools "has seriously considered suicide."
Back in 2007, nearly 6.2 million students in the United States between the ages of 16 and 24 dropped out of school. According to ABC, "A study this week from Strong American Schools reports that 40 percent of seniors still do not understand the math they were taught in the eighth grade. And an earlier study. . . found that nearly a quarter cannot identify Adolph Hitler, more than half cannot place the American Civil War in the right century, and a third do not know that the Bill of Rights guarantees free speech." The American public school system is a failure to adequately educate our young people.
Had home schoolers attended public school they would have also been brainwashed by an unproven theory about human origins, and ended up believing that they are nothing but an animal with no ultimate moral accountability. A recent study revealed that in the 50 top universities in the U.S., in the field of biology 61 percent of respondents described themselves as atheists or agnostics. Evolution doesn't simply teach that we have a common ancestor in primates. It seriously teaches that we are primates, and if the result of public schooling education is to reject God and His gift of eternal life, the depth of that tragedy will only be measured in the light of eternity.
By not being educated by the public system, their kids will miss out on learning how to communicate using filthy language. They will also miss out on the use of illegal drugs. According to a survey by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, "Millions of U.S. teens attend 'drug-infested schools' where students routinely see drugs used, sold or kept on schools grounds . . . Thirty-one percent of high school students -- more than 4 million -- see drug dealing, illegal drug use or students high or drunk at least once a week on their school grounds."
Home schooled kids will also miss out on sexual promiscuity, contracting sexually transmitted diseases (statistics show that one in four U.S. females has a sexually transmitted disease), being bullied, and maybe being shot to death (to date, there have been shootings resulting in the deaths of students in 76 different U.S. public schools). According to the National Conference of State Legislatures an incredible one in five kids in public schools "has seriously considered suicide."
Back in 2007, nearly 6.2 million students in the United States between the ages of 16 and 24 dropped out of school. According to ABC, "A study this week from Strong American Schools reports that 40 percent of seniors still do not understand the math they were taught in the eighth grade. And an earlier study. . . found that nearly a quarter cannot identify Adolph Hitler, more than half cannot place the American Civil War in the right century, and a third do not know that the Bill of Rights guarantees free speech." The American public school system is a failure to adequately educate our young people.
Had home schoolers attended public school they would have also been brainwashed by an unproven theory about human origins, and ended up believing that they are nothing but an animal with no ultimate moral accountability. A recent study revealed that in the 50 top universities in the U.S., in the field of biology 61 percent of respondents described themselves as atheists or agnostics. Evolution doesn't simply teach that we have a common ancestor in primates. It seriously teaches that we are primates, and if the result of public schooling education is to reject God and His gift of eternal life, the depth of that tragedy will only be measured in the light of eternity.
Friday, September 28, 2012
A Good article on the Bible and Homosexuality by David Cloud
THE BIBLE AND THE ISSUE OF HOMOSEXUALITY (Friday Church News Notes, September 28, 2012, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Bible teaches that sexual relationships and activities outside of the holy bond of marriage are sinful. “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge” (Heb. 13:4). From the beginning, the Bible defines lawful marriage as a holy union between one man and one woman (Gen. 2:21-25), and Jesus upheld this as the divine standard (Mat. 19:4-6). Since sexual relationships outside of marriage are sinful and since the Bible nowhere legitimizes marriage between a man and a man or a woman and a woman, it is obvious that homosexuality is forbidden. It is nowhere legitimized by Scripture. The New Testament treats homosexuality as a moral abomination. In Romans 1, the apostle Paul described homosexuality as “vile affections” (v. 26), “against nature” (v. 26), “unseemly” (v. 27), “reprobate” (v. 28), and “not convenient” (v. 28). This passage warns that homosexuality is the corruption of the imagination. It is the product of a reprobate mind. Paul speaks of the homosexuality in the church at Corinth in the past tense -- “and such WERE some of you” (1 Cor. 6:11). The members of the church at Corinth had repented of their sins and had become new creatures in Christ. God can and will save any sinner, but he must repent of his sin rather than justify it, and when God saves, He changes (2 Corinthians 5:17). This doesn’t mean the believer is sinless; it means he is converted and he delights in righteousness even when he doesn’t always live up to God’s holy standards. Bible believers are not “homophobic” any more than they are “adulteryphobic” or “thiefphobic” or “lierphobic.” They do not hate homosexuals. They simply believe that the Bible teaches that men must repent of sin in order to be saved and be qualified for church membership. They also know that homosexuality is a special kind of sin in the sense that it is a sin against nature itself and a sin that is a particular attack upon biblical marriage and therefore has the power to corrupt society in a unique way.
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Addictive America
I am a Coke addict.
You might be addicted instead to Pepsi.
I was asked what was the number one addiction in America in 2012. I guessed booze, gambling, pornography, or prescription medication. I was dead wrong.
The number one addiction right now in America is sugar. Most of us in America are a bunch of addicts and no one knows it because it seems harmless. 9 out of 10 dentists agree that they too are sugarholics. You likely are in denial if you think you aren't addicted to something.
Websters dictionary defines addict as someone who devotes time and attention by customary Think of how many people are addicted to caffeine. Texting. Checking your blog stats. (No, I don't know anyone like that). Fast food. Junk food. Organic Food. Comfort food. Timbits. Whenever a Tim Hortons donut and coffee shop opens in town, it is like our cars are on auto pilot. We drive through but somehow end up first in their drive-thru.
I think that the recovery place for caffeine addiction is known as the Maxwell House. At the very least think how much time and energy and money is wasted on our seemingly harmless addictions. When I was younger I loved a comic strip named Dilbert. There was this dog Dogbert, and this tech nerd, Dilbert, who worked somewhere in a cubicle. One day Dogbert asked Dilbert if he wanted any coffee.
Dilbert declined, and said, "No, I quit drinking coffee. I don't want to be dependent on chemicals".
To which Dogbert said, "Well, how are you doing this morning?"
Dilbert said, "Well, a little sluggish, but you would expect that for a Monday."
Dogbert replied, "Um, it's Thursday."
Corn syrup is like crack in the body. It is absorbed immediately and gets to the blood stream, and there is a sugar high very quickly. You crash and if you don't get more sugar you get irritable. Snickers satisfies. LIARS! The Bible commands us to fast, but when I am not watching my diet, I am absolutely miserable when I am fasting and off the junk cold-turkey for just 24 hours. I am supposed to be doing this spiritual endeavour yet I am about to tear everyone's heads off I am so irritable! Hypocrite! I need a sugar patch on my arm or something.
My one point is this ---you don't need to smoke crack to end up addicted. If you never try to run from your addiction and tell it no, you really don't know you have a problem. Most of us have politically correct addictions and will never realize we have a problem. Crack gets people into trouble fast. They quickly lose everything and it's destruction is almost immediate. The rest of the addictions are the old frog in the pot. You heat up a pot slowly with a frog in it, and it will boil to death and not realize anything was going on. Had you thrown a frog instantly in that same boiling pot at the end, it would jump out. When I was a lost heathen, I sold beer and cigarettes from an early age. Back then cigarettes were $1.99 a pack. If we suddenly raised them to $10 a pack, people would have a fit, and say, "No more cigarettes! That is ridiculous!" Yet, 20 years later, people pay $10 a pack and don't even flinch.
Imagine if tomorrow Tim Hortons started charging $25 for a Double Double and $5 a timbit. Then on Friday, the government read my blog and said, "Dolly Madison, we have a problem" and made a ban on sugar. And later Verizon had a change of heart and banned texting to help improve our social skills. And some terrorists launched an E Bomb and fried all our electronics. We would soon find out just how much junkies we really are.
In America, there are junkies and junkfoodjunkees. It is just our sugar addiction is legal and helps stimulate the economy. One Super sized Soda at a time. The Bible says I won't be mastered by anything. Our addictions do have a price to pay. The bible says the drunkard AND GLUTTON will come to ruin.
I found the answer 11 years ago when I met Jesus. He set me free instantly from many addictions. Now when I look to Him, I am not craving other junk. At our camp meeting, the Sutton Family sang a song that hit home. It is called HOOKED on JESUS. "I must admit it," they sing, "I'm hooked on Jesus. HE almost always on my mind. I got me a drink of that living water, and now I stay high, most all the time."
You might not be addicted to anything that is that obvious you need help. That I think is one of the devil's greatest tricks today. We are not in the gutter drunkards, and everyone else is doing it, and we must be ok. You can't swim to the lifeboat where Jesus is waiting with open arms, when you are calmly treading water in the River De-Nial. But do your soul a favor-- cut out sweets and the media for 24 hours and then a full 7 days and just see how addicted to this world you really are. Then cry out to the Lord for deliverance! He will be all you need once you see He's all you have. Taste and see that the Lord is good. The only cure is Jesus. Snickers left me hungry for more and so did everything else. Jesus not only satisfied, Jesus saved me! Get hooked on Jesus today and you will be freed from the devil's snares!
You might be addicted instead to Pepsi.
I was asked what was the number one addiction in America in 2012. I guessed booze, gambling, pornography, or prescription medication. I was dead wrong.
The number one addiction right now in America is sugar. Most of us in America are a bunch of addicts and no one knows it because it seems harmless. 9 out of 10 dentists agree that they too are sugarholics. You likely are in denial if you think you aren't addicted to something.
Websters dictionary defines addict as someone who devotes time and attention by customary Think of how many people are addicted to caffeine. Texting. Checking your blog stats. (No, I don't know anyone like that). Fast food. Junk food. Organic Food. Comfort food. Timbits. Whenever a Tim Hortons donut and coffee shop opens in town, it is like our cars are on auto pilot. We drive through but somehow end up first in their drive-thru.
I think that the recovery place for caffeine addiction is known as the Maxwell House. At the very least think how much time and energy and money is wasted on our seemingly harmless addictions. When I was younger I loved a comic strip named Dilbert. There was this dog Dogbert, and this tech nerd, Dilbert, who worked somewhere in a cubicle. One day Dogbert asked Dilbert if he wanted any coffee.
Dilbert declined, and said, "No, I quit drinking coffee. I don't want to be dependent on chemicals".
To which Dogbert said, "Well, how are you doing this morning?"
Dilbert said, "Well, a little sluggish, but you would expect that for a Monday."
Dogbert replied, "Um, it's Thursday."
Corn syrup is like crack in the body. It is absorbed immediately and gets to the blood stream, and there is a sugar high very quickly. You crash and if you don't get more sugar you get irritable. Snickers satisfies. LIARS! The Bible commands us to fast, but when I am not watching my diet, I am absolutely miserable when I am fasting and off the junk cold-turkey for just 24 hours. I am supposed to be doing this spiritual endeavour yet I am about to tear everyone's heads off I am so irritable! Hypocrite! I need a sugar patch on my arm or something.
My one point is this ---you don't need to smoke crack to end up addicted. If you never try to run from your addiction and tell it no, you really don't know you have a problem. Most of us have politically correct addictions and will never realize we have a problem. Crack gets people into trouble fast. They quickly lose everything and it's destruction is almost immediate. The rest of the addictions are the old frog in the pot. You heat up a pot slowly with a frog in it, and it will boil to death and not realize anything was going on. Had you thrown a frog instantly in that same boiling pot at the end, it would jump out. When I was a lost heathen, I sold beer and cigarettes from an early age. Back then cigarettes were $1.99 a pack. If we suddenly raised them to $10 a pack, people would have a fit, and say, "No more cigarettes! That is ridiculous!" Yet, 20 years later, people pay $10 a pack and don't even flinch.
Imagine if tomorrow Tim Hortons started charging $25 for a Double Double and $5 a timbit. Then on Friday, the government read my blog and said, "Dolly Madison, we have a problem" and made a ban on sugar. And later Verizon had a change of heart and banned texting to help improve our social skills. And some terrorists launched an E Bomb and fried all our electronics. We would soon find out just how much junkies we really are.
In America, there are junkies and junkfoodjunkees. It is just our sugar addiction is legal and helps stimulate the economy. One Super sized Soda at a time. The Bible says I won't be mastered by anything. Our addictions do have a price to pay. The bible says the drunkard AND GLUTTON will come to ruin.
I found the answer 11 years ago when I met Jesus. He set me free instantly from many addictions. Now when I look to Him, I am not craving other junk. At our camp meeting, the Sutton Family sang a song that hit home. It is called HOOKED on JESUS. "I must admit it," they sing, "I'm hooked on Jesus. HE almost always on my mind. I got me a drink of that living water, and now I stay high, most all the time."
You might not be addicted to anything that is that obvious you need help. That I think is one of the devil's greatest tricks today. We are not in the gutter drunkards, and everyone else is doing it, and we must be ok. You can't swim to the lifeboat where Jesus is waiting with open arms, when you are calmly treading water in the River De-Nial. But do your soul a favor-- cut out sweets and the media for 24 hours and then a full 7 days and just see how addicted to this world you really are. Then cry out to the Lord for deliverance! He will be all you need once you see He's all you have. Taste and see that the Lord is good. The only cure is Jesus. Snickers left me hungry for more and so did everything else. Jesus not only satisfied, Jesus saved me! Get hooked on Jesus today and you will be freed from the devil's snares!
Saturday, September 1, 2012
What if blessings come thru Rain Drops?
Friends, Here are the wonderful lyrics of a song sung by Kendall DuFour at our Camp Meeting. The song was a blessing to me, and many, and I thought it would be a blessing to you.
What If Blessings come thru Rain Drops?
We pray for blessings.
We pray for peace.
Comfort for family.
Protection while we sleep.
We pray for healing.
For prosperity.
We pray for your mighty hand to ease our sufferings.
And all the while,
you hear each spoken need.
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things.
Because what if your blessings come thru raindrops?
What if your healing comes through tears?
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know you're near?
And what if trials of this life are your mercies in disguise?
We pray for wisdom.
Your voice to hear.
We cry in anger when we cannot feel you near.
We doubt your goodnes.
We doubt your love.
As if every promise in your word is not enough.
And all the while you hear each desperate plea.
And long that we have the faith to believe.
Because what if your blessings come thru raindrops?
What if your healing comes through tears?
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know you're near?
And if trials of this life are your mercies in disguise?
When friends betray us,
When darknes seems to win.
We know the pain reminds us that
This is not, this is not
It's not our home.
Because what if you're blessings come through rain drops, and your healing comes through tears, and a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know you're near?
What if my greatest disappointments or the aching of this life,
is a revealing of a greater thirst,
this world cannot satisfy?
What if trials of this life, the rain, the storms, the hardest nights,
Are your mercis in disguise?
------------ Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
What If Blessings come thru Rain Drops?
We pray for blessings.
We pray for peace.
Comfort for family.
Protection while we sleep.
We pray for healing.
For prosperity.
We pray for your mighty hand to ease our sufferings.
And all the while,
you hear each spoken need.
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things.
Because what if your blessings come thru raindrops?
What if your healing comes through tears?
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know you're near?
And what if trials of this life are your mercies in disguise?
We pray for wisdom.
Your voice to hear.
We cry in anger when we cannot feel you near.
We doubt your goodnes.
We doubt your love.
As if every promise in your word is not enough.
And all the while you hear each desperate plea.
And long that we have the faith to believe.
Because what if your blessings come thru raindrops?
What if your healing comes through tears?
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know you're near?
And if trials of this life are your mercies in disguise?
When friends betray us,
When darknes seems to win.
We know the pain reminds us that
This is not, this is not
It's not our home.
Because what if you're blessings come through rain drops, and your healing comes through tears, and a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know you're near?
What if my greatest disappointments or the aching of this life,
is a revealing of a greater thirst,
this world cannot satisfy?
What if trials of this life, the rain, the storms, the hardest nights,
Are your mercis in disguise?
------------ Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Confessions of an Animated Dirt Ball
God made us from the dirt of the ground. Christianity is a 2 sided coin. Side 1 is Without HIM (Jesus Christ) I can do nothing. The other side of the coin is I can do all things through Christ which strengtheth me. I want to take a moment to sincerely apologize for something. I think I have shared some truths on this blog that God has showed me, but I 1) don't always handle the truth too well. and 2) my spirit has rarely had any charity or grace behind what I have written. God got ahold of my heart at our camp meeting and it started me getting right in several areas I was hurt about, disgruntled over, and confused about. I don't agree with everything I see, and in many ways circumstances of my life have not changed. What has changed however is my attitude toward everything. Christianity overall is in a mess, and I believe God has showed me a few things that can turn it around. My problem is ME. I have yet to grasp how to share the truth in love better, and because I fail and then see people reject me (when I think they are rejecting God) I isolate and don't give them the grace that is needed if I ever want to be listened to. Further, I have alienated myself in my circles, at least in my mind, by attacking everything and anything I saw I also cut everyone that was on my team as well. It is like a zealous solider with an AK47 shooting the enemy and then just firing all over the place and when he calms down, half his platoon is badly injured. I so much want to go beyond today's compromising and cold Christianity but in my observations, I too made some poor conclusions. The answer is not to just have a hatred of sin and a fear of God, but to have grace for people and love for the brethren and respect for authority who share similar struggles and frustrations. We are worn out, a lot of us. I got refreshed at our camp meeting and now have a burden and a wake up call during the week to not only be a better and more faithful church member and witness, but to be a stronger husband and father, and love and lead my family better. I had been prideful, and had been bitter at life that no one saw the amazing spiritual talents God has given me. I am kidding there, but I can now see what I did. I was unfriendly to people, I was selfish, I was cold, I was moody to be around. I had the truth, but no audience because of my attitude. And the truth I have is the same truth most of the brethren have in my circles. I am not this solo guru and I gave that impression that I am right and everyone else is wrong. I open myself up here-- If i have hurt you by anything I wrote in this blog, let me know. If I offended you, let me know. If you have seen things you are concerned about let me know. I want to be a man of God that has a teachable spirit and child like faith, not a caustic, critical windbag. I want to share the truth in love, not run and hide and keep everything in me. I want to get back to the vision for this blog, and get it more under the umbrella of the local new testament church I am a part of. Blessings, Mike.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Mad AT HELL and Not Going to Take it ANYMORE!
Today the devil has redefined a good Christian to mean "nice and quiet."
Jesus said he came not to bring peace, but division. Truth divides. Truth is getting more and more watered down and anybody willing to take a stand will likely stand alone. Or cut down. Mostly by other Christians because they want to sleep on.
We might have spurts of revival and we might get on fire for God for a moment, but our natural behavior is how God describes the end times church today. Full of the world, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. Lukewarm to the core. Compromising. Ever learning and never coming to the knowledge of the truth. We have it both ways. We have one foot in the church and one foot in the world.
We are all addicted to the world, and you can probably put all of us Christians in 2 categories.
Category 1 is the Modern Christian, attending a Mega Purpose Driven church that has a drum set on the stage, and not a preacher, but an ear tickling comedian who tells funny inspiring stories, and wears shorts and a necklace. And it's not Pastor Steve, just Steve please. They have the Lord's supper with oreos and soda pop on a beach in their bikinis and speedos. They know the verse that Jesus made wine, and they are for any bible version --as long as it isn't the dreaded King James Version. They don't interpret anything by the Bible, but whether it builds a crowd. They are for any type of music, christian rap, christian rock and roll, the Christian groups Audio Adrenaline, Third Day, NewsBoys, Carmen, MercyMe, DC Talk, Steven Curtis Chapman, Jars of Clay, Caedmon's Call, as well as the secular groups like the Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Jimi Hendrix, Aerosmith, Rolling Stones, Lady GaGa, R.E.M., Bon Jovi, Smashing Pumpkins, Run DMC, Madonna, and more. They like it all. Except the boring old fashioned hymns. U2 is a godly Christian band, and they love their message and buy their cd's. They meditate and study everything but the Bible for spiritual revelation. The Lord of the Rings. The Matrix. The Chronicles of Narnia. And they listen to U2's song, "I still haven't found what I'm looking for" for deep spiritual insight, yet have yet to do that to 1 bible verse.
They accuse you of judging if you say anything about their sin. They "don't fornicate". They live together and since God looks on the heart he knows they are going to get married, and hence he is ok with what they are doing. Feelings dictate their heart, and God died on the cross so they can have a good time. Homosexuals are born that way they think, so who are we to push our beliefs on them. They think that Catholics and Mormons are just as christian as they are. Church is an option, baptism is ok for babies, and witnessing is offensive, but we are to let our light shine. What they mean is that we party it up and lost people who party along with us see the saved people that party and see they are missing something. Yes, they are missing the false Party Jesus who helps appease your conscience, and helps with your guilt. This "Jesus" is made for Michelob. Good works are saving the whales and helping the rain forest and going on a bike ride to raise money for diabetes. If your church is cooler than my church, I probably will join yours. Category 1 is apostate.
Category 2 belongs to a stronger church, one that still PREACHES, such as the Independent Baptist Church. Many Baptist churches today are already apostate --- Bill Clinton and the rest of the Southern Baptists for example have been in Category 1 for decades and have no intentions of moving. I can't help them. They are riding it out until the rapture, then they will have the market to themselves.
Category 2 has a form of Godliness but will be apostate soon if they don't wake up. They tend to have some standards, they state they are for holiness, they attend churches that from the pulpits tell the truth and preach against SIN, and they are taught to bring the gospel to the lost. Lost people do not come to church, so this is what Jesus commanded. They preach it straight from the pulpit, but our lives have so much world in us that we rarely live it. This makes it an easy formula to be a breeding ground for rebels. The older generation has dropped the ball, the younger generation sees a walking contradiction between WHAT THEY SEE AND WHAT THEY HEAR, and only play the part when there is external pressure on them. The second that mold is off, they head for the hills. Or the bars. Or the back seat. Or the beaches. Or to the Bahamas and vote for Obama. Or to the rock and rolling modern church.
This is one of the 2 reasons why "my" circles seem cultic. The first reason is if there is no inward change, there is only external control and you submit to the pressures around you, but it flies against your will. In the 1st category there is no need to rebel as there are no rules. Do what you want. Do as you please. Come as you are and stay as you were. Category 2 lays down the law after salvation, but if they used the law biblically before salvation, you would have true converts who had a heart change, had a fear of God, and desired to obey God. The first group attracts goats in the gates with its alluring smells and worldly pastures. The second group trains lost goats to act like saved sheep. And both groups boast how the grass is greener in their fields. The grasses are only green from all the manure being shoveled in! The 2nd reason is for another day.
Category 2 is for wearing skirts instead of pants for women, suits and ties on men. They have a bible reason for why they do what they do. The Bible says it is an abomination for women to wear that which pertaineth to a man. God created men and women differently and men are to look like men and women are to look like women. The Feminist movement deluded women to think they were being put down because they were forced to stay at home and forced to raise babies. First, men cannot carry children. I am not being a male chauvinist, but God designed women's anatomy to be able to carry a baby. It is not because God is mean, but I think because if we men carried them, we would not have had kids and the population would have died out. Or we would have forgot we had anything in there and not wanted to have it checked out and the babies would have died and the population would have died out. God is smarter than us. Women gain more respect and feel better about themselves when they look like a lady. Instead you look like Lady GaGa and wonder why men treat you like a tramp or a whore. Want to be treated like a lady, girls? Dress like one, then act like one.
Category 2 is for the King James Bible. They read it as little as Category 1, but they have the right book. Should they ever read it at least they would be in good shape soon. Category 1 wouldn't be helped reading the Bible because they only own counterfeits.Category 1 whines that they can't understand the King James so they cry out for easier to read follow the bouncing Bible versions. Yet as soon as they get one that is watered down enough that they can understand it without the Holy Ghost guiding them like he does with the real Bible, they wait for a better rendering.
But they won't read it anyway, so it doesn't matter. Category 1 are the soldier's at war with plastic bullets and against shooting anyway. They enter war with capless cap guns, and drained water balloons, and don't want to betray their stand on gun control. Enemies fire at them and they say, I don't want to hurt them, so they smile and encourage them to put their guns down and take one of their smile buttons.
Category 2 has real bullets, hand grenades, rocket launchers, long range heat seeking missiles, nuclear capabilities, and a full armoured tank. Problem is they are at home watching the NFL while the war is on. Don't want to get involved. Don't want to get my feet dirty, I have to work in the morning. Can't help, I'm off to church.
Category 1 are the carnal ones, Category 2 are the cold, compromising, hypocrites. Category 1 doesn't know the truth. Category 2 has the truth and doesn't care. The devils been busy in both camps the past 50 years.
Camp 1 is oblivious to the devil and doesn't even think he exists. Camp 2 won't do anything because of the devil. Camp 1 thinks if Jesus is coming it will be hundreds of years from now because they are having such a wonderful time fulfilling the lusts of the flesh. Camp 2 thinks Jesus is coming this week, so there is no time to bother, and we might as well get as much out of this world while it is still here. Camp 1 flaunts it's sins. Camp 2 hides it or finds sins that are acceptable. Category 1 would not say anything bad if the Antichrist got behind the pulpit. Everyone who names the name of Christ is authentic, except those sin hating Baptists they say. Category 2 names names all over the place except where it is from someone within the Camp. Unless you are the one naming names. The bible warns about men crept in unawares. There are wolves in sheep's clothing devouring the sheep left and right. The Pastor should be looking out for his sheep but here he is busy warning about Joel the Wolf Olsteen down in Houston Texas, and Rick the Wolf Warren in California, and Benny the Wolf Hinn. Meanwhile, he won't say anything about two killer Jack O'Wolves, Schapp and Hyles that are in the sheep pen. And he was the one who let them in to boot!
I had been in Camp 1 the first few years after I was saved. There is nothing Camp 1 offers this world. It is apostate and like false religion it allows men to continue in their love of sin while having a form of religion to appease their guilty consciences. Camp 1 is the modern contemporary church, one that has CCM, the NIV, and won't preach against HIV causing sodomy.
I want to say I graduated to Camp 2, but I am disgusted at some of the even greater errors in this camp. Camp 2 needs to wake up, and do something with the truth. Camp 2 has picked up some bad habits it needs to repent of (addressed in earlier blogs, ex: the sinner's prayer, and unquestioning loyalty) but at least it has something to REPENT TO! God may be knocking outside Camp 2's doors, but at least he is knocking. He left Camp 1 already and won't even attempt to stop back.
So, CAMP 2, WAKE UP! Get your head out of the sand, and see how cold and dead we have become. We reek with pride. We boast of great numbers and thousands saved, yet this world is getting worse and worse and members are getting colder and colder, and we live oblivious that anything is wrong!!!! We preach it hot and heavy, but as soon as the sermon is over we go right back to the world!!! After the pizza fellowship, I mean. We need to get prayer meetings going where we beg for the forgiveness for dropping the ball, and beg sinners eyes to be opened. We can lead them in a prayer, so we don't think we need to pray for souls. We should be praying for the 2 fold children of hell we made and for TRUE Conversions to being happening!
We are rich blind and naked right now--- we have decisions to report so we could care less about real conversions. The mega churches get decisions too! Half dozen of my family made decisions at the Chapel at Cross Points, Living Singing Christmas Tree. They are all still lost today!!!!! Yet that mega church has the same sort of invitation that the Independent Baptist Churches have! Neither use the methods used during the Great Awakening or anywhere in the Bible for that matter! Both camps are high fiving each other over decisions, but blind to the lack of true conversions.
Real conversion letters are less impressive than false decision letters. Missionary A got 1000 decisions and 3 baptized in 2011! Wow, he must be the real deal. Missionary B only got 3 conversions and 3 baptized. What is wrong with him? Did he not read "Let's go soulwinning?" Camp 2 wake up! Honestly examine our methods. Our preaching is top notch. Why is our living so botched? Why don't we try practicing what we preach? Pastor, did you hand out a tract today? Evangelist did you witness to anyone? Evangelist, you are not obeying your callling if you just preach at a church at night and fellowship with the pastor the next day. You are supposed to be doing THE WORK of an evangelist. Preaching. Witnessing. Door to Door. Street preaching. Soul winning. Showing the church members by your example how to witness! Coaching others and watching them do it.
Missionary did you do anything beyond your 3 church services this week? And you say you are representing the Independent Baptists? Churches support you? WOW!!!! When I was visiting a church, the pastor took us all out for ice cream. He didn't even bother telling the cashier about the church or give out a tract. I witnessed to the girl. She didn't bite. I was filling in at a store once and a Pastor I knew came in. I said Hi, Pastor So-and-So. He was a regular customer there and knew the staff. They all after he left exclaimed they were shocked to find out he was a Pastor. He never witnessed nor told them. What are we doing?
Yes, I am a compromiser too, I don't witness much at work. At my old job, I made one small comment against their pro-sodomy conversation. Corporate marched down within 3 days and sat me down and slapped my wrists. I think they try slapping your wrists to try and make them limp. I am not this bold witness at work, yet I have had persecution every where I go. The churches look at me like I am this moron. They preach that if you live Godly you be persecuted. Yet reality says if you are persecuted they will treat you like you did something wrong. My friend Greg was arrested by a lesbian police officer for street preaching a few years ago and the Christians all distanced themselves from him and said he shouldn't have been arrested. If a sodomite has anything bad happen to him, his fellow queers all gang up and fight back. They sue anything that breathes to get their agenda thru. They won't give up. Christians think buying a Chick-Fil-A sandwich one time to show their support for American values is enough. They do something one time and go back to the ball game they were watching.
Sodomites have been working non-stop for 50 years day in and day out to achieve their goals. Muslims have a faith that lasts 24 7 and they are taking over the world. Christians in Camp A don't see anything wrong with NOTHING and Camp B CAN'T see because they are ASLEEP at the WHEEL!!!!! Wake up! I am disgusted with my own lukewarmness.
We need Camp C, the Mad AT Hell camp. They contend for the faith, are willing to take a stand, and WILLING TO PAY THE COST! We need Christians today to act like Muslims and Sodomites! Actually living what we claim to believe. You can spot a Muslim by their look. You can spot a sodomite by their act. They both will die for their cause.
Not the Christian. He removes his spine at the drop of a hat and his church uniform is bright canary YELLOW. He blends in with both those in Camp A and B and offends no one and is bolder behind a pulpit than on the street corner. He thinks persecution is not being allowed to order breakfast at McDonald's at 11:01. He hates anyone willing to take a stand because it makes him look bad. He tells people to check out the Bible to prove what he is saying, but God forbid you actually do and see he is pulling his doctrine out of thin air! Judgment must being in the house of God. Camp A? No they are a stadium of devils. The house of God needs to be revived. Camp B is all we have left. And if they don't change and wake up, they will be a Camp A in no time.
Jesus said he came not to bring peace, but division. Truth divides. Truth is getting more and more watered down and anybody willing to take a stand will likely stand alone. Or cut down. Mostly by other Christians because they want to sleep on.
We might have spurts of revival and we might get on fire for God for a moment, but our natural behavior is how God describes the end times church today. Full of the world, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. Lukewarm to the core. Compromising. Ever learning and never coming to the knowledge of the truth. We have it both ways. We have one foot in the church and one foot in the world.
We are all addicted to the world, and you can probably put all of us Christians in 2 categories.
Category 1 is the Modern Christian, attending a Mega Purpose Driven church that has a drum set on the stage, and not a preacher, but an ear tickling comedian who tells funny inspiring stories, and wears shorts and a necklace. And it's not Pastor Steve, just Steve please. They have the Lord's supper with oreos and soda pop on a beach in their bikinis and speedos. They know the verse that Jesus made wine, and they are for any bible version --as long as it isn't the dreaded King James Version. They don't interpret anything by the Bible, but whether it builds a crowd. They are for any type of music, christian rap, christian rock and roll, the Christian groups Audio Adrenaline, Third Day, NewsBoys, Carmen, MercyMe, DC Talk, Steven Curtis Chapman, Jars of Clay, Caedmon's Call, as well as the secular groups like the Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Jimi Hendrix, Aerosmith, Rolling Stones, Lady GaGa, R.E.M., Bon Jovi, Smashing Pumpkins, Run DMC, Madonna, and more. They like it all. Except the boring old fashioned hymns. U2 is a godly Christian band, and they love their message and buy their cd's. They meditate and study everything but the Bible for spiritual revelation. The Lord of the Rings. The Matrix. The Chronicles of Narnia. And they listen to U2's song, "I still haven't found what I'm looking for" for deep spiritual insight, yet have yet to do that to 1 bible verse.
They accuse you of judging if you say anything about their sin. They "don't fornicate". They live together and since God looks on the heart he knows they are going to get married, and hence he is ok with what they are doing. Feelings dictate their heart, and God died on the cross so they can have a good time. Homosexuals are born that way they think, so who are we to push our beliefs on them. They think that Catholics and Mormons are just as christian as they are. Church is an option, baptism is ok for babies, and witnessing is offensive, but we are to let our light shine. What they mean is that we party it up and lost people who party along with us see the saved people that party and see they are missing something. Yes, they are missing the false Party Jesus who helps appease your conscience, and helps with your guilt. This "Jesus" is made for Michelob. Good works are saving the whales and helping the rain forest and going on a bike ride to raise money for diabetes. If your church is cooler than my church, I probably will join yours. Category 1 is apostate.
Category 2 belongs to a stronger church, one that still PREACHES, such as the Independent Baptist Church. Many Baptist churches today are already apostate --- Bill Clinton and the rest of the Southern Baptists for example have been in Category 1 for decades and have no intentions of moving. I can't help them. They are riding it out until the rapture, then they will have the market to themselves.
Category 2 has a form of Godliness but will be apostate soon if they don't wake up. They tend to have some standards, they state they are for holiness, they attend churches that from the pulpits tell the truth and preach against SIN, and they are taught to bring the gospel to the lost. Lost people do not come to church, so this is what Jesus commanded. They preach it straight from the pulpit, but our lives have so much world in us that we rarely live it. This makes it an easy formula to be a breeding ground for rebels. The older generation has dropped the ball, the younger generation sees a walking contradiction between WHAT THEY SEE AND WHAT THEY HEAR, and only play the part when there is external pressure on them. The second that mold is off, they head for the hills. Or the bars. Or the back seat. Or the beaches. Or to the Bahamas and vote for Obama. Or to the rock and rolling modern church.
This is one of the 2 reasons why "my" circles seem cultic. The first reason is if there is no inward change, there is only external control and you submit to the pressures around you, but it flies against your will. In the 1st category there is no need to rebel as there are no rules. Do what you want. Do as you please. Come as you are and stay as you were. Category 2 lays down the law after salvation, but if they used the law biblically before salvation, you would have true converts who had a heart change, had a fear of God, and desired to obey God. The first group attracts goats in the gates with its alluring smells and worldly pastures. The second group trains lost goats to act like saved sheep. And both groups boast how the grass is greener in their fields. The grasses are only green from all the manure being shoveled in! The 2nd reason is for another day.
Category 2 is for wearing skirts instead of pants for women, suits and ties on men. They have a bible reason for why they do what they do. The Bible says it is an abomination for women to wear that which pertaineth to a man. God created men and women differently and men are to look like men and women are to look like women. The Feminist movement deluded women to think they were being put down because they were forced to stay at home and forced to raise babies. First, men cannot carry children. I am not being a male chauvinist, but God designed women's anatomy to be able to carry a baby. It is not because God is mean, but I think because if we men carried them, we would not have had kids and the population would have died out. Or we would have forgot we had anything in there and not wanted to have it checked out and the babies would have died and the population would have died out. God is smarter than us. Women gain more respect and feel better about themselves when they look like a lady. Instead you look like Lady GaGa and wonder why men treat you like a tramp or a whore. Want to be treated like a lady, girls? Dress like one, then act like one.
Category 2 is for the King James Bible. They read it as little as Category 1, but they have the right book. Should they ever read it at least they would be in good shape soon. Category 1 wouldn't be helped reading the Bible because they only own counterfeits.Category 1 whines that they can't understand the King James so they cry out for easier to read follow the bouncing Bible versions. Yet as soon as they get one that is watered down enough that they can understand it without the Holy Ghost guiding them like he does with the real Bible, they wait for a better rendering.
But they won't read it anyway, so it doesn't matter. Category 1 are the soldier's at war with plastic bullets and against shooting anyway. They enter war with capless cap guns, and drained water balloons, and don't want to betray their stand on gun control. Enemies fire at them and they say, I don't want to hurt them, so they smile and encourage them to put their guns down and take one of their smile buttons.
Category 2 has real bullets, hand grenades, rocket launchers, long range heat seeking missiles, nuclear capabilities, and a full armoured tank. Problem is they are at home watching the NFL while the war is on. Don't want to get involved. Don't want to get my feet dirty, I have to work in the morning. Can't help, I'm off to church.
Category 1 are the carnal ones, Category 2 are the cold, compromising, hypocrites. Category 1 doesn't know the truth. Category 2 has the truth and doesn't care. The devils been busy in both camps the past 50 years.
Camp 1 is oblivious to the devil and doesn't even think he exists. Camp 2 won't do anything because of the devil. Camp 1 thinks if Jesus is coming it will be hundreds of years from now because they are having such a wonderful time fulfilling the lusts of the flesh. Camp 2 thinks Jesus is coming this week, so there is no time to bother, and we might as well get as much out of this world while it is still here. Camp 1 flaunts it's sins. Camp 2 hides it or finds sins that are acceptable. Category 1 would not say anything bad if the Antichrist got behind the pulpit. Everyone who names the name of Christ is authentic, except those sin hating Baptists they say. Category 2 names names all over the place except where it is from someone within the Camp. Unless you are the one naming names. The bible warns about men crept in unawares. There are wolves in sheep's clothing devouring the sheep left and right. The Pastor should be looking out for his sheep but here he is busy warning about Joel the Wolf Olsteen down in Houston Texas, and Rick the Wolf Warren in California, and Benny the Wolf Hinn. Meanwhile, he won't say anything about two killer Jack O'Wolves, Schapp and Hyles that are in the sheep pen. And he was the one who let them in to boot!
I had been in Camp 1 the first few years after I was saved. There is nothing Camp 1 offers this world. It is apostate and like false religion it allows men to continue in their love of sin while having a form of religion to appease their guilty consciences. Camp 1 is the modern contemporary church, one that has CCM, the NIV, and won't preach against HIV causing sodomy.
I want to say I graduated to Camp 2, but I am disgusted at some of the even greater errors in this camp. Camp 2 needs to wake up, and do something with the truth. Camp 2 has picked up some bad habits it needs to repent of (addressed in earlier blogs, ex: the sinner's prayer, and unquestioning loyalty) but at least it has something to REPENT TO! God may be knocking outside Camp 2's doors, but at least he is knocking. He left Camp 1 already and won't even attempt to stop back.
So, CAMP 2, WAKE UP! Get your head out of the sand, and see how cold and dead we have become. We reek with pride. We boast of great numbers and thousands saved, yet this world is getting worse and worse and members are getting colder and colder, and we live oblivious that anything is wrong!!!! We preach it hot and heavy, but as soon as the sermon is over we go right back to the world!!! After the pizza fellowship, I mean. We need to get prayer meetings going where we beg for the forgiveness for dropping the ball, and beg sinners eyes to be opened. We can lead them in a prayer, so we don't think we need to pray for souls. We should be praying for the 2 fold children of hell we made and for TRUE Conversions to being happening!
We are rich blind and naked right now--- we have decisions to report so we could care less about real conversions. The mega churches get decisions too! Half dozen of my family made decisions at the Chapel at Cross Points, Living Singing Christmas Tree. They are all still lost today!!!!! Yet that mega church has the same sort of invitation that the Independent Baptist Churches have! Neither use the methods used during the Great Awakening or anywhere in the Bible for that matter! Both camps are high fiving each other over decisions, but blind to the lack of true conversions.
Real conversion letters are less impressive than false decision letters. Missionary A got 1000 decisions and 3 baptized in 2011! Wow, he must be the real deal. Missionary B only got 3 conversions and 3 baptized. What is wrong with him? Did he not read "Let's go soulwinning?" Camp 2 wake up! Honestly examine our methods. Our preaching is top notch. Why is our living so botched? Why don't we try practicing what we preach? Pastor, did you hand out a tract today? Evangelist did you witness to anyone? Evangelist, you are not obeying your callling if you just preach at a church at night and fellowship with the pastor the next day. You are supposed to be doing THE WORK of an evangelist. Preaching. Witnessing. Door to Door. Street preaching. Soul winning. Showing the church members by your example how to witness! Coaching others and watching them do it.
Missionary did you do anything beyond your 3 church services this week? And you say you are representing the Independent Baptists? Churches support you? WOW!!!! When I was visiting a church, the pastor took us all out for ice cream. He didn't even bother telling the cashier about the church or give out a tract. I witnessed to the girl. She didn't bite. I was filling in at a store once and a Pastor I knew came in. I said Hi, Pastor So-and-So. He was a regular customer there and knew the staff. They all after he left exclaimed they were shocked to find out he was a Pastor. He never witnessed nor told them. What are we doing?
Yes, I am a compromiser too, I don't witness much at work. At my old job, I made one small comment against their pro-sodomy conversation. Corporate marched down within 3 days and sat me down and slapped my wrists. I think they try slapping your wrists to try and make them limp. I am not this bold witness at work, yet I have had persecution every where I go. The churches look at me like I am this moron. They preach that if you live Godly you be persecuted. Yet reality says if you are persecuted they will treat you like you did something wrong. My friend Greg was arrested by a lesbian police officer for street preaching a few years ago and the Christians all distanced themselves from him and said he shouldn't have been arrested. If a sodomite has anything bad happen to him, his fellow queers all gang up and fight back. They sue anything that breathes to get their agenda thru. They won't give up. Christians think buying a Chick-Fil-A sandwich one time to show their support for American values is enough. They do something one time and go back to the ball game they were watching.
Sodomites have been working non-stop for 50 years day in and day out to achieve their goals. Muslims have a faith that lasts 24 7 and they are taking over the world. Christians in Camp A don't see anything wrong with NOTHING and Camp B CAN'T see because they are ASLEEP at the WHEEL!!!!! Wake up! I am disgusted with my own lukewarmness.
We need Camp C, the Mad AT Hell camp. They contend for the faith, are willing to take a stand, and WILLING TO PAY THE COST! We need Christians today to act like Muslims and Sodomites! Actually living what we claim to believe. You can spot a Muslim by their look. You can spot a sodomite by their act. They both will die for their cause.
Not the Christian. He removes his spine at the drop of a hat and his church uniform is bright canary YELLOW. He blends in with both those in Camp A and B and offends no one and is bolder behind a pulpit than on the street corner. He thinks persecution is not being allowed to order breakfast at McDonald's at 11:01. He hates anyone willing to take a stand because it makes him look bad. He tells people to check out the Bible to prove what he is saying, but God forbid you actually do and see he is pulling his doctrine out of thin air! Judgment must being in the house of God. Camp A? No they are a stadium of devils. The house of God needs to be revived. Camp B is all we have left. And if they don't change and wake up, they will be a Camp A in no time.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Don't Recruit with the Fatted Calf
Eternal life is a FREE yet CONDITIONAL GIFT!
The Bible says the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ Our Lord. (Romans 6:23)
Modern evangelism says that this gift is available to anybody and everybody, no questions asked.
Calvinists say it is limited to the "elect" and even if you wanted eternal life you can't have it if you weren't predestined to get it.
So who is right?
Answer: Neither.
The truth is God's gift of eternal life is FREE. You can't earn it, you can't work for it. However, a gift can be 100% FREE for WHOSOEVER...yet 100% CONDITIONAL that NO ONE will receive if they miss the conditions.
Example, if I were to say, Son, I will buy you a car when you meet 2 conditions: turn 17 and have a driver's license.
Is this a gift? Yes.
Did I put conditions on it? Yes.
Can it still be a gift with a condition? YES.
God's conditions for the free gift of eternal life are SAVING FAITH and BIBLICAL REPENTANCE. Saving faith goes beyond today's shallow "admit you are a sinner" and "acknowledge Jesus as your savior". Biblical repentance is not turning from all sin but it goes beyond just a "change of mind" as often is taught today.
Saving faith is not merely believing either. You can't "believe on the Lord Jesus" without Him being the Lord of your life, which means HE HAS THE RIGHT TO RULE YOU! True faith requires the True Jesus Christ, as revealed in Scriptures. Not the one on a crucifix. Not the long haired 98-lb white weak "Jesus" painted by Catholicism. Not the brother of Satan "Jesus" taught by Mormonism.
The Bible teaches true saving faith is in a person, not a prayer or performance. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the son hath not life. If your "belief" or "profession" DID NOT GIVE YOU JESUS, you are not saved!
Part 1 of the Condition is FAITH TOWARD OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. (Acts 20:21)
Except you repent ye shall likewise perish.
Part 2 of the Condition is Biblical Repentance, which is Godly sorrow and a change of mind about sin, self, and the Savior, that produces or results in a changed life. In other words there will be FRUIT from Biblical Repentance and new desires and new direction to go with a new destiny. "Repentance toward God" (Acts 20:21).
You can't turn toward God without turning away FROM your idols. If not, that is Christian Hinduism. You can't be a Yankees fan and own Red Sox paraphernalia. You can't say you are a Grateful Deadhead and not own a Tie Dye shirt. Biblical repentance is shown throughout the bible, but two examples that stand out are in the Book of Jonah and with the Prodigal son.
Jonah 3:4-5 says, And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
In Jonah 3:9 the people of Ninevah reveal their attitude that went with their repentance.
"Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?" (Jonah 3:9 KJV)
A "what must I do to be saved attitude" is a "WHO CAN TELL?". "A Heaven sounds lovely, and I don't want to go to Hell and this is too good a deal to pass up" attitude is a "JUST IN CASE!" Jonah preached "40 days!" until God's hand of judgment would fall!
The people of Nineveh believed God and put on sackcloth and ashes and had an attitude of "WHO CAN TELL?" Meaning, they did not think they were entitled to be forgiven, and by their attitude thought, 'we are not guaranteed of Heaven, we are not deserving of anything, but BECAUSE we have offended a Holy God and deserve his WRATH AND JUDGMENT, we will repent'!
God said He saw their works and was merciful. Jesus said in Matthew 12:41 that, "The men of Nineveh... repented at the preaching of Jonas;"
The prodigal woke up in the hog pen after wasted years of riotous living and said, "I will arise and go to my Father...and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants". The Prodigal says in Luke 15:18 "I have sinned against heaven, and before thee". The result from his Father was mercy and restoration, and it was not what he expected because his motivation in returning to his Father was from truly seeing the enormity of his guilt and transgressions and broken over his sin, and that his sin was against a HOLY GOD!
The main problem with today's evangelism is we are recruiting with the fatted calf. We are not preaching (when it comes to our evangelism and altar calls) and warning of the holiness, righteousness, and judgment of God where people naturally fled from the wrath to come. Look at the "Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God" negative message during the Great Awakening vs. today's "Heaven is Wonderful" positive push. The fatted calf is the end result, the by product of restoration of the prodigal to his father. Heaven and blessings are by-products.
Today's evangelism is likened to a man going down the neighborhood telling people he is signing up adoptees into Bill Gates family because he has such a large inheritance that he can't get rid of. You'll sign up for it, and expect to be left alone and get a check in the mail someday without having to leave the house.
No one wants to go to Hell, but as I have said in earlier posts, if they are not convinced of the disease, the lost will have a JUST IN CASE presumptuous approach to God instead of a WHO CAN TELL humble attitude that causes the lost to run from their sin while embracing the Cross. The presumptuous attitude is "ok, Father, I will come home if you give me the ring and the fatted calf, but you better cook it up like you know I want it because I am very hungry after where I've been". We come demanding the pleasures and promises of Christianity and if God doesn't deliver we feel ripped off and demand our money back.
Our evangelism is mostly creating stony ground converts who spring up emotionally right away and delude us to think our modern methods are better than ever because they get a response and get "results" to write about in our next prayer letter. But do we want true, God glorifying new creatures? Or do we want to look like we are impressive to the brethren because we can trick, manipulate, or bribe folks to a stony ground decision that falls away the second any sun sheds any heat on it?
Why are we satisfied with such pitiful results in the last 100 years of our evangelism? Our average convert won't make it through this pruning of the church as America is taken down to it's knees. Maybe because flu shots are less demanding on our schedules and lives than giving chemotherapy.
Or maybe because the flu shot patrons are less controversial and care less about checking our methods against the Bible than someone who really got saved.
Do you see if the average NINEVITE instead today went up to the Preacher? People of Ninevah God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life! Won't you please get saved! Won't you please go to heaven? God is not begging sinners to go to heaven. God is commanding men everywhere to repent because he has appointed a day where all men everywhere will stand before him. God says salvation produces a new creature. God defines every creature he creates with certain unmistakable identifying points. God's definition for a CHRISTIAN are given in 1st John.
If you made a profession, and you show zero characteristics of some degree of what makes a Christian in the 5 chapters of 1st John, watch out. You don't have a biblical claim for your eternal life. You may have someone's false promises. But you don't have God's eternal promise. Watch out.
You may end up with the fatted calf. But you still may end up roasting in Hell.
The Bible says the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ Our Lord. (Romans 6:23)
Modern evangelism says that this gift is available to anybody and everybody, no questions asked.
Calvinists say it is limited to the "elect" and even if you wanted eternal life you can't have it if you weren't predestined to get it.
So who is right?
Answer: Neither.
The truth is God's gift of eternal life is FREE. You can't earn it, you can't work for it. However, a gift can be 100% FREE for WHOSOEVER...yet 100% CONDITIONAL that NO ONE will receive if they miss the conditions.
Example, if I were to say, Son, I will buy you a car when you meet 2 conditions: turn 17 and have a driver's license.
Is this a gift? Yes.
Did I put conditions on it? Yes.
Can it still be a gift with a condition? YES.
God's conditions for the free gift of eternal life are SAVING FAITH and BIBLICAL REPENTANCE. Saving faith goes beyond today's shallow "admit you are a sinner" and "acknowledge Jesus as your savior". Biblical repentance is not turning from all sin but it goes beyond just a "change of mind" as often is taught today.
Saving faith is not merely believing either. You can't "believe on the Lord Jesus" without Him being the Lord of your life, which means HE HAS THE RIGHT TO RULE YOU! True faith requires the True Jesus Christ, as revealed in Scriptures. Not the one on a crucifix. Not the long haired 98-lb white weak "Jesus" painted by Catholicism. Not the brother of Satan "Jesus" taught by Mormonism.
The Bible teaches true saving faith is in a person, not a prayer or performance. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the son hath not life. If your "belief" or "profession" DID NOT GIVE YOU JESUS, you are not saved!
Part 1 of the Condition is FAITH TOWARD OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. (Acts 20:21)
Except you repent ye shall likewise perish.
Part 2 of the Condition is Biblical Repentance, which is Godly sorrow and a change of mind about sin, self, and the Savior, that produces or results in a changed life. In other words there will be FRUIT from Biblical Repentance and new desires and new direction to go with a new destiny. "Repentance toward God" (Acts 20:21).
You can't turn toward God without turning away FROM your idols. If not, that is Christian Hinduism. You can't be a Yankees fan and own Red Sox paraphernalia. You can't say you are a Grateful Deadhead and not own a Tie Dye shirt. Biblical repentance is shown throughout the bible, but two examples that stand out are in the Book of Jonah and with the Prodigal son.
Jonah 3:4-5 says, And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
In Jonah 3:9 the people of Ninevah reveal their attitude that went with their repentance.
"Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?" (Jonah 3:9 KJV)
A "what must I do to be saved attitude" is a "WHO CAN TELL?". "A Heaven sounds lovely, and I don't want to go to Hell and this is too good a deal to pass up" attitude is a "JUST IN CASE!" Jonah preached "40 days!" until God's hand of judgment would fall!
The people of Nineveh believed God and put on sackcloth and ashes and had an attitude of "WHO CAN TELL?" Meaning, they did not think they were entitled to be forgiven, and by their attitude thought, 'we are not guaranteed of Heaven, we are not deserving of anything, but BECAUSE we have offended a Holy God and deserve his WRATH AND JUDGMENT, we will repent'!
God said He saw their works and was merciful. Jesus said in Matthew 12:41 that, "The men of Nineveh... repented at the preaching of Jonas;"
The prodigal woke up in the hog pen after wasted years of riotous living and said, "I will arise and go to my Father...and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants". The Prodigal says in Luke 15:18 "I have sinned against heaven, and before thee". The result from his Father was mercy and restoration, and it was not what he expected because his motivation in returning to his Father was from truly seeing the enormity of his guilt and transgressions and broken over his sin, and that his sin was against a HOLY GOD!
The main problem with today's evangelism is we are recruiting with the fatted calf. We are not preaching (when it comes to our evangelism and altar calls) and warning of the holiness, righteousness, and judgment of God where people naturally fled from the wrath to come. Look at the "Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God" negative message during the Great Awakening vs. today's "Heaven is Wonderful" positive push. The fatted calf is the end result, the by product of restoration of the prodigal to his father. Heaven and blessings are by-products.
Today's evangelism is likened to a man going down the neighborhood telling people he is signing up adoptees into Bill Gates family because he has such a large inheritance that he can't get rid of. You'll sign up for it, and expect to be left alone and get a check in the mail someday without having to leave the house.
No one wants to go to Hell, but as I have said in earlier posts, if they are not convinced of the disease, the lost will have a JUST IN CASE presumptuous approach to God instead of a WHO CAN TELL humble attitude that causes the lost to run from their sin while embracing the Cross. The presumptuous attitude is "ok, Father, I will come home if you give me the ring and the fatted calf, but you better cook it up like you know I want it because I am very hungry after where I've been". We come demanding the pleasures and promises of Christianity and if God doesn't deliver we feel ripped off and demand our money back.
Our evangelism is mostly creating stony ground converts who spring up emotionally right away and delude us to think our modern methods are better than ever because they get a response and get "results" to write about in our next prayer letter. But do we want true, God glorifying new creatures? Or do we want to look like we are impressive to the brethren because we can trick, manipulate, or bribe folks to a stony ground decision that falls away the second any sun sheds any heat on it?
Why are we satisfied with such pitiful results in the last 100 years of our evangelism? Our average convert won't make it through this pruning of the church as America is taken down to it's knees. Maybe because flu shots are less demanding on our schedules and lives than giving chemotherapy.
Or maybe because the flu shot patrons are less controversial and care less about checking our methods against the Bible than someone who really got saved.
Do you see if the average NINEVITE instead today went up to the Preacher? People of Ninevah God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life! Won't you please get saved! Won't you please go to heaven? God is not begging sinners to go to heaven. God is commanding men everywhere to repent because he has appointed a day where all men everywhere will stand before him. God says salvation produces a new creature. God defines every creature he creates with certain unmistakable identifying points. God's definition for a CHRISTIAN are given in 1st John.
If you made a profession, and you show zero characteristics of some degree of what makes a Christian in the 5 chapters of 1st John, watch out. You don't have a biblical claim for your eternal life. You may have someone's false promises. But you don't have God's eternal promise. Watch out.
You may end up with the fatted calf. But you still may end up roasting in Hell.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
The Romans Road to Salvation--- it is in the Bible --- but is it BIBLICAL?
The Romans Road to Salvation. Yes, it is from the Bible-- but is it Biblical?
Folks,
I am about to sacrifice one of the Baptist sacred cows on the altar tonight....I don't advocate using the Romans Road for leading people to Christ. A major problem with America today is lost and saved alike do not fear God. A major reason is everyone in America is "saved" but they were "saved" man's way. They are not born again, they are still in their sin, and they are still headed for hell. But they had an emotional experience, or trusted something someone did for them, or are blindly trusting their church.
A major error many folks are trusting in for their salvation is praying something called the Sinner's Prayer. The Roman's Road to Salvation ends with the Sinner's Prayer. It usually is a 5 minute quick and easy 1-2-3, repeat-after-me, 5-6-7, do-you-want-to-go-to-heaven, 8-9-10, I promise you are now born again gospel presentation. It makes grace cheap, and emphasizes going to heaven when they die. During the great awakening when men spent hours listening to preaching of the law and the holiness of God from men like George Whitfield and Charles Wesley, they did not have to be told what to pray. They clearly saw their offense against a holy God and saw they offended God by their actions. This naturally birthed repentance and turning to Christ and that supernaturally resulted in the new birth. A repentant adulterer will not have to repeat a Hallmark card to reconcile with his wife. His tears and trembling will shut his mouth. Where are the tears of repentance in today's evangelism? Where is the fruit like the great awakening?
The church in general for the past 100 years has promised heaven but there is often no hint they met the God of heaven. Jesus will say depart for me for I NEVER KNEW YOU to MANY in that day. (Matthew 7). If modern crusades boast of hundreds saved and the FBI cannot find them a year later, something is amiss. Yet modern evangelism boldly marches on to it's next victim to try and convert. Wake up evangelist! Wake up church! Wake up soulwinner! The statistics prove that the majority of your converts are going to wake up in hell!
Do you know if you died today, would you go to heaven? they ask. If they say Yes, then the presentation is unfolded like a expert sales pitch and it sounds easy and wonderful. It lets you get saved YET STAY IN YOUR SIN and it teaches salvation is in a prayer to anyone who will admit to being a sinner. That is the deal. If you admit you are a sinner and be willing to bow your head and repeat the master soulwinner's words ---and REALLY MEAN IT-- then you can go on with your life and when you die that moment you once prayed is your permanent ticket to all the eternal enjoyment you could ever want, free of charge. The only problem is there is nothing Biblical about this presumptuous presentation and it is cheap and instantly turns people into 2 fold children of hell.
People may think I am mean about this, but these false methods need to be exposed and it needs to be rooted out of our churches. Jesus is angry with it because it makes a sham of the gospel, it makes conversions nothing to shout about, and it makes the gospel powerless and phony. Salvation is not to get everyone to heaven, it is to bring glory to God. Saved sinners who act lost bring embarrassment to the cause of Christ and is why most of the world thinks Christianity is a joke and won't consider it's claims.
Part of the major problem of America today is there is no difference between saved and lost alike because most of the saved are "saved" by a prayer only and will still end up in hell despite the false promises of this man centered repentance-less gospel. But everyone around them too is lost but prayed the prayer so we tolerate this and write it off as normal modern evangelism. We expect it not to work. We expect everyone to backslide. We expect 90% of the flock to fall away. Is that what the apostles expected? Is that what you see in the book of Acts? Is that what you see during the great awakening?
You know a tree by it's fruit. 11 saved disciples turned the world upside down. Millions of professing Christians who prayed the prayer and have no other hint they truly know God have helped turn this once Christian nation of America into hell. There is no power in the churches because there is no power in our evangelism. There is no power because there is false promises and false proclamations and false prophets and pastors giving false fake performances and sales pitches. We need to root this stuff out now!
As catholics wrongly trust their baptism for salvation, Protestants and Baptists trust praying a prayer and asking the Lord to save them. A frequent way they do this is through the verses in the "Romans Road" that produces a formula for salvation. We must examine everything 1) by the Bible and 2) by the fruit it produces. If something sounds too good to be true it just may be. Salvation is easy, but it is not cheap. Salvation is a person, not a prayer or performance. The Bible says in 1st John, He that hath the Son hath life. Modern evangelism says He that hath prayed the prayer.
I am about to sacrifice one of the Baptist sacred cows on the altar tonight....I don't advocate using the Romans Road for leading people to Christ. A major problem with America today is lost and saved alike do not fear God. A major reason is everyone in America is "saved" but they were "saved" man's way. They are not born again, they are still in their sin, and they are still headed for hell. But they had an emotional experience, or trusted something someone did for them, or are blindly trusting their church.
A major error many folks are trusting in for their salvation is praying something called the Sinner's Prayer. The Roman's Road to Salvation ends with the Sinner's Prayer. It usually is a 5 minute quick and easy 1-2-3, repeat-after-me, 5-6-7, do-you-want-to-go-to-heaven, 8-9-10, I promise you are now born again gospel presentation. It makes grace cheap, and emphasizes going to heaven when they die. During the great awakening when men spent hours listening to preaching of the law and the holiness of God from men like George Whitfield and Charles Wesley, they did not have to be told what to pray. They clearly saw their offense against a holy God and saw they offended God by their actions. This naturally birthed repentance and turning to Christ and that supernaturally resulted in the new birth. A repentant adulterer will not have to repeat a Hallmark card to reconcile with his wife. His tears and trembling will shut his mouth. Where are the tears of repentance in today's evangelism? Where is the fruit like the great awakening?
The church in general for the past 100 years has promised heaven but there is often no hint they met the God of heaven. Jesus will say depart for me for I NEVER KNEW YOU to MANY in that day. (Matthew 7). If modern crusades boast of hundreds saved and the FBI cannot find them a year later, something is amiss. Yet modern evangelism boldly marches on to it's next victim to try and convert. Wake up evangelist! Wake up church! Wake up soulwinner! The statistics prove that the majority of your converts are going to wake up in hell!
Do you know if you died today, would you go to heaven? they ask. If they say Yes, then the presentation is unfolded like a expert sales pitch and it sounds easy and wonderful. It lets you get saved YET STAY IN YOUR SIN and it teaches salvation is in a prayer to anyone who will admit to being a sinner. That is the deal. If you admit you are a sinner and be willing to bow your head and repeat the master soulwinner's words ---and REALLY MEAN IT-- then you can go on with your life and when you die that moment you once prayed is your permanent ticket to all the eternal enjoyment you could ever want, free of charge. The only problem is there is nothing Biblical about this presumptuous presentation and it is cheap and instantly turns people into 2 fold children of hell.
People may think I am mean about this, but these false methods need to be exposed and it needs to be rooted out of our churches. Jesus is angry with it because it makes a sham of the gospel, it makes conversions nothing to shout about, and it makes the gospel powerless and phony. Salvation is not to get everyone to heaven, it is to bring glory to God. Saved sinners who act lost bring embarrassment to the cause of Christ and is why most of the world thinks Christianity is a joke and won't consider it's claims.
Part of the major problem of America today is there is no difference between saved and lost alike because most of the saved are "saved" by a prayer only and will still end up in hell despite the false promises of this man centered repentance-less gospel. But everyone around them too is lost but prayed the prayer so we tolerate this and write it off as normal modern evangelism. We expect it not to work. We expect everyone to backslide. We expect 90% of the flock to fall away. Is that what the apostles expected? Is that what you see in the book of Acts? Is that what you see during the great awakening?
You know a tree by it's fruit. 11 saved disciples turned the world upside down. Millions of professing Christians who prayed the prayer and have no other hint they truly know God have helped turn this once Christian nation of America into hell. There is no power in the churches because there is no power in our evangelism. There is no power because there is false promises and false proclamations and false prophets and pastors giving false fake performances and sales pitches. We need to root this stuff out now!
As catholics wrongly trust their baptism for salvation, Protestants and Baptists trust praying a prayer and asking the Lord to save them. A frequent way they do this is through the verses in the "Romans Road" that produces a formula for salvation. We must examine everything 1) by the Bible and 2) by the fruit it produces. If something sounds too good to be true it just may be. Salvation is easy, but it is not cheap. Salvation is a person, not a prayer or performance. The Bible says in 1st John, He that hath the Son hath life. Modern evangelism says He that hath prayed the prayer.
Here are the issues with using the Romans' Road and /or the Sinners Prayer I have found.
1. It is too generic. 99% of people will admit to being a sinner to get a free pass to heaven. People will crash planes into buildings to get to heaven, so people will be also willing to admit to coming short of the glory of God. What people can't see is how wicked, and hell deserving and UnGodly we are before regeneration. We may admit to be sinners, but we don't want our specific sin dealt with. God deals specifically with the sin. "Go and sell all thou hast and come follow me," was Jesus' response to the rich young ruler. Not "Do-you-want-to-go-to-heaven, then pray-this prayer". The Holy Ghost deals with the person at the point of contention. Jesus is not a generic flu vaccine just in case we might be at risk to get sick.
Look at it like this. A man found his wife leaving him so he went to a marriage counselor in a last ditch effort to save his marriage. The counselor took out his big marriage book and said, "Bill, here is the problem. My marriage book says you are a bad husband. There is no good husband, no not one. What you need to do is admit to your wife you are not a good husband, tell her you're sorry and mean it, and ask her to forgive you. Then my marriage book promises you a wonderful marriage."
See, that man is not convinced his wife knew what she was doing. He thinks he is Mr. Wonderful, and yet he wants his wife back. He will eat crow, and admit to something he is not convinced of for the return promise of a wonderful marriage. He will now feel entitled to a great marriage or he will feel ripped off. He better have a great marriage, after all he agreed to something he didn't believe to get it.
I was with a soul winning booth at our Erie County Fair and saw this in action. They didn't want you to mention hell, they didn't want you to deal with their false religion. They merely wanted you to ask them if they knew if they would go to heaven and if not, if they would want to know. It was implied this was a 5 minute never worry about it again sort of flu shot thing. Get it over with and it won't come up again. This is basically Christian Hinduism where you merely get a person to add Jesus to their collection of gods like we do with the latest shoppers discount card we put on our key chain. This one saves me on gas, this one saves me on my prescriptions, this one saves me from hell. Jesus is God and that gives him the right to rule. There is no hint of any type of repentance or teaching that once saved God will expect you to obey him. Not to be mean, but because before we are saved we obey the lust of the flesh and that is the path to destruction. Jesus came that we might have life, but it is a life controlled by Him.
2. It emphasises salvation is in a prayer not a person. Romans Road, 4 spiritual laws, asking Jesus into your heart, and the Sinner's prayer are all recent developments in Christianity. They are not how men were saved in the Bible, and they were not how men were saved in the Great awakening! Our evangelism today is why the church is still asleep!!!!! People can respond emotionally to a powerful presentation, but that doesn't mean their conscious was awakened. A wonderful salesmen came to our home and sold us a $2,000 vacuum. After he left I felt hood-winked. Anyone can sell you anything. It is what happens after that proves if it was just an emotional decision or something permanent.
I like to explain it like this. The Bible says salvation is faith and repentance. Evangelist prayer letters will boast about hundreds of people "saved" during their ministry. What they mean is hundreds of people made a profession and either asked the Lord to save them or prayed a prayer. We are like a burned wedding cake. Our hearts are black and wicked, and the bible says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Hatred is murder and lust is adultery. We are wicked and you just have to think of the wicked thoughts you had the past 7 days or think about how you feel about the person who cut you off in traffic or was promoted over you, and be honest with God. When you get saved, you are born again. It is like God rebakes your heart. You can't rebake it, and it takes a miracle. You are brand new. Now once the cake is rebaked, it is ready to decorate. If you decorate it before you are rebaked, it does no good. Religion is decorating the cake that is still burned. Looks good to man, tastes terrible to God. Now modern evangelism is the icing. Praying a prayer, asking Jesus to save you, asking Jesus in your heart are things one can do but they won't save them. They are saved when they repent and believe the Gospel. After they may pray a prayer. If your convert is saved who happened to also pray a prayer, don't take credit for it. A prayer cannot save. The prayer was the icing. God already rebaked him. Evangelism today takes credit for the icing.
3. It is man made, and worse it is something that came out in the last hundred years, which is the time of compromise and collapse of Christianity. The bible says there will be a great falling away and warns of false prophets and teachers. Jesus said Follow me and I will make you fishers of men....it is not learn the secret sales tactic and see how wonderful you will look to the brethren! A good salesman can sell something that someone doesn't need, but as soon as he is gone, the person wakes up and regrets the purchase. Especially when the person receives the bill. That's what modern evangelism does. It makes heaven sound like a 5 minute flu shot, just in case you are headed for hell, pray-this-prayer! It sounds wonderful and you don't have to lift a finger. I'm not talking works for salvation instead, but i am against this method that tempts God to save us in our sin, not from our sin. Again, it is fruit not works, but if we are new creatures after and the sinner's prayer produces folks who want nothing to do with God there is something wrong.
4. It makes salvation "unconditional". That sounds nice, but it is not biblical. A gift can have conditions. Son, I will buy you your first car as a gift when a) get your driver's license and b) turn 17. God's 2 conditions for the free gift of eternal life are A) Saving faith and B) Biblical Repentance. If you skip either of these, God will not give you eternal life. It doesn't matter if you don't want to go to hell. It doesn't matter if you want to go to heaven. It doesn't matter if you will ask the Lord to save you. You can ask all want but until you meet God's conditions, you won't get the gift of God. It is like someone who is drowning in a polluted lake saying, "Lifeguard save me!" and then the lifeguard rows over in his lifeboat and the person drowning refuses to get in the boat. He wants to be saved, but he enjoys the filth he is swimming in too much.
It is not a works based salvation, it is not something you grow into, but that criteria must apply. We instead give intellectual agreement now to 4 or 5 select verses and get a head knowledge of everything the old men of God preached on for hours and think that produces true converts. It doesn't.
After doing some research on it....I found this article:
"How do I know Jack Hyles originated the Roman Road to Salvation? Because he said he came up with it. Jack Hyles was a Independent Baptist preacher and evangelist who had churches in East Texas and DFW area.
I ran across a Sunday morning sermon that Dr. Jack Hyles did at Hammond First Baptist Church on June 28, 1970 which he entitled the sermon “There Remaineth Yet Very Much Land to Be Possessed.” He states in this sermon that he originated it and termed this plan of salvation the “Roman Road.”
Sarah this is what he said as he is addressing the congregation of Hammonds FBC and the sermon has been written down. And I quote (Jack Hyles is speaking to the congregation at Hammonds FBC):
“By the way, you folks who don’t come on Wednesday night don’t know this, but about twenty-two years ago, in a little East Texas Church, I came up with a little plan of presenting the plan of salvation called “The Roman Road” whereby you take Verses contained in Romans and show people how to be saved using Romans 3:10, and Romans 3:23, and Romans 5:12, and Romans 5:8, and on and on. I termed it, “The Roman Road,” and from the “Roman Road” I wrote the little book, “Let’s Go Soul Winning.” Over one hundred and thirty-five thousand copies of that book have been printed. It has been translated into several languages: Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, French, and others, and has literally gone around the world.”
You may like some of Jack Hyles stuff, but it is time we break away from his evangelism techniques because most of the soulwinning churches today are blinded by decisions!!!!! His methods have produced more cult than church and he was more of a cult leader enthralled with numbers and getting men to worship him. His doctrine of unquestioning loyalty meant no one had a right to judge him. Please know I am not slamming Jack Hyles, but so many people would rather defend him than examine his teachings. I am not picking on Jack Hyles, but due to how much influence his teachings have had across America and beyond we have a Biblical command to question them. Are we blindly following the blind? Are we really following the Bible or are we just following a man, hook, line, and sinker, and assuming that he must be following the Bible?
The Bible commands us to prove all things. No matter who is the originator, we should not look to a decision-geared method generated in the 1900's just as we wouldn't trust a Bible translation in the 1900's....these are the lukewarm, shallow, stony-ground hearing generation and not the most fruitful time to take our techniques from.
We like these methods because they are easier than all the prayer, labor, sowing, and tears that produced the GREAT AWAKENING. And it's not as negative or harsh sounding, and it is more positive to tell people how wonderful heaven is, vs. telling them they have offended a Holy God by their actions. But folks, we must examine the fruit of what we are producing.
In summary, the verses of Romans Road may be in the Bible but the method is not biblical because it makes salvation a PRAYER and not a PERSON and it is too shallow and allows a false watered down repentance or no repentance whatsoever. We need to see it is a dead end street because the Romans Road is being paved with two fold children of Hell
1. It is too generic. 99% of people will admit to being a sinner to get a free pass to heaven. People will crash planes into buildings to get to heaven, so people will be also willing to admit to coming short of the glory of God. What people can't see is how wicked, and hell deserving and UnGodly we are before regeneration. We may admit to be sinners, but we don't want our specific sin dealt with. God deals specifically with the sin. "Go and sell all thou hast and come follow me," was Jesus' response to the rich young ruler. Not "Do-you-want-to-go-to-heaven, then pray-this prayer". The Holy Ghost deals with the person at the point of contention. Jesus is not a generic flu vaccine just in case we might be at risk to get sick.
Look at it like this. A man found his wife leaving him so he went to a marriage counselor in a last ditch effort to save his marriage. The counselor took out his big marriage book and said, "Bill, here is the problem. My marriage book says you are a bad husband. There is no good husband, no not one. What you need to do is admit to your wife you are not a good husband, tell her you're sorry and mean it, and ask her to forgive you. Then my marriage book promises you a wonderful marriage."
See, that man is not convinced his wife knew what she was doing. He thinks he is Mr. Wonderful, and yet he wants his wife back. He will eat crow, and admit to something he is not convinced of for the return promise of a wonderful marriage. He will now feel entitled to a great marriage or he will feel ripped off. He better have a great marriage, after all he agreed to something he didn't believe to get it.
I was with a soul winning booth at our Erie County Fair and saw this in action. They didn't want you to mention hell, they didn't want you to deal with their false religion. They merely wanted you to ask them if they knew if they would go to heaven and if not, if they would want to know. It was implied this was a 5 minute never worry about it again sort of flu shot thing. Get it over with and it won't come up again. This is basically Christian Hinduism where you merely get a person to add Jesus to their collection of gods like we do with the latest shoppers discount card we put on our key chain. This one saves me on gas, this one saves me on my prescriptions, this one saves me from hell. Jesus is God and that gives him the right to rule. There is no hint of any type of repentance or teaching that once saved God will expect you to obey him. Not to be mean, but because before we are saved we obey the lust of the flesh and that is the path to destruction. Jesus came that we might have life, but it is a life controlled by Him.
2. It emphasises salvation is in a prayer not a person. Romans Road, 4 spiritual laws, asking Jesus into your heart, and the Sinner's prayer are all recent developments in Christianity. They are not how men were saved in the Bible, and they were not how men were saved in the Great awakening! Our evangelism today is why the church is still asleep!!!!! People can respond emotionally to a powerful presentation, but that doesn't mean their conscious was awakened. A wonderful salesmen came to our home and sold us a $2,000 vacuum. After he left I felt hood-winked. Anyone can sell you anything. It is what happens after that proves if it was just an emotional decision or something permanent.
I like to explain it like this. The Bible says salvation is faith and repentance. Evangelist prayer letters will boast about hundreds of people "saved" during their ministry. What they mean is hundreds of people made a profession and either asked the Lord to save them or prayed a prayer. We are like a burned wedding cake. Our hearts are black and wicked, and the bible says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Hatred is murder and lust is adultery. We are wicked and you just have to think of the wicked thoughts you had the past 7 days or think about how you feel about the person who cut you off in traffic or was promoted over you, and be honest with God. When you get saved, you are born again. It is like God rebakes your heart. You can't rebake it, and it takes a miracle. You are brand new. Now once the cake is rebaked, it is ready to decorate. If you decorate it before you are rebaked, it does no good. Religion is decorating the cake that is still burned. Looks good to man, tastes terrible to God. Now modern evangelism is the icing. Praying a prayer, asking Jesus to save you, asking Jesus in your heart are things one can do but they won't save them. They are saved when they repent and believe the Gospel. After they may pray a prayer. If your convert is saved who happened to also pray a prayer, don't take credit for it. A prayer cannot save. The prayer was the icing. God already rebaked him. Evangelism today takes credit for the icing.
3. It is man made, and worse it is something that came out in the last hundred years, which is the time of compromise and collapse of Christianity. The bible says there will be a great falling away and warns of false prophets and teachers. Jesus said Follow me and I will make you fishers of men....it is not learn the secret sales tactic and see how wonderful you will look to the brethren! A good salesman can sell something that someone doesn't need, but as soon as he is gone, the person wakes up and regrets the purchase. Especially when the person receives the bill. That's what modern evangelism does. It makes heaven sound like a 5 minute flu shot, just in case you are headed for hell, pray-this-prayer! It sounds wonderful and you don't have to lift a finger. I'm not talking works for salvation instead, but i am against this method that tempts God to save us in our sin, not from our sin. Again, it is fruit not works, but if we are new creatures after and the sinner's prayer produces folks who want nothing to do with God there is something wrong.
4. It makes salvation "unconditional". That sounds nice, but it is not biblical. A gift can have conditions. Son, I will buy you your first car as a gift when a) get your driver's license and b) turn 17. God's 2 conditions for the free gift of eternal life are A) Saving faith and B) Biblical Repentance. If you skip either of these, God will not give you eternal life. It doesn't matter if you don't want to go to hell. It doesn't matter if you want to go to heaven. It doesn't matter if you will ask the Lord to save you. You can ask all want but until you meet God's conditions, you won't get the gift of God. It is like someone who is drowning in a polluted lake saying, "Lifeguard save me!" and then the lifeguard rows over in his lifeboat and the person drowning refuses to get in the boat. He wants to be saved, but he enjoys the filth he is swimming in too much.
It is not a works based salvation, it is not something you grow into, but that criteria must apply. We instead give intellectual agreement now to 4 or 5 select verses and get a head knowledge of everything the old men of God preached on for hours and think that produces true converts. It doesn't.
After doing some research on it....I found this article:
"How do I know Jack Hyles originated the Roman Road to Salvation? Because he said he came up with it. Jack Hyles was a Independent Baptist preacher and evangelist who had churches in East Texas and DFW area.
I ran across a Sunday morning sermon that Dr. Jack Hyles did at Hammond First Baptist Church on June 28, 1970 which he entitled the sermon “There Remaineth Yet Very Much Land to Be Possessed.” He states in this sermon that he originated it and termed this plan of salvation the “Roman Road.”
Sarah this is what he said as he is addressing the congregation of Hammonds FBC and the sermon has been written down. And I quote (Jack Hyles is speaking to the congregation at Hammonds FBC):
“By the way, you folks who don’t come on Wednesday night don’t know this, but about twenty-two years ago, in a little East Texas Church, I came up with a little plan of presenting the plan of salvation called “The Roman Road” whereby you take Verses contained in Romans and show people how to be saved using Romans 3:10, and Romans 3:23, and Romans 5:12, and Romans 5:8, and on and on. I termed it, “The Roman Road,” and from the “Roman Road” I wrote the little book, “Let’s Go Soul Winning.” Over one hundred and thirty-five thousand copies of that book have been printed. It has been translated into several languages: Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, French, and others, and has literally gone around the world.”
You may like some of Jack Hyles stuff, but it is time we break away from his evangelism techniques because most of the soulwinning churches today are blinded by decisions!!!!! His methods have produced more cult than church and he was more of a cult leader enthralled with numbers and getting men to worship him. His doctrine of unquestioning loyalty meant no one had a right to judge him. Please know I am not slamming Jack Hyles, but so many people would rather defend him than examine his teachings. I am not picking on Jack Hyles, but due to how much influence his teachings have had across America and beyond we have a Biblical command to question them. Are we blindly following the blind? Are we really following the Bible or are we just following a man, hook, line, and sinker, and assuming that he must be following the Bible?
The Bible commands us to prove all things. No matter who is the originator, we should not look to a decision-geared method generated in the 1900's just as we wouldn't trust a Bible translation in the 1900's....these are the lukewarm, shallow, stony-ground hearing generation and not the most fruitful time to take our techniques from.
We like these methods because they are easier than all the prayer, labor, sowing, and tears that produced the GREAT AWAKENING. And it's not as negative or harsh sounding, and it is more positive to tell people how wonderful heaven is, vs. telling them they have offended a Holy God by their actions. But folks, we must examine the fruit of what we are producing.
In summary, the verses of Romans Road may be in the Bible but the method is not biblical because it makes salvation a PRAYER and not a PERSON and it is too shallow and allows a false watered down repentance or no repentance whatsoever. We need to see it is a dead end street because the Romans Road is being paved with two fold children of Hell
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