Volumes 35 thru 41, and 44-46 are contained below.
Our Highest Motivation Is In Serving the Master
In Spirit and in Truth. Vol 46.
Lord, about our preacher. You made him. Would You remake him?
When someone truly loves you, you know your name is safe in their mouth. Jimmy, age 4
In Spirit and In Truth
Some will say that the confusion in the world is hurting the churches. I believe it is more Scripturally learned to say that the confusion in the churches is hurting the world.
I think God made His point when He sent Moses to lead the people in the wilderness for forty years and then to bring them to the only place in the Middle East where there was no oil.
I have made my children in such a way that when the people of the world are sitting, they would be standing; when the world is standing, they will stand out; when the world stands out, my children must be outstanding; and when the devil dares the world to be outstanding, my people will be the standards to be used! --- author unknown
Sore toes defame more people, weak knees pervert more sermons, itching ears defile more preachers, silver tongues deceive more congregations, and roving eyes kill more churches than any 10,000 Pharisees, legalists, divisive spirits, or fanatics. We can’t even get on the radar.
Isaiah 61:3
Beauty for ashes
The oil of joy for mourning
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness
That they might be called trees of righteousness
The planting of the Lord
That He might be glorified
Romans 11:33-34
Depths which cannot be fathomed
Judgments which cannot be searched
Ways which cannot be found out
A mind which cannot be known
Counsel which cannot be assisted
Keep in mind that among the millions and millions of the host of Heaven, a third of them willfully left the splendorous Celestial City of God to follow the Commander of the Anti-Christ into the abyss of destruction. They sincerely believed they could overthrow God. Beloved, look at the world around you and ponder these profound realities. You’ll have to admit that the Devil’s successes are phenomenal in light of having no divinely bestowed power at all.
I’m hoping that some preachers might one day realize that an infinitely wise Creator just might know more than they do.
When the sun sets tonight, let it not be said that we have forgotten God. --- Vernon Grounds
What did the farmer say when Chicken Little shouted that the sky was falling? “Well isn’t that cute. A talking chicken.”
You’ll never amount to anything because you procrastinate.
Yeah? You just wait!
Prayer is the highest activity of the human soul, and therefore it is at the same time the ultimate test of a man’s true spiritual condition there is nothing so much as prayer life that tells the truth about us as Christian people. Everything we do in the Christian life is easier than prayer. --- Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones
The one who practices righteousness is a child of God; he who does not is not born of God. It is that simple. You do not practice righteousness by disobedience. You will know them by their fruits, the fruit of the Spirit at Galatians 5:22; the fruit of goodness, righteous, and truth at Ephesians 5:9; and the fruit of souls at Proverbs 11:30. Let us know when we can inspect your fruit. Tell us of our repented sin and we’ll tell of your unrepented blasphemy.
Thinkin’ and Blinkin’
[] God always has a man in place to drive the apostasy crazy.
[] Doing is better than talking.
[] That he can recruit them to hate is one thing, that he can recruit them to playact, now there’s something that has the flames of Hell licking at it.
[] When you ask God, what can I do for You, He will say, “This is my beloved Son, Hear Him!”
[] Unmasking a fool or a hypocrite is never fun; what’s fun is showing his true face.
[] Sometimes, delegating responsibility is little less than passing the buck.
[] People who read almost none of the Bible will believe everything they hear on TV, tabloids, and the internet. When you love the Bible you believe almost none of that rubbish.
[] When we’re “alerted to church news,” it's usually sent along the gossip wires.
[] If they want to get to the bottom of this scandal of secretly spying on the Tea Party, they should interview my liberal Columbus preacher friends.
[] Boxing with a liar is like playing checkers with a blind man.
Why are you making the hole in the yard?
I’m burying my goldfish.
Why is the hole so big?
For your murdering cat.
Revival: The Great Awakening.
--- J Wilbur Chapman
For three days [Jonathan] Edwards had not eaten a mouthful of food: for three nights he had not closed his eyes in sleep. Over and over again, he had been saying to God, “Give me New England. Give me New England.” And when he arose from his knees, and made his way into the pulpit, they say that he looked as if he had been gazing straight into face of god. They say that before he opened his lips to speak, conviction fell upon his audience.
When revival comes, I expect to see two things which we have not seen yet. First, a new sense of the holiness of God on the part of Christians. And, second, a new sense of the sinfulness of sin on the part of Christians. --- Billy Graham, believe it or not. He must have said this before he became a rank liberal.
When you are puzzled by anything, believe the Holy Spirit not the unholy spirit.
The battles you face are an opportunity for God to be glorified in your life. --- R B Oulette
We turn to God for help when our foundations are shaking only to find out that God is shaking them. --- Charles West
Profession
[] A public declaration of one’s faith.
Best --- Hebrews 3:1
Good --- 1 Timothy 6:12
Steadfast --- Hebrews 3:14
Commendable --- 2 Corinthians 9:13
Harmful --- 1 Timothy 6:20, 21
Inconsistent --- Titus 1:16
Degrading --- Romans 1:22
Tragic Matthew 7:23
Christians, their light:
Forerunners: John 5:35
Examples: Matthew 5:14-16
Missionaries: Matthew 10:27
Transformed people: Ephesians 5:8-14
Heirs of glory: Revelation 21:23
Christians, their triumph:
Through the will of God: Philippians 2:13
Through prayer: John 16:22-24
Through doctrine: Romans 6:17
Through grace: Ephesians 2:7;Romans 6:14
Through faith: 1 John 5:4-5
Through Christ: Philippians 4:13
Through the death of Christ: Romans 6:6-7
Through the hope of the resurrection: 1 Thessalonians 4:16
Through the return of Christ: 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
Through exaltation with Christ: Ephesians 2:5-6
Through the Holy Spirit: Romans 8:1-2
The Believer’s Consolation:
Jesus did not pray for the unbelievers. John at 1 John 5:16 said that there was a “brother” for whom there is no further need to pray. Hebrews 6 describes him, we think. But the child of God is better spoken of, “For I have given unto them [the true believers] the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me … And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. (The words of Jesus, John 17:8-11)
It’s easy to be wise. Just think of something stupid and then don’t say it.
We love alone, we hate in mobs. Don’t try to figure it out. Just keep loving Jesus.
See Job 24:13-25. Job gives a nice discourse on Jesus’ teaching of men loving darkness more than light. We hear of sin and rebellion, but many never consider rebellion as being against the light.
See Job 31:33. We have a tendency to lose sight of Job’s theology and then in this chapter, where “Job’s words are ended,” BAM! Everything has texture now because old Adam sinned and tried to hide his transgressions. The sheer enormity of Job knowing about Adam makes you want to go back and read it all again and see things you might not have seen had you known Job DID HAVE THE WORD OF GOD UP TO HIS TIME! Job was not rambling, and Job was fully cognizant of the core doctrines of the Faith, the call to obedience, and the mandate of the Great Commission! But Job feared God -- literally. I’ve heard wonderful preachers say “I’m afraid to sin.” Then we’ll also remember that Job proclaimed a living Savior at near the midpoint of the book (19:25).
See Job 27:5. Ever wonder why the departing and apostate crowd pressures true believers to compromise, even surrender. They want to justify themselves at the expense of your integrity. And in justifying themselves, their deceit is kept intact.
See Job 22:24. In something of a prosperity gospel, Eliphaz equates a good relationship with God as one of visible gain, whereupon gold will heap unto him (Job) as the dust. Job sees “gold” as something that is tried in the Refiner’s fire --- when he survives the testing, it is HE HIMSELF that will come forth as gold. And the test (v. 23:12) is his devotion to the Word of God, which Job loves more than life itself! Such love produces a healthy fear of God (see v. 23:15 and 28:28).
Memorial Day Gems
The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.
History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or timid.
Could it be because integrity is so lacking that many don’t know what it looks like in someone’s life?
A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal, because he is entitled to no more and should receive no less. --- Theodore Roosevelt
When even one American --- who has done nothing wrong --- is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth --- then all Americans are in peril. --- Harry S. Truman
The man who can look upon a crisis without being willing to offer himself upon the altar of his country is not fit for public trust.
The overwhelming majority of our people have met the demands of this war [WW II] with magnificent courage and understanding. They have accepted inconveniences; they have accepted hardships; they have accepted tragic sacrifices. And they are ready and eager to make whatever further contributions are needed to win the war as quickly as possible --- if only they are given the chance to know what is required of them. --- FDR
[You can’t even get this generation to read this let alone imbibe it and live it.]
Hello, I’m Pastor Diotrephes
from the Good Ship Lollipop Church in Buckeroo, Ohio. You can read about me in 3 John 9-11. Here is my statement of faith:
1. I do not believe that junk about Jesus, the facts always get in the way.
2. I don’t believe that junk about the Bible.
3. I condemn those that do, and recruit others to condemn them also.
4. I have compassion, some day I might give it.
5. I built a church with my own hands and expect praise and admiration.
6. I preach a soft gospel, no blood or cross here.
7. I don’t believe in sin, I don’t sin so why would anyone else?
8. I believe in a one world church with me at the head of it.
9. I don’t judge; people who judge are evil and should be sent to Hell.
10. I enjoy slandering people that don’t agree with me.
Hello, I’m Preacher Job
whose seat is in the street (v. 29:7). Read about me at Job Chapter 29. Here is my statement of faith.
1. I have a message and men attend to it --- I am anointed of God. (V. 6)
2. I speak of Christ and men hold their mouth. (v. 9)
3. I am blessed when men are blessed by the Word of God. (v. 11)
4. I am blessed that I can bear the compassions of Christ. (v. 12)
5. I am blessed when souls are won to Christ. (v. 13)
6. I am blessed when the weak are strengthened by the song in my heart. (v. 13)
7. I am, by the grace of God, clothed in the righteousness of Christ. (v. 14)
8. I oppose the wicked and stand for the blind, the lame, and the poor. (v. 15-16)
9. I held them dear who listened, and my counsel was to the praise of God. (v. 22)
10. They were merry toward the report God gave me; they gave me joy when the mourners were comforted. (v. 25)
I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded with light. ---John Falconer
I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am moved only by what I believe. --- Smith Wigglesworth
US to build 700-mile border fence
Mexico announces a 1120 kilometer tunnel.
Liberals feel so unworthy of their possessions. We conservatives feel we deserve everything we’ve stolen.
The Big Lie
I have my rights, I have no wrongs.
You must be tolerant of me.
You must not offend me.
You must be politically correct.
You must give me all I’m entitled to.
I deserve the good life.
I love me because I am good.
My religion is me, often called Christianity.
I have compassion so I can deceive and hate whom I please.
I’m a church pastor and I can defame and slander whom I please.
The Apostate Fakes Bible Reading. WARNING:
1. Jesus spoke to Abraham’s seed, which is the nation of Israel, particularly the apostate religious leaders: “Ye seek to kill me because my word hath no place in you.” (John 8:37) When people get angry at you for preaching and living the Word of God, they are really mad at Christ for He presumes to want to rule over them.
2. Speaking of those who would reject Him, Jesus said, “The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge you in the last day.”
3. The problem will be that the apostate cannot understand it because he is so entangled in tradition, the affairs of this world, personal preferences, deceit, and self-love.
4. The apostate can be expected to:
A. Have little to do with Jesus or His Word.
B. Corrupt the church and pastor.
C. Corrupt the doctrines of the rebirth, repentance, salvation, holy living, separation, and unity. These doctrines are modified so as to be conveniently applied to their own whorish desires.
(1) They will surveillance your repentance day and night and never feel the inkling to once take a look inside themselves.
(2) A convert must come squeaky clean, but the church can wallow in slop.
D. Will want the preeminence, will want to enshrine his compassion above that of Christ. “For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” (John 13:43)
E. Will depose soul-winning for some half-baked love bug conversational nonsense that elevates self-esteem.
5. Is it not humorous that a man that never adds to the church, never wins a soul, never preaches on soul winning, and never delivers a Christ-centered altar call can feel qualified to teach a course on obeying the will of God? Will the novelty never end? Can’t you (can’t they?) see the self-deception?
6. I wouldn’t be able to enjoy Heaven for a minute if I had to stand in it alongside one apostate.
Ten Things That Can Mark a Departing or Apostate Church.
Church without its true Founder
Salvation without repentance
Redemption without blood
Preachers without regeneration
Power without obedience
Growth without conversion
Scripture without discernment
Evangelism without going out in personal soul-winning
Missionaries without calling
Ministries without Christ-like passion
[] True joy will come from a holy, God-honoring life.
[] I have learned in life that a bad teacher, lawyer, or preacher can be bad for a long time.
[] Being a light and a hope to people is the fruit, delight, and ultimate reward of preaching the unperverted Gospel.
[] A word for the practical and the spiritual: How many roads must a man travel before he admits he’s lost?
[] Was there anything Jesus wanted from this earth besides you and me?... NOTHING. --- Zac Poonen
[] The Laodicean Hate Monger is at it again. The Incarnate Lie is worming through the woodwork again.
Ministry Mentions.
1. Websites posted, some fresh material and ministry letters.
www.soldiersoftheword.com / soldiersofrevival.com
2. Spring Soul-winning Blitz, Days 30-36 (May 12-18).
A. Number of new folks approached with the Gospel (face to face): 104
B. Number of those meetings resulting in effective personal witnessing: 36.
C. Church visitors: 9 (9 given effective personal witnessing)
D. Approximately 520 pieces of Salvation literature distributed.
3. We believe there were many folks giving their life to Christ during this period.
4. Ran into some great new Christian friends this past week! There are people, superb Christians, who care on the streets of Columbus, Ohio. An awakening is at our fingertips!
Why did you pick mickeyminnieplutogoofy for your Disney website password? They said to use four characters.
How much for your eggs?
The small are 60 cents, 70 cents for the medium, 90 cents for the large, and 30 cents for the cracked.
Good. Crack me two dozen.
Grandma brought her new Grand Am to the house to show it off. What I couldn’t understand was all the big deal. They didn’t even spell grand ma right.
What is the cat’s favorite song?
Three Blind Mice
They evaluated me in high school as “slightly below average.” I have since found out that that translates to “amoeba.”
Instead of the Happy Meal, McDonald’s should make a Sleepy Meal, that’ll put the little rug rats down for their naps.
God’s Plan of Salvation.
1. What does God want you to do? “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” John 1:12
2. How can you believe? “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Romans 10:9-10
3. What can you do to show that you believe? You can sincerely pray this prayer - or another prayer from your own heart - and tell God that you believe and trust His Son as your Savior.
[] Lord, I know that I am a sinner. Please forgive me for my sins and help me to turn from them in hatred for them. I know that I deserve Hell for my sins. But I believe that Jesus died to pay for my sins and to take the punishment for me. And I know that He purchased my salvation with His own precious blood, and has given me the precious gift of eternal life with Him in Heaven. I trust Him now as my Savior and Lord. Amen.
Our Purpose. To humble the pride of man, to exalt the grace of God in salvation, and to promote real holiness in heart and life. We are committed to the Scriptures as the only Guide for faith and practice and to the winning of the lost to Jesus Christ.
Thanks for several quotes from: prophetic@revivalschool.com
Closing Thought of the Day
Please, no one wants to see anyone anytime undergo the physical, emotional, and mental pain and anguish of cancer. I don’t want to sound insensitive. But as I pored over much coverage of “race for the cure,” I was helplessly discouraged as I realized the tour de force surrounding this effort against breast cancer, yet on this day alone in our country these same women were murdering thousands of unborn people in their wombs. It’s just too hypocritical to ignore, I’m sorry. Abortion is a dark cancer in its own right.
In Spirit and In Truth No. 45. 5-17-13
When I come to the river,
At the end of my days,
And the last wind of sorrows has blown.
Someone will be waiting…
To show me the way.
I'll see the darkness, and He will be there....
I won’t have to cross Jordan alone!
“But if any man love God, the same is known of him.” (1 Corinthians 8:3) Whether he be loved or hated.
Daily Repentance: Lord, save me from my sins today, especially all my sins of pride, lust, covetousness, and envy. I repent and I ask for you to cleanse me from all uncleanness.
Lord, give our leaders discernment in knowing good and evil, and give them strength to act always in a righteous way.
The greatest wisdom on this earth is holiness. ---W.S. Plumer
Nedlessly Empty Streets
Presumably good people moan and groan about conditions in the world and in the church. I agree full heartedly that those are there and I outmoan most of you. But aren’t we becoming sick of folks blaming everything under the sun, yet they refuse to obey Christ’s many commands to go and preach the Gospel to every creature? Nothing is going to change for the better until people quit pussyfootin’ and weaseling out of obeying the ubiquitous example of the New Testament church and hitting the streets with the Gospel. I for one am tired of all the whining and the soft pedaling, and all the blame shifting when YOU ARE A LARGE PART OF THE PROBLEM BY NOT WINNING SOULS. This is 100 percent Biblical! There is no argument at all. In fact any argument is a compromise and disobedience. See James 5:20 and Matthew 4:19 (and countless other Savior-directed commands to win souls)
The world will NEVER be right until the righteousness of Christ is put in the hearts of its people.
Love Bug Christianity is euphemistically none other than the social gospel --- full of: milquetoast and puffery, a rozy cozy view of life, the poorest and hungriest saps you would ever want to lower your compassion upon, and mostly full of itself.
This is the day the Lord has made;
He calls the hours His own.
Let Heaven rejoice, let earth be glad,
And praise surround the throne.
Today He rose and left the dead;
And Satan’s empire fell;
Today His saints His triumph spread,
And all His wonders tell.
Hosanna to the anointed King
To David’s holy Son
Help us, O Lord, descend and bring
Salvation from your throne.
Blessed be the Lord who comes to us,
With messages of grace;
Who comes, in God His Father’s name
To save our wicked race.
I’m not interested in any end times prophecy conference in my lifetime that doesn’t involve me (and all the brethren) personally in world evangelism. That would be a false prophecy and should be scuttled without a second thought. Prophecy should escalate soul winning, not diminish its importance.
Son, it’s the only car we have. I’m sure you’ll acquire a tolerance for the bumper sticker eventually.
Nowhere is labor and management more obvious than in marriage --- once the parties have made a conquest of their preferences.
When we determine to follow Christ, we determine to let Him change our direction. When we desire above all to please God, we will be unswervingly motivated to obey Him.
Jude 1:19. They separate because of their sins, not because of yours. Note their unbelief.
This Minister Seeks To Be
1. A role-model for his loyalty to Scripture and to his Master, Lord, and Savior Jesus Christ.
2. He also wants to be seen, not to the pleasing of men but to their edification, as one having a passion for lost souls, an open rebuke of all manner of false doctrine and practice, a determination to magnify the very name of Jesus Christ, and to help all interested people understand the apostasy of our day. We do not intend to hold back identities of false workers, nor do we intend to be soft in our denunciation of Christ-hating persons and activities. We believe the Bible clearly teaches that departure and apostasy leave multitudinous souls abandoned to Hell forever and are to be loathed openly at every opportunity.
3. We love God, trust Jesus, let the Spirit fill us and lead us, preach the true Gospel, warn against sin and coming judgment, and exemplify and advocate holiness of life. We let the Word of God be our sole authority on matters of faith, doctrine, practice, and life. We regard doctrinal compromise as apostasy.
4. Our pleasure is always in seeing the will of God accomplished and Christ exalted. We unashamedly watch for the return of Christ. We believe that the fundamentalist view of the Christian Faith is the one that God has given for man to follow and the one that clearly honors Him. We agree with most Baptist (denominational) distinctives and accept no other authority than the King James Version of the Holy Bible.
Life’s Highest Mission is to Prepare the Way for Jesus.
In a real sense, this is the mission of every Christian. No person can fill a higher role or accomplish more in serving God and serving man than in preparing the way for Jesus Christ to enter into the hearts of persons and claim them for His Kingdom. Such a mission calls for an upright life, the practice of love, intelligence and skill, and zeal for the Lord. We can thus prepare the way for the great miracle of regeneration, for the restoration of spiritual health and strength, for the rehabilitation of a ruined and wasted life, for some great thrust of unselfish ministry to multitudes of persons, or for some great demonstration of the power of Christ in the lives of men. --- Points of Emphasis
Love the Word, memorize the Word, study the Word, share the Word, imbibe the Word, don’t forsake the Word, preach the Word, stand for the Word, put the Word in your heart. But above all, please don’t take the Word too seriously; makes us look bad and we’ll have to take you out.
The Written Word and the Living Word
Because of the combination of human and supernatural qualities which enter into the Bible, a similarity may be observed between the Bible as the written Word and Jesus Christ the living Word. They are both supernatural in origin, presenting an inscrutable and perfect blending of that which is divine and that which is human. They both exercise a transforming power over those who believe, and are alike allowed of God to be set at naught and rejected by those who do not believe. The untainted, undiminished divine perfections are embodied in each. The revelations which they disclose are at once are as simple as the mental capacity of a child, and as complex as the infinite treasures of divine wisdom and knowledge, and as enduring as the God whom they reveal. --- Lewis Sperry Chafer
Did you know that 23 of the 27 books of the New Testament start right out in the first verse talking about Jesus Christ? Make it a special project sometime soon of reading all of the first verses in the Books of the New Testament. And get a good dose of our Lord!
Bible Symbols: The Word of God
A Mirror – James 1:23
A Hammer – Jeremiah 23:29
A Fire – Jeremiah 23:29
A Sword – Hebrews 4:12
A Seed -- 1 Peter 1:23
A Laver – Ephesians 5:26
A Light – Psalms 119:105
The Bible Teaches:
A. Imputed righteousness – Philippians 3:9
Has to do with Christ’s salvation work on Calvary
Putting our trust in Christ makes us “not guilty” in God’s sight
B. Imparted righteousness – Jeremiah 33:16
The indwelling Holy Spirit, through the Word of God, sanctifies us
Separated, sanctified, serving, we grow in the likeness of Christ
God sees the righteousness of Christ in us (not our own)
Doesn’t it seem strange that every time the critics find an apparent discrepancy between the Biblical writers and the secular historians of the Ancient world, that it is always assumed that the Biblical writers must have been wrong? If there is a mistake, why must it always be the Biblical writers who were in error?
Dear Reverend Babbage, if you continue preaching sermons in double speak, I will have to think twice about giving them a second thought.
The lodge meeting’s been cancelled. The wife of the Grand Exalted Invincible Supreme Potentate wouldn’t let him out.
Much of what we call progress today is a clever scientist with time on his hands, married to a clever advertising agent, whose father was Bill Gate’s roomie in college.
There is a moderately strong opposition in Ohio to internet cafes, saying that it is illegal gambling; law enforcement is claiming that it “is a front for organized gambling.” Strange. People have been saying the same thing for decades about casinos and racetracks.
We ought to finance the state by the strength of our people, not their weaknesses. --- Ronald Reagan, concerning legalized gambling revenues
When gambling is used to raise money for good causes, it doesn’t say much for society, and practically nullifies every claim the church lays on its “Christian compassion.”
Faith is ceasing from the creature and coming to the Creator.
It is looking out of self to Christ, turning the eye entirely from any good thing that is here within me, and looking for every blessing to those open veins, to that poor bleeding Heart, to that thorn-crowned Head, of Whom God hath set forth “to be the propitiation for our sins, and not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world.” --- Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Anthropomorphisms: Giving human attributes to God
Physical likenesses
Feet --- Exodus 24:10
Hands --- Exodus 24:11
Mouth --- Numbers 12:8
Eyes --- Habakkuk 1:13
Arms --- Exodus 6:6
Memorial Day Gems.
Freedom is Not Negotiable
Freedom cannot be put in a bottle, or on a stick like a popsicle, or sliced, or weighed out in pounds. You cannot reduce it to print or compress it or define it or spray it or explode it. It is teasingly remote in one way but deeply personal and prescient and immanent in another.
Freedom is a gift of God to all men everywhere, for all time. You can try to sell or exchange it for security, but what you get in the deal is slavery or slow death.
You can try to buy it, but you cannot really buy it, no matter how much security you think you are willing to throw into the scales, for freedom is not negotiable!
You have it, that is, whether or not you like it, whether you appreciate it, or do not use it. You got it when you were born; you will have it until you die. And no man or state or dictator, no matter how tyrannical, can take it away from you.
The Declaration of Independence states with crystal clarity that all men “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” Here is the precise and exact meaning of the word “unalienable”: freedom cannot be taken away – ever!
We can stand up tall and live up to it, or we can supinely lie down and let it go by without us. And freedom will surely go by without us if that is the way we want it.
For Times Like These --- The Fighter In Me
I fought for my country and we lost. I fought for the democratic way of life and we lost. I fought for Jesus and the church and we were tossed into the dumpster. I fought for the schools and they raped our children. I fought for the family and we still wonder where they went. I fought for my friends and they ran off with everything. I fought for dignity and the war has escalated. I fought Mount Carmel and they nearly killed me. I fought for my home and they brought out the torpedoes.
I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the Faith.
What’s left to fight for? All these precious babies murdered in the womb that the mother can live freely. They stick scissors in their brain. Who will stand for them when we’re gone? Why don’t we wipe out Congress and we can all live freely? (Tolerance isn’t love; tolerance is permission to sin and to hate.)
What’s left to fight for? Truth. Who will stand up and say, “You’re a liar and a scoundrel“? Who will look the Deceiver in the eye and say “Get thee behind me Satan?” Who will say, “That’s a damnable lie and you‘re a damnable liar?” Jesus did just that, His people did just that, but we’ll be gone soon and who’ll protect the innocent and the oppressed and the deceived? Who’ll labor for the Master ‘til life on earth is done? Not the compassion, arrogance, and sloth of this generation.
What’s left to fight for? We never stop fighting for goodness, integrity, accountability, and decency. Depravity may reign on earth, but I assure you it will not reign in the kingdom of Christ. It will surely be the national hero of eternal damnation.
What’s left to fight for? The Person of Christ and His Unchanging Word. He saith, “I am with you always;” “I am the way, the truth, and the life;” “I will never forsake you;” “I will keep you in the shadow of my wings;” “I am the resurrection and the life;” “You will dwell in my house forever;” “No weapon has ever been formed that could ever hurt you;” “I am your bread;” “I am your light;” “I am your shepherd.”
Children of God. A title of position and relationship. It is also a term of endearment --- what a wonderful thing to be a child of our Heavenly Father! (See 1 John 2:12-28)
[] We are begotten of God. --- John 1:12; 1 John 5:1-2
[] We are in a new relationship with Him. Romans 8:15; John 8:35
[] We are linked to Christ --- John 20:17; Hebrews 2:11
[] We are heirs and joint heirs with Jesus.
[] We are unknown by the world. --- 1 John 3:1
[] We are waiting to be revealed. --- Romans 8:19
For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not grievous. 1 John 5:3
In the church, certain respect and honor belongs to a pastor, but he is no different from anyone else. He is just one of your brothers. HE’S NOT A SICK FILTHY TYRANT!
Preacher, it is not where you are but whose you are and what you are that determine whether or not you succeed in the ministry. --- Curtis Hudson
Preacher, I cannot overemphasize the importance of the preacher. Preacher, God is more interested in you building a great church than you are; God is more interested in souls being saved than you are. --- Curtis Hudson
The preacher who knows he is a preacher knows that he has a mandate from God, that he is authorized to stand up and speak for God, that he is unmistakably a man of God. He preaches not himself, but Christ; not his word, but God’s Word; not religion, but regeneration; not reformation, but righteousness; and not the wishes of the culture, but the will of God. --- seen in the Sword of the Lord.
The Preacher and the Bible: His ministry is defined, his calling is divine, his message is directed, his priorities are decided, his attitude is dauntless, his life is dedicated, his faith is held dear, his love is deep, his speech is deliberate, his words are dependable, his worship is devout, his character is dignified, his works are diligent, his thoughts are discerning, his actions are discreet, his approach is distinctive, his heart is driven, his mission is durable. All his plans are do-able.
Our Highest Motivation is to Please the Master!
Jason always has a negative to add to yours. He’ll compete with you for a negative, but he’ll condemn you for thinking of it before he does. He’s just a weasel.
How people end up in apostasy
Some are browbeaten by other apostates.
Some are lullabied by the love bug churches.
Some are propagandized by the tolerant and inoffensive crowd.
Some are raised up in the party-line.
Some are drawn naturally by the sad condition of humanity.
Some folks are as dumb as dirt.
Some are just dirt.
The Sincere Christian’s Offerings
His body (acceptable) – Romans 12:1
His praises (well-pleasing) – Hebrews 13:15
His gifts (sweet smelling) – Philippians 4:18
The Church is Not a Home For Slackers, Smooch-ups, Sapsuckers, Shipwreckers, or Scoundrels (See Acts 14:22)
Paul realizes that, if these new disciples were really to “continue in the faith” (compare John 8:31), they needed to be organized into local churches and taught more concerning their place in God’s plan. This included the recognition that all true believers will be opposed by Satan and ungodly men [in the departed church and in the world] and so must undergo tribulations. This does not mean, however, that the final generation of believers will go through the “great tribulation” which will be visited by God on a rebellious world in the last days. See Matthew 24:21; 1 Thessalonians 5:9.) in the meantime, “all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” (2 Timothy 3:12) New believers need to understand this. --- Henry M. Morris
Antidote for sin is Christ --- Numbers 21:8-9; John 3:14-15.
Antidote for Christ’s absence is the Holy Spirit --- John 14:16-18
Antidote for sorrow is joy --- John 16:20-22
Antidote for Satan’s lies in the last time is God’s truth --- John 8:43-47
Antidote for earth’s trials is Faith --- 1 Peter 1:6-8
Antidote for testing is God’s grace
Antidote for suffering is heaven’s glory
Someone in a newspaper letter to the editor mentioned that Tim Tebow isn’t getting the same press attention for being a Christian that the NBA player is getting for “coming out” as a homosexual. I make two learned comments. (1) Say what? The media has practically stopped everything to travel-log Timmy for the last two years. And (2) Is Tim a Christian? Or is he like most Christians and conveniently saying he is one? In all the hype, I hear very little of what it is that makes him a Christian. Being against abortion doesn’t automatically produce a Christian. Jesus Christ and His doctrine makes you a Christian.
There are so many Christians today putting on an air of charitableness when they are nothing but cheap con artists trying to attract attention.
Lacking Evidence.
Why is it that a celebrity practically “comes out” to admit his or her Christianity and Voila! A Christian is born. And maybe he is. But have you ever heard of Randy Travis or Johnny Cash? And a dozen others? They are more than failures or backsliders; they have no evidence to show of a changed life. I know many Christians whom I suspect will one day be revealed for their true hatred for Christ, all the while pretending love. There are distinctive traits we have the right to see when anyone claims to be a Christian, regardless of how important or powerful they may be. A good feeling oughtn’t make us admire anyone as a Christian. His good testimony makes us have godly affection toward a Christian. We should have no faith at all in this ambiguous age of frivolous Christianity; it borders on the ridiculous and relegates true Christianity to the back alleys.
Wonderfully, Dave Hunt wrote two helpful books on the apostasy: Beyond Seduction, and The Seduction of Christianity. Since I’ve learned of his graduation to Heaven, I have been carrying the books around, both for reading and scanning for memorializing quotations. Today at Wendy’s I went through my ritual of putting out my big Bible on the table, then my tracts, then a couple of Christian newspapers to give away. And finally, the two books. All nice and neat on a larger table top. As I bowed to ask grace on the food, my eye caught the two books. The word “Seduction” was colorfully prominent over the other words. Are passersby really going to believe a testimony that puts out a great big Bible to be seen along side two paperback “romance novels” about seduction? I laughed a little and then made them a little more discreet. Actually, the parallel is more realistic than I thought at the moment. What is seduction but the devil drawing you away by enticement? I heartily recommend these books.
See 1 Corinthians 10:31; and Exodus 3:5. I believe we must live lives that are distinctly and consistently set apart for God’s use in the cause of Jesus Christ. Our lives must be an open book, surrendered and obedient, and lived in true holiness. No Christian is worthy of the title of Christian if you are for any reason unwilling to grow in grace and in Christlikeness, be taught by the Word of God, convicted and led of the Spirit, committed to the great Commission, and bearing your cross as you follow Christ. Forgiveness, repentance, and love are A CHARACTER of true brethren, and those who reject those qualities are every bit a pagan and have no part in what we the body of Christ are doing. And no, we do not encourage, make compromises to, or forgive departure and apostasy, which are treasonous acts against our Holy God. Neither do we confess or forsake “sins” that we have not committed just because someone doesn’t like the works of true believers. That’s why we live under the total authority of the Word of God and aspire to total obedience. Ultimately, the child of God will desire in his heart, to do the will of God, exalt Jesus Christ, and bring others to Him. This is what is meant when we say “to bring glory to God;” It’s not singing Christian porn songs at a pancake breakfast for the elderly. See Philippians 1:27
Admonition -- wise words spoken against evil words and actions
Performed by
God --- Hebrews 8:5
Early fathers --- Ephesians 6:4
Leaders --- 1 Thessalonians 5:12
Christians --- Romans 15:14
Directed Against
A remnant --- Jeremiah 42:19
Elders --- Acts 20:28-35
Those who will not work --- 2 Thessalonians 3:10-15
Heretics --- Titus 3:10
Sources of, in
Scriptures --- 1 Corinthians 10:11
Wise words --- Ecclesiastes 12:11-12
Spiritual knowledge --- Colossians 3:16
Guess what, coming soon: TALKING EMAILS! Or, as we say in the advertising industry, new and improved telephone calls.
In Russia, if a male athlete loses, he just becomes a female athlete.
My life would have turned out considerably different if mom wrote my report card.
He must needs go through Samaria. Every step Jesus took on this earth and every word that He spoke was by divine counsel and appointment. His every act was in fulfillment of His mission here, and of His determination to do the Father’s will. His need to go through Samaria and His visit to Jacob’s well did come about by accident. They were foreordained before the foundation of the world. --- Oliver B. Greene
10 Reasons the Modern Preacher Doesn’t Read His Bible
[] I would like to say that these have come after about twelve years of studied opinion, not to mention being burned by several modern “preachers.” They’re indignant, they’re churlish, and they’re waving their Bible now, but why is there no edifying per Acts 20:32? Where is the exhortation from the pulpit? Where is the Biblical mentality? You say we have to do it by the Word of God. Why aren’t you doing it according to the Word of God? Are you a faker? I think what you mean is that we have to do what the preacher wants and that’s as good as the Word of God.
[] Pew sitter, have you examined his software which is his real authority? And the sources of his canned sermons? Sermons that didn’t save anyone the first two dozen times they were stolen and preached. We become servants of the things we obey. And where is that Bible he follows; why can we never see it? I know with absolute certainty what I obey. How about you? Are you letting others deceive your heart? Frankly, I’m certain you are.
--------
He knows all that he needs to know, he’s plenty religious now
His software suffices
He never learned how to read it (the Bible)
He accepts opinion, hearsay, and tradition
He really doesn’t believe it, so he cannot read it with genuine faith
He really doesn’t believe reading it is helpful to anyone
He can plagiarize a sermon and no one knows the difference
He can run a church without reading the Bible
He is a good deceiver, his people are easily deceived
He knows preaching from the Bible is hard work (for the ubnbeliever it is)
Did you notice that if they add one thing to salvation, they’ll add two? If they quote one modern “translation,” they’ll quote five. If they weasel out of one commandment, they’ll weasel out of all ten. And if they find one sin excusable, they’ll sell out the entire lot? Such are the modern false teachers.
Read Job 8-9. Grace is Grace
1. I’m absolutely certain that there are enemies, under a cloak of religion or moral indignation, who are in deep sin and that is the real reason they are risen up against me (us). And apostasy, unbelief, and impure thoughts are common sins among these enemies. Rejecting grace is a very beginning point when we examine a church for apostasy.
2. This Book of the Bible is perhaps the oldest of them all. It seems that Bildad’s thinking is pious and self-righteous, legalistic in not having much of an understanding of God’s pure grace. By Bildad’s thinking, Job must have done something awful to merit God’s “obvious” wrath. But Job’s remarkable answer in chapter 9 makes lovely statements that can only be said if grace were in view (see the actual verses in the Bible):
[] Even though I be righteous, I would STILL make supplication to my judge.
[] If I justify myself, my own mouth will STILL condemn me.
[] If I wash myself… and make my own hands “never so clean,” … God would STILL plunge me in a ditch … and my own clothes would loathe me.
3. Where is this deep remorse today and where is this understanding of grace given the repentant sinner? Only in the house of the faithful. We cannot see it in the company of Bill, Jason, Charlie, Willie, Guy, Ray, and all the kings men --- they are far too compassionate to need repentance from anything.
A Time to Sow and a Time to Reap: The Balanced Labors
We are to speak with grace but we're to season our speech with salt. There is a time for iron and a time for clay. We’re to have compassion when we can make a difference and we’re to snatch others out of the fire hating the very filth on their clothing. We are to show severity toward them that have fallen and goodness toward them that follow after God. We stand for what God loves and stand against what He hates, we are to separate the precious from the vile. There is a time to tear down and a time to build up. A time to be silent and a time to speak. Be wise as serpents but harmless as doves ---
SO SEND I YOU!
There are religious leaders in our town who have been lords over their fiefdoms for decades, but, from the way they treat me, are well proven to be anything but Christians. You’ll talk on and on about a girl in harlotry, hooked on drugs, involved in crime without saying anything to her. You’ll ask prayer for her. Yet, no one dare do the same according to a deceiving preacher who is not only in his own sin and unbelief but he leaves others in sin and unbelief without a Savior. His sins are grievous and subject to open shame.
[] He who knows right principles is not equal to him that loves them. -- Confucius.
[] God never defaults; but He requires that we prove our faith by our works, and that we never ask for a blessing that we are not ready to labor for. --- Cuyler
[] God has made the Gospel my business -- has He made it yours?
[] All generalizations are absolutely false, except this one.
[] Remember that when you call someone deep, you’re suggesting that you are shallow.
[] I wouldn’t mind paying taxes, if I knew they were going to a country that didn’t loathe us.
[] Cowards make the best enemies. You can always see the yellow streak running down his back as he runs away from trouble.
[] Bill rules over an empire, Jason owns a travel agency, Charlie houses a liars’ club, and Silly Willie runs a crooked crap game.
[] I wouldn’t expect to see any too soon young people making a difference; you can’t even get them to look up from their cell phones.
From a doctrinal standpoint, the New Testament Church is a body of people called out of the world by the power of God through the Holy Ghost --- called to faith in the crucified and risen Christ.
Acts 15. So they (Saul and Barnabas) “being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed…” They knew they were called: they knew where to go. They had the power of the Holy Spirit and the leading of the Holy Spirit. They were backed by the prayers of godly men. Oh, any preacher who is really “sent forth by the Holy Ghost” may have the great blessings of God upon His ministry. And every man called of God should wait on God till he is truly “sent forth by the Holy Ghost.” --- John R Rice
I am amazed at the number of things people do to you, without you knowing, that are practically illegal, which receive the approval of all manner of people, and are wholly without accountability to anyone. And today’s environment makes is close to impossible to pursue due process or to bring restitution.
[][][][] Talk about time on their hands. Folks sit and watch a box for an hour or more showing people cooking food -- that they can’t smell, eat, or taste. So… Here it is, television audience: but you can’t have any and we’re out of here.
[][][][] Don’t the majority of Americans belong to a minority group?
[][][][] If you want to understand the elusive conclusions of the experts on the economy, remember that “economy” means large size in soap flakes and small size in automobiles.
[][][][] I had an inferiority complex until I was reminded that I was a population explosion when I was born.
[][][][] My slice sometimes is wild. The golf course is tagging my ball to determine its migration routes.
[][][][] Swimming isn’t a sport, it’s a means of keeping from drowning. Riding a bus isn’t a sport, so why should sailing be a sport? And tennis is just playing ping pong while standing on the table.
[][][][] The cell phone people say there is no danger from cell phone radiation. Do I get a slight hint of ex-tobacco executives working at the cell phone companies?
God’s Plan of Salvation.
1. What does God want you to do? “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” John 1:12
2. How can you believe? “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Romans 10:9-10
3. What can you do to show that you believe? You can sincerely pray this prayer - or another prayer from your own heart - and tell God that you believe and trust His Son as your Savior.
[] Lord, I know that I am a sinner. Please forgive me for my sins and help me to turn from them in hatred for them. I know that I deserve Hell for my sins. But I believe that Jesus died to pay for my sins and to take the punishment for me. And I know that He purchased my salvation with His own precious blood, and has given me the precious gift of eternal life with Him in Heaven. I trust Him now as my Savior and Lord. Amen.
Our Purpose. To humble the pride of man, to exalt the grace of God in salvation, and to promote real holiness in heart and life. We are committed to the Scriptures as the only Guide for faith and practice and to the winning of the lost to Jesus Christ.
My greatest hurt in life has been when I expected the best from men and women in position to give their best, but instead of exalting Jesus, they rode the crest of modernistic and humanistic temporality, receiving joyfully the world’s acceptance, applause, and lucre over obedience to God, eternal reward, unsearchable riches, and unmerited glory -- indeed hardly the way to a good and glorious place to stand at the throne of the Lamb. I want to stand before Christ with others who exalted Him in life, not these big fakers who exalted themselves.
You side with the apostates, you are an apostate. Not one of us should bemoan the hatreds of an apostate; we ought to be glad we’re appointed to the war against them. And yes, popular preachers can be and often are apostates, in spite of any major population of admirers. Jesus warned of whitewashing the exterior and letting dead men’s bones stack up inside.
Closing Thought For the Day.
In something of an explanation, I do not believe there is any connection between this “badge” of compassion that is strapped on by every politically correct tom, dick, and harry and a sincere devotion to people and causes. I am very admiring of strong marital affection and I meet some of the finest people who are married 60 and more years. There are also people who genuinely share themselves with others and those of us who bear grief and bitterness that comes into our lives when we lose someone or something dear. Those have nothing to do with this quagmire of “loving kindness” that is served up on the buffet of tolerance, inoffensiveness, and correctness. This latter thing is more a weapon than a badge and frankly, it is nothing but showing off at the expense of true compassion never being understood and therefore given. There should be no question that it is tearing America down. Wolves are at it everywhere.
Every time I sit down to a computer, I feel like I’m psyching up for a long game of hopscotch on a surface of hot tar.
In Spirit and In Truth, Vol 44
Precious in His sight! Dave Hunt, founder of The Berean call:1926-2013. One of the finest gentlemen I’ve ever known in this business of ours of serving Christ in the Gospel out of a gracious and good heart, and contending for the Faith against its enemies. A man for the ages, a good and faithful servant nonpareil.
If hypocrisy is acting; and deceit is acting; and if all the world is a stage --- seems to me we’re all in big trouble.
Those who surrender themselves to be obedient to God certify themselves for the privilege of possessing spiritual discernment.
Soul Winning
Thirst for it!
Savor the thrill of it!
Count it all joy the task of it!
A place of safety outside of God’s will is too risky a place for any child of God to contemplate.
We have never had more to live on and less to live for. --- Vance Havner
One good thing about terrorism. When your bag is sitting there unattended, ain’t nobody going to take it.
There is a significant piece of man’s pride that never wants to let go of the “beauty” of the many good works he wants to do for God and so as to thereby inherit his equally beautiful and “richly deserved” mansion in the sky.
Persecution ought not stop you from rebuking evil, defending truth, winning souls, helping the oppressed, serving your country (with good citizenship), and detouring the knuckleheads. I am always baffled that my bitterest enemies find no command for these things in the Scriptures. Nevertheless, your greatest hindrances will come right out of pastoral offices: it‘s the only time they ever come out into the street.
Digital Virus Eradicator -- athlete’s foot remover
We hang the petty thieves. When they are too big to hang, we elect them.
The Biblical Rendering of A False Follower of Christ.
--- Tim Fellure, Victory Baptist Church
Matthew 26:48-49.
A. Here was a man [Judas] who drew as close to the savior as it was humanly possible to be. He enjoyed every privilege being with Christ afforded and was intimately familiar with everything Christ taught. Yet, because of the sinful lusts and hardness of his heart, he remained in unbelief and went into a hopeless eternity. Judas was the man who kissed the door of heaven and went to hell.
B. Judas was not the last Judas. The mark of the modern Christian is that they have a pretense of loving Christ [they live in deceit], but it is all a show just to cover their wicked heart. They pay homage on the outside but there is hatred on the inside.
Modern Christians make demands of Jesus but will not let Him make demands of them; they are interested in what He can do for them, not what they can do for Him; they become disenchanted when they want a genie but find a Savior. --- Tim Fellure, slightly modified
If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference ; He is praying for me. --- Robert McCheyne
The wolf who sneaks in under pretense and cover of a shepherd’s staff is far more worrisome than any number of hungry lions outside.
Every relationship you will ever forge in religion will be planked on to what extent you choose to compromise. You burn your bridges behind you when you simply say, None, never, for no reason, under no circumstances, at no gain. No way Jose. Don’t expect a lot of awards for your scant contributions to the love bug church bleacher bum fund.
My friends, you belong to God because you are made in His image. You belong to God because He bought you with the price of His blood on the cross of Calvary. You are rightfully His in a two-fold way --- created and recreated!
No journey is complete that does not lead through some dark alleys. We can properly comfort others only wherewith we ourselves have been comforted of God. --- Vance Havner
The church is failing to keep men from going up in flames on this side, and down in flames on the other. The almost total absolution of any complicity in this abhorrent national state of affairs in our land today escapes the simplest imagination. What mean folk they are who have destroyed the church, family, and nation with one wave of their apostate wand. And talking to them is like talking to baboons.
Sometimes I have a pernicious thought that Bill, Jason, and Charlie will appear in heaven, will walk right past Jesus, and go looking for their own church pinned to a cross.
Take my advice; I’m not using it.
You can be anything you want on the internet. The most popular thing is stupid.
I’m staying overweight, I need to be bigger than what my python can swallow.
When cave children drew pictures on the walls, were they punished?
How can you look around the world today and lend an ounce of credibility to this filthy church system? And to think of the depths of their depravity to spitefully use the sick, the weak, the disenfranchised, the gullible, and the lowly of mind to hatch their nefarious schemes. These children of Hell will deserve all of their allocated space and time in the lake of fire.
If there were not a higher order, man in his greed would have become extinct long ago. Something must have restrained him; the restraint seems to be wearing away.
Some say I’m cynical about human compassion. Don’t you believe it! I am in wholesale unbelief that such a thing even exists. Jesus never commended an unregenerate man for his human love, at least I‘m not aware that He did. He was always berating men for our hatreds and deceiving. The Ten Commandments did not encourage men to love each other, they encouraged men to quit hating each other. Neighborly love mandates came with Christ and He was the model and not man, and depicted the kingdom and not the world. Jesus never once commended human compassion.
Keep Jesus in your thoughts at all times. We, with sober thoughts, allow nothing and no one to preempt Him or to cause us to give Him anything but first place.
Everything I see on the streets today tells me that most of Christianity is living in spitefulness toward anyone or anything claiming authority over them, demanding Scriptural obedience by them, and modeling holy living for them. Christianity has become fantasy camp for millions of misinformed Christians and apostate religious leaders. Christianity seldom shows signs of new life anymore, just the same old sin, death and Hell.
Psalm 41:9. Jason will remain a fundamentalist with absolutely no comprehension of its doctrines, practices, passions, core values, or intrinsic staying power. He has so little understanding of the cause of Christ, I have to suppose that he may not even know the tenets of the Faith. It’s sad because I once called him friend (never brother), yet to this day I don’t know why. He is anything but a friend, more like a fiend.
See Titus 1:9. A non-compromiser is actually still one step short and must yet determine what the Word of God says and BE CONTENT to live by it no matter what and to stand for it against the gainsayers.
See Psalms 46. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. When everything is stripped from us – family, career, health – when life gets as bad as it can, we have a refuge, a strength. We have a God! And our God is like no other, for He is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, in Whom He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. Glory to His holy name.
See Psalm 84. If we make God’s promise our strength, we must make God’s Word our rule and walk by it.
See Exodus 12:13. The Golden Rule in the Ten Commandments:
See Matthew 23:27. Jesus told the nicest church people of their time --- tithing, praying, law-abiding, religious people --- “Ye are of your father the devil and the lusts of your father ye will do” (John 8:44). To them He said, “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of Hell?” (Matthew 23:33) He said that all civilization, all religious forms and ceremonies observed were only the whitewash on sepulchres filled with dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. He likened the hearts of these outwardly righteous Pharisees to decaying, stinking, bodies. The hearts of men in Bible times were no better than the hearts of men today. --- John R. Rice
See Daniel 2:28-29. That enemy you let drag you in your anger and frustration through the morning slush each day --- is he not a product of his own pride, bitterness, and wickedness? Fear less of him, and fear more for his soul, beloved. Woe if he believes himself saved, yet hasn‘t understood he must bear his own sins. He may have written himself off to damnation but THERE IS A GOD IN HEAVEN WHO REVEALS SECRETS, WHO MAKES KNOWN THE LATTER ENDS, WHO COMES TO SEEK AND SAVE THAT WHICH IS LOST. FEAR HIM, WATCH AND PRAY, WHO KNOWS WHAT A DAY WILL BRING!
See 2 Corinthians 11:13-15. Just how awful they are who will preach to the destruction of souls. Any religion, person, or creed that concedes to any belief system that holds a way of salvation other than by repentance and trust in Christ becomes party to that man-made gospel. Keep in mind, the Devil’s purpose is not to destroy the Gospel, he knows he can’t. But he can put it in the hearts of wicked people to corrupt it. A corrupted gospel can oppose the true Gospel simply by its appeal; it is really no gospel at all. But to say there is no Gospel is to leave the true one visible, accessible, and unimpeded in its development and spread. That the Devil can’t have. He must strive against it but do so in his garb of an angel of light.
See Exodus 4:2. When God wants an implement for His service, He does not often choose the golden scepter, but a shepherd’s crook. The weakest thing He can find --- a ram’s horn, a cake of barley meal, an ox goad, an earthen pitcher, a shepherd’s sling, a rod --- with God behind it, it is mightier than the greatest army. --- F. B. Meyer
No, I do not determine whether a man is saved, I couldn’t if I wanted to. God does. But I will say this. I have enough discernment to know right well that any man or woman is living so far away from the eternal verities of the Word of God, that I am encumbered upon to view them as a valid mission field in need of a steady diet of rebuke, prayer, and preaching.
Four Things in Any Land Must Dwell
If it endures and prospers well;
One is manhood true and good;
One is noble womanhood;
One is child life, clean and bright;
And one an altar kept alight.
You should try to understand others, even your enemies.
I understand my enemies, they would like to kill me.
I ordered tomato surprise at $12.99 and found out it doesn’t take much to surprise a tomato.
The older I get, the more I realize how hard it is to please everyone. But getting everyone hoppin’ mad --- that’s a piece of cake.
We all have to go sometime. So, why don’t you go now?
But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. (Revelation 21:8) Contemplate: ALL LIARS! Son, you are in trouble and you're listening to men in more trouble than you are.
Discernment: The most vocal compromise a man can ever make is silence. And the one physical sense you need in order to maintain your uncompromising stand is to keep your sniffer working because you never know when you might need it to smell a rat.
And what amuses this minister beyond imagination? Sherry, Willie, Jason, and a ten-way tie for last enjoy “stiffing me” when I’m ready to share my complaint. Now listen to me, the first three are THE BIGGEST NAGGERS AND WHINERS ON THIS PLANET BAR NONE. You’d think God woke up one day and decided he would make those three lives as miserable as he could. I look for creative ways to complain to them, but they are such experts on it that they are quick to the test. You cannot imagine how much fun I have with them and they never know it. I’ve hatched a good one that ought to bring fruit any day now. Stay tuned.
I believe there is Christian community out there that longs for Christian fellowship but has lost all faith in the local church(es).
Boy those compassion hounds bark furiously when you don’t feed them bones of admiration.
The real problem is that almost no one really believes this revelation God has given of Himself. Why is that a surprise, didn't He warn us of that? Few there be that find the narrow way --- Jesus IS that narrow way.
Boy with a Toy.
1. Several years ago, I got a fabricated letter from a wicked preacher boy, more boy than preacher. He said, with a tongue that should be washed in niter for it’s filth of lying, “Why haven’t we been seeing you? Sure do miss you in church.” The church never missed me when their barbs were flying.
2. I Wrote back, as kindly as my suspicious temperament would allow me and I simply wrote back these innocent verses: Psalms 29:2; Psalms 69:13; Matthew 16:26; and Psalms 55:21. I closed with this variation of an old proverb: Saccharine words do not a church make.
3. You would have thought that the end of it, wouldn‘t you? How badly did the church miss me? Satan’s son wrote back a fierce denunciation of my person, apparently in response to these five sentences, four of which came straight from Scripture and the other from a respected source. What would have happened had they not missed me and merely decided to take a hit out on me? This little boy needed his bare bottom baked by his mama --- in public. Ray, here’s your verse, are you listening? “And all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” How can these fakers escape the fires of Hell?
With each new day, I learn with greater certainty and pain that a humble Christian cannot bring shame to these awful people who hate other people. Don’t make the mistake of believing that they hate only you; this breed hates many people and they hide it under the cloak of deceit. They love self and hate anyone who stands in the way of glorification of it. They will attack you more openly so as to discredit you and to keep you from exposing them. They have no shame because they have no decency. Repentance is not a part of their vocabulary. It is not possible that they would be saved; the Bible is crystal clear on that matter. If you have trouble seeing the picture begin by asking whose doing the deceiving and who isn’t? That will lead you into much truth quickly. Remember that these people hate you because you don’t admire their compassion.
Old time preachers had calluses on their feet. New time preachers have calluses on their derriere.
The church now lets in the back door the same thuggery we’ve been fighting off in the front for millennia.
Ministry Mention: I will be doing (pastoring) five gatherings a week beginning next week. We love working in the Church!!!! Expect enemy interference! Pray!!!!
The Slippery Slope of Carnality.
1. I have, maybe you have, sat in carnal churches.
2. I am concerned that almost all churches today cater to the flesh, and not the soul. Vast numbers no longer even claim that precious name, that name above every name, that name of Jesus so sweet to our listening ears, beloved. They are churches where personality somehow preempts the Savior. They are churches where tolerance, inoffensiveness, and positivism are the new militancy. Church members are sought by the church for ecumenical love feasts, not bought by the blood for eternal redemption. The preacher has sold out to friendship with the world, and anything goes, we finally have to conclude.
3. And the tragedy is a deep wound in the Body of Christ --- carnal churches produce carnal “Christians.” This kind of Christian gospel was warned about by the beloved Apostle, when he called it perverted and accursed [condemned]. (See Galatians 1:8) It is perverted because the self of man is worshipped, it is condemned because it does not bring the doctrine of Christ.
4. As I sat in those carnal churches, I looked for surrender, sanctification, separation, and service: I saw entertainment, I saw secularity, I saw self-centered worshippers, and man-centered worship.
5. But most of all, I looked for the transformed life, a sinner somewhere made free, I could not see over the waves of humanity a single life that looked anything like a life touched, saved, changed, and put to work by or for our Blessed Redeemer. They were unchanged Christians, with a changed gospel and a changed church and even a changed spirit.
6. I did not like sitting in this fallen away building. I wanted to cry. They do not like my kind of person in Laodicea. I am hot, I am not cold or lukewarm; I have a Biblical right to want a hot church, not a cold one or lukewarm. Jesus will thank me out of His mouth, He will not spew me out of His mouth. He has already called me into His grace and into His wonderful light. I will no longer dishonor Him in apostatized pews.
Man invented language for complaining. Thank God for language and for complaining.
The older the fossil of an extinct animal is, the more extinct he is.
Nehemiah 6: Discernment vs. Deception
[] “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” (Matthew 10:16)
1. The enemy meant mischief against the people rebuilding the wall in Jerusalem; Nehemiah was above board. Note that he answered in writing. I’ve always wondered why men fear putting things in writing. GOD WROTE THE WHOLE BIBLE! There are popular Independent Baptist preachers here in town who spend their entire careers twisting Scripture. I am of studied opinion that they do it with fullest of intentions. What do we fear, that they’ll twist our words? I’d rather they twist my written words than my spoken ones. They will certainly twist one or the other or both.
2. The enemy persisted. Nehemiah continued above board. When you’re speaking and acting in the truth, things don’t change much from word to word.
3. The enemy invented a boldfaced lie; Nehemiah said he (the enemy) was a big faker. What’s wrong with calling a faker a faker? When you watch a faker for five months, you can pretty well assert with authority that he’s a faker. (Who would hesitate to call Hitler a megalomaniac?) But I guess it’s that compassion thing.
4. The enemy tried to weaken the spirit of the builders. Nehemiah prayed for strength in their hands. (And God answered!)
5. The enemy works through a [false] prophet; Nehemiah examines his own testimony and motive in light of the prophet’s “prophecy” and he “smelled a rat.”
6. Nehemiah prays something of a judgmental plea against the enemy, and he especially notes their cruel attempt at putting him in fear. Some may call Nehemiah’s actions imprecatory, meaning invoking evil. It doesn’t quite mean that here and may be a bad choice of words. Nothing is wrong with pouring your thoughts out to God, providing you‘re willing to be lovingly chastised from time to time (for example, Ananias at Acts 9:13-15; and David once or twice).
7. When the work was finished, the enemy was crestfallen (per Cain, at Genesis 4:5) having now seen moral defeat and having recognized God’s hand in it. It seems alien to our Christian mind that knowing this, they persist in their persecution of Nehemiah.
8. The enemy, at least in part, had many followers in Judah (“sworn to him”) and letters flowed back and forth. The enemy was embedded through inter-marriages.
9. The enemy’s GOOD DEEDS were reported to Nehemiah by these friends of the enemy --- the enemy played the “compassion card,” of course!
A. How do you rebut “good deeds” that are known to major populations? What are fundamental believers shadowboxing with most of the time?
B. Isn’t it incredible that we know for a fact that our “Tobiahs” are lowdown scoundrels while half the world is singing praises to his good deeds? Note in v. 13:4-8, this lowdown scoundrel works his way into the very innermost chambers of “the church!” Nehemiah literally “threw the moneychanger out of the temple!“
C. Yet, be comforted, you who stand for right, no one ever deceives to be seen as wicked. The day will come when their wickedness will be seen by every living soul, without exception.
D. It is far more than a passing comment that, at v. 13:14, in wonderful contrast to this filthy Tobiah, Nehemiah commends his GOOD DEEDS TO GOD and not to men! There you have it, what separates the men from the jerks in this deceptive and strong-arming world of good works and compassion.
10. The chapter ends with the enemy still trying to put fear in Nehemiah’s heart, with much less to gain materially now than at the start.
A. The saga of human pride is never without its twists and turns and a great deal of our struggle is against men striving to save face (and many of them, with two faces to save).
B. The enemy WANTED Nehemiah to fail.
C. I doubt that any of us who claim a legitimate fundamentalist position would doubt for a moment that while Tobiah’s good deeds are esteemed throughout the “church” of that day, Nehemiah’s bad deeds are lighting up the gossip wire like a Christmas tree. Gossip is expert at turning good deeds of a good man into bad deeds of a bad man. People love a lie and that‘s the calling card of the last days. See 2 Thessalonians 2:11.
11. Nehemiah in chapters 13 and 14 takes on a Christlikeness that the positivists abhor. The positivists must be having a fit reading this. This is the kind of stuff you and I do routinely that is framed for the public by our enemies to appear mean and unchristian. Meanwhile, the enemy has no Christian discipline or sense of personal responsibility and accountability of their own. Is not discipline a derivative of disciple? Note:
A. Nehemiah cleansed the inner chambers by throwing out everything that belonged to Tobiah.
B. He reconstituted the (purity of) offices and services of the house of God.
C. He contended with the Sabbath breakers, shut the gates during the Sabbath, and threatens to personally eject the merchants who lodged overnight on the Sabbath.
D. He dealt severely with intermarrying families who couldn’t even speak the Jewish language anymore. (The bastardizing of the language of the Bible has practically single-handedly perverted the doctrine of Christ!) It says he cursed them, and smote them. He even chased the high priest’s son off because of this.
E. As far as I can tell, there is little sympathy accorded Nehemiah in this lovely Book. Fundamentalist friend, what sympathies befall you? Loving pity is God’s character, not man’s. despite his endless claim that it is. He only wishes it so; fact is, man more violent than a venomous snake.
[] No one has ever drowned in sweat.
[] We used to do things for prosperity. Now we do things for ourselves and let posterity foot the bill.
[] Let the American youth never forget that they possess a noble inheritance, bought by the toils and sufferings and blood of their ancestors.
[] The prophets and the martyr do not see the hooting throng. Their eyes are fixed on the eternities. --- Benjamin Cordoza
[] The most abominable part of the evangelical apostasy is the fundamentalist crowd that enables it.
[] As a good Christian you’ll suspect mischief afoot all along the trail. Mean men and good men make trouble for the elect of God.
My mother buried three husbands -- two of them were just napping.
I’ve gone through the city ordinances, the Bill of Rights, and seventeen volumes of jurisprudence, and I think I know the proper defense for our client.
What?
Bribe the judge.
I know a lawyer whose specialty is suing restaurants for poor lighting. He’s an ambience chaser.
Going to court is nothing to be ashamed of.
Yeah, judges do it all the time.
My roommate bought a pet elephant. Now it’s lost in the house somewhere.
The Wolves Abound!
1. You are not a wolf, fundamentalist co-laborers. I am not a wolf. It is very clear that much of modern Christianity are ravening wolves.
2. The first words about apostasy, warning, and instruction on false teachers from Jesus’ lips was that we must take heed lest any man deceive us. Take heed means to stay informed and the only way we can stay informed is to immerse ourselves in God’s Holy Book. No man with a love for Scripture and desire to wholly obey it will seek to deceive anyone.
3. When you read that Book, you will learn to identify a wolf in spite of his disguise. One way of identifying a wolf is that he will not care about the welfare and future of the sheep: his own interests preempt the souls of lost sheep. Jesus Christ will have little or no position, the name of the wolf is what you will see in the lights. The hireling at John Chapter 10 is this wolf.
4. Another way you can identify a wolf is by his error in doctrine. The first doctrine that is put away by a wolf is the doctrine of the deity of Christ. Simply put, the wolf can write 100 “pastoral letters” and insert them in a bulletin where neither the letters nor the bulletins ever talk about Jesus Christ. He will gratuitously spatter “salvation words” to achieve credibility, but he’s a wolf and church wolves are big fat liars about Jesus Christ.
5. The next doctrine that the wolf will lay aside is the doctrine of salvation. The wolf cannot achieve his aim if people recognize their need of a blood-bought salvation through Christ. The wolf’s simple aim is to be master over the church, to master wolves and not innocent [believing] sheep. He fully intends to drive the sheep from the churches, destroying them if he can. The deception will be brilliant.
6. Another doctrine that must be rubbed out is the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. When the Spirit is graciously at work in the true church He, (1) testifies of Christ; (2) illuminates the Word of God; (3) convicts His listeners of their sin; (4) works the new birth in the hearers’ hearts; and (5) marks out the path for believers to walk. This work of the Holy Spirit is designed for sheep not wolves; all of it has to go so far as the wolf is concerned.
7. When the [believing] sheep are deceived, the Holy Spirit hasn’t their hearts to work in, even if He indwells them. It will be apparent that the Hoy Spirit has been suppressed when you see social programs taking ascendancy, when man and Jesus are paling around together, when the preacher is unable to articulate Bible truth, when the power has gone out of the more “mature” Christians, and when the Bible is suddenly relegated to a “plausible explanation.”
8. The wolf is out to please the wolf, and the Holy Spirit is his greatest enemy. And, almost an astonishment beyond belief, the wolf needs to control the church in order to diminish the effect of the Holy Spirit’s presence there. A preacher in our town has practically discarded all reference to the Holy Spirit yet defends himself as a “fundamentalist.”
9. Read Ezekiel 37. I have heard people say that we need more Holy Spirit power in the church. I agree. But maybe the place to start are those dry bones sitting in those dry pews. We need to breathe life into them, send fresh wind and fresh fire. Get the Word of God in the joints and the marrow. “The Word was a fire shut up in my bones.” Our God is a consuming fire!
10. A certain man is a professing Christian, he claims that he has been called to preach, he pastors a church, he has a testimony of being saved out of addiction, and he has a large Christian family (wife and children). He is big on missionaries coming in, he goes out on Saturday morning with three of his own children and hands out a booklet promoting one of the lessons the church will be teaching, and he preaches in the church Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday evening. He home schools his children (it is never evident what children are saved and what children aren’t, and conflicting accounts rise from time to time). He openly states that the marriage is one of trials. He says he is (and officially declares himself to be) a fundamentalist. He claims his favorite authors are John R. Rice, J. Vernon McGee, H. L. Wilmington, David Cloud, and perhaps a few others. On the surface, this minister writing this would find little to criticize in his testimony and service. But sit in his church, and it is parched land -- preaching as dry as dust, bones As dry as dust.
11. “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:” (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)
12. Modern theology is a counterfeit theology that centers on a counterfeit Christ who proclaims a counterfeit gospel thus yielding a counterfeit salvation. Those who subscribe to this theology look forward to a counterfeit second coming of a counterfeit King of kings and an eternity in a very real and very perverse Hell.
13. See Galatians 1:7. Paul is warning of any gospel that is perverted, that twists the message, in that it directs away from true and pure grace, and it holds as its intention, often concealed, the wholesale dismantling of the person, work, and Gospel of Jesus Christ. Self-righteousness (and a legalistic view of religion) is a necessary adjunct to those who either pervert grace or abandon it to a works gospel. So, it should be expected that Jesus be expelled as having no place in such a religion.
14. “Pervert” should catch your attention. It is a word that rings with a certain deeper indignation than other words of indictment. A man may seek to teach a falsehood and we might well think little of it. But Paul means business, these men are out not merely to teach a false gospel, but they are out to pervert it. Our discriminating ear has perked up.
15. At 2 Corinthians 11 and Galatians 1, Paul enumerates several proofs of his Gospel (including his own testimony), and yet he still warns that an angel, presumably Satan as an angel of light, could pervert this Gospel with every intention of fooling whom he could.
A. When these perverts came to Antioch (Paul’s home church, in principle) demanding all believers to be circumcised and to accept Jewish custom and ritual, they were so convincing, that Peter the great preacher to the Jews, Barnabas the great missionary, and many believer Jews sided with them, even withdrawing company away from the brethren Gentiles who were uncircumcised. That should serve as a warning that a good many men and women of character are taken away by sleight of hand gospels. This minister is the least of all and has been bitten and ostracized more than once by a wolf bearing a perverted gospel under his sheep’s clothing.
B. Paul rebuked his highly fruitful fellow-laborer Peter openly before all, and he preached the true Gospel, especially on the matter of justification (those of faith being declared innocent of all sin in the courtroom of God). The issue became so hot that Paul and Barnabas went to Jerusalem to address the matter before the elders there, and Paul, who stood firmly with the Gospel of salvation by grace alone through faith, was fully vindicated.
16. Paul leaves us no doubt what our job is in preserving this true Gospel: “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now; “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace. For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:7)
We have a debt to Jesus Christ and to the true brethren to work in the defense of the true Gospel. Or have you partnered with the church and the world as they attempt systematically to keep us from it.
A true missionary ought not be pitied. He ought to be envied. The true missionary of God --- wherever he might go --- gets into God’s action. He goes where life and death, sin and grace, and Heaven and Hell converge. Seen in The Sword of the Lord.
My husband gave me a mood ring. When I’m in a good mood, it turns aqua. When I’m in a bad mood it leaves a red mark on his forehead.
If you fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, someone else will fool the rest of them.
No. 17 Why Do the Heathen Rage?
And Why Do the People Imagine a Vain Thing?
Because He rejects the grace of God (Jude 4)
“For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.” (2 Peter 2:20)
1. For what it’s worth. I’ve always thought it strange that when the Red Sea was parted, there were only two kinds of people crossing it. There weren’t people standing around idly who suddenly were caught dead in their sins. There weren’t people giving up to return to Egypt. There weren’t people waiting to see where the advantage would lie at the conclusion of the tumult. There were only God’s people escaping the bondage of Egypt; and the Egyptian Army trying to pull them back into the bondage. God destroyed the latter (“persecutors,” at Nehemiah 9:11). The former went on to be tested in the wilderness and fell under the weight of the Sinai law. Only two men of the original bunch went on in to deliver the land.
2. I believe this is a picture of our text verse. Yet, Nehemiah Chapter 9 paints the picture of a “peculiar people.” What people of the earth, having no real home on earth but in Heaven, was so extraordinarily cared for by a patient, loving Father than these rebellious, idolizing, stiff-necked, immoral and murderous, and God-mocking people who could never contain themselves from anarchy and apostasy and who raised up generations of defiant clone-like children?
3. Many nations will rot in total in Hell for their sins against a holy God, but this is one nation that sovereign God gave far more than a fair share of His compassion and forbearance yet they continually frustrated His grace as they went a-whoring under every green tree. No one was in line for greater favor from God and deserving it less than Israel. Such is the way divine mercy is played out in the annals of God’s love for mankind. And the glory of Israel is still a matter of the tale of the tape, for God‘s plan for them is yet a great cluster of prophecy we‘re now beginning to see fulfilled in these latter days.
4. And just where in that scheme of divine providence will America be seated: at the throne of the Lamb or with the great whore of Babylon? Think on those things when you are thinking to keep your mouth shut in the face of this modern anger, animosity, antinomianism, addictive arrogance, and apostasy. We are put to speak: “Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.” (Acts 18:9-10)
The Heathen Rage Because They Defy The Living God!
Today's Closing Thoughts.
1. Most of my life I feared the Communists. I was in uniform for practically a whole twenty years of the so-called "Cold War." There exists today a monstrously more dangerous force than them. We have a mentality of antichrist surfacing over the past decade that grabs hold of the world under the mantle of compassion. The power that people wield by that word ought to scare the living daylights out of us. There is neither defense against nor quibble with it, and all respectability, responsibility, and accountability is going out as it marches in. Everyone thinks themselves right with the world when embracing it. It has virtually removed all place for morality, dissention, discipline, or Biblical Christianity. There is a primevil license that people automatically claim when asserting compassion. The most amazing part is that growing up with it at the same time -- very predictably -- is an in-your-face anarchy. Read the newspaper everyday; media bias or not, those things ARE HAPPENING! The two merge in ecumenism which harbors the idea of one religion of compassion and tolerance for all expressions of belief. 2 Thessalonians 2:11 speaks of a strong delusion --- this certainly qualifies!
2. It is interesting that one of the people responding to the death of Joyce Brothers said, "The proof of love is trust." It may have been said in context. But at its simplist, the statement is an inictment. Love is not something you flash as you walk by, it is hard-earned and tested. It develops over a time of trust and a time of being trusted. I was with a preacher for five months that had the compassion of a fly; I wouldn't trust that preacher with a clothespin, and he still boasts of being a loving Christian --- shows you how desparaging that word "Christian" has become. Many of these compassion hounds want you to love them and be loved by them as a matter of fact, but they don't have a shred of trustworthiness in their entire virtue inventory. Selfishness is hardly trustworthy, and to make love a weapon wielded and not a devotion yielded is about the silliest thing man can concoct from his "look at me" photo ensemble. Herein is love, not that we loved Him but that He loved us and gave Himself for us. Jesus alone is the proof of love because in Him alone can we put our trust.
Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD. Jeremiah 17:5
In Spirit and In Truth (Vol 41) 5-7
“For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.” (Galatians 1:10)
Come, whosoever willeth,
Now is the proper time
To claim the free salvation,
And to His will resign.
O sinner, do not scorn Him,
Who died to set thee free,
And now in Heaven is pleading
For sinners such as thee.
For thee,
He died on Calvary:
And now the Savior offers,
Salvation full and free
Read Proverbs 31 About the Good Christian Woman.
Dear Old Mom.
Jovon, it’s so nice to meet you. Our daughter has told us so much about you. And we’ve noticed you in our budget for quite some time now …..
Bill, bills! And more bills! I guess we’ll just do like the government does and raise the debt ceiling.
Mommy, what should we call the new puppy daddy brought home?
Mother.
Why would we call it mother?
Because if he stays, I’m going.
Billy, eat your food. Pretend it’s sand.
So, Mommy, when did you come to work for us?
Lisa, daddy and I are broke. So, we’re going to get a book and straighten your teeth ourselves.
Honey, what’s happened between you and the retail merchants? I hear business is way down.
[] A revival of real praying would produce a spiritual revolution. --- E.M. Bounds
[] Nobody can do as much damage to the church of God as the man who is within its walls, but not within its life. --- Charles Spurgeon
[] A Preacher can be such a man! And often is!
God raises up people to do mighty things. He searches for those who have a heart for Him. God has already made a plan to bless in an outstanding way, a way that is far beyond what we ordinarily witness. He is still looking. Oh, how we should desire God to find what He is looking for in our lives. --- Clarence Sexton
I wish Christianity were more productive of good works, I mean real good works, not holy-day keeping, sermon hearing, or making long prayers, filled with flatteries and compliments despised by wise men, and much less capable of pleasing Deity. --- Ben Franklin
Pray For the Crucified Life!
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)
A fundamentalist at a love bug church is like a barnacle on the Good Ship Lollipop.
I have state-of-the art computer ware. I never have to delete anything, the computer does it all for me.
Everywhere a Witness.
“Seek the peace of the city whither have I caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.” (Jeremiah 29:7) Wherever the Christian is, he has a responsibility for the welfare of those around him: to demonstrate a Christ-like life before them, to pray for them, to share his faith [the Gospel itself] with them, and to manifest Christian love toward them. --- Points of Emphasis
You Can Know the Way!
There is a way of pleasure, of ease, which leads to unworthy character. There is a way of self-denial, of discipline, of hard work, and this leads to honor. Then there is a broad way of selfishness and sin which never reaches heaven’s gates; and there is a way of penitence, of devotion to Christ, of spending and being spent in His service, whose end is a seat beside the King on His throne. --- J. R. Miller
The only crown Jesus ever wore on earth was a crown of thorns. --- Elisabeth Elliot
The waiter at the Chinese restaurant was pointing out all the forms of duck on the revolving lazy Susan: breast of duck, leg of duck, wing of duck. I was a bit annoyed until I recognized a dish of chicken coming around. He graciously pointed at it and said, “friend of duck.”
Bill, as the Devil, I can make you popular and filthy rich, and give you a long and pleasure-filled life. All you have to do is to give me your soul, turn the souls of your family over to me for eternity as well as the souls of the coming generations that will be born into your family.
So, what’s the catch?
Why Was John Bunyan in Prison?
He had served early on in the English Civil War, on the side of the Parliamentary Army. When Charles II returned to the throne, times got hard for those who had not been faithful to the Church of England [and therefore the “Anglican Settlement“]. As a Puritan, Bunyan was not, and he was imprisoned because he refused to stop preaching. He was in prison from 1660 to 1672, and a short time in 1677. Charles once asked the leading intellectual John Owen why he listened to Bunyan (an “uneducated tinker”). Owen responded, “Could I possess the tinker’s abilities, and please your majesty, I would relinquish all my learning.”
Good Christian, I wouldn’t worry much about being a fault-finder. If they call you a legalist, they’ll call you a faultfinder. The only thing they’ll not call you is obedient so you are perfectly safe there.
As your union rep, I’m happy to report that management has agreed to working only on Wednesdays from now on.
What! Every Wednesday?
And “God hath made that same Jesus whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ.” (Acts 2:37)
Thinkin‘ and Blinkin‘
[] I hope my ship comes in before the dock rots.
[] I wasn’t such a bad kid, just behavior impaired.
[] Every morning is the dawn of a new error.
[] Men are naturally tempted by the devil but an idle man tempts the devil.
[] The scholar ship and the love boat have more in common than most people know.
[] Oh dear, I couldn't say that my church is alive and I wouldn't want to call it dead. I guess it's just walking in its sleep! --- a church member
[] God is many things but one thing He’s not is a puppeteer.
[] Dial-a-prayer hung up on me.
Grow in Christ, Live Out the Word of God.
“And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.” (Isaiah 30:21) We are to be faithful not only in rendering the Word of God, but in applying it to our lives. God’s way is the only way to live out our lives. Complacency and lack of desire to grow in the likeness of Christ can never be a character of any Christian life no matter what level you have succeeded to. When you’re spending more time berating those who are growing than you labor at achieving it yourself, you probably have a problem much greater than you think.
Christianity Best Not Be Put Off; Best You Put It On, Friend!
Dr. Hutson, once told me [Shelton Smith] of a business executive in Atlanta, Georgia who told him, "I cannot accept Christ as my Saviour-- at least not yet I am to busy climbing the ladder of success." He was guilty of drinking with his superiors in order to be sociable and knew that if he trusted Christ as his Saviour he could not continue this way of life with a clear conscience. Of course he intended to trust Christ later after he had arrived in life. After Dr. Hutson had made several visits to his home, he decided to trust Christ as his Saviour even if it meant losing his job. He was later baptized. What a wonderful Christian he had made. If you have put off trusting Christ because you are to busy to gain the world, then please trust Him today. Don't wait another moment longer.
On Soul-Winning.
Winning souls is not our hobby; it is our vocation. Winning souls is not a choice; it is a commission. Winning souls is not a convenience; it is a compulsion. Winning souls is not a coincidence; it is a commandment. Jesus said, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." --- Ray Barber
Reckon, then, that to acquire soul-winning power, you will have to go through mental torment and soul distress. You must go into the fire if you are going to pull others out of it, and you will have to dive into the floods if you are going to draw others out of the water. You cannot work a fire escape without feeling the scorch of the conflagration, nor man a lifeboat without being covered with the waves. --- Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Denying ourselves and taking up our cross isn't a little side issue -- it is absolutely necessary to becoming or continuing to become a disciple of Jesus. --- John Wesley
A man posted an emphatic sign outside his office that said, “I’m the Boss.” Two hours later the secretary paged him and told him his wife wanted her sign back.
Our new preacher seems to have an unblemished character.
Great!
Yeah, I suspect he’s always one step ahead of the law.
See Acts 12:8. Maybe God will rescue you from the deepest peril, in the darkness night, under the sharpest knife, but YOU put your own shoes on!
See Hebrews 11:4. What was the more excellent sacrifice? Hint: Abel brought it; and it is the major theme of the Bible from page 1 to the last. The Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.
See Matthew 4:4-10. According to Ephesians 6:17, the Word of God is the Sword of the Spirit. If Christ can humiliate the enemy using God’s Word, and drive him off, why shouldn’t we? But to use it, you have to know it. We ought to be searching it every day and studying it.
See Romans 7:4. How could an innocent person assume the guilt of another? This can only be done by the innocent person entering into “corporate oneness” with the person and thus become identified with him. For illustration, the debts of a poor widow could not be charged up to a millionaire-neighbor, but if he entered into corporate oneness with her by marrying her, and thus assuming all her obligations, then he could justly and legally be held responsible for her debts. --- Rightly Dividing the Truth
See Exodus 30:37-38. The fragrance of the Lord is not perfume to make you smell good --- it’s the fragrance of Christ that will smell good on you, His people. So many of you think you can put a splash of “cologne” behind each ear and Voila! Christlike! If you read Ephesians 5:2 you’ll understand that our Lord gave Himself for us as an offering and a sacrifice to God and it was a sweet smelling savor that reached up into the very heart of the Father. Obedience is a sweet smelling savor! See 2 Corinthians chapter 2, particularly at the dead center verse (v. 9) where obedience even in practical things is proof of your Christ-likeness --- not out of corrupting the Word of God but by obeying it as you live your life in Christ! (V. 17)
See Exodus 28:29. Do we not think this verse a bit harsh for the love buggers? It is more than interesting in these 40 chapters, as great and deadly judgments were raised up on Pharaoh; as God delivered His people from Egypt by bringing them over the Red Sea (leaving Egypt to sleep with the fishes); as God brought manna, pheasants, and water from the rock to sustain a bitterly murmuring and unthankful people; as the mountain smoked and belched whence came the lightning and thundering of the law; where as many as a million people were sentenced to death in the wilderness over their sojourn there for idolatry and other apostatizing behaviors; where a tabernacle was sanctioned by God, one sanctified by His glory; where all the sins of the people were under the watchful eye of Jehovah God --- the great I Am -- and within the purview of His never out-of-reach merciful heart; where God blessed obedience and cursed disobedience; where at least two great men of God would later search out the promised land and declare it “ripe for taking;” and where Moses stood on Mount Pisgah finally looking upon a promised land he’d never step foot on --- yet he was on this side of a Promised Land far grander and far more certain. Will the love buggers have a knee-jerk reaction when they learn that in this Book of Exodus, meaning “going out,” as I understand carries over into Luke 9:31 and 1 Peter 1:15 to mean physical death, God chooses to use a word translated “love” only twice --- once meaning to love Him, the other for a servant to love his family so much that, oddly enough, he will not go out without them and will give himself and his family to his master forever! (Exodus 21:5) I can’t think of any two ways God could have better used that precious word.
See 1 Timothy 1:12. The testimony of a changed life is perhaps the best evidence that God is alive and active today. The fact that at salvation a slave to sin is given life and a new nature, comprises the only rational explanation for one who lives in victory and power after a lifetime of defeat.
See Romans 1:1-3. It was not a new Gospel that the Apostle Paul preached and taught. God promised afore by His holy prophets in the holy Scriptures concerning the Gospel of God, a Gospel fully vested in His Son Jesus Christ. In Acts 17:2-3, we see Paul reasoning with the folks in the Jewish synagogue leading up to the FACT that this Jesus about whom they read in the synagogue on the Sabbath (as the “Messiah”) was THIS JESUS whom he faithfully preached and taught. Dozens of fulfilled prophecies of the Old Testament should be considered absolute proof of the Messiah being no one but Jesus the Christ!
Yes, judge, he said I was just after his money.
And that’s why you want a breach of promise judgment?
Yes, your honor.
I hereby find for the plaintiff and grant award in the amount of $125 million.
Road Sign.
Next Church, .8 miles.
Next Bible-believing church, 83.4 miles.
I think my caddy is getting cynical.
How come?
He doesn’t wear a watch, he wears a compass.
I have prayed for new men, fiery, reckless men, possessed of uncontrollably youthful passion-these lit by the Spirit of God. I have prayed for new words, explosive, direct, simple words. I have prayed for new miracles. Explaining old miracles will not do. If God is to be known as the God who does wonders in heaven and earth, then God must produce for this generation. Lord, fill preachers and preaching with Thy power. How long dare we go on without tears, without moral passions, hatred and love? Not long, I pray, Lord Jesus, not long ... - Jim Elliot
Think About It. The Earth’s Climate Has Always Changed.
[It amuses me that these areas of science deal in billions of years in the formation of their “doctrine,” yet they can build an arm of science around 100 years of sketchy and speckled climatic record keeping. --- mine] The earth has known cycles of warming and cooling -- the temperatures in the Twentieth and twenty-first centuries are not outside the range of variability. The hypothesis that humans can actually change climate is unsupported by evidence from geology, archaeology, history, and astronomy. Although man-made increases in CO2 may theoretically rise, such links have not been proven and there is abundant evidence to the contrary. --- Ian Palmer, Heaven and Earth; seen in The Voice of the Wilderness
Excerpt from The Road Back to the Ancient Landmark Church.
Part 11. Bellwethers for Laodicean Revival
[] The full pamphlet can be found at www.soldiersofrevival.com
[] Wolves at the Shepherds Costume Ball.
1. It is recorded three times in the New Testament that Jesus called these charlatans holding a false gospel “wolves.”
A. At Acts 20:29, Paul called them ravening wolves; at Jude 1:10, Jude called them brute beasts, as did Peter at 2 Peter 2:12, and as Jeremiah did at 10:21.
B. Then Jude added that they crept in unnoticed. We would therefore say that they are creeps. They grow up in the church, they fool everyone, except, hopefully, the elect.
2. These men come in sheep’s clothing -- what can be more innocent on the exterior than a sheep and more vicious behind the disguise than a wolf?
3. They creep in the side door and sit down next to you. They grow up in the same environs that you do. They will be known for their flattery, religious demeanor, compromise, and extra-biblical profoundness – pomp and intellect that are today benignly accepted in the churches. In fact, those who reject those “qualities” for themselves, will be thought of as legalists, Pharisees, and extremists.
4. In Jeremiah 23, we see the mind of God in a way we may have forgotten or never even have known. Here, He expresses great contempt for wolves, as He condemns (wolfish) prophets and priests. And then in Zephaniah 3:1-4, God describes the oppression of Jerusalem, as princes, judges, prophets and priests were more wicked than the “rank and file.” Her judges are “evening wolves” meaning they worked night and day, not in the Lord’s work, but in defrauding the flock – the poor and the weak.
5. They Will Not Endure Sound Doctrine.
A. If the message is not “Christ crucified;” if the blood of His cross is not magnified; if Jesus is not preeminent (in name and Person); if all the Scripture is not trusted and taught; if the resurrection (of the Church Body of Christ) is not preached; if sin is not openly hated; if the preacher is not sound in doctrine; if the church members are not separated and sanctified; if there is open sin in the membership; if compromise, softness, and sentimentality rule over pith, convicting preaching, and severity of message; if the souls of men no longer interest the church; and if an attitude of moral respectability prevails against a façade of fundamental belief -- you have a false gospel.
B. Paul gave a double-barreled warning about this: “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:8-9) You better be sure because accursed means condemned!
I often visit politicians, but only on visiting days of course.
(One caveman to another.) Yeah, I’m worried all the time too. We never should have invented that future tense.
On the hunting trip, I shot an elk.
How did you know it was an elk?
By his membership card.
The Law of Christ.
1. "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." (Galatians 6:2)
2. Although Christ has set the believer free from legalistic bondage, he is now under a still higher law--the law of Christ.
A. It is called "the law of the spirit of life" which has made us "free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:2)
B. The law of Christ does not consist of any detailed ordinances which we are duty bound to obey.
(1) It is the law in which we want to obey out of our love for Christ.
(2) Note that love in this context is a doctrinal matter, "Therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." (Romans 13:10)
(3) The apostle Paul says that "the end of the commandment is charity [that is, Christian Love] out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned." (I Timothy 1:5)
C. James calls it "the royal law," defining it simply as: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (James 2:8)
(1) Instead of the law bringing us into bondage, it is "the perfect law of liberty" (James 1:25), setting us free from slavery of sin.
(2) It not only gives us the desire to please the Lord, but also the will and ability to do so.
3. It is expressly wrong to accept this law of Christ as though we are now without the law and thereby free to indulge our carnal appetites.
A. But though we "have been called unto liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another" (Galatians 5:13).
B. Paul explains his own new nature thus: "For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more...(being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ)." (I Corinthians 9:19,21)
C. In Christ , "the righteousness of God without the law is manifested," and He is "the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." (Romans 3:21; 10:4)
4. Thus, to believe in Christ is also to obey Him.
--- Henry M. Morris
It is certain today that most people who say they are Christians have no idea what the Bible means by that. The church has worked earnestly toward that result for decades.
On Christ the Solid Rock We Stand.
In taking Christ in any new relationship, we must first have sufficient intellectual light to satisfy our minds that we are entitled to stand in this relationship. The shadow of a question here will wreck our confidence. Then, having seen this, we must make the venture, the committal, the choice, and take the place just as definitely as the tree in planted in the soil, or the bride gives herself away at the marriage altar. It must be once for all, without reserve, without recall. --- Streams in the Desert
I used to say, “I can see a revival cloud the size of a man’s hand.” I used to say, “There’s a coming revival,” but bless God, I have learned that the promises of God are in the present tense. We can have it now if we will do what God tells us. --- Billy Sunday
The Word Revival Means Nothing To This Generation.
We’ve never seen one! Oh, to be sure, churches still have revival “meetings.” But if any emphasis is placed on actual revival, it would almost seem to be by accident. More time is spent planning the special music or the “carry-in dinner” after the Sunday morning service than on prayer meetings, preaching, or the winning of precious souls. The average church member might feel obliged to attend at least one of the weeknight meetings out of duty to his church and feel as though he made a great sacrifice. Services dare not last too long as to infringe upon our business, the children’s soccer league, or our television programs. The average Christian is at best lukewarm and bordering on downright cold. Someone once said, “We are so subnormal today as Christians, that if we ever became just normal, the world will think we are abnormal.” Unsaved people have heard the term revival in connection with some ball-team that made an important trade and are now experiencing a “revival,” or perhaps they’ve seen the word as part of the name of some rock band, --- John Goetsch
Our own nation is very religious -- to the degree that more than 60 per cent of the population claims religious affiliation (circa 1966 -- that number has fallen drastically since then). But religious profession can be formality, hypocrisy, or vanity. It must be tested by the quality of worship that springs from it, by the compassionate concern and sacrificial service motivated by it. Christian profession must be made dynamic in terms of the purpose of Christ. This means compassion for sinners, persons rebellious against God or indifferent to his mercy and love. It means commitment to purity and truthfulness as qualities inherent in sonship to God. It means commitment to an attitude of love toward other persons, including one’s enemies, for God is love. It means commitment to works of mercy and deeds of helpfulness in a world of suffering and need. ---Points of Emphasis
The Awfulness of Being Lost
Read Psalm 109. You cannot find anything more dreadful than this imprecatory prayer, which is applied to Judas. Peter quoted it about him at Acts 1:20. Judas was a guilty man and a lost man. This Psalm describes it a frightening thing to be lost. (See Jesus’ words at Matthew 26:24.) The teaching that makes light of this, or ignores it, or otherwise withholds it, ought to bring deep resentment to the child of God; it ought to make us tremble, make us pray, make us stand up in the great congregation and say “No,” sin is awful and Hell is real. There is no second chance, there is no larger hope, there is NOT another way. The wrath of God abides on all who will not put their trust in Jesus Christ. Christ endured that wrath for us, and should we not trust Him, then that wrath still abides on us. God cannot make it any stronger!
People for the most part are not interested in a Bible that makes rules, they are more interested in a Bible that gives guidelines, so they will neither have to read it nor be held accountable to it. And there are many who will provide just such a bible and make a little profit on the side at the same time.
[] If that man’s moral respectability will get him to Heaven, then I need to look around for alternatives.
[] As Man alone, Jesus could not have saved us. As God alone, He would not. Incarnate, He could and did.
[] “It is pointless to walk anywhere to preach unless your walking IS your preaching.” --- Saint Francis Assisi
[] If they were with us they would not have gone out from us. (See Acts 15:24; 1 John 2:19)
[] No combination of victories over the adversaries in the world is as important as one victory for Christ.
[] A man is as miserable as he thinks he is. --- Seneca
[] Even after an individual is saved, sin is still decided by the Word; and he is not to sin. --- Mike Allison, Legalism, A Smokescreen
I got a catalog in the mail. It said if I didn’t place a $10 order, they’d give my name and address to fifty other catalogs.
Sir Lancelot, your coat of mail is all shiny and oiled. Would you care for an undercoating?
We will cheerfully replace faulty merchandise with merchandise of equal quality.
Letter from the airline company. “You now have enough frequent flyer miles to call the stewardess by her first name.”
Help me unload this piano.
On May 1st.
What’s May 1st ?
That’s the opening day of the hernia festival.
God’s Plan of Salvation.
1. What does God want you to do? “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” John 1:12
2. How can you believe? “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Romans 10:9-10
3. What can you do to show that you believe? You can sincerely pray this prayer - or another prayer from your own heart - and tell God that you believe and trust His Son as your Savior.
[] Lord, I know that I am a sinner. Please forgive me for my sins and help me to turn from them in hatred for them. I know that I deserve Hell for my sins. But I believe that Jesus died to pay for my sins and to take the punishment for me. And I know that He purchased my salvation with His own precious blood, and has given me the precious gift of eternal life with Him in Heaven. I trust Him now as my Savior and Lord. Amen.
In Spirit and In Truth. No. 40. 5-1-13
So very poor, yet richer than a king.
In Spirit and In Truth.
Psalms 18:6. "In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears."
Psalms 18:49. "Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name."
Psalms 116: 1,2. "I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live."
Psalms 118:8. "It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man."
Our Purpose. To humble the pride of man, to exalt the grace of God in salvation, and to promote real holiness in heart and life. We are committed to the Scriptures as the only Guide for faith and practice and to the winning of the lost to Jesus Christ.
If it weren’t for the last minute, nothing would ever get done.
We can never evangelize the world until the evangelized become evangelists. ---Punch Lines
Marvelous Grace.
Grace to SAVE YOU
Grace to KEEP YOU!
Do You Have This Saving Knowledge Of Jesus Christ?
Keystroke Mavens: Blessings or Curses?
How can anyone possibly believe that the computer with all of its affiliated falderal is the way God meant for man to live on this earth? Stand in the dining area of any restaurant at noon and you'll see an air traffic control center --- fingers and thumbs abuzz, eyes fixed on a bright screen, somber brows, intense gazes, deathly speechlessness, oblivion to all that is going on around them. And not just the rude few: every one in there is at it, including the restaurant employees; hopefully, not you! In all of history, has there ever been a more incongruous sight? I remember when you could lose your job by taking personal calls during work hours. Now, the cell phone is standard equipment for almost all jobs. Look solely at the waste of time; that alone should tell us an awful lot.
Take Time to Know Him--- Dr R. A. Torrey.
Perhaps there are those reading these lines who have been too busy in search of prosperity, pleasure, and honor to trust Christ as Saviour. Please understand that one is not saved by simply giving up money, honor, or fortune. We are saved by trusting Jesus Christ as Saviour. But I'm afraid that there are many in the world who have not taken time to trust Christ because they are to busy in search of fame, wealth, and pleasure.
That man is such a dunce, he needs to go to the dentist and have his wisdom teeth put in.
See Daniel 5:25. You can no more be truly loving without preaching the absolute truth than you can mow the grass without using an absolute lawnmower. Some of you are so spiteful you go out at high noon and get down on all fours and cut the grass with your own pearly whites. Convincing you gainsayers is like pulling teeth.
See Acts Chapter 7. Stephen was a very young man, had the face of an angel, told people about perishing in Hell without Christ, and pleaded with them to get saved. We need to raise up more Stephens, and rid our pulpits of these brash young hypocrites that think they know it all and can hurl vitriol every time they’re brought under Holy Spirit conviction through the infallible Word of God. --- adapted, Carl McIntire
See Matthew 24:12. In the last days, our Lord has said that “iniquity will abound and love will wax cold.” The verse alludes to the lack of brotherly (neighborly) love, or everyday regard for our fellow man. So what will men love in the end times? Their own selves (2 Timothy 3:2) and pleasure more than God (2 Timothy 3:4). No generation in America history ever fit this end times projection better than the one alive on the earth this moment. And I see no distinction in these verses between believer and unbeliever. (It appears to me in our day that the "believer" and the "unbeliever" can scarcely be told apart.)
A Question of the Law’s Intent.
1. This quote is from the death penalty lawyer (Ms. Bruck) apparently hired by the Boston Bombing suspect’s legal defense team. "I got a dose of understanding human behavior, and I learned what the death penalty does to us," she said. "I don't think it's a secret that I oppose the death penalty." Bruck has directed Washington and Lee's death penalty defense clinic, the Virginia Capital Case Clearinghouse, since 2004.
2. It is a statement that we have to stop to ask, does capital punishment do to us what these filthy killers did to 3 dead and 260 wounded? I understand the requisite representation at trial, and I do not argue for it or against it, but the stated motivation here isn’t intended by traditional jurisprudence.
3. Frankly, I want to comment, How dare you bemoan this killer’s life as if it is somehow worthy of greater respect and attention than all these folks that happened to get in his perverted line of fire and many are suffering terribly from all manner of physical, medical, economic, emotional, and much other damage. And why on earth shouldn’t we send up a warning banner, Death to Fascist Murderers?
An Ohioan died every five hours from a drug overdose in 2011.
“Shew us thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us Thy salvation.” (Psalm 85:4-7)
“Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause Thine anger toward us to cease.” (Psalm 85:4)
“Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth; yeah, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them.” (Revelation 14:13)
“And be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:1-2)
Working Out of Our Homes.
You and I in reality live our lives on earth from Heaven, we put our feet upon the Rock and bring the gentle rain of mercy down from the throne of grace upon the melting hearts of men and women. We have our Father send a fire of wrath and revival; the manna of daily food; power for crushing the brutal hardness; light for the days of labor in His vineyard; doctrine for adorning; and forgiveness for us His erring children. What a mighty God we serve --- O How a Mighty God Serves Us!
I would never say that a person who is not a soul winner is unsaved, but why should we not wonder when a person indwelt by the love of Christ can not only stand by as Hell is more and more filled to the gills with its citizenry, but he mocks, even condemns, those who are trying to help people stay out of this bitter Hell?
I went to the FHA to ask for a bailout: I had a flooded basement. I don’t understand why they escorted me out of the building.
When a person commits a crime at the age of 105, where do they find a jury of his peers?
Gracious Father, guard Thy children,
From the foe’s destructive power;
Save, O save them, Lord, from falling
In this dark and trying hour.
-----
Thou wilt surely prove Thy people,
All our graces must be tried;
But Thy Word illumes our pathway,
And in god we still confide.
--- seen in Bible Readings for the Home
I was very disappointed this morning when I went looking for my shoes, glasses, keys, wallet, and harmonica. I found them all immediately. Ruined my whole day (had a lot of time on my hands).
And Then The End Will Come
Matthew 24 provides a picture of this present age (the Church Age) with a focus on the end of the age. In verses 4-14, nine signs of the end are given.
(1) false christs, v. 5;
(2) wars and rumors of wars, v. 6;
(3) famines, v. 7;
(4) pestilences, v.7;
(5) earthquakes, v. 7;
(6) martyrs, vs. 9-1;
(7) false prophets, v. 11;
(8) abounding iniquity and cooling ardor for Christ, v. 12;
(9) the Gospel of the kingdom to be preached in all the world, v. 14.
--- Major Bible Themes (Chafer and Walvoord)
Not So Long Ago in the Walled Fortress of Fundamentalism
Certain men crept in unawares and decided to surreptitiously snarl at the Bible’s abject contempt for sin and rebellion. They said, “If man were as loving as we are, then he wouldn’t need any savior but us. Come, let us methodically obscure the name of Christ; commandeer the church to rest on the foundation of compassion; loosen up a few words of Holy Writ; reinvent the Holy Spirit; make the cross shiny and small and drape it around our necks; hose down the Gospel; hire a parade of out-of-work missionaries and call them evangelism; position a few morally respectable fossils in the front pews; write a number of Christian punk rock lyrics and slip them in a hymnbook; run a few segments of televangelism in timeslots next to Oprah; and build a chain of Christian Bookstores where we can dupe the whole world into believing that this is really Christianity. Now we need someone with contacts: did I hear that Bishop Satan was looking for a few good aldermen?”
We Need to Confess, Repent, and Turn From Our Wickedness.
Ladies and gentlemen, do you realize how we’ve degraded ourselves, how our moral standards have evaporated? Do you understand how all this crime and corruption and dope are coming out of the hearts of men? The heart of man is desperately wicked. It’s deceitful, who can know it? You just look at the crime and the dope and the sex, the abortion, and the homosexuality, and you can see it. There is no fear of God before our faces, there’s no recognition that there’s a penalty for this sin. And we’re in a situation right now, ladies and gentlemen, where this country needs to confess, repent, and turn from its wicked ways. --- Carl McIntire, circa early 1990s
See Luke 6:26. It is extremely unusual to be popular in propagating the true Gospel, using the true Word of God under the true power of The Holy Spirit, living a sincerely holy life, and trusting the only Jesus. When such a person is popular, he’s soon to find himself the king of the clowns in the Burnum and Badly Circus.
See Psalm 36:9. A church ought to reflect the Savior -- not the world, not self, not its congregation, not its leaders, not its ministries, not its intellect or philosophy, not its emotions, not its moral or ethical code, and not even its place in the community. There is only one Light of the World, and He is vastly superior to any and all that the world might conjure. In His light, we shall see light.
See Joshua 20. This chapter seems a bit innocuous in its logic. Certainly, if we’re innocent of murder, we ought not be repaid in kind. But more to the point, God does not condone sin, is not a respecter of persons, and will weigh all men equally on the balances of divine justice. Still, toward His people, He will be sympathetic to our mistakes, our contrition, and our “freaky” circumstances. We underestimate this blessing, as eternity is in our heart the moment we put our trust in Christ. Yet, the fearful and unbelieving, the sinners and rebellious, have nothing to look forward to, regardless of whatever they might think, but a certain fearful looking toward an unhappy, destitute finish (or should we say beginning) in the lake of fire. Beloved, DO YOU KNOW HOW GOOD YOU HAVE IT?
The Book of Joshua. It seems to me that God gave us a map of the land HE GAVE to Israel. Not only did He give it to them, He spent 440 years getting them to it and then stood by them as they dissolved --- sometimes unmistakably brutally --- the pagan societies that occupied it ahead of them. From about chapter 12 on, we have the map coordinates of the entire land that BELONGS TO ISRAEL. It is a spirit of antichrist to say the “Islamic Palestinians” have any right to so much as one acre of this land as in deserving any political oversight or security. Prophecy is bearing out God’s non-negotiable covenant that says He gave them this land, not only a local prophecy but an eternal one for the land He gave them is a picture of “that Beulah land” that Hs people will live in forever.
See Joshua 8:34-35. Many folks think, may even believe, that they are reading the Bible because they “sit at the feet” of a modern Bible teacher who doles out verses that prove his own wisdom. Such a man should be giving the whole counsel of God. He should be teaching “Thus saith the Lord,” instead of “Thus thinketh the teacher.” The latter will leave you shallow and unfed; the former will cause you to grow in Christ, in grace, in discipleship, in obedience, in bearing fruit, and in true holiness. “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.” (Proverbs 30:5) EVERY WORD OF IT!
See Matthew 21:8-9; Hebrews 12:1-2. The Gospels --- Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John --- were written by holy men who were not only themselves either eyewitnesses or miraculously well informed but they were under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. For the faithful that’s enough, but there also was a marked multitude of people, certainly enormous in number, who would easily have given testimony as to what they saw and heard in the days of Christ’s time on earth. Many, it was said, marveled at His doctrine and knew of Him to the extent of spreading His fame all over Palestine. This should give us a magnificent confidence in all that was done and said by our Lord in the “days of His passion,” for things concerning Him have an end for every man and woman --- some for better, some for worse; some as a testimony for, some as a testimony against!
Everyday, fact and fiction, truth and error, news and entertainment, church and world become blurred to the extend there exist no more markers to determine the boundaries. And all the broadcloth of personalities are continuously migrating back and forth across the global stage, acquiring larger-than-life status in a world gone mad and a people deepening in pride and rebellion.
It seems strange does it not when you think how much of what we do is obedient to Scripture (and to the great Commission), quotes Scripture, teaches Scripture, cites the speech or writing of great men of God or doctrinally sound ministries, is expository and exhortative, is Biblically sound rebuke or warning, and so forth; yet the liberals and the departing crowd hate me. Hardly 5 percent of this ministry is personally motivated, and even that 5 percent is couched in a righteous way of life and opinion drawn from Biblical truth. Severity will seem harsh to anyone working with half-truths but goodness and severity have their distinct targets according to Romans 11:22.
See Luke 18:11-12. A filler item in the news mentioned an actress who bragged about being arrogant. If you are arrogant, what difference does it make if you brag about it or not? Certainly the Pharisees had no trouble making pride an act of the will. And pride is the very motive behind everything the Devil does -- I doubt he would argue except there be a need to sustain his long-term deception in general.
Never think yourself immune to pride and arrogance. Shedding it is a life work and that demands a daily cleansing from the Almighty!
Maybe it's time to quit loving compassion and to begin again loving people, family, church, and nation. Far too many of you are just big old fakers, anyway.
10 Things We’ll Find in the Faith Bolter’s Bag of Dirty Tricks
Deceit
Gossip
Slander
A Consuming Fascination With His Own Works
Another Jesus, or none at all
Another Gospel, or none at all
Another Bible, or a counterfeit that sells well
An Immaculate Moral Testimony (Hatred of good people is not a sin.)
The Compassion Card
Enormous Pride of Self and often, of Church.
News broadcasts in the early 1960s were confined to a 15-minute evening segment. Can you imagine --- only fifteen minutes of TV news? Now, of course, four national channels cover the news twenty-four hours a day and the networks have not only the daily thirty-minute broadcast, but three-hour morning shows and several hours of local news every day. --- author unknown
I know the Bible is inspired because it inspires me. --- D. L. Moody
Education never helped morals. The smarter the guy, the bigger the rascal. --- Will Rogers
I used to live the life of Riley, until Riley discovered that his credit cards were missing.
I worked as a chicken cook in a fast-food restaurant. I received a frequent fryer bonus.
Traveling isn’t much fun anymore, the historical sites are younger than I am.
Here’s A Tip for You.
A tipster told the police that a woman at the Speedway Convenience Store had nearly hit a cement barrier, parked at an odd angle, stumbled when she walked, and smelled of heavy alcohol. He gave the police the car make and the license number. A deputy stopped her, arrested her, took her to court, and she was convicted. At the trial she contended that the tip was not strong enough to justify her traffic stop. The lower court judge said stops have been justified on far less and he denied the motion. The Appeals Court said it wasn’t enough to justify the stop. Say What? There’s enough evidence here to stop the woman, half the state of Ohio, the entire population of the island of Cypress, and all the Appeals Court judges since Methusaleh’s grandma was arm wrestling champ. Did you ever hear of such nonsense? The Court of Appeals had three judges sitting for the decision. The vote was 2-1. Maybe for this one, they should have stood --- unless they were drunk.
Not a Political Grab Bag.
Obama, siding with the homicidal women’s activists, criticized conservatives for seeking restricted access to abortion and contraception. Folks, beloved, people who care about babies’ rights: this has nothing to do with liberals and conservatives --- that’s a convenient rug to sweep the mess under. It’s about human depravity and man’s wanton desire to kill what’s in his way to pleasure, prosperity, and penchant. It’s about murdering the most defenseless person on earth; it’s about defiling the greatest virtue on earth, bearing God’s child; it’s about spitefully spitting on the most effective code of human conduct ever to come over man, the Ten Commandments; it’s about reducing parenthood to a killing field; and it’s about people who deem their own lives exalted to the highest heaven, but will one day see it cast down to the deepest Hell. This is not a political issue; it is an outcry and demand to stop the holocaust.
I am bound for the promised land, who will come go with me? --- From a Christian Hymn
It is only the fear of God that can deliver us from the fear of man. --- John Witherspoon
Let me ask you, men and women. If they put a handsome or beautiful model out there for you to look at, basically in the buff, won’t you be inclined to spend more time with that presentation than when they take the same models and dress them for the Steeplechase? The same holds true with an earthquake --- you’ll stay watching when human aggravation and grief is the star, not when random acts of kindness are shown for hours at a time. Folks, advertising is the soul of television --- nothing steals more from you and usurps your time more than advertising does. Advertising knows more about you than you know about yourself and it will exploit all of it to get your attention, your time, your money, your continued interest, and your soul if it can. There no longer exists what was not long ago called, Truth in Advertising. Much, but not all, of what we think of in “doomsday” terms today is merely the media exploiting what they know will grab your attention and hold it.
See Romans 2:19. What is “coming out?” A Black person doesn’t come out. Everyone knows he is there. A woman doesn’t come out. Everyone knows she’s there. A Jew, Mormon, or Baptist doesn’t come out. Every one knows they’re there. A drunkard, drug addict, or wife beater doesn’t come out. Everyone knows they’re there. A baby in the womb doesn’t come out, literally at times. You come out in a period of moral laxity, not moral vigilance. Coming out means we’ve reached the point that you have to be tolerant of us, we don‘t have to give you a choice. Fascists come out! Folks don’t come out of the light; they come out of the darkness, or more precisely, out of deceit. If they came into the light, there would be a story worth telling. If they create their own light, they are blind and they lead others in blindness. Is not the Devil transformed into an angel of light; his ministers, also? That’s coming out! And into a delusional light.
What is tolerance of sin but the calling of evil good?
“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.” (Isaiah 5:20)
If these companies don’t quit pestering me to pay my bills, I’m just going to take my debts somewhere else.
I took my talking bird back to the store and told them it wouldn’t talk. Apparently, the bird was from a tough neighborhood and refused to speak without an attorney present.
Don’t Bring the Old Wives Tales in Here.
It is interesting to me that many fundamentalist-claiming churches will stand hand and hand with the anti-evolution forces, on the ground that school students should have the opportunity to hear informed men challenge it (the “science” of evolution), yet, these very same folks, do not allow their congregations to be “threatened” by someone who would come and preach to them about true Biblical fundamentalist Christianity.
My Only Need.
When I’m asked, “What do you need?” I have an answer ready that was determined for me long before the foundations of the world were ever laid: “Nothing but the blood.” This is the one need fulfilled, everything from then on is merely asking and receiving, going and doing, loving and trusting.
Surrender is signing your name at the bottom of a blank sheet of paper and allowing God to fill in all the details. --- CWH
Turn your eyes upward, fasten them there, for we shall behold Him in the clouds, coming with great glory.
Grace is Especially Given for Ministering.
A. To ministers (Romans 12:3,6. Romans 15:15. I Corinthians 3:10; Gal. 2:9; Ephesians 3:7)
B. To the humble. (Proverbs 3:34; James 4:6)
C. To those who walk uprightly. (Psalm 84:11)
D. And is not to be received in vain. (2 Corinthians 6:10)
E. Pray for.
(1) Your own grace. (Hebrews 4:16)
(2) For grace in others. (2 Corinthians 13:14; Ephesians 6:24)
F. It was grace that brought Christ from Heaven down to earth. (2 Corinthians 8:9, Philippians 2:11)
Don’t Harm This Bible.
When we say the King James Bible is “God’s Word kept intact” what do we mean by intact? The word “intact” comes from the Latin intactus meaning “not touched. It means “not harmed.” Nothing harms or defiles it. That is what we mean when we say “God’s Word Kept Intact.” If we really want to know what the Hebrew in the Old Testament says and what the Greek in the New Testament says in the English language today, the King James Bible --- in my studied opinion --- is the only translation that completely and accurately reflects, in English, the original Hebrew/Aramaic and Greek. --- D. A. Waite
We Need A Revival, Back To When the Glad Hearted Church And Christ-Minded Folks Served Up Good and Faithful Men for the Mission Field.
1. Test, Motive, Proof, Quality !!
A. Stir up your own thinking and ask, "O God, what am I doing? What can I do? What do You want me to do so I might be my best for my Saviour?"
B. “Here I am, Lord, send me; send me to the ends of the earth; send me to the rough, the savage pagans of the wilderness [far] from all...earthly comfort... even to death itself, if it be but in Thy service and to promote the kingdom.…” --- David Brainerd
2. A trembling hand held the letter from the American Colonies as the Director of the Scottish Missionary Society met to consider news from their missionary to the Indians: “David Brainerd, your missionary, is dead at 29.” --- circa 1747 --- James Ray, Incredible Journey in the Steps of Greatness
3. If only Brainerd had lived longer, so much more could have been done BUT -- so much more WAS done! John Wesley read the Life of Brainerd and was fired with missionary zeal. William Carey read the Life of Brainerd and went to India. Henry Martyn read the Life of Brainerd and became a bundle of fire in the darkness of India and Persia. Robert McCheyne read the Life of Brainerd and became an Apostle to the Jews. --- James Ray, Incredible Journey in the Steps of Greatness
4. And Don Riley, ever so much the least of all these, read of the life of this great missionary of God, missionary to the Indians, missionary among missionaries and he poured out into the streets of Northern Virginia and Central Ohio taking the Gospel to all who would listen.
A. Even today, David Brainerd gives me encouragement. Where the apostasy kicks me around, he slept in the open during the harsh New England winters. Where savage preachers defame my character, he was hunted hourly by pernicious civil forces having deadly intent. Where I weep over a city of rampant godlessness, he preached to the Indians --- many times illiterate in their language, many times in an environment hostile toward the deceit, greed, and selfishness of the white man, and many times speaking to naturally alienated peoples. Where my days are sometimes dark and foreboding, he never reached his 30th birthday, dying horribly of tuberculosis in the home of Jonathan Edwards.
B. David Brainerd was the Master’s man in every conceivable way.
C. If you want to send missionaries look for a heart the size of David Brainerd‘s, and weep, pray, fast, lay hands on him, send him away in the power of the Holy Ghost and with all the hope, faith, and love of the saints. Do it God’s way and you’ll never regret sending a David Brainerd anywhere and his fruit will be pleasant to your eyes and kind to your heart, a sweet savor rising up to the throne of grace, wherein is seated the King of Kings and Lord of Lords --- whose loyal missionaries will never be satisfied with anything less than seeing His scattered sheep rescued from the jaws of death and Hell.
All the suffering that Jesus did at Calvary, He would have done for just one soul. --- CWH
Jesus and His apostles did not invent a “new religion.” Christianity fulfills scores of specific prophecies and is therefore provable from Scripture.
I will never say that a man or woman who does no personal soul-winning is unsaved; but you lazy people are always getting in the way of us who do. Get lost, will you! No pun intended.
Today’s churches: too much talk about the bye and bye and not enough about the now and now.
The first blow is half the battle. --- Oliver Goldsmith
A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner.
No matter what a man’s past may have been, his future is spotless. --- John R. Rice
If you’re not a praying person, you cannot be a Christian. --- John Bunyan
I was a waiter during the lunch rush hour but they fired me for not being counterproductive.
Having plagiarized novels, I suddenly was sought after as a copy editor.
I have a new job at a playground equipment company. I’ll be working the swing shift.
God’s Way of Salvation.
1. What does God want you to do? “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” John 1:12
2. How can you believe? “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Romans 10:9-10
3. What can you do to show that you believe? You can sincerely pray this prayer - or another prayer from your own heart - and tell God that you believe and accept (trust) His Son as your Savior.
Lord, I know that I am a sinner. Please forgive me for my sins and help me to turn from them in hatred for them. I know that I deserve Hell for my sins. But I believe that Jesus died to pay for my sins and to take the punishment for me. I know that He purchased my salvation with His own precious blood, and has given me the precious gift of eternal life with Him in Heaven. I trust Him and accept Him now as my Savior. Amen
What Evolution, Psychiatry, and Biblical Scholarship Have In Common.
1. They are all given full credibility as factual. None are even remotely factual in most of their doctrinal holdings.
2. They affect belief systems in science, medicine, and religion --- three of the largest components of any society’s intellectual life or state of mind.
3. They are dished out freely and are accepted as believable testimony against standards and established truth.
4. They claim a body of knowledge that does more to work against them than for them, but they twist it and use it deceptively to convince gullible minds.
5. They are profitable, drawing their popularity from the world of the sensational, traditional optimism, or human wistfulness.
6. They have risen up to become major forces of Western civilization.
7. They seek impersonal excuses for errant human conduct and violence. They believe themselves as saviors of the race in this respect.
8. They exploit humanism, modernism, and the tour de force of ecumenism to prompt people to accept the logical embracement of compassion over law, over dogma, and over societal mores and established boundaries.
9. They often disesteem others to make their subject look good. Evolution disesteems Genesis and creative powers beyond science; psychiatry disesteems adversaries to mental “health;” and Biblical scholarship disesteems old liners, exclusivism, fanaticism, absolutism, and duty and service.
Closing Thought.
A teacher in the Catholic school system here in Central Ohio was dismissed when it became public that she had a female "partner" for 16 years. There have been sharp divisions between those who hold to the Church morality code and those who advocate compromise (and reinstatement). But, aside from the obvious moral implications to which the church is clearly given the right to determine unilaterally, I have a practical question that no one has even mentioned in what I've read. Did she not agree to this standard when she took the job? That standard has existed in that church for more than a millenium. [This in no way shows support to the doctrine, practice, and power structure of the Catholic Church.]
In Spirit and In Truth. Vol 39
“For I am ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”
We do what we can. We help as best we can. We love the unlovable. One can always be kind to people about whom one cares nothing.
When I pastored a country church, a farmer didn't like the sermons I preached on hell. He said, 'Preach about the meek and lowly Jesus.' I said, 'That's where I got my information about hell.' --- Vance Havner
Our God is a God who hears and answers prayer!
Prayer hearing is one of His attributes, a part of His nature. He inspired the psalmist to call Him “Thou that hearest prayer.” (Psalmist 65:2) He selected that title for Himself and delights to be called the God who hears and the God who answers prayers. --- John R. Rice
Pride, dumb old pride. It is self-importance; it is found in pulpits, pews, and at pancake breakfasts. It used to be in the world, but when the church commandeered it, the world gave it up and went on to compassion. So far, no sign of the church absconding with that as well.
Your candidate always takes one step forward and two steps backward.
Not true ! Sometimes he sidesteps an issue.
Some folks are so two-faced and preeminent that you have to wonder where their flaws are. Aren’t you up to the gills with this filthy Me Generation? You aren’t? Then, you must be of it! If we can only get them to put down the pride and take up the cross we could find a valuable ally in the work of the kingdom. There is no cross where there is no preaching of it to offense and we shouldn’t admire anyone who condemns us for doing it faithfully or who impedes us in any way whatsoever.
The word “evangelism” comes from the Greek verb “evangelismat” which means “proclaim the good news.” Hence, evangelism involves proclaiming to other people the Gospel (“good news”) of salvation in Jesus Christ. (Luke 15; John 3:16-19; Romans 5:8; 10:14-15; Ephesians 4:11; 2 Timothy 4:5; 2 Peter 3:9.) Evangelism is not a task to be left in the hands of the professionals, such as pastors or ministers, but rather all Christians are called to be ambassadors for Christ.
Apply the Word Daily:
To Search the Inner Man ---Hebrews 4:12
To sanctify the Outer Walk --- John 17:17
To Cleanse the Way --- Psalm 119:9
To Feed the New Life --- 1 Peter 2:2
The books commonly called Apocrypha, not being of divine inspiration, are no part of the canon of the Scripture; and therefore are of no authority in the Church of God, nor to be ane otherwise approved, or made use of, than other human writings. --- The Westminster Confession of Faith
If you want to cure the stench of a lowly, afflicted, poor person, then clothe him in the fragrance of Christ, heal him by the Balm of Gilead, and feed him the Bread of life.. …
The world has a name for this penchant of modern assertiveness --- it’s called “In Your Face” and it is the theme of almost all contemporary entertainment including the kind given in the churches.
Many are so comfortable in their own compromise and perceived popularity that they stand in contempt, if not pity, toward those of us who bitterly reject any notion of compromise. Somehow they think that their compassion and our holiness ought to be a good fit. And when we don’t agree, we become less compassionate while they become more holy.
Little Neros Stowed Away in the Woodwork. Have They No Shame?
You try to be nice to folks, you try to overlook their obvious defaulting spirit, you try to be a friend and mentor, you try to encourage them, you try to lead them and all the while their only hearts’ desire is to make you look silly, or feel silly. If it weren’t comical it would defeat you in a moment.
(from) The New and Concise Bible Dictionary
See 2 Chronicles 5:19.
By the death of our Lord Jesus on the cross, God annulled in grace the distance which sin had brought in between Himself and man, in order that all things might, through Christ be presented agreeably to Himself. Believers are already reconciled, through Christ’s death, to be presented holy, unblamable, and unreprovable (a new creation!). God was in Christ, when God was on earth, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing unto them their trespasses; but now that the love of God has been fully revealed in the cross, the testimony has gone out world-wide, beseeching men to be reconciled to God. The end is that God may have His pleasure in man.
A lady once, passing as a Christian, said she cared for me a great deal. She held me in such contempt that her double speak was practically an open sepulchre. Why do the heathen rage, why do the people imagine a vain thing? ---- DECEIT, SELF-LOVE, AND DISOBEDIENCE TO GOD. Beloved when they despise you for having one Word, one Gospel, and one Church, so be it. We also have only one Faith and we know the enemies of it.
If we were to find fellowship with the compassionate crowd, then it is easier to say don’t have fellowship with the tiny minority that isn’t compassionate, especially that filthy splotch of fundamentalist Christianity.
The day I was born, the doctor gave me a good smack on the backside. To this day I don’t know what I did wrong.
(Read Colossians 4:12.) Beloved, we have been chosen of God to preserve the Faith. Our missionary testimony must go everywhere! We should go everywhere to preach; everywhere there’s a perverted gospel being loosed; everywhere the Bible is being torn away; everywhere the Holy Spirit is being quenched, grieved, or even blasphemed; everywhere the souls of men are at peril. Everywhere we go we have the same message, the same purpose, the one and same Gospel, the one and same new creation, the one and same Bible, and the one and same Savior --- as servants of Christ laboring fervently, let’s stand perfect and complete in ALL THE WILL OF GOD.
The Sin of Procrastination
There was a man in Chicago who twice determined to give his heart to God but never had the courage to acknowledge Christ before his ungodly companions. When recovering from a long sickness, he still refused to come out boldly on the side of Christ, saying "Not yet; I have got a fresh lease on life. I cant be a Christian in Chicago. I am going to take a farm in Michigan; then I will profess Christ." I asked him , "How dare you take the risk?" He said, "I will risk it; don't you trouble yourself anymore about my soul Mr.Moody. I have made up my mind." I have never left a man with a sadder heart in my life. The very next week he was stricken down with
the same disease. His wife sent for me and said, "He doesn't want to see you, but I cant bear that he should die in such an awful state of mind. He says, 'My damnation is sealed, and I shall be in Hell in a week.'" I tried to talk and pray with him, but it was no use. He said his heart was to hard as a stone. "Pray for my wife and my Children, but don't waste your time praying for me." His last words were, " The Harvest is past, the summer is ended, and I am not saved " and then the angels bore him away to judgment. --- D.L. Moody
[] Bill, can we expect that you will anytime soon begin speaking about Jesus, or have you pretty much put that out with the baby’s bath water? You are aware that that is stark raving hypocrisy, aren’t you? Of course cowardice often hides the hypocrisy. And about your sin, Bill…
[] Charles, you’ve been really a bad boy, you little squirt. Can we count on you growing up sometime during this decade? And what will you do when your friends start realizing you’ve stabbed then in the back and have become an apostate? And about those felonies you’ve been committing…
[] Jason, how many folks are in a big hurry to get to a church that’s as cold as ice and as dry as dust? And when might we see you pick up a Bible and read it? You do know how to read, don’t you?
Correction is one of the most conspicuously absent yet essential ministries in the church today.
There are many people in our churches today, including the clergy, that wouldn’t stay if any fences went up and encumbered their conduct. Sin has become a bonding agent.
(Prisoner 1) This time I want Blanche to be my attorney.
(Prisoner 2) Why Blanche?
(Prisoner 1) I heard she never lets anyone finish a sentence.
The Current Evangelical World Has Become Fascinated by Psychology.
1. The review of the books of eight major publishers of evangelical literature revealed that 12.3 percent of all titles fell into a category which would be defined as “psychological,” that is the attempt to explain the emotional and psychological needs of man in light of the Bible.
2. This reflects a unique subjectivism in the current evangelical world. It affects the world of the preacher because many of today’s evangelicals do not desire a doctrinal instruction from the Word of God but rather homilies or discussions on “how to meet” life’s problems and deal with the perplexities of the human soul. In reaction to the polemics of an earlier generation, they have come to believe that psychological wholeness is a more salutary goal than doctrinal correctness.
3. It is disconcerting to realize that at so many evangelical conferences and retreats, dynamics and small group discussions figure more prominently than scholarly lectures."
--- Ernest Pickering
In reality: When a workbook or a book by some best-selling author - I don’t care what it might be - is more dominant to a help group than the Bible, then that help group is helping squat. And I often see Christian higher education embrace the "integrated disciplines of psychology and theology." Students are to be cautioned that psychology is the science of mind and self, theology is the study of God and (religious) truth - the two "disciplines" oppose one another in many ways and have little common ground; in the first, for example, man is the object of study, in the second, God is the object of study.
Salvation : 1 Thessalonians Chapter 1.
Past tense: saved from the penalty of sin.
Present tense; saved from the power of sin.
Future tense: saved from the presence of sin.
I would like to buy a smart phone.
OK. But first you’ll have to take this test.
What kind of test?
An IQ test.
See Isaiah 25:8. “He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off of all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.”
See Acts 4:31. When they prayed, the place was shaken. The psalmist is praying for revival at Psalm 85:6. All revivals begin with prayer. (See 2 Chronicles 7:14)
See 2 Samuel 24:14. When in various parts of Scripture we’re taught to put our confidences in God’s hand rather than in man‘s, we’re inclined to think that it is a matter only of focus. When you read this text, you’ll see that David knew that falling into God’s hand had far greater prospects for mercy than falling into the wicked hands of men. God’s mercy falls like the gentle rain; man’s “mercy” drops like blood.
2 Samuel 23:6-7. Here’s a comforting picture of enemies David could not subdue in his own lifetime, and we will have the same “thorns” (Paul had a thorn, did he not?) yet a wonder of wonders will march in at a time ordained and He --- the long desired Messiah ---will consume them with the fire of His breath. In vs. 1-7, we might weigh the contrast between the sweet psalmist at vs. 1-5 and the fiery prophet at vs. 6-7. Something similar involves the apostle John at 3 John 9-11, as he is the apostle of love until Diotrephes enters in and suddenly John is the son of thunder --- the Revelator!
2 Samuel 15:31. How many of us have gone to bed weeping before the Almighty for much of the night, because a loved one or a deer lamb of God’s pasture has fallen into the clutches of Ahithophel? Maybe a whole church? David prayed for what ---- that this false prophet would see his counsel turned into foolishness. Foolishness doesn’t typically lead people into Hell; deceit is far more likely to lead people into Hell.
1 Kings 1:1-4. There is a work of grace here, a work of preparing the Bride, a work of subtle Revival, a work of the Church holding on in the final days.
See Joshua 14:8. Your work is to obey God and He will take care of all the rest. “Nevertheless, my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt (made their courage fail), but I wholly followed the Lord my God.”
“A Samurai sword-wielding Mormon bishop helped a neighbor woman escape a Tuesday morning attack by a man who had been stalking her.” --- recent news item. This bishop fellow better be careful. They’ll run an anti-Samurai sword legislation through and take away his obvious malicious attack weapon.
In the Bible Grace is Described As:
Enough for each, enough for all, enough forevermore.
A. All-abundant. (Romans 5:15-20)
B. All-sufficient. (2 Corinthians 9:8; 12:9)
C. Enduring. (James 4:6; 1 Peter 1:2)
D. Glorious. (Ephesians 1:6)
E. Great. (Acts 4:33)
F. Manifold. (I Pet. 4:10)
G. Rich. (Ephesians 2:4,5)
H. Undeserved. (I Timothy 1:12-16)
Grace Changes:
A. Our position. (Romans 6:14)
B. Our life. (1 Corinthians 15:10; 1 Timothy 1:13-14)
C. Our conversation. (2 Corinthians 1;12)
D. Our thoughts. (Romans 12;3)
E. Our eternal state. (Titus 2:11)
F. Our dwelling place. (Ephesians 1:20-21; 2:6)
A Seven-Fold View of the Love of God.
1. Infinite in character. John 17:23,
2. Constraining [compelling] in power. 2 Corinthians 5:14.
3. Inseparable in its object. Romans 8:35-37.
4. Individual in its choice. Galatians 2:20.
5. Universal in extent. John 3:16.
6. Unchanging in its purpose. John 8:1
7. Everlasting in duration. Jeremiah 31:3.
The Broken and Contrite Heart.
Alas, there is a religion in which the confession of sin is made easy. Because men think that it is a matter of course that we must sin, they are sure that, if we go through the motions of confession, God is ready to pardon. This is not the kind of confession God’s Word speaks of. “Whoso confesseth and forsaketh [his transgressions] shall obtain mercy.” (Proverbs 28:13) That alone is the repentance that is needed. True repentance has restoring power; repentance never leaves you in the place where you were. Confession and forsaking the sin make up true contrition. That is why it is so hard for an honest man to confess his sin. He feels that God expects him to confess and forsake. But where contrition has been deep and true, the Christian will feel it impossible for him to confess without forsaking. Sin, whatever it is, is something very awful and God-dishonoring. It is not a simple or an easy thing to truly confess definite sin. It means a genuine transaction with God in which the sin is brought out, dealt with and given up to God in the faith that He is righteous to forgive us our sin, and to cleanse us from all righteousness. Again I say, nothing but the deep contrition which the Holy Soirit works can prepare us for true and full confession and forsaking. --- Andrew Murray
Additional Fundamentals Concerning the Holy Spirit.
A. “Break up your fallow ground.” (Jeremiah 4:3) The Holy Spirit breaks up the clogged soil of our souls and produces in us the Christ-like fruit of joy, peace, longsuffering.
B. The power of God’s Holy Spirit can change us from old filthy garments and wicked works into a masterpiece of grace. (Author unknown)
C. The Holy Spirit is truth (John 14:16-17; 15:26; 16:13) as is God the Father (Psalm 31:5; Isaiah 65:16) and Jesus Christ the Son (John 14:6).
D. We may at times forget that the Holy Spirit encourages us.
He gives us hope. (Romans 5:3-5, 15:13)
He intercedes on our behalf. (Romans 8:26)
He provides help to us. (John 14:16, 15:26; Romans 8:26)
He gives us comfort. (Acts 9:31)
E. We ought keep in mind how the Holy Spirits empowers us.
He gives us power to know Christ and the Father in their fullness. (Ephesians 3;14-19)
He gives us power to proclaim the Lordship of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians
12:3) and to be a witness for Him throughout the world (John 15:26-27;
Acts 1:8).
He gives us power to speak effectively in time of trial and persecution.
(Mark 13:11)
He gives us power to resist the desires of the flesh. (Romans 8:13;
Galatians 5:16)
Thinkin’ and Blinkin’.
Be a blessing today and tell someone about Jesus.
I would rather judge in this life than be a judge in the next.
You win some, you lose some, and some get rained out. But you have to suit up for all of ‘em.
You can't preach it like it is if you don't believe it like it was. --- Vance Havner
So many deceivers --- has any one seen where they have taken my country?
You might well be off on the wrong path if you have a heart for change and have not looked to the Lord for a changed heart.
If you try to catch two butterflies with the same net, they both will get away.
The secret to taking care of baby is to keep one end full and the other one empty.
The enemy all has one thing in common, both Christian and unbeliever. They have a better way of developing the kingdom of Heaven than you have, their wisdom is better than Scripture’s, and their kind spirit is warmer than yours, or Jesus‘ for that matter. Fine, but be out of my way when I preach the kingdom of Heaven with brimstone on my breath, when I kindle a white-hot fire under the Word of God, and when I put my unkind spirit to the highways and the byways warning men and women to show fruits worthy of repentance . If you get in my way, I’ll run over you with the venom of a most holy God and the soul-salvation power of a bloody cross, and these will make the mighty among you to fall hard upon this earth you love so much and in which you‘ve put your trust.
Trivia: Who, after Jesus, is the first human being mentioned in the New Testament? Guess, then look it up.
“The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious; but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself.” (Ecclesiastes 10:12)
“For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9)
Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. ---T. S. Eliot
When you get into it, the Bible gets into you and changes your life. --- Herschel Ford
Every time you swim out to the rock, it gets a little closer.
I’ve seen 10-cent hot dog day at the ball park, scouts day, bring your report card day, even bring your camera day - but human growth hormone day? Aw, Come on !
My wife had a terrible accident in the kitchen the other night - and we had to eat it.
I went to the doctor to ask about my heartburn. He suggested I get thinner. Well, that’s what I did but now what do I do with all these cans - drink them?
(Grandma talking to her teen granddaughter over the I-pod) You look at me when I’m talking to you, young lady!
Concerning Salvation.
[] We believe the Scriptures teach that salvation of sinners is divinely initiated, wholly of grace, and accomplished only through the mediating work of the Son of God;
A. That it is wholly apart from works and is upon the sole condition of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and never without genuine repentance;
B. That in order to be saved the sinner must be born again, being regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit through faith in God’s Word and becoming the recipient of new nature;
C. That the gospel blessing which Christ secures to such as believe in Him is justification;
D. That judicial act God accompanied by the pardon of sin and the imputation of divine righteousness,
E. Not because of any works of righteousness on our part, but solely through faith in the Redeemer’s blood;
F. That the believer who has exercised personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is completely justified and on possession of a salvation which is eternally secure.
Concerning the Way of Salvation
1. We believe that the salvation of sinners is wholly of grace through the mediatorial office of the Son of God, who by the appointment of the Father freely took upon Him our nature;
2. That being conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, yet without sin, He honored the divine law by His personal obedience and by His death made a full atonement for our sins;
3. That, having risen from the dead, He is now enthroned in heaven and, uniting in His wonderful Person, the tenderest of sympathies with divine perfections, He is in every way qualified to be suitable, a compassionate and all-sufficient Savior.
See Isaiah 53:4,5 John 2:16 Ephesians 2:8 Colossians 2:9 Hebrews 7:25
God’s Way of Salvation.
1. What does God want you to do? “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” John 1:12
2. How can you believe? “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Romans 10:9-10
3. What can you do to show that you believe? You can sincerely pray this prayer - or another prayer from your own heart - and tell God that you believe and accept (trust) His Son as your Savior.
Lord, I know that I am a sinner. Please forgive me for my sins and help me to turn from them in hatred for them. I know that I deserve Hell for my sins. But I believe that Jesus died to pay for my sins and to take the punishment for me. I know that He purchased my salvation with His own precious blood, and has given me the precious gift of eternal life with Him in Heaven. I trust Him and accept Him now as my Savior. Amen
God uses broken things. It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume . . . it is Peter, weeping bitterly, who returns to greater power than ever. ---Vance Havner
When a preacher is in open sin of fornication the whole world has a vociferous opinion. When he is in open sin of apostasy, the whole world has things to do, people to meet, and places to go. Every problem of sin in the church rises up out of this one sin of apostatizing the things of God. Yet, the more likely conclusion will be that the preacher or disciple sounding warning against the apostasy will get the brutal thumbs down.
America is at the crossroads. We are bankrupt religiously, educationally, socially, morally, spiritually. We are about to have a national nervous breakdown. We would be hard put to find the moral pulse of the spiritual heartbeat of our so-called nation under God. We are weak and growing weaker. I am persuaded that nothing short of an old-fashioned , God-honoring, Christ-exalting, devil-killing, sin-skinning, soul-winning, Bible preaching, Spirit-driven revival will save America. (Raymond Barber)
In Spirit and In Truth. Vol 38. 4-26-13
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
The love of God, and
The communion of the Holy Ghost
BE WITH YOU ALL!
AMEN!
(2 Corinthians 13:14)
I have one passion: it is He. --- Zinzendorf
I have a right to preach against sin. --- Billy Sunday
That we’re not preaching the doctrine of Hell in the churches could be the reason all Hell is breaking out on earth.
Remember to love the lost (those who do not know Christ as Savior) and share the Lord Jesus with them. Man will never do what's good until the righteousness of Christ is placed in his heart.
"And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace." (John 1:16) Grace! The one thing we ought to thank Him for the most, is what we hardly ever thank Him for. Everything we are, we have, and we do is tied to His grace (THE PERFECT EXPRESSION OF HIMSELF). So easy to take it, much easier to forget where it came from. Thanks a bunch, Andree, THANK GOD FOR HIS GRACE!
The Abundance of Grace.
1. Grace is the source of salvation. “But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.” (Acts 15:11)
2. Grace is the source of our calling. “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me …” (Galatians 1:15; see also 1 Timothy 1:9.)
3. Grace is the source of our understanding of God’s will for us. “And when he was disposed to pass in Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him; who, when he was come helped them much which had believed through grace.” (Acts 18:27)
4. Grace is the source of our justification, “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ.” (Romans 3:24; see also Titus 3:7.)
5. Grace is the source of forgiveness. “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” (Ephesians 1:7)
6. Grace is the source of consolation. “Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father … hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace.” (2 Thessalonians 2:16)
Spirit of life, and light, and love;
Thy heavenly influence give;
Quicken our souls, our guilt remove,
That we in Christ may life.
-----
His love within us shed abroad,
Life’s ever-springing well,
Til God in us, and we in God,
In love eternal dwell.
-----Thomas Hawkins
See 1 Peter 2:15. Unbelievers, if they want to badly enough, can reject every argument with some other objection or counterclaim, but they have no way to gainsay a godly, law-abiding, righteous, loving life. The unbeliever may ridicule such a life for a time, but he must eventually come to see its sure foundation. (See 1 Peter 2:12.) The main reason for “well-doing,” however, is simply that as our text says, “it is the will of God” and we can safely leave the response and results to Him. --- Henry M. Morris
Prayer meetings -- not spare meetings. --- Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Has anyone told you how wonderful you are?
Why, no.
Then where did you ever get the idea?
Compassion: A Character, Not an End Result.
You can scream “Be compassionate!” from the pulpit a hundred times a day until the end of the world and not a single sin will be repented of because of it. It is God that reveals sin, it is Christ that makes us to loathe sin, it is His Word that restrains sin, it is the Holy Spirit that convicts men of sin, and it is the testimony of the believer that rebukes sin. Until you make these the priorities of your message, of your ministries, and of your people, you are as the deadened sound of tin and make far more noise than good sense. (See John 16:8-9.)
Trivia: “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.” (1 John 3:10) What is unique about this verse of Scripture? Hint: It is the only verse in Scripture that includes ……… Answer further below.
WHY REVIVAL?
Why revival? "It is time for Thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void Thy law." (Psalm 119:126)
Why revival? "Then stood up Phineas, and executed judgment; and so the plague was stayed." (Psalm 106:30)
Why revival? "Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? Or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?" (Psalm 94:16)
Why revival? "I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." (Psalm 81:10)
Why revival? "O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed Thy strength unto this generation, and Thy power to every one that is to come." (Psalm 71:18)
(from) The Importance of Personal Soul-Winning
--- R A Torrey
Go to the people and ask God to give you power. The Holy Spirit is for every one of us. I do thank God that the great gift of the Holy Ghost is for every saved person. "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" Just ask; then go out. Of course, you need to know something about the Bible in order to do personal work, but you only need one or two texts to start with.
“Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.” (2 Timothy 2:18) This verse has a specific error in view, but it reaches further; the false teachers have errors in doctrine that overthrow the Faith. In Timothy 1:19 we’re warned that people will be led astray, that they will lay aside faith and good conscience, and that their Faith will be made shipwreck by these charlatans and quacks. When God brings our enemies to ruin [whenever that will be], all WILL fear Him, and His people will be jubilant.
More on Acts 13:1-4.
Now, who are involved in this missionary program? Here is an evangelistic tour about to begin, and who are the ones who decide this business? Who are behind these missionaries, or evangelists, as they go forth? The church of Antioch is the only church which is involved in this business. The apostles had nothing to do with it, as far as we can tell. They are not the instigators of it. It mentions the church, the prophets, and teachers, and the words of the Holy Spirit. If there is any person behind the missionary effort at all, then God is the One, as He through His Spirit guides the church. --- Gareth L. Reese
My college is giving a course on true science fiction. It’s called “Evolution.”
The best place to begin revival is to rebuild the family altar.
The deadly sins do not leap on us, they creep on us.
If you’re going to bother wetting the soap and messing up the towel, you might as well just go ahead and wash your hands.
Revival Checklist.
How high do you pray?
How deep do you love?
Have you purposed revival in your heart?
How strong is your backbone?
In what direction is your compass pointed?
Is your trumpet in working order?
How dusty are your feet?
Are you sanctified, separated, and serving?
Those Departing the Faith Through Cults, Heresy, Compromise, Apostasy …
They seduce (entice) Christians away from the truth by devious means so that they will follow demonic doctrines and will obey the power of Satan. It will seem as normal as sunshine to most of the church but it will drag entire populations into Hell on the last day.
The Church is Overrun By Wicked Men Whose “Truth” Cannot Pass Muster. Rejection of False Teachers, Heretics, and Compromisers
Read Titus 3:10-11
As a minister of Christ, you must reject those who forsake the truth of Christ and of God’s Word. The word heretic from the Greek means to take for one’s self; to choose for one‘s self. Therefore, a heretic is a person who chooses what he is to believe, who takes false teaching as his own. He rejects all authority no matter what it is: God, Christ, the Word of God, the church, man. He himself chooses what he is to believe. He and he alone is his authority. He and he alone determines truth --- what is and what is not truth.
Have We Not?
“Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?” (Matthew 7:21) No one can be a citizen of the kingdom who will not obey the King. Just stating you’re on the Lord’s side does not merit citizenship. Here seems to be a classic group of non-doers. But “one thing is needful:” faithful obedience. How many at the Great White Throne will bring a long list of minutia they were “faithful in” but never graduated into the more important matters that were just as much a part of the Savior’s demand for obedience as were the smaller. They didn’t strengthen the Kingdom at home by sacrifice and service and they didn’t go to war to fight for her on the frontlines. When we’re saved, we’re on schedule to complete the Church, the Bride of Christ; many will be far more a hindrance than a help, and will yet think they still deserve Heaven. Not only won’t they be in Heaven, their damnation is worse than the common unbeliever’s. I’m brokenly certain and welled up with tears that I know men and women who fit this awful profile.
10 Most Dangerous Things To Mankind’s Destiny
1. The church
2. The internet
3. Islam
4. Mankind
5. Entitlement
6. Crime
7. The media
8 . Alcohol and drugs
9. Charles
10. Jason
I do not love this world and I do not expect it to love me. The church is in the world, and the world is in it. I do not love the modern church, and I expect it will not only not love me, the Bible heartily suggests that its countenance will be fallen and churlish, and my life will be a prey.
The Holy Spirit: Statement of Faith, Personal Separation.
A. We believe the Scriptures teach that every believer should be separated unto God from the world and, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, should walk in Christian love and holiness, exhibiting qualities of honesty, integrity, forgiveness, loving-kindness, and most importantly obedience.
B. We further believe that any achievement in these characteristics will be evident by sincere humility and genuine zeal for the advancement of the cause of Christ.
C. We also believe the Scriptures admonish every believer not to love the world of the things of the world, but rather to flee desires, avoid every kind of evil, and refrain from questionable practices which destroy one’s testimony, offend one’s brother, and fail to glorify God.
Every good work can be traced to a kneeling figure. --- D L Moody
On this matter of Heaven and Hell, are you in your heart helping men up or dragging men down? --- George Truett
No one who claims the name of Jesus Christ in sincerity can just walk away from the promise of a Holy Ghost revival.
Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will do the rest. --- Billy, age 8
Trivia Answer: It is the only verse or sentence in the Bible that contains the words “devil” and “love” in it at the same time. Pride says the Devil loves himself, but apparently he is wholly bankrupt of love for anything else.
In Truth and Severity.
“Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.” (1 Timothy 5:20)
Paul exhorted Timothy, “Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.” (2 Tim 4:2) On what basis would one reprove or rebuke without having judged conduct or doctrine to be wrong? Such correction is a major theme throughout Scripture. Public teaching of false doctrine and publicly known sin must both be rebuked publicly. Paul reminded Timothy,
I have never met the Christian for whom I had no encouragement for him or her to go forth and obey the Great Commission. Never, No-how, Nada. I have not once laid my eyes upon such a person. I have laid my eyes on many who just refuse to go and who spend their days justifying their disobedience and plotting against the obedient.
Light and Life are Inseparably Related
--- Oliver B. Greene
If there were no light, there would be no physical existence. Had God left the whole earth in permanent blackness, it would have meant an end to man’s existence on earth. What makes the darkness so significant, so outstanding, so arresting, is that the whole world was plunged into blackness while the man on the middle cross was dying, the One who had said, “I am the light of the world.” The scribes and Pharisees had said, “You are not the light of the world.” You bear witness to yourself and your witness is false. You are not the light of the world; you are a living falsehood.” But they remembered now, for He had said, “When you get me on the cross, when you lift me up between heaven and earth, my Father will tell who I am.”
Are You Living the Christ Life?
--- J C Ryle
And now let us close the pages of Mark’s Gospel with self-inquiry and self-examination. Let it not content us to have seen with our eyes, and heard with our ears, the things here written for our learning about Jesus Christ. Let us ask ourselves whether we know anything of Christ “dwelling in our hearts by faith?” Does the Spirit “witness with our spirit” that Christ is ours, and we are His? Can we really say that we are “living the life of faith in the Son of God,” and that we have found by experience that Christ is “precious” to our own souls? These are solemn questions. They demand serious consideration. May we never rest till we can give them satisfactory answers!
“He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” (1 John 5:12)
One cure for insomnia is to talk to yourself.
Someone’s boring me, I think it’s me.
Some have need of a seeing-eye dog to see; vastly more have need of a hearing-ear dog to hear.
“It is so terrible. Everyone should come and see it so that they never forget. I am not quite sure whether the new generation really knows what we are fighting against.” --- the late Margaret Thatcher, standing before a photo showing a German soldier shooting a Jewish mother and her child. (Thatcher and her family had helped a teenage Jewish girl in Austria survive the Nazi death decrees at the outset of World War II.)
Eureka
--- Shelton Smith
When wicked rulers rise up against us, it is no time to park our faith in some dark corner. When under duress and pressure, and when there are opposing forces waging war against us, it is then we need the rejoicing heart. We need the spirit of eureka ruling in us when the enemy rises up against us.
Sharpen Your Vision.
God is unmistakably forthright when he deals with error among his own. The priests and the prophets in Isaiah’s day had a serious problem: they could not see straight, for they were “erring in vision.” (Isaiah 28:7) These were the same kind of leaders Jesus Christ described in Matthew 15:14 as “blind leaders of the blind.” The very religious leaders in Isaiah’s day who should have been giving the people the truth and leading them in the paths of righteousness were instead both by word and example, causing them to “stumble in judgment.” Such blindness resulted in a false unity that brought these leaders together around tables with those whose filthiness would have been repulsive to anyone but a drunkard. (Isaiah 28:8)
Likewise, even today, the errant saint will inevitably find himself in some awkward situations and fellowships. Clear spiritual vision will produce discernment that enables the believer to beware of such peril.
Today, many preachers are “erring in vision.” They are following and exalting the world rather than the Word. Yet the almost unbelievable increase of false teaching and false teachers in our day only to serves to intensify the need for 20/20 spiritual vision. Perfect spiritual vision is available to every believer who is willing to view every thing through the pure light of God’s Word rather than through the wisdom of men.
Those who walk in God’s way will not be popular with the world, and the path may seem difficult at times. But the table that God sets before His faithful followers is pure and undefiled -- it is a “clean place” where those with clear vision can discern between right and wrong and can have genuine fellowship with others who do the same.
--- M. H. Reynolds
Why do people look so strange when they find out that I have six toes on each hand?
We’ll jump off that bridge when we come to it.
Not only is there a lack of honesty, integrity, and decency in the land, but there is no consciousness that it’s missing or that it was ever a component of American life to begin with.
2 Samuel Chapter 17: Absalom is a picture of the modern church when some little know-it-all brat wants to be the quintessential pulpit usurper.
Proverbs 19:1. America has become a nation of liars. Our crisis is not simply a crisis of conduct; it is a crisis of character. --- Clarence Sexton
Matthew 10:13-15. How often do the saints disobey this command? Get the filth off of you! You’re treading on holy ground!
Ministry Mention
A young man, two-faced all the way, did what many do and tried to show greater love for people than this unloving minister can do. I never get mad at these episodes because much of the time they sit right down on their own pitchfork. He bent and looked into the face of this poor elderly memory-unit woman and in a raised voice, said, “I love you.” She promptly told him to get lost. I wasted no time “rebuking” her (she and I are great friends), and I said (names changed), ”Doris, Bill was just trying to be nice to you and you rejected his kindness. Shame on you, Doris! I raised you better than that” She cracked a smile; he didn‘t know what to do. Later, he came around and seemed disturbed about something. Never learned what. [Isn’t it comical that so many loving Christians and love buggers, are on the payroll, on the clock when they are so compassionate, but are on the road when the whistle blows? Yep, convenience, ostentation, and affordability are the love bugger’s trinity. Yet, might our God greatly bless truly compassionate people! We love them dearly and need them badly!]
Why is it in Georgia, that every time you stop to ask for directions, no matter where in Georgia you are, you’re always told, “Just go down Peachtree until you get to the Waffle House……..?
I had to sell my frying pan so I could buy something to cook on it.
Alright, I’ve had it!! Why do things that happen to stupid people always happen to me?
Where did you get the idea of using corn for fuel?
Oh, it just popped in my head.
Question. What has 12 legs, six eyes, 3 tails and can’t see?
Answer. 3 blind mice.
I’ve developed a completely reliable diet plan. Bat wings, snake hocks, lizard warts, and spider legs.
How does it work?
Well, you take two spoonfuls and it’ll be three or four days before you will have any kind of appetite for food.
Ever notice that these forsaken church urchins who do the most to rattle the sabers against the true church are quick to accuse others of bad church mentality. Hey, Chuckles, you gotta bum church; I wouldn’t want to be in your old church even if it sold gold bars for a dime --- you’ve already sold your soul to the Devil for a stint in his gang of thieves.
Charles (Chuckles) ---
[] Jesus made no secret of them that betrayed Him and we shouldn’t either.
1. It’s time to call this one out. Anyone know this critter? If it’s antichrist, Chuckles has his hand in it. Hint: he’s the enemy of decency and he holes up at the Low Road Bap-twist Church. He hitchhikes on Christianity to see his own will done.
2. If you knew the way he spends his time, the disturbances he deliberately creates, and the harm he enjoys bringing to good people, you would know that this is a very selfish and dangerous man on his way to judgment. He slanders, stalks, and hates his fellow man -- the Bible calls that lawlessness. He runs a crooked crap game, drops vipers in the pockets of his friends, and would rather be doing something to make Chuckles happy and prosperous than anything else.
3. He goes by the name of Shifty in close quarters. You learn quickly to watch your backside when Chuckles is passin’ thru. Besides being a weasel, loony bird, devil charmer, perverted minister, and crocodile, He:
Is intolerant
Is offensive
Is deceitful
Is a son of Belial
Is churlish and vindictive
Is a false teacher
Is a wolf and a destroyer of men’s souls
Is a backbiter
Is an unclean child, he is self-righteous
Is a gossip and a selfish fellow
Is a fool
Is a hater of God’s people
“And I will break the pride of your power …“ (Leviticus 20:19) Here is God’s warning against His people Israel. As long as they obey, He will protect them. But when they rebel, and don’t listen to Him, and do not follow in the way that He has given them, then they will incur his wrath, beginning against their pride. Prosperity and easy living often lead to -- grow into -- pride and self-dependency. (See Deuteronomy 8:11-19; 32:15.)
“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 5:1-5) The Laodicea Church was found to be --- wretched, miserable, poor, blind, AND NAKED. (See Revelation 3:14-22.) This church is the final church mentioned as Jesus gives a prophetic rundown to the end of the Church Age (or Age of Grace). This church is a church of “personal rights,” of entitlement, of affluence, of a religion that had the appearance of a Christian institution, but was virtually vapid in Christian character. It was lukewarm: it knew the words to say, but knew not the truth of those words, was bankrupt of any godly works following. It was hypocritical and selfish. How can it not be the church of the age in which we’re living? This church in our time is NAKED: it is not clothed upon with Heaven’s tabernacle --- the building of God not made with hands; eternal in the Heavens; the glorious Church, Body, and Bride of Christ fully adorned for her Husband. Our nakedness in this Laodicea Church is a defiling mark of spurned grace, presumptuous liberty, counterfeit doctrines, a denied Christ, a monkeyed-about Bible, a perverted Gospel, a quenched and grieved Spirit, and an apostate body. Jesus challenges us to put on a scarlet robe dipped in His blood, a white raiment to cover this filthy nakedness. From then on, the WHITE ROBED ANGELS WILL TELL THE STORY --- A SINNER HAS COME HOME!!!!! Folks of God, Come out from among this Laodicea treason and BE YE SEPARATE!
God’s Way of Salvation.
1. What does God want you to do? “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” John 1:12
2. How can you believe? “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Romans 10:9-10
3. What can you do to show that you believe? You can sincerely pray this prayer - or another prayer from your own heart - and tell God that you believe and accept (trust) His Son as your Savior.
Lord, I know that I am a sinner. Please forgive me for my sins and help me to turn from them in hatred for them. I know that I deserve Hell for my sins. But I believe that Jesus died to pay for my sins and to take the punishment for me. I know that He purchased my salvation with His own precious blood, and has given me the precious gift of eternal life with Him in Heaven. I trust Him and accept Him now as my Savior. Amen
In Spirit and In Truth. (Vol 37) 4-23-13
On your pilgrimage, be sure you keep your perspective on that crown in Heaven, and that cross on the way.
Jesus will never accept a minor role in our lives, His message and His cause demand priority. --- Ronald Williams
We have never been compelled to recruit friends to our cause; we recruit workers! Godly workers. Obedient workers.
Come unto Me, dear children,
And I will give you light,
O loving voice of Jesus,
Which comes to cheer the night!
Our hearts were filled with sadness,
And we had lost our way,
But morning brings us gladness,
And songs the break of day. Amen.
--- Dix
10 Things I Wrote Down in Answer to “What’s Wrong in the World Today?”
Crowded
Sinful
Churchy
Confused
Selfish
Bitter
Gossipy
Inhumane
Deceitful
Christ-less
The "today church:" seekers, speakers, and sneakers. Some even welcome streakers.
God Calls it a Strong Delusion!
How can you not feel a bit vindicated when there were some “heroes” bragged on during the Boston Bombing site to graciously help the people, thank God! But the “lovely” social media was filled to the gills with filthy mischief, haughtiness, and disturbing sentiments. When will America learn to shed this phony veneer of compassion and resume responsible and accountable life on earth? It was a lie eons ago and it’s a lie now; if the Lord tarry, it can only get worse. Truth is, it has spawned a laziness and carelessness unheard of in America before this ME generation put down roots.
Sometimes the crush of the opposition will seem unbearable. Remember that they are going to Hell and nothing but their souls --- or the souls they deceive --- will matter to you. Being a light and hope to people is the fruit, delight, and reward of preaching an un-perverted Gospel, in the face of a Satanic counter-offensive.
Mark 6:11 teaches that our speaking boldly will either be a testimony for people or a testimony against them --- God’s Word WILL NOT come back void! We live, love, and give while God fully intends to punish those who will not respond to His Word.
See John 14:17. The Word of God causes problems in the world today. The Bible is the most revolutionary Book in the world. It is revolutionary to teach that you cannot save yourself, that only Christ can save you. And you can’t make this world better. Only Jesus Christ can do that. That’s revolutionary, and the world doesn’t want to hear that. They’d rather plant a few flowers and try to clean up pollution. The problem is that the pollution is in the human heart. -- J. Vernon McGee
Trivia Question: What abounds toward the believer that he may be faithful in works done for Christ? Answer will be found near the end below.
There is far greater thrill in standing alone with truth than with thousands claiming to be on your side. But I don’t mind if thousands stand with me --- when I’m Godly Right! I need to be right much more than I need friends or allies.
Spiritual effectiveness doesn’t depend on our abilities --- or even on how others view us. It depends solely on our willingness to rely entirely on Christ for results. --- William Mac Donald
Turn Away!
Beloved, when you see your persisted difficulty in having effect with the local church, you’ll be baffled that what you’re doing is Scriptural, but what they are doing is not. Soon, you’ll come under an almost fiendish pressure to compromise while they hold all the cards. Brothers and sisters, it’s a simple explanation: you don’t walk in the same Spirit, you don’t keep the same steps. (See 2 Cor 12:18.) Turn away from these, they’re poison and they know not the Truth.
Christians Are Deceived By:
Flattering words. --- Romans 16:18
False report. --- 2 Thessalonians 2:3
False reasoning. --- Colossians 2:4
They may call you legalist and unloving -- but those are judgments they made, so they are judgmental, they are, in their own words, Pharisees.
Doc, I’m terribly afraid of being taken hostage, tortured, and killed.
That’s not unheard of.
By the Amish?
A Prelude to Revival!
A lesson coming down to us through all the generations is that going before any great, deep work of grace, Christians have waited before God in confession of sin, in supplication for His grace, in the humbling of their hearts, in the submission of their wills to Him, that He might do for and with them according to His holy will. --- George W. Truett
How to Start a Revival According to Gypsy Smith
Go home and lock yourself in your room. Kneel down in the middle of the floor. Draw a chalk mark all around yourself and ask God to start the revival inside the chalk mark. When he answers your prayer, the revival is on.
What a Spell the Devil Seems to Cast Over the Church Today!
--- D. L. Moody
What is a revival? Now listen to me. A revival does two things. First, it returns the Church from her backsliding and second, it causes the conversion of men and women; and it always includes the conviction of sin on the part of the Church.
Christianity is the most emphatic missionary force in the world and every Christian church is a divinely appointed missionary society. If every church could be fully true to the purpose for which it is instituted, no other missionary organizations would be needed to send the Gospel of the blessed God to the ends of the earth. --- Edward T. Hiscox
In Acts 13:2-4, we are in error to believe that the church sent anyone on a missionary journey. They were SENT FORTH (Greek, ekpemphtentes) by the Holy Spirit; they were RELEASED (Greek, apelusan) by the Antioch church. Is there anywhere in the Bible a description of the church sending forth a missionary? Allowing a Spirit-called missionary to obey his calling, and to pray for him and lay hands on him, is not sending him forth. In any event, the men described here were homegrown in the church, and the entire preparation for the journey was a matter of faith, prayer, fasting, desire, Spirit conviction, consecration, and believer interest and enthusiasm.
(from) The Evangelical Church in Ohio (circa 1870)
[] The Evangelical Church had come out of the Pioneer Period (1816-1870), when saving souls was of paramount interest (and duty!”) and then to build up the convert’s faith and teach him to be a faithful and fruitful witnesses. Now, they enter into a period of “evangelism and Christian education” which was the long-term vision of the missions work all along. In a sense, the mission field has been well-tilled and now the call to the perpetuation of the ministry of missions through Biblical church is recognized. --- mine
“Preaching was the outstanding means of evangelism and religious instruction. The impact of Gospel messages upon the hearts and minds of every member of the family brought forth the first fruits. The preacher was judged by his ability to win converts and establish them in Christian belief and conduct.
In this period sermons were long and contained much Biblical and doctrinal truth for the instruction of both saint and sinner. A half hour or more was first occupied in surveying and establishing the Scriptural ground as the firm basis of the teaching to be proclaimed. Then followed practical application and illustrations of the Biblical truth in the lives of listeners with a definite response as an objective. Every service from the regular preaching appointment to a funeral occasion was used to make the listeners feel that there was a ‘hell to shun and a heaven to gain.’”
The Book of Acts and the Great Commission (Acts 1:8).
The outline of the early Christians successfully taking the Gospel forth might go like this:
1. Jesus prepared them.
2. The beginning of evangelistic church activity took place on the day of Pentecost.
3. “Jerusalem” is overrun by soul winners.
4. They spread out into Judea
5. The persecution drives them into Samaria (but not the apostles).
6. The solo missionary is exemplified by Philip.
6. The Gospel is officially taken to the Gentiles (by Peter).
7. The harsh but fruitful persecution gives way to a fruitful missions ministry.
8. Paul preaches the Word and founds churches everywhere.
9. Paul follows up and establishes (staffs and encourages) the churches.
0. Paul bears testimony that “the Gospel went to the ends of the world.”
I’m shooting for achievable goals. I’ve already lined up mediocrity.
Mom, you sure hate to see a room look relaxed don’t you? --- Dennis the Menace
Despite what the media might or might not say, in America, counties with restrictive handgun permit policies have higher crime rates than counties with liberal access to permits.
Guns and drugs together don’t begin to be as destructive as alcohol in terms of personal harm, family violence, vehicular hazard, burglary and theft, and vindictive behaviors.
The Boston Bombing and Blame-shifting.
“They weren’t living here. They were living, studying and growing up in America.” A Chechen spokesman on Russian TV concerning the Boston Bombing perpetrators. This is the original home of the killers. “They have been educated there, not here,” he continued. Quite a hypocrisy for a nation that is persistently aggravated by separatist wars, suicide attacks, blood feuds, and hostage sieges.
I haven’t seen a shred of indication why these boys tried to wipe out Boston. About all we know is that it was a household full of religious confusion, mounting alienation, haughtiness on the older boy, convention on the younger, moral respectability, creepy origins in Chechen, and a family who basically though at least the older boy was a first class jihad bozo. When I first saw the FBI photos, I mentioned to people that these boys looked like they enjoyed what they were doing, even had a look of mischievous confidence (and the younger boy seemed to lead the way in that). I suspect the Islam façade was merely an excuse to commit a random act of lawless homicide and calamitous destruction for no other reason than the simple shock value of it. We will learn more, at least we hope we do.
A couple of years ago, a stampede resulted from a food fight, killing 63 people in India. We might not be surprised that it was soon reported that the dead were nearly all women and children.
Liberals Pursue Their Pseudo-Faith With Pander and Spin.
For example, a liberal says I personally believe in the sanctity of life but cannot impose my personal position on others. At the same time, the liberal wants legislation from the Supreme Court that makes abortion legal and tax funded, thus, imposing that position on many Americans who believe abortion is murder. --- Voice in the Wilderness
Nothing reveals the character of today’s so-called compassionate Christian more quickly as when he learns that you’re not going to compromise your narrow way; that you‘re not going to be bought. Those virtues are supremely annoying to kind and compassionate people, and suddenly their churlishness takes dominion over sensibility. That they want you to compromise is never to improve the lot of the common folk: it’s to secretly get the wolves their own way. (I can’t change; Christ changed me long ago and it was forever!)
I can’t be sure, but how many of these mass murderers over the years had any kind of link to a Biblically sound church or family? I’ve seen some ill-motivated murderers connected to churches, but can‘t remember these mass murderers being so.
Thinkin’ and Blinkin’
Ever notice how lazy and gossipy these little biddy love bugs are?
Ever notice that a self-acclaimed good man will cause you to wonder why his office is always so squeaky clean?
I’m often lost in thought. I’ve always been a stranger there.
The church is not the end of religion, it is merely the board from which we dive into the serious work of Christ.
I know a man so compassionate that he has to kick back from time to time by hating the people of God. What a contemptible little worm of a man.
If you wear a crown, wear it with humility. If you bear a cross, carry it with the Gospel on your tongue and the Word in your heart.
I took my driver’s test today. I did a bang up job.
10 Good Things About The Apostasy's Harassing Me
1. While they are harassing me, they won’t be harassing you.
2. They will have to slow or stop their own apostate activities.
3. Their recruited allies make good prospects to win to Christ
4. Their allies will eventually grow tired of all the stop and go that goes with arassing me.
5. I get practice at rebuking; it‘s good to meet all the enemy.
6. I get good material for In Spirit and In Truth
7. Good people of God love to hear stories about gigantic hypocrites.
8. We true believers get a good laugh from their creative lies, traps, and deceit.
9. We learn a lot about ourselves and the awful things we never did.
10. As we watch this foolishness, we know the Bible has to be true.
10 Indications That We Are Accepted in the Beloved (Fit for Heaven)
See Ephesians 1:6-14
1. We have redemption through His blood.
2. We have forgiveness through His grace.
3. We have abundance of wisdom and understanding.
4. We know the mystery of His will.
5. We that are in Christ will be gathered together in one Body.
6. We have obtained a [family] inheritance.
7. We who have trusted Christ are to the praise of His glory.
8. We are saved because we trusted Christ when we heard the Word of God.
9. We were then sealed with the [down payment] of the Holy Spirit of promise.
10. We now patiently await the full redemption of our now God-bought souls.
10 Zany Reasons They Give For Not Winning Souls
1. We have missionaries.
2. We’re sensitive to people‘s feelings.
3. We’re inoffensive.
4. We use different methods.
5. We are seeker-friendly.
6. We accommodate.
7. We use more culturally relevant approaches.
8. We do like the founding church fathers did.
9. We don’t step on God’s toes (we’re Calvinists).
10. We’re as lazy as a weasel can be:
And as powerful as a lady bug…
And as genuine as the colors of a chameleon…
And as faithful as a trainload of harlots.
A criminal may escape man’s courtroom, but none will escape God’s justice.
God is more concerned about our character than our comfort. His goal is not to pamper us physically but to perfect us spiritually. --- Charles Haddon Spurgeon
“Take Him and judge Him according to your law.” (John 18:31)
Morality is a free-for-all these days!
No, it’s not my way or God’s way. It’s God’s way, not my way. And He should be your way. The Bible tells you so.
1 Corinthians 14:9 is your answer to double speak and to Satanic speech in general.
2 Corinthians 8:4 teaches that ministering to the saints is a fellowship!
2 Corinthians 12:21 teaches what causes the divisions, the hostility against Paul, and by extension, the people of God: SIN in the church!
Psalm 46:1 teaches that God is always present, He is always sufficient, He understands all our needs. So we needn’t be worried, weary, or weak. The Bible promises a blessing and fruit if we repentantly put our trust in Jesus Christ.
Were you born dumb or did it sneak up on you?
Let me see now, would you repeat the second question very slowly, please?
See Ezek 32:21.
Here is a dreadful picture of souls in Hell awaiting the final judgment. It is an explicit picture putting forth the utter and urgent necessity of men to place their trust in Christ --- and how many are there because some one led them there? It is good to preach the love of God, but God also commands us: “Others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire.” (Jude 23) See also Matthew 7:13.
Filthy Show Offs at the Helm.
There can be no question that one of our Lord’s most succinct rebukes of the religious leaders was their materialistic affection; they made things the object of their love, and not God! Jesus said they have their reward --- what they received from the world was all they’d ever get. And what they would receive is the admiration of those who enjoyed watching them show off. They loved not God. (See John 5 42.) They:
1. Loved to pray to be seen. --- Matthew 6:5
2. Loved the center of attention. --- Matthew 23:6
3. Loved the minutia and forsook the larger matters. ---Luke 11 42
4. Loved to be greeted in the public view. --- Luke 20:46
5. Loved the praise of men over the praise of God. --- John 12 43
6. Loved the world. --- 1 John 2 15
It amazes me that enumerable men can ascend the pulpits of America every Sunday and speak with a straight face for forty minutes knowing full well that their sermon was stolen, bought, plagiarized, invented, adlibbed, loaned, dreamed up, or otherwise perverted. You’d think it interesting to write your own Sunday sermon, but then, you‘re presuming belief.
I once told a pastor to watch for wolves. He began sending immature double speak that foolishly implied that I was the wolf. I was Trouble Bearing Truth, but surely no wolf. I lovingly tried to discuss it with him but he was in a self-flattering doublespeak mood (you know, full of lies and deceit). So I published it. You should have seen him instituting changes, as if to hide his ignorance of fundamentalism (if not Scripture). The only change I instituted was asking God’s forgiveness that I dallied with a pack of wolves for so long. Shame on me.
If you came to my house, you would have thought everything was put in there before “cordless” was ever contrived.
GAS: free receipt with every fill up.
Folks have been working on it for centuries and finally, the right word has come along: “unfriend.”
Motto of AMTRAK: We treat every trip as if it was your last.
This year, instead of going to see the “running of the bulls,” I’ll just stay
home and back into a steak knife.
Waiter, why is my steak so small?
Sir, it’s a minute steak.
Trivia Answer: Grace. (See 2 Corinthians 8:7; 9:8;Ephesians 4:7.)
"And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 1:14)
1. What cheapens grace more effectively than placing human compassion on a higher plane than grace? It can be no wonder that men lose their passion for souls when these priorities become mixed up. The passion then is not for others but for self and what YOU YOURSELF can do to be a savior to this lost and dying world.
2. Today’s church is more likely to renounce the “sin” of Biblical obedience than the sin of cheapening grace. Whatever compassion we will ever posses, we will have because God’s grace came through faith and love WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS. “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15)
[] Read the following quotations and figure out what all three have in common. Then I ask one final question for your consideration.
(1) “Jesus was one of a line of spiritual leaders, a line that continues today.” (David Spangler)
(2) “Esoteric Christianity sees Jesus as the human vehicle for the Cosmic Being of the Christ.” (George Trevelyan)
(3) “Certainly the flesh-and-blood Jesus did not exist before His birth in Bethlehem… Jesus knows His True Self to be the Light-emanation of this Christ that always was, is, and ever shall be.” (Elizabeth and Mark Prophet)
[] What do these quotations have In common? They are all of the New Age/Humanistic ilk.
[] And my question is this: What in thunder do these quotes mean? They’re ridiculous. Did these boys and girls graduate from American High Schools (or any high school anywhere)? Or did they go to some moron development center?
[] Come on folks, give us something to fight over instead of laugh at. Pitiful, just pitiful.
[] Isn’t it just a billion times easier to accept that God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life? Now that’s good writing and there‘s not one question remaining. If this Scripture (John 3:16) alone remained after the Bible was completely destroyed otherwise, I would have the whole story of God at my fingertips and I would not need a single New Ager or Humanist to explain one word of it to me. And I would explain the verse to them if they’d get the wax out of their ears and put a brain in their long vacant cranial cavity.
God’s Way of Salvation.
1. What does God want you to do? “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” John 1:12
2. How can you believe? “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Romans 10:9-10
3. What can you do to show that you believe? You can sincerely pray this prayer - or another prayer from your own heart - and tell God that you believe and accept (trust) His Son as your Savior.
Lord, I know that I am a sinner. Please forgive me for my sins and help me to turn from them in hatred for them. I know that I deserve Hell for my sins. But I believe that Jesus died to pay for my sins and to take the punishment for me. I know that He purchased my salvation with His own precious blood, and has given me the precious gift of eternal life with Him in Heaven. I trust Him and accept Him now as my Savior. Amen.
In Spirit and In Truth (vol 36) 4-20-23
This Day is Coming!
“And all men shall fear, and shall declare the work of God; for they shall wisely consider of His doing.” (Psalm 64:9)
Kudos galore to that law enforcement effort to bring the Boston Bombing to an arrest conclusion. For all my complaining, that was something to be proud of. It was done with great wisdom, I think. And it was a tough job, as I saw it being done. The locals were very cooperative. But the darker question is a ready one all too often these days, What Next?
Child of Mine,
Live Me a life of discernment!
Live Me a life of obedience to truth.
Live Me a life of Christly love.
Live Me a life of labor, fruit, works --- of consecration!
Live Me a life that costs YOU something!
I must tell Jesus! I cannot bear my burdens alone.
To escape criticism - do nothing, say nothing, be nothing. --- Elbert Hubbard
The old paths deserve better than Jason; in fact, they deserve better than what any of us give. Sure, Jason is a cultist wanting only credibility, but you and I want to serve the Savior. Let’s raise the bar, and surprise even ourselves as to how genuinely and fruitfully we’ll work for the advancement of His kingdom. (By the way, Jason et al will do all they can to impede us and the Gospel, so keep that Word out there in their faces to confuse them and to keep them in disarray.)
In the Top Ten Seller List of Bible Translations, April 2005, What Word Is Common to Six of Their Titles? See below near the end.
“Unawed by opinion, unreduced by flattery, undismayed by disaster, he confronted life with courage, and death with Christian hope.” James Lewis Pettigru’s life was so exemplary that after his death, the community erected this inscribed tombstone.
We All Want to Go to God’s Heaven When We Die.
There is no other Heaven. Money can neither buy nor make heaven. The world, for whose opinion we care so much, has no heaven. Satan has no heaven. The heavenly things which are available here and now --- unselfishness, helpfulness, purity, high and noble thinking, clean living, love --- these are all God’s. Think then of the folly of living ion wrong terms with God. Think of the unspeakable unreason of supposing that anything in life can be really right, till we are right with God. --- C I Scofield, In Many Pulpits
Building youth is better than mending men.
I looked “Modern Christianity” up in the Encyclopedia. It said, “Present Philosophical Choice of 7 Billion People.”
Hey! Look at this big bug on my nose.
Don’t swat it: it’s a fissilieritallacreagris.
Great! I have a huge bug on my nose who’s a big name in bugdom!
This graduating class represents the finest minds and best talent our university has ever produced. Now Reverend Mott will pray for our country.
It’s very easy to tell when a politician is speaking the truth. If he scratches his ear, he’s telling the truth. If he’s rubbing the bridge of his nose, he’s telling the truth. If he squints his eyes to see the back of the audience, he’s telling the truth. But when he opens his mouth ……
Times to Praise God
Daily --- Psalm 72:15
Continually --- Psalm 71:6
Seven times daily --- Psalm 119:164
All the day --- Psalm 35:28
At midnight --- Psalm 119:62; Acts 16:25
While I live --- Psalm 146:2
A Man After David’s Head
(But David is a man after God’s own heart!)
1. Read 1 Sam 26:14-15.
2. Saul always resented the people’s song, Saul has slain his thousands, David has slain his ten thousands.
3. Now Saul has the thousands to deploy against David, and David has only a few hundred, hardly any of which we would consider a true military man. Saul sorely outnumbered David from the beginning and never really got the advantage. So just why does David always make sense and Saul doesn’t?
4. David is persistently altruistic in not seizing the several opportunities to kill Saul before Saul killed him. But David drives Saul crazy with his kindness (for example, v. 20). Literally! I think if you follow this account of Saul chasing down David from start to finish, in the middle chapters of 1 Samuel, you’ll see God at work in the whole thing, you’ll be somewhat amused, you’ll wonder how Saul could be anyone’s king (or shoeshine man, for that matter), you’ll understand your own enemies better, and you’ll have a fair indication of why David is in fact a man after God’s own heart.
5. That Saul played the fool (v. 21) is the understatement of the millennia.
Jesus Can Dig Wells of Joy With Shovels of Sorrow!
--- Ron Williams, Hephzibah House
1. Our army does not march with guns, but with crosses. It must be willingly accepted, no one can lay it on us. Each cross is uniquely designed by the Lord for that disciple. Allegiance unto death is demanded by Christ’s followers. This is an active and costly loyalty to Christ. It is never cushioned or made with pillows or velvet, a cross puts a man on a path of self-denial and self-restraint. For us, this is a remote metaphor , but for disciples in the first century, it was a distinct possibility.
2. We cannot be a disciple without cross bearing. Grace is given equal to the weight and discomfort of the cross, and God is not capricious. It is our Lord’s example of suffering and sorrow. It is easier to take it up than to drag it along. We hear nothing of laying it down. But, if I know it is from the Lord, it is light as a feather (His yoke is easy and His burden is light.)
Judge, I know I stole a million dollars from a bank. But I was so hungry.
The way I see it, if you don’t like the way old people drive, stay off the sidewalks.
“Receive us, we have wronged no man [done injustice], we have corrupted no man [persuaded him to sin], we have defrauded no man [cheated or deceived].” (2 Corinthians 7:2) We haven’t either; but our enemies do, prolifically!
Defrauding: depriving others through deceit
Forbidden --- Mark 10:19
To be accepted --- 1 Corinthians 6:5-8
In marriage --- 1 Corinthians 7:3-5
Paul, not guilty of --- 2 Corinthians 7:2
Product of sexual immorality --- 1 Thessalonians 4:3-6
The Devil’s Pied Piper!
A striking and tragic question is this: a question that God will surely answer in that great and terrible Day of Judgment. How many millions of people have been led astray within our churches by false teachers, those whom God calls heretics, those who have turned away from the truth of Christ and His Word? Read Matthew 18:15-17; 2 Peter 2:1.
(from The Berean Call)
Tragically, a similar condition (of speculation, guesswork, myths) is infecting those who profess to be Biblical Christians; they are slipping into the same swamp of delusion. That’s one of the reasons why so few Christians seem truly excited about eternity and spending it with the Lord. They can’t relate to it -- or to Him -- with real confidence. Many are tossed to and fro by their thoughts about God drawn from extra-Biblical sources, from the latest best-selling Christian books, to Christian television programming, to what Oprah and her guests have conjured up. [And from other worldly influences.] What’s being communicated about God is usually pleasing (albeit to the flesh) but is rarely true to His holy character. Even the most appealing ideas about God, when they don’t ring true to Scripture, contribute to a misleading and superficial relationship with the One we are to love in truth and with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
See Hebrews 5:14. From the Greek “gymnasium” and the “exercise” relates to what we think of as a disciplined workout. Do some research and find Paul’s many references to athletics. Study the principles that are illustrated by those references.
The Pattern of Apostasy
Those who follow apostate leaders and false teachers are likely to let their hearts become hardened, to revert to sin, and then fall into the same unbelief that they possessed before they were “saved.” They have not lost their salvation, they had a salvation that did not include Christ --- they rejected the grace that came by Him. They may have thought they were saved, and may even have wanted it, but like Esau, they could not find the repentance they assuredly needed for their acceptance of Christ as their personal Savior. EXAMINE YOURSELF WHETHER YE BE IN THE FAITH! PROVE YOUR OWN SELVES! (2 Corinthians 13:5)
We do not perform good works to gain favor from God, we do them to give favor to God.
Islam believes in Jesus Christ; They Believe He was a Prophet.
1. They openly assert it; they do not hem haw around it, they don’t sublimate it; they aren’t ashamed of it. In that sense, they honor Him in His office of prophet. Admittedly, it is a great understatement of our Lord’s Person, Purpose, and Passion.
2. Still, in this venue, Islam is superior to the top Baptist Churches in Columbus Ohio. You can’t pry from these local yokels the name of Jesus’ from their mouths over lunch; you can’t avoid their hostility if you do speak that precious name. I posses a couple of dozen church bulletins containing one of the more popular local pastor’s weekly bulletin inserts, usually a bit more than a whole page. In all those letters, and I stand to be openly corrected by the letters I hold, there were not a total of three mentions of Jesus’ name, and most of the mentions are written at Easter or Christmas and in connection with a seasonal theatrical presentation. In those letters, God is almost never thanked, the Bible is rarely quoted and then wrongly, the Gospel is likely never articulated, and the pastor is very self-righteous, critical of others, and remarkably rebellious to his fundamental roots. This is fact.
3. This pastor despises at least one hardworking child of God and openly condemns him. Where does this hypocrite stand in comparison with Islam? I know the case isn’t perfect, but the point has to strike home effectively enough.
4. Take heed to understand --- the world continues to adulate Sister Theresa for her great “Christian” work in India, and her great influence elsewhere. Sister Theresa was greatly outspoken against the Gospel of grace as clearly laid out in the Holy Scriptures. The world still loves and admires her --- the Bible says she led many into Hell, the many having no Savior for their sins.
5. That haunting scenario is played out often all over the world, and not infrequently right here in Columbus, Ohio. I take the Bible’s way; end of any and all debate.
Don’t go to Hell holding on to the hem of an apostate, beloved. He’ll gladly get you in, but he’ll not be able to get you or himself out.
Thinkin’ and Blinkin’
I know the exact date I quit jogging. It’s stated on my birth certificate.
I tried to find a church. I couldn’t find Easy Street, or La La Land
Of course, now we know the shape of the world -- just terrible!
I’d get a job, but that would be the coward’s way out.
I pray thee, O God, that I may be beautiful within. --- Socrates
Often, the reason a boy is sent to do a man’s job is that the men are all doing the boy’s jobs.
10 Reasons That We Should Minister And Not Faint
Read 2 Corinthians Chapter 4
We have received mercy
We are to renounced the forces of darkness
We refrain from being crafty
We speak the revealed truth
We refrain from being deceitful with the Word of God
We refrain from preaching ourselves, we preach Jesus
We refrain from allowing our troubles to weaken us
We bear in our own body the dying of Jesus
We believe and therefore we will speak
We look at things unseen for those things are eternal
This is a Gospel of Action, of Hunker Down Soul-Winning.
(Read Mark 16:15.)
Now Jesus is telling them to get into action. They are to Go! And, by the way, He is saying to us today that we should be men and women of action for God. What are you doing today to get out the Word of God? That is the business that we are in, beloved. That is the priority of all our time on earth. That church will be there tomorrow, those souls outside won’t. You need to go and tell them about the cross, and what it means for their eternity. You who fire darts at this ministry and have no souls etched on your holster are the biggest phonies on earth, bar none. And we have to wonder about your own souls, don’t we?
Evangelism is the proclaiming of the Gospel to those who have not heard it nor received it.
1. Evangelism takes the Gospel:
To all nations --- Matthew 28:19-20, and others
From house to house --- Acts 5:42
Always --- 1 Peter 3:15
As ambassadors --- 2 Corinthians 5:18-20
2. The source [power] of evangelism:
Jesus Christ --- Galatians 1:6-12
The Father --- John 6:44,65
The Holy Spirit --- Acts 1:8
Many People Confuse Church Attendance With Christianity.
Church attendance isn’t a compliant act, it’s a heart’s desire. Meaning well by attending church may have some conscience soothing or sanitization come with it, but attending church should be because you desire it more than life itself --- that’s true Christianity. As Christ loved the church you ought to love her as well. In all frankness, the attendance ought to be toward the souls of men outside the church --- that’s where the real action of the church must be directed. The Book of Acts is primarily about the work of the apostles OUTSIDE THE CHURCH. It is foolish to attend church and not be prepared therein to go out and preach the Gospel to every creature. Every Christian is a commissioned preacher and every preacher is to go out into the world and win the lost to Jesus Christ. No matter what these conmen church leaders are saying, no matter how much they condemn us who mean business in obeying our Lord, no one is excused.
11 Facts About the Church Gathering in the Bible
1. It is an extension of the Body of Christ.
2. It is never a building, it is always the people.
3. Attending a church is not a compliance, it is a desire of the heart.
4. A New Testament church is never known to have had a pulpit.
5. A pastor is an undershepherd, but Christ is the Shepherd.
6. Souls were won daily and added to the church rolls daily.
7. Soul winning was done outside the church, not inside.
8. Communion was a cooked meal.
9. Baptisms were given at bodies of water.
10. Persecution strengthened the church, it didn’t weaken it.
11. Missionaries were indigenous to a local church, not from among churches.
It is said that if you were to line up all the lost people (those unbelievers on their way to Hell), one behind another, they would circle the globe thirty times. And that line grows at the rate of more than twenty miles per day.
What’s really wrong in America? We’ve lost our humility and have become a generation of pious overlords. We are the laughing stock of the world for our arrogance, our culture of self-aggrandizement, and our mastery of the put down. I mean, they’re taking in the fascists ahead of us.
A Futility Bill: One you will never have any chance of paying.
I would have filed electronically, but when I paid last years taxes, I couldn’t pay my power bill.
Editorial by Cal Thomas (10-6-2012)
[Arnold] Schwarzenegger’s interviews reveal a man without a moral center. He didn’t admit to fathering his housekeeper’s son until after he left office, reportedly during a session with a marriage counselor. Leslie Stahl asked him why he didn’t tell Maria about the affair: “I didn’t know how,” he answered. Sure he did. It’s something like Lauren Bacall telling Humphrey Bogart how to whistle in “To Have and Have Not.” He simply has to open his mouth and tell her. Was it political expediency that kept Him quiet? What other explanation could there be?
The Sword Which Is The Word of God
The aforementioned made me think with some amusement when I once asked a pastor why he didn’t answer his emails, particularly those where I was asking why he turned the church against me. He finally answered and said “I didn’t know how.” Certainly, he doesn’t know a fish from a baboon, but any idiot can say “Because we do things differently here.” No one ever answers another who can condemn him with the truth or at least confuse him with it. The Word of God IS YOUR BEST WEAPON; drive it right into their hearts!
“I want to hug everybody.”
“I want to love everyone.”
“I want to save the planet.”
“I want to rid the world of hunger.”
“I want to have peace in the world.”
[] These silly statements --- not always insincerely said --- are designed to please the one making them and the audience who hears them. (I personally don’t want to be hugged or tenderized by any love bugger, no matter how big-hearted they might be.) Jesus Christ is wholly motivated by His love for and desire to obey His Heavenly Father. He gave everything He had to please His Heavenly Father.
[] These statements are about the ego of men. Jesus Christ is about the souls of men and their eternal destinies. I do not believe that most people are really sincere when they say all of these altruistic things; it is a matter of pride, conscience, showing off, and partnering with popular clichés that never take anyone anywhere but up the latter of public approval and patrician admiration.
Re: United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
This is what you sold out to by being quiet, parents:
1. “The Children’s Convention potentially protects the rights of the child who philosophically disagrees with the parents education goals.” Geraldine Van Bueren of the University of London.
2. Any Reasonable Person’s Translation: The UN wants to poison your children’s minds with humanism’s hatred for standards and decencies.
3. By the way, this “child loving” mentality seems a wee bit ironic when you think of the number of murdered babies in the womb that the UN endorses all over the globe --- what about their rights, hypocrites?
Editorial 10-1-12
--- Ronnie Cohen
Prosecutor Thomas Testa, who tried both men [two prolific serial killers, one of them claiming over 70 murders], said that such high numbers [of killings] strike him as possibly intended for “shock value.” We never had a number anywhere near 70. I wouldn’t discount it entirely but maybe there’s some fame in a larger number than the next guy.
Who’s Really Behind It All?
Read 2 Thessalonians Chapter 2.
1. What is most amazing about this unstoppable wave of terror and violence in our times is how irrational it is. Its only motivation seems to be its shock value.
2. What saith the Scripture? Is this the conscience seared by a hot iron? Is this the beast without natural affection? Is this the fear on every side? Is this our life for a prey? The mystery of iniquity? The reprobate mind filled with maliciousness and murder? (I say overtly Cain, but technically, Satan murdered every one of us by his deceit and sinful desires brought against Eve in the otherwise pristine Garden of Eden.)
3. All the above!
4. Folks, how rational was the torture and murder of our Lord? How rational is the history of genocide against our dear friends the Jews? Something has been behind this for a long time and his name is Satan. His first human colleague in it was Cain, and man had been on the earth less than one generation. No one else is in standing for the “glory” of it all but Satan.
5. As I write he’s winning on this major front. But the Lord will put the Devil out of business as He comes, consuming the Devil’s emissaries by the spirit of His mouth, and He will destroy them with the brightness of His coming. Saints, hold fast, it’s going to work out, it’s going to be the Lord’s Day and then we’ll not only understand, but we’ll be satisfied that God and His Christ will be vindicated.
6. And the punishment against injustice will come severely (1 Samuel 15:32-33), swiftly (Esther 7:9-10), and according to prophecy and promise (1 Kings 22:34-38).
7. And one final point, there are “neighbors,” some of notoriety in religious acclaim, laying on their beds this moment, with the desire for blood in their defiled, plotting heart. They may not kill, but they will destroy at their own pace and command. They are the filth of our earth, they have the greater damnation, they take millions into Hell with them, and they hate the people of God. Read this Holy Book and you will learn all about them, many times called wolves and many times other names.
The only time in the last four decades that serious crime decreased was during the 1980s when the average sentences for serious crimes rose.
In California real estate ads, it is now illegal to advertise that your house is near a church or synagogue . That’s religious discrimination.
I want my house so clean, nothing will even remotely discourage an unsaved person to want to know more about why I live the way I do.
Of course, the greatest motivation is the love that is born in our hearts as we realize that the Creator of the Universe loves each of us so much that He became a man to die in our place. This love has captured our affection so that we gladly declare that we are His and His alone for eternity. Accepting the death of Jesus Christ as our own death, we have given up life as we would have lived it so that so that He can live His resurrection life through us. --- Dave Hunt
I was not a comely child. After I was kidnapped, they just asked for expenses.
Our gang had our own band. Our leader played the switchblade guitar.
The Watershed of Civilization: The Biblical Explanation For Marriage.
Companionship --- Genesis 2:18
Regulating Sexual Behavior --- 1 Corinthians 7:9
Procreation and Child Rearing --- Genesis 1:28
The Christian shows love toward God:
(1) in fulfilling the First Commandment (Matthew 22:37-38) ;
(2) with all the heart (Matthew 22:37) ;
(3) in a vastly greater way than by any ritual (Mark 12:31-33); and
(4) by having confidence in his precious salvation (1 John 4:17-19).
[] “We love him, because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)
Ministry Mentions.
-----------------------
1. Spring Soul-winning Blitz, Days 1-7.
Number of new folks approached with the Gospel (face to face): 50
Number of those meetings resulting in effective personal witnessing: 12
Church visitors: 6 (2 given effective personal witnessing)
Approximately 400 pieces of Salvation literature distributed
We believe there were many folks giving their life to Christ during this period.
God had only one Son and He was a missionary and a physician. --- David Livingstone
The week doesn’t end easily: it takes two days to finish it out.
It only took the movies a few decades to go from silent to unspeakable.
“And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13.)
We “boomers” have watched the Amen Age succumb to the So What Age.
Just think. God loves me with an everlasting love !!! And He died for me to prove it!!!
If you stay tuned to the familiar hymns of Christ, you’ll have even a song in the night.
A lot of what we see as compassion today, is little different from a holier than thou disposition.
My experience of the world is that things left to themselves don’t get right. (TH Huxley) English biologist and author, 1825-1895)
“Wherefore thou art great, O Lord God: for there is none like Thee, neither is there any God beside Thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears.” (2 Samuel 7:22)
(See 1 Samuel 23:21.) Saul plays the ever popular compassion card, with murder in his heart.
“Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. “ (Acts 8:21, Peter’s words to a man who tried to purchase the power of the Holy Ghost.)
If vegetarians expect to be thin, what about those cows?
I finally won in kickboxing. Hands down, too.
If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn’t be called research, would it? --- Albert Einstein
Trivia Answer: “New”
(See 1 Sam 22:22.) Have you ever sat in a man’s office, and you alerted yourself, and you knew the man was a gossip, that the man was critical of others, that the man had no passion for his fellows, that the man was spiritually as tinkling brass, that the man was a pretentious do-gooder? And you knew in your heart of hearts that the day would come that he would seek your harm? Here it is, warned of God. And try as you may, you can’t find real repentance on Saul’s part throughout this account. Saul’s conscience is not dead, and it shows itself from time to time, but his heart is filthy with hatred. Organized religion does that to a men and women who will not look beyond their god of Self.
Strange God
“For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean.” (Acts 17:20)
1. When the ancient Romans said, “So help you God,” or “In God we trust,” they were speaking of Caesar (the Emperor). The political and religious leaders perpetually sought after Jesus and the disciples to catch them in the act of denying that Caesar was god.
2. All through the Book of Daniel, godly men were feverishly persecuted for not bowing down to this same god.
3. Things are not much different in America in 2013.
4. There was a time that those expressions meant something in our land. Society understood across the board that our national character was rooted in the Christian faith of our founders. But America, led by its churches, has methodically reduced the name of Jesus to the lowest profile it can and still keep its “credibility.” But America wants a god.
5. There can be no question at all that almost all of the “organized church” today emulates their god of confusion, of back patting, of leniency, of self-vindicating conduct, of contrived compassion, of superficial holiness, of insincere affection, of ladder climbing, of Bible tampering, of lightly esteeming Christ, of removing the ancient landmarks, and on and on.
6. When we say, “So help you God,” or “In God we trust,“ we’re not talking about the Father of our Lord Jesus. Some of you might, but the phrases no longer mean the Biblical Christian God. We’re talking instead about a super-generic love bug that cleanses our conscience, gets us to some well-deserved heaven, puts ire in our heart when we see so many people much less morally respectable than we are, and who stands happily and approvingly over all of the world’s church buildings. He is not the God that reigns in Ephesians Chapters 1-6 and Who sent His dear Son to SAVE HIS PEOPLE FROM THEIR SINS. Humanism, Ecumenism, and Modernism is America’s godhead in our time and none of those have a thing to do with Jesus Christ.
7. Saints, we ought to be calling the world out on this monster of hypocrisy and not joining in on their love feasts honoring this foolishness. Read John, John 1, 2, and 3, and the Book of Revelation underscoring all the commands warning that any religion that doesn’t openly honor the Father AND the Son is a bogus religion, and a Satanic counterfeit.
8. Yes, we need God, and yes, we need His standards to live by. But not this god and this outrage they’re trying to pass off to day as “faith,” and VERY OBVIOUSLY this god is working to our great harm as it removes the fear of the true God from our eyes!
In Spirit and In Truth (Vol 35) 4-17-13
Man says, “My way or no way.“
The Devil says, “Your way is fine.”
God says, “Yahweh or the highway.”
“I therefore so run, not as uncertainly, so fight I, not as one that beateth the air….. (1 Corinthians 9:26)
When I was small I’d scream that there was a monster in my room. My mother would shout back, “Of course there is, dear, that’s why I’m not coming in there.”
God could not be everywhere so He made mothers. --- Jewish proverb
What a Godly Mother Wants From Her Children.
“Son, give Me thine heart.” (Proverbs 23:26)
“Be thou in the fear of the Lord.” (Proverbs 23:17)
“Cease from thine own wisdom.” (Proverbs 23:4)
“Hear thou My son and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way.”
(Proverbs 23:19)
“Consider diligently what is before thee.” (Proverbs 23:1)
“Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye.” (Proverbs 23:6)
Life in America has become reality television. How we love to sit on a couch and watch carnage, whether it be fiction or the evening news. We‘re getting use to this horror. And the largest couches are occupied by worthless professing Christians. America goes into the pit while this church rises above the throne of God to the throne of Self. No apology will be given, at least not in this eternity.
BOSTON BOMBINGS:
Hmm...another April massacre. It might be interesting to note that the Oklahoma City bombing occurred this week, the Columbine massacre occurred this week, the Waco tragedy occurred this week, the VA Tech massacre occurred this week. COINCIDENCE?? I think not. The list goes on....The American Revolution began this week, so did the American Civil War, and the Bosnian War. Still think this is coincidence? Add the Rwandan Genocide and the Armenian Genocide to the list. Also, Abraham Lincoln was shot this week. This is just the beginning of the list. Still think this is all crazed conspiracy theory?? Well, before you come to any conclusions, you may want to check out the satanic ritual calendar. The month of April is full of satanic high holy days. This is not mere chance folks. This is not a coincidence. There are very dark powers at work here. We need to be on our knees, crying out to God, warring in prayer against these demonic forces. --- Russ Dizdar (seen in Fundamentaltop500)
Believe in God, follow God’s principles for building strong families and strong businesses, and all the rest will come eventually. --- Booker T. Washington
God’s Word will not return unto Him void, it will accomplish what it was sent out to do. (See Isaiah 55:11 for exact wording.)
When our heart has gotten away, and as long as we are living in rebellion, and disloyal to God and His commandments, we cannot expect the smile of heaven and the blessing of God. --- D L Moody, speaking on backsliders
“Hear the Word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.” (Jeremiah 31:10) Why not hearken diligently to the Word of the Lord? He scatters those who rebel against Him. The God of grace and glory will keep His own forever. (Points of Emphasis)
King David Saw Victory
1. From the time he was sixteen years old, David, a man after God’s own heart was most of the time in peril, affliction, loneliness, and grief. Not to mention times of backsliding. He had national enemies, religious enemies, personal enemies, and shadowy enemies. I believe he is the only man after God’s own heart in Scripture, yet in all the suffering, he still was “passed over” for building the temple, a work after his own heart.
2. Like Moses, who looked on the promised land from Mount Pisgah knowing he‘d never see it, David accepted God’s verdict on the matter for he saw the promises fulfilled from his own “Mount Pisgah.” (See Deuteronomy 34:1-5.)
3. Every child of God stands on Mount Pisgah at some time in his life; it is here where weeping really turns to joy, where the divine has form and shape, where Christ stands victorious in the eternal future, where the gleaming gates and alabaster mansions have a genuine feel about them, and where the cross never fades yet is never to be borne again.
3. Not to stand there and see it in all of its wonder and amazement is life’s loss and tragic end. The eternal beauty will never dim.
I know not why God’s wondrous grace
To me He hath made known;
Nor why unworthy, Christ in love,
Redeemed me for His own.
But I know whom I have believed,
And am persuaded that He is able
To keep that which I’ve committed
Unto Him against that day.
If I did not sincerely trust Christ, and believe the Word of God, I would go crazy and be reduced to a sniveling inchworm before twilight tonight. Well, what IS happening to man these days?
I get a lot of exercise with my new treadmill. I dust it almost every week.
Our coach had a lifetime contract at our school. After two bad seasons, the university president called him in -- and declared him dead.
The Lord emphasizes pureness of heart by saying, “Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8) It is interesting to notice that in Matthew 5:8, “pure” means cleansed. Our hearts are made pure by the blood of Christ (Hebrews 9:14). --- Rock of Ages Bible
If you’re like me you’ll not want to have fellowship with deceitful people and those who push a private (non-Biblical) agenda or resent your honesty.
I say this with utmost confidence. If our fundamentalist cult leader would ever truly adopt and contend for the actual fundamentals of the true Christian faith, everyone would walk out of his church but his family. And the only reason they don’t is because they need a ride home.
Let us not glide through this world and then slip quietly into heaven, without having blown the trumpet loud and long for our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Let us see to it that the devil will hold a thanksgiving service in hell, when he gets the news of our departure from the field of battle. --- C. T. Studd
Devotional Moment: Blind Hearts
[] "Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart" (Ephesians 4:18)
1. It is a tragedy for a person to have blinded eyes, but infinitely worse to have a blinded heart. No one ever willfully chooses to be sightless, but spiritual blindness is a product of human will.
2. After Christ had given sight to the man born blind, the Pharisees still refused to believe, so Jesus said to the: "For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind....If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth" (John 9:59,41).
3. Like these ancient intellectuals it often seems that modern intellectuals are incurably blind. They profess to teach science and philosophy of the highest complexity, but their understanding is darkened and their hearts are blinded when it comes to the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ. As Paul says: "If our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." (II Corinthians 4:3-4).
4. Even very religious people, people who believe in God as Creator, may blind themselves when confronted with the truth that the Creator must also become their Savior. "But their minds were blinded.....even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart" (II Corinthians 3:14-15).
5. Nevertheless, Christ came as "the Light," and when anyone will simply in faith "turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away" (2 Corinthians 3:16), and the gospel will shine upon them" (2 Corinthians 4:4).
--- Henry M. Morris
A pleasing preacher is too often an appeasing preacher. --- the Universalist Leader, of all things
If Christianity were something we could put on and take off at will, it would be alone on the planet as something totally worthless.
When man walks toward God for one cubit, God runs to him for twain.
--- anonymous
The only place I’m aware of in the Bible where God runs is in the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15:20) as the compassionate father runs to his son long before the boy picks up any speed to walk the apparently long path to the house. The father has been prayerful and watchful, the boy has been backslidden and now has come back in true repentance. Note in the Bible account that the elder brother has no joy, only resentment for his brother.
“This translation of the Bible doesn’t tell it the way I think God intended to tell it so tomorrow I’ll go to the Christian Book Store and find one that does.” If you see the utter silliness of this, then you’re on your way to truth. There can be only one Truth and One Word of God. The King James Bible satisfies both of these. Have you used it as YOUR Bible?
The Deity of the Holy Spirit is Biblically affirmed in that He is: (1) Called God, see Acts 5:3,4; (2) Joined with the Father, see Matthew 28:19; (3) And the Son, see 2 Corinthians 13:14; (4) Eternal, see Hebrews 9:14; (5) Omnipotent, see Luke 1:35; (6) Omnipresent, see Psalm 139:7-13; (7) Creator, see Genesis 1:2; (8) Sovereign, see 1 Corinthians 12:6-11; (9) Behind the new creation, see John 3:3- 8; (10) Sinned against, see Matthew (12:32).
Win Them Without Apology!
When we stand before a congregation, or before a class, or before one person, let us not be apologetic. Every word spoken by us that is true to the Word of God is more definitely true than that the sun is even now shining in the heavens and that the stars will twinkle aloft tonight. God’s grace, God’s glory, God’s power, God’s person, God’s authority are back of what we tell them when we say to them, “Come to Jesus and He will save you.” It is not “Perhaps He will save you.” It is not, “If you will join this, that, or the other church. He will save you.” it is not “If you are able to hold out, He will save you.” It is that He will wash away all your sins if you will but come to claim your part and portion in His precious shed blood. --- Hyman Appelman, Paralyzed People
I started my new medication. Seems like the main side effect is bankruptcy.
When Stonehenge became financially untenable, did they just walk away from it?
By the time I was connected, I forgot why I called.
All Disobedience Will Receive It’s Just Recompence (Hebrews 2:2)
God requires obedience to His Word and does not accept man’s sincere disobedience. No! Sincere disobedience is NOT alright. Not at all. We are all too prone to that and it should be under our constant vigil. Light disobeyed still increases darkness, no matter how well-meaning we may have been. It is never right to disobey the Light that shines into the darkness of sin and rebellion. God is Light and in Him is NO DARKNESS AT ALL. God has the right to expect and demand perfect obedience to every command He gives; God has the right to expect that we will render to Him perfect obedience; God has made allowance for our shortcomings and failures.
10 Things That False Teachers Will Speak Evil Against, Will Use to Draw Off to Themselves the Weak, Vulnerable, Gullible, Teetering, or Unstable Souls. Speaking evil …
Of truth
Of Jesus Christ
Of dignities
Of what they can’t understand
Of the bearer of the truth
Of the Godhead
Of government
Of challenges to their authority and preeminence
Of the Lordship of Christ
Of righteousness
Many great men of God were ostracized by the apostasy; the latter was only to find out that great men of God don’t shut up very easy.
I told the doctor that my son makes mud pies. He said that was normal. I don’t think it’s normal -- and neither does his wife.
Read Luke 4:16-30. The people heard Jesus speak more potently than ever before (He was in His hometown of Nazareth), and at first were impressed, then shocked, and then angered with murderous rage. (Their kindness grew thin, I guess.)
Persecution has only had a tendency to extend and establish the faith which it was designed to destroy… There is no lesson which men have been so slow to learn as that to oppose and persecute men is the very way to confirm them in their opinions, and to spread their doctrines. --- author unknown
Ninety-nine percent of all apostasy has to do with loving the church more than the Savior. Ultimately, it will be a love for the church without the Savior. I have watched it unearthed for twelve years and it is as regular as clockwork.
Today we do not have a boyfriend or girlfriend. We have a partner. A lot went out in the wash the day that euphemism was coined.
This evil and irrational hatred toward those demanding responsibility and accountability did not exist fifty years ago. Such an evil mentality had a specific name in those days: it was called anarchy. (Today it’s called compassion.)
Drug use is wrong because it is immoral, and it is immoral because it enslaves the mind and destroys the soul. --- Sociologist James Q. Wilson
The only kind of economic stimulus that creates meaningful and productive jobs is that that is injected into private enterprise. When vast chunks of the economy go to entitlements and social programs, there’s little to stoke private enterprise.
They won’t allow me to withdraw from my rainy day fund. It ain’t raining.
I found some seasonal work. At the plant, making salt and pepper.
Sin is committed against three persons:
(1) Ourselves. (Proverbs 8:36)
(2) Others. (Romans 5:12)
(3) And God. (Psalm 51:4; 1 Corinthians 8:12)
Sin is described as:
(1) Transgression. (Matthew 15:3)
(2) Perversion of what’s right. (1 John 5:17)
(3) Disobedience. (Romans 5:19)
(4) Rebellion. (Isaiah 1:2)
(5) And lawlessness. (1 John 3:4)
A lot of preaching against sin meets resistance by overstepping the limits and getting into the sin of people who can exert power.
A Real Church Glorifies God.
Most of the liberal churches [and too many of the conservative churches] in America glorify man in the flesh. You can tell by their music, their preaching, their dress, their attitude [and their comings and goings]. It has nothing to do with the Spirit of God. It has everything to do with the fact that they are glorifying man. But the real church glorifies God. “Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same Scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.” (Acts 8:35)
Larger Than We Think
---Robert J. Samuelson (2-25-13)
The true national debt could be triple the conventional estimate, anywhere from $11 trillion to $31 trillion by my reckoning. The differences mostly reflect explicit and implicit “off budget” federal loan guarantees. In another economic downturn, these could result in large losses that would be brought “on budget” and worsen already huge deficits.
Over and over again I see women in these altruistic testimonies, semi-bragging that they chose to have their baby, as if heroic kudos should be showered on them. That automatically means you had the choice to murder the baby and you’re just as guilty of backing genocide as if you stuck the scissors in the baby’s brain yourself. THERE IS NO CHOICE EXCEPT LAW ABIDING AND MURDER! The law allowing abortion is NOT approved by God at so much as the neutron level and it should not be sanctified in any way shape or form. If you have made a choice, you have simply deferred the murder to a future choice.
The reason many churches have icicles hanging from their ceilings is because they have polar bears in their pulpits.” --- Ray Barber
Far too much of the world has come to the church, and far too much of the church has gone to the world. --- Jack Hyles
As far as I’m concerned, it is little more than a low life who would pressure you to compromise down to their selfish level. I take great pride and joy raising the compromise bar in their faces, they who would demean the glory of God by sitting on His High Throne! Compromise is a heart thing to the apostate; it is a septic tank thing for the people of God. Maybe those two things in the final turn of events will actually end up being exactly the same thing. Jesus has already suggested that this will be the case. (See Matthew 12:34)
The Dividing Line
1. Of course, we know God has mapped out His plan in two consecutive parts: Old Testament and New. But there is a far more significant break than that and God planned it as well.
2. The eleven disciples (the twelve minus Judas) were a motley affair. They barely exceeded grade school all the while Jesus “began to teach them.” They bickered for position, they whined over people that were more successful than themselves, they seemed never to catch on to anything that transcended 1+1 =2, they smarted off to people trying to see Jesus, they were frightened by common storms, they could not grasp much of what Jesus taught, they couldn’t remember something that had happened four hours earlier, they had no understanding whatsoever of Jesus’ imminent crucifixion, they seemed in a cloud much of a time, they were dreamy-eyed when Jesus was heavy and burdened, they let their hearts be hardened, they needed to be lead by the hand over the simplest of matters, they wanted to burn down a hotel that wouldn’t book them, they wanted to build cathedrals for two dead prophets, they even rebuked the Master, they slept through Jesus’ darkest hour in the Garden, they bodily attacked an arresting soldier, and almost to a man they forsook Him at Gethsemane!
3. Even though Jesus hand-picked them, there was absolutely no future for these men in Christian religion; there was not so much as a blip on the radar suggesting for even a moment of any future for these men beyond Jesus’ great optimism for them; there isn’t a smidgeon of an indication in the Good Book that a single one of them was destined for a career in religion. The account had every reason on earth to end right there, ingloriously and even without perpetuity.
4. UNTIL THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST!
5. “And with the heart, believest that God raised Him from the dead.”
6. Then all would not only live some of the most fruitful lives in the history of the church, build the new church on tens of thousands of wholly unpredictable converts, to change the face of history in a way that could never have been thought given the information we had up to that point, but would do so in horrific martyrdom of themselves for His name’s sake and the Gospel’s.
7. John alone escaped the martyr’s axe, and he would write a third of the New Testament and provide us a testimony of such glowing deep and personal intimacy with Christ that scarcely a one of us aren‘t gripped by it when we read his powerful words of truth and love and inarguable reasons to believe.
8. How are we to explain this except to say that everything Jesus had taught them came together when the stone was rolled away, and they knew for the first time what it meant to be “born again“ when the risen Savior showed them, that because He lived, they too would live.
9. The Bible tells us at Mark 16:1-4 that the sun was rising over the sepulchre and it revealed the stone rolled away. The brightest sun and the heaviest stone marked a change that even the most faithful of the faithful has to be wholly baffled at the magnitude of it. He is the Resurrection and the Life --- but only when the stone was rolled away, did people really understand what He meant. The sun has kept faithfully shining; and that stone rolled away death and ignominy and it opened up an incredibly altogether impossible eternity.
10. And everything --- EVERYTHING --- took on a new shape, a new hope, a NEW LOVE, LIFE, AND WORK!
What a Day That Will Be.
What a day that will be,
When my Jesus I shall see.
And I look upon His face,
The one who saved me by His grace,
When He takes me by the hand,
And leads me through the promised land,
What a day glorious day that will be.
Assume nothing: there is no trusting appearances. --- adapted, Richard B. Sheridan
I think before we clean up the planet, we ought to clean up its people.
Jimmy, name two of your responsibilities at your house.
Get out and stay out.
Protester #1. The World Ends Today
Protester #2. The World Ends Tomorrow
Even the Protest Industry is having trouble making ends meet.
God Has His Man --- It’s You!
1. I know that being a true, abiding, laboring, fruitful, contending, and Gospel bearing Christian today gets harder and harder every week. But the world found a whipping boy in Jesus Christ, and, in the same way you became His light when He went to Heaven, it needs be that the world will have a whipping boy in you as well.
2. We ought read the Second Psalm every day when we wake up: it should be our understanding of every day as we go into the vineyard to work for the Master. Like Paul, we’re chosen to be some level of vessel who WILL suffer for our Dear Lord. As you live godly for Him, the world will take offense, even the so-called believing world who some time ago made modern Christianity an Era of Charity, Peaceful Coexistence, and Enlightenment.
3. When you speak truth, live holy, labor fruitfully, contend faithfully, decry sin, and seek His will in everything, the world will be exposed for the religious weasel it is. And that will cause you temporal afflictions. But Jesus said Because He lives, we’ll live too and it’s clear that the way home is through the cross we bear on our own back. Don’t fear it, don’t lay it aside, don’t hide it, don’t resent it -- hoist it, obey it, proclaim it, and endure it for the joy that lies ahead.
4. As ugly as that awful cross is, it’s beautiful in its ransom power, and in its loveliest imaginable promise of an eternal life of beaming light, showering love, timeless repose, magic song, galvanic testimonies, exultant fellowship, pulchritudinous landscapes, and elegant fare at the throne of the Lamb. If the feet who on this side took the Blessed Gospel Light o’er the mountains and across the valleys were beautiful, how beautiful will those feet be when they walk on streets of pure gold?
5. Oh beloved, Christ made peace with God for us by the blood of the cross, now enter into that peace with patience, obedience, and a surefooted compass in the Word of God. Reckon --- Paul Romans 8 18
[] Advertising is a liar, deceiver, and a vast purveyor of untruth.
[] People are not really won to the true Christ and His saving Gospel by compromising with the beliefs and behaviors of the ungodly world.
[] (For what it’s worth department) I once heard a great man of God refer to a certain attitude in the church as “snotty” Christianity. [Interesting?]
[] “When Christ came into my life, I came about like a well-handled ship.” --- Robert Lewis Stevenson
[] They should have known He was God. His patience should have proved that to them. --- Tertullian
It is easier to keep the heart clean than to clean it after it has been defiled. ---
Reformers Unanimous, One of their Ten Principles [I doubt that in reality, this principle receives good mileage in these enlightenment camps that offer themselves under “Reformers Unanimous.” God bless UR, God bless the Biblically true workers!]
Doctor, a man is waiting. He’s some nobody with an inferiority complex.
The game got so bad that by the middle of the fourth inning they were selling hot dogs to go.
Does a pawnbroker have any redeeming qualities?
Attila’s Wife: So you never took the castle?
Attila: He was willing to surrender alright but he said his mother-in-law had to be part of the deal.
Our team was tough, we had a lot of nicknames - Scarface, Blackie, Toothless. And those were just the cheerleaders.
You chose a football recruit who plays the piano?
Yeah, and he can pick it up too.
God’s Way of Salvation.
1. What does God want you to do? “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” John 1:12
2. How can you believe? “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Romans 10:9-10
3. What can you do to show that you believe? You can sincerely pray this prayer - or another prayer from your own heart - and tell God that you believe and accept (trust) His Son as your Savior.
Lord, I know that I am a sinner. Please forgive me for my sins and help me to turn from them in hatred for them. I know that I deserve Hell for my sins. But I believe that Jesus died to pay for my sins and to take the punishment for me. I know that He purchased my salvation with His own precious blood, and has given me the precious gift of eternal life with Him in Heaven. I trust Him and accept Him now as my Savior. Amen.
In making our salvation possible it not only cost God His only Son, and cost Heaven the most precious Jewel there, but it cost The Son every drop of His precious blood. Every pain He suffered --- soul, spirit, and body --- every tear He shed, every heartache He endured, every miracle He performed, every good deed He did, every step He walked on this earth, every lash they put on His back, the crown of thorns they put on His head, the scourging, the mocking, the spittle in His face, the plucking off the hair from His cheeks, the spikes in His feet, the terrible cry of agony, “Mt God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” … all these things were necessary that we might be able to call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. ---Oliver B. Greene
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by Me.” (John 14:6)
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Jesus said, “… Straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth to life, and few there be that find it.” (Matthew 7:14)
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The Holy Spirit said, “And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, this is the way, walk ye in it…” (Isaiah 30:21)
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My Bible says, “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” (Colossians 3:2)
The greatest threat to Christianity today is Christianity -- compromising, world-appeasing, self-interested, and agenda pushing Christianity.
I have learned in life that a person who does not wish to fully surrender to Christ doesn’t intend to take His Word seriously either.
I have little compulsion to prove publicly that I’m some grand compassion vendor in the incessant commiserating with my fellow man. I simply don’t have time to ridicule, denigrate, and punish people who don’t love as often and well as I do. I’m just to busy trying to love this lost and dying world into putting their trust in Christ as their Savior; to get them out of Hell and into Heaven; to get them out of the vicious clutches of a filthy Devil; to get them out of the vice grip of their own sin and self; to get tem safely into the arms of Jesus who can save to the uttermost. While I’m doing that, I tell the world it’s going to Hell in a hand basket. Jesus is my authority on both counts. And I don’t have time for all of this foolishness the churches are putting out there.
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