Reformed. Christianity. Evangelism. Modern Culture.
Matt has an interesting post on conversion therapy. Matt is a 23-year-old blogger who is sharing his testimony of being engrossed in a homosexual lifestyle and heavy drinking till two years ago when Matt was transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ (he is no longer a practicing homosexual by the grace of God). I would suggest you read his testimony here. He asks pertinent questions in this article. Do we come to Jesus because of the things we can get from him? Read on….
Although I fully support biblical and spiritual counseling, I am not the biggest fan of the idea of conversion therapy. Nor am I a fan of programs that lead people to focus more on their desire to haveheterosexual attractions than their to desire to know Jesus Christ (who, by the way, is the only One who holds the power to create such a transformation in sexual desires). I just can not bring myself to support the idea of putting someone through a systematic program solely in order to “re-orient” them. Now, with that said, there are many biblical, Christ centered programs out there who help sexually broken people find healing by pointing them toward the grace of God found in Jesus Christ. I would take a bullet for these kinds of ministries, being that I myself struggle with homosexuality and know how confusing and lonely it can be at times. These ministries do great, glorifying work in the Name of Jesus that help many people. They are far from perfect, but what ministry can claim perfection?
Before I became a believer, I heard about Christians who had claimed to be “cured” of their homosexuality by means of conversion therapy, but then these people would later be found in gay bars or having sex with men they met on the internet. After becoming a believer, I have seen and heard this even more frequently. I think the title conversion therapy is often erroneously placed on organizations that are not trying to sexually “re-orient” people, but rather are helping people to find healing through the means of an intimate relationship with their Creator and Savior. Those who have a sound biblical perspective on homosexuality know that the issue of same sex attraction is really just a symptom of a much deeper problem stemming from the innate brokenness and sinfulness of the person’s heart. Sexual re-orientation is not the goal; holiness in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit is the goal. …Read More!
Today as I visited central London (entirely for a different purpose), I was acutely reminded of
Recently there’s been a drastic decline in the numbers of snake handling pastors. Don’t guess why. The theology has been profoundly hermeneutically dodgy and even savvy pagans are out doing them in their fancy snake charming gimmicks. However in a renewed bid to show off to the rest of the world and to other lesser endowed Christians the snake handling fundamentalists are out again to drum up support and to underline the difference between the “haves” and the “have nots”. You see…
NASHVILLE – Hamblin, 21, pastor of Tabernacle Church of God in LaFollette, Tenn., is part of a new generation of serpent-handling Christians who are revitalizing a century-old faith tradition in Tennessee.
While older serpent handlers were wary of outsiders, these younger believers welcome visitors and use Facebook to promote their often misunderstood — and illegal — version of Christianity. They want to show the beauty and power of their extreme form of spirituality. And they hope eventually to reverse a state ban on handling snakes in church.
Since the early 1900s, a handful of true believers in Eastern Tennessee and other parts of Appalachia have practiced the so-called signs of the gospel, found in a little-known passage in the King James Version of the Gospel of Mark:
“And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”
While other churches ignore this passage or treat it metaphorically, serpent handlers follow it literally. Their intense faith demands sinless living and rewards them with spiritual ecstasy — the chance to hold life and death in their hands.
It began with a tingling
Brother Micah Golden felt it first while standing in the parking lot with other worshipers, waiting for church to start during a three-day revival in early May. It began with a tingling in his hands that spread over his body. Then he began to moan and pray. …Read More!
If we define morality and the institution of marriage by our own human standards we are bound to open the flood gates for even the wackiest of ideas. No, I am not kidding. If we eliminate God’s standard of morality we soon find ourselves with situations like this one.
A woman who grew impatient with waiting for Mr. Right has found a solution: she’s married herself.
36-year-old single mother Nadine Schweigert stood in front of 40 family members and friends as she took part in a ‘commitment ceremony,’ swapping rings with her ‘inner groom.’
Schweigert, from Fargo, North Dakota, even read vows at the wedding, promising that:
“I, Nadine, promise to enjoy inhabiting my own life and to relish a lifelong love affair with my beautiful self.”
News of her solo wedding got passed around, and within days Schweigert found herself speaking to Anderson Cooper about her motives for marrying herself. …Read More!
On a lighter note…don’t read this while sipping coffee infront of your computer:
Sign #1: You’ve given up smoking your pipe because you want to actually be able to afford term life insurance.
Sign #2: Your ‘Jonathan Edwards is My Homeboy’ shirt is faded and now simply reads, ‘Jonathan Edwards is My Home.”
Sign #3: You now read your ESV Bible more than you read John Piper.
Sign #4: You’ve considered writing a book (for P&R rather than Crossway), Old, Well-Rested, and Reformed. [Copyright: Adam Parker, 2010] (You want the name, Collin Hansen!? Come back in 30 years and just try to get it!)
Sign #5: You find yourself warning newbies about ‘the cage stage,’ and then you find yourself reminiscing about terrorizing unsuspecting Arminians back in your day.
Sign #6: You actually know who Van Til is.
Sign #7: You have decided that is is okay to plod.
Sign #8: Your iPod now has more sermons by Sinclair Ferguson than it does of Mark Driscoll. …Read More!
This cartoon depicts what has become of good churches…they are very hard to find!
HT friends on FB.
Well I don’t know how this piece of news will be taken. Some will say, “Aha! It’s the mark of the beast being unleashed!” Others will…well let me not speculate. You see The Daily Mail recently published that…
Barcodes and microchips could be found on nearly everything these days, but could humans be next?
American science fiction author Elizabeth Moon raised a few eyebrows last week when she revived the debate about whether it could be beneficial to place barcodes on babies at birth during an interview on a BBC radio program.
‘I would insist on every individual having a unique ID permanently attached — a barcode if you will — an implanted chip to provide an easy, fast inexpensive way to identify individuals,’ she said on a weekly show called The Forum, according to the New York Daily News.
According to Moon, aged 67, the tools that are currently used for the purposes of surveillance and identification, such as video cameras and DNA testing, are too slow and expensive.
Placing a barcode on each person at birth, in her opinion, would solve these problems.
While the technology is already in place, civil liberties advocates have decried past efforts to make ‘barcoding’ a reality, claiming that …Read More!
I have lately been searching for Reformed and conservative missionary groups in Africa more especially Uganda. On the surface Uganda just like many other third world countries struggles with many issues theological and otherwise. Christianity in Africa as they say is “a mile wide but an inch deep”. I am deeply grateful for the few laborers going into the field and faithfully preaching the gospel and discipling new believers. Today I will feature a simple letter (blog post ) written a little while ago. It is written by James Huckabee a missionary from America to rural Western Uganda.
Greetings! I thought I’d send a brief letter and let you see the latest construction out at the Juru church. They have put the roof on the pole building, and we had our first service at the new location yesterday. Thank you to the church that sent us money for the construction. This is what your money built:
We had a great service. The morale of the church is greatly improved. I know it wasn’t terribly comfortable meeting in the old place, which had mud walls and a tarp roof (’til some lowlife stole it). It was wet in there when it rained, and hot in the sun. This new building is dry and cool. There’s always a nice breeze. …Read More!
Crown Rights Media takes you behind the scenes while asking a street preacher (Tony Miano) a few hard questions on open air or street preaching. It’s worth the 4 minutes:
My highlight indeed was meeting with the one and only ….Charles Darwin! We had a chat but he is rather quiet these days. You see …Read More!
Britain’s NHS (National Health Service) is changing fast. Many say that a hidden agenda is relentlessly pushing for drastic erosion of traditional family values and roles. You see…
The Health Service has removed the word ‘dad’ from a pregnancy handbook for fear of offending gay and lesbian parents.
Officials decided to use the term ‘partner’ throughout the 200-page guide, titled Ready Steady Baby, after receiving a complaint that ‘dad’ was discriminating against same-sex couples.
But the omission of the word has angered some campaigners who claim that traditional family values are being undermined. …Read More!
Voddie Baucham delivers a much needed sermon on “Adapting to the Culture or Not” at the Master’s College.
Download this Sermon here. [Audio]
HT: W. Revels via FB.
J. Lee Grady is a clear thinking Charismatic and also the contributing editor of Charisma. Having grown increasingly aware that the so-called “Spirit-filled” churches of today struggle with many of the same things the Catholic church faced in the 1500s, he says he is going to (just like Luther and the Wittenberg door) he is going to nail down his theses on the Charismatic church door. We (says Lee) don’t have “indulgences”—we have telethons. We don’t have popes—we have super-apostles. We don’t support an untouchable priesthood—we throw our money at celebrity evangelists who own fleets of private jets. Further more he laments that its past time for a Charismatic Reformation (this article was first published 26th October 2011 in honor of Reformation Day):
1. Let’s reform our theology. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. He is God and He is holy. He is not an “it.” He is not a blob, a force, or an innate power. We must stop manipulating Him, commanding Him and throwing Him around.
2. Let’s return to the Bible. The Word of God is the foundation for the Christian experience. Any dramatic experience, no matter how spiritual it seems, must be tested by the Word and the Holy Spirit’s discernment. Visions, dreams, prophecies and encounters with angels must be in line with Scripture. If we don’t test them we could end up spreading deception.
3. It’s time for personal responsibility. We charismatics must stop blaming everything on demons. People are usually the problem.
4. Stop playing games. Spiritual warfare is a reality, but we are not going to win the world to Jesus just by shouting at demonic principalities. We must pray, preach and persevere to see ultimate victory.
5. Stop the foolishness. People who hit, slap or push others during prayer should be asked to sit down until they learn gentleness is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. …Read More!
It is a good thing to go to church with the bible firmly tucked under your arm. It’s also a good thing to watch Christian television with an open bible planted firmly under your nose. But some times having a bible with you is not all that the discerning listener needs. False teachers have invented a new smart technique that beats the lazy eyed listener…its the “heresy two step” technique:
The Heresy Two-step starts with two feet on the text. The allusion must be given that the text is going to be taught on. Then a sliding step backwards is taken into an abstraction. You move from the text to an idea about the text or to a word in the text. Once the text is abstracted and a general principle or something along these lines is made. You can now wiggle around and go in any direction you want. You can make the text say whatever you want. Instead of teaching the text you are pontificating on this abstraction which was drawn from the text.
For some of us who are less experienced I hope this explanation is helpful in discerning false teachers, but it would seem to act as a measure for anyone who preaches/teaches. One needs to understand that exegesis and hermeneutics do have a critical role in preaching and understanding what the text says. …Read More!
A couple of Christians (on Facebook) were concerned and discussing the recent sickening decline of the situation in Syria. With hordes of bodies of children sprawling in deserted streets, no body seems to be interested in stepping up to put a speedy end to the blood shed. One Christian lamented how the West was quick to take tangible action against Libya but how long would it be before the West decided to take tangible action against Syria? Hasn’t that regime utterly disqualified itself from any legitimacy? A wise reply came from one J. Dowton:
I absolutely agree that things can’t continue on this way. The problems, however, are that the government and the resistance movement/s both/all seem to be committing atrocities and lying about them (so it’s hard to tell what’s fact, except that people are dying horribly), and the animosity between Syria (with connections to Iran) and Israel (with connections to the U.S. and U.K.) would likely mean that Western military intervention would probably be even more of a disaster (and the history of Western intervention in Syria has not gone well).
It seems to be a lose-lose situation no matter what happens.
Prayer is good! (and not just ‘resigned to passivity’ prayer but rather prayer that whatever does happen actually has a positive effect and puts a halt to the unimaginable, terrifying chaos that is now the case).
Pray for Syria. Pray for the Christians there too. Pray ceaselessly that the chaos and depravity that seems to be plunging such a beautiful country into utter depth of moral decline will come to a quick resolution.
Pray for Syria!
Well how do you draw crowds on Pentecost Sunday? Er, by eating fire behind the pulpit. Seriously …
A fire-breathing vicar has lit up his Gloucestershire church with a party trick he learnt in order to entertain friends at barbecues.
Reverend Nick Davies, of St Philip and St James’ Church in Cheltenham, was marking Pentecost.
“I don’t get many ooh’s and aah’s and gasps during my sermon but I did this morning,” he said.
At Pentecost the church celebrates the descending of the Holy Spirit for the first time on Jesus’s disciples.
The Bible says the disciples were together when they were filled with the Holy Spirit and what appeared to be tongues of fire came to rest on each of them.
Mr Davies has never accidentally set fire to anything but he said the church banners were moved to the far end of the building just in case.
“There were some suggestions that some people would like us to get rid of the pews, and this could be a good opportunity …Read More!
John Calvin was born in 1509. He died in 1564. This year on the 27th of May we will read what Philip Schaff wrote about John’s death. Before he died his last wish was to be buried in an unmarked grave with no witnesses and no ceremony. Schaff writes:
… Calvin spent his last days in almost continual prayer, and in ejaculating comforting sentences of Scripture, mostly from the Psalms. He suffered at times excruciating pains. He was often heard to exclaim: “I mourn as a dove” (Isa. 38:14); “I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it” (Ps. 39:9); “Thou bruisest me, O Lord, but it is enough for me that it is thy hand.” His voice was broken by asthma, but his eyes remained bright, and his mind clear and strong to the last. He admitted all who wished to see him, but requested that they should rather pray for him than speak to him.
On the day of his death he spoke with less difficulty. He fell peacefully asleep with the setting sun towards eight o’clock, and entered into the rest of his Lord. “I had just left him,” says Beza, “a little before, and on receiving intimation from the servants, immediately hastened to him with one of the brethren. We found that he had already died, and so very calmly, without any convulsion of his feet or hands, that he did not even fetch a deeper sigh. He had remained perfectly sensible, and was not entirely deprived of utterance to his very last breath. Indeed, he looked much more like one sleeping than dead.”
He had lived fifty-four years, ten months, and seventeen days.
HT Jim West. (And there is a good collection of posts here. Thanks to my good friend and insomniac, Jim again! 😉 )
On a lighter note:
Hank: Did you boys hear all of that racket & commotion this morning at church? It was like a bomb went off on the stage, I tell you what…
Dale: Hank, that is what we contemporary worshippers call praise &
worship music.Bill: I kind of liked it when the guitar player set his guitar on fire while he played the solo to In-A-Godda-Da-Vida.
Boomhauer: I tell you what, man, that ol’ boy, he played that, boom! …that wuz good stuff.
Re blogged from The Truthinator’s blog.
I am not usually the kind that gleans theology from the local new paper. But once in a while an interesting post does come up. A recent investigation does confirm that an earth quake did occur around the time period that Pontius Pilate was Procurator. That’s not all….
Jesus died on Friday, April 3, 33AD, according to an investigation which matches his death to an earthquake.
The investigation, from the International Geology Review, looked at earthquake activity around the Dead Sea, which is around 13 miles from Jerusalem.
The Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 27, says that as Jesus lay dying on the cross, an earthquake shook the area, scattering graves and making the sky go dark.
Now researchers have looked at textual accounts, geological records and astronomical data to find the most likely date for Jesus’s death. …Read More!
You have probably heard that question before. Brace yourself…
Avoid superficial interpretation. One of the common problems in interpreting the Bible is this little phrase, “This verse means to me….” so forth and so forth and so forth. Let me tell you something. It doesn’t matter what it means to you, the question is what would it mean if you weren’t alive? What would it mean if you didn’t exist? What does it mean PERIOD is the issue, not what does it mean to you. Sometimes you’ll hear people get together and supposedly have a Bible study which is little-more than a pooling of ignorance. People say, “Well, I look at this verse and I feel this verse is saying…”
It doesn’t matter what you feel. That has nothing to do with it.
It’s not a matter of how you feel about the verse, it’s not a matter of what you think it means to you. Avoid ad-libbing in Bible interpretation. …Read More!
A couple of years ago I was struggling with several theological issues. Most stemmed from my background in the Seeker Sensitive church. I was battling to understand decisional regeneration plus I was wondering why I wasn’t hearing preaching more about sin, righteousness, judgement or even hearing the gospel of Christ’s death for the forgiveness of sins. Most of the sermons I was being lavished with were about how to live a better life, make more money, have a better marriage and not miss the next “fun filled” conference on how to become a better me. Well these motivational tips are not bad in them selves (I was actually over dosing on the same topics or even better ones on secular radio and television talk shows). What I desperately needed was Christ-centered biblical approach of the old paths of Christianity. And sure enough one of the blogs I came across seemed to challenge me in a good way. It was The Old Truth.
The Old Truth was run by a gentle man called Jim. I later tracked him down and realised he had slowed down and wasn’t writing as actively any more. Jim’s life had taken one tumble too many. He at the last time I counted has broken at least 70 bones in his body (due to a rare medical condition that makes his bones brittle). Was diagnosed with End Stage Liver disease (has been waiting a liver transplant for the last over 4 years) and was spending more time in hospital than at home. But he amazed me with his ever humorous writing and attitude and more so with a profound trust in God. I started this blog soon afterwards and I have re blogged several of his posts over here, here and here. I even used this set of questions on the Sovereignty of God in Salvation from Jim that is featured on my profile page.
This week I would like to ask you to pray for my good friend Jim. In a blog update (on May 22nd 2012) on the CaringBridge website titled “The beginning of the End” he says:
Today I was told that my liver simply will not process blood anymore; it is irreversibly dying and that I have days or weeks to live.
So, tomorrow starts the preparations for my journey home. I need to have an Oxygen tank ready, a whole bunch of other medical equipment, pain pump, and arrange a private ambulance to get me home.
Read more of this post
With the myriad of false teachers parading in church today some say, it is unbiblical to “name names”. They add and lament that it is unloving to do so. Those who do so are summarily labelled as “judgemental” or “divisive ” brethren trying to rock the boat and should be avoided like the plague. Oh wait a minute Sir! But what does the Bible say though?
Yet, as I study the Scriptures….The authors of Scripture take false teaching very seriously and so must we. Indeed, throughout the New Testament, we see numerous examples of specific men named as false teachers—as traitors to the gospel.
Paul tells Timothy that Hymenaeus, Alexander and Philetus are among those who have made a shipwreck of their faith and swerved from the truth (1 Tim. 1:20; 2 Tim. 2:17-18). Their “irreverent babble,” he says, will spread like gangrene among God’s people. …Read More!
Pieter Stok has travelled far and wide with his camera. He has been to several places and gathered interesting photographs along the way. Some times he takes his muppet friend Grover along. At the moment I believe he is travelling from Ur but you will love his collection of Stave churches that have survived for centuries:
The Uvdal Stavkirke (Stave Church) in Numedal district in central southern Norway. It dates from the end of the 1100s and was remodelled into a cruciform shape in 1720. It is one of about 30 that remain in Norway today. Below is the more ornate Gol Stavkirke now found in the Norsk Folkemuseum in Oslo on the island of Bygdoy. This was built in about 1200 and moved to the present site in 1885. …See More!
Since the time of Simon the magician there has always been a relentless surge for the miraculous. (Actually in the days of Jesus many loved following him just for fish and bread). Simon in his day was a local celebrity. He was a magician of sorts, and had mesmerized the locals with his arts. And they had given him the title “The Great Power of God”. And he loved it. He basked in his reputation and fed off the admiration and respect he received. I bet he would have made it big time on the talk show circuits around Jerusalem.
Speaking of circuits, a local pastor recently found a signs and wonders tent pitched up right near his church. Pastor Scott Rodriguez did what every pastor ought to do in this kind of situation:
Brothers, several have been asking for some backstory/context on these videos. Mrs. Muldoon set her tent up across the street from our church (it is still there until Sunday 5/20.) I received a call from one of our people that some families that attend our church were sitting in her audience. Others were there to pray and share the gospel afterwards with people leaving. They had been accosted by a young man named Devon, (the managers son) on the evening before when he overheard one of our young men talking with someone after the service about the call of Pastor being reserved for men. …Read More!
I had a very interesting trip recently to Germany and Switzerland as I followed a few of the Reformers. One of them stuck out. No he didn’t nail theses on walls but he knew how to get his point across. I must add here that the Reformation actually was not a one man crusade as some would want you to believe. God in his providence harnessed events in tandem to bring about one of the greatest revivals since Pentecost and the visible effects were actually out workings and fruits of birth pangs that had began with people going back to reading the scriptures.
In Zürich (Switzerland) stands a statue that has braved mischievous and militant Swiss pigeons to the hilt. It stands in the church yard of one of the biggest cathedrals in Zürich, the Grossmünster. The statue is of the man who was called “the people’s priest” Ulrich (Huldrych) Zwingli. Zwingli was born January 1, 1484 in Wildhaus, Switzerland. Early scholarly gifts caused him to be sent to school, especially at Basel, and he learned to love the classics.
When Zwingli became a priest he arrived in Zürich town with the announcement that he would begin to preach right through the Gospel of Matthew. This was a departure from the fragmentary reading of Scripture that had prevailed in the medieval Church. After Matthew he preached through Acts and then turned his attention to Paul’s epistles. There is a lot that the contemporary church movement would learn from this simple man who led to spiritual reform from just beginning to preach verse by verse (expository preaching) at the Grossmünster. (Click here for Zwingli resources online)
The Grossmünster (“great minster”) is a Romanesque-style Protestant church in Zürich, Switzerland. It is near the banks of the Limmat River. Construction of the present structure commenced around 1100 and it was inaugurated around 1220. Huldrych Zwingli initiated the Swiss-German Reformation in Switzerland from his pastoral office at the Grossmünster, starting in 1520. Zwingli won a series of debates …Read More!
The recent Reformation Week conference in German/Switzerland gave me an opportunity to visit the memorial stone of John Huss. The slide show depicts: sights and scenes in Constance, The Huss museum, Huss memorial stone, the munster (cathedral) in Constance. So, who was John Huss?
John Huss (Jan Hus) was born in Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic) in about 1371. He received a master’s degree from Charles University in Prague in 1396, became a professor of theology in 1398, was ordained to the priesthood in 1400, was made rector of the University in 1402, and in 1404 received a bachelor’s degree in theology (presumably a more advanced degree than the term suggests today).
In his day, there was a crisis of authority in the Western Church. In 1305, under pressure from the King of France, the seat of the Popes was move from Rome to Avignon in France, where it remained for 70 years. (This period is called the Babylonian Captivity of the Papacy, suggesting the 70 years that Jerusalem lay desolate after when the Jews were deported to Babylon.) …Read More!
Seeing that today’s post modern generation has a rabid interest in ambiguity, the latest Mayan discovery has sent hordes of anxious young people spinning on their heads as the end of the world has become infinitely indeterminable. Surely the Mayans must have hidden this bit of calendar and then tweeted to themselves “LOL”! You see….
In a striking find, archaeologists in Guatemala report the discovery of a small building whose walls display not only a stunningly preserved mural of a brightly adorned Mayan king, but also calendars that destroy any notion that the Mayans predicted the end of the world in 2012.
These deep-time calendars can be used to count thousands of years into the past and future, countering pop-culture and New Age ideas that Mayan calendars ended on Dec. 21, 2012, (or Dec. 23, depending on who’s counting), thereby predicting the end of the world.
The newly found calendars, which track the motion of the moon, Venus and Mars, provide …Read More!
This year’s conference began with evening dinner on Thursday 3rd May followed by sessions led by Dr. Bernhard Kaiser. Dr Kaiser is founder and director of the Institute of Reformational theology in Reiskirchen near Giessen, Germany and is a lecturer in Systematic theology at the Selye-Janos University in Komamo, Slovakia. His passion is teaching the relevance of reformation Theology for today’s generation.
This year’s programme delved in to Reformation Theology (the Solas) …Read More!
A local pastor Jodwell K. Olsteen has renounced prosperity gospel in a sudden turn of events. Known for his sell out stadium events that always drew the elite of society and celebrities, this is surely out of character for the always smiling and positive talking pastor.
In a press release circulated around Hollywood the remorseful man of God said he had come to realise the depth of his own depravity and sin. He had realised he had given many people false hope in preaching “prosperity for all” in the name of Jesus. Jodwell said that the prosperity gospel preachers create a ponzi scheme. He likened it to clouds with out water and a road to no where. But his biggest remorse came from the fact that his messages had corrupted the gospel and inoculated people to the message of the cross. Hence forth, Mr Olsteen’s ministry has been dissolved the money has been used to buy bibles for Christians in North Korea and the rest donated anonymously to churches in Timbuktu and Kwazulu Natal (Africa). If he has defrauded any one he has requested that the person be re-paid four times the original value. Mr J. K Olsteen listed a number of former cronies and millionaire pastors and called them out to preach more about “sin, righteousness and judgement”.
Visitors to the pastor’s website were greeted by this Puritan poem prayer:
Lord Jesus, give me a deeper repentance, a horror of sin, a dread of its approach. Help me chastely to flee it and jealously to resolve that my heart shall be Thine alone.
Give me a deeper trust, that I may lose myself to find myself in Thee, the ground of my rest, the spring of my being. Give me a deeper knowledge of Thyself as saviour, master, lord, and king. Give me deeper power in private prayer, more sweetness in Thy Word, more steadfast grip on its truth. Give me deeper holiness in speech, thought, action, and let me not seek moral virtue apart from Thee.
Plough deep in me, great Lord, heavenly husbandman, that my being may be a tilled field, the roots of grace spreading far and wide, until Thou alone art seen in me, Thy beauty golden like summer harvest, Thy fruitfulness as autumn plenty.
I have no master but Thee, no law but Thy will, no delight but Thyself, no wealth but that Thou givest, no good but that Thou blessest, no peace but that Thou bestowest. I am nothing but that Thou makest me. I have nothing but that I receive from Thee. I can be nothing but that grace adorns me. Quarry me deep, dear Lord, and then fill me to overflowing with living water. –The Deeps, A Puritan Prayer
Majors news outlets still cannot deny or confirm the validity of all these accounts. Some say this could just be a satirical prank. But could it be true? 🙂
DISCLAIMER: ALL CHARACTERS, NAMES, LIKENESSES AND EVENTS IN THIS STORY—ARE ENTIRELY FICTIONAL AND ANY RESEMBLANCE TO PERSONS LIVING OR DEAD MAY BE PURELY COINCIDENTAL.
A very interesting and very dis heartening occurence these days in many churches and among very well meaning Christians is when time for testimonies exceeds time given to listening to the preaching of the gospel. No, testimonies are not wrong. They indeed remind us that God is doing marvellous things in our midst. But it is also good to remember that it is the gospel that saves and not the flashing lights and THE BOOM in the story – however dramatic the experience was.
If our testimonies, our teachings and our lives are centred around the gospel then we will be known as the gospel guys-Christ followers or Christians saved by grace through faith in Christ to the glory of God.
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No it’s not a riddle. It is not even a trick question. I while back some of my friends kept asking, “Why has Michael become a “Reformed Christian” after several years in prosperity driven and seeker sensitive churches?” So to make things alot easier to understand I thought it’s best to go back to the Bible and back to basics. What exactly does it mean to become a Christian?
I have come to believe that Salvation begins with an unfailing work of God in the hearts of all those who will believe. While most churches in our current day believe that you “believe to be born again”, like the Reformers and Puritans I have come to believe the opposite about that; my belief is that you are “born again to believe” (see the change in order?).
Here’s a simple quiz for bible believing Christians. …Read More!
[Adapted from an article by Steven Lawson]: Other than Martin Luther, Heinrich Bullinger, and John Calvin, the most important early Reformer was Ulrich Zwingli. A first-generation Reformer, he is regarded as the founder of Swiss Protestantism. Furthermore, history remembers him as the first Reformed theologian. Though Calvin would later surpass Zwingli as a theologian, he would stand squarely on Zwingli’s broad shoulders.
Less than two months after Luther came into the world, Zwingli was born on January 1, 1484, in Wildhaus, a small village in the eastern part of modern-day Switzerland, forty miles from Zurich. His father, Ulrich Sr., had risen from peasant stock to become an upper-middle-class man of means, a successful farmer and shepherd, as well as the chief magistrate for the district. This prosperity allowed him to provide his son with an excellent education. He presided over a home where typical Swiss values were inculcated in young Ulrich: sturdy independence, strong patriotism, zeal for religion, and real interest in scholarship. …Read More!
It’s because of God’s grace and providence that mere mortals get to have sunshine and rain and air to breathe. Yup, even atheists get to enjoy the brilliant colors of the rainbow and the sweet fresh smell of Spring rises up to greet them every morning when Winter is gone. What would happen if God was to lift His grace from our lives just for a moment? Came across this:
Me thinks: One moment without God and we would not even reach “mournday”…we would be dead in “Sinday” (Col 2:13) 😉
Photo HT: Friends on FB.
Harry Emerson Fosdick (May 24, 1878-October 5, 1969) was an American clergyman. As a liberal and modernist Baptist minister, Harry rose to prominence as the weekly preacher at New York City’s First Presbyterian Church (1918-1924). Fundamentalist Christians nationwide attacked his view that ‘modern Christians’ could doubt doctrines such as the literal truth of the Bible and the virgin birth of Jesus and still remain faithful. The modernists denied the authority and inerrancy of Scripture. Fosdick ultimately would not acknowledge the literal reality of God’s wrath toward impenitent sinners. To him, ‘the wrath of God’ was nothing more than a metaphor for the natural consequences of wrongdoing. His theology would not tolerate a personal God whose righteous anger burns against sin. To Fosdick, the threat of hell fire was only a relic of a barbaric age.
His sermons were often creative, inventive and topical …Read More!
When Pastor Feelgood started his prosperity sermon series he got a massive turn out. He became popular. There were no seats left in the mega church. Offerings time was a real scuffle. Exiting church was a scuffle too. Till he brought in new personal ushers. 😉
The year was 2050…Prosperity preachers were still the most sought after teachers.
Quite true….
He who is most deeply abased and alarmed, by the consciousness of his disgrace, nakedness, want, and misery, has made the greatest progress in the knowledge of himself. — John Calvin
When I consider the absolute independency of God, and the necessary total dependence of all created things on Him, their first cause, I cannot help standing astonished at the pride of impotent, degenerate man, who is so prone to consider himself as a being possessed of sovereign freedom, and invested with a power of self-salvation, able, he imagines, to counteract the designs even of infinite wisdom, and to defeat the agency of Omnipotence itself…
And yet, because it so exactly coincides with the natural haughtiness of the human heart, men not only admit, but even relish the deception, and fondly incline to believe that the father of lies does, in this instance at least, speak truth. The Scripture doctrine of predetermination lays the axe to the very root of this potent delusion. It assures us that all things are of God; that all our times and all events are in His hand. ~ Augustus Toplady
HT Test all Things.
Test your child’s theology with five questions and then teach him some more. Here are the first five questions:
1. Who made you?
A. God.
2. What else did God make?
A. God made all things.
3. Why did God make you and all things?
A. For his own glory.
4. How can you glorify God?
A. By loving him and doing what he commands.
5. Why ought you to glorify God?
A. Because he made me and takes care of me.
Excerpt from Catechism for Young Children. (An Introduction to the Shorter Catechism) For free down load click here.
HT Reformed Gene via FB.
If you stopped praying for Africa, please do not. If you stopped praying for Zimbabwe then you probably should get back to putting it back on your prayer list. There is a form of gospel that is spreading around the poverty stricken suburbs and making merchandize of the vulnerable. Yup, all in the name of Jesus:
THE young woman rocks nervously on her high heels and smiles uneasily as the prophet struts around her. She has had a hard time pinning down a man and she cannot get a job, we are told. Today, all her troubles will end.
“Many men have come and promised to marry you, but nothing happens. Is that not true?” declares the prophet.
She swoons: “Yes, man of God.”
He responds: “Listen. I was with the spirit. I’m in a vision. We are travelling. By the power of the spiritual navigator, I am turning towards a junction. Unit K. Is that not where you live?”
She weeps. “Yes, pastor.”
“I am at the door. The hand of the angel of God is on the door, so I can’t see the whole number, just the numbers 7 and 5. What is your house number?” “It is number 7715,” the woman responds.
Bull’s-eye. The church rises in a roaring mass, hands in the air. But wait: now for the big reveal.
“My sister,” the pastor says, rubbing his hands as if he were counting money, then holding her hand. “I see you counting money. Money. You will need a money-counting machine. Money, flowing to you. …Read More!
I came across these 10 tips and was rather fascinated by them. I still chuckle when I skim through them seeing that I am the most forgetful of all sinners:
1. Thou shalt not engage in shameless self promotion, as if you deserve the glory that God alone deserves.
2. Thou shalt not make an idol of evangelism. God deserves worship, not His work.
3. Thou shalt not give the enemies of God occasion to blaspheme. Reaping the results of being a jerk for Jesus is not persecution, it is defamation of God’s character by your actions.
4. Thou shalt keep the Sabbath holy by taking opportunity to rest, worship and serve in the local church. This means your local church, not someone else’s. …Read More!
This is a good clip to help you share the gospel in any situation. Every body in this post modern world has a world view even the pagans. So here is how you can launch into the gospel message:
If you have missed any of the previous anonymized interviews, please check here. “Meet the Christians” series of interviews features anonymous guests so that there is no celebrity. The interviews are evangelistic and have been simplified so that they are easy to follow and to the point. Today my guest too will be masked as we ask him different questions about what he believes. Today’s interview too is an interesting one in that my guest at A Twisted Crown of Thorns (ATCT) was once a preacher and follower of prosperity gospel.
CHRISTIAN: I grew up in a Pentecostal family and my Dad was (and is) a preacher so I’ve always grown up around a vaguely Christian influence although it wasn’t until I was 14 that I heard the Gospel personally for what I count as the first time.
2. ATCT: What is the gospel in one sentence? …Read More!
Blink and you will find the cultural trends have shifted. Blink and morality follows down the drain. Sure enough more people seem to be blinking and alot faster in Sweden.
Not a he or a she but a hen
By most people’s standards, Sweden is a paradise for liberated women. It has the highest proportion of working women in the world, and women earn about two-thirds of all degrees. Standard parental leave runs at 480 days, and 60 of those days are reserved exclusively for dads, causing some to credit the country with forging the way for a new kind of nurturing masculinity. In 2010, the World Economic Forum designated Sweden as the most gender-equal country in the world.
But for many Swedes, gender equality is not enough. Many are pushing for the Nordic nation to be not simply gender-equal but gender-neutral. The idea is that the government and society should tolerate no distinctions at all between the sexes. This means on the narrow level that society should show sensitivity to people who don’t identify themselves as either male or female, including allowing any type of couple to marry. But that’s the least radical part of the project. What many gender-neutral activists are after is a society that entirely erases traditional gender roles and stereotypes at even the most mundane levels.
Activists are lobbying for parents to be able to choose any name for their children (there are currently just 170 legally recognized unisex names in Sweden).
Read more of this post
The high point of my week was this message. Needless to say I will jump right into it (see video below):
False conversions are a serious problem that could lead not only to the “suicide of the church” but also to the defaming of God’s name, an evangelical pastor warned.
Mark Dever, senior pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., told some 8,000 ministers Tuesday at the Together for the Gospel conference that he fears there are thousands, if not millions, of people in churches who are not truly converted.
“My fellow pastors, could it be that many of our hearers each week aren’t saved, even many of our members?”
The problem isn’t just the “occasional hypocrite lost in unrepentant sin,” but “systems that seem to produce false converts – not just one man, but whole congregations,” he lamented.
While some may brush off the problem as inevitable and one that pastors should not worry too much over, Dever sought to underscore how false conversions could dim the light of the church.
More importantly, “false conversions obscure God’s plan” – which he described as God doing all things for the glory of His name.
The Southern Baptist preacher described false converts as those indistinguishable from the world and who don’t hold to certain Scriptural truths.
A big source of the problem, he named, is false teachers, and that includes “health and wealth” preachers. …Read More!
It was the year 2050. The office of pastor was now obsolete. Instead the most glamorous office of “worship leader” had taken over the leadership of the seeker sensitive church. This office was more in touch with the emotions of the people. A few qualities were a MUST for this office:
Theme song: We are here for you!
Going back to the cross to understand what Jesus’s death means to Christians….
It was Joseph of Arimathaea who had the honor of taking the body of Jesus down from the cross. Think what it would be like to have to pull the cold and lifeless hands of the Son of God from the thick, barbed Roman nails.
These were carpenter’s hands, which once held nails and wood, now being held by nails and wood. These were the hands that broke bread and fed multitudes, now being broken to feed multitudes. They once applied clay to a blind man’s eyes, touched lepers, healed the sick, washed the disciple’s feet, and took children in His arms. These were the hands that, more than once, loosed the cold hand of death, now held firmly by its icy grip. …Read More!
“Give me yourself, O my God, give yourself back to me. Lo, I love you, but if my love is too mean, let me love more passionately. I cannot gauge my love, nor know how far it fails, how much more love I need for my life to set its course straight into your arms, never swerving until hidden in the covert of your face. This alone I know, that without you all to me is misery, woe outside myself and woe within, and all wealth but penury, if it is not my God.” ~St. Augustine of Hippo
I think Kevin is right…
Try to figure this out. Joseph Kony captures kids and has them kill each other. Millions post about how dreadful that is. Then “Hunger Games” comes out and kids kill each other and it is one of the highest grossing films ever. Huh, so we protest it but we pay to go see it? ~Kevin Turner.
HT via FB
[This post was first published in April 2012 but the lesson still stands] How I wish we still had Easter services that focus on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Very soon we will have a generation attending church week in and week out that will be the perfect example of a Christless Christianity. It is Easter again and the usual brouhaha is going around…
As many churches celebrate Easter with special church services and egg hunts including candy, one North Carolina church will be giving away an Apple iPad, Xbox 360 and two iPod shuffles.
The Shelby campus of Element Church, a recently established congregation of Cleveland County, will be holding a 12,000-egg hunt event at the Keeter stadium of Shelby High School.
Skipper Allen, campus pastor at Element Church, told The Christian Post that the Shelby campus would be doing this along with their other campus in Forest City.
“We have done an egg drop event at our Forest City campus for years now. This year we decided that we would continue doing it in Forest City, and in order to gain more momentum for our Shelby campus we decided to do the exact same service at the same time,” said Allen.
“The Forest City service will be at McNair Stadium which is the home of the Forest City Owls baseball team. The Shelby service will be at Hoyt S. Keeter stadium which is the home of the American Legion World Series.”
“There will be an invitation given so that people have a chance to respond to the Gospel, and after all of that then we will have the egg hunt portion of the event,” said Allen.
A helicopter will drop thousands of eggs, nearly all of which will be filled with candy save four of them which will have markings that make them redeemable for one of the more technological prizes. …Read More!
Erik a young pastor recently visited a pastor who has buried 200 members. No, he wasn’t the village undertaker. And no, his cooking wasn’t that bad. However there is a lot to learn from this profound story. Here goes….
I was recently spending some time with a minister who is nearing retirement. He was going through his office and packing up boxes, books and other personal items. He directed me to a large box and told me to take a look. I saw dozens of manilla file folders with names on them.
“What are all these?” I asked.
“Funerals.” The pastor said.
“How many?” I inquired.
“Over two-hundred.” He soberly replied.
There in his office I was struck with so many emotions. Here stood a man who has buried over two hundred of his parishioners. And here I stand, a young-buck having buried a grand total of zero of our members.
The seasoned pastor went on to tell me that he cannot throw this box away because in every folder is a life.
“In every folder is a life, a soul. And in each one is a piece of my life.” He said, holding back obvious emotion. I almost lost it too. …Read More!
I thought this was interesting:
HT Friends on FB.
It is probably a step in the right direction when you hear that Perry Noble has used the word “sorry” in a sentence. Many times I have had to send my kids out of the room when he has appeared on television. What? Not only because he played “High way to Hell” as a worship song and declared his sermons are PG-13 rated. No, my concerns are much deeper as he holds the office of pastor yet displays such a lethargy to wards godliness that he is more than a distraction to the preaching of the gospel. It’s good to see that my concerns over his course language, aberrant theology and conduct have been shared by many. And you see….
After South Carolina Pastor Perry Noble apologized to his congregation for criticizing those seeking more discipleship, a Christian apologist and radio host said a simple apology isn’t enough. He suggested that Noble go on a “Repentance Tour.”
Chris Rosebrough, host of Fighting for the Faith, noted on his program that the public apology was a step in the right direction, but he also doesn’t think Noble should stop there.
“I personally think that at this point the magnitude of the error disqualifies Perry Noble from being a mentor to pastors,” he said. Because Noble made those statements at a leadership conference for pastors, Rosebrough said he has to do more to undo the damage of those statements than just apologize to his congregation.
The controversial comments were made at a 2009 conference called Unleash, an annual leadership event conducted by Noble’s church, NewSpring.
During his session, Noble told pastors that “the person that always screams I want to go deeper” is “the jackass in the church.” …Read More!
Well you probably think I am kidding. Where in scripture and church history do we find stripper poles being erected in the sanctuary in church during worship and preaching of the word? Well…
A local pastor said he put a stripper pole on his pulpit to help preach his message.It may raise some eyebrows, but Pastor Mike Scruggs said he’s hoping it will save some marriages.Scruggs admits he’s anything but a traditional pulpit preacher.”We try to make it relevant, straightforward.
We don’t sugarcoat anything,” he said.On Friday, Scruggs’ sermon series drew a packed house at the Light of Word Ministries on Colerain Avenue.”We talk about sex. We talk about drugs. We talk about faith. We talk about relationships…, things that people are dealing with on a day-to-day basis,” Scruggs said.The series of sermons is called the “Battle of the Sexes,” with some rather interesting visual props.”On one side, (we’ll have) what men want or desire: your stripper pole, your video games, your sports,” Scruggs said. “The woman’s side (is) orderly, neat. It’s all about love, candy, teddy bears, roses and being wined and dined and cherished.”Scruggs said his church focuses on real situations and brings godly solutions.”We push the envelope, that’s true,” he said. …Read More!
The human heart is utterly deceptive. In one vein we are capable of accomplishing unimaginable feats of bravery and charitable deeds and the next moment descend into utter depravity and wallow in the most hideous and vile acts.
A have-a-go hero who tackled a gun-wielding robber has been jailed for life for a brutal murder.
Deivydas Jacikas, 21, was praised for his bravery after he was caught on camera stopping a fleeing jewel thief last February.
But just eight months later Lithuanian immigrant Jacikas carried out a revenge attack on a grandfather-of-nine Henrikas Baranauskas, 56, who he claimed head-butted his father.
Jacikas confronted father-of-eight Mr Baranauskas last October before beating him so savagely his victim sustained 14 fractured ribs and severe brain damage.
Mr Baranauskas was so badly beaten that his family eventually had to make the agonising decision to switch off his life support machine. …Read More!
If Paul had written the letter to the Galatians in the 20th or 21st Century, calling out the Judaizers or even Alexander and Hymenaeus would been deemed “intolerant”. And guess what else?
Ray Comfort has an interesting Atheist’s day letter:
April 1st already. May God continue to richly bless each one of you with good health, long life, and may you come to a knowledge of Him whom to know is life eternal (see John 17:3).
For those atheists who have been quoting Matthew 5:21-23, please know that I would never call a Christian “brother” a fool (see the context). I do, however, side with God Himself when He calls the atheist a “fool” (see Psalm 14:1 and Romans 1:22). I have learned, through years of experience in dealing with drug addicts, that the way to reach them is not to argue with them about what they are doing, but to show them how stupid they are. They are not abusing drugs; they are using drugs to abuse themselves. The same applies with the stupidity of denying a Creator, with creation staring at you in the face. The atheist will only harm himself…
Excerpt from Words of Comfort.
If only I can paste this bit up there! 😉 
HT. John K. Langemann via FB.
These days you can get a divorce citing anything from well your spouse squeezing the tooth paste tube from the wrong end to hanging the toilet roll the wrong way round. But one woman wont let her husband off easily as she says their union was for life and till death do them part. However…
At some point over the next few weeks a letter will arrive at Susan Rae’s home spelling out in cold bureaucratic legal terms the end of her 20-year marriage.
The decree absolute, requested by her university academic husband, is a document she hoped she would never see.
The mother-of-two, from Northampton has spent nearly two years desperately fighting Doug Rae’s attempt to divorce her, insisting their marriage is worth fighting for despite years of rows.
‘I believe that marriage is for life,’ she says.
‘I still love my husband. We have two sons. We are a team. I just want him to come home.
‘The love I have for him is never going to go away.’
This week, the 50-year-old former WPC cut an extraordinary figure at London’s Court of Appeal, where she made a last-ditch effort to stop the man she still loves ending their church union.
There, in front of Lord Justice Thorpe, the couple’s torturous domestic dramas were laid bare, with Susan denying that her ‘unreasonable behaviour’ was to blame for the breakdown of her marriage and arguing that examples given by her husband were nothing more than the ‘minor squabbles’ which take place in any marriage.
She claimed she was perfectly justified in removing the fuse from the family washing machine to prevent her husband from doing the laundry after he regularly ruined her clothes.
Similarly, she argued, there was nothing wrong in throwing away a packet of non-organic ham he had bought to make his sons’ packed lunches.
Meanwhile, Mr Rae, assistant dean at the University of Northampton, said his wife also hid the television aerial to stop him watching his favourite programmes. …Read More!
Patrons of the Elephant Room must be seething and foaming at the mouth. The new “brother” they pronounced as orthodox has kicked up another storm. Just barely two months after T.D Jakes was given the thumbs up and a pat on the back by James Macdonald and Mark Driscoll (despite holding to Modalism, Word faith and prosperity teachings) he has now released a new book Let It Go: Forgive So You Can Be Forgiven that has raised a few more eye brows.
T.D. Jakes recently released a new book on forgiveness that has at least one critic accusing the renowned preacher of denying the doctrine of original sin.
Chris Rosebrough, an apologist, rejected Jakes’ statement to CP that forgiveness is innate and unforgiveness is learned from one’s environment. There isn’t a “single passage (in Scripture) that says human beings are by nature forgiving,” he argued.
Rosebrough explored the premise of Jakes’ new book Let It Go: Forgive So You Can Be Forgiven on his radio program, “Fighting for the Faith.”
Jakes is the pastor of the 30,000-member The Potter’s House in Dallas, Texas, and his book claims that people learn how to be unforgiving by behavior modeled to them, so this means they can also unlearn it and become forgiving…
But Rosebrough said not so fast. There are “many passages that say we are by nature evil, sinful, at war with God, objects of God’s wrath, dead in trespasses and sins,” he contended.
Jakes’ idea of being forgiving in nature makes it seem like there is something good in our nature, which also would be running contrary to the Word of God, Rosebrough argued. He called the idea that children are naturally forgiving an “argument from limited experience.” …Read More!
“Ultra-organised churches give too great opportunity to men who are inferior in everything but ambition. They climb to the position of prestige to the detriment of abler men. On the score of being ‘administrators’, and ‘good business men’, they rule the Church.” – Dinsdale Young. …Read More!
See? 😉
HT FB friends.
Imagine you have gone to visit your pastor at his home and there’s blood splattered over the walls. The pastor’s kitten is limping across the back garden and the assailants ask you, “Are you one of them?” It dawns on you that you have just unwittingly stepped into a raid on Christians in the area. One church youth group seems to have found itself in a similar rude awakening :
North Korean in prayer
A church tried to teach its youth group a lesson by staging a raid in which unsuspecting teens were ‘kidnapped’ at gunpoint, forced into a van and made to watch one of their pastors being assaulted in his house.
The ‘lesson,’ according to pastors at the Glad Tidings Assembly of God in Middletown, Pennsylvania, was meant to teach them about what Christian missionaries are subjected to in other parts of the world.
However, at least one girl, 14, was bruised and battered after the object lesson, and has now filed a complaint with the police.
The girl, who has asked to remain anonymous, described her terror to abc27.com: ‘They pulled my chair out from underneath me, and then they told me to get on the ground,’ she told the station.
‘I had my hands behind my back. They said, `Just do as I say, and you won’t be hurt.’’
The girl said she and about 17 other teens were taken to the pastor’s house, where it appeared he was being assaulted, covered in what looked to be blood. …Read More!
After pastor Ted Yang started his mega church he soon realised upon visiting his converts that they had found a new way of growing in the word. (satire)
I know social injustice and racial issues really cause a lot of polarizing tension in communities. But the bible says that the solution to the depravity, wickedness and injustice in this fallen world is the gospel. If the right balance is not made with most of these social issues and agendas one can get preoccupied running down rabbit holes chasing shadows. What do I mean?
Atlanta, GA– Pastors, ushers and members of the congregation at Ebenezer Baptist Church wore hoodies instead of their Sunday best to protest the killing of Trayvon Martin.
“We’re standing as the church of nonviolence to say that a hoodie is not a weapon,” said Senior Pastor Rev. Raphael Warnock. “We stand in solidarity with the family of Trayvon Martin. We stand in support of our children who deserve better than to be stigmatized and stereotyped.”
Pastor Warnock stood in the pulpit on Sunday wearing a maroon Morehouse College hoodie.
Ebenezer is one of countless churches across metro Atlanta and the nation recognizing this as “Hoodie Sunday.”
‘Hoodie Sunday’ is just another band aid social fad. Social justice is good but it has it’s place and shouldn’t replace the exposition of the word of God nor the preaching of the gospel on Sunday. Why should congregational worship of God be put on hold on Sunday because of a social agenda? …Read More!
Have you ever heard of John Harper? No, not John Piper. I bet you haven’t. When Hollywood made a movie on the Titanic I bet they skipped and conveniently ignored the most beautiful love story of all. The story of John Harper the evangelist (and his God) on the Titanic.
John Harper was born to a pair of solid Christian parents on May 29th, 1872. It was on the last Sunday of March 1886, when he was thirteen years old that he received Jesus as the Lord of his life. He never knew what it was to”sow his wild oats.” He began to preach about four years later at the ripe old age of 17 years old by going down to the streets of his village and pouring out his soul in earnest entreaty for men to be reconciled to God.
As John Harper’s life unfolded, one thing was apparent…he was consumed by the word of God. When asked by various ministers what his doctrine consisted of, he was known to reply “The Word of God!” After five or six years of toiling on street corners preaching the gospel and working in the mill during the day, Harper was taken in by Rev. E. A. Carter of Baptist Pioneer Mission in London, England. This set Harper free to devote his whole time of energy to the work so dear to his heart. Soon, John Harper started his own church in September of 1896. (Now known as the Harper Memorial Church.) This church which John Harper had started with just 25 members, had grown to over 500 members when he left 13 years later. During this time he had gotten married, but was shortly thereafter widowed. However brief the marriage, God did bless John Harper with a beautiful little girl named Nana.
Ironically, John Harper almost drowned several times during his life. When he was two and a half years of age, he almost drowned when he fell into a well but was resuscitated by his mother. At the age of twenty-six, he was swept out to sea by a reverse current and barely survived, and at thirty-two he faced death on a leaking ship in the Mediterranean. Perhaps, God used these experiences to prepare this servant for what he faced next.
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It all sounds like a soap story gone awry. At a time like this my prayers go to the Evangelical community within the Anglican church. Reformed Anglicanism reports that …
In a blistering attack not seen in modern memory, the Metropolitan and Primate of the Anglican Province of Nigeria ripped the Archbishop of Canterbury saying his sudden resignation announcement will leave behind a Communion in tatters: highly polarized, bitterly factionalized, with issues of revisionist interpretation of the Holy Scriptures and human sexuality as stumbling blocks to oneness.
Archbishop Nicholas D. Okoh noted that when Dr. Rowan Williams took over the leadership of the Anglican Communion in 2002, it was a happy family. He is leaving it with decisions and actions that are stumbling blocks to oneness, evangelism and mission all around the Anglican world.
Okoh went so far as to say that it was like being “crucified under Pontius Pilate”.
The leader of the world’s most populace Anglican Province (20 million) said the lowest ebb of this degeneration came in …Read More!
Brad Abley has an interesting article on how to get the most out of the preaching of God’s word seeing that these days the most sought after preachers are those with more riddles and stand up knock-knock jokes. There are few preachers who for love of God’s word and love to feed the sheep remain faithful to their calling and expound and preach faithfully the full counsel of God. So then…
Pray for the preacher – before, during and after the message. [He] needs the prayers of all of God’s people and when he gets those prayers, the preaching becomes a true, corporate effort– not a “one-man show.”
The more God’s people pray for the preacher and the message, the greater the anointing will be upon all. By asking God … he may be spared the oppression that inevitably comes to preachers soon after the message.
Moreover, when we pray for those who preach, we are far less prone to “rate” or criticize the preacher.
If you know that the person whose pulpit ministry you sit under works hard at preaching and teaching (that involves much prayer, study, preparation and the spiritual warfare that comes along with this high responsibility) and genuinely cares for those he has responsibility for, appreciate and honor him or her (1 Tim. 5:17).
Pray too that the preacher will remain faithful to the text in his exposition, that Christ may be glorified and the gospel will come forth with clarity to encourage the believers and draw the sinners by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Excerpt from How to Get the Most Out of the Preaching of God’s Word.
If we use our own feelings to define our moral boundaries then the options are endless. The depth of insanity is bottomless. Anything goes as long as it feels right. Who then will say no when some one wakes up with an idea like this one?
A carer from London says she has ditched men for good – after falling in love with a statue. The object of her affection is a three-foot moulding of the Greek God Adonis that she bought for £395.
Reighner Deleighnie, 40, has been in a relationship with the statue for six months and spends hours every day with her Carrara marble boyfriend, which heats up with touch.
Reighner named her companion Hans because the Pointer Sisters’ hit song Slow Hand was playing in the cab the day she brought him home.
She enjoys reading and talking to her companion, and keeps him close by when she watches television and eats dinner.
She also kisses and caresses him, imagining the pair of them walking through meadows of wildflowers or at the seaside. …Read More!
I have always wondered if dogs understand theology.
Photo HT Frriends on Facebook.
Funny song! 🙂
Christian Post is running a feature story on a new book. I think it is an interesting one too. It’s written by a couple who were once false converts of a falsified watered down gospel (gospelite) to warn other false converts. You see …
In their new book, Falsified: The Danger of False Conversion, authors Vincent and Lori Williams seek to use Scripture to identify what they define as an “epidemic” of false conversions currently sweeping evangelical churches in the U.S. The couple speak from personal experience, as they too were once false converts.
The Williams define a “false conversion” as one in which the converted feels that they are saved, but in reality are not because they are not living by the correct teachings of Scripture. The couple confess in their book that they were at one time “false converts led into a false sense of security by seeker-sensitive churches preaching a watered-down Gospel.” …Read More!
On a lighter note, I do love this advert on cell phones in church:
Seeking to train and encourage men to preach, Dr. Somerville wrote “Rules for Sermon Writing” below (left column). Nollie Malabuyo ‘s article draws that comparison between Somervilles’s guidelines with the prosperity and megachurch preaching we see and hear today (right column). But who was Somerville? In Glimpses of Old Glasgow (1894), Andrew Aird described Rev. Somerville as…
As a preacher Dr. Somerville was fervent; his style of address was that of a scholar; and his prayers were the outpourings of his heart. As a pastor he was held in high estimation by his people; and he frequently occupied Glasgow and country pulpits, where his discourses, full of the knowledge which maketh rich, were ever listened to by large audiences. There was something in the tone of his voice, and in the light of his eyes and the glow of his countenance which made one involuntarily say, “This man has been with Jesus.”
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The latest buzz in numbers of those flocking to a new church will always cause ears to prick up. The stats are certainly impressive, the buildings expensive, and the congregations expansive. And perhaps there is plenty of reason to be enthusiastic— lost people are attending weekend services. Isn’t it? But does the evangelistic philosophy behind the so-called “Church Growth Movement” match up to or follow the biblical model? Does it meet Scripture’s standards or does it fall short of God’s expectations? Where do “church growth consultants” come from and why do they insist on pastors identifying their number one asset “the high capacity person”? If all this is news to you FBC Jax watch dog explains….
Let’s start things off by looking at a 6-minute video produced by Jim Sheppard, the CEO of a consulting firm named “Generis”…
Jim produced the video [above] for an event called “The Nines” [in 2010], where 100 leaders gave 6-minute talks on the Internet to help church pastors… In his video, Jim explains to church leaders how they need to develop strategies for going after the very wealthy in their community, who he calls “the high capacity people”.
Here are some quotes from the video: …Read More!
An interesting chart from an Amillennial perspective to eschatology (amillennialchart pdf)
HT The Riddleblog.
When pagans see the irreverence that goes on in some circles of Evangelicalism it gives them more impetus to laugh the name of God to scorn. Surely when we call our selves ‘Christ-like’ or ‘Christian’ and make a false representation of who or what God is, don’t we bear or take the name of our God in vain? Blasphemy was the word I was looking for. And it’s the same word that comes to mind when I hear people want to ‘crank dat holy ghost’.
No. I am actually thick skinned and I am used to being laughed at but I get grieved …Read More!
Ever met some one who said he is both Calvinist and Arminian; straddles both sides of the proverbial fence? I am proudly Cal-minian they say. Well I know it gives a theological head ache . Listen to this …..
There is so much wrong with that statement that I don’t even know where to begin. First of all it assumes that two mutually exclusive claims can both be true. This is patently false. Believe in both/and propositions all you want, you and the semi truck cannot both cross the intersection at the same time without grave consequences. There is only truth and error. There is only life or death. …Read More!
In Britain today St. Patrick’s day is well known for being a day when you get bombed out on booze till you can’t feel your knees. It’s almost a pagan holiday of sorts. But who was St. Patrick? And one thing, was he (umm) a leprechaun? Let’s get Moore to the Point….
In his volume, St. Patrick of Ireland: A Biography, Philip Freeman, a professor of classics at Washington University in St. Louis, lays out a compelling portrait of Patrick, the theologian-evangelist. In accomplishing this, Freeman attempts to reconstruct Patrick’s cultural milieu—that of a world that had “ended” with the fall of Rome in 410 A.D. This collapse of Roman power had unleashed savagery in the British Isles, as thieves and slave-traders were unhinged from the restraining power of Caesar’s sword. Patrick’s ministry was shaped by this new world, not least of which by Patrick’s capture and escape from slavery. …Read More!
Okay not that I want to cause a stampede but this year’s Shepherd Conference 2012 media is available here.
Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, Ca usually hosts an annual event (Shepherd’s Conference) for pastors from all over the world. The topics discussed are usually very nutritious and mouth watering (of course in the spiritual sense). No skinny jeans or sex sermon series or prosperity shtick. The one clip from a couple of years ago (2010) that always reminds me of the Shepherd’s Conference is this one:
This is an interesting dramatisation and an informative one at that…okay humorous if you watch it to the end (I wont spoil the ending for you):
What do you do to make young people interested in the Bible? Umm, coat it with bacon or chocolate or better still a pastor and his daughter have come up with another fad…
Two North Carolina pastors have recently created a Bible study based on the book series The Hunger Games.
The Rev. Andy Langford and his daughter, the Rev. Ann Duncan, created “The Gospel According to ‘The Hunger Games’ Trilogy” in the hopes of reaching out to youth.
“Many of our youth and young adults have been reading the books. Two youth from my church in Concord, N.C., are extras in the movie,” said Langford to The Christian Post.
“Ann’s husband, Nathan, teaches high school history, and alerted us that all his students were reading these books.”
Written by Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games book series is about a near future dystopian society where young people are forced to participate in a brutal sport game where only one can survive.
Robert Schuller once went from door to door asking people what type of church they would like to attend. His mission was to change his church to a place where non-Christians would feel comfortable enough to come in and then eventually “accept Jesus.” This would be accomplished by preaching only positive messages! It seems the apple didn’t fall far from the tree….
The Crystal Cathedral’s [Sheila Schuller Coleman daughter of Robert Schuller] announced Sunday that she was leaving to start a new church, a move that appears likely to split the congregation. …Read More!
Well on a lighter note….the iBible is out! 😉
I guess the book of “Levitations” must be interesting. Er…..I meant the virtual game. …Read More!
A Twisted Crown of Thorns ® 