Reformed. Christianity. Evangelism. Modern Culture.
Here is a good educational video on the origins of Word of faith…
…Read More!
Nothing can be as fatal as holding wrong theology. Nothing is as worrisome as being caught with faulty theology by heathens and pagans. Apparently Cher has been listening to a few celebrity “Christian pastors” and she is irked by their lack of Biblical knowledge in basic Christianity!
Not every body goes to church to worship God or to have fellowship with believers. Some have heard of what they can get from some churches especially motivational pep talk, self esteem rhetoric and religious junk. Conrad Mbewe a local pastor in Kabwata, Zambia knows this only too well because sadly it’s happening more often in his backyard….
Last Sunday, a young man came to see me after our church service. He is the kind of guy who shows up at church once in a while and then disappears for a season. My guess is that he goes around churches sampling sermons and looking for answers. On this visit, he asked that I help him to overcome a failure in his life, and it was a failure to progress. He said that his greatest problem is that he does not believe in himself. Could I help him believe in himself so that he could become successful?
I asked him whether he was a Christian. His answer was, “Do I really need to be a Christian in order to be successful? Are you telling me that all those successful people out there are Christians?
It’s never a dull Sunday when Osteen is in the pulpit. Infact every day feels like a Friday. If you come early and stretch your neck long enough you could catch a glimpse of (guess who?)… Yup. Oprah. If you have your bible autograph book handy you could actually get it autographed by Oprah or even Tyler Perry! Oh can you see me in the video? (Hyperventilating) I am the one next to that guy high up in the rafters. (Grr some one stood infront of me when the camera panned over Oprah’s shoulder) Hey never mind atleast Joel introduced Oprah to Jesus. Okay, almost. 🙂
Conservative Christian values are very despised these days in Evangelical circles. Its no wonder that anything passes for Christianity these days. Its not uncommon to see pets taking Holy Communion, motor cycles being ridden in the sanctuary instead of preaching, essential doctrines being challenged (like the doctrine of Hell), re-introduction of ancient heresies (like modalism) and the list goes on. It therefore didn’t come as a surprise when I heard that…
A Kentucky Baptist association denied membership to a church after a credentials committee found its confessional statement too Calvinistic, according to a report in the Western Recorder.
Daviess-McLean Baptist Association voted 104-9 to deny membership to Pleasant Valley Community Church in Owensboro during its annual meeting held Oct. 17-18, the Kentucky Baptist Convention news journal reported in its Oct. 25 issue.
“Our concern in the initial stages of our investigation revolved around the fact that Pleasant Valley Community Church’s confessional statement is one that (is) Calvinistic in nature,” the newspaper quoted from a recommendation by the association’s credentials committee. “It affirms the doctrine of election and grace.” …Read More!
The last time Joel Osteen was invited to CNN studios he minced up his words. Gobbled up his answers and fumbled through the interview that Larry King begged listeners to call in to save him from self destruction. This inadvertently poured fuel into a flame and a red faced Joel swore to return with a vengeance.
This time Joel mastered all his theological wit. This time the smiling prophet was armed with a donkey jaw bone and spared no one. Prancing in the blue and green corner with shades of lilac in the background of the new Piers Morgan Tonight Show he pounced at the first opportunity and kept going till Piers touched the hem of his wealth.
Morgan asked Osteen if he ever felt guilty for his wealth. He replied, “I don’t ever feel guilty because it comes from – it’s God’s blessings on my life. And for me to apologize for God’s – how God has blessed you, it’s almost an insult to our God.” Read on
[pullquote]This is an archive article from 2010.[/pullquote] Several pastors are taking deep sighs and smirking as Larry King retires from CNN’s Larry King Live show. The show has in the past left several famous celebrities and pastors red faced. Though critics claim that Larry King asks “soft” questions in comparison to other interviewers, this has not been without a long brigade of pastors getting tongue tied when asked what the Gospel is. Larry’s style has never been offensive, for which I will truly applaud him. It allows him to reach guests who would be averse to being interviewed.
Ladies and gentlemen without further ado: Read More
Best Life Now
When talk show host Oprah Winfrey so much as spits on a book it immediately catches fire. The ashes can so much as sell for a lump sum that can earn you enough money for an early retirement. In 2006 an Australian Rhonda Byrne got much more than she bargained for when she wrote the New Age self help book, The Secret. Her book did not get spat on. No. The book got featured not once but twice on the Oprah Winfrey show and (wait for this) by the Spring of 2007 the book had sold almost 4 million copies, and the DVD had sold more than 2 million copies. Byrne was listed among Time Magazine’s list of 100 people who shaped the world in 2007.
Byrne writes, “Disease cannot live in a body that is in a healthy emotional state.” But be warned: “If you have a disease and you are focusing on it and talking to people about it, you are going to create more disease cells.” The tenet of the book is that an individual’s focused positive thinking can result in life-changing results such as increased wealth, health, happiness and more.
Wait a minute that sounds so much like Word of Faith you say. But There’s More
“I Finally Got Sent A Hillsong Video That Proves They Preach The Gospel . . . NOT!!” says Cameron Buettel a blogger who set up an interesting challenge. This is the what he found…
To his credit Troy did take up my challenge that no one else has responded to. He went looking for a solid example of someone from Hillsong church preaching the Gospel. I had burdened Troy with the responsibility of substantiating his claim that:
I can assure you that I’ve been to Hillsong quite a few times and have heard the gospel accurately preached. Yes, including the mention of sin and the cross. But There’s More
No one sets out to become an apostate – it’s never the result of one abrupt, drastic turn away from the Lord. Instead, apostasy is most often the product of a pattern of sinful compromises that harden and gradually steer a professing believer away from the truth. There’s More
When Paul spoke to the Ephesian elders in his final meeting with them, he said these words: “Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.” (Acts 20:26-27) The true preacher of the Word seeks to have this as his ambition as well. God is not honored when men think so little of Him and so highly of themselves that they edit the content of the proclamation for the fear of the face of men and so that they may be considered “successful” in some worldly sense. Read More
Several pastors are taking deep sighs and smirking as Larry King retires from CNN’s Larry King Live show. The show has in the past left several famous celebrities and pastors red faced. Though critics claim that Larry King asks “soft” questions in comparison to other interviewers, this has not been without a long brigade of pastors getting tongue tied when asked what the Gospel is. Larry’s style has never been offensive, for which I will truly applaud him. It allows him to reach guests who would be averse to being interviewed.
Ladies and gentlemen without further ado: Read More
The butterfly effect is a term used in Chaos Theory to describe how tiny variations can affect giant systems, and complex systems, like weather patterns. For example, it is said that a butterfly flapping its wings in a jungle in Brazil can cause a tornado in Texas.
A couple of years ago we leavened up the unleavened bread of Christianity. A little nip here and a tuck there. We created a brand of Hip and Cool Christianity not only smooth but market savvy. Relevant. We used reproducible and successful entrepreneurial church growth models to bring as many people into the church complexes as possible.
However, if the recent trend of events is anything to go by, it seems God has gone on a hiatus and left the youths playing peekaboo in the night. Recent statistics show that there is an increasing exodus of young people from churches, especially after they leave home and live on their own. In a 2007 study, Lifeway Research determined that 70% of young Protestant adults between 18-22 stop attending church regularly. Some critics have attributed this yo-yo effect to the perils of hipster Christianity. Read More
The next time you probably ask a stranger on the street what time it is he might tell you the time three hours ahead of GMT. And if you ask why he will tell you he is going by the Mecca Clock Tower. If you ask why, seeing that for the past 125 years, the international community has accepted that the start of each day should be measured from the prime meridian, representing 0 degrees longitude, which passes through the Greenwich Observatory, he may proudly reply we are “Putting Mecca time in the face of Greenwich Mean Time. This is the goal.”
For more than a century, a point on the top of a hill in south-east London has been recognised as the centre of world time and the official starting point of each new day. But now the supremacy of Greenwich Mean Time is being challenged by a gargantuan new clock being built in Mecca, by which the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims could soon be setting their watches.
Big Ben (L) and Mecca Clock Tower(R)
Due to start ticking on Thursday as the faithful begin fasting during the month of Ramadan, the timepiece sits atop the Royal Mecca Clock Tower which dominates Islam’s holiest city. It is at the heart of a vast complex funded by the Saudi government that will also house hotels, shopping malls and conference halls. Read More
Is there still any reverence for the Holy and sacred things of God these days? What ever happened to the good old sermons about sin, righteousness and judgement? They called some of these ‘fire and brimstone’ sermons and phased them out of most churches, radios and television. Have you ever listened to Jonathan Edwards’ sermon ‘Sinners in the hands of an angry God’? Not even so called christian broad casters feature such sermons any more. These sermons are deemed ‘volatile’ and dont draw ratings they say. But they make a fatal error as they gladly proclaim a new gospel. One that is billed as the best thing since sliced bread called Gospel lite -the health, wealth and prosperity gospel.
Flip to a typical modern christian church sermon broad cast and what do you see? A young man who should be a pastor struts around an arena with spandex and jiggles as he lays his closed bible on the Plexiglass pulpit that casts a silhouette against the laser lit giant screen behind him. It’s Sunday and the topic is self esteem and positive confession…for the fifty second time that year. ‘This is our year of destiny’ reads the banner that has always been flown year in and year out. New visitors and tourists stagger in awe as they trudge through the church programme.The message elates them and sure enough tickles their fancy enough to bring them back But There’s More
Best Life Now
When talk show host Oprah Winfrey so much as spits on a book it immediately catches fire. The ashes can so much as sell for a lump sum that can earn you enough money for an early retirement. In 2006 an Australian Rhonda Byrne got much more than she bargained for when she wrote the New Age self help book, The Secret. Her book did not get spat on. No. The book got featured not once but twice on the Oprah Winfrey show and (wait for this) by the Spring of 2007 the book had sold almost 4 million copies, and the DVD had sold more than 2 million copies. Byrne was listed among Time Magazine’s list of 100 people who shaped the world in 2007.
Byrne writes, “Disease cannot live in a body that is in a healthy emotional state.” But be warned: “If you have a disease and you are focusing on it and talking to people about it, you are going to create more disease cells.” The tenet of the book is that an individual’s focused positive thinking can result in life-changing results such as increased wealth, health, happiness and more.
Wait a minute that sounds so much like Word of Faith you say. But There’s More
Ooops!
The town of Spring Lake, Michigan, near Grand Haven, has become the front line in the ongoing war from Progressivism. Christ Community Church has changed it’s named to the C3 Exchange and has removed it’s cross. Pastor Ian Lawton claims this was done to reflect it’s diverse membership. “Our community has been a really open-minded community for some years now. We’ve has a number of Muslim people, Jewish people, Buddhists, atheists, we’re catching up to ourselves.”
Removing the cross, as well as the name of Christ to the church may not be the only changes. There’s More
A Twisted Crown of Thorns ® 