Tag: Jesus

Find a Good Church

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last days

Just because you attend a church doesn’t make you a good Christian any more than driving a car makes you a good driver, but we don’t blame the car, so why do we blame the Church?

It is not quite enough to know God and Jesus…we must also know and engage the Holy Spirit in our life.  He will empower us to live Godly in this world and thereby we honor the Kingdom of God.

If your current church is part of the popular theological tradition that says that all believers sin every day in thought word and deed then I have a question for you.  How is that any different than the devil?  It is time for all Christians to engage the third Person of the Trinity because He is the power that enables us to live Godly in the here and now.

God commanded that we live holy; Holy Spirit empowers us to obey that command.  If your pastor claims holy living is not possible during this sojourn on earth then it is time for you seek out a pastor who knows and is showing the way to connect to the power that can make you godly; your unsaved friends and family members are desperately looking for that kind of completely committed Christian.  Be one.

Godly Power

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last days

Life “de-powers” us. It saps our energies, depletes our courage, drains our patience. People–pressures get us down; problems stir us up; physical ills distress us; worry over people we love disturbs us.
We all need strength—strength to think clearly, love creatively, endure consistently; strength to fill up our diminished reserves; supernatural strength that flows from a limitless source, quietly filling us with power.
I want you to meet Someone who can provide that kind of strength. He is willing to listen to us and understand, He will encourage us to talk until we know what we really want to say. He will probe to the nub of the issue of our fears and frustrations with X-ray discernment and wisdom, and will help us to see any confusion in our thinking or distortions in our emotions. He not only can lead us to the truth about ourselves, but possesses the power to help us act on what He guides us to be, say or do. He has the power to heal our painful memories, sharpen our vision of what is best for our future, and enlist us in a purpose that’s big enough to fire our imaginations and give ultimate meaning and lasting joy to our daily living.
That’s a tall order. No loved one, friend, psychiatrist, psychologist, pastor, or social worker can meet all of these qualifications. But there is One Who has all of these qualifications—and much more.
He alone has the omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence to give us the kind of help we need. He can help us with our problems, relationships, and decisions, for He knows everything. He is with us always, for He never sleeps. He has all power to give us the gift of primary faith as well as pertinacious faith, guidance for our daily lives, conviction and courage to face the future unafraid.
Who is this? A Person spelled with a capital “P.” He is a Person in the Trinity. He is the Holy Spirit.
We celebrate Pentecost and remember the time fifty days after Passover when Jesus’ disciples and followers received the power of the Holy Spirit. (read Acts, chapter 2). There is no greater need in your life and mine and in the church throughout the world than for a contemporary Pentecost. We confess with John Oxenham,

Not for one single day,
Can I discern the way,
But this I surely know—
Who gives the day
Will show the way
So I securely go.

The Holy Spirit is the Greatest Counselor in the World. The word, “counselor” may not be the first word that comes to your mind when you think of the Holy Spirit. For many, the Holy Spirit is the least known and understood Person of the Trinity.
Jesus used this propitious word, “Counselor,” to declare what the Spirit is meant to be in our lives. – Lloyd John Ogilvie

I do not want to be two-thirds of a Christian – I desire and need to have the Spirit of God engaged in my life to make me wholly Christian; a properly empowered Christian.

Voices

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A fellow blogger over at “The Healing Arena” has a post entitled, “What’s that voice in your head?”  A portion of it follows:

Why are you thinking the way you are thinking now?

Why are you acting like that now?

Why did you just take that strange decision which is very unlike yourself?

  • You think God’s attitude towards you has changed because of some short-coming in you or a mistake you made.

  • or you think you are unworthy of love and appreciation because you’re too far down the drain.

  • Some devil is whispering some nasty stuff into your ear and you’re beginning to believe it.

  • Some nay-sayer is speaking negativism into your mind and it’s taking its toll on you.

More of it can be found at: https://thehealingarena.wordpress.com/2015/08/02/whats-that-voice-in-your-head/

If you follow that link (hopefully it opens up in a new page so you don’t lose your place here) you will find that Elijah is mentioned.  Now she did not go into any detail regarding Elijah, that might have gotten too far off track, but I shall take that risk here.

Elijah was fresh off his world-famous victory and should have been super-empowered to keep fighting the battle and gaining incredible victories as he smashed all his foes left and right.  So why is he running away instead of pressing forward and taking advantage of the momentum?

God provides him some food to strengthen him for the journey he is taking but He does not tell Elijah to go back to where he should be.  Instead He allows Elijah to continue on in his journey and when Elijah is ready God assures / reminds him “You are not alone.”  He then gives Elijah a new assignment.

A few years ago I participated in an activity where I was the victim.  A blindfold was securely placed and the folk around me started saying things like: “You’re no good,”  You really messed up again,” “You’re such a loser,” and other things of that nature.  Have you ever told yourself things like that?

At first I almost laughed because I knew all those people and I knew that they all liked me, excepting for maybe one or two of them, also I was their assistant pastor at the time.  However the “voices” started taking a toll on me and memories of some of my own past shortcoming and failures suddenly started coming to mind, some of which I have beaten myself up for, and I remembered the voices of some others in my life who didn’t like me and some negative things they had said.  Suddenly I did not feel like laughing for I could feel a wave of dark depression enveloping me, ready to choke me.

The voice of one of those physically present, started to crack.  Since I’d had a counseling session or two with her I knew she was starting to hurt and I wanted to stop the experiment but the “key phrase” had not been uttered (I didn’t even know what the “key phrase” was, they all knew what it was but the moderator had purposely kept me uninformed) I was not the one in control and it was not yet time for the exercise to stop.  Nevertheless, at that moment, I wasn’t feeling like I could really have given any words of encouragement to anyone.

Then I heard another voice which I could not really quite comprehend, at least not initially.  It was saying, “You’re good,” “You are loved,” “You’re a child of The King,” etc.  It was like a tiny flicker of light somewhere in the suffocating darkness.  I began to focus on that solitary, still, small, voice and the depressing feeling began to recede but only as long as I could focus on that one voice.  Then, finally, the key phrase, “Well done,”  was uttered, everyone went quiet.  The blindfold was removed.  The experiment was over.

The person in charge, the moderator, offered a quick apology as she realized my eyes had “sweated a little bit” but I assured them all that it was okay.  In the discussion we all had following the experiment I learned that she had actually been speaking for awhile before I ever heard her.  It was when I heard the hurt behind the antagonistic voice and had empathy for its owner that I finally heard the positive voice.

Gretiana’s statement, “Just manage to go out there and be good to someone, even if you need it more, even if they don’t deserve it.” triggered my memory and inspired this blog posting.  It is not just in that little experiment where that bit of advice worked, I’ve seen it work on several occasions in real life situations.  I’ve heard the testimony of others.

Going through a rough time?  Cheer up. It’s not over yet.

  Breathe in deeply … c’mon humor me … now exhale.

  What is the point?  God is not finished with you here yet.  Your special task probably still lies out there and you’ve got more preparation to go through.  Now matter what happens always remember:

You are not alone, He, Jesus, is there.

He is not shouting.  His is a still, small, voice.  Funny how people flock to the motivational speakers but none of them comes even close to being as good as Jesus.  He knows all about you and He is there, nearby.  One day He will utter the key phrase “Well done….”  My eyes will probably get all sweaty on that day, too.

  • Pastor Ward Clinton

Stand Strong

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young uncle sam

A word of encouragement to our pastors, who, now more than ever, are on the front lines of the culture war given the assault on marriage and religious liberty.

John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, a lesser-known hero of the War for Independence, was a pastor and a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses. In 1775, he preached a sermon on Ecclesiastes 3:1 — “For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven.”

Pastor Muhlenberg closed his sermon with these words:

“In the language of Holy Writ, there is a time for all things. There is a time to preach and a time to fight. And now is the time to fight.”
He then removed his clerical robes and revealed to the congregation that he was wearing the uniform of an officer in the Continental Army.

Pastor Muhlenberg’s example of a man of God fighting for our God-given rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness should give increased fervor and devotion most especially to those who lead us in the fight for faith, family and freedom.

Like few times in our nation’s history, this is a time to fight for the values we cherish!   — Gary Bauer

If anyone wonders whether the founding fathers thought the federal government should define marriage and not the states, and whether it should interfere with our religious beliefs, here is what Thomas Jefferson thought:

Thomas Jefferson letter to Samuel Miller

Date: January 23, 1808

I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from inter-meddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises. This results not only from the provision that no law shall be made respecting the establishment or free exercise of religion, but from that also which reserves to the States the powers not delegated to the United States. Certainly, no power to prescribe any religious exercise or to assume authority in any religious discipline has been delegated to the General Government. It must then rest with the States.

It is times like this that we need to strengthen ourselves by reading the book most hated by liberals which was penned by their greatest enemy whom they can never defeat.

1 Peter 1: 19-21  And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Morals

Choudray’s threat

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No, it is not paranoia when they actually are trying to kill you.

Anjem Choudray has announced the things that Islam will outlaw when it takes over.  Among them are:

Alcohol  Pork  Gambling  Porn  Usury  Promiscuity  Freemixing  Gays  Cinemas  Idolatry  Insurance  Stocks/shares  Insulting Prophets.

But apparently pedophilia will still be accepted.  Freemixing is integration, oh we can’t have that according to Islamic teaching.

Islam sucks

  The alcohol one is kind of funny because Choudray has been known to down more than his share of alcoholic beverages.  It is true, however, that all the evidence is from a few years back but Moslems are known to sneak off to strip bars and imbibe in a few drinks.  “Promiscuity,” now there is another duplicitous term they seem to like in that only women are required to be chaste but even that has a hypocritical multiple level standard.

  If a woman is a paid prostitute or stripper then she is relatively safe from the morality police.  I don’t know for sure how that works.  If a woman is raped she faces stoning while the man, or men, can usually count on walking away scot-free.  Then there is the problem of being improperly chaperoned.

The fact of the matter is that almost everything on Choudray’s list has multiple levels of hypocritical enforcements and/or allowances.  But that is the Moslem way of doing things.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering.  No, I’m not your standard run-of-the-mill pastor, I have been in many countries and rubbed shoulders with many cultures.

The only prophet Moslems actually care about is Muhammad.  “Insult” Mohammad and they fly into a murderous rage; insult Jesus and they really don’t much care.  If Moslems actually believed what the Koran teaches then they would have to recognize their obligation to study the New Testament portion of the Holy Bible because Jesus is the holy one of God, according to the Koran, and he will return to earth, according to the Koran, which makes him, Jesus, the actual “last ‘prophet’ of the one true God,” not Mohammad.

The Chattanooga shooter’s manifesto, among other things, revealed the Moslem belief that there is a test coming at the end of this earth-bound life.  Warning!  Failure to study the Injil guarantees you will fail the test!  Study of the Koran is not sufficient; you must study the Injil (New Testament portion of the Holy Bible) and unlock its secret in order to gain paradise.

No one can beat Israel

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israel

Stand in opposition to Israel and you are needlessly putting your very own soul in jeopardy.  Many centuries ago God declared He would put the Jews back into the land; not because they deserve it but because of who He is.

The wise move is to stand with Israel because the one true God has already chosen sides.  Don’t like it, don’t whine to me about it; take it up with God.

It is in times like this that we need to strengthen ourselves by reading and all the more carefully studying the book most hated by liberals which was penned by their greatest enemy, whom they can never defeat.

1 Peter 1: 19-21  And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Scripture got it right….again. 

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Scripture got it right….again. .

The most recent estimate of stars in the universe is 300 billion trillion. That’s a 3 followed by 23 zeros. (The number is constantly growing as we find more).
Fourteen billion years (the evolutionists theory of how old the universe is) isn’t nearly enough time to explain so many stars, unless it was an everyday occurrence, which we do not observe.
Save yourself the headache and stick with Gods Word which is unchangeable. Secular scientists will catch up eventually….

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As it turns out, not even Jesus Christ has a Christ-like attitude

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When pondering “WWJD?” do not forget that brandishing whips and overturning tables is not out of the realm of possibilities.  Jesus was not afraid to get right in someone’s face and offend.  He was much more concerned with God’s will than making friends.  Even when He had a large group of followers He didn’t try to avoid offending them in order to keep them from “unfriending” Him.

Jesus reproved and rebuked people because He genuinely cared and He wanted them to do right and wasn’t afraid to do what was needed whether popular or not.  Sometimes I snicker when someone on social media tries to tell me that I don’t have a very Christ-like attitude:

As it turns out, not even Jesus Christ has a Christ-like attitude.

From the blog “Hope Stands” (link above)

After quoting Tony Campolo, Brandon Robertson writes, “Dr. Campolo has been an advocate for a more Christ-like and loving posture towards LGBTQ people in the church for many years now.”[1]

Right away, that stopped me in my tracks, regardless of what the rest of the article said.  As soon as you use the language of a “more Christ-like posture,” all my red flags go up.  Are we reading the same Bible?  This smells like legalism.

Yes, predictably, Robertson goes on to exude his support of the LGBTQ community, but no matter, because he’s already lost me.  Whatever else he said about LGBTQ makes little difference now, so long as he began with those words “a more Christ-like and loving posture.”  That snide remark showed me that he was about to parade the Messiah out in front of us in order to use him for his agenda and take us on a little guilt trip.

But Jesus won’t be paraded around.  A more Christ-like attitude?  What does it mean to have a “more Christ-like and loving posture?”

Does it mean that Jesus would never call anyone names?  He once called a woman a dog (Mark 7:27).  He regularly called people hypocrites, which was a huge insult in his day (Matthew 7:4).  Here are some other names he swathed onto people: blind guides (Matt. 23:16); fools (Matt. 23:17); white washed tombs (Matt. 23:27); snakes (Matt. 23:33); hidden tombs (Luke 11:43); children of hell (Matt. 23:15); and—particularly biting—“Your daddy is the devil!” (John 8:44).

And Jesus wasn’t just harsh with the religious leaders.  He was an equal opportunity offender.  In fact, he called one of his closest followers “Satan” (Matthew 16:23).  Then check out what Jesus said to the seven churches in the book of Revelation.  He gave a very candid and clear assessment of each church, helping it to see where it needed to shape up or ship out.  “You are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked” (Rev. 3:17).

Why is Jesus so harsh?  He gives the answer, “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent” (Rev. 3:19).  Reprove?  Discipline?  Tell them to repent?  Is that what you call an un-Christ-like posture?

But there’s more.  Speaking through the apostle Paul, Jesus said, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).  Unless, of course, they are washed, sanctified, and justified (11).

Again, Jesus spoke through Paul, “For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, and idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.  Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.” (Ephesians 5:5-6).

I could list many more examples of Jesus’s “un-Christ-like” posture.  My point is that the way of Jesus is to expose the sin and forgive the sinner.  There is grace and forgiveness for every sin named in these verses.  His radical tactics pave the way for his radical love.

There’s no place in Scripture where Jesus calls a person to himself without asking him or her to change.  In fact, by calling us to change, he’s letting us know that change is now possible because of the grace he first gives.  Jesus never validates a person’s natural condition, whether good or bad.  He only asks them to do whatever it takes to follow him.  Pluck out your eye.  Cut off your arm.  Leave your father and mother.  Sell you possessions.  Circumcise your hearts.  Don’t look back.   Take up your cross.  Lay down your life.  Sin no more.

He’s often hard with us because that’s what true love is.  True love is not validating who we are, but true love is helping us to love God more.  True love will wound us in order to heal us.

Please stop equating a more Christ-like and loving posture with only hugs.  Because if that’s the case, then Jesus Christ was one of the most un-Christ-like people who has ever lived.

In fact, I would go so far as to argue that the kind of “love” that some are asking for today is not love at all.  It’s something much worse.

Why do you believe what you believe?

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BibleGreetings everyone.  Let us praise the one true God for those who are escaping from the ways that lead to death and eternal darkness to follow in the path of the Holy One of God whose way is the way of life, light, and love and which is, in fact, the way that the One True God desires that each and every person on this earth should go.  Some of us know this already, others need to know therefore we need to pray for them.

Corrupt Imams claim the Bible is corrupt however the Koran does not make any such claim.  Confused people who have merely accepted the claims of corruption could carefully study the Koran for themselves but there is no need for that because the wiser course of action would be to simply accept the challenge of reading the New Testament portion of the Holy Bible and learn the truth about the one whom the Koran calls Isa, the Holy One of God.

The Injil, or New Testament portion, of the Holy Bible has the words of life and light and the only way to draw near to the One True God.  During the time of Ramadan, especially, one is supposed to be seeking to draw closer to the One True God and there really is no better way known to man to do that than to learn from the words of and about the Holy One of God and that can best be done by reading the Injil, starting with Injil Markus.  In the Holy Bible it will be found to be called “Mark” or “The Gospel of Mark.”

Mohammad believed in the accuracy of the Holy bible, however he did not trust some of those who interpreted its meaning in Arabic because their lives were inconsistent with the teaching of the book and therefore his skepticism was not directed towards the purity of the text itself.

Muhammad Abduh Sayyid Ahmad Khan, a religious and social reformer (died 1905) stated:  “As far as the text of the Bible is concerned, it has not been altered.” (M.H. Ananikian, The Reforms and Religious Ideas of Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan.  The Moslem World 14 (1934) p. 61)

Egyptian scholar, Muhammad ‘Abduh stated: “charge of corruption of the Biblical texts makes no sense at all.  It would not have been possible for Jews and Christians everywhere to agree on changing the text.  Even if those in Arabia had done it, the difference between their book and those of their brothers, let us say in Syria and Europe would have been obvious.”

Abdullah Ibn `Abbas who is counted as one of the Sahaba (companions) and was Mohammed’s cousin was of the belief that the Holy Bible was not corrupted.  Others who wrote shortly after him were in agreement.  “Ibn Mazar and Ibn Hatim state, in the commentary known as the Tafsir Durr-I-Mansur, that they have it on the authority of Ibn Muniyah, that the Taurat (i.e. the books of Moses), and the Injil (i.e. the Gospels), are in the same state of purity in which they were sent down from heaven, and that no alterations had been made in them, but that the Jews were wont to deceive the people by unsound arguments, and by wresting the sense of Scripture… Shah Waliyu `Illah, in his commentary, the Fauzul `l-Kabir, and also Ibn `Abbas, support the same view.” (T. P. Hughes, p. 62)

Taqiyya says follow the path of Muhammad; Truth says follow the path of the Holy One of God, the Messiah, Praise be upon Him and all who obey His teachings for that is the way to true, eternal, Paradise.  The Messiah also invites you to follow the true path.