Goodbye 2012!

December 31, 1855

(James Smith, "Marvelous Mercy!" 1862)
The following is an excerpt from the diary of James Smith:

December 31, 1855.
The last day of the year 1855--a year characterized by . . .
many severe trials,
many sore temptations,
and innumerable mercies.

In some things, it closes differently to what I expected--but how differently it may have closed!

I might have been in Hell! O terrible thought!

I might have been on a sick bed, tormented with excruciating pain, or reduced to a state of infantile weakness.

I might have been in great and sore troubles, tossed with tempests, and not comforted.

I might have been without a pastorate--and without a loving people.

Or I might have been guilty of some heinous sin, lost my character, and been a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth!

Blessed, forever blessed be the Lord--that such is not my case!
My health is good,
my hope in Christ is steady,
my congregation good, and
I trust the Lord will yet work a great work by me.

And now, Lord, I desire to confess before you the sins of this past year:
I have sinned with my tongue--and with my temper.

I have sinned in my heart--and in my life.

I have omitted duties.

I have committed sins.

My motives have often been impure.

My aims have not been sufficiently high and holy.

I have been impatient, fretful, irritable, rash, jealous, envious, discontented, and ungrateful.

O may the blood of Jesus wash out every stain!
I renounce all hope--but what centers in Jesus!

I have no refuge, no hiding-place, no strong tower, no place of safety--but Jesus.

Christ in His person,
Christ in His finished work,
Christ in His glorious intercession--
is all my hope, all my confidence, all my joy!

I am His servant--and wish to serve Him alone.
I am His subject--and wish to be ruled by Him alone.
I am His purchased property--and wish to be consecrated entirely, eternally, and altogether to Him!

Happy New Year!

The Lord will provide!

(J.R. Miller)

"You have not passed this way before!" Joshua 3:4

"Abraham named the place Jehovah-Jireh (which means 'the LORD will provide')" Genesis 22:14

As you begin meditating on this verse, write deep in your heart this word with the strongest confidence: Jehovah-Jireh. This name tells you . . .
that you can trust God always;
that no promise of His ever fails;
that He does all things well;
that out of all seeming loss and destruction of human hopes, He brings blessing.

You have not passed this way before. There will be both sorrows and joys, both failures and successes. You cannot predict your future experiences. You cannot see the next step before your feet. Yet Jehovah-Jireh calls you to trust Him calmly. He bids you put away all anxieties and foreboding, because the Lord will provide!

**************


Php 4:4  Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!
Php 4:5  Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near.
Php 4:6  Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Php 4:7  And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Php 4:8  Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

Merry Christmas

What is Christmas really about?

"Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift." (2 Corinthians 9:15)

A great little article  by Henry Morris from ICR on God's indescribable gift of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Practical Christianity

“Equally pitiable is the hand religion of the day, when young “converts” are put to teaching a Sunday school class, urged to “speak” in the open air, or take up “personal work.” How many thousands of beardless youths and young girls are now engaged in what is called “winning souls for Christ,” when their own souls are spiritually starved! They may “memorize” two or three verses of Scripture a day, but that does not mean their souls are being fed. How many are giving their evenings to helping in some “mission,” when they need to be spending the time in “the secret of the Most High”! And how many bewildered souls are using the major part of the Lord’s day in rushing from one meeting to another instead of seeking from God that which will fortify them against the temptations of the week! Oh, the tragedy of this hand “Christianity.”

How subtle the Devil is! Under the guise of promoting growth in “the knowledge of the Lord,” he gets people to attend a ceaseless round of meetings, or to read an almost endless number of religious periodicals and books; or under the pretence of “honoring the Lord” by all this so-called “service” he induces the one or the other to neglect the great task which God has set before us:

“keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23).” 

 —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)

Taken from “Practical Christianity” by A. W. Pink (1886-1952)

Assurance and Peace Found in Resting in the Word of God Only

“Assurance and peace are to be found by resting on the Word of God. The ground of both is outside of ourselves. Feelings have nothing to do with either. Deliverance from judgment is by the Finished Work of Christ, and by that alone. Nothing else will avail. Religious experiences, ordinances, self-sacrifice, Churchmembership, works of mercy, cultivation of character, avail nothing. The first thing for me, as a poor lost sinner, to make sure of is, Am I relying upon what Christ did for sinners? Am I personally trusting in His shed blood? If I am not, if instead under the eloquence and moving appeals of some evangelist, I have decided to turn over a new leaf, and endeavor to live a better life, and I have “gone forward” and taken the preacher’s hand, and if he has told me that I am now saved and ready to “join the church,” and doing so I feel happy and contented — my peace is a false one, and I shall end in the Lake of Fire, unless God in His grace disillusions me.” —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)

“Gleanings in Exodus” by A. W. Pink (1886–1952)

The Subtlety of Satan and the Flesh

“It must not be overlooked that while Satan is very subtle the flesh also is exceedingly artful, fully capable of playing many parts in order to gain its own ends. Behold how it moved Jacob to cover himself with a hairy skin and masquerade as Esau, king Saul to disguise himself when he went to the witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28:8), the wife of Jeroboam feigning herself to be another when she visited the prophet Ahijah, whose eyes were set by reason of age (1 Kings 14:1-6), and the wolves in sheeps’ clothing of Christ’s day. In his second epistle Paul warned the Corinthians against

“false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:13),

and Jude complained that ungodly men had “crept in unawares” into the assemblies of the saints (Jude 1:4). The churches are full of such today.”

 —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)

“Gleanings in Joshua” by A. W. Pink (1886-1952)

Guilty Silence of the Modern Pulpit

“In consequence of the guilty silence of the modern pulpit, a generation of churchgoers has arisen which is deplorably ignorant of the basic truths of the Bible” —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)

~“Man’s Totaly Depravity” by Arthur W. Pink (1886–1952)

The Power of God's Word

“When God’s Word comes to us “in power,” it comes as “a two-edged sword”—cutting, wounding, causing pain and deep distress. When the Word comes to us in power it is not due to any learning or eloquence of the preacher, nor to any pathos which he may employ. The fact that his hearers’ emotions are deeply stirred so that they are moved to tears, is no proof whatever that the gospel is come to them in divine efficacy: creature passions are often stirred by the actings of the stage and thousands are moved to weep in the theater. Such superficial emotionalism is but evanescent, having no lasting and spiritual effects. The test is whether we are broken and bowed before God.” —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)

~“The Doctrine of Election” by Arthur W. Pink (1886–1952)

Psych meds linked to 90% of school shootings

From Worldnetdaily:

‎"Some 90 percent of school shootings over more than a decade have been linked to a widely prescribed type of antidepressant called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs, according to British psychiatrist Dr. David Healy, a founder of RxISK.org, an independent website for researching and reporting on prescription drugs." 

"Dr. Peter R. Breggin, a Harvard-trained psychiatrist and former full-time consultant at the National Institute of Mental Health, told WND it’s likely that problems for Lanza began with “getting tangled up” with psychiatric medicine. 

Breggin insisted there has been overwhelming scientific evidence for decades correlating psychiatrically prescribed drugs with violence. 

Writing in Ethical Human Sciences and Services, a peer-reviewed scholarly journal, in 2003, Breggin concluded SSRI drugs could be a factor in suicide, violence and other forms of extreme abnormal behavior, as evidenced in case reports, controlled clinical trials, and epidemiological studies in children and adults."

Psychiatry is dangerous for the individual and our society.

So You Think Psychiatric Drugs Work?

Excerpts from Rebel For Christ:   Walking by Sight:Do Psychiatric Drugs "work"? :

When people hear about the dangers of psychology and psychiatric drugs, and the lack of any real science supporting them, it’s not unusual to hear the response, “But for me (or my children, or my husband), they work.”

And to that I would reply, in all seriousness, “Define ‘work.’”

Lots of things “work,” yet those of us who love God know that He would never call us to do something that “works” in the world’s eyes if it goes against what He has said in His Word:

• Alcohol is fabulous at numbing the senses, making us temporarily happy, uninhibited, and more sociable. (Ephesians 5:18 says do not be drunk with wine but filled with the Spirit.)
• Speed, cocaine, and other stimulant drugs like Ritalin provide stamina and the ability to concentrate on minutia, which is why both the street-corner version and the ones dispensed by men in white coats are popular among college students during final exams. (First Peter 4:7 says be clear minded and self-controlled.)
• Marijuana and tranquilizers work too: a little self-medicating if you’re stressed or anxious and your situation immediately seems bearable. (Philippians 4:6 says be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgivingmake your requests known to God.)
• Divorce “works” to end a marriage that the world sees as no longer “working.” (Matthew 19:6 says let no man separate what God has joined together.)
• Even abortion “works,” if the goal is to get rid of what is perceived as an undesirable situation. (The Bible says the fruit of the womb is a reward, children are a gift of God, and Jeremiah 1:5 says before He formed us in the womb, He knew us and set us apart.)

Isn’t it about time we stop letting pragmatism define our faith?

                                  “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” —2 Corinthians 5:7

When it comes to seeking psychiatric or psychological answers for problems of living, here are six reasons why we need to question whether something that appears to be “working” by the world’s standards could really be God’s best for us:

1. All psychotropic drugs “work” by damaging the brain, and what we call “improvement” is really the result of their brain-damaging effect.   

End quote (emphasis, mine)

Go here for the entire article.

If You Were A Marketing Professional For Psychiatry....

From Rebel For Christ:

If you were a marketing professional in the field of psychiatry and wanted to pull off the most successful feat of sales and advertising the United States has ever seen, you might want to consider using the following ten tips. The marketing tactics proposed in this article are hypothetical, of course, because the American public could never be fooled on such a large scale. Any resemblance to actual events is purely coincidental.

1. If you want to convince the public to swallow $84 billion every year in drugs for psychiatric disorders that don’t exist, you’ll first need to pass off psychiatry as a science and elbow your way into medical circles, since those in the medical field have historically looked down their noses at psychiatry as junk science.

If you can establish and promote a medical model of psychiatry, though, true medical doctors and insurance companies will welcome you with open arms. The best way to stay in their good graces is to keep promising that “some day” you’ll find genetic markers for your diseases. In the meantime, continue to promote the “chemical imbalance” theory, even though that theory was disproven more than 50 years ago.

2. Create dozens of scientific-sounding “disorders.” Adjectives are helpful, but you’ll sell more drugs if you use words like “bipolar” instead of the old “manic-depressive.”

Real medicine first discovers confirmable physical abnormalities called diseases that can be tested and measured, then develops treatments for them. No one will know that you had the mind-altering drugs first and then invented diseases to go along with them. People never need to know their disorder was voted into existence by committee without a shred of scientific evidence.

Since there is no scientific evidence to support the claim that even a single psychiatric disorder is real, you’ll want to remind people regularly that your “disorders” are the same as diseases like cancer and diabetes. If you repeat the lie often enough and loud enough, people will eventually believe it.

Don’t worry that your drugs might be masking symptoms of true medical diseases, dietary deficiencies, or physical abnormalities that need to be diagnosed and treated. It’s not really your problem that doctors write prescriptions for your drugs before testing for the host of real diseases that might be affecting a patient. In fact, it’s good for your bottom line.

End quote.

For the entire list go here.

Psychiatric Drugs? Do the Research

Worth reading from Rebel For Christ.

Excerpt:

Going ON and OFF medications can be very dangerous, since every person responds differently. If you are considering taking yourself or your child off of psychiatric medications, be sure to consult a doctor or medical professional who is in agreement with your decision — one who supports the rights of patients to make well-educated choices about their own medical care with true informed consent.

Peter Breggin, M.D.      

Your Drug May Be Your Problem: How and Why to Stop Taking Psychiatric Medications

The Ritalin Fact Book

Talking Back to Ritalin: What Doctors Aren’t Telling You About Stimulants and ADHD

ADHD Fraud: How Psychiatry Makes “Patients” of Normal Children

The Anti-Depressant Fact Book: What Your Doctor Won’t Tell You About Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa, and Luvox

Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal: A Guide for Prescribers, Therapists, Patients and their Families

Talking Back to Prozac

Medication Madness: The Role of Psychiatric Drugs in Cases of Violence, Suicide, and Crime

Brain Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry

Kelly Patricia O’Meara

Psyched Out: How Psychiatry Sells Mental Illness and Pushes Pills That Kill

End quote.

For the entire list go here.

Ann Voskamp, Author of "One Thousand Gifts"

From Sola Sisters' Christine Pack: she says in part:

“What that first and catastrophic sin of ingratitude ruptured…union…can be repaired by exact inverse of the Garden: lifestyle gratitude …” (Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts, p220)

A friend of mine read the above quote and observed thusly:

"The Doctrines of Ann Voskamp: 

Original sin = ingratitude
Result = broken union
Answer = "lifestyle gratitude"  

Let's see anyone support THAT with Scripture."

I am inclined to agree. On the subject of Ann Voskamp,  what I keep hearing is, Hey look, nobody has perfect doctrine, why are you picking on poor Ann? And my point is.....doctrine matters. 

End quote.

For the whole article please go here.

Doctrine (teaching) matters. Scripture says so. 


Mat 28:19  "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20  teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." 

2Co 11:3  But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.4  For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully. 

1Ti 6:3  If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness,4  he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions,5  and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. 

Rom 16:17  I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; AVOID THEM.

Eph 4:14  so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 

2Jn 1:8  Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may

receive a full reward.9  Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of

Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the

Son.10  If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him

into your house or give him any greeting, 11  for the one who gives him a greeting

participates in his evil deeds.

2Tim. 4: . ^3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. ^4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

Titus 2: 1 You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine.

Isa 45:19  …I the LORD speak the truth; I declare what is right. 

John 17: ^17SANCTIFY THEM IN THE  TRUTH; Your word is truth. 

More on Ann Voskamp

From Sola Sisters' Cathy Mathews, who says in part:

Because Ann Voskamp appears to have been profoundly influenced by Christian Panentheistic Mystics, if the recommended reading list from her blog is anything to go by, and is also herself introducing Christian women to this concept of Panentheism in her book One Thousand Gifts, albeit a highly poetic, eroticized, "Christianized" version of Panentheism:

The Christian’s Secret of A Happy Life (by Hannah Whitall Smith)

Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home and Celebration of Discipline (by mystic Richard J. Foster)

The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime–A Manual for Prayer and The Divine Hours, Volume II: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime (by emergent leader and mystic Phyllis Tickle)

Spiritual Disciplines Handbook (by "female pastor" and mystic Adele Ahlberg Calhoun)

For those who aren't familiar with what Panentheism is, Panentheism is a worldview that embraces the view that God is "in" everything: in humans, in whales, in giraffes, in sand, in the ocean, the wind, the mountains, the stars, and on and on. In this worldview, God is reduced to being an essence, an energy, a vibration, that permeates and gives life and energy to all things. Panentheism is part of the eastern worldview (Hinduism, Buddhism, etc.) and is NOT part of the biblical worldview. The Christian worldview is that we are "dead in our trespasses" (Eph 2:5), while the eastern worldview is that we all have a "Divine inner spark," and at least some aspect of God/Divinity inside of us, regardless of our faith (Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, etc.).

End quote.

For the entire article please go here.

Obama's DOE Suggests School Remove "Baby Jesus"

Quote:

Principal Brenda Jones told television station WJHG the decision to keep Baby Jesus in the closet came after an official with the Dept. of Education dropped by to discuss the separation of church and state.

“The Dept. of Education came in and talked to us about the legalities of religion in the school systems and the separation of the two,” Jones told the television station.

In an attempt to be fair to everyone, the principal said, “We decided that we would just not put the Nativity scene out on campus.”

End quote.

~Fox News radio

Seeing that Christians were telling us that the presidency (and thus his administration which he appoints) is not a religious office but a secular one, this should be no problem for them. I hope I don't hear them complaining about the secularism and rejection of Christmas in the government schools, then.

Are We Compromised?

How is it that the world couldn’t get on with the holiest Man that ever lived and can get on with you and me?


Are we compromised? Are we compromised?


Have we no spiritual stature?


Have we no righteousness that reflects on their corruption?”
~ Leonard Ravenhill

Legalism or Obedience?

“When there’s something in the Bible that churches don’t like, they call it legalism.” 


― Leonard Ravenhill

Who Is Rick Warren?

If you want to know the danger of Rick Warren, watch this.

2Jn 1:7  For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.
2Jn 1:8  Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward.
2Jn 1:9  Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son.
2Jn 1:10  If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting;
2Jn 1:11  for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.

Homosexuality is not really a sin, says Warren:

Quote:

“But you think it’s a sin,” Hill asserted. “No, it’s not a sin to love somebody,” Warren said.

“It might be a sin to have sex with them,” he added. “It might be.”

However, just moments prior, Hill aired a clip from an interview that Warren participated in on Piers Morgan this week, where Warren presented a slightly different answer. He began by responding to the question of whether or not a person can be born homosexual.

End quote.

1Co 6:9  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, 1Co 6:10  nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. 

Jude 1:7  just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

Self-Esteem?

‎"You don't need self esteem. You need the knowledge of God". 

- Paul Washer

Behold your "lesser evil" has come home to roost

Here's John McCain, who many  Christians voted for and continue to vote for, saying that voters need to embrace amnesty for illegal aliens and leave the issue of abortion alone if you want to win an election.

He's not the only one getting bold in tossing out principles supposedly part of the GOP:

Condaleeza Rice also says the GOP needs to be a bigger tent.

Boehner caves on taxes and illegal immigration.

Shawn Hannity, "Conservative" Republican talk radio host also has caved on illegal immigration.

Chabliss, a top Republican senator ditches anti-tax pledge.

Top GOP lawmakers also hope to gain voters by jumping on the amnesty bandwagon.

I've been saying there is no difference of substance between the GOP and the DNC (see Fox News' Judge Napolitano's video clip below, its excellent). The GOP will drop any  value or principle that gets in the way of beating the opponent they love to hate. 

Lower taxes, legal immigration, pro-life (anti-abortion in all cases), anti-homsexuality, traditional marriage. None of these is apparently a matter of conviction based on principles and values. The leaders you voted in at the expense of these issues are now removing these very issues so they won't get in the way of competing with the Democrats.

If you keep voting in your "lesser evil", your party will continue down the evil road, not reverse itself. Abortion, traditional marriage, illegal aliens are all thrown out by the GOP, the "Conservative" party, in order to gain liberal votes. As I've said, the GOP will offer more and more liberalism to compete with the DNC. Its got NOTHING to do with principles. They have none.

Here's another person who also sees this compromise as wrong:  Richard Viguerie:
“The idea that conservatives need to abandon our principles and move left is nonsense,” he said. “The way that we win elections and not just appeal to the base but to the American people is when we make the campaign about our issues, our views our values. Republicans never win national elections unless we nationalize the elections and present to the voters two dramatically different worldviews – a worldview of a big, all-encompassing, powerful government versus a small government, individual responsibility, traditional values, lower taxes (and a) balanced budget.” ~ Source

While I disagree with Viguerie on his positive view of Romney's campaign, although saying Romney stopped too short of expressing conservative values (of course he did, Romney's liberal, NOT conservative), Viguerie is right concerning the GOP. 

The problem is that the GOP is filled with liberals and pragmatists. Pragmatists do not have values and principles that  dictate their decisions and behavior; rather they take what is really an opinion, labeling it as a "principle" or "value" , and then throw them away in order to win an election, move ahead, be accepted, gain votes, get money, make friends, move a group to the desired goal.

Wait until 20016 or 2020 ---when the GOP will offer a competitive liberal against the DNC who will be fiscally "conservative" and socially liberal....like a homosexual.

Think there's any difference between the two parties? Not really. 



So I've asked before and I'll ask again: What makes a Conservative a Conservative? Because they say they are or because they really are and its shown  by their actions?

Do You Know Who Jesus Christ Truly Is?

The Lord Jesus Christ is God — possessed of all divine attributes, and entitled to all divine honors. He is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit — God over all, and blessed for evermore! He is naturally, essentially, perfectly, and eternally possessed of everything peculiar to Deity.

He owes His existence to none. He says, "I am Jehovah, and beside Me there is no Savior!" He is God — and there is no other. There is no other name given under Heaven, or among men, whereby we can be saved. He is the Rock of Ages. He is the infinite, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, gracious, just, holy, and unchangeable I AM!

Angels worship Him,
devils obey Him,
saints love Him, and
sinners will bow to Him!

He is the author of . . .
  Creation,
  Providence,
  Redemption,
  and Glorification!

He . . .
  produced all things by His power,
  formed them by His wisdom,
  supplies them by His bounty,
  rules them by His instruments, and
  employs them according to His sovereign will.

He is above all — in the glory of His nature.
He possesses all — by essential right.
He will judge all — according to His righteousness.

All things are dependent upon Him, and
all rational beings are accountable to Him.

Nothing can escape His eye;
none can fly out of His hand!

He is exalted above all,
and remains King forever!

He is . . .
  the King of kings,
  the Lord of lords, and
  the only supreme Law-giver of the universe!

He is naturally, essentially, and eternally God:
  one with the Father,
  equal to the Father,
  and infinite as the Father.

Thus, the Scriptures reveal Him; as such, saints acknowledge Him, and join the angelic host in worshiping, praising, and adoring Him! 

As such, He loves all His people — yes, He is love to them. 

As such, they love Him — and trust their eternal interests into His hands!

No person can have right views of the love of Christ — who has not right views of the deity of Christ. His divinity gives lustre and glory — to Hislove. If He were not God — His love would be only a passion like ours, and would fluctuate and change. But being divine — His love is an infinite perfection, and remains immutably the same!

He loves with all the majesty of God — and with all the tenderness of man! 

His love has the strength of God — and the gentleness of sinless man!

He is all-loving — and altogether lovely!

~James Smith "The Love of Christ"

"Having loved His own who were in the world — He loved them unto the end!" John 13:1

A Task You Can't Do But Must Do

O my reader, be not deceived on this vital matter: to mortify the lusts of the flesh, to be crucified unto the world, to overcome the Devil, to die daily unto sin, and live unto righteousness, to be meek and lowly in heart, trustful and obedient, pious and patient, faithful and uncompromising, loving and gentle; in a word, to be a Christian, to be Christlike, is a task far, far beyond the poor resources of fallen human nature.



~A.W. Pink, "Studies on Saving Faith"


Php 2:12  So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13  for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. 

Eze 36:25  "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26  "Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27  "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. 

Compel them to come in!

Feminism

How striking it is that we should read of “silly women” in this inspired list of “last days” characteristics! How remarkably this is fulfilled in modern Feminism! Observe the words “led away with divers lusts,” which might be freely rendered “ambitious desires.” This craving for publicity, this deplorable masculinity, this denial of man’s headship, this usurping of authority, is one of the most striking Signs of the Times.



-A.W. Pink, "The Redeemer's Return"

You Are Not A Christian

If the cross of Christ has not radically disrupted the very epicenter and citadel of your life, from self-righteousness, self-esteem, self-worth, self-promotion, self-accomplishment, self-confidence, self-rule, self-glory, self-satisfaction, self-desire, self-will, self-honor, self-praise, self-regard, self-pity, self-sufficiency, self-love, self-admiration, and a host of the many disguised manifestations of the abomination of selfhood....friend, you're not a Christian.

If only you have experienced but a minor shift in a few of your ethical, moral and religious values neurotically tickled by the sensual excitement of idolatry masquerading as "worship", that proves nothing but simply a sewing together the fig-leaves of humanism to both inadequately cover the nakedness of our sinfulness and adorn & indulge the wretchedness of our fleshly nature....friend, you're not a Christian.

If the engorged egotism and flatulent narcissism that plagues the ir
reverent and mediocre religion of disobediently postmodern evangelicals is all that you have clung to by the vainglorious tendrils of smoke in the popularity of false religion and thereby have held to many Scripturally untenable positions by a false carnal hope, whilst emphatically calling Jesus your 'Lord, Lord'....friend, you're not a Christian.

If you did not die with Christ Jesus, and if you do not die daily to self, and if you are not living a crucified life in Christ: my dear friend, I lovingly plead with you to hear me when I soberly tell you....you are not a Christian.

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." -- Galatians 2:20

(Thanks for posting Doron Gladden from Chris O via Facebook)

Who Do Atheists Thank?

All Dressed Up And No One to Thank

Thankfulness is one of the distinguishing traits of the human spirit. We sense the need to say thanks, and we realize we ought to be more grateful than we are. We furthermore perceive that we are indebted to (and accountable to) a higher power than ourselves—the God who made us. According to Scripture, everyone has this knowledge, including those who refuse to honor God or thank Him (Romans 1:19–21).

Ingratitude is dishonorable by anyone’s reckoning, but to be willfully ungrateful toward the Creator in whose image we are made is to deny an essential aspect of our own humanity. The shame of such ingratitude is inscribed on the human conscience, and even the most dogmatic atheists are not immune from the knowledge that they ought to give thanks to God. Try as they might to suppress or deny the impulse, “what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them” (Romans 1:19).

During a November 2009 debate in England sponsored by a rationalist group known as Intelligence Squared, Richard Dawkins admitted that when he looks at the Milky Way or the Grand Canyon, he is overcome by a profound feeling of thankfulness. “It’s a feeling of sort of an abstract gratitude that I am alive to appreciate these wonders,” he said. “When I look down a microscope it’s the same feeling. I am grateful to be alive to appreciate these wonders.”

But to whom does an atheist like Dawkins express such gratitude?

I’m by no means the first person to point out this conundrum. In fact, the Internet is peppered with failed attempts to justify an atheistic celebration of Thanksgiving. Atheists insist they are not ungrateful. They confess that they feel thankful, and they clearly sense a need to avoid the ignominy of brazen ingratitude on a cosmic scale—especially at Thanksgiving.

One atheist has practically made a hobby of writing articles to explain why atheists feel the need to be thankful. He tackles the question of whom an atheist is supposed to thank. His best answer? Atheists can be grateful to farmers for the food we eat, to doctors for the health we enjoy, to engineers for the advantages of modern technology, to city workers for keeping our environment clean and orderly—and so on.

Here’s the problem with that: Tipping the waitress or tipping one’s hat to sanitation workers doesn’t even come close to resolving the problem of whom Dawkins should thank when he looks at the stars, stands at the edge of the Grand Canyon, or studies the world of countless wonders his microscope reveals in a single drop of pond water.

Of course we ought to be thankful on a human level to people who help make our lives better. But if thanking people exhausts your sense of blessedness and satisfies that “sort of ... abstract gratitude” you feel when pondering the vastness of the universe, you have already suppressed your own conscience to a frightening degree. Your worldview is spiritually bankrupt.

Another atheist writer, acknowledging this problem, says the answer is easy for her: she thanks her lucky stars. “What it comes down to,” she writes, “is that an atheist is generally thankful for good luck, serendipity.”

That’s an odd and ironic answer from a point of view that repudiates theism on the grounds that it is not “rational” to believe in God. (Not that atheism itself truly stands on solid rational grounds. After all, the starting point for atheistic materialism is the equation Nobody times nothing equals everything. What could possibly be more irrational?)

Chance, luck, fortune, happenstance, fate, kismet—whatever label you want to put on it—is not a force or intelligence. “Chance” has to do with mathematical probability. Flip a coin and there’s a 50-50 chance it will come up tails. But “chance” has no power to flip the coin, much less design an ordered universe.

Nevertheless, this is how atheistic materialists have trained themselves to think: chance is the ultimate creator. In the words of one Nobel Prize-winning atheist, “Pure chance, absolutely free but blind, is at the very root of the stupendous edifice of evolution.” Fortune has thus been personified—imbued with the power to determine, order, and cause everything that happens.

That’s mythology, not science. At the end of the day the atheist is no more rational and no less superstitious than the astrologist (or the animist) who thinks impersonal “lucky stars” determine one’s fortune.

On some level, atheists themselves surely realize this. Proof of their internal angst is seen in the fact that so many of them are not content merely to disbelieve. They are militant in their opposition to God. They hate the very thought of God and would love to have every mention of Him removed from public discourse—as if that would somehow remove the burden of their own ingratitude and relieve the pangs of a guilty conscience.

Such hatred is as irrational as atheism itself, and it is further evidence that atheists have some awareness of God that they desperately want to bury. Who nurtures such hatred for someone they truly believe doesn’t even exist?

Indeed, as Scripture says, it is the ultimate folly to try to suppress our own innate sense of obligation to our Maker. “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1). In short, to deny God is to debase one’s own mind and dehumanize the whole person (Romans 1:28).

That’s why we remind ourselves to give thanks to God—specifically, the one true God who has revealed Himself in Scripture as a God of grace and forgiveness, who so loved the world that He gave His Son as an atonement for sin, so “that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24).

He graciously compels us to thank Him, and He himself should top the list of things we are thankful for.

by John MacArthur

Kay Arthur's Precepts International Offers False Teacher Steven Furtick To Young People

Update on Kay Arthur.

"Knowing the nature and reputation of PMI, then, it may surprise some to discover that its student ministry arm, Transform, has in the past utilized the teaching of Steven Furtick and his book, Sun Stand Still, to encourage and teach followers of its blog. "

~Erin Benziger 


For more specifics go here.

More on the dangers of Author: here and here.

Depart From Iniquity

2Ti 2:19  But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: "The Lord knows those who are his," and, "Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity."

Romney's Mormonism Matters

It matters to Romney, it matters to God, and it matters to Biblical Christians.

Beth Moore Reckless Teaching

Beth Moore doesn't handle the Word of God faithfully and skillfully. Here's more problems with her teaching.

By Apprising Ministries special correspondent Bob DeWaay

Beth Moore denies that she promotes approaches to prayer that have Eastern overtones. The issue arose from her participation on the Be Still DVD which has been critiqued on this site by Ingrid and then Brian Flynn. Brian and I viewed a segment of Beth Moore on that DVD. We found disconcerting her poor understanding of Exodus 33:7-11, the passage she uses as her proof text. In her discussion of Moses’ tent of meeting she proposes that each believer can have their own tent of meeting where they can go to have two way conversations with God.

More....

Share the Wealth!

Exactly. If you demand socialism, then be prepared to give up what you worked hard for and hand it over to someone who didn't.

Do You Seek the Pleasures of the World or Seeking A Holy Life?

If I am seeking everything that can delight my senses

(William Law, "A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life")

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction--and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life--and only a few find it!" Matthew 7:13-14

If I am seeking everything that can delight my senses, and regale my appetites; spending my time and fortune in pleasures, in diversions, and worldly enjoyments--then how can it be said that I am working out my salvation with fear and trembling?

If there is nothing in my life and conversation that shows me to be different from the heathen; if I use the world, and worldly enjoyments, as the generality of people now do, and in all ages have done--then why should I think that I am among those few who are walking in the narrow way to Heaven?


Php 2:12  So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13  for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

Abortion Is Ok for 13,505 Babies Since That's Considered Less

1% of all abortions occur because of rape or incest, in the US.

The rape incest exception, being 1%, a small percentage, compared to the overall pic, seems to cause many to become apathetic to it. What is the 1% in numbers? The total numbe

r of abortions, daily in the US is 3,700. So 1% would be 37 murders of unborn children, daily. THIRTY-SEVEN CHILDREN PER DAY!

What if we took federal or state funds to buy weapons and ammo, walked down to our local elementary school, and shot and killed 37 children in their classroom. Biden, Romney, Ryan, and Obama, seem to believe this is okay.

Do YOU?

http://www.abortionno.org/Resources/fastfacts.html

~ Mark and Marissa Namirr

That 1% comes to 13,505 babies a year murdered and justified by "Christians" and 'Conservatives". Folks as I keep saying, this is NOT a pro-life stand! Either all abortion is wrong, or its all acceptable. Period.