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.