Psalm 146:2 "I will praise the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live."

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Three years ago

Hi Everyone,

I've reached the three year mark of the day that God transferred me from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of His marvelous light

Colossians 1:9-14 "For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,  in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Discernment--A Great Need in The Church Today

Hi Everyone,

I believe that one of the greatest needs in the church today for us as believers is discernment. There are so many ideas floating around out there and people (even evangelicals) are flocking to them as though they were some new great thing that God is supposably doing. Discernment is the ability to sift out the truth from the error and with some of these these teachings nowdays, some things can be totally Biblical while other things can in error. It isn't anything new.

We need believers these days that aren't afraid of what people are going to think. We need people that are wiling to point out error in love so that others are not falling into things which might lead them astray. We need believers that are bold and willing to stand for the truth.  Scripture says that in the last days that many will be deceived and led astray. Although we don't know the day or time of His coming, we certainly do not want to fall into Satan's snare of falsehood.  In Mathew 24 Jesus was talking to His disciples, but the warnings of not being deceived certainly apply to us today. Deception in the church is a big deal.

Mathew 24:4-13 "Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come."
 

The truth is that there is no greater joy when people are walking in the truth. John said it this way 3 John 1:4 "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth."  There really is a joy to know that those we love are walking in the truth and when someone you love gets deceived by something that has serious error in it, the impact is sad and very real. But God is at work and He is faithful.

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Tickling Ears?

Hi Everyone,

OK so I think my blog might be changing directions for a few posts. I've got some things to say based on some things that have come to my attention lately regarding things that can be subtly accepted into a believer's life that lead down a path of serious error. The enemy is so subtle.

A good quote Elizabeth Prata taken from my friend Glenn's blog:  You shouldn't accumulate knowledge just for the sake of knowledge. Once you know something is true or false, you have a responsibility to do something about it. You have a responsibility to praise the Savior if you find a true teaching, but if you find a false teaching you have to say something about it, as well.” 

So here is the tip of the iceberg of what I need to say: 

1) Experience does NOT triumph over objective  and Biblical truth

Turning to our feelings and experiences and believing them rather than to the Word of God in a way is like turning from sound Biblical teaching. Our experiences MUST be rooted  in God's truth and experience is something that must be evaluated with much caution and certainly not immediately trusted in. Experience must never contradict scripture. Unfortunately and wrongly so, your experiences may get given a higher priority by you than by what the Word of God says.  Just because something looks and feels good doesn't mean it is good, Biblically sound, or even right..

Instead of looking toward experience, Turn deeper into studying the Word.


2) The Bible is NOT going to suddenly start meaning what it has never meant--people can make the Bible mean whatever they want it to, especially if they take verses out of context and/or throw "allegorical meaning and interpretation" to it--and yes this is rampant in certain circles today that claim to be evangelical.

SO PLEASE use correct hermeneutics and Bible study methods--and if you don't know what that means, take an opportunity to learn how to study the Bible correctly. Yes context, history, word definitions from the Greek/Hebrew, among many other factors really DO matter in how Scripture is interpreted.


3) There is NO such thing as an "elite group of believers" that is more "special" or that receives "more special revelation" than the rest of us

No where in Scripture is there a mention of an elite group of believers--this kind of thinking is very cult-like  God does not show partiality. Furthermore, if you are deceived into having an us vrs them mentality or you are deceived into thinking that you have information that other believers don't, its like you;re saying Scripture isn't enough and have to have more information from elsewhere or from experiences. God takes those who add or take away anything from Scripture very seriously. There is NOTHING as believers that we have to try to 'get" that we have not already received from the Lord. In Christ we ARE complete


4) The danger of trusting in man

 People can be easily deceived and think they are not trusting in man but when you take someone's word for something doctrinally without checking it out against scripture first or maybe you've heard it enough times that you start believing it you're trusting in man in a sense----following another person is really dangerous and is NOT something as believers that we should be deceived into. This is what the Lord said about those who put their trust in man-very serious words.

Jeremiah 17:5-9
This is what the Lord says:
“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
    who draws strength from mere flesh
    and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;
    they will not see prosperity when it comes.
They will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
    in a salt land where no one lives.
 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
    whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
    that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
    its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
    and never fails to bear fruit.”
The heart is deceitful above all things
    and beyond cure.
    Who can understand it?

5) As I already stated--the Enemy is so subtle!

Satan masquerades himself as an angel of light and his deception can be so subtle.

May this be our prayer and desire so that we are not enticed by those who offer teachings out there to tickling ears!