Monthly Archives: February 2015

Brutal Pictures?

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thank you for your prayers, they are so vital and instrumental. These are brutal slayings that are happening at Planned Parenthood. This is not healthcare. That’s why we show the awful pictures. We hate seeing them too…but that is what is happening inside. We can’t deny it, nor should we hide it. Babies are dying!

They are now trying to deny the holocaust, to try and say it never happened…but the pictures are proof.

A dear friend said, “We don’t show pictures of beautiful Jewish people to depict the holocaust. We show the pictures of their broken battered bodies…that’s the holocaust, and we can see beautiful babies in the grocery store… but that is not what abortion is.”

She’s right! Don’t get me wrong, we have some beautiful baby pictures out there too, but abortion needs to be exposed for what it is—HEINOUS MURDER of the smallest most vulnerable people group—the unborn.

“Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.” (Romans 12:9)

I have long ago repented to the Lord for one time being pro choice (death) in certain circumstances. Later I had to repent of my wishy washy pro life stance that is so prevalent today. I had fallen for the lie…..

All you need is love…wah, wah, wah, wah, wah…all you need is love, love, love is all you need.

You’ve heard the song, in fact it may be playing in your head now…sorry. It seems to be the call of many in the pro-life movement. In fact, as I said… at one time (God forgive me) I believed some of this same rhetoric that says, “Ultimately it’s a woman’s choice and you can’t tell her what to do. We just love on her, show her the love of Jesus, and educate her about her ‘options’ then let her know that we are here for her, and will support her no matter what she decides.”

To that I say….HOGWASH!!!!

The love of Jesus???? Where’s the part about go and sin no more?

As Christians our love must be without hypocrisy. We CAN…SHOULD… and are COMMANDED to tell her what to do… OBEY GOD…DO NOT MURDER YOUR BABY, GOD COMMANDS YOU NOT TO MURDER!

We should be preachers of righteousness. We should love by telling the truth. WE WILL HELP YOU!! GOD HAS PROVIDED A WAY OF ESCAPE BUT YOU MUST NOT DO THIS!

The difference is we can’t MAKE her do anything. But we can certainly tell her what she should do, and what the consequences are. We should educate her….through the fear of the Lord men depart from evil. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

Therefore there are only 2 OPTIONS—Parenting, or Adoption. Abortion is NOT an option, it is an EVIL. It is SIN! We will not support you in that. Abortion is murder—God commands you not to murder…that’s real education.

Please my friends, be in prayer. We need to be bold. We need to tell the truth. We must do it in love…but it must be done. If we don’t tell them the truth, then it really is hate speech. I know that sounds hard.

We need to get it through our heads that the world is not going to love us…They hated Jesus and if we follow Him and look like Him they will hate us too. He told us they would. So why are we trying so hard for them not to?

These are mommies and daddies who have arrived at the killing place to kill their children…it IS a matter of life and death. We don’t change our message to appear more loving. The truth is the most loving thing we can share. We don’t take away the graphic images to appear more loving—we need to expose what they are about to do, we don’t tell mommies and daddies killing their babies that we will support them no matter what they decide in order to appear more loving. We don’t need to, nor should we… apologize for the holiness of God.

Would you do that if your child or someone else confided in you that they were thinking of raping someone, or murdering a person who stood in the way of them achieving their dreams?….Well I can’t tell you what to do, but I’ll be praying for you sweetie (hug them), and I will support you no matter what you decide. Oh by the way if you do go through with it, there is help available for you afterwards.

RIDICULOUS!!! You can see that it is ridiculous. It paves the road to destruction with sloppy agape and helps her justify her sin.

This is not about a woman’s body, her choice. There is another person’s little body inside her body… that is not her body, not her choice.

I don’t fear ISIS. I FEAR that we have no FEAR OF GOD in this country and that many of us who claim to know CHRIST have more fear of man than we have of GOD.

And I said; “Oh my God, I am too ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God; for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has grown up to the heavens. (Ezra 9:6)

Oh LORD, please help us to follow hard and wholeheartedly after You. Let us not be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Help us to be bold and courageous, to love You more than our very own lives, to speak the truth, no matter the cost, and trust You with the results. Forgive us for our apathy and complacency. Strengthen us in this battle for life and souls and be glorified I pray!

What Faithful Preaching Looks Like

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WY, writes:

Faithful Bible preaching is not always easy to find. In some churches the Bible is barely opened, much less preached. And even when it is preached, how do we know that what is happening is faithful and helpful by God’s standards? Things like our feelings or filled pews, for example, are not good barometers.

The following will make a few suggestions on where to start. This is not all that constitutes biblically faithful preaching, but a few things which we should observe as the Bible is opened and preached:

1. A total submission to the Bible.

What the Apostle commanded Timothy, and, all who would stand in a pulpit thereafter, is pretty simple: “preach the word” (2 Tim 4:2). The “word” is that God-given body of Scripture.

The biblical idea of “preach,” comes from the role of a keryx, or “herald.” The job of the keryx was simple: in subjection to their sending superior and by the authority of their master, deliver the message, which did not originate with them, and do so authoritatively, without altering it in any way. He was merely an executive instrument and mouthpiece of his master, entrusted to deliver the message exactly as received (TDNT, 3:687). The herald/preacher demonstrated his subjection to his master by proclaiming the message.

So it is to be with preaching the Bible.

Being a subject of God, the preacher understands that he is a subject of every word of God. He is a servant of the text.

The content of the sermon, then, should demonstrate subjection to the text of Scripture. It should be clear that things like outlines, explanation, illustrations, and applications are derived from the text. Any stories and illustrations, while not taking center stage, purposely serve the text, and not the opposite.

Helpful preaching will have content which also fits into the larger context of the Bible. It will be consistent with major, redemptive theological threads (e.g. God’s sovereignty, sovereign grace, depravity of man, the glory and supremacy of God, the Person and finished work of Christ).

Finally, faithful preaching will demonstrate a spiritual submission to the text. At times, the preacher demonstrates personal conviction of his own sin consequent of subjection to the text.

2. An avoidance of aimless meandering.

Biblical preaching is like taking a group of hikers on a tour of a majestic mountain landscape. As far as the hike goes, the tour guide knows the route well. He has walked it himself, slowly, carefully, and observantly. He has wrestled with various cruxes. He may have gotten lost a few times, but eventually found his way. And he is not interested in creating new landmarks and geographical features on the route, but simply and enthusiastically pointing out the already-existing features. He may move faster in some areas and slower in others, while observing a clearly-marked beginning and end to the hike.

So it is in preaching. As the preacher opens the word, he identifies the features of the text. Things like outline points in the sermon are akin to those significant junctures and landmarks in a hike. The preacher does not create them, but merely identifies the beauty of what is in the text, while bringing things to a close, transitioning, and moving to the next, and so on. All the while, the hearers, like those being led on the hike, have some idea of where they are going. Continue reading →

Foundations of Assurance

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Many Christians base their assurance of salvation on false premises. This Scriptural guide reveals the certain hope that is provided in Christ himself.

HANDOUT SERMON NOTES

Someone might well say “There’s no way anyone can know if there is life after death or if there is a heaven or hell, and there’s certainly no way to know whether you are going to one of those places or the other.”

In to the quagmire of human opinion steps a man called Jesus Christ who makes audacious claims – claims that if not true make him less than a good teacher, symptoms but either a liar who has deceived billions of people, a lunatic (madman)… or else, He is exactly who He claimed to be.

Text: John 14:1-6

Assurance is built in much the same way as a house, brick by brick, laying one truth upon another.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD – Romans 1 – God does not believe in atheists! God has made the evidence of His existence known to man – all know it but many suppress it.

GOD’S REVELATION – THE BIBLE – It is not a scientific text book as such but when Scripture makes claims that can be attested by science, it stands the test of time in a remarkable (supernatural) way. It is centuries and millennia ahead of its time.

Earth – a circle (Isa 40:22), hung on nothing (Job 26:7) – the moon a reflector of light (does not shine (Job 25:5) – the fact that air has weight (Job 28:24, 25) – time zones (a moment in time that will be night time for some and daytime for others – Luke 17:31-37) – the number of stars “cannot be numbered) Jer 33:20-22) – the water cycle (Ecc 1:6, 7) – Life is in the blood (Lev 17:11) – strict hygiene and sanitation laws (found in Leviticus 13:45-59)) that kept Israel from the spread of disease millennia before germs were discovered (its only in the last 100 years that the regular washing of hands became standard practice in hospitals) – atoms and molecules (things unseen) (Heb 11:3) – ocean currents (Isaiah 43:16; Psalm 8:8) – archaeology – fulfilled prophecy… (Christ, born of a virgin in Bethlehem, His cross and resurrection (Psalm 22; Isa 53), etc. etc.)

JESUS CHRIST – HIS PERSON AND HIS WORK – He existed in history – In a communist Russian dictionary, Jesus is described as “a mythical figure who never existed.” Of course, no serious historian could hold to that position today. The evidence is overwhelming as to the fact that Jesus existed, not just from the Gospels and other Christian literature around the first century, but also from non-Christian sources.
Well respected historians of the day, including Tacitus (a Roman) speak of him, as well as the noted Jewish historian Josephus. He writes

“Now there was about this time, Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him, both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ; and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him; and the tribe of Christians so named after him, are not extinct at this day.” Josephus: Antiquities XVIII 63f

Of course, a whole book is needed to cover all the evidence regarding the existence of Jesus. In fact, Josh McDowelI has already written one, called “He walked among us.” Suffice it to say that there is overwhelming evidence to say that Jesus was a real historical person. Continue reading →