Chris Arnzen’s IRON SHARPENS IRON Radio’s guest for *WED.*, JULY 5th, 4-6PM *ET*: JOHN SAMSON, author and pastor of King’s Church, Peoria, AZ, to discuss his new book: “THE FIVE SOLAS: Standing Together, Alone”
Listen *LIVE* GLOBALLY @ www.IronSharpensIronRadio.com
or ANYWHERE BY PHONE @ (563) 999-9206 (press 3 when prompted for Christian Radio)
The book can be ordered from Solid Ground Christian Books at this link.
Written by friend Eric Bryant today:
Those that know me know that I have started teaching the US Constitution more directly this year. I love it! Our founding fathers were geniuses. And the hand of God is all over our country’s founding. It’s clear for anyone with eyes to see. By no means am I saying that this is a “Christian country.” But it’s historical truth that the Founding was based on Judeo-Christian principles that acknowledge a Creator and that Creator’s laws of nature. The more we suppress that knowledge the worse we get.
When I teach about the Founding, it’s always bittersweet. We have such a great foundation and good beginning. We then went through hell with the Civil War and purgatory with the racial civil rights movement. It took a long time, but I’m proud that we eventually got to the point of actual legal racial equality and that the basis for all of that was written into our founding documents.
But the modern era is an era of foolishness unparalleled and unprecedented. We have squandered our blessings and we now openly spit in God’s face by not only killing the innocent unborn and calling it good but adding to it the hubris that says that we know more about ourselves than God does. This comes in the form of the ridiculous and suicidal attempts to change foundational human institutions like marriage. Same sex mirage is just that: a fiction that has no basis in reality. We think that we are the smartest people that have ever walked the planet and that somehow we can improve what was instituted from the beginning of humanity. And the US Supreme Court is the biggest fool of all (because they should have known better). What a pity!
That’s NOT what the Founders thought. Although, they were clear that they were trying a “grand experiment,” they were going back to basics, back to fundamentals, not forward to fiction and fantasy. They were standing on the truth that freedom comes through acknowledging that all men are created equal and endowed by our creator with unalienable rights, namely to life, liberty, and property. And that government is instituted to secure and protect those rights. How far astray we’ve gone.
It’s easy to celebrate the Founding. It’s hard to celebrate anything current going on in politics or the government. We are like the prodigal son, living in excess and squandering our inheritance, oblivious to the squalor that awaits us, but mostly awaits our children. It’s disgusting. The only rational response to this is to fall on our faces and beg forgiveness and mercy from the One who grants or takes away our freedoms. We can’t expect to violate the very laws of nature and then be blessed. That’s insane. Yet it seems as if insanity rules the hearts and minds of the populace today.
Happy Independence Day! Now beg God for mercy and call our country to repentance!
Article by Costi Hinn, Pastor of Adult Ministries at Mission Bible Church in Orange County, CA. Costi is married to the love of his life Christyne, and has two children. (original source here)
Jesus is getting a lot of really confusing press when it comes to physical healing these days. This post will answer one of the biggest questions that arises from all of the confusion.
As of right now, miraculous healing is one of the most popular subjects inside and outside the church. Preachers are preaching it, televangelists are guaranteeing, desperate people need it – it’s a healing-hungry world out there.
Recently, I was on a camping trip with my family and thought I was free and clear of any healing ministry enthusiasts. That first night a man walked up to my campsite out of the blue, introduced himself, and proceeded to spend 2 hours telling me about his divine healing ministry. The crescendo of our campfire pow-wow? No, he didn’t heal my wife’s asthma (or even offer). But he did give me two copies of his most recent book on using the power of positive words to speak healing into every sick person I know. After I declined his offer of 400 copies for our church, I shared truth, and he didn’t return again.
You probably experience the same kind of chaotic intrusion from time to time as well. Peruse through your local TV stations or mainstream Christian bookstore and it won’t be long before you’re promised divine healing and a miracle of some sort. On the flip side to all of that, there’s a whole slew of authors and teachers who will tell you that God does nothing supernatural, so not to get your hopes up.
All of the opinions can be downright confusing for people who just need a clear answer to one begging question:
Is it always God’s will to heal everyone during their life on earth?
To find this answer we don’t need a faith healer’s FAQ webpage, or a blanket guarantee from someone who has “seen and experienced some things” in a healing room or a jungle overseas. We need nothing more than to incline our ears and fill our minds with answers from the word of God.
Here are six clear truths that explain God’s will in regards to healing:
I. GOD DOESN’T HEAL EVERYONE ALL THE TIME
This is the most important point to start off any discussion on God’s will and miraculous healing. God doesn’t heal everyone all the time and the Bible gives irrefutable evidence to support this. Miracles of healing were primarily done through God the Son – Jesus Christ, and His Apostles. Jesus healed just one man out of a multitude of sick people at the Pool of Bethesda (John 5:3-8). Jesus didn’t heal people in His hometown of Nazareth (Matthew 13:58). After a healing-spree in the district of Galilee, Jesus plainly decided to go somewhere else to preach even though desperately sick and hurting people were looking for Him (Mark 1:38). His reasoning was simple: “Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also; for that is what I came for.”
Christ didn’t come to earth to hold a healing crusade, He came to bring salvation! As for the most prolific Apostle and writer of 13 New Testament books? Paul wielded miraculous gifts yet told Timothy to take wine for his stomach issues. Why didn’t the Apostle wield his gift of healing? (1 Timothy 5:23). Paul also left one of his faithful ministry teammates, Trophimus, sick at Miletus. Why didn’t he heal him and bring him along? (2 Timothy 4:20). Clearly, God heals as He wills and even sovereignly controlled the specially gifted Apostles. God’s will in healing is not a formula that man can master. Continue reading