Pornography

A topic most would rather not address and/or discuss...but it is out there, it is real and it is destroying families.

If you or someone you love is struggling there is help.  Praying for all those who have been impacted by this sin, the men, women and children.

Women who have viewed themselves as objects or been treated as such by a man.

The men who have allowed or been drawn into this arena and have become deadened to the deceit, the lies, the treating of women as if they are nothing more than mere 'toys' for their sole use and pleasure.

Children, oh the children who are impacted because of someones involvement with pornography.

Father, please awaken Your Bride to the sin of pornography, help those caught in it to break free, cause them to call to You first and foremost for deliverance.  Raise up people in their lives to confront and counsel them.

I've listed a few sites for review:

Addressing Pornography Temptation in Your Church

Pornography and the Church

Churches Confront an Elephant in the Pews

How Many Porn Addicts are in Your Church?

Pornography

Dear Friend,
The Papacy is ever looking for ways to implement its ecumenical agenda.  Its goal is to draw all Evangelicals into the folds of the Roman Catholic Church.  Vatican Council II officially proclaimed this objective in its documents in the mid 1960’s.  However, the Papacy’s problem was how to find entry points into Evangelical circles to begin implementing their new ecumenical policy. In 1967, a major event occurred among some of the Catholic students of Duquesne University as they attended a retreat.  That event was dubbed by some of the professors as “baptism in the Holy Spirit.”  The news of such a “move of God” quickly spread to the Notre Dame University in nearby Indiana.  Cardinal Suenens was sent by the Papacy to estimate the rapidly
growing movement.  With Cardinal Suenens’ favorable report, the Papacy had a major entry
point into Evangelical circles, which they exploited.
  
This newsletter documents the sinister power behind the Papal outreach to the Evangelicals of  the modern Pentecostal movement.  It also shows that what the Catholics mean by “baptism in the Holy Spirit” is utterly different from what the Evangelical Pentecostals mean by that same term.  Factual knowledge of the power behind the Catholic experiences shows the snare that is hidden in the Catholic ecumenical outreach to the Evangelical Pentecostals.  

Please make the article below known to others, and kindly link to it from your website or email, if possible.  
Yours for the Lord Jesus Christ and His Gospel,
Richard Bennett

The Papacy’s Exploitation of Pentecostalism 

By Richard Bennett 

The modern Pentecostal movement was derived from the holiness movement of the late 19th century.  As part of that movement, there was an outbreak of what was called the “baptism in the Spirit” at Charles Parham’s Bethel Bible School in Topeka, Kansas on January 1, 1901.  In 1906, similar events began occurring at the Azusa Street Mission in Los Angeles.  The Pentecostal movement generated great excitement from those claiming that God was moving in the signs and wonders that were taking place at these gatherings.  As news of these happenings spread, the excitement  of all this increasingly drew  people out of various settled
denominations to join with those who desired “baptism in the Spirit” and the signs and wonders that were associated with the movement.

Finish reading here.

Deliverance

“Deliverance!”

 I have just returned from preaching at a pastors’ retreat. On one of the days I had to deal with the issue of false prophets and teachers. Whereas previously I would have had in mind the major Christian cults (e.g. Jehovah's Witnesses), this time at the back of my mind was the extreme Charismatic “deliverance” movement. I saw this as a greater danger to evangelicalism because it is a Trojan horse.

During our discussion time it became apparent that I was correct. Although while I was teaching I did not mention the Charismatic “deliverance” movement, almost all the questions were related to this phenomenon. It is a common vice.

The loss of the gospel

My chief concern about this movement is the loss of the gospel. In my personal evangelism I often come across individuals who are members of these churches and all their talk is about perceived miracles and deliverance but never about repentance and personal faith in Jesus Christ. There is something definitely wrong with that.

Finish reading here

David's New Song

David’s New Song

by Pastor Larry DeBruyn for Contemporary Church, Entertainment, Music

Rick Warren’s Use of Psalm 40:3 to Endorse “Rock” Worship.
“And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.” Psalm 40:3, KJV
Saddleback Church is known as, “The flock that likes to rock!” On his Pastors.com website Rick Warren addresses the controversial subject of church music as he shares “three thoughts about music in worship,” which are: “Music is powerful”; “You can’t please everyone”; and, “It’s the message, not the music.”[1]
In developing his first thought, Pastor Warren employs Psalm 40:3 to be a biblical endorsement for any type of contemporary Christian music. He writes:

In Psalm 40:3 (NCV) David says, “He put a NEW song in my mouth . . . Many people will see this and worship him. Then they will trust the Lord.” Notice the clear connection between music and evangelism: “Then they will trust the Lord.”[2]

Warren infers that David’s “new song” can refer to rock music and that such a contemporary and culturally relevant music possesses an ability to evangelize people’s hearts in a way that traditional hymns and sermons (i.e., the preached word) cannot. But really, is that the message of Psalm 40? As opposed to singing traditional hymns, did David mean to endorse for the worship of God any “new” musical expression that our culture might invent? Among the many other styles of music in western culture, do rock, reggae, rap, or other cultural varieties equate to David’s “new song”? Let’s look at the Psalm.

Read the rest of this entry

Cults

Heart heavy laden over some of the 'methods' of getting saved.

Sacred Name Movement is one...and while doing some research, came across Cult Watch which appears to have some interesting articles to browse.

I found this site - Assemblies - to be distressing.  Their link which gives their positional statements is, well, sad.

This particular statement:

4 We affirm that it is necessary and most important to our salvation that we accept the revealed, personal Name of our Heavenly Father YAHWEH and the Name of His Son, our Savior YAHSHUA the MESSIAH. We affirm also that the most accurate transliteration of these Names from the Hebrew into the English is by the spellings employed above, Exodus 3:14-15; Psalm 68:4; Psalm 83:18; Isaiah 42:8; Isaiah 52:6; Acts 4:12.


Totally mitigating this verse:


Eph_2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:


Some flag items:

• Single charismatic leader.
• People always seeming constantly happy and enthusiastic. Especially if you discover that they have been told to act that way for the potential new recruits.
• Instant friends.
• If you are told who you can or cannot talk to or associate with.
• They hide what they teach.
• Say they are the only true group, or the best so why go anywhere else.
• Hyped meetings, get you to meetings rather than share with you.
• Experiential rather than logical.
• Asking for money for the next level.
• Some cults travel door to door during times when women are home alone. They, and this is rather sexist, think that women are easier to recruit and once they have the woman then it will be easier to snare the husband or partner.
• Saying that they have to make people pay for it because otherwise they will not appreciate it. This is of course a very silly reason, plenty of people are able to appreciate things which they did not pay for.

10 Ways to Love

Ten Ways to Love

1. Listen without interrupting. (Proverbs 18)

2. Speak without accusing. (James 1:19)

3. Give without sparing. (Proverbs 21:26)

4. Pray without ceasing. (Colossians 1:9)

5. Answer without arguing. (Proverbs 17:1)

6. Share without pretending. (Ephesians 4:15)

7. Enjoy without complaint. (Philippians 2:14)

8. Trust without wavering. (1 Corinthians 13:7)

9. Forgive without punishing. (Colossians 3:13)

10. Promise without forgetting. (Proverbs 13:12)

This was posted as a picture on FB...I thought it intriguing enough to type out and share.  I am in the process of reading all of the verses which correspond.  Interestingly #1 is a whole chapter.

I do not ascribe to living out my faith by a set of rules and regulations.  5 Steps to A Happy Marriage, or How to Make Your Children Perfect in 8 Easy Lessons....solely by immersing ourselves in the Word of God will we reflect more and more of HIS glory.  That said...the above are well worth pondering and meditating upon.

Halloween?

Rom 12:2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Should a saint sanitize a holiday?  Can one have a Harvest Celebration?

Do we look any different from the world?

A few sites to give some thought provoking prayer and seeking of Father.

Should Christians participate in Halloween?

"Trick" or "Treat" - Unmasking Halloween

Saints, please pray about what you are doing, participating in and/or promoting to your children.

Cracked Pots

I was reading a pamphlet from Chapel Library, Ten Indictments Against the Modern Church and began to seriously ponder on how much God has done in and through me.  That He took a broken, worthless pot, such as myself, chose me from the foundation of the world and set His love upon me, gave me entrance into HIS glorious kingdom.  I am not nearly grateful enough.  This came to mind as I pondered looking for a picture on cracked pots:

From eternity past He sought,

A broken and useless pot.

Worthless and deserving judgment;

Christ, from the presence of God, was sent.

Redeemed me from the rubbish bin;

 by the spotless Lamb who bore my sin.

Chose me to be His child;

a living stone His church to build.

As  I was looking for a picture, realized I had one of my own and then decided to see what came up as a Google search and came across this:

Ray Pritchard:  During an interview this week I was asked why so many of the heroes of the Bible had serious flaws. My answer was simple. That’s all God has to work with. All the perfect people are in heaven. The only ones on earth are the folks with serious weaknesses. The talent pool has always been pretty thin when it comes to moral perfection. So God works with sinners because that’s all he has to work with. In heaven we will all be vastly improved–perfected by God’s grace. But until then, he uses some pretty ornery people who fall short in many ways–and he does some amazing things through them.

If God chose only well-rounded people with no character flaws, some of the credit would inevitably go to the people and not to the Lord. By choosing flawed people with a bad past, a shaky present and an uncertain future, God alone gets the glory when they accomplish amazing things by his power.

And best of all, since God delights to use clay pots instead of high-dollar china (2 Corinthians 4:7), there is plenty of hope for you and me. We’re not all we’re cracked up to be, and most of us are cracked in more than one place, which makes us excellent candidates for the grace of God. That’s good news, especially for those clay pots with a few extra cracks.

When the power of God invades your life, there is no place to hide, no place to run, and no desire to do so...only a complete and whole surrender to the one who is, was and ever will be Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End.

May the peace of Christ find you, fill you and cause you to bring glory and honor to HIM.

John Owen

Who was John Owen? 


From the site bearing his name, John Owen:

Owen was by common consent the weightiest Puritan theologian, and many would bracket him with Jonathan Edwards as one of the greatest Reformed theologians of all time. Born in 1616, he entered Queen's College, Oxford, at the age of twelve and secured his M.A. in 1635, when he was nineteen. In his early twenties, conviction of sin threw him into such turmoil that for three months he could scarcely utter a coherent word on anything; but slowly he learned to trust Christ, and so found peace. In 1637 he became a pastor; in the 1640s he was chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, and in 1651 he was made Dean of Christ Church, Oxford's largest college. In 1652 he was given the additional post of Vice-Chancellor of the University, which he then reorganized with conspicuous success. After 1660 he led the Independents through the bitter years of persecution till his death in 1683. (by J.I. Packer)

From the website, Faith By Hearing:

"Owen was a mild mannered, wealthy academician by day, and a political conspirator by night, while producing some of the most magisterial theological works of the Puritan generation. He had eleven children, all of whom he would bury."

Sad that he buried all his children, but I thought it interesting that he was a political conspirator.

Wikipedia:  John Owen 

I particularly liked this comment:  Like John Milton, he saw little to choose between "new presbyter" and "old priest."

This site, Christian Classics Ethereal Library had a brief biography as well as tabs listing several of Owens' works.

Monergism had an article here.

Biblical Eldership

Biblical Eldership Defined

a. Pastoral Leadership

b. Shared Leadership

c. Male Leadership 

d. Qualified Leadership

e. Servant Leadership

"According to the New Testament, elders lead the church, teach and preach the Word, protect the church from false teachers, exhort and admonish the saints in sound doctrine, visit the sick and pray, and judge doctrinal issues."

"One reason there are so few shepherd elders or good church elderships is that, generally speaking, men are spiritually lazy. That is a major reason why most churches never establish a biblical eldership. Men are more than willing to let someone else fulfill their spiritual responsibilities, whether it be their wives, the clergy, or church professionals." ~ Alexander Strauch

The article can be found here.

"The Puritans were not interested in entertaining listeners, as “preachers” are today. They focused on 3 main ingredients,

1) To read the text from the Bible and then expound on the plain meaning from the text;

2) To note and discuss a few key points of doctrine from the text; and

3) to apply those doctrines to the life of the believer. 

They loved the Word of God so much, and cared for the souls of their listeners, that they preached just the Word."

Would that the Bride of Christ were desirous of being washed in the Word with such width, breadth and depth.

To read the article in its entirety:

Puritan Roots: A Brief Sketch of the Values of Puritanism by Dr. C. Matthew McMahon

Roman Catholic Church

Is it a cult?  A true Christian church?  Researching and reviewing information.

Below are very brief overviews of the chapters:


On Peter:  The Roman Catholic Church views all of these things, and more, as confirmation of the primacy of Peter – a position supposedly established by Christ when He addressed His servant memorably at Caesarea Philippi: “And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18).  Is this Christ’s institution of what we now know as the Papacy? Was Peter himself, and in the person of his successors, to be ‘the rock’ on which He would build His church? There are very many reasons for rejecting
such an interpretation.

Regarding One Mediator - Jesus Christ:  Roman Catholicism, however, usurps Christ’s position by giving the Pope supreme apostolic authority to define all doctrine – infallibly – concerning faith or morals.

Justification, the Roman Catholic Church believes:  – “Moved by the Holy Spirit and by charity, we can then merit for ourselves, and for others, the graces needed for our sanctification…and for the attainment of eternal life.”

Rev. John Greer: "Since the attitude to the doctrine of justification indicates whether a church is standing or
falling, we may conclude that the Roman Catholic Church is fallen! It fails the test. It is not, in the scriptural sense, a truly Christian church, and should not be accepted as such. With such a church, there can be no fellowship."

Regarding the remembrance of Christ and His atoning work on the cross and the *mass* - Today, the notion is propagated that there is little difference between the Roman Catholic mass and the simple observance of the Lord’s Supper as practised by Protestants. This is not so.

The Mandate -

1. We are to mark those who teach error.
2. We are to reprove those who teach error.
3. We are to  reject those who teach error.
4. We are to have no fellowship with those who teach error.
5. We are to  separate from those who teach error.

To read the article in its entirety - http://www.freepres.org/images/papalvisit.pdf