God Stands by His Own
Labels:
personal testimonies
Many of you have been praying for Leah, our daughter. She is married to Phil and has two children, Lisa and Jason. Jason has autism. Leah was diagnosed with breast cancer not long ago and just as treatment began, she apparently had a severe reaction to medication. I'll admit, it scared me, but people in many places were called to prayer, and the hand of God was evident in a recovery that took the nurses by surprise. I won't tell that story just now, but will go on to say tht she went through chemotherapy, followed by a mastectomy. Monday, she saw her surgeon for the first time after the operation and today we received the following notice from Phil. I think, you will be able to see how the Lord stands by His children in these traumatic episodes of life:
The Organic Church
Labels:
Important messages
“You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual
house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God
through Jesus Christ.” 1
Peter 2:5
The Laodicean identity
“You say, ‘I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of
nothing,’ and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and
blind and naked”… Behold, I stand at the
door and knock…” Revelation 3:17, 20
What we are considering in this part of our lesson is a call of
Christ from outside the Laodicean church. From the very beginning of
this lesson, I would like you to notice two Greek nouns. One is apostasion and its feminine form is apostasia. The first means divorce and the second means apostasy. They are obviously very
closely related in definition and a common meaning would be separation. When
Paul speaks of an apostasy in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, he is speaking of an
end-time condition in the church, which can easily be interpreted as a divorce from Christ… a bride gone her
own way.
Would this not describe the situation
in Laodicea? Christ is outside seeking entrance and inside, the church is
operating without the presence and direction of the Lord. One of the evidences
of the divorce is that the mentality of the church is very different, even
opposite, from the mind of Christ. The church says, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing”;
Jesus says, “You are wretched and
miserable and poor and blind and naked.” Not long ago, a believer told me
that he had come out of a certain group thinking that he knew just about
everything. Shortly thereafter he joined a good Bible study course and very
humbly confessed, “I found out I knew nothing.” The light of truth is painful
to our spiritual eyes, when it gives us an accurate picture of our condition.
So also to this church, the
Lord offers disciplinary measures (“those
whom I love, I reprove and discipline”) that would turn their spiritual
poverty to riches, their nakedness would be covered with vestments of
righteousness, and their blindness would be cured by an anointing that will
bring spiritual wisdom and knowledge. However, if they will not repent and
submit to Him, then as He is not in them, so they will not be in Him. He will
vomit them out.
The Roots of Adventism
Labels:
Important messages
Miscalculated prophecies and a blow on the head
 |
| Ellen White 1827-1915 |
In eight words, this
is the story of the roots of Seventh-day Adventism. I am making an attempt to
give the reader a basic knowledge of three major cults, all having their
origins in the United States. They are the Mormons, or more formally, The
Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints. The second cult is the Jehovah Witnesses and the third sect is the Seventh-Day Adventists.
Let me list a number
of characteristics and ideas that these three groups have in common.
The founders had unstable spiritual beginnings
that show no evidence of a biblical new birth, therefore they are not born or
taught by the Holy Spirit. Jesus said that without the new birth it is
impossible to “see” the Kingdom of God (Jn.3:3). The apostle Paul tells us that
the “natural man”, that is, man alone without the Holy Spirit, cannot
understand the things of God (1 Co.2:14). Any person in that position is doomed
to be led by his own mind into multiple kinds of error (not to mention the fact
that demon spirits will capitalize on the attempt.). You will see all of them
making an effort to fit the unspeakable mysteries of God into the natural human
mind, and rejecting all that their mind cannot contain. This is the basic
problem.
All of the
founders of these sects were people exposed to the gospel, but who rejected the
established churches of their day. They were anti-church people, who found a new
revelation. They taught that the churches were going in the direction of
apostasy and could not guide their flock into truth.
The founders were
largely ignorant people with no good theological background or training.
You will find that
none of them accept or teach salvation that comes purely by the grace of God.
They are all “works” oriented.
All of them point to
and are highly dependent upon extra-biblical literature and teaching, without
which no one can be properly enlightened in their particular views of
Christianity, and they emphasize experiences, such as visions and dreams,
through which they received light concerning their callings and claims.
The J W's Hate Truth
Labels:
Important messages
The love of the truth
 |
| Charles Russell |
How important is truth? How important is
it to love truth? I cannot think of anything that is more important. The
opposite of truth is falsehood and falsehood invalidates every good thing. Joy,
peace, humility, righteousness, and all the other virtues in the world, have
their counterfeits. Even love, if it lacks truth, becomes a false
love and is probably the most deceptive of the whole spectrum of lies.
Love is of vital importance in
Christianity to the degree that the person, who does not walk in love,
according to the Apostle John, “does not know God, for God is love” (1 Jn.4:8).
The Apostle Paul ranks love above all gifts and virtues: “Now abide these
three, faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Co.13:13).
Because this is so and because the father of lies understands its power, he
comes under the guise of love and today millions of people are deceived… in the
name of love.
Paul calls truth the girdle of the
armor of God (Eph.6:14) It ties the whole armor together and without it,
everything falls apart. Truth stands by itself and because of the virtue of its
very name, it cannot deceive. Truth reigns eternal. Christ proclaimed, “I am
the truth” and therefore everyone, who comes to Christ, must face truth: “He
who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested
as having been wrought in God” (Jn.3:21).
The Roots of Mormon Polygamy
Labels:
Important messages
 |
| Brigham Young, successor of Joseph Smith, and a few of his wives |
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is famous nation-wide in the U.S.A. Brigham Young is a well-known university in Utah. It was founded by Brigham Young, the second president of the Mormons in 1875. It all sounds so legitimate and well-established in American society... until you delve into its dark history of false narrative, doctrinal heresy, based on total fiction, and sexual sin, leading to polygamy. Any serious Bible student, reading the Book of Mormon, will find it ridiculously unfounded. Any serious thinker will wonder how intelligent, educated human beings can fall for its claims. However, they do so, as a testimony to the power of religious fanaticism, provoked by smooth-tongued teachers. When you prod into its history, you begin to see its entangled deception that has lured millions. You see a dark teaching that is "a world of iniquity... that sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell". It is a misguided wisdom that "is earthly, sensual, demonic" (James 3:6 and 15)
It is extremely important to
know the roots of any spiritual tree. Jesus taught that if a tree is evil, it cannot produce good
fruit. He said, “Beware of false
prophets, who come to you dressed as sheep, but inside they are devouring wolves. You will fully
recognize them by their fruits. Do people pick grapes from thorns, or figs from
thistles?” (Mt.7:15-16)
John the Baptist said, “The axe is already laid to the root of the
trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and
thrown into the fire” (Mt.3:10). John is preaching repentance and
repentance is absolutely necessary, if there is to be entrance by faith into
the gospel. Bad fruit comes from bad roots and good fruit cannot be expected
until the old roots are dug up and abandoned. What is apparently “good fruit” is
a deception, unless repentance has taken place.
The Mormons, the second fastest
growing movement on earth, have been on a campaign for legitimacy among
evangelicals. This should not happen without a thorough renunciation of their
founder, Joseph Smith, and his teachings. Yesterday, I became aware of a
reopening of a Mormon museum, in which Smith’s polygamy is admitted. He had
over 30 wives and this fact is documented to the degree that the Mormon Church
can no longer hide it. However, polygamy, in Smith’s case, was preceded by
adultery, which was later justified as “polygamy”, which became, then, an
accepted practice by Mormons. The attempt to make polygamy a biblical doctrine
was only a cover-up for mass adultery. Joseph Smith had sexual relations with eleven
women, married at the same time to other men.
Please, Let’s Be Factual
Labels:
Important messages
 |
| Young Trump and his Scottish mom, Mary (MacLeod) Trump |
I turned 76 on July 14 and I have been instructed
from the Bible for as long as I can remember. I have read from its pages
since the time that I learned to read. I would say that I have been a serious
student of the Bible for 56 years and I have found it to be totally reliable
and a virtual fountain of truth. All criticism, as to its authenticity or alleged
contradictions, easily melt in the light of honest investigation and a little
common sense. It is true and factual historically, geographically,
prophetically, and most importantly, in its presentation of spiritual truth.
Unfortunately, I have learned over the
years that accounts told by Bible-believing Christian have to be checked out. Rumors
and half-trues have been repeated to the point that they are ultimately accepted
as truth. Many have been deceived, one of the signs of the times that we live
in. Such is the account that I want to bring to your attention in this article.
It concerns President Trump’s supposed connection with the Hebrides Revival and
those who were vitally involved in that movement.
I want you to know that I am a firm
believer in revival and the revival on the island of Lewis in the Outer
Hebrides is probably the one that has most impressed me over the years. I
listened to its stories since I was a child, listened to many sermons and
testimonies by Duncan Campbell, the prominent preacher in the revival. I have
bought and passed out a book, Channel of
Revival, written by a man named, Andrew Woolsey, concerning the movement.
My wife and I rented a vacation house near Barvis and went with our family to
visit. We simply wanted to get a first-hand view of what had taken place during
1949-1951 on Lewis.
We rented a vacation house near Barvis and
went to the Barvis Church on a Sunday morning, the site where the revival broke
out. We were served mutton stew for Sunday dinner in the home of people, who
housed Duncan Campbell during the revival. We listened to their wonderful
stories of things that happened during that time. On Sunday evening, I was
invited to speak in a chapel, where the service was conducted totally in
Gaelic, (except for my message) as they were during the revival. We visited
with the islanders, who had experienced the revival.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
Recommended Books
