Author Archives: Dan C.

Why do we want to look like the world?

Posted by Dan C. on

The answer is really simple. We want to ‘attract’ people to Jesus, which is a concept found nowhere in scripture. In fact God wants his sona and daughters to be different from the world, not like the world. Yet pastors come out on platforms and stages where there is no pulpit, wearing their faded jeans, rumpled shirts hanging out of their trousers, only to preach stories about themselves (narcigesis) with a few scripture passages thrown in (soundbites for Jesus?), most likely taken out of context to ‘prove’ the heresy of the day, and itching ears lap it up because postmodern Christianity is all about our temporal happiness not God’s glory.

“The idea that you are going to win people tomthe Christian faith by showing them that after all you are remarkably like them is theologically and psychologically a profound blunder.” – Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers, 140

“Are Our Worship Experiences Missing the Point?”

Posted by Dan C. on

That was the title of an article at Church Job Finder you can read here. Here’s the article:

What is it that really constitutes a great worship experience?

To me, the word “experience” doesn’t do justice to our gatherings.

When I think of experience, I think of my family’s recent trip to Disney World. Man, that was an experience. It was an experience lugging two toddlers around the enchanted streets. It was an experience buying a $10 turkey leg. It was quite the experience seeing the castle lit up at night with fireworks all around. It was memorable. It was fun. Was it life changing? Hardly.

I’ll remember Disney. It was a unique family memory. But nothing about that experience will prepare me to live for Jesus and speak of Jesus and magnify Jesus in a dark world.

And that is what I feel our worship “experiences” are truly for. We gather not to have a memorable experience. We gather to be changed.

Changed … by the living Word of God.

Changed … to be sent out and live for Jesus in our communities.

Changed … by giving praise to the One who is worthy of all adoration.

Worship Is Transformational

It’s more than an experience.

We don’t gather for information but transformation.

It’s not enough to be entertained by a band. It’s not enough to be inspired by a talented worship leader. It’s not enough to sing your favorite songs.

It’s not enough for worship services to be a form of escapism from reality. If anything, they should prepare us to love Jesus in the midst of life’s realities.

Think about this: Christ died …

“So that he might sanctify her [the church] having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless” (Ephesians 5:26-27).

Worship leader, as you lead, think about this verse. Labor to present your church to Christ, not to steal their affections for yourself. Labor to root their faith in more than a powerful, energizing experience.

We all know what happens when our faith is merely experiential, celebrity driven or a chasing of the latest fad: Faith falls away when life is shaken. I have numerous friends whose fire once burned bright for the glory of God. I remember the conversations about reaching the nations, giving it all, going for broke. But many of those people are no longer following Jesus. It was an experiential faith—faith based on experiences—a feeling.

Our worship, our preaching, our services need to go deeper.

We need to view our worship planning through the lens of transformation.

The Problem With “Experiences”

The problem with the “experience” focus is that we focus on inspiring people with our excellence. We have a desire to “wow” people with our talent and production. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, except that’s not enough to categorize something as “church.”

Does our production prepare people to truly live for Jesus?

If our worship services aren’t preparing people for the storms of life, what are they doing?

If they aren’t helping to anchor people to the Rock of Ages, what are they doing?

I understand the semantics of this. Most of us when we say “experience” refer to people having a life changing encounter with the Holy Spirit that will influence how they live for Jesus on Monday morning. I get that. But we can often stray far away from our ideals.

I simply want to offer a challenge in all our worship service planning.

Worship leaders, how can you lead people to Jesus and not just to an awe of your talents?

Preachers, how can you produce a congregation of people who learn how to feed themselves with God’s Word Monday through Saturday?

___________

I left a comment that might not make it out of moderation. The comment bean by saying that if we worship for the ‘experience’ we have already ‘missed the point’. I might have said something like ‘worship is about prostrating ourselves before Almighty God because he saved us from an eternity in Hell we richly deserve because of OUR sin, by sending His Son to die in our place and became a curse for us.’ I might have also said that we don’t worship to get ‘revved up’ for Jesus and that we don’t ‘produce’ worship, nor does our ‘production’ prepare us to live for Jesus, but the Holy Spirit living in us, causing to desire and to do what pleases Him, does prepare us.’ Something like that. I guess the article just ticked me off a bit….

_

The Soft Prosperity Gospel

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Written by Erik Raymond | Tuesday, April 26, 2016

“The soft prosperity gospel teaches that if you work hard for God, then He should work hard for you. Many have bought into this lie. We go to church, keep our noses clean, and do whatever extra we can. Then we hope God will do His part and bless us with good kids, a nice house, a steady job, and plenty of money. But what happens when the company downsizes? When a kid starts taking drugs? When the 401(k) shrinks?”

What do you think of when you read the words prosperity gospel? Odds are that your stomach turns a bit as you think about the preachers on television who speak to very large crowds and appeal to even more people in their books. Queasiness is the reaction one should have to the brand of Christianity trumpeted by prosperity preachers. This is because the prosperity gospel is not a gospel at all but rather a damnable perversion of the true gospel. Its preachers herald a message of self-improvement that runs painfully contrary to several key biblical realities. They minimize the purpose of suffering, discourage self-denial, and make the Christian life about the accumulation of stuff. To do this they turn Jesus from the self-giving, sin-atoning, wrath-satisfying, guilt-removing Savior into an eager butler who fetches all of our desires and gives us our best life now.

The prosperity gospel shrinks the gospel down to an unfiltered pursuit of our desires. It shifts the message from the spiritual to the materialistic. Let’s be clear about this: the prosperity gospel is about us rather than God.

This is nothing new. Many have tried to avoid the clear instructions of Jesus that are forever etched on the doorpost of the church: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). Jesus’ call to discipleship is a call to deny self. It’s a costly call that expects and embraces suffering.

Martin Luther vehemently opposed those who would seek to marginalize the experience of suffering and self-denial in the Christian life. His contrast between the “theology of glory” and the “theology of the cross” showed a fundamental difference in the starting point for Christian thought and experience. Theologians of glory build their theology on what they think God would be like, while theologians of the cross form their knowledge of God in light of the cross. On the one hand, the theology of glory will craft a god that looks like the theologian. On the other hand, the one who stares intently at the cross will learn about God through the lens of Calvary.

Doubtless, you can see how this intersects with prosperity thinking. There is no way that people can hold to prosperity theology when they have a front-row seat to the cross. There upon the tree, the perfect Son of God suffered the triune God’s accumulated wrath for all of His people. The Sinless One became a curse for us. As the hymn writer wrote, “Bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned he stood.” And we should hasten to add that the cross was not plan B. It was God’s plan all along—even from eternity past. Christ was focused with unrelenting precision upon the cross that He might accomplish the work that He had been given. And this work that He accomplished serves as an example for us (1 Pet. 2:20–25).

We would be naive to think that prosperity thinking is limited to those who cruise around in their expensive private jets or overtly speak in self-help platitudes fit for fortune cookies. No, prosperity thinking has gone viral today. Being more nuanced and subtle than you may think, prosperity thinking is very active in the church. And because it undermines our understanding and application of the gospel, its effect is cataclysmic. Like a computer virus, it drains the vitality and productivity of the covenant community. And you know the worst part? We may not even recognize where we’ve been affected by it.

Let’s call this the “soft” prosperity gospel. It is not so loud and ostentatious. It is more mainstream, polished, and even American. Here are a few ways that you can tell that you may be nibbling at the hook of a soft-prosperity gospel without, perhaps, even knowing it.

The Place of Suffering

When you encounter suffering, do you have an unresolved answer to the question of why? Do you find yourself beginning to question God’s goodness? Or have you become somewhat bitter about what you are going through? The Christian, of all people, should know that suffering is part of the Christian life (John 15:20; Phil. 1:29). Let’s not forget that we follow a Savior who was crucified. The soft prosperity gospel has shaped our thinking to see that suffering is an intrusion in our lives. We ask questions such as, “Why is this happening? How could God let this happen?” It is happening because we live in a fallen, broken world. But, it is also happening because God uses suffering to strengthen and sanctify His people. He makes us more like Jesus through our suffering (Rom. 5:3–5; Heb. 5.7; James 1:2–4; 1 Peter 1:6–9). As Luther observed, it is suffering that God uses to fashion our understanding of the gospel. Far from an intrusion, suffering is an instrument from God for our good and His glory.

The Role of God

The soft prosperity gospel teaches that if you work hard for God, then He should work hard for you. Many have bought into this lie. We go to church, keep our noses clean, and do whatever extra we can. Then we hope God will do His part and bless us with good kids, a nice house, a steady job, and plenty of money. But what happens when the company downsizes? When a kid starts taking drugs? When the 401(k) shrinks? We go into private litigation in our minds because God has not kept His end of the bargain. We want to sue God for the prosperity promises that we have signed on to. The trouble is, God does not stand behind this soft prosperity thinking; He stands behind His Word. And He has shown us how to understand His Word through the work of Christ. Do you think (even subtly) that God owes you?

The Shape of Worship

Let’s be honest, in one sense, the Lord’s Day gatherings for the church are very unspectacular. We sing, read, and respond to God’s Word together. We probably don’t walk out of church like we walk out of a movie saying, “Wow! That was spectacular! I can’t believe how it ended! I never saw that coming.” No, we do the same thing every week with some variation of songs or Scripture. We do this because God tells us to do it; He says it is good for us (Heb. 10:25). We trust Him. But sometimes we want a little more. Dissatisfied by preaching, prayer, and singing, we want worship to be a little more “our style” and to fit “our tastes.” Soon, we find ourselves looking for that perfect place for us rather than the faithful place to God. Somehow it becomes our show. This subtle shift shows that we are at least susceptible to soft prosperity thinking, if not fully on board with it.

The Focus of Devotion

Let’s get right down to it: Christianity is spiritual before it is physical. If you are restless about what you see, you will never be content in the One whom you cannot see. There is an epidemic of Bible negligence and prayerlessness in the church today. It is not because we are too busy, too smart, or too whatever—it is because we do not want to have communion with God. I believe this is a demonstration of soft prosperity thinking. It is hard work and a real demonstration of faith and discipline to read your Bible and quiet your heart before the Lord in humble adoration, confession, and petition. We are very distracted by our stuff, and our craving for stuff, and not so drawn to God. Having or wanting stuff does not in itself indicate that we have accepted the prosperity gospel, but if we make the gospel and our faith all about material blessings on this side of heaven, we have bought into the prosperity heresy.

The Object of Affection

When so much of the emphasis is on the here and now and so little is placed on the New City that awaits us, we have to ask the question, “Do you even want to go to heaven?” Let’s say I had the ability to make you a deal where you could stay here on this world forever. You would never die and the ability to enjoy this world would not end. You could play all the video games, watch all the sunsets, drink and eat whatever you wanted; there would be football, hunting, shopping, and whatever else you would want. You could just ride the merry-go-round of this world forever without ever having to put in another quarter. The only catch is this: no God. That’s right—you can’t pray, read the Bible, go to church, or anything. It is on the shelf. Would you take it?

The very thing that makes heaven so heavenly is God. That which makes Christians long for heaven is the lack of God—God’s tangible presence here. Ultimately, we don’t want more rides on the merry-go-round; we want fellowship with God unhindered by our sinful flesh. Soft prosperity thinking has sold us a way of life that is so seemingly improved by their “gospel” that we don’t even want to go to heaven.

Many of us have been unwittingly lulled to sleep by prosperity thinking. In its subtlety, the soft prosperity gospel wears the uniform of honor, happiness, and achievement. These are all good things but not necessarily implications of the gospel. The entry point into following Jesus is a call for self-denial and cross-bearing. This is to be our ongoing expectation and priority. To the extent that we have dozed off and imbibed the assumptions of the soft prosperity gospel, we need to be awakened by the theology of the cross.

This article previously appeared on Ligonier.org, and is used with permission.

Related Posts:

TODAY’S FALSE GOSPEL…READ IT AND WEEP…

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Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good. (1 Thessalonians 5:21, NASB)

Can You Hear The Voice of The Spirit?

Apprising Ministries is pleased to bring you the following godly and prophetic insight from James Montgomery Boice and Philip Graham Ryken. Herein we see the full on embrace by evangelicalism of the rotten root of the new reformation of man-centered (semi-pelagian) theology once prophesied by Robert Schuller.

You need to understand that this emerging rebellion against the Word of God is really not far from apostate Roman Catholicism. And so this reversal of the Reformation has now flowered as typified in the new postevangelical religion of Rick Warren and blossomed for the postmodern set in the warped and toxic teachings of Rob Bell, a leading spokesman for the cult of the new (post) liberal theology the Emergent Church.

All of which makes these words from Boice and Ryken so dead on target for the time of growing spiritual blindness we live in right now:

Sadly, this is not the church’s finest hour. We live in an age of weak theology and casual Christian conduct. Our knowledge is insufficient, our worship is irreverent, and our lives are immoral. Even the evangelical church has succumbed to the spirit of this age…

Perhaps the simplest way to say this is that evangelicalism has become worldly. This can be demonstrated by comparing it with yesterday’s liberalism. What was once said of liberal churches must now be said of evangelical churches: they seek the world’s wisdom, believe the world’s theology; follow the world’s agenda, and adopt the world’s methods. According to the standard’s of worldly wisdom, the Bible is unable to meet the demands of life in these postmodern times.

By itself, God’s Word is insufficient to win people to Christ, promote spiritual growth, provide practical guidance, or transform society. So churches supplement the plain teaching of Scripture with entertainment with entertainment, group therapy, political activism, signs and wonders—anything that promises to appeal to religious consumers. According to the theology, sin is merely a dysfunction and salvation means having better self-esteem. When this theology comes to church, it replaces difficult but essential doctrines like the propitiation of God’s wrath with practical techniques for self-improvement.

The world’s agenda is personal happiness, so the gospel is presented as a plan for individual fulfillment rather than a pathway of costly discipleship. The world’s methods for accomplishing this self-centered agenda are necessarily pragmatic, so evangelical leaders are willing to try whatever seems like it might work. This worldliness has produced the “new pragmatism” of evangelicalism.
(The Doctrines of Grace: Rediscovering The Evangelical Gospel, 20,21)

Why I’m Dumping Christianity Today Magazine

Posted by Dan C. on

Through the years I’ve been an on again, off again reader of Christianity Today, often referred to these days as Christianity ‘Astray’. A few years ago I tried another subscription that gave me hard copy and online versions because id seemed like a good deal and after all, there was an occasional article that still contained sound doctrine. When my last renewal came around I opted for just the online version from which it was easier to extract information and save it in digital format for future reference. This week I received my May edition and if I could get a partial refund of the remaining issues due me I would – trust me. Here is a sampling of what CT had to offer:

1. Beyond Bono and Eugene Peterson: The Most Searched and Shared Psalms

Thanks to some earlier advertising I knew this one was coming. Fuller Theological Seminary is using the above two men, one an entertainment idol and social gospel guru, and the other the author of The Message Bible (not even a good paraphrase), to encourage people to read more of the Psalms.

2. Christians Can Hold Their Bladders and Still Shop at Target

This was a piece advising us to ‘consider the missional implications before you boycott’. If Target loses profit some peoples’ jobs could get cut. We shouldn’t b about boycotts, but about the gospel, which is true. It talked about other ‘Christian’ boycotts that had little impact on anything, which is also true. What the article didn’t address is the myriads of people who sign up to boycott Target (and other businesses) because the privacy and safety of their wives, sisters, and daughters is at stake. There’s a HUGE difference between getting upset about a store not saying “Merry Christmas” and biological men posing as women (call it what you will) using the women’s restroom. Anyone who cannot see that has lost the capacity for intelligent thought!

3.What Jen Hatmaker Gets Right about Christian Love: 

Jen Hatmaker’s article was about loving LGBT people, which we certainly should do. At the same time, to tell an LGBT person “You are loved, but……is a no-no. Instead our message should be:

“LGBT gang and all those who love you: You are loved and special and wanted and needed.”

In other words, we are not to tell people trapped in a sinful lifestyle (LGBT or otherwise) that there is sin to be dealt with. Sadly, minimizing sin just might be one of today’s evangelicalism’s main endeavor’s. We are supposed to just ‘love’ people into the kingdom because when they feel SOOOOOO loved they will embrace Jesus. It was hard to tell from the article whether or not she was ‘affirming’ LGBT lifestyles, but it sure sounded like it.

4. Remembering Prince: A Pop Music Priest in a Secular World:

Here’s the lead-in: “He seemed to defy mortal boundaries, but in fact, he showed us the glory of simply being made in God’s image.” The rest of the article was a glowing tribute to his music and his persona. The article finishes with:

“Prince took the raw material of the created world around him and made it into something new, and when he sent that new thing back into the world, it made us smile, made us want to fall in love, made us want to dance. Today, especially, it makes us weep.”

There were a couple of articles from Christian sources that while acknowledging Prince’s musical talent also remarked with sadness his having been a 7th Day Adventist turned Jehovah’s Witness (both are cults), as well as the morally challenging nature of  ‘sexuality’ that Prince espoused. CT completely failed in using the death of an icon to make any sort of ‘gospel’ point.

5. Cover Story: Inside the Popular, Controversial Bethel Church: “Some visitors claim to be healed. Others claim to receive direct words from God. Is it ‘real’–or dangerous?”

This was the kicker, if you will. This one was nine pages recounting a visit to Bethel by a Canadian man (PCA member in Canada) interspersed by some of the history of Bethel and it’s Pastor Bill Johnson. Sprinkled in were accounts of some of the ‘interesting’ things that happen at Bethel and accounts of tingly, fuzzy feelings. To be fair, some of the current criticism of Bethel was also included. and there was a short side article about the ‘theology’ that drives Bethel by none other than the Editor of CT, Mark Galli.

So why am I dumping Christianity Today?  Perhaps it’s just because I’m old and don’t yet suffer from Alzheimer’s. I remember well the CT of thirty years ago. CT has gone from being a beacon of orthodox Christianity and Biblical evangelicalism to being….well, spiritual milquetoast, if not downright junk food.

From a Wikipedia article about Christianity Today:

“The first issue of Christianity Today was mailed October 15, 1956, and the opening editorial, Why ‘Christianity Today’?, stated "Christianity Today has its origin in a deep-felt desire to express historical Christianity to the present generation. Neglected, slighted, misrepresented—evangelical Christianity needs a clear voice, to speak with conviction and love, and to state its true position and its relevance to the world crisis. A generation has grown up unaware of the basic truths of the Christian faith taught in the Scriptures and expressed in the creeds of the historic evangelical churches." “

Sadly, today’s version is almost completely void of anything seriously doctrinal or theological. It contains a plethora of intellectually vacuous material devoid of, or afraid of taking a Biblical stance on anything! The article about Bethel didn’t even offer any scripture references for the reader to use for critically examining some of Bethel’s doctrine or practices. The short article about Bethel doctrine only offered one of the ‘proof’ texts ripped out of context used to support signs, wonders and miracles as normal for every believer.

“Is it real or dangerous?” – Give me a break!

Of course there were other other articles including some I didn’t take time to read. Even if one or two contained decent theology, the overall tone of CT is an affront to orthodox Christianity and the precious gospel of Jesus Christ.

Well,. I’ve said my piece. I needed to get it off my chest. I feel better now.

When Tolerance is a One Way Street

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By David Fiorazo on April 22, 2016 in David’s Blog, LGBTQ, Religious Freedom

left turn onlySome call it hypocrisy, others call it a double standard. I call it a sad sign of the times when those in society claiming to be tolerant fail to exercise the very tolerance they espouse.

Calling all truth defenders and proclaimers: report for active duty!

People generally do not hear both sides of religious and social issues reported by the liberal media. As a result, many are confused and uninformed about the most pressing, controversial issues being discussed today. What used to be known as common sense and reason are now buried under the lies of moral relativism.

Enter the “bathroom bill” aka HB2, the Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act.

March 31 was the “International Transgender Day of Visibility,” and DNC Chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz made a statement about fighting “the discriminatory laws” of Republicans when our nation has worked so hard to “distance ourselves from the ugliest chapters in our history” regarding discrimination. Did she make a civil rights comparison with the plight of a transgender person not having a bathroom to call their own?

Actor James Woods was one voice of reason putting this in perspective when he tweeted:

The world is fighting Islamic terrorism, starvation, and disease, but Democrats are fighting for men to pee in the ladies’ room. #Insanity.

The Obama administration definitely took the lead by working to advance the LGBT cause and raise more awareness of the transgender issue by adding a “gender-neutral” restroom to the Eisenhower Building of the White House.

The president also had the audacity to salute the struggles of gay and lesbian Americans during his speech in Selma, Alabama, marking the 50th anniversary of an important civil rights march. LGBT issues are all about advancing behaviors that violate the morals and religious beliefs of many Americans, but is race a behavior?

Regarding North Carolina: there are over 21,000 convicted sex-offenders in the state; is it bigotry and discriminatory to protect women and children from them?

In an excellent article by Dr, Frank Turek, “Six Reasons North Carolina Got it Right,” he states:

Good laws treat all people equally, but not all of their behaviors equally. In fact, the very reason laws exist at all is because all behaviors are not equal and must be treated differently for the benefit of individuals and society… Are we to risk the safety of millions of women and children in public restrooms because an extremely small number of people are experiencing a mismatch between their psychology and their biology?

Who needs the truth when you make so much “progress” by ignoring the truth and engaging in the very bigotry and name-calling you claim to oppose?”

Bruce Springsteen and Bryan Adams cancelled their concert performances in the state, and even Ringo Starr said he won’t perform in North Carolina now, but he had no problems touring “anti-gay” Russia in 1998. I don’t have a problem with them refusing to perform based on their personal beliefs; I do have a problem with them saying a baker, florist, pastor, photographer, etc. cannot also deny service due to their personal beliefs!

Please tell me you see the double standard here. It is irresponsible, misdirected moral outrage.

The CEO of PayPal said they would no longer expand in North Carolina, but they won’t explain why their international headquarters is in Singapore, a country where homosexual behavior can lead to two years in jail.

What about corporations such as Apple, IBM, and Starbucks joining dozens of companies in warning North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory to repeal the bathroom safety bill? Why aren’t they also threatening to pull their business from Iran and Saudi Arabia where homosexuals are being murdered?

Starbucks actually caved to religious extremists in Saudi Arabia (where adulterers are beheaded and gays are imprisoned) to the point of changing its corporate logo so as not to offend Muslims with the image of the Mermaid. The same company CEO said Christians believing in God-ordained marriage can get their coffee elsewhere, and introduced “Holiday” cups last year in place of Christmas cups.

The hypocrisy is blinding – just not to the entertainment industry and those on the Left controlling the media.

These businesses and corporations are free to do what they want – and we as consumers are also free to spend our money elsewhere.

Target was the first proud retailer to announce transgender employees and customers can now use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity, you know; however a person feels on a particular day. Almost immediately, the backlash began and in a matter of days, nearly 200,000 customers have signed a petition opposing Target’s move.

Bathroom practices being debated have been established throughout history as common sense, proper, moral, and practical. Suddenly however, we’re in a public uproar because a fraction of a fraction (0.3%) of the population decides to identify themselves different from how God created them, use a bathroom that does not align with their biological gender, and demand our compliance.

Rush Limbaugh rightfully stated this whole culture war is about obliterating morality. This battle has good people scratching their heads because they don’t know how to defend their position without getting shouted down.

Limbaugh said liberalism is determined to wipe out the concept of morality, believing that no one has the right to define it:

Nobody can write laws that are based on morality and have them apply to everybody, because your morality may differ from mine, and there isn’t any universal morality; there isn’t any universal right and wrong…

So something as simple as morality and right and wrong has now become politicized, and therefore illegitimate, ’cause you don’t have the right to tell somebody what’s right and wrong… “The only way they can win this war is by obliterating the concepts of right versus wrong, ’cause they are wrong, and they know it…

I wrote about this five years ago in Eradicate: Blotting Out God in America.

Less than a year after the judicial tyranny carried out by the U.S. Supreme Court in passing the landmark ruling that legalized same sex “marriage,” at least thirty-four states are now considering new religious freedom bills that would protect Christians and others from lawsuits and other threats.

Is it intolerant to pass legislation to protect American citizens who have rights under the Constitution?

Christian business owners, Dick and Betty Odgaard don’t think so. After a two-year court battle in which a gay couple sued them for discrimination, the Odgaard’s paid the fine and were forced to stop hosting weddings. After months of negative publicity, hate mail, death threats and loss of income, the Gortz Haus Gallery went out of business last year.

What do you call this if not intolerance, fascism, or liberal hypocrisy? Make no mistake; it won’t stop here unless people rise up in bold, loving, respectful protest.

How on earth did we arrive at this point in American history in which ambiguity trumps truth, sexual confusion is promoted, and God’s moral Law is no longer relevant?

First, though we have consciences, we must be reminded the heart of mankind is bent toward evil and desperately sick. We are without cure, sinful from birth and having no hope apart from faith in Jesus Christ for salvation.

Second, anti-Christian agendas have been implemented for many decades during which religious folks were comfortable and silent, failing to preach the gospel of repentance and speak the truth in love. Therefore, we’ve reached a tipping point in which political correctness refuses to coexist with religious freedom. Christians who do speak up and defend God’s Word are now called hateful, intolerant, or judgmental.

But what are we living for and who are we trying to please, God or man?

Today, we’re living with the consequences of Christians taking the path of least resistance. We cannot reverse the cultural decay, but we are here for this time in history to be the salt and light Jesus called us to be. He is the way and the truth, and the path is narrow. We must choose to pray for revival and stand up for righteousness and truth – even when taking a stand is unpopular.

R U Hungry 4 More? 

Posted by Dan C. on

That was the title of a blog post I came across today. All I could reply was “If I am seated in the heavenlies in Christ, if all my needs are being met out of God’s riches in Glory, and I have scripture that is sufficient for EVERYTHING I need to be a faithful worker in the Kingdom, more what exactly?”

“Be About The Cure:” Sye Ten Bruggencate in JeremiahCry Ministries Conference 2016

Posted by Dan C. on

SLIMJIM's avatarThe Domain for Truth

Sye Ten Bruggencate is an encouraging brother in the Lord who has taken Presuppositional apologetics to the streets and have taught it in a way most people can understand.

In a recent message he speaks about the importance of also giving the Gospel.  Several brothers told me to watch this when I came back home from my missions trip.

Here’s the message:

Enjoy!

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