End Times – Page 18 – Growing 4 Life

Brief Thoughts on the Supreme Court Ruling (It’s Not All Bad)

Leave a Comment / June 26, 2015 June 27, 2015

As most of you know by now, the Supreme Court just ruled this morning that marriage can be between any two people, regardless of sex.

This is disheartening, to say the least, but certainly not surprising. With the steep downward decline of this culture, this should have been expected.

So what does this mean?

If means that, as believers who stand firmly on God’s Word, we are going to be called a lot more names, be targeted by government and liberal organizations, and start losing our rights to operate our businesses and churches as we choose (which has already been happening, anyway).

Our churches will eventually be forced underground and our kids forced into public education systems that will brainwash them. Study the histories of Rome and Germany if you’d like some idea of how this is going to end. While we are not a carbon copy of either culture, there are eery similarities that do not bode well for this great nation.

But what else is going to happen?

There are a couple of things about this decision that are positive. Yes, I said positive.

You can be sure that there is going to be a vigorous sifting of believers and those who call themselves believers. The true church will be purified through all of this, because anyone who has taken the Christian label but has never experienced genuine salvation is not going to stick around to take heat for something the world is telling them is normal.

While I am not making a judgment about those who call themselves Christians and believe homosexuality is okay (if they are a true believer, they will eventually be convicted about this and it is certainly not my place to judge each individual), scripture is extremely clear on this issue and this ruling will cause “fake” believers to start falling away.

The other good thing I can see coming out of this ruling is that we Christians will (hopefully) stop arguing about unimportant things. I am sometimes amazed at the debates and fights that take place within the church walls that are so unnecessary. Things that just do not really matter. But can’t you see this unifying our churches? Somehow the little stuff will fall away in the light of losing our right to free speech and the other rights we have so long enjoyed in this country as a church body.

I do believe that this ruling is the beginning of unifying and purifying the true church.

It reminds me of something I once heard Mark Lowry say in a concert. He compared the church to a river of water. When the river is above ground it is wide and shallow and often very muddy. But when it moves underground, it becomes narrow, pure, and crystal clear.

It also reminds me of something I recently heard Jan Markell say:

Things are not falling apart, they are falling into place.

God is sovereign and this did not take Him by surprise. And so, while this wasn’t the greatest news to hear this Friday in June, we need not be devastated because we are not hopeless. We know the Truth and we are on the winning side! But we’d better hang on, because I have a feeling the ride we are on is going to get pretty unpleasant.

Wednesday Wisdom: A True Story of Revival

Leave a Comment / June 17, 2015 June 17, 2015

As you know, I stopped doing Wednesday Wisdom officially about a year and a half ago. However, occasionally, I come across something that I can’t resist sharing–like this testimony of a pastor from the former USSR. His memories of what his country was like is so eerily similar to what’s going on in America, that I thought this may help us find the silver lining to the dark cloud. Perhaps true revival will come to America, as well!

By Georgi P. Vins
(Pastor in USSR who spent 8 years in Soviet prison camps for his faith | Author of The Gospel in Bonds)

forest-gathering-color — Photo: A communion and worship service in the persecuted church in 1984 in Kiev, Ukraine (taken from The Gospel in Bonds; from the personal collection of Georgi Vins’ daughter, Natasha Velichkin; used with permission)

Revival

At the beginning of the 1960s, the Lord sent a spiritual revival among the Evangelical Baptists of the Soviet Union. The revival preceded a great assault from the atheistic authorities. Soviet newspapers and magazines spewed an endless flow of articles against believers and the Christian faith, against the Bible and God. Radio, television, and movies were used for anti-religious propaganda. Believers were fired from their jobs, and Christian young people were kept out of educational institutions.

In 1960, the Soviet leader, head of the Communist party, Nikita Khrushchev, announced a twenty-year program of definitively creating communism in the Soviet Union. By 1980, there was not to be a single Christian left, nor one church. All citizens of the USSR would have to become atheists and confess only Communist ideology.

In Evangelical Baptist churches, sermons on salvation were forbidden, and children under the age of sixteen were not to be permitted to be present at church services. As a primary measure, it was also forbidden to baptize young people under the age of thirty. This decision of the leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was enforced by the KGB, the police, and other authorities.

Unfortunately, some of the ministers of Evangelical Baptist churches, fearing persecution, accepted these ungodly decrees as the basis for their ministry and actively began to implement them in the church. The churches were going through great testings. Many thousands of believers raised their voices in fervent prayer to the Lord for help and deliverance. The Lord heard those prayers and answered His people, as it is written in His Word: “It is time for thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void thy law” (Psalm 119:126).

A spiritual awakening began. New churches started to take shape, and groups of believers who refused to compromise with atheism proclaimed the Word of God as the absolute authority in all matters of faith and life. Young people and children attended newly formed congregations whose worship services often took place in crowded private homes or in forests. These meetings were subject to cruel disruption by the KGB and police, with the police beating up believers, and throwing them out of the meeting houses into the snow. Bulldozers were sometimes used to destroy the places where the meetings took place.

The atheistic authorities went to believers’ work places with threats of arrests and trials. But no one could stop the revival, because the Word of God says, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us” (Romans 8:35-37).

By 1966, several hundred independent fundamental Baptist churches had formed. Sixty to seventy percent of the membership of these churches were young people between the ages of fifteen and thirty. The hearts of believers burned with great love toward God, courage, and selflessness in ministry. My poem “Revival” was written in January of 1966, and five months later, in May of 1966, I was arrested in Moscow for taking part in the revival.

My Savior! How I love Your precious call
To slaves of unbelief, by sin defeated.
You long to bless and have each one delight
In all the joys of our eternal promise.

My Jesus! Mighty is Your matchless love,
Your hands are full of tenderness and kindness,
As constantly You lift to life anew
The sons of earth, to save them from destruction.

Our brethren You have visited once more
With Your pure flame of heaven-sent revival!
For exploits and for suff’ring You inspired
To stand for truth and infinite salvation.

When I behold the vibrant Christian youth
With glowing faces, joyous and exultant,
Their gladness like a boundless ocean’s tide,
Burst forth in ever glorious songs of triumph. . . .

And when I listen to a youthful soul
For the first time, his heart to God uplifting:
Scarce breathing then I reverently pray,
While in my thoughts the sufferers recalling. . . .

I know that not in vain their blood was spilt!
They did not bear the pain and grief for nothing.
For now I see our youth’s pure, fervent love
Their hands stretched out to Christ in supplication.

For the revival burning in our church
And for our youth rejoicing in the Savior—
We may, without misgivings or dismay,
Lay down our very lives in distant prisons.
January 1, 1966
Kiev

A Modern Day Translation

2 Comments / May 28, 2015 May 28, 2015

Sometimes I think it would be a whole lot easier to just go through life not thinking deeply about anything. After all, isn’t ignorance bliss? (as temporal as that bliss may be…) But we really don’t have the option to do that as believers.
My guess is that if you are a regular reader here, you are a thinking person. After all, the tagline for Growing 4 Life is “never satisfied with status quo”.
Of course,  all of our thinking has to begin with the premise that God’s Word is true. We can get ourselves in a pretty messed up place without that premise as thinking people. This is why the attack on God’s Word is so intense.
As I was reading yesterday’s Bible Challenge, I couldn’t help but think about how different Christianity is presented today than what is taught to us in Psalm 119. I know I wrote about this a bit on Monday, but as I meditated on the words of Psalm 119, the thoughts that filled my mind were almost like a part two to Monday’s post.
I love Psalm 119 and its emphasis on God’s Word and I thought it might be interesting to do a little comparison here today, using just a small portion of this chapter. The actual words of scripture are below, followed in italics by what I believe the mainstream modern day church is actually teaching instead. See if you agree with me–
Blessed are those whose way is blameless,

     who walk in the law of the Lord!
Blessed is he who is not perfect,

who walks in liberty and continues to sin habitually.
2 Blessed are those who keep his testimonies,

     who seek him with their whole heart,
Blessed are those who say they love Jesus

but seek their own personal purpose with their whole heart.
3 who also do no wrong,

     but walk in his ways!
Who also do some wrong

And only walk in some of his ways.
4 You have commanded your precepts

     to be kept diligently.
You have commanded that we love our brother 

The other commands (like keeping ourselves separate from the world and sexual purity) don’t really matter all that much.
5 Oh that my ways may be steadfast

     in keeping your statutes!
Oh that you may grant me happiness

Because that is what is most important.
6 Then I shall not be put to shame,

     having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.
Shame and guilt are useless

And I keep my eyes fixed on myself.
7 I will praise you with an upright heart,

     when I learn your righteous rules.
I will praise you with a heart that looks clean on Sunday

When I sing the cool worship songs.
8 I will keep your statutes;

     do not utterly forsake me!
I will follow my feelings

Please keep me feeling good.
That’s probably enough. You get the idea. I confess as I was reading (and writing), I am absolutely amazed at how far the God-centered Christianity that we read of in the Bible is from the man-centered Christianity taught in the mainstream evangelical world today. They are polar opposites!
Can you see why we need to read and study our Bibles? How else will we know that what we are being taught is just a bunch of intellectual nonsense if we don’t know what God’s Word says? This is something to really think about for today.
I hope you are still reading with me. I am sure many of you have given up by now. Life can get crazy and reading through the Bible is a big time commitment. But I truly hope that you haven’t given up studying the Word. Even if it’s just a few verses each day, be sure to be in the Word so that you can tell the difference between True Christianity and False Christianity. They are really two totally different religions.

Mainstream Mayhem

2 Comments / May 26, 2015 May 26, 2015

I was floored to come across a blog post with a video clip of a pastor who stood before his congregation assuring them that there is no original sin. All men are born good and desire to do good things he told his congregation. While he spoke, his congregation could be heard murmuring emphatic “yeses” and shouting hearty “amens”. This pastor leads a mainstream megachurch in California. He is not part of some fringe group or weird cult.

Here are two of his exact quotes–

“You’re not born evil. It’s amazing how many teachings and theologies start with that thought. Anytime you start with that you will create a controlling, manipulative environment.”

“Every system fundamentally and theologically must start with the concept and the idea that people are fundamentally good and they mean to do good. Even if they are not saved. We have to start from that premise.”

This pastor says: We have to start from that premise.

(See Psalm 51:5; Genesis 8:21; Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 5:12; Romans 6:23)

Says who?? Him? Why does he have the right to decide the premise of Christianity? And what is the source of his information?

I am always so amazed at how many Christians listen and follow men who claim to be God’s representatives and then proceed to speak against Him and His Word on issues that are absolutely clear in scripture. The mainstream evangelical church has fallen prey to many lies and false doctrines in the area of not only original sin, but also in the areas of homosexuality, separation from the world, the role of women, the false prosperity gospel, and the doctrine of hell.

So why in the world isn’t the church standing up and kicking these pastors out of their pulpits?

I think there are two important reasons why the church has allowed this: A) we are a biblically illiterate people and B) we are a self-centered people.

Many modern pastors have conditioned their people to simply sit back and be entertained. They use only a verse here and there, often pulled out of context, to make their points. And so when a pastor gets up and says something we would really like to be true–like there is no hell–we want to believe him. And we don’t really know better because we haven’t done our own digging in God’s Word to know if it is or isn’t true.

And, if we are honest, life is much less demanding when we don’t study the Bible seriously. Hebrews 4:12 says For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

When we read and study God’s Word, we will be–and should be–convicted. It is there to teach us about God and to show us the best way to live. It is there to convict and to discern and to change us. It does not promise to make us more happy, but it does make us more holy.

Most of us do not want that. Not really. Not if it means sacrificing the sin we hold dear. And so it is just more pleasant to live our lives without the bothersome conviction that results from Bible study. It is just more pleasant to go to church and only listen to the positive–like God loves us and has a wonderful purpose for our lives and wants us to be happy and, eventually, we all end up in heaven together forever.

Of course, this is what we want to believe. But if it isn’t true, I guess it doesn’t really matter what we believe. Preachers that focus on man and his happiness as the center of Christianity are false teachers. (And, let’s not forget that, while a life lived for self may be more pleasant for awhile, in the long run, selfishness only leads to heartache and trouble.)

Is it possible for the American church to be cleansed and brought back to God’s Word as its source for Truth? All things are possible with God. Will it happen? I doubt it. I very much expect that the true church will be forced underground in the coming years. You can see it coming and we’d better be ready.

In the meantime, we have a responsibility to hold our pastors to the high standard of expounding God’s Word. If they say something that is clearly unbiblical we need to first realize it (because we know God’s Word) and then we need to do something about it. The souls of those sitting beside you in church may be forever changed because of your action.

Leaving Jerusalem

4 Comments / May 14, 2015 May 14, 2015

If you are still with me in the Bible Challenge, we are in the midst of the gripping tale of David’s life. From a shepherd boy to a King on the run, we have read all of his well-known tales. We have read of him killing a giant, committing adultery and then murdering the woman’s husband, and we have read of the heart-breaking treachery of his son, Absalom.

It was hard to pick what to write about today. But there was one obscure passage in 2 Samuel that really stood out to me. Especially in our current situation as believers.

So I am writing today about Ittai the Gittite.

Have you ever even heard of him? This is not really that memorable of a story, as “larger than life” stories go. Let me set up the background–

Absalom, over the course of a few years, undermined his father’s authority and got enough men on his side to attempt to overthrow the King. Instead of fighting his own son, David makes the decision to just abdicate in order to protect the people of Jerusalem. He pulls all of his house together, with the exception of 10 concubines left to care for the palace. Along with him, showing their loyalty and serving as his body guards and corps d’elite were the Cherethites, Pelethites, and Gittites.*

As they walked out of the city, David stopped Ittai, the leader of the Gittites, telling him to go back into the city. Here is the conversation between the two (from 2 Samuel 15)–

Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why do you also go with us? Go back and stay with the king, for you are a foreigner and also an exile from your home. ²⁰You came only yesterday, and shall I today make you wander about with us, since I go I know not where? Go back and take your brothers with you, and may the Lord show steadfast love and faithfulness to you.” ²¹But Ittai answered the king, “As the Lord lives, and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king shall be, whether for death or for life, there also will your servant be.”

Whether for death or for life, there also will your servant be.

What an incredible testimony of loyalty. Ittai chose to follow David out of the safe zone, knowing full well that it would most likely mean hardship, wandering, and even death.

This struck me, because in a lot of ways, I feel like we are soon going to be forced to follow Jesus out of American culture very soon. Oh, we may not be forced to physically leave, but the storm clouds we saw on the horizon only a few short years ago are now starting to bring fierce wind and dark, dark skies. Life is changing here. And the message is Get on Board or Be Persecuted.

Gone forever are the days of the beautiful religious freedom we enjoyed from the inception of this country. They are over. You do realize that, don’t you? They aren’t returning, no matter who is voted into office. I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade, but this ship has left the dock and it’s not coming back. Not without a supernatural miracle from God (My God is that big, so I don’t rule it out, but I don’t expect it either– not when I read the plan of the future as recorded in the Word of God).

I think it is time to follow our King out of Jerusalem. It’s such a heart-breaking time for those of us, the remnant, that remains faithful to the Word of God, isn’t it? We have become such a minority that sometimes we find ourselves wondering if we are even right, after all? But then we turn back to the Word and we read of church history, and we can see that this is exactly what we should expect. We Christians have really, here in America, been living a rare, cushy, comfortable existence. This has not been the norm for most of our Christian brothers and sisters throughout history, in foreign lands currently, or as recorded for the church’s future.

So are you ready to follow your King, whether it bring life or death? Are you ready for hardship, persecution, and wandering? Are you ready for slander, scathing remarks, intolerance for your views, and false accusations? Because if you have plans to remain faithful to the Jesus of the Bible, it will come. Some of you have experienced a bit of this already.

Are you going to be like Ittai– a loyal soldier for the King or are you going to tuck tale and run back into the comfort zone of the city? You will soon have to make a choice. Are you prepared?

Read and study the Bible, read biographies of great Christians who have gone before us, read classic authors of yesteryear. If you need ideas, check out my favorite books–-where I have added a couple of new suggestions for you just this morning.

By reading and studying you will grow deeper, fixed roots of faith. These will hold you steady in the wind that is starting to blow. There is no time to waste. The perilous storm is almost here.

*As explained from the following websites: Jewish Encyclopedia and Bible Hub.

The Win (and what to do until then)

Leave a Comment / May 7, 2015 May 7, 2015

Isn’t it interesting how schools cycle through their glory years? One year the guys’ basketball team or girls’ soccer team is undefeated and there is enthusiastic school spirit supporting them. And then a season or two later all the glory has ended. Key players or a coach moves on and the dynamics change and suddenly they aren’t the team on top anymore.

The same dynamic plagues most professional sports teams, as well. I am a Philadelphia Phillies fan–no matter if they win or lose. But right now it is bad. Let’s just say that we aren’t watching a lot of baseball this year. It’s just not near as much fun as when they were really doing well and headed to the World Series.

And we are left with one conclusion–

Winning is glorious and losing is not.

A lot of the stories of King David are tales of victory over enemies. Just yesterday, we read of how the Ammonites asked the Syrians to fight with them and after being soundly defeated, we read that the Syrians were afraid “to save the Ammonites anymore” (2 Samuel 10:19). I guess I would have been, too. David had a reputation of being victorious. But King David doesn’t win every battle. We will soon read of his battle with lust that he loses in a big way (2 Samuel 11). And let’s not forget that just a few years earlier he was fighting for his life as he was chased down by Saul. He eventually became King, but it certainly wasn’t without grief and struggle.

This is what makes life so hard. We win some and we lose some. But some battles are so much more important than others. And what are we to do when we feel like we are losing such critical battles? The battles for–

Our country

Our churches

Our freedom

The hearts of our kids

Our marriages

We are losing some of these battles pretty soundly right now. Have you read the news lately?

But we know that we win the war. That is worth repeating: We are going to win this war between good and evil.

We can’t lose sight of this. No, God does not promise us that our kids will be saved or that our spouse will stick around. He doesn’t promise that our churches will preach sound doctrine or that our country will return to its Christian roots. But what we do know– without a shadow of a doubt– is that God will reign victorious in the end. Every knee will bow to the King and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Isaiah 45:23; Philippians 2:10-11).

When we consider this very important truth, we naturally come to the conclusion that the only thing that really matters is whether or not those around us are going to confess Jesus Christ as Lord before it’s too late.

So often, we worry so much about the outward stuff that indicates serious problems– the bad grades, the drug and alcohol abuse, the debt and materialism, the false doctrines, the laws, the liberalism. And we try to fix things. We try to fix our kids and spouses. We try to fix our churches and our government.

But is anything truly fixed without a changed heart? A child can change behavior without ever changing his heart. A government can make laws that are more compatible with our beliefs, but will that really solve our country’s problem?

I don’t think so. Because the reason we are having such deep, heart-breaking issues– both in our families and beyond– is that people believe in a lie. They have chosen to reject the Word of God and they believe the lies of the world. They believe these lies of the devil–

–That their purpose and fulfillment is what matters (which leads to self-centered, self-absorbed individuals only out for themselves)

–That their kids’ happiness reigns supreme (which leads to spoiled brats who think the world revolves around them and want the world but are not willing to work for it)

–They believe unity is more important than biblical integrity and that loves trumps holiness (which leads to a shallow, fake religion pretending to be Christianity)

–They believe that the Bible is just partly true. That it has errors. They believe that God just got the ball rolling and then put the creation of the world into the hands of some kind of evolutionary process (placing doubt on The Bible removes the foundation for true Christianity)

–They believe that you get to heaven for doing good things. That they simply need the good to outweigh the bad (this is a insidious and very old lie — that your righteous works will win your salvation)

–They believe that God would never want them to be unhappy (this leads our faith to become me-centered rather than centered on the almighty God of the universe)

–They believe that man is basically good and that sins are simply diseases and disorders (the sinfulness of man is a key component of true Christianity and cannot be overlooked without forfeiting biblical salvation completely)

–They believe that their happiness will be found here on this earth (but Jesus said “blessed are you when you are persecuted, for your reward will be in heaven”. See Matthew 5:11-12)

I challenge you to talk to someone that calls him or herself a “Christian” but doesn’t live like it. Somewhere in their thinking is a lie (or two or three) that they are believing.

It is impossible to fight the battle for someone’s soul if they are believing lies. We have to start at the beginning. And that beginning is the Word of God. For that is where we find the truth. This means that we need to know it and study it and understand it ourselves.

And so while we wait for The Win, let’s fight the battle for the truth–God’s Truth. Let’s fight for the hearts of our kids, for our marriages and families. Let’s fight for it in our churches and in our country. Do it sweetly and kindly and gently. But let’s never, ever forget that we are in a war.

And never forget– we win!

The Happiness Agenda

8 Comments / April 30, 2015 April 25, 2025

I read someone’s comment on a blog post promoting gay marriage the other day. It was the typical “God is loving and love is the only thing that matters” type of thing that we are so used to hearing these days.

I can’t help but wonder if the person who made this comment ever read the Old Testament? Or the New Testament, for that matter! Ever hear of Ananias and Sapphira?? (Acts 5:1-11)

All through the Bible men reap serious consequences for their evil choices. God’s love never trumps His justice. Never. This is so clear throughout all of scripture.

And, if we are a believer reading the Word of God, even though we don’t always understand the harshness of God’s judgment or the seriousness of what we would call “minor” sins, we do get the cause and effect kind of logic. Most of us understand the need for punishment when there is blatant and intentional sin involved.

But today’s Bible Challenge reading (2 Samuel 6) holds a rather disturbing story.

This is the story of Uzzah–the poor guy who reached his hand out to steady the Ark of the Covenant and was killed immediately on the spot for touching it.

This just doesn’t seem fair, does it? The guy was just trying to help. He didn’t mean any harm.

We can go to Numbers 5:15 for help in understanding this:

And when Aaron and his sons have finished covering the sanctuary and all the furnishings of the sanctuary, as the camp sets out, after that the sons of Kohath shall come to carry these, but they must not touch the holy things, lest they die. These are the things of the tent of meeting that the sons of Kohath are to carry.

So perhaps Uzzah wasn’t ignorant, after all? God had warned them that touching the holy things could mean death.

And so it did in the case of Uzzah.

Perhaps, when it comes right down to it, there is no unintentional sin. We like to view our sinfulness as mistakes and diseases, but God has provided each one of us with a conscience that lets us know that we are sinning against Him (Romans 1:19-20) and we are held accountable to Him for this sin.

This is not the God that most people want to hear about today. This does not appeal to the commenter I mentioned above or to most anyone else–even those who call themselves Christians.

There is a massive war waging right now. It is the war of who is on the throne– God or man? This war is being fought on the battle fields of our minds, in class rooms, on church boards, and in court rooms across this land. People are in sinful rebellion against a God who would make them accountable.

This, in essence, is what keeps us from God.

And, so this battle is being fought fiercely and it would appear to us that God is losing.

But here’s what we need to remember–even though the snowball of the worldly system is picking up mass and speed at an alarming rate — you and I know who really wins. We know the ending. And we know the risk of disobeying God on such a massive scale.

No matter what laws are changed, what brainwashing is done in our schools, or how many news broadcasters and sitcoms promote the happiness agenda (happiness is the only thing that God cares about) we know that, in the end, it just won’t matter what man thinks or believes.

It will only matter what God says. This is the only thing that has ever mattered, matters now, or will matter in the future. And we believe that God has told us all we need to know in the Holy Scriptures– the Bible we hold in our hands and treat so casually.

But in the meantime, life is going to get very hard for us true believers.

Are you ready for this? We are going to be known as bigots, haters, evil, intolerant, and wicked. Some of us will have ruined reputations, be “set up” to take a fall, treated like we are in some kind of weird cult, and marginalized. We will be hated and we will be mocked. This will even take place in some of our churches, as the happiness agenda takes over there, too.

If you are reading through the Bible with me, I wonder if you, like me, are gaining much greater insight into the flaws of the happiness agenda? Are you, too, understanding that God just doesn’t care all that much about our happiness? He cares much more about our holiness.

Studying God’s Word makes all the difference in how we view God. For when we read stories like Uzzah and Ananias and Sapphira, we start understanding that God will not tolerate any sin–even unintentional sin.

This is the whole reason Jesus died on the cross. He paid for our sins. Only when we understand our wretched sinfulness and rebellion can we understand the incredible grace and mercy of God in providing a way for us to be reconciled to Him.

So let’s keep reading and studying our Bibles. Let’s keep standing firmly on the Word of God. I am quite sure that we are going to need this anchor in the upcoming days more than we have ever needed it before.

Wednesday Wisdom: Unwelcome Changes

Leave a Comment / April 22, 2015 April 22, 2015

I haven’t done a Wednesday Wisdom post in a very long time. And I don’t plan on picking it up regularly again, at least not for awhile. But, I heard this today and I just had to share it. It is so profound and describes our current Christian culture so well, that I had to revive Wednesday Wisdom, if just for this week!

This was shared in John MacArthur’s sermon Why We Believe the Bible is True. (By the way, this is the same sermon which I linked to in April’s Bible Challenge Newsletter.) He quotes J.I. Packer from his introduction for Puritan Theology. I hope that you will take the time to read this whole thing. It is so insightful and helps us to understand just exactly what is wrong with this modern day Christianity we find ourselves in.

J.I. Packer (as quoted by MacArthur) says this–

He said this. “It does not seem possible to deny that the Puritans were the strongest just where evangelical Christians today are the weakest. Here were men of outstanding intellectual power in whom the mental habits fostered by sober scholarship were linked with a flaming zeal for God and a minute acquaintance with the human heart. All their work reveals this unique fusion of gifts and graces. Where the Puritans called for order, discipline, depth and thoroughness, our temper is one of casual, haphazardness and restless impatience. “We crave for stunts, novelties and entertainments. We lost our taste for solid study, humble self-examination, disciplines, meditation and unspectacular hard work in our study.

“Again, where Puritanism had God and His glory as its unifying center, our thinking revolves around ourselves as if we were the hub of the universe.” And so he writes, “In evangelizing we preach the gospel without the Law and faith without repentance, stressing the gift of salvation and glossing over the cost of discipleship. No wonder so many professed conversions fall away. “And then,” he writes, “in teaching on the Christian life, our habit is to depict it as a path of thrilling feelings rather than of working faith and of supernatural interruptions, rather than of rational righteousness.

“And in dealing with the Christian experience, we dwell constantly on joy, peace, happiness, satisfaction and rest with no balancing reference to the divine discontent of Romans 7, the fight of faith in Psalm 73, or any of the burdens of responsibility and providential chastenings that fall to the lot of the child of God. The spontaneous jollity of the carefree extrovert comes to be equated with healthy Christian living, and jolly extroverts in our churches are encouraged to become complacent in carnality while saintly souls of less sanguine temperament are driven almost crazy because they cannot bubble over in the prescribed manner.” End quote.

“Why Do You Post So Much About God?”

18 Comments / April 13, 2015 April 13, 2015

I had the strangest dream the other night. For some reason, I was holding a high school class reunion at my house. The organizers of this reunion had brought everything along and didn’t need anything from me except for my back yard. I was happy for them to use it.

But, as the afternoon wore on, I realized that not one of them liked me at all. They were frustrated because I wasn’t allowing alcohol at the picnic and they were even more disgusted when I put on Christian music. So much so, that they all got in their cars and left.

But in the midst of that afternoon, one classmate had come up to me who was a believer and shared with me that her husband had been reading my blog and it was making him think.

The End.

I don’t normally remember my dreams when I wake up. But this one stuck with me, for some reason. I think it’s because I hated the feeling of being unliked that I had in that dream. I tried to talk with people and they just ignored me. They wouldn’t even let me be in the class photo!

Now, on behalf of my classmates, they have never treated me so unkindly nor would they. I have no idea from what hidden depths of my mind this dream came from. But the highlight of that dream {nightmare} was that I had made a difference. Being disliked was a small price to pay if this blog was making one person think about eternity.

While, in the real world, people are generally not so cruel as to ban me from a photo, I do know that I have been blocked and hidden and even unfriended on Facebook because I am constantly posting things that few people want to read. I have had people unsubscribe from this blog because they don’t like what what I wrote. Seriously. I do know this. I am not naive.

I know that people think I am over-the-top, or strange, or perhaps even a little titched. And sometimes– every now and again– I am really tempted to just stop posting about God and His Word. I grow weary of writing the stuff that most people don’t want to hear. I’d rather write the sentimental stuff that is so appealing to the masses. Or how about a fun home blog where I get to post recipes and home decorating ideas? Can’t I just focus on that, Lord, and try to weave Your Truth in there occasionally?

And He has consistently made it clear that His answer to that question is NO.

So why do I do it? Why do I post so much about God?

I thought it might be time to fill you in. Just so you know. Because, honestly, I don’t like being unpopular and annoying. I don’t want to be the person that makes your eyes roll when you see my posts on Facebook. Actually, I hate it. I want people to like me. I want to be popular and sought after as a speaker and writer. But then I remember…

If I really believe God’s Word in its inerrant entirety then I have to recognize a couple of things–

1. When we become genuine believers, then God’s glory becomes more important than my glory. Knowing God will become a greater treasure to us than the praise of men or worldly riches. Notice I use the word “become” because I think this is a battle that most of us fight against almost every day. It is certainly not an overnight process where suddenly we don’t care about riches and our reputation. But we know it this is a battle we can’t afford to lose when we read the words of Jesus in Matthew 16:24-25–

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

2. The way is narrow, which means the majority of people in this world are going to go to hell when they die. This is what the Bible teaches. If someone tells you that it isn’t, then they have not studied the Bible very much.

I don’t like this any more than you do. Seriously. It is not one of my favorite things about Christianity. In fact, it is cause for great mourning and occasionally a lot of questions, if I think too hard. But there it is, in black and white, in Matthew 7:13-14–

Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

If this is true, then most people are not going to have any desire at all to hear the gospel. Paul puts it like this–

For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things? (2 Corinthians 2:15-16)

So when I keep this in mind it helps me to understand that, while some people are going to love thinking and reading about God’s plan for man to be reconciled to Him and what our life looks like after we are, so many others are going to be annoyed and desire to ignore it completely. It makes sense, in light of scripture.

3. The time is short. Every day we can see more pieces to the puzzle of the end times coming together in an amazing and unbelievable design. It’s fascinating and frightening all at the same time. But what it adds up to is that — whether through the rapture or coming persecution on believers– I just have to believe that the time to share our faith freely is going to end rather soon.

These three things compel me to use blogging and Social Media as a tool to share the Truth with as many people as possible!

It reminds me of this analogy my dad uses–

If I see you standing on the train track with a train headed towards you at full speed, my love for you as a fellow human being compels me to shout out a warning or perhaps even push you off of the track. I could never live with myself if I didn’t do something.

And so it is with the gospel and the Truth of God’s Word. My love for you and your eternal destiny compels me to get the word out. I don’t know why the Lord has laid it on my heart to use Facebook. While I think perhaps a few more of us should use social media to post about the things of God rather than constantly bringing attention to ourselves and our accomplishments, I am certainly not suggesting that there is anything wrong if you choose not to post about God. That is between you and God. Every Christian is given opportunities to witness and to evangelize, and most of those opportunities are not through social media– so there is no condemnation coming from me if you aren’t using social media to spread the gospel.

But now perhaps you can understand why I do what I do. I do want to be liked. I really do. But if me being liked means someone not hearing the message of the gospel, then I choose to be unliked. I choose to be talked about and ostracized if it means even one of you comes to saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. I choose to be unpopular if it means that you are challenged and convicted to grow in your walk with God.

Seriously.

So now you know.

The Problem with Predictions

Leave a Comment / March 2, 2015 March 2, 2019

It was 2:30am when my husband got home last night. Snow does that to his schedule. The problem with yesterday is that this one wasn’t really predicted. At least not in the way it turned out.

The predictions started out by calling for 1-3″ and then turning to rain with rising temps. A couple of hours later it was supposed to be less than 1″ before changing over. What ended up happening was over 3″ followed by some freezing rain and sleet with temperatures that never did really rise above the freezing mark.

That changes everything for a snow removal guy.

The night before this snow event, my husband was scanning through all of the weather forecasts — on tv, online, and using apps on his iPhone, trying to discern which one was correct. He usually goes with the one that is most popular. After all, if three or four weather forecasters are saying the same thing, they must be right, right?

Wrong.

Because no one really knows.

I often have to laugh about weather forecasts. Doesn’t it sometimes seem as if God is showing us how really out of control we still are? We are busy building our modern day technological Tower of Babel and He keeps knocking it down. We will never reach Him–at least not in that way.

But eventually, if you watch a lot of weather forecasts, you realize that they really are only educated guesses about what a certain weather pattern is going to do.

Because no one really knows.

The same could be said of what happens after we die. Where do we go?

There are a lot of theories about this. Some more popular than others. The most popular — at least here in the states is that we all go to heaven. That is, by far, the most pleasant option, isn’t it?

But the problem with predictions is that–

No one really knows.

And there’s another, much bigger, problem–

Truth is rarely found in the majority.

So how do we know what’s coming? What should we base it on?

As you probably already know, I base my answers on a Book. God’s Book. Sure, I don’t always like everything I read there. I would love to believe in a world where heaven is the final resting place for everyone and love is all that matters. But if that’s not the Truth, then it doesn’t really matter what I believe, does it?

Just because I believe it doesn’t make it true. I have to confess that this view on truth is really one of the strangest phenomenons in today’s world. Well, if you believe it, then it’s true for you. No, it isn’t! Just because you believe 2+2=5 doesn’t make it true. (Sometimes when I listen to people talk about truth I almost feel like I’ve landed in a parallel universe. This surely can’t be the same world I grew up in? It has changed that much.)

Truth isn’t subjective. It never has been and it never will be. What is true is true and what is false is false. You can be surrounded by a whole world telling you it doesn’t matter what you believe, but the fact remains that it absolutely does matter what you believe.

So why the Bible? How do I know that the Bible is true?

I could give you a lot of reasons (and will list a few articles after this post to get you thinking) but at the end of the day, I have chosen to believe that the Bible is God’s Word. Period. And, oh, how it has been confirmed for me in a myriad of ways– from how I see the end times scene coming together to how I’ve seen Him work in my life and in lives around me. It all makes so much sense.

From this, I base my whole belief system with confidence. It doesn’t really matter what other people think or believe, because I am standing on the Word of God. People can ridicule and mock me, but I cling to the Bible. I am standing on a foundation that will not move. As that old, beloved, hymn says–

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said,
You, who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?

In the end, it really just doesn’t matter what you believe or what I believe, does it? It doesn’t matter what has been predicted or what the majority says. The only thing left will be the Truth.

And that changes everything for all of us.

Here are some helpful and reliable resources–

How Do We Know that the Bible Is True?

How Do You Prove the Bible is True?

What evidence is there that the Bible is in fact God’s Word?

Can You Prove the Bible is True?

What must I do to be saved?