church

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Quotes (507)

voddie-baucham If man is merely a glorified single-celled organism run amok, he has no inherent worth, value, or dignity; ultimately man is then merely a cosmic accident, and the human community bestows any value he has upon him. It is not difficult to see how this would lead to a radical view on abortion. Peter Singer, a renowned bioethicist at Princeton University, argues that abortion should be legal prior to “personhood.” What makes this shocking is that Singer’s definition of personhood would carry the abortion question not into the second or third trimester of a pregnancy but into the second year after birth. That’s right, by Singer’s definition my thirteen-month-old son (due to the fact that he cannot communicate or sustain his own life without help) has not yet reached personhood, and to take his life now would be no more problematic than a pre-birth abortion. While this is shocking, I must ask a question: What is the difference between my thirteen-month-old son and a six-month-old fetus? The answer is, location. If it is acceptable to kill a child in the womb, it is also acceptable to do so outside the womb. Peter Singer is not being morbid, he is being consistent.

– Voddie Baucham

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Quotes (506)

dl-moody.jpg It was quite refreshing one night to find in the inquiry room a young man who thought he was not worth saving, he was so vile and wicked. There was hope for him because he was so desperately in earnest about his soul. He thought he was worthless. He had a sight of himself in God’s looking glass and had a very poor opinion of himself. One can always tell when a man is a great way from God–for he is always talking about himself, and how good he is. But the moment he sees God by the eye of faith, he is down on his knees, and, like Job, he cries, “Behold, I am vile.” All his goodness flees away.

– D.L. Moody

1837 – 1899

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Sam and Esther: The least of these.

Reminiscent of the helplessness I felt watching the video of Africa’s Witch Children, this video broke me. I never wept so much over the suffering of the children in Africa, and at the same time been so angered at my own gluttony, selfishness, and daily ungratefulness. Lord forgive me.

My prayers for God to use me and my family in Africa will now be taking on a whole new fervency.

HT: Musings of a Missionary Girl by way of The Desert Pastor

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Qutoes (505)

yahannan.jpg When God changes the heart and spirit, the physical changes also. If you want to meet the needs of the poor in this world, there is no better place to start than by preaching the Gospel. It has done more to lift up the downtrodden, the hungry, and the needy than all the social programs ever imagined by secular humanists.

– K.P. Yohannan

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Sermon of the week: “The Way of Salvation – God Centered vs. Man Centered Evangelism” by Jim Stitzinger.

shepherds-conference Your sermon of the week is The Way of Salvation – God Cenetered vs. Man Centered Evangelism by Jim Stitzinger. This is a great message from the 2005 Shepherds’ Conference on the difference between evangelism done God’s way, and evangelism attempted man’s way.

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You deserve the best?

I’m not sure which “church” this comes from, but they offer the following necessities (emphasis theirs):

– Text messaging: Interactive communication during the service.

– Youth dramas and kids’ choir presentations.

– Video message enhancements.

– Refreshing atmosphere.

– Get out in plenty of time for lunch.

– Message that brings out the best in you.

– Inspiration and encouragement that will see you throughout your week.

best-1best-2

HT: Fish With Trish

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Utah’s dirty little secret.

xxx

Mormonism’s been playing the shell game; hiding many of their beliefs from the public eye since its very inception, including the sins of their prophets. And now there’s yet another secret sin permeating among the Mormon-saturated state of Utah.

You see, anytime we challenge Mormonism’s false doctrines, inevitably some adherent to LDS comes in and–ignoring the facts–repeats the mantra referring to how good of a people they are and thus, this “proves” they’re the only true church.

They love to misuse Jesus’ teaching that “you will know them by their fruit” when applying it to themselves because they don’t drink, smoke, or cuss. However, those who’ve studied Mormonism know very well that this false religion is replete with the evil sins of deception, lies, wickedness, adultery, polygamy, and murder. But these LDS apologists always fail/refuse to consider these wicked fruits of LDS: “Pay no attention to that, look only at the good things we do.”

So when I saw this article exposing Utah’s addiction to pornography, I realized this is just another decomposing, rotting, spot of mold festering just below the surface of the facade of “perfect” Mormon fruit.

After controlling for differences in broadband internet access between states – online porn tends to be a bandwidth hog – and adjusting for population, he found a relatively small difference between states with the most adult purchases and those with the fewest. The biggest consumer, Utah, averaged 5.47 adult content subscriptions per 1000 home broadband users; Montana bought the least with 1.92 per 1000. “The differences here are not so stark,” Edelman says.

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Another attempted murder of a baby by abandonment in the trash.

cartoon-abortionYet another story of a baby abandoned in a trash can. A couple differences in this story from the others out there: This happened in an airplane and the mother and the child she attempted to kill have been “reunited.” Huh?

Gates-Bowey said late Thursday the woman had undergone surgery at Auckland‘s Middlemore Hospital and was later reunited with her baby. Its gender has not been disclosed.

“We are relieved to have been informed that both mother and child are reunited, are well and are now being looked after in hospital,” Pacific Blue said in a statement Thursday.

Read the story here.

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Book Review: “Warnings to the Churches” by John Charles Ryle.

warnings-to-the-churches I read this book a couple years ago and found it to be an incredible warning to the churches. It also was part of several things God used to draw me out of the lukewarm, mile-wide, inch-deep “churches” that I was attending.

The back of the book sums it up succinctly:

Some of Ryle’s most pungent writings have hitherto tended to be lost in his larger volumes. This book brings together eight addresses with a common theme. Together they sound a prophetic and much needed warning to the churches.

I stumbled across this book by accident (divine providence) on Ebay. I believe this book is currently out of print but you can purchase it here on Amazon, and you can get its modern edition entitled Churches Beware here on Amazon.

If you can find yourself a copy, I strongly recommend you get it. This 171 page volume is a must-have for all Ryle fans and those who are dissatisfied with the current shameful state of the Church.

Here’s one review from Amazon:


5.0 out of 5 stars Churches Beware, Indeed!, August 4, 2007

Outstanding teaching from an old source, demonstrating the need for discernment in the Church today. Ryle tells us how we can avoid false teachings, by not even accepting a little error any more than we would accept a little poison. Well worth the reading for discerning Christians.

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An Atheist admits what we’ve known all along.

evolution-out-of-business Atheist Michael Ruse from Saving Darwinism from the Darwinians from the May 13, 2000 National Post said the following:

Evolution is promoted by its practitioners as more than mere science. Evolution is promulgated as an ideology, a secular religion–a full-fledged alternative to Christianity, with meaning and morality. I am an ardent evolutionist and an ex-Christian, but I must admit that in this one complaint . . .the literalists are absolutely right. Evolution is a religion. This was true of evolution in the beginning, and it is true of evolution still today.

As cited from Acts & Facts November 2008, page 13

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Quotes (502)

Catholic bishops have condemned us as heretics and have cursed us over 100 times with anathemas pronounced by the Council of Trent and the 2nd Vatican Council. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “Every heretic is to have part with the Devil and his angels in the flames of eternal fire, unless before the end of his life, he be restored to the Catholic Church.” What a paradox! Christians, who embrace God’s infallible truth, are eternally condemned by this apostate religion, and then called Catholic-bashers for trying to rescue Catholics who are enslaved by doctrines of demons (1 Tim. 4:1).

– Mike Gendron

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Sermon of the week: “Sound Doctrine; Sound Words” by Phil Johnson.

Your sermon of the week is the one you’ve all been waiting for: Sound Doctrine; Sound Words by Phil Johnson of Grace Life Pulpit and Pyromaniacs. Its subtitle should be The Pornification of the Pulpit. This sermon is from this month’s Shepherds’ Conference.

In this controversial sermon, Phil Johnson steps up and takes on the crass, crude, gutter-mouth ways of many in the modern church today, with special attention to Mark “The Cussing Pastor” Driscoll. You don’t want to miss this message. His text for this message is Titus 2:7-8.

It’s about time someone spoke out on the juvenile and profane potty-humor, profanity, and lust-filled stories that have replaced sound, doctrinal, exposition of the Bible in many churches today. I stand up and applaud Phil Johnson for having the courage to speak out and even take on the modern evangelical’s Golden Calf from Mars Hill Church.

This is a great follow-up to last Wednesday’s sermon of the week (also by Phil Johnson) entitled Programs, Get Your Programs: Exposing the Flaws of the Fad-Driven Church.

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Doctrine divides!

standing-alone “Doctrine divides!”

Whenever you hear this it’s usually followed up with “we all worship the same God” and “can’t we all get along?”

Whenever the mantra “doctrine divides” is employed, it’s always with a negative connotation. But have you stopped to ponder why?

Allow me to submit for your consideration, that “doctrine divides” is actually a good thing–a positive thing. It’s true that “doctrine divides,” and here’s what it divides:

The ones just wanting to be fed from the ones willing to take up their cross.

The false conversions from the true conversions.

The ones under law from the ones under grace.

The swine from the pearls.

The profane from the holy.

The tares from the wheat.

The goats from the sheep.

The wolves from the flock.

The hirelings from the shepherds.

The “other gospels” from the one true Gospel.

The false christs from the one true Christ.

The darkness from the Light.

The lies from the Truth.

The myths from the facts.

The wicked from the righteous.

The wide gate from the narrow gate.

The broad road from the narrow road.

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The many paths from the only Way.

Doctrine divides; doctrine divides; thank God Almighty, doctrine divides!

– The Pilgrim

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Rudeness, vulgarity, and profanity. The ‘next big thing’ in church.

This announcement video is actually from a church. Thank you Mark “The Cussing Pastor” Driscoll for blazing new trails in the area of crude and carnal speech in church. The trickle-down effect of your example is bearing much fruit.

Don’t worry, Josh (on the right) and the folks at The Journey Church had a vestige of decency to bleep out the cussing.

HT:  Slice of Laodicea & A Little Leaven

Apparently Josh is a motivational youth speaker (imagine that) who literally believes that in our words we hold the power of life and death (see this video). This really makes me wonder what he was thinking when he said the things he said in the above video. Oh, and Josh also has an opinion on homosexuality (see this video). I bet you’ll never guess what a hip, cool, relevant, and culturally vulgar youth speaker thinks about homosexuality.

This guy reminds me of Ignatius the fictional youth pastor.


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Letting the right hand know what the left hand is doing.

humility

The following is an excerpt from a thought-provoking article from Daily Discernment entitled Right Hand Publicity Inc.:

Since leaving a “church” where corruption was fully in bloom, I have become fascinated with the anatomy of how a church becomes corrupted. It happens much the way cancer happens.

It is estimated that 90% of the population has “cancer” at any given time. Cancer is merely cells that have divided incorrectly resulting in two dysfunctional cells. In those with healthy immune systems, those errant cells are recognized and destroyed. In those with broken immune systems, the cancer cells go unrecognized and unaddressed are allowed to keep dividing until they eventually form a tumor and metastasize, killing the body.

So by the time someone is diagnosed with cancer, they have actually had it for many months or even years, but the symptoms were not seen on the surface.

So too, when a church is discovered to be corrupt, it can be traced back months and years to a time when the actual break down in the system of accountability. When confronting sin and exercising church discipline stops, the cancer starts to grow, and it is only a matter of time before the body is dead, and just becomes a social club, civic organization or entertainment arena.

So while there are endless examples out there of full blown apostasy, let’s look at a more subtle example of outright sin that gets skipped over. Usually because this kind of thing is now ubiquitous in the “church” as it has become deaf to God’s wisdom and replaced it with the wisdom of the world.

To read the entire article from Ginger Taylor, click here.

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Quotes (500)

j-gresham-machenMen tell us that our preaching should be positive and not negative, that we can preach the truth without attacking error. But if we follow that advice we shall have to close our Bible and desert its teachings. The New Testament is a polemic book almost from beginning to end . . . . It is when men have felt compelled to take a stand against error that they have risen to the really great heights in the celebration of the truth.

– J. Gresham Machen

1887 – 1937

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Sola Scriptura (64)

bible-page.jpg Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today; otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

– Deuteronomy 8:11-14