word of God

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Regardless…

Regardless of the pain
Regardless of the rain
And those who have disdain
Regardless of the way
That people treat you.

Regardless of the past
Or that you’ve been harassed
And make you feel aghast
Regardless of what all
You have to go through.

God is always in control
He will heal your hurting soul
He is sure to make you whole
Regardless of those lies
Being told ’bout you.

To Him you must belong
Regardless of the wrong
He will help you to be strong
According to His Word
Do what’s right and true.

Violet Inez
9-28-2015

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LGBT is coming for YOUR Children

WAKE UP, CHRISTIANS! GET UP! TURN OFF THE ENTERTAINMENT OF THE WORLD AND LISTEN!!

On second thought, just go ahead and listen to the Sandman as he takes you off to Slumberland. Faintly, maybe you can hear the melody and discordant trills of the Pied Piper that sounds almost comforting. You are not quite sure any more because you have been listening to the Sandman or the Pied Piper for so long that you don’t realize that behind the two-faced masks lies the evil one. It is Satan himself.

However, most of those who claim the name of Christ enjoy their sleep. They enjoy the tunes of the world that lure them deeper and deeper into the realms of darkness.

The writing has been on the wall for a long time. Like Belshazzar from the book of Daniel, we in the west have been weighed in the balances and found wanting.

When I began writing at Defending Contending over 8 years ago, I continued shouting the warnings that these days were coming. I shouted like a madman just as I have for years in the ministry that the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah were coming. I warned about the LGBT movement over and over. I argued with passion that they would NEVER be content to just destroy the Biblical pattern of marriage which was established by God as being between one man and one woman until death.

I was very vocal that the LGBT movement hated God and would strive diligently to destroy true Biblical Christianity. I also told you that they would infiltrate every aspect of government, the military, commerce, and down to the school system. Most have ignored me. Many mocked me. I have received more hate email than I care to have ever read.

In addition, I told you that they had a homosexual agenda. Their agenda has been detailed at great length that can be found with a simple search using any search engine.

Yet Christians closed their eyes. Pastors refused to take a stand. Churches capitulated to the enemy. It started simply enough by making comments like, “Well, what they do behind closed doors is not really anybody’s business.” But the LGBT movement was NEVER going to be content with that. “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was not good enough for those who support this very small, but vitriolic and violent segment of the population who wanted complete openness to practice their abominations.

But that would NEVER be enough. The LGBT movement wants not only openness to do what they want and where they want and when they want, BUT…their key demand is that EVERYBODY MUST ACCEPT their perversions or they will be defined as bigots. Christians are responding with zzzzzzzzzzzzzz……….

Read the article linked here at FoxNews and weep. If you are willing to allow your children to sit under such deception, then do not be dismayed when they choose paths that are deliberately opposed to the ways of God. Don’t go and cry at the mid-week prayer meetings when you not only set them up for failure, but allowed them to be part of the celebrations that are taking place under the watchful eyes of those who you THOUGHT were tasked with the protection of little Johnny and little Susie.

Pastors, stop worrying about your next paycheck and allow the world to dictate what you can or cannot say. Your sermons will be nice pithy sermonettes and the applause will soon resound with the sound of church coffers being filled. Your conscience may grieve you temporarily, but don’t worry, this too shall pass as you shrug your shoulders and state, “Not my problem to correct the whole world!”

Missions support will probably go the way of the dodo bird, but don’t worry, the UN will do a great job providing care for all those poor misplaced Africans or Asians who still resoundingly believe that homosexuality and lesbianism is an abomination to the soul of mankind.

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Oh yes, one more thing. Just forget about this article. It really is nothing more than the deluded thoughts of man who is nothing more than a bigoted crackpot. In fact, he probably still believes that the Word of God is good for all that pertains to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). As crazy as it sounds, he probably even believes that GOD DOES NOT CHANGE and that JUDGMENT IS COMING!

Shhhhhh….go back to sleep. The Sandman is com…..zzzzzzzzz…..

 

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Sweet Hour of Prayer

In seasons of distress and grief
My soul has often found relief
And oft escaped the tempter’s snare
By thy return, sweet hour of prayer

Have you ever prayed for an hour or more? I hate to admit that it has been a while since I have done so. It seems there are often distractions or things that come up, which hinder me, but I desire to get back to a time of not being rushed. And honestly I can do so.

If you study the lives of preachers of old who changed the world (or at least their sphere of it), you will find they had one thing in common: a life devoted to prayer and the Word. They were not perfect men but they were willing, and God chose to use them. Some of them not only prayed one hour but three or four or more. Today, prayer is often no more than a ritual–something we do before meals and maybe before bed. This, however, is not real relationship with Christ.

prayer

If you are married, your spouse no doubt expects you to talk to him or her. If you travel a lot, she may expect you to call home every day so she can hear your voice and know how you are doing. If you’re together all the time (or at least every evening), he would probably not handle it well if you were too busy to talk to him for at least a period of time.

So it is with God. He desires us to talk and to listen to Him as we rise up, as we walk by the way. He wants us to tell Him our joys and our sorrows. Yes, He knows everything but He desires communication just the same. He loves it when we let Him know how grateful we are for Him. I have learned this increasingly the last few years. Just as I would not like to be ignored by my spouse (if I had one), God does not like to be ignored by us. Yet way too often, He is.

You do not need to be a great person to do great things for God, but you do need to develop a close relationship with Him. It’s very possible. You need only draw near to Him, and He will draw near to you.

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Made Sufficient: A Theology of Preaching

preachMade Sufficient: A Theology of Preaching

INTRODUCTION

Life in our culture today has one very common personal philosophy that will be heard anywhere you go: “You can be anything you set your mind to.” Our school systems, parental urgings, and media culture all cheer us on with shouts of “be all we can be, “just do it,” and “you can make friends and influence people!” We live in a world of driven and purposeful self-sufficiency. If you are a doctor and you find a new condition you are not familiar with, you study, research, prepare, and build the knowledge base and skill set within yourself to accomplish the task. You work hard to achieve the skills required for the task. If an engineer is faced with a new complicated project, they also turn to the books and the training. Study, prepare, practice, test, do all things to develop the personal skills to become competent and capable.

Coming to scripture with this worldview is dangerous enough for the average Christian, but it’s a death wish for those aspiring to the pulpit. In so many ways, our career success cultural handicap has created “you can achieve anything you set your mind to” preaching. Young men feeling the call to preaching start with the philosophy that hard work and personal development of precise skills is all that is needed to assume the pulpit and to receive the celebration and cheers of men. This is why Paul’s words to the Corinthians regarding the ministry of the New Covenant is so shocking.[1] You can just about hear the needle scratching across the record as our culture engages with Paul’s words from 2 Corinthians 2:16b-17,

…who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ[2]

and 2 Corinthians 3:5-6,

Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit.

The World’s response to Paul is: “Who is sufficient for these things? I am of course! I can do anything I set my mind to. I will work hard and become sufficient to preach.” This response, whether voiced or felt secretly deep in our heart is the issue at hand. The biblical act of preaching is not a calling that can be professionalized. Preaching is not something that can be undertaken or mastered by sheer personal will. Preaching is an act like no other. Preaching is not a career choice. Preaching is a supernatural calling to proclaim God’s Word as a reconciled ambassador for Christ. It is only through God that we are made sufficient to speak on His behalf.

MADE SUFFICIENT

Preaching the Word of God is every bit as challenging as walking a tightrope hundreds of feet above the ground. Lean too far in one direction and you fall to a certain death. Overcorrect and lean too far the other direction and you experience the same results. One missed step and you are in great danger. Preaching is similar, not in physical balance and concentration, but in spiritual balance and humility. On one side we can fall into the certain dangers of self-sufficiency and on the other, the certain peril of lazy unpreparedness. The rope itself, on which we safely traverse to the other side, is humility grounded in the knowledge that we are not sufficient to accomplish this task in our own strength and skills, but we are made sufficient by the power of the one of whom we speak. To make the point of how God accommodates our weakness by providing preachers to speak on His behalf, Peter Adam[3], in his little book, Speaking God’s Words, quotes John Calvin, from his Institutes, on the power of God in preaching through the man, rather than the power coming from the man himself:[4]

it forms a most excellent and useful training to humility, when he accustoms us to obey his word though preached by men like ourselves, or, it may be, our inferiors in worth. Did he himself speak from heaven, it were no wonder if his sacred oracles were received by all ears and minds reverently and without delay. For who would not dread his present power? Who would not fall prostrate at the first view of his great majesty? Who would not be overpowered by that immeasurable splendour? But when a feeble man, sprung from the dust, speaks in the name of God, we give the best proof of our piety and obedience, by listening with docility to his servant, though not in any respect our superior. [5]

All men would fall on their faces in reverence if God came down from Heaven and preached to us. However, God chose to use feeble broken men sprung up from the dust to deliver His message to the World (Ex 4:10-12, 1 Cor 1:17-21,1 Thes 2:1-4, 1 Tim 1:12-15). To understand how this feeble, unremarkable, inferior  man can faithfully represent the infinite, holy, omnipresent God of the universe, we must understand the theology of preaching.

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