tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34999072816951313312024-03-13T15:44:40.575-07:00Consider the Lilies..Luke 12:27-28Renhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03667894862776507328noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499907281695131331.post-12315464275562656842018-03-11T07:17:00.001-07:002018-03-11T07:18:20.032-07:00Kicking babies..<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I remember the first time I heard about Smith Wigglesworth.</div>
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I was standing in the entryway at LifeGate Church next to a flight of stairs talking to Pastor Jeff Payne about faith and obedience.</div>
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He told me about this guy who brought a baby back to life by "dropkicking" it. </div>
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He told me that as Mr. Wigglesworth held the dead child in his arms that God told him to kick the baby.</div>
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He did and the baby was brought back to life.</div>
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Pastor Jeff told me this story with a look of admiration on his face.</div>
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Justin Peters nailed it in this interview when he said "how can any thinking Christian not be absolutely appalled at that?"</div>
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I definitely wasn't a "thinking Christian". </div>
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Most who attend churches like that aren't.</div>
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I am ashamed to admit that I was amazed at the "faith and obedience" of Smith Wigglesworth too.. </div>
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Because I was not a thinking Christian who understood the Bible and practiced real discernment but rather a naive, deceived person who trusted false teachers.</div>
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It wasn't just Pastor Jeff who admired this baby-kicker. Pastor Tracy Rice was a fan of his as well.</div>
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Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry (we call it Hogwarts) actually took students to the grave of Mr. Wigglesworth (and others) so that they could lay across their graves and "suck up the anointing" of this heretic.</div>
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If these are the sort of things you are learning about at your church, leave and find a church that teaches Scripture.</div>
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Renhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03667894862776507328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499907281695131331.post-76918304683571758292018-02-27T08:33:00.001-08:002018-04-27T08:20:49.414-07:00The "gift" of Discernment..<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">"A lot of times when people think they've got the gift of discernment, what they really have is a hypercritical personality." - Phil Johnson</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">This will be one of my more embarrassing confessions...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">A few months into my time at LifeGate church I was sitting in their Starting Point class fuming because of two guys who were talking during the class.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">I don't even remember what they were talking about, only that by the way they were talking and the expressions on their faces, I knew they were just blowing smoke and making themselves out to be more than they were.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">It was pretty obvious. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">I could tell by the way others were looking at them that they felt the same way.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">So I sat there getting more and more annoyed.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">When the class was over I grabbed my stuff and marched out of the room. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">I didn't stop to talk to anyone and I even bumped a couple people on my way out without apologizing.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">*I wasn't saved at this time and I was pretty accustomed to acting like a brat*</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">On my way home the pastor called me to ask me why I rushed out so quickly. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">I don't remember what I said exactly but it was something along the lines of "those guys are full of sh*t. They went on and on, lying about themselves and how great they were and you just stood there and let them!"</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">He replied (and I remember this word for word): "Oh Ren, I've had a feeling about this for a while but now I'm sure of it. You have the <i>gift of discernment</i>!" he told me to come to his office and he'd help me to understand what it meant.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">Basically what it came down to was that I had a super power..</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">God had given me the ability to know truth from lies. Who was for real and who was a fake. Who was lying and who was telling the truth.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">About anything and </span><span style="color: #3d85c6;">everything.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">Yep. Another one of those invisible gifts that people in the hyper-charismatic church get, to make them feel special and somehow more powerful and loved by God than your average, boring, legalistic, Christian.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">Now I know what you're thinking..</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">"But Ren, you study everything.. Didn't you study discernment too?"</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">Well of course I did!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">I read everything in the hyper-charismatic pastor's library about it.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">I talked to the pastors at the hyper-charismatic church.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">I listened to "sermons" about this magical gift of discernment by hyper-charismatic people.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">Sermons by super smart theologians like Joyce Meyer and Robert Morris and Beth Moore.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">I grew so much in my gift that pastors would introduce me to other people and say things like "this is Ren, talk to her, she has an amazing gift of discernment".</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">I would use this gift to 'help' other people in the church.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">I wish I was making this up.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">You have no idea how embarrassing it is for me to admit this now.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you haven't noticed yet; once I was told that I had this amazing and special gift, I </span>completely<span style="font-family: inherit;"> forgot about every other person in the room who was also annoyed by the incessant bragging of those 2 guys. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">I had forgotten that it was obvious to EVERYONE IN THE ROOM.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">Because this was MY gift.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">This was MY special super power.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">But what I didn't do was look at what the Bible had to say about discernment. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">Well except for the verses about the gifts of the Spirit that every hyper-charismatic takes out of context.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">**by the way, when I say out of context, I mean not properly understanding the context in which the text was written- to whom, by whom, when, and why. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">You can recite an entire chapter of the Bible and still be taking it (understanding it) out of context.**</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">So. What is discernment?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; text-align: left;">The word </span><i style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">discern</i><span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; text-align: left;"> and its derivatives are translations of the Greek word </span><i style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">anakrino</i><span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; text-align: left;"> in the New Testament. It means “to distinguish, to separate out by diligent search, to examine.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; text-align: left;">The key words: </span><i><b>diligent search, to examine.</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; text-align: left;">John MacArthur describes it thus-</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start; word-spacing: 1.9199999570846558px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">"In its simplest definition, discernment is nothing more than the ability to decide between truth and error, right and wrong. Discernment is the process of making careful distinctions in our thinking about truth. In other words, the ability to think with discernment is synonymous with an ability to think biblically."</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start; word-spacing: 1.9199999570846558px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">So- <i><b>"making careful distinctions about our thinking."</b></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">This means taking every thought captive and not making snap judgments based on a feeling or a hunch. </span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start; word-spacing: 1.9199999570846558px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">R.C. Sproul said-</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;"><span style="text-align: start;">"To some it is given in unusual measure as a special grace gift (</span><a class="lbsBibleRef lbsBibleRef" data-reference="1 Cor. 12.10" data-version="esv" href="http://biblia.com/bible/esv/1%20Cor.%2012.10" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; transition: color 0.3s ease; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">1 Cor. 12:10</a><span style="text-align: start;">), but some measure of it is essential for us all and must be constantly nourished. The Christian must take care to develop his “sixth sense” of spiritual discernment. This is why the psalmist prays, “Teach me good judgment and knowledge” (</span><a class="lbsBibleRef lbsBibleRef" data-reference="Ps. 119.66" data-version="esv" href="http://biblia.com/bible/esv/Ps.%20119.66" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; transition: color 0.3s ease; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Ps. 119:66</a><span style="text-align: start;">)."</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;"><span style="text-align: start;">Now here- <i>"</i></span><span style="text-align: left;"><i>some measure of it is essential for us all and <b><u>must be constantly nourished.</u></b>"</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">This means that everyone who is truly saved; everyone who has received the Holy Spirit has been graced with biblical discernment.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">Some more than others.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">But why?</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">Well. That's pretty simple actually.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">They pray, they search the Scriptures,<i> they learn</i>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">They work at it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">Yeah, work. </span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;"><i>And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more <b>in real knowledge</b> and all discernment.</i> - Philippians 1:9</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: -48pt;">To know <b>wisdom and instruction</b>, </span><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: -16pt;">to <b>understand</b> words of insight,- Proverbs 1:2</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;">And I </span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;"><b>applied </b>my heart</span></i><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;"><i> to <b>seek and to search out</b> by wisdom all that is done under heaven. </i>- Ecclesiastes 1:13</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;">and how </span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;">from childhood you have been <b>acquainted</b> with </span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;">t<b>he sacred writings</b>, </span></i><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;"><i>which are able to <b>make you wise</b> for salvation <b>through faith</b> in Christ Jesus.</i> - Timothy 3:15</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">So is biblical discernment a gift or is it learned?</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">Both.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">Like I said, every true believer has been graced with biblical discernment.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">You have to be saved before you can truly understand the Word of God.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">Anyone can read the Bible.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">Atheists, Buddhists, Hindus, Wiccans..</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">Everyone.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">But only those who are saved can understand it.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">The Bible says so.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But they have to feed their </span>discernment<span style="font-family: inherit;">. Nourish it with the Word of God. They have to learn it. They </span>have<span style="font-family: inherit;"> to read it. They have to meditate on it, and they have to pray for it. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm not just giving you my opinion here. I promise. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Bible says all of this.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">The problem is, there are so many people who have been taken in by false teachers who believe they are saved but aren't.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">So they believe whatever they are told by the false teacher because what they are telling them <i>sounds good.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">That's how I know that I wasn't saved at that time. Of course I didn't know that then.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">It's only because I am saved <b>now </b>that am I able to look back on the things I learned from Joyce Meyer, Robert Morris, Beth Moore, Les Beauchamp, Tracy Rice etc, and realize that they were ALL lies.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">I know that they are lies because <b>now </b>I understand Scripture.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">Anyone, believer or unbeliever can listen to a couple of windbags brag about themselves and know that they are full of crap. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">But not everyone can discern a false teacher from a biblical one.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">Not everyone can discern the true teachings of Scripture from lies taught by ungodly teachers.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">Well then, how does one really grow in biblical discernment?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">Believe the gospel.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">Repent.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">Pray for wisdom and <b>learn</b> the Bible.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">"<span style="text-align: left;">How is such discernment to be obtained? We receive it as did Christ Himself—by <u>the anointing of the Spirit</u>, <u>through our understanding of God’s Word</u>, by our experience of God’s grace, and by the progressive unfolding to us of the true condition of our own hearts."- R.C Sproul</span></span></div>
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Renhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03667894862776507328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499907281695131331.post-31865729088900583922018-02-21T09:17:00.001-08:002018-03-09T05:32:00.520-08:00This needs to stop..<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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If this is what happens in your church, your church is NOT a Biblical church.</div>
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This is attributing the work of the devil to the Holy Spirit of God.</div>
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This is blasphemy.</div>
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Stop it.</div>
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Renhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03667894862776507328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499907281695131331.post-82822626202979923322018-02-03T05:52:00.001-08:002018-02-03T06:34:31.243-08:00Just once around the cornfield..<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #666666;">One of my first memorable experiences at LifeGate church was the ‘Prayer for 100’. According to the senior pastor, <i>God told</i> him that He wanted 100 people to gather together one Saturday a month to pray for whatever specific thing the senior pastor decided on for that Saturday. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;">The particular prayer subject of that day was a piece of property that the church owned and was trying to sell. After we sang a couple songs, the pastor explained that we were all going to get in our cars and drive to the property (it was a big cornfield at the time) walk around the perimeter like the Israelites walked around the walls of Jericho, and pray for the property to sell.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;">Yes, really.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;">I'll remind you that I live in Nebraska. There are no small cornfields in Nebraska.</span></div>
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<span style="color: purple;">**</span><span style="color: #666666;">I would like to interject for a moment here to say that at that time I had no idea how incredibly ridiculous this was, nor how badly this pastor had taken the biblical account of Jericho so out of context. I’m also going to confess that I am <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">slightly </span>extremely embarrassed to admit that not only did I participate (Clay</span><span style="color: #666666;"> did too so he can be embarrassed right along with me) but I actually fell for it. Hook, line, and sinker.</span><span style="color: purple;">**</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;">Anyway, there we were all standing in this cornfield listening to the pastor recount the story of Jericho when to my left I heard a shuffle and then someone exclaim “Oh!”. When I looked I saw a woman lying on the ground. I thought she had fainted at first, but the pastor glanced down at her and said “oh she’s alright” and kept on with what he was saying. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;">This was my first experience with seeing someone <i>slain in the Spirit.</i> <b><i>*</i></b><i>If you don’t know what that is, </i><a href="https://youtu.be/SeBya-Q4uzI"><i>click here</i></a><i>. By the way, this practice is not biblical and is not from God. Neither is that gibberish they are chanting. I’ll get into all that at a later date</i><b><i>*</i></b> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;">So, he finished recounting the story of Jericho and then told us that someone was going to blow a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shofar">Shofar</a> and like the Israelites, we were all going to shout really loud. Then the guy was going to blow the Shofar a second time and we were going to shout again, and then a third time. Then we were all going to walk around the cornfield praying that God would tear down the walls of whatever it was that was keeping that cornfield from selling.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;">And that’s what we did. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;">*insert facepalm here*</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;">You know, more than once I asked a few of the pastors at LifeGate why they didn’t teach more of the Bible and why they never really went very deep when giving their <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">sermons</span> motivational speeches. They said it was because there were so many “baby Christians” there that they didn’t want to overwhelm them, that baby Christians need milk and love and tenderness, so it’s not good to weigh them down with too much “heavy stuff”.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;">But that’s not really why. Or at the very least, it’s not the only reason why. The biggest reason is pretty simple; if you start teaching Biblical truth, people might not be so willing to stand in a cornfield blowing Shofars and shouting for the invisible walls of a slow real-estate market to come crashing down so your cornfield will sell for a good price. And why not? Because that’s just stupid. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;">Oh, and it has NOTHING to do with the biblical account of the Israelites and Jericho. Absolutely nothing. It’s just another example of false teachers twisting scripture to fit their own agenda.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><i>“and regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, </i><b><i>which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.</i></b><i> You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, </i><b><i>be on your guard lest, being carried away by the error of unprincipled men,</i></b><i> you fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” 2 Peter 3:15-18</i></span></div>
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Renhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03667894862776507328noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499907281695131331.post-12232183862013138232018-02-02T09:41:00.000-08:002018-02-02T09:41:02.643-08:00A Word from God<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Every year at LifeGate church they have what they call a Presbytery. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">They invite three <strike>presbyters</strike> people who claim to speak for God from other churches to spend a week or so "prophesying' over church staff members and then over people throughout the congregation. At each event after the six or so staff members are brought on stage and <strike>prophesied over </strike> told stuff about themselves that they already knew, the <strike>presbyters</strike> people who claim to speak for God spend about an hour or so selecting people in the audience to stand and receive their own special word from God.</span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">*Before I go any further, I want to make it clear that I honestly think that most of these presbyters do believe that whatever thoughts that come to mind at that moment really do come from God. But I also think that some of them know darn well that they don’t.*</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This is an event that attendees of this church don’t want to miss. Come on, the chance for someone to pick you out of the crowd to receive a word from God directly? In front of everyone? No way is anyone going to miss that if at all possible! People pray for weeks before the actual event, begging God to speak to them during the Presbytery. They skip work to attend this event. Every day they would go to the event hopeful, just sure that God was going to speak to them and every day all but maybe ten people would go home disappointed.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Clay and I were never disappointed though. We attended each of these Presbytery events while we were members of this church and even though there were a few hundred people at each one, my husband was selected to receive a word.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Every time.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We were all told at each event that these presbyters would only be choosing people out of the crowd at God’s prompting. That it would have nothing to do with who you were, who you knew, where you were sitting, or what you looked like. Clay is a pretty big guy with piercings, tattoos, and a four-inch mohawk. He’s just not the type of guy who is ever overlooked in a crowded room. But I’m sure that had <i>nothing</i> to do with him being chosen to receive a word from a presbyter every single year. Right??</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I really don’t remember much of what he was told the second and third year but I remember the very first “word from God” that he received pretty well. I remember it because it was so absolutely wonderful. It was the kind of word everyone prays to hear.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">After pointing to him and asking us to stand he stared at us for about 20 seconds and then said:</span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"You are a man of faith. God has given you this gift. You are a man of faith. He wants you to declare it. Blessings will come to you if declare it. Green pastures, financial blessing, cup runneth over. He wants to bless you. He wants you to rule! He wants you to reign! You are a man of faith! Say it! Declare it! God says “If you do this, I’m going to give you everything!”</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">That’s probably the best word from God ever right? <i>Financial blessing! Cup runneth over! Rule! Reign!</i> <i>Everything! </i> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Who wouldn’t grab on to that with both hands and hang on to it for dear life? And we did. Oh boy did we! Never mind that he was laid-off just 2 weeks later, and then laid off twice more in the next 18 months. That was pretty frustrating, but we held on to the promise. God said He’s going to give us everything!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> Now, throughout these last couple years since leaving that church, I have had a few facepalm moments. Every time I learned that I had believed something that wasn’t true about Jesus or the Bible. Every time I had to unlearn something and learn it the right way. Every time it occurred to me that I had taught someone else something that was nothing but new age apostasy. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Even still, when I think I know something about the Bible I have to ask myself if it’s something I know because I learned it through prayer and study of Scripture or is it something I think I know because a church leader at LifeGate told it to me? But let me tell you, the facepalm I gave myself when I realized the real truth behind that ‘word from God’ might have even left a bruise.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The words of that <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">prophesy</span> big fat lie from the devil played through my head..</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>He wants you to declare it.~ </i>Declare what? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The gospel? Scripture? That he is a sinner who if not for the death of the Son of the Almighty God upon a cross to pay for his sin that he would be destined to suffer the wrath of the Holy Father in the lake of fire for all eternity? That Jesus is the Son of God who was raised from the dead? That it is only through Jesus that anyone can repent of their sins, receive forgiveness and go to the Father?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Nope. None of that. Just declare that he is a man of faith.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Blessings will come to you if declare it. Green pastures, financial blessing, cup runneth over.- He wants you to rule! He wants you to reign!~ </i>Money, power, blessings, everything you could possibly want! Focus on this! It’s all about you! </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But rule what? Reign over what? Himself? Others? Or perhaps he will reign in victory over all the debt we would incur while he was laid-off three times..?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">These <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">presbyters</span> deceived, puffed up, liars claim that the words that they give come directly from God through the Holy Spirit. But what is the primary work of the Holy Spirit? To bear witness of Jesus!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> <b><i>“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.” ~ John 15:26. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There was no mention of the Son of God. No mention of the Gospel. No mention of who He is, what He’s done. <b><i> </i></b>Nope, it was all about Clay.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>“If you do this, I’m going to give you everything!”</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>“And the devil said to Him, I will give You all this domain and it’s glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.”~ Luke 4:6-7</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">That is what they do. These presbyters tell you good things about you. In fact, before they get started giving these messages from God they will tell you that a true word from God will only build you up. A word from God will never make you feel bad, guilty, ashamed or bring you down in any way. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">*If you want to continue believe that don’t ever read anything from the Old Testament prophets, or anything from the book of Revelation*</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">After Clay and I learned who God really is, after we realized that this church was not teaching Scripture and after we understood the meaning of <i>Sola Scriptura</i>; we knew that these prophetic words weren’t really from God. But up until that moment, we <b>believed</b> that word we were given. We believed it completely. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For four years!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So why does everyone love the presbytery? Why do we sit there hoping and praying that a presbyter will call on us and give us our very own personal message from God? Because it will be happy and exciting and full of great stuff all about us! And if any of it makes us feel bad or convicted, we can just toss that aside because that’s what we want to hear.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Just eat the fish and leave the bones right?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">People have told me that they know that these prophetic words are really from God because they were told things that no one but God would know or because what they were told actually came to pass.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Please.. Television psychics do the same thing.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And I ask you, just because someone was able to tell you something that you don't think anyone else would know, why do you just assume that it's from God? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Because the devil would only tell you bad stuff?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He didn't tell Jesus bad stuff, why should you be any different?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; text-align: justify;">No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. </span><span class="p" style="color: #001320; line-height: 13px; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff;">Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.~ 1 Corinthians 11:14-15</span></span></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It's not just the leaders of LifeGate who do this. It's everywhere..</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Beth Moore, Joyce Meyer, Gateway Church, Elevation Church, Bethel.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Tons of people do this. It's not just church leaders anymore either. Anyone can approach you and say they have a word from God.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Most of the people who attend churches like this believe that God has given them special messages for others at least once in their lives.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"Words from God" given in churches like Lifegate all do the same damage. They minimize the importance of Scripture throughout the church. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Bible becomes something that just sits on our nightstands or something to carry to church in pretty bible cases, but rarely opened.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It becomes insufficient. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Why spend time in prayer or study Scripture when we can just go to someone and ask them what God has to say to us?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Or better yet, we can just decide on what we want to hear, ask God, and then accept the first happy thought that pops into our heads.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Just read your Bible.</span></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires. ~ 2 Timothy 4:3</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“If you want to hear from God, read the Bible. If you want to hear from God audibly, read it out loud.” – Justin Peters</span></div>
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<i style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">*please don't bother commenting on this telling me that you know that the word you received really was from God because you could back it up with Scripture. I'll delete it. Anything in the Bible can be twisted to suit your needs. It happens ALL THE TIME.* </i><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></div>
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Renhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03667894862776507328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499907281695131331.post-20321196169168506382018-02-01T07:06:00.000-08:002018-02-01T07:17:27.321-08:00In the beginning..<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">On January of 2015 LifeGate church put on their first “Greater Glory” conference. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Clay and I were still members of the church at this time. In fact Clay was providing security for David Perkins, the speaker at the conference. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The last day of the conference was the last day we attended LifeGate Church. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The next day I went in, sat down at the computer and removed as much of our information as I could from their database, emailed the pastors to tell them that we would not be back, I put my set of keys on the desk, and we left. This wasn’t planned. We hadn’t set a date to leave LifeGate, we hadn’t discussed it with anyone, we hadn’t found a new church. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">We just left.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I had wanted to leave for almost a year prior to that but Clay wasn't ready. But something happened at the conference that sealed it for him and at that moment he was ready to go.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Maybe I'll explain what happened in another blog post..</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">For the first four years that we attended LifeGate we were happy. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Really happy. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It was our first experience belonging to a church and we were devoted members. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">We made friends with leadership quickly and volunteered constantly- helping our friends prepare meals for everyone on Wednesday nights, setting up luncheons for funerals and I made two thousand phone calls reminding people to give money to the church (not even kidding). </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Clay took care of repairs that their maintenance people didn’t know how to do themselves and he helped form the security team. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">For the last year I volunteered in the office four or five days a week making phone calls and doing data entry. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Clay and I would stand in the senior pastor's office and pray over him before he would go out and give his “talks” on Saturday nights. For 5 years we practically lived at LifeGate church. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">We were popular, and we liked it.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">But we were naive about the whole church thing. Aside from the boring church services we were forced to attend as children (that we never paid attention to) this was what we thought church was supposed to be. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Colored lights, fog machines, loud music, people dancing and singing to feel-good songs played in upbeat tones to get us all hyped-up and ready to listen to a feel-good sermon all about us. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The pastors were funny, they threw candy from the stage, and handed out free copies of Jesus Calling, Heaven is for real, The Circle Maker, The Shack and any other self-centered heretical book they were promoting at the moment. They even used props and drew pictures to keep us all engaged. It was fun. We were “doing life together”.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">From the beginning there were things that didn’t sit right with me and at first I chalked it up to being a new Christian. After all, I was still learning “church”. Even as I read more of the Bible and began to see that what I was reading wasn’t lining up with what I was seeing or hearing at LifeGate, it didn’t sway me. These were my friends! They were like my family. In fact, I liked a lot of them more than certain members of my real family.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So what if something they preached from the pulpit didn’t exactly line up with what I read in the Bible? There are so many different ways to interpret the Bible right? Was it really a big deal that they used verses completely out of context as long as they loved Jesus? That’s what’s important isn't? That we love Jesus? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Everything else is <i>religion </i>and <i>legalism</i>. It’s the relationship that counts! </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Besides, just because I thought that particular verses meant something else didn't that just prove that the Bible means different things to different people?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Bible was alive. We were told that all the time. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And things that have life change all the time.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Duh!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Yeah, for real.. I <i>actually</i> believed that..</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">At the time I had no idea what a Confession was or why they were so important. Plus if anyone had told me about them at that time I would have ignored them or said something like "how do we know that the people who wrote the confession were right?" which is exactly what the people who still attend that church (and others like it) say when I mention a Confession now..</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">At the time I truly believed that how you feel was what was important.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Besides, they were pastors! Obviously they knew much more about the Bible than I did. So I disregarded what I read and how I understood it and went with whatever they said while pushing aside the “but that’s not what the Bible says” thoughts whenever they came into my head.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">But then my husband’s cousin sent me a Bible class in the mail. The Levitical Sacrificial System. Wow! This was the “meat” that I read about in the Bible! I completed the class and then took it again. I learned and wanted to learn more. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This was when I started asking questions about what I was reading in the Bible. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Simple questions like:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>Are the 10 Commandments given in the order they are given for a particular reason?</i></b><i> </i> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Every single person I asked (six pastors including the senior pastor and one person who was actually employed at a bible college at the time) couldn't give me an answer except to say “I’m not really sure” or “I’ve never wondered about that, let me know what you find out”. </span></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">How do we know that certain books of the Bible are actual historic events and not just parables to teach a moral lesson? </span></i></b></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I mentioned three books of the Bible specifically when asking this question- Job, Esther, and Ruth. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I asked three of the pastors. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The first one said “I know they are real historical events, but I will have to check some of the books I kept from college to explain why and I’ll get back to you.” </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">He didn't.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The second one answered with a couple questions of his own- </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“why do you <i>need</i> to know? Why can’t you just have faith that they really happened?”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> He never actually answered any of my questions.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Now that I think about it, he never answered any of my questions that pertained to the Bible specifically. </span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The third pastor said “I'm not sure, I'll look into it and let you know”. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">He did come back later with an answer and then admitted to me that while he was online looking for the answer he also learned that Luke was not one of the twelve apostles. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">He actually said “I didn’t know that”. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">He had been a pastor for 20 years and he didn’t know that. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">*sigh*</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">If you didn’t pick up on it, one of the books I asked about was the book of Ruth. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ruth! The wife of Boaz and the mother of Obed. Obed was the father of Jesse. Jesse was the father of David. How can it be that not just one pastor, but THREE pastors did not know that Ruth was the great-grandmother of King David? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Bible clearly says so.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I'm not talking about new Christians here, I'm talking about pastors. It’s literally their job to know this stuff!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I realized that if I wanted to know more about the Bible that I wasn’t going to learn it from the leaders of the church (ironic eh?) so I enrolled in theology school. By this time I knew that LifeGate was seriously selling people short as far as educating them in Scripture, but I still stayed. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> I still wanted to stay. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sure I grumbled occasionally because I wasn’t learning anything that I didn’t already know, but all in all LifeGate Church was a great place to be. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">By this time my husband and I were even more popular, we were part of the in-crowd. Everyone knew us, and some of the pastors were telling visitors about me and my “amazing testimony”.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I really did have an amazing testimony. Something that can only be described as a “God thing” really did happen, and it lead me to the pastor’s office where I repeated the prayer that <span style="text-decoration: line-through;"><i>saved me</i></span> got me started on a journey toward my salvation four years later. The problem though, for those first four years I really did think I was saved.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I wasn’t and neither was Clay.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I’m not going to go into everything that happened leading up to the moment that I sat in that pastor’s office repeating a prayer that would <i><strike>save me</strike> </i>give me a false sense of security for the next four years but suffice to say that all at once I was aware that everything I had believed about God and myself up until that moment was a total lie and that I needed to know the truth.</span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So, I sat in the pastor’s office and told him what had happened. </span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Then for the next hour or so he told me about himself and how he used to be a selfish guy who wasn’t interested in who Jesus was, but one day while he was visiting this little red church he ran down to the front, fell on his knees and cried and then confessed that he was a sinner and needed Jesus and then he was saved. There was quite a bit more detail than that but that’s the gist of it.. So I repeated the prayer, admitted that I was a sinner, asked Jesus to please come into my heart, and I was saved!</span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I wasn’t though. </span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I thought I was. </span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I really did. </span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I was doing everything I was supposed to be doing. Serving, attending every event, leading a table at Hearts, giving money so people could go on mission trips, joining prayer groups, volunteering at the homeless shelter, handing out money to anyone and everyone, and was part of a small group full of other popular people. </span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I read my Jesus Calling book every day, read the bible for two hours every morning, and then studied it for another two hours at night. If there was something a Christian should be doing, believe me I was doing it.</span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">But I wasn’t saved. </span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I was simply a person who went to church a lot and did a lot of stuff there while handing out a lot of money. </span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And then one day I watched a video on Youtube by David Platt talking about how it doesn’t matter what any particular scripture means to any particular person; <i>what mattered was what the bible said it meant. </i></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I actually jumped off my couch and yelled "YES!"</span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Over the next few weeks I searched for more videos. </span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">That David Platt video led me to a video of Todd Friel and that led me to videos from the <a href="https://youtu.be/jRqD89ZBWyg" target="_blank">Strange Fire Conference put on by John MacArthur</a> and that led me to <a href="https://youtu.be/kOTrMSOrYew" target="_blank">a video seminar by Justin Peters</a>, and that led me to a video called <a href="https://youtu.be/Oul-9fbp1Ak" target="_blank">10 indictments against the modern church by Paul Washer</a>, and that is what led me to God. </span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">That is when I really heard the Gospel and understood what salvation was, who Jesus really was, <i>who and what I really was</i>, what it was that Jesus was saving me from and why I so desperately needed Him. </span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">People please, seriously.. </span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Saying a prayer inviting Jesus into your heart is not going to save you. </span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Nothing you do is going to save you. </span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Not a choice or a decision that you make.</span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><b>No one is saved without hearing the gospel and no one hears and understands the Gospel without God giving them the grace to do so.</b></i></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">You don’t have to believe me.</span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Read the bible and find out for yourself. </span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
Renhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03667894862776507328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499907281695131331.post-50400963162292846132018-01-31T03:42:00.000-08:002018-01-31T03:42:01.483-08:00Have you read these?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: inherit;">Usually when I'm discussing a Confession or a Catechism in a </span><span style="color: #454545;">group</span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: inherit;"> or on social media, someone always says “I don’t adhere to a particular confession or Catechism, they don’t matter anyway.”</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">When I hear that, my first initial reaction is to say “That tells me that you have never actually read any, you don’t know what they say and you probably don’t really know what they are.”</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I don’t say that though.</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But I want to.</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I’ll admit it. It bothers me when people say that. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s like saying “I’m not a Calvinist or an Arminian or a Molonist, I’m just a Christian”. Which is ridiculous because if you are a Christian, you either believe the doctrine of Calvinism or you believe the doctrine of Arminianism or you believe the doctrine of Molonism (by the way, Molonism is just stupid and if you believe it you should repent). </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Like it or not, you are either a Calvinist, an Arminian or a Molonist, regardless of what you call yourself.</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Don’t believe me? Look them up.</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Anyway. The confessions. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Before you announce to the world that you refuse to adhere to a confession (or just argue about them on Facebook) read them and then decide.</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #e4af0a; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.vor.org/truth/1689/1689bc00.html"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">The 1689 London Baptist Confession</span></b></a></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b></b></span>This is the confession my church adheres to.</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Did you know that when looking for a new church that one of the things you should ask is "what confession does your church adhere to?"</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">If they say they don't adhere to one at all or that they have their own (red flag!) you should be asking a lot more questions..</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Or just move on to the next one..</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.reformed.org/documents/wcf_with_proofs/" target="_blank">The Westminster Confession</a></span></b></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
This is very similar to the London Baptist Confession except the part about baptism. It's Presbyterian so they believe in baptizing infants (they don't believe it's a saving baptism though)..</div>
<div style="color: #e4af0a; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="color: #e4af0a; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b><a href="http://www.luther.de/en/95thesen.html"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Martin Luther's 95 Thesis</span></a></b></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Almost every Christian pastor on the planet has talked about Martin Luther nailing his 95 thesis to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church. But how many of you have taken the time read it or really have any idea of what it actually says?</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The pastor (and I use the term loosely) of my ex-church was always bringing it up, usually when he was introducing the next weird thing that a church really shouldn't be doing. He would remind us that at one time Martin Luther defied the “<i>legalistic</i> and <i>religious”</i> church in order to bring them down and expose them.</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">He always described that moment as Martin Luther challenging the church as if he were standing on the steps of the church, his hammer ringing out, boldly confronting them with the real truth and daring them to deal with it!</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Well guess what? </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">That's not really why he nailed his thesis to the door. In fact, he probably didn't even use nails and a hammer, but glue. He wasn't defying or challenging the church, and he wasn't trying to start a reformation.</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">He loved his church.</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">He didn't even expect what he put on the door to cause such a scandal.</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The door of the church had always been used as a community bulletin board. Lots of people glued stuff to it. It was where the people would go to read the latest announcements.</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Luther’s thesis was just one of many announcements glued to that door.</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Martin Luther was unhappy about the selling of merits and felt that the practice was unbiblical, so he posted his reasons (the 95 thesis) on the door and requested that they would hold a debate to sort it all out.</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">That was it.</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It was the younger people in the town who saw the thesis, had it copied and sent it out to the surrounding towns.</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It was after that, that Martin Luther began to learn more and speak out more and eventually became the great reformer that he is known as today; and even then, he still clung to a few heretical ideas that no one who brags about that moment wants to talk about now.</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b></b></span><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #e4af0a; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.crcna.org/welcome/beliefs/confessions/heidelberg-catechism"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Heidelberg Catechism</span></b></a></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">A personal confession of faith written in 1563.</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It's absolutely wonderful. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm in the process of writing down a portion of it every day along with a Resolution (see below).</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #e4af0a; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.crcna.org/welcome/beliefs/confessions/canons-dort"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Cannons of Dort</span></b></a></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Written by a synod of Reformed theologians in Dordtrecht, Netherlands, in 1618-19.</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It's main purpose was to set the record strait about the conflict between Calvinism and Arminianism.</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I read through it every couple of months.</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm going to start copying a portion of it daily when I finish going through the Resolutions and the Catechism. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #e4af0a; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://hnrc.org/articles/jonathan-edwards-resolutions"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Jonathan Edwards' Resolutions</span></b></a></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">If you have never read anything by (or about) Jonathan Edwards, please do!</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">He was a Puritan pastor and theologian, thought by many to be the greatest theological mind that this country has ever produced. His preaching, which helped spark the <a href="https://www.gotquestions.org/First-Second-Great-Awakening.html"><span style="color: #e4af0a;">First Great Awakening</span></a>, emphasized man’s sin, God’s judgment, God’s sovereignty, the necessity of personal conversion, and justification by faith.</span></div>
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<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">He wrote these resolutions when he was 17 and 19 and read them out loud to himself once a week until his death.</span></div>
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Renhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03667894862776507328noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499907281695131331.post-75135075094111845592018-01-30T06:39:00.001-08:002018-01-30T11:47:50.731-08:00And he went on his way…<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">I was listening to Pilgrim’s Progress this morning while I was cleaning the kitchen. If you haven’t read it (or listened to it) I really encourage you to do so. </span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Long story short, it’s about a guy (Christian)who learns that the city he lives in is doomed for destruction and that there is a way to be saved from it. So he goes on a pilgrimage to the Holy City. On his way he is helped by some and hindered by others. He is helped by people named Evangelist and Prudence and Charity and so on and so on. He is hindered by people named Sloth and Worldly Wiseman and Obstinate. </span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">You see the pattern I’m sure.</span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Once Christian truly understands where he’s going and why he is going there, his interactions with those who hinder him or question him begin to change. In the beginning he listens to them, follows their lead and ends up in trouble. But after a while you’ll notice a change in his behavior. People approach him along this road and warn him of the dangers ahead and tell him to turn around or go back or to take a different road but he tells them what he’s doing, why he’s doing it, and what will happen when he gets to where he’s going and then you’ll read “<b>and he went on his way</b>”.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">When I heard that it made me think about sharing the gospel and why so many who profess to be believers do not make an effort to share the gospel with others.</span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">When I ask other believers why they don’t go out and share the gospel I generally receive the same answers. </span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">They tell me that it’s just not something they are called to do. </span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">I can't think of a nice way to say it, so I'll just say it.</span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">That is a lie. <b>Every single believer is commanded by Jesus</b> to go and make disciples.</span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Including you! </span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Some say that they don’t because they don’t feel that they know enough about the Bible to share it with others. This too is an excuse. If you are a believer and you know that you are saved and you know how you came to be saved then that’s all you need to say. Or you can just hand them a Bible or a tract with the gospel written on it and say “did you get one of these?“ or if you are too afraid to do that, just leave it somewhere. </span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">My husband can put a tract in someone’s pocket without them even realizing it but that’s a whole other blog post. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">I know people personally who say that they know they’re supposed to and that they want to and that they’re angry with themselves because they don’t. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">That’s the answer that I struggle with more than any other answer. Seriously, you know you’re supposed to, you want to, and you’re mad that you don’t. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">But….?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Then it occurred to me today while listening to Pilgrim’s Progress that maybe the reason that they don’t is because they aren’t really sure what they are responsible for and what they aren’t. Maybe no one has actually told them how. Sure, they know that they should and why they should but they don’t know <b><i>how</i></b>.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">I suppose you could do that circle thing that's all over Youtube. I guess it's more popular than I thought. Personally, I don't like it and I wouldn't chose that method myself (I'll tell you why if you're interested) but there are other ways.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">When Clay and I first started our homeless ministry we thought that we needed to build relationships with the homeless first. You know, talk to them, get to know them and help them to know us before we could share the gospel with them. It didn’t take us very long to realize that wasn’t really going to happen. We do know a couple people by name and we do stop and talk to them when we see them but most of the people we interact with in those situations aren’t really interested in what we have to say. They are either tweaking and can’t focus on the words coming out of our mouths or they’re just waiting for us to shut up and hand over to them whatever it is we have to give.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">I was disappointed because I didn’t really feel that we were making a difference. I didn’t feel that we were making disciples and we certainly weren’t building relationships. It wasn’t just homeless people though, it was anyone we tried to talk to. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">Practically no one outside of a church wants people to talk to them about Jesus. They just don’t. The funny thing is- the Bible even says that. We are all haters of God until God sees fit to give us the grace to feel any differently. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Until God enables us to love Him, we don’t. We <i>won’t</i>. Period. No talking or arguing or pressing is going to change that.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">So after several attempts at sharing the gospel with strangers (homeless or not) we had to take a long look at what we were doing wrong and what we needed to do to fix it. So we thought about all the attempts that people had made through the years to get us to convert to Christianity. They would try to convince us. They brought pastors to our house, sent missionaries to our door; people would say things like “Jesus loves you” or “you can be happy if you accept Jesus”. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Even that day I stepped into that man’s office at Lifegate church. Almost 2 hours of talking, arguing and convincing me to say the prayer to accept Jesus into my heart but not a word of Scripture. There was no Gospel. There was no conviction of my sin. I didn’t even really know what sin was or what was so devastating about it. Yet I walked out of that office believing that I was “saved”. I didn’t really even understand what I was saved from! I just wanted that horrible, panicky, <i>I don’t understand what’s happening</i> feeling I had been experiencing to go away.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">It did, but it was soon replaced by something else..</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(another blog post perhaps).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">It wasn’t until four years later when I heard some guy by the name of Paul Washer preach the real gospel on YouTube did I truly understand how much my sin was an offense to God and how desperately I needed a Savior that I was truly saved.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">It wasn’t someone inviting me to church that saved me. It wasn’t the dozens of conversations I had with others throughout my life trying to convince me to become a Christian that saved me. It certainly wasn’t by observing the behaviors of other Christians, nor was it the relationships that had been formed with anyone either.</span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">It was the gospel. </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">It was scripture. </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">It was the hearing and the reading of God’s Word at God’s appointed time that saved me.</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">So that’s it. That is all you are responsible for. You are NOT responsible for convincing anyone, converting anyone, hounding anyone, pressing or pushing anyone. You don’t have to be their friend. You don’t have to make them your project. You are not responsible for their walk with Jesus or how they learn or what church they go to. All you are responsible for is sharing the Word of God with them.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">God does the saving. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Not you</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> Not the pastor</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Not a church </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Just God.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> There is no one way to share the gospel.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> Some people go door-to-door, some people preach on the sidewalks, my husband works in foreign countries where he shares the gospel with people who have never heard of Jesus. He even shares the gospel with people who could possibly kill him for doing so. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">But he also sticks Bible tracts into Fifty Shades of Grey books at Walmart, hands Bibles to waitresses and leaves tracts on mirrors in public bathrooms. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">I have a friend who orders Bibles by the case and then rents a table at a flea market and puts up a sign that says “free Bibles”. She doesn’t preach to them, she doesn’t argue with them, she just lets them have a Bible. That’s it.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">So don’t overthink it. Don’t let it overwhelm you. If you can’t bring yourself to approach a stranger and tell them what they need to hear to be saved, just hand it to them and then be on your way.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">It really is that simple.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Just get out there and <i>DO SOMETHING.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i>You can purchase tracts just about anywhere on line or at any Christian book store. This is where I buy mine </i></span><span style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><a href="http://www.tractplanet.com/">http://www.tractplanet.com</a></span></i></span></div>
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<i style="color: #444444; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">or you can <a href="mailto:renlvsclay96@gmail.com" target="_blank">email me</a> and I will give you (or ship you) some for free. </i></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i>I have bibles too.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="color: #444444;"><i>You can get tracts online for free at </i></span><span style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.bibletractsinc.org/">http://www.bibletractsinc.org</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">You can read Pilgrims progress for free too</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-pilgrim-s-progress-new-edition"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-pilgrim-s-progress-new-edition</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><a href="https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-pilgrim-s-progress-new-edition" target="_blank"><br /></a></span></div>
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Renhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03667894862776507328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499907281695131331.post-36551514760408583472018-01-29T07:18:00.000-08:002018-01-29T07:18:31.617-08:00Once you believe it...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Every three months or so, LifeGate Church (the church I used to attend before I was saved) hosts an event called Healing Rain. People go in the hopes that they will be healed. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">First a guy gets on the stage and talks about the healing power of God, and then the real reason everyone is there begins. The prayer teams line up in pairs in front of the stage. The music is turned up. The lights are turned down. People in search of healing come forward.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I came forward.</span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1Zo6k4JApR8/Wm83GNuJrAI/AAAAAAAAEKA/bsCYJ3P4tcEcaao2B4Cpxi0umY2a60_fQCLcBGAs/s1600/6a00d8341bffd953ef01157089ad79970b-800wi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="353" data-original-width="370" height="304" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1Zo6k4JApR8/Wm83GNuJrAI/AAAAAAAAEKA/bsCYJ3P4tcEcaao2B4Cpxi0umY2a60_fQCLcBGAs/s320/6a00d8341bffd953ef01157089ad79970b-800wi.jpg" width="320" /></span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">I stood before Pastor Connie and another girl. I told her about my epilepsy. Well, I didn’t actually tell her about it, all I said was “I’m epileptic” and she took it from there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">She said “Ok, lets do this”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The girl with her put her hands on my left arm, bowed her head and began to mutter gibberish (they call that praying in tongues) while Connie put one hand on my chest and her other hand between my shoulder blades and then told me to relax and "just let it happen”. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then she began to declare that I was healed while gently pushing me backward and then forward again. Back and then forward. Her words became a chant “praise Jesus, she is healed. Praise Jesus, she is healed. Praise Jesus she is healed”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">She began to push harder and faster. Back and forth, back and forth. While her voice became louder and her chant picked up the pace. The girl next to her raised her voice, her gibberish becoming more feverish. I could hear the other leaders and their assistants chanting and yelling over whomever they were praying for, and I knew that people were already hitting the floor. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The pushing intensified. The chanting grew louder, the gibberish sped up. I relaxed and “let it happen”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And then I was on the floor looking up at Connie who was leaning over me, stroking my forehead and telling me “God rejoices for you”. She said “God dances in heaven for you”. Then she told me that from that moment on, I needed to repeat to myself “I am the daughter of a king!” Every time I had a seizure, every time it felt like I was going to have a seizure, or every time I even thought about a seizure. She said that I needed to say it to myself all the time, “I am the daughter of a king!” Every time I saw her at the church after that she would say to me "who are you?" and I was supposed to reply "I am the daughter of a king!" </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">She told me that I needed to keep saying it until I truly believed it. And once I believed it, I would be healed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">That was four years ago.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;">I still have epilepsy. In fact, we now know that I have a </span><span style="color: #666666;">serious autoimmune disease that causes seizures, Crohn's disease and Ankylosing Spondylitis. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Maybe I don’t believe in God enough? Maybe I don’t fully comprehend who I am in Christ?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Maybe <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I just don’t have enough faith</span>?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Maybe it’s my fault.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Or maybe..</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Just maybe..</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">That’s not how it works and I just fell for a big fat lie..</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The kind of lie that millions of people all over the world are falling for because of churches like LifeGate.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Click here ——> <a href="https://youtu.be/YJ9L_J-aMPA" target="_blank">THE HURT OF HEALING</a></span></div>
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Renhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03667894862776507328noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499907281695131331.post-8758504516283753182017-03-18T07:25:00.001-07:002017-03-18T07:25:04.693-07:00Modern Spirituality And Your Mind - Voddie Baucham<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/R20mCvTT8Wc" width="480"></iframe>Renhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03667894862776507328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499907281695131331.post-38202694924681259972015-04-17T09:50:00.001-07:002015-04-17T11:51:20.324-07:00My girl..<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I've plastered this on Facebook and on Instagram already, so for everyone else who I haven't bragged to yet.. </div>
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Sky won first place in the welding competition for Skills USA!!</div>
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Best mig welder in Nebraska!</div>
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She came home exhausted and hurting (she welded with a bruised tendon) but happy. </div>
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She went to her first day of welding class in her sophomore year and decided that day that she was going to be a welder.. </div>
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She has beat out all the welding students in the state for the past 2 years and is the first welding student in Nebraska to be hired on as a professional welder while still in school..</div>
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She had a plan, she stuck to it and has given it everything she has..</div>
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I can't even begin to tell you how proud we are of her..</div>
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Renhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03667894862776507328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499907281695131331.post-59014388346243782902015-03-26T09:11:00.002-07:002015-03-26T09:54:50.642-07:00I wish I could explain it better...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It's no secret that I am a total theology nerd.. I love theology.. But with the awesomeness of theology comes some not-so-awesomeness too.. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">For starters, it's difficult to remember that not everyone is a theology nerd.. It's even more difficult to remember that not everyone wants to be.. To know everything you can possibly know about the Bible is not a lifelong goal for every Christian on the planet.. I don't know why. Seriously, I don't..</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But it's difficult to talk to people for more than five minutes because it's all I want to talk about.. Honestly, in my opinion, everything else is trivial.. I mean, if you're a Christian, what could possibly be more important, more fascinating, more exciting, more anything, than God? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Who He is, what He thinks, what He says. All of it.. And how do we know who He is, what He thinks, and what He says? The Bible.. The living Word of God.. There simply is no other truth. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Period.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Because I am not the most tactful person on the planet, a lot of what I say, or rather how I say it, comes off as offensive or confrontational.. I have no doubt that several others who read this blog post will be offended by it.. Offended by me. Because there is simply no way for me to put how I feel into words without it coming off to some as condescending or self righteous.. I've been called both.. I've also been called confrontational, aggressive, uncaring, unloving, blah, blah, blah. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm not feeling sorry for myself, or looking for anyone else to feel bad for me by saying that.. It's just how it is.. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">My point is, nothing I say is actually meant to offend. Make you think? Maybe. But do I say anything to purposely hurt someone's feelings? No. I don't.. Really..</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But I want y'all to know that what I'm rambling on about today isn't meant to offend anyone either, but it's still going to come off that way.. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The majority of the people I talk to are Christian. I can only think of one person I talk to on a regular basis that isn't. Everyone else I know is a Christian; or at least claims to be.. So it's not like I offend non-believers with what I say (or how I say it).. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Do you wanna know what sucks about being a theology nerd? The fact that not everyone else is. Now before you start yelling at your monitor and before you rush to the comment box to fill it up with rants about what a snob I am for wanting everyone to be like me because I'm just sooo full of myself, let me explain.</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pBNiQxzO_Pw/VRQK8mNlXLI/AAAAAAAACxk/kURkfqfyl7A/s1600/bibles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pBNiQxzO_Pw/VRQK8mNlXLI/AAAAAAAACxk/kURkfqfyl7A/s1600/bibles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pBNiQxzO_Pw/VRQK8mNlXLI/AAAAAAAACxk/kURkfqfyl7A/s1600/bibles.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">If everyone was a theology nerd, no one would be offended when someone said "that's not what the Bible says".. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">If everyone was a theology nerd no one would accuse anyone else of just being "religious" or not "showing grace"..</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">If everyone was a theology nerd, everyone would know what the Bible says "grace" really is.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">If everyone was a theology nerd, no one would ever get tired of talking about the Bible. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">If everyone was a theology nerd, I wouldn't be so incredibly frustrated by the fact that so many 'Christians' don't know the Bible.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Yeah, I know that last one sounded selfish, but is it? Really? Maybe the fact that I'm frustrated could be selfish. But do you think that Jesus might be a little frustrated too? That He has given the world a book that contains everything anyone needs to know about Him and it's been reduced to something most Christians look at on Sundays (if the pastor even asks them to open it) or maybe for a couple minutes a day?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">One of my assignments for school was a rather large project that involved interviewing several other Christians. I had 2 sets of questions.. The first set was of just 6 questions about what they believed, I needed to interview 7 people. The next set of questions were more extensive.. 33 questions to determine the average biblical knowledge of the number of people being interviewed.. There was no limit to how many people I could interview, but I was given a minimum number that I had to interview.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> I was not supposed to say why I was asking the questions, only that it was an assignment that I was working on so that the people I was interviewing wouldn't feel like they needed to Google every question or look in their Bibles for the 'right' answer..</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I wasn't supposed to give my own answers when interviewing , or reply with "that's not what the Bible says". I mostly said "ok" and asked the next question.. But it was horrible.. The people who I interviewed using the second set of questions; so many times they replied with "I don't know".. Basic biblical questions.. If they did have an answer, the answer wasn't from the Bible, it was from something someone had told them, or a guess, or just how they felt. One of the questions I asked was 'Why did God create us?" and 4 people replied with "I don't know".. Someone said "Jesus loves me and that's all I need to know". A couple answered: "I don't spend a lot of time actually <i>reading</i> the Bible, we have the Holy Spirit to tell us what we should know".. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I was so hurt by that.. Yes, me. I have feelings. For reals..</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I wanted to yell at them "That's not even what He does! That is not the primary function of the Holy Spirit! That is not His work! And you wanna know something else? We were created to glorify God! To enjoy God and to glorify Him! The Bible says so! More than once! How can you not know this??"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I had to stop. I asked my professor if I could chose a different project. I couldn't listen to one more person tell me that they just "don't know"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I know what those who are not theology nerds think of those of us who are.. They think that we don't care about anything but our books. That we only care about being right, being the smartest people in the room.. That we don't care about love, or compassion, or feelings. They believe that the love of Jesus isn't important to us.. That we are all just self-righteous know-it-all's that only want others to see how smart we think we are..</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">They couldn't be more wrong.. Let me tell you why I love theology so much.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Theology saved me</b>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I was not saved when I walked into that church 5 years ago and repeated a prayer and 'accepted Jesus into my heart'.. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>*By the way? There is nothing, <b>nothing</b> in the Bible about that. I have no idea where that mentality came from. I don't know who was the first person to decide that all anyone has to do is say a prayer and accept Jesus into their heart and they're in but it's a lie...<b> A big, fat, lie</b>.*</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Yes, I had a reason to believe in God that day, but I was not saved. I was not aware of my sin. I was not aware of how incredibly wretched I was in the eyes of God before I knew Jesus, because of my sin. I was not aware of how desperately I needed a Savior. Without that knowledge, how could I be saved? You can't truly give up your entire life to a Savior if you don't really know how desperately you <i>need</i> Him. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It wasn't until I began to learn the Bible that I learned what it <b>really</b> meant to be saved. Walking into that church that day pointed me in the right direction, but it wasn't the prayer that saved me, it wasn't what anyone was telling me. It was the Bible. It was revelation from the Holy Spirit through the reading of the Word that saved me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Theology taught me what love for others really is.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Love for others isn't a nicety, it isn't tolerance, it isn't being sweet. It's not even about liking someone. It's about wanting others to understand what salvation truly is because you don't want them to go to hell, because God loves them. God loves them, so you love them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> It's about being so concerned for someones eternal soul that you would rather they hated you because you had the courage to tell them what the Bible really says about hell, rather than them liking you because you didn't..</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I've been harped on about speaking the truth in love.. Lots of times.. So lets just put that on the table now..</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Speaking the truth in love:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>What it is no</b>t: "You don't read your bible, you're not
obedient to God, and all you did was repeat a stupid prayer that your stupid
pastor told you. You're going to go to
hell, and if you don't believe me, you're an idiot and you deserve to go! I'm right because I'm smart and you're wrong because you're a moron."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>It's not this either</b>: "Hey, so I know you have been
kind of down lately. Listen, Jesus loves you and if you accept Him into your
heart by saying this prayer, God will bless you, and you will be happy
forever. But only if you want to, no
pressure! God loves you no matter what
and I do too!"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>What it is</b>: "The Bible says' repent for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand.' Satan is real, hell is real, you are a sinner, and
sinners go to hell. God is a merciful
and loving God, but He is also a just God and must punish sin where He finds
it. So he gave His son to take the punishment for your sin, and if you repent
of your sin and trust in Him, He will save you. Hell is a horrible place and it
is eternal. I would love to tell you more and answer any questions. Please think about it” (you know, because you LOVE them and you
don't want them to go to hell).</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Theology has given me an undeniable desire to know God.</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The more I learn, the more I want to learn. The more I read the Bible, the more I want to read it. The more I learn, the more I realize that I will never learn all there is to learn about Him; and then I want to learn even more.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I crave it. I do. Seriously. I don't want to do anything else. I want to read about Him, talk about Him, listen to other's talk about Him. I set an alarm on my phone to go off every couple of hours so I will close my books and do some laundry. </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I have to force myself to go out and do normal people things like go to the grocery store or have lunch with a friend, because all I really want to do is learn more, pray more, hear more; and I know </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j5sfiIIUoKM/VRQsx3pKulI/AAAAAAAACx8/QhCkBlF3O5M/s1600/theology.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j5sfiIIUoKM/VRQsx3pKulI/AAAAAAAACx8/QhCkBlF3O5M/s1600/theology.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">that no one at the grocery store wants to discuss theology while browsing the produce section.. </span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Every word I read brings me closer to Him. Every. Single. Word. And I truthfully don't know why every Christian on the face of the earth doesn't feel the same way.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But it is sheer joy and nothing can bring satisfaction to me the way the Bible does. </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Theology has taught me what is truly<i> unimportant</i> in my life.</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">I don't care about purses or shoes, I don't care if I haven't seen the latest movie, if my clothes are in style, or if my roots are showing. I don't care anymore that my furniture doesn't match, or what anyone thinks about the car that I drive or what they think about what I weigh or how I look.. I don't care if people like me, I don't care if anyone is offended by what I believe. I don't care about the stuff I have or the stuff I don't have.. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 107%;">"</span><span style="line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Vanity</span><span style="line-height: 107%;"> of </span><span style="line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">vanities</span><span style="line-height: 107%;">, it's all vanity!" </span><span style="line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Ecclesiastes 1:2</span><span style="line-height: 107%;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Theology has taught me who I am.</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Who I am, what I am, and who and what I am supposed to be.. I know what others think of me, I know how others feel about me.. I'm not worried, I'm not afraid, I'm not ashamed. No one can make me feel differently, no one can convince me that there is any other truth. I know who I am because I know who He is. </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">How do I know? It's not because I just 'know that I know'..</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I know because I learned it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">From the Bible.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I know who He is because I'm a theology nerd :)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">"Everyone reads, everyone hears things discussed. Consequently, if you do not listen to Theology, that will not mean that you have no ideas about God. It will mean that you have a lot of wrong ones"</span></h1>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">C.S. Lewis</span></div>
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Renhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03667894862776507328noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499907281695131331.post-30377571142983773472015-03-19T10:05:00.002-07:002015-03-19T10:50:13.374-07:00Truth..<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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There are times when we want to say something, but we worry about what others might think so we keep it to ourselves. </div>
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We want to do something but we worry what others might think of our behavior.</div>
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What if someone scolds me?</div>
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Rejects me?</div>
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Talks about me?</div>
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Doubts me?</div>
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Disapproves of me?</div>
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Judges me?</div>
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So often we allow our 'what if's' to stop us. </div>
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Keep us where we are, where we feel safe..</div>
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What if I fail?</div>
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What if I'm left alone?</div>
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What if I'm wrong?</div>
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What if no one will like me anymore?</div>
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Well.. </div>
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What of you're right? What if you're never alone? What if you succeed? What if you make new friends? Or grow the relationships you already have?</div>
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It could happen. Couldn't it?</div>
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There are so many things that keep us in fear. </div>
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But I think mostly, we worry about not being comfortable. We don't want to be in a place or situation that isn't familiar. We don't want to step away from who we know. It doesn't matter if they are good for us or not.. They are familiar. </div>
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The desire to be loved, to fit in, to be popular. Once you are there, once you get a taste of it, you strive to hang on to it.</div>
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It doesn't matter if it's true. You can always twist it until it is. It doesn't matter if it doesn't feel quite right; you can overlook it if it means you can be where you're comfortable. Where everyone likes you. Even if they don't really know you, they think they do. We try to be who they think we are so we can stay where we are. </div>
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Safe. Protected. Part of something.</div>
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And that is so important to us isn't it? </div>
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Being known</div>
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Welcomed</div>
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Fitting in</div>
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Popular</div>
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We compromise so much for that don't we? Oh sure, we all say that we wouldn't compromise our convictions, that we won't do anything just because everyone else is doing it.. We declare that we won't behave certain ways, say certain things, just to fit in. We like to say that we would never just follow the crowd for the sake of being part of it.</div>
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But we do.</div>
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Yes. We do.</div>
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We like to say that we don't hold grudges. But we do. </div>
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We like to say that we always put others before ourselves. </div>
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But we don't. Not always.</div>
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We complain</div>
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We argue</div>
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We are offensive</div>
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We are defensive</div>
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We pretend to be humble, and then brag about our humility. </div>
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We say that we help others, that it's always about giving; that it's about them, not us. </div>
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Then we advertise our <i>good deeds. </i></div>
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"Look at me! I'm serving! I'm doing good for others! I'm giving!"</div>
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*insert sarcastic tone here*</div>
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Oh, but it's<i> always</i> to inspire others to do the same, not because we want to draw attention to <i>ourselves.</i></div>
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Right? </div>
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Yeah. Right. Sure.</div>
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C'mon.. You've done it. </div>
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I've done it. </div>
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We've<i> all</i> done it..</div>
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***</div>
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Have you ever sat back and just took stock of your life? </div>
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Do you think about where you are now, where you used to be, where you're going?</div>
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Isn't it funny how you are pretty sure that you have a plan, you like the plan, and you think "alright, lets move forward with this plan" or "everything is moving along perfectly, lets just keep up the momentum"..</div>
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And then, without any warning or any building up to it, things just all of a sudden come to a stop; or there is a change in direction. You realize that you have come to a fork in the road. The funny thing is however, you are pretty sure you were looking straight ahead the whole time and you never saw the fork until it was right in front of you..</div>
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Usually when you come to a fork in the road (especially one you didn't see before and weren't even expecting) you stop and ask yourself "which way do I go? Left or right?" then, after much consideration, you make your choice..</div>
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It's not unusual though, after you have made your choice and gone along the road for a while to wonder if you made the right choice, or maybe you wonder what the other direction would have been like.. Or maybe you wonder what you left behind when you chose the direction you did; </div>
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Friends?</div>
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Relationships?</div>
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Security?</div>
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Familiarity?</div>
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Comforts?</div>
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I know that a lot of people say that they love a good adventure, they love surprises, that the unknown is exciting.. But I don't think I know even one person who doesn't, (at least deep down) like to have <i>some </i>resemblance of a plan. </div>
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But what would happen if you chose your direction without even realizing that you had come to the fork in the road? What if you just stopped for a second and glanced behind you to see that yes, there was a fork; but you never even paused to consider the other direction, because you just knew that you were on the path you were supposed to be? </div>
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I know people who have said "I am at peace".. </div>
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What they mean is, they are at peace with a decision, with a situation, with a particular area in their life, or a difficulty they are facing..</div>
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But I don't think that I have ever known anyone who was <i>completely </i>at peace with who they are.</div>
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What they are</div>
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Where they are going</div>
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Where they have been</div>
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Where they are right now</div>
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I wonder.. </div>
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Do you know what it's like to recognize that you have forgiven everyone in your life who has ever hurt you, made you angry, upset you, lied to you, disappointed you, stole from you, left you, or betrayed you? </div>
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To fully understand that you aren't mad at anyone. At all? Really?</div>
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Yeah, really.</div>
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Or to come to the realization that you are completely free of all resentment, guilt or blame you have ever felt for anyone in your life? Even more so, do know how it feels when you know that you know, that you are utterly free of any concern for any guilt, resentment, or blame that anyone may feel toward you? </div>
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Do you know what it's like to honestly say that you know that those who love you, really love you; and those who don't love you or even like you have no real bearing on how much you love them?</div>
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Do you know what it's like to have the confidence to say to anyone who will listen:</div>
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"I know who I am. I don't know where I am going but I know who goes with me. I know where I will end up, and I know who will be there when I do. I don't know what I am gong to do, or how I am going to do it, but I know I won't be doing it alone. I don't care if I suffer, I don't care if I go without, I don't care if I'm happy or unhappy; because I have joy."</div>
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I can say that. With absolute confidence.</div>
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Because now I know the truth. I really do. </div>
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I'm not worried anymore. About anything. I know that whatever happens, good or bad. No matter how painful it is, no matter how devastating it may be; I know it will happen because it's supposed to happen.</div>
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Because God is sovereign, and nothing happens outside of His control. Good or bad. No matter how miserable or broken I may be;<b> I know the truth</b>.</div>
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There is nothing that anyone can ever say, no argument that anyone can ever make that will change it.</div>
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It truly <i>is</i> what it is.</div>
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"<i><b>you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free</b></i>." -John 8:32 </div>
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An enormous message packed into just one sentence. </div>
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I've read it many times. I've heard it many times. But I never comprehended the magnitude of this sentence that has been so overused and taken out of context over and over.</div>
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Until recently..<br />
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I am at peace.</div>
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God is good.</div>
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Renhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03667894862776507328noreply@blogger.com0