“The mission of amusement produces no converts. The need of the hour for today’s ministry is believing scholarship joined with earnest spirituality, the one springing from the other as fruit from the root. The need is biblical doctrine, so understood and felt, that it sets men on fire.”

–excerpted from Feeding Sheep or Amusing Goats? by C.H. Spurgeon

For the complete article, go here:  http://a1m.org/page.php?page=template4.php&pageid=3b64543906c9a71c2089b4e5df0a870a

Have you heard about inclusive evangelism?  This “Golden Calf Evangelism” as it is sometimes called, is currently being promoted throughout the world by groups like YWAM , Perspectives, and the New Apostolic Reformation.  Here are a few of the things this new form of sharing “the gospel”(?) teaches:

“The new missiology says three things:

1) You can keep your own religion — Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Mormonism — you just need to add Jesus to the equation. Then you become complete. You become a Buddhist with Jesus, a Hindu with Jesus, a Muslim with Jesus, and so on.

2) You can throw out the term Christianity and still be a follower of Jesus.

3) In fact, you can throw out the term Christian too. In some countries you could be persecuted for calling yourself a Christian, and there is no need for that. Just ask Jesus into your heart, you don’t have to identify yourself as a Christian.”

~excerpted from “The New Missiology: Keep Your Own Religion, Just Add Jesus“

Read the complete article here:  http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/newmissiology.htm

“It should be apparent that Zeus, Ra, Krishna or any other ancient supreme being is not YHWH, the God of the Bible. This is primarily because of their different nature and actions, and most importantly because God Himself says so. . . . Only by reducing the God of the Bible to the lowest common denominator — calling Him the supreme God over creation and ignoring other contradictory details — can they find similarity to these ancient stories.”

Read this important article here:  http://herescope.blogspot.com/2007/08/changing-gods-name.html

Believe it or not, I now have a full Christian bookstore online, complete with a secure shopping cart and seperate categories (run in conjunction with Amazon).

The offerings on the new bookstore site are fairly limited at this point … but they’ve been hand-selected so you shouldn’t find too much apostasy running around there (although some of the automatic recommendations that might show up in the sidebar from Amazon aren’t necessarily items I would’ve personally recommended).  As with all things, use your own discernment.

Most books are sold at a discount (sometimes as much as 30-70% off the cover price) … plus, you’ll qualify for free shipping with a total purchase of over $25.  That can make shopping here even less expensive than ordering through your local Christian bookstore. 

To visit my brand new online Christian bookstore, go to:  Believers’ Books, Bibles, Music, Movies and More 

–”Ed” and family

“We do not have a strong church today, nor do we have many strong Christians.  We can trace the cause to an acute lack of sound spiritual knowledge.  Why is the church weak?  Why are individual Christians weak?  It is because they have allowed their minds to become conformed to the ’spirit of this age,’ with its mechanistic, godless thinking.”

–James Montgomery Boice, Foundations of the Christian Faith

Thanks for bearing with me last month while I shared the assorted links and thoughts about Santa.

I always wished I had a place to share my Santa-related crankiness … and suddenly, here I was with this great little platform to share whatever I thought. 

You know, I find it amazing how cranky people get with you if you even hint at the fact that you think telling kids that Santa’s “real” isn’t a particularly good thing and can mess with children’s early ideas about God (after all, God isn’t actually someone you can see, but He is someone who sees you when you’re sleeping, He knows when you’re awake, He knows if you’ve been bad or good, etc.).

Well, now that the calendar’s page has turned, I’ll get back to more general crankiness on this blog. 

Happy New Year to you and yours.

“Ed”

“Sadly, we live in a time when preaching God’s Word is ‘out of season’. Today, it isn’t fashionable, relevant, practical or seeker-sensitive to actually preach God’s word. But, God the Holy Spirit knew that there would be seasons like this and He made it mandatory for pastors to Preach the Word regardless of the season. … God the Holy Spirit charges pastors to immerse the sheep in their care in God’s Word. They are to discharge this duty Sunday after Sunday.”
–from Extreme Theology

Read the entire article here:  http://www.extremetheology.com/2007/08/too-many-dunkin.html

“I believe that no one can get into error by simply believing and practicing the Bible. God gives us enough information for each stage of our growth to protect us. Eve did not know the whole counsel of God, but she knew that God had forbidden eating of the tree. But, she got into trouble when she listened to the Devil’s version of what God had said. If only she had stuck to the simple truth God had given her, she would have been safe.”–Anton Bosch

Read the entire article here:  http://herescope.blogspot.com/2007/09/how-to-smell-rat.html

As you probably remember, the one with the largest portion of the bone, after the big break, won the contest. The competition was often pretty intense because each child wanted the honor of the big wish.

I thought about this age-old childish game at the close of our Thanksgiving day. I mused that it is very similar to the faith pull game in our Christian life. (I know … faith is not a game – but we often make it one.)

Here’s what I mean: Our faith is often considered more valid if we are successful in demonstrating that we have the larger portion. We tend to judge our faith, and that of others, by whether we hold a large or small portion of the bone. This thinking has created the Wishbone Faith Theology that permeates the Christian church.

–from the article, Wishbone Faith, by Roland Scroggins

To read more articles by Pastor Scroggins and subscribe to his free email newsletter, go to:  Minute Message