There are lions and wolves among us …

I think sometimes when we hear about things like “wolves” entering in amongst us or about the Devil walking about like a “lion” seeking whom he may devour, many of us tend to think in terms of almost cartoon versions of wolves and lions: the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz, or Snaggle Puss (I’m dating myself, aren’t I?), or maybe Wile E. Coyote.

 Although not quite a wolf, Wile E. Coyote is a fairly representative picture of the image that lives in my head when I think about a dog-like creature stalking something.

   

Or maybe we hear the word “lion” or “wolf” and think of something cute …

 

Or maybe we think of something majestic and regal …

 

Okay, bear with me now.

Let’s imagine for just a minute being a small, defenseless, helpless lamb (which is actually how the Bible describes us) … aren’t we cute?

Now imagine being that cute little lamb … all alone and undefended … and then seeing THIS coming at you …

Or maybe this …

What would you do? I know what I’d do. RUN AWAY! (Or cry for help.)

Perhaps we, as Christians, need to really get a grip in our minds on what it is that’s coming after us. If we think “cartoons,” we won’t run away as if our very lives depend on it.

And you know what? They just might.

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“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” Matthew 7:15 (KJV)

“For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.” Acts 20:29,30 (KJV)

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“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” 1 Peter 5:8 (KJV

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I have a Christian bookstore online now

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

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This is what REAL faith looks like …

“Through this journey called life, I’ve learned a lot about what faith’s all about … ‘real’ faith, that is. Real faith isn’t believing that God is good and loves you when everything’s going your way and you’re being ‘blessed’ at every turn.”Real faith is when you can’t see any evidence of God’s goodness or His love … but you believe anyway.

“Real faith is a choice I have to make everyday. Do I believe the truth about God’s love for me, or do I believe the circumstances and the storm that rages around me? It’s my choice. Everyday, it’s my choice.”

 Read the entire article here:  http://dsimple.wordpress.com/2006/10/20/real-faith/

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Benny Hinn: Master of Mesmerism?

Honestly, I hardly ever think about Benny Hinn or any of the numerous people who frequent the TBN airwaves (been there, done that … won’t be going there again in this lifetime!).

But I thought this idea was interesting … could this be why Benny Hinn is able to manipulate an entire crowd into falling, convulsing, etc.?  Is he really just practicing a modern “faith” version of mesmerism?

http://www.fakefaithhealers.org/faithhealerormesmerist.htm

 

And by doing a brief online search just now, I found this article, Brief History of Hypnosis & Its Colorful Characters!, written by a practicing hypnotist.  In the article, he claims that Benny Hinn (and other televangelists and faith healers) are actually just master hypnotists.

http://www.hypnoticblaze.com/history_of_hypnosis.htm

 

 It’s all rather interesting, me thinks, that a professional hypnotist recognizes his own techniques in the techniques of Benny Hinn.  Hm.

 I guess it takes one to know one.

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Is this revival? Or simply an empty religious “experience”?

Unfortunately, many people in the church today believe that there actually is revival taking place right now because of things like growing churches (mainly due to purpose-driven stuff, “feel good” sermons, easy believism, and slick marketing campaigns), and also because of things like Christian concerts where everyone’s so excited to “worship” together.

The whole Christian concert thing is a sore point with our family. My oldest daughter (now age 21) stopped attending Christian concerts after going to several large regional Creation Fest (pictured at right) sorts of things with friends during her high school years.

The commercialization of Christianity absolutely repulsed her. After paying a pretty large entrance fee, the festival goers then spent probably hundreds of dollars each on the vast array of “I Mosh for Jesus” and band T-shirts, bumper-stickers, CD’s, and other “Jesus junk” displayed throughout the festival grounds.

She was also incredibly disturbed by all the scantily clad girls jumping up and down and screaming, “Oh, that guitar player is so HOT!”

And then the exact same girls would be talking after the concert about what an awesome “worship” experience they’d had at the show. (”Yeah, but what were they worshiping?” my daughter found herself wondering. I think the answer is that they were worshiping the hot guy … and the music … and the “experience”, but not Jesus.)

My daughter heard so many people at the various festivals comment about the “revival” that they see sweeping America. They seemed to feel that the size of the crowds at festivals and the enthusiasm of the “worshipers” were the absolute proofs of revival.

But my daughter came away from the festivals with exactly the opposite appraisal of the state of modern Christianity.

She decided that the modern Church is now so apostate that the average church-goer and young (or old!) concert “worshiper” wouldn’t recognize true worship … or true repentance … or true revival … or true faith if those things reached up and bit ‘em in the rear.

And I’ve gotta say that I agree with her view of the modern Church.

“Ed”

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The Message: A Few Comparison Verses with the KJV

 

A good friend of mine plays “Guess The Bible Verse” with her kids.  They take turns reading a familiar verse from The Message and then ask if the others can guess which verse it’s suppose to be.  They’ve found it to be a constant source of amusement as they discover just how silly and outlandish many of the paraphrased verses are in The Message.

Honestly, after reading the New Testament in The Message a couple of years ago, I’d just sort of written The Message off as being sort of stupid and irrelevant.  And I never gave it much thought again.

But while I was online looking for something else, I stumbled across these scripture verses …  The Message version compared with the King James Version.  (And just so you know, I’m not a “King James Only” sort of Christian, so don’t get your panties in a bunch if you use the NASB or NIV or RSV or whatever.)

Romans 12:1 

• THE MESSAGE:  ‘Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.’
• KING JAMES VERSION:  “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”

Ephesians 1:4 

• MSG:  ‘Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love.’
• KJV:  “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.”

Ephesians 5:8-10

• MSG:  ‘Figure out what will please Christ, and then do it.’
• KJV:  “For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth) proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.”

Genesis 6:8

• MSG:  ‘Noah was a pleasure to the Lord.’
• KJV:  “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”

Side Note:  Rick Warren says that we’re alive today because Noah was a pleasure to God (Warren refers to The Message to make his point in PDL) … but actually, we’re alive today because of God’s grace.

Exodus 34:14

• MSG:  ‘He is a God who is passionate about his relationship with you.’
• KJV:  “For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God: Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a-whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice.”

“Wow.”

And again I say, “Wow!”

It’s like Eugene Peterson, the guy who paraphrased The Message, took scissors to the Bible and cut out references to holiness, living righteously, and serving the One True God.

That’s sort of scary.

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Holiness or happiness?

“Any appeal to the public in the name of Christ that rises no higher than an invitation to tranquillity must be recognized as mere humanism with a few words of Jesus thrown in to make it appear Christian…

“Christ calls men to carry a cross; we call them to have fun in His name.

“He calls them to forsake the world; we assure them that if they but accept Jesus the world is their oyster.

“He calls them to suffer; we call them to enjoy all the bourgeois comforts modern civilization affords.

“He calls them to self-abnegation and death; we call them to spread themselves like green bay trees or perchance even to become stars in a pitiful fifth-rate religious zodiac.

“He calls them to holiness; we call them to a cheap and tawdry happiness that would have been rejected with scorn by the least of the Stoic philosophers…

“We can afford to suffer now; we’ll have a long eternity to enjoy ourselves. And our enjoyment will be valid and pure, for it will come in the right way at the right time.”

— A.W. Tozer

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“Feeding Sheep or Amusing Goats?” by C.H. Spurgeon

“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

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“Keep Your Own Religion, Just Add Jesus”

 

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

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Changing God’s Name?

“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

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