Where Have All The Bereans Gone?

All the devil has to do to deceive most Christians is sprinkle a little of truth on his big fat lies. They flock to the preachers who tickle their ears, buy their tapes and books, never questioning their questionable doctrines. The Christian bookstores are lined with books that have Christian themes but are lacking in Biblical truth, and the authors are laughing all the way to the bank. All the while, God's book lies on the shelf, untouched.

I was in discussion with one believer about the false teaching by Rick Warren in his book, "Purpose Driven Life", and she said to me, "Yes, but it has some good stuff in it." Is this our new standard for accepting someone's doctrine, that it contains "some" truth? It is no wonder that many of God's children are being led astray.

Acts 17:11 tells of another kind of believer, one that was not so easily taken in by error: "These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things be so." These were the Bereans.The "things" that they were researching with scripture was the teaching of Paul and Silas. How much more should we scrutinize modern day teachers.

There are still a few watchmen in the church, a few Bereans that study the scriptures and expose false teaching, but not nearly enough. The wolves don't even need to put on sheep's clothing these days to fool the flock.

My question today is: "Where have all the Bereans gone?"

A Book You MUST Read!!!

A woman excitedly told me of a book she had read that had changed her life. She wrote down the title and author on a piece of paper for me and urged me to get it and read it. " This book is a MUST read!" , she told me repeatedly.

It was a Christian book and I'm sure it had some value to it but it struck me funny at the time. Funny how we get so excited about a man's book and are so ho-hum about God's book. I mean it's His book that is really life-changing. It's the Bible that contains the words of life. I'm not finger pointing here. My bookshelves are filled with books....good books. I think the Lord was just showing me how silly we sometimes are. If we only spent as much time reading His book as we spent chasing after bestsellers at the Christian bookstore, we would all be a lot better off.

It's time to get back to the Bible!

More Thoughts On The Seeker Friendly Church

There is a church in southern California that advertises it's services as "God's Country Goodtime Hour", complete with a "boots and Levis" wearing pastor and line dancing for the congregation. They also had a professional wrestler train the pastoral staff so they could put on a wrestling match during a Sunday morning service.

Another church, elsewhere, has an ad that reads, "This ain't your mama's church! Sunday services limited to 45 minutes. Our goal is to make you happy. Come casual. Football updates!" And closer to my home, a Perrysburg, Ohio church bills itself this way, "Six huge video screens, a rock and roll band, and sermons relevant to today's needs."

The above is becoming the norm in so called "evangelical circles" as church leadership is willing to do almost anything to fill their pews AND their pockets. They call themselves "seeker friendly" when in reality they are simply "sinner friendly". They preach watered down sermons from watered down versions of the Bible and the emphasis of their meetings is on comfort and entertainment. Their goal is to make the Gospel as inoffensive and as fun as possible. No preaching on the cross of Christ, His precious atoning blood, or sin, or repentance, or hell.

This new "purpose driven rather than Spirit led" church makes every effort NOT to offend anyone. Sorry folks, but the Gospel IS offensive It makes a sinner feel uncomfortable. That is how a lost soul will see his need for a Savior. Only then will he truly repent and find genuine salvation. The seeker sensitive pastor pedals a "touchy-feely" religion that costs the sinner nothing, when Jesus clearly taught that following Him would cost you everything.

For years I have been praying for revival in the Church, but as of late, I've started to pray for reformation instead. Dear Lord, give us a Martin Luther or a John Wesley who will expose the false teachings that have infiltrated our church. Send your Holy Spirit in a heavenly wave of fire that will bring us once again to our knees. Lord Jesus, reform your church!

A. W. Tozer wrote, "If revival is ,more of what we are already doing, the Evangelicalism most definitely does not need revival."

Are You Hungry?

For about a year I attended a church where exactly the same thing would happen every Sunday. Perhaps you know what I am talking about. Perhaps you're in such a church right now.

We would be greeted at the door with a smile and a program. Shortly after taking our seat, the band would begin it's 30 minute show. I say "show" because the musicians were skilled enough and the songs were nice, but true praise and worship wasn't evident. O, a few would try, but it became an exercise in futility. The pastor wasn't even present for this "worship time" and those on stage seemed bored with the whole matter.

After the music came a short break for coffee and donuts. This appeared to be the favorite part of the Sunday morning ritual to most attending. Then the pastor came in with his weekly message. Nice words....funny jokes, but even he seemed disinterested in what he was saying. He used a scripture or two to try to support some philosophical concept (yawn) and then ended with a short prayer and out the door everyone went, not any different than when they arrived. God didn't show up for the service......No one noticed His absence, nor did they really care. The people were becoming very adept at having church without any help at all from the Lord. Everyone was comfortable.

In Psalm 69 we read, "the zeal of God's house has consumed me". This is what is missing in most churches today. A "zeal" and a "hunger" for God. A fervent zeal for His house. An old preacher once said, "If you are not hungry for God, then you are backslidden".

Do you have a hunger that can only be satisfied by God? I believe that He is longing for those who long for Him. He is waiting for a few hungry people to get together and seek His face until the Real Deal walks through the door. These folks are not ashamed of the Holy Spirit. They don't seek the approval of men, they seek an audience with the King!

The Psalmist said, "my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God". A. W. Tozer wrote about this in a book called, "The Pursuit Of God". In that book, he wrote, "To have found God and still pursue Him is the soul's paradox of love, justified in happy experience by the children of the burning heart".

My friends, the secret is not in attracting men to church. No, it is in attracting the Holy Presence of the living God to our assemblies. If God shows up on Sunday morning, we won't have to attract men.....He will.

The Yoke of Religion

Most churches today would have you believe that being a Christian is attending Church and putting your money in their plate. Both are lies of the devil. Your local pastor may want your money, but God doesn't...He wants your life! And attending church service for an hour or two a week is NOT a Biblical function of a believer, but loving your neighbor is. Sometimes it's easier to put in your time and put in your money on Sunday than it is to live out your Christianity on a daily basis. Keith Green wrote a song where the Lord is speaking and part of the words went like this:

To obey is better than sacrifice

I want more than Sundays and Wednesday nights

If you can't come to me everyday

Then don't bother coming at all.

No Pain, No Gain

It is human nature for us to do all we can to avoid suffering. After all, pain is not pleasant. Body builders coined the phrase, "no pain, no gain", and that's why we have so few body builders. If it was easy and "painless" then it would be rare to see an overweight or out of shape person.

Christianity could easily adopt the "no pain, no gain" mantra, because there's a lot of truth to that in our spiritual lives. To grow up in Christ, you will experience growing pains. Jesus said it so clearly, "Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me." Self denial is no fun and cross carrying is even worse. David Wilkerson had this to say about the subject:

"Christians want an escape from pain and suffering! We want our troubles to vanish. And we are so caught up in our escape from pain, we lose the true meaning of the cross. We refuse crosses and losses- no Gethsemane for us! No nights of agony! We don't even know this suffering, bleeding, resurrected Christ!

We want His healing power. We want His promises of prosperity. We want His protection. We want more of this world's goods. We want His happiness. But we really don't want Him alone!

The Church once confessed it's sins- now it confesses it's rights. What if---instead of our beautiful homes and cars, we had to wander about in sheepskins, hiding in dens and caves? No healing. No success. No prosperity. No worldly blessings. No miracles, signs and wonders. How many of us would serve Him if He offered nothing but Himself?"

That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death." Phil. 3:10

No pain, No gain.

Seeker Friendly Church - Part Two

The "new" churches, who are following the "purpose driven" or the "seeker sensitive" models are quite popular. In fact many of these churches boast congregations in the thousands, but some of the worst ideas in human history have been numerically successful. As an old preacher used to say, "A hundred pound man is big, but he isn't healthy." More important, the Bible says, "Wide is the gate that leads to destruction."

The very church that the worlds likes best is sure to be the one that God abhors.
C. S. Spurgeon

Unfortunately the church largely accepts every fad that comes along. In Galations, Paul called these so-called "new" teachings, "another Gospel". This new gospel is said to be for a new age, an enlightened age. It is made harmless be removing sin, repentance, holiness, the cross, the blood, and hell. It places man's felt needs at the center instead of Jesus. It appeals to the desires of the flesh for that is the only thing that mankind truly seeks after.
With it's watered down Gospel, it lulls men into a false sense of salvation simply because they repeated an inoffensive prayer to receive Christ into their life ( kind of like they're doing Him a favor ). Then they are free to do as they wish as long as they continue to tithe. Sounds very much like the devil is re-inventing Catholicism.
Rick Warren"s "Purpose Driven" books are another gospel. The "Willow Creek" movement sponsored by the Southern Baptist Church is another gospel. John Wimber cleverly disguised another gospel in the popular "Vineyard" churches. Thousands of others have bought into the deception and thrown out God's ways in favor of man's ways. The lead singer of U2, Bono said, "Religion, to me, is almost like when God leaves and people devise a set of rules to fill the space."
The new philosophy of this kind may be sincere but it's sincerity does not save it from being false. It is false because it is blind. It misses completely the whole meaning of the cross. God offers life, but not an improved old life. The life He offers is life out of death. It stands always on the far side of the cross. A. W. Tozer
If you are involved in this new church movement, I will be hard pressed to convince you of the error you have stumbled upon. The difficulty herein lies:
The problem with the deceived is they are deceived. They don't know that they don't know. They have been delivered a piece of pie that is quite tasty so they never notice the poison that lies inside each bite. Remember, error rides in on the back of truth. That is why the Bible has instructed us to search the Scriptures to see if these things be so.
There are many devices in a man's heart; nonetheless the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand. Proverbs 19:21
For further reading on this subject:http://www.gracebible.org/seekersensitive/seeker.htm
http://www.eternallifeministries.org/jm_ssm.htm

Seeker Friendly Church

Throughout history, Christians have tried every method known to man to accomplish God's work. But, my friends, God does not need our plans to accomplish His will. He only requires us to be an empty vessel through which the Holy Spirit can work. The Lord wants men and women who are dead to themselves and alive unto God. Too many of us are making the plans and asking God to bless them rather than asking God what the plans are.

This, to a large degree is what is happening in today's church. In order to win souls and advance the Kingdom of God, many church leaders are throwing out the Lord's plan found in the Bible and in it's place they are inserting what they perceive to be a new and better way. This new movement has many names: "the purpose driven church", "the seeker sensitive church", "the church growth movement" and others, but they are all presenting "another Gospel" that the Apostle Paul warned us about in Scripture.

This "new" type of church waters down many doctrines of the Bible and downright omits others in an effort to NOT offend the unbeliever who may walk into a church service. Entire Sunday services are now centered around the "seeker". Their comfort and feelings are paramount. A "lite" Gospel is preached, an entertaining show is presented and gourmet coffee is served.

This purpose driven, seeker friendly church no longer preaches on sin, the cross, the blood of Jesus, repentance, the devil, or hell. Instead we hear nice inoffensive sermons about how God loves you and accepts you just the way you are, therefore you should love and accept yourself and other psychological tripe. You will see a great deal of the adulation of man and very little of the true worship of God. You will be entertained, but not enlightened, pacified but never convicted, and coddled but not changed.

Alas, the entire "seeker friendly" concept is based on a false premise; one that takes for granted that there are some who seek the Lord. But Romans 3:11 says, "there is none that seeketh after God." Only the Holy Spirit can draw a man to Christ and He's been kicked out of the new church. There's no room for Him in the new order. He's just a relic from the past.
This new church is ashamed of the Holy Spirit and His gifts; afraid that He may offend a visitor.

They have forgotten that the gathering of the saints on Lord's day is to glory in His presence and allow Him to do His work. They now think, with their 21st century knowledge, that they can do a better job than Him.

C.S. Spurgeon wrote:
"Certain ministers are treacherously betraying our holy religion under the pretense of adapting it to this present age. The new plan is to assimilate the church to the world by semi-dramatic performances and make the house of prayer like the theater. They turn their services into musical displays, in fact, they exchange the temple for the theater, and turn ministers of God into actors whose whole business is to amuse men. This then is their proposal. In order to win the world, the Lord Jesus must conform Himself, His people, and His Word to the world. I will not dwell on so loathsome a proposal.
My dear hearers, how I long to see you saved! But I would not belie my Lord, even to win your souls., if they could be won so. The true servant of God is not responsible for success or non-success. Results are in God's hands."

More on this in my next post

The Cross

A good friend of mine recently gave me a book to read, "A Violent Grace", by Michael Card. I highly recommend this to everyone. Below is an excerpt.

The cross seems to have disappeared from the Christian art and music of our time. Worse, it has disappeared from many hearts and minds as well. I must confess that my own ministry, which began with a singular focus on the cross of Christ, has slowly shifted towards more popular and palatable themes. I used to relish the criticism that I was "preaching and singing about the cross too much".

In fact, the key verse for the first ten years of my ministry was, "I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." ( I Cor. 2:2 ) Lately, though, I've noticed that it seems to be easier to get things done by avoiding such criticism. My early critics were right: It's hard to sell songs about a crucified man. Better to sing, preach, and write about the positives---peace, prosperity, and easy grace. To a society obsessed with abundance and acceptance, the Good News minus the cross ( which is no good news at all ) does seem to keep the coffers and pews full. What are we to do? Where are we to stand if we long to stand for Christ? I believe that if we are to maintain Biblical Christianity in the new century. we must refocus our attention on the cross.

For him who has ears to hear, let him hear!

Whatever Happened To Sin?

Back in the 80's, Christian musician, Steve Taylor, asked the question in one of his songs, "What ever happened to sin?" I'm sure he's still asking the question today. The politically correct churches of our "enlightened" age no longer mention sin or it's consequences. To even imply that an individual is a sinner is offensive and may cause people to leave the church along with their wallets. In previous centuries, men of God cared little for the feelings of men and even less for their gold, but instead longed for their souls. And to win souls for Christ, the unadulterated Gospel must be preached, sin must be exposed, and genuine repentance must be found in the heart.

In the beginning years of our country's birth, A small man with a small voice, preached a resounding message of truth that left the unconverted naked and bare, many running to Jesus' arms and others running away. But rest assured, there were no tares in Jonathan Edward's wheat field. No one sat on the fence, and no one thought for a minute that he might be saved on Sunday and sneak around with the devil on Monday. The following is an excerpt from Edward's sermon entitled, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God."

O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in; it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you, as against many of the dammed in hell. You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder; and you have no interest in any Mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you have ever done, nothing that you can do, to induce God to save you one moment.
It is everlasting wrath. it would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity.There will be no end to this exquisite horrible misery. But this is the dismal case of every soul in this congregation that has not been born again, however moral and strict, sober and religious, they may otherwise be.
And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has thrown the door of mercy wise open, and stands in calling and crying in a loud voice to poor sinners. Let everyone that is yet out of Christ, and hanging over the pit of hell, now hearken to the loud calls of God's word and providence. This acceptable year of the Lord, a day of great favor to some, will doubtless be a day of remarkable vengeance to others. Men's hearts harden and their guilt increases apace at such a day as this., it they neglect their souls;and never was there such great danger of such persons being given up to hardness of heart and blindness of men.
If this should be the case with you, you will eternally curse this day, and curse the day you were ever born, to see such a season of the pouring out of God's Spirit, and will wish you had died and gone to hell before you had seen it.
Therefore, let everyone of you that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath that is to come.

Precious Lord, raise up men and women who will preach the true Gospel like Jonathan Edwards.
People who are not afraid to offend in order to save.

Our Daily Bread

Give us this day our daily bread.

This is the only sentence in the Lord's prayer where any material blessing is requested and THEN it is confined to the simple need of food. In Proverbs 30, we read about a man who understood this kind of supplication long before Jesus instructed us to pray in this manner. His name was Agur.

He said to God, "Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread." It's funny, but I don't hear that kind of praying today. The majority of prayers is asking for stuff. James talked about this type of prayer:

Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

Agur, who thought himself to have little wisdom, was indeed much wiser than those who spout prayers of greed today, for he added to his prayer, "Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, Who is the Lord? Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God."

truly we should only pray for today's provision, and not for more than we need. Then each mornings sunrise will bring a renewed trust in the Lord.

Addicted To Success

You can't look at the bookstores best sellers without finding several on "being a success". While many in today's society, including Christians, are fixated on success, they are clueless on exactly what being a success really is. The average person will quickly tell you that success involves being rich or being famous. They will sacrifice friends, family and integrity to find their idea of success. But in the end, there is no satisfaction in this success and they long for the things they sacrificed to succeed. It may sound tripe, but the old saying is true, "the best things in life are not things."

In her book, "ASHES TO GOLD", Patti Roberts addressed the success mentality that has found it's way into the Church. She wrote:

We are a nation addicted to success, and a large segment of the Christian Church appears to have acquired an insatiable hunger for that which so characterizes our culture. If you doubt that, ask yourself how many sermons have you heard or books have you read that promise in one way or another to convey the secrets of success? Then try to remember how many you have seen or heard on the subject of holiness, building Godly character, or repentance?

If the Church adopts the world's value system and the world's method of accomplishing it's ends, then it will also acquire the world's problems.

Every vice of the secular world: drug and alcohol abuse, immorality, child abuse, sexual perversion, mismanagement of funds, can be found at every level of many Christian ministries.

To many of the Saints who have gone before us, success was being found worthy to die for the name of Christ. To others, it was walking for days in the desert to preach the Gospel to those who had not heard it. To some it was a life lived mostly on their knees. Still others found their success in ministering to the needs of the poor, the sick, or the helpless.

I wonder, by what standard, do you measure success? Do you care what man thinks of you, or what God thinks? Do you seek after money and the pleasures it can buy, or do you seek first the Kingdom of God?
Sad to say, many would imitate Donald Trump rather than the Apostle Paul. Which one do you think pleases God?

The Christian And Copyrights

How is it possible for someone to copyright God's word? God gave it to us and we are to give it to the world, free of charge, without restrictions and without copyright. The only Bible that I can find that doesn't have a copyright is the King James Version. I guess I'll stick with that one.

I've heard more than a few Christian singers say that the Holy Spirit gave them a song but they turn around and copyright it and charge churches a fee to sing it in their services. Am I the only one who sees this as a problem?

Charlatans have been doing everything under the sun to make money off the name of Jesus for years, and have been quite successful. But the Gospel is supposed to be free, even the lost people in the world know that.

In that great Day of the Lord, copyrights will burn in the fire with every other work of man.

"Freely ye have received, freely give." Matt. 10:8