Tag Archives: Christianity

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“Preach The Gospel At All Times; When Necessary, Use Words” falsely attributed to St. Francis of Assisi

It’s right up there with such classics as “Give someone your phone number; when necessary use numerals” or “Give someone a meal; when necessary use food.”
The saying is much loved by those who think that Christianity is more about what Jesus would do than that which Jesus has done.  Borrowed from MGPCPASTOR.

The more I hear/read it, the more I want it erased from the memories of everybody who has had it inflicted on them.

What does it mean?

WORKS - ARE the Gospel.  If I work hard enough, well enough, loving enough...the person for whom I am working, will find salvation without my using words.  If you're doing it right, you won't need words.

salvation by osmosis.

My good deeds is your good news...and that means you're screwed.

News flash:  the "good news" is not about what I can do, it's about what Christ has done.

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"A Christian is one who make it easier for other people to believe in God."

I believe that a Christian is a person who has believed in the Lord Jesus Christ for their salvation and eternal life.

Is "making it easier for other people to believe" part of the mission?  In a way, yes.  But in a big way, no.

It's my job to preach the gospel.  It's the job of the Holy Spirit to regenerate the heart and draw people to the Father.  So, in a way, the preaching of the gospel IS helping others to believe.

But I suspect what is meant by "make it easier for other people to believe" is really

"make the gospel so non-threatening to the lifestyle of sinners that it becomes meaningless to save, but people can go on believing that they're okay because nobody ever made it clear that they weren't."

There is a cost to believing, and we are to count the cost.  If we make the gospel "easy," when life isn't, faith is shallow.

 

 

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While Yahweh is revealing, instructing, and enabling, the people are busy forgetting, departing, and sinning. They have been redeemed from Egypt that they might serve Yahweh in the wilderness. They agreed to do everything he said when he spoke to them from the mountain, but these commitments are soon forgotten.

From: God's Glory in Salvation through Judgment: A Biblical Theology

Aren't we all like that, to some extent or another?

The people, when times were good, partied on. When times were hard, they demanded His care.

Or they cried out for His help, only to slip back into forgetfulness.

I have had times like this - but after a time, the cycle is as much vanity as is all of "life.". One learns the comfort and stability of simply resting in Him...good times and bad. That is a powerful lesson to learn.

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How to Destroy a Culture in 5 Easy Steps

This seems to work in both politics and religion...

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On the "dominionism" paranoia (or worse)

from patheos...

Schaeffer condemned theocracy and found civil disobedience frightening?  OMG, that's crazy!!  Lizza and Knight need to realize that they are the ones on the crazy train, not Michele Bachmann.  It certainly is crazy what drinking that liberal Kool-aid does to the human mind.

GetReligion:

Another dual category - history and religion (but I haven't read this article yet)

Four Myths About the Crusades

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Do you think liberals will EVER care about "fast and furious"?

More...

Screw Up, Then Cover Up...

and more...

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A new word:  theophobe.

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heh...WaPo (via NeoNeocon)

The Internal Revenue Service allowed undocumented workers to collect $4.2 billion in refundable tax credits last year, a new audit says, almost quadruple the sum five years ago.

From NeoNeocon

I suggest the following new and evolving nomenclature to further the cause (we already know about the one that goes “white conservatives: racists”):

thieves: undocumented owners

prisoners: unpardoned innocents

rapists: unsanctioned sex partners

embezzlers: unpaid workers

prostitutes: unmarried wives

terrorists: un-uniformed soldiers

I’m sure there are others you can add to the list.

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No prayers at ground zero.

 

 

 

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“There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the LORD , Micaiah the son of Imlah ; but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but always evil

I was talking the other day about modern day "prophets" - if all they ever "hear" from God are good things, chances are you're listening to somebody who wants to tickle your itching ears

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Re-reading...

The first part of the book is reviewing the opposing doctrines. I grew up in a church that taught pre-trip rapture (and was in that vein until I "reformed") but if the teaching was "dispensational" I don't remember it.

I don't like learning about doctrines from the opposing view, but when I googled and located teaching from dispensationalist, it sounded even stranger than when Riddlebarger explained it.

So I'll just go with that for now.

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"Lord, Teach Us To Pray" by Andrew Murray

Cost:  free

Popular Kindle Highlight:

Jesus never taught His disciples how to preach, only how to pray. He did not speak much of what was needed to preach well, but much of praying well. To know how to speak to God is more than knowing how to speak to man. Not power with men, but power with God is the first thing.

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Jonathan Dodson, Resurgence blog, references a book, "God Is Not One," by  Stephen Prothero.

The basis of the book is good - but if we are going to compare religions that don't look very much like Christianity, I believe it is even more important to look at religions that DO look very much like Christianity.

On Page 12 of his book, Prothero writes:

And so it goes with all the world's religions.  Christians align themselves with Roman Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Protestantism, and fast-growing Mormonism may well be emerging as Christianity's fourth way.

This is a problem.  Roman Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Protestantism have a few things in common, that Mormonism does not share.

  • The Trinity
  • Christ as eternally existent, not a created being
  • the mortality of man (we do not become gods, with our own planets
  • God the Father as eternally existent, not a created being
  • salvation by grace (compared to "we are saved by grace AFTER ALL THAT WE HAVE DONE."

Mormonism is not Christianity.  To blur that line, to put the gospel on that line...believing in a 'different Jesus' - Mormonism's Jesus - could have eternal consequences.

via a post at The Resurgence.

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A Prayer for Friends Struggling with Pornography

Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. Romans 7:21-8:2

Jesus, my heart goes out today for friends and their spouses whose lives are being assaulted by the ravaging and enslaving grip of pornography.  I know of no other power sufficient for the task but the gospel. This is why I run to you today with grave concern, but also with great hope.

I invite you to read the rest. (HT: Challies)