Why should I attend church?

Where have all of the feminists gone?

This is an article and video that was posted by Dr. Michael Youssef. It's very thought provoking.

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The Death of Discernment

I was looking at the CC Cypress, CA website and saw this on the pastor's page. I just thought that I would share it with you.

"The Christian church is in a time of deep peril. A steady, yet gradual, movement away from Biblical truth has been underway in the modern churches for decades. Churches are becoming a place where people can identify with a brand (Christianity) and not The Savior (Jesus Christ). Church has all too often become a place to be dazzled by visually stunning, program oriented, highly entertaining productions, all designed to appeal to the senses and emotion.

Seeing that all of this is going on shouldn't we ask, where has the message of Salvation? Where is the message of the risen Savior, Jesus Christ? Where is the weighty message of the innocent Son of God, paying the price for our guilt, caused by our sin? People are made to feel comfortable, rather than being told the truth. People are entertained and moved along their way, without ever having been confronted with their most desperate need, the available forgiveness for their sin. Should any of this come as a surprise? Not really, we have been warned.

Paul told us (1 Corinthians 1:18) "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing" and so we see churches avoid the foolishness they see in The Cross, as Paul put it. But there is more to this story and it is the second part of Paul's message to the Corinthians "but to us who are being saved it is the power of God".

A Friend recently brought something to my attention and it was chilling to read. What I read was written in the late 60's and the copy I had in my hand was from 1971. It was prophetic in ways that were profound to me. It so thoroughly predicted our current state of affairs, in the church, that it could have been written yesterday, but it was written 40 years ago.

Here is a portion of what I read.

With increasing frequency the leadership of the denominations will be captured by those who completely reject the historical truths of the Bible and deny doctrines which according to Christ Himself are crucial to believe in order to be a Christian. In some of the largest Protestant denominations this has already taken place. The few remaining institutions which are not yet dominated by the disbelievers will go downhill in the same manner.

There will be unprecedented mergers of denominations into "religious conglomerates." This will occur for two reasons: first, most denominations were formed because of deep convictions about certain spiritual truths. As more of the truths are discarded as irrelevant because of unbelief in Biblical authority, there will be no reason to be divided. Unity is certainly important to have, but never, according to the teachings of Christ, at the expense of the crucial truths of Christianity.

Secondly, as ministers depart from the truths of the Bible they lose the authority and power that it has to meet real human needs, and as many ministers who are not truly born spiritually themselves and are consequently without the illumination of God's Spirit, they no longer will be able to hold their present congregations, much less attract others. So they resort to "social action gimmicks," super-organization, and elaborate programs as a substitute.

As Paul predicted concerning these ministers in the last days: holding to a form of godliness [literally religion] although they have denied it's power..... And again he says "they are always learning but never coming to a knowledge of the truth (II Timothy 3:5,7)

The Late Great Planet Earth Pg. 182

Hal has had his share of ridicule, by his sceptics, since this book was published. However, regardless of one's view of the entire book, he seemed to have had a firm grasp on the direction and inevitable destination of the modern seeker friendly and emrging/emergent church movements."

Click HERE to see our most recent update on our family blog.

Dwayne

The Man in the Mirror

In Romans 5:20 it says, "The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more." This means that the purpose of the Law as given in the Old Testament was to bring about judgment. Of course, how can there be judgment if we don't know what the rules are. That's exactly what the Law does. It gives us the rules, we realize that we've broken them, and thus, the sin becomes evident to us.

It's been said that the Law is like a mirror. The mirror serves one purpose and one purpose only; and that's to reflect an image. When we look into the mirror (the Law), it shows us who we really are. We can get another mirror, break that mirror or totally disagree with that image that we saw looking back at us. However, that will not change anything.

It is only the grace of God that can change that image and that grace is freely dispensed upon all who would but come and ask.

Faith at all Times

I was listening to Brad Lambert Sunday night at CC Lima and he pointed out this from Hebrews 11 and it struck me and I thought that I would share it with you. When speaking on the issue of faith in vv.33-34, it says, "who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weaknesses were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight." What we see here is that by faith, these giants of the faith that are listed here in the "Faith Hall of Fame" were able to do all of these marvelous things.

However, v.35 turns noticeable corner. It says, "...and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection." Now that's certainly a little different than putting armies to flight and shutting the mouths of lions!

The point is that the same faith that got them through the good times, was also able to get them through the bad. That's encouraging for me and should be for you!

Inward Reality

Paul said in Romans 2:21-22, "You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? (22) You who say, "Do not commit adultery," do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?" Paul in this verse is calling them hypocrites. Why? - Because their walk did not match their talk.

It reminds me of the story of a rather pompous-looking deacon who was endeavoring to impress upon a class of boys the importance of living the Christian life. He asked, "Why do people call me a Christian?" After a moment's pause, one little boy said, "Maybe it's because they don't know you."

Guys, the lost world that we live in wants to see more of our faith lived out in our lives. I always say, "God wants your life and not just your lip." Any one can give lip service to God. Jesus said the same thing in Matthew 15:7-8 when he said, "Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: (8) 'THESE PEOPLE DRAW NEAR TO ME WITH THEIR MOUTH, AND HONOR ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR FROM ME."

In closing, I'm reminded of another example of a lip and not life story. "He made free use of Christian vocabulary. He talked about the blessing of the Almighty and the Christian confessions which would become the pillars of the new government. He assumed the earnestness of a man weighed down by historic responsibility. He handed out pious stories to the press, especially to the church papers. He showed his tattered Bible and declared that he drew the strength for his great work from it as scores of pious people welcomed him as a man sent from God. Indeed, Adolf Hitler was a master of outward religiosity--with no inward reality!

Two Masters

Legend has it that the Mormons always gave Mark Twain a hard time about his opposition to their teaching that a man can have many wives. He was always looking for an opportunity to set them straight. That opportunity came one day when two of them said, “Mark Twain, you are always giving us a hard time about us having many wives.” Then they said, “You give us one scripture that teaches it is wrong for a man to have a dozen wives if he so chooses.” This was the door of opportunity that Mark Twain had been waiting for. He said in a humorous way, “I will be glad to tell you why the Bible teaches you can not have more than one wife.” He said, “It is because the Bible clearly teaches that No man can serve two masters!” No offense ladies. I just found it to be quite funny. :)

Check out a message that I taught at Calvary Chapel in Plano, Texas back in May. A brother from Brownsville, Texas let me know the other night that it was up on their site. They serve as my home church. They are awesome brothers and sisters and I love them!

1_Timothy_4.mp4

He's Still God

David Rosales wrote, "In ancient times, pagans erected idols to show their god was greater than our God. Antiochus did this in the Temple: God is still here and Antiochus is gone. Muslims want a victory mosque at Ground Zero. Guess what? When the smoke clears, God will still be God! Our God reigns..., and every knee will bow before our Savior Jesus!"