Does God Treat Men Differently?
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J.R. Miller: Being Christians On Weekdays
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"If any 19th century American Christian writer warrants reprinting, it is J. R. Miller! His writing style is delightfully smooth, his insights are spiritual diamonds on every page, and his pastoral applications are delivered with the skill of a well-seasoned physician of souls." (Pastor Bill Shishko)
How to carry our true religion into all parts [...]
THE SIN OF HOMOSEXUALITY IS DIFFERENT
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What makes it so extremely difficult to discuss the issue of practicing homosexuality, which is having sexual relations with another of the same sex outside of marriage, is the huge straw man erected whenever the subject is brought up. The argument, which is almost immediately raised goes something like this: “Why single out this particular sin while ignoring the sins of injustice, pride, hypocrisy, and so on and so on and so on…”
If you’re not careful to sidestep here and stay on point you’ll end up in what I refer to as wrestling with the snake. As soon as you focus on one area it then twists you to another, and before you know it, you’re far away from the subject you’re actually attempting to discuss. Concerning homosexuality, we must remind people that this is sin of a sexual nature, which immediately sets it apart from the other sin mentioned above.
The way we know this for certain is because God actually tells us this Himself in 1 Corinthians 6:18 — Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Note carefully how the Holy Spirit chose to set all other sins apart from sexual immorality, which itself includes all sexual relations outside of marriage—whether it be homosexual or heterosexual.
And as I’ve pointed out before Jesus of Nazareth—our Creator—Who, by the way, is speaking from the perspective of an eyewitness, defines marriage when He informs us — “But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.’ ” (Mark 10:6-8, ESV)
So in the case of homosexual activity, it will always be outside of the marriage covenant from a Biblical standpoint; and therefore, is among the sexual immorality we are told to flee from. Sadly, we in the Body of Christ are being forced today to single out homosexuality because the egregiously ecumenical Emerging Church aka Emergent Church—morphing into Emergence Christianity (EC)—is attempting to make this deviant lifestyle into a viable one for the evangelical Christian.
As I’ve said previously, you’d best realize that there’s a very dark and threatening same-sex storm right now approaching hurricane force, and which is currently only slightly off the coast of the mainstream evangelical community. Don’t you kid yourself; the EC is right now working to make affirming homosexuality an issue within your own mainstream evangelical church—and sooner than you may even think.
See also:
QUEERMERGENT AND NOW ADULTERMERGENT!?
TONY JONES AND KEN SILVA AGREE!
POPULAR EMERGING CHURCH WEBSITE THE OOZE SLITHERS OUT OF THE GLBTQ-AFFIRMING CLOSET
THE NEW CHRISTIANS WITH CHRISTIANITY WORTH BELIEVING—NO SOLA SCRIPTURA: YES, WOMEN PASTORS AND QUEER CHRISTIANS
QUEERMERGENT AND NOW ADULTERMERGENT!?
ROB BELL, PETER ROLLINS, AND QUEERMERGENT’S ADELE SAKLER
Revolutionary Music
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Keeping things light…….and with the worship theme today.
HT: Sacred Sandwich
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Theater Church, Spectacles for Spectators
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“And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play’.” (1 Corinthians 10:7, NKJV)
“Believers, Beware!” EXODUS THIRTY-TWO may soon be coming to a theater near you!
Don’t we remember how as Moses was receiving the Law from God on the mount above, the nation of Israel was worshipping gods in the camp below? “Come, make us a god who will go before us,” they had demanded of Aaron. “As for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt,” they disdained, “we do not know what has become of him” (Exodus 32:1). The idolaters, it seems, could not stand a ho-hum waiting in faith for Moses to come down to them. They needed something more, something new, and something “now.” So finding himself to be an accommodating user-friendly and seeker-sensitive leader, Aaron caved in to the demands of the crowd. They needed gods they could reach out and touch, and above all else, feel. So Aaron called for donations. The people, mostly women and children, brought him their “sacrifices of praise.” After smelting the jewelry, Aaron fashioned an idol and then called for a celebration of praise to honor the golden calf the next day. That’s the kind of worship that happened then; and that’s the kind of worship happening now.
Were the accommodating Aaron a leader in a contemporary church, he would have called for the worship team–a drummer, lead singers, and guitarists–to be assembled, the electrical crew to ready the “sanctuary” with the newest audio-visual equipment including multiple giant screens on which to project a fast paced collage of images, and the sound techs to coordinate the flashing strobe lights with the pulse of the drum beat, and to time the release of a flashing fireworks display that would belch forth smoke as the worship reached a frenzied climax. All of this, and perhaps more, would be employed to recast part of the narrative of Israel’s Sinai experience (See Exodus 19:18-19.)
But to what is becoming the predictable and tired way of doing contemporary church, there is now arising even a more entertaining way. To use the words of a cable TV comedian-chef, The Church of the Spectacle, now desires to “kick” the recipe for doing worship up another notch, to add more “bam” to the worship experience.
JAY BAKKER HAS A QUESTION
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“Gay affirming pastor” Jay Bakker posits a question last night via a quote from a book:
“What if much of what you have learned about living as a christian is wrong?” ~Steve McVey from his book Grace Amazing (Online source)
Hmm, then I’d say you’re listening to white-washed tombs in the egregiously ecumenical Emerging Church aka Emergent Church—morphing into Emergence Christianity (EC)—and their mythical “story” about some dream their god with the man-shaped hole in its heart has for the world.
Time to wake up and quit the wishful thinking Jay; repent and — hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. (Titus 1:9).
See also:
JAY BAKKER AND CHRIS ROSEBROUGH
JAY BAKKER AND WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH SUFFER SAME SPIRITUAL DISEASE
JAY BAKKER IN MEMPHIS ON SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
JAY BAKKER TO SPEAK FOR ELCA GATHERING
EMERGING CHURCH PASTOR JAY BAKKER CLAIMS HE KNOWS THE SCRIPTURES BUT IS STILL “GAY AFFIRMING”
JAY BAKKER HAS A QUESTION
Click the post title to be taken to the source.
“Gay affirming pastor” Jay Bakker posits a question last night via a quote from a book:
“What if much of what you have learned about living as a christian is wrong?” ~Steve McVey from his book Grace Amazing (Online source)
Hmm, then I’d say you’re listening to white-washed tombs in the egregiously ecumenical Emerging Church aka Emergent Church—morphing into Emergence Christianity (EC)—and their mythical “story” about some dream their god with the man-shaped hole in its heart has for the world.
Time to wake up and quit the wishful thinking Jay; repent and — hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. (Titus 1:9).
See also:
JAY BAKKER AND CHRIS ROSEBROUGH
JAY BAKKER AND WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH SUFFER SAME SPIRITUAL DISEASE
JAY BAKKER IN MEMPHIS ON SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
JAY BAKKER TO SPEAK FOR ELCA GATHERING
EMERGING CHURCH PASTOR JAY BAKKER CLAIMS HE KNOWS THE SCRIPTURES BUT IS STILL “GAY AFFIRMING”
Ten things that damage a worship ministry and hamper worship in a church
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Here’s something to consider as we go off to worship this Lord’s day.
1. Church politics: not everyone can or will be “pleased” by the style of worship at a church, no matter how many services, styles, video venues or times for worship. Pleasing people in general is a bad idea, right?
2. Biblical illiteracy: a worship ministry that does not commit to biblically presenting a complete Jesus or filter song choice or content biblically will risk teaching the congregation a lessor picture of Jesus.
3. Utility over Artistry: a demand to see music, and other expressions of worship as utility and not understand art hurts the ability to actually authentically express. It makes worship a means to something rather than the end.
4. Church politics: not everyone has gifts to lead or can be in front all the time. The goal in worship leadership is to serve the church, not your own desire to be leading upfront or showcasing talent. When personalities clamor for the stage, it hurts our worship expression.
5. Not letting the kids take over: keeping worship for my generation and not giving the younger mentorship, exposure and leadership opportunities in worship means the church loses the future. Remember, they are not the church of the future, they are the church.
6. Worshiping excellence: pushing the worship team to be so non-inclusive that only a small elite become the musicians, singers and tech might hurt the church since losing one of these individuals means a huge hole and loss of excellence.
7. Lack of Excellence: if music, lighting, speaking and whatever is available is not done well, the church loses gifted people who would rather not subjugate their gifting to poor planning, execution or leadership. (So, with 6 & 7 there is a sweet spot each church has to find–value doing your best, while not making it a club!)
8. Christian subculture: when music selection is limited to only a small group of writers from a couple publishers and there is one radio station in town your veteran church members listen to, we live in a ghetto. The goal is not to keep our worship expression in a bubble but to reach the world. Make worship style indigenous to reach and reflect your community, not the choice of Christian publishers marketing to veteran Christians.
9. Church politics: song selection, use of drums, volume, personalities, who gets to play, friends, complaint cards…
10. Me, myself and I: the trinity of selfishness perhaps is the root cause of all of these. Worship in a local church is “us” worshiping our God. Even when we feel our personal need to worship is important, gathering with dozens, hundreds or even thousands of worshipers is something special and not about me or you in that moment.
Which of these do you think is the worst offender?
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The Persecution And Endurance Of Christians By John MacArthur – Part 1
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