The following link will take you to my podcast reading of Chapter Five of Dr. Howard Guinness’ book titled Sacrifice. Dr. Guinness lived the message of this book in that he trained as a medical doctor but spent his life as a Christian evangelist to students around the world. If you know the Lord as your personal Saviour I trust this reading will encourage you in your walk with the Lord but if you do not know Him that this reading will prod you to turn from your sins to Him. https://anchor.fm/david-bennett48/episodes/A-Reading-of-Chapter-5-of-Dr–Howard-Guinness-book-Sacrifice-e1442d8
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And we wonder how society got to where it is?!
‘On “The News & Why it Matters” this week, BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales, Jaco Booyens, and Eric July discussed the new policy passed by the Chicago Public School Board of Education that will require all schools to provide condoms for students as young as fifth grade, or approximately 10 years old.’https://www.theblaze.com/shows/the-news-why-it-matters/chicago-schools-condoms-5th-grade?utm_source=theblaze-breaking&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20210707Trending-TexasJudgeSharia&utm_term=ACTIVE%20LIST%20-%20TheBlaze%20Breaking%20News
‘When Chicago Public Schools students head back to their schools next month, any school with kids in the 5th grade and up will offer birth control.‘https://chicago.suntimes.com/education/2021/7/6/22561482/cps-free-condoms-public-sexual-education-sex-ed-curriculum-schools-tampons
‘A group of sexual abuse victims and family members went public with their concerns about former Kanakuk counsellor Peter Newman in an interview that aired on the CBS affiliate in Dallas. The story aired last Thursday, and is now on the station’s website.’ https://ministrywatch.com/kanakuk-victims-speak-to-dallas-tv-station/
This gender confusion issue pushed by the Left is out of control in many Australian states so the Australian Christian Lobby has printed pamphlets for distribution seeking to tell the truth.
However, the Victorian state ‘…Attorney-General Jacklyn Symes described the Australian Christian Lobby’s pamphlets on the recently passed Change or Suppression (Conversion) legislation as “hurtful, harmful and wrong.” However, she didn’t mention that the legislation bans LGBTIQA+ people who want help from getting help [Section 5(1)], and prosecutes parents who want to encourage their gender confused children to wait, rather than rushing into irreversible gender transitioning treatment [Section 64].
These ACL pamphlets seek to bring out truth and raise awareness in the community. And, LGBTIQA+ people should have the freedom to explore other options and seek counselling rather than limiting them to only one option – gender transitioning.
What is concerning about Section 5(1) of this legislation is that even those who consent to get help cannot get it. This harms LGBTIQA+ people by robbing them of their true freedom of choice.
In addition, Section 64 amends the Family Violence Protection Act 2008 to allow authorities to investigate and prosecute parents who help their children understand and be at ease with their own biological sex before deciding on gender transitioning treatments.
With gender theory being taught extensively in all state schools to children as young as primary level, children who return home with confusion over their gender will lose the opportunity to have proper conversation with their parents. Parents will either be forced to affirm their child’s preferred gender, or risk being investigated or prosecuted for “family violence” that is deemed to cause either emotional or psychological harm by “changing or suppressing” their child’s desired gender identity.
Out of love and care for families in the community, children, and the LGBTIQA+ community, the ACL pamphlets intend to help parents be aware of the danger of this legislation and avoid litigation. It is also ACL’s wish to advocate for the true freedom of gender confused children and the LGBTIQA+ community. If they are seeking help and consent to receive it, they deserve help in any form.
How are ACL’s pamphlets “hurtful, harmful and wrong” or “derogatory” and “appalling” when they tell the truth about passed legislation and reveal the hidden risks?
The Attorney-General and the Andrews Government should ask themselves why they are enacting a law that strips away the freedom to help others or seek help, and that prosecutes parents who want to parent with common sense and acknowledge biological facts.’https://www.acl.org.au/blog_jy_truthtellingflyers?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=enews%20210706&utm_content=enews%20210706+CID_01d4d6fad0e98bc6d2da3b1f3661e247&utm_source=CreateSend&utm_term=Read%20about%20the%20stir%20theyre%20causing
‘Maybe the question of the title got your attention. It sounds like that’s what I was trying to do, but I wasn’t. Instead I jumped into the car and turned it to the 24/7 radio station of the biggest Calvary Chapel in our area of Oregon. The son, who is now the senior pastor, was preaching on worship, a subject that is near and dear to me, as you readers know. In the midst of his talk, he had his crowd turn to Ephesians 5:18-19, which read:
18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; 19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
He didn’t break down verse 18 very far, but he related being “sloshed,” a word he used twice to refer to being drunk. He said that alcohol itself was fine, just not being drunk. To start, that belies the grammar of the verse. Look at it. Speaking of the “wine,” Paul said, “wherein is excess.” In other words, in the wine is excess, which is riotousness. The “wine” itself isn’t innocent. This is also how the Bible reads about alcohol or “wine” that can get someone drunk. It must be alcoholic, so in it is excess or riotousness, which are both sinful.
The Calvary Chapel senior pastor then said that there is a kind of singing when someone is sloshed. He compared to drunken revelry, and he said that was a contrast here. One can imagine the pub where a group of men are staggering home off pitch and slurring a popular song, what today is called a drinking song. I know this happens, but is this what Ephesians 5:18 is talking about? No. It really misses the point.
Being drunk is contrasted with being filled with the Spirit. There are at least two points that Paul is making with this contrast and it does relate to worship. One, drunkenness puts alcohol in control of someone. He’s controlled by the alcohol. The Greek words for “filled with” mean “be controlled by.” The believer is commanded to be controlled by the Holy Spirit and not alcohol. The alcohol is related to worship, but someone is never to be controlled by anyone or anything but the Holy Spirit. That means in every area of life, which the next twenty something verses reveal.
The control of alcohol brings excess and riotousness. The control of the Holy Spirit results in something else, what follows in the proceeding verses. Alcohol really does control. Someone can understand that. With that understanding, come to the Holy Spirit and imagine His controlling instead. Alcohol almost totally takes over with limited human control. Holy Spirit control is almost total control with a background of human control. A person is still doing something, but he’s controlled by Someone else as a whole, the Holy Spirit.
The second point of Paul is to relate to the false worship of Ephesus at the temple of Diana that the audience of the church at Ephesus would know. In the base of the pillars were ornately carved grapes. Drunkenness was part of the worship. It would bring a state of ecstasy, which was confused with a kind of divine control. This out of body type of experience of drunkenness gives the impression that someone is out of control, which he is, but that he is under the control of divine power. He isn’t. It’s the alcohol. Paul contrasts the false worship of Ephesus with the true worship of the true God. It isn’t ecstatic, which unfortunately and ironically is the worship of these Calvary Chapels.
The rock music of the the CCM that even originated with the first Jesus’ movement of the first Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, California gave the impression of something spiritual occurring. It wasn’t. It was entirely fleshly, ecstatic, like the drunkenness of the worship of Diana. Fleshly music brings a kind of ecstasy like that produced by alcohol that gives a counterfeit, false experience of spirituality. It might be “a spirit,” but it isn’t the Holy Spirit. It isn’t Holy and it isn’t Spiritual. Spiritual worship does not arise from the flesh, from alcohol, or from rhythm. These churches manipulate their listeners, giving them the wrong understanding of true spirituality. It is a form of idolatry.
There is actually no contrast in the worship of the Calvary Chapels with the world’s temples. They incorporate the ecstatic experience of the world into their so-called “worship.” In so doing, their people develop a false imagination of God. Their worship gives them a false god that does not have the same nature as the One and True God.
The local Calvary Chapel pastor compared drunken singing to the singing of Ephesians 5:19. First, he approved of alcohol as long as someone isn’t “sloshed.” He was saying this in a mocking tone, like he was embarrassed to be preaching about something bad related to alcohol. He was approving of alcohol as long as it didn’t result in drunkenness. In many people’s minds, being “sloshed” is a further level of drunkenness than the mere term drunken or legal drunkenness. This is missing the teaching of the verse and is dangerous to his audience.
The worship of Ephesians 5:19 proceeds from the control of the Holy Spirit. This is not carnal or emotional. It might result in emotions, but it is not emotional. Colossians 3:16 is a parallel passage and it compares Spirit filling to being controlled by the Words of Christ. If someone is controlled by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, the first way that will manifest itself is in true worship.
The participles of Ephesians 5:19 relate to being controlled by the Holy Spirit. You can or will know if someone is saved and then filled with the Spirit, based upon your worship. Worship comes first in this list of manifestations. False worship is controlled by something other than the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t have to be alcohol. It could also be fleshly music that brings a closely related ecstasy to that occurring in the false worship in Ephesus.’https://kentbrandenburg.com/2021/03/31/how-is-alcohol-related-to-worship/
Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
‘In the beginning – about 13.8 billion years ago – there was nothing. There were no atoms or molecules, and no forces. Then, suddenly, for no reason at all – Bang! Everything came into existence, and began to expand.
But that slow expansion can’t explain how all of space in the universe is about the same temperature, so a few millionths of a second after that Big Bang, everything went fizz and expanded very, very rapidly indeed for another few millionths of a second before it all returned to its earlier slow expansion. And scientists called this fizz Cosmic Inflation, and saw that it was good – well, perhaps not that good, but at least it made the difficult sums work out – mostly.
Yes, I am being satirical. That’s because it is a mythology that deserves to be satirized. Because not even the story I have given you is enough! Somehow, there had to be heat energy at the end of the inflation period, but the processes so far described would have resulted in a cold universe – “a cold, homogeneous goop”, as one scientist put it. So Big Bang cosmogonists have to further theorize that a reheating phase had to happen to get all the material in the new universe into a form that could expand to form our current universe.
I have a more scientific account. It makes much more sense. “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth…”’https://creationmoments.com/sermons/god-or-big-bang/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=god-or-big-bang&mc_cid=9abbad65f3&mc_eid=00c1dcff3c
‘With the recent 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s death, many evangelical Christians have been celebrating his life. The Gospel Coalition hosted the MLK50: Gospel Reflections from the Mountaintop conference, lauding his life and work, and calling on the church to reflect on racial unity then and now.
Unorthodox Theology
Martin Luther King Jr’s theology was very liberal. In papers he wrote during his time at Crozer Theological Seminary he made his views clear. He said that the evidence for the Virgin Birth is “is too shallow to convince any objective thinker.” He stripped the doctrines of the divine sonship of Christ, the virgin birth and bodily resurrection of all literal meaning, saying, “we [could] argue with all degrees of logic that these doctrines are historically and [philosophically] untenable.” In another paper he wrote:
[A] supernatural plan of salvation, the Trinity, the substitutionary theory of the atonement, and the second coming of Christ are all quite prominent in fundamentalist thinking. Such are the views of the fundamentalist and they reveal that he is oppose[d] to theological adaption to social and cultural change. … Amid change all around he is willing to preserve certain ancient ideas even though they are contrary to science.
He did not believe these doctrines even though the Bible taught them. Instead he rejected them as superstition because they did not fit his notions of modern science. The doctrines he was rejecting are fundamental to Biblical Christianity.
After graduating from college, we do not see a radical change in King’s theology, or a repudiation of his former unorthodox views. Although he did not explicitly preach these liberal beliefs, his messages were still consistent with them. His message would fall under the banner of black liberation theology – he preached a form of Christianity that was reworked to apply to physical freedom of the slaves. The central theme of his Christianity was not Jesus Christ, the son of God coming to earth, it was the deliverance of the Israel from their slavery in Egypt. In his famous “mountaintop” speech, when he was listing the seminal events of history, he mentioned the Exodus, not Christ’s death and resurrection.
Liberation theology is a secularization of Christianity, using the Bible as a framework to speak to people’s longing for freedom. It is an abandonment of the message of the Bible. Instead of applying the full breath of scriptural to the hearers, it constructs a new theology to appeal to your worldly needs. This fits perfect with King’s denial of fundamental beliefs in the supernatural events scripture records. He didn’t need to believe them if he was just repurposing a few events from scripture to construct his own story of the world.
Immoral Life
There is substantial evidence that Martin Luther King Jr.’s private life and character was unworthy of a minister of the Gospel, or even of a Christian. The FBI monitored him for many years, wrongly and unconstitutionally using their surveillance powers to get damaging information to discredit him for political purposes. This monitoring included following him on his travels around the country and placing recording devices in his hotel rooms. The FBI claimed to have evidence, both anecdotal and on audio recording of King committing adulteries on many occasions. They even went to the point of sending him an anonymous letter threatening him with the release of this information and encouraging him to commit suicide. The FBI records on King will remain sealed until at least 2027.
We do not have to take the word of the FBI to believe that MLK was not a man who lived a righteous life. Dr. Ralph Abernathy, a close friend of King’s, admitted as much in his book, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down. He wrote that even the night before his assassination, King had committed adultery with multiple women. The consensus among historians is that Martin Luther King Jr. was repeatedly unfaithful to his wife.
It is right to commend and remember King for what he got right, including the equality of all nationalities and non violent protests against injustice. But we must not ignore his failings. As with any other historical figure, we must be honest about King, complementing and emulating what he did well, and condemning him where he was wrong. Christians must not forget, in their rush to crown him their hero, that he lived a wicked life and denied the very basics of orthodox Christianity. It is deceptive and wrong for evangelical Christians to claim King as a brother in Christ, when all the evidence suggests that he was not.’http://discerninghistory.com/2018/04/was-martin-luther-king-jr-a-christian/
It’s the Lord’s Day here in Australia and I am doing a survey of Genesis and I thought this song was very appropriate for such a study. Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Proverbs 22:1 A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.
What does it say about a man or an organization that MUST cheat to win? Does it instill trust? One wonders how that person and those associated with that person can continue to be so arrogant, forward and confident! How can they continue to declare they are the winner when they know how they arrived at the position through dishonesty, deceit, delusion, falsehood, lies and distortion.
Now, of whom are we speaking? Well, there are many in and out of politics that these words describe but in this article we are speaking of Joe Biden and the Democrat Party. One would have to be a dead Democrat voter not to know that the Republicans are not pure either. However, in the 2020 election the dishonesty and cheating was so apparent for all to see who would see!
How far does this desire to win and control the masses go? Has this lying cheating dishonest attitude permeated most if not all of those working in and for the Federal government? This disease has taken hold of so many in authority that it will be hard to stop. It is a cancer that will invade the minds of those who are willing to follow and this will take place in the schools of assumed learning where telling lies and untruths will get you into high office and the prestige of moving among the presumed elite of this world.
Now, I am speaking concerning those who just ‘won’ the 2020 election and if all goes as planned will take over the Government of the United States in a couple of days. They will implement their devious hell thought out plans. They will be praised by those who are like them. Nevertheless, this is a description of these people in Psalm 73:6-8 Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment. 7 Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish. 8 They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily.
The GOOD NEWS is also found in the Psalms and that is Psalm 37:38 But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of the wicked shall be cut off.
Everything comes to pass. John the Revelator was given insight into the future by the Creator Himself and John wrote in Revelation 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away….
Oh, and how will Biden, Harris and all the others who got to their place of influence by cheating be remembered? You fill in the blank ______________________________!
- ‘The “extreme persecution” that Christians experience in 10 of the absolute 12 worst nations comes from “Islamic oppression” or is occurring in Muslim majority nations. These include: Afghanistan (#2), Somalia (#3), Libya (#4), Pakistan (#5), Yemen (#7), Iran (#8), Nigeria (#9), Iraq (#11), and Syria (#12).
- “80% of Indian Christians helped by Open Doors say they were passed over for food distribution during the COVID-19 pandemic.” — Open Doors, World Watch List.
- Considering that for the first time in over a decade, China has made it among the top 20 persecutors in the Open Doors World Watch List — up to #17 from #23 last year — this does not bode well for Christians, who are already “intensely monitored by the state.”
- Similarly, in Turkey, which rose to #25 from #36 last year, every citizen’s “religious affiliation is recorded on the electronic chip of identity cards, making it easy to discriminate against Christians.” — Open Doors, World Watch List.
- “More Christians are murdered for their faith in Nigeria than in any other country.” — Open Doors, World Watch List.
Every day around the world, 13 Christians are killed for their faith; 12 are illegally arrested or imprisoned; 5 are abducted; and 12 churches or other Christian buildings are attacked.
These are among some of the disturbing findings of the recently released Open Doors’ 2021 World Watch List (WWL-2021). This annual report ranks the top 50 nations in which Christians are most persecuted for their religion.
All in all, “More than 340 million Christians suffer high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith.” About 309 million of these Christians “suffer very high or extreme levels. That’s one in 8 worldwide, 1 in 6 in Africa, 2 out of 5 in Asia, and 1 in 12 in Latin America.” (Unless otherwise indicated, all quotes in this article are from the 2021 Open Doors World Watch List.)
For the reporting period covered by WWL-2021 (October 2019 – September 2020), “4,761 Christians were killed for their faith” — a 60% increase from last year (2,983). An additional 4,277 Christians were unjustly arrested, detained, or imprisoned; 1,710 were abducted for faith-related reasons; and 4,488 churches or Christian buildings were attacked.’https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16963/calamity-christians-persecuted
When will it become even more evident in the America? What agenda does a Biden/Harris admin have for Bible believing Christians?
whatyareckon 