- Christians in apostasy are as a wrecked ship.
“…concerning faith have made shipwreck”. 1 Timothy 1:19 - A ship’s rudder is like the tongue.
“Behold also the ships…Even so the tongue…”. James 3:4,5 - Salvation is like entering a haven.
“…he bringeth them…desired haven.” Psalm 107:30 - God’s throne is on the face of a sea.
“And before the throne…a sea of glass…”. Revelation 4:6 - The wicked are like the troubled sea.
“But the wicked are like the troubled sea…”. Isaiah 57:20 - Our sins are in the deepest sea.
“…cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” Micah 7:19 - The Holy Spirit is like unto water.
“…whence then hast thou that living water?” John 4:10,11 - The Word washes like water.
“…the washing of water by the word”. Ephesians 5:26 - The gospel is as a net.
“… is like unto a net…”. Matthew 13:47 - A fish gave a man a ride.
“…a great fish to swallow up Jonah…”. Jonah 1:17 - Men are likened unto fish.
“And makest men as the fishes of the sea…”. Habakkuk 1:14 - A Christian is a fisherman.
“…fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19‘https://www.fomm.org/
Faith
All posts tagged Faith
Brother Wayne Mund recently went home to be with his Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Here’s his testimony. ‘I was born and reared in a fishing village along the Alabama gulf coast. Our home was right on the Bon Secour River, so as far back as I can remember, I have had my feet in the water. As a small child I remember catching minnows in a baited jar, graduating to a small cast net that I literally threw until it fell apart. From there I proceeded to my own boats, gill nets, trawls, oysters tongs, crab traps, etc. Thus the seafood world was in my veins as real as blood.
My parents were good church-going people. They were faithful members of a church in our area. Around the age of nine I joined this church. Not until I was eighteen and in college do I remember giving thought to my spiritual condition. After exposure to Bible preaching, it was apparent that I had a big need. I had never come to know Christ a my personal Saviour. In January of 1966 I acknowledged my condition as a lost sinner and received Christ as Saviour. My, what a difference! Soon after, the call of God came to preach. After college and Bible training, God blessed with two exciting churches that I pastored for fifteen years. Those years held blessings and training needful for the work here at FOMMI. In 1989 FOMMI planted Fishermen Baptist Church in Bon Secour, Alabama. In 2018, after 29 years, I retired from pastoring Fishermen Baptist Church, and in 2019 FOMMI joined forces with Victory Baptist Church of Milton, Florida, to continue worldwide mission efforts.
Being raised around the sea it came natural to have heart and soul in it. Little did I ever know that God would use me to reach out to those who live in island and seacoast areas. Jesus seemed to love Galilee. Much of His time was spent along the sea. The first four disciples were fishing men. Coastal areas of the world are in desperate need of the gospel. The most wicked of places are said to be port cities. My heart is in those areas. God plants you where you grow your best. Millions live where the sea touches the land. Few know they are drowning in sin and despair. What a privilege to follow the Saviour and in doing so He can make us Fishers of Men!’https://www.fomm.org/fommi-a-word-from-the-founder
Our New South Wales state government has locked us down and pushed being vaccinated for months until one could literally SCREAM! These elected public servants are doing all this to keep us safe and healthy! Yet, in a a few weeks these same officials will be listening to a bill that seeks to take the life of the very citizens they have proclaimed they care so much about! The MP that is promoting this voluntary murder of oneself is Alex Greenwich who of course is also a climate change believer and LGBTQI promoter https://www.alexgreenwich.com/. Mr. Greenwich undoubtedly doesn’t believe a person will live eternally after death or that their Creator inhabits eternity; Isaiah 57:15 For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
One does have to feel sorry for these who believe they are doing “good” in sending people out into eternity without realizing they and those they sent to their early death will someday ‘stand before God’ and ‘cast into the lake of fire‘ which ‘is the second death.’
Nevertheless, for now ‘Independent MP Alex Greenwich’s assisted suicide bill will be tabled in Parliament on 12 October 2021. It includes the following:
- Assisted suicide can be suggested by medical practitioners.
- Approval for assisted suicide can be as short as 5 business days.
- Communication for the first and final request for assisted suicide can be done via telehealth. This is a breach of the Federal Criminal code which states that it is an offence to use any form of electronic communication to publish, counsel or incite committing or attempting to commit suicide.
- Faith-based hospitals and nursing homes must allow all stages of the assisted suicide process on their premises for permanent residents.
- Faith-based hospitals must allow VAD navigators into hospitals to provide information to persons relating to voluntary assisted dying.
- Psychologist referral is not required if a person is suffering from mental illness. The referral is only mandatory to assess a person’s capacity, pressure or duress.
Ultimately, the bill has detailed instructions to educate a generation of medical practitioners on how to take life instead preserving it. You can read the draft bill here.’ https://www.acl.org.au/cm_nsw_euthanasia?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CM%202109%20NSW%20Euthanasia%20REMINDER&utm_content=CM%202109%20NSW%20Euthanasia%20REMINDER+CID_9f6107c08b98ee169a1f17094f9ae207&utm_source=CreateSend&utm_term=Please%20email%20your%20Upper%20House%20MLCs%20and%20your%20Lower%20House%20MP%20now%20to%20urge%20them%20to%20vote%20against%20the%20bill
Genesis 8:2-3 “The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained; and the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.”
‘Rock folds always seem to me to make interesting photographs. When I lived in South Wales, there were some very fine examples in the cliffs on the Vale of Glamorgan coast. For the most part, the rock layers seem to run parallel to the beach. Then, suddenly, they bend away, upwards or downwards, in dramatic sweeps. In these bends, the rock layers continue to run parallel.
Standard traditional geology suggests that the layers would have been horizontal when originally formed. The existence of the folds, however, causes more problems for traditional geologists who rely on millions of years for all their explanations. The Encyclopedia Britannica says: “The long linear folds that are characteristic of mountainous regions are believed to have resulted from compressional forces acting parallel to the surface of Earth and at right angles to the fold.” However, it is not difficult to imagine what large compressional forces would do to rock layers. Rocks are not malleable, so the eventual result of such forces would be to crack the layers – and, indeed, such cracks can be found. Parallel bending does not make a lot of sense in a deep-time scenario.
Suppose, instead, that the layers had been recently formed early in the Flood, and forces were applied towards the end of the Flood to layers which were still plastic and had not hardened. These would bend together in parallel folds. The biblical Flood provides the best explanation for how rocks could bend!’https://creationmoments.com/sermons/rocks-dont-bend/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rocks-dont-bend&mc_cid=f126c9221b&mc_eid=00c1dcff3c
Just what our kids need in school; LGBTQ+ history of sodomites!
‘Scotland has officially become the first country in the world to implement a required LGBTQ+ curriculum in schools after a new teacher toolkit launched this week. Educators now have access to a website offering an e-learning course on teaching topics related to the LGBTQ+ community, as well as a host of inclusive lesson plans and educational support materials, according to Scottish news outlet The Scotsman.
While LGBTQ+ subjects will be taught explicitly, the new curriculum also seeks to integrate inclusion into everyday learning. Lessons offered on the website range from exercises on discrimination to a math problem involving a young girl purchasing Father’s Day cards for her two dads.
While the new curricula were created, in part, for students to receive a more well-rounded education, the Scottish government also hopes the lessons will help reduce bullying. LGBTQ+ youth in the U.K. are twice as likely to have been bullied in the past year than their straight, cisgender classmates, according to a June study released by the youth advocacy group Just Like Us.
Scotland’s history-making curriculum is in large part due to the efforts of Time for Inclusive Education (TIE), an LGBTQ+ advocacy group that successfully lobbied the Scottish Parliament to implement nationwide inclusive learning. In 2017, the country’s government created the “LGBTI Inclusive Education Working Group,” which consisted of TIE and several other pro-LGBTQ+ groups, to investigate deepening inclusion in schools. A year later, the government accepted all 33 of its recommendations.
“Everything we’re trying to do here is all very, very Christian,” TIE Co-founder Liam Stevenson told them. in 2019. “It’s about looking after one another, it’s about respecting one another, and it’s about caring for and loving one another and producing healthy young people.”’
Boy, are there a lot of different names thrown at those who have not received one of the Wuhan virus vaccines yet! They are being called Nazi’s, right wingers, anti-vaxxer’s, murderers and many more. Now, I have not received the vax yet but I do believe the virus exists. My eldest daughter is a nurse on the Covid floor in her hospital and has seen patients die with or of the virus. However, I also believe there is something devilish behind all that our elected officials have done to individuals and businesses. If anyone has acted like a Nazi in handling this Wuhan virus it is the government. Now, our elected masters have produced a ROADMAP TO RECOVERY and here is how it looks for the Australian state of New South Wales.
What a roadmap for a so-called democracy! Note the second line concerning places of worship. As a born-again Bible believing Christian and preacher I find this amusing and anti-Bible. Firstly, the Chief Shepherd “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” and one reason He left us believers here after He ascended into Heaven are to be “witnesses” Acts 1:8. Most of that witnessing for Christ takes place in everyday life but it also takes place in the assembling together of the local churches where the Gospel is openly preached. In fact, this Wuhan virus seems to be the joy of those who know not the Lord as they have been able to stop most if not all local churches from meeting together as they once did before the virus and the draconian government rules were imposed. Our elected officials probably do not know it but God’s Word says in Hebrews 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. The government in a true free society would never have closed down local churches due to a virus! They may have advised social distancing, masks and hand sanitizer but this state government has deemed themselves above God and are saying ONLY THE FULLY VACCINATED MAY ATTEND WORSHIP SERVICES AFTER OCTOBER 11! Our elected Masters have put themselves above the Creator and His Word!
Secondly, this elected state government will not allow the UNCLEAN non-vaccinated people entry to worship their Lord and Saviour until LATE OCTOBER WHEN 80% HAVE TAKEN THE KOOL AID, I mean the vaccine! It isn’t until the 1st of December that our elected “public servants” allow singing in the worship services! What SCIENCE is behind all this?
Well, what are we to do? One thing we should be doing is to “pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you“. This government is not only treating Christians poorly but all citizens of New South Wales! This so-called ROADMAP TO RECOVERY isn’t promised to last forever either. Lockdowns and draconian rules could be imposed on the citizens whenever the elected officials deem it necessary for our HEALTH AND SAFTEY!
As far as I know there will be elections again in New South Wales so there is hope!
However, the real hope is found in Titus 2:13 where it tells us that we are to be “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ“.
Just another reason to be an independent Baptist.
‘COVID-19 vaccine refusal rates may be high among white evangelical Christians, but the International Mission Board (IMB) — which deploys thousands of missionaries — is not hesitant about the shot.
The global agency of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest evangelical Protestant denomination in the U.S., announced this month it is requiring vaccinations for missionaries they’re sending into the field amid the pandemic.
The IMB may be the first U.S. missionary agency known to have such a mandate, according to leaders in the field, as other faith groups approach the issue in a variety of ways including limiting where people can serve and making considerations for uneven global access to the vaccines.
“This is a very common-sense decision,” said Ed Stetzer, a Southern Baptist who is dean of Mission, Ministry and Leadership at Wheaton College. “Mission-sending agencies from the United States have the real opportunity to be vaccinated, and they’re going to places around the world that don’t.”
The IMB policy applies to both current and future missionaries as well as some staff members. Among the reasons it cited for the measure are health concerns and the fact that increasing numbers of countries are implementing their own vaccine requirements — some field personnel have reported needing to show proof to board airplanes and subways or enter restaurants and malls.
In a statement announcing the policy, IMB leaders acknowledged that it could be a deal-breaker for some people considering missionary work or currently serving with the organization.
The Rev. Allen Nelson IV, a pastor who leads a Southern Baptist congregation in Arkansas, said he is not against vaccines but is completely opposed to mandates for missionaries.
“This is something that must be left up to a person’s own conscience, research and discussions with a doctor, as well as their particular ministry context,” said Nelson.
The United Methodist Church, for its part, strongly encourages missionaries to get vaccinated but does not require it. That is partly because availability is not consistent around the world, according to Judy Chung, executive director of missionary services for the denomination’s Global Ministries.
“We have discussed how to promote vaccination without making a mandatory requirement,” Chung said, “because some may not have access to that yet.”
The denomination currently has about 240 full-time missionaries serving in 70 countries, and the most recently deployed cohort of about 40 has a vaccination rate around 80%.
“We want to make sure that our missionary population are safe so that they can focus on the mission work that has been assigned to them,” Chung said. “We want to make sure that we are not causing harm as we engage in mission.”
A key question for U.S.-based mission groups is whether they will fall under the Biden administration’s recently announced rule that companies with more than 100 employees must require workers be vaccinated for the coronavirus or undergo weekly testing.
If they do, Ted Esler, the president of Missio Nexus, an association that includes hundreds of missionary agencies in the U.S. and Canada, said about 30% of those agencies could be affected. He thinks they would comply with the federal mandate but said the issue is not currently stirring much discussion.
Ultimately, he noted, organizations’ internal rules may be rendered moot by vaccine entry requirements that many countries have instituted for visitors.
“Whether you have a policy or not,” Esler said, “if you’re going to serve cross-culturally in another country, you’re going to be faced with the government regulation.”
A June survey by the Public Religion Research Institute showed COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy decreasing and acceptance growing, but refusal rates holding steady. It also found significant variance of opinion between people from different faith traditions.
White evangelical Protestants had the highest vaccine refusal rate at 24% and among the lowest acceptance rates at 56%. By comparison, acceptance rates stood at 56% for Hispanic Protestants, 65% for Latter-day Saints, 66% for Black Protestants, 69% for other Protestants of color and 74% for white mainline Protestants.
The IMB has had vaccine requirements for other diseases in place since the 1980s, and it says some have chosen to skip international service because of it.
Esler, who served as a missionary in Bosnia in the 1990s with the Pioneers organization, said he had to be inoculated against diseases like diphtheria, polio, tetanus and typhoid before he could go.
Esler wasn’t eager to get a COVID-19 vaccine and is hesitant to advise others to roll up their sleeves. But he got vaccinated because he is continuing to travel.
“From my perspective, this is an issue more because of the fact that it’s COVID-related than it is vaccine-related,” Esler said.
“It’s unfortunate that the COVID vaccine here is controversial and rejected by some,” he added, “when in other places it would be coveted and highly sought-after and they cannot get it.”’https://julieroys.com/southern-baptist-imb-missions-covid-vaccine/?mc_cid=41ef5de5ed&mc_eid=b13d34ad49
‘Perhaps you, like me, as a Christian, pay attention to certain celebrity conservatives, who take many of the same or similar viewpoints as you. You know there are differences. Where is the overlap? In diagnosing a worldview, there are various components to understanding it, as some people have or might put it, to see the map of the world. Some of them are knowledge, ethics, purpose, and epistemology, but among the others, I want to explore two of them, reality and truth, as they relate to celebrity conservatives versus true Bible believers. In general, very often true Bible believers are interested in the celebrity conservatives without their being interested in them. Part of their “fan base” are Christians, who listen to their podcasts and watch their shows. One of the celebrity conservatives, Jordan Peterson, the famous PhD professor, author, and public intellectual and speaker from Canada, doesn’t even call himself a conservative. Celebrity conservatives today might call themselves classic liberals (you can look up classical liberalism). Maybe he really isn’t conservative, but you also shrink your audience if you call yourself one. As well, “liberal” might mean you keep your job and other opportunities. Peterson does resonate with true Bible believers and they listen to, watch, and read him. When I write, celebrity conservatives, I’m especially saying, Peterson, Ben Shapiro, Charlie Kirk, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, the late Rush Limbaugh, Dennis Prager, and Candace Owens. There are many others. There is overlap between their worldviews and the worldview of a true Bible believer. Before Covid hit and also before he had major health issues, my wife and I and another couple got tickets to hear Jordan Peterson in person in San Francisco, sponsored by the Independent Institute. As I was listening to him, I enjoyed many things he was saying. However, I knew he and I did not have the same worldview. I was glad he could say what he did in public, but it wasn’t nearly enough for me either. The celebrity conservatives like him are disappointing. In the last week, I was thinking about the difference between the worldviews of celebrity conservatives and true Bible believers. Even as I write this, I think about how a true Bible believer could even be a celebrity in our world. I don’t think it’s possible. The greater the celebrity status, the more you must be doing something wrong, and that includes evangelical leaders who have their own celebrity. They in part got there through capitulation and compromise. Their greater celebrity doesn’t speak well. The common ground in worldview, I believe, is that there is more proximity between celebrity conservatives and true Bible believers in their view of reality. I would say that they both attempt to function according to reality, even if it means abandoning the truth. The truth and reality do go together. They overlap completely for a true Bible believer, but they don’t for celebrity conservatives. Even actual reality and the reality of celebrity of conservatives don’t overlap identically. To stay a celebrity, like everyone else who isn’t a true Bible believer, celebrity conservatives forsake actual reality and even more so, the truth. Let me explain. I want to use Jordan Peterson as an example. Jesus either rose from the dead or He didn’t. Jesus can’t be the greatest figure who ever lived if He wasn’t truth and He lied about the resurrection. Peterson says that he’s not sure if he believes Christianity, but he tries to live like one. He’s also saying, he’s not committing to the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, while living like Jesus did resurrect from the dead. He borrows a reality based upon the truth without actually believing the truth. Other conservatives do that, and it’s easy to see. The world we live in is the real world. Celebrity conservatives more than the mainstream culture try to explain positions according to reality, even if they deny much of the truth or many truths, depending how you want to put that. You may live a reality of Jesus and defend a life that fits His existence and deny the pivotal truth of His resurrection. Peterson does that. Complementarianism is the truth and celebrity conservatives borrow from a complementarian reality without the truth of complementarianism. Gender fluidity proceeds from egalitarianism. God designed men and women differently. That’s the truth. Celebrity conservatives deny complementarian truth while defending a complementarian reality. Let me get more simple. Whether you think he’s a conservative or not, let’s consider President Donald J. Trump as if he were a conservative. Trump operates according to a certain Christian reality that results in Christian support, including from true Bible believers. Trump thinks that one thing is better than another. Certain behavior is wrong. He believes that America as a standard of living better than other countries, which can be and should be protected at the border. This is one of the most fundamental conservative beliefs and it is a reality that borrows from the truth. Former President Trump doesn’t believe the truth, but he functions as though there is truth. He is a realist in that we must have standards. Things won’t be better when we can’t discern the differences of one thing from another. This is a reality according to a Christian worldview. The truth is more important. However, people who eject from reality are much further away from the truth. These either practical or positional nihilists must be rejected for something short of the truth, if that’s the choice. The path to the truth won’t come through their relativism. It can come through someone who at least embraces reality, even if it doesn’t mirror actual reality. The answer for humanity is still the truth. It isn’t the reality of celebrity conservatives.’https://kentbrandenburg.com/2021/09/12/reality-and-truth-celebrity-conservatives-versus-true-bible-believers/
You MUST watch these two videos. Freedom as we have known it has been put aside for WOKENESS!
‘The chief constable of Norfolk police has refused to condemn an officer who said that offending someone was the equivalent of punching them in the face following an assault on a pro-life campaigner in Norwich city centre. On 23 July 2021, instead of being supported by police after reporting that a female team member had been assaulted, Dave Brennan of the Centre for Bioethical Reform UK (CBR UK) was instead told that he could be equally guilty of having ‘offended someone’. For 13 years CBR UK have put on graphic educational displays on the reality of abortion in towns and cities across the country. The human rights group seeks social reform through the power of images and display images of pre and post abortion. They state that their aim is never to condemn anyone who has had a past abortion but to educate and protect future mothers and their children. The vast majority of their education events pass without incident and thousands of members of the public leave the displays informed on the reality of abortion each year. 700 abortions take place in the UK every day with 9 million in total since the 1967 Abortion Act, which Mr Brennan describes as ‘the silent holocaust of our time.’’
