Christian Life
Paul, Timothy, and the End Times
By Jack Kelley
GraceThruFaith.com
Paul’s letters to Timothy are the instructions from a mentor to a young pastor, one of the first ever, and contain advice on what to do and how to do it, as well as what not to do. It’s the kind of thing you’d expect given the relationship.
But for no apparent reason Paul tucked several warnings about the end times into various places in his instructions. These are things Paul knew Timothy wouldn’t have to deal with because he clearly described them as characteristics of the Latter Days. We’ll take them each in turn.
1 Timothy 4:1-2
The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.
When I read this one I always think of certain televangelists who espouse a perversion of the prosperity gospel. They know what they’re teaching is a compilation of half truths and outright lies, so in effect they’re twisting God’s word to steal from their followers. And without the least bit of shame they enjoy the lifestyles of the rich and famous at the expense of their contributors who, according to some reports, come primarily from the bottom 25% of the economic scale.
Franklin Graham: World’s Christians in Grave Danger
Excerpts:
The Muslim Brotherhood, with the complicity of the Obama administration, has infiltrated the U.S. government at the highest levels and is influencing American policy that leaves the world’s Christians in grave danger, warns internationally known evangelist Franklin Graham
“The Muslim Brotherhood is very strong and active here in our country,” Graham tells Newsmax. “We have these people advising our military and State Department. We’ve brought in Muslims to tell us how to make policy toward Muslim countries.
“It’s like a farmer asking a fox, ‘How do I protect my hen house?’”
That same Muslim Brotherhood is fomenting much of the rebellion and the deteriorating social order roiling the Middle East, forcing millions of Christians to flee for their lives, says Graham, son of beloved evangelist Dr. Billy Graham, and founder of The Samaritan’s Purse international charity.
…A new report from the Roman Catholic aid agency Aid to the Church in Need supports Graham’s contention that the persecution of Christians worldwide has worsened exponentially in the past few years.
…More than 75 percent of religious persecution in the world is currently being carried out against Christians, the report concludes.
Read the article.
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After The Rapture
What happens after the Rapture? View this four part video.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
What Is Wrong with Lordship Salvation?
By Dr. Andy Woods
Sugar Land Bible Church
Lordship Salvation is the idea that an unbeliever must commit all areas of his life to Christ as a condition for being saved. Another way of articulating Lordship Salvation is, “if Jesus is not Lord of all then He is not Lord at all.” Lordship Salvation began to significantly enter the American evangelical community in the 1980’s through the ministries of various prominent theologians and pastors. The movement began with the well-intentioned concern to address too much carnality in the Christian world. However, the proposed solution to this legitimate concern was to increase the sole requirement for salvation in an attempt to argue that carnal Christians were never really saved in the first place since they had never initially yielded to Christ’s Lordship. Sugar Land Bible Church does not believe in or teach Lordship Salvation. For example, Position Statement #6 in our church constitution says, “…repentance, as in a person willfully turning from sin, cannot be a condition for salvation.” Many people look at the Lordship controversy as merely semantics. They believe that this issue has no real significance for practical living or ministry. In actuality, Lordship Salvation introduces at least five problems into the life of a church.
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Billy Sunday and the Bird
I remember when I was in the Y.M.C.A. in Chicago I was going down Madison Street and had just crossed Dearborn Street when I saw a newsboy with a young sparrow in his hand. I said: “Let that little bird go.”
He said, “Aw, g’wan with you, you big mutt.”
I said, “I’ll give you a penny for it,” and he answered, “Not on your tintype.”
“I’ll give you a nickel for it,” and he answered, “Boss, I’m from Missouri; come across with the dough.”
I offered it to him, but he said, “Give it to that guy there,” and I gave it to the boy he indicated and took the sparrow.
I held it for a moment and then it fluttered and struggled and finally reached the window ledge in a second story across the street. And other birds fluttered around over my head and seemed to say in bird language, “Thank you, Bill.”
The kid looked at me in wonder and said: “Say, boss, why didn’t you chuck that nickel in the sewer?”
I told him that he was just like that bird. He was in the grip of the devil, and the devil was too strong for him just as he was too strong for the sparrow, and just as I could do with the sparrow what I wanted to, after I had paid for it, because it was mine. God paid a price for him far greater than I had for the sparrow, for he had paid it with the blood of his Son, and he wanted to set him free.
How to Come to Jesus – A Short, Simple Sermon on Salvation
By John R. Rice
“All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” – John 6:37.
Anybody who wants to be saved can be saved right now, as you read this article. I mean the worst drunkard, the most abandoned woman, or even the person most ignorant of God and the Bible, can be saved now and know it, beyond the peradventure of a doubt, just by taking to heart the Scripture given above, which we will explain.
And now let us read it again, because all I say is simply going to be an explanation and illustration of this plain statement which Jesus Christ made in John, chapter 6, verse 37.
“All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”
Here Jesus tells us that God the Father gives certain people to Him, Jesus. And He receives all who come to Him and will not, under any circumstances, turn down, reject, or cast out! I will show you from the Word of God that you too may come to Jesus Christ and be saved. He will not ask you to wait, nor refuse you, but will immediately take you into His heart and into His blessed kingdom and make you God’s child, forgiving all your sins!
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Repent And Be Saved! I Said, REPENT!!!
Militant Salvation
By Jack Kinsella – Omega Letter Editor
I believe that the Bible calls us to be witnesses of Christ, and that there is no more perfect expression of God’s will in the life of a Christian than when he works to lead others to Christ,
That said, what does one do, as one of our readers related recently in one of our forums, when somebody is clearly not interested in hearing the Gospel?
The War Against The Saints
By Jan Markell
Can I speak from the heart? I am trying to be positive in spite of the fact that wind chill temps here in Minnesota likely resemble the temps on Mars or Saturn. Houses and cars are buried in snow. Our famous domed football stadium made national news as it couldn’t even survive the onslought of snow and cold so we Minnesotans wish the global warming myth were true.
But if you hadn’t noticed, the saints are under particular attack these days. The trials and testings seem to never end. One writes, Due to trials, God remains a complete mystery to me. Yet thankfully we have the promise of Heaven and Christ waiting for us and the constant heart of God with us as we struggle and grieve.
Another writes, Thanks to your prompting, Jan, I try to maintain the eternal perspective and get my eyes and mind off of this earth. The enemy has come against my family but we are not giving up hope. All is, however, a great struggle.
People around the globe are waiting on God. Let none who wait on You be ashamed (Ps. 25:3). Those waiting may be sick, weary, solitary, discouraged, perplexed, and frightened. God seems silent. Some are disappointed in God. Yes, waiting can seem like an eternity but let none of you be ashamed.
So why are the saints being pounded? Here are some thoughts:
Special Report: The ‘Defeated’ Christian
Jack Kinsella – Omega Letter Editor
You’ve all seen him. The defeated Christian. The guy who tries and tries, but after being saved for thirty years, he still hasn’t quit smoking. Instead, he hides his cigarettes before coming to church and won’t get too close when shaking your hand for fear you’ll smell the smoke on him.
Or the Christian who you know is saved, but he just can’t quite give up the bottle. Or the Christian who got saved, but doesn’t go to church, because he just doesn’t think he fits in with the rest of the crowd?
Or won’t go because he thinks that everybody at church is a big hypocrite? That defeated Christian who knows that even though he is saved, it just didn’t seem to ‘take’ like it seemed to with everybody else, so he’d just as soon not be reminded of it all the time by being around those to whom it did.
Especially since, if he were to mention it, somebody would point out it was either because of some unconfessed sin, or maybe he just wasn’t all that sincere when he first accepted Christ.
Why is it that some Christians get saved, and immediately become a new creature, where others get saved, and look remarkably like the old one?
Read more.
Full Spectrum Dominance: 8 Examples Of How The Government Is Attempting To Take Total Control Of Our Food, Our Health, Our Money And Even Our Dignity
Over the past several decades, no matter which political party has been in power the government has continued to become a larger part of our lives. These days many people are speaking of the “nanny state” that we have created, but the reality is far worse than that. The truth is that the government has become a gluttonous, out of control behemoth that is gobbling up everything in sight and that is attempting to exert full spectrum dominance over our lives. Today, the government seems to have an insatiable hunger to watch us, track us and control us. Now they even want to feel our private parts before we get on an airplane. No matter what politicians we send to Washington D.C., it just seems to get worse and worse. Anyone who still believes that we live in “the land of the free” is completely and totally delusional.
The God of Absoluteness
By Jack Kinsella – Omega Letter Editor
Excerpts:
“The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.” (Psalms 14:1). It seems rather harsh to call someone ‘a fool’ for what at first glance appears to be ignorance.
A person who doesn’t know God is clearly ignorant, since the word “ignorance” means ‘not knowing’. Ignorance is not a pejorative, although it is often hurled as an insult.
Babies are ignorant. People are ignorant of those things they haven’t either discovered for themselves or been taught by others. But the Bible uses instead the word, ‘fool’ which means, “a person who acts unwisely or imprudently.”
The word ‘fool’ is independent of educational background or innate mental acuity. And by its application, it means ‘only the unwise and imprudent would say there is no God’.
…There are five unassailable arguments that demand the existence of God, not the least of which is the ontological argument offered in Romans 1:20.
Six Megathemes Emerge from Barna Group Research in 2010
Change usually happens slowly in the Church. But a review of the past year’s research conducted by the Barna Group provides a time-lapse portrayal of how the religious environment in the U.S. is morphing into something new.
Read more.