Posts filed under ‘emergent church’
Ark Encounter
First the good things. The gospel was presented throughout. Clearly, extremely talented artists had been hired to create murals and life-size story boards that presented stories in graphic novel format about certain individuals and situations. Usually one character stands out calling the others to God in Christ for salvation. Unless someone ignores everything at the Ark Encounter, it is impossible to leave without reading the gospel leading to salvation. Nicely done. Very impressive as this type of presentation relates well to adults as well as children. Even though younger children wouldn’t be able to read, they would still be drawn to the artwork and ask parents and older siblings to explain, as we heard many doing while we were there.
God in My Everything?
The more we begin to rely on our emotions and how we feel about something, the less likely we are going to look to God’s Word as the final and absolute authority for life and practice as Christians. This appears to be what Ken Shigematsu (and too many others to count), is doing. His books attempt to draw people away from the truth of the cross and Scripture into the arena of “feelz” using monastic rituals to get us there. He wants us to embrace the type of rituals that many ancient orders used for the express purpose of getting closer to God. Yet, these things are not in Scripture so we should be very concerned.
Reading Through the Bible
It is important to look at your Bible reading time each day as an opportunity to learn more about our God, Creator, and Savior. Don’t use this time to “study” the Bible. Use it to read it, to get the flow of how the Bible moves. If you come to a passage that confuses you, this is where good commentaries come in. You want to get either good, quality “devotional” commentaries or the more “academic” commentaries. The former will often apply passages to our lives for us, connecting them with the truth of the biblical text. The latter is written by scholars who delve often quite deeply into the original languages. This is good, but it might actually slow you down quite a bit. My suggestion for those starting out is to reach for the devotional commentaries written by people like Warren Wiersbe, J. Vernon McGee and even John MacArthur. I have a library full of academic commentaries as well as devotional ones. They both help when I’m actually involved in studying certain books of the Bible. Dr. Thomas Constable is another great author whose commentaries, while delving into the original languages, provides good insight and background on the Bible.
The Church Becoming a Circus, Part 2
Large portions of the visible church are becoming little more than circuses where “motivational speakers” work up crowds to a level of excitement the first century Christians apparently knew nothing about. Worship leaders crank the volume, pound on the drums, produce high-flying electric guitar licks and the crowd goes wild. I recall one church we attended in California where a very well known secular guitar player (who said he was a Christian) became the worship leader. The way the music changed was interesting. Each service was literally a concert complete with drum, guitar, bass, and keyboard solos. There really was no difference between that and attending a Journey concert except for the actual songs.
Music That Moves the Emotions
How many times have you cried at a sad scene in a movie? I’m sure you’ve done it but not necessarily for the reason you think. Sure, the scene itself might have been touching with actors doing a very good job of selling the scene making you forget you’re watching a movie. But the most important aspect of that scene was put in during post-production: the music and sound effects. Gifted movie music composers create music that compliments each scene and helps drive that scene and bring out the required viewer’s emotions.
Q Posts Update Regarding Voter Fraud
But apparently, there are other lawsuits and investigations in the works regarding election fraud. Note Q’s comments, “Yes, midterms are safe” followed by “Watch CA.” Q is telling us that our elections will be protected this November from voter fraud, the very thing that has plagued America for decades and kept good and honest people out of office or handed them re-election losses. It also speaks to the fact that the only way Hillary might have won in the first place was through election fraud. However, safeguards were put in place to ensure that this did not occur.
Coming Great Delusion Will Unite Humanity
I’ve read many writings of those who believe that a spatial shift is getting ready to occur in our part of the universe that will include our planet. It is amazing how many people are actually looking forward to it because they thoroughly believe these “aliens” who will help bring it about only have our best interests at heart. This is the type of person who will be fully taken in by the coming powerful deception. They want with all the fiber of their being to believe that aliens exist, they’ve been communicating with us and our government will finally tell the world. For these people, there couldn’t be a better day ahead.
Are ETs Actually Demons Masquerading as Aliens?
The fact that these aliens are so well-versed in New Age thought would normally give them away, except for the fact that so many people are steeped in some form of New Age thought in the first place. Because of this, the words, dictates, and teachings of many of these ETs through human encounters tend to verify what many humans already believe; that there is no “one” God, but that we – as human beings – are gods but just haven’t fully realized it yet. They are here to teach and encourage us to keep pushing for that actualization.
Prophets and Dreamers from Deuteronomy
So we learn that there are two categories of false prophets/dreamers. The first in Deuteronomy 13 is the one whose prophesies come to pass but his intent is to drag people away from the living God to error by worshiping other false gods. The second in Deuteronomy 18 speaks of the false prophet who prophesies falsely – what he declares simply does not come to pass. In both cases, we are to avoid that person. We should “mark” them in our minds – make a strong mental note about them – and warn others as well. If we warn others and they do not heed our warning, it is on them.
Deuteronomy is Moses’ Swansong
This is a great time for us to reflect on this area of idolatry. Most people today do not bow down before graven images. We don’t have shrines in our homes and I’m referring to Christians here. I know that those within Buddhism, and other Eastern religions often have some form of shrine in their home or around their home. Moses told the people to not make any type of image of anything that might tempt the people to worship it. This is anathema to God because He alone is to be worshiped.
Continue Reading February 22, 2018 at 9:35 AM Leave a comment
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