The enemy brings down that which still bears its name to the level of the haughty will of man and the corruption of the natural heart, turning Christianity into a religion that suits that heart, in place of one that is the expression of the heart of God — an all-holy God — and the revelation of that which He has done in His love to bring us into communion with His holiness.
From Darby commentary on Galatians•
In that day shalt thou not be ashamed for all thy doings, wherein thou hast transgressed against me: for then I will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride, and thou shalt no more be haughty because of my holy mountain. Zephaniah 3.11
When I read this commentary of Darby on Galatians it resonated perfectly with what my heart has considered in relation to what passes as "Christianity" in this day and age and especially with that "Gospel" you see and hear so much on Television.
You see so much of man's haughtiness as he wields the high and powerful
'word’ of God and yet in this, he holds the truth of God in unrighteousness and grieves every true heart who knows in spirit and in truth that true Gospel of the meek and lowly lamb of God.
And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make mechandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. 2 Peter 2.3
When you see them manipulating money out of people in the name of God
and in the name of some strange kind of "prosperity" so that they can feed the hunger of that beast called "television ministry" which like a little shop of horrors continually cries, “feed me, feed me “ yes, with a little innocuous voice at first and then eventually with a beastly growl; it demands until another gospel has been formed
with its own high tech and manipulative net to gather wealth just to feed it.
Being filled with all unrighteousness,… wickedness, covetousness… deceit...
Romans 1.29
And there are particular ministers who specialize in raising money for this beast until they are as good as those old snake oil salesman who,
to get money out of people, will promise the hearers every need met.
Just give! Give!
The horseleach hath two daughters,
crying, Give , give .
Proverbs 30.15
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Prayer
I found this excellent article on prayer that I had copied and stored:
"Wherever the Church is aroused and the world's wickedness arrested, somebody has been praying." – A. T. Pierson "How terrible is the cost of robbing God of time for prayer. When we rob God of time for quiet, we are robbing Him of ourselves. It is only in the quiet that we can really know Him and know ourselves, and be sure that we give ourselves back to Him. Oh, for God's sake, do not risk keeping the windows of Heaven closed by robbing God of time." –
Gordon M. Guinness "The missionary church is a praying church. The history of missions is a history of prayer. Everything vital to the success of the world's evangelization hinges on prayer. Are thousands of missionaries and tens of thousands of native workers needed? ‘Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He send forthlaborers into His harvest.’" – John R. Mott
"Why does the Church stay indoors? They have a theology that has dwindled into a philosophy, in which there is no thrill of faith, no terror of doom and no concern for souls. Unbelief has put out the fires of passion, and worldliness garlands the altar of sacrifice with the tawdry glitter of unreality. The Holy Ghost cannot conquer the world with unbelief, nor can He save the world with a worldly Church.
He calls for a crusade, a campaign, and an adventure ofsaving passion. For this enterprise He wants a separated, sanctified and sacrificial people." – Samuel Chadwick "We give ourselves to prayer. We preach a Gospel that saves to the uttermost, and witness to its power. We do not argue about worldliness; we witness. We do not discuss philosophy; we preach the Gospel. We do not speculate about the destiny of sinners; we pluck them as brands from the burning. We ask no man's patronage. We beg no man's money. We fear no man's frown…Let no man join us who is afraid, and we want none but those who are saved, sanctified and aflame with the fire of the Holy Ghost." – Samuel Chadwick
"The Church gives more time, thought, and money to recreation and sport than to prayer." – Samuel Chadwick "The whole history of the Church is one long story of this tendency to settle down on this earth and to become conformed to this world, to find acceptance and popularity here and to eliminate the element of conflict and of pilgrimage. That is the trend and the tendency of everything. Therefore outwardly, as well as inwardly, pioneering is a costly thing." – T. Austin Sparks
"It is a costly and a suffering thing to come up against the religious system that has ' settled down ' here. It is far more costly than coming up against the naked world itself. The religious system can be more ruthless and cruel and bitter; it can be actuated by all those mean things, contemptible things, prejudices and suspicious things that you will not even find in decent people in the world. It is costly to go on to the heavenlies, it is painful; butit is the way of the pioneer, and it has to be settled that that is how it is." – T. Austin Sparks
"’Go ye’ is as much a part of Christ's Gospel as ‘Come unto Me.’ You are not even a Christian until you have honestly faced your responsibility in regard to the carrying of the Gospel to the ends of the earth. What is your part in that great task?" – J. Stuart Holden "There are great marvels in the world to-day. There is the marvel of the disobedient Church, which hugs to itself Christian privileges and neglects Christian obligations." – J. Stuart Holden
"It is wonderful what God can do with a broken heart, if He gets all the pieces." –Samuel Chadwick "It is a solemn thing to find oneself drawn out in prayer which knows no relief till the soul it is burdened with is born. It is no less solemn afterwards, until Christ is formed in them." – Amy Carmichael
"The evangelization of the world in this generation depends first of all upon a revival of prayer. Deeper than the need for men; deeper, far, than the need for money; aye, deep down at the bottom of our spiritless life is the need for the forgotten secret of prevailing, world-wide prayer." – Robert E. Speer "A generation which wishes for a religion without tears must find itdifficult to adjust its beliefs to the teaching of the New Testament and of the facts of life…" – W. R. Inge
"Wherever the Church is aroused and the world's wickedness arrested, somebody has been praying." – A. T. Pierson "How terrible is the cost of robbing God of time for prayer. When we rob God of time for quiet, we are robbing Him of ourselves. It is only in the quiet that we can really know Him and know ourselves, and be sure that we give ourselves back to Him. Oh, for God's sake, do not risk keeping the windows of Heaven closed by robbing God of time." –
Gordon M. Guinness "The missionary church is a praying church. The history of missions is a history of prayer. Everything vital to the success of the world's evangelization hinges on prayer. Are thousands of missionaries and tens of thousands of native workers needed? ‘Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He send forthlaborers into His harvest.’" – John R. Mott
"Why does the Church stay indoors? They have a theology that has dwindled into a philosophy, in which there is no thrill of faith, no terror of doom and no concern for souls. Unbelief has put out the fires of passion, and worldliness garlands the altar of sacrifice with the tawdry glitter of unreality. The Holy Ghost cannot conquer the world with unbelief, nor can He save the world with a worldly Church.
He calls for a crusade, a campaign, and an adventure ofsaving passion. For this enterprise He wants a separated, sanctified and sacrificial people." – Samuel Chadwick "We give ourselves to prayer. We preach a Gospel that saves to the uttermost, and witness to its power. We do not argue about worldliness; we witness. We do not discuss philosophy; we preach the Gospel. We do not speculate about the destiny of sinners; we pluck them as brands from the burning. We ask no man's patronage. We beg no man's money. We fear no man's frown…Let no man join us who is afraid, and we want none but those who are saved, sanctified and aflame with the fire of the Holy Ghost." – Samuel Chadwick
"The Church gives more time, thought, and money to recreation and sport than to prayer." – Samuel Chadwick "The whole history of the Church is one long story of this tendency to settle down on this earth and to become conformed to this world, to find acceptance and popularity here and to eliminate the element of conflict and of pilgrimage. That is the trend and the tendency of everything. Therefore outwardly, as well as inwardly, pioneering is a costly thing." – T. Austin Sparks
"It is a costly and a suffering thing to come up against the religious system that has ' settled down ' here. It is far more costly than coming up against the naked world itself. The religious system can be more ruthless and cruel and bitter; it can be actuated by all those mean things, contemptible things, prejudices and suspicious things that you will not even find in decent people in the world. It is costly to go on to the heavenlies, it is painful; butit is the way of the pioneer, and it has to be settled that that is how it is." – T. Austin Sparks
"’Go ye’ is as much a part of Christ's Gospel as ‘Come unto Me.’ You are not even a Christian until you have honestly faced your responsibility in regard to the carrying of the Gospel to the ends of the earth. What is your part in that great task?" – J. Stuart Holden "There are great marvels in the world to-day. There is the marvel of the disobedient Church, which hugs to itself Christian privileges and neglects Christian obligations." – J. Stuart Holden
"It is wonderful what God can do with a broken heart, if He gets all the pieces." –Samuel Chadwick "It is a solemn thing to find oneself drawn out in prayer which knows no relief till the soul it is burdened with is born. It is no less solemn afterwards, until Christ is formed in them." – Amy Carmichael
"The evangelization of the world in this generation depends first of all upon a revival of prayer. Deeper than the need for men; deeper, far, than the need for money; aye, deep down at the bottom of our spiritless life is the need for the forgotten secret of prevailing, world-wide prayer." – Robert E. Speer "A generation which wishes for a religion without tears must find itdifficult to adjust its beliefs to the teaching of the New Testament and of the facts of life…" – W. R. Inge
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
The Rise of the Brute Wearing Pants
I was reading a novel the other day in my spare time.
I like to read cop novels and about private detectives.
In one I was reading the other day
the author took the time in relation to his story
to comment on people in general in our society:
describing their behavior as part of and epidemic of aggressiveness.
I immediately flashed on how I have seen this attribute
in all kinds of people: little kids, teens and adults.
Just the other day I was in the library and two woman
clashed a little about the use of a public computer.
They both decided to go outside to settle their differences.
I didn't follow them out to watch.
I didn't want to see.
I considered how quick they were to go at it-
to handle their dispute with brutality.
Brutality as in B-R-U-T-E.
Back to writers.
I read a lot and have noticed over the years
many different people bemoaning in print the condition of the world.
Often its in the form of a question, "What is happening?"
Other times it's just a commentary, "The world is going to hell in a hand basket!"
Many seem recognize uncomfortably that things are getting a lot worse.
The Bible warned through the Apostle 2000 years ago
that perilous times would come.
Unspiritual men say that mankind is evolving.
Well, technology may be evolving but men are devolving.
They are going backward.
They are becoming beastly.
Jesus marked the tende3ncy saying " You generation of vipers."
Men as vipers.
Vipers are beasts of the earth.
In Genesis we see the words relating to the serpent
where it is described as a beast most subtle.
Instead of rising up towards God they go about
on their bellies in the dust.
Adn be careful their bite is nasty.
The concept of civilized men and woman is being eclipsed.
Civilized societies and cultures were in fact civil
because of the influence of the Gospel.
Nothing has been shown to tame the natural and ungodly
tendencies, even beastly in mankind, more than the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The concept of a 'gentleman' springs from the truth
that gentleness is born of temperance.
In this intemperate age the opposite is the result.
Aggression.Meanness.Mercilessness.
There are pitiful calls for a "kinder and gentler nation",
as the beast and his image influence the imagination of men's hearts.
The "Beast". Please don't look for "him" with natural eyes.
But these, as natural brute beasts,
made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things
that they understand not;
and shall utterly perish in their own corruption; 2 Peter 2.12
Now if your are not all that spiritual nor familiar with prophetic language,
you would look at some of these scriptures
after the fashion of Nicodemus who sought to interpret the words of Christ,
questioning, "Shall we enter a second time into our mother's womb" to be born again?
In this way men look and interpret with the natural mind
and do not understand the allegory or what scripture calls the parable.
Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not;
and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand . Matthew 13.13
And so, interpreting things literally they look for a very evil man to come someday.
He might be called the "Beast" or the "Antichrist" or the"Son of Perdition".
This type of understanding is usually encouraged by literalists
who seem to for get how foolish Nicodemus looked in his own literalness.
The spiritually minded are beginning to realize that
this mystery of iniquity to which the Bible prophetically alludes
is manifest increasingly in those who believe not and have pleasure in unrighteousness.
That they all might be damned who believed not the truth,
but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 2Thessalonians 2.12
There is a great falling away taking place before our eyes.
Christian nations are Christian no more as 'beast' nations and rulers
only don the garments of a lamb.
If you believe the rhetoric they are one thing.
But view the actions they are altogether another.
We understand from scripture that this must take place
before the Lords return so that the 'man of sin'
or in other words 'sin manifesting itself full blown
in the body of unredeemed humanity becomes apparent'.
Just as the 'man of righteousness' has a 'body' so too, the 'man of sin'.
I like to read cop novels and about private detectives.
In one I was reading the other day
the author took the time in relation to his story
to comment on people in general in our society:
describing their behavior as part of and epidemic of aggressiveness.
I immediately flashed on how I have seen this attribute
in all kinds of people: little kids, teens and adults.
Just the other day I was in the library and two woman
clashed a little about the use of a public computer.
They both decided to go outside to settle their differences.
I didn't follow them out to watch.
I didn't want to see.
I considered how quick they were to go at it-
to handle their dispute with brutality.
Brutality as in B-R-U-T-E.
Back to writers.
I read a lot and have noticed over the years
many different people bemoaning in print the condition of the world.
Often its in the form of a question, "What is happening?"
Other times it's just a commentary, "The world is going to hell in a hand basket!"
Many seem recognize uncomfortably that things are getting a lot worse.
The Bible warned through the Apostle 2000 years ago
that perilous times would come.
Unspiritual men say that mankind is evolving.
Well, technology may be evolving but men are devolving.
They are going backward.
They are becoming beastly.
Jesus marked the tende3ncy saying " You generation of vipers."
Men as vipers.
Vipers are beasts of the earth.
In Genesis we see the words relating to the serpent
where it is described as a beast most subtle.
Instead of rising up towards God they go about
on their bellies in the dust.
Adn be careful their bite is nasty.
The concept of civilized men and woman is being eclipsed.
Civilized societies and cultures were in fact civil
because of the influence of the Gospel.
Nothing has been shown to tame the natural and ungodly
tendencies, even beastly in mankind, more than the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The concept of a 'gentleman' springs from the truth
that gentleness is born of temperance.
In this intemperate age the opposite is the result.
Aggression.Meanness.Mercilessness.
There are pitiful calls for a "kinder and gentler nation",
as the beast and his image influence the imagination of men's hearts.
The "Beast". Please don't look for "him" with natural eyes.
But these, as natural brute beasts,
made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things
that they understand not;
and shall utterly perish in their own corruption; 2 Peter 2.12
Now if your are not all that spiritual nor familiar with prophetic language,
you would look at some of these scriptures
after the fashion of Nicodemus who sought to interpret the words of Christ,
questioning, "Shall we enter a second time into our mother's womb" to be born again?
In this way men look and interpret with the natural mind
and do not understand the allegory or what scripture calls the parable.
Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not;
and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand . Matthew 13.13
And so, interpreting things literally they look for a very evil man to come someday.
He might be called the "Beast" or the "Antichrist" or the"Son of Perdition".
This type of understanding is usually encouraged by literalists
who seem to for get how foolish Nicodemus looked in his own literalness.
The spiritually minded are beginning to realize that
this mystery of iniquity to which the Bible prophetically alludes
is manifest increasingly in those who believe not and have pleasure in unrighteousness.
That they all might be damned who believed not the truth,
but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 2Thessalonians 2.12
There is a great falling away taking place before our eyes.
Christian nations are Christian no more as 'beast' nations and rulers
only don the garments of a lamb.
If you believe the rhetoric they are one thing.
But view the actions they are altogether another.
We understand from scripture that this must take place
before the Lords return so that the 'man of sin'
or in other words 'sin manifesting itself full blown
in the body of unredeemed humanity becomes apparent'.
Just as the 'man of righteousness' has a 'body' so too, the 'man of sin'.
It might be worth your time to study how that in the Old Testament
the term son of Belial was used
not referring to a literal person
but to a type of person..
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