Skipping Church

"The Selfishness of Skipping Church" by Art Heinz is a thought provoking piece on how Christians today are not as committed as they used to be.  "The overwhelming consumerist mentality in our nation has spilled over and saturated the thinking of Christians throughout the Church in the United States. The worship environment, the style of music, the dress code, the church programming, and the overall focus of the church, is no longer about the Lord and His agenda, but about the personal preferences of individual church shoppers."

To the men and leaders of our church:

To the leaders and men of our church:

Would to God, as Moses said, "that all the LORD’S people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!"  So, we must pray that the Lord would put His Spirit upon the men in our church, upon ourselves first and foremost, that we might walk in humility, holiness and thereby lead by our example and precept.  We who are serving as officers feel our weakness and our sins are always before us.  Knowing ourselves to be far from what we should be, let us seek more of God's grace, more of His Spirit to serve him in the fear of the Lord and faithfulness to his cause and gratitude for such a great salvation.

God, breath new life into the men of this church, that they might have your Spirit upon them in great measure and that they might commit themselves to doing whatever you call them to do in your church.  May each of us hear the still small voice calling us to lay down our lives for our brethren for the sake of Christ and his glory. Amen.

Jesus Died to Make You Rich!

The prosperity gospel preachers have been fleecing the flock for years and getting away with it.  It is time we all in the Christian community call them to repent of their egreious sins against God's church.  In a response to Creflo Dollar's statement, Dylan Justus highlights what is wrong with the prosperity gospel, and calls those who make an idol of money into repentance.

Jesus Died to Make You Rich (Spiritually)

“Mr. and Mrs. Prosperity Teacher, Scripture calls you to repent of your sin: Your sin of leading astray the sheep, robbing them of their money, and lying to them. Jesus died for the sins of the world; that’s a heavy thing to disregard as secondary to prosperity.”

The Who, What, How of Prayer

How's your prayer life?  Need some help?  The Westminster Larger Catechism instructs us in prayer:

Q. 183. For whom are we to pray?
A. We are to pray for the whole church of Christ upon earth; for magistrates, and ministers; for ourselves, our brethren, yea, our enemies; and for all sorts of men living, or that shall live hereafter; but not for the dead, nor for those that are known to have sinned the sin unto death.

Q. 184. For what things are we to pray?
A. We are to pray for all things tending to the glory of God, the welfare of the church, our own or others' good; but not for anything that is unlawful.

Q. 185. How are we to pray?
A. We are to pray with an awful apprehension of the majesty of God, and deep sense of our own unworthiness, necessities, and sins; with penitent, thankful, and enlarged hearts; with understanding, faith, sincerity, fervency, love, and perseverance, waiting upon him, with humble submission to his will.

Are You Catholic?

The following excerpt is from the tract Are You Catholic? produced by the Trinity Foundation:

In the Roman Catholic Church, justification means God's actually making a man innocent, God's working in a man's heart. The church changed grace, an attribute of God, his undeserved mercy and favor, into a quality of man. The Roman Church taught and still teaches today a different gospel: men are justified by God's grace in their hearts. That is not the Gospel proclaimed by the apostles. The Roman Catholic Church's teaching is accepted by many who think they are Christians, many who do not even belong to the Roman Catholic Church.

What Does the Bible Say?

The Bible teaches that believers in Christ are saved, not because of good works, good intentions, religious experiences, or religious rituals “not even because of what the Holy Spirit has done in their hearts “but solely and only because of what Christ did 2,000 years ago when he carried out the plan of God in salvation. Jesus Christ lived a perfect and sinless life, thus fulfilling the demands of God's law for his people. He died a substitutionary death, taking the punishment that his people deserve for their sins. He came to life again the third day, proving that God was satisfied with his perfect life and sacrifice.  

False Shepherds and Planned Partenthood

There are ministers today who are supporting the murderous agenda of Planned Parenthood.

Presbyterian Pastor: “I Love Planned Parenthood.” Calls Abortion Business a “Ministry”

I have only one thing to say to such false shepherds:
John 8:44 "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it."

Pope Francis

What should we think of Pope Francis?  The Westminster Confession of Faith 25.6 states that,
"There is no other head of the Church, but the Lord Jesus Christ; nor can the Pope of Rome, in any sense, be head thereof; but is that Antichrist, that man of sin, and son of perdition, that exalteth himself, in the Church, against Christ and all that is called God."

Tim Challies has written a helpful article on Pope Francis.  Like other popes before him, Francis is a false teacher who teaches a false gospel.
http://www.challies.com/articles/the-false-teachers-pope-francis