Jesus Calling?

Christian bookstores and online booksellers prominently display the "Jesus Calling" books for unsuspecting Christians to buy.  The books claim to be the words of Jesus as directly revealed to some woman who writes them down.  I don't think so.  Read Tim Challies excellent review here.  So many Christians, especially women, are led astray by this false teaching.  And their husbands don't seem to be discerning enough or interested enough to correct their wives and get this junk out of the house and out of their minds.  Tim Challies calls it a "deeply troubling book" and points out "10 serious problems with Jesus Calling in the hope that you will consider and heed these warnings."  Read the review here:

http://www.challies.com/articles/10-serious-problems-with-jesus-calling 

True Faith

Westminster Confession of Faith - Chap. 14 - Saving Faith

By this faith, a Christian believes to be true whatsoever is revealed in the Word, for the authority of God himself speaking therein; and acts differently upon that which each particular passage contains; yielding obedience to the commands, trembling at the threatenings, and embracing the promises of God for this life, and that which is to come. But the principal acts of saving faith are accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life, by virtue of the covenant of grace. 

Faith is a response to God's written word. Faith does not arise from ourselves or apart from Scripture. Test your own faith by this rule - What does Scripture say?  Whatever Scripture says, God says and I believe.  

Rome & Her Desecration of Christ

This post titled Rome & Her Desecration of Christ by Eric Davis exposes the utter blasphemy and heresy of the Roman Catholic Church.  Davis comments, "Today, nothing has changed. To my evangelical and Catholic friends, it’s important that we no longer erroneously say that Roman Catholicism differs from Scripture only on minor points of doctrine and history. As the Reformers saw clearly, and will be demonstrated here, the differences could not be greater."

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.