Street Preach in Texas

Update on Texas Revival Series III

2010-07-28T10:13:00.004-05:00

Texas Revival Series III

Mark your calendars now and make plans to attend Texas Revival Series III in Allen, TX!

TRS III will be held at Grace Church in Allen, TX. The keynote speaker is Tony Miano (Living Waters\Ambassadors Alliance). Randall Easter (FBC Briar) and Jon Speed (The Lost Cause Ministries) will also speak. The theme of the conference is "The Excellencies of Christ: The Supremacy of Christ in Evangelism."

As always, there will be ministry tables representing various evangelism ministries at the event. Way of the Master\Fish with Trish, One Million Tracts, Bezeugen Ministries, and The Lost Cause Ministries have all confirmed table space. Invitees will include Jeremiah Cry, Custom Tract Source, Voice of the Martyrs, and more.

Registration is still FREE. Register at www.TexasRevivalSeries.com.

Texas Revival Series III is set for October 9th, 2010

2010-07-01T08:24:00.004-05:00

This year’s Texas Revival Series is set for October 9th from Noon-8PM at Grace Church in Allen, TX (northeast of Dallas). The theme of the conference is “The Supremacy of Christ in Evangelism”. Mark your calendar now. Registration will be FREE.

Come hear:

Tony Miano (Living Waters’ Ambassadors Alliance)

Randall Easter (FBC Briar)

Jon Speed (The Lost Cause Ministries)

This is a great opportunity to network with evangelism ministries across Texas. Representatives from select evangelism and missions agencies will be present with tables in the foyer. Once the conference concludes, we will do an outreach in downtown Dallas.

www.texasrevivalseries.com

Texas Revival Series III shirts

2010-01-06T08:59:00.002-06:00

As we plan for the next Texas Revival Series, we've made some shirts for the next event. If you would like to support the next Texas Revival Series and would like a shirt, one can be yours for a minimum donation of $10. Sizes M, L, XL and 2XL. Interested parties can contact me through stpreach@gmail.com

God bless,
Steve

Texas Revival Series II RECAP

2009-10-21T15:42:00.005-05:00

Texas Revival Series II was a success and we're already planning for Texas Revival Series III in Spring of 2010. Many people came from as far away as Houston to experience great preaching on evangelism. Below is a sample of Randall Easter's speech.

Randall Easter speaking at Texas Revival Series II

Here's an interview I did during the conference with Tim Crawford of Lost Cause Ministries. He helped organize the event with his partner, Jon Speed. This interview talks about how he came to faith in Jesus Christ.

Texas Revival Series II update

2009-09-17T10:43:00.000-05:00

Reminder:

Don’t forget to register for the Texas Revival Series at www.TexasRevivalSeries.com!

Only 9 days left! Remember, pre-registrants get a FREE copy of the DVD “Missing Heaven Unaware” and a FREE copy of the book “Evangelism in the New Testament”.

Remember, the Lord is at work on the streets. Are you?

Blessings,

Steve Murphy & Jon Speed & Tim Crawford for The Lost Cause Ministries
www.lostcauseministries.com

Texas Revival Series II poster

2009-09-13T10:11:00.003-05:00

John Nieder on 91.3 KDKR in DFW

2009-08-25T17:32:00.008-05:00

John Nieder, of The Art of Family Living and The Chapel, is hosting a call-in radio show called "Live the Word" that focuses on the practical application of the Scriptures along with current events in light of Bible prophecy. The show will air on 91.3 in Dallas/Ft Worth Texas, Friday's at 5 pm. The number to call is 214-556-5651 to ask a question or leave a question to be answered.

http://www.kdkr.org
http://www.johnonline.org

Update on Texas Revival Series II

2009-08-05T13:41:00.008-05:00

From Jon Speed (The Lost Cause Ministries)

Saints,

First Baptist Church of Justin, TX and The Lost Cause Ministries are pleased to announce Texas Revival Series II on Saturday September 26th from 1:00-8:00PM.

The purpose of the event is to exalt our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ while equipping believers to share the gospel Biblically. To that end, we have expanded the meeting from one speaker to four and are inviting even more local evangelism ministries throughout Texas to come and set up ministry tables. The event, as always, is free thanks to the generosity of several local donors.

After the event concludes, you are invited to come join us on the streets of Fort Worth as we take the gospel to Sundance Square.

Our Guest Speakers

Keith Daniel: Keith is an itinerant preacher and has traveled throughout South Africa and the United States, serving with the Africa Evangelistic Band. He has also spoken at the Sermon Index Revival Conferences. Above all, he is passionately committed to the Lord and His Word.

Randall Easter: Randall is in his ninth year serving as pastor of First Baptist Church of Briar in Azle, Texas. He is a rare combination of passionate evangelist and committed undershepherd of the local church.

Mack Tomlinson: Mack is an elder of Providence Chapel in Denton, Texas. Over the years, Mack has been privileged to be under the personal influence of a number of great men of God, including Manley Beasley, Conrad Murrell, Bill McLeod and Leonard Ravenhill. He has edited books on the subjects of revival and church history and his written for The Banner of Truth and HeartCry Journal.

Mike Gendron: Since 1991 Mike has led Proclaiming the Gospel Ministries. His goal is to serve and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ by equipping and encouraging Christians to proclaim the Gospel clearly, faithfully and effectively. The ministry exposes the fatal errors of Roman Catholicism, Islam, and apostate Christianity, along with other faith movements.

Our Ministry Tables:

Please plan on coming a little early to visit the ministry tables. We’ve invited representatives of several ministries to come out and have a free table. Among those who have agreed to have a table are: Fish with Trish\Way of the Master, One Million Tracts, Custom Tract Source, Proclaiming the Gospel Ministries and The Lost Cause Ministries. Many other ministries are checking their schedules. This will be a great opportunity to network with the Biblical evangelism community in Northern Texas.

FBC Justin is located at 402 Eighth Street in Justin, TX (76247). Please mark your calendars now and pre-register at www.TexasRevivalSeries.com.

We hope to see you there!

In Christ,
Texas Revival Series

Texas Revival Series II - Sept 26, Saturday

2009-07-07T09:39:00.002-05:00

The Lost Cause Ministries and FBC Justin are pleased to announce this year’s Texas Revival Series! On Saturday, September 26th, from 1PM—8PM (with a break for dinner) we will enjoy solid preaching of the Word of God as it relates to evangelism. Our speakers this year include Jon Speed of The Lost Cause Ministries, Pastor Randall Easter of FBC Briar, Mack Tomlinson of Providence Chapel, and Keith Daniel of the African Evangelistic Band. Keith will also be preaching at FBC Justin on Sunday September 27th in both the morning and evening services.

US troops urged to share faith in Afghanistan - 04 May 09

2009-05-05T15:39:00.003-05:00

From youtube:
US soldiers in Afghanistan have been filmed with local language Bibles and urged to be "witnesses for Jesus" despite anti-proselytising rules. Al Jazeera's James Bays reports.

Interesting to listen to the bias of the reporter and the documentary maker but thank God the troops are that bold! Pray that these men and women stand strong in the face of the persecution that this news report will most certainly bring them.

Mark Cahill - Texas Revival Series 1 (RECAP)

2008-12-13T22:05:00.015-06:00

Organizing the event to bring Mark to speak in Dallas was quite a bit more difficult that I ever imagined but well worth the effort. And I never would have imagined that it would end with me missing most of the events because my wife would have our 2nd daughter, Hope, two months early on my dad's birthday. More on that later.

I came up with the idea of bringing Mark a little over a year ago (or God planted it) and called up his booking agency, Ambassador Speakers, got a quote for how much it would cost to bring him to Dallas and then put it aside. In January of 2008 I started a blog. I almost didn't do it because I was so busy and who really cares what I have to say but because I started this, Jon Speed of Lost Cause Ministries, found me. We met for lunch and I told him I wanted to bring Mark to speak. He checked with his partner, Tim, and they said they wanted to help. So now I had a ministry that could help me with promotion and spreading the word. Now we just to find a venue, no problem right?

Another great break occurred when a friend pledged to go in halves with me for the money for the event. We were really rolling so I thought.

But we just couldn't find a place to hold the event. The churches in north Dallas we contacted would not return emails or calls. The YMCA in Coppell said that would allow us to do it there but we knew we needed a little more space. By April we put the project aside.

I'd like to thank my men's group - Men of the Word lead by John Nieder for keeping my event on the weekly prayer list. Even as time passed with no results on my part, they kept it on, encouraged me and prayed for it's success. Looking back now this means so much to me.

In September I was having lunch with Jon and he mentioned meeting this guy who was street preaching at the gay rights parade in Dallas. I said that I hated to give up on bringing Mark but I was running out of time with my second daughter due to be born in February of 2009. Jon put two and two together and said he'd ask Keith from City Church International in Dallas if they would host Mark for the Dallas event. We met with Keith next week and he said they were interested and we never looked back. Jon and I came up with Texas Revival Series as the name of the event.

December 6 and 7 turned out to be the dates of the event. Everyone worked really hard with the short period of time we had to promote it, especially Jon Speed and Marv of One Million Tracts. It was truly amazing to watch how God wove this event together as the word got out with so little time. Unlike all the shows I used to play as a musician before being saved, I prayed frequently for its success and that God would get the right people there.

Friday nite, December 5th, I was driving back from getting ice cream with my mom and my daughter, Kat. We were doing what my dad loved to do best as we celebrated his birthday (he's now in Heaven). Lily who had been at work called to say that she was being taken to the hospital because she was bleeding. I dropped off my daughter at my mom's house and sped to the hospital. By 10:30 pm I had a new little baby, Hope. More on Hope's birth which was full of amazing blessings that only God could fulfill later.

From what I am told the Saturday event was packed with around 200 people with some people traveling from pretty far distances. I attended the Sunday morning service and was able to meet a guy who had traveled from Houston to hear Mark speak. Sunday night in Justin had around 150 people. I believe it was worth the investment as many people were encouraged in sharing the gospel with people they come across in their daily lives. I am so pleased to have had booths exhibiting some great ministries that participated in our event - Fish with Trish (Way of the Master); One Million Tracts; Gospel for Asia, Voice of the Martyrs and The Lost Cause Ministries.

TEXAS REVIVAL SERIES plans on doing future events and bringing dynamic speakers who proclaim the name of Jesus Christ boldly without compromise.

In Christ,
Steve

Mark Cahill to speak in DFW - Dec 6 & 7, 2008

2008-10-31T15:29:00.027-05:00

TEXAS REVIVAL SERIES presents:

Mark Cahill is the author of “One Thing You Can’t Do in Heaven” and "One Heartbeat Away." He has shared the Gospel with celebrities like Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Vanilla Ice, and Charles Barclay.

Join us for an evening of evangelistic motivation in Dallas, TX on Saturday, December 6th! After wards, we’ll be taking it to the streets!

Schedule:

Saturday, December 6th (City Church International)
5-6PM: Session #1
6-7PM: Session #2

7:30-10:00PM: Outreach in Dallas, TX (location TBD)

Sunday, December 7th:

10:00AM: Mark Cahill speaks at City Church International worship service

6:00PM: Mark speaks at First Baptist Church Justin in the evening service.

Registration will be FREE but go to www.texasrevivalseries.com to reserve your spot at the Saturday events.

If you can use some posters and\or postcards advertising the event at your local church or Christian bookstore, please contact us at stpreach@gmail.com to get free promotional items. To download and print out the poster/postcard yourself, go to this page.

For weekly updates please, join Lost Cause Ministries' email list by contacting jon@lostcauseministries.com

Host churches:

CityChurchIntl is located 1530 North Carroll Ave, Dallas, TX 75204.

First Baptist Justin is located at 402 8th Street, Justin, TX 76247.

Sponsors:

Lost Cause Ministries
One Million Tracts
Streetpreacher in Texas

Daniel's prayer

2008-10-29T07:35:00.001-05:00

We've been studying The Book of Daniel in our men's group. Even though his prayer was written 2500 years ago, I believe it can relate to the world we live in today. No matter how bad it seems, God is still in control!

Daniel 9:3-17 (NIV)

3 So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.

4 I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed:
"O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands, 5 we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. 6 We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

7 "Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame—the men of Judah and people of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you. 8 O LORD, we and our kings, our princes and our fathers are covered with shame because we have sinned against you. 9 The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him; 10 we have not obeyed the LORD our God or kept the laws he gave us through his servants the prophets. 11 All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you.
"Therefore the curses and sworn judgments written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against you. 12 You have fulfilled the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us great disaster. Under the whole heaven nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem. 13 Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not sought the favor of the LORD our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth. 14 The LORD did not hesitate to bring the disaster upon us, for the LORD our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him.

15 "Now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day, we have sinned, we have done wrong. 16 O Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill. Our sins and the iniquities of our fathers have made Jerusalem and your people an object of scorn to all those around us.

17 "Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, O Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. 18 Give ear, O God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. 19 O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For your sake, O my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name."

Abortion

2008-10-23T07:27:00.016-05:00

Some say that there are circumstances like rape that there is a need for an abortion. Some say if the mother's life is in danger. Some just say it's a woman's choice. Does the baby deserve a choice?

A family member sent me a link to Eduardo Verástegui's website. This is a very strong message against abortion and some of the pictures are graphic. He's a very popular hispanic movie star who made it a mission to speak for those who don't have a voice. After watching this video, I don't know how people could continue to hold a prochoice view.

Guysforlife.org is a great website with some interesting video interviews. They interview men who look back to their teen years having had a girlfriend who had an abortion and how the experience still haunts them years later. They also interview men whose girlfriend/wife had the baby while they were barely adults and how the child changed their lives. Very stirring footage that makes you stop and think.

Aaron choose abortion interview

Reproductive "Choice" Campaign (RCC)posts images of aborted babies on their trucks and then drive them around town. Some say this is going too far. WARNING: Graphic material. What is a life worth if someone sees this and doesn't go through an abortion? But children can see this truck as well and isn't that bad? I'm not even going to pretend I have an answer for this. It's interesting to read the responses on their feedback page. They are either very positive or super negative.

There's a movie based on a true story called "22 Weeks" WARNING: Graphic material about a young woman trapped in the bathroom of an abortion clinic who watched helplessly as her baby died after being born alive. This film was made by Angel Manuel Soto Vasquez.

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From the 1966 movie Alfie a deleted scene about abortion:

"Finger of God" DVD movie - review

2008-10-20T07:50:00.002-05:00

I first learned about Darren Wilson on Sid Roth's show this year. In an interview Darren explains that he was commissioned by an angel to travel the world and document the miraculous. Darren comes from a non-"Word of Faith" Christian background and was resistant at first to all this healing business but an angel forcefully urged him to make the movie and the money to make the movie made itself available. How could it not be of God - everything fit in place for him to make this movie? Intrigued by this, I purchased the movie.

First Darren visits church meetings in hotels where people magically get gold dust on their body parts, heavenly jewels appear in people's hands, and mysterious manna is baked in their bibles. Sad thing is I suppose we'll never really know in this lifetime if these people are sprinkling gold dust when someone is not looking or pulling out a planted blue jewel out of their pockets. Darren's own uncle and aunt developed some gold teeth at one of these prayer meetings. Another reason he choose to explore the world of healing stems from the fact that he knows his aunt and uncle and can vouch for them being reasonable, sane people.

I believe it doesn't hurt to air a word of caution. The Word-of-Faith gang tries so hard to justify it's goofiness in similar activities that they lack or rarely show any discernment even though recent modern history has proved many of these healing ministries are complete scams that ultimately turn many away from Christ. A recent example is Todd Bently's dying false-fire empire who they are still making excuses for him even after he's getting divorced, admitting a problem with alcohol and God only know what else he's been into. Even though the guy was into all that and never preached a true gospel, they believe people were saved at Lakeland or more importantly healed while Todd was kicking them in the face with his bikers boot.

The movie also interviews young people in the US who go out and ask to pray for people they meet who have visible physical problems. I can't verify from the footage whether the injured who are prayed for are truly healed or not. Of course Darren doesn't follow up with any of the people at a later period so it's hard to say. One thing really bothers me is that they don't share the gospel with these people they have just healed. One young man even admitted it's weird going out with no tracts or literature about Jesus. Is healing more important than saving grace?

As the movie progresses, Darren goes into Africa and shows some amazing footage of the underground Chinese church. I have to admit I was brought to tears with some of these scenes.

I can't say if this movie is of God or not of God. And there are some things that leave you scratching your head. One is I didn't hear the gospel presented (I guess Darren assumes the potential audience already knows it) and never once do you hear anything about the ugly word - repentance.

Pilgrims Progress - Journey to Heaven - movie review

2008-10-15T07:55:00.001-05:00

Recently, I purchased a copy of Reelchristian's "Pilgrim's Progress - Journey to Heaven" DVD. Having read the book a few years ago I had the story fresh in mind and was eager to see how they would portray John Bunyan's timeless book. The website describes it as a modern retelling of a classic story. Overall, it's is a very compelling rendition of the story combining some modern touches along the backdrop of the literal story. I liked the cast and the scenery along the way is beautiful.

The movie sells for around $20 and I would highly recommend it. After watching it a few times, it challenged me ask whether I was getting off the path in my Christian walk.

From their website:
"The goal was to stay as faithful to the book and its’ Gospel message as possible. At this time, over 6,000 people have seen the film in test screenings, with over 200 people surrendering their lives to Jesus. It is humbling to know that God is using the film for His glory and it’s just getting out of the starting gate."

Fireproof - movie review

2008-10-13T07:37:00.009-05:00

This weekend my wife and I went to see "Fireproof", the movie from the guys who made "Facing the Giants." I was floored by this movie, it's really good. Fireproof is well written and acted. It is funny with romance and some pretty intense parts as this young couple tries to decide whether to end their young marriage or not. Kirk Cameron of Way of the Master plays the part of Caleb Holt, a frustrated fire fighter whose marriage is falling apart. This role shows us a not-so-nice side of Kirk that was good to see he could pull it off. The movie even deals with the difficult subject of pornography. There is a strong gospel presentation from Harris Malcolm who plays Kirk's father. I really liked Mr. Malcolm's character, very strong presence. Overall, this movie glorifies Jesus Christ our savior in such a way I almost had to ask if I was dreaming seeing a movie like this in the local movie theater.

I want to stress this is a good movie. I rarely go out to see movies because we all know what the majority of it is these days. But when I do see a movie I am very critical so I was very much pleased to have been entertained and enlightened by this one. Please consider going out and supporting it.

Bart Blair - "All for you" ep

2008-10-06T07:22:00.000-05:00

My friend and former band mate of the 80's has released his new ep entitled "All of you" from Mississauga, Canada. The five song ep features some great Christian worship music in the vein of Chris Thomlin. The songs are "Follow You," "Psalm 148," "All For You," "You Are My Friend," and "Love Song for the Creator." The songs are well thought out and I've been listening to them for several weeks.

He also has an ep he did in 2006 called "Lifewater," I'd recommend getting as well.

His myspace page to hear the tunes.

His webpage to purchase a copy.

Here's a blog I wrote about Bart when we both had a lot more hair.
Bart, a friend from my past.

Jesus sign

2008-10-03T16:25:00.004-05:00

Orissa India

2008-09-04T07:28:00.003-05:00

Have you heard about the persecution that Christians in Orissa India are suffering? Orissa is located on the eastern coast by the Bay of Bengal. Churches are being destroyed, their homes are being burned down, people are being martyred for their faith in Christ. We really need to be praying for them right now. We are all busy but please make time for that prayer today.

How can you get involved? Check out Gospel for Asia's website.

Here's an update on the situation in Orissa India from K.P. Yohannan of Gospel for Asia (Sept 15, 2008)

Lost Cause Ministries

2008-08-18T07:45:00.004-05:00

Last Saturday, August 16, 2008, I helped Lost Cause Ministries run their booth at the North Texas State Fair in Denton, Texas with several other volunteers who have a much better grasp at witnessing than I do. Ironically, the last time I was at the fair grounds was in 1992 when one of my bands played there. The same old stage was there, but they had added quite a bit to the fairgrounds since then.

We had a great time handing out "One Million Dollar bill" tracts and 10 Commandment coins.

Please listen to the interview I did with Jon Speed about his ministry:

Jon Speed
Lost Cause Ministries

Blow out...

2008-08-12T07:40:00.001-05:00

Interesting story, I bought a new car a couple of weeks ago and we had to take it out of town this weekend because our other new car developed a light on the dash directing us to go to the dealership as we were attempting to leave that morning.

We drove up to Tulsa to see some relatives. We took 75N and got stuck for an hour behind the tragic bus wreck in Sherman where 17 people died. We had no idea what was going on at the time until we arrived in Tulsa and someone told us about it.

Saturday, mid-morning, while driving from Tulsa to Oklahoma City on 44 we had a tire blow out. I thought we could change the flat and get right back on the road but the jack in our new car didn't go high enough. About two inches short of what we needed. We were stuck out there for nearly two hours in the hot August sun. And I was praying pretty hard for someone to stop to let us borrow their jack but no one did even with a 2 year old baby sitting with us on the hill by the side of the road. If you're ever in a situation like this do not stay in the car, people mistakenly ram parked cars on the side of the road.

The guy from the service call finally shows up. He had driven by about 30 min before but missed us because he thought we were at another location! The dude was quiet and not saying much I think he knew he had screwed up. So he jacks up my car and we get the tire on in 5 minutes. Without saying goodbye, he gets in his tow truck and waits for us to leave.

I reached into my bag and pulled out a Mark Cahill "One Heartbeat Away" book and walk over to his truck. His girlfriend opens the passenger window. I asked if he ever read. He said some. I gave him the book and said it was good and walked off. Not easy to do when I wanted to ream him for leaving my family on the side of the road so long in August heat.

While stuck on the side of the road, I tried to think about Paul while he was chained to Roman guards (Acts 27:1) & (Acts 28:16) or how he and Silas sang in the prison when an earthquake opened the prison doors (Acts 16:16-40). And, amazingly for me, at one small point I prayed for the people who kept driving by and not stopping to help us.

All came out well. When we stopped to eat in Oklahoma City, the temperature was well over 100 and I realized that God's wonderful mercy had saved us from that kind of heat on the side of the road with no cover!

Also, after we got back on the road we saw several cars on the side of the road and we didn't stop. If you do stop to help someone, be very careful of the situation.

Acts 16:25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.

After our roadside experience: lunch time at Del Ranchos in Moore

LAMININ

2008-08-11T15:14:00.004-05:00

A friend forwarded this video link in an email to me and I have to admit it blew me away. I watched it several times. Pretty wild. Actually amazing really. It's a Louie Giglio sermon, I'm not sure what his other teaching is like but this is good.

Robb Bell Bullhorn response

2008-08-01T07:39:00.019-05:00

Have you ever listened to Robb Bell's bullhorn response? Here's an interesting game if you're up for it - let's compare his response to Todd Friel's response. By watching these two videos you can get a good understanding between their views on evangelism, the emergent (postmodern-influenced) Christian vs a Christian who takes the Bible as the literal, absolute truth of God. Bell holds that God is love and you'll get there when it works out but don't sweat it (Jesus is a big love teddy bear) and Way of the Master teaches that your next breath is not guaranteed so don't delay in seeking out Jesus. Interesting.

Robb Bell's Bullhorn response:

Todd Friel of Way of the Master radio's response.

Bullwhip guy: (from PerishNot Ministries) Using film footage of Jesus driving the money changers out of the temple (Mark 11:15-17) as a fake Robb Bell gives his view that event.

Many churches are moving towards Bell's style of preaching. What is your church preaching? Are they ignoring difficult sections of the Bible and never mention sin or hell? If so, are you being fed?

When I came to Christ, I realized fairly quickly that many, many of my friends and family weren't saved and therefore going to hell. In 2002 I started attending a church that really wasn't into evangelism other than inviting friends to church or doing nice things for people. And what I am about to say may be a little controversial but from my experience as a believer (although not a long, long time believer but I've spent many hours watching for this), that the casual encounters with unbelievers unless really touched by God will not bring people to Christ through being nice. And if an emergent is honest, they build everything on being nice to people and doing things for people rather than sharing the gospel with people or telling them what the Bible says on different subjects. In my experience I have not seen anyone come to Christ just because I was nice to them at the grocery store (ie a random encounter with a person you meet once or twice). They don't ask what I have that was different from everyone else. Now I do believe that people you work with or see often can see the love of Christ in you in a way that can point them to Christ.

Now I want to point out that Way of Master does not endorse people who are meanspirited when preaching the gospel. That's not in love. (1 Corinthians 13:2) But to have the attitude that it's a bad thing and doing more harm than good to share the gospel to someone you meet on the street is so against what Jesus and his disciples did it's almost laughable to contend that in our modern times sharing the gospel with a stranger doesn't work anymore. What was one of the first things Jesus ever preached? In Matthew 4:17 "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."

I would love to challenge the emergent Christian who is reading this and not really liking what he's reading to ask him or herself are you more influenced by the Bible or by a humanistic belief that you can make the world better? And if you disagree this might be a problem, I challenge you again to dig into your Bible and ask God to reveal what he wants of your life instead of letting the Bell's and McLaren's of the world do your interpretation for you. Several years ago I know that I had to do this when I stopped reading many of the popular Christian books because I had to admit I was reading them more than the Bible!

Remember: 1 Timothy 3:16 "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,"

MEGACHURCHES!!!

2008-07-27T15:21:00.014-05:00

I won't make the claim that all big, big churches are bad but what percentage would you say that are bad? Pretty high if we're comparing them to churches that are biblically rooted. In my opinion the postmodern mindset of many big, big church leaders is that church growth is more important that staying biblically sound. The message have been softened not to offend, quotes from the bible lessened to keep people awake and more giant screen TV previews of contemporary movies for the newbies to relate to. And really all they are saying with these actions is the Word of God is not good enough for people today so we have to jazz it up, add to it. The farther we move from the Word of God and dumb down the message the more we embrace weak teaching.

Below is a video I found that asks the modern church goer to ponder what we consider church to be today. How did Paul ever manage without giant TV screens and million dollar sound systems?

You may ask why this concerns me? In the last days before Jesus returns people will move away from sound teaching and embrace that which tickles the ear. And when I read the two sections of scripture below, they tend to cause me some concern over what I see happening in the evangelical church world today. I don't know when the end times will begin but I know we are called to watch and be prepared (Mark 13:33). Poor teaching in our churches, no matter what the size, will make the job of the antichrist and his minions that much easier when he herds uneducated Christians into a one world religious system.

1 Timothy 4:1 The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.

2 Timothy 4:2-5
2 Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

Mark 13:33 "Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come."

Forwarded emails - call for discernment

2008-07-23T07:18:00.002-05:00

I believe we could use a little discernment in the emails we forward. A good place to reference those with outrageous claims is www.snopes.com to verify if they are true. And if it's one of those emails that claims if you pass this along to ten people and you'll get a pot of gold or whatever- PLEASE DELETE THOSE!

Below is from an email I sent out in reference to RE: TEXAS COACH SPEAKS OUT.

I found a blog where this guy researched the RE: TEXAS COACH SPEAKS OUT email and it's partially true (see snopes) website. They say that abc claims it was an overzealous programmer that answered the coach's email so the email isn't abc's official position. But the reality is that even though abc came up with an email apologizing for this email response, many writers in Hollywood and most of the people who run the media are very pro-homosexual agenda.

The blog I got this info from the writer lives in the town of Childress and couldn't find a coach named Jim Neugent. He makes some good points about emails like this - it's worth reading this.
http://www.treymorgan.net/2007/03/jim-neugent-coach-from-childress-abc.html

Back in March I wrote an article about how today's writers in TV and movies tend to twist right and wrong in their story lines. There is so much in TV and movies we should really avoid these days. Esp if we have kiddos.
http://stpreach.blogspot.com/2008/03/moral-relativity-on-your-television-set.html

Rapture ready?

2008-07-11T07:59:00.006-05:00

I'm not going to even touch the timing of the rapture (post or pre-trib). Instead I'm going to ask you a potentially tough question, are you ready for the rapture? If it happened tonight, would you be ready?

At the building I work in they recently forced the smokers away from the entrance of the building, farther off. Because of this, the smokers have discovered nature in the trees and small fountains away the building. Yesterday, I was told by one of the smokers that there was several cute baby ducks swimming in the small fountain near the new smoking area. Because of this I brought my camera to take pictures today. But when I asked a smoker if she had seen the baby ducks, she said they were not there. And she said the mother duck seemed to be waddling about searching for her little ones.

I realized that this situation is a powerful analogy on how unbelieving or backsliding parents will feel when their children are raptured and they are not. How people who's dear friends are raptured and they are not will find themselves.

Today I watched an interested video by Monica Dennington of Tic Toc Ministries who biblically defends the view that Christ wanted us to be focused on being ready for his return rather than focusing or arguing on the actual time of his return.

All of us are going to die at some point. We have no clue when our number's up. Here's a clip from a film called "Drifting" featuring Brett Bower as the bad guy. In this clip a pastor and his wife pick up a hitchhiker who pulls a gun on them and challenges the pastor as to whether he's ready to meet his maker or not. Very powerful.

This is an interesting video that you either rejoice at the end or get really mad. If this made you mad, please think about what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 13:5-6 "5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test? 6 And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test."

God bless,
Steve

LONG HOT SUMMER

2008-07-08T08:43:00.009-05:00

One of my friends made the most profound statement when he described adult life by stating how we used to look forward to summer as kids but as adults it's basically just a beating that you endure till September. I'm not very good at planning vacations so I've never built those in to help with the long hot summer in north Texas. As a byproduct of the heat, I usually feel tired and not at all inspired when it comes to writing my blogs. During these times I've tried to dig in the Word of God.

My friend, Bill, likes to work with wood. He made little wooden crosses for all the guys in our men's group and told us we could pick a verse from the Bible that he would burn into the crosses. I picked the end of 2 Corinthians 12:10 - "For when I am weak then I am strong."

When in doubt, turn to the Word of God.

Prophecy

2008-06-09T07:29:00.004-05:00

Prophecy (def) n 1: knowledge of the future (usually said to be obtained from a divine source) 2: a prediction uttered under divine inspiration

John Nieder discusses the signs of the times through the lens of Bible prophecy in the clips below:

PORN

2008-05-29T07:36:00.007-05:00

Is porn bad for a Christian?

For the Christian that thinks the porn industry isn't so bad, I would refer them to Shelley Lubben's website. Shelley's an ex-porn star, ex-prostitude who came to Christ and now has a ministry to help educate people about what it is like to live/work in the world of pornography. She reveals that drugs/alcohol/sexual diseases run rampant and although they make good money they tend to blow whatever they make. The damage to these people's lives is devastating and some take their own lives after only a short career. After listening to her story, it's hard to claim no one's getting hurt by watching pornography. And whether we want to admit it or not, if we watch these movies we are watching someone's daughter/son in a legalized form of prostitution.

Having said all of that let me say that I’ve struggled with pornography most of my life. The Internet has made it a whole lot easier to get it as opposed to not just 10 years ago you had to drive some place or mail order.

As a believer in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17 – “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”), we are called to not be of the world (see Galatians 5:16-26) and if we slip or fall into lust we must repent and turn from it. And not make the excuse that everyone does it...

Shelley recommends digging into the Bible for help. Her favorite Bible verse is 2 Corinthians 10:5 “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

Another ministry that helps with porn addiction is
Pure Life Ministries.

I am currently using a porn filter (X3Pro) from XXXChurch which emails the websites that you visit to up to three accountability partners every week.

Evil Chuck of Death, a Christian or just spiritual?

2008-05-19T07:51:00.003-05:00

Was Evil Chuck of the death metal band Death, a Christian or just spiritual at the time of his death in 2001? He had battled cancer for over two years and possibly this challenged what he believed. As I tried to find an answer to this question, I was amazed at the death metal fans who considered him a traitor or worse because he might had been a Christian. Statements from his mother simply stated that he had always been very spiritual never stating him as a follower of Christ. I searched the Internet high and low and couldn't find anything on him making a declaration of faith in Christ.

I have a friend who was on tour with Chuck in the 80s and many of the stories weren't very flattering. He would take the shirts bands would give him and put them on the steps of their tour bus to step on them. He wasn't very positive towards fans that came up to meet him either. He sounded like a pretty complicated guy. He might have been different in the 90s and I admit I never met him. I did see him play at Joe's Garage in the late 80s and I was amazed to see a blue-eyed baby-faced Chuck spout out such deep, guttural death groans.

Recently, as I was listening to the second song on Spiritual Healing, "Altering the Future," the question of the late great Chuck's beliefs came up. "Altering the Future" appears to describe abortion as murder that calls for the death of women who have had an abortion. I didn't hold antiabortion views at this time in the 80s. I believed in the horrible lie of abortion until 2002 when I became a believer. And, obviously, I don't believe that women who have abortions should be killed, they have a chance to repent of this sin and some truly have repented after having one. So all of this got me to thinking as to whether he had come to Christ or not. Chuck probably knew that there was a good chance he was going to die during his struggle with cancer.

In the Christian world we see a lot of people who claim to be spiritual but there's a big difference between being spiritual and knowing and trusting in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. The Bible states that there is one way to Heaven and that is through the blood of Jesus Christ. The world will tell you different and if you listen to some of Chuck's former fans Christianity is bad and has harmed society. But that's a subject for another blog.... I just hope Chuck decided to trust in Jesus before he died from brain cancer in 2001.

Altering The Future (lyrics)

Creating a life only to destroy
Saved from a life of the unemployed
Where crime is the only way to survive
Which is the best to be dead or alive?
Maybe a chance but maybe not
Born to be thrown in the trash to rot
To exist in this world may be a mistake
The one who is with child, it's their choice to make

Death and life taken so easily
Right or wrong, whose choice will it be?

Abortion, when it is needed
Execution, for those who deserve it
The giving and taking of life will always be
Altering the future

Look into the future to prepare us for our fate
Controlling our existence with every life we take

Life for a life should remain the rule
The innocent victim that is what's cruel
Look to the past is what we should do
When justice was done and justice was true
Using our laws to help their escape
An easy way out is what they create
Claiming insane is the way to freedom
People are stupid enough to believe them

Death and life taken so easily
Right or wrong, whose choice will it be?

Abortion, when it is needed
Execution, for those who deserve it
The giving and taking of life will always be

BONO

2008-05-12T07:53:00.002-05:00

I have to admit I'm really sick of hearing U2 music in churches.

Why do Christians glorify Bono? Before I came to Christ in 2002, I was a fan of U2 and have seen them twice in concert during the 90s. And from knowing their lyrics and even how they portrayed themselves in concert, there wasn't much Christian about them that I ever witnessed.

This video takes a hard look at U2's lyrics and the songs they choose to cover. This is a must see for anyone who thinks "I still haven't found what I'm looking for" is a Christian song or is glorying Christ:

Matthew 7:15-16
15 "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

What is the Emergent Church?

2008-05-02T07:27:00.002-05:00

I have mentioned the term "Emergent Church" to several Christian friends and they are not familiar with term so I thought it's important to define it. Quite a few churches now are experimenting with some of the practices of the emergent church movement which at first come across as good ideas but can be very deceptive. You often hear people like Rick Warren say they want to change the way we "do" church. This is a good warning sign that you're about to hear some Emergent teaching mixed in with good teaching. The more liberal teachings of the emergent church I find are more deceptive, dangerous than a Marilyn Manson or Slayer because you know where they're coming from.

Definition: (from Encyclopedia) : "a label that has been used to refer to a particular subset of Christians who are rethinking Christianity against the backdrop of Postmodernism....

VOTM radio Todd Friel interviews John MacArthur about Brian McLaren's social gospel, one of the leaders of the emergent movement. MacArthur points out how the more liberal emergents believe that Jesus came to fix the world (Liberation Theology), and how they want to move away from teaching of sin. As Todd Friel has paraphrased them, "We can spend all our time making the world a better place so they can go to hell from." And another disturbing aspect to some emergents is that they do not accept the Bible as absolutely true. This is a must listen!

Recently I read an article on the web by Brian McLaren where he basically doesn't answer question posed to him on his church's stance on homosexuality and then tries to make the reader feel guilty for even wanting to know his answer. This guy is slick. When he later reveals that the couple who asked the question has a parent who is now gay and they want to know if the father and his partner can come to a wedding if they hold it there, it's almost like he's triumphant at this point attempting to make us feel guilty. You can't even tell if he answered their question from this article. He seems to imply people might come to Christ if we're wishy-washy tolerant.

Taken from that article:
"Perhaps we need a five-year moratorium on making pronouncements. In the meantime, we'll practice prayerful Christian dialogue, listening respectfully, disagreeing agreeably."

The last thing we ought to do according to this emergent guru is go to the Bible and actually see what God says. Now if McLaren went to the Bible he'd most probably pull out something like "The Message" so he can manipulate the meaning into the nothingness he's shooting for.

This is very similar to Joel Osteen - they doesn't wan to offend people. Jesus never offended anyone, did he? They put him on the cross because he tickled their ears? But they think things are different now in this crazy modern world? Their view is that we need to modify how we teach Christianity to be effective.

This is the kind of mindset many leaders of the mega-churches want to embrace as they throw old seeker sensitive methods on the dung hill and look for the next big thing. Six Flags over Jesus hasn't worked well for them. Now they turn to affirming, non threatening, kind and never state anything definite on the big questions just like a big teddy bear.

I was in a grocery store the other day and I witnessed an older white gentleman get mad at the cashier and manager because something wasn't working the way he wanted it. He stormed out and those minimum wage workers just shook their heads. And I thought you know that's bad when a Christian acts like that in public (I'm not saying this guy was or wasn't). But what I believe the emergents have allowed themselves to be formed by our postmodern society into thinking is that they don't want to be like the rude Christian in public when asked hard questions the Bible is straightforward in answering. I have no clue how it helps people to hear a sugar coated the message of the gospel, it certainly doesn't challenge them to repent, turn from their sins. And the tough questions can be answered in love without malice but there will be times that people hearing those answers will not be happy with the answer. Now McLaren in this article goes one step further by not even answering the question and then wants you to believe he's brilliant with his zen-like tolerance. Oprah would be clapping, "You, go girl!"

Here's an interesting quote from Mark Driscoll, founder of Mars Hill Church in Seattle.
"In the mid-1990s I was part of what is now known as the Emerging Church and spent some time traveling the country to speak on the emerging church in the emerging culture on a team put together by Leadership Network called the Young Leader Network. But, I eventually had to distance myself from the Emergent stream of the network because friends like Brian McLaren and Doug Pagitt began pushing a theological agenda that greatly troubled me. Examples include referring to God as a chick, questioning God's sovereignty over and knowledge of the future, denial of the substitutionary atonement at the cross, a low view of Scripture, and denial of hell which is one hell of a mistake." – Mark Driscoll

Mark Driscoll discusses the emerging church.

John Davis of Superdrag

2008-04-28T07:15:00.004-05:00

John Davis is the leader singer and guitarist for the power pop band, Superdrag. I was lucky enough to see them play at The Galaxy Club in Dallas around 1995. A friend had dragged me to see an industrial metal band but all I can remember from that nite is Superdrag who opened the show. They dressed and sounded very much like a heavy Beatles and the lead guitarist looked like Roy Obison's little brother. The audience consisted only of apathetic goth kids who Davis berated and finally stomped off the stage in disgust because of lack of participation. To be honest he came off looking like a fool more than cool. I have no idea why they were on the bill and wonder if that show inspired Davis to write "Do the Vampire" for the next Superdrag album.

A year later I would borrow their first album "Regretfully Yours" from Dan, a friend at work, and listened to it nonstop for a long period of time. It took me a while to figure out they were the band I had seen opening for the industrial metal band.

I quit following the Superdrag till 2000 when I found them on the internet and discovered that the band with a new bassist, Sam Powers, had written an incredible album, "The Valley of Dying Stars," a power pop epic. I saw them live again a couple times in Dallas at Club Clearview.

A few years later, I was surprised and pleased to hear that John Davis had become a Christian. He had grown up strict Baptist but had fallen away from the faith in his teenage years. During his Superdrag resurgence in 2002 he had been drinking quite a bit and one day while driving his car felt the Holy Spirit hit him pretty hard. So he sobered up and quit doing Superdrag. He released a self-titled album in 2005 and in 2007 Arigato! Both dealing with Christian themes. I feel a little kinship to him since I came to Christ in 2002 as well.

Currently, he's touring with Superdrag again with original bassist, Tom Pappas. When I checked his myspace page to help with the writing of this blog, I don't see any mention of Christ and I hope he hasn't chosen the coolness over proclaiming his love for Christ because I know from my own experience acting cool does not bring people to the Lord.

His web site
( ( (( superdrag.com )) ) )

The Cult of Oprah & her New Age teachings

2008-04-24T07:12:00.004-05:00

Panthesism (definition) is the view that everything is an all-encompassing, immanent abstract God.

Oprah's always pushing the cutting edge of the feel-good self-help gurus and once she places her approval on their book or DVD, it sells like hotcakes. Unfortunately, most of the stuff she endorses is deeply rooted in New Age teachings. What's scary is many of her fans call themselves Christians. Is she helping to program people to view Christians who view the Bible as the absolute Word of God as fringe fanatics? Since many post modern Christians believe they have salvation and can act and do pretty much what they want unless they slip and kill someone, they aren't spending too much time reading in their Bibles. Why read that old book when Oprah's going to give you something that feeds the flesh and doesn't make you feel guilty?

I have been looking for a good Biblical study on the subject and thanks to a heads up from my neighbor, Judy, I found a sermon by Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Dallas from last Sunday, April 20, 2008.

Below is a clip from a Sid Roth show in which the testimony of a New Age yoga guru, Mike Shreve, who came to Christ is presented. At the end Mike describes very clearly what the New Age beliefs are as opposed to a belief in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. The New Age description is strikingly similar to what Oprah professes to believe.

Here's another video on this:

Please be careful there is a lot of deception out there these days!

2 Timothy 4:2-5
2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned to fables.
5 But watch in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of your ministry.

North Korea

2008-04-23T07:54:00.007-05:00

This is a powerful and sobering account of the atrocities that occur in North Korea. Please pray daily for these people as well as the persecuted church around the world.

Taken from video description on Godtube:
PRAY UNTIL SOMETHING HAPPENS: There are 23 million people in this atheist State with a heavily fortified 250 mile border to the South with South Korea. NK is widely recognised as the most secretive nation in the world dominated by the Kim family, and today by Kim Jung-Il the ruling despot. The thoughts and writings of his father, Kim Il Sung control all of society and stand in direct conflict with the freedoms of the Gospel. There is widespread abuse of believers, extensive famine in rural areas, a moribund economy and zero toleration of criticism

This is another video that tells the story of a North Korean man named Kim Chul Min. OpenDoorsUSA has a great website striving to help and inform about the persecuted church.

Voice of the Martyrs is an organization that attempts to help the people of North Korea.

Memorial speech for my dad 2006

2008-04-21T13:41:00.007-05:00

This is the email I sent out two years ago:

I’d like to thank everyone that came out to my dad’s memorial yesterday. He would have been pretty overwhelmed by the response, I know I was. I’d also like to thank everyone that has been there for my mom as well.

Below I’ve included the speech I tried to get out yesterday- that was one of the most difficult things I’ve had to do. I’ve also included the lyrics to the song I wrote about him in 1991. My mom told me that after she played it for him- he cried. Still brings a tear to the eye when I think about that.

God bless,
Steve

JFM Memorial Speech by his son – April 23, 2006

Jim F Murphy passed away 12:30 am on April the 21st. He was peaceful, they had him on morphine so I don’t think he suffered. Tough thing to watch someone die let alone your own dad, but he had made his peace and went to his reward. As Coach Fergie said, “It’s a hard thing.” Dad had everyone around him he loved and had had time earlier in the day to say goodbye. I told him I loved him which up until yesterday was something I had never said in person to him.

He had suffered quite a bit in these last six months with his battle with cancer, but I’m here to tell you he fought until the end. He was really a FIGHTER. It was amazing to watch him even at the end. When I die I can only hope for a portion of the courage that he displayed going through this. And although it was tough on him, he had time to be around his loved ones and let them tell him how they feel. He also renewed his faith in Christ in this period of his life. I think he was lucky in that over the past two years he knew things were serious, and he had time to reflect on the afterlife. I really think that was a blessing which most of us can’t be guaranteed that luxury. We’re moving at lightning speed, and we don’t realize that life is but a second. And now, knowing that my dad’s gone, kicks me in the head in a way that can only scream – every moment in your life is precious. And all I’m saying is that if you aren’t sure about where you’re going when you die, make the time because tomorrow is not guaranteed.

Looking back on my dad’s life, I can see the many friends he worked with. I remember one story about him at JYC, and they were doing a wastewater controls project. Another project manager, Weldon, was having trouble with one of their clients “the city of whatever”, he told them he was going to have to send Murphy in if they didn’t get their act together. The customer, looking horrified at the prospect of my dad coming in, said “Not the Sidewinder!” He played bad cop quite well.

He was also a great manager. It’s sad that today most people seem to have lost this art. My dad was a stand up guy who went to bat for the people who worked for him. People loved to work for him and remember him years and years after he worked for them. He was also amazing how he could get the best out of the people who worked for him and get them to be more productive than before. Now don’t get me wrong, if things didn’t work out, he would send in the Sidewinder. I worked with my dad at Team Controls as engineering aide in 1995. This was my first experience with computers and over the 3 years he helped get several of my friends to work there who eventually went to somewhat better things – Microsoft for them and my own company for me.

My dad’s passion in life next to his family was baseball. Man, he loved baseball. All the way back to Sulphur, Oklahoma, in the 50’s while he was still in high school, he dreamt of playing in the majors and getting picked up by a farm team for the pros. That life didn’t happen, and he went on to become an engineer. But he always kept that love, and I know he loved watching and coaching Todd and I play when we were young. Todd played catcher in high school when Coppell went to state, which I know meant the world to him. In later years, he would help coach select baseball teams around the area. Last week, I have one cherished time when we watched Pedro Martinez win his 200th game. He was dozing off, but after every inning, I would wake him by telling him what was going on. Another great memory is when he and I took a trip to Chicago, and we saw a Cubs day game at Wriggly Field so many years ago.

My dad was always the provider. He was there for us and always took care of things and didn’t want us to worry. He never would let me pay for meals but if you ask some friends like Rick, he’d say I didn’t want to pay. And that was true when I was younger, but now I want to pay because what he gave me as a son is beyond words. He was a great dad in a world where a lot of people don’t have that privilege.

My dad’s main love was his family. I know he loved to spent time with his grandbaby, Molly, and was excited about Lily’s and my new arrival this fall -- Moo Goo Gai Pan Murphy. The last thing I said to him was that Lily was going to make a boy, so she’s working on that. And I know he truly loved my mom - - the love of his life. Even though he didn’t always tell her how he felt and could get grumpy like all men, he truly loved her, and she knows that. And I think he was pretty proud of his boys, both of whom owned their own businesses and married some pretty special girls who can deal with the Murphy mystique.

My dad wouldn’t want us to be too sad right now. I know him pretty well, because in a lot of ways, I’ve become him. I inherited his humor, his Irish temper, his love of food that’s bad for me and an intense love of cursing loudly. His birthday is one day after mine and I know this year, when December 5th rolls around (his birthday,) I will miss him just like I am now. He was a great guy, and we’ll miss him.

Admission

And the days go by so mercilessly
I thought I was wise to the ways of man
People and places, work of the world, to make those demands
I’ve seen changes and life in unto me.

Chorus:
And I’ll ways knew you were there for me
And I know it’s something to have some who cares
It’s always there being your son
It’s always there being

Still the days go by carrying me and my dreams
People and places, work of the world, to make those dreams
But I found the truth as you once told me of

Chorus:

Bridge-
The ways of the world we’ll never understand
The ways of the world diseased, refrain

And the days have gone and things that must be said are left until the end
People and places, work of the world, demands and more dreams
Are nothing compared to how I love you

Chorus

Note: If you read the lyrics to the last verse it’s pretty ironic how I wrote 15 years ago – “And the days have gone and things that must be said are left until the end.” I never told my dad in person I loved him till two days before he died.

John Nieder - a Man of God that I Know

2008-04-14T07:38:00.002-05:00

I've had the privilege studying under John's teachings in my men's group (Men of the Word) for several years and he is truly an amazing teacher. In an day and age when many preachers are toying with dangerous "new ways of doing church," John focuses on Biblical teachings. Since the 80s he has been on the air with "The Art of Family Living" and for several years has had a weekly show on John DeBrine's Songtime about prophecy which I would highly recommend in the day and age we live in.

In 2007 he started a church in Coppell called The Chapel which has been another avenue I've enjoyed hearing his teaching. He has authored several books, including What You Need to Tell Your Child About Sex (Thomas Nelson Publishers), Forgive and Love Again (with Dr. Thomas M. Thompson, Harvest House Publishers) and The Marriage Maker (Harvest House Publishers), and The Wake-up Call, Hope for the 9/11 Generation (Xulon Press).

In November John had to be taken to the hospital and he was unconscious for a period of time. During this I remember crying out to the Lord, "You can't take him yet we need him." Since that time he's recovered fully and appears to me that he's stronger than before his time in the hospital. The Lord can makes us stronger when he's challenged us.

John's website
John's blog

Top excuses why people don't believe...

2008-04-09T14:00:00.001-05:00

1 - Bible has mistakes.
2 - Bible was written by man.
3 - Hypocrites in church.
4 - Religion causes war.
5 - Evolution
6 - Hell is unreasonable.
7 - I don't believe in it therefore it doesn't exist.
8 - Jesus didn't exist.
9 - Jesus didn't really die on the cross.

How do you react when people say this to you?
***Taken this from a WOTM radio show in Dec 2007.

Don Piper in Lewisville Thursday nite

2008-04-04T07:24:00.015-05:00

Thursday nite I went to hear Don Piper speak at the First Baptist Church in Lewisville on April 3, 2008. He spoke about his near death experience (NDE) and painful recovery from a fatal car wreck he had in a rural Texas area in 1989. Check his website for more detail.

It's an interesting story how I came across his. One weekend in 2007 I was watching my baby while my wife was at work. During this time it was just easier to stay home so I was switching through the channels on TV and I stopped on one because I thought the speaker looked like Grissom on CSI. And as I watched with the sound off, I could somehow tell it was a NDE story. Interested I turned up the volume. The weird thing was they kept showing this bridge that looked just like a bridge that I used to travel to get to my grandmother's house in rural Houston about 20 minutes east of Huntsville. When he said Highway 19 I knew exactly where he had had his fatal accident. I remember holding my breath more than once going over that bridge many years ago. After the show was over, I called my grandmother and asked her about it. She said she hadn't heard about it possibly because they had not moved to Trinity yet. I went out and bought his book and when done gave it to my grandmother who read it.

I would like to make the point you have to be very careful with stories about NDEs or out of body experiences because if they are not of God, they are of the enemy. Piper's story is very convincing and his brief experience in Heaven brings joy to the heart of any believer in Christ. Everyone who hears about these stories must ask himself or herself if it challenges you to the feet of your Savior or towards the world?

During his talk he gave examples of people that his book had helped. A strong theme running through most of his message urged people to get a "New Normal," that many people who have suffered tragedy needed to turn the page and ask God to help them get on with their lives. He can ask this as he is a walking example of a person who had had a lot of horrible things happen to him but God used his tragedy to spread the gospel and help people. Another point he made was he believed that if you aren't dead "the main reason we're here is to get people to Heaven." I was pleased to hear him make an appeal to share the gospel.

I found his speech to be solid Biblically. He stressed that not all roads lead to Heaven and stated that Christ was the only way to Heaven. He also asked people to pray more "We have not because we don't pray." He made the distinction that God can say No to our prayers and that this isn't "name or claim it." From his own experience he said that he had seen that prayer can still produce miracles.

We were in Trinity last weekend for a funeral and I took a picture of the bridge where Don had his accident. Driving through again made me remember how tense I used to get when going through. Good thing it's no longer the main bridge used.

Watch this! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!!

2008-03-31T14:14:00.003-05:00

Listen to this!!!

Or read this:
http://www.bibleword.com/rfyl.htm

PASTOR CARTER CONLON
CO-PASTOR, TIME SQUARE CHURCH - New York City

Street Witnessing before Easter

2008-03-26T10:54:00.007-05:00

Last Saturday before Easter, I met up with Jon Speed of LostCauseMinistries and Ron Martinez. Being my first time out, I watched and observed and prayed. Most of the people they approached took the gospel tracts they handed out and some even stopped to talk about Jesus. It was very stirring to see some of the folks really listening to them, soaking in the gospel.

Some Christians tend to think of this style of witnessing is bad and possibly detrimental way of spreading the gospel (even though Christ and the disciples used this method) but when Jon and Ron spoke they showed nothing but love and respect and to be honest some of the folks probably weren't used to that. This is a quote from Jon's blog that I found interesting, "In DFW, the only ones who seem to get offended are either professing Christians or atheists who once claimed to be Christians."

Jon Speed
Lost Cause Ministries

Ron Martinez
Gospel to the Perishing

Rotting Corpse CD Review with mention of a Chick tract

2008-03-24T16:11:00.008-05:00

I was looking on the Internet for a certain review of my band's CD from a couple of years ago. I found it. You have can follow the link and then you have to scroll down a bit because he reviews several bands before us but I also have it pasted at the bottom of the page.

The reviewer, named Todd, takes exception to my including a Chick tract in with the promo package I sent him. The seeker sensitive crowd would have a problem that I used a Chick tract and not a new hipper style of tract that's more tolerant. But if Todd read the tract, he read the gospel and that's what's important even if he didn't accept Christ on the spot. He's sarcastic but I think he also having a hard time believing that a member of Rotting Corpse would send him a Chick tract. And it's funny he calls me ex-Rotting Corpse bassist even though we were playing shows at the time apparently wanting to distance me from the band. I remember reading this and glorifying God that he mentioned the tract in the review because most people I send tracts to act like I never sent them. It's almost like the crazy uncle that the family pretends isn't doing something weird.

When I sent this tract several years ago, I only sent them with people who weren't paying customers so I sent several to web 'zines and magazines (promo material). For over the last year, I send them to whoever I mail material too. It's easy to fall into the "I don't want to offend" mode but what's important is sharing the message of the gospel.

For the 3 people that ever read my blog, please say a prayer or two for Todd.

His review:

Rotting Corpse - _The Demos_ (F*ck It Records)

Rotting Corpse emerged in the heyday of the Texas underground, churning textbook thrash alongside more notable acts like Devastation and noted for a founding member going on to form Solitude Aeternus. This disc (now in its third print) compiles each of the group's four demos, starting in 1986. While not too distinct from the Bay Area sound in general, this collection remains a fairly enjoyable and quality recorded with a slightly "tinny" production to offset the energetic riffing. There's trivia here as well, as the group's second demo was produced by Vinnie Paul Abbot. An eight-page booklet includes lyrics as well as tons of photos and show flyers plus a sticker and pin. My copy was actually mailed with a Jack Chick tract, which always cracks me up -- even more so after I found out that ex-Rotting Corpse bassist Steve Murphy truly does care about my soul's final abode in the great hereafter. Parties still interested may want to request a better companion piece by Mr. Chick, perhaps the more appropriate "Angels" or "The Sissy"?

Todd DePalma

The Chapel prepares for Easter Sunday service

2008-03-15T15:05:00.009-05:00

Members of The Chapel who meet at the YMCA in Coppell prepared the area to the southeast of the main campus Saturday morning for an outside Easter Sunday service. In this area is an outside worship area with an old rugged cross. Church members cleaned the area and scrubbed benches in preparation of the Easter service. The service will be held at 10:20 am on Sunday, March 23, 2008. John Nieder, pastor of The Chapel, will lead the service. The service is open to anyone wanting to attend. The Chapel is a relatively new church which stresses Biblical beliefs in a small group environment.

For information or directions please check out: The Chapel

What is Deconstructionism? Postmodernism?

2008-03-10T13:08:00.017-05:00

I first heard Todd Friel discuss these terms when WOTM was in Europe last year (2007). Many of the people in Europe they ran into tended to hold postmodernist beliefs.

So what is deconstructionism anyway?

A philosophy coined by French philosopher Jacques Derrida in the 1960s that interprets history by trying to determine the meaning from what is left out of the text or ignored or silenced by it. This philosophy is an extending the philosophical excursions of Nietzsche and Heidegger.

The example that Todd used was George Washington. He was a slave owner, therefore he's a bad person (even though history doesn't record this and actually shows him to have treated the slaves as family members). Therefore, everything he made contributions to (being a devout Christian who wanted his government to reflect his beliefs) is called into question and doubted, although there is no proof of it. A deconstructionist maintains these assumptions because they can't see or experience something in the past. They don't care if they have no proof of their assumptions. They interpret history by adding their prejudices and assumptions to history. They assume, based on these prejudices and assumptions, what has been left out, ignored or silenced in historical writings.

How does this effect us as Christians? When we talk about our Christian heritage in the building of the United States of America, they deconstruct it by finding faults in the founding fathers, as in the example above.

So when witnessing, be ready for this!

If your head isn't spinning enough already... How about postmodernism?

From an article by James Beverley in 2002:

"Postmodernism is a term of recent vintage, but the seeds of postmodernism hearken back to thinkers like Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, and Martin Heidegger who raised radical questions about the intellectual, cultural, and political ideologies of their day. Though none of these thinkers were postmodernists, per se, each saw that powerful elites use "reason" and "logic" and "truth" to hold humans in captivity in some form."

Postmodernism: "There is no single world view that captures reality, no master story (or meta-narrative) that underlies humanity. Reason is to be distrusted because there is no way to know which person's reason is reliable. There is no such thing as objectivity. There is no "truth" to appeal to for understanding history and culture. There are no moral absolutes. The West, with its colonialist heritage, deserves ridicule. Texts, whether religious or philosophical or literary, do not have intrinsic meaning. Ideas are cultural creations. Everything is relative. We need to be deeply suspicious of all ideas since ideas are used as tools to oppress and confine humans."

So a postmodernist has trouble knowing whether or not he is alive for sure...

How to witness to a postmodernist\deconstructionist?

When trying to witness to a postmodernist, they might counter with, “Christianity was created to control the masses.” They might also suggest that nothing can be known for certain; such as the fact that Christ was the Son of God who came to earth for our salvation.

When witnessing, obviously we don't want to stay in these arguments long because you will make no progress arguing with the intellect. Instead we might ask them, “Is there absolute truth?” If they say no, ask them when it is right for someone to rape someone else? Maybe from there, state that there are absolutes in life and then take them into the moral Law, the Ten Commandments.

This is a good article on witnessing to postmodernist.

Below in quotes was taken from this article and are good to keep in mind when witnessing to a postmodernist or someone with these leanings. To sum up below I think he's saying we've got the truth of God (positive) as opposed to the negative view that postmodernism tends to create within a person (when they are being open and honest).

"Our reasons for optimism include the power of God, the loneliness of postmodern culture, postmodern nihilism, and a vacuum of truth."

"By discovering the presuppositions of others and gently leading them to discover the problems with their own views, we can thaw the dogmatism of postmodern consensus and ceate a new openness to alternatives."

***I'd like to thank Jon Speed of Lost Cause Ministries for helping me with this article.

Bleach - a Christian rock band

2008-03-07T08:31:00.001-06:00

One day as I pondered whether I had made even a tiny difference in anyone's life to accept Christ as their savior, my thoughts went back to the people who helped plant a seed with me. I had one friend who didn't share the gospel but did share his enthusiasm for the church he had been going and even invited me to a service. I attended once.

Another seed was planted by a Christian rock band that is now disbanded called Bleach. I first saw them late one Saturday nite on Christian television in 1998 with a video for "Children of Sod." They sounded like Weezer but even nerdyier. Even though I didn't accept Christ at that point, I bought their CDs and enjoyed the heavy rock music that had positive lyrics which I certainly didn't find in the lyrics of the other bands I listened to at the time. It's important to note that music was most definitely my god before coming to know Christ. I had played in bands most of life and whether happy or sad I turned to music to escape the cares of this world. I bought tons of CDs and downloaded music constantly looking for my next fix of good music.

original bleach

Bleach is an interesting band because they did two great albums with the original line up. By the 3rd album they lost the lead guitarist and bassist but produced I believe to be their best album. By the 4th album the band had only the rhythm guitarist, Sam Barnhart, and singer, Dave Baysinger from the original band, and the rest being new members. With the second blech they made 2 incredible albums and ended with a 6th final album called "Farewell old friends" in 2004. If you know anything about bands, this is a fairly incredible accomplishment but God apparently had his hand on their progress. I might be fooled but the members come across as amazingly humble and devoted to Christ. Don't fool yourself, not every band that calls itself Christian really gives a hoot about being devoted to Christ. This is still the music business, mind you.

second bleach

A funny story is that in the late 90's original bleach played in Dallas but I was afraid to go because I thought someone might preach to me. I didn't realize how much I need some preachin'...

I still listen to Bleach (orginal and second) quite frequently and recommend them to anyone that wants some heavier music but not with bad, nasty lyrics. I really don't listen to any other Christian bands at this time. Not that I have anything against them, I just have not heard anything that moves me.

They don't have a webpage anymore but there is a couple myspace pages for them:

http://www.myspace.com/thebandformerlyknownasmuffin

http://www.myspace.com/bleach717

original bleach

second bleach

Moral Relativity on your Television set?

2008-03-04T10:30:00.001-06:00

Do you remember in the olden days when you would watch a show on television or the movies? By the end of the show you felt good about cheering for the hero and when he achieved his goal (catching the bad guys), you felt good about what you have just seen.

Don't see that much on TV anymore, do you? The heroes of today's TV are closer to Hannibal Lector than they are the Lone Ranger. One example that comes to mind is Grissom on CSI Vegas who is almost insect like. Today's characters tend to hold humanist postmodernist views on society rather than Jesus Christ is Lord.

This leads me to an observation that most story lines on TV today are crafted with moral relativity. What's that mean? In the story characters are put in situations where the lines of right and wrong are blurred, the characters are almost always driven by emotion with very little logic so they settle for a wrong decision and the writer builds in sympathy for the character in support of this decision (ex. pro-choice, gay lifestyle, vigilante justice, transexuals as victims). Viewers are desensitized by repeatedly seeing these shows and tend to believe there are times when you have to do what you do whether or not the situation is wrong.

Many times I finish watching one of these shows I feel like something is wrong, I feel unsettled. A friend pointed this out with the recent movie, "No Country for Old Men." He was reminded that this movie had bothered him when he read an article about Javier Bardem, the main antagonist bad guy. Bardem said that he wasn't quite right while playing this character and it even followed him until he started his next role. What would have happened if he had taken a year off?

An example of this is "Forrest Gump" when his mom has sex with the principal so Forest can go to regular school because of his low IQ. Not being a believer at the time I first saw this, I found it funny but somewhat shocking and it bothered me (my conscience). This is an example of moral relativity because Forest wouldn't go through all the wild wonderful things that happened in his life if his mom hadn't made this sacrifice for him. They want you to believe the ends justify the means. Without a good sense of right or wrong, young viewers are being taught that there are no absolutes. Confusing, yes, but you see it all the time on TV and movies. Ultimately, the enemy uses this to chip away at people's faith in a power greater than themselves.

We, as Christians, should be careful what we view and watch because Hollyweird isn't thinking the things of God when they make their TV shows, movies, pornos, etc. Something Mark Cahill once said has really stuck with me to the effect that if it's not of God, it's of the devil. And we tend to have trouble with this because we struggle with not being of this world, do we not?

So my advice is TURN OFF THE TV!!!

Fighting Horses

2008-02-29T12:57:00.010-06:00

READ YOUR BIBLE EVERYDAY!

Tracts are still effective

2008-02-27T15:02:00.010-06:00

Steve states:
Pretty quickly after saying my prayer to Jesus, I started to pass out tracts. Concerning sharing the gospel, I am shy about striking up conversations with strangers, but I can at least leave tracts here and there.

I originally bought Chick tracts and I still do. Some people may think they aren't cool or in vogue but I believe that the little comics are still effective to lure people into reading them.

About a year ago I found Way of the Master (Living Waters) and have bought many a tract from them. My favorite would be the million dollar bill which is wonderful to leave with your tip when you eat out. I'm also big on the 10 Commandments coin.

I just bought some tracts from Custom Tract Source. They are in Texas and I really like the post notes they have. I leave them on pay phones in plain site for people to see. These don't have a gospel message on it but it refers them to a web page.

Another is One Million Tracts. Jon Speed of Last Cause Ministries recommended these guys and from their website I can see several I'd like to try. The card-sized tracts with a sports team schedule on one side and a gospel tract on the other sounds like it might get read eventually. I know in Dallas-Ft Worth the Cowboys are held in high esteem. I will definitely get some of those.

How I use them:
I leave them places I go and I always try to carry them with me. When I mail merchandise from my band to fans, I slip in tracts. It's funny they usually don't say anything about them, but I pray that I have planted a seed.

Some times I do something I've dubbed a "Time Bomb" and that's when I hide tracts from plain site. In some places you get the feeling they'll be thrown away pretty quickly so I hide some in the toilet paper ring, in paper towels that are stacked on the counter of some fancier restrooms, under a vase on the counter, etc. People may not find them today but it plants the seed for a later discovery. I will do this even when I leave some tracts in plain site.

This blog shows the BIG list of tracts that are available plus places you can put tracts.

Quotes on tracts:

Charles Spurgeon stated, “When preaching and private talk are not available, you need to have a tract ready. . . Get good striking tracts, or none at all. But a touching gospel tract may be the seed of eternal life. Therefore, do not go out without your tracts.”

Charles Spurgeon on the use of tracts:
I well remember distributing them in a town in England where tracts had never been distributed before, and going from house to house, and telling in humble language the things of the kingdom of God. I might have done nothing, if I had not been encouraged by finding myself able to do something . . . [Tracts are] adapted to those persons who have but little power and little ability, but nevertheless, wish to do something for Christ. They may not have the tongue of the eloquent, but they may have the hand of the diligent. They cannot stand and preach, but they can stand and distribute here and there these silent preachers . . . They may buy their thousand tracts, and these they can distribute broadcast.

I found this on Repent and Turn Ministries webpage which has some good information on tracts and evangelism.

Why don't they talk about HELL in church anymore?

2008-02-25T09:37:00.005-06:00

Taken from a sermon "Hell No Exits" Leonard Ravenhill (1907-1994)

"When you last hear a sermon on TV about hell? About everlasting destruction? It's not fashionable, it doesn't bring the money in. Doesn't tickle the ears, tickles the conscience..." Leonard Ravenhill

Steve notes:
After listening to Leonard Ravenhill's sermon above, I decided to read Jonathan Edwards' infamous sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" (1741). These choice words jumped off that page at me.

From Section IV:
So that is not because God is unmindful of their wickedness, and don't resent it, that he don't let loose his hand and cut them off. God is not altogether such as one as themselves, though they may imagine him to be so. The wrath of God burns against them, their damnation don't slumber, the pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them, the flames do now rage and glow. The glittering sword is whet, and held over them, and the pit hath opened her moth under them.

From Section V:
The devil stand ready to fall upon them and seize them as his own, at what moment God shall permit him. They belong to him; he has their souls in his possession, and under his dominion. The Scripture represents them as his "goods," Luke 11:21. The devils watch them; they are ever by them, at their right hand; they stand waiting for them, like greedy hungry lions that see their prey, and expect to have it, but are for the present kept back; if God should withdraw his hand, by which they are restrained, they would in one moment fly upon their poor souls. The old serpent is gaping for them; hell opens its mouth wide to receive them; and if God should permit it, they would be hastily swallowed up and lost.

From Section IX.
They hear indeed that there are but few saved, and that the bigger part of men that have died heretofore are gone to hell; but each one imagines that he lays out matters better for his own escape than others have done; he don't intend to come to that place of torment; he says within himself, that he intends to take care that shall be effectual, and to order matters so for himself as not to fail.

Under Application section:
The use may be of awakening to unconverted person in this congregation. This that you have heard is the case of every one of you that are out of Christ. The world of misery, that lake of burning brimstone is extended abroad under you. There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God, there is hell's wide gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor anything to take hold of: there is nothing between you and hell but the air; 'tis only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up.

You probably are not sensible of this, you find you are kept out of hell, but don't see the hand of God in it, but look at other things, as the good state of your bodily constitution, your care of your own life, and the means you use for you own preservation. But indeed these things are nothing; if God should withdraw his hand, they would avail no more to keep you from falling, than the thin air to hold up a person that is suspended in it.

Some paragraphs down in Application section:
Thus are all you that never passed under a great change of heart, by the mighty power of the Spirit of God upon your souls, all that were never born again, and made new creatures, and raised from being dead in sin, to a state of new, and before altogether unexperienced light and life (however you may have reform your life in many things, and may have had religious affections, and may keep up a form of religion in your families and closets, and in the house of God, and may be strict in it), you are thus in the hands of an angry God, tis nothing but his mere pleasure that keeps you from being this moment swallowed up in everlasting destruction.

Last paragraph:
Therefore let everyone that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come. The wrath of almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over great part of this congregation: let everyone fly out of Sodom: "Haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed." Gen 19:17

Steve concludes:
Can you imagine Joel Osteen preaching this?

What has your church turned God into? Santa Claus, a best buddy, a magic genie with three wishes, Jesus is my homeboy, self-help God? Do you never hear of Jonathan Edward's God there? God is only love? Is God not righteous (just) and morally perfect? And we are not?

Most people would call this hell fire preaching. And I agree, but what I have a problem with is that if you truly believe what's in your Bible, what would be wrong with warning people of the wrath to come? We have been tricked by today's political correctness to believe that not offending people is more important than warning them of what happens in the next life. How logical is that? But most of us, me included, suffer from this. We know that we won't be very popular if we start talking about hell to unbelievers, luke-warm believers.

I'm not saying we should return to hell fire preaching, but we should not be afraid to talk to people about the reality of hell. We need to verbalize to people that hell exists and is a real place that some people will definitely spend eternity if they don't trust in Jesus Christ and repent of their sins. It can be done in love.

Revelation 20:15 (NIV)
"If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."

Read Luke 16:19-26 - Lazarus and the Rich Man

A sermon from Robert Jeffress "The Truth about Hell" January 1, 2008

PLACEBO

2008-02-22T09:17:00.001-06:00

Steve says:
I am fascinated with Near Death Experiences. I love to try to play detective and determine if they are faithful to the Bible or not. I try to determine if the person telling the story is a reliable witness or not.

One NDE that I find intriguing is from Howard Pittman who is featured on Spirit Lessons website. I do warn that you must be very careful when listening to these type of experiences almost as much as reading some of the garbage the modern Christian writers are churning out these days. But I am not focusing on his NDE story in this blog, just the forward to his booklet called "Placebo". In my opinion he describes the modern church perfectly. He uses the placebo pill used by doctors as an analogy of many churches in our land, it describes believers who are not saved yet are being coddled into thinking everything's fine, not being challenged in the Word and therefore think they are saved.

Go ahead and read below and see what you think.

Below taken from Spirit Lessons website:

On August 3, 1979, Howard Pittman, a Baptist minister for 35 years, died while on the operating table during surgery and had a near-death experience. After angels showed him the second and third heavens, he was taken before the very throne of God where he was given a message to share with the world.

The following is an excerpt from his booklet, Placebo, which documents his amazing near-death experience. You can purchase his audio tapes and booklets at the Lake Hamilton Bible Camp store.

Forward

Webster's Dictionary defines "placebo" as "a medication prescribed more for the mental relief of a patient than for the actual effect on his disorder, or something tending to soothe."

The doctors tell us that if we know we are being treated with a placebo, it does not work. In our minds we must think that it is a real medication and has the strength or power to heal. If the patient believes this, then the treatment has been known to work wonders in many cases that otherwise could not have been treated. Placebo treatment is, in fact, nothing of substance, but in the mind of the patient it is real. In order for this kind of treatment to work, the doctor must convince the patient of the work of the medication.

My friend, I declare unto you that this is the exact "treatment" that most "mouth-professing" Christians are using today. The doctor administering this "medication" is Satan himself. He gives the "patent" a sugar-coated religion, a shallow experience, and whispers half-truths into his ears. He then tells the "patient" that it is real and that it is all the "patent" needs. The "patent", having been taken in by Satan, believes this and goes on his merry way declaring to all that he has been born again, his salvation is real, and this experience is all that he needs. Doctor Satan will allow his "patient" to continue to go to church and will allow him to take part in any church, that is, singing, leading in prayer, teaching Sunday School, and even preaching. He will allow the "patient" to make any kind of statement in connection with his "mouth-professing" religion, even to the point of the saving power of Jesus. Yes, he will allow the "patient" to do all and say all with one exception. That exception is that the "patient" will not be allowed to live the life that he confesses with his mouth ...

What does it mean to be a Christian in China?

2008-02-20T09:09:00.002-06:00

General info on China:
There are over 1.3 billion people in China. The Chinese government admits to around 13.3 million Protestant Christians in China but some sources say that number is more like 60 million or higher.

What does it mean to be a Christian in China?

- To have a church service means having to meet in secret in people's homes or even out in the country.

- Potentially spending time in jail for holding secret church meetings, sharing the gospel, for distributing Christian materials, if you're caught.
What can I do?

Write letters to Christian prisoners around the word that are in prison: Voice of the Martyrs - Prisoner Alert

- When believers have tried to build churches, the government knocks them down. The government requires permission they won't grant to protestant churches for a building to be built.

- To own a Bible can be very difficult. No Barnes and Noble with a hundreds to choose from in China.
What can I do?

Check out Bibles Unbound to donate money for bibles to be purchased for nations that are hostile to Christianity. When I checked the website in February, they had over 25,000 requests for bibles to China.
This movie shows how the program works. Bibles Unbound Movie

Please check out - Voice of the Martyrs main site for information on how to help the persecuted church not just in China but all over the world.

Books, articles and Videos on China:

"The Marvelous Promises" by Pak-Chue Chan, MD (book)

"The Cross - Jesus in China" (video)

"Heavenly Man" by Brother Yun (book)

- This article in the Christian Post explains how the Chinese government is cracking down on Christians (Feb 2008).

- Article "China Launches "Secret" Crackdown On House Churches, 'Open Doors' Says",
(Jan 2008)

- "Chinese Christians Forced to Worship in Secret", article from ABC News (Nov 2005).

In conclusion:
Yet with all this persecution, China is seeing signs of revival we can only envy here in the United States. Pray for our persecuted brothers in China daily!

Ephesians 6:18
"And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints."

SIGN - No seeker sensitivity here...

2008-02-18T07:48:00.012-06:00

This sign is located at I-35 in Carrollton, Texas between Beltline and Crosby on the west side of the road. The ArmyNavyWarehouse paid for this sign.

I have to admit I really like this sign. The message is shown in a direct to the point way with almost an old time feel to it. I tried to get the railroad crossing in there to emphasize the need to make a decision- should you cross into faith or not. Most will reject this sign but I pray some will seek the Lord because of it.

I can hear the the new age modernist believers arguing that this might turn people off to the gospel. We are so afraid we'll give someone a bad experience we settle for not even trying to share the gospel.

Do you think Christ offended some people when he went into the temple and knocked over the money changers tables? (John 2:13-16) How about when he stood toe to toe with the Pharisees? Think about it- he made them so mad they wanted to kill him. Could you imagine your pastor having this kind of conviction? Do you have this kind of conviction? Pray for it, I do.

The devil loves for us to pretend in church. He loves when we are into the world more than Christ.

We need to preach the Word of God.

John 2:13-16
13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!"

Cussing / Swearing

2008-02-15T09:40:00.008-06:00

Steve admits:

This post will not be an easy one for me but I feel lead to talk about my struggle with cursing. Recently, I read an interview on the Internet I did in 2006 with The Metal Pit and I saw to my horror several times I cursed in it. I have to no excuse and I have repented since but I have this example of my sin living on the net to remind me of my slipping into this sinful habit.

When we started the Rotting Corpse website and reunion shows in 2004, I got caught in the mindset of when I was 20. Thankfully, because I was a believer I didn't do everything I did back in the day. I falsely believed that- if I wasn't drinking, lusting after women, and being a generally nice guy, I wasn't hurting anything by a few cuss words. I believed I could pick my sins. Even after my daughter was born, I continued some cursing but through the urging of some friends who were bold, I finally realized I needed to watch my mouth.

What happened? Part of it is I like to cuss. When I get excited or angry, I like to express myself this way. The other part is I fell into the Seeker Sensitive trap of "If I act really cool, people will like me and might start believing in Christ (Jesus is better than beer)". After a few years back in the metal scene, I saw my friends still living the lives they lived before they re-met me in 2004 and realized how wrong I was to naively believe that the power to transform someone's life to Christ had anything to do with me being of the world. I also failed in that I was afraid to share the gospel with them verbally. I thought that them knowing I was a believer would be enough. I pray the Lord will bless me with more opportunities to share my faith boldly with my old friends from the metal scene and that he will forgive me for my timid ignorance.

Without true repentance, can we truly know the Lord?

Ephesians 4:29
"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."

Colossians 3:8
"But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips."

1 Timothy 4:12
"Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity."

Swearing:
Since 2002 I have been sensitive to people who say GD or JC in vain. It's like a kick in the stomach when I hear someone say it. I am praying for the boldness to tell people (in a nice way) to not say those things around me. I figure it's the least I can do for the man who gave his life for ours. And some times like me, people do not realize how much they are saying these things.

James 5:12
"Above all, my brothers, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your "Yes" be yes, and your "No," no, or you will be condemned."

John MacArthur in Southlake Sunday

2008-02-13T07:40:00.004-06:00

I was blessed to see John MacArthur speak at Countryside Bible Church, in Southlake, Texas last nite, February 10, 2008. Countryside is a beautiful little church in an area that is usually associated with money, giant houses and possessions galore. I'd like to thank Jon Speed of Lost Cause Ministries, for telling me about this because I had no clue the Sola Conference was was going when the weekend began.

John MacArthur is an excellent Biblical teacher who I had heard several times on WOTM radio but I didn't realize how good he was until seeing and hearing him live. His teaching style is very thorough with Biblical references galore (2nd time I used that word). He spoke for 2 hours to a fairly large turn out. I had to sit in another room because the main sanctuary was full.

- Grace Community Church

Evel Knievel was born again?

2008-02-11T09:53:00.003-06:00

Steve states:
One Sunday my pastor spoke about Evel Knievel coming to know Christ before he died. So when I got home, I found his testimony on youtube. I was fascinated by his sincere expression of his struggle to know the Lord. And I suppose some people can argue he was just a crazy old man driven by years of pain from injuries suffered doing his stunts. But isn't being broken what drives us to accept the gift of grace from the Lord? I know it was in my case.

His struggle to know God is something many in the church miss today. Most people today believe that if you pray a little prayer and really mean it, you're saved. No matter how they act afterwards. Some believe they don't need to read their Bible (if they even own one) or go to church.

I've been reading "Grace Abounding" by John Bunyan and was amazed how he struggled to know God. This book was written in 1666 while he was imprisoned.

From Chapter 6 (Temptation)
Sometimes I would lie under great guilt for sin, even crushed to the ground with the weight of it, and then the Lord would show me the death of Christ. Yes, He so sprinkled my conscience with His blood that I would find, even before I was aware, that in this conscience, where but just now did reign and rage the law, even there would rest and abide the peace and love of God through Christ.

From Chapter 8 (Continual Affirmation of Truth)
Then crying out in the bitterness of my soul, I said to my soul with a grievous sigh, "How can God comfort such a wretch?" I had no sooner said it but this returned upon me as an echo answers a voice, "This sin is not unto death." At that, it was as if I had been raised out of the grave and cried out again, "Lord, how could You find out such a word as this?" I was filled with admiration at the fitness and at the unexpectedness of the sentence - the fitness of the word, the rightness of the timing of it. The power and sweetness and light and glory that came with it were marvelous to me to find.

Steve continues:
Bunyan continues to question himself even further after these seemingly revelations he has had.

Perhaps we should consider our salvation and what it means to be saved. Has our modern society with all it's busyness made us insensitive to God's will, God's call? The gift of eternal life is beyond any kind of value. It's truly amazing what Jesus Christ our Lord did for us on that cross 2000 years ago.

EXAMINE YOURSELVES!!!

2 Corinthians 13:5
Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?

Philippians 2:12-13
12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

Paul Washer

2008-02-08T08:21:00.003-06:00

Steve notes:
I have been blown away repeatedly by the sermons of this man, Paul Washer. He doesn't hold anything back and I hope he represents a new breed of preachers in America. Almost every sermon I've heard from him is so convicting I feel as though I've been kicked in the gut after I listen to them.

He is one of the men that has challenged me to dig into my Bible like never before as well as find out what pioneers of the church believed - Moody, Whitfield, Spurgeon, Luther instead of reading the self-help humanistic teachings of today's so-called Christian preachers.

Below are some videos of Paul Washer, a missionary and itinerant preacher.

Description taken from youtube on the video below, this is a little long but it's worth listening to every bit of it:

This is a Shockingly Powerful & Biblical message
preached to about 5,000 youth in a day when youth
are appealed to through shallow and worldly means.

At one point in this sermon the 5,000 Youth are
clapping and yelling BUT THEN the preacher makes
a comment that CHANGES THE WHOLE ATMOSPHERE TO
WHERE YOU COULD HAVE HEARD A PIN DROP... As you
can imagine, the preacher was never invited back.

We believe the whole sermon will be a blessing
to many souls. For more info about Paul Washer
go to www.heartcrymissionary.com

Mike Murdock - TV preacher I prayed the prayer with

2008-02-06T19:48:00.002-06:00

A friend asked me what TV preacher I was referring to in my Profile section and that credit goes to Mr. Mike Murdock. He's frequently on Daystar during the telethon periods and is famous for chanting into a sincere-camera-close up, "go to the phone, go to the phone," over and over while he's praying. He has a tendency to brag about the fact people give him money, expensive cars and gifts of all sorts. At the time in 2002 he had just purchased his own personal plane and felt the need to justify why he needed that so badly.

He'll come up with a random number like 58 and tell you that God told him this was perfect dollar amount to sow a seed with to get a double portion. At the time being a fledging Christian this sounded good to me and I pledged to pay $58 for so many months. In a matter of months I realized how silly this was from reading the Bible for the first time and attending a Bible-based church. But I finished out my pledge period figuring I had prayed to God I would give this money, and it's on Daystar's head what they do with it.

At the time I came to Christ I was also going through a period of wanting to get rich. I was reading a lot of the get rich type business books. I had my own company which was driving me nuts and dreamed of making big money to get away from the woes of the world so it's understandable why I would not have a problem with Mr. Murdock's method of prosperity teaching (name and claim it). Fortunately for me, I kept digging to find people who preached the true gospel reflected in the Bible. I have heard stories of many people who don't get that far, gave away a lot of their money and become bitterly disillusioned enough to join the group of folks that believes that all of Christianity is run by frauds and believers are easily mislead sheep.

I can't help but think of Matthew 7:22-23 when I come across teachers like Mike and the infamous Benny Hinn (both live in north Texas BTW). I would hate to stand before God knowing that I took money from people in the name of Jesus so as to advance a life of luxury for myself. But I guess only they know if they are being good stewards of the treasures God has given them. To a certain extent we will all be subject how we spent our wealth on that last great day. I know I've been guilty of wasting money on silly things that could have helped feed a starving child somewhere in the world or helped someone hear the gospel.

Matthew 7:22
22 Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23 Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

A confession: I love Internet search engines because it makes me appear like I can recite Bible verses from memory. In reality I can remember part of a verse and then search on that phrase to find it the rest of it and it's book and numbering.

Mike Murdock in action:

What some people say about Mike Murdock:

- http://www.forgottenword.org/murdock.html

Bart - a friend from my past

2008-02-02T11:25:00.001-06:00

Irving, TX 1986 (Bart, David, Steve)

Steve states:

I have played in bands most of my life. Not so much in the last 10 years but I still have played some reunion shows with one of my first bands called Rotting Corpse that dates back to the 80s. We played a primitive style of metal called thrash. It amazes me that the younger generation is getting to this but everything seems to come around again in fashion. One thing about playing in bands is that you meet a lot of people and with the Internet (Rotting Corpse webpage), I’ve been able to reconnect with several people I knew back in the day.

One of those is a fellow named Bart Blair. We played in a band called Eldritch Rite together for maybe a week in 1986. He was slotted to be the replacement singer but the band broke up instead of going on. I have a band photo taken behind Pipedream Records by Stu Taylor with Bart posing with us (he has the glasses on). He went on with the guitarist David of ER to form The Answer doing music in a similar vein as Eldritch for a year or so. I had lost touch with Bart since seeing him one time quite on accident at a grocery store in northern Austin (maybe in the early 90s?) while I was visiting a friend. I had heard that he had gotten into government work and didn’t want to be associated with his metal roots or friends. So I was quite surprised when I got a myspace friend invitation from him. He is now a worship leader for Grace Community Church in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. I’ve put in a video clip of his testimony and how he wound up from Northern Texas to frozen Canada. He has a much cooler conversion story than mine.

- www.myspace.com/bartblair

- www.bartblair.com

- www.grace-church.ca

2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

The conversion of Charles H. Spurgeon

2008-02-01T07:48:00.000-06:00

This is the story of Charles Spurgeon's conversion, in his own words. The preacher whom Spurgeon describes was the Rev. Robert Eaglen. Taken from Charles H. Spurgeon: His Faith and Works, H.L. Wayland, 1892.

I was miserable, I could do scarcely anything. My heart was broken to pieces. Six months did I pray, prayed agonizingly with all my heart, and never had an answer. I resolved that in the town where I lived I would visit every place of worship, in order to find the way of salvation. I felt I was willing to do anything if God would only forgive me. I set off determined to visit all the chapels, and though I deeply venerate the men who occupy those pulpits now, and did so then, I am bound to say, that I never heard them once fully preach the gospel. ... At last, one snowy day, I found rather an obscure street and turned down a court, and there was a little chapel. I wanted to go somewhere, but I did not know this street. It was the Primitive Methodists' chapel. I had heard of this people from many, and how they sang so loudly that they made people's heads ache; but that did not matter. I wanted to know how I might be saved, and if they made my head ache ever so much, I did not care. So sitting down, the service went on, but no minister came. At last a very thin-looking man came into the pulpit. He opened the Bible and read these words: "Look unto me and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth." Just setting his eyes upon me, as if he knew me all by heart, he said: "Young man, you are in trouble!" Well, I was, sure enough. Says he: "You will never get out of it unless you look to Christ." Then, lifting his eyes, he cried, as only a Primitive Methodist could do, "Look, look, look!" I saw at once the way of salvation. O, how I did leap for joy at that moment! I know not what else he said, I was so possessed with that one thought. ... I looked until I could almost have looked my eyes away, and in heaven I will look on still, in my joy unspeakable.

Steve notes:
I am always fascinated with conversion stories. Mine isn't very exciting- I didn't see any major flashes of light or have some unusual happenings that pointed me toward Jesus that I can remember. I was just fed up with the world. Even after I prayed my prayer, I continued to make sinful mistakes in areas I probably should have known better. I still struggle with sin and can only resolve it by getting on my knees in prayer and turning from my sins.

I believe some people have the perception of Christians that we think we're better than others. I admit there are some legalistic Phariseetic believers that are unduly judgmental of nonbelievers. But if Christians truly live, believe what's written in the Bible, we fully realize we are sinful wretches that are only pulled from death by the grace of Jesus Christ.

Romans 3:10
As it is written:
"There is no one righteous, not even one;

Revival 2008

2008-01-31T14:06:00.000-06:00

Leonard Ravenhill in the video above.

Steve notes:
We live in a world that largely due to humanism and political correctness feels that being a Christian excludes the need to share our faith with people in our life as well as putting much time in the other activities that feed the soul. The majority of Christians in America have become like the Laodicea church, fat and comfortable waiting for heaven. I've been guilty of this myself.

In my opinion the key to making some kind of headway to revival in the US starts with ourselves. We must give up something in our lives that takes up time and dedicate the gained time to praying, spreading the gospel, helping the poor, reading your Bible, etc. I know an obvious one for me is to cut out is watching nightly TV shows.

Revelation 3:14-22

14 "To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:
These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. 15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. 19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. 20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. 21 To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."