MEGACHURCHES!!!

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

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?

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

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.