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.

Prophecy

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

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?

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

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?

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

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

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.