Islam is NOT a religion of peace! Please take ten minutes to watch the following video.

The Effects of True Salvation

More preachers need to preach the doctrine of Biblical Salvation and abandon the motivational talks aimed at behavior modification and self-help!

The church and Miley Cyrus

Is the church becoming more like Miley Cyrus and less like the Bride of Christ?

Watch the videos below and listen to what Ms. Cyrus has to say.







Now take a look at this one.



How many times have we seen this?!?
People who profess Christ in one breath and then act in ways that are so contrary to His commands. Jesus says, "If you love me, keep my commandments".
This is the type of role models the world offers our kids! And sadly, too many churches of our day are trying to be more like the world and less like Jesus.

Where Are the Pray-ers?

As Christians, we are called to do many things for the furtherance of the Kingdom and the glory of God. And one of those things is prayer. We are called to pray privately, personally, corporately, effectually, fervently, and most importantly, without ceasing!!! But something I have noticed over time is that the “pray-ers” are conspicuously missing.

We live in a time when prayer is needed more than ever! We are living in a land of spiritual famine and desolation! We are living in a time when most people don’t even give God a second thought much less make Him their main priority. We have Christians, many who have been Christians for years, slipping into complacency and growing slack in the God-commanded disciplines of prayer, Bible study, and Christian service. We have rampant immorality within the “church” as much as in the world. In the words of Spurgeon, we have churches that are more interested in “entertaining goats rather than feeding sheep”. We have talented musicians and singers but fewer true worshippers. We have many polished speakers who motivate people to modify their behavior in order to have better lives but fewer men of God that will stand and preach the whole council of God’s Word, rightly divided and powerfully proclaimed. We look for the latest fad or newest program to solve our problems, but few are willing to do what God commands, PRAY!!!!

God promises in 2 Chronicles 7, "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Where are the pray-ers? Where is the repentance?

I am often saddened by the lack of participation in our Sunday night prayer services! It saddens me that out of 100+ people only 4 or 5 will gather for prayer on a regular basis. Many may wonder why we are not seeing souls saved; why there is so much sin “within the camp”; why we do not see the power of God move as in the days of old; why the people of God are faced with so many family and financial problems. The answer may be found in the many empty pews on Sunday nights.

God's Tools Yesterday, Our Idols Tomorrow

There is no doubt or debate that God’s word tells us to look back on God’s blessings and mighty works and to remember his great power and faithfulness. But as we saw last week, we can dwell in the past to a degree which becomes unhealthy and unproductive. Today, I would like to continue in that same vein of thought.

There have been times in the history of man that God has chosen in His sovereignty to use an object to demonstrate His power or will in a particular manner for a specific time. Some examples would be Aaron’s rod that budded, Elijah’s mantle, and the Ark of the Covenant. These things stood as symbols of God’s power, and God showed great manifestation through them. But as powerful as these manifestations were, these objects were merely objects. They had no real power of their own!

As intriguing and captivating as such God-empowered objects are, they can be dangerous! The hearts of fallen mankind have a great propensity for idolatry, and we have a tendency to want to make these “tools of God” objects of worship. A good example of this is found in the Old Testament.

In the eighteenth chapter of 2 Kings, we read of the account of King Hezekiah destroying the idols and false gods that Israel had begun to worship. Among those objects was a particularly interesting idol. This idol was called Nehushtan, and King Hezekiah had it broke into pieces. 2 Kings 18:4 tells us that Nehushtan was “the bronze snake Moses had made” and that “up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it.” The Israelites had taken an object that God intended to be looked upon in repentance and changed it into an object of devotion and worship to which they burned incense.

In this story, we see the propensity of man to make idols out of objects. We easily loose sight of the God who chose to use the object for His purpose for a season, and we become focused on the object itself. We slide slowly yet easily down the slippery slope of nostalgia in to the pit of idolatry. Let’s not forget that although God can use objects for His purposes, He is neither confined to nor represented in objects of any sort.

Stones of Remembrance, Not Anchors of Idleness

In the third chapter of the Book of Joshua, we find the account of God’s people miraculously crossing over the Jordan River into the Promised Land. In this chapter, God tells Joshua to have the priests carry the Ark of the Covenant ahead of the people and walk into the edge of the river. As soon as the priests’ feet touch the water, the river piled up on itself and stopped flowing, and as the priests stood in the middle of the river, the people crossed over on dry land.

In chapter four, God tells Joshua to have a man from each of the tribes of Israel take a large stone from the middle of the river where the priests were standing and take it to the other side. They were instructed to erect a memorial, and Ebenezer, to mark the place and occasion of God’s miraculous demonstration of power.

Today, we who are God’s people, like the Israelites of old, need to learn the importance and blessing of erecting Ebenezer stones in our lives. We need to mark times and occasions when God has moved mightily to heal, deliver, provide for, rescue, and sustain us when only He could. We need to mark those times and occasions when we are reminded in a very special way that God is ever with us and is forever faithful to His people. But we also must be careful in doing so!

It is easy to forget that Ebenezer stones are simply mile markers along an on-going journey. They are to mark the progress we have made with God’s help, not our arrival! Although the Israelites had reached the Promised Land, they were not finished! There was still a lot of work to be done, people to be conquered, land to be settled, and new lives to be started. If they had settled on the shore of the river and gone no further, they would not have experienced the promises and blessing the Lord had in store for them.

If we allow ourselves to dwell on the blessings of yesterday (not in a way that reminds us of God’s faithfulness and encourages us forward, but rather in a way that causes us to do nothing while we dwell in the past), we will miss out on God’s blessings for today and His promises of tomorrow. Yesterday’s “crossing of the Jordan” was GREAT but what about tomorrow’s “walls of Jericho”? Let’s be encouraged by what God has done in the past. Let us remember. But do not let our stones of remembrance become anchors that hold us back or weights that hold us down!

Our Needs vs. God's Commands

Something I’ve noticed over the past number of years is the lack of consistent participation by many believers in activities that constitute the life of the church. This observation has caused me to examine the possibilities of what may be the cause of this dwindling participation.

Bear in mind that I am not talking about peripheral, extra-curricular activities like church softball teams, a men’s fishing trip, or a ladies’ shopping outing. I am talking about the central activities of the church that are commanded in scripture. I’m talking about corporate worship, prayer, evangelistic efforts, and fellowship. These ‘events’ are often sporadically or poorly attended, and sometimes both! Why is this?!?

I think it has a lot to do with our motivations, and I think that this ‘phenomenon’ exists because many are more driven by their personal needs than by God’s commands. Our wants, needs, and desires have a greater influence on what we do and how we spend our time than does God’s commands and expectations.

In our local church, we have between 100 and 150 people in morning worship, but at Sunday Evening Prayer we have between 4 and 10 people on average. When we have Family First, there are usually about 30 to 50 people. And when we go door to door inviting people to come to church at Operation Invitation, we have between 3 and 6 people most of the time. Why is there such a discrepancy in the numbers?!?

I submit that it is simply because most people do not feel that a need that they have is filled by this activities. Though few would actually verbalize it, it is as if they are saying (with their actions), “I don’t go to prayer because it really doesn’t do anything for me.” or “Family First is good and all, but I just don’t get a lot out of it.” Some of those same people want to see their church grow and they sometimes act as if the leadership of the church should be doing more to make it grow. However, they are not willing to participate in reaching out and inviting people to come.

Like so many other things in the Body of Christ, our participation in the life of the church is NOT ABOUT US!!!! When God’s word clearly commands us to do certain things and models certain things in the life of believers, we should do those things consistently, faithfully, and fervently whether it directly benefits us or not!

Church is not a performance to be attended; neither is Christianity a spectator sport! We should be an active member of the Body of Christ! We should do those things that glorify and honor God and build up the Body, not just the things that benefit us!

Ask not what others can do for you, but rather what you can do for others!