Pages

▼

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

MAKE ME A CHANEL OF BLESSING-Traditional Hymns Podcast

Make Me A Channel Of Blessing

Download

Lyrics and Music: Harper G. Smyth

Is your life a channel of blessing?
Is the love of God flowing through you?
Are you telling the lost of the Savior?
Are you ready His service to do?

Refrain:
Make me a channel of blessing today,
Make me a channel of blessing, I pray;
My life possessing, my service blessing,
Make me a channel of blessing today.

Is your life a channel of blessing?
Are you burdened for those that are lost?
Have you urged upon those who are straying,
The Savior Who died on the cross?

Is your life a channel of blessing?
Is it a daily telling for Him?
Have you spoken the Word of salvation
To those who are dying in sin?

We cannot be channels of blessing
If our lives are not free from known sin;
We will barriers be and a hindrance
To those we are trying to win.

Share
at No comments:

WISE WORDS


Fear is a motivating tool which wears quickly. Encouragement is a motivator which never grows old.
Michael K. Reynolds
We're living in a time where truth is indeed often stranger than fiction .
Frank Viola
at No comments:

JERUSALEM FILMED IN IMAX 3D

Jerusalem | Filmed in Imax 3D

Jerusalem | Filmed in Imax 3D from JerusalemGiantScreen on Vimeo.


http://vimeo.com/15034110
After a year of research and preparation, the giant screen film JERUSALEM advanced into production with an unprecedented aerial shoot throughout Israel and the West Bank. Scheduled for worldwide release in 2013, the film will take audiences on a spectacular tour of the Holy Land and the city once believed to lie at the centre of the world.

Jerusalem | An Arcane/Cosmic Picture Film
at 1 comment:

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

KIMYAL BIBLE

KimyalBible10minute



http://youtu.be/w9dpmp_-TY0

www.worldteam.org The Kimyal Tribe of Papua, Indonesia celebrate the arrival of the New Testament Bible in the Kimyal language.
Many of the "first" WILL BE last and the "last" WILL BE first. The western world would view these folks as poverty-stricken, living out in the wilderness. But they are rich beyond comprehension. As one of the brothers from the Cross Movement said, "eternity is a real long time." These precious souls will rejoice in that "real long time" while those who rejected Yeshua's redemption will wail.And yet while evangelicals in America are still being served milk from the Word and rarely crack their Bibles outside of Saturday night or Sunday morning, these people have and will be eating the solid food that can be digested by the spiritually mature. This should push American Christians to grow in spiritual maturit
This is AMAZING and inspiring for those who 'know' to keep forwarding His message, as He commands! Matthew 28:18-20
at No comments:

Monday, June 27, 2011

FROM GRACE FOR LIFE-Beware of the False Gospel of Discipleship

Beware of the False Gospel of Discipleship


The Seriousness of a False Gospel

There is a huge mistake being made today in many pulpits, books and other forms of Bible teaching.

It is not trivial.

And it is not being "picky" to point it out.

It's serious.

It's serious because it's a "different gospel" or "another gospel" (Galatians 1:6).

And the Apostle Paul wrote, "But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!" (Galatians 1:8)

What The True Gospel Is

Before looking at the false gospel in question, it should be noted what the true Gospel is. This is not a simple task, although the Gospel itself is simple enough for a child to understand.

The reason it's not that simple to simply state the gospel is because it is somewhat expandable in it's content.

In other words, when we say the Gospel involves believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, we can expand greatly such things as "what does 'Lord' mean?", "who IS Jesus Christ?", "what does it mean to 'believe'?", etc.

Still, for our purposes here we need to state it with a certain amount of simplicity in order to contrast it with the "false gospel of discipleship", remembering that the Gospel is "Good News".

So let's plow ahead and arrive at a useful and simple definition.

Let's look at two Scripture passages for some guidance:

"Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures..." (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)

This passage indicates the basic historical events of the gospel -- the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

"He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Corinthians 5:21)

This passage, along with several others, indicates the substitutionary nature of the Gospel -- that we needed His righteousness, and He had to take our sins on Himself and pay for them on the cross.

Again, all of this is quite expandable, but we can capsulize the true "Good News" (Gospel) as follows:

The Gospel is the Good News that since we have all been born sinful and deserving of the wrath of God, but since God loves us, He sent His Son Jesus Christ to Earth as a Man, and that this Jesus died on a cross for our sins, was buried, and rose again from the dead -- and that whoever believes in Him as Lord and Savior will not perish, but have eternal life as a free gift.

There is a lot packed into that, yet it is very simple, and is based on faith so simple that a child can (as Scripture capsulizes it) "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved" (Acts 16:31).

Faith alone. Sola Fide, as the phrase was put in the Reformation. "Not of works, lest any man should boast", as Paul put it to the Ephesians.

 What The False Teaching Of Discipleship Is

The false gospel of discipleship typically takes a form like this:

"It's not enough to just believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior, and believe that He died for your sins and rose again. The gospel also includes that you must DO what Jesus said in many places in the Gospels.

"Among other things, you must 'deny yourself, take up your cross and follow him', Matthew 16:24.

They in effect say that we must be WORTHY to be saved (a ridiculous thought) since Jesus said we're not worthy of Him unless we take up our cross and follow Him (Matthew 10:37,38), which they say is part of the gospel of salvation, and a requirement for salvation.

As one prominent Pastor put it (echoed in song by a prominent Christian musician, and repeated as though it were Scripture), "To give all that you are, for all that He is; this is the gospel according to Jesus."

Of course that's NOT the Gospel. That's legalism.

We don't need to become worthy before we become His, and we don't buy or earn "all that He is" by our own "giving" of ANYTHING.

His eternal life and salvation that He gives us are FREE (Romans 6:23, "...the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.")

The Confusion Of This False Teaching

The problem with this false teaching is that it demands the question, "How much must I deny myself to be saved?" Or, "How much must I take up my cross?" "What cross?" "How long?" "Have I really given ALL that I am for all that He is?" "How can I tell?" "And what if I think I've given all that I am, but I really haven't?" "Or what if I think I've given all that I am, but I take something back?"

And on and on go the demonic whispers to undermine the simple faith of a true believer who is confused by what it was that brought him salvation.

And think of the confusion of a lost person hearing such a message! "What indeed must I DO to be saved?", they are wondering!

And the teacher of this false "gospel of discipleship" cannot even answer this simple question, because they have grown up Kudzu-like vines of "works" that choke and confuse the truth of the gospel of faith alone.

The absurdity of this false gospel should be obvious just by comparing two verses on discipleship spoken by the Lord Himself (follow me closely here, please):

Matthew 16:24 reads, "...he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me."

If that was a requirement for INITIAL salvation, then how would one explain the parallel verse in Luke 9:23?: "...he must deny himself, and take up his cross DAILY and follow Me."

See my point? If one has to take up his cross DAILY in order to be saved, how many DAYS must he take it up? Will he be saved if he takes it up for three days? One hundred days?

Preposterous!

Besides, Romans 1:16 says that the Gospel is THE POWER OF GOD FOR SALVATION TO THOSE WHO BELIEVE! There's no power in setting standards of behavior for the lost in order for them to attain salvation! That's not Good News!

Yet these teachers continue imposing standards of DISCIPLESHIP upon the lost who are not even disciples yet! In order for them to believe the simple gospel!

Sidenote: they will almost always say something like, "Now this isn't works salvation". But denying it doesn't make it so. They are blind to the fact that it really IS works salvation. Like the Roman Catholic teacher who imposes works and sacraments on the people and calls it "faith".

And believers in congregations all over the place buy into that false teaching, after they themselves have already been saved by simply believing the Gospel!

No wonder Paul wrote the Galatians with a rare emotional rant of shock and anger because they had so soon allowed themselves to be entangled in "works plus faith" teachings.

And yet his words for the sheep were not nearly as angry as his words for the teachers themselves.

May these teachers of the "false gospel of discipleship" repent, and begin preaching the true Gospel of faith apart from works.

A Word About Soteriology

Soteriology is the Doctrine of Salvation (Greek soter means savior). It's the study of HOW we are saved. It's an important and biblical and fascinating study.

But Soteriology is not the Gospel either.

The Gospel is basically a truth proclaimed, not a detailed explanation of the process of regeneration, believing the Gospel, justification, sanctification and glorification -- each with voluminous words of clarification and controversy.

I feel compelled, however, to point out one thing from our study of biblical Soteriology.

Faith in Jesus Christ is itself a gift from God. It's not something we manufacture. He must open our hearts and reveal Jesus Christ to us, or we will not believe.

Yet wonderfully, if He does open our hearts and reveal Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we can't NOT believe. This is what theologians call "Irresistible Grace".

Not that God brings us kicking and screaming into His family, but that He opens our hearts and we see Him with new eyes and a new heart, and we believe in Him.

How does faith come? The Bible itself says that it comes from hearing the Word of God.

And so, if you don't consider yourself a believer in Jesus Christ, I recommend that you read the Book of John.

It was written by John the Apostle under the inspiration of God Himself, to bring folks to faith in Jesus Christ.

It was written specifically "...so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name." (John 20:31)

Interestingly, the Book of John says nothing about "denying yourself" or "taking up your cross". Nothing about YOUR works, but only the work that Jesus Christ Himself already did for us on the cross.

In fact, in John 6:28,29, when they asked Jesus, "What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?, He answered, ""This is the WORK of God, that you BELIEVE in Him whom He has sent."

The Beauty of Discipleship

Does that subtitle, "The Beauty of Discipleship", surprise you after what I've just been saying?

It shouldn't.

Although discipleship is not the Gospel -- although discipleship is not the cause of our salvation -- discipleship is a wonderful thing.

When one becomes a Christian, they become a disciple. A disciple is a "learner" and a "follower". Learning of Jesus and following Him is the greatest of privileges.

And the "surrender" involved in following Him is one of the highest things that we are called to do as already-saved believers. To grow in the attitude "not my will but yours be done, Lord" is not only sublimely precious, but the source of great joy.

But to teach this growing, learning, surrendering lifestyle as "the Gospel" -- to teach it as the requirement for being saved -- is to put the cart before the horse.
Posted by Terry Rayburn at 9:54 PM
Labels: ,

comments:

Terry Rayburn said...

A Twitter friend tweeted this question...

"...might we say that discipleship is not the means of our salvation, but the measure of it?"

I said, "Sorta", but Twitter is too restrictive for a decent answer, so...

When you say "the MEASURE of it", you imply some kind of MEASUREMENT which usually involves a scale (e.g., "1 to 10") or percentage (10% good disciple, 75% good disciple, etc.).

A better way of saying it might be...

"Discipleship is not the means of our salvation, but MAY be an INDICATION of it."

I say "MAY be", because at a given moment (or day or week) a true believer may appear to be a poor disciple.

I say "an INDICATION of", because it may not PROVE true salvation, since one can be a pretty good pretender and not be a true Christian.

Still, the spirit of the Tweeter's question is, "will not a true believer have at least some discipleship fruit in their lives, evidencing their new birth?"

And I believe the biblical answer to that is, "Yes".

And the first part of the Tweeter's question is right on: "Discipleship is not the means of our salvation".

A.J..said... Terry,

"They are blind to the fact that it really IS works salvation."

You are so right. One fellow, who professes to be reformed in his theology, tells his congregation that they must attend all church meetings, otherwise they might not be saved.

5/01/2011 1:00 AM

b.said...

Well done! Legalism is insidious.

6/07/2011 9:00 PM

at No comments:

MĂ IUBEŞTI ? POEZIE de Corneliu Livanu

MA IUBESTI?
Isus i-a zis lui Petru chiar după Înviere :
”Tu Mă iubeşti azi Simon cu-a inimii plăcere ?
Mai mult decât aceştia c-o dragoste curată ?”
”Eu Te iubesc Isuse mai mult ca altădată!”

Privind în zarea lină cum zboară porumbeii
Isus i-a zis lui Petru : ”Tu paşte-Mi mieluşeii!
Iubirea doar prin fapte vorbeşte tuturora
Şi-aduce-n locul nopţii din ceruri aurora.”

Isus a doua oară întreabă de iubire
Iar Petru întâlneşte a Domnului privire.
Ca şi la judecată el L-a privit pe Domnul.
Atunci plângea în noapte dispreţuindu-şi somnul.

Acum plin de lumină aceeaşi întrebare
Isus din nou o pune : ”Mă iubeşti, Simon, oare ?”
Examenul iubirii conţine teste grele.
”Da, Doamne!”, I-a zis Petru. „”Paşte-Mi oiţele Mele!”
Şi-aduce-aminte Petru de-o răcoroasă noapte
Când se-ncălzea pe sine la foc …Dar nişte şoapte
Atunci spre el se-ndreaptă şi-l fac să mai rămână :
”N-ai fost tu în grădină cu sabia în mână ?!…”

Tabloul iar se schimbă. Din nou Isus vorbeşte.
Pe ţărm focul mai arde gătind prânzul de peşte.
”Mă iubeşti Simon Petru ?”, i-a zis a treia oară.
Răspunsul vine grabnic dar e ca o povară.

”Da, Doamne, Tu ştii totul! Ştii cum mi-a fost căderea
Dar azi prin îndurare îmi înnoieşti puterea.
Iubirea-mi pentru Tine e sinceră şi mare
Dar lumea ca s-o birui eu nu mă simt în stare.”

”Paşte oile Mele !, îi zise Salvatorul.
Iubirea Mea în toate să-ţi fie de-azi izvorul.
Ai fost odată tânăr dar viaţa ta e una.
La capătu-alergării te-aşteaptă-n cer cununa!”

Isus, prin Duhul slavei, te-ntreabă şi pe tine
Îl mai iubeşti tu oare înflăcărat creştine ?
Vestindu-L cu putere, iubindu-ţi şi duşmanii
Dar nu fără de roade lăsând să-ţi treacă anii ?!

Eşti gata pentru Domnul să faci orice lucrare
Să ari prin fapte bune pământul cel mai tare ?
Să te apleci spre alţii ce trec prin suferinţă,
Să verşi în rugăciune doar lacrimi de căinţă ?

Poţi să alini bolnavul şi văduva sărmană,
Ca şi Samariteanul să pui ulei pe rană ?
Să porţi prin lume jugul iubirii jertfitoare ?!…
Isus îţi mai aşteaptă răspunsul la-ntrebare.

Mă iubeşti tu, oare, Simon ? Mă iubeşti Maria ?
Mai cereţi voi în rugă să vină-Mpărăţia ?
Răspunsul e trăirea prin Duhul ce dă viaţă
Cum soarele răsare în orice dimineaţă.

Corneliu Livanu

at No comments:

A MOUSETRAP

A MOUSETRAP

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package… “What food might this contain?” The mouse wondered – he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning. “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!”

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, “Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it.”

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!” The pig sympathized, but said, “I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it. ”

The mouse turned to the cow and said, “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!” The cow said, “Wow, Mr. Mouse. I’m sorry for you, but it’s no skin off my nose.But wish you well; be assured you are in my prayers “So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer’s mousetrap– alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house — like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey.The farmer’s wife rushed to see what was caught.

In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer’s wife.

The farmer rushed her to the hospital and she returned home with a fever. Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard f

or the soup’s main ingredient. But his wife’s sickness continued, so friends and neig

hbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig. The farmer’s wife did not get well; she died.

So many people came for her funeral,

the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them. The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.

EACH OF US IS A VITAL THREAD IN ANOTHER PERSON’S TAPESTRY; OUR LIVES ARE WOVEN TOGETHER FOR A REASON.

at No comments:

Friday, June 24, 2011

PREDICI -CU BRATELE DESCHISE

Cu bratele deschise -Charles Stanley

  • Cu bratele deschise -Charles Stanley






https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=7C7A90AE60AB5A8C&id=7C7A90AE60AB5A8C!483&sc=documents&wa=wsignin1.0
at No comments: