Frederick Brotherton (F. B.) Meyer 1847 - 1929

"Make the most of me that can be made for Thy glory"

William Vaughn 1785-1877

"He refused to compromise the truth"

The "Jesus" the World Loves

What do you think of Jesus? That's a question I've asked at times to engage non-Christians in conversation about Him for the purpose of witnessing. A fairly typical response used to be that He was a religious teacher who did a lot of good, said many good things, and they usually concluded with a belief that He was a very good man. I then could ask, "Did you know that He claimed to be God?" When looks of puzzlement followed, I would explain that He couldn't be a "very good man." In claiming to be God, He was either self-deluded or an outright fraud — that is, unless He was telling the truth. More often than not, that thought, raising the issue of being accountable to God, would bring our conversation to an awkward end. At least it had provided the opportunity to plant some seeds that I hoped would grow into conviction. Most people aren't comfortable with the truth about Jesus.

More Than A Baby In A Manger

There is a part of me that doesn’t like the Christmas season. I hate what it has done to Christianity. The birth of the Savior has been hi-jacked. The arrival of Emmanuel has been relegated to a secular celebration highlighted by a trip to the local mall. What a way to celebrate the ultimate spiritual-bailout.

The Bible Belt Is Unbuckled

If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain; If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works? Prov. 24:11-12

The Personhood Amendment went down to defeat in Mississippi on Tuesday.  It would have effectively ended abortion in the state of Mississippi by amending the state constitution and declaring a child is a “person” from the moment of implantation.

This would have granted to the pre-born the same rights that born-people enjoy as guaranteed by the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution.  It is a sad day for Mississippi.  It is a tragic day for the unborn.  It is a defining day for the lukewarm churches that populate the state of Mississippi.

Public Schools Are Not Public

When historians look back on the decline of America in the 20th century they will point their fingers directly at the “public” school system.

Nothing has been as destructive to the American culture as the indoctrination camps masquerading as schools. It was in those “schools” that all vestiges of Christianity and American exceptionalism were washed out of the minds of America’s children.

God Expects Gratitude when He Gives Us Gifts

Because we are so very human there is real danger that we may inadvertently do the human thing and turn our blessings upside down. Unless we watch and pray in dead earnest we may turn our good into evil and make the grace of God a trap instead of a benefit!

The Battle is Growing More Intense

We learned this week that members of the US Congress have been forbidden to send out Christmas cards wishing their constituents a Merry Christmas.

We are also informed that the US Army uniform now includes the choice of the wearing of turbins or Muslim head scarves. At the same time chaplains are forbidden to utter the name of Jesus in their prayers.

Across America Christmas trees and Christmas lights are banned in public places. Happy Holidays has replaced Merry Christmas as the effort to eliminate Christmas reaches a crescendo.

Everywhere the message of the hour is tolerance, except when it comes to Christianity where the clear message is “stamp it out.”

The Birth of Christ

At this season of the year we celebrate the Birth of Christ, but we do not just celebrate the birth of a baby in Bethlehem so many years ago. Many billions of human babies have been born, but what we celebrate is the incarnation of God in human flesh.

This baby had no human father from which to receive the sinful rebellious nature of man. He received His humanity from Mary His mother. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit making Him not only human but Divine, God in Flesh. "They shall call His name Immanuel, which is being interpreted, God With Us" Mt. 1:23.

“Weaning Evangelicals Off the Word‏”

At a certain point in the future, there will be a total rejection of biblical Christianity, succeeded by the religion of the Antichrist; it will maintain a veneer of Christianity that will prove acceptable to all religions. This perversion of Christianity doesn't just suddenly happen once the Antichrist appears. The deception process began long ago in the Garden of Eden with Satan's seduction of Eve, and it is becoming more and more of a corrupting influence within Christianity as the time of the appearing of the false messiah, whom the entire world will worship (Revelation 13), draws near. Satan began his dialogue with Eve by planting seeds of doubt regarding what God had commanded: "Yea, hath God said...?" (Genesis 3:1). This opening line of the Adversary has been the basis ever since for his principal strategy in inducing rebellion against God. Its implications impugning the character of God and sanctioning the rationalizations of man seem endless: Why would God keep something good from you? Is He really in charge? Does He make the rules? You misunderstood His commands, there are no absolutes, you need to consider what He says from your own perspective, and so forth. Eve, although reiterating God's command for the most part, adds her own erroneous thought to what God actually said: "...neither shall ye touch it" (3:3).

Richard Dawkins Out To "Destroy Christianity"

In an interview with Christopher Hitchens, which was conducted in October and published in a special Christmas issue of the New Statesman, Richard Dawkins admitted that he is out to destroy Christianity. Dawkins, author of “The God Delusion,” asked his fellow atheist, “Do you ever worry that if we win and, so to speak, destroy Christianity, that vacuum would be filled by Islam?” (New Statesmen, December 16, 2011). Dawkins is whistling in the dark. Apostate Christianity, such as the Church of England, has nearly destroyed itself, but Biblical Christianity can no more be destroyed than Jesus Christ Himself. He promised to be with His disciples to the end of the world (Matthew 28:20). The Roman emperors could not destroy Christianity, nor could communist Russia or communist China, and they had more resources than Dawkins and his “new atheists.” Hitchens, author of “God Is Not Great,” died on December 15 of throat cancer, and Biblical Christianity is alive and well and the gospel is being preached to the ends of the earth and souls are being saved and new churches planted. The same will be said when Richard Dawkins and his entire “new atheist” crowd have gone to their eternal wages. “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision” (Psalms 2:1-4). (Friday Church News Notes, December 23, 2011, www.wayoflife.org)

God's Call & Difficulty

God's call may lead us to a season of difficulty and opposition from the enemy (Matthew 4:1). Trials do not indicate that we missed God or somehow lost our way. The very thing that God most desires to accomplish in us and through us is the very thing that the kingdom of darkness wants to oppose. We should not allow difficulties and discouragements to prevent us from obeying the call of God. If we obey and trust God's call, the Lord will be glorified by our obedience and our faith will grow exponentially. --J. Sidlow Baxter

Doctrine

Brother David W. Cloud in his Way of Life Encyclopedia[9] explains the term “doctrine” in the context of the whole postmodern worldview. His comments are excerpted below:

DOCTRINE. Doctrine simply means teaching, but the biblical usage refers to sound teaching based on the Word of God. The two Greek words translated "doctrine", didaskalia and didache, are also translated "teacheth" (Ro. 12:7) and "learning" (Ro. 15:4). These words are used more than 140 times in the N.T., which shows how important doctrine is before God. Other terms which refer to doctrine are "truth" (1 Ti. 2:4), "the faith" (1 Ti. 3:9; 2 Ti. 3:8; Tit. 1:13), "wholesome words" (1 Ti. 6:3), and "sound words" (2 Ti. 1:13). Doctrine (and its companion terms) is referred to 59 times in the Pastoral Epistles alone. "The truth" is referred to 10 times in 2 and 3 John alone.