Two Christian singers nix the Grammy Awards

Mandisa:

"I knew that submerging myself into an environment that celebrates those things was risky for me at this time," she wrote. "I am taking steps to renew my mind to become the Heavenly Father-centered, completely satisfied with Jesus, and Holy Spirit-led woman I felt I was a few months ago, but I'm feeling a bit like an infant learning to walk again on shaky legs." - See more at: http://onenewsnow.com/media/2014/01/30/gospel-singers-natalie-grant-mandisa-praised-for-counterculture-stands#sthash.vSFZ9B3J.dpuf

Natalie Grant:

"I've many thoughts, most of which are probably better left inside my head. But I'll say this: I've never been more honored to sing about Jesus and for Jesus. And I've never been more sure of the path I've chosen." - See more at: http://onenewsnow.com/media/2014/01/30/gospel-singers-natalie-grant-mandisa-praised-for-counterculture-stands#sthash.vSFZ9B3J.dpuf

Nothing else needs to be said.

End Times thoughts to ponder

Could we take a minute here and look at the Lampstand at Ephesus?

The New English Bible translation says in Rev 1:20 "Here is the secret meaning of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and of the seven lamps of gold: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven lamps are the seven churches."

Then Rev 2:5 says: "But I have this against you: you have lost your early love. Think from what a height you have fallen; repent, and do as you once did. Otherwise, if you do not repent, I shall come to you and remove your lamp from its place."

The first mention of "church" is from Jesus in Matthew 16:18 when He talks of building His church upon the rock... (which by the way is a Biblical pun)

In Rev. 2:5 Jesus is saying that if the church at Ephesus does not repent and turn back to its first love...which is the Heart Intent of the Gospel of Jesus then He will take out the church or more specifically, Jesus will remove the heart of the church and what will be left? Nothing but works and deeds with no heart/mercy.

Jesus walks among the lamps of gold... Jesus is very much present within His churches.

For Him to remove the Lamp is for Him to remove the Light which is removing Himself from the gathering. 2 Tim 2:13 tells us that Jesus cannot deny Himself, therefore Jesus is not only removing Himself from the gathering but also removing all those that have Him living within them and those are the true believers. When the True Believers leave, there is nothing of Christ's Body left.

Jesus is taking His Body with Him when He leaves...He is not sending part of His body to Hell because of sin. There is no need for that because He has already paid for the sin of faithlessness. (2 Tim 2:11-13) He cannot deny Himself.

The consequence is removal, not damnation. And this is the hope for all with salvation. There is no sin too great that Jesus did not overcome it.

I find this admonishment from Jesus quite chilling because I do see many Christians whose love has grown cool. That means being lukewarm and look what that gets the church from Laodicia.

Christian gut-clenching -- The Grammy Awards

I am posting the whole letter I received from Truth in Action Ministries. I did not watch the Grammy Awards, and now I am very glad I did not. I know with the ice storm down here in the South that's all we would hear, but what about national news? Why are more Christians outraged? Hmmmm.

From Truth in Action Ministries...

Dear Gina, As you may have seen, this past Sunday night’s Grammy Awards program, televised nationally on CBS, featured a mass wedding ceremony that included numerous same-sex couples, officiated by actress/singer Queen Latifah, and solemnized by the singing of Madonna. In fact, much of what we saw Sunday night was a counterfeit worship service, though it was clearly not the true God who was being worshipped. Since the entertainment industry has devoted much of its efforts in recent decades to increasingly inane (and in this case exploitative, as the entertainers used the wedding couples as pawns for their own publicity stunt) attempts to be “transgressive,” we shouldn’t really be surprised. And, of course, this is yet another demonstration of what the Apostle Paul himself described in Romans 1: “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!” (Romans 1:24-25, ESV). Counterfeit worship is a direct result of rejecting God, and Sunday night’s “service” featured everything from a choir to mock-stained-glass windows. One of the interesting aspects of this year’s Grammy telecast (which also included former Christian contemporary musician Katy Perry, who performed as a literal witch emerging from a crystal ball and casting spells) is that such a thing can be televised nationwide and raise little more than a collective yawn. The late Dr. D. James Kennedy, founder of Truth in Action Ministries, once said of Hollywood, “It continually desensitizes us until we come to accept things that at one time we would never accept at all.” In our desensitized culture where idolatry is commonplace (and Paul makes it clear that among other things, homosexuality is a form of idolatry) it’s never been more important for Christians to pursue holiness. And in the face of such a “worship service,” it is harder and harder to justify our appetite for popular culture. Culture is a reflection of our own particular choices. Sunday evening’s telecast once again broadcast to the world every sign of a culture under the judgment of God. Let us pray for repentance and for the furtherance of the life-giving gospel that frees us from sin and idolatry and enables us to worship the True God! Sincerely, Jerry Newcombe Truth In Action Ministries

 

10 Things a Christian Must Know

1. The difference between love and lust.

1 John 4:16  And we have known and have believed the love which God has in us. God is love, and the one abiding in love abides in God, and God in him

Jeremiah 22:17  But your eyes and your heart lust for nothing but your unjust gain, and to shed innocent blood, and oppression, and to do violence.

Gal 5:16  But I say, Walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

2. When to hold on and when to let go.

Proverbs 3:18  She (wisdom) is a tree of life to the ones who lay hold on her, and happy are the ones holding her fast.

Luke 14:3  And answering, Jesus spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, asking whether it is lawful to heal on the sabbath.

Luke 14:4  And they were silent. And taking the man, He cured him and let him go.

3. Trouble when he sees it.

Exo 18:8  And Moses told his father-in-law all that Jehovah had done to Pharaoh and to Egypt on account of Israel, all the trouble which they had found in the way, and Jehovah had delivered them.

Job 5:6  For affliction does not come forth from the dust, nor does trouble spring up out of the ground;

Psa 22:11  Be not far from Me; for trouble is near; because no one is there to help.

4.  A load of bull when he hears it.

Psalm 59:12  For the sin of their mouth is the word of their lips, even let them be captured in their pride, and for cursing and the lying which they utter.

Psa 120:2  O Jehovah, deliver my soul from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue.

2Pe 2:3  They will be greedy and cheat you with smooth talk. But long ago God decided to punish them, and God doesn't sleep.

5.  His strengths and weaknesses.

Neh 8:10  Then he said to them, Go eat the fat, and drink of the sweet, and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared. For this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of Jehovah is our strength.

Job 17:9  And the righteous shall hold firmly on his way; and he of clean hands adds strength.

Rom 6:19  I speak as a man on account of the weakness of your flesh. For as you presented your members as slaves to uncleanness and to lawless act unto lawless act, so now yield your members as slaves to righteousness unto sanctification.

6. How to start a fire--in the hearth and the heart.

Psa 104:4  He makes His angels spirits, His ministers a flaming fire.

Proverbs 25:21  If one hating you is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, 22  for you shall heap coals of fire on his head, and Jehovah shall reward you.

1Peter 1:7  so that the proving of your faith, much more precious than perishing gold, but having been proved through fire, may be found to praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

7. How to be gracious in victory and in defeat.

1 Chronicles 29:11  To you, O Jehovah, be the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty; for all in the heavens and in the earth belongs to You, O Jehovah; Yours is the kingdom, and You lift up Yourself to all as Head;

1 Corinthians 15:54  But when this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality, then will take place the Word that has been written, "Death was swallowed up in victory." (Isa. 25:8)

Num 10:35  Each day as the Israelites began their journey, Moses would pray, "Our LORD, defeat your enemies and make them run!"

Rom 12:21  Don't let evil defeat you, but defeat evil with good.

8. When to talk and when to listen.

Num 7:89  Whenever Moses needed to talk with the LORD, he went into the sacred tent, where he heard the LORD's voice coming from between the two winged creatures above the lid of the sacred chest.

Proverbs 18:21  Words can bring death or life! Talk too much, and you will eat everything you say.

Proverbs 23:9  Don't talk to fools-- they will just make fun.

Pro 25:15  Patience and gentle talk can convince a ruler and overcome any problem.

Ecc 5:2  Don't talk before you think or make promises to God without thinking them through. God is in heaven, and you are on earth, so don't talk too much.

9.  The Ten Commandments. AND The importance of trying to follow them.

Exodus 20

10.  At least one true friend who will be there whenever he calls.

Psa 144:2  You are my friend, and you are my fortress where I am safe. You are my shield, and you made me the ruler of our people.

Pro 7:4  Let wisdom be your sister and make common sense your closest friend.

Pro 17:17  A friend is always a friend, and relatives are born to share our troubles.

Pro 18:24  Some friends don't help, but a true friend is closer than your own family.

John 15:13  Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Miracles still happen

Listen children, miracles of God happen every single day.

The problem is that the Bride of Christ who is sick with unbelief never recognizes the miracles, or so it seems.

I had forgotten that I witnessed several miracles in one weekend, and then heard of three more a day or two later. It is amazing what you find when you dig in your own archives. Here's an example...

One of the Board of Directors couldn't make our meeting because her son who is a husband and father of four children was in a horrendous car accident. When the car was examined, from the dashboard to the front of the car it was a twisted mass of metal. The engine was tossed to the side on the ground, the radiator was tossed in a different direction. The son was tossed into the back seat and had to unbuckle his seat belt to climb out of the back seat. He walked away. The emergency responders said that no one should have lived through that accident no matter where they may had been sitting in the car and certainly not the driver. But, he did.

Another miracle that happened a few years ago...
Baptist missionaries in Brazil were handing out bags of food to villagers whose town had been decimated by a flood. The workers knew there were almost twice as many people as bags of food. Yet, they kept handing out bags until every person had walked away with a bag. There is no way 50 bags, which is how many they began with, could have tripled, but the 120 or so people all got a bag.

There are many more miracles just like this one posted on Voice of the Martyrs.org website or on IMB.org. Just read for about an hour or so, you'll be totally blessed.

Saying that miracle and revelations don't happen anymore is putting God in a box.

I am not saying that there are New Truths. Not under any circumstances are there New Truths. God closed the book after Revelation was penned. However, there are many new insights.

Some people choose to call those insights ‘revelation’. In a way, I suppose it could be labeled that way, but God doesn't contradict Himself. He will never share a ‘revelation’ that circumvents what His Word states.

But, we must understand that there are days coming when Joel’s prophecy will blossom. Peter’s sermon in Acts 2 says so. There is no way possible that we can put a finger on the exact date that the Church Age (Acts depicts the beginning of the Church Age) ends. We don't know. There is no prophecy in Scripture that tells us when the Great Snatch will occur. It could be any day, any hour, any moment which is why Jesus instructed us to be ready.

The Day that there will be no more miracles is the Day that the Great White Throne Judgment happens. There won’t be any need for miracles then, for there won’t be any more “chances” for the sons of men to turn from their wicked ways.

Scripture trumps experience every time. I also think that Lutzer has a valid point: miracles do not prove God. Abraham told the Rich Man in Luke 16:31 that even though one be raised from the dead they still will not believe. The Samaritans hosted Jesus and His disciples for three days and the woman at the well brought the whole village to Jesus’ feet. He spoke, they believed, and Jesus did not perform one miracle. He didn't need to. I find that such an overwhelming testimony. But, what a wowser of a miracle!