TODD FRIEL: A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE ROB BELL SAYS PUBLICLY PRACTICING HOMOSEXUALITY IS OK FOR CHRISTIANS

From Apprising Ministries:

"Recently in Emergent Church Theologian Tony Jones and his Unrepentant Homosexual Christians here at Apprising Ministries we covered the story of the coming out of a very influential leader and theologian in the Emerging Church who declared his belief that unrepentant practicing homosexuals can be Christians. And even though I vigorously disagree with him I do commend Tony Jones for caring enough, and being man enough, to clearly state what he believes on this issue.

Well, in this clip below from Way of the Master Radio Todd Friel discusses the hermeneutics used by Rob Bell, essentially the Elvis of the Emergent rebellion against Sola Scriptura, and predicts it won’t be long before the answer will be yes to the question asked here at AM: Will Rob Bell Now Follow Tony Jones Out of the Closet? We’ve already showed you in Saddleback Church Pastors Using Rob Bell Teachings we do know that Bell has gained a strong foothold within youth groups of mainstream evangelical churches.

Men and women, don’t you think it’s well past time that conservative Christians demand that Rob Bell, publicly and clearly, state where he stands on this criticial issue? Don’t you have a right to be told what your kids are being taught about homosexuality from one of the most popular names in the visible church? Perhaps the time is now to begin writing Mars Hill Bible Church to ask its teaching pastor Rob Bell where exactly it is he stands as to whether an unrepentant practicing homosexual can be a Christian.

I also know that if I was one who believed God fully accepted me as a Christ-follower in my homosexual lifestyle it would sure mean an awful lot to have men like Bell and his friend Doug Pagitt, who is also Tony Jones’ pastor, to go on the record in support. So, will Rob and Doug now also finally follow suit and stand up and be counted; or instead, will their seemingly caring posture be just that, a posture… "

Quitting Church - Why the Faithful Are Fleeing

Ordered another book! And I'll be reading it as soon as I get my hands on it. From the title, you can tell why it is of interest. It is of particular interest to me, as my wife and I meet in our home.

So far, from what I've seen and read from others, it's getting pretty good reviews.

When it gets here, I'll let you know what I think.

Buying the Wal-Mart Jesus

From Sacred Sandwich:

"The new Wal-Mart Supercenter just opened up in my town, and man, what a sight! It’s a mammoth structure of utilitarian architecture that houses everything from a grocery to a garden center, along with every dry good you can imagine from fashion wear to office supplies. And people just flock there because it’s one-stop shopping, famous low prices, and a quick “get in and get out” affair. It is an amazing achievement in the history of American consumerism.

Oh, and don’t forget about the official Smiley Face mascot greeting you on every sign. It just makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside as you spend your money to save money.

The only problem is that the former Wal-Mart building in town is now vacant since the retail giant moved its local operation to the new Supercenter facility. Hard to believe that twenty years ago this smaller Wal-Mart store was the shining Camelot on the hill for local shoppers. Now it’s just a castle ruin, an empty shell of its former glory as the company moves on to bigger and better things. Alas, a sign of the times, I’m afraid.

Prior to the beginning of this Sam Walton invasion, our town had a few Mom-and-Pop retail stores downtown, but they’re gone now, too. The first Wal-Mart that landed here soon priced those little shops right out of the market and made it too easy for the faithful customers of our local enterprises to be slowly seduced by the discount convenience of the new store in town. Hometown loyalty and one-on-one service be damned! Pretty soon, those slow-paced, family-run stores with creaky wood floors and clanging brass cash registers had to close their doors for good. Nobody valued their unassuming brand of commerce anymore.

So why do I bring all this up? Because it seems to me that many Christians today have been infected with the same corrupting consumerism that has given rise to the Wal-Mart Supercenter..."

The rest can be found here....

Paul Washer - Discipline Study - 1 Timothy 4:6-16

A few days ago, I found these over at TruthMatters. Thanks Josh!

Pastor, Elder or whatever, you will want to watch this series by Paul Washer.

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Part 4


Part 5


Part 6


Part 7


Part 8


Part 9


Part 10


Part 11


Part 12


Again, thanks to Josh at TruthMatters for his original post, where I found these.

Oswald Chambers --- Spiritual Coherence

The Secret of Spiritual Coherence

But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Galatians 6:14

"When a man is first born again, he becomes incoherent, there is an amount of unrelated emotion about him, unrelated phases of external things. In the apostle Paul there was a strong steady coherence underneath, consequently he could let his external life change as it liked and it did not distress him because he was rooted and grounded in God. Most of us are not spiritually coherent because we are more concerned about being coherent externally. Paul lived in the basement; the coherent critics live in the upper storey of the external statement of things, and the two do not begin to touch each other. Paul's consistency was down in the fundamentals. The great basis of his coherence was the agony of God in the Redemption of the world, viz., the Cross of Jesus Christ.

Re-state to yourself what you believe, then do away with as much of it as possible, and get back to the bedrock of the Cross of Christ. In external history the Cross is an infinitesimal thing; from the Bible point of view it is of more importance than all the empires of the world. If we get away from brooding on the tragedy of God upon the Cross in our preaching, it produces nothing. It does not convey the energy of God to man; it may be interesting but it has no power. But preach the Cross, and the energy of God is let loose. "It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." "We preach Christ crucified."

WILL ROB BELL NOW FOLLOW TONY JONES OUT OF THE CLOSET?

From Ken Silva at Apprising Ministries:

"Diligently Searching The Scriptures Ala W.C. Fields Looking Hard For A Loophole

Apprising Ministries has been doing what we can bring to the attention of the Body of Christ a couple of important issues e.g in Emergent Church Theologian Tony Jones and his Unrepentant Homosexual Christians. For those who may not be aware of the heart of the matter Tony Jones, author of the book The New Christianity Christians and a leading theologian in the Emergent Church, is officially out of the closet now concerning his view that unrepentant practicing homosexuals can become Christians.

At the interspiritual website Beliefnet, where Jones now blogs, in Same Sex Marriage Blogalogue: How I Went from There to Here he removed all doubt as to his position—as well as that which he feels the Body of Christ itself should also take—regarding those who are unrepentant in their practice of the sin of homosexuality:

And yet, all the time I could feel myself drifting toward acceptance that gay persons are fully human persons and should be afforded all of the cultural and ecclesial benefits that I am. (”Aha!” my critics will laugh derisively, “I knew he and his ilk were on a continuous leftward slide!”)

In any case, I now believe that GLBTQ can live lives in accord with biblical Christianity (at least as much as any of us can!) and that their monogamy can and should be sanctioned and blessed by church and state. (Online source, bold theirs)

The other issue which needs to be brought to light is one I touch on in the AM piece Dan Kimball and the Emergent Church Seeking Hard to Make Homosexual Sin Not Sin. Predictably Kimball got all offended but, as I told him one time as we talked on the phone, by ones continued involvement with the practices of Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM)—which would beyond question contribute mightily to bringing about the Protestant Reformation—they will only drift deeper into spiritual deception."

The rest can be read by following this link...

Insulting God: Hard Words for Hard Times

Betsy Markman over at "Just Another Clay Pot" has a wonderful series going on about the modern Gospel. You will most definitely want to read it. All of it!

Part one: "Hard Words For Hard Times"

Part two: "A Non-Miraculous Salvation"

Part three: "The Pride Behind the Modern Gospel"

Part four: "Paved With Good Intentions"

Part five: "The God-Honoring Gospel"

So, are you or someone you know trusting in a prayer they prayed? What about now? Do you see hard evidence of God's discipline in your life so that you know you are a true child of God...or have you just convinced yourself you are saved because you said some words some years ago?

Important question. Good articles. Thanks Betsy!

Paul Washer: Repentance Twofer!

Here's the first one. This has been especially meaningful to me. After watching it, you may be helped as I was...



Here's a great follow-up...

In The End, What Really Matters?

Today I received an email from Olive Tree Ministries. It contained an article by Jan Markell. Her article had to do with end-times events. The article included a link which ultimately took me to an article entitled "The AntiChrist and Mr. Obama". There has been much buzz about whether or not "The One" may or may not be "That One". And I'm not looking for the AntiChrist, but Christ. If you want to read the article for yourself, you can find it here.

In any case, there can be no disputing what the author had to say near the end of his article:

"...But whether Mr. Obama turns out to be the anti-Christ or not is really irrelevant to the Church. Our job in the short time we have left is to get ready to move to our new home. That means breaking our ties with the old one. Anything that can’t be put to kingdom use is excess baggage to us now. We should be sending whatever treasure we have up ahead. We should stop worrying about our career, our retirement fund, our lifestyle, and all those other worldly distractions and put all our resources to work for the benefit of our next life. After all it’s the real one. And one way or the other, this one is already gone."

I agree! And the Lord has been tapping me on the shoulder about this of late. This world is passing away. And the more it passes, the quicker the slide. It is time to put the worldly toys aside and send our treasure to Heaven, where we can enjoy our rewards forever!

A Call For Help From a Brother In Christ

I'll let the link to all the talking. I will only add the following from the book of James:

"14     What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?

     15     If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food,

     16     and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?

     17     Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself."

Spurgeon on Church Entertainment

“The devil has seldom done a cleverer thing than hinting to the church that part of their mission is to provide entertainment for the people, with a view to winning them...providing amusement for the people is nowhere spoken of in the Scriptures as a function of the church...the need is for Biblical doctrine, so understood and felt that it sets men aflame.”

Shai Linne On MML

I know of tons of area pastors who could learn something about preaching from this rapper. I'm remembering one pastor here who said that we must quit using words like "repentance" because "people don't understand what it means". Sad excuses. More likely, it is a case of being afraid of being "stigmatized" by using Biblical terms.

A Message to a Lukewarm Church

The town I live in is not all that different from many others. We work, we play, we enjoy life. We go to church.

We have many churches in our town. At one time we were known for the number of churches here. And it is still a very religious town. We are Baptists, Methodists, Wesleyans, Independents as well as Nazarenes and others.

But in all my investigation I've yet to find a church here that does two vital things: Teach God's Word clearly and obey it. It's come to a point where I drive down a given street and when I see a church, it no longer represents to me what it should: a a place where people who know God meet together to worship God and, from there, go out to proclaim the Gospel. They are seeker sensitive, purpose driven messes that are more concerned with the pain of a splinter (felt need) than the bleeding jugular of a sinner.

We are enamored with ourselves, believing God is at work because we have increased our numbers by implementing human marketing devices and pop psychology to attain our goals rather than depend on God's Truth.

We have become social clubs that meet in buildings that look like church buildings and used to be inhabited by regenerate people. And it has been getting worse for a very long time.

In the past two years, in a search for a church home, this is what I've found:

*We have pastors who support "ministries" that support the use of porn in the name of "freeing from porn". To them, the Word of God is not sufficient and they make God to be a liar.

*We have pastors who lead "conservative" churches who have a problem confronting homosexuality in their own church. They fear man, and thus avoid exercising church discipline which was commanded by our Lord in Matthew 18.

*We have pastors who like to talk about evangelism but when push comes to shove, it's much ado about nothing. Call their bluff? They go silent behind the pulpit about evangelism, knowing that you are serious about it. And the Bible is nothing but a source text for topical messages in which you can rip a verse from its context to make it support your point. Thus, we mock our Lord's great commission and seek to make the Scriptures which were breathed to us by God subservient to our purposes.

Our churches here are full of people who look and act much like the world because, for the most part, they are among the unconverted of the world. Pastors and other church leaders cater to them in the name of keeping them there in order to have them hear, at some point, a gospel that has been truncated and toothless, devoid of any mention of sin and the need of repentance.

And what is the line offered by those who hear of these things? "No church is perfect."

True. And most churches are dead. And they are dead because they are led by men who fear man rather than God and refuse to represent God's Word unapologetically to dying people.

In summary, we pay lip service to Jesus Christ as Lord, but we refuse any claim He has to rule our lives.

I heard the following long ago. I ran across it again recently. I post it here as a warning to those who profess Christ yet see no urgent need to flee to God and seek holiness, "without which, no man shall see the Lord".

YOU CALL ME MASTER AND OBEY ME NOT
YOU CALL ME LIGHT AND SEE ME NOT
YOU CALL ME THE WAY AND WALK ME NOT
YOU CALL ME LIFE AND LIVE ME NOT
YOU CALL ME WISE AND FOLLOW ME NOT
YOU CALL ME FAIR AND LOVE ME NOT
YOU CALL ME RICH AND ASK ME NOT
YOU CALL ME ETERNAL AND SEEK ME NOT
If I CONDEMN YOU—BLAME ME NOT

cf: Matthew 7:21ff
http://www.examineyourself.com/

"Persecution or a Great Awakening" - Paul Washer