May 25, 2011 at 1:25 pm | Posted in Christianity | Leave a comment
Tags: abortion, Alameda, America, angel, annihilationism, ateasetees, authority, background, believe, Bible, billboard, blaspheme, blood, breath, child, Christian, church, code, communicate, compromise, dance, Day, Day of Judgment, death, deception, depravity, destruction, disillusion, divine, doctrine, doom, earthquake, Ellen G. White, eternity, evangelism, evangelist, faith, false, Family Radio Network, God, gospel, grace, guilty, Harold Camping, hate, hell, holy, Holy Spirit, hope, hour, humility, idol, investigation, Israel, Jehovah's Witness, Jesus, judgment, Lamb, law, lie, life, love, lust, man, marriage, math, mercy, mock, Modalism, money, murder, Open Forum, pastor, peace, PETA, prayer, prayers, preacher, proclaim, prophecy, prophet, rapture, reason, reform, repent, righteous, salvation, scripture, second coming, Seventh Day Adventist, sin, sing, son, spiritual, steal, stolen, teacher, ten commandments, tribulation, truth, TULIP, unbiblical, William Miller, woman, wool, world
This past Saturday, after months and years of warning people about the Day of Judgment, Harold Camping was proven to be a false teacher. After months of laying out the specific mathematical calculations he used to determine that the rapture would happen on May 21st, 2011; after spending millions of dollars on billboards all across the country (and around the world) warning drivers of their impending doom and having his followers hand out t-shirts and buttons telling people of the rapture to happen, Mr. Camping’s supposed final moments came and went with little fanfare (well, from Mr. Camping anyway). Continue Reading Harold Camping, the church, and the world…
May 22, 2011 at 6:30 am | Posted in Sermon Sunday | 2 Comments
Tags: abomination, abortion, action, affection, Ahab, alive, America, angel, ateasetees, authentic, banquet, betray, Bible, bishop, blaspheme, blemish, brass, brethren, brood, builder, Christian, church, churchianity, churchmanship, comfort, common sense, compromise, comtempt, condemn, conduct, confidence, counterfeit, cruel, curse, dead, death, decent, Deliverer, delusion, denomination, detestable, devil, disciple, doctrine, evangelical, evangelism, examine, extreme, faith, false, feeble, feeling, formal, friend, fruit, garment, genuine, God, gold, good, gospel, grace, greed, guilty, heart, heathen, heaven, hell, Herod, holiness, hollow, holy, honest, hope, hospitality, humility, hypocrite, idol, ignorant, imitation, independent, inferior, influence, injury, intrinsic, inward, iron, Israel, J.C. Ryle, Jesus, Jonah, Judas Iscariot, Judge, judgment, kindness, law, life, living, lost, love, lust, make believe, marriage, married, Mediator, meekness, merciful, mercy, mina, minister, money, moral, murder, net, nominal, outside, parable, pastor, Paul, peace, persevere, piety, pleasure, poet, pray, prayer, pretense, pride, priest, profession, prostitute, proud, pulpit, reason, Redeemer, religion, repent, respect, revival, ritual, root, salvation, sanctuary, Saul, scripture, sham, silver, Simon Magus, sin, sincere, slur, snake, solid, sons, soul, sower, substantial, talents, tax, ten commandments, thief, thorough, tongue, traitor, truth, unjust, unselfish, viper, virgin, war, weak, weeds, wickedness, words, works, worldliness, worship, wrath, wretched
Authentic Religion
by
J. C. Ryle
(1816-1900)
“Rejected silver” (Jeremiah 6:30)
“Nothing but leaves” (Mark 11:13)
“Let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth”
(1 John 3:18).
“You have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead” (Revelation 3:1)
If we profess to have any religion at all, let us be careful that it is authentic. I say it emphatically, and I repeat the saying: Let us be careful that our religion is authentic.
What do I mean when I use the word “authentic.” I mean that which is genuine, and sincere, and honest, and thorough. I mean that which is not inferior, and hollow, and formal, and false, and counterfeit, and sham, and nominal. “Authentic” religion is not mere show, and pretense, and skin-deep feeling, and temporary profession, and works only on the outside. It is something inward, solid, substantial, intrinsic, living, lasting. We know the difference between counterfeit and authentic money–between solid gold and tinsel–between plated metal and silver–between authentic stone and plaster imitation. Let us think of these things as we consider the subject of this paper. What is the character of our religion? Is it authentic? It may be weak, and feeble, and mingled with many defects. That is not the point before us today. Is our religion authentic? Is it true?
The times in which we live demand attention to this subject. A want of authenticity is a striking feature of a vast amount of religion in the present day. Poets have sometimes told us that the world has passed through four different states or conditions. We have had a golden age, and a silver age, a brass age, and an iron age. How far this is true, I do not stop to inquire. But I fear there is little doubt as to the character of the age in which we live. It is universally an age of cheap metal and alloy. If we measure the religion of the age by its apparent quantity, there is much of it. But if we measure it by its quality, there is indeed very little. On every side we want MORE AUTHENTICITY. Continue Reading Sermon Sunday – J.C. Ryle – Authentic Religion…
January 21, 2011 at 5:20 pm | Posted in VOM Fridays | Leave a comment
Tags: abortion, action, Alexandria, America, Anba Kirolos, ateasetees, Bible, bishop, bomber, Christian, church, compromise, Coptic, court, death, discrimination, Egypt, evangelical, evangelism, faith, God, gospel, grace, guilty, harassment, healing, hell, holy, hope, Islam, Israel, Jesus, judgment, killer, law, life, loss, love, marriage, mercy, minority, Mohamed Ahmed Hussein, money, murder, Muslim, Nag Hamadi, pastor, peace, prayer, premeditated, protest, recovery, repent, salvation, scripture, sentence, shooting, sin, strength, ten commandments, torture, trial, truth, unity
For more news on what’s really happening to Christians around the world go to the Voice of the Martyrs website: www.persecution.com
Egypt: Killer Sentenced to Death
An Egyptian court has sentenced a man to death for killing six Coptic Christians and a Muslim policeman in January 2010. Mohamed Ahmed Hussein was found guilty of premeditated murder for his role in a drive-by shooting outside a church in Nag Hamadi, in southern Egypt. VOM assisted some of the Nag Hamadi victims with medical care and recovery.
The sentence was issued just two weeks after a suicide bomber killed 23 people at a Coptic church in Alexandria. AFP news agency reports that the bishop of Nag Hamadi, Anba Kirolos, said his congregation was “satisfied” with the ruling. Two other men are also on trial in connection with the 2010 shooting.
A VOM rescue team has been caring for several survivors of the Nag Hamadi shootings, like this 20-year-old man.The lack of action on the case had frustrated Egypt’s Coptic population, who feel more and more marginalized by the Muslim majority as anti-Christian sentiment against them grows. Copts often complain of discrimination and harassment, and protest that attacks against them go unpunished or result in light sentences. The harsh sentence against Hussein may indicate that the government is listening to the complaints from Copts, who make up about 10 percent of the population in Egypt. Evangelicals make up less than 4 percent.
Continue to pray for unity in Egypt. Pray for the physical healing of those injured in the church attacks, and pray for families who lost loved ones. Ask God to give strength to Christians suffering harassment, torture and ill treatment.
December 15, 2010 at 1:26 pm | Posted in Christianity | Leave a comment
Tags: abortion, America, anecdote, apostasy, applaud, ateasetees, awesome, baseball, Bible, Bible Belt, bookstore, Botox, Christian, church, clique, compromise, context, crazy, death, different, disenchantment, duty, editorial, effort, entertain, evangelism, faith, family, feeling, fluff, football, freak, God, gospel, gossip, grace, gravity, guilty, heart, hell, holiness, Hollywood, holy, hope, hungry, hunting, hypocrisy, illustration, image, Islam, Israel, Jesus, judgment, laugh, law, life, love, marriage, mellow out, mercy, money, murder, music, Muslim, nice, passage, pastor, peace, prayer, preach, prestige, pretense, program, reason, repent, respect, salvation, scripture, sermon, shallow, shout, sin, social, sound, starlet, study, Sunday School, system, ten commandments, theology, TIME, truth, why, work, wrong
I have been thinking about something and anyone who reads this blog knows that it means trouble….
Over the past year, I’ve been looking for a church. I have been to a few churches and they’ve been full of nice people, and yet, I’ve not been able to find a church that has what I am looking for in a church. Let me state again, the churches that I’ve been to are full of very nice people, but it’s not enough. My search is especially frustrating because I live in the “Bible belt” of the United States. Here, there is a church on every street corner (this is almost literal). Here, going to church is a regular part of life. But, as I’ve studied scripture, I’ve noticed that the reason we go is very important. Even more important is what goes on there. Continue Reading Why do you go to church?…
June 15, 2010 at 4:55 pm | Posted in Christianity | Leave a comment
Tags: abortion, adultery, America, angels, anger, angry, ateasetees, attack, attention, authority, Bible, blind, burden, charlatan, cheek, Christian, church, clean, coat, compromise, criminal, cross, danger, death, deeds, defend, demons, disciples, divorce, earth, enemy, evangelism, evil, exegesis, eye, faith, faithfulness, false, fame, flesh, fool, footstool, Gentile, glory, God, gospel, grace, Greeks, greetings, guide, guilty, hand, Hasidism, heart, heaven, hell, Hellenistic, hermeneutic, holy, homosexual, honor, hope, humility, hyperbole, hypocrite, idolatry, image, infidelity, Islam, Israel, Jerusalem, Jesus, John Hyrcanus, Judge, judgment, justice, king, law, lawlessness, lawyer, legalistic, life, light, love, lust, marriage, mercy, mile, militant, ministry, money, Mount Olivet, murder, oath, obedience, Old Testament, peace, perfect, persecution, Pharisees, pray, prayer, prison, rage, rant, rebuke, reconcile, regulations, religion, repent, resurrection, righteousness, ritual, sabbath, salt, salvation, Sanhedrin, scourged, scripture, separated, Sermon on the Mount, serpent, sin, strict, stumble, tax collector, ten commandments, throne, tithe, tooth, tradition, tragedy, truth, unchastity, unclean, understand, viper, vow, whitewashed tomb, worship
Often, when we are hearing about events that took place in the gospels, we are told about the enemies of Jesus. Those people who opposed Him and tried everything they could to show Him to be a charlatan. Of all the groups that did this, the one that Christians are most familiar with are the Pharisees. Because of the often simple light in which this group is painted, many people don’t realize the dangers inherent in what they said and did. To understand this, it is important to understand where the Pharisees came from.
The group of Jews known as Pharisees arose during the reign of John Hyrcanus. They came from the Hasidism, which was a militant religious community that was focused on obedience to the Law and worship to God. They began around 168 B.C. (before Christ!…). The name Pharisee means “separated one” and was applied to this group because they separated themselves from the Hellenistic influence brought in through the Greeks. At the time of Jesus, it is believed that there were around 6,000 Pharisees in Israel. The Pharisees saw the entire Old Testament as authoritative, but accepted oral tradition as authoritative as well. They believed in the existence of angels and demons. They believed in life after death and bodily resurrection. They believed that the study of the Law was worship. They strove to live holy by keeping the Law and saw the Law as determining what was clean and unclean. They felt very strongly about obedience to the Law and developed a set of regulations to help save people from breaking the Law. There are 613 laws in the Old Testament and the discussions that they had were as specific as whether or not a person should eat an egg laid on the Sabbath. The Pharisees lived for the Law and sought to use it in all situations. Continue Reading Pharisees…
Get the Word out! 