WHO KNOWS WHO???

There's a shirt I saw once that said "It's not WHAT you know but WHO you know that determines WHERE you go". In other words, all the knowledge in the world cannot guarantee you a place in Heaven but whether you know Jesus Christ. That sounds all well and good but it's not true. In Matthew 7:23 Jesus says, "And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. DEPART FROM ME YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS." The verse before that shows how MANY will say to him "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?" The sad fact is that MANY on this site and MANY around the world say they're Christians but are not. They either are lying or are self-deceived. The Bible speaks of the MANY. In Matthew 7:13-14 it says, "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction and there are MANY who enter through it." If you turn the tv on to TBN or some of the other "religious" channels these days, you'll find pastors (or so-called pastors) preaching a false gospel and masses of people who follow them. Alot of these people have probably never opened the Bible a day in their life. They depend on these false teachers for their spiritual food and the problem is that these teachers/pastors are feeding them junk food and the people are not spiritually healthy. These people are more than likely on the broad way to hell and they believe with all their heart that they are saved. They will stand before God and say "but we did this" or "we did that in your name" and God will say to them "Depart from me for I NEVER KNEW YOU".


This is where I'm gonna get Calvinistic on ya. The Bible says in John 15:16, "You did not choose me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit and that your fruit would remain so that whatever you ask of the Father in my name He may give it to you." Right there in the first part of the verse Jesus says, "You did not choose me but I chose you...." Plain and simple. No amount of religious activity or religious rituals will guarantee you or I a place in Heaven, but whether or not Jesus CHOSE us. In John 6:65, it says "And He was saying, "For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father." A person can walk the aisle, say the sinner's prayer, and get dunked in water all day long but unless they have been DRAWN by the Father, they ARE NOT saved. People don't like this doctrine, and some don't think it's important, but I believe it is. I was one of those who walked the aisle, said the sinner's prayer, and got dunked in the baptistry, but that did not save me. I spent nearly 12 years of my life thinking I was saved BECAUSE I had done those things. But I was saved when the Holy Spirit began convicting me of my sin. That was the drawing of the Holy Spirit. That was God calling me to come to Jesus. Only when I answered HIS calling was I truly saved. Not ALL who say "Lord, Lord" are saved. And not ALL are going to be called by God. Only those whose names are written down in the Lamb's Book of Life BEFORE the foundation of the world will be saved. PERIOD. We love HIM because HE FIRST loved us.....not the other way around.

LIFE LESSON #14607--Get Rid of "STUFF"!!!

Monday is the day I go in for oral surgery to remove my wisdom teeth and so I had this idea that since I live alone now, in a small two story apartment, and MIGHT be under the influence of some pain medication, it would be best for me to stay with my parents for the first couple days since they have a spare bedroom. BAD idea. I wasn't aware that the bedroom was overrun with 45 years worth of STUFF they had accumulated and didn't know what to do with it. I just spent nearly two hours totin' boxes of this STUFF to the storage building out behind my parent's house. Sometimes I wonder if those guys who rent or sell metal storage buildings are making a killing on those people who are pack rats and refuse to get rid of the trinkets and mementos and whatever else they have accumulated over the span of their lifetimes.

I told my mom in the midst of all this work that when she and dad are dead and gone, I'm havin' a bonfire of the grandest proportions because I don't want to have to deal with cleaning out all that junk. Just pour gasoline on it and throw a match to it!!!!!

Just in case any of you are in a store and see something and think, "Oh!! I think Susan would love to have this".......wipe that thought right out of your mind!!!! Just turn around and go in the other direction. If you just HAVE to get me something, a gift certificate to a restaurant or for a manicure/pedicure would be great or a gift card to a Christian bookstore would be nice, also. I just don't want STUFF that sits around and collects dust.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering how I came up with the number 14607, that's how many days I've lived on this earth. I've had many life lessons but I think this one is the most important to date. Why keep this stuff if I can't take it with me when I die??

WHAT IS WRONG WITH SEEKER-FRIENDLY CHURCHES?

In the past few years, a new category of churches has come on the scene. They are what is called "seeker-friendly". You hear the title and you think "awww....how nice. How can that be bad?" Well, for starters, just the word "seeker" is wrong. Romans 3:11 says, "There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God." So, this title is bad from the get-go. NO ONE seeks after God. Why? Because the unregenerate person doesn't love God, so why would they seek HIM? Also, and this is the one thing that really irritates me, "seeker-friendly" churches will cater to the unsaved. They do this first of all by offering "entertainment" to draw them in. They may can draw them in, but if they do, they'll have to come up with bigger and better "entertainment" to keep them there. If not, they'll go to the church across town to get their "entertainment". Secondly, they water down or sugar-coat the Gospel so that it won't sound so offensive to those who are unsaved. Last time I checked, the Gospel is to be preached so that the unregenerate will be changed, not change the Gospel so that the lost wouldn't be offended. Romans 1:16 says "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." Notice the second part of the verse. The Gospel "is THE POWER OF GOD for salvation". Pastors don't need to be messing with the Gospel message. Don't tone it down. Don't sugar-coat it. Don't soften it. LEAVE IT ALONE!! It is not to be tampered with. Just preach the Gospel as it is written and God will do the rest.

In Matthew 16:18 Jesus says, "And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." Notice the middle of the verse. Jesus says, "I will build my church". So if that's the case, why do churches and denominations have "church growth" programs, and different gimmicks to draw people in? If Jesus is the one who will build HIS church, why do pastors wrack their brains trying to think up the latest and greatest gimmick to bring people in? JUST PREACH THE GOSPEL!!! Pastors want the big numbers. They want to see a large crowd in church each Sunday and that's why they come up with all those church growth plans. So.....when they finally stand before God, what are they going to say? "Hey, God, look at what I did to bring people in?" Or, "look at this plan that I thought up to draw in the unsaved." Just exactly who's supposed to get the glory? I can tell you it AIN'T the pastor. Why? Because it is GOD, through the Holy Spirit, who draws the unsaved person to himself. The apostles didn't need gimmicks or church growth plans. They simply preached God's Word and God "gave the increase"....(see 1 Corinthians 3:6).

Churches don't need to be "seeker-friendly". They just need to make sure the Gospel is preached boldly and without error and without gimmicks.

Election vs. Free Will pt 3

ELECTION VS. FREE WILL PT. 3

In these blogs I have been discussing the Doctrine of Election. People have many objections to the Doctrine of Election--"man was born with free will and salvation is their choice" or "if God already knows who will be saved, then there's no reason to evangelize." Another question people may ask is, "Well if God has already chosen those who will be saved, then doesn't that mean that they are saved against their will?" No!!! God is not going to drag people into His Kingdom kicking and screaming. But I do believe that when the Holy Spirit begins to draw and convict people of their sin, I believe that He also conforms their will to God's. Their desires change. Instead of being satisfied with living in the state of their sin, they realize how unsatisfying and empty that life is, and they desire to give their life to Christ because only He can satisfy and give them eternal life. That's not to say that life will be problem-free and everything goes their way, but it means that no matter what life throws at them, they have immeasurable peace through Christ and that they can depend on Him in all things. What about those who reject Christ? Why do they reject Him? They reject Christ because their minds have not been opened to the truth of the Gospel. There has been no drawing or conviction of the Holy Spirit. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to illuminate their minds and to conform their will to God’s. Because when you think about it, whose will is stronger, ours or God’s? God, in His Sovereignty, has chosen whom He will save. Look back at Acts 13:48 where it says “as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed”. What God has predestined from before the foundation of the world, will come to pass.
There is a term used in the Bible, “born-again”. This means that a person is re-born spiritually. When we are born into this world physically, we are spiritually dead. We come into this world sinners. But God made a way for us to be “born again” spiritually and that is through the death of Christ on the cross and His gift of salvation. How many of us were given a choice as to what family we’re born into? None. We didn’t pick who our parents would be. Ephesians 1:5 says, “He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will.” In cases of adoption, the child isn’t the one who chooses the parents, the parents choose the child, just as in the case of natural birth, we didn’t choose who our parents would be. This is the same with spiritual birth and adoption. There are countless people who are walking around professing to be Christians, but I believe they are not. They’ve been sold a bill of goods. They’ve been told “just walk the aisle, say this prayer, sign this card, get baptized and you are saved.” I don’t think this is done intentionally, but I believe many have bought into the teaching that all it takes is to say a little prayer, get baptized, and they’re safe. Matthew 7:21 says “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.” There will be a lot of sad people who will stand before God and realize that they were never saved.
I guess after reading these three blogs, people would label me a Calvinist. But my intention isn't to gain a label. The only label I want is that of Christian. My intention is to study and dig and learn what the Scriptures say. And I believe that it is the duty of every Christian to interpret and understand the Scriptures correctly!!! I don't want to be labeled a Calvinist but I guess that will happen whether I want it to or not. All I want is to know and understand the Scriptures the way they were intended. People will disagree with what was said here, but they aren’t disagreeing with me, they’re disagreeing with Scripture. And I hope that this will begin to stir up questions in their minds and cause them to look closer and deeper at what the Bible says. I heard a saying once, “Question everything”. In this particular instance, don’t question Scripture, but question what you’ve been taught and see if it lines up with Scripture.

Election vs. Free Will pt 2

ELECTION VS. FREE WILL PT. 2

As I had said in my previous article, I grew up being taught about the free will of man; how it’s our decision whether we choose salvation or not. But even though I accepted that teaching, there were always questions that bugged me, especially when I ran across verses in the Bible that spoke about election and the Elect. Anyone who knows anything about going to the polls to vote in an election knows that to "elect" a person means that you CHOOSE one whom you believe to be the right candidate for the office in which they're running for. The definition of elect is "to select or to choose". If the Bible says that we are the Elect, then that means that we were selected or chosen. And, if we are selected or chosen, then that means that someone had to do the choosing. And that someone is God himself. The Bible says that He chose us before the foundation of the world. Think about it, before God even spoke the first words of Creation, He already had in mind who would be the Elect. So, if it is God who selects or chooses the Elect, how is it that it's our decision to choose salvation?
I was baptized at the age of 8 and I thought that I was set. That was it, I did my "Christian" duty and I was safe. But 10 years later I began to sense in my heart that my conversion wasn't a true conversion. People would say, "you're just having doubts". Well, yeah!!! I believe that 10 years after I had walked the aisle and was baptized, the Holy Spirit began convicting me of my sins. I kept thinking "but I walked the aisle. I was baptized. I AM saved". But still that conviction would never go away. I began to think back to that night during revival and why I had walked the aisle and I realized that it wasn't because I was being convicted of sin, it was because my friends did it so I went up there, too. Then I realized that I had no sense of peace about my salvation. But now that I faced the reality that I wasn't saved, I began to make excuses. What would people say about me? I had been living a lie all this time, what would they think? I finally couldn't take the conviction and unsettledness in my heart any longer and I asked Jesus to be my Lord and Savior.
People may say "well what's the difference between the two experiences?" The difference is that the first time there was no conviction of the Holy Spirit. A person is not saved just because they walk the aisle, say a prayer, sign a card, and get dunked in water. There has to be that drawing of the Holy Spirit. There has to be the convicting of our sins by the Holy Spirit. I realized in the first case that I wasn't being drawn by the Holy Spirit; I did it because I chose to. People may say "But you said the sinner's prayer!" There is no magic prayer that a person can pray that will make them saved. A person is saved when the Holy Spirit draws them, convicts them of their sin, and they surrender their heart and life to Christ. This is where election comes in. In John 6:65 it says, "And He was saying 'For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father." Notice the last part of the verse...."no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father." So this tells me that it doesn’t matter what prayer a person prays, or how many times they pray it, if they are not the Elect of God, then they can’t be saved. Look at what John 12:39-40 says, "For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again "HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR HEART, SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND PERCEIVE WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED AND I HEAL THEM." Let me remind you of Romans 9:18 that I mentioned in Part 1, "So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires." How much clearer can it get?
And here’s a hard reality to face. We can go witness to people and get them to say “The Sinner’s Prayer” (who came up with that anyway????) but if there hasn’t been that drawing of the Holy Spirit and that conviction of their sins, then all they’re doing is repeating words. We walk away thinking we’ve added another soul to the Kingdom of God, but in reality, we’ve just added another name to the long list of false converts.
People then ask the question, “Since God has already chosen those whom He wants to save, then we don’t have to evangelize?” If there is to be no evangelism, why does God still call pastors today? If we are not to evangelize, why did Jesus give us The Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20? There are those who hold to the Doctrine of Election that believe there’s no sense in sending out missionaries to spread the Gospel, but that’s in disobedience to God’s Word. God knows who the Elect are, we don’t.

Election vs. Free Will

ELECTION VS. FREE WILL

For centuries there has been a debate between the Doctrine of Election and man's free will. I grew up being taught about the free will of man in regards to salvation. And although something about the teaching of free will just didn't make sense to me, I still accepted it because it was all I was taught. So which is it? Are we saved through our own free will or were we chosen for salvation? You can go into any number of American churches today and you'll hear the preacher say something like, "You have a decision to make: heaven or hell. It's your choice." Yet in John 15:16 Jesus says, "You did not choose me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in my name He may give to you." Notice the first few words in that verse: "You did not choose me but I chose you, and appointed you..." so now which is it? Did Jesus choose us or did we choose him? See the contradiction? What about this verse, Acts 13:48, “When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.” What is being taught in churches today doesn’t line up with Scripture. There are several other verses which use the words election, choose, chosen, or any word synonymous with that:

Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world

John 15:19 “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Mark 13:20 "And unless the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh would be saved, but for the elect's sake, whom He chose, He shortened the days."

1 Thessalonians 1:4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that He has chosen you.

These are just a few examples found throughout the Word of God how we are chosen by God.

Need more convincing? Ephesians 2:1 says "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins". Here's something to contemplate. When Lazarus died (Mary and Martha's brother) he lay in the tomb four days. He was dead.....until Jesus called him to come forth from the grave. He didn't just decide four days later through his own will to get up off that slab of rock and walk out of the tomb. Jesus called him by name and it was through that calling that Lazarus was made alive. This story not only shows how through Jesus can the dead in body be made alive, but also only through Jesus is the dead in spirit made alive.

Here's something else. The Bible says in Romans 6:6, 6:16, 6:17, and 6:20 that we were "slaves to sin". If the Bible says we are "slaves to sin", how is it that we have free will? As a "slave to sin", apart from Christ, our master is sin. We are bound by our fleshly nature and we obey the desires of the flesh. Through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, the elect are redeemed. We are set free from the bondage of sin. Now instead of being held captive to sin and dead in our trespasses, we are made alive in Christ and we become His bond-servants living to please Him and to do His will.

In Romans 9:17-18 it says, (17) For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH."
(18) So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.
People will say that this is not fair. Why would God have mercy on some and harden the hearts of others? I heard a message a few weeks back and the pastor preaching addressed this same issue. He stressed that if we want “fair”, then God will give us all what we deserve and we all deserve death and punishment for our sins. None of us are worthy of the mercy and grace He gives to us. But God demonstrates His love to us by giving us what we do not deserve. God is Sovereign and He has a divine plan and whether we like it or not, there are those people like Pharaoh and Judas Iscariot who each played a role in His divine plan. Judas was chosen as a disciple, not for salvation, but to hand Jesus over to the authorities to be crucified. But some may say “what if a person doesn’t believe in God’s existence, how can they reject what they don’t believe in? In Romans 1:18-20 Paul writes, “18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.
20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. “ All humankind are born with a knowledge of God because as verse 19 says, “that which is known about God is evident within them” They are without excuse.