The Importance of Prayer

I do want to pray.

I want to be able to pray for hours and hours at the feet of my Lord.  I'm realizing, that it is a difficult thing to do even with all this time in my hands.. since I'm not working right now. My spirit and flesh are constantly conflicting and so far, I've fed my flesh.  I picked up this one book by Leonard Ravenhill and started to read it.  Many parts of it brought me to my knees before my savior, realizing how much I've chosen to not give Him all me.  The more I read, the more I saw the passion in that 87 year old man: a passion to die to self, to live like Apostle Paul, to be broken so that God may use him to reach the lost.  I asked the Lord to make me a woman that will cling to the cross.

Leonard Ravenhill articulates on how essential one's prayer life is.

"No greater man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying.  The pulpit can be a shop window to display one's talents; the prayer closet allows no showing off."
I thank God there's an alternative in meeting and being used by Him.


"We have many organizers, but few agonize -rs; many players and payers, few pray-ers; many singers, few clingers; lots of pastors, few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters. Failing here, we fail everywhere."

"Today God is bypassing men - not because they are too ignorant, but because they are too self-sufficient."

This is so true in the church today. Where are the people who will cling to cross cuz they can't even depend on themselves to get anything done?

"All decays begin in the closet; no heart thrives without much secret converse with God, and nothing will make amends for the want of it." - Berridge.


"The secret of praying is praying in secret.  A sinning man will stop praying, and a praying man will stop sinning."
This stuck out like a sore thumb. It is so true. I will stop disobeying if only I simply obeyed. I will begin to live, the moment I die.


"Someone now warns us lest we become so heavenly minded that we are of no earthly use."

I want to get to that point, to be a woman that this world is not worthy of.


"When we go to God by prayer, the devil knows we go to fetch strength against him, and therefore he opposeth us all he can." - R. Sibbes

"These priests who dope men's souls, these idolatrous "masses," these Calvary eclipsing prayers to Mary, these miserable millions cheated in life and in death by the greatest forgery Lucifer ever made - all these do not seem to stir us to tearful intercessions and godly jealousy, as identical circumstances stirred Elijah.  The enemy has come in like a flood. Is there no spirit-filled messenger of God today?"
This is not only about the Catholic Church and it's heretical teachings that have no biblical standing but every other false teaching out there that take the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and desecrate it by putting man's 2 cents.  Man's two cents implying, that Jesus' blood wasn't enough for the atonement.  When people are being cheated their lives... to false religions, shouldn't we be burning with holy indignation?



"God does not want partnership with us but ownership of us."
This is a good reminder whenever I tell myself, "I'm doing this for God" that I'm actually doing it with God since He has all of me.


"A sober church never does any good."

"Tell me in the light of the Cross, isn't it a scandal that you and I live today as we do?" - Alan Redpath

"Such a sinning, repenting "easy believeism" dishonors the blood and prostitutes the altar.  We must alter that altar, for the altar is a place to die on.  Let those who will not pay this price leave it alone!"


"How shall I feel at the judgment, if multitudes of missed opportunities pass before me in full review, and all my excuses prove to be disguises of my cowardice and pride?" - Dr. W.E. Sangster

"Then Christ was enthroned.  And before we can be clean and ready for Him to control, self-seeking, self-glory, self-interest, self-pity, self-righteousness, self-importance, self-promotion, self-satisfaction - and whatsoever else there be of self - must die."


"No man is ever fully accepted until he has, first of all, been utterly rejected."  - Author Unknown

"Men of prayer must be men of steel, for they will be assaulted by Satan even before they attempt to assault his kingdom."


What use is deeper knowledge if we have shallower hearts?  What use is greater standing with men if we have a less standing with God? What use is personal physical hygiene if we have filthiness of the mind and of the spirit?  What use is religious piety if we have soul carnality?  Why strut with physical strength if we have spiritual weakness? Of what use is worldly wealth if we have spiritual poverty?  Who can take comfort in social popularity if he is unknown in hell?  Prayer takes care of all these spiritual maladjustments."
Luke 9: 25 "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his soul?"  It'll be worth nothing.



"One crowded hour of glorious "life" - so they argue- is worth a gamble on the speculation of the theologians' so called "eternity."


"Better to die bound in body and free in spirit than free in body and bound in soul!"


"God's purpose for us is not happiness, but holiness!"

"Yet while over our heads hangs the Damoclean sword of rejection, we believers are lean, lazy, luxury loving, loveless, and lacking.  Though our merciful God will pardon our sins, purge our iniquity, and pity our ignorance, our lukewarm hearts are an abomination in His sight.  We must be hot or cold, flaming or freezing, burning out or cast out.  Lack of heat and lack of love God hates."


"This generation of preachers is responsible for this generation of sinners."


I'm not done reading the book so I will be back. It's praying time.

All we need is Christ

“Whoever is not satisfied with Christ alone, strives after something beyond absolute perfection.”
- John Calvin

Keep on loving

Keep on Loving

The Weekly Walk

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God." - 1 John 4:7

If obeying God's command to love one another depended on me, I'd be in a bad way. You would be too. But happily, we're not the ones who are doing the loving. First John 4:7 gives me hope: "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God."

"Beloved, let us love one another." Literally the verb tense in the original language means, Let’s keep on loving one another. Let's don't do it for an hour or for a day. Let's don’t do it for a week or for a month. Let's do it until the day we die. God's kind of love goes on and on. We're not perfect, but God is changing and growing all of us. God's kind of love builds history together. Let's love . . . wait, let’s keep on loving one another.

"Beloved, let us love one another." What a great exhortation. What strife cannot be stalked by love? What pride cannot be pummeled by love? What conflict cannot be crushed by a supernatural, sent-from-heaven love? That’s why the verse says, "For love is from God." Chemistry is good, but that's not what God’s love is about. We all need true friends, but God's love goes farther than that. His love is a supernatural love, a love that you and I are not capable of doing ourselves. Love does not come naturally to us. What's natural is to hate when you're hated, to attack when you're attacked, to hurt others when you yourself have been hurt. But to love is to give back something different than what you receive in these situations.

Have you observed how often God puts opportunities right in front of us that call us to do what's not natural? I've got the natural thing down, but loving deeply requires God. A genuine conversion experience always precedes a supernatural love. We just don’t have that kind of love ourselves. How great that we are God's.

James MacDonald

I have nothing without you.

praise

“Genuine Christian praise is not primary a vehicle for the expression of spiritual aspirations and experiences, so much as a celebration of God’s mighty acts in Christ.”

—R.C. Lucas

Who experiences the dark night?

We have all experienced dark episodes in our lives, times of discouragement and disappointment and loss. We have all had times when we've faced the natural painful consequences of our own foolish mistakes. There are seasons, though, when people who love God – who are serving Him faithfully – go through extremely difficult, dark times. When that happens, it is easy to question whether the God we serve truly loves us, or whether we are really in the center of His will.

As we noted last week, the Lord allows the dark night to happen to His beloved children, and especially those who are the most faithful, the most loving, the ones who want all of Him. Again, remember Isaiah 50:10, "Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light?"

Great Christians are made by great trials. Pain, sorrow and failure are what produce men and women of God. Those with the greatest dreams are often the ones who receive the greatest trials. Eternal lessons seem to require hard places. As Scripture declares, the way we are made "perfect," or whole or complete, is by suffering or by barring ourselves from sin and self (Hebrews 2:10). First, God must take away all our external and internal supports other than Himself, then He can strengthen our inner man, enabling us to experience His fullness – that fullness of Himself we so desperately long for.

The dark night of the soul happens to people who have already accepted the Lord; those who have already given their lives to Him; those already filled with the Spirit; those who have already dedicated their lives to Him; those who have already asked for intimacy; and those who have already been set aside for God's purposes of ministry. Yet, like Job, people who are truly serving God and are in the center of His will can go through very dark times.

Why Does God Send the Dark Night?
There seems to be three things that God is looking for in each of our lives: our salvation, our conviction, and our sanctification.

God wants to prove us, to demonstrate our true heart. Will we be obedient in all things? (2 Corinthians 2:9) Will we obey Him, even when we can't see Him or feel Him? Will we hold on to His truths even though we don't understand what He is doing? Peter writes:
"That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:" -1Peter 1:7
Can we all catch that? The trials of our faith are precious. They are never empty or meaningless, but are destined to have great value both in our personal lives and in the Kingdom. The Lord wants believers who have faith like Job, and who can utter like he did, "Though You slay me, yet will I trust You."
When Job sought the Lord to know why the bad things were happening to him, he got no answer from God. And it's often the same with us. God only tells us that He does have a plan for our lives and, even though we don't understand what that plan is or how it is going to work out, we must trust that He always has our best in view.

When seasoned believers enter this dark night, they are no longer in the beginning stages of learning about the reality of Christ's love and power. Those foundational bricks have been already laid. When dark nights come, we must learn to rely upon our Savior in spite of our circumstances, in spite of our logic and in spite of our human reason. We must trust that only God knows what is best for our lives; therefore, whatever He allows into them He will use it for our good.

God is teaching us that all that matters in this life is knowing and loving Him. He wants us to love Him and rely upon Him regardless of what we desire, regardless of what our intellect is saying and regardless of what we are feeling. He wants us to be able to echo what Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 4:8-11:
"We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh."
For those who love Jesus and are dedicated to Him, to have His life manifested through us is the greatest thing that could be asked of our lives; it is worth any temporary suffering or difficulty or dark time that God puts in our path. And even during these terrible trials, when things look so very dark, we can still "rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory," (1 Peter 1:8) because we know that even then (and especially then), God is doing wonderful, precious work behind the scenes.

-Koinona House

Peace & Safety

There is one thing I dread above all others and that is that I would drift away from Christ. I shudder at the notion that I would become slothful, spiritually neglectful, caught up in prayerlessness, and go for days without seeking God’s Word. In my travels around the world I have witnessed a “spiritual tsunami” of evil drifting. Entire denominations have been caught up in the waves of this tsunami, leaving in their wake the ruins of apathy. The Bible warns clearly that it’s possible for devoted believers to drift from Christ.

A Christian who goes after “peace and safety at any cost” and merely hangs onto salvation pays a high spiritual price. So, how can we guard against drifting from Christ and neglecting “so great a salvation”? Paul tells us how: “Give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip” (Hebrews 2:1).

God isn’t interested in our being able to “speed read” through His Word. Reading many chapters a day or trying to get through the Bible quickly may give us a good feeling of accomplishment. But what’s more important is that we “hear” what we read with spiritual ears, and meditate on it so that it’s “heard” in our hearts.

Staying steadfast in God’s Word was no small matter for Paul. He lovingly warns, “Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip” (Hebrews 2:1). He also says, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith: prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates” (2 Corinthians 13:5).

Paul isn’t suggesting to these believers that they’re reprobates. Rather, he’s urging them, “As lovers of Christ, test yourself. Take a spiritual inventory. You know enough about your walk with Jesus to know you’re loved by him, that he hasn’t turned from you, that you are redeemed. But ask yourself: How is your communion with Christ? Are you guarding it with all diligence? Are you leaning on him in your hard times?”

Perhaps you realize, “I see a bit of drifting in my life, a tendency to slumber. I know I’m praying less and less. My walk with the Lord isn’t as it should be.”

“We are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end” (Hebrews 3:14).
-David Wilkerson

HORATIO SPAFFORD AND THE NIGHT SEASONS

Horatio Spafford was a prominent lawyer and real estate investor in Chicago when the 1871 Chicago Fire hit and destroyed almost all of his property. Two years later, Spafford sent his wife and four daughters ahead of him to England, where his friend DL Moody would be preaching. On the voyage there, the ship sank and all four children were drowned. His wife alone was saved. The couple went on to have three more children, but tragedy struck again when their four year old son died of pneumonia in 1880. Near the end of his life, Spafford moved to Jerusalem and ran charitable ventures like soup kitchens, hospitals, and orphanages. He died in 1888 of malaria and was buried in Jerusalem.

While Horatio Spafford endured crippling tragedy after tragedy, he is most famous for having written one of the most beloved hymns of all time: "It Is Well With My Soul." In the midst of serious personal sorrow, God brought Spafford to a place of peace and security wholly independent of his circumstances.

It is easy to fear in life. There are no promises of happiness or fairness. If anybody promised you a rose garden, then they were either naive for downright dishonest. In fact, when things seem to be running smoothly, tragedy can and often strikes and knocks us off our temporary pedestals of comfort. In John 16:33, Jesus warned us that in this world we would have troubles. "But be of good cheer," he said, "I have overcome the world."

In 1 Peter 4:17, Peter tells us that as God begins to wrap up time as we know it, He will allow events to happen in the body of Christ that will try us and test us to the max. How will we make it through this time of testing, if we don't understand what God is doing, and if we crumble at the first hint of suffering? We desperately need to have a grasp of what God's purpose is for allowing these kinds of trials and, most importantly, we need to understand what to do and how to act in them.

Night Seasons
During a night season, God initiates a purging, a cleansing and a purifying of our souls from everything that is not of faith. At this time, God crushes our self will, so that He can merge it with His own. In other words, it's our own private Gethsemane. As Jesus cried in the garden, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death...Nevertheless, not what I will, but what Thou wilt." (Mark 14:34-36) During this dark season, God teaches us to say, just as Jesus did, "Not my will, but Thine." (Matthew 26:39)

During this time, God can begin to transform our reliance on physical things to things of the spirit. He wants us to learn to walk by faith, not by our senses, our feelings or our understanding. God wants to teach us how to detach ourselves from all physical, emotional and spiritual supports, so that we will be able to respond with "Not my will, but Thine."

Because this season can often be a time of desolation, of dried bones and ruined hopes, many Christians - because they don't understand what God's will is or what He is doing - get so discouraged and defeated that they give up and turn back.

Many will feel like Job, who "looked for good" but only "evil came"; and for "light," but found only "darkness." (Job 30:26) Or like Isaiah, who uttered "We wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness. We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes; we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places like dead men." (Isaiah 59:9-10)

If we can only remember during our night season that the Holy Spirit has led us into this darkness on purpose. God is not angry at us, and He has not abandoned us – He paid the ultimate price for us, how could He ever abandon us? He brought us to a necessary place where precious things can happen. As he told Mary, whose brother Lazarus had died, "Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?" (John 11:40)

It is in these places, when our normal human securities are stripped away and all we have is Jesus, that He can begin to do in us those excellent things that can make all the difference in our lives and in our walk with Him. When the only thing we can do is cling to God, we come to that place where we see Him more clearly than ever before. That's when the fear goes away, and we can join Horatio Spafford in singing with greater appreciation:

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll;

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,

It is well, it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,

Let this blest assurance control,

That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,

And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought!

My sin, not in part but the whole,

Is nailed to His cross, and I bear it no more,

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:

If Jordan above me shall roll,

No pain shall be mine, for in death as in life

Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.

And Lord haste the day, when my faith shall be sight,

The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;

The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,

Even so, it is well with my soul.

-Koinona House

Do I wear the marks of a Christian?

Do I Wear the Marks?

"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him." - 1 John 5:13-15

Are you a Christian? How do you know?

You're not a Christian because you say you are anymore than you're in Cincinnati because you know how to get there. Being a Christian is not about knowing how to become a Christian; it's about knowing you are one.

If you don't have a mane; if you don't have sharp teeth; if you don't have a long tail - you're not a lion no matter what you say.

If you don't have tires; if you don't have a motor; and if you don't have a steering wheel - you're not a car no matter you say.

If you can't carry a tune; and if you can't hit a note; and if your singing doesn't bless people - stick to the shower, because you're not a soloist no matter what you say.

In the same sense, Christians have fruit; they have characteristics; they have evidence; they have identifying marks.

John said in 1 John 5:13, "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life." You can have the assurance that you're saved. You don't have to wonder - just ask yourself, "Do I have the identifying marks?"

The book of 1 John repeatedly explains the distinguishing characteristics of followers of Christ. No one has them perfectly, but look at your life and ask yourself if you're increasing in these marks:

Am I loving more deeply? Not perfectly, but increasingly...

Am I obeying more faithfully? Not perfectly, but increasingly...

Am I living authentically? The Christian life is not a charade. I'm not wearing a mask. I'm not acting like I'm something I'm not. My heart is very tender to the Lord and He's growing me. That's part of being a real Christian.

When you see these marks in your life, and you know that you long to know Him more and be passionate about doing what pleases Him increasingly more in your life, then your heart swells with assurance. You belong to Him.

found this on flickr. i totally agree. I believe the church of Jesus Christ has the most important role in the world and that is to point to people to Jesus Christ, share the gospel, and make disciples.

the marks of an authentic christian.

James Mcdonald's Marks of an Authentic Christian.

1 JOHN 2:28 - 29

²⁸And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.

²⁹If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.

the shack - william p young

After listening to Warren smith's message on New Age.. I started to research on certain things he said especially about the book called, "The Shack." by William P. Young. This book has gained alot of popularity in the past couple of months, becoming one of the best sellers. I stumbled upon many different articles, about what the author went through and some issues he had to deal with.. and how that led him to write this book, inorder to find himself, etc. I looked up the people that supported his book, which were mostly emergent church leaders and also some others. I stumbled on this one theologian name Dr. C. Baxter Kruger and read up on some of his blog. He mentioned the word Perichoresis so I looked it up and was a bit confused about the idea of the holy spirit. Dr. C. Baxter Kruger's blog addressed me to a page, Perichoresis.com and I saw a banner, "The shack conference" which was going to be held to share the theology that is behind the book.

This made me very alarmed. So I did some more research on to find a legit person who is biblically grounded, to break down the book. I'm not sure if the concept of Perichoresis is correct, but I will have to look into it. So, here's the link.

the shack breakdown

some parts:

Though common, such teaching is dangerous and directly detracts from the sufficiency of Scripture. When we admit that God has not, in the Bible, said all that He needs to say to us, we open the doors for all manner of new revelation, much of which may contradict the Bible. What authority is there if not the Bible? Ultimately the issue of revelation is an issue of authority and too many Christians are willing to trust their own authority over the Bible’s. What authority does Young rely on as he brings teaching here in The Shack? Does he look to a higher authority or does he look mostly to himself? The reader can have no confidence that Young loves and respects God’s Word has He chose to give it to us in Scripture.

The book contains surprisingly little teaching about salvation. When Young does discuss conversion, he places it firmly in the camp of relationship but also uses the stereotypical phrases such as “this is not a religion” and “Jesus isn’t a Christian.” Jesus apparently loves all people in exactly the same way, having judged them worthy of his love. Young also wades dangerously close to universalism saying that Jesus has no interest in making people into Christians. Rather, no matter what faith they come from, he wishes to “join them in their transformation into sons and daughters of my Papa.” He denies that all roads lead to him (since most roads lead nowhere) but says instead, “I will travel any road to find you.” Whether Young holds to universalism or not, and whether he believes that all faiths can lead a person to God, the book neither affirms nor refutes.

oh wow.

run this town

A friend's friend from Florida.

We are in the last hour!

hello.

There is not much time left.
We're at the end of the hour!
For those who do not know our Lord Jesus Christ. Please take this time as mercy.
Be awake brothers and sisters. There's ALOT of new age ideas infiltrating into our churches. We must discern. Satan comes as an angel of light. It appears to be wise. It appears to be logical.

WARREN SMITH: THE LIGHT THAT WAS DARK

JAMES MCDONALD: DO NOT BE DECEIVED SERMON.

Matthew 24:4-45
4Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. 5For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ,[a]' and will deceive many. 6You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8All these are the beginning of birth pains.

9"Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

15"So when you see standing in the holy place 'the abomination that causes desolation,'[b] spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— 16then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17Let no one on the roof of his house go down to take anything out of the house. 18Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak. 19How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 20Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. 21For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. 22If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. 23At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'There he is!' do not believe it. 24For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect—if that were possible. 25See, I have told you ahead of time.

26"So if anyone tells you, 'There he is, out in the desert,' do not go out; or, 'Here he is, in the inner rooms,' do not believe it. 27For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 28Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.

29"Immediately after the distress of those days
" 'the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.'[c]

30"At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. 31And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

32"Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 33Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it[d]is near, right at the door. 34I tell you the truth, this generation[e] will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 35Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

The Day and Hour Unknown

36"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,[f] but only the Father. 37As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.
42"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

45"Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. 47I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, 'My master is staying away a long time,' 49and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. 50The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. 51He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

I have been questioning a lot of things happening in the church. I've received a teaching by Warren Smith from a friend and have been astounded by the deception that we are in. Experience over the word of God? We must uphold the word of God.. in any circumstance and in any situation. We cannot compromise the word so that we can get some kind of experience out of it. If you want experience more than the word, you will be deceived. The word of god is our light. It directs our path so we don't fall away from the faith. Let us contend for the faith.

Jude 1:3-4 "I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord."

There is many i mean many that are considered pastors in the church but are actually not of Christ, but are godless men. They do not have God and we as the church must discern this and watch out for the people. We cannot put our guards down thinking it's going to be okay. We must be like the watchmen on the walls in ezekiel.

Ezekiel 33:2-3 Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman: If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people;

Church, wake up. Jesus is coming. We must be prepared for what's to come. Stand firm and hold fast to your shield, with your feet firmly planted in the ground for the enemy is warring against us. He is bringing great deception and will cause many to fall away from the faith.

Ephesians 5:11
Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.

Books that contain NEW AGE ideologies:

The Third Jesus
The New Earth
The Secret
Da Vinci Code
The Shack

Lord, give your church discernment in this last hour! Behold, He is coming soon! Blessed are those who wait and endure til the end!