Maintaining our health involves more than exercising or making the right food choices. While both of those contribute to our physical and mental well-being, they’re not enough.
Sometimes we need a break. I personally think that’s more important currently than ever before. We took a little break, but not many photos. Even so, I thought I’d share a few of them. Lake Whitney State Park…
I’ve been reading through the book of Joshua recently. Normally when I read Old Testament events regarding Israel, I don’t necessarily feel like they have a direct application today. Am I wrong? Maybe.
I do think they are insightful into God’s character and valuable to understanding our faith. Chapter 7 of Joshua hit me differently. Maybe it’s because of events going on in our country and in the “church” in America. Maybe it’s because so many groups seem to have co-opted the word “church” without really belonging to the body of Christian believers. Whatever the reason, when I read it, as I thought about God’s character and his disposition towards his people, I couldn’t help but think of how that applied today.
In Joshua 7:1 we find, depending on translation, that the Lord’s anger burned against Israel, that it was kindled against Israel, or that the Lord was furious with Israel. Why? Achan had taken things into the camp that were described as devoted, devoted to destruction, forbidden, or he is described as acting unfaithfully in regards to things under the ban.
The rest of the chapter deals with the adverse effects of bringing the forbidden into the camp. It deals with searching out the offenders and removing them, in a most permanent way, and restoring God’s people to a right relationship. To be clear, I am not calling for burning anyone and their household in what follows.
I am wondering if the church, God’s people today, have brought in things that are forbidden. Perhaps strongholds that should be demolished (2 Corinthians 10:4) have instead been looked at with greedy hearts and brought into our camp. Are we accepting banned things into our teachings in the church? I think we are. I implore you, if you’re claiming the name of Christ… READ. YOUR. BIBLE. Don’t just assume that what someone is telling you it says is truth, read it yourself.
If we have done this thing, we should search it out and repent of it. Jesus is quite clear that he will come against the church in Pergamum with a sword (Revelation 2:16) for holding to teachings they ought not. In Thyatira, the church tolerated “Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess” and those who practiced adultery with her are promised great tribulation (Revelation 2:20-23).
In his own words, our Lord did not come to bring a worldly peace but a sword (Matthew 10:34). The Rider on the White Horse comes in a robe dipped in blood, making war on the nations, treading out the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God, and rules the nations with an iron scepter (Revelation 19:11-16). It is not hard to imagine that same God having his anger burn against the church when it has gone astray or brought in things that are forbidden and devoted to destruction.
I pray that all believers would have peace. Not a false peace of being comfortable around everybody and never being offended or offensive. Not a peace with the world, but a peace with The Creator. I pray God’s people will be bold and protect the truth by removing the forbidden, and those bringing it in, from within the church.
The church is infected. The infection is an ideology based in Marxist thought that fundamentally opposed to the all-sufficient, saving work of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Like most things infected, it starts stinking if left untreated. Unbeknownst to me, the infection has been going on for years and the stench of it finally caught my attention.
It goes by many names: critical race theory, social justice, social gospel, far-left orthodoxy, etc. It’s all the same stuff and uses the same special vocabulary. When you repeatedly hear terms like whiteness, white privilege, systemic racism, woke, and other similar phrases, you are witnessing the infection. Bear in mind, I’m speaking of it in the church. Obviously, we should not expect those outside the family of God to adhere to God’s truths since they remain in rebellion. It appears some of the church’s “leaders” are in rebellion as well. There is something systemic, and it is this demonic doctrine.
I’ve spent much of my free time for the last couple of months studying on this. It’s dizzying, disturbing, dangerous. Dizzying because its proponents use amazing communicative gymnastics to say what they are saying without saying it. Disturbing because it is so twisted. Dangerous because it has so embedded itself in the church.
Rooting it out requires that we understand what we are looking at/for. Like I said earlier, they don’t speak clearly because they can’t. If they did, they would out themselves instantly.
I came across this video. While it just scratches the surface in the hour it takes to watch it, this is probably one of the best places I’ve seen the problems this ideology presents when it is blended with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Very good info in the video description as well.
I recommend this video.
I’m at a complete and total loss. The more I go to look into the nasty, devilish teachings of Critical Race Theory (CRT), the more I find it has infiltrated into an institution I’ve long affiliated myself with. The Provost and Sr. VP of Southern Seminary, an institution of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), claims that “faithfulness, and orthodoxy, and truth, and righteousness, and justice” are actually a rotting corpse of white supremacy.
Now, before I continue, I need to make something clear. If you’re not familiar with Southern Baptist church polity, it follows a congregational form meaning the SBC holds no authority over local congregations. This is important because you can’t conclude that every SBC congregation, or even a majority of them, are embracing what I am talking about. Although if not stopped, in the future the majority will. I surely haven’t seen this at the congregation I attend, or I would have withdrawn my membership there.
Sadly, many of those sitting in the pews of those congregations are unaware that some of their giving is going to furthering the introduction of CRT into our seminaries. CRT makes a mockery of the work of Jesus on the Cross when it is blended in Christianity. We need salvation through Jesus, and then some more. At its core, it is a theory based on Marxist thought and as such is concerned only about power, and adheres to the idea that “truth has no independent existence.” Could anything be farther from what our Bible teaches?
That’s how it becomes acceptable to teach future SBC ministers that “faithfulness, and orthodoxy, and truth, and righteousness, and justice” are ideas based on “the rotting corpse of white supremacy.” Do you want to be faithful? Congratulations, you’re practicing white supremacy! Do you want to express orthodoxy in your beliefs? Congratulations, you’re expressing white supremacy? How about the truth? That thing Jesus says will set you free. Do you want to proclaim it? Congratulations, you’re proclaiming white supremacy! And to top it off, your beliefs, truths, faithfulness etc. are a dead, rotting corpse. Don’t just take my words for it, hear him in his own words. The video below will start a few seconds before he lets that doctrine of demons spew out of his mouth.
If you want to embrace these teachings, fine. Go ahead. Just know you will have to reject Ephesians 2:14-16. You have to reject 2 Corinthians 5:17. You have to reject Ezekiel 18:19-20. You will have to reject truth, faithfulness, and righteousness.
Alternatively, you could keep all of that, embrace 1 Timothy4:1, and wonder if we’re near the end.
Man, this is so true. For my believing family, who hasn’t experienced ups and downs in closeness to the LORD and who hasn’t experienced the unmatched joy of life when every aspect of your life is dedicated to his service.
Psalms 37:4
Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. (ESV)
I was researching a completely different topic when 1 Timothy 5:20 popped out at me today at lunch time. It’s talking about elders/leaders in the church. I always thought issues were addressed behind. Implications? Ali and I talked about it on the patio.
Publicly rebuke those who sin, so that the rest will also be afraid.
1 Timothy 5:20
2020 has certainly turned out to be a bizarre year. Pandemic. Cities moving to eliminate law enforcement. Statutes. Mandatory mask orders. Division. I find some of these things bothersome.
What I’ve noticed that bothers me more than most anything else is a distinct lack of Christlikeness among some professed Christians.[ref]Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, Phillipians 2:5[/ref] I’ve noticed this among friends, among acquaintances, and among well-known figures I follow, but have never met. What is Christlikeness? Basically, being like Jesus.[ref]https://www.yourdictionary.com/Christlike[/ref] I am seeing less of that, especially considering the issue of masks. What have I been seeing?
Things like this- Folks with tons of followers on Twitter who claim Christ also referring to every person who wears a mask in public as fearful, complaint, sheep, even slaves who can’t think for themselves. My, what a joy it must be to be like God[ref]1 Samuel 16:7 & Psalms 44:21[/ref] and know every man’s heart! I had a very long post I was working on about this topic including lots of examples. I tend to do that when I feel passionate about something, and how people represent Jesus is something I get very passionate about.
This morning, this video popped up in my YouTube feed. So, I think I will let Todd talk about it while I work on some memes. Enjoy!
Several days a week find me commuting a little over 70 miles. Once in a while a take an alternate route that takes me through open range land. You know you’re in open range land when you’re driving down a road, usually a Farm-to-Market road, and you suddenly cross cattle guards and the fences disappear. This type of driving demands your attention so toss the phone in the seat beside you. Why? Because livestock has just as much right to the roadway as you do and a 1,200 lb. piece of beef will destroy you and your vehicle.
So I noticed a few months ago when the little beefs were just learning to walk/run that when I approached they appeared to briefly think for a nanosecond or two and would then bolt off in whichever direction they happened to be facing at the time. Of course, sometimes that direction would send them bolting in front of the 3-ton truck I was expected to keep under control.
Obviously, one of the safest things for me to do was to slow down when I approached them. A few months ago the sight of one of our bovine friends would bring me to a crawl of about 30 mph. Not so much today. Today, I continued past them at a nice 50-60 mph, depending on their proximity to the roadway.
One of the things that occurred to me today was how their mommas would never panic. Momma cows always looked at the approaching vehicle and then went back to munching on grass. Why did that occur to me? Because, today, most of the calves (when do they stop being calves?) did the same thing. They’ve gone from panicked rushing in whatever direction, to dashing away from the road, to taking a few steps away from the road. I expect that soon enough they will, like their mothers, look up and not react at all.
This occurs even though the 6,000+ tons of steel still pose a mortal threat to my little bovine friends, despite being familiar.
When I was thinking about that, I couldn’t help but wonder, how often do we as individual believers or the church do that? How many issues have we accepted culture’s changing norms as okay? How often do we not fear what we should due to our familiarity with the threat it poses?
Culturally, where are we? Do we accept things that could kill us spiritually simply due to their familiarity?
How does the title of this post make you feel? Even knowing what I was going to write later in this post, it was uncomfortable to type those words out. It was inspired by a podcast in which I heard the phrase “The whole Gospel is really comedic…”
I was taken aback.
Are you uncomfortable? Insulted? Curious? Think about that for a second before continuing please.
(more…)One of the things that has become apparent during the events surrounding COVID-19 is that our supply chain for everything runs like a well-oiled machine, but right on the edge. Whether it’s parts to build cars or ingredients to build a dinner, a shutdown in one part sends waves throughout the entire system.
With some foods getting more difficult to get and my general need to eat better, the wife and I decided we’d start growing a tiny bit of our own food.
We’ll be sharing our journey in a series of videos. I hope you’ll join us as we go. Maybe you’ll learn something and I definitely plan to be asking questions in the videos as well for help from those with more experience.
Thank you, stay safe, and God bless.