Lights, Camera, Action!

My playground was the theatre. I'd sit and watch my mother pretend for a living. As a young girl, that's pretty seductive.

Gwyneth Paltrow

As I was reading this week I came across an article detailing The Top Ten Historical Impostors and I began to thinking: Who am I and is what I portray to the world who I really am?  Am I doing what is quoted above and pretending for a living and  by doing such am I seducing and being seduced at the same time?

 

Hypocrisy : a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not; especially : the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion.

Pretending on stage is referred to as art and theater, but offstage it is hypocrisy and here is what Scripture has to say about it:

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I am Thankful

1 Thessalonians 5:18
In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

Give thanks in everything.  Not just the things we like, appreciate, or asked for.  EVERYTHING.  Nothing Excluded.  The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.   Give thanks unto the Lord for He is good and His mercies endure forever.  Give Him thanks in the morning when your rise up for giving you another day and thank Him when your head hits the pillow for bringing you through once again.

Thank God for His mercy and Grace that has spared you.  Thank Him for carrying you through the hard times and thank Him for the good times.  Thank Him for His love, faithfulness, and His longsuffering ways with us.  Thank Him for keeping you from things you are unaware of and restraining the sinfulness of evil men.

Thank Him for friends, family, and the fellowship of the saints.  Thank Him for His never changing Word.  Thank Him for the bad times that draws you closer to Him and the good times for His abundant blessings.  He is God and He is worthy to be praised. 

We may not always understand our circumstances and we may not always know the path He is leading us down but He is faithful.  He orders the steps of the righteous and works all things together for our good.  He is in  Sovereign control so thank  Him that He holds the Universe together by the power of His word.

Thank Him for His discipline that proves you are His. Praise Him and love Him as a small child would a loving father.  Thank Him because now you are a fellow heir with Christ and a member of the household of God.  Remember Him, the one who redeemed you from the curse of sin and death and adopted you into His family.  Praise Him that you are now a child of God and a covenant member of His family.

At all times and in all ways thank Him.

Give Thanks unto the Lord for He is good, His mercies endure forever.

To God be the praise, honor, and glory forever. Amen

Can Christians Sin? The Answer

1 John 1:8
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

There is a pernicious doctrine making its rounds over the Internet and through our churches today called sinless perfectionism.  Sinless Perfectionism quickly defined is:

The belief that once saved someone can and does obtain perfection in this life since they are " in Christ " and they are a " new creation ".  It is the belief that one has arrived at the destination of ultimate glorification and believers are completely and wholly free from sin.

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Dwell on This

Philippians 4:8
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

This is not going to be a long post as I do not have much to say.  Read above.  This is what we are commanded to dwell on.  This in no way denies the reality of evil, our own sinful tendencies, and the curse that is upon all creation because of sin, but it goes along quite well with the notion of renewing your mind.  Dwell on what is good.  Stand against evil and expose error by knowing what the Lord of all Creation has said is pure, and lovely, and of a good report.  Stand against the darkness by letting your light shine before men.

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In Memorandum

Memorial: Serving to Preserve Remembrance

We memorializes our heroes and often our villains.  We memorialize our triumphs and our failures.  We have grand days of remembrance celebrated throughout our land and our own personal days where we sit in introspection dwelling on things that have gone by.  I would like to urge you now, this weekend, and this coming Memorial Day to remember those who gave their lives in service to this country.  Some were good and Godly men and women and others were not.  Some gave up families, homes, and jobs while others were looking for a way out of difficult circumstances but they all served and died for those of us who live here now and for future generations.  Regardless of your views on wars and whether any can ever be " righteous " these men and women gave their all so that you could hold that opinion in the freedom entrusted to all Americans.  So please put aside partisan politics and petty differences to remember those fallen soldiers on Memorial Day.

As a Christian what do you memorialize?

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The Transforming Gospel: Man's Best Effort or God's Grace?

Rich in Mercy and Grace

Previously we explored  how  man's efforts at moralism is a bankrupt system and the difficulties that come from trying to earn a priceless gift.  Every false religion ranging from Buddhism to New Age, Jehovah's Witness to Mormonism, or any derivative of the Social Gospel and Moralism are either man's best effort at appeasing God or a corruption of the doctrines of grace.  The false assumption that anything we can do apart from God's grace is no Gospel at all, but a misplaced trust in the goodness of man.
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The Gracious Gospel or Man's Moralism?

Romans 11:6

But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.

There is something we as humans find comforting and satisfying about working to find ourselves approved. From the initiations of secret societies and fraternities to the jocularity of locker rooms and backyard grills we strive and labor to fit in and find forgiveness when wrongs occur. We often go to great lengths to gain the knowing nod from our peers signifying that we are finally " in ",  and when we fall into disfavor the efforts are doubled to work our way back into the good graces of those that matter most to us.

Do we approach God the same way?

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The Prosperity Gospel: Or Blessings for Bucks?



Galatians 1:6-8 (New American Standard Bible)

Perversion of the Gospel

 I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel;

 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!

What is the Gospel is a question I have been asking and trying to answer and will continue to do so in the coming day.  Last time I explored the relationship of the Gospel and the Kingdom, here, and four things that were revealed through Scripture which are:

1. The Gospel and the Kingdom are here now.
2. The Kingdom is within us.
3. It is a future reality.
4. It ultimately is in accordance with God's authority and Jesus' Kingship.

With that in mind and moving on I want to discuss what the Gospel is not: It is unequivocally not a prosperity message based on the faulty reading of Scripture resulting in the giving-to-get fallacy.  The hucksterism and carnival-like atmosphere found in the name it and claim crowd is antithetical to the true Gospel and the faith that many, both past and present, hold dear.  This false Gospel of greed and seed must be exposed for what it is: a cancer in the Body of Christ.
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The Good News Kingdom

From the outset of the Church through the times we now live in there has been much discussion and confusion over what the Gospel is.  Is it a works based salvation with strict adherence to the law?  Can it be equated with libertarian free-will and cheap grace?  Is everyone forgiven and on the road to Heaven because the Gospel is an all inclusive, all loving, and all forgiving mantra of post-modern subjectivity?  Or is the Gospel of Jesus Christ a life changing message that extends far beyond the moment of salvation into the lives of believers?  These questions and more we will discuss in the coming days as we bring the Gospel to the forefront of our thinking.
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Have we Lost??

I was confronted with something tonight. Something that was shocking, although it probably shouldn’t  have been considering all I have seen of and heard about the American church in recent years.  Maybe what I encountered was common in Third World Countries, the dark jungles of  Africa,  or behind the old Soviet Iron Curtain, but not here, not in my community.  There was no way this was happening,  not tonight, not so close to home…..
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An Eye Catching Video

Check out this video and make a determination for yourself.  If human life is  created in the Image of God as the Bible states at what point does that image appear?????

The Case Against Abortion: Prenatal Development