Wednesday, April 7, 2010

The Faithless Preachers - Part Four




He's (Jim Bakker) in Branson Mo. and is back to teaching the same garbage that he renounced.

I started off with "good intentions" also. I was taught Word of Faith in a Baptist Church's Sunday school class. The pastor of the church knew exactly what was being taught in there.

I'm not laying blame but what would have been IF the pastor had demanded the teacher to stop? I can't know that now because he didn't demand anything but only told the teacher to "teach from his heart", which sounds really cool but isn't cool at all.

It lead me down a wide path of destruction. Please understand that I take full responsibility for what I listened to and believed in, but, darn, one would think that a Baptist church would be a safe place.

Monday, April 5, 2010

The Faithless Preacher - Part Three




I love her question about being "slain in the spirit" because it happened to me also and I've wondered, since learning of the errors of Word of Faith, what really happened to me. It was very real but I didn't hear anything.

I had people demand to know what God said to me and when I told them that He said nothing to me, then I was told that what happened wasn't real because God was supposed to talk to me or tell me something when I was "out" which made me feel inferior, somehow incomplete and incompetent. Which, looking back, was probably their main goal anyway.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Happy Easter

1 Corinthians 15:1-4
(1)
Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it. (2) It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place. (3) I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. (4) He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said.

The Faithless Preacher - Part Two

Thursday, April 1, 2010

The Faithless Preachers - Part One


I just watched this video. I wanted to share it, and the others in the series, because it's so easy to understand and easily explained, simple really. I wish that someone had taken the time to explain things to me in such an elementary way when I became so attracted to such things as Word of Faith.

The problem didn't lie in people wanting to tell me the "wrongness" of Word of Faith, but it was in their approach. Most of them, if not all, were completely aggressive and hostile. And just to be honest ~ THAT turned me off to them and on to the Word of Faith crowd that portrayed love toward me.

Anyway... Enjoy.


Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Wolves/False Teachers (part 2)




Acts 20:29-31 (New Living Translation)


29
I know that false teachers, like vicious wolves, will come in among you after I leave, not sparing the flock. 30 Even some men from your own group will rise up and distort the truth in order to draw a following. 31 Watch out! Remember the three years I was with you—my constant watch and care over you night and day, and my many tears for you.

The bible uses a wolf to symbolize a false preacher/teacher/pastor/minister (whatever word you want to use). Wolves EAT sheep! The are carnivores ~ meat eaters. He or she, the false teacher, feeds on sheep and sees them as nothing more than a resource for his selfish purposes and agendas. But they are very clever at disguising themselves because if the sheep KNEW they were following a wolf, they wouldn't hang around waiting to be devoured. Sooner or later being devoured is exactly what happens to the sheep because wolves only think of themselves.

They are NOT a true shepherd. They are greedy for personal gain and a hireling. They mislead the sheep by drawing them in with words that sound biblical and true but they draw them only to themselves, not to God. They are not submitted to or in the service of Christ, The Messiah, Son of God. Rather than a servants heart, they merely put on a show of service to get what they want, which usually consist of money or things that money can buy. To them ~ the end justifies the means.

They are a cruel lot and in the end they are more than willing to feast on God's precious sheep.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Wolves/False Teachers

Matthew 7:15-20 (NLT)

15 “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. 16 You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. 18 A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. 19 So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. 20 Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions."

Jesus warned us to Beware of false teachers. But a false teachers doesn't just jump out on stage and say "Look at me, I'm a false teacher!!!" Too bad it's not that easy to spot one, but it's not, because they are disguised. Which means they come across as someone that is very likable, friendly, thoughtful, inspirational and even genuine.

We are told to beware of these teachers for a reason. They lead people to believe that they are on the straight and narrow path that leads to life but they are really leading them down the broad and wide highway that ends in destruction. Matthew 7:13-14

The true Gospel of Jesus Christ points you toward HIM, toward BELIEVING IN HIM, TRUSTING IN HIM and LOVING HIM with all your heart, mind and soul. Anything else is not truth. It is a false gospel and those that teach another gospel is a false teacher and a vicious wolf.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Wolves



I write this as a semi response to an e-mail that I received from a friend.

He wanted me to pass on an e-mail to my old pastor. What would make him think that I still have some sort of on going relationship with the pastor, I couldn't say. But throughout his email, my friend addressed many aspects of the pastors ministry. Aspects or teachings that I long ago became aware of as being false and have since moved away from entirely.

My friend, however, insists that this teaching is proper and therefore will not even consider leaving the system. But what I found in his own email (addressing this pastor about his ministry) was the very same language used in the bible that addresses false teachers/prophets.

I didn't understand at first why his e-mail bothered me so. I simply thought it was the fact that he sent it to me in the first place. I mean, why would I want to have anything to do with that church or that pastor? And then, after I read it several times over several days, it began to dawn on me. My friend has rebuked the pastor, actually seeing his "fruit" and yet is still eating from the tree.

I have warned him several times that it's the system of Word of Faith that is wrong and not just individual pastors. The whole thing stinks! But he has gone his own way and still listens and participates in the WOF movement. This is what makes me sad. He can see that it's wrong in this one pastor but can't see that it's the same in all of them. He can't see the forest for the tree.

By his own e-mail and his own description of what is wrong in this persons ministry he has stumbled upon the very thing that the bible warns us about ~ WOLVES. He has identified ONE wolf but has ignored the pack. I feel for him. First because he thinks that an e-mail will change the wolf. Ha! And second because he's striving so hard to make something false into truth.

Twist it all around and you can make scripture say anything you want or whatever fits into your agenda. But twisted scripture will never be truth.

(Matt.7:15-16)
15 “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. 16 You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?

New Living Translation (NLT)

Friday, January 1, 2010

~ 2010 ~

My "New Year" hope for anyone reading this is the same hope that I place on myself; that I can finally be able to live out of who I am and not who others expect or want me to be. That will be a beautiful place.





May the Lord bless you and keep you ~ May His face shine upon you and be gracious to you ~ May He lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.