Spurgeon Thursday - Rubbish

"The church of Rome and her teachings are
a vast mountain of rubbish covering the truth."

Continuing from Monday's posting of Mike Gendron's expose of false teaching in the Roman Catholic Church, let's step back in time about 140 years and see what the Prince of Preachers has to say about the Roman Catholic Church. You'll see that C.H.Spurgeon is a bit more direct in his assessment. Although a bit more brash, Spurgeon does base his criticisms in love, love for God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, those poor folk who have based their salvation on false teachings. But love for those false teachings and false teachers is tough love:

GENERAL

I question if hell can find a more fitting instrument within its infernal lake than the Church of Rome is for the cause of mischief. - MTP Vol 11 pg. 510. 

If your heart be not right with God, you shall perish with the sacramental bread in your mouth, and go from the baptismal waters to the fires of hell. Beware of the peace which is drawn from the stagnant pool of superstition. It will carry death into your soul. - MTP Vol 36 pg. 426.

I have seen, to my horror, a picture of God the Father represented as an old man, whereas the Lord has declared that we should make no image of him or represent him in any way. The attempt is blasphemous. (Exodus 20:4) - MTP Vol 55 pg. 526.

You cannot make a sinner into a saint by killing him. He who does not live as a saint here will never live as a saint hereafter. - MTP Vol 30 pg. 459

I do not think I should care to go on worshipping a Madonna even if she did wink. One cannot make much out of a wink. We want something more than that from the object of our adoration. - MTP Vol 40 pg. 505 .

Galatians 2:20 - The Roman Catholic hangs the cross on his bosom; the true Christian carries the cross in his heart. And a cross inside the heart is one of the sweetest cures for a cross on the back. If you have a cross in your heart - Christ crucified in you - all the cross of this world's troubles will seem to you light enough, and you will easily be able to sustain it. - NPSP Vol 4 pg. 428-429 . 

"Ignorance is the mother of devotion," according to the Church of Rome. "Ignorance is the mother of error," according to the Word of God. What we want our fellowmen to possess is spiritual knowledge. Especially do we desire that they may have knowledge with regard to God's righteousness, for men do not know what that righteousness is which God requires. - MTP Vol 37 pg. 387 

Three Common Errors of False Teachers

Mike Gendron

Being a recovering Roman Catholic I have a great affinity to Mike Gendron. For 34 years Evangelist Mike Gendron was a devout Roman Catholic and a strong defender of the "one true church." In 1981, at an evangelistic seminar, Mike heard for the first time that salvation is not by works or sacraments but by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. He also discovered the Bible must become his authority in all matters of faith. After graduating from Dallas Theological Seminary in 1991, Mike began this ministry to reach the many Catholics who currently are where he was for most of his life - believing he was heaven-bound but, in reality, destined for a Christ-less eternity. Mike is recognized internationally as being gifted at lovingly explaining the false teaching of the Church of Rome and why their doctrines are wrong according to the Word of God. Thanks and a hat tip to Defending. Contending. for finding this important article by Mike Gendron. ( I will be back with my series on the NAR soon)

Three Common Errors of False Teachers

by Mike Gendron

Since we are now living in the age of religious tolerance and ecumenical unity, there are some people who will immediately call this article unloving and divisive. Others will ask, "What right do you have to judge another religion?" The answer is given in Scripture. All God-fearing people are called to make right judgments, judgments that have already been established by the objective principles of God's Word (John 7:24). There may be nothing more important than warning people who are being deceived about their eternal destiny. If we do not lovingly confront them with God's Gospel, they may never know how to escape the eternal fire of God's punishment. Clearly, the most unloving thing we can do is to ignore them and let them continue down the road to destruction. For this reason, I am always willing to offend people with the offense and exclusivity of the Gospel in the hopes that God may grant some of them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth (2 Tim. 2: 25). Let us look at three fatal errors of false prophets and how to handle them: 

He Is Risen

Random Bits

"I walk through this sinful world as a 

pilgrim in a foreign country" - CH Spurgeon

It's been a long and interesting week full of ups and downs. My bride and I rescued a dog from the Denver dog pound and this week was her visit to the Vet - she turned out to be the healthiest dog we have which says a LOT for the care she received at the Denver dog shelter. We now have two cocker spaniels (an English and an American cocker) named Gibbs and Abbie. Even though I'm a fan of NCIS I didn't name them, they came equipped with those names. I like the way that worked out, but my bride isn't happy that I've started calling her ancient retriever "Ducky"

Then I found that one of my blog entries was discovered by Marsha West and reposted at bereanresearch.org which was very cool.

But then we got the moisture that we in Colorado have been praying for - in the form of snow. Snow is an awesome way to get moisture, a savvy farmer/rancher can trap it as it blows across the prairie with snow fencing and wind rows. However in a city like Denver full of economic (and weed) immigrants from places like Texas and California who are poor drivers in the best of times, two feet of wet heavy snow is a trial. It was really ugly for a day, 2 wheel drive vehicles were banned from the metro area, the airport was closed, schools closed, I-70 was closed due to stuck vehicles but Praise the Lord there were no storm fatalities, We're expecting more snow this weekend which is going to cancel a lot of sunrise services on Easter morning, but you know what? The sun rises every day - we can praise and worship the Lord by the light of the rising sun 279 more times this year.

YAY! The Georgia Religious Liberty Bill has been passed by the Georgia legislature and now goes to Gov. Nathan Deal to sign into law. The bill protects pastors so they could not be forced to perform a same-sex wedding ceremony.

BOO! The NFL threatens to deny the city of Atlanta the opportunity to host Super Bowl games because they don't like the Georgia Religious Liberty Bill. Apparently the NFL policies that emphasize tolerance and inclusiveness do not include tolerance and inclusiveness for Christians. (BTW, the picture in this article is a reminder that Rick Joyner is a false prophet)

BOOO! Disney/Marvel Studios is now threatening to boycott Georgia because they don't like the Georgia Religious Liberty Bill. Like Proposition 8 in California the gaystapo has decided to override the will of the people with their own selfish desires

Spurgeon Thursday - The Resurrection

Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4)

The memorial of Christ’s death is a festival, not a funeral; and we are to come to the table with gladsome hearts and go away from it with praises, for “after supper they sang a hymn” 

The marvel of heaven and earth, of time and eternity, is the atoning death of Jesus Christ. This is the mystery that brings more glory to God than all creation.

When we preach Christ crucified, we have no reason to stammer, or stutter, or hesitate, or apologize; there is nothing in the gospel of which we have any cause to be ashamed.

Immanuel, God with us in our nature, in our sorrow, in our lifework, in our punishment, in our grave, and now with us, or rather we with Him, in resurrection, ascension, triumph, and Second Advent splendor.

No scene in sacred history ever gladdens the soul like the scene on Calvary. Nowhere does the soul find such consolation as on that very spot where misery reigned, where woe triumphed, where agony reached its climax.

This, then, is the doctrine of the resurrection. We do not believe--at least I do not--that law has been rudely violated in one extraordinary and unparalleled episode. We believe that a universal law of life, overmastering death, and always superior to it, has had once a visible witness.

Jesus has redeemed not only our souls, but our bodies. When the Lord shall deliver His captive people out of the land of the enemy He will not leave a bone of one of them in the adversary's power. The dominion of death shall be utterly broken.

WWUTT Wednesday - Do You Have to Go to Church to Be a Christian?

Christian, you know whom I'm talking about when I mention "Easter Bunnies". I'm not talking about the guy on the left here, he should never be allowed in a Christian church. The Easter Bunnies  I'm talking about are those folks that only show up on Christmas and Easter.

I'm not sure why Easter Bunnies exist outside of the Roman Catholic church. In Protestant denominations there is no such thing as a "holy day of obligation" (a day on which a Roman Catholic is required to attend mass). The RCC grades on attendance, and their catechism clearly states there's no salvation outside of their church so they have to show up when attendance is mandatory. We don't have such rules in Protestantism, we just have the bible and the desire to be one with Christ. But nonetheless we still have Easter Bunnies. 

Why don't we see our brother and sister bunnies on the other 50 Sunday's of the year? When you see them on this Easter Sunday remind them that we love them, we miss them, and remind them of this:

Did Jesus Go To Hell?

The Apostles creed

I believe in God, the Father almighty, 
creator of heaven and earth. 
I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, 
suffered under Pontius Pilate, 
was crucified, died, and was buried; 
he descended to the dead. 
On the third day he rose again; 
he ascended into heaven, 
he is seated at the right hand of the Father, 
and he will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. AMEN.

Depending on which version your congregation says, Jesus may have descended to the dead, or he may have descended into hell. The latin version says "descendit ad inferna" which is hell. This makes it the most controversial statement in the Apostle's Creed. Some denominations consider it optional or refuse to include it at all. The Greek version has "he descended unto κατώτατα (the lower regions)" which is more palatable, but it still begs the question - between His death and resurrection where did Jesus go? 

For one thing, we know that he went to paradise and he took one criminal with him when He went to paradise

Emergent Monday - The NAR and Their Day of Infamy

3 If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, 4 he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, 5 and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. (1 Timothy 6:3-5)

“Discernment is not a matter of simply telling the difference between right and wrong; rather, it is telling the difference between right and almost right.” - Charles Haddon Spurgeon

I can't lay claim to calling the NAR-Todd Bently debacle the "Day of Infamy" the honor of coining that phrase goes to Steven Kozar and the Messed Up Church blog, but the question did come up last week. When I wrote about the NAR's Spiritual Mapping gimmick, Alec Satin speculated that one would expect a great deal of immorality behind the scenes or perhaps even openly, so maybe a review of the Day of Infamy would answer questions like this.

Todd Bentley was born in Gibsons, British Columbia, a small community on the western coast of Canada. As told in his autobiography, his parents divorced while he was a child, and he struggled with drug and alcohol addiction¹ Even though criminal records of juvenile offenders in Canada are sealed, several media outlets have reported on Bentley's conviction at age 15 of sexually assaulting a much younger boy when he was 13. Bentley later said that the original article was true2 At age 17 Bentley was hospitalized after an overdose of amphetamines and hallucinogens. At 18 he converted to christianity and changed his lifestyle completely.  

Random Bits

"I walk through this sinful world as a 

pilgrim in a foreign country" - CH Spurgeon

That's not spring in the air, that's SNOW. My daughter and her husband woke up to 7" on their lawn this morning and of course daughter #2 called to let us know of such a travesty. We live much farther away from the mountains than they do (by 1 mile) and received signifigantly less snow (2 inches less) but my reaction was more sedate. Actually I like snow and especially so on a Friday morning - it's a lot easier to haul the trash to the curb when you can slide is across a dusting of snow.

To many people snow is something to be dread, to others it's a recreational opportunity. To an arid area like Colorado it's life saving moisture, our civic water system is fed mostly from snow melt in the mountains, and out on the prairie a good snowfall can make or break a growing season for hundreds of farms and ranches. We've been getting a lot of economic (and weed) immigrants into Colorado, mostly from California and Texas. To them snow is a life threatening monster because they've never dealt with it before. Being from Buffalo snow is a blessing to me, and it took me a long time to figure out why - starting with how awesome it is that snow and ice floats. (Could you imagine what the world would be like if it sank?) but then, isn't everything from God a blessing?

Top 10 reasons why Christianity is far superior to any other religion

Pray for the poor souls of Scottsdale, Arizona

Growing number of US Corporations are encouraging pagan rituals among their employees (Personally I've found that among us engineers our day improves when instead of mediating we spend some time inspecting our eyelids for light leaks. These are NOT naps, and the snoring is unrelated)

You know the election is getting bad when the choice comes down to "the least heathen of the two."

Concerned about violence in politics? “Pope Francis’s” infallible “punch-them-in-the-nose” gives moral license to both Trump, violent protesters.

Spurgeon Thursday - Beauty for Ashes

An Excerpt from Beauty for Ashes
Published Thursday, January 9th, 1913

To grant those who mourn in Zion, Giving them a garland instead of ashes, The oil of gladness instead of mourning, The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified. (Isaiah 61:3)

The Mourners Condition: He is covered with ashes as the emblem of his sad estate. Let us now, like Cinderella, sit down among the cinders for a while in order that we may come forth from the ashes with something better than glass slippers, adorned with a beauty which shall befit the king’s courts! The fairy fable which has often made our childhood smile shall now be actually realized in our own souls—yes, we shall see how far the truth of God outshines romance! How much grander are the facts of God than the fictions of men!

It seems, from the text, that the righteous are sometimes covered with grief. Orientals were always excessive in the use of symbols and, therefore, if they were in sorrow, they endeavored to make their outward appearance describe their inward misery. They took off all their soft garments and put on sackcloth—and this they rent and tore into rags! And then upon their heads, instead of perfumed oil which they were so fond of using, they threw ashes— and so disfigured themselves and made themselves objects of pity.

WWUTT Wednesday - You Must Be Baptized to Be Saved?

There's a fellow from the Church of God going door to door in our little town spreading the gospel (as they see the gospel) and drumming up membership. The United Church of God is a non-Christian cult that denies the Trinity, the true divinity of Christ, and requires both baptism and obedience to the commandments to be saved.

He's a nice enough guy and if he really feels a need to worship on Saturday, that's fine by me, and we have had a couple of interesting conversations, but his being a member of a works based anti-Trinitarian cult kind of saddens me. In our last conversation I tried not to look shocked when he said "There's some churches around here that call themselves protestant but they actually believe in [in a conspiratorial whisper] salvation by faith alone"

REALLY? How dare they!

I still chuckle that he said that to me. If it wasn't for sola fide we'd all still be depending on man made 'sacraments' for salvation. It's clear that his armstrongian cult is cherry picking the bible to back up their allegations, and any verse I had to refute his theory of sola opus was answered with "That's not what that means" then he'd dance off to another favored verse.

The main point that Mr. C.O.G. hammers on is water baptism. To me it sounded like the most important thing in his spiritual life is being a "full dunker". To be honest his insistence on Water Baptism Ueber Alles is starting to creep me out, primarily because he draws a blank when you mention Spiritual Baptism.

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void (1 Corinthians 1:17)

Guest Columnist - Protestants Don’t Celebrate Ash Wednesday, or Lent. We Are Protestant For a Reason.

Article by Timothy J, Hammons

I’m truly saddened by the number of my friends on Facebook who are celebrating Ash Wednesday and Lenten this year. The common denominator of course is that they were all educated theologically at Dallas Theological Seminary.  I have other friends who did not attend DTS who are celebrating. I give them a pass. But the ones that did attend DTS, should repent of this heinous revelry immediately.

Once again, the seminary where I was trained is showing it’s bad fruit in that they really don’t teach theology well, unless it is Dispensationalism, or church history well. (Not the fault of the historical theology department. They do an excellent job, but are not given enough courses to make a long-term impact).

But that is not the point. The point is that for some reason, students can come out of that seminary and think it’s perfectly fine to celebrate Ash Wednesday and Lenten. Do they not realize that we are Protestant? Do they not realize that this is a tradition of men and condemned in Scripture? Do they not realize that these holy days are not prescribed by God, but by fallen men? Do they not realize that their participation in Ash Wednesday and Lent strikes at the gospel itself?

Why does it matter?

Emergent Monday - The Spiritual Map of George Otis and the NAR

Spiritual Mapping is a discipline used by the New Apostolic Reformation to... to... to be honest I couldn't figure out what exactly they use it for. But according to the NAR it's really important. I looked up Spiritual Mapping and was lead to a spiritual mapping webpage at isaiah54.org and found a page chock full of different type faces and colors, huge type, small type, shadowed type, italicized type, bold type, subscript type, superscript type, even Micosoft WordArt type, so spiritual mapping is clearly very important. And, a good thing, there was no explosive use of exclamation points so obviously the webmasters at isaiah54.org are not crazy. 

However the meaning and definition of Spiritual Mapping seemed to escape the webmasters notice. In their section titled WHAT IS THE DISCIPLINE OF SPIRITUAL MAPPING? they defined the word "Discipline" and completely ignored the whole Spiritual Mapping part. The page is covered with blather about spiritual warefare, partial bible quotes, bible quotes used utterly out of context and nonsense like 

"Like enemy intelligence gathering during wartime Spiritual Mapping gathers the strategic information necessary for effective intercessory "smart prayer" deployment." 

There is one quote worth paying attention to which came from Georg Otis Jr, the inventor of spiritual mapping:

(Spiritual Mapping is) "Superimposing our understanding of forces and events in the spiritual domain onto places and circumstances in the material world."  (from "The Last of the Giants" by George Otis Jr.)

I didn't say it made sense, I just said it was the one quote worth paying attention to. I first came across the term 'spiritual mapping' in a description of John MacArthurs sermon The Modern Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. In this sermon Dr. MacArthur never actually says "spiritual mapping" but he does utter the finest definition of the NAR ever spoken, and his definition has become a classic in Christianity

Random Bits

"I walk through this sinful world as a 

pilgrim in a foreign country" - CH Spurgeon

The countdown to daylight savings time is coming to a close as we prepare for the coming "extra hour" of daylight on Sunday, and the complaining I am hearing is reaching new heights. The Spring ahead/fall back meme doesn't seem to help people figure out how to set their clocks and it always catches people by surprise. Wake up people - the second sunday of March and November is always going to be "National Reset Your Clocks Day" I am constantly hearing people complain "Why don't we have daylight savings time all year long?"

Am I the only one that remembers the long dark winter of 1974-1975? That was the year that the Carter administration kept year long daylight savings time during their desperate attempts to fight off the Energy Crisis. Folks had to send their kids off to school in pitch dark and were livid about it. I remember the sun finally making it's appearance around 9:00 AM on those cold, very dark mornings, I, for one, am in the "keep it like it is" category because I get up before sunrise (and most CDOT snowplow drivers) anyhow.

The PLOS ONE scientific journal was forced to retract a peer reviewed article about the human hand because it mentions “the Creator” three times.

Spurgeon Thursday: What we can Learn from Palm Sunday

Excerpt from a sermon delivered on Sunday Morning, August the 18th, 1861 by the
Rev. C. H. Spurgeon At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington:

The Saviour, in his triumphal entrance into the capital of his fathers, declared to us very plainly the practical effects of his kingdom. Now what are these? One of the first effects was that the whole city was moved. What does that mean? It means that everybody had something to say about it, and that everybody felt something because Christ rode through the street. 

There were some who leaned from the tops of their houses, and looked down the street and said to one another - "Aha! Did ever you see such fool's play as this? Humph! Here is Jesus of Nazareth down here riding on an ass! Surely if he meant to be king he might have chosen a horse. Look at him! They call that pomp! There is some old fisherman has just thrown down his bad-smelling garment; I dare say it had fish in it an hour or two ago? "Look," says one, "see that old beggar throwing his cap into the air for joy!" "Aha!" say they, "was there ever such a ridiculous thing as that?" 

I cannot put it in such terms as they would describe it; if I could, I think I would. I should like to make you see how ridiculous this must have seemed to the people. Why, if Pilate himself had heard about it he would have said - "Ah! there is nothing much to fear from that. There is no fear that that man will ever upset Caesar; there is no fear that he will ever overturn an army. Where are their swords? There is not a sword among them! They have no cries that sound like rebellion; their songs are only some religious verses taken out of the Psalms." "Oh!" says he, "the whole thing is contemptible and ridiculous." 

WWUTT Wednesday: Correcting False Teachers? ...By Name?!

Those of you who follow my blog may have noticed a theme that appears from time to time - I tend to identify false teachers by name. I name them to the point of handing out trophies for their excellence in heresy. To be brutally honest, I actually don't give them a trophy, I give them a picture of a trophy: The Golden Goat. After all, it's only fair because they don't give their flock the real gospel, therefore I don't see a need to give them the real trophy. 

I am now so concerned about Greg Laurie of Harvest ministries and Lou Engle of the blasphemous New Apostolic Reformation and their plans to unite their denominations along with the Roman papists, and the Calvary Chapel that I opened a recent Random Bits with a long tirade about it. I'm concerned about it because my wife 'grew up' in Calvary Chapel and listens to Greg Laurie a lot, and being associated with the NAR is a danger sign. I was so concerned that I actually contacted a Calvary Chapel pastor and asked his opinion. The pastor said he didn't know anything about it and proceeded to give me advice from Matthew 18. But does Matthew 18 cover this situation? Check it out:

Why Are Easter And Passover A Month Apart?

There's so much confusing stuff in the world! There's so much out there to send my brain into a tizzy it's like there's a conspiracy of confusion aimed right at my head: income tax forms, getting a passport, nutrition information on food labels, why MSNBC is still on the air, health insurance claims, calculus, people who can't figure out traffic circles, Unix, checking out at Kohls...

But what's up with Easter? Everyone of my readers knows that Jesus was sacrificed as the perfect sacrificial lamb of God on Passover, and that he rose from the dead three days later. So why on Earth is Easter on March 27th this year, but Passover is being celebrated starting on April 22-30? That's a whole month after Easter, so this year we are celebrating Christ rising from the dead about 30 days before we observe the day He died. 

As everyone knows (or will know after reading this blog entry) the "rules" for when Easter and Passover fall are as easy as Pi and as clear as Sanskrit: 

Emergent Monday: NAR Dominionism and the Presidential Race

I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that in presidential politics the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) is a complete and utter failure. The bad news is that they don't realize this fact and are not stopping in their attempt to "retake the reins of our country"

I've covered the antics of the NAR in the past here, and here. and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and now we're back again for more. Do not get me wrong, I firmly believe that a man with a strong biblical background and a deep love for God will be an awesome president, but I do not believe a cult member or someone with ties to a dominionist cult could be anything more than the disaster we're trying to replace. The NAR is quickly becoming one of the most dangerous producers of false teachings that ever hid behind the banner of Christianity. I am not kidding when I say that the NAR is plotting an overthrow of the entire world world. They would rather rule the world than listen to the word of God when He said 

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2)

Back in 2009 it was revealed that Newt Gingrich had developed ties to the NAR appearing alongside the NAR's "apostle" Lew Engle at a "Rediscovering God In America" conference where Engle laid hands upon Gingrich and prayed for God's protection for him. But Newt's ties to dominion overthrow go further back than that, Back in 1994 Newt made it clear that he was committed to the "Third Way" which, of course, is another tentacle of the hydra that is the NAR.

Random Bits

"I walk through this sinful world as a 

pilgrim in a foreign country" - CH Spurgeon

It's been quite a busy week here at Random Bits HQ, I even missed my main mid-week respite from this sin weary world, men's bible study, as I fell asleep right after getting home from work that evening. Besides work, most of my week has been spent avoiding political discussion. I will break this fast on Monday when I explain here in this blog why I can't vote for the one candidate who agrees with my views on the issues. To me this entire election cycle was summed up on "Super" Tuesday with the local results: the good news is that Colorado rejected Hillary Clinton, the bad news is that they went with Bernie Sanders.

On the upside my health is starting to improve a bit due to warmer weather and long walks with Swamp Thing: The Spaniel Of Doom. We like to go down to the rehab center where Swamp Thing's hugs bring smiles to the shut-ins there. our next visit is only a couple of hours away! (yay Friday!) And another thing to look forward to is a welcome brunch this Sunday for a group of believers who finished new members class at our First Congregational Church of the Bereans. The cool thing about our church is that we are most definitely not seeker sensitive. Visitors will get a warm welcome, a hearty handshake, and maybe even a hug, but they will not get secular rock music masquerading as "worship music", a watered down sermon, or a Service Lite to entice them to come back. They will get the real thing; old school hymns that actually Worship God, and a hard core biblically based sermon centered on the love of God, the sin of man, and the redemption through Christ. Notes will be taken, bibles will be referenced, and tears will be shed. And if they didn't bring their own bible there's an NASB right there in the pew for them to borrow. So by the time a visitor decides to join we know that they are there for the worship, and they know there's no entertainment... at least during Worship Service. The board meetings can be quite entertaining at times.

A thought provoking overview of the gaystapo's tyrannical crusade against Christianity and free speech.

10 reasons why you should break up with Joel Osteen (and find a real pastor)

Atheists are suing the governor of Texas because they were forced to remove their childish "juvenile parody" of the nativity from the state capitol.

Spurgeon Thursday: He Still Matters

The words of Charles Haddon Spurgeon are timeless and his love and faith in Jesus Christ was unquestionable. I am truly envious of those souls lucky enough to hear him preach. 

1889 a young man by the name of D. C. Davidson left his home in Michigan to go abroad to do post-graduate work in theology. His mom wanted him to go to Yale bit he wanted to make contact with what he called "the vital minds of Europe". He found himself in Berlin and instead of being a place where his faith was deepened and established, he found his faith nearly shattered. He called his stay in Berlin a “horror of great darkness” caused by his exposure to liberal German theology. He wrote “I have encountered many a fiery temptation, but I have never had a temptation cross my pathway so subtle and dangerous as that of German destructive criticism.” In 1890 he traveled to England, his faith nearly destroyed, and there he heard Charles Haddon Spurgeon preach was must have been his final sermons. D. C. Davidson wrote:

When Spurgeon preached the simple old doctrines of the Cross, the pentecostal fire fell from heaven upon the people. I have seen the multitudes in that tabernacle moved by the breath of God, when that man spoke, as the trees of the forest are moved by the wind. It seemed to me that I was in the third heaven, compared to the cess-pool of German criticism in which I had been wallowing.

What could I do but bow down before my Maker and worship, crying, ‘The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!’…The glory of God seemed to fill Mr Spurgeon’s tabernacle. …The poisonous effects of the destructive criticism which had permeated my heart, were consumed like stubble, by the holy fire of God. I saw the Scriptures with new eyes. They became inexpressibly precious to me and the Christ whom they reveal.

We can read his words but we can't imagine the impact they had when spoken aloud. Here was a man who spoke to thousands of people without microphones, amplifiers, and speakers, and he was heard clearly in every corner of his crowded, echoey, acoustical nightmare of a church. I love the way he was and still is able to communicate the perfect truths of God's holiness, I get a chill reading some of his sermons. Could you imagine how much more impactful these words could be with the added communication tools of a trained voice adding inflection and exclamation? 

Here's your weekly splash of Spurgeon: 

In Like A Lamb

Genesis 22:8

Welcome to March. March is Women's History Month, National Nutrition Month, American Red Cross Month, and Fire Prevention Month. In March Daylight Savings Time begins, and winter ends. It is the time of year when animals start to wake up from hibernation. 

Along with St. Patrick's Day, other "holidays" in March include National Potato Chip Day, Hug a GI Day, Fragrance Day, Take a Walk In the Park Day, and (believe it or not) Dyngus Day.

And this year Easter falls on March, which makes this month a wonderful dichotomy. The old March weather proverb "In like a lamb, out like a lion" comes to life this month, as we celebrate Jesus Christ the sacrificial lamb of God at the beginning of the month, and Jesus Christ the Lion of Judah rising victorious over death at the end of the month. 

I'm sure this imagery is brought up ad nauseum every time Easter falls at the end of March, but I like this imagery. Just before their exodus from Egypt, God commanded the Israelites to take an unblemished lamb, slay it, then smear its blood on the doorposts of their homes

3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers’ households, a lamb for each household. 4 Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them; according to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. 7 Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it....  12 For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—I am the Lord. 13 The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. (Exodus 12:3-7, 12-13)

The blood of the slain lamb set apart the people of Israel from the people of Egypt when the death angel came during the night to slay the firstborn of the land. Those who had obeyed God and marked themselves with the blood of the slain lamb would be spared. 

Centuries later John the Baptist sees Jesus approaching him, stops what he was doing, and declares to all present, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29), A couple of years later on Passover, the Lamb that God sent to us, a perfect and unblemished male, was killed. And His blood is a sign to us that God will spare us from the wrath that we so horribly deserve, and our Lamb will return as a Lion to lead us to victory over sin and death as He did two millenia ago.