Random Bits

"I walk through this sinful world as a 

pilgrim in a foreign country" - CH Spurgeon

Mouths that used to speak out boldly against the Church of Rome have been quieted by the times. It no longer is in vogue to speak of the pope as “the antichrist” or the Catholic Church as the “whore of Babylon”. Now Protestants unwittingly believe that “our differences are not so great”. Ah, that is just what She needs us to think! [Keith Green, The Catholic Chronicles] (source)

Some people may think I'm hard hearted for posting this quote by Keith Green just a few days after the burning of Notre Dame, and maybe my being a history nut may cause you to think that I'm off my rocker for not mourning such a loss. But when I heard of the fire the three thought came to mind:

1. I've seen the Koln Dom and it is Much Cooler

2. When actress Sophia Loren wept over her stolen jewelry director Vittorio De Sica told her "there is one great truth I have learned about life, it is this—never cry over anything that can’t cry over you.”

3. These ornate stone buildings are at best white washed tombs (Matthew 23:27-28) built to honor the Roman Catholic Church, not God, and at worst it is a symbol of hate that historically the French people had for us, the children of the Reformation

On average, three churches a day are vandalized in France

Report shows increased hostility toward Christians across Europe

Investigators believe Notre Dame fire likely caused by electrical short-circuit

People are now claiming to see Jesus in the Notra Dame flames

The St Patrick’s Cathedral arson suspect was arrested at other cathedral in NJ 2 nights previous to his arrest in NYC.

The 'Holy Spirit' told Francis Chan not to tell a Catholic what is wrong with her church

A critical response to Catholic apologist De Maria on Transubstantiation

WWUTT Wednesday - God is a Woman? Some People Actually Believe

Ariana Grande, who once played Cat in Nickelodeon's "tween" show Sam and Cat, is now a singer thanks to the miracle of auto-tune. 

Ariana is not a loving person; in any list of annoying Hollywood people, Ariana is generally in the top five due to her rude, selfish attitude toward anyone around her (donuts anyone?), so the idea of her making up her own god, then playing that role is not hard to imagine. The graphic here is a screen shot showing Miss Grande emulating Rodin's The Thinker, which in itself is hilarious. The photo was taken from is from her 2018 music video God Is A Woman. Ariana Grande's theological argument that God is a woman is summed up in the lyrics of the song:

You, you love it how I move you
You love it how I touch you
My one, when all is said and done
You'll believe God is a woman
And I, I feel it after midnight
A feelin' that you can't fight
My one, it lingers when we're done
You'll believe God is a woman

Can't argue with that, not unless you know the true word of God. Lately it looks like the whole new age movement is involved in the emasculation of God while the left is working hard to emasculate every man ever born. As Pastor Joe Schimel said of the psudo-christian movie "The Shack" 

[The Shack's]“pretentious caricature of God as a heavy set, cushy, non-judgmental, African American woman called ‘Papa’ ... and his depiction of the Holy Spirit as a frail Asian woman with the Hindu name, Sarayu, lends itself to a dangerous and false image of God and idolatry.” 

In a recent bible study in Proverbs 8:1 - 9:12 the question of God's wisdom being portrayed as a woman came up and the whole deal about a Greek goddess named Sophia polluted the discussion. To set things straight, Sophia is the Greek word for Wisdom, and it became a popular girls name. The Hagia (pronounced High-ya) Sophia means Holy Wisdom and is the name of an orthodox cathedral now used as a mosque, and God is not a wise woman named Sophia because of Proverbs 8 any more than He is a loud and wayward adultress because of what it says in Proverbs 7

No Bill Young, no Oprah, no Rachel, God is not dead, He is fully alive and fully a Male

Transcript:

Random Bits

"I walk through this sinful world as a 

pilgrim in a foreign country" - CH Spurgeon

I didn't like March one bit. I endured 2 emergency room visits (one was due to a bad diagnosis from my ER visit in February) and personnel issues  on the church board, followed up with not one, but two blizzards, neither from Dairy Queen. (Ok, one was in April but still; I left Buffalo for this?)

March is a perfect example of why I don't do politics on this blog; AOC and her Green New Deal #9 From Outer Space (which made a mockery of her grasp on the economy, trains, and the number 12), President Trump was cleared of any hint of collusion so the Democrats go into overdrive to prove the 2016 election was a product of Trump's collusion, the desire of the Democrats to kill babies after their birth, and of course - the buffonery of the left in preparations for the upcoming elections. One such candidate is running for Mayor of Denver. She's a homosexual rapper who wears a painted on mustache and her platform has two planks: affordable housing, and she has osteogenesis imperfecta. Nothing else. I agree that Denver really needs affordable housing and hey, I've got an incurable disease too - Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension, it's 500 times rarer than osteogenesis imperfecta and it's 100% fatal. Maybe I should run for Emperor of Colorado? Here''s my first bumper sticker: 

Romans 13 - It's In The Book

- I'm Doug Evans, and I approve this message

Scripture clearly says addressing false teaching is not divisive, and it’s actually important and essential

Seven threats you hear from false teachers (and I've hear them all, I'll bet you have too)

Speaking of false teachers: Bethel Church!

Planned Parenthood pressured the state of California to force curches to pay for abortions

How Deep Do You Plant A Church?

“When the Greeks got the gospel, they turned it into a philosophy;

when the Romans got it, they turned it into a government;

when the Europeans got it, they turned it into a culture;

and when the Americans got it, they turned it into a business.”

―Biblical Scholar, Dr. Richard Halverson

There's many reasons to plant a new church here in North America. The number one reason I hear is that the need to plant churches is from Jesus' essential call to plant churches. First of all, there is no essential call from Jesus to plant churches, secondly there's only one church - the church that Jesus built, the one we call the Body of Christ

I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. (Matthew 16:18)

Jesus didn't plant a church in a suburban neighborhood alongside four other churches, and he didn't insist that the lead guitarist become the worship leader for each congregation, He said (and put my first point in motion):

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19)

To start let's look at four very important words here and then we'll circle back to planting churches. Those words are Church, Hades, Disciples, and Nations. Church is not a building where the worship band has their light show and kicks off their concert series, it is not a series of buildings that funnel money to the denomination head office. The word that Jesus spoke we translated to 'church' is ekklēsia (ἐκκλησία) and that means "a group of people". Jesus could very easily have said "I will build my team" and maybe that's what He really did say. Let's go with that: Church = Team because Jesus sure didn't mean "Let's put up something with decent acoustics in the auditorium and plenty of office space."