"Who are You to Say What Worship is!?"

"The scripture says “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and in Truth.” (John 4:24)

Read this great article by Israel Wayne here about what true worship is REALLY all about, not what most churches today claim worship to be.

(sorry about forgetting to put the link for the article)

Are you a Peeping Tom?

Here is an article written by Stacy McDonald at Your Sacred Calling.

This is a small excerpt from Randy Alcorn’s book, The Purity Principle.

Suppose I said, “There’s a great-looking girl down the street. Let’s go look through her window and watch her undress, then pose for us naked, from the waist up. Then this girl and her boyfriend will get in a car and have sex–let’s listen and watch the windows steam up!”
You’d be shocked. You’d think, What a pervert!
But suppose instead I said, “Hey, come on over. Let’s watch Titanic.”
Christians recommend this movie, church youth groups view it together, and many have shown it in their homes. yet the movie contains precisely the scenes I described.
So, as our young men lust after the girl on the screen, our young women are trained in how to get a man’s attention.
How does something shocking and shameful somehow become acceptable because we watch it through a television instead of a window?
In terms of the lasting effects on our minds and morals, what’s the difference?
Yet many think, Titanic? Wonderful! It wasn’t even rated R!
Every day Christians across the country, including many church leaders, watch people undress through the window of television. We peek on people committing fornication and adultery, which our God calls an abomination.
We’ve become voyeurs, Peeping Toms, entertained by sin.

While the movie, Titanic, is old news, there are plenty of movies (and television shows) that would fit this description, and there are plenty of Christian watching them under the catch-all excuse of “Christian liberty.”

1 Corinthians 6:18, "Flee immorality. Every sin that a man commits is outside body, but the immoral man sins against his own body."

Philippians 4:8, "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things."

God's Design for Union in Marriage

"In the sexual relationship we proclaim with our spouse that we truly are one and we declare our ongoing love and allegiance to one another. We affirm that we have given ourselves to one another in a whole and complete way. Sex proclaims, “I am yours. I am yours alone. I am committed to you to the end.” It is an ordinary means of grace to marriage through which we truly do strengthen our marriage and our bonds of love."

Read Tim Challies complete article at Challies.com

What a great follow-up to the perfect marriage from last.

What is Wrong With Conservatism?

"Here is the gist of the problem: “We have met the enemy, and it is us.” In a Constitutional Republic, America is US!  WE are the problem."

Read the entire article by Israel Wayne at Biblical Worldview.

"It Is Well With My Soul"

Listen to this podcast by Tim Challies and David Murray.  They are talking about having sorrow, discouragement and despair and where we can go to find hope.

This Is TRUE Discipleship

A Picture-Perfect Marriage

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:31,32)

Here are links to a three part series on "A Picture-Perfect Marriage" by Tim Challies.
It is very well written and quite thought provoking. How is your marriage?

Part One
Part Two
Part Three

Continue Praying for Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani

"The Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani is being pressured by the government of Iran to recant his Christian faith and accept Islam. If he does so they will spare his life and set him free.
But he stands firm and continually refuses to do so. Praise the Lord!"

 Luke 21:12-16 “…they will lay hands on you and persecute you. They will deliver you to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. This will result in your being witnesses to them. But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death.”

Read the entire article at TheRightScoop

Please do not forget about Pastor Nadarkhani and many others who are being persecuted for their faith. Pray, pray, pray. 

A Preacher's Responsibility

Posted by Scott T. Brown on January 10, 2012, at NCFIC

A preacher has a number of responsibilities and hopes for the congregation. Here are a few of them:

1. Represent the words of God to them accurately, so that they can compare everything in their lives with the truth of Scripture
2. Give them a vision of the majesty of God
3. Help them find their greatest delight and happiness in God
4. Instruct them in the flow of history and their place in history
5. Show them the world as it really is
6. Equip them for the work of the ministry
7. Explain and dissect their problems in the light of Scripture so they can see who they really are
8. Bring the whole congregation to live no longer in the flesh but in the Spirit
9. Question the ungodly traditions of the congregation
10. Oppose the sins that have taken root
11. Confront their prejudices
12. Contradict their philosophy
13. Expose the nature of paganism and how it is affecting them
14. Stop them from drinking from the poison well
15. Terrify them with the law and the consequences of breaking it
16. Kill their self love
17. Destroy their comforts in their good works and moralistically high view of themselves
18. Expose their self-congratulatory spirit
19. Incite them to repent
20. Show them their inner pharisee
21. Confront their lack of love
22. Counsel them to grow in love through mercy and forgiveness
23. Stand in the way of their current desires
24. Lower their opinions of themselves
25. Raise their opinions of Christ
26. Cast them hopeless on the gospel of Christ
27. Convert the lost
28. Console them with the gospel
29. Comfort the broken hearted
30. Give hope to those who have lost it
31. Bind up the weak, through Him who is strong
Only God by the power of His Holy Spirit can fall on a congregation for these things.

Update on Youcef Nadarkhani

Location: Iran (Islamic Republic of)
Arrested: October 2009
Days Imprisoned: 803

Nardarkhani to Remain in Prison
Youcef Nadarkhani, an Iranian pastor sentenced to death for apostasy, will remain in prison for at least one more year. The presiding judge ordered authorities to keep Youcef in prison, using whatever means necessary to force him to recant his Christian faith and convert to Islam. VOM contacts believe the order’s intent is to keep Youcef in prison for an extended period so that the international Christian community will forget about him. The Iranian courts may then feel free to carry out the death sentence.

Please don't let him be forgotten. Pray for him and his family. May God be glorified in this situation.