SHOULD I GIVE UP?

I am tired.  At 64, the physical tiredness is often there, but the tiredness I speak of today is mental, emotional, and spiritual.

I had just about decided, and had even told my husband, that a certain ongoing project I found myself beginning several years ago just doesn't seem worth the fight anymore.  It doesn't seem that I make any difference.  I feel swallowed up except for an ultrathin shaft of light at the end of the tunnel.  It seems all but closed up sometimes.

Then a sweet lady approached me this weekend and said something to me that gave me hope and makes me think that I've made some sort of impact on that one person.  Could there be more?

This morning's Bible reading schedule encouraged me more.  I checked it and today's New Testament reading is 2 Timothy 3.  Here is the entire chapter, but verse 14 is the one that really spoke to me.

2 Timothy 3 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

3 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. ² For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³ unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, ^[a]haters of good, ⁴ treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, ⁵ holding to a form of ^[b]godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. ⁶ For among them are those who ^[c]enter into households and captivate ^[d]weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, ⁷ always learning and never able to come to the ^[e]knowledge of the truth. ⁸ Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith. ⁹ But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, just as ^[f]Jannes’s and Jambres’s folly was also.

¹⁰ Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, ^[g]perseverance, ¹¹ persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me! ¹² Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. ¹³ But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. ¹⁴ You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, ¹⁵ and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶ All Scripture is ^[h]inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for ^[i]training in righteousness; ¹⁷ so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

I see the evidence of verses 1-5 all around me.  I'm even able to secretly pin names on most of the negative attributes listed there.  Maybe I'm not supposed to do that, but I do, not revealing them to others but knowing that these things are true for many people right now.  And I believe these ARE the last days.

I don't know if I'll continue on this project or not.  Maybe writing this blog indicates that I will...or that I never gave it up...or that these recent encouragements have made me pick it back up.  I don't know, but I'll keep praying and asking God to show me what to do.  The road is long and hard and the persecution goes completely against my sanguine temperament, but as Paul said, I look forward, fighting for the prize.

COFFEE IN THE SANCTUARY?

Apparently I'm not the only one that's agitated about coffee in the church sanctuary.  It's rare for me to let someone else do the talking (!!!!!!!) but this youtube video speaks to how I feel about the topic in question pretty well.  I can't say that I agree with everything he says, but at least he is speaking to it and making us think.  The video is only about 4:40 long.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ch-i8XssIo


What do you think?

IF YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT HIM, JUST SAY HIS NAME

In some circles, the fear of God's Name is so strong, they either don't dare say it, or if they're writing about Him, they won't even include all the letters.  For instance, they will write G-d for God.

I have taken to watching a fair amount of youtube videos of preachers, musicians, speakers, etc., and there's an oddity that I have noticed lately.  Either some of these people are simply speaking too quickly or they actually have a problem saying the Name of Jesus.  Not to marginalize or simplify an awesome and complex Name, but His Name is pretty simple.  It's "Jesus."  Two syllables.  Je.  Sus.  Jesus.  I don't have to leave out a letter.  In fact, He likes for me to say His Name when I'm talking to Him or telling someone else about Him.  I like to say His Name, too, which is pretty funny when you consider the fact that when I finally accepted the ongoing invitation from Joyce and went to this ladies Bible study back in the 80s, I thought it odd that these women were all sitting around talking about Jesus like they knew Him or something.  Like He was their...I don't know...friend!  You see, I wasn't accustomed to hearing His Name often outside of my regular attendance at Sunday School and church.  You just didn't say His Name in everyday speech.

Well, that was the day that I got saved.  I'm not saying that I came to know Him all at once that day, but I was introduced to Him and realized that I was not right with God and that if I let Jesus into my life and let Him dispose of all my sins, this would make me right with God.  I knew I wasn't right with Him and if this is what it would take to fix that, then I was going to do this thing.  The study said that everyone is born a sinner and that sin separates us from God but that Jesus died to take away our sins if we would just accept that.  Well, I did.  Not to trivialize this most important decision I ever made, but for me it was like a business transaction.  In business, you take facts and act on them accordingly.  The facts were:

I was a sinner.
I was separated from God.
Jesus died to take away my sins.
Accepting that fact would make me right with God.
I wanted to be right with God.

The result was:

That day, I accepted that Jesus is my Savior from sin.

A bonus fact is that Jesus came back to life soon after He was buried and promised to come back for all of us Christians at a later date.  It won't be long, considering the things He said would happen not long before His return are happening.  Matthew 24 and other scriptures back this up.

It didn't take long for me to realize why these ladies were so free to say the Name of Jesus.  They did know Him.  He was their friend.  After that first day, He was mine, too.  It was easy to say His Name in the loving way that I had learned because I had also learned that He loves me unconditionally.  Unconditionally.  Are you grasping that?

So why is it so hard for some of these preachers and other people I'm listening to on youtube to say His Name correctly?  I think there is a problem.  Not sure what it is but I think there is a problem.

You're wondering why I think they're not saying His Name right, aren't you?  Well, they all seem to not particularly like that middle "s" in His Name.  Instead of saying "Jesus," they're saying "Je us."  Je.  Us.  Je us.  It's really odd.

Who does it?  At times David Platt, for one.  Francis Chan is another.  And also this musician I listened to this morning...I think his name is David Keefe...who had a video that was about 15 minutes long and he was complaining about Christian music being so boring.  He said that it all has the same beat and is not creative.  I guess if he heard a hymn he'd just keel over on the spot.  Here is the video.  I didn't particularly like it.  He had a problem saying "Jesus." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE4_dHW0nWk

Here's one featuring Todd Friel of "Wretched Radio" when he was preaching to a public crowd.  The woman in the video argued that he was being unkind in trying to get people to get saved.  Right at the end she says, "Je us."

And how about unsaved people?  How about this little girl?  What hate has she been taught and by whom?    www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVs7BhCOIKs

What do you think?  Is it hard for you to say His Name?  Not me.  I like telling others about Him.  Would you like to talk with me about Him?

DO IT ANYWAY

As you may know, I read or listen or read and listen through the Bible every year and have done that for about 20 years or so.  It's an amazing thing to do.  Yesterday this was part of my reading:

Mark 6:1-6 - Jesus went out from there and *came into ^[a]His hometown; and His disciples *followed Him. ² When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue; and the many listeners were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things, and what is this wisdom given to Him, and such ^[b]miracles as these performed by His hands? ³ Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of ^[c]James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?” And they took offense at Him. ⁴ Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in ^[d]his hometown and among his own relatives and in his own household.” ⁵ And He could do no ^[e]miracle there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. ⁶ And He wondered at their unbelief.

And He was going around the villages teaching.

This is a simple message, but aren't those some of the ones that impact us the most?  And if you've ever done anything, especially for the Lord, that was...shall we say "different" than is expected from those around you...this passage will speak to you immediately.  Your town, your friends, your family, and your household suddenly wonder what in the world you're doing and, "Who do you think YOU are, you self-righteous, holier than thou so-and-so??????  I knew you when you were just a little pipsqueak who could barely add two and two.  I've known you all your life.  Do you think you can impress me now?"

Well, Jesus wasn't in the business of impressing people.  He made that abundantly clear all through the New Testament.  His life was dedicated to serving God and doing whatever it was He told Him to do, even to dying on a cross for my sorry self.  He would have done that even if I had been the only person on earth, and I really don't think that has ever sunk into my inward parts.  (He did it for you, too.  TRY and let that sink in.)

Yes, this is a simple message but profound.  He had to do most of all that he did outside his hometown and away from his own people, even his own immediate family for a time.  I think they finally got it, but it took them awhile.   I'm certainly not comparing myself to Jesus, but I'm not sure I could have done some of the things I've done either if I had stayed in my hometown.  They're good folks and it's a good place, but they know me.  They knew me most of my life until I left there in my mid-20s, still a sinner.  So when I got saved about the age of thirty and started living for Him, some of them probably wouldn't have taken me or what I was doing seriously, and that can detract from the goal of getting something done for the Kingdom.

Do you know what strikes me most about this passage, though?  The very last sentence:  "And He was going around the villages teaching."  He KNEW what He was supposed to be doing and it mattered not that no one else believed that He was supposed to be doing that.  He did it anyway...because He knew it was what God was calling Him to do.  He and God had that kind of close relationship.

And wouldn't you know it?  Here is how God works.  I have this little thing that I call a flippy chart thing because I'm not sure what it's called.  It's a wooden pedestal about 8" tall that has a bunch of cards with sayings and Bible verses on them.  You flip one over every day and read it and it starts your day off with something to think about.  I've had it for about 40 years.  My niece gave it to me when we were both young sprouts.  I'm just six years older than she is, so yes we were young together.  Some of the sayings are just stupid and I have crossed them out so that I'll know to flip to the next one and not camp out on the stupid ones, such as, "A coincidence is a small miracle where God chose to remain anonymous."  Sigh.

Well, guess what today's says.  "How men treat us will make little difference when we know we have God's approval."  Don't you just love how God operates sometimes?

American Influence

My post today is very simple.  Well, the post itself isn't simple, but my actions to post it are simple:  I'm taking it from the internet. Seems to be the thing, doesn't it?

During my daily activities, I listen to and watch lots of youtube videos of preachers, speakers, musicians, etc.  I heard one today by Ravi Zacharias.  It's only 3:07 long, but it is full of truth.

This video was accessed today, January 22, 2018.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTXD9lsNG5E

THE SINNER'S PRAYER UNDER ATTACK

There are those now who are trying to make a case against The Sinner’s Prayer.  The argument is that it is superstitious and unbiblical, or so goes David Platt’s conclusion.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPhEEzjU8xQ (accessed on November 21, 2017)  He says it is nowhere in the scriptures.  To that I say, neither is abortion or the rapture, but conclusions can be made from other scriptures about God’s instruction on those subjects.

To address what the Bible says about salvation and how someone may have come up with The Sinner’s Prayer (I have no idea who came up with it or how, but Biblically it appears to be okay to me) let’s go straight to the Bible.  No better place to start…or end, for that matter.

The argument some people make is that what the Bible actually says is that we should orally confess that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead.  The basis for that is Romans 10:9, which actually says:  that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  That is absolutely true.  However, are we not taught that we should compare scripture with scripture?  Is that ALL the Bible says about salvation, or is there more?

Can we also offer these scriptures? (From the New American Standard Bible, NASB)

John 1:12 – But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God even to those who believe in His Name…  There is no mention of confessing with your mouth or believing that God raised Him from the dead here.  Neither is there mention of receiving Him and believing in His Name in Romans 10:9.  So we must believe in His Name and receive Him.

John 3:16 – For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.  There is nothing from Romans 10:9 here.  "Believe" is mentioned in both but with different meanings.  In Romans 10:9 it is that we are to believe that God raised Jesus from the dead.  In John 3:16 it is that we are to believe in Jesus.  Two distinctly different ideas.  So we must believe in Him.

Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Again, there is no mention of confessing with your mouth or believing that God raised Him from the dead here.  Neither is there mention of John 3:16’s message of believing in Christ.  So we must believe salvation is free to us but we must accept this gift.

Ephesians 2:8-9  - For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not as a result of works so that no one may boast. Again, there is no mention of confessing with your mouth or believing that God raised Him from the dead here.  So we're saved through faith and accept His free gift.

Ephesians 3:17 – …so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith…

None of the previous scriptures contribute to this one’s message except Ephesians 2, which says you’re saved through faith.  If you don’t accept Christ into your heart, how is Ephesians 3:17 going to happen?  If you're a Christian, not only has He come into your heart, He is DWELLING there!  No one DWELLS at your house unless you invite them.  Just like there are probably not squatters in your house (I hope!) there aren’t squatters in your heart.  If someone is in your heart, you’ve allowed it.  You’ve invited them in.  So by faith we must invite Christ to dwell in our hearts.  He does not force His way in.

It appears to me that God offers us a free gift:  salvation through Jesus Christ.  It also appears that we must take ALL the scriptures on salvation (and surely I have not listed them all here) and compare them, put them together, and tell the whole story.  Let me ask you this:  if I stand in front of you holding a wrapped gift and tell you that it’s yours, don’t you have to accept it?  Don’t you have to walk up to me and take it from my hand?  I guess I could put it on the ground in front of you and walk away, but you still have to pick it up.  You still have to accept it.  Accepting the free gift of Jesus Christ as our salvation is VERY Biblical, in my humble opinion.  The gift is there.  If you never accept it, do you really have it?

God is not going to force Himself into your heart.  If Ephesians 3:17 is true...and it is...it’s up to you to invite Jesus Christ into your heart.

Have you done that?  Or have you left His beautifully wrapped gift lying on the ground and walked away?

UP ALL THE TIME

I saw this posted on Facebook this morning.  In my opinion this is one of the most misleading and, yes, even foolish quotes I’ve ever heard.  The person who posted it is a friend of mine and I love her, but I think she didn’t really get the full impact.  Again in my opinion, this is just another example of how easily we Christians are deceived.  I know a lot of the people who hit the “like” button and I just simply believe they took the post at face value, maybe just skimmed through it and it sounded good, and didn’t really concentrate on it.  At first glance to some, this seems like a great read.  For me it wasn’t.

"We shouldn't be so up and down. There ought to be consistency. We should be the same all the time, because if we're walking with Jesus, He's 'the same yesterday, today, and forever' (Hebrews 13:8). If we're up sometimes and down other times, it's because sometimes we're trusting Jesus and other times we're walking in our own flesh. WE OUGHT TO BE SUPERNATURALLY NATURAL. The same power that raised Christ from the dead is in us at all times (Ephesians 1:19-20). It never fluctuates." ~ Andrew Wommack "Living in God's Best"

Is there a Christian on earth that doesn’t on occasion walk in the flesh?  How about those of us who go for that second piece of cake when we know we shouldn’t?  How about those who give in to premarital or extramarital sex?  And, yes, that happens to some Christians.  They may not be very strong Christians but they’re Christians nonetheless.  All of us give in to temptation, which Jesus never did.  Mr. Wommack is asking me to BE Jesus, not be LIKE Jesus.  There’s a great difference.

And speaking of Jesus, how about Him?  He cried when he was at the tomb of Lazarus…and He knew He was going to raise him!  Doesn’t sound like a very “up” moment.  How about when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane?  That was not a very “up” moment for Him.  He was grieving.  How can you grieve to the point of sweating drops of blood and be “up” at the same time?  If it was possible for anyone, it would have been possible for Him, but it doesn't appear that way when you read this account in the Bible.  Probably not an “up” moment for Him.

And what about being “supernaturally natural?”  It is not natural…or even human…for someone to be “up” all the time.  Even a Christian.  I guarantee you that if you know someone who is “up” every time you see them, they’re having a “down” moment sometimes when they’re alone.  One of our emotions is sadness.  Am I to believe that there is a Christian who has never been sad?

Anyway, here is my response to her post.  Oddly, one of the people who first made a positive comment on the post hit the “like” button on my response.  Maybe my response made her reread the post and come to a different conclusion.

However, we are humans and this is just not going to happen. A person going through something devastating (divorce, sickness, etc.) is going to have a down moment or two although they know Jesus hasn’t left them. Jesus also asked us to be perfect as He is perfect and holy as He is Holy but we all know that’s not going to happen on this earth. I appreciate the thought but it is a crushing burden for anyone to expect that of me. And, really, if you know me you know I’m usually “up” but it’s just not that way every moment of every day. I wish it were, but Jesus is always there in those moments.

Soooo…what do you think?

GRAPE JUICE

Usually I come at you with something serious, something that disturbs me or even ticks me off.  Today I want to be lighthearted.  Maybe it's because the world seems to be going crazy from the ground up.  To' up from the flo' up, as my friend likes to say.  That's actually supposed to be "tore up from the floor up."  Proper English would be "torn up from the floor up," but that doesn't rhyme and isn't nearly as funny.  So here's the giggle story.  It's okay to laugh at me about it.  I did.  Eventually.

Several years ago before our Winn-Dixie turned into a Harvey's, I was there doing a bit of shopping, and as I finished up and was leaving the checkout pushing my haul in the buggy (yes, in the South it's mostly a buggy but sometimes a cart) I slipped on something and landed on my back.  You know, like in the cartoons.  Exactly like that.  I guess to some, like my daughter who has always had this uncontrollable tendency to laugh when someone takes a spill, this would be funny.  Of course, people came running from all over as I lay there in my stupor.  See, I was still trying to figure out how I got from a standing position, yea, even a healthy gait, to sprawled on my back on the cold, cold tile.  I was standing, and then I was lying.  I know it sounds like a page straight out of a Winnie-the-Pooh book, but there I was...gone from standing to lying in a nanosecond.  That has to be a record.  Someone check with Guinness while I finish the story.

It was a bit surreal, y'all.  I paid for my items, started to push my buggy toward the exit, and all of a sudden I was laid out on my back looking around like a blooming idiot.  I'm sure my mouth was gaping open and my eyes were big as saucers, as my mother used to say.  Employees (Do they still call them that?  Maybe it's associates.  No, that's Walmart.  Oh, well.) were bending over me and I started telling them, "I'm okay.  No one's going to get sued."  After they were sure I was steady on my feet (and no lawsuits were forthcoming) they left me alone and it occurred to me that it might be interesting to find out how I fell.  You don't go from standing to lying in a billionth of a second for no reason.  I went back to the checkout lane and there it was.  The culprit.  The antagonist.  The villain.  A smashed grape.  A freshly smashed grape.  I could tell because it had not become grotesquely smashed.  It just looked like it had been smashed one really good time.  (Not my grape.  I didn't buy grapes that day.)  Still...it was ugly.  Wow.  Well.  Okay.  Satisfied with my discovery, my groceries and I turned and headed for the exit...again...this time actually making it to the car and home.

There's something mildly satisfying about finding out why something happens.  As far as all the craziness that's going on in the world right now, well, the end is near.  That's not original with me.  I'd like to claim it but I can't.  That's from 2 Timothy 3:3-5 "But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.  For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power..."

Oops.  I threw something serious at you again, didn't I?  Honestly, this really did start out to be simply a funny story on myself.

New Age Entry #18

This is the last of these posts unless something else comes to mind. With this last post I want to bring us back full circle to the scriptures we began with and give you a few more to encourage you.

In our first post the scriptures we used began with the first of The Ten Commandments: “You shall have no other gods before Me.” (Exodus 20:3)

The New Age says there are many ways to God, but in John 14:6 Jesus said, “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but through Me.” So whether Oprah or anyone else believes that, as we saw in one of our last posts, Jesus’s words are the final say-so.

In our second post is one of the main scriptures we should all be reading and thinking on now, Matthew 24. Although I didn’t post the whole chapter, we should be reading it in its entirety because Jesus has a lot to say, including: “See to it that no one deceives you,” Matthew 24:4, and in verse 11, “Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many.” He is speaking of the end times as His disciples had questioned Him about that specifically.  If it were not possible for us to be deceived, why would He warn us against it?

Paul laid a foundation for our study in Acts 20:27-31, especially in verse 30 when he said: “and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.” (Notice "from among your own selves.") Our study took off from there as we showed how easy it is to be deceived if we don’t read and study the Bible for ourselves and not just swallow everything that comes down the pike just because someone stands in a pulpit (or on a stage or on TV) and says it.

The book of Jude has only one chapter, but verse 4 there contains a similar warning: “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” (Notice the phrase, "certain persons have crept in unnoticed." Also, licentiousness has to do with being sensual, disregarding morality.) While I love a lot of the contemporary music, I am seeing some of this in a few of the newer songs. I have also noticed over the last few years how much Christian people are enjoying using the words "passion, passionate, and intimate" when referring to the Lord and their relationship with Him. I understand the point they're trying to make, but I have to wonder if there aren't other terms that could be used that would make the reference more Godly and less worldly.

If you’re reading this, you are a thinking person to whatever degree God has given you the ability to think. Use your own mind and your own Bible (not The Message or The New Century Version, as we saw in earlier posts!) and talk to God. Ask Him to show you all His truth. Do it with an open heart.

I have often had this radical thought: Maybe it’s good to forget everything I was ever taught as a child (and maybe even as an adult!) and read the Bible and study it for myself, letting God tell me what HE wants me to know instead of listening to what others want me to believe.

I hope these posts have blessed and helped you. Thank you to so many of you who have spoken to me about them. It has been very encouraging to me. God bless you all.

New Age Entry #17

Star Wars. There. I got your attention.

This one is pretty long. Sorry about that. But there’s a lot to chew on here. I hope you’ll try to stay with me.

The Bible says in Mark 12:30, “and you shall love the Lord your God with all you heart, and with all your soul, and with all your MIND, and with all your strength.” (Emphasis mine.) As we think on this, we can make a list of things that we could do but don’t because they don’t show our love for Him or are not honoring to Him. One of the items on my list would be the kinds of movies I watch. Of course, we all slip up sometimes. Maybe we visit friends and they’re in the middle of a movie when we arrive. We’re sorta stuck in cases like that. (They really should turn off the TV or ask if we want to join them in watching, but I digress.) :)

I’m probably going to lose some of you here, and that will have to be a matter of prayer for you. (I’m almost finished with these posts, though, so hang in there, if you can!) Some of the movies that I would say you should stay away from are…wait for it…any of the Star Wars flicks. Yeah, I know. You’re about to click away from this post.  Please don't.

In light of our New Age conversation, though, let me just throw out some thoughts. I know there are probably those of you (as there are others) who say that “The Force” and “The Dark Side” in those movies represent God and Satan. Um. No, they don’t. Not when you go back and read the very first few of my posts that explain what the New Age is. Remember? Everything is God to the New Agers.

Here is a portion from “The Empire Strikes Back” from a website called allaboutworldview.org.(www.allaboutworldview.org/new-age-theology-and-star-wars-faq.htm ) 

“During an extended scene in The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Yoda, the Jedi master, takes Luke as an apprentice and instructs him more fully in the ways of the Force. In true guru fashion, Yoda tells Luke, ‘For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life breeds it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the force around you, here between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes, even between land and ship.’ Talk about the Force takes place in other scenes throughout the Star Wars series, providing a comprehensive initiation into New Age theology.”

Notice that the Force is referred to as “it.” God is not an “it” in any of His three Persons.

http://www.mt.net/~watcher/starwarsmessiah.html Here is a bit from this site regarding Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999):

ANAKIN : Master, sir...I've been wondering...what are midi-chlorians?
QUI-GON : Midi-chlorians are a microscopic lifeform that reside within all
living cells and communicates with the Force.
ANAKIN : They live inside of me?
QUI-GON : In your cells. We are symbionts with the midi-chlorians.
ANAKIN : Symbionts?
QUI-GON : Life forms living together for mutual advantage. Without the
midi-chlorians, life could not exist, and we would have no knowledge of the
Force. They continually speak to you, telling you the will of the Force.
ANAKIN : They do??
QUI-GON : When you learn to quiet your mind, you will hear them speaking to
you.
ANAKIN : I don't understand.
QUI-GON : With time and training, Annie...you will.

Remember that quieting the mind is part of the New Age training. They say you are to empty your mind so that you can hear. Sounds good, but Christians are to meditate ON THE LORD AND HIS WORD, not empty our minds. When you empty your mind and don’t think on the things of the Lord, you have opened yourself up for anything to drop in, including thoughts that Satan throws at you.

How about George Lucas? What kind of ideas do we think he might like to get across in his movies? Let’s find out. From Wikipedia:

Lucas was born and raised in a Methodist family.[7] The religious and mythical themes in Star Wars were inspired by Lucas' interest in the writings of mythologist Joseph Campbell,[71] and he would eventually come to identify strongly with the Eastern religious philosophies he studied and incorporated into his films, which were a major inspiration for "the Force". Lucas eventually came to state that his religion was "Buddhist Methodist".

(Maybe you don't trust Wikipedia, and that's okay.  You can do a search yourself.)

I won’t use up space here talking about Joseph Campbell. If you do a search for him, you’ll find that he was into all kinds of New Age stuff and apparently a mentor to folks like Lucas.

If you were producing a movie, what ideas would you try to get across? Would you, as a born-again Christian, think it the best thing to try and inspire people in Eastern religions or New Age or would you think God’s best for you…and for your viewers…would be to try to help them understand about Jesus? There are those who say that movies like Star Wars do try to do that, but they are being led down the wrong path. Satan will do ANYTHING to try to derail our faith, including twisting God’s words. Didn’t he do that to Adam and Eve?

I know some of you or your loved ones are very much in love with the Star Wars movies and couldn’t possibly tear yourself away from them. (Or could you?) As I said before, that will just have to be a matter of prayer for you.

Stay tuned! :)

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New Age Entry #16

We’ve been looking at the New Age daily guide entitled “A Course in Miracles.” Here are some of the quotes from the “Jesus” of that book: (NOT the Jesus of the Bible)

“There is no sin.”

“A slain Christ has no meaning.”

“The journey to the cross should be the last useless journey.”

“Do not make the pathetic error of clinging to the old rugged cross.”

“The Name of Jesus Christ as such is but a symbol…It is a symbol that is safely used as a replacement for the many names of all the gods to which you pray.”

“God is in everything I see.”

“The Atonement is the final lesson he (man) need learn, for it teaches him that, never having sinned, he has no need of salvation.”

Do you think the real Jesus Christ… the One in the Bible…would ever utter any of these?

(Most of these quotes come from an interview with former New Ager, now Christian, Warren B. Smith here:
http://www.lamblion.us/…/warren-smith-testimony-new-age-jes… )

Stay tuned! :)

New Age Entry #15

Our last New Age "discussion" was on “A Course in Miracles,” what I call the “New Ager’s Bible.” You’ll remember that it is a daily guide to teaching the New Age. I last wrote about it, giving two of their examples: “My thoughts don’t mean anything” and “God is in everything I see.” You may want to refer to my Facebook page “New Age Installment for September 30.” “A Course in Miracles” is part of what Oprah Winfrey was pushing on her show before she left it and started her OWN channel. She had a New Age friend named Marianne Williamson who helped her do this. Many people were persuaded to follow this teaching. Oprah believes that Jesus is not the only Way. In her “OWN” words: (Begin at about the 43-second mark of the clip.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noO_dCWtB1E And should you think I’m picking on black people, here’s Joel Osteen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwL1DThtxYg There’s a lot of truth in what he said in this short clip, but he denied Christ. Plain and simple. Stay tuned! :)

Entry #13 in The New Age Series

Let’s look at what appears to be a New Ager’s bible. It’s called “A Course in Miracles,” written from 1965 to 1972 by Dr. Helen Schucman, with help from William Thetford.

“A Course in Miracles” (ACIM) is a daily self-help study guide with practices of the lesson taught on that particular day. They seem to believe that they were scribes for Jesus Christ, that He delivered this to them. I’ll give you a couple of examples of their daily teaching and you can decide if Jesus Christ spoke to them.

Lesson 10 says, “My thoughts do not mean anything.” Without going into the practice sessions for that day, let's remember that Jesus has plenty to say about our thoughts. In 2 Corinthians 10:5, He says that we are to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Him. In Philippians 4:8, He says that if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, we are to think on those things. So…our thoughts mean something to Jesus Christ. The real Jesus Christ. The New Age Jesus is interested in CONTROLLING your thoughts.

Lesson 29 starts off by saying, “God is in everything I see.” According to what we’ve already learned, this is cause for concern without even reading further as we learned earlier that God is not IN everything or everyone. Jesus Christ is in every Christian but not in everyone and certainly God is not in everything. Let’s take a look at the practice for this lesson.

The readers are instructed to make a random list of objects they see around them and apply it to today’s lesson, “God is in everything I see.” Their sample list is:

God is in this coat hanger.
God is in this magazine.
God is in this finger.
God is in this lamp.
God is in that body.
God is in that door.
God is in that waste basket.

(Are your eyes bugging out yet?)

They are to do six 2-minute practice periods a day of reciting this list and also repeat it at least once an hour, “looking slowly about you as you say the words unhurriedly to yourself. At least once or twice, you should experience a sense of
restfulness as you do this.”

Does this sound like Jesus Christ to you?

We’ll expound on this next time. In the meantime, you can go here to read some of it for yourself. The whole book is online.

http://courseinmiracles.com/

www.courseinmiracles.com 


Stay tuned! :)

Entry #12 in the New Age Series

danielplan.com

Last time, we talked about Rick Warren and “The Purpose Driven Life.” We’ll conclude our discussion on Rick today.

Another one of his projects is The Daniel Plan, a diet program he launched in 2011. I haven’t read the book and know nothing of the plan except that it has to do with how the prophet Daniel ate as described in the Book of Daniel, but I found the three men that he invited to help him write the curriculum interesting. You might, too. The men are Dr. Mehmet Oz, Dr. Daniel Amen, and Dr. Mark Hyman.http://danielplan.com http://www.doctoroz.com/slideshow/daniel-plan-diet-mind-body-and-spirit  Some websites have made adjustments so that Dr. Oz's name doesn't show up in conjunction with The Daniel Plan anymore.

You recognize Dr. Oz’s name immediately. It’s interesting that he’s a Sufi Muslim. The Sufis are more interested in the spiritual side of Islam, seeking the purification of the inner self. Why would Rick Warren invite a Muslim (of any order) to assist him with writing a curriculum? Dr. Oz’s wife is a massage therapist. Not just any massage therapist. She is involved in Reiki massage, a form of New Age massage. (“The practitioner stores energy in their own body so the heat and flow can translate to energize the meridians, qi, and chakras in the body.” Fromanswers.com http://www.answers.com/Q/What_is_Reiki&altQ=What_is_reiki_massage&isLookUp=1#Q=what%20is%20reiki%20massage  They call this energy, we call it demonic spirits. She is not just involved in Reiki, she is a Reiki Master. http://www.tara-do-reiki.com/lisa-oz-reiki-master.html Dr. Oz has placed his seal of approval on this.http://iarp.org/dr-oz-and-the-healing-power-of-reiki

Dr. Amen is a psychiatrist, sometimes dealing with children. In his book “The Brain in Love” (formerly titled “Sex on the Brain”) he recommends tantric sex, which involves the worship of sex. This is not a Christian idea. Does it bother anyone besides me that a child psychiatrist is associated with worshipping sex? Does it also bother anyone besides me that Rick Warren asked him to help write a curriculum…for ANYTHING?http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/5708516031.html

Finally, Dr. Hyman is a family practitioner, metabolic expert, and medical advisor for “The Dr. Oz Show” and to Bill and Hillary Clinton (Amy Chozick (April 11, 2014). "He Tells the Clintons How to Lose a Little". The New York Times) His book “The UltraMind Solution” offers practical medical advice but also suggests New Age resources and recommends yoga and meditation to his readers.

http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/011/discernment/warren-gurus.htm

(Some of this information was also extracted from a pamphlet entitled “The Dangers of Rick Warren’s Daniel Plan” from Lighthouse Trails Research, where there is a wealth of knowledge on the New Age.)

I just have to wonder why Rick Warren would claim to be a Christian and invite three unbelievers to join with him in writing a curriculum for a diet plan…or anything else. Why would he ask three New Agers unless he’s into the New Age himself? If you were going to embark on a project that you need help with, wouldn’t you ask like-minded people to assist you? (I think Rick Warren did, don’t you?)

Stay tuned! smile emoticon