False Christian teachings, trends….
The sermon of this post is part 4 of Pastor Hines 5-part series on Satan’s Devices. In it, he read Psalm 73 and presented 3 devices of Satan and remedies for those. Remedies seem to amount to biblical perspectives that enable one to avoid Satan’s snares.
Mike Gendron’s newsletter for this month talks about the following points: Jesus Christ – The All Sufficient Savior; How Is Saving Faith Different from All Other Faiths? We Must Believe the Person of Jesus; We Must Believe the Work of Jesus; We Must Believe the Work of Jesus; False Converts Must Repent of Their Works; Catholics Must Do These Works to Be Saved; Letters to the editor and Mike’s speaking times and places
The scripture verse being discussed is 2 Timothy 1:6 which exhorts Timothy to “stir up the gift of God” within him. …The overall topic of the sermon series is “spiritual depression” and how to diagnose and treat it. …Everyone desires to be happy, but happiness depends on many factors like temperament, physical condition, etc. Our feelings tend to be variable and unstable. …The greatest danger is allowing our changeable feelings to control and dominate us. …We must not be ruled by our feelings and moods. …To find joy and happiness, we must seek righteousness and the Lord Jesus Christ himself – not thrills, experiences or good feelings. Seeking him leads to joy, peace and happiness as a byproduct.
In the sermon of this post, MLJ explained what schism is and provided numerous examples of it. He emphasized what the apostle Paul did in the New Testament, that Christians need to find unity via holding biblical doctrines. For example, the ecumenical movement that emphasizes unity at the expense of doctrine is wrong. MLJ provided examples of the opposite extreme too, regarding unity. [I thought I understood what ‘schism’ meant until I heard this sermon.]
The Bible teaches that the whole world is in the kingdom of Satan and under his power. Those who live in the world are blinded by his lies and continually live under his power. …Those who are in the kingdom of God have been rescued from the power of Satan and transferred to the kingdom of God. Those who are of God can never fall again and become subject to the devil’s power. This does not mean that the devil will not try to destroy the faith of Christians. He is a lion seeking to devour, but if Christians resist him, he will flee, for the power of Christ is greater than the devil.
The following verses agree with the points that Doreen Virtue makes in the 10-minute video of this post: Acts 19:18 Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. 19 And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. [Highlights: Doreen’s first point is part of the intro narrative to give readers an idea of how she addresses the problem of seeking guidance in other than God]
Are you considering an exercise program for the New Year? The video of this post is by Doreen Virtue, former New Age guru who was born again several years ago. Thereafter, she threw away her New Age books, Tarot cards…., Furthermore, she had practiced yoga for many years. She later found various other ways to exercise, as doing yoga is worshiping Hindu deities, despite what trendy Christian pastors and congregants say about “Christian Yoga;” yoga cannot be Christianized.
Sinclair Ferguson’s brief video is about attending to your Christmas celebration to see whether or not Christ is in it; and if you find that He is not, how you might put Him back in it.
This post contains a message by R C Sproul about the covenant God made with Adam and Eve, from his series, Promise Keeper. I already used some of Sproul’s material to show how the Abrahamic covenant was foundational to the incarnation; but I want to emphasize that more by considering the creation covenant God made with Adam and Eve and also the Mosaic covenant. The overall goal of this series is to show that the biblical account of God’s plan of redemption is addressed to His one people; furthermore, that since Genesis 3, there has only been one way of salvation, by grace via the atoning work and imputed righteousness of Christ. That is, the idea that Israel could earn salvation by any other way is biblically wrong; the idea that Israel and the church are two people of God is biblically wrong.
Mike Gendron’s message for this month addresses the following topics: The Condescension and Exaltation of Jesus; Man’s Perfect God Became God’s Perfect Man; Deity and Humanity in Perfect Unity; He Was Born a Man so Man Could Be Born of God; Christ Was Born to Die to Give Life to the Dead; Devotion to Christ Must Not Be Led Astray; Bizarre Tales from Catholics in Purgatory; Guess What the Pope Has Done Now; Letters to Equip and Encourage the Saints; and Mike’s speaking engagements