False Christian teachings, trends….
To me, the following scripture passage gives much direction and encouragement about how and why to study the word of God. As we get ready to enter into a new year, these words may be the encouragement you need to more consistently meet with God there. Charles Bridges’ commentary makes this passage very clear: Proverbs 2:1-6 [KJV]
A W Pink considers Hebrews 10:26-31 in discussing the apostate’s doom. He discusses how preachers had watered down that [and all] scripture in his day [he died in 1952]. They promised believers that if they had accepted Christ [signed a card; uttered the sinner’s prayer…] that their eternal future was secure…. He discussed a three erroneous takes on this passage by Arminians, over-zealous Calvinists; he called out the dispensationalists for “trifling with God’s word.” He aimed to present a biblical take on the passage and seemed to do so. It is an important message for all Christians in this day of far greater heresy and apostasy than in the 1950s. I recommend reading the preceding post on the impact of Christian Liberalism on the church before this post. Video is 43 minutes with a long list of highlights beforehand
R C Sproul’s Christian Worldview DVD is very briefly covered in this post. From my notes, I provided ‘nutshell’ definitions for the following philosophical views that are inherent in our culture: secularism; existentialism; humanism; pragmatism; positivism; pluralism; relativism and hedonism. In the last post, I explained a point by referring to pragmatism and thought that a better definition of that term and these other basic definitions could be useful to other Christians in knowing the culture in which they are witnessing Christ. Hopefully, this post will whet the appetite of Christians to hear Sproul on this topic.
This post contains a 20-minute reading from A W Pink’s writings about fighting the good fight of faith. His description of the fight is very useful because he boils things down such that one can begin fighting. Sermon points precede the video, so those who do not have 20 minutes to spare, can read the points, which are more than just highlights.
Arthur Walkington Pink (1886-1952) was an evangelist and Biblical scholar. The video below is a reading from his Studies in the Scriptures. While taking notes on the video and transcribing them, I noticed that A W Pink took many biblical warnings, admonitions, encouragements… and organized them for those who sincerely desire to understand how they are failing to walk in obedience. He focused mostly on how a believer leaves himself open to the assaults of the devil – giving place to the devil as it is put in scripture. And his points thoroughly cover the topic
This post contains a C H Spurgeon sermon on prayer: there is a 14-minute excerpt on a sermon point that will give you insight into the quality of your own faith regarding prayer. Spurgeon talked about prayer in terms of the relationship of a child to his earthly father; his examples were the best I’ve heard in terms of revealing one’s faith. If you desire to have answered prayers…and to grow in faith and love of God, then you will certainly benefit from hearing what he said. The entire sermon is also posted herein, and I highly recommend it, as the excerpt only covers one sermon point.
A dear friend of mine gave me one of the following booklets which I just began reading: Killing Sin Habits, by Stuart Scott. I found a review on that book and another booklet today, and I wanted to blog it because posts related to sin and temptation are frequently read from this blog. In the following review, Pastor Dave provided an overview and critique that may move some readers to examine these booklets for help. [Also in this post is a link to Pastor Dave’s site where 23 other articles are linked, the titles of each are listed herein]
The 5-minute video of this post is on self-denial. It is defined by Wilhelmus A Brakel, who wrote a work titled, The Christian’s Reasonable Service. In his work, the part on self-denial consists of several parts, of which the following video reading is the first. The other sections are noted below the video; also, a link to the Kindle version of A Brakel’s 4-volume work at Amazon.
This post contains comments from Alexander MacLaren on Philippians 4:8 and 9. I read it this morning after reading through Philippians. I believe that his comments are a prescription for the ailment of backsliding and commented on that while introducing the text. Also, some of his words describe current events which I commented on after MacLaren’s thoughts ended. If you have been struggling in your walk of faith, then you may find some specific direction and motivation herein.
This post contains a video by Jeff Mayfield that highlights chapter 5 of J C Ryle’s book, Holiness, Counting the Cost. Video highlights precede the video. Also, there are links to 7 other chapters of the book that Dr. Mayfield has explained. Today, I discovered that he also posts sermons from his church on a different site at YouTube, that is linked. He is currently preaching in Hebrews.