Holding on to Tradition

I just finshed a free Kindle book called, Out of Mormonsim: A Woman's True Story. While I hate to offend any of my readers (and that is making the big assumption that someone will actually read this), I have to share what God taught me through this book. What favor are we doing anyone by being silent about the truth? No favors at all.

To sum quickly, this book is the true story of a husband and wife who were nominal Christians. They professed that they were Christians, but showed no sign of possessing it. They did not read their Bible, let alone study it. As a result they were led into Mormonism, by some very sweet, genuine (but deceived) people. The author tells how God revealed the truth to them and brought them out of this false teaching.

The point I want to share from reading this book is, what are you holding on to? 
Are you holding on to what someone taught you?
Are you holding on to tradition?
Are you holding on to what you have just seen others clinging to?

If we TRULY want to walk with Christ and be obedient to Him (and that is obviously not everyone's desire), we must lay aside all things of man and ask God to reveal the truth thru His love letter to us--the Bible. Let's forget all the "extras" and examine Him and Him alone. The Bible tells us the Word  (Jesus) became flesh. I want Jesus and only Jesus...none of the extras.

Jesus Himself gave a rebuke for doing this: "You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men." Mark 7:8

Are you listening to another gospel, as the author of this book did? The Gospel ("good news") is that you are a sinner who deserves death. God in His mercy and grace has offered a free gift of salvation by sending His son to live a sinless life and die on the cross for your sins, paying a debt you could never pay. The good news that Christ was not held by death, but rose 3 days later and can give you eternal life is amazing news!! 

But again, I ask--are you listening to another gospel?  If so, read this warning from Scritpure: 


 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel — which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! Galatians 1:6-9

"Let him be eternally condemned???" Okay, ask yourself one more time--are you listening to another gospel???

After reading this book (which was a great read!), there are some things you can think about as red flags that you may be listening to another gospel:

1. Are your beliefs taken from the Bible ALONE, or are you adding in what a church leader or modern day prophet may be saying?
2. What is your source of authority? The Bible ALONE, or the Bible plus ________ (ie the Book of Mormon, church teachings, Quran, etc.) and traditions?
3. What do you believe saves you (this is an important one!)? Grace thru faith (that's the correct answer!) or Faith + Works
4. Does your church organization teach that it is the "true church" and all outsiders are condemned or that all people who are saved by grace through faith are in the true church?

I pray you will think about these questions.  We all need to examine what we are thinking and why we are believing it. I'm thankful God gave us His unchanging, inspired Word so we can test all things! 1 Thessalonians 5:21

If you are interested, the author of the mentioned book has a ministry called, Concerned Christians. You can check out their website here: http://www.concernedchristians.com/

Quit Being a Frog

Last week I got to go to the Joel Rosenberg Implosion Simulcast. I have to admit that his talk began with some dismal and depressing facts:

• $0.40 of every dollar our government spends is borrowed
• we are $15 trillion in debt to foreign creditors
• we are $65 trillion in debt for government promised aide (ie medicare, social security, medicaid, etc.)
• the rate of violent crime has increased 46% since the 1960's
• the number of small town murders has increased 18%
• 53 million babies have been aborted since 1973....5 times the human lives that were murdered in the Holocaust
• the recent #1, #2, & #3 New York best sellers over the past weeks have been erotic novels, nicknamed "mommy porn." 

I think he listed more than this, but you get the picture. Things for our country and moral state of our society don't look good. What is most disturbing was the fact that there are 340,000 church congregations in the United States. With that many churches, why aren't we seeing more light in the darkness? Where are all these Christians and why aren't they making a difference?

Joel likened today's Christians to the frog in the kettle. If you place a frog in boiling water it will jump out. However, if you place a frog in cool water and increase the temperature to boiling, the frog adjusts with the increase of temperature and doesn't know what's happening until it is too late. The decline of our state as a country has not changed over night. Over the past several decades things have changed a step at a time and like the unsuspecting frogs, Christians have adjusted and accepted the comprising changes in our culture.

Part of the hope, lesson, and application of Joel's talk was applied from the Book of Jonah. God instructed Jonah to go and warn the people of Nineveh of His coming wrath and judgment. As Jonah tried to flee from God and His instruction by boat, a great wind came over the sea that endangered their boat. While Jonah slept down below, the other men were afraid for their lives. The text tells us "every man cried out to his god." Jonah 1:5. With no help from their gods, the captain came to Jonah and said “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish.” Jonah 1:6. 


The text goes on to tell us that after realizing this storm was caused by Jonah's God because of Jonah's disobedience, they ended up throwing him overboard, prayed to God for mercy, and as a result "feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him." Jonah 1:16.

Are we like Jonah? 
Do we know the one true God, yet are sleeping in the bottom of the boat?
Do we have others around us who are crying out to false gods and then looking to us for the truth and we are just too concerned with ourselves to take notice?


We need to quit being like frogs and notice that the pot is boiling. God didn't tell Jonah he needed to condemn Nineveh for being evil, but He did tell him to warn them that God's judgment is coming.
I don't want to be a frog. 
I don't want to be asleep. 
I want to be the light Christ told me to be. Matthew 5:14

Cocktail God

I was recently reading someone's thoughts online that pertain to their spiritual journey. This person claims all faiths lead to the same thing. Call it what you may--the Divine, God, Buddha, Goddess Mother, this individual believes it does not matter what you believe. It does not matter what you call "your god". They believe we are all on a spiritual path of enlightenment and if you hold to one truth you are closed minded and intolerant. While I understand there are many who believe this way, because I believe the Bible is the only truth--I was greatly troubled by what I was reading. What troubled me most is that this individual seems so sincere and claims to be earnestly seeking after God.

So I prayed to God after reading this. I reminded Him that His word does state that if you seek Him, you will find Him. Throughout the Bible we are told to draw near to Him and He will draw near to us. How can this person be searching so diligently and be so lost? God answered my prayer in my reading later that morning.

Here is what I read that day from Erwin Lutzer's The Kind Is Coming: Preparing to Meet Jesus:

Lutzer tells of a time he met a non-Christian woman who was telling him how much she loved Jesus. She loved him for the miracles he performed, because he loved children, etc. Lutzer then asked her, "Do you also love Him because He died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins so that we could be forgiven and know God?" The woman told Lutzer she had never thought of that before.

Lutzer explains, "Yes, you can even love Jesus for the wrong reasons. What a tragedy to know Shakespeare but not as a man of literature; to know Newton but not as a scientist; to know Jesus but not as a Savior and King."

God reminded me that day that we can think we are seeking God, but in reality we are just practicing idolatry. We can be creating our own truth, creating an image of the god we want, or be on a spiritual journey that is all about our own ego. I call it a "cocktail god," with a little bit of these qualities from this religion, a few from this other religion over here, and then several characteristics I made up myself. The opposite of this would be shedding off what we want God to be and looking to an exterior source to reveal it to us. Through Christ's ministry on earth and through the Scriptures, we can know who God is and shed off the things we've made up in our head about Him. If you today are seeking any diety other than the One who is the Savior who can save you from your sin--your searching is futile.

My Mom's Fiery Trial

There is so much I could write about right now regarding my mom's final days and passing. God was at work in major ways and gave me encouragement that I will one day see my mom again in heaven. Is there anything better than that?? Absolutely not!!

What is on my mind now is God's providence. His sovereignty. His purpose. His plan. Seeing someone sick or going through a trial can be so overwhelming, but rarely do we step back and try to see God's bigger, eternal purpose. As I contemplate all He's done, I am reminded of a wonderful teaching by Beth Moore that has stuck with me. In her Bible study on the Book of Daniel, she applies what happened to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to our lives (Daniel 3). These three admirable fellas refused to worship King Nebuchadnezzar's 90 foot statue (idol). As a result, the King had them thrown into a fiery furnace. 


To make a great story short and to the point--God performed a miracle. They were not burned, they were not harmed in anyway, and they did not even smell of smoke!!! (Daniel 3:27)

How does this apply to us? Beth teaches that we can go through one of three scenarios:

1.We will be delivered from the fire and our faith will be built. The example she gave was finding a lump and going to the doctor and finding out it was not cancerous, or even better--it miraculously disappeared!
2. We can be delivered through the fire and our faith will be refined. Using the same example, Beth said it would be like being diagnosed with cancer. After treatment, God provides you healing.
3. We can be delivered by the fire into God's arms, in which, our faith is perfected. We die from the cancer, but our faith becomes sight.


The scenario that sounds the worst to us--death--is actually the best outcome! There will be nothing better for us to make our entrance into heaven where we will be with Jesus forever. 


God has given me hope that He gave my mom the best outcome. He delivered her into His loving arms. Thank you, Jesus!!