SERMON: Your prayer life says more about you than you think!

On my way to work this morning I listened to a very good sermon on prayer from Matthew 6:9-13 by Don Green from GraceLife Fellowship. This is a good reminder that our prayer lives cannot be fixed by getting up earlier, or more, or longer, but looking at what initially caused us to stray from prayer. Prayer shows our true devotion and love for Christ. Prayer is a response to the authority of Christ, not just what we want from Him based on our own sinful self-centeredness. We pray not because we are worthy of His presence, but in our sinful state we approach Him because He commanded us to. We do not deserve to be in His presence, so it is only through the shed blood of Christ that we stand before Him in prayer, and we do it because we need to, and because He commanded it.

Listen to this sermon. It is always good for us to be reminded of prayer, and to grow in our love and devotion to Christ.

For more sermons by Don Green, visit GraceLife Pulpit.

Download this sermon here.

James R. White debated Harold Camping in 2009

Harold Camping

Back in 2009, James R. White from Alpha & Omega Ministries debated Harold Camping—the modern day 'Dooms Day prophet"—from. . . Oh, you know! That guy who thought the world would end on 21 May 2011, and when it didn't he said it was a spiritual judgement by God and that the real physical end of the world is actually going to happen on 21 October 2011! Ah, I thought you'd remember him!

You can download the MP3s of the debate, linked to below, from the Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Program:

Part 1 – Debate; Part 2 – Debate continued; Part 3 – James White review; Part 4 – Harold Camping review.

Or, you can also listen to them directly below:

Debate...

 

Debate continued...

 

James White review

 

Harold Camping review

Why The Message is an untrustworthy Bible

The truth be told, it cannot be called a Bible at all!

Whenever I hear Christians speak of their use of The Message as their Bible, I cringe. In my opinion, The Message is so bad, that to read it seriously is to be deceived! In my opinion, The Message trivializes the true message of the Bible, the gospel, and makes sin less of an issue than what God sees it as.

A lot has been written about The Message and its inadequacies. Two of those can be read here and here.

Some have said they use The Message when the meaning of a verse is not clear to them. The fact is, as will be shown below, that The Message does not clarify Scripture, but truly muddies the waters. In many instances, of which the table of verses below are but a sample, The Message clearly misses the point, and also adds its own ideas to Scripture, which are foreign to the meaning of Scripture.

If you truly want to know what a verse means, then good commentaries are available. Also, perhaps a good course or book on how to interpret the Bible will be better than using The Message as a “clarifier!”

Evanjellycals are confused about the gospel!

I was listening to a White Horse Inn podcast in my car on the way to work this morning. The producer of the show went to a Christian book expo to do a survey amongst those who supposedly sell Christian books because they want to expand our knowledge of the Bible.

Based on their answers, it is very clear that evanjellycals are very confused about the gospel they are supposed to believe! In fact, some of the answers are quite shocking! To think that these people are selling books to Christians, about a Bible that they ostensibly do not know themselves!

In the survey, people had to specify whether they agreed with statements made by the interviewer. Here are two statements and their results:

There is no one who does good, no not even one. There is no one who seeks God.
47% Agree
49%  Disagree
4%  Unsure
* This is a basic summary of Ps. 14: 2-3, and Ps. 53:2-3, which Paul restates in Rom 3:10-12.

Jesus was fully divine and only appeared in human form.
44% Agree
52%  Disagree
4%  Unsure
* This is an example of an early church heresy known as docetism.  Jesus was both fully divine and fully human: 
Rom 1:3-4, 2John 7.

Listen to the specific broadcast below, or download the MP3 here:

To find out more about this episode of The White Horse Inn, visit A Survey of Biblical Literacy, where you will find related articles and recommended books!

Francis Schaeffer Lecture Collection

Francis Schaeffer (30 January 1912 – 15 May 1984) has long been one of the most popular Christian philosophers and theologians, even after his death in 1994. He has written several books and lectured all over the world.

Wheaton College has made available a large collection of lectures by the late Francis Schaeffer. A short list of categories can be found at Apologetics315.

John MacArthur's theology of work sermon series

John MacArthur

John MacArthur has done a great series of sermons on the theology of work, called Wisdom in the Workplace.

From his first sermon in this series:

"I don't know if you think about work like that, you probably don't. Some of you think about work as a sort of a drudgery that you have to do, whether it's your work at a job that you possess or whether it's domestic work in the home, it's just something that's necessary and you do it and it isn't particularly joyous but it's there and it has to be done. Some of you think about work in relationship to money. You think about work as a way in which you can purchase your pleasures, if you will, purchase the life style that you're after. Some of you think about work as a way to fulfill your ego and achieve what you feel you need to achieve so that you can gain some accolades from the people around you. Some of you think about work as a way to fulfill your ambition, a way to fulfill your gifts and skills, a way to accomplish some meaningful purposeful thing with your life. Some of you think about work as a way to serve people, as a way to make life easier for some folks, as offering a service rendered to them that can be a source of pleasure or enjoyment to them.

Religion and politics in America over the last 50 years

Dr. Al Mohler had a very interesting interview with Professor Robert Putnam, Malcolm Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University, about his book American Grace:  How Religion Divides and Unites Us, co-authored with David Campbell.

There are some interesting things that came out  in this discussion (and in the book)! By 1990, young evangelicals outnumbered those young people that did not have any religious affiliation (nones) 2 to 1. Now, twenty years later, that number is totally reversed, in that the nones outnumber young evangelicals 2 to 1.

Here are some quotes:

New Covenant Theology for Dummies

Mmmm…. Perhaps someone should write a book called “New Covenant Theology for Dummies.”

But, I digress!

Jimmy Snowden, from Bible Creed, has alerted us to a 10 minute audio message by Moe Bergeron, as an introduction to New Covenant Theology. Jimmy is very impressed with this message.

So, give it a listen!

Also see:
NCT Friday (a short guide on New Covenant Theology).

How to get apologetics in your church

Apologetics315 has started a series on how you can get apologetics in your church. So far they have done 15 sessions and is available on their blog here. It is also available as MP3s or you can subscribe to their podcast feed.