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Sermon nugget: Seed of the Serpent

Posted on by elizabethprata

My pastor preaches/teaches like a mini-Spurgeon every week. I leave church with much to ponder and my notebook filled with insights from his teaching. The Spirit enriches these through my own thoughts extended from further investigation. This essay is one of them. From now on I’ll call these essays sermon nuggets, because I can’t take credit totally for the insight here, it was catalyzed by my pastor, enriched by the Spirit, and emerged through further study on my own. In effect, it is a praise to how the Spirit fills us with insights, teaching, and wisdom. You hear the Word, study the word, think about the Word in your heart, and somehow it all fits in like puzzle pieces, piece by piece enlarging the scene until one glorious day, when the trumpet sounds, the picture will come clear.

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15)

Excerpts from Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume (pp. 13–14) tells us–

1. The serpent is here laid under the curse of God: Thou art cursed above all cattle. Even the creeping things, when God made them, were blessed of him (ch. 1:22), but sin turned the blessing into a curse. The serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field (v. 1), and here, cursed above every beast of the field.

But man is victorious over the serpent, and bruises his head, that is, gives him a mortal wound, aiming to destroy the whole generation of vipers. It is the effect of this curse upon the serpent that, though that creature is subtle and very dangerous, yet it prevails not (as it would if God gave it commission) to the destruction of mankind. This sentence pronounced upon the serpent is much fortified by that promise of God to his people,

    Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder (Ps. 91:13), and that of Christ to his disciples,
They shall take up serpents (Mk. 16:18), witness Paul, who was unhurt by the viper that fastened upon his hand.

A perpetual quarrel is here commenced between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the devil among men; war is proclaimed between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. That war in heaven between Michael and the dragon began now, Rev. 12:7. It is the fruit of this enmity, that there is a continual conflict between grace and corruption in the hearts of God’s people. Satan, by their corruptions, assaults them, buffets them, sifts them, and seeks to devour them; they, by the exercise of their graces, resist him, wrestle with him, quench his fiery darts, force him to flee from them.
Heaven and hell can never be reconciled, nor light and darkness; no more can Satan and a sanctified soul, for these are contrary the one to the other.

That there is likewise a continual struggle between the wicked and the godly in this world. Those that love God account those their enemies that hate him, Ps. 139:21, 22. And all the rage and malice of persecutors against the people of God are the fruit of this enmity, which will continue while there is a godly man on this side heaven, and a wicked man on this side hell. Marvel not therefore if the world hate you, 1 Jn. 3:13.

With that in mind, you remember that John the Baptist and Jesus both called the Pharisees serpents, broods of vipers.

John the Baptist: He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? (Luke 3:7)

Jesus: You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. (Matthew 12:34).

Jesus: You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?(Matthew 23:33).

By using this language, John and Jesus were telling us that the Pharisees belonged to the line of the serpent, they were seeds of the serpent. This is confirmed when Jesus said,

You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44).

In verse 38 Jesus specifically denied that the Pharisees were Abraham’s children (children of promised ‘seed’ or offspring) and in verse 44 He says they were of the seed of the devil (children of curse, the devils ‘seed’ or ‘offspring’).

Let’s finish on an encouraging note. Matthew Henry says-

His victory over Satan thereby. Satan had now trampled upon the woman, and insulted over her; but the seed of the woman should be raised up in the fulness of time to avenge her quarrel, and to trample upon him, to spoil him, to lead him captive, and to triumph over him, Col. 2:15. He shall bruise his head, that is, he shall destroy all his politics and all his powers, and give a total overthrow to his kingdom and interest. Christ baffled Satan’s temptations, rescued souls out of his hands, cast him out of the bodies of people, dispossessed the strong man armed, and divided his spoil: by his death, he gave a fatal and incurable blow to the devil’s kingdom, a wound to the head of this beast, that can never be healed. As his gospel gets ground, Satan falls (Lu. 10:18) and is bound, Rev. 20:2. By his grace, he treads Satan under his people’s feet (Rom. 16:20) and will shortly cast him into the lake of fire, Rev. 20:10. And the devil’s perpetual overthrow will be the complete and everlasting joy and glory of the chosen remnant.

What a day that will be!

 

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A Tale of Two Gods?

Posted on by elizabethprata

In this corner, with the wizened face and long white beard, God, also known as Ancient of Days and sometimes as simply I AM. Aged, ancient, and some say, outdated. Audience, give it up for God in the white robe, the Old Testament God!

In this corner, with the scarred face and hands, smallish stature and nothing beautiful or majestic to attract us to Him, don’t underestimate this Humble Servant, the Man of Sorrows, whose name is Jesus! Give it up for the man in the crimson-stained robe, the New Testament God!

Through this playful anecdote I hoped to bring to your mind a vivid picture of what I see as a problem today in the mainline churches. They try to say that there are two Gods, an “Old Testament God” and a “New Testament God.” This reveals a basic misunderstanding of who God is in both testaments. He is the same God. The Old Testament God as He has revealed Himself is a holy God concerned with sin, redemption, and righteous living for the sake of His holy name. In many, many OT chapters, He reveals His profound love for His creation, man, in promising a better future and adhering to those promises again and again.

In the New Testament, God as He has revealed Himself through Jesus is a holy God concerned with sin, redemption, and righteous living for the sake of His holy name. While throughout many, many NT chapters, His Spirit reveals Jesus’s profound love for man, His creation, in promising a better future and adhering to those promises again and again by dying on the cross and resurrecting, He also promises wrath. Just read Revelation. It could be just as factually stated that the ‘OT God’ is a God of love and the ‘NT Jesus’ is a God of wrath. Think about it.

In the entire bible there is wrath and there is love. There are plagues and there is redemption. There are covenants kept by God and broken by man. There are prophesies made, fulfilled, and to come and there is a hope and a future. There is no Old Testament God and there is no New Testament God. There is just I AM.

In the New Testament we see that the wrath of God is still “being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness” (Romans 1:18). The God who came to earth and cleansed the Temple with a bullwhip (Mark 11:15-19) is the same God who in the Old Testament “abounds in love and exceeding patience” (Exodus 34:6).

Though the Jesus of the New Testament is depicted all too unfortunately as a meek and mild, politically correct good teacher holding love-ins on the hill while making daisy chains, He was not. He directly confronted evil, He pointed fingers, He spoke hard sayings, and when the people left, and they did, (John 6:66) He let them go.

God is the same God as He lovingly and compassionately reveals Himself throughout the 66 books of the bible. He is love, He is wrath, but utmost, He is HOLY. His concern for His people is of our sin, and repentance. There is no comparative religion, there is only the superlative religion (L. Ravenhill). There is no OT God and no NT God, there is only God. He is unchanging.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change”. (James 1:15.)

And deep down, aren’t we relieved that there is no difference in our God from one covenant to the next?

He reveals Himself to us in various ways. We know of Him through the the creation (Rom 1:18), directly person to person (Gen 3:8, Gen 5:22, Ex 33:11; Adam, Eve, Enoch, Moses), through the prophets, (Heb 1:1), through Jesus (Col 2:9), through his Spirit (2 Tim 3:16), through the Word (John 1:1-5). But though He reveals Himself in various ways, the qualities inherent in that revelation of Himself do not change from covenant to covenant, testament to testament. He remains the same.

If you find yourself saying “Old Testament God” stop for a moment and ponder the gravity of those words. He does not change. He reveals Himself to us as He does and as He will. Is it fair to say ‘OT God’ and ‘NT God’? Is it right? Does it send a good message to hearers? It doesn’t. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8). “I the Lord do not change.” (Malachi 3:6)

Posted in discernment, Uncategorized

#memeHeresies on Facebook, how to spot them and how to refute them

Posted on by elizabethprata

We’re visual creatures. We love the beautiful. I don’t think there is any person who says they prefer ugliness to beauty. Beauty has allure. Satan knew that in the garden, when he incited Eve to take another look at the fruit. (Genesis 3:6). Beauty can be used to exalt God, for He made everything beautiful in its time (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Unfortunately, beauty can also be used as a mask for the corruption within. (Matthew 23:27).

We all know what heresy/false doctrine is. It’s a teaching about Jesus that varies with what the Bible teaches about Jesus. The Nicolaitans and the Judaizers were two groups mentioned in the Bible for going around teaching false doctrine. Alexander and Hymaneus were two named teachers in the New Testament who were teaching falsely and were rebuked by Paul. In the OT, Micaiah rebuked Zedekiah the false prophet. False teaching has been around as long as humans have been around. (Genesis 3:1)

For millennia, to hear a teaching, one went to a public venue like the Areopagus or Solomon’s Porch, and listened to the teacher like Paul, then went home and compared to scripture as the Bereans did. (Acts 17:11). Nowadays, false messages disseminated more widely and more instantly than ever before. Just think of “TBN” AKA Trinity Broadcasting Network, founded in 1973. TBN is a place called “Unholy Trinity” by John MacArthur, where “religious quacks are actually multiplying at a frightening pace.” And with the multiplying quacks comes their quackery, AKA false teaching.

Add to that, satan targets women to send his false doctrines through (Genesis 3:4), because we are weaker (1 Peter 3:7), and more vulnerable (2 Timothy 3:6) and this dissemination includes social media. I’m on Facebook a lot, I administer a page there (The End Time) as well as my personal FB page. Facebook is used mostly by women. This is an amazing statistic by Pew Research from 2015,

Fully 72% of online American adults use Facebook, a proportion unchanged from September 2014. Usage continues to be especially popular among online women, 77% of whom are users.

What this boils down to is that Facebook is a place where satan has a wonderful time propagating his lies to the faith’s most vulnerable who are rarely given oversight by husbands while she surfs among the Facebook walls and statuses riddled with beautiful false teaching. These are the meme pictures.

Many of these memes going around are satanic. When I say satanic, don’t think of a black background and a red faced man with horns and fangs in the foreground. Satan is God’s most beautiful angel, an angel of light, and his work is flowers and a cute saying and pretty colors and a Christian-y saying all aimed to seduce women. Like this:

Jessica Pickowicz ( @Jess_Pickowicz , @BeauThing146 http://beautifulthing146.com/) has created a hashtag called #memeHeresies . The above photo is a #memeHeresy. I asked her if I could write about memeheresies and use that term in this essay and she said yes.

HOW TO MAKE A #MEMEHERESY

Satan enjoys deluding women, so flowers are usually a go-to graphic. Women like those. I don’t see many #memeheresies containing golf clubs, fishing tackle, or neckties.

So the first rule when a false teacher makes a false graphic of some kind of inspirational quote, it’s to choose something beautiful as the background. Of course, that’s a no-brainer. I mentioned above that beauty carries false teaching very well. Genesis 3:6a tells us that the lust of the eyes is a major part of sin.

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes,…

The second criteria for a false inspirational picture is to choose something that is human-focused but mentions God. This is tricky, but then again, Joel Osteen has made a gazillion dollar industry out of treading that thin line. The quote below usually attributed to Roman Catholic friar St. Francis, but probably did not originate with the medieval monk, is the kind I’m talking about:

“Preach the gospel, and if necessary, use words.”

The quote mentions the gospel, and preaching, so it must be good, right? Wrong. The Gospel is Good News, and we are to proclaim it. With words. We can’t BE the message. Only Jesus was ever the message. And in addition to living that perfect life, He used lots of words. That’s because He IS the Word. (John 1:1). And besides, isn’t preaching a form of using words aloud? You see the ridiculousness once you begin to think about the quote. Also, note the sly turning away from Jesus onto ourselves with that one quote? Suddenly Jesus and His Gospel isn’t the message, human beings are the message.

In that exact same vein is the picture above, attributed to Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa was a Roman Catholic nun who hated the gospel of Jesus Christ, and lived under the delusion that her Catholic dogma was going to save her. Nonetheless, she allegedly said “I’m a pencil in the Hand of God”, which is set on a beautiful flower graphic.

The reason that #memeHeresy seems scriptural and inspirational is because it mentions God. On first look, it also seems to put the person in a humble position. You think, ‘awww, I’m just a meager tool in the hand of God.’

This would be a wrong interpretation of that meme.

The Apostles were pencils in the hand of God. The result was inspired Holy Scripture. If we put ourselves in that place, we are elevating ourselves beyond our position. Today no one is writing anything inspired by the Holy Spirit. Though, plenty of women are writing things inspired by satan. The most popular books of our day have been inspired directly by satan through the means of channeling. (For ex., When Godly People do Ungodly Things, Jesus Calling, &etc.)

If “Mother” Teresa meant that the metaphorical pencil is writing a metaphorical message through the the outward seeming goodness of our lives, then we have the same problem that we had in the St Francis quote. WE are not the message. We are ambassadors OF the message. (2 Corinthians 5:20). The message was proclaimed by Jesus. And by the way, we’re not good.

Finally, if we are but helpless tools in the Hand of God, then we are excusing our part in our own sanctification. We must press on, slay sin, submit, obey…all those are active verbs showing that we have a responsibility to Jesus while here on hearth. We’re not passive pencils, being used. We’re to be active participants in our life of obedience and usefulness.

Sometimes a meme will quote a scripture, and the scripture isn’t totally ripped from context as this one below shows. Did you know that a lot of times when you see a pretty photo with a verse over it, the verse address and the verse being quoted don’t match up? This one quoted blow is the tail end of a verse and it’s not twisted. So what’s the problem? The organization or person spreading it. The verse is OK, but She Reads Truth is not. Passing along a meme in which the verse is accurate but is promoted by a false teacher is just as bad. Double check the verse, the address, AND the teacher or organization publishing it.You don’t want to put a stumbling block in front of a sister and send her directly to a false teacher by your tacit recommendation of re-posting a good verse.

Same goes for this one below. The quote is not scripture but it’s an accurate saying. It is something I say myself. I am not familiar with the person mentioned at the bottom, but I am certainly familiar with the IF:gathering and its women. Again- avoid. Re-posting an accurate quote but from a false bunch of teachers will only confuse those less discerning sisters. Every re-post you do is tacitly giving your stamp of approval not only to the quote but to the author and organization, in this case, Mabuni and IF:gathering.

HOW TO REFUTE A #memeHeresy

I liked what Jessica did with the side by side refutation here. The stamp of the word “FALSE” across the left side states the situation in no uncertain terms, and the correct verse which refutes the false one is placed on the right. The left side is the man-oriented one and the right side is what God actually said about man.

By Jessica Pickowicz

Here is another one from Jessica. Do you see on the left, it’s man-oriented again? The scripture-y quote is supposed to makes us think, “Wow! I’m strong!” Yet the truth stated in real scripture is, “Wow, God’s gives grace!”

By Jessica Pickowicz

In sum, how to spot the false memes is to check, think, wait. Before passing it along,

1. Double check the address on the verse (if there is one).
2. Double check that the verse isn’t ripped from its context to say something it wasn’t intended to mean.
3. Check the person or organization publishing the quote.
4. STOP. THINK. Does this quote that sounds so Bible-y really reflect a true teaching of God?

To refute them you can always do what Jessica did and create a side-by-side refutation. If you’re not graphically skilled then simply post the scripture picture with a verse that refutes it and maybe a short explanation showing how one is man-oriented and the other is Jesus-oriented.

Well, some might say, doing all that checking, double checking, and investigating, at is a lot of work,. Yes. It’s work. You remember I mentioned the Bereans at the top? They heard Paul then went back and checked that these things were so. They worked, and were commended for it! Just because we’re living in a fast time doesn’t mean we have to quickly press “Post” or “Publish”. Stop. Think.

We handle the Bible’s message with care, because it is the most important message in life. You don’t toss a carton of eggs into the back seat of your car like you do your son’s soccer ball. You handle with care. We don’t toss around Bible-y sayings either. We take care, for the Word is precious. The false teachers toss around the Word carelessly, we believers don’t need to toss it around as well.

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Why responding to a discernment essay by saying “only God knows the heart” is totally wrong and displays a total lack of discernment

Posted on by elizabethprata

When I do a discernment essay, I am often treated to an old chestnut of a comment that is becoming practically standard for those without discernment to post:

He alone is sovereign and fully knows all hearts!

God is sovereign. God knows the heart. But we do too.

If a teacher’s doctrine has been proven false by comparing it with the Bible, then we DO know their heart! The Bible tells us this. Only God knows the hearts of the people, but if their teaching is not of the Lord, then the God who sees hearts has exposed those hearts to us by the verses of His word!

Their hearts are full of deceit. Colossians 2:8
Their hearts are filled with their own appetites. Romans 16:17-18
Their hearts are disguised with light. 2 Corinthians 11:13-15
Their hearts are full of greed. 2 Peter 2:3
Their hearts are ravenous. Matthew 7:15.
Their hearts are inwardly full of sensuality. Jude 1:4
Their hearts are full of secrets, such as destructive heresies. 2 Peter 2:1
Their hearts are full of intent to exploit. 2 Peter 2:3
Their hearts are full of fleshly passions. 2 Timothy 4:3
Their hearts are puffed up with conceit. 1 Timothy 6:4
His heart understands nothing. 1 Timothy 6:4
Their hearts are cunning and crafty. Ephesians 4:14
Their hearts serve the creature. Romans 1:25
Their hearts are slaves of corruption. 2 Peter 2:19.
Their hearts deny the Master who bought them. 2 Peter 2:1
Their hearts prophesy lies. Jeremiah 23:26

So whenever I expose a testimony as false or a teaching as false, or a teacher as false, using biblical proof, STOP saying that this is a bad activity because “only God knows the heart”. He does, that’s true, but He has shown us the heart of the false teacher in His word. He taught us this in His word for the purpose of being mature, discerning, and so we can learn for ourselves and also teach the younger to be edified and strong.

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Sisters having a tough Father’s Day, you are not orphans

Posted on by elizabethprata

It’s Father’s Day and Facebook is all aglow with well wishes for loving fathers and family photos vintage and current of dads with their happy families. I find this heartwarming. I love seeing pics of dads with daughters proclaiming their father’s virtues.

My experience was different. I didn’t have a loving father and he wasn’t traditionally involved in my life to any appreciable degree. He was a good worker, and intelligent. He created a business from scratch and made a successful go of it. I’m so proud of him for that. He was a raconteur, regaling dinner guests with humorous stories he told in entertaining fashion. But as a father…his virtues take a little longer to discover.

He did provide us a home, and a nice one, too. He paid for my college, no strings, the best gift he he ever gave me. He did keep his promise to financially support us after he and his wife divorced. He helped me financially at periods through my early adult life. He usually remembered my birthday and Christmas with a check, signed “Love, Dad.”

But in all his 81 years of life he never said the important words “I love you.” Not once.

Neither did he show through action any love hidden deeply and unspoken. Despite invitations to personally come to Parents’ Day at College, or the ribbon cutting of my new business or other celebratory things Facebook Fathers seem to enjoy, that was not my lot. Despite tragedies such as unwanted divorce or hospitalization, no father appeared by my bedside or at the lawyer’s to give support. There simply was a great, silent, empty vacuum on the Interstate corridor between his home and mine.

It was kind of a blessing to learn late what kind of relationship other girls had with their dad. I was unaware for a long time of what I had been missing. For example, I had not known that dads and daughters spent time alone together, like having a picnic or going to the movies. I was shocked to learn this. I was never alone with my father, for any reason at any time, casual or scheduled. I literally would not know what to say to him if we ever had been.

He was a man full of laughter during dinner parties but with the family that was another matter. He had a low tolerance for many things, such as noise, questions, failing an unspoken standard, moving his remote control, sitting in his chair, and lots of other stuff. Anger eruptions would occur at any time and send us fleeing to separate quarters to escape the wrath.

As an adult things eased. There was a period of time we were socially friendly. Me and my husband and he and his live-in, long term girlfriend would go out to dinner, sail on his boat, swim in the pool. It was like we were his young friends, not family. I remember one time he was telling a story about kids and we were laughing and laughing at the foibles of this kid he was recalling and the story picked up steam and the laughter got more hilarious and unthinkingly at the end he wiped his eyes and blurted, “I’m glad I never had kids.”

That was how far we were from his heart, so far that we weren’t his children at all. When we were little, we were noisy inconveniences not usually tolerated. As young adults we were a financial obligation. As older adults we were a built-in social network to ease his loneliness. And as a senior, he completed his life-long rejection thus- with disownment.

He not only wrote us off but specifically made note that this was intentional. The last act of Mr Prata regarding his children is an act of bitterness. He wrote an ending to a relationship that wasn’t over yet, but punctuated it anyway with a stroke of a pen.

I’m not writing this out of anger, just sadness. Sadness for him and of what he missed, and what he is missing now. I believe he died outside of the grace of Jesus, and that means he will remember for a punishing eternity the things written here and all the rest of his acts during his 81 years of life, forever. Nothing I could say or do about him is worse than that.

I hope that the silent daughters who are sad on this day looking online or in real life at all the happy dads and daughters would take heart. Coming up is an encouragement.

Daughters of Jesus, we know that the sweetness of a Father that will not reject us nor cast us out of His hand is a balm for the soul where the dad’s love should have been. Sisters who are watching the Facebook wall scroll by with happy cries of well-wishes for dads alive and dads gone on to glory, if that had not been your experience, just remember that we have a Father in Heaven. He has said we cry Abba! Father! for all our needs and upon whom to pour out all our love as he pours out His upon us. He is perfect, having formed us and known us from heart to soul to mind to strength. He is a Dad who sees us, El Roi, whose eyes roam to and fro over the earth “to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.” (2 Chronicles 16:9a).

We are His children-

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, (John 1:12)

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. (1 John 3:1).

We are heirs to our Abba-

To redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. (Galatians 4:5-7)

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8:14-19)

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. (John 14:18)

If you have lost your family due to the faith-

And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. (Matthew 19:29)

 

All these promises and more are for us and in us and about us, those who believe. There is much to take heart over. There is everything to be encouraged by in our relationship with the heavenly Father.

If you are not saved by grace of Jesus, and you’re feeling alone on Father’s Day with no father in your life, my deepest empathy goes out to you. I don’t know how you cope with the loss and not have the comfort of Jesus – the true Father – to turn to. If you would like to know something of this sweetness, comfort, and joy, email me. My email is in the “About this blog” tab up top.

With his seething pen, my father sought to obliterate the memory of his children from his heart and to puncture us with a long lasting wound. The irony is, the Lord causes those who reject Him to remember each and every sin of their earthly life, forever, while we, children of God, will not remember sorrows nor shall these things come to mind. (Isaiah 65:17). He will remember forever and lay in an eternal bed of anger and bitterness, while I will forget him and go on in joy and peace with my heavenly Father.

The former sorrows of the earth, under the fall, shall be so far from recurring, that their very remembrance shall be obliterated by the many mercies I will bestow on the new earth (Re 21:4-27). Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary on Is 65:17.

So take heart, sad or mourning or grieving daughters! I am happy to say that it has become my joy to rely on the love of my real Father and it will remain so all through eternity. I have a Father, and every day is Happy Father’s Day. You do too.

Posted in encouragement, Uncategorized

Having trouble slaying sin? Being unduly tempted lately? Check out these resources

Posted on by elizabethprata

Slaying sin is the daily responsibility of the Christian, in submission to the Holy Spirit, Who is the mechanism for its effectual execution.

John MacArthur said that if you are comfortable with your spiritual growth, that is a very dangerous place to be. Dear Sister, if you’ve grown lax or complacent, as I tend to be from time to time, here are some resources for you to help you revive the urgency in our daily endeavor to kill the sin within us and to resist the temptations that come with it. And as Dr Barnhouse reminded us, when you flee sin, make sure that you’re running toward Christ.

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How To Slay Sin (Part 3) Essay by John MacArthur

Let’s take a look at step three in slaying sin: Fill your mind with Scripture.

John Bunyan, author of the classic Pilgrim’s Progress, wrote in the cover of his Bible, “Either this book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book.” Bunyan understood what many in the war against sin don’t—the Word of God is the weapon you simply cannot neglect.

Have you ever considered some of the symbols the Bible uses to describe itself? Scripture is called a light, hammer, fire, rock, mirror, milk, seed and water. Each highlights a unique characteristic of God’s Word, but by far the most memorable metaphor of the Bible is a sword (Ephesians 6:17). Any idea why?

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Temptation and How to Meet It, Sermon by Dr Donald Grey Barnhouse. In this teaching, Dr Barnhouse gives three ways to defeat temptation. The Youtube review of the sermon states,

At the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship conference in Urbana 1957. Brilliantly useful teaching of a caliber seldom found in modern sermons.

You can listen to the full sermon below, or read it as a summary at Christianity.com

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Spurgeon on slaying sin, from his sermon The Old Man Crucified, #882:

if you will not have death to sin, you shall have sin to death. There is no alternative, if you do not die to sin you shall die for sin; and if you do not slay sin, sin will slay you.

More here:
The Old Man Crucified, extended quote from Spurgeon’s sermon #882

Even more here:
Full sermon The Old Man Crucified, Spurgeon #882

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

JC Ryle’s book titled Holiness is generally acknowledged to be one of the faith’s top books on the subject. Buy it from this excellent publisher, Banner of Truth.

‘…this book is simply the best of Ryle the Puritan-type pastor. Real Christians will find it a gold mine, a feast, a spur and a heart-warmer, food, drink, medicine, and a course of vitamins, all in one.’ — J.I. PACKER

BOOK DESCRIPTION-
Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots is perhaps J. C. Ryle’s best-known and, arguably, best-loved book. Although many things have changed since 1877, when this book was first published, one thing remains the same: ‘real practical holiness does not receive the attention it deserves.’ It was to remedy this attention deficit, and to counter false teaching on this most important subject, that Ryle took up his pen.

The sword is only good if your hand wields it, and we don’t wield it with accuracy and precision if we are not studying it first.

Posted in encouragement, Uncategorized

The Joy of Knowing the Lord

Posted on by elizabethprata
I was a craven sinner

a persistent sinner
a long-time sinner
a depraved sinner
a mocking sinner
an unrepentant sinner

and yet you, Most High God, condescended to enter this world of sin to save us. Lord, you broke my heart. You broke my heart of stone and gave me a heart of flesh, soft, beating in love for Abba and Your ways. (Ezekiel 11:19).

You are a Friend to Sinners, compassionate in all your paths, the beloved Groom. The Woman at the Well said, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did.” (John 4:29a). All I ever did was evil. (Genesis 6:5). And yet You loved me while I was still a sinner. (Romans 5:8)

You have set around me a sacred circle, outside of which are cares and burdens, worries and problems. Inside is your throne of peace, love, and Fatherly care. Let me always to come to You boldly humble, timorously brave, to the Father of Lights and the Ancient of Days. Inside this circle is all, because You are there.

I recall my worldly days outside the circle, wandering and unhappy, yet sinning all the more, never seeing your circle of color, the rainbow of covenant, as shining gloriously bright. (Revelation 4:3). My eyes were dim and blind. It is You, Lord Most High, Abba, who brought me in, washed me with Your blood, and saved me from the penalties of all my evil deeds. You gave me Your righteousness, a soft heart longing for purity, and a mind of transformation.

You gave me grace.

Spurgeon said:

The other evening I was riding home after a heavy day’s work. I felt very wearied, and sore depressed, when swiftly, and suddenly as a lightning flash, that text came to me, “MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR THEE.” (2 Cor. 12:9). I reached home and looked it up in the original, and at last it came to me in this way, “MY grace is sufficient for thee”; and I said, “I should think it is, Lord,” and burst our laughing! I never fully understood what the holy laughter of Abraham was until then. It seemed to make unbelief so absurd.

It was as though some little fish, being very thirsty, was troubled about drinking the river dry, and Father Thames [River, London] said, “Drink away, little fish, my stream is sufficient for thee.

Or, it seemed after the seven years of plenty, a mouse feared it might die of famine; and Joseph might say, “Cheer up, little mouse, my granaries are sufficient for thee.”

Again, I imagined a man away up yonder, in a lofty mountain, saying to himself, “I breathe so many cubic feet of air every year, I fear I shall exhaust the oxygen in the atmosphere,” but the earth might say, “Breathe away, O man, and fill the lungs ever, my atmosphere is sufficient for thee.”

Oh, brethren, be great believers! Little faith will bring your souls to heaven, but great faith will bring heaven to your souls!

Let this little fish never say, I have drunk enough.
Let this little mouse never say, I have eaten my fill.
Let this man never say, I do not need this air any more.

How foolish! Breathe deeply the Words of Life, for where else would I go? (John 6:68). I am in the circle of Your love and the days of wrath have ceased for me. Where else would I go? Let me not wander. This circle of grace is enough.

Posted in Uncategorized

Why study prophecy? And what does apocalypse really mean, anyway?

Posted on by elizabethprata

Do you notice that many of today’s news headlines refer to the apocalypse? ‘Drachmageddon”… “Election Apocalypse”, “Apocalypse-like hailstorm..” etc. … Though fewer people say they don’t believe in apocalypse, more and more the secular world is talking about it. Society is expecting…something. Carl Worline explained his opinion of this phenomenon:

“It is a pervasive feeling that something really big is about to happen. This feeling is exceptionally difficult to define. Christians hopefully look for the return of the Messiah. Many in the New Age Movement look[ed] for the Age of Pisces to end on the winter solstice on December 21, 2012, and for the Age of Aquarius to begin as the earth’s equatorial plane aligns exactly with the center of our galaxy. Buddhists look for the return of Maitreya sometime in the very near future. Mayans predicted and end of an epoch on December 21, 2012, and a new epoch to begin. The Aztec looked for the return of the flying serpent, Quetzalcoatl, sometime around the end of 2012. Aztecs also predict the possible end of time, as we know it, and possibly the end of the world. The I-Ching independently predicts the end to occur on the winter solstice this year. … The entire world is on edge because its inhabitants from every nation and culture feel something. Something that is almost impossible to identify or define…”

That’s the secular world for you, nibbling at the edges of the meaning of spiritual things but never quite coming to the truth. However, we have Christ, the mind of Christ, and His Spirit, so we know the definition of Apocalypse. We don’t have to guess. Though it’s often referred to as an event that is of great destruction or even the end of the world, it literally meansunveiling. It comes from the Book of Revelation, where the word is used in Revelation 1:1. God’s intent for the world is unveiled. From Strong’s Greek in Revelation 1:1,

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,

Apokalypsis   Ἀποκάλυψις    [The] Revelation

In that sense, the entire Bible could be called the Apokalypsis, because it is God’s inspired revelation of Himself to humanity. But the word and the concept is deeply explored in Revelation 1-22 because Jesus specifically reveals His Second Coming.

Do not avoid prophecy, study it! Why study prophecy? Aside from the fact that we are commanded to? (Mark 13:37).

I study prophecy because –

–it is part of the bible, God’s revelation of Himself through holy inspired word
–it is commanded (See above)
–it instills in me an urgency to live righteously and to witness. We don’t study just for the information and go our way. It has to affect our Christian walk, just as any scripture does.
–It comforts me to think of these things being fulfilled:

In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and peoples will stream to it. Many nations will come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths. The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. (Micah 4:1-2)

Isn’t that beautiful! I’m sometimes saddened by the number of people who profess Christianity but obviously do not possess Him. It’s comforting to know the peoples will stream to the holy Hill to worship! Or this prophecy from Isaiah 19:23-25, it’s so beautiful, uplifting, and hopeful.

In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.  In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.”

We study the Bible to know God and worship Him rightly. We also study it to know of His past mighty deeds. If you avoid prophecy you won’t be studying His future deeds! Again, why study prophecy?

–observing and studying is not just for knowledge, but to apply as we grow in knowledge
–to learn the entire sweep and scope of God’s promises,
–to instill a wonder at His sovereign hand from beginning to end
–to create in us an urgency so as to live righteously and to share boldly
–to be encouraged

When the fog totally lifts and it becomes apparent to all that the end IS near (Revelation 6:15-17), it is most comforting of all to know that the greatest revival on earth will take place. Though it takes place through blood and judgment, the LORD saves many to be with Him in heaven. (Revelation 7:9, 14).

What a prophecy, the best of all. This age will conclude with myriad upon myriad of saints worshiping Jesus at His throne! Despite the crushingly low count of seeming Christians around today, even in churches, the Lord wakes many hearts for His name. This is the best reason of all to study prophecy, to see His future handiwork in hearts.

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
 
And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
 
13Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 14I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
 
15“Therefore they are before the throne of God,
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
16They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;
the sun shall not strike them,
nor any scorching heat.
17For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of living water,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

 

Posted in Uncategorized

Warnings to 7 churches are so relevant today

Posted on by elizabethprata

I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. (Revelation 3:15-20)

Often forgotten in the prophecies are the warnings Jesus gives to the churches in Revelation. As with many prophecies, there is a near fulfillment that is and a far fulfillment. The 7 letters to 7 churches that open the Book of Revelation were actual letters sent to actual churches and actually read as warnings, encouragements or indictments against them. The second reason the letters were sent was to reveal seven different types of individuals/churches throughout history and instruct them in God’s truth.

The last verse is the one I want to point to. Jesus is not ‘knocking at the door of your heart’ in this verse. It is obvious he is knocking at the door of the church. The church had become (and will become, like it is now) so pale and non-Gospel oriented that Jesus is outside it! Just think of Joel Osteen’s church at Lakewood and you have a perfect fulfillment of the kind of church Jesus is warning about here. Mr Osteen never preaches sin or wrath or judgment because he doesn’t want to offend anyone, wanting to stay positive. But how can a person repent if they don’t know they are sinning? He refuses to put a cross on his stage, because it might prove an “obstacle to anyone who might come.” But if they are not coming to the cross, what are they coming to??? Jesus is standing outside Mr Osteen’s church, knocking to get in.

That sad indictment is repeated over many parts of the body of Christ today. I pray you find a good church that has solid beliefs, and participate there. Support your pastor, if he stands on the foundational principles of the faith, and preaches them. He is a rarity these days, and precious. Treat him like he is.

The decline of belief is symbiotic. If you attend a church like Lakewood for any length of time, then you will fade into lukewarmness because the fire of wrath and rebuke from a holy God has disappeared. With the full counsel of God being preached, His perfect message of sin & wrath/mercy & redemption is held up and you will grow in Christ-likeness. Without the cross preached, who are the Laodicean congregants growing into looking like? Man, not God.

Posted in Uncategorized

Be a Weeble: dealing with depression and discouragement at the world’s evil

Posted on by elizabethprata

Remember the Weebles commercial of the early 1970s? Back then the commercials were of a more innocent quality than the ones we’re subjected to now. This Weebles ad from the 1970s is just so cute.

Whoever created that ad was a genius. Why? I remember the tagline even 40 years later! THAT is an effective ad. ‘Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down.” These Hasbro toys, launched in 1971, were a small, egg shaped toy with a weight at the bottom. If you pushed the toy over with your finger, the toy tipped because of the spherical shape at the bottom but the weight inside at the bottom immediately returned the toy to its center of gravity and it popped upright. No matter how often you pushed it over, it always returned upright.

A weeble

The events of the world are dark and evil. They can easily infiltrate our heart with a depression that clouds us and weighs heavy. We do Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep as Paul advised in Romans 12:15. Christians should be defined by their faith, which includes compassion and love. We not only weep with those brethren who weep, but like Jesus, we weep for those who should weep but do not (Luke 19:41, MacArthur Commentary).

As the world descends into its prophesied Days of Noah, (Matthew 24:37), more and more of the world’s tragedies shock our sensibilities. The state of the world would surely cause any sane person to become depressed just by looking at headlines for one moment, never mind living in this cauldron of evil day after day. Opposition to the truth of Jesus Christ is another depressing item that causes many to weep with broken hearts at the broken churches and the broken bibles littering what today is called Christianity.

And dark clouds not only hover from without, but they can hover from within. Dark clouds of upset and impatience drift over the heart on little cat’s feet and poise, ready to descend at a moment’s notice. From within, a discouragement, frustration, a melancholy, or a depression can creep over the believer. Biblical illiteracy and confusion sets in to the heart, allowing more and more sin to infiltrate it. This becomes ripe ground for defeatism and depression. If some people are struggling with the dark clouds of spiritual depression, imagine how difficult these time are for preachers, whose main instrument is the heart! They labor with broken hearts much of the time.

I’ve been asked two questions recently. One is, don’t I get frustrated or discouraged with the rise in deception of the serpent, and its capturing into false doctrine of so many who profess to believe? And, how can a person stay positive in these dark times?

Many of the great believers of times past suffered from spiritual blackness of one level or another for periods of time that lasted from fleeting to lengthy. Asaph, Jeremiah, David, Paul, Martin Luther, Charles Spurgeon, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Randy Alcorn, and John Piper were oppressed with clouds of melancholy or frustration or even full-blown depression at various times in their lives. Please don’t think you are alone. You’re not. Charles Spurgeon is almost universally recognized as a mature leader of the faith who also had a deep, long-lasting spiritual depression. Spurgeon said that depression happens frequently to many people.

However, please excuse my straight-forwardness, but please also don’t think wallowing in a spiritual depression is proper. It’s not.

Less talked about was that Spurgeon himself considered this a sinful weakness. He distinguishes between a God-appointed weakness and a human sinful weakness, and he places depression squarely in the latter category. Spurgeon believed despondency was not a virtue, but a vice.

He said “that to be unbelieving, desponding, nervous, timid, cowardly, inactive, heartless is not excusable and not proper” and of despondency, Spurgeon said “I am heartily ashamed of myself for falling into it, but I am sure there is no remedy for it like a holy faith in God.”

Charles Spurgeon’s depression started when he was 24 years old. Spurgeon later recalled,

My spirits were sunken so low that I could weep by the hour like a child, and yet I knew not what I wept for.

In a Conversation Between John Piper and John MacArthur, John Piper recounted his depression that began at 40 and lasted years,

I was 40, halfway through my vacation, sitting on the steps, sobbing. Noelle comes down the stairs, asks me “What’s wrong?” I said, “I don’t have a clue.”

As the segment is summarized here, we learn of depression and two pastors’ responses to it-

…it begins with “MacArthur explaining that he has never really been depressed. Some Christians are a bit like MacArthur. To be honest, that can make it hard for them to empathize with the Pipers of this world who goes on to describe how he had a period of his life where he was significantly depressed that lasted several years. MacAthur’s incredulous “Years?!” demonstrates how very differently they are wired.”

“Years?!”

So how do we stay positive when the world is crazy and it seems like the visible church is collapsing under top-heaviness of celebrity pastors, megachurches, and false doctrine?

1. The number one way is to recognize, worship, and rest in the sovereignty of God.

Ecclesiastes reminds us that from the top government down, from Kings, Prime Ministers, Presidents, and Judges, down to the lowliest of tax collectors and pagan sinners, God has His hand in all they do and don’t do. He ordains everything and purposes it according to His plan. Judgment for the evil done on earth WILL happen.

I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work. (Ecclesiastes 3:17)

Why would God delay judgment, and not take care of it all at once? One reason is this, the Preacher of Ecclesiastes continues:

I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts. (Ecclesiastes 3:18).

He will not let evil go on forever, and He will purge the world of all unrighteousness.

2. Have faith. Ask for more faith. Faith.

Spurgeon preached that faith was the cure. Use your faith to trust God, ask for more faith to trust Him more. This is what Charles Spurgeon did. He noted,

When the sinner is pointed to the Cross and comes to trust himself with Jesus—viewing the blood sprinkled and the righteousness worked out—then the man can pray, can sing, can melt in penitence or can rise up in flames of love! … The inability of human nature is instrumentally removed by the energy of faith.

Speaking of energy…

3. Stay busy in spiritual disciplines.

In the conversation between Piper and MacArthur, MacArthur said that he stays very busy. Having to write several sermons per week keeps him in the Word. Studying for preaching infuses him with a joy that drags him past the discouragement and he leaves it behind. Staying busy in the word is his primary mechanism to stave off discouragement or depression. Also, he said he ponders Paul and other biblical heroes who have endured worse and yet stayed hopeful.

John Piper said prayer is his go-to discipline. He prays to the Lord to keep him and preserve him, more than any other prayer. Piper said he prays to God to keep him in His will, keep him in his marriage, keep him in understanding and wisdom, etc.

3. Bask in the glory of God in His creation, in faith

Spurgeon commended the glory of God in creation as a remedy for depression:

To sit long in one posture, poring over a book, or driving a quill, is in itself a taxing of nature; but add to this a badly-ventilated chamber, a body which has long been without muscular exercise, and a heart burdened with many cares, and we have all the elements for preparing a seething cauldron of despair, especially in the dim months of fog—

“Heaviest the heart is in a heavy air,
Ev’ry wind that rises blows away despair.”

“Creation” by EPrata

Others like Alcorn took heart during his two-month depression just knowing he wasn’t alone, that other men battled spiritual depression was a balm. He battled it and his other periodic depressions by taking time to pray in thankfulness and gratitude.

I opened this essay by mentioning the old toy “Weeble.” They wobble, but they don’t fall down. They don’t stay down because they have a weight in the bottom that keeps the center of gravity centered. No matter the length of your Christianity, whether you’ve been saved for days or decades, no matter the level of maturity, babe or grizzled soldier, Jesus is our center of gravity. With our feet on the weighty rock, we might be knocked around a bit, but He will not let us stay down. Sometimes our battles are with temptations, or with the enemy, or sometimes it’s with despondency or depression. Don’t let the evil of the world get you down, or even wobble you for a moment. Jesus has overcome all the world’s evil, and if we are in Him, we have overcome it, too.

Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled; do not be afraid. (John 14:27)