Uncategorized – Page 55

Righteousness v. Wealth

Posted on October 13, 2017 by elizabethprata

I was saying last night at Bible Study that I live paycheck to paycheck. The relentlessness of always minding the budget and working assiduously to stretch it to the end of the month gets tiring and frustrating at times. The discussion was about contentment v. discontentment. I said I work hard to avoid being discontent with my circumstances by keeping my trust and faith and eyes on Jesus and not on my circumstances. I hope I avoid discontentment, at least.

So this morning I was reading the Bible in my quiet time, and along comes this verse. It was immensely encouraging. I pray it might be to you as well, if you’re living on the thin side.

Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice. (Proverbs 16:8).

Hmmm, interesting! What can it mean? Matthew Henry’s Commentary provides a succinct interpretation:

Here, 1. It is supposed that an honest good man may have but a little of the wealth of this world (all the righteous are not rich),—that a man may have but little, and yet may be honest (though poverty is a temptation to dishonesty, ch. 30:9, yet not an invincible one),—and that a man may grow rich, for a while, by fraud and oppression, may have great revenues, and those got and kept without right, may have no good title to them nor make any good use of them.

2. It is maintained that a small estate, honestly come by, which a man is content with, enjoys comfortably, serves God with cheerfully, and puts to a right use, is much better and more valuable than a great estate ill-got, and then ill-kept or ill-spent. It carries with it more inward satisfaction, a better reputation with all that are wise and good; it will last longer, and will turn to a better account in the great day, when men will be judged, not according to what they had, but what they did

Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume (p. 990). Peabody: Hendrickson.

My interpretation: Righteousness reaps more contentment than do riches, because riches are from the world and righteousness is from Jesus.

Selah!

treasure

prophecy, Uncategorized

Visions, dreams, and revelations: Demon possession or genuine prophetic fits?

Posted on October 12, 2017October 14, 2017 by elizabethprata

Please see also the related essay Are my personal experiences, dreams, visions, signs and wonders valid?

Have you noticed the similarity among some of the founders of the major false religions of what I call “prophetic fits”? Most cults in the world began from some kind of vision or direct revelation or visitation from celestial beings claiming to be Mary, Jesus, angels, and so on. I listed some below and more down further below.

Accompanying these visions and revelations and visits, are physical manifestations akin to epileptic seizures and fits that the recipients later report. The recipient of the revelation undergoes a physical trauma of, for example, flailing around, rapid heart beat, or no heartbeat, sweating, groaning, foaming at the mouth, high fevers, and the like. As I listened to one such physical fit that Muhammad had, founder of Islam, I was struck by its similarity to the incidents of demonic possession recorded in the Bible. I wondered if such fits were manifested by other cult founders during their visions or trances, and I learned that they did. Here are a few examples.

Muhammad – Founder of Islam. Muhammad notes that he was visited by an angel claiming to be Gabriel, who pressed or hugged Muhammad so hard that he couldn’t bear it. Three times this pressing hard on Muhammad occurred, though we have no record of any angelic visitation in the Bible where the angel manhandles the person to whom he is charged with bringing a message. Rather, each time, the angel unfailingly comforts or works to quell the fear in the person.

Muhammad was so spooked by the angel and his experience, initially he suspected the visions were from evil spirits. In addition to the previously reported physical manifestations, sometimes Muhammad growled like a camel, and streamed with perspiration even if it was cold. He saw a bright light quite often. The seizures were thorough and convincing. Adherents and critics alike acknowledged Muhammad did suffer from a physical manifestation of some kind. The only question among critics in his day and to this day, was whether Muhammad’s fits were genuinely divinely sent or were evidence of a demonic possession.

Joseph Smith, founder of the church of Latter Day Saints, AKA Mormons, also displayed physical symptoms in some kind of fit that coincided with his revelations, also supposedly from Gabriel. In addition to “Gabriel”, twenty-three other divinely sent visitors also revealed ‘truths’ to Joseph, including dead men such as Adam, Abraham, and Joseph’s own brother Alvin. These ghostly appearances of dead mortal men violate biblical verses in Ecclesiastes 9:5-6, Leviticus 19:31, Leviticus 20:27, Deuteronomy 18:10-13 and several others.

When these revelations occurred, Joseph Smith was seized with a strange power, he was rendered speechless, and he fell on his back. He had visions of darkness and light, a light similarly described as Muhammad’s light.

Ellen G. White– This is the woman who is acknowledged as founding the Seventh Day Adventism cult. The following is from Wikipedia’s entry Criticism of Ellen G. White.

“Her physical experiences during the visions revolved around, becoming unconscious, losing control of her arms and legs, shallow breathing and visual phenomena all of which are symptoms of an epileptic fit such as automatic movements of the hands or mouth, altered ability to respond to others, unusual speech, or unusual behaviors all of which were experienced during these visions. Moreover, following each of these seizures, there is some period of recovery in which neurological function is altered. This is called the postictal state. These states were independently witnessed by Ellen G. White’s followers.”

Padre Pio– is a highly esteemed Catholic visionary of modern times. When he went into vision states, it is reported that perfume emanated from and outward off his body, (Catholics call this ‘odors of holiness’), Pio had many bleeding stigmata, high fevers (off the charts high), and, the usually manifested violent seizures.

Did any OT or NT prophet go into fits when they received an angelic visitation or divine revelation from Jesus or God? Did they flail about, become incoherent and insensible? Abraham fell down and entered a deep sleep after feeling a dread. The same with Daniel. That’s it.

Daniel manifested some physical symptoms, as described in Daniel 10. He lost his strength, and he fell face forward (not backward as the false prophets above did.) He was left afterward with no strength, and remarked he had barely any breath in him, either. (Daniel 10:17). The angel gave him strength. (Daniel 10:19). Daniel did tremble, but it was not in a seizure or fit, his trembling was in fear and anguish at the vision’s contents. When he was commanded to stand up, Daniel did. (Daniel 10:10-11).

Jacob dreamed of the ladder to heaven and then awoke and worshiped. (Genesis 28:10-17). Samuel heard God speak to him and listened. When morning came, Samuel opened the doors to the temple and went about his duties. There were no physical manifestations or seizure-like fits, no lengthy comas, just obedient listening, fully conscious with subsequent worship or attending to the task he was given. (1 Samuel 3:10-15). No seizure.

Balaam went into a trance, (Numbers 24:4) falling forward with his eyes open. No seizure.

Zacharias in the New Testament was visited by an angel, and Zacharias was afraid, but was comforted. He listened to the angel’s message about the upcoming birth of his son John the Baptist, and was conscious and sensible enough to ask his question. The angel rendered Zacharias mute for his impertinence. Zechariah finished his term of priestly duties as a mute and went to his home. Luke 1:5-23. No seizure.

Peter received a vision about the clean foods on the sheet, and no untoward flailing occurred along with the revelation. Same with Paul – no severe physical manifestations accompanied his several visions.

Now comparing the false visionaries such as Muhammad, Smith, and White, we see that the incidences of demon possession in the Bible more closely mirror their experiences than do the experiences of the Bible’s true prophets.

“Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid.” (Mark 9:17-18).

These are exactly the symptoms Muhammad exhibited, indeed, Muhammad himself often wondered that his fits were due to demonic spirits.

In Mark 5:3-5 we have the story of the demon possessed Gadarene, who exhibited superhuman strength, yelling, cutting himself, and craziness. We know he was out of his mind with lunacy because after Jesus sent the demons out, we read that the man returned to his right mind. (Mark 5:15).

Matthew 17:15 records that a father begged Jesus to heal his son, who was a lunatic and insensibly threw himself into the fire and the water constantly. Jesus sent the demon out of the boy. (Matthew 17:18).

It’s clear to see the difference between the false prophets’ visions and dreams, and the true prophets’ experiences. The Biblical prophets were sensible, conversed with the angel or with God in their right mind, did not flail about in fits like a lunatic, and were able to rise up afterward and either go about their duties or to worship, with the lone exception of Daniel who was mightily depleted at times from what he had seen. But we can’t blame him, Daniel was given horrific visions to see and record.

Today, we see false prophets of the Charismatic movement falling to the floor, writhing, foaming, screaming, laughing uncontrollably, exactly like those who were recorded as having demons in their body. John MacArthur sums this up:

I was watching the other day some behavior among Hindus who are a part of what’s called the Kundalini cult, the Kundalini cult. They have certain body movements that appear to be perhaps best explained by demon possession. And they’re the absolutely identical body movements to people in the charismatic movement in the extreme behaviors that we see in so-called revivals. This is paganism. This is the work of Satan. This is the work of the kingdom of darkness, and it is not to be attributed to the Holy Spirit. Source

Justin Peters has said, “It is not enough to believe in Jesus. You have to believe in the right Jesus.” (Source, video Devilish Puppet Master of the Word of Faith movement.)

Muhammad’s Islam, Joseph Smith’s Mormonism, Ellen G. White’s 7th Day Adventism, Padre Pio’s Catholicism, and all other cults that begin with a supposed vision from God, deliver a false Jesus. They say they believe in Jesus, but it is not the right Jesus. How can one tell if one is following the right Jesus? He will be the Jesus of the Bible.

Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. (Acts 1:11 KJV).

It is very concerning that many women Bible teachers say they have had visions and are drifting toward Charismatic behavior with physical manifestations. One hallmark of a false vision is that true visions call upon people to repent. False visions never do. They’re always about one’s comfort and ease, or a new way to be a Christian, or some other puffery that will lead a person away from the only true word, the Bible.

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

————————————————

More information-

Most Dangerous Religious Cults: begun from visions and direct revelations from celestial beings claiming to be Mary, Jesus, angels, and so on. Beware those who claim to have had visions, dreams, and interactions with celestial beings! From these, some of the world’s most dangerous cults and false religions have sprung!

L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the cult of Scientology, started his cult on the basis of a near-death experience he had under the influence of nitrous oxide during a dental procedure. When he awakened and recovered, Hubbard said he had seen the secrets of life. (Source, his unpublished tome Excalibur, later re-worked into his more famous Dianetics book). Not that I can find particular evidence of any visionary manifestations of the physical, but with Hubbard I’m just noting that once again, a cult is built on personal revelations supposedly received from the divine or otherworldly source.

Unification Church members believe that Jesus appeared to Mun Yong-myong when he was 16 years old on Easter morning of 1935 (April 17) and asked him to accomplish the work left unfinished because of his crucifixion. After a period of prayer and consideration, Mun accepted the mission, later changing his name to Mun Son-myong (Sun Myung Moon). Source

The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God was a breakaway religious movement from the Roman Catholic Church founded by Credonia Mwerinde, Joseph Kibweteere and Bee Tait in Uganda. It was formed in the late 1980s after Mwerinde, a brewer of banana beer, and Kibweteere, a politician, claimed that they had visions of the Virgin Mary. Source

Raëlism is rooted in the experiences of a French former automobile journalist and race car driver Claude Vorilhon. In his books The Book Which Tells the Truth (1974) and Extraterrestrials Took Me to their Planet (1975), Vorilhon had alien encounters with beings who gave him knowledge of the origins of all major religions. Source

Uncategorized

The Gathering Storm

Posted on October 11, 2017 by elizabethprata

You know the story of Esther and her Uncle Mordecai. She was a Jewess in Persia who was chosen via contest by King Xerxes to be his wife. Except that Xerxes didn’t know she was Jewish and when evil Second in Command Haman whispered to Xerxes to make a decree killing all the Jews, she was then in a real bind. It all had started when Uncle Mordecai, who had by then been promoted to an inside the court job in the King’s administrative palace, refused to bow to Xerxes as Lord of all. Though apparently Mordecai had lived a fairly secular life, and perhaps for a while had traded wealth, influence, and power for Yahweh, when pressed, his faith rose up and he came through. It was his defining moment. Who will he bow to? Not Xerxes. God only. Mordecai chose.

“All the royal officials at the king’s gate knelt down and paid honor to Haman, for the king had commanded this concerning him. But Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor. Then the royal officials at the king’s gate asked Mordecai, “Why do you disobey the king’s command?” Day after day they spoke to him but he refused to comply. Therefore they told Haman about it to see whether Mordecai’s behavior would be tolerated, for he had told them he was a Jew.” (Esther 3:2-4)

Soon after, Esther was faced with her defining moment. She could lay low, but Mordecai told her,

“Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:13-14)

So then, her other option was to tell the truth, approach the king, and plead for her people, even at peril for her own life. It was a defining moment for Esther.

In the 1960s and 1970s Firestone had a jingle in which the last line included the now-familiar phrase “Where the rubber meets the road.” The phrase has come to mean not just good tires, lol, but a defining moment of truth, the most important point. It is like an Olympic Athlete who has trained for years, but everything only really counts at the moment of the race. Will he put all his training into a glorious and successful effort? Or will he stumble?

The four soils. In the parable of the soils in Luke 8:5-8, Jesus likened the Word of God to four types of soils the farmers of the times would have been familiar with. In reading Ken Ramey’s book “Expository Listening” I learned that in ancient Palestine there were no fences. Between the fields were paths, which, due to incessant travel over them, had hard-packed the soil to almost cement-like consistency. Any seeds falling on that soil would never take root. Birds would eagerly swoop down instantly to take away the seed. This was a metaphor for a stubborn, unreceptive heart.

The other three soils Jesus spoke of in the parable were rocky, thorny, and good. The soil is an example of the kind of heart on which the word-seed would fall: rocky=shallow, superficial heart, thorny=worldly, strangled heart, good=soft, receptive heart.

From John Piper:

“This hard word is a quote from Isaiah 6:9-10 where God tells Isaiah his ministry to Israel will not only be saving for some but hardening for others. God says to Isaiah, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive; keep on looking, but do not understand.’ Render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull, and their eyes dim, otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and return and be healed.” In other words, time had run out for these people and the Word of God was no longer effective to save them, but was only effective to render their hearts insensitive, and their ears dull, and their eyes dim.”

“Even when preaching the Word of God does not soften and save and heal, it is not necessarily ineffective. This preaching of the Word may be doing God’s terrible work of judgment. It may be hardening people, and making their ears so dull that they will never want to hear again. There is a judgment in this world – not just in the world to come (Romans 1:24) – and oh, how we should flee from it. Which in this text means: take heed how you hear! Don’t be cavalier in the hearing of God’s Word week after week. If it is not softening and saving and healing and bearing fruit, it is probably hardening and blinding and dulling (see 2 Corinthians 2:16). (John Piper, From the Sermon: Take Care How You Listen – Part 1, Luke 8:4-18, February 15, 1998, http://www.DesiringGod.org.)

Albert Mohler wrote an eBook recently called

The Gathering Storm: Religious Liberty in the Wake of the Sexual Revolution

The link above brings you to a page where you can download it for free.

Is America approaching an Esther moment for her Christians living inside her borders? Is there a gathering storm? Will that moment reveal which kind of soil resides in our hearts? I think so. It may not happen today or tomorrow, but soon each Christian in America will have to choose his or her path in the public sphere. We have great privilege here in the US where we can gather on any Sunday, or any day, freely to worship our sovereign. We can claim Him as sovereign and proclaim Him as sovereign, without another competing sovereign quelling our exultation. We can share the Gospel in the public sphere and set up monuments, signs, statues, crosses or whatever we want in certain places, with or without permits in certain circumstances. We can pray in public and we can speak of Him to friend and stranger.

Don’t take these privileges for granted. Freedom to worship is being chipped away at and redefined every day. Be prepared for a chilling effect or even a forced cessation of them.

Do not think that because you are in the king’s house US you alone of all the Jews Christians will escape…the persecution experienced by other Christians around the world in this time or in previous eras.

No matter hat though, our King’s throne is secure and His Kingdom is permanent. His church will thrive no matter the man-made pressure brought to bear against it. His people will be brought home to freely worship Him forever.

For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech, that all of them may call upon the name of the LORD and serve him with one accord. (Zephaniah 3:9).

movie review, Uncategorized

Movie Review: Pitch Perfect

Posted on October 10, 2017 by elizabethprata

Do you like sweet movies, maybe with a little music or dance, with a tried-and-true simple plot, featuring adult teens and twentysomethings, all innocent? I do too! So I watched the movie Pitch Perfect because I’d heard it was all of the above! It wasn’t!

Pitch Perfect was released in 2012, so I am very late to the party. The movie follows disaffected Beca Mitchell, just arrived at Barden College, dismissing her newly divorced father’s persistent advice to get more involved in college life. Loner Beca drifts until she becomes inadvertently involved with the Barden Bellas, an all-female a Cappella competitive singing group. The Bellas made it to the finals of a nationwide singing competition last year but an unfortunate incident involving the lead singer during their finals performance caused great humiliation and their loss. The leader of the group wants redemption.

Redemption won’t come however, as their tired and decades-old routines are consistently outshone by other groups who sing and dance with fresher approaches. Beca has some great ideas, but she is shot down by the leader who insists that tradition will get them the win. As the Bellas make their way through the quarterfinals and semi finals, with the finals looming, will the Bellas eventually embrace change and try a new approach? Will Beca, only barely hanging in with little commitment, stay with the group to the end?

The singing was good and so were the dances. The storyline, though recycled from a million other competition movies before it, was absorbing enough. However, the movie featured promiscuous sex (nothing shown, only referenced), drinking, vomiting from drinking, language, and lesbianism. Most of the dances were suggestive in the extreme. During the final performance one of the singer-dancers performed a lascivious move I wish I could unsee.

The review at Common Sense media was generous, but the Parent Reviews on the same website were not generous at all. The parent reviews in my opinion displayed more common sense.

Clipboard02 — User reviews by parents at CSM, most reviews were of this vein

Then movie was not wholesome, despite its rating of PG-13. I have fewer objections to R-rated movies, because with them at least you know what you’re getting. This one, advertised as sweet and appropriate for ten-year-olds, left me wanting to take a shower.

Not recommended.

discernment, Uncategorized

RC Sproul deals harshly with a foolish question

Posted on October 9, 2017October 9, 2017 by elizabethprata

When Adam sinned, God did not curse man. He cursed the ground and He cursed man’s labor, but He did not curse man. Genesis 3:17-19.

God did curse Jesus, who never sinned. “his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God.” (Deuteronomy 21:23).

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— (Galatians 3:13).

Every day is a great day to worship our Savior who became cursed for us, became sin for us, as the substitute Lamb who shed His blood for us, so that He could redeem us.

Jesus is God and as God, He is supreme, omniscient, holy, all-powerful, infinite, eternal, righteous, loving, sovereign, gracious, truth, and so much more. He deserves worship! He deserves our devotion, our love, our submission. He deserves to be known, as far as He has revealed in scripture.

And yet, we make Him into a cosmic, butler, a boyfriend, a money machine, a put-upon uncle who is expected to only forgive and never chastise. Below in a one-minute clip, RC Sproul deals harshly with a foolish question. Do we know who God is?

Know and love Jesus for who He is. We know Him through the scriptures.

encouragement, Uncategorized

Time of refreshing

Posted on October 8, 2017 by elizabethprata

I’d had a hard week, a long one. It had been a few days since I’d read my Bible. I was 6 days overdue for reading the pages in the book Biblical Doctrine I’m studying with an online group, and the new weekly study was going to come out the next day. If I didn’t do some reading I’d be a week behind in the study, and I was already a few days behind in Bible reading. When I read the ten pages suggested for the Doctrine study, I always also read a chapter in The Hidden Life of Prayer by David MacIntyre. I hadn’t read that either, even though it would only represent a few pages of reading and wasn’t especially hard or time-consuming.

It infuriates me when I do this. I exclaim aloud as Paul did in Romans 7:15-20, 24 why do I do the things I don’t want to do and do the things I don’t want to do? Who will deliver me from this body of death?

I didn’t desire to be behind any more. Nor did I want to neglect my God any further. I buckled down and read all my pages, the Bible, the weekly Bible Study, and my chosen book on Prayer. I took a leisurely two and a half hours to do it, though given the number of pages, the actual reading time could have been shorter. But the amazing thing is, the longer I read the Word, and the deeper I went into the Doctrine study, the more relaxed I became. I wanted to stay with it. I enjoyed it tremendously. I luxuriated in reading a bit, then lifting my eyes and praying in exultation, pondering a while, then reading some more. I was amazed when I finished, it felt like just one minute had passed.

When I finished I felt refreshed and relaxed. I felt good, through and through. Why is that?

I confessed my laziness to several of the men in my Bible Study group the next night. I mentioned the amazing feeling afterward, the energy and freshness I’d felt when I concluded my personal session. Why is that? And why do I put it off when I know that the Lord is worth the discipline, and that I’ll be receiving the gift of His presence through the scriptures, not to mention the bonus of the fresh and energized feeling?

They both said,

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; (Psalm 19:7).

The answer is simple- the scriptures refresh like no other activity, item, discipline, food or drink on earth. They refresh totally because they are not from earth.

His word revives the very soul.

bible reading 1

encouragement, Uncategorized

Kay Cude poetry: Our Fortress Prevails

Posted on October 8, 2017 by elizabethprata

Poetry by Kay Cude. Used with permission. Artist’s statement below.

I keep returning to our (me!!) needing to “remember” God’s promises and provision. GOD THE I AM is the only fortress in Whom we find a righteous protector, defender and provider. He is the only place of eternal refuge from the world’s continuing tragedies and chaos. He is the stronghold Who is and Who will provide peace, wisdom, understanding, instruction and endurance.

OUR FORTRESS PREVAILS

pratas place graceful garlands seeking sleep 36

Prata’s Place-Graceful Garlands 36 – Seeking Sleep

Image• Posted on October 7, 2017October 9, 2017 by elizabethprata

encouragement, Uncategorized

Miserable Wives

Posted on October 6, 2017October 9, 2017 by elizabethprata

Author and blogger Doug Wills wrote an essay last week about “Miserable Wives.” Many wives might see themselves in the essay. I know I did.

The article centers on wives who are in a good enough marriage, with husbands who are loving enough, in churches that are solid enough, living on means that are, well, enough. But for some reason, these wives are still discontented.

Her discontent grows and it threads through her entire outlook, until her current mood is king (or queen, actually) of the house. The husband then begins a cycle of indulging her temper and her mercurial moods. Eventually, if it becomes an entrenched pattern, it is usurpation by the wife, who is effectively leading the house through her emotions/tempers/disconsolate outlook. This is sin.

Here is one excerpt from the essay Miserable Wives that I thought was especially perceptive:

You said that Jon isn’t meeting your needs, and that you don’t feel nourished and cherished. You said that he isn’t “feeding” you. But Jon is not failing to feed you in the midst of a famine. He is trying to figure out what to do about the fact that you have gone on a hunger strike. When Jon reads Scripture to the kids, what do you do? Are you off in the kitchen doing the dishes? Perhaps making a little extra noise?

I used to do that. Make a little extra noise. And feel perversely satisfied in doing it, too.

Here’s another excerpt from Doug Wills’ article:

The hidden assumption in this (for both you and Jon) is that you take these emotional states as reliable and authoritative, instead of rejecting them as being the most manifest and bald-faced liars. You say that you know Jon loves you, but then you say in the next breath that you feel unloved. And in every battle between your knowledge and your feelings, which one wins? You take the word of your lying feelings over the word of your accurate assessment, over against your knowledge. Your feelings are your authority, even when you know they are being deceitful.

Today I’d like to launch my main point from Doug Wills’ essay about the wifely discontent. Women today are fairly bombarded with claptrap from Women’s Ministries, female Bible Studies, and lady Bible leaders who often teach to the lie that it is OK to indulge our emotions even if they are opposed to the knowledge of what Christ has done for us and our life in Him. There are lessons which are mainly based on the destructive notion that our self-esteem, or some kind of inherent female “value” has more import than it actually does. But that is a blog essay for another day.

The main cause is discontentment with Jesus. There’s another I’ll explore below. Many female Bible teachers are explicitly and overtly teaching women to be discontent with Him. The quotes below are from women who are alleged Bible leaders. These are popular female ‘Christian’ teachers busy publicly expressing the highest and most corrupt kind of discontent there can be: discontent in Jesus.

Example #1: Priscilla Shirer explains that she became sad at the daily ‘chore’ of the spiritual disciplines such as prayer and Bible study because,

My spiritual disciplines became more of a chore, a duty, an effort. … He just wasn’t knocking my socks off anymore, and I wasn’t sure why. (source – NYT)

The Westminster Shorter Catechism says that Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever. (Psalm 86, Psalm 16:5-11, 1 Peter 4:11). The Catechism doesn’t say, “Jesus’ chief end is to knock our socks off and enjoy us forever.” The NY Times author noted that Shirer’s description of her relationship with her Creator-Savior sounded more like a marriage on the rocks. Even secular people get it. Shirer was discontent with the quantity or the quality of what Jesus wasn’t doing for her. Piled on top of the Genesis 3 affliction is discontent with the affliction-giver Himself.

Example #2: Author of the perennial devotional bestseller Jesus Calling, Sarah Young, who said,

“I began to wonder if I … could receive messages during my times of communing with God. I had been writing in prayer journals for years, but that was one-way communication: I did all the talking. I knew that God communicated with me through the Bible, but I yearned for more. Increasingly, I wanted to hear what God had to say to me personally on a given day.” (underline mine. Source – Challies).

It wasn’t enough for Sarah to enjoy Jesus as creator, priest, intercessor, savior, friend, groom, provider, etc. It wasn’t enough for her to enjoy Him through His word, delivered by His own blood, the Spirit, and kept alive by the blood of the saints. No, she yearned for more. Her declaration means that she believes the sufficiency of the Bible is not enough. She is discontented with Jesus. The entire cottage industry of her Jesus Calling books is based squarely on female discontent.

Example #3: Beth Moore. source Charisma Magazine,

“We are settling for woefully less than what Jesus promised us,” said Moore. “I read my New Testament over and over. I’m not seeing what He promised. I’m unsettled and unsatisfied.“

Beth Moore. Please stop speaking. Just please stop.

Lysa TerKeurst wrote a book called Becoming More Than a Good Bible Study Girl. In one of the chapters the question is posed, Is Something Missing in Your Life? The synopsis states:

Lysa TerKeurst knows what it’s like to consider God just another thing on her to-do list. For years she went through the motions of a Christian life: Go to church. Pray. Be nice.

Longing for a deeper connection between what she knew in her head and her everyday reality, she wanted to personally experience God’s presence. Source: Becoming More Than a Good Bible Study Girl, Amazon book blurb.

Why is there a disconnect between what TerKeurst knew in her head and what she experienced every day? Why is she seeking an experience over that which she knows to be true? Isn’t what we know from the Bible, enough? Not for these women. And these women teach.

The issue of discontent is also rooted in a forgetfulness of who we are in Christ. Who are we? What is our purpose? As women, are we forgotten? Do we matter? Key questions, all!

“In Christ” is a key phrase. Our identity is “in Christ”. Paul wrote the phrase ‘in Christ’ about 83 times! Here is a great example from Ephesians.

so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17-19).

Women, sisters, wives, moms, grandmoms, we are IN Christ. He is the pinnacle of all the universe. He is the apex, the majestic mountaintop, the perfect image of God. Jesus is pre-eminent. And we are IN Him.

As Wills concluded his article, he wrote, “Self-identity comes through surrender. This way of contentment really is plausible.”

Yes it is. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, including living a contented life for His glory as a wife, mother, woman, in Christ. It’s who we are. I pray you are satisfied in the knowledge of our identity in Christ, and that it fills your heart as well as fill your head. Don’t let the fake Bible teachers inspire discontent in you. Don’t let your own flesh spark discontent in you, either. 🙂 Our identity is In Christ, and He is sufficient.

wedding gown wife

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The cycle of war will soon be broken

Posted on October 5, 2017December 5, 2019 by elizabethprata

This first appeared on The End Time in March 2010.

The LORD makes us some promises that are fear-inducing. Other promises He makes are awe-inspiring. Some are both at once. They are bookends of man’s folly and His glory.

In Joel’s prophetic book, at chapter 3 verse 10, it is written: “Beat your plowshares into swords And your pruning hooks into spears; Let the weak say, “I am a mighty man.”

Most of us have heard the line that we will beat our swords into plowshares. That verse is located at Isaiah 2:4 – “And He will judge between the nations, And will render decisions for many peoples; And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they learn war.”

Did you know that there were opposite prophecies concerning the plowshares, the one in Joel and the other in Isaiah? God is great and His Word is great.

A plowshare is the pointed part of the homemade plow that digs into the ground. (Image source, University at Buffalo). The cutting point was often laced with bronze or (later) iron. This advance was introduced by the Greeks. In those days as it often as now, metal was expensive. In times of war it was reused by melting it down or forging to make weapons. In WWII America scrap metal drives were held to accumulate metal to be used in munitions. One scrap metal drive accumulated over 5 million tons of metal in just three weeks. It was common or people to strip the metal from their plowshare and beat them into swords when war loomed on the horizon. When the war was over, the reversed the process and beat them into plowshares again. Life on earth has been a never-ending cycle of war-peace, war-peace; plowshares into swords-swords into plowshares…

The Joel verse about the plowshares in context describes war that occurred, war that is ongoing, and also speaks of a (near) future war. It will be a time when God will gather all the people to the Valley of Jehoshaphat (Valley of Decision) and render unto them His wrath, because “you have divided my land.”

War is coming. Not only does Joel describe the last war when all nations are gathered, the horrendous WWIII, but war will occur prior to that ultimate war as prophesied in Psalm 83, Isaiah 17, and Ezekiel 38-39.

However, the good news is that there is a glorious ending to the story. The never-ending war cycle will be broken! Isaiah prophesies that “they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they learn war.” Oh, merciful Lord! No more war. Plowshares forever.

Can you imagine a time or a place where war is never rumored, never occurs, where the earth never requires reconstruction nor cleanup? A place where a peaceful, loving, agrarian society quietly lives and loves other nations? It will happen. You can be part of it. All you need to do is recognize you are a sinner, and feeling sorry that you sinned, ask Jesus to forgive you. If you accept Him as savior and Lord, (meaning He is the only one Who can and will forgive all your sins) you will be forgiven and live forever in a place where there is no war. Hallelujah! The Lord is victorious!