Tag: God

Posted in theology

Culture of death/culture of life

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

There was a woman taking out trash in the early pre-dawn who was hit by an illegal alien. His car knocked out of her socks and her body was a hundred feet from her trash can. The DA decided not to press charges.

We read stories like this all the time these days. I’ve mentioned several times recently that we are living in a culture of death. That culture will climax in the moment when all the world rejoices that the Two Witnesses of the Tribulation are killed and lay putrefying in the street. They celebrate their deaths by giving gifts. As opposed to Christmas when we celebrate the life of Jesus birthed on earth in the flesh to live among us.

The dignity of life is nothing these days. The fact that humans are made in the image of God means nothing to an increasing amount of people.

We have become inured to death. There have been over 63Million abortions since it was legalized in 1973. Abortion is death. It kills a human being.

Movies and televisions shows today routinely show death, and as a culture, we are fascinated with seeing death, watching serial killers, true crime, and horror movies. Even TV show title covers and movie posters are literally dark.

I watch the Aussie TV show City Homicide which started in 2007. They begin every episode with this title card:

In today’s real world, there seems to be rare honor in preserving life, caring about life, bringing justice to a life cut short. Oh, I know it exists, but increasingly what we see in the news is that the loss of a human life just doesn’t have the same punch for people. Children raised on vicious and violent video games laugh when someone gets hurt, shot, or killed. They think it’s funny.

But God! We Christians are released from death to live life and live it abundantly! We have life eternal. We among all people know what Life IS, and what death really is. We can and should display the joy that comes with this sure knowledge.

When we are in Christ, we are In the Person who will never die. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind, (John 1:4).

And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms on account of My name, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life. (Matthew 19:29).

These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. (Matthew 25:46).

You will make known to me the way of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever. (Psalm 16:11)

You have put joy in my heart, More than when their grain and new wine are abundant. (Psalm 4:7).

So therefore let us be joyful, let our faces shine with peace and happiness that we are saved and entered into full life of joy with the savior. In a culture of death, this will stand out to those staggering under weight of sin and specter of death. As death gleefully chokes our culture with its maniacal joy, let true joy of eternal life flow out from us who know the savior.

Posted in theology

Is God speaking to you? Part 1

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

The biggest topic I used to receive pushback on was naming a false teacher. People got angry when their favorite pet teacher was outed as false, thus, out flowed their invective. But lately the most pushback I receive is when I say that God is not speaking to us audibly or personally in these days. People are REALLY defending that one!

It’s sad how embedded the notion of God still speaking directly and audibly to people has become in such a short time. It’s particularly crushing to see that Celebrity women with large platforms are promoting this, and have been for years. Almost an entire generation now.

Is He whispering? Sending signs or omens? Should we seek intuitions, feelings, nudgings, whispers, small voices, and promptings that we might sense inside of our brain? Or even hear audibly?

Does God give new revelation today? Did He tell Beth Moore to go to a zoo and watch a napping baby koala together or build a snowman with Him? Did He respond to Sarah Young’s yearning “for more” than scripture by giving her so many personal devotions? Did He awaken IF:Gathering’s founder Jennie Allen one night and tell her to gather and equip this generation? Did He walk with HGTV’s Fixer Upper Joanna Gaines in her garden and tell her that He has a calling for her and that one day she will have a platform taking Magnolia further than she ever dreamed? Did Priscilla Shirer write an entire Bible study to teach us how we can prepare to “hear God’s voice and receive wisdom from Him”? These women have all claimed to have heard from God, AND put His alleged words in quotes.

A short history of “God told me”

I mention these particular women because they are (or were) not fringe, not in a cult, and not outside the bounds of orthodoxy when they first began claiming direct revelation. Oh, for years false prophets had been claiming God spoke to them, but they were never taken seriously. From around 90 AD when the canon was completed in the Book of Revelation to the 20th century, it was a given that the mainline church believed God’s new revelations were concluded. His final word was THE Word.

So why is it so rampant now?

top row l-r: Jennie Allen, Priscilla Shirer. Bottom row, Beth Moore, Sarah Young of Jesus Calling

Justin Peters addressed this issue at the Truth Matters conference in 2019 (one of many tmes he has addressed the problem). The title of his talk was “Hearing from Heaven: How to Know the Voice of God” He said-

I would submit to you that the resource, the book that is singularly most responsible for introducing charismatic theology into at least theoretically non-charismatic churches is Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby that came out in 1991. If you go back before 1991, at least in non-charismatic churches, almost everyone would have understood that God speaks to us through the Bible, we speak to Him in prayer. Today hardly anybody understands that; and I believe experiencing God is singularly most responsible for introducing these notions into non-charismatic churches.

I agree with this perspective. I remember when the book came to my former church. There was a huge buzz about it and immediately groups were formed to go through the study. We were told that it was going to change our life, make a huge difference in our walk, and so on.

Southern Baptist Convention member Beth Moore soon latched onto this notion that God speaks to us directly and from her earliest days promoted the idea through constant sharing of anecdotes of what He was supposedly telling her. Her very first “Bible study” called A Woman’s Heart: God’s Dwelling Place was published in 1995. Every page of the 200 page workbook (!) Moore asked the student to write on the blanks the answer to the following 2 questions: [underline mine]-

“At the conclusion of each lesson you will find two questions: 1) How did God speak directly to you today? 2) What is your response to Him?”

“By the conclusion of  each lesson you should be able to identify something in particular that you believe He was saying directly to you.”

Due to Moore’s large platform and general respect (back then) for the Southern Baptist Convention’s orthodoxy, her idea grew tentacles among women’s ministries and went everywhere from there.

In 2004 Sarah Young’s book Jesus Calling was published, where young outright said she heard from God. This book also made a huge impact and picking up the baton from Moore, the notion began forging new trails into the heart and mind of conservative women. It was no longer a fringe notion, since Blackaby and Moore were in conservative churches, not Charismatic nor Pentecostal…nor were either of them being chastised for their presumption that Jesus chooses special people to whom he gives special revelation directly and apart from the Bible. Sarah Young’s book became a brand and a cottage industry.

in 2014 Jennie Allen held her first IF:Gathering, in which she related to her audience that God woke her up one night to tell her, or whisper, or both, she couldn’t decide exactly, to gather and equip this generation, something not even Paul was charged with.

And now it’s 2024 and everyone and their sister seems to say, “God told me”. Luke Smallbone of the Christian musical group For King and Country said this month,

From Smallbone’s Instagram reel

It was actually a sweet moment. He was saying he had felt far from God, hadn’t dived into the Word in a while, and was repenting of that. Great. But he continued, “I felt God say to me, ‘Luke’, and I listened, and I felt him say, “I’ve missed you”.

While the sentiment is true, God does love us and wants us close to Him, it is unhelpful for Luke to claim that he heard God personally deliver the comfort. It is just plain wrong to put it in quotes. Even though Luke said ‘I felt God was saying’ it is still wrong. Luke didn’t say “I went to the scripture and the Holy Spirit, through the word, comforted me”. No he alleges he had a conversation. Tellingly, he did not turn to scripture for comfort nor did he advise his followers to do so. He just said “When life gets a little hectic, listen to what God is saying.”

A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough. (Galatians 5:9).

And “God told me” IS leaven.

In the next part, what direct revelation is (leaven) and isn’t (happening now), and how to respond to people who claim to have heard from Jesus.

Further Resources

G3 is hosting the Cessationist Conference Oct 3-5, 2024. “Join us in October of 2024 as we carefully consider key biblical arguments for the cessation of the miraculous gifts of the Spirit.”

Ligonier: Does the Holy Spirit tell people things in their thoughts?

G3: Beware of lowercase r- revelation

Posted in theology

God is not hindered

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Paul wrote 4 epistles while he was in jail, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon. Paul was in chains but he exulted that the Gospel was not chained.

Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, (Philippians 1:12).

God is not hindered by the circumstance of Paul’s imprisonment. In fact, God causes or allows everything to occur on the earth, so Paul being in chains was part of His plan. Paul knew the Gospel well enough to know this, and he exulted in Jesus and His Gospel and was humbly confident in the Lord he could be used. Paul’s confidence spread to others,

and that most of the brothers and sisters, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear. (Philippians 1:14).

The Gospel goes out to whomever the Lord determines it to go out to, whether an individual or a group, tribe, or nation.

What else is God not hindered by?

God is not hindered by someone’s lack of eloquence. 2 Corinthians 11:6, Exodus 4:10.

God is not hindered by someone’s imprisonment. Acts 12:10, Philippians 1:14.

God is not hindered by distances. Paul’s letters reached their destinations whether close by or far afield. (Romans 16:1). So did John’s Revelation even though he was exiled on an island rock.

God is not hindered by poverty. Paul commended the severely impoverished Macedonian church for giving liberally out of their extreme poverty. 2 Corinthians 8:1-4.

God is not hindered by lack of education. Acts 4:13

No matter where you are, who you are, how rich or poor, educated or uneducated, God can and will use you. Pray to Him and ask to be used. It doesn’t matter if it is a great way like Moses and Paul, or a small way invisible or unknown- God knows. His glory is our chief end, and to enjoy Him. What a privilege to be used by God for His glory! Us! Meager and pitiful humans, stumbling along, yet used to further His plan and purpose!

Paul’s amazement and joy over this fairly leaps off the pages of the Bible. Asking to be used, and being used, glorifies God.

Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.
1 Cor. 10:31; Rom. 11:36; Ps. 73:25-28.

HOW do we enjoy God? See these two paragraphs from this church blog

Norman Maclean, in his autobiographical work, A River Runs Through It, shared a memory of his childhood as it pertained to this question. “In between on Sunday afternoons we had to study The Westminster Shorter Catechism for an hour and then recite before we could walk the hills with my father while he unwound between services. But he never asked us more than the first question in the catechism, “What is the chief end of man?” And we answered together so one of us could carry on if the other forgot, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.” This always seemed to satisfy him, as indeed such a beautiful answer should have.”

Indeed, it is a beautiful statement. It reminds us of what we were created to do, and that there is true enjoyment in doing it. God, the author and creator of life, created us to worship him, to glorify him in all things! But there is more here. By glorifying God, we find that we actually enjoy him. We find fellowship and communion with our heavenly Father that is eternal in scope. This is our true contentment! Being created to glorify God doesn’t just benefit God (not that God could be enriched or benefit from us!). No, rather, we find that we, the created finite beings, are the ones who benefit infinitely.

http://proclamationpca.com/blog/2015/1/9/westminster-shorter-catechism-qa-1

God is not hindered. Have full confidence in Him, even if you do not have full confidence in yourself!

Posted in encouragement, Uncategorized

Kay Cude poetry: Our Fortress Prevails

Posted on by elizabethprata

Poetry by Kay Cude. Used with permission.  Right click on image to open larger in new tab. 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

Posted in theology

“Please show me your glory!”

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Moses pleaded with God for Him to show His glory to Moses. What does this tell us about Moses? What does this tell us about us? But first, the passage in context: Exodus 33:17-23,

The LORD said to Moses, “I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name.” 18Then Moses said, “Please, show me Your glory!” 19And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion to whom I will show compassion.” 20He further said, “You cannot see My face, for mankind shall not see Me and live!” 21Then the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; 22and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. 23Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.”

Moses had communed with God already on the Mount. He’d heard His voice. He had seen the burning bush, a manifestation of God’s power and sovereignty over creation. He’d been given the privilege of learning God’s own name from God’s own lips. He’d been told he had favor with God.

So why ask to see His glory? Is Moses being pushy? Selfish?

What’s happening here is that God had told Moses that he would continue leading the people to Canaan…BUT that God would not be with them. Moses then makes 3 pleas:

“In verses 12–14 he asked for something for himself as the mediator;
in verses 15–17 he asked for something for Israel as the people of God;
in verses 18–23 he asked for something for himself as a man who wanted to know God.“
Source- Ryken, P. G., & Hughes, R. K. (2005). Exodus: saved for God’s glory.

Moses have been as close to God as any man till then and almost till now. But Moses wanted to know God MORE. The more we get to know God, the more we should want to know Him more. He should be our cornerstone of life.

“What Is the Glory of God?”
“The glory of God is the holiness of God put on display. That is, it is the infinite worth of God made manifest.” ~John Piper at Ligonier.org

Moses knew he could not successfully lead that fractious group of stiff-necked people to the Land. He needed God. Moses had spent decades in Egypt trying to do things his way. It didn’t work. He needed God.

More than that, he wanted God. He desired a close relationship with Him, to be in constant communication. To see God’s glory is to be reminded of his own station (lowly) and God’s station (Holy and perfect). Who wouldn’t WANT someone like that in your life? And God wasn’t just anyone, He is THE Someone.

What this shows us is that the more you are with God, the more you want Him. Our Bible reading and prayer life should motivate us to want to know more and more of Him. Have you ever been so overwhelmed with the majesty and wonder of God that you just cry out, MORE!?

Matthew Henry said of Moses,

“He had enjoyed as intimate a communion with God as ever any man had on this side heaven; and yet he is still desiring a further acquaintance.“

Do we?

Posted in encouragement, Uncategorized

El Shama: A God who hears, He is a God who listens

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Yesterday I posted about how Jesus Intercedes for Us. My goal was to encourage and assure ladies that the Triune God hears our prayers, supplications, appeals, and repentances.

Doesn’t it just crush you to pray to Jesus…and know He hears us? It’s incredible, and a privilege we always remember in gratitude.

As Isaiah cried in his wonder and grief, “I am a man of unclean lips!” (Isaiah 6:5). In my case, a woman of unclean lips. Why should I be able to use these lips to pray to Jesus when I am the chief of sinners, wretched woman that I am? What is man that God should be mindful of us? (Psalm 8:4). Why should He hear us?

But He does.

Though ‘El Shama’ is not an official name of God, it refers to the fact that God hears…He listens. God told Hagar to name her soon to be born son Ishmael. Ishmael is is a combination of el and shama, “God hears” or “God listens”. The name would be a reminder to Hagar and all who knew them that He heard Hagar’s cry in the wilderness. (Genesis 16:11). He listens.

Psalm 17:6 says

I have called on you, for you will hear me, O God: incline your ear to me, and hear my speech.

Gill’s Expositions says of the Psalmist’s plea in verse 6,

“for thou wilt hear me, O God; God is a God hearing prayer; he is used to hear his people, and they have frequent experience of it, and they may be assured that whatsoever they ask according to his will, and in the name of Christ, he will hear; and such an assurance is a reason engaging the saints to a constant calling upon God, Psalm 116:2; and such confidence of being always heard Christ had, John 11:41;”

1 John 5:14 says,

And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.

Did Peter forever relive his anguish each morning of his remaining life, when he heard the rooster crow the day awake and remembered his own perfidy? Owww, Peter, I understand your grief, the pain of betraying Jesus in word or in deed from our own sinful actions. Yet…Jesus prayed for Peter. Luke 22:32. He did not pray for Judas. Both men betrayed Jesus, but Jesus prayed for Peter.

If you’re a Christian, Jesus prays for you, too. It’s staggering to consider that the God of the Universe prays for us. He hears us, and He prays for us. We have a superlative God, One who is true and kind and loving and compassionate. Sister, no matter what you are going through, Jesus hears your prayer and He takes your cares to the Father in prayer. Be encouraged.

be strong verse
Posted in theology

“God is love, so he MUST hate”

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Link to Podcast-

https://anchor.fm/elizabeth-prata/episodes/Episode-361-God-is-love–so-he-MUST-hate-e1ut0pb

So many people have followed soft teaching women’s ministries for so long, with their constant focus on “God is love”, combined with an absence of teaching on sin, holiness, and wrath, that now we have slews of women who disbelieve God hates anything.

I had a Twitter interaction with a woman, who began her interaction with me by calling me a liar. I am very sad that civil discourse seems to have gone by the wayside, and people feel so free to resort to name calling to make their point, and worse, at the outset. She was commenting on my tweet thread on things God hates, which was accompanied by the verse from Proverbs 6. Ignoring the verse, she said that God doesn’t hate those He created.

I agree it would seem to be a contradiction, for God to make people and then hate them. But we must remember the beginning. It didn’t start out that way. He created Adam and then Eve. He created them in love, to have fellowship with them and for them to know Him and have fellowship. Then they sinned, bringing upon the world a curse, and upon themselves a sin nature which reverberates down to this generation and every human ever born (except for Jesus). God didn’t start out hating his created beings.

Remember also, He created the angels and He did not hate them either, until ‘Lucifer’ AKA satan the adversary sinned and brought a third of the angels with him in rebellion. Sin entered the world when he enticed Eve and she disobeyed. God hates sin. Always remember that.

And the phrase, “God hates the sin but loves the sinner”? It isn’t biblical. God does not cast only ‘sin’ into the Lake of Fire. He casts sinners into the Lake of Fire.

While I agree it isn’t profitable to focus only on His hate of sin, His wrath, and His punishment, it is also not good to focus only on His love, His care, and His tenderness in saving us. As my pastor says, there are two wings to the airplane. Love-hate, law-gospel, salvation-wrath, sin-repentance and so on. The plane is lopsided with only one wing, and it won’t fly right.

Our believing lives are two sides of one coin. While the redeemed are loved and no wrath is due us (because of our risen Jesus from the cross), even after salvation we should remember the position of the unredeemed. They dwell on an earth that’s cursed and they personally are dangling on an ephemeral spider’s web strand over the Lake of Fire to be dropped into it for all eternity if they fail to respond to the Gospel.

But that is where we are with so many women’s ministries. A decades-long hyper focus on love has given younger women the notion that no matter what, God is love only.

But God … is holy holy holy.

“Can God be good, and not move against wickedness? No. Can God be good and be apathetic towards evil? Absolutely not.” ~Paul Washer

The Hatred of God

God does hate.

God hates divorce. Malachi 2:16

God hated Esau. Malachi 1:3, Romans 9:13

God hates six things, no, seven…Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood, A heart that devises wicked thoughts, Feet that hasten to run to evil, A false witness who breathes out lies, And one who spreads strife among brothers. Proverbs 6

God hates the deeds of the Nicolaitans. Revelation 2:6

God hates false oaths. Zechariah 8:17

God hates all workers of iniquity. Psalm 5:5, Psalm 11:5

And it isn’t even a comprehensive list of what God hates. Do you notice the last one? It isn’t just the sin God hates, but people who sin.

The title of this blog essay is a quote from Paul Washer. Below is an excerpt of a sermon he delivered years ago, called “The Hatred of God”. To paraphrase something he said in the excerpt of this sermon, ‘if you love babies…you must hate abortion. If you love African Americans…you must hate slavery. If you love the Jewish people…you must hate the Holocaust’. What he was describing there is the two sides of the same coin. One cannot have a holy hate unless you have love. You cannot have a Christian love unless you also hate. We MUST hate what God hates. Washer said:

You know that wonderful statement that goes something like this “God loves the sinner and hates the sin.” Just look at this text. [Psalm 5:5]. Is that what it teaches? It’s not what it teaches. I’m sorry, I know it’s a pretty thing to say and it looks good on the back of a contemporary Christian t-shirt, but it’s not what the scriptures teach.

[Ps 5:5] does not say here that God’s hatred is manifested towards the wicked deed. It says God’s hatred is manifested towards the one who commits it. ~Paul Washer

Don’t be fooled by ministries that omit half the Gospel. God does hate. How could He not? He’s perfectly holy. Therefore sin offends Him. Sinners offend Him!

BUT GOD: We are amazed and grateful that even though He is thoroughly offended by sin AND sinners, hates it, He sent Jesus to die for us!

Now- my disclaimer. This is not to say that we go around hating unbelievers who sin. They can’t help it. And, we redeemed are not perfected yet so we falter when we attempt to have a righteous indignation or a holy hate. Our motivations are born out of love for God so we try our best, but our sin nature can still corrupt the end result.

God is love. God does hate. Never forget that He is perfect, so His hate is perfect, always just the right amount and in the right degree and toward the right things. Dear ladies, please try to have a right view of God, a comprehensive view containing all of His attributes. Look at Him as He is revealed, through scripture, not through ourselves and our own notions of what love and hate is.

,Ladies please take a listen to this 19 minute clip. Washer at his best.

Posted in encouragement, Uncategorized

Kay Cude poetry: Our Fortress Prevails

Posted on by elizabethprata

Poetry by Kay Cude. Used with permission.  Right click on image to open larger in new tab. 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

Posted in christianity, theology

What does Christianity have that all other religions do not?

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

All religions are not equal. All other religions except Christianity are false.

See, the problem is sin. It’s not which god to worship. It’s not how to worship. It’s not how to be a better person. It’s not how to ‘connect with the divine.’ The fundamental human problem is our sin before a holy and just God. Only God is God, not Allah, he is no god. Not Shiva. Not Brahman.

I am the LORD, and there is no other;
         Besides Me there is no God.
Isaiah 45:5

Since our fundamental problem is how to be holy as God is holy, we must do something to restrain our sin. We must be forgiven of it. We must partner with a power outside of ourselves who is holy and perfect. Deep down we all know we’re rotten, we do bad, we need help, however you want to phrase it. So they seek ‘noble paths’ (Buddhism). They create second chances. (Hindu reincarnation). They worship the observable earth (Wicca, Druids). None will help man in his fundamental problem; restraining the flesh.

See? (Go here for 20-second vid)

All other religions can do nothing to restrain the flesh. In all other religions, the flesh is god, not God. Only God, who is transcendent, above us and His creation, the very Creator, can pass His hand over us and declare us just, through His Son Jesus. What Christianity has that all other religions do not is the ability of God to solve our sin problem.

“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15)

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoiced in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:1-2)

If you repent to Jesus, who died as the sacrificial lamb, shedding His blood, and absorbing and exhausting God’s wrath for His people, then you will be saved. he is the door to heaven. The only door.

I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. (John 10:9).

door