Thursday, January 26, 2012

Social Networking


  Social networking is a wonderful tool in the hands of every Believer, if it’s used in the right way. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and MySpace can all be used as tools for spreading the word about the love of Christ, or it can be a tool used to tear down, ridicule and embarrass.

  Over the past few weeks I’ve become more and more aware of how supposed Christians, supposed ministers are using the social networking media to wage war against fellow Believers or, in the case of a recent minister who fell from grace, to mock and ridicule. This isn’t right and, in fact, it is SIN! Nowhere in the Bible can you find a passage that gives anyone the right to mock, ridicule, tear down or make fun of anyone. This isn’t what God calls love, not at all.

  Let me ask you a question, a serious question. Let’s suppose that, in a moment of weakness, you go out one night and get intoxicated. You’re a Christian minister and you know better, but for whatever reason, you did it. On the way home you get pulled over by a state trooper; you’re given a field sobriety test and fail it. You’re handcuffed and taken to the county jail where you are book for suspicion of driving under the influence.
  I’ve never been arrested like this, but I was a police officer for many years and have taken numerous people to jail. I can tell you that many of the people I took to jail never dreamed they would ever find themselves in this embarrassing situation. This is a very humbling experience.

  Before the end of the day, some of your “Christian” brethren find out that you’ve been arrested for DUI and they start plastering all over Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social networking sites. These people who should be expressing sorrow, grief and love, rather than express disbelief or words stating that they’re praying for you, they opening relish in the fact that you’ve been arrested and begin calling you everything in the book; these people who are commanded in the Scriptures to bare one another’s burdens, to restore one who falls are joining in with the world and making a mockery of you. How would you feel if this happened to you?

  Earlier this week I watched as a noted minister was torn apart by people who claim to be Christians, who claim to be ministers and who should know better. Rather than express words of love, concern and prayer: these people spoke with words of disdain and self-righteousness. They mocked and made fun of this minister and seemed to imply that he was a fake preacher, though there was no evidence to support such a claim.

  The Bible tells us that Satan is the accuser of the brethren and that he delights in making accusations against the saints. When someone who claims to be Christian begins making accusations against a fellow Believer, you cease to become a Believer and you become a sinner! When you point your self-righteous finger at someone who has fallen, rather than offer prayers, forgiveness and love, you have become no better than Satan and he is soon to be in Hell forever. 

  Our job isn’t to spread such news; it isn’t to call attention to someone who, in a moment of weakness, fell from God’s grace. Social networking isn’t for us to use as a means of pushing a brother or sister father down than they already are. How would you feel if every time you made a mistake, every time you sin or fall from God’s grace, you found the sorted story being played out on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and YouTube, not by the liberal and sinful world media: but by those who claim to be your family?

  We need to use our social networking sites not to put others down or to point out when one of our relatives fails or falls; we should be using them to show love, forgiveness and to tell the story of Jesus. We should be using them to motivate people to come to Christ, motivate people with words of encouragement and put Scriptures out that could lead someone to our Lord and Savior.

  Rather than use your social networking sites as a tool to embarrass, ridicule or put down a Believer… remember that to do so is sin. When you point a finger at someone to point out their sin, especially if you do it in any form of self-righteousness – there are three fingers pointing at you quoting Jesus. “Ye who are without sin may cast the first stone.”

  Father, forgive us for being accusers of our brethren rather than loving them, praying for them and doing all we can to restore them. Help us Lord to not allow this great sin to ever be found on our doorstep because it isn’t right and brings a bad light on Your precious name, Amen.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Say What?

  I wasn't going to write anything about this, but I can't keep it inside of me any longer. Someone sent me a YouTube video of a woman trying to declare that there's no need to read or study the Bible. She tried to assert that people who claim that Bible study are simply religious zealots and trying to frighten people.

  This is another example of someone speaking who shouldn't. Another example of someone who isn't in tune with God and does not have understanding that only comes from a real experience with the Father.

  Prayer and Bible study are very important to our daily walk with the Lord. Paul wrote that we should study to show ourselves approved unto God, workmen that had no need to be ashamed because we could rightly explain the Word of God. King David wrote that he had hidden God's word in his heart that he might not sin against God. The Bible teaches us that the Holy Spirit would bring the Scriptures to our remembrance when we needed them, but He could never do this if we hadn't first read them, heard them, studied them and already had them in our heart and mind.

  Folks, we need daily Bible reading and study every day just as much as we need food and water to live. We need to have some quality time with God and His love letter to us so we learn how to live godly lives and are able to know when some bag of wind is teaching a lie, such as this poor misguided woman is teaching.

  Paul warn us in his second letter to Timothy that there would come a day when people would run from truth and would heap to themselves teachers who would tickle the ear, but wouldn't teach the truth of God's Word. We're living in that day and deception is growing and, sadly, its growing in the church.

  Please, dear friends, don't listen to people who tell you that you have no need for prayer or Bible study. Keep away from people who are trying to tell you that you have no need to study Gods Word for whatever reason. In Matthew the 24th Chapter, Jesus warned us and commanded us when He said, "Let no man deceive you!" Many will try to sell you a bill of goods that sound good, sound right and might even make sense... but they're still wrong. Pray and read that Bible daily; seek out a Bible church and find teachers and preachers who have the integrity to preach God's Word in all its power and fullness.

 
  There's an old saying that I've come to adopt and believe in because of its simple truth. "If your Bible is torn apart, your life isn't." Remember this old saying because its full of truth.

God bless and keep you,

Dave

Sunday, January 8, 2012

I Resolve In 2012


The great nineteenth century preacher, Charles Spurgeon, is quoted as saying. “We shall not adjust our Bible to fit the age: but before we have done with it, by God’s grace, we shall have adjusted the age to the Bible.” Mr. Spurgeon, also known as the “people’s preacher,” could not have been more correct.

  In this modern age in which we’re now living, so many denominations, preachers and common people are trying to rewrite the pages of God’s Holy Bible. They are trying to claim that the Bible is outdated and has not kept up with the times. I beg to differ with those who say this. The Bible isn’t the one who isn’t keeping up, it is those who want to change the Bible who aren’t keeping up.

  Would any of you like to have a foundation under your house that shifts with the changing weather conditions? Would you like to have a foundation that changes with every whim of some neighbor’s fancy or desire? The obvious answer is no to both questions. Why then do you want a moral and spiritual foundation that can be changed to fit the whims of men?

  The Holy Bible has been the unchanging moral and spiritual foundation of man for thousands of years. Its clear message of morality, its clear message of social justice has rang clear and in no need of adjustment since the foundations of the earth. What creation dares to tell the Creator that He’s made some error in His work? Who are we to tell the King of the universe how to rule and reign in His dominion? We’ve no more right to tell the King how rule than we have to tell the sun not to rise on the morrow. It simply isn’t done.

  Religion seeks to change with the age in order to make it seem relevant. Religion, a device of men, can be changed to fit the moral decay of a generation because it seeks to use man’s reasoning, man’s knowledge and man’s pride as its measuring tool. It doesn’t take into account the Divine plan of the ages that only the Creator can change. Man’s folly is to try and create a religion that falls short of the King’s desire that all men come before Him in righteousness, in humility and with the knowledge that He alone decides man’s path.

  These religions that seek to change the Bible are wrong and they will suffer the punishment of God because they are leading souls away from the truth of God’s Word. These “preachers” and “teachers” who are trying to explain sin, trying to comfort the soul, trying to appease the masses by declaring the Bible is wrong or outdated: these are the ones who will face the anger of God if they don’t repent, and now. These who are mocking God by trying to overrule His authority, overrule the commandment of the King: these will face certain Hell if they don’t repent and come back and teach the truth.

  God isn’t a religion! God is the Creator and more importantly: HE IS KING. In a kingdom, the sovereign establishes the constitution and laws that govern their domain, their kingdom. No citizen, no matter how well meaning, can come in and change this because the word of the king is the law of the land. No citizen, no subject has the right or ability to overrule the monarch and, to attempt to do so is an act of treason.

  Jehovah is the King of the universe. Jehovah is the King by right of creation in that He created all that we know or ever will know. Because of this FACT, He alone makes the rules, the laws and has the right to write the Constitution. He has done this and seen to it that it was given to His all mankind in the book we call the Holy Bible. This is the Constitution of the Kingdom of Heaven and it cannot be altered by the hand of man, PERIOD. Anyone who attempts to do so is committing an act of treason against the King and could be subject to a sentence of death if they don’t repent.

  One last thing I’d like to add to this. Every preacher, teacher, prophet, evangelist, apostle and bishop called of God is an ambassador of the Kingdom of Heaven. The very first rule of an ambassador is that he or she has no personal opinion on any subject or law that the King has included in His laws or His Constitution. IF they King has made any statement on a subject that an ambassador is questioned on, that ambassador cannot give a personal opinion on: they can only quote from the King’s Constitution or from the King’s law.

  Every “preacher” is an ambassador and therefore is not allowed to have a personal opinion on any and all subjects that His Majesty has covered. No matter how an ambassador may be pushed, may be pressured; the only answer an ambassador may give are “I don’t have a personal opinion;” and, “It is the position of His Majesty’s government that (and the quote the Constitution or law). This takes the pressure off the ambassador and places back on the King thus giving the ambassador the freedom to quote the King and leave it.

  A wise man once said that “preachers are not to be concerned with being popular, but that are to be concerned with being biblically accurate.” This is the position that all ministers should take. We aren’t called to be popular, we’re called to preach and teach the Word of God, the message of the Kingdom. We aren’t called to adjust His Majesty’s words to fit the age, we’re required to speak to the age and tell them how to measure up to the Constitution, the Word of the King.

  This isn’t easy for me to say, but this must be said. Jesus told us that the world would hate us because we speak the truth. Jesus warned us that to be popular with the world meant that we weren’t teaching and preaching His message and that of His Father, the King. No matter what the personal cost may be, no matter how unpopular it might make me; I have resolved that I no longer have a personal opinion and that I will not be concerned with being popular: I’m going to make sure that I accurately quote His Majesty. I will not chance being wrong and missing the mark that my God and King has set for me, and neither should you.

  As citizens of God’s Kingdom, our job is to be in right standing with the throne. Our job is to make sure that our lives and our answers to the social questions we’re asked match those of the King. To do any less is an illegal act and could cost our soul, and that of the poor person who asked. I would rather offend someone with the truth, than to tell them a lie that will damn their soul to Hell. What about you?

  In 2012, let’s all resolve to learn God’s Word, to be ready with an answer He would be proud of and to make sure that we remain faithful doers of the word and not just hearers. Let us all resolve to be good citizens of the Kingdom and to remain in right standing with our King.

God bless you and keep you,

Dave

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

The Kingdom Message

  We've had wrong all these years. This is a simple straightforward statement that we all need to look at and correct. All these years, since somewhere around the third century AD, man has looked at God in terms of religion and this, it's the wrong concept.

  What I'm about to say will shock some of you and will make some of you wrong, but it is the truth any way. Jesus was not a religious man, nor did He preach religion when He walked this earth. Jesus had one very simple message that He never wavered from His entire ministry. We've read about it, talked and taught around it but, because we've never experienced it, we've not grasped the concept: Jesus taught about the Kingdom.

  In Matthew chapter 4 Jesus made His very first public statement: "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." The actual translation would be like "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has returned." In the book of Matthew alone, Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of Heaven some 48 times directly. He didn't preach some new religion, He didn't speak of new theological dogma or religious practices, He spoke of the Kingdom of God and Heaven. We've ignored this message and polluted what Jesus said with all kinds of man made junk.

  I was watching a video of Dr. Myles Munroe speak on this and he put it as well as anyone I've heard yet. Dr. Munroe said, "There are a lot of teachers teaching the gospel of Christ; but not too many who teaching the Gospel Jesus taught." The Church has strayed from the true Gospel message and thus have corrupted the truth with the religious devices of men which, as we're able to see, will never be equal to the message we should be teaching and preaching.

  The message of the Bible is one of the Kingdom of Heaven and how God created Earth to be a colony of His Kingdom. Earth was to be a visible copy of the invisible Kingdom of Heaven and man was to be the regent of this colony. Prior to the fall of Adam, this earth was an exact copy of Heaven and Adam enjoyed his position as God's regent here. After the fall, Earth was no longer blessed of God because it fell into the hands of His enemy who took over as regent until Christ came to restore the Kingdom.
  In 2012 my ministry will be teaching a lot of the kingdom principles found in the Bible as I try to show you how to reclaim what is yours by the King's decree. We will be learning this concepts and how to apply them to our daily lives in obedience to the King's original intent. Yes, this is a message that hasn't be taught in a very long time, but it's a message that will set you free once you study it out and understand it. It has absolutely nothing to do with religion, man's definition of the Bible or of God. It is the message Jesus taught, and it is the message that the world needs to hear.

  One of the main reasons the world doesn't run to the Church is because it has been flawed with man's stinkin thinkin and religious concepts that don't work. The world is searching for the power and anointing that can only come from the Kingdom of Heaven and a people who truly worship and believe in the King of the universe, Jehovah. It's time we realize that with the proper concepts, the proper teaching and the understanding of God's original intent: the children of the King can and will rule this world as God intended.

  Luke 12:32 is a verse you should look up and memorize. God, who is the King of all creation, wants to give His children the Kingdom. He wants us to have everything here that He has in Heaven. He wants us to be healthy, spiritually renewed and wealthy in all areas of our lives. This can only come from learning and acting in God's plan for our lives.

  I hope and pray as we teach this on the Internet radio program and in the YouTube videos we're going to produce, you'll be able to learn what you need to know to have the life God really wants you to have. Please continue to pray for the ministry and for me.

Blessings, peace and love,

Dave
An ambassador of the Kingdom of Heaven.