Peace of Mind in Perilous Times - Pete Garcia

Reposted from omegaletter.com 
Prophecy - Signs
Monday, September 15, 2014
Pete Garcia
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!  ~ Isaiah 5:20

It used to be, that people didn’t need to lock their doors at night, or worry about someone stealing a bike from their front yard.  You didn’t use to need to worry about your kids walking to the store by themselves, or just being out all day playing until dinner time.  You didn’t need to worry about whether your government was spying on you.  You trusted the banks to do with your money, what they said they would.  If bad guys did bad things, they were caught and went to jail (and for a long time).  You had a national border that actually stopped, or at least, limited the amount of unknowns coming into your country.  At one point in your life, you had faith in the system. 

But what we’ve seen in the last 25 years in the United States, is a rapid and aggressive acceleration into a national decline in almost every sector.  We have effectively transitioned from a producer-nation, to a service based nation.  We have rapidly transitioned from a creditor nation, to a debtor nation.  We have justified to ourselves (vis-à-vis an ever rising debt ceiling), the current level of sky rocketing debt we currently find ourselves in.  Time honored cultural and religious institutions are being turned on their head.  Marriage is no longer just between a man and a woman.  Children don’t necessarily need to come from only two parents.   Science is quickly outpacing the ethical boundaries that prevent the abuse of those technologies. 

Globally…Ebola, Bird Flu, Swine Flu, and a half dozen other diseases are but hairbreadth away from becoming pandemic.  Strange animal die-offs are occurring at alarming rates.  The radioactive fallout from Fukushima pollution of the Pacific has begun to change the face of life in the world’s largest ocean.  ISIS, Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Boko Haram, and many other Islamic terror groups are rampaging across the 10/40 window, leaving a trail of carnage in their wake.  Crime and murder have all but seized our city centers, which in turn has driven the law abiding citizen, further and further out of it. 

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good  2 Timothy 3:1-3

The norms and basic civil decencies are being turned on their head.  Ethnic tensions are on the rise globally, but none so alarmingly as they are right here in the US, where black inner-city mobs ‘knocking-out’ or beating up non-black persons, is seemingly becoming common place.  The media are reluctant or outright afraid to call things what they are, and ‘hate crime’ is seemingly only reserved for those ‘dangerous’ Tea Party types.  Right is wrong, up is down, black is white, and evil is good…and it’s only getting worse.  Notice how the Apostle Paul’s words are ringing truer and truer by the day.  Things are not getting better, but are getting progressively worse.  And now that we find ourselves in these very times he spoke of, are we surprised that they are anything less than what the Bible said they would be? 

Assessment

Not many years ago, it was really hard to find things to dig up to prove that we are in fact, in the last moments of the last days.  Such is not the case in 2014, where so much is happening, on so many fronts, that it makes your head hurt just thinking about it.  It would be really easy to get discouraged with all that’s transpired since 9/11/01 and conclude we must already be in the Tribulation in some form or fashion.  Maybe that is why positions like Pre-Wrath and Post-Tribulation positions seem to be growing at more rapid rates within Eschatological circles.  It is natural to assume, that when things take a turn for the worse, we must be in one or more of the judgments.  For instance…

The other day I was scanning the news when I came across an article talking about the pros and cons of the new RFID technology.  It had a long laundry list of potential benefits that it could have constructive impacts to many of the aforementioned problems we are currently experiencing in this nation.  For instance, it could help prevent crime, track predators, protect property, and prevent identity theft.  But at the end of the article, it asks the question of whether or not it’s ethical, and whether it has the potential for abuse.  I thought that was a rather silly question, considering all we know now about the abuses of government thus far, over privacy and what not.  But I liken it to the pre and post mindset people had before and after 9/11. 

Before 9/11, Americans would have never allowed the Patriot Acts to pass through the halls of Congress.  But afterwards, because of fear, it seemed like a very logical thing to do and it was pushed through at break-neck speed.  Now that it is in force, its tentacles of intrusion have only ever grown in its scope and depth as it reaches into the lives of average Americans.  All it took for the American people to hand over personal liberty was the right threat.  Each new potential threat is used to justify a continued and ever more pervasive reach into the lives of the public…and again, that too is by design. 

Fear drives our daily lives now.  Fear feeds into our belief systems, and into what we are willing to accept as normal.  Fear is ingratiating itself into our eschatology, which is why positions like Pre-Wrath and Post-Trib are on the rise in Evangelical churches.  Fear is an insatiable monster in and of itself, and it feeds on hope, and devours peace, crushes action, and delivers you into a cradle of bondage.

Conclusion

Being grounded in the Pre-Tribulation Rapture as THE Blessed Hope, is more than just lip service.  It is more than just head knowledge.  It’s more than just having the correct, chronological understand of end time’s events.  It was designed by God, to give us, a light of hope, in an increasingly darkened world.  Whether we want to accept it or not, we are that generation that will see the Lord return.  We are the generation with Israel back in her land.  We are the generation with Israel in control of Jerusalem.  We are the generation that has the technological and economic means to control all buying and selling in the world.  We are that generation that have all the signs converging at break neck speed.  And yes, doom and gloom is big business…just turn on your local or national news.  Fear sells, but we, are not called to live in a spirit of fear.  Peter says…

And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; 2 Peter 1:19

We are not only to have the proper understanding of Scripture, to include how things end (eschatology), but we are also supposed to apply that knowledge to our daily lives.  If you notice in the New Testament, almost every passage referencing the Lord’s coming at the Rapture, is preceded or surrounded by passages that promote holy living.  We are to live out our beliefs, by being grounded in the reality, that Christ will return, and that His return, will be before the world enters into that final seven years.   We are not called ‘overcomers’ for nothing…

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
It’s knowing, believing, and sharing that belief through our word and deed that will draw people to Christ, because we have this hope, in an increasingly hopeless world.  We belong to Christ, Christ is in us, and we make up the body of Christ…and Christ is God.  If Christ existed before all things, and by all things were created through Him, and Christ conquered death and hell at the Cross…what have we to fear?  What is in this life that poses a greater threat than that?  Nothing.  We are not called to have a spirit of fear.  The Pre-Tribulation Rapture (or catching up) is just hope realized and codified in Scripture for our benefit.  It was God’s plan, hidden before the foundation of the world, revealed through Paul and John to us, that we should live boldly and confidently, in a world that is passing away. (Eph. 3:1-7; 1 Thess 4:13-5:9; 1 John 2:17)

A world passing away, is juxtaposed with the peace that passes understanding.  Yes, these are dark times, and they are growing darker by the day.  But the worse it gets, the closer it is to Christ’s return.  We simply need to keep all that in perspective. 

So beloved, don’t get sucked into false beliefs that promote fear, and rob you of hope.  Don’t be drawn to teachers that feed doom and gloom, and promote their own ministries or eschatological beliefs, over what Scripture actually teaches.  Don’t let their confusion over the Rapture, with the Second Coming, lead you down a path which has you prepping for Armageddon, when we are called to live boldly and confidently in this time so soon near our Lord’s coming.  (See Matt. 6:25-33) 

Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory  2 Cor. 4:16-17

Maj Gen Amir Eshel, Commander of the Israel Air Force

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I Miss You - A Coffee Shop Interlude

Written and Published by Jean-Louis Mondon in 2014 
French original text " Tu me manques" 2007. Composed for my sweet wife and inspiration as my faithful traveling companion along life´s journey.

I MISS YOU

I miss you

As the poet without his muse

As a capuccino without a croissant
On a sunny happy morning

As Tutti without Frutti

Woudn´t that be something?

I miss you

As a forest without trees

As an orchard without bees

 As lips without kisses

As alas, my arms weary

of not embracing you

I miss you

As a station without a train

As a goodbye, see you again

Without tears, nor handkerchief

 To dry them out

I miss you

As in nostalgia

With no object nor subject

Without a sunset 

As a backdrop

For your gracious silhouette

Fading away stolen innocently

From the empty hope chest

In the attic of my head

I miss you

As a gentle zephyr

In the midst of a raging tempest

As a mute on a trumpet

Announcing a welcome lull

I miss you

As a snow storm without

Oat flakes on a flowered table cloth

Instead of a white grave sheet

For a lonely breakfast

Spent in chatting alone

with a bouquet of bright pansies

In a long monologue

Without a friendly echo sharing

The memories of yesteryear

I miss you

Without fear of being wrong

Without worry of emotions

Nor the need to learn

To understand each other

Without reason, nor questions

At the dawn of our home coming

Dreamed of in the eternal kingdom

Of never again. 

Jean-Louis.

The Alberino a:nalysis -- CERN: The Occult Conspiracy

H/T servehiminthewaiting.com

Gospel of the Kingdom -- Dean Good and John Haller

What is so wise about a serpent?

Reposted from servehiminthewaiting.com 

By STLloyd June 12, 2017 Christian Persecution faith Forgiveness Persevering in hardship

Snakes lay low and blend into their environment.  They get the lay of the land, and figure out where their safety is.  They are extremely precise when they strike.  They wait until the optimum conditions are lined up, and time it just so. Serpents are wise enough to flee from danger.  Jesus said we are to be wise as serpents.

To be harmless as doves.  Harmless means honest, sincere, without guile.  Stick with truth, and don’t get drawn into debate.  Soar above the fray.

Be Sober: Serious, sedate, temperate and subdued, not excessively emotional, not extreme, or fanciful nor fearful.  Keep your “spiritual wits” about you.

Be vigilant: keep careful watch for potential danger and difficulty, watchful, awake, alert.
Walk circumspect: circum (around you) spect (mindful, thoughtful, attentive).  Don’t get so deep into anything to the exclusion of attentiveness to the bigger picture and what is going on around you.  Don’t let down your guard.

Those perilous times are upon us.  It is not just what we see happening on our streets, and in the news.  There is an intentional stirring up of  conflict and “precision strikes” being made upon our specific individual vulnerabilities and weaknesses.

It doesn’t get easier from here.  Hold on for dear life, trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding.  Acknowledge Him in everything.  If you are a stay-at-home Mom, acknowledge Him in your mothering, your “mundane” tasks of laundry, dishes, refereeing, shuttling.  If you are a businessman, acknowledge Him in your business.  If you are disabled, acknowledge Him in what He has allowed because He is wise and has a purpose in it.  If you are struggling and feel powerless, know that He allows it for the purpose of helping you rely on Him.  We don’t do it on our own, we pretty much have to be forced a lot of the time.

If you are prone to depression, be proactive in counter-acting negative thoughts and replacing them with scripture and thankfulness.  If you are sick and the medical bills are piling up, you can still be thankful if you have insurance that pays some of it, or for friends who care, or for the fact you are not as sick as you could have been.

If you are a pastor discouraged in your ministry, you can still rejoice in your own salvation and the knowledge that our redemption is near.

And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness  ( both refer to sexual promiscuity) not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.

This weekend in our family, there was a lot of strife, contention, emotion, a lot of misunderstanding.  Satan is really good at that, but we have to be mindful of the fact he is always right there ready to exploit every emotion and sore spot and weakness.  We are feeling the evil move in, making it personal.  We are seeing the evil day come to hand.  It is going to be important to call on the Lord at all times and in all things, and when we let our flesh get the better of us, to repent right away, and not let anything fester.  If we hurt or offend, we need to own up and apologize, make restitution where possible.

I imagine you have noticed the same thing in your own household, or work environment, or church, even.  We should not be surprised and we can’t afford to fall for it.  Our battle is not with flesh and blood.  Yet we very often take it out on flesh and blood, causing injury and offense.

It occurred to me that this time as we are at the final moments, is a lot like when a woman goes through pregnancy, which for many of us, is pretty miserable for nine months, and yet when the term is up, you then have to “walk through fire” of labor and delivery to be done with it. There is no other exit. Can’t turn around, can’t take a detour or easier option.  Many women have been known to say “I can’t do it” when the absolute fact is that she will, she must and therefore, she can, she just doesn’t “feel” like she can.  It can be grueling and we have to accept that and prepare as best we can, and place our trust in what we have learned and done, and in the people alongside us who are there to help us get through it.  Don’t trust your feelings.  Don’t trust your doubts.  Don’t trust even necessarily your own eyes.  This is peak deception time.

I personally have many moments when I feel like I can’t face or endure something to get to the other side of this, to redemption, to release.  But now is not a time for giving up. See it through, faithful to the end, not perfect, not sinless, but repentant, humble, determined, leaning on the Lord, pressing into Him, knowing He is the stronger one in the yoke, and will not let us stumble and fall, but will enable us to go on as long as we are willing and as long as we desire to be obedient and to serve Him in whatever our situation or circumstances are.

It is like that time on the airplane when there is an emergency situation, and we are supposed to help the children and elderly and otherwise helpless, but we only can do that if we put on our own oxygen mask first. There comes a time when it is the real deal, that the flight attendants must necessarily cease to assist others and strap themselves in.
It is not selfishness, it is a matter of navigating the turbulence we are now firmly in the midst of. It is a time to keep short accounts and encourage others. It’s the last hour of the night shift when many are just waking up, while some of us have “labored through the night”.  
Those are our reinforcements, no our replacements.  All leave cancelled for the foreseeable future!

Remain vigilant with intense, unfaltering, wary watchfulness with an attitude of submission to the Holy Spirit to avoid unnecessary frictions, distractions, and sins.

Pray, pray pray.  If you don’t have a huge repertoire of scripture memorized, write them on cards and plaster them all through your house or work station, or carry in your pocket and refer to them often.

That old serpent, Satan, is a clever one.  He outsmarts us a lot of the time.  But when he comes around accusing, harassing, stirring up trouble, we can remind him of Revelation 20, verses 2-3 and 10.

And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, ³ And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.“And  the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”

This is the hard part. But it will all be over soon.

Ironside: What Does it Mean to Repent and Be Saved?

Reposted from: http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=22908

 June 11th, 2017 | Author: Lighthouse Trails author

  LTRP Note: Lighthouse Trails believe that one of the reasons so many proclaiming Christians are turning to contemplative mysticism is because they have been following a non-biblical “Gospel” that has kept them from a true born of the Spirit (born-again) relationship with Jesus Christ. Thus, mystically-induced experiences take the place of that relationship. The following article by Dr. Harry Ironside explains what repentance (a requirement for salvation and being born-again – “except ye repent” – Luke 13:3-5) entails. It may surprise a number of people when they discover what repentance really is.

                                              ----------------------------------------------

By Dr. Harry Ironside (From his book, Except Ye Repent)
More and more it becomes evident that ours is, as once expressed, an “age of sham.” Unreality and specious pretense abound in all departments of life. In the domestic, commercial, social, and ecclesiastical spheres hypocrisy is not only openly condoned, but recognized as almost a necessity for advancement and success in attaining recognition among one’s fellows.

Nor is this true only where heterodox religious views are held. Orthodoxy has its shallow dogmatists who are ready to battle savagely for sound doctrine, but who manage to ignore sound living with little or no apparent compunction of conscience.

God desires truth in the inward parts. The blessed man is still the one “in whose spirit there is no guile.” It is forever true that “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” It can never be out of place to proclaim salvation by free, unmerited favor to all who put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. But it needs ever to be insisted on that the faith that justifies is not a mere intellectual process — not simply crediting certain historical facts or doctrinal statements; but it is a faith that springs from a divinely wrought conviction of sin which produces a repentance that is sincere and genuine. Our Lord’s solemn words, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish,” are as important today as when first uttered.

No sacrificial observances, nor ritual service, nor works of law ever had any part in justifying the ungodly. Nor were any sinners ever saved by grace until they repented. Repentance is not opposed to grace; it is the recognition of the need of grace. “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.” “I came not,” said our blessed Lord, “to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

One great trouble in this shallow age is that we have lost the meaning of words. We bandy them about until one can seldom be certain just how terms are being used. Two ministers were passing an open grocery and dairy store where, in three large baskets, eggs were displayed. On one basket was a sign reading, “Fresh eggs, 24 cents a dozen.” The second sign read, “Strictly fresh eggs, 29 cents a dozen.” While a third read, “Guaranteed strictly fresh eggs, 34 cents a dozen.” One of the pastors exclaimed in amazement, “What does that grocer understand ‘fresh’ to mean?” It is thus with many Scriptural terms that
to our forefathers had an unvarying meaning, but like debased coins have today lost their values.

Grace is God’s unmerited favor to those who have merited the very opposite. Repentance is the sinner’s recognition of and acknowledgment of his lost estate and, thus, of his need of grace. Yet there are not wanting professed preachers of grace who, like the antinomians of old, decry the necessity of repentance lest it seem to invalidate the freedom of grace. As well might one object to a man’s acknowledgment of illness when seeking help and healing from a physician, on the ground that all he needed was a doctor’s prescription.

Shallow preaching that does not grapple with the terrible fact of man’s sinfulness and guilt, calling on “all men everywhere to repent,” results in shallow conversions; and so we have a myriad of glib-tongued professors today who give no evidence of regeneration whatever. Prating of salvation by grace, they manifest no grace in their lives. Loudly declaring they are justified by faith alone, they fail to remember that “faith without works is dead”; and that justification by works before men is not to be ignored as though it were in contradiction to justification by faith before God.

We need to reread James 3 and let its serious message sink deep into our hearts, that it may control our lives. “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” No man can truly believe in Christ, who does not first repent. Nor will his repentance end when he has saving faith, but the more he knows God as he goes on through the years, the deeper will that repentance become. A servant of Christ said: “I repented before I knew the meaning of the word. I have repented far more since than I did then.”

Undoubtedly one great reason why some earnest Gospel preachers are almost afraid of, and generally ignore, the terms “repent” and “repentance” in their evangelizing is that they fear lest their hearers misunderstand these terms and think of them as implying something meritorious on the part of the sinner.

But nothing could be wider of the mark. There is no saving merit in owning my true condition. There is no healing in acknowledging the nature of my illness. And repentance, as we have seen, is just this very thing. But in order to clarify the subject, it may be well to observe carefully what repentance is not and then to notice briefly what it is.

First, then, repentance is not to be confounded with penitence, though penitence will invariably enter into it. But penitence is simply sorrow for sin. No amount of penitence can fit a man for salvation. On the other hand, the impenitent will never come to God seeking His grace. But godly sorrow, we are told, worketh repentance not to be repented of. There is a sorrow for sin that has no element of piety in it— “the sorrow of the world worketh death.” In Peter’s penitence, we see the former; in the remorse of Judas, the latter. Nowhere is man exhorted to feel a certain amount of sorrow for his sins in order to come to Christ. When the Spirit of God applies the truth, penitence is the immediate result and this leads on to repentance, but should not be confounded with it. This is a divine work in the soul.

Second, penance is not repentance. Penance is the effort in some way to atone for wrong done. This, man can never do. Nor does God in His Word lay it down as a condition of salvation that one first seek to make up to either God or his fellows for evil committed. Here the Roman Catholic translation of the Bible perpetrates a glaring deception upon those who accept it as almost an inspired version because bearing the imprimatur of the great Catholic dignitaries. Wherever the [King James version] has “repent,” the Douay-Rheims translation reads, “Do penance.” There is no excuse for such a paraphrase. It is not a translation. It is the substituting of a Romish dogma for the plain command of God. John the Baptist did not cry, “Do penance, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” Our Lord Jesus did not say, “Do penance and believe the gospel,” and, “Except ye do penance ye shall all likewise perish.” 

The apostle Peter did not tell the anxious multitude at Pentecost to “Do penance and be converted.” Paul did not announce to the men at Athens that “God commandeth all men everywhere to do penance” in view of a coming judgment day. No respectable Greek scholar would ever think of so translating the original in these and many other instances.
On the contrary, the call was to repent; and between repenting and doing penance, there is a vast difference. But even so, we would not forget that he who truly repents will surely seek to make right any wrong he has done to his fellows, though he knows he never can make up for the wrong done to God. But this is where Christ’s expiatory work comes in. As the great Trespass Offering, He could say, “Then I restored that which I took not away” (Psalm 69). Think not to add penance to this—as though His work were incomplete and something else were needed to satisfy God’s infinite justice.

In the third place, let us remember that reformation is not repentance, however closely allied to, or springing out of it. To turn over a new leaf, to attempt to supplant bad habits with good ones, to try to live well instead of evilly, may not be the outcome of repentance at all and should never be confounded with it. Reformation is merely an outward change. Repentance is a work of God in the soul.

Recently, it was the writer’s privilege to broadcast a Gospel message from a large Cleveland station. While he was waiting in the studio for the time appointed, an advertiser’s voice was heard through the loud speaker announcing: “If you need anything in watch repairing go to” such a firm. One of the employees looked up and exclaimed, “I need no watch repairing; what I need is a watch.” It furnished me with an excellent text. What the unsaved man needs is not a repairing of his life. He needs a new life altogether, which comes only through a second birth. Reformation is like watch repairing. Repentance is like the recognition of the lack of a watch.

Need I add that repentance then is not to be considered synonymous with joining a church or taking up one’s religious duties, as people say. It is not doing anything.
What then is repentance? So far as possible I desire to avoid the use of all abstruse or pedantic terms, for I am writing not simply for scholars, but for those Lincoln had in mind when he said, “God must have thought a lot of the common people, for He made so many of them.” Therefore, I wish, so far as possible, to avoid citing Greek or Hebrew words. But here it seems almost necessary to say that it is the Greek word metanoia, which is translated “repentance” in our English Bibles, and literally means a change of mind. This is not simply the acceptance of new ideas in place of old notions. But it actually implies a complete reversal of one’s inward attitude.

How luminously clear this makes the whole question before us! To repent is to change one’s attitude toward self, toward sin, toward God, toward Christ. And this is what God commands. John came preaching to publicans and sinners, hopelessly vile and depraved, “Change your attitude, for the kingdom is at hand.” To haughty scribes and legalistic Pharisees came the same command, “Change your attitude,” and thus they would be ready to receive Him who came in grace to save. To sinners everywhere the Savior cried, “Except ye change your attitude, ye shall all likewise perish.”

And everywhere the apostles went they called upon men thus to face their sins—to face the question of their helplessness, yet their responsibility to God—to face Christ as the one, all-sufficient Savior, and thus by trusting Him to obtain remission of sins and justification from all things.

So to face these tremendous facts is to change one’s mind completely, so that the pleasure lover sees and confesses the folly of his empty life; the self-indulgent learns to hate the passions that express the corruption of his nature; the self-righteous sees himself a condemned sinner in the eyes of a holy God; the man who has been hiding from God seeks to find a hiding place in Him; the Christ-rejector realizes and owns his need of a Redeemer, and so believes unto life and salvation.

Which comes first, repentance or faith? In Scripture, we read, “Repent ye, and believe the gospel.” Yet, we find true believers exhorted to “repent, and do the first works.” So intimately are the two related that you cannot have one without the other. The man who believes God repents; the repentant soul puts his trust in the Lord when the Gospel is revealed to him. Theologians may wrangle over this, but the fact is, no man repents until the Holy Spirit produces repentance in his soul through the truth. No man believes the Gospel and rests in it for his own salvation until he has judged himself as a needy sinner before
God. And this is repentance.

Perhaps it will help us if we see that it is one thing to believe God as to my sinfulness and need of a Savior, and it is another thing to trust that Savior implicitly for my own salvation.
Apart from the first aspect of faith, there can be no true repentance. “He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” And apart from such repentance there can be no saving faith. Yet the deeper my realization of the grace of God manifested toward me in Christ, the more intense will my repentance become.
It was when Mephibosheth realized the kindness of God as shown by David that he cried out, “What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?” (2 Samuel 9:8). And it is the soul’s apprehension of grace which leads to ever lower thoughts of self and higher thoughts of Christ; and so the work of repentance is deepened daily in the believer’s heart.
“Let not conscience make you linger,
Nor of fitness fondly dream,
All the fitness He requireth
Is to feel your need of Him.
This He gives you,
‘Tis the Spirit’s rising beam.”

The very first evidence of awakening grace is dissatisfaction with one’s self and self-effort and a longing for deliverance from chains of sin that have bound the soul. To own frankly that I am lost and guilty is the prelude to life and peace. It is not a question of a certain depth of grief and sorrow, but simply the recognition and acknowledgment of need that leads one to turn to Christ for refuge. None can perish who put their trust in Him. His grace superabounds above all our sin, and His expiatory work on the cross is so infinitely precious to God that it fully meets all our uncleanness and guilt.”

(Dr. Harry Ironside’s writings are in the public domain. You may read more articles by him at: www.harryironside.com).

Pr. Charles Lawson - Plans For WWlll Discovered in USA

The New Missiology – Doing Missions Without the Gospel

Republished from  Light House Trails Research
By Roger Oakland
Emergent Missiology

I must add, though, that I don’t believe making disciples must equal making adherents to the Christian religion. It may be advisable in many (not all!) circumstances to help people become followers of Jesus and remain within their Buddhist, Hindu, or Jewish contexts.1—Brian McLaren
 
Emerging “progressive Christianity” is changing the way evangelical/Protestant missions is being conducted. The idea is that you can go for Jesus, but you don’t have to identify yourself as a Christian or part of the Christian church. This concept spills over into some missionary societies too, where they teach people from other religions they can keep their religion, just add Jesus to the equation. They don’t have to embrace the term Christian. At the 2005 United Nations Interfaith Prayer Breakfast, Rick Warren made the following comments to 100 delegates who represented various different religions:

I’m not talking about a religion this morning. You may be Catholic or Protestant or Buddhist or Baptist or Muslim or Mormon or Jewish or you may have no religion at all. I’m not interested in your religious background. Because God did not create the universe for us to have religion.2

While he did go on afterwards and say he believed that Jesus was God, the implication was that your religion doesn’t matter to God, and being Buddhist, Mormon, or whatever will not interfere with having Jesus in your life. Donald Miller, author of the popular Blue Like Jazz, puts it this way:

For me, the beginning of sharing my faith with people began by throwing out Christianity and embracing Christian spirituality, a nonpolitical mysterious system that can be experienced but not explained.3

In Erwin McManus’ book The Barbarian Way, he refers to “Barbarians” in a positive light and says that this is how Christ-followers should be:

They [Barbarians] see Christianity as a world religion, in many ways no different from any other religious system. Whether Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, or Christianity, they’re not about religion; they’re about advancing the revolution Jesus started two thousand years ago.4

A May/June 2000 issue of Watchman’s Trumpet magazine explains what this new missiology really entails:

Several international missions organizations, including Youth With a Mission (YWAM), are testing a new approach to missionary work in areas where Christianity is unwelcome. [A] Charisma News Service report said some missionaries are now making converts but are allowing them to “hold on to many of their traditional religious beliefs and practices” so as to refrain from offending others within their culture.5

The Charisma article in which Watchman’s Trumpet reports elaborates:

“Messianic Muslims” who continue to read the Koran, visit the mosque and say their daily prayers but accept Christ as their Savior, are the products of the strategy, which is being tried in several countries, according to Youth With a Mission (YWAM), one of the organizations involved.6

The Charisma story reports that a YWAM staff newsletter notes the new converts’ lifestyle changes (or lack thereof):

They [the new converts] continued a life of following the Islamic requirements, including mosque attendance, fasting and Koranic reading, besides getting together as a fellowship of Muslims who acknowledge Christ as the source of God’s mercy for them.7

When one of the largest missionary societies (YWAM) becomes a proponent of the new missiology, telling converts they can remain in their own religious traditions, the disastrous results should be quite sobering for any discerning Christian.

Keep Your Religion, Just Add Jesus
In an article titled “Christ-Followers in India Flourishing Outside the Church,” the following statement is made regarding the research of new missiology advocate, Herbert Hoefer, who wrote Churchless Christianity:

In striking research undertaken in the mid-eighties and published in 1991, Herbert E. Hoefer found that the people of Madras City are far closer to historic Christianity than the populace of any cities in the western Christian world could ever claim to be. Yet these are not Christians, but rather Hindus and Muslims. In their midst is a significant number of true believers in Christ who openly confess to faith in fundamental Biblical doctrines, yet remain outside the institutional church.8

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