DAYS OF NOAH: I am my father's son-in-law and my mother-in-law is my stepmother!

"And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all."

Luke 17:26-27

The April 12, 1993, issue of Newsweek unknowingly reported the signs of the times.

Bill Wyman, of The Rolling Stones, married his son's wife's daughter, a woman 34 years his junior. Her mother married Wyman's son, Stephan, a man 16 years her junior. That makes Stephan his father's son-in-law and his mother-in-law his stepmother.

No wonder Jesus made this prophetic comment: “And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it shall be also in the days of the Son of Man … .” Truly, those days are upon us!

Christianity, Illustrations,
Licentiousness, Religion

THERMOSTATS: And other things that set the pace!

“choose for yourselves whom you will serve”

Joshua 24:15

A thermometer reflects the temperature of the room; a thermostat adjusts the temperature for the room.

God has too many children who are more like thermometers than thermostats; what he needs is a house full of the latter.

Like Rip Van Winkle, the church is asleep … when it awakens the world will be so hostile to her that it will find itself an impotent representative of an omnipotent God.

John Curran said, “The condition upon which God has given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime, and the punishment of his guilt.”

Our culture reflects a nation running so hot on relativism, materialism, voyeurism and depravity, that it’s screaming for those who have the courage to march on the wall of opposition. We need those with guts enough to adjust our nation’s temperature, rather than giving in to the pressure to reflect it.

The church is imitating secular society at an alarming rate. Increasingly we are adopting secular views which seem good and feel good; gleaning, as it were, here and there, as the world’s spirit moves us, ignoring the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Truth!

Christianity, Church health,
Illustrations, Religion

DOCTRINE: The Bible's Paddle of Discipline!

THE MOST IMPORTANT DOCTRINE IN THE BIBLE

Recently I listened to Stan Buckley (First Baptist Church of Jackson, FL) as he related an anecdote concerning a question put to him when he was a young minister; a mentor ask him, "What is the most important doctrine in the Bible?"

He immediately saw an opportunity to impress his elder-peer with a quick response; he said "Salvation." His friend said, "No, that is not it!" Several others followed and each time he was told, "No, that is not it!"

Finally, in frustration, he pleaded, "Well, what then?" To which his companion said, "The doctrine of sin is the most important doctrine in the Bible!"

As entertaining as this anecdote is, I would strongly disagree. I believe "the doctrine of the fear of God" is the most important doctrine in the bible (see Proverbs 1:7 and Romans 3:18).

This doctrine involves both the doctrine of salvation and the doctrine of sin; it is that which leads to a knowledge of our absolute depravity and God's absolute holiness, as-well-as, our need for forgiveness and salvation ... rebirth cannot occur without it (in my opinion).

Christianity, Doctrine, Illustrations, Religion

DEPRAVITY: Fruit Direct from Eden's Garden

THERE’S A FUNGUS AMONG US! [1 Thessalonians 5:21,22]

Recently, one of the network news magazines presented a special report on a problem some people were having with potent form of fungus. The focus of the show was a Texas family who’d been run out of their home because of this particular mold. In fact, over a few years, several family members had become mysteriously and gravely ill from this creeping, crawling crud.

A video tape of the residence revealed the presence of the fungi in every dark place, in every location, anywhere microscopic amounts of moisture might be, on wood, on plastic, on drywall, behind painted surfaces, in concrete floors, in every room in the house, this killer lurked. The only known cure for the infection was removal and disposal; burning evidently being the only permanent treatment for the affected materials.

Any mature minded thinking person has to see the parallel of this natural occurring disease with our nation’s unnatural preoccupation with pornography. Reports give us a picture of a domestic industry (i.e., sans international revenues) with revenues in the billions of dollars; other reports have provided estimates of the domestic “hit” rate on pornographic Internet sites … the traffic is staggering.

If any are dim-witted enough to believe the problem is unique to the Catholic priesthood, they are monumental fools. The Southern Baptist Convention numbers its living ministers in the tens of thousands; statistically, it is impossible, let alone improbable, that the Convention is untouched by this menace.

Just this week a Southern Baptist church in Kansas had to remove its youth pastor due to a problem with male pornography. The church devastated. And, in this spiritual war, his wife and two children are considered collateral damage.

All over America, families and churches are being destroyed by our cultural depravity. In every corner of our society, in every household, in every dark place where evil lurks, residents of this once great nation are falling victim to this slippery, slimy spiritual sewage.

What hope do we have? Is there anything we can do to stop it? Paraphrasing the hymnist, “Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” Yet every untainted child of God must cry out with a voice united against this evil and purge it from our lives and land.

Source: Toxic Mold