Celebrity Pastors and Modern Preachers

Celebrity pastors and modern preachers pander to the masses, peddling God's Word for their own benefit (2 Corinthians 2:17).

Titus 1:10 warns us against false teachers: 'For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain.'

 The truth is that many (but not all) modern pastors love the world, love being adored, love praise and the attainment of things; they do not love the sheep. They have been given flocks to shepherd. They are failing their flocks.

Love of the sheep is displayed through obedience of Christ's teachings, through the teaching of scripture and the sharing of Christ (Colossians 1:10). Ask yourself at the end of church service: 'Did my pastor's message increase my understanding of God and His Word?'

They teach through platitudes and modern (non-biblical) quotations, pictures and downloaded sermons approved by the World Council of Churches, instead of being led by the Holy Spirit.

You never even hear of the Holy Spirit anymore.

TIP: You can tell if your pastor is not teaching in line with the Spirit's guidance when he teaches a month or months long program, rigorously sticking to his prescribed message and allowing no room for divine inspiration. He has an agenda, not a message. Jeremiah 10:23 tells us that it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps. And yet, modern pastors are choosing their own steps, and by extension they are choosing our steps for us, when we listen without to them without allowing God to open our hearts to the truth.

They put too much of themselves into the lesson (performance), and not enough of God. Their cheesy teachings are designed to appeal to the largest possible all-inclusive group, at the expense of biblical integrity.

The truth is that people who are offended at God's Word are in the wrong, and need to be told so, or they will never be led to repentance. If they don't repent, they will not be forgiven; if they are not forgiven, they will not enter into paradise. Pastors do people no favor by sugar-coating or watering down gospel truths. When he does this, the only person your butterfly pastor is serving is himself, by trying to be friends with the world and not offend anyone.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is offensive, to those who are dying without its truths (1 Corinthians 1:18)!

Today we are no longer led by the morally upright, by shepherds who fear and obey God. Today our teachers are morally bankrupt celebrities, popular facebookers, and megachurch gurus who spout 'progressive' 'all-inclusive' and 'New Thought' philosophies in place of sound biblical teachings and godly living, which means obedience to God's commands.

Unfortunately it seems there is no room for God's will in the modern church.
  
Don't take my word for it. Search the scriptures, for in them you have knowledge and wisdom and power:

• Psalm 10:3-4
• Psalm 39
• Psalm 111:10
• Proverbs 16
• 1 Thessalonians 1:3
• 1 Corinthians 4:4
• Acts 18:21  

So what is a Christian to do? Perhaps you should search for a bible-teaching church. (The very fact that this term exists is a sad commentary.) Perhaps you should listen to old time teachers on line.

The only advice I can give you without reservation and with absolute Christian conviction is to search the scriptures. Spend time in the Word and in prayer, seeking God's guidance, for the help of man is useless (Psalm 60:11). Be cheerful, rejoice, for God is on the throne, and His thoughts for you are thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11).

How to Know if Your Prayers are in Line With God's Will

We are told to pray according to God’s will, and that, believing, we will have what we ask.

And yet the question remains: How do we know if what we pray is God’s will?

As always we will look to scripture for the answer. We know that after the resurrection, the apostles worked in accordance with God’s will. So, what did the apostles pray for? For example, how did they know if asking for a healing would be in God’s will?

Everything they prayed for was to further the kingdom of God on earth, to secure eternal souls for heaven. If what you pray for serves the kingdom—and not just your own desires—then you can be assured that it is indeed in line with God’s will, and that if you pray the prayer of faith—not doubting—then you will have what you ask for in prayer.

Every time the apostles prayed, it was for the purpose of glorifying God, for them to become better servants in the Kingdom. James 4:3

What you seek should be in line with God's will. Your prayers should not be self-seeking, but God-seeking, to bring glory to Him. That is why He created you. It is about God. It is good to know that by seeking His glory, we invite God's grace into our lives. In Jeremiah 29:11 God says 'For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.'

God wants to bless us. By seeking His will, we will find blessings in our lives. God must come first.  

 

This is where the Word of Faith Movement confuses people. Its teachers promote the idea that God’s will is that all His servants live financially prosperous lives, filled with every thing they want. But this is blatantly anti-scriptural. The biblical meaning of ‘abundant lives’ and ‘blessings’ is quite different from the worldly definition.

Matthew 6:24 warns us that we cannot serve ourselves and God.

James 2:5 tells us that God has chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith.

Hebrews 13:5 commands our conduct to be without covetousness, and for us to be content with what we have.

James 5:14-15 clearly informs us that the prayer of faith will save the sick. God healing people brings glory to God. But He does not hear the doubtful, wavering heart (James 1:6). 'The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers; for the face of the Lord is against those who do evil (1 Peter 3:12). 

Are your prayers filled with self-involved desire? Or are they in line with God's will, designed to bring glory to His name?

Our God is an Awesome God

Sometimes, all you need to do is worship our awesome God to know that through Him all things are possible. Matthew 19:26

Through our daily concerns, we tend to forget this fact. To remember it:

• Meditate on God's word
• Pray
• Lift up your hands and worship Him
• At other times, be silent, and know that He is God

Faith: A Modern Mystery

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made by things which are visible. By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks (Hebrews 11:1-4).

Do you have faith in your Creator?

Faith is everything to the life of a believer. That is why we are called believers. We believe. We have faith in His goodness and mercy. By faith we have what he hoped for. By faith we know what we cannot see: that He exists and that He created the heavens and the earth. We obey by faith, not knowing, but believing that God is there, listening, caring, answering.

It is by faith that we obtain the testimony of our salvation—by His grace (Ephesians 2:8).

So what happens during times of struggle and suffering, the fiery tribulations of which God warned us?

During these times of crisis we often doubt. All our grand and noble aspirations, all our declarations of love and obedience and belief fly out the window, taken up instead by refrains of doubt. Doubt is the seed and work of the devil. Doubt should have no place in a believer’s life. It is the opposite of everything on which we base our faith. It is contrary to the gospel.

It is also a very human reaction.

That is to say, it is a work of the flesh. Throughout our lives God has blessed us with various gifts and knowledge and goods and times of peace and perhaps even prosperity. So when hard times come, we don’t understand why. We allow doubt to creep into our hearts, where it begins to slowly eat away at our faith. Suddenly we forget all that God has done for us, all the gifts and blessings and miracles that He performed again and again and again. We cry out: ‘Why, Lord! Why are you letting this happen?’

When He doesn’t answer on our timetable, we allow doubt to completely consume us. All our thoughts dwell on the ‘what ifs’. Our emotions and faith become mutated by doubt, until they are wholly given over to it, enslaved to uncertainty, to distrust, to disbelief.

Why does God allow these terrible things to happen? Why does He not immediately answer with goodness when we cry out to Him?

Since God’s ways are not our ways, this is a question we cannot fully answer (Isaiah 55:8).

Instead, we should be asking: ‘Help thou my unbelief!’

In Mark 9, a couple of Jesus’ apostles try to help a boy possessed by an unclean spirit. (Can you imagine how distraught the father of that boy must have been?) But the apostles could not cast it out (Verse 18). After lamenting the faithless generation, Jesus responds with this declaration: ‘If you can believe, all things are possible.’ The father of the boy cries out, ‘Lord I believe; help thou my unbelief!’

We, like the father in this story, are plagued by unbelief. But Jesus calmly assures us that all things are possible. ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE. If you believe that God created the universe, why should you find it hard to believe that He is in control of your situation?

Do not doubt that God knows what He is doing, and that what He is doing is right.

As for healing in your life, throughout the New Testament Jesus performed all many of miraculous healing. Nothing is too difficult for He. And how did Jesus respond to the doubting people before performing the healing? He lamented their unbelief, calling them faithless. When you doubt, you show that you have no faith.

Jesus is willing and able. He does not want anyone to perish without coming to know Him. And He is always ready to answer the prayers of the faithful. The fervent faithful prayers of a righteous man avails much (James 5:16). Scripture is bursting at the seams with hopeful and inspiring and faith-lifting passages. Read James. Study Mark. Absorb Hebrews 11. All the great men and women of the bible believed and suffered bouts of doubt.

In the end they all came to know: God saves. God still saves. God cares for you and yours. He is waiting for you to trust Him with everything, as everything is His; we are merely entrusted with the blessings.

You are not a sinner if you doubt. But by His grace you are righteous if you believe!

It is in His hands. He can do all things. You need to believe this. What are you waiting for? He has been blessing you your entire life, and now you’re going to doubt His goodness? Just ask yourself this one question: Do I trust that God knows what He is doing?

DO I TRUST THAT GOD KNOWS WHAT HE IS DOING?

If you can find your way to YES, I BELIEVE, then all worry and doubt and fear will begin to melt away, replaced by living faith in the Almighty. Savior. Redeemer. Doubt is worthless. Faith moves mountains. ‘Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us’ (1 John 5:14). It is a wonderful thing, to place your trust in the hands of the living God, knowing that He cares for you.

Seek comfort in Psalm 17:7. Also, study Matthew 6:31-33. You will find there everything you need to face your circumstances and trials like a true believer.

Worry, Doubt, and Fear in the Lives of Believers

Do you trust God?

It is a simple question, but not an easy one to answer. We call ourselves ‘Christian’, and yet when the hard times come—as they will for all who seek to live godly lives, 2 Timothy 3:12—we fall victim to fear, doubt, and worry.

These three things rule over our hearts.

This should not be. 1 Corinthians 13:13 tells believers to abide in faith, hope, and love.

Fear. Doubt. Worry.

Faith. Hope. Love.

Which group would you prefer to experience?

The answer, like the question, is simple, but not easy to employ. How do you choose to trust God when your first, natural impulse in a crisis is to worry? When in the course of your life things have often gone south, how do you hope? This is the crux of our faith. And there’s the rub: it is called faith. We are called to believe—not to know. And belief is employed through trust. Trusting in what we cannot see is never easy, but it is always worth it. God blesses those who trust in Him, and our trust and obedience is accounted to us as righteousness (Romans 4:3).

When a loved one is sick, for example, it is only natural that we worry and fear—and perhaps it is even forgivable when we doubt. But we are not called to doubt. We are believers. We are called to believe, to trust in the saving grace of our Savior.

So when the enemy comes to steal away your hope and trust, remember the titans of our faith: Abraham and David, Enoch and Elijah, Noah and Moses and Sarah and all the others. They believed when everyone and the physical world said it was a lost cause. What did Job do when he was told that his children had been killed? He trusted. It seems incredible to our modern sensibilities that a man could trust God after hearing that his children have died. The impulse today is to question or abandon God. But Job chose a wiser, harder path.

He chose to trust that God knew what He was doing.

Read that statement again. Therein you will find the reason for all your worry, doubt, and fear. You do not trust God. You do not trust that He knows what He is doing.

You question Him when tragedy strikes. When bad news comes, your faith falters. You worry about what might happen. You fear that more bad news will come. You doubt that God will make the right choice.

The truth is: God always makes the righteous choice.

It is not an easy thing, as humans, with our limited perceptions and our ideas of how things should go, to accept that God knows best. When He calls a loved one home, or allows a loved one to suffer, it never seems like the work of a loving Creator.

This is why, when trials and persecutions and inexplicable events occur, we need to turn to scripture and be reminded that:

• God is not like us. (Isaiah 55:8-9) ‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts. Nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.’

• The Lord is righteous in all His ways, Gracious in all His works (Psalm 145:17)

•  He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are Justice, a God of truth and without injustice; righteous and upright is He’ (Deuteronomy 32:4)

•  In His hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind (Job 12:10)

• God is in control: (Psalm 103:19)

Search the scriptures, for in them you find the path to eternal life, and it is your eternal soul which occupies our heavenly Fathers’ thoughts, and to which He works His gracious will. We have a tendency to see moments with razor sharp focus. Try to realize that God sees all moments—every moment of your life and of the lives of your loved ones. He knows all things. He knows what is right, even if to our narrow-minded way of thinking it seems wrong or cruel.

A hard lesson, true, but scripture does not tell us that ours will be lives of ease. It tells us instead that our eternities will be filled with peace and love, where all suffering is over.

Also find comfort in Isaiah 41:10.

You worry and fear and doubt, which causes stress, which leads to depression and hearts closed to God. Nothing in this world, no ‘Positive Thinking Movement’, ‘no name it and claim it doctrine’, no ‘love yourself and everything will be peachy’ philosophy is going to save you from reality.

Only Jesus saves.

Find Him in the precious word of God, and in prayer. Don’t waste your days worrying and doubting, when we have a heavenly Father who loves us, and a Savior who wants to save us from these things. Fear not, for He is God, and He knows what He is doing. He created the universe, and yet He knows us by name; He has counted every hair on your head. He knows what is right. Accept this and you can find peace in the everlasting arms.

We may not understand His ways, but we can choose to believe that they are right, and thereby banish the worry, fear, and doubt that Satan wants us to embrace.

Be well, beloved. Search the scriptures, and find your way to trusting God.

How to Trust God in the Hard Times

Does it ever seem like you’re just not sure you can trust God? Have you ever asked Him: “Why aren’t you helping with this? Why didn’t you save her?”

Sometimes it seems that God just isn’t that interested in our lives. But it is especially important during times of distress to lean on the everlasting arms. The truth—though hard to see sometimes—is that we can trust God. The bible makes this abundantly clear through its narrative and in various encouraging verses. All the times God has answered your prayers also make it clear that you can trust Him.

From whence comes our help? It comes from the Lord (Psalms 121:2).  The entire 121st Psalm is filled with encouraging words and statements, all summed up like this: The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in, from this time forth and even forevermore.’

A hard truth all Christians must accept at some point in their journeys of faith, is that God’s will is going to be carried out, in some way or another, and His will is often contrary to our will. Sometimes God calls a servant home. Sometimes He sends suffering and illness and injury. At other times He seems silent and uninterested. But always He is with us, working His will and design, and always His design is for our good (1 Timothy 2:4).

Do you trust Him? Really think about this question. Ponder it, meditate on it. Are you trusting that God knows what He is doing in your life?

It is miraculously liberating to truly trust in the Lord our God. To know that (despite the heartaches and struggles you or your loved ones may be going through) God is on the throne and in control, is to trust Him and be at peace with your creator.

Colossians 3:15 says: ‘And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the Word of Christ dwell richly in you in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.’

Oh what a beautiful guide to life! Oh what perfection, to trust the Lord and let His word guide you and keep you, and to live in harmony with others, teaching and rejoicing with them.

How do we do this? How do you trust the Lord when it seems as if He is not listening?

In a world where emphasis is placed on conformity, and where grumbling and complaining are popular media hobbies, it is very easy to fall victim to doubt. It is therefore vital to our faith that we turn to scripture for the answers. Romans 12:2 offers this guidance: ‘And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what it that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.’

This means we are to constantly refresh our knowledge of God’s word, to renew our minds, so that we become transformed from creatures of the flesh into servants of our heavenly Father, guided by the Spirit. This can all be accomplished by grace. We are called to think soberly, to not think too highly of ourselves.

When you spend your time seeking God’s will, instead of worrying and wondering why He isn’t performing your will, you will find yourself in line with God’s design, and His peace will settle on you—and that is a mighty victory.

‘I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge, my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust’ (Psalm 91:1).

So, the next time you happen to take a quarter out of your pocket and read those words IN GOD WE TRUST, take comfort in knowing that America is still a nation that trusts in God, and know that in trusting Him, you can find a peace that passes all understanding--and this will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.