Prof Johan Malan
There is a sharp increase in the building and use of labyrinths in the West, which occurs in conjunction with the resurgence of other mystical practices such as Yoga and Eastern meditation. In the USA, more than 1000 labyrinths have been built in meditation garden settings, at retreat centres, churches, hospitals and prisons.
The popularity of labyrinths is also increasing in South Africa and many other countries.
Article removed by Admin
John MacArthur – Grace to You – Bible Q & A
Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. (2 Thessalonians 2:11–12)
“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”
– John 15:18-19
Because they are not part of the world’s system, Christians should expect it to hate and oppose them.
Well, as I said last week, I have taken a bit of a diversion from our study of the gospel of Luke. I warned you a few weeks in advance that I was prompted to write a book on the subject of deliverance because the theology of deliverance which is so intensely biblical is so completely neglected today. And when I was away for a couple of weeks in Italy, it really began to weigh heavy on my mind that I needed to address this subject. And so it became like Jeremiah, fire in my bones and I can’t go back to the gospel of Luke until I have delivered my soul on the subject of deliverance.
As I said last week, and I would just encourage you, if you weren’t here last week to get the tape and listen because what I said last week is essential and foundational to this discussion. It’s not one of those messages that’s sort of optional, it’s a mandatory theme to be understood by all of us. So if you didn’t hear the message, you certainly can pick up the tape out at the tape center today.
John MacArthur – Grace to you – Bible Q & A
Pray without ceasing; (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
Joyful believers will also be prayerful believers. Those who live their Christian lives in joyful dependency on God will continually recognize their own insufficiency and therefore constantly be in an attitude of prayer. Paul’s exhortation to the Thessalonians to pray without ceasing is thus a divine mandate to all believers. Pray is from proseuchomai, the most common New Testament word for prayer (e.g., Matt. 6:5–6; Mark 11:24; Luke 5:16; 11:1–2; Acts 10:9; Rom. 8:26; 1 Cor. 14:13–15; Eph. 6:18; Col. 1:9; 2 Thess. 3:1; James 5:13–14, 16). It encompasses all the aspects of prayer: submission, confession, petition, intercession, praise, and thanksgiving. Without ceasing means “constant” and defines prayer not as some perpetual activity of kneeling and interceding but as a way of life marked by a continual attitude of prayer.
From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled “,” delivered.”
There is only one sacrifice for sin, there never was another and there never can be. All those offerings under the Aaronic priesthood which were presented because of sin were only representations of the One Sacrifice; they were that and nothing more. Jesus far excels them all. Beloved, if you want to see the lamb that Abel offered on the altar, the lamb because of which God accepted his faith, and had respect unto him, you must see Jesus Christ, for we are accepted in the Beloved. God hath respect unto any man who brings this sacrifice; but unto any who bring a bloodless sacrifice, such as the Cainites of Rome foolishly do when they offer the unbloody sacrifice of the mass, unto them God hath no respect, and never can have.
The blood of Jesus once presented has for ever put away sin, and no further sin offering can be brought.
Grace to You Blog (a follow up) Friday, April 21, 2011
| If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that religion is a means of gain (1 Timothy 6:3-5). |
No one in all the Scriptures had more to say about hell than Jesus. No stern messenger of doom from the era of the Judges, no fiery Old Testament prophet, no writer of imprecatory psalms, and no impassioned apostle (including the Boanerges brothers)—not even all of them combined—mentioned hell more frequently or described it in more terrifying terms than Jesus.
John MacArthur – Grace to You
Many Christians today are greatly concerned about the rising influences of communism, humanism, secularism, and social injustice. Yet those evils, great as they are, do not together pose the threat to Christianity that false shepherds and pastors do. Throughout the history of redemption, the greatest threat to God’s truth and God’s work has been false prophets and teachers, because they propose to speak in His name. That is why the Lord’s most scathing denunciations were reserved for the false teachers of Israel, who claimed to speak and act for God but were liars.
By Ken Silva pastor-teacher on Apr 11, 2011
Apprising Ministries has been warning you about the judgments coming upon the church visible now that mainstream evangelicalism has embraced the sinfully ecumenical neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church aka the Emerging Church; which is why EC rock star pastor Rob Bell can argue for the heresy of Christian Universalism in his Love Winsmythology and still be considered an evangelical.
I’ve also reminded you that at its rotten core the EC contained the practice of corrupt Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM)—and its crown jewel Contemplative/Centering Prayer, which is itself a form of meditation in an altered state of consciousness; the “key mentors” within being Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster, along with his spiritual twin Dallas Willard, who at last check is with the Southern Baptist Convention.
John MacArthur – Grace to You – Bible Q & A
Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and the one who is filthy, still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness; and the one who is holy, still keep himself holy. (Revelation 22:11)
The angel’s statement seems strangely out of place in this context: “Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and the one who is filthy, still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness; and the one who is holy, still keep himself holy.” Some may think its connection with the command that preceded it is not immediately apparent. But the truth it dramatically conveys is that people’s response to the proclamation of the truth will fix their eternal destinies. Those who hear the truth but continue to do wrong and be filthy will by that hardened response fix their eternal destiny in hell. On the other hand, the one who continues to practice righteousness and keep himself holy gives evidence of genuine saving faith. The adverb eti (still) may have the sense of “yet more.” In that case, the meaning is that those who do wrong and are filthy in this life will be even more so in eternal hell, where there will be absolutely no good influences to mitigate their evil. In contrast, those who are righteous and holy in this life will be perfectly holy in their glorified bodies in heaven.
We have a wonderful subject to talk about tonight and I took up a little more time than I ought to have, in one sense, but wanted to share with you what I did, so we’re going to try to squeeze it in the time we have. I want you to open your Bible to Romans 8…Romans chapter 8 and let’s begin in Romans 8 with some very familiar revelation from God.
Verse 28 which is familiar to all of us is a good starting point. Romans 8:28, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose, for whom He foreknew He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the firstborn among many brethren, and whom He predestined these He also called and whom He called these He also justified and whom He justified, these He also glorified.”
We’re going to return now to the, I trust, refreshment of the Word of God. We’re talking about the doctrine of election, chosen by God, who chose whom? And this is not without controversy, as you well know. The doctrine of sovereign election, the truth of predestination is much discussed and most discussions can degenerate into something very heated. In fact, to say that there are people who hate the idea of predestination is not an overstatement. There are people who hate the thought of divine election, sovereign choice. In fact, there are some people who say that the doctrine is demonic, that the doctrine itself is satanic. It is such an affront to their sense of fairness and sense of what they think is right that there are people who call themselves Christians who would see this as truth that comes from the enemy of God and not God Himself.
John MacArthur – Grace to You – Bible Q & A
For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy. (1 Corinthians 7:14)
As you know, a couple of weeks ago we completed our study in the wonderful epistle written by Jude which ended with a promise that God is able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before His presence with glory. And because that introduced to us the wonderful doctrine of eternal security, or better stated, the perseverance of the saints, or the preservation of the saints, we spent a few weeks talking about that doctrine. And in the discussions that I had with you regarding that, I said that the end is determined by the beginning. Our salvation is secure to the end because our salvation was predestined in the very beginning to be completed. And we remember that Romans 8 makes a monumental and very clear statement to that regard. When in Romans 8 the Apostle Paul writes, “For whom He foreknew, He predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son.” That is all whom God predestined will become conformed to the image of His Son in eternal glory. And thus whom He predestined He called, and whom He called He justified, and whom He justified these He also glorified.
For the Love of His Truth 