The Shack Bible Project

By on Aug 2, 2011

Yes, you read that right. Get on your heavy mud gear as Apprising Ministries takes you off-road mentally mudding deeply into the postmodern Wonderland of Humpty Dumpty language where the meanings of words descend into its muck and mire.

In Mike Morrell On Matthew Fox, John Wimber, And The Emerging Church I introduced you to Mike Morrell, who’s a networker in the sinfully ecumenical cult of the Emergent Church aka the Emerging Church. [1]

There you saw that Morrell fancies himself as a:

Futurist @KedgeForward. Grad Fellow, Strategic Foresight MA @RegentU. Provocateur-In-Residence, David Group Int’l. Journalist. Nu-media publicist. Opti-mystic. (Online source)

Morrell is also “Partner/Foresight Professional” for something called KedgeForward, whose KedgeForward blog, which I first cited in Richard Rohr And The Emerging Church As The Third Way, and it does prove to be most enlightening. [2]

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How Pietism Deceives Christians: The Errors of Elitist teachings in the Church

By on Jul 28, 2011

By Apprising Ministries special correspondent Bob DeWaay

There are no extraordinary Christians; but being an ordinary Christian is an extraordinary thing. How I wish I would have understood that when I was a new Christian. But I didn’t. Soon after my conversion I began a quest to become the best possible Christian.

In so doing I fell prey to teachings that promised me a Christian life superior to that of ordinary Christians. What I did not know was that I had embraced pietism. I didn’t become an extraordinary Christian and I did walk straight into error.

My journey into the “deeper life” oftentimes involved embracing contradictory teachings. For example, two of my favorite teachers in the early 1970’s were Watchman Nee and Kenneth Hagin. One taught a deeper Christian life through suffering[1]) and the other taught a higher order Christianity that could cause one to be free from bodily ailments and poverty.[2]The hook was that both claimed to have the secret to becoming an extraordinary Christian. I found out that they didn’t.

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Explaining Lectio Divina

I am posting this as, I am aware of many churches who are Afrikaans speaking congregations, and they are promoting this practice. I pray many will find the truth. Elmarie

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A Solemn Warning for All Churches

 

A Sermon
(No. 68)
Delivered on Sabbath Morning, February 24, 1856, by the
REV. C. H. Spurgeon
At New Park Street Chapel, Southwark.

“Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white; for they are worthy.”—Revelation 3:4.

MY LEARNED and eminently pious predecessor, Dr. Gill, is of opinion that the different churches spoken of in the Book of Revelation are types of different states through which the church of God shall pass until it comes into the Philadelphia state, the state of love, in which Jesus Christ shall reign in its midst, and afterwards, as he thinks, shall pass into the state of Laodicea, in which condition it shall be when suddenly the Son of Man shall come to judge the world in righteousness and the people in equity. I do not go with him in all his suppositions with regard to these seven churches as following each other in seven periods of time; but I do think he was correct when he declared that the church in Sardis was a most fitting emblem of the church in his days, as also in these. The good old doctor says, “When we shall find any period in which the church was more like the state of Sardis as described here, than it is now?” And he points out the different particulars in which the church of his day (and I am sure it is yet more true of the church at the present day) was exactly like the church in Sardis. I shall use the church in Sardis as a figure of what I conceive to be the sad condition of Christendom at the present moment. My first point will be general defilement—there were but “a few names” in Sardis who had not “defiled their garments;” secondly, special preservation—there were a few who had not defiled their garments; and thirdly, a peculiar reward—”And they shall walk with me in white; for they are worthy.”

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Examine Yourself

John MacArthur
Matthew 5-7; 2 Corinthians 13:5

Are you a Christian? Many people who claim to be point to some event in the past to substantiate their claim. But inviting Jesus to come into your life in the past is not proof that you are genuinely saved. In 2 Corinthians 13:5 Paul says to the Corinthian church, “ Examine yourselves, whether you are in the faith; prove yourselves (emphasis added).” He wouldn’t have said that if some event in the past were obviously the answer. The Bible never verifies anyone’s salvation by the past but by the present. If there is no evidence of salvation in your life now, you need to face the fact that you may not be a Christian. You need to examine yourself to see whether you are in the faith. How does one do that? Jesus shows us in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7).

The Distinguishing Mark of a Christian

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I do not Allow a Woman to Teach… (1Timothy 2:12-15)

This is a good listen and the explanation is very clear. I have listened to this again and decided to post it for all my Christian lady friends and also for their spouses. May you be blessed and see the Biblical truth.

Elmarie

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What is conviction of sin?

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled

“An Old-Fashioned Conversation,” delivered March 16, 1873.

The Lord shuts us up to hopelessness and helplessness in order that he may come, as a God of grace, and display his abounding mercy. All our hope lies in him, and all other hopes are delusions. The great work in conversion is not to make people better, so that they may come to God on a good footing, it is to strip them completely and lay them low, so that God may come to them when they are on a bad footing, or rather on no footing at all, but down in the dust at his feet. The Son of man is come to seek and to cave that which is lost, but it wants* God himself to convince men that they are lost; and the Spirit’s work of soul-humbling is just this – to get man to feel so diseased that he will accept the physician; to get him to feel so poor that he will accept the charity of heaven; to get him to know that he is so stripped, that he will no longer be proud of his fig leaves, but will be willing to take the robe of righteousness which Christ has wrought out.

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Promoting Contemplative SPIRITUALITY/MYSTICISM ok in Southern Baptist Convention

By

on Jul 14, 2011

Lately I’ve written pieces like “Good” Experiences Aren’t Necessarily From God and Supernatural Gatherings In The New Downgrade here at this online apologetics and discernment work Apprising Ministries showing the sad slide of largely pretending to be Protestant evangelicalism and the growing falling away of the mainstream visible Christian community.

I’ve been documenting all of this for you as well as giving you much evidence of the apostatizing evangelical camp embarking on a spiritual game of Russian roulette by embracing highly subjective Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM).

This is the type of Reformation-reversing so-called Spiritual Formation that’s being taught by Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster along with his spiritual twin and Southern Baptist minister Dallas Willard in their festering cult of Foster-Willardism.

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Demons and Magic

One of the best explanations I have heard on this subject – I pray this brings the truth to many – Elmarie


John MacArthur- Grace to You

January 14, 1973

The subject upon which we will be speaking tonight is one that perhaps has captured the attention of many of us in our particular modern day because it exists, in a certain sense, as a kind of a paradox. This is a very intellectual day. This is a day when men pride themselves on being rational. This is the era that is after the rational era in the sense that we’ve all discovered what logic means and what rationality means. And yet it is the midst of just such…such an era of education and higher learning and rationality and logic and all of these things that there seems to be a tremendous boom in the occult, the mysterious, the mystique, the things which are supernatural and which are irrational, unreasonable, and beyond education. And it’s becoming such a practical thing that it seems as though it hits us in every place in every way.

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Saved or Deceived

John McArthur (1 of 2)

Is it possible to understand the gospel message, have strong religious convictions, serve in a Bible-believing church, and be convinced you have a saving relationship with God, and yet still not get into heaven when you die? The Bible couldn’t be any clearer on the answer. Yes, many people will one day stand before God and be shocked as they hear Him say, “I never knew you; depart from Me.”

see more …….(2nd short video)

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The BIBLICAL Role Of A Woman

I was given the links to these two short video clips, by a friend and and sister in Jesus Christ. This one of the best biblical explanations concerning the place and role of the woman in the church and as a Christian wife and  mother. I thought it good enough to share with you all. There might be somebody out there who would benefit from better understanding our place and role in a Biblical sense. It is also our duty to adhere to the Word and it clearly spells out what the Lord expects of women.

In today’s post-modern society with women’s liberation movements world wide it is not correct for us to agree with and adhere to the world, but to follow our Lord’s instructions. The teaching of the Apostle Paul spells it out so clearly in his words in 1Tim 2:12  “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet”. Often I have encountered women who say that this verse indicates to them that women should be reduced to being pregnant and in the kitchen, and be a slave to her husband although this is not at all what Scripture tells us. It is my prayer that these short clips bring joy and peace to the hearts of those women who do not understand this teaching. Blessings in His name. Elmarie

To see the video clips ….

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Oprah and Obama: Ecumenicising an Africa in need of Christ

Grant Swart

The letter which I have attached hereto, was brought to my attention a few days ago, sent to me by a family member and friend who has a sharp eye for matters pertaining to controversial political issues. Although the letter is of secular nature, I thought it might be relevant to the times we are living in here in Africa, where, as in the rest of the world, the momentum of the ecumenical movement has become unstoppable.

The recent embarrassing repeat visit to our shores by Oprah Winfrey, accompanied this time by an even more embarrassing, (to the Christian, that is), Michelle Obama as a “socially concerned” spiritual ally, provided the incentive for me to feel this letter justifiably be re-posted on our blog. Had Michelle Obama not insisted on using the church as a platform to preach her deceptive message, I might have felt otherwise and simply have left the politicking to the politicians.

I do realise that the content of the attached letter is in contrast to the usual material we post here, but the blatantly obvious ecumenical message which Michelle and Oprah carried with them on that visit, somehow seems to tie in with this openhearted local opinion Continue reading

Ritualism Among the Reformed

Dr. Paul M. Elliott

Colossians 2:11-17, Galatians 5:1-6

We are presently in the section of Colossians chapter two where the Apostle Paul  deals with the danger of legalism in the life and thinking of the believer, and in the life and ministry of the church. As we begin today, let me read this tremendous statement for you once again. And if you are able to open your own copy of God’s Word as you are listening today, I trust you will do so. Colossians chapter two, beginning at verse eleven. Paul writes this:

In Him [that is, in Jesus Christ] you [that is, you who have believed on Christ] were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with  Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it [that is, in the cross of Christ].

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Handed Over to Satan?

John MacArthur – Grace to You – Bible Q & A

(1 Corinthians 5)

I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. (1 Corinthians 5:5)

Paul makes clear the action that should have been taken to discipline the man who refused to repent of and forsake his blatant immorality. He should have been excommunicated, removed from your midst.

When the Corinthians were assembled to take disciplinary action Paul would be with them in spirit. The apostle had taught them as a pastor, was now writing them for the second time (1 Cor. 5:9), and intended to continue to give them his counsel and encouragement in doing the Lord’s will—even when he could not be with them in person.

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The Love of God

 

John MacArthur – Grace to You

“The love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” – Romans 5:5-8

 

Salvation ushers believers into a love relationship with God that lasts throughout eternity.

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