For Fellow Aliens: Deception or Disciple?

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Deception or Disciple?

Here are two sobering You Tube Clips to remind us all of the uncanny ability for men and women to be deceived into thinking that they belong to Jesus without any understanding of the very Gospel He preached. Let it be a warning to all of us that emotions, although contributing factors to change, should not be the indicator of conversion, and in Glenn Beck's case, circumstances and miracles do not point to the truth when it contradicts the Word of God. Are you saved? Examine yourself...your eternal destiny may depend on it!

(For some reason, I am unable to post links, so in the meantime, you can just cut and paste the address to view.)

Oprah gives all to Jesus:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9S1C1uNLlR4

Glenn Beck talks about his conversion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKtAPT9KEfM

True and False Conversion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rncnhmzfpwo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z24R_YYP6z8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCxwnldGZPA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlNxYX8pSbc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1leKBWeSoZM&feature=related

2 comments:

laura said...: Anita,
I would have to respectfully disagree with you that emotions do not signify conversion. I think they often do. Our emotions are a combined result of what we focus on, what we value, what we know and what we believe. We are emotionally about things on that combined result. If we really believe that Jesus is our Savior and that we value all that he brings us the passion that we feel at conversion will be there based on what we have embraced. You may want to check out Matthew Elliott's book Feel the Power of Listening to your Heart from Tyndale. It is a fascinating look into what makes a Christian feel and how that should change over time.
In him,
Laura; January 17, 2009 at 9:34 AM
Anita said...: Thanks, Laura. I don't write many articles on my blog because I am deeply in the process of learning and soaking up whatever sound teaching is available. But the few sentences I do write, are unsuprisingly needing improvement. I changed the wording on the sentence somewhat in deference to your well-taken point.
Thanks,
Anita; January 29, 2009 at 9:07 AM

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“There are many who speak only of the forgiveness of sin, but who say little or nothing about repentance. If there is nevertheless no forgiveness of sins without repentance, so also forgiveness of sins cannot be understood without repentance. Therefore, if forgiveness of sins is preached without repentance, it follows that the people imagine they have already received the forgiveness of sins, and thereby they become cocksure and fearless, which is then greater error and sin than all the error that preceded our time.” MELANCHTHON

“Satan tempts us at the point of our physical needs, not that we might gratify them to excess, but that we might think of nothing else and gratify them at the expense of our usefulness in this world. Satan tempts us at the point of our ambitions, not that we might engage in positive evil, but simply accept the fact of evil, learn to live with it, come to terms with it, and maintain a discreet silence in the presence of it. Satan tempts us at the point of our religion, not that we might disbelieve in God, but that we might demand certainty; -- that kind of certainty of God that leaves nothing to faith, nothing to God himself. These are the moral struggles that have reality for people such as we are; the subtle temptation to renounce our duty in favor of what is attractive, that insidious allurement to a kind of a half-goodness which is the essence of everything bad and which is more productive of suffering and hatred, war and misery in this world, than all the designs of wicked and greedy people combined.”

Arthur Leonard Griffith (God's Time and Ours)

My research suggested that people are simply not being pastored. Often ministers are out of touch with what's happening on the ground, as they are surrounded by a wall of secretaries and voice mail. Congregants have to wait up to a month for an appointment, if they can get in at all. Once-a-week home Bible study groups lack depth and theological know-how for help with the serious problems many of us face. Many churches refer people to professional counseling that costs at least seventy-five dollars an hour. Those lucky enough to have a health plan that pays for counseling usually find the only counselors on approved HMO lists have no concept of a Christian worldview.
Julia Duin from the book "Quitting Church"

I cannot believe in the spirituality of any Christian man who keeps an eye open for the approval of others, whoever they may be. The man after God’s own heart must be dead to the opinion of his friends as well as his enemies. He must be willing to cross important persons as obscure ones.
He must be ready to rebuke his superior as quickly as those who may be beneath him on the ecclesiastical ladder. To reprove one man in order to gain the favor of another is no evidence of moral courage. It is done in the world all the time. We’ll never be where we should be in our spiritual lives until we are so devoted to Christ that we ask no other approbation than His smile.
A.W. Tozer

I may . . . pass for being a relatively successful man. People occasionally stare at me in the streets—that’s fame. I can fairly easily earn enough to qualify for admission to the higher slopes of the Inland Revenue—that’s success. Furnished with money and a little fame . . . [I] may partake of trendy diversions—that’s pleasure. It might happen once in a while that something I said or wrote . . . represented a serious impact on our time—that’s fulfillment. Yet I say to you, and beg you to believe me, multiply those tiny triumphs by a million, add them all together, and they are nothing—less than nothing, a positive impediment—measured against one draught of that living water Christ offers to the spiritually thirsty.

—Malcolm Muggeridge, quoted in Richard D. Phillips, Jesus the Evangelist (Reformation Trust Publishing, 2007), 127

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Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Deception or Disciple?

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