Today I’m introducing the first edition of something that I plan to make a regular feature. Each Sunday I’ll post a short classic piece from someone signally used by God down through the history of the church.  There are some good men around today (I mentioned a few recently), but our heritage is so rich, we are fools to neglect the great body of truth left us by Christians of previous eras. 

I have been so blessed over the years by the writings of Reformers and Puritans, Revivalists and Missionaries.  I’ll just share some gleanings each week - read carefully and I can promise you’ll be enriched.

Today we start with John Newton …

READING THE BIBLE

“Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.”  Jeremiah 15:16

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by Kurt Michaelson

“Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” Galatians 3:24 (KJV)

What the Law Reveals

The Law reveals how utterly helpless humanity really is compared to the standard requirements that it contained, to live holy and righteous before God. It also reveals for whom it is intended, which it is certainly not for good people, but for sinners: “the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine,” (1 Timothy 1:9-10).

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This will be an AWESOME conference!  Speakers include: Todd Friel, Peter Hammond, Phil Johnson, Justin Peters, Paul Taylor, Emilio & Trisha Ramos.  (PLUS music by Go Fish)

Our friend Trisha Ramos is giving away 2 Free Tickets. Check it out at her website HERE.

The conference will be held May 14th-15th in Keller, Texas.  More details are also available on the Wretched Radio Website.

Phil

by Kurt Michaelson

“Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” Galatians 3:24 (KJV)

Over the last five years, my eyes and ears have become ever more attentive to the absurd ways in which pastors of Christian churches have made great efforts to draw people into their community of believers. This absurdity has been going on for more than five years though, 20 years in fact and where I was once blind, now I see.

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It’s been quoted so often in Christendom that it has achieved the status of a proverb, almost as though it were part of Scripture: “Preach the gospel at all times, when necessary use words.”  (I can almost hear the Amens!)  The popular saying is usually attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, although he almost certainly did not say it.

At the risk of offending Christians who have accepted this as some profound truth, I have to say that I cannot agree with it at all. The way it is used is very unbiblical, and is just one more thing used to justify many Christians’ unwillingness to obey the Great Commission.

Like all such false teachings, the statement has a little kernel of truth to it. Obviously the testimony of our lives ought to be consistent with the gospel we have believed, and even ought to be remarkable to the point that it arrests people’s attention in a sinful world.

But let me point out what is wrong with the saying.

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“But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says the LORD.”  (Jeremiah 9:24)

God reveals aspects of His nature in this verse, telling us things that He delights in. Now we rejoice in His lovingkindness, and we worship before His righteousness, but did you catch that word in the middle? God delights in judgment.

That’s startling, isn’t it?  The Hebrew word for “delight” comes from a root word meaning “to incline towards”. It’s the picture of a person who is anticipating, expecting – and so they sit forward on their seat. That’s what it says about God’s posture in judgment. He wants to do it.  He “delights in it”.

But doesn’t the Bible say that “God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked”? (Ezekiel 33:11)

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Watch the video. If you have a Nook and are interested in exchanging titles of eBooks you have available for loan, email me at phil@philmorgan.org

For more information and full specs on the Nook, visit Barnes & Noble’s website.

Phil

There’s abundant material available around the internet now, thankfully, that debunks the climate change myth.  Slowly people are being made aware that the “science” behind the whole thing was very shoddy from the beginning, and the only reason it has been perpetuated is because there are clearly people who have a vested interest in it. People who would use fear for control.

But Christians should NEVER have been suckered into climbing up on this bandwagon in the first place. The reason I say that is because just a few minutes thought about it for anyone who has a basic Biblical knowledge should have clued you in to the fact that it was nothing but a diversion.

Let me just give you 2 Biblical reasons why the global warming alarmists should never have troubled us:

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This peculiar story was picked up by Wretched Radio earlier this week. A group calling themselves VHEM, or “The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement”, (we have no idea how large the membership is … one hand or two?), have launched a website espousing a philosophy of, yes, “Voluntary Human Extinction”. Yup, snuffing ourselves out.

You can check out their website for yourself at www.vhemt.org

What are the tenets of this philosophy? They claim to present “an encouraging alternative to the callous exploitation and wholesale destruction of Earth’s ecology.”

In their own words:

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“The Shack” by William P.Young has become a phenomenon since it’s release in 2008. Many Christians have read it, and recommended it to their friends; some evangelical pastors have even endorsed it from their pulpits. This despite the fact that the book is filled with flagrant heresy.

The fact that it is written in such a popular and readable style, only makes it all the more dangerous. It contains ideas about the Bible, the Church, and (particularly) the Trinity which may sound interesting and reasonable enough, but they are, in fact, a direct contradiction of historical Christian doctrine and the plain teaching of Scripture.

I never wrote anything about the Book when it was released, because by the time I got around to reading it there were already numerous articles on the internet calling attention to the problems with it. I did warn a lot of Christians who asked me about what I thought of it.

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A list like this, of course, is very subjective, and I hasten to add that this is not some “fan” list; I do not wish to adulate or idolize these men. They are simply preachers that I find consistently helpful – they encourage my spiritual growth.

I also set the criteria for this list that they had to be currently active preachers.

If I were considering preachers in print, my all time favorite would be “The Prince of Preachers”, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, followed closely by a slew of 17^th Century Puritans.

If I were considering preachers you can still get audio for, but who are no longer preaching, the list would be headed by Dr.Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and would include such legends as Adrian Rogers, Stephen Olford, Leonard Ravenhill, Alan Redpath and Vance Havner.

Disclaimers aside, here’s my current list:

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“And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw Him, they begged Him to depart from their region.”  Matthew 8:34

Hang on … did I just read that right?

Can you believe it? Why were these people upset? Guess I should go back a few paragraphs and read the whole story of what had happened.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE CONTEXT

Let me get this straight, Jesus had just delivered 2 men of demons.  That’s a GOOD thing, isn’t it?  But when the people in town heard about it, they weren’t pleased at all. They begged Jesus to leave the region.

The true power of God is to the world only fearful. They would rather their mundane lives than Divine intervention.

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God “seems to do nothing of Himself which He can possibly delegate to His creatures. He commands us to do slowly and blunderingly what He could do perfectly and in the twinkling of an eye.”

(C.S. Lewis, as quoted by Philip Yancey in “Church: Why Bother?”, p.98)

Yesterday I drove down to Pennsylvania for a meeting. There is so much more snow down south at the moment. I was listening to the radio and it was being reported that there was actually snow on the ground in all 50 states (even Hawaii at high elevations).  Texas, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama … all have snow!

The three very large systems, that buried Washington DC in over 50 inches, all missed us to the South (mercifully).  Talking to pastors from down there, there are some who have had to cancel church services 3 Sundays this year. Ouch!

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