“The nature of our relationships with others is one of the most challenging areas in our Christian life and witness. We need to be prayerfully searching the Scriptures to remain sensitive to the Spirit of truth if we want to safely traverse this high wire of holiness.”
I want to thank Dan of The Battle Cry for REFERRING ME TO THIS ARTICLE. I had a not-so-easy question, at least not for me, and I asked Dan for his opinion. This article was very helpful.
One of the most faithful Christians I know is my wife of 35 years. We are both Christians. Do we agree on all of the most important things taught in scripture? Yes, I would say so. Do we agree on all topics? No. There are Biblical subjects that are interesting, even important, but they are not subjects that one has to agree with for salvation. Do I think less of my wife because of these differences? Of course not.
When should you separate yourself and to what degree should you separate yourself from your church, your friends, fellow believers, preachers you see on T.V. or the internet, or anyone for that matter? I hope THIS ARTICLE helps you as much as it helped me.
Dan has captured my thoughts with his words here, except that my thoughts wouldn’t be as well articulated. As Dan describes what church used to be, it is obvious that we are near the same age. He mentions the past 100 years but he and I have both seen drastic changes in worship in the past 45. He mentions my favorite preacher of all time, Mr. Spurgeon. In most cases, you would be better off spending a few on something by him than on Holywood. Please don’t support all of the “Christian” movies coming out because you think it will somehow send some sort of message to someone. Do a little research before you barter for two hours that gets you nothing.
I firmly believe that the Bible was not intended to ‘entertain’ the Christian consumer, much less the lost millions who need a Savior from their sin. Nevertheless, Hollywood has discovered that there are untapped millions of dollars that are ripe for the taking from an all too willing ‘Christian’ audience eager and conditioned to think that God is all about satisfying our desires and temporal cravings.
There was probably a time when this was not the case, a time when going to church meant entering the house of a great big God who rightly deserves honor, worship, awe, respect, and fear. We sang God honoring hymns full of rich theology that spoke of what a mighty and merciful God had done on behalf of spiritually dead sinners. But I digress.
The change from humbly worshipping God in reverence and awe and listening to a precher actually exposit Scripture has been…
“What was God’s purpose in Creation? It involves the goodness of human sexuality, male and female. It involves the establishment of the very first human institution by God, the family. You have Father and Mother. You have the natural outcome of that being children.” -Dr. White
3 Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?” 4 And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” (Matthew 19)
This is a very good description of the Biblical World View of human sexuality and family.
I would like to thank Dan C. of The Battle Cry who linked to SLIMJIMS blog HERE. This is how is saw this video.
I follow both blogs: The Domain For Truth and The Battle Cry.
The answer is really simple. We want to ‘attract’ people to Jesus, which is a concept found nowhere in scripture. In fact God wants his sona and daughters to be different from the world, not like the world. Yet pastors come out on platforms and stages where there is no pulpit, wearing their faded jeans, rumpled shirts hanging out of their trousers, only to preach stories about themselves (narcigesis) with a few scripture passages thrown in (soundbites for Jesus?), most likely taken out of context to ‘prove’ the heresy of the day, and itching ears lap it up because postmodern Christianity is all about our temporal happiness not God’s glory.
“The idea that you are going to win people tomthe Christian faith by showing them that after all you are remarkably like them is theologically and psychologically a profound blunder.” – Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers, 140
Another great find by Dan C. of The Battle Cry. My son is a fan of the Ligonier conferences so I have watched them occasionally myself. If you think that if you work hard for God, then He should work hard for you, this is a must read.
“The soft prosperity gospel teaches that if you work hard for God, then He should work hard for you. Many have bought into this lie. We go to church, keep our noses clean, and do whatever extra we can. Then we hope God will do His part and bless us with good kids, a nice house, a steady job, and plenty of money. But what happens when the company downsizes? When a kid starts taking drugs? When the 401(k) shrinks?”
What do you think of when you read the words prosperity gospel? Odds are that your stomach turns a bit as you think about the preachers on television who speak to very large crowds and appeal to even more people in their books. Queasiness is the reaction one should have to the brand of Christianity trumpeted by prosperity preachers. This…
What a wonderful week it has been! Sunday night, I was invited to speak at the Betania Romanian Church here in Hot Springs. They were such a gracious group of believers. I informed them that I was practicing my speech for the upcoming worldwide protest on them and they were very attentive. After an hour of worship and Bible Reading, I was given the opportunity to share my speech. Brother Gabriel translated the speech into Romanian. There were about 120 or so in the congregation, maybe more. Some of the members in the church knew more about the Norwegian problem than I do. Brother Daniel has become my contact and thinks that maybe 50 people will show up from his church at the demonstration on April 16th.
The speech was interesting. It was the first time that I have had to hold back tears during this learning experience. The training I received at Toastmasters (a speech club I once belonged to) was very helpful.
THAT WAS ONLY THE BEGINNING OF THE WEEK!
This is how the blog week started:
A post was then put up about the coming worldwide demonstration. Here is an excellent video showing demonstrations that have already occurred this year:
I’m a bit of a theology guy if you haven’t noticed. Dan’s blog, The Battle Cry, which I have been following for years had a great article that I re-blogged this week. It featured Pastor Gary Gilley of The Southern View Chapel. I have great respect for the discernment of Pastor Gilley.
Two posts were then re-blogged, one by my blogging buddy, Manny Rodriquez and other by my American/Romanian friend Chris Prunean. Chris had great news! A judge in Norway made a judgement that baby Ezekiel must be returned to the Bodnariu Family! A CPS worker has stated that there may be an appeal in the case, but for now the baby is home with his parents who are praying for a similar judgement in the cases of their other 4 children.
Ezekiel’s homecoming Photo from Delight in Truth’s blog
American students are supposed to take American History in 5th grade, 8th grade, 12th grade, and again in college. THIS POST WAS SENT TO ME BY BARBARA ANABLE. How is it possible that any American college student can’t answer the question: “Who won the Civil War?”
On Thursday, Jose Fernandez, the Superintendent of Hot Springs National Park approved my Special Use Permit request for a demonstration here in Hot Springs on the day of Worldwide protests. I would like to thank Tricia, Jose’s assistant, for her professional handling of my request. THE DETAILS OF THE HOT SPRINGS PROTEST CAN BE FOUND HERE.
By the grace of God, I was able to manage to squeeze in four days of teaching in different area schools. We have wonderful children living in our area. I got to teach Jr. High Social Studies, keyboarding, and music. Friday was fantastic. I got to spend my day with the special ed. kids at Fountain Lake Elementary.
Photo found at Deborah Ann’s blog Photo by Michaela Baltazar
I have great respect for the author of this article which Dan has shared. And you should check out Dan’s blog if you get a chance. I like his thought process and there are many nuggets on The Battle Cry. You can get there from my Blog Roll.
I am a Fundamentalist. There I said it. And yet, although I inherited a few guns I don’t know where the bullets are. I don’t hate anyone, not even my neighbor whose cat keeps my songbird population thinned out. Knowing my own weaknesses and sinfulness I refrain from being particularly judgmental of others. Some might call me a “Bible-thumper” but I have not actually thumped anyone with a Bible since junior high when I was trying to impress the girls (I learned many years later that punching girls did not impress them nearly as much as I originally thought). I have some strong preferences and opinions about everything from politics to entertainment (just ask me), but I recognize that not everyone shares all my views and I am at peace with that…
excatholic4christ
Tom has a loving heart for Catholics and his blog is an attempt to help those in Catholic churches understand that we are saved by grace alone. He blogs on a variety of topics.
Heavenly Raindrops
God-inspired words and images to bring blessings like rain
m'Kayla's korner
Make sure that the light you think you have is not actually darkness. Luke 11:35
Mrs. Acuna's Blog
If you have a teenager or anyone close to being one, this is a must read
The Domain for Truth
Slimjim’s “about” states: “(Jim Lee) is a pastor. He is a faithful servant of the church and his Saviour. Although young in age he is trying to be an apologist for the faith. “
The Hope Blog
Former Christian Talk Show Host, Ingrid Schlueter’s blog
The Narrowing Path
A blog to help Christians in Australia connect the dots…(it’s helped me here in the “good” ole U.S.A.)
Posted by Chris 
Wings of the Wind 
“Degrees of Separation”
August 30, 2016“The nature of our relationships with others is one of the most challenging areas in our Christian life and witness. We need to be prayerfully searching the Scriptures to remain sensitive to the Spirit of truth if we want to safely traverse this high wire of holiness.”
I want to thank Dan of The Battle Cry for REFERRING ME TO THIS ARTICLE. I had a not-so-easy question, at least not for me, and I asked Dan for his opinion. This article was very helpful.
One of the most faithful Christians I know is my wife of 35 years. We are both Christians. Do we agree on all of the most important things taught in scripture? Yes, I would say so. Do we agree on all topics? No. There are Biblical subjects that are interesting, even important, but they are not subjects that one has to agree with for salvation. Do I think less of my wife because of these differences? Of course not.
When should you separate yourself and to what degree should you separate yourself from your church, your friends, fellow believers, preachers you see on T.V. or the internet, or anyone for that matter? I hope THIS ARTICLE helps you as much as it helped me.
cr
Source: “Degrees of Separation”
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