Posted on 01/27/2008 7:56:14 PM PST by Manfred the Wonder Dawg
January 25, 2008
ESV Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
In recent days I have spent time in Lima and Sullana Peru and Mexico City and I have discovered that people by nature are the same. Man has a heart that is inclined to selfishness and idolatry. Sin abounds in the remotest parts of the land because the heart is desperately wicked. Thousands bow before statues of Mary and pray to her hoping for answers. I have seen these people stare hopelessly at Mary icons, Jesus icons, and a host of dead saints who will do nothing for them. I have talked with people who pray to the pope and say that they love him. I talked with one lady who said that she knew that Jesus was the Savior, but she loved the pope. Thousands bow before Santa Muerte (holy death angel) in hopes that she will do whatever they ask her. I have seen people bring money, burning cigarettes, beer, whiskey, chocolate, plants, and flowers to Santa Muerte in hopes of her answers. I have seen these people bowing on their knees on the concrete in the middle of public places to worship their idol. Millions of people come into the Basilica in Mexico City and pay their money, confess their sins, and stare hopelessly at relics in hope that their sins will be pardoned. In America countless thousands are chained to baseball games, football games, material possessions, and whatever else their heart of idols can produce to worship.
My heart has broken in these last weeks because the God of heaven is not honored as he ought to be honored. People worship the things that are created rather than worshiping the Creator. God has been gracious to all mankind and yet mankind has hardened their hearts against a loving God. God brings the rain on the just and unjust. God brings the beautiful sunrises and sunsets upon the just and unjust. God gives good gifts unto all and above all things he has given his Son that those who would believe in him would be saved. However, man has taken the good things of God and perverted them unto idols and turned their attention away from God. I get a feel for Jesus as he overlooked Jerusalem or Paul as he beseeched for God to save Israel. When you accept the reality of the truth of the glory of God is breaks your heart that people would turn away from the great and awesome God of heaven to serve lesser things. Moses was outraged by the golden calf, the prophets passionately preached against idolatry, Jesus was angered that the temple was changed in an idolatrous business, and Paul preached to the idolaters of Mars Hill by telling them of the unknown God.
I arrived back at home wondering how I should respond to all the idolatry that I have beheld in these last three weeks. I wondered how our church here in the states should respond to all of the idolatry in the world. What are the options? First, I suppose we could sit around and hope that people chose to get their life together and stop being idolaters. However, I do not know how that could ever happen apart from them hearing the truth. Second, I suppose we could spend a lifetime studying cultural issues and customs in hope that we could somehow learn to relate to the people of other countries. However, the bible is quite clear that all men are the same. Men are dead in sin, shaped in iniquity, and by nature are the enemies of God. Thirdly, we could pay other people or other agencies to go and do a work for us while we remain comfortably in the states. However, there is no way to insure that there will be doctrinal accuracy or integrity. If we only pay other people to take the gospel we will miss out on all of the benefits of being obedient to the mission of God. Lastly, we could seek where God would have us to do a lasting work and then invest our lives there for the glory of God. The gospel has the power to raise the dead in any culture and we must be willing to take the gospel wherever God would have us take it. It is for sure that our church cannot go to every country and reach every people group, so we must determine where God would have us work and seek to be obedient wherever that is.
It seems that some doors are opening in the Spanish speaking countries below us and perhaps God is beginning to reveal where we are to work. There are some options for work to be partnered with in Peru and there could be a couple of options in Mexico. The need is greater than I can express upon this paper for a biblical gospel to be proclaimed in Peru and Mexico. Oh, that God would glorify his great name in Peru and Mexico by using a small little church in a town that does not exist to proclaim his great gospel amongst a people who desperately need the truth.
I give thanks to the LORD for allowing me the privilege of going to these countries and broadening my horizons. The things that I have seen will be forever engraved upon my heart. I will long remember the pastors that I spent time with in Peru and I will never forget Adolfo who translated for me in Mexico. I will relish the time that I spent with Paul Washer and the others. When I think of church I will forever remember being on top of that mountain in Sullana at that church which had no electricity and no roof. I am convinced that heaven was looking down on that little church on top of that mountain and very few people on earth even know that it exist. Oh, God I pray that the things of this world will continue to grow dim and that God’s people will be caught up in his glorious presence.
Because of the truth: Pastor: J. Randall Easter II Timothy 2:19 "Our God is in heaven and does whatever He pleases."(Ps. 115:3) "He predestined us according to the good pleasure of His will."(Eph. 1:5) Those who have been saved have been saved for His glory and they are being made holy for this is the will of God. Are you being made holy? Spurgeon says, "If your religion does not make you holy it will damn you to hell."
Of a truth, were it not for the crystalline geometry of frozen water, it would not float and the life beneath would not be insulated and would die.
That is a fact that I can attest to as well, 1000 Silverings! Alamo-Girl has never claimed that she has any special powers of her own, but proclaims the glory and power of God alone, and more than anyone I know tries ever to abide in His Holy Spirit. In the sense of actually living a Christian life, she is fulfilling the teaching of the Church, not setting herself in odds with it.
Thank you so much for your post!
” Your post has brought me to tears, dear brother in Christ! Thank you!”
Oh please!
but after awhile, when they are all seen in continuity, and consistency, AG posts nothing that boasts of herself, but if she boasts at all , she boasts in God and gives Him the glory.
= = =
INDEED!
QUITE SO. QUITE SO, Dear Sister in Christ.
Thx for your exhortations, example and encouragements.
So . . . are you . . .
uhhhh . . . questioning Alamo-Girl’s honesty?
. . . her candor?
. . . her authenticity?
. . . her being touched to the point of tears?
. . .
WHAT pray tell, is your ?incredulity? about???
And based on what . . . (besides wholesale biased presumption and assumption)?
“Alamo-Girl has never claimed that she has any special powers of her own,...”
Of course she has. She has today. She claims the power to discern the actual and exact words of God apart from the words of the Apostles, apparently in a manner heretofore unknown to The Church. To me, that power is “special”. Claiming that power publicly is something else entirely.
“...and more than anyone I know tries ever to abide in His Holy Spirit.”
Really, BB? Just how is that being accomplished? Does it have to do with a lot of arm waving and shouting “Maranatha Jesus” or is there something else to it? Does it have anything to do with snakes? As you all know or have been informed, we Orthodox worship, what was it? Oh, stumps or some such thing. Does it have to do with stumps?
“Just as the fishermen hide the hook with bait and covertly hook the fish, similarly, the crafty allies of the heresies cover their evil teachings and corrupt understanding with pietism and hook the more simple, bringing them to spiritual death.” The man who said this, our venerable and God-bearing Father +Isidore of Pelusium was no fool, nor did he suffer heresy or heretics lightly. In great measure you have him to thank that you are likely neither a Nestorian or a Monophysite. There are reasons to be wary of excessive public piety or the ready acceptance of spiritual praise!
See #2829
Ah! so your a hard case... K-man...
So was Jonah... The lord specializes in hard cases..
Thank God..
“The answer is yes when they are following the teachings of the Church”
The question doesn’t ask about “following the teachings” or “indwelling of the Holy Spirit”. It is a question of epistomology; how do we know. Before the individual follows the teachings of the church, does the Holy Spirit lead the individual to believe the teachings of the church are true?
The question does not deal with all of the teachings of the church, just enough to convince the individual to commit to the church for salvation. Is that the leading of the Holy Spirit in the life of the individual?
Yes,I do believe that
Do you very,very,very,very strongly believe your own personal interpretations of Scripture are always correct?
What balderdash!
Alamo-Girl and other Protties have claimed nothing which Scripture has not declared is part of the
NORMAL CHRISTIAN LIFE, for EVERY Believer willing to walk obediently with God sufficiently close to manifest such things in their lives, by God’s Grace.
as Watchman Nee might put it!
####
Of course, the key quibble seems to be . . . that there’s
NO MAGICSTERICAL
MODERATING, ADMINSTERING, CONTROLLING, MANIPULATING, MANGLING, . . . such
DIRECT HOLY SPIRIT—BELIEVER phenomena.
Welllllllll whoop T Do! Seems to me God has a BIG PREFERENCE
TO RELATED TO
HIS KIDS
DIRECTLY
And the bureaucracy be hanged.
How anyone could read of Christ’s dealings with the RELIGIOUS RULERS of 2000 years ago and
even extrapolate anything different is mind boggling.
On the other hand . . . thanks for helping me seen the need to return the EO edifice’s ranking quite lower yet again.
When the Apostles argued who would be greatest in heaven(sic).. Jesus took a liyttle child and said UNLESS they become as one of "these" they would not see the Kingdom of the Heavens..
"Greatest in Heaven"?, indeed.. The sub-Apostles or ones following them were no doubt just as prone to arrogance.. You think?.. Heaven is NOT gained by the SMART but by the faithful.. AND SIMPLE... Even the orthodox, you know, like some Jewish Rabbis...
So... you will tell us what we are to believe and if we don't believe you, and or the men you follow,there is no place in your Christianity for the rest of us? Hoo boy, what does that lead to?
We ought to obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29).
Mark 9:38
And John answered him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us: and we forbad him, because he followeth not us.
“On the other hand . . . thanks for helping me seen the need to return the EO edifice’s ranking quite lower yet again.”
You are very welcome Quix. I am pleased to be able to confirm previously formed opinions.
“The lord specializes in hard cases..
Thank God....”
Indeed; He absolutely has His work cut out for Him with me. The Metropolitan and I were chuckling about this very thing just this morning after the Liturgy.
“The sub-Apostles or ones following them were no doubt just as prone to arrogance.. You think?.. Heaven is NOT gained by the SMART but by the faithful.. AND SIMPLE...”
Exactly, hp, exactly. That’s why the floor of hell is paved with the skulls of bishops.
Actually, I was being more than a little cheeky.
I’ve tended to hold the EO edifice quite a bit above he RC edifice.
But y’all really have eroded that historical sense of mine a lot more than I’d have preferred.
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