Bible teaching, encouragement, homiletics, exegesis, etc.

The Sermon on the Mount, Part 9

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching ∙ ,

18 ‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD. Lev. 19:18, NASB

21 If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; 22 For you will heap burning coals on his head, And the LORD will reward you. Proverbs 25:21–22, NASB

I listened to part of a presentation today via podcast from Alpha & Omega Ministries’ The Dividing Line broadcast from 3 May 2012 by a young man claiming to be a “Christian Gay.” The definition of terms this young man used for “love,” for instance, was not Biblical, but was based in the same self-focused, narcissistic bent that all have who have not first become regenerate, that is, saved by grace through faith according to the mercy of God, and then learned to deny self under the sanctifying hand of God. His version of love was self-centered and all about self-fulfillment. That is not Christian love nor is it how any who are truly in Christ will operate in this world on a consistent basis. How did our Lord define it?  View article →

Southern Baptist David Jeremiah Praises "vision God" gave to TBN’s Paul Crouch

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

Apprising Ministries has been telling you that sectors of the professing Christian community are now coming together in ways we’d never have imagined before.

In this new article you will see video clips of Jeremiah preaching on this year’s March 5 edition of TBN’s Praise-A-Thon fundraiser. Not only is he pitching for pledges, but this well-respected SBC statesman lavishes praise upon the heretical Paul Crouch. View article →

Oprah Winfrey is not a Christian

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

Apprising Ministries wishes you to know that over the past few years media mogul Oprah Winfrey has been remaking herself into a spiritual teacher. Considering the size of her following this means she is literally infecting millions worldwide.

You’ll see in this well-documented piece that Winfrey claims to be a Christian. Using video clips I show you using her own words that her testimony is simply not that of a genuine Christian. View article →

Understanding the Basics of Pietism

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

Apprising Ministries has been researching contemplative spirituality and its unbiblical meditation in altered states of consciousness for many years now.

What all this talk about so-called “spiritual disciplines” really is would be a return to the old heresy of pietism. In this post you’ll find the information to help you better understand this. View article →

At Jesus' Feet

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

Amidst all the din of people-pleasing apostasy and bowing to man currently going on throughout contemporary evangelicalism Apprising Ministries brings you a devotional teaching concerning proper worship. View article →

The Sermon on the Mount, Part 8

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching ∙ ,

23 “But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. Exod. 21:23–25, NASB

19 ‘If a man injures his neighbor, just as he has done, so it shall be done to him: 20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; just as he has injured a man, so it shall be inflicted on him. 21 ‘Thus the one who kills an animal shall make it good, but the one who kills a man shall be put to death. Lev. 24:19–21, NASB

16 “If a malicious witness rises up against a man to accuse him of wrongdoing, 17 then both the men who have the dispute shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days. 18 “The judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness and he has accused his brother falsely, 19 then you shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you. 20 The rest will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such an evil thing among you. 21 Thus you shall not show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. Deut. 19:16–21, NASB

In the passages above, Moses was giving the Law of God to the Israelites in their dealing with injuries done by one person on one or more people in a way that would limit retribution to that which was just. Its design was to insure that the punishment in civil cases fit the crime, but were never intended to sanction acts of personal retaliation. Therefore in Matthew 5:38-42 the Lord Jesus made no alteration to the true meaning of the law, but was merely explaining and affirming its true meaning. View article →

Andy Stanley Takes Jab At Christians

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

Apprising Ministries reminds you that Seeker Driven pastor Andy Stanley really put his foot in his mouth a couple times recently concerning the lifestyle of homosexuality and the Christian.

In this piece you’ll see that, rather than accepting some godly criticism, Stanley strikes back at Christianity itself.

As he does, you’ll also find out that he ends up sounding a lot like the apostate Brian McLaren of the Emerging Church. View article →

The Sermon on the Mount, Part 7

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching ∙ ,

‘You shall not swear falsely by My name, so as to profane the name of your God; I am the LORD. Lev. 19:12, NASB

“If a man makes a vow to the LORD, or takes an oath to bind himself with a binding obligation, he shall not violate his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth. Num. 30:2, NASB

21 “When you make a vow to the LORD your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for it would be sin in you, and the LORD your God will surely require it of you. 22 “However, if you refrain from vowing, it would not be sin in you. 23 “You shall be careful to perform what goes out from your lips, just as you have voluntarily vowed to the LORD your God, what you have promised. Deut. 23:21-23, NASB

For a short period of time in the late 1980s I worked in a PC/Computer store in sales. I am not a sales person, but most if not all of the other fellows I worked with were. Instead, I simply told people what the computers could do or what they could not do and tried to match them up with what the people needed. I was usually in the top two or three in sales, never number one there, but I was always number one in customer satisfaction. In fact, the only time I ever saw those customers again was if something broke or they wanted an upgrade or they brought a friend or relative in to buy a computer. However, something changed when I sold a truckload of computers to a local school. Then I did it again. Then our sales manager forced me to move to outside sales and out of the showroom. I hated it. Suddenly I began dealing with agents from companies whose whole way of doing business was based on mistrust. In fact, I had one who went out of his way to put legal pressure on us to fill contracts, et cetera. I asked the guy why he did that since I always did what I said I would do. He told me that he did that with everyone he did business with because that was how he ensured that he always got things done. I told him I didn’t want his business and gave the account to another guy in our group. That was the beginning of the end of my time in marketing. Even though God provided for my family and me during that time through it, I hated it except in those early days when I was helping those people one-on-one and they were overjoyed to get it. When it became ugly I came to hate my job and God was gracious to move me back into what I really liked doing at that time, which was writing database applications. View article →

Elephant Room 2's T.D. Jakes Says TBN's Paul Crouch Led By God To Launch Jakes' Ministry

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching ∙

James MacDonald, curator of the Elephant Room, would have us believe T.D. Jakes has moved away from Word Faith prosperity preaching.

Apprising Ministries offers that the evidence just does’t back this up. In this new piece you’ll see exclusive video of Jakes on TBN’s Praise-A-Thon of 8 March 2012.

This is their vehicle for raising money and yet there’s Jakes paying homage to head TBN huckster Paul Crouch and helping this heretical outfit fleece their flock. View article →

The Sermon on the Mount, Part 6

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching ∙ ,

9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, NASB

One marker missing from “Liberal Christianity” that is one of the major elements that disqualifies it from being genuine Christianity is its abandonment of Sola Scriptura. Because of that, all of those characteristics that makes Christianity Christian are gone such as believer’s living lives of repentance such as that “living sacrifice” analogy given to us in Romans 12:1 along with how from that flows genuine Spiritual growth into Christian maturity in Romans 12:2. With little to no emphasis on genuine Biblical repentance, “Liberal Christianity” simply tries to emphasize unity, political correctness, feelings, with a spiritual hit by using spiritual formation into all sorts of mysticism, but mostly these “churches” do everything they can to appeal to the world so the leaders in those “organizations” would never preach a sermon like our Lord preached in Matthew 5, 6, & 7. Why? Because it brings people face-to-face with their sinfulness. This is offensive and since these men refuse to proclaim the real gospel message of the good news of what God has done on their behalf that they could never do for themselves, they will never preach anything to offend anyone so the descent into darkness of Liberalism just speeds up with each compromise. View article →

Culture Doesn't Annul The Word Of God

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

Apprising Ministries attempts to help you identify trends within the visible church and to teach you to avoid them.

One disturbing trend right now is the idea that the Christian gospel has to be made “relevant” to our capricious culture. It’s the same ill-fated idea tried before by the original cult of liberalism. View article →

The Sermon on the Mount, Part 5

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching ∙ , , , ,

14“You shall not commit adultery. Exodus 20:14, NASB

I am firmly in line with J. Gresham Machen’s assessment that “Liberal Christianity” is a different religion from Christianity. We see this in what it has abandoned in what it abhors in “Orthodoxy” that is exactly what makes Christianity “Christian.” Genuine Christianity is Christian because it is based upon the facts about our Lord Jesus and the message from him. True Christians love and respect and hold dear the same things he loved, respected and held dear, that is, God’s truth, which is called doctrine. In our day, as it was in Machen’s day, the liberals attempt to do away with what they call “dead orthodoxy” and get back to the primitive form of Christianity that the Church missed and has messed up with all its “Orthodoxy” for these last several millennia. In fact, they insist on totally “reforming” the church top to bottom without all this emphasis on the Bible as the infallible Word of God, which we call Sola Scriptura. The move towards that are seen in the teachings and sermons of men who keep moving their churches closer and closer to things such as tolerance for the “gay agenda” or “unmarried couples” or even looking the other way while their members and leaders have adulterous affair after adulterous affair. View article →