Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens

41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. Lamentations 3:41 (KJV)

THE act of prayer teaches us our unworthiness, which is a very salutary lesson for such proud beings as we are. If God gave us favours without constraining us to pray for them we should never know how poor we are, but a true prayer is an inventory of wants, a catalogue of necessities, a revelation of hidden poverty. While it is an application to divine wealth, it is a confession of human emptiness…. Continue reading

US Borders Are Wide Open as Hamas Calls for Global Jihad

(Mary Dowling) Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s October 7, 2023 statement on Operation Al-Aqsa Deluge called the Israel [massacre] operation a “great triumph.” He said the enemy had suffered a political, military, intelligence, security, and moral defeat. Hamas leader Khalid Marshal called for every Muslim brother and sister globally to rise up on Friday the 13th and every day. He called for a political movement as our borders are open, and Biden floods the country with Islamists as so-called refugees. Hamas is encouraging suicide attacks. Continue reading

Unconditional Conference: Andy Stanley Says Attending a Gay Wedding is ‘Good Theology’+ Disses Rosaria Butterfield

(Protestia) Andy Stanley told attendees at the Unconditional conference that it’s “good theology” to attend the same-sex marriages of your loved ones, while also criticizing notable critics of same-sex acceptance within the church.

Andy Stanley made the comments to Debbie Causey during the second main session of the gay-affirming Unconditional conference hosted by North Point church. Causey is a pastor and the long-time Care Director at North Point Community Church. She is also a board member of Renovus, an LGBTQ activist group led by her and other gay-affirming leaders within North Point church…. Continue reading

Untwisting the Bible, Part III: ‘Let Go and Let God’

“Far from advocating a theology that calls us to “let go” in the way the cliché suggests, Scripture calls us into a life of engaged, active faith.”

(The Dissenter) Okay, so this one isn’t actually in the Bible. But since a disturbing number of professing believers think it is, we’ll cover it anyway. The well-worn mantra, “Let go and let God”—a phrase often parroted in church Sunday School classes, book clubs, and social media posts by people who presume it to be a golden nugget of biblical wisdom. Imagine these scenarios, someone’s stressed over work, tangled in relational conflicts, or generally overwhelmed by life’s complexities. What advice do they get?… Continue reading

Hamas and Fatah Explain What Their War Against Israel Is All About

“This is the day that you make this criminal enemy understand that its time is up. ‘Kill them wherever you may find them.’” That also was a quotation from the Qur’an (2:191, 4:89, cf. 9:5).”

(Robert Spencer – PJ Media) Why are the Islamic jihad groups fighting against Israel? Why do they think that committing the dismaying actions we saw in Israel on Saturday is the right, and indeed the righteous, thing to do?

As the death toll from Saturday’s jihad massacres in Israel continues to mount, the world looks on in horror at the atrocities that were committed — the wanton massacre of people at a peace concert, the beheaded babies, and so much more. It is hard for Americans and Europeans to fathom how or why any human beings would do such things. Continue reading

The Shepherd of the sheep

1 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. John 10:1-2 (LSB) 

Just because a person claims to be a Christian does not mean that he or she is Regenerate, Justified, Sanctified, or Adopted into God’s family. Many base their standing as a Christian on religious acts they have done. Others claim salvation based upon their good works plus their religion. Tragically, there are also many, and more each day it seems, “Christian leaders” who preach and teach things that they portray as the Good News, but are, instead, only the result of marketing techniques…. Continue reading

Like Her Father, Tony Evans, Priscilla Shirer Preaches Trinitarian Heresy from the Pulpit

“If you can’t get the Trinity right, you have no business in a pulpit. Mangling this essential doctrine isn’t just a minor error—it’s a failure to accurately represent the God of the Bible.” 

(The Dissenter) Tony Evans, a prominent Evangelical pastor with close ties to the Southern Baptist Convention, has been on a roll lately with aberrant theology and false teachings. Evans, who has now partnered with former Southern Baptist Convention president, Ed Litton, to push a social welfare agenda, holds to the Pelagian heresy denying the doctrine of original sin. Continue reading

All Christians, Not Just Catholics, Should Be Worried About Pope Francis’ Synod

“Every…child knows that when most people request a blessing they aren’t making a “plea for a better life” but seeking approval, endorsement, and affirmation. That’s the common understanding of the thing, which Pope Francis bends over backward to avoid here.”

(John Daniel Davidson – The Federalist) There’s an unfortunate tendency among Catholics and Protestants alike to relish the misfortunes of the other. When some evangelical megachurch pastor ham-fistedly embraces the LGBT agenda, Catholics will quip that it was inevitable thanks to the Reformation…. Continue reading

Missed intel on Hamas attack, explosion of suspected terrorists at border raise alarm inside U.S. (Repost)

Reposted do to an error

(Nicholas Ballsay – Just the News) The failure of American and Israeli intelligence to detect the Hamas attack on Israel coupled with the rising number of suspected terrorists at the U.S. border are raising national security concerns inside the United States.

Signs of the alarm were evident Monday when U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a “lookout” for males between 16 and 40, with one-way tickets to Jordan, and purchased last minute. The agency told staff the alert was being issued out of an abundance of caution, and not about any specific threat. Continue reading

Joe Is Asleep, America. You’re on Your Own.

(Victoria Taft – PJ Media) Hamas’s attack on Israel should be a wake-up call for Sleepy Joe’s America. Joe Biden, a man whose entire government apparatus has turned domestic political protesters into terrorists but who finances and arms real foreign terrorists, isn’t on your side. A president who applauds releasing criminals early from jails and prisons in America — if they’re even arrested in the first place — isn’t on your side.

If he then leaves America’s back door open to let in millions of strangers freed from the world’s prisons so they can pour into your neighborhood, then he’s really not on your side. A leader who does all of this and tries to keep you from defending yourself — well, you know whose side he’s on. Not yours. Continue reading

Why Are So Many Worship Pastors Theologically and Morally Compromised?

“More often than not, these people don’t meet the biblical criteria for leadership but are given a platform—and immense influence—due to their musical prowess and stage presence.”

(The Dissenter) Welcome to a discussion that dives deep behind the fog machines, laser light spectacles, and thunderous sound systems, addressing not just one, but multiple elephants in the room. First, the theological disarray among a plethora of megachurch worship pastors—those brand-conscious trendsetters with hair styled more for a photo shoot than the pulpit, sporting skinny jeans and a sleeve of tattoos as they wield guitars and microphones like rock gods…. Continue reading

Forget the GOP—It’s the Biden Chaos That’s Getting People Killed

“President Joe Biden hosted a party for White House staff on Sunday night as countless Americans remain missing and held hostage by terrorist organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip. A number of Americans were killed by terrorists in attacks over the weekend.”

(Stephen Kruiser – PJ Media) Anyone on the right who has spent even a little time paying attention to mainstream media bias has probably noticed that it’s easy for the Democrats to issue marching orders to create a narrative. It happened again this past weekend after the horrific attack on Israel by Hamas. A theme began to emerge on Sunday: the United States might have problems immediately assisting Israel because there is no Speaker of the House of Representatives. Continue reading

‘Trans Women’ Taking Hormones Are More Likely to Suffer ‘Severe’ Health Conditions

“The study also found that biological males who believe they are transgender women are up to 95 percent more likely to suffer from heart disease.”

(Madeline Leesman – Townhall) People who believe they are “transgender” and take so-called “gender-affirming” hormones are more likely to suffer from serious conditions, such as heart disease, compared to “cisgender” individuals,” according to a new study. The study published in the European Journal of Endocrinology found that people who identify as “transgender” had a “significantly” higher risk of heart attacks, strokes, and a slew of other serious health conditions (via the New York Post): Continue reading

CDC repeatedly misrepresents mask research, mask mandates worsen depression

“Without naming her, the authors scolded former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky for citing a low-response phone survey with non-significant results as evidence that masks reduce infection by “more than 80%.”

(Greg Piper – Just the News) Public health agencies that spent the past three-and-a-half years promoting their preferred COVID-19 interventions as “The Science,” above the realm of policy tradeoffs, are finally facing sustained skepticism from top American research journals as well as the public. Continue reading

You are not under law but under grace

14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! Romans 6:14-15 (LSB) 

Most of the formative years of my Christian walk were spent in one church from February 1987 through February 2000.  During that time we had three pastors.  I was in some form of teaching for most of that time. One of the things that always came up when we studied the Old Testament was Romans 6:14-15. It was as if someone always had to make sure that we were not being legalistic. They cast the law as far from them and our church as the East is from the West. Is that how we are to treat God’s Law? Continue reading

The Human Will and salvation

43 Jesus answered and said to them, “Stop grumbling among yourselves. 44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, ‘AND THEY SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT BY GOD.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me. 46 Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father. John 6:43-46 (LSB) 

Even those who most ardently proclaim the sovereignty of man’s freewill must honestly deal with passages throughout Sacred Scripture which make it clear that the human will of the natural man is incapable of attaining such a high role…. Continue reading

What Went Wrong? How Hamas Managed to Stagger Israel

“…if the Islamic Republic of Iran…has managed to breach Israeli security and interfere with the functioning of the Iron Dome, the ominous implications cannot be overstated. If Israel cannot manage to get the Iron Dome up and running on a secure basis, the Hamas attacks on Saturday could turn into a larger war that engulfs the entire region, as the Islamic Republic of Iran finally attempts to make good on decades of genocidal rhetoric directed at Israel.”

(Robert Spencer – PJ Media) How did Hamas, the bloodthirsty jihad terror group in Gaza, perpetrate mayhem and destruction inside Israel on a scale never before seen? Continue reading

Hamas Launches Unprecedented Terror Attack on Israel

LIVE UPDATES

“The death toll in Israel is rising quickly, according to local reports.” 

(Breitbart) The Palestinian militant group Hamas launched unprecedented terror attack on Israel, which has included the firing of thousands of rockets onto the Israel and the infiltration of Israeli territory by land, air, and sea. Responding to the surprise attack Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared that the nation is “at war” and the terrorists “will pay a price it has never known before.” Thus far, the attacks in Israel have reportedly left 200 people dead and 1,104 wounded…. Continue reading

CRN Headline News 10/2-10/6

Need to read articles you may have missed this week. Plus, Most Popular, Past Popular and a Truth quote.

LIVE UPDATES: Hamas Launches Unprecedented Terror Attack on Israel

MONDAY 10/2

Yes, The Biden Impeachment Hearing Presented Evidence Of Corruption

Andy Stanley Isn’t the Problem, He’s Only a Massive Symptom

Newsom Picks a Gay, Black Maryland Gal to Represent California

Home wreckers? All the appliances the Biden administration plans to regulate more aggressively

TUESDAY 10/3 Continue reading

Untwisting the Bible, Part II: Matthew 7 – ‘Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged’

“The call to repentance isn’t a sidebar to the Gospel—it’s the headline! The whole point of Jesus’s mission was to save sinners, and you can’t save sinners if they don’t know they’re lost.” 

(The Dissenter) Welcome to Part II of our series, “Untwisting the Bible,” where we yank twisted Scriptures back into their rightful context. In today’s spiritual battlefield of “gotcha” theology, few verses are weaponized as much as Matthew 7:1 and 7:5: “Judge not, that you be not judged,” and “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye…” Boom! Mic drop. End of discussion. Or so some people, mostly leftists, think…. Continue reading

Faithless In America

“Socialists and communists can’t afford competition, so they destroy it. People of faith, on the other hand, worship a higher being, not the government. They look for hope, strength, and inspiration not only beyond political systems but to another world beyond the one here on Earth.”

(Brian Mark Weber – The Patriot Post) The numbers tell a grim story: Americans are turning away from God. “Evidence is growing that Americans are becoming significantly less religious,” writes New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof. “They are drifting away from churches, they are praying less and they are less likely to say religion is very important in their lives. For the first time in Gallup polling, only a minority of adults in the United States belong to a church, synagogue or mosque.” Continue reading

Andy Stanley Tells ‘Unconditional Conference’ Attendees He REFUSES to Say ‘Homosexuality is a Sin’

Stanley says that sort of response- ‘homosexuality is a sin’- works fine until your child comes out to you and “suddenly it’s irrelevant. And before long you realize this sentence doesn’t even make sense.”

(Protestia) Andy Stanley joined Debbie Causey for the second main session of the Unconditional conference. Causey is a pastor and the long-time Care Director at North Point Community Church. She is a board member of Renovus, an LGBTQ activist group led by her and other gay-affirming leaders within North Point Church…. Continue reading

Holy Spirit or Dopamine Trip? Emotional Manipulation in Charismatic ‘Worship’

“The atmosphere at these events is emotionally charged—highly orchestrated music, impassioned speakers, and provocative visuals often lead participants to believe they are experiencing the Holy Spirit.” 

(The Dissenter) We’ve witnessed in recent years a surge of hyper-emotional events masquerading as expressions of genuine Christian faith. These gatherings, such as the Passion Conference, Hillsong concerts, and other events connected to the charismatic, word of faith, and prosperity gospel movements, claim to be fueled by the Holy Spirit…. Continue reading

Worship Should Feel (Somewhat) Awkward

“God who is utterly unthreatening is not worthy of admiration and does not provoke fear for His justice or love for His mercy. To worship the God of Scripture is to worship a God who, like Aslan, is “not safe, but He is good”. The worship of an unsafe God includes at least some hesitation, some awkwardness, and some intimidation.”

(David de Bruyn – Churches Without Chests) The things we take for granted are often our worst errors. Assuming the correctness of what is false can be disastrous. Continue reading

Our Establishment’s Alternate Realities

“The more our officials, in gaslighting style, claim such alarm is all in our collective heads, the more they themselves are attacked by the very criminals their policies empowered.”

(Victor Davis Hanson – American Greatness) One common denominator that explains why previously successful societies implode is their descent into fantasies. A collective denial prevents even discussion of existential threats and their solutions.

Something like that is happening in the United States. Eight million illegal immigrants have entered the United States by the deliberate erasure of the southern border. Continue reading