Will God Accept Our Offering?

The Lord told me many years ago that churches should never hold rummage sales to earn money for the work of the gospel. So much work is involved in putting together a rummage sale unnecessarily.

The first principle is that, if the people of the gathering of believers need money for God's work, then they should just give as they are led in their hearts without thought of getting anything in return, while praying that God would provide more if needed.

The second principle is that, God's people should never receive funds for God's work from those who do not love Him.

God's people are to provide as they are blessed financially and through a dedication to the work of Christ. No where in the Word does God tell us to hold "Church rummage sales", to get money for His Work

If someone were to sell their own goods to give the money to the church, that is a different matter. For the church to hold a rummage sale, demonstrates to the world that God does not provide miraculously for the needs of the body, that the body depends on human devices the same as the world does.

1 Corinthians 16:2
"2 On the first day of every week each one of you is to [a]put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come."

2 Corinthians 9:7
"7 Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."

Mark 12:41-44
"41 And He sat down opposite the treasury, and began observing how the people were putting money into the treasury; and many rich people were putting in large sums.
42 A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent.
43 Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury;
44 for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.”

Luke 6:38
"38 Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.”

Proverbs 3:9-10
"9 Honor the Lord from your wealth And from the first of all your produce;
10 So your barns will be filled with plenty And your vats will overflow with new wine."
Matthew 6:21
"21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

The Lord wants His money to come from believers who have a right heart, expecting nothing in return. Any offering from a non-believer is an stench in God's nostrils He will not accept it.

Psalm 66:18
"If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear."

We Are Now The Crazy Fringe

When the self esteem teaching became main stream sometime in the 1960's, most of us thought it was silly, but unfortunately we also thought it was not a threat, since only the psychological fringe groups were pushing it.

Today we see it taught in all schools and churches and most of the culture has bought into this very insidious lie of the devil.  Those of us who did not buy into this deception are considered the crazy fringe, while the rest of the culture as a whole has been sold out to it.

We are now living in the days described in 2 Timothy 3 and it is getting worse all the time. 

2 Timothy 3

New King James Version (NKJV)

Perilous Times and Perilous Men

"1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:

2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,

4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

6 For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts,

7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

8 Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith;

9 but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was."

Funerals and Memorials What Does It All Mean?

Isn't speaking to dead people at memorials a form of necromancy? Seems like it to me.

Those who have passed on, can't hear us, wouldn't it have been better to go see them for a visit when they were still alive? Seems like it to me.

Can anyone show me from Scripture any description or mandate from God that tells us to have the style of memorials or funerals that we have today?

I would really be interested in this, I do not see it anywhere in the word, but so many people would be offended when someone does not do things in the "traditional" manner of our culture.

What did God say about this matter of funerals and memorials?

Mass Murder By Scalpel!

The greatest weapon of mass destruction ever leveled against a nation has been right here in this country, that weapon has not been guns, bombs or granades....that weapon has been the doctors scalpel.

56 million babies have been murdered by these weapons at the hands of wicked doctors, but no one wants to ban them, arrest the doctors nor do they want to ban the act.

I get a little frustrated every time I see foolish men wanting to ban weapons when the most used weapon of all time in our country has been at the hands of medically trained men and women using an operating tool as their device to perpetrate their crimes against humanity.

We have mass murder going on every day across our country. And, we think we are different from Hitler?

Insanity!!!!

Saying Doesn't Make It So!

Saying we are Christians is far different from being changed into a New Creation by Christ. 

We do not say we are something to make it so!  

There are those who are afraid to say to believers that we sin. They are worried that if we tell this truth, there will be those who will run into sin thinking they are alright.  The problem with this thinking is that they are not trusting Christ to know who is who.  

We do not run into sin just because we know we have an advocate with the Father. As believers we hate the sin we used to love and love the righteousness we used to hate.  We have been changed, we are not looking for an opportunity to sin, we are desiring opportunities to be righteous.

Anyone who rushes to sin for any excuse and loves their sin, has never been born again.  Those who love Christ hate their sin, they are deeply grieved when they have offended their God.  Christ in them plagues them until they repent. 

Believers do sin and sometimes in big ways, but they do not stay there, eventually they are in so much turmoil through the conviction of the Holy Spirit that they come back to confess and forsake. 

1 John 5:18-21 (NKJV)
"18 We know that whoever is born of God does not (continue in)sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him. 19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. 20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. 21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen." I added the phrase "continue in" because that is the meaning in the original language."

1 John 2:1 "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:" This verse was written to believers."

1 Corinthians 3:15 "If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire."

It is up to us as brothers and sisters to warn believers of the consequences in this life and lost rewards in the next for sin.  Those who sin willfully without conscience have never been born again.

Matthew 7:21-23 
New King James Version (NKJV)
I Never Knew You

21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 
22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 
23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’"

There will be many who get before Christ on judgement day, who were pretenders, they claimed to be His, but they never had a desire to be changed into a new creation, they only wanted the perks that God had to offer, but they did not want Him.  

God Is Always On Time

No believer will take the mark of the beast. I am pre-trib in my thinking, but I know that many will be born again after the rapture, the entire nation of Israel. God will give every believer whatever he needs when he needs it to refuse to take the mark. We do not have to worry about whether we will be strong enough, Christ in us is strong enough. He never comes too soon to help us but He is always on time.

Calvinism Makes No Sense

Calvinism makes no sense!

It makes no sense that God would determine someone to be a sinner on their way to hell without a choice and then punish them for the choice they could not make. This is not the God of the Bible.

Acts 16:31 "And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house."

God told us to go into all the world and preach the gospel. What sense does it make to tell the truth to everyone, or to pray for everyone, when there would be those who have no ability to choose to follow Christ?

1 Timothy 2:1-4
New King James Version (NKJV)
Pray for All Men

"1 Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men,

2 for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.

3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,

4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."

Calvinism is not only foolishness, it is clearly a way the devil has devised to cause many to care little about evangelism. Not only do Calvinists have little burden for souls, they have a lax attitude toward sin.