COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP)–If you are older than 40 the name Benjamin Spock is more than familiar. It was Spock that told an entire generation of parents to take it easy, don’t discipline your children and allow them to express themselves. Discipline, he told us, would warp a child’s fragile ego. Millions followed this guru of child development and he remained unchallenged among child rearing professionals. However, before his death Dr. Spock made an amazing discovery: He was wrong. In fact, he said:

“We have reared a generation of brats. Parents aren’t firm enough with their children for fear of losing their love or incurring their resentment. This is a cruel deprivation that we professionals have imposed on mothers and fathers. Of course, we did it with the best of intentions. We didn’t realize until it was too late how our know-it-all attitude was undermining the self assurance of parents.”

Oops.

Something just as momentous, in my opinion, just happened in the evangelical community. For most of a generation evangelicals have been romanced by the “seeker-sensitive” movement spawned by Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago. The guru of this movement is Bill Hybels. He and others have been telling us for decades to throw out everything we have previously thought and been taught about church growth and replace it with a new paradigm, a new way to do ministry.

Continue Reading »

“we need a vision that goes beyond our ability to be consumers only; a vision so big, so powerful that we cannot even accomplish it in our own lifetime; a vision that is founded from the very heartbeat of God.

We had 115 people to our carols services on Sunday Night - it was wonderful! That is 236 for the day.

I am feeling overwhelmed by the people God has given us. The wonder of all He is doing and the grace by which He is doing it.

It is just…really cool!

We had our biggest Sunday am crowd so far, 121 people. We have doubled in the last 6 months. I am hoping we have over 80 tonight for our carols by candle light service, that will give us over 200 for the day, which would be great!

There were a lot of visitors, people from out of town, but that is great too! Seeing the building fill up is great for the people. They can see and get a sense of what God is doing.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, but confidence comes with experience. You have to help your people get comfortable with the things of God so they can move in the things of God.

The Nativity story of nearly twenty centuries ago is known by all faiths as a hymn to the brotherhood of man. For Christians, it is the fulfillment of age-old prophecies and the reaffirmation of God’s great love for all of us. Through a generous Heavenly Father’s gift of His Son, hope and compassion entered a world weary with fear and despair and changed it for all time.

On Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Christ with prayer, feasting, and great merriment. But, most of all, we experience it in our hearts. For, more than just a day, Christmas is a state of mind. It is found throughout the year whenever faith overcomes doubt, hope conquers despair, and love triumphs over hate. It is present when men of any creed bring love and understanding to the hearts of their fellow man.

The feeling is seen in the wondrous faces of children and in the hopeful eyes of the aged. It overflows the hearts of cheerful givers and the souls of the caring. And it is reflected in the brilliant colors, joyful sounds, and beauty of the winter season. Let us resolve to honor this spirit of Christmas and strive to keep it throughout the year.

Who healeth all thy diseases.”
Psalms 103:3Humbling as is the statement, yet the fact is certain: we are all more or less suffering under the disease of sin. What a comfort to know that we have a great Physician who is both able and willing to heal us! Let us think of him awhile. His cures are very speedy-there is life in a look at him. His cures are radical-he strikes at the centre of the disease. Hence, his cures are sure and certain. He never fails, and the disease never returns. There is no relapse where Christ heals; no fear that his patients should be merely patched up for a season. He makes new men of them: a new heart also does he give them, and a right spirit does he put within them. He is well skilled in all diseases. Physicians generally have some speciality. Although they may know a little about almost all our pains and ills, there is usually one disease which they have studied above all others. But Jesus Christ is thoroughly acquainted with the whole of human nature. He is as much at home with one sinner as with another, and never yet did he meet with an out-of-the-way case that was difficult to him. He has had extraordinary complications of strange diseases to deal with, but he has known exactly with one glance of his eye how to treat the patient. He is the only universal doctor, and the medicine he gives is the only true catholicon,* healing in every instance. Whatever our spiritual malady may be, we should apply at once to this Divine Physician. There is no brokenness of heart which Jesus cannot bind up. “His blood cleanseth from all sin.” We have but to think of the myriads who have been delivered from all sorts of diseases through the power and virtue of his touch, and we shall joyfully put ourselves in his hands. We trust him, and sin dies; we love him, and grace lives; we wait for him and grace is strengthened; we see him as he is, and grace is perfected for ever.

*(ca•thol•i•con n., a supposed medicine to cure all diseases; panacea.)

If it is possible for God to be glorified in illness then Jesus deprived Him of glory by healing all who came to Him. And you are rebellious every time you go to the doctor, take a vitamin or an aspirin.

Hybels confesses:

“We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become ‘self feeders.’ We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their bible between service, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own.”

http://revealnow.com/story.asp?storyid=48

1. The false prophet is always a very comforting preacher. As you listen to him he always gives you the impressions that there is not very much wrong.
2. His teaching has an almost entire absence of doctrine as a whole in its message. It always talks vaguely and generally; it never gets down to particularizing about doctrine.
3. The false prophet very rarely tells you anything about the holiness, the righteousness, the justice and the wrath of God. He always preaches about the love of God, but those other things he does not mention… He does not say things that are obviously wrong, but he refrains from saying things that are obviously right and true
4. The false prophet never emphasizes the final judgment and the eternal destiny of the lost.
5. The false prophet does not emphasize the utter sinfulness of sin and the total inability of man to do anything about his own salvation.
6. His teaching does not emphasize repentance in any real sense. It has a wide gate leading to salvation and a very broad way leading to heaven.
7. The false prophet does not emphasize the absolute necessity of entering this strait gate and walking along this narrow way… They offer an easy salvation, and an easy type of life always… They tell you not to examine your own soul.

“The old truth that Calvin preached, that Augustine preached, that Paul preached, is the truth that I must preach to-day, or else be false to my conscience and my God. I cannot shape the truth; I know of no such thing as paring off the rough edges of a doctrine. John Knox’s gospel is my gospel. That which thundered through Scotland must thunder through England again.”

CH Spurgeon