Andy Stanley is well known for compromise in the name of grace. He regularly insults the Word of God (the Bible) and sows doubt regarding it's accuracy and importance. The Grace of God, released in 2010, shares a needed message of God's grace, but threaded throughout the book are biblical falsehoods. Andy is a master of language, and he uses his mastery to denigrate God's Word, God's righteousness, and the severity of sin.
I once lived in a world similar to the world of Bethel, Elevation, and Hillsong United. Fortunately, God has delivered me from the heretical teachings of these groups. However, much of the music in the church today comes from these very organizations. While the music is often benign, I've grown to see it as the musical candy luring unsuspecting people into the van of heresy.
But if the music is benign, why does it matter? Does it matter where your church sources their music?
The Bible says a lot about healing - so much so that to simply dismiss healing as not for today is a grave error and a disservice to God. This entry tells of my personal journey in healing, but my testimony is not the Word of God, so after my story, we look into the Word of God to see what it has to say on the subject.
Many in the church today are trying to follow worldly self-improvement teachings and ideologies. But is this what the Bible calls us to do, or is this man's thinking? Having recently taken a Ministry by Strengths course based on Tom Rath's book, Strengths Finder 2.0, I question the wisdom of this model. Following a leadership pattern set out by someone who doesn't even claim to be a Christian may result in a well-run, prosperous church, but will it be God's Church, or man's facsimile?
"If Bush is not reelected, the world will end as we know it, and if God is in control, he will win!" -When he was not reelected, "God is still in control, and this isn't the end of the world."
At a prayer meeting when Clinton was president, hearing "If Clinton doesn't immediately turn and do (something), strike him dead to remove him from office."
Hearing of a native Russian in 1993 speaking about removing Lenin's statues in Russia, "I don't think they should take him down... Because he's a part of our history... The Bible says we are to respect the government, and he was our government too."
What are the circumstances that should drive our voting? Our protesting? Our going to war? Our fighting against other humans who are made in God's image? Or is our battle a spiritual one, and are we doing it all wrong?
This journal entry was penned during the opening days of "Obamacare" when Hobby Lobby was suing so they would not have to fund abortion. The entry discusses the science of what is and is not a true "pregnancy" and with that, what is or is not a true "abortion."