Jesus loves Muslims

Several months ago, I uploaded an audio message on the main GENERATION CHRIST.NET entitled AMERICA IS NOT GOD'S NATION where I pointed out the dangers of many Americans acting as if America is somehow God's chosen nation. This attitude is dangerous because it causes Americans to become religiously patriotic and develop an attitude of superiority over other nations, believing that this is God's desire. Yet the truth is that it isn't God's desire. Listen to the audio message HERE.

Earlier today, I came across a very good blog post on FOLLOWING JUDAH'S LION in which Rick Freuh discusses our need as Christians to love Muslims. Yes, we are Christians are called to love Muslims just like we are called to love homosexuals and anyone else who IS NOT a believer and follower of Christ. You can read that post HERE.

First of all, I am so thankful for those men and women who have literally put their lives on the line in order to present the gospel to Muslims. Anybody who claims to be a believer of Christ should rejoice in the amount of former Muslims that we have today because they believed in the gospel of Jesus Christ. But misplaced patriotism has gotten in the way of Christians being able to have the heart of God in this.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

(John 3:16-17 - KJV)

God's will for salvation is much bigger than America. It's meant for the entire world and whoever within the entire world (including Muslims) is willing to repent and believe in Jesus will be accepted by him. God is not a respecter of persons, ethnicities, genders or geographical locations in this regard. Whoever believes will be saved.

For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

(Romans 5:6-8 - KJV)

Who did Christ die for? Somebody whom we deem to be good enough for salvation? No, my brothers and sisters. He died for the despised, the evil and the rejected so that they would have the opportunity to be accepted and embraced by God, changed for the better. Every single person on this planet needs Christ's salvation. Do you believe that you are somehow better than another to think that salvation should only be for people you deem it to be for or that only the baddest of the bad need Christ? If so, please repent of such pride.

Jesus loves you, which is why you have heard the gospel and have been given the chance to repent and believe. If He offered this to you and me (and we both are miserable wretches without God), then why can it not also be available to Muslims? 

Blessings.

God is calling...can you hear?

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

(John 10:27 - ESV)

A mass exodus is in progress and while many people think it is only unbelievers that are leaving the institutional businesses wrongly named "churches," the fact of the matter is that God is calling to His saints to get up and out of these whorehouses of spiritual adultery and to free themselves of man made religion's hold over their very souls.

Today, I was blessed to read a testimony by George Chatelain, a follower of Jesus who came out of Jimmy Swaggart Ministries. He is one of several who have recently been coming out and discussing the sins and evil within that ministry. You can read it HERE.

Brothers and sisters, I have prayed that God would open the eyes of His people like He did to me several years ago to see the lies, the falsehoods and the evil that permeate many of these institutional churches. For me, it's been a step further to even question the very system of what we call "church" and to compare it to the Bible. This is why you will find the material that you do on the main GENERATION CHRIST.NET site. Many are afraid to challenge or question the validity of these "traditions" to they follow in the institutional church but it is the very thing those "many" need to do to free themselves from the bondage of man's religion and really be a free soul in service to Jesus.

I am blessed that people, whether the believers or the secular media, are sharing their experiences and exposing the frauds that pose as "Christian leaders." I still pray for those false teachers and preachers that they will come to repentance but in the meantime, I am rejoicing over the people who are awakening out of their slumber to the truth and as a result, are coming to know the true Christ.

Judgment has been coming to these men and women who have promoted themselves as "pastors of the flock" and "fellow followers of Christ" when they have been no such thing. Some of these institutions that were built on money instead of on Christ are starting to belly up in this tough economy. All of them will have to answer for what they have been doing to the name of Christ and I pray so much that they repent. 

In my last post, I gave a short commentary on how "GUTS Church" held an unsanctioned boxing match inside their building and one of the boxers died. How many have to die, how many have to be deceived and how many people have to believe in a false Christ and go to eternal damnation before believers start to speak up? The fact of the matter is that many people claim to know Jesus' voice but their actions and prove otherwise. We look at the lost as being only the unbelievers outside the institutions, but what about those who are well within the institution claiming to be followers of Christ and really aren't because they don't know His voice? Oh, how I pray for these people!

If you feel God tugging at your heart to get you to wake up, do not resist Him. He is trying to rescue you from false religion. He is trying to call you to Himself as it should have been in the beginning before a "pastor," "reverend," "father," "pope," or "bishop" became your Christ instead. He is trying to save you from the bondage of rules and traditions that have no Biblical backing whatsoever in Christ such as tithing, fellowship only being legitimate within the 4 walls of a "church" building, spiritual covering of a pastor, etc.

Let us learn to His voice so then we will know the difference between His voice and the wrong voice. Blessings.

Church gimmicks gone very wrong

Thanks for stopping by the blog and while there haven't been updates in quite a while, there was a recent story out of Tulsa, Oklahoma about a "church " named "GUTS Church" that recently held an unsanctioned boxing event and one of the boxers died as a result. You can read it HERE.

To me, the insanity and stupidity of what took place speaks for itself. If we as believers can't get the message that these gimmicks are doing damage to many, perhaps a death may wake some of us up. This is absolutely ridiculous that we have even come to this point. My words are strong here but we as believers need to speak up strongly against these things.

There will be legal action taken and rightfully so. And I pray at least one person involved in this situation will learn from it and repent. Lord help us.

God will bring vindication

Thanks for stopping by the blog today. I don't know if you're paying attention but God is at work bringing lots of works of darkness to light and even judgment upon pastors who have been taking advantage of people and doing horrible deeds to others.

IndyChannel.com posted a story where a pastor in Indiana by the name of Wayne Taft Harris Jr. admitted to cheating an organization named Teen Missions out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. He's been ordered to pay back approximately $500,000 to the organization that lent him the money to build a church building.

FULL STORY

While I feel horrible for the members of Teen Missions who have been lied to by Mr. Harris Jr., I am thankful that the Lord saw fit to allow this man to be exposed as he was not repentant of his sin. Instead of using the money for what he was supposed to do, he was buying cars and fur coats. In no way do I ever want someone to experience shame but this was a man who was unrepentant in what he was doing. Let that be a lesson to all of us, including me.

If you've been paying attention to the news this year, you've seen many "pastors' that are being exposed and judged. I believe this is the work of the Lord to bring vindication to His name and His people. May we look at these things soberly and make sure that we repent of any sins that we have going on in our lives.

Stop putting your faith and trust in man and in an institutional church system. Jesus Christ is where our faith should lie. Blessings.

Good job Larry Powell!

Thanks for stopping by the blog today. Larry Powell, a superintendent of Fresno County Schools, did one of the most unselfish acts I have ever seen by an administrator in sacrificing $800,000 for the good of others. Check out the story by clicking on the link below:

FRESNO SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT TAKES $800,000 SALARY CUT

Mr. Powell is an ordained Baptist minister, which means that he is a believer in Jesus Christ. Way to go and what a great example and witness he has generated by letting his light shine. And he didn't brag about it, he simply let others tell the story. Praise the Lord!

Josh McDowell misses the point

Thanks for stopping by the blog. As we near the end of another week, I came across an article in which an "apologist" by the name of Josh McDowell believes that the internet is the biggest threat to Christians because of the different perspectives and immorality that is promoted online.  Read the story on the Christian Post's website HERE.

While I believe that we have to be very careful with how we use the internet, it is the internet that I believe God is using to help people open their eyes to the deceptions that are out there and bring people back to the true faith. I can't even begin to describe how thankful I am for the many people I've met online over the years or from whose perspectives I have greatly benefited from. Some of these people online are truly God sent.

Now the biggest problem I have with McDowell's view is that he is blaming something that, for the most part, is what you make of it. Indeed there are evil aspects of the internet as there are evil aspects in many things in life. But we must teach others how to use the internet for the good and we must train a future generation of believers who know how to stand up for their faith and aren't just religious "yes" men and women to a man-made religious system that truly isn't teaching them to rely on Christ and be responsible for their own individual walks with Jesus. That is the bigger problem.

People are falling away from the faith because pastors are not being true pastors and because they're not being true pastors then they aren't really helping to properly prepare other believers to continue in their faith. Because what many of them require is conformity to their personal views and their organizations, many believers do not even understand the freedom that they have in Christ. And because of how the institutions and pastors set themselves up to be idols, many believers don't understand the importance of truly knowing Jesus for themselves. As a result, false doctrine goes unchecked, false practices abound and many do not even realize that they aren't following Christ at all.

People are also falling away from the faith because they keep putting people and things ahead of Christ. Yes, brothers and sisters, you have to be careful to not put your pastor or your church organization above Christ. Contrary to what you may have been taught, your pastor and your church institution can not save you and can not keep you in the faith. It is Jesus who does that for us.

McDowell proposed three ways to deal with the problem. “First, we have to model the truth. If you don’t model what you teach your kids, forget it. If they don’t see it, they won’t believe it… Second, we have to build relationships.” Just as truth without relationship leads to rejection, rules without relationship lead to rebellion, he said. “Kids don’t respond to rules. They respond to rules in the context of a loving, intimate relationship.” And third, he said, we have to use knowledge. “You better arm yourselves to answer your children’s and grandchildren’s questions…no matter what the question is…without being judgmental.” Kids’ greatest defense, he said, was the knowledge of truth.

I like that McDowell says that we need to model the truth. To all of you who are Christians, you need to be a role model in the faith. More people need to actually see Christ in the lives of those who claim to be His followers. I also like how he talks about relationship and rules working together and the need for Christians to have more knowledge of their faith. But my question is how can people have a greater knowledge of the faith when they are putting all their eggs in the basket for a Sunday sermon that isn't even teaching correct doctrine?

What I will keep hammering home is the fact that what we know as mainstream Christianity is operating on a faulty and ultimately unbiblical system and that is what also contributes to why Christianity is in the place it is today.

"Christianity started out in Palestine as a fellowship; it moved to Greece and became a philosophy; it moved to Italy and became an institution; it moved to Europe and became a culture; it came to America and became an enterprise." Sam Pascoe

I love this quote because it really speaks to what has happened to what we know as Christianity over time and how we have drifted away from its authentic form to something that is manufactured and engineered by man instead of God. I liken what has happened to the difference between an organic apple and man-manipulated apple. The organic apple appears dull but has a flavor and taste that is fantastic. The man-manipulated apple appears shiny and attractive on the outside but is void of flavor and taste on the inside.

I yearn for Christianity to be that dull apple with a fantastic taste. Blessings.

A good biblical look at Revelation

Thanks for dropping by the blog and I hope you are enjoying the joy of the Lord. A while ago, I read through Revelation (been doing that a few times per year) and really cross-referenced phrases and words until I actually wore myself out. But I've enjoyed encountering that book again and again and it's turned what used to be a source of mystery into a book that is comforting and reassuring.

For some of you out there, you may feel that Revelation is a book you will never be able to grasp and I want to encourage you that you can grasp it if you don't assume things and look to the scriptures themselves to interpret what you are reading. Yes, that will require that you set aside the sensationalism and commercialism of end-times discussion and approach the book with a clear mind and some understanding of the scriptures in general. I highly recommend you read the Bible as a whole so that you have proper background before tackling Revelation.

Here are some pointers to think about as you read:

-There is a lot of symbolism, use of allegory and metaphors in the book that are not to be taken literally.

-The symbols used can be cross-referenced in other areas in the Bible for true understanding meaning that airplanes, nuclear weapons and modern-day nations are not what the book is going for.


-The primary audience of the book was the 7 churches that existed during the time the book was written as indicated by the phrases such as "shortly come to pass."


-Rome and Jerusalem are both depicted in the visions that John sees when taking into account the prophecies of Ezekiel, Daniel and even the words of Jesus in the Gospels.


-God is in control of everything and we just need to keep believing in Him no matter what happens.

Mike Blume, certainly a brother in Christ, has written a great article on some things to keep in perspective and you can access that HERE. As he pointed out, the very fact that the book is titled "Revelation" is an indication that it is a book that we should have just as much understanding in as the other books.

Blessings.