Contending For The Faith

  Luke 1: 31-33    31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.   32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:   33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Call this my Christmas message in blazing hot September. Before we can talk about the benefits of Jesus' birth we must establish that the incarnation is a fact, what it is and what it is not. John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ." John 1:14 says, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."      So when Jesus was born in Bethlehem He was God with a capital G not a lowercase g meaning a demi or little god like mo...

Revelation 17:1-8  1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:   2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.   3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.   4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:   5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.   6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the...

2 Peter 2:1-3 1. But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. 2. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. 3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgement now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.  As we enter the summer months the institutionalize church experiences a drop in attendance and funds. This is because of family vacations, family reunions and business trips abroad by the members. Many pastors see this as a sign of departure from the faith because they believe that the Christian’s life and energies must revolve around the church building and activities, not to mention more importantly the collection plate. The remedy to them for this "breach...

The global economy has caused businesses to depend heavily on the airlines to take them throughout the U.S. and overseas to the different businesses that they have investments in. To keep customers coming back to their airline, carriers identify people who fly on a frequent basis and they are offered a frequent flyer program. This helps them to get there faster, cheaper and in more luxury.      Our flesh also offers us a frequent flyer program. It's called by many different names. It's called the wide gate and the broad way in Matthew 7:13 and in Galatians 5:19-21 it's called the works of the flesh. Ephesians 2:2 calls it the course of this world, while Romans the 8th chapter calls it walking after the flesh, the carnal mind, the deeds of the flesh and the bondage of corruption. Every person who doesn't know Christ as their savior is automatically part of these frequent flyer programs and starts building up miles at birth, for David says in Psal...

St. John 4: 10-14, 21-24 When I was a little boy growing up in the 1970's, I loved the show "Little House on the Prairie." Based on the true stories of Laura Ingalls Wilder during the 1870's and 1880's it depicted life on the small American frontier towns. Besides the Ingalls home one of the most recognizable buildings on the show was the Walnut Grove Church and School. After watching the show for sometime it became clear to me that the small Protestant church had a positive affect on the rugged America frontier by promoting righteousness, simplicity and hard work.      Now the megachurch dominates the so-called evangelical landscape and has a negative affect on the community by promoting sin, extravagance and ease. If the small Protestant frontier churches such as the Walnut Grove Church and School could be transported from the past to today, how would it fair vs. the megachurch in a head-to-head match up? How would a Rev. Robert Alden (the pastor of the Walnut...

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thu...