false religion

Carson Weitnauer: How can we discern who really loves Jesus?

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From Reasons For God:

So many people claim the name of Jesus.

But sometimes, what looked like love for Jesus turns out to be a mask that conceals a lust for money, power, fame, or sex. It is a stunning and painful experience to realize that someone would intentionally violate our deepest values to take advantage of us.

So what if we could find out what separates those who love Jesus from those who want to use Jesus? 

In all honesty, sometimes we can’t. Cunning operators are often successful in their deception and manipulation. They tell us what we want to hear, and it works.

Still, in John 6, we have one story that can help us. 

A little boy offers his five little barley loaves and his two little fish, and Jesus blesses the weakness of this humble offering. We see the beauty of bringing together human weakness and God’s power: a crowd of many thousands eats their fill.

And why did Jesus do this astounding miracle? He explains it the next day, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” If you depend on Jesus to feed you bread and fish, then do you trust Jesus to satisfy your deepest longings? 

Sidebar: What are your deepest longings? Does Jesus fulfill them for you?

But what does the crowd want from Jesus? They want what they want! John tells us they are on the precipice of forcibly demanding that Jesus be their king. His powers are fantastic; he can overthrow the Romans! 

So what does Jesus do? He withdraws to a mountain by himself. And when the crowd chases after him, he challenges them.

Notice the contrast? 

Jesus draws close to the weak — and blesses them.

Jesus moves away from the power-hungry — and confronts them.

Read the rest here

J. Lee Grady: 6 Signs of a Toxic ‘Apostle’

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From Charismamag.com, J. Lee Grady warns of toxix “apostles.” I’m glad my apostle is the real deal and is the opposite of this.

6 Signs of a Toxic ‘Apostle’

Untrained, untested leaders often result in spiritual abuse, false doctrines and financial corruption. (Getty Images)

I’ve just spent two weeks in South America, where the Holy Spirit is moving in unprecedented ways. Churches are growing and average Christians are sharing their faith passionately. One recent Pew Research study showed that 1 in 5 Latin Americans now identifies as an evangelical Christian—and a majority of these are Pentecostals.

But this growth is not without problems. While there are certainly many healthy Christian movements in the region, other churches are suffering from a lack of trained leadership. And untrained, untested leaders often result in spiritual abuse, false doctrines and financial corruption.

I’ve become more concerned lately with leaders who declare themselves “apostles” when they have no business wearing that label. I believe true apostolic leadership is needed today, but a small army of imposters is threatening to damage the work of God. It is time to heed the apostle Paul, who warned of “false apostles” and “deceitful workers” who were “disguising themselves as apostles of Christ” (2 Cor. 11:13).

Discerning the difference between a true and false apostle is not complicated. Since Scripture clearly tells us that Paul is our apostolic model (see 1 Cor. 4:16), we can use his surrendered life as our standard. Here are six signs that a man or woman who claims apostolic leadership is actually a dangerous influence in the church.

Read the full article here

Celebrate Life

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risen5815The heart of Christianity is the celebration of Jesus’ death and resurrection in the season called Easter.

On Good Friday we remember that Jesus died on the cross and that His death purchased the redemption of everyone who puts their faith in Him.

On Easter Sunday we celebrate the most amazing fact of history- Jesus is no longer dead, but He is alive. Not alive in a diminished “living dead” kind of way but in a new enhanced kind of way.

The Christian conviction is that followers of Jesus will also be raised to eternal life, to a new life with Christ.

From the earliest days of the church Christians have celebrated this reality. The period from the evening of Holy Thursday through to Easter Sunday was called the “Great Three Days.” New converts were baptised on Easter morning to enter their new life on the very day that Christ was raised to life. In time the Easter season was stretched to cover the full 50 days to Pentecost- after all this is a big fact worth celebrating to the max!

Some people don’t like the celebration of Easter because of its similarities to pagan myths. For example, there is a belief that the Old Testament person Nimrod became a false god and was worshipped in the Ancient Near East because after his death some people claimed he had come back to life in the form of his illegitimate son. They also say that Christmas is pagan becasue it is the celebration of Nimrod’s birth not Jesus’.

The existence of false celebrations does not make the real thing false. In science it is said that “correlation does not imply causation”- in other words, the fact that two different things seem related it doesn’t necessarily mean that one causes the other.

Let me ask you this. Does the existence of fake $20 notes mean that you should reject real $20 notes?

The presence of false resurrection myths should not stop us celebrating the real thing.

I will kick up my heels and sing praises to God and proclaim the ancient truth:

Christ has died

Christ is risen

Christ will come again

Hallelujah!