Linkathon!
In other news, K.P. Yohannan is still a liar…
Phil Aguilars son goes to prison…
Evangelicalism Is Dead; Long Live Evangelicalism
Megadeal between megachurches…
What sins should bring church discipline?
Thomas Jefferson and the origins of American religious nationalism…
What Is Doctrine? from Crossway on Vimeo.
NFL fans should care about player concussions…
Living in the in between time…
Republicans woo evangelicals at Texas church…
Why the Russian Orthodox Church chose to bless empire…
Carl Trueman on preaching and P.T. Forsyth…
Amazing grace and the death penalty…
Thanks again to EricL for help with the compilation…support him at top right.
The Jesus prayer……..a balm to my heart.
glad Nonnie’s comment made me check out the prayer… don’t miss it
i was feeling all curdled over the pastor who’s quoted as calling the subject of the first link in the list a “blunder”
I wouldn’t feel bad if the death penalty was abolished, but I find myself rolling my eyes at the posted article. She was offered a very just and fair sentence and she chose to reject the plea deal. Now we’re supposed to feel bad that she’s been executed? She chose to marry her husband. She chose to have an affair. She chose to convince her lover to kill her husband. She chose to turn down a fair plea deal. She chose to gamble and try to weasel out of facing an appropriate penalty for her crime. All those choices landed her on death row, but somehow society and the justice system are the ones in the wrong? I’m not buying it.
pretty much agree with #3
for the record i misidentified the link that upset me, it was from the Geronimo Aguilar link where Pastor Ronald Taylor of First Baptist Church (Waverly) is quoted as calling Geronimo’s behavior “blunder”
Have to admit to not being surprised that Phil Aguilar’s son is headed to prison. All of the stuff his father did and the culture he created was a disaster even though Jan Crouch said he was Jesus like in his ministry.
This involves sisters from 20 years ago and makes me wonder about the time between then and now. Somebody should sue him big time. This is sickening to the nth degree.
http://www.styleweekly.com/richmond/accused-pastors-father-son-has-fallen-short/Content?oid=1917700
Pastor Oden Fong’s take on Aguilar:
http://www.people.vcu.edu/~dbromley/undergraduate/spiritualCommunity/SetFreeMinistriesLink.html
Aguilar has had some other troubles from 2008
http://forum.culteducation.com/read.php?12,11902,60467
What blows away most who knew the Aguilar’s is that they ministered with the presence of God in their meetings most times.
I know because I would go to the Anaheim meetings to check them out back when Phil was starting out in ministry.
Phil gave Lonnie Frisbee the platform many times and extended his hospitality to Lonnie when Lonnie was going through a particularly hard period in his own life.
Set Free was doing a lot of good when it was good.
And everybody forgets that when the bad stuff surfaced.
But now the bad stuff is really bad…and the rest is history.
in some ways aren’t we all responsible when some of these personality Christians crash and burn – too many people who may have come to the Lord, but not ready for leadership roles they so eagerly accepted – (perhaps they never were intended by God to take on the limelight)
whether sitting in a pew or on a board, the desire to see “spiritual manifestations” to excite us with otherworldly phenomena has been far greater that the desire to endure sound doctrine that makes God a reality of substance… errr something like that – dunno, tho, do i?
In the Aguilar article I’m confused as to who Pastor Ronald Taylor is and what his relation to Aguilar is. Aguilar was the pastor of ROC church and Taylor is the pastor of First Baptist Church, so what sort of connection do these two people have? Also, I’m confused because Aguilar claims he’s innocent, but Taylor says that he committed a “blunder”, so is Taylor on Aguilar’s side or against him?
Forgive me for my many postings today.
Not to minimize the current facts.
I just recalled another time at Set Free that I would like to share.
When David Di Sabbatino shared his documentary on Lonnie Frisbee at Set Free my son and I along with some of his friends went to see it at David’s invitation.
When we got there we first saw a hugh amount of motor cycles parked out side which was intimidating in and of it’s self.
When we parked and walked up to the church we were greeted by a couple of dozen real hard core looking bikers all lined up at the entry.
They called themselves, “The Posse.”
We had to shake each one of their hands as we progressed towards the front doors.
They were very firm hand shakes and “God bless you brother” greetings given in sincerity as they looked us right in the eye.
We felt very safe and genuinely welcomed, there was a lot of love, so we relaxed.
David had some people featured in his documentary share that evening then he showed us his completed film.
All in all we went home having had a great time in the Lord that evening as guest of Set Free.
Bear in mind that these guys were ex-prisoners along with very hard core bikers.
I have never been in a church that was so close to “the streets” and was bringing the rebellious rejected to the gospel like they were doing.
There was a lot wrong behind the scenes but over all wounded and dejected street hardened people were responding to the gospel message.
People that would make most Christians tremble when in their presence.
But underneath they were humans in need of Christ like any other human.
Set Free ministry was reaching them like no other church in the community could.
I don’t understand the ways of God.
He uses people who screw up and do stupid things.
The mercy and grace of God can use anyone inspite of themselves.
David and Bethsheba and David’s cowardly murder of her husband was incredibly evil.
And yet we hear in the Bible that David was a man after God’s own heart?
He raised up David to be their king, concerning whom He also testified and said, ‘I HAVE FOUND DAVID the son of Jesse, A MAN AFTER MY HEART, who will do all My will.’
Acts 13:22
The obvious question is, how could God call David “a man after His heart” when David was such a terrible a sinner, having committed adultery and murder?
Much has also been written about David, especially in the books of 1 and 2 Chronicles and 1 and 2 Kings.
However, we find much of his character in the book of Psalms as he opened up his life for all to examine.
David’s life was a portrait of success and failure, and it highlights the fact that he was far from perfect.
But what made David a cut above the rest was that his heart was pointed toward God.
So what does it take to be a man after God’s own heart?
We pray for the Aguilar family that their hearts would be pointed toward God and that God would be able to use them as He sees fitting.
In Jesus name.
After studying I Corinthians the first 6 chapters I am convinced of the following
1. Paul believed in judging people within the church not without
2. Paul’s discipline of the one in question was clear that the church’s pride over their liberty was his larger aim. He wanted them to stop tolerating such wickedness.
3. Paul is saying something about the saints as judges that no theology has taken seriously so far. Dispensationalist hint at it with their 1000 year dictatorship.
4. Paul would not have tolerated in the church the people who would not “inherit the kingdom” and those people were clearly already marked out as believers by Paul’s claim that judging the world was not in his view.
5. He is asking the Corinthians to discipline far more than the one offender. He is sweeping the house and they knew it … thus their rejection of Paul’s apostleship
6. Paul expected the one disciplined to die or be reconciled. He believed he had such authority.
My radical discoveries of exegesis
Judge Dread
Surfer51
I have some deep and clear convictions about what David being a man after God’s heart meant. First, when Israel asked for a king God told Samuel that they had rejected God as their king not Samuel. Israel’s judges we surrogate leaders to the true king who was God thus they had to be able to hear the voice of God. They needed to be or have very close ties with prophets. For God to rule his kingdom/subjects had to hear his voice.
Second, when Saul was chosen God gave the people a king who was basically after the heart of the people. He told them he would give them a king just like them. They approved. When Saul was king he showed little interest in God unless it benefited Saul’s purposes of kingship for himself. God’s rejection of Saul was because Saul did not know or care about the heart of God. Saul was saulish. Remember he was outwardly impressive but his heart was not upon the interests of God. God quickly rejected him, took away the Spirit and sent demonic tormentors.
Third, David was chosen. David was his father’s ‘beloved’ son. Samuel saw the favor of God on him and anointed him at which point he was filled with the Spirit. David then served under Saul until God removed Saul sovereignly. Then the anointed king (David) took the throne. When David took the throne he conquered all the unpacified lands and removed the Jebusites from the high ground. THEN, he inquired about the arc of the covenant also known as the throne of GOD. Thus this man who was chosen because of his heart now manifests his heart for God by; 1) Recovering the arc of the covenant 2) Preparing Psalm 24 to announce to Israel who the true king was. 3) Taking off the outer garments of the king and dancing before the Lord as a priest unto the king. He humbled himself, even as Saul’s daughter said to the point of humiliating himself. 4) He “enthroned” God on Mt. Zion, the city of David thus prophetically giving God what God wanted. Thus he was a man AFTER the heart of God… God’s heart was to rule his people himself. David announced that his reign would be like that.
Finally, David’s fall into sin was dealt with harshly but mercifully as God had promised in II Samuel 7. David prayed that God would not take away his Spirit but God had already settled the matter.
It was not David’s devotional prowess or moral accomplishments that made him a man after the heart of God. It was the simply fact of knowing what God wanted and giving it.
BD,
Thanks for sharing your perspective.
Pastor Romaine at CC used to share with us kids,” Find out what God wants and cooperate with Him and you will get out of the trials a lot sooner.”
Sounds like David figured that one out.
As per above; I meant to include that the sin of David postdated his being announced as a man after the heart of God by quite a number of years
And as for CARL TRUEMAN … bravo on reintroducing Forsyth to a new listening audience, Forsyth was my first true theologian with whom I was enamored. He excelled them all.
Holy moly on the reading of the church constitution established by K.P. Yohannan. That is some scary stuff right there.
Just perused the comments on the Tithing Nonsense link (“Jeff Schreve, Senior Salesman at FBC Texarkana – Delivers Most Complete Sermon Full of Tithing Nonsense WD Has Heard”)..title of the article says it best. I went to a church where the pastor believed in tithing, even loaned me a book on it. I am at the point now where I don’t think tithing is biblical, oh, sorry, Biblical, but that the command of giving hilariously and what you have decided in your heart to give, is the overruling command, not some set number that few if any can actually live up to.
Speaking as an “attendee” and not a pastor…
Just plain “Giving” is a Christian attribute in and of it’s self.
We know buildings need to be used so we can comfortably gather together.
They need to be maintained.
Insurances need to be up to date for protection.
Staff needs to be supported so they can perform their duties.
Our “one thin dime” (Or what we determine we want to release) off of every dollar that comes our way makes all of this possible along with any “love” offerings.
It’s the love offerings that sustain the most.
We rely upon God’s blessings to survive in our every day lives.
After federal and state taxes on each dollar it often is a real step of faith to release that one thin dime to the offering basket.
But some how God is able to see that we are sustained.
“Dear Lord may I have just enough that I don’t lack and not so much that I forget You.”
May our churches have “Just enough” and nothing more so that our leadership does not forget you.
Like Dan said above, we don’t really have some set number in our giving.
We give from our hearts that which we joyously return to God in grateful gratitude for all that He has given us and done for us.
No we don’t have to tithe, but we do need to give because Christians are givers…not hoarders…
Well said Surfer51! When the Bible say that we should give “not reluctantly or under compulsion…” it REALLY sounds like compulsion when the subject of the linked-to article, or other pastors in general, say stuff like “you are robbing God if you don’t give 10%..NOW GIVE!!”
The Geronimo Aguilar situation grieves me. I lived in Richmond for more than 20 years. The church he founded is credited with doing a lot to help a rundown, crime-ridden section of that city. Is that work in vain?
I’m also grieved for Aguilar’s victims, and not just the young women he was convicted of abusing 20 years ago. During his trial Aguilar admitted to conducting affairs with numerous women, even though he is married with several children. That strikes me not only as adultery but spiritual abuse as well, specifically abusing his authority.