Paul Washer Project – an absolute must see, must pass on….

This is another excellent YouTube presentation of snippets of one of Paul’s more infamous sermons to the youth.  

Paul Washer Project

For anyone who may be unaquainted with Paul – he has to be one of the most dynamic, solid younger preachers on the itinerant ministry scene currently.   He has a huge heart for evangelism and the youth, but more than anything he speaks with authority and utter obedience to God and thus is hugely emotive.   One of the few I’ve ever heard almost crying with the intensity of the fervour of his message in his desire to convey the importance of his message to those listening.   And total sincerity throughout.   Unlike many other noted teleevangelists who care more about themselves than their ‘flock’!!  

If you find this whets your appetite to listen to more, you can download his messages as podcasts from Uncommonly Powerful Preaching – link in the sidebar.  

The plight of the world today…..

Written by a solid prophecy buff – this is just so true for today’s culture I felt it worth sharing with you here.   If you’ve not yet come across Troy’s material – check it out at: http://troykoehne.com/ and sign up to get his email updates for a small charge.  

Stupid People
By Troy Koehne
©2007

I have come to the conclusion that there are a lot of stupid people in the body of Christ.  Maybe that is too harsh of a word to use.  Perhaps they are just ignorant.  Or they truly don’t have the knowledge to know better.  Hosea tells us that my people are destroyed by a lack of knowledge.  Not only are they destroyed but they are destroying others as well.It’s funny to watch people in hospitals.  They claim to be Christians and I am not here to judge them but they act and do things like the world does.   I can’t tell you how many people I ran into professing to be Christians and have the latest Harry Potter book in their hands.  They can’t wait to get back at it.  One waiting room I passed, it was like a small Harry Potter chat room.  There were questions and answers and more questions and thoughts as to why the author did this or that and so on.

I watched many of these same folks who had loved ones dying not mention one time the love of Jesus or the new body we are going to receive or even that the time is so close at hand that we will be with them soon.I think about my own family.  They stand on the principle that good people will always go to heaven.  They believe that if you are Christian enough you will be okay to do whatever you want as long as you repent of it later.  They think that you become more spiritual when you go to Women of Faith or see Beth Moore live and that makes you better than everyone else. 

My sister even made my mom some prayer beads.  In case you don’t know, the Hindu’s and Catholics use them to pray to their gods and have rituals using them and so on.  Instead of giving her a trinket, why not give her the word of God?  Why not do a study on heaven and what it will be like and give that to her?   It’s not just my family that thinks this way, it’s the whole church.  We have tossed out grace thru faith salvation and replaced it with works.  We have to go to a spiritual retreat to get something from God because we don’t get it in our churches.Let me go on record saying this.  Most churches give us a dry, stale piece of bread to eat.  It’s no wonder they, the TV preachers like Benny Hinn, are drawing people in by the millions.  They are not giving you dry bread but tofu disguised as the perfect turkey on thanksgiving.   We take the tofu that doesn’t fill anyone up and give it to the people who need help the most.  Instead of giving them the meat and potatoes of the Gospel, we give them someone else’s junk that won’t do them a bit of good in the long run.  

Now I know that many people out there are sincere in what they do, but the fact still remains, people will go to hell with out Jesus and unless we tell people the truth about it, we stand guilty of not helping them avoid it.So, that brings me back to the whole hospital thing.  How is it that we are so sure that people are saved and going to be with Jesus?  Just because that is the greatest buzz word that flies out of our mouth to make people more comfortable “Knowing that they will be in a better place.”Well, how do you know they will be in a better place?They were such a good person.I hate to break it to you but good people don’t go to heaven.  Only the saved and redeemed are going to heaven.  Having seen my grandmother get weaker and weaker, her breathing become shallower and shallower has got me thinking a lot about heaven.  It makes me sad to think that many people are fooled into believing they are saved when they are not.  They have never believed on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved.  Oh sure, they have done many great works but they never believed on Jesus.  As already stated, works don’t get you to heaven.I didn’t make the rules so don’t get mad at me.So let me tell you something.  The church is soon to be raptured out of here. 

I believe more now, with all my heart that it will be sooner rather than later.  If you have never believed on Jesus to save you then you are lost and will get left behind.   The time for being nice is over.  You need a Savior.  You need Jesus.  If you are more interested in the work of the Lord instead of the Lord of the work then your priorities are out of whack.   Get right with the Lord of the work before you start the work. Jesus tells us in Revelation 3:20 (KJV) Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. Jesus is still knocking.  How much longer will you wait to open the door?  One day the knocking will stop and you will have missed Jesus while doing your good works for him.Don’t be like the stupid people out there who follow after this and that thinking it’s of God.  Make sure you know where you will be headed for eternity.Where you end up is entirely up to you.

Lessons in suffering – tough but true….

Let me ask you some questions:  Do you believe that Jesus was fully human during his time here on earth?  Do you believe thus that He would have experienced hardship and difficulties?   Do you believe that He had to suffer for any reason??   Do you believe that He had to suffer before His death on the cross i.e. would it have made any difference if He could have died a death any other way that would still have achieved what the Cross did for the purposes of our salvation?   And if you say yes to most or all of those questions, do you then believe that God didn’t love Him or else He would never have allowed His precious only begotten Son to go through all that suffering?  

If you work through that argument to a degree, and take it one step further – if you are in a place of suffering right now, do you consider that God doesn’t love you and that’s why you’re having to cope with such difficult trials and pain?   Do you reckon that Jesus was somehow so different to you that He wouldn’t have felt what you do, or was spared the worst of the pain and suffering somehow in His divine nature?   Do you feel abandoned by God when you find yourself suffering for whatever reason because no matter how much you pray He doesn’t remove the problem??   Do you have any right to expect to not undergo pain and suffering in your life any the less – do you think you are somehow better or greater than Jesus that God should spare you from what He wouldn’t spare His own Son??   Regardless of the purpose of it, Jesus’ suffering was every bit as tough and painful for Him as ours is for us!

In church last Sunday our sermon was on His Love and how it relates to suffering, and the point was very well brought out through the situation of Lazarus’ death.    This was a man whom Jesus is said to have loved – and there are only a few that that is actually stated specifically of in scripture – John being one of the others.   But Jesus obviously had a very special connection with, and love for Mary, Martha and Lazarus.    Yet when Lazarus died and the women sent Him a message to say so, He didn’t rush to be with them.   While He would most likely have known the fuller purpose of this death, and that He thus had to delay his trip to them, how do you reckon Mary and Martha were feeling??   In their eyes, they knew He had power to overcome everything including death; they may have fully even recognised Him as God in human form.   And they knew He cared deeply for them so why the delay and the lack of response.   Not even a message to say He knew and was on His way.  Nor did he attend the funeral.   Nothing.   But He knew what they couldn’t see.   That there was a bigger purpose in their brother’s death than they could know, but which He would use to God’s Glory.    When He arrived they almost castigated Him for His delay in telling Him that if He’d been there Lazarus would still be alive!   We don’t get told the tone of their voice, but you could imagine they were perhaps none too happy with the situation – lost, bewildered, and perhaps even downright angry.   Much the same emotions that you may go through in your own suffering and trials.