QUOTE OF THE WEEK--June 25, 2008

This is quote is both long and from a blatant pagan who said little that was good. However, it demonstrates the truth about one of the greatest evils of history.
Here it is:

I was in my mother's belly as she sat in the waiting room of the abortionist's office. Dr. Sunshine was his code name. I was fifty feet from the drainpipe, and she saw a painting on the wall that reminded her of her mother, who had recently died. She took that as a sign to have the baby. That's what I call luck.

George Carlin in Esquire

SODOMY'S OKAY, EVANGELICALS SAY

In the 70's a rock group named after marijuana (The Doobie Brothers) did a song in which they said "Jesus is just alright with me." In that same spirit of feel good compromise many of today's "Christians" are reaching out to the worldly just like the Doobies once reached out to the delusionally religious. Yesterday I listened to a national news item on a religious radio station. The reader intoned solemnly that 48% of Americans believe homosexuality is a sin. Among "Evangelicals" and "Fundamentalists", however, he told us that 79% see homosexuality as a sin. So, the next time you're in church look around. If there are ten of you in your pew, two or three of you think gay is just okay.

Like the sewer you're in? Do you really believe any of those folks are saved?

In Christ (and, therefore, outside Modern Evangelicalism),
Phil Perkins.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK--April 26, 2008

The following is not a quote from a Christian. But it is applicable to Christians:

Knowing is not enough. We must apply.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

ALL I KNOW--lyrics by Randy Stonehill--from the album Edge of the World.

Just like Adam we awake at dawn,
Our lungs alive with Eden's perfect breeze,
Enchanted by the journey we are on,
Until gravity has dropped us to our knees.
And all the shining dreams we treasure never leave us satisfied,
But the heartache we embrace might be mercy in disguise
To turn our gaze to heaven until sorrow is a purifying snow.
That's all I know...all I know.

Yes, and time seems to be moving through me now
Like I'm transluscent, fading away.
I long to hold this miracle somehow,
Drinking all the wonder of these days.
But like a little barefoot boy standing on the beach,
Every new wave comes to steal the sand beneath my feet.
There's a sweet hidden wisdom only the angels bestow.
That's all I know.

Sometimes I cannot stand to hear myself pray.
It's as if my very words become a wall.
I want what I want and so I push the Truth away
And I do not have to listen when It calls.
And I curse my duality, this darkness that dwells in me
And marks me to the marrow as an orphan of the fall.
But in the middle my turbulence I see
It's amazing grace that grips me after all.
After all.

What can be said of this mystery we're in?
I have only one answer to give:
If Jesus didn't die to be the savior of my soul,
Truly I do not want to live.
Oh, for what would living be without a meaning and a hope?
Precious little more than just some cruel cosmic joke!
It's like being all dressed up and there was never even anywhere to go.
That's all I know.

Punch-drunk boxers wait for destiny to strike the fatal blow.
That's all I know.

I will be changed; I will be free; I will be healed; I will be Yours;
It must be so.
That's all I know...all I know.
That's all I know.

NO NEUTRALITY--Take up your cross or be man enough to admit you're not His.

I'm currently facing a situation in which my actual physical welfare is at risk. I've begun witnessing, with a friend, at a biker bar. We've been threatened. We will return. We will probably be beaten. So be it. (Pray for our boldness.) I tell you this so that you will know I'm not whining when I say what I'm about to say.

A little over a year ago I was fired from a Bible School for standing against the Emergent heresy. One thing has stood out about the experience concerning my friends and those who fired me.

First, those who fired me are orthodox in their doctrine. That is, they would never say that the Bible isn't God's word and authoritative or that Jesus wasn't God or that the resurrection didn't happen. The entire problem had to do with making people angry. All that had to happen for me to get fired was for a few (and I mean less than half a dozen) to contact the school and say that they were mad at me for exposing those inside our denomination and outside our denomination who were calling themselves Christian and yet denying the faith. The issue was that the president of the school would not have the school take a public stand. Nobody could be mad at the school. They want folks on both sides to like them. This is so unlike Christ. They wouldn't pay the price of having someone angry at them, so the school buckled.

Second, though my friends and former students remained friendly to me not one of them, to my knowledge, raised a word of protest about the wrong done me. (There is an exception to this. At least some of the students in my last class went to the college president for an explanation, so not all my students are cowards.) In fact, I have gotten the distinct impression many of them are actually embarrassed to be associated with me publicly. And they wish to be friends with those who have done this. Again, they wanted everyone to love them. Neutral. Both ways.

(Unless they're talking to me, of course--then they're more orthodox than Jesus.)

I've never complained to my friends or about them concerning this, because it's such a small thing to do. Christ suffered without complaining and so will I. And the picture painted by becoming a complainer isn't accurate because I would do this all again. I'm glad I did it. Jesus is worth it. I'm not whining any more than Paul was in Acts 20 when he stated he expected to be beaten wherever he went.

But he went.

No, rather, I'm saying these things because I want you, the reader, to think of something. Namely, just why do we think God is any less insulted when His "friends" refuse to stand for Him?

Jesus said, "The one who listens to you listens to Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me; and he who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me." Luke 10:16.

If we refuse to take a stand against those who deny Christ, how do you think God feels? Is He so stupid as to think we're His friends? I'm an old bald guy who grew up on a farm and went to a little school house with twelve (that's right, 10+2=12) students in my graduating high school class and I was smart enough to figure this out all by myself. Is a stupid farm kid smarter than God? Would you consider someone who chummed around with your severe enemy a friend? Why do we think we can do such a thing to God? Does He not see? Is He socially inept, unable to understand a simple interaction like this? Don't even kids on a playground know better? How do we disrespect God like this and expect His favor and not the flames He promised to all who deny Him?

Matthew 10:33
"But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven." In other words, if we refuse to stand for Him, the Advocate won't stand for us at the judgment.

Matthew 16:24
Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me." In other words, if you're a Christian you signed up to die. What are you waiting for?

Mark 8:38
"For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels." If we're unwilling to be associated with Him and His truth, we're an embarrassment to Him. Yet, we're proud of being inclusive to false teachers! This is our shame before God.

Knowing Jesus said this, how can anyone who calls himself a Christian stay silent inside or outside the church and suppose himself a friend of Christ?

As I watch these men, they have not stayed neutral. No, they've continued to keep fellowship with those who sided with the heretics. Even the school officials who sided with the heretics have not stayed neutral. (As if they ever were.) They have actually started using text books that push new age teachings and that are pro-homosexual. They claim this is only a temporary thing because they have to get along with another school until they get their own accreditation, but why do it at all since they know it's wrong? And my friends have continued as if all is well. Now I'm the one criticized--because I make others feel bad.

So does God. It's called guilt.

Deuteronomy 13:1-4.
If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, 'Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,' you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the LORD your God is testing you to find out if you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall follow the LORD your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him.

Quiet cowardice now, galloping heresy later. Will you stand?

In Christ,
Phil Perkins. Walk the walk.

IF YOU WON'T STAND NOW YOU WON'T STAND LATER--Why a man who doesn't witness regularly is unfit for the pulpit.

1. Silence is sin. Acts 20:20. Even Jimmy Swaggart cried some crocodile tears for his sin and feigned some sort of repentance. Non-evangelists are hard and unashamed, as if this is normal. Not even a fake tear or two.

2. Let's be honest, the reason we don't witness is we don't want to be ridiculed or punched in the mouth. You have to be ready for that if you go witnessing. Paul expected to be beaten on a regular basis. Acts 20:18-24. In this age of sliding doctrine, a pastor or teacher will have to pay a price. DON'T EVEN TRY to tell me if you aren't witnessing now you will be willing to risk your career later. Don't lie to me that way. Don't insult my intelligence.

3. If a Mand o' Gawd (shamelessly stolen from Melvin Jones of "Pulpit Pimps") wishes to disciple others he cannot do so without taking them witnessing. Jesus did so from their conversion and this was the pattern of the early Christians in Acts.

As for absolute proof of that look to the Great Commission. There were two things His disciples were to do to disciple men after they had gone to them. One was to baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The other was to teach them "all I have commanded you."

So just what were the commands He gave? Don't murder. Love your neighbor. Don't covet. Love God. Aaaaannnnnd.....

Oh, yeah. Go make disciples!!!!!!!!!!!

In Christ,
Phil Perkins.

STREET PREACHING IV--Spiritual Carnage

Last night was the first night for me to go out street preaching for the summer this year. It was a weak start because we were only out there for about one and a half hours.

Did you notice the "we"? Yes, I now have two partners and neither of them are weak sisters, either. Both are Bible college students and both are real evangelists. I am totally jacked to have some help this summer. Last summer I was alone. I'll tell you more about them another time.

Once again, I was impressed last night by what I call the spiritual carnage left by the doctrinal bombings done from American pulpits. Lost people are convinced that they aren't because some preacher lied to them. The first young men to whom I talked were at a roller skating park. They were actually part of a church group so I asked them right out how to be saved. "Be baptized." They said it in unison. When I asked them if they had heard that they must repent of their sins, one kind of acknowledged that he'd heard something about that. The other, Sam, hadn't heard any such thing. He admitted that he had never repented of his sins.

Another young man, Steven, was from Wyoming. He was a joy to talk to because he really wanted to talk about God. I asked him how to be saved, because he, too, was raised in church. THIS WAS HIS LITERAL ANSWER: "That little prayer thing." I asked him if he's repented of his sins. He didn't really answer. I asked him if he reads his Bible. "No." I told him to read it daily and obey what he reads.

Next, my partners and I talked to a Catholic fellow who really wanted to talk. Pray for him. I expect to see him again.

Lastly, we spoke to a group of three or four and that was really disappointing. One of my partners lead the way on that one and he's really had a lot of experience witnessing. That part was awesome--I have two real partners who really love God and want to preach. The bad part was that the main guy who was doing the talking in the group we approached was a typical example of what I call the Idolaters of Luuv. When we talked about judgment, he responded that God was not a judge and no one was going to hell. No matter how we talked to him, he wouldn't budge off his center. May God judge the preacher who lied to him this way.

All in all, it was a great night. It's great getting back to it and it's great having two really great partners.

In Christ,
Phil Perkins.