Why are you a Christian? Why are you an Atheist? Why are you so sure about who you claim to be?

I am in the middle of writing an article on the above statements. If you would like to contribute your two cents worth, please feel free to write to me. With my busy schedule (getting married tomorrow- Sat, Sept 27th!), I will add your comments as time allows.

I thank you again for your patience and your prayers, it is very much appreciated!

till His nets are full
God bless
Brian

Wedding coming soon!

Only four more days until the wedding!
After that, I am back into the blogging world!!!!!
did I say four more days??
it might be wise for me to include a couple more days after the wedding before I get back to blogging. I think we need to spend some quality time together first!!

Thank you all for your prayers.
We both appreciate it very much.

We are almost finished painting our new house. We ended up putting two different colors in every room along with a wall paper border. This has taken us so long to finish but we can finally see the light at the end of the dark tunnel.

There is another light that I want to encourage each of you to focus on...
In him was life; and the life was the light of men. John 1:4
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. John 1:5
The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all [men] through him might believe. John 1:7
[That] was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. John 1:9
And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. John 3:19
For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. John 3:20
But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. John 3:21
Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. John 8:12

Jesus is "The" Light. Follow after Him. Listen to Him. Obey His Commands. In doing so, you shall not walk in darkness again!

talk to you all very soon!

something to think about...

what do these people have in common?

TD Jakes
Joel Osteen
Rick Warren
Bill Hybels
Robert Schuller


Now, what do you have in common with them?
What do you have in common with Jesus?

If you can agree with the teachings of these men more than you can agree with Jesus, then I pray that you can see a need for change. Their message is not the same as the message proclaimed by Jesus.

I will say it over and over and over again...
Who do you follow?

Ray Boltz just recently showed the world who he follows. He claims to follow Jesus. Think of it this way...

I am walking down a sandy beach. It is a beautiful day outside with a slight breeze. The shoes are off as I let the sand massage my feet. It can get pretty hot sometimes but then the cooling effects of the water does its thing. It refreshes my feet. Someone sees me walking and decides to follow me. He is curious as to where I am going. I am not really "going" anywhere in particular, just going for a leisurely walk. But this person decides to follow me anyway. He sees some of his friends and he hollers out to them to walk with him as he follows me. So his friends all join him. They talk about all kinds of things while they are walking and following me. I even heard them once mention something about the Bible and about God. Now, I had lost my desire to continue walking. It was getting noisy behind me, so I ask them to please go somewhere else to walk. They refuse, they want to "follow" me. I ask them again, to please take that other path, it is wider and easier for you to talk to each other and you can talk about whatever you want to over there. They said "No" to me. They want to watch and see where I go. So, I decide to do some teaching to them. I tell them about God's Law and how it exposes sin within us. I tell them how they need to repent of their sins and to put their faith and trust in God. They say, "No, we just want to watch and see where you go." I tell them that where I am going, they cannot go. In fact, unless they repent of their sins, they will not go there. When I finally tell them exactly where they are headed, they finally decide that they have "seen" enough of me. They head home having gained nothing from their time with me.

Who do you follow? What motivates you to follow God?
Ray Boltz has followed after the wrong person. I cannot and will not support a person who claims to be a Christian in one sentence and follows it up with saying it is perfectly okay to live in sin because "God made him that way."

Let me tell you something...
we all have within us the ability to be homosexual
we all have within us the ability to be a thief
we all have within us the ability to be a murderer
we all have within us the ability to lie

we all have sin living within us.
We have a choice to make...

Will we decide to chase after our sins?
Will we decide to engage in lustfilled desires?

Or, will we decide to follow God and listen and obey His Words?
Ray Boltz has decided against being faithful and obedient in favor of living out his sinfilled life. The repurcussion is going to be a sentence of Hell, UNLESS he repents!

Who do you follow?
Put your faith and trust in Jesus alone to save you!
Repent and be obedient to the One who Saves!

Your life will never be the same! You will have persecution, trials and tribulations! And you will count it all as JOY! That is not what the world teaches and in fact, that is what most churches do not teach. The Bible teaches that.

Who do you follow?
Listen to your pastor give his sermons. Is he truly preaching God's Word or is he just telling you what you want to hear?

Rick Warren's poor teachings

Here is some more of Rick Warren's false teachings (or at the very least -- poor teachings). We as Christians, must have discernment of what the pastor's are teaching. Don't just take everything that is spoken as being truth. Search Scripture to see for yourself. Do not take the words of a seminary trained pastor as being the gospel truth. Rick Warren is a prime example of this!

Do the right thing!

Doing the right thing it seems is never easy or is it popular.

I have stood in front of congregations and read Scripture that God lead me to read and I was basically told to never do that again during prayer time.

I have confronted someone who, as a youth leader, was promoting sexually explicit songs on his myspace site. He, in turn, came back against me and said, "You have no right to judge me." "Why do you hate me so much?" "What did I ever do to you?"

I have also removed from my own myspace site a person who claimed to be a Christian and yet was promoting the "F" Word and was also highly sexually themed.

In every case, I was basically told that I shouldn't have said anything. It would have kept the peace. Everyone would have gotten along.

I am getting ready to clock into work. It is 4:30am and it is time for another day and another dollar!

Isn't it sad when fellow "Christians" end up being the least supportive of standing up for the Truth of God's Word?

Isn't it sad when fellow "Christians" will yell out the trump card and say that you are judging others and the Bible says not to judge? (in truth, the bible does say we are to judge with a righteous judgment! and that we are not to judge the world, but we are to judge those who claim to be Christians)

When will Christians finally stand up and do the right thing?
When will Christians finally promote God and His HOLY Word instead of promoting the ways of the World?
When will Christians finally act like they are truly Christians without spewing out the words, "Well, no body is perfect, I am a sinner forgiven by God" and yet, they continue to sin daily the same sin over and over and over with no thought of ever repenting of that sin. They use the words REPENT but they do not actually do it!
When will Christians finally get rid of their worldly ideas?

When...

How many times have you been saved?

The contemporary church continues to preach the "sinners prayer" as being biblical. They will say that it is in the Bible that if you say "the prayer" then you will be saved. And yet, we see, day in and day out, that people who have said "the prayer" are still just as lost today as they were before they said the prayer. If you are a pastor or a person who believes in the sinners prayer, please do me a favor. Show me the biblical basis for your belief in the prayer as being a means of salvation. You won't be able to do it. You can say that if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord we will be saved. Fine! But that says nothing about saying a sinners prayer to be saved. No where in the Bible will you find an example of Jesus or any of the disciples talking to someone and telling them they must say a prayer to be saved. NO WHERE! And yet, people will stand up and "DEFEND" their right to tell people they MUST say the sinners prayer. There is no walking them through the Ten Commandments (God's Law) to show them their sinfulness, no showing them that they are headed for hell unless they repent of their sins. It is all about having "numbers" within the church. How many people can "we" get saved tonight??

The Bible in all of its fullness has been left out of the picture. We do not want to offend anyone. Some people worry so much about whether a person will come back to church if we tell them what God's Word really says, that they do not want His Word preached fully. They say you must give it to them a little at a time.

So a sinner who is already DEAD in his sins cannot be made fully alive in Christ until he has been in church for at least a year. And yet, we see in the newspapers that children die every day. A teenager who is involved in drugs, alcohol, sex and who knows what else, must come to church in order to be saved, but only after an appropriate amount of time so he does not get scared away by God's Word.

I have to tell you, that is not only UNBIBLICAL it is dangerously close to being the terrible works of the Devil. How dare someone think that we must slowly present the gospel message to people regardless of their age or situation. A dying person is a dying person and if a person is on their death bed, I can just see some people saying "don't mention God's Law to them, they might get offended!" So the person dies in his sins and goes to hell all because we do not want to offend people.

God have mercy on OUR souls!

If you are a pastor and you feel it is inappropriate to present the whole gospel message to the congregation then I have a suggestion for you...

GET OUT OF THE MINISTRY! LEAVE NOW! YOU ARE AN EMBARASSMENT TO GOD AND YOU ARE DOING THE WORKS OF THE DEVIL.

Do you still want people to come to Christ by reciting the sinners prayer?
When we use "man-made" techniques instead of biblical concepts then we have decided that "we" know what is best for converting souls. Or do you not know Scripture?

The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. Psalm 19:7

When I see youth leaders, and even pastors promoting the unbiblical approach of the sinners prayer it makes me want to cringe. Unless a person cries out to God on their own accord, just reciting a prayer said by the pastor will do nothing to change them. They will have no fear of God. Sin will not be seen as being exceedingly wicked in the eyes of a Holy God. They will not have a true understanding of just how HOLY God is. They will have no understanding of what righteousness is. They will not have a true understanding of WHY they need to repent of their sins. They will only want to "get" God because it is a way of them getting something in return for their faith. They want God's blessings poured upon them. That is not biblical.

In fact, that is one of the worst things you can do for a person. Promise them they will receive blessings if they put their faith and trust in God. Uh, did you forget to tell them also about Scripture that says they WILL endure persecution?? Trials? Tribulation?? No, it is never said to the person who says the sinners prayer. Why not? Because the pastors all feel that they will run away from God if we tell them that. And that is precisely what will happen. If you give them nothing but promises of blessings without telling them the rest, the first time they face persecution they will run because they were not given what you promised them. They will have to be saved again sometime in the future. If they have to be saved again, they were never really saved in the first place! The parables of Jesus teach us that!! The wheat and the tares, the good soil and the bad, the good fish and the bad. And there will be people crying out to Jesus on the Day of Judgment, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your Name? and Jesus will turn to them and say, Depart from me you worker of iniquity, I never knew you! People MUST learn about God but they must learn the WHOLE message. Not only is He a God of love and grace, He is also a God of Wrath and will judge those who are still living in their sins.

How many times have YOU been saved? Are you truly saved?
Do you still find ways to say it is acceptable to live a godless lifestyle and still claim to be a Christian? if so, then there is a good chance you are not truly saved.
I worry when I see people claiming to be Christians and they feel it is perfectly okay to blaspheme His Holy Name, they feel it is okay to lie, cheat, steal, lust and be disrespectful to others. And it is those very same people who came to Jesus by way of the sinners prayer who will DEFEND their right to live a godless lifestyle because they are convinced they are saved and are Christians. They believe in Jesus and because of that they KNOW they are saved.

Even the Devil believes and trembles. I see no trembling on the part of todays contemporary Christians. They take lightly the fact that God is HOLY and requires us to be Holy just as He is Holy. The damage that has been done by todays contemporary pastors is amazing. By the power of God's Word, I pray that all who "say" they believe in Jesus will start "living" like they believe in His Word!

You know Scripture well enough don't you?
Or do you?

Where two or three are gathered together in My Name, I am there in the midst of them.

Is that a Scripture that speaks of God will be with us if we are with one or two more people?

Or do you not know that God is with us always? With those who are righteous and follow after Him and His Word.

The above Scripture is actually speaking about church discipline. Does your pastor misquote that verse to make it mean what it does not mean?

People it is so important that you use some discernment when it comes to listening to others preaching the gospel. Use discernment on what I am writing to you. I encourage you to see if what I am saying is true. Don's just blindly follow a pastor because not all pastors are truly saved!

If your pastor brought you to Jesus via the sinners prayer. I pray that you will read what Scripture says about following after man and not following after Jesus. Don't think you are following after man?? You recited man's word when you said "the prayer" didn't you? Pray to God from your own heart. Fall down on your knees and humble yourself to the point of tears that you have offended God by your words and your actions and cry out to the Holy God to save you. You are headed for HELL and that is the plain and simple truth. Hell awaits all who are not obedient to God's Holy Word. Obedience comes with faith. If your faith is not producing obedience to His Word, then there is a leak in your faith. You need to have it checked out.

How many times have you been saved? It is a question worth checking into!

thank you for prayers

thank you to all those who prayed!
David did in fact, have pancreatitis. He is going to be alright now. The doctor came in late last night to give us the good news. It is so scary to see your only son on the hospital bed. I cannot imagine what it must be like to have a son or daughter die before the parent does.

Our Heavenly Father sent his Son to die on the cross for each one of us. Are we all children of God? the answer is NO! the Bible speaks of the Children of the Devil. The difference being, the children of God are those who have put their trust and faith in Jesus Christ. They have repented of their sins and are seeking after righteousness. Do you believe in Him? What does your "belief" look like?

To all of those who sent me emails, I thank you so much. Your encouraging words meant so much to me and to my son. May God bless each one of you and may you share His Word with all people that you come across. We never know when our last breath will come!

Just the other day, a 19 year old boy was killed in a head on collision. He was hit by a drunk driver. Are you saved? Do you know when you will die? Are you still living in your sins? Having trouble giving those sins up? Who do you follow? These are important questions to ask yourself. If you don't want to be bold for Christ, then why call yourself a Christian? If you don't want to expose false teachings all in the name of "not judging someone" then cults will run rampant. If you want to continue to use every foul word in the world and still claim to be a Christian, then why has the change not happened yet?? Please think about it!

God bless you

please pray!

my son was just taken to the hospital. I am at work and will be getting off soon. They think he has some kind of pancreatitis. if you know anything about this, please let me know. I just ask that you all keep him in your prayers. His name is David Culver!

thank you all and God bless you for your prayers

Do you want to study God's Word?

I have found a free site that you can go to if you want to get deeper into God's Word. Many people have gone to blueletterbible.org to get into the Word. Did you know they offer a free course of study on there as well?

Go to www.blueletterbible.org
on the left hand side you will find some links
the bottom link says "BLB Institute"
click on it
then click on the link for registration. There is no charge for this!

You can either take a course as an audit or for a grade. They offer a certificate when you are finished. Currently, they offer 11 courses and within the courses are several classes. You can listen to audio's of the classes or read transcripts. There is then a 20 question test at the end of each class. It is extremely biblical and for someone who is wanting to get deeper into God's Word, this is very economical (FREE) and very indepth! Contact me if you have any further questions!

May God bless you as you study His Word!