Joel Osteen's Theology?

Homosexual Christians?

This is terribly sad. I am almost speechless.

This Satuday Conference Call

Stand Up Ministries is having their 4th conference call this coming Saturday-February 9th. My apologies since I kept on forgetting to post this when we had our previous calls. Stand Up Minsitries is currently conducting live chat conference calls with over 150 lines to access over the phone every other Saturday which has been a blessing to those who have attended. This is not a line where we simply argue. The intent is also not to be a replacement for true Biblical fellowship. This is simply an extension of the 1st conference we had in November of 2007 and enables those of us across the country to keep in touch. At the past conference we had men and women from all over the US attend and even from England.

The time zones for your area are as follows:
6:00 pm - eastern 5:00 pm - central 4:00 pm -

mountain 3:00 pm - pacific (605) 475-4333

Access code: 339865#

(please hit the pound key after entering the code)

This Saturday's topic is "Divorce and Re-marriage." There are seven historically significant interpretations of the exception clause is Matthew 19:9, and there is no small amount of disagreement among reputable Bible scholars as to which one of these seven is correct. Five of the seven views affirm a no-divorce understanding of the text, and six affirm a no-remarriage view. Only one permits both divorce and re-marriage.

Typically most Christians see marriage after a divorce as an option and see that there are exceptions based on Matthew chapter 5 and 19. I differ on this topic completely. I am posting below a paper written by John Piper who also holds this view. His paper is not as detailed as I would like but it gives an overview of his position on this. I believe this position is the most accurate and true to Christ' intent in the Bible. John Macarthur(my favorite Bible expositor) holds the common view and I think he couldn't be more wrong on this issue.

One basic rule of hermeneutics is if we find a passage in which in itself is capable of two interpretations, one of which harmonizes with the rest of the Scriptures while the other does not, we are duty bound to accept the former. This is a recognized principle of interpretation that the more obscure passages are to be interpreted in the light of clearer passages and not vice versa. Prayerfully I ask you to leave your presuppositions to the side and take a Berean look at the opposing views with a non-biased view.

Good book on the seven different views is "Marriage and Ministry in the New Temple" by Abel Isaksson.

Here is the Piper article. Here is Macarthur's site and his link here.

When God wants to drill a man.

This is a poem my pastor Jim Elliff gave to me about 8 months ago and I thought I would share it. God bless

Romans 7?

The common view of Romans chapter 7 typically is that Paul is speaking of himself as a believer and his stuggle with sin. I honestly have a hard time with that based of off chapter 6 and then chapter 8. My pastor's son Bryan Elliff(18 years old) teaches Wednesday night Bible study for the teenagers and makes some compelling arguments for the opposing view. The beauty of being young and in the Faith is the fact that(we) unlike many older guys in the Faith, do not have a lot of faulty pressuppositions about many topics.

Check out 1(Romans 7:14-25: “Sin Became Alive and I Died” Part 1) and 2(Romans 7:14-25: “Sin Became Alive and I Died” Part 2) of his studies so far. I couldn't link his blog article because I think he a older style blog to where you can't link the articles directly but I will give you his site and you can scroll through to find these articles-God Bless in Christ

His site is HERE.

Paul Washer

How do you know you are saved?

This is post from this site. Thanks to Alan Higgins for this great post-GOD Bless

2 Corinthians 13:5 says that we should

Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.
So how do you make sure that you are not disqualified? How do you make sure that you are not in that number of many church-going people who will say to God on Judgement Day

….Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then (he) will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’(Matthew 7:22-23)

How do you know you are saved?

Well first of all, you should be displaying (or starting to display) the fruit of the spirit which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23)
If you are displaying immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness and carousing, then this is a good indication that you are not saved and as it says in Galatians 5:21, those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God

The books of 1 and 2 John also give you a list of things to look out for ’so that you may know that you have eternal life.’ (1 John 5:13)
You will not walk in darkness. If you do, then you do not practice or live by the truth (1 John 1:6)
You will have fellowship with other christians (1 John 1:7)
You recognise your sinful nature (1 John 1:8,10)
You confess your sins (1 John 1:9)
You obey and keep his commandments (1 John 2:3,5 ,1 John 3:24, 1 John 5:2)
You will not hate your brother or sister but love them (1 John 2:9,11 , 1 John 3:10 and 1 John 4:7-8,12-13, 20-21, 2 John 1:5)
You will not love the world or the things of the world (1 John 2:15)
You will do the will of God (1 John 2:17)
You believe the divinity of Jesus Christ and that he has come in the flesh (1 John 2:22 and 1 John 4:2-4,15, 2 John 1:7)
Biblical truth will be abiding in you (1 John 2:24)
You understand the righteousnes of Christ (1 John 2:29)
You will be practicing righteousness (1 John 2:29)
You will not habitually practice sin (1 John 3:8,9, 1 John 5:18)
You will have compassion for those in need (1 John 3:17)
You believe that Jesus is the Christ and is the Son of God (1 John 5:1)
You abide in the doctrine of Christ (2 John 1:9)

Now am I saying that if you are missing any of these then you are not saved? Of course not. It is not about perfection but about direction. You should be moving in the direction of doing the things above. This is called progressive sanctification where God is doing an inward work in you.
Other questions to ask yourself are:

Am I growing in holiness?
What is my relationship with sin?
Do I have a struggle with sin or do I feel no way about my sin? (Read Romans 7:7-25)
Do I hate it more and more or do I try and justify it?
Do I have a love for Gods word?
Do I hunger and thirst for righteousness?
Do I have a concern for the lost?
If the answer to the majority of these questions is no, then I would seriously doubt your salvation and I would urge you to repent of your sins and put your trust in Jesus Christ and in him alone.