Important Takeaways:
- We Live In A Day And Age Where Soundness Of Doctrine Is No Longer A Priority
- Imagine feeling sorry for a word. Doctrine is one of those words I always feel sorry for when I read it in the Bible—because people don’t like it. In Acts 2:42, the Greek word for doctrine means teaching or instruction.
- Yet I’ve heard believers say things like, “You know, it’s not about knowing doctrine. I’m not into doctrine. I’m just into loving Jesus.” It’s almost like their badge of spirituality. It sounds like they’re saying they are a cut above the rest of us, because they’re not into instruction. What a sad thing to say: “I’m not into good Bible teaching or truth. I just want to love Jesus.” But how will you love Him unless you are given good instruction on who He is and how to do it?
- The early church knew this and prioritized wisely: “They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Acts 2:42
- com defines steadfast as “fixed in direction…firm in purpose…unwavering.” How does that compare to “I’m not into doctrine”? Look at 2 Timothy 2:15: “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” How can you rightly divide the Word of Truth unless you know the truth? And how can you know it unless you study it?
- Jesus said to the Pharisees, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God” (Matthew 22:29).
- Here’s the reason I’m pressing this: We live in a day and age where Bible teaching—doctrine—is not tolerated, and people go to church and just want a spiritual pep rally. They want somebody to whip them up with a little exhortation and cool, clever phrases.
- There’s nothing wrong with exhortation. There’s nothing wrong with having an emotional experience of loving the Lord—but it cannot replace knowing the Word by the study of doctrine.
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Important Takeaways:
- The tragic collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore in late March sadly claimed the lives of at least six people, including construction workers who had been repairing potholes on the bridge.
- Had the 985-foot-long cargo ship struck the bridge during rush hour or midday instead of the wee hours of the morning, the human carnage would have been unthinkable. As it is, this maritime disaster at the 20th largest port in the nation could have severe economic and supply chain implications for years to come.
- As I think about the ripple effect of consequences for local commuters in Maryland and the transportation industry at large, I’m reminded how some strategically placed bridges are an economy’s lifeline, both globally and domestically.
- If you think about, it could be said that the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association is in the bridge-building business—connecting people to Almighty God exclusively through repentance and faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, every person who makes a decision for Christ at one of our Festivals, Celebrations or Tour events receives our Living in Christ discipleship booklet, which includes a diagram that illustrates how the cross of Christ bridges the vast chasm between us and God, and how we can cross the bridge through repentance and faith.
- After all, Jesus declared in John 14:6: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
- And like the emergency responders who warned drivers to turn away from the impending doom of the collapsed bridge, I am compelled by God’s love to warn and encourage people across the U.S. and around the globe to repent of their sins by turning from the wide path that leads to destruction and instead follow Christ’s narrow path to God’s forgiveness and healing.
- Unlike man-made bridges that collapse under extreme forces, Jesus bore the weight of humanity’s sins—past, present and future. The Son of God, who never once sinned, shed His blood and died for every single one of our trespasses—“for the wages of sin is death,” (Romans 6:23).
- Yet the grave could not hold our Savior and Lord, whose resurrection power remains alive and well. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22).
- While longstanding pillars of civilization become increasingly unsteady with society’s rejection of God’s Word as absolute truth, people are longing for an unshakable foundation.
- As our country observed the annual National Day of Prayer on May 2, may we continue to faithfully intercede daily on behalf of our nation, its leaders and lost souls everywhere? I still believe that God longs to fulfill His promise and answer the prayers of His people if they are willing to humble themselves, and pray and seek His face, and turn from their wicked ways (2 Chronicles 7:14).
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Important Takeaways:
- Megachurch Won’t Mention ‘Blood of Jesus’ on Easter Sunday Invitations
- A North Carolina megachurch says they will not mention words like Calvary, resurrection of phrases like “blood of Jesus” to promote Easter Sunday services.
- “I’m not going to say the word ‘Calvary,’ I’m not going to say the word ‘resurrection.’ I’m not going to say the ‘blood of Jesus.’ Right? I’m not going to say any of these words that makes someone feel like an outsider,” said Nikki Shearer, the digital content creator for Elevation Church. “This is really an important guiding principle.”
- Elevation Church is pastored by Steven Furtick and has more than 25,000 members attending at multiple locations across the state.
- Why not just be honest and upfront with people? Let them know what Easter is really about and why it’s important for them to hear the message?
- I mean at some point Elevation Church does present the Gospel message to their unchurched visitors, right? At some point the non-Christians are told about the resurrection of Christ, right? And at some point, the visitors are made aware that the “blood of Jesus” was the price that was paid for our sins, right?
- If not, the Elevation Church Easter service is nothing more than a self-help sermon…
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Important Takeaways:
- Why It’s Going To Be So Compelling For The World To Worship The Antichrist
- The Bible predicts there is a false Christ coming. In 1 John 2:18, he is called the Antichrist. Many typically think the Antichrist is somebody who’s against Jesus. But the prefix anti- can just as easily mean instead of. It seems from Scripture that this Antichrist will pose as a substitute Christ—and it’s quite possible he is alive at this moment.
- In studying this person, it just makes Jesus even more wonderful. Here’s a quick comparison between the two: the Antichrist is called “the man of sin” (2 Thessalonians 2:3), whereas Jesus is the sinless man. In the Old Testament, the Antichrist is called “the idol shepherd” (Zechariah 11:17, KJV); in John 10, Jesus called Himself “the good shepherd” (v. 11).
- The Antichrist is depicted in Revelation 13:1 as a beast. And throughout the book, Jesus is referred to as the Lamb.
- The Antichrist’s supposed death (see Revelation 13:3) will be meant to deceive people; Jesus Christ’s death was to save people. Vastly different.
- And here’s a haunting verse about the Antichrist: “All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). Listen, it’s going to be so compelling for the world to worship the Antichrist. The Bible says, “God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie” (2 Thessalonians 2:11).
- “When these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near” (Luke 21:28).
- “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things.” That escape is what we call the rapture.
- Is your name written in the Book of Life? I don’t want my name in lights; I want it in the Lamb’s Book of Life. And if yours is not there, or if you’re not sure, be sure today
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Important Takeaways:
- Joe Rogan, host of “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, and Aaron Rodgers, current quarterback for the New York Jets, shared a very vibrant conversation on an episode last week. They covered a lot of ground.
- He expressed how humanity requires guidelines to thrive. Christianity provides these needed guidelines, unlike woke ideology and ego-centric thinking.
- Rogan explained how people can be easily led by evil forces and forms when they don’t have the divine spirit to guide them. He highlighted how human beings can sink to depravity when left to their own devices, pointing to the broken moral compasses of some soldiers who participate in the bloodshed and inhumanity of war, then fail to successfully reintegrate back into society.
- We do need Jesus, of course, not just to soothe the veterans but to heal the moral decay ravaging society. Bloated intellect is only making our problems worse.
- Just look at the inflated egos of so many in our government, then gather where we are as a nation. Klaus Schwab, Bill Gates, and Anthony Fauci are all exceedingly clever. But are they helping?
- Power, greed, and control undoubtedly stand in the way of a real solution. There is nothing that humanity will create without Jesus that can solve the core issue, simply because it is his absence that actually is the core issue.
- Rodgers suggested that many believe that Jesus is coming back imminently. The comment left Rogan to suggest that this might actually be the reason for the frenzy experienced across the world today – the plunge into darkness and uncertainty being a means to get people to wake up to our need for Jesus in our lives.
- “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword,” Matthew 10:34 (KJV).
- As Rogan pointed out, it wouldn’t be the first time God allowed our world to fall into darkness to prove his point.
- Admittedly, neither man claims to be Christian. But nor is either sucked into such a short-sighted, small-minded worldview as to accept answers without questioning them for themselves first. They aren’t indoctrinated or woke.
- It is the reason so many leftist and establishment media hate Joe Rogan. He thinks for himself. And right now, he thinks that the world needs Jesus … ahead of the 2024 election, too.
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Important Takeaways:
- The Rise and Fall of Evangelical America
- In the parable of the sower, Jesus illustrated how the seed of God’s Word flourishes or perishes depending on the kind of ground it falls on. Some seeds fell on a path, and birds ate them. Some fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the seedlings. “Other seeds,” said Jesus, “fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away.”
- That rocky soil group aptly describes the rapid rise and decline of evangelicals in America in recent decades. Recently, political scientist Ryan Burge, co-author of The Great Dechurching, explained how, between 1983 and 1993, the share of Americans who identified as evangelicals exploded. In fact, at their height in the early ’90s, nearly a third of Americans called themselves evangelical.
- Part of the story of what happened is the rise of the “nones,” those who claim no religious affiliation. Between 1991 and today, the percentage of Americans who identify as “nones” skyrocketed from 6% to 29%. Burge calls this “the most significant shift in American society over the last thirty years.”
- Perhaps, given how quickly the evangelical bubble burst, part of the problem was that it was filled with shallow belief. Or to switch back to Jesus’ metaphor, perhaps some of the seeds that came up so quickly in the final decades of the 20th century—amid chart-topping Christian albums, huge music festivals, and sprouting non-denominational megachurches—lacked deep roots.
- Jesus never told us that the goal was to get bodies through the doors or bottoms in the chairs. It was to make disciples committed to Christ and His Kingdom—disciples who would in turn “bear much fruit.”
- This means teaching the Bible as if it is the true account of reality, contrasting a biblical understanding of things with those widely accepted, meeting challenges from the wider culture head-on, answering tough questions about the faith, teaching Christians to take seriously Christ’s sovereignty over all of life, belonging and not merely attending church, and teaching worship as everything we do, not just when we sing.
- It also means recognizing the role cultural currents play in eroding faith—especially those undermining marriage and the family. As Mary Eberstadt wrote almost 10 years ago in How the West Really Lost God, one of the most powerful forces behind secularization and the rise of the “nones” is the decline of the family
- That’s why, despite evangelical decline in America, we continue to till the soil and trust the Sower, fully believing He can produce deeper roots than before and fully expecting the hundredfold harvest He described.
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Important Takeaways:
- ‘Miracle’: Muslim Men in Gaza Seek Christ After Over 200 Dream of Jesus on Same Night
- More than 200 Muslim men in Gaza have converted to Christianity after reportedly seeing Jesus in their dreams, said Christian professor Michael Licona.
- Licona teaches New Testament studies at Houston Christian University…
- In a recent Facebook post, Licona said he received a report from “underground Christian ministries” in the Middle East that detailed the miraculous conversions.
- “God is working in the midst of war!” his post began.
- “Over the past two days, we have ministered to hundreds of fathers who have lost most, if not all, of their children in the war. As we moved these men to safety, we fed them, washed their clothes, and began to read the Bible to them — sharing the way of peace through Jesus.
- “Then, a big miracle happened. Last night, Jesus appeared to more than 200 of them in their dreams! They have come back to us to learn more from God’s Word and are asking how to follow Jesus,” the report said
- About a month before the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack, Assemblies of God News reported that Muslims around the world were dreaming of Jesus and converting to Christianity at an unprecedented rate.
- “I would even say it’s the normal experience,” said Dick Brogden, a missionary for the Assemblies of God, a Pentecostal Christian organization. “It would be accurate to say that Muslims are responding to Jesus in levels we have never seen, not in 1,400 years!”
- “So many Muslims reject Islam, but know that to follow Jesus will cost them everything. Dreams of Jesus encourage them along the way and give them the comfort that Jesus will be with them — though it cost them everything to follow Him.”
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Important Takeaways:
- When we read the headlines, it is not hard to see that our world is on a downward slide. Political tensions, natural disasters, and disease outbreaks are escalating. More and more professed believers seem to be falling away from the faith. It has caused many people to wonder whether these events are part of biblical prophecy
- The Sign of Deception
- As we move toward the Last Days, Jesus said there would be an increasing danger of deception by false teachers. “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many” (Matthew 24:4-5). More and more people will search for leaders to deliver them, and they will seek mystics and religious leaders who claim to have deeper knowledge.
- Our society is characterized by a culture of toleration that works for everybody but Christians. There is great acceptance and understanding for all sorts of immoral behavior, yet the world considers it unacceptable to speak of absolute Truth. In response, some churches and pastors have departed from sound doctrine. This isn’t just another trend. It is a spirit of deception taking hold of our culture.
- In John 14:6, He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Through Him, we “shall know the truth, and the truth shall make [us] free” (John 8:32).
- The Sign of Disputes Among Nations
- (Matthew 24:6,7). As dissension escalates, we can view it as a sign of the times. The book of Revelation tells us that conflict—ceaseless, unending, terrible war—will fill the Tribulation period, and it will escalate until the entire world is involved.
- The Sign of Devastation
- Jesus warned of “famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places” (Matthew 24:7). We live in a day when we can scarcely turn on the TV without seeing someone trying to raise money to feed the hungry. Even though God has blessed us with a fruitful, abundant planet, millions of people in the world face food insecurity and scarcity.
- The Sign of Deliverance Into Tribulation
- In the Last Days, there will be an explosion of antagonism toward God’s people: “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake” (Matthew 24:9).
- The Olivet Discourse is one of the most comprehensive outlines of prophecy in Scripture. Jesus shared this information so that we could see and understand the times. In Matthew 24:6, He told His disciples, “See to it that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Jesus Unveiled Bible Prophecy, So Why Are Only 2% of US Churches Teaching it?
- In a recent Lifeway poll they found only 2% of churches in the USA teach Bible prophecy. This is an amazing latter-days stat for several reasons:
- Roughly 30% of the Bible is prophetic. They’re ignoring almost 1/3 of the scriptures.
- 100% accuracy in past prophecies fulfilled literally separates the Bible from every other book on the planet. It not only claims to be written by God, it proves it by predicting the future.
- The entire Book of Revelation was prophetic when written. Today everything from Revelation 6 forward is still in the future and likely to be fulfilled within the next 7-14 years.
- The Book of Revelation is the only book that promises Believers a special blessing for even trying to read and understand it.
- Revelation 1:3 KJV – “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.”
- In the Book of Daniel, it says to “seal up” the words until the end of the Times of the Gentiles. In the Book of Revelation, which dovetails with Daniel, John is told to “seal NOT the words for the time is at hand”… meaning the Church Age.
- And God promises through Amos that He WOULD reveal to us what is going on.
- Amos 3:7 KJV – “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.”
- And from Jeremiah:
- Jeremiah 30:24 KJV – “The fierce anger of the Lord shall not return, until he hath done it, and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it.”
- Yet only 2% of churches even attempt to try to understand the thrust of the Bible’s teaching in hundreds of Bible prophecy verses.
- I know one thing, Satan sure doesn’t want Believers to study prophecy because it gives people hope.
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Important Takeaways:
- A Louisiana man in the Bucktown area of New Orleans is in hot water with his neighbors due to his extremely bloody Halloween decorations.
- The decorations appear to show a beheaded Jesus, whose head is in the hands of Satan, looming over the yard while nuns and a priest stand nearby.
- One neighbor called it “appalling,” while another resident said, “In a word, it’s blasphemy,”
- According to Miorana, the display caused people to threaten his girlfriend about losing her job, so the pair eventually broke up.
- Despite the controversy, Miorana refuses to take down the decorations, per the ABC report.
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