June 23, 2008 at 5:03 am · Filed under Religion Tips + More
One of the coolest things to watch religion do is to attempt to use trickery to win your mind. Religious Trickery has been practiced throughout time, but the technique is so simple really anyone can do it. This is why there are so many different religions and cults out there and why they have such huge followings.
The first thing they do is help you get over the biggest fear of humans, the fear of death, as self preservation is at the top of most people’s fears. They do this by promising you some incredible gift after you die, if you will do certain things for them. Things such as giving them money; tithing and living your life as not to disrupt their little system they got going on there. Oh, and devout your life to an ideal, one of their choosing and not your own.
One of the most recent abuses of Religious Trickery came when Islamic Fanatical Islamic Clerics promised 72-virgin women upon death if they went died in the great Jihad and into battle against the Infidels. Again finding weak-minded people or substandard intelligent folks and brain washing them, promising them the world of free sex and filling them with fear. Fear of the enemy and telling them if they did not go thru with this then the great One, the only one, Allah would not look favorably on them.
Sounds like a pretty ridiculous notion, yet humans often fall for such things. Have you fallen for religious trickery in your life? How does that make you feel? And if you have been promised 72-vigin women, why not ask to see them first? And have you asked your cleric today, why if all this is true, why doesn’t he volunteer to fight in this holy battle? Why doesn’t he strap a bomb to himself to get his free virgins? You see many times these authority figures are so looked up too, that no one will ask them these questions. Those who do are thrown out of the group, they are smart ones; the dumb ones are the ones who stay. Religious Trickery needs to be cut down to size in our world and we need to start with those who are abusing it the worst first. More on this in 2006.
“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/
May 23, 2008 at 7:05 am · Filed under Religion Tips + More
Faith Fellowship Church, PO Box 1586, Broken Arrow, OK 74013, Pastor Terry Dashner
Neglect is a powerful force…
What is the best way to destroy a garden? You could drown it with too much water, or burn it up with too much fertilizer. You could plow it, chop it, burn it, or pull up all the plants by the roots. But why all the sweat? Just leave it alone, and the weeds and insects will do it for you.
What is the best way to destroy a friendship? You could telephone everyone you know and spread malicious rumors about you friend. You could make false accusations directly to your friend. You could borrow from her and fail to repay. You could write her insulting letters. But why all the sweat? Just leave her alone, and neglect will kill the friendship. Act as if she doesn’t exist. Forget her telephone number. Look the other way when you meet her.
What is the best way to destroy a church? You could vandalize the building by breaking the windows, shredding the hymnals, painting obscenities on the walls. You could disrupt the worship services, be rude to visitors, or tell all the leaders what a miserable mess they are making. But why all the sweat? Just live as if your church doesn’t exist. Ignore it. Don’t go around it. Don’t give to it. Don’t visit it. That part of the church which is you will gradually die of itself.
I think you get the point.
Yes sir, neglect is a powerful force. Is there anything in your life that you’re neglecting? Maybe you should do an inventory of your life, assessing what is important and what is trivial. What about spiritual things? Shouldn’t spiritual matters be important enough to make the top of your list? Jesus said that we are to seek the Kingdom of God first, and then the other things will be added. Maybe it’s true. Life, for the believer, is all about aligning our priorities. When we take care of the “first things” the “second things” will follow naturally.
Remember, Jesus created us to thrive in life. He has given us abundant life in Him. Shouldn’t it be a natural thing to put Him first? If so, why are we neglecting prayer, Bible reading, church attendance, tithing, helping our neighbors, and so on and so on? These things are important too. Joy stands for J-Jesus first, O-others second, and Y-yourself last. The only way to spell joy is to put the “j” first——JESUS!
Keep the faith. Stay the course. Jesus is coming soon!
Pastor T (Matthew 6:33)
About the Author
Pastors a small church in Broken Arrow, OK. Writes for enjoyment.
April 13, 2008 at 7:04 pm · Filed under Religion Tips + More
Walking in Dark Places.
Running in Dark Places. Walking in Honesty.1 Thessalonians 4:12-4:12 1Th 4:12 That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing. How many today are running in Dark Places, you know, the places that you wouldn’t want the rest of the church to see you in? Do you have a watchman such as Dumah [Son of Ishmael] had? Or is there some secret place that you feel safe, a little place that you can go that no one knows of? Isa 21:11 The burden of Dumah. He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? {what of the destruction that was fortold, what has happened in the dark places of the night} God’s prophets and ministers are as watchmen in the city in a time of peace, to see that all is safe. As watchmen in the camp in time of war, to warn of the motions of the enemy. After a long sleep in sin and security, it is time to rise, to awake out of sleep. We have a great deal of work to do, a long journey to go; it is time to be stirring. After a long dark night. Watchman–the prophet (Isa-62:6; Jer-6:17), so called, because, like a watchman on the lookout from a tower, he announces future events which he sees in prophetic vision
But how many are willing to listen to a prophet or a prophetic vision? Very few. Jesus said that a prophet has no honour in his own home or country. Why is this? Many wish to remain in dark places, places of the mind, soul and body. The dark places are a place of solitude and comfort to many. Why do I say this, because many today have been taught wrong for so long that they think wrong is right and anything else has to be untrue. For example, there are large churches that teach that a man does not have to be born again, they teach praying to God under some one else’s name rather that Jesus, they forbid their ministers from marrying. This is false doctrine, which leads into dark places. The dark places of our mind and soul are pits that will lead to apostasy, which many will fall into. Jesus warned, not everyone that saith, Lord, Lord shall inter into the kingdom of Heaven, only those who do the will of the Father. Doesn’t this sound like something that we all should be aware of and concerned with? Here in the next two verses are the reason for sins in dark places, 1Th 5:7 For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
John 11:10 But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him. Where has the light gone? Many times the candle has went out because of one simple verse that many forget, 1Co 15:2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. A man must be put into remembrance of what has been preached, lest he forgets, whom he serves and why he serves. Many will fall back into the dark places of this life having hafe way salvation or become part time Christians because they are lulled to sleep by the speaking of many dulled words. 2Ti 2:14 Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers.
Eph 5:12 For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.
John 7:4 For there is no man that doeth any thing in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, shew thyself to the world. Everything that we do must be an open book to all to see. Our homes must be open to public scrutiny and our conversations must be open to the critic. Do you actually believe that you can sin amongst the dark places and it will never come into the light?
1Th 5:22 Abstain from all appearance of evil. Have you found yourself, reading something that you shouldn’t read, or watching something that you shouldn’t be watching, doing something or being somewhere you shouldn’t be, is your conversations a little loose fit for a person professing Christianity? If you answered yes to any of these you have found yourself in the dark places of the mind, soul and body. A tree is known by the fruit it bears, what it supports, what it produces, are many producing doubt or suspicion? Does the fruit you produce have spots on a side or two? Have you been lulled into a sense that salvation is permanent and once saved that all is well, look closely what Peter said about the saved;
1Pe 4:18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
We should all underline and highlight this verse and double underline the word SCARCELY. (ALT) And “If the righteous [person] is scarcely [or, with difficulty is] saved, where will the ungodly and sinner appear [fig., what will become of the ungodly and sinner]?” [Prov 11:31] Why then do we have so many that will fall into dark places? Lets read the following;
Mat 16:3 And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times? Darfur, 2004; A video filmed by the governor’s office and obtained by the United Nations days after the attack, showed fly-ridden bodies rotting in the street, a fuming and charred marketplace and women crying as they rocked children. They were also allowed to rape with impunity. At least 30,000 people have been killed in, according to human rights reports. Among the more than one million people displaced by the violence, at least 200,000 have fled into neighboring Chad. Aid groups say 300,000 people have been left vulnerable to hunger and disease. Wars, rumors of wars, petulance, famine, fires out of control, floods that kill hundreds, sexual diseases killing thousands, and still man looks for the stars as thou there is something up there that will change this world and make it a better place to live. If man attained to the stars, he would corrupt and contaminate the heavens, just as he has the earth. Always learning and never being able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Many are not open to change, things are going along fine, nothing has changed since from before my fathers, father, was alive, all things remain the same. When was the last time you watched the news from Iraq, row after row of Muslims, bowing to the east, proclaiming Godliness and then murdering the innocent, heads without bodies, bodies without heads, blood, beatings and thousands upon thousands join them every day, its time we woke up to the truth. Row after row of Nazis, marching in step, claiming the perfect society, sound familiar? The Moslem world is claiming the same thing, Kill the Christian, Kill the Jew, Kill the American, we are the servants of Allah. It should, history is repeating itself and fulfilling prophecy. A democratic, Muslim nation is a contradiction in terms, it will never happen. Religious zealots and maniacs, looking only as far as their own religion and never willing to accept Jesus as the only Son of God. Lets be honest with ourselves, lets walk honestly with God and our fellow human beings, let us accept the truth.
Rom 13:13 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.
1Th 5:23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christianity is a 24/7 lifestyle; we must work at our salvation, staying out of the dark areas. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, that’s good advice. ars
About the Author
Temple of Spirit & Truth Ministries
A.R.Smith Sermons International
http://www.ourchurch.com/member/a/arsmithsermons/
