Check it out!

"I’ve been learning over and over that unless someone is willing to see the unwieldy plank in their own eye, it’s absolutely impossible to help them out of their destructive patterns and self-deception.You can yell and grieve and make a scene. You can spend hours in gentle counsel and eloquent exchange and loud weeping and tongue-biting patience. But unless that person wants to change, it’s not happening. No argument or mercy or fervency is enough. They’ll need to be pierced by their own convictions, or in the worst case, they must come to their own ruin and see the miles of hurt they’ve caused. Otherwise, you’re only reinforcing their pride and building their defenses and rationalizations. Often the only thing we can do is to pray and humble ourselves. To look at our own plank first. To expect the best, even if the other person is taking no strides. To keep the door open. To keep serving. And maybe it’s not about the other person anyway. If they don’t change, you will."— J.S. Park

Holly Stratton wrote a post on lifehurts.us .  She talked about how we protect our hearts and build walls because of how much we fear vulnerability.  I couldn't resist sharing it with all of you and I highly encourage you to click the link above and read her post!

Hope you are all enjoying your September!

Seeking Your Forgiveness....

Dear Readers,

I have to ask your forgiveness about a few of the posts that I have recently posted.  I can not tell you how sorry I am.

This past January I heard about a book called "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voskamp.  I had seen her book in the Christian bookstores but as our family is very skeptical of every book that hits the shelves because of the amount of unbiblical writings out there, I hadn't even looked at it.  However, in January I read a review on it that looked really good.  It talked about how we need to view everything in this world as gifts from God - even those things that don't seem good, because God allows everything for our greater good. I am sorry to say I was going through a time where I was really struggling and was looking for something that would help pull me out and help me to refocus.  I hoped that this would be a book that was written in a unique and personal way and that it would remind me of the things that I was having a hard time focusing on (the blessings I am surrounded by).
I admit that reading "One Thousand Gifts: A Dare To Live Fully Right Where You Are" was a struggle for me.

"Written entirely in the present tense, using an approach to the English language that takes numerous liberties for the sake of creating poetic feeling (like using adjectives when the rules of grammar demand an adverb and consistently having adjectives follow rather than precede the nouns they modify), Voskamp weaves a tale of discovering devotion to God through encounters with nature and art. In her experience, Voskamp found the secret to joy through what she calls eucharisteo ("giving thanks" transliterated from the Greek)."[1]

I didn't understand everything she was saying because of the way she wrote it and I didn't think too deeply about everything because I was looking through the "glasses" of my worldview, searching for things I could understand that would help bring me out of this struggle I was in.

I just finished reading chapter seven this morning and to be honest, I have gotten some very meaningful things out of her book.  However, because I didn't understand everything she was saying, I was picking out specific things I could understand and applying them.  For example, I saw her desire to see God in everything, not as a pantheistic view, but rather as Gifts that my heavenly Father had given me.  He isn't actually in them, nor they in Him, but He made them and I need to see the blessings and positive things He has given me.

Last evening, as I was checking my "Reading List" on my Blogger dashboard, I saw that Melinda at "Radiant Purity and True Beauty" had written a post titled "Pantheism and False Doctrine."  My love for apologetics caused me to find this title interesting as I had taken some classes on "Worldviews vs The Christian Worldview."  Needless to say I was shocked to see what she had written.

"When I first heard of Ann Voskamp's, One Thousand Gifts, I thought it sounded great. After all, we all see we need more gratitude and simplicity in our lives. So I bought it. But I returned it. It's full of false doctrine.  And scary doctrine.  Packaged in an appealing, dramatic writing form that attracts women, young and old, by swarms.  It's not good, folks.  Don't take it at face value...evaluate it with God's Word.  For that matter, never, ever, ever take anything for face value. Evaluate it closely with God's Word. Don't be deceived."[2]

I've been following Melinda's blog for almost two years now and I feel that we are on the same page on most things.  So if she felt led to write something that was a warning to other Christians I felt that there was some credibility to the warning.  She left a link to another blog that was doing a review on "One Thousand Gifts" and I followed it and again was hit with mixed emotions.  (Here is the link to those reviews)

I wanted to believe that the review was wrong.  How could a book that had brought such joy to my heart have so much false doctrine in it?  How could I have missed that false doctrine?  But I ultimately wanted to find the truth.  If this book had false doctrine in it, I needed to make an informed decision and do some research.  The relationship I have with God is not dependent upon my emotions or what a book says.  As a Christian, I need to be ready to "give an answer to every man that asketh you (me) a reason of the hope that is in you (me)." ~I Peter 3:15 

When I started taking classes in apologetics & worldviews a few years ago, I realized how important it is to search out the truth, compare what I read to Scripture, and be ready to give an answer. 

So, I started researching.  Here are a few links I found.  I need to say right up front that I am not endorsing the blogs, websites or the people that are writing them.  However the reviews I read on them helped me to understand why this book is unbiblical.  (Warning: Some of the content in Ann's book is graphic and in order to make their point some of the blogs used quotes that you will want to be careful when reading.)

*Romantic Panentheism,  a Review of One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp

By Bob DeWaay found on the blog "By Grace Alone"

*One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp: A Book Review Series - This is the first review I read. The one that Melinda sent her readers to, "Echoes In The Wind".

*One Thousand Gifts - A Gift or Bad Fruit? - This blog ("No Ordinary Faith")has two posts that I felt were really good.

Just to help prepare you as you go to read the above articles:

Pantheism: A belief that identifies the forces/energy of nature with god; god is everything and everything is god.[3]

"This ancient concept (pantheism) forms the theological foundation of the New Age movement." "Everything has divine power in it,' says Roman Catholic New Ager Matthew Fox, and this divine force is what gives the planet its 'sacredness."[4] "An example of pantheistic theology occurs in a New Age children's book entitled What Is God?: 'There are manyways to talk about God.  Does that mean that everything that everybody says about God is right?  Does that mean is everything? Yes! God is great and small!  God is everything far away and near!  God is everything bright and dark!  And God is everything in between!" [5]

This battle between the many different worldviews must be confronted and we must be ready to "give an answer."  It is a battle for the hearts and minds of the current generation as well as the ones to come.

"As believers in and followers of Jesus Christ, we need to consider how our commitment to Him affects...the way we think and act about theology, philospohy, ethics, biology, psychology, sociology, law, politics, econmics and history.  This collection of convictions is what we call a worldview.  And it is in the arena of worldviews that one of the greatest battles of our time is now being waged 24/7 in each of the ten areas listed above."[6]

"As Christians, our worldview should be based on the Bible and constructed around the person of Jesus Christ.  What would Jesus think?  What would Jesus do?" [7]

Please understand that I bring this up out of a sincere desire to rectify something that I allowed to happen on my blog and I am truly sorry.  As you read the other blogs, please read them with discernment, ask God to help you understand so that you can rightly divide what is truth and what is not.

Prayerfully Seeking Him,

Footnotes 1. http://www.bygracealone.net/2011/05/romantic-panentheism.html

                2. http://radiantpurityandbeauty.blogspot.com/2012/03/pantheism-and-false-doctrine.html
            3. Understanding The Times by David Noebel page 74
                4.  ibid as well as Matthew Fox, in an interview with Laura Hagar, "The Sounds of Silence," New
                    Age Journal (March/April 1989)
               5. Understanding The Times by David Noebel page 74
               6. Understanding The Times by David Noebel page 2
               7. Understanding The Times by David Noebel page 3
           

Embassy Institute...Better than Netflix in so many ways.

Our family has recently found a treasure on our quest through life.  This treasure contains so many precious gems and we have just started to uncover them. Gems of truth, encouragement, discipleship, comfort, guidance, lessons on how to work on relationships, character qualities and our relationship with God.

You know how when you find something new and you can't wait to tell your bestfriend?  Well, that's the way I feel as I write this. There is a treasure chest waiting to be shared with others, the word just needs to get out! 

Our treasure chest is "Embassy Institute."

"Embassy Institute is the online media library of Embassy University with hundreds of powerful messages.
Embassy is committed to the high calling of training every student to experience success in five vital areas of life:

1. Being a successful Person with character and skills
2. Being a successful Provider in making and managing money
3. Being a successful Persuader in communicating truth
4. Being a successful Partner in marriage
5. Being a successful Parent in training up sons and daughters who are "mighty upon the earth."

The entire Embassy curriculum is built on forty-nine commands of Christ, which transcend all nationalities, cultures, religions, and political systems." (1)

I realize that we are talking about an institute here, but you do not have to be a student to access these incredibly powerful messages.

Our family is learning so much from the many different speakers. Each of the speakers/couples has several different videos of themselves speaking on different topics.  From spiritual warfare, to conquering lies we are believing that are controlling our lives, to working on character qualities.  Our favorite speakers right now are Paul and Jenny Speed,  Chris & Anne Hogan, Bill Gothard, Otto Koning & Jim Logan.  However there are so many more speakers that we haven't even listened to yet!

These videos are all online for you to watch and some of them even have free downloadable materials to go along with the session.

All of this is available to you as soon as you sign up for a subscription.  There are two different options available when signing up for a subscription:

1. A monthly subscription is $9/month
2. A yearly subscription is $99/year (save the equivalent of one month!)

You can listen to some of their sample videos here. 

I can not begin to tell you how much we are learning about God through these speakers that God is using in a powerful way.  Satan wants to destroy us individually and our familes.  However he does not have to kill us in order to do that, he just needs to chain us up in lies he will tempt us to believe.  Lies that will cause us to lose our ability to become what God has planned for us. 

God created us to live victorious and vibrant christian lives and yet how many people do you know that you could describe like that?  Christians that have such an incredible relationship with their Creator and Savior that everyone who comes into contact with them can see Christ and His love.

I know that that is what I want to be.  I want to be what God intended me to be and not your "average" christian.  I want people to see Him and not me.

This Institute is truly a beacon in the spiritual battle we are fighting. 

I want you to imagine in your mind D-Day and the Normandy Invasion of WW2.  Over 425,000 Allied and German troops were killed, wounded or went missing during the Battle of Normandy.  Imagine if you had special information that would have helped prevent all that bloodshed.  Would you have run to General Eisenhower and showed him that information or would you have kept quiet and hoped for the best?  

 Just think how many more lives are at stake.  Millions!   Satan is fighting to bring as many people with him to hell as he can and those he can't take with him he wants to make as ineffective as possible.

This Institute, I believe, has information that is imperitive for every christian to hear and share.  Please go and see what I am talking about.  This is a battle we are to be fighting not sitting on the sidelines and hoping for the best.

May God bless you today and may he help you to live a victorious and vibrant Christian life!

Footnotes: 1. http://www.embassyinstitute.org/about