13 Evangelistic Phrases That Produce False Conversions

From Weretched Notes on FaceBook.

A.W. Tozer said, “It is my opinion that tens of thousands of people, if not millions, have been brought into some kind of religious experience by accepting Christ, and they have not been saved.”

I would like to present thirteen ways that we have re-defined how a person becomes a true convert. Have we done this intentionally? Certainly not. We have simply created lingo that has a grain of truth in Scripture, but it is so open to interpretation that the un-converted understand it in ways that lead to false conversions.

1. Make Jesus your Lord and Savior. We cannot make Jesus our Lord and Savior, He is our Lord and Savior. We are living in rebellion to Him and He commands us to repent and trust Him.
2. Ask Jesus into your heart. Does Jesus come into our hearts? Yes He does. The question is, “How does He get in there?” It is not by simply asking Him in; it is by repentance and faith.
3. Just believe in Jesus. The demons believe and they tremble. We must repent and trust.
4. You have a God-shaped hole in your heart and only Jesus can fill it. We have far more than a hole that needs to be filled so we can feel complete; we have a wretched, deceitful, sinful heart that needs cleansing. Repentance and faith applies the blood of the lamb for that cleansing.
5. Accept Jesus. Whoa. We need to accept Jesus? This is entirely backward. We need Jesus to accept us–and He will, if we repent and trust.
6. Make a decision for Jesus. Decisional regeneration puts man in the driver’s seat of salvation. When we repent and trust, Jesus decides to save us. That puts Him in the driver’s seat…where He demands.
7. It is easy to believe. While the formula of repentance and faith sounds simple, a complete surrendering of self in repentance is anything but easy. It’s hard.
8. God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. The only promises for the convert are trials, temptation and persecution. If that is how you define a wonderful life, fine. Otherwise we must command all men everywhere to repent and trust.
9. Come to Jesus just as you are. We should come to Jesus just as the sinners we are, but He also expects a broken heart and contrite spirit demonstrated in repentance and faith.
10. Come to Jesus and you will receive forgiveness of sins and ________________ (fill in the blank with money, health, a healed marriage). Jesus didn’t promise healed marriages; in fact He promised broken homes because we would divide when one member repents and trusts.
11. Come to Jesus and experience love, joy, peace. Do we get the fruit of the Spirit upon conversion? Yes. But if we come seeking the gifts and not the giver, we will receive neither. Instead, we must repent and trust.
12. Jesus is the missing piece. Um, no, the God of the universe is not the missing piece, He demands that He is the center of our lives when we repent and trust.
13. Jesus is better than fame and fortune. That is an understatement, and frankly, it is insulting. Saying Jesus is better than money is like saying that a steak dinner is better than eating a dung hill. He defies comparison and we trivialize the Son of God. Instead, we should be pleading with all men everywhere to repent and trust.

Read the rest of the post here.

Go to the Wretched Radio Website here and have a listen.

2010 Shepherd's Conference

I am back from a wonderful week at the Shepherds Conference. This year a couple of recordings were made of the congregation singing. Me and about 3500 of my closest friends singing God honoring hymns was very special. All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name at link http://tinyurl.com/ydjxwzg and When I Survey The Wondrous Cross at link http://tinyurl.com/ybqpssc.

Homesick For Heaven

Homesick For Heaven

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An inadequate gospel will contribute to apostasy.

John MacArthur on Rick Warren's Book "The Purpose Driven Life" from "Wretched" with Todd Friel.

A New Kind of Christianity - Book Review by Tim Challies

Please follow this link to a book review of Brian McLaren's new book, "A New Kind of Christianity". Unfortunately you will find this non-Christian book in you local Christian book store. Here is an excerpt from the review:

Here, in it’s as if McLaren is screaming “I hate God!” at the top of his lungs. And swarms of Christians are looking at him with admiration and saying, “See how that guy loves God?” I don’t know what McLaren could do to make the situation more clear. In fact, his book is nearly indistinguishable from many of the de-conversion narratives that are all the rage today. Compare it with Bart Ehrman’s God’s Problem and you’ll see many of the same arguments and the same misgivings; you’ll find, though, that Ehrman is at least more honest. He at least has the integrity to walk away from faith altogether rather than reinventing God in his own image.

"Your Grace Still Amazes Me" Phillips, Craig & Dean

My faithful Father, enduring Friend Your tender mercy’s like a river with no end It overwhelms me, covers my sin Each time I come into Your presence I stand in wonder once again

Voice of the Martyrs - Algeria Update

Algeria: Update: Church Burned

On Jan. 10, Muslim extremists set fire to Tafath church in Tizi Ouzou, Algeria, damaging church property, according to The Voice of the Martyrs contacts.

The Tafath church has been threatened since December, when extremists disrupted a Christmas celebration. “As Christians continued to come for worship to this church despite the increasing intimidation, the Muslim extremists decided to burn the church,” VOM contacts said. “The next morning, the church members were able to retrieve some unburned stuff from the church and move it to a safe place.”

Read more here.

The Bible Isn't Boring, Avatar is! - John Piper

Worship - The Valley of Vision

Glorious God,

It is the flame of my life to worship thee,

the crown and glory of my soul to adore thee,

heavenly pleasure to approach thee.

Give me power by the Spirit to help me

worship now,

that I may forget the world,

be brought into the fullness of life,

be refreshed, comforted, blessed.

Give me knowledge of thy goodness

that I might not be over-awed by they greatness;

Give me Jesus, Son of Man, Son of God,

that I might not be terrified,

but drawn near with filial love,

with holy boldness;

He is my mediator, brother, interpreter,

branch, daysman, Lamb;

him I glorify,

in him I am set on high.

Crowns to give I have none,

but what thous hast given I return,

content to feel that everything is mine

when it is thine,

and the more fully mine when I have yielded it

to thee.

Let me live wholly to my Saviour,

free from distractions,

from carking care,

from hindrances to the pursuit

of the narrow way.

I am pardoned through the blood of Jesus-

give me a new sense of it,

continue to pardon me by it,

may I come every day to the fountain,

and every day to be washed anew,

that I may worship thee always

in spirit and truth.

Amen

From The Valley of Vision page 358

Preach the Gospel For the Perishing and the Saved - Matt Chandler

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Romans 1:16

The gospel of Christ is powerful enough to justify us, it is powerful enough to sanctify us and it is powerful enough to glorify us.

Cross Eyed - Life - Dr Arturo Azurdia III

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,Look full in His wonderful face,And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,In the light of His glory and grace.

Art Azurdia Cross Eyed Life Sermon Jam from Josh Gunter on Vimeo.

Evangelist Slams Priest for 'Pulpit Betrayal'

MEDIA ADVISORY, Dec. 28 /Christian Newswire/ -- An Anglican priest in the northern English city of York told his parishioners that poor people struggling to survive should steal food and other essentials from shops, rather than raise money through prostitution, burglary or mugging.

Best-selling author and evangelist, Ray Comfort, said, "What may sound like compassion is actually pulpit betrayal. Rather than a sermon telling his hearers to steal from businesses, he should be telling them to take what they need from his own church's collection plate. If he didn't do that because his church is feeling the economic pinch, that brings into question his motive. If his parishioners take his advice and his weekly collection increases, he is benefiting from the crime he instigated and therefore complicit to it. The question also arises as to whether or not the priest personally practices what he preaches. Does he himself shoplift? If he doesn't, he's a hypocrite. If he does, then he's a criminal. If he says that he doesn't need to shoplift because he is financially sound, then he should be giving to his poor folks, rather than making them into thieves."

Britain's Daily Mail reported, "He told parishioners it would not break the eighth commandment 'thou shalt not steal' because it 'is permissible for those who are in desperate situations to take food that they might not starve.' The Yorkshire Evening Post reported that he said, "'My advice, as a Christian priest, is to shoplift,' he told his stunned congregation at St Lawrence and St Hilda in York."

Comfort said, "The twisted advice of the Reverend is nothing new. The religious leaders at the time of Christ also perverted the Ten Commandments. In Matthew 15 they changed the Fifth so that they didn't have to honor their father and mother, and they even tried to soften the Seventh. But in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus warned that God considers lust to be adultery of the heart.

"This all comes from something called 'idolatry,' which is the sin of making a god in your own image. Once you do that, anything goes. The Bible says that if you steal, even in the case of dire need, you pay back seven-fold. Sex becomes okay "if you love someone." Lying becomes morally okay if they are lies that don't "hurt" anyone. Adultery becomes acceptable if the marriage is boring, and the murder of children in the womb is permitted if a pregnancy is an inconvenience. But the Bible is clear that all liars, adulterers, murderers and thieves will end up in Hell."

The Rev. Jones added, "I do not offer such advice because I think that stealing is a good thing, or because I think it is harmless, for it is neither." He said that people shouldn't steal from small, family businesses, but from large national businesses.
Comfort, who spent a lot of his time feeding the homeless in Los Angeles' infamous McArthur Park, said, "This is what happens when unconverted men go into the ministry. Many of today's preachers should have been plumbers, motivational speakers or bankers, rather than what the Bible calls 'preachers of righteousness.' The moral Law is meant to show us that we are sinners and that we need a Savior. The Ten Commandments don't need changing. We do. We may change them to suit ourselves, but they will still be the standard of judgment on Judgment Day. God wrote them in stone for a reason."

He Calls You to Another way - John Piper

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. Romans 8:16-17

Arabic Christmas Carol

This is a great video of an Arabic Christmas Carol. It brings together things that don’t seem to fit and yet are true of our Savior. Certainly some of you will watch this and think that this could never happen, that God could never do this – you may even think it is blasphemy. I simply ask each of you to remember that God is God and he is in the heavens and does as he pleases. Who are we to tell him what he can and cannot do? Then consider how utterly unique Jesus Christ is in his birth (who else can claim to be born of a virgin?!).



From the blog "His Peace Upon Us"

Glory to God in the Hghest - Sovereign Grace Ministries

Hear the angels sing of the King of kings
Who made Himself poor
See the mystery and the majesty
The Creator is born
Oh the Maker became a man
Let us sing what the angels sang

Glory to God in the highest
Glory to God in the highest
Our hope has appeared
God has drawn near
Glory to God alone

See the One who spans the heavens with His hand
With fingers so small
See this babe so poor all of heaven adores
He’s the ruler of all
Let us worship our humble King
Adoration we humbly bring

MP3 here
Find the guitar chords here.

Words and music by Stephen Altrogge
As recorded on Savior: Celebrating the Mystery of God Become Man

The Real Christmas Story - John MacArthur

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, And the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory as the only begotton from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:1 and 14

Disturbing Christmas - CJ Mahaney - Sovereign Grace Ministries Blog

William H. Smith said the following "Only those who have been profoundly disturbed to the point of deep repentance are able to receive the tidings of comfort, peace, and joy that Christmas proclaims."

Read the entire blog post here.

Christ is All - Valley of Vision

May I read the meltings of thy heart to me

in the manger of thy birth,

in the garden of thy agony,

in the cross of thy suffering,

in the tomb of thy resurrection,

Bold in this thought I defy my adversary,

tread down his temptations,

resist his schemings,

renounce the world,

am valiant for truth.

Deepen in me a sense of my holy relationship

to thee,

as spiritual bridegroom,a

s Jehovah's fellow,as sinners' friend.

I think of thy glory and my vileness,

thy majesty and my meanness,

thy beauty and my deformity,

thy purity and my filth,

thy righteousness and my iniquity,

Thou hast loved me everlastingly, unchangeably,

may I love thee as I am loved;

Thou hast given thyself for me,

may I give myself to thee;

Thou hast died for me,

may I live to thee,

in every moment of my time,

in every movement of my mind,

in every pulse of my heart.

May I never dally with the world

and its allurements,

but walk by thy side,

listen to thy voice,

be clothed with thy graces,

and adorned with thy righteousness.

AMEN

A Conversation Overheard

The following is portions of a conversation overheard.. What was the conversation about?

• Man we really rock out there.
• We have a free concert every Sunday.
• We have smoke and lights and everything...it’s awesome!
• I am so proud of my dad. He used to set in the back near the door but now he is up front setting in the middle so he can see the band.
• The guy that talks is really cool. He tells us we should do good things but he never does them himself.

So if your guess was church, well that’s what they call it, you would be correct. The question is, is this church?

The church is not a building or a place. It’s a simply God’s people. When God’s people gather to worship, that is worship God, that is church. You see the people in the conversation above were not describing their church but their worship.

So what should church look like when God’s people gather to worship Him?

• Reverence – Leviticus 19:30, Hebrews 12:28
• Founded upon and completely focused on God and His Word. 1Chronicles 16:29, Psalms 96:9, Psalms 99:9, John 4:23, Revelation 15:4
• Confession of faith with fellow believers. Nehemiah 9:3, Philippians 2:11
• Singing of God’s holiness, His attributes and His greatness through the hymns of the faith that have been handed down through the ages. Why? Because God is truly “Immortal, Invisible, God only Wise, in light inaccessible, hid from our eyes”. Because God is “Holy, Holy Holy,” our Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. Because it is right and fitting that our souls should praise the King of Heaven. He is worthy of all our praise because He is “Lord, Enthroned in Heavenly Splendor”. Psalms, Ephesians 5:19,
• The reading of scripture. Nehemiah 8,
• God’s word preached from a man of God. Preached the way God wrote it, book by book, chapter by chapter and word by word. Why is this important? Because we are in a spiritual battle, and because Satan hates us and will do anything he can to try to take our faith from us. Acts 8:30-39, Galatians 1:11, 2 Timothy 4:2
• Serious prayer, seeking God for His help and wisdom in these dark times, for the needs of the congregation and for the witness of the fellowship in the community. 1 Thessalonians 3:10, Luke 21:36, Matthew 26:41,
• Evangelism and outreach. Romans 1:16-17
  
  Okay, now take an honest look at both types of worship. The first is man centered and the second is God centered. Now, when it comes to church which one is real?

It Will Cost You Everything! You Must Surrender to Christ

What does it cost you to follow Christ? Everything. Steve Lawson preaches on Luke 14 on the Cost of Discipleship.

To follow Christ as a disciple means:

1. You cleave to Him in believing trust.
2. You follow His leading and act according to His example.
3. You practice self denial.
4. You fellowship in faith, life, suffering, cross and share His entire moral life.

Have you come to saving faith?



Please visit the I'll Be Honest, Will You? website.