Our country would be so much better off if we did not spend billions of dollars on buildings and staff that produced very little spiritual formation.
We need connected communities of people who have real conversations about real life which might happen mostly in homes and coffee shops.
My proposal would be that we get rid of most of the entire college system.
There are very few jobs that require a college degree.
EXPERIENCE, and not college degrees, thus APPRENTICESHIPS would be the most efficient way to train people for their jobs.
There is a lot of concern in this country and the world about freedom.
I would ask, freedom from what?
Freedom from oppression or someone saying you can’t do what you want to do?
Or, heaven forbid, someone saying that it’s wrong to burn down a building or a car because you don’t get your way?
How about freedom from our own evil desires?
Real freedom comes from real truth.
Christ said that if we follow His teaching we are really His disciple,
then we will know the truth and the truth will set us free.
So if we want real freedom, maybe we should seek real truth.
And, like it or not, the source of real truth is Christ and Christ alone.
Some questions that might help people think about what is their true identity or might even touch the soul, could be as follows:
A while back my wife and I were encouraged to watch a video on YouTube entitled “Monkeys in the City”
It was very thought-provoking and definitely worth watching. A related follow on video or two started me to think about the core of who I am or who we are.
When we are talking to people (could be friends or new acquaintances) we typically might ask about their family, what do they do for their job, or how we like the weather.
But shouldn’t we be striving to go beyond these surface things that tell us little about who that person really is, at the core?
Shouldn’t we want to go deeper in conversation with those who are willing to have real worthwhile conversation?
I think it’s important that we all do something like that and do more than just talk about the weather, your job and family.
What is your true identity?
What do you think you were created to be?
Not what do you think you were created to do or what vocation you are supposed to be in.
But who are you really, what is your true identity?
Link to Monkeys in the City is an hour and a half, well worth watching.
The following are some noteworthy points taken from the video:
I have a friend who has struggled for months or even years to slowly walk from his kitchen back to his bedroom with a walker, maybe 40 feet, which may take him 20 to 30 minutes to make the journey. Currently he can no longer make that entire journey. There are millions of people in the Word of Faith and/or Prosperity movements (for example Kenneth Copeland or Joyce Meyers) who would probably say, “If he and/or his friends had enough faith he would be healed”. But the truth is, all we need to do is look around the world at the millions of people in similar or worse situations who also are not healed. God can heal people but He does not do so many times or most of the time. So the truth is that it is a total mystery as to who or when people are healed.
I have another friend who nearly died not long ago and he still struggles to maintain a certain level of activity do to heart conditions. He struggles with not being able to go back to his normal abilities but he also has said that his relationship with God has increased and therefore he probably would not change things as a result. But still, that’s his situation and that doesn’t necessarily make other people in similar situations feel any better.
So what do we do or say?
I think that anyone who claims to know what God is doing or will do in these situations is pompously incorrect!
Yes, we can ask God to do anything we want but we must realize that God is not obligated to do what we want; if He does then we can be thankful, if He doesn’t we can proceed on.
The Faith/Prosperity people’s tendency is to pompously claim that God is obligated to come through with fulfilling their requests as though He promised them all of these things.
Instead, I would say that we need to humbly request and hope that God will do what we request, realizing that he owes us nothing and that we owe him more than we could ever hope to repay!
“Ideas have consequences, and bad ideas have victims.” – often quoted by John Stonestreet at BreakPoint.
How do we keep ourselves from being victims of bad ideas?
“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.” – Lao Tzu
So, are you busy and organized or just mostly busy and a little scattered?
I recently read a book that I should have read 40 or more years ago.
Many people might consider me as organized but this book would have helped me be more efficient and less stressed out, had I read it.
The book is called “Zen to Done, the Ultimate Simple Productivity System”.
There’s another book called “Getting Things Done” which is good but it’s more heavily into organizing rather than actually getting it done. This one simplifies things to help you effectively get it done. The author combined points from other productivity approaches including David Allen’s Getting Things Done and Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Successful People.
I have also been using an excellent app on my phone called Obsidian to keep track of my lists and information.
You can also do it on paper if you prefer.
The book includes probably a dozen points but to simplify and give you a basic understanding you could start by doing the following:
Justin Peters, by popular demand, has been doing seminars at churches around the country for 20 or more years, critiquing many things theologically. One very enlightening seminar he does is called Clouds Without Water.
Clouds without water, from Jude 12, is a biblical critique of the Word of Faith, New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) and Prosperity gospel.
The Health and Wealth, Name it Claim it, or Prosperity gospel claims that it is always God’s will for a Christian to be wealthy and physically healed (should never be sick).
Some very troubling quotes shown on Clouds without water are as follows:
Myles Munroe – God can only do what we permit him to.
Kenneth Copeland – And I say this with all respect so it don’t upset you too bad, but I say it anyway: When I read in the Bible where He says “I AM” I just smile and I say, “Yes, I AM too!”
Larry Huch and Paula White – Jesus is not the only begotten Son of God, he is not.
Victoria Osteen – Jesus was man until God touched him and put the Spirit of the living God on the inside of him.
Benny Hinn – Look at me and say, all of you, say there’s power in me to speak life and death.
Gloria Copeland – You call what you have, you say what you want.
Benny Hinn – And I’m here to tell you I know that I know that I know that as these programs are airing, I’m speaking something into existence.
Creflo Dollar – As spiritual beings who possess the nature of God, we have the ability to speak things into existence just like God did.
Gloria Copeland – You know, you’re supposed to control the weather… but you are the one that has authority over the weather.
Can or should we fellowship with those who stand behind the Prosperity, Word of Faith, and/or NAR (New Apostolic Reformation) teachers?
I do not see how true believers in the real Christ of the Bible can have any level of significant fellowship with someone who claims to be a Christian and yet regularly watches and/or listens to those teachers who say things like the following:
God can only do what we permit Him to do.
Since Jesus said “I AM”, then “I AM too”
Jesus is NOT the only begotten Son of God.
Jesus was only man until God touched Him and put the Spirit of God inside Him.
I can speak things into existence.
My words you can control the weather.
God’s promises that I can be wealthy and healthy.
Proverbs 24:11 says to rescue those being led away to death and hold back those staggering toward slaughter.
These Word of Faith/Prosperity teachers are leading people to spiritual death as they teach a Christ and God who are not to be found in the Bible. So as they preach this false gospel, people are unknowingly staggering toward spiritual slaughter.
For anyone who has strugged know for sure where they are at spiritually, Justin recommends reading Saved Without a Doubt by John Macarthur
