Tag Archives: false doctrine

(I Timothy) The Richest Man In Town

What does God think about the health and wealth/prosperity gospel as preached by the likes of Myer, Copeland, Jakes, Hinn, Robertson, Osteen, etc? In I Timothy 6:2-10 He’s pretty clear. The Apostle Paul, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit calls it false doctrine, godlessness, and the teachers conceited know-nothings, “whose minds are depraved and deprived of the truth, who imagine that godliness is a way to material gain.”

He goes on and says some people who crave wealth have actually walked away from the faith. It’s that serious.

Please change the channel. If you are listening to prosperity preachers you are in danger. God is asking you to be content with what you have. Not simply resigned to it, but actually ok with it. Content.

Do you take joy in your relationship with Jesus, or would you find a bit more joy with a heftier bank account? You are in danger if you equate God’s blessings with material gain. Believing there is a correlation between God’s blessings and wealth is believing false doctrine.

Be content.

Now that doesn’t mean don’t work hard. In 2 Thessalonians God, through Paul, makes it clear if you don’t work – you don’t eat. He talks to rich people in 1 Timothy without condemning their wealth.

Be content with what you have. Use what you have – little or much- for the glory of God. The widow gave a few pennies, but Jesus commended her as though she’d dropped a million dollars into the offering plate. (Luke 21)

Besides, if you know Jesus as your Savior, if He is Lord of your life, you are already the richest man in town!

October 16; A Little Yeast

Mark 8:11-9:1; Matthew 16:1-28; Luke 9:18-27; John 6:60-71

The first time I ever tasted pizza was at my Aunt Doris’ house in the early ’60’s. I remember standing next to her in the kitchen and watching as she opened an Appian Way Pizza box, and pulled out three bags and a tiny tin can. She opened the larger of the bags and poured its contents into a bowl. Looked like regular flour to me.

Then she opened one of the smaller bags. The contents looked like a bit more flour. A little coarser, perhaps. And it had a strange smell. She told me it was yeast. (never heard of it). She poured it on top of the flour in the bowl, and mixed it together. Then she took some water and slowly moistened the flour mixture until she could use her fingers to push and squeeze it into a ball. I remember the sticky dough all over her hands.

Next she covered the bowl with a kitchen towel, and put it on top of the pre-heating oven. Then we waited.

While we waited Aunt Doris took a log of pepperoni and cut it into thin slices. She grated some cheese, and opened the tin can of red sauce. She took out a weird round pan and coated it with a thin layer of Crisco.

Then I witnessed a miracle.

Aunt Doris took the towel off the bowl on the stove and showed me what was inside. The dough had grown into a giant blob! It had taken on a life of its own. It was magic.

Needless to say, we finished compiling the pizza on that flat greased pan, and popped it in the oven. I can only say, it was love at first bite. I still could eat pizza every day.

I thought about this today as I read God’s warning concerning yeast. We all know He wasn’t talking about pizza dough, but used the magic power of yeast to warn us about false teaching.

I have shared my heavy heart as I witness how false teaching is infiltrating the Church at what seems like break-neck speed. That’s really nothing new. Jesus was talking to people 2,000 years ago about this happening right then, too. Why does Jesus give this warning?

Because false teaching, like yeast, takes on a life of its own. It might resemble the Truth. But if allowed to mix with the Truth, it grows, it changes what was into something very different.

Please be aware. Please don’t allow Satan’s Christian-sounding lies to enter your heart or your mind. Know the Truth that is God’s Word. Don’t base an enlightenment on a verse or two, but read the Bible and keep reading it ALL.

Be on guard, Jesus tells us. Be on guard.

June 26 – Satan In Church?

Lamentations 3:37-5:22

I suggested yesterday that we read Lamentations and consider our relationship, and the relationship of the Church, with God. I was struck again today by what I found in 4:12:

The kings of the earth did not believe, nor did any of the inhabitants of the world, that the adversary and the enemy could enter the gates of Jerusalem.

That really scares me.

There are some who believe the Church is invincible because of God’s power. I think that leaves us open for a fall. If we believe the adversary and the enemy can’t enter the doors of the church, we haven’t been paying attention. It’s already happened.

It has nothing to do with God’s power. It has everything to do with our sin.

Once again I feel the urgency of lighting a fire under Christians and shouting WAKE UP! It’s time we identify the enemy and get him out of our pulpits, strip the name “Christian” from him, and call sin sin.

How long are we going to ignore our adversary, or worse – listen to him?

Dear God, help us defeat the one who is impersonating You. He is the adversary, the enemy. Satan isn’t just the power of evil out there in the world. He’s right here in our home. Defeat the evil in us, and in our churches, for Jesus’ sake.