Month: August 2019

Episode 123

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Disciple Up #123
Can I Be God’s Lone Ranger? Christian Community Gone Wrong
By Louie Marsh, 8-28-2019

Update on Live Stream for International Podcast Day – Sept. 30th, 2019

Many Christians Don’t See the Need for Community:

https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2019/august/lifeway-discipleship-assessment-growth-alone.html

Some of the “One Another” Passages in Scripture

http://storage.cloversites.com/wakarusamissionarychurch/documents/59one_another_scriptures.pdf

Love one another: John 13:34-35; 15:12, 17; Romans 12:10; 13:8; 14:13; 1 Thessalonians 3:12;

4:9; 2 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Peter 1:22; 1 John 3:11, 3:22; 4:8; 23; 4:7, 11-12; 2 John 1: 5

Serve one another: Galatians 5:13; 21; Philippians 2:3; 1 Peter 4:9; 5:5

Accept one another: Romans 15:7, 14

Strengthen one another: Romans 14:19

Exhort one another: Hebrews 3:13; 10:24

Encourage one another: Romans 14:19; 15:14; Colossians 3:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:11; Hebrews 3:13; 10:24-25

Forgive one another: Ephesians 4:32; Colossians 3:13

Meet with one another: Hebrews 10:25

Carry one another’s burdens: Galatians 6:2

Community Gone Wrong: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/ray-ortlund/one-anothers-i-cant-find-in-the-new-testament-2/

Gospel Centered Life Spiritual Growth Campaign

http://christschurchontheriver.com/the-gospel-centered-life/

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Email – louie@discipleup.org

 


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Episode 122

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Disciple Up #122
When Someone Leaves the Faith
By Louie Marsh, 8-21-2019

Recent “High Profile” Christian leaders have either abandoned the faith or nearly so. Marty Sampson and Josh Harris are two of them.

John L. Cooper(lead singer of Skillet) FaceBook post on this: https://www.facebook.com/johnlcooperstuff/photos/a.2899206263638620/2899204140305499/?type=3&theater

John L Cooper’s “Rant” Edited

 Ok I’m saying it. Because it’s too important not to. What is happening in Christianity? More and more of our outspoken leaders or influencers who were once “faces” of the faith are falling away. And at the same time they are being very vocal and bold about it. Shockingly they still want to influence others (for what purpose?) as they announce that they are leaving the faith. I’ll state my conclusion, then I’ll state some rebuttals to statements I’ve read by some of them. Firstly, I never judge people outside of my faith. Even if they hate religion or Christianity. That is not my place and I have many friends who disagree with my religion and that is 100% fine with me. However, when it comes to people within my faith, there must be a measure of loyalty and friendship and accountability to each other and the Word of God.

My conclusion for the church: We must STOP making worship leaders and thought leaders or influencers or cool people or “relevant” people the most influential people in Christendom. (And yes that includes people like me!) I’ve been saying for 20 years that we are in a dangerous place when the church is looking to 20 year old worship singers as our source of truth. We now have a church culture that learns who God is from singing modern praise songs rather than from the teachings of the Word.

I have a few specific thoughts and rebuttals to statements made by recently disavowed church influencers…first of all, I am stunned that the seemingly most important thing for these leaders who have lost their faith is to make such a bold new stance. Basically saying, “I’ve been living and preaching boldly something for 20 years and led generations of people with my teachings and now I no longer believe it..therefore I’m going to boldly and loudly tell people it was all wrong while I boldly and loudly lead people in to my next truth.” I’m perplexed why they aren’t embarrassed? Humbled? Ashamed, fearful, confused? Why be so eager to continue leading people when you clearly don’t know where you are headed?

My second thought is, why do people act like “being real” covers a multitude of sins? As if someone is courageous simply for sharing virally every thought or dark place. That’s not courageous. It’s cavalier. Have they considered the ramifications? As if they are the harbingers of truth, saying “I used to think one way and practice it and preach it, but now I’ve learned all the new truth and will start practicing and preaching it.” So the influencers become the voice for truth in whatever stage of life and whatever evolution takes place in their thinking.

Thirdly, there is a common thread running through these leaders/influencers that basically says that “no one else is talking about the REAL stuff.” This is just flatly false. I just read today in a renown worship leader’s statement, “How could a God of love send people to hell? No one talks about it.” As if he is the first person to ask this? Brother, you are not that unique. The church has wrestled with this for 1500 years. Literally. Everybody talks about it. Children talk about it in Sunday school. There’s like a billion books written on the topic. Just because you don’t get the answer you want doesn’t mean that we are unwilling to wrestle with it. We wrestle with scripture until we are transformed by the renewing of our minds.

And lastly, and most shocking imo, as these influencers disavow their faith, they always end their statements with their “new insight/new truth” that is basically a regurgitation of Jesus’s words?! It’s truly bizarre and ironic. They’ll say “I’m disavowing my faith but remember, love people, be generous, forgive others”. Ummm, why? That is actually not human nature

It is time for the church to rediscover the preeminence of the Word. And to value the teaching of the Word. We need to value truth over feeling. Truth over emotion. And what we are seeing now is the result of the church raising up influencers who did not supremely value truth who have led a generation who also do not believe in the supremacy of truth. And now those disavowed leaders are proudly still leading and influencing boldly AWAY from the truth.

Is it any wonder that some of our disavowed Christian leaders are letting go of the absolute truth of the Bible and subsequently their lives are falling apart? Brothers and sisters in the faith all around the world, pastors, teachers, worship leaders, influencers…I implore you, please please in your search for relevancy for the gospel, let us NOT find creative ways to shape Gods word into the image of our culture by stifling inconvenient truths. But rather let us hold on even tighter to the anchor of the living Word of God. For He changes NOT. “The grass withers and the flowers fade away, but the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8)

 CT Article: https://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2019/august/leaving-faith-by-losing-focus-part-1.html

How Should We React When People We Know Do This.

 1) Stay calm, do NOT overreact and get in their face.

 2) Pray immediately. For them and for yourself and what you should do about this. Don’t spread it around, take it to God.

 Check yourself and make sure you are standing strong.

 1  Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2  Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:1-2 (ESV)

 3) When you talk to them the most important thing is to try and get to REAL root of the problem. This usually isn’t what they’ll tell you at first. In my experience it’s often tied to personal pain or betrayal inflicted on them by a Christian. Or it’s a tough time and God hasn’t answered their prayers they way they wanted Him too.

4) Ask lots of question and actually LISTEN! Be like Jesus who did exactly the same thing.

5) Reaffirm your love for and friendship with them. Be in this for the long haul if that’s what it takes. Don’t reject them just because they are, or think they are, rejecting the Lord.

6) Main question – where’s Jesus in all this? Often this will bring them to realize this is more of a rejection of the church or other believers than it is a rejection of God or Jesus.

7) Ask them if you can pray for them when talking to them, and tell them you are going to pray for them privately.

Please Get In Touch!

Email – louie@discipleup.org

 


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Episode 121

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Disciple Up #121
Should We STOP Sharing the Gospel?
|By Louie Marsh, 8-14-2019

 

Article

https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2019/july-august/elliot-clark-evangelism-exiles-sharing-gospel.html

Proclaim

42  And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. Acts 10:42 (ESV)

Transliteration: kēryssō

Phonetic Pronunciation:kay-roos’-so

Root: of uncertain affinity

Cross Reference: TDNT – 3:697,430

Part of Speech: v

Vine’s Words: Preach, Preaching, Proclaim, Publish

of uncertain affinity; to herald (as a public crier), especially divine truth (the gospel) :- preach (-er), proclaim, publish. – Strong’s Talking Greek & Hebrew Dictionary.

5  When an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to mistreat them and to stone them, 6  they learned of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding country, 7  and there they continued to preach the gospel. Acts 14:5-7 (ESV)

Usage Notes: is translated “to proclaim” in the RV, for AV, “to preach,” in Matt. 10:27; Luke 4:19; Acts 8:5; Acts 9:20. – Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old Testament and New Testament Words.

17  From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 4:17 (ESV)

20  And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” Acts 9:20 (ESV)

Preach

10  And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. Acts 16:10 (ESV)

Original Word: εὐαγγελίζω, euangelizō

Usage Notes: is almost always used of “the good news” concerning the Son of God as proclaimed in the Gospel [exceptions are e.g., Luke 1:19; 1 Thess. 3:6, in which the phrase “to bring (or show) good (or glad) tidings” does not refer to the Gospel]; Gal. 1:8 (2nd part). With reference to the Gospel the phrase “to bring, or declare, good, or glad, tidings” is used in Acts 13:32; Rom. 10:15; Heb. 4:2. In Luke 4:18 the RV “to preach good tidings” gives the correct quotation from Isaiah, rather than the AV “to preach the Gospel.” In the Sept. the verb is used of any message intended to cheer the hearers, e.g. 1 Sam. 31:9; 2 Sam. 1:20. See GOSPEL, B, No. 1. – Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old Testament and New Testament Words.

Reasoned

 2  And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, Acts 17:2 (ESV)

Reasoned (dielexato). First aorist middle indicative of dialegomai, old verb in the active to select, distinguish, then to revolve in the mind, to converse (interchange of ideas), then to teach in the Socratic (“dialectic”) method of question and answer (cf. dielegeto in Acts 17:17), then simply to discourse, but always with the idea of intellectual stimulus. With these Jews and God-fearers Paul appealed to the Scriptures as text and basis (apo) of his ideas. – Word Pictures in the New Testament.

  1. to think different things with oneself, mingle thought with thought (cf. διαλογιζομαι); to ponder, revolve in mind; so in Homer.
  2. as very frequent in Attic, to converse, discourse with one, argue, discuss: absolutely, Acts (18:4); 19:8f; (20:9); περι τινος, Acts 24:25; τινι, with one, Acts 17:17; 18:19; 20:7; Hebrews 12:5; απο των γραφων, drawing arguments from the Scriptures, Acts 17:2; προς τινα, Acts 17:11; 24:12; with the idea of disputing prominent: προς

αλληλους, followed by the interrogative τις, Mark 9:34; περι τινος, Jude 1:9.* – Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament.

16  Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. 17  So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Acts 17:16-17 (ESV)

Different Ways to Communicate the Gospel

 Look At Jesus

1  Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2  This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” 3  Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:1-3 (ESV)

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Email – louie@discipleup.org

 


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Episode 120

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Disciple Up #120
Is Giving Sanctuary to Illegal Immigrants Scriptural?
By Louie Marsh, 8-7-2019

Sources:

 The Bible (verses below)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctuary

https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/17/us/immigrants-sanctuary-churches-legality-trnd/index.html

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2006/08/can-criminals-hide-in-churches.html

https://www.compellingtruth.org/horns-altar.html

https://www.biblestudy.org/maps/cities-of-refuge.html

https://www.ucc.org/justice_immigration_worship_biblical-references-to

Remember what you were taught about Research Papers?

 You’ve got to narrow your topic!

Today I’m talking about what’s is Scriptural according to the New Testament, and NOTHING ELSE!

 There will be NO, I repeat NO, politics here!

What is sanctuary in the Bible?

Horns of the Altar?

Sanctuary Cities.

Exodus 12:49 and Leviticus 24:22 – “There shall be one law for the native and for the alien who resides among you.”

48  If a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised. Then he may come near and keep it; he shall be as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. 49  There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.” Exodus 12:48-49 (ESV)

Ephesians 2:11-22 – “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God.”

11  Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12  remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Ephesians 2:11-12 (ESV)

***

21  “You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. Exodus 22:21 (ESV)

 33  “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. 34  You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. Leviticus 19:33-34 (ESV)

16  And I charged your judges at that time, ‘Hear the cases between your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the alien who is with him. Deuteronomy 1:16 (ESV)

19  “‘Cursed be anyone who perverts the justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ Deuteronomy 27:19 (ESV)

What is sanctuary in the Law today and throughout the history of Western Civilization?

Biblical Compassion:

11  Soon afterward he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. 12  As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. 13  And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” 14  Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” Luke 7:11-14 (ESV)

29  But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30  Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31  Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32  So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33  But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34  He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. Luke 10:29-34 (ESV)

Of course we are to be compassionate. But we must remember this truth:

Compassion is a choice and it is limited.

If I spend an hour helping you that’s an hour I can’t spend helping someone else.

If I give funds to Charity A, that’s money I cannot give to Charities B or C.

In other words we have to choose where our limited help can go. I only have so much time and money and energy, so where am I going to put it?

The New Testament and Disciples Obeying the Law

We Recognize the Need for Authority in Our Fallen World, that Includes Lethal Authority from the State.

1  Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2  Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3  For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4  for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. 5  Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6  For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7  Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. Romans 13:1-7 (ESV)

But, we also know we Obey God Before Men and when the Government Contradicts the Word of God, we Obey God Rather than Man.

27  And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them, 28  saying, “We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” 29  But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men. 30  The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. 31  God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. 32  And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.” Acts 5:27-32 (ESV)

 Please Get In Touch!

Email – louie@discipleup.org

 


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