This was a very difficult testimony for me to watch, as it is so very similar to my own conversion story. My greatest fear is that there are so much more people sitting in church wearing themselves out, unregenerate, and unaware of the eternal consequences. The lie that saying a quick prayer can get you out of hell, that you can earn your way into heaven by saying that prayer, has fooled millions. Satan is so deceptive, he found a way to lull the world into this deception. Between this and evolution is it any wonder that we are seeing such a great falling away in the church?
I hope Charo’s testimony will be as much a blessing to you all, friends, as it was to me.
This is the final part of this series about the mutations found in the genome. If you missed part 1 and 2 you can go back and read them HERE and HERE.
My husband has a degenerative disease, it’s genetic, so this is perhaps as personal as science can get for me. With each new cell division mutations are created, with each new generation, those mutations are compounded. This has caused many to question how it is that humanity hasn’t long since gone
DNA-Spli
extinct. The idea that mutations were not always advancing as quickly as they are today has been thrown around in the scientific community. This causes an obvious problem, as Evolutionists need natural selection and mutations to explain changes towards complexity from simplicity. Hopefully, as we come to understand the genome along with mutations better, clear reason and logic will finally win the day. Without change, you have no evolution, if that change is causing our species to become worse instead of better, it’s hard to see how evolution can be possible. Why is this important? I want to take this science and apply it directly to your lives friends. We are called to a great commission, to go out into all the world and preach the Good News. Many of us have faltered under the unlogical theory of Evolution, we no longer tell others about Christ. We no longer warn the world to flee from the wrath to come. The findings in mutation, the devastating effects they have on our genome, has given us a clear picture. Time is running out. Unless something drastic changes most geneticists estimate 100-200 years before our species reaches extinction. Puppy videos, friends, puppy videos.
We can not wait any longer, we must educate ourselves in the Word of God and get out to evangelize the world. If current statistics are correct the majority of those calling themselves Christians have never been converted. The harvest is ready but the workers are few, therefore pray for workers. You, my friend, are a worker and the harvest is ready. Understand the seriousness of our situation, from the moment of the fall and the curse our DNA has been tending towards entropy.
Stand firm in the full counsel of God’s Word friends, be good Bereans and study to show yourselves approved.
A book review of C. H. Spurgeon’s The Soul Winner.
By-W.Y.-Fullerton-Life-of-Charles-Haddon-Spurgeon
The Soul Winner: How to Lead Sinners to the Savior by C. H. Spurgeon was published in 1895 shortly after the author’s death. This book, this book…how can I possibly describe it? It’s not taken out, it’s a five-star restaurant. It’s the type that you sit and eat slowly, enjoying every precious bite. Read this book with pen and paper, you’ll want to take notes. Rarely is there a book I enjoy to read so thoroughly that I immediately plan to read it again once I’m done. This is one of those books. It should be in the study of every church leader, parent, teacher, or human being. If you know anyone who is unsaved you should read this book. If you have children, you need this book.
It’s written for students, so it reads much like a lecture. Spurgeon has a way of explaining things that I haven’t heard or seen in our times. He doesn’t over complicate matters or reaches outside of Biblical boundaries. Like many of the old books I’ve reviewed, this book is available on the Kindle app and is very inexpensive on Amazon. I hope you’ll all enjoy this book as much as I did, and if you can, make sure your pastor finds himself with a copy.
Yesterday I showed Spurgeon’s testimony in his own words, it might be beneficial to read that here before you read his book. I’ve also reviewed several other Christian books if you would like to read more you can here, here, or here. I’m also always looking for great Christian books to read, so feel free to leave suggestions in the comments below.
The testimony of the Prince of Preachers, Charles Spurgeon, in his own words.
Testimonies are edifying to believers and instructive to those seeking Christ. Here is a wonderful testimony of Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers.
Charles-Spurgeon-age-twenty-three
“Through the Lord’s restraining grace, and the holy influence of my early home life, both at my father’s and my grandfather’s, I was kept from certain outward forms of sin in which others indulged; and, sometimes, when I began to take stock of myself, I really thought I was quite a respectable lad, and might have been half inclined to boast that I was not like other boys, untruthful, dishonest, disobedient, swearing. Sabbath breaking, and so on. But, all of a sudden, I met Moses, carrying in his hand the law of God; and as he looked at me, he seemed to search me through and through with his eyes of fire. He bade me read ‘God’s Ten Words’,—the ten commandments—and as I read them, and remembered what I had been taught about their spiritual meaning as interpreted by the Lord Jesus Christ, they all seemed to join in accusing and condemning me in the sight of the thrice-holy Jehovah. Then, like Daniel, “my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength;” and I understood what Paul meant when he wrote, “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” For years he remained under deep conviction of sin until one Sunday morning in January 1850 a snow storm forced him to cut short his intended journey and turn in to a Primitive Methodist chapel in Colchester. “The minister did not come that morning; he was snowed up, I suppose. At last, a very thin looking man, a shoemaker, or tailor, or something of that sort, went up into the pulpit to preach. . . . He was obliged to stick to his text, for the simple reason that he had little else to say. The text was, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.”
Charles-Spurgeon
When he had managed to spin out ten minutes or so, he was at the end of his tether. Then he looked at me under the gallery, and I daresay, with so few present, he knew me to be a stranger. Just fixing his eyes on me, as if he knew all my heart, he said, “Young man, you look very miserable.” Well, I did, but I had not been accustomed to have remarks made from the pulpit on my personal appearance before. However, it was a good blow, struck right home. He continued, “and you always will be miserable—miserable in life, and miserable in death—if you don’t obey my text; but if you obey now, this moment, you will be saved.” Then, lifting up his hands, he shouted, as only a Primitive Methodist could do, “Young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look! Look! Look! You have nothin’ to do but to look and live.” I saw at once the way of salvation . . . I had been waiting to do fifty things, but when I heard that word, “Look!” What a charming word it seemed to me! Oh! I looked until l could almost have looked my eyes away. There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun; and I could have risen that instant, and sung with the most enthusiastic of them, of the precious blood of Christ, and the simple faith which looks alone to HIM . . .
E’er since by faith I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply
Redeeming love has been my theme
And shall be till I die
I found this testimony, among the other thousands of places to find it, here and I hope it blesses you as much as it blessed me. For my personal testimony you can go here and here. As always friends, be good Bereans, study to find yourselves approved! God bless
I’ve been wanted to write about this for a while now, as much as salvation is confused by charlatans and wolves in the church, prayer is as well. It’s all packaged together in the same lie, that to get saved all you have to do is say the sinner’s prayer, then everything in your life will be perfect. You’ll be healthy, wealthy, and full of joy! What a selling pitch, I would suggest these pastors missed their marks as car salesmen but they’re making a bundle already.
Proverbs-23-4-5
James-5-11
This is disturbing, as we see statistics showing as many people leaving charismatic churches as there are coming in. Once the people coming in realize that their financial troubles never went away, their health is still bad, their marriage is still falling apart, they have no peace or joy, they leave. The sad part is that most of those disenfranchised by the lies peddled in modern churches leave the faith altogether, most becoming agnostics.
How can this be, when the truth is so clear in the Word of God? Most of these churches do not push scriptural knowledge, the pastors come in on Sunday with one or two short verses and a bunch of feel-good mush in between. This is why the music is so important, you have to pump the music and get the masses to an emotional state. Then you scratch their itching ears with personal stories, and everyone goes home feeling happy right? That’s not what the statistics show.
James-4
When you spend hours each week praying for more money, bigger and better stuff, adoration from your spouse and children, respect from your family and coworkers, and yet nothing changes, you begin to wonder. If anyone is reading this right now and finds themselves in this very discouraging place let me give you one scripture that destroys the ‘name it and claim it’ TV evangelistic philosophy.
James 4:3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
You see, these men are promising things that they have no authority to offer. When they don’t come true, when you stay poor and sick, they tell you it’s because you don’t have enough faith. Thus, they hang heavy burdens on you, burdens they are unwilling to help carry. Christ said His yoke is not heavy.
Matthew-6-9-13
Jesus gave us an example of how to pray in Matthew 6: 9-13, not once does He suggest to His disciples that they should name it and claim it. He gives another example when He, Himself, is praying to the Father before His crucifixion. He says Your will, not mine. Is this what is being taught? Pray for Gods will, even if it means pain, suffering, or death? What does Paul tell us, that when he prayed for the thorn in his flesh to go away it did? Did he pray for health and wealth? Just the opposite, in fact, he tells us that he thanked God for his many afflictions, and worked with his hands to provide for himself rather then taking money from believers.
Friends, please do not be fooled by the promise of wealth, or health. We are promised in the Bible healing, when our bodies are glofied and we live in a sinless world with no curse. There are those who God chooses to heal, but it’s for His glory not some egomaniac on TV. Pray for the sick, pray for yourself when you are sick, there’s nothing wrong with that, unless you hope to heal someone so you can look spiritual. God searches the heart of man. It always comes back to the heart.
If you’ve been told that saying a quick prayer when you were a teenager was a get out of hell free card, let me implore you…work through your salvation through fear and trembling. Where there is a conversion there is evidence of that conversion. If you have been saved you will bear fruit, you will HATE the sin you use to love. You will LOVE the God you use to ignore. A prayer can not save you. You’re confidence in that prayer can not save you. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
I can still remember how it felt to be in school, learning about thermodynamics, hearing that eventually, our sun would come to an explosive end. It would have been terrifying if not for the premise that this would take a billion or so more years. Still, frightening for a young mind. I’m almost glad that mutations weren’t understood at the time. I can not imagine how pointless life would have felt had I heard that alongside being told my life came from nothingness, purposeless, chance.
Mutations in our DNA are, to the Christian, evidence of the fall of man and the curse on creation. Last week I gave a general introduction here.
Romans-6-23Romans-8-22
It’s hard to fully understand how good the Good News is without fully grasping the bad news. Romans 6:23 tells us the bad news and the Good News. Mutations are the scientific explanation of the bad news. When Adam sinned, the entire world was cursed, as Romans 8:22 tells us, the whole of creation groans. Nowhere is that better seen than in the mutations of the genome.
There are several types of mutations, best understood when put into perspective of our own language. Substitution is when the letters of the DNA are switched, so the wort is no longer the same. Insertion is when a letter is added mistakenlyZ. Deletion, of course, is when a letter is rmoved. Frameshift is when letters from the DNA switch splacep. There’s also inversions, duplications, and translocations that we understand so far.
DNA-Split
The idea that these mutations will somehow form hearts, lungs, or complex neurological systems in simple life is not logical. If you take Dr. Suess and apply all of these coding mistakes you will never get Shakespear. For a mutation to help the Theory of Evolution they would need to prove simplistic life could become complex life. There are no computer models to show this, and certainly, no evidence found in nature.
It was thought, until recently, that natural selection worked hand in hand with mutations to weed out the bad and advance the good. However, geneticists understand that these mutations, happening just above the atomic level, are simply too minuscule for even natural selection to detect.
Next Monday I’ll give some specific examples of both harmless mutations, and the more destructive ones. And the end game, what does it mean? Why does it matter to a Christian? What does it have to do with your testimony? Until then, puppy videos friends, they really do help.
Bless, O my soul! the living God.
Call home thy thoughts that rove abroad.
Let all the powers within me join
In work and worship so divine,
In work and worship so divine.
Bless, O my soul! the God of grace.
His favors claim thy highest praise.
Why should the wonders He hath wrought
Be lost in silence and forgot,
Be lost in silence and forgot?
’Tis He, my soul, that sent His Son
To die for crimes which thou hast done.
He owns the ransom and forgives
The hourly follies of our lives,
The hourly follies of our lives.
The vices of the mind He heals,
And cures the pains that nature feels;
Redeems the soul from hell, and saves
Our wasting life from threat’ning graves.
Our youth decayed, His power repairs;
His mercy crowns our growing years;
He satisfies our mouth with good,
And fills our hopes with heav’nly food.
He sees th’oppressor and th’oppressed,
And often gives the suff’rers rest;
But will His justice more display
In the last great rewarding day.
His power He showed by Moses’ hands,
And gave to Israel His commands;
But sent His truth and mercy down
To all the nations by His Son.
Let the whole earth His power confess.
Let the whole earth adore His grace.
The Gentile with the Jew shall join
In work and worship so divine,
In work and worship so divine.
When we pick up a Bible we expect to see each chapter divided in the comfortable way we’re used to, with the verses neatly in place. However, this is not the way the books were originally written. Not that the chapter divides, or verses, are a bad thing, on the contrary, they can be very helpful! I am not trying to disparage the Bible divisions, but rather discuss the means by which they came about.
Lutheran-New-Testament-1771
Why? If you’re as in love with God’s Word as I am then every aspect of it fascinates you! There’s never too much knowledge about the history of our faith, and the book that it stems from.
It’s also important to note that on rare occasions these chapters are divided in the middle of an important point, as in Isaiah 52 and 53. So we, as responsible Bereans, need to be mindful of this. The chapters and verses are not inspired, but the Words they have so dutifully organized are.
Bible-1407-Malmesbury-Abbey-England
The OT has always had a rabbinic organization that has helped Jewish readers, however, it was not until the 9th century that Christians began adding chapter divides. Those chapters took a while to form into what we see today. Likewise, with the verses, several hundreds of years went by before we got the Geneva Bible. This is the first Bible to have the modern day chapters and verses.
So now you know, friends, although there is a great deal of dates and names left out. This is like a cliff notes version. I hope you all have a great weekend, God bless!
We can not wait any longer, we must educate ourselves in the Word of God and get out to evangelize the world. If current statistics are correct the majority of those calling themselves Christians have never been converted. The harvest is ready but the workers are few, therefore pray for workers. You, my friend, are a worker and the harvest is ready. Understand the seriousness of our situation, from the moment of the fall and the curse our DNA has been tending towards entropy.
For years he remained under deep conviction of sin until one Sunday morning in January 1850 a snow storm forced him to cut short his intended journey and turn in to a Primitive Methodist chapel in Colchester. “The minister did not come that morning; he was snowed up, I suppose. At last, a very thin looking man, a shoemaker, or tailor, or something of that sort, went up into the pulpit to preach. . . . He was obliged to stick to his text, for the simple reason that he had little else to say. The text was, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.”
Tulips & Honey 