2010-02-25 Aaron Freeman Update
An update from our missionaries to South Texas, the Freemans…
2/16/2010 3:28:36 PM
Not a whole lot to report today. The photo below is from my birthday cake. Melissa thought you might like it. The cake was delicious, and we enjoyed a good “birthday celebration” weekend. No change on Addie. Still having headaches occassionally, but no fainting. Also, still no test results. We did receive notice today that an anonomous donor at our home church sent $500 to help with the medical bills. That is certainly appreciated. God always meets the need. Today I went to the post office to begin the process of getting our mailing imprint to start bulk mailing “flyers” next month here locally. We’ve been bulk mailing prayer letters, but since we’re going to add 300% more material we’re going to stop licking stamps!! We should be ready to start mailing by the early part of next month. Next week I am in a Pastor’s Training School in Houston from Monday – Thursday, returning on Friday. When I get back on Friday I’m going to the Starr County Fair to work with Steve Andres from San Antonio, who is coming to teach us how to do a “fair ministry”. He has been in that particular ministry for years and has had very good results. So, I’ll be up there with him Friday evening and all day Saturday. Please pray for some good results, both in terms of souls saved and visitors to our services. The following week we will be in San Angelo, Texas for a missions conference. This is the only meeting we have scheduled until the fall, and I think it will be more than enough as we focus on getting the work started! Otherwise, not much else to say, so have a great day!
My birthday cake with 34 candles. I think this is a fire hazard!
2010-02-25 Evan Williams Update
Here is the latest from our missionaries to Honduras, Evan & Carmen Williams…
Dear supporting Pastors;
Greetings from Honduras once more. We rejoice at what God continues to do in and through our ministry here and we wanted our supporting pastors to know how we have been blessed.
Praise God with us that we have seen Him move through our new bible club ministry to the children on Saturday mornings. At the end of our last meeting a young girl of 11 came up to Carmen and I to say that she wanted to accept Christ into her life. What a joy it was to lead her to the foot of the cross and hear her confess her sinful state and accept the savior. Pray for this young girl that God would help her to grow and for us that we might be able to provide her the spiritual tools she will need.
We had the blessing of a visit from our BIMI Central American Director and he was able to speak at three of our meetings as well as visit with some of our contacts. All of the believers enjoyed his ministry and were encouraged by it. Despite the absence on Sunday morning of six of our regulars we had a full house, all the sixty seats were full with quite a number of the children had doubled up on theirs while several adults had to stand at the back until the kids went out to children’s church. Two new couples and one young man were presented to the congregation for the first time and all five were out to our Monday night bible study to hear our brother speak once more. At last nights bible study in Santa Lucia we also had a visit from a gentleman that I have been witnessing to for over a week now. Pray that these new contacts might continue coming and that those who are unsaved might come to Christ soon.
Our new ministry of children’s church, under the leadership of my daughter, has been a wonderful success. We now have 37 children on our role, all of whom stay after Sunday school to attend this ministry. The parents are so relieved to be able to enjoy the morning service and it has made a great difference to the attention levels in the meetings.
Yesterday God moved to help us open up our youth ministry. I received an invitation from the Director of the night school in Santa Lucia to meet with her. She would like me to help the school with voluntary counseling secessions, as she feels that there is a great spiritual need amongst her night students. She professes to be a believer and attends a Methodist church in the town. When I asked her why she did not ask her own Minister to do this work she said that she was not qualified for such a ministry. We agreed that as director of the school she would call a school assembly with the students and that she would give me the opportunity to preach the gospel to all 150 of them and to inform them that Carmen and I are available should any of them wish to talk. The school will provide the gymnasium and audio equipment and we will have complete freedom to preach what we feel God would have us say. Pray that we might be able to develop this ministry also.
The date we agreed, March 5th, for the school assembly coincides with the visit from one of our supporting pastor from Puerto Rico. As he is a natural Spanish speaker I agreed with her that I would invite him to be the preacher. I was able to speak with him last night about this and he is delighted to be of service. Pray much that God will move in this area and that the youth might be reached with a clear gospel presentation.
As you can see God continues to confirm His blessing upon our ministry here. Pray with us that we might remain in step with the Spirit’s leading and that many souls will come to Christ. Thank you yet again for having enabled us to reach these people and for your faithful prayers and support.
Yours in Him.
Evan and Carmen Williams
Feb 28th and March 1st Special Meetings
Sunday and Monday evenings, February 28th and March 1st, at 7pm, Brother Harold Munson will be speaking for us. Brother Munson is a retired engineer and creation speaker. He is on the approved speakers list from Answers In Genesis. On Sunday night, he will be speaking on “What’s So Special About Israel?” and on Monday night on the topic “Gems in Genealogy.”
Please set this time aside on your calendar! I know you will be blessed if you come!
“The Shack” Re-visited
A few months ago I posted an article about the abominable and blasphemous book, “The Shack.” Here is some updated information from Brother David Cloud’s website. Some may find his conclusions about “Lifeway” book stores offensive, but I agree with him completely.
AUTHOR OF THE SHACK DENIES SUBSTITUTIONARY ATONEMENT AND HELL FIRE
In an interview on March 13, 2009, with Kendall Adams of KAYP radio, William Young, author of The Shack, denied substitutionary atonement and hell fire, two cardinal doctrines of the biblical Christian faith. When asked, “I take it that you wouldn’t agree that the cross was a place of punishment for sin,” Young replied, “No. I don’t; I [don’t hold] a penal substitution point of view.” Young also said, “I don’t think that hell is physical fire and that kind of stuff and it is not an issue of separation from God.” The Shack is very popular among emerging type churches, but it presents a false god.
THE SHACK’S SALES AND INFLUENCE CONTINUES TO GROW
The Shack has been in the New York Times Top Ten for Paperback Trade Fiction since June 2008. It has sold seven million copies worldwide and been translated into two languages. Written by William Paul Young, The Shack is about redefining God. Young has said that the book is for those with “a longing that God is as kind and loving as we wish he was” (interview with Sherman Hu, Dec. 4, 2007). What he is referring to is the desire on the part of the natural man for a God who loves “unconditionally” and does not require repentance or obedience, does not judge sin, and does not make men feel guilty for what they do. In that same interview, Young said that a woman wrote to him and said that her 22-year-old daughter came to her after reading the book and asked, “IS IT ALRIGHT IF I DIVORCE THE OLD GOD AND MARRY THE NEW ONE?” Young therefore admits that the God of The Shack is different from the traditional God of Bible-believing Christianity. He says that the God who “watches from a distance and judges sin” is “a Christianized version of Zeus.” This reminds me of the modernist G. Bromley Oxnam, who called the God of the Old Testament “a dirty bully” in his 1944 book “Preaching in a Revolutionary Age.” The Shack depicts God the Father as a large black woman who loves to listen to hip hop. The Shack god is the god of the emerging church. She/He is cool, loves rock & roll, is non-judgmental, does not exercise wrath toward sin, does not send unbelievers to an eternal fiery hell, does not require repentance and the new birth, puts no obligations on people, and doesn’t like traditional Bible churches. Note the following quotes from Young’s god: “I don’t need to punish people for sin. Sin is its own punishment, devouring you from the inside. It’s not my purpose to punish it…” (The Shack, p. 120). Contrast Isaiah 13:11. “Those who love me come from every system that exists. They were Buddhists or Mormons, Baptists or Muslims … and many who are not part of any Sunday morning or religious institutions. … I have no desire to make them Christian” (p. 182). Contrast Acts 4:12; 26:28. Young’s god has a strong kinship to the New Age god promoted by Oprah Winfrey. The Shack is another building stone of the end-times Tower of Babel. (For more on this see “The Shack’s Cool God” at the Way of Life web site.)
LIFEWAY SELLS “THE SHACK” AND EMERGING BOOKS
Lifeway Christian Stores, which are affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, are selling “The Shack,” a novel that depicts God as a woman who doesn’t judge people. On a visit to the Lifeway bookstore in Huntsville, Alabama, in June 2009, the book was on display with a notice that said, “This book may contain thoughts, ideas, or concepts that could be considered inconsistent with historical evangelical theology. Therefore, we encourage you to read it with extra discernment.”
By means of this disclaimer, Lifeway intends to make money from this popular book while avoiding responsibility for its heresies, but it won’t work. The Bible warns that if we do not disassociate strictly from those who preach false christs, we become partakers of their evil deeds (2 John 7-11). Lifeway is not only associating with William Young and his heresies by selling the book, but they are actually putting funds into his coffers to enable him to promote his heresies. The Lifeway warning says the book “MAY contain” thoughts contrary to sound theology and urges readers to use discernment, but they don’t identify anything in particular and a large percentage of their customers doubtless lack the Bible knowledge and spiritual discernment required to discern truth from error. This is like serving up a dish contaminated with poison to children and warning them to eat with caution! The Lifeway bookstores are filled to the brim with psychology, self-help, self-esteem, romance novels, ecumenical and charismatic literature, undependable Bible versions, and all sorts of “Christian” rock music.
On a visit to a Lifeway store in Huntsville in 2009 I found that they had many titles by emerging church authors, including Rob Bell (Velvet Elvis), Brennan Manning (The Ragamuffin Gospel), Erwin McManus (The Barbarian Way), Donald Miller (Blue Like Jazz), and Shane Claiborne (The Irresistible Revolution). Lifeway will stand accountable before God for polluting the minds and hearts of their customers with unscriptural material and for refusing to carry sound material from fundamentalist Bible-based publishers that they could and should be stocking but which they refuse to stock because these are “controversial.” (For more information see “What Is the Emerging Church” at the Way of Life web site.)
Salvation
What is salvation? What does it do to and for the sinner? Are there any demands that come with salvation?
-
God’s Word
Children's Ministry News!
Tuesday Trip to Charlottesville
UNIFORMITARIANISM AND A BURNING CANDLE
10 Indicatiors of a Spirit-filled Leader