Pastor: 10 Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe

[Fez]

for the most part, preachers are not preaching as Christ preached....

the message of God is a very hard message, and is bound to step on some ones toes. the Word of God is very very very offensive to mankind....

such as sexual immorality, most people associate that with homosexuality and it is much more then that, it is even lust in the heart, adultery, porn, and other things, and any that practice it WILL NOT SHARE IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD. just like those that LIE, STEAL, and many other things...... including one of my pet peeves.....GOSSIP

Man kind has become soft and does not want to hear the hard word, we want to hear the things that tickle our ears.....

I have seen preachers run off because they actually read and quoted and preached from the True, Unwatered down Word Of GOD!!!

a lot of church fellowships (congregations) have become nothing more then glorified country clubs... people come on Sunday Morning and put on their religious masks for a couple hours, and then when they walk out the door, the mask comes back off.

if you see them on the street, they will ignore you, they will talk about you behind your back.... They will even do this in church disguised as a prayer request......

WE DO NOT HAVE TIME TO BE PLAYING GAMES.... we do not have time to play church.... we may not have time to even get the church goers to turn back towards the Lord and repent of their ways.....

many people do not want to go to church because all they see is holier then thou people going in a building and coming out and acting worse then the "worldly" people...... treating people that are not in their congregation different then they do with the ones that go.....

example..... while I was plumbing, the majority of my customers were 60 years and older...... on lady i went to do a job, on a fixed income, not hurting, but fixed.... when I wrote out the statement, she got a bit of a discount, and she asked why I gave her a discount, cause I didn't go to the same church she went to.....

I could not answer that, cause I had no idea how to answer that, the Lord ran the business and some things I had no idea as to why.....

later, I found out she had been dropping my name all over town.... she would even call me to go and change her light bulbs and do other things besides plumbing.....

God knew what He was doing, and I am glad that I obeyed....

but why should we treat some one from a different fellowship any different? for that matter, why should we treat some one that is not a "Christian" any different then those that are?????

if we do treat them diff, then they will stay clear of us.... who wants to hang around some one they can not trust? and Christians are some of the most untrustworthy people......

as a member of THE CHURCH..... we all need to re-evaluate our own actions and idea's and dealings with others...... WE NEED TO JUDGE OURSELVES and then judge the church and then we can start working with others......

it is time to get the HARD MESSAGES OUT..... look around, there is so much going on, we do not need to be misleading anyone, whether in or out of the church......

that message, the 10 dumb things, well, think about it, that is what most "Christians" and preachers are teaching.....

not a good thing

True and wise words! I am dismayed at how many "Pastors" will water down their message for the sake of the flock. Don't hurt peoples feelings, they may leave my church! That is so dangerous for the church of believers, especially for someone who has just found Jesus and is hungry for the word.

Heres something from notes on a Homiletics course I attended last year:-

WILLIAN H WILSON:- "about three weeks ago a woman came out after the service and said to me". "I know you would never want to hurt anyone with what you said, but I was really hurt by the sermon today". Suddenly I caught myself thinking. "Why would you ever think we wouldn't want to hurt you?" I'm sorry the material demands it! The thing that makes preaching tough is not simply how to have a coherent thought within 20 minutes or how to modulate the voice. The hard thing is Jesus! If we had something like disneyland to preach it would be easy. But we have Jesus to preach, and that makes bringing that speech -with our language, culture and sin - just really hard.

[Massorite]

Pastor: 10 Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe

By Lillian Kwon

Christian Post Reporter

Thu, May. 14 2009 08:53 AM EDT

Many Christians, new and seasoned alike, tend to bank on promises that God never made, says one pastor.

So when God doesn't come through on those "promises," some are likely to become angry at God.

. . .

One of the partial truths many Christians fall victim to is the belief that living God's way will bring good fortune.

"The Bible makes no such promise," Osborne writes in 10 Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe.

. . .

Osborne also warns that those who introduce Christ to others and testify of only the "abundant Christian life" while downplaying the "harder teachings of Jesus" set the stage for disillusionment when things go awry.

Following Christ can be tough and having faith isn't always going to fix everything.

It's another spiritual urban legend

[Massorite]

Tah, I think "dead people go to a better place", is probably right and wrong, depending on how you view the statement.

What I think the good pastor meant was that saved people go to heaven, and dead people who are not saved are just... well dead? How often have you heard people at an unsaved persons funeral say well he/she is in a better place? i think that is a cop out and is said to placate the grieving family or friends?

I'm shooting in the dark here, given that the statement is a bit cryptic.

Find in the bible where it tells us that when we die we will go to heaven. You are right though about the copout.

[nebula]

Hoo-boy . . . thread hijack on the way.

[Massorite]

God has a blueprint for my life,

Christians shouldn't judge,

everything happens for a reason,

These three threw me off. Anyone have an explanation?

The judgment the bible is talking about has ever thing to do with where that person is going to after death (hell or Paradise) and nothing to do with judging whether or not someone is committing a sin. We have to pass judgment on individuals in order to determine if we should minister to them or not. Christians don't carry the massage of Christ to other Christians who have already excepted the way of Christ. They carry the gospel to those who need to hear it. IE Those who are living in un-repented sin. So how can we determine if they are living in un-repented sin or not, living without Christ or not? We look at lives they are leading and decide whether or not they need to hear the gospel of Christ by judging within our selves if their life style is going to lead them to eternal darkness or not.

But no matter what the final judgment as to where they will go after they are dead is a judgment reserved for God only.

Everthing does happen for a reason. It happens because of our reasons or it happens because of Gods reasons. But not all things happen because of Gods reasons.

God does have a plan or blueprint for our lives but we can choose to go astry from the plain of God for our lives. I caught Hep C because I strayed away from the plan of God in my life. I did it for my reasons which were sexual temptations. God didn't make me do it I did. I threw a rench into the plan that God had for me and caused God to adjust His plan. But as long as I keep getting back up after falling down God will make adjustments and move on with His plan for me.

[canuckamuck]

There is much wisdom written here. Best I can tell all of these facts are correct except for one. I have been trying to tell folks that there is no where in the bible where it is telling us that when we die we will go to heaven. But the bible does tell us that Jesus is our example and that when Jesus died (the very words of Jesus) he went to Paradise which is in the lower reaches of the earth. He did not go up to heaven until after he had been risen for forty days. IE forty three days after his death. So we do go to a better place when we die but it is not heaven.

I understood that Christ went to Hades after His crucifixion and after the three days appeared many times to His followers. At what point did He go to this Paradise in lower Earth?

Edited June 21, 2009 by canuckamuck

[sherwin]

......

[Fraught]

God has a blueprint for my life,

Christians shouldn't judge,

everything happens for a reason,

These three threw me off. Anyone have an explanation?

for number 2: how do you expect to exercise discernment if you don't make a judgment call? yes, he says to look at the beam in your eye before you look at the splinter in another's eye. that's right, tend to your beam first but don't neglect to tend to your brother either. scripture gives explicit instruction on how to exercise judgment over our spiritual siblings. that's a light answer.

for #3, everything happens for a reason to those who love the Lord, not to everyone. non-believers are ruled by chaos.

as for a blueprint? well, it's too simplistic. which one of us can just get up every day and and know exactly what we're supposed to do? i don't know anyone. all we can do is face the moments as they come. if God had a blueprint, don't you think He would give it to you?

[Massorite]

There is much wisdom written here. Best I can tell all of these facts are correct except for one. I have been trying to tell folks that there is no where in the bible where it is telling us that when we die we will go to heaven. But the bible does tell us that Jesus is our example and that when Jesus died (the very words of Jesus) he went to Paradise which is in the lower reaches of the earth. He did not go up to heaven until after he had been risen for forty days. IE forty three days after his death. So we do go to a better place when we die but it is not heaven.

I understood that Christ went to Hades after His crucifixion and after the three days appeared many times to His followers. At what point did He go to this Paradise in lower Earth?

On the day He died. What did He say to the thief on the cross? He said "This day you shall be with me in Paradise". I always like to ask people "Where did Jesus go when He died that day?" and 99.9% percent of the time they will say "why to heaven of corse" yet out of the mouth of Jesus He said otherwise. If He was already in heaven why did God need to raise him UP from the grave.

The word "Hades" is speaking about the place of departed souls and the word does not distinguih between good or bad souls. The rich man was in Hades and so was Lazarus but in different sections of Hades. The rich man was in torments and Lazarus was resting/sleeping.

[damo1]

i feel that more can be added to the list nebula had given out and i have heard all of them preached in the churches i walked in when i was young

pastors are not the only ones doing this you even have his sheep doing the very same thing and then you have his sheep thinking they can do a better job and when a sheep is given the chance to preach one sunday morning while the pastor sits back the sheep who has been asked to preach does the very same thing preaches the watered down version i am hearing being preached today

jesus never said sorry if some one was a little ticked off by what he had said in the villages he found him self in but what gets up my nose is how a person who plays church gets offended and even the religous lot get offended jesus offended a lot of people and jesus was not a popular guy

i prefer to be around men who are not scared to be them selves and who will preach nothing but the truth

i have 6 guys i am accountable to and we keep in regular contac and if one of us is about to fal of the path he has us on we know that we will be told nothing but the truth

what puzzles me why do christians love having their ears tickled its as if we only get listened to if we play church tickle some ones ears

i cant see any where in the new testament were jesus taught his disciples to lie to their hearers i cant even see where jesus did this him self to be honest

but its even happening in on line forums

good job nebula but i feel that pastor could have added to his list i am going to see if korong has the book so i can buy it my self

damo1