Be peacefully on Guard!
Introduction:
PASTOR OPRAH
Topics: Authenticity; Entertainment; Idolatry; Integrity; Longing; Spirituality; Teachers; Television
References: Deuteronomy 11:16; Mark 13:22; Acts 17:29; 2 Timothy 4:3–4; 2 Peter 2:1; 1 John 5:21
She has hosted The Oprah Winfrey Show for more than twenty years, amassing billions of dollars in assets and attracting more than 49 million viewers each week in the United States. People look to Oprah Winfrey for advice on everything from genocide in Rwanda to the best-tasting oatmeal cookies.
Many people also regard her as a spiritual leader. According to USA Today, “By the late 1990s, Winfrey’s focus was Change Your Life TV, and a New Age message was more prevalent. She preached, making the message of her life—take responsibility, and greatness will follow—the substance of the show. Keep a personal journal, purchase self-indulgent gifts, take time for you because you deserve it. The notes rang true to millions of viewers.”
Cathleen Falsani, religion writer for the Chicago Sun-Times, asks straight out: “Has Oprah become America’s pastor?”
There is evidence to support this conclusion. According to a November 2006 poll conducted by Beliefnet.com, which looks at how religion and spirituality intersect with popular culture, 33 percent of its sixty-six hundred respondents said Winfrey has had “a more profound impact” than their pastors on their spiritual lives.
Chris Altrock, pastor of Highland Street Church of Christ in Memphis, Tennessee, says, “Our culture is changing as churches are in decline and the bulk of a new generation is growing up outside of religion. People are now turning up at The Church of Oprah instead.”
Jim Twitchell, a professor at the University of Florida, believes that Oprah reverence makes sense. “Religion essentially is based on high anxiety of what’s going to happen to you,” he says. “Winfrey pushes the idea that you have a life out there, and it’s better than the one you have now, and go get it. It has to do with this deep American faith and yearning to be reborn. To start again.”
In The Gospel according to Oprah, Marcia Nelson says Oprah’s integrity has enhanced her spiritual stature. “One of the things that’s key is she walks her talk,” Nelson says. “That’s really, really important in today’s culture. People who don’t walk their talk fall from a great pedestal—think of scandals in the Catholic Church and in televangelism. If you’re not doing what you say you do, woe be unto you.”
—Ann Oldenburg, “The Divine Miss Winfrey?” USA Today (May 11, 2006)
(1) Be on guard in the midst of what you hear & what you experience for Jesus Christ, the Son of God ()
7234 Boatman’s Lone Star
An artist once drew a picture. It represented a night-scene. A solitary man is rowing a little skiff across a lake; the wind is high and stormy, the billows, white and crested, rage around the frail bark; and not a star, save one, shines through the dark and angry sky above. But upon that lone star the voyager fixes his eye, and keeps rowing away—on, on, on through the midnight storm. Written beneath the picture were these words, “If I lose that I’m lost!”
—Denton
(2) Be on guard with increasing trust that the deliverance of the elect is secure in Jesus Christ, the Son of God ()
Know Your Election
Many people want to know their election before they look to Christ. But they cannot learn it thus; it is only to be discovered by ‘looking unto Jesus.’ Look to Jesus, believe on Him, and you shall make proof of your election directly, for as surely as you believe, you are elect. If you will give yourself wholly up to Christ and trust Him, then you are one of God’s chosen ones. Go to Jesus just as you are. Go straight to Christ, hide in His wounds, and you shall know your election.
Christ was at the everlasting council. He can tell you whether you were chosen or not, but you cannot find out in any other way. Go and put your trust in Him. There will be no doubt about His having chosen you, when you have chosen Him. - Charles Spurgeon
Source unknown
(3) Be on guard with absolute certainty of the return of Jesus Christ, the Son of God ()
Applications Questions:
To help us be on guard peacefully:
(1) To be on guard peacefully, you must know what is True.
REJECTING AN AWARD-WINNING BOOK
Topics: Alertness; Books; Challenges; Complacency; Devotional Life; Diligence; Enthusiasm; Indifference; Obstacles; Persistence; Reputation; Word of God
References: Joshua 1:8; Matthew 24:35; Mark 13:31; Luke 21:33; Romans 10:17; 2 Timothy 3:16
Getting a novel published is extremely difficult, especially if you are an unknown author. Chuck Ross, a freelance writer, decided to test the system. He retyped the first twenty-one pages of a novel by Jerzy Kosinski, titled Steps, which had won the National Book Award six years before and sent them to four publishers, using the name Erik Demos as a fictitious byline.
All four publishers rejected the manuscript. Two years later, Ross retyped the entire novel Steps and submitted it under the pen name Erik Demos to several more publishers, including the original publisher, Random House. It was rejected by all with unhelpful comments, including Random House, which used a form letter. All told, fourteen publishers and thirteen literary agents failed to recognize a book that had already been published and had won an important award.
Sometimes our approach to the Bible is a similar “been there, done that.”
—Noah Lukeman, The First Five Pages (Simon & Schuster, 2000)
7234 Boatman’s Lone Star
An artist once drew a picture. It represented a night-scene. A solitary man is rowing a little skiff across a lake; the wind is high and stormy, the billows, white and crested, rage around the frail bark; and not a star, save one, shines through the dark and angry sky above. But upon that lone star the voyager fixes his eye, and keeps rowing away—on, on, on through the midnight storm. Written beneath the picture were these words, “If I lose that I’m lost!”
—Denton
(3) To be on guard peacefully also means that we are proactively moving forward with gospel proclamation.
(3) To be on guard peacefully also means that we are proactively moving forward with gospel proclamation.
(4) To be on guard peacefully means that we are confident in the deliverance of the Lord’s people by the Lord.
(5) To be on guard peacefully means that we spend more time in watchful prayer.
1512 Over One Thousand “Christs”
There have been over 1,100 religious leaders in different parts of the world in the last fifty years who have claimed to be Christ and the Savior of the world. Most of these false christs have risen in Africa, in India or in the Orient and have spread into the West.
7233 Morgan To Be Interrupted
G. Campbell Morgan, said, “I never begin my work in the morning without thinking that perhaps He may interrupt my work and begin His own. I am not looking for death. I am looking for Him.”
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
Storms
If we read the discouraging circumstances of life—the people who do us in, the job that doesn’t work out, and the other struggles that seem to engulf us—we will surely crash.
But if we would keep our eyes on Jesus Christ and stay grounded in His word, then we will make it safely through the storm.
Maybe you’re in a storm. God has a purpose in leading you into the storm. He has power to preserve you through the storm. And, He has a plan to eventually lead you out of the storm. Put your eyes on Christ. Trust His Word.
When All Hell Breaks Loose (You May Be Doing Something Right), Steven J. Lawson, NavPress, Morning Glory, July-August 1995, p. 27.
7234 Boatman’s Lone Star
An artist once drew a picture. It represented a night-scene. A solitary man is rowing a little skiff across a lake; the wind is high and stormy, the billows, white and crested, rage around the frail bark; and not a star, save one, shines through the dark and angry sky above. But upon that lone star the voyager fixes his eye, and keeps rowing away—on, on, on through the midnight storm. Written beneath the picture were these words, “If I lose that I’m lost!”
—Denton