Watching Christian TV Is Just As Dangerous As Church!

Now that you have come out of the church, you find that you are still 'searching,' looking for a word to get you through the week.

So you sit in your recliner and press 'POWER;' the telly comes on and you surf the channels til you find a channel that can give you 'a word.'

Plenty of people do that, innocently enough, because they feel a spiritual void that has been left open because they no longer attend a church where they are spoon fed lies, error and spiritual poison.

I used to do it, too.

But in the past five years or so-even before I left the church, I started to notice a trend on christian television.

The most popular doctrine(s) all began to focus on life in the here and now.  Many preachers left the topic of salvation alone, and ventured off into strange teachings about prosperity, destiny, spiritual warfare and the such.

And while I am all for things of the Spirit, it was a little too strange even for the likes of me.  The Spirit of God began to show me the error in some of the most popular TV preachers.

You have to be a lover of TRUTH in order to listen to what the Spirit of God has to say regarding a situation, a person or anything or anyone.  And when He tells you it is error and to leave it alone, to discard it, to consider it dung, then THAT'S what needs to done!

I have concluded most preachers dont broach the subject of salvation because they are not saved and so they cannot preach or teach on something they have NOT experienced themselves.  Many do not know how to rightfully divide the Word of Truth, so many are led astray.  Why?

Most of all what's taught on so-called 'Christian TV' is a direct result of supply & demand.  The fact of the matter is if the general public demands to see television programming that appeals to their flesh and neglects the subject of salvation and PROPER deliverance, then that is what these TV programmers are going to give them.  WHAT THEY WANT TO HEAR!

But watching christian television nowadays can do much more damage to you than if you were to sit in a church!

How?

In order for a religious demon - or ANY demon-to be able to take over your will, you got to be in an altered state of consciousness.  You have to be semi-catatonic, sort of like in a trance.  The whole act of even WATCHING television can leave a person semi-hypnotic.  When one cannot go to sleep, what do they do?  They turn on the TELEVISION!

That state where you are not quite asleep but not quite awake is the state where the enemy can come in without you even knowing it.  All types of suggestions and thoughts can be programmed into your psyche.

NOW...

Add to that CHRISTIAN programming, and you have the ability to put to sleep even MORE masses of people who may recognize the error of the organized church system, BUT have not come to understand that MODERN DAY CHRISTIAN PROGRAMMING is an endtime setup of the enemy to program millions of people into false conversions, false deliverances, fake salvations, deceiving many into believing they have received something when, in fact, they HAVE NOT!

So THATS how I can boldly say that WATCHING CHRISTIAN TV IS JUST AS DANGEROUS-EVEN MORESO-THAN GOING TO CHURCH!

YOU SHOULD AVOID ANY AND ALL CHRISTIAN PROGRAMMING ON TV.

Is Your Church Under Spiritual Attack?

Is the Church Under Spiritual Attack?

By Wenona Russ

In the past few years, the church has had to endure a few public scandals that has served to discredit the viability and relevancy of the church for these contemporary times.  As more and more scandals have unfolded, more and more people have called for prayer and fasting (especially during THIS time of the year) for the church. Folks are alarmed because the church-and the ministry, in particular, SEEMS to be under what some called 'spiritual attack.'

Many quote the Word that says 'the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church.'  And this is true.

If you ask yourself if the church-the institutionalized church-is under spiritual attack today, I say YES.  YES, it IS up under attack today.  But most of the people do not discern WHO is attacking WHAT.  They perceive that it is the devil and his imps attacking the church.  When I want to present to you that it is NOT the devil!

All the scandals, all the embarrassments, all the sexcapades and financial abuses are all being allowed to surface...BY THE HAND OF GOD!

Yes, that is right!  GOD has allowed these things to hit the church, as most known it.

God allowed the whole Bynum/Weeks fiasco, the Paula White/Benny Hinn thing, Eddie Long, Ted Haggard, Zachary Tims...all of it.

It is hard to hear, but it's true.  GOD ALLOWED IT.

Why?

The church is under judgment.  I have been saying this for the last few years, the Lord spoke it to me in a word He gave me two years ago for 2010.  But when folks are dull of hearing-or when they only listen to what they want to hear...God then has to turn around and BACK UP what He said through the mouths of HIS TRUE Ekklesia, the TRUE church.  There IS a FALSE and a TRUE church!

The institutionalized church is demonically influenced, funded, run and maintained by evil spirits.  It is in the best interest of the enemy to feed the masses false doctrine, doctrines of devils, to misinterpret the Word of God, and to disable the ability of the people from hearing from God FOR THEMSELVES!  This is why in the institutionalized church, it is highly discouraged that you just trust that the voice you are hearing, that leading in your Spirit, that unction of the Holy Ghost that won't let go...it is highly discouraged that you follow it.

Instead, you are encouraged to allow the leaders to become your spiritual ears, your mouth, and your spiritual eyes.  Then the leaders KEEP you that way for 20 years or more...knowing the longer they KEEP you bound to their religious system, KEEP you hooked to their messages, their conferences, their books, their teachings and their doctrines, the longer they are guaranteed your allegiance to their system...and the longer you will invest your money into their systems, too.

The TRUE church-the Ekkleisa-is a remnant, a body of believers who are led by the Spirit of God.  They are sons of God who God raises up in this time to usher folks into the Kingdom of God.  The Ekklesia realizes that this is NOT about a man or a woman, but it is all about Jesus and folks getting saved and delivered.  In the TRUE church, you are encouraged to develop your own relationship with God.  You are TAUGHT how to hear from God for yourself.  You can walk out and be used of God immediately...its all according to YOUR faith.  Not the faith of a leader.

A believer in the Ekklesia is NOT forced to do things for God.  They are LED BY the Spirit of God to do some things...all things.  And because where the SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS there IS LIBERTY, a believer is free to be who he/she was called to be in God.  That may not mean a pulpit preacher.

"The Makings of a False Prophet"

In "The Makings of a False Prophet," I help believers who feel a call of God on their lives discern whether it is from the Lord or not, as well as give pointers on how not to fall into rebellion and disobedience AFTER accepting the call.

So you determine.  Is your church under spiritual attack?  Probably not.  It IS under judgment.  But judgment is not always a bad thing.

In a court of law, when a verdict is found, it is a corrective, judicial matter.  The punishment is given not only to punish the wrong doing, but in hopes that the guilty won't commit the crime again.  In a best case scenario, the guilty as charged will confess of their wrongdoing.

This is all God is wanting from those caught up in the modern-day church system to do...is to confess their wrongdoing.  To repent.

It's not an attack.  It's an act of love that your church is under judgment.

Repent before it's too late!

Slain in the Spirit

Slain:  people who have been slain, dead, killed.

We all have heard the phrase 'slain in the spirit.'  A preacher lays hands on someone-or sometimes not-and then the people fall to the ground, out in somewhat of a 'trance,' supposedly by way of the Holy Ghost.

While 'slain in the spirit,' it is said that the people in a trance are hearing from God...that God is delivering that person from afflictions or bondages of all kinds.  So this practice has been accepted, along with all its various forms.

The word 'trance' is not used often in the Bible, a total of 5 times.  The last time is in the Book of Acts 22:17, when God instructed the Apostle Paul to leave Jerusalem.

The Greek word for trance used here is 'ekstasis,' which means 'a throwing of the mind out of its normal state, alienation of mind, whether such as makes a lunatic or that of a man who by some sudden emotion is transported as it were out of himself, so that in this rapt condition, although he is awake, his mind is drawn off from all surrounding objects and wholly fixed on things divine that he sees nothing but the forms and images lying within, and thinks that he perceives with his bodily eyes and ears realities shown him by God;  amazement, the state of one who, either owing to the importance or the novelty of an event, is thrown into a state of blended fear and wonderment.'

The word 'ekstasis' is where we get the word 'Ecstasy' today.

As we all know, the drug Ecstasy. Ecstasy is a drug that elevates the mood.  It is used at parties called 'raves' where kids take it so that they can party for up to two to three days.  Users of the drug say that it produces profoundly positive feelings, empathy for others, elimination of anxiety, and extreme relaxation.

Or in other words, they are placed in a trance, that is self-induced.

In the Christian world, these trance-like states are said to be moments of prayer and meditation, probably based upon the cases in the Bible where people were in trances.  People have reported receiving messages and special revelations 'from God' while under these 'self-induced' trances.  But I would like to point out that in every case where Balaam, Paul, and Peter were in a trance, the Bible says they were either praying and/or fell into a trance.

The instances in the Word where they were in a trance, in the Old Testament, the Word says that Balaam 'fell' into a trance.  In the instances of Peter and Paul, the Word says they were in prayer before being in a trance.

In both instances, in the Old and New Testament, the trances were brought on by the WILL OF GOD.  They were NOT self-induced trances brought on by the will of man.

It is safe to say that the 'slain in the spirit' movement is a movement self-induced by the hands and will of man.

They are man's yet another attempt to get close to and in communion with God, instead of trusting and relying upon THE HOLY GHOST to give the unction and initiate it.

Whenever we step into the realm of trying to 'make something happen'-even if it's get in communion with God, or to hear from God-we fall into the arena of error and deception that the enemy can EASILY imitate.

The instances of being in a trance (in the Bible) that were induced by the hand of God are OF GOD.

The instances of being in a trance (in the modern-day churches today) where someone in 'slain in the spirit' are-for the most part-NOT OF GOD.

How can I say that?

Because anything that is not initiated in the genuine SPIRIT OF GOD BY THE WILL OF GOD is of the devil.

People who are 'slain in the spirit' are always done so by the motion of someone's hands or by the direct laying on of hands.  Nowhere in the Bible do we ever see an account where someone is 'slain in the spirit.'

And when you have people open up themselves to the things that are (seemingly) of the spirit that is induced by the hands of men, those people are opening up themselves to the demonic realm.

Tell me:  why would someone knowingly open up themselves to something ungodly and demonic-yet they say they are 'seeking after God' or 'wanting to hear a word from God?'

Most of the time, most people who allow themselves to be 'slain in the spirit' do so ignorantly, not knowing what they are allowing into their spirits.  I can tell you...having been saved over 20 years-and actively in ministry for over 5-I have seen plenty of cases where some were slain in the spirit.  I MYSELF have been 'slain in the spirit.'  And in just about every case, either myself or the others who I knew who had hands laid on them and they were 'slain in the spirit' got up off the floor WORSE OFF then what they were before!

If you want to know the benefits of something (in the Spirit), you have to take time to examine the FRUIT OF IT.  And fruit does not just automatically pop up out of the ground or on the tree.  Even Jesus gave the fig tree ample time to bear fruit (the average life expectancy of the fig tree is hundreds of years) in Matthew 21 before He decreed it to wither up and die due to fruitlessness.  So it takes time to wait, watch and see if the fruit of various things that we have allowed in the Body of Christ will be good or bad.

If no fruit is yielded-or bad fruit is borne out of it-then clearly that means it was NOT OF GOD.

And whatever is not of God eventually leads to death.  So it is with being 'slain in the Spirit.'

Seducing Spirits - Do they REALLY exist in the Church? Pt. 1

YES, THEY DO!

What is a seducing spirit?

When we hear the word 'seduce,' we think of soap operas where a man seduces a woman into the bed.  Or vice versa.  We always think of it in a sensual way.

That is part of what a seducing spirit really is.

1 Timothy 4:1

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils..

The Greek word for seduce used in this verse is 'planos,' which means 'misleading, leading into error, imposter, corrupter, deceiver'

The whole essence of seduction is that it is done through the five senses.  We can be seduced by what we 1) SEE, what we 2) HEAR, what we 3) TOUCH, what we 4) TASTE, and what we 5) SMELL.

The lie and the deception that man is tempted with always is done in the realm of our senses.  In our soulish realms.

The question is...can seducing spirits exist IN THE CHURCH?

You better believe it!

How?

Because today, Christianity has become-for the most part-very sensual.  Any attempt to access the spirit is done by way of our senses, and when this occurs, we open up ourselves to the demonic instead of the divine.

And the spirit that seduces (or ministers) to many in the church is solely RELIGIOUS in nature!

Don't believe me?

How many people do you know go to a church because of the music ministry?  A slamming music ministry appeals to the NATURAL sense of HEARING.

How many people do you know go to a 'seeker-friendly' church?  One where they are made to FEEL right at home?  A 'feel good' church appeals to the NATURAL sense of  TOUCHING/FEELING.  (if only a touching in a 'psuedo-spiritual' sense)

How many of you know someone who has said to you 'I gotta go to a church that is clean, or where the interior is designed just right...'  or 'When I go to church, it must look like THIS or THAT...'?  Appeals to the NATURAL sense of SEEING.

Let's face it.  Most of the people who go to church go to their church for carnal, fleshly, soulish, sensual reasons.

The religious demons KNOW THIS, so that's how they mimic a move of God, a touch of God, a word from God and package it so that it comes to you through ONE of the FIVE senses that appeals to FLESH.

And once the bait is bitten, YOU HAVE BEEN SEDUCED!!!!!!

The church has little knowledge when it comes to understanding demonic seduction by religious demons. Religious demons are in full control of the organized church. These seducing spirits have imbedded themselves into the very walls and pulpits of the organized church. Seducing spirits live in the organized church, inside their human hosts, and  they are quite comfortable there.

No church is exempt!

These seducing spirits, in the form of the religious demon, will not budge and members have quite happily invited them in.

How?

The demand has been for a church that appeals to man's senses.  And all this is-the whole matter of religious demons seeped into the very foundations of these monuments and idols we call churches-is THE DEVIL giving man what they desire, what they demand more of.

Seducing spirits, in the form of  religious demons, have taken up office in the organized church.

Religious demons crept into the organized church and every last person, down to the preacher, was just plain unaware, thinking all the time what they are experiencing is a move of God.

The organized church doesn't want to know a thing about seducing spirits. They show no interest, and couldn't give a hoot about a seducing spirit takeover in the form of the religious demon. Why?  Because they themselves are now hosting religious demons within themselves.

What does a seducing spirit in the form of the religious demon do, how do we define their brand of demonic seduction?

1. Seducing spirits lure you

2. Seducing spirits tempt you

3. Seducing spirits entice you

4. Seducing spirits lead you astray

5. Seducing spirits corrupt you

6. Seducing spirits charm you

7. Seducing spirits captivate you

Do you see how a seducing spirit manifesting through a religious demon could make you go to a church?

If you are ready for the truth about seducing spirits/religious demons and their new home, the organized church, you MUST get a copy of Pam Sheppard's book, Faces of a Religious Demon.

Shake the Dust From Your Feet

Mark 6:10-12

 And he said unto them, In what place soever ye enter into an house, there abide till ye depart from that place.

 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence,shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.

 And they went out, and preached that men should repent.

Ok.

We all have heard this ‘shake the dust off your feet’ and keep it moving phrase before..in the church.

What I want to point out is that in Mark 6, the disciples went about preaching the Kingdom of God…from ‘house’ to ‘house.’  In the midst of this, there was a lot of healing going on.  Miracles.  Signs and wonders.

Take note that most of these miracles, healings, and deliverances were going on OUTSIDE of the temple.

Jesus had already admitted that because of their UNBELIEF, He couldn’t do ANY mighty works.

Do you see that?

Today, the ‘church’  is crying out for signs, miracles and wonders, yet THE REAL JESUS OF NAZARETH is NOT in the building!

Some get upset and state the above scripture is some type of curse.  I will say that it is more of a command.  It came STRAIGHT FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD, by way of Jesus Christ.  So WHATEVER HE SAYS, THAT I WILL DO!

Many do not embrace THIS particular teaching of Christ Jesus because they have a false perception of love.  They think that by leaving the church and not looking back, that that constitutes ‘putting a curse’ on a congregation.

Nothing could be MORE LAUGHABLE!

The Word of God says a curse causeless shall not stand (Proverbs 26:2).  That means no one can curse you unless you are in DISOBEDIENCE or NOT RELATIONSHIP with God.  If you are TRULY BORN AGAIN, you have been redeemed from the curse (of the law).

In other words, the only way a curse can work on you is if you are not saved!!!  Or in rebellion.

Let’s clear up some things:  first, God DOES send prophets to a group of people.  Second, if that group of people refuses to take heed to the voice of GOD and be  obedient, then JESUS HIMSELF commands those WHO ARE SENT to SHAKE THE DUST OFF YOUR FEET AND KEEP IT MOVING!!!!!

Trust me:  you do NOT want to disobey God when He calls you to come out of a church system!  You will be cursed right along with those people!  Guilt by association…

Take another look at the story of Sodom and Gomorrah:  all of Lot’s family got out of harm’s way when judgment came…all EXCEPT Lot’s wife!  And it wasn’t even because she stayed behind when God said go.  It was because she MERELY LOOKED BACK at that which God told her to RELEASE!!!!!!

Look…

God has been dealing with a LOT of you to come out of these churches, yet you stay because you think that your presence would make a difference.  Your prayers are just oh-so-powerful that now YOU-PROPHET ALMIGHTY, APOSTLE ALMIGHTY, EVANGELIST ALMIGHTY-you think YOU are going to change the church.

NO….YOU ARE NOT!

Just like God warned Lot and his people to get out of Dodge  so they wouldn’t suffer judgment with Sodom and Gomorrah, so DO YOU have to TOTALLY and COMPLETELY remove yourself-mind, body, soul, and spirit-from these churches.  If you have been instructed by God to GO, GGGOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Judgment was already in the works for S & G….nothing that Lot, his people, Abraham-the Father of ALL nations-or HIS people could do to change God’s mind.

The intercession that Abraham brought before God did NOT work for the people of Sodom & Gomorrah!  It only had enough ‘prayer power’ to save Abraham and his people!!!!!

I have mistakenly thought God was placing upon me a ‘burden’ for the lost in the church, so that’s why I should stay, fast and pray.

And the longer I stayed, the more harm I brought upon myself and my house!  God had to literally use TWO hurricanes to get me out of ONE false church!!!

Hurricanes Katrina AND Gustav!

That’s right…it’s only the mercies of GOD that we were NOT consumed!

And here I thought I was doing God’s service!

After Gustav…I was OUT OF THERE!

God led me to Jeremiah 15 yesterday during devotion.  I encourage you to go it, read it and study it.  It is a VERY sobering message…for a VERY sobering time!

In Come Out of Her, God’s People  by Pam Sheppard, we are offered hope in the midst of transition as well as given reasons why to leave the organized church system.

Spiritual Chitlins…

We are about half way through Black History Month.  We have celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday (most of us). And in light of that, I want to ask you all-blacks and whites alike-a question.

ARE YOU REALLY FREE?

No, not from racism.  Anyone with two eyes and two ears can honestly see that we still have a long way to go before racism is totally eradicated in this country.

No, what I want to know is are you free….FROM RELIGION????

During slavery, the slaves had a very poor diet.  According to several writings from actual slaves, a slaves’ diet included molasses, chitlins, hamhocks, corn meal, Indian corn, black-eyed peas, very little vegetables or fish, and some birds.  Whatever their masters in the plantation did not want or threw away, THAT is what the slaves consumed…them and their children.

I got this analogy of the church being likened to a plantation during slavery from my friends over at the Church Folk Revolution (thanks, btw!).

As I sat and pondered on this for a while, the similarities between the institutionalized church and the plantations where slaves were oppressed became more obvious to me.

Just like the slaves on those plantations starved and were overworked, oppressed,  and poorly fed, so are congregants who go to these churches (sad to say, mostly the congregants who go to predominantly black congregations) not being properly nourished.  They are fed spiritual chitlins and hog, hammocks and throwaway scraps.

A bunch of recycled messages/scraps from the tables of famous preachers.  Recycled over and over again.  That’s how religious clichés and old prophecies such as ‘this is your season’ or ‘we are in a shift’ become so popular….they are nothing more than spiritual chitlins.  (Now, I know there are some of you that love chitlins…but the fact is that chitlins is nothing more than hog guts.  Its waste.  Its disgusting and have absolutely NO nutritional value.)

Well, just like chitlins in the natural are stink, have no nutritional value…even though they are quite fulfilling and satisfying.

So are MOST of the teachings that go forth in the institutionalized church are nothing more than spiritual chitlins.  They STINK in the nostrils of GOD, they yield NO spiritual or eternal value…even though they do serve to appease the hearers…albeit temporarily.

Being from New Orleans, I have family and friends that LOVE chitlins.  So I can hear some of your responses to this post…”There’s nothing wrong with eating chitlins!  They are GOOD!”

Well, according to the NY Health Department, eating chitlins (which are nothing more than a pig’s small intestines!) can present dangers to one’s health.  There is a risk of contracting E. Coli, Salmonella, and what’s known as yersinia, a bacterial infection that causes diarrhea, fever, and severe abdominal cramps that feel like appendicitis.

Not to mention what the long-term effects are of such a diet. Chitlins are high in cholesterol, which can lead to high blood pressure and heart disease.

Just imagine:  slaves had no choice but to eat chitlins as long as they remained on the plantation, as long as they were slaves to ‘massa.’  They ate chitlins because that’s all they had to survive.  It was either eat chitlins or starve…

But people who are ‘slaves’ to the institutionalized church system-religious plantations, I call them-THEY have a CHOICE!

Your pastor/massa is serving you SPIRITUAL CHITLINS every week…and because it’s traditional, and it tastes good to you, you don’t see anything wrong with it!

Oh sure.  There is a stench in the air…some have gotten used to it, it’s been there so long.  Just like when you’re in the kitchen, preparing those vittles…after awhile, you don’t even smell the funk anymore…

There is that stench in the air…but it’s only noticeable to those who walk up in your building for the first time.  The funk hits them in the face as soon as they enter the doors of your church.  Its slaps them in the face!  And while they are holding their noses almost wanting to puke, fanning their faces, trying to figure out ‘What IS that smell?’ You are sitting there, waiting on your next serving of SPIRITUAL CHITLINS!

And then you get offended when those visitors don’t come back anymore!

We hear folks talk about nobody’s getting saved in church anymore, that saved folks are just migrating from church to church, house to house.  I have to agree with this: except what’s happening is that saints/slaves are starving.  They are tired of their steady diet of spiritual chitlins and hammocks, smothered in spiritual cornbread and molasses.

The chitlins have passed for the meat of the word, and the pastors/massas have made it palatable and tasty for you by including hefty side orders of spiritual cornbread and molasses, to sweeten it for you.  To make the so called ‘meat-of-the-word’ they are peddling go down easier.  Just like when mama used to make that corn bread with that red beans and rice…a lot of times, she wouldn’t even use rice.  She would just eat the beans with corn bread, in her own words, to make the beans go down easier!

Pastors/Massas for generations has gotten away with feeding the slaves, oops…excuse me, saints, chitlins, greens, red beans and corn bread.  And the saints saw nothing wrong with it for a long time.

But as more and more slaves/saints start getting spiritually sick from their steady diets of death and scraps, more and more of others slaves are taking a stand.  In their minds, their ‘stand’ is to go to another church.  It is a major accomplishment in the minds of those saints ‘who smell the funk’ in their old churches for them to pick up and move somewhere else.

But what they fail to realize is that THAT pastor/massa where they migrate to have the same funk on their plantation/in their church, too.  Some pastors/massa-when they find out that you were ‘Jakes’ or Longs’ ni_ _ _ _ , or belonged to another church but left the ‘wrong way,’ i.e. you didn’t get pastor/massa’s permission to leave or you didn’t get ‘released,’ then they tell you ‘You better go back where you came from!’

(How many of y’all remember Creflo telling Eddie Long’s congregants who went to his church after the scandal to go BACK to New Birth when the grits started hitting the fan?)

Creflo even called them NEGROES at about 1 minute and 40 seconds or so into this video!

Wow.

The above video looks SO much like a scene out of the movie ROOTS when a slave ran away to another massa’s plantation who seemed to be nicer or kinder to the slaves.  And that massa would rebuke that slave for running away to his plantation-that slave might get a lashing or two before being returned to his original master.

It’s so time to WAKE UP!

If you go the institutionalized church, you are in SLAVERY!

And ALL the pastors/massas (YES, YOUR PASTOR, TOO!) work together to KEEP you that way!

What a sad state to be in, especially as so many celebrate Black History Month, claiming to be free.  Yet, in actuality, you are yet STILL SLAVES, feeding on SPIRITUAL CHITLINS!

If you want to get off the plantation once and for all, and get fed some spiritually sound and healthy food, all you gotta do is start walking.

"You Can't 'Put Christ' Somewhere He Never Was In the 1st Place!"

Easter, Halloween, Christmas, VALENTINE’S DAY…

When we hear the word HOLIDAY, we all get a big smile across our faces.  Generally speaking, holidays mean that someone somewhere is getting some time off.  From work, from school…its generally a day to sit back, relax, not follow your normal schedule or routine.  Holidays are also times when we take off to ‘celebrate’ something or someone.

The definition of holiday is ‘a religious festival’ or ‘a day of recreation.’

The term ‘holiday’ was derived from the holy days mentioned in the scriptures.  The holy days were festivals ordained BY GOD that the Israelites were to celebrate.  The original holidays in the scriptures ALL centered around ONE GOD and He is known by many names:  Yahweh, Elohim, Adonai.

In Judaism, observance of these festivals/holy days/holidays were required by the Torah, (or the Old Testament).

But in the New Testament, any religious/obligatory observance of these festivals were nullified by the presence of Jesus Christ.

One of the tricks of the enemy is to keep people bound to religious traditions that no longer are of no effect or consequence.  Just like today’s churches tell people that in order to used of God, one must wear clergy, go through elaborate ceremonies and receive accreditation from man, this was also done and instituted in the Old Testament.  And what many today do not realize is that none of the pomp and circumstance we see in many ordination, affirmation and consecration services are NO LONGER necessary!

One of the ways the enemy has succeeded in getting the ‘laity,’ for lack of a better word, to comply with and, thus, worship other gods is in the observance of holidays.  Most of the present-day holidays we recognize today are pagan in nature.  These holidays were substituted in place of the original holy day festivals by the Roman Catholic church.

So I know, you say…’So?  What’s wrong with celebrating holidays?  So what if they are pagan in nature?’

Glad you asked!

What’s wrong with professing CHRISTIANS celebrating holidays that have been proven to be pagan in nature is that observing (pagan) holidays is a direct violation of scripture.  A command by God that says ‘Ye shall have NO OTHER gods before me…’

God vehemently forbids His People to commit idolatry.  And when those who say they are saved ignore instruction and take on the customs and practices of those who are not saved, they are committing idolatry.

Now, I know.  A lot of us don’t get the big deal about idolatry.  I do believe this is because if they are a part of the institutionalized church system, they have ALREADY become desensitized to idolatry.  They commit idolatry EVERY WEEK when they attend services.  Every time they have a pastor’s anniversary service or celebrate 1st lady’s week, they are committing idolatry.  Every time they ‘honor’ their pastor, they are committing idolatry.

So it comes real easy for professing Christians to commit more idolatry by celebrating ‘holidays,’ such as Valentine’s Day, or Easter, or Christmas.

They have had much practice all year long!

THIS HAS BEEN THE TRAP OF THE ENEMY!  To get people into the church system and desensitize them to idolatry.

 I just want you to think on this for a minute.

Whenever a ‘holiday’ is approaching upon us, I want you to notice ‘the atmosphere.’  About a day or two before Valentine’s Day, single folks start getting all depressed because they don’t have someone in their lives.  Couples or married folks are arguing over what to do for ‘Valentine’s Day.’  Talking of spending money they DON’T have, to celebrate a pagan god that promotes lust and greed.  Think about it…

Flesh starts riling up right before V Day.  A LOT of people are getting laid that night.  That is no accident.  The SPIRIT behind Valentine’s Day is one of LUST.  So YES…if you are observing Valentine’s Day-married or single-expect an attack of lust to come your way.

For Christmas, about late November, folks start getting depressed.  They call it winter blues.  Some over lost loved ones.  Some over financial woes, that they cannot do what they want for Christmas.  The weeks up until Christmas are some of the most harried, frantic, stressful seasons of the year.  Folks are crowding the malls, the stores, Walmarts, anywhere…buying gifts they cannot afford.  Shipping services and the postal services are backed up for weeks.  Folks are antsy and nervous about their gifts getting to their intended parties in time for ‘Christmas.’

Folks are also the most hypocritical this time of year.  The same folks that go to work on Wall Street every day and step over a homeless guy without even acknowledging him will get all philanthropic and giving in December and decide to give to the homeless…ONE TIME that year!  As if the homeless only need help ONE TIME per year!

I want you to observe the SPIRIT that is in the air today…and right before your next so-called holiday.  I can promise you:  it is one that is NOT OF GOD.

WHY?

Because another god is being worshipped.  And when you worship other gods, there is no peace, no fruit, no love, nothing.

You just wasted your money, got in trouble and invited demons into your life.

Think about it….

The Black Church and the Mental Health Crisis

By Dr. William M. Young, Sr.

The scene was a poignant one, played out night after night all over the deep south. An exodus of dusty, overworked field slaves trudged through the darkness on their way to a “meeting on the old camp ground.” It was an appointment they had to keep – even after picking and gleaning in cotton fields since the sun’s rising.

Weary bodies were powerless against the compelling draw to the old camp meeting. Soaring spirits sparked exuberance and hopeful anticipation of the transformation about to take place. Some only had an open brush arbor, sometimes called a “brush harbor,” as a place of worship. Others had a little wooden structure they called “the praise house.”

Look now as they gather, singing and strutting on their way. Someone might raise a chorus of “Swing Low Sweet Chariot,” and everyone would join the refrain:

Swing low, sweet chariot

Coming for to carry me home

Swing low, sweet chariot

Coming for to carry me home

Perhaps a verse or two of “This Train Is Bound For Glory,” might be heard:

This train is bound for glory, this train.

This train is bound for glory, this train.

This train is bound for glory,

Don’t carry nothing but the righteous and the holy.

This train is bound for glory, this train.

Or the abiding favorite, “Steal Away to Jesus:”

Steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus!

Steal away, steal away home,

I ain’t got long to stay here.

My Lord, He calls me,

He calls me by the thunder;

The trumpet sounds within my soul,

I ain’t got long to stay here.

The mood was jubilant and free because something wonderful was about to happen. These oppressed were preparing for the rapture of emotion and release that would sweep them up and take them beyond their mean and present fate. God’s hope of glory in Jesus promised something wonderful beyond the earthly realm in the hereafter. But a succulent foretaste was available to all every time they gathered for worship.

The itinerant black preacher made his rounds throughout the region, belonging to no one but God. He was the chosen conductor, anointed by his Creator, to lead the flock into an abandon of woes and cares weighty enough to rob them of life. Worshippers filled the arbor and packed the praise house to overflowing. They knew the bonds of depression and hopelessness would soon be unshackled.

God’s conduit of deliverance was the passionate swell of their preacher’s voice, recounting the well-loved Bible stories of “Ole Dan’l in de lions’ den,” or ‘Lil’ David slayin’ that big ole giant Goliah.” That “call-and-response” tradition brought over from the shores of Africa “helped the preacher preach.” He shouts a phrase, and the congregation roars an enthusiastic response. Back and forth, back and forth – the scene builds into a peaking crescendo when he proclaims the Lord’s deliverance in the sermon’s end.

The joyous throng fills the air with unbridled shouting that can be heard for miles around as dancing feet on the old wooden floor planks rumble underneath. What looks like a nonsensical and pointless display of emotion to outsiders is actually a liberating and transforming journey on the glory road. The genius of black preaching brought a cathartic, therapeutic relief that saved a race from committing suicide.

The shouting would go on late into the night and early morning. When the sun rose once more on the monotony of another work day in the fields, new strength and spiritual fortitude had somehow dispelled the fatigue and psychosis brought on by their hapless circumstance.

The black minister “preached them happy,” inciting the frenzied release of the emotional and mental anguish that struck at their sanity. What the black preacher did for his people was a reality, I don’t believe, that was ever lost on him. He understood his call. He understood his mission – the very survival of a race most assuredly rested upon his shoulders.

Today’s call-and-response practice in black congregations with their pastors is derived from those foregenerations. Indeed, the modern role of a pastor and the church family is as vital to African-Americans as ever.

Priests Kill Themselves….Why?

http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/14/10410289-colombian-priests-hire-hitmen-to-kill-themselves

This headline immediately caught my attention, so I decided to read why would two men of the cloth decide to kill themselves.

It turns out that one of the priests had AIDS and syphillis.  And I guess the other priest went along with the suicide pact probably because he had some kind of affair with the priest with AIDS.

Now, sad to say, we hear about this type of thing ALL the time.  Stories of sexual corruption within the Roman Catholic church.  Its quite sickening!

I read a testimony of a former nun, her name is Sister Charlotte, and how she was abused in the Roman Catholic Convent system.  She tells of the babies that were killed by Mother Superior, babies belonging to the priests.  She tells of torture chambers for nuns who were ‘non-compliant.’  She tells of initiation rites where nuns-in-training had to lie in a coffin for nine hours, dying to the world as they once knew it.  She tells of nuns coming from well-to-do families signing over their inheritances to the R.C. church after taking a vow of poverty.

You can read all about it here:  http://www.jesus-is-lord.com/charlot1.htm.

And while it would be easy for us ‘Protestants’ to point fingers at the R.C. church regarding these things, the fact of the matter is that we simply cannot.  We can’t because now the Protestant church is just as guilty for the exact same things!  I promise you, if you google the words ‘minister,’ ‘sex,’ ‘scandal,’ or ‘money,’ you can read a few stories about Preachers Gone Wild.

Why am I writing about this?

The Protestant church modeled itself after the Roman Catholic order many, many years ago.  And look what is happening within the walls of the institutionalized church.  Every seed produces after its own kind:  if you borne something out of a corrupt seed, the fruit thereof will ALSO be corrupt.

We should not act surprised or try to justify corruption when it is found in an ANY institutionalized church.  The discovery is to wake US up to the true condition of what we all at one time or another thought was ‘the church.’

WE ARE THE CHURCH!

We cannot attend a church because WE are the TEMPLES of the Holy Ghost.  We are carriers of the anointing, of the glory of God.  It is a gross misonomer to delegate the church as being merely a physical structure.  When we do so, we are desecrating the very thing that Christ TRULY died for…HIS BRIDE.

Once we recognize that, then we will be able to do what HE SET OUT for HIS BRIDE to do in the earth realm today!

In the words of Sister Charlotte herself, God will ‘… make a way for you to come out…’ of the convent (the church system).

Preaching Folks Into Heaven...AFTER Their Dead?

Ok, if you are black and have been to a funeral in a predominantly black congregation, then you know ALL about this familiar ritual that black preachers do.

A loved one or a friend of the family passes.  The funeral arrangements are made meticulously.  Folks who couldn't afford to pay a light bill go ALL OUT to bury loved ones (who regrettably didn't have insurance) in style!  To preach a great homegoing service for their dearly departed!

We have the viewing, the repasse, the funeral, and the burial.  Blacks folks take like a good week to bury their loved ones.

I don't say this mockingly; I say this because this is a tradition and a way of life (or should I rather say a way of death) for our people.

But what I want to focus on is preachers preaching EVERYONE into heaven!

This is a tradition that is traditional in the church.  Black people are said to be 'comforted' when the preacher gives a eulogy that portrayed the person in the casket in a glorified, glamorized, iconic, and almost divine way.  Oftentimes, the preacher automatically preaches the dead 'into heaven,' irregardless of how the dearly departed lived their lives, or how they left this life.

Coming up in a black Baptist church, this was commonplace and normal for me.  Even after having become a woman, I saw no problem with this tradition.  And truth be told, it did add 'temporary' comfort when a preacher would preach a departed loved one as 'entering the pearly gates.'

But since having left the institutionalized church, I have had time to sit back and observe much of what we embrace as culture and tradition....

And I can BLATANTLY proclaim that this is nothing more than a form of idolatry and hypocrisy that we have perpertrated inside of the four walls of the church!

I have seen preachers preach the funerals of drug dealers-who died while selling crack to little kids-into heaven.  I have watched preachers preach flaming, openly gay, unrepentant homosexuals into heaven.  I have watched preachers preach EVERYBODY into heaven, as a matter of fact!

This scares me.

Why?

This scares me because a minister of the gospel is supposed to TELL THE TRUTH.

Now, we can get into the semantics and suppositions  of  'we don't know if they repented right before they got shot, or while they were on their knees giving that last blow...' all we want.

But the fact of the matter is that when most people die, it is unexpected.  All of a sudden.  Death can happen in a millisecond.  Before anyone can say 'God, forgi....' they are snuffed out.  Gone.  Capeche!

There IS no time to repent.

Many don't realize that.

So they go on living their lives like they got tomorrow...and not truly knowing if they do.

But I want to address the PREACHERS who have all this blood on their hands.  YES, THEY DO.

How?

Because when that person in that casket was living, most preachers don't preach heaven or hell anymore.  Most preachers don't preach on sin.  They are afraid that folks are gonna come back at 'em with the 'Judge not, lest ye be judged...'

LOOK.

ALL OF US ARE GOING TO BE JUDGED.  AND WE ARE GOING TO BE JUDGED BY WHAT WE DID IN THIS LIFE.

But GOD HIMSELF has appointed SOME VOICES TO JUDGE.  And TO WARN people of their wicked ways.  And don't get it twisted...the ones who GOD is raising up and using are NOT going to be perfect and without sin themselves.

Since God has LEFT THE BUILDINGS, God is having to go into the highways and the byways.  God is raising up voices in the crackhouses.  IN the whorehouses.  IN the jails.  Compelling them to come in, NOT to church.  But into the KINGDOM OF GOD!

THE PREACHERS SHOULD BE PREACHING FOLKS INTO HEAVEN...WHILE THEY ARE YET ALIVE AND HAVE A CHANCE TO REPENT!!!

NOT WHEN THEY ARE DEAD....

PREACHERS, STOP LYING TO PEOPLE. YOU ARE NOT COMFORTING THOSE WHO MOURN BY LYING TO THE PEOPLE.  IF THAT PERSON WAS A HELLION ON EARTH, SAY SO.  THEN USE THAT LIFE TO WARN OTHERS TO COME TO CHRIST JESUS WHILE THERE IS STILL YET TIME!!!!

IT IS TIME TO REPENT!!!!!