Comments on: New Era’s Resolutions

By: Neovictorianist

Neovictorianist — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 12:27:39 +0000

That is a great list of resolutions, that most us should be working on for the rest of this year. One often feels weak and weary living in the degenerate culture of today, but we must move forward and work.

By: Stephen Clay McGehee

Stephen Clay McGehee — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 20:18:34 +0000

Good to hear from you, Ken! I hope that all of us are able to incorporate at least some of these into our daily lives.

Have a Happy and Prosperous New Year, sir. Take care and God Bless.

By: Ken

Ken — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 19:46:33 +0000

Excellent in every detail. Today, January 1, 2013, is my first visit to your website and this is just the posting that I needed to read. Thanks. -Ken

By: Mark Sweat

Mark Sweat — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 12:38:59 +0000

Stephen,
Thanks for the info. I am someone that just has a hard time fitting in most anywhere I guess. I expect churches to be what they claim to be and get upset when they aren’t.

Recently had a situation occur at a place my wife and I attended. We had not gone to this church before, even though it was quite old and established and not too far away. The name had been changed and I told my wife that I figured someone new had come in as preacher.I figured he had overthrown the old doctrines, etc and totally changed the place from what it was. Well, we went a few times and while it was nothing to get real excited about, we thought we would go there for a while. There had been a new preacher and when we visited with him he said that there had been some major changes though he didn’t elaborate much.

He told me he had gone to some school in California to get his training and it had some connection to John MacArthur. This put me on guard due to the controvery over his doctrines concerning the Blood of Christ. The preacher didn’t seem like he took this on so I figured he was OK.

To make a long story short, one day a member made a comment to me that indicated the church believed in unconditional election. I asked the preacher about this. He said he wanted to study with me about it. I asked him again if the church believed this and he went on a 5 minute tirade that really said nothing. I finally said, Look, I’ve had a hard day. Do you believe in unconditional election or not? He hemmed and hawed and finally said they did. I told him that was a deal breaker for me and that we would no longer be attending there.

You have to be careful. The doctrinal statement on the church web site was not clear on this and it was not preached about when we were there. They, like so may other churches these days, are sneaky about what they say on their sites and they are not very forthcoming. I feel it is deceitful. I’ve seen so many church web sites that I can usually catch the buzz words used and decode what the group really is. Every once in a while though they slip one past me like this so-called “Bible Church” that taught this Calvinistic stuff.

By: Stephen Clay McGehee

Stephen Clay McGehee — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 19:58:38 +0000

Mark, you have described the very core of the problem. Finding the church that I now attend has changed my life in so many ways - all of them good. I was previously in the same kind of church you describe, and some of my family still goes there. The key question is this: "is The Holy Bible (not one of the modern perversions, but the Authorized KJV) the final authority in all matters?" If the answer is anything but an unequivocal "YES", then it's time to look elsewhere. Here is the web site of our church (I also built and maintain that site). A good place to start looking is the church directory at BibleBelievers.com .

By: Mark Sweat

Mark Sweat — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 15:47:07 +0000

I like a lot of these ideas. My wife and I are currently looking for an authentic church. These are much more rare than many may think. It is amazing how standards have slipped in just a few years. Now there are all kinds of entertainment oriented “services” that don’t resemble anything from the New Testament. Trying to find an assembly that is reverent, Christ centered and serious about the Gospel is very difficult. If I hear another stupid joke from the pulpit, another sermon that totally ignores the context of the Scripture used in it or another round of outlandish posturing, I don’t know what I will do. I have heard “sermons” based on greeting cards. I have heard the pastor go on about his knowledge of Greek, which makes him smarter than the men who translated the KJV in his eyes. I have heard “special music” that goes from being just silly to bordering on blasphemy. Some churches are country clubs, some are just dead spiritually and some are just a big show.I am a Baptist who feels that all of a sudden it is like everyone in the church wants to imitate the world and I can’t feel comfortable anywhere.

By: Stephen Clay McGehee

Stephen Clay McGehee — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 00:52:10 +0000

Wyandotte,

Thank you for letting me know and giving me the opportunity to correct that – and to learn. It’s always good to hear from you!

By: Wyandotte

Wyandotte — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 00:36:14 +0000

Regarding your Note #5 above, you refer to “grammatical errors”. I recall an expert some years ago saying that the proper terminology is “errors in grammar” because an error cannot be grammatical.

I am just passing this along and hope you are not offended. Personally, I prefer to say “errors in grammar”. Thank you.

By: Stephen Clay McGehee

Stephen Clay McGehee — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 17:41:05 +0000

Thank you for the kind words. I’ve been wanting to do this list for a while – it lets me say a lot of things that are important to me but perhaps hard to form into a full post.

By: The Big H

The Big H — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 16:19:42 +0000

This was a great list, Stephen, just great…especially #1, #2, & #3. I also must comment on #23. Our society is so degraded that crude or obscene language is normal for most people. It is a big thing with me, handed down from my father. I recently took our pastor to task for using a crude expression from the pulpit. People, even many Christians, just don’t care. I have tried to teach our children that clean speech will mark you as different, usually as a Christian, even if you say nothing at all about your faith. Anyway, thanks for this. BTW, I am a border stater (Maryland) by birth, raised a Yankee and now in the Northwest, but with you in spirit!