RADIO MINISTRY START DATE GETTING CLOSER
We will be starting a Radio Ministry on station WRMV located just outside Lynchburg Virginia.  The program will air in the mornings with a possible time slot of 7:00 a.m. and will also be streamed on the Internet.  We will keep you posted on the time slot as it may change before the start date.  We will have a 15 minute program centered around errant teachings and actions in today's Churches.  We will keep you informed with more information in the upcoming weeks.  We covet your prayers for this new adventure the Lord has placed on our hearts.
     We also are looking for a few people to step forward and help us financially cover the cost involved in this undertaking.  The type of program we will be undertaking is relatively new to the radio world.  There are  a number of web-based Ministries doing this type of work but very few radio ministries, so this is an excellent opportunity to reach hundreds of thousands of people and educate them to what is being taught in various churches around the United States and maybe right in their own church.  Now is the perfect time for you to be a part of this new Ministry.  Your small part will help us to not only cover the cost of this station but also help us to expand to other stations as they come along. 
     The wonderful thing about this new undertaking is that the radio station involved contacted us about being on their station.  The hand of the Lord was certainly in this as we had never heard of this station and the cost involved was so much lower than others who have contacted us AND this station covers more people than the higher priced stations.  Praise GOD! 
     If you feel led by the Lord to help us we will be so grateful.  We also wish for you to remember to keep praying for us for we all know that the more truth we get out there, the more Satan will attack us.  Your individual prayers will serve as a cornerstone to the success of the endeavor.  Please consider becoming a part of this growing Ministry.  Make your voice heard through us.
     Send your prayers to fwm@adams.net   Send your donations to Forgotten Word Ministries, 403 E. Fremont Street, Camp Point, IL 62320 and specify "Radio Ministry".
  Thank you and God Bless!!

 Churchianity, Christianity or Christ

Our faith is to be toward our savior, our walk is with our savior; our life is about our savior Christ Jesus, who is God. He came to rescue us from a fallen world, that had death and evil as the result of the fall which has become the natural way of life. Christ taught what is right or wrong from the Old Testament and gave us further teachings as our New Testament. Christianity is about Jesus, the living savior, the first to rise from the dead and live eternally. This is what Paul meant by “We preach Christ crucified” and yet he would tell the church “I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” (2 Cor. 11:3)

The true church, which are people (not a building) are about Jesus, they have a commitment to the truth, real koinonia focused on Jesus. The early church that was formed after Jesus left earth saw each other as family and was willing to do whatever they could for each other. This church began in Christ’s attitude: Acts 2:44-47: “Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”
They expected the Lord to add to the church as their heart had the Spirit working. The needs were met in the areas people were lacking.

The teachers of Christ: “For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you. For we are not writing any other things to you than what you read or understand. Now I trust you will understand, even to the end.” (2 Cor. 1:12-13)

There is a pattern; simplicity, not that we ignore the deep things of God we continue to learn, but the Christian life is practical, spiritual, it contains honesty, candor and most importantly integrity. You say what you really mean and do what you say. We become men and woman of our word, because we are living by His word.

Acts 4:34-37: “Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles' feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need. And Joses, who was also named Barnabas by the apostles (which is translated Son of Encouragement), a Levite of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.”
They trusted the apostles and knew they would do what they said and not do something else. How many times have you heard a church collect money for a certain thing only to hear that something came up and they used it another way. There was no manipulation or ulterior motives to be concerned of.

“Churchianity”

Look at what we become…

Today’s church is more interested in growth in numbers while the growth of spirit of their members often suffers. The real intent of our gathering as a church is to grow us spiritually, remove the old life’s ways, to keep the worlds influences at bay, and to equip us to do ministry so that the spiritual kingdom is extended. It’s about our conforming to Jesus and His nature, which is holy, separate, different from what surrounds us. It is not to make us all cookie cutter images of what the pastor wants us to be, but what Jesus has purposed for us as individuals. The true church is on display of how God has changed us, and is bold and loving enough to tell others about the one who changed us.

Church is not about how many we can bring into a building on Sunday or count how many come to our outreach in missions to validate our success.

Consider what A.W. Tozer writes on this:
The emphasis today in Christian circles appears to be on quantity, with a corresponding lack of emphasis on quality. Numbers, size and amount seem to be very nearly all that matters even among evangelicals. The size of the crowd, the number of converts, the size of the budget, the amount of the weekly collections: if these look good the church is prospering and the pastor is thought to be a success. The church that can show an impressive quantitative growth is frankly envied and imitated by other ambitious churches.

This is the age of the Laodiceans. The great goddess Numbers is worshiped with fervent devotion and all things religious are brought before her for examination. Her Old Testament is the financial report and her New Testament is the membership roll. To these she appeals as arbiters of all questions, the test of spiritual growth and the proof of success or failure in every Christian endeavor.

A little acquaintance with the Bible should show this up for the heresy it is. To judge anything spiritual by statistics is to judge by another than scriptural judgment. It is to admit the validity of externalism and to deny the value our Lord places upon the soul as over against the body. It is to mistake the old creation for the new and to confuse things eternal with things temporal. Yet it is being done every day by ministers, church boards and denominational leaders. And hardly anyone notices the deep and dangerous error.” (On Pursuing Quality Tozer)

This was written many years ago. How much more has the church progressed down this road, I would say quite a distance. The usual rule is: the smaller the church the more intimate and fruitful it will be; becoming larger often prevents the church from functioning as intended unless the growth is superintended carefully.

God may increase numbers or He may diminish numbers so that it becomes a faithful congregation. But immediately when this happens there is resistance and a drive for membership, it is seen like something has gone wrong. But we have examples with Gideon as well as with Jesus that show God is still working and prefers using the least in numbers.

Judges 7:2-6 Gideon was to lead Israel into a battle against the Midianites but God did not want to think it was their own strength that would bring the victory.
So we see in v.3 he weeded the fearful and afraid out of twenty-two thousand, “and ten thousand remained.”
V.4-6 But the LORD said to Gideon, "The people are still too many; bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. Then it will be, that of whom I say to you, 'This one shall go with you,' the same shall go with you; and of whomever I say to you, 'This one shall not go with you,' the same shall not go." So he brought the people down to the water. And the LORD said to Gideon, "Everyone who laps from the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set apart by himself; likewise everyone who gets down on his knees to drink." And the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men; but all the rest of the people got down on their knees to drink water.”
The Lord divided those who were watching while they drank from those who did not. God used only 300 men who were up to accomplish the task.

After Jesus spoke some hard statements in John 6:66-68: “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.” Jesus is looking for those who are happy with the truth even if they don’t understand it at the time. But we also have the example of those being faithful, in v.67-68 Then Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also want to go away?" But Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” There is no where else to go, you may be the last one left but you must stand even others go another way.

Does God want us to count? Certainly numbers are mentioned in the Bible but we are not to rely on them. Churches will count the baptisms and attendance as approval. Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons and others use membership and visitations to validate that they too are from God. These numbers do not prove at all that God is with them. In fact Jesus speaks of the tree having abnormal growth and every bird trying to nest in it (Mt.13:32).
If we become dependent on the money from the consistent amount of people attending or desire to have a greater influence by uniting with others to have more numbers, we are not depending on God. Numbering people is found through the Bible when God has established it. But in 2 Samuel 24 is an example of King David who considered to number Israel. 1 Chron. 21 actually tells us it was Satan who moved David to do this. Nowhere do we find a New Testament a church being commended for its numbers.

As the spirit of the age intrudes into the church through weak men who have large influences, they morph the message that was once clear and concise into a one size fits all. They mock those who take the Bible literally and if you believe there is such a thing as the end times you are craaazy. This religious departure is promoted as a purer adherence to Jesus. But it is a Jesus that they have reinvented, one that is made up from their own imagination. They transform gospel based on Christ’s work to forgive our sins to mans work for man; the social gospel of liberals.

Christianity can mean many different things to those included in its various forms of the religion. For Emergent church it means progression and openness to new ideas, new approaches and use of rituals and ceremonies that do not contain life.

Imbedded socialists and Marxists are in politics and they certainly are inside the church changing the way things are done. Mother Theresa could not defend the gospel against the multifaceted of false ways of the other religion because she was a Catholic universalist. Instead she found camaraderie with other religions and should not be used as an example of any good works for Christians. This is like the humanist that accepts all good works as equal. The new evangelicalism of postmodern western churches have decided that hell is not to be a concern. They instead promote concepts such as universalism, inclusivism, and annihilationism as its replacement. This stops the gospel from going out as the cure.

Yes, there are numerous problems with what is considered Christianity today. Worship has changed dramatically, not just from hymns to contemporary music but in its focus. Worship is to be about our heartfelt thoughts of thankfulness and praise toward God, to exalt Him. Now it is about us: Worship is promoted as an experience for us when it is supposed to be about our appreciation expressed toward Him. We repeat words of affection that are more about our feelings, than Him. How would you react if your wife or husband spoke to you about how they feel and repeated it 10 times, one after another. It would become monotonous and repulsive, it would belittle what is being said. You may think the words are pointless. Music mantras are not received by God anymore than prayer mantras are. In fact he has told us not to speak to him this way.

There are churches that teach that all trials are from the devil and we are to rebuke it. So people do whatever they can to remove themselves from any trial that surfaces. But the bible teaches that God allows trials to strengthen us in faith so that we can give a testimony through it. (Jms.1:2; 1 Pt.1:6)

Many have a God of their own imagination, where He gives us all that we request we want. This is the Word faith teaching of entitlement - that we deserve the best the world can give us because we are God’s children. But you can only get this is by you giving them your money -- There are those that want you to show up at service listen to the message, pay your tithes and leave. If you don’t pay this tax to the church or a ministry then you are condemned (unsaved). People are forced and manipulated to do these things because the Spirit is not working in the speakers heart, the pastor/speaker/prophet motivates the people to give more and there is never a satisfactory end.

All this mishandling of the Word produces spoiled children, unspiritual immature men. And pride develops instead of humility. This pride separates you from God’s grace and stops you from being heavenly minded, which makes you of no earthly good no matter how much money you give.

Then there is the teaching that we only need his presence. So we must seek it, we are to pray more and harder, we are to ___ (fill in the blank) which brings us under laws the New Testament never spoke of. The Bible tells us His presence is already in us and with us, individually and corporately (1 Jn.2:27; Col.1:27; 1 Cor.3:16). This then becomes a lack of faith in those that are teaching this because it’s not something we need but already have, so we are disbelieving His word.

Instead of following Jesus’ command to witness there are those who only want an experience. So they look for the traveling miracle crusade coming to their town. But we are to walk by faith not by sight, not by experience or feelings. We may occasionally have a spiritual experience but they are not what we are to seek for or we become wicked (Mt.12:39. But the crowds come for an experience they can feel, participate in, instead of a desire to be changed by the word, and conformed them to the Son of God’s image(Rom.12:2). They are entertained by supernatural stories, coveting, wishing that it would happen to them. The majority of revivals today are about affecting the flesh instead of one being cut to the heart by a message (Acts 2:37). So they laugh, they stagger, they fall. They use the reaction of the mockers and as an example of spirituality instead of those who believed the message and repented. They disregard what is holy. This is not of Christ but it is today’s Christianity. By allowing supernatural experiences to influence them or it is more accurately described as spirtualism, they have become mystics who look to find their information from the spirit realm, visitation by angels or what they believe is God. Watch out for those who say Christianity has a mystic side to it; mysticism and Spiritual are two very different concepts.

They went out from us – from those who hold to the core teachings (Titus 2:7-10; 1Tim.4:6; 2 Jn.1:9) it proved they were not of us, who are in the faith, “in Christ,” because of how they practice their Christianity. Our Faith is connected to the word, to God who spoke it. If one is following a spirit that leads them away from the word then they are no longer in the genuine faith. If one does not esteem the word as true then how can they believe the God of the word who spoke it?

Everything we are to know of God is in Christ - this is what is meant by him being called the word.
The same God that spoke to Abraham, to David, to Moses and to the apostles speaks to us when we read the word. It is a living word that can change ones life. To apply what you have learned, to flesh it out is wisdom. Then one sees the power contained in the word.

The heart of the church is palpitating.

I can remember a time when the church practiced apologetics, it was engaged and it stood up against error, it was real; those days are over. Pastors neglect to check out new speakers they invite, or books they sell and do not receive help from others that may know about these matters. Now I see the same pastors compartmentalize people and doctrine, they handle issues by who it is, not what it is. Apologetics is the spine of the body of Christ, without it we no longer have good posture. When we were learning what we actually believed and practiced it there was growth. We were actively discerning truth from error, we were healthy it kept us immune from error. I remember the Church in the 90’s -- before the prayer of Jabez was accepted and its subtle leaven entered in as acceptable because who wrote it. Then the resistance to error became less frequent.
All the mysticism and emergent new age can easily come into the church today because we have no spine. The filling of the spirit, the understanding of the word is minimal and so our courage is rare.

I often hear the church wants you to find your spiritual gift but as soon as you engage in doing this (if it is something other than giving or what they approve) they get upset.
You may begin to evangelize, maybe you make a mistake and come on too strong as you are learning and they want to shut you down. Or you begin studying and have a real desire and ability and start teaching and take strong sides on certain issues and they want you to be more lenient, be more like them because they are so seasoned, reasonable and balanced. They want you to be more like Jesus but as soon as you start to act more like him in zeal and knowledge they tell you to cool down and be like the rest of the sheep, don’t upset the balance – but really, they don’t want to lose their control.

Is this how the church was in its inception? Some are angered at what is taking place inside the church as they see people being used and abused. We only need to look at Jesus to see his reaction to these matters. John 2:16-17: And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!" Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."

Jesus said the last days would be perilous times; that it would be described by the theme of DECEPTION. This is what he mentioned several times in his last discourse on the Mt of Olives (Mt.24) and stated “see I have told you beforehand”, so we are without excuse.

Some of us struggle with a divided loyalty, we do not want to offend friends and associates but at the same time we don’t take a stand and we offend Christ. If you live a true Christ like life expect to lose friends, even those in the church who don’t have the capacity to understand or commit their ways to Christ.

It should be apparent we are in need of CPR training -- Church Prevention and Rescue. What I mean is that we are to prevent the church from becoming more corrupted, stop any influence that is already there from spreading. Any believer can actively safeguard false teaching influencing our brethren and finding a home inside the church. If false teaching has become an issue where you go to church, equip yourself first then let others know you care and want to prevent it.

Pastors always ask for help, here is a way we all can. We can be eyes and ears to help them and our brethren from destructive teaching and practices. It’s better to say something and be wrong than to say nothing at all.
The business of the church is for us to be busy with the work of Christ, it is other centered. Phil 2:4-5: “Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.” And then tells us about v.5 “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” in other words this was Jesus’ example.

The solution- Begin a biblical renewal that we might have a spiritual life and live practical Christianity
As Paul stated “For to me, to live is Christ” (Phil 1:21). Discipleship after one is saved is as important as before one is saved. Becoming mature and knowing sound doctrine will help you distinguish truth from error, things are seen in a different manner than before. You are able to be independent and help others out of the malaise of false doctrine that has paralyzed so much of the church today. and bring them into sound bible teaching churches and fellowship.

Remember when Peter was brought before the Sanhedrin? He preached in Acts 4:12-13 "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.”
Peter like the other disciples were ordinary Jews that were brought up on the Bible as children, memorizing large portions of scripture. They learned the Bible going to the synagogue as adults, but they were not trained in Phariseeism, so, to the elite religious leaders they did not know what they did, they were unlearned. They learned what it really meant by being with Jesus for nearly 3 years and then after he resurrected for 40 days as he spoke “of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” (Acts 1:3)
Of course they knew this because in Acts 4:2 it says they were “greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.” This preaching of Jesus meant they had seen him AFTER the resurrection.

WDE -- Watch, Discern, Engage
The Bible says when the enemy comes in like flood the Lord lifts up a standard. We are in a flood…The standard comes by God working through his people. When Israel was overrun by false prophets God raised up true prophets that rebuked them and gave the people a choice. When the church was being persecuted God gave them grace to be faithful to the end and it increased the size and influence of the church. As the promise to the faithful in Israel “No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is from Me," says the LORD.” (Isa. 54:17)

Acts 4:31: “And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.”

They had courage when they were filled they spoke the word; which is the truth. Where is the courage to speak the truth today? So many want to be diplomatic and waltz around it, never to touch its spiny leaves and be cut from it. We are to be true to our conscience because we now have the mind of Christ. We are to think for ourselves and allow God to use us individually because he has uniquely gifted us to do his work (Eph.2:10). We answer to him, wanting to hear well done good and faithful servant enter in to the joy of the Lord. We are not to be trying to please the pastor or anyone else but our Lord.

Eph. 6:10-11: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”

Where are those willing to proclaim the gospel outside their own church walls? It’s safe and easy to preach to the choir that will accept what you say. Too many want to avoid challenges and conflicts, the very means that was used to grow the church in its beginning. If you can’t defend the gospel, certainly you will not be preaching it to those who may challenge its content.

1 Cor. 16:13-14: “Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. Let all that you do be done with love.”

We win no matter what the enemy throws at us, if we are faithful and our motives are for his will. Even in death we defeat him. So the days may look dark and hopeless for now but the night will soon be over.

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