(His By Grace;34899)
Thanks,Ronnie. I know that sometimes when I am on this site I feel so comforted. Other times I am reading along and I have such a strange feeling come over me. There are doctrines talked about here that are quite strange to me. I have been a Christian a long time and have been through a lot of studies, etc. but I know that there are things I haven't learned. Of couse, there are things I don't want to learn, as well. I do think since we are told to put on the "mind of Christ" that He and He alone will give us the discernment on what truths to believe and what is false teaching. We need to know our swords better. Just this morning in our worship service, our pastor was talking about the very thing you mentioned. He was saying that Americans have gotten used to a "feel good" gospel. They want it sugar-coated so that it doesn't cost them anything. They sit back and ask,"What's in it for me?" He proclaimed that as long as he was the pastor, the Bible and that only would be preached from the pulpit-not man's traditions and not what we wanted to hear. He is very good about being a bold messenger. He has been preaching about experiencing true worship. Today he talked about expectations of worship. We don't go to church to get, but to give. Jesus is the audience. It was good. He told the church if they weren't excited during worship, then maybe they just needed to go ahead and get saved. Everyone laughed and applauded.However, during the invitation, I could feel the presence of evil lurking. I kept rebuking the powers of darkness, but I kept getting this "mental visual "of a satanic spirit hovering around my daughter and her boyfriend. I kept praying for a hedge of protection until salvation was secured. I have already witnessed to him. He feels that he's saved, but has never made it public. He shows no real evidence of being a Christian. Please pray about this. We can overcome these dark forces by the blood of the Lamb.
There are some worthy congregations out there and we all know it. No way is Jesus ever going to stop reaching people, it's just tapering off and we need to seek the strength of fellowship, or revel in the peace of solitude, and pray for our unseen Brother and Sisters. I will pray for your daughter and her boyfreind. I cannot judge him, or his true feelings about Jesus but I will say that Jesus knows his heart. Shine bright for Jesus and believe and He will save your daughter, her boyfreind, your entire family.Psalms 37:4 Delight thyself also in the LORD: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.