Bible Nuggets 4 - Works without Faith

Today's question is so preposterous that my head almost popped off!  Let's see if you can see what's wrong with this question before you read my response...

Question:  Pastor Keith, I believe that works are SO ESSENTIAL to our walk with Christ that I can't think about anything else.  All I want to do is feed the hungry, give a cool drink of water to anyone who is thirsty, clothe the poor, visit those in prison, tend to widows, fight for social justice, and pretty much just get involved and do anything I can to help those who are so marginalized that I need to do something or I tend to lose sleep over it!  What more can I do?

Answer: Whew.....

Presbyterians - Leave NOW before it's too late!

Some people have erected walls so high, that they might even attempt to keep God Himself out.  Sometimes simply trying to speak with people, who without doing any research, any study or any reading of the Bible themselves, they decide upon some things that they won't be moved on.

50% of my ministry work is dedicated to correcting false teachings and the other 50% is to help people to better understand WHO God is and HOW to develop intimacy with Him.  As such, I am constantly teaching people WHY religion is no way to get closer to God.

Let's take a brief look at WHY:

Tithing - The Lies Stop Here!

You may think that the title of this particular teaching is too much, but what's really gone overboard are the Pastors out there who teach such nonsense about tithing (giving to God)!

Today's question comes from a woman who has found herself GROWING in the Lord! (and quite by surprise)

Question: Pastor Keith, my whole life I've heard about tithing and why it's so important, but recently some things have occurred to me that never did before.  I know that I'm supposed to give 10%, but 10% of WHAT?  Is it 10% of my net income?  Is it 10% of my gross income?  Is it just 10% of my main income or am I supposed to include 10% of my bank account and 10% of my secondary income and 10% of my gifts too???  I find myself feeling guilty all the time, because lately when I listen to the Pastor of my church, it feels like I'm expected to be giving away everything!  Can you help?

Answer: Sister.... YES I CAN!  :)

Mohammed - Prophet or Pervert?

To those of you who have been following me, you know that it's my "mission" to correct false, untrue, made-up, make-believe and otherwise insane or ridiculous teachings that have infected Christianity.

False teachings which include, but are not limited to:

• Strictly following the 10 Commandments makes God happy
• Speaking in false-tongues shows that you are truly saved
• The more you give to your church, the more you'll be rewarded with cool stuff
• There is no Hell (lol, sinners could only wish!)
• The KJV is the only perfect Bible (lol, it's full of translation errors)
• Pastors are always supposed to be happy and make you smile (because they're robots)
• If you dream it, you can achieve it (dear Lord, that's Amway!)
• The Bible says something different to each one of us (whew)
• Homosexual "love" is love perfected by God (???)
• God says we all go to Heaven (yeah, I know...)
• Jesus and Satan are brothers and God is from another planet (seriously Mormons?)

The Nashville Statement - A Coalition for Biblical Sexuality

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Silverworks Ministries would like to announce that it finds the newly released "Nashville Statement - A Coalition for Biblical Sexuality" in line with its own teachings and Pastor Keith would like it known that he'd be humbled and honored to offer his signature as well.

From Pastor Keith, "The Nashville Statement is a well timed, well written and Biblically accurate document, intended to draw the support of those who accept God and the Bible exactly the way that they are, and further intended to draw sharp rebuke, disdain and loathing from those who are so outside of God's good and perfect will, that once they speak out against it, it will become clear as to whom is following the God of the Bible and who is bringing the 'strange fire'."

How can I know that we're *REALLY* in the last days?

Question: Pastor Keith, I've heard it my entire life that "We are in the last days, repent now, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!".  To be honest, I'm quite tired of hearing it and I just don't believe it.  Too many years of "Chicken Little" have soured me on the whole idea.  Can you offer me any proof or any persuasion at all, that the "last days" are really here?

Answer: Oh yes I can!

Why I use the methods that I use

There are some Pastors who are so concerned that they'll offend someone, that they water down the truth, withhold information and sometimes just plain LIE about a subject.  I sincerely feel bad for anyone who wastes their time with a person like that.

I'm going to spend a couple of minutes and explain to you WHY I do what I do....

Replenish the earth?

I haven't done this in a while, so it should be fun!

Every now and then I have people ask me questions that make me go "Ah-ha!".
I love those kinds of questions and I have one today.

Question: Why did God tell Adam and Eve to replenish the Earth?  If God had just created the Earth, isn't it safe to say that it was never "plenished" to begin with?  Obviously this proves that there were people before Adam and Eve, right?

Answer: Man oh man... Is Satan ever alive and well and filling the minds of the lost and unsaved with nonsense!  The good news, is the devil isn't learning any new tricks.  True, he may gain a soul here or there, but we all know he can never win!  :)

Bible Nuggets 3 - Be of Good Cheer!

Did you ever notice that Jesus only ever said "Be of good cheer" when he was saving someones life?

Up to and including mentioning our redemption in John 16:33?
I literally just noticed it myself.

The only reference to "Be of good cheer" that doesn't fit is Acts 23:11 when Jesus was witnessed speaking to Paul.  Hmm... You know what?  I bet that was Jesus way of telling Paul that He wouldn't let the Jews who banded together kill him?  LOL....

I joke all the time that "the Bible is an inexhaustible supply of revelation and information".
Who knew?!  ;)

SILVERWORKS DISCIPLESHIP MINISTRY IS A GO!

PUBLIC NOTICE:

EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY - SILVERWORKS DISCIPLESHIP MINISTRY IS A GO!

Beginning today, July 8, 2017, I am super fired-up and in the process of putting together all of the pieces to make this engine GO!

Watch this space for updates!  ^_^


UPDATES

JULY 9: Sent out individual emails to about 100 Apologists all over the USA, looking for a local referral!

JULY 10: Sent out an additional 100 individual emails to another 100 Apologists across the USA (and one to Australia), looking for a local referral.

JULY 12: Several replies received, very few know anyone in Florida.

JULY 14: Received a few more replies.  Very encouraging replies!  Still nothing.

JULY 17: Sent about 50 emails out to various members of Christian related Academia.

JULY 27: Still receiving a small number of replies, received a very nice email today encouraging me.

AUGUST 1: Things have gone quiet, but fear not.  I'm on God's time table!  ^_^

AUGUST 9: One month in, still sending out feelers, no new responses yet.

AUGUST 19: Had a wonderful chat tonight with someone ready to hear what I have to teach.

AUGUST 27: Things picking up.  Lots of people reaching out to me for more information.

SEPTEMBER 27: Still no movement on an Apologist, but still moving forward!  :)

OCTOBER 27: Lots of oddballs coming out of the woodwork, but still moving!

NOVEMBER 27: Still scratching my head, but I know it's coming!

DECEMBER 27: Interesting things afoot!  Happy New Year!  ^_^

SURELY SOMEONE KNOWS SOMEBODY?

Starting a new church?

Anyone who has been following me, either here on this blog or in the flesh can tell you in no uncertain terms, that I am (justifiably) sick, tired and disgusted by almost every single church/denomination in existence.

Why could I possibly be sick, tired and disgusted?  Let's start with false teachings, fleecing, poor teachings, poor understandings, altar calls & false tongue speaking, just as an example.

For years I've been told over and over again to start my own church, but as with all things, if I don't feel lead to do something by God, I'm not doing it.  For proof of that, I still have not released my book yet.

So with that said, I'm putting together this blog post in an attempt to help you decide whether or not a church that I would set up, would be more in line with what YOU believe to be TRUE and not what some wayward soul, who only wants your money would set up.

Please take a moment and ponder these statements:

Prophesy or Predictability?

Back in June I discussed those lovely friends of ours, you know, the people from the religion of peace?  How there was surely more to come in their endeavor to destroy all those who don't subscribe to their brand of "god"?

At the end of that blog post I wrote that what I believed would come next, was mass Christian casualties.

50 Homosexuals Murdered - More to come?

Last month I started to put together a blog post discussing the deterioration of the moral fiber of the people of the United States of America.  "The people" INCLUDE certain segments of "christians" as well.

In that blog post I was working on (but never posted), I wrote that I fully expected that the Radical Islamic Terrorists (you know, those nice people from the "religion of peace") would begin to kill homosexuals (or the other variants that they love to give as long lists of letters and numbers).

Why would I write about or expect that to happen?  LOL....

Christianity needs to change?

Did you read the subject without the question mark?
If you did, you're not alone, but you're in a lot of trouble.
Good thing you're here, let me help you out!  :)

There are 3 types of people in the world:

1. Christians who believe the Bible is the inerrant Word of God
2. christians who believe the parts of the Bible they want to believe
3. Everyone else

REPOSTED: My Easy Trip from Youth Minister to Felon

On June 12, 2014, Christianity Today posted an article by a youth pastor who had sex with one of his students.  Due to an overwhelming amount of backlash, they had a "change of heart" and removed the entire article.  What they left behind was a link to the edited article at the Internet Archive.  However, that link is less than useful because it will only let you read the first 2-3 paragraphs.  In any event, I believe that deleting that article was a GRAVE ERROR!

The article, which was written by an ANONYMOUS former youth pastor, is about the effects on him, his family, his local church, their families and the ANONYMOUS young girl he had a relationship with.  Due to the overwhelming quantity of ANONYMITY involved in this article, I believe that it can and SHOULD BE used as a WARNING to others who would involve themselves in youth ministry!

Christianity Today says that part of the reason they regretted posting the article, was because "The post adopted a tone that was not appropriate given its failure to document complete repentance and restoration."  That's nonsense.  The author is currently serving a prison sentence and is unable to effectively communicate PERSONALLY with ALL of those that he harmed.  I sincerely believe that this writing is an EXCELLENT FIRST STEP towards that goal AND I have made it available here IN ITS ENTIRETY, for you to decide for yourself.

Was Jesus a Liberal and a Socialist?

In a brief interaction with a liberal Christian the other day, I came upon this statement:

Claim: Jesus was a LIBERAL and a SOCIALIST!

I hear this claim every now and again, and every time I hear it, it gets me upset...  If you do any amount of research on this topic, you'll find elaborate, fanciful and overly creative articles written by people who go WAY TOO FAR, just to answer a simple question...

Here is the very simple reply and answer that I offered to this claim:

I'm not sure where you are in your walk with God, but to claim that Jesus was a liberal and a socialist, is like claiming that Karl Marx was a great philanthropist and humanitarian. 

Jesus feeding the 5,000+ men, women and children was not an act of socialism, it was a MIRACLE, performed to show EVERYONE that He was indeed God. 

Jesus saying "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.", wasn't an act of liberalism, it was a lesson to those of us who would pronounce judgement, without seeing that our own SIN is *just as* vile and contemptible before a Holy God. 

Each group (political, denominational or otherwise) tries to hijack Jesus for their own use and purposes, instead of just allowing what He did and what He said to speak for itself (in context of course). From time to time I've been accused of the same thing, but I always take the time to show people where they can find the answer (or correction) to their incorrect or perhaps *false* understandings. 

Please take your time while reading Scripture and ensure that you have a Pastor in your life to help you to better understand the verses that prove challenging and NEVER allow your own personal bias to influence your walk with God. If you take the time, the Holy Spirit will be more than happy to tell you the things that you NEED to know... :)

Now you have an example of what to say if/when you're faced with this false claim... 

My Platform for Presidency of the United States

Have you ever stopped to think of what YOU would do IF you were elected President of the United States?  Well I hadn't until today...  I believe that there are many things that the citizens of the United States NEED and Obamacare, IRS Attacks, Forcing religious entities to pay for employee abortions and supporting Socialism are not among them!

So these are some of the things I would do IF I was President....
Would you vote for me?  ;)

All comments are welcome, but please avoid vulgar language.

Are you a Christian or a Disciple?

WARNING: God's Word has been known to be offensive to those living outside of God's perfect Will.  Read to your own edification!

QUESTION FOR CHRISTIANS

Do you call yourself a Christian?

Why?

Does Jesus tell you anywhere in Scripture to "Go out and become a Christian"?

Did you know that the word "Christian" can be found only 3 times in the whole Bible...?

And 2 of those times, it's used in a discussion surrounding suffering or death!

Yet many of you will use that "title" alone in order to describe yourself.  Something that you either deem as a badge of honor, inferring your rebelliousness to the world at large or simply just to show people how "good" or "righteous" you are...

But I'm here to tell you today, that Jesus Himself was more concerned about DISCIPLESHIP than He ever was about you attending church, joining a religion or making up or following your own ways and practices, thanks to what the United States calls "Religious Freedom".

Pastoral Self Importance - STOP IT!

As a Discipleship Minister, I'm often placed in a position where I need to reach out to local churches, in order to help create a smooth transition from my care as a Shepherd, over to a long-term Shepherd.  At any given time, I have between 5 and 25 people from around the world who seek out my guidance on discipleship.  Once I get people to a certain point, I encourage them to find a local church to get additional fellowship.

To date, I've had ZERO PERCENT SUCCESS at accomplishing what should be a ridiculously simple task...

WHY?
Good question!

Agendas, Propaganda and Lies... Oh my!

NOTICE: As I referenced in my last post on the subject, this is my second (and hopefully final) post regarding this particular issue.  

Next, I'm putting this at the beginning of this post, because those of  you with ADD might not make it all the way through.  There is no hate of any kind contained within this post.  Twist and turn all of my words if you'd like, but you're not going to get away with saying that my words or my intent are hateful.