Beth Moore, a Southern Baptist who is influential with a broad spectrum of evangelical women, is also on the contemplative bandwagon. She joined Richard Foster, Dallas Willard, and other contemplatives on the Be Still DVD, which was published in April 2008 by Fox Home Entertainment. Shortly after it was released she issued a retraction of sorts, but she soon retracted her retraction. In a statement published on May 26, 2008, Moore’s Living Proof Ministries said: “We believe that once you view the Be Still video you will agree that there is no problem with its expression of Truth” (http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/bethmoorestatement.htm).

To the contrary, the very fact that it features Richard Foster and Dallas Willard are serious problems!

Lighthouse Trails issued the following discerning warning:

“In the DVD, there are countless enticements, references and comments that clearly show its affinity with contemplative spirituality. For instance, Richard Foster says that anyone can practice contemplative prayer and become a ‘portable sanctuary’ for God. This panentheistic view of God is very typical for contemplatives. … The underlying theme of the Be Still DVD is that we cannot truly know God or be intimate with Him without contemplative prayer and the state of silence that it produces. While the DVD is vague and lacking in actual instruction on word or phrase repetition (which lies at the heart of contemplative prayer), it is really quite misleading. What they don’t tell you in the DVD is that this state of stillness or silence is, for the most part, achieved through some method such as mantra-like meditation. THE PURPOSE OF THE DVD, IN ESSENCE, IS NOT TO INSTRUCT YOU IN CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER BUT RATHER TO MAKE YOU AND YOUR FAMILY HUNGRY FOR IT. The DVD even promises that practicing the silence will heal your family problems. … THIS PROJECT IS AN INFOMERCIAL FOR CONTEMPLATIVE PRACTICE, and because of the huge advertising campaign that Fox Home Entertainment has launched, contemplative prayer could be potentially introduced into millions of homes around the world.

“[On the DVD Moore says], ‘… if we are not still before Him [God], we will never truly know to the depths of the marrow of our bones that He is God. There’s got to be a stillness.’ … [But is] it not true that as believers we come to Him by grace, boldly to His throne, and we call Him our friend? No stillness, no mantra, no breath prayer, no rituals. Our personal relationship with Him is based on His faithfulness and His love and His offer that we have access to Him through the blood of Jesus Christ, and not on the basis of entering an altered state of consciousness or state of bliss or ecstasy as some call it” (“Beth Moore Gives Thumbs Up to Be Still DVD,” http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/bethmoorethumbsup.htm).

In her book When Godly People Do Ungodly Things (2002), Moore recommends contemplative Roman Catholics Brother Lawrence and Brennan Manning.

Of Manning she says that his contribution to our generation “may be a gift without parallel” (p. 72) and callsRagamuffin Gospel “one of the most remarkable books” (p. 290). She does not warn her readers that Manning never gives a clear testimony of salvation or a clear gospel in his writings, that he attends Mass regularly, that he believes it is wrong for churches to require that homosexuals repent before they can be members, that he promotes the use of mantras to create a thoughtless state of silent meditation, that he spent six months in isolation in a cave and spends eight days each year in silent retreat under the direction of a Dominican nun, that he promotes the dangerous practice of visualization, that he quotes very approvingly from New Agers such as Beatrice Bruteau (who says, “We have realized ourselves as the Self that says only I AM … unlimited, absolute I AM”) and Matthew Fox (who says all religions lead to the same God), and that he believes in universal salvation, that everyone including Hitler will go to heaven. (For documentation see “A Biographical Catalog of Contemplative Mystics” in our new bookContemplative Mysticism: A Powerful Ecumenical Glue.)

If Moore truly wants to disassociate herself from the contemplative movement, that would be a simple matter. Let her issue a statement renouncing Richard Foster and Brennan Manning and their Roman Catholic contemplative friends and unscriptural practices. But don’t hold your breath, dear readers!

In disobedience to 1 Timothy 2:12, Moore teaches a co-ed Sunday School class at First Baptist Church in Houston, Texas. The Scripture says, “But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.” According to this verse, women in the churches are forbidden to do two things. They are forbidden to teach men and they are forbidden to usurp authority over men.

Moore’s meetings are attended by people from “every denomination,” because she “doesn’t get caught up in divisive doctrinal issues” and “steers clear of topics that could widen existing rifts between different streams in the body of Christ” (Charisma magazine, June 2003). This is the popular but unscriptural “positive-only” ecumenical philosophy that is so helpful to the furthering of end time apostasy.

Romans 16:17 and Jude 3 are commandments that are commonly ignored by popular ecumenical speakers, but they will not be ignored at the judgment seat of Christ.

“Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them” (Rom. 16:17).

“Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort youthat ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3).

“Terror by night“:    These are things that come up unexpected, “out of the blue”, things that really knock the wind out of you.  A family member becomes suddenly ill or gets hurt.  Vehicle trouble or an unexpected expense that has to be paid with money you do not have.   God tells something about these unexpected troubles or as the verse refers to it as “terror by night”.  God says in Proverbs 3:25-26.  ” Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh. For the LORD shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken.”.

“The arrow that flieth by day.” Things you are expecting.  These are things that you know are coming.  Just as you can see an arrow coming at you, you can see that bill that is due to be paid with money you do not have. Maybe a health concern that is always present. You can see the bad days coming. A spouse that is not right with the Lord and you see things just getting worse. Maybe it’s a decision that your not sure of how its going to turn out.   Jesus says to us in John 14:27  ” Be not afraid, neither let your heart be troubled.”  God has not given us that spirit of fear (2Tim.1:7) and He that keeps us WILL NOT slumber” (Ps.121:3). Let me assure you with these words.  God perfects that which concerns you. (Psalm 138:8).   Finally,  ”Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us.” —Psalm 62:8

“Let these sayings sink down into your ears…”  —Luke 9:44

When he was 16, his Pentecostal mother sent him to an Assemblies of God Bible Institute in Waxahachie, Texas, with the desire to see him train for the Lord’s service. But though he preached a little, he was already deeply in love with the world. After playing a boogie-woogie version of “My God Is Real” at a morning assembly, Jerry Lee was expelled for delving in “worldly” music.

Years later Pearry Green, who was president of the student body when Lewis was kicked out, asked The Killer, “Are you still playing the devil’s music.” Lewis replied, “Yes, I am. But you know it is strange, the same music that they kicked me out of school for is the same kind of music they play in their churches today. The difference is, I know I am playing for the devil and they don’t” (JerryLeeLewis.com).

Nick Tosches, Lewis’s biographer, observed that “if you took the words away, there were more than a few Pentecostal hymns that would not sound foreign coming from the nickel machine in the wildest juke joint” (Hellfire, p. 57).

The same can be said about the Contemporary Christian Music that has permeated every denomination today. One credit that must be given to Jerry Lee Lewis is that he is not a hypocrite, claiming to be a Christian on one hand while living for the flesh on the other. No, Jerry Lee has lived all out for the devil, and he is right about rock & roll being the devil’s music. It always has been and always will be, and those who are using it in the service of a holy God are deceived by their love for sensuality and their carnal desire to get a larger crowd and have a larger following.

Those who stand against CCM have become the minority over the past three decades, but they are right. Those who follow the popular path in this apostate age will be wrong every time.

Romans 12:21 tells us  ”Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”  The only good thing I know of on this planet is the Word of God.  David said in Psalm 119:11  ”Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” It is the Word of God that drives sin away.  Notice how ridding yourself of bad thoughts is associated with the Word of God, “I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love.”  (Psalm 119:113). How the Word of God is a great preventive  measure: ” Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.”  (Psalm 119:133)  It is the Word of God that is guaranteed to get rid of sin in our lives!

O Lord help us to crave the Word of God as a newborn babe would crave milk!    ”As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:” —1 Peter 2:2

“Search the scriptures:”   It is possible for men to be very studious in the letter of the Scriptures, yet to be strangers to its power. Not only read them, and hear them, but search them; which denotes diligence in examining and studying them. ” It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.” (Proverbs 25:2).

“For in them”    The Bible, none other!  Not mans traditions or mans commandments, just the Word of God that has been preserved for us in the King James Bible.

“Ye think ye have eternal life”.  Not only eternal life, but so much more. One of the reasons that Believers have trouble with  eternal life and other promises, is that do not “search the scriptures” for themselves.  There is a grand Peace in knowing what you believe in that “Ole Book, God’s Word.   “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.” (Psalm 119:165)

You want to know for yourself? …Look for yourself.   2 Timothy 2:15

MINNEAPOLIS- This week’s General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will consider redefining marriage to include same-sex couples and allowing ministers to perform same-sex weddings.

Carmen Fowler, president of the Presbyterian Lay Committee, believes those sorts of initiatives are to blame for the denomination’s declining membership.

Her group supports upholding the church’s traditional definition of marriage.

The PCUSA’s newly-elected moderator, Cynthia Bolbach, supports gay marriage but told the assembly on Saturday that the denomination has become paralyzed.

Fowler says that’s what happens when a church body becomes disconnected from its head — Jesus Christ.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————      The problem with the PCUSA is that they have never been connected to the Head which is Jesus Christ.  The PCUSA  ”will consider redefining marriage”, in other words God’s word is not sufficient. They will determine what is right or wrong. The PCUSA has diregarded the Word of God …..again!  They are bringing to light the passage found in Matthew 15:6-9  ”Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.  Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,  This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”

Sodomy is still a sin and always has been in God’s eyes. In fact an abomination. Isaiah 3:9 says  ”The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.” And in Romans  1:28  ”And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;”

PCUSA, your countenance doth witness against you.  I pray for the people that belong to the PCUSA. Their doctrine,  and those that teach and preach it are to be exposed.   1 Thessalonians 5:21,   Titus 1:10-13,    Romans 16:17-18.

” Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord” —2 Corinthians 6:17

“But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.”

——Galatians 5:15

“The just man walketh in his integrity: his children are blessed after him.” —Proverbs 20:7

“God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.” —James 4:6