Glory to Our Father! Praises from Iowa. The Lord has blessed us abundantly. May you find this post enlightening. May you also find time to read your Bible as much as you spend time on the computer investigating religious material. The time in the Word is your most blessed investment.
I had gotten rid of most of my cable a year ago. I was spending $170.00 for cable, internet and telephone (land line). I made some bold moves at home. God was working on me with waste, and this was part of it, to get rid of the DVRs and mega cable package. What I was left with was essentially the Discovery Channel and religious channels. This proved to be a blessing for our home.
You see, my 13 year old is a sports nut and now we do not have ESPN or other sports channels. We discovered we never really watched the TV that much, and our home is even more quiet now that the TV does not scream "Wheel Of Fortune" at us.
What I discovered were TV channels that had 24 hours of religious material on them. I have a Catholic channel, a 7th Day Adventist channel and TBN and The Church Channel.
I have gotten to know Paul and Jan Crouch, Fulton Sheen, Perry Stone, a nun in a habit, Andrew Wommack and Creflo Dollar to name a few. (Yes, I am aware of the scandals.......)
I found this refreshing last fall, to have at least 2 channels of Christian television. I still do, but I am discerning more and more what God's Word says versus what man says on TV. Also, I feel we all have a right to point out what is out of balance in the religious worlds. As Deitrich Bonhoeffer puts it in his book, The Cost Of Discipleship, " It is just not true that every word of criticism directed against contemporary preaching is a deliberate rejection of Christ". (He wrote this circa 1940's)
On my religious journey, 44 years now, you really treasure what is to be treasured, and that which is not, you weed out. It takes time to learn to weed. I pray to be more and more skilled at efficient, expedient weeding.
I can say that an old classmate from my high school days emailed me after he realized I got born again and warned, "Be careful of false teachers. I am really warning you, be very careful out there".
At the time, I didn't really know what to think of his email. He didn't specify where these false teachers are, or where they will come out from. I took it seriously, though. The Bible speaks often of false teachers, and I was aware of that.
Here are warning signs that were being made more clear to me through the Holy Spirit regarding these channels:
1) Beware of the broadcasts that don't first ask that you tithe to your home church. If they neglect to remind you of this as they are asking for your money, beware.
2) Scripture is not part of their message. They should be peppering the message with memorized Scripture passages.
3) An overemphasis on prosperity preaching. Remember: John 3:30 "He must increase, but I must decrease".
4)The overarching message is typically pleasant and comforting.
5) The words: Jesus, born again, repent and hell are missing from the message.
6) They don't seem to be trusting that God will provide their financial needs if your pocket book doesn't.
7) They don't urge you to find a church home and to worship there weekly.
8) They omit telling you how difficult the true Christian journey is.
Here is who I discovered to be lining up with the Word of God, in my opinion: Greg Laurie, Fulton Sheen, Andrew Wommack, Billy Graham (of course!), Jack Graham, Dr. D. James Kennedy, David Jeremiah, Rabbi Kirt Schneider, Brian Houston and Dr. David Swanson. (There are more. Sorry if they are omitted)
Here are some that I greatly enjoy and respect. I would like to hear them preach more of repentance and then being active for the Kingdom: T.D. Jakes, Perry Stone, Ron Phillips, Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, Father Cedric Pisegna.
They all have their own style and delivery. Many have an emphasis on some point of the Gospel. I will just assume that the Holy Spirit is who has instructed them to weigh that point of the Gospel out more than the entire message of the Gospel.
It is difficult to gage in that evangelists are expected to be speaking to the unsaved, while preachers in their home churches are expected to be speaking mostly to the saved. If you ask me, we should always assume the unsaved are in our midst.
For the sake of all, I will not list the preachers who I think are completely out of balance. These preachers are emphasizing the large portion of their message about "me". My health, my bills that need paid, my income, my future, my stuff, my getting more stuff. The majority of the message should not center around life applications. This can be part of the message, but it should not be the entire message. We need to hear about all that Jesus had to say. All that Paul, Luke and John wrote. Let alone, Moses, David and Isaiah. All of Scripture is God breathed, and so no "God" message can be truly delivered without it. If you claim to be a preacher, teacher or evangelist, you better take note of what the Bible is saying, insert it often and on all occasions of speaking of Jesus. Otherwise, please just call yourself a life coach. Thank you.
The out of balance preachers are not crying out to the masses to reach out to the unsaved and those hungry in other countries, sex trafficking; all of the present horrors that need prayer and workers. To look outside of themselves. Think of it this way: They really keep asking you to look in the mirror. Keep looking at what "you" need. What happened to "you" in your past. "Your" addictions and habitual sins. We need to move on to: You were saved by Grace, you repented, you are being sanctified. Now go out there and save other people!!! Let's move on, folks. Quit sitting and stewing on your salvation buttocks.
Reading 2 Peter chapter 2 is extremely helpful. Also, remember this as you match up God's Word to the person speaking it over the TV: James 2:5 "Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?" We yearn to be poor in the eyes of the world. To be more and more like Christ.
I enjoy many of the religious programs. There are some I do not watch at all anymore. Like I have said before, some of the best knowledge you will obtain will be from those from the past. Those who are not with us any longer. Please spend time in the Word of God daily. If you find free time after that, please engage yourself with the deceased greats. Please enjoy below Bishop Fulton Sheen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX-Htjo-Gxw
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