Killing Kryptonite

The call for repentance needed in and from the church today is actually a call for what we need most: true love. The lack of true love in the church is filling our services, ministries, and homes with two extremes—tolerance and legalism.

The deception of tolerance is that it can look so much like love. We use the Bible to define love as patient, kind, never proud, not rude, not demanding its own way, along with other attributes found in 1 Corinthians 13. However, the love of the world can also have many of these characteristics. 

What separates Christian love from worldly love is that Christian love obeys God’s commands. “By this we know,” writes the apostle of love, “that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments” (1 John 5:2).

This means, if I’m patient, not rude, not jealous, and not boastful, but am cheating on my wife or if I condone sexual immorality, I am not walking in the love of God. 

True love is marked by both truth and love. Truth apart from love directs us down the road of the letter of the law, that which kills—legalism. And, sadly, people react to legalism by swinging the pendulum to the other extreme, avoiding correction and scriptural warnings, which are crucial to the health and building of the church. 

Let’s be candid—we view calling men and women to repentance as a lack of compassion, tenderness, kindness, and love. Yet consider this: If I see a blind man heading straight for a cliff that will cause him to fall to certain death, love demands that I call him to change course!

In our society, and with many in the church, such genuine love that calls for repentance is perceived as bigoted and hateful. This stronghold has emerged because many are only considering their life on earth, and not eternity. 

When we remember that this life is less than a blink in light of eternity, we live differently. We must view life in an eternal context to comprehend true love. 

This is the love the church needs now—eternal love, true love—love that will confront sin and call for repentance, yet also a love that is patient, kind, and gentle.

From the Bible study, Killing Kryptonite by John Bevere.

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Spirit of Baal 'manifesting' now in America

It’s the No. 1 prophecy book at Amazon.com and hit No. 5 on the New York Times bestseller list in its first week.

And it reveals the return of an ancient evil.

Messianic rabbi Jonathan Cahn, the New York Times bestselling author of “The Harbinger,” has produced his most ambitious and comprehensive work yet, “The Paradigm.”
On a recent appearance on SkyWatch TV, the man known as “America’s Prophet” detailed the implications of his newest biblical discovery.
“It [the paradigm] gives the modern leaders the amount of time they have to be on the national stage before they leave,” marveled Cahn. “I mean, it’s specific. … God uses everything, God weaves in everything. The paradigm is this master blueprint, from the Bible, that deals with a nation or a civilization that is heading away from God.
“Israel is the example, ancient Israel, when they turned away from God, what happened? ‘The Harbinger’ speaks of the signs of judgment, this [‘The Paradigm’] speaks of everything that’s happening. So everything we’ve experienced in our lifetime is all part of this paradigm and it takes us up to everything that’s happening right now. And then where do we go from here?”
One of the most consistent signs in a nation’s fall into apostasy is the reemergence of a certain spirit – the spirit of Baal. The rabbi detailed the highly important role of this false god during the apostasy of ancient Israel.
“Ba’al means lord, or master, or owner,” Cahn said. Switching to the more common pronunciation of “Baal,” Cahn explained how the pagan god has a symbolic meaning that goes far behind his actual historical importance.
“Baal’s importance, or his dynamic, is that when a nation has known God, as Israel knew God, and then they turned away from God, they turned to Baal,” he said. “Baal is the anti-God. Baal is the substitute god. Baal is the god of apostasy, of the turning away from God.”
Cahn linked Baal with the practice of idolatry, or the way humans can create their own god.

Read more at WND