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February 25, 2011

WISDOM FROM HERE AND THERE


"Free will carried many a soul to hell, but never a soul to heaven."
- Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers

Wisdom from Father to Son:  The quality of your relationship with God will be transparently revealed by how you treat your wife. Indeed, the best gift that you can give to your children is to love their mother.


The theme song in hell:   "We did it our way."

Salvation is not the reward of a holy life but the gift of God to a sinner deserving judgment.


There are no atheists in hell, only believers.

"If the Scripture has more than one meaning it has no meaning at all."  - John Owens

"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints" (Ps. 116:15 ESV).

"Our lives begin  to end the day we become silent about things that matter."  - Dr. Martin Luther King


Heaven has a party whenever Jesus is born in a new heart.


If we have evolved, then a Savior who redeems us from our fallen status is nonsense.


Amazing Heresy:  "He not only became an exile from the heavenly courts, but for us took the risk of failure and eternal loss."  - Ellen G. White, Desire of Ages, page 131


Those who are intent upon accurate answers will no longer remain  in a toxic-faith system.


Calvinist Humor:  What do you call a four-point Calvinist?  An Arminian in denial!


"Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight; the clouds rolled back as a scroll, the trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend, even so, it is well with my soul."  (from It is Well With My Soul)


"...weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes in the morning" (Ps. 30:5 ESV).


The words of the Bible are the very words of God.


If you attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you are more blessed than almost three billion people in the world.


Heaven never gets worse, only better; hell never gets better, only worse.


"I know the Bible is inspired because it inspires me."  - Dwight L. Moody


For believers, the Lord's day is a weekly Easter.

"Reformed theology isn't a sledgehammer with which to hit people, it's a pillow on which they can lay their weary heads." - Burk Parsons, editor of Tabletalk magazine


"All biblical exhortations are a form of  law."  - Dr. Michael S. Horton


"Sin is cosmic treason—an expression of enmity, and a crime."  - Dr. R. C. Sproul


"Some SDA minds are like concrete--permanently set, and all mixed up." 
- Dr. Desmond Ford


More people are troubled by what is plain in Scripture than by what is obscure.


"Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true."  - Francis Bacon


Few people come to church to see Christ;  they come to church to see Christians.


We are not earthly people having a heavenly experience.  We are heavenly people having an earthly experience, a short one at that.


"Hell's worst feature is its duration."  - Robert Peterson


The resurrection is the turning point in all redemptive history.


"As long as grace is operative, human failure is never final."  - John MacArthur, Jr.


"Nobody fills my heart like Jesus."  - Singer Dennis Jernigan


"If any man doth ascribe aught of salvation, even the very least, to free-will of man, he knoweth nothing of grace, and he hath not learnt Jesus Christ aright."  - Martin Luther


Knowing the signs is no substitute for knowing the Savior.


The Gospel does not include making legalistic "principles" out of Old Covenant rituals.


"Earthly prayers activate heavenly plans."  - Max Lucado


Live your life so well that even the undertaker will hate to see you go.


Selective Revelation:  The White Estate determines what is to be revealed.


The Doctrine of  Divine Election:  "God intentionally designed salvation so that no man can boast of it.  He didn't merely arrange it so that boasting would be discouraged or kept to a minimum--He planned it so that boasting would be absolutely excluded.  Election does precisely that."  - Mark Webb


"Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half-shut afterwards."  - Benjamin Franklin


If you grew up Adventist, you couldn't dance at school parties, but passing an orange under the chin was a non-sensual activity. Indeed, legalism is never consistent.


"I feel most ministers who claim they've heard God's voice are eating too much pizza before they go to bed at night, and it's really an intestinal disorder, not a revelation."  - Jerry Falwell


"The SDA Church cannot change any of its doctrines because they have been authenticated by Ellen White.  They are in a mental-lock-down and only pretend to be scholars."  - Dr. Russell Kelly

The cross of Christ is the center of history.


If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 500 million people around the world.


"Faith is never identical with piety."  - Karl Barth


"Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden."  - Corrie Ten Boom


Fight truth decay, study the Bible.


If your day is hemmed with prayer, it is less likely to unravel.


"Each day comes bearing its gifts.  Untie the ribbons."  - Ann Ruth Shabacker


A baby is God's opinion that the world should go on.


Worry is like a rocking chair...it gives you something to do but it doesn't get you anywhere.


God does not promise a comfortable journey, only a safe landing.


A candle loses nothing of its light by lighting another.


"Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless."  - Mother Theresa


A mind is like a parachute.  It works best when it is open.


A text without a context is a pretext for a prooftext.


"The real measure of our wealth is how much we'd be worth if we lost all our money."  - J. H. Jowett


Q:  Did you hear about the agnostic, dyslexic insomniac?
A:  He lies awake at night wondering if there's a dog.


Q:  What time of day was it when Adam was created?
A:  Just before Eve.


Church Bulletin Blooper:  For those who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.


Q:  Who in the Bible besides Adam and Eve had no parents?
A:  Joshua son of Nun


To dwell above with saints we love--oh, that will be glory!  To dwell below with saints we know--oh, that's another story!


One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory.


The unexamined faith is not worth believing.  The unexamined faith is not worth living.  Belief usually does not stand still.  It grows and develops, regresses, stagnates, and changes.


QUOTE OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY IN SDA CIRCLES:  "In her writings, Ellen White used sources more extensively than we have heretofore been aware of or recognized."  - The late Neal C. Wilson (March 20, 1980); former president, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists


While sin remains in the believer's life, it does not REIGN.


Once you believe God loves you, you are in God's family.


There is none so blind as those who refuse to see.


"The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is the knowledge of our own ignorance."  - Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers


Prayer is the Godward reach of the human spirit.


It takes a lot of faith to step out from under the rules and regulations that do not exist into an Absolute Love that does not depend on the position of the sun.


All four Gospel writers spent over 50 percent of their accounts recording events of this one week--Passion Week.


Salvation is like being born (actually, it IS being reborn) once you are born you can never be un-born.  You will always be your parent's child.  You will always be God's child.  You can never be UN-reborn.


All that glitters is not gold.  All that sounds pious and holy is not Gospel.


"We don't have to be good to be saved, but we have to be saved to be good."  - Desmond Ford


"There are only two types of Adventists—the deceived and the dishonest."  - Dale Ratzlaff


The Christian Church was born on Pentecost Sunday as foreshadowed in the Mosaic Covenant.

Jesus doesn't come to visit us at a certain place on a certain day each week—He dwells in us!


My salvation is not based on how much I know, but who I know.


We are not saved by a sunset calendar.


Salvation occurs at the beginning of the journey, not at the end.


"The Gospel is not a presentation of data;  it's a proposal of marriage!"  - Mark Driscoll


Some doctrines are not just heterodoxical—they're heretical.


The past is history and tomorrow is a mystery.  Today is a gift and that is why we call it a Present!


The creeds do not masquerade as Scripture.


Christians no longer gaze intently upon the fading shadows of the sun for two days out of every week, but rather they focus  upon the unsurpassing glory of God the Son.


If God did not "work in"  His great salvation, we'd have nothing to "work out." The "working out" is the fruit of the "working in."


There are three basic views about  the weekly, festal Sabbath; specifically, continuance, transference, and fulfillment.


If the cross is in you, you carry heaven with you like an aura wherever you go.


Every time the Israelites observed the Sabbath, they knew that someday they would have the perfect rest that remains for the people of God.


Jesus Christ is the Lord of all time and space.


If your faith hasn't changed you, it hasn't saved you.


Christ-followers journey from victory, not to victory.


The Gospel breeds generosity wherever it takes root.


"It is the cry of my heart to follow you.  It is the cry of my heart to be close to You all the days of my life."  - Lyrics of a contemporary Christian song


"God is not the God of the dead, but of the living--even if they are asleep."


Seventh-day Adventism is a microcosm of just about everything it condemns in Catholicism.


A wise man changes his mind seldom, but a fool never.


Sabbath knowing is not Sabbath keeping.


Contemporary tithing is best described as circumcision  of the  wallet.


Grace makes us adopted children.  A works mindset makes us foster children—never quite sure if the Father will turn his back and reject us.


Some Adventists think of Revelation as a three-ring circus and sometimes remember to put Christ in the center ring.


If you could give me only a single description of what you believe, what would it be?


Ellen White is the kingpin of Adventism and the apple of the Adventist eye.


It is indeed a good day to love God!


The New Testament must be allowed to augment, explain, and transform Old Testament statements in a Christ-centered way as progressive revelation.


"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it  I see everything else."  - C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory


Generations of dead Adventists kept their weary eyes on the Papacy and not upon Muslim jihadists.


God's morality does not change with the rotation of the earth.


It is just as offensive to be around a man who never changes his mind as one who never changes his clothes.


If you deny Christ living in your heart, you will eventually deny Him dying on the historical cross as well.


War is an extension of the authority God gives the State to restrain evil.


"There are so many throw-away marriages in the world today.  People get married in the ideal and when it becomes an ordeal, they look around for a new deal."  - Adrian Rogers


A husband asked his wife, "Will you love me when I'm old and unattractive?"  She said, "I do."


We, as Christians,  should not appear as though we were baptized in lemon juice.


In Adventism, being re-baptized means being re-Ellenized.


Ellen White cannot survive the demise of the investigative judgment.


"If you're good—God will love you (that's heathenism)."  - Desmond Ford


Christian growth is not my getting better and better, but my understanding and trusting Jesus getting better and better all the time.


Sadly, most Adventist kids who leave their church do not become Christians.  They fall away into nothing.


Salvation is a gift to be received, not a goal to be achieved.


Annihilationists:  The idea of annihilation makes their uncertainty less terrifying.


Life is a temporary assignment.


It is not the plan of the New Testament to turn people into Jews before they become Christians.


E-vangelism (sharing the Gospel in cyberspace)


G+0=P  (grace plus nothing equals peace)


There needs to be an objective distance from Adventism to tell the story accurately.


"There is no greater or worse death than when death never dies."  -  St. Augustine


Only Christianity teaches that wasting time is a sin.


"The "repeatable" sign of the New Covenant is the Lord's supper.


Religion preoccupied with being right rather than loving deeply has inflicted history's deepest scars.


Truth has nothing to fear.


Americans eat 75 acres of pizza daily.


"Truth invites examination."  - Aristotle


We judge God at our own peril.


The Seventh-day Adventist school system is a place for members to reassure themselves that they are producing "non-thinking" clones of themselves.


Christianity is not a religion, but a faith from the spirit.


Tithing is nothing more than circumcision of the wallet.


One in four US Internet users seek spiritual information online.


"In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; and in all things love."  - Moravian motto


"There's so much bad in the best of us, and so much good in the worst of us, that it scarcely behooves any of us, to pick any fault with the rest of us!"  - Adrian Rogers


"We must not be merely "hope-so" Christians, but rather we should be "know-so" Christians."  - Adrian Rogers


Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.


"The Gospel is the sweetest melody from human lips."  - Desmond Ford


Self-esteem is a lie from the pit of hell.  There is NO self-esteem outside of Christ.


"When Christians get into their cars to go to church on Sunday, they are bearing witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ."  - Dr. D. James Kennedy


The true Gospel is about eternal life, not a longer earthly life.


When a person who is honestly mistaken learns the truth, he will either quit being mistaken, or quit being honest.


"It is altogether doubtful whether any man can be saved who comes to Christ for His help with no intentions to obey Him."  - A. W. Tozer


"I believe that by my own reason or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him.  But the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, and sanctified and preserved me in true faith."  - Martin Luther


"No man knows how bad he is until he has tried to be good."  - C. S. Lewis


"George Whitefield said, 'We are all born Arminians!  It is grace that turns us into Calvinists.'"  - Charles Haddon Spurgeon


THE THREEFOLD PURPOSE OF GOD'S MORAL LAWS:


(1)  To restrain sin in society
(2)  To terrorize people in order to drive them to Christ
(3)  Ethical  guide for believers


Salvation is by grace alone; through faith alone; in Jesus Christ's finished work alone—plus NOTHING.


Some insist that preaching is an act of violence toward the will of the people who have to sit and take it.


"To suppose that whatever God requireth of us that we have power of ourselves to do, is to make the cross of Jesus Christ of none effect."  --John Owens


AM:  Ante meridiem
PM:  Post meridiem


BC:  Before Christ
AD:  Anno Domini (the year of our Lord)


False religions always come short in the three S's: sin, salvation, and the Savior.


THE FIVE SOLAS (the battle cries of the Protesant Reformation)


Sola Gratia
Sola Fide
Solus Christus
Sola Scriptura
Soli Deo Gloria


Adventism:  A religion of self-improvement


If we don't have much faith on the inside, we create religion on the outside.


The regenerate person loves the law, not as a savior, but because it perfectly reflects the heart of the Savior.  "Oh how I love your law!  It is my meditation all the day" (Ps.  119:97).


KEY PERSONS IN THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION:


John Wycliffe (c.1328-1384)  First translator of the Bible into English
Jan Hus (1374-1415) "The Morning Star of the Reformation" (burned at the stake at age 41)
Martin Luther (1483-1546)  Died at age 63; first translator of the Bible into German
Ulrich Zwingle (1484-1531) Swiss reformer later in life; Died at age 47
William Tyndale (c.1484-1536) Notable Bible translator  (i.e., Coverdale-Tyndale Bible upon which the KJV   was later largely based).
Desiderius Erasmus (1469-1536)  Died at age 67 (tried unsuccessfully to reform Catholicism from within)
Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560) Born as Philipp Schwartzerdt and died at age 63;  Luther's collaborator and closest friend; first systematic theologian among the Reformers.
John Calvin (1509-1564)  Died at age 55 (buried in an unmarked grave at his own request)
John Knox (1505-1572)   Died at age 67; brought Presbyterianism to Scotland.




Biblical Covenants:


Adamic
Noahic
Abrahamic
Mosaic (Old Covenant)
Davidic
New Covenant


THEOLOGICAL TERMINOLOGY:


Hamartiology--Study of sin
Soteriology--Study of salvation
Ecclesiology--Study of the Church
Eschatology--Study of the End Times (prophecy)
Bibliology--Study of the Bible
Theology--Study of God
Christology--Study of Christ
Pneumatology--Study of the Holy Spirit
Angelology--Study of angels
Nomology--Study of the Law
Anthropology--Study of man


BCE:  Before Common Era
CE:     Common Era
Note: Avid secularists heartily applaud this new terminology because it attempts to bypass and/or downplay the central importance of Jesus Christ in the annals of human history. Moreover, the BCE and CE designations literally remove the name of Jesus to quiet the unbeliever's conscience while doing historical research.  They have found a way to no longer need to even say His name.


The law of God is "holy, just, and good" just like God Himself is also.


If you own just one Bible, you are abundantly blessed, one-third of the world does not have access to even one.


THINGS YOU'LL NEVER HEAR IN CHURCH:


  • Hey, it's my turn to sit in the front pew.
  • I was so enthralled, I never noticed your sermon went 25 minutes over time.
  • Personally, I feel witnessing is much more enjoyable than golf.
  • I've decided to give our church the $500.00 a month I used to send to TV evangelists.
  • I volunteer to be a permanent teacher for the Junior High Sunday School class.
  • Forget the denominational salary scales, let's pay our pastor so he can live like we do.
  • I love it when we sing hymns I've never heard before!
  • Since we're all here, let's start the service early.
  • Pastor, we'd like to send you to this Bible Seminar in the Bahamas.
  • Nothing inspires me and strengthens my commitment like our annual stewardship campaign!


The place to start curbing crime is not in the electric chair, but rather in the high chair.


Jesus is our Jubilee, our atonement, and our Sabbath of Sabbaths.


The Shekinah Presence was the only part of the sanctuary that was not symbolic.


There is no sorrow too deep that God cannot soothe it, and there is no sorrow on earth that He cannot heal.


We are chosen by the Father, purchased by the Son, and sealed by the Holy Spirit—O blessed God, Three in One!


If you can read these gems, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read anything at all.


We need to stop "Judaizing" Christianity and start "Christianizing" the  world. 

We need to make it clear that Jesus came first not to make bad people good, but to make dead people alive.

We need to hear the gospel every day, not because we forget the facts of the gospel, but because we disbelieve the truth of the gospel.

"Arminianism weakens the godness of God and exalts the humanity of man, while Reformed theology emphasizes over and over that God is God and man is man."  - Philip Ryken

A performance-oriented life leads to pride when we succeed and to despair when we fail, but ultimately it leads to slavery.

The Dearth of Expository Preaching
"This is the age of the sermonette, and sermonettes make Christianettes."   - Michael Green

"Humans are not sinners because they sin, but rather they sin because they are sinners."  - John MacArthur (www.gty.org)


THE FIVE SOLAS OF THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION: Salvation is by grace alone, through  faith alone, in Christ alone, according to Scripture alone, and for God's glory alone.


We don't give birth to ourselves.  Our adoption is a merciful, sovereign act of God.  Both our physical and  spiritual births are done for us as a gift from God (John 6:37,65; Romans 9:14,16,18,21).  It's all about Him!  Soli Deo Gloria!

"As soon as you think God is somehow obligated to save you then your salvation is no longer of mercy."  - John Hendryx

We must grow spiritually until our eschatology is no longer panic theology.

"Most people, sometime in the lives, stumble across truth. Most jump up, brush themselves off, and hurry on about their business as if nothing had happened."  - Winston Churchill

"When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest." - Richard Humpal

"Money cannot buy happiness but it's more comfortable to cry in a Mercedes than on a bicycle."  

"Men want God as a thief wants a policeman."
- Dr. Michael Horton (an excerpt from his commentary on Romans 3:10-12)

It's not your grip on God that keeps you safe, but rather it's God's grip on you (John 10:27-29).

"If your heart doesn't ache for people who don't know Christ, you may not know Christ yourself."  - Burk Parsons, editor of Tabletalk magazine

There is no pit so deep, no night so dark, no sin so enslaving, no shame so stark that His grace cannot redeem.

A contemporary message on a church sign: "Tweet others as you want to be tweeted."

"Show respect even to people who don't deserve it, not as a reflection of their character, but as a reflection of yours."
- Dave Willis

"The Christian is not a good man. He is a vile wretch who has been saved by the grace of God."  - Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981)

"God does not accept me just as I am; He loves me despite how I am."
- David Powlison

"A  dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent."
- John Calvin

"Someday you will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. Don't believe a word of it. I shall be more alive than I am now. I will just have changed my  address. I will have gone into the presence of God." - Billy Graham

"The first 50 years of marriage are the hardest."

"The man whose Bible is falling apart is not."

In Adventism, being re-baptized means being re-Ellenized.

If your faith hasn't changed you, it hasn't saved you.

"A lie repeated a thousand times does not become true by the telling."  - Richard Bennett, former Roman Catholic priest(www.bereanbeacon.org)

"If any man thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him; for you are worse than he thinks you to be." - Charles Spurgeon

"Those who are passed over by God will never complain that God is being unfair. Left to themselves, they have no desire to be chosen." - Iain M. Duguid







courtesy of

DENNIS FISCHER MINISTRIES
Worldwide Chaplaincy Services
E-mail:  dfministries@gmail.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/dfministries