I am not asamed of the Gospel

Jude 3: Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. ESV online

2 Timothy 2:15: Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, [2] a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. ESV online

Titus 2:1 But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. ESV online

2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. ESV online

Psalm 1: Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2 but his delight is in the law [2] of the Lord,and on his law he meditates day and night.3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season,and its leaf does not wither.In all that he does, he prospers.
4 The wicked are not so,but are like chaff that the wind drives away.5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.

Acts 17:10 The brother immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.


I promised several months ago that I would speak to my testimony more in later blogs. Well, here is the beginning post of my testimony. Testimonies are good and helpful, only when placed in submission to the acknowledgement, that it is the gospel (the good news) of Christ that saves sinners. The Apostle Paul used his testimony in several instances in the book of Acts, but he always fully preached the gospel along with his testimony.
The first verses I learned and memorized after I was "born again" or converted was the opening verses in the Gospel of John
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life,and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. ESV online
The fact that I was taught these verses proved to be very helpful as a new Christian. A few weeks into my new walk as a believer in Jesus Christ, I had the "pleasure" of sitting down with three Jehovah's Witnesses and talking about God. I do not remember my motives or who initiated the discussion. After all, it was over thirty years ago. What I do remember was, that even though there were three of them and one of me, I was quite sure of who Jesus was. There was nothing they were going to say to wrest me away from that knowledge. I knew what my translation said, the King James Version, and that settled it. I did not care about the assertions that they were making from the Jehovah's Witness translation (The New World Translation) of the bible. I remember the discussion ended, and those particular Jehovah's Witnesses never spoke to me again, they probably shook the dust off their feet when I left.
This first encounter with what I saw, even then, as obvious error was a victory for me. Unfortunately, within a few short months, I was sucked into the Word of Faith/Prosperity movement. I was attracted to the fact that those in this movement that I had met, actually believed that God the Holy Spirit still moved just like He did in the book of Acts. In less than a year, I went from belonging to a small Southern Baptist Church, which was where I was baptized, to being a member of a congregation of about five hundred souls that were sitting under the teaching of a "full gospel preacher". That was the favored description we used for ourselves, after all, we still believed that God heals, that He still gave His children the gifts of Holy Spirit, that His children could still pray and speak in tongues, that the prophetic gifts still flowed, and that the five fold ministry was meant to still be completely active today (apostle, prophet, pastor, evangelist, and teacher). I immersed myself fully into the teachings that I was receiving. I sought to pray in tongues, like those around me in the congregation and soon, through the reading material that was given to me, received the "baptism of the Holy Spirit" in my bed room one evening. I read several books by the "teachers" of the Word of Faith/Prosperity gospel. My favorites were written by Kenneth Hagan and Kenneth Copeland. I thought that I was learning so much. I was really "full" of myself. I was preaching to just about everything that moved. I surely alienated all that were my acquaintances at the time, especially my parents. This introduction to the Word of Faith/Prosperity movement led to my being influenced by the beliefs that were taught in it for almost 28 years. Thankfully, by God's grace, He set me free in January of 2008. I will not go into the details of the intervening years between my joining and my leaving of the Word of Faith/Prosperity movement in this current post.
What I want to most passionately speak to in the rest of this post, is that true truth is ultimately important for a believer in Jesus Christ. Theological error, even slight theological error, can have dire consequences in the life of a believer. I opened this blog post by listing several scriptures concerning the importance of sound doctrine, the study of it, and the adherence to it. The fact that my theology was majorly wrong, affected my life severely. The fact that I and my family were being fed tainted manna for so many years surely did not help my marriage, the raising of my children, or the conduct of my life. For years, I faithfully prayed prayers of faith for various needs of my family,was prayed for and over by a boatload of pastors, elders, lay ministers and friends. I sought wisdom for my family's many troubles from books, radio sermons, tapes from my church's bookstore, and even directly from some of the stars of the Word of Faith/Prosperity movement. It was all to no avail. The many trials and tribulations we were going through as a family just seemed to keep coming. Even with all of the work that my wife and I were doing in all of these pursuits, we seemed to be no better emotionally than any one else that we knew. Sure, we had some great experiences in the charismatic worship services, some great highs emotionally, but these were all temporary.
My wife and I worked hard at the church,we volunteered for just about everything at one time or another, we even were leaders in some of the activities that we were involved in. But the fact is, even with all the studying, praying, and immersion into the activities of the church and the movement, we struggled.
I will speak more to some of these struggles in a later post. The simple fact is that the teachings and the teachers of the false doctrines in the Word of Faith/Prosperity movement failed my family and me. Since we left the movement, we have learned much about true truth at our new church, a Reformed theology church, received sound biblical counseling for months, and have become part of a healthy small group at our church. The best part of having left the false teachings, the lies and deceptions, is that now we are free to be honest. If we are hurting, we can tell someone. We do not have to make the positive confessions, pray the prayers of faith, and put on our "happy camper faces".
That is it for now, as I said I will write more later, but I do want to encourage you, if you are involved in the Word of Faith/Prosperity movement, be honest with God and yourself, repent of the lies and deceptions, and return as quickly as you can to a bible believing, bible preaching church.