e4God.com - Jesus is Alive

If you used to have a blog here, and want to recover your old content from before our new format was introduced, see info link below:

Click > http://www.e4god.com/alive/?cat=41

“Attempt great things for God, Expect great things from God”

Hindi ako mahilig magsulat at magbasa pero para sa kapurihan at karangalan ni Hesus, gagawain ko ito ng buong puso na may pasasalamat sa Kanyang kabutihan at kadakilaan sa aking buhay.

-Arvin Alcantara Cunanan

Isang magandang araw sa iyo kaibigan! My name is Arvin Alcantara Cunanan. I live in Barangay San Pedro, Bustos, Bulacan. I’m 21 years old and I was born on April 5, 1987. My dad is Mr. Ruperto C. Cunanan Sr. and my mom is Mrs. Florida A. Cunanan. I grew up in a family with strong background in Catholicism. Most of my relatives are devoted Catholic members. In fact, I was a member of knights of the altar or what we called the “Sakristan” during my elementary days. Every Saturday and Sunday, I went to Sto. Nino Parish Church to served and helped the priest. I worship idols and other graven images. Ang paniniwala ko noon ay dapat talaga silang sambahin at luhuran but I’m wrong. I thank God kasi hindi Niya hinayaan na maging huli ang lahat para sa Akin. I don’t want to go to hell. Spending my eternal life in the Lake of Fire. I really thank God because He used my uncle Benie who is now the Pastor of Jesus Is Lord Church Milan Italy Chapter, to shared the Gospel to me and to my family.

Last year 2000, I and my family were converted into Born Again Christian. I praise God for the changes that happened in our lives. Changes in our beliefs and in our lifestyle. Now, my whole family is serving the Lord God Almighty. Thank God for sending His only son, Jesus Christ to die on the cross of Calvary. He paid the price for our sins. He redeemed us. He saved us from the wrath of God. Praise be to the living God.

2 Corinthians 5:17 “therefore, if anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation. The old has gone and the new has come.”

Recently, I have stumbled upon a website written by a woman who claims she is a prophet, or in her case, a prophetess, who has made many claims pertaining to The Rapture, (see below) and then she backs them up with an exhaustive scripture study, which seems quite convincing. As a Jesus Freak, I want to Believe, but I just don’t know. I am wondering if anyone else has heard of this woman and if she provides a substantive addition to the Body of Christ as a prophet should ? Or is she just plain dangerous & should be considered a “False Prophet” ? (example: On another of her pages she actually claims that Heaven is located on the planet Saturn, and then backs it all up with scripture!!!)

reposted from http://www.prophecycorner.com/agee

Read the rest of this entry »

Our old blogs are now open again, for 3 days only, to allow former bloggers the chance to recover their old content.

HISTORY:

As a God honoring site, we had to close the old blogs when they were overrun by porn and drug spammers, etc. The abuse was too rampant and concerted for us to overcome. And so we laid down our “web life” here as free Christian blog hosting providers in favor of purity and not giving the devil a foothold.

As you now know, we started a new blog with WORDPRESS standard version instead of WORDPRESS MU.

The blog you are reading now is our new blog. It is easier to maintain as far as keeping spammers out - but the downside is that it does not allow each member to register their very own own blog name, or create and customize their own theme.

Going Forward, former blog owners have two basic options.

OPTION ONE - MOVE YOUR OLD CONTENT TO ANOTHER BLOG PROVIDER

Login to your old control panel, at the same web address you used to have for your old blog. In the control panel (SITE ADMIN) find a link for EXPORT or BACKUP. Save the resulting file to your computer. Later, you can upload this export to a fresh install of Wordpress, or another blog that can import a wordpress backup.

Any wordpress hosting provider will do, but some are better than others - faster, more reliable, won’t run objectionable ads on your blog… so do some research!

OPTION TWO - WE CAN START OVER WITH NEW WORDPRESS MU TO PRESERVE YOUR OLD BLOG ADDRESS

We can install a fresh version of Wordpress MU - the software that ran our old blogs - at the same URL as before, so that you can keep your domain / URL / Web Address as before…

If you have lots of links out there pointing to your old blog, this would be a good solution.

If we gave you a week to backup - then closed the old blogs, it would shut down thousands of blog spammers. Once we launch the new installation, you could then upload your backup. The new installation would probably have a few dozen to a hundred or so of our best old blogs (instead of thousands of spam blogs) thus accomplishing our goal of purity.

The new site would be easier to maintain on a day to day basis, as far as eliminating spammers. We would not have to sort through 5000+ blogs nor look at all the smut to do it.

However, we must at the same time have a volunteer staff of moderators to prevent porn and drug site spammers from overrunning the new site.

Comments? Any volunteers?

Please respond by posting a comment. Include your old blog address if you had one here.

Almost all growing ministries are using media to illustrate their teaching and preaching. It is almost necessary in this media driven culture to communicate using videos, music, movie clips, etc. to convey our Biblical messages. Computers and video projection have become a vital part of our communication within the churches and ministries. It is part of being “relevant”. Jesus was relevant to his hearers. He used seeds, harvest, and sowing to communicate to the agricultural culture of his listeners. He spoke of nets, fish, and spoke from boats to the fishing communities. The challenge is staying relevant without crossing the line of being irreverent. We must be careful that in our effort to be relevant we do not compromise our Christian values.

A number of years ago my family moved into a new area. We were church hunting. Many people were talking of a new church that was meeting in a local YMCA. It was the fastest growing church in an area that had an abundance of churches. We decided to give a try on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. As we drove in the parking lot we were warmly directed to a parking space by the parking ministry. We were greeted at the door with a strong handshake, a smile, and directions to the Starbucks coffee and donuts (Yea!!!). So far this church was doing great in the second “R”, being relational.  I was even allowed to take my precious Starbucks coffee into the sanctuary!  Awesome!  The service began without a prayer, Hmmm?  An acoustical group came forth and opened with a song made popular at that time by the Dixie Chic’s, “Landslide”.  I have used secular songs and changed the words to convey a Christian message to reach kids.  I heard that “Amazing Grace” was once a bar song and the writer changed the words.  No words were changed in this song, but I thought that the pastor was going encourage us on how life’s challenges can come land sliding down on us but Jesus can pull us out of the rubble.  I was trying to stay open.  The liturgy was not what I was accustomed to as I thought praise and worship was next, but the pastor followed up the song with an introduction to a video clip on the big screen.  The clipped rolled and the popular characters from the show “Friends” came to the big screen.  I am not too pious to say that I have not watched and enjoyed the show, but there were parts of the show that sometimes I got convicted for watching and enjoying.  On this clip all the characters were sitting around a table trying to celebrate Thanksgiving.  Someone had forgotten the turkey and they were sharing a grilled cheese sandwich, each making a comment as they passed it around.  The last one to get the sandwich and make a comment was Chandler.  His comment was “This s__cks!”  The line of being relevant and reverent had been crossed for me.  I half heartedly tried to stay open thinking, “I would not have used that clip but surely the pastor will redeem this as he used the clip to illustrate his message.  He preached a good message about the memorial stones that Joshua pulled from the Jordan River.  He never used the “Landslide” song or the video clip as part of the illustrations to his sermon.  They were there just because they were relevant to the culture of that time.  Did he cross the line?  Was being reverent compromised to be relevant? 

In my first blog I used the illustration of a cake recipe.  Too many eggs and the cake is no good.  Too much sugar and only we sugarholics will like it.  We must always measure and evaluate our ministries.  In our zeal to communicate relevantly we must be careful to not compromise our being reverent towards Jesus.  I believe this is one of the greatest challenges to those called to teach and preach today.  How far can we go to illustrate our messages before we compromise our Christian values?  Please, preachers and teachers, do not stop in your efforts to relevantly communicate.  I personally enjoy a good object lesson or video clip when you communicate.  We need to just prayerfully evaluate our efforts and ask the Holy Spirit to help us communicate so we do not bring an offense to our Lord or others.

In my next blog I hope to reverse this thinking and see that we can be so reverent (religious) that we can become irrelevant.

The TV show “Saving Grace” gives us a hard working cop lady who has a bad day, cries out, “God Help Me” and suddenly has a beer drinking angel in her life.

This “angel” teaches our title character Grace about tolerance, says a few on target things about God, and even encourages her to avoid a revenge murder against her former childhood rapist/abuser who resurfaces. Oh, yeah…. the man that raped her as a child was apparently a Roman Catholic Priest.  But nevermind… I don’t want to go there right now…

This “angel” encourages good works in her life. But… he hangs out in bars with her, pours her an  occasional beer, has drinks with the cast, and otherwise stands by or looks the other way while Grace  engages in a variety of unacceptable behaviors. He says nothing when our cop lady tells lies to get what she wants. He says nothing about the fact that she has wild sex with her partner in the bathroom at the local bar, nor when she beds the occasional married man. Finally, this “angel” clearly fails to intervene in the murders and other mayhem that routinely take place on the show.

Now… is this how the world sees Christianity? Is it supposed to portray Christianity at all?  Would it work if Christianity were a fairly tolerant belief system?  What if Christianity were almost meaningless because it cannot really change the world?  Is that a happy thought? 

Do you think this show illustrates the Christian influence on the world?  Is it enough to show Christianity as a non-judgmental spirituality? Is it notable in demonstrating that God offers grace to the unsaved?  Are those good things to illustrate?  Is there more to Christianity that this?

Would it be OK if the angel’s tolerance helps build enough of a trusting relationship that the title character comes to know God in the final episode? Would that make it OK to illustrate the Kingdom’s involvement in our world the way it is portrayed in this show?

Your thoughts?

In a classic struggle between good and evil, with a lot of exploration of human nature… 

Do you see any spiritual lessons in the movie, Batman - The Dark Knight?

Fair warning. This one will probably shake you a bit. At least it will shake many who think they know what it means to live their faith.

There is a big difference between knowing ABOUT something and knowing HOW TO DO something. I can know everything ABOUT a sport, but not be able to play the sport. Big Difference!

So… I ask before the teaching…. Do you know ABOUT God? Do you know ABOUT Christianity? That’s Too Bad. Christianity is not a spectator sport. Learning ABOUT God and the Christian Life show that you have begun something. But there is so much more power available to you.

The better question is, do you know “HOW TO”… HOW TO BE God ? How to DO God?

What, you ask? That sounds like heresy! A Blasphemy? Maybe a misguided New Age False Prophet Message? Hmmmm……. Not so fast. Let’s dig a little deeper.

Using a little legal language for sake of an example….. Christians are called to be the agents of God in this world. An “agent” can act for the one who sent him - or his “principal”. An agent has the legal rights of the principal, and should both act as the principal (to represent and safeguard reputation) and should be treated as the principal when the principal is not present. The Agent can sign contracts on behalf of the principal - thereby BINDING the principal to PERFORM a contract.

Now… where do we get the commission or charge to be an AGENT of God? First, an example, and then the appointment of Christians to DO God instead of just know about Him.

The Example: Jesus said, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father”. Jesus often said he and the Father were “ONE”. Being one is more than being an Agent. It is a mystery of the Faith. I propose that the best way we might understand this from earthly experience seems to be the concept of Agency. However, I fully realize that this is more than agency that Jesus speaks about.

The Charge: Before Christ left this earth, he prayed for us - that we would be ONE in Him, just as He is ONE in the FATHER. He also gave us the “Keys to the Kingdom” saying whatever we BIND on earth would be BOUND in heaven, and whatever we LOOSED on earth would be LOOSED in heaven. Do you know the verses for these quotations? Maybe somebody will post a comment with the bible addresses?

THE POINT IS: If Christ asked the Father, and He and the Father are one…. Then the prayer is answered in the affirmative. It’s not so strange, really. It would be like you asking yourself to do something for your child.

SO HERE IS WHERE IT GETS POWERFUL: If we are one in Christ, and Christ is one in the Father, then if you have seen me - you have seen THEM. By the power of the Holy Spirit - we are ONE. What I do here, He ratifies or performs from there. Hmmm…. What I condemn, He condemns. What I forgive, He forgives. What I promise or contract for, He will perform. Can you say “OMG”.

Rather than filling me with Pride or Arrogance, this concept is humbling. I aspire to DO God rather than know ABOUT God. I have reached this pinnacle of the faith on occasion, but being an imperfect vessel, this certainly does not happen as often as I wish. Nor does the experience last as long as I wish. However, I strive as Paul did to press onward, finish the race, attain the prize of my Holy Calling.

BTW: If a prize is worth attaining, it might be ok to enjoy the attainment. It’s OK to enjoy the prize of our calling to BE God instead of just know ABOUT God. So don’t give me a load about False Humility. God is worshipped when I enjoy the attainment of the mystery of DOING His work here on earth.

And so…. I ask again….

Do you know ABOUT God or do you know HOW TO DO God?

What difference does this make in your life? Comments? Examples? Criticisms? Let’s hear!

Conventional or judgmental theology is NOT FOUND HERE ; )

If you want hair splitting, mind numbing debates about right and wrong, recitations of historical and classical theology, dogmatic teaching, or efforts at logical proof about what is God and what is not God….

You will probably need to go to another web space !

This blog is for publication of contemporary and authentic views, issues, world news from a Christian Perspective, ministry news, individual concerns, meditations, praises, prayer requests, testimonies, struggles, victories, and thoughts about LIVING the Faith in this era.

C’mon…. Join in!

Sometimes I struggle with my faith. Something I should not do seems good, even feels good.

If I avoid that behavior I am uncomfortable. I want that good feeling. Without it I will be uncomfortable, maybe even miserable… For a season.

But in the end, I will overcome and remove some of the clouds that keep God’s light from reaching my heart and mind. The more of His light I walk in, the more peace and joy I will have. When I overcome, then it is good. I can do more for the Kingdom by bringing more God into the world.

I praise him in the struggle. I praise him in the Dark Night….

Because I know what sweet times await when I can praise him in the light!