Was just driving and listening to a message. At one point the pastor read a verse that was fitting. And in my head (although I’ve done it audibly at times) I said “Amen!”
Which led me to think:
Do we suppress our voices for the sake of perceived order and respect, in not saying Amen? Do we suppress the joy in expelling the spiritual utterances that can only be found in an “amen?”
Not that it should be done in excess and without thought, but in agreement to what is shared. Perhaps trusting that the prompting of an amen, is where we affirm that which the Holy Spirit conveys in our hearts and edifies in our souls!
May we be more freeing to allow our spirit to commune with the Holy Spirit in a way that honors Him!
Psalms 41:13
Blessed be the LORD God of Israel
From everlasting to everlasting!
Amen and Amen.
God Before Us
Deuteronomy 1:29-33
“Then I said to you, ‘Do not be terrified, or afraid of them. The LORD your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you, according to all He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness where you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place.’ Yet, for all that, you did not believe the LORD your God, who went in the way before you to search out a place for you to pitch your tents, to show you the way you should go, in the fire by night and in the cloud by day.”
Moses recounts Israel’s journeys with The Lord. From the time of their captivity in Egypt through their journey into the promised land, God was with them. Having arrived at the place He reserved for them, Israel did not enter in but allowed their fears to consume them. Yes, the land was good and plentiful, but the giants they faced were a source of great concern, turning into fear and doubt. Fear of the problems bigger than they, and perhaps doubt that God would see them through, hindered God’s immediate plan for them.
The avoidance of the next step forward resulted in Moses’ exhortation to not be terrified of these unknown. God knows. Perhaps they had forgotten the power of God up to this point, but Moses reminded them. My take on how Moses probably spoke to them: Don’t worry, He will fight for you. He freed you from your years of bondage. He performed miracles right before your eyes, seeing the impossible things that only a mighty God can do. When you were in the dessert place and lacked any resources of your own to survive, He provided. From where you were back then to where you are now, He carried you as a man carries his son. It was He who searched out the place to pitch your tent. It was He who went out before you. He led you by day and night, lightning the way in the darkness of night and protecting you from the heat of the day. God is not only in the deliverance, but the journey and final destination. God will lead you and fight for you! He has done it before. He will do it again.
So what are you to do? Just believe and follow Him. Don’t let what you perceive, to be bigger than what you have already seen Him do. Take each step in faith as He remains faithful even in your times of fears and faithlessness. Really, with God before you, who can be against you. Perhaps you are facing new uncharted territory which requires one step forward. What will determine the next move, fear or faith in the One who goes before you?
Warning from a Friend
Sounding the Alarm – Shincheonji A New Cult in our Area
These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.
(Acts 17:11)
Yesterday morning, I was at our church building with my family.
I was getting ready to leave to go see my fellow pastor friend, Ray, out in New Jersey.
Then in walk these three nice looking young men. Each man wore a mask, was dressed well, they were polite and presented themselves well.
They introduced themselves as from a church in the Long Island City area of Queens.
They wanted to network with churches in the area in order to bring them together for the same cause.
All sounded good and normal.
(See the flyer they gave me in English and Spanish here)
Target acquired
They then asked, “Are you the pastor?”
I replied as I oftentimes do, “Yes, I’m one of the servants here.”
They then proceeded to perk up, and to quickly gather around me.
I realized I was their “target” they were seeking.
A discernment was arising
They began telling me how their church teaches the entire Bible and that their organization graduated over 100,000 students recently.
Inside I’m thinking, “Okay…I’ve been in New York City for about 20 years and it’s extremely rare to find a church that teaches through the entire Bible here. You’ve got over 100,000 students? Wait a minute. How come I’ve never heard of you before?!”
It just didn’t sound right!
Within me, something was not sitting right.
Let me just say, something inside me was growing with a great discomfort.
One of the men said, “We want to teach our word.”
I thought he made a mistake. As in, he didn’t say he wanted to teach God’s Word. But he said, “Our word.”
And then he said it again, that they wanted to “teach our word.”
The Comforter (the Holy Spirit) was not giving me His comfort in this conversation. More like a chaos within.
I wasn’t discerning they were “brothers” in the same born again faith.
I started to sense that they were trying to set me up to get involved in whatever their project was.
The spiritual discernment was rising more and more within me.
Normally, when I’d meet a Christian brother who’s doing a church plant, I’d get excited for the man and want to pray for them before they go on their way.
However, this was very different.
They came off in a “cultish” way.
They were polite, but tried a few times to make an appointment with me to be able to discuss their project.
(See the flyer they gave me in English and Spanish here)
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
(1 John 4:1)
I praise the Lord who gives discernment, warnings and wisdom – especially right when I need it!
They wanted to show me a video of their many students. I politely declined, as I was getting ready to leave for New Jersey to see a friend.
These men were very aggressive in wanting to book an appointment with me to discuss more, and offered to even meet with me in Zoom.
Imagine three salesman pouncing on you at a used car lot.
Yah, it was sort of like that, but in a pseudo-Christian sort of way.
They kept prodding and asking questions about me and the church.
I now know that they were gathering information. They weren’t trying to build a valid relationship.
(See the flyer they gave me in English and Spanish here)
What they didn’t know
What they didn’t know is that the Lord has had us slowly going through Acts 17 in the last several weeks.
God had already prepared us.
The Lord has been convicting my heart to help train Christians to be like the Bereans who “searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.” (Acts 17:11)
To show Christians how to “search the Scriptures” so they can “test all things.”
We even started up a Facebook group called Bereans At The Cross two Sundays ago and have been taking a group through how to do more in-depth Bible Study and Research.
(See the flyer they gave me in English and Spanish here)
Test all things; hold fast what is good.
Abstain from every form of evil.
(1 Thessalonians 5:21-22)
They handed me a flyer (see the link below) and I told them I’d check out their church, and I would get back to them if I was interested in hearing more about their project.
(See the flyer they gave me in English and Spanish here)
The Lord commands us to “Test all things” and further commands us to “hold fast what is good.”
In other words, “keep firm possession of” what is valid and comes from God.
The next command is to “Abstain from every form of evil.” (1 Thessalonians 5:22)
Within context, here’s what this means.
This means that upon the testing of something, what our searching of the Scriptures has found to not be “good” (not from God), we are commanded to reject. It’s “evil.” It’s not from God when put through the test of Scripture.
I’ve been very sensitive to “Test all things.” Especially lately as we’ve been focused on preaching and practicing this.
When I was about to leave the church building, I told my wife and another sister to please, “Pray for me to have more discernment. Those guys seemed cultish.”
A cult that’s targeting pastors right now
As I got into the car, I read that their flyer is targeting church pastors.
(See the flyer they gave me in English and Spanish here)
It says, “Dear pastor and fellow servant of God and Jesus Christ.”
Their flyer mentions they’re called Shincheonji Church of Jesus (New Heaven New Earth).
I noticed Got Questions has a great brief article on Shincheonji (Read it here).
Their founder is a Korean man named Lee Man-hee.
This is the group that was big in the news in 2020 for the South Korean coronavirus outbreak.
I was astonished to find that not only are they a cult, but this group is actually bold enough to directly target church pastors!
I know this first hand, because they just tried to recruit me!
So, apparently their tactics are working in the New York City area.
This is extremely sad and very alerting that they’re able to have success at targeting and fleecing church pastors.
Yet, because most pastors around here are not teaching through the entire Bible, many Christians are probably not aware that this group is a cult.
You see, if church pastors are not giving people “All Scripture,” then Christians will never be fed enough to “be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
Upon reading their flyer, pastors would probably just need to read the headline about “CHURCH REVIVAL AND CHURCH GROWTH.” That’s probably enough to get many pastors to sign up.
In targeting pastors around here, they know who they’re marketing to.
They claim to offer – “Tools to grow and revive your church.”
Their flyer mentions, “Keys to boosting youth involvement.”
Their sales pitch also offers, “Guidance on overcoming pastoral concerns.”
This is marketing and they know the buzz words to attract the attention of what many pastors are thinking about.
“The Fulfillment of Revelation”?
I then noticed that their flyer says, “Presentation on the Fulfillment of Revelation.”
Yes, you read that right. They believe Revelation is fulfilled. That is, that Revelation is specifically being fulfilled through them.
As for Calvary Chapel At The Cross, we just finished teaching through the entire book of Revelation only 15 days ago.
The book of Revelation is still fresh in my heart and mind.
So, hey, reader – know that Revelation has not even come close to being fulfilled!
Their flyer alludes to their belief that we are actually in the “time of the Great Tribulation” right now.
And Shincheonji is definitely not the 144,000 that God prophesies about in Revelation. Read more about that here.
(See the flyer they gave me in English and Spanish here)
The church needs to wake up, search the Scriptures and pray!
Please pray for our church and pray that other church pastors in New York City start teaching through the entire Bible.
The Bible is the only way that born again Christians can be informed, educated and equipped about cults like this.
As a shepherd, I’m simply sounding the alarm that there are wolves masquerading as sheep in our midst.
Christians need to search the Scriptures daily to test all things!
Let’s pray that this cult gets disbanded, that the members get saved and that pastors and Christians around us wake up.
Pastor Drew Segawa
Christmas prayer
One of the lessons learned this year is what God can do through a person who is committed to following Him. No matter how difficult life has been, how many times our hearts fail, or unforeseen changes happen, His love for you remains.
My prayer for you this Christmas and coming new year is: just as the shepherds followed the news of an angel and wisemen followed a star, may you follow Jesus even closer as He guides you through the next set of challenges and changes into nothing but Victories and Blessings, in Jesus name! Amen.
God bless and don't forget there will be a bilingual Christmas Eve service at the church tonight at 5:30PM. Hope to see you there!
P.Gene
What I did on my vacation
I went to church everyday for a week and listened to great teaching each day. Even listened to messages on the radio while driving back and forth from the church at Ocean Grove. On Sunday, I enjoyed the well put together and meaty message at our home church given by our assistant pastor. Was totally blessed and refreshed.
While the messages were all very good and made my vacation enjoyable, perhaps the one message that impacted me the most did not involve words. Not one word was spoken but shots were surely fired and it was at the hands of a vacuum cleaner. Again, every other sermon, teaching and preaching encouraged me in plenty of ways but the vacuuming done right in front of me spoke to me in ways I had not imagined.
After Sunday service, having given one message and sitting in the next, all that was left was to pack up and head for home. I thought God was finished speaking to my heart. Then as we were about to leave, one brother decided he wanted to vacuum that ugly red runner carpet that goes from the front door to the large room. Personally, I would have left it alone and kept walking (not my problem). But yet, he kept vacuuming with such great care and devotion. I couldn't help but think things like: he was serving God, Working as on to the Lord, he sees this as God's house, and the biggie: if we start serving the Lord strong, we must finish serving strong.
By the time he was done, that carpet looked as nice as it possibly could. While a number of verses came to mind, I will leave you with two:
Colossians 3:23-24 “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.”
Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;”
Have a blessed week, don't forget to read your Bibles, and look out for those other messages God wants to share with you. You never know where it's going to come from.
Blessings, P. Gene