Do I Need My Phyisical Bible Or Will My Phone App Suffice?

My goal is not to offend anyone but I must share my opinion due to a young person asking this question of me.

I understand we live in a period of conveinance and honestly a time when the easiest path to every thing is sought for.

This has now reached the ranks of the Apostolics, coffee in the pew, sitting down through what passes for modern worship services ( I am not speaking of the handicaped or sick), wearing of whatever you might wear to Wal Mart instead of bringing your best before God ( if it is your best then thats fine). I think what bothers me the most of all is the use of mobile phones in the church. To see adults and children alike sitting watching videos or checking Facebook while the preacher preaches himself sick in the pulpit. Where did the reverence go? Where did the respect for the house of God go. Where did the desire for the word to heal, corrct and renew go? Why are your children watching shows on Ipads in the church, we have grown lazy and now depend on technology to babysit even in church, come on! Don't we realize that what we allow or promote them to do in service now will be the church culture of tomorrow?

That brings me to the question of the day. I personally believe that the Bible app invention has brought the child of God further from God than most other things. We now hold the word of God, the two edge sword captive in the same device that we may have used to view sin, promote gossip, plan evil, laugh at the calamity of others, not to mention the Bible now has to compete with the very thing that has taken the mind of the elect from having the mind of Christ. How many times during your "Bible" time has the phone rang, text alert chimed or facebook dinged and you laid aside your Bible and became caught up in whatever that phone delivered to you? I think God abhors these devices that have become attached to us like a tumor. Iphone or Android has become like another apendage on our bodies, we are never far from the life flow of the modern age, the information highway known as smart devices.

I am firmly against Bible apps taking the place of the leather bound 66 books of inspiration that I hold in my hands daily. No way will I ask the source of my inspiration to share space with one of the sources of my temptations. Are they helpful on the go? Of course they are, so is a plastic fork but at the dinner table with a feast laid out a metal fork is all I need.

Do you know the feeling of laying that great word of God on your chest when stress has just about taken your joy, when fear is trying to overshadow you have you ever laid that worn out book on your forehead and let the peace of God come over you?

Has modern, strobe light, smoke filled giant showcases of what passes for churches not stolen enough from the roots of salvation, do we feel the need to pass so far away from the old paths that even the word of God has to be shoved into a device with all that hell has to offer. NO NO NO NO. Not on my watch. I find peace in the pages of the word of God, i find comfort in the history of the movings of my God.

No more Sword Drill game, no more scripture challenge! No please no. Bring it back!

To the generation of now, stop the cycle. Why do you need to change it all and take away what has worked for generation after generation. Oh I beg you, fall in love with scripture, put it in your hands, feed it to your heart and share it with your mouth.

• Psalm 119 11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

Willful Sin

I was asked the question, if a person goes out and gets drunk do they have to receive the Holy Ghost again? The following is my response and I thought it might be a help to others as well. It is my attempt to reply with simplicity and to be able to be understood at whatever level of Bible knowledge a person might have.

The first question that has to be asked is this. If a person has the Holy Ghost why would they do something that is so obviously wrong? Using the example of drinking lets ask this question. Do you not have to choose to pour and drink that beverage? Yes, so it was a choice to do so. You don't accidentally get drunk. Now is it possible to accidentally sin? Yes! There are times we lie without knowing we did. Sometimes we say words by accident without thought. I believe God understands this and forgives when we ask. Sin on purpose is not accidental. Adultery, fornication, drug use, alcohol abuse, ect is no accident because it requires planning and a desire to put oneself into the position to do that sin.

I don't think the question should be "do you have to receive the Holy Ghost again" I think it should be "what happened to my Holy Ghost that caused me to want to sin" Somewhere before the sin was fulfilled there was a weakening of the spirit. Wilful sin happens when the person is not strong in the spirit. It doesn't happen in a flash. For instance a person doesn't go from being in the spirit to walking into a bar and drinking. It happens after someone stops praying through to the spirit and stops having a relationship with God.

Hebrews 10:26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,

Our previous repentance doesn't cover future sin, therefore our first works (repentance) must be repeated. Not just words but in sincere sorrow and a desire to not repeat that sin.

Revelation 2:5 lends credibility to this statement as God sent word to a church that had sinned.

Rev 2:5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

Repentance and forgiveness is in place for the sorrowful sinner, far too often though it's misused to ease the conscience of a person who desires to be known as Godly but is in love with sin.

There is great danger here because while God's mercy renews daily and his love knows no end, we do know that he is a jealous and awesome God.

The very real and dangerous truth is that we as carnal humans grow used to sin and the need for repentance grows less and less as our conscience begins to justify and normalize sin.

That's the long answer. :) Short answer is this, YES we have to go back and repent and get a refilling of the Holy Ghost. Even without the presence of sin we should desire to be refilled daily. The largest question remains, why did we sin to begin with? Find that answer and you can gain control over that weakness.

God bless you for asking such an important question.

Seasons of Change, A God of Consistency

As the years unfold and time goes by I have learned that seasons in life change just as in nature. It is so easy to be motivated when the sun shines and a nice breeze washes across your face on a warm spring day, but when the harsh heat of summer hits here in Alabama and the temperature hits 105 with no breeze you begin to long for the cool days of Fall. As the mild cool days of fall begins we relax and enjoy the respite from those hot days and enjoy the cool, crisp mornigs. All to soon they fade and the dark, cold, rainy days of winter comes. Temperature in the single digits and frozen water makes you long for the warm spring days and the gentle breezes. Its a cycle that repeats year after year with very little change. Our spiritual lives are no different. We go through periods of blessing and spiritual highs, easy to worship and easy to break through and walk in the Holy Ghost, but when those times of ease fade away we began to wonder what we have done to deserve this change in our lives. Often it is nothing more than a opprtunity of growth in our lives. See, here in our climate we have to have the cold, freezing weather and lots of rain to reset our growing cycle for a new season of growth to occur in the next phase. When life gets a little dark, cold and it seems the sun may not ever shine, take this as a time to prepare for growth. Get deeper in prayer, worship harder, study the word until its imprinted on your heart and in your mind. The season will change but its up to you and I to make sure we are available when it does. Think about two climates in our world that changes very little year to year. The desert remains dry, barron and desolate for the most part, the frozen tundra remains, cold, frozen and unlivable for most. Change is necessary for growth. The key to surviving the extreme changes is to hold to the hand of an unchanging Father.

Hebrews 13:8 says: Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. The seasons may change but the one who speaks the changes into existence remains the same. Consistently loving and growing us through out all conditions. 2 Timothy 1:7 says: “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

With the infilling of the Holy Ghost (Acts chapter 2) comes a power that gives you the ability to overcome (Acts 1:8). We are designed to thrive in the growing season and the season of preperation. God commands us as to how we should react. Philipians 4:11-13 says:

[11] Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. [12] I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

He knows our needs and if we are attentitive to his voice we will be well prepared to not only survive but flourish in all seasons of our walk with God.

Worship today like the sun won't shine tomorrow, study the word as though the light will vanish from the sky by morning. Being full of the Holy ghost ensures us the ability to survive the dry spells in our lives.

God bless you.

Pastor Chris Teeples