Tag: Stephen Kuntzman

Categories
Consider this...

That’s Entertainment

Philippians 4:18, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

In 1985, Neil Postman argued; in his seminal work Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, that the public had an oppressive addiction to entertainment through the content available on television.[1]  Today, media and technology have advanced to the place where this entertainment addiction has risen to epidemic proportions.

https://www.livemint.com/industry/media/media-and-entertainment-projected-to-be-100-billion-industry-by-2030-11664273679645.html

The use of gaming consoles, televisions, smartphones, laptops, personal computers, mp3 players, DVDs, tablets, and so on has swept our culture.  These technologies entertain people from the cradle to the tomb.  It is common today to see a 4 year old playing a game on a mobile device while nearby a74 year old is playing a Scrabble game on a smartphone.

Other forms of entertainment include: movies, sporting events, amusement parks, outdoor activities, and even literature.  It’s not our suggestion that Christians divorce themselves from all forms of entertainment, but that we choose our entertainment based upon the principles of our faith found in the Word of God.

 As Christians we understand the necessity of adhering to Paul’s teaching when considering what choices we make regarding our entertainment. Therefore, we need to be vigilant when it comes to the content of entertainment we allow into our homes, minds, and even the church house.

With that in mind, Texas pastor and writer Rodney Shaw suggests that Christians ask themselves the following questions when making entertainment choices:[2]

  1. Can I maintain my Christian witness and engage in this activity?
  2. Can I glorify God in this activity?
  3. Can I invoke the blessings of God, praying in the name of Jesus, for my involvement in this activity?
  4. Does this activity leave me feeling as if I have compromised my values?
  5. Would I be comfortable inviting my spiritual mentor to engage in this activity with me?
  6. Does this activity promote godly attitudes and behaviors?
  7. Do I leave this activity more or less equipped for the spiritual life?
  8. Does this activity appeal to my carnal nature, i.e., the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life?
  9. Does this activity portray, promote or condone behaviors, attitudes or philosophies which are condemned in the Bible?
  10. Do I feel guilty, like I am violating my conscience, or the need to repent after I have engaged in this activity?
  11. Am I committed to ceasing my involvement in any activity which turns out to be in violation of biblical principles, including but not limited to turning off a device or walking out of a venue?
  12. How does my commitment of time and resources to this activity compare to my commitment to spiritual disciplines and participation in the life of the church?

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Amusing-Ourselves-Death-Discourse-Business/dp/014303653X

[2] http://rodneyshaw.wordpress.com/2011/01/13/questions-to-help-christians-make-entertainment-choices/ . Accessed: 2/18/2012.

[Originally posted on 18 February 2012 on https://thepillarandgroundoftruth.blogspot.com/2012/02/%5D

Categories
Consider this...

While You’re Waiting

I was going about my daily activity recently when this thought entered my mind: “while you are waiting, God is shaping your life.” I believe that this was God’s way of speaking to me in that moment. So, bear with me as I try to convey this idea in a clear and concise manner.

Joseph was an immature younger brother and it’s possible that he was also a spoiled son doted upon by his father. He had a dream, but he was not ready to receive the fruition of that dream. So, God, in His great wisdom, allowed the 17 year old to be put into precarious situations and he did not see his father until he was 41 years old, at which time his dreams were fully realized. Each trial in Joseph’s life added responsibility and served to increase Joe’s maturity and integrity preparing him for the role he was to play in his dream.

Waiting for the second table : Inmates of the Poor-House on Randall’s Island, East River, at New York City, forming in line for dinner | Artist: Joseph Becker | 13 February 1875

Just as Joseph was not ready, we sometimes find that while we are impatient for fulfillment, we are not quite ready for what God has promised us, or given us in dreams and visions. Therefore, while we are waiting, God is shaping and preparing us to receive the fullness of His promise.

Instead of becoming impatient, we need to learn how to let God shape us. All too often, we can get in the way of God’s plan by allowing the flesh to rise up and prolong the shaping that God’s hand is doing on our inner man as the Great Potter molds us into a vessel that He can use, and if we’re not awfully careful, we can get in the way of the Master’s preparation.

Joseph is a great example to us of one who suffered for his dream, but we read in no passage where he complained or charged God foolishly. In fact, the Word of God indicates twice God’s continued presence even in circumstances where the carnal mind would doubt His proximity (Genesis 39:2 & 21 “…the LORD was with Joseph…”), but Joseph teaches us a principle that will serve us well when our ambition collides with God’s timing.

I admonish you today to trust God in your time of preparation and allow the maturing process to complete its cycle because while you’re waiting, God is shaping your life.

Originally posted on 30 August 2010 on https://thepillarandgroundoftruth.blogspot.com/2010/08/while-youre-waiting.html

Categories
Bible Teaching

Saying the Name of Jesus

According to the late T. W. Barnes, many people pronounce the name of Jesus without really knowing how to say it. He specified four ways to say the name of Jesus:

  1. Say His name with love; the early church had great success, because they loved not their lives, they loved that Name. Love is powerful. Their love gave them reverence for the Name.
  2. Say His name with vision. Say it seeing the invisible. A woman said, “I resist the devil and he doesn’t leave.” Bro. Barnes asked her, “What do you look for? The Bible doesn’t say resist him and see him sitting on your shoulder; when you resist him you should see him running. The devil no doubt left you when you said in Jesus Name, but since you did not expect him to go, your thinking made you as miserable as if he stayed with you.”
  3. Say His name with faith. Religious leaders in Israel asked the disciples, “How did you heal the man crippled from his mother’s womb?” Peter answered, “…by the name of Jesus Christ…”
  4. Say His name while living a life of sacrifice. The disciples sacrificed everything for that name. We need to love it enough that no sacrifice is too great to make for Jesus.

-Nona Freeman, A Prophet in our Time (2007)

********************************

Why is there so much power in the Name of Jesus?  T. W. Barnes attributed it to the following reasons: 

  1. His Word is in it – John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word…”
  2. His Blood is in it – Jesus is a blood name that redeems all people from sin and the effects of sin (sickness, disease, mental disorders, etc.).
  3. His Spirit is in it – The Holy Ghost that you received when you spoke in tongues the first time is that Spirit of Christ in you.
  4. The authority of heaven is in it – All power in Heaven and earth belongs to Jesus Christ.
  5. His faith is in it – He made everything by the power of His own Word; He spoke it and it happened.

–Nona Freeman, A Prophet In Our Time (2007)

T. W. Barnes’ website: https://www.twbarnes.com/index.html

T. W. Barnes Memorial Page: https://www.leestoneking.com/T%20W%20Barnes%20Memorial.htm

Originally posted on 2 June 2010 on https://thepillarandgroundoftruth.blogspot.com/2010/06/tw-barnes-saying-name-of-jesus.html

Categories
Bible Teaching

Jesus Christ: Sonship

Isaiah 9:6 = Jesus is God

The Purpose of Sonship

God has always desired to fellowship with man, but sin came into the human family and separated God from man. The purpose of Sonship was so that God could provide the best means by which He and man could regain their fellowship, and to give dominion over the earth to man again. This fellowship is the result of the sacrifice of the Savior on Calvary. He could only do this by providing complete redemption for mankind. He is the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world, Rev. 13:8. In short, the Sonship is about God and man engaging in a loving and healthy relationship that is void of any hindrances (sin), which would separate each from the other. For that to take place a Mediator (the Son) had to provide reconciliation between God and man. This Mediator was realized in the person of Jesus Christ.

Who Fulfilled the Sonship

Jesus Christ fulfills the Sonship. In Colossians 2:9 we are told that in Jesus dwells all the fullness of the Godhead (all the characteristics of God) bodily, and we (the Church) are complete in Him (Jesus). Paul did say that the Gospel message was a mystery, but then he went on to explain what the mystery was: “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory” (I Timothy 3:16). Only Jesus Christ fulfills these six points. Thus proving the adage, “Jesus Christ of the New Testament is Jehovah of the Old Testament.”

Originally posted on 5 June 2010 on https://thepillarandgroundoftruth.blogspot.com/2010/06/jesus-christ-sonship.html

Categories
church history

Pamphlets from Oneness Pentecostal Writers (Part 3)

Here are some more pictures of pamphlets written by Oneness Pentecostal / Apostolic writers, which I took at my Grandmother’s home in South Bend, IN several years ago.


I read recently that if you want to change your generation you need to preach, but if you want to change future generations then write.  I’m thankful these authors wrote these pamphlets.

Originally posted on https://thepillarandgroundoftruth.blogspot.com/2012/12/more-pamphlets-from-apostolic-writers.html

Categories
church history

Pamphlets from Oneness Pentecostal Writers (Part 2)

Here is an excellent pamphlet written by the late David F. Gray, entitled “Chart of the Seven Men and the Two Natures the Secret of Victory Over satan and Power with God,” which he wrote and published in 1957.

Read and enjoy!

Title: Chart of the Seven Men and the Two Natures

Author: David F. Gray

Publisher: David F. Gray

Year: 1957

Description: The secret of victory over satan and power with God.

Originally posted on 19 April 2010 on https://thepillarandgroundoftruth.blogspot.com/2010/04/seven-men-and-two-natures-rev-david-f.html

Categories
church history

Pamphlets from Oneness Pentecostal Writers (Part 1)

I spent some time in South Bend, IN at my grandmother’s home (Helen Virginia Kuntzman) back in March 2009.

As is my custom when I’m there, I spent a considerable amount of time in my grandfather’s library looking, reading, and studying his collection.

Edwin Eugene Kuntzman

My grandfather (Pastor E. E. Kuntzman) was an Apostolic preacher and went to his eternal reward many years ago. I treasure the library he left behind and the notes he jotted in books, pamphlets, Bibles, and sermons. They are always a blessing to me and their truths are ageless.

My grandparents have several books and pamphlets written by, or about, some of our early pioneers and proponents of the Oneness Pentecostal message. While I didn’t take pictures of them all, the ones below I read this weekend.

Originally posted on 16 March 2009 on https://thepillarandgroundoftruth.blogspot.com/2009/03/pamphlets-from-oneness-pentecostal.html

Categories
Consider this...

Five Reasons to Affirm the Bible is the Word of God -Adrian Rogers

What evidence is there that the Bible is in fact God’s Word?[1]

By: Adrian Rogers

I want to give you five reasons to affirm the Bible is the Word of God.

First, I believe the Bible is the Word of God because of its scientific accuracy. The Truth of the Word of God tells us that God “hangeth the earth upon nothing” (Job 26:7). How did Job know that the earth hung in space before the age of modern astronomy and space travel? The Holy Spirit told him. The scientists of Isaiah’s day didn’t know the topography of the earth, but Isaiah said, “It is [God] that sitteth upon the circle of the earth” (Isaiah 40:22). The word for “circle” here means a globe or sphere. How did Isaiah know that God say upon the circle of the earth? By divine inspiration.

Secondly, the Bible is affirmed through historical accuracy. Do you remember the story about the handwriting on the wall that is found in the fifth chapter of Daniel? Belshazzar hosted a feast with a thousand of his lords and ladies. Suddenly, a gruesome hand appeared out of nowhere and began to write on a wall. The king was disturbed and asked for someone to interpret the writing. Daniel was found and gave the interpretation. After the interpretation, “Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with scarlet, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.” (Daniel 5:29). Basing their opinion on Babylonian records, the historians claim this never happened. According to the records, the last king of Babylon was not Belshazzar, but a man named Nabonidas. And so, they said, the Bible is in error. There wasn’t a record of a king named Belshazzar. Well, the spades of archeologists continued to do their work. In 1853, an inscription was found on a cornerstone of a temple built by Nabonidas, to the god Ur, which read: “May I, Nabonidas, king of Babylon, not sin against thee. And may reverence for thee dwell in the heart of Belshazzar, my first-born favorite son.” From other inscriptions, it was learned that Belshazzar and Nabonidas were co-regents. Nabonidas traveled while Belshazzar stayed home to run the kingdom. Now that we know that Belshazzar and Nabonidas were co-regents, it makes sense that Belshazzar would say that Daniel would be the third ruler. What a marvelous nugget of truth tucked away in the Word of God!

Third, from Genesis to Revelation, the Bible reads as one book. And there is incredible unity to the Bible. The Bible is one book, and yet it is made up of 66 books, was written by at least 40 different authors over a period of about 1600 years, in 13 different countries and on three different continents. It was written in at least three different languages by people in all professions. The Bible forms one beautiful temple of truth that does not contradict itself theologically, morally, ethically, doctrinally, scientifically, historically, or in any other way.

Fourth, did you know the Bible is the only book in the world that has accurate prophecy? When you read the prophecies of the Bible, you simply have to stand back in awe. There are over 300 precise prophecies that deal with the Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament that are fulfilled in the New Testament. To say that these are fulfilled by chance is an astronomical impossibility.

Finally, the Bible is not a book of the month, but the Book of the ages. First Peter 1:25 says: “But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the Word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” No book has ever had as much opposition as the Bible. Men have laughed at it, scorned it, burned it, ridiculed it, and made laws against it. But the Word of God has survived. And it is applicable today as much as it was yesterday and will be tomorrow.

It’s so majestically deep that scholars could swim and never touch the bottom. Yet so wonderfully shallow that a little child could come and get a drink of water without fear of drowning. That is God’s precious, holy Word. The Word of God. Know it. Believe it. It is True.

[1] SOURCE: http://bible.christianity.com/11542346/ ACCESSED: 8/26/2009

Originally posted on 26 August 2009 on https://thepillarandgroundoftruth.blogspot.com/2009/08/adrian-rogers-offers-five-reasons-we.html

Categories
Consider this...

The Gift

“A gift, to be a gift, has to be accepted. Otherwise it lies like a burden between people.”
–Robert Fisher, The Knight In Rusty Armor

I think that we are too casual in explaining the present of the Holy Ghost. Since it is in fact the Spirit of Christ in us, it is no wonder that He would be grieved by those who would not want Him in them. I think of those in the nominal church world who have the same access to the Holy Ghost as all of us in this age of grace and Holy Ghost outpouring, but who merely put it on a shelf and never unwrap it. The gift then lies unwrapped, unaccepted, and a burden.

My first date occurred at a banquet on February 14th, when I was twelve years old. I gave the young lady a present that night, which she accepted. However, later that evening, as she was preparing to go home, I misunderstood something she said. She wanted to go get her present, but I thought that she was saying something else. Consequently, she thought that I was refusing to let her keep the gift. To this day I think she still has little time for me and that event is a burden between two individuals.

LOL!! What a catastrophe!?!?

God is not like that. He not only gives a gift, but He never takes it back and He always knows exactly what we communicate – even when we don’t know how or what to say.

My grandfather began his journey towards God in the late 1940s. He had such an experience in repentance that he received the joy that the Samaritans had in Acts 8, but he had not received the Holy Ghost. His wife then met some Pentecostals and received the Holy Spirit. Grandpa would get upset with her at night because she spoke in tongues before going to bed at night and insisted that he needed more than what he had. It lay as a burden between them. Finally, Grandpa prayed to God and said that he knew he had all that God had for him, but to make his wife happy, would God let him speak in tongues. Instantly, the presence of God that he’d felt since his repentance left him. This was when he knew that God had more for him – it lay as a burden between him and God. He then cried out in repentance for His pride and God filled him with the Holy Ghost speaking in tongues.

Salvation is a gift that unless received in totality will be forfeit no matter who we are. Paul wrote about receiving the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, which is only accessible through Jesus Christ, who is our portion and free gift through grace (Ro. 5:21). Refusal of this gift, in this particular text, results in the refusal of eternal life.

Paul also wrote of the gift he was given charge of by the churches of Macedonia, who gave it to bless the Corinthian church (2 Cor. 8). I imagine that if this gift had been refused that there would have been ought among these two groups.

Unrequited love is often mentioned in literature and even God Himself is mentioned by some as a jilted lover covering His eyes in grief as His Jewish bride rejects Him and He then turns to the Gentiles for succor. I only know that He wept at their obtuseness and they became a people who had eyes but did not see. This rejection of Jesus still lies as a burden between God and the nation of Israel as a whole, but, praise God, Israel did not stumble to fall. I believe that the burden will be lifted when they look on Him whom they pierced and acknowledge Him as Messiah.

We call it the gift of the Holy Ghost and it is, by one man’s estimation, being received by 35,000 people a day throughout the world. Why wouldn’t people want to receive this phenomenon that Christ has paid for with His blood and made available to all people?

Originally posted on 20 March 2008 on https://thepillarandgroundoftruth.blogspot.com/2008/03/gift.html

Categories
Consider this...

Take Me Back: The Problem of Pain

 

I’m reminded of the Andre Crouch song “Take Me Back” (1975). So often in my life it’s been the older songs that I grew up hearing and singing, which resonate deep in my spirit. Here are the words that still speak to me:

Take Me Back
-Andre Crouch

Take me back,
Take me back, dear Lord,
To the place,
Where I first received You.
Take me back,
Take me back, dear Lord,
Where I first believed.

I feel that I’m so far from You Lord,
But still I hear You calling me.
Those simple things,
That I once knew,
The memories are drawing me.

I must confess, Lord, I’ve been blessed,
But yet, my soul’s not satisfied.
Renew my faith,
Restore my joy,
Then dry my weeping eyes.

I tried so hard
To make it all alone
I need Your help
Just to make it home.

Zion Tabernacle
Kokomo, IN

Today, and every day, we need to renew our relationship with God. He is looking for an authenticity from us based on a continuing renewal of the fervor we first had at our initial conversion. The simplicity of our faith and our humility combined with the simplicity of the Gospel resulted in an authentic conversion.

The words “renew my faith, renew my joy, then dry my weeping eyes” is a call get back to the place where we first gave our will to God.

What is it about us that having first come to Jesus with empty hands and totally dependent upon him we now, after being “in the Church” for some time, think we can somehow do it all on our own?

I think that there are many people, especially in their 20s and 30s, that received an initial conversion experience at a young age (6-10), but did not really get converted until later, when they were more mature. This may be why we have trouble as young adults. We “got” the Holy Ghost at a young age, but the Holy Ghost did not “get” get us until later.

It is amazing to me to witness the blessing of God on us and yet we are not satisfied in our relationship with Him because of our own self-sufficiency, pride, and vain living. It is a crutch – a trap of the enemy and the flesh to alienate us from intimacy with Jesus Christ, not a “Jesus is my boyfriend” type of intimacy that we are constantly barraged with in this self-absorbed culture we live in, but a closeness that comes from a genuine relationship with our Savior – a relationship that is deepened every day in the good and the bad that life throws at us.

Paul wrote of a desire to know our Lord Jesus Christ in every facet of life in order that he might one day be resurrected from the dead: “I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!” (Philippians 3:10, NLT).

C. S. Lewis addressed the purpose of suffering in his book The Problem of Pain in this way:

My own experience is something like this. I am progressing along the path of life in an ordinary contentedly fallen and godless condition, absorbed in a merry meeting with my friends for the morrow or a bit of work that tickles my vanity to-day, a holiday or a new book, when suddenly a stab of abdominal pain that threatens serious disease, or a headline in the newspapers that threatens us all with destruction, sends this whole pack of cards tumbling down.

At first I am overwhelmed, and all my little happinesses look like broken toys. Then, slowly and reluctantly, bit by bit, I try to bring myself into the frame of mind that I should be in at all times. I remind myself that all these toys were never intended to possess my heart, that my true good is in another world and my only real treasure is Christ. And perhaps, by God’s grace, I succeed, and for a day or two become a creature consciously dependent on God and drawing its strength from the right sources. But the moment the threat is withdrawn, my whole nature leaps back to the toys: I am even anxious, God forgive me, to banish from my mind the only thing that supported me under the threat because it is now associated with the misery of those few days. Thus the terrible necessity of tribulation is only too clear. God has had me for but forty-eight hours and then only by dint of taking everything else away from me.

Let Him but sheathe that sword for a moment and I behave like a puppy when the hated bath is over – I shake myself as dry as I can and race off to reacquire my comfortable dirtiness, if not in the nearest manure heap, at least in the nearest flower bed. And that is why tribulations cannot cease until God either sees us remade or sees that our remaking is now hopeless.

Our problem is that we become desensitized to those “Take Me Back” moments and even brush them aside when God calls us to some personal time with Him. Jesus wants us to give ourselves to Him and surrender our will to His will. One way we can do that is to take the time to go back to those simpler times when all we had was our faith in Him and all we wanted was His presence in our lives guiding, keeping, and sustaining us.

Originally posted on 7 June 2008 on https://thepillarandgroundoftruth.blogspot.com/2008/06/take-me-back.html