If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! - Matthew 7:11
He said to them, "If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! - Matthew 12:11-12
Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! - Luke 12:24
If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! - Luke 12:28
Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! - Romans 5:9-10
For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! - Romans 5:15
For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. - Romans 5:17
If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! - 2 Corinthians 3:9
The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! - Hebrews 9:13-14
Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? - Heb 10:28-29
4 comments:
"...immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us..."
:)
Bino,
Ahh...thanks for compiling these and posting them. Excellent point here. "How much more" Papa and Son have shown us how much they love us, and the lengths they have gone for us! The size of His love is unfathomable. Such encouragment!
Blessings,
~Amy :)
http://amyiswalkinginthespirit.blogspot.com
I'm trying to figure out what "free believers" are about? Looking for answers I came across this article and would like to know your thoughts?
Are All House Churches Safe?
I receive many emails from people looking for a house church. Here are some things to keep in mind. In our early days of enjoying freedom from “the system” of institutional religiosity, it is very easy to assume that anyone involved with house churches must be safe. Not so. We still need to exercise much discernment even regarding house or home churches as they are often called. There are some very bad home churches and that is to be expected. Here’s why:
Christians who have finally figured out the dangers of the teachi ngs and traditions of men are leaving the institutional church in favor of house churches. Praise God. But the devil is right there to ruin as many as he can. There are many authoritarian house churches that are nothing more than mini institutional churches dominated by ambitious men. These places have pretty much the same trappings as larges churches but just on a much smaller scale. So I have found that it is usually better to plant than to search.
Even worse, attempts at bashing and maligning the Bible are far more frequent in house church circles than usually in the institutional professing Christian churches! I would say even among Word of Faith heretics, though many try to bash the idea of doctrine itself, very few would dare to verbally, openly and publicly try to discredit the overall Bible itself. We have men like Gene Edwards, Frank Viola and Darin Hufford, etc. to thank for starting and / or supporting this horrible movement. Watch out for their teachings.
They teach some correct things about the dangers of the modern church and then just when people think that they are safe with these guys, they foolishly drop their guards and start to accept the heresies that these men also teach. Edwards and his band of merry followers such as Viola have claimed to be new "Apostles" whose "authority" home church people must follow in order to be blessed by God. For want of their “approval” not forthcoming, it has been reported that a number of home churches have disbanded. These men have apparently caused the demise of many home fellowships.
Darin Hufford, who may or may not be connected to Gene Edwards, is one of the scariest teachers that I have ever heard. On one of his audio messages, I actually heard him mock God's judgments and by doing so call God’s character into question. Darin seems to have a problem understanding that God is a God of love and a God of judgment (which is part of His love). Darin seems to promote a “god” who is only a god of love but not a god of judgment. This is not the God of the Bible. While some of Mr. Hufford’s teachings on peripheral church and relational matter s are fairly decent, other of his teachings are laced with subtle and sometimes even blatant comments against the Bible. This is similar to the teachings of Gene Edwards, Frank Viola and many others.
Darin Hufford objects to my opinion of his teachings, and in one of his private emails to me, he said that I have too much respect for the Bible. Well, it is impossible to have too much respect for the Bible, but I will take that as a compliment. I think his comment reveals many things and is pretty much all we need to know about Darin Hufford.
All of these dangerous teachers claim to uphold the Bible while they seem to work petty hard to try and discredit it. Whether they realize it or not, they do much to undermine the trust the Christians have in God’s written Word. I am not saying that what any of these men are doing is intentional but something does not have to be intentional to bring about disastrous results. Talk about confusion and chaos, it's often just as bad or worse in some house church circles. So be careful. Never drop your guard even for a minute. Always check out everything that anyone teaches (even me) from the Bible to make sure that it is accurate.
Also be on guard against what is known as the Cell Church movement and the G-12 movement. These are some very abusive house church movements that have set out to gain control of as many Christians as possible all for a larger manmade agenda. Lot’s of institutional churches offer what they call home groups. These are controlled by authoritarian systems and are not genuine autonomous Biblical hous e churches by any stretch of the imagination.
Paul Howey
RJW & Amy,
Thanks!
Ike,
:) I am not sure how you got a sense that I am a Darrin Hufford follower. Let me say this: I am NOT!
In fact, though there are many great teachers I respect, I am not a follower or proponent of any of them in particular. You might see some mentioning of names of few of them to refer to their teachings. You may also see some links to their websites, because I am in agreement with the CORE of their teachings - such as we are not under law, but grace, our identity in Christ, total forgiveness in Christ, salvation and sanctification apart from any kind of works etc.
This doesn't really mean that I am in agreement in all the details. The core, the foundation, the fundamentals are the most important.
That being said, if you have disagreement with something I write, feel free to point it to me with scriptural back up and I promise that I will do the same in response and we can have a respectful exchange of ideas.
I promise, I WILL NOT use quotes/opinions of other teachers to prove my point. And I request the same courtesy from you. I am all for reasoning from Scriptures but I don't want to drag other people's opinion when it comes to prove/disprove something from Bible.
In this particular blog post, all I did was quoting some Scriptures, and I am not sure why you all of a sudden came up the "free believers" issue.
I will quote a passage from the same article you pasted here:
Always check out everything that anyone teaches (even me) from the Bible to make sure that it is accurate.
That is exactly what I would do.
I am open and I have no claim that I have everything figured out, and am ready to see things from different angles, if they are pointed out with Scriptural backup.
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