Author: davebunnell

Dave Bunnell, American pastor serving in Romania. Walk of Faith: free grace devotionals, Bible teaching, sermon vids, & evangelism

Songs of Worship – YouTube playlist

Here’s a YouTube playlist of my favorite songs of worship from various musicians. Hope it is a blessing to you.

20 songs 1st page, 16 2nd, for a total of 36

Does Mormonism Result in Good Morality, Citizenship, and Politics?

Several former mormons have shared this with me about their past religious affiliation: That mormon culture is one that is focused very strongly on putting up a false public front, as individuals, and as a church organization, in order to persuade people to become mormons. Could this sometimes be behind mormons’ desires to appear pro-America and pro-family in the public arena?
For an answer, let’s look at the actual morality behind mormon teaching to see where they really stand on issues that would be of importance to us as Christians.
On abortion: Mormon leaders in government, such as Sen. Orrin Hatch and presidential candidate Mitt Romney, tend to have histories of following the prevailing political winds and their party’s stands on this issue in the moment. This is probably because mormon teaching is that a person isn’t a person until birth, at which time the fetus receives a soul (due to their god having physical sexual relations with one of his harem of wives in order to create the soul for it. I hope the blasphemy of that claim isn’t lost on anyone.) So, mormons often view abortion as something not good, but they don’t believe it is killing an innocent human being. That’s why they don’t have the heart for standing against things like embryonic stem cell research that takes a life, and why they’re willing even to support abortion if it will get them elected (as it will in Massachusetts).
On marriage: They may be against homosexuality, but they are not pro-marriage. Mormon teaching still holds strongly to the belief in polygamy, and only the laws of the nation prevent them from practicing it (most of the time, anyway.) The goal of a mormon man, in fact, is to be so pleasing to the mormon’s god that he will receive an afterlife as a god of his own universe, with a harem of women to enjoy physically. (How is that really different from Allah’s offer? The true and living God “cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone.” But the gods of the Koran and Book of Mormon do play on a man’s sinful desires to tempt him to follow said gods.)
Do you see on these first two issues how messed up the mormon teaching is? Even the average secularist would call late-term abortion “murder” and frown on a man having several wives.
On Israel and the Jews: Mormon religion is very anti-semitic, and racist in general, teaching that only white-skinned gentiles are truly pleasing to their god. When it isn’t politically correct to air that belief, they won’t publicly do so, but the immoral beliefs in the heart will affect their actions in some ways. And Christians of the black race have a legitimate complaint against white Christians who ally themselves with mormons in the political arena. We as Christians should denounce racist belief, not overlook it.
On prayer and respect for God: They couldn’t be more off-base. They pray to what they call “the Heavenly Father” but they are referring to Adam. And they don’t have any respect for God. They teach He is just a man like us, and is evolving and gaining power, which we will do one day, too, if we’re white and righteous enough to earn it. They also teach that the god’s first two sons were Jesus and Lucifer. Lucifer wanted their god to be sovereign and control his creation so it would be good. Jesus wanted people to have free will. Jesus won that battle and now Lucifer is angry. (So they view sin as basically Jesus’ fault, since Lucifer would have made creation good.)
“You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.” The light in you and the darkness in mormon teachers have no fellowship with one another. Mormonism isn’t a denomination of Christianity. It is one of the world’s most evil blasphemies and heresies against it. Don’t let the fact that they know how to look like moral upstanding citizens trick you into following their lead.
Mormons, like all lost people, need to come to Christ and find forgiveness of sins and eternal life, through faith in Him and His sacrifice for them on the cross. In your individual life and relationships with them, tell them of God’s love and their need of salvation. But don’t try to reach them by joining them in the arena of politics. They aren’t your allies. They are the enemy’s captives. You won’t see them set free by patting them on the back for standing with you against the liberals and socialists.

Curious About Evil

A recent film, due to its subject matter and the fact that it is in 3-D, has been promoted with the tagline, “Experience a whole new dimension of evil.”
The marketing team that came up with that knew something more than just how to turn a phrase or make a pun. They knew what lies within the human heart. Namely, a nature that is curious about evil.
That was a big part of how Satan caused the fall to begin with. God had made people in a world where they only experienced that which was morally exemplary. Adam and Eve had never seen evil, never heard evil, never spoken evil, never done evil. They were innocent regarding evil. They only had knowledge of good. And God, while giving them the opportunity to choose, commanded them to stay in a state of knowledge of only good.
Along came the devil, basically saying to Eve, “Don’t settle for knowing only good. Experience evil, too. Disobey God by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You’ll be wise like Him, then. Innocence isn’t for you—come to know both good and evil, and you won’t regret it.”
Of course, they did regret it. Choosing to know evil is choosing to experience death and a loss of the life and peace walking with a Holy God would bring.
Ever since she and her husband made the wrong choice, then, the battle rages within us all. Sometimes it takes religious forms, like in Buddhism, which is all based on the ying-yang philosophy that balancing the amount of light and darkness, good and evil, in your soul, is the road to inner peace. Other times, it shows itself in the temptation to read books, listen to music, or watch films that glorify darkness and curse the light. Gossip often has its roots in a dark desire to know all of the bad things others are doing. Even as Christians, we will be tempted to “look into evil,” if for no more reason than that we’re curious to know how bad things can get.
Perhaps we need to be reminded that when we seek ways to increase our knowledge of evil, we are playing with fire. Because of this tendency in us to want at least a vicarious experience of evil, Paul’s closing to the book of Romans contains this warning, “but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil.” (Rom. 16:9b)
That’s a key to peace and fulfillment in your walk with God. Pursue righteousness, mercy, peace, holiness, cleanness of heart and mind. Focus your attention on knowing more about what is good and right and just. And while you focus your attention in that direction, make an effort to avoid feeding the desire to know about evil.
If you ever feel like you’re out of touch because you don’t keep up with “pop culture,” consider yourself blessed to be innocent, or even ignorant, of the level of evil that is in the world. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you need to rent that film everyone’s talking about because you want to experience the chills of a horror flick that takes violence to never-before-seen heights. Don’t let yourself be too curious about the portrayals in the latest music videos as the producers of them try to make them more and more pornographic to draw an audience. When your coworkers or classmates are dishing out the dirty details of someone’s sinful activities, don’t linger to listen.
Sometimes, the enemy might even try to trick us with thoughts like, “You need to know all about the latest things that the world is into, so that you can relate and reach them for Christ.” It might sound logical on the surface, but go to the Lord and tell Him that and see what He says. Ask Him how many people have been reached because they were impressed by some Christian’s ability to talk at length about the depths of society’s depravity. He might say you don’t really need any of that. He might tell you that faith comes by hearing, and by hearing the word of God.
It is good to be out of the loop about wicked things. As followers of Christ, let’s try to become more so.

Threatened by Hawking’s statements? Hardly.

Then why would we care if silly people like Hawking and Dawkins delude themselves with the airheaded idea that there might not be a God? This video gives an answer that can actually pass the test.

Hawking’s New Book

Breaking News: This just in–Stephen Hawking’s new book actually wrote itself! Then it was published and promoted by a process of undirected natural selection.

Glenn Beck-Political hero or dangerous false teacher?

It’s a good thing when Glenn Beck blows the whistle on government excesses that the “mainstream” media cover-up instead of covering. But it’s unwise for followers of Christ to promote a mormon teacher because some of his politics are amenable. (Incidentally, on one of the most important political issues for Christians–the nation’s view of Israel–mormons are on the wrong side.)
But Beck certainly understands one truth–that religion is more important than politics. And you could not find a religion more at odds with the cross of Christ than the one to which Beck is devoted heart and soul. His religion is the stated foundation of his political philosophy, and the foundation of his life. Let us not be complicit in helping him preach his message and promote a religion that will lead souls astray for infinitely longer than the next election cycle. 
Beck repeatedly in his writing and speaking gives a false testimony of mormonism delivering him from sin and depravity, something that cannot happen outside of Christ. Salvation is not found in any other, for no other name is given under heaven by which men must be saved. In the mormon religion, the cross of Christ “really didn’t mean anything,” as one mormon missionary put it when answering the question of why mormons don’t talk about Christ dying for our sins.

This is not true faith. It is a very dangerous belief system. Don’t be impressed by how devoted to the Republican party its adherents may be. The GOP didn’t die on the cross for you, and neither did the United States of America or the writers of its constitution.

Live for eternity, brothers, not for November.
And remember that light and darkness have no fellowship with one another.

Miracle Prevention

And He did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.
–Matthew 13:58

          What a sad verse of scripture! Sadder still is the fact that it describes the prayer life of many Christians.  Oh, they see answers to prayer from time to time, and they give God the thanks He is due for them, but the daily experience of walking with God and taking every need, big and small, to Him and seeing Him answer–this is foreign to them.
          Not just individuals, but families and churches can be like that.  Rarely seeing a powerful move of God.  How sad it is when a church accomplishes little or nothing that couldn’t be accomplished through human strength.
          Matthew 13 tells us that this lack of seeing God move is not the result of any deficiency in God’s love, His character, His power, or His willingness to do things that will bring glory to His Name in our lives.  It is because of a simple lack of faith.  God does some miraculous things where faith is absent, but not as many as He would like to do.  There is no surer way to prevent miracles than to have no faith that God can or will do them.
          Individuals, families and churches that are great in faith, however, see God move greatly and often.  At the end of every day, a man or woman of strong faith will be able to go to God and say, “Father thank You for answering these prayers and meeting these needs today,” and then list quite a few.  Brothers, I am convinced that this is what the Christian walk is supposed to be–a life of faith so strong that the praises for God’s miraculous blessings continuously outnumber the cries to Him for help, because those who walk in strong faith and utter dependence on Him see Him act in their best interests again and again and again.  Each time He moves, His Name is given glory, and our faith increases all the more.
          The mature Christian is pleased when God moves; the immature Christian is surprised.  The mature Christian walks by faith; the immature by sight.  The mature Christian is quick to trust in God’s promises; the immature trusts the promises only after they are proved.  Which is your experience?  Do you see God working throughout your day, or just occasionally?  How many prayers do you see answered in a week?  Two or three?  More?  Less?  God does not do much for those whose prayer lives are characterized by “lack of faith.”
          Problem is, it’s very difficult to develop strong faith.  It’s difficult because we try to develop faith by conjuring it up out of our own willpower and strength.  Trying to create faith by our own efforts is a lost cause.  It is not the flesh that creates faith, but the Spirit and the Word.
          When we realize our faith is deficient, we must look to Jesus Himself to strengthen it.  Like the man who sought a miracle from Him and said, “I do believe.  Help me overcome my unbelief.” (See Mark 9)  This man understood that in his own heart, he had some faith, but was lacking great enough faith to believe in Christ’s power and trust in His willingness to meet a need that could only be met supernaturally.  So he confessed that lack of faith and asked for a greater measure of faith.
And Jesus gave him that.  Miraculously freeing his son from a demon, Jesus proved Himself in a way that could not help but strengthen the man’s faith.  You see, we are not the author and perfecter of our faith; Jesus is. (Heb. 12:2)  He is the one Who creates our faith, inspires our faith, grows our faith, develops our faith, and completes our faith.  Don’t just rely on the insufficient faith you can develop in your own strength; humbly turn to Him in prayer asking for stronger faith.  Ask Him to bring about whatever circumstances (even trials) that are necessary in your life for the building up of your faith.  Turn to God’s word, planting it in your heart continually, so that it will yield a crop of faith.  This is an essential of Christian growth, and an aspect of Christian maturity that many fail to attain for far too long.
Let the Lord make your faith grow; and learn to pray expectantly. Then your epitaph will not read, “Jesus did not do much in this person’s life, because of a lack of faith.”