Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Can Someone Visit Heaven?

There is a new movie coming out based on the book, "Heaven is for Real." It is a book by a pastor named Todd Burpo about his son's trip to heaven and back. Can someone really go to heaven and come back? Pastor John MacArthur weighs in with this excellent article:

Are Visits to Heaven for Real?

Thursday, March 6, 2014

A.W. Pink: "False Profession or True Conversion"

The following is a section from an article by A.W. Pink from the 1933 issue of Studies in the Scriptures titled: Heart Work:

False Profession or True Conversion
The sincerity of our profession largely depends upon the care and conscience we have in keeping our hearts. A very searching example of this is found in 2 Kings 10:31, “But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the LORD God of Israel with all his heart.” Those words are the more solemn because of what is said of him in the previous verse: “And the LORD said unto Jehu, Because thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes, and hast done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in mine heart, thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.” Jehu was partial in his reformation, which showed his heart was not right with God; he abhorred the worship of Baal which Ahab had fostered, but he tolerated the golden calves which Jeroboam had set up. He failed to put away all the evil. 
Ah, my reader, true conversion is not only turning away from gross sin, it is the heart forsaking all sin. There must be no reserve, for God will not allow any idol, nor must we. Jehu went so far, but he stopped short of the vital point; he put away evil, but he did not do that which was good. He heeded not the law of the Lord to walk in it “with all his heart.” It is greatly to be feared that those who are heedless are graceless, for where the principle of holiness is planted in the heart, it makes its possessor circumspect and desirous of pleasing God in all things—not from servile fear, but from grateful love; not by constraint, but freely; not occasionally, but constantly.
- A.W. Pink
  Studies in the Scriptures (Sept. 1933)