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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, "'But we did not yield in subjection to them "'for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel "'would remain with you.'".
In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.
Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.
Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and I'm your host, and today is kind of potpourri Tuesday, potpourri Wednesday. I don't know when I'll air this show. It's snowing outside right now, and I'm in the warm studio thinking about a variety of topics to discuss today.
I think I am gonna air this show on Tuesday, and I'd like to talk, first of all, about a great upcoming event that you are all invited to if you're in the Worcester area or beyond, Springfield area, Chicopee, Taunton, wherever you might be.
Does anything good come out of Taunton? Anyway, we're talking today about a conference coming to Bethlehem Bible Church. It's called Manning Up, M-A-N-N-I-N-G, subtitled In Church, Home, Culture, and it's taught by my brother, Pat Abendroth, who's a pastor at omabiblechurch .org, if you want to check it out.
And Pat is enthusiastic, he's aggressive. He and I have almost probably the exact same theology. I don't think his is quite as refined as mine is, but he is nine years younger. A matter of fact, I'm gonna have Pat on the show.
We're gonna tape a couple of shows when he's here. And so Pat's gonna do a conference basically on men. What does the Bible say about leadership? It's time to man up, not with some kind of weird, oh, what are some of the latest crazy books?
Not promise keepers like, let's add extra laws to the law and unbiblical ones at that. It's not wild at heart, some kind of Rambo deal or go watch Braveheart with your boy or something with a bunch of psychology and pop culture.
It's what does the Bible say? Three sessions, March 27th, starts at eight o 'clock. If you register ahead of time, you get breakfast for five bucks and the conference. And if you don't register ahead of time, the conference is five bucks, no breakfast.
So $5 breakfast and conference. If you register ahead of time or just $5 at the door and the sessions will start at nine o 'clock, breakfast at eight. Sessions maybe start earlier, 8 .30, whenever we can start.
Three sessions on men and leadership at home, culture, and in the church, March 27th, 2010. Write us at info at nocompromiseradio .com or bbcchurch .org, and there's a registration there. Manning up, Pastor Pat Ebendroth, breakfast for men, bring your young sons as well because some things just ain't right.
And that is the subtitle for all this. And what ain't right is women leadership when men should be leading. So I invite you all to that. Now, the second thing I'd like to invite you to is we're having a parenting class here at Bethlehem Bible Church.
And if you don't have a good Bible teaching church, I'd invite you here to Bethlehem Bible Church, but we also are teaching a parenting class. I will be teaching a parenting class beginning March 14th.
March 14th, there's a book that you need to read the first two chapters if you'd like to attend. Gospel Powered Parenting, Gospel Powered Parenting by William Farley, F-A-R-L-E-Y, William Farley, How the Gospel Shapes and Transforms Parenting.
It's a PNR book. You can buy one here at the church for 10 bucks or you can order them online. Gospels Powered Parenting. And we're gonna talk about a lot of issues when it comes to parenting, an eight-week refresher.
It doesn't meet every Sunday, but a couple Sundays in March, one in April, three, four rather in May, and one in June. Common mistakes that parents make, disciplined family worship, hints for parents who have teens, et cetera.
So we'd love to invite you to these two conferences. Well, today, like I said, it's kind of Potpourri Tuesday. A variety of things have come across my desk that I'd like to make a few comments on, comments about.
And the first one is I got, someone just slipped this under my office desk, office door rather, and it says, it looks like it's from National Enquirer or one of those kind of magazines, if you can call them magazines.
And it's got a full page color ad, end your pain. I know this isn't some kind of suicide note, something like that. This is a Jesus bracelet. Copper magnetic therapy, the healing power of Jesus, penetrating power of magnets, soothing power of copper.
Experience the miracle of maximum healing and pain relief. Free shipping and handling anywhere in the US. Solid copper, 9 .97, 3000 Gauss magnets, G-A-U-S-S. Under my dreamcatalogues .com, et cetera.
I get things like this and I just want to yell. I just want to shout. And so instead of yelling or shouting, I have access to the airwaves here at WVNE 760. And I get to tell you what I think about this, because I want you to think biblically.
The moniker here at this radio show is always biblical, always provocative, always in that order. And I want you to be Bereans. That's what I'm after. I'm after you to think properly and then you'll do properly.
It's about your mind. Jesus said to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And when Jesus was quoting Mosaic law, from quoting Mosaic instruction, was he adding to the text?
When Moses only said, love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and strength? Is Jesus adding your mind to that and somehow adding to the Torah? Of course he wasn't. What was implicit in Deuteronomy is explicit in the words of Jesus.
And that is to say for the Hebrew, the heart was much more than some kind of feeling center, some kind of center of emotions, you know, heart knowledge, head knowledge, that false bifurcation. It was with all you and all that you have, all that you've got holistically, shalom-like, holy, W-H.
And so basically Jesus says, I want you to love God with your mind. And you've got to love God with your mind because he wants you to think about him exactly correct. Correct, exactly, correctly? No, correct.
You need the proper thinking. You need proper speaking too, proper English. And so we come across things like this and we want to discern what's going on. This is no different than the lottery. This is no different than selling lotto tickets to people.
And I'll tell you who buy lotto tickets, typically poor, stupid people. Not all poor people are stupid and not all stupid people are poor. But typically poor, uneducated people who are greedy will buy the tickets.
It's one of my pet peeves of life to go to Cumberland Farms or Honey Farms or one of these 7-Eleven type of places and then wait in line for the scratchers. And here I am trying to round up a couple bucks for an overpriced soda and some smart food popcorn.
And then I've got people scratching and sniffing and buying Marlboros at $7 a pack, $7 .50 a pack. And they've putting out 50, 60 bucks for the hope of something. This is plays to people's greed. And so similarly, you have old people sitting around reading National Geographic, National Enquirer.
What's the difference? Just one word. And they try to get rid of their pain. They're in pain and they want to use some kind of religious hocus pocus. And it's a Jesus bracelet. Sadly, what's more atrocious than trying to sell Jesus bracelets.
I mean, if you want to buy it because it looks nice, it doesn't really look that nice. It just says Jesus on it. And you want to have a Jesus bracelet, I guess there's nothing wrong with that. It says on here, do you believe where the solid copper magnetic therapy Jesus bracelet for the most powerful healing and comfort you've ever experienced?
Now get this, who needs Jesus when you have copper? Copper has been relied on for centuries to ease the pain of arthritis. Magnets are used therapeutically to ease muscle pain, tendonitis, bursitis, back pain, poor circulation, and more.
And faith in the miracles of Jesus can not only protect you from physical pain, but soothe your soul in times of stress. Fits adjustable to most risks. And so people say, I want to be healed and they send off their money.
And people are going to buy these. They're going to buy these. What's more atrocious, I was going to say a moment ago, is people in local churches trying to make money of other people in local churches.
And I remember when the whole Tupperware phase came around. I remember when the whole selling, what do they sell? Magnets, magnet pillows, magnet bracelets, magnet sockets, magnet everything. And people would say, well, let's see, who can I sell them to?
Oh, I've got a good idea. I think I'll make money off my church family. And I know people that have basically said to other people who don't want to be involved in their magnet pyramid schemes, well, I can't really deal with you.
Oh, I'm into fellowship, but I'm into fellowship that swirls around my Shackley vitamins and my Scamway, or Amway products. You know, I guess if you want to have an Amway deal and just order the stuff yourself, fine.
And some people order a few things from you. Again, it's not the do not show, but do not go to church and try to make money off your family. That's not what you do. That's not how you go about it. And so these kinds of companies prey on people that have a good social network, a large social network, and where it can be a better social network than the church.
That would be the biggest social network. And so watch out for these scam artists. I guess if your wife would like to have a pampered chef party and you invite a bunch of church people over, I guess that's okay.
I wouldn't recommend it. I wouldn't have the elders of the church do it. I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't have my wife do pampered chef and then have a bunch of ladies over and then they feel obliged to buy some of it.
And so if you've got some pyramid scheme in the church and you're trying to sell magnets to your friends and Scamway and Shackley and all these other things, I think you better be careful because your motives are more for not the love of the people but for your own money.
People say, well, you know, Usborne books and they're excellent books. And we'd like to have a little ministry booth at your church. I remember probably 10 years ago, someone said, I'd like to do ministry at your church with Usborne.
And so I said, well, that'd be very nice because if it's ministry, then I'm sure you're going to give these things away. You're not going to personally profit from them with a social network called the church directory.
So be careful, go above and beyond, do the best thing. Don't be driven by money. Go out and serve the people in your church with love, with open arms, with kindness and with love. Well, that's the first thing I want to talk about.
The second thing is, besides no magnets and don't try to sell me any magnets, if you're in some kind of pyramid scheme and Ponzi scheme or some kind of scheme to make money off people, just do yourself the favor, especially if you come to Bethlehem Bible Church, don't ever ask me, can we do these things or would you like to go?
Because the answer is going to be no. Most of the time I don't get asked because they already know what I think. I don't need to have it in my bylaws, no hokey pokey magnet selling stuff here so you can get rich and go take trips to Japan.
We just don't have it in there because it is so stupid. There's no justification. The only justification is you'd like to have your own franchise so you get cheaper products for your own home goods. I guess that would be fine.
Well, another thing I want to talk about today since I'm stepping on people's toes, might as well just keep on stepping, I guess, is an article I saw the other day called Christianity Gone to the Dogs.
Every Sunday at 5 p .m., Pilgrim Congregational Church in North Weymouth, Massachusetts, which is right here in Massachusetts, opens its doors to a special pet worship service called Woof and Worship.
Now that would be enough right there for you to be mad. I hope there's a righteous indignation, a holy hatred that you're going to experience in the next 10 minutes that you do something about. You do something about praying for them, do something about, here we go, their dog owners can attend church together with their four-legged companions and be led in prayer such as, here we go, get mad.
Dear Lord, please make me the person my dog thinks I am. You say, well, that's kind of cute. I'll say a word for that. I think that's asinine. I think that is irreverent, guttural. I think this goes on to just make you madder and madder.
In the event of any accidents during the service, I mean, accidents during the service, if you want to have a dog in the congregation because you need a sight dog, that's one thing. Here, the church in the sanctuary, it's no longer sanctuary because it's profane, not by a dog, but by the silly, nonsensical leader that would allow such a thing for the sake of filthy lucre and increased attendance.
Doggy cleanup stations, the initial wolf in worship included a special blessing of the animals. Pastor, are you ready? Are you ready for this article? Pastor, any guesses? Any guesses what's next? Pastor Rachel Bickford explained that she prayed about opening services to dogs before deciding that it would just be so much fun.
So now we have fun is the barometer for worship, fun is the determination, and now it's sanctified in the holy garb of I prayed about it ahead of time. That's just as stupid as the rock and roll singers who say, Christian Nashville singers, who say, well, you know, I prayed about divorcing my husband.
He's always been faithful, but he's just no fun anymore, and so therefore, God allowed me to divorce the new rock and roll country star that I'm married to now. It is just ridiculous. It's sinful is what it is.
It goes on to say this article, unfortunately, including dogs and worship service is part of a larger pattern. Yes, unfortunately, spending more time relating to critters than to God. This is a society where the canine companions of Martha Stewart have their own blog and many Walmart stock extensive collections of pet clothes.
I don't really care about pet clothes that much. It's not that big a deal. More than 500, here's what is a big deal. More than 500 American churches have performed blessings for animals. Now, by the way, if you have a dog that's sick and you have to take the dog to the vet and you say, Lord, give me wisdom to decide whether to euthanize a dog or not, I don't say that's a bad prayer.
If you've got a hurt dog and you say, Lord, we really love this companion. Would you please help us take care of this companion? I don't even mind that. But I do mind these services. One such congregation is Los Angeles' Covenant Presbyterian Church, where interim pastor, Tom Eggenman, conducts a weekly 30-minute service for dogs and their owners.
They get individual doggy beds, bowls of water, prayer requests for the animals, and even a way for them to participate in the offering as ushers collect donations. They also pass out rainbow-colored dog biscuits.
Associated Reporter observed, quote, the pooches who showed up at Covenant Presbyterian on Sunday didn't seem very interested in dogma. See, it's a big joke. It's a big, fat joke to people. And so there are, they ought to be very thankful that God is patient and kind and long-suffering.
Because if lightning bolts were to come out of the sky, I think I know where they'd go. I think the direction I know would not be toward some kind of person in a bar. It would be the person in clergy, clerical garb.
When you read Ezekiel 8 to 10, where does the judgment start with? Go slay these blasphemers and start in the house of God. Start with the priests there in Ezekiel 8, 9, and 10. It goes from bad to worse.
Chicago's Lutheran Church of Good Shepherd picks up the theme with a summertime dog walker service, which allows pet owners to pause at the church for prayer during Sunday morning walks. On one Sunday, Pastor Mary Appelt Graves, I don't know if that's just a hyphenated name like they do in England, or she likes to keep her maiden name as well, led worshipers in a dog psalm by Herbert Brokering entitled, I Growl.
Now, how could I make this up? Instead of I Growl, I'm mad. I'm angry. Such blasphemy. Such guttural, earthly, bringing things down to the profane. Forget the sacred. Let's just make everything profane.
So when we sin more, it's not that big a deal. God's not that holy. Man's not that sinful. Let's do what we want. We will not have God rule over us and tell us what to do. Yai, yai, yai, yai, yai. Laura Hobgood Oster.
Why are most of these people women with hyphenated last names? An expert on animals in Christianity noted that followers, though followers of Jesus have traditionally believed only humans have redeemable souls, the new wave of pet-inclusive services may have opened the door to reassessment.
And so, of course, pragmatically we'll say, oh yeah, that's right. By the way, your dogs die. Your cats die. Why? Because they've been tainted by the fall, like all creation has, that groans for the day of redemption, Romans 8.
And no animals are gonna be on earth and then somehow have the sin that stained them taken off as it is spilt over from Adam onto creation, as it were. It won't be taken off, and then you'll have your dogs redeemed.
Dogs don't have a soul. God did not breathe a soul into them like he did Adam. No, not at all. Animals, we should take care of our animals. A righteous man regards the life of his beast, Solomon says, but when the animal's dead, the animal's dead, and you bury the animal.
You don't have to pray for the animal to not go into doggy pooch purgatory or something like that. No, the dog is just dead. You can say thank you, God, for a faithful horse, dog, a cat, I guess if you're a cat person.
So be careful when it comes to these issues. But back to the point, pet-inclusive services. It's the changing family structure where pets are really central in religious communities, and they're starting to recognize that people need various kinds of rituals that include their pets.
Well, people might need them, but God says no. There's no pet services for Israel. There's no pet services for the New Testament Church, unless you're in Vietnam or in Burma, and the pet service includes a pot Providence at the end for a love feast when you eat a dog.
I mean, that's probably the maximum I could give. Referring to Covenant Presbyterian Church in L .A., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Al Mohler has observed, finally a man, and finally no hyphenated last name.
Come on, Al, help us. By the way, Al is on now, I think at five o 'clock on WVNE 760 on this station. Al Mohler has observed, quote, Churches concerned with the preaching of the gospel, committed to authentic evangelism and biblical preaching, are not going to demonstrate the confusion that leads to canines at Covenant.
Oh, you're a pet hater, Al. And the article does say, this is not to say that Mohler dislikes pets. In fact, he is very fond of his beagle, Baxter. And Mohler says, but Baxter does not go to church. I am quite fond of my dog named Jetty, but Jetty only comes to church when I want her to sit in here to the studio because she has no other babysitter, no other dog sitter.
And I just want to give her a treat and say, let's go to the building. But in terms of the worship service and the sanctuary and sitting there on a Sunday, I would get fired. It's going to take a lot for me to get fired after being here for so long.
But I'm sure that one would be right at the top. You'd like to get fired so you can be released of the duties of pastoral ministry? Just bring your dog. I'll never forget the time MacArthur talked about how a lady was going up to the front of the church at Grace Community Church in Los Angeles with her dog because her dog had rededicated her life.
And the dog was wanting to give her life again to Jesus. This lady was kooky. I think MacArthur said her elevator did not go to the top floor. I'm sure the dog was fine just doing what dogs do, but the lady was in big trouble.
Dogs are wonderful. Dogs can help. Animals are good. When I go to the rest home that my grandmother is in, and great-grandmother, and I visit her, and there are about five or six dogs just running the hallways, I just think, you know, the goodness of God for little companions and friends.
And so I'm not anti-animal. I'm anti-blasphemy. I'm anti-sacrilegious services. I'm anti-forget-the-Bible-we-do-what-we-want. It all comes back to that. It all comes back to, are we under the Word of God?
Are we over the Word of God? Do we want to have the shortcuts? Do we want to have the popular things, the pragmatic things, the things that bring in numbers? Of course the church will get more people who love animals, and maybe that's, you know, what people think.
We'll get them in with pooch and, you know, the pooch kind of offering, and then we'll slip the gospel in. But methodology is affected, and methodology affects doctrine. That's 1 Corinthians 1 .17. 1 Corinthians 1 .17 says there's a way to distort the gospel with the method.
The gospel stays the same. You can get up and say Jesus died for people's sins and was raised from the dead. You must believe in him. Where all the dogs pooch and pack and carry and woof and worship are around, and there's something lost.
For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void. There's a way to void the cross, even though the cross is completely preached.
Dog lovers, fine. Cat lovers, well, that's a stretch. But we don't want to be blasphemous. You want to say, God, thank you for my dog, but you don't need to bring them into services. And I don't think there's much difference between the sacrilegious nature of bringing in dogs and to canine worship, like there's bringing in any other kind of assorted pragmatic theology and methodology that says, let's win them with one thing and give them another.
Free pizza night. And then you say, and then we're going to blast them with the Bible. Why don't you just tell people, we're going to have a youth night, we're going to be teaching the Bible, and there is going to be free pizza too.
But then you teach them the Bible. You don't have to run around and sneak around and somehow think you've got to help the powerful gospel. No, your job is to preach Jesus Christ, even him crucified. This God-man who was tortured on the cross, not for our sins, but for all, sorry, not for his sins, but for our sins.
The wrath of God poured out for three hours on Calvary, on Jesus, as he bore God's wrath on the tree. And God, the Son, filled his commission, fulfilled his commission, and then the Father raised him from the dead.
The Son raised himself from the dead. The Spirit raised the Son from the dead. Well, my name is Mike Abenroth, this is No Compromise Radio. I didn't get to talk about everything I wanted to talk about.
That's why I only get a 25-minute show, but I did find out I don't have to go to 24 -12 anymore. I get to go to 24 -30. Pat Abenroth, Omaha Bible Church. Register at www .bbchurch .org. Pastor Pat, March 27th.
If you're man enough, I dare you to come. I double-dog dare you to come.
No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abenroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible-teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.
Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.
The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff, or management.