CBD, Trinkets, and Prayer Shawls

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. This is the second show recorded today with Steve Cooley here in the pastoral, hunkered down...

Hunkered down bunker pound. Yeah, bunker. That's what I was looking for. Yeah. That's nice. Tell me what's new with you,

Steve. What do our listeners need to know about you and your life now? Are you tweeting what you're eating and stuff like that?

No, I don't do that. In fact, I really, I really, I don't know, I'm not really into Twitter. I don't check it as often as I should.

I probably, you know, I'm on once or twice a week and I don't know, I just find it, communicating in 140 characters or less, not worthy of me.

Not able to do. That's always funny to me, Steve, when I look at Twitters and then responses and the response to a certain

Twitter would be, well, that's not, yeah, that's not biblically accurate. This, that, or the other. And I'm thinking, no, wait a second, aren't they, aren't tweets supposed to be just short, pungent, pithy?

Yeah. Yeah. And so how can I give you a systematic theology in 140 characters? You link to systematic theologies.

Oh, that's right. By the way, speaking of linking, I went on to Westminster Seminary Bookstores site the other day and they have mostly good books there.

Yeah. Right. And they have the John Calvin translated from the original French institutes.

Yeah. Institutes for Biblical Living. Isn't that the Bill Gothard inspired version? No, it's not. Okay. And it's already sold out.

They're reprinting it. Really? Yeah. Because 35 bucks, you get Calvin's Institutes and a little book.

Yeah. Did you get in the mail? Yeah, I did. Mm hmm. Calvinettes. I think is that small?

Calvin and the Calvinettes. Yeah. Yeah. It's small and you can carry it around and impress all your non -legalistic friends.

That thing is bound well, by the way. And so we like to promote reading on No Compromise Radio.

Steve, I was cleaning out my files the other day, paper files, real files, and I saw a little piece of paper and it was an ad for CBD and it was a warehouse sale ad and it was giving, you know, data like it opens at 7 a .m.

on Saturday, these are the books that are being sold, here's a special lady there signing books, and then it had a picture of people standing in line from the last sale.

Oh, yeah. And who was in the picture? And they're standing in line, about probably 15 people back because a lot of the

Gordon Conwell folks, I think, got there really early, but it was Mike Avendroth and Steve Cooley.

Wow. Planning the original No Compromise Radio program. Those were the days. I had hair.

Did you really? I did. Boy, that must have been a long, long time ago. So in the mail, by coincidence, by serendipitous, fortunate chance,

I got in the mail two CBD catalogs and I thought, you and I, you are sharp so you don't really need a script or anything like that.

I did briefly look through it in two minutes or less, where I just want to talk a little bit about the

CBD catalog and Christian books in general. Okay. Now, let's start positively. Why is it important for a

Christian to read books beside the Bible? Now, see,

I didn't say to read other books instead of, but along with the Bible. Well, I think it's important because we certainly can, we know from Ephesians 4 that God has gifted the church with people who, men, it says there, but who are able to explain the text.

You know, you have prophets, et cetera, et cetera, in old times, but now we have teachers and preachers and those who are able to equip us for the work of the ministry.

And so we would want to be able to glean insights into the nature of scripture and God and even men and our sinfulness and that kind of thing.

So, yeah, we can be encouraged. We can get new kind of perspectives.

And I mean that in a positive way. You know, things that we hadn't, like reading this

Bruce Weir book, The Man Christ Jesus, you know, just focusing on Jesus' humanity.

And you know, he just says some things and you just go, you know, I hadn't really thought about it like that. And the importance of the

Holy Spirit and in the ministry of Jesus, and you know, you just start thinking about that and you go, you know what?

That's right. And that's good. And I should be thinking like that. So good things like that. So we want to promote

Christian reading, that is Christian reading books written by godly men and women, because it will help you.

And we don't want you to be the kind of person that says, I just read the Bible only. I have the Holy Spirit in my

Bible. That's all I need. Well, it is true. That's all you need. But in that Bible that you say you just need that it tells you that God has gifted other folks and you need to learn from them as well.

So Christian discount books, we've gained a lot of good books in our library from them.

A ton. Yeah. Tons of good books. They've done a lot of good things on the front page of the November, December 2014 catalog.

It's got the ESV MacArthur study Bible. Would you would you like that book? Sweet. Okay. Yeah.

Spurgeon sermons, five volumes. Excellent. I'd own it, but I'd never read it. Yeah. Not because it's not good, but I just have a hard time reading sermons unless I'm trying to track something down.

Right. It has things like the action Bible. I don't know if that's good, but I thought the

Bible did have a lot of action. Yeah. But it takes out all the non -action scenes. Okay. That's right.

You're really only getting the really juicy parts of the Bible and everything else. All this epistle stuff, that's just, you know, so much hodgepodge.

So they have a lot of good books in there and they have served the church well, universal church well, from a lot of the good books, but they've got some really awful things in here.

And so Steve, what sells? Positive encouraging Caleb, I guess, but also some of these others.

So Steve. And I can already tell you what sells. Vain speculations sell quite well.

Endless genealogies and myths. Steve, maybe we could call this show, What Not to Give Me for Christmas.

You love to send me books and give me books for Christmas. And that one last year was so memorable.

I forgot what it was, but it was really excellent. Well, it was by Symbola, so I know.

That's right. So, number one on the list, my list, and then I'll have you give me something probably, is the

Duck Commander devotional. And this is found on page 58. Spend 365 days being encouraged by America's favorite

Backwoods family from the hit Duck dynasty. And so each devotional also includes a scripture passage and prayer, 400 pages from Howard.

And you can get this for only $10 .49 in the brown camo.

But if you like pink camo, I guess the pink ink costs more, or maybe ladies are more gullible, $11 .99.

I'm not sure. And you can get them in other editions as well. And so the Duck Commander devotional from your friends over at the

Baptismal Regeneration Church of Christ. That'll work out all right. Yeah. And yeah, does it come with a real duck call, too?

I mean, that's just kind of... Here's what you do. They should. They should put a really cheap duck call.

And then when it's time for family devos, quack, quack, quack. You can also get the unfiltered book, too,

Phil Robertson, with Mark Schablock. And so this is the kind of stuff that people buy, but I just wish they wouldn't.

Well, it's the flavor of the month, you know, the current cool thing. And you know, people just can't wait to slap these folks, the

Robertsons, on the back because they are very upfront about their faith. The problem is their faith is, you know, just a little off biblical center.

You know, if you're going to talk about you're saved, you said baptismal regeneration really super fast. What does that mean?

It means somebody is saved via baptism. Well, that's not right.

Well, I hope the duck commander people don't believe that, but I think their denomination does. So that's the thing, in my opinion.

Steve, if I were to say to you, kind of word association, Jeremiah study Bible, what would you say?

If it's focused on the prophet Jeremiah? See, that's exactly what I thought. But you know...

It's David Jeremiah. It's David Jeremiah. Yeah. So I thought, you know, as a study Bible that it was, you know, the action Bible takes out all the non -action.

The Jeremiah study Bible takes out all the joy. It just is only weeping and lamentations.

And I know, you know, some of our listeners love David Jeremiah. And here's, here's all I'm going to say about David Jeremiah.

Yeah. They could pick worse. Yeah. They could pick worse. But I'm going to guess that there's also, you know, maybe some less than sovereign comments in there.

You know, he's not really a fan of Calvinism. So I would take that and it wouldn't be my favorite study

Bible. But I would rather have you read that study Bible. The Duck Commander. Yeah.

Yeah. Or on page 14, the new international version, Fire Bible, global study edition.

Let's do that one next. Originally designed as a tool for indigenous

Pentecostal Christians around the world. This special edition is now available to you.

And so you get key subject articles, cross references, and everything else. The Fire Bible originally designed as a tool for indigenous

Pentecostals. So how does that work? What if, what if I'm not a Pentecostal and not indigenous? Then it's of no value to you.

The spirit will not use it in your life. However, if you open up to certain pages, you will spontaneously combust.

It's funny because in front of me, I've kept this thing for about 17 years.

You get these pastoral ads in the mail and they try to get you to buy things for the local church, you know, communion cups and you know, some good things.

And this was called the Fire Bible. It's on a little postcard, the unforgettable object lesson.

And it shows a lady with 1970s hairdo, some bangs there with the

Holy Bible opened up with fire flaming out of it, bursting out of it. And so for $39 .95,

you can get a Fire Bible that you just touch it and the fire shoots out for those boring stories that aren't full of action.

You know what would be fun to just, just to add a few, just to put a few of these in the pew Bibles. Oh, it would be a lot of fun.

They'd have to be in the front row because if they're in the back row, the person in front of you, it smells like burnt hair around here.

What is that? Oh man. Hey, come to Bethlehem Bible Church where you will feel the heat.

In general, when we use a study Bible, what are the best study Bibles? Well, we've said on the show many times, it's a study

Bible that would have notes that help you understand what the passage says. That's the best. So for instance, life application

Bible, how do you apply these things? Oh, it has some good comments of course, but in general, that wouldn't be a good kind of study

Bible. A good study Bible would be, this is what the text says and or means. So like the

MacArthur study Bible. Something like that. Yeah. Yeah. So Steve, on the front of Christian books, you just pointed to me and nudged that we have the, a

Jesus calling. I'm wondering if they're going to have a Jesus calling study

Bible out soon. Oh, well that, that's it. Isn't that what this is? Oh no, this is just, oh,

I see a large print deluxe edition. I actually thought it was a study Bible. I'm so bugged.

You know what, it'd make better radio if it was. I don't know how she can avoid doing that.

I mean, she had to do her own translation of the Bible, right? I mean, isn't that, isn't that inevitable? Well, Steve, you're not far off because on page seven on top women authors and you know, here are their top authors.

We've got Beth Moore, we've got Stormy Amartian and Voskamp and then

Sarah Young. So you have Dear Jesus, Jesus Calling, Jesus Calling 365 day journaling with Ramtha.

You've got Jesus Today, Jesus Calling Deluxe, Jesus Today Deluxe, Jesus Calling Women's Edition.

Is there a Jesus Calling Men's Edition by the way? Apparently not. And there's no Jesus Calling from London edition too.

And I'm looking for the, here's what I'd like for Christmas, Steve, a Jesus Calling Women's Edition camo signed by Duck Dynasty.

By Phil Johnson. Signed by Phil Johnson. And Jesus lives.

And so, you know, there are some books in here, obviously, that are really good. But Steve, I think we must address the trinket stuff.

And the trinket stuff is usually found in the back. And you can buy all kinds of, I guess,

Christian trinkets, like shofars, have you got a lot of shofars? Not shofar.

Oh, that is so bad. How about like a prayer shawl?

Page 11, it talks about new covenant prayer shawl with carrying bag. Now here's what I don't quite understand,

Steve. You've got exquisite shawls adorned with scripture, messianic symbols,

Hebrew prayers, fashioned of acrylic with tassel trim and fringes include matching zippered bags.

My problem is this. How could it be this Old Testament idea is the new covenant prayer shawl?

How would that work? It's a mystery wrapped in an egg. I don't know.

Cloaked by a puzzle. I mean, here's the thing that I think this is true, and I'll just,

I'll throw me in there. I think Christians are always looking for some kind of, I don't want to say new way to reach

God or whatever, but some way, some new way to feel spiritual, you know, and some new way to kind of, we're always looking not for, not just go and study, but for some new way to inspire us to study some new way to get reinvigorated.

And this is one of those tchotchkes, I think, Steve, I think you're completely correct on this particular issue.

And you're right. And let's think big picture. How are we supposed to remember the

Lord? And of course we have his word, but simple bread, simple cup of pasteurized grape juice.

And they're just very simple. I mean, I remember teaching my kids when we would watch the Indiana Jones movies, and I think it was the first one, you know, the penitent man, the penitent man, and he's walking across that thing, trying to find the, the, it's the third one.

That's the third one. Yeah. Okay. So yeah. Oh yeah. Last crusade. Sean Canary. And yeah, last crusade.

Sean Connery. Yeah. And he picks the chalice. That's the simple one that a carpenter would have.

And when you think about Christianity, you know, movie aside, here we have something so simple, so basic that we're supposed to remember our

Lord and savior with bread and wine. And now we need, like you said, we've got to have tchotchkes around.

So we just decorate ourselves with, with Christian paraphernalia.

Well, I, I mean, it's easy to see why, you know, the church of Rome has done this throughout the years and everything, because objects make us feel better.

They make us feel like we're, you know, more focused, more zoned in or whatever. And, you know,

I think it's just a half a step away to blatant idolatry. So talking to Steve Cooley today on No Compromise Radio, you can write us at info at nocompromiseradio .com.

Steve, this is a serious subject that comes up through my looking at the CBD catalog.

Excuse me. There are to -go communion sets, remembrance wear, portable communion set, water and juice communion sets, pre -packaged individual communion servings.

And what I'm not against is I'm not against a pastor or an elder going to a shut -in's house and celebrating the

Lord's Supper. I'm not against that. But I am against this individual rugged

Marlboro man kind of Christianity, where without any officers of the church or leadership, oh, let's just have communion at home.

Let's have communion by myself. Again, shut -ins excluded. Steve, talk to me a little bit about why communion means communing not only with the

Lord, but with others. Well, first of all, I'm really sorry to hear you say that, because I'm helping

McDonald's. We're going to start McCommunion. Oh, Steve, and while you're at it,

I don't think it'll be selling as much, but make a little, you know, make some James 5 McOils.

So when they call for the elders of the church, they have some oil. It's like In -N -Out Burger. On the bottom of the soda, you know, it says

John 3, 16. Not written out, but just those letters, numbers. And then on the bottom of the shake, it's got

Proverbs 3, colon 5, comma 6. Yeah, like a Big Mac combo, supersize it.

Could I have a McCommunion and a McOil, please? I just want to make sure

I got that right. It was a McCommunion and a McOil? That's right. Como? Well, you know, the whole idea of communion,

I think you taught on it not too long ago, you know, was, it's just the idea, this was to be something that the entire body of Christ took part in and, you know, where they would share a meal and then it ultimately, you know, would culminate with the remembrance of the

Lord's table, you know, remembering His body and His blood.

And, you know, so it was a time of celebration. I know it's, we often, you know, it's almost like every head bowed or every eye closed as we take communion.

You know, it's like a complete time of silence, and I think it's good to reflect, but I think it's also, you know, a time to reflect on the goodness of Christ and rejoice.

And so, yeah, I think it should be a time of fellowship, I think, as, you know.

Right. Well, the communion goes both vertically and horizontally, and so we commune with the Lord and we commune with one another, and this probably won't put me in the good graces with some folks who are listening, but that's okay.

You can send your letters to TuesdayGuy .com, of course. But even in a wedding where the couple would say, you know, we'd like to celebrate communion together, we're married now, it's our first communion together,

I don't think it's the best. So if you want to use the good, better, best paradigm, that's fine. I don't think it's the best. I don't even think it's wise because it should be the entire congregation taking it, but this isn't even, you know, the

Lord's Day service. I think taking communion at retreats, taking communion on mission trips, taking communion with a wedding party at home,

I think all those aren't the best. I'm not saying you can't take one of these to -go cups that are not needing refrigeration to the hospital.

What if somebody's just in long -term rehab, right? What if somebody's in a rest home?

What if somebody's shut in? I get all that, but short of those exceptions. How about communion at a wedding?

I just don't understand. Well, it makes no sense, even though I've seen it, and I'm sure I know you have too.

It really doesn't because I think people are, well, I could tell you why I think people do that.

I think they want to make sure that people get the message, whether it's overt or subvert, that they're

Christians and, you know, it's important to them. But it's almost more like a show than it is, you know, and again,

I don't want to overstate the case, but I just think it's really not, it's not the best,

I guess, is the way you said it. And I think that's a good way to say it. I think people should just think, okay, what are our goals here?

Our goals are to honor the Lord and to get married. You know, let's just not overcomplicate this thing, you know, and the next thing, you know, we're going to be having an offering or something, come on.

This is not church. It's a marriage, it's a wedding. Steve, on No Compromise Radio, we occasionally have book giveaways, you know, a new book will come out.

By the way, I've written several books and should have a couple more released soon, Steve. Fire, fire. Steve, where's your book?

I've been wondering. It's in my mind. It's in my mind. It's gone to Carolina.

Well, I think we might start off with, I can't make any promises. Sometimes I say things without the consent of the

No Compromise Advisory Board, but we have a one minute Bible that's on sale on the

CBD book deal here on A2 in the special insert section. Quantity discount, a buck 69 if you buy 10 or more.

The NIV one minute Bible for starters. And so for 90 days, you can do

Bible study as a first step forward, learn what salvation means. Now, could some pagan get this book and see a bunch of verses and we'd be glad for it?

Yes. I'm all for that. But I'm not really, if you're a Christian, don't get this book.

I guess you could give it to your unbelieving boss or something, but the one minute Bible for starters.

You can just put everything in your life in a one minute. At least it has starters. You know,

I, I think this goes back to what we were talking about on the other show too. You know, if Jesus Christ is the most important person in your life, you know, one minute, imagine that the one minute marriage, um, you know, can you devote one minute a day to your spouse?

Well, maybe you're having a hard time doing that, but this book, this book will get you to that point. One minute per day.

Isn't that amazing? Steve, now you're doing this critical thinking again, and I don't like that.

I apologize. Okay. Steve, let's, let's give something positive that people could take out of the

CBD catalog. I mean, we gave a few already as we study Bibles and stuff like that. I do like on the same page or the same insert with the one minute

Bible, the one year history of one year Christian history.

And so 365 days and you learn about all kinds of missionaries and Bible teachers and preachers

I actually like that little book. That's very good. Okay. In one year, you could learn everything you ever needed to know about Christian history.

That's pretty impressive. Now, if you do the one minute Bible and the one year

Christian history, you'll, you'll know more about Christian history than you will about the Bible. That's kind of scary. If you want a quantity discount, how's this for you?

The practice and presence of God by Brother Lawrence. Now, brother, brother Lawrence, is that his first name is brother?

His last name is Lawrence? Well, what happened was it's Lawrence Taylor. He got saved. Oh, okay. So now he's just brother Lawrence.

It's a linebacker Bible. How to knock some sense into your opponents. Boom. Remember that old linebacker evangelism?

Yes, I do. Now, is brother Lawrence, is that, is that some kind of, is that a Catholic or what is it?

Uh, I can't speak with certainty, but I think so. He is a mystic. Sometimes Catholic and mystic go together.

Yes. And so Steve, I've been to several seminaries, actually three attended classes.

No, excuse me. Four separate seminaries. Masters, Talbot. And they finally let you, let you graduate from one? Southern Baptist. Yeah.

And then I got one from this, uh, Acme home. What's it called again? Renna degree.

But I don't know how to practice the presence of God. I thought he was omnipresent. So I think I'll let God practice that.

That would be much better. So if you'd like to order from CBD, I guess you can.

I'd rather order from Westminster if I had my druthers. Much better choices. Mike and Steve here, No Compromise Radio.

You can write us at info at No Compromise Radio, theological questions. Please send those to Mike at nocompromiseradio .com.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth 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.