Wayne Almlie

[Wayne Almlie @WayneAlmlie]

@Joshua_on_Zion Which Christians are defending it?. I have pointed out the hypocracy of condemning this while celebrating Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition.

[Wayne Almlie @WayneAlmlie]

@planet_Beasts Woman? What's a woman?

[Wayne Almlie @WayneAlmlie]

@MattPinner_

[Wayne Almlie @WayneAlmlie]

@megbasham I'm a Lutheran, and I'm sure we probably disagree on some things. But I probably disagree more with LCMS than I would with you. The founders believed our rights come from God, not government, and they got that from the Bible.

[Wayne Almlie @WayneAlmlie]

@timcontreras25 One or maybe two were deists. You must have got your history degree from a liberal college.

[Wayne Almlie @WayneAlmlie]

@morgan_strahle @w_bitterman Then why have all the liberal churches lost half of their members in the last 20 years. It's the conservative Bible preaching churches that are growing.

[Wayne Almlie @WayneAlmlie]

@w_bitterman Luke warm pulpits.

[Wayne Almlie @WayneAlmlie]

@XJamesOlson @w_bitterman I'll start with, Trump is not a convicted sex offender, so you lied, so everything else you say is rubbish as well. TDS.

[Wayne Almlie @WayneAlmlie]

@FredrickAbberl1 @w_bitterman @TVTweeties I certainly didn't vote for any baby murderer.

[Wayne Almlie @WayneAlmlie]

@TVTweeties @w_bitterman Define Christian Nationalism.

[Haugean @haugean1971]

PREACHING FOR DECISION
By Evangelist Sterling Johnson
Evangelize, (LEM) April 1972

Years ago a District President of one of our synods said to a group of pastors and guest evangelists, “If you shoot over the heads of your people on Sunday, it may be a sign that you are more intellectual; it is a sign that you are a poor shot.”

THE AIM
The meaning, I am sure, is that our preaching must have an aim. It seems from Scripture that our aim must be to call forth a decision from the innermost being (heart). Let us notice that this is the thrust of the Bible in both the Old and New Testaments.

Genesis 3:9 — “Where are you?” (God wanted Adam and Eve to come out of hiding and expose their true condition.)

Joshua 24:15 — “Choose this day whom you will serve… but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua faces the people with decision in his last message.)

1 Kings 18:21 — “How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” (Elijah faces the people with a crucial decision.)

Psalm 1:6 — “For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall perish.” (The first psalm presents the two ways, and this theme is followed throughout Scripture.)

Matthew 6:24 — “No one can serve two masters.” (Jesus faces the people with a choice.)

Matthew 7:13-14 — “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (The two ways face man. This involves a decision.)

Luke 11:23 — “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.”

Hebrews 11:24-25 — “By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to share ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered abuse suffered for the Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he looked to the reward.”

1 John 2:15-17 — “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust of it, but he who does the will of God abides forever.”

Revelation 3:20 — “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with Me.”

Revelation 22:17 — “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let him who is thirsty come; let him who desires take the water of life without price.”

(The two last great invitations of the Bible require a decision from man.)

These are just a few of the passages of Scripture that indicate what God has in mind. The aim of God is man’s decision when faced with the two ways of life. This essentially is the aim of evangelistic preaching.

THE CONTENT
What about the content of our preaching for decision? The Holy Spirit of God has chosen a two-pronged instrument in bringing about such decision. We call this instrument the Law and the Gospel.

Romans 3:19 — “Through the law comes knowledge of sin.”

Romans 1:16 — “I am not ashamed of the gospel: it is the power of God for salvation to every one who has faith.”

The Law
The Law is that preaching that shows man his sin and the effects of sin in his life and the consequences of sin for eternity. Man needs to know beyond the shadow of a doubt that he cannot live in sin and get by with it; a day of reckoning is coming — “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

A great statesman was once asked, “What has been your most sobering thought?” He answered, “That some day I must give an accounting to God for my life.”

Man, in order to be saved, must know by the preaching of the Law what he is being saved from. The Law must do its effective work in order for the Gospel to really set men free.

In other words, the fervent, concerned, and loving preaching of the Law prepares men’s hearts for the Gospel by bringing forth true repentance. Is repentance the “lost doctrine” of our church, as one leader has said? Let us reclaim it, for repentance opens men’s hearts to the Gospel.

The Gospel
The Gospel, when truly proclaimed against such a background, sets men free in Christ! Jesus clearly sets this forth in John 8:34-36:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not continue in the house forever; the son continues forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.”
So all that proclaims and sets forth Jesus Christ in all His preparation for our salvation and His gracious invitation to unworthy sinners is the Gospel.

This is God’s remedy; this is His way out. Man, who sees his bondage to sin, will welcome a message that can set him free to follow Jesus.

THE RESPONSE
But, you say, how can man respond? Does he have power in himself to receive the invitation so graciously extended?

The power to make this decision is in the “call” itself. The moment the convicted and burdened sinner receives the invitation, he also receives the power to come — “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and him who comes to Me I will not cast out.”

A Lutheran pastor told me one time, “There is no place for preaching for decision in the Lutheran church.” (Editor: This is the opinion of the Missouri Synod Church,) (This was the 1972 editor’s comment. It remains the doctrine of the LCMS today) How wrong the dear brother was. We face many kinds of decisions every day of our lives, but there is none greater than the decision to let Jesus Christ be the Savior and Lord of our lives.

A pastor said one day after a young man from his parish had been killed on the way home from church two weeks before, “It really makes us pastors sense our responsibilities, for we never know when we are offering someone his last chance to make an eternal decision.”

[Wayne Almlie @WayneAlmlie]

@NEWSMAX I want to know what they think about the Sports Illustrated Swim Suit issue.

[Wayne Almlie @WayneAlmlie]

@theblaze Knowing that women are slaves to their hormones and have no control. How can we ever elect a woman as president.

[Wayne Almlie @WayneAlmlie]

@Grace_4America The only way that would be true is if she was born in a third world country

[Wayne Almlie @WayneAlmlie]

@theblaze The purpose of a jury is to affect social change? Really?

[Wayne Almlie @WayneAlmlie]

@LyndaniM Heb 3:12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

Heb 3:13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

[Wayne Almlie @WayneAlmlie]

@realjermwarfare So where are they hiding the plane and the passengers?

[Wayne Almlie @WayneAlmlie]

@MrAndyNgo Now do the Koran

[Wayne Almlie @WayneAlmlie]

@JesusSaves1500 Who are these Christians that say that? I've never heard anyone say that.

[Wayne Almlie @WayneAlmlie]

@ThomasSowell The you, is you, not government.