JAMES & JANE MOTONDI - Village Meeting

James & Jane on the left 

Dear Saints,

Jane is the stalwart wife of Evangelist, James. This is the woman who picked 2 homeless AIDS orphans out of a garbage dumpster and brought them home to raise them as her own.  This is the woman that gave up some of her meager living to feed, house and educate 2 more (a total now of 6) children. By God's help, “we” have can have a share with God in making all this happen!  This is the woman that supports her husband's ministry - a ministry which he undertakes at risk from other (so-called) “Christian clergymen” and the Jihadis who are sneaking around Kenya killing professing Christians. 

Please print this photo if you can, put it somewhere where you can see it, and remember to pray for James and Jane.   “We” - “us” - you and I and the rest of “us” - we are the real (Christian) deal.  We are orthodox (historically based), true, Bible-oriented Christians.  We separated from the apostate Houses  of Popular Religion, and our co-worker-for-God James preaches “our” Protestant, Reformation oriented gospel to the poorest of the poor in the villages of Kenya.  

James does not ask these poor villagers for any money, and in fact, sometimes, James brings the food to feed all the attendees at his teaching seminars (which can last for 2-3 days).  These villagers have no other real entertainment, so the whole village dresses up and shows up (I have photos of this).

What is it that “we”lack that makes us anything less than a real local church?

We have fellowship.  The same controversial, but orthodox, true and Biblically historical doctrines that “we” teach, are taught by James Motondi.   Right now, “we” have to pray for James Motondi in order that he be able to buy a small motorcycle, so that he doesn't have to walk everywhere (miles and miles) as he has been doing on our behalf since 1998.  Why won't you help out? 

Matthew 6:19  “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,

Matthew 6:20  but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

Matthew 6:21  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

We will report to all of you who are thrilled to be a part of “us” and what we do and have done for the glorious name of Our Lord Jesus Christ until now.

If you're “new” to “us” - then visit our blog devoted to Biblical doctrine in order to realize that we are the fellowship online you have always been looking for.  We claim to be The True Remnant of historic, orthodox Christianity.  We are the saved people, and we will prove it to you.

Thanks for reading this.  

Psalm 35:27  Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.

SILENCE VERSUS "THE SILENCE"

There is a vast difference between biblical contemplation and the Roman Catholic contemplative prayer that is sweeping through evangelicalism. It is the difference between “silence” and “the silence.”

In biblical contemplation, silence refers simply to a quiet place in which the soul can effectively seek the Lord. In Scripture it is called seeking the Lord (Psalm 105:3; Isaiah 55:6), waiting on the Lord (Psalm 69:6), meditating on the Lord (Psalm 104:34), meditating on God’s Word (Psalm 1:2).

In these times, when most of us use computers and smart phones and our waking hours are filled to the brim with distracting busyness, it is important to have daily periods of silence for spiritual devotion. During these times we don’t sit with an empty mind and DO NOTHING; rather we open the Bible and read and meditate on its teaching, and we pray IN WORDS to God the Father through Jesus Christ by the wisdom and direction of the Holy Spirit.

Evangelicals Turning to Roman Catholic Contemplative Spirituality

On the other hand, “THE silence” of contemplative prayer refers to pursuing God beyond the Bible, beyond thinking. It refers to putting aside thoughts through mechanisms such as mantras.

It has been popularized by contemplative gurus such as Richard Foster and Dallas Willard and is promoted by many evangelical leaders today, including Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, Chuck Swindoll, David Jeremiah, Beth Moore, Mark Driscoll, Max Lucado, Ed Young, Sr., Gary Thomas, Philip Yancy, Lee Strobel, and Charles Stanley.

Harry Plantinga, director of Christian Classics Ethereal Library, describes contemplative prayer as follows: “As I was growing up, my church experience seemed somewhat heady to me - concerned more about correct belief than about actually loving God. Whether or not that was a correct perception, I wanted more. I wanted not just to know about God, I wanted to know God ... Christian mysticism addresses that longing of the heart. ...Webster defines mysticism as ‘the doctrine that it is possible to achieve communion with God through contemplation and love WITHOUT THE MEDIUM OF HUMAN REASON.’ That definition captures what I have in mind by the term” (CCEL Times, April 1, 2008).

In his pursuit of contemplative mysticism, Plantinga promotes Roman Catholic mystic writings such as The Cloud of Unknowing. This book, which came out of the darkness of Roman Catholic monasticism, encourages the use of a mantra to drive away conscious thoughts with the objective of entering into an experiential communion with God in “the nothingness.” The Cloud of Unknowing says:

“...dismiss every clever or subtle thought no matter how holy or valuable.  Cover it over with a thick cloud of forgetting because in this life only love can touch God as he is in himself, never knowledge” (chapter 8, pp. 59, 60).

“Focus your attention on a simple word such as sin or God...and WITHOUT THE INTERVENTION OF ANALYTICAL THOUGHT allow yourself to experience directly the reality it signifies” (chapter 36, p. 94).

“For in this darkness we experience an intuitive understanding of everything material and spiritual without giving special attention to anything in particular” (chapter 68).

Richard Foster, one of the most prominent gurus of contemplative mysticism, says repetitious prayers such as breath prayers “BIND THE MIND” (Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home, p. 124).

This is not biblical meditation; it is a dangerous recipe for demonic delusion. We must seek God through faith, and faith comes only by God’s Word.

Hebrews 11:6  But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Romans 10:17  So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

If we try to know and “experience” God beyond the pages of Scripture, beyond the teaching of the Bible, we are walking in disobedience and unbelief and are setting ourselves up for spiritual deception from the hands of the one who appears as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14).

The late Roman Catholic-Buddhist Thomas Merton, one of the most influential contemplative writers, described his own delusion in these frightful words: “In the end the contemplative suffers the anguish of realizing that he no longer knows what God is” (Merton, The New Seeds of Contemplation).

Contemplative practices, such as the Jesus Prayer, visualizing prayer, breath prayer, and centering prayer are exceedingly dangerous. Many who practice these things end up believing in a pagan concept of God such as pantheism (God is everything) and panentheism (God is in everything). Through these practices people typically become increasingly ecumenical and interfaith in thinking.

One does not have to choose between knowing about God and knowing God personally. GOD IS KNOWN IN CHRIST THROUGH HIS WORD. The study of the Bible is not an end in itself and should never be a mere dry intellectual exercise; it is the means whereby we know God and this is something we grow in year by year as long as we don’t lose our first love.

“But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night” (Psalm 1:2).

“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:4).