ENNEAGRAM – A BENEFIT Or A BANE: A TTUF Investigation, PARTS I and II

PART ONE:

The LORD Jesus Christ in warning against false prophets told us that good trees don’t bear corrupt fruit; nor do corrupt trees bring forth good fruit. Obviously, false prophets are corrupt trees in this parable that cannot bring forth good fruit. And we are to discern (“judge”) such fruit as to its quality – either good or corrupt (MATT 7:15-20).

There are so many ‘fads’ (to put it mildly) and so-called ‘new (read that false) revelations’ (to put it bluntly) coming into the church, it’s a wonder that there are any vestiges of true Christianity to be found anywhere in churches today!

This article is an expose on this methodology and discipline known as the Enneagram. I came across a video on my Facebook newsfeed and being curious about it, viewed the presentation. Needless to say, I felt a need to address this as it’s quickly becoming a phenomenon, embraced by Roman Catholics, Emergent Church folk, Evangelicals who are adopting it as fervently as the more typical adherents of this discipline have done for centuries among mystics, New Spirituality seekers and Sufis as a tool for things ranging from a system to distinguish personality types and traits, to a means of obtaining spiritual transformation.

To get a basic idea of what this is, I quote from GOT QUESTIONS (Note: I provide a disclaimer here on this article regarding the potentially benign usefulness of the Enneagram as a method “to identify personality types”):

A QUESTION ABOUT The ENNEAGRAM

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GENESIS – An Expositional Overview of the Beginning of God’s Revelation: Chapter TWENTY

Contributing commentaries by Sonny Islas and James Fire

Studies by Ray Steadman: Old Natures Never Die GEN 20  

GENESIS 20 – by James Fire

Introduction: Our walk with the LORD is a process, one step at a time – and at times it’s three steps forward and two steps back, or four steps forward and one step back. There are times when, after experiencing a victory over sin, that we re-visit the temptation and fall back into what we were delivered from previously.

We see this in the ‘repeat performance’ of Abraham in this chapter, and how he somewhat blundered it. But we also witness the grace and tender mercies of GOD, being patient with his – and our own – repeat performances in failing to resist sin and temptations.

GENESIS 20:1-18

 1 ¶ And Abraham journeyed from there to the South, and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur, and stayed in Gerar.  2 Now Abraham said of Sarah his wife, "She is my sister." And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.  3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, "Indeed you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man's wife."  4 But Abimelech had not come near her; and he said, "Lord, will You slay a righteous nation also?  5 "Did he not say to me, 'She is my sister'? And she, even she herself said, 'He is my brother.' In the integrity of my heart and innocence of my hands I have done this."  6 And God said to him in a dream, "Yes, I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart. For I also withheld you from sinning against Me; therefore I did not let you touch her.  7 "Now therefore, restore the man's wife; for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you shall live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours."  

8 ¶ So Abimelech rose early in the morning, called all his servants, and told all these things in their hearing; and the men were very much afraid.

 9 And Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, "What have you done to us? How have I offended you, that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? You have done deeds to me that ought not to be done."  10 Then Abimelech said to Abraham, "What did you have in view, that you have done this thing?"  11 And Abraham said, "Because I thought, surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will kill me on account of my wife.  12 "But indeed she is truly my sister. She is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.  13 "And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father's house, that I said to her, 'This is your kindness that you should do for me: in every place, wherever we go, say of me, "He is my brother."'"

 14 ¶ Then Abimelech took sheep, oxen, and male and female servants, and gave them to Abraham; and he restored Sarah his wife to him.  15 And Abimelech said, "See, my land is before you; dwell where it pleases you."  16 Then to Sarah he said, "Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver; indeed this vindicates you before all who are with you and before everybody." Thus she was rebuked.  17 So Abraham prayed to God; and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female servants. Then they bore children; 18 for the LORD had closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham's wife.

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GENESIS – An Expositional Overview of the Beginning of God’s Revelation: Chapter NINETEEN

Contributing commentaries by Sonny Islas and James Fire

Studies by Ray Steadman: The Wasted Years GEN 19
  

GENESIS 19:1-38 – JUDGMENT UPON THE PERSISTANTLY UNREPENTANT - by James Fire 
Watch the FB Video of this teaching here (8/07/19)

INTRODUCTION:
We are constantly making choices in our lives; some good and some bad – and we have to live with the consequences of those choices. All too often we find ourselves in trouble of our own making because of unwise decisions and taking directions in life that lead to potential disaster, or even disaster itself.

When we contrast the lives of Abraham and his nephew Lot, we see the truth of this. Abraham was not without his own unwise decisions; the same goes for Sarah his wife – point in case: Hagar and the subsequent birth of Ishmael, whose decedents even today are a constant thorn in Israel’s side. But then as Abraham grows in his faith, we see his life becomes blessed with spiritual stability and maturity (though he still stumbles here and there on occasion – as we will see in Chapter 20).

But as we consider the life of Lot, he just goes from bad to worse, making one bad decision after another – even though, the Scriptures attest to the truth that his soul was just, and it was grieved for the wickedness of Sodom (2 PET 2:7; Do we know how he feels, living in this wicked world?).

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GENESIS – An Expositional Overview of the Beginning of God’s Revelation: Chapter EIGHTEEN

Contributing commentaries by Sonny Islas and James Fire

Studies by Ray Steadman: When GOD Comes To Dinner GEN 18:1-15

Studies by Ray Steadman: How Prayer Works GEN 18:16-33

GENESIS 18: GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS – by Sonny Islas
(We were not able to make a video recording of this teaching)

Introduction:

From GEN 18:1-15 Yahweh (God) shares Good News with Sarah “Sarah’s having a baby!” the son of Promise (Isaac).  

From verses 16-33 Yahweh shares Bad News with Abraham about His just judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah.

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