Sunday, January 29, 2012
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Friday, January 27, 2012
We as a Christian culture do not take lying and stealing seriously in the body. We think of it with no more shame than eating too many cookies. We protect the offender with flattery rather than rebuking them with instruction and shame.
There is more than just criminal activity here. Many of God’s principles have been broken by this one single act. When we steal from others we are deceitful. When we steal we are dishonoring our parents, husband and children, they are the ones most harmed by our thievery.
When we steal we are taking what does not belong to us therefore bringing hardship on those we steal from and bringing shame to Christ when we bare his name.
When we steal and go before the judge claiming that it is our parents fault or our upbringing that festers in our deepest recesses, with bitterness and anger we are lying. We are lying when we say we can’t help ourselves, what we mean is that we want people to feel sorry for us, so that our shame is diminished and even eliminated.
When we steal we are teaching our children wickedness and how to excuse their sinful behavior and how to lie to get out of trouble.
When we steal we mismanage our funds in terms of the fines and jail time we pay after being caught. We also spend other peoples money through tax dollars that are used to house and feed us while we are in jail.
We inconvenience our friends when they have to agonize over going to court with us and coming back later after our sentence is up. We may even break up a marriage or friendship when those who love us feel we can no longer be trusted.
We are terrible examples to the judge and other workers in the courthouse who know that we are Christians. Our witness is damaged and it is so far reaching that those in the courtroom who have seen the carnage will go and disparage Christ to all their unsaved friends and even persecute other believers because of our actions. Very often our names are printed in the newspaper for the entire community to see, further damaging the reputation of Christ and His followers.
When we steal we cause division within the church between the flatterers and those who are concerned about holiness and confession and brokenness in the soul of the offender.
In short when we steal we damage the name of Christ and His followers in our homes, in our communities, in the courtroom while teaching young people and small children to lie, deceive and harm others for their own desires. And lastly, when we excuse our sin by blaming others, we are dishonoring God and breaking all ten commandments.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Our Christian Culture Has Not Trusted Christ!
When we are pointing the fingers at division in the church over doctrine, we must remember that error is always divisive. The Calvinists think that the Armenians are divisive and the Armenians think the Calvinists are divisive. The fact is that both are divisive. The Calvinists are spreading a false gospel based on a false premise that no one has a choice in their salvation. Armenians are spreading a false idea that they think came from Arminius but in fact did not. One believes there is no choice and that every man was created to go to heaven or hell. The other believes that man chooses but can be saved one moment and walk away if their sin is bad enough the next.
Both concepts are unbiblical and therefore divisive. Calvin was a persecutor of the true church and Arminius clearly taught that one could not lose their salvation once they had trusted Christ.
Those who follow Calvin rather than Christ have made a plaster saint out of the false information written about him and the followers of Arminius have believed something about his teachings that were not true. What is the problem with all this human idol worship? The problem is that too many folks are depending on human beings for their answers rather than on the Lord Jesus Christ.
When I have a conversation with someone about doctrine, I am suspect of their walk with God when the first things out of their mouth is "Calvin says." It is at that point that I know that they are more interested in what a man thinks than in what God has said.
We lack faith when we place our trust in the teachings of one man because we are trusting that man rather than the Holy Spirit and God's Word. We think that we can not hear God through the Holy Spirit, we must see a man, hear his voice or read his writings to know the truth. If we trusted Christ when He said that the Holy Spirit would guide us into all truth, then we would not be concerned about following the particular teachings of a man. If we trust Christ and believe that the Holy Spirit can teach us then we don't need to run to writers for our wisdom.
It is alright to read the writings of others, write ourselves and even have real live teachers, the problem comes when we do not test all that they say by reading the Word of God ourselves. So often man likes to have a "helper" like the Holy Spirit that they can see, touch and read, just like the Israelites who wanted a human leader that they could see and hear, rather than God Himself. In other Words our pride wants to guide us into the realm of intellectual elitism by quoting popular writers. How can we brag if our boasting is about an unseen God. Arrogance is at the root of all human error and must be denounced before we can hear the Lord.
We lack faith in the promise of the Lord when He said that the Holy Spirit would guide us into all truth. Whatever did the Lord do the last 2000 years before Calvin and Arminius were born? He used the Holy Spirit and still does that today. Our culture has a hard time hearing our "helper and teacher" that lives in us, because the noises of the elite writers are drowning Him out. The pressures of our modern culture are crushing in upon us, making us feel silly and stupid if we do not give in to the ideas of these iconic figures of the past.
Our challenge is to refuse to listen to those who would quote men and correct those who would continually attempt to intimidate us into accepting the teachings of men rather than the teachings of Christ.
Please let us STOP raising our idols above Christ. We need to push them over and burn them. If we cannot control our impulses to follow the teachings of one man then we are in sin and will lead others into sin also. Do we have the faith to walk away from the teachings of man and trust Christ in us to bring us to an understanding of the truth.
When we look into the past and see the lives of these people we worship, we would see that every one of them has wrong teaching to some degree and in Calvin’s' case heresy. That is why the Lord said "let God be true and every man a liar." Romans 3:4
God told us all we need to know in His Word and God gave us the perfect Helper, Teacher and Comforter to be to us all that we need.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Take It Like a Grown Up
When we dishonor and disobey God, we have no one to blame but ourselves. All that we do comes out of the depth of our hearts. It is interesting that when we do something good we want all the credit, but when we do something evil we want to blame someone else. Everyone comes from a disfunctional family because no parent is perfect. What excuse did Adam and Eve have, their parent was the Almighty God Himself? If we think our parents are to blame, then how long do we get to keep using them as the excuse for our sinful choices? All the rest of our lives for every sin? No. We only begin healing when we see that we alone are responsible for every choice we make.
If we think psychology has the answers to mans sinful nature, think again. Psychology was born out of unregenerate mankind's attempt to indulge in sin without conscience. It has produced the apostate church we have today and further fanned the flames of wickedness in the unsaved man. The world has been using psychology for several generations to "help" people, and our world is far worse than it has ever been. God's way is the only way, and that is to stand up and admit our sin like mature men and women and joyfully take our punishments, knowing that we deserve it. This is the only path to cleansing and restoration in the soul of man.
If we think psychology has the answers to mans sinful nature, think again. Psychology was born out of unregenerate mankind's attempt to indulge in sin without conscience. It has produced the apostate church we have today and further fanned the flames of wickedness in the unsaved man. The world has been using psychology for several generations to "help" people, and our world is far worse than it has ever been. God's way is the only way, and that is to stand up and admit our sin like mature men and women and joyfully take our punishments, knowing that we deserve it. This is the only path to cleansing and restoration in the soul of man.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
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