There are many pretenders in the church today, they will be weeded out later, in the mean time we must expose them by preaching truth to them, their reactions will give them away.
Psalm 1:4
"The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind drives away."
Matthew 13:30
"Let both grow together until the harvest (the wheat and the chaff). At the proper time I will tell the harvesters, "First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat into my barn."
Isaiah 26:10
" 10 Though the wicked is shown favor, He does not learn righteousness; He deals unjustly in the land of uprightness, And does not perceive the majesty of the LORD. 11 O LORD, Your hand is lifted up yet they do not see it. They see Your zeal for the people and are put to shame; Indeed, fire will devour Your enemies.…"
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." (Edmund Burke)
It is Biblical to withhold forgiveness toward those who have no remorse for their actions. We are commanded to forgive only when the offender is ready to be forgiven through confession of their sin.
Punishment brings shame to those who are capable of remorse.
Proverbs 29:15
"The rod and reproof give wisdom, But a child who gets his own way brings shame to his mother."
Psalm 97:7
"Let all those be ashamed who serve graven images, Who boast themselves of idols; Worship Him, all you gods."
Jeremiah 17:13
"O LORD, the hope of Israel, All who forsake You will be put to shame Those who turn away on earth will be written down, Because they have forsaken the fountain of living water, even the LORD."
Remove the shame and we remove the vehicle through which God can work in the heart of sinful man.
We can forgive those who have sinned against us when they confess it. But we have no right to forgive others their sins against other people, especially if they are not sorry.
To forgive someone who is not repentant is the same as calling God a liar, that the sin doesn't matter and the victim needs no justice.
1 John 1:8-10 "…8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar, and His word is not in us."
When someone refuses to be sorry, spurns our attempts to point out their sin for them to make right what is wrong, then we have no recourse except to withhold forgiveness, while leaving them to God.
"IF WE CONFESS", is the key phrase. If there is no confession and even refusal to admit the sin, then there can be no forgiveness.
To diminish the successes of others, demeaning and mocking them out of jealousy to destroy their joy is devilish.
Sharing one another's joys and sorrows is God's design for believers in Christ.
Love is about caring about the hopes, desires and welfare of others. Where there is love there is peace.
Romans 12:15
"15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep."
1 John 3:13-15 " 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death.
15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that eternal life does not reside in a murderer.…"
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
"4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,
5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,
6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
In the passages that describe the woman being silent has to do with disrupting the service by asking their husband's questions. It does not have to do with total silence or it would disagree with 1 Corinthians 11 that tells a woman in the gathering to be covered when she prays and prophesies. Women are not to lead, but they are not told to be completely silent when moved by the Holy Spirit. The misunderstanding is because of our cultures wrong view of the worship service. The first century Biblical model of worship is around the Lord's supper when everyone, led by the Spirit, prays, asks for a song and brings a word from the Bible.
The services we are in today are not the model of the Bible. There were no one man pastors, because pastor was a gift and calling not a title or position. Many men in the service should have the gift of pastor, and no one is paid for it.
When Paul spoke of helping those who preach with money, God was referring to the traveling preachers and missionaries who need to be supported, not a full time preacher in a local church. Our modern idea of "church" is not at all in line with Scripture.
When I am in gatherings that do not allow women to speak at all, I remain silent so as not to be a distraction, but I disagree with it based on 1 Corinthians 11.
1 Corinthians 11:7-16
7 For a man ought not to have his head covered, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man.
8 For man does not originate from woman, but woman from man; 9 for indeed man was not created for the woman’s sake, but woman for the man’s sake.
10 Therefore the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.
11 However, in the Lord, neither is woman independent of man, nor is man independent of woman.
12 For as the woman originates from the man, so also the man has his birth through the woman; and all things originate from God.
13 Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered?
14 Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him,
15 but if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her? For her hair is given to her for a covering.
16 But if one is inclined to be contentious, we have no other practice, nor have the churches of God."
The churches were all covering their heads, there was no other practice than covering the head of a woman. So why do so many ignore this practice?
Just one generation ago all women wore hats to the gathering, most didn't know why, it was tradition, but it came from these passages of a woman being covered. In these last days of rebellion we have women following fashion rather than the Bible, negating the practice of the head covering, even mocking those who do it.
There are women who claim they are submissive to their husbands and their husbands don't require it. This tells me that women are looking to their husbands to be their gods instead of Christ.
We are not told ever to ignore God to obey man, just the opposite;
Acts 5:29
"29 Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men."
As the morals and godliness diminish through these end times, so are the principles of Christ that demonstrate His righteousness and our dedication to Him. For nearly 2000 years women covered their head while in the worship, it has only been in the last generation that it has been left behind in favor of fashion.
I heard a discussion involving Jonathan Cahn this morning, it reminded me of believer in the world, he said in reference to the continual attacks against Jews and their thinking when it is over;
"They wanted to kill us, we survived, let's eat."
Yes, this could even be said for the believer on this earth, we are attacked, we survive, then we will be at the marriage supper of the Lamb."
Oh how I look forward to this time with our Lord!
