I committed my sins as a young person because I followed my feelings instead of thinking with the mind of Christ. My life is victorious and wonderful because the Lord taught me to think with His mind.
The more we teach young people to follow their feelings the worse their lives become. One cannot make correct decisions based on human emotions.
One cannot follow Christ when someone is full of deceptive feelings about who they think they are, rather than what God says they are, that is sinful and in need of cleansing by Christ.
Those who love to elevate self will never be able to ask God for cleansing and He will not cleanse anyone who will not admit their sinfulness and ask to be made new.
2 Corinthians 5:17
"17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."
When feelings are the focus then logical thinking is ignored and even resented.
Feelings often lead us into lies.
The young person who goes to a dance is feeling happy about the music as their body swings to and fro with the music, but the music is bringing them into a non thinking euphoria that is open to anything.
Feelings manipulate our thinking and even cause us to NOT think.
The word "amusement" means nonthinking. "Amuse" means not to think. When we are amusing ourselves we are not thinking but we are feeling real good about not thinking.
Then someone comes along and challenges the euphoric person to think, making them angry that they have been awakened from their feelings of happiness.
Husbands should lead by example and loving persuasion, not harsh rules and demands.
When a husband acts loving and kind, the wife is far more likely to want to follow him.
Husbands should not make rules and demand that they be followed, there is a difference between a dictatorship and a benevolent leadership. He also has no business dictating the wife's role over the household. God gave that domain to the wife, not to the man. If a man dictates how the household will be run, then he usurps the authority of God. God gave that job to the woman and the man must trust her in her job.
Men who dictate and punish when things don't go his way, is one who is selfish, only desiring his own way. This is not godly but devilish.
How many husbands do you know who train their children to love God and make their wife someone they respect and uplift? Not very many.
Wives are not to be intimidated, coerced or trampled on by the husband to obey. The husband has not been given any mandate to force their wives into submission. They are commanded to love them, the choice to submit is the wife's. The husband bears the responsibility to nurture and love the wife and the wife is given the responsibility to follow. The husband will be held accountable for leading in a Christ like manner and the wife is responsible to follow when he obeys God. No one is responsible for the other ones choices. The wife should not badger the man into leading and the husband should not badger the wife into submission. Both are ungodly responses to disobedience. Each should pray for the other while doing their best to obey God.
A husband who badgers, coerces or demeans a wife in any way will be in sin!!!! Did you hear that? Sin!!!!
A woman who will not obey her husband when he is not disobeying God, will be in sin....Got that? Sin!!!!
Christ never forces His children, nor does He demean and mock. He leads with loving truth.
Ephesians 5 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; 2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.
3 But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints;
4 and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.
5 For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
7 Therefore do not be partakers with them;
8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light
9 (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth),
10 trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.
11 Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them;
12 for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret.
13 But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light.
14 For this reason it says,
“Awake, sleeper,
And arise from the dead,
And Christ will shine on you.”
15 Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise,
16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil.
17 So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,
19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; 20 always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;
21 and be subject to one another in the [p]fear of Christ.
Marriage Like Christ and the Church
22 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.
24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,
26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
27 that He might present to Himself the church [q]in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.
28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself;
29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church,
30 because we are members of His body.
31 For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. 32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.
33 Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.
Most people these days would be deceived by the anti-christ if he came today. They are already so far from God's Word that even the Christians could be fooled. There is yoga in the church, people defending "lifestyle evangelism" as though it were Biblical and much more.
So many people are very defensive when corrected, all they have to do is run into someone who schmoozes them up and promises them the moon and they will fall right into line.
The list of Biblical violations is very long in the churches today.
If our way of thinking is predicated on what others think or how they will react, then we will base everything we say and do on winning them to our side by saying what they like to hear.
If our way of thinking is based on Scripture, then the response is not very important, only the truth is what matters.
Those invested in "feelings" and "emotions" will see only the emotions that emerge, interpreting them as though someone else provoked them. The emotional responders always blame others for their choice of emotion. They never take responsibility for their own response.
Those who are walking in truth have no need to explode or become angry when confronted. Only those who are hiding themselves will become angry when they have been discovered. And then accuse us of being angry. I probably can't count the number of times this has happened to me.
There will be regular accusations that we said what we said it in a mean way, or that we were not loving. But remember, those who don't like the message will almost never address the subject at hand, they will attack our character or our delivery to avoid facing truth.
When we attempt to bring them back to the subject they will shut us down through rage or refusal to address what we said. They almost always address "how we said it" without ever speaking to "what we said." Of course we cannot prove we didn't say it in a mean way, they know this, so they count themselves as having won when we become defensive. The best way to handle this is to remain calm, ignore the personal attacks never responding to these manipulative tactics, repeat what we said and then walk away.
There is no possibility of discussion with those who are not interested in the Scriptures for their answers to life. Experiences, emotions and how things appear are the measure of truth for those who do not wish for the Holy Spirit to be their guide.
This is common now, much more than ever before since our culture has become rude, crude and selfish. There is no honoring of others in accepting that everyone is allowed their opinion.
Sadly too, this culture that is more easily angered becomes vengeful. They reveal their insecurity inside when they rage to intimidate. They want to be seen as superior but have failed to hide while being discovered.
Their true self flows out through their vitriolic reaction and the anger on their face, just like a spoiled child who someone said "no" to, they cannot accept they may need to rethink something.
When we explode at someone for challenging us, that is strong evidence that we are not sure of our own belief and must fight bitterly to defend what we do not know.
Secure, kind, loving godly people have no need to fight to defend their stance, they know nothing anyone does to them can change what they believe. The insecure person does not want to self reflect, in their mind it might make them inferior to have to admit they need work.
May we develop an attitude of grace and calmness as we speak truth, even in the face of false accusation. Remember Christ is our defender, we have no need to do revenge or intimidate others into believing our way.
If someone is intimidated into believing something then that change in them is not a change in their character, only outward change to remain friends.
Believers have no need to compromise their character or their belief simply to keep friends. We have the best friend anyone can have, that is the Lord Jesus Christ Who lives in us.
The silent treatment will be employed as others reject the truth teller, a sort of punishment for just being who we are. They want us to be like them. When we will not be like them they will punish us through banishment.
Sadly we see many in the church compromising truth to be friendly. They have dumbed down the Scriptures to bring in many superficial rebellious people to maintain many friendships. The church is no longer a place of holiness but a place filled with rebellious people who love the world and their entertainment.
“A time will come when instead of shepherds feeding the sheep, the church will have clowns entertaining the goats” – Charles Spurgeon.
Spurgeon was quite prophetic in this quote, perhaps he could see it coming because he knew the Bible and he knew the Lord Jesus Christ.
I am convinced most Christian were not born again in past generations, they were engaging in a cultural Christianity that they perceived as a private matter. There were probably more authentic believers but not everyone who claimed to be a believer was born again.
Matthew 7:21-23
"I Never Knew You
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’"
My mother was of this sort. She had certain rules but she was jealous and mean. She attended church every Sunday most of her life, dragging my father along. But our home was a sad and horrible place. When the culture loosened up on things, moving away from the Bible she did too because she didn't know the Bible.
When I respectfully corrected her on a false belief after I had become born again, she became angry and refused to hear what the Bible said. And yet she was in church her entire life. She was indicative of the relatives I grew up around. They were generally moral people because the culture wouldn't accept immorality, but they accepted it in their children later when the culture in the 1960's became more rebellious.
The evidence of a born again experience is the constant and steady desire for the Word of God no matter who accepts it or not.
Those who fluctuate with the culture are not being led by the Holy Spirit, they are being led by the culture around them.
The sin in our heart is revealed when the culture is able to whip us around in this way.
When we can remain faithful to truth even in the face of rejection no matter what the culture is doing or who we lose as friends, then our heart is revealed toward Christ.
John 15:19
"If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you."
Those who flow down stream with the world will have many friends and much praise. Those who have trusted Christ will not operate the same way as the world, they will be seeking truth from the Holy Spirit and acting upon that truth.
May those who read this be encouraged to keep on keeping on the path God has for them no matter what others do.
"But you shall speak My words to them whether they listen or not, for they are rebellious."
