Wednesday, February 8, 2023

Bribes are a Sin against God

If we have to bribe someone to love Jesus by becoming what others want us to be then they do not love Jesus Christ but rather their control over us. They love their own ways and will not join anything that doesn't look just like them.
God never at any time told us to do whatever we like and attach Christ's name to it to make Him happy, just the opposite.
John 12:46
"I have come into the world as light so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness."
So many people think if they become like the world then the world will love Jesus Christ. The truth is the more we are like the world the more the world will have a wrong idea about Who Jesus Christ really is and the less likely their "conversion" will be genuine and authentic. God is not looking for "conversion" to His club, He is looking to transform those who know they are sick with sin and need a Savior to cleanse them from it.
It is only when Christ changes us into a new creation because of our desire to confess our sinfulness and be changed by Him that He will change us.
Those who come to Christ to "join the club" because they think they like what the club has to offer, will not be genuine Christians no matter what they call themselves. Those who are using "club" like tactics to draw people in are often not born-again themselves, they are pretenders who came in the same way they draw others in.
We have more pretenders in the churches today than we have authentic believers, and it is difficult to tell who is who because the authentic believers are overwhelmed by the pretenders having become weak because of the pressure of the "group-think."
As soon as anyone dares to question how things are done in these cultural gatherings they become the ones who are avoided. Shunned in subtle ways to keep them silent they remain in the group without a voice and without influence.
1 John 2:15-17
"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever."
Using the world's methods, manipulations, and ploys to cause non-believers to like us is against everything God taught in the Bible about evangelism.
We see what happens when the world is brought into the church. The Catholic church has been appeasing pagans for centuries to gain them into their false flock. This is how we came to use their festivals such as "Christ-mas" and "Easter", the Catholic church brought it in and influenced Christians to do the same. Luther and Calvin came out of the Catholic church but the church to some degree remained in them anyway.
Now Christians in every denomination are practicing pagan holidays attaching the name of Christ to them as though God approves of mankind adding thir own traditions to His Word.
Mark 7:13 " 13 Thus you nullify the word of God by the tradition you have handed down. And you do so in many such matters.”
Romans 12:2
"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."
To become like the world to win them is to become their slave, bowing to their ways, groveling before them as though they are the gods we should follow. When we attempt to please the non-believer to entice them into the club, we appear weak and beggarly, they may join us but they do not respect us or our God.
James 4:4
"You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God."
Matthew 6:24
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money."
Colossians 2:8
"See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ."
How many warnings do we need to understand that we are not to seek to please the world?

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