If your Christian conversion only cleaned up your life to impress others then you are walking a very superficial and unregenerate life just a little less worldly.
I see so many people who have become Christians, they stopped all the drug use and don't steal anymore but their attitudes are still rude and arrogant. In fact, they are proud of walking away from their terrible lifestyle.
Many pretenders think all they have to do is clean themselves up a little and they are Christians. This is how all false religions operate, people join them, and do the best they can in their flesh but nothing on the inside has changed.
When a person becomes born-again they come broken over their sinfulness confessing it to God and desiring to be cleansed by Him. When Christ cleanses us He cleans up the mess in us by doing away with our own spirit and replacing it with the Holy Spirit of Himself.
When Christ comes to live in born-again believers He is continually cleansing us, teaching us, and directing our path so that we are growing in holiness.
If someone's heart attitude has not changed over the years then they were never born again. Our attitude is changed first and then the actions follow.
The heart is changed, all things have become new. Everything we are is first in the heart before the actions occur.
2 Corinthians 5:17 "“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new”
Matthew 6:21 "21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
We act out the things we believe in and love in our hearts.
Proverbs 4:23 "23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it."
Once I chastised some Christian young ladies who were on the beach in their bikini bathing suites. They were playing ball with young men and even climbing on top of one another to make a pyramid while dressed in these immoral costumes.
The leader of this "church" group came against me for judging them. I clearly stated God's Word about modesty and the condition of the heart. The leader quickly came back with the mantra we hear so much; "you don't know their hearts." I replied with more scripture and asserted that we know their heart by the way they are dressed. Clearly, these young women wanted the young men to lust after them.
You can see where I am going with this; the state of the apostate church uses scripture out of context to condone and promote sin. No one was repentant because of my rebukes and they even accused me of things that were not true to discredit me. What they were not aware of was that I was merely quoting God's Word and standards to them to help in spiritual growth.
We cannot help pretenders who fight against the truth. We must count them as rejecting God because of their rejection of His principles from the Bible and stay away from them.
There may be those who will dislike my next statement but I must say it anyway. The worst group of all pretenders are the Pentecostal/Charismatic groups. They are constantly taking scripture out of context and twisting it to fit their agendas affording them the ability to sin without a conscience.
Every discussion I have been in where there was a rebuke for sin and God's word was rejected has been a Pentecostal. They pick and choose passages out of context to fit their desired belief. They fight bitterly to win the argument without regard that it was God's Word being quoted. They will say my post was my opinion when it was full of Scripture proving my points.
If anyone is in a Pentecostal group these days they will not find good counsel or righteousness, most of them if not all are rebellious and unregenerate. They also base all their spirituality on emotion, thinking that the more emotional they are on the outside the more spiritual they appear to others. Outward appearances are the most important to these groups.
Just recently I heard a Pentecostal preacher violating scripture because she was a woman preaching and leading over men in the gathering. She was advocating getting tattoos, she even went and got one herself to show her approval of them for young people.
She is a well-known preacher you probably already know who she is by this description. Yes, you guessed it, it was Joyce Meyers.
You may think I am being harsh and exaggerating in this post but perhaps it is because ALL the people I have met in the Pentecostal movement have been arrogant, rebellious and often rude justifying their sin as they support others in sin. I am not saying it is only the Pentecostals but they lead the other groups in inculcating their ideas into other denominations.
If you are Pentecostal and have not experienced this I understand that some may not be like this, but most are, just as most denominations are in violation of the Word of God.
They will rebuke a woman for chastising half-naked girls on the beach while coddling and encouraging those same girls to keep showing off their flesh to lusting men.
We have seen more disobedience to the Bible than we have seen obedience in the apostate church.
2 Timothy 4:2-4 "…2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and encourage with every form of patient instruction. 3 For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears, they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires. 4 So they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.…"
We must become so bold and steadfast that we can tell the truth without fear of being rejected. Rejection will be common when a believer speaks God's Word. We ought to be speaking "Bibleeze" far more than our own thoughts, let those who are rebellious fight with God.
Notice when you do this they will leave the discussion of what is in violation and begin attacking you personally, how you said it, or that you said it at all, while judging you as mean and rude. They refuse to stay on topic and move on to manipulation and intimidation. When this happens calmly bring them back to the subject or even better leave the discussion.
We cannot reason with or resolve anything with someone who rejects God's Word. These people cannot be our friends, they will see us as the adversary from that point on, never able to treat us respectfully because of their angst toward us.
Proverbs 29:8-9 "…8 Mockers inflame a city, but the wise turn away anger. 9 If a wise man goes to court with a fool, there will be raving and laughing with no resolution."
I understand this passage is about going to court but isn't that really what we are all doing when we are in a discussion with those who claim to be Christians but are hostile toward the word of God?
When we discover someone is like this we need to remove ourselves and never go back unless they come to us later admitting they were wrong in their attitude.
Proverbs 17:12
"It is better to meet a bear robbed of her cubs than a fool in his folly."
Proverbs 26:4
"Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be like him."
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