Good doesn't need Fixing!

The perpetual optimist is not a help in trouble. When the garden is full of weeds they will tell us to ignore the weeds and focus on the flowers.

The problem with only focusing on the flowers is that without taking action to rid the garden of the weeds we are allowing the weeds to choke out the flowers and at the end of it there are no flowers left and only weeds.

When the weeds are allowed to overtake the garden they starve the flowers of the necessary nutrients and sunlight to survive.

Gardens can teach us valuable lessons about life and relationships.

Relationships are like this too, the weeds are those who do not love Christ and attempt to deter us from making Him first in our lives.

The sunlight is Christ and the nutrients are the Holy Spirit. These are just my thoughts because I am convinced God gave us many examples in nature of His character and our life experiences.

The world is full of weeds who need to learn how to become flowers through salvation in Jesus Christ. We can share the gospel to those who are lost but we cannot make them flowers. They must choose for themselves.

Ephesians 1:13-14

13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of the promise, 14 who is a first installment of our inheritance, in regard to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory."

Once we were saved we no longer had anything in common with the world, our heart was taken over by the Holy Spirit. We no longer enjoy the people who love the world.

John 14:16-18 "…16 And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you do know Him, for He abides with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you."

It sounds good at first hearing that being positive all the time uplifts people, but the problem with it is that nothing every gets fixed,d nothing is ever resolved and no one grows emotionally or spiritually. Everyone just walks around smiling thoughts of superficial banter and fake happiness without any depth whatever.

It is not the good that needs attention, it is the bad that needs fixing. When we ignore the bad in favor of superficial happiness we are useless to help anyone and even ourselves to become better and more useful for the Kingdom.

Attaching to Christ in Full Measure

Being attached more deeply to human beings than we should brings discouragement. Attaching ourselves to Christ will help us love people as we should but never make them our everything.

No human being can be for us what Christ is, our Savior, our helper, and our teacher. He is everything all at once living inside of the born-again believer forever.

Ephesians 1:13-14

"13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of the promise,

14 who is a first installment of our inheritance, in regard to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory."

When we have His love and companionship we have everything we need and we know what our future holds, an eternity with Him in a place we cannot possibly imagine for its wonder and beauty.

Acts 2:33

"Exalted, then, to the right hand of God, He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear."

Galatians 3:14

"He redeemed us in order that the blessing promised to Abraham would come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit."

How Far We Have Drifted From the Biblical Model?

Never be fooled into thinking because someone has a degree in "Divinity" or from a "Bible College" that they have greater wisdom than anyone else who does not have these degrees.

In Bible colleges, students are taught what to think according to their professors. They come away with the notion that they do not have to depend on the Holy Spirit because they were taught the right things by those educated people in those universities. They are also often full of pride thinking they are so above their congregations that no one can question or challenge them, just like the Pharisees of Jesus Day.

The godliest and wisest people I have ever met have been those who have never been educated by men in institutions but were educated by the Holy Spirit through the study of His Word. They were not indoctrinated into the thinking of men but open entirely to the Holy Spirit because they were a blank slate not encumbered with mind manipulation by men.

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.”

The expectation for a Christian to attend Bible college in order to be a leader in a church gathering is not Biblical and has become a detriment to the gathering.

God told Paul to appoint elders and no one is paid. The only people who received a stipend were those who were traveling preachers who had to move from place to place to preach. There were no full-time local paid pastors who were in charge of the congregation.

This one-man-paid-pastor system that has been instituted was man's lack of faith in the Holy Spirit to train and teach those within whom He dwells. Someone down through the years thought men could do better than the Holy Spirit Who lives in every believer.

This system of paid pastors was a pattern of hierarchy taken from the Catholic Church model. It was not commanded in Scripture and there is no example in the Word of God.

There is an unspoken mentality that drives the paid pastor system, and that is that the pastor is the mediator between God and man. I have even heard pastors say; "don't let anyone else take your pulpit." This is patently unbiblical and dangerous. No one person in the gathering should have the power over others.

Every man in gatherings who is led by the Holy Spirit should preach and teach and there is no mandate in the Word that he be educated in man's formal schooling systems.

Because of this false system, many people in the gatherings have become lazy in their home study and prayer, they expect the paid person up front to do everything for them. Just as it was in the Catholic church when I was there. The congregation didn't make a move about anything without getting permission from the priest.

The priest claimed authority over the people as do many paid pastors in congregations today. They separate the people from the preacher through erroneous language such as; "clergy and laity." There are no such designations in the body of Christ according to God's word, these are traditions of men and are designed to suppress the Holy Spirit in order to give power over the people to these false leaders.

When the congregation has a sense of awe over a man who is educated and paid by men, they will not seek the Holy Spirit, they will seek the approval of the leaders instead. And, if the leaders say something different from what the Holy Spirit said they will follow the leaders believing the leaders know best.

Often the leaders under this system will water down their messages to keep the money flowing, they will even speak things the people want to hear to keep their jobs.

2 Timothy 4:3 "

For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires,"

John 16:13-15

"But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you."

The Holy Spirit will never glorify men He will always glorify Christ.

Nowhere are we taught to seek men for our wisdom, even though we have teachers we will evaluate them according to the Word of God and if they speak something different from the Scriptures then we are to correct them and disregard them if they will not listen to correction.

John 14:17

"the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you do know Him, for He abides with you and will be in you."

The hierarchy of church gatherings do not want the congregants to think for themselves as led by the Spirit, they want followers to themselves. This is why they are so often resistant to correction or discussion in disagreement. They expect the people to believe them without question.

John 14:26

"But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you."

1 Timothy 4:1

"Now the Spirit expressly states that in later times some will abandon the faith to follow deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons,"

The Advocate is the Holy Spirit and He lives in every born-again believer. No man has more authority over another believer than the Holy Spirit. Men preach and teach, we evaluate what they say according to the Holy Spirit and accept or correct it according to what is needed. However, the preacher and teachers do not have authority over anyone. It is the Holy Spirit Who has the authority.

We listen to the teachers and preachers as they are led by the Holy Spirit to encourage us and we do not listen when they bring false doctrine.

The one-man-paid-pastor system has ruined the modern church so much so that it barely resembles the first-century church gathering and has led many into false beliefs that defy God's Word.

People are prone to follow a leader they can see and have a propensity to disbelieve the Holy Spirit they cannot see. This is why the system of paid-pastor today has ruined gatherings, making people spiritually lazy and fostering idols in the form of educated men.

May those who are not familiar with this problem go back to the Scriptures and read exactly what God said about the order of the gathering setting aside everything they have been taught while seeking the Holy Spirit.

The Big Trade

The Big Trade: Christ's righteousness for my Sin!!!!! How could anyone neglect His Word realizing what Christ did on that Cross!!!!?

Romans 3:20-31 "21 But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,

22 but it is the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction,

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus,

25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in God’s merciful restraint He let the sins previously committed go unpunished;

26 for the demonstration, that is, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."

Romans 3:27-31 "27 Where then is boasting? It has been excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.

28 For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.

29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,

30 since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the cuncircumcised through faith is one.

31 Do we then nullify the Law through faith? Far from it! On the contrary, we establish the Law."

When we become born-again we don't have to "follow" the Law because the Law Giver lives in us. We do not negate the principles of the Law we love them and live by them because they are a part of our very being.

If we fail from weakness momentarily we confess to be cleansed and begin again holier than before, it is a growth process. However, if there is no confession there is no growth. The reason so many believers remain, spiritual infants, is because they hold on to pride.

1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

We must confess, we must be willing to admit our flaws and failures in order to grow in holiness. God has provided the means that is Jesus Christ in us, to be able to progress in wisdom, but we have to want it more than the worthless pride that dwells in us. The more we confess, the more we profess the truth the more we are changed advancing toward the goal of righteousness in Christ.

Pride is a killer of the soul, it destroys anyone who is dominated by it. The longer we protect our pride the harder becomes the heart.

Believers who have been born-again but do not progress because of stubbornness and pride are those who barely make it into heaven with little to no rewards.

1 Corinthians s3:13-15 "…13 his workmanship will be evident, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will prove the quality of each man’s work. 14 If what he has built survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If it is burned up, he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as if through the flames.…"

1 Corinthians 3:11-12 "…11 For no one can lay a foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw,"

1 Corinthians 3:11

"For no one can lay a foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ."

Attempting to do things our own way and expecting God to bless it is backward and sinful. God expects us to do things His way and seek Him for His Will. Our ways are less than nothing to God.

Proverbs 8:10-11

"10 Accept my instruction and not silver,

And knowledge rather than choice gold.

11 For wisdom is better than jewels;

And all desirable things cannot compare with her."

Isaiah 55:8-9

8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.

9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

So are My ways higher than your ways

And My thoughts than your thoughts."

Remember; what makes sense to our human minds is foolishness to God. Those who think they have it all figured out while using human methods are foolish and filled with pride.