Fleshly Worship or Authentic Worship

Fleshly worship is all about self, “thank you God for everything you give me.” Or “please give me this and give me that.” The modern praise songs are often focused on self and all we can get from God. It is reflective of the modern attitude that demands things from God without gratefulness that He gives us what we do not deserve when we trust in Him.

Even worse than fleshly worship based on what God can give us is obligatory worship hoping to appease God so He will give us what we want but won’t bother us too much the rest of the week. Obligatory love is the worst kind of love because it too is about fulfilling an obligation without any real love for the target of the false love. Fleshly love operates from a stance of entitlement, as though we deserve to have blessings from God as long as we “say those words” and “do that stuff”. If we do not see the blessings we become angry at God.

The authentic love and worship of God is praising Him for Who He is, for His attributes and marvelous love. We praise Him for what He has already done for us without expectation about getting more. We focus on Christ and Who He is and that He deserves, that is our praise and worship.

Before I was born again I attended the Catholic Church, choosing the shortest mass to be able to get it over with quickly. Then there was the Saturday evening mass, going the night before afforded us the freedom to have an entire Sunday to do other things. The focus was on getting the mass out of the way, obligatory, not love, not worship but appeasement of God. No one likes to be loved this way.

False worship is ritualistic, lacking in fervor and wishing it would end so we can get on with what we really wanted to do.

Since I have been born again I see many Protestant churches who operate similarly, there is a routine of events during the service, done pretty much the same way every week. The men in the pew barely sing, and they do not participate in the service, they come to sit and leave when it is over. No discussion of the things said by the pastor, no mention of the name of Christ in conversation, and often much chatter about the politics of the day or the ball team that is winning or losing.

Really the name “Jesus Christ” is added to the end of the service to make it seem like it was about Him, but it was not very much about Him.

Lord, you are my God;

I will exalt you and praise your name,

for in perfect faithfulness

you have done wonderful things,

things planned long ago.

Isaiah 25:1

“Lord, you are my God;

I will exalt you and praise your name,

for in perfect faithfulness

you have done wonderful things,

things planned long ago.”

Habakkuk 3:17-18

“Though the fig tree does not bud

and there are no grapes on the vines,

though the olive crop fails

and the fields produce no food,

though there are no sheep in the pen

and no cattle in the stalls,

yet I will rejoice in the Lord,

I will be joyful in God my Savior.”

1 Chronicles 16:34

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;

his love endures forever.”

Psalm 63:1

“You, God, are my God,

earnestly I seek you;

I thirst for you,

my whole being longs for you,

in a dry and parched land

where there is no water.”

When we worship God we want to elevate Him above everything and everyone else. We want to know His heart to obey Him, and seek Him for our lives so that we might glorify Him in all that we do. There ought to be nothing of self in our worship.

John 3:30-35

30 He must increase, but I must decrease.

31 “He who comes from above is above all; the one who is only from the earth is of the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. 32 What He has seen and heard, of this He testifies; and no one accepts His testimony.

33 The one who has accepted His testimony has certified that God is true.

34 For He whom God sent speaks the words of God; for He does not give the Spirit sparingly.

35 The Father loves the Son and has entrusted all things to His hand.

When our actions and attitudes are focused on Christ He will be glorified and not ourselves.

Growing and Changing all the Time is the Life of a Believer

We should be growing and changing all the time as we seek Christ. The more we know Him the more we see in ourselves that needs work. He is the One Who does the work in us, all we have to do is confess it and then He goes to work cleansing us.

1 John 1:9

"9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

We have no excuse to fail because it is not our own effort, it is our confession and God's work in us.

Ephesians 2:10

"10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

We can never legitimately use the excuse that we are not perfect, we can always confess our flaws and ask for cleansing. Then we can ask the Lord to reveal anything in us that we cannot see about ourselves.

When we are born-again we know we are not perfect but we are not comfortable in that imperfection because we are always looking at Christ and comparing ourselves with Him.

When we compare ourselves with others we will always see someone who is worse than ourselves. But when we compare ourselves with Christ we know there is more work to be done in us.

No one is better than someone else and no one is worse than someone else, everyone is "desperately wicked", it is only Christ Who is Good!!!!! When we know this we have no pride left in us, no boasting and no comparing ourselves with others.

Humility comes when we know only Christ is good. We have no need to impress anyone because there is nothing good in us except Christ, because we know this we walk in joy and peace without the inward pressure to perform for others. It is only God we wish to please. Hallelujah!!!!!

Why Did God Punish Everyone for What Adam and Eve Did?

Someone asked the question, "why did God punish everyone over what Adam and Eve did in the Garden, rejecting God to follow the lies of the devil?

Here was my answer:

"God knew that the nature of man would choose sin before choosing God. It was the nature of man that God had to change through acceptance of Christ and what He did on that cross. When we became born again the "WAY" we thought changed and we no longer wanted to sin."

"All human beings would do what Adam and Eve did if they were given the same choices. We know this by what people do automatically before they are born again."

"It wasn't the particular sin that God punished Adam and Eve about, it was their propensity to choose sin over God."

The punishment was given to make life more difficult, helping them realize they needed God. Mankind would never choose God if things were easy, they would roll along enjoying life never thinking of Him.

Romans 3:20 "

because by the works of the Law none of mankind will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes knowledge of sin."

It was the sinful heart that God had to deal with, showing mankind just how sinful they are before they will see their need for God and be grateful for what He provided, even the shedding of the blood of His only son Jesus Christ to redeem man.

When anyone says to us God does not love us because of the punishment, be sure and tell them, He died a brutal death and was separated from His Father to save us, it is not possible to have more love than that.

He also made it so easy it's hard for some to believe it would be that easy. All we have to do is confess we are sinners and trust in Christ and He does all the changing and cleansing, after that He takes us home to live with Him in paradise forever.

Couldn't get any easier or more wonderful than that.

Some may say; "but I lost all my friends", or "life seemed to have gotten harder", yes, but these are trials God goes through with us, we are not alone. We must go through the trials to build our faith and trust in Christ. People are lazy when things are easy, God allows us "no pain, no gain" as some would say, in order to build spiritual muscles and wisdom that lasts for eternity.

What we learn through our Spiritual BootCamp will serve us in the Millennium and into the new earth forever. Hallelujah!!!

The Change is Real, Permanent and Done by God

If salvation does not bring a dramatic change in the way we think then it was not authentic, but only a mental decision. When Christ changes us because we want to be changed then it will be so dramatic that others notice something is very different.

2 Corinthians 5:17

"17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."

What Does God Say Love Is?

What is love? God tells us in these verses!

1 Corinthians 13:4–8a "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth."

You Will Know them by their Fruit

Most Christians have been taught more of psychology than they have been taught the trust of the Bible. Ask the Holy Spirit not the culture for wisdom.

If everyone who is born-again would ask the Holy Spirit to show them the truth about everything they have been taught and then search the Word to find out what God says about it, paying attention to His words, they would see that most of what we were taught in the culture was wrong.

1 Corinthians 3:18-20 "18 Let no one deceive himself. If any of you thinks he is wise in this age, he should become a fool, so that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness.” 20 And again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”…"

The world will think we are foolish when we don't think the way they do, when we think with the mind of Christ.

It is the ways of the world that we have been brain-washed with our entire lives. The culture has perverted all of their ways to follow their feelings and enhance self worship, calling it "self-esteem." No where in the scripture does God call "self-esteem" a good thing. God said we are to esteem others better than ourselves.

Philippians 2:3 "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem the other better than himself."

Here is what God says "self-esteem" produces.

2 Timothy 3:1-5

1 This know also, that in the last days perilous (ragingly insane) times shall come.

2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,

4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;

5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away."

There are many other principles that have been perverted to bring about the opposite of what God says in His Word.

The teachings on forgiveness is also one of these false worldly teachings.

Notice how we almost never hear a mantra shouting "confess, confess, confess", the emphasis is on forgiveness without confession to guilt the victims into forgiving an unrepentant person. Why are the people not guilted into repenting when they are the perpetrators?

It is easy to answer this, the devil has perverted God's ways to protect offenders while harming victims of offenders.

I knew of a man who came to church, everything out of his mouth was the opposite of what God said in His word. The man was stubborn, rebellious and mean-spirited demeaning and mocking while lying against the Word of God. When we see this we know we are dealing with more than just human stubbornness, it is demonic. Devils often will influence the thinking of people to make them believe they are right and others deserve their rage.

The anger and the rage is the proof there has been no born again experience. God said "you shall know them by their fruit." Do not allow a rager to lure you into fighting with them. Remain silent, remove yourself and leave them for God to handle.

Matthew 7:15-20 "15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them."

Fruit of the Spirit is as follows:

Galatians 5:22-23

"22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

Pretenders can appear to have this fruit but will lose all of it as soon as you address problems with their theology or attitudes.

You know who they are if you have enough time spent with them.

Calling on the Name of Jesus Christ

Lots of people who claim to call upon the name of the Lord have false motives, to be accepted by others or to pretend they love God when they only want to appear so.

Matthew 7:21-23 "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.’"

We must read all scripture in the context of the rest of the Bible. Words do not mean very much unless they are backed up by a lifestyle change. But not a change that we do, it is the change that Christ does in us when He sees we are sincere in our repentance and desire to be changed by Him.

Then He makes us into a new creation. God will not make into a new creation anyone who does not want to be changed by Him. He will not change anyone who is pretending with selfish motives and only "says" things to be accepted.

Our confession of sinfulness must be according to a "contrite" heart, meaning a heart that has been crushed by the knowledge of just how sinful we are and how much we have hurt the heart of God.

God said "you shall know them by their fruit", which is the fruit of the Holy Spirit which is "love, joy, peace, gentleness, kindness, self-control and longsuffering."

If someone claims to be a Christian but nothing has changed in their life, they still live rebelliously against God's principles and the fruit is missing, then that person was never born-again, as we see in Matthew 7:21-23.

When a person rages at us for pointing out a sin in their life that is harming others, then that person is not born-again. At the very least the person confronted should feel ashamed and desire to clear things up if there has been a misunderstanding. Those who desire to confess their sinfulness to be cleansed by God of that sin will act humble and saddened that they have harmed someone else and especially that they have been disrespectful of God and others.

1 John 1:9

"9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

It is possible that our challenge to a brother or sister who is sinning will be met with resistance, but eventually, if they are saved they will be contrite (crushed) and want to make things right.

When appearances are first and foremost in someone's life far more than obedience to God, we have met a pretender. Authentically born-again believers hate it when they sin, they do not rest until they fix what was wrong and openly confess sin. Their heart is more concerned about hurting God and our witness as believers than they are about their own reputation as a good person.

If you are born-again do not ignore the promptings of the Holy Spirit. He will tell us if we have been falsely accused or if we are guilty of something. We need not wallow in self denigration, we can dismiss a false accusation or confess to be cleansed if we were guilty. The longer a person covers up their own sin and willfully ignores the warnings of others the more hardened their heart becomes.

God will go silent for the believer who hardens their heart, and will not hear any cries from the unbeliever who will not confess their sinfulness to be born-again.

If anyone hardens their heart and refuses to submit to God and His other children, God will further harden it to the point they cannot unharden it anymore. This is a very scary place to be for anyone.

Hebrews 3:7-9 "7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear His voice, 8 do not harden your hearts, as you did in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your fathers tested and tried Me, and for forty years saw My works."

Hebrews 3:12-13

"Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God…'"

The last verse here is warning "Christians" to see if they are really in the faith, those who are not are the pretenders who will depart from the faith having lost their strength to carry on in it because God never changed them into a new creation. They were attempting to do their walk in the flesh because of their unbelief in Christ.

So many people live by "their own words" while negating and ignoring the Words of God. They are stubborn and rebellious determined to do as they please rather than submit to God.

Matthew 4:17

"From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”