Stop the using of Scriptures out of Context and ask the Holy Spirit to Speak to you.

False teachers count on us not looking up the scriptures they use in context. I have had people use scriptures out of context to prove a point, when I would look them up they actually supported my position according to the Bible.

Every passage must be read in the context of the chapter and that chapter within the entire rest of the Bible. I do not agree with teaching "verse by verse" as some teachers do. We must teach passage by passage and then support those passages by the rest of the book the passage is contained in and then the rest of the Bible.

Jeremiah 23:35-37 "…35 This is what each man is to say to his friend and to his brother: ‘What has the LORD answered?’ or ‘What has the LORD spoken?’ 36 But refer no more to the burden of the LORD, for each man’s word becomes the burden, so that you pervert the words of the living God, the LORD of Hosts, our God. 37 Then you are to say to the prophet: ‘What has the LORD answered you?’ and ‘What has the LORD spoken?’…"

Galatians 1:7

"which is not even a gospel. Evidently, some people are troubling you and trying to distort the gospel of Christ."

Know this, in these last days many will try to make it sound as though Christ's sacrifice on the cross was not enough, we need to help Him out by doing our best. This is blasphemy and lack of faith that Christ in us can work on us to be what we should be.

These people will encourage others to work really hard to be good in their flesh rather than trusting Christ who lives in us. We need no effort on our part, we need the work of the Holy Spirit in our souls to effect change for us. When He changes us it is permanent and righteous.

2 Corinthians 5:17

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

When Christ makes someone new and the old has passed away, then there is no possibility of getting the old back again. When someone says they are Christian and regresses to the point of no longer following Christ, then we know they have tried to be a Christian without Christ.

When we do the work ourselves it is full of self-pride and our own way of thinking based on our own desires to be superior. The very nature of the devil, was the desire to be like God, usurping God's Word through his own effort. Does this sound familiar?

Do not think for one moment you or I can be good enough to measure up to God's standard. We are as filthy rags without Christ, He does not look to us hoping we will think up good things to do and be, He looks at us to see if we submit to His work and His calling for us.

I understand how hard it can be for people to submit to Christ, seeking the Holy Spirit every day for their actions and reactions. It is human nature to want to be the one in control of our own destiny. This is the very thing God wants us to leave behind, our own will, our own thinking so that we can think with the mind of Christ.

Stop trying to figure out how to be good and begin asking Christ to clean us up, change our desired into His and develop humility through admitting we are nothing and He is everything.

Hallelujah!!!

Pretenders are all around us!

We are living in a time when many people think all they have to do is say something and that makes it so. It is not important to them that they actually believe in their heart, they are only saying words to impress others or to be accepted by them.

This is why so many people claim to be Christians but have no real witness in the world, not even the fruit of the Spirit.

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."

When words are only evident absent from the fruit then we have no reason to believe the conversion was authentic.

And, notice that many of these pretenders are embarrassed to speak of Christ to others, even ashamed when someone else mentions the name of Jesus Christ. In fact, most of the people I know who say they are Christians and attend a gathering, never allow the name of Jesus Christ to roll off their tongues.

Words are nothing, they only have power when the actions match the words and even then words and actions can be manipulations. An attitude of humility and loving-kindness without praise for it is stronger evidence that someone has been changed by Christ into a new creation. The fruit of the Spirit is a character of love through Christ. Born-again believers can discern this Spiritual quality and will feel a connection quickly to those who possess this fruit.

Every born-again believer has all of this fruit. Those who are pretenders often have a false love and some false fruit but it is always exposed when they are confronted with their lack of it and they rage or exact revenge on those who are not fooled by their counterfeit expressions of the fruit.

Since the fruit of the pretender is expressed in their fleshly attempts at spirituality they cannot keep up the pretense when they are exposed for what they are, they rage, they accuse and they do not express sincere regret at their sinful attitudes.

Those who are believers authentically will act saddened and ashamed when confronted with a sinful attitude or action. We almost never see this in our cultural Christianity today.

Believers hate being rude or mean, they hate harming another human being, the very reason we rarely see them having to confess, they just do not do the things that pretenders do as a lifestyle. When they have fallen they are sorry and will quickly confess to restore a relationship.

Born-again believers do not have anger lingering just below the surface ready to unleash. Their underlying mentality is one of calmness, kindness and peacefulness. In other words they live by the fruit of Christ's Spirit desiring to walk as He walked.

Let's review the fruit of the Spirit:

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."

We need not follow rules because we are the very nature of our Savior Who lives in us. Rules are for lawbreakers not those who love the Law.

Works Based Salvation is of the Devil

Once again we are running into those who think they are keeping their own salvation by their fleshly works. Here is my answer to this problem of works-based salvation.

Christ does not jump in and out of His children. Since their salvation is not based on their deeds but on His blood, He disciplines them rather than throws them away.

Hebrews 12:6 "or whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He punishes every son whom He accepts.”"

You cannot keep your salvation by your good acts. Only Christ is good, there is nothing in us that is good enough.

The problem comes from believing people have walked away from God after being changed into a new creation by Him, this is impossible. Those who walk away were never born again.

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 will enter. 22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many [a]miracles?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; leave Me, you who practice lawlessness.’"

When Christ changes us into a new creation it is His work not ours. It is permanent because we are sealed with the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of our inheritance.

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."

We do not change ourselves for salvation and we do not keep ourselves for salvation, it's all Christ.

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."

Ephesians 2:8-10 "…8 For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not by works so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.…"

It is a lie that one can lose their salvation, if they could then it is by their own works they are saving themselves.

Let Them Mock God Will Deal with Them.

Next time a young person mocks you to cause a negative reaction that dishonors God, remember what God thinks of their actions. God sees it and feels no differently now than He did at the time of Elijah.

2 Kings 2:23-25

"23 Now he went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up by the road, some young boys came out from the city and ridiculed him and said to him, “Go up, you baldhead; go up, you baldhead!” 24 When he looked behind him and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two female bears came out of the woods and tore up forty-two of the boys."

Notice how many of these young men in Elijah's day, who were coming against Elijah? There must have been a lot because the bears tore up 42 of them.

God does not do things exactly the same way He did in Elijah's time but eventually, those who do not repent from their mocking will see the wrath of God on them.

God still hates sin, He still hates disrespect to the elderly and He still punishes those who harm His children. Those who love Christ will be mocked at times but they will not be crushed by the ridicule.

2 Corinthians 4:8-10

"8 we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying around in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body."

No one can harm our soul or the Spirit of Christ Who lives in us. If they mock us they mock Christ. If they beat our body they answer to Christ. If they kill us they send us home, the place we love to be.

Our bodies are only a shell we live in, when we depart this life our body rots but our soul is complete and rescued from this body of death into the presence of Jesus Christ.

Romans 7:24 "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"

Those who mock and demean us only strengthen our resolve. Those who kill us only send us to where we want to be, in the arms of our Savior and with all the other believers who went before us.

Hallelujah, mockers, liars, and murderers cannot harm us, they can only harm an earthen vessel that rots in the grave without the soul or the Spirit. Our bodies are not us, they are a shell that holds our soul and the Spirit of God.

May our witness to the very end be one of confidence in the Lord, and disregard for what this world does to us. Hallelujah!!!

Discernment in the Born-Again Believer

Christ in us has given us the discernment to know who is of Him and who is not. He said; "you shall know them by their fruit."

Judging righteous judgment is crucial in the Christian walk so that we are not fooled by false doctrine or false believers.

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."

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."

1 John 4:1

"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world."

Philippians 1:9-10

"And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,"

Hebrews 4:12

"For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart."

The End Times are Here, Believe the Bible, Believe Christ

It is all becoming more intensely clear as we ask God for wisdom. It is shocking as our eyes are opened, at how many things we were taught in cultural Christianity that were not true at all but added by men who thought they could help God out by doing things their own way. They played god in their own hearts and ignored the Scriptures.

Satanic activity has increased to the point that nearly everything is irrational and unreasonable. We are getting a taste of what it must have been like in the days of Noah and Lot.

The mentality of those in the church is covertly that of 2 Timothy 3 although becoming less covert all that time.

2 Timothy 3:1-5

1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult (ragingly insane) times will come.

2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,

3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,

4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

5 holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such people as these."

Even those who think they are acting kindly toward others turn into monsters of wrath when confronted with their own error or lacking Scriptural standards as described in the Word of God.

2 Timothy 4:1-5 "1 I solemnly exhort you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom:

2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and exhort, with great patience and instruction.

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,

4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

5 But as for you, use self-restraint in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.'"

Correction is now considered rude, the people in the churches will not listen to anything that challenges them to a holy walk, not even in the slightest matters.

Timothy was writing to the church in Ephesus which was the disobedient church that had aligned itself with devilish doctrines.

Our modern churches are pictures of those churches described in Revelation. We are living in the Laodicean age in which the people are lackluster, bored, and uninterested in obeying or even knowing Scripture, in fact, God called them "lukewarm." This group was vomited out of God's mouth for their phony lazy attitude toward the things of God. This is a good description of the modern church today.

The Laodicean church was the last and worst of all the churches in Asia. God had nothing good to say about them. They were useless to God and even a hindrance to His Work.

We see this in nearly all the churches of our day. They are into a social gospel to make people feel good about themselves, the exact opposite of what the true church does. These apostate churches refuse to use the Bible as their instruction book and even persecute authentic believers when they attempt to use the Bible as the standard for holiness.

Many believers have left the organized apostate churches because they want to grow in holiness and worship authentically. When we meet every week in gatherings that think that "church" is somewhere you meet or something you do, they will not understand that those who are born-again are the church and wherever they meet together, even just two or three believers is enough to be in obedience to Christ.

Matthew 18:20

"20 For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”

The more we surround ourselves with worldly believers who do not understand the need to obey the Scriptures.

2 Corinthians 6:14-17

"Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? the more we are in danger of following them."

It is foolishness to think that we can hang out with lukewarm pretenders and not be tainted by them. If we desire to grow in holiness we must surround ourselves with those people who love the Lord as much as we do and will encourage us with the Word of God.

If there is no one, and this is common now, then we must remain faithful in our homes by ourselves. Next time someone attempts to guilt you into attending a gathering just to be somewhere there are people, simply state; "those people do not follow Christ." They will most likely say; "there is no perfect church" to guilt you, a good response is; "I am looking for a gathering that loves God as much as I do, until God shows me I will remain at home."

And, then I might reduce contact or cut ties with those who pressure me to do what God told me not to do.

Noah had no one but His family and God said we are living in times just like he live. Lot had only his family and his own wife turned back to look in disobedience to God.

God does not want us to meet with those who will discourage us from seeking holiness and dedication to His Word.

We are living in the end times, few are left who love Christ and obey His Word. We are free to choose where we gather and with how many, no one can tell us what to do in this regard. Do not be intimidated to join an apostate gathering with a one-man-paid-pastor system.

Stand strong with what God told you to do, and be sure you are seeking Christ in this, not your own comfort or the desires of friends and family. In many cases, friends and family will tell you the opposite of what God wants for you. Seek Christ alone.

Rapture Trauma

I hear the words; "rapture trauma" these days as many people are worried about whether or not they are going up in the rapture. They are disquieted by the terrible things going on in the world and want to know but can never find out, whether or not they will escape any of it.

I have spoken to people who don't even profess to be Christians who think they are going up in the rapture. I wondered how many people are like this, believing they are going up without ever confessing their sinfulness or being changed into a new creation by Christ?

In the parking lot of a local hardware store, I met a man who was excited about going in the rapture and just had to tell me about it. He wanted to know if I had heard of it.

As we visited awhile I realized this man had no idea what it was to be born-again or what it meant to be a Christian. As I explained to him that no one would go in the rapture who didn't know Jesus Christ. His face fell as he recalled that he had never repented of his sin and had never had a desire to be changed by Christ.

Thankfully he didn't argue with me and just listened. As we parted I reminded him that Jesus Christ was the only way to heaven. He seemed a little in a state of shock not knowing what to say in response.

Then is when I realized there are probably many who have heard of the rapture who have decided they are going up because they wanted to, without any salvation experience or a proper understanding of the phrase to "be born-again."

There is no "rapture trauma" for those who are born-again and walking with Christ. The idea of the rapture does not frighten us, it encourages us, makes us joyful and gives us delight in pondering our home-going.

We live in a world full of lies and deceptions, one of which is that as long as we believe something it is automatically seen as truth. All anyone has to do is pretend they are going to do something and that is enough to claim the counterfeit bluff, that alone makes it a fact, comforting themselves with the lies they make up in their own heads.

It is astounding that in our world today many people claim things rational and reasonable people knew were not true just a generation ago. When an attempt is made to correct the wrong thinking we are met with anger instead of curiosity.

The anger is generated from a spirit of intense pride that someone dared to tell them they were wrong.

Proverbs 12:1-2 "1 Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid. 2 The good man obtains favor from the LORD, but the LORD condemns a man who devises evil.…"

Psalm50:16-17 "16 But to the wicked person, God says:

“What right have you to recite my laws

or take my covenant on your lips?

17 You hate my instruction

and cast my words behind you."

Those who hate instruction and love their lies will not see heaven nor will they repent from their filthiness, they will remain as they are until they are thrown into hell.

It takes a humble broken spirit in someone to confess and admit their sinfulness to God Whom they cannot see. Desiring to be cleansed by God is an inner expression of a contrite (broken) heart that wants God to cleanse them and change them into a new creation.

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."

In order to gain heaven in the rapture one must be broken in spirit desiring to be changed by Christ, this is the born-again experience.

My hope is that those reading this who are not yet born-again will ask God to show them their own filthiness and ask Him to change them into a new creation.