Saturday, April 13, 2024
Don't Tell Me what you are going to do, Just Do It
Our hearts are what drive our actions, our hearts cannot be different or separate from our actions. When someone says you don't know my heart, we can reply with; "I know your heart by your actions."
And, words mean very little in terms of evidence for our hearts. We can say many things we know people want to hear without any commitment to those words.
Matthew 12:34-37
"34 You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, express any good things? For the mouth speaks from that which fills the heart. 35 The good person brings out of his good treasure good things; and the evil person brings out of his evil treasure evil things.
36 But I tell you that for every careless word that people speak, they will give an account of it on the day of judgment.
37 For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Our actions prove our hearts! Believe Actions not Words
The Lies of the Stoics
In the past few months, I have been reading about the "Stoics" who had some wisdom abut how to live our lives but although completely focused on self. The more I read the more I realized the Stoics such as Seneca, viewed life from a humanistic perspective of good family practices with the choice of whatever god one wanted to emulate.
One of Seneca's quotes demonstrates the monstrous view of the family he had and the thinking of his time.
When you read much of the philosophy of the Stoics it sounds like they are reading from the wisdom of the Bible, but they are completely and totally focused on using wisdom and acting rightly for one reason only and that is "self." Their wisdom that sounds like Biblical standards are extolled as the way to live that best enhances one's own life.
Sadly our culture in America is teaching "self-esteem" and "self-reliance" with or without a god more than anything else. In fact for over 40 years now church attendees have been upholding the "self-esteem" teaching as paramount in child rearing, causing disrespect in children for anyone else.
Sadly Stoicism is back in force only under a different banner and subtle schemes of the devil. Those who tell the truth about these things are rejected, and even demeaned for exposing them for what they are, which is the devil's handiwork.
Our country has returned to the barbarism of the Stoics, however, so cleverly disguised as new discoveries. They even use wisdom from the Bible wrapped in "self-care" to sell their lies.
This is why it is so important to look beyond the Bible wisdom the Stoics sell placing it back in their context. We discover when in the context of their writings we see a little Bible wisdom without crediting God, and a whole lot of humanism that elevates oneself to the level of a god.
This is the same ploy the devil used in the garden when he told Eve she could be like God. He managed to convince her that "God" was a mean guy just wanting to oppress her. Of course, believers know the opposite is true, God has commandments to help us have hope and live lives that protect us from evil.
2 Thessalonians 3:3
"3 But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one."
Psalm 46:1 "God is our refuge and strength,
A very ready help in trouble."
As born-again believers we walk in the Spirit and just like Him we desire to help people, saving them from their own ungodly desires, pointing them to God's Word so that they too can know how wonderful it is to be guided and protected by their Creator.
The only way this can happen for non-believers is if they trust in Jesus Christ by faith, believe Him, and desire to be changed into a new creation by Christ.
Those who are born-again seek Christ with their whole heart and may those who are not yet born-again believe in Christ and allow Him to change them into a new creation.
What People Say or Want Does not Matter, Christ Matters
When you realize people are gossiping about you remember they did it to Jesus Christ too.
Matthew 9:1-8, Mark 2:23-28, Luke 6:1-5, Matthew 10:25 and more.
When Christ in you leads you to a particular calling you can be sure there will be those who judge it without knowing the particulars and without interest in finding out.
Legalism is following rules God never made and requiring others to follow them too. Obedience to God's Word is searching His Word for the truth and allowing the Holy Spirit to work in us to obey Him.
We do not obey the culture around us whether it is in church gatherings or out of church gatherings. We obey Christ Who lives in us.
As we muddle through these end times we will find very little support from others. Most people in churches will not understand what we are doing and will even believe it is wrong. Sadly most "Christians" who attend churches do not know the Bible and what they think they know they do not understand.
Only those who are seeking Christ, the Holy Spirit in them, will be able to discern truth from error and it will lead to a life of aloneness. Notice I said aloneness not loneliness. We are never alone when Christ lives in us as long as we seek Him in all things.
There can be no greater companion than the Holy Spirit of Christ. He is everything we need.
I have been more lonely in crowds and among family than I ever have being alone with Christ. No person can offer the love that Christ offers and no person can understand the things of God except those who have the Holy Spirit living in them.
Philippians 3:8-12
"8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them mere rubbish, so that I may gain Christ,
9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,
10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;
11 if somehow I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already grasped it all or have already become perfect, but I press on if I may also take hold of that for which I was even taken hold of by Christ Jesus."
Hallelujah!!!!
Thursday, April 11, 2024
The Most Wonderful Thing About Salvation
1 Corinthians 13
"If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.
11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.
12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
The Greatest of all Fruits of the Spirit of God is Love. The first of the fruit of the Spirit is love.
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."
No Need for Grandiose Miracles, We Walk by Faith
Luke 16:29-31
"29 Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, Father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’ ”
2 Corinthians 5:7
"7 For we walk by faith, not by sight."
Those who require grandiose miracles to keep up faith have little faith.
Evidence that We Know God and He Knows Us!
John 2:4-6 "4 If anyone says, “I know Him,” but does not keep His commandments, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But if anyone keeps His word, the love of God has been truly perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him: 6 Whoever claims to abide in Him must walk as Jesus walked."
John 14:23
Jesus replied, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
1 John 3:24
Whoever keeps His commandments remains in God, and God in him. And by this we know that He remains in us: by the Spirit He has given us.
1 John 4:12
No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us.
1 John 4:13
By this we know that we remain in Him, and He in us: He has given us of His Spirit.
It is only possible to be saved, born-again, if we have the Holy Spirit living in us. The Holy Spirit comes to live in us when we confess to God that we are sinners and cannot save ourselves. Then Christ enters our bodies and lives in us until He calls us home.
The evidence that we have been born again is in the character qualities of Christ that we demonstrate in our life on a continual basis. No born-again believer lives a lifestyle of sin and anger.
Galatians 5:22-23 " 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.…"
Matthew 7:16-20 "16By their fruit you will recognize them. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 So then, by their fruit you will recognize them."
God made it clear that many people who think well of themselves and have joined a Christian church because they enjoy whatever it has to offer in companionship are not necessarily saved. Many have not trusted in Christ and do not know what it is to be led by the Holy Spirit because they do not have Him. They have a form of religion but deny Christ as they trust in themselves.
Matthew 7:21-23 "21Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’
23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’"
I have seen people very proud of how good they think they are who condemn others they believe had a sinful past. Those who have come to the church to be seen as good people but have never trusted Christ remain in their sinful state without hope until they repent from their arrogance.
Everyone has a sinful past, no one is without sin. Even if those who think they have lived a good life have sinned in their hearts as they elevate themselves above others and even above God.
Luke 18:9-14 "9 Now He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt:
10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
11 The Pharisee stood and began praying this in regard to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, crooked, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
12 I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’
13 But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to raise his eyes toward heaven, but was beating his chest, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’
14 I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other one; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Luke 18:16-17 "16 But Jesus called the children to Him and said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 17 Truly I tell you, anyone who does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”…"
Humility is a demonstration of a child-like posture. Knowing we are worthless and on our way to hell in need of the Savior is the first step to salvation. No one can remain full of pride and self-satisfied when they have humbled themselves in repentance toward God.
No one who has been born-again will look down on others are unworthy of love when the love of Christ lives in them. We see the unsaved in pity and desire for them to find Christ as we did.
There is an old saying; "except for the grace of God there go I." It means that I was once lost just as others are right now. Our desire is to love those we come in contact with, love them to Christ and love the brethren who have already found Christ. When there is no love but only prideful superiority there cannot have been a salvation experience.
Remember the fruit of the Spirit, this is the evidence of a born-again experience. Christ changes us, we cannot change ourselves. It is all Him all the time.
Ephesians 2:9-10 "…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. "
For those who are not yet saved repent and for those who are born-again allow the love of Christ to shine through you His way, the way of His Word, the Scriptures.
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