There is a narcissistic coldness in the hearts of many people in America. They are more concerned about getting thier way and "appearing" good, more than actually "being" good, through Christ.
Appearance is much more important than substance in our culture. We live in fantasies of success when there is no success. The spiritual success is not important only materially or physically.
John 14:26 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will... teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you."
We cannot grow in holiness or progress spiritually when we don't trust the Holy Spirit while asking Him to work in us. When we are satisfied with "looking good" on the outside to man, we are too busy building that superficial self to actually progress spiritually in holiness.
The day we stop caring about impressing others and care only about pleasing Christ, is the day we walk in freedom from the social pressure of this world. Most believers are in bondage to the dictates of men while ignoring the principles of God on nearly everything. Even those who think they obey the Bible, actually adhere to very little of it.
Proverbs 26:12 "Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him."
John 9:41
Jesus said, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains."
Proverbs 3:7
"Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil."
Proverbs 26:5
"Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes."
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
The Bible and the Koran are Opposites!
The Koran clearly states that "Allah has no son." It also calls Muslims to "kill the Infidel", all those who are not Islamic, along with murdering the Jews. Allah requires his followers to die for Him. Christ of the Bible died for us, a vast and opposite difference. Allah commands people to work their way to heaven, while Christ paid the price for sin for us, all we have to do is trust Him.
John 14:6 "Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me."
Allah commands the beheading of those who will not convert to Islam, while Christ compels and urges the unsaved to believe in Him through His love.
Allah is all about hate and murder while Christ is all about love and salvation through His sacrifice for us. Allah forces, intimidates and frightens, while Christ urges with love, while providing the free gift of salvation.
In short, the Koran is the opposite of the Bible, the Koran was authored by the devil with hate and misery, while the Bible was authored by God bringing love and forgiveness.
There is no concept of love or forgiveness in the Koran, but the Bible, God's Word is full of love and forgiveness.
We are now moving into a period of time when many non-believers of many religons will be falling into the lie and trap that the Koran is the same as the Bible, when in fact it is the opposite.
Those who don't know the Bible well enough will parrot the mantra "the Koran is the same as the Bible", while remaining ignorant about the differences. The devil counts on people merely repreating something someone else says, such as the pope, without checking it out for themselves.
Something very interesting to me is, that for many years Catholics refused to be associated with anyone not of their own religion, claiming they were unsaved because they either left the church or refused to be Catholic, but are becoming willing to embrace Islam. They often rejected "Bible Thumpers" as they called us, but are ready to embrace a satanic religion such as Islam.
As a former Catholic I am very aware of the thinking of a Catholic and the things we were taught. True Christianity was mocked among the people, now they are being set up to follow an evil devilish religion, without reading the Bible or the Koran. They simply take what their false leaders says and beleive it without any questions.
The Catholic church tells their followers what to believe, discourages personal Bible study to find out truth, they will do the same with the Koran. They will expect their parishoners to just take their word for everything. Such mindless obedience to an earthly entity is the recipe for disaster and the wide road to hell.
My encouragement to all Catholics and other "religious" groups, is to stop believing your leaders, put their feet to the fire by reading the Bible for yourself, while asking God to show you the meaning. A good teacher never expects their student to just believe them. A good teacher will challenge their students to go to the original source for the answsers.
A good teacher doesn't have to fear someone checking things out for themselves, they are confident when an honest person wants truth and seeks God, God will show them.
Psalm 118:8 "It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man."
Jeremiah 17:5 "Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord."
Psalm 40:3-4 "He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie!"
2 Timothy 3:13-17 "While evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work."
John 14:6 "Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me."
Allah commands the beheading of those who will not convert to Islam, while Christ compels and urges the unsaved to believe in Him through His love.
Allah is all about hate and murder while Christ is all about love and salvation through His sacrifice for us. Allah forces, intimidates and frightens, while Christ urges with love, while providing the free gift of salvation.
In short, the Koran is the opposite of the Bible, the Koran was authored by the devil with hate and misery, while the Bible was authored by God bringing love and forgiveness.
There is no concept of love or forgiveness in the Koran, but the Bible, God's Word is full of love and forgiveness.
We are now moving into a period of time when many non-believers of many religons will be falling into the lie and trap that the Koran is the same as the Bible, when in fact it is the opposite.
Those who don't know the Bible well enough will parrot the mantra "the Koran is the same as the Bible", while remaining ignorant about the differences. The devil counts on people merely repreating something someone else says, such as the pope, without checking it out for themselves.
Something very interesting to me is, that for many years Catholics refused to be associated with anyone not of their own religion, claiming they were unsaved because they either left the church or refused to be Catholic, but are becoming willing to embrace Islam. They often rejected "Bible Thumpers" as they called us, but are ready to embrace a satanic religion such as Islam.
As a former Catholic I am very aware of the thinking of a Catholic and the things we were taught. True Christianity was mocked among the people, now they are being set up to follow an evil devilish religion, without reading the Bible or the Koran. They simply take what their false leaders says and beleive it without any questions.
The Catholic church tells their followers what to believe, discourages personal Bible study to find out truth, they will do the same with the Koran. They will expect their parishoners to just take their word for everything. Such mindless obedience to an earthly entity is the recipe for disaster and the wide road to hell.
My encouragement to all Catholics and other "religious" groups, is to stop believing your leaders, put their feet to the fire by reading the Bible for yourself, while asking God to show you the meaning. A good teacher never expects their student to just believe them. A good teacher will challenge their students to go to the original source for the answsers.
A good teacher doesn't have to fear someone checking things out for themselves, they are confident when an honest person wants truth and seeks God, God will show them.
Psalm 118:8 "It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man."
Jeremiah 17:5 "Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord."
Psalm 40:3-4 "He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie!"
2 Timothy 3:13-17 "While evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work."
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
With Love and Empathy Comes Sorrow
I understand this entirely!! Anxiety and depression are not a measure of spirituality, they are the fleshes response to pressure about things we have no control over. Our spirit is not depressed and anxious, our flesh is. Notice through we don't stay in that condition, God goes through with us and then takes us out.
Ecc. 1:18 "Because in much wisdom there is much grief, and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain"
Ecc. 1:18 "Because in much wisdom there is much grief, and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain"
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
When to Pray and When Not To Pray
Excellent Article on when to pray and when not to pray! A small portion of the article.
From Remnant Report.com
The Symptoms Listed:
1. Stupidity:
Men can reach the point of sinning where God abandons them to His wrath. In the process they become "foolish" or stupid - they can no longer think or reason clearly.
Romans 1:21 says..."their thinking became nonsense, and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles" (HCSB).
2. Lesbianism & Homosexuality:
Another symptom of God's wrath of abandonment is that He gives unbelieving, foolish men over to homosexuality. Missler points out that this is a stunning revelation because God uses homosexuality as a "result" of sin - not a cause. Even women, who normally have strong instincts to raise and protect children, resort to lesbianism because they have been "given over" to their own dishonorable passions.
"For even their females exchanged natural sexual intercourse for what is unnatural" (Romans 1:26).
"The males in the same way also left natural sexual intercourse with females and were inflamed in their lust for one another" (Ro. 1:27).
3. Penalties for Immorality:
The second half of verse 27 plainly says, "Males committed shameless acts with males and received in their own persons the appropriate penalty for their perversion."
We don't need to go into great detail regarding AIDS or sexually transmitted diseases. It is self-evident.
4.Useless Minds:
God gives over atheistic men to have a useless, worthless mind. It is a sad, tragic state of affairs. Gone are the dreams to inspire men, to change a hopeless world and to perform worthwhile tasks while one is still alive. Instead, God says that
..."because they did not think it worthwhile to have God in their knowledge, God delivered them over to a worthless mind to do what is morally wrong..." (Romans 1:28-32, HCSB).
5. Good Shunned and Evil Exalted:
Romans 1:32 says that "although they know full well God's just sentence - that those who practice such things deserve to die - they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them."
Many of us are aware, for example, that there are parents who applaud their drug-addicted or murderous kids but hate their Christian children. This is the environment where foot-washing basins for terrorists are provided in airports and yet a display of the Ten Commandments is removed from the courtroom. Everything is backward.
The prophet Isaiah appropriately gave an impassioned plea for this backward state:
"Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who substitute darkness
for light
and light for darkness,
who substitute bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter."
(Isaiah 5:20, HCSB)
Pray Not?
Should we "pray for these people anymore" when God has clearly delivered them to destruction? Does God tell us not to pray for certain people anymore?
It's a good question. But, we don't find any instance in the New Testament where Christians are commanded to quit praying for believers or unbelievers no matter who they are or what they have done.
God Lives in Eternity
Furthermore, God is beyond our space-time continuum. There is no past, present or future with Him. He is beyond our limited dimensional thinking of height, depth, width and one-half dimension of time (we can't go backwards in time yet). Isaiah 57:15 notes,
"For thus says the One who is high and
lifted up,
who inhabits eternity..." (ESV)
Only God inhabits eternity. Therefore, because of God's complete sovereignty over our lives we are told to be anxious for nothing and to pray for everything! (Philippians 4:6). We must continue to do so - to pray - until He tells us to do otherwise.
From Remnant Report.com
The Symptoms Listed:
1. Stupidity:
Men can reach the point of sinning where God abandons them to His wrath. In the process they become "foolish" or stupid - they can no longer think or reason clearly.
Romans 1:21 says..."their thinking became nonsense, and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles" (HCSB).
2. Lesbianism & Homosexuality:
Another symptom of God's wrath of abandonment is that He gives unbelieving, foolish men over to homosexuality. Missler points out that this is a stunning revelation because God uses homosexuality as a "result" of sin - not a cause. Even women, who normally have strong instincts to raise and protect children, resort to lesbianism because they have been "given over" to their own dishonorable passions.
"For even their females exchanged natural sexual intercourse for what is unnatural" (Romans 1:26).
"The males in the same way also left natural sexual intercourse with females and were inflamed in their lust for one another" (Ro. 1:27).
3. Penalties for Immorality:
The second half of verse 27 plainly says, "Males committed shameless acts with males and received in their own persons the appropriate penalty for their perversion."
We don't need to go into great detail regarding AIDS or sexually transmitted diseases. It is self-evident.
4.Useless Minds:
God gives over atheistic men to have a useless, worthless mind. It is a sad, tragic state of affairs. Gone are the dreams to inspire men, to change a hopeless world and to perform worthwhile tasks while one is still alive. Instead, God says that
..."because they did not think it worthwhile to have God in their knowledge, God delivered them over to a worthless mind to do what is morally wrong..." (Romans 1:28-32, HCSB).
5. Good Shunned and Evil Exalted:
Romans 1:32 says that "although they know full well God's just sentence - that those who practice such things deserve to die - they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them."
Many of us are aware, for example, that there are parents who applaud their drug-addicted or murderous kids but hate their Christian children. This is the environment where foot-washing basins for terrorists are provided in airports and yet a display of the Ten Commandments is removed from the courtroom. Everything is backward.
The prophet Isaiah appropriately gave an impassioned plea for this backward state:
"Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who substitute darkness
for light
and light for darkness,
who substitute bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter."
(Isaiah 5:20, HCSB)
Pray Not?
Should we "pray for these people anymore" when God has clearly delivered them to destruction? Does God tell us not to pray for certain people anymore?
It's a good question. But, we don't find any instance in the New Testament where Christians are commanded to quit praying for believers or unbelievers no matter who they are or what they have done.
God Lives in Eternity
Furthermore, God is beyond our space-time continuum. There is no past, present or future with Him. He is beyond our limited dimensional thinking of height, depth, width and one-half dimension of time (we can't go backwards in time yet). Isaiah 57:15 notes,
"For thus says the One who is high and
lifted up,
who inhabits eternity..." (ESV)
Only God inhabits eternity. Therefore, because of God's complete sovereignty over our lives we are told to be anxious for nothing and to pray for everything! (Philippians 4:6). We must continue to do so - to pray - until He tells us to do otherwise.
The Actions Prove The Heart Condition
There are many people who become incensed when we call sin what it is, claiming that we cannot know a persons heart. What they do not understand is which ever way we live, shows our heart. We cannot do in actions that which is not already in the heart.
It is out of the heart that evil thoughts come, as well as murder, adultery, sexual immorality, stealing, false testimony, and slander. For out of the heart come evil ideas, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.
Matthew 15:19 "It is out of the heart that evil thoughts come, as well as murder, adultery, sexual immorality, stealing, false testimony, and slander. For out of the heart come evil ideas, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander."
The heart attitude is first then come the actions.
It is out of the heart that evil thoughts come, as well as murder, adultery, sexual immorality, stealing, false testimony, and slander. For out of the heart come evil ideas, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.
Matthew 15:19 "It is out of the heart that evil thoughts come, as well as murder, adultery, sexual immorality, stealing, false testimony, and slander. For out of the heart come evil ideas, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander."
The heart attitude is first then come the actions.
Give God The Glory
Romans 12:1-8
"1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
3 For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
4 For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function,
5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
6 Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith;
7 if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching;
8 or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness."
"1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
3 For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
4 For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function,
5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
6 Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith;
7 if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching;
8 or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness."
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