Thursday, October 13, 2022
Wednesday, October 12, 2022
God Does All the Work in Us!!!!
We do works because we are born-again and love to please God,
not for salvation.
If someone doesn't want to become holy and grow emotionally and spiritually mature, I have to question if they are born-again.
Romans 6:14-16 "14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. 15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? Certainly not! 16 Do you not know that when you offer yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one you obey, whether you are slaves to sin leading to death, or to obedience leading to righteousness?…"
When we offer ourselves as obedient slaves then God is the One Who begins the work in us, He provides the circumstances and places a compulsion in our hearts. All the work is His, all we have to do is want Him to do it.
Reject the Modern Mantras that Weaken Your Witness!!!
When we know that all that is happening in the world today is prophesied we need not be sad or upset about it.
If we were dropped in a foreign country by God's will, do we pay any attention to the politics of that country? I wouldn't because I would be there to bring the gospel to the lost.
Politics becomes irrelevant when Christ is our focus and purpose. I am convinced we are living at the end of the end when the remnant of believers is very small.
We are living in a post-Christian culture now, there are few who care about Christ, and many if not most are hostile to the word of God, even those attending church gatherings.
Anyone who wants to search the Bible for the truth about everything will be ignored and even mocked.
Until the Lord sees fit to take me out of the world my focus will be on Christ and the gospel.
I am so thankful we are going home soon, either by the rapture or our deaths. On my deathbed, I hope there will be a smile on my lips and a song in my heart. Hallelujah!!!!
Unsaved people do not have the hope and joy that we have. They cannot understand the expectation of heaven even in the worst of times, as we have continually.
We know unsaved people do not understand us because everything they desire and do is based on their feelings and this world. When someone focuses on feelings and the world around them, they will not do the heroic things that cause pain for themselves. Avoiding hardship and pain is everything to the unbeliever.
However, for the believer hardship and pain cause emotions but are irrelevant, the important thing is doing what God wants us to do and growing in holiness because of our difficulties. Without difficulties, we do not grow to become wise and strong.
In our world today many adults are simple-minded, emotional, and lacking in good sense. They are this way because they live according to their emotions and feelings.
Adrian Rogers said it just right when he said this; "emotions are the shallowest part of our being."
Those who follow emotions will be weak and beggarly doing the wrong thing often believing they did the right thing because they believe their emotions.
If Christ had followed His emotions He never would have gone to that cross. He would have taken the devil up on his offer to give Christ the kingdoms. Christ lived according to truth, that He came to die for mankind, that He would eventually have the kingdoms as the King of Kings, and that the devil will be defeated. Christ lives according to truth not His emotions.
Luke 22:40-53
"40 Now when He arrived at the place, He said to them, “Pray that you do not come into temptation.”
41 And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray,
42 saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”
43 Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him.
44 And being in agony, He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground. 45 When He rose from prayer, He came to the disciples and found them sleeping from sorrow, 46 and He said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you do not come into temptation.”
Had Christ followed His feelings He never would have died for the sins of others so that they could be saved from hell.
Born-again believers have emotions like everyone, as Christ did, but we do not live by them, we are strong enough, because of Christ in us, to evaluate situations according to the Word of God. We grow, become wiser, and more dedicated in our walk because we have come out the other side of trials remaining faithful to God.
We are much more useful to God when we have learned lessons that carry us through every situation and relationship. The joy because of the lessons cannot be measured. The joy through every trial is beyond explanation. It is a deep-down abiding joy that nothing and no one can extinguish.
When the world sees us moving through our trials with joy and peace they may want to know why we can have joy even through our trials. It is a witness to the world that we get through trials, as Job did, still remaining faithful to Christ.
Ignore the silly mantras of the world that tell us to follow our heart and our feelings, they will ruin anyone who lives by them.
Tuesday, October 11, 2022
The Way of Salvation
Did you know a very tidy rational and accomplished person can go to hell?
We love it when people are diligent and organized in their thinking, at least I appreciate it. However, these wonderful qualities will not get anyone to heaven.
We want to be diligent in all that we do but far more important than this quality is our spiritual well-being.
Since we cannot live good enough to gain heaven we will trust in Christ and merely believe Him for our salvation and then He does all the rest of the 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."
Acts 16:29-32 "And the jailer asked for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas; 30 and after he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
The Jailer Converted
31 They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 And they spoke the word of God to him together with all who were in his house."
The passage in Acts is not a promise to every household in which someone in the household believes in Christ, it was given to this one family because Christ knew the family would trust in Him because of the influence of those who believed and the gospel was preached to the entire household.
Let's be careful not to say what the scriptures are not saying, there is no guarantee that if we believe our entire household will believe. It happened in this case but you will not find scripture that makes a promise that if we believe everyone our households will be saved.
We know this by other scriptures that say the following:
Matthew 10:35-37 "…35 For I have come to turn ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ 37 Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me;…"
When we keep passages in the context of the entire Bible we will not come to erroneous ideas that are contrary to the Word of God.
Many "Christians" today often take words our of context to make them say what they want them to say, even defending the wrong ideas as though they were Scriptural.
People tell us not to judge others when God clearly commanded us to judge.
People will tell us it's alright to remarry when Christ clearly said remarriage after divorce is adultery.
People tell us to forgive unrepentant people when God clearly says we are to forgive those who have repented and confessed their sin.
People tell us we should worship on the Sabboth as the Jews did when Christ clearly said "some worship on one day and others on another day", as well as "we are to worship in Spirit and in Truth.
People say we should attend a building designated for worship because of the traditions of men, when Christ never commanded special buildings or where we were to worship.
People will say we should not eat certain foods when Christ told us all things are fit to eat as long as we eat with thankfulness.
There are many more examples of the traditions of men that have crept into the church gathering that detract from worship, detract from the truth of the Bible, and detract from healthy spiritual growth in relationships and toward God.
When we seek Christ through His Holy Spirit our eyes become open to all the traditions of the modern church that hinder the believer's walk, diminish their witness, and even cause unbelievers to believe what we have is no better than what they have without Christ.
Romans 6:4
"We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life."
2 Corinthians 5:17
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."
Galatians 2:20
"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
The freest day of my life was when God answered my prayer that I would see all the wrong things I was taught in the church and replace them with His truth. The floodgates of understanding flowed like rivers of living water. I was no longer in bondage to the traditions of men. The things I used to enjoy that were human traditions were completely removed from my heart, I didn't even want them anymore. It was unthinkable that I would ever return to those traditions.
I don't tell people to give up their traditions, I tell them to ask God to show them the truth about those traditions. If they want to know they will be convinced by the eye-opening wisdom of the Holy Spirit. If they were to give them up because someone else told them to, they would return to them because it would not be a deep conviction of the Holy Spirit. Many people do things to please other people, this is not how God wants us to come to Him.
The reason we see so many people "backsliding", burning hot in the beginning for all things of the Lord while holding onto their traditions only to return to their previous lack of faith, is because they were never born-again by faith in Christ. These people had an emotional response to the gospel while desiring to be involved in a safe and happy group of people. It was not about Christ but about their own personal desires based on feelings and emotions.
Mark 4:13-120 "13 And He *said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables?
14 The sower sows the word.
15 These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them.
16 And in a similar way these are the ones sown with seed on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy;
17 and yet they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution occurs because of the word, immediately they fall away.
18 And others are the ones sown with seed among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word,
19 but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things enter and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
20 And those are the ones sown with seed on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundred times as much.”"
We are meeting many people in our day of apostasy who have heard the word, and pretended to be interested and involved in a gathering but have never been born again. These are the ones who need the gospel one more time. They do not understand the gospel and the commitment to Christ that must be there, even being rejected by family and friends for their faith.
Let's not assume that just because someone attends a church that they understand the gospel or that they have been born-again. Let's also remember many unbelievers have been invited into the worship gatherings of believers, learning the verbiage of the Christian but never trusting in Christ.
John 3:17-19 "…17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. 18 Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 And this is the verdict: The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil.…"
Anyone who walks into a gathering of born-again believers ought to be asked how they became saved. If they do not know how to answer then they need to be told the way of salvation. If this offends them then they are not born again. Anyone who loves the Lord will want to talk about their salvation experience to anyone who wants to know.
2 Timothy 3 tells us the last days mentality within the church gatherings, it is devilishly ugly and a warning to us not to assume someone is saved merely because they attend a church gathering. In fact many pastors who preach from the pulpit have not been born-again.
Pray for discernment, pray for boldness and pray for the love of Christ to show through you as the Holy Spirit guides and directs.
Hallelujah!
Monday, October 10, 2022
God's Church Model
God's church model is for everyone in the church to participate in the needs of those in the congregation. Sadly the pew people expect the pulpit people to do all the work because he is being paid.
There is far more to the paid-pastor problem than just receiving a paycheck, the health of the congregation is at stake.
Pew people are just as capable of counseling, serving, and helping as anyone else, as long as they are spiritually minded and well-read in the Word of God.
The problem in our day is that most pew people do not read their Bibles let alone know it well. They depend almost entirely on the pulpit person to do their thinking and work for them.
Pew people tend to be lazy, coming into the gathering once a week and never seeing anyone in the congregation during the week. They give money for others to do the work but will not work themselves to be a blessing to the others in the congregation.
All believers are called to teach, help and provide for the poor as led by the Holy Spirit. Money is needed at times for those who help to have the resources they need to do that help, but it is not a salary and not only a tiny group who do all the work of caring for the brethren.
Acts 4:32 "32 And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them [b]claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them."
No one compelled others to provide for others, the believers saw a need and met it out of their own provisions. Each person gave as they were led by the Holy Spirit and were only commanded by God to provide NEEDS. If they gave more than a need it was up to them not an organized driving force of leaders telling others what to give.
Remember this phrase, it will help you when you are pressured to do anything within the church; "as led by the Holy Spirit." And, the giving was in secret without anyone else being told what was done.
There was no hierarchy monitoring our giving or compelling us to do what others thought we should do.
Acts 2:44-46 "…44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they shared with anyone who was in need. 46 With one accord they continued to meet daily in the temple courts and to break bread from house to house, sharing their meals with gladness and sincerity of heart,…"
The believers did not live communally necessarily but they were aware of the needs of others and gave as they were led by God to give. They shared what God had given them, but it was not always money, it was goods and services.
Remember this too, there were no church rules about the amount to give, that was entirely left up to the Holy Spirit and the individual. No one monitored the giving, in fact it was no one else's business but God's.
Any preacher who spends a lot of time on tithing is disobedient. God never told us to pressure others to give, He told us to hear from the Holy Spirit each and every one of us.
Luke 6:38
"Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
Philippians 4:19
"And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus."
2 Corinthians 9:7
"Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."
In this matter of "tithing", there is no such command to the born-again believer. Some people will give one-tenth and others will give more, it is no one's business but the Holy Spirit's.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)