The Older I Get

Funny how age has a way of clearing the clutter.

When we’re young, the world tells us to chase bigger paychecks, nicer cars, fancier titles, and the approval of people who won’t even matter ten years from now. But the older generation learned something most people don’t understand until life has humbled them a few times…

Character is worth more than possessions.

A loyal friend.
A person who keeps their word.
A family member who shows up when life gets hard.
A heart that’s honest and a soul that treats people right.
Those things will carry you a whole lot farther than money ever will.
At the end of the day, most people aren’t remembered for what they owned.
They’re remembered for how they treated people.

Protecting the Wolf is Common in Our Day

False Prophets Always Elevate Men

There are false prophets who are assigning Paul's writings as superior to God by saying it was not God Who Authored them.

Anything that Paul recorded for us was given by God. Paul is nothing; he is only a messenger. God is everything.

1 Corinthians 3:3-5 "…3for you are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and dissension among you, are you not worldly? Are you not walking in the way of man? 4For when one of you says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere men? 5What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, as the Lord has assigned to each his role.…"

Paul was not divine, nor did he speak from his own mind when writing the Bible passages. He was led by the Holy Spirit Who is God, so the things Paul wrote were from God, and God gets the glory.

So many people are looking to men rather than Christ, almost entirely ignoring the Holy Spirit. Those who place men above Christ are living as natural men instead of Spirit filled believers.

1 Corinthians 2:14-15 "The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is not subject to anyone’s judgment."

John 16:13 "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come."

It is the Holy Spirit Who will guide you into all truth. Yes, we share with one another as led by the Holy Spirit, and everything must be questioned that comes from any person's mouth. Does it match the Word of God? The Holy Spirit will warn us when someone speaks in their own flesh, and He will confirm when someone is speaking from the heart of God through the Holy Spirit.

Follow Christ through the Holy Spirit, not men or women!!!!

The Perfect Jesus Christ

The Perfect Jesus Christ ( our God and Savior) was treated as the village idiot for claiming to be God. He offered salvation to the world and yet was treated as a heretic.

The Perfect Jesus Christ was treated with dismissiveness, as though a madman accused of doing His miracles by means of devils.

The Perfect Jesus Christ was treated with contempt for saying things the people didn't want to hear.

The Perfect Jesus Christ was rejected by most people in the world for His love that was perceived as controlling, while giving up His life to offer wisdom and an eternal salvation to those who had no means of saving themselves.

The Perfect Jesus Christ was lied about, gossiped against, discarded and disrespected for His attempt at saving people from hell.

Isaiah 53:3 "He is despised and rejected of men, a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not."

Why on earth would a believer in and follower of Jesus Christ think they, as imperfect human beings, would ever think they would be treated better than Christ, the Creator of the Universe?

Matthew 10:22-24 "22 And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.
23 When they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For assuredly, I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.
24 “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master."

Do Not Fear God's God Israel

Is anyone worried about what is happening in the world? We are living in prophetic times.

It is prophecy, no worries, God's got this!!!!! And, He will fight for Israel, no question.

Romans 11:1-8 "11 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.
2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel?
3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.”
4 But what is God's reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” 5 So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. 6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace."

The Beginning of the False Church System Based on Government and Hierarchy

On another thread, there was a discussion on how believers met in the first century. I thought that Tom Stewart brought up a very good point that I wanted to share here.

Tom Stewart said:
"When Constantine built the first official building dedicated to being a Christian church he patterned it after the Roman Senate. Audience and stage or focal point. It changed Christianity from being a participatory event to being a spectator event. No more body ministry and individual involvement. The professionals took over."

Gwendolyn Wehage said:
"Tom Stewart yep, and this was a shame. Some believers are beginning to realize the traditions they followed for centuries were not God's doing but humans' thinking of a way to control the people, rather than allowing them to be controlled by the Holy Spirit."

A picture Tom provided for us.

Follow Jesus Christ Only!!!!

Anyone who desires to follow a man, quoting that man more than quoting God has an idol.

1 Corinthians 3:1-9 "3 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.
2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready,
3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?
4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?
5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.
6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.
9 For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building."

Why would you want to follow a man when the Creator of the universe lives in you, Jesus Christ Himself? There are no mediators between us and God other than Jesus Christ. If you follow Calvin then you have assigned him the mediator between you and God rather than Jesus Christ.