1 John 1:9 "9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
1 John 1:9 says that to grow in holiness, we are to confess and ask to be cleansed. This is not about salvation but about growing in Spiritual maturity. Those who lack Spiritual and emotional maturity are not asking to be cleansed because they cannot admit they have flaws and hidden sin.
Most Christians are buying into false doctrine, self-indulgence and self-reliance to appear holy, because they have been trained to love themselves first.
Anyone who loves themselves first will never love Christ.
For many years, we heard people say, "if you don't love yourself first, you won't love anyone else." That was a lie of the devil. God says we must love God first and deny ourselves.
If we cannot deny ourselves, then we will neither love God nor others. The more we love God, the less we think about ourselves, and the more we are dedicated to Christ, which will result in loving others.
Often, our modern culture takes three words out of the scriptures and makes a false doctrine out of it without the benefit of the rest of Scripture. Satan loves this and uses it frequently in these days of apostasy.
May each of us be diligent to find the meanings of practices and follow only those things as described in Scripture.
Tuesday, May 19, 2026
Rituals God Never Commanded for the Church
In recent years, I asked God what the hand holding in a circle when praying was all about. It seemed ritualistic based on pagan practices.
I was one of those irritating children who was always asking why. I think my parents saw it as rebellion instead of a desire to understand the why of everything we did.
The idea that there is greater power in the prayer, incentivizing God to hear and answer when we are in solidarity, smacks of ritual that expects God to do more if we practice this, a sort of manipulation of God.
Within pagan ceremonies, there is a saying "complete the ring", with the expectation that the spirits will come if we are in solidarity. It is perceived as a manipulation and power technique.
It seems to be that in holding hands to pray, we are focusing more on the people around us than on Christ. The sense that the power is in the people and the holding of hands and not in Christ.
John 4:24 "God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth".
The holding of hands originated from Pentecostal and Charismatic groups, who have added a lot of ideas that are not Biblical, often emulating the pagans, thinking it will bring greater power.
Another ritual that came from paganism that Christians have adopted is the practice of putting one's hands together to pray. We see no mandate or example in the Bible of believers doing this, but we do see it in pagan religions.
When we ask God to show us the traditoins we were raised with to see if they are taught by God, He opens our eyes to many things Christians practice and even require of one another that God never commanded or endorsed. They were brought into Christianity by people who wanted to feel spiritual, so they adopted these practices from paganism, thinking they would Christianize them.
The problem is they adopted the rules that became habits and turned them into mandates that caused others to judge one another over something that is not Biblical or godly.
Mankind has the habit of desiring to appear more spiritual while disobeying the scriptures. They hold dear to their own idea of holiness based on rituals that are useless in our walk with Christ.
God's word is so simple and does not require many rituals. God gave us the Lord's supper to remember Christ and what He did on the cross. He also gave us the head covering during the gathering to demonstrate the relationships between Christ and the church. He gave us baptism to demonstrate the born-again experience and Christ coming to live in the believer at salvation.
These practices were given by God; nothing more needs to be added to walk with Christ, only the things He gave. Anything else is man's pride, adding things to feel more spiritual.
To add things to our Christianity that God never gave is a matter of pride. We think we are appeasing and pleasing God when we are prideful in thinking we need to add to God's commands our own.
When we do not participate the humanistic rituals of the culture around us, that culture will despise us for not doing what they do. I understand that people often do not know why they do things, so in their heart, they may not be disrespecting Christ. I do not judge their heart. I just know that I have no desire to follow pagan practices merely because the rest of apostacy is doing it.
When we ask God the why of things, He is going to show us, and it will set us apart from nearly everyone.
Some example of rituals the church practices are as follows:
Christmas, Easter, Halloween, birthdays, hand holding in prayer, folding of hands while praying, lighting candles during Lent, giving up foods for Lent, lighting candles for the dead, talking to the dead at funerals, attending a large gathering in a building called a church, the paid pastor system, pews all facing forward while no one is allowed to speak except the paid preacher, funerals, and more, that God never commanded and have distracted beleivers from Christ to place their trust in these rituals.
I was one of those irritating children who was always asking why. I think my parents saw it as rebellion instead of a desire to understand the why of everything we did.
The idea that there is greater power in the prayer, incentivizing God to hear and answer when we are in solidarity, smacks of ritual that expects God to do more if we practice this, a sort of manipulation of God.
Within pagan ceremonies, there is a saying "complete the ring", with the expectation that the spirits will come if we are in solidarity. It is perceived as a manipulation and power technique.
It seems to be that in holding hands to pray, we are focusing more on the people around us than on Christ. The sense that the power is in the people and the holding of hands and not in Christ.
John 4:24 "God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth".
The holding of hands originated from Pentecostal and Charismatic groups, who have added a lot of ideas that are not Biblical, often emulating the pagans, thinking it will bring greater power.
Another ritual that came from paganism that Christians have adopted is the practice of putting one's hands together to pray. We see no mandate or example in the Bible of believers doing this, but we do see it in pagan religions.
When we ask God to show us the traditoins we were raised with to see if they are taught by God, He opens our eyes to many things Christians practice and even require of one another that God never commanded or endorsed. They were brought into Christianity by people who wanted to feel spiritual, so they adopted these practices from paganism, thinking they would Christianize them.
The problem is they adopted the rules that became habits and turned them into mandates that caused others to judge one another over something that is not Biblical or godly.
Mankind has the habit of desiring to appear more spiritual while disobeying the scriptures. They hold dear to their own idea of holiness based on rituals that are useless in our walk with Christ.
God's word is so simple and does not require many rituals. God gave us the Lord's supper to remember Christ and what He did on the cross. He also gave us the head covering during the gathering to demonstrate the relationships between Christ and the church. He gave us baptism to demonstrate the born-again experience and Christ coming to live in the believer at salvation.
These practices were given by God; nothing more needs to be added to walk with Christ, only the things He gave. Anything else is man's pride, adding things to feel more spiritual.
To add things to our Christianity that God never gave is a matter of pride. We think we are appeasing and pleasing God when we are prideful in thinking we need to add to God's commands our own.
When we do not participate the humanistic rituals of the culture around us, that culture will despise us for not doing what they do. I understand that people often do not know why they do things, so in their heart, they may not be disrespecting Christ. I do not judge their heart. I just know that I have no desire to follow pagan practices merely because the rest of apostacy is doing it.
When we ask God the why of things, He is going to show us, and it will set us apart from nearly everyone.
Some example of rituals the church practices are as follows:
Christmas, Easter, Halloween, birthdays, hand holding in prayer, folding of hands while praying, lighting candles during Lent, giving up foods for Lent, lighting candles for the dead, talking to the dead at funerals, attending a large gathering in a building called a church, the paid pastor system, pews all facing forward while no one is allowed to speak except the paid preacher, funerals, and more, that God never commanded and have distracted beleivers from Christ to place their trust in these rituals.
Monday, May 18, 2026
Friday, May 15, 2026
Marriage is wonderful and hard but worth every lesson it brings.
55 years ago today, my husband and I married. We had been engaged for two years before our wedding day. We did not live together; we chose to wait to marry so he could finish his college degree before beginning married life. My Father-in-Law asked my husband not to marry until he had his degree, and my husband honored that request.
My husband was from a family of fifteen children, and his parents could not afford to help him through college, so he worked at a bakery after school, on weekends, and in the summer to earn what he needed to attend college. He was not one to play; he worked to achieve a goal and realized that goal, then he was ready to take a wife.
I was sixteen when he asked me to marry him, and he was 20.
No one would be able to convince me that marrying too young is the problem in marriages today. It is not the age that makes the difference in marriage, it is the mentality. We were dedicated to the principle that marriage was for a lifetime until death.
All relationships take work to gain closeness. Without the commitment to remain, discuss, and compromise, there is no relationship. Relationships are not built on ease of existence; they are built on mutual understanding, and this can only happen when each listens to the other, determined to grasp the concerns of the other.
It is interesting that people quote all the time things like "no pain, no gain", when it comes to physical prowess, but never speak of these principles for gaining wisdom and spiritual maturity. Life is painful, from relationship problems to physical illness. But when we are dedicated to fixing things we come out the other side of these problems stronger in our maturity and in our relationships.
This does not come easy when the youth of today have been taught in an indulgent play-oriented culture that everything should be fun and just the way they want it to be. They do not love someone enough to go through their challenges with them. We are sinners until Christ changes us into a new creation. No one comes to a marriage exactly what they should be, and sadly, those who think they do remain emotional and spiritual infants until they can admit they have flaws that need the cleansing of Christ.
There are spiritual leaders in our day who teach their followers that the man has ultimate authority over the woman and she should just obey without a word. This is not only the farthest from the truth, it is also ruinous to a relationship.
If a man loves a woman and if a woman loves a man, they will each care deeply about the desires, hopes, and plans of the other. To dominate someone without concern for them is slavery, not a marriage.
Matthew 20:25-26 " 25 But Jesus called them aside and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their superiors exercise authority over them. 26 It shall not be this way among you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,…"
This passage is referring to church leadership but applies to any relationship where there is a leader. Leaders are to lead by example and by loving teaching, not by force and indifference to those under them.
When Christ said that we will become one flesh in marriage, His intent was not that one half of the partnership would be completely silent and the other just along for the ride. Christ taught that we will no longer walk alone as if the other does not matter. All our considerations and decisions should be mutual.
If the husband is staunch and cannot be convinced, then the woman can go to prayer as she honors her husband in solidarity, as long as the husband has not told her to sin. If the husband is telling the woman to sin, she must decline and obey God first.
Remember Ananias and Sapphirah, this wife obeyed her husband when he told her to lie to the Holy Spirit, and God counted them as conspiring together and killed both of them. Each spouse must decide for themselves God's will and do it even if the others will not obey God.
The husband never takes the place of the Holy Spirit in a marriage. He is the leader in the home, but he is not the mediator between the woman and God. That is the job of the Holy Spirit. The Wife is the CEO of the household as described in Proverbs 31. That job was not given to her husband to tell her what to do; it was given to the woman by God, and she determines all that goes on in running the household.
The greatest concern of the husband should always be the well-being of his wife, and the greatest concern of the wife is to support her husband when he obeys God.
Ephesians 5:24-26 "24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her 26 to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word."
Obey your husband in all things in this passage does not mean when they ask us to sin, but rather when they obey Christ. We know this because God told us to "obey God rather than man", in other passages.
Colossians 3:19
"Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them."
1 Peter 3:7 "Husbands, in the same way, treat your wives with consideration as a delicate vessel, and with honor as fellow heirs of the gracious gift of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered."
Jesus Christ is the head of all born-again believers, no man takes that position.
Colossians 1:18 (Christ) 'And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and firstborn from among the dead, so that in all things He may have preeminence."
Marriage is tough, but deeply rewarding when each party learns and grows. It teaches us to become selfless with great purpose when we seek Christ rather than self in it. If anyone marries to gain something for themselves, then they are not ready to marry.
My husband was from a family of fifteen children, and his parents could not afford to help him through college, so he worked at a bakery after school, on weekends, and in the summer to earn what he needed to attend college. He was not one to play; he worked to achieve a goal and realized that goal, then he was ready to take a wife.
I was sixteen when he asked me to marry him, and he was 20.
No one would be able to convince me that marrying too young is the problem in marriages today. It is not the age that makes the difference in marriage, it is the mentality. We were dedicated to the principle that marriage was for a lifetime until death.
All relationships take work to gain closeness. Without the commitment to remain, discuss, and compromise, there is no relationship. Relationships are not built on ease of existence; they are built on mutual understanding, and this can only happen when each listens to the other, determined to grasp the concerns of the other.
It is interesting that people quote all the time things like "no pain, no gain", when it comes to physical prowess, but never speak of these principles for gaining wisdom and spiritual maturity. Life is painful, from relationship problems to physical illness. But when we are dedicated to fixing things we come out the other side of these problems stronger in our maturity and in our relationships.
This does not come easy when the youth of today have been taught in an indulgent play-oriented culture that everything should be fun and just the way they want it to be. They do not love someone enough to go through their challenges with them. We are sinners until Christ changes us into a new creation. No one comes to a marriage exactly what they should be, and sadly, those who think they do remain emotional and spiritual infants until they can admit they have flaws that need the cleansing of Christ.
There are spiritual leaders in our day who teach their followers that the man has ultimate authority over the woman and she should just obey without a word. This is not only the farthest from the truth, it is also ruinous to a relationship.
If a man loves a woman and if a woman loves a man, they will each care deeply about the desires, hopes, and plans of the other. To dominate someone without concern for them is slavery, not a marriage.
Matthew 20:25-26 " 25 But Jesus called them aside and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their superiors exercise authority over them. 26 It shall not be this way among you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,…"
This passage is referring to church leadership but applies to any relationship where there is a leader. Leaders are to lead by example and by loving teaching, not by force and indifference to those under them.
When Christ said that we will become one flesh in marriage, His intent was not that one half of the partnership would be completely silent and the other just along for the ride. Christ taught that we will no longer walk alone as if the other does not matter. All our considerations and decisions should be mutual.
If the husband is staunch and cannot be convinced, then the woman can go to prayer as she honors her husband in solidarity, as long as the husband has not told her to sin. If the husband is telling the woman to sin, she must decline and obey God first.
Remember Ananias and Sapphirah, this wife obeyed her husband when he told her to lie to the Holy Spirit, and God counted them as conspiring together and killed both of them. Each spouse must decide for themselves God's will and do it even if the others will not obey God.
The husband never takes the place of the Holy Spirit in a marriage. He is the leader in the home, but he is not the mediator between the woman and God. That is the job of the Holy Spirit. The Wife is the CEO of the household as described in Proverbs 31. That job was not given to her husband to tell her what to do; it was given to the woman by God, and she determines all that goes on in running the household.
The greatest concern of the husband should always be the well-being of his wife, and the greatest concern of the wife is to support her husband when he obeys God.
Ephesians 5:24-26 "24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her 26 to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word."
Obey your husband in all things in this passage does not mean when they ask us to sin, but rather when they obey Christ. We know this because God told us to "obey God rather than man", in other passages.
Colossians 3:19
"Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them."
1 Peter 3:7 "Husbands, in the same way, treat your wives with consideration as a delicate vessel, and with honor as fellow heirs of the gracious gift of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered."
Jesus Christ is the head of all born-again believers, no man takes that position.
Colossians 1:18 (Christ) 'And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and firstborn from among the dead, so that in all things He may have preeminence."
Marriage is tough, but deeply rewarding when each party learns and grows. It teaches us to become selfless with great purpose when we seek Christ rather than self in it. If anyone marries to gain something for themselves, then they are not ready to marry.
Thursday, May 14, 2026
Rebellion and Disrespect are Close Companions
In our day of nearly total rebellion, many adult children are rejecting their parents, and in so doing, they are training the grandchildren by example to dislike their grandparents. They are even withholding the grandchildren from the grandparents.
When adult children keep the grandchildren away from their grandparents, it is often because they want the grandchildren to believe a certain way about them and do not want them to find out what they have been taught is not true.
There is a fear that the grandchildren will love the grandparents and enjoy them, this would be a big blow to the disrespectful parents of the grandchildren.
What they don't realize is that in training the children to dislike, ignore, or disrespect in any way the grandparents, is that one day it will be them who are ignored, disrespected and demeaned. Since the training by example was disrespect, the mentality of disrespect will permeate the lives of those who observed it.
There is no way to train a child to be disrespectful in just one area and respectful in another. Disrespect is a character flaw that will run through all their lives toward anyone who does not measure up to their own idea of good.
2 Timothy 3:1-5
Difficult Times Will Come
"3 But realize this, that in the last days difficult 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."
The idea of valuing people, loving and accepting, and even appreciating who they are is nearly non-existent in the last days apostacy. People are basing their treatment of others on how much those others praise them, not on the value of the person who is loved, or feigned love.
Love now is conditional to how much we feel special when with that person, not on how much we can make someone else feel special to us.
I am encountering many people who are describing terrible disrespect from adult children and their grandchildren for no good reason.
When adult children keep the grandchildren away from their grandparents, it is often because they want the grandchildren to believe a certain way about them and do not want them to find out what they have been taught is not true.
There is a fear that the grandchildren will love the grandparents and enjoy them, this would be a big blow to the disrespectful parents of the grandchildren.
What they don't realize is that in training the children to dislike, ignore, or disrespect in any way the grandparents, is that one day it will be them who are ignored, disrespected and demeaned. Since the training by example was disrespect, the mentality of disrespect will permeate the lives of those who observed it.
There is no way to train a child to be disrespectful in just one area and respectful in another. Disrespect is a character flaw that will run through all their lives toward anyone who does not measure up to their own idea of good.
2 Timothy 3:1-5
Difficult Times Will Come
"3 But realize this, that in the last days difficult 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."
The idea of valuing people, loving and accepting, and even appreciating who they are is nearly non-existent in the last days apostacy. People are basing their treatment of others on how much those others praise them, not on the value of the person who is loved, or feigned love.
Love now is conditional to how much we feel special when with that person, not on how much we can make someone else feel special to us.
I am encountering many people who are describing terrible disrespect from adult children and their grandchildren for no good reason.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)