Remember those who think "feelings are facts" are wrong more than they are right.
Since feelings deceive us and lead us down a path of selfishness, we cannot trust them, we must ignore them to embrace truth.
Sunday, March 11, 2018
Self on the Throne
Many people use religion to make themselves feel more acceptable and excellent. They are not interested in actually obeying God, only in appearing as being on God's side.
Sadly these people twist and turn the verses in the Bible to make it say what they want. We know their attitude by their rage when we challenge them to go to prayer and Bible study to learn the truth.
Rather than developing a humility, knowing their own hearts disposition to tend to interpret things in ways that make us look good.
When we have no need to "look good", but rather have a desire to be right with God, to understand His truth His way, then we will have no need to be superior to anyone.
"One of the elements of holiness is the absence of self awareness."
When truth become more important than our own "self esttem", then we can be authentic, speaking truth without concern about the response that we will receive.
When we are afraid to speak the truth boldly, then self is on the throne, people become our idols and God takes second place to our self elevation.
Proverbs 29:25
"The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe."
Hebrews 13:6
"So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”
Matthew 10:28
"And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell."
2 Timothy 1:7
"For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control."
Galatians 1:10
"For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ."
Sadly these people twist and turn the verses in the Bible to make it say what they want. We know their attitude by their rage when we challenge them to go to prayer and Bible study to learn the truth.
Rather than developing a humility, knowing their own hearts disposition to tend to interpret things in ways that make us look good.
When we have no need to "look good", but rather have a desire to be right with God, to understand His truth His way, then we will have no need to be superior to anyone.
"One of the elements of holiness is the absence of self awareness."
When truth become more important than our own "self esttem", then we can be authentic, speaking truth without concern about the response that we will receive.
When we are afraid to speak the truth boldly, then self is on the throne, people become our idols and God takes second place to our self elevation.
Proverbs 29:25
"The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe."
Hebrews 13:6
"So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”
Matthew 10:28
"And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell."
2 Timothy 1:7
"For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control."
Galatians 1:10
"For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ."
God's Way or the way of the World?
There are many in our day who are Christians who think they should win people to Christ with soft words and building a relationships with them. God never said anything like this, it comes from a psychologized Christianity, that actually negates the gospel. Leaving people think Jesus Christ just winks at sin and is a squishy whimpy Jesus that bows to man's way.
Remember the account of Moses who struck the rock rather than spoke to it, in partial obedience to God, doing things his own way, rather than obeying God. In his emotions he changed the command from God's to speak to the rock to his own to hit the rock twice.
Because of the disobedience of Moses the people got the water they wanted but were not allowed to go into the promised. land.
God wants us to do things His way!
Remember the account of Moses who struck the rock rather than spoke to it, in partial obedience to God, doing things his own way, rather than obeying God. In his emotions he changed the command from God's to speak to the rock to his own to hit the rock twice.
Because of the disobedience of Moses the people got the water they wanted but were not allowed to go into the promised. land.
God wants us to do things His way!
Do it God's Way
So many Christians these days teach and operate that we need man's formula for reaching the lost. God told us what we should do and it never involved psychological formulas concocted by man.
2 Timothy 4:2
"2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine."
2 Timothy 4:2
"2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine."
God's Names Tell Us Who He Is
It is amazing that the names and attributes of God describe Him and are pictures of all that He does for us.
"EL" means God in the Hebrew and "Eloheim" is plural as in "God in three persons.
"I Am That I Am" also "YHAH" in the Hebrew, which has no vowels in it. All the promises and pledges are present in God's Name, He is the essence of everything that He promised and everything that He provides.
Exodus 31:12-13 "12 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 13 “But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you."
Exodus 3:13-14 "13 Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
God is also called the "Rock", meaning refuge and strength, our protection.
Isaiah 8:14 " 14 "Then He shall become a sanctuary; But to both the houses of Israel, a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over, And a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem."
El Shadi means all sufficient One. We need nothing of ourselves in this walk on earth, but we need all of Him.
Jehovah Jirah means God the Provider.
There are many names of God that describe Who He is in Character and purpose, if we look to His names we realize that we have nothing and He has everything.
God protected His people, He took them to the dessert, their shoes and clothes did not wear out, they were provided food without having to hunt or grow it, When the Pharaoh chased them to the sea, God parted the sea and they walked across on dry land. God provided shade in the desert by day and a pillar of fire by night.
They grumbled and complained that they missed their quail, so God gave them what they wanted, so much of it that they became sick of it too.
Numbers 11:19-20 "…19 'You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, 20 but a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you; because you have rejected the LORD who is among you and have wept before Him, saying, "Why did we ever leave Egypt?"
When God told Moses to speak to the rock to make the water come out, Moses decided to strike it, not once but twice. God never told him to strike it, he told him to speak to it. Moses allowed his emotions to do what God had not said to do, because of this the Lord did not let them enter the promised land.
I notice that God gave the people the water they wanted, he allowed it to flow from the rock even though Moses disobeyed, so they got their water, but missed the greatest blessing of all and that was going into the promised land.
You see obeying the Lord in part your own way, may bring temporary blessings but in the long run He will withhold something even greater than the thing in which we partially obeyed.
Get the water and lose the land, what a trade off that was for Israel.
Did you know God's way is the best way and that when He speaks to us, whatever He says is the perfect way? It is foolishness to think that we can obey God our way and still be blessed by Him. We may get what we want temporarily, but miss the greater blessing down the path, the one He had intended to have for us. It does not pay to exude arrogance thinking that your way is better than God's.
This is the condition of the modern church today. Instead of preaching the gospel in confidence and with authority, most are giving out a false gospel bathed in gooy sentimentality, designed to get the people to like the men, but in the long run it has no lasting power, the converts are false and disobedient to the Word but the leaders who do this continue to walk in pride. They claim there are results, and there may be a few, but in reality the results are superficial, phony and the people who buy into this false gospel continue in their arrogance that lead down the wide road to hell.
Messaging ones exaltation of self is the way of most churches today, they are not very interested in genuineness, only in pretense. As long as it looks good on top, it isn't important that there is rottenness underneath. As long as the people praise one another often and everyone "feels" real good about themselves, there is contentment with all this frivolity that worse than nothing.
A study of God's names would show us Who He is and what He does for us, it never assigns any greatness or goodness to self. It's all about Who God is in us, He is the author and finisher of all that is good, we bring no good all by ourselves.
The churches today are messaging the egos of many, while feeding them baby food that is rotten.
There can be no power of Christ in our hearts when we elevate ourselves for what we think we have done or how good we think we are, there is no goodness in us. It is only when we look to Christ that we can operate in His purpose and will.
When someone treats you as though you do not measure up, they believe they do, or they would just as harsh on themselves as they are on you.
Thankfully, God no longer looks at me, but sees Christ in me, Christ is my covering.
If you are your own covering because you think you do things all the right way, then you cannot be saved. You must come to the end of yourself and see that only Christ working in us is good. Then He gets the glory. Those who elevate themselves above Christ, feeling blessed because they are living the way they want to, do not realize that they are walking a dangerous path, the same one Moses walked when he allowed his emotions to dictate his own way, resulting in getting the water and missing the biggest blessing, the one he had not thought of in the midst of his emotions.
Those who are proud of their own righteousness will be brought low, shame will be their days because they gave themselves the credit for their own righteousness, all the while missing the real blessing, that of God's will and purpose in their lives, the one that would have brought much greater blessing than they thought they wanted. The Spiritual blessing of wisdom that comes from Christ.
"EL" means God in the Hebrew and "Eloheim" is plural as in "God in three persons.
"I Am That I Am" also "YHAH" in the Hebrew, which has no vowels in it. All the promises and pledges are present in God's Name, He is the essence of everything that He promised and everything that He provides.
Exodus 31:12-13 "12 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 13 “But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you."
Exodus 3:13-14 "13 Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
God is also called the "Rock", meaning refuge and strength, our protection.
Isaiah 8:14 " 14 "Then He shall become a sanctuary; But to both the houses of Israel, a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over, And a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem."
El Shadi means all sufficient One. We need nothing of ourselves in this walk on earth, but we need all of Him.
Jehovah Jirah means God the Provider.
There are many names of God that describe Who He is in Character and purpose, if we look to His names we realize that we have nothing and He has everything.
God protected His people, He took them to the dessert, their shoes and clothes did not wear out, they were provided food without having to hunt or grow it, When the Pharaoh chased them to the sea, God parted the sea and they walked across on dry land. God provided shade in the desert by day and a pillar of fire by night.
They grumbled and complained that they missed their quail, so God gave them what they wanted, so much of it that they became sick of it too.
Numbers 11:19-20 "…19 'You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, 20 but a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you; because you have rejected the LORD who is among you and have wept before Him, saying, "Why did we ever leave Egypt?"
When God told Moses to speak to the rock to make the water come out, Moses decided to strike it, not once but twice. God never told him to strike it, he told him to speak to it. Moses allowed his emotions to do what God had not said to do, because of this the Lord did not let them enter the promised land.
I notice that God gave the people the water they wanted, he allowed it to flow from the rock even though Moses disobeyed, so they got their water, but missed the greatest blessing of all and that was going into the promised land.
You see obeying the Lord in part your own way, may bring temporary blessings but in the long run He will withhold something even greater than the thing in which we partially obeyed.
Get the water and lose the land, what a trade off that was for Israel.
Did you know God's way is the best way and that when He speaks to us, whatever He says is the perfect way? It is foolishness to think that we can obey God our way and still be blessed by Him. We may get what we want temporarily, but miss the greater blessing down the path, the one He had intended to have for us. It does not pay to exude arrogance thinking that your way is better than God's.
This is the condition of the modern church today. Instead of preaching the gospel in confidence and with authority, most are giving out a false gospel bathed in gooy sentimentality, designed to get the people to like the men, but in the long run it has no lasting power, the converts are false and disobedient to the Word but the leaders who do this continue to walk in pride. They claim there are results, and there may be a few, but in reality the results are superficial, phony and the people who buy into this false gospel continue in their arrogance that lead down the wide road to hell.
Messaging ones exaltation of self is the way of most churches today, they are not very interested in genuineness, only in pretense. As long as it looks good on top, it isn't important that there is rottenness underneath. As long as the people praise one another often and everyone "feels" real good about themselves, there is contentment with all this frivolity that worse than nothing.
A study of God's names would show us Who He is and what He does for us, it never assigns any greatness or goodness to self. It's all about Who God is in us, He is the author and finisher of all that is good, we bring no good all by ourselves.
The churches today are messaging the egos of many, while feeding them baby food that is rotten.
There can be no power of Christ in our hearts when we elevate ourselves for what we think we have done or how good we think we are, there is no goodness in us. It is only when we look to Christ that we can operate in His purpose and will.
When someone treats you as though you do not measure up, they believe they do, or they would just as harsh on themselves as they are on you.
Thankfully, God no longer looks at me, but sees Christ in me, Christ is my covering.
If you are your own covering because you think you do things all the right way, then you cannot be saved. You must come to the end of yourself and see that only Christ working in us is good. Then He gets the glory. Those who elevate themselves above Christ, feeling blessed because they are living the way they want to, do not realize that they are walking a dangerous path, the same one Moses walked when he allowed his emotions to dictate his own way, resulting in getting the water and missing the biggest blessing, the one he had not thought of in the midst of his emotions.
Those who are proud of their own righteousness will be brought low, shame will be their days because they gave themselves the credit for their own righteousness, all the while missing the real blessing, that of God's will and purpose in their lives, the one that would have brought much greater blessing than they thought they wanted. The Spiritual blessing of wisdom that comes from Christ.
The Pummeling of the Truth Teller
Believers are being pummeled all the time these days by those who love their error, and I do think they choose the error, because when we tell the truth they rage and refuse.
Disagreement is the New Evil
When we live in a culture that thinks disagreement is evil, that it serves only to divide people, then the truth of God's Word is no longer allowed.
When we live in a culture that elevates feelings above truth, then truth is no longer valued and will not be received unless it makes someone feel good.
When we live in a culture in which "feelings are facts", the truth of God in the Bible will be offensive most of the time. The devil was very clever in using feelings to influence people to disobey God. He did it with Eve in the garden and is doing the same things all over again today.
Many people I know are deeply divisive because their assertion to follow feelings and make people happy is managing to negate the Bible and come against godly principles and teaching.
Feelings are often not accurate, they make us believe things that are not true, even convincing mankind of their hatred of others, not based on facts but on power and self elevation. Building pride was the main way the devil convinced people that they "deserve" something instead of knowing how deficient they were in their lives. When we know we are deficient, then we will seek Christ. The devil wants to keep people "self sufficient" to isolate them from God's truth.
Jealousy and self exaltation is what drives most people today to seek their own glory instead of seeking Christ.
I am glad that bridge builders and those who built sky scrapers do not based their efforts in construction, on feelings. These structures would fall down if they did that, they must adhere to God's standards of gravity and structure, even if they don't know that's what they are doing.
Truth is what cleanses, without it we have chaos and rampant error and worst of all the feelings oriented individuals are continually causing trouble where there does't need to be any.
The devil loves his victory in getting people to pummel one another over silly things that are not even based in truth. The foolish people of the world are easily manipulated into wars and contentions based on nothing, just to "feel" superior.
May the Lord open the eyes of many to see the tricks of the devil, when we know the truth, the error cannot dominate us.
Those who embrace their feelings of jealousy and act upon it, are fools and will in the end, see the devastation of their indulgences.
Proverbs 29:8-10 "…8 Scorners set a city aflame, But wise men turn away anger. 9 When a wise man has a controversy with a foolish man, The foolish man either rages or laughs, and there is no rest. 10 Men of bloodshed hate the blameless, But the upright are concerned for his life.…"
If there is jealousy in your life that has brought contention to relationships, repent, stop it and seek Christ for cleansing. When Christ cleanses us from a sin, then we will no longer indulge the temptations of the devil and the contention will stop.
1 John 1:9
"9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
When we live in a culture that elevates feelings above truth, then truth is no longer valued and will not be received unless it makes someone feel good.
When we live in a culture in which "feelings are facts", the truth of God in the Bible will be offensive most of the time. The devil was very clever in using feelings to influence people to disobey God. He did it with Eve in the garden and is doing the same things all over again today.
Many people I know are deeply divisive because their assertion to follow feelings and make people happy is managing to negate the Bible and come against godly principles and teaching.
Feelings are often not accurate, they make us believe things that are not true, even convincing mankind of their hatred of others, not based on facts but on power and self elevation. Building pride was the main way the devil convinced people that they "deserve" something instead of knowing how deficient they were in their lives. When we know we are deficient, then we will seek Christ. The devil wants to keep people "self sufficient" to isolate them from God's truth.
Jealousy and self exaltation is what drives most people today to seek their own glory instead of seeking Christ.
I am glad that bridge builders and those who built sky scrapers do not based their efforts in construction, on feelings. These structures would fall down if they did that, they must adhere to God's standards of gravity and structure, even if they don't know that's what they are doing.
Truth is what cleanses, without it we have chaos and rampant error and worst of all the feelings oriented individuals are continually causing trouble where there does't need to be any.
The devil loves his victory in getting people to pummel one another over silly things that are not even based in truth. The foolish people of the world are easily manipulated into wars and contentions based on nothing, just to "feel" superior.
May the Lord open the eyes of many to see the tricks of the devil, when we know the truth, the error cannot dominate us.
Those who embrace their feelings of jealousy and act upon it, are fools and will in the end, see the devastation of their indulgences.
Proverbs 29:8-10 "…8 Scorners set a city aflame, But wise men turn away anger. 9 When a wise man has a controversy with a foolish man, The foolish man either rages or laughs, and there is no rest. 10 Men of bloodshed hate the blameless, But the upright are concerned for his life.…"
If there is jealousy in your life that has brought contention to relationships, repent, stop it and seek Christ for cleansing. When Christ cleanses us from a sin, then we will no longer indulge the temptations of the devil and the contention will stop.
1 John 1:9
"9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
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