Beware of any Hollywood star who suddenly becomes a Christian but remains as popular after as he was before. Somethings wrong!!!!!
Tuesday, November 19, 2019
Authentic Confession Brings Cleansing
Those who openly confess their sins and speak of the change Christ did in them are the freest people on earth and forever.
Those who forgive unrepentant sinners before they have a chance to confess to be cleansed are robbing them of the opportunity to be completely free of the stain of their sin.
Those who say we must forgive the unrepentant for our own sake are selfish, they are not thinking about the need for confession in those who are in bondage to their sin.
To confine someone to their secrets by letting them off the hook is the same as preaching a "repentless" gospel. Those who do not repent to be changed into a new creation by Christ are robbed of the wonderful cleansing that brings joy and a clear conscience.
Those who rob others of truth participate in their lack of joy, their continual condemnation that they will never be free of until they confess to be cleansed by Christ.
The greatest bondage to any human being is in their soul as they lie and hide to protect their sin.
John 8:35-27 "…35 A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know you are Abraham’s descendants, but you are trying to kill Me because My word has no place within you."
When we become a born again believer we are sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise. We are sons and daughters being trained every day to become Christlike. We are disciplined by God as He seeks to make us freer today than He did yesterday.
Hebrews 12:5-7 "…5 And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not take lightly the discipline of the Lord, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you. 6 For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises everyone He receives as a son.” 7 Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?…"
Speaking truth to believer and unbeliever alike is the kindest thing we can do for one another. Truth, not necessarily what everyone wants to hear but what is best for all of us.
Ephesians 4:24-26 "…24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. 25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are members of one another. 26 “Be angry, yet do not sin.” Do not let the sun set upon your anger,…"
Those who forgive unrepentant sinners before they have a chance to confess to be cleansed are robbing them of the opportunity to be completely free of the stain of their sin.
Those who say we must forgive the unrepentant for our own sake are selfish, they are not thinking about the need for confession in those who are in bondage to their sin.
To confine someone to their secrets by letting them off the hook is the same as preaching a "repentless" gospel. Those who do not repent to be changed into a new creation by Christ are robbed of the wonderful cleansing that brings joy and a clear conscience.
Those who rob others of truth participate in their lack of joy, their continual condemnation that they will never be free of until they confess to be cleansed by Christ.
The greatest bondage to any human being is in their soul as they lie and hide to protect their sin.
John 8:35-27 "…35 A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know you are Abraham’s descendants, but you are trying to kill Me because My word has no place within you."
When we become a born again believer we are sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise. We are sons and daughters being trained every day to become Christlike. We are disciplined by God as He seeks to make us freer today than He did yesterday.
Hebrews 12:5-7 "…5 And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not take lightly the discipline of the Lord, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you. 6 For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises everyone He receives as a son.” 7 Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?…"
Speaking truth to believer and unbeliever alike is the kindest thing we can do for one another. Truth, not necessarily what everyone wants to hear but what is best for all of us.
Ephesians 4:24-26 "…24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. 25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are members of one another. 26 “Be angry, yet do not sin.” Do not let the sun set upon your anger,…"
Building Our Faith
I have been hearing from several facebook friends who are going through "Job" like trials. They are sad and some even depressed because of their suffering whether emotional or physical.
May I remind you that emotions are not who you are, they are merely stimuli of the flesh responding to the trials. The real us is on the inside, the Spirit lives in us, He sustains us through the trials.
Ignore your emotions to embrace Christ in truth. Christ will go through with you even when He does not bail you out immediately. Suffering grows us, strengthens us and brings a deeper walk if we accept it and trust Christ through it.
Remember the three Hebrew young men who were thrown into the furnace for refusing to bow to the god Baal. They were walking around in the fire untouched by it. They didn't even smell like smoke when they walked out. However, there was another person in that fire with them, it was Christ, the Son of God.
When we know the account of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego we understand that we go through trials and fires with our culture, our families and our flesh, but Christ is with us through it all.
Deuteronomy 31:6 "6 Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid or terrified of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.”"
Courage is not the absence of fear or emotion, it is obeying God in spite of our fear and our emotions.
Do not lean into the emotions our flesh is producing, lean into Christ and His truth. This will keep us from acting in ways that do not please God in the middle of our trials.
Remember too that soon all this misery will be over, look not to the moment now but to the healing that is coming when we leave this mess to go home.
Proverbs 28:26
"Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered."
Proverbs 29:11
"A fool gives full vent to his spirit (emotions and feelings), but a wise man quietly holds it back."
I am convinced that the verse in Proverbs 29 is telling us to ignore our feelings and emotions to follow truth, this means we must think clearly with our minds as we disregard our feelings.
It is a difficult thing to do in a culture that has been trained to do everything according to their feelings. But with Christ we have the strength if we choose to obey God.
Proverbs 3:5-6
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths."
May all those going through trials learn to count it all joy to suffer for Christ, may we all give God the glory in the midst of everything.
James 1:2-8
"2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord,
8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways."
Do not worry about working up faith, we cannot do it. Just believe, speak it boldly and let the Lord work it in us. The more steps we take in obedience to truth the greater we build our faith. Its the steps of faith even when we see no miracles that build our endurance.
Obeying without seeing is great faith. Even if we see no results we obey anyway.
May I remind you that emotions are not who you are, they are merely stimuli of the flesh responding to the trials. The real us is on the inside, the Spirit lives in us, He sustains us through the trials.
Ignore your emotions to embrace Christ in truth. Christ will go through with you even when He does not bail you out immediately. Suffering grows us, strengthens us and brings a deeper walk if we accept it and trust Christ through it.
Remember the three Hebrew young men who were thrown into the furnace for refusing to bow to the god Baal. They were walking around in the fire untouched by it. They didn't even smell like smoke when they walked out. However, there was another person in that fire with them, it was Christ, the Son of God.
When we know the account of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego we understand that we go through trials and fires with our culture, our families and our flesh, but Christ is with us through it all.
Deuteronomy 31:6 "6 Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid or terrified of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.”"
Courage is not the absence of fear or emotion, it is obeying God in spite of our fear and our emotions.
Do not lean into the emotions our flesh is producing, lean into Christ and His truth. This will keep us from acting in ways that do not please God in the middle of our trials.
Remember too that soon all this misery will be over, look not to the moment now but to the healing that is coming when we leave this mess to go home.
Proverbs 28:26
"Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered."
Proverbs 29:11
"A fool gives full vent to his spirit (emotions and feelings), but a wise man quietly holds it back."
I am convinced that the verse in Proverbs 29 is telling us to ignore our feelings and emotions to follow truth, this means we must think clearly with our minds as we disregard our feelings.
It is a difficult thing to do in a culture that has been trained to do everything according to their feelings. But with Christ we have the strength if we choose to obey God.
Proverbs 3:5-6
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths."
May all those going through trials learn to count it all joy to suffer for Christ, may we all give God the glory in the midst of everything.
James 1:2-8
"2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord,
8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways."
Do not worry about working up faith, we cannot do it. Just believe, speak it boldly and let the Lord work it in us. The more steps we take in obedience to truth the greater we build our faith. Its the steps of faith even when we see no miracles that build our endurance.
Obeying without seeing is great faith. Even if we see no results we obey anyway.
An Apostate Christian
Remove Them or Become Like Them
Proverbs 18:1-2 "1 He who isolates himself pursues selfish desires; he rebels against all sound judgment. 2 A fool does not delight in understanding, but only in airing his opinions.…"
Matthew 7:5-6 "…5 You hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. 6 Do not give dogs what is holy; do not throw your pearls before swine. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces."
We are not called to change anyone's mind, we are only called to speak the truth and leave the decision to others. Speaking the same things over and over again to resistant stubborn people is an exercise in futility.
God will bring to mind our words perhaps at a later time, it is His work to work in the hearts of others. We cannot base our speech on how someone else will respond. We must speak and leave all the responses to the Lord.
If someone rages at us for telling the truth then that rage is on them not on us.
Stop trying to convince stubborn hearts, speak once and move on.
Matthew 7:5-6 "…5You hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. 6Do not give dogs what is holy; do not throw your pearls before swine. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces. "
What does it mean to "throw pearls before swine.?
We are never to speak valuable things before those who won't or can't appreciate it. When we see that someone is rancorous, full of anger and prideful we are to avoid speaking to them about important matters. They will not understand the principles and worse yet they don't want to understand them.
This is the world we are living in today, most people who are in the church gatherings today only want to hear flattery and useless motivational speaking. They walk out of these deceptive services feeling better about themselves when they come out than they went in.
In a godly church gathering where people hear the word they come away seeking Christ to be cleansed of those remaining things that plague their souls. They do not come to hear how good they are, they come to find how they could improve to be more holy.
Warn those who are disobedient to the word and then remove ourselves when they will not listen is the command of God.
1 Corinthians 5:12-13 "12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? 13 But those who are outside, God judges. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves."
We are commanded to judge those within the church. All those people who say we should not judge a brother are disobedient to the Word. IN fact, they likely don't even know the word of God. They are prideful and rebellious against the word of God, we should avoid them too.
Wicked pretenders will attempt to distract us from what God has called us to, these people must be avoided. They will mock what we do and demean us for no other purpose than to prevent our obedience to God.
The litany of character flaws and rebellious attitudes described in 2 Timothy 3 are a description of those in the apostate church. God says to avoid them. It matters not how many times they claim to be a Christian, they are divisive, rebellious and mean spirited, they will not stop until they have completely discouraged the born again believer from following Christ.
2 Timothy 3:1-5 "3 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, 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 men as these."
Matthew 7:5-6 "…5 You hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. 6 Do not give dogs what is holy; do not throw your pearls before swine. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces."
We are not called to change anyone's mind, we are only called to speak the truth and leave the decision to others. Speaking the same things over and over again to resistant stubborn people is an exercise in futility.
God will bring to mind our words perhaps at a later time, it is His work to work in the hearts of others. We cannot base our speech on how someone else will respond. We must speak and leave all the responses to the Lord.
If someone rages at us for telling the truth then that rage is on them not on us.
Stop trying to convince stubborn hearts, speak once and move on.
Matthew 7:5-6 "…5You hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. 6Do not give dogs what is holy; do not throw your pearls before swine. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces. "
What does it mean to "throw pearls before swine.?
We are never to speak valuable things before those who won't or can't appreciate it. When we see that someone is rancorous, full of anger and prideful we are to avoid speaking to them about important matters. They will not understand the principles and worse yet they don't want to understand them.
This is the world we are living in today, most people who are in the church gatherings today only want to hear flattery and useless motivational speaking. They walk out of these deceptive services feeling better about themselves when they come out than they went in.
In a godly church gathering where people hear the word they come away seeking Christ to be cleansed of those remaining things that plague their souls. They do not come to hear how good they are, they come to find how they could improve to be more holy.
Warn those who are disobedient to the word and then remove ourselves when they will not listen is the command of God.
1 Corinthians 5:12-13 "12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? 13 But those who are outside, God judges. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves."
We are commanded to judge those within the church. All those people who say we should not judge a brother are disobedient to the Word. IN fact, they likely don't even know the word of God. They are prideful and rebellious against the word of God, we should avoid them too.
Wicked pretenders will attempt to distract us from what God has called us to, these people must be avoided. They will mock what we do and demean us for no other purpose than to prevent our obedience to God.
The litany of character flaws and rebellious attitudes described in 2 Timothy 3 are a description of those in the apostate church. God says to avoid them. It matters not how many times they claim to be a Christian, they are divisive, rebellious and mean spirited, they will not stop until they have completely discouraged the born again believer from following Christ.
2 Timothy 3:1-5 "3 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, 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 men as these."
Blind People Refuse to Open their Eyes
"A wink is as good as a nod to a blind mule." Think about it next time you attempt to reason with an apostate Christian.
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