Friday, March 6, 2020
No Sign is Necessary to Believe
Matthew 7:21-23
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.
22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’
23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’"
Just because someone claimed to heal or cast out devils out of people does not mean they actually did that. Many will do false miracles deceiving people into thinking they were personally powerful.
The anti-christ will do many lying wonders deceiving people. He will look so much like the real Christ that those who are not discerning or know their Bibles will be sucked into his evil.
2 Thessalonians 2:8-10
8 Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; 9 that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, 10 and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved."
Matthew 16:4 "4 A wicked and adulterous generation demands a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” "
God has given us all we need in the Bible, nothing more is needed. It is dangerous to look for signs or become excited about them. There are many in our day who are constantly attempting to call things they see in the sky, ground or their cookie, something that makes them seem special for seeing it.
Pay no attention to these people. If you do not need a sign to have faith, then you have a strong faith. Only those who are weak need a sign to keep the excitement going.
I have seen many miracles in my day but they are not things others would see as miracles because they were quiet answers from my Lord to me personally. He has also used doctors to heal me as well as healing me without them.
Born again believers walk by faith not by sight. We know Christ is with us even when we can't sense him because of the trials we go through.
We know Christ is there because He promised He would never leave us or forsake us, that's enough for me.
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.
22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’
23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’"
Just because someone claimed to heal or cast out devils out of people does not mean they actually did that. Many will do false miracles deceiving people into thinking they were personally powerful.
The anti-christ will do many lying wonders deceiving people. He will look so much like the real Christ that those who are not discerning or know their Bibles will be sucked into his evil.
2 Thessalonians 2:8-10
8 Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; 9 that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, 10 and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved."
Matthew 16:4 "4 A wicked and adulterous generation demands a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” "
God has given us all we need in the Bible, nothing more is needed. It is dangerous to look for signs or become excited about them. There are many in our day who are constantly attempting to call things they see in the sky, ground or their cookie, something that makes them seem special for seeing it.
Pay no attention to these people. If you do not need a sign to have faith, then you have a strong faith. Only those who are weak need a sign to keep the excitement going.
I have seen many miracles in my day but they are not things others would see as miracles because they were quiet answers from my Lord to me personally. He has also used doctors to heal me as well as healing me without them.
Born again believers walk by faith not by sight. We know Christ is with us even when we can't sense him because of the trials we go through.
We know Christ is there because He promised He would never leave us or forsake us, that's enough for me.
Choose Where You Will Spend Eternity
Those who know their sin and defend it loudly will be the ones who are always ready with an excuse why the commandments don't apply to their special circumstances.
Or perhaps their sin wasn't so bad because of things that happened to them over their lifetime.
Perhaps they don't understand that any sin and all sin leads to hell. It is only through believing in Christ that we can be saved from our sin and from hell.
Christ had never sinned and yet look what others did to Him. He was the creator of the world, perfect in all His ways and able to blow the world and mankind away in a single breath if He wanted to, but chose to die for the sins of others. He blessed and not cursed. One day His day of grace will be over and the world will be punished if they do not change their mind toward Him to become born again after confessing their need for the Savior.
How utterly silly to think that we can make God listen to excuses for sin when His own misery was caused by that sin of ours.
Imagine creating a world of people, giving them all they need and will ever need only to have them defy Him merely to "be their own person." Then after punishing them for refusing to listen to Him, they began to turn against Him without cause.
Let's take some inventory, Christ made human beings to love them and be loved by them. He gave them a world to live on and a garden in paradise without illness or misery. All He asked was that they not eat of the poison fruit that would make them die. It was for their good and to help them learn how to resist that which is not good for them.
Then what did mankind do, disregard His perfect creation, wanting the one thing in the garden they were forbidden to eat when all around them was perfection and every kind of food for them without having to work for it.
They wanted the bad thing simply because it was forbidden to them. No one was going to tell them what to do.
What did they get in return for their independence? The earth was cursed, their bodies began to become ill and die a slow death. The animals became dangerous meat-eaters and every species on the earth began to fight with one another, even the humans began to fight with one another.
I guess my question would be, "how is all that independence working out for you."
So many people destroy their own lives through rebellion against God just to be able to say they don't take orders from anyone. What they didn't realize and still don't is that no one is independent entirely, everyone is being controlled by the devil's thoughts for the unsaved or God's thoughts for those who are born again.
Those in rebellion kill, molest and lie to one another constantly, lacking loyalty and dignity. When they destroy their own lives they claim it was someone else's fault. Once in a while, these lost ones will do something kind but it will be for their own glory. Even becoming angry if someone doesn't notice.
The Born Agains, love one another, speak the truth and "love to love" God's way. They are an asset to anyone's life even without trying because Christ is so much a part of them. Once in awhile they sin, when they do they hate it, learn from it, confess it and resolve never to do that same thing again. When they honor and help others they do it out of love for Christ and love for others without needing to be noticed for it. Self is not a very big part of their existence. They are not worried about loving themselves, their love for God and others just doesn't make room for self-exaltation.
"One of the elements of holiness is the absence of self-awareness." ( author unknown)
No one has to remain in their dead sinful state, they can face their sinful self honestly, confess it to God and ask Him to change them into a new creation. When He does this they will be a completely new creation that no longer thinks as they did before. The entire way we view everything including God is changed.
We get to choose, we can choose to be ruled by the devil while dying in sin or we can choose to be changed and ruled by Christ. The devil brings ruin and Christ brings love and beauty.
Romans 6
Believers Are Dead to Sin, Alive to God
6 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;
7 for he who has died is freed from sin.
8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
11 Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts,
13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!
16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?
17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed,
18 and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
19 I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
21 Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.
22 But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Dead or Alive, Heaven or Hell? Which one do you choose?
Or perhaps their sin wasn't so bad because of things that happened to them over their lifetime.
Perhaps they don't understand that any sin and all sin leads to hell. It is only through believing in Christ that we can be saved from our sin and from hell.
Christ had never sinned and yet look what others did to Him. He was the creator of the world, perfect in all His ways and able to blow the world and mankind away in a single breath if He wanted to, but chose to die for the sins of others. He blessed and not cursed. One day His day of grace will be over and the world will be punished if they do not change their mind toward Him to become born again after confessing their need for the Savior.
How utterly silly to think that we can make God listen to excuses for sin when His own misery was caused by that sin of ours.
Imagine creating a world of people, giving them all they need and will ever need only to have them defy Him merely to "be their own person." Then after punishing them for refusing to listen to Him, they began to turn against Him without cause.
Let's take some inventory, Christ made human beings to love them and be loved by them. He gave them a world to live on and a garden in paradise without illness or misery. All He asked was that they not eat of the poison fruit that would make them die. It was for their good and to help them learn how to resist that which is not good for them.
Then what did mankind do, disregard His perfect creation, wanting the one thing in the garden they were forbidden to eat when all around them was perfection and every kind of food for them without having to work for it.
They wanted the bad thing simply because it was forbidden to them. No one was going to tell them what to do.
What did they get in return for their independence? The earth was cursed, their bodies began to become ill and die a slow death. The animals became dangerous meat-eaters and every species on the earth began to fight with one another, even the humans began to fight with one another.
I guess my question would be, "how is all that independence working out for you."
So many people destroy their own lives through rebellion against God just to be able to say they don't take orders from anyone. What they didn't realize and still don't is that no one is independent entirely, everyone is being controlled by the devil's thoughts for the unsaved or God's thoughts for those who are born again.
Those in rebellion kill, molest and lie to one another constantly, lacking loyalty and dignity. When they destroy their own lives they claim it was someone else's fault. Once in a while, these lost ones will do something kind but it will be for their own glory. Even becoming angry if someone doesn't notice.
The Born Agains, love one another, speak the truth and "love to love" God's way. They are an asset to anyone's life even without trying because Christ is so much a part of them. Once in awhile they sin, when they do they hate it, learn from it, confess it and resolve never to do that same thing again. When they honor and help others they do it out of love for Christ and love for others without needing to be noticed for it. Self is not a very big part of their existence. They are not worried about loving themselves, their love for God and others just doesn't make room for self-exaltation.
"One of the elements of holiness is the absence of self-awareness." ( author unknown)
No one has to remain in their dead sinful state, they can face their sinful self honestly, confess it to God and ask Him to change them into a new creation. When He does this they will be a completely new creation that no longer thinks as they did before. The entire way we view everything including God is changed.
We get to choose, we can choose to be ruled by the devil while dying in sin or we can choose to be changed and ruled by Christ. The devil brings ruin and Christ brings love and beauty.
Romans 6
Believers Are Dead to Sin, Alive to God
6 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;
7 for he who has died is freed from sin.
8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
11 Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts,
13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!
16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?
17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed,
18 and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
19 I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
21 Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.
22 But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Dead or Alive, Heaven or Hell? Which one do you choose?
Leave the Narcissist to God
What does God say about dealing with wicked people who are our enemies.
They are not forgiven if they are not repentant. However this is not permission to treat them badly.
We can ignore their insults, avoid them often but treat them with the respect they didn't show us when we have to be around them.
God said bless your enemies when in their presence but He also said we can avoid them if they continue their bad behavior.
In the case of marriage one must learn to deal with a mean spouse, if physically abusive get a separation but not divorce. That's an entirely different dynamic.
We cannot bail out of every difficulty, God may have placed us in that problem to teach us things. We can learn godly ways of interacting with mean people so that we remain innocent.
We cannot change the narcissist, but we can act Christlike no matter what they are doing. When we learn to ignore our feelings of hurt and resolve to obey God, we may still be emotionally abused but hold up under it because of the Holy Spirit.
Christ had to be abused "without saying a word." He never ran after or remained with those who rejected Him. He removed Himself and went on to others.
Christ is our example to follow. If we follow modern psychological church teaching we will stay stuck in ugly relationships that pressure us to disobey God.
1 Corinthians 15:33 "33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good character.” "
Proverbs 9:7-9 "…7 He who corrects a mocker brings shame on himself; he who rebukes a wicked man taints himself. 8 Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man, and he will love you. 9 Instruct a wise man, and he will be wiser still; teach a righteous man, and he will increase his learning."
Matthew 5:44 "44But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,"
The narcissist wants nothing better to goad you into bad behavior through your displays of emotion, this makes them feel justified in abusing you. If they can poke at you until you blow up they have counted it a win. The devil loves to make believers fall, it discredits their trust in Christ.
Matthew 27:12 " 12And when He was accused by the chief priests and elders, He gave no answer. "
Do not engage in a meaningless and silly argument with a foolish narcissist. Remain faithful to Christ and leave that trouble maker to God to deal with.
They are not forgiven if they are not repentant. However this is not permission to treat them badly.
We can ignore their insults, avoid them often but treat them with the respect they didn't show us when we have to be around them.
God said bless your enemies when in their presence but He also said we can avoid them if they continue their bad behavior.
In the case of marriage one must learn to deal with a mean spouse, if physically abusive get a separation but not divorce. That's an entirely different dynamic.
We cannot bail out of every difficulty, God may have placed us in that problem to teach us things. We can learn godly ways of interacting with mean people so that we remain innocent.
We cannot change the narcissist, but we can act Christlike no matter what they are doing. When we learn to ignore our feelings of hurt and resolve to obey God, we may still be emotionally abused but hold up under it because of the Holy Spirit.
Christ had to be abused "without saying a word." He never ran after or remained with those who rejected Him. He removed Himself and went on to others.
Christ is our example to follow. If we follow modern psychological church teaching we will stay stuck in ugly relationships that pressure us to disobey God.
1 Corinthians 15:33 "33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good character.” "
Proverbs 9:7-9 "…7 He who corrects a mocker brings shame on himself; he who rebukes a wicked man taints himself. 8 Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man, and he will love you. 9 Instruct a wise man, and he will be wiser still; teach a righteous man, and he will increase his learning."
Matthew 5:44 "44But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,"
The narcissist wants nothing better to goad you into bad behavior through your displays of emotion, this makes them feel justified in abusing you. If they can poke at you until you blow up they have counted it a win. The devil loves to make believers fall, it discredits their trust in Christ.
Matthew 27:12 " 12And when He was accused by the chief priests and elders, He gave no answer. "
Do not engage in a meaningless and silly argument with a foolish narcissist. Remain faithful to Christ and leave that trouble maker to God to deal with.
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