There were no pictures of Jesus for good reason. If we look at a picture of a man who is not Him and calling Him Jesus we are lying.
God commanded us not to make images of God. When someone looks longingly at a statue or a picture of a man depicting Jesus it is a form of worship.
As a former Catholic, I know what an idol is better than anyone who has not been Catholic.
What if I put a picture of a man on the wall and called that man by my husband's name but it was not my husband? He would be offended.
Deuteronomy 4:16
"that you do not act corruptly and make an idol for yourselves of any form or shape, whether in the likeness of a male or female,"
Anything depicting Christ that is not really Him is an idol."
Now there are those who would say; "but you have pictures of family on the wall!!!" Yes, but those pictures really are of my family, remembering the real them is not worship, its history.
We have many pictures of things that we have encountered in our lives, those were real people, real places and real things. The pictures of Jesus Christ are not Him, they are pretending to be Him.
2 Corinthians 5:6-8 "…6 Therefore we are always confident, although we know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, then, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.…"
Tuesday, June 23, 2020
Pretenders Lack the Fruit
Pretenders lack the fruit of the Spirit which is Spiritually (by the Holy Spirit) discerned. Those who claim to be Christian but do not act like they have been changed into a new creation, are all around us, in every church, and especially in the large apostate gatherings.
1 John 3:4-9
4 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.
5 You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.
6 No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him.
7 Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous;
8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.
9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God."
Anyone who lives a lifestyle of sin and defends it cannot possibly be born again. Christ changes the believer into a new creation, the old is passed away and the way we thought before is gone, we think a new way now. Those who love Christ hate sin, even when they fail and sin they hate it and confess to be cleansed.
1 John 1:9 "1
"9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
1 John 2:1-2a "1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate before the Father— Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
2 He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins,"
Born again believers hate sin, even their own when they fail, but they confess to be cleansed. Pretenders refuse to repent or confess and even defend their sin. They make excuses and become angry when met with God's Word about their sin.
These pretenders might say to you; "you don't know my heart." The answer is simple, we cannot do on the outside that which is different from the inside. Whatever we do on the outside proves what is on the inside.
Matthew 15:18-19
"18 But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man.
19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders."
Galatians 5:22-23
"22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."
Matthew 7:15-20
A Tree and Its Fruit
15 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
16 You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?
17 So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.
18 A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.
19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20 So then, you will know them by their fruits."
1 John 3:4-9
4 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.
5 You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.
6 No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him.
7 Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous;
8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.
9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God."
Anyone who lives a lifestyle of sin and defends it cannot possibly be born again. Christ changes the believer into a new creation, the old is passed away and the way we thought before is gone, we think a new way now. Those who love Christ hate sin, even when they fail and sin they hate it and confess to be cleansed.
1 John 1:9 "1
"9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
1 John 2:1-2a "1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate before the Father— Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
2 He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins,"
Born again believers hate sin, even their own when they fail, but they confess to be cleansed. Pretenders refuse to repent or confess and even defend their sin. They make excuses and become angry when met with God's Word about their sin.
These pretenders might say to you; "you don't know my heart." The answer is simple, we cannot do on the outside that which is different from the inside. Whatever we do on the outside proves what is on the inside.
Matthew 15:18-19
"18 But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man.
19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders."
Galatians 5:22-23
"22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."
Matthew 7:15-20
A Tree and Its Fruit
15 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
16 You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?
17 So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.
18 A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.
19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20 So then, you will know them by their fruits."
The Governors, Mayors, Teachers and Preachers are Bad Parents
The governors and mayors of liberal cities are like very bad parents. The teachers and principles of schools, as well as the leaders of the apostate churches all, have learned the injustice of ignoring and coddling bullies and criminals to further empower them to worse acts of evil.
These leaders are afraid they will be seen as naughty and bad if they spank lawless people.
One cannot expect criminals to just stop their evil activity by letting them have a tantrum hoping they will get tired and go home.
There is a "broken window policy" that is important in governing people. That policy is that if you have an empty building with lots of windows, and one person is allowed to throw a rock at the windows and break them with no punishment, others will come along and do the same thing.
When there is no punishment for bad behavior everyone else with lawless hearts will come along and break windows too, just because they can.
1 Timothy 1:8-10
"8 But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully,
9 realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers
10 and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching,"
Righteous people don't want to commit crimes, if all the laws were taken away the righteous people would still not commit crimes.
It is lawless people who need laws and consequences to restrain their evil. They love evil and will freely commit crimes when there is no penalty for them.
There are those who are so evil no law will restrain them, this is what we are witnessing right now in our country, however, the bad parent, the lawless leaders, will not restrain them because they themselves hate restrictions on their own lives.
When someone becomes angry at correction from others it is a strong clue they are those who refuse to be taught or restrained by anyone, even God. Many believers are of this sort. They love their sin and refuse to listen to rebuke when confronted about their sin.
The apostate church is a bad parent, few people attending these gatherings will call out sin to help the church grow in holiness. As a result, unbelievers are attracted to the gatherings, learn the Christian lingo to fit in, and end up dominating the gatherings to cause division and false doctrine.
Schools are bad parents too, they see two children fighting and punish both without sitting down to hear the story and work out who was the bully. They are lazy in their approach to teaching, allowing bullies to be empowered by punishing the one who was bullied.
Our lazy culture prefers to quickly remove the problem by ignoring it entirely. They hope that the bullies and the lawbreakers will just get tired of their bullying and go home. The truth is the more we ignore a bully or a lawless one the greater power the bully senses, not only to continue their bullying but drawing others bullies in to come alongside for worse activities.
We are living in lawless times in which bullies and the lawlessness of all kinds are being empowered without consequences. When the times are full of these lawless acts there will be no fixing it. The monster becomes too big for too long.
Its sort of like a parent neglecting to punish their small children for disobedience and disrespect and when they are teens standing back wondering why their teen is completely out of control. It is too late to begin punishing a rebellious teen, the damage has been done and no discipline will work now.
Then we see the bad parent of government enabling the evil ones while others who are wanting to have consequences for the criminal, speaking their mind to help and the criminals refusing to listen because the bad parent continually enables and rejects any sense of punishment for bad behavior.
Now we are living in an entire culture of bad parents overshadowing continually any suggestion that we need rules and punishment for defiance against those rules.
Good parents can have no effect on the criminals because they have been coddled and protected by the rebellious government.
Why are we seeing the destruction of all historic monuments in this country and few if any arrests for that destruction?
BAD RULERS who protect the criminal element while punishing the righteous for even suggesting punishment for the lawless.
The Power mongers in control in our government now hate righteousness. They are working to destroy America. However, whose fault is this? It's simple, the people of America have loved sin and live in it continually, they will say they do not because they don't rob or kill people, but their mentality is set against God. Pretending to be "Christian" many disobey and dishonor God every day and believe they are not sinning. Case in point; take a look at the divorce and remarriage industry, the splitting of families every day for no other reason than couples who have not learned to sacrifice for a spouse or children. And this sin is just the beginning, there are so many more sins that "Christian America" committing and claiming they are not sins.
2 Timothy 4:2-4 "…2Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and encourage with every form of patient instruction. 3For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires. 4So they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.…"
2 Timothy 3:1-5
“Difficult (ragingly insane) Times Will Come”
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."
See that? "holding to a form of godliness but not of God."
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