Let's Be Doers and not just Sayers

Many people want the safety and perks of becoming a Christian. Perhaps they want a family or club they can call their own, or perhaps they feel a sense of safety being in a group that speaks about blessings and protection.

Many of these people do not want God, they only want His stuff. We know this because when a born-again believer attempts to bring them back to thinking about Christ, worshiping Him, and obeying His principles they become hostile as though the one who loves the Lord has done something wrong.

As we move further into the apostate age we will see this mentality of "them versus us" in reference to the "radical born-agains" and the "pretenders" growing and solidified.

The pretenders don't want to grow in holiness and sadly they don't want anyone else to grow beyond them. It is an affront to the pretender that anyone else would be spiritually superior to them. Pride and self-protection is at the root of the rudeness and resistance to spiritual and emotional maturity.

Matthew 15:7-9 "…7 You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you: 8‘ These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. 9 They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’ "

Ephesians 4:11-16

"And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, ."

James 1:22-25

"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing."

Let us be seeking the word, hearers of the word and "DOERS" that we might please Christ and not ourselves or other men.

Narcissistic Group Think

A sign of a narcissistic group is when everyone is expected to think just like the group, if they do not then they are shunned and treated shamefully for their lack of compliance to the group.

This was the mentality of the world when Christ walked the earth. He brought a completely different way of thinking, that is to trust in Him instead of our own works.

Proverbs 3:5-6
"5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight."

Proverbs 28:25-26 "…25 A greedy man stirs up strife, but he who trusts in the LORD will prosper. 26 He who trusts in himself is a fool, but one who walks in wisdom will be safe."

There are many kinds of greed, greed for power, greed for money, greed for status, greed for superiority, greed to speak non-stop not allowing others to have their say, greed is at the root of every conflict. Greed is at the root of every sinful attitude of control.

Control over others is the very dynamic of the devil, if he can control the thought of people making them think they are their own, as they think they are trusting in themselves, the more easily they are controlled by him.

Pride is at the root of it all, the very reason the devil was thrown out of heaven. He wanted power over God and mankind.

James 4:7
"Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

We have the power over the devil's inputting of thoughts when we are born-again. When we know the Bible and are empowered by the Holy Spirit we are able to thwart the devil's plans to corrupt us. The biggest influence the devil has is over the thoughts of men.

If our thoughts are righteous and controlled by the Holy Spirit then we will know when the devil has brought a wrong thought to mind. We can reject it as being from Him and never allow it to motivate sinful actions in us.

Galatians 5:16
"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh."

2 Corinthians 5:16
"From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer."

Idolatry abounds in the churches today and is very subtle!

If we are looking to anyone or anything for our counsel, trusting in it or them we have idolatry in our lives.

 
Hebrews 12:1-2
"Jesus, Founder and Perfecter of Our Faith
12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."