Don't Be a Lazy Believer; Seek Christ for the Truth

1 Corinthians 2:14

"14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit."

The reason so many people in the church cannot understand the things of the Lord is because they were never born-again, or they are lazy Christians who hang onto pride without seeking the Holy Spirit to lead them into truth.

James 1:4-6 "…4 Allow perseverance to finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5 Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.…"

What to Expect After Going 'No-Contact' - Day 4

The Greatest Deception of all Time

My greatest frustration is not all that is going on in the world, it is that believers in Christ are becoming carried away hook-line-and sinker" by all the news sources out there that claim to be "conservative."

God said we were living in the greatest deception mankind has ever seen, which includes ALL news sources and ALL organizations. If it doesn't come from God's Word discard it, ignore it, or refuse to seek it out, its false knowledge, Gnosticism, an attack on the body of Christ to distract us from the gospel message.

Why are so many "Christians" ready and willing to tell the filth of the world to unbelievers but will not open their mouths to speak the truth of the gospel and the words of Christ to them.

If we have not seen the event ourselves then it is gossip and should not be repeated to anyone else.

The devil is fooling Christians into believing their life is political and that it is important to disseminate all they hear or read to everyone who will listen. As though speaking these things are warnings to them. They are not even warnings they are merely gossip.

Gossip: casual or unconstrained conversation or reports about other people, typically involving details that are not confirmed as being true."

If you have done research on the internet hearing gossip about people and events, then you cannot personally prove it.

2 Timothy 4:2-4 "…2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and encourage with every form of patient instruction. 3 For 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. 4 So they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.…"

Please remember, we are living in times of deep deception everywhere we look all the time. Very little can be vetted and even if you could the gossip is useless for the Kingdom of God, perhaps worse than useless, it is a distraction to the work of Christ in the lives of people who need to learn the way of salvation.

Isaiah 30:10

They say to the seers, "Stop seeing visions!" and to the prophets, "Do not prophesy to us the truth! Speak to us pleasant words; prophesy illusions.

2 Timothy 1:13

Hold on to the pattern of sound teaching you have heard from me, with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

It is an ungodly desire to know all the evil and filth in the world.

Jude 1:17-19 "17 But you, beloved, remember what was foretold by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ 18 when they said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow after their own ungodly desires.” 19 These are the ones who cause divisions, who are worldly and devoid of the Spirit."

It is an ungodly desire to engage in gossip and false news reports merely to enjoy sensationalism.

Remember the tabloids at the checkout stand as a child? Those are small potatoes compared to the tabloid news on the internet. All the gossip and false news people get is on the internet, it is full of foolishness and deception.

Perhaps it would be good to spend an entire month not researching the internet for news while spending that time reading the Word of God for His truth. Perhaps praying to know only the truth and nothing else, will help remove the addiction to internet news.

2 Timothy 2:15

"Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth."

Some Of The Most Chilling Warnings From The Apostles In The Bible

Complaining is Lack of Fatih

To complain continually about all that is going on in the world is to deny God's plan. It is to ignore His promises.

To complain about the weather is to complain against God's will.

To complain about our lives is to lack faith that God is working His purpose in our lives.

We deny Christ every time we complain about things we cannot change. He is in control of everything, and when we know this we can praise Him in the hard times and remain faithful to Him no matter what is happening around us or to us.

Pride also causes us to complain when we don't get our own way. Pride destroys faith in Christ and makes self the god.

Remember every time we complain we are placing ourselves above God.

Pride causes people to defend themselves when they receive a correction, even from God.

Philippians 2:14-18

"14 Do all things without complaining or arguments;

15 so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,

16 holding firmly the word of life, so that on the day of Christ I can take pride because I did not run in vain nor labor in vain.

17 But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all.

18 You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me."

Turn Your Eyes Back to Jesus Christ

Romans 12:2
"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."

John 18:36
"Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”

Colossians 3:2
"Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth."

May Born-again believers stop focusing on this world and become more heavenly-minded. The more we are obsessed with the goings on of this world the less useful we are for the Kingdom.

Allow No Myths, Preach Jesus Christ Alone!

2 Timothy 4:2-4 "…2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and encourage with every form of patient instruction. 3 For 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. 4 So they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.…"

Believers we need to stop speaking about the myths and legends and begin speaking about Jesus Christ.

When we teach the myths and Jesus Christ together we minimize and reduce our Lord to the level of the myth. One cannot add myth to Christ and get anything good. The myth will always get more glory than Christ.

Isaiah 30:10

"They say to the seers, "Stop seeing visions!" and to the prophets, "Do not prophesy to us the truth! Speak to us pleasant words; prophesy illusions."

2 Timothy 1:13

"Hold on to the pattern of sound teaching you have heard from me, with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus."

Legends are not necessary when we have Christ!

I don't understand why people need legends of anything to feel good about their lives. We have the Bible, the truth, there is no need for passed down unproven legends.

One of the most insidious and dangerous legends has been that of the supposed Bishop St. Nicholas. There is no evidence that such a man ever existed. There are many legends but no proof.

When we need a legend to make our life full and happy we are embracing an idol. God discourages idol imaginings that take us away into daydreaming and wishing something were true for no other reason than to comfort ourselves and impress others.

Jesus Christ is the only person down through history we need. And, He is more than a person, He is God. He is not a legend, He is real and interacts in the lives of His children, the born-again believers every day.

When we cannot have joy without myths and legends about people we are placing more emphasis on this life and its fantasies than we are on Jesus Christ.

There is no man who ever lived on this planet that we should venerate as special above any other man. If a man was a follower of Christ then we follow Christ, not the man.

No one can know the life of another human being down through history. Stories and legends morph over time, they are not true reflections of the person themselves.

Should we elevate someone who does good deeds? If a man does good deeds we ought to praise God for His work in the man, not the man himself.

We love people as believers but we must love them in truth. If we cannot love someone unless they have been proven to do good deeds then we have conditional love, not the love of Christ.

No one can say their good deeds without Christ are worth anything.

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.’ ”…"

When we elevate men as we teach our children about doing good we are assigning the good to the men instead of Christ. Rather we ought to elevate Christ showing the children that good deeds are only good if Christ does them in His children, then Christ gets the glory and not man.

Romans 3:23

"23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,"

The practice of idolatry in our culture can be very subtle. Whenever we elevate men to "special" status we have "venerated" them, making them equal to Christ.

Psalm 14:2–3

2 The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man,

to see if there are any who understand,

who seek after God.

3 They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt;

there is none who does good,

not even one."

The good deeds of man are corrupted by self worship. No one who is not born-again can do good deeds with a pure heart. The good deeds of unsaved people is always tainted with a desire to be seen as worthy of praise.

1 Chronicles 16:34

"34 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;

for his steadfast love endures forever!"

Only those deeds done in the power of the Holy Spirit in us can be said to be acceptable, only Christ in us is acceptable.

Matthew 6:1-4

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you."

Galatians 6:9

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

Why would anyone grow weary in doing good? The only reason I can see for a person to grow weary of doing good is when they work hard at it and receive no recognition for it. They grow weary because they are expecting to be recognized by others.

When our good deeds are done in the Spirit of Christ in us we do not expect praise nor do we care if it comes, we merely obey God and He gets the glory.

Colossians 3:17

"And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

James 4:17

"So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin."

Philippians 2:13

"For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure."

Let Christ work in us, nothing of ourselves and then we will be satisfied with Him and not ourselves.