Thursday, October 19, 2023
Our Mission Here and Our Home Going
I am astounded that so many people who say they are Christians will believe all the conspiracy news reports but will not believe all of what God said in His Word.
Why do so many people keep their eyes on this world at a time when nearly everything is based on lies and the flesh?
It is reasonable to expect that the church would go the way of the world as we reach the end of the church age.
"8 (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds),"
It is impossible to live in this world and escape the evil going on in the world. We live with the injustice in government, families, and communities, sadly even in churches every single day now.
Most of what people believe is not Biblical and is even the opposite of what God commanded in His word from interpersonal relationships to the structure of the church. When we evaluate all that we have been taught with what God says in His Word we will find out that there is very little obedience to Him.
In order to avoid interpreting God's word according to our western mindset or our modern mindset we must keep asking the Holy Spirit to show us the truth. Without consulting with God we will see everything according to the false way we were taught instead of what God meant.
God said that in the last days, there would be a wholesale rejection of God's word even though there would be a form of religion, but which does not honor God.
2 Timothy 3:1-5
(Ragingly Insane) Difficult Times Will Come
3 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.
2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, 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 people as these."
This is a description of the end times of apostasy when nearly everything is based on humanistic psychology and personal desires, not on the Word of God. It is a description of churches that "have a form of godliness but deny Christ."
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.…"
We are a small remnant now, those who trusted Christ and who desire to obey Him are very few in number. We are such a small number that it has become difficult to find others who are authentic Christians humble and lovely who seek Christ for His understanding.
Many people will hate us because we have the joy and peace they cannot seem to find, it alludes them, and they hate that someone else has what they cannot find. Rather than asking why we are so at peace and strong to find something they don't have, they are jealous and angry toward those who love Christ.
Pride will not allow them to seek Christ, since they want to believe they are all sufficient within themselves.
Proverbs 16:18
"18 Pride goes before destruction,
And a haughty spirit before stumbling."
Even when they stumble because of their arrogance they will blame others instead of own what they have been within their own souls.
Do not be discouraged, we know what is happening and where it is all going, Christ, told us it would be this way and that we can remain strong, resolute, and with great joy and peace while we are here.
Soon we will be going home, out of this world not to return until the Millennium. Then we know we will reign with Christ while He sits on the throne in Jerusalem. We must keep our eyes fixated on Him and what is coming as we carry out our calling here.
Glory in Christ Not in Self
The first fruit in the list of fruit of the Spirit is love. Everything we do with others ought to be to help them walk with Christ more fully. Those who do not have love are like a sounding Gong, without empathy toward others. Even when we correct others it ought to be with the intention of helping them not to be superior to them.
Romans 12:15
"15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep."
Many of us carry the burdens of concern for unsaved loved ones, even those who are pretenders living as though they think highly of themselves while judging others for thing that are not true in order to maintain a superior attitude.
When we love someone we look to help them have a clean and authentic walk with Christ. Our goal ought never to be superior to them beating them down for their sins, but restoring them when they are repentant. We quote scripture with them to help them return their thinking to Christ, dispelling all the untruth they have heard from the apostate church. If we love someone we tell the truth.
In our world, the "truth-teller" is the one who is most despised.
Luke 24:46-47
"46 and He said to them, “So it is written, that the [a]Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and that repentance [b]for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed [c]in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem."
Often those who think they are superior spend a lot of time judging others for things that are innocent, to be able to feel special. These people cannot be comfortable about themselves unless they are above others.
An attitude of superiority shows a spirit of pride. None of us is superior to another, we have all sinned and fallen short of God's will. It is only Christ Who is superior.
Matthew 7:21-23 "21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’"
Our response to salvation in Christ ought to be one of such gratefulness that we are confessing the slightest infraction against Him in our hearts before it even becomes actions. We hate offending God. We cannot grow in holiness without continual confession of attitudes, thoughts and actions if it comes to those.
1 John 1:9 "9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."
Those who act superior to others are demonstrating that they believe they have not sinned. No one who knows their need for continual cleansing would ever act superior to others.
Isaiah 57:15
"For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite."
The sin that is above all sin and derives all sin in the heart and the actions that result from a heart that does not confess, is that of pride.
Proverbs 29:23
"One's pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor."
Matthew 5:3
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
The poor in spirit are those who know they are nothing without Christ. God works the best and the most in those who know their unworthiness but glory in His!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)