Saturday, April 13, 2024
Praying for Israel
Iranian drones are being leveled against Israel, pray for the believers there and that unbelievers will trust in Christ.
Do Not Cling to the Past
Clinging to the past or regretting the past blocks moving forward in holiness. Clinging to the past blocks emotional and Spiritual growth for the born-again believer.
Isaiah 43:18-19
18 “Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland."
Philippians 3:13-14
"13 Brothers and sisters, I do not regard myself as having taken hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."
Ungodly people want us to stay stuck in the past because they want us to be as they are, never having progressed toward maturity.
If unbelievers can hang onto what we used to be they will not be convicted of their regression in this life. Someone who is not moving forward is not stagnant, they are in emotional and spiritual decline.
It is only in Christ that we can move forward growing in something new and better than we were before we knew Him. It is His work in us that creates the new us.
2 Corinthians 5:17
"17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new [a]creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."
Ephesians 1:4
"4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love"
Don't Tell Me what you are going to do, Just Do It
Our hearts are what drive our actions, our hearts cannot be different or separate from our actions. When someone says you don't know my heart, we can reply with; "I know your heart by your actions."
And, words mean very little in terms of evidence for our hearts. We can say many things we know people want to hear without any commitment to those words.
Matthew 12:34-37
"34 You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, express any good things? For the mouth speaks from that which fills the heart. 35 The good person brings out of his good treasure good things; and the evil person brings out of his evil treasure evil things.
36 But I tell you that for every careless word that people speak, they will give an account of it on the day of judgment.
37 For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Our actions prove our hearts! Believe Actions not Words
The Lies of the Stoics
In the past few months, I have been reading about the "Stoics" who had some wisdom abut how to live our lives but although completely focused on self. The more I read the more I realized the Stoics such as Seneca, viewed life from a humanistic perspective of good family practices with the choice of whatever god one wanted to emulate.
One of Seneca's quotes demonstrates the monstrous view of the family he had and the thinking of his time.
When you read much of the philosophy of the Stoics it sounds like they are reading from the wisdom of the Bible, but they are completely and totally focused on using wisdom and acting rightly for one reason only and that is "self." Their wisdom that sounds like Biblical standards are extolled as the way to live that best enhances one's own life.
Sadly our culture in America is teaching "self-esteem" and "self-reliance" with or without a god more than anything else. In fact for over 40 years now church attendees have been upholding the "self-esteem" teaching as paramount in child rearing, causing disrespect in children for anyone else.
Sadly Stoicism is back in force only under a different banner and subtle schemes of the devil. Those who tell the truth about these things are rejected, and even demeaned for exposing them for what they are, which is the devil's handiwork.
Our country has returned to the barbarism of the Stoics, however, so cleverly disguised as new discoveries. They even use wisdom from the Bible wrapped in "self-care" to sell their lies.
This is why it is so important to look beyond the Bible wisdom the Stoics sell placing it back in their context. We discover when in the context of their writings we see a little Bible wisdom without crediting God, and a whole lot of humanism that elevates oneself to the level of a god.
This is the same ploy the devil used in the garden when he told Eve she could be like God. He managed to convince her that "God" was a mean guy just wanting to oppress her. Of course, believers know the opposite is true, God has commandments to help us have hope and live lives that protect us from evil.
2 Thessalonians 3:3
"3 But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one."
Psalm 46:1 "God is our refuge and strength,
A very ready help in trouble."
As born-again believers we walk in the Spirit and just like Him we desire to help people, saving them from their own ungodly desires, pointing them to God's Word so that they too can know how wonderful it is to be guided and protected by their Creator.
The only way this can happen for non-believers is if they trust in Jesus Christ by faith, believe Him, and desire to be changed into a new creation by Christ.
Those who are born-again seek Christ with their whole heart and may those who are not yet born-again believe in Christ and allow Him to change them into a new creation.
What People Say or Want Does not Matter, Christ Matters
When you realize people are gossiping about you remember they did it to Jesus Christ too.
Matthew 9:1-8, Mark 2:23-28, Luke 6:1-5, Matthew 10:25 and more.
When Christ in you leads you to a particular calling you can be sure there will be those who judge it without knowing the particulars and without interest in finding out.
Legalism is following rules God never made and requiring others to follow them too. Obedience to God's Word is searching His Word for the truth and allowing the Holy Spirit to work in us to obey Him.
We do not obey the culture around us whether it is in church gatherings or out of church gatherings. We obey Christ Who lives in us.
As we muddle through these end times we will find very little support from others. Most people in churches will not understand what we are doing and will even believe it is wrong. Sadly most "Christians" who attend churches do not know the Bible and what they think they know they do not understand.
Only those who are seeking Christ, the Holy Spirit in them, will be able to discern truth from error and it will lead to a life of aloneness. Notice I said aloneness not loneliness. We are never alone when Christ lives in us as long as we seek Him in all things.
There can be no greater companion than the Holy Spirit of Christ. He is everything we need.
I have been more lonely in crowds and among family than I ever have being alone with Christ. No person can offer the love that Christ offers and no person can understand the things of God except those who have the Holy Spirit living in them.
Philippians 3:8-12
"8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them mere rubbish, so that I may gain Christ,
9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,
10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;
11 if somehow I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already grasped it all or have already become perfect, but I press on if I may also take hold of that for which I was even taken hold of by Christ Jesus."
Hallelujah!!!!
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