Thursday, January 23, 2025

Rejection of the World but Blessings from Christ

Why do born-again believers have so much rejection in this world and find themselves alone with Christ often? Here is the reason:
 
John 3:19-21 …19 And this is the verdict: The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil.
20 Everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come into the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
21 But whoever practices the truth comes into the Light, so that it may be seen clearly that what he has done has been accomplished in God.”

Ephesians 5:11-13
"Have no fellowship with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. / For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. / But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that is illuminated becomes a light itself."

Romans 13:12
"The night is nearly over; the day has drawn near. So let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light."

1 John 1:6-7
"If we say we have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. / But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin."

1 John 2:9-11
"If anyone claims to be in the light but hates his brother, he is still in the darkness. / Whoever loves his brother remains in the light, and there is no cause of stumbling in him. / But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness. He does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes."

Isaiah 29:15
"Woe to those who dig deep to hide their plans from the LORD. In darkness they do their works and say, “Who sees us, and who will know?”

Isaiah 30:1
“Woe to the rebellious children,” declares the LORD, “to those who carry out a plan that is not Mine, who form an alliance, but against My will, heaping up sin upon sin."

Praising God for His wisdom and that He gives it freely to those who ask for it.
 
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."
Hallelujah!!!!

Love is not Competitive


When we are obeying the Scripture, the very Word of God we have no place for competition with one another, gossip or any other divisive mentality that brings chaos and the devil's glee.
 
Ephesians 2:20-22
"20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy [a]temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit."

1 Thessalonians 5:10-11 "…10 He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him. 11 Therefore encourage and build one another up, just as you are already doing."

1 Corinthians 13:4-7
"4 Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant. 5 It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered, 6 it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 it keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."

Praise the Lord for all those who live according to God's principles. Having set aside worldly wisdom and man-made rules that oppress others they seek Christ for His truth and principles. They pursue love as the first fruit of the Spirit. This love of Christ dominates everything and everything flows from it.
 
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."
When there is Christ-like love all the other character traits follow. Every born-again believer has this fruit and love to live them out, it brings joy and peace to all who want to live according to God's Word.

The Phenomenon of Accusing Others

This phenomenon of accusing others of drama the narcissist is creating is growing in these last days.
 
Satan manipulated Eve to eat the fruit and then accused her of eating it. He goes before God daily accusing the brethren of what he entices them to do.
 
Have you ever had a friend encourage you to do something you knew was wrong but doing that thing would relieve the pain momentarily, so you did what you were encouraged to do that appealed to our emotions, but dishonored God?
 
Then once you did the thing your friend encouraged you to do and felt intense guilt over it, you confessed it to God and were cleansed, but the friend held it over your head for the rest of your life as though you never repented?
 
This is how the devil works all the time not just in the big stuff but in the smaller things that are not devastating but dishonor God. The devil loves to cause guilt and shame in those who have trusted Christ so he creates unnecessary drama around things that happened years ago and are no longer happening.
 
The devil works in the hearts of jealous angry people to create drama, guilt and shame over something that is not worthy of those feelings.
 
Have you been judged for the food you eat, the innocent and lovely places you have gone and the kind friends you have? Satan is able to take an innocent matter and make it look foolish when what you did was a good and kind thing. He attempts to generate fights and arguments everywhere he goes through jealousy and envy.
 
Jealousy is when we want what others have and envy is when we don't want them to have it. These emotions produce chaos and frustration in relationships destroying those relationships, the devil loves when a relationship blows up over nothing important.
 
If we do not give in to the devil and say no while putting up boundaries we are treated disrespectfully for having the boundaries and not doing what they want us to do. Our reaction to sin against us is food for the devil's minions. It is best to get to the point where we feel nothing about the attacks and never respond to them.
How is it possible not to respond? It gets easier when we know we are not the problem, that the person doing these wicked things is responsible for himself, we are not responsible for their bad behavior.
 
Then, once we realize what we are dealing with, eventually we lose the desire entirely to explain or defend ourselves. Defending ourselves to a narcissist shows that we still care too much about what they think of us, it feeds their pride and brings greater pressure to bear on us.
 
When we realize that a narcissist is not interested in self-reflection to resolve a matter, but actually enjoys the competition to win over others, we know it is a hopeless endeavor to try with them. This is when we politely excuse ourselves and leave them entirely to God. We are not responsible to remain friends with those who have no interest in saving a relationship.

Proverbs 26:4 says, "Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself".
 
A narcissist is a fool, they have no interest in righteousness. They only care about provoking us to become like them so they can feel justified in their rudeness.
 
Proverbs 26:4-5
"4 Do not answer a fool according to his foolishness,
Or you will also be like him.
5 Answer a fool as his foolishness deserves,
So that he will not be wise in his own eyes."

Fools think they are smart when they can cause irritation or blow-up in their target. Their goal is just like that of Satan, to cause a good person to fall so they can accuse them of sin.
 
We know if a narcissist is accusing us of something it is something they are doing but we are not, they expose themselves by their accusations. This is a favored tactic of the devil and is growing exponentially in our day as we approach the end of the church age.
 
Families are being destroyed because of arrogance and pride that pit family members against one another for no good reason except everyone is competing for superiority over everyone else.
 
My suggestion is to not play the game. Do not answer a fool when they attempt to cause trouble, do not be intimidated by their accusations or threats and feel free and even blessed to remove them from your lives.
 
We find nothing in Scripture that tells us never to remove ourselves from a friend or relative, just the opposite. God wants to protect our walk with Him so that our witness for Him is not ruined by nonsense.
 
Romans 16:17
"17 I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. 18 For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites."

God told us to "keep away from them", we can't do anything about their gossip against us and we should not try we must leave all that mess to God. This means we will also need to keep away from those who align themselves with the gossiping narcissist. Those who listen to the narcissists will never listen to us, but God can expose them in due time while we walk uprightly without the drama they all bring.
 
2 Corinthians 6:17-18
"17 Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord.
“And do not touch what is unclean;
And I will welcome you.
18 And I will be a father to you,
And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,”
Says the Lord Almighty."

See that!!!!! God will be everything we need even if we think we have no one else. Remember there are many people who are experiencing this lack of love and kindness because the world is raging toward darkness and selfishness abounds everywhere. This only means we are going home soon, so we have great hope in the midst of this chaos and confusion.
 
The world is confused but we are not, the world loves drama and hate but we possess the love of Christ with great joy even through our tears.
Keep Looking Up, our home going is soon!