End Times Religious Types

Religious types will divide believers with their idea of doctrines that God never wrote. They put unrelated Scriptures together to make up a doctrine of their desire and judge others who do not follow their ideas.

 
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."

Legalists are always petty and performance-based. They distract people from Christ making them obsess over the rules that God never made.

 
Galatians 6:1-3 "1 Brothers, if someone is caught in a trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him with a spirit of gentleness. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. 2 Carry one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3 If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.…"

This mentality of Love is not an endorsement of sin, but it is the absence of man-made standards that are not written in God's Word.

 
Love is when we grieve over those who are sinning, telling them the truth that will help them to admit their sin and forsake it while remaining humble, knowing that we have times of repentance for ourselves.

 
1 Corinthians 12:25-26
"so that there should be no division in the body, but that its members should have mutual concern for one another. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it."

The important lesson here is that we approach those who are sinning in an attitude of love and hope for restoration. Those who approach someone to chastise them over things that are not sin care only about appearing superior and dominating others. These are those who are constantly judging things that don't matter, rules made by men who wish to oppress others.

 
Romans 16:17-18 " 17 Now I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who create divisions and obstacles that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Turn away from them. 18 For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery, they deceive the hearts of the naive.…"

We are seeing more division and arrogance in the churches today because many within the gathering have never been born again. Because they remain lost and self-exalted they attempt to make rules God never made that only divide the church and ruin faith.

Matthew 7:15
"Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves."

2 John 1:10-11
"If anyone comes to you but does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your home or even greet him. / Whoever greets such a person shares in his evil deeds."

1 Timothy 6:3-5
"If anyone teaches another doctrine and disagrees with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and with godly teaching, / he is conceited and understands nothing. Instead, he has an unhealthy interest in controversies and disputes about words, out of which come envy, strife, abusive talk, evil suspicions, / and constant friction between men of depraved mind who are devoid of the truth. These men regard godliness as a means of gain."

2 Corinthians 11:13-15
"For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their actions."

To keep from being deceived and dominated by those who twist the scriptures, we must know the scriptures well and be led by the Holy Spirit.

 
In these end times, we will encounter more false believers than authentic ones because we are in the days just like those of Noah, in which everyone does what is right in their own eyes and will not listen to sound doctrine.

What We Think of Christ!

We do not operate according to how people think of us but rather what we think of Christ, according to His Word.

 
2 Timothy 1:7-8 "7 "For God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power, love, and self-control. 8 So do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or of me, His prisoner. Instead, join me in suffering for the gospel by the power of God."

Romans 8:15
"For you did not receive a spirit of slavery that returns you to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption to sonship, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”"

1 John 4:18
"There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. The one who fears has not been perfected in love."

Acts 1:8
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Pretending and Being are Two Very Different Things

We know when our children become born again they will have a completely different attitude toward their parents.

All rudeness and false judgment will fall away and humility will replace arrogance. There will be authentic humility and confession of their sin as they begin to obey the Scriptures in "honoring their parents."

 
It is not an honor to bring a birthday gift but to revile and attempt to manipulate the parents all the rest of the year. The birthday gift is offensive because of the continual disrespect throughout the year.

 
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.’ ”

Many of us know what God feels like when His children claim they love Him but violate His principles to follow the ways of the world.

 
Isaiah 29:13
"Therefore the Lord said: “These people draw near to Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is but rules taught by men.

Hosea 6:6 "For I desire loyalty rather than sacrifice,
And the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings."

Psalm 51:16-17
"For You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; You take no pleasure in burnt offerings. / The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise."

Many people who claim to be Christians violate the scriptures and become angry when they are exposed. Instead of praying and repenting they are fighting and justifying. The sad thing is the resistance to self-reflecting and praying to make sure they are not sinning in their responses.

 
A humble person when confronted goes to prayer and either corrects the problem in themselves or God will show them they were not guilty of the accusation. Either way, they are humble in seeking God, they do not fight to defend themselves, they pray to discover the truth.

 
The two greatest commandments if obeyed will result in love toward God first and then one another.

 
Mark 12:33
"and to love Him with all your heart and with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. This is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

Confidence or Self-Esteem?

As I was listening to a counselor this morning some very good points came up that motivated me to write some of what he said and things I have learned myself.
Determine if the rude words or actions are an incident or a long-standing pattern of behavior.

If it is a pattern, what is the pattern? Someone who is often irritated, dismissive and using silent treatment to punish while acting this way every time you have a discussion is a pattern.

 
Hold your ground! You will not receive validation from the abuser but we can self-validate by self-reflecting to see what really happened, owning our part or dismissing it if you did nothing to warrant this treatment. Be honest about what happened.

Let the person who is abusing you know what they are doing and that you don't like it.

 
If the abuse is a pattern of behavior it won't get better it will keep happening over and over again because it is the heart and character of the person that drives their mentality resulting in their words and actions.

When it is not a pattern, but a rare one-time encounter the person will come back to apologize and will not want to repeat it again. Those who falter without a pattern don't like hurting others, but the one who has a pattern enjoys their mistreatment of others.

 
We cannot control another person when they are abusing us emotionally and spiritually, but we can control ourselves. When we set out to change another person, even if it were to happen it would not be a heart change, only God can do that. Our prayer is that God change their heart so that they think differently causing their actions and words to be motivated by their new heart.

 
When we have prayed for years and the person only gets worse that is the clue to give up the praying and turn them over to Satan to be buffeted. It is through their hardships that they may be able to see their need for Christ. Remember all those years of prayer in the past still count, praying one more time will not force God to force the abuser to repent.

 
2 Corinthians 12:7-10 "7 Because of the extraordinary greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself!
8 Concerning this I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might leave me.
9 And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in distresses, in persecutions, in difficulties, in behalf of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong."

When someone is abusive verbally and emotionally we can speak our minds about it and remove ourselves if necessary.

 
The last point is to follow through, and continue to act in a way that sends the message the behavior will no longer be tolerated.

 
It has been my experience that narcissists refuse to discuss anything, they are so fearful of discovering and facing their own flaws that they will fight bitterly to defend themselves when they know they are guilty. Admitting flaws is a crushing blow more devastating than death itself to the narcissist.

 
Another problem with a narcissist is their convenient memory of events. They often remember things that did not happen or forget things that did happen, honesty is not a part of their thinking process. They are intimidated by truth and choose false evidence rather than honesty and accuracy. Narcissists often formulate things in their own minds that they wish to believe rather than what really happened.
Narcissists are like six-year-old bratty children acting immaturely to protect their perceived superiority above all others. They will destroy a relationship entirely before admitting their part in the problem.

 
With these people, we make boundaries not threats. We tell the person what we will not tolerate and keep that boundary no matter what they do after that.

 
In some cases, we already know the narcissist is going to fight and argue because that's what they have done in the past and it is their pattern. In cases like this we don't bother to tell them, we simply walk away and leave them to God.

 
Our culture is far more narcissistic now than ever before because our children's generation has been raised on self-esteem through all their formative years. The schools began the teaching then the churches adopted it causing an avalanche of destructive self-aggrandizement that is defended bitterly when challenged.

The culture is using the word "self-esteem" to replace "confidence." However, there is a big difference between self-esteem and confidence.

 
Self-esteem creates a covert form of self-worship, and confidence is believing we can be or do something without the element of self-worship.

Born again believers are confident and humble at the same time if they are walking with Christ every day.

 
The one who operates from self-esteem elevates themselves above God and everyone else. The one who follows Christ is confident because they know what they believe, are Christ focused and resolute to remain steadfast in His principles and commands.

 
Philippians 2:3-5
"3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.

4 Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:"
Notice the word "vainglory" here in this passage. It is the melding of two words, "vanity and self-glory."

 
God tells us not to have this "vainglory", we are to esteem others better than ourselves and to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind. When we operate like this, with the mind of Christ we will never be able to glorify self.

 
It is not possible to have a humble and lowly heart while we are elevating and praising ourselves.

 
The need to be special destroys humility and tramples on love.

 
1 Corinthians 13:4–8a "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

Self-esteem ruins all the fruit of the Spirit. There cannot be patience and kindness when we have ourselves on the throne of our lives. Those who have self-esteem are continually fighting to be superior to others while demeaning and manipulating others for personal exaltation.

 
To be exalted in one's own eyes one must diminish others. May those who have been living a life of self-exaltation repent, trust in Christ, and be changed by Him. And, may all believers reject the teachings of the culture that come from the heart of the devil himself.

 
May our path be one of the fruit of the Spirit of Christ, that we may grow in holiness and be useful for the Kingdom of Christ.