This Last Days and the Arrogance of Adult Children

I have seen arrogant and disrespectful attitudes in many children, coupled with rudeness they don't even think is wrong. In fact when confronted about it they defend themselves and become vengeful.

 
I have to wonder if these people were ever saved even though they have attended church all their lives.

 
How can someone have a humble loving Spirit submissive to God when they do not display His fruit toward their own parents?

Ephesians 6:2-3
"2 Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), 3 so that it may turn out well for you, and that you may live long on the earth."

Honor is not bringing a parent a cup of coffee or a birthday gift to gratify themselves that they have done their obligation without any admiration toward the parent.

 
Honor means valuing someone as special, not with gifts but in attitude and deference. An attitude of honor is full of a desire to help, encourage, and revere their wisdom.

 
It doesn't matter whether a parent is what we think they should be, it only matters that we demonstrate God's love toward them.

 
What is God's love toward parents and everyone else too? Love is selfless and full of empathy for others.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8:
Love is patient and kind .
Love does not envy .
Love does not boast, is not arrogant .
Love is not rude .
Love does not seek its own interests, is not irritable or resentful .
Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth .
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things .
Love never fails .

Honesty Must be Accompanied by Humility

Narcissists cannot be honest about who they are, what makes us think they will rightly interpret us? Just asking!

They Hate you and Want Others to Hate You too!

Narcissists will interpret us the way they wish to see us not the way we are in reality, they are jealous and competitive! Sadly even those who say they are Christians are acting this way.

Question all gossip from the narcissist before acting on it. 

The narcissist wants you to treat their target with the same disrespect they have for them. They hate that anyone else would like the one they hate. 

I remember a situation once when I was having a good time with a little girl, we were laughing and enjoying one another. The narcissist father came along mocking and demeaning us for our laughter as though we were doing something wrong. 

This narcissist hated that the little girl was enjoying me so he found some way to cause the little girl to think something was wrong with our interaction. 

When the narcissist hates you they will attempt to turn others against you with lies and half-truths. They will seek to undermine any chance of a loving relationship, sometimes by isolating us from those they have convinced to hate us too.

We know this is true because of the story of the devil in the garden with Eve when the devil managed to get Eve to distrust God, making her doubt God's wisdom and love for her. He caused a break in the relationship between God and His creation, Adam and Eve. 

This is the same tactic he uses today in interpersonal relationships. Those who hate someone will make whatever that person does and says look like it is not worthy of interest or respect. 

 Satan hated that God had a special relationship with Adam and Eve just as some people hate that we might have a special relationship with anyone they wish to dominate. 

The narcissist's greatest desire is to dominate those around them and negate and disparage anyone who will not allow them to dominate them. The hatred and tactics are demonic and rampant in our day.

We see how many, if not most adult children in our culture have disrespected and diminished their parents, even good parents are feeling the brunt of this devilish mentality.

Satan is turning adult children against their parents without cause, even passing this disrespect to their grandchildren. 

This can only happen in a culture that values personal aggrandizement above God. Those who hate others cannot tolerate that others might not hate them too. 

This was true of the Pharisees, they hated Christ and wanted everyone else to hate Him too. Times have not changed, people have not changed and we are headed toward the tribulation in which there will be few who love Christ, more pretenders than authentic believers fill the religious buildings!

We are living in the days just like those of Noah's day and remember, Noah had many relatives in the water below when God closed the door of the ark.

1 Peter 4:12-19
"12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 

13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. 

14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory[a] and of God rests upon you. 

15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. 16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. 

17 For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 

18 And “If the righteous is scarcely saved,
what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”
19 Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good."

Humility is Required to Mature

We live in a time when "everyone is right in their own eyes and no one will listen." In other words the times just like those of Noah!

I have seen people fight and argue against rational thinking because, even though innocent and reasoned, it made their feelings cry, that they were shown to be in error and they could not handle it.

 
Sort of like a five-year-old who has been shown they were wrong about something, their response is to cry, not because you did anything to make them cry, but just because they wanted to be seen as intelligent and someone attempted to correct and educate them.

 
"The problem with the world is that intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence."

 
Charles Bukowski
If your feelings are crying at every minor challenge or correction it is time to grow up! Defensiveness is childishness and arrogance, in other words, sin!

1 Corinthians 13:11
"11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things."

The Stupidity Epidemic: Why Critical Thinking is Dying

The Greatest Reunion Ever!

There are times when I miss my godly friends whom I have met on the internet and have been blessed to also meet in person. I miss those I have been able to speak with on the phone too.

 
Then God reminds me that soon we will all be at the marriage supper of the Lamb and then in the Millennium for one thousand years, AND, then eternity on the new earth forever.

 
This blesses me, that I will not be separated from them much longer and the reunion is going to be amazing, most of all we will be with Christ.

 
I think about my other internet friends I have never met face-to-face but are one in the Spirit with!!!! We will meet for the first time, but I have the sense that we will know one another on sight.

Imagine following around for eternity Christ, the apostles, the prophets and others who lived before us, learning all about their experiences and sharing ours with them.
I yearn for this time when we will all agree, we will all love one another and we will all be with our Savior in person.

 
Hallelujah!

Do Not Derail a Brothers/ Sisters Walk with Christ by Passing on Conspiracy Theories

I have been grieved by all the Christians who are falling into conspiracy deceptions on the internet. Before the internet believers spoke about the Bible, their families and the community in which they lived, things they saw and experienced for themselves.

 
Now we have continual attention being paid to things we have no way of vetting or proving except because someone else said it. It is a choice to believe these things because no one I know has actually seen these things for themselves, they are merely repeating what others are telling them and they are trusting the word of people they have never known personally.

When the internet first found its way into homes we all knew it was frot with foolishness and lies. Many Christians avoided it entirely because it was a hotbed of disinformation. Sadly now believers are wasting hours every day looking for things to feel frightened about on the world wide web all of which they have no proof or eyewitness themselves.

I am thankful for the legitimate preachers and others who are honest and accurate in their reporting. God has used the internet to bring the gospel and good teaching but everything must be prayed over before passing it on to someone else. Also, remember what is important, not what sounds intelligent but what would make good sense according to the scriptures.

 
I remember when I was a small child there would be what everyone called "rags" at the checkout stand at the grocery store. They were small newspapers full of ridiculously wild claims of events that any rational person knew were completely fabricated.

 
There were articles in these papers that had pictures of aliens from outer space, half-humans and animals, and many other such things any rational person would know are out-and-out lies.

 
Those who bought those papers were considered a little "off" because mainstream America didn't believe the lies, knowing they were too outlandish to believe, we made fun of the papers and kept our distance from those who read them.
In these last days, those tabloid newspapers have morphed into an entire world wide web system able to reach millions of people. I remember someone once said to me; "it must be true I saw it on the internet." I laughed because of what I know about tabloids and their irrational and monstrous claims.

 
And, people are more predisposed now to lies than they are to truth. They enjoy the lies, the drama, and the fighting that goes on over things that are not even true. We are living in the end times when lies are more prevalent than truth. This is the age of the Great Deception when people will believe a lie before they will believe the truth.

 
I have been grieved that so many people I love and who seem to love Christ have fallen into these deceptions. It is a "choice" to believe them because of the lack of any evidence. They believe what others say without question because a part of them likes the drama.

 
My solution to this problem is to refuse to listen to any of it, reject it if I have not seen it for myself and can do nothing about it if it were true.

 
Satan has been very clever, he works on the minds of people to make them feel like they have special knowledge merely by reading an article or seeing a video.
Someone in recent years told me he was becoming depressed from the terrible news stories he was seeing on the internet. My advice to him was to stop looking at it. If God didn't send us information for the purpose of carrying out His will for our lives then it is not relevant to us and is a huge distraction.

 
And, worse these things are causing fighting among Christians. Satan just loves us to be distracted and fight with one another over lies and the pride of believing we know something that is completely irrelevant to our walk with Christ.

 
I do not listen to videos or articles that warn us about food, government conspiracies or any other thing that God never spoke to me about. These are distractions and often vehicles to causing fear where there need not be fear. Satan loves for us to walk around frightened of things that do not even exist or if they did they have no impact on our daily lives.

2 Corinthians 11:14: "Satan disguises himself as an angel of light to mislead believers, highlighting the need for discernment."

2 Corinthians 11:3: "Paul warns the Corinthians against being deceived like Eve, emphasizing the need to guard against Satan's cunning."

Philippians 4:8 "
"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

Romans 12:2
"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God."

Colossians 3:2
"Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things."

2 Corinthians 10:5
"We demolish arguments and every presumption set up against the knowledge of God; and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."

1 Thessalonians 5:21-22
"but test all things. Hold fast to what is good. / Abstain from every form of evil."
If you cannot prove it through your own witness, leave it alone, passing it on to someone else might derail their walk with Christ.

He Never Knew Them

There are many people who believe we are saved by grace through faith in Christ but that we can lose our salvation.

It makes no sense, because if we do not have the ability to save ourselves then why would we think we can keep ourselves.

 
Our faith as born-again believers is in Christ saving and keeping us.

 
Ephesians 2:8-10 "8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

When Christ changed us into a new creation, He did that, we did not do it to ourselves. When He saved us He keeps His promise that He will continue to cleanse us to the end of our lives.

 
1 John 1:9
"9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

He gave us the vehicle of confess so that He will cleanse us. He will not cleanse someone who will not admit their sin. Those who are born-again will suffer loss even though they are saved, if they do not confess and turn from that which they should despise.

Hebrews 12:5-7 "…5 And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not take lightly the discipline of the Lord, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you. 6 For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises every son He receives.” 7 Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?…"

God never rejects His children who have been changed by Him. The change was one of the heart and is permanent. We cannot change ourselves back to the old self nor would we want to.

 
Those who remain in a sinful lifestyle while defending it were never changed by Christ. They wanted the perks Christ has to offer but they didn't want Him to change them. They were never saved from hell or their sin, they remain unprotected from the devil and his wiles.

 
Job 5:17
"Blessed indeed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty."

Sadly many people who enter the organized churches have never been born again and will hear the most fearful words of all as stated in Matthew 7:21-23, if they do not repent before they die.

Matthew 7:21-23
I Never Knew You
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.’"

Notice God never says anywhere they lost salvation, He says He never knew them. NEVER knew them!