Trust Christ For More Than Our Salvation

There is a disdain for truth and intolerance toward correction in our culture today.  Any suggestion that someone has said or done the wrong thing is met with furious anger. 

Those who cannot take correction, not able to admit that they have sinned, cannot grow.  Believers remain babies because they focus more on being validated than on holiness.

1 Peter 1:14-16
"13 Therefore, gird your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, 15 but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; 16 because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy."

Often the sins that are confessed are those that are clearly seen and cannot be denied. When we see someone confessing inner sins that cannot be seen, then we have found someone who truly seeks God.

Sensitiveness to sin and conviction is a sign that we are walking in the Spirit.  

Philippians 2:1-13
"1 Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, 

2 make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. 

3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 

4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 

5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 

6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 

7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 

8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 

9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 

10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 

11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

12 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 

13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure."

Those who are attempting to be good by their own power, appearing in the flesh to be seen on the outside, as good and friendly, have missed what it is to walk in the Spirit. 

All our efforts to look good on the outside, while neglecting the inside, is producing pride that prevents spiritual development rather than fostering it. 

Self effort, is eventually exposed when deep challenges arise that cannot be mended by human endeavor.  A person who has been working hard to be what he thinks he should be, will be intensely angry when his effort fails, or he doesn't get things the way he wanted them. 

Those who plan their own lives, doing things "for" God, have also missed the blessing of being led by the Spirit and eventually will fail and be exposed.  The flesh becomes weary over time and cannot uphold the pretense, but Christ in us never gets weary and His work in us is unfailing and tireless.

When the Lord changes our hearts, it is a permanent change we do not suddenly revert back to old ways when the road gets rough.  The tough times grieve us, but we grow through them. If someone is continually reverting back to the old ways, time after time, then we have a clue that they have been attempting to fix themselves in the flesh, rather than confessing and asking God to cleanse them.

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

There is also the problem of not believing God. When we continually try to fix ourselves, it is still a matter of trusting our selves rather than trusting Christ. We don't think God can do it or He won't do it the way we want, so we the control over ourselves.

Galatians 5:16-18
"16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. 17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law."

Relinquishing control of our own will and efforts to God is the act of faith so many speak of but don't do.  When we fail in this, we must confess that we have been trying to either repair ourselves, or are focused on appearances rather than true holiness.

The day we say to the Lord, that we desire to be cleansed by Him, admitting that we cannot make ourselves holy, is the day we will begin the growing process.  

When we become born again, God begins the process in us of continual cleansing until He comes to take us out of this world.  

Hebrews 10:14 "For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

1 Thessalonians 5:23
"23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

John 17:17
"17 Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth."

1 Corinthians 6:11
"11 Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God."

The key to everything mentioned here is to trust Christ for our salvation and then to trust Him for our cleansing, by openness about ourselves and confession or our failings, then and only then can Christ work in us.

Ephesians 2:10
"10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them."

May the Lord give us each a greater awareness of these principles that we learn to completely trust in Him.

A Leader Is Not Oppressive

Philemon 1:8-9
"8 Therefore, though I have enough confidence in Christ to order you to do what is proper, 9 yet for love's sake I rather appeal to you-since I am such a person as Paul, the aged, and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus."

When there is love for the people, even a leader will be kind rather than oppressive.

Do Not Fear Conspiracies!

Isaiah 8:11-13
"11 For thus the Lord spoke to me with mighty power and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people, saying,
12 “You are not to say, ‘It is a conspiracy!’
In regard to all that this people call a conspiracy,
And you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it.
13 “It is the Lord of hosts whom you should regard as holy.
And He shall be your fear, And He shall be your dread."

Willful Ignorance

When the Lord has clearly spoken what we are to do and we ignore it, we are sinning. 

Many people do not read their Bibles or take heed to what is written there if they do read it. They do this because they do not want to obey. 

In their heart of hearts they know they will be responsible for what they have discovered, so they determine to remain ignorant. It is called willful ignorance.

There is a Biblical principle that is often spoken of in our laws.  The saying goes like this, "Ignorance of the Law is no excuse."

When we don't know the answer we are responsible to ask God for it. If we do not ask God we will be responsible for not asking and not knowing.  

When we drag our feet in obedience to Him, after He has revealed truth to us,  then we are disobeying willfully.  

James 4:17
"Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin."

Do Not Receive Him

Do we obey this?

2 John 10 & 11

"If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting."

"for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds."

Foolishness Is Not For The House Of God

As a former Catholic!

The Catholics are heavily dependent on their church traditions. They actually say in the documents that their traditions are as binding and powerful as the principles of Christ. They don't read the Bible as a whole, only portions, but speak continually about their man made rules. Mary is often on their lips, to do for them what should be attributed only to Christ.

Their worship days are called "holy days of OBLIGATION", this phrase tells us a lot. All the Catholics I knew were more concerned about ritual than God. The name of Christ never rolled off their tongues, but Mary came up regularly.

When worshiping God is an "obligation" then we can be sure there is a desire not to have to do it. Those who love Christ want to worship Him, we are driven by our total dedication to Him. He is our companion, our lover, our brother, One we love to be with and wait somewhat impatiently to be reunited with in eternity.

1 John 5:3-5
"3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.
4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
5 Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?"

I know because I was once Catholic, when the Lord brought me out, I was hated by all those Catholics who knew I had left. They were angry whenever the Bible was mentioned and called me names like "Bible Thumper."

I was ridiculed, excluded from family and friends and gossiped about. Now try to tell me there is any Christlike love in the Catholic church!

Sadly, I am now experiencing similar things in the so called "evangelical" churches. They have left the Bible behind in favor of their traditions, although different from the Catholic church, they are nonetheless traditions.

Some of their traditions include "self esteem"teaching, the holidays that were never mandated by Christ and are heavily paganistic with Christ tacked on to make the people feel justified in them.

The Lord's supper is being neglected to a great extent in most evangelical churches today. It is a side note that comes up occasionally. The first century church observed the Lord's supper every time they met, no matter how often. Their focus was Christ and His work on behalf of mankind.

Much of what goes on in the Evangelical church, is "a form of religion" that denies the power of God and depends heavily on human ingenuity. The sermons have become joke fests focused on pleasing the people. The idea that if they make people happy then the people will like Christ. This is an abomination.

Christ was never concerned about "pleasing the people." He had one mission and that was to show people their sin and the solution to it, being His propitiation for it on our behalf.

If the Holy Spirit were in the modern church, we would see more weeping over sin and brokenness over the lost. What we see instead is foolish levity, silly joking and childish laughing.

What passes for "Christian" now, is an abomination to Christ. It is man made, superficial and socially and pleasure oriented. There is little love for the brethren, a trait that God says is evidence of our love for Him.

1 John 3:14 "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death."

There is more of the world in the church than there is holiness of the believer.

Luke 10:27
"27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”

James 4:4
"4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God."

1 Corinthians 10:31
"31 Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."

Romans 12:1
"12 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service of worship."

May the modern church repent of it foolishness and begin to take seriously what Christ did and what we are, I am quite sure there would be little laughing in the church, but far more repenting and confession.

Beware of the Deceptions of the Catholic Church

Beware, there are people who are Catholic who are infiltrating the Christian sites, they have learned "Christian lingo" but are coming to destroy the faith of many.

These people argue in such vague terms that when they are through you have no idea what they just said, except that, if you look closely you will see the underpinnings of Catholicism in their speech.

When asked if they are Catholic they will avoid the question unless pressed and then declare that they are born again. We know they are not because they refuse to leave the Catholic church and they still practice all the abominations there.

When a Catholic becomes born again, they can't tolerate the evil in that organization, the Holy Spirit nags at them about everything evil in it and they have to flee.

One clue is that they begin to deny the practices in the church, in other words they lie to deceive. They claim they are not doing what I know the church promotes, they just call it by a different name.

I know because I was a Catholic, and saw for myself the abominations. One cannot become born again and stay in an organization that is satanic. It would be no different from a Satanist, becoming born again and remaining in the church of Satan.

Satan controls the Catholic church, there is every wickedness possible there, much of it hidden, but we know it is there. The accounts of the priests operating as pedophiles has been common and hidden by those who were in authority. Their devotion to the protecting of their church reputation took precedence over the welfare of children. This is nothing less that evil.

Please pray for discernment when in communication with others, ask pertinent questions and don't settle for vague answers. The devil is lurking about attempting to blur the lines between evil and righteousness.

Those who lack discernment will be sucked into the deception if they do not read the Word and ask the Holy Spirit.

1 John 4:1

"4 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world."

Philippians 1:9-10

"9 And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may [a]approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless [b]until the day of Christ;"

Hebrews 5:14

"14 But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil."

Hebrews 4:12

"12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart."

2 Corinthians 11:13-15

"13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 14 No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds."

Colossians 2:8

"8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, [a]rather than according to Christ."