We Will Be Hated By All

I felt led to repost this! Many people are still buying into the lie that if we obey God all our friends and family will be at peace with us.

Actually the bible teaches the opposite. In our part of the country there is much disrespect for parents, dishonor for anyone is common. The only way to get along with everyone is to compromise our Christian principles and agree with those who are in rebellion against God.

I don't know about any of you but I become weary at the health wealth and prosperity gospel that some are spreading. There is no scriptural basis for it. Many have become discouraged thinking they have done something wrong because they don't live in wealth, they are sick often and all their relatives hate them.

There are those who say they don't believe the false gospel of prosperity, but live as though they must prove God is blessing them through feverish efforts to acquire wealth. They even deny their illnesses to pretend they are healthy when they need a doctor.

Next time someone attempts to convince you that God does not want you to be poor, sick, or persecuted, repeat these words to them.

Hebrews 11:35 "Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.

Hbr 11:36 Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment.

Hbr 11:37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted,
were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented--

Hbr 11:38 of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, [in] dens and caves of the earth.

Hbr 11:39 And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise,

Hbr 11:40 God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from "

Many people are being persecuted, beheaded and hung on crosses today in Egypt, what would you have to say to those people. The health, wealth and prosperity gospel is not the gospel at all, but a false one.

Matthew 6:19 ""Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal;"

Mat 6:20 "but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal."

Mat 6:21 "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

2 Corinthians 11:23 "Are they ministers of Christ?--I speak as a fool--I [am] more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often.

2Cr 11:24 From the Jews five times I received forty [stripes] minus one.

2Cr 11:25 Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep;

2Cr 11:26 [in] journeys often, [in] perils of waters, [in] perils of robbers, [in] perils of [my own] countrymen, [in] perils of the Gentiles, [in] perils in the city, [in] perils in the wilderness, [in] perils in the sea, [in] perils among false brethren;

2Cr 11:27 in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness--

2Cr 11:28 besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches.

2Cr 11:29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn [with indignation]?

2Cr 11:30 If I must boast, I will boast in the things which concern my infirmity.

2Cr 11:31 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying.

2Cr 11:32 In Damascus the governor, under Aretas the king, was guarding the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desiring to arrest me;

2Cr 11:33 but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and escaped from his hands"

Luke 21:14 ""Therefore settle [it] in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer;


Luke 21:15 "for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist.

Luk 21:16 "You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put [some] of you to death.

Luk 21:17 "And you will be hated by all for My name's sake"

Hmmm!!! Christ was our example and He did not escape poverty and persecution, what would make us think we would. Joel Osteen spits in the face of God when he writes a book entitled, "Your Best Life Now." This may be the best life now for those who are refusing Christ and ultimately will end up in a firey hell. But for the believer, nothing on this earth should take us captive, not wealth, not health nor the love of all the people that surround us. Our best life is to come when we go before the Savior and hear His Words, "Well done good and faithful servant."

We as believers yearn for our heavenly home and our husband that dwells in us now and will one day take us home.

Accountability in the Body

Interesting, we forget that when we do not handle sin God's way we have to continually deal with the effects of it. The sinner doesn't learn anything and will not stop, in fact over time the sinner becomes worse because they have learned that it is profitable in some way for them to continue in it.

Proverbs 19:19 "A man of great anger will bear the penalty, For if you rescue him, you will only have to do it again."

The "just love them" mantra only empowers those who walk in ...rebellion. True love is to rebuke them, if they repent then they will profit from that, if they do not repent then they go down the slippery slope of enhanced sin all by themselves, while we move away with the understanding that we cannot help those who refuse to listen.

Matthew 18:15-17 "15 “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16 But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector."

Boundaries For Giving

We have to make clear our boundaries. The entitlement mentality is growing since the onset of the self esteem teaching over the past 40 years.

We were raised to never ask others for things, it was impolite. We were raised that if we get something we ought to earn it. We were taught to share not merely giving what someone wants, but what is a real need.

Removing the incentive to work to earn our own way by indiscriminately giving while the recipient wastes the funds they have on foolish things, is dooming the recipient to a life of poverty.

Proverbs 10:4 "Poor is he who works with a negligent hand, But the hand of the diligent makes rich."
If you want to truly love someone, give them the opportunity to earn what they need, two things will happen, they will have dignity and they will not need our resources.

An old saying; "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

2 Thessalonians 3:10 "For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either."

The Culture Doesn't Understand Love

We know that our culture doesn't understand what love looks like. Love snatches people from things that will harm them. Hate encourages people to continue to do what they want that will destroy them. Simple!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=521453324684961&set=p.521453324684961&type=3&theater

Obedience?

John 14:15
"If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
So tell me, what is so hard to understand about this verse?

Correcting Wrong Doctrine is not Divisive

The culture has become so narcissistic that speaking against sin or correcting a wrong choice is unthinkable to most people. Most people feel free to correct us when things are culturally and politically incorrect, but rage against us when we speak the principles of God.

God's ways are not the ways of our culture. So much Scripture is being violated in the church gatherings that I can hardly call these gatherings "Christian." 

Those who rage the loudest and most intensely often are those who are in the church. They are unteachable, arrogant and divisive through wrong doctrine, but call those who use the Scriptures as the standard...divisive. 

It is not correction about doctrine that is divisive, it is bad doctrine or no doctrine that is divisive. We are no longer correcting wrong doctrine or putting out of the fellowship those who bring pagan practices, they are allowed to remain and even embraced, "just to encourage them."

I really hate that concept that we allow a baby believer to have his way in the church simply to "encourage him." Why on earth would we want to encourage a baby believer to bring in wrong teaching or doctrine?  

We need to be correcting and teaching the baby believer. If the baby believer leaves and becomes angry then we know we may be dealing with a pretender, who never became born again.

Anger at being taught or corrected is an indication that someone was never born again, they simply wanted the safety of the church and the enjoyment of the love of believers. 

A truly born again believer hungers after the truth, praying and listening to more seasoned believers to gain wisdom. When someone enters the church with the attitude that everyone should accept whatever they are without challenge, that person is not seeking Christ but personal glory.

The best way to weed out of the church the pretenders is to maintain Scriptural integrity, challenge where needed speaking boldly the truth, this all by itself will chase away those who are full of themselves whose aim is to be in a social club that elevates them personally. 

2 Timothy 3:16 All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, 3:17 That the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 4:2 Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.

2 Timothy 2:24,25 And the Lord's bond servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, 2:25 with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth.

Matthew 7:3 And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye ?
7:4 Or how can you say to your brother, Let me take the speck out of your eye and behold, the log is in your own eye ?
7:5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

2 Thessalonians 3:14 And if anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of that man and do not associate with him, so that he may be put to shame, 2:15 And yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.

1 Timothy 5:1 Do not sharply rebuke an older man, but rather appeal to him as a father, to the younger men as brothers, 5:2 the older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters, in all purity.

Proverbs 6:23; 3:12; 23:13; 29:17; Jeremiah 30:11; Titus 1:13; 2:15; 1 Timothy 5:20; Revelation 3:19; Luke 17:3

Exercise of Little Valule

I am the crazy fringe that believes exercise is one of those "pragmatism" beliefs of the end times. Because it can take weight off then it must be good, but in fact, I believe it is one of the end times deceptions.

I am losing weight right now, very slowly, but without exercise, merely by my diet. Some of the medical community is now saying that we get enough exercise simply from going about our daily lives. It is enough to walk to the mail box and back, or mowing the law or other activities that expend much less energy.

Call me crazy but I have believed for a long time that our over emphasis on exercise is actually shortening lives, God says it is "of little value", and I believe that means "not very much at all." AND, I am convinced in many cases it is actually harming the body. So I am seen as a nut cake, just like scientists were when they proclaimed that the world was actually round. LOL

1 Timothy 4:8 "for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come."

I am also convinced that all this paranoia about food, is over blown. Of course there are some concerns, but I think it is far less important than many believe. Satan has managed to make people believe they have to be ultra sensitive to their food intake, causing arrogance, deviation from the spiritual things and even a detriment to the body itself.

If the devil can get our mind distracted with things that have little impact on our well being, he will keep our minds focused away from Christ.

Exercises that are a part of normal living, along with eating the four food groups in the proper proportions will be enough to keep our bodies healthy, until God decides to give us a "thorn in the flesh" to redirect our eyes toward Him.

When we are in perfect health with beautiful bodies, we tend to develop pride, while making ourselves godlike. Taking care of the temple of the Holy Spirit is good, but worshiping the temple is sinful.

2 Corinthians 12:7-
7 Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself!
8 Concerning this I implored 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 am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong."

God did not say anywhere in the Word that we should work real hard to make our bodies beautiful. He did say that we should pay nearly all our attention on the inner man, that we might grow in holiness. The inner man is developed by knowing and obeying the principles of God.

Ephesians 3:16 "that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,"