After Holiness or Pretense?

Ungoldy pretenders will tell you what you want to hear and then treat you with contempt covertly so that there is plausible deniability. Their actions are designed to fain concern, but their attitude and actions show their disdain.

 

This is the way pretenders treat God, they set forth a persona that demonstrates they are Christians, but in their private lives they care little about holiness or seeking God for truth.

Matthew 15:3-11...
"3 He answered and said to them, “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?
4 For God commanded, saying, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’
5 But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is a gift to God”—
6 then he need not honor his father or mother.’ Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition.
7 Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying:
8 ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me.
9 And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”
10 When He had called the multitude to Himself, He said to them, “Hear and understand:
11 Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.”

We are running into more of these people every day, they have a form of religion but do not love God, their religion is based on elevating self not becoming holy and submissive to Christ.

2 Timothy 3:5 "holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these."

What are we going to be, one who desires holiness and to be changed by Christ, or one who likes pretending, to impress people while negating those who attempt to challenge us to greater holiness?

The Holy Spirit is Our Teacher

Bible colleges were a human, man made idea. God never commanded, that any Christian colleges be established. Mankind is always thinking they can do things better than God can and that individual Christians can't possibly hear from the Holy Spirit.

The sad reality is that most people who claim to be Christian, will not listen to anyone on spiritual matters, who is not from one of these institutions.

1 John 2:27 "As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him."

John 14:26 ""But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you."

We can see what happens when man attempts to help God, most of these institutions are in error on many things, because of the traditions of man.

Mark 7:8 ""Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men."

The man or woman who depends completely on the Holy Spirit may seek counsel from other godly people, but they will not rush to others for the wisdom they seek, they will first rush to God in prayer and He will direct that godly person who will come alongside to help in the understanding.

When we place education of men above the work of the Holy Spirit, we fall into the realm of apostasy, and that is exactly what has happened over the years. Many evils have been accepted because the institutions have inculcated human and cultural thinking into their teachings in an effort to be politically correct and socially accepted.

Romans 12:2 "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."

Good Deeds Done In Silence

The Believer Loves To Obey

The narcissist (arrogant insolent) has a deep need to be continually validated by others, but don’t want to get too close to anyone.  They demand attention, but don’t have any inclination to validate others, unless the validation of others makes those listening like the narc.  They seek supply for their ego, companionship is not for mutual bonding and love, but for one person to receive, and that would be the narcissist.

Even using manipulative lies and intimidation when anyone asks for attention from them. The only time they supply attention to anyone else is if it elevates them in some way or they see that their target is moving away from them.  This is a description of the narcissist (arrogant insolent) who will do good works for no other reason except to appear superior to others and feel good about them self, further elevation of soul.

Isaiah 64:6 “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”

The only way good works can be valid in the eyes of God is if they are selfless and in obedience to the Holy Spirit that lives in a believer.

We see lots of useless “good works” in the unsaved world, they say things like “I love doing this, it makes ME feel so good.”  The subject of their language is not the poor and needy but their own enjoyment of the act.  I cringe every time I hear a testimony like this, it flies in the face of the Scripture that expressly instructs us to do our good deeds in secret.

There is a difference between sharing your joy with another brother in Christ, quite another to use every opportunity for giving, to bring self-exaltation.

Those who love the Lord have no concern about whether they will feel good about it, they often have a sense of joy for having obeyed God, but they do not discuss what they are doing, if it comes up, brought up by someone else, their response is always in terms of the need of others. Those who are deeply connected by the Holy Spirit are openly happy at the joy of another believer.  A narcissist does not engage in the joy of others but negates their accomplishments and works because the attention is not on them personally.

The narcissist is only happy when he is getting all the attention, it is an affront to their happiness when someone else gets attention for doing well.

When we feel excited about giving and brag about it, then perhaps we would not do it if it was hard for us or gave us a bad feeling.  Narcissists never do good deeds to obey God, there is always a catch, the catch being a form of self-aggrandizement.

Matthew 6:1-6
“1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.
2 “So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.
3 But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
4 so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
5 “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.
6 But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”

To every believer, if we seek the Lord with all our heart, He will hear our prayers, instruct us in our actions and we will feel driven to obey, but never driven to make sure others know.  Our joy comes from the Lord, obedience to Him and His working in the lives of those we serve.

Don't Think With Your Own Brain

Obeying God is easier when we don't have to understand why He does or says what He does. The minute we think we have to figure it all out, is when we begin trying to think with our own mind, bad idea!!!!!

Romans 12:2 - "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

Philippians 2:5 - "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:"...

1 Corinthians 2:13-16
"13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, [a]combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.
14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.
16 For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ."

Cluelessness Is Sin

Cluelessness is sin! We are only clueless when all we think about is ourselves. When we care deeply about others we are aware of the needs and desires of others.

I have heard some say that a person is not necessarily mean they are just "clueless." If we are so full of self that we have no thought of those around us then we are narcissistic, full of selfishness.

Philippians 2:4 "Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others."
...

1 Corinthians 10:24 "Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor."

Philippians 2:3-4 "Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others"

1 Corinthians 13:4-6 "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."

Mass Murderer Not In My House

Let's say that a mass murderer was released from prison on a technicality and he has no place to go, would you open your home for him to come and live with you and your family?

Muslims are mass murderers looking for a place to kill anyone who will not become one of them. There goal in life is to murder as many non-Muslims as possible while torturing and beheading women and children.

How any official in this country could not take this seriously when considering the "refugee" influx, that I call an invasion, how could they ever consider taking these murderers into our house.

Worldly Pleasure Destroys Relationships

One of the evidences that we are in the end times is the proliferation and execution of every kind of pleasure. Anyone who speaks against this pleasure is called a "buzz kill", demeaned and rejected. Pleasure is the god of this nation.

There are even those who claim that these pleasures are good for us. It is clear to those with discerning eyes that the worship of pleasure has brought us to the level of debauchery we have achieved.

Not only has this pleasure seeking culture spent more time on their indulgences than personal relationships and hard work to produce something of value, they have ignored and negated God, so much so that there is a contempt and disdain for Him and those who belong to Him.

I was actually involved in an "argument" one time when I made the statement that sports was a distraction and useless activity. I can understand someone disagreeing but the venom that emerged from the mouth of the defenders of sports was astonishing.

My only conclusion was that sports was so important to these people, that they couldn't even hear a "judgmental" word against it. When something that is pleasure based, there is no reason to defend it as though it were important.

Someone could say to me that there is no value in playing with my dog outside on a nice day, I would disagree, but it wouldn't make me angry, let alone contemptuous enough to destroy a relationship over it.

When we see arguments over unimportant things then we can be sure that thing is something the arguer worships.

Let me be clear, there is no value whatever to the sports industry today except the millions of dollars that the players and coaches make, if one thinks of that as value.

When we enjoy the simple things in life, the every day pleasures of God's creation, the antics of animals, the beauty of the trees and other things in nature, this can glorify God, but no contrived orchestrated demonstration of pleasure is necessary to be content and happy.

2 Timothy 3:4 "Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;"

Notice from this verse the word "traitors" is used to describe those who love their pleasure. They will throw their own mother under the bus to defend that which is worthless, just because they enjoy it. The pleasure is more important that people or God.

This pleasure seeking mentality should not be present in a born again believer. Our delight is in the Lord and all that He has made for us.

Psalm 37:4 "Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart."

When we delight in the Lord, His desires become ours, what He loves works deeply into our hearts.