We cannot fully trust people but we can fully trust God. When we fully trust God then we can love people while evaluating what they say and do in honesty.
There are those who remain superficial, they are more comfortable with appearances than truth. When we are dedicated to truth we can walk in it without feeling angry or hurt by anything others do or say. We can allow others to be themselves around us when we don't expect them to be what we want them to be.
No one is on a pedestal, everyone is treated with kindness and perfection of man is not important. Those who cannot love unless they see someone in perfection, do not love at all, they love the illusion and cannot face reality.
In these last days we will encounter many situation in which the devil is attempting to get us to sin through our responses to evil.
We do not have to fall into his trap, we can remain true to Christ while walking away.
Not telling the truth, calling things what they are is a form of manipulation. When we withhold information it leaves everyone with a question that could easily be answered. Of course we manage our truth, we don't throw our pearls before swine and we don't divulge personal information to a gossip, but we can be honest in normal human relationships to avoid misunderstandings. One of the hardest things I have endured in my life have been the know-it-alls, those who think they know everything about your life while judging completely unimportant matters.
We need to be able to be honest in a kind way without blame or judgment. Calling things what they really are is the only way for finding a solution.
If we have done this and a solution is impossible, then we are to leave that situation and sometimes even people in our lives to remain at peace with God.
Those who judge people over small matter, even blowing those small matters out of proportion without knowing all the details, are not friend material.
There is an old saying that has served me well over the years, that is "nip it in the bud", meaning take care of things quickly. When you want to say no to someone, do it now, don't allow them to believe you want to go along with them out of fear of their reaction, tell the truth immediately. This will help us discern if the relationship is going to enhance your walk with Christ or whether it will hinder the walk. The reaction of others to our "no", will tell us something about the relationship.
Telling the truth does not mean we manipulate people's feelings to express our own opinions about silly things such as "the style of their hair", or the color of the walls in their house. Just because we may not like the way they do their hair or their choice of colors does not mean those things are bad or worthy of comment.
Often people foist on us their opinions about our personality styles as well as likes and dislikes as though they are sin issues. Often superior people judge the smallest matters merely to diminish another person, these people need to be ignored and avoided.
In my opinion, it is best not to express our opinions about small matters that are not associated with character or sin. Everyone has a personality that is expressed in their day to day lives, they have a right to that, their way is no better or worse than someone else's way. We can all learn new ways but people don't generally learn from insulting comments, they learn because they want to, not because they have been intimidated into it.
Those who use mocking and intimidation to control the feelings of others are not worth our time or energy.
Proverbs 6:12-16
"A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech, winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger, with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord; therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in a moment he will be broken beyond healing."
We can pray for those who are predisposed to arrogance and manipulation while allowing God to deal with them His own way. We can trust Christ for our own responses and for their chastisement.
Proverbs 28:1-28
"The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion. When a land transgresses, it has many rulers, but with a man of understanding and knowledge, its stability will long continue. A poor man who oppresses the poor is a beating rain that leaves no food. Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law strive against them. Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the Lord understand it completely. ..."
It is interesting when we get into a discussion about when the rapture will occur. We see the pride emerging when our knowledge of the Bible and our dedication to Christ is called into question simply because we disagree on this matter.
Those who attack character because of a disagreement on the gray areas, are more interested in shaming their opponent than they are in learning or coming to common ground on an issue.
There are many things we can disagree on in the Scriptures that are not salvation issues. Prideful people assign loss of salvation to anyone who does not think as they do.
Be wary of those who move from the subject matter to character assassination or demeaning about our level of Bible knowledge because of a disagreement.
I do not take these people seriously, even choosing to dismiss their argument, knowing that someone who must demean someone in order to win, probably doesn't know as much as they claim.
Proverbs 23:9
"Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, For he will despise the wisdom of your words."
I have lived my entire life around people who were more interested in winning than discussing, they must win at all cost, even the cost of diminishing truth.
Also, keep in mind when someone moves to character assassination and mocking they are attempting to divert our attention from how little they really know, hoping we will not notice they do not have a good argument or they would just state that and refrain from the other.
How many times must we continue to repeat the same thing over and over again to Christians who assert that one can lose what they did not earn, can change back into the old creation they never made of themselves?
Those who have gone back were never born again, its just that simple.
All those who have been changed into a new creation by Christ cannot go back and be the old creation again. God gave them what they wanted, that was to be born again and to continue. Everyone who is born again does endure to the end, they can do nothing else.
Ephesians 1:13-14
13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also [b]believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is given as a pledge (promise) of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory."
God never breaks His promise and He never lets go of His children. When they sin He disciplines them.
Hebrews 12:5-7 "…5 And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, or lose heart when He rebukes you. 6 For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises everyone He receives as a son.” 7 Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?"
When God changes them they stay changed, when they have eternal life it begins at salvation and lasts forever.
Romans 10:13
For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
John 3:35-36 "…35 The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in His hands. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever rejects the Son will not see life. Instead, the wrath of God remains on him.”"
Whoever believes on Jesus Christ HAS (right now) eternal life.
Isaiah 17 seems as though it's about to be fulfilled soon.
Prophecy about Damascus
17: 1-3 The oracle concerning Damascus.
“Behold, Damascus is about to be removed from being a city
And will become a fallen ruin.
2 “The cities of Aroer are forsaken;
They will be for flocks to lie down in,
And there will be no one to frighten them.
3 “The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim,
And sovereignty from Damascus
And the remnant of Aram;
They will be like the glory of the sons of Israel,”
Declares the Lord of hosts."
6 more days until the 70th anniversary of the nation of Israel!!!!
Isaiah 66:7-9
"7"Before she travailed, she brought forth; Before her pain came, she gave birth to a boy.
8"Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons. 9"Shall I bring to the point of birth and not give delivery?" says the LORD. "Or shall I who gives delivery shut the womb?" says your God."
In the time of Sodom and Gomorrah the people were prosperous, they didn't fall because of poverty, they fell because they had placed their trust in wealth and pleasure, leaving no room for God.
Does this sound very familiar? It does to me! So many people have counted themselves as superior because of their wealth or their intellect, they have depended on their outer appearances of accomplishment while their soul dries up on the inside.
Great knowledge does not make a man more spiritual or wiser, often the knowledge is based on personal bias rather than truth, therefore rendering it useless and even foolish.
Those who love to pretend they are intellectual through twisted Scripture and high minded ideas will be led astray into arrogance and self righteousness. The more they flaunt their false intellectualism and twisted wisdom, the more foolish they appear to those who are led by the Holy Spirit. We see a lot of this today, rather than trusting the Bible they twist it to add their own ideas to it, appearing wise they become fools.
These people resist the truth willfully in favor of their elevated status.
Job 21:14
"They say to God, 'Depart from us! We do not even desire the knowledge of Your ways."
Those who are willfully ignorant, arrogantly refusing to listen to God's wisdom, do not want to know truth, they know it but have chosen to deny it.
Those who are willfully ignorant think they are wise. When they are rebuked by the Word of God they rage against those who shared it, while continuing to speak their ignorance. The raging is evidence that they know the truth and hate that someone exposed their lack of wisdom.
One man said to me that a man was not a liar just because he told one lie. The truth is just the opposite, a man cannot tell a lie unless they were already a liar in their heart.
"Light refused increases ignorance." Adrian Rogers
Matthew 13:15
FOR THE HEART OF THIS PEOPLE HAS BECOME DULL, WITH THEIR EARS THEY SCARCELY HEAR, AND THEY HAVE CLOSED THEIR EYES, OTHERWISE THEY WOULD SEE WITH THEIR EYES, HEAR WITH THEIR EARS, AND UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEART AND RETURN, AND I WOULD HEAL THEM.'"
Romans 1:28
"And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper,"
Psalm 106:35 "35 But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works."
The nation of Israel mingled with the ungodly nations, that affected everything they do and say. Just as the believers today mingle with ungodly people simply because they are family or because they love to mix with their friends from the neighborhood or work place. It is one thing to spend some time with these people, becoming a witness to them, it is quite another to remain best friends with those who have rejected Christ or who claim to be Christians and reject the Bible as their standard.
Romans 1 clearly shows that when we reject God long enough, at some point He turns us over to our own passions, pleasures and destruction.
Something to think about!
