Words and Will of Christ

Now is the time to place our trust in Christ alone, not in government, not in ourselves, not in pastors, not in family, and not in friends.

If we have placed our trust in anyone or anything other than Christ then we have an idol and are traveling down the road to self-preservation.

God is the One Who will protect born again believers. Even if we were to die for our faith our Spirit can never be harmed. The more we trust in Christ the less we worry about what is going on in the world.

Psalm 146:3-7

"3 Do not trust in noblemen,

In [a]mortal man, in whom there is no salvation.

4 His spirit departs, he returns to [b]the earth;

On that very day his plans perish.

5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,

Whose hope is in the Lord his God,

6 Who made heaven and earth,

The sea and everything that is in them;

Who keeps [c]faith forever;

7 Who executes justice for the oppressed;

Who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord frees the prisoners."

Psalm 118:8

"It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man."

Micah 7:5

"Put no trust in a neighbor; have no confidence in a friend; guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms;"

Jeremiah 17:5

"Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord."

Psalm 118:9

"It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes."

Proverbs 3:5-6

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths."

So my suggestion to believers is to speak of the Lord far more than of anything else, this will place our focus back on Him. Many believers have been distracted by world events that they have no control over. But you know, God has control over everything, even those things that we don't particularly like. He may be doing work in us by showing us that we do not have control and should not pretend to have it merely by our words.

So many Christians today believe their words have power, as though as long as they say something those words will come to pass. This is a mentality based on their own words not on the Will of Christ.

Our words are nothing unless they are the Words and Will of Christ.

Wisdom From God

God will not give wisdom to those who believe they have no need for any more than they already have. He only gives wisdom to those who ask Him for His wisdom.

James 1:4-6 "…4 Allow perseverance to finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5 Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.…"

Many people assume they have the wisdom of God but their knowledge is based on their own thinking, not on the words of God from the Bible.

Christians today have been steeped in psychology unable to think Biblically. These people interpret the Bible in terms of psychology rather than evaluating psychology according to the Bible.

Proverbs 3:5-6

"5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart

And do not lean on your own understanding.

6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,

And He will make your paths straight."

Those who depend on their own thinking or the cultural ideas of our age will not be able to understand the words of God His way. We must depend on the words as God gave them and the Holy Spirit to interpret them for us.

John 16:13

"13 But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come."

The Holy Spirit will not be influenced by culture or human thinking, He is God. We can depend on Him if only we submit to Him.

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Returning to God's Ways

We live across the river from Oregon, the place where one in five families are depressed and hopeless according to some news sources.

The news commentator said that the children are depressed because they cannot see their teachers or their friends at school.

Think about it! The teachers and the classmates are more important to the children than their own families they live with. Perhaps this is because the school children spend more time with their teachers and classmates than they do with their own families.

Many children are not close to their siblings or their parents because they spend less time with them than those who are in their schools. It's just my opinion but I believe children bond more closely to those they spend the most time with.

In recent years the children spend five days a week with teachers and classmates and again after school in sports and other activities. In short, their parents and siblings were more distant to them than those they encounter every day at school.

Is it any wonder that children value their teachers and classmates more than they do their own parents? This was by design, the government wanted the children to be emotionally removed from their parents so they could have the child's allegiance and heart.

When I was growing up we said the "Pledge of Allegiance" every morning in class. We were required to express our loyalty to the state, not to God or to our parents but to the state.

Yes, they added "under God" to the words but only a sort of an afterthought and they never specified which God, because Jesus Christ was never mentioned. This plan to remove influence from the parents allowing the state to influence the children has been going on a long time.

The push to educate every child was a deception, justifying removing children from their parent's home emotionally while allowing them to remain living in their parent's home.

We see where this has led even though in the beginning the schools taught children to obey their parents and respected the parent's input into the school system. It only took a generation for the teachers to begin to believe they should be the authority in the child's life and the parents have no say.

This taught the children to disrespect the input of their parents. The respect for the wisdom of parents declined dramatically in the fifties and sixties and beyond because of the parent's mentality that the teachers were the authorities in the area of education.

Parents could have taught their own children. The parents could have enlisted the help of others who had more education in one area as they exchanged talents and knowledge that they were lacking. This way the parents were the authority figure in their child's life, something that is more important than the extra things the school system attempted to teach the children that they did not need.

Every parent that couldn't read could have turned to other parents who could read and the non-reading parent could teach life skills they had in exchange.

The government wanted to make people believe they could not teach their own children. They intimidated homeschoolers by making laws that the parent would be arrested if their child was not in school. There used to be such a thing as a "truant officer" who would come to the house to investigate why the child was not at school. This is a form of communism and the people didn't even recognize it. Perhaps they didn't see it because they enjoyed the absence of their children while they went about their day without having to teach and train their own children.

The break down of the family began way back in the day when the public school system was first implemented in 1635. At first, the school system was run by a board of parents who made good rules, the Bible was used as the first reader and the teachers were unmarried women to protect the children. Those women had to be moral and dress accordingly.

As the culture became more liberal and less moral the schools followed suit. That is when we began to see the teachers teaching things that parents did not approve of but had no control over.

Now the public school system keeps secrets from parents as to what they will teach and even administering approval of abortion to young people without their parent's knowledge. This is how far we have come in our socialized version of communism.

The parents often do not know what the teachers are teaching as well as what approval they are extending to the children for things with which the parents might not agree.

My suggestion to Christian parents is to go back to the Biblical standard of a mother at home teaching her own children while the husband earns the money to support what is going on at home.

Proverbs 31 is a good guideline for the family structure, God's way works well.

Repenting and Confessing Vs. Feelings

It is in repenting, confessing, and feeling ashamed of our sins that grows us emotionally and spiritually.
There is no peace or growth in pretending we are perfect. There is no empathy in hearts that cannot put themselves in the shoes of others to understand them. There is no solution and resolution to problems when those who cause them will not admit they did anything wrong. 

The more we admit and confess our failings the more mature and holy we become. God will not cleanse those who think they need no cleansing. He will not forgive those who believe they have no need of forgiveness. 

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."

James 5:15-16 "…15 And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick. The Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail. "

The sickness we deal with the most is not physical, it is emotionally and spiritually. When we are emotionally and spiritually mature we handle the physical illness much better. Our emotional and spiritual well-being drives everything else in our lives. 

One of the reasons we have a very high divorce rate among Christians today is because their view of marriage as being an enhancement to their own existence is what leaves them emotionally and spiritually immature. 

Many people do not understand the cleansing power of confession of sin. It revitalizes a saddened and burdened soul. Yes, I said that, those who are too prideful to admit their flaws and failings live in a sort of prison of their own making. If they would just admit their failings, confess them openly to restore relationships they would find such freedom and release of stress. There is great pressure occurring in the heart of unrepentant people.

A sort of battle that goes on in unrepentant hearts leaves them continually justifying their own sin as well as blaming others for what they started. Continual blame is the tactic that keeps unrepentant people in a state of continual stress. 

Those who can freely admit their sin to be cleansed have freedom in their soul that is beyond human understanding. This is why it is sad that so many people will not address sin, thinking that coddling others is making them feel better, but it is no help at all.

 
A person standing in the sewer up to his waist can put his hands over his eyes and nose so as not to see or smell the sewage might feel better momentarily but the sewage remains. The problem is not solved and no one grows to become better people. 

How much do we actually love people or respect ourselves, I would say very little. If we love and respect people we will want for them what makes them better people, not that which gives them a momentary "feeling" that is deceptive. 

Many people believe they are going to heaven who have never trusted in Christ. They merely "feel" they are going, but the evidence that they are saved from hell does not exist. 

John 14:6-7 "5“Lord,” said Thomas, “we do not know where You are going, so how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. 7 If you had known Me, you would know My Father as well. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.”…"

Our "feelings" are nothing, they are fleshly response to stimuli, they do not tell the truth most of the time. When we watch a sad movie we cry, why? Because our feelings are being manipulated by a story that isn't even true and yet we feel sad. 

Those who live in sin outside of marriage feel good about the relationships until they don't anymore. There is no stability in a relationship like this, only feelings. This is why so many who live together eventually get married because it "feels" secure for them, but only a few years later they divorce.
our culture lives and breathes according to feelings far more than rational and reasonable thing. When feelings are our source of truth we will not be sacrificial for the sake of another person. Feelings come and go and are based on freshly responses, they are not the basis of truth. 

It is sacrificial and a sense of dedication that causes a marriage to survive, not feelings. Noble conduct is nearly absent from our culture today. Even good deeds are done to wave them around like a flag for everyone to see to self glorify. 

Matthew 23:4-5 "…4 They tie up heavy, burdensome loads and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. 5 All their deeds are done for men to see. They broaden their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. 6 They love the places of honor at banquets, the chief seats in the synagogues,…"

The Pharisees thought they were spiritual because of their outer deeds that got the praise of men. Why do so many hide their sins and failings in our culture, even claiming their sins are not sins? The answer is clear, they love their sin and they want the validation of others for that sin. 

John 12:42-43 "42 Nevertheless, many of the leaders believed in Him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue. 43 For they loved praise from men more than praise from God. "

When we have a self-focus it always leads to compromise and justification for sin. The focus becomes on the superficial and external while making no assessment of the character of the inner man. 

Job prayed this way: Job 13:23
“How many are my iniquities and sins?
Make known to me my rebellion and my sin."
David prayed this way: Psalm 32:3-5
"When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away
Through my groaning all day long.
For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;
My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. Selah.
I acknowledged my sin to You,
And my iniquity I did not hide;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”;
And You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah.

There is nothing to be gained by pretending we have no sin, but everything to be gained by repenting, admitting openly and confessing to God to be cleansed. The gain is the restoration of relationships and personal peace.