Those who are Born Again do not Shrink Back

It is better to realize we are dirty and need cleansing than to think highly of ourselves, preventing us from coming to the Savior.

Romans 3:10 9 What then? Are we any better? Not at all. For we have already made the charge that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin. 10 As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one. 11There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God."

No one can claim they have always been a Christian because they were raised in a Christian family or a Christian church. Who you know and where you go does not gain you heaven.

The only solution to our lost condition is to admit we are sinners without hope and then trust in Christ. He is the One Who died to pay our debt of sin. All we have to do is believe Him and ask to be changed into a new creation by Him.

2 Corinthians 5:17

"17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."

We become that new person through God's power not by our own power. We have no power to save ourselves what makes anyone think they have the power to change themselves.

Christ changes our very nature when we become born again, we are no longer the same person just trying to be better, we are completely changed, a new person with a completely different way of thinking.

It is the way a person thinks that causes them to act as they do. If there is no change in the way we think or their behavior then there has been no born-again experience.

If someone has reverted back to the old self after years in church then they have never been born again. They were not changed by Christ because their heart was still desiring to save themselves, they were independent of Christ, He never changed them.

1 John 1:6

"If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth."

A promise from God:

John 14:23

"Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him."

Hebrews 10:38-39 " 38 But My righteous one will live by faith; and if he shrinks back, I will take no pleasure in him.” 39 But WE ARE NOT OF THOSE WHO SHRINK BACK and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.…"

Did we notice that God said in Hebrews "we are not of those who shrink back."

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God Commanded us to Edify One Another in Truth, not the truth of the World but the truth of the Scriptures.

1 Thessalonians 5:10-11

"10 He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him. 11Therefore encourage and build one another up, just as you are already doing."

We are to encourage one another with the words of God, depending on Him. When we look all around us and become depressed we are forgetting God has a plan, the world is perishing and we are kept Spiritually and emotionally safe from the effects of the world as long as our focus is Christ.

We are stable unless we allow the world to whip us around like the wind, becoming emotionally destabilized because our focus is this world.

Never allow anyone to tell you it is irresponsible to ignore the things of the world to follow Christ. This mentality is coming from the devil to keep your focus on the world instead of Christ. Those who are called of God will be deeply entrenched in the lives of others to bring the gospel, they have no time to research the filth of the world to know about it.

You may be accused of putting your head in the sand to save yourself, this is manipulation from the devil. When we ignore the goings-on in the world as much as we are able, we are keeping our minds stayed upon Christ.

Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

We have nothing to offer the unbeliever if we are walking around all sour-faced and depressed acting as though there is no hope.

While it is true there is no hope for the world to be saved or for any country to be saved, the world is perishing. However, there is great hope for any individual who chooses to trust in Christ for their salvation. Instead of bringing gloom and doom to the unbeliever, we should be bringing hope. The hope comes from the gospel message. We are not here to save a nation, we are here to present the gospel that will bring individual souls to Christ.

When our focus has been deterred to saving a nation we have lost our first love. Our focus ought to be the saving of souls for the Kingdom of God.

If we must know something from the world to be able to help others that is far different from immersing ourselves in the world merely to know the filth.

We can help people the most by leading them to Christ, not by complaining continually about everything that is around us.

When a soldier is deployed to a foreign country he does not focus on the politics of the country, he focuses on the mission his commander has given him to carry out.

What is our mission in this foreign land in which we dwell? Our mission is to live like Christ, encourage believers in the Word, and lead unbelievers to the Savior.

Matthew 28:19-20 "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

What or Who is the Word:

John 1:1 "1, In the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.…"

John 1:14

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

Jesus Christ is the very essence of His Word the Scriptures. Within the Words of the Bible, we hear from God through Jesus Christ.

John 14:10

"Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works."

John 4:34

"Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work."

John 6:63

"It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life."

It is the Spirit Who gives life, not this world and its systems, not our desires, and not anything of this world.

1 Corinthians 8:6

"yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live."

Philippians 2:9-11

"Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

There is nothing more important for the born-again believer than to bring people to Christ, non-believers who never knew Him and believers whose minds have been distracted from Him. Everything else is dung!

When we are walking the narrow road and a sewer comes up alongside the road, do we go walking in the sewer so we can know all about it? No, we walk around it, avoiding its stink and filth that it does not get on us. If we run across an unbeliever who is stranded in the sewer we pull them out, but we do not stay in the sewer with them. We point out the stink from afar warning our brothers and sisters to avoid it. If a non-believer who is entrenched in the sewer comes along we show them the narrow road so they no longer have to walk in the sink. We help the non-believer to see the love of Christ, the way of salvation and the glory of Christ. Those who are fleshly focus on the sewer, those who are Spiritual focus on Christ.

It is Satan's trick to divert our attention to telling unbelievers all the terrible things they should avoid without bringing to them the gospel. All we manage to do is confuse them, even harden them further because they do not see the filth the way we do. Our mission is to show the unbeliever the cross, the sinfulness that dwells in them. If they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ their personal lives will be cleansed and they will walk in hope.

I fear many Christians are too busy complaining about the world to share the clear and hopeful gospel to those who are perishing. Many Christians I know are sharing the evils with unbelievers rather than the gospel that saves.

Hebrews 4:13

"Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight; everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account."

The Lord is removing the lampstand of America because we have placed politics, wealth and personal desire above Christ. Christianity in this country has been diverted to social clubs that have a form of godliness but deny the truth of the word of God in more ways than they obey it.

Traditions and pleasure in the church have become more important than changed lives, lives that have trusted Christ and seek Him for cleansing and holiness.

The church has deviated from God's plan for it and because of that, it is full of professing Christian who have not been born again. They divert attention to the world while discouraging those who want to walk more circumspectly with Christ.

I remember someone who once told me they were into pornography before they were born again. After he found Christ and He came to dwell in the man, the man was changed. After being changed by Christ he hated the very thing that was addictive for him before his transformation. He told me that he was so disgusted with the filth he used to love that he avoided any contact with it ever again. It wasn't that he might go back into it, it was because seeing it again brought back discouragement and ugliness that he never wants to feel again.

When we have been cleansed from the sewer we will avoid walking in it, why would we except to rush to pull another person out of it through the preaching of the gospel.

If you resolve to keep your focus on Christ and obey what He tells you, be sure, especially in America, that you will be chastised for not being political.

You will be badgered to follow a man and place your trust in human leaders instead of Christ. You will be told you are irresponsible for thinking that God puts in power leaders and takes them out. The people that will treat you in this disrespectful manner will consider you ignorant for not filling your mind with useless things that de-edify.

De-edify, the opposite of edifying, removing your peace, fill your mind with continual discouragement instead of holiness. Filling one's mind with garbage to cause depression and hopelessness.

Edify, to build up in the faith! to instruct and improve especially in the ways of God, uplift, enlighten, inform about the ways of God.

John 17:16-26

"16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. 18 Just as You sent Me into the world, I also sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, so that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

20 “I am not asking on behalf of these alone, but also for those who believe in Me through their word, 21 that they may all be one; just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may [a]believe that You sent Me."

Religious Rituals and Modern Practices!

Have you thought about all the religious rituals we do that God never commanded? Memorials, large weddings, holidays, speaking to the dead, and much more.

If we are to desire only pure truth to be in obedience to the Lord it would be good to go through all the rituals and holidays we celebrate and see if there is any command or basis for them in scripture.

Most things we do that we love to celebrate came out of paganism, added by the Catholic church and other cultic traditions that people wanted to include in their life.

Basically, we have indulged in paganism without even realizing it, merely because it is always what has been done and it is accepted by everyone, believers and non-believers alike.

Mark 7:13 "13Thus you nullify the word of God by the tradition you have handed down. And you do so in many such matters.”

Those who have given up the things of the world and of the pagans are often treated disrespectfully for not wanting to join in, even among believers.

Mark 7:3

"Now in holding to the tradition of the elders, the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat until they wash their hands ceremonially."

Mark 7:5

"So the Pharisees and scribes questioned Jesus: "Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders? Instead, they eat with defiled hands."

Here in these passages, we have men of God dedicated to following Jesus Christ and even eventually dying for Him, being chastised for not following human traditions of ritualistic handwashing.

If you want to find out who loves you stop celebrating all the rituals, expunge from your life anything that is not commanded by God or based on a very real principle of the Bible and watch who becomes embarrassed by you. You WILL lose friends guaranteed, perhaps not all, but so many that you will feel very alone at times.

John 14:6-7 "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.”…"

When we desire to follow Christ so fully that we remove from our lives those things that do not glorify Him others will become distant and sometimes even angry.

I once heard of someone who decided to remove the television from their house because their children were fighting over it. They felt it was distracting them from good family interaction. They didn't tell anyone they got rid of their television, they just did it without announcing anything. Family members came to their home and noticed the TV was gone. Asking about it they were shocked and upset that the family decided to remove it. They even accused the family of being self-righteous for not having one of these machines in their home. This was one of the silliest stories I had ever heard, being rejected and corrected over the lack of entertainment in their own home. This family didn't go into the homes of others telling them they should remove their television, they merely made their own choice for their own family without announcing it.

By the way, those who were upset at their family decision were Christians......or so they pretended.

This is how people view you when you remove something from your life that is distracting you from Christ. They see you as weird and arrogant when the arrogant ones are those who are angry about what we are doing that is drawing us closer to Christ.

It is possible and likely that when we take a major step to come closer to Christ the world is going to hate us for it. They want us to be just like them, without concern for our spiritual life.

We are living in the end times of apostasy when many people who are in the church are not born again. They will work against our desire to serve and please God. They will chastise those who are growing in holiness attempting to bring them back to their own way of thinking. Those who are pretenders love their traditions, their worldly desires and themselves far more than they care about Christ.

When you are rejected for the way you live your life, praise God, for if we were of the world the world would love its own.

John 15:18-20 "18If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me first. 19If you were of the world, it would love you as its own. Instead, the world hates you, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. 20Remember the word that I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecute"

Do not be dismayed or saddened by this, rejoice that you are seeking Christ, His reward is great and our joy is full. Hallelujah!

Let People Walk Away…🚶🚶‍♀️✝️ #shorts

Whose Praise Do You Desire?

When Christ comes to dwell in a born-again believer He changes us into an entirely new person, we cannot change ourselves back. We do not have to depend on our own works to keep salvation, we are trusting in Him, that is Christ Who keeps us.

Hebrews 12:5-7 "…5And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not take lightly the discipline of the Lord, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you. 6For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises every son He receives.” 7Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?"

God does not throw away His children ever!!! We are not saved by our works or kept by our own works, it is Christ Who keeps us.

The confusion comes when we see someone turn back after claiming to be a Christian. Those who do this had a false conversion based on only words and emotions. Christ never changed them because they came hoping to get into heaven on their own merit.

Matthew 7:21-23

I Never Knew You

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’"

You should be able to tell often who has been authentically born again and who is not, here's how:

Matthew 7:15-20

You Will Know Them by Their Fruit

15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them."

What is the fruit?

Galatians 5:22-23

"22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things, there is no law."

This fruit is not about deeds, it is the character qualities of Christ that run through our entire being. Those who lack this fruit are not born again. These qualities will produce works, however, anyone who is unsaved can do good works, the works do not prove they are born again.

We will see this wonderful fruit in all born-again believers.

We all have flaws and growing to do after we are born again, this is the process of life long sanctification. The false believer lives a lifestyle of fear, contention and disobedience to God's Word. They love themselves more than they love God or the people of God.

John 13:34-35 "…34 A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are My disciples if you love one another.”

John 14:15-16 "15If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. 16And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever—…"

Galatians 5:15-17 "15 But if you keep on biting and devouring one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another. 16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh craves what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you want.…"

Those who continually treat others disrespectfully do not have the Spirit of God or His fruit.

Love desires to be kind and all the rest of the fruit all the time. Love cares more about pleasing God than pleasing people.

Proverbs 29:25-26 "25 The fear of man is a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is set securely on high. 26 Many seek the ruler’s favor, but a man receives justice from the LORD.…"

When we love through Christ Who lives in us we are more concerned about our brothers and sisters spiritual well-being than we are about messaging their feelings.

Many people who are narcissistic are easily offended because they have themselves on the throne, it is helpful to them if we do not tread too carefully, they must hear the truth.

If we tell the truth through the love of the Holy Spirit they may still claim we were unkind, so not apologize when you have been falsely accused of meanness when you were led by the Holy Spirit to speak the truth in order to help another person.

We have to remember too that one person can ruin an entire fellowship, we must also think of the others who are harmed by the person who is disobedient.

1 Corinthians 5:6-7

"Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed."

Is man more important to us than Christ is? Do we fear man more than we fear God?

Psalm 20:7-8 " 7 Some trust in chariots and others in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. 8 They collapse and fall, but we rise up and stand firm.…"

When we walk in the Spirit obeying Him, we do not fear what people will say against us or do to us. Why? Because Christ is far more important than the love of man.

Worrying about what men will say or do prevents us from doing what Christ commands us to do. Why? Because man generally most of the time will hate us for our dedication to the truth of God.

Whose praise do you want, that of man or from God, "well done good and faithful servant."?

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