Leaders, What is their Role?

Men are to lead their families the way the leaders lead the church, that is through example and teaching. They must allow God to work in the lives of people without human intimidation.

We can intimidate someone into doing what we want but it will not change their heart. God is looking for loving men to lead by example and teaching while allowing people to make their own choice.

Cultural Christianity has managed to pressure people to be what the leaders wanted but look where it has led, as soon as the pressure is lifted the people revert back to their real selves, the pretense is gone and the sin in the heart is exposed, openly and brazenly practiced without conscience.

We have known many people who were staunchly against "shacking-up" when we were young. 50 years ago decent people never did this. Now half of the couples we know have either lived together outside of marriage or approve of family members who are doing it. This is what comes when the leaders in churches stop teaching against sin and even lovingly embrace Christians who are blatantly living in sin. If we love people God's way we warn those who are sinning and remove ourselves from them if they will not stop.

I have an aunt who would never have lived outside of marriage in her day but embraced the shack-up living arrangement of her daughter because her daughter was so in love with her boyfriend. This aunt has attended church all her life, now in her 90's and has no problem with shacking up as long as the people involved are "in love."

Those who will not make a marriage commitment are not loving, they are using one another with the intention of bolting when things get rough.

Wouldn't it be better to show loving discipline as members of God's body before God disciplines them with harsh consequences?

Laws are for the lawless, we need laws, however, church rules to intimidate people are not Biblical. Many of the church rules imposed on people have no basis in Scripture. Or they have been manipulated to appear scriptural by snatching them out of their context to make them say what the leaders want them to say.

Many human rules have been instituted in the church that is not Biblical while coddling people concerning their sin has become the norm. The church has become more afraid of losing a rebellious sinner than they are about displeasing God.

We know we have moved into the apostate age when scripture is disdained in the church in order to coddle the sinner. When sin is unchallenged it grows as we see has happened exponentially in the past 50 years.

When we married more than 50 years ago people hid their sin, now they are coming out blatantly flaunting them with great gusto, proud that they can sin openly without challenge. They even mock and treat with contempt Christians who bring scripture to bear in answer to the sin.

2 Timothy 3:1-5

Difficult (ragingly insane)Times Will Come

"3 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.

2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,

3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,

4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

5 holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such people as these."

For the born again believer who loves holiness and wants to grow to the end of their lives these end times are not a discouragement but an encouragement that we are going home soon.

As Adrian Rogers once said; "the world is growing gloriously dark", hope that soon it will all be over and justice will be done. God wins and we go with Him!!!!

What to Pray?

Romans 8:25-27 "…25 But if we hope for what we do not yet see, we wait for it patiently. 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know how we ought to pray, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words. 27 And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.…'"

Have you ever wanted to pray about something but could not find the words because you were not sure what God's will was in the particulars?

I have prayed often for people for God to do what is needed for them because I didn't know if what they wanted or what I wanted for them was His will.

I am so thankful that God knows our weaknesses and intercedes for us!!!! Hallelujah!

Walk in Obedience to God not in Fear of Man

Adrian Rogers said this;

"There are those strutting into hell thinking they're too good to be damned."

He also said, " Feelings are the shallowest part of our being."

Interesting isn't it? So many people in our days of apostasy make "feelings" more important than facts. This is the very reason there is so much arrogance, fighting, and devouring going on today in church gatherings.

When we seek God with all our heart, soul and mind, we will be rejected for speaking the truth that convicts hearts of sin.

We don't even have to address anyone personally, all we have to do is quote from the Bible and many people listening will become unhinged calling us rude when we were not rude, just factual. Never take this to heart, it isn't about us when someone rages at us for telling the truth, it does however say a lot about them.

2 Timothy 4:2-4 "…2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and encourage with every form of patient instruction. 3 For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires. 4 So they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.…"

Never stop speaking the truth, it may help someone trust in Christ.

If our focus is Christ we will not be intimidated into silence by people of wrath. If our focus is being appreciated by men then we will become silent to make wicked men like us.

Are we more concerned about men appreciating us than we are about pleasing God? It is a good question for all of us to ask ourselves and bring to God. Pleasing God has eternal rewards and inner peace on this earth, pleasing men keep us continually fearful of people never knowing if they will like us.

Matthew 10:26-28

26 “So do not fear them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.

27 What I tell you in the darkness, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim on the housetops.

28 And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."

Walk in love and fearlessness, it is the only way we can thwart the schemes of the devil.

Adrian Rogers: Three Things That You Cannot Learn in School #1999

Insult Management

Our automatic response to an insult is the real us. Our automatic response to kindness is the real us.

How we act when challenged or praised says a lot about our inner character.

If our initial response to a correction is anger or rage, then there is anger that lives inside, unseen until the challenged.

If our initial response to a correction is humility and self-reflection, then there is love, peace and kindness deep inside.

If our initial response to praise is to gloat and boast then we need to learn humility.

This is why it is good for us to be our authentic selves in receiving a challenge or challenging others, we cannot grow without these challenges.

If the challenge is not legitimate we can dismiss it, if it is true then we will want to ask the Lord to cleanse our hearts so that we might grow in holiness. And, I believe we already know if a challenge is warranted or not, we know if we have been wrong, the very reason a person would rage is that they hate they have been discovered.

A humble person, unless used to being gaslit, will know if they are guilty of anything or not. They will readily admit their guilt quickly. If they are not guilty they might recognize the challenge as manipulation to control their "feelings" to disarm them.

We must have challenges in our lives to grow in maturity, spiritually and emotionally. Those who remain spiritual and emotional infants do so because they refuse to self-reflect or receive a challenge as an opportunity to grow a character that is more Christ-like.

We ought never to become angry at a challenge whether it is true or not. If we are wrongly accused of something we can see it as a time to learn greater patience, remaining calm and never returning evil for evil. If we never had false challenges we might never learn how to handle them when they raise their ugly heads.

Whatever emerges when someone is challenged is an indicator of their inner character, whether it is prideful and stubborn or humble and pliable.

Let's be people who love to learn, looking at the lesson rather than the offense, as practice for growth in our character. Wisdom is the greatest thing we can gain and there must be trials, nasty contentious people, and challenges of all kinds in our lives from time to time to help us use the Spiritual skills God gives us.

James 1:2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways."

Hallelujah!!!!!

Cleansing if From the Inside

We cleanse ourselves by asking the Holy Spirit to change what needs changing in us. Changing ourselves is only a veneer that does not endure.

Lasting character change only happens when the Holy Spirit removes from our hearts that which does not please Him. The problem is only fixed away when it is no longer in our hearts.

James 4:7-9 "7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter to mourning, and your joy to gloom.…"

"Being" and "Looking Like" are Two Different Things

"Being" and "looking like" are two different things!

Do we want to try real hard to act like a kind person? Or do you want to be a kind person?

When we work at being a kind person we are acting according to the flesh in our own power to be something on the outside that we are not on the inside.

In order to really "be" a kind person we must ask the Holy Spirit to change us into one, if He does this we don't have to try, it will come naturally out of the flow of the Holy Spirit. We will be kind without having to think about it.

Proverbs 4:23

"Guard your heart with all diligence, for from it flow springs of life."

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."

Instead of trying real hard to be what we think God wants or others expect, we ought to be praying for Christ to make us the person He wants us to be.

Attempting to be kind on the outside without a heart change on the inside would be like painting a house full of rotten boards, the outside looks good for a while but the boards are rotten and will crumble eventually.

Do we want to look like a kind person or do we want to actually be a kind person?

1 Corinthians 13:4–8a "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."

The key to this verse is that "Love is" not that "love looks like." What flows out of us naturally without effort is the real us.

When we understand that our character must be changed by the Holy Spirit we will stop pretending and become that which God wants us to be, authentically holy.

1 Peter 1:15-16

"15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall BE holy, for I am holy.”

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