Sunday, November 6, 2022
Worship in Spirit and in Truth
God told us to worship in "Spirit and in Truth", Jesus Christ is the Spirit and He is also the Truth. Where we meet, when we meet and with whom or how many, does not matter to God.
Matthew 18:20
"20 For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”
"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples made by human hands."
2 Corinthians 5:1
"Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is dismantled, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands."
Do not allow human traditions to cloud your belief about God and His Word. Much of what goes on in the buildings people call churches is not Biblical.
Seek Christ first in all things.
Saturday, November 5, 2022
Friday, November 4, 2022
Glorifying God not Self!
Our trials train us and are a witness to the world of the power of Jesus Christ in us, that we do not become unhinged when we go through trials while remaining faithful to Christ right through it all.
Trials strengthen us to be able to handle anything that comes our way, a sort of boot camp for training to rule with Christ in the Millennium.
It is easy to be "joyful", happy, and strong when there are no trials, this kind of strength is not strength at all, it is not enduring joy based on Christ Who lives in us.
It is easy to be loving and kind when someone else is loving and kind toward us. Real strength has been achieved when we learn to remain loving and kind in spite of what others may do to harm us.
Ephesians 6:10-11
"10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil."
To be strong we must break down the muscles of our own strength to build back stronger the muscles the Lord provides.
Remember a weight lifter must tear the muscles so that when they heal back they are stronger than before. In order to make them strong he must break them first.
Our own will must be broken and done away with in order for the Lord to work His will in us. Anyone who thinks they will be fine with only their will in control will learn quickly that they cannot obey Christ and do great things without His will His way.
There are far too many people who think it is smart to do our own things our own way as long as we claim it was from God even though they violate the word of God to get a job done for God. God does not accept these humanistic self-willed sacrifices claiming to be for Him. We must stop attempting to think up clever ways to do things for God and instead consult Him for His ways.
Matthew 15:7-9 "…7 You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you: 8 These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. 9 They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’ ”…"
If someone says they are doing something for God but what they are doing violates the word of God, then they are placing their trust in themselves as though they think they know better than God, that they are more knowledgable than God, they must repent and ask God what He wants and then obey Him. Then after we have asked we need to go tot he Word of God and search it as led by the Holy Spirit to hear from Him.
John 16-12-14 " 13 However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify Me by taking from what is Mine and disclosing it to you.…"
Whatever we do in obedience to Christ will always glorify God not ourselves or any other person.
Thursday, November 3, 2022
Anonymous Sources are a Tool of the Devil
"Gaslighting is invalidating you and your perception" as one person put it.
Mind games are another way narcissists attempt to control your emotions. Their tactic is to bring on an emotional response in their target, it's how they perceive control over someone.
When we do not react or respond and just walk away they know they have no power and will begin gossiping to cause others to see us in a bad light.
We see this in the media all the time. The media uses words like: "they refused to" instead of they declined to do something. They manipulate the understanding to make us think that someone would not do what they should have done, instead of reporting honestly that the person had honest choices and made one.
Spinning the language in a way that makes the hearer think something was terribly wrong is a favored tactic of the media and of narcissists. Let's face it, the media is the personification of narcissism, of course not all but nearly most.
Even conservative talk show hosts spin things to bring their listeners to a conclusion they wish them to believe. Liberals do these things on steroids but conservatives are not innocent either.
When we leave out part of the information to lead someone to a conclusion that is not entirely true, we have sinned. Half-truths are whole lies as someone once said.
And, sadly, even worse is when religious leaders use manipulation, intimidation and "half-truths", they are telling a lie while attempting to control others.
Never did God say in His word that we should attempt to control others. Christ told the truth but never manipulated. He asked questions to get people to think and even trap them in their own lies. The purpose was to bring to light what is dark, exposing deception and manipulation for the evil that it is.
If we are going to expose the spin and manipulation we need to develop Biblical discernment. In these last days, there are foolish conspiracy theories without proof floating around insincerely and treacherously betraying trust, leading people to false conclusions with little to no evidence.
If you have not seen anything for yourself, only having media hype then it is best to disregard it. It is a distraction from Christ an the work God has for us to be continually feeding on the conspiracies that you have not been called to solve. Just repeating the lies you have heard from others isn't doing anything except creating fear while agitating the hearers to distrust Christ.
If you have not seen the event you hear about then don't repeat it to anyone else. If you are continually going to news sources that traffic in sensationalism from sources you should not trust, then stop looking at this nonsense.
Philippians 4:7-9 "7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable— if anything is excellent or praiseworthy— think on these things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me, put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.…"
There is no instruction from God to dig for dirt that does not pertain to you. those who love the dirt are perhaps the ones who would rather enjoy filth than God's Word.
Lastly, anyone who places their trust in "anonymous" sources is acting foolishly.
Charles Spurgeon: “Never write what you dare not sign. An anonymous letter-writer is a sort of assassin, who wears a mask, and stabs in the dark. Such a man is a fiend with a pen. If discovered, the wretch will be steeped in the blackest infamy.”
As believers, we must keep our minds free of muck that the devil uses to cause division and dishonesty. You can be sure if anything is anonymous it is not worthy of repeating.
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