Jesus Christ is coming very soon, we are watching the insanity prophecies in the Bible increasing every day. We are the witnesses of the fulfilled prophesy of Daniel and Revelation as well as 2 Timothy 3.
Monday, July 10, 2023
The Hand that Rocks the Cradle
“The hand that rocks the cradle rules a nation”, the mother is very important to the development of the character of the child in their early years. The first 2 years of a child’s life shape their attitude for the rest of their life. Whatever happens in the first two years determines the entire rest of their lives.
However, children who are raised without a father tend to have many more problems in their years later in life. Fathers are the balance between tenderness and diligence. The mothers tend to be too tender at times when the child needs a stronger hand to teach them to be diligent. I have seen the reverse of this too when the fathers were far too lenient and the mothers tougher, but generally, it is the women who pamper their children and the fathers who are not taking a role at all, leaving the children frustrated and undisciplined.
Both parents are necessary for the raising of Children. We see far more overly sensitive and immature men than in past generations because they have been raised by single mothers. The women are also immature in our children's generation.
Men have become more immature at later ages now because of the mothers who do not take a strong enough hand and who indulge their children, not enough rules and not enough hardship to cause the children to be able to handle difficult things. Adult children are woefully emotionally immature now.
In our day mothers tend to want to bail their children out of everything that is a little uncomfortable, they gush over feelings causing the children to focus almost entirely on themselves and their feelings rather than learning to analyze matters to learn good lessons.
When we were a children if we got in trouble at school we would get disciplined at home for it. Now the parents go to the school and defend their out-of-control child railing against the teachers. The children of these parents learn that being unruly works for them.
As one person once said; “we are not raising children, we are raising men and women.” When we say things like “let them be children” we are causing them to act like children all their lives. What children need is parents who will train them from the beginning of their childhood how to be adults. We do this by example and by training. Everything that happens in the child's life is a training time.
Deuteronomy 6:7
"You shall talk of them when you are sitting in your home, and when you are walking along the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up."
Everything we do with our children ought to be teaching and training not merely play. What so many people don't understand is that when we do it God's way the child grows up to love learning and become self-motivated to accomplish good things. Playing and pleasure is not very important to the self-motivated person. We love to work, we love to accomplish things that have a purpose or that are lasting. Playing is boring and wasteful of time for those who are self-motivated.
The self-esteem doctrine has caused the entire culture to pamper children to the point of ad-nausea, creating selfish adult people who rage at the slightest suggestion that they need a character adjustment. Correction is treated as a personal attack as the one who needs to learn a lesson fights against the one who cares about them.
Notice that children now have more things to do but are less happy. I believe its because the things they are doing are not producing anything. When someone is finished with their play, the thrill of it is gone, they have to find some more play to stay happy. The self-motivated person who loves projects is never bored and is much happier.
Children who are indulged in feelings and pampered to bail themselves out of trouble instead of facing it to find solutions will be terrible adults and terrible spouses, not to mention entitled members of society. Instead of "giving back" they will take and take and take while fighting anyone who doesn't give them what they want.
We see this mentality represented in the riots that occurred in the present years. People who didn't even know why they were angry burned down five miles of a town in Minnesota in a rageful uproar as they torched five miles of Minneapolis.
James 1:20
"For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God."
Proverbs 16:32
"Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city."
Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it”
It is not a guarantee that if we obey God our children will too. It is a general principle that generally produces fruit. The child must still believe the parent and heed the words of God to become the adult they should be, it is still their choice.
It has been my experience that many parents did a good job teaching the right things and the children were under control at home, but after leaving home they went the way of the world because their hearts were not changed. They obeyed their parents to keep from being punished or to impress their parents but when they were free from the home their true hearts emerged.
This is the reason I never felt worried about my children leaving my home to be on their own. I knew that the true self would come out good or bad, then we would see who they really were all the while they were under our care. People learn to hide their real selves when under the authority of someone else.
We as parents cannot change our children's hearts. We can only do the right thing, showing them the right way and when they leave home we will see if their heart was what it appeared to be while they were at home.
Another Way to Share the Gospel
Someone asked me the question if the was another way to share the gospel if I am afraid to do it verbally. The following response was my answer;
If you are afraid to share the gospel then you are ashamed of Christ. We must love Christ more than we love ourselves. When we fear to share the gospel we are afraid of the reaction of the people we are speaking to, instead of concerned about what Christ thinks.
We must reject all “people pleasing” if we are to follow and obey Christ. There will be many who hate us for telling them what will save them from hell. It is irrational that they would not see the love involved in the warning but they are not saved and don’t want Christ if they are angry, we need not take that personally. They did it to Christ and the apostles, we will be treated this way too.
We are only intimidated when we are self-focused.
**John 15:18-25**
**Disciples’ Relation to the World**
18 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before *it hated* you.
19 If you were of the world, the world would love *you as* its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.
20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you as well; if they followed My word, they will follow yours also.
21 But all these things they will do to you on account of My name, because they do not know the One who sent Me.
22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have
sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.
23 The one who hates Me hates My Father also.
24 If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.
25 But *this has happened* so that the word that is written in their Law will be fulfilled: ‘They hated Me for no reason.’”
My suggestion is to deny yourself, when you do this you will not care how people treat you. We can be more loving, more forthright and speak more boldly when Christ is our focus rather than the people in front of us.
The more I spoke to people about Christ, the more I was rejected the less I felt anything about their rejection. When someone rages at me now I feel nothing, no fear, no hurt and no timidity. When we get to the point where we don't care if we are liked by men then we can be used of God and remain steady, faithful, and even joyful in the midst of everything.
The Master Manipulator
The fruit of the Spirit is the character qualities of Christ within every born-again believer.
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."
The devil is a master manipulator accusing the believer of the things the devil does and we do not do. This is also the tactic of the narcissist because the devil is behind how the narcissist thinks and acts.
We meet many people today who think their words are all that is needed without evidence of the Holy Spirit fruit or godly actions. When a culture is "feelings based" it will care more about false appearances and words than substance and truth.
Matthew 7:24-27
“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it fell. And great was its fall.”
When people seem to say all the right things but their life is full of hypocrisy we must ignore them. Sometimes they become angry because we are not excited about what they say because their life demonstrates they do not believe their own words or they would act differently.
We live in a world full of hypocrisy and lies all the time. If someone's life seems to be pleasure oriented, disobedient against most of God's Word, and hostile to correction we know we are dealing with a pretender. Someone who pretends cannot be trusted about anything.
Fake people are quick to judge things they have little to no information about, they are know-it-alls.
Fake people are rude, even if only covertly to be able to deny how they were rude.
Fake people do not listen to hear the whole matter, they refuse to listen and sometimes refuse to respond when proven wrong.
Fake people are often people pleasers toward those whom they wish to impress, but rude to those they think are beneath them.
Fake people often have a group of people that elevate them. They are not happy with those who do not treat them as though they are special. They move on to a new group when the clique they are in figures out their narcissism.
Fake people make guesses about others and spread gossip as though their desired belief about someone is the truth.
Fake people do not have real friends they only have people around them that they use and manipulate.
Fake people are never consistent, they are friendly one minute and angry the next over silly things.
Fake people never apologize for anything, they make excuses or play the victim but will never admit their own faults or flaws.
Fake people are hypersensitive to any form of criticism or correction.
Fake people are terrified of failure, they must always be seen as perfect and successful.
Fake people lie frequently, they embellish the truth to make it sound better than it was or they make a perceived wrong toward them seem way worse than it was. They even refuse to acknowledge the good deeds of others while boasting of their own.
Fake people do their good deeds to be seen by others, there is only one reason to do a good deed and that is praise for them. They cannot do a good deed without making sure others hear about what they did.
Fake people are highly sensitive to suggestions from others, even in the smallest matters. They have to be the one who thought up the idea or it is worth nothing to them.
Fake people are easily embarrassed when they are not seen as special or perfect.
Here is a description of the end times fake person that we see all the time and is growing in our culture of the last days;
2 Timothy 3:1-5
"1 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."
It is so easy to be influenced by a culture that acts in these phony and destructive ways when we see it all the time. It is vitally important that we recognize it, avoid them when we can, and refuse to become like them when they are in our lives regularly. We are in danger of becoming like the people we spend the most time with because we are vulnerable, this is why we must choose our friends wisely.
1 Corinthians 15:33 "Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.”"
We are in the world, we witness to the unsaved but they cannot be our close companions and we ought never to tolerate these attitudes in those who claim to be Christian. We must rebuke it and if they will not listen then we are to walk away and leave them alone.
When being accepted by the world becomes important to us we have lost our witness and regress in our walk. We must stay focused on Christ and His principles to avoid becoming that which dishonors God.
The people described in this article are angry people, they harbor bitterness and resentment as well as jealousy deep within their hearts. Only God can present problems to them that may cause a crisis of heart that would turn them to Him, but we can do nothing to help them.
Proverbs 22:23-25 "…23 for the LORD will take up their case and will plunder those who rob them. 24 Do not make friends with an angry man, and do not associate with a hot-tempered man, 25 or you may learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare."
We are in danger of becoming like those people when we tolerate their attitudes and actions. We must speak the truth and walk away if they do not listen. If they listen we have won them to Christ and can fellowship with them.
Matthew 18:15 "And if your brother sins against you, go reprove him, between you and him alone. If he will hear you, you have gained your brother."
We must never stop praying for God's will and protection as we navigate through this ugly world of deep selfishness and hatred of God and His truth. God can keep us safe if we keep our eyes on Him.
Sunday, July 9, 2023
Behavior Exposes the Person
"Believe Behavior not words."
"Your actions speak so loud I can't hear a word you are saying"
"Actions speak louder than words."
Words mean nothing if not backed up by actions.
"Your actions speak so loud I can't hear a word you are saying"
"Actions speak louder than words."
Words mean nothing if not backed up by actions.
The Accusations are from the Devil
A narcissist will accuse someone of having a problem they don't have. Narcissists will accuse others of what the narcissist does and the others do not.
The goal of the narcissist is to get their target to feel guilty even when there has been no offense. Getting someone else to feel guilty, making them doubt their own reality is the best way the narcissist has of controlling others.
The target to be controlled are generally those who have a higher standard of love and kindness, a Biblical stance that the narcissist resents, or have accomplished something else in life that appears superior to the narcissist.
The target may not feel superior to the narcissist but if the narcissist feels inferior to the target they will pretend the target is at fault and acting above others.
Narcissists hate to be beneath anyone else, this is why they work so hard to appear superior and all-knowing.
When I was much younger something good happened to me, a prize at school, a family member came up to me and said; "I bet you think you are better." I had no thought in my mind at all about being better, but because the narcissist didn't like that something good happened to me, this person had to do something to make me doubt and ruin my joy.
If you have ever known a narcissist you will understand what I am about to say. They almost never laugh or smile with anyone else. They laugh when a joke is played on someone else or their target falls off their bike or runs into a tree. They seem to get great joy out of seeing someone else harm themselves or fail.
If the narcissist can't find anything real to demean their target they will make up something based on some small things that was not insignificant or not even a problem at all. They will make a problem out of nothing if that's all they have to discredit their target.
Narcissists are the most petty people in the world, everything is foolish or wrong about their target, and even a good deed does not go unpunished with the narcissist.
Sadly this world is growing in narcissism as we approach the end of the church age. The reason I write about this so often is to help the victims of narcissists learn to ignore them, avoid them, and deal with them Biblically when they must be in their presence.
The Bible gives us good guidance in dealing with these unregenerate people who have no capacity for love, all the fruit of the Spirit is missing and the devil is in control of their minds.
2 Timothy 3:1-5 "3 But realize this, that in the last days difficult (ragingly insane) 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."
Did we notice verse 5? "Avoid such people as these."
Proverbs 29:8-10 "…8 Mockers inflame a city, but the wise turn away anger. 9 If a wise man goes to court with a fool, there will be raving and laughing with no resolution. 10 Men of bloodshed hate a blameless man, but the upright care for his life."
Proverbs 17:12
"It is better to meet a bear robbed of her cubs than a fool in his folly."
Proverbs 26:4
"Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be like him."
Ecclesiastes 10:13
"The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness: and the end of his talk is mischievous madness."
Matthew 7:6
"Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you."
We must be gospel minded when dealing with people. Our first priority is to share the gospel with anyone who will listen. When we discover we are dealing with a narcissistic fool we are to stop speaking with them and move on.
The more you engage with a narcissist the more he will twist what you say, attack your character while mocking and demeaning. If we engage with them in these foolish arguments we are becoming just like them.
Proverbs 26:4
"Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be like him."
Do not fall into the trap of the enablers by thinking unbiblically that we must remain friends with everyone no matter how evil or destructive they are to us and others.
Proverbs 26:20-21 "…20 Without wood, a fire goes out; without gossip, a conflict ceases. 21Like charcoal for embers and wood for fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife."
Proverbs 29:22
"An angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression."
As born-again believers we are called to be peaceful no matter what the fools are doing right in front of us. We are not to engage with them through childish banter in an attempt to win over them. If we do this Satan is the one who wins and we lose a piece of ourselves, whatever spiritual growth we had has been diminished.
Narcissists are controlled by the devil, they love conflict and hatred, there is no way to reason with those who are controlled by the devil.
Christ in us can give us when to speak and when to be silent. The response of the hearer is not our business, we must do what Christ tells us to do and leave all the results up to Him.
Matthew 10:19-20
"But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say. For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you."
Looking Up!!!!
Remember when we speak the Words of Christ and others accuse us of speaking our own opinion.,it is the world's way of dismissing God by accusing us.
Many church attendees want to rewrite the Bible to fit their own agendas. They will discredit God's Words through manipulation of them, removing them from their context and claiming things that God never said.
When "religion" is the goal then error will be deeply present regularly. Religion is following man-made rules to help God get it right. In other words, man will devise their own words to replace God's, a blasphemous way of showing God He got it wrong so that they can have their own way and feel no guilt about it.
Anyone who expects truth to be based on the Words of Jesus Christ will be accused of many things from legalism to hatred.
Our culture calls obedience to God "legalism" and self-willed rules they make up as obedience to their ways. In other words, they get it backward making themselves the authority over God.
Legalism is obeying man's rules that God never made. Obedience to God is searching His word to know His will and heart. This is not legalism.
Satan always lies against God making obedience to Him sound like foolishness.
The devil knows that many people when pressured by their culture will give in to be accepted by the rest who have chosen to disobey God in favor of their desired "religious practices ordained by man."
John 12:42-44 "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. 44 Then Jesus cried out, “Whoever believes in Me does not believe in Me alone, but in the One who sent Me."
James 4:16-17 "…16 As it is, you boast in your proud intentions. All such boasting is evil. 17 Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do, yet fails to do it, is guilty of sin."
The truth is that if God never said it I am free to leave it alone. If God said it He expects us to do what He said.
Many people reject the truth of the Bible in church gatherings because they fear being rejected. They are right, we are rejected when we speak the truth from the Scriptures. Personally, I would rather be rejected by all men and obedient to Christ than disobedient to Him and loved by all people.
There is a cost for speaking the truth from the heart of the Holy Spirit. In our day that cost is losing all family and friends in the communities in which we live.
Many false teachings permeate the modern apostate church, the love of many has grown cold as God said would happen. They reject sound doctrine to be able to live as they please without guilt. These are those who say they are Christians but were never born-again. They loved the world and the perceived safety of the churches but have no love for God.
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.’ "
Cultural Christianity is the norm now and the authentic born-again believers are a small remnant. In these last days, we can expect to be alone a lot, alone in our beliefs, rejected by those who groupthink and excluded from the love of others. We need not feel bad when we are unloved and rejected by men, so was Jesus Christ and so were the apostles.
Luke 10:16-17 "16 Whoever listens to you listens to Me; whoever rejects you rejects Me; and whoever rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.” 17 The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in Your name.”"
Good news: Christ is coming for His church very soon, if we continually look up as God commanded we will not be sad or discouraged but full of joy!
Luke 21:28
"28 And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh."
Keep Looking Up!!!!
Isaiah 29:13
"Therefore the Lord said: "These people draw near to Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is but rules taught by men."
Ezekiel 33:31
"And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness."
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