Trusting in Everything but Christ

It occurred to me this morning in the wee hours as I pondered what is going on around me that so many people are trusting in things that bring them no joy or peace.

Our culture is trusting in their feelings, physical appearance, and physical health. politics, religious theologies, family, entertainment, media of all kinds, their pleasures to make themselves feel better, they are trusting in power over others, their manipulation to make things work out as they please, but the one person they are not trusting in is Jesus Christ.

As we listen to what people speak about I notice the Christian culture is speaking of everything but Jesus Christ.

Many people are proclaiming their rights to demand things from God thinking this is spiritual. They are declaring to God what He must give them merely because they tell Him to give it. They are demanding blessings for a country after He has already given them blessings that they are not grateful to Him for.

The more blessing the Lord gives a country the more they demand it. Our country nor any other country has a right to expect more blessings from God when they are not loving and honoring Him every day.

The blessings have given rise to arrogance and entitlement as so many people believe they have a right to the kind of government they want and the material possessions they have acquired. They think they have a right to be proud and elevated in themselves and by others. Humility is not a desire of their hearts and they do not pray for wisdom according to God but rather seek out the wisdom of man to message their own ego and feelings.

Psalm 146:3-5

"3 Do not trust in noblemen,

In mortal man, in whom there is no salvation.

4 His spirit departs, he returns to 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,"

Proverbs 11:28 "He that trusteth in his riches shall fall: but the righteous shall flourish as a branch."

1 Corinthians 3:18-20

"If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, "He catches the wise in their own craftiness"; and again, "The LORD knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile."

Many people think they are wise in their trust in everyone and everything but Christ, but their wisdom and their desires lead them deeper into foolishness as they follow all these things but do not follow Christ.

You might ask; "why do you say the culture does not follow Christ?" We know what the culture follows and trust in by what they speak about continually and how they live their lives.

In this mess of the end times we can find hope only in Jesus Christ. When we see all this trust in the culture for everything but Jesus Christ we can be strong as we trust ONLY in HIm.

God said to the believers who are trusting in Him alone the following:

Isaiah 41:10

"10 Do not fear, for I am with you;

Do not be afraid, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you, I will also help you,

I will also uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

Because we love the Lord with all our heart and are trusting in Him when the culture is trusting in everything but Him, we can expect for the culture to hate us when we do not trust in the things they want us to trust in.

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.’"

Sadly much of this hatred is coming from "Church gatherings" that proclaim to be Christian. This is because many people who make the declaration that they are Christians have never been born again. There are many false Christians within the ranks of the believers gatherings.

Matthew 13:24-30

The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares

"24 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field;

25 but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.

26 But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.

27 So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’

28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’

29 But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.

30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”

The devil has sewn the tares among the wheat. Fooling many people that they can be a Christian without loving Christ and without a desire to be changed by Him. This wicked one has managed to deceive people that salvation is merely saying words without any desire to follow Christ and without repentance, that is brokenness over their sinfulness.

Psalm 51:17

"17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

A broken and a contrite (crushed) heart, God, You will not despise."

If there is no crushed heart over one's sinfulness there will be no salvation experience.

Calling oneself a "Christian" or attending a gathering of Christians is not evidence that one is born again.

Matthew 7:21-23 "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.’"

God does not say to us that we have lost our salvation because He did not accept us, He says to those who say they are Christians but had no desire to obey Him, "I NEVER knew you." These people only thought they would chose to become a member of the Christian club but were never changed by Christ into a new creation. These are the tares in the church. And, sadly there are more tares in the church today than there are authentically born again believers who have been changed by Christ.

May everyone reading this evaluate whether or not they were authentically saved. This will include those in the pews and those in the pulpit.

2 Corinthians 13:5

"5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!"

Adam was accountable for his own sin and we are accountable for our own sin.

We are not held accountable for Adam's sin, we are accountable for our own sin. Adam did not pass on sin to us, we just made the same choice he made because our nature is sinful as his was sinful. I am convinced that if Adam had not disobeyed God someone along the way in the genealogy would have made that choice, he was just the first one to do it.

Romans 3:23-26

"23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,

26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."

No one would have done differently from Adam. When you give your children choices you hope they will choose the right way that you taught them. However, we know that often they make their own choices based on their feelings or the input of the culture around them that defy our teachings.

Ezekiel 18:19-23

"The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself."

Adam was influenced by Eve to eat of the fruit. He could have said no to her and even taken it our of her hand and not allowed her to eat, but instead, he followed her choice.

Those who like to blame Adam would have done the same thing Adam did had they been in his place.

This is the very reason Christ had to come to die for mankind that we would be given the choice to repent and follow Him or not. If we choose Him, His Spirit will come to live in us and change us into a new creation. We can only be free from our own sin and eternal death if Christ changes us and lives in us.

Romans 8:2

“For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”

Romans 6:17-19 "…17 But thanks be to God that, though you once were slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were committed. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to escalating wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.…"

Our only hope as human beings is to trust in Christ, be born again by His Spirit, and then we will be in paradise with Him when He takes us out of this world. We will have a new body, incorruptible and living forever.

1 Peter 4:4-6 " 4 In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them in the same excesses of debauchery, and they slander you;

5 but they will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

6 For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as people, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God."

May anyone reading this who had not yet repented and trusted Christ do so before it's too late.

Standing FIRM Amid RISING DARKNESS | Guest: Robert Jeffress

May Your Lampstand not be Removed

Nothing is too hard for us when we know Christ Who lives in us has a purpose for everything directing our path and redirecting our path when we stray to follow our own will.

We are not looking for Christ to do our will but for Him to tell us His will for us.

Ephesians 1:11

"11 In Him we also have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined ACCORDING TO HIS PURPOSE of Him who works all things in accordance with the plan of His will,"

As born-again believers, we are chosen for the work He has ordained for us to do after we have trusted Christ and He has changed us into a new creation.

1 John 5:14-15

"14 This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him."

The Holy Spirit leads us into all truth as we seek Him and He will direct our path as long as our will is according to His.

God will not hear the prayers that are not His will, He will ignore us until we seek His face for His will.

James 4:2-4 "…2 You crave what you do not have; you kill and covet, but are unable to obtain it. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 And when you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may squander it on your pleasures. 4 You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.…"

There are those who would deceive others into believing they can demand things from God and expect the mere proclamation that you have it is enough to motivate God to do our will. These people are of the devil and focus continually on worldly desires and the pleasures of this life. I fear for those who live like this, they cannot expect to have a relationship with Christ on our own terms.

Psalm 66:18

If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.

Those who teach such false teachings will be provided with what they want through the work of the devil but will find themselves in hell if they will not repent and trust Christ.

Romans 8:28

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."

If someone seeks their own will and purpose they cannot expect to hear from God although they may hear from the devil to make the willful one believe they have been blessed when what they received from the devil will destroy their relationship with God and others.

2 Corinthians 11:14 "

No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light."

The devil can make a person feel ecstatic with happiness for a time until he unleashes the real purpose of the devil to ruin them. He will make what you have received from him look like it was from God but it will bring disaster in their souls of spiritual deadness.

We must always seek the WILL of Christ, not our own and we must confess when we have sought our own desires that differ from the purposes of God.

Revelation 2:3-5 "…3 Without growing weary, you have persevered and endured many things for the sake of My name. 4 But I have this against you: You have abandoned your first love. 5 Therefore, keep in mind how far you have fallen. Repent and perform the deeds you did at first. But if you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.

We Don't Notice the Smell Until We Leave and Come Back

After being, for the most part, no contact with narcissists for years now it is even more clear on the rare occasions that I have seen them that things were ungodly even though some claim to be Christians.

While we are in the mess we are too confused and agitated to be able to see the attitudes for what they are, but when we are gone a while and come back it is blatant.

It's sort of like a smoker who smokes in their house or people with dogs who don't clean their house and don't seem to notice the smell until they go on vacation. When they come back to the smell that was absent on vacation, they suddenly notice how bad the smell is. Sometimes it takes time away from the mess to be able to see there is a mess.

Once we have removed ourselves from the ungodly attitudes and covert actions of narcissists we can begin to see just how wicked they were, worse than we originally thought.

When we are in the fog we can't see the fog but if we go on a nearby hill looking down on the valley, then we can see how very thick the fog really is. If we go back down the hill standing in the fog again we will not see it so clearly. We have to look far into the distance to see the fog.

In narcissistic family systems, we question our own perceptions until we remove ourselves for a time to allow ourselves to focus on Christ and those who love Christ, then the difference between the narcissists and the godly will be so stark we can never be fooled again.

Narcissists (2 Timothy 3 types) want us to believe we deserve their angst and ruthlessness, they are influenced by the devil and motivated by their false beliefs about us. Only God can open their eyes, their targets can never explain enough to influence them, they love their anger toward us and will not change unless Christ changes their heart because of their repentance.

Every born-again believer is a target for those who hate Christ and love themselves.

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.’"

They hated Christ for no reason, and they will hate us for no reason too.

the Ball Brothers - It's About the Cross (OFFICIAL video)

It's About the Cross!!!!!!!

Thank You Lord, For Your Blessings On Me | At The Cabin | Official Music...

And even greater than all these blessings is the blessing of wisdom that can only come from God. Blessing of wisdom that we can have even if all the things of the world are taken from us. We can never lose that wisdom.