Ask God to See if You Have Really Been Born Again

Many people are the same people after becoming a Christian as they were when they were young before they were saved. They just added a form of Christianity to their rebellion and anger denying Christ in their attitudes if not in their lifestyles.

These people have become just like the Pharisees, parading their "Christianity" around like a banner to feel very prideful about their new found goodness.

Matthew 23:15

"15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves."

Pharisees are those who look down their noses at others supposing themselves to be superior.

Matthew 23

"1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, 3 so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. 4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. 5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, 6 and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues."

Luke 16:15

"15 And He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the sight of people, but God knows your hearts; because that which is highly esteemed among people is detestable in the sight of God."

Many people who say they are Christians spend more time evaluating what others are doing than they do self-reflecting to be able to correct their own flaws.

Pride and superiority ought never to be in the heart of a born-again believer. When we see those who love themselves above everyone else and who look down on others often, we are watching someone who has never been humbled to be born again. No one can remain full of pride and arrogance after coming to Christ in brokenness over their sinfulness. One must be broken first before they will legitimately see their need for Christ.

There are those who became Christians to appear better people than others, not because they have been broken. They are those who monitor others to justify their own superior attitude over others. They have no fruit of the Spirit of Christ.

Those who have been broken love others and desire for them to be born again and receive Christ, they do not consider themselves superior to anyone.

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."

2 Peter 1:10-11 "10 Therefore, brothers, strive to make your calling and election sure. For if you practice these things you will never stumble, 11 and you will receive a lavish reception into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.…"

Saying and Being are Two Very Different Things

So many people say they are Christians but have no regard for the Word of God even if they say they are "Bible believers."

When we really believe in something we follow it. Most believers I know follow what they like and dismiss as unimportant those things they do not like. They follow the culture, not the Bible.

Saying we are "Bible believers" while adding to scripture our cultural ideas and desires is lying. Dismissing some of God's Word is subtracting from the Bible, this is also a sin and dangerous.

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

Jesus Christ is called the "WORD" He is the very essence of His own Word. To disregard his commands as unimportant is to disregard Him.

John 14:21

"Whoever has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him."

John 14:23

"Jesus replied, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him."

John 15:10

"If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and remain in His love."

1 John 2:3

"By this we can be sure that we have come to know Him: if we keep His commandments."

1 John 5:3

"For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome,"

2 John 1:6

"And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the very commandment you have heard from the beginning, that you must walk in love."

Christ could have been more clear than He has been in His Word. Those who pick and choose what they will follow do not love Him.

It Will Cost You Everything!

" It’s going to cost you everything.

" This walk… this call… it’s going to wreck you.

" But, once you have tasted and seen how good the Lord is, you won’t be able to do dead, boring, religion anymore.

" You won’t be able to just be ordinary.

You won’t be able to settle for safe.

" While others are content to sit on the sidelines, you will be biting at the bit to get to the front line.

" Where others see giants, you will see the promise.

" You will carry this oil wherever you go and there will be those who mock and ridicule how you burn for Him.

" But, you found your battle cry in the wilderness.

" It was the valley that taught you and molded you.

" You have counted the cost and you are willing to lay down your life on the altar as a holy sacrifice.

" Tongues will rise up against the anointing on your life.

Those bound in tradition will hate you.

Your family will think you are crazy.

Your friends will whisper about you.

The religious will reject you.

The Pharisees will want to persecute you.

" But, you will set your forehead like flint, not looking to the left or to the right because you have an eternal purpose stamped upon your heart.

" You are meant to shift atmospheres and war in the Heavenlies.

" You are called to wield the sword of truth and to shake up the ground of tradition.

" You are called to break the mold.

" Whatever it takes, whatever you have to lose, whatever the cost; you will give it all for the sake of the gospel because, you have a fire shut up in your bones that burns day and night and you realize that this isn’t a choice, it’s a mandate from heaven."

(By; Simply Jecker)

The Pitfalls of Time Out for Disciplining Children

Many years ago the culture taught that to retrain a child to stop acting badly parents should give them "time out", basically isolating them from the family to think about what they have done.

I have known parents who did this but because there were so many toys in the child's room they acted out by breaking the toys and the parents had to end up spanking them anyway.

"Time Out" is not Biblical and causes bitterness in children. It is a form of "the silent treatment", sending the message to the child that we do not want you in our lives unless you become what we want you to become. It is narcissism based on love given only because of performance.

God told us how to train our children in a way that sends the message that bad behavior will not be tolerated but we will not issolate from the family as a form of banishment.

God said this:

Proverbs 13:24

"Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him."

Hebrews 12:11

"For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."

Proverbs 23:13-15

"Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die. If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol. My son, if your heart is wise, my heart too will be glad."

Proverbs 22:15

"Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him."

A child disciplined with the rod will learn not to disobey or act rudely or destructively but will be allowed to return to the family after the discipline as though the sin had not been committed. This is God's kind of love, showing the seriousness of rebellion, disobedience, and rudeness through physical punishment sends the message that sin will not be tolerated but also remain with the child so that he can carry on with his family.

Isolating children to "think about their bad behavior" is foolish at best. Children feel abandoned and unloved when they are isolated. The idea that isolating them will cause them to change their behavior is the opposite of what God told parents to do, it is worldly and destructive.

What a child needs is the physical discipline that does not break their spirit as isolation does. Loneliness is one of the elements of "time out" that creates bitterness and anger in a child.

When we follow the world's ways in anything we are going to see the opposite effects that we hope to accomplish. Satan is the father of lies and will draw believers away from God's way to cause frustration and loneliness.

The goal of discipline is to show that behavior is not acceptable to God and to redirect the attitude of the child, not just to shape them into the mold of the parent. With God's discipline comes instruction from His Word, that the child will see the goal of the parent is to love and help them to follow the ways of God.

I have seen many parents isolate their children in anger, as though they are putting them away because they don't like them anymore, at least this was the message that was sent.

When we discipline God's way the child knows we are doing it to help them learn good things because of our deep love for them. Back in the day we used to hear parents say when they were spanking the child; "this hurts me more than it hurts you" because we didn't like having to do it.

I used to ask my children; "whose fault is it that you are being disciplined?" Their answer would come back "mine", they knew if they had not disobeyed or acted rudely they would not have been disciplined. They also knew I didn't want to have to do it.

Other parents expressed to me that they hated disciplining their children and did it less than they should have because of the feelings they had when doing it.

I said to those parents; "think of it as just a daily chore, I wash the dishes, I make the bed, I discipline the children", this helped me know that it was a distasteful thing that must be done to train the children, it left me with no ill feelings toward my children or toward my need to obey God in this matter.

God expects us to obey His Word and much of what we have to do is difficult because of the culture we live in and the pressure from others to do things the way the world does them.

When we obey God the world will not understand it and will even malign our character thinking we are doing something wrong. The blessing of obeying God outweighs the pressure of the world. We must do what God tells us and leave all those people who want to dictate our lives to God.

1 Corinthians 2:14 "But a natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned."

Repentance and Forgiveness are Two Sides of the Same Coin both Must be present for a Relationship to be Restored

What many Christians do not understand is that forgiveness is given when repentance is shown, not before. However, we have a forgiving Spirit even if we do not prematurely forgive for feelings' sake. God's timing and ways are perfect. He said to forgive the way He forgives. He forgives when there is repentance.

The reason so many people misunderstand the need for repentance with God is that they believe He forgives them when they are not sorry.

Luke 17:3-4 "…3 Watch yourselves. If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. 4 Even if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times returns to say, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” "

Some people think they are forgiving just by saying they forgive but forgiveness is not a feeling or a thought it is the action of canceling a debt and restoring a relationship.

Superficial forgiveness does nothing, it may even cause enabling allowing the offender to become worse for lack of accountability.

Do not allow superficial Christians to intimidate you into forgiving someone who is a repeat offender or doesn't think they did anything wrong against you. The world teaches wrong things and in so doing they are thwarting God's purposes and possible resolutions.

Gossip and Rumors are Always Peppered with Half Truths and Out and Out Lies

Adrian Rogers: How to Cultivate Selfless and Unconditional Love