Saturday, April 13, 2024
Don't Tell Me what you are going to do, Just Do It
Our hearts are what drive our actions, our hearts cannot be different or separate from our actions. When someone says you don't know my heart, we can reply with; "I know your heart by your actions."
And, words mean very little in terms of evidence for our hearts. We can say many things we know people want to hear without any commitment to those words.
Matthew 12:34-37
"34 You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, express any good things? For the mouth speaks from that which fills the heart. 35 The good person brings out of his good treasure good things; and the evil person brings out of his evil treasure evil things.
36 But I tell you that for every careless word that people speak, they will give an account of it on the day of judgment.
37 For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Our actions prove our hearts! Believe Actions not Words
The Lies of the Stoics
In the past few months, I have been reading about the "Stoics" who had some wisdom abut how to live our lives but although completely focused on self. The more I read the more I realized the Stoics such as Seneca, viewed life from a humanistic perspective of good family practices with the choice of whatever god one wanted to emulate.
One of Seneca's quotes demonstrates the monstrous view of the family he had and the thinking of his time.
When you read much of the philosophy of the Stoics it sounds like they are reading from the wisdom of the Bible, but they are completely and totally focused on using wisdom and acting rightly for one reason only and that is "self." Their wisdom that sounds like Biblical standards are extolled as the way to live that best enhances one's own life.
Sadly our culture in America is teaching "self-esteem" and "self-reliance" with or without a god more than anything else. In fact for over 40 years now church attendees have been upholding the "self-esteem" teaching as paramount in child rearing, causing disrespect in children for anyone else.
Sadly Stoicism is back in force only under a different banner and subtle schemes of the devil. Those who tell the truth about these things are rejected, and even demeaned for exposing them for what they are, which is the devil's handiwork.
Our country has returned to the barbarism of the Stoics, however, so cleverly disguised as new discoveries. They even use wisdom from the Bible wrapped in "self-care" to sell their lies.
This is why it is so important to look beyond the Bible wisdom the Stoics sell placing it back in their context. We discover when in the context of their writings we see a little Bible wisdom without crediting God, and a whole lot of humanism that elevates oneself to the level of a god.
This is the same ploy the devil used in the garden when he told Eve she could be like God. He managed to convince her that "God" was a mean guy just wanting to oppress her. Of course, believers know the opposite is true, God has commandments to help us have hope and live lives that protect us from evil.
2 Thessalonians 3:3
"3 But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one."
Psalm 46:1 "God is our refuge and strength,
A very ready help in trouble."
As born-again believers we walk in the Spirit and just like Him we desire to help people, saving them from their own ungodly desires, pointing them to God's Word so that they too can know how wonderful it is to be guided and protected by their Creator.
The only way this can happen for non-believers is if they trust in Jesus Christ by faith, believe Him, and desire to be changed into a new creation by Christ.
Those who are born-again seek Christ with their whole heart and may those who are not yet born-again believe in Christ and allow Him to change them into a new creation.
What People Say or Want Does not Matter, Christ Matters
When you realize people are gossiping about you remember they did it to Jesus Christ too.
Matthew 9:1-8, Mark 2:23-28, Luke 6:1-5, Matthew 10:25 and more.
When Christ in you leads you to a particular calling you can be sure there will be those who judge it without knowing the particulars and without interest in finding out.
Legalism is following rules God never made and requiring others to follow them too. Obedience to God's Word is searching His Word for the truth and allowing the Holy Spirit to work in us to obey Him.
We do not obey the culture around us whether it is in church gatherings or out of church gatherings. We obey Christ Who lives in us.
As we muddle through these end times we will find very little support from others. Most people in churches will not understand what we are doing and will even believe it is wrong. Sadly most "Christians" who attend churches do not know the Bible and what they think they know they do not understand.
Only those who are seeking Christ, the Holy Spirit in them, will be able to discern truth from error and it will lead to a life of aloneness. Notice I said aloneness not loneliness. We are never alone when Christ lives in us as long as we seek Him in all things.
There can be no greater companion than the Holy Spirit of Christ. He is everything we need.
I have been more lonely in crowds and among family than I ever have being alone with Christ. No person can offer the love that Christ offers and no person can understand the things of God except those who have the Holy Spirit living in them.
Philippians 3:8-12
"8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them mere rubbish, so that I may gain Christ,
9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,
10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;
11 if somehow I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already grasped it all or have already become perfect, but I press on if I may also take hold of that for which I was even taken hold of by Christ Jesus."
Hallelujah!!!!
Thursday, April 11, 2024
The Most Wonderful Thing About Salvation
1 Corinthians 13
"If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.
11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.
12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
The Greatest of all Fruits of the Spirit of God is Love. The first of the fruit of the Spirit is love.
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."
No Need for Grandiose Miracles, We Walk by Faith
Luke 16:29-31
"29 Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, Father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’ ”
2 Corinthians 5:7
"7 For we walk by faith, not by sight."
Those who require grandiose miracles to keep up faith have little faith.
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