Wednesday, April 17, 2024

Examine Ourselves to Grow in Holiness

I heard a newscast this morning that was evaluating the impact of social media on relationships.
The conclusion the "psychologist" was coming to was that social media was "making people more aggressive and less empathetic."
I disagreed with this assessment and believe all social media is doing is allowing people to be their real selves when they have no consequences for their attitudes and actions.
Nothing makes us become what we are not already on the inside. Our culture is becoming more tolerant of the natural bent to be selfish, mean and rude. Since there are no consequences for the natural bent toward self-love, many have become comfortable being their real selves when all they have to do is push the "delete" button when others call them to account for their rudeness or crassness.
There is an old saying; "Circumstances don't make the man they reveal the man."
If someone blows up in anger or snarks at a disagreement this is the evidence of arrogance and pride within the person that they were hiding all along.
Let us all evaluate our own hearts, pay attention to our responses to people and ask the Lord for cleansing when we act out in the flesh. Perhaps our own responses are coming from fleshly pride rather than godly evaluation of the circumstances.

Judging Others Based on Gossip

Christian narcissists are those who never get to know anyone but have many judgments about those they dislike. Their dislike is based on correction or disagreements. These people see disagreements as personal attacks worthy of retaliation. They see themselves as so special that anyone who does not agree with them will be their enemy.
Even if the only thing wrong is that these people are arrogant and self-righteous judging everything in those they don't like when they don't know the details and when the person they judge is not sinning but just different from them. These are self-righteous ones special in their own eyes.
Luke 18:9-14
The Pharisee and the Tax Collector
"9 Now He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt:
10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
11 The Pharisee stood and began praying this in regard to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, crooked, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
12 I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’
13 But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to raise his eyes toward heaven, but was beating his chest, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’
14 I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other one; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Sadly many people in the pulpits today who are paid to be there have this superior attitude that since they were formally educated by men and paid to be the center of attention in the church, they should be treated more highly than anyone else.
I once heard a "pastor" say to someone that he needed to "protect his pulpit." There is no place in God's Word that says such a thing. No one man should be so powerful as to be in control of others. The Holy Spirit is the One Who is in control of every born again believer. Pastors who are not paid are there to guide and be an example, they have no authority over anyone and they have no pulpit.
It is human nature to elevate those who have been "formally educated" as though those men teaching them are higher than the Holy Spirit. No one can teach better than the Holy Spirit Who lives in every born again believer.
Those who tell the truth of God's Word are hated by those who think they are special and deserve heaven when all the fruit of the Spirit is missing in them.
When people can never tell on themselves but are continually judging others for things that are not sin, they are presuming they are above the Holy Spirit having all knowledge.
When we are walking with Christ the slightest thought that does not meet with God's standard is dealt with immediately. We confess a problem in the heart before it becomes an action.
Those who are not depending on the Holy Spirit will justify wrong attitudes by accusing others of causing them in us rather than being convicted to confess and be cleansed.
Those who do not confess regularly often regress and even become bitter in their walk, justifying every mean and sinful action as someone else's fault.
Those who listen to gossip love it because believing something about someone else that is distasteful makes them feel better about themselves.
No one is completely free from sin in their heart, we all have sin in the flesh that we must battle continually.
Galatians 5:16-18 "16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh craves what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.…"
No one who is born again has reason to look down on anyone else over disagreements of differences that are not sin. We must be loving and tolerant of differences that are not sin as well as compassionate when someone has sinned and is confessing it to be cleansed.
Galatians 1:1-2 "1Brothers, if someone is caught in a trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him with a spirit of gentleness. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. 2Carry one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ."

Tuesday, April 16, 2024

Loving God's Way


A Good Relationship is Based on the Love of Christ!


My Best Friend

I have the best friend anyone could ever have.
He died for me despite my flaws and warts. He understands me as no one else could or even wants to know me.
He knows my every thought, my every desire, my every struggle and He still loves me.
He has many other names too which describe His nature and purpose for mankind.
He is always there for me when I have a question or when I am suffering. He never leaves me or betrays me. He has promised me a home with Him when I pass from this life, a home beyond anything I could imagine.
Hebrews 13:5 “I will never desert you, nor will I ever abandon you,”
This friend's name is Jesus Christ, no one could be like Him.
My friend told me this; John 15:15
"15 No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends because all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you."
When I fail Him my friend remains faithful, loving, and kind. He said this:
2 Timothy 2:12-14 "…12 if we endure, we will also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He will also deny us; 13 if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself. 14 Remind the believers of these things, charging them before God to avoid quarreling over words, which succeeds only in leading the listeners to ruin.…"
Numbers 23:19
"God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?"
Romans 3:3
"What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God's faithfulness?"
1 Corinthians 1:9
"God, who has called you into fellowship with His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful."
Jesus Christ has been my best friend for many years and will always be there when everyone else is gone. He understands me when everyone else does not care to and when others reject me because of Him He guides me through it all.
You can have this very same best friend. All that is needed is for you to confess to Him that you have a sinful nature and desire to be changed into a new creature by Him. When we believe in Christ and have this desire He will do it.
However, He will not change anyone who does not want to be changed by Him. Words will not save anyone, only the heart that is humble and crushed under the weight of their own sin with the desire to be changed will find salvation in Jesus Christ.
Those who pride themselves on how good they think they are cannot be saved, they will grow weary and become bitter as they no longer hide their sinful pride.
Psalm 51:17
"17 The sacrifices of God are xa broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise."
2 Kings 22:19
"because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its people, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and because you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I have heard you,' declares the LORD."
Psalm 34:18
"The LORD is near to the brokenhearted; He saves the contrite in spirit."
Psalm 147:3
He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds."
The prideful man or woman who cannot weep over their own sinfulness will grow old and emotionally and spiritually destitute even to the grave.
May the Lord reach those who are wallowing in arrogance and self-pity bringing them to salvation!!!

Monday, April 15, 2024

Those Who Love You Will Want to Hear Your Thoughts