One cannot just "join a church" and think they are a Christian. Born again status is a work of the Holy Spirit. Christ changes us into a new creation we cannot do that to ourselves. He sanctifies us, we cannot do that to ourselves. He keeps us until He comes for us, we cannot do that ourselves. Our response to the gospel is to trust Christ and then He does all the work in us.
If anyone is attempting to make themselves clean apart from the work of the Holy Spirit they are engaged in self worship. The pride that comes from thinking they are doing everything right will destroy their ability to see themselves in truth, that truth being that we are incapable of being good apart from the work of Christ.
Those who believe they have done a good job of following all the rules are involved in a work based religion not followers of Christ.
Those who are works based often place unbiblical rules on others just like the Pharisees did. They make rash and harsh judgments, even guess as to our spirituality or our actions. They treat with contempt those who do not think they way they do or do the same things they do. They require allegiance to them, their ways and their words without deference to others to learn if their ways are actually biblically based.
It is alright to have a standard that is not in the Bible, as long as one knows that it is their standard for God not His command to others.
Romans 14:1-12 "14 As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.
2 One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables.
3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him.
4 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.
6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.
7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's.
9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God;
11 for it is written,
“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall confess[b] to God.”
12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God."
A mother was once chastised by her adult "Christian" children because she stated boldly that her children and her husband were going to watch a movie that had filthy language as well as the Lord's name in vain in it.
She was instructed by these children that she was unsubmissive by not obeying her husband in watching this movie with all of them. This was an abuse of the scripture that says a woman should obey her husband. The husband and the children should have honored the mother by deferring to her counsel.
We are never to obey our husband when he asks us to do something that violates our own conscience before God. Any husband who will not honor his wife is violating her conscience and violating God's law to honor, protect and love with understanding his wife.
A husband who will side with the children in their contempt for the mother for following her own conscience is not obeying God, in fact he is working against her relationship with her God. As well as her relationship with her children. The father should have honored the wife, chosen not to look at the movie and instructed the children that Mother was right.
In another case a wife was instructed by a "Christian" to watch the pornography with her unsaved husband because she needed to obey her husband even if he asked her to do evil. This was a lie from the devil. We are never to disobey God to honor someone above Him. Husbands are not gods, they are human beings with flaws like all of us, we are never to worship our husbands as gods.
Exodus 20:3-5 "3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me."
My response to this wicked "Christian" was to rebuke him strongly that he placed a terrible burden on this new believing woman that could defile her soul.
God said that woman can win an unsaved husband by their obedience to Christ. When the husband sees their dedication to the Lord, even willing to be hated to follow Christ, the husband might think about his own sinful heart and choose to trust Christ.
When you meet "Christians" who pervert the message of the Bible to dominate others we have seen people we need to avoid. These are people who are listening to the devil's whispers rather than seeking God for truth.
When we love God more than any other human being we will not disobey God to obey the human being.
Acts 5:29
"29 Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men."
Shame on those Christians who have used and twisted the Bible to be able to guilt others into entering into sin with them. Shame shame!!!!
Matthew 10:33-35 "33 But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father in heaven. 34 Do not assume that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn ‘A man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law."
Several times over the years Christians have told me how "nice" a person was, boasting about how much they liked this person.
Even worse some Christians would tell me how "classy" a person was when I asked "is that persons born again" they would say "no, but they are really nice." Or, "they are a classy person." What good is that person to be nice or classy when they are on their way to hell.
Anyone can be nice to someone else, it does not mean they are righteous or special. When how a person treats us personally is the measure of a good person we have lost our moral compass.
When how a person appears, that is dressing in classy fashion, driving the right cars, going the popular places, is the first thing that comes to mind when describing someone, I have to believe that the heart of the one who is evaluating their friend is focused on materialism and appearance more than on character.
Any child of God who is deeply walking with Christ would have a focus on character first before any outer appearance.
When someone asks me about a person my first thought is if they are born again or not. I hardly notice a person's appearance unless it is extreme in some way, even then I see their character more than what they are wearing or what car they drive.
Colossans 3:1-3 "1 Therefore, since you have been raised with Christ, strive for the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.…"
Why do so many Christians feel compelled to speak about the ills of the world and the fallenness of the family? Because we live in a world as in the time of Noah and similar to the time of Lot, we grieve frequently over the attitudes and actions of most people around us.
Those who are only looking for the good are fixated on their own happiness. How could one be a born again believer running hard after God and ignore or miss entirely all the evil that is going on in the world today.
We are devastated by the evil around us but we sense its pressing in on us every day. So many people, even those who say they are Christians acting as though nothing is wrong. They are going about their business every day seeking pleasure and enjoyment without any interest that most people around them are on their way to hell.
How could a born again believer not be interested in the end of this life and the beginning of eternity? Eternity is really all that matters.
Yes we live in this life and we have to carry on with daily chores and relationships, but when our focus is heaven we take much less seriously the things of this life. Everything we do is evaluated in terms of eternity. How will we fare in eternity because of how we conducted ourselves on this earth ought to be the determination of every born again believer.
I am convinced that everything we do on this earth will be measured in terms of our appointed position in the Millennium. This life is boot camp for the job we will hold in the kingdom of Christ when He rules on this earth and we rule with Him.
Revelation 20:4-6
"4 Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years."
When our mind is fixated on Christ, how could very much matter on this earth except the winning of souls and the uplifting of the saints in truth?!!!!
Trump clearly said he didn't think he has done anything in his life that he would be sorry for.
Romans 3:23
"23 for all [a]have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,"
He had affairs on his first two wives, married the affairs and married a third time to a woman who was a prostitute, by that I mean posed nude in girly magazines.
There has been no rejection of his hotels where there are mostly naked lap dancers. He has not repented of his affairs and remarriages. He does not strongly come against divorce and remarriage, He has embraced the homosexual agenda, he swears like a drunken sailor, walks over people to gain great fortune and most of all he rejects a need to repent and place his trust in Christ. There has been enough evidence to fill one of his high rise buildings that this man is not a godly man.
Pretending someone is something we like that defies the evidense is not honest.
John 7:24 "24 Stop judging by outward appearances, and start judging justly.”
Why do the conservatives like Trump? Its simple he has learned the things to say that got him that voting block that was not voting in past years, that is conservative Christians.
If you think God is going to bless America or save it, think again. The people are wanting Trump because of the economy, a wall and abortion. While I am glad about these things implementing them will not cause people to repent, confess their sinfulness and trust Christ. In fact they very well make the conservatives a little more comfortable in their sin as well as enraging the far left to riot and scheme even more deeply than they have before.
My only interest is in unsaved people repenting and confessing their sin. America is showing no signs of this happening, in fact the signs are that the country is going deeper than ever into sin, debauchery and willfulness against God. Deception has overtaken most people in many forms.
Mankind is such that for the most part that they see what they want to see, negating all the evidence to feel superior or righteous when in fact they are just the opposite.
“We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.” Benjamin Franklin
When the evidence is placed before us, even declared by the few, and yet those who love their fantasies continue to fight to justify belief in something that is clearly wrong there is willful ignorance. Choosing to believe what we like only leads us further into darkness.
America is going to fall because many if not most people are living in a self exalted fantasy world of make believe, as long as they feel good they don't care what the evidence shows.
I voted for Trump but know how foolish it would be to declare him a righteous man. Even more foolish thinking that he can save America when the people within their own little lives are completely self absorbed dedicated to their own aggrandizement.
Before an entire nation can turn to God there must be repentance on the part of every person. I see just the opposite happening. I see the evil growing, the attitudes more hardened than ever before. If you don't believe me just once speak the truth of Christ in any family gathering and watch the reaction.
Of course there are exceptions but as a rule family gatherings are secular and resistant, even embarrassed to hear anything about Christ or the Bible, even the ones in which there are "church goers."
Galatians 6:7-8
"Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life."
America has sown to the flesh and is reaping what they have sown, devastation.
We are not judging people when we see in them something God described in His word. All we are doing is seeing God's judgment and discerning it in life.
Those that say we are not to judge are most often those who don't want to be judged by others because they know the sin in their own lives.
Notice the scripture they use to proclaim "don't judge" is two little words snatched out of context. When we read the rest of the passage we see that God tells us not to judge other for doing what we are doing ourselves. This would be hypocrisy.
Matthew 7:1-6 "7 “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. 2 For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
God says to remove the problem in your own life so that you can go without being a hypocrite to the person who needs correction.
Matthew 7:6 “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces."
Notice in verse 6 we read that we are not to give wisdom to the dogs, that is rebellious unsaved people. How would we be able to know if someone is a "dog" if we didn't judge through discernment of truth whether or not they are dogs.
The devil loves the lies that modern Christians use to intimidate born again believers into silence, here are a few:
"Don't judge" so that no one feels bad about their sin.
"Just love them" meaning ignore their sin and make them happy.
"We are all under grace", as though grace is a license to sin, God doesn't really care about the sin anymore. This one is so silly its beyond belief. Christ had to spill all His blood to pay for that sin, doesn't seem that it doesn't matter any more. If Christ had to pay for it, then He would have made a way to avoid sinning... and He did that.
"We must be careful to make sure we say things the right way so the hearer will receive it." This one is down right silly! Christ and the apostles were hated by most people and Christ promised that this would be the case. Shall we judge that Christ and the apostles must have done something wrong because the hearers didn't receive it? God said that most would not receive it! The Holy Spirit is the One Who determines our delivery, we do not "think it through with our human mind hoping we don't offend anyone."
All of these modern day mantras came about to threaten us with verbal and emotional abuse if we dare to speak truth. The modern Christian will not accept anything but praise and adulation, anything else is met with anger and rage.
Proverbs 12:1-2 "1 Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid. 2 The good man obtains favor from the LORD, but the LORD condemns a man who devises evil."
Proverbs 1:22 "22 “How long, O simple ones, will you love simplicity? How long will scoffers delight in their scorn and fools hate knowledge? 23 If you had repented at my rebuke, then surely I would have poured out my spirit on you; I would have made my words known to you.…"
Matthew 18:5-7 "…5 And whoever welcomes a little child like this in My name welcomes Me.
6 But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
7 Woe to the world for the causes of sin. These stumbling blocks must come, but woe to the man through whom they come!…"
Those parents who come against their Christian spouse in the raising of the children in the Lord, are in danger for deterring the children from following Christ.
God said that mocking God to children is rebellion against Him and will be dealt with severely.
Men who think bullying is leading are ignorant of the Word of God and not real men. In fact they are children in men's bodies.
