Group Think, the New Normal

When there is "group rejection" it is usually associated with one person, the rejected one does not do or say the things the group likes. There is a "group think" that rejects anyone who is not just like them.

This is becoming more common, the expectations that everyone must think the same way and do the same things in order to be loved is growing because of the last days 2 Timothy mentality.

2 Timothy 3:1-5

1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult ("ragingly insane" is the proper rendering for the word difficult or "perilous") times will come.

2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,

3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,

4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

5 holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such people as these. 6 For among them are those who slip into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses,

7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, worthless in regard to the faith.

9 But they will not make further progress; for their foolishness will be obvious to all, just as was that also of Jannes and Jambres."

The more we grow in the Lord, loving Him above everyone and everything else the more we will be rejected by the world.

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.’"

Refusing to Confess Leads to Spiritual Death

So many "Christians" today refuse to call sin what it is, therefore they are influencing others to enjoy sin too. The apostasy is growing because of the refusal of pretenders to self-reflect according to the Word of God.

2 Timothy 4:3

"3 For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires,"

1 Corinthians 11:30-32 "…30 That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. 31 Now if we judged ourselves properly, we would not come under judgment. 32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.…"

Matthew 7:21-23
I Never Knew You
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.’"

The Don't Judge Mantra is Growing Me Weary

Growing Weary of the "don't judge" mantra as a means of shutting down proper and beneficial instruction.

This is now the "go-to" mantra to keep others from correcting what is clearly a wrong focus or attitude.

The "don't judge" mantra, seems to be used in everything now to keep people from instructing others.

I will no longer let anyone get away with the mentality that we are not to judge anything or speak definitively while instructing our brothers and sisters in proper decorum or attitudes.

2 Timothy 4:2-3 " 2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and encourage with every form of patient instruction.

3 For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires.…"

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

"Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body."

In the matter of clothing at the worship gathering, I must add a little more to my previous post.

Do you, do we, have different kinds of clothing in our closets? Do we have dress clothes to wear to funerals and weddings? Do we have work clothes we put on to dig in the garden? Do we have casual clothes that are tidy and clean to go to visit a friend?

Why do we all have different clothing for different purposes? We have these different clothing styles because different occasions call for different clothing. We dress differently depending on what event or visit we are attending. So why have so many young people chosen the ratting-looking jeans to wear to worship? I suggest that this clothing is a clue as to the inner heart of the one who wears them. The total lack of respect for God and for others is clearly evident. Especially when we see these same people wearing nice clothing to the office party, the weddings, the funerals and the office parties.

The disrespect for God's Word, for rules, for authority is closely tied to these lazy attitudes about clothing styles.

It is disrespectful to come to a wedding in torn and ratty-looking jeans, doing this would make the wearer stand out, distracting from the special party. In order to show respect in attending a wedding, a funeral or a special occasion we put on something more special in deference to those in attendance.

The same disrespectful attitude that is seen nearly everywhere now is reflected in the clothing. Our inner heart cannot be different from our outer choices.

The excuse that someone might be poor in a country such as ours is simply a red herring, it is not reality. Everyone has something decent and respectful to wear to worship, they just choose not to wear it.

The casual mentality about worship is reflected in the disrespectful tone we see in many gatherings today. The worship is superficial and flippant therefore so is the clothing style, it a sign of these end times of overall disrespect for everyone and everything.

The music, the clothing, the events, and much more are evidence we are living in the end days when everyone does what is right in their own eyes and refuses to listen to wise instruction.

2 Timothy 4:3

"3 For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires,"

Romans 12:2

"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."

Romans 12:1

"I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."

The lie that appearances do not matter at all has been around since the 1970's when the hippy generation influenced the thinking of the church.

Nothing can happen on the inside of us without reflecting on the outside. A lazy attitude about appearance and grooming is a dead giveaway of a lazy mentality toward the ways of God.

Don't come to fight to defend lazy dress codes, just pray that the Lord will give you a heart of diligence in all things, that we please Him and not ourselves. Pray that we will not base our dress code on what everyone else is doing but on what God is saying to us.

My challenge is not to think more about clothing, those who defend ratty clothing as a style for church gathering are too focused on clothes and fitting in. To prepare yourselves for worship will lead us to want to be diligent in ALL that we do and wear.

The Parable of the Sower

A Question on the Words; "Trial" or "Tribulation"

A question was posed to me in a comment, that question was "how do I know when I am going through a trial or a tribulation." My answer was the following;

Unbelievers go through trials and tribulations as well as believers.

Matthew 5:45 "so that you may prove yourselves to be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."

Definition of trial: "Examination by a test; experiment; as in chemistry and metallurgy."

Definition of tribulation: "a cause of great trouble or suffering."

Trials are events that test us, with believers a test shows us ourselves so that we will confess to be cleansed causing a spiritual growth spurt. God already knows what we are but in order for us to become aware of our flaws and sinful heart attitudes, we must see our own responses and reactions in the midst of a trial. This is when the real us emerges when we are being tested.

Tribulation is more severe testing to show us our weaknesses and to strengthen us through the experience.

Romans 8:28 "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."

Trials and tribulation are common in life for everyone. Those who are unsaved are allowed to encounter them to learn their need to repent and trust in Christ. For the believer, they are for leading us to confession to be cleansed for growing in holiness.

1 John 1:9 "9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

The Great Tribulation is for the purpose of bringing the Jews back to God. God began with the Jews, abandoned them to go on to the Gentiles and will return to the Jews during the Great Tribulation.

Two-thirds of the Jews will be destroyed and the one-third remaining will trust in Christ and take the gospel to the rest of the world toward the end of the tribulation.

The nation of Israel will remain a nation the entire time, God will fight for her in miraculous ways without the help of any other country of the world. The Lord wants the world to see the miracles. Israel will be saved trusting in Christ because of those miraculous protections for the remaining one-third.

Some Jews will be martyred during this time with the promise of great reward in heaven for having died for Christ and His gospel.

The key here is it doesn't really matter what we are going through, when we hang onto Christ He will go through with us if we are believers, but those who are not born again will have no help from Him unless they confess their sinfulness and trust in Christ.

Isaiah 1:15-16 " 15 When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you multiply your prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. 16 Wash and cleanse yourselves. Remove your evil deeds from My sight. Stop doing evil!…"

Matthew 7:21-23

"“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. 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?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’"

There are many people in these last days who believe they are good people going to heaven who were not good but only thought they were good. God said no one is good without Him.

Good people are not going to heaven, only forgiven people who trust in Christ by faith will go to heaven.

When we trust in what Christ did for us on that cross, dying to pay the penalty for our sin, He will change us into an entirely different person, we no longer think the same way we did before, we are a new creation.

2 Corinthians 5:17

"17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new [a]creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."

Ephesians 2:10

"10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them."

Those who have become born again no longer think the same way they did before, they no longer walk a sinful lifestyle anymore. They are sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise as a guarantee of their inheritance, they are signed, sealed, and delivered.

Ephesians 1:13-15 "…13 And in Him, having heard and believed the word of truth—the gospel of your salvation—you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the pledge of our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession, to the praise of His glory. 15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,…"

Ephesians 2:5-6 "…5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved! 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, "

1 Peter 4

Keep Fervent in Your Love

4 Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because the one who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human lusts, but for the will of God.

3 For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of indecent behavior, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties, and wanton idolatries.

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."

Hallelujah!

The Rapture for Those Who are Born Again

God takes the believer out in the rapture When He is about to bring His wrath upon the earth. We are not appointed to wrath, He will rescue His children from His final wrath. We are living in times of the devil's wrath, that is different, we all have trials because of him.

1 Thessalonians 5:8-10

…8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and the helmet of our hope of salvation. 9 For God has not appointed us to suffer wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 10 He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him."

The Mistranslation of the Word "Stripes"

The word "stripes" in the following passage, is actually singular in the original language. The stripe is referring to the single blow from the Father. For a moment in time, God the Father abandoned Christ on the cross because He could not look at the sin that was laid upon Him, for the world.

1 Peter 2:24 "who his own self bare our sins in his body upon the tree, that we, having died unto sins, might live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed."

God is not nearly as concerned about our physical well-being as He is about our spiritual, which will take us to either heaven or hell depending on whether or not we have trusted in Christ.

When Christ said; "Father forgive them they know not what they do, He was asking the Father to extend forgiveness to the world but each individual had to repent to be born again. The world had the opportunity but would not be saved unless they wanted Christ to change them into a new creation.

The world that dwells in the church today wants us to believe everyone is forgiven therefore we ought to forgive anyone even if they are not repentant. This is nothing more than psychology that has inculcated itself within the church to corrupt God's way of restoring relationships.

Relationships are not genuinely healed by just letting sin pass. Relationships are healed by someone confessing their sin and the other party forgiving. These are two sides of the same coin, they cannot be separated.

The reason so many people within the apostate church believe everyone is going to heaven and that God just winks at sin is because of this false psychological teaching that says; "just let it go." This is the devil's way, he wants people to believe they are being kind by allowing others to remain in sin without repentance because it then keeps them from repenting to God.

Sin is so terrible in God's eyes that someone had to die to pay for it. No human being can die for their own sin because it had to be the blood of the Perfect Lamb shed in order to pay for our sin. Even the Father had to look away from the sin that was laid upon Christ on that cross. Would it make any sense that God would not care about sin when He allowed His own Son to be killed because of it? NO!!!

God never took sin lightly nor does He now. He hates it, it cannot be in His presence, which is why we have to trust in Christ and be changed by Him.

2 Corinthians 5:17

"17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."

When we have been changed by Christ we no longer love the sin we used to do, we love the things of Christ. When someone falsely says: "My sin is no big deal because I am under the blood" are trampling on Christ all over again, even lying against Him.

We are trapped in this sinful flesh which is why we are to crucify it daily. We are to ignore our feelings, our inclinations that do not honor Christ to follow His principles and commands.

Our Spirit is born again, a new creation but our flesh is weak. Notice when we die our body does not go with us, it's because it is corrupted. Only our spirit lives beyond this flesh, it either goes to heaven because it has been changed into the likeness of Christ, having been changed into a new creation by Him, or it goes to hell for those who refused to be changed by Christ through rejecting Him.

If you have been playing the "religion" game, in which you attend church, say all the right things but remain rebellious against Him and His Word, you have never been born again until you repent.

Don't be one of those who hear these terrible words as you approach the gates of heaven;

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 will enter. 22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many [a]miracles?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; leave Me, you who practice lawlessness.’"

Imagine coming before the Lord to give an account and hearing that you are going to hell when you thought you were going to heaven. I cannot think of anything more frightening.