Attending the Gathering of Believers

Attending the gathering of believers is not for the enjoyment of each other, even though that is a result. It is for the collective worship of God.

When the gathering becomes about the people then it is not worship but a social club.

We can be together to enjoy one another other times and to serve one another. The gathering is for worship of God through Christ and equipping the saints to witness the gospel.

IF a gathering is for gaining knowledge and fellowship alone then it is not Biblical. We come to gether to encourage one another in the faith, to make Christ the center of our lives that He might be glorified and that we grow in holiness.

Ephesians 4:11-13 – "And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."

All reacti

Toxic Religion Vs. True Belief

Not What to Pray but How to Pray in Our Own Words

God only gave us one example of how to pray, not what to pray, here it is:

Matthew 6:9-13

"The Lord’s Prayer

9 “Pray, then, in this way:

‘Our Father, who is in heaven,

Hallowed be Your name.

10 Your kingdom come.

Your will be done,

On earth as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day [d]our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13 And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.’"

Seeing the Whole Matter Exposes the Truth

When we can only see a small portion of a matter we cannot make a decision about truth. Those who choose portions of the Bible and ignore others will not see truth as well as those who change the meaning of the scriptures to fit their culture.

We see more scripture being dismissed than obeyed in our culture today. Many people use the Bible to fit what they wish to believer and become angry when an authentic Bible believer comes along and corrects their false assertions.

Romans 1:18-25

"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ."

It is a choice to become a fool refusing to believe God's Word as He spoke it.

For those who have been authentically born again by the power of the Holy Spirit when they confessed their sinfulness and desired to be changed by Christ, we have the truth because we seek God for it. We do not depend on the culture to shape us, we depend on Christ.

John 16:13

"When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come."

We need not take seriously those who rage against us when we tell the truth. We are merely the messengers guided by the Holy Spirit, the response of others is God's business.

John 8:31-32

"So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Those who abide in God's Word (Christ) are those who were changed by Christ. Those who do not abide in God's Word (Christ) were never born again.

Those who have been changed by Christ and have the Holy Spirit living in them will connect Spiritually with those who are also born again and abide in Christ.

God said; "you shall know them by their fruit."

Matthew 7:15-20

You Will Know Them by Their Fruits

15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?

17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.

19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them."

What is the fruit of the Spirit of God Who lives in born-again believers?

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."

When we see a lifestyle of anger in someone who claims to be a Christian, without remorse for their evil toward those they dislike, we are seeing someone who is a pretender, they were never born again and are resisting the Holy Spirit. No one who resists the Holy Spirit in their lifestyle is born again.

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.’"

God wanted us to be able to discern the difference between those who belong to Him and are our family and those who are just pretending. The reason we need to discern this is because many false Christians will bring in cultural ideas which are against God's Word while claiming they come from God.

We can know if someone is a pretender by their overall spirit of rebellion against God's Word and their angst toward correction from the Holy Spirit.

Believers can disagree at times but they do not hate those who disagree, they enjoy the discussion and seek the truth in prayer depending on the Holy Spirit to guide them.

Pretenders almost always become angry when corrected. They want to believe they "know it all", when they really do not know it all but worse they spread false doctrine to justify their own appetites for their fleshly desires.

2 Timothey 4:2-4 "2 preach the word; be ready [a]in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and [b]exhort, with [c]great patience and instruction. 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, 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth and will turn aside to myths. 5 But as for you, use self-restraint in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry."

Remember this to have that ever-present peace and joy that soon this mess will be over and we will have our reward for being faithful to the Word of God, Jesus Christ.

2 Timothy 4:6-8 "For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.

7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith;

8 in the future there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing."

The dead in Christ and the living in Christ will one day see His appearing in the clouds coming for His Church. The bodies of the dead will be reunited with their Spirit and the living will have new bodies. All of this happening instantaneously!!! In a twinkling of an eye we will be freed from this wicked world.

May the pretenders realize their need to repent, confess and be cleansed by Christ and may those who are already born again worship and praise God for His amazing kindness to us.

Hallelujah!!!!!

God Gives the Gifts we do not Choose Them

Each born again believer has a calling given to them by God, no one is more important than anyone else.

These are the gifts of God given by God, they are not the choice of the receiver.

1 Corinthians 12:1-11 " Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be unaware.

2 You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to the mute idols, however you were led.

3 Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus is accursed”; and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.

5 And there are varieties of ministries and the same Lord.

6 There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.

7 But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

8 For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit;

9 to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit,

10 and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues.

11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.

None of these gifts are according to gender, they all come from God and both genders have all the gifts.

There are some gender rules as to leadership in the gathering but those who are told not to lead over men in the gathering may be called to preach to unbelievers and teach to others outside the gathering.

Far too many ungodly people are attempting to make rules for believers that God never made, based on their false interpretation of God's Word according to their culture.

When you are called by God to do something and it does not violate God's Word then we need not listen to those who are sent by the devil to discourage you from using the gift you have from God.

Hallelujah!!!!!

Freedom in Christ Avoiding the Gossiper

When we begin to realize the gossip is so intense and frequent that it is impossible to extinguish, it is time to give up trying to understand the gossiper or explain our side, then is the time to walk away from all those who speak the gossip and all those who listen to them.

When someone is so covert and clever in secretly speaking to others and the others are not interested in the other side of the story, we can not fix it. It is a form of indoctrination and brainwashing. It is a sort of "Stockholm syndrome" in which the captive is treated special so that the one who is isolated from others begins to believe their captor.

It is akin to the story of the "Emperor's New Clothes" in which the emperor proclaimed that he would be in the parade with his new clothes on to display before the crowd. The crowd becomes excited as he walks by that his new clothes are so beautiful.

One little girl in the crowd tells the truth and proclaims, "he doesn't have any clothes on, he is naked." No one believes her because they are believing what they want to believe and making up in their mind an image that does not exist. This is what comes from elevating people above God. If the culture likes someone no one will tell the truth about them. In fact, there is rage when the truth is exposed.

We are living in a culture just like this now. People are repeating mantras that have no basis in truth but they cannot be convinced when someone comes along and declares, "but that's not true, here is the proof." The crowd will shut down the truth before anyone has a chance to hear it.

The crowd goes with the crowd, they will not listen to the one lone person who tells the truth.

We are living in a time when the culture is so filled with an overabundance of fiction and fantasy that when the truth comes along the crowd will not accept it. Instead, they will choose what they wish to believe and fight bitterly against the truth.

These lies have become so constant that those who love their fantasy will rage at the truth-teller. They will evaluate everything the truth-teller does or says in terms of how they want to think and not the way the truth-teller explains and has witnessed for themselves.

It is amazing how many people are so willing to believe the lies of the gossip without any evidence of their own to prove what is being said. As long as their friends are saying it they have no need to check it out with the other side to see if it is true.

And, even if the truth-teller says something happy and jovial, it will be interpreted as mean without any further discussion.

You can usually discern when there has been gossip, there is a way the crowd acts around you that they do not act around others they like. Those who gossip take on favorites based on their own jealousy and prejudice while disregarding and demeaning the targets of their gossip.

Proverbs 11:13

"13 One who goes about as a slanderer reveals secrets,

But one who is [a]trustworthy conceals a matter."

Gossips don't merely speak what they saw, they always embellish what others told them that they didn't see for themselves.

Ephesians 4:29 "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."

Gossip is designed always to destroy the person who is being gossiped about, never to uplift, uphold and help them.

Proverbs 11:9

"With their mouths the godless destroy their neighbors,

but through knowledge the righteous escape."

Matthew 5:11

"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me."

We can be thankful when we are not accepted by the culture. The culture deeply influences those who are captive to it. Those who must be accepted by the culture will never be free.

We must avoid gossipers they will destroy people without good evidence and sometimes even worse with "half-truths" which are "whole lies" disguised as the truth.

Proverbs 15:4

"The soothing tongue is a tree of life,

but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit."

Those who have seen things for themselves and base their actions on what they have seen always want "the rest of the story" and never treat people disrespectfully just because of what they thought they saw or what others told them Good and honest people go to the source and ask for the truth unless there is no need to know.

Wicked people look for things to be angry about in those they are jealous of or who walk in righteousness. They did it to Christ and all the apostles.

When we become aware that someone does not want to hear the truth, then we are free to walk away and avoid that person until Christ works in their life.

We are free to walk in Christ all of our days no matter how many people reject us. And, we will be rejected by most because evil hates truth.

Matthew 10:21-22 "…21Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rise against their parents and have them put to death. 22 You will be hated by everyone because of My name, but the one who perseveres to the end will be saved. "

Proverbs 29:27

"An unjust man is detestable to the righteous, and one whose way is upright is detestable to the wicked."

Isaiah 66:5

"You who tremble at His word, hear the word of the LORD: "Your brothers who hate you and exclude you because of My name have said, 'Let the LORD be glorified that we may see your joy!' But they will be put to shame."

Freedom in Christ is far more desirable than the love of worldly people. We have to compromise who we are in Christ to remain their friends with the world, it is not worth it.

James 4:4 "4 You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God."

John 8:36

"36 So if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed"

Hallelujah!!!!

Like

Comment

Share

The Great wars await Israel as prophesied in the Bible