Becoming Born-Again

Before I was born again I lived a life of sin, full of sadness and practices that I thought would bring me out of that sadness. But the ways I chose didn't help they only harmed me further. The more I tried to fix what was broken with humanistic thinking the worse things became.

Then one day I fell down on my knees before the Lord in brokenness, shame, and despair. I cried out to the Lord to forgive me and clean up what was wrong in me. From that day forward my Lord loved me and remained my best friend only to bring joy as He fixed what was wrong inside of me.

As the years went by the Lord gave me experiences in life to show me things I had never seen before. He gave me insight into why humanity acts the way they do and that no one has the heart of gold that they want to pretend they have.

What I didn't expect was that those who said they were Christians remained jealous and mean toward me as though there had been no change. They seemed to have developed a hatred toward me for my new joy and peace which they seemed to lack. My eyes were opened to the truth around me and I could Spiritually see the anger in the hearts of those who said they were Christians.

These people didn't commit crimes but they lacked the love of the Lord for one another. They were rude and mean to anyone who spoke of the Lord openly and who was full of joy, as though they resented that they did not possess what the new believer had. These people don't seem to have a story to tell of their sinfulness before they were saved nor are they openly honest about themselves with anyone.

To this day, I remain convinced that no one can become born-again without the same brokenness that I felt on that day the Lord saved me. There is never a reason for anyone to maintain pride in themselves for their own goodness because it does not exist.

The human heart loves to appear good on the outside while on the inside rottenness and self-exaltation flourish. Most unregenerate criminals in jail for their crimes would tell you they are basically good people. Those who have never committed crimes and have lived decent lives as far as we can see will tell you the same thing, that they are basically good people.

Sadly a basically good person could never be arrogant and full of themselves nor could they boast about themselves. Born-again believers authentically changed by Christ know what they came out of, are grateful for His mercy, and can share openly many things that the Lord delivered them from.

I see so many people who attend churches without conviction of their sin of pride, without love and tenderness toward others. I see them hating on people over silly things while rejecting God's word as they claim they follow the Bible.

2 Corinthians 10:17-18

"17 Rather, “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.” 18 For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends."

God said clearly in His Word that no one is righteous and the human heart without Christ is desperately wicked. Those who want to believe they are perfect without flaws are proving they are wicked by their propensity to exalt themselves as gods just as Satan convinced Eve to do in the garden.

Romans 3:9-20 "9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;

11 no one understands;

no one seeks for God.

12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;

no one does good,

not even one.”

13 “Their throat is an open grave;

they use their tongues to deceive.”

“The venom of asps is under their lips.”

14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”

15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;

16 in their paths are ruin and misery,

17 and the way of peace they have not known.”

18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Everyone who claims to be a Christian should have fallen on their knees as I did all those many years ago. Even if they didn't rob anyone, kill anyone, or do anything against society that proved the criminality in their hearts, they did exalt themselves as though they were gods. They elevated themselves above others and judged the flaws of others that they had and still have until they repent in brokenness.

Romans 1:18

"The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness."

Romans 2:1

"You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on another. For on whatever grounds you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things."

Romans 3:19

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.

Romans 3:23

"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,"

I worry more about the pretenders in the church than I do about unbelievers in one sense only, that the pretender believes they are going to heaven therefore they are harder to reach for Christ than the one who knows they have never trusted Christ.

In my estimation, the most frightening passage in God's Word is the one that says many will think they are going to heaven who will be rejected and turned away thinking they are going to heaven because of their own goodness.

Matthew 7:21-23 "21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’"

No one will stand before the Lord and say something as silly as "But Lord, I was a good person."

Psalm 51:17

"17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise."

2 Corinthians 7:10

"10 For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death."

Evidence of a broken heart over sin is the humility that comes with the fruit of the Spirit of God when Christ moves into our hearts.

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."

Hallelujah, Christ changes those with a broken heart but resists those who are proud of how good they think they are, pride leaves when humility comes.

Truth will Set You Free Forever

Often people interpret what you say in their own frame of mind. If they are happy they will place a joyful frame of mind to what they read. They will put a positive spin on it. If they are angry people inside they will see everything as an attack or with wrong motives in other words a negative spin to it.

Selfish people will frame everything as foolish if it does not pertain to them or an attack if it corrects them even if their name is never mentioned.

We see this in the account of David with Nathan. Nathan told David the story of a man who stole another man's lamb. David was furious about the man who did this, but the story was about him. In David's case he was ashamed and repented, but in today's culture when we even so much as hint that someone did something disgraceful those hearing are not only not ashamed but angry that you might have meant them in your story.

The story of David taking another man's wife was in 2 Samuel 12. David was restored to a relationship with God by His deep sorrow over his sin against God. However, in our culture today most people become angry that you told the truth about them and will punish you for the rest of your life for not supporting their sin.

A born-again believer ought to be ashamed and confess when someone points out their sin, so why do so many defend their sin and punish the one who addresses it?

Because for two generations the church has been teaching false gospel that coddles the sinner and beats up on the truth-teller when sin is addressed.

The false gospel that God doesn't care about sin anymore is coming from the prosperity Pentecostals who love to elevate themselves as special instead of confronting their own sin.

How could anyone who is rational and reasonable believe sin was no longer important when Christ the Savior had to die to pay the penalty for it? It is irrational and unreasonable to think because Christ paid for sin with His blood it is alright to sin all we want and still be saved from hell.

Since God cared so much about sin that He gave His Son to pay for it we ought to understand that He hates sin as much as He always did and sent the Holy Spirit to help the one who has trusted in Him to be able to reject and hate sin as much as God does.

Romans 12:9 "Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good."

There it is, we are to hate evil and when we hate something we avoid it, even run from it when it confronts us.

Proverbs 6:16-19

"There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers."

Those who say sin doesn't matter anymore are lying about God, about sin and about the ability of the Holy Spirit in believers to avoid sin. These people are sowing discord among the brethren.

Psalm 119:104

"Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way."

1 John 3:9

"No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God."

Hebrews 10:26-31

"For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.”

These are the people who claimed to be Christians but were never born again.

1 John 2:18-20 "18 Children, it is the last hour; and just as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. This is how we know it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they did not belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But their departure made it clear that none of them belonged to us. 20You, however, have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.…"

Those who speak lies against the Word of God were never born again. There are many in the church today who claim Christianity but have never been born again. We know this because of the following passages.

Matthew 7:21-23 "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 miracles?’

23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I NEVER KNEW YOU; leave Me, you who practice lawlessness.’"

Acts 20:30

"Even from your own number, men will rise up and distort the truth to draw away disciples after them."

We must be vigilant in remaining faithful to the Word of God. When we don't understand something don't go to others, because few can be trusted, God to Christ Who lives in you and He will give you the answer.

I have done this many times and some of those times it took a while for the answer to come. Once the answer was clear from the Holy Spirit there was no going back to the ways most Christians think. When God makes something clear it is embedded in our minds forever.

John 8:31-32

The Truth Will Set You Free

"31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

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."

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!!!