07/31/24 DIVINE GRACE AT WORK

07/31/24 DIVINE GRACE AT WORK

Though compromise is not always a bad thing, be aware that even minor compromises on major issues loses the game or nullifies the objective. 

Read carefully.
Take time to find treasures of truth in each verse.
Take time to focus on, and write down, God’s counsel to you.
Deliberately make God’s enlightenment the pattern and schedule for your daily activities 

2 Peter 1:2-12
2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
12 Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.

07/30/24 IT IS GRACE, NOT PREJUDICE

07/30/24 IT IS GRACE, NOT PREJUDICE

Divine justification does not make God blind to your sin, it delivers you from your sin. If you are still guilty of sin, you are not justified. 

Salvation is not simply a bookkeeping entry, it is the work of Divine transformation from death to life, from darkness to light, from sin to righteousness, through the atoning death and physical resurrection of Christ. 

1 John 2:3-8
3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
7 Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.
8 Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.

07/30/24 IMPORTED IDIOCRACY

07/30/24 IMPORTED IDIOCRACY

Mark wrote a post pointing out the national violence of Socialism (as with Venezuela) when their leaders don't get what they want. 

I commented,
"Sad, but probable, which is why we should not trust in horses, chariots, the arm of flesh, the sword of steel (especially in the hands of wicked people), human wisdom, worldly leaders, donkeys or elephants."

07/25/24 PARTISANSHIP PRODUCES CHAOS

07/25/24 PARTISANSHIP PRODUCES CHAOS

I have friends who are professing Christians that have voted for people (as they have stated), who look like themselves, based on race, gender, and/or political party affiliation, and often times have voted for people, platforms and policies, which advance and force taxation, laws, codes, restrictions, oppression on Christians, contrary to the Christian faith and Constitutional protection. 

I also have friends who are not Christians, that vote for politicians who attack family, freedom of speech and faith and financial security, morality, self determination, truth (such as two genders, marriage between a man and a woman, ownership of property, right to life). 

Look at the chaos and corruption we are in now. Identity politics is a destroyer. Vote concerning policies, Christian principles. Turn your back on systems, which do not protect the law abiding and punish the criminals. Turn your back on Socialism. 

However, it will require more than a political vote to deliver Americans: it will take people turning from sin to the Lordship of Christ. 

It is time for people to vote against government that is Socialistic, anti-freedom, anti-Christian, anti-family, anti-American.

07/25/24 DO NOT BLASPHEME

07/25/24 DO NOT BLASPHEME

God requires us to love the person who has done us wrong.
God requires us to forgive the person who has done us wrong. 

God enables us to love the person who has done us wrong.
God enables us to forgive the person who has done us wrong.
As believers, we love and forgive the person who has done us wrong. 

God does not require us to allow, align with, encourage or enable a toxic, destructive person to defile, corrupt, oppress, abuse, malign, disrupt our life or the lives of other loved ones, and He does not allow us to participate or enable others to live in rebellion. 

When a person refuses God's message of reconciliation, it results in a broken relationship. When a person refuses to take Biblical steps of reconciliation, there is nothing anyone else can do for them. 

Broken relationships have happened and are happening between God and evil men, and it happens within families. 

What can be sadder than people separating themselves from their family?
But this has been happening in the human family since the time of Adam. 

Jesus told us that it would happen in Christian families.
Matthew 10:34-38
34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
36 And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.
When there is relational breakdown with Christians, it is because someone is not walking in the way of love, humility and obedience.

07/21/24 HOW LIMITED IS YOUR GOD

07/21/24 HOW LIMITED IS YOUR GOD 

Does your G(g)od forbid you to kill, rape, rob, abuse, lie, blaspheme, pervert, or to dishonor your parents? 

Can your G(g)od deliver you from killing, raping, robbing, abusing, lying, blaspheming, perverting, or dishonoring your parents? 

Is your G(g)od delivering you from killing, raping, robbing, abusing, lying, blaspheming, perverting, or dishonoring your parents? 

If your answer is, "No," to any of these questions, then you do not have "clean hands" or you do not know God or have a right relationship with the God of the Bible, the only true God. 

If your answer is yes to these questions, then let me ask you something else. 

Does your G(g)od forbid carnal anger, hatred, lust, covetousness, malice, deception, evil and corrupt and sinful thoughts, resenting or resisting your parents? 

Can your G(g)od deliver you from carnal anger, hatred, lust, covetousness, malice, deception, evil or corrupt or sinful thoughts, resenting or resisting your parents? 

Is your G(g)od delivering you from carnal anger, hatred, lust, covetousness, malice, deception, evil or corrupt or sinful thoughts, resenting or resisting your parents? 

If your answer is, "No," to any of these questions then you are not enjoying and experiencing the salvation that Christ provides. You do not have a pure heart and therefore you are not walking in the Spirit and you are not walking as He walked, and you are not loving Him with your whole heart, and you are not living by faith. 

If this is the case, then why are you not walking in the light as He is in the light, why do you not crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts and walk in the Spirit? 

If you answer, "No," to the previous questions then the problem is... 

Your god does not want to redeem us from all iniquity (or, as the Greek word, anomia "iniquity" means, "lawlessness"). see Strong's Greek numbering:
(From G459; illegality, that is, violation of law or (generally) wickedness: - iniquity, X transgress (-ion of) the law, unrighteousness), and your god does not want to purify us, even as He is pure.

Or...
Your god cannot save us from all sin in this present life. 

Or...
Your god does not care that we live in sin in this present evil world.
In any case, you are not believing the truth of the Bible, you are not believing the word of God, you are not believing in the salvation of Christ. 

Read God's word and believe it. Don't let the devil give you a Garden of Eden theology lesson, as he did to Eve. 

Titus 2:11-15
11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
15 These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee. 

James 4:7-8
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

07/20/24 SALVATION IS NOT A POLITICAL PARTY

07/20/24 SALVATION IS NOT A POLITICAL PARTY

People have always tended to align their spiritual beliefs with their political foundation. This is problematic for those who want to be Christian because Biblical faith is separate from and independent of political authority.

Americans, for the most part, and especially those who have a western culture Christianity, build their faith foundation on Americanized Christianity, which means it is Statist oriented rather God oriented. This is because the State became intermingled with Christendom, beginning with Roman Catholicism and Anglicanism, followed by the Reformed movement (Lutheranism, Calvinism), and then passed-on to Presbyterianism, Methodism. It has continued to infiltrate most denominational groups since the time of the American Revolution, until today Patriotism and Nationalism (both of which have a legitimate, but limited place the Christian worldview). However, our relationship with the State should always be defined by our faithful relationship with God, rather than our relationship with God being defined by our relationship with the State. 

The idea of human government came from God, going all the way back to Noah. Biblically, human government is the right and the responsibility of men to provide law, order and stability for their society. God is the Lawgiver and God is Judge and God is King (Is. 33:22), therefore human government is supposed to recognize and enforce Divine law, Divine Justice and Divine rule. 

God is sovereign over the entire universe, but His earthly kingdom, since the time of Christ's resurrection, is comprised of those who believe Christ for salvation and acknowledge Him as Lord (King, Master, God) of their lives. 

Human government was established by God to protect the law abiding and punish the law breakers, and it carried with it the authority to punish the wicked. The New Testament clearly states this and makes it clear that this authority and power is given to the State (as a legitimate representative of God) and not to the Church. However, Christians are required to submit to legitimate authority, as long as the authority of man does not conflict with the rule, the authority of God. 

Even godless Governments are accountable to God for their decisions. Though God has not set up a Theocratic Rule over nations, He requires all men to submit to His rule. This does not mean God forces individual compliance, but rather God requires responsibility and accountability. When rulers or citizens disobey God's rule, they are allowed to be willfully disobedient, but they will answer for their disobedience. Sometimes God limits the wickedness of man, but this does not mean that God decreed evil. 

With this as a background, we need to realize that the influence of our society, our culture, our families, our spiritual leaders and teachers, and our nation has often instilled within us beliefs that are not Biblical. We therefore, as Christians, must examine our hearts, our minds, our lives, our habits, our views, our commitments, our relationships and take steps to turn from that which is not Biblical and then pursue that which is God's revealed truth. 

Too many folks align with worldly and even demonic beliefs and behaviors that have been presented as Christian principles. This leads people to abandon God's truth for Satan's counterfeits. God, His word, salvation, Christian values must not be wrapped in the Flag or Red, White and Blue (or any other worldly system). Christians must not substitute or mingle God's rule with human rule or authority. This is something, which Christians must become proactive in doing. Nonchalance and gullibility are two of Satan's off-ramps to deception and destruction.