Yes! If you are a believer, you will long to go to church. Why? for fellowship, edification, serving and most importantly to worship God with other believers.
It is crucial to be in a true church. If we have been born again then we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us and He will lead us to a true church if we listen to Him.
A true church teaches the whole word of God in truth. They will preach the gospel. That is…Jesus Christ crucified, dead, buried and resurrected…all for sin.
If repentance for the remission of sins is absent in the gospel at the church we choose, then it is a false church. Its that simple. But God will lead a true believer to a true church. I didn’t say to a perfect church, but a true church.
John 7 says that if we obey God, He will teach us right doctrine; He will show us whether it is true or not.
The disobedient won’t hear.
There comes a point in the maturing of a believer when our going to church changes. At some point, God will nudge us to begin using our spiritual gifts and attend in that way. There comes a point where we are off milk and on meat, and will be out in the field so to speak; but still in contact and fellowship with the “church”…the people of God.
The Apostles and prophets, preachers, teachers were on task…not still sitting in the congregation learning.
Maybe it is teaching every week or whenever and where ever God calls. Maybe it is in visiting the sick and weary for counsel and encouragement. Maybe it is in mentoring younger, newer believers. Maybe it is in hospitality or some type of administration…on it goes.
So if we are new believers and even just young believers, we most likely should be in the congregation learning. But if we are mature, seasoned believers, we should be out…in the field…sent.
Now, this is not license to not attend church because we think we are grown up in the Lord. God will show us when it’s time to change the way we attend…and it might not be in any conventional way or in any way we have ever seen.
Paul traveled the world preaching the gospel, then sat in a prison cell to write.
What is He calling you to do? Listen hard.
In Christ Jesus today,
Amen!
The Lord woke me up around 12:00 am two nights ago and said this and told me to write it down so I would remember the next morning…
This is what He said: God will do what I ask of Him, in direct proportion to how much I do what He asks me. And what He asks me to do is found in His word.
So many wonder why God seems to not do what they ask. James tells us one reason and the rest of the word tells us another through principals, and that is what I heard from God at midnight.
“You have not because you ask not, and when you do ask you ask amiss so that you can consume it in your lust”.
So I know I should choose Gods will in everything I do and say but often choose my own way. So that means I am not doing what He asks of me and likewise, He won’t do what I asknof Him.
It all goes back to obedience. If I obey God, and that is what it means to love God with my whole heart, if I obey God…then I will find that all my prayers are answered.
If I go my own way and esteem Him in a very low way, then He won’t hear me.
The word tells us that everywhere.
Obeying God…doing what He asks… means Jesus Christ is being fully formed in me.
If Jesus Christ is formed in me in fullness then God does what I ask. Why? Because I will then only ask what He wills for me.
Good to know.
Luke 22…Do this in Remembrance of Me…
1 Corinthians 11:23-26…Proclaim the Lord’s DEATH until He comes…
Passover (14th of Nisan) Jesus was crucified for the sins of the world.
2019, April 20th was Passover which began at sundown April 19. Tuesday is Firstfruits, the very day of the resurrection…April 23rd this year.
God’s days are from sundown to sundown.
Feast of Firstfruits (17th of Nisan) Jesus was raised from the dead. He, as our High Priest, presented Himself to the Father as our Firstfruits offering…promising the rest of the Harvest when it was all ripe and ready. This is the first resurrection when the dead in Christ will rise and be caught up with Him in the air.
The Bible tells us that the man of perdition will seek to change times and seasons.
The first church until 300 ad, kept the Passover to recognize Jesus’ death and then resurrection. We don’t see Easter in the Bible.
Something happened, and our calendars and seasons were changed and now the church does not recognize the Passover that Paul said he must keep and the first church celebrated after Jesus ascended.
God will change them back.
Jesus never said “remember My resurrection”. He said “remember My death”. Why?
It is because there is no resurrection without first His death. When celebrating His death, the resurrection automatically follows.
There is no salvation without death. There are people celebrating the resurrection who have never entered in through His death. They have come in over the wall.
We have to first be confronted with our sin and our dead nature because of our sin before we can partake of His resurrection.
Today, few acknowledge they are sinners and dead in sin, whereby remembering His death at the Passover. They just admire Jesus and run to the resurrection. But they have no part in it if they haven’t come to Him first in death because of sin. Only then does then resurrection truly belong to the person.
All men are once born. They are dead in sin. In order to know God and enter Heaven they must be born again or Spirit born. Born twice.
How can a man be born again? Jesus said that which is born of flesh is flesh. That which is born of Spirit is spirit. Only the Spirit born know God.
So how are we spirit born? We must come to Jesus in repwntance for the remission of sins. Then immediately we are Spirit born and enter Heaven forever.
The resurrection is a by product of Jesus’ death. Without His death there is no resurrection. But if there is His death in our hearts then suddenly the resurrection wells up in the heart and belongs to us.
Simple truth. Thank You Lord Jesus. Amen.
(What is it really?)
The Catholic Catherdal at Norte Dame in Paris, badly burned…personal thoughts…
I just wanted to send a few facts about what we call communion, as believers. It is very misunderstood so I thought I’d compile what the Bible tells us about breaking bread as believers.
The first thing to note is what the bread and wine are not: They are not the eucharist. This is a pagan concept that the apostles doctrine (which is the only doctrine we are to follow…and we find it in the Bible) would find repugnant.
The eucharist is a catholic concept that teaches that an ordained minister (not found in the Bible) prays over to make it holy and magically turns it into the actual body and blood of Christ. This means that He is crucified all over again for our sins and if we ingest the eucharist, He enters our body again, and we are forgiven again.
They are not a means of spiritual power or ability. The Bible simply says that it is an act of remembrance of His completed work on the cross and to do it as often as we want, until He returns. It is simply a means of fellowship with one another in Christ and a focus on the fact that it is His death and resurrection that has saved us. It is a remembrance and it is for our good.
It is not to be taken in the sorrowful mindset of a funeral, but as a joyful celebration of life everlasting!
It is not to be taken or observed by anyone but a true believer. Unless a person has been born again, they have no fellowship yet in the body and blood of Christ until they have repented of sin and have been born again by faith in Christ.
It is not to be taken in an unworthy manner (1 Corinthians 11:24-30). This is left open so it encompasses all manner of unworthiness. The first thought is that an unbeliever is unworthy. The second thought is that a believer who is harboring known sin in his heart and partakes of the bread and wine, is in danger of serious illness and even death. It is a very serious matter and Paul warned us that some of us are weak, sick and dying because of this very reason.This is in no way saying that everyone who is sick or dies in Christ is in a state of sin. Only God and the believer know that. Paul and Tromphimus were filled with the Spirit and God’s will yet remained ill. This is our precedent.
This means believers. So this would be considered what John called a sin unto death. It’s when a believer persists in known sin and God has given them time and space to stop it but they refuse. They remain in their old ways. He will take them home. Why? Because a person with the seed of Christ in them cannot sin. He won’t permit it. 1 John 3:9, 1 John 5:16 (The word for sin here refers to a known, intentional and continual siding against the will of God).
1 Cor. 11:24: Jesus gives the only, the complete, the pure and the simple explanation of what communion is and how to observe it. Anything additional was added to the scriptures by pagan Rome practices and remains in some of the church. Because the church that first fell away after pagan practices did not and does not believe that salvation is by faith alone, they needed practices and works to save them. This is how communion was first corrupted.
“And when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘Take, eat: this is My body which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of Me'”.
vs 25, “After the same manner also, the cup, when He had supped, saying, “This cup is the New Testament in My blood: this do ye, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me'”.
Paul goes on to explain that as often as we do this we show the Lord’s death till He returns. In other words, we remember or point to the Lord’s death. We don’t re-create the Lord’s death.
The death of Christ was not a defeat but a victory! It is accomplished!!! Satan tried to prevent it. He failed. Jesus accomplished His death on the cross, and now death is swallowed up in victory! Isaiah 25:8 “He shall swallow up death in victory…” 1 Corinthians 15:54 we see that Paul tells us the crucifixion was that prophesied victory!
John 6:48 “I am the bread of life…” Jesus explains to many who gathered around Him that He is the bread of life. He is claiming here to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He is trying to get them to see that He is the fulfillment of the passover lamb. He Israelites were told that they must eat all of the Passover Lamb before morning and leave none of it. It must be consumed. What was left had to be burned. Jesus is telling them that the lamb was a foreshadowing of Him. He tells them that unless they eat His body and drink His blood, they have no part in Him. Many turned away at this thought. They could not accept that the Messiah was that Lamb slain for the sins of the world. We, as believers are also to consume Christ for every single need in life: Take from Him, learn from Him, follow Him, dwell with Him, hide with Him in God…We can do nothing on our own. We need Him for everything. This is what it means to consume Christ.
Why couldn’t they receive it? Because they wanted their own good works and rituals to save them, giving them merit. By eating the Lamb of God (coming to Him for salvation, whereby being washed in the blood of the Lamb, cleansed from sin) they would show complete poverty of spirit and total bankruptsy. The proud do not want to admit that so they turn away to religion and ritual…which makes them feel worthy by what they do…appeasing God.
Who is it that inherits the Kingdom of Heaven? The poor in spirit. Matt. 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven”.
How do we know that The bread and wine are symbols and not the actual body and blood of Christ? Hebrews and 1 Peter tell us. Hebrews 9:28 “For Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many…” (He was offered to ALL, but only a few will take, this is why we see MANY; only a few will ever partake of Him though He dies for all and is offered to all).Jesus was offered once for all. He is not re-crucified again and again for sin. This is what the catholic church teaches as well as many denominations. Hebrews 10:10 says it again. He was offered once.
1 Peter 3:18 “For Christ has also suffered once for sins…”Hebrews 6:6 …If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves, the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame.”
This is so serious. This portion of scripture is explaining that once a person is saved by faith in Christ, he cannot fall away into a lost state. If it were possible, then we would be saying that Jesus could be crucified again for us to save us again…and this is not only impossible but it is putting Him to an open shame…trampling Him underfoot.
So to take the bread and wine and to claim that it is the literal body of Christ, means that he has to be crucified again and again. Jesus went out of His way to warn against such blasphemy. “It is finished” “Paid in full”. Never to be done again…only remembered by His own who entered in through faith.He is put to OPEN SHAME the word says. The eukarist, or the mass (where we get Christmas..it is Christ’s Mass), is a constant re crucifying of the RISEN Lord, the ASCENDED Lord, and the ONE who is seated on the throne in Heaven. His death is accomplished, never needs doing again, and He is on His way now as the LION…not the slain Lamb.When He appears again He will be the Lion from the tribe of Judah and His vesture is stained with blood but not His (Isaiah 63). It is the blood of the wicked, the unredeemed, the Christ rejecters.
So clearly, communion is to be done simply, as a remembrance of Christ’s death, as often as we like and for the express purpose of examining our hearts before Him while we wait for Him to come get us. This causes us to follow Him more closely by heart change, not magic.
The Nicolaitans were a group whose doctrine Jesus said He hated. They lorded it over the others. They established a hierarchy in the church which is not to exist. Isn’t that what we see when we have self imposed higher ups in the church who have the “authority” to pray over and transform the bread and wine, to have sole rights to administer the communion supper? I think so.
If we never partake of the bread and wine,we show ourselves to be outside the body of believers. Jesus said to do this in remembrance of Me. Do it with the right heart. That’s our only instruction. Any believers at any time they choose wherever and whenever they choose should enjoy the communion of the supper. There should be no hubbub, no ceremony, not ritual,no solemnity, no hierarchy, no man-made ordinances and no hesitancy. Any hesitancy shows that we are holding on to old ways and fear His judgement. But we should instead examine our hearts and love His cleansing and follow Him, agree with Him.It should be done with a joy-filled heart and mind, with no fear that comes from man-made ideas about it. How much so many have missed because they have added to to word of God and have confused and complicated the simplicity that is in Christ!How many have been misled into thinking that this is actually His body and blood that are re-cleansing them! They have a false sense of security and continue in old ways against God because they believe this ritual takes care of it all. They never change their minds and their ways and they suffer for it. But if it were rightly known and followed, hearts would be changing into His image. Thats the whole purpose…to keep us while we wait on Him to come get us.
I would encourage all of us to examine what our own churches teach. Make sure they are not adding to the word. Each one is responsible to God. We have no mediator but Christ, the very Spirit of God who teaches us perfectly, and He teaches through the word of God an not any teacher preacher of church. “…You have no need that any man teach you…” (1 John 2:26-27). Here we see that John warns against being deceived by anyone. The Holy Spirit within us teaches us and He does it first through His word and then for those who have labored in the word to know it, through spiritual discernment.I hope this gives us a fresh and exciting and joyful understanding of the incredible privilege we have at the Lord’s table!
Thanks for listening! Have a blessed week in Christ!Love,Cheryl
What the news is calling s symbol of Christianity, the cathedral at Norte Dame, is anything but that and it burned yesterday.
Is God responsible? I wonder. He tore down the Tower of Babel. Rather than a symbol of Christianity, it is and has been a symbol for paganism on earth for 850 years.
God has said that He doesn’t dwell in buildings made with hands. His building is the hearts of believers. That’s where He dwells. His church is the whole group of people who have believed on Christ and been Spirit born and now have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of them.
God has nothing to do with extravagant buildings. These cathedrals are nothing more than monuments to pagan gods…who are using Christ’s name.
He warned us not to be deceived by any Christ that was not the true one. A strange Christ built this building and now it’s burned.
The true Christ, Jesus Christ, is building His true church…the people of God…and there is no building.
Maybe God is moving in a special way through this. We will see.
In Christ Jesus, Who alone is glorified in His church…the people of God.
Amen.
What is a rhema word? Is this just some charismatic curch concept or is it scriptural?
It’s scriptural.
The Bible is written in 2 languages originally. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew.
The New Testament was written in Greek. Why? Because the OT was given to the Jews in order to establish a covenant people, who would then show the whole world who God was…that’s why, : )
The NT was written in Greek because the whole world was under Greek speaking Roman control when it was written and it shows that the whole word now was given to the whole world…The Jews first, then to the believing Jews and gentiles.
Around 260 years before Jesus came to us the first time, the OT had already been translated into Greek, which is the Septuagint. Jesus quoted not from the Hebrew original but from the Septuagint!!! Fascinating!
Why? Because now, God’s message has come to the whole world and Rome was basically the whole known world then.
The word used in the OT for what English speaking people would use as “word” is the same through out the entire OT. It is “dabar”. It means speech. Communication. It has no further meaning which is also extremely fascinating.
Why?
It’s because The Holy Spirit was given in an indwelling way after the ascension of Jesus and the word “word” now has many meanings.
Genesis 1 we see that God spoke the world into existence.
In John we see Jesus Christ is the “word” and He created everything that there is. He is God, Creator God. But the word used here for “word” is not “dabar” or it’s equivalent. It is rather, “Logos”. It means, the expression of a thought and not just an object.
So we see that Jesus is the word made flesh who walked among us. And that word spoke everything into being because He is God. Paul says same thing in Collosians.
So we see in the NT that when “word” is used and Logos is the Greek word used, it refers to just this, the expression of God’s word.
Then there is “Rhema”. This greek word is used when we see “word” used to differentiate between the actual expression of the written word of God, and a different kind of communication from The Holy Spirit who is God, to the individual.
It will never contradict the “dabar”, word or the “logos” word. But it will take that part of the written word of God and speak it in a very specific way to an individual who is reading His word.
It happens constantly to the one seeking God with their whole hearts. Here is an example:
I was praying and weeping one day for my children’s salvation if they were not really saved yet, and or for their sold out walk with Jesus if they were. God interrupted me and told me clearly to get up and stop crying and go pick up my Bible and read where I left off in Jeremiah the day before.
I did and I received a clear word, “rhema” from God in direct answer to my prayer, He does this constantly.
I read, Jeremiah 31:16-17. “Thus says the LORD. Refrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears. For your work will be rewarded says the LORD. They shall come again from the land of the enemy. There is hope in your end, says the LORD, and your children shall come again to their own border”.
I knew it would come to pass and a few years later it did!
This is a “rhema” word.
I am so sad when I hear my favorite teachers err so greatly here. They joke about this work of God and attribute the work of the Spirit to nonsense. But they are ignorant here. God does speak using His word with a very direct message to believers.
Now can we apply Jeremiah 31:16-17, or any other verse, as speaking to Egypt instead? To another group instead. NO!! Scripture is not up for private interpretation. We can’t say, oh you see Israel as being spoken to here but I see He is speaking to Egypt, or whomever. It has one correct contextual meaning and that never changes and can’t be one meaning to you and another to me. That would be private interpretation..wrong. It was to Israel as it was spoken historically. Period.
However, God can take that exact verse and tell a believer reading it that this message or arrangement of words is a private message to them and to apply it to their lives.
…not as we wish, but as the Spirit miraculously speaks it, as I gave the example. It doesn’t contradict or give another contextual meaning to the verse. It just says by the Spirit, Yes, I am talking to you right now.
Now it is not a ‘rhema” word if I just read it in passing and said….God said my children would return to their own border!!! Yay!
NO! That is a private interpretation. He might not be saying that to you. You have to know because He has made you know through miraculous events like I described. The words were exact and direct and detailed answers to my exact prayer at that exact moment and I knew He was about to answer that prayer with His exact words when I did just what He told me to do.
Now Vines says it beautifully: loose quote… the difference in the NT between logos and rhema is that a rhema refers to personal instruction by the Spirit. He brings the word of God to mind in time of need with a personal message.
This is a glorious “rhema” word from God.
Hallelujah! Jesus Christ be praised!
There is a sin unto death the Bible says. This is a sin worthy of death that God alone has determined must happen and no praying will change it.The sin unto death belongs to the believer and not to the non believer. John says that we who see such a thing happening should not even pray about it. It has to happen.We as believers when we read this scripture and meditate upon it should get sick to our stomachs to a degree…not for the sake of hopelessness because hopelessness has no place in the believer’s heart. But we should feel the tinge of sorrow that is brought on by the fact that sin has been so grievous in a certain believer that God has no choice but to end that believer’s life on earth and take them home.John is the apostle given this message to give to the church as a warning. He has said that the one who has the seed of Christ in him cannot sin.The actual rendering is this: The one who has the seed of Christ in him (a true believer) cannot continually walk in opposition to God’s will.If he does, he will commit the sin unto death.”A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 “describes it so brilliantly. He says that a shepherd who has a sheep that just keeps wondering off will give her many, many chances to obey his instruction and stay with the flock. If she continues to wander off, he will first break her leg and bind it up then carry her on his shoulder until the broken leg is healed and she has a chance to change her wandering ways. If, after her leg is healed and she is allowed to walk on her own again, she still wanders off, and is now leading other sheep to follow her in her wanderings, he will take out his knife and kill her. He loves her and she was his sheep, but she would not stop wandering and was now risking the life of others and the walk of others.It is exactly the same within the church.If a believer continually chooses the wrong path, ignoring the small voice of God warning them not to… they will be taken home. They lead other sheep watching to do the same thing. They corrupt their testimony. They lose rewards. They exhaust God with continual disobedience. They remain willfully immature. God says that the branch that has no fruit is cut off and tossed into the fire. This is not damnation. We can’t over analyze a parable. We have to taste it to get the gist of it. A branch is a believer and believer’s cannot lose their salvation so they cannot be damned. That’s our first truth. But the pruner, God, only prunes His children. If a branch is producing no fruit but putting a drag on the rest of the tree He has to cut it off. This is the sin unto death. If a believer won’t abide in Christ, he will be cut off.
How many times I’ve seen it.Why does God say that this should no be prayed for?It is because He knows the end of it. He sees that it must happen because repentance of the willful sin will not happen. So a prayer for repentance and renewal in certain cases is useless. The wayward believer won’t respond.
Sin unto death: 1 John 5
Cut off branch: John 15:6
There is no place for superstition of any kind in the life of a believer in Jesus Christ.
A superstition is anything we apply an unnamed force to. That is a superstition…When a person says “oh no I knew if I said that it would happen”.
That person has just been a worshiper of the god of forces because they have attached power to a force and the force isn’t God.
The only other force there is, proceeds from the god of forces, and the Bible says this is Satan.
The scary thing is this: God hates superstition so much that He calls it an idol. It is an idol because we attach a power to it and recognize it as such.
A huge one I have seen in the Church is one who attaches power to words with the word doctrine. This is Buddhism, new age mysticism. Here is how I’ve seen it done: they will believe that their words ( not God’s word, but their own spoken words) have power to create an action. This is worshiping the god of forces.
God says in Ezekiel 14 that those who worship idols will be given over to those idols and He will cause them to believe the lie even more. Here’s how it is seen in Ezekiel and exactly the same in the church today:
The women in Ezekiel who said they worshiped the true God but also the queen of heaven, continued worshiping the queen of heaven because when they did, they made cakes for her as an offering, they were blessed. When they “left off “ worshiping idols, they were not blessed.
“…He answered them according to their idols…”. In other words, what they believed, He gave accordingly. And this causes them to believe it all the more because they even said, yes we are worshiping idols but we are blessed when we do and not blessed when we don’t, therefore we worship them…
But God says in the entire Bible that He opens the eyes of the ones who have hearts to see and He closes the eyes of those who don’t want to see.
He gives wisdom to those who understand and He blinds those who have no understanding. It is 100% willful blindness and He gives them over to it. They then fall deeper and deeper into superstition and farther and farther from God.
God said that He was behind it because He was causing their hearts that chose deception in the form of idol worship, to believe even more strongly that the idol worked.
In the church I see that a believer who has been deceived by the word doctrine, is deceived even more by it because God will allow it to appear to them that words really do cause events. I’ve seen it over and again.
It should rather be seen for what it is, and that is a prophetic word spoken. The event happened because maybe it was a prophecy…A statement in advance of what God already determined would happen.
The idol worshiper will believe the reverse and because they do, they are deceived more and more because what they said seems to come true. They attach the power to the word spoken rather than two other possibilities: either it was prophetic or God sent deeper deception as a consequence of the grievous sin of worshiping the god of forces.
Scary.
A superstitious person will say: I knew if I mentioned that it was sure to happen. This is so bad. They actually believe that the event happened because they said it. They worship the god of forces and the only way out of the deception is to repent and to stop believing that lie.
The minute they stop believing that lie they will not see the whole thing happen ever again.
I never see something happen because I said it and I shouldn’t have. For example: I have never said I hope it won’t rain today, and saw it rain and said, if only I hadn’t said anything about that the rain…
I don’t believe in the god of forces. That’s why I never see it. If I believed in the god of forces then God would arrange events so that my deception would increase.
This is not cruel. It is just. Superstition is complete and utter godlessness in every way. There’s is no room for gentleness here.
Why on earth do people cross their fingers and believe that there is some force generated by crossing those fingers and that good will happen because they have crossed their fingers? Horrible abominable God says, superstition, idol worship.
And they will do this rather than uttering a prayer to the one true God who does move events when we ask!!! They ignore Him who is true and latch on to, and easily, easily believe the god of forces. Absolutely unbelievable.
God have mercy on us.
Amen.
Good morning all. I have a thought to pose to anyone who is interested today. I just want to lay out the facts about easter and Passover. Easter was not celebrated in the church of the apostles. They kept the Passover. It wasn’t until 3rd century that a schism in the church created a complicated season called easter…never ordered by God.There were some in the church who hated Jews so they made up a whole series of events using 40 days and all sorts of other days so that the celebration of the resurrection of Christ would never fall on Passover. Isn’t it strange that we would not celebrate the resurrection of Christ on the exact day He was crucified…the 14th of Nissan, then being resurrected on the 17th of Nissan? Instead, for almost 2000 years, the church celebrates His resurrection on a pagan holiday that was started to worship the goddess of fertility…hence the bunnies and eggs, and celebration of spring. But we let the actual day go by unnoticed. I think Satan laughs at this. We are not required to keep any day or any feast whatsoever but what a joy it is to celebrate Passover. Paul did in Acts, as did the rest of the church. The entire meal teaches His death burial resurrection ascension and return in Glory. How many Jews would come to Christ is they could share their Passover with Christians who could show them Christ in ever step of it. “Who will go for us?” Chuck Missler has a very understandable time line showing us that the “Last Supper” so to speak, was a Passover held on Passover. The Jewish day is reckoned from sundown to sundown. He shows us how He had to be in the earth 3 days AND nights, because He said He would be. That means He could not have been crucified on Friday but Thursday. It goes by unnoticed by anyone. So sad. I’ll search my emails to find the list and pass that on. Now here is where I risk pushing the envelope a bit far but I am going to take the risk based on the fact that it is what the Bible says therefore I am just repeating it for edification and wisdom. It is so often painful to step higher in God’s truth…so here goes: All through the Word we see that idol worship is brought in by women, not men. It is also maintained and tightly held by women and not men. Ecclessiates tells us a truth that I read when I first started following Jesus and instead of getting angry at it, I resolved not to be one of these…a silly woman. Not my words, God’s. “I have found one man in a thousand who is wise, and not even a single woman. ” This doesn’t have to be. This is of course hyperbole in order to emphasize a critical truth…there are many wise women…aren’t there???? I haven’t run into a single man who is perturbed by this truth, and is not ready to drop the pagan celebration without another thought. It is always the women. We see many noble women in the word. They all follow God regardless of the cost. I want to see that in our day. Yet I don’t see a single woman leading in this way, nor do I see a man leading who will cross the women to do it. Women hold to traditions of men very strongly because of the sentiment that is attached. Here is one area where we can do the reverse of what Eve did, we can not take to the fruit, even though it looks delicious and is pleasant. Anyway, this will be the 5th or so Passover my family has celebrated. It is a wonderful thing to do and done on the day He was crucified, looking forward to the 17th when He rose. I hope you all will try it. There are increasing numbers of the body who do know this and a few are speaking out but not strongly enough. They do not want to upset the apple cart…but that is my specialty. But I do it with fervent love for the body and for no other reason. It takes a bit of craziness to do it. “Here I am Lord, send me”. So many want to be sent of the Lord but we never see that His sending is easy or pleasant at first. It is always to puncture an illusion first. I believe there is a element of His glory that has been withheld because of many reasons but the two largest are our clinging to Christmas and Easter. I long for the day when they are history..if only. Very much love and peace! Passover begins on the 15th at sundown. In my house the sun sets brilliantly through the windows to the west as we begin our Passover meal, the Lamb slain for the sins of the world. It is a magnificent event. I pray you each will know it!God bless!Cheryl
To know and follow hard after You. Psalm 63:8.
This is what it look s like to know God and to follow HARD after Him: Rock solid assurance in Him in all things, and persecution.
Be prepared to hear things like this slung your way or slipped in very smoothly by those who may or may not even know they are slinging them… high minded, proud, self righteous, legalistic, intellectual, difficult, judgemental, and so on…
But Jesus said if you love me men will hate you and persecute you. Why would we expect anything else. They hated Him first.
Oh that this generation of believers would truly seek You instead of seeking themselves and the best version of themselves they can imagine.
There is a famine in the church today of the word of God. Few know it or care to. Instead we see man worship all around.
Have mercy Lord on Your church and open hearts to Your word I pray. In the great name of Jesus Christ I pray, Amen.
Good morning! Hope you had a blessed day in Him yesterday. Let’s get straight to the two very hard scriptures in 1 John to illustrate to us what “sin” is. Here are resources to study if you like: go to any good study tool that will dig into the original manuscript translations. I like bluetterbible.com. Type in sin and search. Go straight to first John and look at the different words used in every scripture that in our Eng. translations just render “sin”. We will look at two but there are 10 or more. Use that tool in conjunction with a good complete, expository dictionary like Vines, or any other good one. Click on your verse, go to the right and click C for concordance, use that to get a foundation and then look up sin in Vine’s. For instance, love is really 4 different words in Hebrew and Greek but the English translation uses 1. This allows for confusion because according to God, love comes in 4 different kinds and it alters meaning if we use them right.
For example: agape is one love that is of God and only possessed by the indwelt, saved, and is used when we are told to love our enemy, our brother , etc. phileo is another kind that is a brotherly human love dependent upon my feelings and likes and how someone treats me. It is present in all people. Everyone phileos those whom they like and those who please them. But only the born again have the ability to agape (love) my enemy. Agape is not a feeling but an action based on the love of God flowing through me, even to my enemy. This is how a believer CAN love his neighbor as himself. It is agape from the throne of Grace now in my heart. Agape is described in 1 Corinthians 13. It is patient, kind, it is not proud or rude, it doesn’t envy or boast. It always believes the best, not the worst. It always protects, helps, trusts. And so on. Agape never fails. It is perfected love that John and every other writer in the Bible speaks of.
When Jesus sums up the mature, fully given over and obedient believer, He says this: They agape the Lord with all their heart soul mind and strength AND agape their neighbors as themselves. Period. This is ALL the law and the prophets and it is what happens in our hearts when we walk in His fullness through surrender to Him (Obedience, which is faith and righteousness). It is perfected love, perfected faith.
1 John 3:9 says this: “Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin (hamartia); for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin (hamartano) because he is born of God.” actual rendering: “Whosoever is born of God does not (act from a heart driven by the root of sin); for His seed remains in him: and he cannot (wander from the righteous path in an ongoing, continual way that is a way of life for him), because he is born of God.”
can we see? John is saying that a truly saved person cannot decidedly sin continually as a way of his character and lifestyle if he really has been born again (saved, or having the seed of Christ in his heart). If we move down to 5:18 we see the qualifying of this verse. How is this so in verse 3:9? because if he has been born of God, he keeps himself.
These are the two main verses but if you really want to dig deep, study each one in this single book. You will get more and more light as you study. But use a complete tool. That is critical. If you don’t it is like trying to make spaghetti sauce without garlic!!! Our English translations provide a good overview but that is all. Dig and you’ll find. This is the pearl of great price by the way, the treasure hidden in a field. Sell all you have to buy it. The knowledge of God leads to righteousness. The pearl is the Mind of Christ found once we enter the Kingdom of God. Search that too and see if it is so.
Here are a couple more, and this is really looked into a lot in Crucified for anyone who is interested. I am skimming what I examine there. 1 John 3:6 says that anyone who abides in Him, sins (hamartano) not. This refers to the mature, sanctified. It ties into Psalm 91 where we see that the one who dwells in the secret place of the Most High ABIDES under the shadow of the Almighty. Abiding as mentioned in John 15 refers to the same thing. So John is telling us that the mature believer does not continually wander from the righteous path, only rendered sin in the English. Are you feeling freer yet???
Here is another, maybe even more critical verse that I have yet to hear a single teacher, preacher get right. 1 John 1:8 says, “If we say that we have no sin (hamartia), we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
correct rendering: “If we say we have no ( inborn source in the heart to rebel against God, as our natural inclination without Christ, that needs a Savior), then we lie and do not practice the truth.”
Aha! In other words, If a man says he is not in need of a Savior because he is pretty good afterall, that he was not born wicked with a natural tendency to rebel against God, but was born good, that he is not wicked, maybe a blank slate as pop psychology would have it…HE LIES! How is he lying? Romans 1 and 2 tell us clearly! EVERY human created knows there is a God (and if he searches he will find Christ, who is very God of very God) and also has the law of God on his heart because God put it upon every single solitary heart created, so man is without excuse, by seeing the things that are made, knowing that a holy God made them. AND…he knows that he breaks that law. Period. If he says he doesn’t and is basically pretty good..he is a liar.
Now all teachers teach this verse as follows and it is so wrong!!! Most if not all teach it as if it said, no one can say they are done with sin or that it is not in their lives because they are liars if they do!
NO! That is not what John said. He said the former. If a man says he has no sin in his heart that needs a Savior, he is a liar. A mature sold-out believer walking in agape can say, I am done with sin…dead to it. He is not a liar.
Paul exhorts us that we had better kill sin in our hearts. “How can you who are dead to sin (hamartia) live any longer in it?” How can you, who have died to operating from a corrupt character in a continual and inherently rooted way, continue in it?
The answer is that it is impossible and the subsequent verses in 1 John drive that home. God says if that is present in a man, then he has not been saved.
Now hamartano is different. It is an ignorant type of provoked sin that does not happen as a pattern but is isolated. There is no quilt here, thereby no “sin” as we understand it.
Jesus said, “If you had been blind, there would be no sin, but since you say ‘I see’, your sin remains”.
A person who “sins” hamartano, occasionally in a way that is foreign, isolated, and unknowing, is without guilt, blameless. He has done it as an isolated, provoked, ignorant, knee jerk reaction to a temptation. It has nothing to do with his faith, that is in tact. “Anything that is not if faith is sin.”
Wow. I want to go into OT teaching of sin shown to us as leprosy. It solidifies just what we learned but will make it even clearer.
Now an immature believer will continually hamartano when provoked. “Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on ME”. They have not the agape to stop it yet. Their love has not been perfected in Christ Jesus (1 John 9, 10, 11 & 4:12). That is why they may re-visit weak areas again and again with no victory or overcoming. AND it is all because of resistance to obey God and for no other reason. There are no excuses but willful refusal to obey. They remain this way if they choose and arrive in Heaven having never produced fruit as we see in 1 Corinthians.
I wanted to get to James and Abraham and righteousness but that will wait til next time. But know this and search it til then: righteousness (actual and not the imputed or positional) isalways sought, labored over, earned!!! and only the indwelt can find it or DO it.
Agape in Christ and till next time, have a great day!C