We never see a place in the Word where we are instructed to go tell others about all our sin before we knew Jesus. Yet this is what so many believers do. Has God required it or does He want it? I don’t think so. Jesus didn’t tell the man healed to go tell others all about his sin . He told the healed man to go and tell what good things God has done for him. We should do likewise.
Some love to speak of their sin and in specifics. I would say that this is a strange thing. I can’t even think of my sin, it makes me sick and sad. I want to think of forgiveness and the goodness of God. This makes me happy. My sin isn’t extraordinary and neither is yours. It isn’t worth examining or savoring. It is as vomit on the ground, why do I want to go visit it like a dog does? I was a run of the mill, ordinary, typical sinner dead in trespasses and sin. The lovely thing is that Jesus looked upon me with pity and He saved me!!!!! Thats all I have to say.
And you know what? That will lead others to Him, my sin won’t. It’s not worth mentioning. So let’s not. It’s understood.
Praise His holy name instead. Let’s do that and spend our time being salt and light.
Bless You Lord, our God!
This might seem unjust at first glance. It’s not. When we see something like this in the Word we have to go back to what we know sets a precedent for dealing with situations like this, and apply it first. God is just, holy and good and hates divorce. That is first, so let’s go from there to understand what happened in Ezra with Israel and the strange wives and children they ended up with, because they disobeyed God.
In the law God gave Israel in the beginning, we see that anyone from any nation, anywhere, could come worship the one true God of Israel. They would come into the fold and be absorbed into the nation, becoming therefore a Jew. So we have to assume that this was the case with the strange wives and children Israel took into the fold. If the wives, when confronted with this decree to put all the unbelieving wives and children away, listened, and the women and children said, I will worship God, then they remained. How do I know? Because God said this is the protocol. He doesn’t have to belabour the point again because as usual, He is assuming and requiring that they and we already know all of this. God doesn’t re-establish every minute detail of the Word every time He states a truth. This is our responsibility to know, and the Holy Spirit comes alongside us to show us this, if we seek truth.
For those not really seeking truth, but are rather seeking an excuse to blame God for being cold or unjust, they will not follow this path. They will get perturbed, blame God for being an unjust God and put the Word down as being untrustworthy. This is also God’s plan to weed out the unbelieving.
So we can rest knowing that any wife and child during this curious time in Israel’s history, who decided to worship God alone were spared and remained. Any who went after the strange gods, had to be removed. This is good, just and right.
God knows that good character is corrupted by bad company. He knows that light has no fellowship with darkness. He knows all things. Let’s not think for one minute that any wife or child in question in Ezra, who would believe in God and worship Him alone, were put away. God longs that none would perish but that all would come to the saving knowledge of God in Christ Jesus.
Thank You Lord!
This verse says that the carnal mind is against God. It isn’t ruled by the law of God (obedience to Him) nor can it be.
So much is here. This is specifically speaking of the mind of the flesh born person ruled by the old nature. This word carnal can be applied to a saved or lost person depending upon whether they are saved and living according to the old man or lost and living according to the old man.
The believer if not sanctified, can live according to the old nature, the flesh or the flesh born. The lost person does nothing but that. They have no new man within them. Only the Spirit born, the born again in Christ have the nature of the new man. The new man is the only one who is ruled by God’s law…that is the law of righteousness written on every heart created.
When we look at a professing Christian and they for instance side with homosexuality for example, we know that they are not believers. A believer cannot do that, we are told in Romans. It is only a person who has been given over to a debased mind who can accept homosexuality. It is really the only litmus test God gives us to easily determine if one is saved or not. Do they agree with homosexuality? If so they are not saved…period. It’s that easy.
So we can look at people we know and if they are siding with homsexuality we know they are carnal…unredeemed as of yet. There is no middle ground. Some would like to be silent on the issue but silence is endorsement. So check your heart because God said that if you are carnal…and in this case it refers to the lost because of the context…then you are not, and really cannot be ruled by the law of God.
Now of course a lost person can be against homosexuality but it will be for carnal reasons and not because he is ruled by the law of God. But we know for sure that one who stands with homosexuaity does not know God, nor is he ruled by the law of God. He is unable to be…in all the law of God.
But there is hope in Jesus if we will just turn to Him and be born again of the Spirit. He will give us the desire of His heart which is life. The carnal man however abides in death and has affintiy for all the things of death…including homosexuality. This is the mark of death. Homosexuality is the mark of death…as is the endorsement of it.
Help Lord. Save today. Be glorified today and cleanse hearts and minds to know truth.
Amen.
Is there such a concept in the Bible? I’d say, no there isn’t. Can we prove it? Yes. Think on this: If there were such a thing, the Lord wouldn’t hint at it but plainly state it. He has not. But what I believe He has done is placed the answer in plain site for searchers.
Hitler was a baby. He was a precious baby like any other. God knew that Hitler would do what he did. He is omniscient. He knows everything. He sees the end already because He is outside of time. That isn’t the main reason He sees everything but it helps our minds to begin to understand His omniscience, which only He has. God knows the end because He cannot learn. He is the Creator and knows all things. It’s too high for us to really grasp this, but we can see that He does because of His Word. It predicts the future perfectly. It’s perfect and all knowing…Jesus is the Word.
So He knew Hitler was the evil man he was. If there is an age of accountability, then why wouldn’t God take him home before he reached that age and was lost? He longs that none would perish but that all would come to the saving knowledge of God in Christ Jesus.
Also, we see that Noah’s flood killed every child on earth. They were all corrupt. Now with a close look, there is very, very strong evidence that all flesh had been corrupted by fallen angels and their offspring the Nephilim, the Rephaim. They all were unredeemable, so God killed every single one but the 8 in Noah’s family. If there were such a thing as an age of accountability, then certainly all children under that age at the time of the flood would not be accountable yet. We just don’t see an age of accountability in the Bible in mention, pattern, inference or anything. You can argue that a Nephilim is unredeemabe whether child or grown, but the point remains.
We also see that when the faithful in the church are raptured, there is, in my opinion, the lukewarm part who remain on earth till they are killed by the Beast from the earth…the false prophet…because they refused to worship the image of the Beast, antichrist. The Bible would tell us if there were no children in this group. Revelation says that the false prophet causes all who were not written in the Lamb’s book of life, do worship the image…small and great, rich and poor. The inference here is, all people who were not written in the Lamb’s book are lost and take the mark of the Beast. The same word here for small is also used in Matthew 18:6 in reference to children. We cannot say conclusively that here in Revelation, the small are not children…they could be. We have no mention of no young children being present because I would say that they are.
God knew Esau in the womb. He knew he was lost. There was no age of accountability for Esau. There was no age of accountability for Hitler. God knows if a soul will be born again or not had they lived longer. Some children who die are saved and some are not. Romans tells us not to inquire into this subject because it is none of our business which vessels are made for destruction. God does not make a soul with the intention of destrpying it…that is Calvanism at its worst. No, it is simply a sucinct way for God to say that some who are created will be twice born and some won’t. It is entirely their choice. The ones who won’t are vessels made for destruction. It is a manner of speaking. We know this because the Bible has already set that precedent all through. God longs that NONE would persish, but that ALL would come to the knowledge of Him in Jesus. He jsut knows that they won’t…He calls them vessels fit for destruction.
There are many more references. The main verse used for the accountability concept is that David knew his baby would be in heaven. David was a prophet and more than that, a priest after the same order all believers are priests. God told him. That’s how David knew. We need to be much more careful with the Word, and more investigative too. We’ve missed a lot.
The thing is that all false doctrines delute the gospel. This one does as well. They do it by loosening God’s standards to use man’s instead and they call it merciful. But it isn’t merciful at all. It shows a refusal to yeild to God’s holiness and perfection.
God knows who are His. He doesn’t need to wait for a certain age. This is a manmade doctrine that, I’m sorry, does not love God more than child, mother, father, even one’s own life.
who might be a hindrance to either our salvation or our fruitful walk.
We can often wonder why people drop away from our lives. As Christians we can expect it. God will guide us so that we have no fellowship with darkness. Good character is corrupted by bad company, He has said. The pivotal concept here is not “can be corrupted” but “is corrupted”. And it is for sure.
The holy Christian walk is marked by small company. It just is. The Bible says it. If we will walk Godly in Christ Jesus, men will hate us.
They hated Jesus first, so of course they will hate us. If we walk with Him they will. If we resemble the world we should have left, then they will still enjoy our company. Where there is no Godly conviction, there is contentment for the lost. It is not true contentment but they want to not be bothered by the conviction a holy believer brings…so they are repelled by their company.
Do we have old friends, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers who have been removed from our day-to-day lives? There is reason for it if they do not walk with the Lord. God sees them as a hindrance to our walk in Christ. We are always required to minister to their needs but we are also required to keep holy fellowship. Mingling with the lost in hopes that my faith might rub off is never what God orders. God removes the lost from a true believer’s fellowship if that fellowship will corrupt the character He has formed in me.
He is the keeper of the sheep. He is the author and finisher of my faith. It is a narrow road and few find it.
This is a topic that is not spoken of enough in the body of Christ. If it were, more believers might walk more worthy of their calling. I think maybe that because many believers are not appropriately focused on rewards in heaven, that many of us have a sloppy, complacent and lukewarm walk.
This also has been Satan’s plan. He wants to rip the believer off of inheritance (Heavenly rewards) and he has and is very successful at doing just that. But it is the believer’s fault in the end. If as a believer, I don’t have to think of possible loss concerning rewards, then I will not be fervent making sure I am in God’s will. I will stray and be sloppy for sure. But it matters a great deal. All the parables about wicked servants should warn us. We must be very purposed and deliberate about obeying and following God. If we don’t there will be great loss.
But if I will die to sin and self then I will be repulsed by anything against God’s will. I can be sure that my walk will end in receiving all the rewards God has planned for me. Isn’t that incentive enough to be transformed then, by the renewing of my mind, offering myself up to God as a living sacrifice, which is my reasonable service?
If God can trust us with the little things, then He will trust us with bigger things. He has promissed us that.
But if He cannot trust us in little things, He will not trust us with bigger things. And worse, what little He did allow us to have He will take even that away…in whatever form that takes. Salvation is not the focus here but rewards are…both now and then.
Walk in the Spirit then and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. He is faithful.
In Genesis 3, we see the judgement and prophecy concerning the seed of the woman. This is a reference to the virgin birth, Missler says and is correct, because women do not have seed. This is clearly Eve who would be the one through whom the Savior of the world would come…that is, the woman, not the man. Why? because she is the one through whom sin entered the human race. The Redeemer, who is always redeeming, then determined that she then would be redeemed by giving birth, that is, her child bearing role would allow her to be the one who Jesus would have to enter the world through. He is the seed of the woman. She is saved through child-bearing. That is, she, as a sinner because she is of mankind, will be saved as that sinner because she will be the one who bears children. Therefore she will be saved (along with all mankind) because the Messiah will become a man through her womb. In other words, mankind will be saved because God will become a man to save mankind, to die for his sins…but she will be the bearer of mankind through her womb. What honor. But it’s the only way.
The seed of the woman would crush Satan’s head… and He will. He already has and we will see it completed soon.
I show you a mystery…a woman shall encompass a man. This is the same reference. Now this is a reference to Eve because it’s the woman who would give birth to Jesus and not the man…obviously. God had to become a man to redeem man. only a like kind creature can die for the sins of that creature.
Now Mary was chosen as the actual woman to give birth to Him and be His mother. She is only His mother to Him in His role as the man child. She is not the mother of God because God has no mother. He has no beginning.
We see Jesus begin to reveal this to Mary at the wedding at Cana. He calls her woman. He is distancing Himself from her now. He is trying to show her and us that She is the woman in the Genesis 3 prophecy.
He is declaring to her that He is Messiah, and God. But when He says “woman” to Mary, He is declaring that she is the seed of the woman.
At the cross He does it again. He calls her. He doesn’t call her mother or Mary. He calls her “woman”. He then says to the apostle John, this is your mother. Jesus was handing her over to him. Her role in the seed of the woman prophecy was over. Fulfilled. He is God and He is showing her that. She is the woman in the seed of the woman prophecy and He is that seed. He is God…the man child of Revelation, God become man…Emanuel. It is accomplished and her role is fulfilled.
Glory to God in the highest.
James tells us this. A double-minded man is a believer. He has a mind split if he is double-minded and a single mind if he is whole-hearted towards God. It’s easy to tell. A double mind does both godly things and ungodly. He just manages it all. He is seen indulging the bad and suppressing the good. He will deny himself good things God has given to him to enjoy and think he does good in doing so. He thinks that if he does not partake of the good God has given then he is permitted to partake of the evil things his flesh likes…and he does it.
I was reading in 1 Chronicles. Ive read it a hundred times. David brought up the ark with great joy and dancing before the Lord. The Bible says he wore a linen ephod. I have read it so many times. This time I stopped. He did what!
He wore the linen ephod. David, my friend, was a priest. That’s right. He was a priest. But he was not a Levite. only a Levite could be a priest and only a son of Aaron, a High Priest…an inherited office.
He not only wore the ephod but he made offerings. He went into the presence of the Lord. He ate the Showbread. I am sure many more things if we search. But if not a priest after Levi, then who? Melchizedek! Israel was not permitted to have one person who was a king and a priest. We first see Melchizedek as such, and of course Jesus was, then this is what overcomers will be and I would say already are in a prophetic sense. But so was David! Why? He is a picture of Jesus first of all. But then he is a picture of the Bride of Christ.
Once I saw that he had to be a priest to wear the ephod, I searched it and landed on a blog of a pastor who pointed out all the other priestly things David did. He mentioned Melchizadek and that confirmed everything. Of course.
David was a man after God’s own heart because he is a picture of the Bride of Christ. Thats it!
Now here is an amazing point. It’ll teach us to discern Jesus’ use of literary subtleties and devices . In Matthew we read that Jesus says King David went into the temple doing the thing forbidden and ate the showbread that was only for priests. At first glance we might think Jesus is saying David wasn’t a priest but He is saying the opposite. He is absolutely declaring King David to be a priest; therefore both King and priest.
Here’s how: We see it in these two situations I’ll mention but certainly there are more…The man called Jesus good and His response was “Why do you call me good seeing only God is good”. Well Jesus is God and He is good. In other words, Jesus was saying to this man: “If I am good then I MUST BE GOD…since only God is good. I must be Him then.
So this is a powerful way, for those with understanding, to hear Jesus claim that He is God.
He is saying to the ones He is trying to teach, that David DID eat the show bread reserved for priests and did not trespass in doing so, which means King David was a priest.
He is also saying in the analogy, that if Jesus is doing what He is doing, healing on the sabbath, then He must have power to do so. He is God.
He does the same thing with the woman who asks Him for help and He says to her that He came for the lost Nation Israel, why should He then turn to help a dog?
He is declaring the lie she has believed so she can see the truth. Yes He did come to Israel first, in order to fulfill prophecy, but He came for the gentiles too, who were not dogs but precious jewels as well. God formed the nation Israel for one reason…to save the whole world!!! So the reason Israel exists as a nation is to show the world who He is and to save them! There are no dogs.
Actually, in using her misunderstanding to teach her truth, Jesus is saying to her: I formed a whole nation to save you, woman. You are no dog. And more… If you are a dog, then why am I saving you? You’re no dog. That’s a lie. You don’t understand.
There is more here to find. It’s a hidden treasure. Thank You Lord!!
Jesus said that no man has ascended into Heaven but He who came down from Heaven…
Jesus means that no one has ascended to Heaven as the Messiah to pay for sin except Him. he is the Lamb of God who is the only resurrected one to pay for the sins of the world.
Amazing.