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Confessions of a screwed up middle aged man: In depth study is shown to be the best way

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In the last few posts I have recounted three different occurrences. Each centered on a key element in faith and works that many ignore. The works. The first and the last had the faith, but all three lacked the works of truly studying deeply the word of God. I know without question that this has been my failing in the past.
It is extremely important that when we read the Bible. That we READ it. Not just hear the words and say: “I have been filled with the word.”
I mean dig into the meaning of the words as they were originally written down upon paper as they were inspired by God.
That is what we are instructed to do in 2 Timothy:
“16 – All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”
This is seen to be true when a man of the cloth states that those that are divorced and any that help them to remarry are damned. As was shown, this was not true and it is best that those that are widowed and divorced to remarry to escape sin.
This is seen when you take the Bible out of context as in the second posting and the person had in his mind legitimized sin thus in turn denying God and His Son.
And as was shown in the posting from yesterday that it helps those that are following the Bible to do so in a better light.
This shows that as is stated in James that faith without works is dead. Part of the works is to diligently study the Bible to make sure we are on the right path to God, which is narrow and rough.

Confessions of a screwed up middle aged man: an interesting discussion

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So the other day I posted about the “unmarried.” I had a discussion on the topic with one of my co-workers and he brought up a point about a word that we conflicted upon and so I looked deeper into it and this is what we determined.
The word in question was “burn,” which in the Greek is “puroo.” This is defined as:
“pass: I burn, am set on fire, am inflamed; glow with heat, am purified by fire”
Now what caused the discussion is that in the NLT version of the Bible it is shown as “burn with lust”
However in other uses within the New Testament it is not use in this context.
When Paul is recounting his tribulations for his ministry in the service of Jesus Christ he says this in 2 Corinthians 11:29
“Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?”
In Ephesians 6:16 it is used to describe flaming darts or arrows:
“Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.”
It is used in 2 Peter 3 in a description of Tribulation times that have yet to be fulfilled:
“Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?”
It is used twice in Revelation. The first time in 1:15, where it is used to help describe the Glorified Jesus Christ feet:
“And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.”
Then it is used in 3:18 in reference to heaven treasure that have passed the test of fire and come purified:
“I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.”
As in the main definition of the word all things are implied to be on fire or having passed through fire. Now I do agree that when we lust it can be said that we are “on fire.”
As was my counter in the discussion with my friend. Living in sin will lead us to the pit of fire where we will be on fire there as well.
Isaiah 66:24 – And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.
Why I say this, is that living in fornication and adultery are seen as sins which will lead to this fate.
Galatians 5:19 – Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Now we must also remember that many times there is a type of duality used within not only the Greek but Hebrew word usage. Where words have two means, but the same overall ends. This could very well be one of these instances. Where we would find the unmarried and widowed burning with lust in the flesh having experienced natural sexual relations, which would lead to adultery and fornication, which would ultimately lead to damnation and being on fire forever in the pit of fire.
So this is what we both agreed upon in our discussion. That it has both meanings. Neither of which is good for those that find themselves without a spouse, and lack the self-control not to live a celibate live.

No one is perfect, but when we make an error with the Bible we must help to correct our mistake

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Since become a born again Christian in the mid-1980s I have yet to see someone admit they have made a mistake in how they taught the Bible. I remember the PTL club. I remember Jimmy Swaggart. I have seen the false teachers of prosperity churches. I have read and heard those that say they know the Bible yet get it totally wrong. I must add that I have grown in how I see the Bible thanks to the blessing of God’s enlightenment He has blessed me with. Have I been wrong? To some degree I must say yes, for I am human. However I must point out that I have not been too way off the mark, especially when I delved deep into the Word of God by studying it in the Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic. So we can say I have been wrong, but I must add I have strived to correct anything I found to be out of the will of God. I must also interject here that when I did have doubts about where my standing was with the Bible I kept it to myself and did more study and research into the Bible. This was especially true for the Book of Revelation.
This makes me the exception to the rule, which is extremely sad. Many, especially those in the clergy, develop an attitude that they are perfect and beyond error. Just because they are “Christian,” does not make them God. So errors will occur. A prime example happened earlier this week and was included in yesterday’s blog post. For those that did not read it I will give a quick overview.
A clergyman stated that it was blasphemy for someone divorced to remarry. I pointed this out to the person and there has been silence ever since.
This shows the importance of when we are taught to verify it ourselves.
1 John 4:1 – Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. 2 This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. 3 But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here. 4 But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. 5 Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them. 6 But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception.

Only you are responsible for where you will spend your eternal life

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First off we need to get to a point of understanding about what will be THE eternal life.
Most in this world think that there is only heaven and you sit about doing nothing or walking in beauty. Then there are those that actually acknowledge there is a counter to this which is hades or hell in addition to heaven. Furthermore there are even those that still believe in the Catholic made myth of purgatory, which is never mentioned in any form within the Bible.
When you truly study the Bible you come to a realization that the eternal life is beyond heaven and hades. You see, heaven and hades are merely holding placing for the souls of the departed until they receive their eternal bodies that are promised unto us within the Bible upon the return of Christ in the first Rapture, and then for those in hades at the end of the thousand year reign of Jesus Christ.
The Bible, unlike what many are hoping for these days, IS black and white, good and evil, right and wrong. In fact it is made very clear that those that live in the middle, in the grey, are rejected by the Glorified Jesus Christ Himself (Rev. 3:15-16). They are also seen as worse than those that live in the black, the evil, the wrong.
The eternal life that is to come is just that: eternal, immortal.
Does this mean that those that sin and live outside the Bible will receive eternal life? In a fashion yes. They will receive an immortal body. However they will have no freedom. In fact it is called the second the death. For even though they are living immortally they are dead to God and His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. They will be living with who they decided to follow who will be suffering just as they are suffering.
Isaiah 66:24 – And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.
Revelation 21:8 – But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
Revelation 20:14 – And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Revelation 20: 10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
The only person that can decide on where they are going to either spend eternal life with God and Jesus or in the second death is you, yourself. You must decide for yourself to live in the here and the now, or to strive to reach for immortality with God.
You must ask Jesus to be your Savior, you must reject sin. You cannot live in sin and say you serve God. That is those that are seen as worse than those that reject God outright. You must learn the Bible and to follow its teachings. If you do this you stand a chance to make it, but only time and God will tell.

It is obvious

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As we look at the behavior of those that call themselves the “left” in the nation. That those that go out into public and behave like they are still children. Resorting to gross and vile actions, have not read the Bible for themselves.
Now I know that many of them call themselves Atheist, which in part explains their desire not to read a book that they consider “fake.” However there is a large element that actually calls themselves “Christian.” These in the latter group even they “know” the Bible, yet as I pointed out above have never read the Bible themselves.
So how can they know the Bible having never read it? The answer is completely obvious. They can’t and don’t. So in reality they are not nor have they ever been “Christian.” Many go to a building and hear from people that stand on a dais or in a pulpit and call themselves “priest” or “ministers” yet the message they give does not come from the Bible, and if it does they do not interpret it correctly. They take out of it what they wish to say and leave that which insults them or does not fit into their beliefs, which they have made for themselves. It has been said by many publicly that they wish they could tear out parts of the Bible so they could never have to hear what it says.
Galatians 1:6 – I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News 7 but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ. 8 Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you. 9 I say again what we have said before: If anyone preaches any other Good News than the one you welcomed, let that person be cursed.
These that do this are cursed and will not be welcomed into the eternal service of God that is to come. They need to accept that which they truly are. Not “Christians,” but hypocrites. Seen by the glorified Christ as something that is worse than the Atheist mentioned above.
Revelation 3: 15 “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! 16 But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!”
They are spit from the Body. Seen has something nasty and vile in the taste buds of God and His Son the Lord Jesus Christ.
READ THE BIBLE FOR YOURSELF! DO NOT TAKE THE WORD OF OTHERS!
Look it up online, look to the New Living Translation if the King James is difficult to understand, but do not look at the NIV Bible for those that changed it were addressed in the verses of Galatians written above.
Start in the New Testament and actually read it and think upon what you are reading. For this world is changing quickly and is heading toward an event that if you are not truly “Christian” will leave you in a place you really do not wish to be at.

True wisdom comes from God

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This is a topic that needs to be understood and spoken of. As we grow in our understanding of the Bible and in turn of God. God Himself opens our hearts and minds to the real truth. In James three we gain an insight of what is wisdom from God and what is from the world.
If you receive a teaching that causes division, that causes strive, that inspires selfishness and self-serving behavior. That for instance says that you are better than others. This is not of God, but of the world and is evil.
When a message speaks of a “select” that causes those listening to think they are above all others. This can cause jealousy and makes those that think they are the “select” be selfish in their desires and thoughts. Those that teach this type of message are self-serving and so are of the world. In fact in verse fifteen it goes so far as to say that not only is it worldly, but also unspiritual and demonic or devilish depending on which translation of the Bible you look too. If it is demonic or devilish, then it has only one source, which is Satan himself.
True wisdom is explained simply. You live an honorable life and you follow the true teachings of the Bible in humility, for that is true wisdom. It states in the seventeenth verse that true wisdom first of is pure.
Pure – hagnos – (originally, in a condition prepared for worship), pure (either ethically, or ritually, ceremonially), chaste.
Hagnos is connected to hagios – “holy,” – properly, pure (to the core); virginal (chaste, unadultered); pure inside and out; holy because uncontaminated (undefiled from sin), i.e. without spoilation even within (even down to the center of one’s being); not mixed with guilt or anything condemnable.
Then it is peaceable – eirenikos – what pertains to peace, i.e. God’s gift of wholeness which results from knowing (discerning) the Lord’s will and obeying it.
Then it is easy to be intreated – eupeithes – properly, “well-persuaded,” already inclined, i.e. already willing (pre-disposed, favorable to); easy to come to terms with because already willing. Ready to obey
Full of mercy and good fruits.
Without partiality – adiakritos – without uncertainty, unambiguous, undivided, whole-hearted
Without hypocrisy.
“And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.”
These are the signs to look for when someone is truly given insight and knowledge of the Word of God. Anything else is not of the Bible and so is not of God and thus is not true wisdom.
James 3:13 If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying. 15 For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. 16 For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind. 17 But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. 18 And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.

If all you do is edify then you are missing the truth

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Many gather in a building just to get their egos stroked. They wish to hear that God loves and that God needs them. Then they leave and go about living their lives as they see fit.
This is not what the Bible teaches. This is edification. Not worship. Not enlightenment in what it is we are to do for God. Yes what it is WE are to do for God. Not what is God going to do for us.
If the message being taught doesn’t remind you that you are the servant. That you are the one that needs to follow the teaching of the Bible. Then it is not teaching God or the Bible and thus is a sin.
A true message of God should make you uncomfortable. It is to remind you that you are merely a part of the creation. That if you live in sin you will not make it into heaven. It will tell you that even though you may have asked God into your heart and you strive to serve Him. Yet now you do none of those things the Bible makes clear that you must do, then you are not heading toward God, but away from Him.
Just being edified is faith alone.
James 2:17 – Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
Works is living the teachings of the Bible. Works is calling a sin a sin and striving to turn from sin. Works is knowing the Bible and living a life that follows the teachings within it.
So if all you get from someone standing before you is edification and not making you think how you can better serve God. Then it is faith alone.
James 2:26 – For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

Nature is the providence of God

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Many in today’s world are stating that nature created many in the wrong form. However this is not the truth. Those that say this do not know nature. The core nature of a species is to reproduce. This is a fundamental of all species all the way down to a single celled organism to Homo-Sapiens.
Anything that or anyone that goes against this basic structure of nature and thus God’s design live in sin. For anything that goes against God is the enemy of God and thus is sin.
James 4:4 You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. 5 Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him. 6 And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. 9 Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.
Romans 1:18 – But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. 19 They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. 20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. 21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. 22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. 23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. 25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. 26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. 27 And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved. 28 Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. 32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.
“So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.”

Now men wish to be women and women wish to be men. They have turned against nature and thus they have turned against God.

“Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.”

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That is verse seventeen of the fourth chapter of James. This one sentence carries much more weight than most give it credit, which is a very sad statement.
If you know you are doing something that the Bible says you should not, you have sinned.
If things in the world that you have some way of correcting and aiming it back toward God. Yet you do nothing, you have sinned.
If you know God, yet do not correctly teach of Him to your children and they enter into a sinful live. You too have sinned.
So like I said this one sentence carries a lot of weight.
Now let’s expand this to the entire teaching that led up to this sentence.
James 4:13 – Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” 14 How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. 15 What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” 16 Otherwise you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil.
“Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.”
Our lives are fleeting, temporary. Most go through this life, even those that call themselves “Christian,” and all they say is I will do this with my life, I will plan for this event or that event. All you see is the word “I.”
This teaching shows that it is not we that should be the topic of our lives, but God, His Son and the teachings of the Bible. Yet most go about treating God as a genie that is there to serve them and their desires. This is the furthest thing away from what the Bible teaches.
We are to be the servants. We are the ones that are to ask God what it is we are to do. It maybe to raise a family. It maybe to work a job. It maybe to run a nation. As long as we keep God as the master. The focal point, then we are serving God. We are doing what we are supposed to do.
When we keep God the core of our life. Then when we see sin and we have power to stop it or draw attention to it we are to do so. Otherwise we sin. If we disobey the laws of the land which we are told we must not do in Titus 3:1, then we sin.
If we allow those that have turned against God to take control and we have power to stop it, yet do nothing, then we sin.
Our lives are not ours, but God’s. We are only here for a short time. For this life we now live is not all there is to our existence. This life is merely a stepping stone toward an eternal life. An eternal life that will either be spent as a servant of God or writhing in agony, because we sinned.
This is the importance of this teaching, and it is a teaching that is not being taught enough.

The scapegoat reply

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I have noticed that whenever people get themselves cornered by the truth within the Bible that they try to turn the facts onto the actions of those that are no longer with us. Those in for example our nation’s history. When they do this they are trying to side step the facts. They are trying to legitimize their own faults and failures to God by showing the failures and in many times extreme failures of those that can no longer voice a defense for their actions. This is the “scapegoat reply.”
The enemy is those in the past. It is their fault, it is their actions that have led to this reality. This is hokum.
We, individually, are only responsible for our own actions and our own choices. If we choose to learn to count on others to tell us what “truth is” is our personal responsibility.
Galatians 6: 4 Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. 5 For we are each responsible for our own conduct.
We are to learn the Bible ourselves. To read, to study it. To seek the true understanding of the Bible. Too many take the words of fellow humans and assume they know more than they do. In cases this may be true, but we are to verify, we are to prove, we are to validate.
To blame those of the past for the failures of today’s society is an escapism. It is an attempt to remove the responsibility of your actions which have been wrong and led the destruction.
One of the major evidences of this is those that say since “whites” were the slave masters then we are to take form all “white” just because we are suffering and poor. Did you get up and try to get a job today? Did you try and clean up your community today? Did you try and convince others that to destroy, to steal, to hurt others just because the group as a whole has nothing is wrong? If the answer is “no” to these questions then you are the ones at fault, not the “whites.” They for one are not one hundred and eighty years old. No one is that old that is walking upon this planet at this time. So it is not their fault for your problems. You are at fault for your problems.
Do you know the Bible? Do you know Jesus? Do you place the teaching of the Bible at the core of all your actions? For the Bible teaches that we cannot steal. We cannot covet what belongs to others. We cannot murder. We must respect our community. We must respect and even place our fellow humans before our own selfish lust and desires.
If you are not living as the Bible teaches then you are not serving Jesus Christ but yourselves and are breaking the very first commandment.
Repent. Take responsibility for your actions. Take responsibility for your life. Bend a knee to Christ and ask Him into your life or if you have reaffirm your relationship with the true Savior of humanity.
Jesus will never leave us, but due to free-will we can abandon Him.