When you state you are a “Christian” you are taking upon yourself a great responsibility. It is not a free ticket to happiness that you are given, but a job. A job that pays no money. A job that is taxing and strenuous.
When Jesus departed into heaven he went to do tasks that are not for us to fully know at this time. He foretold of His return, but in the meantime He placed those that call themselves “Christian” in charge of His house. His house is not only a building called a “church,” or a group of people that also call themselves “Christian,” but is also the world at large. We are told to preach the Bible throughout the world. If it was just building or a group then why say this?
We are His servants when we accept the Jesus as our savior. We are given authority by Christ for the care upkeep and growth of His home. We are all given tasks which we are to perform and do for His glory, and at the same time we are told to watch for the signs of His return.
Many say those signs are more and more prevalent than at any other time in history. Is his return near? Could be.
Where do you stand with Jesus? Are you a servant or someone looking in, or someone that calls themselves a “servant” yet they do no work upon the Lord’s home as it falls into decay and ruin.
Mark 13: 34 For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. 35 Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: 36 Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. 37 And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.
Christian
Separate ourselves from the “world”
Many times we are told to separate ourselves from the “world,” but what is the world. In 1 Peter 4:2 it is stated simply: “That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.”
But what are the lust of man.
Matthew 15: 18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. 19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: 20 These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.
1 Peter 4: 3 For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: 4 Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you:
If this is how you live your live, in the flesh of the world then per the Bible you are not truly “Christian.” Yet many go about stating and saying they are “Christian” even though they live in the sins and many more listed above.
Jesus made it clear that what comes from the heart is human. When you turn to Christ and accept Him as your Savior your life should change. You become separate from the “world.” So the things of the world should become unimportant. Distractions of the world like sporting events, television, and fashion are not your main concerns. What does become important is the teaching of the Bible and living a life that is separate of the “world” though still to be able to talk to this world to allow those that do not live their life’s toward God will be able to see how life should be lived when following God. That you be a living witness through your actions if not by your words.
1 Peter 4: 5 Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead. 6 For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.
Live your life as Jesus has instructed. Not how man has instructed. For we cannot serve two masters.
Matthew 6: 24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. (also Luke 16:13)
Yet many that call themselves “Christian” live there life in both worlds, which is not only a lie unto God but themselves.
1 Peter 4:11 If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Another refresher about following the laws of the land
Time and again I have posted about following the laws of the land. Why? Because most do not.
“WHAT?” you shout back at me. I answer with this simple statement. How fast did you drive down the expressway or the average street today? You become speechless because you know it was not the posted speed limit for which ever road you were on, because you need to get someplace in a hurry. I have mentioned time and again Titus 3:1. Well today I am adding some more verses:
1 Peter 2: 13 Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; 14 Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. 15 For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: 16 As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. 17 Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.
To me when something in the Bible is repeated more than once it is meant to be a tool for judgment upon the day of the White Throne Judgment. Why? Because it states in the Bible that there must be two witnesses against you. Since we are dealing with spiritual matters then we must work off of that which is meant to teach our spirit to love and honor God through His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. What is that? The Bible. So this very book serves as your two witnesses and can be used against you when you find yourself not in the audience on that great and wondrous event, but as the one on trial with God as your judge.
Hey did you hear the news?
Jesus came back from death. Yes He was crucified, and on the third day he arose and walked amongst men once again for forty days. He appeared out of thin air in a room that was locked tight. He walked with men and talked with them. He instructed those that had walked with Him before He hung upon the cross. He took the keys of hell from Satan’s hand.
Romans 19: 9 For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.
1 Peter 3: 18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: 19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; 20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. 21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: 22 Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.
An evil has risen against you
In times past I have written in harsh tones. Tones I have recently commented upon, but why are they harsh? Were not the words spoken by John the Baptist harsh towards the nation of Israel just before Jesus began to teach His message? Yes they were.
It is in times of adversity, especially when those that should know better and allow it, that a harsh voice cries from the wilderness. Well once again we are in a time of immense hardship and the one nation that has the ability to stand against these horror facing this world sits quietly and self-absorbed.
Isaiah 54: 17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.
Yet at this time they do prosper, but how can they? For this nation has turned its back upon God. Mouthing the words of Christendom yet having no idea of their meaning. The word “hypocrite” means to act like they are something they are not. I have used the word hypocrite more freely lately because I see more acting the part of Christians then living the part.
People turn from these words in hate and disgust. Why? Because deep down inside many of themselves they see a spark of truth in the words I type. I type them because a great evil has risen not only outside this nation, but within. God has been systematically removed this nation to the point that as one person recently told my church I attend as he talked to college aged students. He tried to relate the story of David and Goliath to them and they had no idea what he was talking about.
That says that this is no longer a nation of God, but a nation without God and we that should be leading our children to God have failed and so we have a man in the White House that goes and laughs and plays golf moments after giving lip service to the media over the beheading of Mr. Foley.
This is why I am harsh with my words. This is why more need to step up and serve and honor God once again.
Only one political party at this time still officially honors God. The other one has kicked God out.
Support those that support God and let those that do not know that there is a God.
Confessions of a screwed up middle-aged man: Today someone new added their words to the world of blogging.
Well when I awoke today I was greeted by a message on my cell phone that a post was waiting for me in one of the groups I post to in Facebook. They are the same posts I place here, I just share them there.
Well I read the post and was pleased by what I read. It is a way I sometime, but rarely post. Trust me I have tried, but they don’t work out that way. I was gladdened that this young lady has added her words to those others like mine that can be found upon the internet in the form of blogs. I pray she is able to reach across the world as my own post of done. I pray that they inspire and cause people to think and ponder their own faith and believes in God and come to know God and His plan for them better.
I know I can be harsh in my post, but I can tell you this it is not intentional. I start to write and I just allow the words to flow from me into typed words upon a screen or hastily written words in notebooks. I do not plan what I am going to write, which is different from many write and blog. Thus the subtitle “thoughts out of the blue” for my blog.
One thing I do know is that I try to place upon these word what I feel is pleasing to God. This is what I wish all to write in their own blogs as the reach out unto the world that is in so much need of God and His Son. Too many are unaware of God or even the stories within the Bible.
A Christian comedian was at our church the other day and he mentions that people going to college has no idea about the story of David and his battle with Goliath. It is a sad commentary of our time that in a world with some much knowledge available to all too too few actually go out and seek it. It also explains how so many can act with rudeness and hatred since they no concepts of the teachings of peace and love have given in the Bible.
It is wonderful when another voice is added to those trying to teach of the wonders of God and His Son for their branch will seek to bear fruit where my branch cannot reach and t is pleasing and wonderful to witness this new growth beginning.
Confessions of a screwed up middle aged man: trials
Trials come to all. It is what we are told will happen within the Bible. Some will be by God Himself. Testing our mind and our spirit. Challenging us to think, overcome, and if that does not work turn to His Son the Lord Jesus Christ.
I have been going through one of these trials for about a month now. It is now time to put it into typed words what it is like to be going through this time of stress and hopefully growth in my faith.
From outward appearances the outcome seem to be bright, and bless by God. From within the struggle even though I do see the outward manifestation that is to come I still must make it through the dark tunnel to the light that awaits upon the other side of it.
It is not important the details of the trial before me, but it is one that in the long run will strengthen and hopefully allow my family to bond and to join as one. Through this trial I have seen the change within me from the man I was before my year of Job and the man I am today. I am actually doing things I only, maybe, thought of doing a few years ago. Now I know when the burden is more than I can carry on my own so I seek support from my soon to be wife and if that is still not enough we join together in pray. Turning over to God and allowing Him to lead us down the road He see that is best for us to go down. Should I go to pray first? I cannot answer that without thinking: “where is the growth?” A parent wishes his child to learn to stand upon their own two feet and not lean upon the parent anymore but to prove themselves to be adults. This I think is how God wishes us to grow as well. To stand upon our own two feet for as long as we can, but I must add that He wishes us to know when it is time to turn to Him and His Son and to seek their guidance and comfort.
It is hard to explain how to “know” which is the correct road, but I will say this. I can tell when it is me making the choice and when it is God directing me. I can sense within me that it is Him influencing me through the Holy Spirit, for I can tell it is coming not from within me, but from an external force that is guiding me down the right road.
It is important that people that call themselves “Christian” come to learn the difference, for when they do not, more times than not they listen to themselves more then they listen to God. As a result we have the society we now live within. A society full of pseudo-Christians, otherwise known as “hypocrites,” that cater to the latest whim and fad of “faith” being taught to them by those that have no real concept of God themselves. This is the thing that Jesus had to deal with when He walked the earth over two thousand years ago and had to deal with the leaders of the Jewish faith that would later crucify Him. They did not know because they did not listen God that Jesus was His Son, but on the third day when He rose from the dead all learned that He was truly the Son of God. Many today, even those that “lead” churches live like they are Pharisees.
A true believe in God and His Son the Lord Jesus Christ is to have the knowledge within oneself that God is not “in” you. True the Holy Spirit can fill you, for I have felt the pouring of the Holy Spirit into me, but I also know that the spiritual world and the real world are two different places. God, His Son and the Holy Ghost can and have gone between these two realms. We cannot at this time, but we are promised that we will when we loss the corrupted with the uncorrupted. It is from the spiritual place that we receive direction from God, which is beyond this temporal form we now live in. When can learn the difference through trials of your faith, much like the one I am now going through. You learn how to grow in your believe in God and His Son the Lord Jesus Christ.
Since history is the big topic these days, let’s have some
Let’s look at Rome and the state of the people at the time of Paul:
Romans 1: 21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. 24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
Wow!! So once again we see history repeating itself because folks have forget to learn from history. You can take every single word that is written above and it will fit perfectly with the United States of America.
Time to wake up and think folks. I can add nor retract anything to this.
My two cents on the “Crusades” comment by Mr. Obama
If you have looked through my blog you will see that I have compared the actions of the Crusades to be like the events being done by ISIS (ISIL) and the other groups that behave in a like manner to them.
Here is where Mr. Obama messed up though. The Crusades took place out of ignorance of the common people. A lack of knowledge of the true meaning and understanding of the teaching found within the Bible. Why? Because only the rich could even afford a copy of a Bible and members of the church. It must also be stated that in many cases the rich and the church were one and the same at that time also due to no mass knowledge of the Bible.
This is something that Mr. Obama should have stated when making his remarks. I can only speculate why he did not.
Now he also mentioned slavery. Now this one thing many do not like to comment about. Mainly due again to ignorance on the topic. Most have a fantasy image of slavery. They believe it only occurred within the United States. Yet it is shown within the Bible. It is also shown that many that came to colonize this nation no matter their color came over here as slaves. At first they were what is called indentured slaves. They would pay off their debt, the cost of the trip here, and then they would be free to colonize.
This soon become unprofitable and so then the import of slaves began. Note the wording here the “import of” this means they were already slaves. In fact most slave owner outside of this nation were of the same race as those that were their “property.” Now in no means am I making excuses for slavery. It is wrong and something that should never be, but are you aware there is slavery going on at this very moment in Africa in the Pacific Rim nations? Most if it is sex slaves, but there is still other types being done.
It has become the mainstay of those on the left to follow this false narrative of theirs that the “white” oppressors wish to continue to keep the “blacks” down. When in reality most that say this are extremely rich and well off. Their intent is to keep the poor, poor and thus make themselves rich and take or maintain control of the poor by making them believe these lies. This goes across party lines, but if you really do your research you will find that there are more rich Democrats than there are Republicans.
It is speeches like the one made by Mr. Obama that wish to divide this nation help to bring about a government that will allow the rich and elite to dictate to those that are poor and uneducated.
It is through government make policies like Obamacare and Common Core which is part of the plan to dumb down the average citizen of the United States and keep them dependent upon the rich, I mean government.
It is a plan that is working. Each year this nation becomes more and more ignorant, while the few especially those on the left just sit back and watch it happen as they rake in money given to them by corrupt and self-serving career politicians. The thing is there are many who are fighting this, but it is not enough. Most set about watching sports the new modern version of the gladiators (football, baseball, basketball, and hockey) of the Roman Empire, a tool used heavily by the dictators of Roman to make their populous ignorant and subdued through the use of entertaining distraction, which worked for hundreds of years.
Then came Christianity, through the teaching of Jesus Christ the Son of God. This changed things, but not enough. Because in time those in power and those in control of the knowledge perverted it for their own purpose and greed. It is this which resulted in the Crusades. It seems to follow a cycle that occurs nearly every thousand years.
Well in today’s society we are experiencing the same type of ignorance and it is due to few reading and understanding the Bible or the Qur’an. Both religions which came from Abraham teach peace, both have their difference and would take too long to explain. I will say this, maybe out of personal prejudice I don’t know, I would rather all turn to God through the word of the Bible and the lessons taught us by Jesus Christ.
But if not, I would rather all read FULLY their holy books and see that actions committed either one thousand years ago or even one hundred and fifty years ago is not something to compare to the actions and behavior of ISIS (ISIL) now. The sins of the past are the sin that those that lived that past must face. This sins of today are ours to face now, and what is worse in this situation we have enough information at our disposal to not be ignorant, yet we most are and by their own choice. We must face up to sins committed now, today. Our own personal sins or those committed by people that do horrific acts like what was done to the Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kassasbeh. It is our responsibility not only to learn the Bible to up hold all that is good and glorious within to the point of removing those terrorist that wish to destroy the world and impose their jaded values upon not only us but our children and grandchildren.
Do we wish to repeat the acts that cause millions to die in World War II? Well at this time we are. There are many in power at this time that echo history through not only their actions, but their words. Their desire to maintain peace at nearly any cost resulted in horrific deaths that could have been avoided. Instead six million Jews and an additional seven million of different nationalities and religious believes Like Christianity and Muslim died in concentration camps through Eastern Europe. Stop it now, not when it is too late and instead of millions is it billions that die. If you do not learn from history you are destine to repeat it and at this time we are.
Any who teach “self-worth” teach hypocrisy
“Self-worth” is a teaching that states “you” can achieve entrance into heaven by your own actions and deeds. It is teachings like this that are blinding those that call themselves “Christians” when in reality they may not be. By the way it is not in the Bible. Those that teach things not in the Bible and state it is “Christian” are teaching the world.
Titus 3:5 – Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
The only way to achieve entrance into heaven is by acknowledging that “you” can do nothing to get there. You must humble yourself. You must not try to do things on your own. For they will lead into the world and the world is corrupt.
1 John 2:15 – Love not the world, neither the things [that are] in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
When you seek out the world. You seek out the temporal and fleeting rewards of this life we now live.
Revelation 3:17 – Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Try to understand. This life is only a test. When compared to our true life that is to come. It is but a blink of the eye. Can you cherish a blink? No you cannot. It is there but a moment and then it is gone and repeated once again.
Our eternal live is not a blink, but an actual live. A live that will last for all eternity. Not 100 years, not 1000 years, but more than 1,000,000,000,000 year.
When you humble yourself before God, and learn to place all others before yourself you quickly learn that by doing so you realize that all are equal to you. So if they are your equal why do you seek to esteem to be better than them? Especially when we are taught within the Bible to place all others before ourselves.
Seeking out “self-worth” is seeking to hold onto a blink. When you do this your eyes are closed and you are blind to all that is real and perfect in the sight of God and His Son our Lord Jesus Christ.