friend

Confessions of a screwed up middle aged man: the letter

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What is to follow is a letter I just sent to someone I consider a friend. The names have been removed from the person and the church to protect those involved:

It has been a year and a half since I severed my ties to the {omitted}. Many, not just you, were listed on my friends list in Facebook. I have also removed them form my friends list just this last week.
{Omitted} cut me off from receiving my post soon after (unfriended), because in his eyes I became too “radical” in my thoughts soon after I left the church.
As I delved ever deeper into the word of God I found I could not live in a grey or as Christ put it a “lukewarm” existence. As the Bible states it can only lead to one point, removal from God’s blessing and salvation. This was made clear by John the Baptist in Luke 3, reinforced by Christ Himself in John 15 and made perfectly clear in Revelation 3:15-16 by the Glorified Jesus Christ.
A lukewarm existence will lead away from God and His eternal love and blessing and those that live it are seen as even worse than those that deny God outright.
When I received posts on Facebook, what few there were. The trend was never toward God, but further and further away from God.
Watching people I care for deeply falling further and further away from Christ just got me to a point of complete sorrow and I even started entering into depression.
I know I cannot save everyone, but it was my personal attachment to those from the {omitted} that just made it unbearable to continue to watch those I considered friends to be heading not toward God, but away and into certain loss.
It is made very clear within the Bible. It is love God or love the world. You cannot be both.
I have reach out to those that would hear, you being one of them, but still I could not watch the descent any longer, it was too heartbreaking.
There are those like {omitted} that thought it was due to politics, this was never the point. Even though it was the behavior of many during this election that showed where their true state of understanding the Bible and God stood.
These times we are in are truly the end of times for human rule of this planet, and any support of sin, no matter how minor it may seem is actually an acceptance of the world and a rejection of God.
Those of the {omitted} like yourself are in my prayers and it is never too late to awaken from the downward spiral. A spiral I myself was in at one point but awakened only when God placed me through the harsh trial I had gone through in 2013.
Since that awakening I have been coming closer and closer to God through Christ, I wish those I call my friends not to have to go through such a harsh pruning has I had to experience.
If you wish to be friends still I will friend you again in Facebook, but understand I may get harsher in my rhetoric.

What does an enemy of the cross look like?

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This is a question not enough people even attempt to ask let alone try and find the answer too. It is sad really.
Why is it sad though?
I will tell you. For many, more than most may ever realize have made themselves the enemy of the cross of Jesus Christ.
How can I say this? How can I be so heartless and cruel to say such a statement?
To be honest it is not out of heartlessness, but out of pure love. It is not cruel, but it is painful.
Here is how this issue is approached in the book of James
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.
Here is another perspective:
Philippians 3: 18 For I have told you often before, and I say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 They are headed for destruction. Their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and they think only about this life here on earth.
Now let’s look at each thing that leads to being an enemy of God and His Son the Lord Jesus Christ.
First and foremost, befriending the world.
Friend – philos – friendly; subst: a friend, an associate.
World – kosmos – the world, universe; worldly affairs; the inhabitants of the world; adornment
Secondly pride
Proud – proud, arrogant, disdainful.
Thirdly their appetite
In the KJV the word belly is used which is “koilia” meaning belly, womb, the inner man. Per the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament it appear that Paul, the author of Philippians was extremely angry at those that had at first turned to Christ and then turned their back upon the Savior.
What is important to state here is that those that made the dictionary could not say for sure what Paul meant when he used the word “koilia.” However for other references within the NT it is referenced to where sin come from, that being from within each and every person (Mark 7:18-23).
Fourth they “brag about shameful things”
Again in the KJV it reads as : “whose glory is in their shame”
Glory – doxa – honor, renown, glory splendor
Shame – aischune – shame, shamefacedness, shameful deeds
Personally I would translate this as: they take honor in their shameful deeds.
And lastly – “they think only about this life here on earth.”
So someone that is the enemy of the cross, which leads to damnation looks like someone that thinks only of their earthly lust and desires and takes pride in their actions no matter how crude it may be, for all they care about is their own satisfaction and of nothing nor of anyone save themselves. So those supporting this person that lives this way are themselves becoming this persons “friend” and so as is shown above in the verses of James are “make yourself an enemy of God.”

Acceptance

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When it comes to true Christianity, the person that accepts it changes. They no longer think as they use to think. They no longer act as they use to act. Sure, a lot of how they use to be is still there. Their basic personality had not changed in most cases, but how they respond is different. What use to make them angry does not. What use to give them pleasure does not. Even though some aspect of the person you once knew is still seen on the outside by those about them, by those that knew you before you completed your change will make assumptions. Some in time will see the change and come to accept this change in you. But there will be those that do not. They will label you a hypocrite and a liar. They will feel betrayed and abandoned.
Sure, you want to make them understand, especially if they are someone you love, but you must come to realize that this many never happen.
There will be also those that try to tell you that you can still live the life you use to live. They will say sure you can still live exactly like you did before and you are still a Christian and going to heaven. This is not true. You will be tempted, but if the Bible states it is a sin. IT IS A SIN. If you are still early into your Christian faith it is at this time you should seek out and find a good Christian home.
In my own personal growth into Christianity, I sought this out in several large Churches. To my dismay, this actually turned out to be a slide in the wrong direction. It took me decades to find a church home I felt right in and it was a small church. These from further research I feel is the way to go. Do not seek out a church that has hundreds or even thousands that attend it. Seek out a church that at its max one hundred or less. These small churches will actually greet you and accept you as someone seeking to learn your faith and allow you to grow. Will answer your questions and help you address your problems of faith when they arise. This is better than a church of hundreds where you become lost within the faces and no one will be able to help you out, as you may need.
As you grow in your faith, you will change. Sure you will still feel like the person you were before you asked Jesus into your heart, but things that once didn’t bother you will. Especially as you read the Bible and come to understand the message within it, and whom the ultimate author of the Bible is, for even though it was written by man, they received their inspiration from the Holy Ghost. Who directed them to write down the words of God and no other faith can trace it origins back to the beginning of record history itself except the Judeo-Christian faith.