Archive for the ‘General Post’ Category
Easy Way To Know God’s Will
By being a true disciple of Jesus you can know what is the will of God for you in any situation. In Psalm 32: 8 God tells us this:
“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with my eye.”
God does this through His Word. As we read and study the Scriptures on a regular basis God will take what we learn and use that for instructions in living a life devoted to Him, and for guiding us in our daily life.
As God works in us He will let us know, by what we have learned through our study of His Word, what His will is for us in any situation where we seek His guidance. He will speak to us through an inner voice or by giving us peace that we have made a right decision.
By learning His Word, and in seeking His guidance on a regular basis, we can learn to recognize and know what is God’s will for us in any situation.
The “easy” secret to learning God’s will for us is to first read and know what is in God’s Word. How about you, do you really want to be instructed and taught by God?
By being in God’s Word on a regular basis you can be guided by, and know, what is God’s will for you.
God will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go, and He will guide you according to His will, but only when you take the time to read and study His Word.
Only by knowing what is in God’s Word will you ever know the will of God, and have the faith needed to trust in Him for the outcome.
Christianity Is Not A Political Party
As a disciple of Jesus I am constantly amazed how someone always seems to identify their Christianity with being either a Capitalistic Conservative Republican or a Socialistic Liberal Democrat. When in fact Christianity is neither.
Basically capitalism is based on greed… more money, bigger home, better job, etc. and keep all they get, and socialism is based on the power of the elite few who take from everyone and enslave the populace to government programs. Neither party truly espouses Christian values unless it will get them some votes.
Jesus taught us not to have a love for money, nor should we have a desire for it, and money is at the root of all that is capitalistic. Without greed there is no capitalism. Jesus also taught not to desire to have the power to Lord it over others nor to regard one person better than another. Without the desire for power over others and in telling them what they can and cannot do you have no socialism.
In short, being a disciple of Jesus means being content with what you have. We are to work for what is given to us on a daily basis, whether working for ourselves or for others, make what is needed for daily living and whatever excess we have we are to share with others who are truly in need. If we have food, clothing and shelter that is all we should desire.
Think about it … if we deeply trust in Jesus for providing us with our daily needs what more do we need? God knows our needs and Jesus promised that if we would seek the Father and to rely on Him to provide us with our daily needs that He would do so.
We as Christians are not to live as the world lives, nor to desire the things of the world. Our desire is to be where our home is in Heaven with our Father who is Lord of us all. We should not seek to have a political party tell us what we should do or to tell us for whom we should vote and then believe their promises of what they will do for us if we would just turn our vote over to them. Once you are devoted to one you are then enslaved by that system and you will have a tendency to believe that they can do more for you than God will do.
If you want to vote for someone during an election then at least look for what Christian values they hold, and not the values that they tell you they have, but the values they show by their actions. Remember what James told us:
James 2: 14-20
14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your[d] works, and I will show you my faith by my[e] works. 19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! 20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?
If the person you are considering does not show their faith by what they do, the faith that they say they have is dead; they have no faith – just lies. And if no one reveals by their daily life that they do not have any Christian values at all then you need to stand aside and let God put into office the one that He wants and then to trust in Him for what the outcome will be because of His decision.
Yes, Christianity is not a political party. Being a disciple of Jesus is living our daily lives as if we are just passing through on our way home. Nothing here should be of top priority or desire – only the will of God is where our desire should be. As for me, I would rather be known as a disciple of Jesus than being identified with any political party.
Is There Discrimination Against Christians? … Yes!
The basic meaning of “discrimination” is prejudice, bigotry, bias, intolerance, etc. Without a proper realization of what it means to discriminate against something or someone how can it be told that discrimination is real and that it is a clear and present danger.
The 1st Amendment of the Constitution begins this way:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
The Bible is the guide for how Christians are to live while in this world, and the 1st Amendment guarantees our rights in living out our lives as guided by the Bible. The problem arises when secular society sees differently on whether the Bible or secular humanism should rule the lifestyle of the average citizen. As the Church has become less important in the societal life of the average citizen so has the influence of the Bible become less important as a guide for morality, and because of that so has the outspokenness of Christians become no longer welcomed.
The decline of Christian influence because of the increase of secular humanism has now made Christianity irrelevant in the average life of the non-Christian in the United States. Thus what was once considered immoral or unnatural has now become the norm and is now the leader in how the average person is to view their lifestyle. In most cases, as long as love is involved, it is OK to now do what the Bible calls sinful because society says it is OK to do.
This is where discrimination comes to the fore. Here is an example. Secular society says that homosexuality is OK. After all, they love one another and they should be able to marry like heterosexuals. The Bible, however, says much about the homosexual relationship but let us look at some verses from the New Testament. In Romans 1: 26-27 we read:
26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. 27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.
So, Christians, “born again” Christians, see homosexuality as an unnatural act, and one that God says is a sinful activity. Secular society says that it is OK. What was once seen as evil is now seen as good and for that reason Christians have no right in “judging” others in a relationship that is now deemed “natural”. Basically, we are being told to stop spreading ridiculous ideas about homosexuality being sinful. They tell us that we should embrace this movement and allow it to go on, no matter what we believe, and to refrain in protesting in our responding to it being forced upon us, even though it goes against our religious beliefs to participate in it in any way that acknowledges its legitimacy, and by doing so we are being discriminated against and are looked upon as being intolerant bigots.
This clearly is a violation of our 1st Amendment rights in being denied our God-given, and Constitutional guarantee, to freely exercise our religious beliefs by refusing to participate in this activity in any way that would make it look as a legitimate activity instead of it being a sinful activity as proclaimed by God and the Bible.
As for homosexual marriages, in Matthew 19: 4-6 Jesus said the following:
4 And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”
Clearly, Jesus says that a marriage is to be between “a man and a woman”. Jesus also stated that “what God has joined together, let no man separate.” By secular society saying that homosexuals can legally get married is to go against Jesus (who is God in flesh) by separating what God has joined together by willfully disobeying God in so doing.
Again, by forcing Christians to participate in a homosexual wedding, even if they are only forced to provide a service as part of the activity, is to violate their 1st Amendment right to refuse to engage in an activity that legitimizes this un-natural activity, one that God says not to do and, in being forced to do so, they are being discriminated against by that very act.
Yes, discrimination is being done in a big way, covered by a secular society crying foul for the “civil rights” being denied of people engaging in an activity that God says is an un-natural and sinful activity, and doing so by using secular law which they make superior to God’s Law.
In short, you are guilty of discrimination against Christians and you are in violation of their 1st Amendment right to freely exercise their religious beliefs. What is worse, you are willfully disobeying the commands of God in allowing this activity to take place.
Born Again By The Word Of God
As a Biblical Student of Reformation Theology, believing in the doctrine of election, I am often asked how can I believe in being an Evangelical and doing the work of an Evangelist? My response is to say, “It is easy.” … 🙂
“Easy?” they will say, “how can it be easy if God has already chosen who will be saved?” At this point I begin to remind them of a few scripture verses.
Remember how Paul first went to Corinth? In a dream God told him in Acts 18:
9 Now the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision, “Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent; 10 for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you; for I have many people in this city.” 11 And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
God told Paul that He had “many people in this city.” and Paul stayed there for more than a year preaching the Word to them. It was through that preaching that God saved those who were “His” people. Only by hearing the Word of God can anyone be born again by the Spirit of God.
In Romans 10: 17 Paul says the following:
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
The Word of God is two-fold. First there is the written or spoken Word of God, that His disciples are commanded to share with the world, and second there is Jesus Himself, Who is the Word of God (see John 1:1), it is He Who works through the Holy Spirit to give understanding of the Gospel and opens their heart to receive it and to respond to it. As all who are saved receives a measure of faith, it needs to be applied – first, in order for it to work; so that one can respond with the faith needed in believing the gospel of Jesus.
In Ephesians 2: 8, 9 Paul writes the following:
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
This is why Paul can also write in that same chapter, but in verse 1 the following:
And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,
Since we are spiritually dead in our sinful nature, and cannot understand or respond favorably to anything of God, we first need to be made spiritually alive in order to respond as God wants of us. It is because of the Word coming into our hearts and taking out the old one and giving us a new heart, a soft, welcoming and receiving heart that one becomes willing to respond to the Word, to be able to cry out to Jesus for forgiveness for our sins and to be willing to submit to Him as Lord in order for Him to be our Savior.
However, in order for all of this to happen we first need to hear the Word of God so that we can have the faith that is needed to be able to believe and be saved from the wrath of God that is to come in the end times.
Yes, I do believe in the doctrine of election but I also know that God has people, everywhere, whom He intends to save, but it takes for them to hear the Word in order for that to be achieved. As Paul tells it in Romans 10:
14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent?
How about you? Do you want to be forgiven for your sinfulness and be given the gift of salvation? It is as easy as doing what these verses in Romans 10: 8-10 says:
“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
How much more can this be any easier? Just call upon Jesus and proclaim Him to be Lord. Confess your sinfulness and believe with your heart that God has raised Jesus from the dead and you, too, will find out that you have been given the gift of salvation, and that you have been born again into the family of God.
Do Not Say “God Loves You!” – Unless…..
How many times have you heard a well-meaning Christian – Pastor or not – tell someone “God Loves You!” ? Most likely it is said to someone who is not a disciple of Jesus. Someone who does not love God nor has submitted to Jesus as Lord and Savior.
However, you really should “not” say that to someone “UNLESS”… unless they are a disciple of Jesus. Here is why.
I am sure you have heard it said that God loves everyone and just about all of the time it is based on John 3:16 but, have we all mis-understood that scripture? To find out why John 3:16 is not talking about individuals please read the article at the following link:
Have We All Mis-Understood John 3:16…
In actuality God does love individuals but who are these people whom God loves?
Let me just list a few scripture verses and you should be able to figure out for yourself who it is whom God loves… and why.
John 13: 1
Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
John 14: 21
He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
John 14: 23
Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
John 17: 20 – 23
20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
In short, just look at these phrases…
having loved His own who were in the world,
he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him
“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him
that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
God loves only they who are disciples of Jesus; who are obedient to Him and love Him. You see, God does “not” love everyone, as you have been told so many times. His love is only for born again believers in Jesus. These verses are very clear in that point and if you still do not believe it is because you do not understand what God is saying in His Word, nor do you want to do so because it is against what you have been made to believe; believing in something that is not in the Bible.
Jesus loved His own who were in the world. Whoever loves Jesus will be loved by the Father and whoever the Father loves Jesus also will love. They who love Jesus and keeps His word will be loved by the Father. The thing is the world is supposed to know that the Father has sent Jesus and that only they who believe in Him is loved by the Father as the Father loves Jesus and Jesus, too, will love them… and only them. For they are His own who are in the world.
Are you loved by God? Do you believe in Jesus and are obedient to Him? Do you love and cherish the salvation that God has so graciously given to you? Then, do not say to any and everyone that God loves you. If they are “NOT” disciples of Jesus you are only deceiving them and are actually lying to them. Instead, tell them that they can “know” the love of God and feel the kind of sweet love that only Jesus can give, and then tell them how they, too, can receive this love of God by submitting to Jesus as Lord and Savior.
So, do not say that “God loves you” – unless … unless you know for sure that the one to whom you are talking is a true disciples of Jesus and are a child of God. You see, God does love, but He only loves they who love Jesus. We know He does because, in His Word, He has told us so…
What Guides Your Truth?
Without sounding “churchy”, here is how I perceive things. There is relative truth and there is absolute truth.
Relative truth blurs the lines between right and wrong. Depending on the situation, depending on the person, what may be wrong at one time could be right another time. In this view, relative truth is based on the wisdom of man in any situation or circumstance in which they may find themselves. Basically there is no specific right or wrong in which a person can be guided. As such, relative wisdom is based in man’s wisdom.
Absolute truth is where there are specific rights and wrongs; do’s and don’ts I guess you could say. With absolute truth to guide you no matter what the circumstance or situation is in which you find yourself you are guided by these truths so that you know how life should be lived guided by what you know to be right and wrong. Absolute truth can be found in God’s word the Bible.
So, basically one is guided either by man’s wisdom which is based in relative truth or they are guided by God’s wisdom which is absolute truth. However, even true Christians can be tempted by, and give into, relative truth, which is a wrong as seen by absolute truth, because at that moment it seems right to them, but they will not stay in that wrong because God will show them the wrong they are doing and bring them out of it.
The problem is that there are many people who are Christians in name only, because they have no root grounded in the Bible because they have never experienced being “born again”, and when they do fall into the gray area of relative truth it seems right unto them and there they remain with the feeling that all is OK.
Then there are those who are not Christians and they will look at the world through the dark glasses of relative truth and most anything looks good to them, even if they would not participate in it themselves. It is not for Christians to judge them but a Christian does have, and should have, the right to say that in God’s wisdom a certain activity is wrong and should not be done.
In short, morality is based either in God’s wisdom or man’s wisdom. God’s wisdom is the basis for absolute truth and man’s wisdom is the foundation of relative truth. A true Christian will find themselves on the side of God’s wisdom and non-Christians will see things through man’s wisdom, and that is just the way things are as man’s nature is bent towards that way.
Having tasted Christianity you might remember the verse that says:
“But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness to him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
1 Corinthians 2: 14
Relative truth or absolute truth, where does your wisdom lie? Before you answer remember this from 1st Corinthians 1: 19 – 21 and I pray that God will open your understanding to receive these verses and apply them to your heart:
19 For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”
20 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.
May you be among those whose heart God will change and bring you into the Kingdom to be included with those who believe; disciples of Jesus and followers of the way.
A Good Reason For Prayer
For the Christian prayer is an important avenue to God. Actually, prayer is only for the Christian as they are the only ones who stand before God forgiven for their sins, and have been given the right to come directly to God with our petitions. All other people are still under God’s wrath and God’s condemnation. So, being a Christian allows us a way to talk with God anytime anywhere for any reason.
Therein lies the reason for prayer.
God knows our needs even before we think of them and come to having a desire to call out to Him. Our prayers cannot change God’s will nor can it bring anything to Him that He does not already know and for which He has not already a planned response. So, if God knows all things and controls all things through His direct and permissive will, then why is there a need for prayer? Why should we pray if we cannot influence God or change His will in any manner shape or form.
Because prayer is not for us to bring God around to our way of thinking. Prayer is for our benefit. Through prayer we can, and will, grow in our reliance upon and trust in God. You see, prayer allows us to come to God and tell Him all about our problems, our concerns, our joys and our sorrows. We can tell Him what we would like, how we think the results should be in a given situation, why we need the things for which we ask, in short, we can bare our souls desires to Him and let Him know what it is exactly what “we” want and yet, be completely reliant upon Him for the answer, no matter what it is, knowing that He has our best interest at heart.
We may not get the answer that we want, but can rest assured that we will get an answer. How we respond relies upon our trust in Him for knowing His way is always the best way.
For instance, we know what it is that God tells us in Romans 8: 28:
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
All true Christians are the “called” of God and since we are called by God to be His children do we not think that He will take care of us in the best way possible? That is what prayer is all about – trusting in God and relying upon Him for our care while in this life.
As this trust and reliance upon God grows we will find how much at peace we can be no matter what the situation is in which we find ourselves.
In Philippians 4: 6, 7 we read:
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
We can pray to God for any and all reasons and, if we do so with an understanding of how God responds and how we find our faith, trust and reliance upon God growing, we can have a peace no one else in this world will ever know. We can have much or we can have little, we can even be in the worst of times but we can still have this peace, a peace that keeps us in God’s will and love knowing that what is happening is for God’s praise and for our good.
So, dear Christian, pray always. Actually prayer is nothing more than talking with God, not some ritual that we must repeat or go through every time we want to come before God. He knows you, He loves you and He is always there whenever you want to be with Him. What I like is that we can talk with Him whether we have a need or not. Just to talk with God about anything is the greatest feeling there is, but only if we grow in our trust in Him and in our reliance upon Him for responding to us in a way that is good for us. The peace that follows is something that this world does not have nor will it ever know or experience.
So, what is a good reason for prayer? Anything at all and the peace that we can find within it. And, remember this. The more you pray, or talk, with God the more your trust will grow and you will become more reliant upon God for being there at anytime you want to talk with Him. The result is peace of mind and peace of heart, and feeling the love of God fill you with joy unspeakable no matter what the situation is in which you find yourself.
Oh, one more good reason for praying is the fact that God wants to hear from you, but He will only listen to you if you are a Christian. So, why not submit now to Jesus as Lord of your life, confess your sinfulness and you will find that Jesus is also Savior of your soul. He is the only way to the Father and only through Jesus, and no one else, can we have access to the throne of God.
Peace is waiting for you, and you can find it in Jesus through your prayers to the Father.
Be Reconciled To God
A new year has come and with it comes the continuing promise by those of us who are Ambassador’s of God that forgiveness of sins is offered to all who will heed the call to be reconciled with God.
In 2 Corinthians 5: 20 we read the following:
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.
All too often, people believe that everyone who dies will go to Heaven. Nothing is further from the truth. You see, sin in our lives have separated us from God, and in that separation God does not see us nor does He hear.
Isaiah tells us in his writings the following in 59: 1, 2
Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.
We are all sinful people. Just one sin, even just one little lie makes anyone a sinner who has been separated from God. Any wrong doing on our part has created a rift between us and the Creator of life – the Creator of you. But you have forsaken Him and have gone your own way to do your own thing and have walked away from God. You have created this separation and God, in His justice, has become angry with you and is hiding His face from you so that He cannot see your sinfulness.
In Palm 7:11 the writer has told us:
God is a just judge, And God is angry with the wicked every day.
Think about that for a moment… God is angry with you because you have turned away from Him and have sought to do what “you” believe is right in your own eye instead of living in obedience to Him. Your sin has separated you from Him. You need to be reconciled to Him, to have your sins forgiven, in order to be made righteous in His sight and be given the right to spend eternity in Heaven.
Do not be deceived in your thinking that you are not a wicked person. For anyone who has sinned and done a wrong of any kind has committed a wicked thing before God. That is why God is angry with you and has turned His face and ear from you so that He cannot see nor hear your wickedness. You have separated yourself from God and have placed yourself on the path to spending eternity in Hell.
Please… do not refuse the hand of God in offering you salvation! In your sinfulness you cannot do anything to deserve forgiveness nor be given the right to enter Heaven. But God has done this for anyone who will obey the call to be reconciled to Him. You see, He has offered Jesus to us, to suffer the punishment that we deserve, to die for sins and to be resurrected from the grave to overcome death in order to provide eternal life for all who will call upon Him to be Lord of their life.
The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 10: 9, 10 the following:
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Being reconciled to God is as simple as confessing your sinfulness in proclaiming Jesus as Lord of your life, and by faith you must also believe that God the Father has raised Jesus up from the grave to provide eternal life for all who call upon the Lord. By proclaiming Jesus as Lord and believing in the resurrection brings you into a right standing with God. In short, whoever will call upon the name of the Lord Jesus for forgiveness will be reconciled to God.
Faith is a simple word, but only by faith can one be saved and be reconciled to God. It is in trusting in Jesus for salvation that provides forgiveness for sins; God hears and turns His face back to you. His anger against you is kindled and God will clothe you in the righteousness of Jesus to keep you safe from your sins and will give you peace in His love until He calls you home – to spend eternity in Heaven.
In Romans 5: 1 we read:
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Imagine how glorious it must be to have peace with God. Only by being reconciled to God can anyone know this peace. Why would you not want to have this peace? I implore you to heed the call of God and cry out to Jesus for forgiveness. Proclaim Jesus as Lord and by faith believe that He has died for your sins, and that He has been raised from the dead to overcome death in order to provide you with eternal life in Heaven.
I emphatically implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. Make peace with God now through our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever calls upon the Lord Jesus will be saved.
Obedience Proves Your Faith
So many people call themselves Christian yet by their life they say otherwise. Cheap grace has infected the Christian church due to the fact that so many people, although they say they are believers in the Gospel of Christ, are not showing their faith by their obedience to God. The excuse they give is they say that it is done out of love.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was a German Lutheran pastor and theologian, said, “Only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes.” This is a great example of what Christians are supposed to be doing when they declare their faith.
This is the same as when God tells us in James 2:18:
But some man might say, Thou hast the faith, and I have works: show me thy faith out of thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works.
In other words, if you say that you are a Christian what you do everyday, how you work out your faith in everyday living, should be proof that you are in deed a Christian. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, if you truly believe then you will be obedient in your service to Christ, and by your obedience you will show that you truly believe. However, so many so-called Christian choose not to be obedient because they say that they do so out of love. Love has become the all-inclusive reason for “not” being obedient to Jesus.
I love money so I will do whatever it takes to get it. I want to be with that person even if it is wrong because I love them. We don’t have to get married to have physical intimacy because we love each other. I will leave my spouse to be with another because I no longer love my spouse because I love that other person. These are just a few examples of disobedience because of love for something or someone other than Jesus.
Now I am not talking about or judging people outside of the Church as God will judge them. Who I am talking about are people who call themselves Christian but live a life of disobedience to the Word of God.
In John 14: 21 Jesus said the following:
He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
Jesus is very plain in saying that you truly show your love for Him by your obedience. Then He reinforces this statement with the following from verses 23 & 24:
“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. 24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.
The Bible is the Word of God. Christ is in the written Word. While there are commandments that were in the Old Testament that are not for today, they were only for certain individuals or for the People of Israel, there are commandments from both Testaments that we are to follow today if we are a Christian. And we are to put Jesus first in everything if we are to follow Him and show that we are true disciples. Jesus made this very clear in Luke 14: 26 & 33:
26: “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.
33: So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.
Using love as an excuse for being disobedient to the commands of Jesus is hypocritical. Our first and greatest love is to be Jesus. All other aspects of our life is to play off of that. Anyone we say that we love, any material thing that we say we love, any emotional feeling that we say that we love, no matter what we say that we love is to be second only to Jesus. The love that we have for Him should guide us into the love that we have for anyone or anything else.
So, how about you? Do you show that you believe in Jesus, and love Him, by your obedience to Him? Do you show your obedience because you truly believe in and love Jesus? How much do you really love Jesus more than anyone or anything?
The good thing is that it is never to late to repent. So much that is being taught in the Church these days is not from the Bible but from people who either should not be in the position of leadership, or are not even a Christian themselves, and are only teaching the commands of what man says that you should be doing.
All you need to do is to read the Bible for yourself, especially the New Testament, and submit to the teaching of the Holy Spirit as you read the Word, and you will find out what it is that you should and should not be doing in your change to loving and be obedient to Jesus above all else.
Remember, Jesus said that “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word“. Do you really love Jesus more than anyone or anything? Your obedience to Jesus will be the proof of that. Please, do not use love as an excuse for being disobedient. It will not get you into Heaven.
The Importance Of A Father
As I write this it is Father’s Day. It is a day to honor Dads everywhere. The importance of a Father can be found no where better than in the Bible, and no one can be a better example of a child calling on His Father than Jesus.
On the day that Jesus was betrayed by one of His closest friends, and during the night before He was crucified, knowing what was about to befall Him Jesus talked to His Father. In Mark 14 we read:
32 Then they came to a place which was named Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” 33 And He took Peter, James, and John with Him, and He began to be troubled and deeply distressed. 34 Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch.”
35 He went a little farther, and fell on the ground, and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him. 36 And He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.”
In the midst of great turmoil Jesus went to the one person who He knew was the only one He could call upon and depend on for doing what was right. Even though He knew what He had to do He still cried out, “Abba, Father”. Jesus wanted His Father. He needed Him and His Father was the only one who could take away from Him what He was about to face. Yet, in the midst of all of this He knew that doing the Father’s will, and not His own, was the best course of action for Him to take. He set aside His own will to do the will of His Father and, in doing so, He did the right thing in providing forgiveness for those who would be saved from having to pay the penalty for their own sins.
In the family, the Father, or a Father figure, is still the one person that a child should, at any age, be able to count on to go to when there are troubles or problems of any kind and be helped in making the right decision; even when that decision is not the one that they want to do. We, too, can call “Abby, Father”, not only to our Earthly Father but also to our Heavenly Father to help us in time of need, knowing that if we belong to Him He will guide us in to making the decision that will be the best one for us and one that will bring glory to our Father.
When we honor our Earthly Father in doing his will, if he is teaching us Christian principles, we often find that what he has taught us is, and was, the right thing to do. How much more, then, can we expect to be guided by our Heavenly Father to do the same? When we come to realize that our Heavenly Father, the same One to Whom Jesus called “Abba”, guided Him perfectly to make the right decision, we can be assured that His will for us is just as great and is just as perfect as it was in guiding Jesus.
A family without a Father, or a Father figure, is not one that God has designed for us to be in. Realizing that there are times when a Father is not present, a Father figure should be readily available for children to call upon for guidance. If Jesus needed to call upon God the Father, calling Him “Abba”, how is it that we feel that we do not need the same for us to call upon our Earthly Father or even our Heavenly Father for guidance as well?
Before we can call upon God the Father we must first become a member of his family. The Apostle Paul knew this when he wrote in Romans 8: 15 the following:
15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”
When we call upon God to forgive us for our sins, realizing that our sinfulness has condemned us already to spend eternity in Hell, and to believe in Jesus as the one who died for sins and proclaim Him Lord, and believe that God the Father raised Him from the dead, it is because we have been born again into the family of God; being adopted as such and because of us receiving the Holy Spirit at the time of our rebirth, we can than call upon God the Father and, as Jesus did, call Him “Abba”, as He is now our new Father. Jesus said that no one can come to the Father except by Him (Jesus).
Every child should be guided by a Father or a Father figure, as every child and adult should be guided by God the Father. By knowing and doing His will we can understand that no matter what it is that He may want us to do we can do so with the knowledge and courage that what we are doing is the right decision to make. And, if we falter, become scared or disillusioned, we know that there is one upon Whom we can call for help. All we have to do is to just look up and cry out, “Abba, Father”!
Riff's Christian Journal 