Twitter Thoughts

"Six million ways to die"... and God will choose one when He's ready to bring you before His throne

How Long Were The Israelites In Egypt?

Train Your Emotions

Christianity is a thinking man's religion.

We serve Christ when we bring our mind and our emotions, under His authority.

By reading, studying, and meditating on the words of God, we are to conform our mind to His truths... His ways.

At the same time, when we encounter these truths, we are to bring our emotions under subjection.

We are to reign in our emotions, that are usually desiring to run wild.

It's not that our emotions are evil, it's not that we are not to serve God without our emotions, but just like we must bring our outward actions in line with Christ's commands, we must bring our inward emotions (or in a lot of cases, the outward expression of our inward emotions), in line with Christ's commands.

Our emotions are often led by our circumstances.

It's our emotions that often leads us into deception, especially when it comes to the things of God (i.e. theology).

Many people have exchanged 'being on fire for God', or zeal for the things of the Lord, into sheer emotional hype.

They have substituted the actual manafestation of God, for their own subjective emotional experience - especially when there is praise and worship involved.

This has caused the term, 'i feel the presence of God', to be practically meaningless.

In these last days, we see emotions being the sole reason (or one of the main reasons) why governments are creating laws that go against God's clear commands.

And, its sad to say, even in the visible church, we see the exact same thing.

Biblical doctrine that's been held since Christ founded thd church, is being over-turned because of emotions.

The commands of God, what His words say and mean, are no longer the standard, but how people feel about a particular subject.... their emotions.

Many people state that the Holy Spirit has told them something, and when someone points them to scripture that contradicts what they say, instead of bowing to scripture, they exhault themselves above the words of God.

And the self deception is rampant in those who are emotionally driven.

They will say amen to biblical statements, and turn around and teach the exact opposite of what they said amen to.

If we are disciples of Christ, let us constantly be over what our master has said. Let us be about what our master has told us to do.

When we arent sure, we go to our master and ask Him, knowing that He has left us instructions to follow in scripture, that is supposed to be sufficient for every good that the christian does.

The psalmist delights in the written law of God. Peter tells us that even though He was physically there, and saw the transfiguration of Christ, that the scriptures are better and sure.

In these last days, many people are already being deceived... and will continue to be deceived. Those who name the name of Christ, or also not immune to the effects of this.

But if we keep seeking God and His will, in His word, as He instructs us to, then we will not have to be ashamed.

The imagination and emotion of man, will indeed lead many into doctrinal errors, even grave heresies that they wouldve been condemned to death if they were under God's law.

Seducing spirits will also intice many to believe lies about God, and have people doing and saying some of the most blasphemous things.

But those who seek to carefully obey the words of God which were given to guide/direct us - those same scriptures that contains the true prophecies of God - they will always walk on the path of life.

Daily Meditation

In 2 Chronicles 18 (open your bible and read it), we are given an historical account of "showdown" between a large group of false prophets, and 1 true prophet.

But, this is not the story of elijah. It's not the story of moses, joseph, elishah, or even daniel.

It's a brief account of a "minor" prophet whose name is Micaiah, son of Imlah.

On one hand, you have 400 men who have been counted as prophets of God.

Prophets of God mind you. Not prophets of baal, or asherah, or any of the other false gods that israel worshipped from time to time.

No, they were counted as prophets of YHWH.

And on the other hand, you had micaiah. One man.

All 400 prophets of God prophesied one thing, and micaiah prophesied the exact opposite.

Now, we can read and see that regardless of the numbers, the only real prophet who was present, was micaiah.

The 400, were all false prophets.

But here's the kicker, when micaiah spoke the word of God, one of the false prophets replied...

"Which way did the Spirit of the Lord go from me to speak to you?”

These 400 prophets actually believed that they were speaking what the Holy Spirit was telling them.

They would've viewed themselves as having confirmation as well, seeing as how so many other "prophets" agreed as well.

And what was micaiah's reward for speaking the truth?

He was punched in the face and locked up in prison.

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In the New Testament, we are warned over and over of this very thing.

Matthew 7:15 (ESV)  Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

Matthew 24:24 (ESV)  For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

2 Peter 2:1 (ESV)  But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

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There are many people who name the name of Christ, who hold on to their favorite preacher/pastor/bishop/"prophet"/"apostle" more tightly than they do the word of God.

Instead of, 'what does the word of the Lord says', people refer back to what this person had said.

Instead of being convinced of doctrine via the word of God, they are convinced through, as our brother paul puts it, "words of eloquent wisdom"

There are many christians today who esteem false prophets, false prophetesses, and false teachers, as actual... God approved and anointed... leaders in the church.

And just like micaiah, when you bring the actual word of God to them or their many followers, which clearly contradicts them, they are quick to ostracise and attack you.

Let us always be a people who examines everyone and everything via the light of scripture.

The Bereans were esteemed as more noble because they didnt give the apostle paul a pass.

He too was scrutinised, and examined through the scripture.

The written word of God is more sure than any dream or vision we think God has given us.

The scriptures are our nourishment, and guide, as we walk in faith.

We should strive to put our full trust in what God had caused to be written down and preserved for our benefit.

We should not add, nor take away from the scriptures. We should not go beyond what the scriptures say. We should always exegete and not eisegete thr scriptures. We should judge everything by scripture, which is a lamp to our feet and a guide onto our path.

Let us hold fast to what has been written and handed down to us with much bloodshed.

Stand upon the word of God, regardless of whether or not we are attacked by those who are unregenerate or those who claim to be our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Read, study, and meditate on the word of God.

As it's His word, that will never pass away.

Amen

Remembering July 4, 1776

On this day, the american colonies, won their freedom from british rule.

Those who fought against british rule were armed as they believed it was necessary to protect themselves.

The main reason for fighting was that the british government was passing laws that those in the colonies had no say in.

"Taxation Without Representation"

A lot of those that came to the new world, did so because of religious persecution. They were mainly christians.

The freedom from british rule enabled those in the new world to set up their own government, which would have within it, wisdom gained from fighting british rule.

The governments power was split up, so that no one person had all the authority.

The law giving americans the right to bear arms was, primarily, to defend themselves against the government itself.

Just in case their fail safes were breached, and the government became oppressive, just like the british government they fought to free themselves from.

And one more thing that was put in place, was the separation of church and state.

The government was not to opprose religious liberty.

Part of this was allowed churches to not pay taxes, as taxes would become a way for the government to impose their desires upon the religious.

This was to be a new age of freedom.

Today, we celebrate that new age of freedom that was won so many years ago.

We should also take a look around and see that we have also left a lot of those freedoms behind.

The right to bear arms to protect oneself from not only robbers but the government, is being stripped more and more.

There are calls for churches to pay taxes and for the government to force those who are religious to do what the government says.

Many laws are being passed without representation. And when the majority speaks up, their voice is denied by unelected officials.

It seems that the United States of America has actually turned into the very thing that those people fought for so many years ago..... Old British Rule

Happy 4th of July to my friends and family

I hope the bbqs and fire works don't distract you from the signifance of what's been going on

Creeds & Confessions

Throughout the history of the church of Christ Jesus, from time to time, believers would create what are known as creeds or confessions.

These were created in order to give a summary (usually), of the core beliefs of the faith or denomination.

This means that whoever doesnt believe these things are not in the faith, or part of that denomination.

Some take the form of a long list of doctrinal statements.

These are mainly used for denominational boundaries, and can be quite in-depth.

Creeds and confessions are ultimately a tool that condenses the theological truths and commands that are found all throughout the bible.

So, although they are not infallable, meaning that they aren't perfect and may contain errors, they are helpful to ground one in the basics of sound christian doctrine as well as the doctrine of individual churches and denominations.

Churches, and individual believers. who are more doctrinally minded use the agreeing or disagreeing of creeds and confessions in order to identify which "stripe" of christianity other believers are in.

However, if someone is ignorant of creeds and confessions, they may find themselves feelingva bit ostracised from a number of theological groups, even if they agree on many points.

At the same time, the reason for examining creeds and confessions shouldn't be for acceptance. At least, not primarily.

It's to expand ones understanding of scripture, doctrine, the faith, ultimately God, through the scholarship of the many believers who came before us, building on the foundation laid down by the prophets and apostle, where Christ is the corner stone.

To that end. We will be taking a look at some creeds and confessions over the next few days.

Maranatha

State of the Union

Hi Guys,

Sorry for the long absence of posts (as if anybody reads this lonely blog in the far corner of the interwebs).

I've been really busy with work and family.

Currently looking to do some audio blogs as well.

There are loads of things that i want to blog about, but usually don't have the time and/or energy to write about it.

Whereas, if i was just talking, it would be much easier.

Obviously, i'd still write blogs, but anything that would be really long to read, you can listen to instead.

Hopefully i can get on this sooner rather than later.

There's also the matter of updating the book on tithing, and I have another book that i've had on the back burner for awhile.

A lot of things in my head that I want to get out.

Watch this space.

Maranatha

Twitter Thoughts

If this was a christian nation, three things wouldnt exist.

Sperm donor facilities. Abortion clinics. Churches that teach countrary to scripture.

Closet Atheist

Before I started to follow Christ, I was an atheist.

Back then I hardly ever talked about religion.

On occassion I was forced to attend a church service of some kind or another (JW, RC, etc), but it was never because I believed in God or I felt I had a need of some kind.

Usually it was due to having an aquaintence and wanting to please them somewhat.

My morals were based on nothing but how I felt at any given time and not wanting to get into "trouble" of some sort or another.

I didn't consider getting into "trouble" as doing something "wrong" but i recognised that as much "freedom" as I believed I had, those who had some kind of authority over me would cause my life to become annoying, at least temporarily.

So not getting into "trouble", was simply for convenience sake.

Of course, getting into "trouble" always depended on whether you got caught or not, and I was pretty good at not getting caught.

From the outside, many adults would call me a good kid.

However, if they knew the many things I did and wanted to do but didn't, they definitely would change their opinion of me. But there were never any intentional soul searching questions posed to me.

My atheism formed my outlook on life, which to me, made life worthless.

There became no reason to do anything. And anything that was done, was simply due to social concern. Whether i'll be annoyed with the resulting "fallout" of those who know of whatever I did.

The reason i'm saying these things is because there a number of people within the visible church who fit that description.

They are in church, participating in church, confessing Christ, not because of a deep conviction of their sins and the realisation that Christ has indeed paid for their sins and calls them to repent and believe in Him for the forgiveness of those sins.

No. The reasoning behind their actions are socially driven. Due to the expectations of their family and friends or even a sense of belonging and fellowship, they confess Christ and seem to be following after Him, when in reality, they are really closet atheists.

One would wonder how it is that people can leave Christ tor become atheists or agnostics.

Did these people not have an encounter with Christ? Did they not feel the weight of their sins while at the foot of the cross?

No, They didn't.

We must make sure that the gospel is preached to those both outside and inside the four walls of the church building.

After all, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation.

Twitter Thoughts

If nothing can seperate us from the love of God (Romans 8:35-39), and His love is made manifest in that Christ died in order to pay for our sins (John 3:16), then our salvation is secured in Him.

Twitter Thoughts

Just as knowing that AIDS exist doesn't stop millions of people from having unprotected sex with strangers, simply knowing God exists doesn't cause a person to turn from their sin

Twitter Thoughts

In the atheistic worldview, something is morally wrong... until you want to do it

For Your Listening Pleasure

Here are some things that I listen to which have been edifying... in no particular order

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Twitter Thoughts

If you have not shown that they are guilty before Christ then those responding to the altar call are not actually coming to Him

Happy New Year

It's 2015. I hope you have a blessed year.