Romans 6:12
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
There is no one who doesn’t know its fire. The burning and frustration. Also the failure and the shame. Hopefully only few know its full, awful, consequences when it has its way. Sexual sin has ruined lives. It has ruined kings and nations. It has brought down God anointed ministers in scandal and devastation.
The world says that it’s impossible to deny its pull. The world even tries to deceive us into thinking it’s natural and good to surrender to the power of the flesh. It does this in open war against the word of God that condemns it as sin.
God’s word says…
1 Corinthians 6:18-19
18 Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
Sexual immorality is definitely a sin. It is a sin against our own body and a sin against the God who now dwells in our own body.
But God has not left us without direction on how to have victory over the sin of lust.
Rule #1: FLEE!
Look at what verse 18 said, “Flee sexual immorality…”.
The first piece of good advice you need is that you are never to hold yourself fast in the lustful situation you may find yourself in. Flee! Run! Get out of there. Get away from it. Turn the channel. Hit delete. Get out of the chair, get out of the room, look away and do it now.
2 Timothy 2:22
Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
Do not stand there. Do not think you’ll stand and fight. Not where sexual lust and desire are concerned. That enemy breached your walls long ago. It has been in your heart and head since puberty and it will never be gone until our old flesh is burned away and we have bodies like Jesus, (Matt 22:30).
Remember the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife? She kept tempting him to commit adultery with her.
As the story goes, Joseph did not stand up to her and he quickly quit arguing with her. He ran…
Genesis 39:11-12
11 But it happened about this time, when Joseph went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house was inside, 12 that she caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand, and fled and ran outside.
Do not try to “stand up” to lust and sexual sin.
Rule #2: STAY AWAY!
Also never think to “test yourself” by going where you shouldn’t to see if you can fight.
Proverbs 5
3 For the lips of an adulteress drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil;
4 but in the end she is bitter as gall, sharp as a double-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to the grave.
6 She gives no thought to the way of life; her paths are crooked, but she knows it not.
7 Now then, my sons, listen to me; do not turn aside from what I say.
8 Keep to a path far from her, do not go near the door of her house,
“Keep to a path far from her…” (Pro 5:8)
All of us know what channels we shouldn’t be selecting and we know what web sites we shouldn’t be going to. We know what magazines we shouldn’t be thumbing through and we know when we’re staring.
If you want to live in victory, don’t even turn to the wrong channel in the first place. Don’t go to that web site, don’t even Google search for such things. Accidently got there? Sure it can happen. I’ve learned the hard way not to Google “Toys”. Some incredibly raunchy things came up. But when such things happen, get out of there.
And magazines? You don’t just get the sin of lust from outright pornography there are plenty of Hollywood and ladies magazines with photos galore to arouse the senses. Just leave them alone.
Matthew 5:28
But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
And I’m well aware of how difficult this is. These days we are in an ocean of carnal hedonism that buries us in sex and lust and sin. But we must be strong and try because the final motivation is…
Rule #3: You will be profoundly sorry if you don’t.
Proverbs 5
8 Keep to a path far from her, do not go near the door of her house,
9 lest you give your best strength to others and your years to one who is cruel,
10 lest strangers feast on your wealth and your toil enrich another man's house.
11 At the end of your life you will groan, when your flesh and body are spent.
12 You will say, "How I hated discipline! How my heart spurned correction!
13 I would not obey my teachers or listen to my instructors.
14 I have come to the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly."
15 Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well.
16 Should your springs overflow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?
17 Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.
18 May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.
19 A loving doe, a graceful deer— may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be captivated by her love.
20 Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another man's wife?
21 For a man's ways are in full view of the LORD, and he examines all his paths.
22 The evil deeds of a wicked man ensnare him; the cords of his sin hold him fast.
23 He will die for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.
If and when you ever surrender to a sexual temptation the very “best”, if it can be called that, at the very best you can be punished with is confession of your sin in your prayers and move on.
At worst you might have seriously crippled your witness, destroyed your family, corrupted your health or your spouse’s health, or brought the birth of a child into a world where its family is a lie and a sham. At worst sexual sin can effect your life and the lives of everyone around you in a tragic way that is absolutely irrepairable.
Consider this now. Always be thinking and looking where the escape door is before you ever find yourself in a spot where you later pray with all your might you had never been.
I once read a story about how Billy Graham would never even enter an elevator alone with a woman. He’d wait for the next one. There are situations where it’s not even about temptation but about the appearance of integrity and purity that must be kept.
I have heard of many pastors who hold policies of never counseling women alone unless his wife is there too. And I knew a pastor who made sure the church took the extra expense of large windows on his office and door so that not even the suspicion of impropriety could be imagined.
These disciplines can be considered in our own lives.
Rule #4: It IS possible to live in victory over sexual lust, temptation and sin.
Don’t ever believe hell’s lie that, “I got needs.”
You can keep God on the Throne in your body.
Romans 6:12-14
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
It is right before this part in Romans where Paul says we are “dead” to sin. We are in Christ now and since He died to this world we are dead to the world also in Him.
Conditionally that is where we are. I know it doesn’t feel like that most of the time but the point is we DO have the power to say “no” to sexual sin…
1 Corinthians 10:13
No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
We DO have the power to flee. We DO have the choice to stay far from where these temptations are known to lurk.
If we keep this truth in our hearts and stick to these disciplines in our body we will grow and become more and more the image of His Son, (2 Cor 3:18), and less and less the image of a fallen and temporary world.
1 John 2:16
16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
Victory Over Anger
I don’t know how it happens to you but here’s how it happens to me. Usually somebody says something to me that gets me angry. This comes in a couple of different ways. The first way is somebody accuses me of something that isn’t true. They question my motives and say that those motives were not pure. That gets me angry. Another thing is to demean me. Marginalize my role, marginalize my words, or marginalize my actions in a given situation. That gets me angry.
Why does that get me angry? Because I never feel like I deserve to be treated like that. I believe strongly that what I deserve is to be treated better. Why? Because I’m special. Because I’m worthy.
Am I “worthy”?
Y’know what? Maybe not. Hey, probably not. It’s really not important right now. It’s not really the problem in my life. The true problem that I would love to get rid of, above all else, is the thinking about it over and over. I would love to be able to turn off the brooding and the sulking. I would love very much to be able to “let it go”.
When it has been a real “doozy” I turn that conversation over and over in my head. I can’t stop the scenarios of what I could have and should have said and how I could have put that guy in his place if I had said…
It’s awful. I hate it more than what was said to me. I liken it to a sunburn or something. Nothing but time will make that searing go away. And it does go away. Some of these events were destructive like a bomb at the time and now I don’t remember them.
Now that I am “in between” these catastrophic events, I haven’t had one in the recent past, it’s time to prepare for the next one. I’m sure one’s coming in the future some time. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. I want to look at it with rational thought. Where does the anger come from?
James 4
1 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?
2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
Let’s start out by seeing that at the core there is a selfishness. James here asks where the war and fighting is coming from. He says it’s from your “desires” to have what you want and yet cannot have. Jesus taught us that murder really comes from anger born in the heart, (Matthew 15:19). None of us will probably kill anybody but we’ll sure dream about it.
And what is it that you and I want? Well, a lot of times it’s to be respected. We tend to feel strongly that we should be listened to or that we shouldn’t have to do this or that because we’ve come a long way and deserve to be above that.
Should we be respected? Should we be above demeaning ourselves to less?
Perhaps. Again, I don’t want to concentrate on the situations in our day to day lives that spark the anger. I want to look at how we can finally have some peace in spite of the insult.
John 14:27
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
I want that peace when the trials come and, take it from me, these attacks of anger and the looping “what I shoulda said” are a trial!
The key is to know what we desire…
James 1
But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
What do we “desire”? As I said, we desire to be respected. We desire, may I say, to be exalted,.
But the Bible teaches us to desire something absolutely foreign…
Philippians 2:5-9
5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name,
Humble ourselves. The world tells us to “stand up for ourselves”. The world says that we have rights and we need to fight for them when they’re violated.
But God’s word says the opposite. You will find this teaching all through the New Testament.
Philippians 2:3-4
3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
What if we can come to the beautiful understanding that it’s not about us? Not to just say it and agree with it but really feel it?
Luke 14:10-11
10 But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, go up higher.’ Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you. 11 For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
If we had that in our hearts, sunk in and fixed, we would not give two seconds of thought when we don’t get our “rights” or we get passed over or when we are insulted. That anger would stop.
And there would be peace. There would be peace because we would know in our hearts that it’s irrelevant whether a condemned world respects me or not.
Or, on top of that, even when our own Church brothers and sisters don’t give us respect. How would you feel if nobody ever, not even once, ever said “thank you” for anything you do for the church?
What if nobody ever listened to your ideas or your advice? Or what if they stole your advice?
What if you sat in the churches’ cheap seats the rest of your life and never got to teach a Sunday school or play your guitar in the praise band or got invited to lunch with the pastor?
John 13:14
If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.
In the grand scheme of things me being respected, honored, promoted, exalted, or flattered is useless and going to burn with the rest of the world.
I am dead in Christ and no where should it be me seen at all!
Colossians 3:2-4
2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Therefore, don’t get angry when your dead self is never respected. It has no right to be.
This isn’t frustrating, it’s liberating and it pleases God.
But I can’t end this without mentioning another important piece of advice. Be on guard against the false teachers who want you to fix your mind and heart on yourself and what you desire. These come with a message to “Be the best you you can be.” We’ve all heard this.
“God wants you to be prosperous in money and possessions.” And, “God wants you be all that you can be.”
This is counterproductive to His goal for our eternal lives. God does not want any of us to stagnate as our old self albeit a blood bought self. He wants us to be like His Son…
Romans 8:29
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
And we’ve already seen what His Son is like, (Philippians 2:5-9).
He wants us to be someone far more…
2 Corinthians 3:18
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
We must die to self. There, in His death, we can find a life that grows into the likeness of Him. And it is none of our concern whether we are respected or thanked.
We can tell everyone around us, including ourselves, “You want to respect somebody? You want to thank somebody? Thank Jesus Christ. I am hidden in His death and if you can see any part of me I am not hiding well enough.”
Mark 10:31
But many who are first will be last, and the last first.
Why does that get me angry? Because I never feel like I deserve to be treated like that. I believe strongly that what I deserve is to be treated better. Why? Because I’m special. Because I’m worthy.
Am I “worthy”?
Y’know what? Maybe not. Hey, probably not. It’s really not important right now. It’s not really the problem in my life. The true problem that I would love to get rid of, above all else, is the thinking about it over and over. I would love to be able to turn off the brooding and the sulking. I would love very much to be able to “let it go”.
When it has been a real “doozy” I turn that conversation over and over in my head. I can’t stop the scenarios of what I could have and should have said and how I could have put that guy in his place if I had said…
It’s awful. I hate it more than what was said to me. I liken it to a sunburn or something. Nothing but time will make that searing go away. And it does go away. Some of these events were destructive like a bomb at the time and now I don’t remember them.
Now that I am “in between” these catastrophic events, I haven’t had one in the recent past, it’s time to prepare for the next one. I’m sure one’s coming in the future some time. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. I want to look at it with rational thought. Where does the anger come from?
James 4
1 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?
2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
Let’s start out by seeing that at the core there is a selfishness. James here asks where the war and fighting is coming from. He says it’s from your “desires” to have what you want and yet cannot have. Jesus taught us that murder really comes from anger born in the heart, (Matthew 15:19). None of us will probably kill anybody but we’ll sure dream about it.
And what is it that you and I want? Well, a lot of times it’s to be respected. We tend to feel strongly that we should be listened to or that we shouldn’t have to do this or that because we’ve come a long way and deserve to be above that.
Should we be respected? Should we be above demeaning ourselves to less?
Perhaps. Again, I don’t want to concentrate on the situations in our day to day lives that spark the anger. I want to look at how we can finally have some peace in spite of the insult.
John 14:27
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
I want that peace when the trials come and, take it from me, these attacks of anger and the looping “what I shoulda said” are a trial!
The key is to know what we desire…
James 1
But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
What do we “desire”? As I said, we desire to be respected. We desire, may I say, to be exalted,.
But the Bible teaches us to desire something absolutely foreign…
Philippians 2:5-9
5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name,
Humble ourselves. The world tells us to “stand up for ourselves”. The world says that we have rights and we need to fight for them when they’re violated.
But God’s word says the opposite. You will find this teaching all through the New Testament.
Philippians 2:3-4
3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
What if we can come to the beautiful understanding that it’s not about us? Not to just say it and agree with it but really feel it?
Luke 14:10-11
10 But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, go up higher.’ Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you. 11 For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
If we had that in our hearts, sunk in and fixed, we would not give two seconds of thought when we don’t get our “rights” or we get passed over or when we are insulted. That anger would stop.
And there would be peace. There would be peace because we would know in our hearts that it’s irrelevant whether a condemned world respects me or not.
Or, on top of that, even when our own Church brothers and sisters don’t give us respect. How would you feel if nobody ever, not even once, ever said “thank you” for anything you do for the church?
What if nobody ever listened to your ideas or your advice? Or what if they stole your advice?
What if you sat in the churches’ cheap seats the rest of your life and never got to teach a Sunday school or play your guitar in the praise band or got invited to lunch with the pastor?
John 13:14
If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.
In the grand scheme of things me being respected, honored, promoted, exalted, or flattered is useless and going to burn with the rest of the world.
I am dead in Christ and no where should it be me seen at all!
Colossians 3:2-4
2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Therefore, don’t get angry when your dead self is never respected. It has no right to be.
This isn’t frustrating, it’s liberating and it pleases God.
But I can’t end this without mentioning another important piece of advice. Be on guard against the false teachers who want you to fix your mind and heart on yourself and what you desire. These come with a message to “Be the best you you can be.” We’ve all heard this.
“God wants you to be prosperous in money and possessions.” And, “God wants you be all that you can be.”
This is counterproductive to His goal for our eternal lives. God does not want any of us to stagnate as our old self albeit a blood bought self. He wants us to be like His Son…
Romans 8:29
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
And we’ve already seen what His Son is like, (Philippians 2:5-9).
He wants us to be someone far more…
2 Corinthians 3:18
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
We must die to self. There, in His death, we can find a life that grows into the likeness of Him. And it is none of our concern whether we are respected or thanked.
We can tell everyone around us, including ourselves, “You want to respect somebody? You want to thank somebody? Thank Jesus Christ. I am hidden in His death and if you can see any part of me I am not hiding well enough.”
Mark 10:31
But many who are first will be last, and the last first.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Contending For The Faith
I have been many times rebuked for debating other people in the subject of faith and religion. Mostly in internet forums and bulletin boards. Usually these rebukes come from people that try to hold me accountable to a fictitious standard that that we are, at no time, in any circumstance, to expound our faith in any way that can be construed as stating Christianity is superior to any other religion.
Expounding Christianity as exclusive and the “only” way to God is bigoted, hateful and closed minded. Personally I prefer “narrow minded”, (Matt 7:13).
The Bible speaks for itself that Christianity is an “exclusive” religion. By that I mean it claims to be the only faith that is true and leads to the actual, living, true God.
John 14:6
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Acts 4:12
Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
None of this is new. This has been the faith since the apostles. This is the narrow mindedness that got Christians thrown to the lions 2,000 years ago. People that accuse me of hate for “putting down another person’s religion” just don’t get it.
2 Corinthians 10:4-5
4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,
They have a pre-conceived notion of what they think the Christian faith is all about and it’s not about cow towing to false religions.
It is my experience that these people are more of a concern than debating other religions can ever be. In the western world now days the ultimate virtue is tolerance. To be tolerant of each other’s opinions, ethnicity, sexual deviation, or religion is the ultimate good that all people must live by. Or be compelled to live by.
In my experience people of other religions have no problems with debating their faith. Catholics can the most frustrating. Especially Catholics who know their Bible and Church history. Mormons tend to think they can debate and when they see how badly that debate goes they go directly to a position where they cry they’re being picked on.
“Why are you persecuting me? Why are you trying to cripple my faith?”
“Uh… Because you came to my door and rang my door bell with the intension to cripple my faith. How’s that working out for you?”
Atheists are not going to be “rationalized” into the Kingdom. (Sure, some have, C.S. Lewis, T.S. Eliot, Lee Strobel etc.) But I believe the Spirit convinced them not their own education.
Muslims, Hindus, Druids, Buddhists, and Shinto’s must first be convinced that the Bible is the truth.
What is the point of using a Bible with somebody who doesn’t care what it says?
I have nothing to really say to the atheist, Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist except, “Whatever religion or philosophy you got going on is a false one. You’ve been lied to and deceived my friend. You need to repent and accept Jesus as Savior and Lord or you will perish in hell.”
Don’t buy that? Okay... But it’s true and it’s dead serious. I pray you change your mind.
And that’s all I got for them.
2 Timothy 2:23-24
23 But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife.
24 And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient,
Trust me. Trust me. Trust me. Unless the Holy Spirit is already working in their heart, (And He very well might be.), reasoning anybody into the Kingdom is not the way to go. The Holy Spirit uses the cross and the blood of Christ and conviction from His Word to cut to the heart. In other words the old way. The way that you would absolutely figure would be the most offensive way of saying it turns out to be its power, (Rom 1:16). I’ll have something to say about the true way to preach the Gospel in another posting.
This time I want to talk about when somebody comes around and says they’re a Christian.
Jesus as their Lord and the Word of God held dear and then starts twisting, perverting, distorting, falsifying, warping, fabricating, inventing, misrepresenting, altering, (did I say distorting?), deforming, then what?
Do you believe the Bible?
What do you think this passage means…
2 Timothy 4:1-3
1 I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom:
2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;
We’re supposed to be loving. That doesn’t mean accommodating or “agree” and doesn’t even always mean “nice”.
You think Jesus was always “nice”?
A bunch of merchants buying and selling in the temple didn’t think He was so nice. (Matt 21:12)
When “Christians” say...
”Jesus was just a good teacher and whatta shame ‘The Man’ killed him and he was just sayin’ to love your neighbor.”
Or...
Jesus didn’t raise from the dead.
Or...
You have to “work” to get to heaven.
Or...
You can live in hedonist sin and still be saved because, “It’s all about grace and God’s gotta forgive me.”
Then no.
I’m not going sit here and abide that kind of blasphemy potentially killing somebody or robbing somebody of their reward.
”Each person develops their own interpretation of the different books and what they actually mean.”
Uh huh.
Like, for instance?
The scripture tells us to …
2 Timothy 2:15
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
There is a right way and a wrong way to discern what scripture says.
It being “your interpretation” does not equal true.
And yes, there is “true” and there is “false”.
”Yeah but you shouldn’t cut down what somebody else believes.”
You should if it’s wrong!
Galatians 2:10-12
Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed;
We are definitely, definitely out to convert each other and prove we’re right.
Of course we're out to change minds, (2 Tim 2:25-26).
Of course we're out to get people to reject their false beliefs for the truth.
If Paul were here he’d be scrapping with the rest.
If you doubt my word, read Galatians. (Paul being very “un-nice”.)
Proverbs 27:17
As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.
Expounding Christianity as exclusive and the “only” way to God is bigoted, hateful and closed minded. Personally I prefer “narrow minded”, (Matt 7:13).
The Bible speaks for itself that Christianity is an “exclusive” religion. By that I mean it claims to be the only faith that is true and leads to the actual, living, true God.
John 14:6
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Acts 4:12
Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
None of this is new. This has been the faith since the apostles. This is the narrow mindedness that got Christians thrown to the lions 2,000 years ago. People that accuse me of hate for “putting down another person’s religion” just don’t get it.
2 Corinthians 10:4-5
4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,
They have a pre-conceived notion of what they think the Christian faith is all about and it’s not about cow towing to false religions.
It is my experience that these people are more of a concern than debating other religions can ever be. In the western world now days the ultimate virtue is tolerance. To be tolerant of each other’s opinions, ethnicity, sexual deviation, or religion is the ultimate good that all people must live by. Or be compelled to live by.
In my experience people of other religions have no problems with debating their faith. Catholics can the most frustrating. Especially Catholics who know their Bible and Church history. Mormons tend to think they can debate and when they see how badly that debate goes they go directly to a position where they cry they’re being picked on.
“Why are you persecuting me? Why are you trying to cripple my faith?”
“Uh… Because you came to my door and rang my door bell with the intension to cripple my faith. How’s that working out for you?”
Atheists are not going to be “rationalized” into the Kingdom. (Sure, some have, C.S. Lewis, T.S. Eliot, Lee Strobel etc.) But I believe the Spirit convinced them not their own education.
Muslims, Hindus, Druids, Buddhists, and Shinto’s must first be convinced that the Bible is the truth.
What is the point of using a Bible with somebody who doesn’t care what it says?
I have nothing to really say to the atheist, Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist except, “Whatever religion or philosophy you got going on is a false one. You’ve been lied to and deceived my friend. You need to repent and accept Jesus as Savior and Lord or you will perish in hell.”
Don’t buy that? Okay... But it’s true and it’s dead serious. I pray you change your mind.
And that’s all I got for them.
2 Timothy 2:23-24
23 But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife.
24 And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient,
Trust me. Trust me. Trust me. Unless the Holy Spirit is already working in their heart, (And He very well might be.), reasoning anybody into the Kingdom is not the way to go. The Holy Spirit uses the cross and the blood of Christ and conviction from His Word to cut to the heart. In other words the old way. The way that you would absolutely figure would be the most offensive way of saying it turns out to be its power, (Rom 1:16). I’ll have something to say about the true way to preach the Gospel in another posting.
This time I want to talk about when somebody comes around and says they’re a Christian.
Jesus as their Lord and the Word of God held dear and then starts twisting, perverting, distorting, falsifying, warping, fabricating, inventing, misrepresenting, altering, (did I say distorting?), deforming, then what?
Do you believe the Bible?
What do you think this passage means…
2 Timothy 4:1-3
1 I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom:
2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;
We’re supposed to be loving. That doesn’t mean accommodating or “agree” and doesn’t even always mean “nice”.
You think Jesus was always “nice”?
A bunch of merchants buying and selling in the temple didn’t think He was so nice. (Matt 21:12)
When “Christians” say...
”Jesus was just a good teacher and whatta shame ‘The Man’ killed him and he was just sayin’ to love your neighbor.”
Or...
Jesus didn’t raise from the dead.
Or...
You have to “work” to get to heaven.
Or...
You can live in hedonist sin and still be saved because, “It’s all about grace and God’s gotta forgive me.”
Then no.
I’m not going sit here and abide that kind of blasphemy potentially killing somebody or robbing somebody of their reward.
”Each person develops their own interpretation of the different books and what they actually mean.”
Uh huh.
Like, for instance?
The scripture tells us to …
2 Timothy 2:15
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
There is a right way and a wrong way to discern what scripture says.
It being “your interpretation” does not equal true.
And yes, there is “true” and there is “false”.
”Yeah but you shouldn’t cut down what somebody else believes.”
You should if it’s wrong!
Galatians 2:10-12
Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed;
We are definitely, definitely out to convert each other and prove we’re right.
Of course we're out to change minds, (2 Tim 2:25-26).
Of course we're out to get people to reject their false beliefs for the truth.
If Paul were here he’d be scrapping with the rest.
If you doubt my word, read Galatians. (Paul being very “un-nice”.)
Proverbs 27:17
As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.
Friday, January 7, 2011
The Wiles Of The Devil (Ephesians 6:11) II: How Can We Be Deceived?
Case #1: I have a friend. Let’s call him TC. I have known TC for twenty years and can say that he and I lived in the same area and saw each other on a consistent basis for around six years. TC has always been like a brother to me. And when I say brother I mean I have often times just wanted to clobber the guy.
First of all let me explain that TC is saved. He is a Christian but TC doesn’t read. His Bible is nice and clean and unopened. What TC knows about doctrine and solid Biblical teaching couldn’t fill a thimble. What TC does know he has gleaned from conversations with knowledgeable people and from sermons he has heard in church. Herein lies a huge problem with the guy. If a preacher, standing at a pulpit, in a suit and tie, with a choir behind him and a large group in front of him were to pound on the podium and say, “Jesus Christ and Satan were brothers and only 144,000 people will get saved in the Millennium which we’ve already been in since Jesus came back in 70 A.D. at the close of the great tribulation which ended when the Jews were expelled by the Romans and the Church replaced Israel as Gods nation.”
TC would have zero problem saying “amen” to any of that. The guy just believed anything anybody said. Anybody, that is, except me. We would see some guy on TV or in a church say something and I’d go, “Uh... No. Romans says different.” But TC would just roll his eyes and argue with me about it and argue and argue. I’d point to where the Bible said it and he would just not accept it. “Dude. How come you’re so right? Satan and Jesus could be brothers. You don’t know.”
Where do you begin with that? “Let’s start with John 3:16. It says God’s, ‘...only begotten Son’.”
And he’d go, “I don’t see where it says they couldn’t be brothers.”
“ONLY begotten Son...? Hello?”
Arguments with TC were always like that. Round and round it would go. Me, alone with a Bible, wasn’t good enough for him.
After years of knowing the guy I finally figured out that what made something true to TC was the status of the guy saying it. If he had a podium, a building, a diploma, a suit and tie, and a microphone or a camera aimed at him, well, then, he must be right.
Case #2: Years ago, in my young Air Force career, I used to frequent a Christian Servicemen’s Center. It was like a “Christian USO”. They offered home cooked meals on weekends, lot’s of coffee to drink and Bible studies. Many of us came from different church backgrounds. We had a brother there named Ken. Ken came from a Pentecostal background and felt very deeply that he was always supposed to be “up” and “happy” all the time. To Ken, Christianity was supposed to always be “happy” and “positive” and “up”.
Anyway... We were all about to have a Bible study one day and during prayer requests Ken mentioned a lady in his church that had a problem with a demon possessing her. He asked us to pray for her. He said the church was regularly laying hands on her at services and casting out this demon but, by next Sunday, this demon was back again and she’d have to come back down to the front of the church to have everybody lay hands and take authority over this demon and bind him and kick him out again.
Well, I couldn’t stand it. I said, “She doesn’t need us to pray for that. She needs to get saved. That’s what she needs.”
Ken begged to differ, “Oh, she’s saved. She’s one of the godliest women I know.”
Which brought a great big, “Huh?” from me.
“You just don’t know her problems.” Ken said.
To which I replied, “Oh I think I know her problem all right. She gets a church full of attention every Sunday by making everybody think a demon is ridin’ her like a pony down the aisle once again.”
And the conversation went down hill from there. What I meant to say was that you cannot have the Holy Spirit in you and have a demon. It is Biblically not possible, (2 Cor 6:14-15).
I pointed that out from the Bible to which Ken replied, “Well, the Bible is just a book. And God is bigger than a book.”
Which brought again a great big, “Huh?” from me.
Here is the next issue. I have been over this argument again with Ken for 24 years. In emails mostly. Ken has a very low opinion of the scripture. Which he routinely marginalizes by simply calling it “God’s love letter.” (He’s fond of the term for the Bible.)
If you asked Ken what opinion he holds for scripture he would fight tooth and nail that it’s the standard by which he lives by. But he doesn’t know much about it. He’s never read it. I challenged him about that once. “Don’t you have a craving for the milk of the Word?”
He shrugged and laughed, “Well, some of us just aren’t readers.” And so Ken continues to believe that a godly woman with the Holy Spirit inside her can also have a demon possessing her four times a month. Also, if you are not peppy and upbeat and giddy 24/7 you’re outside the will of God.
What Ken and TC have in common was how they judged truth by the source it came from. TC judged something as “truth” when it came from someone with the appearance of credibility. Ken judged something as “truth” if it came from someone babbling in an ecstasy.
Both would quickly say the Bible is the word of God but if you pointed to chapter and verse neither one of them would give it much thought. They didn’t know the Bible.
They knew what they just saw or heard or felt and if what they just saw or heard or felt was a lie... They wouldn’t know it.
1 Kings 13:1-32
1 NOW behold, there came a man of God from Judah to Bethel by the word of the LORD, while Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn incense.
2 He cried against the altar by the word of the LORD, and said, “O altar, altar, thus says the LORD, "Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name; and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.'“
This is the story of a prophet in Judah who was called up to cry out against the evil king of Israel, Jeroboam, and against his pagan alter.
1 Kings 13:3-6 contains the dialog between them.
Jeroboam gets mad and points his finger, "Seize him!" And the king's arm immediately freezes up on the spot! The altar he was praying at also cracks in half and all the ashes fall out. The king gets the message and apologizes and his arm goes back to normal....
1 Kings 13:7-10
7 Then the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.
8 But the man of God said to the king, “If you were to give me half your house I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water in this place.
9 “For so it was commanded me by the word of the LORD, saying, "You shall eat no bread, nor drink water, nor return by the way which you came.'“
10 So he went another way and did not return by the way which he came to Bethel.
This prophet was told in no uncertain terms what he was to do. He said this to Jeroboam and then he left for home. There was an old prophet living in Bethel. His sons came to him and told him all about what had happened. The old prophet got his sons to saddle up his donkey and he rode off to find this prophet from Judah...
1 Kings 13:14-24
14 So he went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak; and he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah? And he said, “I am.”
15 Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.
16 He said, “I cannot return with you, nor go with you, nor will I eat bread or drink water with you in this place.
17 “For a command came to me by the word of the LORD, "You shall eat no bread, nor drink water there; do not return by going the way which you came.'“
18 He said to him, “I also am a prophet like you, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, "Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.'“ But he lied to him.
19 So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house and drank water.
20 Now it came about, as they were sitting down at the table, that the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back;
21 and he cried to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “Thus says the LORD, "Because you have disobeyed the command of the LORD, and have not observed the commandment which the LORD your God commanded you,
22 but have returned and eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which He said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water your body shall not come to the grave of your fathers.'“
23 It came about after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him, for the prophet whom he had brought back.
24 Now when he had gone, a lion met him on the way and killed him, and his body was thrown on the road, with the donkey standing beside it; the lion also was standing beside the body.
So this poor prophet died for disobeying the command that he was told.
And immediately you think, "Wow. That's hard core! Well, how was this guy supposed to know the difference? Another guy comes up and tells him he's a prophet too..."
(And the Bible even says the old guy was a prophet too.)
"How was he supposed to be able to tell that this was a lie?"
That's my point. God will not give another word that contradicts His first word. (No matter how miraculous the new word comes to us.)
This prophet of Judah knew what he was told and if God had new marching orders for Him He would have told him Himself.
He should've been highly skeptical of a new command regardless of where it came from. And we should be too.
Have we been told what the Lord wants us to do? Have we been told the ways to obey?
Yes. In the Bible.
And the morale to this story is that God does not allow us to be innocent for being ignorant. We should’ve known. If we were to be pulled over for speeding, it is no excuse to say, “I didn’t know the speed limit.” Ignorance is no excuse.
Ignorance in God’s word is also not an excuse. Especially not when we so profoundly blessed with so much of it.
Acts 17:10-11
10 Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.
1 John 4:1
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
We will be held accountable for our knowledge of God’s word.
And it’s no excuse to say we cannot understand it…
Matthew 11:25
At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.
If you have the Holy Spirit in you as all saved people do, (Romans 8:9), He teaches you, (John 16:13), and you will understand (Colossians 1:9).
So, look, you can be deceived with false information from a source wrapped in the guise of “Christianity”. Do not be fooled. There are thousands of roads to hell and the very vast majority never say, “Road To Hell”. (Some do on album covers I’ll grant you.)
But most say, “Road To Heaven”. And most ever look better than the actual true road to Heaven, (Matthew 7:13-14).
The way to know the difference is to know God’s Word.
Psalm 119:9
How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.
First of all let me explain that TC is saved. He is a Christian but TC doesn’t read. His Bible is nice and clean and unopened. What TC knows about doctrine and solid Biblical teaching couldn’t fill a thimble. What TC does know he has gleaned from conversations with knowledgeable people and from sermons he has heard in church. Herein lies a huge problem with the guy. If a preacher, standing at a pulpit, in a suit and tie, with a choir behind him and a large group in front of him were to pound on the podium and say, “Jesus Christ and Satan were brothers and only 144,000 people will get saved in the Millennium which we’ve already been in since Jesus came back in 70 A.D. at the close of the great tribulation which ended when the Jews were expelled by the Romans and the Church replaced Israel as Gods nation.”
TC would have zero problem saying “amen” to any of that. The guy just believed anything anybody said. Anybody, that is, except me. We would see some guy on TV or in a church say something and I’d go, “Uh... No. Romans says different.” But TC would just roll his eyes and argue with me about it and argue and argue. I’d point to where the Bible said it and he would just not accept it. “Dude. How come you’re so right? Satan and Jesus could be brothers. You don’t know.”
Where do you begin with that? “Let’s start with John 3:16. It says God’s, ‘...only begotten Son’.”
And he’d go, “I don’t see where it says they couldn’t be brothers.”
“ONLY begotten Son...? Hello?”
Arguments with TC were always like that. Round and round it would go. Me, alone with a Bible, wasn’t good enough for him.
After years of knowing the guy I finally figured out that what made something true to TC was the status of the guy saying it. If he had a podium, a building, a diploma, a suit and tie, and a microphone or a camera aimed at him, well, then, he must be right.
Case #2: Years ago, in my young Air Force career, I used to frequent a Christian Servicemen’s Center. It was like a “Christian USO”. They offered home cooked meals on weekends, lot’s of coffee to drink and Bible studies. Many of us came from different church backgrounds. We had a brother there named Ken. Ken came from a Pentecostal background and felt very deeply that he was always supposed to be “up” and “happy” all the time. To Ken, Christianity was supposed to always be “happy” and “positive” and “up”.
Anyway... We were all about to have a Bible study one day and during prayer requests Ken mentioned a lady in his church that had a problem with a demon possessing her. He asked us to pray for her. He said the church was regularly laying hands on her at services and casting out this demon but, by next Sunday, this demon was back again and she’d have to come back down to the front of the church to have everybody lay hands and take authority over this demon and bind him and kick him out again.
Well, I couldn’t stand it. I said, “She doesn’t need us to pray for that. She needs to get saved. That’s what she needs.”
Ken begged to differ, “Oh, she’s saved. She’s one of the godliest women I know.”
Which brought a great big, “Huh?” from me.
“You just don’t know her problems.” Ken said.
To which I replied, “Oh I think I know her problem all right. She gets a church full of attention every Sunday by making everybody think a demon is ridin’ her like a pony down the aisle once again.”
And the conversation went down hill from there. What I meant to say was that you cannot have the Holy Spirit in you and have a demon. It is Biblically not possible, (2 Cor 6:14-15).
I pointed that out from the Bible to which Ken replied, “Well, the Bible is just a book. And God is bigger than a book.”
Which brought again a great big, “Huh?” from me.
Here is the next issue. I have been over this argument again with Ken for 24 years. In emails mostly. Ken has a very low opinion of the scripture. Which he routinely marginalizes by simply calling it “God’s love letter.” (He’s fond of the term for the Bible.)
If you asked Ken what opinion he holds for scripture he would fight tooth and nail that it’s the standard by which he lives by. But he doesn’t know much about it. He’s never read it. I challenged him about that once. “Don’t you have a craving for the milk of the Word?”
He shrugged and laughed, “Well, some of us just aren’t readers.” And so Ken continues to believe that a godly woman with the Holy Spirit inside her can also have a demon possessing her four times a month. Also, if you are not peppy and upbeat and giddy 24/7 you’re outside the will of God.
What Ken and TC have in common was how they judged truth by the source it came from. TC judged something as “truth” when it came from someone with the appearance of credibility. Ken judged something as “truth” if it came from someone babbling in an ecstasy.
Both would quickly say the Bible is the word of God but if you pointed to chapter and verse neither one of them would give it much thought. They didn’t know the Bible.
They knew what they just saw or heard or felt and if what they just saw or heard or felt was a lie... They wouldn’t know it.
1 Kings 13:1-32
1 NOW behold, there came a man of God from Judah to Bethel by the word of the LORD, while Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn incense.
2 He cried against the altar by the word of the LORD, and said, “O altar, altar, thus says the LORD, "Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name; and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.'“
This is the story of a prophet in Judah who was called up to cry out against the evil king of Israel, Jeroboam, and against his pagan alter.
1 Kings 13:3-6 contains the dialog between them.
Jeroboam gets mad and points his finger, "Seize him!" And the king's arm immediately freezes up on the spot! The altar he was praying at also cracks in half and all the ashes fall out. The king gets the message and apologizes and his arm goes back to normal....
1 Kings 13:7-10
7 Then the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.
8 But the man of God said to the king, “If you were to give me half your house I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water in this place.
9 “For so it was commanded me by the word of the LORD, saying, "You shall eat no bread, nor drink water, nor return by the way which you came.'“
10 So he went another way and did not return by the way which he came to Bethel.
This prophet was told in no uncertain terms what he was to do. He said this to Jeroboam and then he left for home. There was an old prophet living in Bethel. His sons came to him and told him all about what had happened. The old prophet got his sons to saddle up his donkey and he rode off to find this prophet from Judah...
1 Kings 13:14-24
14 So he went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak; and he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah? And he said, “I am.”
15 Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.
16 He said, “I cannot return with you, nor go with you, nor will I eat bread or drink water with you in this place.
17 “For a command came to me by the word of the LORD, "You shall eat no bread, nor drink water there; do not return by going the way which you came.'“
18 He said to him, “I also am a prophet like you, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, "Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.'“ But he lied to him.
19 So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house and drank water.
20 Now it came about, as they were sitting down at the table, that the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back;
21 and he cried to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “Thus says the LORD, "Because you have disobeyed the command of the LORD, and have not observed the commandment which the LORD your God commanded you,
22 but have returned and eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which He said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water your body shall not come to the grave of your fathers.'“
23 It came about after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him, for the prophet whom he had brought back.
24 Now when he had gone, a lion met him on the way and killed him, and his body was thrown on the road, with the donkey standing beside it; the lion also was standing beside the body.
So this poor prophet died for disobeying the command that he was told.
And immediately you think, "Wow. That's hard core! Well, how was this guy supposed to know the difference? Another guy comes up and tells him he's a prophet too..."
(And the Bible even says the old guy was a prophet too.)
"How was he supposed to be able to tell that this was a lie?"
That's my point. God will not give another word that contradicts His first word. (No matter how miraculous the new word comes to us.)
This prophet of Judah knew what he was told and if God had new marching orders for Him He would have told him Himself.
He should've been highly skeptical of a new command regardless of where it came from. And we should be too.
Have we been told what the Lord wants us to do? Have we been told the ways to obey?
Yes. In the Bible.
And the morale to this story is that God does not allow us to be innocent for being ignorant. We should’ve known. If we were to be pulled over for speeding, it is no excuse to say, “I didn’t know the speed limit.” Ignorance is no excuse.
Ignorance in God’s word is also not an excuse. Especially not when we so profoundly blessed with so much of it.
Acts 17:10-11
10 Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.
1 John 4:1
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
We will be held accountable for our knowledge of God’s word.
And it’s no excuse to say we cannot understand it…
Matthew 11:25
At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.
If you have the Holy Spirit in you as all saved people do, (Romans 8:9), He teaches you, (John 16:13), and you will understand (Colossians 1:9).
So, look, you can be deceived with false information from a source wrapped in the guise of “Christianity”. Do not be fooled. There are thousands of roads to hell and the very vast majority never say, “Road To Hell”. (Some do on album covers I’ll grant you.)
But most say, “Road To Heaven”. And most ever look better than the actual true road to Heaven, (Matthew 7:13-14).
The way to know the difference is to know God’s Word.
Psalm 119:9
How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.
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