Monday, February 23, 2009
Are you serving... or being served?
"The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve..." (Matt. 20:28).
In my last post I spent some time talking about the Catholic church and the Protestant churches and the problems we are facing. I would like to spend a bit more time chatting about these issues because of the times we face and the fact that Satan is using these very issues against the Body of Christ to cripple us.
In yesterdays post I said that we as Christians go around trying to proselytize the world and yet are very ineffective because we seem to have huge differences of opinion in faith, doctrine, miracles, signs and wonders, who's right... who's wrong... then add Christian extremists that blow up abortion clinics in the name of Jesus Christ and all of sudden you have the world lumping us in with Islamo-fascists. This is not what the Apostles had in mind for the church as they went around trying to establish it, and it certainly wasn't what our Lord had in mind for His church when He told them to establish it. Paul and the other apostles gave clear instructions on what to do when people and the church in general came across wrong behavior and doctrine, try to correct it. If that didn't work, HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT! He did not say "if that doesn't work take it on Larry King and discuss it so the whole world can see you make a fool of yourself!" He didn't say, "go ahead a bash Catholics because we all kwow where they're going!". He didn't say get into debates about Calvinism vs. Arminianism, or sprinkling vs. dunking. It is foolishness! In fact, the only thing that really matters is repentance, and salvation through Jesus Christ which are both gifts from God Almighty. Everything else is just mans effort to exalt himself to show how smart he is. The Bible is so simple a child can understand yet a scholar is baffled by it!
It is no wonder to me when I see what seems to be an ultra-conservative evangelical Christian who speaks for the flock on a national level fall in disgrace because of some hidden sexual sin. It is no wonder when I see televangelists in the 1980's and 90's fall in disgrace from sexual sin and fraud. We need to start seeing ourselves as the world sees us. They see us as sexual deviants and frauds. The world sees us as no different from themselves but think we are holier than thou. In other words, the world thinks... we are HYPOCRITES!!!! Folks, we are! We want everything the world has to offer we want the rockin' band at church. We want cool Christian music. We want to wear trendy clothes. We want sex. We do whatever we can to make our Christian lifestyle COMFORTABLE. The problem with that is Jesus said, "Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must DENY himself, and take up his cross and follow Me." (Matt. 16:24) Deny myself! WOW! what a radical concept! So I have to deny myself and then do what? Follow Him? and then do what? Well as we can see folks in my opening passage of scripture Jesus came to serve... "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve..." (Matt. 20:28)
You see it's perfectly OK to go out and proselytize the world as long as we're doing two other things... LOVING EACH OTHER (which Jesus said that the world would know we were His disciples if we did this very thing), and serving each other and not just each other but the world in any way that shows the love of Christ. So, my question friends... are you loving each other... are you loving each other the way Jesus loved his friends? are you loving each other the way Jesus loved you? are you serving each other...? are you serving the world that would show the love of Christ or are you comfortable? Because if you claim to be a Christian and are not doing the will of His Father Jesus warns, "22"Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?'23"And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'" (Matthew 7:22-24)
So friends let's go out there and start coming together as the true Body of Christ a pure Bride for our Lord. Seek out the will of the Father and be led by the Helper who will win the battles that we cannot win. You see Satan will always try to defeat us. But Jesus told us He will send a Helper to us. The Holy Spirit. Just as Gideon could not defeat his enemies. We cannot defeat ours. Gideon had to rely on the Lord. In fact, God made Gideon send all of his troops home but 300 just so Israel could not boast. The victory was God's! So must the victory be God's with sin in our lives. Call out to God now! Ask Him to send the Helper He promised to send. He is faithful and just. He loves you enough to send His Son and will not leave you now to try and fight the devil on your own. Draw toward Him and He will draw toward you.
"For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother's were righteous." 1John11,12
In my last post I spent some time talking about the Catholic church and the Protestant churches and the problems we are facing. I would like to spend a bit more time chatting about these issues because of the times we face and the fact that Satan is using these very issues against the Body of Christ to cripple us.
In yesterdays post I said that we as Christians go around trying to proselytize the world and yet are very ineffective because we seem to have huge differences of opinion in faith, doctrine, miracles, signs and wonders, who's right... who's wrong... then add Christian extremists that blow up abortion clinics in the name of Jesus Christ and all of sudden you have the world lumping us in with Islamo-fascists. This is not what the Apostles had in mind for the church as they went around trying to establish it, and it certainly wasn't what our Lord had in mind for His church when He told them to establish it. Paul and the other apostles gave clear instructions on what to do when people and the church in general came across wrong behavior and doctrine, try to correct it. If that didn't work, HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT! He did not say "if that doesn't work take it on Larry King and discuss it so the whole world can see you make a fool of yourself!" He didn't say, "go ahead a bash Catholics because we all kwow where they're going!". He didn't say get into debates about Calvinism vs. Arminianism, or sprinkling vs. dunking. It is foolishness! In fact, the only thing that really matters is repentance, and salvation through Jesus Christ which are both gifts from God Almighty. Everything else is just mans effort to exalt himself to show how smart he is. The Bible is so simple a child can understand yet a scholar is baffled by it!
It is no wonder to me when I see what seems to be an ultra-conservative evangelical Christian who speaks for the flock on a national level fall in disgrace because of some hidden sexual sin. It is no wonder when I see televangelists in the 1980's and 90's fall in disgrace from sexual sin and fraud. We need to start seeing ourselves as the world sees us. They see us as sexual deviants and frauds. The world sees us as no different from themselves but think we are holier than thou. In other words, the world thinks... we are HYPOCRITES!!!! Folks, we are! We want everything the world has to offer we want the rockin' band at church. We want cool Christian music. We want to wear trendy clothes. We want sex. We do whatever we can to make our Christian lifestyle COMFORTABLE. The problem with that is Jesus said, "Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must DENY himself, and take up his cross and follow Me." (Matt. 16:24) Deny myself! WOW! what a radical concept! So I have to deny myself and then do what? Follow Him? and then do what? Well as we can see folks in my opening passage of scripture Jesus came to serve... "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve..." (Matt. 20:28)
You see it's perfectly OK to go out and proselytize the world as long as we're doing two other things... LOVING EACH OTHER (which Jesus said that the world would know we were His disciples if we did this very thing), and serving each other and not just each other but the world in any way that shows the love of Christ. So, my question friends... are you loving each other... are you loving each other the way Jesus loved his friends? are you loving each other the way Jesus loved you? are you serving each other...? are you serving the world that would show the love of Christ or are you comfortable? Because if you claim to be a Christian and are not doing the will of His Father Jesus warns, "22"Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?'23"And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'" (Matthew 7:22-24)
So friends let's go out there and start coming together as the true Body of Christ a pure Bride for our Lord. Seek out the will of the Father and be led by the Helper who will win the battles that we cannot win. You see Satan will always try to defeat us. But Jesus told us He will send a Helper to us. The Holy Spirit. Just as Gideon could not defeat his enemies. We cannot defeat ours. Gideon had to rely on the Lord. In fact, God made Gideon send all of his troops home but 300 just so Israel could not boast. The victory was God's! So must the victory be God's with sin in our lives. Call out to God now! Ask Him to send the Helper He promised to send. He is faithful and just. He loves you enough to send His Son and will not leave you now to try and fight the devil on your own. Draw toward Him and He will draw toward you.
"For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother's were righteous." 1John11,12
Sunday, February 22, 2009
"Mystery Babylon"... is no mystery!
Do you believe we are in the beginning of the tribulation period? Do you understand biblical prophecy? I have posted five previous articles taken from theforbiddenknowledge.com they are compelling to say the least. They are biblically
accurate... read them as a Berean, see for yourself. I challenge you to find error in them.
In the wake of President Obama's address to all Muslim nations declaring peace and a new era of cooperation between the United States and nations that have formerly been considered rogue terrorist states, and the Prime Minister of Great Britain calling for a world "New Deal" in the spirit of FDR. We are in the beginnings of the tribulation period my friends and as I have stated many times to many people the mystery of "Mystery Babylon" is that everyone is looking for some figurative nation like a Revived Roman Empire... the EU, or the Roman Catholic Church. Friends, this is not it at all... do not get me wrong... I am not saying that the Vatican could not play a part in a global one world religion, but so could the Protestant churches... especially the Super-Churches that preach "another jesus"... think about this; we still have Protestants debating the issue of Calvinism vs. Arminianism, or liberal evangelical going head to head with conservative evangelicals. How does this further the Body of Christ? We as Christians should be ashamed! No wonder the world looks at us as freaks and weirdos! We go around proselytizing the world and yet we seem to be ineffective for our Lord! But Jesus is longsuffering in His forgiveness even to a church that for a long time has been doctrinally incorrect. Read the letters to the churches in Revelation... He is WARNING ALL of them, except one... which in my estimation would include the Catholic church because they at one time were a part of the flock until they went astray. Now this is not an essay on Catholicism... nor is it an essay on how the Protestant churches have deviated from the path...it has more to do with a wake up call to the saints in America that think that they are suppose to be looking for some European Antichrist... WRONG!!! He is here... He is now!
Christians are looking for some rapture that will surely come that will save them from Antichrist... maybe it will... maybe it won't for a while... we do not know when... what we do know... is that Jesus said this generation would not pass away once Israel became a nation again. It has been 61 years since that day in 1948. If a biblical generation is 40 years then we are within the time frame of Antichrist's arrival. We also know that the Tribulation is a picture of the wrath God brought down on Pharaoh in Egypt. I ask you, where were the Israelites? God did not take them up to heaven... they were right there in Egypt. God told the Israelites to eat the passover with their cloaks and shoes on and be prepared to leave at a moments notice... why? Could this be a picture of the rapture for us? So what are we to do? We do what Jesus told us to do... love one another... pray for one another... do no wrong... again I say love one another... WATCH the time is near for our Lord to return, but do not be surprised by the things you will see while you are here. Be of good cheer. Your Lord loves you and will come soon!
"Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God." 3John11
In Christ,
-Jerry
accurate... read them as a Berean, see for yourself. I challenge you to find error in them.
In the wake of President Obama's address to all Muslim nations declaring peace and a new era of cooperation between the United States and nations that have formerly been considered rogue terrorist states, and the Prime Minister of Great Britain calling for a world "New Deal" in the spirit of FDR. We are in the beginnings of the tribulation period my friends and as I have stated many times to many people the mystery of "Mystery Babylon" is that everyone is looking for some figurative nation like a Revived Roman Empire... the EU, or the Roman Catholic Church. Friends, this is not it at all... do not get me wrong... I am not saying that the Vatican could not play a part in a global one world religion, but so could the Protestant churches... especially the Super-Churches that preach "another jesus"... think about this; we still have Protestants debating the issue of Calvinism vs. Arminianism, or liberal evangelical going head to head with conservative evangelicals. How does this further the Body of Christ? We as Christians should be ashamed! No wonder the world looks at us as freaks and weirdos! We go around proselytizing the world and yet we seem to be ineffective for our Lord! But Jesus is longsuffering in His forgiveness even to a church that for a long time has been doctrinally incorrect. Read the letters to the churches in Revelation... He is WARNING ALL of them, except one... which in my estimation would include the Catholic church because they at one time were a part of the flock until they went astray. Now this is not an essay on Catholicism... nor is it an essay on how the Protestant churches have deviated from the path...it has more to do with a wake up call to the saints in America that think that they are suppose to be looking for some European Antichrist... WRONG!!! He is here... He is now!
Christians are looking for some rapture that will surely come that will save them from Antichrist... maybe it will... maybe it won't for a while... we do not know when... what we do know... is that Jesus said this generation would not pass away once Israel became a nation again. It has been 61 years since that day in 1948. If a biblical generation is 40 years then we are within the time frame of Antichrist's arrival. We also know that the Tribulation is a picture of the wrath God brought down on Pharaoh in Egypt. I ask you, where were the Israelites? God did not take them up to heaven... they were right there in Egypt. God told the Israelites to eat the passover with their cloaks and shoes on and be prepared to leave at a moments notice... why? Could this be a picture of the rapture for us? So what are we to do? We do what Jesus told us to do... love one another... pray for one another... do no wrong... again I say love one another... WATCH the time is near for our Lord to return, but do not be surprised by the things you will see while you are here. Be of good cheer. Your Lord loves you and will come soon!
"Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God." 3John11
In Christ,
-Jerry
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