Here is my worship of you today, LORD Jesus

Everything I say today, do today, and think today  – THIS is my worship of you today, LORD Jesus.

Rom 12:1 Therefore, brothers, I exhort you through the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to God, which is your intelligent service.

Col 3:17 And whatever you may do in word or deed, do all things in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

And whatever you may do, work it from your soul, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. For you serve the Lord Christ.

(Col 3:23-24)

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Wisdom

Having the wisdom of God is in a whole different league than merely being clever, smart or knowledgeable concerning the Bible.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. One can be clever, smart and knowledgeable, yet not have the fear of the LORD, and therefore barren concerning His wisdom. And, a person who doesn’t have His wisdom is a foolish person.

In fact, the wisdom of God which comes thru fearing Him is the opposite of cleverness, smartness, or intellectualism – pride and wisdom repel each other.

The wisdom of God is open to all who fear Him – it’s like God’s “open university” – no one is disadvantaged by their lack of intellectual ability, or abundance of it.

When it comes to the wisdom of God, intellectual ability is irrelevant.

Our God is a consuming fire

Pursue peace and holiness with all people, without which no one shall see the Lord: looking diligently lest anyone fall from the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness growing up cause trouble, and through this many be defiled; lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who in exchange for one meal gave up his birthright. For you know that indeed afterward, wishing to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, having sought it out diligently with tears.

For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and to a whirlwind, and to a sound of a trumpet and to a voice of words, which those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them. For they could not bear that which was commanded: “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.”

And so fearful was the spectacle, that Moses said, “I am greatly afraid and trembling.”

But you have come to Zion, to the Mountain and city of the living God, to a heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn in the heavens, to God the Judge of all, and to spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the Mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling which speaks better things than the blood of Abel.

See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape, having refused Him who warned them, how much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who warns from heaven; whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.” Now the phrase, “Yet once more,” signifies the removal of the things being shaken, as having been made, so that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.

Therefore, since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us have grace, through which we serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.
(Heb 12:14-29)

What are you most thankful for?

If you’ve been born a second time and now love the Lord Jesus and all people, then you’ve received so much from Him and have a lot to be thankful for. Daily, you receive the Father’s care, protection and provision. Daily you are comforted by His love and His promise. You can thank Him for everything you have, bcos there’s nothing you have which you did not receive.

I’m so thankful He has forgiven me all my sins. I’m extremely grateful He has paid my debt and cleansed me from all guilt.

But the thing i’m most thankful for is the gift of a new nature, a new creation : that which was once “me” is now dead, and what is now “me” is hidden with Christ in God, and therefore the power of sin, which i once served, is now destroyed.  I’m most thankful to be free from sin’s power.

If you remember what you were, how the power of sin had you captive, and compare to what you have now, and what you are now in Christ, you’ll be so encouraged.

Tiny Ants

Today a delicious piece of cake, which one of my daughters baked, was sitting on a plate on my desk, and when I went to eat it I noticed the smallest ants I’ve ever seen snacking on it. It was amazing to me to see such a tiny ant, smaller than the normal small ones we see and I pondered that their community must have been here all along but I had never noticed them.

Then I thought, what a wonder it is that there are people on the earth who say that they believe that all these creatures and things just accidently, spontaneously, and with no cause and for no reason appeared from nothing: that from nothing, an infinitely complex cosmos just spontaneously created itself, with no design, no purpose and no meaning.

What if Jesus of Nazareth were there?

Someone says, I don’t know how anyone can listen to Jesse Duplantis for 5 minutes?

If a person has covetousness- the love of money in their heart, then Jessie’s message will be sweet music to their ears, as Jesse tickles away on those itching ears, and appeals to the greed of man, and the pursuit of self.

Could you imagine Jesus of Nazareth’s reaction if He was in the audience listening to Jesse et al. ?

What if Jesus of Nazareth were there?

(were there, was there….  someone help!)

Statement of Faith?

Someone wrote to me:

I also love the way that you will not put a statement of faith on your site … yet your ‘Articles’ sections contains many ‘Statements of Faith’.

Whoa the contradictions!

No contradiction. Everything one says and does is a ‘statement of their faith’ – that’s exactly my point.

What if I say, “The Bible is my statement of faith”? From the understanding you’re coming from, that should settle it – like, “Ian has said he believes the Bible, so that’s good enough for me! He must be legit bcos he believes the Bible!”. ??

It’s not reality.

There’s a reason why God sovereignly kept creeds out of the NT, it’s not a coincidence. And there’s a reason why religious organizations use creeds to their advantage for cattle control, superimposing them over the Scriptures.

The Didache (whilst being a mixture) has some good things to say, one is paraphrased like this: Even if a teacher comes to you and his teaching is sound, if he doesn’t practice what he preaches then he is to be considered a false teacher.

Meaning, one can have PERFECT Bible teaching and not even be born again, but one cannot have true Christian character and not be born again.

Another line from the Didache says that if any apostle, prophet or teacher comes to you and does not “behave like Christ” then he is a false prophet, no matter what he teaches.

And this is what the Scriptures say, it’s nothing extra. This is what Jesus meant when He said, You shall know them by their fruit.

So the reality of a person’s life is their statement of faith, and that’s for others to judge and to either approve or reject.

Those who approve themselves are deceived.

(If anyone chooses to use a Creed or Statement of Faith, that’s between them and God, and I wouldn’t think anything less of them for doing it. If they think I’m less for not using one, then I believe they have problems, as I’ve outlined above)

Dining with the devil

From:  http://www.sliceoflaodicea.com/end-times/dining-with-the-devil/

Can you imagine having dinner with someone like Adolf Hitler? The wine is flowing, a string quartet is in the corner, playing some piece by an approved Aryan composer. The silver gleams, the white linen tablecloth is resplendent, and across from you is Adolf Hitler—the embodiment of Satan himself. You watch him breaking bread with those murderous hands that signed orders to kill millions of men, women and children in the most barbarous fashion imaginable, just because they were Jews.  Hitler’s mouth slowly chews his luxurious dainties, his teeth grinding, grinding away across from you. Bon appétite.

Such a dinner arrangement would never have bothered the leadership of the World Council of Churches who will be hosting the Jew-hating president of Iran who has promised that Zionism and Israel will disappear off the face of the earth. Jews, according to Ahmadinejad’s Koran, are descendants of  “apes and pigs.” They are sub-human. He also denies the holocaust ever took place. Mr. A keeps himself busy working out deals with China, Russia and North Korea in his attempts to build nuclear weapons that will allow him to make good on his promise of obliterating the tiny nation of Israel. The terrorist sycophants of the World Council of Churches will be supping tomorrow with, and I quote, “His Excellency Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.”

A tale of 2 apostles

http://www.fulfilledprophecy.com/commentary/a-tale-of-two-apostles-what-holly-thinks/

Be in tune with the Heart of God

What good is it if our hearts are not in tune with the heart of God?  If we are not WITH Him in the things that are His?

Treasure in your heart

A good man out of his good treasure brings forth good things, and an evil man out of his evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say to you, that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned.”
(Mat 12:35-37)

Treasure (thesauros) means wealth. If you have good in you then good comes out of you. What comes out shows what is inside.

When Jesus Christ lives in a person – when He is their treasure, their wealth, their precious possession  (2 Cor. 13:5), then it has to be that Jesus Christ is what comes out of that person. He is the ‘good thing’ which comes out of their life; in speech and in thoughts and actions.

Our lives show what we possess, in reality ; our lives reveal our treasure.

We who follow Jesus should always reveal our treasure and proclaim Him.  Jesus should have the preeminence in all things. It’s sad when He doesn’t.

Jesus defines who we are

Therefore, brothers, I exhort you through the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to God, which is your intelligent service. And do not fashion yourselves after this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and well pleasing and perfect will of God.
(Rom 12:1-2)

Don’t let anyone except Jesus define who you are and the meaning and purpose of your short life down here.

Otherwise, someone else, other than Jesus, will define who you are, and that would be sad.

Don’t have any other identity than Him; consider yourself crucified with Christ to this world and your self, and live with Him in the power of His resurrection.

Soon this short life will be over and you will fly away.

Go for it!

Swallowed up by life

For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made by hand, eternal in the heavens. For also in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, inasmuch as we do not desire to be stripped, but to put on clothing, that that which is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

Now He who has prepared us for this same thing is God, who also gave to us the down payment of the Spirit. Therefore always being confident, and knowing that while we are in the body, we are away from home from the Lord (for we walk by faith, not by sight), but we are confident and prefer rather to be away from home from the body, and to be at home with the Lord.

Therefore also we have as our ambition, whether being at home, or being away from home, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, in accordance with the things which he did, whether good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the fear of the Lord, we persuade men; but we have been made known to God. And I also hope to have been made known in your consciences.
(2 Cor 5:1-11)

George Otis Jr’s false gospel

George Otis Jr  (of the ‘Transformations’ video fame) :

“The essence of Christ’s Atonement existed in His obedience to the moral law on behalf of sinners. Christ obeyed during his life the moral law for us and that’s really the essence of the Atonement.”

“Christ has not redeemed us by giving His life as a ransom for our sins in order that He might release us. God never kept man captive in sin. The truth is Christ paid no man’s debt.”

What George Otis Jr is teaching is called “christus victor” theology (i think it was first championed by liberal Scottish theologian George Macdonald. There’s another guy, but i forgot his name).

“Christus victor” theology says that the bloody sacrifice of God sacrificing His Son to atone for the sin of the world makes God into a monster.

They believe that Christ made ‘atonement’ on the grounds that He defeated the devil (making the devil the instrument of atonement) and that He did not sin. They don’t believe in substitionary or penal atonement (do a wiki if you want to learn more about these terms)

Therefore, ‘christus victor’ was conceived from a totally wrong assumption to begin with, bcos there’s nothing monstrous about God crucifying His Son, bcos the Son came to earth for the very purpose of bearing our sin on the cross, tasting death on our behalf, drinking the dreadful cup we should have drunk. Bearing the penalty for my sins in His own body (penal substitution).

He was wounded for OUR transgressions, bruised for OUR iniquity, He was chastised that WE could have peace, and by His stripes WE are healed.

The Father laid on Him the sin of us all. (Isaiah 53) and was **satisfied** (vs. 11)

He was fully in agreement and submitted to the cross, laying down His life, not murdered in the normal sense. How then can it be a monstrous thing, when the Son willingly agreed to take our penalty for us?

It’s amazing love that He would do that.

(George Otis Jr has reached the top of charismania and he’s spitting on Jesus.)

Beware the ‘restorationists’!

Someone sent me an article which paints those who believe the church should be restored, to as it was in the beginning, as cultists.

My comments:

a)  Every cult and sect and denomination which has formed since the 1st century has claimed to be the ‘true’ church, and often claimed to be the original church restored. Even the reformers believed this. The 20th C saw the rise of liberalism, which introduced the theory that truth and the church evolves into something better than the 1st C church had.

b) The church our Lord Jesus spoke of, that He would build and it will prevail, is the company of the redeemed of all ages, not a particular organization, or, the concept of denominationalism.

c) The grace of God and the Spirit of God has been saving sinners over the centuries in every conceivable cult. Martin Luther got saved in the RCC, for example. This shows the wonders of His grace, not the wonders of man’s organizations.

d) Who would not want to follow the pattern and example of the Apostles and be a part of a church which is like the 1st C church? Why would a person not want to be like them? Especially when they know that Scripture records that the early church (the apostles) were patterns for all who would come after. The early church is our definition of church, and not any organization today.

e) Church ‘membership’ was originally based on fellowship/relationship. Jesus said if two or more are gathered together in His name then He is there in the midst (not just for binding and loosing btw, but that is the purpose of gathering – to pray). Therefore, today, if two or more gather, who are saved by Jesus’ blood, then their gathering together is a part of the church of Jesus Christ.

f) Every saved person, no matter where they place their behind on Sundays, is a member of Christ’s Church.

g) If these members of Christ’s Body find that ‘where they place their behind on Sundays’ goes against our Lord’s and His Apostles commands and example, then they need to rethink their Christian life.

Terrorism in India

The violence against Christians MUST be called TERRORISM, for that is what it is, it is nothing less. They therefore are terrorists and are guilty of treason.

My point about Hindus in Kerala eating beef :  Christian journalists should document this, and then point it out to the terrorists and ask how they can attack Christians for eating beef when millions of Hindus eat beef?

Tehelka.com documents that some Hindus in Orissa justify the killing of Christians on the basis that they eat beef. Then, would they be justified to kill the Hindus in Kerala who eat beef? (The truth is that most Christians don’t eat beef in the lawless parts of India bcos it’s not worth being murdered just over beef.)

Also, Hinduism teaches that its sin to hate and kill, therefore the terrorists are not true Hindus according to the Hindu scriptures;  they are betraying Hinduism and portraying it as a barbaric religion.

Christian journalists should also point out that Hindu gurus travel the world and are freely allowed to proselytize in western countries, and Christians are freely allowed to convert to Hinduism without any fear of being murdered by Christians. This is the basic foundation of a civilized nation ruled by the rule of law.

Therefore, how can India currently be called a civilized nation, when terrorists (who are murderers of the innocent) can get away with murder?

If the constitution is not upheld, how can India be called a civilized country?

Then, which political parties and which politicians in India should be correctly labeled as supporters and sponsors of terrorism? (that is by international standards)

The Indian state leaders of the BJP party in Orissa, and wherever they are sponsoring terrorism, should be arrested and taken to The Hague and put on trial for crimes against humanity.

If the situation gets worse then the UN should send troops into India to protect Christians from the murderous mobs.

———————————————————-

Just got this email:

Please pray for Paul Thangaia in Bangalore.  RSS has planned to kill him.  They burnt 20 Churches last night and plan to destroy 200 Churches.  In Orissa BJP has planned to kill 200 pastors in the next 24 hours.

Crisis of ‘faith’ for Mammon worshipers

The stock markets work by confidence or faith.  When people are confident they invest. When they get the jitters they disinvest.

Ironic that the god of this world, which is mostly expressed through the love of money, and Jesus personified this ‘god’ by giving it a name: Mammon  – ironic that this god of gold also is worshiped by faith.

Sometimes people lose faith in Mammon and pull their money out. When this is done en masse its called a meltdown.

(Moses did a meltdown with the golden calf, eh. The first financial meltdown in history)

(BTW,  The BBC news ticker says this just now: “Aid agency says that 220 million people are living ‘on the edge of emergency’ “. )

3 Lessons from Lakeland

http://www.shepherdserve.org/e_teachings/2008_09.htm

A changed life

…and a new person. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in a believer.

If you are one who loves Jesus; look back and take stock at just what He has done with you and in you. You are His workmanship. Be encouraged.

A new person, a new creature; God converting a rebel into an obedient child of His – this is the greatest miracle in the earth.

Scripture tells us that we are to be encouraged when we appreciate what He has done in us.

My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And in this we know that we are from the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.
(1John 3:18-19)

Love for God and man in action (real life) and in truth : In this we know we are from the truth and our hearts are assured before Him.

When Jesus will show no mercy

Mat 25:41 “Then He will also say to those on the left, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels:

On that day, even if the condemned beg and plead with tears for Jesus to have mercy on them, He will not have mercy.

It will be a terrible scene, and more terrible for those who are damned.

The fact that Jesus will not have mercy on them, even in the face of their pitiful cries and pleas for mercy; even though they may plead, “Lord, please don’t send me to hell! Please have mercy on me Jesus!!” – this fact shows how much we as humans tend to make God into someone just like us ; we tend to fashion our own image of God.

Would we extend mercy on that day, if it was up to us? Their pitiful pleas would surely sway us to extend mercy. We would see the Lake of Fire where these people are going to suffer for eternity and we may be moved to grant their desperate pleas for clemency.

Facts like this highlight to us just how much we are not like God, yet.

And it shows us how little we understand of His Holiness and Righteousness.