When the “video” of my life is replayed and reviewed in heaven at the judgment, i want to hear myself proclaiming Jesus Christ, faithfully, and holding forth His life-giving words to many, so that it is Jesus who is the “star” of that movie.
Does He star in our lives and in our message?
Is corruption a thing that exists within Christianity, or, has Christianity itself become corrupt?
If it is Christianity itself which has become corrupt, then those embedded in it will see no corruption, bcos everything has been redefined and the paradigm redrawn and reworked, so that, what was corrupt in the first century is now quite acceptable, and has become more than acceptable, it has become the definition of what Christianity and the Church is.
Things which the first century Christians considered corrupt and false now define Christianity.
It is something deeper than endemic corruption: it is a systemic corruption.
But now thus says the LORD that created you, O Jacob, and He that formed you, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed you, I have called you by your name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you: when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned; neither shall the flame scorch you. Isaiah 43:1-2
This morning, when one of my daughters met me i put my arm around her and said, YOU are MY daughter! The love of God is wonderful.
Then i wondered how the Father feels when He says to us, You are mine! You are my son! You are my daughter! You are my child!
We are precious to Him.
is that faith believes you are surrounded and indwelt by God, the Holy Spirit, all the time: you can never “escape” from this fact, you can never leave His presence bcos He lives in you, you are in UNION with Christ – you are always conscious that God is there, everywhere you look, and everything you see with your eyes, or can’t see, you understand that God has created it, and He owns it, and He has authority over it.
You have unbroken communion with God, thru Jesus His Son.
And even, more so, in your pain you know that He knows and cares, and you know you are not alone.
Unbelief in Christians speaks in terms of distance or proximity to God (more representative of the OT than the NT) and therefore it is occupied with doing something to bridge that distance. It is always from a conscience that witnesses of its separation from God.
Many of the modern worship songs are such statements of unbelief.
They always like to be together. Some specialize in mercy and forsake truth, and some specialize in truth and forsake mercy, which should not be.
Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Psalm 85:10
But you, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in mercy and truth. Psalm 86:15
Righteousness and justice are the habitation of your throne: mercy and truth shall go before your face. Psalm 89:14
By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil. Proverbs 16:6
Let not mercy and truth forsake you: bind them about your neck; write them upon the table of your heart… Proverbs 3:3
For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. John 1:17
The rebel against God must not think that just bcos God has extended mercy and allowed him to live some more years here on the earth, and has not struck him down, that the truth will not be applied to him. The person who is living on borrowed time, at His Majesty’s pleasure, really has no time. Multitudes interpret God’s mercy, extended to them, wrongly. They interpret it to mean that God approves of their God-less life, or, at the least, will not punish them for their sins.
God’s mercy and grace is the means by which we face the truth of our rebellion against God and repent.
in people when Jesus came by was that they recognized that He had the authority to cast them out and they were afraid of Him.
If they had wanted to stay they should have kept quiet. But somehow they couldn’t keep quiet.
It is the same today in evangelism. When preaching Jesus, the only reason that demons will manifest in the hearers is for the same reason : they recognize the authority of Jesus name by the power of the Holy Spirit and they are afraid of Him.
But in many circles today, if people screamed out, being demonized, they would immediately say it is a false revival.
Where many fall into error is that they think that the demon screaming out is actually a manifestation of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit caused the reaction, but it is not a manifestation of the Holy Spirit.
One Solitary Life…
He was born in an obscure village.
His mother was a virgin.
His Father was God.
He worked in a carpenter shop until he was about thirty.
He then became an itinerant preacher.
He never held an office.
He never had a family or owned a house.
He didn’t go to college.
He had no credentials but Himself.
After preaching three years, the public turned against Him.
His friends ran away.
He was turned over to His enemies and went through the mockery of a trial.
He was nailed to a cross between two thieves.
While He was dying, His executioners gambled for His clothing, the only property He had on earth.
He was laid in a borrowed grave.
And three days later God raised Him up from the dead, and He lives today.
Nineteen centuries have come and gone,
and today He is the central figure of the human race.
All the armies that ever marched,
all the navies that ever sailed,
all the parliaments that ever sat, and
all the kings that ever reigned
have not affected the life of man on the earth as much as that ONE SOLITARY LIFE.
– Author unknown (With some missing pieces filled in by me)
His name is Jesus.
In the western world, people don’t curse Buddha, Krishna, Allah or Mohammed. They only curse Jesus.
People can’t escape Jesus Christ, they can’t be neutral about Him, they are either for Him or against Him, just as He said.
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Matthew 24:35
(And that’s a lot of real estate)
You can know Him, personally. Really. This is His gift to us, that we can know Him thru His Son, Jesus Christ.
God is a Person, revealed in three Persons, who are One and indivisible (which means you can’t have one of the Persons without having the other two. You can’t have or know “part” of God).
This is His world. We live in His house. We are on His turf, breathing His air, and living on His time, so mind your manners! : )
We wouldn’t want to start acting like it was our world, or Obama’s, or the devil’s.
Even the devil is God’s devil, which is why we are not afraid of him, as he also is in the hand of God (as everyone is) and can only operate with God’s permission.
Let’s not forget this is God’s world and His planet, and He has appointed Jesus Christ as the sole Ruler and only authority.
If you have not acknowledged that all that you are, and all that you have, is God’s property, then please do so, and all your burdens will roll away.
…And to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:19
in Jesus.
Don’t listen to any spirit that tells you otherwise.
According as His divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who has called us to glory and virtue: By which are given unto us exceedingly great and precious promises: that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 2 Peter 1:3-4
Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; And you are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s. 1 Corinthians 3:21-23
All are yours. You’ve got everything in Jesus.
But whoever keeps His word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: by this we know that we are in Him. He that says he abides in Him ought himself also so to walk, EVEN as He walked. 1 John 2:5-6
Many would react to this, or ignore this, thinking that it is too extreme to expect anyone to live as Jesus lived.
Note that John says EVEN as. Not just walk as Jesus walked, but walk EVEN as Jesus walked, signifying something very unusual and even hard to accept.
Oftentimes we wanted to be like someone we regard as a hero of the faith : to be more like them than like Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus is rarely our prime example.
In our hearts we think it will cost us too much if we walk as Jesus walked. (walk = live)
Continued in Comments
for visiting my blog and taking some time to read the posts. Please feel free to comment.
Today is a snapshot of your whole life. If you have wasted today, then, chances are you are wasting your life.
And if you have lived for Jesus today, then you have an abundant life, and are laying up treasures in heaven.
Your life is the sum of your limited number of days – days just like today.
I want to speak to you. Can I get a word in here?
– God
So many think about truth as being doctrines only. They fail to grasp that as Jesus, Himself is The Truth : That is, everything about who He is, is Truth, so too, does He call us and fashion us into the same image : Conforming us to Him, to His Truth, so that Truth is no longer limited to checking off a list of doctrines (and we better have right doctrine) but more than that; Now you want everything about who you are, your nature, and what you do, to be Truth, as Jesus is Truth.
To ...walk in The Light as He is in the Light… 1 John 1:7
Light and Truth being inseparable.
For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, even as you walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. 3 John 1:3-4
is your LOVE. This happens when you freely give yourself to Him in love, and love Him above all else, and all others, including yourself.
And now abides faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13
The Vatican called on Monday for the establishment of a “global public authority” and a “central world bank” to rule over financial institutions that have become outdated and often ineffective in dealing fairly with crises. The document from the Vatican’s Justice and Peace department should please the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrators and similar movements around the world who have protested against the economic downturn.
From here
Why are the manifestations seen here identical to those seen in some fringes of the charismatic movement?
Notice that in these people a real spiritual experience, of what they believe to be love, trumps the truth, and suppresses the truth, and seals them for delusion. What they experience is very real, they are not faking it, it is demonic.
then you could never know Him. If you could see the Father, bodily, you could never know Him.
You might think, It would be so wonderful if we could see visions of Jesus!
Not so wonderful. You can’t know Him by seeing Him in a vision. (He may call someone that way, but they won’t know Him that way)
He has ordained that man can only know Him by faith and by the Spirit of God. We walk by faith, not by sight.
If your desire is to walk by sight then you can’t walk with Jesus and can’t know Him.
Therefore from now on know we no man after the flesh: yes, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet from now on, no more do we know Him [after the flesh]. 2 Corinthians 5:16
Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you. John 16:7
It’s better that Jesus went away. If He had stayed we could never have known Him.
It is impossible to know Jesus by seeing Him in the flesh. It is only possible to know Him by seeing Him by faith, by the Spirit of God.
Trying to know Jesus after the flesh includes trying to know Him by fleshly experiences and feelings.
Which i taught here at City Church in Shillong, yesterday.
Please see Comments
…Be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves (to each other) in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord… Ephesians 5:18b-19
Not just in meetings, but anytime you have a song in your heart which is going to bless someone by the Scripture truth it brings.
Ian Vincent 