Only one Man’s words will not be forgotten

“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”
~ Jesus Christ

Even the greatest wisdom, teachings, doctrines, ideas and philosophies of the greatest men in history will all pass away and be forgotten, and only Jesus’ words will remain.

It also means that the ramifications of Jesus’ words, the results of Jesus words, go on forever: eternal consequences and ramifications, and eternal fruit.

Now, if any one comes along and says the NT Epistles are not the words of Jesus, what it means is they “hope” they are not the words of Jesus. If they are not the words of Jesus then they would not be scripture, for scripture means the words of God.

The only chance for liberty and unity

Another of my comments on Organic Church Movements FB page:

To take scripture as our authority does not equate with thinking we are always right. It means that even if we are wrong, the scripture is right. This gives perfect liberty to the church. It removes the ground for people to control or lord it over others, when they will submit to the authority of scripture, and there is no other basis for true unity, ultimately.

Either scripture is the authority or man is the authority. Yes, Jesus is the authority, and the way we know His authority is thru the authority of HIS WORDS. If scripture is not the authority then it is ALWAYS the case that a false teacher or false prophet sets themselves up as the authority in the church. This is always the case. The RCC is the classic example of this.

(Someone says that  scripture is a resource)  Scripture is far MORE than a “resource”, that sounds a little casual. Jesus said His words are Spirit and Life. He said the words He has spoken will judge all men on the last day. Far more than a “resource”, they are life or death.

Authority and Character

In the Kingdom of God, authority is commensurate with character, and you never find authority separate from character. The authority of God’s Word resonates thru the lives of those who love and obey His words. Jesus Christ is the embodiment of this truth.

The spiritual man

You have to be spiritual to enjoy God, for He is a Spirit, and you have to be spiritual to enjoy spiritual growth and see spiritual fruit.

Take it up with the Author

If anything you read in the Bible troubles you, it’s better you take it up with God.

Who owns the land?

China expands its Sovereignty by simply creating islands. The ownership of the earth is an interesting subject. The Bible says that God appointed the boundaries of the nations (Acts 17:26).

The only real concern

In life, the only thing we really need to be concerned about is do we love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and love our neighbor as ourself?

So that even I can understand.

Lord, I’m a simple man, so please lead me in a simple way. I trust that you will reveal your will to me in a simple way, so that even I can understand.

When music becomes an idol

Every good gift from God should be enjoyed, and received with thankfulness, and good music is one of these gifts, however no gift should become our master. When a church makes music the main thing then they have to serve it, it has become an idol.

Objectivity

My comment on Organic Church Movements:

Objectivity is a central philosophical concept, related to reality and truth, which has been variously defined by sources. Generally, objectivity means the state or quality of being true even outside of a subject’s individual biases, interpretations, feelings, and imaginings.   (Wikipedia)

We all naturally tend to be subjective in our thoughts, opinions, views and judgments, and as we walk with Jesus He teaches us to look at things objectively, perhaps for the first time in our lives. The goal is objectivity. The task is for naturally subjective thinkers to become more and more objective in their thinking.

Subjectivity is very close to pragmatism: if it works for me, if it’s good for me, it must be right.

“If it makes you happy, it can’t be that bad…”    (Sheryl Crow)

Subjectivity can be very selective, according to what we want, rather than what is true.

In house churches there are usually two basic dynamics:  sharing subjective experience, challenges, problems, feelings, viewpoints, opinions  – sharing the highs and  lows of life,  AND objectively proclaiming the truth of God’s Word, either by prophesying, or by teaching.  These two dynamics need to be in balance and harmony with one another.  Yes, how we feel is important, we are not to become insensitive to how people feel and whatever challenges and difficulties they are going thru, and yet if this dynamic selectively replaces and excludes the objective teaching and proclaiming of the truth of God’s Word then there is no substance to the church, and it will be blown around by the winds of doctrine which sweep thru, and is at the “mercy” of savage wolves, who seek such spiritual vacuums in order to get control.  The current trend is that subjective experience dominates, and objective teaching is becoming extinct, and this is a process of developing apostasy.

The subjective thinking Christian relates to the Bible in terms of how they feel about it, whether it will be good for them, and truth is determined in terms of “what’s in it for me?”.   But the objective thinking Christian is willing to embrace what is true even if it hurts, even if it is the painful reality he must face. Objective people are firstly concerned whether something is true or not before they are concerned whether it benefits them, but the subjective thinker can easily be deceived by the sinfulness of their own heart:  thinking things to be true bcos THEY NEED THEM TO BE TRUE.

Another characteristic of the objective Christian is they are aware of what God wants to do and what God wants to speak to people, in addition to what God is speaking to them personally. But the subjective Christian assumes that the things which God is personally addressing with them are the things they need to preach and teach others: their teaching is more self-referring than objective.

 

Luke 24:45 “Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.”

He opened their minds, He did not bypass their minds. They had to engage their minds and not disengage. The word of God renews our minds, and by the Spirit we learn to think in an orderly and objective manner.

Gets right to the heart of the matter. Apostles such as Paul don’t fit into the intellectual/theological paradigm, and nor do they fit into the experience-junkie mold : there is a perfect harmony between experience and intellect so that they did not trust in their intellect or in spiritual experiences.

It would be very hard to pigeonhole Paul into any of the current paradigms of Christianity.

The true Holy Spirit brings a perfect harmony between our spirit, our soul (intellect and emotions) and our body.

Love is Stronger

…”Love is as strong as death”… (Song of Solomon 8:6)

Jesus’ love for His Father was stronger than His love for His own life, meaning, love was stronger than the fear of suffering and death – love prevailed, not fear, and He calls us to follow Him in this. Our love for the Father has to be stronger than death. This is the love of Christ given to us which conquers fear, sin, death and the world.

All that they have become is found in Him

You give your whole life to Jesus and then He works in your whole life – there’s no part of your life where He is not there, living and active, and then the sum of what your life becomes or amounts to finds all its meaning in Him. This is a mature Christian: one who has had Jesus Christ working in their whole life over many years. He is their wealth. All that they have become is found in Him.

Moral failure is the only real failure

Moral failure is the only real failure – moral defeat, the only real defeat. In life, the only people who are failures are those who are moral failures.

There is no scripture which says that !!

My comment on Organic Church Movements FB page:

The earth is round. This not only denotes the shape of the earth, but also eliminates which shapes the earth is not – that it is not square or triangular etc. So, one fact is inextricably linked to other facts by implication. The fact that the earth is round is the flip-side to the fact that it is not square.

Someone comes along and says “The Bible says the earth is round, BUT it doesn’t strictly say that the earth is not square, so it could also be square, bcos there is no scripture saying it is not square!”

But God expects us to have the intelligence to know that if the earth is round, this also means it is not square.

So, in 1 Cor. 11, when we read that believers are not to take the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner, this also means, by implication, that if unbelievers take it, then they are taking it in an unworthy manner, for the very same reasons.

Anti-institution, but not pro New Testament

A friend of mine succinctly summed up a current trend in the house church movement:

“This is the devils counterfeit and attack on what the Lord is doing in bringing his people out. Some of the worse heresies, denial of the clear scriptures, etc come from self proclaimed wilderness saints. It is as if they are anti-institution but not pro New Testament. They want to do their own thing and are wise in their own eyes.”

In 2 Timothy 3:2 Paul warns that just prior to Jesus’ return “Christians” are going to be desperately in love with themselves. When a person is desperately in love with themselves they can’t bear the thought that their own ideas and opinions are worthless, so they diminish the word of God to elevate their own word, and this is an issue relating to the ego: they are driven by their ego. They have a form of “Christianity”, but ultimately it is their ego which they serve. In diminishing the words of God, and also making themselves independent of the body of Christ, such a person elevates themselves as a god, taking the place of Christ: anti – in the place of – Christ.

Coming out for the wrong reasons

A small number of people leave the institutional church bcos they cannot sincerely reconcile what is happening there with the truth and standard of scripture, but a growing number are leaving bcos they are religious wackos.

Did Jesus recognize the authority of scripture?

My comment on Organic Church Movements FB page:

“Scripture” or “Scriptures” is mentioned by Jesus 10 times in the Gospels, and “the law and the prophets” mentioned 6 times. In every instance Jesus cites the scripture or the law and the prophets as being the authoritative words of God.. That’s the whole point of Him referring to them as the authority He recognized.

As well, look up the phrase “it is written” , it occurs numerous times, and of special note it was the authority by which Jesus resisted satan’s temptations: “it is written” : that’s how Jesus resisted satan. What was written? Merely the words of man? What authority could the words of man have? None, whatsoever.

So, did Jesus recognize the authority of scripture? Absolutely. And every person ever since of any credibility has done likewise.

This is for the benefit of any young believers reading this who may never have considered these things.

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Coming into agreement with God

If you make a list of all the things the Bible names as sin, then look down that list, can you honestly say you hate every one of those sins with all your being? God does.

Perfecting Holiness

Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

2 Corinthians 7:1