The counterfeit church

To any Catholics reading this, let me commend you to the Bible as the source and standard of truth, and ask, is the Catholic Church mentioned in the Bible? As you might be aware, there is a book of the New Testament called “Paul’s letter to the Romans”, the church in Rome.

At the time, Rome was the capital of the known world, and yet there is nothing in Paul’s letter to the church in Rome to indicate that this church (an assembly of believers) was superior, more elite, or any different to any other church named in the NT. There is no suggestion that Rome had any more authority than any other church.

Churches were geographical. To be a member of the church of Rome you had to live in Rome, or with the church in Jerusalem, you had to live in Jerusalem. If you moved from Rome to Jerusalem then you were no longer a member of the church of Rome. And nothing has changed today.

You will also note in Paul’s letter to the church in Rome in chapter 16 that he greets all the notable people in the church and never once hints at there being a leader of the church of Rome, let alone a “pope”, and none of these elders is referred to by a spiritual title or named as occupying a spiritual office, even though there were very clear spiritual gifts and callings.

So, the institution of the Roman Catholic Church did not exist when Paul the Apostle wrote to the church in Rome, we are talking about two very different “churches”. The Roman Catholic Church is alluded to in Revelation 17 as “the great prostitute” – a counterfeit of the true church.

I commend you to the word of truth, the scriptures. Please take these as your authority and disregard anything which conflicts with it.

There He is!

God doesn’t force Himself on people who don’t want Him, but He forced the resurrection of Jesus on the world as an indisputable fact – whether people like it or not, there He is, risen from the dead – Nothing democratic or politically correct about it. No opinion polls as to whether the world wants Jesus raised from the dead. No respect for man’s religions or philosophies – He just raises up His Son and says, There He is!   And the world would never be the same.

God will close the door

People will be entering the Ark of Christ right up to the very moment God closes the door, and then, even a second  later will be too late. Now, this moment, it’s not too late.

The greatest computer in the world the size of a pinhead

Even the pinhead-sized brain of a fruit fly is a technological marvel waaaay beyond man’s ability to comprehend its complexity.

When you reach a “new level” …

To anyone who thinks they’ve “arrived” or reached a “new level” : How much of the true love of Christ do you possess in your heart?

Who is religious?

These days, nearly anything is labeled as “religious” (in the negative sense) if it disagrees. Sometimes just pointing out how the Bible defines sin earns us the badge of “religious”. “Religion”, in the negative sense, means any form of pride or ego, or self-glory, or self-interest,  or any form of manipulation done in the name of Christ: so, we can say that “religion” is non-relational, in the true sense, and true religion is truly relational in God.

True relationship is supplanted by all the above. You can’t be in true relationship with folks who do these things i just mentioned.

So, if this is true, then many who claim to hate “religion” are, themselves, just as much a “religious spirit” as anyone else.

The church assembly where there is no program to follow, but true. close friendship and fellowship, relating to one another as equal brothers and sisters, THIS is the most non-religious church you will find. But it’s hard for those still under the church-system paradigm to understand that this is non-religious, they will see it as just another form of religion.

It turns out that “religious” means different things to different people. I remember seeing a young man on Youtube rail against religion, and yet his views seem to constitute another kind of religion, just as “religious” as the type he was railing against. Any manifestation of arrogance, or pride, or self-love is a religious spirit. If a person is proud that they are not religious, they are still religious.

The most precious commodity

The most precious and valuable commodity on the planet is people. Let’s never forget that when we meet a person we are meeting the most precious thing on the planet.

Independence from God

“Independence from God, is the first sin, the essence of sin, and the mother of all sin.”

~ John Owen

Living with someone you can’t see

Christianity is living with someone you can’t see. You don’t need to see Him with your eyes if you hear His voice in your heart, receive His instruction by His words, experience His peace, love, comfort and assurance, and are led by His Spirit out of sin and into holy communion with Him.

Home of the Homeless

Los Angeles: 60,000 now homeless….

When i was there in 86 there were around 20,000 homeless.

Fellowship with God

Fellowship with the Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ. Without this we have nothing.

Look, do you have ANY other way?

Church-going young people bring us their problems, but it’s as if they’re open to hearing any kind of solution or answer OTHER than obeying Jesus and His Word, and knowing Him by faith.

It’s as if they’re asking, Is there ANY other way? Show us any other way and we’ll take it.

The only real solution is the only solution they’re not willing to embrace.

The tension

The reason there is an underlying tension when talking with unbelievers about God, Jesus, the Bible or the Gospel is that secretly, deep down, they know it’s all true, and their tension is due to their denial of what they know to be true: the inner conflict of knowing something to be true but not willing to face it, then virulently avoiding it, as Jesus said, they don’t come to the Light cos they love the darkness and don’t want their sins exposed, or to forsake them, not bcos they don’t believe the Light exists.

No hope for the world

The UN Secretary General said something to the effect that the UN is the only hope for the world. He’s right in respect to the world system, as far as the world is concerned. But Jesus is returning to take His people out of a doomed world. They don’t put their hope in anything of this world bcos they are leaving soon. He will take out all who do not belong in this world, and who do not belong to the world. His people were never worldly or of the world, they came out of the world and into His eternal Kingdom, and were set free from its rule over them when they were truly converted by the Spirit and the Word. So, yes, the UN is the only temporary hope for a condemned and doomed world, but it is not the hope of those who are Christ’s. He is.

Sharing in His victory

Jesus is the only Man to ever conquer death, and all who have believed in Him have shared in His victory over death, exactly according to His promise.

Fast Forward

You’re gonna die one of these days, so fast forward in your mind to that last day you spend on earth, as if you knew it were your last day, and imagine how you would evaluate your life and what you possess in this world, which you can’t take with you, in these terms, knowing you are going to leave it all behind and move on to a new place, forever – and apply those same values and judgments now, today.

Only one sin

If only one person ever lived on earth, and that one person sinned only once in their life, that one sin would have separated them from God forever (as Adam and Eve were separated from God and died for only one sin, and a sin which some may call a “small” sin) and only the death of God’s Son could reconcile that one person, with his one “small” sin, to God. Therefore, there is no small sin in the sight of God, for even if you only ever sinned once, and sinned what’s called a ”small” sin, at that, it would still have necessitated the death of Jesus Christ to atone for that one “small” sin and reconcile you to God. Therefore, man’s need is absolute, and Christ’s salvation absolute.

The gender of God Part 2

The spin-off subject of the gender of God is invariably Anthropomorphism: attributing human qualities to God. It’s argued that God cannot have human characteristics since He is Spirit and not flesh and blood, but that’s very flawed logic, for if you reverse the equation and consider the fact that God made man in His image and likeness, this means the nature of man reveals something of the nature of God.

God makes a man, and then says this man is the image and likeness of Him. God made men and women and then said, Take a look, this is something of what I’m like.

Then, for God to take on humanity, in the Incarnation, and to retain this humanity forever (Jesus is eternally a Man), and the fact that He called God His Father, means we are not attributing human qualities to God, but the other way around: we are attributing God’s qualities to man, and thus getting our definition of God.

Thus, if God had not made man in His image and likeness we would never have known what He is like, for man reveals the image and likeness of God.

“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be CHANGED” (I Corinthians 15:50-51)

We will be changed into a glorified, spiritual body, like the one Jesus has, and showed after He rose again.

“Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” (Luke 24:39)

Post resurrection, Jesus says that He has flesh and bones and is not a spirit. Not a spirit, that is, in relation to His body as a Man, and yet, as God, He is Spirit.

“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” (I John 3:2)

So, we are not applying Anthropomorphism, that is, attributing human characteristics to God, we are understanding that God made man in His image and likeness, and sent His Son into the world to make us into children of God the Father, so, rather than attribute human characteristics to God, we attribute attributes or characteristics of God to man.

God is not someone like you – you are someone like Him, made in His image and likeness, as His child, in His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, yet He will always be God, and we never will be God or “gods”.

Perhaps one of the great mysteries is how God brings men into His Son – IN CHRIST JESUS. We are IN Christ, yet we never become Jesus.

The gender of God

As God calls Himself Father, in Scripture, and calls Jesus His Son, this means that God defines Himself as male, and that rules out “mother” or “it”, removing any ambiguity about the gender of God, for God defines Himself as male, not female, and not gender neutral.

His creation reveals this. Eve, being made from Adam, reveals that Eve only had what Adam had, only in different proportions. God didn’t put anything into Eve which Adam didn’t already have. Therefore, feminine is a derivative of the masculine: fe-male means from the male.

We have a masculine God. and feminine characteristics originate from the masculine. Feminine qualities are inclusive of His masculinity. It’s not confusing at all.

DARKNESS WHICH MAY BE FELT

“And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even DARKNESS WHICH MAY BE FELT. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days: They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.”
(Exodus 10:21-23)

This was a foreshadowing of Hell. How can darkness be felt, unless it is spiritual darkness? We can be sure it felt bad, and not good. Must have been scary to be stuck in pitch black darkness and to FEEL the darkness enveloping you, to feel the fear: for fear to take on a sensory dimension. This is a glimpse of Hell, for Jesus described Hell as the “outer darkness”. It is your worst nightmare, and much more.