A comment i made on FB: There’s certainly no fact presented in the New Testament which needs to be hidden from the world at large. If preaching what Jesus preached scares people, then so be it.
Just to clarify my point on the issue of “scaring people”, Jesus’ words themselves are scary enough to many, whether or not people are using them to try and scare people.
A comment i made on FB: Paul said (in 1 Cor. 14) that he spoke in tongues in private more than any one else. This makes most of the arguments against tongues irrelevant, as in this case it was a private thing, not a sign to anyone else, nor a message to the church, and nothing to do with extra-Biblical revelation.
“Oh, how ashamed you would be if men could see your thoughts!
Is not the eye of God ten thousand times more to be regarded?”
~ Richard Baxter
“We must see that we are convicted and condemned, with the rope around our neck, before we will weep for joy that Christ has pardoned us.”
~ Charles Spurgeon
Absolutely true, AND the note of caution is that we don’t try and manipulate people into conviction, going ahead of the Spirit, rather, using the Word of God appropriately and respectfully.
The Sword of the Spirit is more like a caring surgeon’s scalpel than a sledgehammer.
If people leave your fellowship because it’s not “exciting” enough, or not “anointed” enough, then, while it’s hard, it’s a good thing they leave if they are not going to relate with the others as real people in Christ, as real spiritual family, but rather looking for something to attend which they think is only good for them.
From time to time it’s fruitful for a Christian to take stock of what it means to abide in Christ, the Vine, and bear much fruit.
I don’t mean theoretically, i mean in actual real life, 24 /7.
Abiding in Christ makes the daily switching between spiritual and secular just that much more seamless, as you do it all unto Him, for Him, by Him and through Him.
Yes, the secular is now spiritual, but the time devoted singularly to God is not secular, there is a difference.
The delusion of this world is death presented as life, and life perceived to be death. People got it all upside down.
This is the time of “the great falling away”, the departure from the truth prophesied in the Bible to happen just prior to Jesus returning, it is the falling away of that which has the appearance of Christianity, therefore if there was ever a time to NOT be conformed to popular Christianity and popular Christian leaders it is now.
Idolatry is that which plays the role of being a substitute for God.
Man creates religious idols, they are the expression of what he wants God to be, not who God is.
The world’s institutions have the word “Perishing!” written over their door posts.
(adapted)
I observed an argument yesterday between two brothers, and one was speaking in terms of the man in question “being wrong”. Yes, what this man did was discussed, but this brother kept bringing it back to the question, “Is ______ wrong?” This question is too ambiguous and therefore leads nowhere.
“________ is wrong!” “_________ is right!” Well, what exactly and precisely is he wrong about, and what exactly is he right about? Yes, if _____ is a typical Christian he is most likely wrong about many things, both doctrinally, in ethics, and in personal holiness, compared to the NT standard. He’s also likely to be right about many things. But if we make it clear as to the pin-point specific areas where we feel he is wrong (without automatically demonizing the man) it is more conducive to preventing a discussion escalate into an argument.
“ …And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.” (Luke 15:12-13)
The prodigal son knew that the sinful lifestyle he craved could only be indulged if he departed from his father, he would have to leave the light to enter the darkness.
“Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.” (Hebrews 3:12)
Church tradition is like connecting strings to a corpse, then pulling the strings to animate the dead body, like a puppet. If next sunday at a traditional church all the people file in and sit down, but then discover the pastor and elders are not there, neither is the worship team, what will happen? Probably nothing, if they are indeed those dead corpses who need others to pull the strings.
A God who can penetrate your secret thoughts and live in your heart, this closeness is what mankind runs from.
Once you’ve met Jesus you’ll never be too impressed by anyone or anything else again.
(Romans 3:31) “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.”
(Romans 8:4) “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
This refers to the moral law, not the sacrificial law. The sacrifice of Christ fulfilled the requirement of both the moral and sacrificial law, empowering us to fulfill the moral law. But trying to fulfill the sacrificial law would imply one does not believe and accept Christ’s one and only sacrifice for sin.
As well, trying to keep the moral law in an effort to obtain forgiveness is also a refusal to accept Christ’s one and only sacrifice for sin.
It’s quite simple, sin is the breaking of the moral law, and where there is forgiveness of sin there is power over sin, and power over sin is power to fulfill the moral law.
The text says that by the Spirit we walk in righteousness, so the Spirit always causes us to keep the moral law, and love is the fulfillment of the moral law.
People who purposely break the moral law are not led by the Holy Spirit, they are resisting Him, grieving and quenching Him. The love of God is not ruling their hearts.
The text speaks of “fulfilling” and “establishing” the moral law, not being “under” the moral law, as there is a big difference. If you were still “under” the moral law you would be condemned as a law breaker.
Now, as a free man, you are not “under” the moral law, but you don’t cast it away either, you fulfill and establish the moral law by the Spirit, by faith.
Therefore, the person who believes that because they are no longer under the moral law they are not obligated to keep it could have no relationship or connection to the real Holy Spirit, as the text says He always causes us to fulfill the moral law.
(Sabbath days, feasts, clothing, food, etc were all fulfilled by Christ’s sacrifice, they are not in the moral law)
A poor man is one who doesn’t know Jesus Christ.
Some Bible teachers totally omit all that the NT says about the antichrist, mark of the beast, and the great tribulation because they know the faith of their audience is so nebulous they are scared to contemplate these truths and therefore they would no longer have an audience or a ministry. They can only sustain their ministry by giving people a false hope that none of these things will happen, and Christians will take over the world and then Jesus comes.
Discouragement comes, and only a revelation and reminder of who Jesus Christ is can encourage the true Christian, and it’s those who press-in, seek and stand by faith who usually receive the revelation.
Scripture, the Bible, is all revelation of who Jesus Christ is when a person is taught by the Holy Spirit.
A friendship should never be of such a nature that it compromises our friendship with Jesus Christ.
Ian Vincent 