Ambition destroys

Just one ambitious person is enough to destroy a real “eklessia” assembly of disciples of Christ. Any such person will need to change, or leave.

Why didn’t Jesus have possessions?

Why didn’t Jesus have any possessions?

 

Firstly, let’s acknowledge that everything about the Son of God is “the message” or “the word”, for He is “the word made flesh”. Not only His spoken words, but His actions and His life choices.

 

He chose to have no possessions, so, what is “the message” or “the word” in that?

 

Let’s look at it from the other angle, what if He did accumulate possessions during His life, what would be “the message” in that?

 

It would have meant that men would have used His example to justify building an earthly kingdom.

 

What if Jesus chose to be a wealthy man? Men, forever after, would think that wealth is the main object of life.

 

Seeing that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, Jesus left no room for doubt that He was not interested in money or wealth, and that His Kingdom was not dependent on them.

 

He lived out “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and these things shall be added to you” – He lived that out, and He had everything He needed to live on earth and do the will of His Father, showing us the way to walk in His footsteps.

 

And every aspect of His life on earth has an eternal meaning.

 

For example, He never wrote anything down. Why? Men would make the document an idol. But in getting others to write down what He spoke people could not make the manuscript an idol.

 

He never allowed His picture to be painted or the image of His face to be etched in stone, why? Men would make it an idol.

 

He never called His mother as “mother”, why? Because men would then say she is the “mother of God”, which they did anyway, even though He never called Mary “mother”.

 

He never had a house, why? Because men would make it into a religious shrine.

 

He never owned a donkey, why? Because men would then ascribe supernatural powers to the donkey and its offspring.

 

He never had a wardrobe of clothes, why? Because men would make them into relics believing they had supernatural powers.

 

And we can go further. He never formed a political party or raised an army because His Kingdom is not of this world, “for now”, because the time is soon coming when it will be.

 

He never had a special religious temple built for Him, rather, He prophesied the temple would be destroyed, why? Because God does not dwell in temples made by men’s hands, scripture says.

 

He never wore religious garments, why? People would make it a law that God’s servants have to wear such garments because Jesus did. He ruled that one out.

 

 

 

And so on, and so on.

Meditate on Him

The more we meditate on who Jesus is, on what He said, and what He did, and what He’s doing now, and what He’s going to do in the future, the more we love Him and want to do His will.

The same desires

One of the great joys of answered prayer is the discovery that your desire and His desire were the same.

Idol-proofing your life

Simple advice for “idol-proofing” your life: Don’t make something into something it isn’t.

Growing in grace

Growing in grace means you’re a better person than you were yesterday.

A strange calling

I see some guys on  Facebook whose main ‘calling’ is to explain that the Bible does not mean what it says…..

We want to do what the Bible says…

“Everyone seems to want to do what the Bible says …

Except when it comes to how they do church.”

 

~ Jim Wright

PULLING DOWN STRONGHOLDS

(2 Corinthians 10:3-5)

[3] For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:

[4] (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

[5] Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

This text first applies to ourselves. The “strongholds” to be pulled down are anything in your life which “exalts itself against the knowledge of God”.

An idol “exalts itself against the knowledge of God”, and an idol can be almost anything.

Therefore, the “warfare” described here is, firstly, for ourselves. The “warrior” is firstly fighting for himself, pulling down his own “strongholds”, casting down his own vain “imaginations”, and bringing “every thought” of his own “captivity to the obedience of Christ”.

The “obedience of Christ” being the ultimate goal of the true disciple.

We can’t bring the thoughts of other people under control, we can only bring our own thoughts under control.

Many so-called “spiritual warriors” today need to, themselves, be set free: they are waging “spiritual war” but they, themselves, are not free, they are chasing shadows, in vain.

For our unsaved friends we need to pray for CONVICTION OF SIN and also for the CASTING DOWN of every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.

The devil is good at creating idols, or substitutes for God, because every artificial substitute blinds people from the “real thing”.

Originally, the devil was kicked out of heaven for exalting himself against God.

Today he continues to try and exalt himself against God, so the idols he creates exalt themselves against the knowledge of God by their very nature.

If something is exalting itself against the knowledge of God it is distracting you from the true knowledge, the true experience of God, by way of giving you a substitute.

A true disciple never exalts himself, he can’t, because he’s always about lifting others up to Christ.

So, don’t let the all the confusion in Christianity blind you from seeing and knowing the REAL Jesus.

Fellowship

Wherever you live on this blue planet, have a few good Christian friends, pray for them every day, meet with them as much as possible, pray for one another and share God’s word together, and, what do you know! You just had church!

It doesn’t matter if no one else thinks it’s church, who cares?

You can forget all the other stuff and just get on with the “real stuff”.

A true church is a FELLOWSHIP and a COMMUNITY, a SET OF RELATIONSHIPS of which their nature is that of the DEEPEST and CLOSEST FRIENDSHIPS known to mankind.

Answers from the Bible

The Holy Spirit answers the deepest, most vital questions of life from the Bible.

 

And, as this is what the Holy Spirit does, so do God’s people.

Spew

“So then because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth.”

(Revelation 3:16)

Pressing in

“Pressing in” just may include fasting.

A red-herring

Calvinism would still be wrong even if Calvin was right on all points.

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It’s a red-herring to focus on his errors, it’s the concept which is wrong.

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Even if every point Calvin made was right, that is, it’s from the Bible, it would be great, but so what?

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That’s right,  so what?

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Because every teacher SHOULD be right. You can’t be a teacher in the body of Christ if you’re not right, because if you’re not right, you’re false.

Tired

If you’re tired of the truth, why aren’t you tired of the lie?

The principles

Jesus Christ…

…life over death …light over darkness …truth over lie …love over hate …victory over defeat …acceptance over condemnation …peace over fear …completeness over incompleteness    …good over evil…

…and we could go on…

Faithful friends

Faithful in intercession for others?

A true, faithful friend?

Death to the ego

There’s nothing about the crucifixion of Christ which can boost the ego, if you understand whom He died for, and why.

Lightweight

Spiritual lightweight…    …not good.

God deserves better.

Time is your friend

For the true Christian, time is your friend, not your foe.

 

You are seated in Christ, above time.