Truth
If you aren't concerned about whether or not what you believe is the TRUTH, you should be. In the end, the truth is going to be the ONLY thing that matters. Believing a lie, no matter how good it makes you feel, does not make it a reality. If what you believe is based solely on your own personal ideas, preferences and imagination about the "way things should be"; can this possibly be real? As if we can dream something up and it be "our" truth. I have to hope that deep down, even the people who SAY they believe that, know how foolish it is to put faith in anything of their own design.
The fact is, as we all know from having spent time on the Earth, the TRUTH hurts sometimes. What I believe about God and the Bible does, in fact, bring pain to me sometimes.
It hurts when I am convicted of sin and have to repent of that.
It hurts when I am asked to change or give up something I very much want to hold on to.
It hurts when I have plans to go one way and God directs me somewhere else.
It hurts when God disciplines me.
It hurts to think that loved ones who have died without Jesus are in hell at this moment.
It's NOT always easy. Some people will inevitably read this and say, "What a fool for believing something so unappealing. I would never believe that!" But that's just the thing. I did not make this... it is making me. I cannot pick and choose because I did not make this up. It is just the truth and just like truth in non-spiritual things, I must take the bad with the good. And the good God provides in my life is more than enough to make up for the difficulties.
If your "belief system" is nothing more than a bunch of ideas you have put together which make you feel happy and good about yourself and where you are headed - then I would strongly suggest you give it some more thought. One day the feelings and emotions that are driving you right now won't even exist anymore. The only thing left will be your soul, God and the truth. At that moment, you will be confronted with whether or not you believed and accepted His Truth.
When you come before the throne of God... what will you stand on? Your own ideas from your own imagination which provided you with the strength and comfort you needed to make it through this life - or God's Word - which maybe wasn't so comfortable but which WILL be the foundation you'll need under you to be able to stand in His presence.
The Bible says there will be a day when everything that CAN BE shaken WILL BE shaken. And all that will remain after that will be all we ever really had. What will you have left?
The fact is, as we all know from having spent time on the Earth, the TRUTH hurts sometimes. What I believe about God and the Bible does, in fact, bring pain to me sometimes.
It hurts when I am convicted of sin and have to repent of that.
It hurts when I am asked to change or give up something I very much want to hold on to.
It hurts when I have plans to go one way and God directs me somewhere else.
It hurts when God disciplines me.
It hurts to think that loved ones who have died without Jesus are in hell at this moment.
It's NOT always easy. Some people will inevitably read this and say, "What a fool for believing something so unappealing. I would never believe that!" But that's just the thing. I did not make this... it is making me. I cannot pick and choose because I did not make this up. It is just the truth and just like truth in non-spiritual things, I must take the bad with the good. And the good God provides in my life is more than enough to make up for the difficulties.
If your "belief system" is nothing more than a bunch of ideas you have put together which make you feel happy and good about yourself and where you are headed - then I would strongly suggest you give it some more thought. One day the feelings and emotions that are driving you right now won't even exist anymore. The only thing left will be your soul, God and the truth. At that moment, you will be confronted with whether or not you believed and accepted His Truth.
When you come before the throne of God... what will you stand on? Your own ideas from your own imagination which provided you with the strength and comfort you needed to make it through this life - or God's Word - which maybe wasn't so comfortable but which WILL be the foundation you'll need under you to be able to stand in His presence.
The Bible says there will be a day when everything that CAN BE shaken WILL BE shaken. And all that will remain after that will be all we ever really had. What will you have left?
What are you so afraid of?
The word of God is living, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12
Could this be the reason so many people refuse to read it?
Could this be the reason so many people refuse to read it?
Opening the Bible
There is nothing comfortable about the Bible - until we manage to get so used to it that we make it comfortable for ourselves. Have we ceased to question the book and be questioned by it? Have we ceased to fight it? Then perhaps our reading is no longer serious.
Trampling the Son of God underfoot...
Job was called righteous and blameless by God Himself. Yet as good as Job was, even he trembled before God and cried out woefully that he needed to repent when confronted with the enormity of Who God is and what His great majesty is like!
Isaiah had a similar experience when he saw God. God's splendor shined a bright light exposing his own filth and all he could do was cry out "Woe is me for I am unclean!"
When we stand there before Him, will we be any less afraid and shaken? I think this is when the verses about fearing God come into play. Fearing God is the beginning of wisdom because when you recognize that there is a reason to fear, you wise up and start to think clearly. Satan loves it when you don't fear God - or when you don't think about Him at all for that matter. One of his smartest tactics is to convice people who love their sin that they should continue in it because "God is too loving and merciful to really punish them."
What these people are forgetting is that love cannot be love if it is not also just. God is just. A just God will demand justice. A just God will demand that the price for sin be paid. Going back to that moment when you stand before Him in terror and trembling, will you be looking around desperately for Jesus to help you at that instant... crying out to Jesus to shield you from the flaming majesty of God the Father which has you exposed to the core? (Heb 4:13)
I can tell you one thing, I will be! And I will be so thankful when He steps forward on my behalf. I will be falling at Jesus' feet and reminding Him that I believed in the sacrifice He made for me! I will cling to Him in utter dependance on the faith I have been putting into Him during the years I spent on this earth.
I will thank Him that He atoned for my sins so that as I stand before God, I will be able to be presented holy and spotless and pure... because I would be cast out of His presence otherwise! The Bible says in that moment, all things will be open and exposed, even the things done in darkness which we thought no one knew about. Naked and exposed. That's how we'll feel and I'm sure it will be nothing short of sheer terror.
Matt 7:21 says there are going to be people in this very situation who will have a terrible surprise in that moment of confrontation with the God of all Creation! It says there are going to be people who are shocked and saying, "But Lord! Lord! We did great works in your name on the earth! We were your followers!" And what does God tell them??
(Here's one of those things Satan would rather you not think about!)
He says to them, "Depart from me, I never knew you." How on earth can people spend their lives calling Him "Lord, Lord" and doing work in His name and yet He never really knew them? How can we know we're not going to be shocked in that moment, finding out He doesn't know US? I believe the book of First John was given to us (among other passages) as a test to see whether He will say that He knows us or not.
A sample of that test: "God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin."
Look at the people filling up churches today who are saying they have fellowship with Him and yet walking in darkness! God says these people are lying. They might be content right NOW to be pulling the wool over the eyes of other people, but in that moment - face to face with God - they are going to be confronted with just how dangerous it was to trample the Son of God underfoot, count the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insult the Spirit of grace. (Heb 10:29)
I believe the biggest heresy ever brought upon the Christian church is that it's reasonable or acceptable for a saved person to be carnal. Romans 8 says the carnal mind is enmity with God. Enmity means: Hatred; ill will; hostile or unfriendly disposition. If you are a "carnal Christian" you are putting yourself in a position of "hatred, ill will, hostility, or unfriendly disposition" with the Creator God who has promised to punish all sin. He cannot lie and therefore He will punish all sin as He has promised He will.
If you are calling Jesus your "savior" because you were led in a prayer one time, but He is not your LORD this very day, then chances are He really doesn't know you. (If you're going to be CALLING Him "Lord, Lord" on that day, better make sure He really IS your Lord right now!)
If He is LORD over you, it means that you have surrendered all of those selfish things that He hates and you have chosen instead to do things His way! If He is truly your Lord you will love what He loves and hate what He hates. "Sin to a true believer is horrible because it crucified the Savior. He sees in every iniquity the nails and the spear." - Charles Spurgeon
If you are His child, He will not let you continue in sin for very long without straightening you out, just like any good Father does. "If you are without chastening, then you are illegitimate and not sons." A sign of a true Christian is that they are sensitive to the sin in their lives. (Would you expect the Spirit of God to live inside a person and NOT cause that person to be sensitive to the very thing He hates the most?)
Isaiah had a similar experience when he saw God. God's splendor shined a bright light exposing his own filth and all he could do was cry out "Woe is me for I am unclean!"
When we stand there before Him, will we be any less afraid and shaken? I think this is when the verses about fearing God come into play. Fearing God is the beginning of wisdom because when you recognize that there is a reason to fear, you wise up and start to think clearly. Satan loves it when you don't fear God - or when you don't think about Him at all for that matter. One of his smartest tactics is to convice people who love their sin that they should continue in it because "God is too loving and merciful to really punish them."
What these people are forgetting is that love cannot be love if it is not also just. God is just. A just God will demand justice. A just God will demand that the price for sin be paid. Going back to that moment when you stand before Him in terror and trembling, will you be looking around desperately for Jesus to help you at that instant... crying out to Jesus to shield you from the flaming majesty of God the Father which has you exposed to the core? (Heb 4:13)
I can tell you one thing, I will be! And I will be so thankful when He steps forward on my behalf. I will be falling at Jesus' feet and reminding Him that I believed in the sacrifice He made for me! I will cling to Him in utter dependance on the faith I have been putting into Him during the years I spent on this earth.
I will thank Him that He atoned for my sins so that as I stand before God, I will be able to be presented holy and spotless and pure... because I would be cast out of His presence otherwise! The Bible says in that moment, all things will be open and exposed, even the things done in darkness which we thought no one knew about. Naked and exposed. That's how we'll feel and I'm sure it will be nothing short of sheer terror.
Matt 7:21 says there are going to be people in this very situation who will have a terrible surprise in that moment of confrontation with the God of all Creation! It says there are going to be people who are shocked and saying, "But Lord! Lord! We did great works in your name on the earth! We were your followers!" And what does God tell them??
(Here's one of those things Satan would rather you not think about!)
He says to them, "Depart from me, I never knew you." How on earth can people spend their lives calling Him "Lord, Lord" and doing work in His name and yet He never really knew them? How can we know we're not going to be shocked in that moment, finding out He doesn't know US? I believe the book of First John was given to us (among other passages) as a test to see whether He will say that He knows us or not.
A sample of that test: "God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin."
Look at the people filling up churches today who are saying they have fellowship with Him and yet walking in darkness! God says these people are lying. They might be content right NOW to be pulling the wool over the eyes of other people, but in that moment - face to face with God - they are going to be confronted with just how dangerous it was to trample the Son of God underfoot, count the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insult the Spirit of grace. (Heb 10:29)
I believe the biggest heresy ever brought upon the Christian church is that it's reasonable or acceptable for a saved person to be carnal. Romans 8 says the carnal mind is enmity with God. Enmity means: Hatred; ill will; hostile or unfriendly disposition. If you are a "carnal Christian" you are putting yourself in a position of "hatred, ill will, hostility, or unfriendly disposition" with the Creator God who has promised to punish all sin. He cannot lie and therefore He will punish all sin as He has promised He will.
If you are calling Jesus your "savior" because you were led in a prayer one time, but He is not your LORD this very day, then chances are He really doesn't know you. (If you're going to be CALLING Him "Lord, Lord" on that day, better make sure He really IS your Lord right now!)
If He is LORD over you, it means that you have surrendered all of those selfish things that He hates and you have chosen instead to do things His way! If He is truly your Lord you will love what He loves and hate what He hates. "Sin to a true believer is horrible because it crucified the Savior. He sees in every iniquity the nails and the spear." - Charles Spurgeon
If you are His child, He will not let you continue in sin for very long without straightening you out, just like any good Father does. "If you are without chastening, then you are illegitimate and not sons." A sign of a true Christian is that they are sensitive to the sin in their lives. (Would you expect the Spirit of God to live inside a person and NOT cause that person to be sensitive to the very thing He hates the most?)
Do you think God is "too good" to send you to hell?
I have noticed a lot of people use the reasoning that God is "too good" to send anyone to hell and that He will just wink at sin and overlook it and just open up the doors to Heaven to welcome everyone. (Of course these same people will adamantly tell you that blatant evil-doers like Hitler are in hell, so I guess they concede that even a merciful God must draw the line somewhere!)
I have an example for those of you who might have thought of God as so all-loving and all-merciful that he would NEVER send people to such a horrible place...
Imagine you are in a court of law confronting the man who murdered someone you loved dearly. You are angry and distraught and you are demanding that justice be served!
Now imagine this kindly old judge has kind of a soft spot for murderers and decides the death penalty - or even life in prison - is just too harsh. His merciful spirit compels him to just sign release papers and hand them over to the guy with a smile and a hug. Now I ask you, is this a "good" judge? Is he just?
Could a God who proclaims His justice to us over and over in scripture ever be guilty of such a gross lack of justice as this? Of course not. Yet this is what people expect God will do for them. They spend their entire lives breaking His laws and shrugging off sin and then think because He is GOOD He will forgive them anyway in the end.
I'm telling you right now... it is BECAUSE HE IS GOOD that He will punish all sin. Period. If your sin hasn't been paid for by Jesus' sacrifice, then you will pay for it yourself. It's not easy to hear the truth, sometimes I think it hurts church people the most because they've essentially gotten used to the idea that they can participate and go through the motions with their church family - but still cling to their sins and do those things that God hates. (Using Jesus as their sin credit card - "I'm gonna go ahead and commit this act of fornication, but Jesus died for my sins, so charge this one to Him, thanks!")
But it's impossible to have a real encounter with the Creator of the Universe and not be changed. So, along with 1 John, I say to you now, if you aren't changed then you aren't saved. (And along with Paul Washer, "If you don't have a new relationship with sin, you don't have a new relationship with God.")
I have an example for those of you who might have thought of God as so all-loving and all-merciful that he would NEVER send people to such a horrible place...
Imagine you are in a court of law confronting the man who murdered someone you loved dearly. You are angry and distraught and you are demanding that justice be served!
Now imagine this kindly old judge has kind of a soft spot for murderers and decides the death penalty - or even life in prison - is just too harsh. His merciful spirit compels him to just sign release papers and hand them over to the guy with a smile and a hug. Now I ask you, is this a "good" judge? Is he just?
Could a God who proclaims His justice to us over and over in scripture ever be guilty of such a gross lack of justice as this? Of course not. Yet this is what people expect God will do for them. They spend their entire lives breaking His laws and shrugging off sin and then think because He is GOOD He will forgive them anyway in the end.
I'm telling you right now... it is BECAUSE HE IS GOOD that He will punish all sin. Period. If your sin hasn't been paid for by Jesus' sacrifice, then you will pay for it yourself. It's not easy to hear the truth, sometimes I think it hurts church people the most because they've essentially gotten used to the idea that they can participate and go through the motions with their church family - but still cling to their sins and do those things that God hates. (Using Jesus as their sin credit card - "I'm gonna go ahead and commit this act of fornication, but Jesus died for my sins, so charge this one to Him, thanks!")
But it's impossible to have a real encounter with the Creator of the Universe and not be changed. So, along with 1 John, I say to you now, if you aren't changed then you aren't saved. (And along with Paul Washer, "If you don't have a new relationship with sin, you don't have a new relationship with God.")
Christian Perfection
"Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect. . . ." Philippians 3:12
It is a snare to imagine that God wants to make us perfect specimens of what He can do; God's purpose is to make us one with Himself. The emphasis of holiness movements is apt to be that God is producing specimens of holiness to put in His museum. If you go off on this idea of personal holiness, the dead-set of your life will not be for God, but for what you call the manifestation of God in your life. "It can never be God's will that I should be sick." If it was God's will to bruise His own Son, why should He not bruise you? The thing that tells for God is not your relevant consistency to an idea of what a saint should be, but your real vital relation to Jesus Christ, and your abandonment to Him whether you are well or ill.
Christian perfection is not, and never can be, human perfection. Christian perfection is the perfection of a relationship to God which shows itself amid the irrelevancies of human life. When you obey the call of Jesus Christ, the first thing that strikes you is the irrelevancy of the things you have to do, and the next thing that strikes you is the fact that other people seem to be living perfectly consistent lives. Such lives are apt to leave you with the idea that God is unnecessary, by human effort and devotion we can reach the standard God wants. In a fallen world this can never be done. I am called to live in perfect relation to God so that my life produces a longing after God in other lives, not admiration for myself. Thoughts about myself hinder my usefulness to God. God is not after perfecting me to be a specimen in His show-room; He is getting me to the place where He can use me. Let Him do what He likes. - MUFHH
It is a snare to imagine that God wants to make us perfect specimens of what He can do; God's purpose is to make us one with Himself. The emphasis of holiness movements is apt to be that God is producing specimens of holiness to put in His museum. If you go off on this idea of personal holiness, the dead-set of your life will not be for God, but for what you call the manifestation of God in your life. "It can never be God's will that I should be sick." If it was God's will to bruise His own Son, why should He not bruise you? The thing that tells for God is not your relevant consistency to an idea of what a saint should be, but your real vital relation to Jesus Christ, and your abandonment to Him whether you are well or ill.
Christian perfection is not, and never can be, human perfection. Christian perfection is the perfection of a relationship to God which shows itself amid the irrelevancies of human life. When you obey the call of Jesus Christ, the first thing that strikes you is the irrelevancy of the things you have to do, and the next thing that strikes you is the fact that other people seem to be living perfectly consistent lives. Such lives are apt to leave you with the idea that God is unnecessary, by human effort and devotion we can reach the standard God wants. In a fallen world this can never be done. I am called to live in perfect relation to God so that my life produces a longing after God in other lives, not admiration for myself. Thoughts about myself hinder my usefulness to God. God is not after perfecting me to be a specimen in His show-room; He is getting me to the place where He can use me. Let Him do what He likes. - MUFHH
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