I am writing this right now both out of disgust and anger at those around me that so easily throw away everything our forefathers fought and died for, for the sake of what is poorly portrayed as security. Many individuals do not realize that their cry of Patriotism is as twisted as their concepts of Christianity.
The same people that claim to be Patriots, are the same people that say, Oh!, I don't mind if they take our rights away as long as I am protected from the big bad terrorist in the world.
Wake up, people, you have handed a centralized government the right to rule over you as Kings rather than elected officials that are supposed to be for the people and by the people. You have elected to have nothing more than Communism- Totalitarism in it's purest forms, and then dare call "us" who object "non-Patriots".
Get real, get some common sense and get an education in the history of this country and the reasons it came into existence anyway. Most people will not be able to quote to you even one Amendment of the Bill of Rights. These rights have been so eroded away that the average Joe in America thinks to allow anyone the right to erode these rights away and those that are for all these crazy laws they keep passing that imprison your freedoms, is somehow a Patriot and it makes them patriotic to go with the status quo..
Where is your mind? Your brain that God gave you to think with must be buried in the sand.
So, for the sake of recall, I am reprinting the Bill of Rights below in hope that some may re-examine their thinking that has been so perversely distorted by the Communist who have taken over in Washington, that they may see the truth and realize, "that what was, is no more".
The average American and especially those of both the Republican and Democratic parties have been blinded to the truth.
If anyone can show me, where these rights have not been subverted, twisted, and totally destroyed especially in the last 30 years, I would like to hear it or read about it. There is a place to comment at the end of everything I write, but as usual most do not, because they really don't know what to say, to truth. How do you answer, the statements so I often write about that are of the truth? Most can't answer because they don't really know or they are apathetic. That's how we got in the condition we are now, is because of the silence of those who knew the truth but feared to speak out about the many subjects I write about. Whether it be the condition of the organizational church, or fasle doctrines and practices of the church, or politics or foreign policy, most prefer to be apathetic, thus many people avoid reading even what I write about. It might blow a brain vessel if they tried to think for themselves once, instead of just acepting everything they are told to beleive. It's easier to be lazy and apathetic about truth then to make a stand for something.
I use to have a friend say, "if you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything". That is the state of the average American. They have fallen for anything.
Here is the "what was, but no longer is".
THE TRUE PATRIOTS- PATRIOT ACT - The Bill of Rights.
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THE BILL OF RIGHTS
Amendments 1-10 of the Constitution
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The Conventions of a number of the States having, at the time of adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added, and as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government will best insure the beneficent ends of its institution;
Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two-thirds of both Houses concurring, that the following articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as amendments to the Constitution of the United States; all or any of which articles, when ratified by three-fourths of the said Legislatures, to be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the said Constitution, namely:
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Amendment II
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
Amendment III
No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Amendment V
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Amendment VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
Amendment VII
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
Amendment VIII
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
Note the highlighted areas- these are gone forever, because you have allowed lying polticians and money hungry greed mongers, war mongers and others to lie their way into your pocketbook and into your homes and into your privacy. For what- the same lies that every ruler since the beginning of time has done so- so that you might be safe from all these dangers is the same lies they all used to gain power over others in whatever kingdom in history.
Is it appropriate for us who live under the burden of income taxes and more taxes, and more oppression to send out others to die for the elitist agenda? I say not!
If you can't see what has happened to this country with the slow but definite takeover of Communist elitist, then you truly have been blinded by their rhetoric, and lies they tell. Wake up for God's sake before they are at your door.
We are to pray for peace, so that we can live in peace and propagate the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Yet, thousands are fooled by false prophets, false teachers, and false Christ, to pray for war, and hatred, and power over others. Hagee, the preacher and his group being some of the worst liars and war mongers there are!
God forgive us, we are a lost nation and have become as Israel- idolaters and adulterers with the gods of paganism as the center of our worship. Sacrificing our children to the god Molech. We like the nation of Israel have so far twisted the rights of people and God into something that no man can recognize the difference between their religion and Christianity. We have become as fools.
We must ask what happened to this country, what happened to the Gospel of Peace?
Perhaps you have forgotten the words of Jesus, "those who live by the sword shall die by the sword". Our time is not far from us, when all the hatred we have dispelled toward all other nations for the sake of a lost Anti-Christ nation (the illegal nation of Israel) will soon bite us in our proverbial butts.
We are to fear God, not men.
We are to seek God and not land.
We are to love others, not ourselves.
Fear is the driving force to get you to hand over your God given rights to TRUE Freedom. Using fear of the sword or fear of a foreign sword, you have deliverd up to them who wish to rule over you, the power to do so, and so we are in the condition we find ourselves now, and in the worsening condition we will soon find ourselves in.
Repent now! See the truth and wake up to the truth. Let their be a nation of people, that cry out - "no more, we aren't listening to the lies anymore, restore to us, what our forefathers died for, and restore to us what our Lord gave us, the right to individual freedom, to worship, to speak, to publish, to pursue life, liberty and happiness with responsibility". Restore to us our rights to privacy, to be secure in our belongings, secure in our very life by a government that is for the people, and by the people and not for itself. A life lived in moral responsibility to the love of Christ who compels us to love all men.
Bye, Bye American Pie- was a truly prophetic song.
The Bill of Rights - Where Did They Go?
We gave them up to those that would power over us and rule us, and take all that we and our families have worked for. We have handed them the things that the early leaders of this nation fought to release us from when England and King George ruled us. We turned around and spat in their faces and put in place a new King George and a oppressive rule.
God help America, the poor of this nation, the believer in the true and living Christ, the oppressed, and those that know and see the truth and wish to speak it. It's not too popular to say these things anymore, matter of fact to stand for the Bill of Rights and Freedom - has somehow become UNPATRIOTIC??
We call black - white, right- wrong, and oppression- freedom.
Welcome to the land of the FREE DUMB.
You have been dumbed down by political lies and church lies to the point you don't even realize it. The Bible said in the last days, that we will be blinded to the truth, and decieved. It is here and it has happened. It is too late to crawl out of the grave hole they forced you to dig yourself, there is only a short time before they will lay you in it. We have turned from truths to lies, to only be made to believe the lie is the truth. Washington leaders and many church leaders have used the same sort of semantical exercises Bill Clinton played on the American people and every cult known to mankind has used since the days of early Christianity.
The twisting of the real meaning of words. What you call freedom, our forefathers would call oppression, what you call Christianity, the Apostles would call Heresy. There is always time for repentance and change.
"My people perish for their lack of knowledge".
That is where the Bill of Rights have gone.
It perished because of the lack of knowledge!
We have no one to blame but ourselves, for we must always remember, a government is only as good as it's people, and is only good when it is run by all good people for the benefit of all people.
Dr. J.
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Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Sunday, September 16, 2007
The Power of God - Why We Often Don't Know It
This past week has been a horrendous time for my family. Even though the family that experienced the tragic lost of their son is not directly related to me only to my wife from her previous marriage, it has affected me deeply along with them.
This is a family that I have come to know and to love. They are my wife's ex-husband's family. They have remained close to her regardless of the sin's of her first husband. I have grown to know them, all of them. They were there for me, when I needed to go home and see my father when he had a heart attack, they purchased me a plane ticket to do so. I love them not because they did these things for me, but because the love of God compels me to love them. I knew their son, Justin, as well and I loved him. A young handsome man, who carried a struggle with sin in his life, the one sin that all were aware of was a continuing temptation to using drugs. He never found the power to overcome it on a "day to day" basis. He knew God's power, He knew that it depended on Him, at least that is what it seemed to all. At least for a time, he experienced some kind of victory over it.
He loved the Lord, as for awhile there he was learning of the Lord. He had been rescued from jail twice only to be sent to a Drug Rehabilitation Center where at least the Bible was being taught.
I remember when Justin returned this last time, he had a smile on his face and a joy in his heart, that seemed real. He had tasted of the things to come in Christ.
At least that is what I believed and thought. Satan didn't allow him for long to keep it. In a short time, Satan once again enticing the flesh led young Justin down a road that spirals toward death and destruction. He is no longer here with us, his mother and father, his brother Aaron, his aunts, uncles, cousins, grandmother, and friends and other family will never experience his laughter or his love again. Justin according to law enforcement reports, shot and killed himself while trying to evade arrest, he stole a Sheriffs car and killed himself with their shotgun.
I believe the reason Justin died was because, he had not been told the whole truth of God's power to keep him from sin on a "daily" basis, he was shown the way of men instead or led to believe he could do it himself. I believe once he believed this, the spiral of sin came back and he grew despondent with his consciousness of sin in his life, which led even more to abusing drugs and alcohol to numb the mind of the pain he felt. He wanted and desired so much to please his parents, but found he couldn't, it destroyed him, because as we all do, the harder we try to be pleasing to God, or the law, or the traditions of men or parents, the less we become pleasing.
The letter of the law kills but the Spirit gives life. It was truly the letter of the law that killed Justin, he wanted to keep it, he wanted to live it, as we all do, but there is no power within us to do so. We have no hope except in Christ.
Oh! there were the 12 step programs, the memorize scripture programs, there was the church building and services he attended at times and the many people around him who could have given him hope in Christ. Instead we offered him religious steps to take, things he had to do, to be accepted and successful. He couldn't do it, and he felt deep inside a condemnation for not being able to do so, So much he could only make the voice of his conscious be quiet when he was high on drugs or alcohol. He had not discovered Paul's dilemma and it's solution because the voices around him told him, he had to do it and for him to be ashamed when he couldn't.
I know that Justin in his heart desired to know the liberty there is in Jesus Christ, just as we all do, daily. There is a liberty in Jesus Christ, and Paul talks about this extensively in Galatians and Romans. A liberty that proclaims we are no longer servants to sin, but servants to righteousness in God our Father.
This does not mean we will never sin again, or that we will walk in perfection, or without some habits that we must seek the Lord in everyday to give us His sustaining power to overcome. It is to easy to be fooled, to think, that attending Church service and other religious activities are the answer for our lack of power over sin to overcome. There are thousands dying in the churches of America today.
I am a subscriber to a Christian retreat magazine, that I sometimes read, from a couple in Georgia, who have a ministry for people to come and be freed from the power of sin, to rediscover their faith in God. Here they are offering hope to others and from testimonies printed in their magazine, they have helped hundreds of people, by reintroducing them to the Word of God, and allowing them to confess whatever sins they have been overcome by to them without fear of retribution or condemnation. Yet, last year, their very own son, committed suicide.
What does that say for wood, hay and stubble and gold refined by fire. Unless we minister out of a relationship with Christ, led by the Holy Spirit, our ministry is in vain. Do I know this personally, yes I do, for years ago I ministered to a young man, a friend of mine, who had an alcohol addiction, who also ended his life in suicide. I had failed him, because I ministered out of a sense of duty, rather than being led by Christ and empowered by Christ to minister to him. I failed, I learned, that unless God specifically leads, don't go there. God has someone for everyone who is hurting and crying out for help, but it is God who will choose whom, when and where.
There is a season for ministry, and a leading that must come from the Holy Spirit and not who we think we are or what we think we know.
Knowledge puffs up, but love builds.
There is a time for us to be quiet and time for us to speak when moved by the Holy Spirit to do so. We may think often we have been called to minister to someone because of position, or title, or compulsion. God loves a cheerful giver, how can we give to others if it is not God who provides that cheer, that hope, that love. Though all of us are called to the ministry of reconciliation, we must wait on the Lord for the timing and the place, to offer what He may give, not what we want to give. I cannot even through all this writing and all my rants and raves, and judgements, and even my opinion give what God can give to others when He so chooses through whomever he so chooses to use. We are on our own, until that time, and if we don't already have a foundation in Christ, we too will fail. We are but clay vessels being molded by the hand of God ourselves, we have no special powers but the Power of God, to ever reach out to anyone. All my biblical training, all my preaching, all my teaching, all my wisdom, all my titles, all my schooling, all my successes are meaningless without God's power to break the bonds of sin for myself and for others.
Prayer is what we need more of, a continuing sense of God in our lives, a continuing conscious time in effort and by our will to stay in communion with Him. Jesus went to the mountain every evening alone to maintain that time in "his closet in secret", though I believe He was in constant communication with the Father throughout the day, where we and our busy schedules are not, and we are much too busy chasing after that which the pagans do, what shall we eat, what shall we wear, we miss that for which we have been brought into the Kingdom of God for, that is to trust Him, and live for Him first and foremost.
Money is a powerful god of this world. It rips apart family after family. It tears down the best of us, because of our love for it. Jesus made it very clear, we cannot love money and God. How right He is!
Jesus still took the time away from the crowds and the disciples to go to the mountain and pray. This is where I am today, home, in my thoughts of my Father, His ways, His love and His forgiveness.
I know our Father forgives us for our failure to show Justin a better way, my heart is broken for the loss his family knows, and my loss.
I am broken, for I look at myself in a mirror, and say God, I failed you again. Perhaps, I was not the light, that I could have been when Justin came around to visit my step daughter and son-in-law, perhaps, he couldn't see Jesus in me. Perhaps, if I would have been abiding in you, Justin would have seen you in me, and I would have been there.
I don't know, but I do know one thing - I want to abide daily, so I can know the power of God unto salvation.
Let us all, remember that, when we get so wrapped up in our own lives, and forget God, we forget the Justin's of this world, the Joe's of this world, the you's of this world and thus the Power of God is not what we know in our lives.
God forgive us our failure to abide in you so that we may walk even as Jesus walked.
Justin, I love you, man, my heart is broken in your loss, for it is my loss as well, to have you, a brother in Christ at my side so we could encourage one another, and lift each other up in prayer daily to sustain the temptations of this life and to continue as overcomers.
Fear not, for I have overcome the world, Jesus said. He has made a promise to us, a promise that says we too can overcome, but not in our own power.
We can only overcome by His.
Today, will we?
Will we continue in that presence of Christ or will go on with our lives, forgetting the lesson that Justin's life and death taught us, that without the Power of God, we too may turn to things that do not satisfy and and in the end choose death over life.
If what we offer others, is nothing else but our wisdom versus the Wisdom of God which is the power unto salvation, we minister in vain.
Unless we know that power of God in our lives to overcome this world, we don't know the resurrection power of Christ. For Jesus gives life, and life more abundantly. This does not mean he gives us things, or success, or power or anything of the false doctrines of today spewed from the mouths of lying men. No, what he gives us his Himself!
The problem is we simplfy the Gospel to a point of idolatry, we make it weak with the adding of the law. We tell a man when he is free, that he must once again go into bondage, to religion, to go to church, read your Bible, say your prayers and all will be well. It isn't.
Justin knew these things and even practiced them for awhile. He knew that Christ died on the cross for him, he knew he was forgiven, but often as all of us do, He didn't realize the power of His resurrection, His life within us, His power to sustain us minute by minute, when we keep our minds on heavenly things versus earthly things.
Justin was distracted but for a moment with this world, which we all are in danger of.
It easy for me and as well as you, to succumb to the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. It is easy to succumb to religion thinking we can live the Christian life in our own power. If there is one thing I know it is I CANNOT.
The problem with twelve step programs, is that they offer the idea of a god, or something outside of yourself, but then it all comes down to it is all about you doing it. It is a program that will keep you always in bondage to repeating to yourself, I am an addict, I am a drunk, I am anything but a new creation in Christ.
It never brings them to Christ, to know the Power of God, to overcome.
I don't talk from a perspective of one, that has not had these things of the world, overcome me. I do not talk from the perspective as if I have never been dragged into the sins of this world. I talk from experience, an experience with the real world of drug and alcohol abuse. I was a young man once myself, and I grew up in the sixties, I knew the experience of getting high, I knew the experience of using drugs and alcohol, to deaden the pain of your consciousness. To forget, but for awhile, and only become sober with the problem now complicated a hundred fold.
I found freedom, how? In Christ and him alone. You ask, have I ever faltered?
The answer is yes, to some things and no to others. I know the power of sin, but I also know the power of God to overcome. When I have failed, it is only because I tried, just as the twelve step programs teach to do it on my own. You cannot, do it, you cannot live the Christian life, you cannot avoid sin, you cannot keep from sinning. YOU CANNOT! But the living Lord Jesus Christ can. It is not by might, not by power, but by MY SPIRIT saith the Lord.
We minimize the power of God, when we add to the Gospel another self help program, another religious step you must take. We minimize the Power of God, that to change you must attend the building (the church) where the lie is told that it's God's house. We are God's house, and without that knowledge that we are His temple, it is easier to destroy it.
We are told to get all involved in religious activities, that hold no power at all. For they are carnal, they come from the works of men and his flesh. It removes the power of God, for by the works of the flesh, and the law, no man will be made right with God. No man can experience God as long as he, himself stands in the way of the work of the Holy Spirit.
I don't blame Justin, I blame myself and others who let Justin down, we didn't take the time, to share with him the real truth of God's power.
Though I did try, I did make an effort by reaching out and calling him once, offering to be a go alongside as a mentor or someone he could come to when faced with the struggle that would not preach to him, but pray with him for God's power to say no to this sin of the flesh- drug addiction. There truly is no addictions, there is only sin. It entices us whatever way we turn in this world. It knocks at the door of our hearts, every moment everyday. It may not be drugs, it may be greed, power, money, lust for women or men, abuse, anger, hatred, unforgiveness, anxiety, depression, at every turn there are the concerns of this world that will draw us away from His power and attract us to the power of (Satan, the world and the flesh).
Anything that turns us from dependence on Him, to dependence on our self, is sin.
For whatever is not of faith -in Him- is sin.
Thus all the rehabs in the world, all the jails in the world, all the poverty in the world, all the riches in this world, and all the knowledge in the world, all the religion in the world, all the tithing, religious works, will not save us from ourselves, the devil and this world!
We can only fall on our knees before a Holy God, and cry out, be merciful to me a sinner. That mercy of God is not just found in forgiveness but in His power that He gives to overcome. It is beyond ourselves to save ourselves in anything in this life or the life to come. We cannot bring God down to us, through sacrifice, we cannot bring God down to us by going through some religious activity or habit.
God has come down to us in Christ and all the promises are YEA in Him and in Him alone.
If we are minister to others, it has to be through the power of the Holy Spirit, not our title, our organizations, our self help programs, our religious activities but by the same love God showed us, that He - Jesus died for us while we were yet sinners. That same love and compassion can only be present by God's power within not our power.
I had just such a person, a pastor who took his pastoring seriously, to come alongside and be a very good friend first, then to help me by helping me mature to the fullness of knowing Christ. He answered many of my questions in the Word, by genuinely showing me the love of God above all things. His name was Olin Boles. He pastored a small church in Dickinson, Texas. He was a man who I believe ministered not out of compulsion but gave with a cheerful heart because he had the heart of God within him, and he knew how to depend on Him, for everything he said and did.
He never condemned, he never preached, he never taunted me with laws and rules, and things I had to do. He offered me only Jesus, by the life he lived, and the time he took to be my friend, and not my pastor. He gave me what I needed, so when I came back into the real world, at least I knew, where my power was to come from, not within myself, not within a continued calling of him on the telephone or dependence on him, but from the Power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
I was able to finally tell my friends "no" to drugs and alcohol, I have learned that on one condition, as long as I was abiding in Christ, and not religion.
I was able to say no, by the resurrected power of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You see, Olin Boles, had one thing going for Him, he didn't minister to me, out of his credentials his title, or his own performance.
He was a man of prayer, and he didn't minister to me at all, it was Jesus within Him that did. It was the Power of God, it wasn't some religious thing he was expected to do, it wasn't even, something he thought of as his way to get into the Kingdom of God, he had the Kingdom of God within him.
That Kingdom showed forth in the compassion of Christ within him.
No pride, no arrogance, no sense of self worth, no sense of his title but a true sense to the function of the work of the Holy Spirit in his life.
I will never forget his love above all things. Here I was, 17 years old, strung out, using almost every drug known to mankind, and yet, he loved me and trusted God so much, that he trusted me to date his daughter though all of this had gone on in my life. He didn't see me or allow me to see myself, as a drug addict but as a new creation in Christ. He reminded me constantly of the Word of God in Romans 8:1 -
"There is therefore no condemnation for those who are IN Christ Jesus, for the law of the Spirit of LIFE in CHRIST JESUS, as set you free from the law of sin and of death."
He ministered love and reconciliation, never condemnation, and I for many years felt I owed Him for helping save my life from the bondage of drugs. He would come see me while I was in the hospital, he would shoot pool with me, discuss whatever I wanted to talk about, he would listen to music with me, he never once opened his mouth about God until I was ready to do so.
He then, would sit patiently with me at my side telling me of God's power through scripture. A power that didn't come from religious effort and activity, it was a power that comes from God.
Oh! he could have spent much better his time, in preparation for his next sermon or teaching. He didn't, he took time from his title to be a living function of the Power of Christ within to a deeply troubled 17 year old boy.
You know, since I was 17 years old, I have lived and had to learn that same truth over and over again. I have had to turn to the resurrected life of Christ within to overcome. Many times, I did not, many times I failed, but then Christ speaking through Brother Boles, would speak those words to me along with another favorite passage of mine, I John 1:8,9 and 10.
The one part of that passage that not many religious people offer is missed.He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins AND TO CLEANSE FROM ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS! The church much often like the Catholic church, likes to keep Christ on a cross, yes, offering forgiveness of sin, but rarely offering the power over sin.
I believe the strongest reason there is for less power in Christians lives, is if you are in the ministry especially, you have a deep desire to be needed by others, and it fulfills some sinful desire to be looked up to, to be placed on a podium, so that all may see and hear you.
I don't want anyone to hear me, I desire above all things for others to hear Christ and of His power. I have nothing to offer. I have no wisdom, no power to help you overcome your sins, no power to give you, no power to bless you, no power to give you life, I have none of these things, I can only share with you "the testimony of Jesus Christ- this is the spirit of prophecy".
I can only encourage you and tell you my experience with His power, it is real, it is the power of the resurrection. I can also tell you I know the sting of death it is sin, and I know it's power, but I know that when I see Him, I turn to Him, first instead of my self, my understandings, my ideals, my philosophy, then sin cannot win!
I have discovered to pray in all situations if you want life in Him, I have also discovered that the flesh is weak but the spirit is willing. I can't answer why, we sometimes fail to turn to him first, but that it is much easier to turn to the traditions of men, because it is there, we can have pride, a sense of our own power out of our sinful selves. Sin does have a pleasure for the moment, but it always results in death.
What are these traditions of men? They are nothing more than our determination to cross God out of the equation of life, and to make ourselves god. As if any of us, can overcome sin in our own power, but we like to believe we can, we like to feel that we can, we like to tell other men that we can, and we like to judge other men because they have not. It is easy to clean up the outside of the cup, to polish it with religious position, or our own sense of title and power. It is easy for us to go about and look down our noses at those that fail, to bring wrath on them or hatred or judgement. We don't offer compassion, we don't offer love, we don't offer God's love and acceptance, we offer our judgement, our own sense of goodness, which God makes very clear, is "as filthy rags" before him.
Wood, hay and stubble, all burns to the ground when God puts his fire to it. We will have many firey trials in this life, they are for us to learn to not to build upon anything but upon the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. When we continue to suffer in some area of our life, it becomes time to ask God for His answers and not turn to our own. It is time, we learn from our suffering, not that it will ever end anytime soon, until Jesus comes, but we can find the Kingdom of God within, by finding His peace, His righteousness, His joy in the Holy Spirit.
I have no judgement for Justin and what happened, I judge no man by the flesh anymore, only God knows the heart and that man himself, for but for the grace of God, goes I. I will not say who ascends and who descends, for only Christ holds that for himself and His judgement. I was not called to be another man's judge as to what was in his heart, only God will know.
I can judge based on my experience, that Justin missed the point as we all do often, that the power to overcome comes not from within our own weak initiatives and willing it so, it can only come from the grace of God, as we fall on our knees before him, and seek him to be that which He is, our righteousness and our life.
May we all remember, that we too can miss the Power of God in our lives, whenever we think we can. We can't but Jesus can.
Dr. J.
This is a family that I have come to know and to love. They are my wife's ex-husband's family. They have remained close to her regardless of the sin's of her first husband. I have grown to know them, all of them. They were there for me, when I needed to go home and see my father when he had a heart attack, they purchased me a plane ticket to do so. I love them not because they did these things for me, but because the love of God compels me to love them. I knew their son, Justin, as well and I loved him. A young handsome man, who carried a struggle with sin in his life, the one sin that all were aware of was a continuing temptation to using drugs. He never found the power to overcome it on a "day to day" basis. He knew God's power, He knew that it depended on Him, at least that is what it seemed to all. At least for a time, he experienced some kind of victory over it.
He loved the Lord, as for awhile there he was learning of the Lord. He had been rescued from jail twice only to be sent to a Drug Rehabilitation Center where at least the Bible was being taught.
I remember when Justin returned this last time, he had a smile on his face and a joy in his heart, that seemed real. He had tasted of the things to come in Christ.
At least that is what I believed and thought. Satan didn't allow him for long to keep it. In a short time, Satan once again enticing the flesh led young Justin down a road that spirals toward death and destruction. He is no longer here with us, his mother and father, his brother Aaron, his aunts, uncles, cousins, grandmother, and friends and other family will never experience his laughter or his love again. Justin according to law enforcement reports, shot and killed himself while trying to evade arrest, he stole a Sheriffs car and killed himself with their shotgun.
I believe the reason Justin died was because, he had not been told the whole truth of God's power to keep him from sin on a "daily" basis, he was shown the way of men instead or led to believe he could do it himself. I believe once he believed this, the spiral of sin came back and he grew despondent with his consciousness of sin in his life, which led even more to abusing drugs and alcohol to numb the mind of the pain he felt. He wanted and desired so much to please his parents, but found he couldn't, it destroyed him, because as we all do, the harder we try to be pleasing to God, or the law, or the traditions of men or parents, the less we become pleasing.
The letter of the law kills but the Spirit gives life. It was truly the letter of the law that killed Justin, he wanted to keep it, he wanted to live it, as we all do, but there is no power within us to do so. We have no hope except in Christ.
Oh! there were the 12 step programs, the memorize scripture programs, there was the church building and services he attended at times and the many people around him who could have given him hope in Christ. Instead we offered him religious steps to take, things he had to do, to be accepted and successful. He couldn't do it, and he felt deep inside a condemnation for not being able to do so, So much he could only make the voice of his conscious be quiet when he was high on drugs or alcohol. He had not discovered Paul's dilemma and it's solution because the voices around him told him, he had to do it and for him to be ashamed when he couldn't.
I know that Justin in his heart desired to know the liberty there is in Jesus Christ, just as we all do, daily. There is a liberty in Jesus Christ, and Paul talks about this extensively in Galatians and Romans. A liberty that proclaims we are no longer servants to sin, but servants to righteousness in God our Father.
This does not mean we will never sin again, or that we will walk in perfection, or without some habits that we must seek the Lord in everyday to give us His sustaining power to overcome. It is to easy to be fooled, to think, that attending Church service and other religious activities are the answer for our lack of power over sin to overcome. There are thousands dying in the churches of America today.
I am a subscriber to a Christian retreat magazine, that I sometimes read, from a couple in Georgia, who have a ministry for people to come and be freed from the power of sin, to rediscover their faith in God. Here they are offering hope to others and from testimonies printed in their magazine, they have helped hundreds of people, by reintroducing them to the Word of God, and allowing them to confess whatever sins they have been overcome by to them without fear of retribution or condemnation. Yet, last year, their very own son, committed suicide.
What does that say for wood, hay and stubble and gold refined by fire. Unless we minister out of a relationship with Christ, led by the Holy Spirit, our ministry is in vain. Do I know this personally, yes I do, for years ago I ministered to a young man, a friend of mine, who had an alcohol addiction, who also ended his life in suicide. I had failed him, because I ministered out of a sense of duty, rather than being led by Christ and empowered by Christ to minister to him. I failed, I learned, that unless God specifically leads, don't go there. God has someone for everyone who is hurting and crying out for help, but it is God who will choose whom, when and where.
There is a season for ministry, and a leading that must come from the Holy Spirit and not who we think we are or what we think we know.
Knowledge puffs up, but love builds.
There is a time for us to be quiet and time for us to speak when moved by the Holy Spirit to do so. We may think often we have been called to minister to someone because of position, or title, or compulsion. God loves a cheerful giver, how can we give to others if it is not God who provides that cheer, that hope, that love. Though all of us are called to the ministry of reconciliation, we must wait on the Lord for the timing and the place, to offer what He may give, not what we want to give. I cannot even through all this writing and all my rants and raves, and judgements, and even my opinion give what God can give to others when He so chooses through whomever he so chooses to use. We are on our own, until that time, and if we don't already have a foundation in Christ, we too will fail. We are but clay vessels being molded by the hand of God ourselves, we have no special powers but the Power of God, to ever reach out to anyone. All my biblical training, all my preaching, all my teaching, all my wisdom, all my titles, all my schooling, all my successes are meaningless without God's power to break the bonds of sin for myself and for others.
Prayer is what we need more of, a continuing sense of God in our lives, a continuing conscious time in effort and by our will to stay in communion with Him. Jesus went to the mountain every evening alone to maintain that time in "his closet in secret", though I believe He was in constant communication with the Father throughout the day, where we and our busy schedules are not, and we are much too busy chasing after that which the pagans do, what shall we eat, what shall we wear, we miss that for which we have been brought into the Kingdom of God for, that is to trust Him, and live for Him first and foremost.
Money is a powerful god of this world. It rips apart family after family. It tears down the best of us, because of our love for it. Jesus made it very clear, we cannot love money and God. How right He is!
Jesus still took the time away from the crowds and the disciples to go to the mountain and pray. This is where I am today, home, in my thoughts of my Father, His ways, His love and His forgiveness.
I know our Father forgives us for our failure to show Justin a better way, my heart is broken for the loss his family knows, and my loss.
I am broken, for I look at myself in a mirror, and say God, I failed you again. Perhaps, I was not the light, that I could have been when Justin came around to visit my step daughter and son-in-law, perhaps, he couldn't see Jesus in me. Perhaps, if I would have been abiding in you, Justin would have seen you in me, and I would have been there.
I don't know, but I do know one thing - I want to abide daily, so I can know the power of God unto salvation.
Let us all, remember that, when we get so wrapped up in our own lives, and forget God, we forget the Justin's of this world, the Joe's of this world, the you's of this world and thus the Power of God is not what we know in our lives.
God forgive us our failure to abide in you so that we may walk even as Jesus walked.
Justin, I love you, man, my heart is broken in your loss, for it is my loss as well, to have you, a brother in Christ at my side so we could encourage one another, and lift each other up in prayer daily to sustain the temptations of this life and to continue as overcomers.
Fear not, for I have overcome the world, Jesus said. He has made a promise to us, a promise that says we too can overcome, but not in our own power.
We can only overcome by His.
Today, will we?
Will we continue in that presence of Christ or will go on with our lives, forgetting the lesson that Justin's life and death taught us, that without the Power of God, we too may turn to things that do not satisfy and and in the end choose death over life.
If what we offer others, is nothing else but our wisdom versus the Wisdom of God which is the power unto salvation, we minister in vain.
Unless we know that power of God in our lives to overcome this world, we don't know the resurrection power of Christ. For Jesus gives life, and life more abundantly. This does not mean he gives us things, or success, or power or anything of the false doctrines of today spewed from the mouths of lying men. No, what he gives us his Himself!
The problem is we simplfy the Gospel to a point of idolatry, we make it weak with the adding of the law. We tell a man when he is free, that he must once again go into bondage, to religion, to go to church, read your Bible, say your prayers and all will be well. It isn't.
Justin knew these things and even practiced them for awhile. He knew that Christ died on the cross for him, he knew he was forgiven, but often as all of us do, He didn't realize the power of His resurrection, His life within us, His power to sustain us minute by minute, when we keep our minds on heavenly things versus earthly things.
Justin was distracted but for a moment with this world, which we all are in danger of.
It easy for me and as well as you, to succumb to the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. It is easy to succumb to religion thinking we can live the Christian life in our own power. If there is one thing I know it is I CANNOT.
The problem with twelve step programs, is that they offer the idea of a god, or something outside of yourself, but then it all comes down to it is all about you doing it. It is a program that will keep you always in bondage to repeating to yourself, I am an addict, I am a drunk, I am anything but a new creation in Christ.
It never brings them to Christ, to know the Power of God, to overcome.
I don't talk from a perspective of one, that has not had these things of the world, overcome me. I do not talk from the perspective as if I have never been dragged into the sins of this world. I talk from experience, an experience with the real world of drug and alcohol abuse. I was a young man once myself, and I grew up in the sixties, I knew the experience of getting high, I knew the experience of using drugs and alcohol, to deaden the pain of your consciousness. To forget, but for awhile, and only become sober with the problem now complicated a hundred fold.
I found freedom, how? In Christ and him alone. You ask, have I ever faltered?
The answer is yes, to some things and no to others. I know the power of sin, but I also know the power of God to overcome. When I have failed, it is only because I tried, just as the twelve step programs teach to do it on my own. You cannot, do it, you cannot live the Christian life, you cannot avoid sin, you cannot keep from sinning. YOU CANNOT! But the living Lord Jesus Christ can. It is not by might, not by power, but by MY SPIRIT saith the Lord.
We minimize the power of God, when we add to the Gospel another self help program, another religious step you must take. We minimize the Power of God, that to change you must attend the building (the church) where the lie is told that it's God's house. We are God's house, and without that knowledge that we are His temple, it is easier to destroy it.
We are told to get all involved in religious activities, that hold no power at all. For they are carnal, they come from the works of men and his flesh. It removes the power of God, for by the works of the flesh, and the law, no man will be made right with God. No man can experience God as long as he, himself stands in the way of the work of the Holy Spirit.
I don't blame Justin, I blame myself and others who let Justin down, we didn't take the time, to share with him the real truth of God's power.
Though I did try, I did make an effort by reaching out and calling him once, offering to be a go alongside as a mentor or someone he could come to when faced with the struggle that would not preach to him, but pray with him for God's power to say no to this sin of the flesh- drug addiction. There truly is no addictions, there is only sin. It entices us whatever way we turn in this world. It knocks at the door of our hearts, every moment everyday. It may not be drugs, it may be greed, power, money, lust for women or men, abuse, anger, hatred, unforgiveness, anxiety, depression, at every turn there are the concerns of this world that will draw us away from His power and attract us to the power of (Satan, the world and the flesh).
Anything that turns us from dependence on Him, to dependence on our self, is sin.
For whatever is not of faith -in Him- is sin.
Thus all the rehabs in the world, all the jails in the world, all the poverty in the world, all the riches in this world, and all the knowledge in the world, all the religion in the world, all the tithing, religious works, will not save us from ourselves, the devil and this world!
We can only fall on our knees before a Holy God, and cry out, be merciful to me a sinner. That mercy of God is not just found in forgiveness but in His power that He gives to overcome. It is beyond ourselves to save ourselves in anything in this life or the life to come. We cannot bring God down to us, through sacrifice, we cannot bring God down to us by going through some religious activity or habit.
God has come down to us in Christ and all the promises are YEA in Him and in Him alone.
If we are minister to others, it has to be through the power of the Holy Spirit, not our title, our organizations, our self help programs, our religious activities but by the same love God showed us, that He - Jesus died for us while we were yet sinners. That same love and compassion can only be present by God's power within not our power.
I had just such a person, a pastor who took his pastoring seriously, to come alongside and be a very good friend first, then to help me by helping me mature to the fullness of knowing Christ. He answered many of my questions in the Word, by genuinely showing me the love of God above all things. His name was Olin Boles. He pastored a small church in Dickinson, Texas. He was a man who I believe ministered not out of compulsion but gave with a cheerful heart because he had the heart of God within him, and he knew how to depend on Him, for everything he said and did.
He never condemned, he never preached, he never taunted me with laws and rules, and things I had to do. He offered me only Jesus, by the life he lived, and the time he took to be my friend, and not my pastor. He gave me what I needed, so when I came back into the real world, at least I knew, where my power was to come from, not within myself, not within a continued calling of him on the telephone or dependence on him, but from the Power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
I was able to finally tell my friends "no" to drugs and alcohol, I have learned that on one condition, as long as I was abiding in Christ, and not religion.
I was able to say no, by the resurrected power of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You see, Olin Boles, had one thing going for Him, he didn't minister to me, out of his credentials his title, or his own performance.
He was a man of prayer, and he didn't minister to me at all, it was Jesus within Him that did. It was the Power of God, it wasn't some religious thing he was expected to do, it wasn't even, something he thought of as his way to get into the Kingdom of God, he had the Kingdom of God within him.
That Kingdom showed forth in the compassion of Christ within him.
No pride, no arrogance, no sense of self worth, no sense of his title but a true sense to the function of the work of the Holy Spirit in his life.
I will never forget his love above all things. Here I was, 17 years old, strung out, using almost every drug known to mankind, and yet, he loved me and trusted God so much, that he trusted me to date his daughter though all of this had gone on in my life. He didn't see me or allow me to see myself, as a drug addict but as a new creation in Christ. He reminded me constantly of the Word of God in Romans 8:1 -
"There is therefore no condemnation for those who are IN Christ Jesus, for the law of the Spirit of LIFE in CHRIST JESUS, as set you free from the law of sin and of death."
He ministered love and reconciliation, never condemnation, and I for many years felt I owed Him for helping save my life from the bondage of drugs. He would come see me while I was in the hospital, he would shoot pool with me, discuss whatever I wanted to talk about, he would listen to music with me, he never once opened his mouth about God until I was ready to do so.
He then, would sit patiently with me at my side telling me of God's power through scripture. A power that didn't come from religious effort and activity, it was a power that comes from God.
Oh! he could have spent much better his time, in preparation for his next sermon or teaching. He didn't, he took time from his title to be a living function of the Power of Christ within to a deeply troubled 17 year old boy.
You know, since I was 17 years old, I have lived and had to learn that same truth over and over again. I have had to turn to the resurrected life of Christ within to overcome. Many times, I did not, many times I failed, but then Christ speaking through Brother Boles, would speak those words to me along with another favorite passage of mine, I John 1:8,9 and 10.
The one part of that passage that not many religious people offer is missed.He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins AND TO CLEANSE FROM ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS! The church much often like the Catholic church, likes to keep Christ on a cross, yes, offering forgiveness of sin, but rarely offering the power over sin.
I believe the strongest reason there is for less power in Christians lives, is if you are in the ministry especially, you have a deep desire to be needed by others, and it fulfills some sinful desire to be looked up to, to be placed on a podium, so that all may see and hear you.
I don't want anyone to hear me, I desire above all things for others to hear Christ and of His power. I have nothing to offer. I have no wisdom, no power to help you overcome your sins, no power to give you, no power to bless you, no power to give you life, I have none of these things, I can only share with you "the testimony of Jesus Christ- this is the spirit of prophecy".
I can only encourage you and tell you my experience with His power, it is real, it is the power of the resurrection. I can also tell you I know the sting of death it is sin, and I know it's power, but I know that when I see Him, I turn to Him, first instead of my self, my understandings, my ideals, my philosophy, then sin cannot win!
I have discovered to pray in all situations if you want life in Him, I have also discovered that the flesh is weak but the spirit is willing. I can't answer why, we sometimes fail to turn to him first, but that it is much easier to turn to the traditions of men, because it is there, we can have pride, a sense of our own power out of our sinful selves. Sin does have a pleasure for the moment, but it always results in death.
What are these traditions of men? They are nothing more than our determination to cross God out of the equation of life, and to make ourselves god. As if any of us, can overcome sin in our own power, but we like to believe we can, we like to feel that we can, we like to tell other men that we can, and we like to judge other men because they have not. It is easy to clean up the outside of the cup, to polish it with religious position, or our own sense of title and power. It is easy for us to go about and look down our noses at those that fail, to bring wrath on them or hatred or judgement. We don't offer compassion, we don't offer love, we don't offer God's love and acceptance, we offer our judgement, our own sense of goodness, which God makes very clear, is "as filthy rags" before him.
Wood, hay and stubble, all burns to the ground when God puts his fire to it. We will have many firey trials in this life, they are for us to learn to not to build upon anything but upon the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. When we continue to suffer in some area of our life, it becomes time to ask God for His answers and not turn to our own. It is time, we learn from our suffering, not that it will ever end anytime soon, until Jesus comes, but we can find the Kingdom of God within, by finding His peace, His righteousness, His joy in the Holy Spirit.
I have no judgement for Justin and what happened, I judge no man by the flesh anymore, only God knows the heart and that man himself, for but for the grace of God, goes I. I will not say who ascends and who descends, for only Christ holds that for himself and His judgement. I was not called to be another man's judge as to what was in his heart, only God will know.
I can judge based on my experience, that Justin missed the point as we all do often, that the power to overcome comes not from within our own weak initiatives and willing it so, it can only come from the grace of God, as we fall on our knees before him, and seek him to be that which He is, our righteousness and our life.
May we all remember, that we too can miss the Power of God in our lives, whenever we think we can. We can't but Jesus can.
Dr. J.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Ignorance of the Bible Isn't Bliss
Well, I haven't had much time to write lately as I am working near 11 hours a day now, with very little time from Monday through Friday. This is Sunday, so I am finally getting to rest some. I ordered a trial subscription to the "Biblical Archaeology Review". Archaeology and especially pertaining to the Bible, the cities and history in it have been a strong interest of mine since I was a child. I believe so, simply because the more these men; archaeologist and their science look at the past in these things, the more it establishes the authority of scripture and it's truth of history from the Bible. My faith is based on more than just a blind trust. I believe not just because of the archaelogical finds, but because of my experience, with a living Savour.
I recently started up a Bible study at a friends home, for the reasons I have always strongly believed in for doing so, Americans are basically ignorant when it comes to knowing their Bibles.
I am not being arrogant and saying that when doing a Bible study I know anything, often many other Bible reading Christians come to these, and I learn as well, and often it will attract those who really want to get to know their Bible. I generally will only create a outline, and simply try to keep us inline with our purpose with simple guidance, not dictatorship or the one voice to be heard, but I want the Bible study to be a learning experience for us all. A time to share what God has shown us, a time to dig into scripture and learn together. I can promise you I often learn as much or more than what I bring to the table of discussion.
American Christians have sat too long on the bench and listened to the orators but have taken little time to listen to the great Orator - God himself, by studying scripture themself. It is easy to be spiritually lazy and the system generally propagates this leaving all the studying to the Pastors and Sunday School teachers. Laymen or the laity rarely take the time to dig into scripture themselves.
Even though Sunday Schools have this intention they too often become a one big mouth and a bunch of little ears, simply because the teacher is usually coming to the table as just that, feeling his or her title as "teacher", gives them the authority to hold all the answers and to do most of the talking. They rarely are willing to listen to others and learn something themselves. They may be surprised how much another person in their class may know, they may be surprised to find perhaps someone else should be teaching the class.
Great teaching is accomplished through interaction and discourse versus sermonizing. If you note, Jesus when discipling, often opened up discussion with question, a story, or an illustration, and from there others learned, but he also allowed himself to be questioned by others. This is the example for teaching, it was clearly the way that Paul taught and it is the way they learned in synagogue as Jews before his conversion.
Dialegomai is the Greek word used in scripture for these meetings or assembly of beleivers. They were not one sided in any fashion. I wonder what would happen if one Pastor in America , paused for one minute after each paragraph spoken and he were to ask and allow others to speak?
I believe the assembly of believers would soon become life changing, for all misconceptions, non scriptural beliefs would be exposed and corrected, even some of those that have come from the pastor himself, he just might find himself being corrected biblically as well. There would be truly a time where "God is among His people" (plural).
The Holy Spirit wouldnt be quenched because He would be there doing the teaching. We lock him outside our "church" doors, and tell Him, only the pastor or some other recognized organizational leader has the authority to speak and to teach.
How can we claim we believe in the "Priesthood of Believers" and practice just the opposite. It's hypocritical and a lie to practice as we do.
There was always an interaction among students and teachers rather than an orator. The church developed it's ideals of one sided oration from Pagan Greek orators and Roman orators, it was not the way of the early church.
I want to repeat an article here that I found in my new trial magazine, that proves my point about the average American's biblical ignorance.
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More than 10 percent of Americans believe that Joan of Arc was Noah's wife!
This is just one of the distressing statistics that Stephen Prothero, the chair of the religion department at Boston University presents in his book " Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs To Know - and Doesn't". He claims that though United States is arguably the most religious nation in the developed world, it is also the most religiously ignorant.
How does your biblical knowledge compare to that of fellow Americans?
Only half of those polled could name even one of the four Gospels!
A mere one in three knew who delivered the Sermon on the Mount and less than half of those polled could identify the first book of the Bible.
I won't insult you by printing the answers here.
On the other hand approximately 75% of adults believe that the Bible teaches that "God helps those who help themselves", (It was Benjamin Franklin, that said it, and is not to be found in the Bible).
It may be a bit surprising to learn that Evangelical Christians, who traditionally place a high value on biblical literacy, fared only slightly better than their non- evangelical counterparts.
Unsurprisingly however, Americans know even less about Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism, or Hinduism than about Christianity and Judaism.
This lack of biblical proficiency is only one maifestation of a more general decline in the public's cultural and civic knowledge. According to polls conducted by the National Constitution Center, only one third of American's can name even one of the rights protected by the First
Amendement.
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I believe we have two goals if the body of Christ is to ever fulfill it's call to go forth and preach the Gospel to all the nations, making disciples of them, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
The very first thing, is those that claim they lay so much importance on their Christian life, is to have their minds transformed, renewed, by the Word of God first and foremost, not by man's rhetoric or ideals.
The one and only true washing - "baptizo" that is the one the Bible calls for in baptism is the "washing of the water of the Word".
Americans and their failure to have a life changing experience with Christ, is due to a large part in their failure to know the Bible, to know what they really beleive based on the Bible.
They often can quote what their particular church or denomination believes, but rarely can they quote the Word of God, and rarely have they been taught by the Holy Spirit. If they are truly His children, then their is a responsibility to know Him personally, to hear him, and to hear him, without the rhetoric and doctrines and ideals of men, so often that comes to them in a sermon versus one on one study - Man to God, and God to Man.
It is lazy, carnal and brings SUFFERING to the body of Christ un-necessarily.
Our Christian lives suffer, because we really don't know what God has to say to us personally. We just won't take the time to hear him. We have time for television, our kids sport programs, time to make money, time to entertain and be entertained, but not time to hear the still small voice of God speaking to us in scripture, the testimony of Jesus Christ.
I believe so much in this, that I will do whatever it takes in my personal life and ministry to simple bring people to a love of the Bible, versus hearing me talk or anyone else. I want new believers and old believers to find what I have found, and I can say right along with Paul, "no man taught me, I only heard from the Lord Jesus Christ".
It even astounds me, to see Americans so willingly giving up their rights as a citizen in America to a Police State mentality that is so prevalent in this country today, and this is due to the ignorance of Americans understanding their own history, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, as the poll reveals.
This once again is due to laziness and an unwillingness to study our heritage as a nation. Not that it has any saving grace in it, but knowing it might help keep us free to live in peace and be free to preach the Gospel.
Perhaps if more Christians read the greatest sermon ever preached, the Sermon on the Mount, there would be a whole lot less Christians so willing to jump in the Christian Nationalist and Zionist bandwagon of politics and finding themselve WAR MONGERS, if they would only realize, it was the Son of God himself, that spoke the words, to LOVE THINE ENEMY in the Sermon on the Mount.
It is so easy to be carnal, when you don't spend time yourself in God's Word. It's easy to listen to those voices that are not scriptural in their sermons and their rhetoric when you don't know the Bible, and you think you do. You can't know what the Bible says, unless you READ IT FOR YOURSELF! PERIOD!
It is easy to excuse our sins away, that way.
You must remember, reading the Word, is like looking at ourselves in the mirror and seeing our true selves, and even more it reveals our need for Jesus to do his work in our individual lives not just once but everyday of our lives left on this earth.
Perhaps this is why Americans are religious but very few actually know the Jesus of Scripture, especially when they can't even name one of the Gospel books of the Bible.
It makes it a lot easier to not know our own sin, and the solution for our sins, and to conitnue to live in ignorance or a once week sermon, and live our lives, totally without ever knowing the abundant life in Christ, versus this ignorant life we lead in sin, suffering and evil.
It's time for the church to give people the basics, teach them the name of the books, showing them how to find them, give them an outline of what they are about,who the characters are, and get them involved, rather than as passive listeners.
Dialegomai- discourse was the way of the early church and it is the greatest need of the modern church. Discipling others doesnt mean giving them doctrine, or our church beliefs. It means giving them the Word, the Living Word of God. It means getting them off the bottle and our breast and getting them to the table where they can pick up the fork and the knife themselves, and eat REAL meat.
They will never do this Pastors as long as you spoon feed them and keep them dumbed down, the body should be teaching us by now.
They for too long have been babies, we make them that way.
Let's grow them up, give them the Bible, and tell them for once to look it up for themselves. Let's give them the basics, then challenge them, let's turn them into biblical students rather than babies dependent on us for their every need and every supposed word from God.
The facts are, if you are a Pastor your job is to guide, not direct, your job is not to be God's voice, but to lead others to seek God's voice. It is your job to bring them to the fullness and the knowledge and maturity of Christ, not by being their God but directing them to God.
They may come to where they don't need you anymore, wouldnt that be great, if they found all they ever needed was Jesus all along?
Imagine for one moment, if you really could become unemployed as a pastor.
That would mean, that they have finally discovered the true Pastor and they are opening their Bibles everyday to hear from Him, our High Priest on High - Jesus Christ Our Lord and the Holy Spirit- our guide into all truth. That would be restoration- that would be revival.
I challenge every American who claims to be a Christian, to dig into the Word of God for themselves everyday for one year. I promise it will be life changing and many of your problems you just don't seem to have escaped from by just going to church every Sunday, would all fade away in His glory. If you want to have the mind of Christ, you first have to know that mind, and only an intimate relationship with God's Word will ever do that for you. I challenge you - become Biblically Literate for once in your lives.
Study and Show Yourself Approved!
Dr. J.
I recently started up a Bible study at a friends home, for the reasons I have always strongly believed in for doing so, Americans are basically ignorant when it comes to knowing their Bibles.
I am not being arrogant and saying that when doing a Bible study I know anything, often many other Bible reading Christians come to these, and I learn as well, and often it will attract those who really want to get to know their Bible. I generally will only create a outline, and simply try to keep us inline with our purpose with simple guidance, not dictatorship or the one voice to be heard, but I want the Bible study to be a learning experience for us all. A time to share what God has shown us, a time to dig into scripture and learn together. I can promise you I often learn as much or more than what I bring to the table of discussion.
American Christians have sat too long on the bench and listened to the orators but have taken little time to listen to the great Orator - God himself, by studying scripture themself. It is easy to be spiritually lazy and the system generally propagates this leaving all the studying to the Pastors and Sunday School teachers. Laymen or the laity rarely take the time to dig into scripture themselves.
Even though Sunday Schools have this intention they too often become a one big mouth and a bunch of little ears, simply because the teacher is usually coming to the table as just that, feeling his or her title as "teacher", gives them the authority to hold all the answers and to do most of the talking. They rarely are willing to listen to others and learn something themselves. They may be surprised how much another person in their class may know, they may be surprised to find perhaps someone else should be teaching the class.
Great teaching is accomplished through interaction and discourse versus sermonizing. If you note, Jesus when discipling, often opened up discussion with question, a story, or an illustration, and from there others learned, but he also allowed himself to be questioned by others. This is the example for teaching, it was clearly the way that Paul taught and it is the way they learned in synagogue as Jews before his conversion.
Dialegomai is the Greek word used in scripture for these meetings or assembly of beleivers. They were not one sided in any fashion. I wonder what would happen if one Pastor in America , paused for one minute after each paragraph spoken and he were to ask and allow others to speak?
I believe the assembly of believers would soon become life changing, for all misconceptions, non scriptural beliefs would be exposed and corrected, even some of those that have come from the pastor himself, he just might find himself being corrected biblically as well. There would be truly a time where "God is among His people" (plural).
The Holy Spirit wouldnt be quenched because He would be there doing the teaching. We lock him outside our "church" doors, and tell Him, only the pastor or some other recognized organizational leader has the authority to speak and to teach.
How can we claim we believe in the "Priesthood of Believers" and practice just the opposite. It's hypocritical and a lie to practice as we do.
There was always an interaction among students and teachers rather than an orator. The church developed it's ideals of one sided oration from Pagan Greek orators and Roman orators, it was not the way of the early church.
I want to repeat an article here that I found in my new trial magazine, that proves my point about the average American's biblical ignorance.
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More than 10 percent of Americans believe that Joan of Arc was Noah's wife!
This is just one of the distressing statistics that Stephen Prothero, the chair of the religion department at Boston University presents in his book " Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs To Know - and Doesn't". He claims that though United States is arguably the most religious nation in the developed world, it is also the most religiously ignorant.
How does your biblical knowledge compare to that of fellow Americans?
Only half of those polled could name even one of the four Gospels!
A mere one in three knew who delivered the Sermon on the Mount and less than half of those polled could identify the first book of the Bible.
I won't insult you by printing the answers here.
On the other hand approximately 75% of adults believe that the Bible teaches that "God helps those who help themselves", (It was Benjamin Franklin, that said it, and is not to be found in the Bible).
It may be a bit surprising to learn that Evangelical Christians, who traditionally place a high value on biblical literacy, fared only slightly better than their non- evangelical counterparts.
Unsurprisingly however, Americans know even less about Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism, or Hinduism than about Christianity and Judaism.
This lack of biblical proficiency is only one maifestation of a more general decline in the public's cultural and civic knowledge. According to polls conducted by the National Constitution Center, only one third of American's can name even one of the rights protected by the First
Amendement.
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I believe we have two goals if the body of Christ is to ever fulfill it's call to go forth and preach the Gospel to all the nations, making disciples of them, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
The very first thing, is those that claim they lay so much importance on their Christian life, is to have their minds transformed, renewed, by the Word of God first and foremost, not by man's rhetoric or ideals.
The one and only true washing - "baptizo" that is the one the Bible calls for in baptism is the "washing of the water of the Word".
Americans and their failure to have a life changing experience with Christ, is due to a large part in their failure to know the Bible, to know what they really beleive based on the Bible.
They often can quote what their particular church or denomination believes, but rarely can they quote the Word of God, and rarely have they been taught by the Holy Spirit. If they are truly His children, then their is a responsibility to know Him personally, to hear him, and to hear him, without the rhetoric and doctrines and ideals of men, so often that comes to them in a sermon versus one on one study - Man to God, and God to Man.
It is lazy, carnal and brings SUFFERING to the body of Christ un-necessarily.
Our Christian lives suffer, because we really don't know what God has to say to us personally. We just won't take the time to hear him. We have time for television, our kids sport programs, time to make money, time to entertain and be entertained, but not time to hear the still small voice of God speaking to us in scripture, the testimony of Jesus Christ.
I believe so much in this, that I will do whatever it takes in my personal life and ministry to simple bring people to a love of the Bible, versus hearing me talk or anyone else. I want new believers and old believers to find what I have found, and I can say right along with Paul, "no man taught me, I only heard from the Lord Jesus Christ".
It even astounds me, to see Americans so willingly giving up their rights as a citizen in America to a Police State mentality that is so prevalent in this country today, and this is due to the ignorance of Americans understanding their own history, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, as the poll reveals.
This once again is due to laziness and an unwillingness to study our heritage as a nation. Not that it has any saving grace in it, but knowing it might help keep us free to live in peace and be free to preach the Gospel.
Perhaps if more Christians read the greatest sermon ever preached, the Sermon on the Mount, there would be a whole lot less Christians so willing to jump in the Christian Nationalist and Zionist bandwagon of politics and finding themselve WAR MONGERS, if they would only realize, it was the Son of God himself, that spoke the words, to LOVE THINE ENEMY in the Sermon on the Mount.
It is so easy to be carnal, when you don't spend time yourself in God's Word. It's easy to listen to those voices that are not scriptural in their sermons and their rhetoric when you don't know the Bible, and you think you do. You can't know what the Bible says, unless you READ IT FOR YOURSELF! PERIOD!
It is easy to excuse our sins away, that way.
You must remember, reading the Word, is like looking at ourselves in the mirror and seeing our true selves, and even more it reveals our need for Jesus to do his work in our individual lives not just once but everyday of our lives left on this earth.
Perhaps this is why Americans are religious but very few actually know the Jesus of Scripture, especially when they can't even name one of the Gospel books of the Bible.
It makes it a lot easier to not know our own sin, and the solution for our sins, and to conitnue to live in ignorance or a once week sermon, and live our lives, totally without ever knowing the abundant life in Christ, versus this ignorant life we lead in sin, suffering and evil.
It's time for the church to give people the basics, teach them the name of the books, showing them how to find them, give them an outline of what they are about,who the characters are, and get them involved, rather than as passive listeners.
Dialegomai- discourse was the way of the early church and it is the greatest need of the modern church. Discipling others doesnt mean giving them doctrine, or our church beliefs. It means giving them the Word, the Living Word of God. It means getting them off the bottle and our breast and getting them to the table where they can pick up the fork and the knife themselves, and eat REAL meat.
They will never do this Pastors as long as you spoon feed them and keep them dumbed down, the body should be teaching us by now.
They for too long have been babies, we make them that way.
Let's grow them up, give them the Bible, and tell them for once to look it up for themselves. Let's give them the basics, then challenge them, let's turn them into biblical students rather than babies dependent on us for their every need and every supposed word from God.
The facts are, if you are a Pastor your job is to guide, not direct, your job is not to be God's voice, but to lead others to seek God's voice. It is your job to bring them to the fullness and the knowledge and maturity of Christ, not by being their God but directing them to God.
They may come to where they don't need you anymore, wouldnt that be great, if they found all they ever needed was Jesus all along?
Imagine for one moment, if you really could become unemployed as a pastor.
That would mean, that they have finally discovered the true Pastor and they are opening their Bibles everyday to hear from Him, our High Priest on High - Jesus Christ Our Lord and the Holy Spirit- our guide into all truth. That would be restoration- that would be revival.
I challenge every American who claims to be a Christian, to dig into the Word of God for themselves everyday for one year. I promise it will be life changing and many of your problems you just don't seem to have escaped from by just going to church every Sunday, would all fade away in His glory. If you want to have the mind of Christ, you first have to know that mind, and only an intimate relationship with God's Word will ever do that for you. I challenge you - become Biblically Literate for once in your lives.
Study and Show Yourself Approved!
Dr. J.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
The Wealth of The Church- Laodicea or Babylon?
I have written this in part to what I will be including in the book I intend to write and publish, "Why The Church Is Failing".
The church has great wealth and it is found to be lacking in true outreach to the lost and those in real spiritual and physical needs, as commanded by Christ. It prefers to feed itself and it's own kind. Now, to a limit that is fine, but not to the excess that it actually does.
The organization operates in the opposite of what God's "Ekklesia" should be, if led and inspired by and administered by the Holy Spirit.
If the organizational church really is the Ekklesia, then it is a very poor example of the love that Christ described that calls us to lay down ourselves for others.
It seeks it's good, not that of those outside of it- overall. Let us look at the proof of what I am saying.
For example, let's look at some statistics that have been gathered over the years on church wealth.
According to a national study of how religious affiliation affects the amount of wealth Americans accumulate, Jews amass the most wealth ($150,890 average net worth); “mainline Protestants” and Catholics are about average with the rest of the population ($48,200 average net worth); and “conservative Protestants” accumulate the least ($26,200 average net worth). (Note: The author includes major cults in her definition of “mainline Protestants” and “conservative Protestants.”)
Total Christian [including nominal] income in the United States is $5.2 trillion annually, nearly half of the world’s total Christian income.
Wealth Accumulation (American Evangelicals)
In 2000, American evangelicals (pop. 98.6 million) collectively made $2.66 trillion in personal income.
There is an estimated $850 billion per year of disposable income among evangelicals in the United States.
The wealth of the Church elevates it to an unsurpassed prestige. The contributions of the congregations of twenty-five denominations in the United States for even back in 1928 was $402,682,961.82. Can the Standard Oil of New Jersey show anything like that? Not even the greatest of our financial corporations can boast either the financial or social or political prestige of either the Catholic, Methodist or Episcopal churches here. Thus, the gifts from the living as well as income on permanent funds and legacies controlled by these twenty-five church denominations in America totaled in 1928 $532,368,714.80. The Methodist Episcopals alone, one little subsidiary of this great group, received in 1928, $98,758,030. The Presbyterians had $75,054,538 to spend. The Methodist Episcopals in the South, a separate group, collected $42,837,679; the Protestant Episcopals $46,088,274, and the Baptists, in the South only, $40,038,259. Obviously this is why the Church (speaking of all denominations collectively) is able to organize tremendous political lobbies.
I just read tonight of a Southern Baptist Church that just made $885,000 from a film they produced, they intend to spend the largest part for themselves in paying off their own debts, buildings and other associated cost and the other $200,000 is be used to build a sports arena. Self gratifying always!
As I showed earlier, American evangelicals- a misnomer of a name - as the only one benefiting and being evangelized with the money is the organization and leaders themselves.
1. In 2000, American evangelicals collectively made $2.66 trillion in income.
2. Total Christian [including nominal] income in the United States is $5.2 trillion annually, nearly half of the world’s total Christian income.
NOW WHO ENJOYS THE SPLENDOR OF HER WEALTH AND PRIDE -
In 2000, nearly 97 percent of the entire income of all Christian organizations was spent on, and primarily benefited, other Christians at home or abroad: $261 billion spent on ministering to Christians, $7.8 billion on already-evangelized non-Christians, and $0.81 billion on unevangelized non-Christians. Of all the money it has taken in, it spends less than a billion on true outreach to the lost and despairing of this world who have never heard the Gospel!
Eighty percent of the world’s evangelical wealth is in North America—and the total represents way more than enough to fund the fulfillment of the Great Commission.
She enjoys her delicasies does she not. While men go unclothed and unfed across the world and in our streets, she feeds herself, and clothes herself and relishes in her riches. Men die everyday withour health care, the basic necessities of life, little children are starving, people need water.
Thousands across the world have yet to hear the Gospel or be discipled in Christ, yet the organizational church, just keeps building towers to heaven. Keeps paying it's builders, it's program directors, it's corporate CEO's.
Now you tell me who was the Lord addressing in Revelation if it is not the churches of today and tell me who it is that is Babylon in the book of Revelation if not the organized church?
There is a great need for the restoration of the "Ekklesia" of the living Christ, the true body assemblying where money is not involved to support itself, but as originally intended to only care for the poor and the downtrodden, the captive, and the lost. This means it will mean the complete dismantling of a system Satan begin to build 1900 years ago, to draw men away from this heresy to a true community in Christ and the call to go ye forth - preaching the Gospel to all the world.
The organizational churches and their power and wealth, will have to be dismantled. Paid clergy and building the buildings and cathedrals to itself will have to cease, if the world is to ever really know Christ. The wealth of those who go by the name of Christ, will have to be expended on someone other then themselves, to reach a lost and dying world.
The marketplace tables will have to be overturned and their money scattered to the sidewalks if the real Church of Jesus Christ is to ever reach the dying, the hungry , the thirsty and the lost.
It is a sad state of falsehood that Christians have been blinded by for far too long.
I pray that we may recall the Words of the Lord in speaking through the Apostle John in Revelation 3:14 -22
And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write:These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God: 15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot:I would thou wert cold or hot. 16 So because thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of my mouth. 17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art the wretched one and miserable and poor and blind and naked: 18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold refined by fire, that thou mayest become rich; and white garments, that thou mayest clothe thyself, and that the shame of thy nakedness be not made manifest; and eyesalve to anoint thine eyes, that thou mayest see. 19 As many as I love, I reprove and chasten:be zealous therefore, and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock:if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. 21 He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with me in my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father in his throne. 22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.
Truth is truth and we must examine ourselves before Almighty God and then repent.
For we have peddled the Word of God for profit unto ourselves. We lavish in riches, but are broke, we dress ourselves, up but we are naked.
Dr. J.
The church has great wealth and it is found to be lacking in true outreach to the lost and those in real spiritual and physical needs, as commanded by Christ. It prefers to feed itself and it's own kind. Now, to a limit that is fine, but not to the excess that it actually does.
The organization operates in the opposite of what God's "Ekklesia" should be, if led and inspired by and administered by the Holy Spirit.
If the organizational church really is the Ekklesia, then it is a very poor example of the love that Christ described that calls us to lay down ourselves for others.
It seeks it's good, not that of those outside of it- overall. Let us look at the proof of what I am saying.
For example, let's look at some statistics that have been gathered over the years on church wealth.
According to a national study of how religious affiliation affects the amount of wealth Americans accumulate, Jews amass the most wealth ($150,890 average net worth); “mainline Protestants” and Catholics are about average with the rest of the population ($48,200 average net worth); and “conservative Protestants” accumulate the least ($26,200 average net worth). (Note: The author includes major cults in her definition of “mainline Protestants” and “conservative Protestants.”)
Total Christian [including nominal] income in the United States is $5.2 trillion annually, nearly half of the world’s total Christian income.
Wealth Accumulation (American Evangelicals)
In 2000, American evangelicals (pop. 98.6 million) collectively made $2.66 trillion in personal income.
There is an estimated $850 billion per year of disposable income among evangelicals in the United States.
The wealth of the Church elevates it to an unsurpassed prestige. The contributions of the congregations of twenty-five denominations in the United States for even back in 1928 was $402,682,961.82. Can the Standard Oil of New Jersey show anything like that? Not even the greatest of our financial corporations can boast either the financial or social or political prestige of either the Catholic, Methodist or Episcopal churches here. Thus, the gifts from the living as well as income on permanent funds and legacies controlled by these twenty-five church denominations in America totaled in 1928 $532,368,714.80. The Methodist Episcopals alone, one little subsidiary of this great group, received in 1928, $98,758,030. The Presbyterians had $75,054,538 to spend. The Methodist Episcopals in the South, a separate group, collected $42,837,679; the Protestant Episcopals $46,088,274, and the Baptists, in the South only, $40,038,259. Obviously this is why the Church (speaking of all denominations collectively) is able to organize tremendous political lobbies.
I just read tonight of a Southern Baptist Church that just made $885,000 from a film they produced, they intend to spend the largest part for themselves in paying off their own debts, buildings and other associated cost and the other $200,000 is be used to build a sports arena. Self gratifying always!
As I showed earlier, American evangelicals- a misnomer of a name - as the only one benefiting and being evangelized with the money is the organization and leaders themselves.
1. In 2000, American evangelicals collectively made $2.66 trillion in income.
2. Total Christian [including nominal] income in the United States is $5.2 trillion annually, nearly half of the world’s total Christian income.
NOW WHO ENJOYS THE SPLENDOR OF HER WEALTH AND PRIDE -
In 2000, nearly 97 percent of the entire income of all Christian organizations was spent on, and primarily benefited, other Christians at home or abroad: $261 billion spent on ministering to Christians, $7.8 billion on already-evangelized non-Christians, and $0.81 billion on unevangelized non-Christians. Of all the money it has taken in, it spends less than a billion on true outreach to the lost and despairing of this world who have never heard the Gospel!
Eighty percent of the world’s evangelical wealth is in North America—and the total represents way more than enough to fund the fulfillment of the Great Commission.
She enjoys her delicasies does she not. While men go unclothed and unfed across the world and in our streets, she feeds herself, and clothes herself and relishes in her riches. Men die everyday withour health care, the basic necessities of life, little children are starving, people need water.
Thousands across the world have yet to hear the Gospel or be discipled in Christ, yet the organizational church, just keeps building towers to heaven. Keeps paying it's builders, it's program directors, it's corporate CEO's.
Now you tell me who was the Lord addressing in Revelation if it is not the churches of today and tell me who it is that is Babylon in the book of Revelation if not the organized church?
There is a great need for the restoration of the "Ekklesia" of the living Christ, the true body assemblying where money is not involved to support itself, but as originally intended to only care for the poor and the downtrodden, the captive, and the lost. This means it will mean the complete dismantling of a system Satan begin to build 1900 years ago, to draw men away from this heresy to a true community in Christ and the call to go ye forth - preaching the Gospel to all the world.
The organizational churches and their power and wealth, will have to be dismantled. Paid clergy and building the buildings and cathedrals to itself will have to cease, if the world is to ever really know Christ. The wealth of those who go by the name of Christ, will have to be expended on someone other then themselves, to reach a lost and dying world.
The marketplace tables will have to be overturned and their money scattered to the sidewalks if the real Church of Jesus Christ is to ever reach the dying, the hungry , the thirsty and the lost.
It is a sad state of falsehood that Christians have been blinded by for far too long.
I pray that we may recall the Words of the Lord in speaking through the Apostle John in Revelation 3:14 -22
And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write:These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God: 15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot:I would thou wert cold or hot. 16 So because thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of my mouth. 17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art the wretched one and miserable and poor and blind and naked: 18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold refined by fire, that thou mayest become rich; and white garments, that thou mayest clothe thyself, and that the shame of thy nakedness be not made manifest; and eyesalve to anoint thine eyes, that thou mayest see. 19 As many as I love, I reprove and chasten:be zealous therefore, and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock:if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. 21 He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with me in my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father in his throne. 22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.
Truth is truth and we must examine ourselves before Almighty God and then repent.
For we have peddled the Word of God for profit unto ourselves. We lavish in riches, but are broke, we dress ourselves, up but we are naked.
Dr. J.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
The Number Two - For The Church
I have written somewhat on this subject before on my other blog Dialegomai .
The subject to which I allude to is the one of whether God intended to have His church carry the practice of the Catholic church- having one man over-rule or to have a multiplicity of elders under-sheparding the body of Christ when they come together in assembly.
As I thought more about this in relationship to scripture, many passages of scripture came to mind and the recalling how the Lord throughout both the Old and the New Testament always worked and spoke using men in two's not singularly.
I have noticed that within the Southern Baptist Convention that they are being finally challenged with this question and it is beginning to be debated on scriptural grounds somewhat as to whether Scripture outlines for "church government" a multiplicity of elders or congregational rule. The issue starting coming to the attention of The Baptist Convention sometime back in 1994- see: "Elders in Baptist churches? Conference examines the idea".
The whole problem with both of their arguments, it is an argument over rulership rather than sheparding by example. It disregards Holy Spirit selection of the elders within the community of believers. It is in debate because both sides fear losing power. In the truth of the true Ekklesia, there is no such debate because only Christ rules.
They have forgotten the admonishment by the Lord Jesus Christ himself when discussing this subject.
Let us look at this:
The answer is: Jesus purges Christian leadership of everything that makes it ugly and builds into Christian leadership what makes it beautiful. He purges it of self-exaltation; and he builds into it the reality of servanthood. He says, "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled" (Matthew 23:12). That's the end of arrogance and self-exaltation in Christian leadership. And he says, "Whoever would be great among you must be your servant" (Matthew 20:26). That's the key to beautiful leadership that builds up others.
This should humble those who are in positions of leadership. True leadership is not leadership at all but servitude that is gifted by the Spirit of Christ.
Leaders are not to be overlords but they are suppose to be under-shepards. God never intended for the elders to be subjagating themselves just to those that have the money, that prop up the system or those that pay their salary and the bills of the organization. If you eliminate money out of being one of the foundations of all of Christendom's organizational church, and advocate, not salaried pastors, buildings to meet in, or building big organizations, the churches of today and yesterday would collapse over night and then only would the true body of Christ be revealed.
The very first thing we need to look at in this ongoing treatise of mine, that I have referred to as the title of a book I plan to write and publish, "Why The Church Is Failing". Did God intend for more than one person to do the teaching and under-sheparding within the body of Christ?
We need to look at this along with the verses I have to quote the necessity by scripture to have a muliplicity of elders,who are gifted with teaching over one man pastoralship.
The main reason for this is required is because it is the means that God chose throughout scripture to insure truth was proclaimed among His people and to His people.
I want to borrow from a writing by Tony Warren on "The Numbers in Scripture".
"When we look through the scriptures we find that God often uses the number two as a signification for agreement, and by implication, truth. And because God has declared that the Church is the pillar and ground of the truth (1st Timothy 3:15), this number is also often used in association with it. It's the numerical symbolism of a faithful (truthful) witness or testimony. i.e., one being in agreement or a "confirming" witness of another. For example, the two witnesses spoken about in the book of Revelation chapter eleven. They are the Lord's faithful witnesses who bear testimony to the truth! Therefore are they spoken of as "two" witnesses, signifying that they come with the truth. In fact, we can readily see that the designation of two witnesses has always been the guide post that God has used for "establishing agreement of truth." From scripture we see that from the very beginning God instituted this number as the guide post for truth.
Numbers 35:30
"Whoso killeth any person, the murderer shall be put to death by the mouth of witnesses: but one witness shall not testify against any person to cause him to die."
Here God is using the minimum number of "two" witnesses to Illustrate the corroboration of what is the truth (Deu. 17:6).
One witness could not by God's law establish it as the truth. It took at least "two" witnesses to establish any accusation true, that a man could be put to death. This number two signified the agreement or corroboration that established truth. That is precisely why Revelation chapter eleven uses the phrase "two witnesses". It is to signify that these are the truthful or faithful witnesses of Christ who went forth declaring God's Word! The Lord does nothing by coincidence and that phrase establishes that their testimony is the true witness.
Again, we can see this same principle illustrated when Jesus reiterates this law of God in Matthew.
Matthew 18:16
"But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established."
A minimum of two witnesses would establish the truth. Note it says there "that every word may be established". In other words, a witness to verify the truth of what's been said. Two witnesses symbolize that what's being said is verified true by law. The concept that God ordained from the beginning.
John 8:17
"It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true.."
God's law prescribed that the Testimony of "two" men is a truthful testimony. That number two illustrates God is using the number as the establishment that what is said is the truth. Likewise, when Jesus Christ sent the Seventy out to witness or testify to the truth, not coincidentally, he sent them out by two.
Luke 10:1
"After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them Two and Two before His face into every city and place, whither He Himself would come."
He sent them out by two and two (two witnesses) and told them that he who hears you, hears Me! In Other words, they went with the unadulterated truth which was God's Word! Indeed, they were the truthful witnesses to it! And he who heard them, heard God's Word of truth, at their mouth!
This is the Church sent out "the Two Witnesses." Jesus sending them out by two established in scripture the numerical symbology that they went with the power of the truth of God's Word. Likewise, Jesus did the exact same thing with the twelve disciples because God wants us to know assuredly that His Church declares His word in truth. Indeed, it is the pillar and ground of it! That is what is illustrated by this number two.
Mark 6:7
"And He called unto Him the twelve, and began to send them forth two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits."
The truth of these things becomes self evident when we compare scripture with scripture. The testimony of the Old Testament is that God would often send two angels or messengers to His prophets in order to reveal some truth of His Word to them. Even as Jesus ascended to heaven there were two Messengers there to signify of a truth He would return in like manner. We read,
Acts 1:10
"And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel:
Or again, God illustrates truth with this number in Hebrews six.
Hebrews 6:17-18
"Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, Confirmed it by an oath:
That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to LIE, we might have a strong consolation..."
He confirmed it with an oath that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible to lie. That means the absolute truth! All through scripture we see the number two used to illustrate truthfulness or faithfulness. Whether it's the Spiritual signification of the two candlesticks, or the two fishes that feed thousands, or the two brothers (The sons of Thunder), or when the Disciples said, "Lord, Here are two swords" (Luke 22:38) and Jesus said, it is enough, etc., etc. The symbolism of the number two in scripture for the truth or the faithful witness is clear.
This being so, it's no wonder we see this number used many times in relationship to the body of believers, which is God's true church, and the Word of God which is the truth of scripture! Truth and God's church go hand in hand as they are the witnesses of it.
1st Timothy 3:15
"But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth".
The Church is identified with the number two because it is the Pillar and ground of the truth. The faithful servant and witness of God.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are many more examples of God always working his truth through two witnesses, all you have to do is look at Aaron and Moses in the beginning and Paul and Silas in the end.
Why would men, so disobey God's word in His clear admonishment to have more than a single witness within His body? The answer is men's traditions and man's ways. It is purely a carryover from the thoughts and theology of men, and not scripture.
God never intended to have a single voice speaking for the body of Christ. Thus he even sent out the disciples in two, Paul traveled in two's and on and on scripture verifies the necessity for a multiplicity of witnesses- no less than two. The single man Pastor is unscriptural and remains so. If we truly to desire to have the church of Jesus Christ to turn this world upside down for Him, then we must hear the Word of the Lord first - Scripture.
The truth of God's word must speak for the truth and not men's traditions, these traditions that are just a carry over from the rule of the Pope -even in Protestantism.
The Protestants have continued this gravest error since their birth by Martin Luther. Luther was not about to reliquish that position for anyone, he would have to give up self-power and rule over others. How else can the coffers kept full but one man to sit in the Temple of God and declare himself God. This is the meaning of this scripture in Revelation. It has nothing to do with some one person someday doing this, it is the very essence of the anti-christ spirit, to sit in the place of god and declare yourself god, this is the apostasy that Paul and others warned was coming. In less than 100 years, man did this. Ignatius and others lighting the fire for this vain philosphy with the idea that when the Bishop speaks it is the same as God speaking!
Doesn't it even make just commone sense that two men to agree takes much more than one man dictating.
There is a balance in this. It keeps error out and allows the Spirit to speak. It is the basis for the ideals of checks and balances within our own government. You take that away, truth and freedom are gone forever, just as freedom of the body of believers led by the Holy Spirit as been usurped by man's traditions now for over 1,907 years of church history.
The Baptist are on the right track but the wrong train. The matter is not an issue of who should rule, but how many should be examples, how many within a body should do the overall teaching, and guiding as an under-shepard by example of life" chosen by God " within the community of believers in assembly and not the organization, it's rules, it determinations, it wordly ways to decision making. Education, Importance, Resume and more being the criteria rather than God raising up among a body those He has chosen.
The issue for the Baptist or any organizational church is just that they want to have some sort of organization based on men's concepts of leadership rather than the clearly laid out plan as given by Christ for His Ekklesia. Even if they introduce eldership, they want to divide it again down to one man who teaches and the others who adminstrates- desperately trying to hold to the one man rule with a slight bend toward trying to be scriptural. They are wrong in all aspects.
The problem is they are an institution, that is an organization based on every opposite of what Christ and scripture teaches.
It slams the priesthood of believers in the face with hypocrisy, formulating a rulership, a high priest institution,- a return to Judaism, though in word they say they beleive in the "priesthood of all believers" and "Christ as their high priest" but in practice, it is everything but that.
The church has first displaced Christ as the head of the Ekklesia for the State, by forming a business rather than a body of believers . They do this by making it a business incorporation, rather than the mystical body of Christ. Pleasing the State must first be the primary consideration. Tax free status, and incorporation to determine who will be the power over.
The primary reason for this is the "love of money".
The second thing is they have defined a form of government for themselves that follows the plans of men and men always wanting power over others. Forgetting Christ's admonishment as to what real leadership is.
They need to re-read Matthew Chapter 23, verses 1-12 again, and commit them to memory, that they may not sin against Him who is the very Ekklesia - Jesus Christ our Lord.
My absolute belief is the organizational church will continue to fail, in ever being a representive of Christ and His Spirit because in truth it is not the body of Christ. The true Ekklesia and any local assembly is the body of those who come together in love and the only High Priest present is Jesus Christ- the only one deserving of honor above all men. There is none that sit in the center of attention other than Jesus Christ our Lord.
The change to eldership verses congregationalism for Southern Baptist or any "religious organization" will not change things for them, as long as this is viewed as "rulership and a form of government" rather than the gifts of the Holy Spirit to His believers and that it is He who chooses those that are gifted to teach by example and word. It is He that creates within us a spirit of servitude rather than lordship over others. It is He that they need. It is only He that can formulate and show what it means to be a member of the Kingdom of God and not the kingdoms of men.
Two - is the first answer for all bodies meeting. God designed truth to be only revealed in two's.
But the first thing that has to go is arrogance in the Pastors, the wealthy that pay the bills, and the congregation who too wants to have power over others. Ture Congregationalism can only exist where Christ is King, and each believer is exerising through the leadership of the Holy Spirit the gifts given unto them. This is far beyond the big mouth and the little ears concept that man has traditionally practiced in the physical church. The real Ekklesia is spiritual but for it to be extended into the reality of it being seen on this earth, we must return to He who is the Founder of our Faith, and He who said that "two " is His way. We have to return to humble yourselves before God. Don't think of yourself as more important than others. Keep company with those who are the lowly of this earth.
I love Pastors they hav just been seriously mislead by men. I invite eac of them to take heed to the words of Christ and the practices of the Early Church and the Apostles. Let us return, not in just a reformation of the church, but to a restoration of the church.
God humble us to know thy ways! Teach us your word, hide it in our hearts, that we might not sin against thee.
Dr. J.
The subject to which I allude to is the one of whether God intended to have His church carry the practice of the Catholic church- having one man over-rule or to have a multiplicity of elders under-sheparding the body of Christ when they come together in assembly.
As I thought more about this in relationship to scripture, many passages of scripture came to mind and the recalling how the Lord throughout both the Old and the New Testament always worked and spoke using men in two's not singularly.
I have noticed that within the Southern Baptist Convention that they are being finally challenged with this question and it is beginning to be debated on scriptural grounds somewhat as to whether Scripture outlines for "church government" a multiplicity of elders or congregational rule. The issue starting coming to the attention of The Baptist Convention sometime back in 1994- see: "Elders in Baptist churches? Conference examines the idea".
The whole problem with both of their arguments, it is an argument over rulership rather than sheparding by example. It disregards Holy Spirit selection of the elders within the community of believers. It is in debate because both sides fear losing power. In the truth of the true Ekklesia, there is no such debate because only Christ rules.
They have forgotten the admonishment by the Lord Jesus Christ himself when discussing this subject.
Let us look at this:
The answer is: Jesus purges Christian leadership of everything that makes it ugly and builds into Christian leadership what makes it beautiful. He purges it of self-exaltation; and he builds into it the reality of servanthood. He says, "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled" (Matthew 23:12). That's the end of arrogance and self-exaltation in Christian leadership. And he says, "Whoever would be great among you must be your servant" (Matthew 20:26). That's the key to beautiful leadership that builds up others.
This should humble those who are in positions of leadership. True leadership is not leadership at all but servitude that is gifted by the Spirit of Christ.
Leaders are not to be overlords but they are suppose to be under-shepards. God never intended for the elders to be subjagating themselves just to those that have the money, that prop up the system or those that pay their salary and the bills of the organization. If you eliminate money out of being one of the foundations of all of Christendom's organizational church, and advocate, not salaried pastors, buildings to meet in, or building big organizations, the churches of today and yesterday would collapse over night and then only would the true body of Christ be revealed.
The very first thing we need to look at in this ongoing treatise of mine, that I have referred to as the title of a book I plan to write and publish, "Why The Church Is Failing". Did God intend for more than one person to do the teaching and under-sheparding within the body of Christ?
We need to look at this along with the verses I have to quote the necessity by scripture to have a muliplicity of elders,who are gifted with teaching over one man pastoralship.
The main reason for this is required is because it is the means that God chose throughout scripture to insure truth was proclaimed among His people and to His people.
I want to borrow from a writing by Tony Warren on "The Numbers in Scripture".
"When we look through the scriptures we find that God often uses the number two as a signification for agreement, and by implication, truth. And because God has declared that the Church is the pillar and ground of the truth (1st Timothy 3:15), this number is also often used in association with it. It's the numerical symbolism of a faithful (truthful) witness or testimony. i.e., one being in agreement or a "confirming" witness of another. For example, the two witnesses spoken about in the book of Revelation chapter eleven. They are the Lord's faithful witnesses who bear testimony to the truth! Therefore are they spoken of as "two" witnesses, signifying that they come with the truth. In fact, we can readily see that the designation of two witnesses has always been the guide post that God has used for "establishing agreement of truth." From scripture we see that from the very beginning God instituted this number as the guide post for truth.
Numbers 35:30
"Whoso killeth any person, the murderer shall be put to death by the mouth of witnesses: but one witness shall not testify against any person to cause him to die."
Here God is using the minimum number of "two" witnesses to Illustrate the corroboration of what is the truth (Deu. 17:6).
One witness could not by God's law establish it as the truth. It took at least "two" witnesses to establish any accusation true, that a man could be put to death. This number two signified the agreement or corroboration that established truth. That is precisely why Revelation chapter eleven uses the phrase "two witnesses". It is to signify that these are the truthful or faithful witnesses of Christ who went forth declaring God's Word! The Lord does nothing by coincidence and that phrase establishes that their testimony is the true witness.
Again, we can see this same principle illustrated when Jesus reiterates this law of God in Matthew.
Matthew 18:16
"But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established."
A minimum of two witnesses would establish the truth. Note it says there "that every word may be established". In other words, a witness to verify the truth of what's been said. Two witnesses symbolize that what's being said is verified true by law. The concept that God ordained from the beginning.
John 8:17
"It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true.."
God's law prescribed that the Testimony of "two" men is a truthful testimony. That number two illustrates God is using the number as the establishment that what is said is the truth. Likewise, when Jesus Christ sent the Seventy out to witness or testify to the truth, not coincidentally, he sent them out by two.
Luke 10:1
"After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them Two and Two before His face into every city and place, whither He Himself would come."
He sent them out by two and two (two witnesses) and told them that he who hears you, hears Me! In Other words, they went with the unadulterated truth which was God's Word! Indeed, they were the truthful witnesses to it! And he who heard them, heard God's Word of truth, at their mouth!
This is the Church sent out "the Two Witnesses." Jesus sending them out by two established in scripture the numerical symbology that they went with the power of the truth of God's Word. Likewise, Jesus did the exact same thing with the twelve disciples because God wants us to know assuredly that His Church declares His word in truth. Indeed, it is the pillar and ground of it! That is what is illustrated by this number two.
Mark 6:7
"And He called unto Him the twelve, and began to send them forth two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits."
The truth of these things becomes self evident when we compare scripture with scripture. The testimony of the Old Testament is that God would often send two angels or messengers to His prophets in order to reveal some truth of His Word to them. Even as Jesus ascended to heaven there were two Messengers there to signify of a truth He would return in like manner. We read,
Acts 1:10
"And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel:
Or again, God illustrates truth with this number in Hebrews six.
Hebrews 6:17-18
"Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, Confirmed it by an oath:
That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to LIE, we might have a strong consolation..."
He confirmed it with an oath that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible to lie. That means the absolute truth! All through scripture we see the number two used to illustrate truthfulness or faithfulness. Whether it's the Spiritual signification of the two candlesticks, or the two fishes that feed thousands, or the two brothers (The sons of Thunder), or when the Disciples said, "Lord, Here are two swords" (Luke 22:38) and Jesus said, it is enough, etc., etc. The symbolism of the number two in scripture for the truth or the faithful witness is clear.
This being so, it's no wonder we see this number used many times in relationship to the body of believers, which is God's true church, and the Word of God which is the truth of scripture! Truth and God's church go hand in hand as they are the witnesses of it.
1st Timothy 3:15
"But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth".
The Church is identified with the number two because it is the Pillar and ground of the truth. The faithful servant and witness of God.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are many more examples of God always working his truth through two witnesses, all you have to do is look at Aaron and Moses in the beginning and Paul and Silas in the end.
Why would men, so disobey God's word in His clear admonishment to have more than a single witness within His body? The answer is men's traditions and man's ways. It is purely a carryover from the thoughts and theology of men, and not scripture.
God never intended to have a single voice speaking for the body of Christ. Thus he even sent out the disciples in two, Paul traveled in two's and on and on scripture verifies the necessity for a multiplicity of witnesses- no less than two. The single man Pastor is unscriptural and remains so. If we truly to desire to have the church of Jesus Christ to turn this world upside down for Him, then we must hear the Word of the Lord first - Scripture.
The truth of God's word must speak for the truth and not men's traditions, these traditions that are just a carry over from the rule of the Pope -even in Protestantism.
The Protestants have continued this gravest error since their birth by Martin Luther. Luther was not about to reliquish that position for anyone, he would have to give up self-power and rule over others. How else can the coffers kept full but one man to sit in the Temple of God and declare himself God. This is the meaning of this scripture in Revelation. It has nothing to do with some one person someday doing this, it is the very essence of the anti-christ spirit, to sit in the place of god and declare yourself god, this is the apostasy that Paul and others warned was coming. In less than 100 years, man did this. Ignatius and others lighting the fire for this vain philosphy with the idea that when the Bishop speaks it is the same as God speaking!
Doesn't it even make just commone sense that two men to agree takes much more than one man dictating.
There is a balance in this. It keeps error out and allows the Spirit to speak. It is the basis for the ideals of checks and balances within our own government. You take that away, truth and freedom are gone forever, just as freedom of the body of believers led by the Holy Spirit as been usurped by man's traditions now for over 1,907 years of church history.
The Baptist are on the right track but the wrong train. The matter is not an issue of who should rule, but how many should be examples, how many within a body should do the overall teaching, and guiding as an under-shepard by example of life" chosen by God " within the community of believers in assembly and not the organization, it's rules, it determinations, it wordly ways to decision making. Education, Importance, Resume and more being the criteria rather than God raising up among a body those He has chosen.
The issue for the Baptist or any organizational church is just that they want to have some sort of organization based on men's concepts of leadership rather than the clearly laid out plan as given by Christ for His Ekklesia. Even if they introduce eldership, they want to divide it again down to one man who teaches and the others who adminstrates- desperately trying to hold to the one man rule with a slight bend toward trying to be scriptural. They are wrong in all aspects.
The problem is they are an institution, that is an organization based on every opposite of what Christ and scripture teaches.
It slams the priesthood of believers in the face with hypocrisy, formulating a rulership, a high priest institution,- a return to Judaism, though in word they say they beleive in the "priesthood of all believers" and "Christ as their high priest" but in practice, it is everything but that.
The church has first displaced Christ as the head of the Ekklesia for the State, by forming a business rather than a body of believers . They do this by making it a business incorporation, rather than the mystical body of Christ. Pleasing the State must first be the primary consideration. Tax free status, and incorporation to determine who will be the power over.
The primary reason for this is the "love of money".
The second thing is they have defined a form of government for themselves that follows the plans of men and men always wanting power over others. Forgetting Christ's admonishment as to what real leadership is.
They need to re-read Matthew Chapter 23, verses 1-12 again, and commit them to memory, that they may not sin against Him who is the very Ekklesia - Jesus Christ our Lord.
My absolute belief is the organizational church will continue to fail, in ever being a representive of Christ and His Spirit because in truth it is not the body of Christ. The true Ekklesia and any local assembly is the body of those who come together in love and the only High Priest present is Jesus Christ- the only one deserving of honor above all men. There is none that sit in the center of attention other than Jesus Christ our Lord.
The change to eldership verses congregationalism for Southern Baptist or any "religious organization" will not change things for them, as long as this is viewed as "rulership and a form of government" rather than the gifts of the Holy Spirit to His believers and that it is He who chooses those that are gifted to teach by example and word. It is He that creates within us a spirit of servitude rather than lordship over others. It is He that they need. It is only He that can formulate and show what it means to be a member of the Kingdom of God and not the kingdoms of men.
Two - is the first answer for all bodies meeting. God designed truth to be only revealed in two's.
But the first thing that has to go is arrogance in the Pastors, the wealthy that pay the bills, and the congregation who too wants to have power over others. Ture Congregationalism can only exist where Christ is King, and each believer is exerising through the leadership of the Holy Spirit the gifts given unto them. This is far beyond the big mouth and the little ears concept that man has traditionally practiced in the physical church. The real Ekklesia is spiritual but for it to be extended into the reality of it being seen on this earth, we must return to He who is the Founder of our Faith, and He who said that "two " is His way. We have to return to humble yourselves before God. Don't think of yourself as more important than others. Keep company with those who are the lowly of this earth.
I love Pastors they hav just been seriously mislead by men. I invite eac of them to take heed to the words of Christ and the practices of the Early Church and the Apostles. Let us return, not in just a reformation of the church, but to a restoration of the church.
God humble us to know thy ways! Teach us your word, hide it in our hearts, that we might not sin against thee.
Dr. J.
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