This past week, I had Satan use another attack on myself, with the oppression of income taxes. Since, 1983, I have been in constant harassment from the IRS. They are relentless when it comes to collecting what they call past due taxes from the poor.
They rarely pursue the rich and famous, because they can keep tax collectors tied up in courts for years, with professional tax consultants, CPA's and Tax lawyers. Or as Jesse Jackson, the media hype man who owes the IRS thousands, yet they haven't harrased him a bit, they fear him for he can bring havoc through marches, and demonstrations and a lot of media attention.
This is why, IRS collection managers force their collection agents to go after the poor, to intimidate them, scare them, or whatever it takes to collect a few thousand dollars compared to the hundreds of thousands of dollars that are owed by big corporations, and wealthy and media powerful individuals.
I also discovered most people are under the mis-informed ideas, that they can't collect or audit you for anything beyond 7 years. That is an outright lie as well, they can go back "by the law" I have read as far as 10 years, and they will tell you up to 15 years. So lock your records away in the basement in a safe, because you may need them to prove otherwise if you feel you paid in your taxes and they should say different.
I encountered problems not because I was dishonest about my taxes, but because many employers didn't report honestly what they took out, and then other times the IRS has said, there just wasn't enough taken out. I don't know why? I generally claimed 2 exemptions as head of the household back then, the only thing I can assume is my wife must have done the same, instead of 0 exemptions. This will definitely end up costing you in the long run. My wife is no longer here to help me pay these back taxes, she was killed in 2001 in a car accident. The money earned and what was suppose to be taxed on our combined incomes and didnt get paid falls on me alone.
I have paid in monthly payments about 24,000 dollars since about 1984, when my troules began. They claim I still owe just a little over 6,000. This time going back to 1994, I finished paying off their claim on 1993, last year.
I have made payment arrangements again, I had to, they were just about to garnish the money I earn as a "contractor" from the company I contract with. This was myonly income for over 8 months, I worked a whole 16 hours a week for them.
It is never ending, they are like gods on this earth, they answer to no one, they answer to no human consideration or compassion - it's all about the money, "their money" they call it. I still can't figure how it is their money, when I am the one that was getting out of bed in the morning, slaving all day, putting up with customers, bosses, traffic and all. Yet, somehow we have convinced our own government that they have a right to our money, we earn by the sweat of our backs, and the tiredness of mind, they have a right to steal from us, what they surely never earned. Somehow, I just don't think our forefathers ever even conceived of such robbery by taxes. I believe from my study of history they must be turning in their graves if they have any idea how easily we have swayed from the Revolution and the Boston Tea Party over to paying income taxes. They would look at us, with huge questions on their faces, why did we die? Why did we allow out blood to be spilled for you modern Americans when you have allowed everything we gave you, with our deaths so easily to be taken from you? What is wrong with you people?
That would be there question. There are few politicians today that aren't sold on the idea of the income tax. They love it as they benefit magnificently from it. While we poor suckers slave away 6 months a year, to pay all the crazy taxes combined that we have, they enjoy wanton luxury, paid trips, free gasoline, and lifetime wages in the $100,000 per year plus category.
They will never have to worry about Social Security payments in their old age, that's why they don't care about ours, they retire with their present wages until they die. It must be nice! The life they live now as elitist in luxury will go on until the day they day, because we have sanctioned theft of our money so it can be their money to spend as they please. We will never, ever again, have power as the people again, as long as their is an income tax. To even think this government is by the people, and for the people is pure ignorance. As long as we sanction their theft, then we will always be under their thumbs of power- believe it or not- this is what Communism is! So, we must live it with, but live with it, so as to not allow it to destroy our testimony and our lives.
Anyway, I was very upset with them, but I finally took the time, to pray and ask God to give me his peace about it all. That moment, came while listening to the radio, I listened to a Christian song by a group in which the words "show me how far the east is from the west, so I can know how my sin is from me".
My sin was anger with sin, I cursed at them and about them. The moment I got of fthe phone with the IRS, I yelled about them to everyone I spoke to that day, I was in the battle against flesh and blood instead of the one that Christ called us to fight. It is so easy for Satan to come along and move our thinking into the carnal (fleshly) realm when faced with oppression from people, or governments or anything that we can put a name or finger pointed to. The problem is, that we don't ask ourselves the one question we should always. Are we fighting the right battles? Of course not, when it comes to someone and our money, we generally will fight anyone for it. Why, because we aren't spiritually enriched as we should be, we are only living for our pocketbooks. I too, have been guilty of that as well, as anyone I know. It is harder on you when you have little, then when you have much. Six thousand dollars past taxes is a drop in the bucket for a man who makes a $100,000 per year, but when the poor pay, they pay dearly. This goes for the lying concept of tithing as well in the church, the whole thing being entirely not New Testament, it is easy for those who earn big money to cough up 10%, but for the poor, it may mean you don't eat or the electric doesnt get paid. Thus the wealthy control the churches and their pastors.They give plenty to get plenty - of control and power over others.Tithing is unscriptural as can be, therefore it is anti-biblical in the sense for the New Testament church. I invite anyone to read my friends book linked below at the bottom of my web site, on the subjet of tithing.
I will be glad to sit down with anyone as well, and discuss the entire subject biblically and how it doesnt pertain to the New Testament believer.
Giving is one thing, not compulsive, but cheerfully. Giving to the poor was the whole purpose of giving, this has been the one thing God has reminded his people from the beginning of. It was never meant for propping up institutions and their leaders, for the sake of gain and profit for themselves.
The one good thing is if you choose to follow the truth, of giving versus over tithing, the collectors won't garnish you wages, however depending on the denomination or cult you belong to they may ex-communicate you for doing otherwise or for you telling others to do otherwise. Since the inception of the the One Man- and the Temple, tithing has been used with the threat of hell fire, to keep people in fear to pay the tithe. In the early days of Catholicism, this was to pay indulgences, Well enforced by threat of eternal damnation if one did not. You could buy yourself time out of pergatory with your tithe, your indulgence, and even today there are millions who pay into an unholy organization their "indulgences" thinking that it will either purchase them favor with God or keep them out of hell. So fear of those in power in the church works just like fear of those in government. It will keep you down and keep the untold millions of dollars rolling in.
I was told by the IRS agent handling my tax collection, if I failed to pay monthly, garnishment would be a sure thing, next time, and quote " anything goes after that", do you hear me!
Threats and intimidations that is what we must learn to live, with. We are not to fear men, but fear God.. Yet, we so live a life of constantly being oppressed from all sides, we forget who our sustainer of life is, who is the provider of all good things, who has promised to see that we have food to eat, drink to drink and clothes to wear, if we will but seek Him first and not these things.
Jesus not only forgives us when we forget these important statements of His as found throughout His teaching us. He also gives us the power, to realize, that we need to give up our love of money, power, status, greed, lust for more, and turn to Him in all that we do and say. I want to remind myself as well as other beleivers by some scripture today what we need to know. "Hide your Word in my heart, Lord, so that I might not sin against you".
Matthew- Starting with the 6th verse of the 6th Chapter -
American Standard Version
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret shall recompense thee. 7 And in praying use not vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do:for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. 8 Be not therefore like unto them:for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. 9 After this manner therefore pray ye. Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. 14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
16 Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance:for they disfigure their faces, that they may be seen of men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have received their reward. 17 But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face; 18 that thou be not seen of men to fast, but of thy Father who is in secret:and thy Father, who seeth in secret, shall recompense thee.
19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth consume, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 21 for where thy treasure is, there will thy heart be also.
22 The lamp of the body is the eye:if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is the darkness!
24 No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. 25 Therefore I say unto you, be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment? 26 Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value then they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit unto the measure of his life? 28 And why are ye anxious concerning raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 29 yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God doth so clothe the grass of the field, which to–day is, and to–morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? 31 Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32 For after all these things do the Gentiles seek; for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33 But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 34 Be not therefore anxious for the morrow:for the morrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
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Father, forgive us our lack of faith, our simple trust in you as the true King of the Kingdom which is ours through the indwelling Jesus Christ by His Spirit in union with our spirit. Renew our minds everyday Lord from the time we rise until the time we go to bed, that the only real treasure that matters is the treasures we layaway in heaven, Let us not forget for what purpose we are yours and that is that your character become a reality in us. That in everything that you revealed of yourself through your Son Jesus Christ, it is for the purpose we live now, to be changed, transformed in our mind, to realize that our battles O' Lord are not with those without, but our battles are from within, with sin, and selfishness and the flesh, this world that is so easily stirred by Satan, the god of this world, that he so seeks to keep the blind -blind. That the enemy seeks so desperately to draw us into his lie, that this on earth is final our final place. Let us not forget that we are but sojourners here, our home is in the heavenly places from which Jesus Christ the Victor has already overcome this world. We are to be of good cheer, for He overcame and so shall we, if we but trust you as King, and Lord. Teach us that our love is to be centered in you and never the money or the things this world brings to bear to kill, steal and destroy our joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. Forgive us for so easily trusting the circumstances of life that are seen, rather than you Lord who is unseen but through the living testimony of Jesus Christ- come in the flesh, to redeem us from the flesh.
Lord, teach us to love, and trust you in all our battles, that we shall reign victorious in you, forever, and that you will see to our every need, to sustain our lives, throughout eternity. Forgive me, when I fail to see that my battle is not against flesh and blood. Remind us of these words Father, when the enemy comes to seek to steal, kill and destroy.
Ephesians 6:12-18
For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world–rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Wherefore take up the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand. 14 Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 withal taking up the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: 18 with all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints,
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Money, what is it, in comparison to the inheritance which is eternal that we have in Christ Jesus? Nothing, that is for sure. It is fleeting and there will never be enough for the soul who loves it, and pursues it for life. For only in Jesus is their life, eternal life, abundant life, spiritual life. I would rather be broke and poor materially and be rich in Christ and His love, anyday.
So, my message is- when the battles come, stop and reflect for but a moment- Am I Fighting the Right Battle? The answer will probably be for you as it was for me, No.
So, let us fight the right battle of faith.
Dr. J.
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Sunday, September 30, 2007
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
The Bill of Rights- Where Did It Go?
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.
-------------------------------------------------------
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.
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.
-------------------------------------------------------
THE BILL OF RIGHTS
Amendments 1-10 of the Constitution
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
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