THE WINDS OF DOCTRINE

..that we henceforth be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and their cunning and craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;..

                                                                     Ephesians 4:14

 

 "I'm a Christian!"

"I believe in God too!"

"I believe in Jesus!"

"I'm also a believer!"

...All good to hear, but we mustn't stop at these statements, believing that our mission to tell people the good news of the gospel of Jesus the Christ is complete. 

 

Lets continue the dialogue...

"That's so awesome you are a Christian..How did you come to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior?"

The answer to this will vary in how exactly the circumstances surrounding a person's conversion played out..BUT..The TRUTH will always be present, and it will always boil down into the same thing.

"I was.......And I HEARD (or read) THE WORD of God (Bible~Holy scriptures). I realized, knew, felt, BELIEVED IN MY HEART that Jesus is real, what He did for me actually happened because I AM A SINNER and He, BEING THE ONLY SON OF GOD, WAS PERFECT (SINLESS). He took my place on that cross..took MY PUNISHMENT..SUFFERED THE DEATH THAT I DESERVE!

Now, I know that when I die (physical death)  My spirit will leave my earthly body and be present with Jesus. Someday my body will be transformed and I will be resurrected to a life lived with my Savior in Heaven (Wherever He is) for all of eternity. BECAUSE HE WAS RESURRECTED Himself and HE PROMISED HE WOULD DO THE SAME THING FOR ME!" 

 

 “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: that if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved.…Romans 10:9-10

 

And lets not forget where Jesus came from, and why he was not only a mere human being.

 

Isaiah's Oracle

Over seven hundred years before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah wrote.

Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign: Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (meaning 'God with us')

Isaiah 7:14

Jesus is fully human, yet fully God (Divine) There's so much to say about this . Here is a good source for an explanation for this statement of belief:

Jesus fully God, fully man

"Who is Jesus to you?"

 

Jesus the Christ may be many things to many people..You have your own examples, I am sure..as do I; but there are some important scriptural descriptions of exactly who Jesus is, most of which was written even before he walked the earth in human form.

But, for the sake of this essay..Let's start with who Jesus says he is:

The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.”   Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”(John 24:25-26)

 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. ( Matthew 16:15)

 

When I was a new Christian I read this famous statement about who Jesus is: 

 

 In his famous book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis makes this statement,

 “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic–on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg–or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us.”

And finally, lets take another look at what Jesus says about himself that answers another age-old question ..

"Are there other ways to get to the Father in heaven?"

 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. John 14:6

* IMPORTANT MESSAGE* 

I did not write this post in order to judge other people..No, This is only to serve as a reminder that we must not just accept what someone says regarding their faith in Christ and then just leave them there where they are, because they might need more! They might not know that they need to know more than what they know. 

For a more thorough teaching on this from my blog you can read here:

NO OTHER WAY

Thank you for taking the time to read through this rather lengthy post. I hope it's in some way helpful to your own journey in your walk with the Lord.

Blessings & Love,

and remember, we are...

~NEVER FORSAKEN~

Praying for Clear Vision

 In the year 2020, the first word that came to my mind was Vision . Indeed there are many scriptures that speak of vision. I want to touch on the idea of having Clear Vision ..as in seeing things as they really are, as God may see them. This is still my prayer for this time as we approach 2022..maybe even more-so in light of the events that have taken place since 2020. 

But it is not enough that we see clearly..we must be willing to expose those things that lurk in the darkness with the light of God's Word so that others may also see clearly the things that are set out for us to otherwise stumble over in the darkness.

Recently things have come to my attention. Darkness is truly descending upon this world. The scariest thing about it though is that people are not seeing it!
At least they are not seeing it for what it really is..in fact more often than not this is what happens:

 My prayer is that The LORD will keep me alive long enough to warn my family and loved ones..some of whom are stumbling around in the darkness themselves these days..calling evil good..not seeing with their spiritual eyes of discernment what is lurking in the shadows. I myself am stumbling about at times!

 Hebrews 4:12 - For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and [is] a discern-er of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

I realize the risk in doing what I'm doing may be that I will be called names, or considered to be over reacting ..such is the delusion that overtakes those who are blind to the truth..the tendency to react with anger toward the messenger who brings the message that may be hard to hear. (I am guilty of doing this myself from time to time whenever I hear a hard truth.)

 1 Kings 3:9 - Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?

 Because of this, I am determined not to report on my own feelings about these issues more than on what God says in his Word about them.

 “I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God” (1 Corinthians 4:3-5).

Believe me when I say, my first temptation is to hide away from all of this and pretend it is not happening just like most people who do see clearly are doing. After all, they might say: "It's everywhere-so what can ya do?" (A rhetorical question) We could even throw our helpless hands up in the air while saying this can't we?

My answer  is NO! No, I cannot just close my eyes knowing that the enemy is lurking upon the path my family and my friends are walking without shining the light for them to see! And even my own path has some shadows lurking along the way, as I am not immune to deception either!

I believe that God did not allow me to die back when my life hung in the balance for a reason..for such a time as this.
All my life as a Christian I have been able to discern things..spiritual things.

 1 John 4:1 - Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

 Every believer is equipped with the ability or the gift of discernment to some degree.

 Mat 16:3  "...'It will be foul weather today: for the sky is red and lowering.' O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?"

 
Today Thursday, December 9, 2021

This is a wake up call for me

This video is a clear fulfillment of the scriptural prophecy regarding the state of the (new) world vision of a watered down, all-accepting false form of Christianity.

 1 Timothy 4:1

 Now the Spirit expressly states that in later times some will abandon the faith to follow deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons, 2 influenced by the hypocrisy of liars, whose consciences are seared with a hot iron.…

 One which will diabolically indoctrinate anyone who is not careful to study the Holy Scriptures for themselves and gain discernment from the Holy Spirit about such important matters, especially the divine commission of Jesus, the Christ and who exactly he is. He is the Messiah. 

 2 Peter 2:1

 Now there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them— bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2Many will follow in their depravity, and because of them the way of truth will be defamed.…

 

The following expose` on this pastor struck me hard since I once followed some of his teaching..mostly because he was funny (humorous) and has a way of being sort of authoritative in his communication technique. But it's better to follow Jesus, not man. This is why.

 

Please watch:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-CLbg2d2OY&t=49s