I’m curious and thought I’d ask a question or two. If you consider yourselves to be Christian,
what exactly do you believe?
Do you believe that the Word of God is indeed His Word and
that it is infallible and will always accomplish what it promises?
Do you believe that in the beginning was the Word (of God),
before all time, and that the holy and perfect Word became a flesh?
Do you believe that Jesus and Almighty God are one?
Do you believe that Christ died for your sins and that because
of His perfect and sinless nature He was able to pay your price on the cross so
you might live eternally with God?
Do you believe that your life should be holy and sanctified,
held to a higher standard, because of your knowledge of God?
Do you believe that you should share your faith with others
and be an active force as the body of Jesus Christ so His authority might work
through you?
Do you believe that you are a part of something larger than
yourself and that you should be about your Father in Heaven’s business?
I could keep asking questions but the truth is that if you
honor God with your lips but your heart and your actions fail to live up to
your words, you are just a loud braying horn and clanging cymbal. I just read an article where a young formerly
Christian woman has become a Muslim and was hurt because the college she
attended required a letter from her mosque stating she had indeed made the
conversion. Apparently there had been
some less than honest souls using religious excuses to expand their rights on
campus and the campus had chosen to at least try to identify those who were
being honest.
Some of you are no doubt infuriated that the college would
dare to require a ‘faith note’ but that wasn’t what jumped into my mind. What grieved me is that a young woman brought
up in a Christian home and attended a Christian church had not learned enough
about her God and King to know that what she had was the real article. What bothered me is that we have watered down
our faith and requirements in the church until there is nothing there but smoke
and mirrors for young people to believe.
Christianity is the only true religion in the world. Yes I know that some of you are screaming at
me now but that’s okay too. I came to
Christ as a doubter and questioner of all things spiritual. God had to prove Himself to me and that never
would have happened had I not had good teachers who opened up the doors of
Spirit life. I didn’t stop learning just
because someone said I had the basics.
Knowing that Jesus died for your sins is not nearly as important as
knowing why through four thousand years of Jewish scriptures and the
interconnected Christian writings.
I didn’t want to stop knowing what the rules were in the
Christian faith but I needed to know that the faith itself was real. I needed to know that Jesus is indeed the
Messiah and He is indeed God incarnate.
It’s important to me to have God speak a message to me on Saturday night
and then have the Pastor preach that same message on Sunday morning. It’s important to me to hear a Word from God
and have total strangers walk up to me and say, “Thus saith the Lord,” and the
word they give is the same I received the night before.
If I am part of the body of Christ then I ought to get some
instructions from the head, the Lord of all.
I don’t want to call myself a Christian just because mom and dad went to
church. My daughter was not filled with
the Holy Spirit with evidence of speaking in other tongues because I kept
dragging her to church. She was filled
because I laid a groundwork of faith in God that prompted her to find out for
herself if it is true or not. She and
others like her pray every day and together weekly because they have been
touched by God, not because I might have been touched in the head.
The reality of our faith can NEVER be experienced by
education alone, it must come by prayer and fasting, seeking the Lord in deeper
ways until we too begin to experience the spirit / head / body connection of
our place in the body of Christ. This
takes discipline and an abiding belief that God’s Word is absolutely true and
will accomplish everything it says it will.
For years we have heard know-it-alls tell us that the Bible
is untrue and nobody can ever know if it is God breathed and inspired. That is a gross lie and started on its
journey by the father of lies…Satan. The
Word can absolutely be proved to be true in the number of prophecies and
promises that have come true on the schedule God set. It can also be watched for future prophecies
to mark them as they come to pass.
We’re not going to win a new generation if we don’t show
them the God some of us know so well, nor are we going to show them if we are
spending all our time in front of the television soaking up the latest filth
and abominations from Hollywood. Your
spiritual minds are not clear while stuffing your flesh with passions of food
and passions of lust. You cannot serve
God perfectly unless you learn to embrace the love of God for yourself and
understand the full truth and history of all the world’s faiths.
Does your faith say that only a trained minister can tell
you what it means or stands between you and God? Every cult in the world says that. God has created His Word so a novice can
understand the truth of salvation and has made it so deep that only a Spirit
filled scholar or born again computer programmer can study the original text
and dig out the moderately deep knowledge.
I say moderately deep because the Jews say that when the Messiah comes
He will teach them how even the spaces between the words carry a message. I personally believe that somewhere between
Genesis and Deuteronomy God has written all our names from the beginning of
time. They are hidden but they are
there.
God’s Word is miraculous and wondrous but Satan does not
want you to study and he does want you to focus on lies and false faiths. This spiritual pressure is a constant weight
we Christians must battle against and those others do not. There is no free day or day off for the
saints of God. There are no do overs for
those who abandon the faith. I for one
want to continue this fight and win it.
I do not want to be written down in God’s Word as the one who backed out
just when I was needed most.
I hope you all answered in the affirmative at the beginning
of this. It will be lonely not to find
you there when I step over to the other side.
I love you and pray God will inspire you to do greater and greater
works. A time of testing is here and
will get much worse. Those who only
believe on Sunday and weddings will not be able to stand during this shaking. Get in your Word. If you don’t study well alone, join a Bible
Study. If you have doubts, write me or
speak to someone who you know has a fervent faith in Christ and ask for
answers. Most of all ask your Lord and
God to help you stand fast in the truth and to silence all the attacks against
you.
Be strong and of good courage beloved. The work of God is great and He is greatly to
be praised.
Bishop J
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