Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Chapter 8 Part 4

The whole basis of our spirituality is not theological, but relational. The key not only to our eternal, but carnal lives is our relationship with our God, through our risen Savior, Christ. Our Lord said, “At that day you will know that I am in the Father and you in Me and I in you.”[1] He goes on to say, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”[2][3] Many churches in an effort to keep or attract new members are preaching what I call the “easy gospel”. What is the “easy gospel”? It is any gospel that does not include the need for followers of Christ Jesus to obey the laws of the Kingdom of God. Grace can never be preached excluding the obedience that it must produce. Our Lord preached many times that those who loved Him would obey Him.[4] Where is the obedience today? Today it is for many all sizzle and no steak. We want to sing and dance and get the emotional high without the true life change. We want to still be able to fornicate, go to the casino, and cheat in business and still proclaim to be good Christian folk. The “easy gospel” allows that. The “easy gospel” preacher does not care about the final destination of the flock only that the flock follows him. Our Lord spoke of the “hireling” who when confronted by the wolf leaves the sheep to fend for themselves, because he really does not care about the sheep.[5] Only He is the good shepherd, because He died for the sheep. Do not be fooled by this “easy gospel” it is not of the Lord. It is not Biblically based; it is some watered down version of someone’s imagination. We can wax poetically all day about the merits and morals of this doctrine or that one, but in the final analysis, it will be our obedience to the Lord that will determine our fate.

If you have departed from the way it is not to late to come back to the truth, to preach the true gospel of our Father’s Kingdom. The gospel that Jesus Christ and His disciples preached. Each of us is responsible for the doctrine that we teach, if the doctrine you are teaching is not based on the Rock of the Word you might want to reconsider teaching it. Ignorance will not be an excuse with God. He will still hold you accountable. Many preach about a Christ who only wants worship and adoration with no consequences for sinful behavior. He does not punish sin and certainly does not have any commandments. If this is the Christ, you worship or preach, you are following a false Christ. I pray that you begin to start a real relationship with the true Christ in the scriptures. Not some make believe Christ from someone’s imagination.

“If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good
minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith
and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed.”

1 Timothy 4:6

We who love the Church should begin to bring back the true doctrines of Christ and preach them no matter what the cost. That begins with one temple, one soul at a time. We should once again preach honor of the temple of the Holy Spirit. To no longer defile the temple with fleshly desires. To keep the temple pure and not follow after the world. For the world leads the way to destruction and death, but true gospel leads to life. Let us seek after life, for this is the will of God for all of us. Do not be misled by this “easy gospel” that lulls many into a false sense of hope. Christ never said the path would be easy, on the contrary He warned of its difficulty. He likened it to carrying a cross daily.[6] How anyone can take this saying and conclude that following Christ is easy, is beyond my comprehension. We struggle daily against the ruler of this world and against our own flesh. Also, we have it hard because we live in a country where you turn on the television and see all of this “stuff” and all these “celebrities” telling you to buy this thing or that thing. They induce the covetousness that leads many to sin. If this indeed were God’s country would be setting so many stumbling blocks in front of our brothers? It is amazing how we are care so much about the unborn and so little about the children that are born. We love the unborn until they are born.



[1] John 14:20

[2] John 14:21

[3] Galatians 1:7

[4] John 14:15

[5] John 10:12,13

[6] Luke 9:23

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