Chapter 9, Part 9

The Word

“Now when the tempter came to Him, he said ‘If you are
the Son of God, command these stones become bread.’
But He answered and said, ‘It is written, Man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every word that
proceeds from the mouth of God.’”
Matthew 4:3,4

Our Lord demonstrates to us how we are to deal with temptation. When placed in a situation of temptation three times He dealt with it the same way every time. He used the Word of God. Throughout the scriptures the Word of God is described as a sword[1], but also as the Son of God.[2] There is power in the Word, the scriptures say that it lives as well. It is alive in the lives of believers. The hearing of the Word changes lives. Not the speakers eloquence or mastery of the language, but the Word itself. If you are a preacher and your skills as a speaker is the reason for your success, then you are in fact doing a disservice to your listeners and to the Kingdom. The Kingdom has and will never be about any one person, but about God. The Kingdom is not in word, but in the power of the Spirit.

Our first mistake when confronted with temptation is to try to use our intellect. We are going to outsmart the enemy. The enemy has been here since the beginning of time. How long have you been here? You are going to outsmart the devil who has been with God from early on, with your few years of knowledge. He is the one who taught you everything you know about sin. The Christ did not try to outsmart Satan with his intellect, even though he had all wisdom. He went immediately to the Word of God. Satan had no defense against the Word. When we find ourselves in a tempting situation, we should try to use the Word and we will witness how the devil will flee from us. We have not taught our children to use the power that God has given them, because we do not use it. God has placed all the tools we need to overcome any situation, the problem is we do not use them. We fall for the tricks of Satan to use out intellect. You will be like God. You do not need God’s help for this.

“Your Word I have hidden in my heart,
that I might not sin against you.”
Psalm 119:11

The psalmist talks about placing the word of God deep within his heart to prevent him from committing sin. The Word of God has that power to free us from the temptation of sin. The problem is that the majority of us, evangelicals included either do not know the Word or we do no use it. I cannot win a battle with what I do not have or do not use. Are you hiding the Word of God in your heart? How much time are you spending in the study of the Word. A fire extinguisher on the wall does me no good for a fire if I do not take it and use it. God gives me the tools, but if I do not use them who is at fault? What is the power of the Word? In the beginning God brought everything into existence by His Word, then God said.[3] And that Word was none other than the Christ.[4] The Word carries the power of God that has overcome all the forces of evil, even death. There have been countless incidents where believers were confronted by evil and just the simple invoking of God’s Word caused evil to flee.

If you want to stop fornicating, if you want to stay pure then learn and use the Word of God. We of ourselves do not have the power to overcome sin. That power was given to the Word and that Word is Christ. As long as we continue to rely on our own strength and abilities, we will lead defeated lives. Why do we continue to live like peasants when we are children of the Most High God? We continue to live defeated lives when we do not have to. We live defeated lives by choice. We choose not to use what God has freely given to us. The question then becomes do we really want to live victoriously and do we want victory for our brothers and sisters? Victory is not coming, victory is here! God said, “His Word will not come back to Him empty, but will accomplish the purpose for which it was sent.[5] That purpose is to free all those who are captive, to recover that which was lost.[6] Do not stay lost. Do not continue to live in spiritual rags when the Father has the robe of Christ to cover you with.

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[1] Ephesians 6:17

[2] John 1:1

[3] Genesis 1:

[4] John 1:1

[5] Isaiah 55:11

[6] John 8:36

Chapter 8, Part 6

Ministers of God, we should recognize the damage that fornication is doing to our people. At the rate we are going today there will not be many men left in our communities. We have been an endangered species for some time now. They will either be killed or locked up for many years. We should change how we do things. We should get out from behind the pulpits and get out into the streets. We are at war and under siege. Unfortunately many of us have been cowardice instead of being warriors for God. The Lord says He is with us mighty warriors.[1] We should begin to take the offensive and take back our communities one soul at a time. We have surrendered too much of our communities to the enemy. We have allowed the enemy to keep us captive in our own homes and churches. We should start a nationwide effort to stop this lawlessness that has overtaken our communities. We can no longer afford to turn a blind eye to what is taking place before us in our communities. The change has to begin with the Church. Why the Church you wonder, because our fight is not against flesh and blood, but rulers of darkness of this world.[2] It is going to take an outpouring of the Holy Spirit to overcome this atmosphere of sinfulness and rebelliousness. It is not going to come from the politicians, police, or any government agency. It has to come from the people of God. We must overcome our fear and complacency. Remember these are our children, they are angry and some of them are frightening, but they are still our children and our grandchildren. It is time for us to step up as a community to show them the love they so desperately are seeking. Sometimes love is tough and comes with discipline, so we must be willing to do what it takes to save our children from themselves. To save our people.

“For the lips of a priest should keep knowledge, and
people should seek the law from his mouth; For he
is the messenger of the LORD of hosts, but you
have departed from the way; You have caused
many to stumble at the law.”
Malachi 2:78

What is the message that you as a spokesperson for God are sending? Are you crying out against the sin that is being placed right before your eyes? Because of silence to the breaking of the law many are being led astray. The “easy gospel” has many in the Church on the fast track to hell. We should impart to the sheep of God, especially the young ones that obedience is love. We follow the Word of God not out of obligation but out of love.

“Again the kingdom of God is like a dragnet that was cast
into the sea and gathered some of every kind, which when
it was full, they drew to shore; and they gathered the good
into vessels, but threw the bad away.”
Matthew 13:46,47

In an effort to keep the seats full, many modern churches have cast such a wide net that they have allowed all manor of persons into the boat. In the parable all were gathered, but there was a separation once they got to shore. Because many modern churches now gauge their success by the world’s standards: most bodies in the pew, most money in the plate, or biggest building, there has been no separation. Now the pews are full of blatant sin. As the apostle Paul urged the church of Corinth in his first letter we can not allow blatant sin to go unchallenged.[3] Not only have some churches turned a blind eye to the blatant sin, they are putting those people who practice this blatant sin in positions of authority in the body. We are never to measure our success by the standards of the world. Following God must never be based on popularity or on numbers, it is based on the revealed Word of God. We are called to preach to a fallen world the risen Christ. This does not mean that we ignore sin in our midst, on the contrary we must be ever vigilant and vocal. This is not to say that we impose our will on others, God has never imposed His will on us. What gives some people the right to try to impose their version of the truth on others? This is why organized religion has done more to corrupt the world than to save the world. We do not impose the Word of God at the end of a gun. We present the Word and let God take care of the results. If there are those who choose to ignore the truth that is between their God and them. Who among us can judge the hearts of another? It is up to the mature Christian to teach the babes.

When the end comes there will be a separation of the wicked from the just. I pray that you will all be counted among the just, but that requires a complete surrender to God. As the Son completely surrendered to the Father so we must do likewise. Our Lord preached and walked among the sinners, yet did not sin. He confronted sin whenever He saw it and spoke out against it. Never did the Lord impose Himself on those He healed, he always ask what is it that you would have me do? We in the Church should do the same.

A church is a community of brothers and sisters who share love with one another and with Christ Jesus, the Head of the Church. Share the love of Christ and His hatred of sin. Christ is our example of how to love the sinner and still hate the sin. His example to us is not to judge and condemn others, because who are we to judge? The path to the Kingdom of Heaven is narrow, because on the one side we have sinfulness and on the other side is self-righteousness. Both are snares to the followers of Christ. For the Church, self-righteousness is the greater plague. In the days of our Lord they were known as Sadducees and Pharisees.[4] In their efforts to be pious they elevated the traditions of man over the commandments of God. They created all of these man made laws and gave them the same status as the commandments of God. True spiritual power is found in the heart of one believer who through the power of God’s Spirit is able to follow the teachings of Christ, not in all these rituals of the church with all there pomp and circumstance. It is when that one believer realizes and accepts his need for complete dependence on God that the true redemption takes place. Instead the Church has created stumbling blocks to keep the believers from the laws of God.

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[1] Judges 6:12

[2] Ephesians 6:12

[3] 1 Corinthians 5:9

[4] Matthew 16:6

Chapter 8 Part 5

“God who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord
of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.”
Acts 17:24

So where does God dwell? If God does not dwell in temples or churches of stone, He must dwell somewhere. Does God need a building to dwell in?

“To them God willed to make known what are the riches
of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles! Which
is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
1 Corinthians 1:27

If I am not mistaken it says that God dwells in you and in me. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit lives in each and every one of us who have truly surrendered to God.[1] Therefore if I am the temple of the Holy Spirit and a part of God does live within me, why do I need the Church to justify me? The scriptures say that to us is given the mystery. So up until that time no one else knew that Christ lived in us. So what do we do with this precious knowledge? Does the modern church preach this knowledge? Unfortunately, many do not! Many are afraid that the Word of God is too dangerous for mere lay people to have without the guidance of the Church. Besides, who would fill all those mega churches? Who would pay for all those television personalities? In addition, of course we have all those private jets and limousines that need to be paid for. This is not how the early Church was created. In the beginning true believers met in their homes and shared what they had among each other. Do not think that I am advocating not attending church, for that would be the other side of the same coin. The Bible teaches us that we should not neglect coming together to worship and pray, but more importantly to exhort and encourage one another.[2] Imagine how different our lives would be as well as the lives of our children if we met like that today. You and your pastor would have a relationship like Christ with His followers. He would know you and your children and could truly minister to you in a very personal way. Remember the Kingdom of God is about relationships.

I may claim a relationship with Halle Berry, but if I have never spoken with her, never met her, or never spent anytime with her what kind of a relationship do I have? Do we even have a relationship? This is not a relationship; this is stalking! This is the type of relationship many of us have with our church and with God. We attend but we do not know anyone more than superficially. We do not talk to anyone or no one knows what struggles we are going through. God has a place for everyone, pray to God that He may lead you to the place He wants you to be. For some it will be to leave your current place of comfort and go someplace else. Be sensitive to His Spirit, it may be to help out a group of struggling believers to grow. I do not know what God has planned for you, but I pray that you are open-minded to what He is saying and where He is leading you.

“But Peter and John answered and said to them, ‘Whether it is right
in the sight of God, to listen to you more than to God, you judge’,
For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”
Acts 4:19,20

We are called to simply preach what God has shown us and spoken to us through His Word. Instead there are many preachers who are preaching the world. They take isolated verses of scripture and interpret them to fit their worldly view of things. I have heard preachers read one verse and preach on it for an hour. I realize that the Word of God is profound, but I am not sure that each verse requires such an in-depth dissertation. The Bible much like any other book when taken out of context can be used to rationalize any number of behaviors. Many times this has occurred in our history, you have had men who have used the Bible to justify their desire to enslave their brothers or to say that some humans are more human than others. That is like the proposition that some tigers are more tigery than others, how preposterous would that be? Who would take any biologist seriously that made a claim like that? In my opinion if more of our preachers would stick to preaching the Word of God and not this “easy gospel” many of our sinful epidemics would not be epidemics at all.

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[1] Acts 2:38

[2] 1 Timothy

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.

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[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