First, Examine Your Sin

 

SEEING OUR OWN SINFULNESS

"The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God" (Rom. 8:7-8, NIV).
"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" (Jer. 17:9, NIV).
"... But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it" (Gen. 4:7, HCSB)
"It is no use giving us rules of conduct; we cannot keep them." --John Stott
"In Adam's fall/ We sinned all" (The New England Primer, 1727).

We all are born "in Adam" (as opposed to becoming "in Christ" upon salvation) or with "original sin" (the result of the first sin) inherited from Adam, by virtue of his being the representative head of our race and acting on our behalf when he disobeyed God. When Adam ate of the so-called "proverbial apple" it was the prototype or model sin: "He spurned God's grace; contradicted His truth; rejected His authority; disputed His wisdom; repudiated His justice, and resisted His grace" (Author unknown).

Sin is our birthright and a virus we all have inherited. It has been defined by the Westminster divines as "any want of conformity to or transgression of the law of God." By the way, it's "any thought, word, action, omission, or desire contrary to the Law of God" (Charlie Riggs of the BGEA) i.e., anything contrary to the nature of God--our Declaration of Independence from God--it's such a killjoy word for preachers but cannot be ignored without peril. It's our birthright and a virus we inherit. We must be against it!

We must see our sinfulness to be saved and come to repentance. The law was given to make us see our sin ("for by the law is the knowledge of sin," cf. Rom. 3:20). It was never given to save us but to show us we need salvation. We don't know how bad we are, till we attempt to become good, and we cannot become good without knowing how bad we are--the solution to this catch-22 is knowing Jesus as our Savior. This so-called doctrine of total depravity or more realistically, radical corruption. means our whole being--heart or emotions, mind or intellect, and will or volition--are corrupt and unable to please God--we're not utterly depraved or as bad as we can be, but as bad off as we can be!

Even our reasoning powers and conscience are corrupt--spoiled by sin (cf. Titus 1:15). We are stubborn, rebellious people whom God has to conform to do His will like a Potter working on clay. G. K. Chesterton said tongue-in-cheek that this is the only doctrine "that can be proved." "... [B]ut men loved darkness rather than light" (cf. John 3:19).

Our sinfulness becomes even more apparent to us as we get closer to God--the closer our walk, the more consciousness of sin. Peter exclaimed, "Depart from me O Lord, for I am a sinful man" (cf. Luke 5:8). Samuel Rutherford said to pray for a hearty sense of sin, because "the greater sense of sin, the less sin." The point of being bad is not that we are too bad to be saved, but never good enough to be saved--Isaiah 64:6 says "our righteousness is as filthy rags."

In fact, where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more (cf. Rom. 5:20). Let's not play the "let's compare game!" It doesn't matter that we may be better than our neighbor--we all look like saints compared to Saddam Hussein, because God doesn't grade on a curve--we're all in the same boat of falling short of God's glorious ideal per Rom. 3:23.

This solidarity in Adam means we have a legacy of sin as our inheritance and we cannot escape our birthright. We were born in sin, not born free! Our wills were in bondage too, not free till we were freed in Christ upon salvation (cf. John 8:36)! We cannot even save ourselves and don't even meet our own standards of good, as Ovid said, "I see better things and I approve them, but I follow the worst." But the whole point is that the greater we are forgiven, the greater our love, as William Jay of Bath said, "I am a great sinner, but I have a great Savior."

In Adam's fall, we all ceased to be good, though not ceasing to be human. We all have a dark side or are like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde--we all have feet of clay or a vulnerable side no one sees. The world thinks a man is basically good, but he is inherently evil and cannot please God--all he can do is sin. People think this means we are as bad as we can be, but we are as bad off as we can be. We are not as corrupt as possible, for God restrains sin, but our whole nature is corrupt.--total depravity, not utter depravity. Why? God can turn the wrath of man to praise Him (cf. Psalm 76:10). We see goodness in light of evil and evil brings opportunity for good. The good news is that no one is too bad to be saved, but grace abounds to the chief of sinners, as John Bunyan wrote (cf. Rom. 5:20).

Sin has been our downfall and we must be reminded of our old sin nature or it will dominate. "Sin wants to destroy you, but we must not let it" (cf. Gen. 4:7, CEV). We need to renounce sin in ourselves and turn from it first to have discernment. "The absurd," according to Albert Camus, "is sin without God"--we must become aware of sin to repent of it; that's why knowledge and admission of sin is the missing ingredient (Whatever Became of Sin? by Karl Menninger, MD).

We are all guilty of rebellion, independent attitudes, lawlessness, godlessness, injustice, unbelief, iniquity, and all manner of transgression and unrighteousness--these are all evil violations of God's person and nature. D. James Kennedy says the law was given to show us we don't keep it, the "law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul" (cf. Psalm 19:7). The Law doesn't convert us or save us, it measures and convicts us!

In the final analysis, we all must exclaim to God as Paul did, "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" (Cf. Rom. 7:24). He answers his own question: "Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Cf. Rom. 7:25). The higher law Christians adhere to is the law of love, which is done willingly and gratefully. Soli Deo Gloria!

Why Believe The Bible?

Did you know that there are twenty-six books in the world that claim to be Holy Scripture (the Brahman Vedas, the Buddhist Canon of Sacred Scripture, the Koran, the Book of Mormon, the Zoroastrian Zend-Avesta, et al)? However, the Bible is the only one with predictive prophecy! Remember, Deut. 18:18 says that the test of a true prophet is 100 percent accuracy or the death penalty! "If they speak not according to this Word, they have no light in them" (Isa. 8:20). Only God knows and prophesies the future (cf. Isaiah 41:22; 45:21;46:9; Jer. 28:9). Note that there is something very peculiar and unique about Jesus: He doesn't quote the authorities but relies on His own authority and spoke like no man has ever done.  

The Qur'an, on the other hand, has one instance of self-fulfilling prophecy when Mohammad predicts he'll return to Mecca!  Only God can predict the future and God (in Isaiah) challenges any other "god" to tell the future.   But there are over 2,000 fulfilled prophecies in the Bible, not just a few lucky .guesses.  Jesus Christ Himself fulfilled over 300!

Archaeology has repeatedly confirmed the OT tradition and many have set out to disprove the Bible and with over 25,000 sites recovered there still is no contradiction.  Like Jesus said, "The rocks cry out!"   Historically, the Bible has been verified, and even though secular historians are usually given more credibility than the Bible, they have yet to disprove anything in the Scriptures!  For example, Luke has been discovered to be one of the best historians of antiquity.

Also, science has failed to contradict the Bible, even though the French Academy of Science declared 51 scientific facts that controverted the Bible in 1861, now not one of the so-called facts is believed--the Bible was right!.  There is not a contradiction between science and Scripture and where the Bible does make a scientific statement of fact, it is correct, even if ahead of its time.  The Bible is not a scientific textbook, said Galileo, but a book of salvation--however, where it does state a scientific statement it is correct and never proven wrong.

The Bible is self-attesting, (over 3,000 times it says, "Thus says the LORD" or its equivalent) [no other sacred writing does this--they don't dare!]  Scripture is its own Supreme Court, its own interpreter, and commentator.   It is believed because it is believable unless you have the presupposition that miracles just don't happen! Ancient peoples didn't doubt the reality of miracles, just what they meant.  The writers are not inveterate or consummate liars, but credible witnesses--the credibility of a demon is not to be established and this only stands to reason!  The test of their veracity was they the Apostles went to their death without recanting--death was their test!  "For we did not follow cleverly devised myths or fables when we made known to you the Word of Truth but were eyewitnesses of His majesty"  (2 Pet. 1:21). "Thus saith the LORD" or its equivalent) which means it assumes you believe it and doesn't appeal to some higher power or authority.  It proves and verifies itself.  If you appealed to science, for instance, science would have higher authority than God!

The Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit and is therefore inerrant and infallible in its original manuscripts.  None of these are extant--we rely on copies.   An interesting fact is that there are over 5,000 Greek manuscripts available to test the veracity of Scripture, while we only have 10 good copies of Caesar's Gallic Wars or of the History of Herodotus.  There is no comparison, yet no one doubts the authenticity of these documents.  There is more proof for the resurrection of Christ than for any other fact in antiquity.  It is the most attested and variously supported fact if the era!  Doubting Jesus' historicity is unsound and yet scholars don't dare doubt the historicity of Caesar or Alexander the Great.

The Bible is like a caged lion--you don't have to defend it, it can take care of itself.  People who criticize it usually haven't read it!   The Bible can convict a person if he has an open mind and is willing to do God's will he shall know whether it is of God.  Jesus said, "If a man is willing to do His will, he  shall know whether the doctrine is of God or whether I speak on my own authority" (John 

7:17).

I know of a preacher that said, "I know the Bible is inspired because it inspires me."  The works of Shakespeare can be entertaining and educating, but only the Bible can transform the soul. The proof of the pudding is in the eating:   "The Word of God is alive and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of joints and marrow, of soul and spirit, and it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart" Hebrews 4:12).! 

Not At Liberty To Our Own Jesus Image

For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached ... ye might well bear with him," (cf. 2 Cor. 11:4). 

 Everyone thinks of someone when they think of Jesus, whether some characterization, movie personification,  caricature, or even image we invent, or even the one of conventional or historical reference--the historical Jesus, as if this one is not the one the apostles believed in but somehow they were deceived and got it all wrong and even latter deified Him when Jesus never really claimed to be God.  We don't have the prerogative or right to think of Jesus any way we choose or in some invention of our liking or as whom we personally prefer to think of!  We must receive Christ for who is He is in all reality, or not at all!  He is Lord of all (cf. Romans 10:12; Acts 10:36).

Paul said, "I know in whom I have believed..." and "I want to know Him and the power of His resurrection."  Jesus said that to know Him is eternal life.  We must be anchored in reality for our image of God or our interpretation and what we think of Jesus is the most important thing about us, it may not matter in the long term what you think of the president, but your conception of Jesus is the criterion of your judgment. this is what determines your destiny! It can have consequences, personally speaking, because it may affect our testimony and how we live our lives, and what our goals are. 

To see Jesus as some all-encompassing and accepting all no matter what, or as some sentimental, maudlin, non-judgmental, politically-correct, unoffending, loving Jesus, as some Jesus Christ Superstar or celebrity, or as some impotent but friendy man upstairs we envision or a flexible man that can fit into our stereotypes or boxes of definitions makes Him one-dimensional and not who He meant to be as the Almighty.  Some may sincerely say, "I like to think of Jesus as my friend" or "as my buddy" or as my "Advocate," or brother" but we must realize He is "Lord of all" and must submit all things to Him and make Him the number one priority; He owns us because we are slaves whom He has redeemed! The more submitted we are to His lordship, the freer we are.   But we live in a pluralistic society where people deny absolute truth and think no religion can be right or has the right to claim it, so we must not be dogmatic in order to get along.  In this reality, contradictions are a-okay and there's no absolute truth or values! 

To accept Jesus or to receive Him as Lord and Savior is not an option.  We must recognize Him as the only begotten Son of God, God the Son manifest in the flesh coequal to the Father in every way.  He is not one of many ways, nor even the best way, but the only way according to A. W. Tozer.  Even some evangelicals don't realize the necessity of receiving Him as Lord of our lives or to make a lordship decision in our salvation. 

For instance, Jesus is not the surrogate of God, a form of lesser deity or creation of God as a god, not God Himself, or as a deified man or even humanized God or demigod. Jesus must be received and recognized as the God-man or as fully and truly God as well as fully and truly man: two natures not to be mixed but to remain in their completeness and integrity, and in one person fully united without compromise of either nature and not to be confounded or diminished. The mystery of this union of two natures into one Person is known as the hypostatic union and the process of when God became a man is known as the incarnation; both vital doctrines to true Christian orthodoxy. 

We must believe in Him for who He claimed to be and He did claim and assert His deity as well as show it by divers miracles, signs, and wonders. He was like us in every manner except that He never sinned  He also suffered as a human without any special treatment from the Father.  All this so He could relate to us and intercede faithfully.   Soli Deo Gloria! 

What Unknown God Are You Guilty Of Worshiping?

 "If a person comes and preaches some other Jesus than the one we preached, or if you receive a different spirit than the one you had received or a different gospel than the one you embraced..." (cf. 2 Cor. 11:4). 

"Those who worship false gods turn their backs on all God's mercies," (cf. Jonah 2:8, NLT) 

On Mount Areopagus or Mars Hill in Acts 17, Paul mentioned to the Athenians that he had noticed a shrine "to the unknown God."  They were unwittingly worshiping God without knowing who He is!  But we can worship unknown gods ourselves by the false worship of God, putting Him in a box, or diminishing His deity or glory. It may have all started when Satan told Eve that she could be "as the gods." Men have historically tried to "make a name for themselves" (cf. Gen. 11:4) since the tower of Babel. It is obvious to the pious man that people today aren't interested in being godly anymore, but in being gods, as Satan deceived Eve "You shall be as gods."  

In humanism, they deify man and dethrone God:  "Glory to man in the highest" so to speak. Actually, the Greeks of antiquity thought of humanism in the terms of man being the "measure of all things" ("homo mensura" from Protagoras).  In other words, starting the calculus with man, not God in the equation. 

What I want to point out is that we all can be idolaters without our knowledge, but thank God it's only he who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it is sinning: we sin in ignorance and fall short of true worship in spirit and truth--God for who He really is in reality.  When God loses His awe or becomes commonplace and trite, and the pizzazz of worship seems perfunctory and we even become frauds at worship because of lack of sincerity but in hypocrisy, we are committing idolatry. We must give God his due worship for that is what worship is: what one is worthy of.   

We can have many false gods that we invent and concoct or imagine.  God demands Number One Priority and first place in our hearts.  Anything that takes God's place in our life and removes Him from the equation or picture and inserts ourselves is idolatry. We are to fear God, so fearing anyone else is idolatry  God created man in His image but Voltaire said that man has created God in his image: we imagine that God is like us only more so! 

But we are only in His image so we can worship, love, know and serve Him, not so we can look to Him as our equal or that He is like us.  It was the Greek pantheon that was created in man's image: the gods lusted, got drunk, and deceived just like men, and it was that philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were offended by this image of God as they saw Him: Especially in being the Supreme Good, the standard of perfection and goodness. 

We are not to quarrel with our Maker (cf. Isaiah 45:9) and worship the true and living God as we are commanded and see ourselves in the true light of Scripture as sinners in need of salvation.  We have no glory of our own and our glory is the gift of God. We are not to trust anyone but God and that means any false senses of security and false hopes.  But God is no respecter of persons and demands we worship Him no matter who we are; there's no partiality with God and He shows no favoritism. We are all born sinners in need of grace! God levels the playing field and puts us all in the same boat. Even as believers, there is no caste system or elitism and we are all one in Christ (cf. Gal. 3:28; Col. 3:11).  

Now, there are so many ways to commit idolatry that no one can be immune from sin.  It's the First Commandment and also the greatest and what the others depend on. You could say that all other sins are corollaries of this one; failure to let God be God.  We aren't just appeasing an angry God but rendering Him all that is due to His glory. We find out that the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom and this it's the first base with God. The definition of a Victorian Englishman is a self-made man who worships his creator. The roots of self-adulation, self-admiration, and narcissism are obvious.

Now, just think of the typical American.  In primitive times men worshiped creation such as the sun or moon and had gods for everything like Baal the fertility god.  Israel had to be deported to Babylon and taken captive before learning its lesson not to commit idolatry with the false gods of Canaan.  But we are no better today, though not pagan worshiping idols of stone or clay. Just wonder what impresses you or what your security is in.  There's hero-worship of celebrities, politicians, experts, academics, and athletes.  

What's more, there's the worship of intelligence, beauty, college degrees, technology, success, security,  against loss of it in ID theft, job security, the hype of media or a moment in the limelight, one's party, church, or nation, military superiority, sexuality, toys big and small, but most of them can be included in the lust for fame, power, and fortune instead of seeking God's will. John sums up all sin as either lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (cf. 1 John 2:16). 

People are on a mad search for happiness no matter the cost and no matter whom they worship along the way in a dog-eat-dog world of survival of the fittest and might become right. What America has become is a  materialistic society that survives on greed and possessions.  It's become a competition of keeping up with the Jones and a society that sees itself as haves and have-nots. People aren't satisfied with what God blesses them with and seek riches no matter the cost to their honor or integrity. 

   

A word to the wise is sufficient:  "Thou thoughtest I was altogether as thyself" (cf. Psalm 50:21). 

CAVEAT:  To worship God for who He isn't in reality as some figment of your imagination or anything less than who He is  (human thoughts of God) make you an idolater like Luther said to Erasmus of Rotterdam:  "Your thoughts of God are too human."  Like so many sects that are heretical and teach another Jesus (not divine), and selling him short: we must label this as idolatry.   Soli Deo Gloria! 

Are You Living A Lie?

 "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth." (cf. 2 John 4). 

"For this reason, God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie," (cf. 2 Thess. 2:11). 

"Gently instruct those who oppose the truth.  Perhaps God will change those people's hearts, and they will learn the truth," (cf. 2 Tim. 2:25). 

"I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth," (cf. 1 John 2:21).  

"But those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger," (cf. Romans 2:8). 

If we are deceived by the devil, we believe his lies (the father of lies) and do not live according to the truth but walk in darkness.  This means we are not in touch with reality, which is according to the truth.  In the last days, many shall "believe the great lie" and fall prey to Satan and his deceptions.  "They refuse to love the truth and so be saved, (cf. 2 Thess. 2:10).   Satan has held them "captive to do his will" and has blinded them (cf. 2 Cor. 4:4).  But "those who know their God shall be strong and resist him," (cf. Dan 11:32).  We can be capable of many crazy things once we practice deception and do not admit or acknowledge the truth and follow the way of lies.  

We can be deceived by conspiracy theories and any such lie of the devil that the ignorant, naive, and foolish are subject to. It may be traced to when a person only believes what his leader tells him or his tribe says: this is a phenomenon of today in our tribalistic society. In the Jim Jones cult of the Peoples Temple, the cult of death that committed mass suicide, they boasted that they needed no Bibles because they had Jim Jones!  No one Bible was found at Georgetown. 

We must realize that God the God of truth and Jesus is the personification of truth itself coming to bear witness of the truth.  Science is a gift of  God to know things but not the only way to know truth! Also, the opposite to deny science can know anything is a lie and not according to the truth. Ultimate trust in anyone but God is idolatry and God is jealous!  Prayer is our first call for help!   We don't ignore science nor act recklessly or dangerously but our first resort in healing through prayer is to call upon the LORD as Asa refused to do in his foot disease he sought not the aid of the LORD but only the physicians (cf. 2 Chron 16:12). 

CAVEAT:  We become like those we admire and believe; trusting or believing liars will eventually make you one; a child of liars.   People see themselves in others and forget that God is the one to emulate, not mankind; Jesus is our Exemplar and Role Model of truth and truth-speaking even to power when it takes courage.   

When we don't put God first and make Him our priority, we invite idolatry and worship of a lie; exchanging the truth of God for a lie and suppressing the truth. Then we become all the more susceptible to lies!  We must all have our allegiance tested.  We will never be satisfied with a false god or faux deity.  Only the truth can set us free(cf. John 8:32)! We can know it and the truth is in Jesus (cf. Eph. 4:21).   If your foundation isn't in the truth you will be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine and taken in by the wiles of the devil.  If you only believe what your leader says or approves, what happens when he is gone; you will search for another authority figure to believe. 

The whole idea of the heart of Protestantism is to be able to have the right to dissent, disagree, and protest.  We are not slaves to church dogma and especially to state propaganda, that deals in misinformation. Only a framework or truth and sold Christian worldview will prevent brainwashing and giving into what the devil wants you to believe. We must repeatedly ask ourselves to whom we owe our allegiance; is it God alone?    In sum, we can see deception and lies as the motive and source of idolatry from the God of truth.   Soli Deo Gloria! 

Idolatry Unmasked

BY DEFINITION:  IDOLATRY IS NOT JUST THE WORSHIP OF FALSE, WANNABE, OR PSEUDO-GODS, BUT THE WORSHIP OF THE TRUE GOD IN IMAGES, DISTORTION, OR BY DECEPTION. 

"Those who cling to worthless idols lose their chance of mercy," (cf. Jonah 2:8).   

"To whom will you compare [God]?" (cf. Isaiah 40:18).   Religionists and anthropologists believe that man's concept of God evolved from panentheism (God is in everything), pantheism (everything is God), polytheism (many gods--conventional wisdom told them that the more gods the better!), to henotheism (one chief God with lesser gods mostly territorial), and finally to monotheism (one God). Even though there are modern discoveries proving that monotheism came first and mankind spoiled the truth of God that had been revealed in the beginning.   

God is the only true security blanket so to speak and trustworthy hope and anchor for our soul. They believe that the intellectual result should now be naturalism or materialism in which all that exists is nature itself, and all things can be explained by natural causes. Atheism is the natural consequence of this whereby God becomes irrelevant (God is dead) and no longer necessary to understand and explain the world and nature.  

Science has become a religion!  Evolution is merely a way to become intellectually fulfilled with the answers, forgetting that God is the Answerer and the Bible is the Answer  Book.   Academics have come to the view that they can only believe what science can prove!  This is "scientism," not science, or when science is taught dogmatically, it's no longer science but religion.   All false gods are of man's imagination, but the true God is beyond what we could conceive because He's infinite and perfect and the finite cannot grasp the infinite.  We cannot even know God exhaustively, but only truly!  We never could have conceived of the real God! 

But what is idolatry?  Putting anything in the place where God belongs, taking precedence and priority.  J. B. Phillips wrote Your God is too Small.  It can also be having a too-small idea or interpretation of God and putting Him in a box or having "too human" a concept of God as Luther accused Erasmus of Rotterdam of; for instance,  I just like to think of God as a great Mathematician, simply as Jesus, or the Man upstairs!  It's when we worship what should be used and use what we should worship according to St. Augustine.  We use things and relate to persons and therefore we understand God as a Person. God says to us: Who is like Me? To whom will you compare Me? Idols are manmade whether of the kinds in the world of historic antiquity of stone and pottery or of hero-worship and celebrity worship or trusting in man and not God. 

These gods cannot save you!  We must not trust in princes or authority figures but see them as mere servants of God like as we are. Our exclusive loyalty is to God alone: Jesus is Lord, not Caesar is Lord who was a wannabe deity or demigod. Indeed Voltaire was onto something when he said that man has created God in his image! It is true that men are looking for someone bigger than life and some kind of person worthy of admiration and adulation but God alone is our celebrity and hero. 

We cannot invent a God of our own choosing but must recognize and accept the God who is there and does exist or we do not live in reality as Plato said, "If I want to know how to live in reality, I must now what God is really like."  We cannot escape God nor His judgment, He alone is to be feared!  He alone is the one true living God that will not die or go away but sees all. "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me" means that He must have exclusive allegiance, not any man, church, nation, or even family.  When people say, "My party right or wrong or my nation right or wrong" they are misdirecting zeal. If Jesus is on the throne of your heart then it's misdirected and you're deceived. 

But even Israel wanted to be like the other nations and have a king and they were a true theocracy with God in charge but they rejected it. Do we want to be people-pleasers and fit in with the norms of society or do desire to be godly? Don't let anyone or anything rival God's rightful domain in your life.  We must take spiritual inventory and rethink our priorities, commitments, and devotions. Are we seeking man's praise or God's? We must not inadvertently pay homage to false gods that are manmade simply because we want to fit in and be one of the guys and be in the crowd. We must dare to stand alone and stick up for what we believe and declare our Christian colors. Our soul loyalty is to Jesus as Lord denying the Roman oath allegiance of "Caesar is Lord," as blasphemy and idolatry.  

In the final analysis, do we desire the world's delicacies and rewards or what God can offer us eternally?   In summation, A W Tozer said, "What we believe about God [our idea of Him] is the most important thing about us."     CAVEAT:  Worship [pay homage owe allegiance to] the LORD thy God, and Him shalt thou serve."  (Cf. Matt. 4:10)    Soli Deo Gloria! 

Are We Supposed To Worship Jesus?

FROM A QUORA POST OF GODWIN GOZIEM JIREH

 Know that Jesus Christ who came from heaven to earth is God the Son (John 1:1, 14, 18; Hebrews 1:1–3; 1 John 5:20). He was worshipped, is still worshiped, and will be worshipped throughout eternity.

God the Father commanded all His angels to worship His Son Jesus when He was born on earth (Hebrews 1:6) and as soon as the Wise men from the East laid eyes on the infant Jesus, “they fell down and worshiped him” (Matthew 2:11).

All through the public ministry of Jesus, people from all walks of life recognized His divinity voluntarily and spontaneously worshipped Him. For example, Jesus accepted the freewill worship of the following persons:

• a leper who was healed - Matthew 8:2
• a nobleman whose son was healed - Matthew 9:18
• Jesus' disciples who saw Him walked on water- Matthew 14:33
• a Canaanite woman who requested Jesus to heal her daughter - Matthew 15:25
• the mother of James and John - Matthew 20:20
• a man tormented by evil spirits - Mark 5:6
• a blind man who was healed - John 9:38
• some women who met Jesus after His resurrection - Matthew 28:8-9; cf. Mark 16:1; Luke 24:10
• Jesus' disciples who saw Him after His resurrection - Matthew 28:17
• Apostle Thomas acknowledged Jesus as "My Lord and my God!" - John 20:28

Also know that all the angelic beings are currently worshipping the Father and Son Jesus (Revelation 5:11–14; 7:9–10) who are, spiritually speaking, “the temple of heaven” (Revelation 21:22). Eventually, all will worship Jesus someday; “so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10–11).

So, from all the scriptural data presented so far, it is very obvious that we are posed to worship Jesus. Moreover, we find several passages in Scripture revering Jesus in worship as Lord and where the names attributed to Him indicate that other believers recognized Jesus as Deity- John 1:1–3, 14, 18; Acts 20:28; Philippians 2:5-8; Colossians 2:9; 1 Timothy 3:16; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 1:3, 8.

Putting God To The Test

 "Harden not your provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works for forty years," (cf. Heb. 3:9). 

In Hebrew, the word for testing can be interpreted to imply that one is already guilty and they must consequently have the burden of proof of one's innocence: contrary to our right to be considered innocent till proven guilty. The Israelites lacked faith and tried God's patience and therefore were tested in the Wilderness before being ready to enter the Promised Land. What they conceived was nothing short of treason against God and Moses and to see if  God was "worth following."  They came to the conclusion this God-thing was working well for them and longed for the "good old days" in Egypt. 

But they were not living in reality because they didn't have faith in God and know that He always acts in character and that's why and how we can know Him. It isn't all a matter of what works for you or what the end result is (pragmatic) but what is true that matters in the final analysis. Plato said something very pertinent: "If I want to know how to live in reality, I must know what God is really like"  God can be our Exemplar and we can emulate Him because we can see Jesus. The Israelites failed to believe in the God who is and worshiped their own figment of their imagination., a concocted and ill-conceived image of God in their own box.   We must accept God for who He is and not what we want Him to be for us.  It doesn't matter how strongly one believes error, it's still false; truth doesn't depend on whether one believes it or not; we can have false convictions and be sincerely wrong. 

God will make an impression on our hearts as we come to know Him in reality and we found out that He is true to Himself with no hypocrisy or contradiction. Gideon put God to the test with fleece and David said we should "taste and see that the LORD is good." In Malachi God challenges us to liberality in giving in exchange for blessing, to find out that we cannot out-give God.  But Jesus was tested by Satan and he challenged Christ to jump off a cliff to see if God's Word would prove true. This is the kind of testing that is sin; assuming we can make God prove Himself on purpose to test Him when we should know better. 

As Christians, we don't just believe in God, but in the God who is there!  We don't just believe He exists, but that He is the God who does exist.  We believe in the God who indwells us, that He is real and not silent.  He's not dead but the God who won't die! This kind of faith doesn't come from nothing but the experience of walking with the LORD.   Soli Deo Gloria!

Getting To Know The Holy Spirit

 The Spirit of God is not an apparition, vapor, essence, force, influence, or phantom.  He actually has a job description that unifies and completes the work of salvation.  The Father planned and purposed it, the Son accomplished and executed it, and the Spirit applies and reveals it. They work as a synergy whereas the sum of the parts has more effect than the individual parts separately together.  Jesus referred to Him as our Comforter or Counselor.  

Here is the shortlist of His tasks to usward: 

Guides to truth   John 16:13

Reveals Jesus    John 16:14

Comforts    John 14:16

Counsels   John 14:26

Imparts wisdom   Eph. 1:17

Prays for us     Romans 8:27

Gives us power Acts 1:8

Helps infirmities and weakness   Rom, 8:26

Gives spiritual gifts  1 Cor. 12:11

Gives spiritual fruit.  Gal. 5:22-23

He is also known to illuminate, enlighten, inspire the Word to us and open our eyes to wondrous things in the Word.  

NB: The Holy Spirit never seeks His own glory or attention but to glorify and reveal Christ to us.

Can You Show The Bible Is Credible Without Citing It?...

1. It’s self-attesting, appealing to itself for authority. If it appealed to science, then science would be the final arbiter of truth, and science has been wrong, like when the sun revolved around the earth. We’d expect God’s word to begin with God and explain the world and truth, not anything as a footnote. The Bible rightly begins with God (“In the beginning God….”_). That’s not the beginning of a story but of all rational thinking. Either matter is eternal, created, or evolved—we know it’s not an illusion or Maya. Where we begin virtually determines where we end up. It actually claims to be the very Word of God and other scriptures don’t—over 2000 times it says, “Thus saith the LORD.,” or its equivalent.”
2. It’s the only one of the twenty-six known scriptures in the world that contains fulfilled prophecy, you’ll find no prophecy in the Koran, Brahman Vedas, or Bhagavad Gita, and over 2000 of them are in the Bible, not just a few lucky guesses, and these are in great detail and not vague like Nostradamus. Jesus fulfilled 333 prophecies explicitly.
3. The Bible is credible because it has miracles that are not helter-skelter or for show but to demonstrate a lesson from God, like demonstrating Christ’s deity. Other religions believe miracles because the religion is already believed, but Christianity is verified and confirmed by miracles, especially the resurrection as the biggie one. Jesus said to believe in Him for the miracles’ sake.
4. The Bible is based on history and fact—the resurrection is objective, historical fact “with many infallible proofs.” (Cf. Acts 1:3), if I can indulge a quote to say what I’m saying. There is circumstantial, historical, and empirical evidence for it. The historical, scientific, and geographic truths have been verified by archaeology. There are no scientific absurdities or anomalies, though it makes many scientific statements ahead of the writer’s time. Its history has been checked thoroughly. There is much corroborating evidence about Jesus, for instance, from secular sources. If you dehistoricize the Bible, it’s totally discredited, but no one can do that. There’s no evidence of it being a legend or myth like Greek mythology.
5. The writing of the Bible is a miracle in itself: over forty authors in three languages over 1500 years and yet having one theme.
6. It has a unique power. Most people that disbelieve it haven’t read it. We don’t have to defend it—it defends itself—just read it and prove it yourself! It doesn't contradict itself but contradicts people. The Bible has a unique ability to convict of sin and shed light: it reads you as you read it, it makes you hungry as you feed on it. You never have read it enough and don’t just read it once and set it back on the shelf!