Do You Know Your Place In The Church?

Many believers do not recognize their place or gift in the body. One needs to experiment and try different services or opportunities to see how God uses or blesses you. You do not tell God that you refuse to serve in an individual capacity because you do not think you have that gift. You also should not have gift envy and wonder why you are not gifted like someone else nor even expect others to have your gifting and be able to walk in your shoes. You don't need this gift projection either; i.e., gift projection.  Remember, we are all on the same team with one mission statement and vision of fulfilling the Great Commission with a great commitment. 

We must show faithfulness in little to be faithful in much and rewarded. God the Holy Spirit equips each believer as He sees fit and enables each to do God's will effectually. What it boils down to is not ability but availability! We will be judged by our faithfulness in what God has gifted us, not its success. Note: we all have different gifts but the same Spirit! And we aim and strive for the greater gifts with the spiritual ambition of a noble thing, such as to prophesy or edify the church. 

You must decide whether you want to be a part of the solution or part of the problem. That is the dichotomy! A Christian who will not serve is a contradiction in terms and only those who serve Christ know true peace and fulfillment. There may be two types of Christians questioning their church body's functionality or effectiveness. One says, "What is wrong with this church?" and says, "You are wrong!" Another one says to God, "God can you fix the church?" and God replies, "That is why you are in it!" Either way, we must learn to serve God and labor in the Lord trusting in what He tells us and taking it to heart. Let us be faithful to our heavenly vision and calling and fulfill our ministry. 

We must be the reason people believe in God and be positive witnesses and be the only Jesus some may ever see or the only sermon they may hear! What they see ought to be what they get! We do much harm to our witness and jeopardize our testimony's credibility if we do not live up to it and live it out faithfully! Are you part of the problem or part of the solution?    Soli Deo Gloria! 

Was The Apostle Paul A Christian?

 It has been disputed even today whether Paul was an apostle or one duly appointed and even an inferior one at that. Paul was so questioned about it that he wrote 2 Corinthians to refute the idea in chapters 10 and 11 he makes his case. What else is an apostle but one who has seen the risen Lord, can do miracles, signs, and wonders, and is personally appointed by the Lord Himself?  But the contention was that Paul was just a troublemaker, not a peacemaker, a divider, was always in trouble with the law or in jail, got shipwrecked, stoned,  beaten with rods, unpopular, left for dead, gone without food,  not an uniter, and a poor preacher and even too hard to understand and didn't get along with Peter or other apostles even disputing with Barnabas. 

We see believers do likewise today thinking that if you haven't achieved the American dream or are not a success in the eyes of the world, then you are not measuring up as a Christian and not be one at all, especially if bad things happen like divorce, bankruptcy, unemployment, disease, disability, or trouble with the law.  The proliferation of prosperity theology is appalling and widespread and is popular as even the mention of the word "sin" is considered a killjoy and taboo.  What we must learn is that we are not to cash in on our spiritual lottery ticket but learn to be content in whatever circumstance God gives and be thankful to be in God's will.  

But we must realize that hardship is par for the course in our Christian experience of hard knocks and the spiritual adventure and road to Reality 101 learning. In short, we are not promised a bed of roses and our life is no rose garden. We can have just as many hardships as an unbeliever. It is written that the Jews thought they were immune to disaster or calamity by virtue of being God's people but had a wake-up call during the Babylonian captivity. It is true God can and does put a hedge of protection around us but God can allow short-term evil for long-term good; look at Joseph saying, "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good." and also Job saying, "Should we accept good times from the LORD and not evil times?" 

We are to judge Paul by his writings which Peter called "scripture" despite being hard to understand. He is the one we owe our understanding of the gospel message.  Paul is the one who preached to the Gentiles and founded more churches than the other apostles in Europe and Asia. But we must put his life into the perspective that Jesus said he would suffer 'great things for Him." Paul said it was a privilege to suffer for the sake of the Name. Paul wrote at least 13 epistles and is considered the chief New Testament writer. 

What About The Hard Sayings Of Jesus? ...

And after some disciples heard these sayings, they no longer followed Him..... Jesus never made it easy to be a follower of His and stipulated strict guidelines and requisites like denial of self, and having first priority in our hearts so much that we "hate" our parents. He also said that we "cannot come to the Father unless it has been granted.." We cannot believe in Jesus apart from grace ("Apart from Me, you can do nothing...." "This is the work of God... that you believe in Him whom He has sent."). St. Augustine of Hippo said it well: “God command what you will, but grant what you command…” If we can turn over a new leaf, make a New Year’s resolution, Boy Scout pledge, or AA pledge to change our lives, what good is regeneration? God must change us from the inside out!

What good is regeneration if we can accomplish this of our own strength and without grace working in our hearts? God opens the door of faith and kindles it within us as He quickens our dead spirit. This is called "lordship salvation" as opposed to "easy-believism" or that commitment to Christ as Lord is not required for salvation. We must receive Him for who He is! Jesus never watered down His message, contextualized it, nor dumbed it down, but told it as it is in straight talk and calling a spade a spade. He never minced words or made it easy to follow Him but discouraged half-hearted disciples who may have admired Jesus but were not ready to lay down their lives for Him.

For instance, no fornicator, murderer, liar, drunkard, homosexual, thief, or swindler will get into the kingdom. But with all these requirements, we cannot change ourselves but we must be willing to let God change us: we come as we are, but do not remain that way due to the grace of God working in our hearts. What good is regeneration if we can believe apart from it or conversion if we had the power to transform our lives ourselves? The whole point of the gospel is that God changes us and we become new creatures in Christ: a changed life as a testimony!

Salvation must be grace from beginning to end: "Salvation is of the LORD," (Jonah 2:9) and that means we do not contribute anything to our regeneration and conversion. Therefore, it is not of us and God nor of us alone but of God alone! It is the work of God on our behalf who gets the glory. Soli Deo Gloria!

From Faith To Faith

 We do not stand still in the Christian life we are either going forward or backward we are not treading water walking; you can walk backward and you can walk forward but you cannot walk and place. That's why it says we go from faith to faith our faith grows that's why it's called a growing living faith because something in his life grows. We must be willing to walk with God by faith through thick and thin with our dynamic faith growing as we come to know God personally come what may as it were. We all have a spiritual journey where we grow and learn from our mistakes our errors our flaws our faults our misjudgments and our sins. We must learn to practice the presence of God in whatever happens whatever occurs to us in faith but always calling upon the Lord and being unseasonally in prayer and fellowship.

That means keeping short accounts of the God of our sins and confessing constantly what we do wrong. There is a vacuum in our soul only God can fill we must do so by filling it with God. The more the world that is in God and our soul the less the room there is for God our spiritual. Our spiritual journey or pilgrimage with God begins that salvation and doesn't cease until we reach glory in heaven; even there we learn and grow from glory to glory as we know the Lord better and better all the more. Because this is what eternal life is knowing God and knowing the Lord personally. So we go but we grow by faith to faith glory to glory strength to strength as it were. 

This involves being committed to our Lord in faithfulness to our calling. Our mission should be the primary focus of our life we must not be disobedient to our heavenly vision you know we are.  Some will must realize that he was faithful and little shall be faithful in much we must be faithful to whatever assignment God has given us his will for our lives for he that is given much much of him shall be required. This involves being faithful to our resources, our blessings, our talents, our gifts, our time, our relationships, our skills, our calling --whatever God gives us.  Soli Deo Gloria! 

WHY SPIRITUALITY?

 Why do we possess spiritual gifts?

Why do we possess spiritual gifts question? It is for the mutual edification of the body of Christ. For the building up of the body until Christ comes that which is perfect comes. Then that which is imperfect spiritual gifts will pass away you will no longer need them. We possess spiritual gifts for the benefit of the common good not for our own benefit only.

We are to seek greater gifts such as prophecy. That's why it says let him with speaks speak let him will prophesY prophesize and if anyone thinks he's a prophet etcetera. We are not to despise prophesying. We are to think of each other as better than ourselves in other words respect the gift of others. There are two errors in this: skift projection where we expect others to have our gifts or interpret others as having our gift. And also gift envy when we wish we had another person's gift and are not satisfied with the one we have. The great error people have is that they think they don't have a gift.

We are to do something as the opportunity from God gives rise. In other words, we don't refuse to do something just because we don't have the gift because we don't know if God may use us in that gift or not even temporarily. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance God doesn't take back gifts for instance. If someone has been called into the ministry and he falls into sin he may lose his ministry he may be despised, defrocked, rejected, and lost opportunity

But he still has that gift of preaching God could use them in other ways, maybe he would be a writer maybe you could start another ministry he still has that gift. The same thing with tongues people think if you have tongues you're a great spiritual person but that might be one of the least of all the gifts. It depends upon not how spiritual you are to exercise your gift. You can be carnal and speak in tongues. A person may only need to repent reviving one’s gift. Remember, gifts are given, fruits are grown, and talents are genetic.

Many people are guilty of neglecting the gift they have Paul says not to neglect the gift and use it to be faithful. Too much is given much is required. In this respect the hand could not say to the face I don't need you or the eye to the ear I don't need you we all need to tell her we all work together as one in the unity in Christ. We have many gifts but one spirit. In other words, it doesn't matter what your gift is it matters the spirit that you use it in. There is no greater gift than that sense in the fact that anybody can be faithful in the gift they have and receive a full reward. God does level the playing field here! We are to use the gifts when God opens the door of opportunity. That means the gift within us. We're not to neglect that gift but to be faithful to it so it grows and we mature in the gift.

Numbers 11/29 says, “Oh, that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them.” God says, “I will pour out my spirit on all men,” today is the opportunity would always to have a chance to be used by God, not just the priest, not just an elite spiritual person but anybody can be told the spirit in the Old Testament the Spirit was not yet given. But today we all could be filled with spirit and the spirit falls in all we hear the word of God in faith. All who obey the Lord have received the Spirit—that's Acts 5/32.

Remember, we are gifted according to as the Holy Spirit wills not according to how we will we are to speak as the Lord leads us to speak. we are not lacking any spiritual gifts. Remember the spirit is like a down payment of our salvation and bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God this is a bonus we have the spirit the Old Testament Saints did not with few exceptions. Thus whoever renders service whoever speaks, whoever prophesied can do to the glory of God,Soli Deo Gloria!

Why Am I Here?

 

"Unless you assume a God, the question of life's purpose is meaningless." Bertrand Russell, atheist philosopher ( Without God in the metric life makes no sense!)  

Some of us just wish to be remembered! Some to make a contribution to the world or the church's mission. We are here to make a difference not to be remembered! Even the wicked can be remembered or live on in infamy! We are marching to a beat of a different drum though and follow God's marching orders not to follow the crowd as to get lost in it, to be of the world but not of it. We may even feel taken for granted or forgotten in life but are here for God's pleasure and purpose, not ours. We owe society as well as God and should feel some obligation to pay back or make a positive influence. Even if we are forgotten, we have struck a chord that will vibrate for eternity in God's timing and purpose as David fulfilled all God's purposes and then slept with his fathers, We must relinquish our will to God and do and seek His will for our lives, Remember, God wants us to see the big picture and know we have a big God and not to see God in merely human terms.  As long as we see the big picture we are properly focused and oriented to God's will: "All things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose." We must realize in our faith that it is not how big our faith is but how big our God in whom it is; the object of the faith is what counts-- you can be sincerely wrong and have zeal not according to knowledge! We all should be aware of our mission statement of the Great Commission! When our work is done we are called home and only what is done in Christ will last and be rewarded, above all remember that God is the Benefactor and it pays to serve the LORD! We will surely be rewarded if we faint not and continue on in the Spirit of the Lord and be faithful and obedient to our heavenly vision! Our work is not in vain! Note that our faith is not measured by our experiences or ecstasies but our obedience: "Only he who is obedient believes; only he who believes is obedient."  Yes, we were designed and hard-wired to serve, know, love, and worship God! We are part of some divine intricate plan! If not God, it will be for someone else! a false or pseudo-God. 

Discovering God

 Christianity is about the God who is there! Just believing in God will not save you, the demons believe and tremble! Faith is going beyond mere assent or agreement or intellectual head belief.  King David was anointed with the Holy Spirit by Samuel and the Spirit never left him from then on, He dwelt in the house of the Lord all the days of his life and fulfilled all God's will and purpose for him as a man after God's own heart. Some people say they believe in God but are He the right one? One cabbie in Ireland came across an atheist and asked him: Is it the God of the Protestants or the God of the Catholics you don't believe in? Many will acknowledge or give lip service to a Deity but the mention of the name of Jesus is an offense to some and a sound barrier to be broken. 

David wanted to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living; he didn't want a 'PIE IN THE SKY" religion but a practical one that proves it pays off to serve God and He blesses us in the here and now and we can enjoy God now, not just wait till glory.  He felt secure in his salvation despite heinous sins.  David longed to be in the house of the LORD,, where the glory of the LORD was, and he could meet with God, but we have the resident Holy Spirit inside us permanently who will never leave nor forsake us. We don't have to go out looking for God in that sense because God has found us and sealed us with the Spirit. David's psalms teach us to seek the face of God and to enjoy His presence and anointing in prayer and worship. 

All Christians are now anointed and we have a greater advantage than David because of the complete Word of God and Holy Spirit, We are better off than he was though he was a prophet. In those days some presumed that God would never let anything bad happen to Israel or Jerusalem because of the temple but they did;t realize that God does not dwell in temples made of stone or manmade. This was false confidence that they found out was wrong when Babylon invaded and put Israel into exile and deported them. 

The Jews actually had to search for God on their own and learn godliness not depending on externalism or religiosity for they had no temple to make sacrifices either. They ultimately leaned on God as their protector, provider, and fortress, and did not lean on their own understanding or wisdom, or resources.  Necessity is really the mother of invention and the Jews were finally cured of their sin of idolatry. 

They also must have learned to wrestle with God in prayer and to seek and find justice in this world even wondering if there is any in their complaints to God.  They had a lot to learn only in exile and learned to practice personal piety and seek God's face as is basic spirituality. They must have also wondered where God's justice is because a wicked nation was punishing them. They grew homesick and even despondent longing for the good old days. I'll bet they vowed to be faithful and truly worship God when they returned to the homeland.

Isaiah 5:13 says that the Jews went into exile due to their ignorance of God and lack of knowledge of God. It is through much tribulation we enter the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22).  Ignorance was no excuse and God had some issues for them to work out corporately and personally (Hosea 4:1,4). It is evident they learned their lesson as idolatry was never an issue again and piety rose with the establishment of synagogue worship.

NOTE these points in closing: anyone can find God if they seek Him with all their heart in all sincerity. He is not far from any one of us, as close as the mention of His name. He is found even by those not looking for Him (Isaiah 65:1) and God seeks us and finds us more than we do Him: we are to seek Him while He may be found (Isaiah 55:6)! Seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened, ask and it shall be given (Matt. 7:1)! God's chief complaint is that man does not seek Him!    Soli Deo Gloria!

Do You Follow Your Heart?

Some people misuse or abuse the word "heart" and think it just stands for how they feel or their emotions. Like saying, "I feel in my heart that you are wrong!" Or "I cannot accept that in my heart." Sometimes things don't resonate or ring true but we are meant to be rational creatures who reason out things and listen to the voice of reason! We must be true to our hearts but realize they have an intellect and volition too. The will is like the driver that controls the two horses on the carriage of emotion and intellect giving feedback and needing direction. When we accept Christ into our hearts, it means to be willing to obey Him, love Him, and know Him! I want to know Jesus more clearly, love Him more dearly, and follow Him more nearly!

Too many people are told to follow their hearts in pursuing a career or even marriage and misconstrue that as going by one's feelings or emotions, which can vary like a weathervane in a storm. We are to seek godly counsel in major decisions and go to the LORD in prayer as a fist and not a last resort. If something is God's will, He will provide and give us the love for the endeavor and the means of doing it. God does have a plan for each of us and has even written out our lives before we were even born. God is always in control and our spiritual guide and counselor. If we don’t seek God’s will, He may say, “Okay, have it your way!” We should always bow in relinquishment and commitment to God’s will and favor.

We must realize that no one is purely emotional, intellectual or logical, or volitional; note our will are not born free but the slaves of sin, and when we get to know the Lord, we are set free! "If the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed." We are to love and seek the LORD with all our hearts, soul, and strength; all our being and essence. We must therefore guard our hearts, for out of them flow the issues of life (Prov. 4:23) and that as a man is in his heart, so is he (Prov. 23:7). We cannot fool God who even sees the motives of our hearts (Prov. 21:2): "The LORD weighs the heart."

Pascal was right: "The heart has reasons the mind knows not!" And Jeremiah was also on target: "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?" Jer. 17:9 This is why Jesus wants to come into our hearts and we must believe in our hearts! He opens the eyes of our hearts to the truths of scripture and opens our hearts to make them receptive to the gospel message. God can also judiciously harden our hearts as He did to Pharaoh. But only after we have done so. Some people are just intellectually in love with the idea of the Bible as scholars or of Jesus as the model or guide of humanity but Jesus is not looking for admirers, but worshipers in spirit and in truth.

In sum, if we do not feel right about a decision, we should wait upon the LORD and pray and seek wise counsel because it may be our conscience speaking to us and God may be trying to prevent us from ruining our lives; remember this: the heart of the matter is that it’s a matter of the heart! Soli Deo Gloria! 

Knowing Truth...

 "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge," according to Prov. 1:7.  In the Bible, knowledge, wisdom, and understanding are linked. They lead to each other. If you know things, you can be wise with that knowledge, understand it, and use it to the best means and ends. We are to increase in our knowledge of the Lord. 

Jesus claimed to come to bear witness of the truth and that those who belong to the truth will listen to Him (John 18:37) and even said He is the epitome of truth itself: "I am the way, the truth, and the life..." (John 14:6).   Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:7). Because of Christ, we have universal, objective, transcendent, absolute, and timeless truth to live by. 

One must ultimately ask: on what basis do you define or reckon knowledge? It cannot always be certain but must be true to the best possible proof and belief. Without reference to God, can there be any real knowledge? Can you make truth claims when the God of truth doesn’t exist and you deny absolute truth? Knowledge must be accepted and believed! Denying knowledge is denying reality in a way as is not knowing the truth and inventing your own truth.

All in all, one must be justified to believe in knowledge. But what we now have in a secular society is a way to be intellectually fulfilled and have the answers without God in the metric especially by appealing to evolution or saying that science is the answer; au contraire, God is the only Answerer!

The starting point as far as the world or secular society (Secular Humanism) is concerned is mankind as the "measure of all things" or reference point. They believe in commencing with man and contemplating, understanding, and explaining or explaining away God!  Athanasius said that the only system of thought God will fit into is the one where He is the starting point: we begin with God and explain reality or the world, not vice versa. 

Reality has to correspond with the truth and if Christianity is true, then its concept of reality is worth studying and living by. If not, then it is completely irrelevant.  Postmodern philosophy says that "God is dead" and this means God is no longer relevant, meaningful, necessary, or helpful in understanding reality and the world; they only want to believe what science can prove as absolute truths and not what God reveals. 

This is a philosophy and not science and should be called "scientism." That is very apparent when people harness science for unscientific reasons such as making philosophical proclamations as Carl Sagan said, "The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be." Science cannot know this and this statement cannot be subject to the scientific method. Science is not the only means of gaining absolute or perfect knowledge.  

The point is that without God, we can know nothing at all, we need an infinite reference to understand a finite reference point!  For instance, if there is no God, life has no ultimate meaning and unless there is a God, all things are up for grabs and all things are permissible because we have no reason to believe in morals at all except for selfish preservation like a survival instinct.  To have firm branches, we need firm roots and our worldview is like our roots!  It is the foundation that our knowledge depends upon!  

Because of God, we can say that we can know things for certain (we have a firm foundation) and that morals are absolute and not relevant to the person or situation. When you say that truth itself is relative, is that statement relative? When you say that you must not believe anything someone tells you about God, should we believe that person? When you say that you can know nothing for certain, can we trust that person is certain, and can he be certain?  Soli Deo Gloria!

Dissension In The Church

There are certain doctrines that Christians, even sincere, will always disagree about and it should be that way for we are not to be contentious about every minor doctrine and learn to distinguish what the main thing is: the gospel. Augustine said, "In necessary things, unity; in unnecessary things, liberty; in all things charity." We should never abandon the essential and nonnegotiable truths of the faith but "earnestly contend for the faith once delivered unto us." Keep the main thing the main thing!

We are not to stay away from all controversies but godless ones, not godly ones. Some matters are not worth the adrenaline they stimulate or generate more heat than light! It is not always the right thing to do to remain congenial when truth is at stake. Remember, the church fathers did debate doctrines till they could concur on the truth and resolve them with creeds. Note: sectarian spirit is wrong and we should not say "I am of Paul, I am of Peter, I am of Jesus" and so forth. But remember, the spirit of the Reformation was: “I dissent, I disagree, I protest,” meaning we are not slaves to a church dogma but should search the Scriptures like Bereans to see whether those things are so. (Acts 17:11).

Don't major on minors and get sidetracked in gray areas that are a matter of personal conscience in which each should be convinced in his own mind while respecting matters of opinion. Heresy arises to prove whom God approves and who is in error and should be judged. We are to judge those within the church who are false teachers or wolves in sheep's clothing. Just because there may be disagreement among sincere believers is no reason to become neutral or refuse to take a stand as a bystander. “If you are not firm in your faith, you will not stand firm at all.” (Isaiah 7:9). “They refuse to stand for the truth.” (Jer. 9:3).

We have a right to our own opinion, just not our own facts! Also, we are to get convicted of the truth knowing that we hold opinions, but convictions hold us! Do you have any convictions you will die for? It was only certain orthodox doctrines that the church fathers fought for and defended and put into their creeds such as the deity of Christ, the resurrection, the inspiration of scripture, and the sinfulness of mankind. The whole point is that we should never become argumentative, divisive, judgmental, contentious, or prejudiced in our discussions.

No one has a monopoly on the truth and knows all the answers. Thankfully, we know the Answerer and have the Answer book, and if we can agree on that we have a basis of fellowship. Remember, our fellowship is based on a relationship with Jesus, not an agreement on a doctrine we cherish as a fetish as having a Bible-club mentality.

What is important is that we all agree that Jesus is Lord and have He is the Judge, not us. If we can balance and reference our teachings to the Word of God, that is important. Can you cite scripture to support it? Now, I do not mean we should be adept at proof-texting or even taking verses out of context but know that our doctrines need biblical support. Inexperienced students of the Word take verses out of context literally concerning their immediate context in the paragraph, book, and rest of scripture; also out of context socially and culturally, and even out of context theologically meaning they ignore the basic teaching of scripture as a whole to prove one far-fetched ideas or teaching.

Remember, "no scripture is of any private interpretation" meaning God is not going to give some gifted teacher the ability to see things that others don't. "The sum [entirety] of God's word is truth" meaning not in isolation or out of context. We must compare scripture with scripture and verse with parallel verses and let scripture be its own interpreter! We must strive for truth in interpretation and know what we believe; not knowing is a kind of unbelief!

In sum, just because believers don’t agree on some doctrines, doesn’t mean we should avoid those doctrines, or take stands on them, but understand that others may disagree and not always intend to dissuade them but “keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” and find commonality or common ground on which to fellowship. Soli Deo Gloria!