"Seven Things the Lord Hates", Love Your Enemies Part 3

"There are six things which the Lord hates,

Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him:

17 

Haughty eyes, a lying tongue,

And hands that shed innocent blood,

18 

A heart that devises wicked plans,

Feet that run rapidly to evil,

19 

A false witness who utters lies,

And one who spreads strife among brothers."

(Proverbs 6:16-19)

Good day to you all.

Since I have been speaking about loving your enemies lately, I want to speak about something which many persons get stuck on. That is the hatred of God.

How can God love and hate at the same time? When we look at the Bible, we can see that there at least seems to be a God of hatred and of love. Like Proverbs 6:16-19 states, there are many things which Yahweh hates. From that set of verses alone, it even sounds like God hates people, and not just their sins. If we look further in the Bible, this idea of God's hatred for individuals is further confirmed.

"The Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven;
His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men.
5 The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked,
And the one who loves violence His soul hates.
6 Upon the wicked He will rain snares;
Fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the portion of their cup.
7 For the Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness;
The upright will behold His face." (Psalm 11:4-7)

An especially relevant passage gives us a long list of sins which the pre-Israeli inhabitants of the Promised Land committed continuously. This list included child sacrifice, adultery, witchcraft, cursing one's parents, homosexuality, bestiality, and incest. All of these abominable actions made the Lord exceedingly furious. As He declared,

 "You are therefore to keep all My statutes and all My ordinances and do them, so that the land to which I am bringing you to live will not spew you out. Moreover, you shall not follow the customs of the nation which I will drive out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I have abhorred them (the peoples committing sin)." (Leviticus 20:22)

Furthermore, if we take the Bible at its word, then we will see that God is always furious. Yet, this is not just God being angry at sin, rather He is angry with sinners. In fact, this anger is one of violent (not to be confused with murderous) hatred.

"Arise, O Lord, in Your anger;
Lift up Yourself against the rage of my adversaries,
And arouse Yourself for me; You have appointed judgment.
Let the assembly of the peoples encompass You,
And over them return on high.
The Lord judges the peoples;
Vindicate me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and my integrity that is in me.
O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous;
For the righteous God tries the hearts and minds.

"My shield is with God,
Who saves the upright in heart. 
God is a righteous judge,
And a God who has indignation every day. 

"If a man does not repent, He will sharpen His sword;
He has bent His bow and made it ready.
He has also prepared for Himself deadly weapons;
He makes His arrows fiery shafts.

"Behold, he travails with wickedness,
And he conceives mischief and brings forth falsehood.
He has dug a pit and hollowed it out,
And has fallen into the hole which he made. 
His mischief will return upon his own head,
And his violence will descend upon his own pate." (Psalm 7:6-16)

Looking at just these few verses, we find that God is a God of righteous, pure, and even violent hatred (I do not know what is more violent than God sharpening Hist sword to cut down those who do not repent). This fact makes many nervous, since these verses seem to say that God is unloving. Thus, they come up with relatively complicated, or at least nice sounding explanations.

The most well-known explanation that I have found is that God only hates the sin, but not the sinner. However, if we look at the above verses, we find that this simply cannot be the case. If God "hates... a false witness who utters lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers" (which are both people, not actions), hates "one who loves violence", and abhorred the Canaanites, then God must apparently hate sinners and not just their sins.

A second well-known explanation is that the Old Testament (and the parts of the New Testament that say the same) is not inspired by God. I am not even going to argue about this. However, if one believes this, please do not claim to be a follower of God for you are calling God a liar. 

So, if we wish to take God at His word, we must believe that God does hate sinners. 

Now, what does all of this have to do with loving your enemies? It determines our message of pleading for them to repent and obey God. As I said before, we love all men and long for the wicked to turn from his ways and live. However, if we do not tell them why they must do so, why do we think they will repent? 

In Psalm 2, we find a good summary of the content of our pleas to the unsaved.

"Why are the nations in an uproar
And the peoples devising a vain thing?

The kings of the earth take their stand
And the rulers take counsel together
Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying,

'Let us tear their fetters apart
And cast away their cords from us!'

 "He who sits in the heavens laughs,
The Lord scoffs at them.

Then He will speak to them in His anger
And terrify them in His fury, saying,

'But as for Me, I have installed My King
Upon Zion, My holy mountain.'

"'I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord:
He said to Me, "You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.

"Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance,
And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.
 "You shall break them with a rod of iron,
You shall shatter them like earthenware."'

 "Now therefore, O kings, show discernment;
Take warning, O judges of the earth.
 Worship the Lord with reverence
And rejoice with trembling.

Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way,
For His wrath may soon be kindled. 

How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!" 

This is our message: God is a God of vengeance. He cannot allow evil to stand in His presence, because it offends His holy nature. Yet, not only does He hate evil actions, He hates those who do evil. Because all men are evil (Rom. 3:10-18), all men are under God's wrath and hatred. We are His enemies, and He is preparing His weaponry in order to wipe us all out. Once we have been killed and brought before His judgement seat, He will cast all who are wicked into the lake of eternal fire, being tortured under His righteous hatred forever.

However, God declared to His Son, Jesus Christ, that He would have a Kingdom filled with sons of God as an inheritance forever. Since in Adam, all men are now sinners (Rom. 5:12), all men must be sentenced to Hell, for the wages of sin is eternal death in the lake of fire. Yet, if all men are sentenced to Hell, how can there be an inheritance of men for Christ?

In order to fulfill His promise to Christ, the Father decreed that His Son would pay the penalty of enduring the eternal wrath and hatred of God poured out upon Him for all those whom the Lord has chosen to save. Therefore, the Son came to Earth as a man, lived a perfect life and was crucified by the Father as a perfect sacrifice. As a result, God's wrath for those whom He would save was satisfied eternally.

Yet, how will this substitution be granted to us? How can we escape the wrath of God? We must repent from our wickedness and worship Yahweh in fear. This is impossible for us, because repentance requires that we be born from God. Being born of God means that your soul is crucified with Christ, placed into the grave with Him, and then being resurrected with Christ unto a new soul (Rom. 6:1-11, cf. baptism of the spirit in John 3:5-8). As with one's natural birth, you have no power over this birth (John 3:8). Nevertheless, if you call upon the Name of the Lord, lay down your sins, surrender your life to the King, and fall upon your face in fear before your Heavenly Judge and Executor, He will save you (Rom. 10:13, Psalm 2, Matt. 4:17, Mark 1:15, 6:12, Luke 3:3, Acts 8:22, Jude 1, Acts 16:31, Rom. 10:9). Turn from your evil, for the wrath of God is at hand.


That is our message, the message of the Gospel. It comes forth in great measure from the wrath of God. Therefore, if one does not understand the hatred that God has for sinners, how can one understand fully the Gospel and its magnificence? If we wish to know how to love the unsaved, we must understand the hatred and love of God. If one throws aside the doctrine of God's hatred and judgement for sinners, then one finds an impotent, lackluster "gospel" devoid of any salvific or sanctifying power. Moreover, the holy and glorious God is thrown under the bus in exchange for some foofy, impotent, worthless excuse for a god. However, if all one speaks of is the hatred of God, then one causes a kind of demonic fear and belief (James 2:19) which cannot bring salvation. Also, the greatest attribute of the Trinitarian Lord, which attribute is love, is hidden and thus a demonic, sadistic god is put in God's place.

Therefore, I urge all of you to think about these things. Read the Word of the Lord, and understand who He is. Moreover, I beg of you to ponder the fearful majesty of our God. Do not take His love nor His hatred lightly. Instead, rejoice with trembling, glory in His grace, and serve Him with fear (Deut. 10:12, 1 Samuel 12:24).

God Bless.

The Serpent and the Cross: Rethinking John 3:16

Hello brethren. As some of you know, my pastor (the author) and I (the editor) have been working for a couple of months on one of his book projects. Well, I want to let you all know that we are now finished and the book is available on Amazon.

The book is called, "The Serpent and the Cross: Rethinking John 3:16". In it, one of the most beloved, yet most often misunderstood verses in the Bible is given a close examination. I think you will be as surprised as I was with what the verse truly teaches about the love of God, and its consequences for we who follow Christ.

Here is the official description of the book:

"John 3:16 is the most popular verse in all the Bible. Many quote it assuming to understand its meaning. Sermons are preached from it. Businesses use it as their slogan. It has even made its way into professional sports! Yet, the meaning and import of this profound verse is still as dark to many as its truth was to Nicodemus. Jesus brings the truth of His kingdom into the mind and heart of Nicodemus in an unexpected comparison between the serpent on the pole deep in Israel's history, and the Son of Man on the cross yet future to Nicodemus. The parallels are striking. More importantly, a proper understanding of the serpent on the pole leads to a proper understanding of the Son of Man on the cross."

As I worked on this book, I must admit that there is so much to be found within John 3:16 that, as a result of our modern mushy-minds, we do not quickly see. However, as Pastor Charlie explains, a proper interpretation of this verse grants the Lord far more glory than the fluffy "God is in love with you" gospel so often preached today.

Currently, the book is available in paperback from Amazon, and the Kindle version is currently being processed (but will be out soon). Here is a link to it: http://www.amazon.com/Serpent-Cross-Rethinking-John-16/dp/0615954367/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1391709518&sr=1-1&keywords=serpent+and+the+cross

I hope you all have a blessed week!

Edit: The Kindle version is now available here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA52LXG

God's Sovereignty vs. Man's Will Part 2

I want to start out by saying that this warfare over predestination has taken a turn away from Scripture and into a misconstruction of Election. Whenever one says, "I believe that the Lord saves and man has nothing to do with his salvation", instantly the philosophical meanderings of John Calvin are brought up and debated on a non-Scriptural, philosophical plane. It seems that we care more about our disagreements and agreements with theologians than with the Word of God. However, if we are to understand what the Lord told us, we must throw Calvin, Arminius, and every other theologian and philosopher aside and merely look at Scripture. Not saying that all theologians are unhelpful, but rather that God's Word is all we need to be made wise, understanding His Will and Plan (Psalm 19:7-9).

With that in mind, let us go to the very beginning of time.

In the beginning was the God, the Triune Lord. In this state, the Father loved the Son and the Spirit, the Son loved the Spirit and the Father, the Spirit loved the Father and the Son. It was a perfect, loving, holy relationship within Elohim (Hebrew name for God, its plural ending emphasizes the three-in-oneness of God). It was in this state wherein the Father made a wondrous decree to the Son:

"You are My Son,
On that day I have begotten You,
Ask Me (note: a command in Hebrew), and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance,
And the ends of the Earth as Your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron,
You shall shatter them like earthenware." (Psalm 2:7-9)

In this passage, we find the very goal of all creation, and specifically of all men: we are a gift to the Son. This is especially important to bear in mind throughout this entire discussion, for it colors all that we must know as Christians. 

Because the Son loves the Father and does all that He commands (John 14:31), Christ asked His Father for the nations and the World. Thus, God created the Heavens and the Earth.

In man's beginning, he was created as a son of God (Luke 3:38). Why was he created this way? Well, he was made to be the Image and likeness of God, specifically the image of the Son (thus, Adam was to be one of the many brethren which God predestined to be the Image of His Son, Rom. 8:28-29). If sin had not entered the world through the Fall of Adam, his descendants would all then be children of God.
Yet, this would not work in God's decree.

[Please remember, a decree is that which causes something to come to pass or into being ("Let there be light!"), it is not something that merely looks ahead at that which will come to pass on its own ("There will be light."). Thus, God's decree is a creative declaration which causes, by the merit of it being God's omnipotent command, all that it says to come into being. But I digress.]

If God's decree is to take place, man must fall. Please keep reading and paying close attention. Man must fall if Christ is to break him with a rod of iron and shatter him like a clay pot. It must take place. So, through God's decree, and not His authorship, sin entered the Perfect World. Man fell, and God had to kill him for his iniquity (Gen. 2:17). So, all the world was placed under a curse and judgement from God, leading to death (Rom. 3:9-18, 5:12, 6:23, etc.). 

However, what now was God to do? (I am speaking, as Paul did, in "human terms") If every man was evil, then Christ must destroy all of them. If this happens, Christ will not have an inheritance left. Yet God's decree reached beyond this seeming dilemma, for nothing can stop Him. 

Look again to the beginning of time with the Lord. Listen to the parable of the Wheat and Tares.

"Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven was (Note: the original greek is in the past tense here) compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away. But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ The slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn."'" (Mat. 13:24-30)

What does this passage say about our topic? Well, look at Christ's explanation:

"Then He left the crowds and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him and said, 'Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.' And He said, 'The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one; and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels. So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.'" (Mat. 13:36-43)

Now we have the keys to understand the passage and its significance to our topic. Christ sowed good seed, the Sons of the Kingdom, into the World (not the Church, but the World). After Christ did this, Satan came in and sowed tares (weeds), those who are his sons, into the world amongst the wheat. These two plants, wheat and tares, are growing together in this world now, and both seem to look alike at times (cf. vs. 29). Nevertheless, these two plants are inherently different from the beginning, and are always different, even to the end. Once the end has come, the angels will gather both the wheat and the tares, the first to the Kingdom, and the last to Hell (Revelation 14:14-20, 20:11-15, etc.)

This parable can only fit with a complete recounting of all of history. In the very beginning, Christ sowed His people into the world. These are the ones who were predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ, making them brethren with Christ (Rom. 8:28-29). However, Satan infiltrated the world, by the fall of man, and thus sowed his own sons into the world (note: he did not create them, rather they are those who do just as He does and will never repent of their ways). All of this flows well with my last post, and I suggest reading my last one to better understand this difference between sons of God and sons of the Devil.

If you still do not know what I am getting at, here it is:

God, in the very beginning, decreed that His Son would inherit the world and mankind. Some of these men would be crushed, whilst others would be His brethren. So, God created the world. In this world, He sovereignly planned and placed His Sons (Christ's brethren). If sin had not entered, these sons would be the only one's created, and they would have inherited the world and ruled alongside Christ for eternity. However, God decreed that men must fall in order to be destroyed. Thus, God sovereignly decreed that Satan would introduce sin into humanity, causing his downfall. This sowed sons of the Devil into this perfect world, leaving tares among the wheat. Nevertheless, the wheat were still wheat. The sons of the kingdom were still sons of the kingdom, they never became tares. These wheat were destined, by nature of being wheat, to be gathered into the barns.

Yet, these wheat had to be destroyed for justice's sake, since they sinned, just like the tares. However, God was not stopped. He sent His only begotten Son to live and die in the place of the wheat, thus allowing them to enter Heaven through Faith. However, these wheat were much like the tares: without faith or anything good in them. Thus, God caused them to believe in Christ, granting the believing ones eternal life. This in turn ensured their eternal life, allowing God's judgement to pass over them and onto His Son.  

Now, the tares were never the sons of God. No, they are by nature sons of the Devil. As a result, they must inherit the judgement placed on their father: burning in Hell for eternity, crushed under the weight of Christ's wrath. This is their decreed doom, and it cannot be undone. 

Not everyone can be saved, nor can everyone go to Hell, since both would undermine God's Decree. Thus, God proceeded with His aforementioned plan.

This is why the Elect are elect, why they gain faith and no-one else does, why they cannot lose their salvation, why they are justified, and all other implications of the Gospel. 

I will be continuing on this subject later, since I have merely scratched the surface of this issue and much more needs to be addressed.

God Bless. 

God's Soveriegnty vs. Man's Will

Well, it has been a very long time since I have posted anything, and I have felt guilty because of this. It is my God-given duty to proclaim the Gospel, and I have done poorly at that lately. So, by His grace, I have been able to devote some time to this post. It is on the sovereignty of God and its relation to salvation and man's will. This is a very controversial topic, but only because of our sin. In this post, I will briefly go over many foundational truths of the Gospel, and I beg you to pay attention and read to the end. This is not even the beginning of the wonderful grace which God has granted us to know through the Bible, but it is a good place to peer into the marvelous plan of God called the Gospel.

 

As with every theological truth, we must start with the basics. The current problem of mankind goes back to the Fall of man (and finds its origin in an eternal decree of God, but I will get into that in later posts). When Adam decided to rebel against the authority of God and submit himself to Satan, God made a most interesting decree. In Genesis 3:15, God said to Satan,

 

"And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise Him on the heel."     

In part, God is speaking of the ultimate Seed of the woman, which is Christ, the Son of God. What is extremely crucial for us to also grasp is that the first half of this verse is speaking also of two separate, non-deity seeds. In this context, God is speaking of two separate, distinct families, the offspring of two separate personages. The first is the offspring of Satan. Who are these people? According to John 8 vs. 41 and 44,

 

"You are doing the deeds of your father... You are of your father the Devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of all lies."

Here our Lord declares that those who both do and want to do the desires of the Devil are born of him. This is not mere conjecture on my part, since the Spirit reminded John again of this teaching, and he repeated it in 1 John 3,

 

"The one who practices sin is of the Devil; for the Devil has sinned from the beginning... By this the children of God and the children of the Devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother." 

So, we now know that any man who practices sin and hates righteousness is born of the Devil. Now we must ask, who specifically is born of the Devil? To answer that, we must understand that you can only be one of two seeds: the seed of the woman or the seed of Satan. In innumerable passages, we see the seed of the woman equated with the Children of God. This is especially seen in John 3. Here the Lord declares, that you must be born from above, of water and Spirit, in order to inherit the Kingdom of God (John 3:3 & 5). This is set in contrast with those born of the flesh in vs. 6. However, every man is born of the flesh. Look at your body, is that flesh or is that spirit? By virtue of your physical birth, you are a child of the Devil. From your conception you were a sinner (Psalm 51:5). This is especially frightening when we see that if one sins, he is a slave to sin (John 8:34). Since everyone has sinned (Romans 3:23), that means that all men who are born solely of the flesh are slaves to sin and thus sons of the Devil.

 

 

So, everyone (at first) is a son of the Devil, of the flesh. This is a huge problem, since this means that no man can inherit the Kingdom of God, since flesh and blood can't inherit it (1 Cor. 15:50). Thus, our Lord brings a wonderful solution to mankind's impending doom: we must be born of God (John 3:5). Easy enough, right? All you have to do is be born of God.

What is holding you back? Is this not the easiest of actions one could do? Can you not make yourself born of God? Can't you make God give you birth? Well, did you make your mother bear you in your flesh? No. It is the same with this spiritual birth. You do not have the ability to make God bear you.

"But read John 3:16! It says that if we believe in Jesus, we will be saved! Since only those who are born of God are saved, then it must mean that if I believe in Jesus, I will be born of God!" Well, I will grant you that those who truly believe in Christ are born of God. However, can you really, truly believe in Christ? “Yes”, you say. Well, let us test your assertion.

First off, if we want to know whether man is capable of believing in Christ, which is a righteous deed, we must understand his heart. This is because the heart is the wellspring, the origin, of our whole life (Prov. 4:23). So, what is in man’s heart? Well, our Lord, who knew the hearts of every man, gave a list which summarizes man’s heart in Matthew 15:19,

“For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.”

Notice that nothing is said about love or faith or obedience here. This is because the hearts of men are desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9). There really is nothing good left in there. Why? Because they are the image of their father’s heart, which is devoid of all good. So, it is only natural that they are devoid of all good and full of all evil. Thus, no man can do anything, anything, good. Nothing at all. This is especially evident as Paul repeats in Romans 3:10-12,

“There is none righteous, not even one:

There is none who understands,

There is none who seeks for God;

All have turned aside, together they have become useless;

There is none who does good,

There is not even one.”

This is an extremely bleak picture. If this is true, which it is God’s Word and is thus true, then no man can do anything good. Nothing good at all. In fact, it can be said that every unsaved man is just like the unsaved before the flood, with every wish of their heart always being pure evil (Genesis 6:5).

So, can you, of your own will, believe in Christ? “Yes, it must be possible!” If this is still your reply, understand that it is only possible if the Scripture is either wrong or if belief in Christ is evil. Both arguments are sick and unthinkable. Thus, you are left with the fact that you cannot believe in Christ. Moreover, since those who obey Christ are those who are born of God, and since you cannot obey Christ, you cannot make yourself born of God. To make matters worse, you don’t even want to be.

“This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. Because everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” (John 3:19)

If you remember nothing of this post, remember this: you are impotent, hopeless, and purely evil. There is nothing in you that is good, and you in fact hate all good with all of your being. It is true that you are as much a son of the Devil as Hitler, Stalin, and even the arch-son of Hell Judas Iscariot. You cannot save yourself, nor would you do so if you had the ability. No, you prefer to have your sin and your impending doom along with it. Well, you don’t like the idea of going to Hell, where God will pour out His perfect, terrifying wrath on you forever. However, you don’t hate the idea enough to cause you to beg God for mercy. Yet, that is to be expected, since you can’t do anything good because of your own fleshly nature. So, again, you are hopeless. No, you can’t “choose Christ”, or “open the door of your heart to Him”. You can’t accept the Light because you hate the Light and absolutely love evil. Thus, you are headed straight to Hell, where God will pour out His wrath on you for eternity as a result of your rebellion against Him. You are hopeless.

Yet, there is hope, hope that comes from outside of you. This hope is birth from God. Since we have established the fact that you can do nothing good, this hope must come completely from God. Realize, birth from above is a completely new creation inside of you. Through being born of God’s Spirit, you become spirit (John 3:6). In so doing, God creates a clean heart in you, a heart that actually wants and does His will (1 John 3, Ezekiel 36). He truly gives birth to you by miraculously creating a new soul in you, which makes you His son/daughter. As a result, you will inherit the Kingdom of God, which was prepared for you since before time began (Mat. 25:34). All of this is of God, for it is by His grace, through his granting of faith to us, since this work is not of ourselves but is of God (Eph. 2:8).

One of the central tenets of the true Gospel of our Lord is that man is impotent. You are impotent. You can do nothing at all that will allow you to be saved, since you can’t do anything good. Thus, God must save you, He must birth you. Every single part of salvation, from obedience to God to “saving faith”, is impossible for man. Yet, nothing is impossible for God.

Do you understand your utter inability to obey God? Do you realize how wretched, miserable, and poor you are? Good. Are you truly broken and mourning over this fact? Good. Are you humbled before the Almighty, realizing His Greatness and your utter lack of worth? Are you craving for His righteousness as a starving and parched man for food and water? Are you now granting mercy to others? Is your heart purified? Realize, the Kingdom of Heaven is yours. Why? God birthed you, for these are the fruits only of spiritual birth. Our Lord lays it out clearly,

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the Earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in Heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Mat. 5:3-12)

If the above is true of you, rejoice! Be thankful, for while you were still a sinner and enemy of God, God chose you, sent His Son to die in your place, and thus demonstrated His perfect love for you (Rom. 5:8). However, remember that this was not of you. So, lay aside your pride, acting as if you somehow earned salvation. Rather, live a life of perfect humility and love towards all men. Most of all, love God with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength.

“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.

Greater love has no man than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.

You are My friends if you do what I command you.

No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.

You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.

This I command you, that you love one another.” (John 15:12-17)

 

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;

And those whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.” (Romans 8:28-30)

 

Nothing in your walk as a Christian comes from yourself (if it is good). No, either your works are wrought in God alone, by God alone, and by His blessed Will alone, or your works are of the flesh and evil (John 3:20-21). Thank God that He gave us life by His Will. When we could not obey and submit to Him, He granted us faith and repentance in spite of our flesh and evil wills (John 1:12-13). All glory to His Name.

 

God bless.

Live for Eternity

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

(Matthew 6:19-21)

I feel that it is time for me to exhort all of you, my dear readers. I have seen a great evil in the Church, especially in America. I cannot allow it to continue without a fight, so I will write to you all about this. Please let all your family and friends know about this. If you need to, have them read this post; but please do not allow this evil to go unchallenged in your life and in the lives of others! 

Men of God, as I look around me, I see Christians who are striving after worldly things. They want a new car, a college education, a pay raise, to move up on the social ladder, you name it. These things are not bad in themselves. However, this is the main goal of many of these people. There are men who go out and spend forty hours or more a week to spread the word about their political candidate in an effort to get them elected to some political office. There are some who go out and waste themselves physically, mentally, and spiritually in order to pay for a high-end college degree or to buy the house on Beverly Hills. There are also men who spend most of their time sitting around staring at a television and pressing buttons on a controller in order to get the highest score on Call of Duty (or any other video game for that matter).

Brothers, this should not be reality!  

To those who are wasting themselves in order to get a college degree, can you not do even more work in order to gain wisdom and knowledge of God? Why should you fill your head with pagan philosophy, science, and history, yet refuse to do more than just take a glance at God's Word once a day?

To those who are wasting their lives trying to buy a better house, can you not spend yourself working for the mansion in Glory? Why should you live and die in order to buy a house which will be gone in a hundred years or less, yet do nothing in return for Christ's preparing a place for you in Heaven?

To those who sit around playing video games, why in the world should you sit around wasting your time and attention killing the next fake figure on the screen when you could be standing and fighting against the powers of darkness? Why should you sit around pressing buttons all day, sometimes even doing in a video game what Satan would joyfully do in real life, while there is a spiritual battle to fight?!

To those who waste their lives on politics, can you not spend your life working for the Eternal Kingdom? These empires of the Earth will soon fade away, burned by the fires of Hell. Why should you waste your time working to strengthen something that will be consumed, when you can be working for the King of Kings whose Kingdom shall know no end?!

Men, all the things of this wicked earth shall be consumed in fire and brimstone. The grand empires of man will be destroyed, the buildings will collapse, our college degrees will be of no worth, and our time playing video games will be completely wasted. When we get to heaven, our wealth will not matter, our pagan education will be worthless, our political standing will be of naught. Nothing will matter but our faith in God and the fruit which we bore as a result of this faith. 

When you stand before the judgement seat of God Almighty and He asks you, "What is the greatest thing you ever did?" or, "What did you spend the greater part of your life doing?", what will you tell Him? Will you say, "I made the American government follow the Constitution!" or, "I bought an awesome new car!", or, "I gained a Master's degree in Psychology!"? If that is what you tell him, should you expect Him to say, "Well done, good and faithful slave!"? 

Stop wasting your life on the things of this world! They will never satisfy you! Not only that, they will all perish in eternal fire! Men, why should you waste your life on things which are completely worthless, when there is eternity to work for?! 

Please, listen to me! We must stop wasting our lives! (I include my own, for I am far from perfect on this issue) We must turn from our ways, and work for the glory of God Almighty! Everything else is of no value! If it is not for God's glory, it is not worth wasting our time on! 

Live not for this world, live for eternity!