Don't underestimate the battle we must go through on a daily basis to ensure our fellowship with Jesus Christ.
Because Jesus stated there is nothing that matters more than that, and even said to Martha when confronting Jesus about Mary not helping her, that Mary chose the one thing only matters, and He wasn't going to take that away from her.
But the battle we face every day is in not only continuing to believe what Jesus said, but to continue living it in the midst of endless pressures, interruptions and needs.
Jesus also said in Matthew 6:25: "Take no thought for your life." If we are to take no thought for our lives, how much thought for our lives does that leave us? That's right - zero.
Let's not get flaky with what Jesus said, He didn't mean we don't focus on what we need to do in the moment, he's talking, again, how people worry and so choke off the value and fruit of what fellowship with Jesus Christ brings about in us; assuming we maintain our focus on Him and not on the outward circumstances around us.
Usually distractions come from pressures from needs; things like paying bills, money, food, clothing, and a host of other things that fight to be kept in our thoughts and vision.
Deceitfulness of riches, cares of this world; Jesus says to be anxious for nothing. I believe Him, and so should all of us. The reason is there will always be some type of need or circumstance we're worried about at any one time if we allow ourselves to look at it.
That's why Jesus said "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." In other words, there's enough to take care of in the day you face, don't add to it by looking ahead to the future which is in God's hands.
Think of all these things like a dessert always trying to slowly expand and claim fertile land, making land basically useless for anything.
This is what happens when we take thought of the future which isn't even here yet, and takes us away from the simplicity of devotion to Christ, which was what the original temptation was all about.
Jesus said that worry changes nothing, and so when we look toward the future in the sense of things that will, could, or might happen, there is absolutely nothing we can do to change it. And if we attempt to, usually we'll make matters worse, and still be taken off of our fellowship with Christ.
One temptation to watch in all of this, especially when we attempt to apply reasoning, common sense and logic to this, is to start to think Jesus can't relate to us in this way. The truth is we're taught that Jesus was tempted in every way as we are, and yet He said He only did what He saw the Father doing or would only speak what the Father was speaking. That means He refused to allow what was unknown ahead distract Him from that which only mattered.
Even more, He knew He had come into the world to offer Himself as a sacrifice for our sins in order to bring us back into relationship with the Godhead, yet He didn't sit there dwelling on that inevitable reality until the time when He needed to, and the Father told Him to.
Don't let the desert of worries and concerns move you off of the very purpose Jesus created us: to be in constant fellowship with Him through faith in Him. Anything else truly doesn't matter.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Some of the responses I've had over the last months when I talk about the folly of believing the extraordinary hype and misconceptions concerning the cult of environmentalism and outright lie of global warming, shows that many who read Acts 29 Review have bought into the brainwashing, and don't mind drinking the koolaide without checking it out to see if there's any poison in it.
The scriptures teach us we are not to follow every wind of doctrine, and the Lord Jesus has provided us with the means to resist false and spurious doctrine which leads us into all directions but the right one.
But let me say this before anything else; even if everything about global warming, climate change and environmentalism were true, I would still say what I've been saying, and it changes nothing.
Now the things being foisted upon us aren't true, but it's the underlying purpose of God that's at stake, and nothing in this life or world was meant to distract us from that, no matter how
it's presented to us.
So let's again look at the eternal purpose of God in Jesus Christ, which trumps everything else, and really, shows us there is nothing else.
The end of the eternal purpose of God, and that which has dwelt in Him and has been part of Him from before creation, is that He will fill everything with Himself, that He may be all in all. That's it! End of plan! No confusion! Nothing else! Period! Got it?
Everything in this - our selves, the world, and our spiritual enemy, works toward moving us away from God's eternal purpose, and is done quite creatively.
Remember the extraordinary response of Jesus Christ to the situation with Martha and Mary, where Martha complained that Mary wasn't helping her serve everyone?
Jesus first of all identified the source of Martha's complaint: she was always worried about so many things. Then He corrected her by saying Mary was doing the only thing that was really necessary for a human being, and He wasn't going to take that away from her.
What was it? She was simply humbling herself at the feet of Jesus listening to and fellowshipping with Him and the others at their home.
To be filled with Jesus Christ to the point of Him being all in all is to humbly and quietly walk with and before Him while He permeates and imparts Himself to us within; on a moment by moment and daily basis. It's nothing less and nothing more than that. That's why we were created, and that's why Jesus Christ created us. That's our purpose with nothing else added to it.
What all these other things do is take our attention off of what is really important so that we can get caught up with and think we're doing something important because we're busy blabbing about it or somehow taking part in it in a way that makes us thing we're saving the planet or some other delusion of grandeur.
The cost is fellowship with and centering our lives on Jesus Christ. I believe one of the major reasons we cooperate with this, aside from allowing ourselves to be led astray, is because true fellowship with Jesus Christ is a death blow to our self, and we don't like to walk in the light as He is in the light, as it eventually exposes who we are, and we don't like that.
So it's easier to follow a bunch of causes which do nothing to build the person of Jesus Christ within us, but actually becomes an enemy of God because it takes us away from what He has always only cared about: being with us in a loving and intimate way, in order that we are changed into His image.
Causes, possibly more than anything else in our generation, draw and entice us away from the Lord's purpose to chase after endless rainbows and salvation projects which we feel are more important than Christ.
Part of the reason for this is enshrinement of politics as the agent of change rather than Jesus Christ in His people. So you go chasing after confisgated money called taxes to get your share so you can chase the latest activist fads.
Much of this is generated by fear and torment that the world is going to end, and people embrace it as if it's a statement of fact and faith, and don't bother to check assertions out to see if they're even true.
This is why there are tools used by evil people to attempt to pressure the masses into allowing legislation to be enacted, which of course must be done today if we're going to have a world tomorrow. That's an old but effective tactic used to tap into the innate fears so many people have and to make them believe the government can be our savior.
Only Jesus Christ is our Savior, and there is nothing else that can be allowed to replace Him in our lives in that capacity. Government for a long time has been attempting to push Jesus Christ and Christianty out of the equation in order to position itself as god to the people. The fact that many of you reading this aren't even aware of that and have embraced that uncritically shows how far down the rabbit hole you've traveled.
Again, as I've mentioned several times recently, winds of doctrine doesn't only refer to doctrine about Jesus Christ, but it refers to teachings and assertions made from generation to generation which attempt to sway the masses to believe a lie in order to gain more power and control, effectively placing Jesus Christ as some type of usurper or fraud who needs to take His place as one of the many gods out there, and quit attempting to assert His rights as the only God of this universe, although He is the King of kings and Lord of lords.
I will never stop calling for people to abandon the misguided and baseless assertions connected to environmental and other causes like that, which in many cases are based upon outright lies and manufactured data, and at best need time to work out as we gain wisdom.
But people who even name Christ have bought into this or have become pragmatic in order to gather those who insist upon this being part of the Church, when Paul told Timothy that a good soldier of Jesus Christ isn't to get caught up in the affairs of this world.
So now what are you going to do about that wisdom of the Holy Spirit spoken through Paul to Timothy, and by extention - to us
The scriptures teach us we are not to follow every wind of doctrine, and the Lord Jesus has provided us with the means to resist false and spurious doctrine which leads us into all directions but the right one.
But let me say this before anything else; even if everything about global warming, climate change and environmentalism were true, I would still say what I've been saying, and it changes nothing.
Now the things being foisted upon us aren't true, but it's the underlying purpose of God that's at stake, and nothing in this life or world was meant to distract us from that, no matter how
it's presented to us.
So let's again look at the eternal purpose of God in Jesus Christ, which trumps everything else, and really, shows us there is nothing else.
The end of the eternal purpose of God, and that which has dwelt in Him and has been part of Him from before creation, is that He will fill everything with Himself, that He may be all in all. That's it! End of plan! No confusion! Nothing else! Period! Got it?
Everything in this - our selves, the world, and our spiritual enemy, works toward moving us away from God's eternal purpose, and is done quite creatively.
Remember the extraordinary response of Jesus Christ to the situation with Martha and Mary, where Martha complained that Mary wasn't helping her serve everyone?
Jesus first of all identified the source of Martha's complaint: she was always worried about so many things. Then He corrected her by saying Mary was doing the only thing that was really necessary for a human being, and He wasn't going to take that away from her.
What was it? She was simply humbling herself at the feet of Jesus listening to and fellowshipping with Him and the others at their home.
To be filled with Jesus Christ to the point of Him being all in all is to humbly and quietly walk with and before Him while He permeates and imparts Himself to us within; on a moment by moment and daily basis. It's nothing less and nothing more than that. That's why we were created, and that's why Jesus Christ created us. That's our purpose with nothing else added to it.
What all these other things do is take our attention off of what is really important so that we can get caught up with and think we're doing something important because we're busy blabbing about it or somehow taking part in it in a way that makes us thing we're saving the planet or some other delusion of grandeur.
The cost is fellowship with and centering our lives on Jesus Christ. I believe one of the major reasons we cooperate with this, aside from allowing ourselves to be led astray, is because true fellowship with Jesus Christ is a death blow to our self, and we don't like to walk in the light as He is in the light, as it eventually exposes who we are, and we don't like that.
So it's easier to follow a bunch of causes which do nothing to build the person of Jesus Christ within us, but actually becomes an enemy of God because it takes us away from what He has always only cared about: being with us in a loving and intimate way, in order that we are changed into His image.
Causes, possibly more than anything else in our generation, draw and entice us away from the Lord's purpose to chase after endless rainbows and salvation projects which we feel are more important than Christ.
Part of the reason for this is enshrinement of politics as the agent of change rather than Jesus Christ in His people. So you go chasing after confisgated money called taxes to get your share so you can chase the latest activist fads.
Much of this is generated by fear and torment that the world is going to end, and people embrace it as if it's a statement of fact and faith, and don't bother to check assertions out to see if they're even true.
This is why there are tools used by evil people to attempt to pressure the masses into allowing legislation to be enacted, which of course must be done today if we're going to have a world tomorrow. That's an old but effective tactic used to tap into the innate fears so many people have and to make them believe the government can be our savior.
Only Jesus Christ is our Savior, and there is nothing else that can be allowed to replace Him in our lives in that capacity. Government for a long time has been attempting to push Jesus Christ and Christianty out of the equation in order to position itself as god to the people. The fact that many of you reading this aren't even aware of that and have embraced that uncritically shows how far down the rabbit hole you've traveled.
Again, as I've mentioned several times recently, winds of doctrine doesn't only refer to doctrine about Jesus Christ, but it refers to teachings and assertions made from generation to generation which attempt to sway the masses to believe a lie in order to gain more power and control, effectively placing Jesus Christ as some type of usurper or fraud who needs to take His place as one of the many gods out there, and quit attempting to assert His rights as the only God of this universe, although He is the King of kings and Lord of lords.
I will never stop calling for people to abandon the misguided and baseless assertions connected to environmental and other causes like that, which in many cases are based upon outright lies and manufactured data, and at best need time to work out as we gain wisdom.
But people who even name Christ have bought into this or have become pragmatic in order to gather those who insist upon this being part of the Church, when Paul told Timothy that a good soldier of Jesus Christ isn't to get caught up in the affairs of this world.
So now what are you going to do about that wisdom of the Holy Spirit spoken through Paul to Timothy, and by extention - to us
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