08.19.07
Posted in Persecution at 6:33 pm by TruthofmyKing
The apostle Paul, bondservant of Christ, became a TRUE Christian the moment he was confronted by the Lord Jesus on his journey into Damascus.
Now I have a question; after Paul was converted did Jesus give him a new Mercedes Benz and a 3 Story - 7 Bedroom mansion to live in?
No, instead the Lord said something peculiar and strange that flies in the face of Modern Christianity:
Acts 9:16
16 for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake. ”
NASB
Let us look at an example of Pauls life, AFTER he came to know Christ as Savior…
2 Cor 11:23-27
23 Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as if insane) I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. 24 Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. 26 I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; 27 I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.
NASB
I spoke with a man this week in which he told me that his friend was trying to convince him that “Once you come to know Christ, your troubles will pass.”
I explained that this is true. He then asked, “well how can what you say be true when I can see bad things happenning to Christians after they are “saved”? I said because when I agreed that your “troubles will pass away” I did so in the context of the judgment of God on your carnal soul on that faithful day.
You see, there will be a day when every man will give an account before God and if the Lord is your righteousness then the greatest trouble of your life has passed and the Holy wrath of God and the fury of fire will escape you.
However, your troubles, in the flesh, here on this earth, will just begin.
Consider first who is the ruler of this earth. It is satan himself. Do you expect a bed of roses to be laid down for you in your enemies land? Will you rest comfortably here on earth as a true servant of Christ?
Listen to what your Lord has said:
John 15:19
19 “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
NASB
I have heard the following statement from people who profess Christ as their Savior: “I am not having any problems, life is good to me.”
I would ask “Are you greater than your Master?”
The reason for my question is when you say you are a servant of Christ and you are not receiving persecution then you are either greater than Christ or you make Him a liar according to the Gospel through John:
John 15:20
20 “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.
NASB
I am saddened by the false prophets and the deceived multitudes that call themselves by the name of “Christian” these days. The world is their friend and they suffer no persecution for Christ’s sake. I can assure you they are not greater than Christ so my conclusion is that they must be of this world. Christ has said, “the world will love its own.”
But they argue even more, that the Scripture says Christ came to give us life abundantly. Again, this is true:
John 10:10
10 “The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly.
NASB
But, did it ever cross your carnal mind that this “abundant life” talked about in this passage is the “life to come” and not the life you have in this wicked world.
Did Christ give you an abundant life in this unholy place so that He then could turn around and tell you that you must hate that same life?
John 12:25
25 “He who loves his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal.
NASB
I assure you that these verses don’t contradict each other, they are only speaking about two different times in a TRUE Christian’s life. One is the life to come and this is the abundant life that Christ came to give. The other is the life you have now, that is your worldly, fleshly, life and you will hate it, if you love Christ.
Paul makes it clear that we have not yet become what we will be, but that day is coming:
1 Cor 15:53-55
53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory. 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
NASB
We now live as mortal, perishable beings, but if the Lord is our Righteousness we will ONE DAY be risen and changed in the twinkling of an eye, to an imperishable and immortal being.
That is if God has regenerated you.
How do you know if you have been regenerated? Can you apply Scripture to yourself? Does it speak to you or does it condemn you? Are you being persecuted in this world? Have you suffered for Christ’s sake?
Rom 8:16-17
16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.
NASB
Do not be afraid to suffer with Christ. Suffer in denial of your temptations, suffer in persecutions, suffer in all things.
I can say this because He lives today and one day you also will live, if you truly are His. Examine yourself today to see if Christ is in you, if He is not found, repent and believe.
2 Tim 2:3
3 Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
NASB
For the Truth of my King
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08.10.07
Posted in Justice at 5:51 pm by TruthofmyKing
Let me re-arrange the title and ask you, “Why do good things happen to “bad” people?
Modern Chrisitanity has everything turned around. We do not start with the true teaching that all men and women deserve nothing short of hell. That is to say, we deserve nothing short of being tormented day and night beyond the comprehension of our carnal minds for an eternity. There has only been one man that has ever walked on this earth that did not deserve hell and that man, was Jesus, who is the Christ.
I bid you, find me one man, if you can, that “deserves” anything less than eternal punishment from a Holy God. We have all sinned and have fallen short of the Glory of our God and the wages of our sin is “death”.
I propose that if a man TRULY understood this teaching, then he would consider anything short of this punishment as “mercy”, an act of kindness, perhaps even “grace”.
If the Lord cast me in hell, I would have no response except “God is good, God is just, I am getting what I deserve.” And if He allowed me to set just one foot outside of hell while the rest of me burned, it would be an act of mercy on His behalf.
So you see, starting at this point, puts everything in its proper perspective. What “calamity” has come upon us in this present day that we can compare to what we actually deserve? There is no comparison for a man in whom the Lord has revealed the sinfulness of his sin.
Now, come let me reason with the one who professes faith in Christ, and says “God doesn’t want these things to happen”.
May I ask you, is God sovereign? That is to ask, isn’t He in COMPLETE control, or not?
The word sovereign means: independent of all others; supreme in power, rank, or authority.
Does it escape you what is written in God’s word:
1 Tim 6:15
15 which He will bring about at the proper time - He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords; NASB
If God is sovereign, and He is, then all the calamity that happens in this present evil age happens with His full knowledge and with His permission. Tell me, was Job taken captive by the devil before God allowed it? What has ever happened since creation that has been outside of God’s control, that He could not have stopped, or intervened?
What some have done, is created a God in their minds that is nothing like the God of the bible. This God in their mind does not create evil or calamity. In fact, I once witnessed a poor minister who, before a crowd of 1,000, put a talking point before us all, which read “God does not create calamity (evil)”. My heart sank, because He must not have been talking about my God. For my God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has said:
Isa 45:7
7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
KJV
In which God he was talking about that does not create evil, I do not know, but he certainly was not being faithful to the revealed word through the prophet Isaiah.
If you are reading this article and your heart has sank because the god of your mind has been crushed, then I rejoice in part, not in your ill feeling, but in the destruction of your idol, this god that you have made up in your mind. Perhaps now you might see the living God and fear Him and fall upon His Son with strong tears yearning for mercy and now you may live.
Consider yet another place in Scripture:
1 Sam 16:14
14 Now the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD terrorized him.
NASB
Now please answer me plainly, from whom does the infallible words of my God say the evil spirit came? Yes, it was from Yahweh, the LORD.
1 Sam 16:15
15 Saul’s servants then said to him, “Behold now, an evil spirit from God is terrorizing you.
NASB
C.S Lewis once wrote, and I am fond to remember:
“This God of ours is no tamed lion.”
How many men, women, and children, both young and old, and animals alike, did God horribly drown in the global flood? How many famines have been brought upon the people by God, Himself?
Consider this passage about a pestilence:
2 Sam 24:15
15 So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time; and seventy thousand men of the people from Dan to Beersheba died.
NASB
In the beginning of this article, I wrote that we deserve nothing short of hell and if you have read to this point then you should be thoroughly convinced that the True Living God is mighty and “terrible” as the Scripture says that He is. But I also want you to know that God is also merciful. The punishment of hell that you have deserved has been paid for by another, that is Christ. He did not have to pay your price for your debt, but He did. It is a free gift to those who repent and believe in His message. It is a gift to those who follow after Him with all their heart, mind, and soul. We do not make up who He is in our minds and follow after false idols but I testify that He will replace your heart of stone with a heart of flesh, He will change you from the inside out, you will then hear the voice of the “Good Shepherd” and you will be a “sheep” of His flock.
He says:
John 10:27-29
27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; 28 and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. 29 “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
NASB
I beg you, accept the free gift today. Today, if you hear His voice, feel His calling, repent and believe.
But if you refuse I wonder how you will escape God if you neglect so great a salvation?
For the Truth of my King
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08.07.07
Posted in Repentance at 11:16 pm by TruthofmyKing
Why do ministers joke about sin?
Through study, I cannot recall one joke ever recorded in the Holy Bible. God is serious. The words are serious. Your sins are serious.
Consider this, Paul never even started an epistle with a joke to loosen up the Corinthians or the Ephesians, much less did he joke of sin. It has only become relevant in today’s society, in which finds itself further and further from the Truth about God. They want to come to “church” to laugh and feel good about themselves, not to hear about sin. Never would they consider repenting in sackcloth and ashes like the men and women of Nineveh.
Jonah 3:5-10
5 Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. 6 When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat on the ashes. 7 And he issued a proclamation and it said, “In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. 8 “But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands. 9 “Who knows, God may turn and relent, and withdraw His burning anger so that we shall not perish?”
10 When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.
NASB
Jesus’s message has been “Repent and Believe”(Mark 1:15).
However, rather than repenting and mourning over sin, we are laughing at it and trying to make it less relevant or somehow less hurtful to God in our carnal minds.
In short, as a nation, we have denied the Lords message of repentance, the clarity of His speech in such passages, and the serious mood of His Holy Book.
For this reason Nineveh will rise and judge us.
Matt 12:41
41 “The men of Nineveh shall stand up with this generation at the judgment, and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
NASB
Mark my words, never will a man rise and laugh at the very sin that nailed Jesus to the cross while he is in His mighty prescence.
Jesus DIED for that sin. They spit on Him for our transgressions. There He was naked, bruised, bleeding, panting, nailed by hand and foot, thorns digging into His skull, crushed by His own Father, and we have laughed at the very reason He died; we are laughing at our sin. We should be ashamed of ourselves.
For the Truth of my King
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