Greater than Abraham

This morning I was thinking about Moses, his trials and tribulations, his temper costing him the blessing of entering the Promised Land, and how that often gets interpreted as meaning one can lose one's salvation. I thought about how Moses begged the Lord  to change His mind, however the Lord is the Lord, and His final answer was "no".

I'm not going to take this into the whys of it not being about losing salvation. That is something that is amply discussed and easily refuted with careful study.

As I thought about Moses and his foibles as well as his triumphs, I thought about how much like Moses our walk with Jesus is. We have our struggles, and failures, and triumphs! and failures....etc, and many times we fail in trusting the Lord, we fail when we lose our temper with coworkers, or even worse; our spouses...but Moses was an exceptional leader and a pillar in the Jewish people's faith. Christians think about Moses once in a while, mostly  when watching Charleton Heston play him in the movie "The Ten Commandments" at Easter / Passover time. But for the Jews Moses is a much bigger deal. Moses recorded the first five books; The Torah. He led Israel out of Egypt. He parted the Red Sea!!!...well, actually God did, but Moses gets the credit....but he did that one little thing wrong; striking a rock; and it carried a huge penalty. Remember the Egyptian he murdered? That didn't cost him the Promised Land. Anyway, that's how my musings went this morning...AND THEN the words "Greater than Abraham is here".

That thought took me aback for a moment. Abraham was great, even by Jewish thinking, as well as Christians and even Muslims too!!! And Abraham had his issues as well, he told some "little white lies" about Sarah being only his sister that got Sarah into some awkward situations. I wish I could have been a fly on their wall to hear what she had to say about that, because knowing Jewish women I know she would have had some words! Yet he is the father of the "great faiths" of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. And pondering over that, then pondering those words of Jesus: "I tell you greater than Abraham is here".

We as people tend to idolize other people, not all people, but certain ones. Many people, even Christians, idolize President Trump right now. They probably would be thrilled to meet him, and be thoroughly gobsmacked in such a situation. I would too! I thought about the people that I hold high...I thought Charles Krauthammer was amazing, what an intellect, but he did not accept Jesus as Messiah, and unlike what many Christians believe, Jews do not get an automatic pass. They revere Abraham and Moses, but "Greater than Abraham is here". Any one of us might get excited to meet with and get the attention of some great world leader, or even a famous movie star, but "Greater than ABRAHAM  is here" who is even greater than anyone we can currently put on a pedestal.

And then I thought about the fact that Jesus gives us the honour of meeting with Him, being in His presence, ANYTIME. Wow! Yet we often look at prayer and reading the Bible as things to do at the bottom of the list of things that we need to get done.

Just something I was pondering this morning....

Unhindered Prayer

Yesterday morning while reading 1 Peter my attention was drawn to two verses in which Peter touched on something that can hinder our prayers:

The first one comes at the end of a warning to husbands and wives to love each other, summing up this admonishment with this:

"and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered." 1 Peter 3:7 (ESV)

The second comes after stating the importance of avoiding temptations to join others in following after lusts of the flesh, human passions, and debauchery and then saying:

The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. 1 Peter 4:7 (ESV)

It is less clear in the KJV where it is:

But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.

 

While reading it made perfect sense that when we live a careless life, doing those things that we have freedom in Christ to do, yet things that are not profitable to do (1st Corinthians 6:12), we hinder our relationship with Christ in the same way we hinder our relationship in a marriage where our communication then as a consequence suffers. 

If we truly love the Lord we want to have that right relationship, one where we stay in communion with each other, praying for each other, even for our enemies, forgiving each other as Jesus has forgiven us and steering clear from those things that would hinder our prayers and our communication with the One who loves us the most.

The Feminization of Everything part 2

In the previous post I linked to an online book I’m reading http://www.crossroad.to/Books/TwistofFaith/1-Father-Mother.html

This book brings much to light regarding what we see today, and is even infecting our churches. That is a point I would like to explore a little more in this posting.

I admit that I spend more time than I should debating things that would be better to leave to the Lord to deal with Himself. While trying to make sense of the many ridiculous statements made these days, even by Christians (so-called) I cannot help but notice how the pagan ideas which influence the feminist movement are seeping into mainstream Christian theology and practice. I must admit that I also often feel the tug of the seductive imagery of the woman warrior dressed for battle against satanic foes. But is that image truly accurate and in line with true Biblical teaching? Actually, no, it is not.

Warriors in scripture have always been men. “Oh, but what about Deborah mentioned in the book of Judges!?” Interesting that Deborah is often brought up in these discussions to bolster their argument that God puts women in positions of power and authority. But truly if one really examines what occurred in the account of Deborah in the book of Judges one finds that it actually dismantles the notion that it was a good idea for a man, a general in the Israeli army, to have wanted to trust and obey and even hide behind a woman to fight his battle.

I hope and pray anyone reading this will read the book I linked to as well as the story of Deborah in the book of Judges...and revisit what happened in the garden of Eden as well. Then also read about Jezebel and Ahab, and the Jezebel mentioned in the book of Revelation in the 7 letters to 7 churches. Do some careful study of these things and see where this stuff is leading to. I promise you, if God grants you wisdom, you will find that it is not leading to a good place.

The Feminization of Everything

Gen 3:1  Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

Gen 3:2  And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

Gen 3:3  But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

Gen 3:4  And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

Gen 3:5  For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

Gen 3:6  And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

"Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness....
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, And prudent in their own sight!" Isaiah 5:20-21

I recently found an online book that explains much of what we see happening in churches, and in the entire world for that matter. It began gradually and subtly, as these things do, and recently these things have been ramping up.

There are many things that are upside down and backward from “the way it’s supposed to be”, many are inherent to this fallen world: crime and violence, lying, cheating, wars and rumours of wars, etc, and these also are increasing dramatically. We have the ability to blow the entire planet to smitherines...but the book I mentioned above goes into something else, and we’ve been hitting all around what the problem is, but not actually getting at it’s very root.



The “gender issues” and the feminists rage and outrage increasing combined with the call for “getting in touch with your inner warrior”, and the symbols of warrior princesses and goddesses on the warpath are now creeping even into Christian congregations...but there was something that I still wasn’t quite getting, I mean, yes, of course it is satan inspired and the paganism components are understandable enough, yet I still wasn’t quite piecing it all together.

 (While searching for a good Greek goddess depiction I stumbled onto this interesting site: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-different-roles-of-women-in-mythology.htm# )

 Artemis/Diana

http://factsanddetails.com/world/cat56/sub367/item2023.html

The above linked online book does that "piecing it all together" for me. It packs a punch at really getting at the very root of these issues and why gender confusion and the feminine power has become the rallying cry for women and many men as well trying to “access their feminine side”.

It all goes back to that original problem of the original sin...and of course I knew that, but looking at these things once again what do we see? It is the woman that succumbed to "the evil one" and sought her own wisdom to lead her instead of trusting what God had told them. And today we see it shouted loud and proud that God's way is evil and puts women down, that Christianity is to blame for making this "a man's world" and blames God and men for all the ills of the world, but not all "gods" are to blame, only the God of the Bible, the God that sent Jesus to ransom us from sin...oh, and there's no such thing as sin...

Hmm, now where would such "new" information come from do you suppose? Is Eve getting duped all over again?

Working for Jesus

For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;

 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.

If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.

If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

1 Corinthians 3:11-15

It’s entirely possible to be saved and have all your works go up in smoke, nothing to show for it. There are probably many who will find that to be true for them in their fiery hour of testing...and perhaps there are also many who will find the little things they did that they didn’t think added up to anything will end up being precious stones in their golden crowns, which they will lay at Jesus feet because after all God gets all the glory and praise. We have nothing unless it is given to us by God and even our next breath, our very next heartbeat is impossible without God sustaining us. 

Our God is an awesome God.

Loss of First Love

Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;

I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:

And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.

Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.--Revelation 2:1-7

The message to the church at Ephesus was a “good news - bad news” message. This church was very busy, actively exposing liars and heretics and making everyone aware of the hateful works of the Nicholaitans which the Lord states in His letter to them that He also hates (their deeds). But while they are so busy exposing the false they have lost sight of the most important thing, love.

Just yesterday I was in a conversation with a woman that is extremely busy and tirelessly exposes the “heretics” of today, but it is very obvious that something very important is very lacking in her messages, although I fully admit it is good to be aware of these false teachers and to expose them. I tried to get that across to her but it only caused her to do to me what she complains the followers of these false teachers do to her. Not only that but she accused me and my husband of all sorts of things that are not only damaging, but untrue. I posted the entire conversation between us last night but it is so caustic that I decided against doing so, but pray that the Lord reveals to her that although she is right in exposing the false, she has definitely lost sight of the more important thing. It is glaringly obvious that her passion for Christ, a passion for sharing her love in a way that ignites such a love in others, is missing from her rants. 

The Bible warns us that we are to be careful when we correct others because we might fall back into such errors ourselves if we are so boastful. Such was the case with Ephesus. In exposing the terrible sins of others they themselves were guilty of a greater sin. When exposing and correcting others our main hearts desire should still be one of reclamation and restoration. If we cannot reach them with that it should still be our hope that the Lord will one day bring them to repentance, ever mindful that we ourselves were rescued from even greater sins, remaining humble before Christ. This woman showed her lack of humility and even felt emboldened to make untrue accusations to prop up her own errors.

I hope and pray that she, and others like her, realize what they (like Ephesus) are lacking in, and come humbly before the throne making their number one passion to win others to Christ Jesus, which is an even more important work than the continuous pointing out of others faults.

Our Main Focus Should be What is Holy and True

It is so easy to do, and I admit I am guilty of this as well, it is so easy to point to the false ones, the charlatans, the wolves in sheeps clothing, and go on and on about them. Boy don’t I know it!! And of course I’ve heard that saying that when I point at others there are at least three fingers pointing back at myself. "Yes, I know I have faults as well, but I’m not leading a congregation, nor am I setting myself up as some kind of authority figure...however, be that as it may, those guys are doing great damage to the flock of the Lord, and the Bible warns us about them, and, and, and..."

Yes, the Bible does warn us, as does the Holy Spirit, and we also should warn others, certainly, out of our compassion for others and our love of the Truth. The Truth. Our love of the truth. If 99% of my time is spent telling people what is wrong with some people do they really get a sense of my love for the Truth? Or does it have more of the appearance of my love of finding fault with others?

There’s another saying that I think is good to keep in mind the times we feel the need to point to the sins of counterfeit preachers: It is easier to spot a counterfeit if we are very familiar with the actual, the real McCoy so to speak. If we truly love the Truth then let’s keep our gaze on Jesus, and not on all the imposters. If we truly love the Lord; He Who is genuine and true; we will know to follow Him and will see the falseness of the false ones soon enough because HE will reveal it.

Let’s get everyone to focus on the Original and true instead of constantly sounding like brass cymbal as we are warned in 1 Corinthians 13 (think of the gong on The Gong Show, and how annoying that was!!!) and then pray for those imposters, pray that the Lord will teach them the right way, or that the Lord will expose them and keep them from fooling His true sheep.

It's good to warn about the false once in a while, but if that's all we do maybe we need to re-evaluate our focus.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  1 Corinthians 13:1