tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44069832869671739752024-03-28T23:29:33.894-04:00Panting After GodAs the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God. <br>Psalm 42:1 A song of the sons of Korah. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09010159157954465949noreply@blogger.comBlogger1478125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4406983286967173975.post-67464983888206876332016-09-19T07:14:00.000-04:002016-09-19T07:14:28.805-04:00There is only one mention of Translations in the scriptures.There is only one mention of Translations in the scriptures.<br />
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<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/UeIi4ugMDTc/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UeIi4ugMDTc?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09010159157954465949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4406983286967173975.post-3025425182827781702016-09-11T10:33:00.000-04:002016-09-11T10:35:11.016-04:00“Love not in words, with the tongue, but in deed and in truth”<h1 class="H1" style="color: #ff6600; font-family: Calibri, "Times New Roman", Arial, serif; font-size: 1.4rem; line-height: 38.08px; margin-left: 100px; margin-right: 100px; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline;">
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Paul, starting from the 8th chapter of II Corinthians, makes a reference that extents up to the 9th chapter, to the material contributions to the saints. There, in verses seven and eight of the 8th chapter , and after he has already made mention of the example of the Macedonians that: "in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality", he turns to the Corinthians and tells them:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">II Corinthians 8:7-8</span><br />
"But as you abound in everything - in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all diligence, and in your love for us - see that you abound in this grace also. I speak not by commandment, <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">but I am testing the sincerity of your love by the diligence of others.</span>"</div>
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It was the last part of verse 8 that drew my attention. Whether the Corinthians would show diligence, earnestness, interest for others and their needs, would show also the genuine of their love. And this is the measure of the genuine of our love: the interest for others. Not simply the interest in words but also the interest that is realised in action; the interest that would make us with joy to accept to take something from ourselves and give it where there is a bigger need. As Paul again says:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">II Corinthians 8:9</span><br />
"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich."</div>
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And as<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;"> Philippians 2:5-8</span> also says:<br />
"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross."</div>
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Jesus Christ whose mind we are called to have, humbled Himself and went even to the cross. This He did only because <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">He loved us</span>. As the Word of God says in Ephesians 3:19, "to know <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">the love of Christ which passes knowledge</span>" Jesus Christ loves us with genuine love that passes knowledge. This love, this mind, we are called by God’s Word to follow as well, loving in the same way one another. For, as James asks:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">James 2:15-16</span><br />
"If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">what does it profit?</span>"</div>
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"You don’t have to eat….. Never mind my brother….. God bless you". Usually it is we the means through whom the Lord passes His blessing to the others, and if we don’t have genuine love then even if we say nice words, "what does it profit"? Also as John in I John 3:16-18 says:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">I John 3:16-17</span><br />
"By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?</span>"</div>
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We knew the love of the Lord not because we read nice words, but because these words were made acts – His love was manifested by giving Himself for us. In the opposite side of this example we have the brother who though he has the material ability he does not want to help. "Shuts up his heart from him" says the Word, choosing not to show mercy. In this case however, "how does the love of God abide in him?" With two questions the Word leaves no place for misunderstandings and illusions: "what does it profit?" says James. "How does the love of God abide in him?" asks John, to conclude a verse later:</div>
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"My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth."</div>
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and again </div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">I John 4:12</span><br />
"No one has seen God at any time. <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us</span>."</div>
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It is the interest, the diligence for others that shows the genuine of our love. Love that when it is needed, is not realized in actions is not genuine love. And such "love" is not the love that we are called to have. Our love should be "not in words, with the tongue, but in deed and in truth".</div>
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<a href="https://plus.google.com/+AnastasiosKioulachoglou?rel=author" target="_blank">Anastasios Kioulachoglou</a> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> "The Warnings of the New Testament". </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09010159157954465949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4406983286967173975.post-81259531196159404552016-09-09T03:46:00.003-04:002016-09-09T03:46:36.815-04:00Love does no harm to a neighbor<h1 class="H1" style="color: #ff6600; font-family: Calibri, "Times New Roman", Arial, serif; font-size: 1.4rem; line-height: 38.08px; margin-left: 100px; margin-right: 100px; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline;">
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We find this passage in Romans 13. There, starting from verse 8 we read:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">Romans 13:8-10</span><br />"Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery," "You shall not murder," "You shall not steal," "You shall not bear false witness," "You shall not covet," and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Love does no harm to a neighbor</span>; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law."</div>
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"Love does no harm to a neighbor". We will not do any harm to our neighbor when we love him. We will not steal him, nor lie to him, nor deceive him nor harm him in something. All the law, the "you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet and any other commandment" as the Word says, is summed up in this single phrase: in "you shall love your neighbor as yourself." Here is what the Lord said concerning the magnitude of this commandment:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">Mark 12:28-31</span><br />"Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, "Which is the first commandment of all?" Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is: `Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. `And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment. "And the second, <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">like it</span>, is this: `<span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">You shall love your neighbor as yourself</span>.' There is no other commandment greater than these."</div>
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Though the scribe asked Him for the first commandment, the Lord answered him with two commandments. The "you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength" and together the "<span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">you shall love your neighbor as yourself</span>". As He said this commandment is LIKE the first one. As another gospel adds to these words of the Lord: "<span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">On these two commandments</span> hang all the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:40). Also as I John 4:20-21 tells us:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">I John 4:20-21</span><br />"<span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And his commandment we have from him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.</span>"</div>
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Many try not to fail in this or the other point, or not to deviate from this or that commandment. However, what the Word of God tells us is that all this will come to pass, will be kept, simply when we love our neighbor. All the commandments are summed up in this love. If we don’t love, then we will in vain try to keep what only through love can be kept.</div>
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<a href="https://plus.google.com/+AnastasiosKioulachoglou?rel=author" target="_blank">Anastasios Kioulachoglou</a> </div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> "The Warnings of the New Testament". </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> download for FREE at: </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;">http://www.jba.gr/</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09010159157954465949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4406983286967173975.post-13867684879160259232016-09-05T13:11:00.000-04:002016-09-05T13:11:56.315-04:00Obama will likely be the next president. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
From the beginning, I have told and believed he would become a dictator. It is so easily done. He already has it in the law. Are you ready?</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09010159157954465949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4406983286967173975.post-83166611915906704252016-09-03T07:01:00.001-04:002016-09-03T07:01:49.399-04:00When we surrender to Christ<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">Jesse Morrell. What a change God can make!!! </span></div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09010159157954465949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4406983286967173975.post-49168233897329207812016-08-28T18:12:00.003-04:002016-08-28T18:12:38.728-04:00The Early Church Before Augustine on Free Will and Original Sin - Winkie PratneyThis is one of the most important videos I have ever listened to. When I as a prodigal and came home to the Father in 1991, He started leading me to change my mind and He is still teaching me. Brethren, you will be shaken as you hear the early church fathers: all of them in unison and proclaiming the truth which goes contrary to most of what the teachers are feeding the people.<br />
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I rejoice and worship the God who made us in His image!! He has been so misrepresented by religion. I am so thrilled to follow Him!!! PLEASE watch this all the way through.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09010159157954465949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4406983286967173975.post-76718505885540266852016-08-26T06:07:00.001-04:002016-08-26T06:10:09.969-04:00The way of Balaam<h1 class="H1" style="color: #ff6600; font-family: Calibri, "Times New Roman", Arial, serif; font-size: 1.4rem; line-height: 38.08px; margin-left: 100px; margin-right: 100px; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline;">
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We find the record of Balaam in Numbers 22-24. Israel, being on the way to the promised land, camped in the “plains of Moab on the side of Jordan across from Jericho” (Numbers 22:1). This made Balak, king of Moab, very afraid and he sent ambassadors to Pethor - a place in Mesopotamia, several hundred kilometers away – to bring Balaam. The assignment he had for him is given in Numbers 22: 5-6:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">Numbers 22:5-6</span><br />
“Look a people has come from Egypt. See they cover the face of the earth, and are settling next to me! Therefore please come at once, curse this people for me, for they are too mighty for me. Perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land, for I know that he whom you bless is blessed and he whom you curse is cursed”</div>
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Balaam’s fame was that “him whom he blessed was blessed and him whom he cursed was cursed” (Numbers 22:6). If one reads the whole record of Numbers 22-24 he will find out that Balaam <span style="background-color: yellow;">initially</span> had a godly attitude. When the servants of Balak approached him, he only promised to them that he would check their request with God. When God told him not to go with them, he obediently sent them away. This is what a man walking on the right path would do and that’s what Balaam did as well. He was obviously walking on that path. However, Balak insisted. After some days more princes, more honorable ones, arrived again at Balaam’s place promising him great honour and riches if he only went and cursed Israel. Somebody that had clearly settled the answer of God in his heart, would not wait: he would again send the princes away, as God had already made it clear that he was not to go with them. But Balaam didn’t do this. Instead he said that he would check with God again. Though this is still okay and certainly not as bad as going with them without checking with God at all, it indeed shows a crack, an instability, an intention to not send them away unsatisfied. You plea God again only for something that you still want, and you are not fine and settled with what He has told you the first time. And this is what happened here. Balaam wanted to go with them, the gifts too many and the honour too much for him to deny. On the other hand, he didn’t want to disobey God either! He would be happy if he went there, curse Israel, get the rewards and have it fine with God too – much the same with us sometimes: I want to do my will, so God please change yours, let me do mine and we will be fine! God seeing him at this stage, told him to go but only if the men came to call him again. Yet, in the morning we see him up on his donkey and ready for the long travel! He didn’t want to lose a second and didn’t wait for anybody to call him! As a result, God’s anger was aroused and He sent His angel to stand against him. Balaam’s ass saved his life for when she saw the angel she tried to avoid him. The angel told Balaam to go but to ONLY say the word that God would speak to him. Why did God have to say to him “ONLY the word that I will speak to you, that you will speak” (Numbers 22:35)? This was a warning to Balaam to not deviate from His word. As we will see, he didn’t pay attention to it fully. Balaam therefore went and met Balak. Despite that Balak took him to various places that would make it easier for him to curse Israel, Balaam kept attached to what God had told him and spoke only His word which was only blessings for Israel. Balak was very upset! Here is what he said to Balaam after a three-round blessing of Israel: “I called you to curse my enemies, and look, you have bountifully blessed them these three times! Now therefore, flee to your place. I said I would greatly honor you, but in fact, the Lord has kept you back from honor” (Numbers 24:10-11).</div>
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Balaam: An example to be avoided</h2>
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It appears that Balaam took a stand for God. He only spoke His word and though he went with the princes of Balak he only said what God wanted him to say. He didn’t deviate from it. One could even ask why II Peter 2:15 as well as other passages that we will see later present him as an example to be avoided. Sure he wanted to go and may be he had his eyes on the gifts. Yet, it seems that he didn’t diverge from what God told him and finally he left the place empty handed. He obeyed God despite the fact that this meant the loss of the gifts and rewards promised to him. Or, was it not so?</div>
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Balaam is mentioned as an example to be avoided in II Peter, Jude and Revelation. This may seem unjustified by the records we have seen up to now, but carrying on we will find the reason:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">Numbers 25:1-5, 9</span><br />
“Now Israel remained in Acacia Grove, and the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab. They [the women of Moab] invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel was joined to Baal of Peor, and the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people and hang the offenders before the Lord, out in the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel. So Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Every one of you kill his men who were joined to Baal of Peor…… And those who died in the plague were twenty four thousand.”</div>
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How did it come that the women of Moab knew how to seduce the Israelites? How did it come that they came, made them to commit harlotry with them, invited them to their sacrifices and made them to bow down to their false gods? God was displeased, His anger was aroused and 24.000 Israelites lost their lives in the plague that followed. Who really devised these wicked plans that brought such a destruction to Israel? Numbers 31:15-16 and Revelation 2:14 give us the answer:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">Numbers 31:15-16 </span><br />
“and Moses said to them: “Have you kept all the women alive? Look these women caused the children of Israel, <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">through the counsel of Balaam</span>, to trespass against the Lord in the incident of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord””</div>
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and<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;"> Revelation 2:14 </span>(the Lord Jesus is speaking to the angel of the church in Pergamos)<br />
“But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication</span>.”</div>
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The teacher that taught Moab how to make Israel to stumble was Balaam. We already saw how inclined he was to gifts and honor. II Peter 2:15-16 tell us that he LOVED them:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">II Peter 2:15 </span><br />
“they have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, WHO LOVED THE WAGES OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS; but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.”</div>
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Up to the time of Numbers 24 Balaam was a prophet of God, a God’s spokesman. He was walking on the right way. BUT not up to the end. He eventually forsook it and went astray, because “he loved the wages of unrighteousness”. He started well but had an awful end. It is not only important to start on the right way. It is also very important to keep on it till the end. Balaam started well, but didn’t continue well. He was finally killed by the Israelites when they took over Midian<sup><a href="http://www.jba.gr/Articles/jba2003_9.htm#FTN1" name="1">1</a></sup>. In the record of his death (Joshua 13:22), he is no longer called “prophet” but “soothsayer”. He started as a prophet, a spokesman of God but ended as soothsayer, God’s enemy.</div>
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Balaam in II Peter and Jude</h2>
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Balaam turned from being a spokesman of God to a false teacher that made God’s people stumble (Revelation 2:14). He was on the right way but forsook it and went astray. This is probably the reason that he is mentioned three times by different writers in the New Testament as an example to be avoided. We have already seen the relevant record of Revelation and here are the other two from II Peter and Jude:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">II Peter 2:16 </span><br />
“<span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">THEY</span> have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.”</div>
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and<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;"> Jude 11 </span><br />
“Woe to them! For <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">THEY</span> have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah”</div>
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Both II Peter and Jude refer to those who follow Balaam’s way. Who are these people? What have they done? Do they have any similarity with Balaam, and if yes what is it? How could this Old Testament figure relate to the today’s age of grace ? We will find the answer in the Scriptures. Starting from II Peter, the word “they” goes back to the first verse, where we read:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">II Peter 2:1-3 </span><br />
“but there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">even deny the Lord who bought them</span>, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.”</div>
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We will go on with more information given about those false teachers. But let’s first make clear their origin. This becomes obvious from verses 1, 15 and 20-21. There we read:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">II Peter 2:1 </span><br />
“but there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">even deny the Lord who bought them </span>and bring on themselves swift destruction.”</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">II Peter 2:15 </span><br />
“<span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">They have forsaken the right way and gone astray</span>”</div>
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and<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;"> II Peter 2:20-21</span><br />
“For if, after <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ</span>, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.</span>”</div>
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As it is obvious from the above:</div>
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• These people were people the Lord had bought.</div>
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• They were people who had escaped the pollutions of the world <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ<sup><a href="http://www.jba.gr/Articles/jba2003_9.htm#FTN2" name="2">2</a></sup></span>.</div>
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• They had known the way of righteousness and the holy commandment was delivered unto them<sup><a href="http://www.jba.gr/Articles/jba2003_9.htm#FTN3" name="3">3</a></sup>.</div>
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• They had forsaken the right way, which in turn means that they were once walking on it.</div>
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The false teachers the Word of God is speaking about here are therefore not unbelievers but believers or to be precise they started as such. For what else are people who were bought by the Lord, have full knowledge of the Lord and to whom the holy commandment was delivered? As Balaam, they started on the right way but they forsook it and turned to false teachers, bringing in destructive heresies and exploiting God’s people by deceptive words! If we think that the matter of these false teachers is rather not to be given much attention, for after all we haven’t seen many openly “denying the Lord that bought them”, we are wrong. God devoted much of II Peter and almost the whole epistle of Jude speaking about these impostors. This is really a matter where the Word of God says: “ATTENTION”. II Timothy 2:15 tells us:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">II Timothy 2:15 </span><br />
“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”</div>
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It is our job to rightly divide the word of truth and without a strong foundation on it, it will be impossible to be protected by the false teachers that go around. Returning to II Peter, verses 10-22 continue on these apostates:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">II Peter 2:10-22 </span><br />
“and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self willed. They are not afraid not to speak of dignitaries, whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord. But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children. <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">They have forsaken the right way and gone astray</span>, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man's voice restrained the madness of the prophet. These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: "A dog returns to his own vomit," and, "a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”</div>
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God devotes a large part of II Peter to describe these false teachers. Many of them are out there today and many have passed through the centuries, using God’s and Christ’s name for their own cause, for power, for money, for honour. It is not Christ whose example they follow but Balaam’s. II Peter leaves no doubt for their end. As we just read:</div>
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• They bring on themselves swift destruction (II Peter 2:1).</div>
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• For a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber (II Peter 2:3).</div>
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• “For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">the latter state has become worse for them that the first. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them</span>. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: "A dog returns to his own vomit," and, "a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.” (II Peter 2:20-22, NKJV-RSV)</div>
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• For them is reserved the blackness of darkness forever (II Peter 2:17).</div>
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It is not salvation that is reserved for these people but “the blackness of darkness forever”. But “is not salvation a gift given by grace?”, some will say. Sure it is. It is a gift given by grace <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">through faith</span> (Ephesians 2:8). But as it is obvious, some people will deny the Lord - and therefore the faith - and will turn to be His enemies exploiting His people and bringing in destructive heresies. They are indeed similar to Balaam. He was also on the right way but he went astray and turned from being a true prophet to a false teacher that taught God’s enemies how to make His people stumble. For these people “is reserved the blackness of darkness forever”. According to II Peter “it would be better for them to not to have known the way of righteousness than having known to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them”.</div>
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Jude</h2>
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Balaam is also mentioned in Jude, almost in the same way and context as in II Peter. Jude starts his epistle with the following:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">Jude 3 </span><br />
“Beloved, being very eager to write to you of our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.</span></div>
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Jude wanted through his epistle to exhort the believers to EARNESTLY CONTEND FOR THE FAITH WHICH WAS ONCE FOR ALL DELIVERED TO THE SAINTS. Obviously this faith was under attack. This faith IS under attack and the enemy, as long as he is around, he will never cease to attack it. We have to contend earnestly for this faith and Jude goes on to give the reasons in his one-chapter long epistle:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">Jude 4-19 </span><br />
“For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ</span>. But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves. Woe to them! <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.</span> These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, "to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.”</div>
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It appears that these are the same kind of people, at least as far as fruit is concerned, with those we saw in II Peter. They are impostors who may even dare to call themselves Christians. Because of these false teachers – and there are many of them active today - Jude felt an earnest need to write to the believers to tell them to fight for the faith delivered once for all to the saints. We have to fight for the faith! It is the Scriptures - not doctrines, ordinances and traditions of men, whoever these are – the basis of our faith. Colossians 2:8 warns us:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">Colossians 2:8 </span><br />
“<span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.</span>”</div>
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also<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;"> II John 7-8 </span><br />
“for many deceivers have gone into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and an antichrist. <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward.</span>”</div>
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Also Jude and Peter tell us:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">Jude 20-25 </span><br />
“But you, beloved, <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life</span>.”</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">II Peter 3:14-18 </span><br />
“<span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.</span>”</div>
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“Beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked”. All of us can be potentially “led away with the error of the wicked”. None is exempted from this warning. Balaam started on the right way but he eventually forsook it. “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”, Peter continues. “Beware” is one part of the action, growth in grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ is the other.</div>
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There are many impostors out there, and even within the body of Christ – that’s why Peter and Jude address believers - and the only way to be protected from their deceitful teachings is to incline to the pure milk of the Word. The only way to build our house so that it is not overtaken by anything that may come against it, is to build it on the rock, which Jesus Christ explained is to hear God’s Word and do it (Matthew 7:24-25). Balaam knew the word of God, he actually followed it up to a point but not after it crossed with his lust for honour and riches. Once this happened he went astray. In contrast to him, we must go the right way : the way of knowing <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">and at all costs doing God’s Word</span>. Starting, running and finishing the race, reaping complete and full the rewards God has for us.</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">Hebrews 12:1b-2</span><br />
“<span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith</span>, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”</div>
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Footnotes</div>
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<a href="http://www.jba.gr/Articles/jba2003_9.htm#1" name="FTN1">1.</a>By that time he had moved from his place, in Mesopotamia, and was living in the land of Midian, together with the enemies of Israel.</div>
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<a href="http://www.jba.gr/Articles/jba2003_9.htm#2" name="FTN2">2.</a>The word “knowledge” here is the Greek word “επίγνωσις” (epignosis) that means “exact or full knowledge” , “precise or further knowledge, thorough acquaintance with; true knowledge” (as opposed to the word “gnosis” that simply means “knowledge”). See Vines Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, MacDonald Publishing Company, p.641 and The Companion Bible, Kregel Publications, Appendix 132.</div>
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<a href="http://www.jba.gr/Articles/jba2003_9.htm#3" name="FTN3">3.</a>Again the verb “to know” that is used here is the verb “επιγινώσκω” (epiginosko) that means “to know full well”, “to know thoroughly and accurately” (see the references given in ftn.2).</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09010159157954465949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4406983286967173975.post-54521469482711475012016-08-12T07:07:00.001-04:002016-08-12T07:07:27.788-04:00The shortest way is not always the best way - Exodus 13:17-18<h1 class="H1" style="color: #ff6600; font-family: Calibri, "Times New Roman", Arial, serif; font-size: 1.4rem; line-height: 38.08px; margin-left: 100px; margin-right: 100px; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline;">
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We all know more or less the story of the Israelites. It took them 40 years to enter the promised land, in a trip that shouldn’t normally last more than a few weeks. As we may also know, almost all the delay was due to their own disobedience. When the time had finally arrived to enter the land, they were afraid to do so and stepped back. The result was that it took them 40 years more (!!) to go into the land and only 2 people from the initial generation succeeded. All the others died in the wilderness and it was their kids that entered in their place. We will not concentrate on this exercise of disobedience today. Anyway, it was NOT the initial plan of God to have them in the wilderness 40 years. However God did delay a little bit the plan of entering the land. Not for years but it was indeed a little bit longer than the shortest way. We find the relative passage in Exodus 13:17-18. There we read:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">Exodus 13:17-18</span><br />"Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by way of the land of Philistines, ALTHOUGH THAT WAS NEAR; for God said, "Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt." So God led the people around by the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. And the children of Israel went up in orderly ranks out of the land of Egypt"</div>
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What impressed me in this passage is the fact that God didn’t lead the people through the shortest way but He preferred a path a little bit longer. We sail off sometimes to a trip that we expect to take time X. We expect that we will get a job at age X, we will get married at time XX, we will make the first kid at time XXX and we will live XXXX years. It may not be an illogical plan. We may have planned things as we see them around in our world. And the way we may have planned them it may be fine and it may work this way. But it doesn’t always. At least it didn’t in the case of the Israelite's, in my case in certain things and it might be in your case too. Sometimes, time is going by and our lives seem to drift away from our expectations. We wonder what are we doing in a wilderness that is looking like the "wilderness of the Red Sea". If a few years ago you had told me that I would be in Germany, doing the job that I’m doing right now I would have told you "that’s impossible. It is completely out of my plans." I had planned my life probably in a similar way that you had planned yours. But it didn’t turn out like this. Not living the alternative (what I had planned), I don’t know whether it is better or worse. I don’t know and I may never know. You don’t know and you may never know - perhaps prior to see the One that sits on the throne - why things turned out the way they did. Why you are there still expecting something that you thought was the simplest thing of the world. Things may have happened that you had never imagined. You might have planned your life the way I had planned mine but…. You might have planned your life the way the Israelite's had planned theirs but…. I good news for you: GOD LEADS YOU. There is the case where the wilderness is because of disobedience. I don’t want to speak about it today. I hope you are not in this one. If you are, the answer is OBEDIENCE. "Draw nearer to God and He will draw nearer to you" (James 4:8). But this is not the purpose of this article. The purpose of this article is the unfulfilled expectation. The cases were it seems that God is late. "God" we say, "I expected from you more than what I ask or think. And yet the years go by and by and I never see my prayer answered." And God says through the mouth of the Lord with the parable of the widow (Luke 18:1-5): "Don’t give up praying son. I don’t give up on you." We say to God, "God, you have written about deferred hope… that makes the heart sick. And yet it seems like You Yourself act like you never wrote about it". And God says "be patient". What God tells you brother today, is to be patient. Follow the lead of the Lord, trust in Him and He will bring it to pass. He will give you the desires of your heart. This may not be what your mind says. After years and years you may have given up on your dreams and godly desires. I would like to encourage you to stand UP. God does not give up on You. The God that you saw when you first believed is the same God today. God NEVER changes (James 1:17). Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). The God of the terrible wonders before Pharaoh is the same God that is leading you in the wilderness too. Don’t give up, admitting a defeat that is NOT there! If God does not take you straight away to what He has promised for you is only because HE LOVES YOU. It is not his main concern. His main concern is YOU! It was not His concern to have the Israelite's in the promised land a few weeks earlier. His main concern was THEM. If you look at the passage it is like God is skeptical. God is not a machine, a robot. He is Someone that THINKS. Thinks about you and your best. In this case, He was concerned about the Israelite's, that if they went through this shortest way they might see war and thus return back to Egypt!! God thinks of YOU my friend. The shortest way may have things that you may not be able to handle. Have you ever thought that if everything came as you had planned it, whether you wouldn’t have returned to the Egypt, to the world, again? You don’t know. I don’t know either for myself. But I do know something. That whatever I have, wherever I stand right now is the path that God has chosen for me to stand. And in this I have peace. For God is leading the way and He chooses only the best for me. And the best is to be near to Him, even if the way is a little bit longer. The purpose is NEVER to short the promises. The promises will come, for God has SPOKEN. But with no danger to be afraid and step back, or be tempted and do the same. The path of your life may not be exactly as you had planned it. But I can tell you. It is as GOD has planned it. It is what GOD has thought it for YOU. And being so, it is the BEST. Stand up, walk on the way, live for today, don’t care for tomorrow and God will lead your life, NOT to frustration but to what you may expect, no.. to more than what you think or expect. Don’t give up on whatever is godly. Don’t give up praying for this.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09010159157954465949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4406983286967173975.post-71200360643469833872016-08-07T21:17:00.001-04:002016-08-07T21:17:57.584-04:00“Fear not YE”<h1 class="H1" style="color: #ff6600; font-family: Calibri, "Times New Roman", Arial, serif; font-size: 1.4rem; line-height: 38.08px; margin-left: 100px; margin-right: 100px; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline;">
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I know, "ye" is not a word you will find in the NKJV that I usually use. It is a word of the good old KJV. I love KJV. I believe that in some points no other English translation can catch the tone of the original language as much as KJV does. But let’s get to our subject, which obviously is not Bible translations! So we are at Matthew 28. It is "towards the first day of the week". Three days before, the religious leaders had crucified the Lord. Joseph from Arimathea put His body in a tomb and the Pharisees sealed the stone and put guards around the tomb. And then, "in the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week"…</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">Matthew 28:1-6</span><br />"… came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And behold there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lighting, and his raiment white as snow: AND FROM FEAR OF HIM THE KEEPERS DID SHAKE AND BECAME AS DEAD MEN. And the angel answered and said unto the women, FEAR NOT <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">YE</span> FOR I KNOW THAT YOU SEEK JESUS WHO WAS CRUCIFIED. He is not here: for He is risen as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.</div>
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What impressed me in this passage is that the angel didn’t say "fear not" to the guards. They were terrified. They became as dead men when they saw him. The one that was dead was risen and those who were up guarding him became as dead! But the angel didn’t say a word to them. He didn’t encourage them! And that’s why the word "you", "YE", becomes so important. Turning to the women the angel said: "Don’t be afraid YE". "Don’t look at the guards. They are terrified and that’s what they should be. But not YOU. YOU, follower of Jesus, seeker of Jesus, DON’T BE AFRAID. I don’t say this to those who guard an empty tomb. To those who try to keep the Lord in a tomb. These are terrified but not YOU. For I know that YOU, dear brother, dear sister, seek the Lord and wherever He is, you will be also. Don’t be afraid! "Fear not YE, for I know that you seek Jesus".</div>
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In the same tone the holy spirit tells us in I Thessalonians 5:1-10:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">I Thessalonians 5:1-10</span><br />"But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, "Peace and safety!" then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him."</div>
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As suddenly as the resurrection came upon the guards, so also the day of the Lord will come. Like a thief in the night. "For when they say peace and safety suddenly destruction comes upon them. And they shall not escape". They will be terrified and nobody will tell them "don’t be afraid". But again, not we dear brethren. For we are not in the darkness so that the day overtake us as a thief. God knows whom we follow. God knows whom we seek. That we seek and wait for Jesus. Therefore, don’t be afraid! For God didn’t appoint us to wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ! He is coming. Our Lord is coming. YOU, follower, seeker of Jesus, don’t be afraid!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09010159157954465949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4406983286967173975.post-26160071295208092682016-08-05T06:11:00.001-04:002016-08-05T06:11:18.249-04:00Saul vs. David<h1 class="H1" style="color: #ff6600; font-family: Calibri, "Times New Roman", Arial, serif; font-size: 1.4rem; line-height: 38.08px; margin-left: 100px; margin-right: 100px; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline;">
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I was recently reading in I Samuel, the record of the start of Saul's kingdom. Saul was made king within very short time. Before he even understood what was going on, he found himself as a king. He did not have the character, he did not have the qualities needed. He was a humble man in the beginning. He did not even dare to come out when his name was called (I Samuel 10:22). But the children of Israel were so pressing asking for a king. I bet they could not wait at all. They wanted a king and they wanted him now! No wonder therefore that Saul ended up the way he did. Most of us would have ended up the same. We would not know what to do, our pride would rise up, and we would mess around not having the character and the qualities needed. It is not to know exactly what to do, but to have the character to wait and find out what to do. It seems to me that Saul was a victim of the Israelites stubbornness. But then David came. David did not come as a king. He had the word of God from the beginning but then many years passed and it seemed that this word would never be realized. He was fighting in the deserts and in the mountains and it seemed that that word only trouble had brought to him. He had lost his friends, his peace, his contact with his family and all this because of that word. Why did God tell him that? Why He did not rush him to be a king right away? Why God "treated him so badly"? If somebody had un-answered whys this must have been David. And yet the appointed time came. Saul, the result of the rush of the Israelites, died. I am so sorry for him. It was not God's mistake, it was probably not even his mistake. It was mostly the mistake of his own people who did it. Saul dies and David becomes a king. It took many years. It took many frustrations. It took many whys. It took much trouble in between. He could have died in those years. His life was continuously at stake. It was certainly not what he had dreamed about God, about his life about the word of God spoken to him. And yet its purpose was clear: after all these, David was now READY to be a king. He would not blow it. Because he was trained. He was softened. His desires were subjected to God's will and were put into His hands. It is frightening all that he went through, but it is also encouraging. For it may also have happened in our lives. We just wonder why this and why that. Why God does not do it right from the beginning. But God wants to make us like David, so that we can enjoy what he opens before us. Saul had it right from the beginning but then he destroyed it. I love God's way even if it is sometimes painful and looks like a desert. For the desert finishes and a new bright day starts!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09010159157954465949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4406983286967173975.post-41709577608269688702016-08-03T06:28:00.000-04:002016-08-03T06:28:07.844-04:00Christian, are we mere men?<div class="normtx" style="font-family: Calibri, "Times New Roman", Arial, serif; font-size: 1.1rem; line-height: 29.92px; margin-left: 100px; margin-right: 100px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 30px;">
I was recently reading in Matthew 4 the temptations of Christ in the wilderness. The adversary two times challenged Him with the phrase "If you are the Son of God". Taking it in another way, it sounded to me like "Jesus, you are not the Son of God. You are just a mere man... if you fall down from the temple nobody is going to pick you up. If you are hungry nobody is going to feed you. Come on try....can you make these stones bread? Can you fall down from the temple? Go ahead try, if you are not but a mere human being i.e. if you are the Son of God". It is the same story with us today. We are sons and daughters of God and the enemy wants to persuade us that we are nothing else but helpless human beings. He whispers to our ears: "you are alone in this world .... your God is very far away. Just settle down as anybody else.".</div>
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We are human beings like anybody else on this earth. Right. BUT, and this is the BUT that he was distorting with Christ and with us: we are also CHILDREN OF THE KING. We have a home in His palace right now, a place in his hug right now. We are not the helpless beings he presents to us but God’s kids!! "BELOVED NOW WE ARE THE CHILDREN OF GOD" says the Word (I John 3:2). This is what WE ARE <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">NOW</span>. This is what you heavenly ID says. It goes like this: Name: [Put your name here] Known: Before the foundation of the world, Born by: God, Saved by: Jesus Christ, he/she is: Son/Daughter of God, Access to God's hug: unlimited.</div>
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Mediocrity ("be as anybody else" with the hidden sentence behind it: "because YOU ARE as anybody else") is a weapon of the devil against the excellence of God's kids. We are men but not "mere" men. We are NOT as anybody else. We are God's kids NOW. Let's rest in the Father's hug, relaxing in His lap, today and tomorrow and for ever. It is there where we belong.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09010159157954465949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4406983286967173975.post-83887517949917828812016-07-23T07:38:00.001-04:002016-07-23T07:38:47.602-04:00The keys of death: Who holds them<h1 class="H1" style="color: #ff6600; font-family: Calibri, "Times New Roman", Arial, serif; font-size: 1.4rem; line-height: 38.08px; margin-left: 100px; margin-right: 100px; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline;">
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I was in the church today, and the preacher started his preaching from Revelation 1:12-20. There, starting from verse 10 we read:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">Revelation 14:12-20</span><br />"I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, saying, I’m the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last," and, "what you see write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: To Ephesus to Smyrna to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea." Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in his right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, "Do not be afraid; I’m the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. AND I HAVE THE KEYS OF HADES AND OF DEATH. Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are and the things which will take place after this. The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches."</div>
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What drew much my attention here, together with the glorious appearance of our Lord, is verse 18 where the Lord says: "AND I HAVE THE KEYS OF HADES AND DEATH". Jesus has the keys of Death! He is the "who lives, and was dead, and behold He (Jesus) is alive forever". Hebrews 2:14-15 tells us:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">Hebrews 2:14-15</span><br /><span style="background-color: yellow;">"Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He himself like wise shared in the same, THAT THROUGH DEATH HE MIGHT DESTROY HIM WHO HAS THE POWER OF DEATH, THAT IS, THE DEVIL, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage"</span></div>
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Jesus Christ came to destroy the one that has the power of death, the devil, and He did this through his death. Jesus holds the keys of Death and Hades. A day will come that the dead will hear the voice of the Son of man and will be raised! The voice of Jesus Christ, the one that keeps the keys of death, will raise them all, great and small, Christians and none (independent of time I speak here), ALL! <span style="background-color: yellow;">Jesus holds the keys of death and therefore, He is able to release those who through the fear of death were subject to bondage all their lifetime. We are no longer under the bondage of death. <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">We are no longer captive by death.</span> If you believe in the Captain of life, in Jesus Christ, the Lord and Savior,</span> <span style="background-color: #f4cccc;">"if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved" (Romans 10:9) and have eternal life!!! </span><span style="background-color: yellow;">Even if you taste death still Jesus holds the keys to death. The day will come that you will hear His voice. The day will come that you will get a body like His body. A day will come that you will sit in His right hand side. A day will come that you will see Him as He is. A day will come that you will be with Him eternally. A day will come that you will go to the place He has prepared for us in the Father’s house (John 14:2-3). </span>Jesus Christ the prince of life, the Son of God, the Lord and Savior loves you my friend. Nothing can separate you from His love. You are His wonderful bride! You are the one He is engaged with. Yes YOU! II Corinthians 4:18 tell us that those things that are seen are temporary but those who are not seen are eternal. Which realities do we see? Which realities do we follow? Temporary or eternal? Far too many go after what they see, the temporary. Far too many are under the bondage of death. But not we Christians. Not we, the sons of the Eternal God. We have as much life as our Father has: ETERNAL. All of us we have lost or we will probably lose a loved person. All of us we need to keep in our hearts and minds what the Lord said to Martha who had very recently lost her brother: "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die" (John 11:25-26). <span style="background-color: #f4cccc;">Jesus is coming and nobody can stop Him. </span>He will open and who will close? He is coming and the dead will hear His voice. And your loved ones, if they are brothers and sisters, are going to appear with Him. Nothing is going to hold them. Nothing is going to stop them. Nothing is going to keep them. Look here what the Spirit says in I Thessalonians 4:13-18</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">I Thessalonians 4:13-18</span><br />"But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descent from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words."</div>
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"Lest you sorrow as others who have no hope"… There are others that have no hope. There are others that look at the temporary, have fixed their eyes on the temporary and have no hope. But not we. Jesus, the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the Lord and the Savior and the Captain of Life IS COMING. And the dead in Christ shall rise first! Then all those who are alive will be caught in the air to meet the Lord there. What a wonderful meeting this is going to be! We will ALL, ALL those who believe in Him, be there! This is our hope and this is our comfort.</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">Revelation 21:4</span><br />"And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, not sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."</div>
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<a href="https://plus.google.com/+AnastasiosKioulachoglou?rel=author" target="_blank">Anastasios Kioulachoglou</a></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09010159157954465949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4406983286967173975.post-36784018527112758572016-07-12T02:43:00.000-04:002016-07-12T02:43:17.241-04:00Christian Believers. The Four Steps That Most of us Did Not Take<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09010159157954465949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4406983286967173975.post-20556074542340607522016-07-10T07:37:00.002-04:002016-07-10T08:17:59.246-04:00What does God say about sexual sin?Transfer into the internet.<br />
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www.evangelicaloutreach.org/audio/adultery.mp3Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09010159157954465949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4406983286967173975.post-51122910355752091842016-07-03T07:21:00.002-04:002016-07-03T07:23:46.537-04:00Christian - What to do "if your brother sins against you" (Luke 17:3-4)<h1 class="H1" style="color: #ff6600; font-family: Calibri, "Times New Roman", Arial, serif; font-size: 1.4rem; line-height: 38.08px; margin-left: 100px; margin-right: 100px; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline;">
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We find this passage in Luke 17:3-4. There we read:</div>
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"<span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">If</span> your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">if</span> he repents, forgive him. And <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">if</span> he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you saying, "I repent", you shall forgive him"</div>
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There are some "ifs" in this passage. Being in the computer industry I know very well what an if statement means in a program. It means that what follows the if statement applies only if what is included in the "if statement" is fulfilled. In the first sentence of the above precious words of our Lord, we have two if statements.</div>
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IF your brother sin against you</div>
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THEN you rebuke him</div>
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IF (after you rebuke him) he repents</div>
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THEN you forgive him</div>
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This is the turn the Lord has set. Many people desire to be forgiven without repenting. Many others yet, do not forgive somebody for a sin for which however they have never rebuked him! Thus they break the above simple order THE LORD HAS SET. Many still rebuke others for things that are not sins, thus sinning themselves against them! There are many with big mouths that can be critical about everything and everyone and if you fall into their mouth… poor you. They pretend to rebuke the others but there is no SIN!! I was rebuked more than once by some people because I was writing articles!! Should I repent? NO. This is what GOD has told me to do! Instead I need to rebuke the person that "rebuked" me or better "criticize" me and not be silent, and see then whether he will repent and ask for forgiveness. If I don’t rebuke what I know FROM THE WORD that is sin then the other will not get a chance to repent and then I will not have a chance to forgive him. Keeping it like this, will create me big problems the next time I meet this person, for my relationship with him will be affected by hurt, intimidation and unforgiveness. Many people think that they have to forgive the other without rebuking him and without him repenting and asking for forgiveness. <span style="background-color: yellow;">This is not what the Lord commanded.</span> It is much more difficult to forgive somebody when you have never told him the wrong and he has never repented and asked for forgiveness than to follow the simple order the Lord had set: rebuke, the other side repents, you forgive!</div>
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And what happens you will ask if I rebuke the other person for something that is clearly a sin against me, and the other one does not repent and never asks for forgiveness? This case may unfortunately happen. Many people have so much pride that will never say a "sorry" to anybody. I have seen cases where people are very clearly rebuked, it is evident that they err, yet they bypass what they did like nothing happened, without saying "sorry for what happened"! Watchman Nee said somewhere "the humbler a person is the more often will say "sorry". Tell sorry to anybody even for the slightest thing that you THINK that you may have done wrongly. This is to be humble. This is to be Christian! Anything else is plain hypocrisy. It is having the words but to deny them when it is time to live them. Not asking for forgiveness will not harm only the person against whom the sin was committed but also the person that committed the sin. If for example a person has big critical mouth causing intimidation to others and if this is not confronted then he will certainly harm many but he himself will also be denied practically by the others! How to be open to a person that intimidates and has not repented for this? No wonder that this person will at the end be alone. But again the others as brothers and sisters, the church herself, what do they do? Have they confronted this person? The Word does not ask you to forgive somebody that has not repented! What He asks you and the church to do is TO REBUKE HIM!!! Have you done it? Has the church as the body of believers done it? And again here we don’t speak for whatever YOU may have in your mind as sin, but for what the WORD defines as sin.</div>
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Here is what our Lord and captain of our faith said in Matthew 18:15-17</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">Matthew 18:15-17</span><br />
"Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that "by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established." And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector"</div>
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THIS IS THE ORDER OF GOD!!! THIS IS WHAT THE CAPTAIN OF OUR FAITH HAS SAID. THIS IS WHAT JESUS THE LORD, THE CHRIST, THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH HAS SET. Why do we try to do it differently? Why do we think that it is better that we are silent to the evil, the abuse, the sin that is done before our very eyes!! In our very churches! When will we hear the voice of the Lord instead of the voices of the world that says "everybody can do whatever he wants". For this is what our Lord has said (in the form of "program" language, for it is so precise!):</div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">IF your brother sins</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">Rebuke him, tell him his fault</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">If he repents OK.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">ELSE</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">Take with you two or three witness</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">IF he does not hear them THEN</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">Tell it to the church</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">IF he does not hear the church THEN</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">Let him be to you as a heathen and tax collector</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc;">What we in our modern western churches do is the following:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc;">IF your brother sins against you</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc;">Don’t tell him anything!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc;">Or</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc;">If you are so brave (!!) to tell him, and he does not hear you</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc;">There is no problem… just behave as nothing happens!</span></div>
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Excuse me who has said this?? Please show me the page of the Bible where the Lord or his apostles commanded something like this? This may be what YOU think or what your pastor or society may have told you BUT certainly is NOT what God has said in the Bible. See here what Paul says:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">I Corinthians 5:1-2</span><br />
"It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles – that a man has his father’s wife! And you are puffed up and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be TAKEN AWAY from among you."</div>
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"Taken away? Come on Paul. I’m so nice on my sit. Why should I do something? I’m paying my teethes. I’m coming on Sundays to my church. I’m doing my prayers. I’m ok. Why should I bother for this fellow? This is his business." And Paul, and God through Paul replies to you: "YOU ARE PUFFED UP! You had to MOURN instead of sitting coldly on your sit! This unrepented person should be taken away". And Paul continues:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">I Corinthians 5:9-13</span><br />
"I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexual immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexual immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. <span style="background-color: #f4cccc;">But now I have written to you NOT TO KEEP COMPANY WITH ANYONE NAMED A BROTHER, WHO IS SEXUALLY IMMORAL, OR COVETOUS, OR AN IDOLATER, OR A REVILER, OR A DRUNKARD, OR AN EXTORTIONER –</span> not even to eat with such person. For what I have to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. <span style="background-color: #f4cccc;">THEREFORE "PUT AWAY FROM YOURSELVES THE EVIL PERSON"</span></div>
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There is judgment that must be done. Again I don’t speak about those big mouth folks that they THINK they are rebuking and the only they do is criticizing innocence. <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">THEY</span> HAVE TO BE REBUKED for this. Here the whole church knows that a named as brother is covetous, or sexual immoral or a reviler etc. This person has not repented. Then it falls to the last category of the Lord’s statement:</div>
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IF he does not hear the church THEN</div>
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Let him be to you as a heathen and tax collector</div>
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Or as Paul says "Put him away". For by doing this you have one more chance to make him repent. But by accepting him you tell him "there is no problem. We don’t care enough about you anyway! Do as you wish!" God judges the outside. We are to judge the inside. "Do you not judge those who are inside?"</div>
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And again:</div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc;"><span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">II Thessalonians 3:14-15</span><br />"IF ANYONE DOES NOT OBEY OUR WORD IN THIS EPISTLE, NOTE THAT PERSON AND DO NOT KEEP COMPANY WITH HIM THAT HE MAY BE ASHAMED. YET DO NOT COUNT HIM AS AN ENEMY, BUT ADMONISH HIM AS A BROTHER"</span></div>
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"Note this person and do not keep company with him". The purpose is NOT to reject that person but that he may be ashamed and thus repent! Instead in our modern churches WE are ashamed to tell this person to repent! He must be avoided so that HE may be ashamed and repent. Avoided does not mean rejected. The Word says in James 5:19-20</div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc;"><span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">James 5:19-20</span><br />"Brethren if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover multitude of sins"</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc;">and again:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">Ezekiel 18:23</span><br />"Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?" says the Lord God, "and not that he should turn his ways and live"</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">God does not desire the rejection BUT THE REPENTANCE of the person that sins. For without repentance the sin will NOT be forgiven. Now, for the repentance to occur, REBUKE is needed and if the person does not hear anybody then he should be taken away, noted and avoided. Yet he should still be advised so that he may return. The gates should always be open IF THE PERSON REPENTS. God does not desire the person to stay in his present state. He wants him to repent!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc;">Closing let’s return to the words of our Lord in Matthew 18:18</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc;"><span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">Matthew 18:18</span><br />"Assurently, I say to you whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven"</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc;">The above means responsibility, choice. It is in our hands to rebuke. It is in our hands to repent. It is in our hands to forgive. Will we follow the teaching of Word? It is absolutely clear and precise. And let me repeat it again:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc;">IF your brother sins</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc;">Rebuke him, tell him his fault</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc;">If he repents OK.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc;">ELSE</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc;">Take with you two or three witness</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc;">IF he does not hear them THEN</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc;">Tell it to the church</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc;">IF he does not hear the church THEN</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc;">Let him be to you as a heathen and tax collector</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">Jesus went to the heathen and to the tax collectors too! Once the person repents the sin is forgiven and the person is back to fellowship with God and the others. The doors should never be closed to a repented sinner and should never be open to somebody that has been rebuked in the way the Lord has set and yet he does not repent.</span></div>
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<a href="https://plus.google.com/+AnastasiosKioulachoglou?rel=author" target="_blank">Anastasios Kioulachoglou</a><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09010159157954465949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4406983286967173975.post-32907768431059896482016-06-28T06:16:00.002-04:002016-06-28T06:18:26.497-04:00Christian, This is critical! Attack in Ziglag: Lessons from David’s reaction.<h1 class="H1" style="color: #ff6600; font-family: Calibri, "Times New Roman", Arial, serif; font-size: 1.4rem; line-height: 38.08px; margin-left: 100px; margin-right: 100px; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline;">
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We will be looking mainly to the 30th chapter of I Samuel. As an introduction, David and his men, to avoid Saul’s persecution, went to Achish the king of the Philistines who accepted them and gave them the city of Ziklag. In the 29th chapter of I Samuel we find the Philistines gathering together all their armies in Jesreel to fight against Israel. It was this fight that cost the life to Saul and Jonathan. In order to avoid any plot by David and his men, the Philistines denied to them to be a part of their army and sent them back to Ziklag. I Samuel 30:1-6 tells us what they found there:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">I Samuel 30:1-6</span><br />
"Now it happened, when David and his men came to Ziklag, on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the South and Ziklag, attacked Ziklag and burned it with fire, and had taken captive the women and those who were there, from small to great; they did not kill anyone, but carried them away and went their way. So David and his men came to the city, and there it was, burned with fire; and their wives, their sons, and their daughters had been taken captive. <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept, until they had no more power to weep.</span> And David's two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite, had been taken captive. <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.</span>"</div>
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I was in a church some weeks ago and God showed me this passage. It is a period where I think a lot about the subject of losing and recovering and I believe God wants us to hear the message of I Samuel 30. Many of us can relate to the situation described in I Samuel. We don’t inhabit Ziklag nor we live in the days of Saul and David. But we may have something in common with David and his men: the enemy may have invaded our territory, at the time that we were out or "sleeping" and he may have stolen things very valuable to us. Whatever this may be at the end may be translated to disappointment, loss of hope and orientation, loss of vision and enthusiasm. Brothers believe me: if the devil does not steal your hope and enthusiasm HE IS DEFEATED. He does not aim to simply steal something. His end purpose is to steal your hope, your enthusiasm, your HEART. The aim of the devil is your heart and your hope. <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">For he knows that only hopeful hearts are alive hearts.</span> Our problem is not that we haven’t seen God. We have seen Him. The problem is that we have also seen the devil. We expected that our Ziklag (whatever this may be) would never be stolen. We hoped that God would somehow protect it from any destruction. But things may have turned differently. Stuff may have happened in our lives that we never expected and we suddenly discovered that bad things may also happen to good people. "Cities" of good people may be invaded by the enemy of our souls. To face these arrows, many of us have chosen to anesthetize our hearts so that it does not feel pain any longer and we carry on to what we call "the road of faith". It may be a road full of service and works, WITHOUT however the enthusiasm and the warmness our relationship with God used to have. Many feel OK with this situation and we deny to admit that there are things that have been lost and need to be recovered. Many feel OK to just survive, without hope and dreams, and call this "faith", instead of pursuing again for the lively relationship they once had with the Lord. I have discovered that God may leave us in this stage till we DECIDE WE WANT to change. Till we no longer compromise with the defeat nor we accept and hide the loss but we make the decision to pursue and recover all that was stolen. And let me remind you that what is stolen is mainly THE HOPE, THE ENTHUSIASM, THE HEART. Once we made this decision, God immediately becomes also very near to us. The message today is not that there will be no stealing. I don’t intend to give you the 10 steps that will ensure the devil will never touch you. I don’t have them! As long as there is a thief there will be stealing! BUT we can overcome it. The message today is ATTACK to recover all that the enemy has stolen from us: enthusiasm, faith, hope, joy and others. We can cry for as long as we want. We can say that life is tough. And it is! However, as David and his men did, so we have to make a decision: either we will cry for the losses, hiding probably our frustration by anesthesia, apathy and religious activity or we will deny to compromise, we will ENCOURAGE OURSELVES IN THE LORD and we will stand up to recover everything. It is really a very critical decision, a decision of spiritual life or death. <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Either we will live as spiritually wounded, or as spiritual heroes.</span> What I want to emphatically say today is that if you are wounded, your wound will not be healed by accepting the defeat and the loss and forgetting the alive fellowship you used to have with God with the false idea that "it is impossible to go that far again". The wounds will be healed only if you stop crying and instead stand up to recover everything, to return at least where you used to be! GOD HASN’T CHANGED MY BROTHER. He is exactly the same God as when you first met Him. We may be wounded but we will not find healing in resignation but in "encouraging ourselves in the Lord" and standing up to recover everything. Not with religious works that many use to cover the emptiness of their true relationship with God. Do you want to find the level of your relationship with God? Don’t look at your activities! They will show distorted results! Instead imagine yourself without any activity. <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Could you live with God without any activity or is your faith "activity maintained"?</span> Is your relationship with God at least as alive as it used to be when you first believed? Again deny to use works and logic to hide the truth! You need the truth! Paul tells us to examine ourselves whether we are in the faith! You don’t need to cry for any loss you might have. What you need to do instead, is to STAND UP and encourage yourself in the Lord. STAND UP and you will recover everything. That’s what David chose to do:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">I Samuel 30:6-8, 18</span><br />
"Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God. Then David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son, "Please bring the ephod here to me." And Abiathar brought the ephod to David. So David inquired of the LORD, saying, "Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them?" And He answered him, "Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all.…. <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">So David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away</span>"</div>
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The people were crying. David also did the same. Nobody reacts to the pain with gladness. The pain is pain and it brings cry. However, after the first shock there were two reactions. All the others continued crying and they moved with anger against David. (Similarly, many being angry for their pain, pick up stones against the state, ministries, people, God and generally everybody they consider as responsible for what was stolen) but David encouraged himself in the Lord and asked Him what to do. The Lord then gave him the assurance that if he pursued after the Amalekites he would recover everything. See here the following:</div>
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Though there was a stealing, there was a way to recover everything. God didn’t obstruct the stealing. Also God didn’t tell David what to do before he stopped crying and turned to Him to ask Him.</div>
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Many of us spent our days, months and even years with the question "Why God?". Many, feel bitterness why God didn’t protect us since we know He could. I don’t know why He didn’t protect you or me but I know that when this goes further than a genuine expression of the heart as Job did, then it leads nowhere. My personal answer to life’s frustrations is that ALL things work together for good to those who love God (Romans 8:28)! ALL, what we think as evil and what we may think as good. Your life is NOT in the hands of the devil BUT IN THE HANDS OF GOD. Even if the devil has wounded you there is a way to recover! The question my brother is not why God didn’t protect you. The critical question is whether you will stand UP, encourage yourself in the Lord, not accept compromise with the loss, not accept anything less in your relationship with God than what at least you used to have. If you do this, if you stand up, THEN I KNOW 100% WHAT WILL HAPPEN: YOU WILL RECOVER. YOU WILL RECOVER EVERYTHING. That’s what happened also with David and his men. GOD HASN’T CHANGED. Remember the sweet times you had with Him, before the Ziklag was invaded. HE IS THE SAME. You can have the same relationship with Him, NOW. It is not a matter of eventual recovery. The recovery can be instant. If you only make the decision to not compromise and that you cannot live any longer with anything less in hope, faith and enthusiasm that what you used to have. The situation is turned upside down exactly at that moment. David and his men turned the situation upside down at the moment they decided not to accept an invaded Ziklag, with the enemy having their hopes, dreams and enthusiasm stolen, but they wanted a Ziklag as it used to be, a heart with the hope faith and enthusiasm that it once had. At that moment the enemy had lost the battle. For at that moment they stopped crying and they started fighting. And fighting, they recovered <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">EVERYTHING</span>!</div>
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<a href="https://plus.google.com/+AnastasiosKioulachoglou?rel=author" target="_blank">Anastasios Kioulachoglou</a><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> "The Warnings of the New Testament". </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;"> Articles/pdf/the-warnings-of-the-</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;">New-</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09010159157954465949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4406983286967173975.post-44816432615415114972016-06-24T06:01:00.001-04:002016-06-24T06:05:17.799-04:00Christian - Rest in the Lord!<h1 class="H1" style="color: #ff6600; font-family: Calibri, "Times New Roman", Arial, serif; font-size: 1.4rem; line-height: 38.08px; margin-left: 100px; margin-right: 100px; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline;">
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It is easy to get distracted in our world. Busyness is a modern illness from which many of us suffer. Rest is its opposite and of the things the Lord came to offer. In Matthew 11:28-30 He said:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">Matthew 11:28-30</span><br />
"Come to Me all who labor and are heavy laden AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I’m gently and lowly in heart, AND YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light"</div>
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Jesus Christ is the only one that can give rest to our souls. If your soul is in turmoil, if your soul is tired, exhausted and heavy laden, then you are reading the right passage. <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">JESUS came to give you rest!</span> You will not get rest when your kids grow. Or when you get married. Or when your bank account becomes positive. YOU WILL GET REST ONLY IF YOU MEET JESUS. ONLY IF YOU PUT YOUR BURDENS IN HIS HANDS AND TAKE UPON YOU HIS EASY AND LIGHT YOKE, ONLY THEN YOU WILL FIND <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">REST</span>. As the Word says in Philippians:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">Philippians 4:6-7</span><br />
"BE ANXIOUS FOR NOTHING, BUT IN EVERYTHING BY PRAYER AND SUPPLICATION WITH THANKSGIVING, LET YOUR REQUESTS BE MADE KNOWN TO GOD; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus"</div>
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Be anxious for nothing!! YES for nothing!!! Your kids, your job, your health, your wounds, your finances, your other concerns are all here. There is <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">NOTHING</span> excluded from this statement. There is nothing that should make us anxious. And the verse goes one step further to tell us what to do instead of being anxious: <span style="background-color: yellow;">"but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." PEACE!!! To get peace you don’t have to finish the so and so project or to receive the so and so blessing but to be anxious for nothing and cast everything to the Lord through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving! It is HIS job to CARE for you, while you rest in Him. And in resting in Him you have power! </span>See what it says in Isaiah 30:15-18</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">Isaiah 30:15</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f4cccc;">"For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">IN RETURNING AND REST YOU SHALL BE SAVED; IN QUIETNESS AND CONFIDENCE SHALL BE YOUR STRENGTH.</span>"</span></div>
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Our strength is in RESTING in the Lord. In quietness and confidence! I call this the RRQC club: Return, Rest, be Quite and Confident to God. Taking quietness, for example we can see its importance in Jesus’ life: He would get up very early in the morning and go to the wilderness alone to pray (Mark 1:35)! He needed quite times with the Father. We need them too! We don’t need to fill our schedule with a hundred of activities to keep us going. We will not find strength in activities but only in quietness and confidence to God. It is at the times that our heart is quite and confident that the Lord can be heard by it.</div>
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Returning to Isaiah verse 16 gives us the answer of the people to the plea of God for return, rest, quietness and confidence, and the respective reply of the Lord:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">Isaiah 30:16</span><br />
<span style="background-color: yellow;">"And you said, "No, for we will flee on horses" – Therefore you shall flee! And, "We will ride on swift horses" – Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift! One thousand shall flee at the threat of one, At the threat of five you shall flee, till you are left as a pole on top of a mountain and as a banner on a hill"</span></div>
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Those people had their plans on how to do it. You may have your own. You too may say "No, for….". You may try hard and care all the day. Do you know the price? Weakness, fear, anxiety, defeat. The more you trust in your "horsepower", the more weaker and dry you will get. The only way for strength and life and rest <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">is to rest in the Lord. To be quite and confident in Him. To be anxious for nothing and cast all your cares upon Him. This is the ONLY way!</span></div>
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Jeremiah 6:16-17</h2>
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Moving further on our subject, let’s go now to Jeremiah 6:16-17. In a similar tone with Isaiah, Jeremiah 6:16-17 tells us:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">Jeremiah 6:16-17</span><br />
"Thus says the Lord: Stand in the ways and see and ask for the old paths, where the good way is and walk in it; <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">then you will find rest for your souls</span>. But they said, "We will not walk in it." Also I set watchmen over you saying, "Listen to the sound of the trumpet!" But they said, "We will not listen"</div>
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"The old paths. Return to the OLD PATHS. Walk in the old straight paths and you will find rest, our God says. Return, Rest, Be quite and Confident in God. Get today into the RRQC club. Jesus is the leader and He will give you REST and peace. To register costs nothing except your cares! You have to cast them all upon God and peace will be given to you. What do you prefer: Busyness and distraction, or rest and peace? Dryness and weakness or fruitfulness and strength? Death or life? Really it is that critical. The matter of the rest in the Lord is indeed a spiritual fight! A battle between fruitfulness and unfruitfulness. As Psalms 37:7 again tell us:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">Psalms 37:7</span><br />
"REST IN THE LORD AND WAIT PATIENTLY FOR HIM"</div>
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Let’s wait patiently in the Lord and rest in Him! Let’s NEVER leave any foreign seed to spring in our garden and make our tree barren.</div>
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<a href="https://plus.google.com/+AnastasiosKioulachoglou?rel=author" target="_blank">Anastasios Kioulachoglou</a><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09010159157954465949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4406983286967173975.post-35386830796951600822016-06-14T06:36:00.002-04:002016-06-14T06:36:35.658-04:00Christian, Be zealeous and not lukewarm<h1 class="H1" style="color: #ff6600; font-family: Calibri, 'Times New Roman', Arial, serif; font-size: 1.4rem; line-height: 38.08px; margin-left: 100px; margin-right: 100px; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline;">
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Today was a very important day for me. For years I was suffering from shortsightedness. "It is only the right eye … 1.75. You can get lenses if you want to", the ophthalmologist told me some years ago. I could work, drive, do anything that I was doing but not everything was so clear as it used to be. But with the years you forget how it used to be anyway. You live in a dimmer than normal world, with less clearness in what you see and you get used to the idea that this normal. But I know it wasn’t. And I know, though shortsighted … I could still live like this. Nothing too urgent. "It will be done when I have time". Of course I never had time because I never made the time or because instead of time I was making excuses. So the shortsightedness was always there. But this Saturday I thought, "why not?"…. a friend of mine had told me that in Germany at optic shops they look at your eyes for free and they give you the necessary lenses or glasses. I had tried once in the past but no employee in the shop could speak English and since I didn’t speak any German nothing happened. But now, with my "ein bischen" (a little) German, I could make it. So I went there. They sent me to the first floor where an employee would measure my shortsightedness and would tell me what to do. I was waiting outside sitting on the sofa… she had another appointment. As I was waiting I thought "what am I doing here Saturday noon-time? Let’s dismiss this idea with the lenses and go out to the market. It is Saturday!" But I felt this time I needed to stay. So my turn arrived. The employee measured my shortsightedness, 2.25 now, and we booked an appointment for today, 16:40, to get the lenses. I was there on time and then we started… She would place the lens in my eye and then I would have to do it alone. Before she did it though, I asked her to give me a minute to have a look at the world outside without the lens so that to see then whether there was any difference. So I looked outside for some seconds and then she started. Initially my eye resisted to see her finger directed to it ("a finger in my eye!!!??") but at the end she succeeded. Then I turned and looked outside. My goodness! All that a little bit dim world was now very CLEAR. Everything seemed to be more alive. The labels I couldn’t read, now I could!! "Hey this is good! I like it!" I told her. "Ok. Now it is time to do it yourself", she told me. And after I tried for some minutes I did it, paid and left. First thing I saw was the Frankfurt’s skyscrapers in the city center. I had seen them hundreds of times but first time they were so CLEAR! The lights in them, the buildings around, the people everything was VERY CLEAR. How could I miss this for the last few years? I know how… Because instead of having what GOD had planned for my eyes, which was to see clearly, I preferred the compromise – for that is what is actually – of "survival". This goes like this: "Since I survive, since I live, since I see a little bit, I’m OK". The compromise of survival does not care whether you LIVE really, in the abundance and the life God has planned for you. Instead it says: "go.. just go.. survive… try to make it somehow… you make things perfect later".</div>
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And this is how we think many times with our spiritual sight too. The spiritual sight as the physical sight may also suffer from shortsightedness. It does not happen instantaneously. It is a long process. I didn’t get up one day and my sight was short. It took years. So also with the spiritual shortsightedness. It does not happen instantaneously. It develops. One compromise here, one compromise there and … you have it. "A little leaven leavens the whole lump" says the Word (I Corinthians 5:6). Suddenly one day you are before a challenge that some years ago you could very easily pass and now you are afraid. It seems your faith is not enough to get you over it! Or you compare yourself with what fellowship you used to have with the Lord and where you stand now and you find that something has been lost. You are not as alive as you used to be! You can see the short things, the blessings, your work, home, etc but the longer things those who pertain to the kingdom, you somehow see them only dim. They seem dim to YOU and this is because you suffer from spiritual shortsightedness. The first thing to do is to recognize it. I had shortsightedness long before I discover it. I discover it accidentally in the army when I once had to shoot in an exercise towards an aim 400 meters ahead and could hardly see it at all. But the shortsightedness didn’t start at that time. It was there since long time ago. I knew something was wrong with my eyes …. I couldn’t see as I used to when I was 20. So something was wrong. But at the time I had to shoot and could hardly see the target then I understood. So also with the spiritual shortsightedness. It may be there. You know that something is not right. You can’t determine it but something is really not as good as it used to be in your relationship with God. It is not the ALIVE fellowship you used to have. And one day or a period the Lord starts revealing to you that something is going wrong with the eyes of your heart. The heart can’t see as far as it could see. One day you go to where many young believers are, in a worship night for example and wonder how they jump and sing and are so zealous and at the same time you wonder why you are not like them now, though you were in the past. You are COOLER now. You can’t see as far as they see and as far as you used to see. You suffer from spiritual shortsightedness and you need to recognize it first! And then, as with the physical shortsightedness, you have two ways to go. One is the compromise of survival. According to this… "I don’t need to do anything. I don’t need to change. It is less than what it used to be but never mind. I will make it. I will survive. I’m still doing things for God. I go to the church and I pray, though it is very dry and much less than in the past". You compromise and you just go. You don’t care whether the life you live is less than what God had for you, less than what you yourself have experienced with God. You just go. You do … as all others… AS THE WORLD! <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">You have compromised.</span> You [I hope nobody falls in this "you" but I also hope that we all examine ourselves!] are a LAODICEAN! And to you the Lord speaks:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">Revelation 3:14-19</span><br />"And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, These things says the Amen, the Faithful and the True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: I know your works, that you are neither cold not hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth. Because you say, "I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing-and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, BLIND, and naked – I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; AND ANOINT YOUR EYES WITH EYE SALVE, THAT YOU MAY SEE. As many as I love I rebuke and chasten. Therefore <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">BE ZEALOUS AND REPENT</span>"</div>
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See the Lord does not say "you are fine. You can stay like this. You are lukewarm but never mind. Just go on". He says "BE ZEALOUS AND REPENT!" To be lukewarm is a SIN for which we need to repent! It is not an acceptable state by the Lord! The only acceptable state is to be ZEALOUS! That’s how He wants you. He wants you to boil for Him! The compromise of survival is a sin! If you are in the Laodicean church, and I know many of us are, the right way is NOT to go on. It is to RETURN. And …. I have good news for you. Jesus has the eye salve, the lenses your eyes need. Jesus has the garments, your body needs. Jesus has the gold that is refined by fire to make you, your heart, rich. <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">JESUS IS THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE</span>. He has all that you need to make you alive again. But you need to return. To kneel down and repent. "Survival" is a lie. It is actually death. Only by repenting and return you will see again and you will LIVE again with the abundant life, the life of the HEART, that Jesus came to bring to you (John 10:10).</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">Revelation 3:20-22</span><br />"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."</div>
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<a href="https://plus.google.com/+AnastasiosKioulachoglou?rel=author" target="_blank">Anastasios Kioulachoglou</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09010159157954465949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4406983286967173975.post-47013095712311589892016-06-12T17:51:00.001-04:002016-06-12T17:51:31.137-04:00God So Loved The World... (John 3:16) and Once Saved Always Saved<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09010159157954465949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4406983286967173975.post-58269740861069989002016-06-11T08:55:00.000-04:002016-06-11T08:55:00.626-04:00The TRUTH about JOHN CALVIN - Is He In Hell Today?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Come out of her my people. </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09010159157954465949noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4406983286967173975.post-83678349463740629692016-06-11T07:36:00.001-04:002016-06-11T07:39:13.705-04:00Isaiah 58 - Are you seeking God as God would have it?<h1 class="H1" style="color: #ff6600; font-family: Calibri, 'Times New Roman', Arial, serif; font-size: 1.4rem; line-height: 38.08px; margin-left: 100px; margin-right: 100px; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline;">
Isaiah 58</h1>
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I have read Isaiah 58 many times in the years that I’m a Christian and it is certainly one of my favorite passages. However, it never spoke to me so loudly as it did this morning. And it is really a loud chapter. It even says it in the first verse:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">Isaiah 58:1</span><br />
"Cry aloud, spare not; Lift up your voice like a trumpet; Tell My people their transgression, And the house of Jacob their sins."</div>
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Cry aloud!! This is not a message to stay somewhere hidden. This is a message that must be said ALOUD! It is a message that must be heard like a TRUMPET! For I believe that, like the people of Israel, so also many of us have the same issues they had and which are described in the first 3 verses of the chapter:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">Isaiah 58:1-3</span><br />
"Cry aloud, spare not; Lift up your voice like a trumpet; Tell My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Yet they seek Me daily, And delight to know My ways</span>, as a nation that did righteousness, and did not forsake the ordinance of their God. <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">They ask of Me the ordinances of justice; They take delight in approaching God</span>. <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">`Why have we fasted,' they say, `and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?</span>"</div>
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Israel was seeking God! Israel took delight to know the ways of the Lord! They took delight in approaching God! You know, these folks wanted to be close to God! They wanted to know God more and more! They fasted! They "afflicted their souls"! And yet… it was like God was deaf in all this! It was like He was blind, frozen, paying no attention to what they did and to their supposingly great interest. If they were today, they would attend church, they would take seminars, they would do "ministry" activities. And yet, God wouldn’t hear nor see! Haven’t we seen this today, probably in our own lives? We may miss somehow God. We try to approach Him … through fasting, through searching for more knowledge, through studying etc… "We take delight to KNOW His ways". Yet, knowing the ways of God does not mean that we know God, nor it means that we walk in these ways! Fasting or taking delight in approaching God does not mean that our hearts are necessarily touched. And it is there that change must happen. It is there where repentance must enter. It is there where transformation must occur. Renewal of the mind (Romans 12:2), means renewal of the heart. As the Lord tells us in I Samuel 16:7 :</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">I Samuel 16:7</span><br />
<span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">"man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."</span></div>
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It is the heart where the Lord looks at. It is not a ritual that we have to follow to approach God: get up at that time, do this and that, go to church every Sunday, do this and that ministry work. This is not going to bring us nearer to God, <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">when there is no change of the heart</span>. If we are going to church, do this and that and have many activities, <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">and yet in our personal lives, in our hearts, we live something else, then whatever we may do will not help</span>. We may very well cry as the Israelites "why you don’t see?". And the reason He does not see lies in the heart. Here is what He said to the people of Israel:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">Isaiah 58:3-5</span><br />
"In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, And exploit all your laborers." Indeed you fast for strife and debate, and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day, to make your voice heard on high. Is it such a fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Would you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?"</div>
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These folks were fasting but in that very day they exploited their laborers! They were fasting and yet they were harboring strife and debate… and in fact they were fasting for this…. "please Lord make the so and so change his mind and see that I’M RIGHT in my argument". They were afflicting their souls, their head went down like a bulrush, they had sackcloth and ashes under them and yet they had the same hard heart! Do you know what the Lord said: THIS IS NOT A FAST!!! Real fast has to do with change of the heart! Stay as many days as you want without food…. <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">if the heart is not changed it does not matter</span>. This does not mean that the fast does not matter in general. What it means is that <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">a fast with unchanged heart does not matter</span>. And then the Lord moves ahead to tell His people what was the true fast:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">Isaiah 58:6-7</span><br />
"<span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; When you see the naked, that you cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh?</span>"</div>
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See, this is not an apathy state. What the Lord describes here is ACTION! However, not action in religious practices but action in justice, in doing His will! This is not the picture of somebody that has made settlements with the world and lives OK for himself and cares nothing for the others. And yet there are many church attending brothers that do this. They do their religious duties or ministries and then they think they are justified to live however they like. There are many that live double lives… one life with those outside (church, work etc.) and another life at their home. You can live however you like but you are not justified to do this nor it is going to benefit you. There are many that say "I give my tithes, I do my "ministry works" so I don’t know why God has a problem with me". The reason is that despite the accomplishment of the duties the heart hasn’t changed. It does need change of the heart, it does need a humble heart, to share your bread with the poor, and to take him to your house! It does need change of the heart to not do what is the easiest thing in the world to do: to be indifferent. It does need change of the heart to loose the bonds of wickedness and undo the heavy burdens. It does need change of the heart for our voices to be heard above. It does not need change of our religious practices. It needs change of the heart. And though nothing is possible without the help of God, it is WE that we are at the end responsible about it. It is WE that we have to make the decision which way we will walk. It is WE that we will make a decision and will say "I WANT TO CHANGE". Then God will help us. God will not move into our area when our hearts don’t actually want Him. "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you" will read in a minute. God will come in only to the extent we truly want Him in our hearts. The Word of God says in James 4:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">James 4:1-10</span><br />
"Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses! <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.</span> Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, "The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously"? But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up."</div>
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Have you ever thought that this is not spoken to people of the world but to Christians, to brothers and sisters in the faith (James 1:2-3)?!!! They had fights, lust, war, envies, murder, and may be the other awful fruits of the flesh described in Galatians 5:19-21! No wonder that they could not approach God. You cannot expect to have a heart unchanged and at the same time God to come near to you, simply because you may take delight in knowing Him or even in approaching Him. It is not enough to intent to approach Him, to be glad in the thought of it. It is not enough to have good intentions! YOU NEED TO DO IT! YOU NEED TO CHANGE! YOU NEED TO STOP GOING FROM ONE DAY TO THE OTHER, BUT TO STEP OUT AND MAKE A DECISION! <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">True approach of God comes only when the heart changes towards this direction</span>. James does not say "go to church more often… start some more activities… fast for a couple of days and read 4 chapters of the Word every day". He does not say this! Not because these things are wrong or evil or bad. No way. He does not give such instructions for <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">such instructions alone cannot bring you nearer to God, when the heart is not changed!</span> In contrast here is what he, through the Spirit of the Lord, tells us:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">James 4:7-10</span><br />
"<span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.</span>"</div>
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Submit to God!!! Resist the devil! Cleanse your hands, and this is not physical cleaning but relates to what these hands have done… it relates to actions! PURIFY YOUR HEARTS!! It does not say…. "please stay as you are and God will change you!". It says: YOU, purify your hearts. It is WE that we do it. Do you want to have a wonderful relationship with the Lord? The key is simple: change of the heart!</div>
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Returning to Israel and to Isaiah, after the Lord told them what to do, He tells them what will follow if they followed what He said, if they changed their hearts:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">Isaiah 58:8-14</span><br />
"Then your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you; The glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; You shall cry, and He will say, `Here I am.' "If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday. The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, the Restorer of Streets to Dwell In. "If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the LORD; And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the LORD has spoken."</div>
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Do you want to say "God.." and hear Him say "Here I’m"? Do you want to call Him and hear Him answer? The way is simple… do what Isaiah 58 and James in a another way told us :</div>
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loose the bonds of wickedness,</div>
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undo the heavy burdens,</div>
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let the oppressed go free,</div>
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break every yoke ,</div>
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share your bread with the hungry,</div>
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bring to your house the poor who are cast out,</div>
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when you see the naked, cover him,</div>
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not hide yourself from your own flesh,</div>
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take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness,</div>
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extend your soul to the hungry,</div>
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satisfy the afflicted soul</div>
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If the relationship with God is not alive, if the relationship with God is poor, if the relationship with God is not what it used to be, there is one and a single remedy: THE HEART NEEDS TO BE CHANGED. And this is an assignment for YOU. YOU have to make the decision to do it. God wants it more than anything else. But you have to make the decision to change. God cannot get in to something you haven’t decided to do! God will help you but you need first to make the decision to really go for it. God wants all men to be saved and come to the knowledge to the truth, but it is the man that makes the decision. God will seem deaf, remote, and blind to your calls when these calls are not accompanied by a change of the heart. Purify the heart, change the heart, make the decision to change and steak to it, and you will call Him and He will be there as He was and even nearer that you have ever seen Him. So close as you couldn’t even dream! This is not an assumption. It is the surety and the last verse of this chapter affirms it, for "THE MOUTH OF THE LORD HAS SPOKEN". This is His promise to you, this is what His mouth says and this is what will happen! It works the same on the contrary though: you can do all the religious activities you want, fast every day, read and memorize all the Bible, go to many seminars etc. BUT NOTHING WILL HAPPEN IF YOU DON’T CHANGE THE HEART, for the Lord does not care for the outside, for what the eyes see, but for the inside, FOR THE HEART! He wants to be loved there, with ALL OUR HEART (Matthew 22:37)! Let the days that come be days of transformation for all of us.</div>
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<a href="https://plus.google.com/+AnastasiosKioulachoglou?rel=author" target="_blank">Anastasios Kioulachoglou</a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Please check out Anastasios's book </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> "The Warnings of the New Testament". </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> download for FREE at: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;">http://www.jba.gr/</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;"> Articles/pdf/the-warnings-of-the-</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;">New-</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;"> Testament.pdf</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09010159157954465949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4406983286967173975.post-23295275250086272862016-06-05T17:43:00.000-04:002016-06-05T17:43:19.625-04:00We are getting close to great trouble.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Friends and family, I am very concerned about the coming months. Obama mocks what is coming. </div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09010159157954465949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4406983286967173975.post-81423359561323517122016-06-05T10:30:00.003-04:002016-06-05T13:29:56.177-04:00Calvinism and the truth. What the Reformers Forgot. I asked Jesus to forgive me when I was 7 years old. We moved to the south and I found myself in a Calvinist church. This led to great spiritual hurt as we were taught in Calvinism you cannot know you are saved. You are born for heaven or born for hell. God selects who goes to heaven. So I did what all of them do, I chose to believe I was a Calvinist and because the "other" denominations hated us we must be right! I went after Calvinism with a fervent heart. I taught it. I still had fears countless nights. <br />
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I am fifty years later. Along the journey, God rescued me. The following should shake a Calvinist, but they are blind. So many of them are lost. I encourage you that if you are not in Calvinism, stay out. It can take your soul. This should stop Calvinism in its tracks, but blind, lead the blind.<br />
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Warren McGrew<br />
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Warning!!! Do not trust man. Stay in the New Testament until you know it so well you can judge the teachers.<br />
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Warning!!! John MacArthur has a cult. Do not let him get to your children. He told thousands of children and adults they can take the Mark of the Beast and repent later. Jesus says exactly the opposite.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09010159157954465949noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4406983286967173975.post-49303613478630580602016-06-04T08:33:00.001-04:002016-06-04T08:33:08.738-04:00Calvinism. Satire and Truth <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Having been a Calvinist for many years, there is much truth here.</div>
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Jacob Prasch shows the history of Calvinism. It is horrible. </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09010159157954465949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4406983286967173975.post-84036851328297162432016-06-04T07:57:00.002-04:002016-06-04T07:57:21.481-04:00Christian, will you stand up?<h1 class="H1" style="color: #ff6600; font-family: Calibri, 'Times New Roman', Arial, serif; font-size: 1.4rem; line-height: 38.08px; margin-left: 100px; margin-right: 100px; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline;">
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Starting from II Samuel 23:8 the Word of God gives us the names of the mighty men of David. Two of them were Eleazar and Shammah, and about them we read in the Scripture:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">II Samuel 23:9-12 </span><br />And after him [Josheb-Basshebeth, see verse 8] was Eleazar the son of Dodo, the Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David when they defied the Philistines who were gathered there for battle, and the men of Israel had retreated. <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">He arose</span> and attacked the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand stuck to the sword. <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">The LORD brought about a great victory that day</span>; and the people returned after him only to plunder. And after him was Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite. The Philistines had gathered together into a troop where there was a piece of ground full of lentils. Then the people fled from the Philistines. <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">But he took his stand in the middle of the field</span>, defended it, and killed the Philistines. <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">And the LORD brought about a great victory.</span></div>
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“He arose” is said for Eleazar and “he took his stand” is written for Shammah. While God’s people were fleeing in the view of their enemies, these two men, each one on a different occasion, stood up and as the Word says: “THE LORD BROUGHT A GREAT VICTORY”. Once one of His people made the decision to stand up against the enemy, the Lord brought a great victory! It was not a question whether He would bring the victory or not. He would certainly bring it! But He needed one, at least one, of His people to stand up against the enemy. Once this happened, and somebody took a stand, the Lord brought the victory!</div>
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God looks around for people who will resist the enemy. For warriors that will take a stand for Him and will trust Him, regardless of the situation. Our enemy is not a Philistine but the devil and here is what the Word of God tells to us, His people:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">James 4:7 </span><br />“Therefore submit to God. RESIST THE DEVIL AND HE WILL FLEE FROM YOU”</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">I Peter 5:8-9 </span><br />“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Resist him, steadfast in the faith</span>, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.”</div>
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And again in<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;"> Ephesians 6:10-18</span><br />“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able TO STAND AGAINST THE WILES OF THE DEVIL. </span>For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to WITHSTAND IN THE EVIL DAY, and having done all, to STAND</span>. <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">STAND THEREFORE</span>, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints”</div>
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We too have an enemy, the devil, and we too will make him to flee if we submit to God and RESIST him. As I John 4:4 says:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">I John 4:4 </span><br />“You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.</span>”</div>
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The victory of Israel was not brought because of the power of Eleazar and Shammah. These were people like anybody else. But they made a difference by taking a stand, trusting their God when everybody else fled. Because they did this God brought a great victory. Making the devil to flee is not a matter of our power and abilities. <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">It is not WE, by ourselves, that are greater than the devil but He that is in us!</span>It is He that gives us the victory! But we have to submit to Him and resist the enemy! And here is what God promises to those who do it:</div>
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<span class="chvs" style="color: green; font-size: 1.15rem;">Romans 16:19-20</span><br />“For <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">your obedience</span> has become known to all. Therefore I am glad on your behalf; but I want you to be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil. <span class="boldu" style="font-size: 1.15rem; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly</span>. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.”</div>
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<a href="https://plus.google.com/+AnastasiosKioulachoglou?rel=author" target="_blank">Anastasios Kioulachoglou</a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Please check out Anastasios's book </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> "The Warnings of the New Testament". </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Purchase at Kindle and Amazon or </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> download for FREE at: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;">http://www.jba.gr/</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;"> Testament.pdf</span></div>
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