Really Do Plan

Ok.  I admit it.  I had become too busy to post here, but things are changing and I have a purpose.  Will be posting real soon.

TRUE LOVE IN CHRIST

What is commonly ignored by most Christians, but should be apparent to all, is that Acts chapters 10, 16, and 21 makes it clear gentiles were never under the Law, (Torah), and that those twelve apostles before Paul never forsook the law but lived and died under it’s confines. As gentiles we should not be attempting to follow the law in it’s various forms and commands. While the four ‘gospels’ so-called are complete and clear explanations of Christ earthly ministry and commands to Israel, it was never intended for gentile believers to obey. Rather, all of our commands can be found in Paul’s ministry and letters. The Revelation of the Mystery given to Paul, that gentiles should be included in the Body Of Christ apart from the law of works by grace alone, was committed to Paul alone and not the twelve. As gentiles, it is in Paul’s writings we find all we need for life and Godliness in our present dispensation.

In Corinthians we find the breakdown of the gentile church in the following of men and the divisions created by the forsaking of Paul’s doctrine to following that of Peter and Apollos. Paul corrects them by trying to return them to following God’s will for them by returning them to his own teachings given by the Lord Jesus himself. In Acts 4:16 and 11:1 this is exactly what Paul does.

“For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me.” 1 Corinthians 4:15-16,

And,

“Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 11:1

While the church has made an issue out of baptism in 1 Corinthians, the real issue here is the Corinthians had moved away from Paul’s doctrine alone. Paul attempts to show them their canality and his inability to speak to them on a spiritual level because now the divisions caused by their forsaking Paul’s doctrine was causing contentions and bitterness. The only prescription for these divisions then was to return from following Peter, and Apollos (who was also a Jew who had been saved under the gospel of Christ’s earthly ministry), to himself as their apostle.

In the same way the church today has forsaken Paul’s doctrine alone as the standard of it’s rule and practice and is following these same twelve men and Christ’s earthly ministry. The many divisions in Christianity are the result of it, each one thinking it is right and each one thinking it alone has the truth. But the truth cannot be taught while this gentile church continues to follow apostles other than the apostle God gave to the gentiles – Paul. Nor can it truly exercise it’s spiritual gifts while it follows the earthly ministry of Christ intended for Israel and the Jews to bring the nations to the God of Israel.

You may be wondering at this time what any of this has to do with the true love of Christ in the believer’s life? Continue reading.

Well, the divisions in the church and the arrogance of being right are proof of the same carnality Paul spoke of in 1 Corinthians who had forsaken Paul’s gospel and doctrine alone as the source of their livelihood in Christ. It is the same carnality and the same prescription to heal the church.

“And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?” 1 Corinthians 3:1-4

While the church is feeding it’s flock with the same milk over and over, the church does not grow as it should and the same separations remain still. To this I say, grow up! Return to Paul as the sole apostle to the gentiles and stop following the gospel meant for Israel and her belivers which neither did away with the law or the gospel of circumcision committed to Peter and the others.

“But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter; (For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:) And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.” -Galatians 2:7-9

While this carnality exists, the church cannot reach the spiritual level of understanding or growth God intended. This of course was satan’s plan all along. In fact, very early in the church satan began mixing law and grace and pressuring the church to follow the law and the ministry of the twelve instead of Paul. In Acts 16, and 1 Corinthians 1 and 2, satan attempts to bring the gentiles under the law of Moses (the Torah) and have gentiles become Jews by also being circumcised (one of the last steps to becoming a Jew). This would of course, erase the very distinctions of Paul’s gospel and make the things Christ had done for the gentiles in saving them without the law to be of no effect. This is the very thing he has accomplished in the present day church. Law is mixed with grace and the real power of the gentile church has been all but totally diminished. No wonder Paul fights so fervently in his letters for the gentiles to know the real meaning of grace apart from the works of the law and to know all Christ had given to them, and to us.

Without this spiritual growth unmixed with the law Christians cannot love as God intended. Think about it. With so many separations over minor issues like dress, music, diets, fellowship, beliefs, the church has become totally carnal and does not know the real power of God to overcome sin. The real love of Christ in the gentile church can only be fully realized in the environment of grace, apart from any works of the law. While the church thinks it’s purpose is to “establish the law” by somehow fullfilling the law by a self-imposed pueso-set of rules and regulations created from some grace-law mix, it cannot truly be the example it sets out to be, and the world knows it. The church falsely sees itself as setting the standard of love, but the world sees a selfish and self-important mix of what a Christian is supposed to be. Instead of a clear example, what the world sees is hodpodge of beliefs and dogma, none of which seems to really exemplify who Christ was or what he was about. How can the church then truly represent God’s love to the gentiles when the church itself does not truly understand it?

Under these demands the church is not free to love one another, let alone the world outside with a true unselfish love. When we constantly separate over man-made self-imposed rules of behavior we are not walking in the Spirit. After all, how can we be walking in the spirit if the scripture is revealing the fact we are truly carnal in our behavior as 1 Corinthians makes clear? If we are not walking in the spirit, (which is what the Bible tells us the divisions show of us), then we cannot be free from fulfilling the lusts of the flesh. We deceive ourselves if we think we, the church we attend, or the denomination if we are part of one, has the only truth for doctrine and belief and we stand apart from them. We are carnal. We cannot love like Christ. We are walking in the flesh. If we really had the truth should we not want to lift up and help correct our brother in Christ when he is believing wrong and not separate? If we really had the truth should we not be passionate for it?

I believe we know we are false but deny the truth. We do not love. We do not rise above our sin. We are not passionate because we do not have the love and power of God in our lives, and this is because we as gentiles are trying to follow the gospel of the twelve and Christ’s earthly ministry instead of Paul’s gospel alone. This mix of law and grace robs us of the truth and the real love in Christ. We do not understand the real gospel, the real Christ, or the real ministry of reconciliation God has committed to us. We are confused, being caught between two gospels. In this satan has won. How can we be passionate for the truth of the gospel when we do not truly know what it is we are supposed to be doing?

Unless love is grounded firmly in Paul’s gospel it will waver back and forth between legalism where it can never reach out to others with God’s true character, and liberalism where it can never be truly planted in faith which will protect the heart and mind of the believer from false doctrines attacking it. As gentiles, only following Paul’s gospel and relinquishing the gospel of law taught by the twelve can allow the Holy Spirit to work through our spirit to perform his love.

Following the gospel taught by the twelve will only lead to legalism because it never delivered those twelve or their followers from the law, and neither will it deliver you.

WHY I AM HERE

2016-10-15

 

What I am referring to here is why I am on this site.  It has been several years since I did any serious writing here.  This is because we were going through difficult times as a family and left our previous church.  It was difficult to leave a church we had been part of for over sixteen years.  We made the decision to leave after realizing the Holy Spirit was actually making us leave. It was during a time when he revealed we were no longer growing there and it was doing our family more harm than good.  This was a truly dark time for our family but God has brought us through this and we are growing again in him.

During this time I had set aside all writing.  Surprisingly, this site was still up and running and had not been cancelled by the powers that be, even though I did little to keep it up.  I could not write because I needed to grow in my faith and in certain areas of doctrine.

To be honest, my life was changed many years ago by something I will later explain in future blogs.  There is certainly not enough room to contain it in one article.  Simple to say, the new understanding I gained then so deeply affected me on the most basic and advanced levels of my very being that it took years to work it all out.  What God was showing me also so condradicted doctrines and traditons I had been taught by the church I had absorb all of the truth he was showing me before I could pass any on to others.

Because of all that was affecting me I doubted my ability to write at all.  It was when I was complaining about this inability that the Holy Spirit brought back the memory of  these verses.

“And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.  For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.  And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.”  – 1 Corinthians 2:1-6

Knowledge puffs up but I have found the truth of God is humbling.

Quite honestly, it was my family who convinced me I needed to share what I see with others but it has taken me a while to get past my inadequacies.  I apologize for that.

 

 

The Synthetic Church – Part 1

Originally Titled: Set In Our Ways

 

A couple of years ago our youngest son was learning to type at home using a home study course. As he began to progress we had a difficult time making our son do the course because he had learned to type in a different way than the typing course was teaching him. He had learned to type playing games on the computer long before we began to use the typing course and he had become set in his ways. My wife and I had learned typing though typing courses in high school and had learned their way of typing was the only way and accepted way in the business world at the time. My wife especially felt frustrated because she wanted my son to learn typing as she learned it but he was resisting it. She felt she was personally failing because she was not doing well at getting him to learn the way the course taught it.

After some time, my wife became upset and came to me and tried to get me to make our son do it the way the typing program taught it. After a couple of trials at getting him to try and submit to the way the typing program taught it I realized we had a problem that wasn’t a result of disobedience. It wasn’t so much a problem with him resisting the typing program as it was having trouble re-training his fingers to do it a different way and how much of a stuggle that was for him.

After praying about it I came back to my wife and told her we should rethink the way we were doing it. I told her I wasn’t so inclined to force my son to do it a different way than he had learned, after all, learning typing wasn’t a real skill he would be doing on a daily basis in the way, perhaps, a secretary might use it. If he could type a resonable amount of words and punctuation correctly with an acceptable rate of error would it really make any difference whether or not he had learned a conventional way of doing it? Was our real goal to make him a professional typer or to just be able to use the skill to a reasonable extent for his own everyday use?

We sat our son down and made him do the typing test contained in the program which would test his typing speed and error rates. My wife’s and my ability is 50-60 words per minute with a reasonable rate of error. She has been typing for 30 years and I have been typing for 38. We felt our own ability, though not great, would be an acceptable amount to expect from him. Our oldest son, who learned to type using the program and with the program’s typing style, is able to do 70 words per minute so we hoped for at least our own amount of wpm but would be pleased if he typed as fast as his older brother.

After several tests, the outcome surprised us. Our youngest son was able to type between 65 and 73 wpm, and that was using a system he had learned using mostly 3 fingers per hand. He was also able to do it with a lower rate of error than I was and even typing numbers and symbols. I made the decision to scrap the typing program. My goal wasn’t to make him conform to the program’s standards or my own. It was for him to be able to produce things in writing and that was the best we could hope from the typing program to start with.

Somehow my son had done something on his own that sums up one of my thoughts on life itself and learning. God has made all of us different in so many ways. Each of us has our own gifts and talents. We often try to make others conform to our own way of thinking instead of appreciating the differences which God has put in any one of us. Because of conformity though, we are made to adapt to an environment that is man-made and artificial. This is true of the church too which tries to conform everyone to it’s own way of thinking instead of Christ’s.

I read a book several years ago on how to survive in the wilderness. It was a survival guide for catastrophe’s that might occur and was pretty much useless because the drawings and discriptions were so bad I don’t think anyone would be able to tell the difference between a poisonous plant and a edible one. What I did take away from the book though was this one idea: the environment we live in is not a natural one but an artificial one created by man. People trained to work in this environment often cannot adapt to a natural one. The writer stated people often die in catastrophes with food right next to them they could have eaten but they didn’t recognize it as food. The members of the Body Of Christ are dying today from the same old “milk” and not “meat” of God’s word because of the artificial environment created by man and not God, and the meat is right next to them and they can’t see it.

The problem is we take our mentality of conforming into the church. When we should conform to Jesus Christ, we in reality conform to the church as an institution. This is why we do not speak out when we see injustices, wrong doctrine, and out right lies in our church leaders and others, and why it becomes so difficult to leave when we do see it. Our church structure is such that one cannot question those in charge. Yet the apostle Paul calls us all part of Christ body and members in particular. We are not to be the arm of the body if we are called to be the feet. It is difficult for us to leave one particular environment because we are being forced to conform to a particular way of thinking and believing. Those who do not conform are ridiculed, ostracized, and criticised, and labeled as heretics.

The word heretic has often been used to mean a bad thing. Paul, I believe, uses it to mean a good thing. He says “heresies must arise so that they which are approved would be made manifest among you.” The leadership has always spoken of this as a way for them to judge and cast out those who disagree with their teachings. I do not think this is what Paul means although it could mean this too. Instead, I believe it could also mean that God is the one who is in charge, and these disagreements need to arise so God himself might put his seal of approval on those whom he chooses to manifest his own wisdom, and that might not be the pastor, because the paster can be wrong too. This idea that the pastor, or elders are always right is just not Biblical and I believe puts power in the person God never intended them to have. God did not appropriate all of his truth in the pastor in the original churches. The church at Corinth is an example. If he did, then why would he mention the gifts of wisdom, knowledge, and prophecy as though they were given to several people, (i.e. let the prophets speak one at a time). There is very little, if any, that even says a pastor should preach, let alone speak truth, unless they were given one of these gifts of the spirit. I just don’t see that kind of gift invested in the pastor, elders, deacons, or teachers alone. It especially does not exist in denominations which are nothing more than cookie manufacturers designed with the cookie cutting mentality to make all believers conform to them. What is really funny to watch is the fundamentalists who call the denominations wrong for doing this when they have the same mentality of criticizing those who won’t conform to them.

God planned to distribute his gifts, severally, as he willed. The cookie cutter mentality that exists in the body of Christ to conform to institutionalized doctrine and programs is an artificial environment that, unfortunately, exists for all the same reasons and the same purpose as worldly institutions, only with the supposed goal of conforming to Christ. But does any of us really know what that means? All of us are at different stages in the knowledge of Christ and we are members in particular, and we need to stop trying to conform everyone else to be like us. I personally believe God gave very little information about the real structure and discription of the early church because he didn’t want us to become cookie cut carbon copies of them, but rather of Christ. He wants to do something different with each member and each church in the body of Christ,and that should excite us. We should not be conforming to our environment; our environment should be conforming to us and we should be conforming to Christ. Although our doctrine should be the same as Paul’s teachings, we have great diversity within that environment,which is not artificial but created by Christ himself.

In short, what I am saying is the compartmentalized…programs, youth groups, outreaches, door-to-door ministries are all man-made and artificial; not God made. They are artificial in that they often copy worldly institutions ways of making the body conform to it’s structure and way of thinking, often through peer pressure, and not the Bible or Christ’s, [“Let us all wear the same school uniforms and march the same way to class” like kids in a Catholic school].

I once heard a Pastor who said the institution of the church has as much freedom it needs to create whatever structure it wants since God has left so many things open for the church to make it’s own decisions in this area of doctrine, but in doing this so many churches have become legalistic, with the pastor as high commander of ‘his ship’ and everything he says must be followed to the letter. If anyone of his followers turn to the right of left of what he says,either he or the elders of the church are ready to squash those who would oppose him. I say this is wrong. I believe God left so many things unexplained because he wanted the church to live freely in Christ without the abundance of rules and restraints, and the church should not restrain any more in it’s teachings than our own apostle Paul did in his letters. If they do more than that then they are disobedient to Christ because Christ himself makes no such restrictions. Things like church membership, for instance, in which you become members by specifically agreeing to a set of doctrines and being accepted to the roll call of a church is extending church control above and beyond what Christ himself has allowed. It makes for steady income to support a career path for the pastors and paying bills of the institutionalized church who has submitted itself to the corporate responsibilities of a business to the state, but it isn’t the church Christ started through the apostle Paul. If we make more demands of believers than what our apostle does then we are perverting the word of God and deceiving believers to follow our own man-made doctrines and not that of Christ. How will the building which these men have built stand in the day of Christ at his judgement seat when tried by fire? Is not such teaching adding to the word of God?

Written 04/07/14. Topic=Chistian Walk

Learning When To Speak

It was about five years ago the Lord spoke to me in a Sunday school class. He said,

“Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge.
If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace”

and,

“And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets”

At the time there was a frenzy over an issue in the class, and I too was frustrated because I had a point I wanted to get across, but the Lord spoke to my spirit with this passage. I want to tell you, that was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do, to be quiet when I wanted to speak.

God is not the author of confusion. We do not all need to speak. Too often we are ready to speak our mind on an issue when we should shut-up. Let me tell you, that Lord told me that day to shut-up. Many of us are not ready to heed the warning of the preacher who says,

“Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.”

Why is this so? First of all, let us consider what we say. Many of us speak giving our interpretation of scripture. When we do so, we need to be careful for it is not the words of men we deal with, but rather, the word of God. Let us not be foolhardy therefore in what we speak and that we are being respectful with how we handle it. Let us consider what we say to be a true representation of what God himself says. Although there is room for discussion, let us not give into the spirit of “speaking our own mind,” or from the spirit of “encouragement for group discussion” about a matter which may only provide the teacher with a verification to get a point across. If the Holy Spirit is doing the teaching, whether group discussion or not, learning will take place. Successful group discussion in and of itself is not a seal the Holy Spirit is working or that people are learning what God wants them to learn. Not all classes with group discussions are truly spiritual in their structure for this reason. Consider that a teacher whether Pastor, elder, or just a teacher or speaker may themselves speaking out of the flesh and needing feedback for his own self-esteem or applause, or, the people themselves may be speaking only that which they think is right and it provides a carnal means of acceptance for them as well as an outlet for pouring forth their thoughts. How would we know the difference as a pastor or the body of Christ when listening in such a case?

Secondly, our speaking out may only serve to build up our own flesh, even when using scripture. It can “puff us up.” Our knowledge of biblical things is not of itself a sign we are doing something spiritual. What is our motive. Does it evolve out of our own carnal tastes, attitudes, and views about God’s word. If our sentence begins with, “I think-” then we should be careful what it is we are thinking. God is not interested in what we think, not that thinking is wrong. Notice, the subject in the scripture above is not about us. It is about God, and others. Is God and his words being glorified and are others truly being edified? The first two scriptures, though not about speaking out in general, does fit in principle. Based on this scripture, I have made it a practice to not speak out unless specifically prompted by the Holy Spirit to speak out, and then not in these cases:

• If I have previously spoken out in the class that day,
• if two other people have spoken out before me already in that class.

Though not speaking as a prophet, I am certainly qualified in the Body Of Christ to say no to the impulse or urge to speak out, and I am not condemned for it.

This is not a law, but I find it works well with me. I do not want to force an opinion which may indeed be an opinion. Many times I will wait and pray several times about a certain thing I feel compelled to speak. By then there may have already been two who have spoken. That is enough for me. I can speak for the Lord, or I can be quiet for the Lord. The spirit of the prophets, (so to speak), are subject to the prophets. I only want to speak when prompted by the Holy Spirit.

“There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world,

and none of them is without signification”

and,

“Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts,

seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church”

In times past I may have spoken out of my own flesh, spoken from a point of view of the world or even worse, and sometimes not even known it until later. Now, I regret such speaking because it was for the wrong reasons. From these verses we can see it should be for the edification of another. What does the voice I speak out with signify? Does it signifiy my speaking for Christ, or for myself?

Many of you may recognize these verses from I Corinthians as being from a section dealing with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, tongues, and prophesying. I chose these verses because they deal with the issue of speaking out in church and how it can be used from a carnal means as well as spiritual. Let us consider the gift of speaking in general and apply what we know from how this church spoke and Paul’s challenge for them to speak for the edification of others and for God.

If we want to be true to the word of God, then each of us must find how and when God wants us to speak and not just speak for ourselves.