Category: counsel

Our Secure Identity in Christ

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

“For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day” (2 Timothy 1:12 KJV).

Life is dynamic; life in Christ is not!

This life is filled with uncertainty. It is dynamic, constantly changing. In short, it can be likened to a roller coaster. Emotions intensify that ride, too! We hear of people worried about their financial stability; their health; their social life; their education; and the wellbeing of their children, grandchildren, and friends.

As noted in today’s Scripture, the Apostle Paul was certainly not exempt from this life’s troubles. Unbelieving Jews followed him wherever he went (as documented throughout the book of Acts). They persecuted him and his Gentile converts (1 Thessalonians 2:14-16). Eventually, these wicked Jews convinced the Roman government to imprison—and finally execute—Paul.

Today’s Scripture is a portion of Paul’s final epistle, written shortly before his execution. Undoubtedly, when he spoke of his “suffering” for the sake of the Gospel of the Grace of God, he was reflecting on his ministry, the last 35 years of his life. We cannot imagine the horrific suffering of Paul, who endured at least 195 lashes; three beatings with rods; one stoning; three shipwrecks; a night and a day stranded in the sea; food, clothing, and shelter shortages; and numerous other troubling ordeals the Bible only briefly recounts (2 Corinthians 11:23-27).

Above all, while writing this final epistle, Paul is in prison again, and he confesses, “Only Luke is with me” (2 Timothy 4:11a). Over three awesome decades of ministry are drawing to a close, but Paul’s circumstances seem grim. He has been forsaken by nearly everyone, and his beheading is near. Regardless, Paul declares, “I am not ashamed.” He knew, no matter what had happened or would happen to his physical body, his spiritual body was secure in Christ (today’s Scripture).

Dear saints, let us remember this sound doctrine when life is difficult. Our circumstances will change; our identity in Christ never will! 🙂

Future Christian Veterans

Sunday, November 11, 2012

“Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2 Timothy 2:3 KJV).

Let us not grow weary, dear saints, for we are Christian veterans-in-the-making!

As one older Christian and veteran affirmed, the spiritual warfare in which we Christians are engaged is far more intense than any flesh and blood battle. The war between good and evil is worldwide, and has transpired for 6,000 years!

Before we trusted Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour, we were on Satan’s side of the conflict. We were dead in our trespasses and sins, fighting against God, opposing His will for us (Ephesians 2:1-3)! Now that we have received salvation and become God’s children, we have become Satan’s enemies.

Life is very difficult under the curse of sin and death. What exacerbates that trouble is that we Christians are subject Satan’s attacks. This “present evil world” (Galatians 1:4) is certainly cruel to us, but we should not expect better treatment anyway. After all, the Lord reminded His disciples, “The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord” (Matthew 10:24). If the world slandered and executed Christ, they will do the same to us Christians without compunction! Remember, we are in a war, and every conflict has casualties.

Howbeit, the Holy Ghost through the Apostle Paul encourages Timothy (and us) to “endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (today’s Scripture). We Christians are not shielded from pain and suffering. Christians worldwide are afflicted for standing firm on God’s Word rightly divided. Hence, we lapse into periods of doubt, wondering if it really is worth it. We grow weary of the suffering, wondering when it will end.

The Holy Ghost reminds us, “Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:1). We are to be strong, not in ourselves, but “in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” Everything that God can do for us through Christ (grace) enables us to “bear” all troubles (1 Corinthians 10:13; Philippians 4:13).

Take comfort, this battle will end, and we Christians will go home to heaven’s glory, becoming Christian veterans! 🙂

The Common People

Saturday, November 10, 2012

“…And the common people heard him gladly” (Mark 12:37 KJV).

Today’s Scripture makes it abundantly clear that God’s Word is for “the common people.”

Upon recently reading a seminarian’s “Bible” study article, I conclude that that was more of a Hebrew study. It left me, a Christian, with more questions than answers. (I can only wonder what confusion it brought to the poor lost souls who read it!)

Oftentimes, theology (mis)leads us to believe that we must go to school for 10 years to learn Koine Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and/or Aramaic, in order to fully grasp the Bible’s concepts. If God required that from us, hardly any of us could ever be saved, or even know God’s will in the first place!!

Contrariwise, God’s Word, the King James Bible, is for the common people. Its 54 faithful, Holy Spirit-filled men who translated it in 1611 knew the Bible languages. They purified and perfected the language of the existing English Bibles to provide us—the common people—with a Bible we could own and read personally (rather than it being chained to a church altar, or “shackled” in Rome’s Latin “bible”).

Notice in today’s Scripture how our Lord Jesus Christ spoke to the common people. He did not depend on the “educated” religious leaders to reach the common people (these “scholars” were too corrupt, and would have perverted His pure doctrine!). Observe what Christ told His Father: “In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Luke 10:21).

Dear reader, the key to understanding the Bible is not a college or seminary education. If you have an ear to hear, an eye to see, and you are willing to study God’s Word and learn, the Holy Spirit will illuminate your mind: “Which things we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (1 Corinthians 2:13).

After all, the Bible is for the common people! 🙂

Blink

Thursday, November 8, 2012

“Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good. They are passed away as the swift ships: as the eagle that hasteth to the prey” (Job 9:25,26 KJV).

Our earthly sojourn is extremely brief, so let us plan ahead for our eternal destination.

Considering the recent and extremely sudden passing of a third Christian family friend within less than one month’s time, we remember this earthly life is very brief. Dear readers, none of us is promised a single day—let alone decades—of earthly life. Life is so fragile. At any moment, even the slightest threat (sickness, stress, et cetera) can instantly extinguish it.

Compared to the eons of eternity, this earthly life is like a blink of the eye, one small grain among innumerable sand particles. In today’s Scripture, Job declares his earthly life is “swifter than a post [footman soldier/guard],” “passed away as the swift ships,” expiring as quickly as the eagle swoops to grasp its prey. “For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (James 4:14bc).

But, there is more than this earthly life. As one Christian brother once expressed it, “Eternity keeps you where death finds you.” There is an eternity after physical death to consider—forever and ever and ever and ever, life either in heaven or hell. Are you, dear reader, ready for the life hereafter? We who have trusted in Christ’s finished crosswork as sufficient payment for our sins, have a hope that once this life ends, our life will continue in heaven’s bliss (this, thankfully, is the testimony of that now-departed friend).

However, the Bible says that those who physically die in their sins will live in torment forever, experiencing the second (or, spiritual) death, “the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone [sulfur]” (Revelation 21:8). Have you ever trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour, that He died for your sins, was buried, and raised again the third day (1 Corinthians 15:3,4)? If not, hell is your destiny after death. Trust Jesus Christ alone today, before it is too late—hell is only one blink away!

-IN MEMORIAM-
Mr. R. J. L.
September 29, 1948 – November 7, 2012

Do We All Worship the Same God? #5

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

“Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: they have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: they have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat” (Psalm 115:4-7 KJV).

Two common misconceptions are: (1) everyone worships the same God, and (2) everyone will eventually make it to heaven. Today’s Scripture answers both with a resounding “NO!”

King David extols the LORD for His faithfulness: “If it had not been the LORD who was on our side; now may Israel say; if it had not been the LORD who was on our side, when men rose up against us: then the waters had overwhelmed us,…. Blessed be the LORD, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth. Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 124:1-4a,6,8).

David understood that Israel’s military victories were because faithful JEHOVAH was on their side: “[Israel’s] help [was] in the name of the LORD,” because He “made heaven and earth.” Their Almighty Creator God was unlike the idols of today’s Scripture; those idols could do nothing, for Israel or for the heathen (who lost to Israel militarily because they served helpless idols). Thus, the context of today’s Scripture again exhorts Israel to trust in the all-powerful LORD, who “made heaven and earth” (Psalm 115:9-12,15, but especially 15).

Just as Israel was weak without the faithful LORD in physical battles, we have no spiritual victory apart for the faithful Lord Jesus Christ. Only the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins, our unfaithfulness; in Him alone is there spiritual life. No religion or idol can provide forgiveness of sins or a way to heaven. “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). Unless we bypass pagan idols and come by faith through the Lord Jesus Christ alone, we are neither worshipping the one true God nor going to heaven.

Brethren, Pray for Us

Friday, November 2, 2012

“Brethren, pray for us” (1 Thessalonians 5:25 KJV).

Today’s Scripture exhorts us to pray for our Christian brethren, and we beseech you to especially pray for this ministry.

Saints, I hope you do not mind, but I must share with you what has been on my heart for these past few weeks (and several months). It is very difficult to express in words, but I have endured (and am still enduring) one of the most heart-wrenching issues life affords. The issue, whose details God knows, has hindered this ministry for nearly 18 months now. From the very beginning, I tried my absolute best to handle it Scripturally, hoping to avoid the disastrous outcome that nevertheless came to fruition.

In short, dear readers, I want to take this opportunity to counsel with you, in hopes that you will spare your Christian brethren the emotional, spiritual, and mental turmoil that troubles me still. I beseech you to take the utmost care in the words you say and the deeds you do, especially to your grace brethren in Christ. The lost world is certainly unkind to us Christians. Why must we too “consume one another?” When we do it to the Christian brethren, we do it to Christ!!!!

We Christians always have forgiveness at Christ’s cross, but the damage we do to our Christian brethren does not magically disappear. We can never take back those harsh words. Thus, let us exercise great care in what words we speak, especially to our grace brethren in Christ. Let us prayerfully meditate on the rightly divided King James Bible before we make rash decisions we will later regret. We do and will make mistakes, but if we persist in those mistakes, we really have not grasped what grace living is all about.

Grace living is not sinless living, but letting God’s grace transform you, and allowing it to correct you when you do make mistakes. Selfishness, bitterness, and bickering are inconsistent with God’s grace to us in Christ; consequently, they do not belong in our lives. “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32).

Arrayed in Hypocrisy

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity” (Matthew 23:27,28 KJV).

“Looks can be deceiving” is not only true during Halloweentime, but confirmed year-round within Christendom.

Today is Halloween, when children dress up and feign themselves to be creatures they are not. Likewise, many church leaders today wear “Christian” garbs, but their ministries do not bring the Lord Jesus Christ glory and honor. They promote their denomination, and seek to perpetuate it, rather than serve and exalt the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. The Bible manifests these who appear to be good, as “wolves in sheep’s clothing.”

In today’s Scripture, Jesus Christ exposed Israel’s corrupt religious leaders who misled the nation in His day. In His Parable of the Tares, Matthew 13:24-30,37-43, Christ explained how just as He had sown good seed (wheat, believing Jews) in Israel, Satan had also sown tares/weeds (unbelieving Jews). Tares resemble wheat; unbelieving Jews resemble believing Jews. The unbelieving Pharisees and scribes, for instance, looked like God’s people (believing Israel). Judas Iscariot was another example of Satan’s tares—the apostles never realized who Judas really was until it was too late!

But Satan’s counterfeit believers are not confined to Israel’s program. Today, within local assemblies of the Body of Christ, there are people feigning themselves to be Christians: For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works” (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).

Beloved, beware of the church leaders who are arrayed in hypocrisy, “and avoid them” (Romans 16:17b). If their teaching does not agree with the rightly divided King James Bible, you have no business as a child of God to be following them.

*This is excerpted from a larger Bible study with the same name. The Bible study can be read here or watched here.

Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing

Sunday, October 28, 2012

“For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock” (Acts 20:29 KJV).

Saints, let us be mindful that today’s Scripture is truer today than ever before.

In the context of today’s Scripture, the Apostle Paul is bidding the Ephesian church leaders farewell. He is determined to return to Jerusalem, unsure if the Jews will kill him there (verses 22,23). Paul warns these church leaders to “take heed therefore unto [themselves], and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made [them] overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood” (verse 28).

They need to be on guard, for in the next verse—today’s Scripture—he cautions them that false teachers will come in and spiritually devour these Christian leaders and their local assemblies. Satan’s ministers, denominationalists/religionists/legalists, will devastate the spiritual health of God’s people. They will come in from the outside world, and infiltrate the church with heresy so Christians become ineffective.

But, the subsequent verse says, “Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them” (verse 30). Not only will people outside the local church come in and deceive, there will be false teachers within the church (already doing the damage subtly and hypocritically). They claim “Jesus is Lord,” they talk about God’s love and grace, and some will even go so far as to agree with us by teaching the special ministry and gospel committed to the Apostle Paul’s trust. But, when you read the King James Bible for yourself, and compare their teaching to it, you realize that their ministry confirms today’s Scripture.

“With tears,” Paul warned the Ephesians for three years about false teaching (Acts 20:31). By the end of Paul’s ministry, several years after that warning in Acts chapter 20, Ephesus and the rest of Asia (Turkey) went into apostasy (2 Timothy 1:15). Dear saints, how we would STRONGLY URGE you to be very careful about what preacher, ministry, and/or church you follow. “Many corrupt the word of God” (2 Corinthians 2:17).

Aid Not the Sinner in His Cause

Saturday, October 27, 2012

“And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them? And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot: thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief” (Exodus 32:21,22 KJV).

While we are to speak out against the world’s sins, let us make sure we are not aiding them to commit those sins.

For the past 40 days, Moses has been on Mount Sinai, receiving the Law from the LORD. “And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt” (verses 7,8).

So, Moses descends from Sinai, holding the tables of stone on which the LORD engraved His Law. “And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh [near] unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount. And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it” (verses 19,20).

Today’s Scripture describes the next event. Aaron was left in charge of Israel while Moses was away, so Moses demands of his brother why he allowed Israel to indulge in this pagan idolatry. Aaron confesses that when Israel wanted an idol, he took Israel’s gold, “cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf” (verse 24). Ridiculous—Aaron claims the idol just “magically” appeared! In today’s Scripture, notice how Aaron blames Israel’s wickedness, when he was ultimately to blame!

Saints, let us not encourage others to sin, as Aaron misled Israel. Church leaders should be especially cautious in that regard.

Israel’s Walk By Sight

Friday, October 26, 2012

“And Israel saw the great work which the LORD did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD, and his servant Moses” (Exodus 14:31 KJV).

While we in the Dispensation of Grace “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7), today’s Scripture validates this was not true of Israel in her program.

In Christendom, there is much discussion about “miraculous demonstrations.” Apparitions, snake handling, exorcisms, and healing campaigns are publicized as “the work of God.” They insist, “Come and see signs, miracles, and wonders!” Certainly, believers in Scripture did perform various miracles, but we need to understand why they carried them out, before we try to mimic them (and before someone gets hurt!).

The greatest hang-up in Christendom is a persistent, defiant confusing and combining of Israel’s program of “time past” with God’s current program operating in the “but now.” Just because God did something in the past, He is not necessarily doing it today. Do we still offer animal sacrifices? Are we building an ark like Noah? Should we stone to death those who work on the Saturday Sabbath like Israel did? Just as we understand the clarity of these issues, we should recognize that miraculous demonstrations performed in Israel’s program are not occurring today (according to the rightly divided Bible, anyway).

For instance, in the context of today’s Scripture, Israel has just observed God drowning the Egyptian armies in the Red Sea. Israel responded by faith, but not until after she had seen that miracle (today’s Scripture). After all, “the Jews require a sign” (1 Corinthians 1:22a). Jesus explained to Israel why He performed His miracles: “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe” (John 4:48). Without miracles, Israel would not believe (cf. Exodus 4:1-9); Aaron performed signs before Israel, “and the people believed” (verses 30,31).

We are Gentiles, and unlike Jews, we do not need signs, miracles, and wonders—they were for the benefit of unbelieving Israel (see 1 Corinthians 14:21,22, for example). When we study and believe Paul’s epistles, we learn that the completed Bible replaced the miraculous demonstrations (1 Corinthians 13:8-13; 2 Timothy 3:16,17).