The most self centered....

[just-me]

There is unity.....in the Spirit. If there is no unity, do you suppose that might be because there is no present Spirit. And if there is no Spirit, why not? Where the Spirit of The Lord is there is liberty. Eleuthera: not enslaved.


We are ordered not to quench the Spirit. So what would quench the Spirit of God in our assembly?
How about not obeying His word concerning our relationship with each other in the gathering....how we hold our meetings?
Many on this site deny the Lord that bought them (set at nought His teaching) 2Peter 2:1 concerning this topic. It is very clear that Christ is to be Head of our fellowship and that He should have the freedom to work through each individual as He so chooses.
So since His prescription for His body which is an open participatory meeting is not what we do, folks are left impotent and dry spiritually.

This leaves a void for the unchristian attributes of the world to take root in the individual believer. In a word, satan has won. He has defused the body of Christ. He has made lame His people as a functional representation of Himself to a lost world.

The world looks at way to many Christians and sees no difference in them from themselves. Sometimes if there is a difference, it's not for the better but for the worse. (We gather not for the better, but for the worse).

Unity has become a joke. Can the Spirit work with the flesh? Can one brother who has done his homework to get into the Spirit of God, work with another brother who has not, but does his thing for The Lord in the flesh absent His Spirit? This is the major problem of what I call churchianity.

Again, we are not taking heed to what we are to be in Him, or how we are to esteem others better than ourselves. To many doing just the opposite, esteeming themselves better than all the others through the ungodly hierarchical construct in the local body. Instead of servants serving one another in the humility and fear of The Lord, it has become a 'king of the mountain' club.
So hence the spirit of the world....'another spirit, another gospel, another Jesus'.

What has caused this is the modern church of today makes it a habit if denying the instructions of love compelling members to make up their own description of how to love their neighbor, and God. That is done by putting a division between faith and grace and those instructions of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Obedience to the instructions in righteousness is not against faith and God's grace.

"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:" 2 Timothy 3:16

"And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand." Mark 3:25

 

[JesusIsAll]

What has caused this is the modern church of today makes it a habit if denying the instructions of love compelling members to make up their own description of how to love their neighbor, and God. That is done by putting a division between faith and grace and those instructions of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Obedience to the instructions in righteousness is not against faith and God's grace.

This is something which has also perplexed me, have seen comments made by Christians advocating being obedient to such as moral law, being of good conscience, condemned. One of the first exchanges I read here involved a Christian who was talking about falling short and every day wanting to walk in more obedience to the Lord. That person was condemned by one reply as being of works faith, as if some Judaizer, of weak faith not to recognize they're a helpless sinner. No such thing was said, no claim of works salvation, at all. I was taken aback by that evil reply. This was a most dark, slanderous remark, to somebody who was merely saying they wanted to grow in Christ! It seems there are those here who are violently clinging to the idea of easy believism, are quite unnerved at the concepts of obedience and holiness. To put it most plainly, there are those who are doing everything to disclaim the need to be righteous as Christians! But as follows, that walk, what we do with our feet, is most important,

1 John 1:6-7 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

 

[just-me]

This is something which has also perplexed me, have seen comments made by Christians advocating being obedient to such as moral law, being of good conscience, condemned. One of the first exchanges I read here involved a Christian who was talking about falling short and every day wanting to walk in more obedience to the Lord. That person was condemned by one reply as being of works faith, as if some Judaizer, of weak faith not to recognize they're a helpless sinner. No such thing was said, no claim of works salvation, at all. I was taken aback by that evil reply. This was a most dark, slanderous remark, to somebody who was merely saying they wanted to grow in Christ! It seems there are those here who are violently clinging to the idea of easy believism, are quite unnerved at the concepts of obedience and holiness. To put it most plainly, there are those who are doing everything to disclaim the need to be righteous as Christians! But as follows, that walk, what we do with our feet, is most important,

1 John 1:6-7 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

Amen brother! It's a conundrum for sure. I'll explain. In Jesus' day while He walked the earth before His death, the Pharisees were constantly trying to trap Jesus with questions about the law, saying that He was distorting it by His teachings and actions. Jesus was following the law to the letter, but the controversy came because the Pharisees had distorted the truth thereof. It was "the traditions of our father's" thing. The washing of hands before eating was one thing. Back then, Jesus said that "If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do . He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." John 8:42-44

Satan had destroyed the truth of God to the Pharisees by distorting the laws that God gave to Moses.

Through the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, this tactic failed. Satan then is using another tactic. Rather than distort the truth, he is working to annihilate it through the religious sect of today. This is done by using the salvation of Jesus Christ as an excuse. It is by pointing fingers at Christians who esteem the law as good even though they are not seeking righteousness by the works of the law calling them Judaizers,and legalizers. It is true then that the prophecy in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 will be fulfilled by this falsehood. It's the "falling away." One way or another, our adversary who despises these instructions will fight for destruction. It was distorted by the religious sect back then, and is now being annihilated by the religious sect today. Satan desires lawlessness in Christ's church.

 

[Yet]

No one is absolutely right on all things. Paul even said 'not that I have attained all things but I press toward the mark....'mine.

But I still submit that if we'd ever dare to do our fellowships according to His word, the gains would grow greater and the liabilities would grow smaller.

We may not agree on end time events, healing or what prosperity really means but the stark and obvious scriptures and commands such as, we shouldn't be robbing widows, are no brainers. But what's scary, is a simple command like that one is ignored by so much of the church....even by the widows and poor themselves that are being defrauded. We've got work to do.

 

[Hoffco]

Thank you, Jesus Is All, Very well said, The CARNAL CHRISTIAN , LOST ones, don't care or love the WHOLE word of GOD. They are are CULT of fundamental christians who hate the true words of Jesus. All they can see is "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ" and be saved. They certainly are the Devils advocate of these last days for evil. I wish I was more perfect than I am; BUT, at least, I am trying to live a godly life in my family and encourage others to do so. We have to teach all of the word of God and He will be happy with us. I try to be very free in my apologies for any little offence I make. And I do make a lot of people offended; but , hear the words of Paul, "I am sorry for making you sorry, but I am not so sorry, because you repented and made restitution of your evil deeds and are now waking in the truth." (free trans,) 2cor.7:8-11 I just had to rebuke our newest member of our preaching team and let him leave ,at my command, because he contradicted Jesus and my teaching. It was a sad day, but today we had a very sweet fellowship, One brother ,not involed in the false teaching, but saddened by my action, came back to church today and taught his S.S. class as usual, praise
God, another family did not come back , pray, they will. It is tough to have to clean house and keep the flock happy in God's word.,but it can be done. I take a tough stand against murrmurring in our family. In the end, it is worth it; But, I keep asking forgiveness for my own conplainings. Love to all, Hoffco

 

[Hoffco]

The last two posts before mine were great, keep up the hard work, it will be rewarded by Jesus in the end.. Love Hoffco

 

[JesusIsAll]

Thank you, Jesus Is All, Very well said, The CARNAL CHRISTIAN , LOST ones, don't care or love the WHOLE word of GOD. They are are CULT of fundamental christians who hate the true words of Jesus. All they can see is "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ" and be saved.

It's as if they somehow think a lot of scripture in the Bible is ad space or something. You could put what they believe from the New Testament in a pamphlet!

 

[just-me]

It's as if they somehow think a lot of scripture in the Bible is ad space or something. You could put what they believe from the New Testament in a pamphlet!

It is true that the more corrupt a society becomes, the more man made laws are initialed. It eventually becomes a hardship to the innocent. God's Word is a preventive maintenance program, even the law of economics given to Israel. Every tribe was instructed to give 10% of the increase. (net value not gross) 11 tribes would give 110% of the increase to the Levitical tribe dispersed throughout the nation. They would make sure that the poor were taken care of within the boarders of each individual tribe throughout Israel. Then the increase of the Levities (net not gross) went to the descendants of Aaron residing in Jerusalem. There is more but this country would do well in practicing the same with the states being taxed according to the net, and leaving the feds to do what they were originally designed to do, and that's "national security" which includes the boarders of Mexico. By denying the law in teaching, members of the church have no idea who would be the best representative for them. Years ago, I was teaching Sunday school and mentioned that we should vote Biblical morals at the booth. My comments were met with much negative response. That response came from teaching before I came there. One might ask themselves why. It was automatic without thinking. That's pretty far gone in my opinion. I was eventually asked to leave the church because of my belief that faith is the foundation of good works.