Some common misconceptions about God;

stonesoffire · Feb 12, 2018

Character Qualifications are a Necessity for Ministry:

A leader in the church, like a pastor or teacher, someone who leads and teaches, must have particular character qualifications.

These aren't invisible or mysterious, they are simple character qualities that everyone can easily see.

If a man doesn't have these character qualities, that are plain for all to see, then he is disqualified from ministry.

What are these Character Qualifications?

A pastor or leader cannot be a liar or deceiver, he is to be ABOVE REPROACH, and UPRIGHT, and HOLY... he cannot be someone who lies or deceives, or does any number of other bad things.

Tit 1:7 For an overseer {pastor}, as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain,
Tit 1:8 but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.

These qualifications apply, essentially, to anyone in a position of ministerial authority, like pastors, teachers, elders, etc.

What if a Minister Doesn't Possess These Character Qualities?

If a minister doesn't possess these character qualities, then no matter how much we like him, he is not fit for ministry.

If any man turns out to be an intentional liar, or deceiver, or various other things, he is unfit for ministry.

This is why we hear about certain ministers being "defrocked"... because they violate these sacred qualifications in scripture.

What about Dr. Paul Ellis?

I don't know if he's lying about many things or not.

He certainly seems EXTREMELY suspicious, in many different ways.

If it turns out he's lying about his credentials... then he's not fit for ministry.

Period.

Has nothing to do with me... it's in the Bible.

Let me reiterate... this is not debatable.
If it turns out he is intentionally lying about his credentials, then he is unfit for ministry, according to the Bible.
It has nothing to do with me.

I have nothing further to add, so I'm exiting the thread.

I agree with this post. A bishop or deacon must be above reproach.

I don't read from his writings. Have visited but I don't have a lot of time for other websites when I'm on here.

Just pointing out that it's Holy Spirit we need for truth. We can have a PHD but if the anointing is missing, it's just Head knowledge and not true wisdom.

lastofall · Feb 12, 2018

[for me anyway] Satan can do nothing except it is allowed of him by God:

"Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?*Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above.." (John 19:10-11)

Neither can we receive any thing except it be given to us from heaven:

"A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven." (John 3:27)

As for resisting the devil, we are commanded by the Lord Jesus Christ to "resist not evil!" not to resist.
We resist the devil by not confronting nor withstanding mistreatment, but taking the wrong and forgiving, which is exactly what denying our own will and carrying our own cross is all about; which by the way Job knew very well.
For if we confront and withstand mistreatment, we do nothing more than what the unbelieving world does naturally: but to resist not evil is what takes true faith to do, which is why the Lord tells us to.
And by the way there is a reason why the Lord Jesus Christ instructively warns saying "And why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?": because if is truly our Lord we will be making the sincere effort to do the things which He says, which is where faith truly is; and we will not think of ways not to do the things which He says.

joaniemarie · Feb 12, 2018

maxwel said:

About Dr. Paul Ellis

I never meant to start a blog. You might say Escape to Reality came about by accident.
For 10 years my wife and I led a multicultural church in Hong Kong. That was an “accident” too. I never wanted to be a pastor. In fact, I couldn’t think of a job I wanted less. But God ambushed us and it was one of the best adventures of our lives.
At the same time I was a professor at a gung-ho business school. I worked six days a week and led a church on Sundays. It nearly killed me.
Then we moved to New Zealand, I began to write and this is the result.
Why do I write? So that you may know that there is no bad news in the good news, and that life without Jesus is like a frame without a picture.
C.S. Lewis said, “Reality is something you couldn’t have guessed.” You could not have guessed that God loves you even when you’re a messed-up sinner. You could not have guessed that his grace is greater than your mistakes. You could not have guessed this because God’s love is greater than you can conceive or imagine.
Life isn’t about keeping the rules or pleasing the boss or paying the bills. Real life is the adventure of learning who you truly are – a dearly-loved child of God. If your goal is to explore the vast reaches of your Father’s love, you’ve come to the right place! If you want to walk in the freedom of God grace,

What else?
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Here you go Maxwell., He is not so mysterious at all. AND here is a link should you still want to see for yourself if he is unfit. Just "click" and you can contact him. I guess according to some., we are guilty until proven innocent.

followjesus · Feb 12, 2018

joaniemarie said:

really though ive never even attended a baptist church

Im just going on what the Bible has to say. honestly not an attack at all, paul ellis sort of just always has things backwards , instead of it being what baptist churches taught people, maybe the thing is, paul ellis strays from scripture, and wans to get rich like jp did with this same stuff.....

its good advice a few said here, you should study the book of Job and do it prayerfully a chapter a night, i bet you find job to be a very good example, and also find a totally different message than mr ellis has given. im just saying the proof is in the pudding, if you can yourself read it apart from his lens, you will find one of the most valuable books in the bible, one that Give very unique insight into Gods soveriegnty and authority, and really a very deep message of Gods Love hidden in a tradgic story.

God bless jm.

followjesus · Feb 12, 2018

lastofall said:

yes i believe James if one looks at His context for that verse is talking about resisting temptation to sin, wuite evidently really importance is always in the context

Submit yourselves therefore to God. ( the only way to )> Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, yedouble minded. 9Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. 10Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up."

people have a really hard time grasping this kind of thing. why would James say " let your laughter be turned to mourning, your joy to heaviness" ? is this something the prophets were saying about sinful man all along? that they need to stop rejoicing and turn in repentance and godly sorrow Like , david did, Like solomon did, Like peter did, Like paul teaches the church. if we are living contrary to God, we shouldnt be all joy and peace, there is a place God designs for heaviness and a season of Godly sorrow in repentance. we never should be wieghed down by whats behind us, but we have to deal with what we are doing today.

if we understand Jesus died for my sins, our sins should make us sorry Knowing the depth of pain and suffering He endured on my behalf. sin needs to become "sinful" to us.

OneFaith · Feb 12, 2018

I disagree with so much that you said here. Satan does need God’s permission to do anything. God is in control. God used Pharaoh, satan, even demons to bring about His Will. It is God’s Will for demons to tempt us to test us for heaven. Satan was allowed to tempt Job but not to kill him- that shows that God is in control, and that Satan can’t do anything God does not allow him to.

God sends disease as a punishment for sin, He also sends healing when it is His Will to do so. Paul prayed for God to remove the thorn in his flesh, but it was God’s Will for it to remain. God is a Father Who heals or disciplines His children according to what is right for them personally.

followjesus · Feb 12, 2018

Satan can do nothing except it is allowed of him by God:"

Ironically that is one of the points of Job, that God is the ultimate authority behind everything, everything is not Gods will, but like you are understanding, for a season He gives authority that works evil and who are we to Judge God unfair or unwarranted in His ways ? where were we when He laid the foundations of the earth? where is our understanding when He set the stars in place and spoke forth the galaxies, and spun them into motion with His word. he aks Job " delcare to me if you were there and you know...."

what we can see is not all there is to see. sometimes the righteous suffer unjustly, terrible fates at the hands of the wicked. i read recently a story in my town. a 20 something young woman heading to a wednesday bible study group at Her church, stopped and picked a man up because of the cold weather....she was later the next morning found dead after suffering terribly at His will. this is not Gods will, but God gave man dominion and His gifts are irrevocable. so the man that decided to kill this young woman, he made a choice to follow evil that is in us all.

God could have stopped it surely, but He has given man free will, choice, dominion. we get to decide How we live and we get to reap the results. there is evil in the world, such as in that man, such as in every city and town the things happening in secret on every block. and there is Good also in the World, in every city and town in homes across the world. those who follow the good belong to the Light, those who follow the darkness, belong to the darkness.

God is seperating the Light which is good, from the darkness. people often ask why God " Lets bad things happen" because He gave us the earth and freedom, and we chose to do bad things rather than good. there is a day we will all answer, that man for his deeds, and me for my deeds. now is the time for us to find and follow the Light and come out of the shadows

joaniemarie · Feb 12, 2018

followjesus said:

Hi FollowJesus., I was saved in 1982 and was a faithful and active member of our local fundamental Baptist church with my family for over 7yrs. Then taught basically the same later on in the other Baptist church we were members of after we moved. We had Bible studies on the book of Job as well as many of the other books of the Bible and I'm very familiar with how some other Christians see the book of Job. This isn't my first go-around with Bible study or with how to read about Job. I'm 59

So I've already seen Job for many years through other lenses besides Paul Ellis. I've come to see as I've matured in the faith that the Bible interprets itself as we read it and seek the truth. When we compare Scripture with Scripture we find God is faithful., The Holy Spirit shows us He is always good all the time. The Bible is the truth built line upon line., precept upon precept. No contradictions. And my conclusion is that Mr. Ellis is closer to the truth than some here and also the way I was first introduced to the book of Job.

I hope you will look into the book of Job prayerfully again and consider that it's more about how gracious and faithful God is than how faithful Job was.

stillness · Feb 12, 2018

It sais he needed permission because there was a hedge of protection around Job: The enemy can't attack those who are walking in the light they have.

followjesus · Feb 12, 2018

Nehemiah6 said:

what do you expect when his entire doctrine explains that the way truth and life,,....isnt really for you. Jesus words wil condemn you and he taught the mosaic Law. its hard to get anything right when you base you belief on excluding the truth.

followjesus · Feb 12, 2018

stonesoffire said:

actually the holy spirit is the only thing needed. phds are mans work nothing but an annointing from God is needed. if a person isnt called and annointed it will always go off the rails.

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: 13Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:"

the phd thing is about seminaries making money and spreading thier own brand of gospel. getting worse and worse like the bible said it would near the end.

7777pinacled · Feb 12, 2018

stillness said:

Excellent reminder, and after a person is born again, iyov (job) account only shows us the measure of guile and vitriol the enemies have for believers.
And as believers in the Holy One of Yisrayl Yeshua (jesus, we have been instructed to remain vigilant. And this thread is an example of how there are false teachers running around, especially over the internet.

I've had a fair amount of experience in rebuking the luciferian filth that have blasphemed the Holy Spirit just as this pseudonym character calling themselves Paul Ellis.

Nothing more than a servant of the beast.

MatthewG · Feb 12, 2018

thank God that the Lord Jesus Christ has defeated Satan!!

joaniemarie · Feb 12, 2018

It's totally obvious those of you who "disagree" with the post and posts did not read it through nor did you guys read through the explanations for the verses as to why satan is able to go after man. When Adam sinned he gave up man's right to rule over the earth and tend it and take care of it. Adam ignorantly gave satan the authority God gave Adam by not believing God loved and cared for both Adam and Eve. That God would not with hold any good thing from them. satan lied and cast doubt in Adam and Eve's mind about the goodness of God and they foolishly fell for the lie satan told them when he told them that God knows when you eat the fruit you will be like God and God doesn't want you to have something good., He wants to keep you down and with hold good things from you.

But then., Jesus the last Adam....took back the authority and gave it to us who are saved. Yet many Christians including many here., do not know their authority nor can they claim it because it must be done by faith. And in order to have that faith., you have to know what your having faith in. You have to know the promises and the things that have been freely given to you.

Many who have posted objections here did so without any reading of any of the explanations with the Bible verses. It's really very sad to see. God said His people die for lack of knowledge and as all that God says is true., it is certainly true here.

Depleted · Feb 12, 2018

joaniemarie said:

Hi guys! (including you ladies too) Yes I know.... this is not what we have been traditionally taught in the Baptist church. But you have to admit there are many things we have been taught that we had to un learn concerning God that we were taught in the world., or the other churches we went to for that matter.

I was taught in the Catholic church that Mary was the mother of God and was co-equal with God. Among other very wrong teachings concerning God and His ways. We were taught that God was much like the Greek Gods who played crazy make no sense games with humans. Always testing us to see if we would listen or ignore His rules and regulations so we could be put in the "good" section and be accepted for that day.

These wrong concepts of God had to be cleared up in time by many of us who have been saved. We needed the truth concerning God from the Bible. Not ideas coming from certain religions we came from or even parents that we had who may have abused us or just were uncaring or not available. Just look at the many different people that come to CC. We all have differing ideas based on differing experiences based on differing countries and nations in the world.

Look at the different threads started by different people here. Each one of us have certain subjects we are into and want to discuss. There is nothing wrong with our different personalities because God made each one of us unique. But when it comes to the truth., the Bible is of no private interpretation so we can't take a Bible verse and build a religion on it. Yet that is what many (even Christians) have done.

Take the book of Job for instance. We were always taught that he was (the whole time) a man to follow in the foot steps of. But I've since discovered a few things about Job's beliefs that are not in agreement with what the Bible says about God. And so I have endeavored to share it here with those who are willing to reason together.

Paul Ellis is pretty cool IMO. I like his teachings on different things. Although we don't agree concerning some of the end times issues of the church. I am looking forward to Jesus coming for the church in what many of us call "the rapture" But that's ok Paul E. isn't on the same page as me.

In the next post I'll show some of the things PE says about Job. At the end of the book, Job found out some major truths about God he didn't know before and he was set straight by God (as we have been) These men of faith in the Bible were flawed and although they are examples of how us humans can fail and then come to our senses and learn to follow God., the bigger lessons are to show how gracious our God is in showing love and grace and mercy to us when we fail. How His love never fails although we often do.

I do agree with you that we have to unlearn a lot of hogwash we were raised in. Feels something like 16-year-old white compost container. Easy enough to get the manure out. Much harder to remove the stain left.

So why add to the manure? That neither cleans out the container nor contributes to it. It's adding more hogwash, (which, for the record, since hogs will eat anything, much of what they eat is never worth adding to the compost container.)

And, if you disagree with it, why post it? This is something like contributing information about Bigfoot in a biology class, and expecting to inspire the students in biology for the effort.

LibrarianLeo · Feb 12, 2018

Nehemiah6 said:

Everyone is entitled to insights. Even vegetarians.

eternally-gratefull · Feb 12, 2018

joaniemarie said:

#1: Satan needs God’s permission to attack us

Satan didn’t ask for permission to go after Job because he didn’t need permission. In the Garden of Eden we opened the door to sin and have been reaping the consequences ever since.
The good news is it doesn’t have to be this way. By the grace of God the devil flees when we resist him (James 4:7). Don’t be like Job and let the thief plunder your house. Be like David who encouraged himself in the Lord and fought back (1 Sam 30:6).

#2: God uses Satan as a sheepdog to keep the sheep in line

Woof! What nonsense. What fellowship does light have with darkness (2 Cor 6:14)?

#3: God gives us sickness and suffering to teach us character

Satan’s aim was to trick God into harming Job, something that God would never do. Although Job thought God was responsible for his loss, God sent Elihu to set him straight. Elihu is a picture of Jesus who went around “healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him” (Acts 10:38). Jesus doesn’t give sickness; he takes it from us.

#4: God “allows” sickness and suffering to afflict us

God does not work for the devil. If God gave the thief permission to rob you, he wouldn’t be a thief.
First Adam lost control of the planet, but last Adam took back what the devil stole. In Christ you are destined to reign like a king (Rom 5:17). But you won’t reign if you heed the lies above and follow Job instead of Jesus.
Grace and peace to you.

Thank you Dr. Paul Ellis

I love youy sis, but there is so much wrong with this that I do not even know where to start..

eternally-gratefull · Feb 12, 2018

stillness said:

Job was walking in the light when Satan attacked him, To think satan can not attack yo is to leave yourself open for all kinds of attack, As scripture says, he comes as an angel of light, and he walks like a lion, ready to attack. We need to be prepaired. You will nto be prepaired if you are not looking for it.

Many people who have decided to walk and take a great leap of faith by taking on ministry have been attacked by satan and been taken out because they were nbot prapaired. I was warned when I was moving up to the role of a leader in my church that satan would attack me, I have never suffered such fear even attack in my life. If I was not predicated, And did not have help and support from people who experienced it before. I would have been taken out (the person who was promoted with me was taken out,. And he still has not returned)

lastofall · Feb 12, 2018

Just to add to my before comments (I had to be away for a while).

Concerning resisting the devil: we resist the devil by doing the opposite of what he would like us to do, which is to confront and withstand mistreatment, so that we will continue being a natural brute beast as the rest of the unbelieving world.
Contrariwise if we were to be merciful and forgiving, then would we be like God: this is resisting the devil, and not the other way.
Putting off our old man and denying our self only is true when we do actually turn away from the carnal mind and disown our own will; otherwise again, we will have not been in Christ as of yet. How does God's Word tell us to overcome evil?
As for David, in his office was physical; but in ours is spiritual: we resist the devil by taking the wrong and forgiving: we follow Christ, and any other; if so be that we truly are following the true and biblical Jesus Christ, otherwise we follow some Jesus of our own making.

notuptome · Feb 12, 2018

From where I stand it is you that has the misconceptions about God. You are following after teachers that itch the ears and do not teach sound doctrine.

God will send correction if you are His child.

Heb 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

If not.

1Jo 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.

For the cause of Christ
Roger

Some common misconceptions about God;

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