It’s no secret that those of us who claim to follow Jesus Christ consistently fall short of living up to the way of life of our Rabbi. Being a disciple of Jesus is a lifelong journey towards conforming ourselves to the image and way of life that Jesus taught. However, so often, followers of Jesus chose to blatantly ignore some of the clearest instruction of our Rabbi and obscure it with vague theology so that we can get off the hook. Other times, followers of Jesus are taught something explicitly contradictory to the plain words of Jesus and then spend their lives obeying the instruction they received instead of the commands of Jesus.
However we end up at the place of disobedience, all of us who claim to be followers of Jesus struggle to obey the commands of our Lord. One of the most transformative periods in my faith was when I took time to re-read the Gospels of the New Testament and get reacquainted with Jesus’ himself, in his own words. As I studied the words of Jesus, I discovered that so much of what he asks of us as his disciples is incredibly clear and yet so much of it was new to me. I had never heard it in church or Sunday school or actually heard someone teach the exact opposite of the words of Christ. It was during that season of my life where I took inventory of how I lived and what I believed and aligned to the person and teachings of Christ that my faith was radically transformed for the better.
I love Brandan!! That is the only point I have been making in my book. (“In Search Of My Soul Mate” – Download at this Website) This is the first of the four:
1. Jesus, not the Bible, is God’s living and active Word that brings life.
“You don’t have His word living in you, because you don’t believe the One He sent. You study the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, yet they testify about Me. And you are not willing to come to Me so that you may have life.”- John 5:39-40 HCSB
In Brandan’s Blog is used the HCSB version of the Bible. I only use the King James Version of the Bible. I addressed the different versions of the Bible in “In Search Of My Soul Mate” and explained why the King James Version of the Bible was the one the Holy Ghost wrote in “Heart Of The Matter.” The Holy Ghost, which is the Holy Spirit inside of us wrote the Bible and can tell us what everything in it means. This is how those verses read in the King James Version:
“Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” (John 5:39-40)
The Purpose of my book, “The Trilogy” is to show that the Bible is Truth. We do that by living out the Bible, which is what I do in my book. The Bible IS “God’s living and active Word that brings life:”
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)
The “flesh” is Jesus. Nothing is falling out of Heaven. This is an Excerpt from “Love Affair:” (Download at this Website)
I was surprised when a man that said he was a believer said the Bible was not the Word of God because it was written by man. He said men makes mistakes. We did agree that these men were given inspiration by God:
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:” (II Timothy 3:16)
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1)
God works through His Children. That is why we have Purposes. There were a lot of mistakes in my books. I didn’t get here by being right. I got here by being wrong, trial and error. Mistakes are how we learn. Mistakes show us where we are.
The Holy Spirit was very diligent about getting my mistakes corrected. All information correct was one of my conditions. I was always amazed how He got my mistakes to me. I am sure the Holy Ghost, which is the Holy Spirit inside us was also as diligent or even more diligent with the people that wrote the Bible.
Before the Foundation of the World God put everything we needed inside of us. Saying the Bible could be wrong because men wrote is the same as saying Adam named the animals incorrect. I do not hear anyone questioning the names of the animals!
WITH THE HELP OF THE HOLY SPIRIT THROUGH HIS CHILDREN GOD DID WRITE THE BIBLE.
The Bible is the Final Authority. God does not do anything outside of His Word. When the Holy Spirit says something to me He always take me to the Word of God to show me what He just said. The Word of God is one of our confirmations it is from God:
“The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.” (Isaiah 40:8)
The problem is people are NOT relying on the Bible. The Bible is what Jesus used against satan. The Bible is our only defense against satan. God corrects us through the Bible as He did with me in my “Pact With The Devil” Blog regarding President Obama.
As I stated in my book “Communion” is a relationship with God through the Holy Spirit. I also stated the “New Birth Experience” is hearing the Voice of God. satan talks, the mind talks and flesh talks. That is why the Holy Spirit always takes us to the Bible for authorization.
2. The only way to enter the Kingdom of Heaven is through DOING the will of God.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 7:21 ESV
“An expert in the law stood up to test Him, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the law?” He asked him. “How do you read it?” He answered: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” You’ve answered correctly,” He told him. “Do this and you will live.”- Luke 10: 25-28 HCSB
Finally!!! Someone got this. Our Purpose, which is God’s Will must be fulfilled to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. I have been in church all of my life. Christianity did not make sense to me. If everyone is going to Heaven no matter what, what is the point to living right? This is the Scripture that changed my life:
“To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.” (Revelation 3:21)
Because I had never heard that before I started questioning the Holy Spirit about it. After His explanation He led me to the Matthew 7:21 Scripture. It can’t get any simpler than that.
I said in my book and my “Bible Study: Galatians 2” Blog “God’s Process” is our Ascension into the Kingdom of Heaven. God want His Children to be whole, which is the other Purpose of God’s Process. Jesus came to Earth to be our Example. “God’s Process” has four Levels, Death, Burial, Resurrection and Ascension. This is what Jesus went through on Earth.
It takes an Act of Faith to start each Level. Faith without works is dead. We need faith to get through God’s Process. We need the Holy Spirit to navigate us through God’s Process. The Word of God “in us” is what helps keep satan off of us. “In us” and head knowledge are two different things as I said in my “Bible Study: II Thessalonians 1” Blog:
“For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” (James 2:26)
3. Condemnation isn’t Jesus’ style.
“I have not come to condemn the world, but to save it.” John 3:17 ESV
“Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.”- John 8:11 ESV
We live in a society where people are quick with if we do not agree with what “entire people groups” want to do we are condemning them. Correcting is the only way to bring something to people’s attention they may have missed. Correcting is not condemning. Correcting could be the different between Kingdom of Heaven and Hell. Even with correcting we must do it in love. God does use people to talk to us when we are so stuck in our thinking that the Holy Spirit can’t reach us.
When someone tells you something and what you are doing does not affect them one way or the other it is probably good advice. God holds us responsible when we know something, but don’t do something about it. In my book my job was to correct. I tried to do that in as much love as possible. Our parents correct us in love, but most of the time it does not feel like love. What we are calling condemning is probably the Holy Spirit convicting us.
4. You’re supposed to sacrifice yourself and speak words of blessings for those you disagree with the most.
“Love Your Enemies and Bless Those Who Persecute You” Matthew 5:44 ESV
I have reach my page limit, but I did address that Scripture in my book. That “love” means “will not harm, hurt, injury, damage, moral wrong or evil against them.” All of those words are an action, which is what love is. Instead of looking at people’s words as condemning start looking at the person’s action as they cared enough to make an effort to try. Keep what you can use and lose what you can’t. “God’s Process” is what conforms us into the image of Jesus.
The Purpose of “Christianity” was to stop all of the confusion in God’s Church. (Posted at this Website) It was to correct what satan has done using Christians. “The Re-Birth Of Christianity” is “The Rapture” is ready to go. (Posted at this Website)
God is a God of Simplicity. He is not trying to make things hard for His Children. That is why He gave us the Holy Spirit and the Bible. It is people that makes things complicated. God Bless You Brandan!!!!
WHEN PEOPLE STOP LETTING satan USE THEM THEN THEY WILL BE ABLE TO SEE THE SIMPLICITY THAT IS IN GOD.
“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” (II Corinthians 11:3)