Monthly Archives: May 2015

Use Our Christian Liberties to Edify Others

18 Monday May 2015

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3_Winning Faith

 

We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. ~ Romans 15:1-2

 

The friendly-fire oxymoron is an offensive expression for many Christians, because most of the injured or murdered Army of the Lord soldiers are new recruits—babies on milk. Even where older more seasoned veterans are concerned, there never is anything that could be considered friendly about the brutal rebukes these believers receive from spiritually stronger in the faith warriors.

Therefore, instead of being so critical of another person’s Christian liberties—freedoms; namely, acts that neither are forbidden in the Scriptures nor are regarded by God to be morally impure deeds—we should make sure that our own lives are above reproach by being absolutely sure that we have God’s permission to take the liberties that we exercise. We also must be very careful not to say or do anything that easily could become our weaker brothers and sisters’ stumbling blocks—occasions to sin.

To the same degree that we should avoid stunting our brothers and sisters’ spiritual growth by flaunting our liberties or by being overly critical of the liberties our weaker brothers and sisters take that are in conflict with ours, we should make certain that we ourselves understand that the source of any moral defilement comes from the attitudes housed in our own minds. That is why even we who are Jesus Christ’s Bride must daily renew our minds.

Then too, we definitely should be following Jesus Christ’s example. He only used His liberties to edify His weaker brothers and sisters. We always must do likewise. We who are His Bride must make sure that we are walking in love while doing what our Lord would do, which is strengthen the ones who are weak in the faith instead of wounding or killing their faith and/or their spirits. 

The Body of Christ must stop engaging in friendly-fire skirmishes. To do this believers must realize that—when God deploys Army of the Lord soldiers to action-heavy trenches—those ditches only are meant to be breeding grounds for their faith. Shalom.

 

Keep it real…Live it out…Watch it work!

 

~ from my manuscript – Keeping It Real: Daily Renewing the Mind

It’s ALL About Kingdom of God Living

06 Wednesday May 2015

Posted by in Spiritual

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Kingdom of God Living

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all  these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. ~ Matthew 6:31-33,     ESV

 

“Church” attenders have become so good at manipulating their learned churchy-ology (so good at playing “church”) and so good at regurgitating their pastors and/or ministers’ theology—a theology that often is minus the Theos (God; the Creator)—that these churchgoers completely have missed or are missing their purpose for living. “Church” attenders were not created just to become believers in Christ Jesus, and they were not created just so they can get into Heaven. They also were not created just to preach the Gospel—to evangelize and disciple the whole world.

First and foremost, God has created human beings for His Glory (see Isaiah 43:7; 1 Peter 4:11). His Glory is the beauty and excellence of His diverse holiness or countless perfections. His Glory also is the revelation and manifestation of His Character or all that He has and all that He is.

Put differently, God has created every human being for one purpose—to glorify Him. The problem is that so many believers are running around—like chickens with their heads cut off—“trying” to figure out what their purpose is for living, when the Word of God makes it clear that humanity was created to display or manifest—to reflect—God’s Character (His Glory), and to do so 24/7 – 365 days of the year. 

Once again, we all have been created for one purpose—for God’s Glory; to glorify God. Now glorify means: to magnify, praise and worship God; to accredit honor to God; and to acknowledge Him (His total being, attributes/characteristics, and deeds). Therefore, for us to glorify God, we must desire what He desires for us.

Scriptures tell us that God desires that we accept and confess His Son as our Lord and Savior, that we fully love Him (the Father) with the God-kind of love He has put inside us; that we absolutely love Him with our whole being; that we totally obey Him, and that we are utterly faithful to Him, as demonstrated by our God-kind of faith in Him. We also glorify God when we genuinely praise Him and truly worship Him in Spirit and in Truth (His Word is that Truth), when we publicly acknowledge His Glory and value His Glory above the glory of all created things/beings, and when we openly make His Glory known to others—make God recognizable to others; show others what God is like. Lastly, we glorify God when we bring Him honor (please Him) through everything we say, do and think.

The only way we can fulfill this purpose—the glorifying God purpose—is through the aid of God’s Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not in us just to take up space (to live/dwell in us). He is in us to fill us with everything God’s Grace has made available to us so that we who are in Christ Jesus can glorify God just like our Lord glorified His Father. It is the Holy Spirit’s responsibility to take those of us (we believers) who are born again, saved, and filled with Him into the Kingdom of God where He (the Holy Spirit) disciples (teaches/trains) ALL of us on Kingdom of God living—teaches us everything we need to know about the knowledge of God so that our individual “new life/new creation” keeps glorifying God until His Kingdom in all of us is brought to its fullness.

We never were created just so that we can live comfortable lives—have comfortable jobs, comfortable paychecks (or comfortable bank accounts/savings), comfortable homes, comfortable friends, and/or comfortable churches or ministries. If we are born again, saved, and filled with the Holy Spirit, we will know that it no longer is about us living our own lives the way we want, because our lives now belong to Christ Jesus. We no longer can live as we please, because Christ Jesus has committed our lives to Kingdom of God living. In the Kingdom of God, only Christ Jesus is Lord—not our pastors, bishops, elders, and so forth; not our earthly parents; not our godly family members and godly friends, not our positions and titles, not our money, not even we ourselves.

The Kingdom of God’s King of kings and Lord of lords has commanded us to live our lives in the Kingdom of God for the Glory of God. If we have not surrendered or are not surrendering our lives to Christ Jesus’ Lordship and Kingdom of God living, then we have been blinded by the blind Kingdom killers—our learned churchy-ology and accepted theology that is minus the Theos.

Selah (calmly pause and think about that) . . . .  A word to the wise should be sufficient.

Functions and Gifts Ordained to Edify and Equip Believers

02 Saturday May 2015

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Spiritual Gifts

For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. ~    Romans 12:4-5

 

Every believer in Jesus Christ is a member of His spiritual Body. However, every believer in Jesus Christ’s Body neither is given the same spiritual gifts nor given the same combination of spiritual gifts. For example, every believer neither functions as a prophet, nor functions in the prophet-evangelist-shepherd combination.

There are five kinds of foundational ministerial gifts or God-ordained gifts: apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds (pastors), and teachers (see Ephesians 4:11-13). These God-ordained gifts are functions NOT titles! They are spiritual human gifts given by Jesus Christ to His entire Body. Mankind often confirms these spiritual human gifts with denominational ordinations, but God confirms these spiritual human gifts with His Holy Spirit who directs the God-ordained functions/gifts in believers whose callings are to serve and meet the needs of others. 

There also are different kinds of manifestative spiritual gifts (e.g., word of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discerning spirits, diverse tongues, and interpretation of tongues; see 1 Corinthians 12:7-11). These spiritual gifts are how God’s Holy Spirit works through believers in a given situation so as to demonstrate God’s supernatural power.

Lastly, there are different kinds of motivational spiritual gifts (e.g., prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, giving, leadership and mercy; see Romans 12:3-8). These spiritual gifts are how God’s Holy Spirit works in believers to shape their worldview and motivate their words and actions.

The common denominator in the foundational ministerial gifts, manifestative spiritual gifts, and motivational spiritual gifts is the Holy Spirit. God’s Holy Spirit endows every believer with any number of these functions/gifts—each believer gets the functions/gifts God wants that person to use in the Body of Christ. Each “called” believer operating in ordained, manifestative and motivational spiritual functions/gifts in love will use these gifts in an orderly fashion, as he or she edifies and equips the Body of Christ to fulfill the Great Commission of evangelizing and discipling the world.

How are you using your ordained, manifestative, and motivational spiritual gifts?  Shalom.              

 

Keep it real…Live it out…Watch it work!

  

~ from my manuscript – Keeping it Real: Daily Renewing the Mind

Hopscotching: A Poem

02 Saturday May 2015

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Hopscotching

 

 

Chalk-sketched court,
White lines on pavement;
Start to rest
Numbered 1 to 10
Inside
Squares, triangles, rectangle,
Semicircle . . . .

Players toss
At turn
Rubber-heel markers;
Hopscotching begins . . . .

One-foot hopping
Marker’s space, skipping
Semicircle reaching
Balance regained . . . .

Rest to start
Hopscotching 10 to 1—
Leaning hopscotcher
Retrieving heel,
Hopping o’er marker’s
Square, triangle, rectangle . . . .

Sequence repeated ‘til
Nine rounds completed.

~ September 2014

 

So let’s do it—full of belief, confident that we’re presentable inside and out. Let’s keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching. ~ Hebrews 10:22- 25, MSG

 

Some people have maintained that Hopscotch (the game) originated as a pagan ritual involving the retrieval of an object—a pagan ritual that supposedly the early Christian “Church” assimilated and over time reduced the ritual to a child’s game. This Christianized pagan ritual that became a child’s game is said to have had some eschatological symbolism embedded in the names given to the top semicircle. Since the last shape on a hopscotch court either was called paradise or crown of glory, a hopscotch court supposedly represented the soul progressively moving from Earth to Heaven.

However, other people have maintained that if a Christianized pagan ritual had received symbolic eschatological names, such as the names given to the highest shape on the hopscotch court, those hopscotch court names that supposedly had Christian beliefs embedded in them have been overlaid with symbols that suggest a totally different foundation. Some people have believed that in place of the alleged symbolic eschatological names of paradise and crown of glory are common worldly stages symbolized by the hopscotch court’s squares, triangles, rectangle and semicircle. These shapes represent a person traveling to a dangerous place, picking up an object, and returning back home safely. Other common worldly symbols people have said are represented in the hopscotch court’s shapes are rites of passage—the various important stages of life.

This blogger suggests that, if there really were some embedded Christian beliefs in the eschatological names used to symbolize the semicircle on the hopscotch courts early Christians might have used, the 21st century’s symbols representing “church-hopping” probably have overlaid those prior symbols’ foundations. While some believers might think it is wise to visit many local churches before deciding which “church home” is best for them (i.e., “church shopping”), the truth of the matter is—if God is not the One who is adding these Christians to a particular “church home”—many of these “church shoppers,” who select a “church home” for themselves, eventually will end up “church-hopping”—going from one “church” to another without committing to any particular “church” for any significant amount of time.

God’s design is for believers to live in a community with a group of born again, saved, and Holy Spirit filled believers. Sometimes that isn’t possible, for example, if the towns or cities in which Christ followers live have no local churches that remotely resemble the first-century ekklesias. Nevertheless, wherever and whenever there is no fellowshipping with likeminded believers, there usually will be professed Christians who are less concerned about reaching lost souls, less concerned about the nation’s moral condition, and less concerned about making a difference in this sin-sick world. In other words, where “church-hoppers” are concerned, it is doubtful that they will be progressively moving from glory to glory—moving from Earth to Heaven.

A word to the wise should be sufficient. Amen.