Choose Life

     Today was a sad day in our community.  It seems a mentally unstable man took 4 lives indiscriminently during a 5 hour seige downtown.  One police officer was  killed along with 3 towns people.  After recovering somewhat after the Paris shooting I have to all over again ask what's going on in our world?  Of course I already know the answer.  Sickness in the heart and sin that causes it is escalating.  Satan that  old liar and thief from the beginning as Jesus said is on a shortened leash and his time grows shorter every day.  Thanks be to God!  So while I am alarmed at the loss of life of innocents both here and abroad, I am confident in the  Lord that all will unfold according to the Holy Scriptures  fortelling of events like these, of love waxing cold.
     Now more than ever we need to see repentence working in men and women of all ages and children also.  It is impossible to draw near to God without it. For he is a Holy God and requires something from us, a step forward and a turning away from our sin.  Simply said sin is missing the mark or "high-bar" he set for us inorder for us to enter into his kingdom.  Baptism ofcourse is the next step in faith and an outward sign to all those believers who welcome  new-believers into the faith.  It is saying to God...I welcome you into my heart knowing full well that I cannot control all of the things in my life that cause you grief and so I turn towards you and welcome also the Holy Spirit, that burst of life that made it possible for Christ to rise from death.  We will do the same.  It is important for Christians to focus on this because it is  like no other belief in the world.  It has power.
     In the Old Testament a picture of Holiness can be seen in those who carried the Ark of God.  Only the Levites were able to do this and only if they were consecrated to God.  And they had to obey strictly by putting poles thru rings and not touching the Ark or risk death.  Those who touched the Ark without consecrating themselves died.  The Philistines suffered boils and sickness while the Ark was stolen by them and rested in their camp!
      So Their undoubtably will  be a separation in the end of the sheep and goats those who chose well...and those who chose wrong!


                                You chose well!    Indianna Jones
     

If we have all but this: Love, then we have nothing

13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing. 

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

    

 Have you ever been in a Church that is rich in the Spiritual giftings, rich in knowledge, faith and yet somehow misses the biggie?  According  to Paul and his insights on love, we would benefit greatly if we paid attention to this one very profound scripture highlighted above.  A Church that boasts in such blessings as giftings given by the Spirit and has great knowledge and great faith and has one vision only will suffer if it does not have love within it's members.  That Church can grow cold, narrow minded, and enter into the very thing Christians ought not to...self righteousness, and seeking only those "giftings" that are supernatural and God-given can in and of itself be a trap.  I say this with the utmost caution because I have seen it and have been involved in that very thing.  It never started out to be that way but it eventually digressed into a very "lawful church" that in the beginning stressed Spirit that gives life over law that brings death.  How did this happen?  When as a group of 20 and thirty somethings we had in the beginning such newfound freedoms  free from the trappings of traditions (normally associated with "mainline" Church)  and a sense of the "realness of God" in our midst and the gifting of the Holy Spirit as well that added so much to the Christian walk and the building up of the Saints.  Over time this sense of being closer to God because of his presence and giftings this Church  was infused with something that was very subtle and insidious.  It began to form a Church that would not, could not,  and never would build with others. Period.  What had started out as revelatory and inspiring and community based scripture based, turned instead into a somehwhat paranoid group of people, with a government of Church heirarchy that was pyramidal and upside down.  In other words the group supported at all costs the leader and his vision. What had happened in this Church was scary.  Love was lost and the ministry that upheld a particular vision was walling off all other valid ministries available both within and without.   

                            Love keeps no record of wrongs.......... 

     When love is perfected and comes from the one who commanded "that we love one another" as I have loved you, then rest assured that a healthy Church will prevail.  The one whom Jesus loved...John bears testimony to this.

     9 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister[b] is still in the darkness. 10 Anyone who loves their brother and sister[c] lives in the light,and there is nothing in them to make them stumble.

A Simple Matter of Recognition:

     " For we cannot do anything against the truth (Insert Jesus), but only for the truth. (Insert Jesus)
So these are the words of Paul in his second letter to those unruly Corinthians to exhort them to proper living.  Paul at length defends his minisrty of Apostleship because of those "super apostles" who must have been going about preaching a different gospel than the one they received from Paul and Titus and "other brothers Paul had sent to encourage then in their faith.  While they did indeed receive the true gospel they were at risk because they had slipped in their understanding ot the basics of the Gospel.  From sexual impurity, to court cases, and tolerating those who took unfair advantage of them, they now were at doubts with Paul.  Because they said., "he is strong in his letters to us" while away but weak and unimpressive here, they were to say in our language "dissing him."  Paul had previous to this letter, had made sincere writing on his love in chapter (13) 1st Cor. on what the crux of his Gospel really was.  It was not in boasting, it was not in spiritual giftings, or of prophecies or of being something he was not.  So in defense he boasted "as a fool" in his heritage, his giftings, and his beatings and of sufferings to shame them into sobriety.  He wanted them to know of the depth of the suffering was for their sakes.  And of the furtherance of the Gospel.  So we who are  the "off spring of centuries of faith" must not  be in the place of doing something or representing that  which is against the truth (Jesus). To be sure there are traditions followed by men incorporated in Churches, doctrines that need not be there that cause division  and even spiritual death to those who are not wise enough to recognize them.  They are indeed subtle.
     The people that were involved in the "Word of LIfe Church" (NY State) beating of a teenager to death, how could they do that?!!! To their own child?  How could the devil so easily influence such a state of mind as to deceive them into this horrendous state?
    I will tell you.  It came cloaked in darkness, masquerading as "light."   The Devil presented a topic of "witchcraft" which is an abomination to God as written in the Old Testament, and so those who took a "righteous" stand with God thought they were doing the work of God!!!%%%##$$...
     Mercy it is written triumphs over judgement.   If it were not the heart of God we would not be saved and Christ would not have risen from the dead to be our savior and our sins woul never have been forgiven.  As  one who has received tremendous forgivness from Christ I was also in the midst of a fellowship  for many many years that was lacking in a certain kind of forgiveness and love.  Yes there was an outpouring of the Spirit and of salvation to those who repented but, and I say BUT, there in the midst of it was subtle determination to draw lines of distinction between "Us and Them" or the world or any other Church that did not meet certain standards and consequently there was a judgement in the house of God,( pronounced by men) "Not God" So it was in the case of that Word of LIfe Church.   Harsh judgement, leading to death lacking  in mercy and love.  A simple recognition..........a warning to those who follow but do not see.