I just wanted to ask if anyone has seen the YouTube video messiah 2030? What are your thoughts? From the 6 day creation prophecy to the 2030 Joseph/Jesus correlationit seems as though the Lord is coming at any moment now!!
The Scriptures are the words of God, & a testimony of Him, but not God the Word, who was in the beginning with God before the Scriptures were written. The Jews had the Scriptures the words of God, & crucified the Word of God that was in the beginning with God. John 5:39 As then so now, people refuse to come to Him who has return to us by His Spirit John 16:13, they stick to the letters of the Scriptures without coming to the Author of the Scriptures, & honor the letter before the Author, just like the hardhearted Jews. Jesus said Matt 11:28, a living breathing person, a God who is a Spirit.
The true dignity & honoring of the Scriptures is that they give us a true testimony of Him, & points to His return in Spirit bringing us the words of salvation Hebrews 9:28 Here they are profitable for doctrine 2 Timothy 3:16 confirming to us what the Spirit declare. The Spirit that gave the Scriptures forth, He comes again to bring us into the personal experiential knowledge of them. For only He knows the mind of God 1Cor 2:10,11 thus the Scripture have their rightful place & shine forth their glory for which they were given.
I'll share a personal testimony of my experiences with God, how He open my understanding of these things that I'm writing of 1st He showed me, in the beginning with Adam & Eve, all their knowledge, & understanding that they had was what He, God Himself had given them in their fellowshipping together, they had no other thoughts, passions, desires, endeavors etc, but what was from Him. Until the devil show up & introduce another train of thought, twisting & perverting God's own words in doing so. In man obedience to him, another seed was implant in mankind heart & corrupted him.
Then Word of the Lord came to me & ask me to trust this still small Voice within conscience, I responded I couldn't do that, I didn't trust it, it always lead me to deny myself, asking me to do things contrary to my own will, which at the time I was unaware that it was the Grace of God appearance within me, the Cross. Titus 2:11-142Cor 4:10,11
Reading the Quaker's writing, specifically from 1646-1700 they all pointed to the John 1:9 & Titus 2:11 that appears to all mankind, it was in man, but not of man, but of God. The still small Voice that admonishes when, I thought of or did something evil & reprove me for it, at the same time if I gave thought to Him, He would show me what was right & good to do in my everyday ordinary experiences in life conversations, relationships, past time activities, what to deny or cling to in thoughts, words or deeds. As I consider what they spoke of, it align up with the Scriptures, sound reasoning & human experience, we all have these spirits operations working within us.
He further open me, I began practicing being still & quiet before the Lord & waiting upon Him, during one of these exercises, He opened my understanding concerning these 2 seeds within me, You remember the cartoon where there would be an angel on the right shoulder & a devil represent on the left shoulder of the cartoonist, the angel would encourage him to do what is right & good, & the devil influence him to what was evil & bad. Well this is what actually goes on within our hearts & who we obey is whom we serve & who temple we are, I always thought it was me, myself thinking these thoughts whether good or bad, I did not comprehend that I was just a vessel to be move & animated by these two great powers of the universe. There's no me, myself & I, it either Light or darkness animating us.
After this revelation I was convinced & start exercising this Word of Righteousness in the discerning between good & evil within. The heart is the birthing room of thoughts, as they are birth & brought forth we become conscious & aware of them. Thus Paul says 2Cor 10:3-6Ephesians 6:12
Here is where God works out our salvation. Hebrews 12:6-11
For 27 yrs I attend church, Assembly of God, Baptist, Full Gospel, Church of Faith, etc; not one of them spoke specifically concerning these things
I searched, fasted, studied the letter, all that was available thru man in this present day Christianity. Nothing could satisfy me, set me free or remove the veil from the eyes of my heart. God is our Father, in my heart thinking I should know Him like I know my natural father, this didn't become a reality until God lead me to the writing of these Quakers of the 17th Century & as time pass & I continue to grow in Grace, the possession of this reality becomes more clearer & precious in my eyes, Blessed Him for His tender mercies & longsuffering love toward me.
God has & continues to fulfill His word to me, Isa 42:16 all by the grace & truth that came by Jesus Christ. John 1:16John 1:9
Arkyboy , just read your testimony from a month ago . It was awesome , may God continue to bless you and all yours , stay strong in Christ , he's coming back and he's coming for you ! Rejoice !
Yes David , I understand what you mean , none of us would even know Christ without that most precious book that God has provided for us in order that we can learn of Him and His Son , I'm not worshipping any church by the way . As Christ says : worship God , fear God , trust God .
In this comment, you make a distinction between worshiping the "church" and worshiping Christ. And I totally agree with that statement.
But you also make a distinction between worshiping Christ and worshiping the Bible. The Bible is very clear that every word in the Bible is the word of God himself, ie. Christ himself.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
So please explain what you mean by that statement. Are you somehow separating Christ from his Word, the Bible?
So again, GiGi, please explain how we worship Christ apart from the Bible, which appears to be what you are saying.
Yes Beartrapper , we can always ask God for healing , He wants us to ask because doing so is in itself an act of faith . However sometimes we just have to bear our burdens and thank God for the blessings that He bestows upon us . Everything in our lives is a lesson for us to learn from . Having health problems helps us to empathize with others in similar situations and not to judge others who are less fortunate than ourselves . As long as we are alive we are with our God and we know that He is with us all the way . Stay strong in His love for you and trust in Him to get you through the tough times , rejoice in that you know the Truth , so many in this world go through life never knowing how much they are loved and cared for by their Heavenly Father . It's a very great privilege to be allowed by Him to be aware of Him and His Son and the love and mercy that surrounds us . Rejoice in Him and thank Him always , allow Him to take your burdens and He will carry them for you .
prayers for the Lord to guide us through the health issues and finance issues that go along with it , with my wife having breast cancer , me losing the use of my left hand due to osteonecrosis , and having stents and heart disease, along with the myriad of other health problems i have , i am learning to have the patience of Job, ihave been praying for healing , now i am simply asking for His will to be done not mine . standing firm in proverbs 28:1 the wicked flee when no man persueth , but the rightous are as bold as a lion .
Met her two aunts today. They flew in from Boston. They are really great! Seems Vivian has had a Christian upbringing. So we pray for both her and Kevin to be brought to a strong faith in Jesus and for their marriage to be built upon Him. Kevin needs a change of heart concerning this faith, to turn back to the Lord. I don't know yet what Vivian believes.
Many did due to the preaching and ministry of the Apostles and disciples taught by Jesus along with Paul. Many more Jews held stubbornly to their rejection of Jesus and continued to practice Judaism, though it had to go through many changes as a result of the ending of the temple rituals. The Rabbi's became stronger and stronger in their influence and it was not long before the Rabbi's introduced syncretic aspects that borrowed from the pagan religions they became familiar with. Also, they began to practice occultic rituals that led to the development of the Kabbalah that steeped the Rabbi's into the occult and certainly has led to the deep spiritual corruption of these leaders. Judaism became farther and farther estranged from the covenant practices instituted by God at Mt. Sinai. They invented new aspects of their religion since the temple was gone and Jerusalem in ruins. This led them even farther away of the LORD and entrapped them more by the enticements of their father, the devil, as Jesus stated.
This is such an instructive and sad example of what happens when people take their focus on knowing the True God in Christ and onto religious traditions, rituals, and practices that God never instituted. It happens when people worship the "church" rather than Christ. It happens when people worship the Bible instead of our Lord. It happens when we lose our first and primary love of God and fail to give Him primacy in our lives.
So, let us not be like the Jews who grew further and further from God and truth and proper worship and instead ask God to show us where we are sinning in such ways as the Jews. We pray for God to grant us repentance from improper focus and devotion and ask Him for forgiveness and a turning away from such sins.
There are many ways we can and do sin in regards to the world, but I think that misplaced religious zeal, honor, and devotion is more problematic because it seems to be "good" and is reinforced by other believers.
It is clear that the religious leaders and priest of Jesus' day were bound to the law and the traditions that added to the law by the Rabbi's. They did not want to be loosed from these. They valued the temple and its service by the priests more than God. They were unwilling to let go of these things to believe in Christ after His resurrection. Jesus knew this all. That is why He predicted the destruction of Jerusalem (the holy city) and the temple with this prediction coming to pass from 66 A.D. to the final blow in 70 A.D. Jesus knew that love of Jews for Judaism needed to cease for them to come to Christ. He knew that their hearts were dedicated to this religion rather than to YHWH. He knew that the Jews of His day were deceived and overburdened by the religious leaders and that the average Jew needed to be delivered from the leaders and their system of religion.
Even today, for the past 300 years or so, Jews practice "davening" before the wailing wall which is said to be a wall of the temple. But Josephus reported that the Romans leveled the temple completely down to the foundations. No stone wall was left, as the Jews believe the wailing wall is today. It actually is a wall of the Antonia Fort and not part of the temple. But the Jews worship at it because they still worship the house of the Lord and not the LORD who made a covenant with them long ago. The davening at the wailing wall was not practiced by Jews for 1600-1700 years because before this time they knew that the western (wailing) wall was not part of the temple. Jews today still mourn for the destruction of the temple, but do not mourn for their sin of unbelief in Jesus, the Messiah.
By destroying Jerusalem and the temple, the LORD made it clear that the practices of the Old Testament Law were done away with forever by the obedience and sacrifice of Jesus. Destroying the earthly Jerusalem and physical temple freed Jews to return to God through Christ. ...cont.
Think about the evidence Christ presented that He was indeed the Messiah. Indeed; supernatural blindness HAD to be given; for Jesus even told people to believe Him even for the sake of His works ( John 14:11). And the verse was indicative of His being part of the Godhead. There were HUGE numbers of people being miraculously fed at least twice; people healed of blindness which had NEVER occurred even with the Old Testament miracles ( John 10:21); people who had demons cast out of them; as well as the miracles entrusted to the 12 Apostles and the 70 sent out two by two ( Luke 10:11). There was the undeniable proof of natural phenomenon at the crucifixion ( Matt. 27:54); as well as the 500 witnesses that saw Him; including the Apostles AFTER He was Resurrected and they all died except for John as martyrs; clearly they knew and believed the truth since denial would have saved their lives.
Unbelief therefore is something learned. Children are all born into sin; but scripture makes it clear that they have angels beholding the Father continually and that they were drawn to Christ (see Matt. 18:10). Children came to Christ ( Mark 10:13-16) and praised Him as a fulfillment of Psalm 8:2 and mentioned by the Lord in Matthew 21:16. To deny the obvious requires a hardness of heart and soul; and deliberate rejection of known truths; which of course made the condemnation of the Pharisees greater than most; and was much of the reason Jesus excoriated them in nearly the entirety of Matthew 23. They knew the prophecies but were blinded because of their obsession on the law and all other traditions that were added to put men in bondage and to render mercy and justice meaningless ( Matthew 23:23) with their myopic tunnel vision. The rest of the world if NOT enlightened by the Spirit only looked at Christ as some great miracle worker but didn't worship Him as God in the flesh.
Hence Matthew 16:17 must occur for true salvation.
If we look at the time after Jesus was in the wilderness and began His public ministry; we see what begins as a few healings and public teachings in His hometown appear to rapidly grow with travel to surrounding areas where He cast out devils and did many healings. As late as Matthew 16:20 Jesus told to His Disciples not to tell anyone He was the Christ. The same instruction is in the Gospels of Mark as well as Luke. Jesus would speak Parables; eventually as the ONLY method of explaining these hidden truths to the general public. ( Matthew 13:13). This shows how deep the concept of Predestination is shown 2 verses later in Matthew 13:15 when He explains because of hard hearts they will not be given information needed to be saved. We must come to Christ on His terms; and at His drawing or prompting ( John 6:37). This concept also shows that Christ never was seeking acclamation and didn't want to be set up as King on this earth before the time either; without understanding that He had to be the suffering Savior first. When a man asked Jesus to help him with unbelief ( Mark 9:24) we need to keep in mind that when on earth He was able to raise men from the dead; today we need to trust that He has power over death; hell and sin but we don't have any certainty that He will use a person to perform a healing through the power of the Spirit today. Nonetheless we should ask the Lord in prayer all things which we will apart from those things which are just for our own selfish desires; He ever intercedes for us according to God's will ( Heb. 7:25). Finally; Jesus knew that mere facts wouldn't save anyone; as evidenced in the rich man's pleas from Hades in Luke 16:31; and all other instances Jesus was harassed for healing on a Sabbath Day-they couldn't ever deny the miracles but accused Him of working on the Sabbath and blasphemy declaring that He was the "I AM" ( John 8:58).
I've mention it earlier, but feel the need to reinstate this again, it's the writing of the Quakers specifically from 1646 to 1700, they arose in England during the later in of the Reformation.
Its very true in my experience what you stated, God open my understanding through their writing & biographies
The foundation of their teaching is the Light of God is in every human being John 1:9 & if given heed too, would lead them out of darkness into Light of Life. Once I was convince of this, by the Witness of Truth within, the Scriptures & sound reasoning, then in simplicity & sincerity of heart I started paying attention to His motions within me.
You mention the Ethiopian eunuch, in this story is a lovely example of the Spirit guidance, Philip was instructed to arise & go, he went by revelation not knowing at that moment what he was going for, Acts 8:29 Holy Spirit further open his understanding by revelation, then he preached to the eunuch by revelation. You can be sure that Philip pointed him to the Grace of God within him to be his teacher as he went back to his own country.
Peter, by revelation went to Cornelius house, not knowing what he would speak, but went as he was commanded by Holy Spirit, the Lord by revelation open up his understanding, extending His salvation to the Gentiles. & the Grace of God took over the work of salvation, in their everyday ordinary experiences in life. In conversation, past times activities, relationships etc, separating the precious from the vile in their heart.
Quoting You
There aren't any examples in the NT about an individuals revelation, the 12, the 7 etc. If not, how in the world did we get the NT, from cover to cover, its all the revelation of Jesus Christ
Friend, by the above references it appears you need to pay attention to what your reading. no offense given or taken.
1Cor 12:7; Will you allow God this liberty & right to His own Spirit of Grace within us, as well as to His gifts to the church?
Thanks Jemma. Very true, "He loves His creation He cares for you He will help you trust Him trust Him trust in His mercy and kindness always don't doubt for a second" Blessings.
Have you ever seen a vision Texsis? Me personally, no never. But my wife has seen a few. One of them was the following:
She was standing in front of God's Throne during the Judgement. In front of her there was another woman who God was judging first and my wife's turn was immediately after. Both, that woman and my wife, had papers in their hand where there was a list of the sins/accusations they had done. The other woman was a person that my wife knew. While the other woman was judged my wife who knew her was thinking of the errors that that other woman had done. Every time my wife thought "she did that...", the same thing/accusation appeared on her paper as well. So at the end she realized that it was better not to judge that other woman so that nothing similar appears on her paper too.
"Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."
If we are strict to people, God is going to be strict to us. If we are mercyful to people then God will be mercyful to us well. Let's not forget that our God is Love.
John 3:17, "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved."
In reading Psalm 90:2, it is stating that God is from everlasting to everlasting, (that is eternal, always the same) and that from everlasting to everlasting, He is the only God there is.
So, so glad that the one and only God has chosen to reveal Himself the human race, first to Adam and Eve, then to others we read about in the Old Testament, and then expressly in the Son's incarnation, God is revealed perfectly. God revealed Himself to us in creating and preserving His Words in Scripture. We are so blessed by this. If God did not take the initiative to reveal Himself in these ways, we could never know Him in such a way to come into redeemed fellowship with Him. Praise the LORD for He is good and merciful, caring for whom He created and desiring for humans to come to salvation in Jesus Christ. Wouldn't want to ever miss out on knowing Him!
Amen, Jema, we all can shout out praises to God any time, any day, under any circumstances because of Who He is and what He has done in Christ Jesus for us as well as being the Creator and sustainer of all things visible and invisible. He alone is truly just and able to know all things, even our every thought and feeling. How great He is and how worthy He is of our praise, worship, service, and obedience.
Firstly when I told you to pay attention was not to offend you, sometimes we go trhough scripture and we don't pay too much attention and notice things unless someone tell us
Well it seems there is a misunderstanding. I wasn't saying that God is not revealing His Word to every one of us. That is a universal experience all reborn christians have, some more, some less. But what I do say is that the main doctrines must come from the church itself. Christians are not a randomly dispersed flock, there must be an orginized churh/congregation which is the Body of Christ or at least a part of It. There is an order, God is the God of order.
If you pay atention to 1 Cor 12 in verse 7 it says, "But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.". TO PROFIT WITHALL, that means that the gifts should function in the church/congregation, they are not something for individual use. God has given them to someone to use them and to profit all the congregation. There are no gifts given in the sense that I get one and then I am just drifting from one place to another or just stay alone at home and still God uses me, there is no such thing. My own experience is that before I joined the church where I am still now, I couldn't understand and distinguish between many things in the gospel unless someone told me (remember the eunoch in Acts?) although I had spent time in reading and searching for the truth. Why didn't God reveal His Word personally to me and had to go to a church? And this happens to all people more or less. About you, before you joined the Quakers why weren't you revealed the truth directly by God and had to hear teachings from them? You see? God drove you to place where you were tought His Word and then He is revealing It further by your own reading. So personal revelation is supplementary to what we learn in the church. Of course there are cases of people who can not go to a church or there is no church near them. God acts accordingly.
The Eastern Greek Orthodox Church uses the so called Patriarcal Text for the New Testament. It is very similar to the Received Text. That text is based on the Byzantine text. The Byzantine text is the text that they were using since the foundation of that church in the 3rd centuary AD. In Rom 1:19, it contains the words "of Christ".
About manuscripts. Not all the manuscripts from ancient times survived. What we have now is a small portion of what was written. But still those small differences in the texts do not make any real difference, whether the phrase "of Christ" is true or it is a later addition it does not matter. It is the doctrines we are seeking in the Bible, not numbers and descriptions and that sort of things. We are interested in what those people knew about God and Jesus and what their beliefs were. And as far as doctrines are concerned they are all the same, whether the Received Text or the Critical or any other. So let's not spend our time in unimportant secondary things.
The Septuagint text was translated from a text that was an earlier version of the Masoretic text. Today many scholars and theologians believe that in ancient times there were many slightly different texts of the O.T. due to errors or additions and comments done during hand copying the scriptures through centuaries. Today there are 4 different texts of the O.T. plus many private translations that the early church fathers did for their own use. The 4 are, the Septuagint, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Masoretic and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Not 2 of them are completely indentical. But the differences are unimportant, they are differences in words and descriptions and numbers and that sort of things. Just for information.
Glory to God on high He is real He is alive He is faithful He is king He hears our prayers He heals He forgives He grants our petitions He is live He is kindness He is so kind to me I can't even say how kind He heard my prayer and He healed only God can do this only God is all powerful over all His creation He can do anything for you for me just ask He loves His creation He cares for you He will help you trust Him trust Him trust in His mercy and kindness always don't doubt for a second the Everlasting Holy One of Israel is The God The Only One He is power and He is gentle and He shows His love in million different ways what can I do for Him nothing I'm nothing He is Everything Glory to the Everlasting Power Amen Thy Kingdom Come please please please soon may all flesh praise the Great God Almighty .
"Why do we say that sanctification makes us blameless, not faultless? Because the Grace of God working in us does not make us infallible. Sin has so perverted our moral and spiritual powers that we shall never in this present life be free from the infirmities of human nature."
This is a subtle lie, cleverly disguise within a lot of truth, whether intentional or not, I hope it was the later.
blameless def; is an adjective that means "innocent of wrongdoing" or "free from blame or fault"
faultless def; is an adjective that means having no fault, mistake, defect, imperfection, blemish, flaw, error, vice, or offense. It describes something that is perfect in all respect
Titus 2:11-14 all iniquity
Jude 1:24 faultless without blame, without blemish, faultless.
From a (as a negative particle) and momos; unblemished (literally or figuratively) -- without blame (blemish, fault, spot), faultless, unblamable.
Ephesians 5:27
The Grace of God is the Almighty, who we have in these earthen vessels; Isa 14:27 only to the unbelievers are these things impossible Matt 13:58Hebrews 3:19
"And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;"
This verse; in a nutshell explains how; following man's expulsion from Eden that Adam's descendants-more or less willingly walked away from what they knew intellectually about God through the testimony of Adam and others who lived many hundreds of years into idol worship. This would result in the end of the antidiluvian world when Noah entered the ark; and would also signify the reason why God would use Israel to wipe out pagan nations once their "iniquity was at the full" (See Genesis 15:16 for earlier example). Israel was warned repeatedly not to follow the customs of the surrounding nations which often came through intermarriage or by obtaining cursed items. Sadly they hardened their hearts ( Jeremiah 32:35) to do the horrible act in Hinnom of sacrificing their children to Molech in the fire. God also judged Sodom; Gomorrah and the surrounding cities for the behaviors of men there of sodomy. Proverbs 14:34 states that righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to any people.
This verse shows that there is a process involved when people drift off into sin; we all can see evidence of God in the Creation; even the Godhead as Romans 1:20 indicates (see also Psalm 19). Acts 8:23 shows someone in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity. This was Simon the Sorcerer; whose story began in verse 9. AFTER being baptized and claiming to be a believer he somehow thought he could buy the powers that the Apostles had of laying hands on people and having them receive the Holy Ghost. He was warned that he had no part in their ministry by Peter; and at the end of the story he asked them to pray for him.
It is hard to say exactly what Peter warned would happen to him or if he truly repented. We see; however a warning that it more than power in the gifts but the giver of gifts we worship.
The true dignity & honoring of the Scriptures is that they give us a true testimony of Him, & points to His return in Spirit bringing us the words of salvation Hebrews 9:28 Here they are profitable for doctrine 2 Timothy 3:16 confirming to us what the Spirit declare. The Spirit that gave the Scriptures forth, He comes again to bring us into the personal experiential knowledge of them. For only He knows the mind of God 1Cor 2:10,11 thus the Scripture have their rightful place & shine forth their glory for which they were given.
Hi Jema
I'll share a personal testimony of my experiences with God, how He open my understanding of these things that I'm writing of 1st He showed me, in the beginning with Adam & Eve, all their knowledge, & understanding that they had was what He, God Himself had given them in their fellowshipping together, they had no other thoughts, passions, desires, endeavors etc, but what was from Him. Until the devil show up & introduce another train of thought, twisting & perverting God's own words in doing so. In man obedience to him, another seed was implant in mankind heart & corrupted him.
Then Word of the Lord came to me & ask me to trust this still small Voice within conscience, I responded I couldn't do that, I didn't trust it, it always lead me to deny myself, asking me to do things contrary to my own will, which at the time I was unaware that it was the Grace of God appearance within me, the Cross. Titus 2:11-14 2Cor 4:10,11
Reading the Quaker's writing, specifically from 1646-1700 they all pointed to the John 1:9 & Titus 2:11 that appears to all mankind, it was in man, but not of man, but of God. The still small Voice that admonishes when, I thought of or did something evil & reprove me for it, at the same time if I gave thought to Him, He would show me what was right & good to do in my everyday ordinary experiences in life conversations, relationships, past time activities, what to deny or cling to in thoughts, words or deeds. As I consider what they spoke of, it align up with the Scriptures, sound reasoning & human experience, we all have these spirits operations working within us.
He further open me, I began practicing being still & quiet before the Lord & waiting upon Him, during one of these exercises, He opened my understanding concerning these 2 seeds within me, You remember the cartoon where there would be an angel on the right shoulder & a devil represent on the left shoulder of the cartoonist, the angel would encourage him to do what is right & good, & the devil influence him to what was evil & bad. Well this is what actually goes on within our hearts & who we obey is whom we serve & who temple we are, I always thought it was me, myself thinking these thoughts whether good or bad, I did not comprehend that I was just a vessel to be move & animated by these two great powers of the universe. There's no me, myself & I, it either Light or darkness animating us.
After this revelation I was convinced & start exercising this Word of Righteousness in the discerning between good & evil within. The heart is the birthing room of thoughts, as they are birth & brought forth we become conscious & aware of them. Thus Paul says 2Cor 10:3-6 Ephesians 6:12
Here is where God works out our salvation. Hebrews 12:6-11
For 27 yrs I attend church, Assembly of God, Baptist, Full Gospel, Church of Faith, etc; not one of them spoke specifically concerning these things
I searched, fasted, studied the letter, all that was available thru man in this present day Christianity. Nothing could satisfy me, set me free or remove the veil from the eyes of my heart. God is our Father, in my heart thinking I should know Him like I know my natural father, this didn't become a reality until God lead me to the writing of these Quakers of the 17th Century & as time pass & I continue to grow in Grace, the possession of this reality becomes more clearer & precious in my eyes, Blessed Him for His tender mercies & longsuffering love toward me.
God has & continues to fulfill His word to me, Isa 42:16 all by the grace & truth that came by Jesus Christ. John 1:16 John 1:9
In this comment, you make a distinction between worshiping the "church" and worshiping Christ. And I totally agree with that statement.
But you also make a distinction between worshiping Christ and worshiping the Bible. The Bible is very clear that every word in the Bible is the word of God himself, ie. Christ himself.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
So please explain what you mean by that statement. Are you somehow separating Christ from his Word, the Bible?
So again, GiGi, please explain how we worship Christ apart from the Bible, which appears to be what you are saying.
I am extremely uncomfortable with that statement.
Thank you
Met her two aunts today. They flew in from Boston. They are really great! Seems Vivian has had a Christian upbringing. So we pray for both her and Kevin to be brought to a strong faith in Jesus and for their marriage to be built upon Him. Kevin needs a change of heart concerning this faith, to turn back to the Lord. I don't know yet what Vivian believes.
Many did due to the preaching and ministry of the Apostles and disciples taught by Jesus along with Paul. Many more Jews held stubbornly to their rejection of Jesus and continued to practice Judaism, though it had to go through many changes as a result of the ending of the temple rituals. The Rabbi's became stronger and stronger in their influence and it was not long before the Rabbi's introduced syncretic aspects that borrowed from the pagan religions they became familiar with. Also, they began to practice occultic rituals that led to the development of the Kabbalah that steeped the Rabbi's into the occult and certainly has led to the deep spiritual corruption of these leaders. Judaism became farther and farther estranged from the covenant practices instituted by God at Mt. Sinai. They invented new aspects of their religion since the temple was gone and Jerusalem in ruins. This led them even farther away of the LORD and entrapped them more by the enticements of their father, the devil, as Jesus stated.
This is such an instructive and sad example of what happens when people take their focus on knowing the True God in Christ and onto religious traditions, rituals, and practices that God never instituted. It happens when people worship the "church" rather than Christ. It happens when people worship the Bible instead of our Lord. It happens when we lose our first and primary love of God and fail to give Him primacy in our lives.
So, let us not be like the Jews who grew further and further from God and truth and proper worship and instead ask God to show us where we are sinning in such ways as the Jews. We pray for God to grant us repentance from improper focus and devotion and ask Him for forgiveness and a turning away from such sins.
There are many ways we can and do sin in regards to the world, but I think that misplaced religious zeal, honor, and devotion is more problematic because it seems to be "good" and is reinforced by other believers.
It is clear that the religious leaders and priest of Jesus' day were bound to the law and the traditions that added to the law by the Rabbi's. They did not want to be loosed from these. They valued the temple and its service by the priests more than God. They were unwilling to let go of these things to believe in Christ after His resurrection. Jesus knew this all. That is why He predicted the destruction of Jerusalem (the holy city) and the temple with this prediction coming to pass from 66 A.D. to the final blow in 70 A.D. Jesus knew that love of Jews for Judaism needed to cease for them to come to Christ. He knew that their hearts were dedicated to this religion rather than to YHWH. He knew that the Jews of His day were deceived and overburdened by the religious leaders and that the average Jew needed to be delivered from the leaders and their system of religion.
Even today, for the past 300 years or so, Jews practice "davening" before the wailing wall which is said to be a wall of the temple. But Josephus reported that the Romans leveled the temple completely down to the foundations. No stone wall was left, as the Jews believe the wailing wall is today. It actually is a wall of the Antonia Fort and not part of the temple. But the Jews worship at it because they still worship the house of the Lord and not the LORD who made a covenant with them long ago. The davening at the wailing wall was not practiced by Jews for 1600-1700 years because before this time they knew that the western (wailing) wall was not part of the temple. Jews today still mourn for the destruction of the temple, but do not mourn for their sin of unbelief in Jesus, the Messiah.
By destroying Jerusalem and the temple, the LORD made it clear that the practices of the Old Testament Law were done away with forever by the obedience and sacrifice of Jesus. Destroying the earthly Jerusalem and physical temple freed Jews to return to God through Christ. ...cont.
Think about the evidence Christ presented that He was indeed the Messiah. Indeed; supernatural blindness HAD to be given; for Jesus even told people to believe Him even for the sake of His works ( John 14:11). And the verse was indicative of His being part of the Godhead. There were HUGE numbers of people being miraculously fed at least twice; people healed of blindness which had NEVER occurred even with the Old Testament miracles ( John 10:21); people who had demons cast out of them; as well as the miracles entrusted to the 12 Apostles and the 70 sent out two by two ( Luke 10:11). There was the undeniable proof of natural phenomenon at the crucifixion ( Matt. 27:54); as well as the 500 witnesses that saw Him; including the Apostles AFTER He was Resurrected and they all died except for John as martyrs; clearly they knew and believed the truth since denial would have saved their lives.
Unbelief therefore is something learned. Children are all born into sin; but scripture makes it clear that they have angels beholding the Father continually and that they were drawn to Christ (see Matt. 18:10). Children came to Christ ( Mark 10:13-16) and praised Him as a fulfillment of Psalm 8:2 and mentioned by the Lord in Matthew 21:16. To deny the obvious requires a hardness of heart and soul; and deliberate rejection of known truths; which of course made the condemnation of the Pharisees greater than most; and was much of the reason Jesus excoriated them in nearly the entirety of Matthew 23. They knew the prophecies but were blinded because of their obsession on the law and all other traditions that were added to put men in bondage and to render mercy and justice meaningless ( Matthew 23:23) with their myopic tunnel vision. The rest of the world if NOT enlightened by the Spirit only looked at Christ as some great miracle worker but didn't worship Him as God in the flesh.
Hence Matthew 16:17 must occur for true salvation.
If we look at the time after Jesus was in the wilderness and began His public ministry; we see what begins as a few healings and public teachings in His hometown appear to rapidly grow with travel to surrounding areas where He cast out devils and did many healings. As late as Matthew 16:20 Jesus told to His Disciples not to tell anyone He was the Christ. The same instruction is in the Gospels of Mark as well as Luke. Jesus would speak Parables; eventually as the ONLY method of explaining these hidden truths to the general public. ( Matthew 13:13). This shows how deep the concept of Predestination is shown 2 verses later in Matthew 13:15 when He explains because of hard hearts they will not be given information needed to be saved. We must come to Christ on His terms; and at His drawing or prompting ( John 6:37). This concept also shows that Christ never was seeking acclamation and didn't want to be set up as King on this earth before the time either; without understanding that He had to be the suffering Savior first. When a man asked Jesus to help him with unbelief ( Mark 9:24) we need to keep in mind that when on earth He was able to raise men from the dead; today we need to trust that He has power over death; hell and sin but we don't have any certainty that He will use a person to perform a healing through the power of the Spirit today. Nonetheless we should ask the Lord in prayer all things which we will apart from those things which are just for our own selfish desires; He ever intercedes for us according to God's will ( Heb. 7:25). Finally; Jesus knew that mere facts wouldn't save anyone; as evidenced in the rich man's pleas from Hades in Luke 16:31; and all other instances Jesus was harassed for healing on a Sabbath Day-they couldn't ever deny the miracles but accused Him of working on the Sabbath and blasphemy declaring that He was the "I AM" ( John 8:58).
Its very true in my experience what you stated, God open my understanding through their writing & biographies
The foundation of their teaching is the Light of God is in every human being John 1:9 & if given heed too, would lead them out of darkness into Light of Life. Once I was convince of this, by the Witness of Truth within, the Scriptures & sound reasoning, then in simplicity & sincerity of heart I started paying attention to His motions within me.
You mention the Ethiopian eunuch, in this story is a lovely example of the Spirit guidance, Philip was instructed to arise & go, he went by revelation not knowing at that moment what he was going for, Acts 8:29 Holy Spirit further open his understanding by revelation, then he preached to the eunuch by revelation. You can be sure that Philip pointed him to the Grace of God within him to be his teacher as he went back to his own country.
Peter, by revelation went to Cornelius house, not knowing what he would speak, but went as he was commanded by Holy Spirit, the Lord by revelation open up his understanding, extending His salvation to the Gentiles. & the Grace of God took over the work of salvation, in their everyday ordinary experiences in life. In conversation, past times activities, relationships etc, separating the precious from the vile in their heart.
Quoting You
There aren't any examples in the NT about an individuals revelation, the 12, the 7 etc. If not, how in the world did we get the NT, from cover to cover, its all the revelation of Jesus Christ
Friend, by the above references it appears you need to pay attention to what your reading. no offense given or taken.
1Cor 12:7; Will you allow God this liberty & right to His own Spirit of Grace within us, as well as to His gifts to the church?
I wish they have a happy marriage. I will pray for them.
Blessings.
More about Judging others.
Have you ever seen a vision Texsis? Me personally, no never. But my wife has seen a few. One of them was the following:
She was standing in front of God's Throne during the Judgement. In front of her there was another woman who God was judging first and my wife's turn was immediately after. Both, that woman and my wife, had papers in their hand where there was a list of the sins/accusations they had done. The other woman was a person that my wife knew. While the other woman was judged my wife who knew her was thinking of the errors that that other woman had done. Every time my wife thought "she did that...", the same thing/accusation appeared on her paper as well. So at the end she realized that it was better not to judge that other woman so that nothing similar appears on her paper too.
"Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."
If we are strict to people, God is going to be strict to us. If we are mercyful to people then God will be mercyful to us well. Let's not forget that our God is Love.
John 3:17, "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved."
GBU
Good to meet you.
In reading Psalm 90:2, it is stating that God is from everlasting to everlasting, (that is eternal, always the same) and that from everlasting to everlasting, He is the only God there is.
My youngest son is getting married in a few hours. We are happy for them. Please pray for their marriage with us. Thanks
Firstly when I told you to pay attention was not to offend you, sometimes we go trhough scripture and we don't pay too much attention and notice things unless someone tell us
Well it seems there is a misunderstanding. I wasn't saying that God is not revealing His Word to every one of us. That is a universal experience all reborn christians have, some more, some less. But what I do say is that the main doctrines must come from the church itself. Christians are not a randomly dispersed flock, there must be an orginized churh/congregation which is the Body of Christ or at least a part of It. There is an order, God is the God of order.
If you pay atention to 1 Cor 12 in verse 7 it says, "But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.". TO PROFIT WITHALL, that means that the gifts should function in the church/congregation, they are not something for individual use. God has given them to someone to use them and to profit all the congregation. There are no gifts given in the sense that I get one and then I am just drifting from one place to another or just stay alone at home and still God uses me, there is no such thing. My own experience is that before I joined the church where I am still now, I couldn't understand and distinguish between many things in the gospel unless someone told me (remember the eunoch in Acts?) although I had spent time in reading and searching for the truth. Why didn't God reveal His Word personally to me and had to go to a church? And this happens to all people more or less. About you, before you joined the Quakers why weren't you revealed the truth directly by God and had to hear teachings from them? You see? God drove you to place where you were tought His Word and then He is revealing It further by your own reading. So personal revelation is supplementary to what we learn in the church. Of course there are cases of people who can not go to a church or there is no church near them. God acts accordingly.
The Eastern Greek Orthodox Church uses the so called Patriarcal Text for the New Testament. It is very similar to the Received Text. That text is based on the Byzantine text. The Byzantine text is the text that they were using since the foundation of that church in the 3rd centuary AD. In Rom 1:19, it contains the words "of Christ".
About manuscripts. Not all the manuscripts from ancient times survived. What we have now is a small portion of what was written. But still those small differences in the texts do not make any real difference, whether the phrase "of Christ" is true or it is a later addition it does not matter. It is the doctrines we are seeking in the Bible, not numbers and descriptions and that sort of things. We are interested in what those people knew about God and Jesus and what their beliefs were. And as far as doctrines are concerned they are all the same, whether the Received Text or the Critical or any other. So let's not spend our time in unimportant secondary things.
The Septuagint text was translated from a text that was an earlier version of the Masoretic text. Today many scholars and theologians believe that in ancient times there were many slightly different texts of the O.T. due to errors or additions and comments done during hand copying the scriptures through centuaries. Today there are 4 different texts of the O.T. plus many private translations that the early church fathers did for their own use. The 4 are, the Septuagint, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Masoretic and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Not 2 of them are completely indentical. But the differences are unimportant, they are differences in words and descriptions and numbers and that sort of things. Just for information.
"Why do we say that sanctification makes us blameless, not faultless? Because the Grace of God working in us does not make us infallible. Sin has so perverted our moral and spiritual powers that we shall never in this present life be free from the infirmities of human nature."
This is a subtle lie, cleverly disguise within a lot of truth, whether intentional or not, I hope it was the later.
blameless def; is an adjective that means "innocent of wrongdoing" or "free from blame or fault"
faultless def; is an adjective that means having no fault, mistake, defect, imperfection, blemish, flaw, error, vice, or offense. It describes something that is perfect in all respect
Titus 2:11-14 all iniquity
Jude 1:24 faultless without blame, without blemish, faultless.
From a (as a negative particle) and momos; unblemished (literally or figuratively) -- without blame (blemish, fault, spot), faultless, unblamable.
Ephesians 5:27
The Grace of God is the Almighty, who we have in these earthen vessels; Isa 14:27 only to the unbelievers are these things impossible Matt 13:58 Hebrews 3:19
"And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;"
This verse; in a nutshell explains how; following man's expulsion from Eden that Adam's descendants-more or less willingly walked away from what they knew intellectually about God through the testimony of Adam and others who lived many hundreds of years into idol worship. This would result in the end of the antidiluvian world when Noah entered the ark; and would also signify the reason why God would use Israel to wipe out pagan nations once their "iniquity was at the full" (See Genesis 15:16 for earlier example). Israel was warned repeatedly not to follow the customs of the surrounding nations which often came through intermarriage or by obtaining cursed items. Sadly they hardened their hearts ( Jeremiah 32:35) to do the horrible act in Hinnom of sacrificing their children to Molech in the fire. God also judged Sodom; Gomorrah and the surrounding cities for the behaviors of men there of sodomy. Proverbs 14:34 states that righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to any people.
This verse shows that there is a process involved when people drift off into sin; we all can see evidence of God in the Creation; even the Godhead as Romans 1:20 indicates (see also Psalm 19). Acts 8:23 shows someone in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity. This was Simon the Sorcerer; whose story began in verse 9. AFTER being baptized and claiming to be a believer he somehow thought he could buy the powers that the Apostles had of laying hands on people and having them receive the Holy Ghost. He was warned that he had no part in their ministry by Peter; and at the end of the story he asked them to pray for him.
It is hard to say exactly what Peter warned would happen to him or if he truly repented. We see; however a warning that it more than power in the gifts but the giver of gifts we worship.