So this is a personal issue as all my post have been. it’s the issue of the selfish Christian mentality. I say personal because this is who I use to be. To get to the point, it seems believers today have this mentality that they are given the privileged to only think about themselves with the way they handle God. I’ve seen the popular sermon and sayings, “Keep people in your life who inspire, if they don’t remove them” or “Surround yourself only with people who are going to take you higher.” Believers….. BELIEVERS, this is NOT from God… it’s from Oprah. This is not Jesus’s teachings and never was meant to be. We were never told to only be surrounded by people we can only be inspired by… we were told to be the light. Our focus should not always be on ourselves, in fact it rarely should be.
Proverbs 4:18 The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.
It seems we have been conformed to think that this Christian walk is only about ourselves. That God can be conformed to be a God that only cares about our personal goals and dreams. Again this is contrary to the teachings of Christ. He actually requested that his followers leave their goals and dreams to follow him. It’s because our dreams and goals are most likely not going to be his for us. Paul was also very wealthy and in politics, he gave it up to follow Christ. I’m not saying you shouldn’t praise God for what he has done for you but again learn to make the focus toward others.
Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. Luke 17:33
“If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple … So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.” (Luke 14:26-27, 33)
“But seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you. Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Luke 12:31-34)
Most believe they can simply fill the baskets in church services and that is the only thing they should do for others, then back to ME ME ME. The statuses I see on Facebook and the tweets I see from some Christians are so bothersome because it shows this is exactly the mindset of many believers today. I think it’s why we think pastors are so much higher than ourselves. Because many of them are preaching things that give us more confidence in focusing on self.
Believers please learn to go back to putting others first. This is my request. This does not mean a weekly homeless feeding but let it be the way you live your life, the way your relationship with God is. I remember posting a status on Facebook asking the 3000 plus friends on my list why they Love God. All of the responses were “because of what he has done for me” type responses. Out of many comments maybe 1 or 2 people actually said because he’s God. Let us be proud of what he has done for us but more proud of what he will do for others through us.
So there is a lot of confusion over the question of whether someone can be born gay or not. Most Christians will say NO, you cannot be born gay because they feel it makes God appear as imperfect and capable of mistakes; knowing that men with woman is the blueprint God set for us. On the other spectrum we have those who say YES you can and are born gay because of genetics and other human opinions. We have one side that wants to defend God and another that wants to defend men. Let us go into the word of God to find out exactly God’s truth of whether someone can be born with sin or not. Lets throw out our human opinions and stop trying to put our own conclusions on things so it makes sense to us. You may be surprised by the result!
In the following scripture we have David in who writes of his guilt from his adultery with Bathsheba:
Psalms 51 For I was born a sinner—yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.6 But you desire honesty from the womb, teaching me wisdom even there.
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Psalms 58 3 The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies.
Did you see what David said? There it is in a nutshell! He stated that he was born a sinner, even from the conception. That is the answer right there. It makes perfect sense now guys. Do you remember Nicodemus? When Jesus told him he must be BORN AGAIN. Nicodemus was so confused by this. He asked, “”How can a man be born when he is old?”, “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!”". Jesus then gives him a Spiritual Truth that is very difficult to understand.
John 3: 5Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
Flesh gives birth to flesh: being born of a human woman’s womb.
Spirit gives birth to spirit: being born of from the Spirit, a spiritual womb.
The same confusion Nicodemus had, we have today. What he and we did not think about was, why would we need to be BORN AGAIN in the first place. Now we can think back to what David said, “For I was born a sinner – yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.”. David is not saying he was born with the desire to commit adultery or murder but that sinful nature was already there from conception. Is an infant born with the desire to have relations with the opposite or same sex or murderous intentions or a lying tongue? Not so, but the sinful nature was there from their conception and as that child develops those acts of that nature will become evident. The nature that rebels against God’s blueprint for us. THIS IS WHY WE MUST BE BORN AGAIN GUYS. There would be NO need for another birth if the first birth was good enough for us, good enough to save us from death. We were absolutely BORN with the sinful nature, you absolutely can be born gay, sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. This is why we were told NOT to judge others by Jesus. It’s because the sinful nature that the person we judge is born with is the SAME sinful nature the human judge has in them.
Gal 5 19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Matt 7 :5 Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.
This is why we absolutely NEED to be BORN AGAIN. We are born with sin, all of the above. The spirit is completely different and pure.
Gal 5 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
Now we find out that the argument should have never been whether someone can be born gay or not because we know we are born into sin. This is an argument that came from HUMAN WISDOM because we think we know better than God. Both sides are equally guilty of this; the believer and the non-believer. We were told NOT to use HUMAN WISDOM concerning the things of God.
1 Cor 2:13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.
What happens when you use human wisdom? It empties the power from the cross; which means, it takes the power to SAVE us. When we continue to try to explain things with our own wisdom we really cause a lot damage to the body. See the word of God tells us that the heart of us humans are wicked, even when we try to defend God based on our human wisdom that wickedness from within still corrupts that. (Jer 17:9 “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?) This is why we should not teach with our own opinions. Eventually putting us in this confusion we are in now. We were NEVER told to be concerned of whether someone is born gay or not. Folks, neither theories were not good enough. Being born into sin doesn’t give us an excuse to continue in it.
1 Cor 1:17b “…not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.”
Let us take all arguments that set themselves up against the knowledge of God and cast them away. (2 Cor 10:5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,) They cause this type of arguing and fighting. They even are much of the reasons those who practice homosexuality think all Christians HATE them. It’s because we have created theories with the intentions of defending God that actually sow hate and confusion. To say someone cannot be born gay even knowing that scripture says we are born into sin at our conception seems like we are singling out those who practice homosexuality over all the other sins. I often have homosexuals come to me saying, you Christians act like homosexuality is the worse sin out there and that lying and other sins are the same. They do have a point and we need to repent for making them feel like that. We absolutely can quote scriptures that show homosexuality is NOT God’s blueprint for us but we were never told to create theories that would single them out as worse than others. I was guilty of this as well and for that I apologize to every homosexual who reads this. I use to practice the lifestyle and I remember how it made me feel hopeless in the eyes of God. When I found out that I was being judged over HUMAN WISDOM I decided to find out how God felt about my life at that time. I found out I needed to be born again and WHY I needed to be born again.
I often speak about the false traditions that entered the church of God and I was surprised at first to see how many did not care what the word of God says. Now I do understand it more because the sinful nature is absolutely more fun to us humans. When I talk about tithing through scripture and how our Christian version of it is NOT biblical, I can now understand how some can say I agree but it still works. It does bring in money for our building funds, to pay the ministers so it clearly works. There is a famous saying in today’s church world, which ‘is that “Church is a business”. This is absolutely a fallacy and it shows that we don’t understand the difference between the kingdom of Mammon and the Kingdom of God. In my last post I showed through scripture that they are supposed to be completely different, opposite. We have created a business called church which relates to Babylon described in Revelations. (I will touch on that later)
What I have noticed in today’s version of church is how compromising we have become. Not only compromising but we actually get inspired by the world to do things like them but place Jesus name in it to make it be considered God’s Will. The style of music, the business we created. The reasons so many Christians desire to be musicians today, is it really because doing the will of God, or is it something else?
Honestly, what I have witness is that in their mindsets it is a bit of both. While they feel they are in it to only please God, getting a huge check each time you do it is absolutely something they enjoy as well; though most will not openly speak about it. It stems from the system we created in the church world today. Instead of treating everyone equal as brothers and sisters, we created a value system on different placements in the church. Pastors/Elders, Musicians (mostly singers), and prophets are usually highly esteemed which as a result most people desire to be in those placements. We love what those placements can do for us, the money they bring in and being seen as having a more intense relationship with Christ. Since there are only 3 placements millions of people desire, it creates competition. Only so many can do the same thing.
Matt 23 8“But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. 9And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. 10Nor are you to be called ‘teacher,’ for you have one Teacher, the Christ. 11The greatest among you will be your servant. 12For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
My reason for this post is because I am ashamed by what is taking place in the “Church World”. Notice I keep saying Church and World together. This is because that is exactly what it is. It’s a church that is one with the world. We have TV shows like American Idol out there which is all good being that it is the world doing it. What do you think happens now? That’s right, the Church world liked what they seen and adopted an idea for a show exactly like American Idol. The show is called SUNDAY BEST, where “Christians” are judged by men on how great they sing for God. People get voted off each week because they just were not good enough in mans eyes to sing for God in the business world of Church. Is this what Jesus wanted for his church? Is this the perfect bride that he is creating? Where we judge one another based on their skills and talents; where Christians are hurt and discriminated on based on those very same skills and talents. Would Jesus be sitting in the front row of the studio while Sunday Best is taping? Is he is the room? Just because you sing a sing for God does not mean God is in the room. My friend Vanessa reminded me when we use to fellowship with Mr. Donnie McClurkin, who use to preach how we should not be watching these type of shows. How God does not want us competing against one another. Unfortunately he is now on the show as a judge. No judgement toward him on my part but I’m sure you see how it appears.
Was the early Christians way of doing things not good enough for us? They served one another and did not compete against one another. Acts 4:34 Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, 35 And laid them down at the Apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.”
Matt 6 1“Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
So brothers and sisters, I want you to really test yourself. Ask yourself are the things you take part in, really God’s will for us. Just because the name God is it God’s will? I see Christians loving these type of things in the body but I also see those who say they follow the Most High God following things that aren’t God’s Will. Which one are you?
Rev 18 Heshouted with a powerful voice: “Fallen, fallen, is Babylon the great! Shehas become a lair for demons, a hauntfor every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detested beast.
Matt 6
2 “When you give to the poor, don’t be like the hypocrites. They blow trumpets in the synagogues and on the streets so that people will see them and honor them. I tell you the truth, those hypocrites already have their full reward.
5 …They love to stand in the synagogues and on the street corners and pray so people will see them. I tell you the truth, they already have their full reward.
Tonight I had a long road trip back to NY from visiting my best friend…my brother in Christ. One of the things I love about driving is listening to the word of God via one of my apps on my phone. (Cross Connect) I listened to Acts and began to realize even more, the differences of the CHURCH in the early church compared to today’s version of church. The gathering, the assembling and the prayer services were so different from what we are used to today. They really took care of one another and yes there were problems that occurred in those days as well; with man there will always be problems but the difference is very relevant. I myself as most of you know have been in the institutionalized church for pretty much my entire life. I got really deep into “churching” in my mid teens to my early 20′s.
Well the thing I noticed is how much todays version of church is pretty much a good show; concert like. We are told to go to a building, sit as in a concert like setting (more value in the seats closer to the stage) and watch the show until it is over. Know when to clap, know when to stand, know when to laugh, know when to leave. I remember when I was a praise team singer singing for about 3 – 4 hours entertaining the crowd until the leader made his way in the arena onto the stage (church building onto the pulpit) Sometimes we would continue to sing for hours after the leader came to have more fun. The people would cheer and clap after every song and some of them would worship Christ as we had to cheer them on to do so. They reacted the same way with the leader was preaching… cheering after every word the man spoke (I was guilty myself), but not often would you hear ONLY the preacher speaking showing that people were listening and gaining information. It basically sounded more like everyone already knew what the man was preaching being that they were YESSING and CHEERING after every sentence. Sometimes if they are too quiet they get enticed to cheer again, “I DON’T HEAR YOU SOMEBODY” or “WHERE YOU AT CHURCH” are some of the things a preacher would say when the audience appeared to be low on energy with their responses to what was being said.
Positioned on the stage every Sunday I was able to see all of the faces and often put on a more energetic performance when I saw faces weren’t so pleasant. We were often told during rehearsal to make sure we smile with passion and be energetic because we are leading the people into worship. I have sang background for unbelievers and during rehearsal they would say be passionate and energetic because the people are responding you. When the show was over the leaders would go back to their waiting rooms or sit in their beautifully crafted chairs, the praise team singers would walk off the stage and hear responses like, “YOU GUYS WERE GREAT” or “YOU GUYS REALLY BLESSED ME”. We would respond as humble as we could to make it not about us. The singers would often get offers from people waiting for us to leave the stage from people who wanted to be on the praise team, people who wanted contacts that had nice vocals, worked in studios, wanted information on the preacher or just people who like singing friends in their circle. I always ignored these similarities but the more I read the word of God, I’m able to realize that the Kingdom of God is supposed to be contrary to the ways of Mammon (the world); yet they appear to be so similar. The Church I read about in the “Book of Acts” absolutely looks contrary to the ways of Mammon. Every concert I have been to whether Christian or not had the same or very similar formulas.
The point is not that shows are bad… I enjoy a good show… I enjoyed going to “church” for the show when I was apart of it and when I just watched it, the problem is that the Church is not supposed to equate a show – its suppose to equate the Bride of Christ.
John 18: 36Jesus said, “My kingdom is NOT of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.”
Matt 6:24 “No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
Matt 23 (Jesus is talking to the crowd about the teachers and Pharisees which can correlate todays preachers and pastors) 6they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; 7they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them ‘Rabbi.’
Tonight I had an awesome conversation with a friend. We were talking about how Christians get aggravated with me because I am in their words “too loving”. I think they don’t believe it is possible and that I must be a mean person deep inside. Some people say they get mad at people like me because they see something in themselves that they don’t like. Whatever the reasons are, there really is no excuse for Christians rebuking others for loving too much. I was actually asked to REPENT for loving because Jesus did not come to bring peace. This is NOT what Jesus meant when he said that. Look I wasn’t always loving. I use to be quite rude and sarcastic. I use to be proud and did not often see the best in people.
Comments I made in this conversation when my friend about this issue, “you know some interesting people” I responded, “I don’t know them… that’s why i deleted them. If i know your loving and that’s what u show then i know u…. if I know your hateful and u show that then i know u but these people said they were loving but they show hate. I don’t know them“
Lets go over love the way God describes it for us.
1 Cor 13 4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (believes the best in all, there is no limit to her hope, and she will never fall – NSV)
THIS IS LOVE!!! If this is NOT what you are demonstrating then you do not have love.
So if you say you’re a Christian and you’re not patient with others, you’re not kind, your proud, rude, not believing the best in all people then you’re not being a loving Christian. We all fall short but you must recognize that and repent. I had to.
Mark 12 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’There is no commandment greater than these.”
Father, let those in the body of Christ exhibit love. This is my prayer.
Something that has changed in me over the last few years is not thinking about myself. I was one of those Christians that often thought about myself and what God could do for me. In the past few years I have encountered Christians who love people and put others before themselves. Some have even given up normal jobs to take care of the needs of others, such as the homeless. I know many Christians today do not really think about it as a necessary thing because we know we are not saved by works.
Eph 2 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast.
The thing is we see scripture throughout the word of God that say that works are important.
Matt 25
34“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
41“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45“He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
The Holy Spirit began to show me how these scriptures work together. That it’s not the works that will save you but when you truly have the Love of Christ, you will begin to do “works” for other people through that very same love. It’s more a matter of the heart. If you truly do have the love of Christ it will pain you to even see someone who is without.
1 John 3 17If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
I say this to you guys… help someone. Use your money to love someone, use your time to visit someone, use your relationship with Christ to love others.
Praise Jesus!
Here are pictures of my family. The homeless people I hang out with on the streets.
So there is an apparent misconception of God today. In my Christian walk thus far I have witness and even been apart of the attitude most Christians tend to have with Christ. Most of you are very similar with it; the GIVE ME, BLESS ME, MORE MONEY, A NEW HOUSE LORD attitude. I have come to the realization that God is a personal genie for a majority of the “Christians” of today. I remember I once did a little experiment on Facebook with the question for all my friends on my friend list. I asked “Why do you serve and love God”. The reason I promoted this question was because I had a feeling the majority of responses would based on what God does for them. Unfortunately I was pretty accurate. Out of about 50 responses about 2 people actually said “I serve and love God because he just is”. See the reality of the matter is that most of us have a conditioned love for Christ. We say we love him because we are psychologically trained to focus on how much we get. The more great things happen the better we feel about the relationship with Christ of course this has a negative effect because when things are not coming to us we begin to feel or relationship with Christ is stunted. We begin to think that we were doing something wrong, maybe not praying enough or going to a church building enough as a result to why the “blessings” decreased in our lives. We make God a conditional God based on our conditional relationship with Him. I can speak so well about this because this was me 2 years ago. I was one who saw God as my Genie. Good grades on a test because I prayed (not because I studied), won some money because God wanted to give me riches (God supports gambling right?), almost had a record deal because God wanted me to be rich. Those are some of the attitudes I had. What happened to contentment? What happened to the attitude I see in the early Church described in God’s word. What ever happened to seeing another day as being blessed?
Contentment
1 Timothy 6 6But godliness with CONTENTMENT is GREAT gain. 7For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.
This is the attitude God wanting for us. He wants us to be content. Not this always wanting MORE MORE MORE attitude that we have today. We think we are doing God a justice by encouraging people that God is giving us so much riches and such that it will cause people to want to know God for themselves. In one case you are absolutely right, you absolutely can gain people to the god that you express with this ideology. The only problem is, is it the most high?
Gal 1 6I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7which is really no gospel at all.
Just because you gain people to take the “Christian” title does not mean they are really God’s. This is the main way God will say to many people I NEVER KNEW YOU. It’s because so many are and will be following a false gospel that does NOT have the power to save.
Matt 7:23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
If your god says that you need to keep praying and God will bless you with more more more but God’s word says be content and to not worry about what you have then we have a problem. One of those conclusions are wrong and the one in God’s word will win in the end regardless.
Luke 12 22Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. 23Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. 24Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! 25Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 26Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
What do you notice here? God DOES NOT want us to be concerned about more blessings. We don’t have to worry about it, it’s God’s nature to bless without us having to treat Him as a Genie. It does not always even mean you are in a better place with God because you are receiving blessings. The word says He rains down blessings on everyone. I know that aggregates us because we want to feel better than others… feel special in a sense.
Matt 5:45 In this way you show that you are children of your Father in heaven. He makes his sun rise on people whether they are good or evil. He lets rain fall on them whether they are just or unjust.
Gets me a bit disgusted at seeing so many Christians with this GIVE ME mentality toward God. I see it everyday and had to really learn to be understanding with love that this is just how many people view God. You can say everything you want to people and it’s not likely someone is going to want to stop getting everything they want from God if that is the god they were introduced to. Who would want to trade of a genie type god for a God that would rather you be content? I was lucky and the only reason I was able to reject that false god was because I noticed other things that were not accurate about God’s nature. It resulted me to wonder what else I was wrong about.
It really makes me feel so wonderful to meet Christians who do have the godly attitude for Christ. More like the early Christians like Paul and the others. I mean this dude actually boasted about not having anything. I mean are you serious? The dude actually interrupted a conversation to boast about how much he does NOT have. Today’s Christian would feel sorry for him and feel he needs to pray or make changes so that he can get blessings.
2 Cor 11
What anyone else dares to boast about—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast about.22Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham’s descendants? So am I. 23Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. 24Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. 27I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. 28Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. 29Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?
30If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. 31The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying. 32In Damascus the governor underKing Aretas had the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to arrest me. 33But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall and slipped through his hands.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS DUDE? I know that is what most of us think but this is a beautiful attitude to have with God. Most of us would NEVER EVER boast about this type of experience. Don’t have enough money to pay your bills; boast about it. Didn’t get the job you wanted; boast about it. Why, because you are content with everything. This is the heart of a man content with God.
I want you to really think about the way you treat God today and test, question even if your attitude with God is the attitude he is looking for from his family. Do you treat God as a Genie? Will you reject this and find reasons why it’s OK to treat God as a Genie?
Lately I have been a bit bothered by the fighting and condemning in the Christian body. I heard about this kind of activity going on but I never knew it was this heavy. I have seen people on YouTube calling people heretics and responding to another post to condemn them based on what they disagree with. I have seen Christians physically attacked due to the words of other Christians, I have seen brothers and sisters literally leave the body of Christ because of these situations. I even see people posting that Paul was a heretic. This is what creates denominations; this is why there are 10 church building on the same block . After seeing just how serious this thing is I realized I was not so far from it when I first found out about the false things in the institutionalized church (traditions). Some of the things I said and posted on my Facebook page though they may have been accurate in content they were not right in the way I went about it. My best friend Pleasure and I learned this about ourselves together. See this is how the holy spirit works, it allows you to find sin in yourself that you never knew existed. The whole time I thought I had my sin in control, up comes a new one from the wood-works. Although my intentions were never to be contentious and condemning, it was most likely going through the head of a person reading. Sometimes this can be a good thing when it’s as far as sin but often the response of a person isn’t to learn from what they may have been doing wrong but to get offensive and defensive; never coming to grasping the fact that there may be something they could change to be more in content with the word of God.
I understand that there are plenty of false things in the body of Christ such as traditions and such but we must not loose confidence in God’s ability to fix things. Follow Christ teachings and that is what will keep you from those false things. What I have seen all through out the internet and in the Christian body today is us human beings trying to be the judges; trying to separate the wheat from the weeds on their own because we get so frustrated and feel God is not doing it quick enough for our taste.
Lets take a look at Jesus’s parable for us:
Matt 13:24-30
24Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.25But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
27“The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’
28” ‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.
“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
29” ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. 30Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’ “
Matt 13:36-43
36Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”
37He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. 38The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
40“As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.
You will realize God tells us to NOT pull up the weeds (sons of Satan) ourselves because we may root up the wheat (Sons of the kingdom) with them. This is something so many in the body have missed. We think its our job to pull up the weeds and each time you do that you are guilty of pulling up some of the wheat.
Understanding: If I am in the fields and I just start whacking everything that I feel is a weed ( things that i feel do not belong) there is a good chance I will slice some of the wheats as well. See we human beings are not the perfect judges in anything and we are flawed in everything we do but GOD is not.
Example: I start going around calling everyone whom I disagree with a heretic and that they must repent based on this disagreement (not concerning sin). Merely because these people have a different understanding about God based on what they have read in his word they become condemned by me. Jesus said anyone who wants to come to him must come as a child and guess what; children don’t have all the right answers and are wrong about many things but he still accepts them. What happens is someone who doesn’t understand what you did will become discouraged by that and leave the faith because of YOUR actions. Because humans tried to do God’s work.
God is the master swordsmen, so let him do the separating.
I really pray for the body that they will be careful of the criteria they use to judge people. I know there is a mass of people who quote the scriptures that show we are allowed to judge such as:
John 7:24 24Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment.”
1 Cor 6:3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!
This is something humans often do, we often focus on the part of the bible we like and only focus on those but we are not do this because it is what contradicts the word of God. The non believer’s biggest argument is that the bible has contradictions but honestly it doesn’t, WE make those contradictions in the way we handle God’s holy word.
Matt 7:1-2 “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.
1 Cor 4:5 Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.
Romans 14:10-12 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
Matt 7:5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
Instead of allowing these scriptures to work with one another we choose one set that fits with our way of doing things and use those scriptures to support it. Some say we are to judge one another while the other says you CAN’T judge me.
What I have learned about myself is that I must judge myself. So much of what I have found wrong with others I later find out the same thing is in me. Sin is in me. It doesnt matter what type of sin it is because sin is in me and God’s spirit is cutting right to my heart. Now I understand how Jesus could call those people hypocrites because they did not see things in themselves to the point they felt they could judge others when they have the same sinful nature within themselves.
Now this does not give a person the leeway to sin and not have to worry about it, quite frankly this is how you know someone is really God’s and if someone isnt. If someone takes pleasure in practicing sin and feels like they are getting away with it because they do not have to worry about man’s judgement then they show their fruit.
If you want the criteria God gives us to judge if someone is his or not here it is:
Gal 5
16So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
This is how we are able to judge whether someone is God’s. We are not to condemn others because they do not understand things about God the way we do. We are not to reject a brother or a sister because they are not where we are in our walk with Christ. We are not to fight and throw verbal stones at one another.
1John 2:22 Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist–he denies the Father and the Son. Matt 24 10-14 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. B’cus of the increase of wickedness, the LOVE of most will GROW COLD, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.
I DO HOPE YOUR PAYING ATTENTION… TO WHATS GOING ON IN YOU AND WHAT U SEE AROUND YOU
So brothers and sisters, let us be careful how we live this Christian walk. Let us Love and leave this mindset that everyone is a heretic but ourselves and our friends. Let us use the criteria Christ gave for us to follow in order to judge things in ourselves and encourage believers. Not base on disagreements but based on the fruit of the spirit. This is how we can tell who is working through God or not.
So this album came out last month but I had so much new music that I refused to listen to anything else until I went through them all. Finally I got the new Sanctus Real: Pieces of a Real Heart album and let me say…. I AM BLOWN AWAY! I have always been a fan of Sanctus Real’s music and this new album gives me even more of a respect for these guys. They really went out to get the message about the sinful nature of us humans here. What it does is shows us how much we need God and how much he takes control if we allow him to. I love the fact that the first track is about being forgiven; I find that kind of cool that they give a person who may not know Christ a chance to understand how they can be forgiven too. (I’ve noticed a lot of non believers like Christian Rock and maybe they understood that too)
So what I did today was keep this album on replay all while I took a 5 hour walk in NYC’s park. I was walking many times with tears falling down my face because of the songs. The songs really describe how a Christian will cry out for God because the heart is failing them, resulting in them asking God to TAKE OVER ME.
As of right now, my favorite song is ‘Til I Got To Know You. First off the vocals are incredible on this track and the track is ridiculous it self. The person in the song is talking about how they tried to do things by themselves at first but ended up realizing Christ is best at controlling the lives of his children. The person speaking emphasize YOU YOU YOU which is a really neat thing to do because it keeps directing the focus on YOU meaning Christ and not the speaker. This is such a great song and guess what, every song so far is great. I like every track and didn’t find myself skipping tracks but listened to it through quite a few times. I repeated a few tracks like this one a bit though.
Let me leave you with some of the words from a really cool track they wrote… it’s almost like I wrote it myself.
Keep My Heart Alive
I’m so tired of politics and all this bad news
I’m so tired of chasing the moment instead of chasing You
I let the World wear me down, I’m desensitized
Jesus keep my heart alive, keep my heart alive
Only You can save me from a world that’s breaking right before my eyes
Keep my heart alive….
Jesus keep my heart alive (Only You can save me),
Keep my heart alive (Only You can save me)
Only You can save me when my world is breaking right before my eyes
Jesus keep my heart alive (Only You can save me),
Keep my heart alive (Only You can save me)
Only You can save me when my hope is fading, and I’m losing the fight
I would encourage everyone to get the deluxe version because it has the extra acoustic versions of the same songs. I love that!
Most of you guys know I am extremely against this prosperity Gospel that seems to have taken over the body of Christ. Many of my post have been teachings from the bible that clearly opposes it. I actually was one of those who followed the prosperity gospel and thought it was God’s will. Paying my tithes to receive more money and “blessings”, believing highly elevated ministers when they told me God wants me to be rich financially. I jumped for joy at this idea and went around teaching people about this “blessing” these men have spoken into my life. Then 2008 comes and I finally pick up the bible for myself to read what JESUS said and WOW and BEHOLD it was completely against what I was teaching. I had so much repenting to do, so many people I brought to Christ based on this money ministry. Many people told me not to worry about it because it does not matter how you lead people to Christ, as long as they have been lead to Christ.
Gal 1:6-7 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.
So did I really lead these people to Christ? With a false gospel, did I really lead them to Christ? I lead them to a Christ that says money is great and he wants us to have as much as we can with the right mindset. I lead them to a Christ that says you can have what your sinful nature wants with God.
Luke 16:13 “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”
Another man who had to come to this realization through the word of God. Jim Bakker one of the founding fathers of the Trinity Broadcasting Network. He came into a bit of trouble and was sent to prison where he only could study God’s word everyday. Being with God alone is when you have no choice but to hear what he is saying… even if it’s a rebuke which it is much of the time. When Mr. Bakker got out of prison he soon after released a book called “I WAS WRONG”. Thats humility to admit you were wrong. I also had to do this, I contacted quite a few friends to let them know I was wrong when I found out Jesus’s teachings. Well let me let him tell it.
So there is a lot of confusion over the question of whether someone can be born gay or not. Most Christians will say NO, you cannot be born gay because they feel it makes God appear as imperfect and capable of mistakes; knowing that men with woman is the blueprint God set for us. On the other spectrum we have those who say YES you can and are born gay because of genetics and other human opinions. We have one side that wants to defend God and another that wants to defend men. Let us go into the word of God to find out exactly God’s truth of whether someone can be born with sin or not. Lets throw out our human opinions and stop trying to put our own conclusions on things so it makes sense to us. You may be surprised by the result!
What I have noticed in today’s version of church is how compromising we have become. Not only compromising but we actually get inspired by the world to do things like them but place Jesus name in it to make it be considered God’s Will. The style of music, the business we created. The reasons so many Christians desire to be musicians today, is it really because doing the will of God, or is it something else?
Something that has changed in me over the last few years is not thinking about myself. I was one of those Christians that often thought about myself and what God could do for me. In the past few years I have encountered Christians who love people and put others before themselves. Some have even given up normal jobs to take care of the needs of others, such as the homeless. I know many Christians today do not really think about it as a necessary thing because we know we are not saved by works.
Gets me a bit disgusted at seeing so many Christians with this GIVE ME mentality toward God. I see it everyday and had to really learn to be understanding with love that this is just how many people view God. You can say everything you want to people and it’s not likely someone is going to want to stop getting everything they want from God if that is the god they were introduced to. Who would want to trade of a genie type god for a God that would rather you be content? I was lucky and the only reason I was able to reject that false god was because I noticed other things that were not accurate about God’s nature. It resulted me to wonder what else I was wrong about. 
Lately I have been a bit bothered by the fighting and condemning in the Christian body. I heard about this kind of activity going on but I never knew it was this heavy. I have seen people on YouTube calling people heretics and responding to another post to condemn them based on what they disagree with. I have seen Christians physically attacked due to the words of other Christians, I have seen brothers and sisters literally leave the body of Christ because of these situations. I even see people posting that Paul was a heretic. This is what creates denominations; this is why there are 10 church building on the same block . After seeing just how serious this thing is I realized I was not so far from it when I first found out about the false things in the institutionalized church (traditions). Some of the things I said and posted on my Facebook page though they may have been accurate in content they were not right in the way I went about it. My best friend Pleasure and I learned this about ourselves together. See this is how the holy spirit works, it allows you to find sin in yourself that you never knew existed. The whole time I thought I had my sin in control, up comes a new one from the wood-works. Although my intentions were never to be contentious and condemning, it was most likely going through the head of a person reading. Sometimes this can be a good thing when it’s as far as sin but often the response of a person isn’t to learn from what they may have been doing wrong but to get offensive and defensive; never coming to grasping the fact that there may be something they could change to be more in content with the word of God.
As of right now, my favorite song is ‘Til I Got To Know You. First off the vocals are incredible on this track and the track is ridiculous it self. The person in the song is talking about how they tried to do things by themselves at first but ended up realizing Christ is best at controlling the lives of his children. The person speaking emphasize YOU YOU YOU which is a really neat thing to do because it keeps directing the focus on YOU meaning Christ and not the speaker. This is such a great song and guess what, every song so far is great. I like every track and didn’t find myself skipping tracks but listened to it through quite a few times. I repeated a few tracks like this one a bit though.
Most of you guys know I am extremely against this prosperity Gospel that seems to have taken over the body of Christ. Many of my post have been teachings from the bible that clearly opposes it. I actually was one of those who followed the prosperity gospel and thought it was God’s will. Paying my tithes to receive more money and “blessings”, believing highly elevated ministers when they told me God wants me to be rich financially. I jumped for joy at this idea and went around teaching people about this “blessing” these men have spoken into my life. Then 2008 comes and I finally pick up the bible for myself to read what JESUS said and WOW and BEHOLD it was completely against what I was teaching. I had so much repenting to do, so many people I brought to Christ based on this money ministry. Many people told me not to worry about it because it does not matter how you lead people to Christ, as long as they have been lead to Christ.
Another man who had to come to this realization through the word of God. 
