I Forgive You…My Story…
Wake Up World!: Keep On Sinning…
One of the hallmark tenants of Christianity is forgiveness. Jesus teaches that when we follow him, that we are born again and forgiven for our sins. But in contemporary Christian culture, we seem to not understand that we are forgiven after we repent.
If a spouse says a cruel word to the other, than later approaches the other apologizes, and actually takes steps, such as walking away when angry and being more conscientious of their words. Then the apology/repentance is sincere. But let’s give the same problem, and than two days later they do it again, and again. Then they look at their spouse and say, listen, you know I can’t help myself so you’re going to have just deal with it and forgive me, because I’m not going to stop.
This is precisely how many so called Christians behave. They think that they can continue to do whatever they want, and God is just going to have to deal it. Jesus didn’t die to make you comfortable in sin, but save you from it. Romans 6:1-2 “ What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” This needs to be read by more churches today. Like if my mortgage company gives me a grace period, that doesn’t mean that I don’t have to pay my bill. They are just giving me time to get it together so I can pay. But God, in the case of sin, is helping us get it together.
As long as we are breathing God’s grace never runs out. However, we are to repent and have a repentant heart. God is the judge, so he knows your heart. He know we won’t be perfect. But followers of Christ aren’t going keep doing the same things over and over and over, then say, “God knows I’m a mess, and I’m not going to stop.” There is no repentance. Repentance must precede forgiveness. 1 John 5:18 states this as well, that those born of God don’t keep on sinning.
Again, there is difference between a believer who is struggling with a sin, and is clinging to God for strength to overcome this issue. And they are repenting and working hard, seeking the Holy Spirit, and submitting to his instructions with a repentant heart. Compared to a person who says, I don’t care, I’m going to do what I want. In Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus plainly addresses these types of people.
With many churches shying away, from discussing sin, they are feeding this problem. We go to church, and the pastor is supposed to petition a God, to get a specific word to give his congregation. Sometimes, it’s going to be words of encouragement and some “self-help”. But, not every Sunday. Even those Sundays when God wants the pastor to give a word of encouragement, that also will include correcting people’s behavior. God isn’t the author of evil. And 99% of people except for like kids with cancer, have done something to cause their current problem. And is typically, something very specific God told us NOT to do.
But in 2019 America, the biggest issue is sexual sin, above all else. Even most professing Christians engage in unrepentant sexual sin. Those type of people, sorry folks, aren’t saved. They are following Satan. How can one get salvation if they refuse to repent? If sin is ok, then why did Jesus die? Being a Christian isn’t a title, it means you are a follower of Jesus Christ.
I say this out of love. Because so many are deceived. And the don’t judge wing of the church is helping Satan, and making people comfortable in sin. So they can keep doing it. When you follow Christ, the Holy Spirit will check you when you’re doing wrong, and you won’t feel comfortable. Some will actually suppress the Holy Spirit’s voice, so they can sin “comfortably“. Pastors who refuse to address the rampant sexual sin, and the don’t judge wing in many churches, are helping to suppress the voice of the Holy Spirit in people’s lives, and Satan is so proud.
From an Apologetic stand point, this just points to more evidence as to why Christianity makes sense. God is instructing us to be self-regulated, which maintains a peaceful and prosperous society. But, due to our fallen nature, he helps us achieve that, because we can’t do it on our own.
We as Christians must spread the Gospel, and to do that, we must speak about sin. There is difference between telling people to come as you are, and God will clean you up. Compared to do anything you want because God forgives you. It will cost people their souls, and there is nothing worse, than spending eternity separated from God.
Hell.
Lawlessness
Wake Up World! 08/21/19: Are You A Friend?
Lawlessness is when there is no restraint or restrictions. Where people just do anything, because it feels good and/or what they want to do.
Not society can sustain that.
But when we hear the word Lawlessness, we must be careful not to attach it to firmly to governmental laws. You also have natural laws, that are fixed to something beyond us. When they Bible speaks of the man of Lawlessness aka the Antichrist (2 Thessalonians 2), it’s not about breaking the laws of a nation, but rather the Laws of God.
We look at society and people seem to just want to indulge in themselves and every vice. Now this is nothing new. Human history, are just stories of struggle. Man vs. man/men, man vs. environment, man vs. himself. But the the most dangerous of all, are man vs. himself.
Why?
Because, no one can destroy us like us. When live in the age where are encouraged by society, to self destruct, on drugs, food, alcohol, sex, self-pity. When in previous years even though we had our own personal struggles, society encouraged dare I say it, decency. Now, we are encouraged to turn completely inward in our focus, and rebel against God. Humans now have to wrestles with a culture, that puts pressure on us to rebel. Even now schools are teaching sexual rebellion as part of its curriculum. It’s the antichrist spirit, that is running rampant in our society.
Of course, there is a sociological explication for all of this madness. As Christian Apologist, we trained for being able to speak to the historical and sociological causes behind this ire and rebellion against God. Lawlessness that is being forced down the throats of kids and adults.
But, we must not forget that this ultimately is a spiritual problem. You can have two people see and/or experience the same thing, yet have totally different perspectives. That is due to your worldview. How you view the world, will determine how you interpret information and your experiences.
The next question is what determines your worldview, and that is your spiritual condition. The antichrist spirit of lawlessness, brings spiritual corruption and hedonism. Which will source your worldview leading to materialism. But those who want the hedonism of materialism, yet still want want to acknowledge the spiritual world turn some sort of pantheism or witchcraft. Which all help Lawlessness spread throughout our society.
When we engage, support, or are entertained by lawlessness, you’re being a friend to the AntiChrist.
Wake Up World! 08/19/19: I Want Power!
Money, power, and sex are the three motivators for human evil and corruption. Those things in themselves aren’t inherently bad, and can be very good and beneficial depending on how we plan on acquiring these things, and what we plan to do with them once we do.
Example, say you have woman who is unhappy with the way things are going in her neighborhood she feels things are unsafe after a string violent crimes, so she decides to run for city council. She wants power, to improve the lives of others.
Or a excited woman who is a getting married and decides to swing by a specialty lingerie shop to look sexy for her husband on their wedding night. Or a young man who decides to start a string of restaurants so he can be finically successful and provide a nice and comfortable life for his family and create jobs.
These aforementioned examples of money, power and sex are positive and very beneficial to those individuals, their loved ones and/or society.
Yet we can think of countless examples of people acquiring and using power, money and sex and committing great acts of evil.
As Christians we know how to behave sexually, only in the confines of a marriage between one man and one woman. We know that money should be acquired in honorable way, free of deceit, violence, or theft, also that we are donate our first 10% to Lord’s house and the spread of the Gospel. Also in caring for the poor.
Yet, when it comes to power Christians get shy and nervous. We need Christians in power. Why? Because who is in power in any land determines how much freedom of and from citizens have. But as we can see now, we have an increasingly number of politicians who are hostile to the Christian faith. They hate that we don’t support sex outside of marriage, homosexual sex, transgender ideology and the fact that we don’t support abortion and our belief in the exclusivity of Christ. These are the reasons in America, Christianity is despised by the culture at large. So they continue to push to marginalize Christians from the public square. Use the government to suppress our speech even in California asking it illegal for pastors to homosexuality is a sin. Saying it’s causing emotional harm to the LGBT community. The entertainment industry is trying to America the next Sodom and Gomorrah, and if you raise any objections they fight shame you as aggressively as those men fought to rape those angels in Lot’s house.
Now if there were more Christians as elected officials would this type of insanity occur? No. But this separatist attitude, that this is just the world being the world, is a weak excuse. Many are apathetic, some are afraid, some are politically ignorant. But history has taught us, that when evil people are in power, the citizens under their rule suffer.
This is why politics cause so much conflict, as you can see from the picture above. We all want the people who think like us to be in power, so our interest are protected. But imagine, if people who wanted to be Christlike were in power. If the people in power have a heart after God, this nation would drastically improve.
The fight is never over until the return of Our Lord. In the meantime we are to occupy until he comes, and spread The Gospel, and work to make sure that the righteous are in authority. Proverbs 29:2 “When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan.”
So either we get in the fight, or become prey for Satan’s followers.