I BELIEVE

What's written below has been something I realise I should've done a while ago. Acceptance of someone's teaching is and should always be dependant on what they believe about the Word, especially the fundamentals of the faith. As such, no doubt a fair few people have thought various things about what I might believe about the essentials of the faith (based on what I write), and as such, have probably decided whether or not they'll even view most of the stuff I write, and no doubt have been angered by a few things I've written. I don't hold that against them because I'm am very particular about what I believe, and really, the Word says that we should all be those that hear the Word eagerly but then go back to check and see if those things are true (REFERENCE). So I write the following so that, after you've finished reading, you can decide for yourself whether, based on the Word, I should be someone that would be beneficial for you to listen to for your spiritual health. Not that my words have any power or goodness of themselves, but that, if anything is based on the Word, the Spirit is the one who is always faithful to bring life and honour and glory to Jesus and to affect our lives for the better. Anyway, the following lays out the fundamentals about what I believe. It is also based on the heart and passion I believe the Lord has given me for spiritual things, particular the area of how He disciplines and the place of judgment in the Christian life after the cross of the Lord. I realise that it may seem strange to many that He's given me a passion for such a thing, believe me, it also seems strange to me, and it's not necessarily something I would've chosen to be passionate about myself, however, I know I just have to be faithful with what He's given me. Plus, that isn't the only thing He's made me passionate about, as I really love to encourage the body of Christ in different aspects of the truth, even amongst teachings of discipline etc.


For every aspect of my belief below, I've tried to give a scripture so that you can see the reason why I believe such a thing. Hopefully it gives you, not only an idea of what I believe about the Word, but also where my heart is at with such things, and especially where my heart is about the people that God loves; His Church and Bride:


I believe that people are saved by faith in Christ alone, and that such a thing is the gift of God, it is not something that a person gives themselves. I believe that God is the author of salvation. I believe that man must respond to the prompting of God to accept Jesus, and that, while God knows what they'll choose, He has still given men a choice of whether to accept Him or not. However, I also believe that the evidence of true faith is the fruit of the Spirit. They that say that are His must flee sin (a lifestyle and continually practice of sin), and they will do this naturally because of the Spirit of Christ, but they still have a choice in the matter too, to respond to the grace and inner workings of God upon their will.


I believe that 90% of Christians are the type of Christians that, although weak and sinners, are the kind of Christians that seek to follow the Lord with all their heart, or if not, are the kind of Christians that follow Christ as best as they can, even though they may struggle and stumble. These kind of Christians the Lord deals graciously and mercifully with, and although every Christian must face discipline in the form of trials (Hebrews), which the writer calls 'judgment' to make us more like Christ, this isn't the kind of judgment where God is striking someone down whenever they sin. Though these kind of Christians get it wrong and are sinners by nature, they do not set their heart s on sinning on a continual basis, they don't plan to direct their entire lives on a pursuit of sin, and therefore these kind of Christians do not experience the 'drastic' forms of unique judgment that some in the New Testament did experience when they did such a thing. I believe that, even those these kind of Christians (the 90%), will never experience drastic forms of judgment in order to be disciplined by God, it is still important that they hear about the warnings that are given in the Word about such things, just as God intended that all His people hear about such things for their spiritual health and to ensure they offer the right kind of service and worship in their lives.

I believe that, while God disciplines this 90% through trials in order that we kept safe in our salvation and practically become more like Christ (since positionally in Christ we are already perfect in the eyes of God because of the imputed righteousness of Christ), I believe that He doesn't act to strike out against us if we sin in single or few circumstances. Rather, God is patient and compassionate, merciful and LONGSUFFERING, and doesn't usually act quickly in this regard. On the contrary, God is very patient with us, and prefers to woo His people to His side and to woo them to follow Him with 'bands of love'. God's heart is for His people, not against them because of Jesus Christ. The lost sheep He goes out to find, not with a rode of anger, but with a heart full of compassion and mercy. That doesn't scrap the need to repent, as the Holy Spirit will naturally lead us to such a thing, but those that sin have an advocate with the Father: 1 John 2:1- 'My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.' Rather than looking to hurt us, Jesus looks to be the defense of His people. Rather than being an accuser, Jesus seeks to be the advocate of those that are His, and His blood ensures our defense and our acceptance with the Father. The Lord usually gives much time in His mercy and grace before He will come with warning and then with subsequent action to get us to turn from our sin (sometimes it can be quick however, it depends on what He wills and what He knows will work best with each and every Christian)


I believe that 10% of Christians are the type that do need specific teaching about the discipline/judgment of the Lord in order to remain following the Lord with all their heart and to be kept from a lifestyle of sin. I also believe that at one time or another it is very likely that the other 90% of Christians will be included in the 10% category, for however long that may be in their lives, and as such, do benefit from hearing what warnings about discipline/judgment exist in the Word. As a part of this, the warnings about apostasy are also needed because there are example of a few in the Word that did reject God, even after they accepted God at one time and even taste the powers of the age to come. However, I believe that the Word shows us that apostasy in the New Testament was extremely rare. The only acception to this may be the warning that exists that in the end there will be a great falling away, which seems to imply that it won't be a few Christians that reject Christ, but many.

Scriptures which back up a lot of this will be forthcoming in another post.

THE SONG AND DIRGE OF REVELATION

Matt 11v 16 “To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:

17 “‘We played the pipe for you,
and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge,
and you did not mourn.’

18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.”

1 Cor 14V6 But now, brethren, if I come to you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you unless I speak to you either by revelation, by knowledge, by prophesying, or by teaching? 7 Even things without life, whether flute or harp, when they make a sound, unless they make a distinction in the sounds, how will it be known what is piped or played? 8 For if the trumpet makes an uncertain sound, who will prepare for battle?

All truth and revelation usually comes in one, or both of two forms; joyful or sobering (Matt 11v17). Whereas John's ministry of Jesus was the latter of the two, the scripture above shows that Jesus' was the former. Both were given to show that, not only does God speak in both ways, but He does so in order to save as many as possible, knowing that men react differently to different aspects of the truth. To one group of unsaved, the flute of God's promises, mercies and graces are the precious sounds which stir their soul to take hold of God, while to another group, the somber and God-fearing realities of discipline and judgment are those things which most move them to love and follow God. There is also another group which needs both. This, however, doesn't just apply to the unsaved, but to the saved as well. 

The problem however is that the saved often let those differences divide their relationships and their belief sets, settling in one of two camps of truth, instead of allowing and embracing the differences of impacts and effects that come from divine revelations of grace and judgment. John's message of judgment was needed for pharisaical men that needed a divine understanding of the severe reality of their spiritual predicament, while Jesus' message of healing, peace and Kingdom grace was needed for those like the tax collectors who would've thought that they were too far gone for the kind of salvation that Jesus was offering them. This double-sided sword message of truth didn't just exist in two people, but also was revealed in the Apostle Paul. In the book of Romans, the same book which outlines God's incredible gift of grace and mercy in all it's true colours, also states quite clearly in Romans 1v18- that the 'The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness...' The same Apostle that spoke at length about a salvation solely founded and grown by faith and grace in Galations, also warned a Corinthian Church about trying to join flagrant sin with Holy worship by telling them that some were even dying in judgment because of what they were doing (1 Cor 11v29-34). 

It is purely spiritual childishness to set ourselves in either the grace or judgment camp of spiritual revelation. No two camps were ever set up in the Bible, whether in the Old, or in the New Testament, and yet men and much of the Church has decided to, either, plant themselves in one or two of the camps, or only believe that one of the camps even exist. Men have taken one scripture here or there, and made their own doctrine out of it, and they've done this by willingly ignoring other parts of the scripture. Such men don't feel as though the whole Word has to agree with every part of itself, they simply think one part can dominate and disprove another part, which actively works to, amongst other things, undermine the authenticity and authority of the Word itself. Both grace and judgment are true, and need to be understood in the context and the light of the cross of the Lord. 

Yes, it is true, there was an Old Covenant and there now is a new one. Yes, it is true that once we were held captive by law, until the time when grace would be revealed (Gal 3:23). However, from Abraham to any new testament saint, the Word says that all were saved by faith (Rom 1:17+ Gal 3:6), and that is the most important connector for us to understand how our God relates to His people, and essentially, this reveals the heart of how He has related to all His people, in any age.

DREAM WARNING: 9/11 TYPE TERRORIST ATTACKS TO HAPPEN ALL OVER THE WORLD

I write this with a heavy heart tonight. As we all know, 9/11 was a tragedy unlike this world has ever seen. It was one of the most awful acts of evil that men have perpetrated in the modern era. Anyone that is sane and has any kind of healthy conscience would've hoped that nothing like it ever would happen again. Tragically however, God has revealed to me in a dream that similar terrorist attacks are going to happen around the four corners of the world in the future. I don't write this so that anyone would be afraid, because the Bible says that perfect love casts out all fear. However, I write this so that His people would be warned and prepared for what is coming, knowing that God holds each of His people in the palm of His hand. I share this because God desires that His people draw close to Him and be found to be abiding in Him in the coming days. I share this because there are those that don't believe in God, but when this dream comes to pass, they'll know that there is truly a God in heaven that knows the future, and who is sovereign over all things. For those looking for scriptural basis for me sharing the following dream, please scroll to the end and read through the scriptures I've posted. 

In the morning of the 15th of September I woke up at exactly 4:44am. In the Bible, the number 4 represents, among other things, the 4 corners of the globe. I went to sleep again and this was the dream I had:

I was underneath a building that, in the dream, I was convinced was one of the twin towers (of the former world trade centre towers). Then I was sure that a plane had gone into the side of one of the buildings. I was so sure that when I went outside and looked up, I was certain that I would see the explosion that the plane would've caused. Instead, I looked up and saw a building that looked as though it had already been ravaged by a serious explosion or terror attack of some sort. It was completely rusted and ravaged and all I saw was the metal skeleton frame of the building. Just after this I heard people gasp as if, what I had expected to see was actually about to happen in the distance. I heard people gasp, and although I couldn't see it clearly, I could see a white flash of light reflecting off what I knew to be a plane as it hit a tower in the distance (the actual tower that got hit was covered from sight by another building in front of it- this I believe represented the fact that the terrorist attack happened a great distance away from where I was).

When I woke from the dream I knew what it meant. Sadly, tragically, the Lord is revealing that 9/11 TYPE terrorist attacks (not necessarily meaning that these attacks will happen by plane attacks) are going to happen all around the world. Again, Christians should not have the wrong type of fear here, the Word says, in Psalm 91, that: 

1 Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.[a]
2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
3 Surely he will save you
from the fowler’s snare
and from the deadly pestilence.
4 He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
5 You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
8 You will only observe with your eyes
and see the punishment of the wicked.
9 If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,”
and you make the Most High your dwelling,
10 no harm will overtake you,
no disaster will come near your tent.
11 For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;
12 they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
13 You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
14 “Because he[b] loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
15 He will call on me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.
16 With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation.”

However, the Lord also reveals such things because, one, He wants to protect the trust and faith that His people have in Him: John 13v19- "I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am He." Two, because He wants the world to know that He really is who He says He is (same verse), and that they need to put their trust in Him. The book of Isaiah reveals this too:

Isaiah 44v7+8: 
I am the first and I am the last;
apart from me there is no God.
7 Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it.
Let him declare and lay out before me
what has happened since I established my ancient people,
and what is yet to come—
yes, let them foretell what will come.
8 Do not tremble, do not be afraid.
Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago?
You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me?
No, there is no other Rock; I know not one.”

Three, He reveals these things to encourage His people's steadfastness in their walk and relationship with Him, just like the revelation that was given to the Apostle John was sent to each of the Churches to encourage, direct and warn them to continue to be faithful and to follow their Saviour. Four, revelation of the future is sometimes given that we might prepare for the future (if the Lord tells us that we need to in any way), such as when, in the Bible, Agabus was told by God about a famine that was coming.

Acts 2 very clearly tells us that in the end days God would pour His Spirit on all flesh, and that they would be given dreams and visions. Chapter two also says what kind of visions and dreams they would be about v19: 'I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.'

Don't be afraid! But have a Holy fear and a love for God and pray about this! See what He would speak to you. He might only say to continue walking with Him as you have done, or He might reveal more of what you need to know. The Bible says that if anyone lacks wisdom, he should ask God for what he needs: James 1v5: If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 

God loves His people dearly, and is watching over them. But He is desirous that they should ensure that they are walking with Him. He is also very desirous that those that don't believe in Him should do it today, because the Bible says that today is the day of salvation. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord today will be saved! 

*When this dream comes to pass, everyone who reads this will know that the Lord has revealed the future. Remember that I never said that the dream indicates that plane terrorist attacks will happen, only that terrorist attacks with similar type devastation and destruction will occur. 

THE BEST ENVIRONMENT TO RESIST TEMPTATION

Matt 4:4 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. 3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”[a]

5 Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written:

‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’
and,

‘In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’”[b]
7 Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’”[c]

8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”

10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you,[d] Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’”[e]

11 Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.


When reading this passage about Jesus' temptation, it's easy for us to remember that the enemy tempted him in WHAT HE ASSUMED was the BEST PLACE TO TEMPT Jesus. However, what we often forget is that THE HOLY SPIRIT WAS THE ONE TO LEAD JESUS INTO THE DESERT. Now, the Spirit obviously didn't plan this in order that Jesus would fall, because the Bible says that God tempts no-one (He allows it, but isn't the author, the Bible says that we are tempted when we are drawn away by our our lusts and enticed). So the crucial question is- why did the Holy Spirit lead Jesus into the wilderness?

1) The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to show us that God tempts no-one, but that if any man is tempted, we are tempted simply because of our own nature. This teaches us one, to recognise our own frailty and weakness, not so that we should despair, but so that we should be completely dependant on God for strength, and so that we might be humbled.

2) The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to show us that THE BEST PLACE TO RESIST TEMPTATION IS THE PLACE OF THE LEAST THINGS OF THE WORLD. Think about it- the Spirit didn't lead Jesus to a place of LUXURY and a PALACE (remember what He said to John the Baptist!), but led Him into a place that was deprived of everything except the sustaining power of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God (spiritual things that live within!). On the flip side, IT WAS THE ENEMY who showed Jesus the KINGDOM'S OF THE WORLD, it was the devil who gave him a full and complete vision of the IMAGE OF THE WORLD, all its glory and all that the world holds dear. It was the enemy who GAVE HIM FOOD that would've made him stumbled. THINK ABOUT THAT ONE! Food or sustenance for the body that would've been ok at any other time, WOULD'VE BEEN DEADLY in this time of temptation! God had obviously made His known will to Jesus that He shouldn't eat in this time, and Jesus knew it. This was to show us that God would have us sustained in this life sometimes BY HIS WORD AND HIS WORD ALONE (why this is, is not for us to know, we need to trust that God has His reasons)

3) The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to show man that as good as bread is for sustenance, those things that give physical life are always to be kept in moderation, and abstained from when God says so, so that the spiritual life can be maintained and grown. Times of lack for the physical body are usually times when we focus most on ensuring that our spiritual lives are healthy. As Paul said, 'While outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day'.

4) The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to show Christians that the values of the world are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT to the values of God. While the world thrives on all that is in the world; the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, (1 John 4v16: For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.) the Christian must learn to thrive on spiritual things, and must learn that 'those things that can be shaken, will be shaken'. No matter who we are, we must count on experiencing such a time in our lives on earth, a time when material things and those things of the world will be lessened or taken from our lives, and so must prepare our hearts and minds accordingly (and not get taken up with those things that just feed the natural body)- including preparing by storing up our knowledge of the Word to be able to resist the enemy.


5) The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to show that, not only does God bring us to times of physical lack, but also that we ourselves should agree with and facilitate such times by OURSELVES BEING MEAGRE IN OUR FEEDING OF THE PHYSICAL BODY. Jesus showed us this by Himself fasting when the Holy Spirit had led Him to the wilderness experience. Much of the Church in the West today does itself absolutely no favours by building palaces and feeding itself to the absolute limit because there will come a time when they not only do not help followers of Jesus to follow Him, but they also will unwittingly making it even harder for Christians to resist temptations from the enemy. Jesus showed us that we must make it our aim to work with God in whatever way He chooses, and so we should be ready at any moment to lose all material things and things of the world in order to continue to follow Him.

6) The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to show us that we shouldn't think it strange when He does so to other Christians. Most of the Church cries heretic, apostate or 'lost sheep' any time a follower of the Lord leaves it's gatherings, but we must remember that while the Word says 'do not forsake the gathering together of yourselves', it does not say that such a thing only includes the organised gatherings of its own place of worship, but that as long as there is a 'gathering' for encouragement, that person can still be brought aside especially for the Lord, even as Paul was before he entered his life-long service for the Lord.

So, overall, we must above all remember that the wilderness experience is an experience that is by its very nature an experience that necessitates a time when we become quite poor in the things of this world (this may take many forms!), or a time when the love of such things is deadened in our hearts, or a time when our view of such things is taken away from us as we are drawn aside to behold more closely the Lord and the things of God. To fight against such a thing will be a grave mistake on our part and will make it very hard to follow the Lord. To build great palaces in our midst and to heap up luxuries for ourselves both in the world and in our hearts, will again make it very difficult for us in such times. Paul said that with food and clothing we should be content. If we do content ourselves with such things, we will be content when God takes us through times where the bear necessities may be all we have.

THE DEVIL'S DISPUTE

Jude 1v8 Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. 9 Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”

1 Peter 5v8-10 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

9 Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

10 But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, those that have been saved by Jesus and continue in the faith, are kept by the Holy Spirit until the day when Jesus returns, to be with Him forever. The Bible clearly shows us that that cannot be disputed. What can be DISPUTED however, in this present life, is a little more complex to understand. The scripture above, from the book of Jude, shows us that when Moses died, Michael the archangel and the devil CONTENDED and DISPUTED over the BODY of Moses. Even after Moses had died, and his spirit had gone to be with the Lord (see mountain transfiguration story in the New Testament), the enemy disputed with Michael about Moses' body. Why was that? After all, if Moses' spirit had gone to be with the Lord, if his righteousness 'by faith' had been secured and thus his salvation, why would the enemy want anything to do with the physically dead body of Moses? While we cannot be sure about why he wanted his body then, we can guess, and we can also know why such a story is relevant for us today. 

The enemy knows that in this life, because our salvation is secure, THE ONLY THING HE CAN MESS WITH AND 'DEFACE' HAS TO DO WITH THE 'DEAD BODY OF SIN' THAT STILL RESIDES INSIDE OF CHRISTIANS. Though that old man is 'dead', Paul clearly proves in the New Testament that it still tries to revive itself and reek some damage with the LUSTS OF THE FLESH. That being the case, the only things that the devil can do to our lives while on this earth is to attack us by trying to tempt and bring trial to us through our flesh, and through that 'dead body of sin.' 

The chapter in 1 Peter tells us what to do when this happens. Firstly it says, in verse 9, that because the enemy walks around as a lion, seeking those whom he may devour we must RESIST HIM. This seems to imply that because of the AFFLICTIONS that the enemy causes, that he'll try to tempt us, just like he did to Jesus. Jesus resisted the enemy by QUOTING AND STANDING BY THE WORD, which obviously means that we must FIRSTLY KNOW THE WORD in order to be able to CONFRONT the temptations of the enemy, which there is no doubt that we will face. 

Make no doubt about it, the enemy will come to try and dispute with the Lord about the body of our flesh. While the Lord has saved our souls, the body is yet to experience its own victory, only occurring in death the Bible says, when 'death will be swallowed up in victory.' When this victory comes, there will be no more 'sting of death' which comes because of sin. While this life lasts though, the devil will always try to bring such a sting to our lives and will try to tempt us to reject obedience and give in to what he'll offer us. However, we must never let ourselves be devoured in this fashion, but rather use the spiritual weapons of our warfare and so resist the enemy in every way.

THE ULTIMATE REVEALER

Heb 4v12: For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. 

For many, if not all of us, the connotations of the word SWORD makes us more than a little nervous. We picture such a thing, in the hands of the Lord, as bringing great destruction and desolation. The GOOD NEWS is that, for the people of God, it comes only to destroy the things of the flesh, everything else it comes to bring life and health to.

If we do not love the sword, that is, the Word, it is simply because there are things within us; motivations, desires and loves that SHOULDN'T BE THERE. However, if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, that is, if we walk in honesty before Him, WE SHOULD NEVER BE AFRAID, because the 'blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin,' but rather we should be passionate to have such a weapon SEARCH AND DESTROY those things within us that hinder our relationship with Him, with others and our EFFECTIVENESS and FRUITFULNESS for His Kingdom.

This SEARCH AND DESTROY mission that the SWORD is ALWAYS ON by the Spirit of God, is something that not only comes to continually cleanse our hearts, but also to shake all those things in our lives and in our beliefs about Him and His ways that aren't right, in order to leave those things WHICH ARE TRULY OF HIS KINGDOM within us, that we may be kept spiritually safe. This requires that, like Joshua, we be STRONG AND VERY COURAGEOUS because this is a continually HUMBLING and PAINFUL process because it involves us having to continually humble ourselves to accept ONLY WHAT IS WRITTEN, and not 'our version' of what is written. The writer of Hebrews wrote what was above because the Hebrew Christians had started to ADD A BELIEF THAT SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN ADDED. This happened because MEN had told them that they needed to do this. MEN HAVE MANY OPINIONS ABOUT THE WORD, BUT ONLY THAT WHICH IS SCRIPTURAL SHOULD BE BELIEVED.

Men had started to add a belief and so the Lord told them that His Sword would search them to find out exactly WHY THEY WANTED TO BELIEVE SUCH A THING. There is always a reason why false doctrine is believed. Despite THE APPEARANCE of that which is often called TRUE AND GOOD, the Lord knows what beliefs are true and which are false, and He is the one that searches all hearts to see what is believed and WHY IT IS BELIEVED. The Lord is more concerned with what the heart is really after, than what a mental ascension to a truth may be. If the heart is really after what is true and good, it is very likely that the beliefs that heart holds will be the same, if the Spirit of God lives within that person. But if there is a mixture, the Spirit knows what that mixture is, and He is always on a mission to divide light from darkness and to destroy darkness but establish light in order that it can continually be put on a hill for the world to see.

SPIRIT-TAINMENT

                                                                         

Much of the Church today has tried to use entertainment (and its gimmicks) to adorn the bride of Christ and to try and make being the bride of Christ ‘cool’ and attractive to the world. Many Church leaders have made a grave mistake here. The Lord does not adorn His bride with entertainment but with love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (the fruits of the Spirit- Gal 5v22)) etc, and He certainly doesn’t care whether the Church looks ‘cool’ or not, far from it, usually His people will be the rejected people, the ‘offscouring of all things’ (1 Cor 4v13) the last in line (1 Cor 4v9), and a spectacle to the world (1 Cor 4v9). No, Christ does not adorn His bride with entertainment, and with the form or image of the world, which is passing away (1 Cor 7v31). The Church is adorned with the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. The Holy Spirit is the power and presence of the Church, because the power and presence of the Church is the manifestation of the person of Jesus Christ- He is our ‘light on a hill’ which we don’t hide. If He is our light, we should not attempt to create an artificial light. The Holy Spirit gives the Church its attractiveness. The Holy Spirit makes His people the aroma of Christ to a fallen world (2 Cor 2v15).

Entertainment via productions, presentations, games and a ‘lights, camera, action’ mentality have robbed the Church of its central focus- Jesus Christ. Did Jesus come to earth with lights and bells on in order to dazzle the senses and entertain? Did He emphasise physical attractiveness and outward appearance as important in setting up His Church? (Is 53v2) Was He as impressed as His disciples were when they saw the pretty temple (Mark 13v2), no, ‘for man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart’ (1 Sam 16v7). God is not concerned with outward appearance, but rather what is going on in the inside of men, in their hearts. God does not use appearance to change the hearts of men, or to draw the hearts of men to Himself, He uses the Holy Spirit: ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit saith the Lord.’

A good parallel could be drawn today between what is going on with the news in the world and what is going on with some Churches today. There is a phrase that is used in today’s world to describe the mixture between hard news and entertainment news that is now being shown on TV. Many believe that hard news is dead and that entertainment news is all that is now being broadcast to the world, simply because they believe that that is all that the world wants now. The phrase they use for this kind of news is ‘newstainment’ or ‘infotainment.’. The mixture that some Churches are trying to create between the Holy Spirit and entertainment could now be known and labelled as ‘Spirit-tainment’ or ‘Truth-tainement’.

For those that once saw the Church act as it should and adorn itself as it should, what is going on nowadays should at the very least startle, and at the most outright horrify us. We should be driven to pray for the Church of God, the people whom He loves, and we should not be afraid to take a stand for truth, righteousness and a stand for what should be the true image and true beauty of His bride. We should all be zealous for anything that competes with the Lord’s beauty and the beauty that He gives His bride. Anything that distracts from that beauty or hinders the true glory of the Lord should be taken away. Make no mistake, Jesus will build His Church, therefore let us and especially His ministers be careful how they build, for the foundation is Jesus Christ ‘…but let each one take heed how he builds on it’ (1 Cor 3v10).

JUDGMENT THAT BRINGS LIFE

Isaiah 26v9+10
...When your judgments come upon the earth,
the people of the world learn righteousness. 
10 But when grace is shown to the wicked, 
they do not learn righteousness;
even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil 
and do not regard the majesty of the Lord.

This is a scripture you probably haven't heard a lot of from most pulpits. Chances are that all pulpits say that grace brings life and delivers from death, which of course is true and is one of the greatest truths in the Bible. But equal chances are that there wouldn't be many pastors alive today that would ever say what the scripture above says. In case it's unclear, the scripture above says that when God JUDGES the earth, the world learns righteousness, that is, the world learns what really is TRUE and UPRIGHT and GOOD (not their version of what is true and upright and good) when God brings judgment in the form of wrath. Even more than that, it says that it is sometimes the case that, contrary to popular belief, there are some wicked (unsaved) that DO NOT LEARN RIGHTEOUSNESS BY BEING SHOWN GRACE. There are some in the world, that, despite being shown all the grace God has to offer, still won't turn to Him. Instead, they will go on loving sin, loving unrighteousness, loving themselves, loving their idols, loving everything that is evil and who will insist on calling evil good and good evil, simply because they don't think it's wrong and they believe they have no indication from God that anything they are doing is wrong. There are some for whom only JUDGMENT will teach them that they need God, that they need His goodness, need His forgiveness, need His righteousness, need His saving and need His salvation. Judgment will teach them that they cannot rely on themselves for their safety, for their wellbeing and for their future, judgment will teach them that there is only one God they can rely on for that. When people cannot be wooed to God, they must be given a Holy fear of Him.