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Post by frienduff on Jun 9, 2018 12:46:11 GMT -5
And look at how far worse it has gotten in just the short time since those days . NOW FORWARD MARCH into the final hour we go . ONWARD lambs , ONWARD in the ONE WHO has both SAVED us and CAN KEEP US FROM FALLING .
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Post by tlsitd on Jun 9, 2018 21:08:27 GMT -5
You know, Frienduff, I was thinking this morning---with righteous indignation---that one of the saddest things about the story of the Jews is that when the Spirit of God (the God whose Son they threw out of the vineyard and killed because they didn't really want God at all, just His gifts and His blessings)---when the Spirit of God departed from the temple, the Jews kept right on with business as usual. They didn't even realize that God was no longer there, and they didn't need Him (or want Him!) to do what they were doing---religious though it was.
The very same thing is true of Christianity today: If the Holy Spirit was taken out of the churches' business, it would keep right on going---because they don't need Him to do it and He's not the source of it. You don't need the Holy Spirit to do your own will; you need Him to do GOD'S will. People can do all kinds of things in their own power, and counterfeit or substitute the work, power and presence of the Holy Spirit with human talent, intellect, charisma, imagination, the drive of personal determination and the energy of enthusiasm for something---the same qualities that make people successful and exceptional in the world, and the same enthusiasm concert-goers have at a rock concert.
We're no better than the Jews before us, and most of us are too foolish and blind to realize that we've gone and done the SAME things they did, and have the same attitude they had, even though the Scriptures cry out against us in condemnation and warning.
We don't need Jesus to do what we're doing; and worse, we don't want Him. He'd spoil our plans and our fun, and interfere with our way of doing Christianity, like He interfered with the way the Jews were doing Judaism, contrary to what God had commanded them. Our ACTIONS prove to Jesus that we don't want Him, and He KNOWS it---no matter WHAT we say with our mouths. ("This people draws near to Me with their lips, but their HEARTS are FAR from Me...")
The sad thing is that if Jesus Christ Himself in another form came to most any church on a Lord's day morning and preached the doctrine of the New Testament, His own people would think He was some kind of misogynistic, Pharisaical heretic and a killjoy. And the Lord would have similar words for them as He had for the Jews during His earthly ministry, and for the people of Israel in their apostasy through His prophets, and for the churches He rebuked in the Revelation.
You CAN'T love Jesus if you don't obey Him. Throwing out the words of God is the same as throwing out God Himself. You can't cobble together a God out of the truths you WANT from the Bible (and out of things that are NOT true) and disregard the truths you don't care for and claim that you love God and want God, and that it's God you're worshiping; it's NOT. There's no such God as a "buffet" God---take what you want and leave what you don't want: You either take ALL of Him or you have NONE of Him.
Tampering with God's word is like making another God; you can't separate God's written word from God Himself. If you change the teachings, you "change" the Teacher. Most of us don't want the teachings; therefore we don't really want the Teacher either. We don't want the laws; therefore we don't want the Lawgiver. We want a different Jesus, fashioned according to our liking by pastors, like the golden calf Aaron made for the people of Israel at their request. We want to do what WE want to do in Jesus' name, just like the Jews wanted to do what THEY wanted to do in God's name---and they were indignant when Jesus rebuked them for it and interfered with it. It's ourselves we're serving, not God, just like the Jews were doing.
You don't have to reject Jesus Christ with your lips to reject Him with your HEART by your actions; and if you push Him away long enough, tell Him "NO" long enough, prove to God that you don't want Him to be your God long enough---that you'd rather be in His place on the throne of your heart and run your own life---He'll give you what you really want. And just like the Jews, you'll go right on your merry way---praising God and telling everybody how blessed you are and carrying on with your religion, without the Spirit of the Lord in you. Like those twice-dead Christians in Sardis who had a reputation of being alive but were actually dead. Like the Jews who kept on 'worshiping' God after He had forsaken them---worshiping in an empty house! They didn't need God to do what they were doing; and neither do most of us. We'd be perfectly happy to keep on doing what we want to do in an empty house.
The judgment of God is coming. It's coming on rebellious Christians as it came on the rebellious Jews before us. And it's only a matter of time before God's blind and deaf, adulterous people find out how truly displeased with them He actually is.
(Silence and patience/longsuffering on God's end should not be misconstrued as His approval or indifference, nor should the prosperity of an endeavor be taken as proof of His blessing.)
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Post by justinadams on Jun 10, 2018 3:53:47 GMT -5
You know, Frienduff, I was thinking this morning--- I hear you loud and clear (5x5). The really nice thing about reading the Tanach is that it reads like a 'future commentary'. The other really great thing is that one realizes that GOD IS NOT TAKEN BY SURPRISE... EVER
Whatever transpires, the Lord High God is always weaving our various quaint minds into His Final Tapestry.
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