Tag: Christian

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Consider this...

I can stand a hypocrite

“…and the hypocrite’s hope shall perish” (Job 8:3b)

If you do a cursory google search for the phrase “I can’t stand hypocrites” you’ll find all kinds of results, from the shocking to the mundane. In fact, I use to say, quite emphatically, “I can’t stand a hypocrite!”

However, I’ve come to appreciate the necessity of those poor souls, and I can now stand hypocrites because of what they reveal.

Andrae Crouch wrote a line in the song “Through It All” that reminds me of the necessity of hypocrites:

So I thank God for the mountains
And I thank Him for the valleys
And I thank Him for the storms He’s brought me through
For if I’d never had a problem
I’d never know God could solve them
I’d never know what faith in His word could do

Albert Barnes’ note on this passage: “That there were hypocrites even in that early age of the world. They are confined to no period, or country, or religious denomination, or profession. There are hypocrites in religion – and so there are in politics, and in business, and in friendship, and in morals. There are pretended friends, and pretended patriots, and pretended lovers of virtue, whose hearts are false and hollow, just as there are pretended friends of religion. Wherever there is genuine coin, it will be likely to be counterfeited; and the fact of a counterfeit is always a tribute to the intrinsic worth of the coin – for who would be at the pains to counterfeit that which is worthless? The fact that there are hypocrites in the church, is an involuntary tribute to the excellency of religion.”

Hypocrisy is actually a compliment to the authenticity of the Christian life. So, in a sense, we should thank God for the hypocrite. They remind us of the value of the true and the faithful.

So, I thank God for the hypocrites, for if I’d never met one then I’d never truly know the value of the authentic in comparison to the fake.

I can stand a hypocrite for that reason…

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Consider this...

The Fellowship of the Unashamed

Is there enough evidence to convict you of being a Christian? Will you stand for truth, or duck your head because it’s not popular to hold biblical principles and Christ-like convictions?

Recently, Calvin Robinson said that to virtue signal is “to appear good rather than to be good.” We use to call such people “posers.” They look like something they are not.

Charles Spurgeon said it another way, “Let me ask you, how many atheists are now in this house? Perhaps not a single one of you would accept the title, and yet, if you live from Monday morning to Saturday night in the same way as you would live if there were no God, you are practical atheists.”

A Christian is a true believer and follower of Christ and His Word. Anyone claiming to be such while holding, approving, committing and/or following non-Christian and unbiblical practices is not part of the fellowship of the unashamed.

A Christian is one who lives by conviction, not by preference. Because of this a Christian will also die for those convictions. You may not yet be at the point where you would have to lay your physical life down for your Christian convictions and biblical principles, but every time you stay silent, or disappear from the conversation when an increasingly hostile, godless, immoral and unbiblical foe attacks and intimidates you into silent shame you’ve already died a little inside.

You, Christian, require more than virtue signaling and posing. Your true Christian conviction will drive you to repeat the words of the martyred Rwandan Christian, who wrote the night before his death, “I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still.”

Remember Paul’s encouragement to the Christians of Ephesus? He simply told them: “take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore…”

Stand with The Fellowship of the Unashamed.

Bob Moorehead, who wrote the book Words Aptly Spoken (1995), wrote that the author of the following poem was a man from Rwanda who in 1980 was told by his tribe to either renounce Jesus Christ or he would be killed. He did not renounce His Lord, and he was killed. Bob Moorehead wrote that the night before his execution the Rwandan wrote this poem as a commitment to Jesus Christ and it was found in his room after he was martyred.

I am part of the “Fellowship of the Unashamed.” The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure. I am finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, chintzy giving, and dwarfed goals.

I no longer need pre-eminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I now live by presence, lean by faith, love by patience, lift by prayer, and labor by power. My pace is set, my gait is fast, my goal is Heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions few, my Guide reliable, my mission clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, deterred, lured away, turned back, diluted, or delayed.

I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I must go until Heaven returns, give until I drop, preach until all know, and work until He comes. And when He comes to get His own, He will have no problem recognizing me. My colors will be clear.

Categories
Bible Teaching

The Recovery of Purity

Romans 5:12-21
12  Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
16 And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.
17 For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

In the beginning God made Man perfect and complete in His image and after His likeness (Gen. 1:26).

Man (Adam & Eve) was absolute in his spirit, soul, & body.

ABSOLUTE = “Perfect in quality or nature; complete. Not mixed; pure. Something regarded as the ultimate basis of all thought and being.” [1]

Synonyms include “unadulterated, undiluted, uncontaminated, total, unconditional, unquestionable finality, unequivocal, definite, sure.”[2]

There are absolutes of truth, which are held by all true orthodox Christians (Christians who follow the teachings of Jesus, first century Apostles, and the prophets), and these truths include:

  1. The eternality of the Word of God: “For Ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven” (Ps. 119:89).
  2. One God
  3. The Bible standard of salvation: “…Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:38).
  4. The necessity of the “born again” experience: “Jesus answered…Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (Jn. 3:3).

With the existence of these (and other) absolutes, there is also another truth. The devil wishes to pervert the beauty of Man’s original design and separate him completely from his Maker.

The spirit of perversion is at work today and began with Lucifer and his rebellion against God, moved to the Garden of Eden and the serpent’s tactic of questioning and corrupting the relationship between Man and God.

PERVERSION in 1388 was defined as “action of turning aside from truth, corruption, distortion (originally of religious beliefs).”[3]

This is the devil’s tactic; to subvert, corrupt, bend, misshape, and distort what God calls “good” into something perverse. Perversion is not, of necessity sexual in connotation, but it is the turning of something pure into a wrong use.

The Fall of Man resulted in the perversion of our original state into a nature – – the Adamic nature. Because Man has fallen so far from his original state we find examples in the bible of many types of perverseness (one such illustration is the Jezebel spirit found in 1 Kings 16:31-21:25; 2 Kings 9:7-37; & Rev. 2:20-23). Trinitarianism, cessationism, & the Jezebel spirit are all perversions, but Jesus has given the Church the power and authority to help bring those stuck in error back to completeness in God and in truth.

Sin is the state of perversion from the original design and purpose of Man. The account of the Good Samaritan can be viewed as Jesus’ attempt to warn the Apostles and Church of the dangers of perversion.

Jesus came to return what was once perverted back to its original state, by His love: “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Ro. 5:6-8).

Because of Jesus Christ we now have the opportunity to walk in right relationship with Him. You’ve never met a man like Jesus. He never withdrew Himself from the lost sinners of the world (as many in the church do once they are “saves”). Instead, He went to the perverted (in spirit, soul, and body) who were looking for a change and a return to purity. He did not condemn the world, but He saved it through the work of redemption and reconciliation. He did not revile the perverse, but He removed the crookedness in them and returned them to a state of completeness. He, as the Potter, took the misshapen clay and created vessels of honor. Jesus heals, delivers, sets the captive free, restores broken homes, and places His love into right relationships.

Although tempted in all things, Jesus is our perfect example of a sinless life, and His obedience is what has reconciled Man to God. This ministry of reconciliation is the recovery of purity in our relationship with God.

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:17-21).

[Originally Posted on 27 October 2007. http://thepillarandgroundoftruth.blogspot.com/2007/10/recovery-of-purity.html]
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SOURCES:
[1] Absolute. (n.d.). The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved October 26, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/absolute
[2] Absolute. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved October 26, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/absolute
[3] Perversion. (n.d.). Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved October 26, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/perversion