God's Goodness

One thing I recently realized is..the importance of writing down what the Lord does in our lives. I think it is extremely important to be able to recall all of the circumstances that the Lord has proven Himself in our lives. We recently at my fellowship have begun to explore “Faith” and what it means from Biblical standpoint. We started to write down times past that the Lord’s hand was evident on our lives and also to write prayer requests you’ve been praying for years. Sometimes after praying something for years and years-the prayer or person praying it-loses the once urgent fervency and it becomes repetitious. Or may become lackadaisical and absent of true biblical faith of belief.

Two things stuck out for me while I thought on the goodness of the Lord.

1. True Friendships
2. A Real People and Real Christians

Less than 2 years ago while making the Holy Spirit driven exodus from the false church; I used to HATE the Church of Christ or Body of Christ with a passion. I literally and unapolgetically can honestly say I thought the church folk were “Ignorant and Unlearned People.” Before making the exodus I searched long and hard for someone to hear me in my plea of Biblical Accurate Exegesis. If I could have ran to the pulpit in my old synagogue and screamed at the top of my lungs. “WHY CAN’T YOU PEOPLE HEAR ME!!!” I would have and probably should have.

Slowly and I do mean slowly the Lord started to reveal His saints to me one by one and I began to love the idea of the Church and how the members function as a body. Initially I started to meet a lot of believer’s on line and through electronic communication but no one close. As the Lord saw fit he did place me into a local fellowship of Bible believing people who were just as zealous about truth as I was. Not exactly the route I would have taken but the Lord knows exactly what He is doing.

Secondly, I have a very transparent personality and don’t like having superficial friendships. I spent at least 12 years trying to cultivate solid relationships but found out that once you start studying the Word people will either love you, hate you, or keep you at distance. The Lord has given me true friends that will rebuke, love, correct, and many other things that will push me to Christ and His Word. I just want to encourage you in the Lord to write down the things the Lord has done for you and your family in the past.

I think I can make a strong case for doing this from the scriptures. Just think throughout the Old Testament all the times that the Prophets reminded Israel of all that Lord had done for them and miraculous things the Lord had done in times present and past. They were constantly reminding them of the many works of the Lord. Even from a New Testament perspective we hear Christ doing the same things, we hear Paul reminding Agrippa, and we hear Stephen before his murder also reminding the people of their ancestors. David time and time again speaks of the works of the Lord and uses that to encourage himself when going through a trial. Point is, that this is a Biblical concept. Take the time to reminisce of the Lord’s faithfulness in your life. Just a few questions for you to ponder as well.

• Do you love God’s Church that was bought by the Blood of Christ?
• Are your relationships intimate with God’s people and more so than your relatives?
• Not only what has God done for you but how is He using you for His glory?
• Are you being fed not only by your elder/pastor but are you feeding him?
• What about the Body?
• What are you grasping from your fellowship and is it really true communion?

Evangelism

I absolutely love sharing the Gospel of Christ. Our fellowship of believer’s decided we needed to search for an outlet in our community to begin sharing this message that so dramatically changed our hearts and our lives. Unlike most churches, we don’t go out and say, “Come to our church and it’ll be great.” No sir!! We take the church to them, knowing that from the scriptures the time of fellowship(we call the church) is for the Body of Christ. I cannot remember the last time I invited someone to my church with the exception of my family when they come in town.

About 3 months ago myself and the elder at our fellowship found a (so called) ministry to begin to go to and share. This ministry was a group home established to house about 7-10 young men who had problems with family or just troubled lives. This was located about 15 minutes from where we live and was in the “inner city.” The children had horrible stories to tell from watching their siblings be molested by step-parents to having parents who were addicted to drugs. This organization was a Christian based organization who supposedly hired church members who we soon came to discover where just that-”church members.”

We soon began going to these young men and pouring our hearts out week after week, taking them various places to do fun things but also to establish a relationship with them as well. Our first incident we took them to McDonald’s just to get to know and their chaperon came along who was also supposed to be a Christian. We gave them the raw deal about their total depravity and desperate need for a Savior-Christ. The chaperon quietly sat their and did not say a peep. All of these young men were forced to go to church with everyone from the group home and what they saw made them subtly come to abhor Christianity without even knowing it. They were seeing the staff at the group home play church on Sunday and then go back to the group home and live their lives totally separate from what they were instructed from the scriptures.

Unfortunately they attended a Word of Faith-Prosperity Church but from this experience week after week they began to develop a false view of a Christian life. We began to go through the scriptures and talk about the converted heart and true Christianity. We did not realize that we were describing the staff in which these children lived with day after day. Being children ages 14-19 in age; this truth liberated them & I assume they began to launch these truths at the staff. I can imagine the staff did not enjoy this.
This being a month in a half ago we have been struggling to get time with these youngsters. We meet with them weekly and have scheduled time with them on at least 3 occasions were the staff did not arrange the time correctly(probably purposely) and when we get to the residence they are doing something else at another location. Very frustrating for us since we are taking time away from our schedules to do this on our days off normally.

Nothing super theological here-just asking for your prayers for these young men and the seeds we have sowed with them. The group home name is “WATCM” and it stands for “Where are the Christian Men.”

To Vote or Not to Vote…….

Yesterday at fellowship(Lord’s Supper) with the brethren we engaged in a interesting conversation in regards to politics. This is something I brought up simply because my view is somewhat changing about this issue largely due to a book I am reading about this-church and state etc…. We are really close at our fellowship and we all are pretty open(never really understood why this is such a discreet issue amongst people?) about our stances on politics and who we or who we are not voting for. This is one issue amongst us in our fellowship that we really really differ on. Most things we pretty much have the same mind but this is another story as I discovered yesterday.

I, on the one hand am NOT voting this election and laugh at the thought of it for various reasons. I along with the Elder at our congregation have the same view on this issue. I guess I jump on the Hyper-Calvinist camp on this issue. Others as we discovered are voting they say because they must “choose between the lesser of the evils.” Ummmm I think I will choose Abortion for $100 Alex”-”Nope not me, I will choose Gay Marriage for $200 Alex.” Being Sarcastic here, but I never have been able to grasp that logic but some seem to understand and make it walk on all fours. Logically it does not make sense to me. Furthermore some will say if you don’t vote for the lesser of the evils you are by your absence-voting anyway.

Linked here are the candidates Obama and McCain’s stances on the crucials-HERE.

This year the whole political game has agitated me more than ever. WHY?


1. These candidates all talk the same game and fluff until they get elected and then what? Then the people who want to crucify you for not voting on what they consider the larger issues, they themselves aren’t involved in their neighborhoods voting for mayors or governor’s-somewhat hypocritical to me.

2.
I work nights and listen to Bott Radio Network(a somewhat Biblical radio station) and they constantly say ridiculous things like-”Obama is the anti-Christ” and they choose to vote for McCain because they say he is more conservative and has Christian Morals. Or to be just “real” about it-because he is Republican.

3. On the secular stations like “Tom Joyner” they are a little less discreet and come out and basically say, “we voting for him because he is Black” or “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and its about time I got my 40 Acres and Mule-Great Grand dad would be proud.” This is even said amongst some of the Black and Reformed Christian folk.

These are some of the questions I have.

Is the next President going to change this land for the better?

What does it really mean to “vote for the lesser evil?”

Is there a Biblical mandate for believer’s to vote?

And please don’t say anything silly like, “your ancestors died-you better vote” or “Obama is your brother-brother” (Mark 3:32-35)

The Rape of God’s Mercy

A Warning About Presumptuous Sin

By Daryl Wingerd

Have you ever sinned on purpose? Have you ever known that something was sinful, had every opportunity to avoid the sin, yet decided to do it anyway? If so, were you comforted in your decision by thoughts of God’s forgiving mercy? Perhaps you said to yourself (as I once heard a man say, just before telling a blatant lie to keep himself out of trouble), “It’s easier to get forgiveness than permission.” This type of premeditated, intentional sin is called “presumptuous sin.”

Presumptuous sin is knowingly doing what God forbids while presuming that you will be covered by His mercy. It is an attempt to force God to apply mercy instead of justice. It is no wonder that John Bunyan (author of Pilgrim’s Progress) once referred to sin as “the dare of God’s justice, the rape of His mercy, the jeer of His patience, the slight of His power, and the contempt of His love.”

Consider four sobering truths about presumptuous sins and presumptuous sinners:

1. God hates presumptuous sin.

A purposeful, planned approach to sin reveals one of the things God hates the most. In Proverbs 6:16 we read, “There are six things which the Lord hates, yes, seven which are an abomination to Him.” The list that follows includes pride, lying, and murder. Among these we find that God hates “a heart that devises wicked plans” (v. 18). God hates all sin, to be sure, but when you sin on purpose, your premeditated act is particularly abhorrent to Him.

2. Presumptuous sin is feared and hated by godly persons.

David pleaded with the Lord to keep him back from presumptuous sins (Ps. 19:13). He concluded his thought by saying, “Then will I be blameless, and I shall be acquitted of great transgression.” People who sin presumptuously should have no confident expectation that they will be considered “blameless,” or even that they will be acquitted by God.

3. True Christians are repentant sinners, not presumptuous sinners.

Regardless of the type of sin involved, those who are repentant sinners are said to be “washed,” “sanctified,” and “justified,” while those who carelessly continue in sin are warned not to be deceived. People of that sort, Paul tells us, “will not inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9-11). Presumptuous sinners are acting like they are on their way to hell, not heaven. They may be.

4. Presumptuous sin often leads to disastrous consequences.

King David knew that what he was tempted to do with Bathsheba was a sin against God, but he did it anyway. In this case, his presumptuous sin brought a series of painful and tragic consequences:

It led David into further sin-plotting the murder of Bathsheba’s husband. (2 Sam. 11:14-15)
It brought on a lengthy period of painful conviction. (Ps. 32:9-10; 38:1-8; 51:3, 8, 12)
It brought a stinging rebuke from the prophet Nathan. (2 Sam. 12:1-14)
It led to the death of the child of that union. (2 Sam. 12:14-18)
It gave occasion for the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme God. (2 Sam. 12:14)
It moved the Lord to plague David’s posterity with violence, and even to raise evil against him from within his own family. (2 Sam. 12:9-11)

People who presume upon God’s mercy should not be surprised when they experience similar consequences. In fact, they should expect them. Perhaps it was this very experience that led David to pray this prayer:

Also keep back your servant from presumptuous sins;Let them not rule over me;Then I will be blameless,And I shall be acquitted of great transgression. (Ps. 19:13)