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That Damascus Rd experience must have truly set his heart on fire for the Savior & for lost souls. He heard Jesus speak, he believed & went forth with a singular determination in his heart. We haven't seen with the physical eye or heard with the ear, yet with Spirit-given faith we ought to have the same heart & fervour for Jesus and those lost without Him: "blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed" ( John 20:29). Every blessing.
I felt that the verse sums up a lot of what we're studying on.
Blessings.
Yes, those are great pieces of scripture. The Lord keeps His people. He keeps us from falling from our position of grace, and from our relationship with Christ. One day we're going to stand before God. And we will be presented by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But He's going to present us as faultless because He died for our sins. He paid the penalty for our sins. He is the one who keeps us. He is the one who's going to present us as faultless before His glory.
I find it very interesting that you bring up Ephesians 3:12-17. The reason I find it interesting, and I know the Lord works in ways that we sometimes cannot comprehend but check this out: We (brother Chris and I) were just talking about God's powerful grip, and you also were reminded of this passage in Ephesians.
But here's something you may or may not have been aware of, but in Ephesians 3:16, The word "strengthened" in the Greek text is from the word KRATOS which means grip. Paul says that we might be strengthened (Gripped) with power, DUNAMIS. It's through His Spirit and the location is in the inner man where Christ dwells. He has us in His grip!
Blessings!
Great to see you back. It looks like you had a very enjoyable vacation in Florida and the Caribbean. I assume you made it back home safely. The Lord is good!
You are understanding correctly, and I do agree that Paul had a burning passion for their salvation as you say. If Paul truly wished for them to be anathema before God, then I would have to agree that it can be viewed as being hypocritical. My thoughts on this are that Paul was perhaps giving warning to not only those who were rejecting the gospel message, but also to those who professed to believe but, in their heart, they had no love for the Lord.
A person who does not have love in their heart for the Lord is already in a cursed state. This is not to say that they will always remain in this condition, but if they continue to reject the gospel message, Paul says let them be accursed. I think we both agree that Paul had no desire to see anyone lost or accursed. In fact, in Romans 9:3, Paul makes a very powerful statement. We know he was the apostle to the Gentiles, but he had a deep love for his fellow brethren, Jewish, Hebrew brethren. He was willing to suffer the separation from Christ throughout eternity so that they would be saved, even though that's not possible.
Brother, it is truly amazing how we can recall certain messages given many years ago. That message had to be powerful to stick with you for so long. I notice in Colossians 3:3 that it says we are dead, and the word for dead in the verb tense is Aorist which means that it has already happened in the past. Upon salvation, we died to our old self and put on Christ, so we are dead, and our life is hidden with Christ in God.
You gave a great summary passage in Romans 8:38-39. There isn't anything that can take us and separate us from the love of God. Jesus is interceding for us. The Holy Spirit is interceding for us. We are in God's mighty grip with a salvation complete and secure in Christ Jesus!
Blessings!
I hope you are doing well. How is your Mom doing? and your Dad?
I think this topic of deception is a good one since there is so much of it in the world and in the church as well. Thanks for this introduction. I look forward to the rest of the posts on this. We do need to remember that the whole world is under the deception of Satan and only believers have been delivered from his deceptive power. He is a strong adversary. It is not just that other people are deceived and spread lies, but all this deception comes from Satan, the father of lies. We can keep this in mind when we encounter those who are trapped in deception. They are up against an adversary who is treacherous, unrelenting, and stronger than unregenerated mankind. But as for believers, greater is He (the Holy Spirit) who is in us than he who is in the world (Satan). And Jesus said that He came to destroy the works of the devil and that He has overcome him and the evil of the world against believers. Our strength is in Christ and our measure of truth is Christ and our freedom from the devil is in Christ.
Praise the Lord!
I have been keeping you and yours in my prayers.
I love the way you explained being hidden in Christ. We are covered fully by Him, kept secure from the condemnation and accusations of the evil one, freed from the slavery of sin, and bound to Christ like His own flesh.
It is so reassuring to come to grips with this profound teaching. When we feel like God is not near or cannot see Him working in our situation we can with assurance hold on to the truth that He is always with us, in us, and at work in our lives and situations for the good of His pleasure and perfect will.
j'ust receive the strength from that grip. Be at peace!
Great statement!
As Brother Chris mentioned It reminds me of Romans 8:31-32, and also Jude 1:24-25.and Ephesians 3:12-17. "In whom we have boldness and access with confidence BY THE FAITH OF HIM. Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, TO BE STRENGTHENED WITH MIGHT BY HIS SPIRIT in the inner man;
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
Looking forward to 2 Corinthians.
Blessings
I hope you enjoyed your vacation.
Blessings.
"These mystery cults had a teaching of a dying and rising god and how this god brought salvation. And some of these cults had a mother goddess who gives birth to the god who dies and rises from the dead each year.
Thanks for sharing!
Blessings
I've always wondered why the apostle chose to speak of those who "do not love the Lord Jesus", in such a way. Given that Paul had a direct calling to minister the Gospel to unbelievers & doubtless had a burning passion for their salvation, as he did for his own people, it seemed hypocritical of him to then want them to be Anathema before God & His Salvation.
I remember the Lord Jesus spoke to His disciples about those who reject them & their message ( Matthew 10:14,15), which gives us some licence to step aside & depart from those who refuse to hear the Words of Life & Truth, but to treat them as 'Cursed' seemed quite strong & unpalatable.
The only way I could bring those thoughts together is that Paul was stating that if people continued to refuse to hear & obey, then their end was to be as Anathema by the Lord, for our Lord is soon coming & they will be righteously judged. But while there is time for all to hear & repent, we should endeavor to take every opportunity to share what Christ has done - that they be not forever cursed, but to be saved & as children of God, longingly look for His Coming. Would I be understanding this correctly, or any further thoughts? Blessings.
When you referred to us being in God's Grip & our security therein, my thoughts immediately went back to a sermon given by my pastor in the 70s, which was so dramatic in nature, that it was firmly embedded in my mind. He referred to Colossians 3:3 in his message, "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God". When he came to getting his point across with this verse, he held up his right hand, then made a fist & stated that we are hidden with Christ & in Christ in there in His Palm. While still holding up his right fist, he then raised his left hand & swiftly brought it to grab onto his right fist, clenching it tightly, and asked us, 'how secure are we now? We are secure in Christ & together with Him firmly held by a loving merciful Father - there can be no safer, loving & more secure place than in such a perfect relationship with the Eternal God, designed & executed by God Himself'. Romans 8:38,39.
1 Corinthians 16:14 - Let all your things be done with charity.
Literally, let all your things be done with agape love.
1 Corinthians 16:22 - If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.
He says, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha. If anybody does not love the Lord Jesus, let him be Anathema. That's the word for cursed. It means to offer a sacrifice that has been designated for a curse.
And then Maranatha is broken up into three words. And both of these words Anathema and Maranatha are Aramaic, but you may have never heard this one, so it's worth writing it down in your bible above the word. MAR is Aramaic for Lord. Mar is Lord. AN is our. And ATHA is come. Our Lord comes is what Maranatha means.
So, he says let them be cursed, our Lord is coming!
1 Corinthians 16:23 - The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and notice the word "be" is in italics, which means that it is not in the original text. This is not a prayer, as it sounds. This is a factual statement in the Greek text. It literally read the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is with you!
1 Corinthians 16:24 - My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.
It says, "My love be with you," and again, the word "be" is in italics. My love is with you all in Christ Jesus. It's a factual statement. That's the word AGAPE. And lastly, he says Amen. It comes from the Hebrew word that is pronounced the same, and it means so be it. That's the crowning touch of the letter, the sign off, so be it, of a truth!
This is all I have to share in 1 Corinthians. I will begin with 2 Corinthians next, Lord willing!
God Bless!!!
1 Corinthians 16:13 Continued...
Next, it says be strong. It's a Passive. Literally, be strengthened. Be the recipient. Not you be strong, meaning from out of yourself work it up. It means be receptive to being strengthened. And the word happens to be KRATOS. In Greek, it's the word for grip. Again, it's the same word that Paul used for putting on the armor of God in Ephesians Chapter 6. He says be empowered in the strength of His grip. That is literally what he said in Ephesians Chapter 6.
What Paul pictures is God's hand, and that when we belong to Christ, we are in God's hand. And he's telling us to draw off the strength of that grip that God has on you. But we try to get away. We are always trying to be on the run. But God has a grip on you. Receive from the strength of that grip.
Remember what Jesus said? He said no one can take you out of my Father's hand, and no one can take you out of my hand. So basically, there's two, the Father's hand, and the Lord's hand. And we are in His grip. Now who in the world is going to break that grip and get us away from Christ? It won't happen. So instead of wiggling and trying, and because we've got this tremendous grip over us, just receive the strength from that grip. Be at peace!
1 Corinthians 16:13 - Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.
It says first of all, Watch ye, or watch. This is a Present Imperative which means to be continually watching! The word is the opposite of the word for sleep. So, it means to be on guard. Be awake! Jesus used the word in Mark 14:38 when the disciples fell asleep when he was praying, and He said stay awake, be watchful.
Also, Peter, in 1 Peter 5:8, he says be watchful, be sober, because your adversary the devil is walking around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He's not saying don't get physical sleep. But literally "Wake up, spiritually. Wake up. Be on the alert because Satan is waiting to catch you off guard. That's command number one.
Command number two: Stand firm in the faith. In Ephesians Chapter 6, Paul tells us put on the whole armor of God in order that you may be able to stand. Not run, not even fight, because he's already been defeated. Stand firm in the faith!
Number three: quit you like men. "And like a man, I've quit several times!" No, that's not what it means. It's literally one Greek word that means be a man. It's associated with courage! Remember what God told Joshua in Joshua Chapter 1 Verses 8 through 11? Be of courage Joshua for I am with you wherever you go. It's not a human courage. It's a spiritual trust that no matter what, we can face anything in life because Christ is there.
1 Corinthians 15:34 - Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.
It says here, "I speak this to your shame," but literally in the Greek text, Paul says I am speaking this to shame you. There were times when Paul thought that it was appropriate to tell Christians or believers "You don't feel shame so I'm going to tell you what the truth is so it will shame you!
1 Corinthians 15:52 - In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
Fascinating statements! The word moment is ATOMA in Greek and it is the word for atom. What he's saying is that it will be so fast. It's less than a millisecond. The atom cannot be split so he says it's that short of a time. You can't even split the second that it's going to take for this to happen! It's in the twinkling of an eye, not the blinking of an eye, but the twinkling of an eye, the sparkle. And it's at the last trumpet.
1 Corinthians 16:3 - And when I come, whomsoever ye shall approve by your letters, them will I send to bring your liberality unto Jerusalem.
The word liberality is gift, and the word gift is CHARIS which means grace. It's not a forced thing. It's a gift. It's the work of grace in people's hearts that causes them to give.
1 Corinthians 16:9 For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.
For a great door and effectual, which means powerful, energy, ENERGEO, is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries. So, he says I'm right in the middle of God opening a door by His power, so that I can preach the gospel, but I have many adversaries, many opponents.
1 Corinthians 14:23 - If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad?
The word "mad" is the word maniac in Greek! I've seen meetings where everything is nice, and everything is flowing along, and then all of a sudden, a whole bunch of people jump up and just start jabbering, raising their hands and "speaking in tongues" or whatever it was that they called praising the Lord. People were jumping up and down and running around and rolling on the ground. And others were confused and saying, "What's going on around here?" But to the people that were doing it, they were supposedly "showing their spirituality." That's not spiritual at all!
1 Corinthians 14:28 - But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself, and to God.
If nobody's there to explain to the non-believer the sign they just witnessed, then be silent!
1 Corinthians 14:29 - Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge.
The word judge is the word for discernment. I think it's interesting that people are supposed to judge what they are hearing. In Acts Chapter 17, the Bereans eagerly received what Paul had to say, but they still searched the scriptures daily to see if it was true.
1 Corinthians 15:33 - Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.
He says everywhere from doctrine to your social life; it will not be the believer that rubs off onto the non-believer. It will always be those who have corrupt morals. They are the ones in social interaction with believers that are going to corrupt your good ethics. The word manners is ETHOS where we get our word ethics from. So don't be deceived. If you're living that life of eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die, if you're hanging around that crowd, whatever good ethics you have is going to be down the drain.
I was reading up on the mystery religions of the time of the early church. It seems that many of these cults were secretive about their rituals and beliefs; but the Christian faith was open and evangelistic. These mystery cults had a teaching of a dying and rising god and how this god brought salvation. And some of these cults had a mother goddess who gives birth to the god who dies and rises from the dead each year. Jesus was born of a virgin miraculously and died and rose only once for all.
Satan was hard at work from the time just after the flood deceiving people and nations with false gods/beliefs that would imitate the person and work of Jesus, the triune nature of the one true God as three gods: father, mother, and son. By the time that Jesus incarnated in the flesh, the pagan world was deep into such mystery cults. When the gospel was presented it seemed that many pagans eagerly embraced Christianity. It makes me wonder how deeply they held to their pagan beliefs to be so readily converted or even if they found it easy to believe the preaching of the gospel because of the similarities to their corrupt pagan beliefs. We can know that God the Father was at work drawing these people to Jesus and the Holy Spirit was at work regenerating them through grace and that Jesus was the one who chose them for salvation by election. It is so true that Jesus defeated Satan at the cross and despoiled him and his works. Praise be to God who is faithful and true!
I am praying for God to send you the best man for you to be married to and that you will patiently and hopefully wait upon the Lord to cause this to occur.
The Corinthians was a Carnal Church and we see such Worldliness in the Church today.
The work of the Holyspirit is preached in a Charismatic way.
Teachings such as "believers can directly experience the Holy Spirit's presence through personal revelation, emotional experiences, supernatural gifts, ect.
Not enough emphasis on the fruit of the Spirit.
However there is a exaggeration in contributing everything we do to the Spirit when these acts may be the flesh.
Blessings
I will be praying with you for these children and anyone caught up in sex trafficking and enslaved by others to be abused.
Thanks for bringing to our minds and hearts these Scriptures that prophecy our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, hundreds of years before He was incarnated in Mary and born into humanity. Such great promises from God that He will indeed, bring forth the one He promised to Adam and Eve to destroy the works of the devil and to bring God's mercy and favor to those He chose to be saved before anything was created. Love to think on these things.!
Hope your Christmas was joyful.
It is a fascinating study, and I find that there some similarities between the things that are going on in the church today and how the Corinthian church conducted itself.
Blessings to you also!
Isaiah 66:4 says "I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not."
This reminds us of the sobering verse of 2 Thessalonians 2:11 on "The lie" which no doubt means Antichrist and his false prophet ultimately in the Tribulation.
John 10:38 states that we can believe in Christ simply because of the miracles He does; but many others warn of thinking He is anything other than God's Son which itself is only revealed by the Father in heaven to whom He chooses.(see Matthew 16:13-20; and Matthew 11:27 just a couple chapters back as well as much of the Gospel of John for further study on these truths.)
Isaiah 53:2 dispels all the images made of Christ which are venerated. The opposite of not believing Him and the potential of committing the unpardonable sin of blaspheming the Spirit ( Matthew 12:31) is elevating Christ to that of any other man; as the Son of Man is greater than His creation. We see other verses where He excoriates those in the cities where He did many miracles and stated the punishment for unbelief would be greater than that of Sodom. With Peter we see how the thoughts of man no matter how "noble" they may have seemed in respect to Jesus not dying on the cross because of His notoriety brought the stern rebuke against Satan himself who was operating through Peter at the time; remarkably very shortly after Christ revealed that Peter could only have recieved revelation as to who He truly was from God Himself.
We can look at many in the ministry today as we approach the last days judgment of the church before the rest of the world is judged and see how many traps lead men to perdition. We need to be real and believe Jesus when He states the narrow road is only followed by a few; especially when Christianity is "politically correct."
I pray you had a wonderful Christmas and will be equally blessed in the coming year in the name of our King and Savior the LORD JESUS CHRIST.
Isaiah 26:3
December 28, 2024
I'm looking at some writings of these Pagan mystic religions,
Interesting literature and explains a lot of the disconnect we have between the world and its worshipers and the things of God.
Blessings
1 Corinthians 14:13 - Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret.
Wherefore let him that speaks in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret. Again, the word interpret means explain. It does not mean translate! There are people in churches today where someone will get up and "speak in tongues" and then someone else will come forward and translate. That is not biblical.
1 Corinthians 14:14 - For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.
For "if," same thing we had back in Chapter 13 Verse 1. He's not saying he does, but "if" I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. The word understanding is the Greek word NOUS, for perception. He's telling them what they do! If my spirit prays, but I have no understanding (Bypassing the brain), my spirit prays but my understanding is unfruitful.
1 Corinthians 14:18 - I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all:
Paul says, "I thank my God that I speak with tongues more than you all:"
What a statement to make there! The one (Paul) who can speak in tongues (languages) more than anybody is the one who is correcting the problem! So, it's not like "Yea, I don't believe in that stuff. I've never done it and I never want to." Paul says, "No, God's Spirit through me has spoken in languages. I speak in languages more than you all." So that's not the problem!
1 Corinthians 14:19 - Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.
Does that tell you priority? Paul says that I would rather speak five words that everybody can understand, and it's for your spiritual benefit, than to speak in these unknown languages in ten thousand words. In fact, in the Greek, it's the word myriads which means infinity. The people in Corinth thought that it was spiritual to do that.
1 Corinthians 14:5 Continued...
Now I encouraged you before and I will encourage you again to look up the mystic religions, the pagan mystic religions, and you will get a background on this. The spirituality was presented in these meetings as being so emotionally worked up into a frenzy that you bypass your brain. If you're still thinking, you haven't reached utopia.
Now some of the people couldn't reach that state. They were still thinking. They would give them alcohol and get them drunk to help them bypass the brain. And in their worship services, to reach this point of spirituality, it is interesting that they would clang cymbals. That's what Paul said earlier. If I don't have AGAPE, it's just clanging cymbals, noise!
And psychologically, it was to put their brain to sleep like hypnotism through the clanging of symbols. And if you couldn't bypass your brain to reach utopia, they would give you alcohol to drink. Now these people got saved. And now they're in the church and they're doing almost the exact same thing, only they are not doing it with cymbals and the pagan way of doing it. Somebody told them about the "gifts of the spirit."
They were being told that they can reach this level of spirituality and that they can speak the language of angels. They were being told that you are not in the spirit (meaning God's Spirit), unless you bypass the brain. And that's being taught today in the mainstream churches today. If someone says to me "I speak in the language of angels," I would say let's look what the word says about that. Right away they shut you off because they have to think. "Well, you know, there's other people that don't agree with that," or "that's your interpretation."
1 Corinthians 14:5 Continued...
The only instruction or teaching about tongues in the whole bible is in 1 Corinthians 14:20-25. That's the only place! Where are people getting these mystic experiences that they call the gifts of the spirit and speaking in tongues? It's only taught in one place. We only have one example.
But they are finding other places, and they are pulling out little words here and there, like in Chapter 13 Verse 1 where Paul says though I speak with the tongue of angels. "Ooh, there it is. You see, Paul can speak with the language of angels!"
But that's not what he said. They're taking the word "though" as meaning even though I do. But that is not what he's saying. Besides that, and this is the golden rule about understanding the bible. Since we only know in part. We don't know everything. God didn't reveal everything to us.
If indeed 1 Corinthians 14:20-25 is the only place that instructs us about tongues, then everything else has to agree with it. All the little things that people try to pull out of the bible, they have to agree with 1 Corinthians 14:20-25.
There are people that will say "Yes, that's what Paul taught, but see over here Paul said that he spoke the language of angels." And they use that as an excuse and a justification for what they do. There's only one example of it and the only instruction is in Verses 20 to 25. These two facts are very important for this particular subject.
Now I would like to share some background information. When these non-Jewish people were in the pagan world, and it goes all the way back to Chapter 12 Verses 1 to 3 (the beginning of this whole section), he says "When you were following after those dumb idols."
The word dumb means voiceless, couldn't speak! And he's chiding them by saying "however you were led by them," like they are alive or something. They are not alive. They don't talk to you. But they were being led, according to them, by the spirit of this idol.