some days I don't act like Jesus. Some days, I find myself doing Christian "things." ..aka..spending time on my Youtube channel, reading Christian literature, perusing Christian websites..
the truth is that not too much of that matters. When I stand before God, I truly don't think that He is going to care how many Christian memes we posted to our facebook pages or how many verses of scripture we had memorized.. He may not even care that we passively sat in a pew faithfully every single Sunday of our lives..
Jesus said that, in the last days, there would be many people who had a form of godliness, but denied the very power thereof..
He said that there would be people basically appearing like Christians, but not holding power of what it truly means to be Christlike..
He said that these people would be slanderers.. lovers of money, lovers of self..he said that they would be consumed with their own self interest and vain pursuits...
I think Doug Perry summed it up best when he stated that he had a vision of many Christians doing the dragon dance. Think of the Chinese dragon, dancing in the streets. Many people are playing follow the leader and more concerned with "church" things, than being concerned with truly following Jesus.
We have abandoned our Bibles, we no longer even do what it says.. The Bible says that, in the last days, God will send some a strong delusion, and we are so lost in our own brand of greed, that we will forget and deny the power of the Cross.
Ok, so what is the Power of Christ....if we are denying the power thereof, what is the power that we are denying?
The power is in the Cross of Christ. Jesus said that it is in our weakness that His power is made perfect. He said to take up the Cross and follow Him. We have denied the power of the Cross in our walk with Christ.
We say that we love others, but our actions often fail to show that love. Can we really look at our enemy and say that we love them?
Are we truly walking in the fruits of the Spirit? Love, gentleness, patience, longsuffering, self control, generosity?
I have to be honest. I feel most like Christ simply when I am serving others. I feel most like Christ when I am feeding, clothing, or praying for those who have hurt me... Christ cared for people while He was on this earth. He served them. The Bible said that He came as a servant. He taught us the upside down ways of the Kingdom of God. The least on earth shall be the greatest..and the greatest shall be the least..
There is power in humbling ourselves. When we humble ourselves, we show the true power of Christ, and, it is then, that we willfully pick up our Cross.
It is time that we do away with our sin. Jesus came and He loved sinners more than anyone else. He dined with them. But He also came with a message of repentance. When everyone was throwing stones at the prostitute, Christ bid them to put down their stones. He showed the prostitute tenderness, kindness, and mercy..but He also told her, "Go and sin no more."
Jesus tells us that sin separates us from God. If we want a close walk with Jesus, we need to lay down our sin at His feet, and trust that He is faithful and just to forgive us. In life, we will always face temptation, but Christ gives us the strength to resist.
Let's not be passive in our walk with Christ. Jesus tells us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
He tells us that if we are to enter into His Kingdom then we must become as little children.
What are the traits of children?
Children put all of their trust in their Father. They are innocent...Here's a good news message. Christ can restore your innocence... He won't tell you to be like a child and then not give you innocence you need to walk in that childlike faith and innocence..
His grace is sufficent for you. He is faithful and just to forgive our sins...and He wants our trust.. Not all of our trust.. not ten percent of our trust..
He wants all.
He is the vine and we are the branches.. IF we remain in Him, THEN we will bear much fruit..
Today, my message for you is: Seek Christ.. Put on the whole armor of God...
Lay down your sin at His feet and accept His forgiveness,
Be not only a hearer of the word and deceive yourselves...hearing the word and NOT doing what it says is like looking at yourself in a mirror.. you will quickly forget what you see..
ACT like Jesus... Remain in Him.. and THEN you will bear much fruit.
If you aren't acting like Jesus and picking up a Cross, then we are guilty of having a form of Godliness but we deny the power thereof.
The power is in our love. Jesus said that people should know us by our LOVE for one another...not by our "being right" about things.. not by our ability to quote scripture or memorize verses..not because we listen to K Love or even do Christian things.... this is just a form of godliness..
The true test is the LOVE test..
One day we will stand before God and He will say..
How many people did you clothe? How many people did you feed? When you cared for these people, you have cared for me.. You have carried your cross and through your LOVE.
WEll done good and faithful servant. You didn't just have a form of godliness, you trusted, you loved when it was hard, YOU remained in ME.
You bore fruit.. you carried your patience, love, generosity, kindness long suffering, with you everywhere you went.
You exercised self control when you fought temptation. Well done!
He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, 10 and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness. -2 Thessalonians
This verse is telling us that there will be signs and wonders that will NOT be from God.. are we following "signs and wonders" are or are our eyes on Christ and carrying His Cross?
"Whoever does not take up His Cross and follow me cannot be my disciple" - Jesus
Matthew 25:31-46
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
the truth is that not too much of that matters. When I stand before God, I truly don't think that He is going to care how many Christian memes we posted to our facebook pages or how many verses of scripture we had memorized.. He may not even care that we passively sat in a pew faithfully every single Sunday of our lives..
Jesus said that, in the last days, there would be many people who had a form of godliness, but denied the very power thereof..
He said that there would be people basically appearing like Christians, but not holding power of what it truly means to be Christlike..
He said that these people would be slanderers.. lovers of money, lovers of self..he said that they would be consumed with their own self interest and vain pursuits...
I think Doug Perry summed it up best when he stated that he had a vision of many Christians doing the dragon dance. Think of the Chinese dragon, dancing in the streets. Many people are playing follow the leader and more concerned with "church" things, than being concerned with truly following Jesus.
We have abandoned our Bibles, we no longer even do what it says.. The Bible says that, in the last days, God will send some a strong delusion, and we are so lost in our own brand of greed, that we will forget and deny the power of the Cross.
Ok, so what is the Power of Christ....if we are denying the power thereof, what is the power that we are denying?
The power is in the Cross of Christ. Jesus said that it is in our weakness that His power is made perfect. He said to take up the Cross and follow Him. We have denied the power of the Cross in our walk with Christ.
We say that we love others, but our actions often fail to show that love. Can we really look at our enemy and say that we love them?
Are we truly walking in the fruits of the Spirit? Love, gentleness, patience, longsuffering, self control, generosity?
I have to be honest. I feel most like Christ simply when I am serving others. I feel most like Christ when I am feeding, clothing, or praying for those who have hurt me... Christ cared for people while He was on this earth. He served them. The Bible said that He came as a servant. He taught us the upside down ways of the Kingdom of God. The least on earth shall be the greatest..and the greatest shall be the least..
There is power in humbling ourselves. When we humble ourselves, we show the true power of Christ, and, it is then, that we willfully pick up our Cross.
It is time that we do away with our sin. Jesus came and He loved sinners more than anyone else. He dined with them. But He also came with a message of repentance. When everyone was throwing stones at the prostitute, Christ bid them to put down their stones. He showed the prostitute tenderness, kindness, and mercy..but He also told her, "Go and sin no more."
Jesus tells us that sin separates us from God. If we want a close walk with Jesus, we need to lay down our sin at His feet, and trust that He is faithful and just to forgive us. In life, we will always face temptation, but Christ gives us the strength to resist.
Let's not be passive in our walk with Christ. Jesus tells us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
He tells us that if we are to enter into His Kingdom then we must become as little children.
What are the traits of children?
Children put all of their trust in their Father. They are innocent...Here's a good news message. Christ can restore your innocence... He won't tell you to be like a child and then not give you innocence you need to walk in that childlike faith and innocence..
His grace is sufficent for you. He is faithful and just to forgive our sins...and He wants our trust.. Not all of our trust.. not ten percent of our trust..
He wants all.
He is the vine and we are the branches.. IF we remain in Him, THEN we will bear much fruit..
Today, my message for you is: Seek Christ.. Put on the whole armor of God...
Lay down your sin at His feet and accept His forgiveness,
Be not only a hearer of the word and deceive yourselves...hearing the word and NOT doing what it says is like looking at yourself in a mirror.. you will quickly forget what you see..
ACT like Jesus... Remain in Him.. and THEN you will bear much fruit.
If you aren't acting like Jesus and picking up a Cross, then we are guilty of having a form of Godliness but we deny the power thereof.
The power is in our love. Jesus said that people should know us by our LOVE for one another...not by our "being right" about things.. not by our ability to quote scripture or memorize verses..not because we listen to K Love or even do Christian things.... this is just a form of godliness..
The true test is the LOVE test..
One day we will stand before God and He will say..
How many people did you clothe? How many people did you feed? When you cared for these people, you have cared for me.. You have carried your cross and through your LOVE.
WEll done good and faithful servant. You didn't just have a form of godliness, you trusted, you loved when it was hard, YOU remained in ME.
You bore fruit.. you carried your patience, love, generosity, kindness long suffering, with you everywhere you went.
You exercised self control when you fought temptation. Well done!
He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, 10 and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness. -2 Thessalonians
This verse is telling us that there will be signs and wonders that will NOT be from God.. are we following "signs and wonders" are or are our eyes on Christ and carrying His Cross?
"Whoever does not take up His Cross and follow me cannot be my disciple" - Jesus
New International Version (NIV)
The Sheep and the Goats
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
about the Red Dragon vision..
who are today's Pharisees? from my Youtube channel.
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