Do we recognize Christ?

Too many people today talk about everything and everyone that is unimportant.

The nfl, the college game, who won what in hollywood, what the President said, what the has been actor, singer, or former leader said. 

Who cares, really? How are any of these people or things important in our lives?

All these things, all these people will soon be forgotten, how shallow our lives are when we have to live through the eyes of the media and what they tell us and put in front of us to watch day after day, and to top it off that is all we have to talk about. 

Really?

Time has come for people to get off babies milk and move on. 

Stop caring more about what was worn on the red carpet or said somewhere by so and so ,than the souls of those around you!

God’s word says this: “Therefore, I say this and testify in the Lord: You should no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their thoughts. They are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their hearts. They became callous and gave themselves over to promiscuity for the practice of every kind of impurity with a desire for more and more. But that is not how you came to know Christ, assuming you heard about him and were taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, to take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth. Therefore, putting away lying, speak the truth, each one to his neighbor, because we are members of one another. Be angry and do not sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger, and don’t give the devil an opportunity. Let the thief no longer steal. Instead, he is to do honest work with his own hands, so that he has something to share with anyone in need. No foul language should come from your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in need, so that it gives grace to those who hear. And don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit. You were sealed by him for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.”

Ephesians 4:17-32 CSB

“Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children, and walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God. But sexual immorality and any impurity or greed should not even be heard of among you, as is proper for saints. Obscene and foolish talking or crude joking are not suitable, but rather giving thanks. For know and recognize this: Every sexually immoral or impure or greedy person, who is an idolater, does not have an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty arguments, for God’s wrath is coming on the disobedient because of these things. Therefore, do not become their partners. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light — for the fruit of the light consists of all goodness, righteousness, and truth — testing what is pleasing to the Lord. Don’t participate in the fruitless works of darkness, but instead expose them.” Ephesians 5:1-11 CSB

We cannot partner with darkness and claim to walk in the light of Christ, Jesus could walk into our homes, our houses of worship and our work places and we would miss Him, just as when He walked the earth over 2000 years ago we are so caught up in ourselves and the way we think it should be. We are no different than what John tells us about the Jewish nation and  how they rejected Jesus.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it....He was in the world, and the world was created through him, and yet the world did not recognize him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.” John 1:1-5, 10-11 CSB

If we who say we believe in Christ, don’t recognize Christ, His authority, His holiness, His grace, and live by what we say we believe, then how can we put expectations on the world to live that way either!

Ask God to break our hearts with what breaks His, to reveal to us areas we need too surrender to Him and for Him to work in us and around us , may we be broken of our ways and follow Him.

Engage the Culture

We live in a culture that is reluctant to get involved. We leave well enough alone. We steer clear of messy, complicated interaction with others. We mind our own business, and keep to ourselves--even those of us who go by the name of Christian. We're like the fellow on the bus who refused to tell another passenger what time it was. After being asked several times, he turned his back, and the young man went on and asked someone else. At the next stop, someone who had seen the exchange scolded the man, and this was his rationale: "If I had told that young man what time it was, we would have struck up a conversation, and I probably would have liked him.


 Before long, he would have gotten himself invited to supper, and my beautiful daughter would have met him. The two of them would probably fall in love, and want to get married - but I don't want my daughter marrying a man who can't afford a watch!" We intuitively know that involvement could prove expensive - so we shut ourselves off in the name of caution.


 The only problem is, we are commanded to love the brethren. In fact, the mark of a Christian is the love we have for one another. It is almost impossible for someone who has experienced the love and grace of God to live in isolation - but some of us do a pretty good job. Instead of hiding, get out of your comfort zone and reach out to those in your circle of influence with the love of Christ. It is dangerous, yes. But the only place outside of heaven where we can be safe from all the dangers of love is hell.




Hebrews 13:

1Let brotherly love continue. 2Don’t neglect to show hospitality, for by doing this some have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it. 3Remember the prisoners, as though you were in prison with them, and the mistreated, as though you yourselves were suffering bodily. 4Marriage must be respected by all, and the marriage bed kept undefiled, because God will judge immoral people and adulterers.  5Your life should be free from the love of money. Be satisfied with what you have, for He Himself has said, I will never leave you or forsake you.  6Therefore, we may boldly say:

The Lord is my helper;

I will not be afraid.

What can man do to me?

JOY

A wise old man once saw a lovely and happy young wife and said, "I would love to meet your husband. He must be very special because I can see it on your face." The Bible explains: A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken (Proverbs 15:13). We should remember the Bible says the fruit of the Spirit is joy (Galatians 5:22). Happy homes are healthy homes.

Much can be said about a happy home. God's Word says laughter is medicine: A merry heart does good, like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones (Proverbs 17:22). The mandate from Scripture puts the responsibility for joyful family life on both the husband and wife. Our homes are to be refuges of happiness, not battlegrounds of sorrow.

God's Word insists that husbands live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life which He has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity; for that is your portion in life, and in the labor which you perform under the sun (Ecclesiastes 9:9). It is important we not just endure our husband-wife relationship but that we bring joy to it. This is urgent, because the joy of the Lord is your strength (Nehemiah 8:10).

We would like to thank Bible Discovery TV for providing this plan. For more information, please visit: www.biblediscoverytv.com

Psalms 119 : 1How happy are those whose way is blameless,

who live according to the Lord’s instruction!

2Happy are those who keep His decrees

and seek Him with all their heart.

3They do nothing wrong;

they follow His ways.

4You have commanded that Your precepts

be diligently kept.

5If only my ways were committed

to keeping Your statutes!

6Then I would not be ashamed

when I think about all Your commands.

7I will praise You with a sincere heart

when I learn Your righteous judgments.

8I will keep Your statutes;

never abandon me.

בBet

9How can a young man keep his way pure?

By keeping Your word.

10I have sought You with all my heart;

don’t let me wander from Your commands.

11I have treasured Your word in my heart

so that I may not sin against You.

12Lord, may You be praised;

teach me Your statutes.

13With my lips I proclaim

all the judgments from Your mouth.

14I rejoice in the way revealed by Your decrees

as much as in all riches.

15I will meditate on Your precepts

and think about Your ways.

16I will delight in Your statutes;

I will not forget Your word.

ג

God help us!

It is time to Wake up before the dawn of destruction has cracked, Pastors, Fathers, Mothers the battle is raging ! As men and women of God we need to sound the sound the alarm! There is a battle raging against the family , and God's ordination of marriage.


 Today, in America we have the highest divorce rate of all western nations; we have an inconceivable amount of unwed single mothers and illegitimate children; homosexuality, adultery, and sexual perversion are now the norm in our society, and the unnamed millions of murdered children is sickening. Lucifer from the moment God created Adam and Eve has been out to destroy the sanctity of family, this plot has been carried out since then: but in the last hundred years it has taken on new faces of evil, make no mistakes our enemy is patient but now sees an opportunity to seize the moment and strike a death blow to the sanctity of marriage, family and the cornerstone of our society.


What follows is the plan written out by wicked evil men, that have been demonically influenced in their actions, if you look at their lives overall you will see godless men and their path of death and destruction.


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Read the chilling words of Communist Lenin…

“Destroy the family and you destroy society." [1]

Lenin's devious plan wasn’t his alone, you can see his plans and the parallels of our nation and the fate of our nation is this plan is not stopped. The following Marxist Communism agenda was printed in the 1926 July issue of the Atlantic Monthly.

Please read this document slowly and carefully.

The Russian Effort To Abolish Marriage

When the Bolsheviki came into power in 1917 they regarded the family, like every other "bourgeois" institution, with fierce hatred, and set out with a will to destroy it. "To clear the family out of the accumulated dust of the ages we had to give it a good shakeup, and we did," declared Madame Smidovich, a leading Communist and active participant in the recent discussion.

So one of the first decrees of the Soviet Government abolished the term "illegitimate children." This was done simply by equalizing the legal status of all children, whether born in wedlock or out of it, and now the Soviet Government boasts that Russia is the only country where there are no illegitimate children. The father of a child is forced to contribute to its support, usually paying the mother a third of his salary...

At the same time a law was passed which made divorce a matter of a few minutes, to be obtained at the request of either partner in a marriage. Chaos was the result. Men took to changing wives with the same zest which they displayed in the consumption of the recently restored forty-per-cent vodka.

"Some men have twenty wives, living a week with one, a month with another," asserted an indignant woman delegate during the sessions of the Tzik. "They have children with all of them, and these children are thrown on the street for lack of support!"

(There are three hundred thousand… shelter less children in Russia to-day, who are literally turned out on the streets. They are one of the greatest social dangers of the present time, because they are developing into professional criminals. More than half of them are drug addicts and sex perverts. It is claimed by many Communists that the break-up of the family is responsible for a large percentage of these children.)

The peasant villages have perhaps suffered most from this revolution in sex relations. An epidemic of marriages and divorces broke out in the country districts.


[Marriage became a game where it] was not… unusual… for a boy of twenty to have had three or four wives, or for a girl of the same age to have had three or four abortions. [T]he peasants… bitterly complained: 'Abortions cover our villages with shame. Formerly we did not even hear of them.'


Many women… found marriage and childbearing a profitable occupation. They formed connections ( sexual) with the sons of well-to-do peasants and then blackmailed the father for the support of the children. In some cases peasants have been obliged to sell [everything] in order to settle such… claims. The law has created still more confusion because… women can claim support for children born many years ago.


During the winter of 1924-1925 some of the older Communists accused the younger generation… of indulging… in loose connections; they blame the girl students for practicing frequent abortions… Russian women students… [noted] that love was almost the only cheap amusement left to them and demanded that they be given… free abortions that factory women enjoy… Both in the villages and in the cities the problem of the unmarried mother has become very acute and provides a severe and annoying test of Communist theories.


…Another new point was that wife and husband would have an equal right to claim support from the other… The woman would have the right to demand support for her child even if she lived with several men during the period of conception; but, in contrast to previous practice, she or the court would choose one man who would be held responsible for the support. Commissar Kursky seemed especially proud of this point because it differed so much from the 'burgeois customs' of Europe and America.


Another speaker objected to the proposed law on the ground that some women would take advantage of its liberal provisions to form connections with wealthy men and then blackmail them for alimony.[2]


[1] Lenin merely repeated what Socrates had said and what Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx put into words. Lenin set out to do just that, hoping that a new society -- with the State as the ultimate father -- could be constructed. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, we have seen the consequences of the experiment.


[2] The Atlantic Monthly; July 1926; The Russian Effort to Abolish Marriage; Volume 138, No. 1; page 108-114. You can read the document in its entirety http://www.ejfi.org/Civilization/Civilization-4.htm


Here’s how the scheme to destroy the family is mapped out:

• Eliminate the sacredness of the marriage covenant from the minds of the masses. Make them believe marriage is outdated and blasé
• Inspire hatred against the family unit, manhood and fatherhood
• Institute no-fault divorce and encourage serial divorces
• Incite rampant promiscuity, fornication and adultery
• Make having illegitimate children become a common practice
• Convince society that a child in the womb is not a human being
• Provoke women to have abortions without regard to God or their consciences
• Make true love seem like cheap amusement
• Stimulate the people to confuse sex with the love
• Create an environment that encourages unwed single motherhood
• Inspire men to disrespect, dishonor and abuse women
• Design laws that motivate women to commit paternity fraud
• Incite homosexuality, lesbianism, sexual immorality and perversion
• Influence men to effortlessly abandon children they sire
• Most importantly, provoke a fierce relentless gender war

As you have read, what happened in 1926 was no accident and neither what is happening in our time. The high divorce rate, the mass number of unwed mothers, the rage against fatherhood, the gender war and the overt war against marriage - are all well planned attacks. Brace yourself and read how certain Americans, like their Russian counterparts, are also hell-bent on dismantling and exterminating the family.

The Planned Destruction Of The Family

The nuclear family must be destroyed , and people must find better ways of living together. ... Whatever it’s ultimate meaning, the break-up of families now is an objectively revolutionary process. ... "Families have supported oppression by separating people into small, isolated units, unable to join together to fight for common interests. ... — Functions of the Family, Linda Gordon, WOMEN: A Journal of Liberation, Fall, 1969.   "By the year 2000 we will, I hope, raise our children to believe in human potential, not God" — Gloria Steinem, editor of 'MS' magazine. "We can't destroy the inequities between men and women until we destroy marriage. " -- [Robin Morgan, "Sisterhood Is Powerful," (ed), 1970, p. 537] “The most merciful thing a large family can do to one of its infant members is to kill it"  — Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, in Women and the New Rage, p.67 "Marriage has existed for the benefit of men; and has been a legally sanctioned method of control over women... We must work to destroy it. The end of the institution of marriage is a necessary condition for the liberation of women.  Therefore it is important for us to encourage women to leave their husbands and not to live individually with men." — The Declaration of Feminism , November 1971 "Only when manhood is dead - and it will perish when ravaged femininity no longer sustains it - only then will we know what it is to be free." -- [Andrea Dworkin. "The Root Cause," speech, 26 Sept. 1975, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge (published in Our Blood, ch. 9, 1976).] "The care of children ...is infinitely better left to the best trained practitioners of both sexes who have chosen it as a vocation...[This] would further undermine family structure while contributing to the freedom of women." — Kate Millet, Sexual Politics 178-179   "In order to raise children with equality, we must take them away from families and communally raise them."    -- Dr. Mary Jo Bane, feminist and assistant professor of education at Wellesley College and associate director of the school's Center for Research on Woman "Who cares how men feel or what they do or whether they suffer? They have had over 2000 years to dominate and made a complete hash of it. Now it is our turn. My only comment to men is, if you don't like it, bad luck - and if you get in my way I'll run you down." — Letter to the Editor: Women's Turn to Dominate, Signed: Liberated Women, Boronia; Herald-Sun, Melbourne, Australia, February 9, 1996 "Life in this society being, at best, an utter bore and no aspect of society being at all relevant to women, there remains to civic-minded, responsible, thrill-seeking females only to overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation, and destroy the male sex." — Valerie Solana, SCUM Manifesto (Society for Cutting Up Men.)   "How will the family unit be destroyed? ... the demand alone will throw the whole ideology of the family into question, so that women can begin establishing a community of work with each other and we can fight collectively.  Women will feel freer to leave their husbands and become economically independent, either through a job or welfare."— Female Liberation , by Roxanne Dunbar. "I feel that 'man-hating' is an honorable and viable political act, that the oppressed have a right to class-hatred against the class that is oppressing them."  — Robin Morgan, (editor of MS magazine) “…[I]t is important for us to encourage women to leave their husbands and not to live individually with men... All of history must be re-written in terms of oppression of women. We must go back to ancient female religions like witchcraft" — The Declaration of Feminism , November 1971. "God is going to change. We women... will change the world so much that He won't fit anymore." — Naomi Goldenberg, Changing of the Gods: Feminism and the End of Traditional Religions (Quoted at beginning of From Father God to Mother Earth) The following are all facts about abortion in America that every American should know… #1 There have been more than 56 million abortions performed in the United States since Roe v. Wade was decided back in 1973. #2 There have been well over a billion abortions performed around the world since 1980. #3 When you total up all forms of abortion, including those caused by the abortion drug RU 486, the grand total comes to more than a million abortions performed in the United States every single year. #4 Approximately 47 percent of the women that get an abortion each year in the United States have also had a previous abortion. #5 About one-third of all American women will have had an abortion by the age of 45. #6 Approximately 3,000 Americans lost their lives as a result of the destruction of the World Trade Center towers on 9/11.  Every single day, more than 3,000 American babies are killed by abortion when you include all forms of abortion. #7 The United States has the highest abortion rate in the western world. #8 It has been reported that a staggering 41 percent of all New York City pregnancies end in abortion. #9 Most women that get abortions in the United States claim to be Christian.  Protestant women get 42 percent of all abortions and Catholic women get 27 percent of all abortions. #10 According to Pastor Clenard Childress, approximately 52 percent of all African-American pregnancies now end in abortion. #11 About 18 percent of all abortions in the United States each year are performed on teenagers. #12 One very shocking study found that 86 percent of all abortions are done for the sake of convenience. #13 At 8 weeks or older, an unborn baby feels very real physical pain during an abortion. #14 A Department of Homeland Security report that was released in January 2012 says that if you are “anti-abortion”, you are a potential terrorist.  Unfortunately, there have also been other government reports that have also identified “anti-abortion” protesters as potential threats to national security. #15 A while back, one Philadelphia abortionist was charged with killing seven babies that were born alive, but witnesses claim that he actually slaughtered hundreds “of living, breathing newborn children by severing their spinal cords or slitting their necks.” #16 Planned Parenthood Founder Margaret Sanger once said the following… “The most merciful thing that a family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.” #17In a 1922 book entitled “Woman, Morality, and Birth Control”, Planned Parenthood Founder Margaret Sanger wrote the following… “Birth control must lead ultimately to a cleaner race.” #18 Planned Parenthood performs more than 300,000 abortions every single year. #19 Planned Parenthood specifically targets the poor.  A staggering 72 percent of Planned Parenthood’s “customers” have incomes that are either equal to or beneath 150 percent of the federal poverty level.  And most of those “customers” live in minority neighborhoods.  #20 There are 30 Planned Parenthood executives that make more than $200,000 a year.  A few of them actually make more than $300,000 a year. #21 Planned Parenthood receives hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal government every single year. #22 The following is a description of the five steps involved in a partial birth abortion… 1) Guided by ultrasound, the abortionist grabs the baby’s legs with forceps. 2) The baby’s leg is pulled out into the birth canal. 3) The abortionist delivers the baby’s entire body, except for the head. 4) The abortionist jams scissors into the baby’s skull. The scissors are then opened to enlarge the skull. 5) The scissors are removed and a suction catheter is inserted. The child’s brains are sucked out, causing the skull to collapse. The dead baby is then removed. http://www.rightsidenews.com/2014011333741/life-and-science/culture-wars/what-should-be-done-to-a-country-that-kills-56-million-of-its-own-people.html

I pray to God our Father that He reveals the truths to you, and that you act upon them. The attack against the family is a spiritual battle against God , His values and His children rest assured this is  not a game! The enemy is serious about abolishing the family unit. He will stop at nothing to try and eradicate God , His morals, His bond of marriage, Godly manhood, Godly womanhood, Godly fatherhood, Godly motherhood from the hearts and minds of mankind.


The Spirit of the antichrist comes with a bow and no arrows, he conquers by his words and mankind submitting without a fight. Revelation 6:1-2 Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, "Come and see."And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer. 


He will persuade mankind to worship him and he brings with him all the destruction of hell which includes the chains of divorces, abortions, sexual perversion, homosexuality and the lack of morality
.
 God says we are to be Holy for He is Holy, we must live in this world but not be a part of this world, we are to live our lives as Christ did and submit to the authority of God. Read Colossians 3, Romans 14, Jude, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, and so on God's word is clear, His instructions clear, the question is will you serve the one and only God, or the gods of this world?


Isaiah 46:8-10 "Remember this, and show yourselves men; Recall to mind, O you transgressors.Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, 'My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,'


Pray for strength, wisdom and the will to stand up against up the death of our nation.

Hell is real

C. S. Lewis’s In The Great Divorce, describes a busload of people from hell who come to the outskirts of heaven. There they are urged to leave behind the sins that have trapped them in hell. The descriptions Lewis makes of people in hell are so striking because we recognize the denial and self-delusion of substance addictions. When addicted to alcohol, we are miserable, but we blame others and pity ourselves; we do not take responsibility for our behavior or see the roots of our problem. 

Lewis writes:Hell … begins with a grumbling mood, and yourself still distinct from it: perhaps even criticizing it. … You can repent and come out of it again. But there may come a day when you can do that no longer. Then there will be no you left to criticize the mood or even enjoy it, but just the grumble itself going on forever like a machine.

Modern people struggle with the idea of God’s thinking up punishments to inflict on disobedient people. When sin is seen as slavery and hell as the freely chosen, eternal skid row of the universe, hell becomes much more comprehensible.

Jesus said those who reject Him have condemned themselves (John 3:18) , so God does not send us there, we choose to go there. 1st, sin separates us from the presence of God (Isa. 59:2), which is the source of all joy (Ps. 16:11), love, wisdom or good thing of any sort (James 1:17)…

2nd, to understand hell we must understand sin as slavery. Romans 1:21-25 tells us that we were built to live for God supremely, but instead we live for love, work, achievement or morality to give us meaning and worth. Thus every person, religious or not, is worshiping something—idols, pseudo-saviors—to get their worth. But these things enslave us with guilt or anger or fear or a lust for things. Guilt, anger and fear are like fire that destroys us. Sin is worshiping anything but Jesus—and the wages of sin is slavery.

Perhaps the greatest paradox of all is that the people on Lewis’s bus from hell are enslaved because they freely chose to be. They would rather have their freedom as they define it than salvation. Their relentless delusion is that if they glorified God, they would lose their human greatness (Gen. 3:4–5), but their choice has really ruined their human greatness. Hell is, as Lewis says, “the greatest monument to human freedom.”

Hell Is Less Exclusive Than So-Called Tolerance Nothing is more characteristic of the modern mindset than the statement: “I think Christ is fine, but I believe a devout Muslim or Buddhist or even a good atheist will certainly find God.” A slightly different version is: “I don’t think God would send a person who lives a good life to hell just for holding the wrong belief.” This approach is seen as more inclusive.

In preaching about hell, then, I need to counter this argument: The universal religion of humankind is: We develop a good record and give it to God, and then he owes us.

The gospel is: God develops a good record and gives it to us, then we owe him (Rom. 1:17). In short, to say a good person, not just Christians, can find God is to say good works are enough to find God.

You can believe that faith in Christ is not necessary or you can believe that we are saved by grace, but you cannot believe in both at once.

So the apparently inclusive approach is really quite exclusive. It says, “The good people can find God, and the bad people do not.” But what about us moral failures? We are excluded.

The gospel says, “The people who know they aren’t good can find God, and the people who think they are good do not.” Then what about non-Christians, all of whom must, by definition, believe their moral efforts help them reach God? They are excluded.

So both approaches are exclusive, but the gospel’s is the more inclusive exclusivity. It says joyfully, “It doesn’t matter who you are or what you’ve done. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been at the gates of hell. You can be welcomed and embraced fully and instantly through Christ.” And Christ alone, John 14:6

Dr. Timothy Keller senior pastor of New York’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church