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The Water of the Word |
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2nd Timothy
I know the middle ages or the dark ages was perilous and very evil, wicked and seemingly very little of the truth was known but somehow I don't think this is speaking of those days. Verse 2 gives us a description of the days we are talking of here.
This describes the day we are living in. We may think; is this stuff worse than what happened in the middle ages when people were killed for their faith? In reality this is happening now in many countries in great numbers. Our mainline news does not report it but we can read about it in voices of the martyrs and other publications. It is a death sentence in some countries to convert to Jesus Christ. When one considers the holocaust, WW1 and 2, Stalin's purges and the ethnic cleansing in Africa, Bosnia and other places, it is just as bad as in the dark ages. Yet we see something different here. We see lovers of self. We have so many self help books, programs and courses on how to improve one's self, how to build self-esteem, how to succeed, and how to get rich. Self has become a god. This produces boasting, high-mindedness, pride and vanity. Seeking raises, riches and material things is caused by greed. If we want something to the point of cheating someone else to get it, we are coveting after the thing. Disobedience to parents is a norm rather than something rare. When I read the newspaper comment board, no one is ever happy about anything. One political party blames the other one for all the evils in the world. They do almost anything to get elected even if they have to false accuse an opponent and send him or her to jail,; they don't care. They will go after anyone that gets in their way. For what? When they die, they face their maker and it is all for nothing. We murmur, complain and gripe about everything under the sun. I would guess that the nations that have the most comfortable lifestyles are the people who gripe the most. All this makes us unholy. Holiness is a word that we have forgotten.
When we fail to have natural affection toward our own immediate families, we are in big trouble for this will eventually lead to what Jesus said about children delivering up their parents to death and people betraying one another. This could come under trucebreakers. Incontinent means without self-control. Nothing is wrong and nothing is restrained. This can lead to becoming fierce and savage toward those who oppose us. These despise those that are good. Those that try to reprove them will be hated.Those that hate the truth will accuse people falsely but even believers need to watch this one. We have to have discernment but we need to be careful not to beat up our fellow servants with false accusations. If we don't know something for sure, let us pray for a person and leave them up to God. If someone teaches falsely, we don't have to listen to them but before we run to our neighbor and blab, let's choose to weep and cry out to God over the wayward person before doing anything.
Many love to have fun and live the good life more than they love God or love His word. We must pray that our churches do not compromise the truth of God's word to draw large crowds. You get a church where people are filled with the Holy Spirit, on fire for God and full of love for the word, and it will draw the crowds. People are hungry for something real. High-mindedness is another form of selfishness. One is lifted up in pride and thinks himself higher than others. We must stay humble and meek in spirit but still be bold for the word of the Lord and spreading the gospel of Jesus. Heady means to act with rashness. Quick to do evil without considering the needs of others. Going headlong into trouble without taking the advice of a wise counselor is being heady. Traitors of course is one who betrays others to save his own skin.
Here is the difference between the false and the real. We can have a form of godliness in many ways. Formal worship, outward appearance, rituals, creeds, sacraments, baptisms, and many others things but deny the power of God to change lives, to save souls, to baptize in the Holy Spirit or to do the impossible that will make a difference in our everyday lives. God is alive, real, near and accessible. He can make a murderer into a saint. We must never give up on any one if they are still living among us. God has the power to save the worst one of us. A lady who claimed to be a Christian asked my sister one time in a place where she worked, if she was one of those that believed in being "born again". She said it in a negative way like it was something, not good. I was a little surprised by that for I assumed every Christian religion that was at least Protestant believed in being born again to be saved. That was the whole reason Jesus came so we who were sinners can repent of sin and have that sin removed. When we believe in Jesus enough to turn from sin, we are then "born again" by the Holy Spirit. There is no other way to make heaven. That is why Jesus came and died for sin so that we could be free from sin. Just going to a Christian church cannot save anyone. They have to have a real powerful encounter with the savior, Jesus Christ. If we deny this, we are denying the power as the verse mentions. We have to know Jesus. Then and only then can we be fully baptized in the Holy Spirit. We must never stop short of this power. The Holy Spirit is what convicts the sinner, saves the lost and empowers the believers to preach, teach and do the works of Jesus Christ. To deny this power is to have a dead boring dry church.
I guess weak ungodly women are more prey to these type of men who are false teachers who are out for followers after themselves so they can control people. Some not only use women for harems and prostitution but go so far as to teach that they can marry many women and those women become completely obedient to their husbands. Some have even married women that are already married. They lord over these women and even some men who fall for their deception. One danger in these cults is that they deceive women into thinking they cannot be saved unless they marry a prophet or the men they are assigned to marry for salvation. It is an utter deception to make someone other than Jesus, the way of salvation. Some religions have temple prostitutes. Sexual immorality among religious leaders is common. Some even see nothing wrong with it themselves but will try to make it appear to the world that they do not believe in these things. What I'm going to say here is only for those that do these things and have no desire to repent, change, or yield to the correction of the Holy Spirit. I refuse to even listen to a preacher that doesn't love his wife and treat her with respect and kindness. If he has a roving eye or what we use to call a ladies' man, I want nothing to do with anything they have to say. If they can't be filled with the spirit enough to stay faithful to one wife, they don't need to be telling me anything about God. In saying that though, I know one can make this mistake but repent. There is always provision for repentance and change for that is why Jesus Christ came. When I write these things, I know that I can also be tempted and yield to temptation. It is when we justify ourselves and refuse to repent that causes the problems. However, if one continues in sin with no repentance and even goes so far as to excuse and justify themselves using the Old Testament patriarchs as examples, then they need not tell me anything, I don't want to hear it. We live in the time when the Holy Spirit is poured out on anyone who desires to repent of sin and live for Jesus Christ. We don't have to go back into the sin Jesus saves us from and be a slave to lust and the filth of this world.
There is some that have said that the above verse means ever learning about the bible and things of God but I disagree with that. There is never anything wrong with learning and studying in depth in the scriptures. I believe it refers to the learning of this world that teaches and opposes God. While I believe in education, that also has become our god. We have so many schools of higher education but guess who is left out? Jesus Christ is unconstitutional in a country God has blessed above all others. Shame, shame, shame on us. And we wonder why we have abortion on demand, no respect for parents or authority, high divorce rates, and sexual immorality.
Even in the United States, if we try to tell someone what sin is, they will accuse us of being hate mongers. Sexual sin is a tough thing to deal with in this area. Yet it needs to be addressed if we love people's souls. If we do not warn them of this lifestyle and the consequences, they will not just lose their souls for eternity, they will lose their lives. Their lives are shorter than the average person who does not engage in these things. Human trafficking has increased and they lure children into it to try to avoid disease which means that is it not consenting adults but innocent children abused in this way. It is the most ugly evil sin, I can think of when they exploit innocent children. Sin of any kind is taking us to hell. Jesus came to free us from sin and give us the Holy Spirit to abide with us forever. We don't have to live in sin.
Fruits of a faithful spiritual leader will be sound doctrine, godly living, longsuffering (forbearance or putting up with the weak believers or unbelievers), love and patience.
You don't see much persecution among the Christian churches which never reprove sin or stand for godly living. It is those that stand for holiness that get the persecution and false accusations thrown at them. True holiness though has to come through the Holy Spirit as He leads us into a deeper walk with Jesus Christ. It is not just outward appearance or keeping doctrines that are not in the bible. Holiness must come from within our hearts. It may affect the way we dress, the places we go and such but we do those things because we are saved and filled with the spirit, we don't do those things to get saved and be filled with the spirit. We must not teach holy living as the way of salvation itself. There are a lot of religions that stress outward holiness that don't even believe in Christ. Jesus said that our righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees. Holiness has to come from the Holy Spirit living within our innermost being. It is much better to choose not to do something because the Holy Spirit in me has taken out the desire to do the thing than to try to give up something because I think I can't be saved unless I do or because I'm trying to be more saved than I am now. Instead the Holy Spirit can infill us so much that the things we thought we needed will be far from our desires. God has something much better for every believer than the riches of the world. There is nothing we ever give up that He hasn't got something better to replace it with. We need to seek spiritual blessings and forget about the material blessings. God will supply what we need if we trust Him and quit worrying about it.
The less we study the word, the more the chances are that we can be deceived. We need the word and we need the spirit of God to keep us from deception. While we must love one another and realize that we are going to disagree on some things, we must beware of any deceptions that Jesus warns us of.
We can be thankful that God has provided us with the written word today. It is in almost every bookstore, on the Internet and freely given by some organizations.
That is why God gives us pastors, teachers, evangelists, workers, and mostly the Holy Spirit so that we grow in the knowledge of the word and be equipped to share His gospel to the whole world. DC |
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