THE EXHORTATION THREAD (For Christians Who Love Jesus)

[LightShinesInTheDarkness]

Don't let what you see around you---both in Christianity and in the world---discourage you; let it motivate you to stand all the more in contrast to it, for the glory of God. 

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life... (Philippians 2:12-16)

[4LdKHVCzRDj2]

4 minutes ago, brakelite said:

James 4:17  Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

It is also sin if we decline to prayerfully and honestly investigate these issues when we have a Bible on the shelf which informs us to what is truth.

I can tell you that this verse is not talking about the good of keeping the Sabbath or abstaining from pork or such things.

"But food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse." - 1 Corinthians 8:8

 

Again, will you deny the witness of God who gave His Spirit to those who do not choose to follow such laws?!

"And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him." - Acts 5:32

 

Glory to God! Amen.

[LightShinesInTheDarkness]

42 minutes ago, brakelite said:

Yes, Colossians 2 is interesting. Verses 4 and 8 warns us to take no heed of those who would quote: spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Thus Paul is warning Christians that people outside of Christ would attempt to beguile them through falsehoods...from verse 18 we may deduce again that it was the deceivers, the ones outside of Christ, who was beguiling and judging the Christians in respect of those things mentioned in Verse 16. They had been imposing their man-made commandments and traditions upon the Colossians. Paul told them not to allow anyone to judge them concerning those matters. Is not Sunday...'Christ is my rest'...no special day...any day of the 7...all man-made beliefs for which there is no foundation in scripture? Has not the church been beguiled already to the extent that there is now so much hatred for Sabbath keeping as we now witness within Christendom and without any solid agreement on why?

The deception began in earnest with Rome and the setting of dates for Easter as opposed to Passover. Until that time, the church celebrated the death and resurrection at the same time as the Jewish passover...but the coercion used to bring all churches into the Papal umbrella with easter continued afterward with Sunday. Interesting history.

Be careful not to make rules out of things that are not rules; that is the way of demons (deceiving spirits) and the seed of heresies.

There are no commandments for Christians to keep the Sabbath, or any other Jewish day of observance or holiday, which were symbols of things which have their reality in Christ, and are worthless.

If you or others want to keep the Sabbath because you really believe that that is what the Lord wants you to do and that you're honoring Him by doing it, then that is your personal business. The Lord Himself will have to show you otherwise. But do not make your personal belief or conviction a rule for other Christians when there is no such commandment given to us. That most certainly is not pleasing to the Lord.

I would not see you unwittingly used of demons to lead people astray from the truth, however well-intentioned you may be, nor would I have any of my brothers and sisters in Christ influenced by this persuasion to their own confusion and potential detriment. You may not be aware that the persuasion of imposing Jewish laws and traditions on Christians is coming from demons, but I am. And I will not have it here on this thread. So if that is your persuasion and personal conviction, please keep it to yourself.  

Judaism is for unsaved Jews. Christianity is for Christians (whether they were Jews before they got saved or Gentiles). Our doctrine is the New Testament, which is Christ's law---not the law of Moses, which includes the keeping of the Sabbath and of the Ten Commandments as they are written in the Old Testament, rather than as Jesus amplified them in the New. We are not to add things to the law of Christ that are not there, nor take things away from it that are there, any more than the Jews were permitted to do this to the law of Moses. And the Sabbath is not there. (Neither are Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Easter, or Christmas, incidentally.)

There's no commandment for Christians to meet for fellowship on Sunday (i.e. the Lord's Day), but it was chosen by the early Christians because it is the day on which Jesus Christ rose from the dead---the first day of the Jewish week---and they did traditionally meet on that day, long before there was any Roman Catholic Church. The Lord's Day is not the Sabbath, nor is the Sabbath the Lord's Day. The Lord's Day has always been Sunday, and the Sabbath has always been Saturday. 

Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to the tomb. (Matthew 28:1)

On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight. (Acts 20:7)

Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come. (1 Corinthians 16:1,2)

I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day (not "the Sabbath"), and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet... (Revelation 1:10)

 

[frienduff thaylorde]

11 hours ago, Wayne222 said:

      You change the subject back to the Catholic church. You have nothing to say. You need to read the new testament for your own sake. I see your problem. You are trying to use worthy to promote disunity. You call it interfaith and claim it's bad. But not all is bad.  You never speak against the Islamic fascist. But the Catholic who are at peace you attack relentlessly. You need to read the bible very seriously. 

Wayen   ,   this unity move that rome and others are doing ,  its not about unity in Christ .  its just unity .   they may say its about Christ

but it aint .     This is exactly what I am trying to get all to avoid .    This whole unity move they preaching is nothing more than creation of an all inclusive one world religion.

IF you don't believe me ,  go back and research how it all began .     Islam is of satan .   I said that more than once.  and wayen the peaceful islam ones are too.

This is one big sham to get all to come together as one and do the bidding of a one world govt too.     Research it wayen .    You don't want to take my word for it

WELL then research it .   its spreading like cancer .

[frienduff thaylorde]

2 hours ago, LightShinesInTheDarkness said:

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another daily, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. (Hebrews 3:12,13)

Obviously, if it were impossible for a Christian to become hardened, or to fall away from God, there would be no need for this admonition. ("Falling away" by choosing to disobey to the Lord, not with the words of one's mouth. Unsaved people are already hardened, so why would the author caution them against becoming hardened by the deceitfulness of sin? Nor can they fall away from God, since they don't have Him in the first place.)

"My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by Him. For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives." (Hebrews 12:5,6)

Obviously, a Christian can choose to disregard the discipline of the Lord, or there would be no need to say this; and it's obviously written to Christians, because God doesn't discipline unsaved people, but only true sons, as the passage goes on to say.

The right response to God's discipline is repentance, submission and obedience. The wrong response is to shrug it off, ignore it, make excuses for what happened to you ("It wasn't the chastening of the Lord; it was just a coincidence or random misfortune..."), and keep on doing whatever it is you are being chastened for, which leads to the hardening of the heart: The desires and promptings of the Spirit become weaker, and the desires of the sinful nature and the love of oneself grows stronger, and it becomes that much easier to ignore Him. Be careful what you make a practice of doing, and mindful of the results of choosing the one or the other.

Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? (Hebrews 12:9)

(What do think will happen to a Christian who decides that he or she does not want to be subject to God, but would rather be 'free' and be his or her own master and king or queen---but still claim the promises of God?)

"Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion." For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was He provoked for forty years? What is not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. (Hebrews 3:15-19)

Again, hardening the heart against the words of God is a choice Christians have. Note that this passage, which is addressed to true Christians, and not to false Christians among true Christians, connects the word "unbelief" with actions: Rebellion; disobedience to what they had heard. This sin cost them the promise of entering God's rest. Hopefully you can see for yourself what the warning is here for Christians, not to do likewise; which there would be no reason for the Holy Spirit to give us if it were impossible for the same thing to happen to us. That's the whole point of the example.

If you believe what God has promised us, live like you believe it and do what He says to do to keep what you have, and complete your faith by your works, as Abraham did.

"Remember then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you." (Revelation 3:3)

Again, addressing Christians here. We know that the day of the Lord will come like a thief on those who are in darkness (without Christ in them), and that these apostate Christians in the church at Sardis were on their way out of Him because of their failure to keep what they had received. If they died spiritually, as some of them already had, the day of the Lord would come on them like a thief, just like it is going to come on all the unsaved. They would no longer be in the Light or have the Light in them, but would be left in darkness, without Jesus, for not obeying Him.

"Yet you still have a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life." (Revelation 3:4,5)

Unsaved people have no garments to soil or to wash. Jesus Christ is Christians' robe of righteousness, which unsaved people do not have. Christians can die spiritually, like those Christians in Sardis did, and they can have their names blotted out of the book of life. A person's name has to be in the book of life in the first place in order for it to be blotted out of it. And if it is blotted out, there's no restoration for that person.

So if your name is in the book of life, and your garments are soiled in the sight of God because you're not doing what you know you should be, wash them in the blood of Jesus by repenting, as it says in 1 John 1:9, and make sure you are keeping what you received, so that what happened to the Christians in Sardis, and was about to happen to the Christians in Laodicea, doesn't happen to you.

"Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts."

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from His works as God did from His.

Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4:7-13)

Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)

Remember: God's grace is sufficient for doing all His will, and we have a Helper. Be sure you're making the most of that precious gift, rather than squandering it, like that unfaithful servant who buried his master's money in the ground (Matthew 25:24-30). You know what happened to him.

 

 

What wonderful cleansing reminders .   and here is one about another church in revelations that shows TO the T that a person can have something and then fall from it

and end up put out if they repent not .      He speaks to the first church and tells them what wonderous things they are doing

how they have tested false apostels and so on .  He then says BUT YOU have LEFT , LEFT , LEFT your FIRST LOVE .

DO the works you had at the FIRST ,   if not your candle gets put out.  THIS SHOWS that they indeed once had that first love , but had FALLEN FROM IT

and would have their candle put out IF they did not return to what they FIRST HAD but had now lost .  WORD FOR WORD example of HOW this can happen.

I mean word for word showing how one can start out strong and fall back and then the warning REPENT or else .    But their are many places that show this

and if they twist those , then they will twist this too unto their own destruction . 

[LightShinesInTheDarkness]

Spirit of God Descend Upon My Heart 

(George Croly, 1854)

 

Spirit of God, descend upon my heart;
Wean it from earth; through all its pulses move.
Stoop to my weakness, mighty as Thou art,
And make me love Thee as I ought to love.

Hast Thou not bid me love Thee, God and King?
All, all Thine own, soul, heart and strength and mind.
I see Thy cross; there teach my heart to cling:
Oh, let me seek Thee, and, oh, let me find!

Teach me to feel that Thou art always nigh;
Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear,
To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh;
Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.

Teach me to love Thee as Thine angels love,
One holy passion filling all my frame;
The kindling of the heav’n-descended Dove,
My heart an altar, and Thy love the flame.

 

(library.timelesstruths.org/music)

[LightShinesInTheDarkness]

Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. (Romans 12:11)

[LightShinesInTheDarkness]

Not Forsaking The Assembling Of Ourselves Together...

You've probably heard this scripture before:

And let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:24,25 ESV)

Perhaps you've heard it used to support Christians going to church. But don't forget that there are also several scriptures about who we should not assemble with and when we should not assemble with other Christians.

God doesn't just want us to go to church because any church is better than none at all. It may not actually be His will for a Christian to belong to a church, if there is not suitable fellowship to be found. In which case, there is no necessity to attend one. Whatever we do, including who we assemble with, we should do because we know that it is what the Lord wants us to do personally, and not merely because it's habit or tradition or because others are telling us that we should. 

Those verses in Hebrews are referring to Christians who weren't assembling with one another for unrighteous reasons, not for legitimate reasons. They weren't meeting together because they had other priorities---selfish, earthly priorities---or simply didn't care to be bothered; the same reasons that some Christians don't attend church today. That is not the same as not assembling with other believers because the Lord has not led you to a church that is meeting your spiritual needs or doing what is pleasing to Him.

I'm not advocating church attendance, just pointing out the reason for this scripture. It's somewhat ironic that these verses speak about stirring one another up to love and good works and encouraging one another as the reason for our assembling with other Christians---and all the more as we see the Day approaching---when that is the opposite of what most churches in these last days are doing. They're not encouraging the saints to obey (love) the Lord, or others according to His instructions, or to set their minds on things above, but rather to live as they please and to live it up down here, with Jesus as a convenient accessory to their lives and not the center, substance, and Master of it. (Besides all of the various other false teachings the churches are full of and are promoting.)

Now is that the kind of assembly you believe the Lord wants you to be a part of?

Consider...

...In the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of Godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

And,

"Bad company ruins good morals." (1 Corinthians 15:33)

God cares about your spiritual well-being and edification. Be sure that you're following His lead in whoever you assemble with, if anyone at all besides Jesus Himself (and there's nothing wrong with one on One fellowship if that's all God is pleased to provide you with), and that you're not just going to church because you think you have to no matter what, or because the pastor told you that you should. Consider what the purpose of our assembling ourselves together is according to the teachings of the New Testament, and then consider whether the church you are attending is serving those purposes; and, in light of that, why you believe the Lord wants or doesn't want you to be in a given assembly.

Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by Your name, O LORD, God of hosts. I did not sit in the company of revelers, nor did I rejoice; I sat alone, because Your hand was upon me, for You had filled me with indignation. (Jeremiah 15:16,17)

[Wayne222]

6 hours ago, Heleadethme said:

Catholicism is a hybrid religion......part pagan, part Christian.  This is why in countries that are predominantly catholic, we see the people continuing to practice their pagan religions alongside Catholicism.....and reaping the terrible judgments and consequences of it.....bondages, superstitions, poverty, disease etc.  And Catholicism is fine with that, they do not preach or exhort the people to depart from their old way of life and sin.......because it is in harmony with the mixture/hybrid that Catholicism is.  The Catholic church doesn't really care about the souls of those unfortunate people, it doesn't care what else they do as long as they also remain under the thumb of the catholic institution and boosts its numbers and power.  There is a difference between loving individual Catholic people/souls and loving the institution they are in bondage to.....because I can tell you that God hates that insititution that is leading souls that He loves to hell in His name.  Dont' be deceived brother......the devil himself poses as an angel of light, so do not be deceived by emotion and outward appearances, but remember Whose SOLDIER we are supposed to be.  Having on His armour and weaponry............discern error, point and shoot it back to hell, don't make friends with it and don't be unequally yoked with it......just blow it out of the water as a good soldier of Christ, in whatever manner the situation calls for as led by the Spirit, and try to free its hostages.

Catholicism claims Christ but denies the new birth and Holy Spirit.  So it is very deceitful in leading their flocks astray, as well as posing  a spiritual danger to Christians who they are aggressively trying to seduce back into their fold.  By far the majority of Catholics are not born again and are still in their sins, though they are taught they are going to heaven based on their adherence to the Catholic church and its "sacraments".....some may even be sincere, but still sincerely lost, sadly.  Because their church  withholds and doesn't teach what they so badly need to hear that they might be truly saved and become disciples of Christ.  I don't doubt there are a few individual catholics who are born again, by the grace of God, though they are a very small minority, who i think have little hope of maturing within Catholicism.  The Islamic religion does not claim to be Christian, they are simply lost souls who need the gospel.....and hence are not a danger to the church, apart from physical persecution, which is not a spiritual danger at all, but an advantage.  There is no comparison between those who do evil in the name of Christ and those who are simply lost.

So I just do not understand your point here brother...........does unity in Christ mean that we throw out most of the new testament and don't preach it.  It was written for those who are born again, as a light unto our path.  As well as that the lost might find the way to salvation.  It needs to be preached and taught like a never ending flowing fountain....that all may come and wash in the water of the word as they have need.  Let it be lifted up on a lampstand for all to see and hear the way to Zion, as a beacon, not put under a bushel.

You have many untruths in your post. The Catholic church is not half pagan for one. And what church do you belong with ? I bet you will not tell me. Hating the Catholic church and making her evil is not biblical. This board is full of haters now. Wolves in sheep clothing. 

[Wayne222]

Islam is the Antichrist religion.  Anyone who says otherwise is false. The Catholic church does not deny Christ came in the flesh. Islam does deny Christ came in the flesh. Our enemy is Islam. Wake up people.