THE SIN ISSUE IS OVER

I know, I know. I know what you are thinking. He we go again with this forgiveness of sin issue. I know I have dealt with this before concerning the fact that our sins are forgiven past, present and future. Some may believe that their sins are forgive one at a time. However we are not under the law (Old Covenant). We are under the New Covenant.

Well, we are studying the book of Hebrews. Do you know that the book of Hebrews is the least studied book in the Bible? Because many think it is just for the Jews. And it is a lot of technical jargon.

However we are studying the book of Hebrews and we are starting chapter eight and it deals with the sin issue. Jesus has taken His seat. What does that mean?  It means forgiveness is not repeated, it is once and for all forgiveness.

There is a lot in chapter eight that explain the old testament priest and Christ. It explains in full detail that the sin issue is over. Please read it for yourself.

Jesus did not atone for our sins, He took them away once and for all. John had a revelation when he said “Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world.” He did not cover them like the bulls and goats, but takes them away.

HE REMEMBERS THEM NO MORE. Enough said for now!

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JESUS CHRIST VERSUS CHRISTMAS

This will be a very short blog today. Why? Because I want to bring in focus one person and one person only. His name is JESUS CHRIST! Do me a favor and read Colossians 1:16-20. After you read this, then ask yourself is He the most important person in Christianity? Do you hear His name enough in church and in sermons? Is He the focus of every message and every direction the church is going?

Shouldn’t His name be mentioned more than Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, and Pastors and Teachers? Shouldn’t He be consulted on everything, since He is everything?

I am not exempt from this blog. I too must give Him the preeminence! We all do. So as the holiday season gets in full bloom (Christmas), Lets take the lead as His children to see to it that Jesus Christ is the focus and not the supporting cast.

Oh and by the way, there isn’t three wise men. So stop the three wise men decor!  It was the wise men bringing three things.

 

HEBREW CHAPTER 7 IS NOT TELLING US TO TITHE!

First of all, I am not bashing anyone who is paying tithes. If that’s what you want to to do, fine, but there is not a blessing or curse if you do or don’t. Now, chapter seven of Hebrews is the chapter most people use to confirm that tithe paying is right for the believer. One of the reasons they say is because this happen before the law. So, if it happen before the law, then you can use it post-law (New Covenant).

I have a question. I have plenty, but I will just ask one. If that is the case, how come the new testament epistles never mention it? Matter of fact, the new testament epistles teach us how to give. It’s from the heart. Wouldn’t you see one verse at least mentioning to give a tenth?

This is a history lesson with Abraham. Is Abraham the model? Look at what he did. He slaughtered kings, and stole their spoils. Is he a good model today? It was about respecting a foreign priest and it was a western tradition to give a tenth of spoils of war. Abraham respected a priest not from the levitical priesthood. Jewish law states that only Levi priest can receive tithes, so why is this guy receiving tithes?

This chapter is a tale of two covenants. Where is the instruction to give a tithe? It’s not there! The passage is about the priesthood of JESUS CHRIST! I can say much more, however there is one statement in this chapter that says it all and I will leave it at that. HEBREWS 7:12 “FOR THE PRIESTHOOD BEING CHANGED, THERE IS MADE OF NECESSITY A CHANGE ALSO OF THE LAW. BOOM! This is the point of this chapter!

FAITH IS NOT WISHFUL THINKING ON STEROIDS! (THEN WHAT IS IT?)

FAITH IS NOT WISHFUL THINKING ENHANCED BY THE STEROIDS OF POSTIVE EXPECTATION.  Steve McVey

This word faith has cause most christians to lose their collective minds. When we say, have faith, what does that mean? Have you told someone to have faith? Were you on the receiving end of that statement? How did it make you feel? Did you ever have faith and you knew your faith was strong and you believed in the outcome that you wanted, but it didn’t happen?  Where you crushed, hurt and depressed? Did you feel you didn’t have enough faith? You needed more faith? People have left the church and God because they believed and had faith and prayed to God for a certain outcome and it didn’t happen. Boy, that hurts! I have been there more times than I care to remember.

Faith is not external. You can’t have more faith. You can’t muster up faith. You can’t wish it. Faith is not positive thinking. Faith doesn’t come from us. Faith is a person and His name is JESUS CHRIST! We don’t need to pray for faith. In Him we already have it. Faith is internal! Faith is Him.

This is what Steve Mcvey says in his book, Beyond an Angry God. “Just as obedience and repentance are ours through the indwelling Christ, so is faith ours to enjoy simply by recognizing that He is its source. Faith doesn’t originate from us. The question is not whether your belief is big enough or strong enough or pure enough to receive the outcome you want. Faith is about Jesus! He doesn’t hope for a certain outcome. He knows. You’ll be much better off leaning into His faith than trying to crank out your own.”

So the bottom line is believe in Jesus’ finished work and have the faith of Jesus and leave the outcome to Him. Every outcome will be better than you will imagine. Ephesians 3:20 says, “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us.”  And that power is Jesus.

LEGALISTIC DISCIPLESHIP VS. GRACE DISCIPLESHIP BY MARK MAULDING

I want share with you something from Mark Maulding.

A lot of discipleship may be rooted in the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Let me explain what I mean. The knowledge of good and evil passed down to every human being from Adam and Eve has programmed us to think a certain way. The world thinks, “I’m a good person if I do good things. I’m a bad person if I do bad things'” The Christian world thinks, “I’m a good Christian if I do the good things the Bible says to do. I’m a bad Christian if I sin.” All of that thinking is law-based instead of grace-based.

Discipleship often has the goal of Christian behavior modification using Scripture to exhort a Christian to act good instead of bad. The focus is on changing behavior, not replacing the knowledge of good and evil thinking with Tree of Life thinking. In one sense, you might say this discipleship is trying to get Christians to jump from the bad side of the tree to the good side. But the good side is still the same tree and the fruit is legalism. I don’t think those who disciple this way have evil motives or are aware of what they are doing. They just do it because that is how they were taught, I was once one of them!

God wants our discipleship to be rooted in the Tree of Life so He can produce the fruit of the Spirit. This means, he wants to replace our stinking thinking with grace-based thinking. No wonder Paul didn’t tell the Roman Christians to do anything for the first eleven chapters! He strategically explained the Gospel of grace line by line. He only told them to believe and yield to God in Romans 6:11 and 14 Consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

Then, in chapter 12, he tells them to let Christ live through their bodies and to live with a renewed mind. What he meant was, he wanted them to let the clear Gospel message he had written to them push out their knowledge based thinking with grace based thinking. After making it clear to them that they have a new identity in Christ which loves to please God, he tells them how believing this will change their behavior to what pleases God.

Do you ever find yourself tired of trying to change your behavior to line up with Scripture? Are you worn out? That’s what burned me out 25 years ago until God broke through my garrison of legalistic discipleship and began to replace it with grace discipleship. The first one almost killed me. The latter has given me a life of freedom, I could have never imagined, which I am still growing in.

 

 

STOP TASTING AND EAT IT ALL! (GRACE)

Have you every went to a store and they had those little trays of samples? And they come up to you so you can try their samples, so you can purchase what you have tasted? The purpose is so you can buy what you have sampled. Most of the time you take the sample, but you turn and walk away without buying it.

I think this is what is happening to those that really don’t get the grace message. Remember, the Good News is the grace of God. The Gospel is sharing the grace of God. People are taking a peak, but not going all the way in. They are tasting, but not fully swallowing it.

You are just like the Jews who saw what Jesus did and experienced the miracles and the healings and the grace and love of God but turned back to the temple. They couldn’t grasp this small band of men that had power verses the great big temple that has been the center of their existence since time began.

I challenge you to go in all the way and experience the grace of God for yourself. I challenge you to look at the scriptures with your eye balls and not someone else. I implore you to release your faith in Jesus Christ and not in religion that separates you from the pure love of Jesus Christ.

Don’t taste, but swallow it and you will experience Christ personally and not religiously!!!!

WHAT IS THE GOSPEL?

There are so many doctrines out there. There are so many interpretations out there. So many opinions out there concerning the bible. Who is right? Who is correct? Everybody has their own thoughts concerning the bible. Who do you trust? I will tell you! Trust the Author, not the writers.

One thing I do know. The Author didn’t tell us to preach the Bible. He said study to show theyself approved unto God… rightly divide the Word of truth. What is truth, or should I say, who is truth.  The Bible tells us to preach the Word. We may have mistaken the Word for the Bible. Maybe? Because what is the Word? Or should I say who is the Word. Then again what or who is the whole bible about? I am not trying to answer any of these questions for you. But I do what you to ask them yourself.

Divide what truth? Who is truth? Another question you should ask yourself. What I do know is we should be spreading the GOSPEL! Preaching the GOSPEL. Sharing the GOSPEL. Paul says, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel.”  What is the GOSPEL?

Again these are questions that you and I should be asking. I believe the GOSPEL is the answer to everything. I think the GOSPEL is what all of us need. The bible tells you what the GOSPEL IS and what the GOSPEL will do. So I encouraged you to search for yourself  and ask the Spirit to reveal it and enlighten you. HE WILL!

THAT’S WHAT I AM DOING!

WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT BEING PLACED AND BEING IN CHARGE FROM WATCHING EMPIRE!

Jeremiah 3:15 says “and I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. Colossians 1:18 also says “He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning… So from what I gather is that Jesus Christ is the head of the Church. He will give you pastors. So can we conclude that Pastors are not in charge of the church. Jesus Christ is!

So with that being said, we as Pastors have been placed, but not in charge. we have to understand the difference. To be in place means you are the steward to managed which has been given to you, but you’re not in charge.  We act like we have the final say and we are in charge. That Jesus reports to us instead of the other way around.

This is a great revelation to understand and operate in. Because when Jesus is in charge we have His resources to operate His church. When we are in charge, we have our own resources which is not sustainable. Which would you rather have?  So Pastors when we start to ego trip remember we have been placed and not in charge. You will be muich happier.

DOES THE CHURCH KNOW JESUS REALLY?

Everywhere I read in the new testament and the new covenant it says IN Christ. Whatever we need is IN Christ. If any man be IN Christ, he is a new creature. Your life is IN Christ. Deliverance is IN Christ. Healing is IN Christ. Peace is IN Christ. Joy is IN Christ. So I have a question. If Jesus Christ is so important, why isn’t Christ the focus in every church? Why is most sermons about us with Him sprinkle in? Why is everybody else name mentioned more than His?

How come we don’t learn everything about Him?  How come we don’t spend a lot of time with Him? If He is the head of the church, why don’t we consult Him about the church. It says grace and peace are multiplied to us through the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ. Why aren’t we teaching His people about Him.

We know church policy. We know the books of the bible. We know how to do church. We know how to run an organization. We know how to secure positons in the church. We know the stories in the bible. We know how to craft a sermon. We know a lot of things about the church. BUT DO WE KNOW HIM?

His last title He gives Himself in Revelation is “I AM THE FIRST AND THE LAST.” That tells you everything you need to know about His importance.

ENOUGH SAID!!!

1 John 1:9

This is from Joseph Prince new book Grace Revolution. This is a power explanation of 1 John 1:9. 

In the two instances where we see the word “sins” in 1 John 1:9, it is the Greek noun hamartia (“a missing of the mark”) indicates “a principle or source of action, or an inward element producing acts… A governing principle or power.”  In other words, it refers to the sin principle, or our sinful state on account of Adam’s sin. By using the noun form of this word, John was clearly not referring to our committing of individual acts of sin, or he would have used the verb form, hamartano. 

     In the light of this, can you see how 1 John 1:9 is not talking about confessing our sins every time we sin in thought or in deed?  John was speaking of the need to acknowledge and confess to God that we are sinners because of Adam’s sin, as well as to receive the total forgiveness for all our sins through Jesus’ finished work. How often do we need to do this?  Only once. That’s why 1 John 1:9 is primarily a salvation verse, one that encourages the sinner to acknowledge and confess his sinful state or “sinner hood,” get born again by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and have his sinful state through Adam replaced with a new righteous state through Christ. 

The heretical Gnostic doctrine did not subscribe to a belief in man’s sinful state. John was addressing this heresy directly in the first chapter of 1 John and encouraging the Gnostics to confess their sinful state and receive the Lord’s complete forgiveness and total cleansing from all their unrighteousness through His finished work at the cross. 

Powerful lesson!!!