Keep the dogs away from spiritual gatherings

(Note to the few misguided Christian friends on Facebook that like to shock and awe Christian brothers and sisters with outlier opinions: This post is the correct way to cause reaction. Use Bible verse, explain your position, and then wait for the fireworks to explode!)

Scripture classifies dogs as being wild, violent, and filthy:

Matthew 15:26 (KJV 1900)
26 But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.

Original Hebrew and Greek confirms this:

Dogs – 3264 κύων (kuōn), dat. pl. κυσίν (kysin), ὁ (ho): n.masc.; ≡ DBLHebr 3978; Str 2965; TDNT 3.1101—1. LN 4.34 dog, a more wild dog, or a street dog, capable of violence and filthy habits (Mt 7:6; Lk 16:21; 2Pe 2:22+); 2. LN 88.122 bad person, figurative extension of prior entry (Php 3:2+), for another interp, see next; 3. LN 88.282 sexually immoral, implying perversion (Rev 22:15+)

(Swanson, James. 1997. In Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Greek (New Testament), electronic ed. Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc.)

Christian Leaders! Keep the Dogs Away From the Holy!

1. It is NOT good or advantageous to take the children (in Christ)’ teachings to learn spiritual growth and give it to dogs instead.

2. The meaning of the Greek word for “Dogs” is a wild or street dog capable of violence and filthy habits.

3. The typological meaning in Scripture for dogs is a sexually immoral, perverse, bad person that is capable of violence and filthy habits.

As a Christian leader that knows the Biblical typological meaning of “Dog,” a literal beast who cannot receive salvation or eternal life, I have objection to bringing the animal into a church setting for Holy Blessings. I also have a fondness for my pet dog, and I am appreciative of its service of love to me and my family. However, I believe great care must be given by Christian leaders that the Holy Duties of Church leadership must NOT be cast away to the literal beasts as represented in Scripture.

Though often a popular rite in some Christian churches to gather their pets for a Holy Blessing, simple people that love their pets greatly are sometimes given peace through this practice. However, in my opinion it is unbiblical and casts the Holy away from the righteous Believers that depend fully upon proper conduct by their Christian leadership.

Though the Rainbow Bridge poem seems to somehow assure pet lovers that their dogs are on their way to Heaven, I find no evidence of this in Scripture. Keep dogs out of the spiritual places and worship of God! And for your sake and God’s, don’t add to the Word of God because you love your pet so much, you are convinced that all dogs go to Heaven. They do NOT!

Our Kids are our business

One in four girls, and one in five boys will experience sexual abuse before they reach the age of 18. Children, on average, must report this abuse eight times before an adult will believe them and take action. The abuse most often is from a family member, who wields control over the child through intimidation, and the abuser counts on the victims vulnerability to keep the dirty secrets hidden.

Victims of sexual abuse should not have to struggle with the things of darkness that enter into their world after their innocence is snatched away, but they do repeatedly, because they have no one in their lives to help them escape. When we hear about the sexual abuse of young ones, we rightfully condemn the wicked and lustful acts of the perpetrator, and shout out our repulsion of their acts, but we fail our children daily when we blind ourselves to the dangers within our own communities.

The reality for Christians is this: the devil will try to destroy as many innocent souls as he can before they are able to mature to the place of accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. Satan does this by controlling the lust of the heathen, to bring the dirtiness of sexual shame upon young victims, to keep those victims believing they are unworthy to receive the things of God.

The devil isn’t stupid, people. He chooses his victims with care, making sure that the young ones are vulnerable to the pervert’s threats to keep the all important secret. He chooses the households where the focus is not on the children, but on the drama of the adults. He chooses the homes where the woman will sacrifice one of her young for the stability and companionship of the same man that will abuse her child in the dark, behind closed doors. The devil chooses to find those innocent victims that might one day grow to conquer his hold, and snatches their ability before they reach that awareness through the shame, rejection and dirtiness of his lustful ways.

Our Kids are Our Business! As Christian leaders we must take strong stands and shout from our bully pulpits that children matter most, and protection can be found within our presence! As followers of Jesus Christ we must stand up and be counted as willing to provide sanctuary, to support victims, to seek justice and hold the abuser accountable, and to embrace those rejected as a result of that secret being exposed. If we do not stand against this wicked movement of the devil, then our proclamations of faith are weak and unworthy.

In Bible times of old, the sacrifice of children were made for the false Gods, and we are horrified to consider those things of past could have happened. Every time a child is subjected to the sexual abuse of a pervert, he is being sacrificed to the God of lust. Every time a child must keep a secret in order to be safe, that child is being sacrificed. Every time a child is not protected by other family members from the horrible abuses of the devil, that child is being sacrificed. Every time a mother turns a blind eye to the child’s torture, that child is being sacrificed.

Every time a community ignores the problems of the sexual abuse of their children, then not only are the children sacrificed, but also the standards of decency, honor and righteousness are thrown to the ground. Oh how the devil delights in treading upon the victims and the blind communities as he establishes another foothold, for another day and another innocent child.

Our Kids are our Business – Stand up and Stop Child Abuse Now!

Sins of the Heart are the Standards of Christ

Matthew 5:27–28 (KJV 1900)
27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: 28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

Many religious folks mention the adultery problem of the heart that can lead to severe Judgment of the Lord. What they don’t often realize is that EVERY Law that the LORD God gave in the Old Testament has a companion “HEART CONDITION” also. The Lord Jesus Christ gave us a few examples; you can be assured that every sin known to mankind has both an actual condition and a heart condition. Consider that for a moment.

See, we can’t congratulate ourselves for not sinning with adultery or murder. We were raised with parents or Christian church leadership or had good morals that taught us right from wrong. As different possible sins enter our heart we keep them secret for as long as we can and believe that we are not sinning if we avoid the ultimate sins. Right? We think about those terrible and evil sinners that actually commit horrendous crimes of sin-filled behaviour. We aren’t like them, are we? We have the self-control to hide our thoughts, and not react to them as those low-life wicked people, right? They didn’t have good parents or good Christian leadership. That’s why they are bad, and why we are good is what many think to themselves.

But wait! Christ’s standards looks toward the heart as well as the action. If you were a Jew, you would certainly be in disobedience to God’s Commandment if you were to physically have sex with another that is married to someone else. But, under Christ’s standard, you are guilty of disobedience to God’s Commandment by just having lust in your heart.

But it goes even further! Christ’s standard of avoiding lust in the heart does not just apply to adultery, but to all sins that are in disobedience to righteousness.

Christian men. If you increase your lust for women by looking upon pornography, you are committing adultery! That is the condition of the heart.

Christian women. If you are imagining all kinds of ways for the man that has hurt you terribly to die and thinking over and over how much happier your life would be without him, you are guilty of killing him through your lust, even if you don’t commit the physical act! That is the condition of the heart.

Always consider the heart when you consider ALL sins, and you will have deep understanding of the increased Standards of Christ. If you don’t, you are breaking the requirements of Christ. And you are empowering the devil who tries to trick strong Christians through their hearts to sin; he knows that you are strong enough to avoid most sins; but the heart can be tricked through justification of inaction.

I am not a preacher, and I will not sermonize any more. Either you follow Him and keep His standards, or you do not. If you do not, and teach others through your life examples, you will not receive promotion on the New Earth, and you will never be the person God made you to be. If you continue with heart sin, you will suffer loss as Jesus takes away from your reward for not following His specific heart standards.

Letter of rebuttal to Christian writer

I wrote a strong letter of rebuttal toward a fellow Christian worker, and I am very saddened to do it. He was arrogantly bragging upon his perceived five-fold gifts in an email to me, and declaring himself to be more superior than most Christian leaders as evidenced by His blessed apostleship, supernatural activities. What makes it even more sad, is the Holy Spirit laid it on my heart to share this on Facebook, because there are more faithful workers being led away from their walk with Christ daily. I pray that these words can stop the blind movement of even one of His cherished workers and bring them back to the Word of God.

Email begins:

I think we are in full agreement that the LORD God is moving key players into position for these End Times. I also believe that these chosen people are being graced with supernatural gifts to accomplish the tasks that God Wills, as necessary and for specific use.

What makes me nervous with your explanation, however, is that you talk about it, and I’m not seeing you prove it with His Word. Up to this point, I have been watching your ministry, and reading your words, to discern and consider your role in the various movements that are occurring now under the direction of our God and the wily countermoves of the devil.

This is what I know for certain. Those who are being equipped for the battle, those who are being raised up to bring His Will forward, those who are being placed in strategic spiritual minefields to clear the way for the lost to find their way toward Christ in these End Days aren’t talking about it. In fact, it is the quietness among His workers, the protection of the top secret things that we know and are preparing for that causes us to differ from our enemies. One part of that supernatural moving of God allows each of His True Workers to recognize the others who are faithful and trustworthy in His Kingdom.

Here is the biggest problem with the Internet; true workers for the LORD God are so busy trying to declare their authority, gifts and talents, to shut-up the naysayers and the laughing fools who challenge faithful work, that they stop doing the work of the Lord, and start playing into the agenda of carnal man. Part of that agenda includes causing the spiritual leaders to focus on proving themselves over and over and over, to write with words that sound heavenly and above the normal speak of man, and complicate the doctrine and points with an intelligent rendering that appears to go over the top of peoples heads, but makes the speaker a foolish toy to be manipulated and condemned.

So, my friend, let me put it in the simple words that I speak. Your doctrine as expressed in this letter is part of the movement of Satan to begin the establishment of his complete wicked rule. Your free use of terms that are recognized by me to have originated from specific movements by Lucifer, causes me to reject everything you say. And that makes me sad. Because I am not certain in my soul that you are doing the bidding of the devil. I have seen glimpses of light in some of the things you have shared, and I most certainly have considered the words you spoke while declaring a moving of the Holy Spirit. I have investigated your background, and have known for some time of the disdain of the general Christian community for you.

On the other hand, I am very familiar with these days, and know that many of His greatest workers are being placed in those same situations. You are a difficult one to weigh, my friend. I’ve made allowance for your grand speech patterns and polluted words that the devil sends my way often. I have chalked it up to the tremendous stresses each of the Faithful face daily in trying to accomplish the works God Wills with the assault of the wicked on the Internet trying to stop it at every turn.

Bluntly speaking, if you keep using the words that you are using today, if you continue to form your doctrine around the basis of these words you speak, you are going to be used in helping Satan establish his rule. You are not going to be aware of it, and in fact, you are going to feel empowered and powerful with many supernatural abilities given to you by the dark one, to delude you into thinking you are doing the things of God. The devil is going to blind you and manipulate you and cause you to reject anyone who tells you the truth. As I write this, I am praying that Jesus allows you to hear the words I am speaking, because truly, I am speaking to a friend in Christ, who desperately seeks to do His bidding, but has somehow become trapped in the enemies clutches.

It doesn’t have to be this way. I suspect that you took a wrong turn at a point when God had given you some great spiritual gifts, and the devil stepped in to teach you how to use them. Sometimes that happens, and is not as much your fault as it is the person who was tasked by God to ensure that you as a babe in Christ and new to the spiritual gifts would learn the correct way in welding them. I sure would be interested one day in learning the exact moment this happened to you, and would delight in making evil pay for trying to steal a lover of God away.

This is what you need to do. Start back at the beginning. Open your Bible and study. Build that foundation back up. See who God has placed in your path to help you get past the clutches of Satan, and move once again according to His Word.

Apparently, you are a valuable worker in His eyes, and even though you have been tricked, God has allowed you to continue to possess the skills in these confusing times. Apparently, you are valuable to me as a fellow worker and a Christian friend, to fight Satan where he has chosen to battle.

My friend, you are standing right there at a crossroads. If you choose the side of God, you may well feel depressed and little and unworthy as He reteaches you His Word and prevents you from using the gifts until you are skillful. If you choose the side of Satan, you will find your supernatural and five-fold gifts increasing in magnification, and you will feel lifted and empowered and as if you are standing in the midst of angels. But, it will be a delusion that is perpetuated upon you by the tricky evil one. Either way, you will be useful to one side or the other; it’s your choice.

I declare my love for you, I declare the same love that Jesus Christ has for you, and I will not shrink from the battle. While my inclination is to command the demons away from you, I am fearful that they will return sevenfold unless you return to the path God Wills in accordance with His Word.

It’s a tough place to be and you are going to have to choose the path. I wish I could say that there are very few who have been tricked in this manner; however, the truth is we are losing good Christian workers through this trickery on a daily basis. For that reason, I will be publishing my answer to you on Facebook with the personal info removed, and pray with my complete soul that hundreds of workers can recognize the trickery and come back to His Word. God’s Will be done.

Dancing and leaping in the Holy Presence of the Lord

Something was very different one Christmas. My family gathered around the piano to sing our traditional Christmas songs of joy and praise in celebration of our Christ’s birth, but this year familiar faces were gone. We were smaller in number than we had been in last year. A few of our missing family members chose to walk the paths of the world, and were separated by their choices from participating in our spiritual celebration. One went even further down the path of destruction, and embraced the wicked ways of a life in darkness. So our numbers were down, and our voices leaner and strained as we struggled to carry on with our praises to God, in the midst of loss and pain.

Suddenly, in the middle of one of the songs rejoicing at Christ’s birth, I felt the surge of His Holy Spirit move through our family congregation. Our music stopped instantaneously, as each of us literally absorbed His comfort and love, as He moved within us to heal the pains of loss.

It was one of those moments when time stands still. It was silent. There was no music, there was no talking, there was no praying nor was there any of the familiar outbursts of joy that we commonly displayed in His Presence. We were too pained, too scarred, too needing of His Touch, that each of us became enveloped in His Presence, without thought of our own or each other’s time or place.

What a wonderful Touch it was. What a wonderful Christmas gift we received that day. Just as Christian’s burdens dropped from his shoulders in Pilgrims progress, our burdens of pain were removed and replaced with an even greater love than we had experienced before. With His healing presence, He brought a new and deeper understanding of Christmas Praise, and I wanted to share it with you.

The Ark of the LORD God, the vessel that the actual presence of the LORD God inhabited had been removed from the Tabernacle in Jerusalem by forces against Israel. Eventually, King David was determined to bring the Ark back to the place it belonged inside Jerusalem.

When the opportunity and time was right, He took his priests and prepared them to deliver the most Holy Ark. As they moved the Ark, the oxen that pulled the cart shook, and the Ark began to fall. Uzzah, one of the cart drivers, and a very holy and faithful man, reached out to catch the Ark before it fell. The LORD God became very angry at Uzzah for touching the Holy Ark, and He smote him immediately, causing his death.

David was very upset and angry that the LORD God would punish Uzzah so severely when he was just trying to help. David could not figure out how to prevent the same thing from happening again, so he stopped the movement of the Ark, and left it in a house along the way.

After leaving it at the house of Obededom, he saw that great blessings of the LORD God were being bestowed upon Obededom. These blessings were so much greater than the risk of moving the Ark to Jerusalem, that David chose to try the task once again.

This time, as the Ark was moved, King David went before it, dancing and leaping for the LORD God. He put on the simplest of garments, and danced with a joy, and sang with a praise that could be heard by all. He danced and shouted and trumpeted with all his might, announcing to all the the Holy Presence of the LORD GOD, and His Holy Ark were entering the city of Jerusalem. There was no doubt left in any mind, that the holiest presence was arriving in the place He Willed.

And so the King of Israel danced. He was seen to be dancing in the most unroyal way by a very royal daughter of a former King. She chastised David, reminded him of his position, and reprimanded him for his unkingly dance through the streets of Jerusalem.

His reply left no doubt to his position:

David would dance and leap and shout and sing and joyfully announce the presence of the LORD God, in the midst of human error and human frailties. There would be no doubt to the LORD God in Heaven that David knew the holiness of His Presence. There would be no doubt to the people of the world that were watching the movement of God, that His Holiness was moving among them.

Our Christmas gathering, and our Christmas songs took on a deeper meaning. We were announcing the arrival of our precious and holy Jesus Christ. We began dancing and leaping and praising God, shouting and blowing our trumpets of His Arrival! It mattered not who was with us, nor how others interpreted our celebration. We were announcing our joy of Christ’s birth, and our anticipation of His return, as the Holiness of the LORD God moved among our gathering.

My feet are still dancing! Praise be to God!

LORD God’s Old Testament Laws or Jesus Christ’s Standards?

While Facebook friends argue back and forth about things like the different laws the Jews serve and how Christians may or may not have to follow them, it becomes confusing, doesn’t it? Old Testament following Christians have a difficult road to walk and it weakens their relationship with Christ.

Why make your Christian journey so tough? The Lord Jesus Christ took His time to teach the Disciples and all of us through His Word that is captured in His Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5:1–7:29; Luke 6:20–49; 11:33–36; 12:22–34).

Every standard Christ teaches in His Sermon on the Mount are the things of behavior you should be emulating to look like and walk like Christ. Every standard of His is our rules of behavior as Christians. My hopes are that you are teaching young Christians these standards every day. Your Lord Jesus Christ expects Christian leaders to be displaying these standards of behavior in their own walk with Him and teaching them to those that are learning to be a Christian.

Now here is a very deep mystery that hardly any Christians realize completely. If you follow all the standards recorded in the New Testament, you will be following God’s law perfectly! We do not follow the law specifically. We follow the ways of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ teaches us His standards, God’s standards, and His disciples pick up establishing and teaching standards where He left off when He left this earth. The Holy Spirit flows through each Christian so they can follow the standards of Christ.

So instead of focusing on the law, let us focus upon the standards of Christ, and try to meet each of them. We don’t have time or the spirit to follow Old Testament law. Christ’s standards reflect God’s law in a different light, one that ultimately loves others as themselves.

That is why I said it was confusing to me why Facebook friends argue among themselves whether to follow the Old Testament laws. It is of no importance to focus on the singular laws without the teaching of God placed upon them. That would be going backwards in our developed Christian faith.

The Commandments, statutes and ordinance of the LORD God given to the Jewish people were the beginning of forming a relationship with humans. There were no teachings, per se, given to them. The law was absolute and unforgiving. Either you obeyed all the laws (often confused by the Pharisees and the rabbis) and adhered to all the LORD God’s rules, or you were in disobedience to Him.

When the Lord Jesus Christ came, he taught the meaning of those laws of the Old Testament given by the LORD God to mankind. No longer a black/white, obey/disobey stringent representation of the laws, they became open to the teachings of Christ. Remember this teaching:

Matthew 5:27–28 (KJV 1900)

27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: 28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

We learn from Jesus that the Law said don’t commit adultery; but He added a new teaching, that adultery was more than just an affair with a married person. The Lord taught that with His coming to earth, He will teach the real meaning of the law, not just the absolutes. The real meaning of the law that the LORD God made was if you look lustfully upon a woman, you commit adultery with your heart! The standards have changed! Before it was the absolute law; now it became the fulfilled law with a need to fully understand not only the rule but also the reason, ways, and the consequences of breaking that law.

Have you ever heard that it is impossible for Jews to keep the Laws of the LORD God, thus they have no way to be obedient to Him? And that as Christians, we have it easy, because we have the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive all our sins and keep us in obedience to God?

It seems to me that sentiment is a bit backwards. The standards of the Lord Jesus Christ do not only support the Laws of the LORD God but are also more detailed and consider the things going on in the heart also. Are Christians supposed to obey the Laws of the LORD God spoken in the Old Testament? Followers of Jesus Christ not only obey the Laws spoken in the Old Testament, but they also must obey Christ’s standards of the heart also.

It is a narrower road we walk with Christ, not a wider one that the Jews walk upon.

Christians that don’t understand that they should focus on Christ’s teachings, rather than on the Old Testament laws, never reach the higher standards that the Lord Jesus Christ has set for His followers. And if a Christian does not reach those standards, then that Christian is not walking the way of Christ. Period.

Practical Advice for Teachers of the Word of God

Teachers of the Word of God know the things to be avoided through the study of His Word, and the many warnings to false teachers contained within it. We even prepared a worksheet for all our teachers in training so they would easily identify the characteristics of false teachers and consciously avoid their ways. Of course, when the LORD God chooses a person to become a Teacher of His Word, then that person’s character, ways and will are toward Him, and not inclined to be a false teacher. However, care must always be taken not to emulate even in the smallest way any characteristic known to be possessed by a false teacher.

There is more to being a teacher of the Word of God, than just avoiding these false characteristics. There is a practical approach to the systematic teaching of His Word, and there is a proven way that most spiritual teachers embrace as the pattern of their elders. The mature, experienced and successful teachers of God’s Word follow these things:

1. Speak the things that God has led you to teach and always from His Word. Avoid talking about familiar, popular, hip things, unless you are led to use them as an example to make His Word understood by the student. Do not speak as a friend or a peer. A teacher of God’s Word must be respected. Remember, honor is never shown among friends who are equal.

2. Lead the study always. Do not lose control of the places or things that the LORD God has moved you to teach that day. Be alert to conversations straying from the points, and guide them back to the main topics as soon as you can. A teacher of God’s Word is not concerned with a students self improvement ideas, nor a students desires for the lessons to go in a place other than where it is it is being led by God.

3. Stay consistent in your presentation of materials. When the students sit down for the purpose of learning, they should automatically know how the class will proceed. No learning can take place in a free for all, fun times setting. Classes must be structured and predictable, leaving no doubt in the students mind what is expected of him.

4. Know your material. The basic foundation of study that God has placed in your hands should be completely familiar to you. That basic foundation will always be the starting point for the Holy Spirit to guide you deeper to the places and things He wants taught on that day, to that student.

5. Have a spiritual partner assist you. When the Teacher of the LORD God is being moved by the Holy Spirit and delivering His deep mysteries, then all disruptions and interruptions must be avoided. It is vital that a spiritual partner help maintain the quiet learning essential when the soul of the person is receiving knowledge. Partners also help guide the students back to topic and bring questions and comments to the attention of the teacher when they go unnoticed. Most importantly, a spiritual partner keeps the Teacher correct. The partner listens closely for any straying from point or doctrine, and immediately speaks up in a respectful way if the Teacher loses the way.

6. Never take things personally. When a student has an emotional outburst of anger, sadness or even joy, then those emotions belong to the LORD God. If a teacher has properly presented the Word of God, then it is God who the student is having emotions with, and it is God who will deal with those emotions, using the teacher to comfort as He Wills.

7. Never reveal the personal things of your students to others. The very nature of the work of teacher requires example to be given, and most usually, that example come from earlier students actions and interactions. Develop a way of teaching examples without revealing personal information that is identifiable to any student that you have ever had in the past. Keep the secrets and deeply personal things of your students, secrets forever. Hold close the things of soul that are revealed in your presence, and never reveal them to another.

8. Recognize the total and complete responsibility that a Teacher of the Word of God assumes. It is a tough job being a Teacher of the Word of God. The Teacher exposes himself to a heavier judgment in the case he commits transgression in his teachings. A person should not even consider being a Teacher of the Word of God if he is not able to handle the Word perfectly, and able to control and restrain his natural and spiritual life. A Teacher of the Word of God is a dangerous profession and one that puts the Teacher at great risk of severe judgment if he does his job improperly. His focus of ministry must always be to turn a student’s life around when his steering is being violently shaken by the conflicts of the spiritual nature of righteousness and the natural nature of sin. A good Bible Teacher encourages a strong and steady walk with Jesus Christ, as the Truth of the Word of God is handled perfectly in accordance with His Will.

9. Most importantly, pray, and study, and walk the walk of Jesus Christ perfectly. A Teacher of the Word of God must be spiritually strong and keen to the Things of the LORD God, and ready to teach them as He Wills.

Miss Virginia’s last breath brought Jesus Christ and salvation to a big, worldly sinner!

She came to Jesus Christ on 23 July 2006, bowed her knees in shame and repentance, requested the undeserved gift of grace by the LORD God, accepted the gift of shed blood by her Savior Jesus Christ to pay for her sinful nature, and at 8:00 p.m., entered into her death through the baptism of Jesus Christ. As she descended into the waters, her thoughts and control were focused on Him in faith, knowing that when she died, that death would come to the sin that controlled her body, and when she arose from the waters, she would be resurrected as a new believer and follower of Jesus Christ. When she was resurrected from the waters, we greeted a sister and new daughter in Christ with hugs and tears, and then had a great celebration on that really good day!

But when no one was looking, I snuck away to a quiet place, and shamefully reflected on my own human frailties, and shivered to think how things could have been so different if I had not followed my Christ’s instructions to the letter. How close I came to failing Jesus Christ, her and myself! How important it is for Christians to do as their told, and not how they feel! How little I am for my discomforted spirit and how great our LORD God is in his provisions to the faithful! And how great and faithful a little old lady, who lay on her death bed, with a fragile and searching soul held firmly in her hands, bringing the gift of one more soul to Jesus Christ at her last breath.

When I met her last year she was horrible. She came from a place different from mine, and her focus was on things that were repulsive to me. She was carnal and loose with the ways of the world, with knowledge of dark things that a girl of twenty-two should never know. Her tough life reflected in her ways, and she was controlling and headstrong as a result. To avoid hurts from coming to her, she would manipulate people and times, to perform to her demands. And if her nature and ways were not bad enough for me to handle; it got even worse!

She loved one of my children, and he loved her, and they were married. The only thing in our favor was they lived clear across the United States, which spared the face to face conflict that was destined to come. But it got even worse!

She started writing letters demanding to be accepted as part of my family. She tested our faith daily, as letter after letter demanded our attention to her and her ways that she flaunted continuously in front of us. She had the advantage of holding our son’s heart, and she had the techniques of the worldly to ensure our compliance. Letter after letter we wrote of our faith and our lives. We told her that our world was different from hers, and explained in great detail over the months to come the ways that we lived, worked, walked and loved according to the Word of God. She took the same opportunity to explain in great detail in her return letters the way she lived, worked, walked and loved according to her worldly ways.

Our invitations to come up to our Kingdom resulted in hard-hearted invitations to come down to hers. Our conflicts even got
worse than this!

Soon her letters became more demanding and abrasive. She wrote us that she had a right to be accepted in our inner circle, and for us not to do so, reflected badly on our faithful walk with Jesus Christ. She began a campaign of spitefully using us and our faith to force us to go to places we did not want to go. At the height of all our troubles, we were left with no more words. We had written so many letters telling about our love for Jesus Christ, and His love for her. We had encouraged and pleaded and prayed and talked over and over and over to her about the things of spiritual life that she had never considered or known, and she rejected them with a stubborn forcefulness each time.

To make matters even worse, our son and her moved back home, and we were stuck in the face to face conflicts that had been brewing for so long. In desperation, we considered and measured all things, and determined we had no recourse but to search the Word of God, examine Jesus Christ’s teachings in the minutest details for a solution to this exasperating situation, and follow them to the exacting letter.

Matthew 5:43-48

“43 ¶ Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? 47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more [than others]? do not even the publicans so? 48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” (Mt 5:43-48 AV)

And that’s what we did. We prayed and prayed and prayed for her and us, day after day. We even shared our dilemma with our friends, and asked for their prayers to be added to ours. Month after month we prayed. Our conflicts of natures were so great, that contact between us stopped. Soon a year had passed, and no solution or salvation was in sight to the problem with her.

One month she accepted a job at a nursing home close to where they were living. Her duties as a nurses assistance required her to perform the menial and back straining tasks of patient care, but apparently left time for her to have interactions with the patients from time to time.

And that is where Miss Virginia, the most wonderful and strong Christian I have ever known, entered her life. Miss Virginia was dying. She had a large family that would gather around her day after day, grow nervous at her continuous prayers and praise to God and leave, to return again and again to be there when she died.

Each day, after the family left Miss Virginia’s side, she would be summoned to her bed for their talk. Miss Virginia would tell her stories from long ago that were always sprinkled with faith and surety of the wonderful Grace of God. The faithful servant of Christ would delight her with stories that connected them to each other’s natural stubbornness, and their familiarity of relationship grew tight. They knew each other, and they understood each other, and they began to love each other.

She would hurry to work every day so she could hear more of Miss Virginia’s wonderful stories, and learn more about the Savior Jesus Christ, that Faithful Virginia loved so much. As the witness of Christian faith by Miss Virginia increased in the perfect timing of God, the lost and sinful girl began connecting her stories to our own letters of witness we had written to her over the year.

Suddenly, her blind eyes cleared, as the Spirit of God lingered and called her toward Him. She finally understood our words, Miss Virginia’s words, His Word, and saw it all come together in a great big ball of faith that was planted within her the moment her eyes could see. She was humbled and hungry, and eagerly ate the milk of faith as Miss Virginia gently guided her through the requirements of the Walk.

Soon after her eyes were opened, Miss Virginia began the final dying process. Her family gathered around her bed that night and said their goodbyes. Miss Virginia blessed each of them, then asked for her to come to her side for one last time. She entered into the quieted room, and the frail lady moved over in her bed to make room for her to be near. Miss Virginia grasped her hand, looked deep into her soul, and giggled. She asked what she was giggling about, and Miss Virginia whispered, “I’m gonna get to see Jesus Christ, before you!” The moment of delightful and intimate sharing was intensified as their hand grip tightened, and the Spirit of God washed through the room and enveloped her in His Truth and Love. At that very moment, Miss Virginia left her body and entered into her home prepared by Jesus Christ Himself, with a repentant sinner in hand and ready to accept Him as her personal Savior.

HOW SELFLESS AN ACT OF GREAT FAITH! Miss Virginia had brought a lost soul to the cross of Jesus Christ in the face of death itself, and her last breath was used to bring glory to Him! PRAISE BE TO GOD!

The next day, she came and testified of her great faith and praised God for His enduring love, and asked us to baptize her quickly, before she lost too much more time in serving Him and bringing glory to His Name, as she had been taught by a dying old woman who loved deeply enough to bring her to the One who loved us all!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him all ye creatures here below. Praise Him above ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost!

Amen.

What is your position concerning homosexuality?

You are welcome at Becker Bible Ministries, Inc.

What a dilemma you are struggling with! To be honest to yourself as the person that the LORD God created places you directly in the path of sin, but to deny your true self causes you to move closer to Him with only part of your self.

In my mind, holding back from having a complete relationship with the LORD God through Jesus Christ because you can only share a part of yourself is just as much of a sin as any of the sins of nature recorded in his Word.

First, you must be true to who you are if you seek to have a closer relationship with Jesus Christ and the LORD God. You must come to them with your complete mind, heart and soul. If you hold back a part of your self because it is judged a sin by man’s interpretations of the Word of God, then man is stopping you from moving closer to Him.

The farther away you are from Jesus Christ, the bigger the dilemma of your struggles become. Soon you find yourself on a path of loneliness and shame, with confusion to who you really are, your unworthiness to come to God, and the devil himself whispering words of judgment to you to prevent you from ever walking forward to Jesus.

There are many different kinds of homosexuality and heterosexuality in the world today.

1. The Nasties – Many sexual deviants attempt to destroy the innocent souls in liberal game playing that encourages a gay or straight lifestyle with sexual vulgarities that shock and horrify traditional society. Most usually, these movements of depravity are initiated by Lucifer as he uses the lust of people to move them toward wickedness. These types of homosexual and heterosexual activities are sinful and will be judged harshly by Jesus Christ, and the doer will indeed be punished for these nasty deeds.

2. The Abused – Innocent souls who have embraced their sexual preferences as a result of abuse in their childhood. These sexual preferences surely will not be weighed the same as the doers of wicked nasties, by Jesus Christ. I personally believe that the Abuser will be accountable to all sin that the abused has done as a direct result of that abuse.

3. The Born – Now we get to the classification that you seem to fit. You are what you are, and you’ve known for a long time. You are what Jesus Christ made. True homosexuals and heterosexuals are not sinners because of who they are! HOWEVER, many of the sexual acts of homosexuals and heterosexuals are sin, and these sins are listed briefly in his Word, and quite strongly in the hearts of those who love Jesus Christ.

My advice is to quit trying to make yourself perfect and sin free before you establish a close relationship with Jesus Christ. It isn’t going to work. Every one of us is too weak, too sinful, to ever make ourselves perfect and clean before we approach Him!

Come to Jesus Christ just how you are! He loves you just the way you are! He knows who you love, and he knows how you love, and he knows all of the dilemmas you are facing as you struggle with these issues. If he wants you to change, he will gently guide you to that change in His Time and in His Way.

As your relationship with Jesus Christ grows, he may change your thoughts and heart gently and steadily and move you toward the heterosexual world. He may ask you to give up your sexuality in this life in service to him, with promises of great reward for your dedicated sacrifice on the New Earth.

And this is important: He may keep your heart and mind and thoughts and spirit toward your love of the same-sex just the way you are right now, and give you teaching and guidelines in how to live righteously with who you are and continue to grow to His expectations.

There is a way for you to have a true and close relationship with Jesus Christ and still be you. The trick of it is giving Jesus Christ the control, and letting him lead you to the path he has chosen for you, with the loving relationship of people he has led your way that are walking the same path toward him.

Most importantly, keep walking toward Jesus Christ in spite of those who condemn you in their judgments. It is the sinners of great faith that Jesus Christ loves the most!

Careful Evangelism

My developing ministry (Becker Bible Ministries, Inc.) is focused upon teaching the things of God to the unchurched. Unchurched Christians seem often rough around the edges, and most show through their looks or their behaviors why they are rejected by traditional Christians.

1. Some unchurched are victims of child abuse, and feel themselves so unworthy and so unclean, that they are unable to approach the cross of Christ. The average child abuse victim takes over three years of professional Christian counselling, and a few more years of witness of Christ before they are made whole enough to commit themselves completely to Christ.

Even harder for many of us in this ministry, is the offering of God’s Word to the child abusers and rapists; when they hear God’s salvation, they often rush to the cross, and claim God’s grace quickly. It is a difficult part to witness the ease that the sexual abusers come to Christ when the victims’ salvation is always in jeopardy because of the crimes of the abusers. But, to deny one group, is to deny all groups the total grace of God to offer sinners salvation and hope through Christ.

2. We have the usual outliers of society that do better without a lot of people and programs and institutions in their lives; seldom do they bathe, and always are they armed, and most of the time, willing to listen to the Word of God if the speaker can be trusted. In today’s climate of conservative politics, and a strong focus on the Constitution of the United States and the Amendments that allow the right of firearms, a clear path of these rights must be negotiated with Christ’s message inserted only after trust is gained. To jump quickly into the message of the Gospel usually results in an obstinate cuss walking away to practice shooting his targets once again before the End of the World as we know it comes to his dwelling places. But, when trust is built, these ornery ones turn into some of the greatest evangelists I have ever seen, because they have the ability to develop trust amongst large segments of society that are normally separate from traditional Christian churches.

3. The people rejected and hated by traditional Christianity (sexual deviants that cross normal practices) have tremendous difficulties coming to Christ, because their path is prevented. It is the only group of sinners that I am aware that are expected to drop their sins before they can belong to a Church. These deviant sinners are required to understand their sins, reject them, and commit to do them no more, BEFORE they have a relationship with Christ to help them according to the flawed thinking of misguided Christian congregants.

True Christian evangelism requires the bringing of Christ into a person’s life and the reliance upon the Baptism of the Holy Spirit to guide the new believer to deeper relationship with Him. Most Christian leaders are confident that once a relationship with Christ has been established, a strong-growing faith will eventually help the believer to remove the difficult sins. Sadly, in the current conservative church movement, this is denied them, and they are forced to find a path to Christ unsupported by conservative belief and only guided by the most liberal theologies that deny Scripture as inerrant. So much damage has been done by the conservative Christians to these groups of sinners, that it becomes increasingly difficult to even approach them.

Careful evangelism with the exegesis of the Bible should not even be discussing sins of the sexual nature any more than any other of a multitude of sins people are doing. At the point of beginning belief, we are to teach new believers the things of Christ that connect to sin, judgment, baptism, resurrection, and eternal life. Then we are to move on to the more difficult things contained within God’s Word, confident that the Holy Spirit will guide the sincere believer to His path (Hebrews 6:1-2). There is going to be a great deal of conservative believers that are going to have to answer to Christ as to why one group has been so ostracized from the congregation of Believers that restricted the growth of faith and relationship with Him.

These are just a few, of many examples of seeking Christians that we evangelize to. Each requires a great deal of effort and risk to ourselves in order to teach the things of Christ to the oppressed, rejected, persecuted, ornery, hated, and mentally ill. True evangelism does not happen quickly.

This is a wicked world, and those that are able to be evangelized bring a great deal of baggage with them. It is messy. Sometimes in the midst of the ministry, sincere efforts are attacked and shamed. Evangelists out in the middle of the field without the support of the traditional church get tired, accused, fought, and ridiculed. But, when one of the unlikely outliers comes to Christ with hope, and you can witness the saving grace of the Lord as the sins drop and righteousness seeps into their inner being, you are reminded that you were once just as bad, and now, just as blessed, because God gave us all a chance. Thanks be to God!

error

Enjoy this blog? Please spread the word :)