Tag Archives: truth

Christianity, doctrine, faith, Theology, Uncategorized

New Year, New Start, But  in Need of a New Life

Today starts a new year. And most people will name their resolutions for a new start. Things that are named are like: stop smoking, exercise more, eat healthier, be nicer, not take lip from others, and the list goes on. And while these things are good, most will admit (if they are honest) do not last in their daily walk through the year. But what is needed is a new life.

I don’t mean just walking away from job or family and start over. I mean real life. While Paul is writing to the Romans, he speaks of the new life we all need. “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?   God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?    Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?   Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:1-4)

There are three things Jesus the Christ said in one statement that gives us a new start to an eternal new life. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6). In this statement, Jesus speaks three things that we, as a depraved and corrupt humanity, need to hear.

He is the way. Luke restates this in his accounting of the Acts of the Apostles. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

He is the truth. “Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.” (Psalms 25:5). “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;   And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31-32).

He is life. “In him was life; and the life was the light of men.   And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” (John 1:4) “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36) “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” (John 5:24)

Jesus told John in His revelation, that those without being written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, the eternal penalty is death. “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.   And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.   And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:12-15)

Eternal condemnation and punishment or Eternal grace and mercy. No other choice is optional. So as you start the new year, kneel at the Cross of Christ and begin a new life that will be eternal in grace and mercy. Or continue making resolutions that only work on the outer person and not the soul, and receive eternal damnation at the end of your last earthly breath.

May God draw you, bless you, and lead you to the eternal kingdom of our Lord and King, Jesus Christ.

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Christianity, faith

When the Holy Spirit says something is not right

It has been awhile since I have written. I have been posting shortened messages on social media and getting the ministry podcast going. But today I went to a different church than I normally go to. I was there last week as well. Both of these Sunday’s I had children give their life to Jesus Christ and make the public profession of faith (baptism).

While last weeks message was a great spirit filled message, this week was a bit different. Who has been somewhere are hearing a message and you get that little feeling that something is off in the message? Something is said that makes you go home, grab scripture and start studying the content of the message given. That was today.

There were two points of the message that I had a hard time accepting at that moment. I’ll explain both in a moment. But there are times that we must trust that tingling in our sense, because it could be the Holy Spirit nudging you. Today, that was what happened.

The first point I want to hit on was taken from Joshua 4:10-14. The content of the message at this point was that, like the priests, we are to stand and rest so others can have the ability to run forward. In the case of this passage, those running forward were running into the land to battle the enemy as God commanded.

That did not set right in my spirit. Isaiah does tell us to wait on God and then to run and God gives us the strength. Paul mentions running in a few Epistles. In his letter to the Philippians he says ‘Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize?’ (1 Cor 9:24). He tells the Galatian church ‘Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?’ (Galatians 5:7). And he tells us in Hebrews ‘Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us’ (Hebrews 12:1).

We are to run the race given us not stop nor let others run in our stead. When we get tired, God has already said he will give us the needed strength. The prize we run after is not of gold or silver. It is doing God’s will until Christ comes back or when we fall asleep in Him, awaiting the resurrection to come where we will be eternally with Him.

Another point that got to me was when the the pastor was talking about salt. She made the comment that to be healed, we need to be away from salt (she used the idea of saltwater). Her statement was that we needed to get out of the salt water so our wounds would be healed. First and foremost, Christ already did that. Isaiah prophesied ‘But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed’ (Isaiah 53:5). And it came to pass at the pillar with Pontius Pilate (Mark 15:15, John 18:28-19:11). And culminated at the cross (Matthew 27:33-61, Mark 15:21-47, Luke 23:33-56, John 19:17-42).

Since she used the word salt, I want to make a non scriptural point and then move into what the scriptures say about salt in the view of our faith. Any meat-cutter can tell you, they have a container of curing salt near them in case they get cut. Why? Because even though the salt burns when it is in a wound, it also heals the wound. I learned this through experience. So the idea that one needs to avoid salt for healing, on a purely non-faith level is in error.

Now lets look at how salt is viewed in a few areas of scripture. In Leviticus, the area of scripture that has the different offerings set by God, we are told that salt is to be used as an offering. ‘And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from the meat offering’ (Leviticus 2:13). Here, salt at the offering is a seasoning. This corresponds with the seasoning of the words of the Gospel in the letter to the Colossians. ‘Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that they may know how ye ought to answer every man’ (Colossians 4:6).

There is a former Anglican priest that I watch from time to time that uses salt as his sign off. He incorporates a couple different verses. These are Matthew 5:13 ‘Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cats out, and be trodden under foot of men.’ And Mark 9:50 ‘Salt is good; but if the salt has lost his saltiness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.’

These two small points in a full message may have been a misinterpretation or a fumbling. I would assume that a pastor of the Gospel of Christ would not intentionally go against scripture when scripture plainly contradicts the points in a message.

I bring this to the reader for a few reasons. The first being that pastors can make mistakes, they are not perfect and need our prayers. The second is, that false preachers and teachers will appear as sheep but are actually wolves in disguise to mislead the followers of Christ. Matthew 15:17 says this ‘Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves’.

We are also warned of false messages that will come. ‘But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you that that ye have received, let him be accursed’ (Galatians 1:8-9).

I fully understand that mistakes can happen. A pastor being tired, misreading or misquoting, etc can make a message seem different than it is meant to be. And this article is not to bash the pastor. What it is meant to do is remind us of two things. The first being, pay attention to the Holy Spirit. It will set of a bell in your spirit if something is not quite right. The second is to be like the Bereans and check everything that is said. ‘And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so’ (Acts 17:10-11)

The messages we give, as a pastor, teacher, or evangelist has to be in direct relation and not contradictory to the Scriptures. The Scriptures are God’s letter to mankind. So when a message is given it must be given in full truth. When received, it must be checked against the word of God for truth.

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Christianity, faith

The Journey Seeking God’s Forgiveness

Being a Catholic means Eucharist and Confession. The two work together, for without confession, one cannot partake in the Eucharist. This article is about a journey to understand forgiveness in the biblical sense of how to obtain it.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church has regulations on how forgiveness is to be administered. While they do teach that only God can forgive sin, they also adhere to the clergy are the one’s to administer the rite (sacrament). This is found in the Catechism. Part Two Section Two Article 4 No. 1441, “ Only God forgives sins. Since he is the Son of God, Jesus says of himself, “The Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins” and exercises this divine power: “Your sins are forgiven.” The second part of No. 1441 states “Further, by virtue of his divine authority he gives this power to men to exercise in his name.”

They take this ‘authority’ for two reasons. The first is a single line in scripture (John 20:23) “After His resurrection, Jesus told the disciples, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained”. The second is the belief that the power of the Catholic Church derives straight from the Apostles and Peter as the first designated Pope. It must be understood that other denominations (and Latin Rite Catholic is a denomination of non-Protestants) also make this claim. This article is not about their claims of authority. Although through it, that authority may be questioned.

Let us look at the history of priestly confessions. The Fathers of the Church (those after the Apostles) did speak on confession. But not always to a priest. Barnabas in his letter (AD 74) simply states “you shall confess your sins”. Since he was an Apostles he would be referring to this verse (1 John 1:9) “If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness”. The he that is spoken of here is God.

Tertullian (AD 203) states, “The Church has the power of forgiving sins.” Hippolytus (AD 215) states while speaking of a new appointed bishop in the church, “and by the Spirit of the high priesthood to have the authority to forgive sins, in accord with your command.” John Chrysostom (AD 387) states John 20:23 and then says this. “The Father has give all judgment to the Son. And now I see the Son placing all this power in the hands of men”.

So this belief dates back to at least the third century. The command to receive forgiveness and penance from a priest, was not placed into the rules and regulations of the church until the 4th Lateran Council in 1215. Two things came out of this council, in relation to this article. The first being the Eucharist, the real presence in the communion wafer and wine after a priest consecrates the host. The second point relating to this article is the addition to canon (law) that confession must be made to a priest once a year at the minimum. So, for the first 1200 years of the church, confession to a priest was not commanded.

There is the first issue with the ‘need of a priestly mediator, instead of God’s omnipotent grace and ability. The second is that none of the Apostles ever forgave a sin. The book of Acts in the New Testament is the continuing story of the post resurrection disciples (some now given the term of Apostle). They heal, the teach, they preach, but nowhere in the entire accounting of their ministries and travels do they once forgive a sin.

The third thing to discuss in this, is the supposed need for a human mediator between man and God. We are told in 1 Timothy 2:15 “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” If one sees the bible as the true word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit and written by the various writers over the various centuries from Moses to John, then this statement in itself eliminates a priest as mediator in which is needed by the canon of the Church of Rome. It also calls into question of Mary as co-mediatrix. This article is not to condemn or deny the mother of Christ. But does put into light any source as a mediator between man and God that is not Christ.

Martin Luther gave the reformative concept of salvation and grace through Christ alone. So, as the Bereans would do, let us search scripture.

In Acts 2:38, Peter said “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

It is also stated in Acts 4:12, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

Jesus says in John 14:6 “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Through the words of the Apostle Peter and Jesus the Christ, it is only through Jesus that a man can be saved and forgiven his sins. And being the only mediator between man and God, Jesus does not relinquish or share that ability with anyone.

And let us take the warning of the Apostle Paul when it comes to teaching. “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, If any one is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:8-9) So as my journey in faith with Christ continues, I see an opening of possibilities in faith and ministry, as well as the possible ending of part of this path. Never take as gospel what you hear or read. Always search it for yourself. Be guided by the Holy Spirit. And be ready to defend your faith. And never let tradition take the place of scripture.

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