Today I have been sitting outside and just thinking about some things that I feel God is stirring up in my heart. Being a pastor's daughter there are so many things you hear about people in your area or even people in churches across the country and world. It really opens your eyes to the bigger picture. The bible says that the devil walks about seeking whom he may devour. The greatest and biggest lies that people who were once viewed as strong Christians are falling for involves tithing and the local church. One of the biggest moves is the idea of "grace" this new move is not based on biblical grace at all, but rather a placebo grace, people think they are living under grace but in fact they are living under something fake packaged as the real deal. This "new" belief isn't new revelation at all it is just old deception with a face lift to make it more appealing.
In this move people have come out and said that because they are under grace they don't have to go to church because we are the body. What a selfish thing to think! You are not the whole body of Christ all by yourself, you are PART of the body, Romans 12 discusses this fact:
"For by the grace (unmerited favor of God) given to me I warn everyone among you not to estimate and think of himself more highly than he ought [not to have an exaggerated opinion of his own importance], but to rate his ability with sober judgment, each according to the degree of faith apportioned by God to him.
For as in one physical body we have many parts (organs, members) and all of these parts do not have the same function or uses;
So we, numerous as we are, are one body in Christ (the Messiah) and individually we are parts one of another [mutually dependent on one another]."
- Romans 12:3-5
As you can see clearly in this verse, we all together make up the body. If I'm a finger I can't be a body all by myself, I would simply be a lonely finger that has self-deceived into believing that I am a full and complete body! That is exactly where the devil wants to get us, he wants us to become self deceived much like a movie I saw recently, where they would go into people's dreams and plant a thought, but ultimately it was up to the individual how they chose to act on that thought. Would they grab on to that thought and allow themselves to become deceived by their own imagination based on that thought or would they cast it away as simply a deceptive thought? This is exactly how it is with the devil, he will plant thoughts, but it is up to us how we chose to act on them. Do we take hold of them and allow deception to reign supreme in our thoughts OR are we going to " refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God; and we lead every thought and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ." (2 Cor. 10:5)? The devil want to divide the church because if he can break down communication and sever the chain of command from the troops he can win! He wants us to all be deserters! You never in all of the history of the world hear about the army of deserters winning a battle, you hear about a united army with strong and respected leaders winning wars! It is a lie straight from the enemies camp that we don't have to be united with fellow believers, that sitting at home and following bloggers and ministers on the Internet is perfectly fine. Thank God for the Internet and the ability to reach people who CANNOT go to Church because they live in anti-Christian countries where Christians are persecuted to the point of death! But here in the United States and in Europe, there is NO excuse for not being in church. We need to be united as a body if we are ever going to truly reach this world!
Secondly, another message that has come out of this move is that we do not need to tithe. Many beliefs have been presented regarding this idea some being the idea of being under grace and therefore exonerated from all "religious" bondage, the idea that Jesus is the tithe and therefore we don't have to pay the tithe because HE is the tithe, etc. All of these ideas do not line up with the WORD. the Word should ALWAYS be final authority no matter who is preaching what! In Hebrews 7 it says that Jesus is a priest after the order o Melchizedek and that he receiveth the tithes (PRESENT TENSE) ... notice it doesn't say He was a tithe after the order of the Law and became the tithe for us so we will never have to live under such a duty, it says He is a perpetual priest and that he receiveth the tithes! The devil wants to get Christians to stop tithing and stop giving because it will cripple the church and keep the church from fulfilling it's purpose and divine destiny! It takes money to reach the lost, clothe and feed the poor, build homes for the homeless, take missions trips, etc! All that takes money and that is exactly why the devil has attacked tithing and giving he is the master of deception, that means he is very cleaver and crafty in his methods of deceiving even the most elect! He has been around a lot longer than we have and he has had lots of practice in deception, that is why it is so important to understand the Word an understand it in the correct context. The bible tells us that Satan can appear as an angel of light, he even uses scripture and twists it so it sounds biblical to deceive people! Don't think you are immune to his ways, that is why it is so very important to grounded in the Word and to build a strong root system in the Word and to have a goo church that feeds you the uncompromised Word of God!
Don't follow a man's teaching blindly, take it all into subjection of the Word! make sure what you believe lines up with the FULL counsel of the Word of God! Sadly, self-deception is the most difficult to recover from. Don't allow yourself to take a placebo of grace allow yourself to take the true grace and to understand TRUE message of God, not man's doctrine!
Til Next Time,
JRT
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