True Liberty!

What we do, the actions we take, the lifestyle we live all have an impact on others. In today's culture and even in the church world there is an attitude of "don't tell me how to live" or " dont tell me what I can and can't do. I'm under grace and that's law!" ... I just read something interesting as I was doing a study on the word "liberty" in the Greek, and something Paul presents in regards to liberty is interesting. Many present the idea that liberty is basically the freedom to live however they want, free from moral codes and so forth. Yet, Paul makes an interesting point in the tenth chapter of 1 Corinthians that, while you may not have a problem with doing a particular activity or eating or drinking something because you are living a life in liberty, your choice to participate or consume that could cause offense to another person and cause them to stumble. That while we may have liberty to do things, it doesn't always mean it is profitable.

All We Need is Love... or is it All we Need?

I hear so many these days saying, "we don't need to argue doctrine" and "all we need to focus on is winning the lost" and so forth. While reaching the lost should be our number one interest, it shouldn't be our ONLY interest!

Along these lines it makes me wonder, if evangelism is the only calling we should be involved in, then what do we do with Ephesians 4:11? What about the other gifting and callings? If our only purpose is to reach the lost with Jesus' love... Then what happens to the lost after they're won? If there is no other purpose to life than that, then they may as well move on up to heaven. I’m reminded of babies. Once they're born into this world, you don't just let the loose to fend for themselves, do you?? No, of course not! You nurture, train, feed, teach, discipline, and so forth, so that when they are grown, they can take what they've learned and continue to mature and grow as a person. The same is true in relation to spiritual things. When someone is newly born again, they can't simply be left to themselves. They need teaching, training, discipline, and such to help them develop, grow, and mature spiritually. Paul talked about this on multiple occasions, as well as other New Testament authors! Paul taught that we are to grow and develop to become fully matured, that his purpose was to aid in teaching and helping others in their spiritual growth.

“Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.” - Colossians 1:28-29

“Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.” – Ephesians 4:11-16

Did this end during Paul’s time? Are we only simply called to only evangelism and only telling others of Jesus’ love? Not to diminish those things by any means, because we all need to know how dearly we are loved and treasured by our heavenly Father. But in regards to this, I'm inclined to think, from what I see in the Word, that there is more to Christian living than winning the lost. Once they have been won, they have to be trained and discipled, but if everyone is only focused on evangelism who will train them? Who will teach them sound doctrine? Who will help them grow up spiritually? My friends, I'm tired of the cliché statements that all we need to do is "love" and that we don't need to be concerned with doctrine because all that matters is just simply "loving people" etc. It reminds me of the hippies in the 60s and 70s and that thinking is so errant and so worldly, while sounding religious. Paul taught that we should study the Word to be established in sound doctrine. And if Paul thought it was important to study the Word and to be grounded and established in sound doctrine, then I think it is vital to our growth and development to do the same to equip ourselves for the callings on each of our lives personally AND to equip us to help newborn Christians get established to contribute positively to their growth!

There is more to Christian living than just knowing how deeply we are loved, there is a job to do! There are those out there who want to lead us astray and it is our duty to be well studied in the Word and established in sound doctrine! Don’t let religious sounding phrases and statements catch you off guard and make you doubt whether you are living a successful Christian life. As we read earlier from Ephesians, we are to grow out of childhood so we are no longer tossed around by changing winds of doctrine. I see that a truly successful Christian is one who knows the truth and is grounded in the truth and can’t easily be swayed, but knows how to combat the wiles of the enemy and how to distinguish between truth and error disguised as truth, to become a fully mature man, perfect in Christ!

Growing In Him,
JRT

Church Multi-Level Marketing??

While Paul is one of my favorite New Testament writers, it troubles me the focus some are putting on his writings to the point that they say other NT writers weren't preaching the "Pure Gospel of Grace as Paul did" and therefore they invalidate other NT writings as acceptable and credible scripture.... Oh my, what a dangerous realm of error to be in, to become so full of pride that you think you have the authority to say what counts and doesn't count as scripture and that you have the right to throw out 1,2,&3 John, 1&2 Peter, James, Jude... because they weren't written by Paul?!?!?!? What errant thinking! ... I am bothered by how quickly, swiftly, and easily people are being caught up in this "new move", thinking it is the latest, greatest from God when really it is absolute error an unscriptural!!!! Anything that promises effortless living and abundant prosperity with no investment in other areas of Christian living(in accordance with the Bible) is nothing more than a multi-level marketing scheme within the church world!

The Word MUST be Our FINAL Authority!

There is such danger in using someone's paraphrase of the scriptures as a legitimate translation, upon which to build sound doctrine. We must keep in mind that some paraphrases can offer some insight into some passages, however they MUST NOT be used for building doctrine! I have recently read some paraphrases and thought to myself, "I don't remember that being in that passage..." after some simple greek studies of the original text, there's a reason I don't remember that passage saying that... it is because the author of the paraphrase twisted the scriptures to fit his pet doctrine and beliefs, so that others adhering to like beliefs could have "just cause" to believe that way and have their Bible "translation" that supports such errant teaching.

My, my, my... what dangerous ground to be walking on! I am by no means a Bible scholar, but I have been a student of the Word my whole life (nearly 26 years) and know a little bit about searching things out and studying them against the scriptures. I am seeing so many people, peers and others I have looked up to, falling into errant teaching and clinging to their pet doctrine... they become argumentative and vicious in their defense of their new-found doctrine.... it is very saddening and I just pray for the wool to be removed from their eyes! We must be guarded more than ever before with what we open our selves up to and ever ready to study what is taught to us in the Word. The Word must always be our FINAL authority, not minister so-and-so, not this person's newest/latest/greatest "translation"/paraphrase of the scripture, or what our best-friend says.... but the WORD!!!!


Study the Word,
JRT

What Type of Vessel are You?

God doesn't seek for golden vessels, and does not ask for silver ones, but He must have clean ones. ~ Dwight L. Moody 

What type of vessel are you?? Are you a clean vessel or a vessel that was once cleaned but has set off to the side gathering dust and specks of dirt? Seek to put the Word into action, let the Word be ever present in your thoughts and deeds! When you stay in the Word, it will show! Quit looking for loopholes to live an "effortless" life of excusing yourself from doing righteous works and start living a life of that exudes righteousness!!!!