Live joyfully with the wife
whom you love all the days of
your vain life which He has
give you under the sun, all
your days of vanity; for that
is your portion in life, and in
the labor which you perform
under the sun. Whatever your
hand finds to do, do it with your
might; for there is no work or
device or knowledge or wisdom
in the grave where you are going.
Ecclesiastes 9:9-10
I have been writing on growing in grace and the means for such growth is our current lesson. What has been taught so far is that we must be diligence to perform private means in our Authentic Biblical Faith. We are to self-enquirer about our souls. Furthermore we must be careful in our public use of grace. What do I mean? As a Christian you are the visible Church. Not the building or lands where you go to meet with other Christians, they are only the objects that we use to corporately worship God. The Greek word that we so easily translate as "Church," can get lost in its true meaning, and then be seen only as the place of worship. This Greek word, the one used in the Scripture to denote true Christians is: ἐκκλησίᾳ:
Ek = out; klesia = called; therefore the visible Church are the ones called out, called out to be a special people for a special purpose and it is upon the "called out" ones that Jesus said that He would build His Church, "And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18), that is, a group of people that are called as a society that is knit together by the closest of spiritual bonds. As Authentic Biblical Christians we are the visible Church, not the buildings, or anything else, we are the Church. This is what the world sees, us, and when we publicly are not being diligent in our calling then we are grieving the Holy Spirit, that is God. The visible things that are seen are; attending regularly Sunday worship, uniting in common prayer, and praise, and in receiving the sacrament that is the Lord's supper, preaching the word. This diligent public use of the gift of God's grace has much to do with the prosperity of your soul.
There is a problem that has invaded the Church and that problem is the acceptance of the culture and has changed the way people worship God, and show their respect, and faith for our creator and Savior Jesus Christ, for God, and the Holy Spirit who gives us the power to live as Authentic Biblical Christians. That problem can be seen in such things as doing things on the Sabbath that are not worshiping God, rather they are satisfying our emotions, and personal desires to have fun, or other things that are far removed from the Sabbath a day in which we take time to be with other like believers, and to rest and just meditate on the our Savior, our souls. But this has not been the case as liberal thought, and the invasion of the culture has become the "norm," or as the words that are now so often used as if the use of them show a person to be sophisticated: "The New Normal." People seem reluctant to live as Christians, that is to allow the Scriptures to lead them and not the world. For instance, so many people today come to worship with Bermuda shorts and flip-flops, shirts that are great if you are vacationing on some island. Women dress as though they want everyone to see what they have, bodily, dresses with low cut fronts (girls we know you have those body parts and we do not need to have them thrust in front of us and especially our children), would you dress like this for the President of the United States? Or we have made worship to be more like the "hippy" Woodstock music affair. How can we try to teach respect to our children if we are not respectful? It is this carelessness that is seen publicly. If we are to grow in grace we must practice in public that grace for we are the living Gospel, that is, we put forward in life what we believe. We must be on guard here or we will damage our witness. Yes, there are times whereby we do not need to be so formal, and those are good times, such as a men's breakfast, etc., yet, there are times when we do need to dress properly in respect towards God and to others for they do judge our faith, rightly so, how we actually present our faith publicly.
Some Churches do not speak of the Creeds, or use the old hymns, as if they are "old" and not "current", and the old prayers are not spoken of either, and worse of all they do not preach the truths, rather much is nothing more than "psycho-babble." These are signs of poor spiritual health, but they do draw many people through the doors, people with money, or even to satiate the senses that many people are coming, unfortunately there is a loss of appetite for real spiritual food, a decline in grace. Whatever we do in public, let us do it with all our might.
But He turned and said to Peter,
'Get behind Me, Satan! You are
an offense to Me, for you are not
mindful of the things of God,
but the things of men.'
Matthew 16:23
Live Life And Live For God
Richard L. Crumb
There is a problem that has invaded the Church and that problem is the acceptance of the culture and has changed the way people worship God, and show their respect, and faith for our creator and Savior Jesus Christ, for God, and the Holy Spirit who gives us the power to live as Authentic Biblical Christians. That problem can be seen in such things as doing things on the Sabbath that are not worshiping God, rather they are satisfying our emotions, and personal desires to have fun, or other things that are far removed from the Sabbath a day in which we take time to be with other like believers, and to rest and just meditate on the our Savior, our souls. But this has not been the case as liberal thought, and the invasion of the culture has become the "norm," or as the words that are now so often used as if the use of them show a person to be sophisticated: "The New Normal." People seem reluctant to live as Christians, that is to allow the Scriptures to lead them and not the world. For instance, so many people today come to worship with Bermuda shorts and flip-flops, shirts that are great if you are vacationing on some island. Women dress as though they want everyone to see what they have, bodily, dresses with low cut fronts (girls we know you have those body parts and we do not need to have them thrust in front of us and especially our children), would you dress like this for the President of the United States? Or we have made worship to be more like the "hippy" Woodstock music affair. How can we try to teach respect to our children if we are not respectful? It is this carelessness that is seen publicly. If we are to grow in grace we must practice in public that grace for we are the living Gospel, that is, we put forward in life what we believe. We must be on guard here or we will damage our witness. Yes, there are times whereby we do not need to be so formal, and those are good times, such as a men's breakfast, etc., yet, there are times when we do need to dress properly in respect towards God and to others for they do judge our faith, rightly so, how we actually present our faith publicly.
Some Churches do not speak of the Creeds, or use the old hymns, as if they are "old" and not "current", and the old prayers are not spoken of either, and worse of all they do not preach the truths, rather much is nothing more than "psycho-babble." These are signs of poor spiritual health, but they do draw many people through the doors, people with money, or even to satiate the senses that many people are coming, unfortunately there is a loss of appetite for real spiritual food, a decline in grace. Whatever we do in public, let us do it with all our might.
But He turned and said to Peter,
'Get behind Me, Satan! You are
an offense to Me, for you are not
mindful of the things of God,
but the things of men.'
Matthew 16:23
Live Life And Live For God
Richard L. Crumb
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