But ye beloved, building up yourselves
on your most holy faith, praying in the
Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God,
looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ
unto eternal life. And of some have compassion,
making a difference: and others save with fear,
pulling them out of the fire; hating even
the garment spotted by the flesh.
Jude 20-23
Real Christianity has and is the subject of these recent blogs and this is due to the fact that many denominations believe that be are the only ones that have Real Christianity. This is a problem in this problem is estimated by the secular world and its culture having become a culture of the Church. Furthermore there is much misunderstanding and this is due to preachers who only preach their theology, or their ideology and all this based on some sort of presupposition and not based on Scripture. Let's take the above opening Scriptures: first we are being instructed to build ourselves up in the "most holy faith." How do you build yourself up in the "most holy faith?" The first, read your Bible, read the Bible alone without helps without the books by other writers, just the Bible. You can get those other writings but they're not inspired of God we must understand that so that we don't get the missing lead so that we are not lead to the "most holy faith." Now comes a very misunderstood part of this scripture: "praying in the Holy Ghost." What does this mean? We must understand that praying in the Spirit is mentioned three times in scripture: one. 1 Corinthians 14:15; Ephesians 6: 18; Jude 20. What is being told to us is that we are to pray for all the saints. We call this intercessory prayer. The New Testament having been written in the Greek language it is important to come to an understanding of the Greek words used such as "pray in." This Greek word for prayer has several different meanings: one you can mean "by means," "with the help of it," "in the sphere of," and "in connection to." This term praying in the spirit does not refer to the words that are being spoken, rather it refers to how we are praying, that is, praying according to the Holy Spirit's leading. Therefore we are to refrain for the things that the Holy Spirit leads us to pray (Romans 8:26) but there we are told that we are to pray for help by the Holy Spirit in our weaknesses and that we often do not know what we should pray for it that the Holy Spirit would intercede even with words that we could not express.
this term "trained in the Holy Ghost," has led many people to misunderstand what this means for they say and they base this on 1 Corinthians 14: number 15 that this equates to praying and tongues. Well, is this what it means? We are told that a person who's praying in tongues of not know what he is saying and no one else can understand what he's saying unless there's an interpreter (1 Corinthians 14: 27 -- 28). Within a verse is used as proof verse there is a problem for we do not use proof verses in Authentic Christianity. Ephesians 6: 18 we are told by Paul to "pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and request." Let us use some critical thinking and some common sense; how can we pray and not know what we're praying about and others do not know either in Leicester as an interpreter when were told to pray for all kinds of requests, shouldn't we know what we are requesting? As! I can we pray for the Saints if we do not know what they need? We cannot! Therefore we should understand that "praying in the spirit" simply isn't praying in the power of the Holy Spirit, by the leading of the Holy Spirit, and according to the will of God, and this will not occur unless the person knows what their brain about, why they're praying, and for whom they are praying, and this excludes this gibberish speaking in tongues that some denominations hold as some sort of sign that a person is a true Christian.
Church: that is an English word and we often do not fully understand what this word means, therefore there is a problem and that problem can be seen to have grown larger Sunday by Sunday, year by year. The Greek word that we translate church simply means to be called out, and is used in the Greek society for the assembly of people within a city. Therefore the Church is a group of people who have been called out by God not simply to come to a building, to be listening to music, to listen to some sort of sermon, and all this may be good but there is more for the reason we come to church.we are told to aid others, to make a difference, to have passion, to save others with this fear even if it means that we have to pull them out of a fire, and we are to hate evil.
A church today has the look of a party. Men and women do not show respect for our holy God and for others. They come to church and sandals, shorts, low tops, hair unkempt, something that they would not do if they were to come before the president of the United States but this they will do before a holy God who came to die and save them from their sins and to give them eternal life. It's like speaking of both like your mouth at the same time. Children often are running around to and fro without much if any adult supervision, they can't stand without fidgeting and speaking to one another during a sacred moment when the elements of the Communion are passed around for they never got a that were doing this in remembrance of Jesus Christ to came to die for us and that He did and is now applicable to those who put their faith and belief in Him. Do not base stands still, for just a moment, do they have to run off constantly to a bathroom when that could've have been handled before service? It seems as if the church does not provide some sort of entertainment or excitement that people did not have any expectation other than that and have no expectation to meet with other brothers and sisters and to hear the pastor preached from the Bible so that we are constantly being reminded as to how to live and to grow in our faith. The church today, even in some of the most conservative Protestant churches have fallen prey to this lackadaisical attitude and the loss of ethics. How can this illness of the church be cured? By each and every person to take a look at themselves and how and why they come to be before God and before the other brothers and sisters, and even those who may not yet have come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. You find people to be so concerned with vanity, they must wear the best dressed, the most matching colors and clothing, they need to conform to the ideals presented as to how to dress and act by this world.
Hint about authentic Christian faith: examine your self and see if it actually is an image of Jesus Christ of the world. Use the Bible and compare what you have come to know what the words of our heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ.
His pleasure is not in the strength
of the horse, nor His delight
in the legs of a man; the LORD delights
and those who fear Him,
who put their hope in His unfailing love
Psalms 147:10
Be a prayer warrior
Richard L. Crumb
No comments:
Post a Comment