Applying the Bible to Life - Part 4
Here’s the next part in this multi-part series of “free-form” offerings of the Spirit for you to consider.
Each one is meant to benefit a person’s Walk with the Lord, by applying the Bible to real, everyday, walking-around life.
God's Law: keeping the Ten Commandments (Truth) because of the Two Most Important Commandments (Love).
Neither Love nor Truth can do any good thing without the other. They are meant to be intertwined and inseparable.
That is why God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Word all are Love and Truth in exact equal measure.
To embrace God's Law is to embrace God's Love and Protection for us. By it, we hold Jesus' Hand as we Walk with Him.
To resent God's Law is to walk away from God's Love and Protection for us, letting go the Hand of Christ Himself.
Anyone who labels it as "work" to NOT murder, steal, lie, covet, commit adultery, dishonor parents, misuse God's name, commit idolatry, or have other gods; or to keep the only Sabbath in the Bible (which is also not work but rest)... such a person refuses both Jesus' Teachings and Sacrifice.
It's better for a person to never come to God than for them to pretend to come to God.
Hating Truth is the opposite of Love.
Fighting against even one of God's Commandments is not Love. It is only fighting against God Himself.
Seeking technicalities to avoid any part of the Letter OR Heart of God's Law is also not Love. We can't desire to continue in sin and claim we Love God.
Anyone who claims Jesus doesn't teach us to "sin no more" is a liar, and neither Love nor Truth is in them.
Anyone who claims Jesus doesn't teach us to keep all the Commandments is a liar, and neither Love nor Truth is in them.
"Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears God’s words." - Jesus in John 8:46-47 (NKJV)
"One who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination." - Proverbs 28:9 (NKJV)
Refusal to read God's Word is rejection of the Father and Son, which is also rejection of Peace and safety for our lives.
The person who resists good will get their wish.
Failure to recognize sin and its destructiveness leads to one's being subject to it, willfully or not.
"My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge." - Hosea 4:6 (NKJV)
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. " - Proverbs 9:10 (NKJV)
"Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." - Jesus in Matthew 10:28 (NKJV)
Jesus surely does not want us destroyed, so He knows it's critical for us to fear God enough to start and stay on the path to Wisdom and understanding through His Word. Does this mean we should live being afraid of God ? We should be afraid of God only if we don't Love or respect Him, or keep in mind His Infinite Power in this Universe. Using our free will to fight against the sole Infinite Power who Loves us, wants the Best for us, and works to protect and save us, is nothing but sheer madness, driven by prideful defiance that leads straight to destruction. We have a choice... all Good, all Love, all Truth, all Light, and all Life on one hand, or permanent death on the other.
There is Love of the Lord and fear of the Lord. Love is preferable, but if we don't start there, we should at least start with fear that leads to knowledge that leads to Love.
"I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him - the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day." - Jesus in John 12:46-48 (NKJV)
Our final Judgement will not be arbitrary; the Standard of Judgement will be God's Word, which contains His Righteousness. Of course, that is precisely what makes the Bible our Perfect manual for living, and for taking care of ourselves and others. Sadly, as one preacher noted, it might be the least-read best-seller ever. That might be true for many who own one, but on a better note, it is surely the most Valuable, Life-saving Book ever to those who actually read and do what it says.
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength." - Jesus in Mark 12:30 (NKJV)
And "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." - Jesus in Mark 12:31 (NKJV)
It might seem anti-intuitive to a human side that doesn't want to give it-"self" up, but the Spirit knows that surrendering "self" is the only Way to Victory. We are born with two natures - a Spiritual nature and a human nature. One is Spirit, one is flesh. The "flesh" consists of our mental, emotional, and physical states, also known as our mind, heart, and strength (or body). Our mind thinks, our emotions feel, and our body acts. All "four parts" of us - Spirit, mind, heart, body - can interact relatively seamlessly. The mind is the control center, of course, and what is fed into it determines the state of our being. When a person lives as a carnal being - not by the Spirit in connection to God and Jesus through the Holy Spirit, the Word, and prayer - then their Spirit is essentially dead (not germinated) within them. Their lifeline to God has "potential", but no active Life. Therefore, in a carnal state, a person essentially lives by just the mind, emotions, and body. Feeding their five senses the "culture" in front of them, the carnal mind's storage of such often manifests as one doing whatever they "feel like" and physically desire, in line with the "culture" and the sin it promotes***. Any of us can look at our own life, or around this world, to see the damage from sin by carnal living. Of course, Jesus tells us that the Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, knowing our flesh is not meant to lead us, for God intends our Spirit to be fed and to grow by a purposely-chosen, daily-living, Family connection with Him. Our Spirit was made to be the Parent within us, over our human side. Our Spirit is to be the part of us that, by connection to God, has control over what is fed to our mind, and therefore our emotional and physical states. We are to voluntarily give up "self", and not do just what we "feel like" or physically desire, but instead do what is Right as God and Jesus teach us, driven by Love for God and others. By our Spirit in connection with God through the Holy Spirit, we are to have "self-control", that is, control of the self.
*** The carnal world does not teach ONLY sin to its children. As Jesus tells us: though we are evil, even we (as carnal or "worlded" people) know to give good things to our own children, like food. Yes, the carnal world does pass on to its children some of what is Right, so there is some "good" to point to ("I haven't murdered anyone with a gun, and I did well in school and have a job."). But pointing to what is Right does not remove the wrong in sin this carnal world also, and increasingly, continues to pass on to its children. Satan mixes the bad among the good - to destroy. It's sin that's the issue, not any minimal and lessening goodness transferred to the next generation.
Among other things, the Holy Spirit's job is to convict us of sin. The Holy Spirit's job is therefore to convict us of transgression of the Law (1 John 3:4). Those who believe that God's Law is not in effect anymore therefore believe the Holy Spirit can do nothing for them. They're right. For this reason, they cannot possibly have the Holy Spirit abiding in them. They instead blaspheme the Holy Spirit, thereby committing the Unpardonable Sin. Now, what about the person who has ceased all willful sin ? What does the Holy Spirit do for them ? Obviously, He has done much for them, for they would not keep God's Law if they didn't have the Holy Spirit abiding in them. And they would not continue to keep the Law unless they had the Holy Spirit continually abiding in them. Thus, the Holy Spirit helps a True Believer to get clean, and to stay clean.
From now until the approaching Last Day, the already-small percentage of True Believers on the Earth will decline to the point where no more will be added.
"And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed." - Jesus in Luke 17:26-30 (NKJV)
In Noah's day, out of all the people on the Earth, only eight people, Noah's family, entered the ark and were saved. Eight ! No new believers beyond those eight were added, even after Noah himself preached to the people (2 Peter 2:5) for decades while building the ark. Why were no new believers added ? Because the world was so depraved and filled with sin that no one was listening: "Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." - Genesis 6:5 (NKJV) Was it any different in the days of Lot ? No ! God assured Abraham that Sodom would not be destroyed if even ten righteous people lived there, and we can be sure if there was even one righteous person besides Lot (with his family), then God would have saved that person too. But there were not, so only Lot and his two daughters ended up being saved on the day of Sodom's destruction. Even the rest of Lot's own family didn't take the warning and instruction from God seriously, and so their demise was sealed, their heart being little different toward God than the other residents of Sodom. So, based on what Jesus tells us, we can see that the Earth will become so corrupt in sin that "every intent of the thoughts of the hearts will be only evil continually", just as in the days of Noah and in the days of Lot. No one else will repent beyond that point, and that is when Jesus will return to the Earth in the clouds above to get His own away from it, as the rest is marked for destruction.
"Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." - Jesus in Matthew 7:13-14 (NKJV)
"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me." - Jesus in John 10:27 (NKJV)
One's continued resistance to the call of their Creator leads to their Spiritual, and ultimately, permanent death.
One can commit the Unpardonable Sin by blaspheming the Holy Spirit. The essence of blasphemy is to not hold God up to His Rightful place as the Creator-King of the Universe. By this, we marginalize God in our hearts and attempt to exalt ourselves to His Rightful place in our lives. In other words, if we blaspheme God, we don't believe He is who He says He is, and therefore set ourselves up as "god" of our own lives, and often attempt to self-righteously be "god" over others as well. The sins of covetousness, not Loving God, having other gods before Him, and treating God vainly (among others) are behind it, all pointing to self-exaltation by evil measures. Likewise, if we blaspheme Jesus, we do not believe Jesus is who He says He is. Of course blasphemy can also manifest on the outside of us as outright disrespect of God and Jesus, or in trying to test Them, or by other such behaviors stemming from a lack of Faith mixed with the childish, self-centered desire to be "great" in all the wrong ways. Now, if we don't have Faith that God and Jesus are who They say, then we won't believe God's Word. And if we don't believe God's Word, then we won't believe that everything God and Jesus have is available to us, including God's Holy Spirit to dwell within us. By refusing to believe, we have no way to accept the Holy Spirit, and we cut off the only path to our forgiveness, because it's the Holy Spirit's job to convict us of sin and guide us into all Truth, and to bring to our mind any part of God's Word we know that can help us in our life. Rest assured, the Unpardonable Sin, or blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, is not a one-time action of disrespect, verbal or otherwise. It develops as we continue to ignore the calling of God's Holy Spirit to our Spirit, always putting Him off and never inviting Him in. In that state, we will not come to repentance (nor will we be forgiving of others or obedient to God's Law), but remain in willful sin. If we get to the end of our life having never trusted in God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and God's Word to lead us, then we die in our sin, unforgiven and unpardoned, having also turned down the offer of Jesus' Sacrifice on our behalf. (Sure, many insincere folks might believe they can deceive God toward the end of their life with an insincere verbal repentance, but God knows the heart and is never mocked.) From this, it can be understood that the Unpardonable Sin is unpardonable because it is not a sin someone can confess to God, and thereby be forgiven (1 John 1:9). For how would they sincerely confess it, and to Whom, when they never heeded the call of the Holy Spirit to repentance in the first place, and to believe in the One who forgives ? When we blaspheme the Holy Spirit, we do not hold the Spirit of God up to His Rightful place as the Invisible-yet-Tangible Guide for our life. And if we refuse to believe as such, having little or no Faith, we will not follow His call to do what is necessary to come to Life in the Lord. Dead in Spirit, body and Soul perish at the end.
We need to start with prayer and go from there. Once we've asked for the Holy Spirit, it will be given. Should we then grieve Him by persistently having no Faith ? No ! As Jesus tells us, if we ask, seek, and knock, it will be given, found, and opened. But we must open our heart in Faith like a little child to keep hold of what is ours.
Knowing and doing are two different things. There is no Faith in only knowing, for even the devil knows. The Faith is in the doing. If we know what to do, but don't act on it, we have no Faith. Likewise, "to believe" means "to have Faith". Therefore, "believing" is not just knowing or mentally acknowledging; like Faith, it is Walking in trust.
Believing without doing isn't believing.
There is a big difference between knowing who God is and doing what God says.
"But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say? Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great." - Jesus in Luke 6:46-49 (NKJV)
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