A NEW BEGINNING FOR 2020
As I get older now I am faced with changes in my ability to keep up with things. What I sense is hopelessness in this world that one person can never fill. That is because the hopelessness is not based on a physical need but a spiritual one. On one hand, I see how far this world has gone to create deception of never being able to win because those who do stand and fight for Goodness and light are so badly outnumbered that we could never win; and on the other hand, I know the reasons the enemy is fighting, lying, and cheating so much is that the time is at hand very quickly for the account to come due for payment according to God's judgment.
I believe the last 2 years have been the most difficult of my entire life physically, and yet I clearly remember asking God to use me up for His glory. In many ways, it does feel like ( as Paul said) " My life is being poured out like water", but not without good reason. I continue to find a new source of strength and influence through God's word. In the last 2 years, I have had the pleasure of working with a group of men in a Thursday night Bible study held in my home specially set up for that ministry. Hopefully, it will spawn a movement within the community to tear down walls that have separated what could be "brothers of faith" because of doctrinal differences. The desire I have is to bring men together who would never even consider fellowship to sit together and reason out the scripture through the complete submission to and control of the Holy Spirit. We do this by not teaching doctrine, but Christ alone. As we open scripture up we ask that God would speak through each one of us to do the teaching. Right now we have men coming from many varied backgrounds spiritually from Baptist, Catholic, Pentecostal, Lutheran, Methodist, and some who do not claim any denomination affiliations at all. We always have room even though we have a membership of around 12 men right now who come to reason scripture together through the teaching of the Holy Spirit; we are always looking for more.
WHY DO THIS? someone might ask...actually the greatest reason to do it is that irritates God's enemies! The other greater reason is that is creating a bond between men of faith that may have not been seen in over 100 years! There are walls being broken down that have held the church at bay for many generations, and there is a greater chance now than ever to see God take control of communities all over this area because of it. From the very beginning of the church being established the one thing that Satan has desired more than anything else is to make the church ineffective, and the greatest tool that has been used has been to create the denominations of church bodies who claim all to have God's truth, but who fully refuse fellowship with one another based upon a manmade creed or doctrine that does nothing more than separate them from one another.
It is, therefore, time as Paul would say; to begin to tear away at the divisions that have separated us from fellowship. The only way that we can effectively do this is by tearing away all of the doctrines, creeds and man-made philosophies that have effectively done Satan's work for him in dividing us from o0ne anther in fellowship and love. We start by coming back to the very basics of what Christ has said to us. What is it that brings us to Christ? What is it that sustains us in our faith in Christ?
It begins to be those very basic things that also can unify us in the Spirit of God, but only if we allow God's Spirit to be in charge of everything that we do. In order to find those teachings in their most basic form, we must go back to the study. That means that we must not only be focussed on the principals used in scripture for the early church, but the basic teachings of Jesus as He ministered to the disciples. You see it isn't the principals of the bible alone that become important here, but the direct words of Christ which will cause us to be of the same mind and heart as the early church was.
Christ gave us a good picture of what it should be like for our lives when he began to speak in Matthew 5: 3-11 as He gave us the Beatitudes. Jesus went on throughout the sermon on the Mount to describe God's point of view on all of the issues of life that we need to be the most concerned about. What my intention is from this point is to look at these doctrines that cause separation in fellowship from denomination to denomination and begin to strip away those things that are not from Christ, but from man. No matter how well-intended they may be or how holy some may consider them to be if they divide us from one another in Christ they are not from God.
I may not have a new blog every day this year, but I want to try to give you information directly from God's Spirit that can be used to help us grow in Christ. I pray that you will join me on this journey. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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