- araratchurch
- May 30, 2023
- 2 min read
In preparation for our discussion over the next five days, please carefully read and meditate on the following scriptures:
““Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God’s law will disappear until its purpose is achieved. So if you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But anyone who obeys God’s laws and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. “But I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!””
Matthew 5:17-20 NLT
“Some Pharisees and teachers of religious law now arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus. They asked him, “Why do your disciples disobey our age-old tradition? For they ignore our tradition of ceremonial hand washing before they eat.” Jesus replied, “And why do you, by your traditions, violate the direct commandments of God?”
Matthew 15:1-3 NLT
““You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell.”
Matthew 5:21-22 NLT
“Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.””
Matthew 11:28-30 NLT
““But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
Jeremiah 31:33 NLT
What is the righteousness exceeding that of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day? And, how do we obtain it? We will begin our investigation into these things tomorrow.
Peace to you.
Jesus is coming! Get ready for Him!
- araratchurch
- May 27, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 19, 2023
“I know that false teachers, like vicious wolves, will come in among you after I leave, not sparing the flock. Even some men from your own group will rise up and distort the truth in order to draw a following.”
Acts 20:29-30 NLT
When the disciples asked Jesus what would be the sign of His coming and the end of the age, the first thing He said to them was concerning the danger of being deceived:
“Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand.”
Matthew 24:3-5, 24-25 NKJV
Indeed, He had warned in Matthew 7:15 that some teachers would come looking like one thing, but actually being quite another:
“Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves.”
Matthew 7:15 NLT
John also warned that not everyone who seems to be from God is actually of His Spirit.
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
I John 4:1 NKJV
Peter warned that false prophets would come along and sew seeds of doubt concerning Jesus’ promise to return.
“Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.” And remember, our Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved. This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him— speaking of these things in all of his letters. Some of his comments are hard to understand, and those who are ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters to mean something quite different, just as they do with other parts of Scripture. And this will result in their destruction. You already know these things, dear friends. So be on guard; then you will not be carried away by the errors of these wicked people and lose your own secure footing. Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All glory to him, both now and forever! Amen.”
2 Peter 3:3-4, 15-18 NLT
Over the last few days we have been discussing the importance of not being led astray from our walk with the Lord, by the world, the flesh and the devil.
Now, another avenue of seduction away from our steadfastness in Jesus, is that of false doctrine.
In our opening scripture we see that Paul, in giving his final words to the elders at Ephesus, warned that in his absence, false teachers would try to draw the people to themselves and away from Jesus Christ.
As we have been discussing these last few days there are many ways to depart from walking in fellowship with the Lord. Some of these seductions to go astray, come in obvious ways, others in more subtle ways. But the one way to maintain our steadfastness in our Lord Jesus, is to keep our eyes on Him, not letting any of these things we have discussed, cause us to look away. And remember, the way we keep our eyes on Him is by keeping His word before us and by staying sensitive to the Holy Spirit speaking in us.
Peace to you.
Jesus is coming! Get ready for Him!
- araratchurch
- May 27, 2023
- 5 min read
“But there was a certain man named Ananias who, with his wife, Sapphira, sold some property. He brought part of the money to the apostles, claiming it was the full amount. With his wife’s consent, he kept the rest. Then Peter said, “Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself. The property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren’t lying to us but to God!””
Acts 5:1-4 NLT
Some people fail to share their faith with others out of intimidation or shyness. Still others fail to share their faith because they don’t want to be shunned by the “in-crowd.” But, I also believe that there are many who don’t share their faith outside of the “faith community,” because they don’t want to align their way of being and doing with Christian principles in these contexts.
Yet, how we operate in ALL areas of our lives is seen by the Lord, and as well, determines the effectiveness of our personal witness!
“No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.”
Matthew 5:15-16 NLT
Remember, if we are not serving the Lord in every area of our lives, then He is not our Lord at all; and, it shows.
Additionally, if we try in our own power and strength to deal with any area in our lives, we have kept those areas open to influence by the enemy of our soul!
Now, we’re all familiar with the philosophy that “business is business,” indicating that there is no need or edict to involve the Lord in areas labeled as “business.”
But before going further into that reasoning, I would like to share with you a personal failing in terms of not involving the Lord in all areas of my life.
To be sure, I did not see myself as “banning” the Lord’s involvement in this area in my life; but the result was the same, and it wasn’t pretty.
The area to which I am referencing is that of worry, anxiety, and stress.
Now, I have loved the Lord and trusted in Him for as long as I can remember. In fact, I never remember a time when the Lord was excluded from my thoughts and behavior.
Of course, I share with humanity the tendency to fail in doing what is always representative of what the Lord wants (sin).
But, my biggest area of failure involved not turning over all my “concerns” to Him. I believe this resulted from my need to be in control of situations I deemed as dangerous or troublesome, particularly as regarded the well-being of loved ones and those over whom I pastored.
The result of living that way was physical, mental, and spiritual “burnout.” But, again, if I had been asked if I trusted the Lord, I would—of course—have answered in the affirmative.
But somehow or another, I could not—or did not—release into the Lord’s hands that which concerned the well-being of my loved ones and those over whom I was in a position of authority/responsibility.
For example, over the years in which I was doing a lot of counseling, I dealt with people who had suicidal ideology as their go to. And somehow, I accepted the responsibility of keeping them alive.
On the one hand, I know that sounds ridiculous; but on the other hand, you might argue that that is what we’re here to do; it IS our responsibility.
However, what we’re here to do—in terms of those over whom we have authority or for whom we have responsibility—is to guide them to the Lord. In so doing, they receive the help that is permanent, even eternal.
Now, make no mistake, I always—in all of my interactions with people while in a helping capacity—presented the Lord as the only One Who could save, deliver, and heal. But, I still held myself as responsible for what might become of them, responsible for the outcome.
Now, whereas we will all have to give an account for how our influence may have contributed to what people did or didn’t do (in terms of their relationship with the Lord ), we know that people have a free will. And—in spite of all our good motives and best behavior concerning them—they can end up in a terrible place.
Indeed, many of those with whom our Lord had associated, turned aside.
Sadly, one of the Lord’s closest companions killed himself from the remorse of his betrayal of the Lord.
I’ve said all of that, to say this:
When we speak of compartmentalization (in terms of not leaning on and acknowledging the Lord in every area), you may have to take a second look by the Holy Spirit to see areas you may have cordoned off from the Lord.
Now, back to areas in our life we would consider having their own guidelines: Great failure results from having varying means of operation.
Truly, in our opening scripture we see an example of a couple who were a part of the early church, and apparently, wanted to be seen as being in “good standing.”
Their mistake was not that they didn’t give the whole revenue from the sell of their property, but rather, their lying about what they were giving.
Indeed, how easy it may have been for them to think this was just “business,” and that they had every right to do as they did. In fact, Peter affirmed that rationale to them.
But—the point is—they did not submit that transaction to input by the Holy Spirit of God. Rather, they decided what they would do and carried it out, never seeking the Lord as to what was right. Then, they turned around and lied about it!
You may wonder how we can be sure that they did not submit this transaction to the Lord. Well, the fact that they lied about what they were doing, indicated the guilt which comes with doing things our own way. As a result of this guilt, they lied about what they were doing to headship who was operating under the authority of the Lord. So, lying to headship, amounted to lying to the Lord Himself.
Now, Ananias and Sapphira paid the ultimate price: They were each struck dead for the lie they told.
But, make no mistake, whereas we may not experience such an immediate penalty as they, compartmentalizing off areas in our lives in which we operate without the direct guidance of the Holy Spirit, will sooner or later lead to alienation from the Spirit of God.
The very good news is that our Lord cares about every area in our lives. And—to the extent to which we yield ourselves to Him—He will take control, making things work for our good and His glory.
Peace to you.
Jesus is coming! Get ready for Him!