Testimonies

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Cleansing Stream Ministries

My church within the past two years has begun to offer the Cleansing Stream Ministry. If you are not familiar with this Ministry please visit the link with this post. Over the course of several weeks, you are introduced to several topics, and some excellent videos. If your church does not participate in the Cleansing Stream Ministry, I would strongly recommend it to any true believer.

During the course, you will be required to read a book entitled "The Bait of Satan." by John Bevere. This book is very matter of fact, an easy read, and it will open your eyes to "Offense." You ask, what is an Offense? The Merriam - Webster's dictionary defines offense as: archaic : a cause or occasion of sin : a breach of a moral or social code : sin, misdeed. This is only part of the definition, but you can see that offense is sin.

When I went into this coursework, being a retired cop, I thought offense was like breaking the law. I really did not look at it from a biblical standpoint. As we starting going through the class, I began doing some research from a religious point of view. What I found, was a parcel full of scriptures that firmly describe what an offense does to you and your faith.

Lets look at a few scriptures to lay a foundation into the biblical meaning of offense. The first scripture comes from Proverbs 18:19: A brother offended is more unyielding than a strong city, and quarreling is like the Path

Proverbs 18:19

This scripture demonstrates to us that offense is a sin that deeply wounds, and confuses the soul. It causes our brethren to mistrust, and harbor ill will towards our brother. The bible also tells us, that if a brother offends us, we are to go to him and forgive him. If he will not see you, then you take another brother with you until you have forgiven your brother.

Several months after the initial offering of Cleansing Stream, our church began a series on the "Bait of Satan" book. For a month, at our Wednesday night services, we watched John Bevere talk about offense. He went into the biblical application of the art of offense. We were told that this sin causes a lot of relationships to be broken.

John told a story in one lecture about how he had gotten offended at his boss. It ate at him, caused him to lose sleep, not be himself, and he began to lose his annoiting all because he was offended by something his boss had said. Finally, a vast amount of time went by, John went to his boss and told him that he was there to forgive him.His boss did not even realize that he had offended Mr Bevere.

This just gives us a glimpse into how the sin of offense can ruin our souls, and our relationships with our colleagues, family, friends, or even members of your own church. My Senior Pastor, who was conducting our Wednesday services, told us of a lady that had gotten offended over a simple minor issues and left the church.

We have all been offended, and for me this invites the devil into your home. If you become offended, do as the bible commands and forgive that brother or sister. If you do not, it is your soul that will suffer. Often times, we will get offended at a simple comment or misunderstanding and if we do not go to that party and let them know that you had took offense to what they had done or said, it is your mortal soul on the chopping block.

Life is to precious to get caught up in offense. It is the devil's playground, and he will give you an unlimited number of visits. Because he wants you to harbor ill will at your brother. He wants to divide us in whatever manner he can. God wants us to be happy, not to be squabbling with each other. We should concentrate on building each other up, and increasing our faith. Not to destroy each by the sin of offense.

So as John Bevere says, "don't take the bait." "Don't worry, be happy" is the motto I live by. I placed a video by John Bevere on our Video page. Take a look, and if you want to get your church involved in the Cleansing Stream Ministry please visit their link on this page.

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