Bible Studies

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GodSpeak
Did you know that there are so many people in the world today, even in the United States that consider themselves Christians and yet really are not. Or they did pray to receive Him at one time and then something just never developed that should have. Maybe they didn't repent, maybe they just simply and genuinely responded to the drawing of the Holy Spirit and maybe even to an altar call yet stopped there. Or maybe they prematurely prayed the "sinners prayer" [although there isn't one of those in the Bible] before they were ready, before they counted the cost, as Jesus talked about, or before they really saw and/or confessed their sins, even one by one.

There are I'm certain a number of other possibilities but for the person who did do something they believed made them a Christian, this message is for them. It's really not for the one who is still unregenerate and without a Covenant and without the renewed Spirit from Jesus in them. And It's a number of individuals far larger than you would imagine. Especially if we use true Biblical criteria.

According to the Epistles of the Apostle John to the followers in Jerusalem and beyond he is inspired and instructed by the Lord Jesus and by His Father to present some incredibly sobering and fundamental truths about how someone can tell if they do in fact have the "Lord" in them now, after they have claimed to be a believer in and a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. The truths he declares paint a very grim, serious picture of such a person. But he also at the same time causes us to see and be encouraged at what is to be the identifying traits of someone who truly is, and the quiet confidence and trust in the mercy and grace of God.

Keep in mind though that there are other applications of Doctrinal truths about God and the Gospel of the Kingdom in other parts of the Old Testament. The Apostle John says that we can tell if someone is either a true child of God or a spiritual offspring of the devil. Now I grant you we could play some semantics and technical games with words here but lets keep it simple and fundamental, like John did.

Whether or not someone can fall away and be lost after having received new life, or never ever be lost once they're found, or whether or not someone can claim to be a Christian but after a different gospel, or any other choice is irrelevant to the basic truths Jesus and the Old Testament and the Prophets taught.

What did Jesus say was the two most greatest, top level, of the highest order, critical commandments to being rightly related to the Lord and to Heaven and Eternal Life. [whether before or after Christ] To LOVE the Lord our God with everything possible in our entire beings and to love our fellow man, especially the household of faith, as we were designed and intended to love ourselves by God Himself. [ This is of course somewhat paraphrased and/or amplified to enhance the full meaning of the original texts ] This love we are to show to the Triune GodHead as well as to our fellow brethren in Christ and even all men thereafter was certainly meant by God to be the kind and type of LOVE that is of God and not of man. Our fashion and mode of love is way
different than God's and can really be very self serving, sensually oriented, naiive, proud, demanding, etc. and so on. Simply put, not just different but drastically flawed.

The LOVE of GOD on the other hand is without defect, or flaw, or uncleanness, or unrighteousness, or anything that the originator of LOVE would deem "not as designed and intended". And He gave us in Adam and in Christ the ability to love as He loves both to Him and to others and to ourselves.

In 1 John the example of Cain and Abel is used as an example of how to generally tell whether or not someone is, shall we say, in right relationship with the Lord, or NOT. Cain related to his brother Abel in his heart and by his actions in a way that GOD called murder. We probably wouldn't see what Cain had in his heart as murder but he certainly did murder his brother and it was NO accident. The Bible clearly teaches us that what we think about and dwell on, and give into as a tempting thought and idea becomes desire which leads to sin. Here John is telling us that if we allow to stay in our heart towards another believer or even anyone, that which God would call the sin of murder, that we not only will carry it out, somehow, but that we already have even before we do it naturally. And just in case you hadn't thought about the fact that there are "milder" versions of murder that we can commit that do not involve seeing the person draw their last breath. There is what the Bible would call character assassination, gossip, slander, lying, false witness or testimony, unforgiveness, and betrayal and on and on. Have you ever done any of these things, even in your heart, towards another person, even someone not a Christian. God calls it murder just as lust in the eyes and heart is adultery already.

He also gives another example here in his Epistle which actually appears to be even way harder to deal with than the Biblical version of murder. Way harder than loving someone genuinely and sincerely with your actions, not being two faced with them, always treating them as though they were even perfect, etc?? Almost. And that is giving of your financial and material abundance to other Christians to help them in their time of need, and without strings attached. Even to the lost at times. Both of these areas of relational living in the culture and community of the Body of Christ seem to be nearly impoosible to so many. Yet these are the two main areas that Jesus and John and even Paul and Peter preached about. Obviously they understod.

But they also understood that for the person who is truly a Christian in deed as well as with words it should be an incredibly easy thing to do, even daily. Now I've heard all of the talk about using wisdom and discretion and prudence and on and on in the "giving" of financial and material things. And those are Scriptural statutes and precepts. BUT the Bible also teaches clearly that in the Name of Christlike Love, the kind of Love that caused Jesus to give up His wealth and abundance in Heaven, that belonged to Him, and layed it ALL down, even the most precious thing, His LifeBlood, then we should follow in His Footsteps. It's sacrificial giving.

I see so many so called Christians who seem more prepared to shed their blood than their paychecks. Or their personal belongings and possessions. Wow. Why would the Lord use the example of Money and Material things. Because He knew the power of the hold those things can have on someone and either prevent them from truly becoming filled with God or even losing the presence of God to their own personal traditions.

Does this mainly apply to those who are "wealthy". Well you know that being wealthy is a relative thing. [ except in the case of my relatives.......sorry ] It is a principle of the Kingdom of God not an economic principle. No matter what your income level you should be in the habit of seeking the Holy Spirit for opportunities to apply this kind of the LOVE of GOD. It's about true sacrifice, which is one of the biggest true signs of the Love of God expressed in Christ Jesus.

John goes on to say that if we do the will of God which involves two main things, manifesting the real love of God and Believing in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit that we can ask what we will and HE WILL DO IT. [ Read I John chapter three beginning with verse 10. ]

So this was not just about murder in it's various forms or being a phony or not, or even sacrificing things of value. It was and is about the Love of God, even from the innermost being all the way to the outermost, in tangible expressions of caring and compassion. And yes, it seems to be telling us that when a so called "christian" won't give of their money and belongings, which will pass away when they die but they are usually the ones as well who are guilty of more passive sophisticated forms of murder much as slander, unforgiveness, grudges, criticising, betrayal, etc.

Think about it.........................GodSpeak
His Will.

Yes I most certainly do believe that a person is out of the will of God, out of the favor of God, out of the provision and protection of God, and quite possibly out of the Way of God, having fallen away who keeps for himself what he should be sharing with others, especially of the household of Faith.

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