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Tag: Matthew

  • The Mirror of Church Hypocrisy – 2

    The Mirror of Church Hypocrisy – 2

    Is Christ’s church not His betrothed, as Israel was chosen of the Lord?

    A word for the Church from Prophets of old:

    Israel Forsakes the Lord

    The word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the Lord,

    “I remember the devotion of your youth,
    your love as a bride,
    how you followed me in the wilderness,
    in a land not sown.
    3 Israel was holy to the Lord,
    the first fruits of his harvest…

    “Dearly beloved,” begins our covenant witness for marriage.

    “Dear Lord Jesus,” we praise Christ when first we bow to Him.

    9 “Therefore I still contend with you,
    declares the Lord,
    and with your children’s children I will contend…

    19 Your evil will chastise you,
    and your apostasy will reprove you.

    Know and see that it is evil and bitter
    for you to forsake the Lord your God;
    the fear of me is not in you,
    declares the Lord God of hosts.

    20 “For long ago I broke your yoke
    and burst your bonds;
    but you said, ‘I will not serve.’

    Yes, on every high hill
    and under every green tree
    you bowed down like a whore…

    DIVORCE, by ‘christian’ husbands?

    DIVORCE, by ‘christian’ wives?

    You have long ago forsaken your love for the Lord your God. Your whoredom is against Christ Jesus, your returning Bridegroom!

    Our “Lord,” Christ Jesus warns: “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce … but from the beginning it was not so. – Matthew 19:8

    Ephesians 5:22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord…

    25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church… that she might be holy and without blemish.

    31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 

    32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

    How dare we (christians) even speak of the sexual sin of the world, when we have not returned to the purity Christ Jesus expects of His betrothed so soiled in sexual sin!

    Jeremiah 2:

    22 Though you wash yourself with lye
    and use much soap,
    the stain of your guilt is still before me,
    declares the Lord God…

    29 “Why do you contend with me?
    You have all transgressed against me,
    declares the Lord.
    30 In vain have I struck your children;
    they took no correction…

    Do our christian children witness the love and forgiveness of  Christ even less than their divorced christian parents?

    Do our christian children sell their flesh and souls to the same sexual desires we would hide from the world?

    To be continued…

     

  • The Mirror of Hypocrisy

    The Mirror of Hypocrisy

    As I left the busy area of the mall wearing my brand new ‘Jesus’ tie I had just purchased as witness to family members far from Christ, I hurried onto the main freeway. Morning traffic was still dense, but I had time to merge; BUT the car in the lane next to the ramp was not making room for me.

    It breezes by as I braked rather than merging. The woman driver had a cell phone up to her right ear. She never saw me.

    So (of course) I followed my gut reaction as I squeezed into traffic behind her. As she blew by the ramp, phone to her ear; I tried my best to get her attention back on traffic with a long blast on my horn.

    And you guessed it. What was the first thing I noticed?

    Her bumper sticker:

    PRAY

    Yes, this brother in the Lord (with the log in his eye) noticed clearly this sister in the Lord with the speck in hers.

    I had to laugh. (And pray that nobody would notice that the car honking his horn had a bumper sticker on the back from his daughter’s Christian college.)

     Matthew 7:3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

    Want to witness to an unbeliever? (For they are hypocrites, too.)

    Tell them you are a sinner. I am!

    When I look in the mirror I do not see Christ; I see a sinner.

    Even unbelievers see the sins of OTHERS, including ours.

    Look in the mirror and remove the log of hypocrisy from your eye. THEN, confess your sin and witness Christ Jesus.

    Even the unbeliever will see clearly: the truth of your witness or the lie of our hypocrisy.

     

     

  • but from the beginning it was not so

    but from the beginning it was not so

    Teaching About Divorce

    3 And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?”

    4 He answered,“Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

    The question of the Pharisees is justification that could easily come from the deceitful tongue of an unfaithful 21st c. christian.

    ‘How can I get out of my marriage vows?’ one might ask.

    A ‘vow’ may be permanent or vows may have a clause of completion by a given date or event. Here is announced INTENTION of the marriage vow I made with my wife and she with me:

    DECLARATION OF INTENTION
    Pastor [sister in the Lord and mayor, Judith Piper] to the persons who are to marry:

    I ask you now, in the presence of God and these people, to declare your intention to enter into union with
    each other through the grace of Jesus Christ, who calls you into union with himself [as acknowledged in
    your baptism.]

    Pastor to the woman: 2
    Lissette, will you have Roger, to be your husband, to live together in holy marriage? Will you love him,
    comfort him, honor and keep him, in sickness and in health, and forsaking all others, be faithful to him as
    long as you both shall live?
    Woman: I will.

    Pastor to the man:
    Roger, will you have Lissette, to be your wife, to live together in holy marriage? Will you love her,
    comfort her, honor and keep her, in sickness and in health, and forsaking all others, be faithful to her as
    long as you both shall live?

    I will.

    Although we have spent some time in the Old Testament and marriage problems from the beginning, let’s take a brief look at the Law and perspective of marriage before these last days.

    As a reminder, a woman (virgin) was given in marriage from her father to another family, typically by agreement to the father for his son. (How different this is from the boiling emotions of attraction of the flesh of those choosing marriage in these last days as a confirmation of what has already taken place.)

    The Bible speaks to men, because by their authority from God men are to speak to and for the woman in their care and responsibility.

    For a brief look at this, see Numbers 30.

    Not only is it NOT Biblical that in most instances a man may NOT divorce a woman, it is NOT Biblical that a woman would even have the legal right to divorce her husband! (However, in these last days, the world and the church have allowed and condoned this.)

    Divorce by christian women ‘putting away their Christian husbands for any reason’ is all too prevalent and unconfessed by the church.

    A few startling statistics which ought to convict christians and those married claiming Christ:

    • Percent of men 15-44 years of age who have had 15 or more female sexual partners, 2006-2010: 21.6%
    • Percent of women 15-44 years of age who have had 15 or more male sexual partners, 2006-2010: 9.0% source

    I have confessed that the number of sexual partners in my life may be counted on one hand, but trends show that now many teens have had more sexual partners by their early 20’s, and that without marriage (in most cases), than I have had in over 40 years since first having intercourse (in my 20’s).

    • By age 18, 9% of women aged 15–44 in 2006–2010 had ever cohabited.
    • By age 20, 26% of women in 2006–2010 had cohabited, compared with 23% in 2002 and 19% in 1995.
    WhyGetMarried2Our 18 year old son will graduate from high school this year. These stats mean that 9 of the 100 young women graduates in his class have already lived with their boyfriend (possibly in the home of her parent).
    —
    I can guarantee you that our ‘christian’ sons and daughters (who often resist church participation at that age) are included in the parental hypocrisy of these well-hidden facts. (See the difference in christian marriages, below.)
    —
    In just two years, one of every four young women in his 2014 graduation class will be “in a relationship” with their boyfriend. (No need of marriage here.)
    One of four women by age 20.
    • By age 25, over one-half of women (55%) in 2006–2010 had cohabited. source

    So what is our Christian witness for marriage?

    We do not make a very good case for it by our witness.

    • adults (78%) have been married at least once, the Barna study revealed that an even higher proportion of born again Christians (84%) tie the knot.
    • 25% have gone through a marital split
    • In fact, when evangelicals and non-evangelical born again Christians are combined into an aggregate class of born again adults, their divorce figure is statistically identical to that of non-born again adults: 32% versus 33%, respectively. source

    Christian witness: Number of divorces is the SAME as non-christians.

    Continuing in what Jesus had to say to the Pharisees about divorce:

    Jesus said:  6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

    7 They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?”

    8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.

    Is this not so with christians who divorce? Is this not so with christian wives who call themselves, ‘single moms?”

    9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”

    And ought we also say, in these last days where the hardness of a woman’s heart will no more submit to her husband, than she will to the Lord:

    “Whoever divorces her husband, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”

    From the beginning, it was not so.

    Marriage: to be continued?  … Next: Why Biblical marriage matters