1 John 5:16 - "If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that."
Galatians 6:1 - "Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted."
Matthew 18:15 - "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector."
1 Corinthians 5:13 " But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.” "
1 Timothy 5:20 - "As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear."
James 5:19-20 - "My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins."
Ephesians 4:15 - "Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ"
Luke 17:3 - "Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him,"
Luke 6:37 - “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;"
Matthew 10:16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves."
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
A Yet Untitled Poem I Wrote About Jesus
A broken heart, it search nigh, for rocks to crush, its hopeless light
Where will it go for atonement's kiss?
Where can it receive sweet forgiveness?
Oh how much pain, that swelleth within
The blood is lodged, in-flam-a-ted
Oh would someone pierce this swollen heart,
And pour out the life, that was there once
So that peace can come upon my soul
I will finally rest with peace alone
And here he comes sword ext-end-ed
And takes my place, will surrendered
To his Father he looks apathetically
For our healing he urges pleadingly
And now he's crushed, and bruised abandoned
Though undeserving he receives our brandish
3 Scars to remind us of his life
The day he was our sacrifice
Where will it go for atonement's kiss?
Where can it receive sweet forgiveness?
Oh how much pain, that swelleth within
The blood is lodged, in-flam-a-ted
Oh would someone pierce this swollen heart,
And pour out the life, that was there once
So that peace can come upon my soul
I will finally rest with peace alone
And here he comes sword ext-end-ed
And takes my place, will surrendered
To his Father he looks apathetically
For our healing he urges pleadingly
And now he's crushed, and bruised abandoned
Though undeserving he receives our brandish
3 Scars to remind us of his life
The day he was our sacrifice
Public Opinion?
A random man once told me he didn't believe anything was right or wrong, so I asked him about his daughters and wife being murdered, whether that was wrong, and he was prepared to respond a cheerful "no". He had told me that he didn't believe in a God who would judge 7 billion people to hell. That sounded like a cruel Father, who was unloving. I asked a follow up question,"if you murder me and my friends here, have you done anything wrong?" After much hesitation and refusing to answer the question, he finally relents and with some determination in his eye he answers, "let 'just' say this, if I could trade places with Obama, I wouldn't mind nuking the entire planet."
My question to you is, how is that any different from what he thought God was going to do?
My question to you is, how is that any different from what he thought God was going to do?
Some thoughts on Apostles and Canonicity
1 Corinthian 15:7-8 - Paul is the last of
the Apostles who received a unique calling of apostleship through an appearance
of the resurrected Lord.
He doesn't believe that Apostles with a
unique calling and personal appearance from the Lord would come after because
of his use of "last of all" in the passage. Others are called
apostles in the NT that do not write Scripture, and there writings were not
preserved as Scripture, though there is some indication of how they should have
functioned. I cannot find a text that says that only Apostles could write
Scripture, but the argument could be made that the mark of canonicity is by
Apostolic endorsement/association, so that under the guidance of the Apostles,
some of their writings became recognized as Scripture became recognized, while
others were not preserved as Scripture. This shows God's divine hand in
uniquely revealing which books are canonical to the body by the gifts he has
given to the body. What I am saying in essence is that apostles could by the
power of the Holy Spirit and the authority given, recognize Scripture, but only
a select few individuals were uniquely gifted by the Spirit to write Scripture,
some whom were not apostles and neither had they seen the resurrected Lord
(Luke). But the mark of canonicity is not limited to Apostolic endorsement by
those with the unique calling but also through "self-attestation"
like for the book of Hebrews.
The intrinsic qualities of a piece of
writing and as revealed by the power of the Holy Spirit indwelling the believer
ultimately define canonicity at the individual level, and no amount of human
reasoning can ultimately convince anyone to recognize any piece of writing as
"from God" rather the work of the Spirit indwelling the believer
convicts us of such.
Needs vs Wants
Often people draw to Jesus Christ in order to have him fulfill their personal wants. This is worldly behavior often mimicked by believers. We ask God for what we want and not for what we need. We think of Jesus as the servant of our wants, and not as the servant of our needs.
I realized this when I welcomed a non-believer to a Bible Study, and asked him, "how can we love and serve you?" His immediate response (though jokingly) was, "you could bring me some water", revealed quite a lot to me. I realized that although he understood partially that I meant something other than "feeding" him in my service, his mind immediately went to service that satisfies wants, particularly the wants to the flesh. This made me a bit sad, but it helped me realize he didn't fully grasp that I wanted to do even more, serve his needs.
We must become better communicators to the society around us, that we "want" to serve their "needs" and not their wants. Because Christ came to serve our "needs". Unfortunately the church has often lowered themselves to the level of the world by using the weapons of flesh and blood in trying to instill these values in society. We have stooped to trying to cut excessive government handouts when we should be the ones giving others our spare cars, sharing our homes, giving out food and coats.
Christ wants to serve our needs before he gives us any of our wants, and we in turn should seek to serve others needs before we serve their wants.
I realized this when I welcomed a non-believer to a Bible Study, and asked him, "how can we love and serve you?" His immediate response (though jokingly) was, "you could bring me some water", revealed quite a lot to me. I realized that although he understood partially that I meant something other than "feeding" him in my service, his mind immediately went to service that satisfies wants, particularly the wants to the flesh. This made me a bit sad, but it helped me realize he didn't fully grasp that I wanted to do even more, serve his needs.
We must become better communicators to the society around us, that we "want" to serve their "needs" and not their wants. Because Christ came to serve our "needs". Unfortunately the church has often lowered themselves to the level of the world by using the weapons of flesh and blood in trying to instill these values in society. We have stooped to trying to cut excessive government handouts when we should be the ones giving others our spare cars, sharing our homes, giving out food and coats.
Christ wants to serve our needs before he gives us any of our wants, and we in turn should seek to serve others needs before we serve their wants.
I Don't Know How to Write
Watching pornography is the viewing of explicit images, explicit images being images that uncover the nakedness of man and woman. Why is uncovering the nakedness of man and woman wrong? Is it simply because God said so in Deuteronomy or Leviticus, or is it because we know in our hearts there is something wrong with looking at pictures of people naked or during sexual intercourse.
Sigmund Freud was so obsessed with sex that he even speculated that incest was the first taboo. A taboo being a restriction or something looked down upon culturally. He postulated that somewhere in some forest some primordial form of human beings would try to have sex with their siblings and were unsuccessful because of a stronger alpha male father who had a monopoly on sexual intercourse with his children and his wife. The siblings or rather the males become enraged and burning with lust for their mom and sisters gather together and gang up on their father and kill him. After which they feel very guilty about themselves and make a decision to ban sleeping with immediate family. Of course Freud can prove none of this, nor can he explain why they would feel guilty after killing their dad.
If this story sounded looney to you it's because it is and you need to know that sleeping with your sister and your mom is absolutely wrong. Looking at your mom and your sister in a lustful and sexually intimidating way is absolutely wrong. But if looking at your mom and your sister in a sexual way is wrong then why is it any better to watch nude pictures of sexual acts of someone elses mom or sister, or daughter? God calls it adultery, you can say "its nasty".
You could say, I am privately lusting after these images, im not harming anyone, and if I am its only myself. The negative effects of pornography don't need to be debated here, what should be considered is whether one would enjoy pornography of his mother, daughter, or sister? Is it right to fantasize or even watch pornographic images of your mother daughter or sister? If not, why?
If it is then I suppose you wouldn't mind others watching pornographic images of your mother, siblings, and why not your wife? Why not your girlfriend? If others can openly watch pornography of your girlfriend, then why shouldn't they be able to sleep with them too? Who gives you the right to have a monopoly on women, Freud asks you? Why is it harming you if I don't carry any diseases and sleep with your wife?
Doesn't your heart cry out that's wrong? Wasn't violating the kings wife in even ancient pagan cultures wrong? Or should we share wives like the native Americans did? Or is all pornographic content on the internet consentual? Did every person in every image you view approve your eyes observing them naked? Is it for them to approve? If it isn't does that mean you can rape them too? Can you rape them physically, if you can rape them mentally?
Does it matter how you feel inside or that will never ever work its way out? I mean we have no evidence of someone doing something because of how they thought, felt, or what they believed, or do we?
Despite all of the evidence that watching pornography is plain wrong, and is in fact a horrendous evil of adultery, humans still consume pornography like thirsty camels. Why do we still like pornography?
One could attempt to argue that its simply because humans like sex, and therefore, pornography portraying sex, or at least bringing humans mentally closer to it (nude images), it is a healthy outlet of our sexuality as humans. This is fascinating because if this is true, sleeping another mans wife is likewise a healthy outlet of sexuality. Sleeping with your girlfriend is a healthy outlet for our sexuality, why is it wrong? If it isn't wrong, does your partner agree or has she just "bought into social norms" that you have "risen" above. Why do many humans then feel violated, and robbed of love, when someone else sleeps with their sexual partner? Is it possibly because they feel less significant to the other person, and something "private" was shared between them, that an unexplainable connection was created that brought them together as one, and that bond has been violated? So much though that they write songs about it in every language?
But what if you still like pornography?
What if you like to violate other human beings for personal temporal pleasure via the release of chemicals that make you "feel" good. Do you have an ache in your body that drives you to constantly think sexual thoughts about yourself and others to satisfy that pain? What if in your own search for significance you feel satisfied in that someone who would never consent to laying with you, is uncovered naked before your, so as you can mentally/chemically dupe yourself to enjoy what you did not think you could physically have. What if that particularly gives you satisfaction because you feel a larger chemical reaction that gives you more powerful euphoric feelings? What if its a combination of many conflicting desires?
The truth of the matter is if everyone lived out what they feel, all of us would kill each other in pursuit of our own satisfaction, and I realize some people would like that too. The comparison here is to show a hypocrisy in moral relativism, because by violating one of God's laws, you reveal its absoluteness in that it cannot be changed because its written on our hearts. So that even though you like what you are doing, it is still absolutely wrong, and you know that it is wrong.
This is because humans do what they know to be wrong. We are not all ignorant rather creative in our disguises, so that objective values, become subjective in that if we can justify ourselves before others. But what can be known about God and morality is plain to us, but we don't want to worship God or serve him, because we have sat ourselves in the proverbial authoritarian seats of our lives, and have likewise become foolish in our thinking! Our 'primitive' ancestors would create sculptures of God to satisfy there own moral dilemma, a God of wine, and sex, and parties, that follows human moral patterns. We look back today and as Westerners we think, how foolish were they in thinking they can create a God, yet the philosophers of our age think that we can all do what we desire so long as we don't harm others, not realizing that the desire to harm others is a very real desire! To steal dignity, value and worth from your fellow human is very much alive! We created entire philosophical systems that rob them of value! We have entire philosophical systems so we can have sex with whom we please! How foolish in our thinking have we become thinking we can just invent a value system out of thin air, one that is contrary to nature. How have we matured from our ancestors when they attempted the very same thing by creating God's?
Has it not been the knowledge of the tree of good and evil that we have been eating from all along? Has our appetite wained? No it hasn't, I see a broken humanity behind all the disguises. I see evil hearts bearing forth much bad fruit with lots of "good" labels. I have seen ideas that flow into the man so that he can create more ideas about uncertainty of all ideas, because all ideas are received from the environment so that ideas cannot possibly be absolutely true, if they come from the environment. Then that idea too must be false, and not absolutely true, since that idea too came from the environment, since you claim all ideas are from the environment.
When does it end oh man? What philosophical schemes will we invent to hide the truth? The modern man has become a marker, writing on a whiteboard "I do not know, how to write."
This is the judgment against you oh man "the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed."
But all he is able to respond is "I do not know how to write."
And I say to every man who writes "I do not know how to write," oh how do you hate your soul oh man that you refuse to come to the light.
But the man replies to me "I do not know how to write!" with an exclamation! And I say, "oh why do you insist on death oh man, when you can have eternal life?"
And he writes back to me saying "Its because, I do not know how to write."
Such are all who claim, they don't know right, and what they really say is they hate the light.
What you should be writing is "I don't know how to love." What you should be crying out is "Where is the love," what you should be calling out for is "I've searched for love in all the wrong places and I cannot find it!"
Is there a remedy for your malady: "I like to do evil." Yes there absolutely is. Come into the light, come and lay down your life at the cross, at the feet of Jesus Christ. Give your sin to Jesus, he forgives your blight. Receive a new heart from him, a new spirit, because your old heart is evil, and desparately wicked. Stop writing "I don't know how to write," and start writing "Jesus teach me how to love." Transfer your self-reliance and trust to Jesus. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.
So if your eyes cause you to sin, pluck it out. For better to enter the kingdom of heaven with one eye than to go to hell with two. Stop claiming to be blind, for now you walk by faith, and not by sight.
Sigmund Freud was so obsessed with sex that he even speculated that incest was the first taboo. A taboo being a restriction or something looked down upon culturally. He postulated that somewhere in some forest some primordial form of human beings would try to have sex with their siblings and were unsuccessful because of a stronger alpha male father who had a monopoly on sexual intercourse with his children and his wife. The siblings or rather the males become enraged and burning with lust for their mom and sisters gather together and gang up on their father and kill him. After which they feel very guilty about themselves and make a decision to ban sleeping with immediate family. Of course Freud can prove none of this, nor can he explain why they would feel guilty after killing their dad.
If this story sounded looney to you it's because it is and you need to know that sleeping with your sister and your mom is absolutely wrong. Looking at your mom and your sister in a lustful and sexually intimidating way is absolutely wrong. But if looking at your mom and your sister in a sexual way is wrong then why is it any better to watch nude pictures of sexual acts of someone elses mom or sister, or daughter? God calls it adultery, you can say "its nasty".
You could say, I am privately lusting after these images, im not harming anyone, and if I am its only myself. The negative effects of pornography don't need to be debated here, what should be considered is whether one would enjoy pornography of his mother, daughter, or sister? Is it right to fantasize or even watch pornographic images of your mother daughter or sister? If not, why?
If it is then I suppose you wouldn't mind others watching pornographic images of your mother, siblings, and why not your wife? Why not your girlfriend? If others can openly watch pornography of your girlfriend, then why shouldn't they be able to sleep with them too? Who gives you the right to have a monopoly on women, Freud asks you? Why is it harming you if I don't carry any diseases and sleep with your wife?
 |
| Courtesy of The Huffington Post UK |
Doesn't your heart cry out that's wrong? Wasn't violating the kings wife in even ancient pagan cultures wrong? Or should we share wives like the native Americans did? Or is all pornographic content on the internet consentual? Did every person in every image you view approve your eyes observing them naked? Is it for them to approve? If it isn't does that mean you can rape them too? Can you rape them physically, if you can rape them mentally?
Does it matter how you feel inside or that will never ever work its way out? I mean we have no evidence of someone doing something because of how they thought, felt, or what they believed, or do we?
Despite all of the evidence that watching pornography is plain wrong, and is in fact a horrendous evil of adultery, humans still consume pornography like thirsty camels. Why do we still like pornography?
One could attempt to argue that its simply because humans like sex, and therefore, pornography portraying sex, or at least bringing humans mentally closer to it (nude images), it is a healthy outlet of our sexuality as humans. This is fascinating because if this is true, sleeping another mans wife is likewise a healthy outlet of sexuality. Sleeping with your girlfriend is a healthy outlet for our sexuality, why is it wrong? If it isn't wrong, does your partner agree or has she just "bought into social norms" that you have "risen" above. Why do many humans then feel violated, and robbed of love, when someone else sleeps with their sexual partner? Is it possibly because they feel less significant to the other person, and something "private" was shared between them, that an unexplainable connection was created that brought them together as one, and that bond has been violated? So much though that they write songs about it in every language?
But what if you still like pornography?
What if you like to violate other human beings for personal temporal pleasure via the release of chemicals that make you "feel" good. Do you have an ache in your body that drives you to constantly think sexual thoughts about yourself and others to satisfy that pain? What if in your own search for significance you feel satisfied in that someone who would never consent to laying with you, is uncovered naked before your, so as you can mentally/chemically dupe yourself to enjoy what you did not think you could physically have. What if that particularly gives you satisfaction because you feel a larger chemical reaction that gives you more powerful euphoric feelings? What if its a combination of many conflicting desires?
The truth of the matter is if everyone lived out what they feel, all of us would kill each other in pursuit of our own satisfaction, and I realize some people would like that too. The comparison here is to show a hypocrisy in moral relativism, because by violating one of God's laws, you reveal its absoluteness in that it cannot be changed because its written on our hearts. So that even though you like what you are doing, it is still absolutely wrong, and you know that it is wrong.
This is because humans do what they know to be wrong. We are not all ignorant rather creative in our disguises, so that objective values, become subjective in that if we can justify ourselves before others. But what can be known about God and morality is plain to us, but we don't want to worship God or serve him, because we have sat ourselves in the proverbial authoritarian seats of our lives, and have likewise become foolish in our thinking! Our 'primitive' ancestors would create sculptures of God to satisfy there own moral dilemma, a God of wine, and sex, and parties, that follows human moral patterns. We look back today and as Westerners we think, how foolish were they in thinking they can create a God, yet the philosophers of our age think that we can all do what we desire so long as we don't harm others, not realizing that the desire to harm others is a very real desire! To steal dignity, value and worth from your fellow human is very much alive! We created entire philosophical systems that rob them of value! We have entire philosophical systems so we can have sex with whom we please! How foolish in our thinking have we become thinking we can just invent a value system out of thin air, one that is contrary to nature. How have we matured from our ancestors when they attempted the very same thing by creating God's?
Has it not been the knowledge of the tree of good and evil that we have been eating from all along? Has our appetite wained? No it hasn't, I see a broken humanity behind all the disguises. I see evil hearts bearing forth much bad fruit with lots of "good" labels. I have seen ideas that flow into the man so that he can create more ideas about uncertainty of all ideas, because all ideas are received from the environment so that ideas cannot possibly be absolutely true, if they come from the environment. Then that idea too must be false, and not absolutely true, since that idea too came from the environment, since you claim all ideas are from the environment.
When does it end oh man? What philosophical schemes will we invent to hide the truth? The modern man has become a marker, writing on a whiteboard "I do not know, how to write."
This is the judgment against you oh man "the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed."
But all he is able to respond is "I do not know how to write."
And I say to every man who writes "I do not know how to write," oh how do you hate your soul oh man that you refuse to come to the light.
But the man replies to me "I do not know how to write!" with an exclamation! And I say, "oh why do you insist on death oh man, when you can have eternal life?"
And he writes back to me saying "Its because, I do not know how to write."
Such are all who claim, they don't know right, and what they really say is they hate the light.
What you should be writing is "I don't know how to love." What you should be crying out is "Where is the love," what you should be calling out for is "I've searched for love in all the wrong places and I cannot find it!"
Is there a remedy for your malady: "I like to do evil." Yes there absolutely is. Come into the light, come and lay down your life at the cross, at the feet of Jesus Christ. Give your sin to Jesus, he forgives your blight. Receive a new heart from him, a new spirit, because your old heart is evil, and desparately wicked. Stop writing "I don't know how to write," and start writing "Jesus teach me how to love." Transfer your self-reliance and trust to Jesus. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.
So if your eyes cause you to sin, pluck it out. For better to enter the kingdom of heaven with one eye than to go to hell with two. Stop claiming to be blind, for now you walk by faith, and not by sight.
In Pursuit of Significant Relationship
 |
| Courtesy of my-ear-trumpet.tumblr.com |
Many girls write posts about how they don't want a man's car, money, and gifts, but the value their time, smile, honesty, effort, and being a priority. Some girls believe God is saving them for the right person. Which is correct, and all of these things can be good if viewed through the correct lense. But through the incorrect unrepentant, unsurrendered, unbroken heart, these things become simply lukewarm moral therapeutic deism, and not Jesus.
Girls, God is not a tool that allows you to get some sort of dream man who will idolize you. You say you dont want that? But how can you, when you just said you want his time, effort, smile, priority, honestly, as if you are the object of his worship, instead of a piece of his affections. And no you can't have all my affection, because all my affection belongs to Jesus (remember heart, mind, soul, strength?).
I can tell you one thing. I don't want someone who I can give my time, money, effort too, so as to only please their desires apart from Christ! Neither do I want someone who would reduce a relationship to these things either. No absolutely not I want someone who can worship Jesus Christ with me. I want someone who can suffer with me! A suffering soul I will not despise.
Doesn't sound very attractive, because it's not meant to be. Don't sign for Jesus without counting the cost. A man's priority is not to make you happy women, it's worship God. That entails giving time, effort, and pure love to your spouse but effort, prioritization, and time certainly does not define your relationship, and will not lead to pure love apart from Christ.
Relationships built on "good effort" won't last the tidal waves of life. Only relationships built inside of Jesus Christ can endure every assault and come out refined and pure. That might seem very narrow-minded but I am not talking about whether your marriage will survive before men, I am talking about whether it will survive in your heart! True love comes from the source of true love not apart from it!
Jesus said, if any man wishes to follow me let him take up his cross daily. Daily. Say that to consumeristic Americans praying for a yacht, and so that their wife will be hotter than their neighbors.
"Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends."(John 15:13)
So this is the condition I put before any girl seeking something real. I mean really real. Not Barney & Friends, not Pride & Prejudice, or Gone with the Wind, or Dorian Grey. You must abandon yourself in pursuit of each other.
Those preconditions we set when we look for a significant other are merely attributes of Christ we want to see in someone else. Let me tell you, come to Jesus fully surrendered, and all the riches and glories of love with its sweetest fragrances will overflow in rich aroma around your soul, that you can't resist it. All those things you seek in your spouse, are really just one quality we all need. Christ-likeness. Then time, effort, prioritization, money, smiles will continue to reign down on you as you continue to abandon yourself in pursuit of Jesus.
Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love but a faithful man who can find? (Proverbs 20:6)
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