Friday, October 16, 2015

The Modern Christian—A House Built on Sand

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And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: Mt 7:26
 
Note: God has laid this message upon my heart. Some of the things I am going to say may make some of you mad, and some of you may not agree with all that I am going to say. All I ask is that you would listen with an open mind. If you disagree with what I say then that is between you and God. I will still love and accept you whether you agree with what I have to say or not, I ask you to do the same.

This message is also not meant as a personal attack against any one particular person or ministry. I am merely sharing what God has laid upon my heart to help others to serve and glorify Him in a greater way.

The modern Christian—they drink, they smoke, they listen to rock and rap music, they dress “sexy,” they tattoo, they body pierce, they celebrate Halloween, they play bad video games, they go to the beach, they watch unwholesome shows and movies, they…

Note: I am not talking about unsaved people who may have done or are doing those things and they come to church and are saved. I am talking about people who have been Christians for a period of time and they fail to remove those practices and or begin to partake of those things.

Do you know somebody like that? I know plenty of people who claim the name of Christ and partake of those practices. So what’s the big deal, right? As long as they “love the Lord,” that is the important thing.

That is what a lot of people who claim the name of Christ think. Let’s see what the word of God has to say about this. In looking at the list above, without getting into too much detail, let me quickly show you how each of those practices violates Gods Word.

Drinking Alcohol: Puts your stamp of approval on a product that has destroyed many lives. Is an addictive substance. Causes loss of mental, and physical abilities. Kills brain cells. Causes a loss of inhibitions.

Smoking: Addictive. Harmful to the body.

Rock/Rap Music: Breeds sensuality, rebellion, and violence. Addictive. Attracts evil spirits.

Note: many Christians have a hard time discerning how certain types of music can be harmful. Below are a few bits of information in this regards, for a thorough explanation read the post; Rock Music and the antichrist.

“The Guiding Spirits of Crowley made it quite clear to him that, soon after his death, the world was going to enter the final stage of preparing the hearts and minds of the people to accept the Black Magick attitudes and values of Antichrist. Crowley was told that a very special kind of music was to prepare the hearts and minds of the people for Antichrist. Rock-n-Roll was that music.”

Cutting Edge News Article #1758. http://www.cuttingedge.org/news/n1758.cfm BTW; Crowley was one of the most powerful satanist that ever lived, he died in 1947.

In 1981, I was driving down a jungle road in the Ivory Coast with several African pastors in the car with me. I had recently received a couple of cassette tapes from our denominational headquarters that were intended for our teenage daughter.

These were recordings of various ‘Christian rock’ artists. In listening to the tapes, I was very disturbed in my own spirit that such material was being sent to our missionary kids.

But not trusting my own reaction alone and realizing that these pastors with whom I was traveling were very sensitive to the spirit world (both good and evil), I decided to play the tapes for them. The reaction I got was immediate and verbally violent!

One of the pastors asked me this question, ‘Do you mean to tell us that this kind of music is played in your churches in America?’

I answered in the affirmative. His response was filled with disgust and anger as he replied with another question. ‘What are you doing allowing your church people in America to call up the evil spirits with their music?’”

The testimony of Rev. Joe Meyers, Tacoma, Washington, printed in; “What the Bible has to say about... ‘Contemporary Christian’ Music,” Institute in Basic Life Principles, 1990, p. 8.

Immodest dress: Violates a direct command of God to dress modestly. Defrauds.

Tattooing and body piercing: Graffiti on God’s temple—the body. Is a practice of occultists and idol worshipers.

Halloween: Is an occult holiday that celebrates and glorifies death, satan, evil spirits, and the fall of man. Day of human and animal sacrifices.

Public beach/pool: Exposes someone to soft core pornography. If there was a park where people dressed in their underwear would it be Okay for a Christian to go there? NO. So why is it okay to go to a place where they dress in brightly colored “less than underwear”? It aint!

Bad video games/movies/TV: Engages one’s mind in unwholesome and ungodly thoughts and actions.

All of those things above, either by principle or by direct command violate the Word of God. Let’s just sum them all up as sinful worldly practices. And what does God’s Word say about sinful worldly practices—worldliness?

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Rom 12:2

Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Titus 2:12

Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. James 4:4

15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. 1 Jn 2:15-17.

Friendship with the world is enmity with God and hinders us from being the kind of people God wants us to be. The goal of a Christian is to be a mirror image of the Lord Jesus Christ and to have love as our greatest quality. That is the goal—love. What process must a Christian go through to progress to that point? It is laid out for us in 2 Peter.

3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;

6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;

7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So the process goes;

Faith—virtue—knowledge—temperance—patience—godliness—brotherly kindness—charity. Here is a little diagram depicting the process.
 
 
Notice that the first step after salvation to building true love into our life is virtue. What is virtue? Here is one definition;

1. Moral excellence; goodness; righteousness.

2. Conformity of one's life and conduct to moral and ethical principles; uprightness; rectitude.

Thus virtue or moral excellence is the practice of living righteously—the removal of sinful practices from one’s life. When a Christian fails to remove sinful worldly practices from their life the whole process of Christian growth, and the ability to reach the ultimate goal of love, breaks down.

Thus the more a Christian is able to remove sinful practices from their life the more they are able to grow in the Christian life and attain to true love and godliness. The more sinful and worldly practices a Christian has in their life the less they are able to grow in the Christian life and attain true love and godliness.

Here is what the process would look like if a Christian would fail to remove sinful worldly practices from their life.
Love is the goal and without removing sinful practices it is impossible to ever attain to it. In fact Jesus himself told us that in order to love God we must be obedient to his commands including the removal of worldly sinful practices.

If ye love me, keep my commandments. Jn 14:15

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. 1 Jn 5:3

So if somebody says they “love the Lord” and fail to keep His commandments, including removing worldly sinful practices, they are deceiving themselves, and God says they are blind.

 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue… But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. 2 Pet 1:5,9

So I say the worldly Christian who fails to have virtue/moral excellence by removing sinful worldly living from their life will short circuit the Christian growth process. Further their sinful worldly practices done under the guise of “liberty” will most likely lead to enslavement and moral failure in their lives and or the lives of their children.

For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. Gal 5:13

16 As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God

19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.

20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.

21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.

22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. 2 Pet 2:16,19-22

Bottom line: you cannot please God and grow in the Christian faith without the removal of sinful worldly practices. Trying to live the Christian life without the removal of these practices is like building a house on the sand.

Now here is the kicker. As I said in the past I have run into Christians who do some or all of those things that I have talked about as being worldly sinful practices. And to some of those Christians, because I believe—based on God’s word—that those things are wrong they look at me as being legalistic and or a weaker brother. They say I am weaker because they believe their stronger faith allows them to partake of these things.

I disagree; the problem is that they have been deceived by the evil one in thinking that God’s Word does not speak against those things, when it does. Will they still go to heaven? Yes. But their ability to love and please God and progress in the Christian life will be diminished. And further by allowing those things they, or more likely their children, may fall into major destructive sin and be enslaved thereby.

Now to be fair, on the other hand, there are people who say things are wrong that are not in scripture; like men have to be clean shaven, or it’s sin to not wear a suit to church, etc. Things like that have no scriptural basis and they are going too far the other way.

The Word of God is the key, if God’s Word condemns it by command or principle then it should be removed from a Christian’s life or they will be building their house upon sand.

The church needs to open its arms wide and provide love and acceptance to all people—even the worst of all sinners. But on the other hand the church must take a stand against and help its members to break free from these destructive sinful worldly practices or they will be building their church upon sand.

The goal of a church is not to get numbers; its primary reason for existence is to glorify God, and worldly sinful practices do not glorify God. A Church must have love and truth—we must worship in Spirit and truth.

Many churches in America have lowered their standards to try and attract a larger audience. Unfortunately they fail to realize that they are building their “house upon the sand” and will alienate those in their church who view the lower standards as sinful. This in turn causes those individuals, who live by principles, and thus are usually the tithers and faithful workers, to leave.

Sinful worldly practices need to be eliminated from our lives and from the churches in America. For our sake and our children’s sake may God help all of us to remove worldly practices and become more like Jesus. Here are a few prayers that I pray every day in this regards.

9 And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;

10 That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ.

11 Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God. Phil 1:9-11

9 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;

10 That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;

11 Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; Col 1:9-11

10 Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith?

11 Now God himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you.

12 And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you:

13 To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. 1 Thes 3:10-13 

8 comments:

  1. Amen Brother William! I am in 100% agreement with what you say here.

    Terry

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think we will all find out we should and could have done better. You are right about what the Christian allows. The land we live in the "church" has married into the culture. I personally believe that these things have happened as a result have small allowances long ago. Today there are many organizations that have been petri dishes for the enemy. It started with the celebration of Christ Mass and many other Babylonian practices that made it through the door with the inclusion of the RCC. The very fact that many of the Demonizations morphed into the "church" cling to at least one of it'c practices and that being "tax exempted". In order to achieve that they also have to be incorporated. Creating an "entity" that shields the individual members.
    The behaviors are the result of a headship not clean.
    Instead of being angry about what some would call sin, if one will go to the Lord and the Word examine himself, call out to be taught, will he not receive?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are right about the small allowances. There are churches near me that 75, 50 years ago were power houses for God and the gospel. Now they are social clubs. Yes that is one of the keys--asking God to open our eyes to see the truth.

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  3. Hi, I just searched for a video on youtube I've seen which was about false spirits invading the church.
    In it, a clip was shown where lotta people stood like in a huge yoga gym and they got themselves into
    trance through various measures, to experience a kundalini awakening (awakening the spine serpent spirit
    in kundalini yoga). Though a main part of those measures was the rhytmic drum beat played there.
    But these drum beats used are special in how they are. I never heard such a design of a beat in any song
    which are in the definition of "rock music" as defined in the article linked in the text on endtimesforecaster.

    Even with excessive dancing on alcohol to "such" music, I never experienced anything near a spirit contact/awakening
    in me ever. And neither did it "drive me away from Christ" as proclaimed in the article.
    One can't just generalize every song which has a beat to work for spirit entrance, and every song which is melody-enmphasized
    would be not that way.
    The real point is, the music needs to be trance-inducing to open people up for demons, and to be working,
    the person need to be doing things that support trance-induction.

    Greetings

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. if a person smokes all their life and never gets cancer does that mean that it is OK? Just because one person claims that it has not effected them does not mean that it is OK.

      Christian rock is like a cigarette with a Bible verse on it, or a can of beer with a Bible verse on it.

      Delete
  4. And another thing: Dear Mr.Frederick I read your book and you seem quite an integretive christian.
    Though as you posted here, while my other comments are still not visible, I smell like deviating
    opinions are suppressed here. If you really do censorship on your blog, then I would start doubting
    your integrity.

    Greetings

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I do moderate and reject some comments. There are many reasons for this such as mean spirited attacks of character, cussing, blasphemy, pushing other heretical views, etc.

      There are young Christians who may view this site and I reject some comments in light of their ability to perceive the truth and not be led astray

      I do allow dissenting opinions to be aired if I feel that they will contribute to the discussion at hand. I am also extremely busy and get very little time to devote to the blog so if I do not always have time to respond.

      Delete