Continued from Part 1
...In regards to a Christian’s outward relation to his fellow man, a Christian is to love others. As the golden rule states; “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (Mt 19:19). That basically means that you should treat people as you want to be treated. What does that specifically involve? The most important way to love others is to share the gospel with them. In regards to our actions--a good starting place to love others would be to observe the Ten Commandments. Most all the other commandments in scripture are based upon them.
"Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 4. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6. And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. 7. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 8. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10. But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. 12. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. 13. Thou shalt not kill. 14. Thou shalt not commit adultery. 15. Thou shalt not steal. 16. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. 17. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
The Ten Commandments give us a good starting place for loving others. God, in Galatians 5 also gives us some specific details of what loving God and your neighbor as yourself entails.
“For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 15. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. 16. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 17. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 18. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. 19. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20. Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21. Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Paul above is saying that in order to love God and your neighbor as yourself one must walk in the Spirit and if one walks in the Spirit he will not carry out the desires of the flesh. He then lists things of the flesh that a Christian should not partake of. The list is pretty extensive and covers just about all the sins that our society is involved in today.
Unfortunately many Christians have fallen into these things knowingly and unknowingly. Thus at this point I am going to start talking about sins that I have seen other Christians involved in for the purpose helping them to remove these practices, to become better spiritually prepared for the Lord’s return.
In the verses above Paul lists adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness. These refer to the many sexual perversions that many are involved in such as pornography, masturbation, sex outside of marriage between a man and woman, etc. These sins are extremely grievous to the Lord, and the Christian needs to flee from these things. I heard one statistic from a Christian conference that 80% of the men in attendance had viewed pornography on the Internet.
Many TV shows and movies glorify sexual perversions and sins and the Christian should not view any of these either. “Be not deceived evil company corrupts good morals.” A sin related to the above sexual sins and can be a cause of some of them is immodest dress. Many women and some men seem to be infatuated with trying to dress in such a way as to sinfully attract the opposite sex. When someone dresses immodestly they defraud other people. To defraud another in this way means to stir up unholy desires in another that cannot be righteously fulfilled.
Scripture speaks specifically to this sin. “In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;” (I Tim 2:9). “Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother.” (Mk 10:19). I am shocked at how many Christian adults dress immodestly and or allow their children to dress immodestly. Those who dress immodestly and allow their children to do the same will reap the consequences of such foolish and immoral behavior.
And since we are on the topic of dress let’s talk about the beach and pool. Let me ask you a question if there was a park in your city where just about everyone dressed in underwear, as a Christian would you go to that park? Every time I have asked that question to a Christian they have always answered, No. My next question is then so why do you go to the beach or pool where people are dressed in brightly colored underwear or less than underwear? Bottom line; It’s soft core porn. And then we ask ourselves why our son’s and daughters are getting involved in sexual promiscuity.
The scriptures are clear; sexual perversions are sinful and will bring damage to one’s self. “Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.” (I Cor 6:18) God intended for sexual relations to be kept inside of the bounds of marriage between a man and woman.
The next sin in Paul’s list is idolatry. Most Christians are not tempted with out and out idolatry, though I have seen Christians possessing idols as “artwork,” which is a sin. Scripture makes it clear that God wants all idols to be destroyed, not kept as artwork. For when someone has an evil item such as an idol or a Ouija board, etc. in their possession they in effect give satan permission to reap havoc and destruction in their life.
Even though most Christians are not guilty of the outward worship of another God they can be guilty of putting other things in God’s rightful place. If the Christian puts anything before God then that becomes an idol. God and our relationship with Him should be our number one priority in life. Nothing should come before Him. We are to love the Lord with all our heart mind and soul.
The next sin listed in the Galatians passage is witchcraft. Witchcraft is very prevalent in our society today. There are some blatant forms of witchcraft in our society that are practiced by satanic cults and churches. Some witchcraft is disguised as fun things to do, such as games like dungeons and dragons, Ouija boards, horoscopes, etc. Many adults, and sadly enough children, are unknowingly indoctrinated into aspects of the occult without even realizing it, like The Wizard of OZ movie that is an indoctrination for neophyte witches, that many have watched.
A more recent example would be Harry Potter. The Harry Potter books and movies are pure witchcraft and have introduced many unsuspecting children into the arena of the occult and the devil. Unfortunately many Christians have endorsed these books and movies as being acceptable “fun fantasy” for Christians to partake of. They are being deceived by the devil and great harm is being done to many a young Christian. Here is what a former Satanist, who is now a pastor, the late David Meyer from Last Trumpet Ministries, had to say about these books;
“…Materials such as Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and other such educational presentations in witchcraft have overtaken not only the minds of the masses of people, but have also captivated the very churches that should be opposing them…. We can see that these spineless religious leaders are perpetuating witchcraft and are destroying many young lives by refusing to take a stand against it. I can tell you that as a former witch, the Harry potter material does teach the principles of witchcraft, and the first principles taught to a neophyte or beginner witch are that there is a continual contest between good and evil, that there is good witchcraft and bad witchcraft, and that there is white magic and black magic. Furthermore, all witchcraft is of the devil even though witches claim that they do not believe in the devil…. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien, is likewise an instructional series in witchcraft…. These movies are always released at the time of the witches’ sabat of Yule. (12/19/01, 12/18/02, and 12/17/03). President Bush wears an exact replica of the magic ring from the Lord of the Rings trilogy…. The Elvish runes (on the ring the president wears) are interpreted as follows: ‘One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in darkness bind them.’” http://lasttrumpetnewsletter.org/2003/12_03.html
Notice that the quoted author also considers Tolkien’s books to be an instructional series in witchcraft. Unfortunately the Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy in both the movie and book form are also very popular and have been embraced by pagans and Christians alike. I have found several occult bookstores that recommend the Lord of the Rings series as great literature. That’s enough to tell me that it is wrong. Here is a description of a book set to accompany the Lord of the rings trilogy, it strongly shows the occult connection within the Lord of the rings.
“From the Publisher Officially licensed by Tolkien Enterprises, Inc! Middle Earth lives inside each of us--and it can help us access the future! Based on J.R.R. Tolkien's beloved trilogy of wizardry and enchantment, this entirely new divination system uses a runic ring just like the one Sauron forged. Cast it upon a map of Middle Earth, and use the richly illustrated guidebook and 40 tarot-like cards to interpret the answers to your questions. Packaged in a stunningly beautiful slipcase that looks like a book, it contains all the magical elements you need: the ring, map, book, and cards.”
Another strong satanic influence in our country is Halloween. Halloween is a satanic festival. It is the pagan’s highest “holy day” of the year. It is a day when a black mass is performed that includes many satanic rites and animal and human sacrifices. They do this for the purpose of invoking satan’s power, which is strongly manifested on that day. No Christian should participate in any way in a religious festival of another religion, let alone a satanic one—so why do Christians let their kids go trick or treating?
Probably the strongest occult influence on our society is music with a heavy beat. This type of music would come under the general heading of rock or rap music. Rock and rap music and the like are of satanic origin and will incline one’s heart to evil and will call on evil spirits. Some Christians think that putting good words to evil music will make the music good. That would be like putting a Bible verse on a cigarette—the cigarette is still destructive. Oh how the church has swallowed, hook, line, and sinker the lie that music is amoral. There is only one kind of music God commands us to partake in. Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Eph 5:19. Woe to the church that feeds the sheep sensual unholy music under the guise of worshiping God!
Whether it is rock music, horror books and films, UFO’s, Horoscopes, Ouija boards, or satanic fantasy games and books Christians need to stay far away from these things. For when someone has an occult item in their possession or is participating in an occult practice they in effect give permission to satan to control, influence, and or harm them. Unfortunately this is why many Christians are depressed, sick, unable to overcome temptation, and even have died. Remember “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.” (I Cor 11:30).
To be continued...
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