No Nudist In The Kingdom: Part Six Colossians 3:8-9

In parts 1-5 we looked at items in 1 Peter 2:1-3 that we are to "put off" or better translated as "take off" as in taking off a coat and laying it aside. And we discussed how the Lord always gives us something better to put on when He has us take something off. Therefore not leaving us Spiritually naked.
In the last part (part 5) I mentioned I would share on the Armor of God, but I've decided to continue the line of items to take off before doing so.
Going to Colossians 3:8-9 we read, "But now you must also put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds." NKJV
Paul is telling believers that since we are Christ's and not belonging to the world anymore we are to do away with the things that mark us as worldly. We have already covered malice so I will touch on the rest of the items in these verses.
Anger in this verse is a noun. It is that thing in you that causes hatred. We may not act on it, but it preoccupies our thoughts. We cannot look at anything else without it tainting the way we believe or feel about it. This will lead to wrath, which is the anger acted out. Anger full-blown. Vengeance that is pent-up and then loosed. It is a horrible thing for a Christian to have on him or her.
Blasphemy is speaking of something or someone with intent to injure. Blasphemy has been understood as relating to the divine. We are to put off any speaking that would injure the Lord or the Kingdom of God. One example is that of calling something holy that is not and calling something unholy that is. That is blasphemy!
Filthy Language is the thoughts that we put into words that are filthy in nature. A Christian has not excuse to use this type of speech. The use of foul words that show, not only a lack of respect for the one being spoken to but also a lack of proper manners and intelligence. Three things Christians should excel in. We are to put it out of our mouths or speech.
And we must not lie to each other. Christians need to be truthful with each other. Now this is a touchy one. Some Christians pride themselves in being up-front and brutally honest. We need to use a little common sense in our truth telling. If we cannot tell the truth and leave a fellow Christian corrected and uplifted, then we need to just keep quite.
Prayer: Lord, help us to take off all actions and attributes that do not bring Glory to Your name and Kingdom. Give us the right attitude to live and the right words to speak. Amen

No Nudist In The Kingdom Part Five

"Therefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking (gossip), as newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious." 1
Peter 2:1-3 NKJV

Therefore putting off all evil speaking. Here is another No-brainer
in the Christian life. What a sad-sad testimony for a Child of God to speak evil of another or tell an obscene joke. In this verse some translations just say gossip, but the truth is, all evil speaking is sin to the Lord. The Bible tells us that this is hard to control in our natural state. James writes," Forwe all stumble in many things. If any one does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man able also to bridle the whole body.......Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell........But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessings and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so." James 3:2-10
Here we see that for a Christian this should not be. As a Christian living by
his or her old nature, they cannot control their tongues. It is humanly
imposable. A lot of this evil speaking can come from the former sins mentioned in this verse Malice, guile, hypocrisy, and envy. If we put off these things we should be able to cease the gossip and evil speaking of others. But I'm afraid to say that many of us have these problems. I confess I also struggle with these. In the workplace I find it easy to speak against a
supervisor that does not do things the way I think they should be done. Or a co-worker that has done me wrong and I open my mouth against him to others. Only by walking in the Holy Spirit can we overcome this curse of the tongue. And as the old saying goes," If you can not say anything good, don't say anything at all." How tiring it is to hear someone who does nothing but complain about others. Confess up, you hate to see them (us) coming. "Walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh" James 5:16 This includes all evil speaking.

I shared at the beginning that when the Lord tells us to put off or take off
something, Him gives us something to put back on. He will not leave us naked. So I will continue with the Armor of God in Ephesians.

Prayer: Lord, forgive us of our evil speaking and gossip. We pray that we will walk in your Spirit and you will guide us in how we are to speak. May our speech only glorify you. Amen

No Nudist In The Kingdom: Part Four

"Therefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile, hypocrisy, envy, and all
evil speaking (gossip), as newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious." 1
Peter 2:1-3 NKJV

Therefore putting off envy. What person does not know that envy
(also translated as jealously) is bad.

This green-eyed monster (or demon if you wish) has done terrible things through those whom he affects. In verses Matt. 27:18, Mark 15:10 shows that envy in religious leaders had Jesus Christ crucified. It may sound small compared to other sins, but it leads to much larger things, things with eternal consciences.

Paul gives Titus some very good advice for the other leaders. He tells them to remind everyone that before they were in Christ they had envy (among other things) and now that they are heirs according to the hope of eternal life, or saved and made ready for heaven. Titus 3:1-7
Romans 1:29 teaches that the practice of being envious is worthy of death. That sounds pretty rough, but again look what it leads to Christ being crucified. We need to take off envy. It is easy to see others rise in position
at work or Church and envy rise up in us. But we are to put our trust in the
Lord for everything we need. "But seek the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added to you". Luke 12:31 If we trust Him, then we would not be troubled when others are put ahead of us or get recognition. If we do this we may not get much here on earth but we are promised that we will be heirs of the Kingdom. Just trust Him and put envy far from us.

Prayer: Lord, forgive us of our envy. Forgive us for not trusting in you to lift us up. May we only seek to please you and not man? May our trust and lack of envy bring Glory to your name? Amen

No Nudist In The Kingdom: Part Three

"Therefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking (gossip), as newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious." 1 Peter 2:1-3 NKJV

Who has not heard this line, "I'll never go there, that Church is full of hypocrites." Most people believe hypocrisy is from the Greek word meaning acting. In this verse it means, "dissimulation." Meaning to cover up what you really are. If you are one of those who fill that all Churches are full of fakes who believe one thing and do another, I first say to you that there is no way that you know all the Christians in one particular fellowship, much less all the groups in your area. So you are making a discussion that will have eternal consequences for you and your family with lack of knowledge.
Now for those of you that believe in Christ and have chosen to follow Him, take off the hypocrisy and walk the talk you profess. See how you affect others by what you say and do. This is a subject that even the non-believer with no religious training at all knows is wrong. For a matter of fact when most of us hear this subject we turn up our eyes for we are beating again the proverbial dead horse.
Today the names Pharisee and Hypocrite have become synonymous with usage. See Matthew 23:23, Mark 12:15 and Luke 12:1. Although a Pharisee is a picture of a hypocrite in the Bible they worked hard at preserving the scriptures and traditions of the Jewish faith which we get our root beliefs, But, Jesus said in Matthew 5:20 that our "righteousness is to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. We should work hard in the faith, but do as we say. What people hear and see of us is to be what we are. And if we are truly walking with the Lord, they will see Him instead of us. So take off and put aside hypocrisy. Let others see the new clothes the Lord has given us.

Prayer: Lord, forgive us of our hypocrisy. Forgive us for not being what we say we are and for not doing what we say we do. Help us to show you to others. Clothe us with your truth in our lives that will point others to you. Amen

No Nudist In The Kingdom: Part Two

"Therefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile, hypocrisy, envy, and all
evil speaking (gossip), as newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word, that
you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious." 1
Peter 2:1-3 NKJV

In part one of this series we looked into malice which we are told to lay aside
and as mentioned," taking off and laying aside in order to run or work". Now we
will look at "guile". The Greek word here is "dolos " which literally means
"deceit," deceit with the intent of harm to another. Where as malice was "deceit
in order to get ahead." Guile is deceit to harm another.
In the New Testament we see Phillip bringing Nathanael to Jesus and Jesus
calling him a "man without guile." A man that would not harm a flea, as the
saying goes. Although he belittled Jesus because he was from Nazareth, he did
so without the intent to harm Him. It is hard to believe this is possible, but
Jesus sees the heart of a person. (John 1:43-51)Paul states in 2 Corinthians
12:16 that he had caught the Corinthian Church with guile. Paul tells the
Thessalonians that their preaching to them was not deceitful. (1 Thessalonians
2:3) Peter says in 1 Peter 2:22 that Jesus left us an example that while He was
suffering guile/deceit was not found in Him.
What does this all mean for us? In our Christian lives we are not to be
deceitful so take off our garment of guile. Don't do or say anything deceitful
with the intent of harming or "getting back at someone." This goes for not
"doing unto others as they have done to you." Surely we would not harm anyone
without cause. But we may be tempted to give the hurt back to those who harm us.
We are to take off guile and replace it with forgiveness. In times past on the
job I have been wronged by co-employees and even management, but I am not to
look for a way to get-back at them and it is not my job as a Christian to teach
them a lesson. I have in some jobs been discriminated against because of my
race. I wish I could say," that I was a man without guile."
As I put off all these old-natured attributes, I will put on the new garments
given me. (To be revealed in upcoming post)

Prayer: Lord, forgive us of the sin of guile. Forgive us of our deceitfulness to
harm another person made in your image. Help us to forgive others as you forgave
us. Clothe us with your wisdom to do our jobs and to live in a way that pleases
you. Amen

No Nudist In The Kingdom: Part One

"Therefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking (gossip), as newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious."
1 Peter 2:1-3 NKJV

Taking a look at the first verse in this passage we see that the Lord is telling us to "lay aside" some negative attributes in our lives. The phrase, " lay aside" pictures in the Greek as taking off and laying aside in order to run or work. Before going into these attributes I would like to express that when the Lord has us take something out or do away with something, He always gives us something better to put on or take up.
In Zechariah 3:1-5 we see the High Priest Joshua standing accused before the Lord in filthy clothes with Satan standing as an accuser. The Lord orders that the filthy clothes be removed and new ones put on.
A special note here is that filthy rags are a symbol in the Bible as our own righteousness and not the Lord's or better explained, our attempt to be good enough for God by doing things ourselves. (Isaiah 64:6)
In the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22 people are brought in from the highways and byways to come to the Kings marriage feast. One person is kicked out because he was not wearing marriage clothes. These people were poor and did not have marriage clothes, so where did they get them? Surely the King supplied them to each of the guest. But one did not receive the clothes offered him and was thrown out because he thought himself good enough. In the parable of the prodigal son the father has a new robe put on the wayward son when he returned home. The Lord always gives to replace what we give up for Him.
In this post I will deal with the first attribute, malice. Malice is being deceitful in order to get ahead. It's like cheating in a race. Stepping on people in the workplace to advance yourself. We are to put this away and do not do it.
How about doing a bad job training a new employee so that you could protect your job. Surely it makes sense not to tell the newbie everything they need to know so you continue to look good and advance as the smarter one and harder working. That is not how things are to be done in the Kingdom of God.
Take off this filthy garment and trust the Lord to clothe you with something much better.
Prayer: Lord forgive us of the sin of malice. Forgive us of our plots and scheming to get ahead instead of doing our best and trusting you with the results. Clothe us with your wisdom to do our jobs and to live in a way that pleases you. Amen

What About Bryan: a true story

Bryan started as a temp. Working on the dock were I worked. Like allot of the guys there he was rude and rude, but a hard worker. he migrated from Vermont to Dothan by way of working as a carny (someone traveling with a carnival). He quickly became disliked by the others by showing a know-it-all attitude and making a habit of breaking into others conversations when he wasn’t asked. Speaking as if he knew exactly what was going on and how to do whatever was being discussed. He always had a story to go with every situation, bigger and better than the one told before. He was quickly branded a liar. People in the south take great offense of this especially if the person is from up north. His speech was no worse than the other guys were. Using GD, MF as if they were all one word and could be to be used more than once a sentence.
I saw a need in Bryan and decided to befriend him. And when the opportunity came try to lead him to the Lord. First of all I did not join in on the jokes and trash-talk that was heaped his way. The others made a habit of twisting every word he said to make it seem he was lying and called him stupid and dummy to his face. Break-time became a bash-Bryan party. Second, Anytime I needed help from a dockhand, I grabbed Bryan to get him away from the rest of the crew and just tried to be nice to him and show him a little respect. But it seemed the more I was nice to him the more know-it-all and smart-mouthed he became to me. He became very hard to work with.
Then one day he did not show up for work. We all though he had skipped town or was in jail. The guys continued to talk about him even after he was gone. I had failed to find a time to speak with him about the Lord, but in my heart I was relieved that the strain of trying to befriend him was gone.
After about a week or more I was greeted at work with, "Hey, Wayne your buddy is back and they hired him full-time". I knew exactly whom they were talking about. Although I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, I was glad I would get a second chance to witness to him. While he was gone I was involved with a discussion group on the internet about the best way to witness at work and the prevailing answer was to just live your witness and be an example. They told me that tracts and straightforward witness was to judgmental and did not work. So I was glad to get another chance.
Again I tried to befriend him and help him out. He returned just as cocky because now he was fulltime and thought, "I must be as good as I think I am". He quickly became the bunt of jokes by continuing to be a know-it-all smart-mouthed food and cigarette bumming creep. But I knew the Lord loved him just as much as He loved me and He could do something great with Bryan.
Anyway, on his first day back he came in mouthing off to me and I started to reply with a quick comeback when I felt inside to remain quit. He then looked on the break table and saw a Bible lying there amongst the newspapers and candy wrappers left by the other workers. He picked it up and asked me if it was mine. When I said yes he asked if he could look at it. Of course I told him yes and when he cracked open the pages he quickly laid it down as if it reminded him of something he didn't want to remember. It was time to go back to work so we all took off to our jobs.
After he grew worse in appearance and conduct I tried to get alone with him and try to share the gospel with him. But the opportunity never came or I did not try hard enough.
Then one day he got off the phone and told me that he had lost the hotel room he was staying and did not know were his wife was. As we were leaving for the day he turned to me with a smile and said that he would have to sleep under the Reeves Street bridge tonight and that it was to late to make it to the rescue mission. Seeing that it looked like it was going to rain that night I told him of a place near our church were he could stay and be out of the rain and cold. Not to mention it was a very dangerous neighborhood, mine. He stated that he didn't mind. He like sleeping out doors and he already knew some of the guys who would be there. He talked as if he was going to a party and was well satisfied with the way he wanted to live. So I said no more. I had passed under that bridge many times and never noticed any signs of homeless people sleeping there. And I look.
That was the last time I saw Bryan. The guys at work told me that they saw his picture on the news after a couple of days. It turned out that he was an unregistered sex offender. The news report said that he took a job near a daycare, which was against his probation. Not registering as a sex offender in our area is a very serious crime. I'm afraid even when he gets, he will not stay in Dothan since his picture will be mailed to everyone within a three mile radius of were he lives.
This is a true story and I wanted to share it because:
1. Was my "witness" by being an example enough for him to make a decision for Christ on his own later if the Lord lead?
2. Did I miss an opportunity to confront (with love) him with the gospel?
3. Will anyone or I else continue the witness?
4. When I stand before the Lord, will I have to give account for this failure? Is his blood on my hands?
If number four is true. Then I can repent because I know the grace and forgiveness that the Lord has in abundance. It is sad that Bryan did not hear about this before he left. All he knows is that Wayne is a nice guy who goes to church and reads his Bible.
I heard Joyce Myers say on the radio the other day, "We are here to impact not influence". How so true this is.
(this is a repost)

The Net Is Cast: Part 2

"Also the Kingdom of Heaven is like a net that was put into the lake and caught many different kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled the net to the shore. They sat down and put the good fish in baskets and threw away the bad fish. It will be this way at the end of the world. The angels will come and separate the evil people from the good people. The angels will throw the evil people into the blazing furnace, were people will cry and grind their teeth with pain." Jesus asked His followers, " Do you understand all these things?" They answered, "Yes, We understand." Matthew 13:47-51 NCV

In the first post by this title I shared how the internet should be used by Christians to reach out to the lost. You may ask "how can I do this?" I would like to offer some suggestions.

Blogging
Any person with a connection can start a blog (weblog: online journal open to public viewing or private) and share Christ in a very real way. Here is how to start.

First choose a host:
blogspot.com (easy to use and my favorite, very popular)
homesteadblogger.com (easy to use, designed for homeschoolers and homesteaders)
today.com (easy to use and one I recommend)
christianblog.com (good blog with christian content, but you can not double post content from another blog, even if it is yours)
bravernet.com (has adds and not user friendly, but free)
myspace.com (allot to it)
Most of these have templates you can use to design your blog. not must HTML needed to get started.

Second, after starting a blog and getting about 5 to 7 post written by yourself. And about seven days old at least, sign up on a traffic generator site.
Try these:
blogexplostion.com (one I use the most)
blogmad.com (good traffic but not to user friendly)
blogsoldiers.com (start for the military, but open for public, easy to use)

These generators work this way, you sign up, surf member blogs. You earn "credits" for the amount of blogs you view. These credits are assigned to the blog you choose and for each credit you get a viewing by another blogger who is surfing the same way. You can also buy credits from the TG. Some TG have games to play that earn you more credits if you desire. You will need to try to post weekly at the least so that you will always have fresh content to view.

You may wonder what you could possibly write about.
What ever you are interested in sports, pets, gardening, tech stuff, the list goes on and on. Write about what you love and tie it to Christ as a witness.

One idea I have is to do a blog called Rev.Tech. and write about technology that
makes it possible for prophecy of the Bible possible (ex: mark of the beast). Book reviews, music reviews, politics etc...

If you need some help, contact me at: wayneb363 at yahoo dot com

The Net is Cast

"Also the Kingdom of Heaven is like a net that was put into the lake and caught many different kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled the net to the shore. They sat down and put the good fish in baskets and threw away the bad fish. It will be this way at the end of the world. The angels will come and separate the evil people from the good people. The angels will throw the evil people into the blazing furnace, were people will cry and grind their teeth with pain." Jesus asked His followers, " Do you understand all these things?" They answered, "Yes, We understand." Matthew 13:47-51 NCV

Jesus speaks this parable or illustration. In the last days a net will be cast out. This I believe is a prophecy of the now internet. Never has there been a form of communication that makes it possible to reach the whole world at one time. With wireless networks everyone can be hooked to the grid and be in touch watch news as it happens on the other side of the world.

A lot of people see the internet only with it's evils. Porn, gambling, and identity theft. But the Church may be missing out on what God has allowed to be setup for His work. A great net cast to catch the good and the bad fish.

According to the prophecy or parable when the net is full, when the time is ready it will be pulled in and the good fish are separated from the bad fish, the end is here.

Now the question now that you may ask is," Who are the good and who are the bad fish?" The world view today is that although a person has done evil all his life he may still be basicly good and the little good will override the bad. Therefore all mankind is basicly good. So who sets the standard of "Good", a benchmark of Godliness.

Mankind needed an example. God could not find one in man. That's what the whole Old Testament is about. God let man try, but they could not do it. So, being a loving God he choose to make Himself a man and live among them. He becomes a real man and still remained real God. Something only a true God could do. He lives a human life under all the restrictions that man lives under naturally. And when the time came Him offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice for man's sins. He brought Himself back to life to show man that He had this power to defeat death. All mankind had to do was:

Receive the forgiveness He offered

Put their total trust in Him as God

Just as He put the worlds sins on Himself, man must put His Holiness on themselves.

This would make them "good" fish.

Now back to the "net". The internet was put in place by God using man. The church has neglected this resource for social and spiritual change for enough years. It is time for pastors and saints to use this end time opportunity to reach out to the world.

Church, do not be afraid of the evil that is on the internet but overcome it with the truth of the Gospel of Christ. This is not about which church has the coolist website or about showing the world that we are web savy. The point is to reach the seekers out there and show them the truth of Christ. And when the net is pulled in, they will be with the good fish in Christ and not the bad fish in hell.