Posted on 05/08/2020 4:37:58 PM PDT by pastorbillrandles
By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. (Hebrews 11:4-6)
The famous “Faith Chapter” in the book of Hebrews, begins with two Saints, Abel and Enoch as examples of faith which we are to imitate. Faith is the point, for faith is the only way to please God.
I once asked the LORD, ‘Why Faith? Why is that what you require?” I believe I received several answers in the form of scripture and impressions, from the LORD. God requires faith, because we simply cannot save ourselves. Only God can save our souls, no one can redeem themselves, therefore Faith is required, because faith glorifies God and not man.
Another reason for the requirement of faith that came to me, is that our problems began when we quit believing in the goodness of God. Adam and Eve were willing to entertain a false and degraded notion of God, that He was holding something back that would be good for the first couple. The Serpent bore false witness about the LORD, and they believed it.
The way back? It has to be faith. We must repent and believe again in the goodness of God.
The “hall of faith” begins with Abel and Enoch. One Saint who was murdered for his faith, and for bearing witness to God in a hostile world. There would be literally millions upon millions who would follow in his footsteps, being willing to let go of their life rather than deny the truth of God.
The other Saint, Enoch, was a man who lived in a kind of “end times scenario” living in the time leading up to the flood. It was a day of Apostasy, but Enoch walked with God, until God took Him home. He didn’t die , He was raptured. God took him home, to be with himself.
Faith was required of each of them.
I believe that we also live in an end-time. I have no doubt that Jesus is coming, and in our lifetime. What makes us unique is the re-emergence of the nation of Israel, in 1948, in fulfillment of the prophecies about the last of the last days. All of the prophets pre-supposed that there would be a national Israel, and a Jewish occupied city of Jerusalem, as well as a controversy over Judea, (The West bank) which would engulf the whole world.
The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him. Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. (Zechariah 12:1-3)
Which brings us back to our two Saints at the beginning of Hebrews 11. One died, He was martyred for his witness to God. The other one did not die. He was Raptured. Both of these Saints lived by Faith and Pleased God.
I believe that this speaks to us in our generation.
No doubt. many of us will end up dying. Perhaps some of us will be given an opportunity to be martyred. We are Saints and love God, but all things being equal, unless the LORD returns, we will die, one way or another.
(Of course, Christians don’t really die, they “go to sleep”) but the real point is that Faith is the only way to please God.
But according to the scriptures, there is a unique end-times event, coming, as I hope I have pointed out in this series, called the Rapture, or “Our gathering together unto Him”, “the Episynagogue” and Jesus coming to “take us where (He)…is, unto himself”. The LORD is coming to snatch us off the earth with a swift and irresistable power”.
To participate in such an event is a rare honor among the countless Millions of Saints who believed in Jesus before us.
But whether we die, or are martyred, o whether we are raptured, the real point is that we must live our lives by Faith,which is the only way to please God.
This is why I do not enter into the countless discussions as to the timing of the Rapture. “Will The Rapture be pre- ,mid , or post Tribulation”?
Honesty, the only things I am sure about the Rapture at all are that it is:
* For God’s Saints only, and the prospect of it is a comfort.
* A Mystery revealed in the New Testament era.
* It occurs before the actual “Wrath ” of God.
* It involves the “dead in Christ” as well as “We who are alive, until the coming of the LORD”.
As far as I know, all else can only be speculation. God doesn’t want us to know the exact timing otherwise it would be clearer. I am glad there is a Rapture, and my prayer has always been that I be involved in it, while alive. But I cannot say with certainty what the timing of it is, so I don’t.
What counts is Faith in Jesus. Not dead works, but a living, vital, infectious faith. Let us have a faith which still moves us to confess and forsake our sins, to Love and seek God. To forgive and love our brothers, and a faith which moves us to share with others what God has shown to us. Is your faith alive? Do you have oil in your lamp? Are you current with God?
We Overcome the World by our faith. “This is the victory that overcometh the World…our faith”. We overcome the Spirit of antiChrist also, by our faith. So also we overcome the sins that so easily beset us, and the Coldness and soul deadening effect of this world, by our Faith.
Of course we want out of here, we can increasingly see that there is nothing in this World for we who believe, but rejection and opposition.I want Jesus to come, and Long for the Rapture. I am either going up in it, or I am gong to die, but one way or another we are leaving.
Either way, the point is Faith. So I will leave the timing of the Rapture to God, and just strive to be counted worthy to attain it, whether ded or alive.
Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. (Luke 21:35)
People who do not want to believe the Rapture will happen are denying what God told us about receiving a NEW BODY and BEHAVIOR mechanism in the instant before we are gathered to Christ in the Air, the first Heaven. It is not complicated nor confusing when you allow God's Spirit to open your eyes to see.
Being Born Again by faith in Whom GOD sent for our deliverance separates our spirit from our soul and God cleanses then abides in the new born human spirit. The soul and body are not regenerated at that event, ONLY the spirit has God abiding in the newborn spirit. Read 1 John 3:9 in several translations, you will get it!
You lack of understanding what THE BIBLE ACTUALLY SAYS leads you to ask such things as, “Or, is any committed sin you might do proof that you really aren’t born again, after all?” The soul / behavior mechanism sins. And with those bron agains we have an advocate who erases sin when we confess it to Him because He is Who we grieve when we sin. The spirit of every Born Again has GOD abiding therein, in the spirit which His Word separates from the behavior mechanism so it is not tainted. If the spirit could sin God would not be ABIDING therein. Abiding means not leaving and coming back then leaving then coming back. Abiding is there and not leaving.
Yes, Judas was replaced by Matthias. And my question was why God did not replace Judas with Paul? And was it a mistake on Peter and other Apostles to Not have Paul be the substitute Apostle?
A ping for your reading ... not about Cave Hill.
Ok, so you asked why, specifically, Judas was replaced. I want to answer your question, I just want to make sure I understand it
BTW, there is you answer for what James said and why James is correct in 'faith without works is dead faith.' Unless the works are due to GOD abiding in the born again spirit, the one is not born again.
I misunderstood you. I thought you might be saying that Judas wasn’t replaced.
I apologize for interrupting your conversation.
Lol! Not a problem!
So I will leave the timing of the Rapture to GodThat is all that need be said.
Be perfectly sinless or that would mean your being born again didn’t take and you’re not a child of God?
Because your own works condemn you, right?
I already know that I am a sinner and therefore do not claim to be a child of God, though I know it’s possible, even for a sinner in foul trouble like me.
None the less, I ask the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, to have Mercy on me, the sinner, several times a day.
And I don’t always have love for others, either, especially in highly partisan times like these, so you can’t always know that I might be a disciple, per 13:35, but I am trying.
Happy to know that you’ve made it to the inner circle. It gives me something to shoot for.
I am puzzled why you want to keep misstating what I write to you. I know you can read, and I posted the scripture for you, but you try to float these false statements!
Why are you trying to twist what The Word of God says?
ONLY my opinion, but yes, I think it WAS a mistake. It was meant for Paul. At the time, however, Paul was still breathing out threatenings to the saints. This is just my opinion, but it might be true. 😁
I would guess the vast majority of CHRISTIANS do not have this simplest of all methods by which The God sustains those He births into His family. He abides in the born again spirit. Abides! The rest of the person is scheduled for either: dust of the body and 'sequestration of the behavior mechanism' with the spirit going to wait with The Lord; OR change in the twinkling of an eye for a new fit for eternal living body and behavior mechanism.
After all, according to the Spirit Who inspired Paul, the dead in Christ will rise first when Jesus comes from the third Heavven to the first Heaven and God brings with Him the spirits of those who have died in Christ, then we who are alive shall be also transformed in the twinkling of an eye and gathered nto the clouds with the risen ones to meet the Lord in the air.
Either way, whether we wake or sleep, He is coming to gather His to Himself and return to the Father's House for seven years, then return and set foot on the Earth to clean up the mess. 'Wherefore comfort one another with this message.' (1 Thess 4:18)
Not about Cave Hill? 😁 How about Shaw’s Bridge, or River Lagan? I first heard of Cave Hill, from Daniel O but the possible significance of Cave Hill, only hit me today, and blew me away. 😁
And I’m guessing that I’m not the first person to have this struggle.
So, your spirit is a child of God, born again, but your body and soul are still sinful prodigies of the First Parents.
Am I getting closer?
Okay then. I better see where you’re coming from now and I can see where I was misunderstanding you.
I hadn’t thought about it that way, seems incomplete to me, but I can better see why you do.
Thanks.
Nope, you don’t quite get it apparently. It’s not that sin is no longer sin and the saved person can’t commit it or that it does not come with consequences. It most certainly does. Sin is sin and God will not leave one His own to continue in it without dealing with it. So the person is chastised and corrected/disciplined, but does not lose their salvation. There are also natural consequences to sin to deal with as well, like with alcoholism, drug abuse, or promescuity. Sometimes there is liver damage, disease, or other physical, mental, or relational consequences.
Nor does committing sin *prove* that you were never born again. 1 John 1 deals with the believer who sins. It happens and while interferes with fellowship and communication with God, it does not cost the believer his salvation, any more than a disobedient child loses his place int he family. A disobedient child is out of sorts with his parents, but is not disowned by them.
When a person is born again, they are given a new spiritual nature which cannot, does not, and will not sin. That is the part that desires righteousness and to live a godly life. That part is holy to God.
Within us, however, is our soul, aka the flesh, the part of us that was born into this body and thinks, feels, remembers, decides, and that part still has the old thought patterns and reactions in it. It still has the proclivity to sin and is still with us attached to the body and with us til we die.
When this body dies for the redeemed person, the sinful part attached to it is gone also and all that’s now left is the new spiritual part that was spiritually reborn when the person repented and turned to Christ in faith and became spiritually alive.
When the unredeemed person dies, their body dies and their spiritual nature is still dead, still separated from God.
The new birth as mentioned in John 3 is not just a reforming of the old nature or character. It’s actually the infusion of a completely new nature which is now at odds with sin and the flesh and the devil.
Read Romans 7 as it very well describes the conflict that exists within the heart of the redeemed person.
Seems to me that God DID choose Paul to replace Judas.
The problem is, Peter went ahead of God in attempting to fill the slot.
When you decide on something and give God only two choices and choose lots, ONE of them is going to *win* but that does not mean it was God's choice. IMO, the mistake was going ahead without finding out the mind of God in the matter.
There’s not a one of us who lives as we know we should.
We are still in this body facing temptations from within and without, and spiritual attack from the enemy who knows us better than we know ourselves and knows just where to hit us. So, yes, we are going to sin. It’s inevitable. And God knows it and makes provision for it. Although He did set the standards for how we should live, my opinion is that I don’t think He actually expects us to do it. Others may disagree with me there. However, it’s what you do with it after that that makes the difference.
So there’s the matter of feelings of real guilt when we sin, but there’s also a problem with false guilt. That happens when we (or the enemy) set goals and standards for ourselves that God never required of us, and then we beat ourselves up for not attaining them. One such thing, for example, is both Bible reading and prayer.
Someone comes along and says that we should spend an hour a day, first thing in the morning, with God and to get up extra early if we need to to get it in. After all, we should give Him the best part of the day.
Well, it SOUNDS good and spiritual, but is found nowhere in Scripture that that is required of us.
And for some of us, like me, the choice is going to be giving God either the morning or the best part of the day. For me, it can’t be both. The two will NEVER happen together. They are mutually exclusive. I can barely function first thing in the morning. It takes me about an hour to pull myself together and do anything that takes more mental effort that fixing breakfast out of habit. Mr mm has learned to not expect much out of me either so he doesn’t even try to engage in any meaningful conversation until I come to.
So my time with God is later in the day and I will not put myself on a guilt trip over someone else’s opinion.
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