A DOUBLE MINDED CHRISTIAN
James 1:8 a DOUBLE MINDED man is unstable...
4:8 purify your hearts ye DOUBLE MINDED.
You want to be godly, but you also crave for the world. So you go to church but outside the church building you live a worldly life. In church, you dress as a christian should but outside you dress just like the world; you do not seek to represent Christ. You are not fully decided. You can't let go of the Lord because your conscience wouldn't allow you but there is so much love in you for the world that you cannot live without the world.
Christian, love the Lord thy God with ALL your Mind...
How to be filled with the Spirit
Isaiah 41
This you need to do on a regular basis... ( especially when you come to the house of God at an appointed time but noticed that the service has not started , and sometimes only a few have arrived) Take a seat and have a quiet time. Don't sleep or wander around.Don't go looking for a friend. Don't talk to anybody just yet like most are accustomed to do. You want to meet with God. Just sit in quiet contemplation. Don't say anything. Don't say anything. Don't say anything. Just be quiet and think and prepare to listen to God. Search your heart. Be honest about yourself and be honest with God. Ask God to reveal the secrets of your heart. Confess your sins and mourn because of them. Let God talk to you. Take your Bible and read. and after a while... talk to God. You shall renew your strength. You shall be filled with the Spirit of God.
Being filled with the Spirit is like getting drunk with wine. You don't get drunk by asking. You get drunk by drinking but not instantly. It takes a while. You don't get filled by the Spirit by merely asking, but if you want to be under the influence and power of the Holy Spirit, it must begin with a regular quiet time and letting God work in your heart to purify the heart and bring you into complete submission to his will.
Many churches today are FILLED with people and activities and programs. Having a FORM OF GODLINESS,but a conspicuous absence of the POWER of God in the lives of the people. Instead, there is NEUTRALITY, COMPROMISE, AND APOSTASY in the institutional church today.
The Essence of Prayer
The disciples asked the Lord to teach them to pray to which the Lord responded and said," after this manner therefore pray ye, 'Our Father which art in heaven..." The writer of the book of Hebrews exhorted the brethren to ' come boldly unto the throne of grace'. Prayer is entering into the very presence of a holy God . Our mistake in prayer is when we pray just to present our petition to God and be totally oblivious of the presence of God who is glorious. Oftentimes, people associate prayer with bringing a request to God to find help in time of need. We are to pray without ceasing. Yet we are not always in need materially nor are we always sick and without money. So prayer is not just a means to get something from God, though definitely there are things that we don't have because we have not asked. Moreover, prayer is not made only just so we can thank God. Prayer is a time to be in the presence of God to muse on His greatness, so much so that one becomes oblivious of the people around him and the cares of life and to see no one and nothing save Jesus only as in the mount where Jesus was transfigured before the disciples. To pray and not to be in awe of the glory of God is to miss the blessing of prayer. People pray and are weary. The times of refreshing comes from the presence of the Lord and again in the book of Psalms, in thy presence is fullness of joy. Prayer, when learned, brings joy and pleasure to the soul long before one's cares and troubles are taken care of. Don't just leave a note for God to read. Even in this electronic age, an email is no substitute for real prayer. Don't just peek,enter in and pray.
On Christmas
Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior wants us to ' remember ' him. That is through the observance of the Lord's supper ( 1 Cor. 11: 24-26 ) The gospel is to be preached everyday and can be preached effectively without the aid of a pagan holiday. We cannot be indebted to the world. All this celebration of the birth of Christ so we can win souls to Jesus is nothing more than the carnal Christians' excuse so they can conform to the world and fellowship with them. If we really want to win souls, then we ought to bring the gospel to wherever people are and we should give more money to missionaries and pastors instead of spending money for the Christmas season. Go out into the streets brother and talk to people about Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ was born of a virgin. That is the significance of His birth. The holy God manifested in the flesh. A perfect man. But it does not end there. Jesus was born to die for our sins. The emphasis on the preaching of the gospel is on the death of Jesus Christ. His resurrection bears witness to his redemptive work at the cross. His resurrection guarantees that God is satisfied with the payment made by Jesus Christ for man's sin so that God is ready to forgive and justify all who believe in Jesus Christ and by faith call upon the name of the Lord.
Jesus Christ is alive forever more which is antithetical to the word Christmas meaning 'Christ is dead'.
We celebrate what Jesus Christ accomplished at the cross and we look forward to his return. We remember him hanging on the cross, despising the shame and enduring the pain not as a babe in swaddling clothes. We look forward to meeting him to be with him forever and we see him returning to earth in all his glory to establish his kingdom and we shall reign with him.
The Fatherhood of God
God created the heavens and the earth. He made all living things including man. But he is not every man's Father. For one to call God his Father, he must have received the power to be called God's child. That power is not in all men. Not all men are God's children but only those who have received the Lord Jesus Christ ( John 1:12 ) ( Gal. 3:26 ) and those that have separated themselves from idols ( 2 Cor. 6:16-18 ). Some men are called the children of the devil ( 1 John 3:10 ) and that the Devil is their father ( John 8:44 ) . The doctrine of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of men is devilish. We are not all brothers.
On the Rapture of the Church
Our blessed hope is the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth for his church; when he comes to take us with him to heaven. We shall see Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior one of these days and from that day to be with Him forever ( 1 Thess. 4 / 1 Cor. 15 ). The trumpet shall sound, the Bible says, before we are lifted up and translated to heaven. It will be very fast, as the twinkling of an eye. But it will not be a surprise if we understand what the Lord has said concerning it. Understanding what the Apostle Paul meant by the phrase ' the dead in Christ shall rise first' is crucial to knowing as to the time of the Lord's return for the church. The dead in Christ shall rise FIRST, meaning before we are caught up to heaven , those dead in Christ shall rise first. It does not say that they will be caught up first, which is obvious because the passage says that we shall be caught up TOGETHER WITH THEM. The dead in Christ does not come from the grave at the rapture of the church. The passage says that when Jesus returns to earth for the church , the dead in Christ are with him. This is supported by the Scriptures 2 Cor. 5:8. The believers who have died prior to the rapture of the church are with the Lord now in conscious fellowship with the Lord and with a glorified body as explained by the Apostle Paul in 1 Cor. 15:36, 42-44. If they are in the grave right now, they are not with the Lord. If they are with Lord now, they are not sleeping and they possess a new body: a glorified body. So when the Lord returns, these saints will first appear to us which are alive and remain , similar to what happened before the ascension of the Lord ( Matthew 27:51-53) before we are caught up to heaven. So we know when it is but only a few days more before we see and meet the Lord, but until we have seen some of our departed brethren alive and in a new body, we cannot say that the Lord may take us up today. Jesus may return today, but we won't be caught up until we see the dead in Christ alive again talking and having fellowship with us.
On the King James Bible
I believe that God wrote a book and he wants us to read it ( Isaiah 34:16) , teach it and preach it. The Bible tells me that it is without error ( Proverbs 8) . I have faith in what God says. The King James Bible is God's Word . I find no fault with the King James Bible that would make me look for another. Maybe there are other versions out there that can be considered as God's Holy Word (which means perfect. If it is not perfect it is not God's Work) but I already have a perfect Bible.