Casting Pearls- Who do we listen too?

    There are many different viewpoints in this world and many different directions we may go, but to sift through the multitude of opinions and viewpoints we must face each day we have a helper, The Holy Spirit, to guide us and make sense of the many voices we hear. As is stated in The Bible in Jude 18, in the last days there will be mockers, who lead others astray in their ungodly lusts. They want to use the tests and troubles of this life to lead us astray from the true leading of The Lord Jesus in our lives. We can be led astray by things we know to be wrong, like drugs or pornography, or we can be led astray by the things we think are right, like The Bible on our Phone, or suddenly being extremely interested in something as simple as a preacher on TV.
        Needless to say,  there will be even more subtle distractions the closer to the truth we come. We are in a battle with the master of lies, the only one who knows how to use even those you love to lead you astray. I could be working on this article and be interrupted by my son and it may seem at the time to be important, but in retrospect, not as important as the subject in which I am writing.
        Even as I write this I can feel the Devil attempting to lead me from continuing on to the point I wish to make and that is to rely on The Holy Spirit of God to not only keep you from being led astray, but also to not be confused by the many voices we might hear from the world around us. As I write this, I am receiving messages and requests and other ideas that are all attempts to lead me from the focus of my topic. The closer I get the more numerous they get. Now that I have typed out the main point of my article, the messages have stopped and the requests have quit.
        We must fight a battle with satan every day and the best way to do that is to keep in touch with the one who can make the outside disturbances stop. Even if your only connection is to say, ‘Thank You for Waking me up today, and giving me this beautiful day to use for You’, then that is a good place to start. We must keep up the connection between our Creator and ourselves. It is essential to our well-being and our mental health.
        Remember to thank God for all the things you go through and learn from them. God does not make bad things happen, but He does use them to teach us something. Some times it is something as small as to lean more on God than our own understanding.

Casting Pearls- Are you following or leading?

In Joshua 3:2-5, the people of Israel were about to cross over the river Jordan into the Promised Land. This was the land promised some time before to Abraham as his descendants. This land had been promised to them some years before and they had just spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness ( desert ) before arriving there. All the people who had come out of Egypt with them had died off except Joshua and Caleb. 

Moses himself was not allowed by God to enter the Promised Land. He had sinned against God and his punishment for it was not being allowed to go into the promised land with the rest of Israel. Joshua had replaced Moses as the Leader of Israel as they entered the Promised Land. In verse 2 Joshua had led the people of Israel to the edge of the Jordan River (which at the time was at almost flood stage) and they had camped there three days. The leaders of each tribe of Israel went throughout the people saying to follow the Ark of the Covenant, being carried by the Priests, and they would see where to go, the Bible narrates in verse 3. 

This is another shadow, or type, of how we should follow our God and know which way He would have us go. God wants us to keep our eyes on Him and His Word so we will know the correct way to go. It is only by following behind Him like a sheep does with a shepherd that we can find the way He would have us go. It is only by reading God’s Word that we can hear from God and know the direction He would have us go.

Later in verse 4 we read about the warnings they received from their tribes leaders. They were warned to stay behind the Ark of the Covenant at least two thousand cubits, that they might know the way they should turn and go before they get there, because they had never gone that way before. Though God wants us to follow Him, He wants us to follow with enough room between Him and us that we might know the direction in which He wishes us to turn, before we get there.God also wanted them to be far enough back that they could clearly see Him clear the obstacles out of their way and give God the glory for it .

As God’s children we need His Word and the leaders He provides for us to clearly see the way He would have us go. In the next chapter the Lord shows the people and us that Joshua is His chosen Leader of Israel to replace Moses. He stops the flooding river from flowing and lets all Israel pass across on dry land. There are times in life that we wonder if God is going to work in our case. If God wants us to go there, he will make a way. All we need do is, as the Israelites, Stay back and watch until God opens the door for us.

The key to being the kind of Christian Jesus wants is to be willing to praise God even as we sit and wait for Him to open the door. God works at two speeds. Slowly and suddenly. God slowly opens the door in Hid time not in ours, so it appears that God is not working in our case. Everything seems to go so slowly, then suddenly the door opens. We wait and wait for something to happen, then suddenly it does. So God works at two speeds. 

Casting Pearls- Are you the Temple Of God?

Our bodies are temples in which God lives. Not only are we supposed to be living temples of God, and a representative of God to the world around us. In 1 John 3:24 we see this proof. God dwells in us who dwell in Him. The Holy Spirit reveals to us whenever we begin to stray into things which will make our temple defiled in the sight of God. The Spirit’s conviction lets us know God lives in us. 

We all become agitated with others in some way or another in our lives, we talk meanly to our children, to our co-workers, to our neighbors, to our family members. We are god’s temple and representative in this world, and we may feel as though we are justified since we are told by the Bible to be righteously angry at sin, and to not ‘spare the rod’ with our children. 

What we must remember, is that as we are temples in our bodies, the other people we are agitated with are temples of God too. Our children are temples as well. Everyone is a temple in some state of being built just as we are not yet built. The temple of our lives is still under construction. We need to fight not to be overcome with pride or selfishness that our temple is further along with construction than someone else's. The devil will use any opening we give him to attack us. we must always stay under the protection of The Lord. 

As we are temples, and they are temples, what are we to do? Well as always I refer to the Bible for all the answers. In Romans 12:1-2 the Bible tells us to present yourself both to God and to man as a Holy Acceptable temple, not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the Word of the Lord, so that we may be acceptable to the Lord. We only have control over ourselves. We cannot make anyone else do what we think is right. 

The key word in the previous sentence is ‘think’. In our minds, we see things one way, in their minds they see things another way. We are responsible only to do what is right in our minds, not their minds. If we feel we need to excuse what we have done, it probably is wrong. If we feel that what we want to do is wrong to our own conscience it is probably wrong. Everyone sees things in a different way, they will react differently. What we must do is be willing, as God is, to be understanding of others seeing things differently and act accordingly. 

What we need to do is to ‘crucify the flesh’ as is spoken of in Galatians 2:19-20. We need to be dead to the flesh and the desires of the flesh. The flesh is controlled by the Law of God that can never be lived up to. The Lord gives us the Holy Spirit to live inside us when we are saved so we will be acceptable to  the Lord and to others as a representative of God. The problem comes when we have more than one face we show to the world. We come to Church and say ‘God Bless You’ and ‘Praise the Lord’ but when we go home, we are totally different. A poor at best representative of Christ. It is common in people to be this way. We put our best face on when in public, but our real face when we think no one is looking. That is why a persons true character is shown when no one is watching. The whole world would be better off if we all realized that God is always watching, He sees everything we do and knows everything we think. We can hide nothing from God.

Casting Pearls - Religion or Relationship?

                          Today the people overwhelmingly claim to be Christian. Approximately 87% of Americans claim to be Christian, yet how many claim a religion and not a relationship with Christ? Most of these people are claiming they are part of the Christian religion, not that they have a personal relationship with Jesus. They believe in the lie the world tells that they only have to believe Jesus was the messiah and they will be saved. To be Saved is much more complicated than that. 

                          Satan believes that Jesus was the Messiah and is more than willing to say so, we are called to go further than that. Jesus wants us to have a relationship with Him. If you know a boy or girl that you are interested in you will strive to spend as much time with them as possible. Even missing out on things you would normally do so you can spend time with them. Well, to spend time with Jesus all you have to do is read His Word. The Bible says in John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word(Jesus), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God". So from this verse alone we know that Jesus is thew Word of the Bible and to spend time with Jesus and hear what He has to say to you, all you need do is read His Words in the Bible.

                          Most people today don't want to give up their supposedly valuable time to spend a few minutes with Jesus each day. If these people want the blessings that God promises in His Word, They will want to have s personal relationship with Jesus. Many people say, "Not yet" or "I'll get around to it, we have a lot of time" . These people are fooling themselves, there is not much time to get right with the Lord, the signs we were told by Jesus, Matthew, Mark, John, Paul, Peter, James, and all the New Testament writers, given the words to write by God Himself, are all coming true around us and the time of Jesus' return is near. With all the hints we have that Jesus is coming back soon, there is nothing that tells us the exact date of His return. 

                          God does not tell us the exact date, because if we were to know, we would just wait until the day of His return to straighten up our lives. To have a relationship with Jesus, we are commanded by God to clean up and straighten up our lives now so we will be ready at His return. We should desire to tell more people about Jesus, and convince them to be saved, so even more will make it to Heaven at Jesus' return. 

                         We are given a choice, Love this world, our life here, the things we have, and people we have relationships with, or, Love Jesus, and receive the things of this world, the People we have relationships with, and all the good things of this life. You see, you have nothing to lose, and everything to gain by giving your life and your heart to Jesus, and everything to gain.

Casting Pearls - Is the church in trouble?

                        The church in America today must make a important decision as to which way we choose to go. Are we to join with those who wish to be more modern and embrace the culture in which we live? Or are we to hold to the Rock of the truth in God's Word and stand by it no matter wither or not it conforms to modern thinking? We, as a Church, (a called together group of believers) must decide which way we are to face. The danger we face is that if we face the wrong way we will be the ones who say to Jesus when we get to Heaven, I did this and this for you, and Jesus will say to us away from me, I knew you.  I know which group I want to be in so in all things, in our modern world, we must hold them up to the mirror of God's Word.
                         Many in this world want to say that the books of the bible were written by men, and were only relevant in the time in which they were written. However, if you look closely, the original Hebrew, Greek,and Arabic in which the books were written can be translated to speak to even todays problems and prophesy of today. The Church has already had many converts to the modern way of thinking. In the issue of homosexuality alone the United Church of Christ, the Presbyterian Church of the USA, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and even part of the Episcopal Church of America has already allowed homosexual ministers to lead their Churches. The Episcopal Church of America has had a split in Churches that agreed to this new doctrine. Apparently the Roman Catholic Church of Rome is not far behind them as just the other day the Pope himself called for them to be more inclusive in who they allowed in to their church. The Church of Jesus would fall, "as a deck of cards", he put it when he called for all Churches to be more open in their feelings toward homosexuality, abortion, and contraception.
                         The Word given to us by God has not changed, nor been reinterpreted to allow the ideas of men. The things we wish to include are only things brought to us by the lord of this world and are meant to cause us to split and become ineffective in spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In
2 Kings 23:7 the King of Judah, Josiah, had found homes of the 'sodomites', otherwise known as Homosexuals today, built right beside the temple of God, and tore them down, and later in the same chapter, in verse 11 and 14 he destroyed the chariots of the sun worshipers and their alters, because the sun worshipers and others had used them to sacrifice their own children, to Molech the sun and fire god, as we do today with the unborn children,  in abortion, on the alter of our own convenience. We would rather sacrifice our own children than be inconvenienced by their lives.
                        For all those who believe they will not be held accountable for these children, they are only fooling themselves. Just as the Church in biblical times was corrupted by false gods coming in to confuse the teachings of the Priests, so the world is trying to bring in false teachings and false gods to make the teachings of the Church be ignored or changed to what their followers would have. The truth remains the same, we must test all things by God's Word, to see if truth is in them.
                        In John 14: 6 Jesus states something that was as true then as it is today in the world's modern interpretation, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me". There is only one way to the Father, through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, No other way is allowed. Those of us saved by Jesus' Grace know no condemnation under the Law of God, the ten commandments, etc., but those who are still living in the world, and are still part of the world's order, are still condemned under the law. The only, and most simple way to get out of the condemnation is to believe on Jesus and make Him Lord of your life. It is so simple that it seems impossible, but it means also giving up all the things the world promises and provides. Many people can't give up the things of this world for the next. The Lord Jesus promises that if we are willing to give up the things of this world, that we will find ourselves greatly blessed while we are still here since God owns everything around us and can bless those who he wishes.
                        As the called together believers of Jesus in this world we must try all things we hear and see in this world by the Holy Scriptures in the Bible. If it does not match up with the commands of God then we are to stay away from them. If it does match up we are to follow it as long as it continues to match up. Many people claim that Jesus was too loving to condemn anyone, and while this is true, Jesus made a way for all who were condemned to be saved, Follow Him and make Him Lord of your Life. There is no other way.