Jesus Christ gave good instructions to his disciples about the messages of hypocrites in Matthew 23:3 he said, "so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice." Many times I have been given advice by hypocrites. They tell you what to do but yet they do not do it themselves.
They will overly criticize you and try to make you feel guilty for not following their advice. Their advice in which they do not follow themselves. They will tell you to do many positive things but in secret they do the opposite. They will give you their best advice on many different subjects but yet they fall short in taking their own advice. I do listen and even sometimes take their advice if it's helpful.
I have listen to sermons by preachers who was later found out to be immoral in someway. Their preaching at the time was well researched and was according to the scriptures. They preached what was right but practiced what was wrong. Just as Jesus instructed I done what they said but I did not do as they do.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
We Feed Our Mouth but not Our Spirit
We struggle everyday trying to make a living for ourselves and for our family. Our time sometimes become so limited to do anything else. Our dedication to the material out weighs our dedication to our spiritual well being by a large margin. We become spiritually empty but materially we have many things. We strive for what we can see and touch and ignore the rest. Behold our world isn't it beautiful(on the outside only)?
I feel a lot of the time we focus more on the icing on the cake than we do the cake itself. We make our outer appearance our main concern while our inner self waste away. I always feel I need more even though I have much. When your soul is spiritually empty no amount of food or material possessions can fill it.
In the Bible Matthew 4:4 Jesus says, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." You see we are flesh and bone and we need material food to live but we are also spiritual beings and we need spiritual food(God's word) to live. If we only pursue the material then we are not living a full life according to God's Word. We must take care of our spirit as well as our physical body.
I feel a lot of the time we focus more on the icing on the cake than we do the cake itself. We make our outer appearance our main concern while our inner self waste away. I always feel I need more even though I have much. When your soul is spiritually empty no amount of food or material possessions can fill it.
In the Bible Matthew 4:4 Jesus says, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." You see we are flesh and bone and we need material food to live but we are also spiritual beings and we need spiritual food(God's word) to live. If we only pursue the material then we are not living a full life according to God's Word. We must take care of our spirit as well as our physical body.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Jesus Represents God's Kingdom on Earth
Right now the physical kingdom of Jesus Christ's kingdom is no part of this world. In John 18:36 Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world." But there will be a time in the future that it will be apart of this world. Daniel 2:44 "And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever,"
The Bible speaks of a spiritual kingdom of God. Luke 17:20,21 "20Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, "The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed. 21nor will they say, 'Look, here it is!" or 'There!' for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you." Jesus Christ was saying that he represented the kingdom of God and the kingdom of God is now among you.
The apostle Paul tells us the kingdom of God is not about fleshly matters but about spiritual ones. Romans 14:17 "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."
God is trying to change us from our fleshly ways and make us suitable for his kingdom. For if we do not change we will not be welcomed into his kingdom. Jesus spoke about this in the parable of the weeds. In Matthew 13:24,25 "24He put another parable before them, saying, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, 25but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away."In the following verses the master of the house told the servants not to try to pick out the weeds from the wheat at this early stage of growth for fear that they would pull out some of the wheat along with the weeds. And in verse 30 he said, "Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn." It is interesting that he did not pull up the weeds in the beginning. He let them grow up together maybe to see if one would influence the other, to see if some of the weeds would become the like wheat or some of the wheat would become like the weeds. In away he gave them freedom to choose how they grew up until the day of harvest in which in reality is their day of God's judgement.
(ESV)
The Bible speaks of a spiritual kingdom of God. Luke 17:20,21 "20Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, "The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed. 21nor will they say, 'Look, here it is!" or 'There!' for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you." Jesus Christ was saying that he represented the kingdom of God and the kingdom of God is now among you.
The apostle Paul tells us the kingdom of God is not about fleshly matters but about spiritual ones. Romans 14:17 "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."
God is trying to change us from our fleshly ways and make us suitable for his kingdom. For if we do not change we will not be welcomed into his kingdom. Jesus spoke about this in the parable of the weeds. In Matthew 13:24,25 "24He put another parable before them, saying, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, 25but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away."In the following verses the master of the house told the servants not to try to pick out the weeds from the wheat at this early stage of growth for fear that they would pull out some of the wheat along with the weeds. And in verse 30 he said, "Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn." It is interesting that he did not pull up the weeds in the beginning. He let them grow up together maybe to see if one would influence the other, to see if some of the weeds would become the like wheat or some of the wheat would become like the weeds. In away he gave them freedom to choose how they grew up until the day of harvest in which in reality is their day of God's judgement.
(ESV)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)