Author: ShapedByTruth

The Gospel will never be “Popular”

The message of the gospel will never be popular in the world because “the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness….unto the Jews [it is] a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness….” (1 Corinthians 1:18,23).

Furthermore, rather than drawing the multitudes to Christ by example, Scripture states, “…all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12).

Jesus declared, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:18-19).

-T. A. McMahon

Gifts of the Holy Spirit 2 of 2

Who benefits from the Gifts of the Holy Spirit?

They are for the edification of the church (1Cor 12:17; 14:12)

All too often we think that the “gift” is given to us so we can use it. You can know this is wrong by where the “focus” lies. The focus is on the self.

Love focuses on others.

Really it is the Holy Spirit using us to manifest His blessing on someone else.

For example, a “gift” of healing is a benefit to the person who is sick, not the willing vessel through whom the Holy Spirit ministered healing.

We are motivated to be willing vessels through love.

I do not find anywhere in the Bible where we are supposed to be spending ANY TIME “finding” our gifts…

All I find in the Bible is that we are to love God, and love one another, and by that love we are willing to be used by God as He purposes…

So while it is important that we are aware of the gifts and even desire their manifestation, we do not need to spend any time hung up on figuring out which gift we have. Instead, we can spend our time in God’s word and being willing vessels to be used by God has He wills.

How can we know God?

There are really only two possible religions

1. God is not personal (god is a force or consciousness) or god is personal and has chosen not to reveal himself to us. It is impossible for us to know god, so we worship a god of our own imagination. All variations that spring from this are man-made religions. There are no absolutes, we make our own rules, and are ultimately our own “god”.

2. God is personal. Because we as finite beings cannot possibly understand God on our own, He has chosen to reveal Himself to us in a way we CAN understand. We learn about Him and develop a trusting relationship with Him through His revelation of Himself to us. We come to Him on His terms and are accountable to His standard.

Gifts of the Holy Spirit 1 of 2

The Gifts of the Holy Spirit are:

1. Not at our command, they are manifestations of the Holy Spirit as He wills

2. Not signs to unbelievers, it is for edification of believers (the church). The gifts of the Holy Spirit are foolishness to unbelievers and like casting perls before swine.

3. They are manifested as the Spirit directs, or in other words, as the Holy Spirit determines they are needed.

We get too hung up on TV personalities thinking that for the Holy Spirit to be working in our lives that we should be at some “level of faith” such that we are manifesting the gifts of the spirit on command.

More often than not, the TV personalities are manifesting occultic “miracles” and not the working of the Holy Spirit. You can know them by their fruits, and whether they drawing attention to themselves or to Jesus.

The truth is, all we are to do is desire the gifts, be willing vessels, and be motivated by love to help other believers. When there are times that a manifestation of a Gift would benefit a believer, then we trust that the Holy Spirit will manifest it through us. We are basically “out of the loop” in deciding when and where a gift manifests, it is only important that we desire to be used.

Deliberate Connotative Transfers (Puns)

Q: You know what a kilobyte and a megabyte is. What is a Moabite?

A: It’s a Lot.

Q: Where did Cain get his wife?

A: He married his brother’s sister because he was Able.

I’ve been asked if I take the Bible “literally”. This is often a trap, as there are many literary devices used in Scripture.

Where the Bible gives accounts of historical events, yes it can and should be taken literally.

Where the Bible employees poetry, such as Psalm 91 where it says that God has wings and feathers, it should be taken figuratively.

The problem with liberal theology is that they want to “spiritualize” and “allegorize” everything. When you do that, you can make the Bible say anything you want.

80% of lemmings can’t be wrong

I’ve heard folks say that they rely on the statistics for what is true. How can a majority of people be wrong? How comes the Bible goes against the “common intuition” of man?

This actually proves the Bible as true!

Scripture says that the heart of man is decietful. Man has a fallen natutre. The wisdom of man is at odds with the wisdom of God. God uses the simple to confound the wise, that no man can take credit.

Jesus said that the path to destruction is wide and many travel it, while the path to life is narrow and there are few that find it.

Keep in mind that in spite of Noah spending 100 years building the Ark and preaching to the people of the day, nobody got on the boat except Noah’s 8 member family.

What about those who have not heard?

What about people living in remote places where they never hear the gospel?

This is a good question that I often hear, and often ponder myself. While I don’t have an answer that will satisfy most people, here is what I have found so far in scripture…

1. People don’t go to hell because they havn’t accepted Jesus, they go to hell because of sins they have committed. Jesus came to save the world, but people still choose to reject Him. (Romans 6:23)

2. Everyone is without excuse, because the evidence for the Creator can be clearly seen in His creation. (Romans 1:20)

3. God foreknows who will respond to the Gospel, and He arranges for them to learn what they need to know about God. (Romans 8:29, 11:2) All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Joel 2:32, Acts 2:21, Romans 10:13)

How can a loving God send anyone to hell? He doesn’t send anyone to hell. God is not willing that any should perish. (2Peter 3:9) Hell is the alternative to being in God’s direct presence for those who willingly reject God. God originally created hell for the rebellious angels (Matthew 25:41) and hell was enlarged to accommodate rebellious man. (Isaiah 5:14) The truth is God Himself, motivated by His Love, took our place and died for our sins so we would not have to go to hell.

The real question, is how can anyone reject a Loving God?

Man in Charge

Power corrupts [man], and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Power attracts corrupt power-hungry men the way a lamp attracts moths.

The more centralized and concentrated the power, the more corrupt the men in charge.

In a nation, the leaders tend to be the most corrupt and power-hungry in that nation.

Once we have a world governance body, the men in charge will be the most corrupt in the world.

What God says about rejoicing over the fall of an enemy

“Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles; lest the Lord see it, and it displease Him, and He turn away His wrath from him.” (Proverbs 17:17-18)

“Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?” says the Lord God, “and not that he should turn from his ways and live?” (Ezekiel 18:23)

“Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’ (Ezekiel 33:11)

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)

“But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? … Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:44-48)