Walking with God in agreement.

Amos 3:3 “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?”

The question asked by God is a great question, can two walk in harmony if they do not agree? I know that most Christians do not, most friends will not, and most families will not, so what makes us believe we can walk in harmony with God if we do not agree and walk in His word? The answer is no, because God is so strict in His law of righteousness that we cannot. No one can fellowship at all with God if they are not saved. Saved people can fellowship with God only in Jesus Christ if our sins have been washed in His blood and forgiven. Now, the next thought is, how much fellowship do we want with God? The stronger our faith and the stronger our depth in Truth of God’s word, the deeper the fellowship is with God. To walk with God is to walk in Christ, but the level of our walking together with God depends on our level of understanding of His and walk in that understanding. How does a Christian walk with God who does not believe much truth, or study His word, walk in His word, or even attend church. It is true that the stronger we are in God’s grace the closer we walk with Him. All Christians are not gifted the same level of grace. Rom. 12:3 “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” God gives every child a measure of grace per child, we are not all gifted the same, not even with knowledge and wisdom. However, this does not hinder our responsibility to work at walking in agreement with God. No believer walks with God in perfection because God has not blessed any believer with that grace of perfection except in Christ. No Christian walks in “lock step” with God but we certainly ought to work at it. We are not without excuse of working to be the best Christian that I can. We cannot use God’s grace and gifting as an excuse to be spiritually lazy. If Christians allows their worldly issues to interfere with their service to God, then why would God walk together? It is true that God is always with us, and He will never leave us nor forsake us, but that is not what we are talking about. Paul wrote these words, “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;” Colossians 3:23 We can serve the things in the world if we do not put them before the Lord. Serving God should be number one on our list everyday and above all else. Our desire in life should be to walk every moment in fellowship with our Heavenly Father. What we all have in this world is what God has given to us, material and spiritual, but we use the tools and gifts God gives us to study, learn, and walk in fellowship with God. No Christian has any excuse not to seek and walk in an agreeable fellowship with God. If we do not then do not blame God, blame yourself. God said, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.” Ecclesiastes 9:10 Time is short, our time is today, our rewards await us, and they are earned by walking in agreement with God. Jesus said, “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.”   John 9:4 There will be a time that it is to late, that time is not yet here, it is time to fix what is broken in your faithful walk with God. And it all starts with attending church, the seminary of biblical learning. Today is the day to seek and fellowship with the Lord in spirit and truth. Remember, truth matters, because the more truth you agree with the Lord on, the sweeter the walk together!    

Walking in the Light

“This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” 1 John 1:5 - 10

What a beautiful blessing, for sinners born enemies of God, we can walk in the light of God through Jesus Christ. Light means holiness, which is accomplished by walking in the light of His Word. God, by grace accepts us as sinners but as sinners saved by His grace thru the blood of His Son and forgiven. God never accepts sin, nor is God ever happy with us when we do sin. As the most blessed creatures of all God’s creation, we ought to constantly remember our blessings within God’s grace. God said of us, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” Galatians 5:25 If we live “spiritually” by the power of the Holy Spirit, and through the blood of Jesus Christ, then we ought to be walking in the Word of God. Paul wrote these words, “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” Romans 8:13 The Holy Spirit mortifies our sinfulness when He saves us from our sins as He does from the power of sin over us. However, it is our responsibility as Christians to do away with sinfulness in our daily lives. We have been blessed with our cleansing thru the blood of Jesus Christ, but it is us who must walk in the Spirit of light every day. The life of the believer is about our daily walk, in the light and avoiding darkness because in God there is no darkness. If we are walking in darkness we are not in fellowship with God, because in Him darkness is not allowed. Our second walk in life must be in Truth, because walking in the Spirit means we are walking in His light, that walk must include walking in the Truth of His Word. John wrote, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” John 4:24 For us to have true spiritual worship with God, we must be believing the Truth of the word, which is walking in the Spirit. God measures a person by what is in their heart, the Prophet Samuel wrote, “But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7  The heart of a Christian is their living spirit. Just as our worship is spiritual and not an outward view of God, neither is our sinfulness. God searches our heart, and it is there He finds our righteousness. The Psalmist wrote, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:” Psalms 66:18 If we are sinful in our hearts, it is there that the Lord sees our sins. It is with our hearts or our spiritual walk that controls our outward walk and if God is satisfied with our spiritual walk, then our outward walk will be in the Spirit according to God’s word, in Truth, and in fellowship with God. God said this of outward worship, “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” Matthew 15:8, 9 Without right spiritual worship we will never please God nor walk in fellowship with Him. Our third thought is our happiness as Christians. Happiness for Christians is for those that are closet to the Lord in fellowship. When we are full of spiritual happiness, dwelling spiritually in fellowship with the Lord and in fellowship with other Christians who are also fellowshipping with the Lord. Our happiness is never in this sinful world because you cannot not mix the two, you cannot serve God and the world, not even in happiness. Things in this world takes away from what God has given to us by grace. Be careful of your walk in this world and do not allow it to take your happiness in the Lord or your fellowship with the Lord.

“That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” 1 John 1:3
“Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” Amos 3:3 

Who is right and who is wrong.

John 3:3, 5 “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.  (5) Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

Salvation has been a subject of debate for as long as sin has been with man. It has been studied and debated by some of the most intelligent people on the earth and thousands of years later, it’s still being debated by the brightest people in the world. The Jews, God’s chosen nation to do God’s work on the earth, most didn’t even understand God or salvation. Here we have a man named Nicodemus who was a Ruler of the Jews. This means that Nicodemus was (or was recognized as) a biblical scholar. In today’s education system he would be recognized as a PhD Scholar in biblical education. But this man had no idea what salvation was, because he did not know who Jesus Christ was. He thought the rebirth was being born a second time in his mother womb. “Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?” John 3:4 It was later that Nicodemus who was already a ruler of the Jews and a biblical Scholar of His time was actually born again and saved. Nicodemus no longer recognized Jesus simply as a “Rabbi…a teacher come from God” but truly recognized Him as Saviour. The Jewish leaders themselves did not recognize Jesus as Saviour but as a fraud and a devil. John 1:11 says “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” At the time there were no more biblical smart people than these very Jews, who rejected Jesus. And in time it was these same biblical scholars that led the way and demanded this devil named Jesus must be crucified, and released a murder so that He could be crucified. This brings us to Saul of Tarsus, this man talked about his credentials in Philippians 3:5 - 6 "Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; (6) Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless." In other words, as a Jew he was a biblical Scholar of his time. But he hated Jesus, he hated Christians, and he hated the Lord’s church in Jerusalem. This is until he met Jesus, Acts 9:4 - 5 "And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? (5) And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." The Apostle Paul soon becomes a true biblical scholar and wrote at least 13 books of the New Testament after Jesus saved his soul. The point here is that intelligence, even biblical scholars who hold PhD’s are not always biblically correct, nor are they actual biblical scholars. The difference between those with true biblical knowledge and those pretenders is the doctrine of salvation. If you look at history, those that were wrong always taught that works were a part of salvation. Judaism, Gnosticism, Catholicism, and today, Arminianism. When people cannot understand who Jesus was/is and what His purpose was in His crucifixion, then they will never understand salvation. If people refuse to accept that salvation is exactly the way God described it in Ephesians 2:8 – 9 and the life of a Christian is the way God described it in verse 10 then they will never understand God and salvation no matter who they are, or what education level they hold. Imagine, all those who were supposed to be biblically intelligent people, the chosen nation of God, failed in recognizing who Jesus was. The people today who have their PhD in theology, and have no idea who Jesus is, and have no idea who God is and how He saves sinners. And people flock to hear them preach about free will and humanism. They teach a doctrine that God has taught against from Abraham thru our time, “Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Ephesians 2:9 we also see in Titus 3:5 “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;” Paul wrote in Acts 16:30 - 31 “And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? (31) And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” If you go through the scriptures, it never changes, circumcision (which is considered a work), baptism and works for salvation have been falsely taught by some of the most educated biblical scholars and all have been wrong. Paul even said of Israel, "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. (2) For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge." Romans 10:1 - 2 Knowledge of the scripture does not come from earthly education, it comes from the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus told Nicodemus, “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:15 Nicodemus was later born of God. He came to understand that salvation was in Jesus Christ and not in works.  

Brotherly Love…

“Let brotherly love continue. (2) Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” Hebrews 13:1 - 2

When God causes a person to be “born again” that soul is forever changed. Jesus said, “And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” John 1:5 Lost people live in total absolute darkness; they are blinded because their spirits are dead. They cannot spiritually see, hear, or even understand the things of the Holy Spirit, nor does the Holy Spirit interchange with them in any way. Lost people never please the Lord they live in darkness, and they do nothing to please God. The Lord said, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 1 Corinthians 2:14 The things of God are foolishness to them, why, because they are spiritually unable to connect the dot of God’s teachings. The bible is a revelation, it is only attainable if the human spirit is able to spiritually see the Truth. However, once the Holy Spirit quickens the human spirit then the whole person changed, we move from complete darkness spiritually to an unquenchable light and then we are able to comprehend the spiritual things of the bible. God has caused the light to shine in our hearts for us to overcome spiritual darkness and our living spirit is now able to see, hear, and understand God’s word. However, even with this greatness there is something even greater, we become the children of God. “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,” Ephesians 1:5 Once a lost sinner is redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, their whole existence changes, and part of that change is our sonship, we now are God’s child. We have a whole new family, an eternal family that is even more important than our human family. We have heavenly family members all over the world, different nationalities, different races, different languages, we have so many brothers and sisters in Christ, we could not possibly know them all. As Christians, as children of God, we are all different, we have a family that is a world. This love is a gift from God that the natural man does not have. The natural man has human love, but that is love that can disappear and can be replaced with hate, unlike Christian love. Gifts of God are eternal and not temporal, because they are sustained by the power of God. The Lord promised us in Proverbs 8:21 “That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures.” Our, biggest and most blessed treasure is God gifting us with sonship in Jesus Christ. Our being eternally in the family of God. This makes us special to God, and special to His Son Jesus our Messiah. Earthly families are temporal because once life is over, we are eternally in God’s family. We may never see some of our earthly family, and if we do, we are brethren for eternally. We may not know a person on this earth as our brother or sister in Christ, this is why the Lord commanded to “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers” because we do not know if that stranger is a child of God, or an angel sent from God. Jesus will tell the lost in their judgment day, “For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.” Matthew 25:42 – 43 Christians are to love and entertain out brethren, and if we fail, we fail to serve the Lord. When the Lord said, “Let brotherly love continue.” He means for it to never end, and when anyone is in need we are to help. Our life and work of this life is a testimony of the love and work of God in our hearts. Life is a test for us to prepare for our judgment. If we have the opportunity to help in entertain strangers, we certainly need to do just that. Think of it this way, what if God tested you with an opportunity to help and you failed? Why if a brother or sister needed help and you failed to help, how is God feeling about that? Beloved, when you entertain strangers, you never know who you may be helping, a fellow brother of sister, and angel, but you will never fail if you “Let brotherly love continue.”

Are You Sick?

Mark 2:16 - 17 “And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? (17) When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

The Jews, like Gentiles today are always self-righteous people. No matter who you are, everyone has some self-righteousness about them. Listen to the words written by the Apostle Paul, they are very humbling words, “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” 1 Corinthians 15:10 I believe a careful study of this verse will humble even the strongest of preachers. The greatest of preachers are those who humble themselves before the Lord. It’s natural for people to be competitive, to be proud, to want honor, but as Christians we deserve none of this because everything about us as Christians are purely from God’s grace. Paul said “…but the grace of God which was with me.” meaning everything he accomplished was of God’s grace and power, while he labored more abundantly than they all, he was still a great servant of God in his time, but only by grace.

The Jews were always critical of Jesus, like most self-righteous religious people, they only wanted to find bad in Jesus because they did not believe He was the Messiah. Here it was because He ate with sinners, “And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners?” I heard it asked once many years ago and I have repeated it many times since, “if Jesus did not eat with sinners, then He would have never eat with anyone.” We never need to forget the pit of sin that we were all in before God saved our souls by grace. It is sinners that Jesus came to save and it is sinners He went to save them because they were lost. Humility is the greatest thing a Christian can have in their hearts. Always remembering, I was sick and God healed me by grace and Jesus, I was dead and God resurrected my spirit and made it alive, I was ignorant and God made me knowledgeable, I was weak and God made me strong. Then we can all quote the words that Paul wrote, “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” Thank you, Lord!

We all must realize our sickness before we can be healed, and in salvation it is most needed. If one does not realize they are a sinner (sick) then they will continue in life without any concern about the Lord. Self-righteousness is what we are blinded with by Satan, “I’m ok, I can figure this out and I am strong enough to do everything I want.” But we cannot, all people outside of Jesus Christ and God’s grace is going to hell. People by their self-righteous hearts will never believe that they are spiritually dead, they will never need Jesus in their hearts. These religious Jews thought they were special, they thought they had it all figured out, then they crucified our Messiah. People that believe in works for salvation are very self-righteous people, they do not need Jesus because they can do this their self. They are very proud people and are a lot like the Jews, holding their heads up high more righteous than everyone else because they are not sick, they are not sinners, because they are greater than all else in the world.

A true saved person understands grace, because grace was applied in our quickening and believing and repentance, and our salvation. Grace is our stronghold as Christians to make and keep us strong in the Lord, always dependent on our Great Physician. Self-righteousness belongs nowhere in a believer’s heart, nowhere! We need to endlessly remember how weak and frail we are without grace, and without Jesus Christ, that very thought, will keep us forever humble and needing the Lord. The write in Acts said, “For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.” Acts 17:28 Everything we are, every good thing we accomplish, every act we perform, is because of grace. It’s ok to eat with sinners, it’s ok to carry the gospel to them, it’s ok to humble yourself, because without the grace and power of God we would all be to frail and sickly to do anything. But listen to this scripture, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Philippians 4:13