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Showing posts from 2011

Worldly Christmas

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When December comes you can’t help but enter a mall or department store and take a look inside. They got lots of glittering things that make their merchandise look more appealing and attuned to the Season. Why do we find ourselves more prone to buy at Christmas time? Because some smart aleck said that Christmas is a time for giving gifts. And I’m sure that aleck was a big businessman. And a smarter aleck said Christmas was Jesus’ birthday and all Christians should celebrate Christmas. But I don’t know how to reconcile my Jesus with a worldly Christmas. Then the unthinking churches followed suit. They re-echoed the smart alecks and confirmed that, yes, Christmas was Jesus’ birthday and being so we had to give each other gifts. And these churches even bought Christmas lights (how do you connect the lights to Jesus? The star from the east?) and Christmas trees and little reindeers and Santa Clauses they hanged on the trees. The church gave their share in spreading a paganistic world

The True Sabbath

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Thousands of years after my Jesus radically demonstrated what Sabbath meant (or demonstrated how to break it) church people still have funny ideas about it. They still reek of Pharisaical religiosity while they all claim thorough understanding and expertise on the subject. What’s the true Sabbath? One born again, after discussing the matter with an Adventist, asked me why Christians decided to turn Sabbath into a Sunday affair, obviously confused. She looked convinced that Sabbath ought to be observed on Saturdays because that’s how the Jews observed it in the Old Testament. I asked her why she didn’t see how Jesus broke it in the New Testament. Why see the Jews and not Jesus? Jesus was the one who died for us. Then sometime in the recent past, some church leaders told us that the only way to observe Sabbath was to do nothing else but to go to church on Sundays. Thus, church people spend all Sunday in their church buildings from morning till evening. That way, you fulfill

Artificial Testimonies

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Artificial testimonies--it's amazing how people can twist things and then believe in them. I've heard lots of phony testimonies like that, nice sounding, very spiritual, but in the end you'd see how things had actually been twisted around to sound good, and then believed by the testifier as real. How did I know that they were phony? Wasn't I just being too judgmental about them?  It's easy--just be sharp spiritually and you'd see that they are artificial testimonies. Jesus gave us the hint--you will know them by their fruit. They say a lot of nice things happening to them spiritually, how they're growing in their spiritual lives, how they heard God tell them this and that, and how they spend much time with the Lord. But later you see how they really live and behave and react and think, and you'd know that everything they said were just artificial testimonies. It isn't just a one-time slip into error or misbehavior. You'd see that it

Hebrews 8: A New Covenant with God's Law

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The superior church ministry of Jesus--which is based in heaven and totally free of anything man-made--is premised on a new covenant. If you don't have this covenant with God then you are not in the Jesus ministry and if you're not in the Jesus ministry which is heaven-based (not earth-based) you are not in covenant with God. It's as simple as that. If you're not faithful to God's covenant, he "turns away" from you [Hebrews 8.9]. And many Christians, even those active in church, do not realize this. You have to be found faithful to God through his new covenant. And the new covenant has a lot to do with God's law. And here's the problem--many churches teach that because you have received salvation by grace and not by works of the law, you can relax on the law. Thus, you find many Christians weak in the Old Testament, especially on the Law.  Worse, I even see Christians ignorant of the New Testament. They're just kept busy in church.

Hebrews 8: The Superior Church Ministry

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It's the superior church ministry. The only true church recognized in heaven is the Glorious Church of Jesus Christ, without spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. It has a high Priest--Jesus, of the Melchizedek Order. He serves in the sanctuary of the true tabernacle (or church) set up by God himself, and nothing in it is man-made--because anything man-made is collapsing, especially in our time. If you're not a member of this church, you're nothing, zero, pffft! All your church accomplishments are garbage. Jesus ministers in a sanctuary in heaven which the Father Himself has set up. You should be in this church. We all should be oriented in the spiritual set up of this church. Our mindset should have nothing but the mindset of this church ministry--the superior church ministry. And this church should be the one you're attending now, in this life, in this world. Remember?--"Your will be done on earth as in heaven." If the church you're attending

No Fruit Equals Hell

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It's really all so simple, but man's theologies and doctrines complicate it to powerlessness and uselessness. Salvation is really this: No fruit equals hell.  Here's how my Jesus put it: "Unless you (really) change--the change that's very radical that you almost turn into a child--you'll go to hell (or never enter God's Kingdom)." Another time, he put it this way: "You will know the genuine from the fake by their fruit." No fruit equals hell. Many churches only emphasize the "accepting Jesus" part and make it sound like bearing fruit is secondary or worse, optional. They stress that it's all by grace, as if bearing fruit and radical change are not by grace alone. You can never really change and bear fruit unless by God's enabling grace. They also maintain that we are only human and God understands our propensity to sin. They've been making "sound doctrines" out of these garbage so that more soul

True Holiness Gauge

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It's easy to seclude yourself in church ministries and not get involved in the world and "live holy." That was the idea of monasteries where monks lived in mountain seclusion far away from civilization. And they indeed assumed an appearance of holiness. But that's not the true gauge of holiness. I've seen believers and pastors who looked okay while engrossed in church ministries but went wild with sin when exposed to the real world. Some drowned in greed, others wallowed in lust, fornication, adultery, and other forms of sexual immorality. They didn't have the heart to manage things in the world even while soaked in church ministries. Church attendance or ministries cannot empower you to overcome the world. They just incubate sin, nourishing and growing it in a quiet environment waiting for the right time to explode like a time bomb. In fact, the church as it is today (the church put up by men for men) is in no position to handle money the way the A

No Genuine Righteousness NO Genuine God-Power

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I'm astonished at how most "believers" don't get it--that if there's no genuine righteousness, there's no genuine God-power. No matter how well you perform on church stage, how well you lead in worship, how well you lead the church, and how big your church building, membership, or church income is, if you don't have genuine righteousness--the kind that Jesus has and gives--you have no genuine God-power, you got nothing but trash. Paul said God's Kingdom is not a matter of talk. It's all about power, real power. Not the political leverage you see a lot of church people use to influence other people. It's not how you see church pastors and leaders allying with political figures to gain political influence. It's genuine Kingdom GOD-power. And you can't have any of it if you have no genuine righteousness.  Despite this obvious fact in the bible, you still see a lot of fake pastors, preachers, and church leaders living in sin and

Acts Church: "None Among Them was in Need"

Whenever I open my bible and pass through the book of Acts, I often come across this powerful phrase: None among them (those connected with the Acts church) was in need." Powerful! I often stop and look afar and reflect, and then God opens my mind and the Acts church suddenly appears right before me, as it were . God often does that when we talk. God is not a liar. When he says "none" or "no one" in the Acts church was in need, he means it. You can count on it. Unlike today, you hear of church members who go bankrupt or jobless, or who are starving, or who are sick and do not have the means to seek a doctor and all the church could do is "pray" for them. And then they justify that by saying prayer is powerful and its the best help anyone can have.  Jesus did pray a lot, but he didn't just pray for everyone. He fed multitudes and healed all the sick (and I mean all) and produced money when needed. So did the Acts church. They didn't

Sheep Amid Wolves In Sheep's Clothing

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Living as sheep amid wolves is nothing. Well, there can be lots of pressures but it's easy to see where to go, where to seek refuge. But when sheep live amid wolves in sheep's clothing, it's a different matter altogether. You got to stay spiritually extra sharp. Wolves in sheep's clothing are dangerous. They really seem allies in Christ. They help you build the church. They sound and look so, so spiritual. But they have this one trait that few see: they sometimes take off the sheep's clothing when nobody's around--or so they think. If you have God's eyes--and God sees everything; in fact nothing can be hidden from his eyes--then you easily spot wolves leaving the crowd to go somewhere secret to change clothes for a while.  You see, wolves are never really comfy in sheep's clothing. They get used to wearing it, but there's some sort of an expiry date or time when they need to take it off to let their natural skin breathe--or else the skin g

Daniel: Undefiled by the King's Food

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The king's food was choice food. It was the best in the land--the best meats and excellent wine. Imagine the greatest king in the world then--Nebuchadnezzar--offering you his best Kingdom Dining Hall menus. But Daniel and his friends would have none of it. He kept himself undefiled by the king's food. What was wrong with the king's food? The key is in the word undefiled . The Word says, "But Daniel strongly determined not to be defiled by royal food and wine," {Dan.1.8]. "Defile" in the bible denotes spiritual contamination, so I imagine that the royal food was first offered to Babylonian gods before being served on the royal table. Daniel didn't want that, no matter how delicious or healthy it may had been.  Food the World Offers This story is so timely and relevant. The world, in these last days, is offering us the best food, in fact, royal food, the best the world and the devil can offer. And so many churches partake of it, enjoying th

Fathering Your Family

I had written a blog here on True Fathers in Church and I thought of adding another blog on how to father your own family. Again, most fathers in church know nothing about fathering their families because all they know is on becoming a biological father. Most churches do not know anything about how fathers ought to father their families in the spiritual realms. Fathers are spiritual entry or exit points to their families. The devil cannot do anything to harm your family except what you, the father, allows him to. And your power to block the enemy's entry depends on the strength of your connection to the Father in heaven. Unless you tie up the strong man, you cannot (gain entry and) rob his house. Fathers are strong men--or at least they're supposed to be.  John said in his first letter (chapter 2): "I write to you fathers because you know God who is from the beginning." If you have such strong connections with the Father, then everything else follows---children

Micah: God’s People—God’s Enemy

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Micah warned God’s people about God’s plan. We often think pleasantly about God’s plan. We claim to desire it so badly. But if we do things contrary to His ways, God’s plan will work against us. In fact, God plans destruction, not LIFE, once we go against His ways. “My Word does good to those whose ways are upright, right?” (Micah 2.7). God’s ways alone in Scripture are upright. All others, like denominationalism, are against His ways. Jesus desires all true believers to be completely united. How complete? As the Father and Son are one (Jn.17). Denominationalism works contrary to this. Their Own Power When God’s people work contrary to His ways, they become God’s enemies. “Lately, my people have risen up like an enemy,” (Micah 2.8) Why? Because they plan evil and carry it out in their own power (Micah 2.1). It happens automatically—you use your own ways, you use your own power. Human effort is zero in the spiritual realms. Everything has to be done in the power of th

Jehu Overkill: What Made Him Do It?

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Jehu king of Israel obeyed the Word the Lord had spoken against the house of Ahab, said to be the worst king of Israel when Jehu was yet the king's chariot driver. Ahab's marriage to Jezebel had linked Israel to Baal worship and led to the downfall of Ahab. Jehu was anointed to eliminate everything of Ahab. But not the Jehu overkill. God told Jehu to finish off Ahab's family to wipe out Baal worship in Israel. Elisha the prophet had sent a young prophet to anoint Jehu king and "destroy the house of Ahab" [2Kings 9]. He also killed all the Baal prophets of Jezebel and demolished the temple of Baal, reducing it to a mere toilet. But Jehu went further and killed even the associates and friends of Ahab. It was a disobedience. "However, Jehu did not carefully keep the law of God, Israel's God, heartily--he didn't repent from Jeroboam's sin, which the latter made the whole of Israel to commit," [10.31]. Years later God punished the house of J

Turning the World Upside Down..Again!

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In Acts 17, the radical believers of my Jesus almost turned the world upside down. Some interpreters would like to believe that they indeed turned the world upside down. Well, I think they did...in their natural Jesus-self (it was Jesus really living in them, not them anymore) the world shuddered in unbelief, perplexity, and animosity, seeing the radical and extreme life of Jesus Christ in the church. And it went like a ravenous mad dog chasing after the believers. Every time the world sees Jesus, it will react like a greedy mad dog. That's why harm and chaos come to the worldly church when it tries to "see" Jesus. We think that if worldly people see Jesus they would repent and be born again and everything would be nice and peaceful, with everybody worshiping God so beautifully. WRONG! Persecution will come. And that's how we know that God is in us and our midst, moving and turning the world upside down. When Jesus is genuinely seen in believers, right and wrong is

Regardless of Bible Version: What Matters is the LIFE

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What Matters is the LIFE in You Early in my Christian life, some guys told me that the kind of bible version I read was very important. It should be the correct  and accepted version, the accurate one, and "correct" and "accurate" to them was the King James Version. Some other guys, smarter ones, urged me to make sure that I know the Hebrew and Greek versions of the bible. I had to find out the original meanings of words to get what the bible authors really meant. Later, God told me it was regardless of bible version. What matters is that you hear HIS voice. All that is good--correct bible version and Greek and Hebrew. In fact I had some basics in Greek and Hebrew and consult them now and then. I also have my King James Version (KJV). But now, after almost 30 years in ministry, I know that they're not that important. You can live victoriously in Christ without them. In fact, sometimes, God will even rescue you from them so you can be well attuned to