by MIMADMIN | Jan 2, 2023 | Uncategorized
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal” Matthew 6:19-20 The idea that God wants your love to be altruistic constitutes a third lie. Altruism teaches that people are good with no anticipation or desire for personal gain. This is such a pernicious and insidious lie that I invite you to review it with me. Hope always entails personal gain. You always hope in the direction of what you consider to be in your interest. This means that hope and altruism are mutually exclusive. You can only be altruistic to the degree that you are void of hope. Those who believe that people should be altruistic repudiate the role of hope in motivating people to do what God calls good. However, God created all people in such a way that they are motivated by hope. Altruism insists that people learn to be motivated contrary to the way God made them. Their premise: our job is to educate people in such a way as to correct the mistake God made when He created man. All biblical commands assume that people are motivated by hope. You obey God because you wish to avoid the consequences of His displeasure, and anticipate His rewarding you for your obedience. You do not earn God’s favor by your faithfulness, but God, knowing that He created you with a desire for gain, motivates you by promising eternal rewards for...
by MIMADMIN | Dec 19, 2022 | Uncategorized
“For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” Romans 8:24-25 You can be certain of the future. I cannot tell you that you will certainly die someday. All I can tell you is that you should count on it. People want to be certain that they are saved. Some philosophers say that you cannot be certain of anything, that even your existence is questionable. Assuming that most people do not doubt their existence, I am talking about not being certain of the future. We use the word “know” in at least four different ways: 1) Intimacy – Adam knew Eve and they had a son; 2) Information – Do you know where I placed the car keys? 3) Assurance – I know that the kidney operation will be a success. 4) Certainty – I know that I am talking with you. Paul notes in Romans 8 “we are saved by hope.” By definition, hope is future anticipation. For example, you do not say, “I hope I am alive right now.” Rather, you say, “I hope for a long life” – assuming you wish to live a long life. Certainty is an expression of arrogance. It is a desire to be control. You are not in control; you never have been and you never will be. A proper relationship with God necessitates your understanding of...
by MIMADMIN | Dec 5, 2022 | Uncategorized
“Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgement: because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no phobia in love; but perfect love casteth out phobia: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” 1 John 4:17-18 The idea that God does not want you to fear Him is a lie. As you know, there can be no accountability without phobia. Men do not want to fear God because they wish to avoid being accountable to God; they want to believe that grace eliminates accountability. To convince themselves they quote this verse from the Apostle John’s first epistle. If you are convinced that this passage teaches that God does not ant you to fear Him, why did Jesus teach, “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell?”1 It seems you will have to conclude that John corrected a misperception Jesus had, or that the Savior was talking about a different dispensation of time, which no longer applies in this dispensation of grace – and this in turn means that the content of all four gospels are suspect. The context of 1 John 4 deals with Judgement. To the degree that we love God perfectly, we have nothing to fear when He judges us. The passage does not teach that God’s perfect love for us removes our need to fear Him, but rather our perfect love of Him casts out...
by MIMADMIN | Oct 24, 2022 | Uncategorized
“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you!” Luke 6:46 Most unbelief flows from a love of passion more than virtue. Unbelief is willful; a person can believe whatever he wants to believe. Rarely, if ever, do I find a man rejecting the gospel for intellectual reasons. It is almost always related to the moral restrictions entailed in following Christ. Throughout Scripture we are reminded that God will only relate to people on His terms. Most Christians do not believe this, convinced that they – not God – determine the parameters of the relationship. This seems to prove acceptable to the rest of the Christian community as long as egregious sins are either avoided or hidden from sight. When, however, their willfulness becomes public, they simply say that they no longer believe. This ostensibly makes them acceptable to the church, and they think that if/when the time comes they wish to “return” to Christ, they are free to do so. Meanwhile, from their perception they have the best of all possible choices. Sexual sins is where you most often see this expressed, for sex is the strongest appetite upon which the Bible places...
by MIMADMIN | Oct 11, 2022 | Uncategorized
“Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth,” Proverbs 27:1 Few things in life are as silly as people saying what they will do in the future. Both Testaments call attention to such foolishness, James warns “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and get gain’; whereas you do not know about tomorrow. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”1 When you assume you control your future you endeavor to remove God from His own world. When sharing the gospel with people they will often say they are not ready; they will invite Christ into their lives when they are ready. It reminds me of Felix’s response to the Apostle Paul; “Go thy way for this time; and when I have convenient season, I will call thee unto me.”2 People do not come to God when are ready; they only come when He moves in their hearts to come to Him. Those who think otherwise run the risk of slipping into eternity without knowing Him. As Jesus said, “And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry,’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose they will be?'”3 You are never more secure than when you realize you do not control the future and you trust...
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