When someone insults us for quoting scripture, or corrects us, take it because he was insulted long before you. He says if your enemy slaps you on the cheek go on a give them the other cheek with boldness. Look them in the eye when you do it. My dad gave me great advice when I was younger about those that didn't like me. "Prove them wrong about you with the way you live your life. That just pisses people off that they were wrong, and that it doesn't matter to you that they are not in your life. You don't even have to say anything, and it makes them madder." He still tells me this. God gives us the strength to endure our enemies. Remember enemies could be sitting in the pew next to you that don't accept the truth of Christ. They are anti-Christ. That could be you.
You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: 8 “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’” JESUS - Matthew 15:7-9
We honor him, say we love him, he tells us NO, and we say "whatever that's not what you meant." How many times have we told our children no, and they still do it. It is the same thing, but we are supposed to be adults that love Jesus. How many times have we told someone no, they keep pushing, and then we do it for the wrong reasons. We just have been manipulated by someone that professes to love Christ. That is what you did to someone, because you wanted your way without any regard to the other person. We just damaged a part of their soul for us to gain control, and then we say that wasn't our intention. What was the intention to get your way, or that they were saying no for a good reason? God detests it with a passion.
18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Matthew 22:18
God never said to remove the word no from your vocabulary, be politically correct, or tolerant. If it causes us to sin we just have blasphemed the Holy Spirit. We have just hurt our best friend in the entire world. Be careful, be aware and train you mind to say "would God want me to do this?" He says for us to fear him; his jealousy, his wrath, and his anger. He has the control to throw us to hell or heaven. What we do on this earth is how we get in. We are to fear him not men or women that we have relationships with.
One of the things about my life that I am grateful for is that I was not raised in the church. Not all churches are bad, but if you were raised in a church that did not teach every word of the bible you have been deceived. My husband and I joke that we wonder if people that prayed me to find Christ are annoyed now that they didn't realize I would actually read scripture to find out what it really meant.
We are fools as Christians if we do not seek his wisdom, truth and instruction for the living word. If you become angry, offended or feel wronged by a christian telling you the truth from the word of God then you don't understand his words. It is on you not the person that told you truth. They always say make check lists about your goodness to build your self-esteem, well why don't we ever make checklists for our sins? We have been taught by men and women that we will not be told by Jesus what we have done wrong. Imagine Jesus sitting in your living room, and telling the truth about your thoughts and what is on your hearts. Telling us what we are really like.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 1:7
I got up this morning and thought about every sin I committed yesterday. I cussed like a sailor, yelled at my kids, and lost my patience quite a few times. I called our congress and our president idiots on quite a few occasions. Guess what - my little boys called me out it. That is what I get for telling them not do those things. It sure did backfire on me, and told them they were right "mommy, was wrong." They are innocent and pure still - THANK GOD. That is why children are so precious to God. They tell us the truth.
I could throw a whole list of churches that teach false doctrine, but I will only give you one; Lakewood Church. Joel Osteen is a great example of a false teacher of Christ. Huge mega following of the prosperity, and social gospel. He teaches that Christ wants to fulfill all you dreams, ambitions, forgive you for everything without ever giving up anything about yourself, and never tells you no. He is a "feel good" pastor about your sin. It is a "seeker" friendly church that people run to because it makes them feel good. We don't like facing our hearts, or what we really do wrong. That will be a big problem for us when go home to him trying explain why we disobeyed him, and thought our way was right. He will ask why you continually submitted yourselves to being deceived. He will even ask those that don't even believe him, because he said he said he would.
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8 For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites,[a] and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. Paul - Romans 16:18
Whatever he said is wrong is wrong. Whatever said is right is right. Now deal with it. Face it head on, because we need him desperately to live. He is the living water that will sustain you. JESUS will hurt your feelings if you are wrong, because he loves you more than than the world. HE IS THE TRUTH, and he will call us out on it. Below is a great definition of what it means to be a christian
"If anyone wishes to come after Me, you want to come to Me, you want to receive My message, you want to follow Me, here's what you're going to have to do. Let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me." That, friends, is a total takeover of one's life. It's the end of you I mean, you can be saved, you're not adding Jesus to your life, you just lost your life. You're not having Jesus come along and fix up your dreams and fulfill your ambitions, you just said no to your dreams and your ambitions and yes to His sovereignty. What does it mean to deny yourself? Remember when we studied that text and I told you, to deny yourself the Word, deny...it means to refuse to associate with? Oh, you want to follow Jesus, do you, then the first requirement is you refuse to associate with the person you are any longer. You just died. Paul says, "For me to live is...what?...is Christ...is Christ." I'm crucified with Christ. I died with Him there, I don't have a life of my own, I don't have a will of my own, I don't have a plan of my own. I don't have an ambition of my own, my ambition is to be pleasing to Him. It's the end of you." John MacArthur - A Certain Cure for Hypocrisy
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There were the Pharisees and there were the disciples. For the disciples it said something. They had already committed themselves to Christ. But just because you're committed to Christ doesn't mean you don't struggle with hypocrisy. The message to them was be real, be genuine, be truly spiritual and truly righteous in your giving, your relation to others, your praying, your relationship to God as if you could fool Him. And your fasting, your relationship to yourself. Be real. Don't be a phony. Don't ever fall prey to that.
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