Category: the Christian life

How are you treating Jesus? Are you in bondage?

~ Sherry ~ 5 Comments

People will say they have Christian liberty to celebrate this abominable man-made “holy” day, the Christ Mass. But that means they would make Paul say it is OK to christianize paganism! The very same tree-in-house yule tide season celebration stems from its root of Babylonian false messiah worship that pre-dated Christ’s incarnation. The Israelites were judged for worshiping God in the same manner as the heathen did their gods and Paul, knowing this, would never condone we do the same as they did! Why do we lower Christ down to the same status as the false gods by putting His birth on their birth date? God is to be treated as holy, set apart, unlike the worldly heathen.

How many Christians say that they know of the pagan roots of Christ Mass then go headlong into its celebration never minding how God hates it and that they are disobeying His Word from the Jerusalem Council?! It is fornication to Him! This is not a matter of Christian liberty but of obedience. How can one worship God through disobedience? The only ones who want to kick against the goads on this issue are those who worship the season more than God. I challenge my brothers and sisters to not celebrate the pagan/papist/traditions of men even once to be sure it is not a thing they are in bondage to or compelled by men to celebrate.

Christ’s birth was and is crucial. It’s the incarnation, the one-time only and only unique birth event, which the angels were celebrating. Salvation has come to the world! \o/ Did you know that the Jews of Jesus’ day did not celebrate birthdays? Not even bar/bat mitzvahs (those are new innovations)! That is why we do not see any apostle celebrating the birthday of Christ Jesus. But the Jewish-pagans of His day did celebrate birthdays – Herod was of Judaism, but he was also enamored with the Roman culture as evidenced in the celebrating of his birthday. He was a Jew in name only. He was also an Idumean, aka, an Edomite, with that wicked Haman in his ancestry.

Has the Christ Mass celebration been changed from pagan to Christian lawfully? No. We do not see anywhere in Scripture where God has said to steer clear of paganism until a certain amount of time has passed. This pre-Christ yule-tide season where the decorated tree-in-house tradition comes from is, in our day, a celebration of pagan Wiccans who adopted the holiday from the sun worshiping Druids. We are to keep from even the appearance of evil, yet we look just like the Wiccans when we practice their decorated tree-in-house tradition. Putting Christ’s name on that which God hates is an evil we need to beware of if we love Christ Jesus. God warned the Israelites not to worship Him in the same manner as the heathen do their gods and we do not see a lifting of that command in the New Testament but instead see what the pagans did with their books in Acts 19:19. Its what we must do with our christo-pagan traditions and things. Hard to do? Yes! And yet easy when you love the Lord Jesus Christ and want to please Him in all of your ways.

It’s a huge error to say that the Incarnation is the Christ Mass story. It is not and never has been except it being forced upon Christ by men. I’m glad I can daily sing praises to God for sending us His Son and need no special day to reflect on it and celebrate it. And, what a burden removed by not having to observe the day as the heathen do with decorated trees and home. Set free from having to buy gifts, too. I’m also grateful that God opened my eyes to the lies of this season so that I can now worship Him in spirit and in truth.

May God open the eyes of His children and call them out of this iniquitous tradition of men/pagan/papist practice into a pure worship of Him in spirit and in truth, amen!

“In keeping, after a religious sort, a day that has no authority but man’s, we are paying homage to that authority; we are bowing down, in the very act of our observance of the day as part of worship, not to Christ, who has not appointed it, but to the Church, which has. We are keeping the season holy, not to God, but to man.” ~ from the book, The Church of Christ by James Bannerman

“WE are not redeemers. WE can’t change evil to good.” Terri W~

Evil Minglings

~ Sherry ~ Leave a comment

The mingling of that which is of God with that which is of man is a special form of evil, and a very effectual engine, in Satan’s hand, for marring the testimony of Christ on the earth. This mingling may frequently wear the appearance of something very desirable; it may often look like a wider promulgation of that which is of God—a fuller and a more vigorous outgoing of a divine influence—a something to be rejoiced in rather than to be deplored: but our judgment as to this will depend entirely upon the point of view from which we contemplate it. If we look at it in the light of God’s presence, we cannot possibly imagine that an advantage is gained when the people of God mingle themselves with the children of this world, or when the truth of God is corrupted by human admixture. Such is not the divine method of promulgating truth, or of advancing the interests of those who ought to occupy the place of witnesses for Him on the earth. Separation from all evil is God’s principle; and this principle can never be infringed without serious damage to the truth. …Satan’s first effort was to frustrate God’s purpose by putting the holy seed to death; and when that failed, he sought to gain his end by corrupting it.

—C. H. Mackintosh , Notes on Genesis

Cognitive Dissonance

~ Sherry ~ 3 Comments

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This is why we must pray for God to reveal to us all the lies we have believed as truth and all the truth that we are regarding as lies.

Be True to the Command of Our Lord and Master

~ Sherry ~ Leave a comment

“If you love Me, keep My commandments. – John 14:15

We must not talk about our fellowship with Christ, or our being separated from the world unto Him, unless we make Him our Master and Lord in everything. Some public teachers are not true at all points to their convictions, and how can they look for a blessing? A Christian man, anxious to be useful, ought to be very particular as to every point of obedience to his Master. I have no doubt whatever that God blesses our churches even when they are very faulty, for His mercy endureth for ever. When there is a measure of error in the teaching, and a measure of mistake in the practice, He may still vouchsafe to use the ministry, for He is very gracious. But a large measure of blessing must necessarily be withheld from all teaching which is knowingly or glaringly faulty. God can set His seal upon the truth that is in it, but He cannot set His seal upon the error that is in it.

The Lord is very gracious and pitiful; but yet He is a jealous God. He is sometimes sternly jealous towards His people who are living in neglects of known duty, or in associations which are not clean in His sight. He will wither their work, weaken their strength, and humble them until at last they say, “My Lord, I will take Thy way after all. I will do what Thou biddest me to do, for else Thou wilt not accept me.” The Lord said to His disciples, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature: he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved;” and He promised them that signs should follow, and so they did follow them, and so they will. But we must get back to apostolic practice and to apostolic teaching: we must lay aside the commandments of men and the whimseys of our own brains, and we must do what Christ tells us, as Christ tells us, and because Christ tells us. Definitely and distinctly, we must take the place of servants; and if we will not do that, we cannot expect our Lord to work with us and by us. Let us be determined that, as true as the needle is to the pole, so true will we be, as far as our light goes, to the command of our Lord and Master. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1906.cfm

2 Corinthians 7:1

~ Sherry ~ 1 Comment

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The Familiarity of Daily Sight Lowers the Dignity of the Divine

~ Sherry ~ Leave a comment

From this article:

But whilst not a few of the Christians were beginning to adopt some of the trivial rites of paganism, they continued firmly to protest against its more flagrant corruptions. They did not hesitate to assail its gross idolatry with bold and biting sarcasms. “Stone, or wood, or silver,” said they, “becomes a god when man chooses that it should, and dedicates it to that end. With how much more truth do dumb animals, such as mice, swallows, and kites, judge of your gods? They know that your gods feel nothing; they gnaw them, they trample and sit on them; and if you did not drive them away, they would make their nests in the very mouth of your deity.” [319:1] The Church of the first three centuries rejected the use of images in worship, and no pictorial representations of the Saviour were to be found even in the dwellings of the Christians. They conceived that such visible memorials could convey no idea whatever of the ineffable glory of the Son of God; and they held that it is the duty of His servants to foster a spirit of devotion, not by the contemplation of His material form, but by meditating on His holy and divine attributes as they are exhibited in creation, providence, and redemption. So anxious were they to avoid even the appearance of anything like image-worship, that when they wished to mark articles of dress or furniture with an index of their religious profession, they employed the likeness of an anchor, or a dove, or a lamb, or a cross, or some other object of an emblematical character. [319:2] “We must not,” said they, “cling to the sensuous but rise to the spiritual. The familiarity of daily sight lowers the dignity of the divine, and to pretend to worship a spiritual essence through earthly matter, is to degrade that essence to the world of sense.” [319:3] Even so late as the beginning of the fourth century the practice of displaying paintings in places of worship was prohibited by ecclesiastical authority. A canon which bears upon this subject, and which was enacted by the Council of Elvira held about A.D.305, is more creditable to the pious zeal than to the literary ability of the assembled fathers. “We must not,” said they, “have pictures in the church, lest that which is worshipped and adored be painted on the walls.” [320:1]

Ten Things Christians Will Not Do

~ Sherry ~ 6 Comments

1. Christians will not boast in their religion because they exchanged it for an eternal relationship with Christ (Heb. 13:5).

2. Christians will not receive the Eucharistic Christ because we received the true Christ at conversion and now live in permanent union with Him (Rom. 6:5).

3. Christians will not confess to an earthly priest because we have a perfect High Priest in heaven (Heb. 4:14-15).

4. Christians will not submit to the pope as head of the church, because Jesus is our Head (Eph. 5:23).

5. Christians will not follow unbiblical traditions of men because we have a more sure word (2 Tim. 3:16-17; 2 Pet. 1:19).

6. Christians will not earn indulgences for the remission of sin because Jesus paid the eternal sin debt with His perfect and sufficient sacrifice (Heb. 7:27; 9:12).

7. Christians will not participate in the ongoing sin-offering of the Eucharistic Christ on an altar because Jesus finished the work of our redemption (John 19:30).

8. Christians will not pray to Mary and the Saints because Jesus is the one mediator to God and He has given us access to Him (1 Tim. 2:5; Heb. 4:16).

9. Christians will not have unity with Roman Catholics because we have been sanctified by the truth and will not be unequally yoked with unbelievers (2 Cor. 6:14-18; John 17:3).

10. Christians will not bow down to Catholic statues, icons and the Eucharist because it is the sin of idolatry (1 Cor. 10:14).

hattip: Dan Allnut

Evangelicals and Catholics Together

~ Sherry ~ 9 Comments