Am I correct in saying this?
Am I correct in saying this?
Jesus said that if we are to be His disciple we must deny ourselves, take up our cross of deferred gratification, and follow Him wherever He goes.
Is this what is being preached today?
Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.
Is this the experience of Christian people today?
I tell our congregation, "Always ask Jesus if you are where you are supposed to be, and doing what you are supposed to be doing. Ask Him this several times a day.
If you feel He is saying 'No', then ask Him to put you where you belong and help you do what it is He wants you to do."
This attitude of obeying Christ all the time in every circumstance is absolutely necessary if you hope to "see" Him today. Just going to church, although important, is not nearly enough to please Christ.
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. (John 14:20)
When you see Jesus; when you are living by His Life; on that Day you will know beyond all doubt that Christ is in His Father, you are in Christ, and Christ is in you.
What a marvelous experience this is! I believe for most of us it has been reserved for these last days.
What is this about the Father!
You know, I think it is because of the mischievous doctrine of the Trinity that we do not realize that Christ came to bring us to the Father. Maybe we do not even realize that there is a Father who is not the same as Christ. How unfortunate!
Jesus said in the Gospel of John, "I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God."
The Father is the Father and God of the Lord Jesus. He also is our Father and our God.
In these closing days of the Church Era, the Father will become more widely known. Jesus came to earth to bring us to the Father. No person comes to the Father except through the Lord Jesus.
When we get saved we become acquainted with the Savior.
In "Pentecost" we become acquainted with the Spirit of God.
Now, during the spiritual fulfillment of the Jewish feast of Tabernacles, we are becoming acquainted with the Father.
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
Honestly, I do not believe many of us realize that we are in Christ and He is in us.
We celebrate Christmas and Easter. Many believe that Christ is with us and helps us when we pray. But how many realize that Christ has been born in us and is being formed in us. To how many Christians is this a real experience?
As far as realizing that Christ is in His Father, the doctrine of the Trinity hastens to explain to us that this is just Christ's way of talking. He actually is the Father, not just in the Father.
Such doctrinal confusion. And so unnecessary.
Jesus will reveal the Father to you if you ask Him. Why don't you do that right this minute!
Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them. (John 14:21)
Now I ask you, if we had not been brainwashed by well meaning, theologians, would we not think from the above that the Father and Jesus are two Persons?
There is another thought here.
The doctrine of lawless grace informs us that we do not have to keep the commands of Christ, and that is fine because we are "saved by grace," meaning that no matter how we behave, we will have an eternal mansion in Heaven.
People, we ought to know better than this. The Bible used to be called the "Good Book" because it taught people how to please God by being good.
Now the Bible is called the "Grace Book," because it teaches people how to please God without being good.
Anyone with a brain or two would predict that if you teach people they can go to Heaven by grace, apart from righteous behavior, they will continue to behave unrighteously.
The truth is, to continue in unrighteous behavior is to not be saved, because being saved means that Christ is helping us change from a sinful person to a righteous person. That is what salvation is. We are saved from sinful behavior!
I don't believe people understand that today.
The Lord Jesus said if we keep His commands He would show Himself to us. I think we ought to take Him up on this.
Jesus replied, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them." (John 14:23)
Again we note that we prove our love to Christ by obeying His teaching. To say we love Christ, and do not do what He says, is ridiculous.
Also we see that Christ and the Father are two different People.
I think that the passage above is one of the greatest in the entire Bible. The Spirit of God already is in us. Now Christ and the Father are dwelling in us. But we have to get off the throne of our personality, because They are not going to share the throne with us, until maybe later when we can be trusted to obey Christ completely.
I am persuaded, that while a few intense Christian people in time past might have pressed forward to the Fullness of God, it is just now that the Spirit is pressing us to take advantage of this promise.
The coming of God to us now to prepare us for the coming of Christ in the clouds with His saints and angels, probably is the greatest mystery of our day.
And then there is the "rest" of God, set forth in the Book of Hebrews as our goal, our land of promise.
The rest of God is that state of being in which we always are aware of the will of God for us, and have received the strength, wisdom, and the desire to do God's will at all times, completely and cheerfully.
Perhaps the rest of God could not be considered a mystery, but I have never heard it preached. It probably has been preached and taught in many places.
In any case, we have to be living in the rest of God, having pressed through to the "new creation," if we expect to be made alive when the Lord Jesus returns.
We are in the beginning of the Day of Redemption.
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:13,14)
Who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. (I Peter 1:5)