The Word of Truth Ministries
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If You Love Me...
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as there are many people who think they love another person but,
in fact, do not, there are many who think they love God and obey
him and do not; they only use the label "Christian" to
take away their reproach. [Isa. 4:1]. There is a great spiritual
deception afoot in the world today--a lying spirit has gone out
into the land as in the days of the prophet Micaiah. [1 Kings 22:22:Rom.
1:21-28; 2Thess. 11-12] Some of the spiritual deception is self-deception
and some of it is simply a lying spirit that is in the world because
men have loved darkness so long they think that darkness is right.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, I have not just started walking with Christ. I have been saved some 40 years, and during that time I have been studying the word of God and observing the behavior of saints toward God's word. That observation has shown me that many Christians have ceased walking with Christ but still think, from their self-deceptive perspective, they are in Christ. The great Apostle Paul told the Corinthian Church to examine themselves to see if they are in the faith. [2 Cor. 13:5] The implication of such a statement and command is that many may think or assume they are in the faith but are not at all saved. And that implication is, in fact, the condition of many--assuming they are saved yet their lives and the word of God belie such assumptions. Many Christians who were once saved and burning with the love of God no longer care that they are unsaved and displeasing to God--their cares are carnal and their appetites are worldly! They want things worldly people want; they do things worldly people do. That is not a taste acquired from God. Nor is that a behavior common to saints in light, but a behavior common to saints not in light.[ Col. 1:12] Although they won't, they need to follow the command of Paul, "Examine yourselves to see if you are in the faith." Because Paul used the marriage to talk about the church as it relates to Christ, I will use the marriage in this discussion because it is symbolic of the poor condition of the church in its present state in relations to Christ. [Eph. 5:22-33] Spiritual deception is practiced in many church/saints' marriages:. How many husbands and wives talk the talk of love, but live lives of hatred toward each other? To bite and devour one another in constant fights is not love but hatred; it is not the way marriages are supposed to be; yet many marriages are fashioned this way and have been endured for years in this abnormal condition! How tragic. This behavior is plaguing this nation as well as plaguing marriages of those of the household of faith. Don't be confused here, for I speak concerning Christ and the church. [Eph. 5:31-32] Jesus seeing this plague of duplicity and self-deception to come upon the church asked this rhetorical question, "When the son of man comes, shall he find faith in the earth?" [Luke 18:8] This question of Jesus really says that true faith will be rare and scarce among those who garb themselves in sheep's clothing. Love is a word often used but never really defined correctly. But God has defined love a certain way that has to be accepted by Christians in order for them to be Christians. But modern Christians now define love differently from God, and tell themselves and others that they are still Christians although they see things differently from Christ. They are not! These fake Christians/fake saints set their own standards rather than accept God's standard. No one can be a Christian if he/she does not accept and practice the teachings of Jesus. And to misinterpret what Christ says is to not do what he says. [Mark 7:13] This is true on just about all levels of Christianity. Many who call themselves Christians (saints who follow the correct teachings of Christ and are like him, as one does become when he/she follows the teachings of Christ) want that label, but they will not do what Christ says. How can one think himself to be a Christian and not follow the precise steps and teachings of Christ? They cannot, but by self-deception, claiming a position they do not occupy. They would displace the teachings of Christ and place their own notions of God's word. To the unlearned in God's word, the ministers of Satan assume that any teaching can be proved by God's word, so they corrupt it by their ungodly interpretations. But this foolishness cannot stand the light of day among the council of God's true ministers. The same satanic misconception and disobedience was at work in the Garden of Eden: God told Adam and Eve not to eat of the fruit of the tree in the center, lest they die. But in spite of what God said, Eve thought it a little thing of delight to displace the word of God with Satan's words. Satan told her, "You will not surely die." And she, in her moment of thoughtlessness, willingly accepted his lying words rather than the eternal truth of God. [Gen. 2 & 3] As a result of that seemingly insignificant infraction, which they rationalized, the foundations of the earth were thrown off course. [Gen. 3:13-24; Psa. 82:5] She did not regard the word of God, but despised it instead, even as Esau did not regard his birthright, thinking it insignificant and unimportant in the face of his insignificant and immediate, albeit carnal, gratification he lost the blessing of God. [Heb. 12:16] How many of us are like that today? We sin in the face of carnal gratification and rationalize it; we sin and make God or his prophet the villain because we want to do what God has said not to do--not seeing our carnality, just our desire. But the ways of a fool are right in his own eyes, and he will not take corrections because he is a fool. [Prov. 12:15] How many wives go vehemently against the wishes and desires of their husbands yet claim a love that is not demonstrated through behavior? They actually think they love their husbands because they say it often; yet they have redefined love, setting aside God's definition. Their love is some sort of feeling in the bottom of their stomachs that is spoken often--frequently they will weep, protesting against their behavior that does not show love at all, as they claim they love their husbands. How symbolic is the behavior of these ungodly and carnal wives to that of the saints not in light toward Christ. [Eph. 5] Godly defined love is not so much a feeling but an obligation, a responsibility that is carried out; it does actions toward the other person's significant well-being. [1 Cor. 13] For a godly wife, love of a husband is actually love of God. Her love is demonstrated not in words or undesired behavior but in support of that husband in every way, as God has dictated, and as the husband desires and outlines. The godly wife reverences her husband, not disrespect him, despise him, or challenge his every word and/or his very status in God. [Eph. 5] She allows her husband's values to become hers--the two are no longer two but one--she allows him to shine, instead of herself. Yet many marriages stay two, and the wife competes with her husband for the light of brilliance, even when it does not exist. But in becoming one, godly wives build and strengthen their homes. But the foolish and ungodly wife tears down her house in a vain attempt to assert her will over that of her husband's. [Prov. 14:1] Instead of supporting him, many ungodly wives just stress their husbands and literally weaken him in hope, ambition, and sometimes in godliness! This is not only ungodly, this is devilish.* I have seen wives who attack their husbands with needless stressors as soon as they walk through the door so that a man's life in wrestling needlessly against the satanic assaults heaped upon him through an uncontrolled wife. When he comes in from work, a foolish and ungodly wife who masquerades as a saved wife brings more stress to bear upon him. She is never satisfied, regardless of the good status they occupy in life or in God. She becomes the venue Satan uses to get to him; even as Eve was Adam's weakness; a foolish wife is a husband's weakness and shame, as she ignorantly asserts her carnal will atop that of her husband's. She is a woman without limits and without shame--she is as an adulterous woman who eats, wipes her mouth, and says, "I have done nothing wrong." [Prov. 30:20] The words of Jesus, however, are plain: If you love me, keep my commandments! In so saying, Christ shows us that love is more than emotions we so readily ascribe as love. Jesus says by this statement that if a person loves him, that person will obey him. This is God's criteria for love, which we know is usually not what man and so-called Christians understand as love. Many Christians have lied to themselves, to their "loved ones," and to God so long until they actually think those lies are true. They have medicated themselves in their lies so they cannot see the truth any longer. But Jesus said, If you love me, you will keep my commandment. Notice the psychology of acceptance of self-deception. When we do or say a thing long enough, regardless of what that thing is or how false it is, it tends to establish itself as being the norm, and as the norm of long standing, it sinks into invisibility and acceptability so that we do not see it as being anything but normal and our accepted custom. It is a wife who has been pregnant and has had the child but never comes back to her normal weight size; the husband has asked her to return from pregnancy back to him, but she is unwilling to do the hard work of reducing. And because the husband seemingly accepts her at this perpetual pregnancy weight size, even though she is no longer pregnant, she mistakenly thinks he is pleased with her as she is; she sees herself as pleasing her husband and feels that all things are acceptable. She cannot see the problem; it has become invisible to her. This is the status of many Christians toward God. They have been out the will of God so long they think that they are in the will and pleasing God. But God is merely long suffering. Toward the husband, the wife plays a dangerous game. Such blindness can cause that husband to look elsewhere to a woman who meets his taste in size. And he need not look far, for Satan has them all around who are ready and willing. And these other women will take a perverse pride in taking that husband from that foolish wife who has not valued him nor God's word. Of course, the example above is one that should not occur with saved souls because if a husband tells his wife she should reduce, a saved wife who loves her husband and God will do the hard work of weight reduction so that saved husband need not ever have excuse to look elsewhere. That godly wife helps that husband ward off temptations of the devil. [Eph. 5] But if that man who is saved grows wanton anyway, she is blameless because she has done all that she could and should to meet the desires of her husband. But it is a wife who is a foolish woman that thinks that such demands placed upon her by her husband are unreasonable and now that the two are married, he gets what he gets and that is it. And, after all, he is saved, he cannot cheat on me. With the current safe of unsavedness so widespread in the church, what would make one think that sexual sins would be excluded from that group of sins engaged in? I assure you they are not! A wise wife will help her husband stay saved, not enable him to go away from God. Aren't wives helpmates to husbands? Wise wives help them stay saved. Without a doubt, a husband is unsaved and outside the will of God if he goes with another woman. Matter of fact, that behavior in its abstract is ample grounds for a divorce--"except it be for fornication," Jesus said. [Mat. 5:32] But isn't a union in marriage primarily planned by God's designation so a wife would be a helpmate to her husband? The reverse is NOT truth--the man is not a helpmate to the wife, only the wife to the husband. The husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church; she helps and obeys him in all the ways he desires. [Gen.2: 18; Eph. 5:25] I am clearly aware that this teaching goes against modern society's paradigms, but I write to the church, not to them. And I challenge any bible-believing Christian to show my error in this teaching. Some years ago, I was talking to a dear sister about the worldliness of many wives, how some supposedly saved wives are wild, doing whatever they want to do regardless of the wishes of their husbands. The issue of weight came up, as many church wives no longer care to maintain figures that please their husbands; she said in all honesty of the scriptures, but in blindness to the current church realities: "All a saved husband has to do is tell his saved wife that she should reduce and a saved wife will do so because she wants to please her husband." Indeed, that is the way it should be, but that is not the reality afoot among many Church wives. The attitude of setting your own standards rather than accepting God's standard of life and love is the new and devilish paradigm in the church of God; it is exemplified most frequently in marriages. But it is a worldly standard that has come into the church; it is not a standard/paradigm God will accept, even though many self-deceived Christians tell themselves they are Christians anyway. Those who attempt to force God to accept their standards as his standards will have no success in doing so. God's ways are not our ways, neither is his thoughts our thoughts. God will only accept his ways and his definition of things. [Isa. 55:7-9] A wife who has been successful in making her husband accept her standard instead of her accepting his standard has corrupted the faith as it was never intended by God. Man was made for God's glory and pleasure; God made woman for man's glory. And a woman dishonors her husband by taking his authority, disregarding his standards and erecting her standards instead of his. She also makes a fool of herself in so dishonoring her head (her husband). The man is the head of the woman even as Christ is the head of the church! And a man should not give his strength/authority to a woman nor his ways to that which destroys a king. [Prov. 31:3; Eph. 5] What I have seen in the 40-some years of being saved is that when this corruption occurs in the home, it spreads to the body of believers as normal wifely behavior and is emulated so much that it becomes the standard in many homes. But it is contrary to God's word and his word will not take second place. Also, when we see this type of sustained corruption of God's word, many tend to think that God will approve it because so many are doing it and have been doing it so long. But God is long suffering, and we should never think that because a crowd goes by and has been going by for a long time that situation is acceptable to God. Those are false premises on which to build. Each of us must give an accounting of the deeds done in our bodies. [Rom. 14:12] After a while of continuous disobedience, God will give a saint up to self-deception and allow him/her to think all things are well with him and God. But they are not: God's word is eternally settled in heaven. [Psa. 119:89; 2 Thes. 2:10-12] God gives his people a checkup period to see if they are in the faith. He says, "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith. Prove yourselves." Certainly Paul is not only telling us that we need to examine ourselves for biblical correctness, but he implies that one can be outside the faith thinking he is in. And there are many such souls floating around the church but not in the church of God according to his word. So as many wives need to examine themselves to correctly see their standing with their husbands, many Christians need to examine themselves to see their standing with God. That commanded examination is according to the word, of God not according to some pastor's word. We have had that weakness far too long. And the cult of pastor worship has been a source of much of the sway away from God's standards--looking after some man/pastor/preacher and not God's word. The bible tells us that when we compare ourselves by ourselves and among ourselves we are not wise. God's standard is not a man or man's standard, but his holy word, which became a man. [2 Cor. 10:12] Again, God's standard is different from man's. God acknowledges that with the mouth human beings show much love, but that is not love at all. God's love has commitments, responsibilities, obligations, standards to it, action. Man's love is mouth love that is defined by and demonstrated by words. God is full with vain words! He says, "If you love me, keep my word!" Brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to stop deceiving ourselves, for it is only to ourselves we lie. God knows and sees the truth, and no man's lie or deception will be able to stand in the presence of God. [Psa. 101:7] We have gone far a field from God's word; we have tamed and muted the holiness of Christianity and brought it into the contours and winds of this world so that what we have now is not Christianity at all but a bastardized form of holiness that is a mere form without power. We need to do as we are admonished by Paul, to prove all things and hold fast to that which is good.[1 Thes. 5:21] I was saved in an Apostolic Faith Church many years ago. Since then I have seen Apostolic Faith Christians go as low as any other Christians--gross love of money, gross sexual sins, infidelities, lies, corruption, etc. You name it and Apostolic Christians are doing it. We once touted that we had the whole truth, but we are now just like all other Christians and the world-- mired in worldliness, money and mess! But God gave me the message of perfection some 30-years ago, namely that saints must not only be saved by water and spirit, but they must go on unto perfection. [Mat. 5:48; Heb. 6:103] But not onlu have we not gone on to perfection. Instead of progressing to perfection from that new birth, many have degenerated into sin after that new birth. From time to time, I receive various invitations to church functions and fellowship meetings, and always they are about money and more money. The once glorious Apostolic Faith Church that stoutly sought truth no longer loves or seeks the truth, by and large. I am ashamed of most of them. And although I get invitations, those invitations are not to speak but to give money. They would not dare allow me or some true minister of God to speak in these hollow assemblies that were once holy assemblies. They love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil and they do not want anyone to cry loud and lift up God's standard. Today, many are meshed in churches and among church members who live for today and the seasonal pleasures of sin, having lost their hope of a world to come. And we do not want to hear the hard, raw truth of God. We want smooth things, lies, and human standards to guide us. Still Jesus says, "If you love me, keep my commandment/word." ______ | |
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The Truth of God |