Tuesday 13 June 2017

"JUDGE NOT...

...that ye be not judged!”


Who is Jesus saying this to?...the Church??   
No-one has even heard of the Church yet.           
No, this is said to His Jewish disciples while Pharisees were critically scrutinising what everyone else did.

So, whatever does Jesus mean by this?    
(Matt 7:1-5)                                             
Isn’t he saying?... “Don’t go around picking fault with other people - deal with your own faults first."
Now then... let’s see if today’s pastors are right in applying this to the Church, as many do...
Obviously the Christians in Thessalonica needed this reminder:
“...do your own business, and to
work with your
own hands”. 
Yup, mind your own business, guys - which agrees with: ‘judge not’.
However...the early Church was also taught to maintain discipline: “put away from among yourselves that wicked person”. There was even instruction to ‘have no company’ with those who were idle ‘busy-bodies’.

So where does that leave pastors who use Christ’s ‘Sermon on the Mount’ to skip Church discipline so as to keep their congregation full? 
“Church discipline?...what’s that??”                                                        
Are they undermining our Lord's instructions thru apostle Paul to the Church? Is it any wonder that apostasy is rampant in the Church and increasing?

The early Church was not a free-for-all like today – oh no!...                   
“...of the rest [of the people] durst no man join himself to them; but the people magnified them.”

Church discipline was respected by all – even unbelievers!!

Wednesday 7 June 2017

AUDIENCE of ONE


Up on a mountain, Jesus is teaching His disciples...(Matt 6)                                          
What a light-bulb moment this should have been for them!...to learn that God in heaven is their Father: vitally interested in how they give, how they pray and even how they fast!

The audience of One: the Father

So how much will they trust their heavenly Father to provide for them?                        
Jesus sees them as: ‘O ye of little faith’
Guys, don’t you realize?... Just as:
  • The birds...your heavenly Father feedeth them
  • God so clothes the grass of the field”, so also...
  • “The Father shall reward thee openly...

Does the Almighty God of the universe have the resources?                                      
“For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever!”                            
(Compare the reverence of the Lord’s Prayer with today’s ‘worship bands’)

Let’s not forget... Ye cannot serve God and mammon! (wealth)                       
(Compare this with the money-making schemes of today’s churches)

What about you and I?... are we seeking first the kingdom of God?
Remember...
“Without faith it is impossible to please... God”  

Oh and by the way... did you know?... some modern translations leave out fasting wherever possible. What a disaster if we miss a feed!

NEXT: 
http://guvsdesk.blogspot.com.au/2017/06/judge-not.html