SCRIPTURE SUNDAY – 2 PETER

Welcome to another Scripture Sunday post. I pray that you will take some time to listen to this dramatized audio of this very important Book of the Bible, 2 Peter, as you go about your day at home, whether you are preparing or eating your meals, cleaning the room where you keep your computer, or before you turn in for the night.

God’s Word brings encouragement, guidance, correction, and comfort. But most of all, God’s Word reveals who He is to us, makes us realize our sinfulness in light of His complete holiness, and exposes false doctrines that hold us captive to lies and prevents us from seeing the truth about who Jesus Christ truly is and all that He accomplished for us through His sinless life, His once for all sacrifice on the cross which led to His death, His burial, and His glorious resurrection from the dead.

If you do not yet have the assurance of salvation because you are still trying to earn God’s forgiveness instead of simply placing your trust in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation, I pray that you would get yourself a Bible and begin to read it. I pray that you will come to the knowledge of the truth by the power of the Holy Spirit and choose to truly believe what it says and choose to fully place your trust in the good news of the Biblical gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-6), thus receiving Jesus Christ and all that He accomplished for you.

God’s Word tells us that the demons believe in God –and tremble (James 2:19). They also know who Jesus Christ is (Mark 1:24, Luke 4:34, Acts 19:15), and yet they will one day be cast into hell (Matthew 25:41). True belief acts upon it by simple faith. If you choose to truly believe what God’s Word says concerning Jesus Christ being God in human flesh, who came to this earth and lived a perfect, sinless life in order to become the spotless Lamb of God who paid the debt of your sin — and mine — in full, once for all, you will then be justified by His grace and clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ (Titus 3:4-7). Your sins will then be as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12), never to be remembered again (Isaiah 43:25). What joy you will then have if you choose to fully place your trust in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation!

The traditions of men add to the Word of God, thus nullifying it, (Mark 7:6-13) and lead many into confusion which hinders them from seeing all that Jesus Christ accomplished for them. Once someone who has been deceived has their eyes opened to the truth that can be found in God’s Word by the Spirit of God, they have the choice to continue clinging to the “Traditions” of men that offer no true hope for salvation, or to reject all that they once believed to be true, and instead choose to wholeheartedly believe the good news of the Biblical gospel. 

True forgiveness, joy, assurance, peace, and hope come through Jesus Christ alone. As a former Catholic I speak from experience. Don’t make the mistake of believing that there is a second chance after death; there is no place called “Purgatory” where you go to be purged for “temporal punishment due for sin” as the Catholic church teaches. (CCC Para 1472, 1473 – More on “purgatory” in light of Scripture at some point, Lord willing). God’s Word is very clear in Hebrews 1:3 about what Jesus Christ accomplished for us: “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” Jesus Christ sat down, clearly showing that His work of redemption had been completely accomplished.

 

Thank you very much for stopping by today.

God Bless You

~Mary/Living4HisGlory

UPDATE:

Last series of Estate Sales ended yesterday, and the closing date for our Mom and Dad’s home is October 16th. When time allows, I will be helping my family clear the house for the next couple of weeks before I can get back to writing again.

PRAISE REPORT:

This past week I received news from the woman that I previously babysat for that she would like me to once again care for her little girl, so, praise the Lord, \0/ it appears that I now have a job which will mean that I won’t have to start looking for one after the closing date! Lord willing, I should then also have some time to begin writing again! Thank you very much to those of you who may have been praying for me! ♥

SCRIPTURE SUNDAY – THE GOSPEL OF MARK

Welcome to another Scripture Sunday post. I pray that you will take some time to listen to this video of the whole Gospel of Matthew as you go about your day at home, whether you are preparing or eating your meals, cleaning the room where you keep your computer, or before you turn in for the night. God’s Word brings encouragement, guidance, correction, and comfort, but most of all, God’s Word brings truth and exposes error.

Thank you very much for stopping by.

God Bless You

~Mary/Living4HisGlory

 

“And the high priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee? But he held his peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said unto him, I am: and ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.” (Mark 14:60-62)

SCRIPTURE SUNDAY – 1 TIMOTHY

Thank you very much for stopping by. I hope that you will take the time to play the above videos so that you can hear God’s Words of truth, encouragement, and warnings as you prepare for your day, as you make dinner for yourself or your family, as you clean your  home, or as you are getting ready to turn in for the night.

UPDATE Since tomorrow is promised to no one (including me), I need to share this important message with all of you based on God’s Word, for tomorrow may never come for some of you:

Too many of us take for granted the religions freedoms that we still have in this country, and many still do not know the true Biblical gospel that proclaims that Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, willingly came to this earth to live the perfect, sinless life that we could never live, to become the Lamb of God; He bore all of our sins upon Himself and died on the cross in our place and became the perfect sacrifice to pay the debt for all of our sins in full — no matter how horrendous they may be. By believing that Jesus Christ died in your place on the cross for your sins with all of your heart, that He was buried, and that He arose bodily from the grave on the third day, and by placing your full trust in all that He did for you and no longer trusting in your own self-righteousness and good works which are like filthy rags in God’s sight (Isaiah 64:6), you then have a change of mind by letting go of faulty thinking and embracing the truth presented in the gospel message.

“Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” (Romans 10:17)

You cannot become a child of God by trying to earn His favor or by obeying the commandments; you  become a child of God born by the Spirit of God, redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, and called to live holy lives, as He is holy. (1 Peter 1:23, 1 Peter 1:14-21 )

“Therefore, no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law, rather through the law we become conscious of sin.” (Romans 3:20)

“I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (Galatians 2:21)

The Bible says:

“You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that –and shudder!” (James 2:19)

The Bible also says that the demons know who Jesus Christ is (Matthew 8:28,29, Mark 1:23, 24, Mark 5:7, Luke 5:6,7, Luke 8:28), and they will be cast into the lake of fire that was prepared for the devil and his angels — not mankind —  according to Scripture. (Matthew 25:41) Our choice concerning what we decide to believe about Jesus Christ determines our eternal destination.

Consider this sobering passage of Scripture concerning the end times and the strong delusion that will soon be coming upon the earth:

“The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs, and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.” (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12)

According to what we now see as we observe so many in the world living in open rebellion against God, and how we grieve as we watch many professing Christians embracing pagan and occultic practices, truly we must be living in the last days! Are you ready?

Belief according to the Bible, is to place one’s full trust in someone or something; to commit to; to rely fully upon. I hope you will think carefully about where you stand concerning Jesus Christ. Have you placed your trust in Him alone? Or are you trusting in the traditions of men and your particular church to save you? Are you someone who is hoping that your good works will outweigh all the bad that you have done in life when you stand before Him?

God  has provided only one way to be reconciled to Himself (John 14:6), and there is only one name under heaven by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12), and only one mediator between God and mankind (1 Timothy 2:5,6) and that only way, name, and mediator is Jesus Christ –no matter what you may have been taught! Your eternal destiny depends upon placing your trust only in all that Jesus Christ has already accomplished  for you. If you have not done so already, I pray that you will. Read God’s Word, the Bible, and pray for God to open up your understanding of His Word, since it is spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)

God Bless You

~Mary/Living4HisGlory

 

RELATED SCRIPTURES

“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depend on human tradition and the basic principles of this world  rather than on Christ.” (Colossians 2:8)

UPDATE:

Lord willing, another post in the series, FALSE TEACHER FRIDAY – LEARN TO DISCERN coming this Friday. More posts in this series coming later this year. Hoping also for enough time this week to work on finishing the next post in the series, APPARITIONS OF THE VIRGIN MARY, OR DEMONS IN DISGUISE – EXAMINING THE EVIDENCE IN LIGHT OF SCRIPTURE

COMPARING SCRIPTURES IN THE CATHOLIC NEW TESTAMENT BIBLE TO TEACHINGS FOUND IN THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH – DEAR CATHOLIC, ARE YOU GOING TO BELIEVE THE WORD OF GOD, OR THE WORD OF MAN? PART 2

SERIES INTRODUCTION

There are two very important reasons why I felt compelled to write this series of posts, and I’d like to briefly share these reasons with you now before I go any further:

1) Since I am a former Catholic who is very aware of the teachings of the Catholic Church because I attended twelve years of Catholic school, attended Catechism classes, made my First Holy Communion, was Confirmed, and faithfully attended Mass not only every Sunday for many years, but also before school began for three years (as required by the school that I attended at the time),  and who came to the knowledge of who Jesus Christ truly is and what He actually accomplished for us by reading a Catholic New Testament Bible exactly like the one pictured above, I decided to write this series with the hope of reaching Catholics so that they can not only come to an understanding of who Jesus Christ truly is as His Word, the Bible, declares Him to be, but also so they can see by reading God’s Word that they can have complete forgiveness, lasting joy, true peace, and the assurance of salvation if they choose to believe God’s Word and place their trust in Jesus Christ alone for their salvation. Also, since many Catholics do not realize everything that the Catholic church actually teaches (as I once did not realize until after doing research and reading the CCC), I thought that it was extremely important to share this information to make Catholics aware of many things that are quite disturbing, as you will all soon become aware of as this series continues.

2) This series of posts is also being written with the intention of helping those of you who are born-again, Bible believing followers of Jesus Christ who have no idea of what the teachings of Catholicism are so that you can become aware of their teachings and be prepared to offer hope and assurance of salvation through Jesus Christ to Catholics based solely upon the truth that is recorded in God’s Word.

As we continue on in this series together comparing Scriptures in the Catholic New Testament to teachings found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we must keep these important thoughts in mind:

When it comes to our eternal destination — heaven or hell — we must be certain that we place our trust in solid truth and not in speculation or in the traditions of men. The Catholic church claims to be the “one true Church.” Therefore, it stands to reason that their teachings must line up with God’s Word and not contradict it since God does not change (Malachi 3:6, James 1:17, Hebrews 13:8), and His Word stands firm forever. (Psalm 119:89, Isaiah 40:8, 1 Peter 1:24,25) If a contradiction is found it must be rejected because God’s Word is our plumb line by which we must measure (or test) the teachings of every religion to see if it lines up or not. If it is off in one point we can be certain that it will lead us further and further away from Biblical truth and lead us into spiritual deception.

This series will cover many different subjects ranging from what does the Catholic Church teach about the Bible, Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, priests, the pope, sin, forgiveness of sins, salvation, prayer, and what must a Catholic believe in order to receive eternal life. Some of these teachings will shock even many Catholics when they learn what their church actually teaches!

Lord willing, I hope to share at least one post every month with you in this new series until I have covered all the most important teachings that need to be brought to your attention. The main goal that I have in writing this series is to present the Word of God to Catholics — and to every person — in order to point everyone to Jesus Christ, who is our only hope and ‘the only name under heaven given among men by which we can be saved.’ (Acts 4:12)

Dear Catholic, please take a minute now to pray, asking God to open your mind to the Scriptures and to reveal the truth to you –whatever that may be.

Because only God can reveal the truth to you, I will refrain from making any comments unless I find it completely necessary. Since God’s Word is truth I trust that He will not only give you eyes to see the truth, but also I trust that He will give you the courage to respond to His leading. However, each one of you will find yourself having to answer this question when you come to each point that I present to you in these posts after realizing that there are oftentimes extreme differences between what the Word of God says and what Catholicism teaches, and the question that you will have to answer is:

“Are you going to believe the Word of God, or the word of man?”

 Please keep in mind, as you are carefully reading all of the statements made from the following Catholic sources, that every time you see the word “church” spelled with a capital c they are referring to the Catholic church, since they believe that the “Catholic Church” alone is the “one true Church.”All of the information that I will be sharing with you I have obtained from the following sources:

1) CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (pictured above) – Imprimi Potest – Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (who later became Pope Benedict) – Interdicasterial Commission for the Catechism of the Catholic Church

2) THE WORD OF GOD – THE NEW TESTAMENT OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR  IN TODAY’S ENGLISH VERSION – SACRED HEART LEAGUE EDITION – IMPRIMATUR JOHN FRANCIS WHEALON, ARCHBISHOP OF HARTFORD, APRIL 15, 1971 SIGNED AND SEALED BY BISHOP JOSEPH B. BRUNINI, DIOCESE OF JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI

3) Occasionally when I share a Scripture with you from the Sacred Heart League (SHL) Catholic New Testament and notice that it lacks depth and clarity, I will then follow it with the same verse but in the King James Version in order to give you a better understanding of what is being said, and so that you can see what is missing from the SHL translation.

4) Very briefly in this series, I will also be quoting from THE CATHOLIC DOUAY RHEIMS VERSION OF THE BIBLE – in which you will find the following statements:

“EXCERPT FROM ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF OUR HOLY FATHER BY DIVINE PROVIDENCE POPE LEO XIII ON THE STUDY OF HOLY SCRIPTURE:

“The God of all Providence, Who in the adorable designs of His love at first elevated the human race to the participation of the Divine nature, and afterwards delivered it from the universal guilt and ruin, restoring it to its primitive dignity, has in consequence bestowed upon man a splendid gift and safeguard–making known to him, by supernatural means, the hidden Mysteries of His divinity, His wisdom, and His mercy. For although in Divine revelations there are contained some things which are not beyond the reach of unassisted reason, and which are made the objects of such revelation in order “that all may come to know them with facility, certainty, and safety from error, yet not on this account can supernatural Revelation be said to be absolutely necessary; it is only necessary because God has ordained man to a supernatural end.” This supernatural revelation according to the belief of the universal Church, is contained both in unwritten Tradition, and in written Books, which are therefore called sacred and canonical because, “being written under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, they have God for their author, and as such have been delivered to the Church.” (Page ix)

“Wherefore it must be recognised that the sacred writings are wrapt in a certain religious obscurity, and that no one can enter into their interior without a guide; God so disposing, as the Holy Fathers commonly teach, in order that men may investigate them with greater ardour and earnestness, and that what is attained with difficulty may sink more deeply into the mind and heart; and, most of all that they may understand that God has delivered the Holy Scriptures to the Church, and that in reading and making use of His Word, they must follow the Church as their guide and their teacher.  St. Irenaeus long since laid down, that where the charismata of God were, there the truth was to be learnt, and that Holy Scripture was safely interpreted by those who had the Apostolic succession.  His teaching, and that of other Holy Fathers, is taken up by the Council of the Vatican, which, in the renewing of the decree of Trent, declares its “mind” to be this–that “in things of faith and morals, belonging to the building up of Christian doctrine, that is to be considered the true sense of Holy Scripture which has been held and is held by our Holy Mother the Church whose place it is to judge of the true sense and interpretation of the Scriptures; and therefore that it is permitted to no one to interpret Holy Scripture against such sense or also against the unanimous agreement  of the Fathers.” (Page xvii)

“Wherefore the first and dearest object of the Catholic commentator  should be to interpret those passages which have received an authentic interpretation either by the sacred writers themselves, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost (as in many places of the New Testament), or from the Church, under the assistance of the same Holy Spirit, whether by her solemn judgment or her ordinary and universal magisterium –to interpret those passages in that identical sense, and to prove, by all the resources of science that sound hermeneutical laws admit of no other interpretation. In the other passages, the analogy of faith should be followed, and Catholic doctrine, as authoritatively proposed by the Church, should be held as the supreme law; for seeing that the same God is the author both of the Sacred Books and of the doctrine committed to the Church, it is clearly impossible that any teaching can by legitimate means be extracted from the former, which shall in any respect be at variance with the latter. Hence it follows that all interpretation is foolish and false which either makes the sacred writers disagree one with another, or is opposed to the doctrine of the Church.” (Page xviii)

“For although the studies of non-Catholics, used with prudence, may sometimes be of use to the Catholic student, he should nevertheless, bear well in mind–as the Fathers also teach in numerous passages –that the sense of Holy Scripture can nowhere be found incorrupt outside of the Church, and cannot be expected to be found in writers who, being without the true faith, only gnaw the bark of the Sacred Scripture and never attain its pith.” (Page xix)

(If you’d like to read PART 1 first, click HERE).

In PART 1 of this new series I shared the most concerning information with you that can be found in the first fifty five pages of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC). To those of you who are Catholic, you were also presented with the question of making the decision to choose between believing what God’s Word has to say, or what Catholicism teaches in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The format in this particular post will be a little different due to the fact that the information in this next section of the CCC I will be sharing with you in this particular post requires me to address some serious concerns

Now, please take a minute to pray for discernment again, and then we will continue on in this series comparing the teachings from the CCC to the Scriptures in the Sacred Heart League Catholic New Testament.

In this installment you will begin to see a few glimpses of how some of the teachings presented in Catholicism are rooted in mysticism which is what made me realize that I needed to change my original plans concerning how I was going to present these posts to you. When I first began writing this series I just wanted the content of each post to simply be the teachings that can be found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and on  God’s Word as presented in the Catholic New Testament Bible, and I was going to address any concerns that came up in these teachings in separate posts after I was finished going  through the entire Catechism of the Catholic Church. However, realizing that not everyone who reads one post in this series is going to read every post in this series, I prayerfully came to the decision to begin sharing important information with you when these issues pertaining to mysticism come up to keep things as orderly as possible in this series. That means that I will be going back to PART 1 in this series in order to add something that I intentionally left out concerning mysticism which I was going to address at a later time.

As this series progresses, I will be presenting you with at least two posts devoted to showing you just how steeped in mysticism some of the teachings of Catholicism truly are, which will shock many of you –especially some of you who are Catholic. Once again I will be refraining from making any additional comments at this time, except for adding a few  ‘notes’ and some important information in order to point some things out to you in order to help you learn to discern. It is my prayer that God, by His Holy Spirit, will open your eyes to see the serious problems in some of these teachings. With all of that in mind, let’s begin:

CHAPTER 1 – PART 2

CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH: THE PROFESSION OF FAITH (CONT).

SECTION TWO – THE PROFESSION OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH – THE CREEDS

“Our presentation of the faith will follow the Apostles’ Creed, which constitutes, as it were, “the oldest Roman catechism.” The presentation will be completed however by constant references to the Nicene Creed which is often more explicit and more detailed.” (Para 196)

“As on the day  of our Baptism, when our whole life was entrusted to the “standard of teaching,” let us embrace the Creed of our life-giving faith. To say the Credo with faith is to enter into communion with God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and also with the whole Church which transmits the faith to us and whose midst we believe: This Creed is the spiritual seal, our heart’s meditation and an ever-present guardian; it is unquestionably, the treasure of our soul.” (Para 197)

“Before his Passover, Jesus announced the sending of “another Paraclete” (Advocate), the Holy Spirit. At work since creation, having previously “spoken through the prophets,” the Spirit will now be with and in the disciples, to teach them and guide them “into all the truth.” The Holy Spirit is thus revealed as another divine person with Jesus and the Father.” (Para 243) (NOTE: I will be referring back to some of these statements concerning the Holy Spirit when we get to another related topic further along in this series, so please keep the above thoughts in the back of your mind. I will share those certain statements above with you again later, as well).

Now please carefully read the following Canticle of the Creatures which was written by St. Francis, and ask yourself if the terminology used lines up with Biblical Christianity, or if it more closely resembles New Age mysticism/paganism:

“There is a solidarity among all creatures arising from the fact that all have the same Creator and are all ordered to his glory:

“May you be praised, O Lord, in all your creatures, especially brother sun, by whom you give us light for the day; he is beautiful, radiating great splendor, and offering us a symbol of you, the Most High…”

“May you be praised, my Lord, for sister water, who is very useful and humble, precious and chaste… “May you be praised, my Lord, for sister earth, our mother, who bears and feeds us, and produces the variety of fruits and dappled flowers and grasses…Praise and bless my Lord, give thanks and serve him in all humility…” (Para 344) (St. Francis of Assisi, Canticle of the Creatures)

Thoughts for you to consider:

Is the sun our brother? Is water our sister? Is the earth really to be considered as our sister, and our mother? Is the earth responsible for bearing and feeding us? Or is it God who created us and who provides for us? Yes, Francis clearly gives praise to God in his Canticle of the Creatures, but by presenting his readers with imagery that attempts to establish some sort of a relationship or a unity/oneness that we have with creation, he seems to be painting a pagan or pantheistic world view instead of a Biblical world view in the minds of those who read his Canticle.

Here is a Scripture that came to mind as I was reading the Canticle of the Creatures:

“God’s wrath is revealed coming down from heaven upon all the sin and evil of men whose evil ways prevent the truth from being known. God punishes them, because what men can know about God is plain to them. Ever since God created the world, his invisible qualities, both his eternal power and his divine nature, have been clearly seen. Men can perceive them in the things that God has made. So they have no excuse at all! They know God, but they do not give him the honor that belongs to him, nor do they thank him. Instead, their thoughts have become complete nonsense and their empty minds are filled with darkness. They say they are wise but they are fools; instead of worshiping the immortal God, they worship images made to look like mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles. Because men are such fools, God has given them over to do the filthy things their hearts desire and they do shameful things with each other. They exchange the truth about God for a lie; they worship and serve what God has created instead of the Creator Himself, who is to be praised forever! Amen.” (Romans 1:18-25) Sacred Heart League Catholic New Testament (SHLCNT)

At this point I now find it necessary to share some further information with you concerning St. Francis of Assisi:

The only thing that I remember learning about St. Francis as I attended Catholic school as a child is that he was a kind and gentle Roman Catholic friar. Due to the fact that he is considered to be the patron saint of Italy and of animals and the environment, he was and is often pictured in the scenic outdoors with little animals:

However, after doing research for this post, I discovered that he was a mystic as well as “the first recorded *stigmatic *(a person who claims to manifest the wounds of the crucified Christ in their hands, and sometimes in their feet and side,  from which blood oftentimes flows from these wounds) in Christian history,” according to the following information on Wikipedia:

(SOURCE)

For those of you who have never heard about those who have claimed to have borne the crucifixion wounds of Jesus Christ, below you will find some information to test in light of Scripture. I would like to draw your attention to the following paragraph that you will find in the second quick capture below to point out the unbiblical nature of these manifestations:

Facts concerning the wounds of the stigmata

The purpose of the wounds is to draw and unite the chosen individual into a special union with Jesus in his passion for the conversion of sinners and to make reparation for sins. Thus, individuals who are given the grace of the stigmata are always considered “victim souls” because they suffer in union with Jesus for the conversion of sinners.

To claim that those who suffer with the wounds of Christ have “a special union with Jesus in His passion” in order “to make reparation for sins” is clearly denying the sufficiency of Jesus’ “once for all” sacrifice for our sins when He willingly died in our place on the cross, and it is also adding to Scripture. Yet many Catholics will choose to believe this because it is accepted and taught by the Catholic Church as part of Tradition which is  put on the same level of importance and authenticity as the Bible, but, once again, one must make the choice to believe God’s Word over the words of men when they come in conflict with one another, and especially when a teaching somehow clearly denies the sufficiency of Jesus Christ’s “once for all” sacrifice.

“For those of you who are Catholic, here is a quick capture of a portion of a similar article from a Catholic source that you might prefer:

(SOURCE)

As you can see from the quick capture below of some rather revealing information, mediums and Buddhists have also been stigmatics which should add to one’s concern about the source of these manifestations:

(SOURCE)

 

 ARE YOU GOING TO BELIEVE THE WORD OF GOD? OR THE WORD OF MAN?

So, dear Catholic, are you going to believe the Word of God and place your trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross in your place as full payment for your sins? Or will you instead choose to believe that more suffering needs to be added to the sufferings of Jesus Christ in order for you to receive God’s forgiveness?

Rejoice in what Jesus Christ has already done for you and place your trust in Him alone! In John 6:28,29 we see a crowd of people asking Jesus a question that is in the hearts of many people even today, because accepting the free gift of salvation that was paid with the high price of the blood of Jesus seems to be too simple and too good to be true:

“So they asked him, “What can we do in order to do God’s works?” Jesus answered, “This is the work God wants you to do: believe in the one he sent.”

A similar account is recorded in Acts 16 after Paul and Silas had been severely beaten and thrown in jail, and the jailer was given strict orders to lock them up tight:

“Upon receiving this order the jailer threw them into the inner cell and fastened their feet between heavy blocks of wood. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a violent earthquake which shook the prison to its foundations. At once all the doors opened, and the chains fell off all the prisoners. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open he thought that all the prisoners had escaped; so he pulled out his sword and was about to kill himself. But Paul shouted at the top of his voice, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!” The jailer called for a light, rushed in, and fell trembling at the feet of Paul and Silas. Then he led them out and asked, “What must I do, sirs, to be saved?” “Believe in the Lord Jesus,” they said, “and you will be saved–you and your family.” Then they preached the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.”

One must keep in mind though, that in James 2:19 it says that “the demons also believe [in God]–and tremble with fear.”  And Scripture also records that the demons know exactly who Jesus Christ is (Matthew 8:28-32, Mark 1:23-27, Luke 4:3-35,41, 8:26-29), and yet they will not be saved; their fate was already sealed after they chose to rebel against God.

Here are a few of the above cited Scriptures:

“Jesus came to the territory of the Gadarenes, on the other side of the lake, and was met by two men who came out of the burial caves. These men had demons in them and were so fierce that no one dared travel on that road. At once they screamed, “What do you want with us, Son of God? Have you come to punish us before the right time?” (Matthew 8:28-30)

“They came to the town of Capernaum, and on the next Sabbath Day Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. The people who heard him were amazed at the way he taught. He wasn’t like the teachers of the law; instead he taught with authority. Just then a man with an evil spirit in him came into the synagogue and screamed, “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Are you here to destroy us? I know who you are: you are God’s holy messenger!” Jesus commanded the spirit, “Be quiet, and come out of the man!” The evil spirit shook the man hard, gave a loud scream, and came out of him. The people were all so amazed that they started saying to each other, “What is this? Some kind of new teaching? This man has authority to give orders to the evil spirits, and they obey him!” (Mark 1:21-27)

Hell – Created for the devil and his angels:

“Then he [Jesus] will say to those on his left, “Away from me, you that are under God’s curse! Away to the eternal fire which has been prepared for the Devil and his angels!” (Matthew 25:41)(SHLCNT) (Note: I inserted “Jesus” in this verse).

 

True belief unto salvation means that we must rely fully upon and place our complete trust in Jesus Christ’s sinless life, His death in our place upon the cross for our sin and guilt, and in His glorious bodily resurrection from the dead as our only means of forgiveness from sin and guilt and the only way to be able to have a relationship with God; there is only (1) one way to God, (2) one Mediator between God and men, and (3) one name given among men by which we must be saved –Jesus Christ.

(1) “Jesus answered him, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one goes to the Father except by me.” (John 14:6) (SHLCNT)

(2) “For there is one God, and there is one who brings God and men together, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself to redeem all men.” (1 Timothy 2:5) (SHLCNT)

(3) “Salvation is to be found through him alone; for there is no one else in all the world, whose name God has given to men, by whom we can be saved.” (Acts 4:12) (SHLCNT)

 

RELATED SCRIPTURES FOR YOU TO REFLECT UPON

“For when we were still helpless, Christ died for the wicked, at the time that God chose. It is a difficult thing for someone to die for a righteous person. It may be that someone might dare to die for a good person. But God has shown us how much he loves us; it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us! By his death we are now put right with God; how much more, then, will we be saved by him from God’s wrath. We were God’s enemies, but he made us his friends through the death of his Son. Now that we are God’s friends, how much more will we be saved by Christ’s life!” (Romans 5:6-10) SHLCNT

“So then, as the one sin condemned all men, in the same way the one righteous act sets all men free and gives them life. And just as many men were made sinners as the result of the disobedience of one man, in the same way many will be put right with God as the result of the obedience of the one man.” (Romans 5:18,19) SHLCNT

“The Jewish High Priest goes into The Holy Place every year with the blood of an animal. But Christ did not go in to offer himself many times; for then he would have had to suffer many times ever since the creation of the world. Instead, he has now appeared once and for all, when all ages of time are nearing the end, to remove sin through the sacrifice of himself. Everyone must die once, and after that be judged by God. In the same manner, Christ also was offered in sacrifice once to take away the sins of many. He will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are waiting for him.” (Hebrews 9:24-28) SHLCNT

“Because Jesus Christ did what God wanted him to do, we are all made clean from sin by the offering that he made of his  own body, once and for all.” (Hebrews 10:10) SHLCNT

“For you know what was paid to set you free from the worthless manner of life you received from your ancestors. It was not something that loses its value, such as silver or gold; you were set free by the costly sacrifice of Christ, who was like a lamb without defect or spot. He had been chosen by God before the creation of the world, and was revealed in these last days for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from death and gave him glory; and so your faith and hope are fixed on God.”    (1 Peter 1:18-21) SHLCNT

“For Christ himself died for you; once and for all he died for sins, a good  man for bad men in order to lead you to God. He was put to death physically, but made alive spiritually.” (1 Peter 3:18) SHLCNT 

^“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.” (1 Peter 3:18) (KJV)

In the Book of Revelation God’s Word is clear about the fate of those who add to or who take away from what His Word has to say. Although this verse is specifically referring to the prophecies in the Book of Revelation, this should produce fear in the heart of anyone who dares to tamper with God’s Word!

“I, John, solemnly warn everyone who hears the prophetic words of this book: if anyone adds anything to them, God will add to his punishment the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes away anything from the prophetic words of this book, God will take away from his share of the fruit of the tree of life, and his share of the Holy City, which are described in this book.” (Revelation 22:18,19) (SHLCNT)

If you choose to listen to the following poem by Saint Francis, please pray for  discernment so that you will not be misled by your emotions, and be sure to test his words against Scripture:

Eckhart Tolle is often seen with Oprah, and he promotes New Age mysticism as you will see in the following video:

When you have someone who is a New Age leader promoting Saint Francis, this should be a clear indication to you that the spirituality of Saint Francis was not quite Christian!

Now back to sharing a few more teachings with you from the CCC before I end this particular post:

“After his fall, man was not abandoned by God. On the contrary, God calls him and in a  mysterious way heralds the coming victory over evil and his restoration from his fall. This passage in Genesis is called the Protoevangelium (“first gospel”): the first announcement of the Messiah and Redeemer, of a battle between a serpent and the Woman, and of the final victory of a descendant of hers. (Para 410)

“The Christian tradition sees in this passage an announcement of the “New Adam” who, “because he became obedient unto death, even death on a cross,” makes amends superabundantly for the disobedience of Adam. Furthermore many Fathers and Doctors of the Church have seen the woman announced in the Protoevangelium, as Mary, the mother of Christ, the “new Eve.” Mary benefited first of all and uniquely from Christ’s victory over sin: she was preserved from all stain of original sin and by a special grace of God committed no sin of any kind during her whole earthly life.” (Para 411)

At this point I find it necessary to pause once again in order to share some important information with you concerning the Protoevangelium before addressing another concern in the above paragraph:

As you can see from the quick capture below, “…the Protevangelium is God’s statement to the Serpent in the Garden of Eden about how the Seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head.”

(SOURCE)

“I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed; she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.” (Genesis 3:15) (Douay-Rheims Version)

If you click HERE, you will discover that the Catholic Douay-Rheims Bible version is the only one that translated the second half of Genesis 3:15 as “…she shall crush thy head…”

In a video that I will be sharing with you at a later time in this series, Rob Zins of ‘A Christian Witness to Roman Catholicism,’ (CWRC) says the following concerning Genesis 3:15: 

“Now this “she shall crush thy head” is interpreted by Roman Catholic scholars to be a reference to Mary. This is the beginning. Now we object to this right at the start of it. The Douay Rheims version of the Roman Catholic Bible has a footnote under verse 15 which says, “she shall crush; ipsa; the woman.” The ipsa here is a mistake. The Latin Vulgate translated this with an ipsa –she. It should have been ipse –masculine; he.  Every Protestant Bible and every other version of the Bible written has “he” in reference to the Lord Jesus Christ; He shall crush thy head.” It is not she, it is he. The Latin Vulgate mistranslated this, and as a result it was carried through. The original Hebrew text has masculine pronoun. Even the Greek Septuagint is masculine in this case. Why do the Catholics continue to say, “She, she, she.” The answer is at the Council of Trent the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible was declared to be the one and only translation acceptable to the Roman Catholic religion, so they are stuck with “she” here, even though their own theologians will admit it’s a mistake; it should be he. But the greater mistake, other than the language mistake, is the idea that this she here is in reference to Mary, and they begin with a tiny ice particle at the top of the hill and they say, “Well if it’s a she it must begin with  Mary,” and they begin building a doctrine of Mary right from this point. It’s a little ice particle that rolls down the hill, and it gets bigger and bigger and bigger until at the bottom it’s a giant, thundering, bulldozing boulder of Marian theology, but it begins right here in Genesis 3:15.”

Here is a Commentary by Matthew Henry followed by a portion of Barnes’ Notes on the Bible concerning Genesis 3:14,15 that you might be interested in reading`:

(SOURCE)

 

RELATED SCRIPTURES

“And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.” (Romans 16:20)

The other concern from Para 411 of the CCC that I would also like to bring to your attention is the following statement:

“Mary benefited first of all and uniquely from Christ’s victory over sin: she was preserved from all stain of original sin and by a special grace of God committed no sin of any kind during her whole earthly life.” (Para 411)

God’s Word reveals to us that all of us are sinners — and oh so much more — in these passages of Scripture:

“As the Scriptures say: “There is no one who is righteous, no one who understands, or who seeks for God. All men have turned away from God; they have all gone wrong; no one does what is good, not even one.”(Romans 3:10-12)

“Now we know that everything in the Law applies to those who live under the Law, in order to stop all human excuses and bring the whole world under God’s judgment. Because no man is put right in God’s sight by doing what the Law requires; what the Law does is to make man know that he has sinned. But now God’s way of putting men right with himself has been revealed, and it has nothing to do with the Law. The Law and the prophets gave their witness to it:  God puts men right through their faith in Jesus Christ. God does this to all who believe in Christ, because there is no difference at all; all men have sinned and are far away from God’s saving presence. But by the free gift of God’s grace they are all put right with him through Christ Jesus, who sets them free. God offered him so that by his death he should become the means by which men’s sins are forgiven, through their faith in him. God did this in order to demonstrate his righteousness. In the past, he was patient and overlooked men’s sins; but now in the present time he deals with men’s sins, to demonstrate his righteousness. In this way God shows that he himself is righteous and that he puts right everyone who believes in Jesus.” (Romans 3:19-26)

“So then, as the one sin condemned all men, in the same way the one righteous act sets all men free and gives them life.” (Romans 5:18)

 

END OF CHAPTER 1 OF THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

SOME CLOSING THOUGHTS:

In MY TESTIMONY : FROM FEAR AND UNCERTAINTY TO PEACE AND ASSURANCE – HOW GOD REVEALED THE TRUTH TO ME AS I WAS READING A CATHOLIC NEW TESTAMENT BIBLE (PART 2), I shared a lot of disturbing information with you concerning the Virgin Mary in regards to much of what Catholicism teaches about her, as well as the  information that I discovered after doing many hours of research on the Virgin Mary and the many Feast Days set aside to honor her. As this series continues I will be sharing more information with you concerning Mary and what the Catholic Church teaches about her, and I will continue sharing many Scriptures with you, as well.

For those of you who are Catholic, all that I ask you to do is to please pray for God to reveal His truth to you if you decide to read that portion of my testimony and if you choose to read the rest of the posts that I (Lord willing) will be sharing with you in this series.

Lord willing, in the next post in this series (that I am hoping to have completed in August) we will begin going through many of the teachings in Chapter 2 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and continue comparing them to Scripture. In the mean time I hope and pray that many of you — those of you who are Catholic and those of you who have placed your complete trust only in the finished work of Jesus Christ as full payment for your sins — are coming to realize the importance of testing the teachings of every pastor, teacher — and priest — against Scripture, as God’s Word clearly shows us that we are to do:

“As soon as night came, the brothers sent Paul and Silas to Berea. When they arrived, they went to the Jewish synagogue. The people there were more open-minded than the people in Thessalonica. They listened to the message with great eagerness, and every day they studied the Scriptures to see if what Paul said was really true.” (Acts 17:11) (SHLCNT)

“Put all things to the test: keep what is good, and avoid every kind of evil.”                    (1 Thessalonians 5:21,22) (SHLCNT)

 

Dear Catholic, when I was still a Catholic I believed with all of my heart that the Catholic Church was the “one true church” as we were taught. However, after reading God’s Word in that little Catholic New Testament I discovered too much evidence that proved many of their teachings not only contradicted Scripture, but also their teachings did not give Jesus Christ the honor and praise that was due to Him for all that He did for us by paying the debt for our sins and guilt in full!  As hard as it was at first, the moment God opened my eyes to see the truth of the glorious good news of the gospel — that Jesus Christ’s death was enough to satisfy God’s wrath that He has towards us because of our sins — I finally came to realize that I must choose to believe God’s Word over the words of men. When it was Jesus Christ whom I chose to believe and to follow, true joy and peace filled my heart. It then became easy to leave the false teachings of Catholicism behind, and all fear of death and doubt of where I would spend eternity vanished.

The Virgin Mary was a humble, obedient woman who chose to obey God and who willingly gave her consent to God to carry Jesus within her womb, but it is Jesus Christ who willingly came to lay His life down by dying a horrendously painful death in our place on the cross and who paid the price for our sins and therefore deserves all of our praise and attention –not Mary. When it comes to our eternal destination we must be certain about where we should place our trust. Our trust must not be in a church, in creeds, in deeds, or in anything or in anyone else, other than in the truth revealed in God’s Word, and in Jesus Christ alone! 

 

Thank you very much for stopping by and taking time out of your relaxing weekend (at least I hope that it has been) to read some of my posts and poems.

God Bless You

~Mary/Living4HisGlory

MORE SCRIPTURES FOR YOU TO REFLECT ON:

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel — which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!” (Galatians 1:6-9)

“But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.” (2 Corinthians 11:3,4)

“But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you.” (2 Peter 2:1)

“I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16)

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” (Matthew 7: 13-15)

“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men. after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” (Colossians 2:8)

“Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He bought with His own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.” (Acts 20:26-31)

 

YOU MAY ALSO BE INTERESTED IN READING:

TO JESUS THROUGH MARY – ANOTHER UNBIBLICAL TEACHING OF CATHOLICISM KEEPING PRECIOUS CATHOLICS FROM THE TRUTH

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COMPARING SCRIPTURES IN THE CATHOLIC NEW TESTAMENT BIBLE TO TEACHINGS FOUND IN THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH – DEAR CATHOLIC, ARE YOU GOING TO BELIEVE THE WORD OF GOD, OR THE WORD OF MAN? PART 1

There are two very important reasons why I felt compelled to write this series of posts, and I’d like to briefly share these reasons with you now before I go any further:

1) Since I am a former Catholic who is very aware of the teachings of the Catholic Church because I attended twelve years of Catholic school, attended Catechism classes, made my First Holy Communion, was Confirmed, and faithfully attended Mass not only every Sunday, but also before school began for three years (as required by the school that I attended at the time),  and who came to the knowledge of who Jesus Christ truly is and what He actually accomplished for us by reading a Catholic New Testament Bible exactly like the one pictured above, I decided to write this series with the hope of reaching Catholics so that they can not only come to an understanding of who Jesus Christ truly is as His Word, the Bible, declares Him to be, but also so they can see by reading God’s Word that they can have complete forgiveness, lasting joy, true peace, and the assurance of salvation if they choose to believe God’s Word and place their trust in Jesus Christ alone for their salvation. Also, since many Catholics do not realize everything that the Catholic church actually teaches (as I once did not realize until after doing research and reading the CCC), I thought that it was extremely important to share this information to make Catholics aware of many things that are quite disturbing, as you will all soon become aware of as this series continues.

2) This series of posts is also being written with the intention of helping those of you who are born-again, Bible believing followers of Jesus Christ who have no idea of what the teachings of Catholicism are so that you can become aware of their teachings and be prepared to offer hope and assurance of salvation through Jesus Christ to Catholics based solely upon the truth that is recorded in God’s Word.

As we begin this series together comparing Scriptures in the Catholic New Testament to teachings found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we must keep these important thoughts in mind:

When it comes to our eternal destination — heaven or hell — we must be certain that we place our trust in solid truth and not in speculation or in the traditions of men. The Catholic church claims to be the “one true Church.” Therefore, it stands to reason that their teachings must line up with God’s Word and not contradict it since God does not change (Malachi 3:6, James 1:17, Hebrews 13:8), and His Word stands firm forever. (Psalm 119:89, Isaiah 40:8, 1 Peter 1:24,25) If a contradiction is found it must be rejected because God’s Word is our plumb line by which we must measure (or test) the teachings of every religion to see if it lines up or not. If it is off in one point we can be certain that it will lead us further and further away from Biblical truth and lead us into spiritual deception.

This series will cover many different subjects ranging from what does the Catholic Church teach about the Bible, Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, priests, the pope, sin, forgiveness of sins, salvation, prayer, and what must a Catholic believe in order to receive eternal life. Some of these teachings will shock even many Catholics when they learn what their church actually teaches!

Lord willing, I hope to share at least one post every month with you in this new series until I have covered all the most important teachings that need to be brought to your attention. The main goal that I have in writing this series is to present the Word of God to Catholics — and to every person — in order to point everyone to Jesus Christ, who is our only hope and ‘the only name under heaven given among men by which we can be saved.’ (Acts 4:12)

Dear Catholic, please take a minute now to pray, asking God to open your mind to the Scriptures and to reveal the truth to you –whatever that may be.

Because only God can reveal the truth to you I will refrain from making any comments unless I find it completely necessary. Since God’s Word is truth I trust that He will not only give you eyes to see the truth, but also I trust that He will give you the courage to respond to His leading. However, each one of you will find yourself having to answer this question when you come to each point that I present to you in these posts after realizing that there are oftentimes extreme differences between what the Word of God says and what Catholicism teaches, and the question that you will have to answer is:

“Are you going to believe the Word of God, or the word of man?”

Let’s begin:

Please keep in mind, as you are carefully reading all of the statements made from the following Catholic sources, that every time you see the word “church” spelled with a capital c they are referring to the Catholic church, since they believe that the “Catholic Church” alone is the “one true Church.”

All of the information that I will be sharing with you I have obtained from the following sources:

1) CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (pictured above) – Imprimi Potest – Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (who later became Pope Benedict) – Interdicasterial Commission for the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Portion of statement made by Pope John Paul II – Page 6 – Apostolic Constitution Fidei Depositum:

“At the conclusion of this document presenting the Catechism of the Catholic Church, I beseech the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Incarnate Word and Mother of the Church, to support with her powerful intercession the catechetical work of the entire church on every level at this time when she is called to a new effort of evangelization.”

“Given October 11, 1992, the thirteenth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, in the fourteenth year of my Pontificate.” ~Joannes Paulus II(Signature in Latin)

2) THE WORD OF GOD – THE NEW TESTAMENT OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR  IN TODAY’S ENGLISH VERSION – SACRED HEART LEAGUE EDITION – IMPRIMATUR JOHN FRANCIS WHEALON, ARCHBISHOP OF HARTFORD, APRIL 15, 1971 SIGNED AND SEALED BY BISHOP JOSEPH B. BRUNINI, DIOCESE OF JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI

3) Occasionally when I share a Scripture with you from the Sacred Heart League (SHL) Catholic New Testament and notice that it lacks depth and clarity, I will then follow it with the same verse but in the King James Version in order to give you a better understanding of what is being said, and so that you can see what is missing from the SHL translation.

4) Very briefly in this series, I will also be quoting from THE CATHOLIC DOUAY RHEIMS VERSION OF THE BIBLE – in which you will find the following statements:

“EXCERPT FROM ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF OUR HOLY FATHER BY DIVINE PROVIDENCE POPE LEO XIII ON THE STUDY OF HOLY SCRIPTURE:

“The God of all Providence, Who in the adorable designs of His love at first elevated the human race to the participation of the Divine nature, and afterwards delivered it from the universal guilt and ruin, restoring it to its primitive dignity, has in consequence bestowed upon man a splendid gift and safeguard–making known to him, by supernatural means, the hidden Mysteries of His divinity, His wisdom, and His mercy. For although in Divine revelations there are contained some things which are not beyond the reach of unassisted reason, and which are made the objects of such revelation in order “that all may come to know them with facility, certainty, and safety from error, yet not on this account can supernatural Revelation be said to be absolutely necessary; it is only necessary because God has ordained man to a supernatural end.” This supernatural revelation according to the belief of the universal Church, is contained both in unwritten Tradition, and in written Books, which are therefore called sacred and canonical because, “being written under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, they have God for their author, and as such have been delivered to the Church.” (Page ix)

“Wherefore it must be recognised that the sacred writings are wrapt in a certain religious obscurity, and that no one can enter into their interior without a guide; God so disposing, as the Holy Fathers commonly teach, in order that men may investigate them with greater ardour and earnestness, and that what is attained with difficulty may sink more deeply into the mind and heart; and, most of all that they may understand that God has delivered the Holy Scriptures to the Church, and that in reading and making use of His Word, they must follow the Church as their guide and their teacher.  St. Irenaeus long since laid down, that where the charismata of God were, there the truth was to be learnt, and that Holy Scripture was safely interpreted by those who had the Apostolic succession.  His teaching, and that of other Holy Fathers, is taken up by the Council of the Vatican, which, in the renewing of the decree of Trent, declares its “mind” to be this–that “in things of faith and morals, belonging to the building up of Christian doctrine, that is to be considered the true sense of Holy Scripture which has been held and is held by our Holy Mother the Church whose place it is to judge of the true sense and interpretation of the Scriptures; and therefore that it is permitted to no one to interpret Holy Scripture against such sense or also against the unanimous agreement  of the Fathers.” (Page xvii)

“Wherefore the first and dearest object  of the Catholic commentator  should be to interpret those passages which have received an authentic interpretation either by the sacred writers themselves, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost (as in many places of the New Testament), or from the Church, under the assistance of the same Holy Spirit, whether by her solemn judgment or her ordinary and universal magisterium –to interpret those passages in that identical sense, and to prove, by all the resources of science that sound hermeneutical laws admit of no other interpretation. In the other passages, the analogy of faith should be followed, and Catholic doctrine, as authoritatively proposed by the Church, should be held as the supreme law; for seeing that the same God is the author both of the Sacred Books and of the doctrine committed to the Church, it is clearly impossible that any teaching can by legitimate means be extracted from the former, which shall in any respect be at variance with the latter. Hence it follows that all interpretation is foolish and false which either makes the sacred writers disagree one with another, or is opposed to the doctrine of the Church.” (Page xviii)

“For although the studies of non-Catholics, used with prudence, may sometimes be of use to the Catholic student, he should nevertheless, bear well in mind–as the Fathers also teach in numerous passages –that the sense of Holy Scripture can nowhere be found incorrupt outside of the Church, and cannot be expected to be found in writers who, being without the true faith, only gnaw the bark of the Sacred Scripture and never attain its pith.” (Page xix)

CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH: PART 1 – THE PROFESSION OF FAITH

1) SCRIPTURE OR THE TRADITIONS OF MEN – WHICH WILL YOU BELIEVE?

CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH:

“The Christian economy, therefore, since it is the new and definitive Covenant, will never pass away; and no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Yet even if Revelation is already complete, it has not been made completely explicit; it remains for Christian faith gradually to grasp its full significance over the course of the centuries.” (Para 66)

“Throughout the ages, there have been so-called”private” revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ’s definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history. Guided by the magisterium of the Church, the sensus fidelium knows how to discern and welcome in these revelations whatever constitutes an authentic call of Christ or his saints to the Church. Christian faith cannot accept “revelations” that claim to surpass or correct the Revelation of which Christ is the fulfillment, as is the case in certain non-Christian religions and also in certain recent sects which base themselves on such “revelations.” (Para 67)

“Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence.” (Para 82)

“It is clear therefore that, in the supremely wise arrangement of God, sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture, and the Magisterium of the Church are so connected and associated that one of them cannot stand without the others. Working together, each in its own way, under the action of the one Holy Spirit, they all contribute effectively to the salvation of souls.”  (Para 95)

“The task of interpreting the Word of God authentically has been entrusted solely to the Magisterium of the Church, that is, to the Pope, and to the Bishops in communion with him.” (Para 100)

CATHOLIC NEW TESTAMENT:

“Jesus answered them,  “How right Isaiah was when he prophesied about you!  You are hypocrites, just as he wrote: ‘These people, says God, honor me with their words, but their heart is really far away from me.  It is no use for them to worship me because they teach man-made commandments as though they were God’s rules!’  “You put aside the commandment of God and obey the teachings of men.” 

“In this way you disregard the word of God with the teachings you pass on to others.” (Mark 7:6-8,13)

“See to it, then, that no one makes a captive of you with the worthless deceit of human wisdom which comes from the teachings handed down by men, and from the ruling spirits of the universe, and not from Christ.” (Colossians 2:8)

“For you know what was paid to set you free from the worthless manner of life you received from your ancestors.  It was not something that loses its value, such as silver or gold; you were set free by the costly sacrifice of Christ, who was like a lamb without defect or spot.” (1 Peter 1:18,19)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

2) SALVATION THROUGH JESUS OR THE CHURCH? WHICH WILL YOU BELIEVE?

CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH:

“I believe” (Apostles’ Creed) is the faith of the Church professed personally by each believer, principally during Baptism. “We believe” (Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed) is the faith of the Church confessed by the bishops assembled in council or more generally by the liturgical assembly of believers. “I believe” is also the Church, our mother, responding to God by faith as she teaches us to say both “I believe” and “We believe.” (Para 167)

“It is the Church that believes first, and so bears, nourishes, and sustains my faith. It is through the Church that we receive faith and new life in Christ by Baptism.” Para 168)

“Salvation comes from God alone; but because we receive the life of faith through the Church, she is our mother: “We believe the Church as the mother of our new birth, and not in the Church as if she were the author of our salvation.” Because she is our mother, she is also our teacher in the faith.” (St. Cyprian, De unit. 6: PL 4, 519). (Para 169)

“Believing” is an ecclesial act. The Church’s faith precedes, engenders, supports, and nourishes our faith. The Church is the Mother of all believers. “No one can have God as Father who does not have the Church as Mother.” (Para 181) [NOTE: Ecclesial: Something related to a church or its function and teachings.]

CATHOLIC NEW TESTAMENT:

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to be its Judge, but to be its Savior. Whoever believes in the Son is not judged; whoever does not believe has already been judged because he has not believed in God’s only Son.” (John 3:16,17)

KJV says: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”

“If you declare with your lips, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.For we believe in our hearts and are put right with  God; we declare with our lips and are saved.” (Romans 10:9,10)

“So then, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message comes through preaching Christ.” (Romans 10:17)

KJV says: “So then, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

“I am afraid that your minds will be corrupted and that you will abandon your full and pure devotion to Christ–in the same way that Eve was deceived by the snake’s clever lies. For you gladly tolerate anyone who comes to you and preaches a different Jesus, not the one we preached; and you accept a spirit and a gospel completely different from the Spirit and the gospel you received from us!” (2 Corinthians 11:3,4)

“I am surprised at you! In no time at all you are deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are going to another gospel. Actually there is no “other gospel,” but I say it because there are some people who are upsetting you and trying to change the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel that is different from the one we preached to you, may he be condemned to hell! We have said it before, and now I say it again:  if anyone preaches to you a gospel that is different from the one you accepted, , may he be condemned to hell!” (Galatians 1:6-9)

“We believe  the witness that men give; the witness that God gives is much stronger, and this is the witness that God has given about his Son. So whoever believes in the Son of God has this witness in his heart; but whoever does not believe God has made a liar out of him, because he has not believed what God has said as a witness about his Son. This, then, is the witness: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has this life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things so that you may know that you have eternal life–you that believe in the name of the Son of God.” (1 John 5:9-13)

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IN CONCLUSION:

I truly hope and  pray that many Catholics will take the time to read this first post and continue reading this new series. It is also my prayer that God’s Holy Spirit will begin a work in their hearts, open their minds to the Scriptures, and give them eyes to at least be able to get a glimpse into the truly good news of the Biblical gospel that is there for them to discover if they will only read God’s Word and choose to believe it!

More good news coming soon –Lord willing!

Dear Catholic, your salvation truly does depend on Jesus Christ alone and not on the “Church,” the Sacraments, or upon obeying the ten commandments. For God’s Word says the following:

“I do not reject the grace of God. If a man is put right with God through the law, it means that Christ died for nothing!” (Galatians 2:21)

“What was the purpose of the law, then? It was added in order to show what wrongdoing is, and was meant to last until the coming of Abraham’s descendant, to whom the promise was made. The Law was handed down by angels, with a man acting as a go-between. But a go-between is not needed when there is only one person; and God is one. Does this mean that the Law is against God’s promises? No, not at all! For if a law had been given that could bring life to men, then man could be put right with God through law. But the Scripture has said that the whole world is under the power of sin, so that the gift which is promised on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” (Galatians 3:19-22)

“Salvation is to be found through him alone; for there is no one else in all the world, whose name God has given to men, by whom we can be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

Another post in this new series will be coming next month (Lord willing), and we will look further into what the Catholic Church actually teaches on other important issues. We will also continue to  compare everything against the truth of God’s Word because, when it comes to knowing the truth, the only one we can truly trust to reveal the truth to us is God, and God alone.

This post already has over 3,500 words, so I will end now to prevent my computer from crashing as it has done many times before when my posts began to get quite lengthy.

Thank you very much for stopping by and for taking time out of your relaxing Father’s Day weekend to read some of my posts and poems.

God Bless You

~Mary/Living4HisGlory

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TEACHING THURSDAY

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15 KJV)

Welcome to another post in the category of posts entitled, TEACHING THURSDAY.’ Lord willing, about once a month or so, on Thursdays, I will be posting either a video, an article, or some form of teaching  in which a *Biblically sound teacher *(Biblically sound because what they say and teach lines up with the truth of God’s Word,  Acts 17:11) will either expose an unbiblical movement, teaching, or a practice that is leading many Christians astray, or present some type of Biblical teaching to help you grow in a deeper understanding of God’s Word on different topics. Some of these teachings may be essentials of the Christian faith, and others may be things that we can debate but not divide over.

It is my hope and prayer that by presenting these teachings to you, many more Christians will not only come to realize the importance of testing the words of men (and women) against the truth of God Word so they will not be deceived, but also it is my hope and prayer that many Christians will come to know the joy of learning God’s Word.

Now on with today’s TEACHING THURSDAY:

Today I’d like to share a very good teaching with you by Pastor Bob DeWaay of CRITICAL ISSUES COMMENTARY. I’m sure that many of you will agree that we live in a time when God’s Word is under attack more than ever before! Therefore, we need to depend even more on the guidance of the Holy Spirit in order to help us know the meaning of a passage of Scripture so that we will not become deceived or led astray by those who are attempting to change God’s Word. Especially in light of the fact that many pastors are promoting Christian leaders who are part of the Emergent Church Movement. For example, Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Church in the Chicago area, promotes men such as Brian McLaren, Erwin McManus, Rob Bell, and many other Christian leaders who are deeply involved in the Emergent Church Movement, and are attempting to change how Christians should view Scripture.

Have you ever been in a “Bible study” where instead of the person who is  leading the class teaching God’s Word in context, they instruct the class to take turns sharing with everyone else what a certain verse is saying to them?  I have. And let me tell you that can lead to many different answers and a lot of confusion!

In the video below, Bob DeWaay discusses Postmodern Theology and gives us some excellent Biblical principles on how to examine these teachings in light of Scripture. He also helps us to realize how this type of Postmodern thinking can lead Christians away from the trustworthiness of Scripture as being God’s infallible Word, which is also unchanging truth –regardless of how drastically our culture is changing! (When the rest of the teachings in this series become available, I will add the videos to this post).

Here is the video description:

“Postmodern Theology casts serious doubts about the ability of human languages to validly transmit meaning from authors to readers in a different culture. This means that the meaning of the Biblical writers is obscured to modern readers. To solve this supposed problem, postmodern theologians claim that the reader determines the meaning of Scripture. In this session, Bob DeWaay refutes their claims and upholds the Reformation doctrine of Sola Scriptura.”

RELATED SCRIPTURES

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” (2 Timothy 3:16)

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)

“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” (John 14:26)

“But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me.” (John 15:26)

“Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on Me, believeth not on Me, but on Him that sent Me. And he that seeth Me seeth Him that sent Me. I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on Me should not abide in darkness. And if any man hear My words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not My words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken of Myself; but the Father which sent Me, He gave Me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that His commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto Me, so I speak.” (John 12:44-50)

“Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” (Jeremiah 23:29)

“For I am the LORD I change not.” (Malachi 3:6)

RELATED VIDEOS

 

DEBATE BETWEEN DOUG PAGITT AND BOB DEWAAY – EMERGENT CHURCH AND POSTMODERN SPIRITUALITY

ELLIOTT NESCH OF HOLY BIBLE PROPHECY – EMERGENT/EMERGING CHURCH DOCUMENTARY FILLED WITH A LOT OF GOOD INFORMATION

PASTOR  JAY PETERS – EMERGENT CHURCH 101 – THESE VIDEOS GIVES INFORMATION CONCERNING WHAT THE EMERGENT CHURCH IS, AND WHO ALL THE MAIN PEOPLE INVOLVED IN IT ARE. THESE VIDEOS INCLUDE ACTUAL VIDEO AND AUDIO CLIPS OF THE MOST WELL KNOWN LEADERS IN THE EMERGENT CHURCH MOVEMENT.  – “SOMETHING IS EMERGING, BUT IT ISN’T THE TRUTH.” ~PASTOR JAY PETERS

Thank you very much for stopping by and taking time out of your busy day to read some of my posts and poems.

God Bless You

~Mary/Living4HisGlory

 

UPDATE:

LORD WILLING, I WILL BE WORKING ON ONE OF MY FORMER POSTS, MOODY RADIO’S ‘MIDDAY CONNECTION’ PROGRAM – CANCELLED OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS, AND I HOPE TO HAVE IT COMPLETED BY MONDAY EVENING –LORD WILLING.

SERMON SUNDAY

“Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” (2 Timothy 4:2-4)

Welcome to another post in the category of posts entitled, ‘SERMON SUNDAY.’ Lord willing, at least a few times a month I will share a sermon with you by a well respected preacher who focuses on an important truth in Scripture in order to awaken the slumbering church, and also to alert Christians to the importance of reading and studying God’s Word. It may be a short sermon in written form, or I may present something to you in video form. I pray that when time allows, you will take the time to read or to listen to what I will be sharing with you.

I will also be sharing some expository preaching with you, but sadly, that is a very rare thing to find these days. I’m sure that many of you can attest to that undeniable fact. Sadly, many pastors today who seek to grow their churches oftentimes resort to distorting God’s Word either by taking a verse out of context, or by interjecting their own ideas into the text to make it say what they want a verse of Scripture to say (eisegesis). Sometimes a pastor will even go as far as to manipulate Scriptures in such a way so that they can preach about themselves (narcissistic eisegesis).

Then there are some pastors who just present watered down messages with very little Biblical content, and others who ‘preach’ controversial messages that will appeal to today’s culture in order to attract more people. Sadly they will continue ‘preaching’ these types of messages in order to entertain the crowd to keep them coming, rather than preaching God’s Word as they are instructed to do in order to feed and equip the sheep/saints and to expose the sin in men’s hearts so that God will grant them repentance and lead them to a knowledge of the truth.

My main goal in presenting these sermons to you is to point you to Jesus Christ and to make you realize the extreme importance of studying God’s Word and testing the teachings of everyone you listen to in light of Scripture.

Maybe you are one of those people who faithfully stand for Biblical truth and you recently had to leave your church because of what has been taking place as you have witnessed your pastor slowly drift from Biblical truth. Or maybe you left your church many years ago and you still haven’t found a church where the pastor preaches from God’s Word. If so, I have all of you in mind when posting these teachings and videos, as well.

I hope that everyone who somehow finds there way here will be blessed and encouraged by the many Biblical teachings that I will be sharing with you in the weeks and months ahead –Lord willing.
Now for today’s SERMON SUNDAY:

With the Christmas season now upon us, I thought the following sermon series on the Gospel of John by Pastor Chris Quintana of CALVARY CHAPEL CYPRESS would be the perfect one to present to you for today!

Although no one knows exactly when Jesus Christ was actually born, the fact remains that Jesus, who eternally existed with God the Father, and the Spirit before time began, did at one point enter our world. Jesus Christ, willingly came and was cloaked in human flesh. He remained as God, but took on an additional nature and became a man to live the perfect sinless life that we could never live, to one day become the perfect sacrifice for my sins and for yours.

If you have never put your trust in Jesus Christ and His sacrificial death in your place on the cross as full payment for your sins and placed your full trust in Him to be your Savior instead of trusting in your good works and trying your best hoping to be accepted by God after you die, I pray that you will receive Him even today! His free gift of salvation awaits those whosoever will come!

These three videos cover John 1:1-13, but I posted all of Chapter 1 for you:

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

 2The same was in the beginning with God.

3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.

8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.

9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

15 John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.

16 And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.

17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

19 And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou?

20 And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ.

21 And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No.

22 Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself?

23 He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.

24 And they which were sent were of the Pharisees.

25 And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet?

26 John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not;

27 He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose.

28 These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.

29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

30 This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me.

31 And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water.

32 And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.

33 And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.

34 And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.

35 Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples;

36 And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!

37 And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.

38 Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master,) where dwellest thou?

39 He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day: for it was about the tenth hour.

40 One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.

41 He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ.

42 And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone.

43 The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me.

44 Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.

45 Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

46 And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.

47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!

48 Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.

49 Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel.

50 Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these.

51 And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.” 

(kingjamesbibleonline.org)

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Here are the video descriptions:

Video 1

“Today we begin The Gospel of John as our Sunday Morning book. It is unique among the 4 gospels as it emphasizes the deity and eternal nature of Jesus in the first verses. The other gospels begin at the time of Jesus birth or earthly ministry. John begins with the preexistence of Jesus and the implications of that set the tone for the entirety of the book.

“John’s Gospel was written at the close of the first century roughly 3-4 decades after the first 3 (exact dates are unknown) It seems reasonable for John to emphasize what he does, and give the detail that he does, given the lateness of the writing and content already covered in the other three.

John’s Gospel gives us detail which adds so much wondrous and absolute truth to an already perfect account in the other 3. There are common events covered which are found in the other 3, but much of what John teaches is unique to his account. Those unique passages and what they teach help fill in details and aspects of Jesus’ life and serve as essential doctrinal and theological for the foundation of the faith.

So much more can be said, and we will break all of this down, in detail, over the weeks as we study the Gospel of John.”

Video 2

“John 1:3-5 is the text this morning.

3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

Only God can create, Genesis 1:1 tells us that and John tells us that Jesus was the one through whom all things were created, thus making Him not of this creation, no matter what the cults say.

The next 2 verses are enormous in their implication. (as though verse 3 wasn’t?) Verse 4 tells us that He embodies Light and Life. Since He is the possessor of “life” in the eternal sense, and “light” as in making things pertaining to the eternal life knowable, He is then able to make them available to all who ask.

Verse 5 tells us that darkness hides these things from man’s eyes. Why? How? When we get to John 3 Jesus tells Nicodemus that men loved darkness and so they are blinded from coming to Jesus and having that darkness lifted to see all things and let life in.

We will examine these verses and do so in light of what Jesus says on these matters, from elsewhere in John’s Gospel.”

Video 3

“John 1:6-13 is our text today and it tells us several important things. Beginning with John The Baptist and his message that messiah had arrived, just as the Old Testament had said would happen. John was that prophet which the Old testament prophesied would come prior to messiah’s arrival. John will come back to John The Baptist later in the chapter.

John then turns his attention back to Jesus, The One who brings Light to all men. As he did in the previous verses he declares that Jesus was light and life, he focuses more on light (illumination of truth) and how Jesus provides that light to all men.

He concludes this thought by pointing out that the world Jesus came to, which He made, did not know Him. And those, (The Jewish people, as a whole) did not receive Him. But those who did (Jew and Gentile alike) were given the right to be numbered among the Sons (And Daughters) of God.

We are at a time of year when many people celebrate His birth. Though He wasn’t born in December, the more important fact is why He was born into this world to begin with. Beyond acknowledgment of His birth is the acceptance of who He is and what He did. How one deals with those matters is the difference between heaven and hell.”

Here now is Pastor Chris Quintana as he preaches from the Gospel of John:

(I will continue to add his future sermons on the Gospel of John to this Playlist as soon as they become available).

MONDAY 12/14/15

NOTE: For those of you who are aware of the fact that there are many pastors of Calvary Chapel churches who are promoting having mystical experiences  by presenting Spiritual Formation and Contemplative Prayer at their churches, as well as promoting unity with  faiths that teach “another gospel,” I can assure you that Pastor Chris Quintana is not one of them. Here is a Playlist that I previously shared with you on another post, but to those of you who may be new readers of this blog, please consider listening to his teachings concerning The Emergent Church, Contemplative Spirituality, Dominionism, and the Seeker Sensitive Church when time allows:

 

RELATED SCRIPTURES

^{12 “}Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: ¹³ Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son: ¹⁴ In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins: ¹⁵ Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: ¹⁶ For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him: ¹⁷ And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. ¹⁸ And He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence. ¹⁹ For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell; ²⁰ And, having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.” (Colossians 1:12-20)

 

1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, ² hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds; ³ who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; ⁴ being made so much better than the angels, as He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. ⁵ For unto which of the angels said He at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and He shall be to me a Son? ⁶ And again, when He bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, He saith, And let all the angels of God worship Him. ⁷ And of the angels He saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. ⁸ But unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. ⁹ Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. ¹⁰ And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: ¹¹ they shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; ¹² and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail. ¹³ But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool? ¹⁴ Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” (Hebrews 1:1-14)

 

16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.” (John 3:16-21)

 

“For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”         (Luke 19:10)

“Pilate therefore said unto Him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice.” (John 18:37)

“But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” (Hebrews 2:9)

14″Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; 15And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”              (Hebrews 2:14,15)

7″Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. 8He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. 9Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. 10In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.” (1 John 3:7-10)

15″This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. 16Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. 17Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” (1 Timothy 1:15-17)

Some verses  in this post were also obtained from biblehub.com

12/14/15 UPDATE:

I worked on writing my upcoming post (Lord willing) concerning Mysticism for at least eight hours on Saturday, but the more research I did, the more I realized that it will be impossible to complete it by this evening as I had hoped that I would. Lord willing, I will be working on in every chance that I get in the days to come, but for now I need to get some cleaning done!

Thank you very much for stopping by and taking time out of your busy day to read some of my posts and poems.

God Bless You

~Mary/Living4HisGlory

 

SERMON SUNDAY

 

“Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” (2 Timothy 4:2-4)

Welcome to another post in a new category of posts entitled, ‘SERMON SUNDAY.’ Lord willing, at least a few times a month I will share a timely sermon with you by a well respected teacher or preacher who focuses on an important truth in Scripture in order to awaken the slumbering church, and also to alert Christians to the importance of reading and studying God’s Word. It may be a short sermon in written form, or I may present something to you in video form. I pray that when time allows, you will take the time to read or to listen to what I will be sharing with you.

I also hope to share some expository preaching with you in the near future, but sadly, that is a very rare thing to find these days. I’m sure that many of you can attest to that undeniable fact. Sadly, many pastors today who seek to grow their churches oftentimes resort to distorting God’s Word either by taking a verse out of context or by interjecting their own ideas into the text to make it say what they want a verse of Scripture to say (eisegesis).

Sometimes a pastor will even go as far as to manipulate Scriptures in such a way so that they can preach about themselves (narcissistic eisegesis).

Then there are some pastors who just present watered down messages with very little Biblical content, and others who ‘preach’  controversial messages that will appeal to today’s culture in order to attract more people. Then they will continue ‘preaching’ these types of messages in order to entertain the crowd to keep them coming, rather than preaching God’s Word as they are instructed to do in order to feed and equip the sheep/saints and to expose the sin in men’s hearts so that God will grant them repentance and lead them to a knowledge of the truth.

My main goal in presenting these sermons to you is to point you to Jesus Christ and to make you realize the extreme importance of studying God’s Word and testing the teachings of everyone you listen to in light of Scripture.

Maybe you are one of those people who faithfully stand for Biblical truth and you recently had to leave your church because of what has been taking place as you have witnessed your pastor slowly drift from Biblical truth. Or maybe you left your church many years ago and you still haven’t found a church where the pastor preaches from God’s Word. If so, I have all of you in mind when posting these teachings and videos, as well.

I hope that everyone who somehow finds there way here will be blessed and encouraged by the many Biblical teachings that I will be sharing with you in the weeks and months ahead –Lord willing.

Now for today’s SERMON SUNDAY:

In the following sermon, Pastor Chris Quintana, Senior Pastor of Calvary Chapel Cypress,  preaches from Leviticus 18, and many other Scriptures today. The title of his message today is entitled, Answering The Culture.

Here are the different portions of Scripture that Pastor Chris Quintana will be preaching on:

“The LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘I am the LORD your God. You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you.

Do not follow their practices. You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the LORD your God.

Keep my decrees and laws, for the person who obeys them will live by them. I am the LORD.“ ‘No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the LORD. “

 ‘Do not dishonor your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; do not have relations with her. “ 

‘Do not have sexual relations with your father’s wife; that would dishonor your father. “

 ‘Do not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere.“

 ‘Do not have sexual relations with your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter; that would dishonor you. “

 ‘Do not have sexual relations with the daughter of your father’s wife, born to your father; she is your sister.“ 

‘Do not have sexual relations with your father’s sister; she is your father’s close relative.“ 

‘Do not have sexual relations with your mother’s sister, because she is your mother’s close relative.“ 

‘Do not dishonor your father’s brother by approaching his wife to have sexual relations; she is your aunt.“ 

‘Do not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law. She is your son’s wife; do not have relations with her.“ 

‘Do not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife; that would dishonor your brother.“ 

‘Do not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter. Do not have sexual relations with either her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter; they are her close relatives. That is wickedness.“ 

‘Do not take your wife’s sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is living.“ ‘Do not approach a woman to have sexual relations during the uncleanness of her monthly period.“

 ‘Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor’s wife and defile yourself with her.“ 

‘Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molek, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.“ 

‘Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.“ 

‘Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion.“

 ‘Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.

But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the foreigners residing among you must not do any of these detestable things, for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.“ 

‘Everyone who does any of these detestable things—such persons must be cut off from their people. Keep my requirements and do not follow any of the detestable customs that were practiced before you came and do not defile yourselves with them. I am the LORD your God.’ ” (Leviticus 18:1-30)

“The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, He took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib He had taken out of the man, and He brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.”               (Genesis 2:18-24)

“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin condemns any people.”             (Proverbs 14:34)

“I the Lord do not change.” (Malachi 3:6)

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.” (Romans 1:18-32)

“There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.” (Proverbs 6:16-19)

“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:12,13)

“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:4,5)

“When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say. So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together. “What are we going to do with these men?” they asked. “Everyone living in Jerusalem knows they have performed a notable sign, and we cannot deny it. But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn them to speak no longer to anyone in this name.” Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” After further threats they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them, because all the people were praising God for what had happened. For the man who was miraculously healed was over forty years old.” (Acts 4:13-22)

 

Thank you for stopping by and taking time out of your busy day to read some of my posts and poems.

God Bless You

~Mary Dalke/Living4HisGlory

WARNING YOU WITH TEARS WEDNESDAY

Welcome to another post in the series of posts that I have entitled, Warning You With Tears Wednesdays. Lord willing, at least once a month on Wednesdays I will be writing and sharing one of these posts with you so that I can make you all aware of some important information that I come across on the Internet that you may not have heard about.

Since I knew that I would soon be starting a new job (and I did last month)  and that my free time will then be somewhat limited, I was trying to think of something that I could write on a regular basis that would be short and to the point (at least that was my intention). And since I am a detective-at-heart and desire to make you all aware of the importance of testing things that pastors and teachers say (and do) in light of Scripture (Acts 17:11), the idea to do these posts — as well as the name — came to my mind in November of 2014, based on Acts 20:26-31:

“For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He bought with His own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.”

So with all of that in mind, here is what I’d like to share with you in today’s WARNING YOU WITH TEARS WEDNESDAY:

Here’s some extremely important information by Sarah Leslie from the Herescope blog that you definitely need to be aware of whether your church presently has “cell groups,“ or may possibly be forming them in the near future. When time allows, I urge you to read >THIS ARTICLE<  entitled, THE CELL CHURCH. Please be sure to listen to Part 1 and 2 of Sarah Leslie’s very well researched presentation as she lays out a frightening scenario of what could happen, and what may be the ultimate reason behind these cell groups being formed. (Hint: Unity = 1 world religion).

If you are among the many voices trying to warn other Christians of false teachers and false teachings and are labeled ‘divisive’ among other things, here’s a very good article by Warren B. Smith entitled >DISCERNMENT DETRACTORS: CALLING GOOD EVIL< posted at Lighthouse Trails. (Lord willing, I’ll be doing book reviews on some of his excellent books later on this year for those of you who have requested to see book reviews on this blog).

Here’s a good article to read by Ray Yungen that will reveal to you just how New Age Spirituality is merging with Christianity and deceiving many:  >CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER OR THE HOLY SPIRIT- POSTED AT LIGHTHOUSE TRAILS< Would you be able to tell the difference? It’s happening in many churches through Spiritual Formation classes and in other ways at many churches, as well. (Lord willing, I will be writing on this very important topic in the near future, and will also be doing a review on one of Ray Yungen’s books later on this year).

And speaking of Contemplative Prayer, here’s a very good article by Roger Oakland of UNDERSTAND THE TIMES, entitled, >SEEKER FRIENDLY TO CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY< (Lord willing, I will also be doing a review on one of his many very good books that he writes in which he exposes the Emerging/Emergent Church, as well as the Eucharistic Christ, of Catholicism, later on this year).

Read the following article and you will begin to realize why many Christians are warning about the dangers of Contemplative Prayer: New Age mystic Thomas Keating, who is considered to be the father of centering/contemplative prayer, claims that >KUNDALINI ENERGY (SERPENT POWER) IS THE SAME AS CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER<  Is that a good enough reason for you to beware of Contemplative Prayer?

 As I watched the following very disturbing video, two Scriptures came to mind when I saw the hardness of this  woman’s heart that was made obvious because she could enjoy eating a meal while talking about such evil and  horrible things such as selling baby body parts after partial birth abortions!

“For the love of money is the root of all evil.” (1 Timothy 6:10)

“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless…” (2 Timothy 3:1-3a)

Please pray for God to open the eyes of this woman, and the eyes of many others involved in the abortion industry, that they will be able to clearly see the evil and brutality of abortion, and that God will draw them to Himself and grant them repentance, and save them by His grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone.

Here’s the very verbally graphic and disturbing video:

 

If you have watched Justin Peter’s excellent series exposing the Word of Faith Movement, then you will truly appreciate the following video presentation, as well! If, on the other hand, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, Joyce Meyer, and others who teach that you can speak things into existence are the teachers you listen to, then I urge you to please pray for discernment and watch the following video, as well! And please start testing their teachings in light of Scripture. (Acts 17:11)

 

I’ll end this post now with something that will bring God the praise and glory that He is so deserving of:

What could bring more glory to God than to post information with solid  evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ!

Here’s an article by Tim Chaffey that was posted on Answers in Genesis>RESURRECTION — NO DOUBT ABOUT IT<

In the following videos, as well as the article below, you will learn about Simon Greenleaf. He was a Royal Professor of Law at Harvard and was not a Christian. When challenged to examine the evidence concerning the resurrection of Jesus Christ by looking at Scripture, he simply shared the most basic facts, and yet he gave extremely compelling testimony by presenting  legal evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He was Jewish, but after careful examination of the Scriptures he also became a believer in Jesus Christ.

 

 

For anyone interested in purchasing this book, you can purchase it >HERE< on AMAZON.

Here’s another article concerning Simon Greenleaf:

THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST – FACT OR FICTION

 

RELATED SCRIPTURES

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.” (Proverbs31:8)

“You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about Me, and yet you refuse to come to Me to have life.” (John 5:39,40)

“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.” (Acts 3:19)

“The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt with heat. But in keeping with His promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.” (2 Peter 3:9-13)

Thank you for stopping by and taking time out of your busy day to read some of my posts and poems.

God Bless You

~Mary Dalke/Living4HisGlory

UPDATE:

Lord willing, another new post concerning spiritual deception, mysticism, and the lack of spiritual discernment coming soon!

TEACHING THURSDAY

 

Welcome to another edition in a new category of posts entitled, ‘TEACHING THURSDAY.’ Lord willing, at least once a month on Thursdays, I will be posting either a video, an article, or some form of teaching  in which a *Biblically sound teacher *(Biblically sound because what they say and teach lines up with the truth of God’s Word,  Acts 17:11) will either expose a cult, an unbiblical movement, teaching, or a practice that is leading many people and Christians astray, or present some type of Biblical teaching to help you grow in a deeper understanding of God’s Word on different topics. Some of these teachings may be essentials of the Christian faith, and others may be things that we can debate but not divide over.

It is my hope and prayer that by presenting these teachings to you, many more Christians will not only come to realize the importance of testing the words of men (and women) against the truth of God Word so they will not be deceived, but also it is my hope and prayer that many Christians will come to know the joy of learning and knowing God’s Word.

On with today’s ‘TEACHING THURSDAY.’

In light of the ruling that took place in the Supreme Court on Friday June 26th 2015, in which same sex marriage was declared to be legal in all of the United States, many Christians are now put in a position where they must choose either to go along with what the world says is acceptable, or stay true to God’s Word and continue to speak the truth in love. Sadly, we now live in a day when many are attempting to redefine God’s definition of marriage (Genesis 2:18-25) according to the desires of their sinful hearts. (Romans Chapter 1)

Then there are some who say that, although homosexuality was condemned in the Old Testament, they wrongly say that it was not addressed by Jesus Christ in the New Testament, and then there are others who claim that the Bible is filled with errors and inconsistencies.  Many Christians are unable to give any evidence for the reliability of Scripture and are therefore unable to answer the questions that arise about supposed inconsistencies that some people claim are in the Bible.

With all of that in mind, I thought that the following video by James White, as well as the next one by Pastor Randy White, would be helpful to many of you, because, as Christians, we need to be reminded of the fact that not only can we have complete assurance in the reliability of Scripture, but also we really need to learn to use our critical thinking skills and pray that God will help us learn to discern truth from error in this day when many Christians — including Christians in leadership positions — are choosing to compromise with Biblical truth, and are therefore on a downward spiral into apostasy.

 

With each passing day I am becoming more convinced that Jesus Christ could return in my lifetime because of all that we are seeing take place in our world. For those of you who may still be sitting on the fence, it’s time to stop compromising; please repent and make the choice to live for God wholeheartedly and according to His Word –before it’s too late!

 

RELATED SCRIPTURES

“For I am the LORD, I change not…” (Malachi 3:6)

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and for ever.” (Hebrews 13:8)

“Mine heart within is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whose wine hath overcome, because of the LORD, and because of the words of His holiness. For  the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourneth; the pleasant places of wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right. For both prophet and priest are profane; yea in My house have I found their wickedness, saith the LORD.

Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness; they shall be driven on, and fall therein; for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the LORD. And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in Baal, and caused My people Israel to err.

I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing; they commit adultery, and walk in lies; they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.

Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets: Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall; for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land. Thus saith the LORD of hosts. Harken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heard, and not out of the mouth of the LORD. They say still unto them that despise Me, the LORD hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, “No evil shall come upon you.” For who hath stood in the counsel of the LORD, and hath perceived and heard His Word? Who hath marked His Word, and heard it?

Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind; it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked. The anger of the LORD shall not return, until He has executed, and till He have performed the thoughts of His heart; in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly.

I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in My counsel, and had caused My people to hear My Words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doing.

Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? Saith the LORD. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” saith the LORD. I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in My name saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. How long shall this be in the hearts of the prophets that prophesy lies? Yea they are prophets of the deceit of their own hearts; Which think to cause My people to forget My name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers have forgotten My name for Baal.

The prophet that hath a dream , let him tell a dream; and he that hath My Word, let him speak My Word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat?” saith the LORD. Is not My Word like as a fire?” saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces. Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal my words every one from his neighbour.

Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that use their tongues, and say, He saith. Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord.” (Jeremiah 23:9-32) KJV

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15 KJV)

“In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:12-17)

“Your Word, LORD, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens.” (Psalm 119:89)

“Long ago I learned from Your statutes that You established them to last forever.” (Psalm 119:152)

“All Your Words are true; all Your righteous laws are eternal.”                     (Psalm 119:60)

“The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God endures forever.” (Isaiah 40:8)

“Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on His law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers. Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.” (Psalm 1:-6)

“The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign LORD, “when I will send a famine through the land—not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD. People will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the LORD, but they will not find it.” (Amos 8:11,12)

UPDATE: More posts coming soon –Lord willing. My free time is very limited these days, and presently I am working on a few posts whenever time allows, and one is becoming quite lengthy because of all the information I found when I was doing some research.

A book review is coming soon, as well.

Thank you for stopping by and taking time out of your busy day to read some of my posts and poems.

God Bless You

~Mary Dalke/Living4HisGlory

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