Category: Lessons from the Holy Bible

Posted in Lessons from the Holy Bible, Living in Today's World, Security in Jesus, The Gospel, Truth

Whose Book Are You Reading?

Posted on by Streim
For several years now I have watched and heard some of the most demonic, bizarre, sensual, earthly and new-age philosophies seep gradually into MANY  mainstream christian churches of the world. European countries; Australia and New Zealand; and the largest churches in North America; especially the USA.  I could write for weeks/months about the many different worldly ‘pinches of leaven’ mixed with the True Gospel I’ve read/seen from what I thought were solid Godly organizations.  I’m seeing and hearing more and more everyday in Contemporary Gospel music as well.   Could this be the great falling away written in 2 Thessalonians 2?   I ask this because why would anyone who claims the name of Christ, want to  add to or take anything from the Word of God– the Holy Scriptures.  The LORD God gave many admonitions throughout the Bible about adding to or taking away from HIS Holy Word:  Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32 — Gal. 3:15 — Matt. 5:18-19 — Rev. 22:18.  These are just a few of the many.
Three reasons I discovered for “changing” the True Gospel according to the LORD God’s Holy Word!
  •  it make the makes the Gospel more pleasing to the hearer
  •  it’s politically correct and morally easier to accept 
  •  it stirs human feelings and emotions, making people feel good and believe “it is ALL about me” after all                                              
TRUE GOSPEL— The loving gift of redemption the Creator of everything visible and invisible, the LORD God Almighty gave to us; a sinful, selfish, cold-hearted, lust-filled mankind; came through the shed blood of His only Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  He’s shared His character with us through His breathed out Holy Word.  Then filling the redeemed with the Holy Spirit.  I so desire to share this message with anyone who will listen or read.  I prayed last night, before getting into bed, and asked our Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus to show me from His Word how He would have to share the glorious True Gospel with others.
THE CHOICE IS YOURS

The Living Water and The Bread of Life = Pure Truth of the HOLY WORD

Waste treated bottled water and Corn Beef on moldy rye = The lies/deceit/heresy of the world’s new Christianity and it’s leaders who would rather give you philosophies, new age thinking, or the God is love message all the time

~~~~~~

This morning, when I woke up, a verse came to mind.  “now unto Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present to faultless before the Throne of Glory, to our Only Wise God and Savior be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and  forever and ever.  Amen.” (Jude 1:24-25)  Now I know it’s not verbatim from the Bible so some of you may pooh-pooh this; but, it was not extra biblical revelation stuff or a profound prophetic event, it was simply the answer to my prayer.  As I write this I’m smiling because the heretics, apostates, evil, sneaky, slimy, glittery, pleasant-sounding words that are “lies from the deceiver himself”  can not— I repeat CAN NOT   draw a blood bought adopted child of the One True G-D away from our Father and Lord Jesus!!
My sincere desire is that all the brethren of the True Church,  the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ is:  To hold to the only true standard of teaching: the Holy Bible
not a watered down version, not a twisted version, not a verse out of context version;  all these with even a pinch of leaven added to “spoil/rot” the Holy Scriptures.   ♥Streim

 

 

 

Posted in Lessons from the Holy Bible, Living in Today's World, Standing Firmly for Truth, Truth

No Rose Garden Promised Here

Posted on by Streim

During the late 1960’s until 1973 I sang in a local band.  We performed for weddings, graduations, in taverns (18-year-old beer and wine only bars), parties and just about anywhere a small band could.  I was the only female, and often just did backup vocals and harmony.  Our band –The Happy Medium– (called so because we played/sang every genre of music possible, right down to polkas), consisted of lead singer, lead guitar, bass guitar, drummer (all four were guys) and me… backup singer, tambourine player :).  I sang music by artists like Carly Simon, Carol King, Brenda Lee, Anne Murray, Lynn Anderson, Karen Carpenter and others.  I always liked singing Lynn Anderson’s “Rose Garden”!

Today’s Christianity is filled with numerous “false gospels”, many of which its leaders teach that being a Christian means you’ll have a prosperous (materially) life; or that if you have enough faith, you can have or do anything you want.  Well, I am here to tell you the two words to describe a true Christian’s life are not “Rose Garden”:

They are SURRENDER and SACRIFICE!

There is only one statement made by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that is recorded in all four Gospels.  It deals with how to live the Christian life according to God’s will and not our own.

Matthew 16:24-27   Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.  For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.  For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.”

Mark 8: 34-38   When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.  For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.  For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?  Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?  For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

Luke 14:27   “And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.”

John 12:25-26    “He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.

As the Apostle Paul in Romans 5:1-5  “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,  through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.  And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance;and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. 

It’s not enough for a person to make a decision for Christ at an altar.  A blood bought child of God cannot walk successfully without repentance.  While repentance is not a work that earns salvation, repentance unto salvation does result in works. It is impossible to truly and fully change your mind without that causing a change in action. In the Bible, repentance results in a change in behavior.  The most evident change in behavior is to surrender our will daily to do the will of the Father!  That includes body, soul, mind and spirit to the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ to be used as HE sees fit; for His glory and honor.  Not for our gratification; although that is a beautiful by-product of surrender— JOY!!   We need to take regular inventory of our commitment to our Father and Lord Jesus.  Honestly, I know this to be so true.  Very often I must take an inventory of relationship with my God, as I believe every blood bought adopted child of God MUST do. Even when I take spiritual check-ups and realize something is amiss in my personal relationship with Him, I never cease to be amazed at His love, grace and mercy which fills me with hope looking to my eternal destination— and the peace of knowing that no matter how bad things get (or are), He is always with me.

Paul never glamorized the gospel.  It is not success, but sacrifice! It’s not a glamorous gospel ,but a bloody gospel, a gory gospel, and a sacrificial gospel!   Five minutes inside eternity and we will wish that we had sacrificed more, wept more, bled more, grieved more, loved more, prayed more, given more!  (edited) Leonard Ravenhill
Praying for “all the saints”.  Be blessed ♥ Streim
Posted in Lessons from the Holy Bible, Photography, Standing Firmly for Truth, Truth

As The Wind Blows

Posted on by Streim

Beautiful October

Autumn is always a windy time of year here in the northern Great Lakes area.   Leaves die from lack of sunlight, fall to the ground and the wind grabs them and swirls them everywhere. Lately it seems our winds aren’t just from the north (as I remember from years past) but every possible direction; often the winds are opposing each other.  I know it’s frustrating for my neighbors and friends, as I’ve watched rake their leaves into nice, neat piles only to have the wind seemingly come from nowhere and scatter the leaves again.
The Apostle Paul wrote a letter to the Church in Ephesus about their new-found lives in Jesus Christ.  Some individuals within the church began to stir up the people with doctrines and beliefs that opposed the true gospel message of Jesus Christ.  The result was divisions and schisms.  Paul’s letter “set them straight”. In chapter 4 of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul exhorts and encourages the church as Ephesus with guidelines and Godly wisdom for the Body of Christ.

4: 1-16 ” Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says, ‘WHEN HE ASCENDED ON HIGH, HE LED CAPTIVE A HOST OF CAPTIVES, AND HE GAVE GIFTS TO MEN.’ (Now this expression, ‘He ascended,’ what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.) And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together * by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. “  (NASB)

I watch or read daily of these doctrines of heresy be thrown from every direction; just as those autumn leaves.  The leaves will die, biodegrade and be used by the earth as fertilizer for the following spring.  Interestingly, the heretical doctrines will die along with all those (and there are as many as colors of fading fall leaves) deceivers, heretics, antichrists, liars, deceivers, wolves in sheep’s clothing, blasphemers and the subtle sweet teachers of extra biblical insight and prove to be “leaven” that will nourish the great falling away! For those who believe these deceivers what can be done?   There are only two possible outcomes.  One, if they continue believing in these doctrines of men and NOT of the Holy Word, they will DIE–perish; but with an imperishable body they will suffer the wrath of Almighty God for eternity.  Or, rather than listening to others, they will pick up a Bible and use it!!  Read it, study it, feed on it, use it as a proofing source for all teaching.  IF, they will ‘open the spiritual eyes of their understanding’ and see the lies and immediately repent–turn away from them and return to the Truth of the Holy Scriptures, they will DIE — perish; but the imperishable body they will enter the Kingdom of Heaven and rejoice.  May we all be praying for the Body of Christ that none be led astray… sending blessings ♥ Streim