Not Our Will, But His!

If there is one thing that I know is that God my Father has a better plan for me than any I can conceive of. I have given Him full authority to do in me and for me. The Bible has a term called submit. Now I really don't like the word submit. It's good in areas of work, discipline and such. It is not a good word if it is used to control others. There are people out there who love controlling others, but if someone tries to control them, they don't like it.
Recently I had to  really submit to God's will over something in my life. In the past if you were my friend, I don't mean just friend, I mean that I consider you family, and you betrayed me for whatever reason, I would never have a thing to do with you, speak to you or absolutely anything to do with you.
This happened to use a couple of  years ago. Over those last two years I had that same attitude. But God began dealing with me on this issue. I decided to communicate with this person. During the communication I felt that this person wasn't feeling worthy, loved, confident and so on. So in the middle of the communication God reminded me of the prodigal son. Remember where the first born son decided to take his inheritance and go out on his own? Total failure took place in that you man's life. So he decided to return home very reluctantly. When his father noticed him coming home from a distance, he ran towards his son and embraced him, dressed him in the finest clothing and threw a big party. Then the father told him that his place of honor was completely restored.
So suddenly I that person that as a believer it was my duty to act as close to Christ behavior that a man can. I told him that Christ thought that he was worthy enough to pay the ultimate price for him. So I too said that he was worth any price I had to pay to restore his friendship and that if he wanted he could return to his place of honor with me and be fully restored as the friend he had been.
Now I'm telling you that this was God's grace working in me. Remember that grace is God's ability working in me to make changes in me that I could never do myself. Now I'm not saying that if this ever took place again in the future that I would do the same thing. Circumstances could be totally different, or the possibility that I wouldn't yield to God's will.
Will this make our friendship better? I don't know only time will tell. But I know that whatever happens, God plan is far more greater than mine. This is only an example of the many opportunities that God gives us to submit to His will. It's not a submission of slavery or one that would cause you harm. God is only good and good all the time. All His plans for us are far beyond what we could hope for us. Learn to submit to His will and I promise you that you will see changes you wouldn't believe would take place in your life.

Does God Test Us?

There are many misconceptions about God. There are also many scriptures man takes out of context or makes small changes in it to control others. We must always read the Bible for ourselves and we must do so in the original language. When we read the Bible in the original language we can see the differences. I don't mean you have to learn ancient Greek and Hebrew, just use the tools that we have in lexicons, dictionaries, interliners and etc.
So the answer to "Does God Test Us"? Is no!
Here is where we find the answer:

Jas 1:12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Jas 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: Jas 1:14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Jas 1:15
Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. God tempts no one. We are tempted when we yield to our own lust. Our lust can be many things, not just sexual. Money, power, control of others and more. When we start believing in things that are opposite of what God says, we then begin to fall into our own desires. From there temptation comes and then sin enters in.

Jas 1:17

God only has good for us. Not only that but He is only good all the time. He never does one thing to tempt, hurt or cause any destruction in our lives. Why in the world would He have gave up His Son for us and then turn around and do bad things to us.

I've heard it said many times, my self included, that God let bad things happen to me. No God didn't. Bad things happen because of bad decisions, bad things people do, and stuff happens in everyday life.








Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

Join Me LIve!

Join me live at 11am eastern time (US). Pastor Allen's message is on the modern family. He is speaking about marriage, you don't want to miss it. If you are single, engaged or married you will want to hear this message.
Go to http://www.fambibleorg/ and live stream or join the Xchange. The Xchange is an internet church where there are no rules, just relationships. You can chat with me or any one of our web Pastors.

What to Pray When You Don't Know What to Say

There are many times when we don't know what we should day when we need to pray. Sometimes we are so upset, feed up or etc. and we just don't know what to pray. There are times when we want to pray for something to manifest in our lives, but we just don't have the words. There are even those times in the middle of the night when the Holy Spirit will wake me up and tell me to pray in the Spirit. I don't know what He wants me to pray about or for whom. It could be for me or it could be for someone on the opposite side of the world. I know that there have been times when He woke me up and had me pray, and then the next day I would find out that some natural disaster took place some where and knew that is what He had me pray for.

So what should we do?

Let's look a Romans 8:25-27

Rom 8:25 But if we hope for what we do not yet observe, we eagerly wait for it with patience. Rom 8:26 In the same way, the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, since we do not know how to pray as we should. But the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words, Rom 8:27
 When there is something in you life that you need prayer for, let's just say for health. Intentionally set your intent for prayer for tongues (praying in the Spirit) on health. The Holy Spirit then looks into your heart so that He can intercede for you. He then goes before God and intercedes on your behalf. God then works in the area of health so that it can manifest in your life. However, there is a little more to that. Faith must work in you. Faith means, trust and believe. You must trust that God has already done what He says He has done. He has already provided every promise and blessing through Jesus Christ.
Saints in the New Testament means people who believe in Jesus Christ and God our Father. If when you pray believe that you have received then what you pray for will manifest itself in your life. We must look past our circumstance and believe that God is bigger than any circumstance that we face and that He has delivered us from that circumstance. and the one who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, for the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to God's will.

The Christian Attitude!

The Christian Attitude!

I see Christians with the wrong attitude about others all the time. However, the wrong attitude is not limited to Christians. But today were are going to discuss the Christian attitude, what it should be, whose example do we follow. Not every Christian has the wrong attitude towards others, but a lot do.

Eph 4:1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, urge you to live in a way that is worthy of the calling to which you have been called,

Eph 4:2 demonstrating all expressions of humility, gentleness, and patience, accepting one another in love.

Eph 4:3 Do your best to maintain the unity of the Spirit by means of the bond of peace.

There are many verses in the Bible that tell us to act in the way that we see here in Ephesians. It doesn’t say tell people God hates them because they are homosexuals, thieves, murders and etc. It doesn’t say protest funerals telling the fallen soldiers family that their son or daughter is going to hell because they killed another in combat. First of all these people don’t understand their own Bible. God said not to murder people. There is a big difference between murdering someone and killing an enemy in defense of your country.

Where is the love in telling people God hates them, which is a lie? Where is the love and compassion in telling people that their family member is going to hell because they killed in combat? One more thing about the soldier’s funeral. How do those who protest those funerals even know if that soldier killed another in combat? Maybe that soldier hadn’t seen combat and was killed in an attack before they could even fight back.

It is not the job of Christians to protest against the actions of others. It is not the job of Christians to show hate or anger because someone is acting different that what they think they should act.

So where do we find our example in how our attitude should be? God’s Word and the actions of Jesus himself. No where do we see Jesus protesting, condemning, judging or acting in a foolish manner towards anyone.

When the Pharisees brought the prostitute before him, we don’t see him telling her that she is going to hell because of her sin. No, we see mercy, compassion, love, gentleness and more. That is the attitude we must take at all times.

Now that story of the Pharisees has more to it than what we have been taught and what we see at first glance when we read that story.

In the story the very first thing that we notice is that only the women was brought before Jesus, not the man. It takes two to commit adultery. These so called men of God got together, hired the prostitute and decided which one or one’s were going to have sex with her. I can see them drawing lots to see who the lucky winner or winners were going to be.

Jesus knew what was going on. But how we should act towards anyone is seen here in this story. Jesus showed all of the fruit of the Spirit. He showed mercy, love, forgiveness, gentleness, kindness towards these women. No matter what a person has done, is doing or is going to do that does not line up with the Word of God; this is how we are to treat them.

So before you judge another for their actions, you should first remove the log from your eye before you try removing the twig from the eye of another.

1Ti 6:11 But you, man of God, must flee from all these things. Instead, you must pursue righteousness, godliness, faithfulness, love, endurance, and gentleness.

Let us see what the fruit of the Spirit is:

Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

The Gospel of Peace, The Need for Peace!

The Gospel of Peace

The Need for Peace

Emotional and spiritual needs are by far more essential than our physical needs.

As a matter of fact, when the emotional needs are met, it is relatively easy to take care of the physical needs.

But the emotional needs of a person are met only through personally experiencing the love of God through the Lord Jesus Christ.

People need to feel the love and peace of God.

We all need to permeated with the positive emotions that come from a meaningful relationship with God.

We can endure sickness, poverty, and pain, but we cannot endure poverty of the inner man.

Pro 18:14 A man's spirit can sustain him during his illness, but who can bear a crushed spirit?

Physical healing is meaningless to the person who has a broken heart.

Prosperity does not ease the pain of loneliness.

Success is no substitute for a sense of dignity and worth that comes from the Lord Jesus.

We do not want to deny God’s desire and willingness to meet the physical needs, but we must bring it into perspective.

God created man.

He placed him in a garden called Paradise.

There were no pain, suffering, or sorrow.

Man lived in a peaceful, loving relationship with God.

That is the environment for which we were created.

We were never designed to live apart from peace, love, and acceptance.

The day Adam ate the forbidden fruit; he acquired a new capacity for the human race: the knowledge of good and evil.

With this knowledge, man now started making decisions about good and evil independently of God.

Man began to determine righteousness apart from God.

Subsequently, he rejected God’s standards and developed his own.

Hence, we have the birth of religion.

Religion has always been mean, and it is still mean.

The first religion is the same as it has always been.

It is man attempting to relate to God on his own terms.

In order to do that we must, of course, reject God’s terms.

We also must reject anyone who does not comply to our terms.

The first religion caused Cain to kill Abel.

He hated him because Abel’s sacrifice was accepted and his wasn’t.

He had labored for his sacrifice.

Logic would say that his was of more value, by Cain was operating in his own knowledge of righteousness and unrighteousness.

1Jn 3:12 Do not be like Cain, who was from the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because what he was doing was evil and his brother's actions were righteous.

Thousands of years later, Paul said in his book of Galatians that the children of the flesh always persecute the children of the Spirit.

In other words, the religious always persecute the righteous. Why?

The religious despise the righteousness that God has chosen and given.

There is a logic to religion.

Religion is man’s attempt to be right with God and find peace in a way that makes sense to him.

Religion sees the greatest need of man as being right with God.

If someone doesn’t agree with us, he is implying that we are wrong.

Since it is essential that we be right, we must prove him wrong.

If we can’t prove him wrong, then we kill him.

That’s exactly what Cain did.

The need to be right has tormented men since the day Adam ate the fruit.

Adam started making decisions apart from God right off the bat.

“We had better make some clothes to cover ourselves, because I don’t think its right to be naked before God. We had better hide when God calls us. He’s probably mad.”

Man began to scramble to be right.

But every decision to be right, apart from God’s perspective, drove him deeper into pain, suffering, and self-imposed separation from God.

Regardless:

-         Of how pure the motives.

-         Of how sincere the intention.

-         Of the dedication to God.

-         Of how good we are.

The attempt to establish right and wrong apart from God is a rejection of God and His truth.

Rom 10:3 For they are ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God while they try to establish their own, and they have not submitted to God's means to attain righteousness.

Every attempt at being righteous with God apart from accepting His terms ultimately will have a negative effect.

As long as we’re doing everything right, we will have peace, but when we fail, we will lose peace.

There will never be an abiding sense of confidence and peace—one that lasts despite our success or failure.

The Bible says that law cannot make one righteous; it can only give him an awareness of sin.

So when you fail you will no longer have peace.

Then there is the problem of those who disagree with us.

They have a different definition of righteous than we have.

We must prove them wrong in order to maintain our peace.

The struggle is endless.

You cannot live this way.

You were not created to live this way.

God wants you to live in a harmonious relationship with Him an in harmonious relationship with people.

This can happen only when you have peace.

You can have peace only when you know you are righteous.

You can know you are righteous only when you accept the gift of righteousness through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Rom 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus the Messiah.

Peace is far more essential to Christian living than we have ever realized.

The gift of righteousness produces peace through Jesus.

Peace gives boldness and confidence to pursue a relationship with God.

Through Him we have access to grace (God’s ability) in which we stand.

When there is no peace, there will be no relationship, no confidence, and no grace to work in our lives.

And apart from grace we are limited to our own ability to serve God and live a righteous life.

We need peace!

Don't Be Deceived!

Don’t Be Deceived!

The same old deception that Paul dealt with is still going on today. People don't want to believe that Christ died for you and me, and that He is the Son of God.

Here in America there is an attack on Christians from non-believers, atheist, Muslims and the like. Now some Christian pastors are compromising with the Muslims to create a new religion called Chrislam.

Gal 1:6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of the Messiah and, instead, are following a different gospel,

Gal 1:7 not that another one really exists. To be sure, there are certain people who are troubling you and want to distort the gospel about the Messiah.

Paul goes on t0 say that even if an angel from heaven tries to teach you another gospel than that of Jesus Christ our Messiah, don't believe it.

If you establish your belief in the Word of God, have a relationship with God, no one can shake you from your belief in God.

In every other religion in the world they all originated from man, not Christianity it originated from God our Father.

Gal 1:11 For I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin.

Gal 1:12 For I did not receive it from a man, nor was I taught it, but it was revealed to me by Jesus the Messiah.

We are to be separate from the world in our beliefs and behavior. We cannot mix our beliefs or compromise them for anyone, group, government or etc. When we became believers we were crucified with Christ and allowed Him to live in us. We are to be more like Christ than the world.

Gal 2:19 For through the Law I died to the Law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with the Messiah.

Gal 2:20  I no longer live, but the Messiah lives in me, and the life that I am now living in this body I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

It is foolish for us to start out believing that Jesus is our Messiah and then turns our beliefs around and believe in our abilities and act in a manner consistent with the world of unbelievers.

Gal 3:3 Are you so foolish? Having started out with the Spirit, are you now ending up with the flesh?

Gal 4:3 It was the same way with us. While we were children, we were slaves to the basic principles of the world.

Gal 4:4 But when the appropriate time had come, God sent his Son, born by a woman, born under the Law,

Gal 4:5 in order to redeem those who were under the Law, and thus to adopt them as his children.

Gal 4:6 Now because you are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts to cry out, "Abba! Father!"

Gal 4:7 So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if you are a child, then you are also an heir because of what God did.

Before we became believers we were slaves to the world system and misguided beliefs. But Jesus came and redeemed us from being slaves to the world system and its misguided beliefs.

Gal 4:8 However, in the past, when you did not know God, you were slaves to things that are not really gods at all.

Gal 4:9 But now that you know God, or rather have been known by God, how can you turn back again to those powerless and bankrupt basic principles? Why do you want to become their slaves all over again?

After experiencing God and seeing His love, protecting, prosperity, health and all that He has done for me, why in the world would I want to believe anything else than the Gospel of Peace he has given us?

Why would I want to believe and act like the world of non-believers or act like believers who are believing in the world system and beliefs?

We must believe or act as the world does. We must stand firm on the foundation of Christ which is freedom and not slavery to a world system.

Gal 5:1 The Messiah has set us free so that we may enjoy the benefits of freedom. So keep on standing firm in it, and stop putting yourselves under the yoke of slavery again.

Gal 5:16 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will never fulfill the desires of the flesh.

Gal 5:17  For what the flesh wants is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit wants is opposed to the flesh. They are opposed to each other, and so you do not do what you want to do.

Gal 5:18 But if you are being led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.

We should listen to the Holy Spirit and live a life that magnifies the life of Jesus. Our goal should be to become more like Jesus every day.

But the world system is opposed to the life that Jesus died to give us. It is very tempting for us to follow that life style because of our sin nature, but we are to be led by the Holy Spirit.

As our relationship grows with God our Father the less we want to be part of the world system. I've heard it said a lot that we Christians are narrow minded. The opposite is actually true. God says that anyone who does not believe what God says is blind, foolish and can't even see their ignorance.

When we allow God into our hearts and mind, our knowledge, wisdom and understanding expand to unlimited possibilities because it all comes from God.

Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

Gal 5:23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.

Gal 5:24 Now those who belong to the Messiah Jesus have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires.

Gal 5:25 Since we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also be guided.

Gal 5:26 Let’s stop being arrogant, provoking one another and envying one another.

Stop Being Deceived!

Gal 6:7 Stop being deceived; God is not to be ridiculed. A person harvests whatever he plants:

Gal 6:8 The person who sows through human means will harvest decay from human means, but the person who sows in the Spirit will harvest eternal life from the Spirit.

Those pastors who are compromising Christianity are really not grounded in their beliefs. That is the beliefs of God. Some may even be compromising so that they are not persecuted for their beliefs.

Gal 6:12 These people who want to impress others by their external appearance are trying to force you to be circumcised, simply to avoid being persecuted for the cross of the Messiah.

We cannot change our beliefs about God because someone doesn't agree with it. Or because someone could be offended. Not even if we are persecuted for it. Our belief in Jesus must not be changed by any outside influence. We must stand our ground and say I will not compromise!

The Gospel of Peace, The Judgment of God

The Gospel of Peace

The Judgment of God

One of the foundations of faith for the New Testament church is the doctrine of judgment.

Now, apart from knowing the truth about judgment, we could find ourselves in any one of many different types of error.

But make no mistake; there will be a Day of Judgment.

And that judgment will be far worse than anything being pronounced by the prophets of doom.

It will be fierce, and it will be eternal.

The book of Revelation describes with vivid detail that time when the wrath of God will be poured out on the world.

Even then we, the church, will be delivered from His wrath.

John wrote:

Rev 1:10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,

“The Lord’s Day” refers to that great and terrible Day (period of time) when the judgment of God will come upon the earth.

All events in the book of Revelation take place at that time.

It is worthy to note, however, that even this fierce judgment does not bring repentance.

Rev 9:21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

Judgment, regardless of how severe, does not bring repentance.

When unredeemed man stands before God, it will be in the Great White Throne Judgment.

Those who have not accepted Jesus as their righteousness will appear before God to be judged according to their works.

Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

They will be judged according to their works because that is the only righteousness they will have.

They will have rejected the free gift of righteousness in Jesus.

But, unfortunately:

Rom 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

To stand before God, having rejected the righteousness of Jesus, will always mean an eternal hell.

The Bible says God will judge in righteousness.

It is righteous to judge a world that has rejected the free gift of righteousness.

Jesus suffered sin, the curse, hell, and torment for all the world.

No man needs to suffer hell.

It is total and absolute defiance for a man to reject such a great and merciful salvation.

Righteousness demands the judgment of these people.

These people will not be judged as to salvation; they already had that opportunity.

They will be judged by their works in which they trusted.

With the absolute certainty of this future judgment, we should proclaim that God’s mercy is available now.

Pointing out a future judgment is not bad, if you give people the Good News as well.

The Good News is this:

You do not have to be judged.

You do not have to go to hell.

Jesus has paid the price.

You can have the free gift of righteousness.

The believer will never come into the White Throne Judgment.

The believer will appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

2Co 5:10  For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

Does this mean, as some say, that we will all stand before Jesus and have our every sin exposed?

I think not.

Most of the Scriptures used to support that view are taken out of context.

I am not sure how this will happen, but all our works will pass through the fire before appearing before the Lord.

1Co 3:13 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.

The fire will test our works to determine if they are wood, hay, stubble, or precious metals.

Works that are based on the foundation of faith-righteousness are good works.

We are called to good works in Christ Jesus.

We have a purpose in this life:               We should bear fruit.

Dead works, on the other hand, are those things we do to make ourselves righteous and acceptable before God.

Those dead works will be burned.

They are a testimony to our unbelief in the finished work of Jesus.

But even if all our works are burned, we will be saved.

1Co 3:15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

The real purpose for our standing before the Lord is to receive rewards.

1Co 3:14 If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.

There will be wonderful rewards for what we have done in this life in response to the goodness of God.

There is much I do not understand about this time of rewards.

I dare not even speculate, but I know it will be glorious.

Although people should know about the eternal judgments of the Great White Throne Judgment, they also should know about the judgment seat of Christ, where our works will be judged and we will be given rewards.

Since there will be these judgments, let us judge our own motives.

Let us live, walk and minister in the love of God so we will receive our reward.

Let us minister in a way that glorifies Jesus instead of man.

Because there will be a Day of Judgment, let us preach, teach, an warn men everywhere to turn from wickedness.

But let’s do it in love and goodness, which bring men to repentance.

Let us not despise the lost and the backslidden, but let us, with mercy and kindness, restore them to the Lord.

Let us have the same value for the human race as God did when He sacrificed His Son to reconcile the world to Himself.

Let them taste and see that the Lord is good when they experience (taste) God through us.

If God is at peace with the world through Jesus, then we, as His ambassadors, should be at peace.

Let us refrain from breeding fear and living in fear.

Fear is not from God.

Fear causes people to run from a loving Father into an eternal destruction.

Rev 21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

Of all the sins that would enslave a man, fear and unbelief are at the top of the list.

Fear prevents you from believing and trusting the God who loves you and freely gives you the gift of righteousness in Jesus.

We should understand the reality of the judgment that Jesus received in our place when He went to the cross.

We should be confident that we do not have to fear judgment in this life.

The Gospel of Peace, The Error of Balaam.

The Gospel of Peace

The Error of Balaam

Throughout church history there have been those who desired to work their own agendas with God’s people.

Some of them desire to use people for their own personal gain.

Many, on the other hand, desire to see the church established, but because of ignorance or unbelief, they do not trust the methods of God.

Do I believe God can change people by His Spirit when they hear the truth?

Or do I feel I must resort to carnal means of fear and manipulation to accomplish the will of God?

No matter how I justify my actions, if I depart from biblical truth to “help” someone, I am in sin.

I am fully convinced that God can work with truth.

We need not resort to our frail and foolish attempts to bring men to repentance.

It seems that the most popular method of bringing people to repentance is the fear of judgment.

We think we can scare people into returning to God.

Fear may change one’s actions, but only love will change one’s heart.

The Bible warns against the error of Balaam and the way of Balaam.

Now, these are not the same.

They were sins committed by the same person, but they are different.

We should know and avoid both of these sins.

Jud 1:11 Woe unto them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

Lenski says Jude’s warning has a climax: “taking the bad way (the way of Cain) which is to devote oneself to error, contradicting God’s Word.”

They were willing to depart from God’s Word because of what they had to gain.

Let us examine this to understand how and why Balaam contradicted the Word of God.

Second Peter talks about the way of Balaam.

The way of Balaam was to do unrighteousness for gain.

This is a sin that is easy to detect.

We are quick to label and deal with the one who uses ministry for unrighteous profit.

Yet there is a more deadly error that works among us.

It brings more destruction and pain than the former, but it is considered to be acceptable.

It also is the standard operating procedure for most Christians.

While Peter talked about the way of Balaam, Jude talked about the error of Balaam and associated it with Cain and Core.

Balaam’s error was to believe that God would curse what He had already blessed.

He reasoned that since he was a prophet, if he spoke it, it would come about in truth.

He tried to speak curses on God’s people.

Because he was motivated by greed, his greed caused him to justify his error.

It is easy for us to justify our actions when we enter the error of Balaam.

Unlike Balaam, we are not doing it for greed.

Rather, we really want our friends, our family, or our church members to repent.

We have a good motive, so the end justifies the means.

But we are in sin, regardless of our motive, when we try to pronounce a curse on those whom God has blessed.

Even if we think it will bring about repentance, it is sin.

It is even easier to justify when we see people change their behavior as a result of the fear we heap upon them.

That type of change never lasts, however.

In Christianity, people seem to cycle through life:

-         They do pretty good.

-         They get weary.

-         They begin to compromise.

-         They get into sin.

-         They get miserable.

-         And then they start the cycle all over again.

This is because they never come to have a meaningful relationship with God, their change is always short-lived.

The fear that brought about repentance (an afterthought because of consequences) did not bring about real repentance (a change of mind).

The devil is a discourager.

He always wants God’s people to be cursed.

Sadly, he is always able to find a willing soul to do his bidding.

It is never too hard to find an angry, judgmental Christian who is ready to speak for God.

Num 22:12 And God said unto Balaam, Thou shalt not go with them; thou shalt not curse the people: for they are blessed.

How much more are the people of God blessed under this new covenant?

We have been set free from the curse, and no man, speaking by the Spirit, can pronounce the curse of God upon the people of God.

1Co 12:3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.

We are the body of Christ.

We are bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh.

To pronounce judgment on God’s people is to pronounce judgment on Jesus.

Remember, when Paul persecuted the church, Jesus appeared to him and said, “Saul, Saul, why persecutes thou me?” (Acts 9:4, emphasis added).

To persecute the church is to persecute Jesus.

To pronounce judgment on the church is to pronounce judgment on Jesus.

In Christ, we have been delivered from condemnation.

Rom 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Condemnation is the expectation of judgment.

Because we are free from the flesh (that is, righteousness by the works of the flesh), we don’t have to live in fear of not “measuring up.”

We should not be living in the tormenting expectancy of judgment.

Because we have been reconciled (exchanged) and made righteous, we are delivered from wrath.

Rom 5:9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

Since judgment it totally contrary to the work of the cross, those who pronounce judgment are speaking contrary to the cross.

The motive may be pure, but the belief is the error of Balaam.

We should repent of our attempts to manipulate people into right behavior.

Regardless of our motive, regardless of our logic, regardless of our theological preferences, we must return to the truth.

Rom 2:4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

There are those out there who believe in grace and peace who have become as intolerant as anyone else.

We must not attack, condemn, or judge those who preach a judgment message.

At the same time, we must not entertain their words for a moment.

Isa 54:17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.

We cannot accept the judgment message as valid or scriptural.

We must never see it as the attitude of God toward man.

He has declared peace and goodwill toward men, through the Lord