UNDERSTANDING, CHALLENGES

There is authentic reality, and then there is what we think we know about what we believe. There is always a challenge to knowing reality for what it is.

My dear readers, are you willing to have your understanding, beliefs, and faith challenged?

If so, first carefully consider the following challenges to your understanding.

Understanding Challenge # 1: Senses

All humans are souls housed in bodies that possess five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. These senses can challenge our reasoning; therefore, there comes a time when we must trust one or the other, and how will we know which one is correct? Is the world flat or not? Intellect wins that battle when we have a revelation and realize there is a horizon; hence, the world is not flat.

Understanding Challenge #2: Culture and Family Ties

Throughout history, culture and family ties have played a significant role in shaping the minds and wills of their members. The human mind can follow a distorted reality because of our connections and affections for those we love. The mind and will win that battle through rebirth into another family and culture. Jesus said to Nicodemus, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." When the God who is God becomes your Father, all culture and family ties fade away, and when they do, we begin to see God's kingdom.

Understanding Challenge #3: Origin and the Meaning of Life

Some government officials make particular beliefs mandatory for their citizens. Going against the tide, which could mean death, naturally produces fear and deceives many people about what they choose to believe. Sinful men, which we all are, naturally, through pride in self, conform to father Satan, who hates the one true God, who demands moral excellence and perfect obedience to His divine will. “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9)

My patient readers, I raise these previous influences in our lives because knowing truth as it comes from the one true God is far from easy, as His Word tells us. "In whose case the god of this world (Satan) has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." (2 Corinthians 4:4; emphasis added) I've pointed out 3 challenges to believing the truth and seeing outside the box. We know that Satan deludes the minds of the unbelieving, but what of the believing? Are we beyond deception? When Paul wrote to the gathering of believers in Galatia, he said, "I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel;" (Galatians 1:6). Every mature believer knows that sin never ceases in this life to be a problem. Furthermore, God ensured sound doctrine for the Ekklesia by having His Apostles write His word about the truth of everything that matters; yet Paul had to ask in 1 Corinthians 1:13, "Is Christ divided?"

Therefore, let us be humble as we consider our present challenges, and let us consider questions meant to shake us from our stability, if that stability is, in fact, based on a lie.

Question #1: Why Did God Allow Israel's Corruption?

Consider this! God began a nation of people through Abram, gave His law to Moses, and sent judges to deliver Israel for four hundred years. He allowed sinful and unsaved men to reject God as being king over Israel and instead elected a man as king. For four thousand years, blood sacrifices were offered, beginning with Abel and becoming an official system in Israel. Yet, prophets were continually sent to repeatedly reprove the people for their sinful behavior. There were always a select few, a remnant, in Israel of well-saved men and women. However, when the long-awaited Messiah arrived, the religious leaders made sure Christ was nailed to a Roman cross. Why was a religion begun by God so utterly corrupted? Only the remnant can see God's kingdom.

Question #2: Why Does Every Sect of Christianity Think They're Right?

Every letter of the New Testament tells of God the Father's great love in sending His beloved Son as a sacrificial offering for sin, whom He also made head of the Church. Within the first three hundred years, the foundation was laid for the Holy Roman Catholic Church. Until the nineteenth century, that institution made it illegal for any ordinary person to copy or read the Bible. Many were burned at the stake for this heinous transgression of Church law.

Since the Reformation, people have gathered in buildings in ways contrary to our Lord, who is the only head of the church. According to Matthew 16 and 18, behavior must be transformed: selfless, humble, accepting, stumbling-free, maintaining an authentic fellowship of believers, and forgiving.

1) Selflessness: “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 25“For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it." (Matthew 16:24-25)

2) Humility: "Unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. 4“Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:3-4) 1 Corinthians 8:1 tells us that concerning things sacrificed to idols, we are all knowledgeable. We are all naturally idol worshippers. Therefore, knowledge puffs us up and makes us proud. How can seminary, which is transfixed on authority figures produced by a cap, gown, and a paper degree, make one humble?

3) Accepting: "Whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me." The New Testament is replete with statements like James 2:1, "My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism." From Jew and Gentile to every conceivable difference between people groups, no favoritism is acceptable to God, who is creator and sacrificial offering.

(Vs.5).

4) Stumbling Free Behavior: "but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea." (Vs.6) James takes the words of our Lord and clarifies them. "My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. 2For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, 3and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,” 4have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives? Such distinctions can be made about money, intelligence, and a host of differences, and all can cause stumbling. Let us remember the millstone!

5) Authentic Fellowship of Believers: "If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16“But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED. 17“If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector." (Matthew 18:15-17) Does the church cleanse itself of people who are Christian in name only? How will the church you have attended feel on judgment day when 60, 70, or 80% of the people hear Jesus say, "I never knew you, depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness"? (Matthew 7:23)

6) A Forgiving Spirit: "And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. 35“My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.”

Question #3: How Do Corrupted Members Know What to Listen to?

My very patient readers, how can someone who is not born-again discern between an authentic and a counterfeit shepherd of Jesus Christ? Jesus said, “See to it that no one misleads you. 5“For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many." (Matthew 24:4-5) Jesus clearly meant that many would pretend to be Him. However, the Christ, or Messiah, is a chosen vessel anointed by God. Over the past two thousand years, multitudes have claimed God's calling as a church leader. How can a non-born-again person discern the authentic from the counterfeit? Don't they? Corrupted believers are no better. The Apostle John exhorts us in this way. "These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you. 27As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide (remain) in Him." (1 John 3:26-27) If you are born-again, prayer- much prayer, continual prayer must precede the following exhortation. "Study to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth." (2 Timothy 2:15) Study as if you were a leader, and you will become one.

The Ekklesia was meant to be a family of born-again believers, not an institution built on higher learning, with degreed men leading as if they were Jesus Christ. My dear readers, may God bless you with rebirth, if He hasn't already. If He has, go forth and fulfill your calling as a mature member and shepherd of the sheep, so the sheep may become like you. If you have any questions, use the Contact section to contact me.

Salvation is not saying a prayer by itself; Salvation is a transformed life by the grace of God, through identification with Jesus Christ.