God is dead. God is dead in the lives of so many people. Not necessarily bad people. People who have been turned off by a God eager to cast them into eternal hellfire for failing to visit Him on Sunday, or for an act of masturbation.
God is dead in the hearts of so many. Not evil people. People disgusted by a God of "love" who encourages crusades, inquisitions, religious wars, and nuclear warfare to crush infidels, heretics, and atheists. How can you love a God like that? God is dead. And He was killed, not by His enemies, not by publicans and sinners, but by His friends, by self-righteous Pharisees and religious people.
To be sure, there are people who kill God in order to dethrone Him, to become their own gods, to decide for themselves what is good and what is bad (Gen 3:5). But often the god they are killing is no god at all, but rather a false idol. It is a grisly caricature of God created by His friends, by misguided preachers of hellfire and holy wars, and by well meaning parents who threaten: "God is going to punish you if you do that!"
That false god does not exist, never has, except in troubled minds. That false idea of God needs to die. First, because it is an idol, a blasphemy that turns people away from the living God. Second, because we tend to become like the God we adore. When we imagine a vindictive god righteously damning his enemies to a hell inferno, we can very easily imagine that we too are no longer bound by the command to "love your enemies." We can self-righteously condemn our enemies to the death penalty or to weapons of mass destruction. It's vitally important for us to have a correct image of God.
Re-Imaging God
If God is love (1 Jn 4:8), how can God damn sinners to hell? The answer: God doesn't! God can't damn anyone to hell. Love keeps no record of wrongs (1 Cor 13:5, Heb 8:12).
Jesus was always trying to change people's vengeful image of God. He refused to condemn the woman caught in adultery (Jn 8:1-11). He repeatedly preached about a forgiving, father-like God Who never gives up on His sinful son (Lk 15). In His death agony, Jesus forgave His enemies who were crucifying Him, and a criminal at the moment of his death (Lk 23:34, 43).
Could a loving mother forget the child of her womb? Our Judeo-Christian tradition teaches us that even if she could, our mother-like God would never forget us (Is 49:15). Would a loving family or friends leave a suicidal person to his or her worst self? Would they not do everything possible to enter into that person's hell to save him or her from self-destruction? How could the God of infinite love do any less? The Bible (1 Pet 3:19f) and the Creed teach us that not only was Jesus one with us in death, but that He even descended into hell, Peter tells us, to preach to sinners there! God is adamantly unwilling to leave us to our own worst selves.
Some Christians find it hard to imagine a loving God permitting anyone to self-destruct forever in hell. They note all the Scriptures that reveal God's desire to ultimately save us all (Rm 5:18; 11:32; 1 Cor 15:22; 1 Tim 2:4; 4:10; Col 1:20; Tit 2:11; Rev 5:13). They see the texts which refer to eternal punishment as examples of Semitic hyperbole, not meant to be taken literally, but rather to emphasize the supreme importance of become aware of our destructive behavior.
The Greek word for punishment used in the Bible originally meant the pruning of trees to make them grow better. God cannot permit vengeful punishment, but God does allow the corrective punishment necessary to purify our capacity to grow in love. God is not a softy. God does permit some of the negative consequences of our evil actions to come back to us. We are such hardheaded creatures that oftentimes this is the only way we learn. What goes around, does come around.
Make no mistake: God is not mocked, for a person will reap only what he sows, because the one who sows for his flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows for the spirit will reap eternal life from the spirit. (Gal 6:7f )
To the degree that we refuse to learn in this life, then in the next life God's just judgement will shine the brilliant light of truth upon us, stripping us of our masks and denials, exposing our true selves. We will then know, without having to be told, whether or not God's love lives within us. God will not damn anyone to hell. If people do go to hell it is only because they have knowingly and willingly chosen to separate themselves from God's love. Hell is like a room with the lock on the inside. Given our self-destructive weakness, hell is certainly a possibility for us. But given the power of God's love, heaven is a far greater probability.
Long Live God!
We need to take great care not to project our human cruelty and vindictiveness onto God. The god who damns, or who condones vengeful punishment of enemies, is dead. That god is dead.
We need to let Jesus' living God love us. Jesus' atonement on the cross, His at-one-ment with our weakness and suffering, reveals that His God's compassion has no limits, nor should ours. Long live our loving, living God!
In Malachi 3:8 " Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, 'In what way have we robbed You?' In tithes and offerings.” Many will preach on tithing, but this also talks about offerings (seed). The Lord shared this with me one day “Tithe opens the windows of heaven’s blessing, but offerings (seed) determine the size of the flow. In 2 Cor. 9:6-15 (TLB) “But remember this—if you give little, you will get little. A farmer who plants just a few seeds will get only a small crop, but if he plants much, he will reap much. Everyone must make up his own mind as to how much he should give. Don’t force anyone to give more than he really wants to, for cheerful givers are the ones God prizes. God is able to make it up to you by giving you everything you need and more so that there will not only be enough for your own needs but plenty left over to give joyfully to others. You are not in prosperity until you are able to joyfully and generously give to those who are in need. I’m not saying anything against sacrificial giving or giving in faith believing as in “the widow’s mite”.
There must, however, come a time where you have proved diligent in good times and difficult times, where God can count on you to be a good steward. At that time your level of prosperity will grow where as the above scripture says, “God is able to make it up to you by giving you everything you need and more so that there will not only be enough for your own needs but plenty left over to give joyfully to others.”
The principles are these; that as you love God, tithe, begin sowing seed, and believe (confess scripture over your seed and be thankful, you’ll see your household start to come out of debt. It’s about at this point in time you will see God put in you heart a seed about giving to this person or ministry, (sacrificial giving) this is to stretch your belief system to trust Him and to show you that He can trust you. As you prove diligent, in spite of your circumstances, you’ll see a continual flow of finances come into your life. You see God’s not afraid money will ruin us, but he doesn’t want anything to take us off course in our love and ministry for Him. Many believe that money will ruin us, so they choose poverty. It’s not money that ruins us; it’s using money to fill the love void in our heart where Jesus belongs.
Continuing with 2 Cor.9:6-15, (vs. 6) “A s the Scriptures say: ‘the godly man gives generously to the poor'. His good deeds will be an honor to him forever’. For God, who gives seed to the farmer to plant, and later on good crops to harvest and eat, will give you more and more seed to plant and will make it grow so that you can give away more and more fruit from your harvest. Yes, God will give you much so that you can give away much, and when you take your gifts to those who need them they will break out into thanksgiving and praise to God for your help. So two good things happen as a result of your gifts—those in need are helped, and they overflow with thanks to God. Those you help will be glad not only because of your generous gifts to themselves and to others, but they will praise God for this proof that your deeds are as good as your doctrine. And they will pray for you with deep fervor and feeling because of the wonderful grace of God shown through you. Thank God for his Son—his Gift too wonderful for words”. This scripture is so full of principles for God’s prosperity to us who believe. It says that you will receive according to your seed size. Now, as it says above “ Everyone must make up his own mind as to how much he should give. Don’t force anyone to give more than he really wants to, for cheerful givers are the ones God prizes”.
Scripture shows if you believe; for each seed you sow, there is a time of harvest. "While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest…shall not cease." (Genesis 8:22). Does the earth still remain? Then seedtime and harvest shall not cease (stop). Some will say “well, I don’t believe that when we give we will get back anything”. Yet scripture teaches.” Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you." (Luke 6:38). Also in Gal. 6: 7 “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap”. The Church of the Living God is now beginning to understand God’s financial plans of “Seedtime and Harvest” for them. You may not, in the beginning understand it all, but what’s important is that once you get the “ABC’s” of this teaching, walk by faith in it; not by sight.
“And He said, "The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come". (Mark 4:26-29)
Now the question may arise “where do I give my seed?” Wherever the Lord tells you. What do I mean by this? First, if you don’t hear anything give to the place that feeds you most. Your church maybe the place you go, but you may get fed from a TBN, or a ministry elsewhere. Remember that tithe always goes to your home church, always! But seed goes first to ministries that believe in helping you produce a harvest. If the place you’re seeding to or giving extra offerings to doesn’t believe in Seedtime and Harvest, change where you give offerings. Get in line with the Word of God
"While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest…shall not cease." Genesis 8:22. Give into ministries that will put and anointing on that seed to get you Debt free. God’s people need to get out of debt, so they can start pouring out financial blessings to those who have need. Glory to God! Another principle is that the seed is always much smaller than the harvest. An illustration is that a stalk of wheat has alot of seed in it, but it only takes one seed to grow one stalk which has a lot of seed in it. It’s the same as with corn, it takes only one kernel of corn to grow a stalk that has many ears of corn and each ear has multiple kernels of corn. So what determines the amount of harvest? In farming it’s having well soil (not tired soil), good seed, rain, and good equipment to harvest it. For us as God’s children it’s first to honor God with the tithe or first 10%. Next you need to seed; in 2 Cor. 9:6 (TLB) “
But remember this—if you give little, you will get little. A farmer who plants just a few seeds will get only a small crop, but if he plants much, he will reap much.” This is simply saying, if you give just a little seed you’ll get a smaller harvest. You know what I like about even this? It says, no matter what I give, I’LL GET A HARVEST! Amen! But the principle here is true, if you are believing big you will need to sow big.
As you confess scripture over your need or situation then believe and don’t doubt; you’ll see what Jesus said come to pass for you.
“So Jesus answered and said to them, "Have faith in God (or the God-kind of faith). For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them”. (Mark 11:22-24 NKJ) You see it’s not good enough for it to only happen to Jesus, Scripture says, “let it be done on earth as it is in heaven”. Jesus said many times “the Kingdom of Heaven is in us”. Scripture isn’t of much value if God’s Word principles don’t happen to you and I. Look back at Mark 11:22-24; who is a “whoever”? Are you a “whoever” or whosoever”? I hope you are, as it means anyone who does this. So if you do what a particular says, shouldn’t you be able to see its results, if God is truly no respecter of persons?
The National Association of Christian Ministers (N.A.C.M.), LC acknowledges that:
You have demonstrated a devout belief in the Christian faith, a call to ministry, and have passed the scrutiny of the Council of Elders. Therefore, on the authority of Matthew 28:19-20 this religious organization deems you an Independent Ordained Minister with all of the obligations and rites that are associated with this title.
Father, in the name of Jesus we set apart your servant this day requesting that you make use of them in the ministry of your Kingdom. We ask that you give them wisdom to know your ways, strength to resist sin, courage to face adversity, and a love for people that fulfills your law. We thank you for your purpose and calling on their life.
By the blood of Jesus and the power of His Spirit –AMEN.
Congratulations on your acceptance and recognition into the Christian ministry of Jesus Christ. The N.A.C.M. has enlisted you in its Minister Verification Database (MVD) so that government and civil agencies may confirm your good standing with our organization.
Christian Cafe has been around for a long time, and they are one of the largest (if not the largest) Christian singles site on the Web. When we say Christian, we are talking a true, Christian-owned-and-operated dating site. We have had numerous communications with Sam, the owner of the Christian Cafe and he is a believer.
When you first vist , you notice the warm "coffee shop" colors and feel. The next thing most people will probably notice are the testimonials. They have tons of them, going all the way back to 2002! This gives them a lot of credibility, because they have been around for quite a while and many Christians are no longer single thanks to them.
Once you create a profile and do a search, you'll find that there are LOT of single Christians there! You will most likely find many potential matches in your area, regardless of your age (although some age ranges will, of course, have more than others). The best thing about their FREE trial is that you get full functionality with it. Unlike some other sites, where you have to pay if you want to communicate, with ChristianCafe.com you can use all the features during the trial period. How can they do that? Because, obviously, they're sure you'll like it so much that you'll have to sign up for more! Here are the specific review categories: Price - Christian Cafe is somewhere in the middle if you only pay for one month at a time. However, when you pay for longer periods, the price comes WAY down! Right now, during their special promotion, you can get the monthly price down to $7.50/month if you pay for one year. Even if you just pay for three months, the monthly fee is only $13.32. That's cheap, especially when you consider the fact that finding your soul mate is the second most important thing in your life (second only to knowing Jesus). (5/5 stars) Customer Service - Although we only had limited exposure to their Customer Service, they did seem responsive and addressed our issues promptly. They have dedicated staff for Customer Service, which is a plus. (5/5 stars) Quality of Members - The people on ChristianCafe.com vary greatly but, in general, it is a high-quality group of people. One of us dated several women from there, in fact, with one of them there was talk of marriage! We have not seen a higher caliber of people on a Christian dating site anywhere. (5/5 stars) Ease of Use - Because we spend a lot of time on the Web, including designing and building websites, you'll never see us give anyone five stars for this one. Christian Cafe has a lot of great functionality, but at times it can be a bit slower than we would prefer (anything less than lightning fast is too slow for us). Some of the functions, like the Instant Messenger, could be improved. However, this site offers more features and better functionality than any of the legitimate Christian singles sites out there. (4/5 stars) Overall Rating - Overall, we give ChristianCafe.com five stars out of five. Even though they didn't get five stars for Ease of Use (even our own sites wouldn't), we think Christian Cafe is, by far, the best Christian-owned-and-operated dating site on the Web, period. (5/5 stars)
For those of you who have really entered into a true Spirit-filled, full-surrendered walk with the Lord where He is now leading your life in the direction that He will want it to go in – one of the first things that you will find happening is that God will start to prune out the people that He does not want in your life and start to bring in the people that He does want in your life.
The bible tells us to choose our friends very carefully in this life. These verses will tell us that he who walks with wise people will become wise himself, but that he who keeps company with fools will be destroyed. The Bible tells us that we are not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers, that we are to stay away from people who cause divisions and offenses, and to withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly.
This does not mean that we cannot work with the lost, the downtrodden and the people who need to find God and His message of eternal salvation. When Jesus came to our earth in the flesh, He always went after the sinners and the outcasts. But when Jesus went after these sinners, it was always for the express purpose of getting them saved and cleaned up.
Jesus did not chase after everyone. He ripped on the Pharisees and many of the high-ranking Jewish leaders. Some people are open to be helped, others are not. The Bible tells us to stay away from people who are considered to be “dogs” and to beware of people who are evil workers.
One of the first things that God will do with your life once you come into a full surrender with Him is to start to set some boundary lines. He will now decide the path that you will now follow in Him. He will now be leading you into the specific jobs that He will want you to have in this life. If you are single and have not married yet, He will lead you to the mate that He will want you to marry if it is in His perfect will that you get married in this life.
The Bible tells us that we are transformed by the renewing of our minds. God’s ultimate aim for us is our sanctification – where He starts to begin to mold and transform us into the express image of His Son Jesus Christ.
The main reason that God will start to take out the friends in your life that He does not want you to have is because some of these people may be negative influences in your life. They may not be open to growing and maturing in the Lord like you will be, and all they will do is try and hold you back when you start your own spiritual journey and growth in the Lord. They will start criticizing and making fun of you and all they will end up doing is stunting your growth in the Lord.
God will not be putting up with this, and He will thus be taking all of these bad and negative influences out of your life very early on once you enter into this full surrendered walk with Him. For those of you who are married and have children – it is the same thing when you do not want your children hanging out with other children who you know would be a bad and negative influence on your child.
You know that if your children start hanging out with the wrong type of crowd, they can become very easily corrupted in a very short period of time. As a result, you will become very protective with your children and you will watch them very closely when they are old enough to start choosing who their friends are going to be.
It is the exact same way with God the Father! This is why God will be moving very early on to take out these negative influences in your life. Once this starts to happen, you have to go with the program or you could cause God to start pulling back on you. And once that starts to happen, you could then start to backslide and everything could then start to shut down.
If you will allow God to prune out the people that He does not want you to have in your life – then what He will start to do is to bring in the people that He will want to have in your life. I call these types of friends “God-friends.” These people will be other good, godly, Spirit-filled Christians who are truly walking in good stead with the Lord and they will now be the people that He will want you to share your walk with!
You will know some things about God they may not know and they will know some things that you may not know. You thus are able to help contribute to each other’s storehouse of knowledge in the Lord.
One of the verses listed below state that two friends can help sharpen each other up like “iron sharpens iron.” Just like one piece of iron can make the other piece of iron extremely sharp by rubbing up against it – two solid Christian friends can also have the same type of positive effect on one another by sharing their own personal walks in the Lord with one other.
How many of these types of God-friends can you expect God to bring in? Only God will be able to answer that for each and every one of you. Some may only get one or two to start off with, others may get 5 or 10. Let God make the decision as to how many and when they will be brought into your life.
Sadly, what you will find out very early on, is just because someone may be a saved and born again Christian does not mean this person has their act together in the Lord. Some people have become too judgmental and too critical in their walks with the Lord. Some have become too arrogant and pompous, thinking that they have all the answers to everything. They will tend to look down on anyone else who is not operating at the knowledge levels they are operating at.
Some have become so flaky in their walks with the Lord, that they have lost touch with reality and you won’t be able to connect with any of them. God knows best as to who will be best suited for you at your current level of spiritual development with Him – so let Him guide you to the ones that He will want you to connect with.
I have seen God do this so many times for others, that I literally consider it a miraculous piece of work – especially as to how He gets you to meet some of these people in the first place. Some of these chess moves are quite incredible, as most of these people will be total strangers to you until God moves in to match the two of you up.
The other thing that could occur besides God matching you up with total strangers is that He may move on someone else you may know, but that you are not particular good friends with. That person then gets saved and plugged in, and then they find out that you too are saved and plugged in – and now a good God-friendship can start to build up as you now have something in common with one another to start to build a good, solid friendship with.
This could be another member in your family, someone that you may work with, a friend who you may have known from your past, or someone you may see at church from time to time but never really talked with. The possibilities are endless as to where these people may come from. These God-friends can come from anywhere and at anytime – so keep your radars up – as you never know when God may move to bring one of them into your life.
1. Choose Your Friends Carefully
This first verse is the one that will tell us to choose our friends very carefully in this life. This verse should literally be burned into your memory banks so that you never, ever forget this basic, fundamental command from the Lord! Here it is:
A righteous man is cautious in friendship, but the way of the wicked leads them astray (Proverbs 12:26)
A righteous man is cautious in friendship, but the way of the wicked leads them astray. Proverbs 12:26
Notice this verse is specifically telling us that if we do not choose our friends very carefully in this life, that we could end up choosing the wrong type of people to become friends with and they can then end up leading us astray from God and with what He wants to do with our lives. Many of God’s people have lost their calls in Him because they chose to hang out with the wrong type of people or the wrong crowd.
2. Benefits of Choosing Good God-Friends
Here are six very interesting verses showing you why God does want you to have other good, solid Christian friends to share your walk with.
These six verses will show you that there is safety in the multitude of counselors, that plans can go awry without having other people to hash things out with, that war is waged by having wise counsel with others, that learning is increased by listening to wise counsel, and that if you cease to listen to wise counsel – that you will start to stray from being able to acquire more knowledge in God.
For lack of guidance a nation falls, but many advisers make victory sure. (Proverbs 11:14)
A wise man has great power, and a man of knowledge increases strength; (Proverbs 24:5)
Make plans by seeking advice; if you wage war, obtain guidance. (Proverbs 20:18)
Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.(Proverbs 15:22)
Listen to advice and accept instruction, and in the end you will be wise. (Proverbs 19:20)
Stop listening to instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge. (Proverbs 19:27)
Once you turn the reigns of your life over to God for Him to fully handle, He will now make sure that you get matched up with the right kind of people that you can become true God-friends with.
3. As Iron Sharpens Iron
This next verse is extremely fascinating as it tells us that two friends can help sharpen each other up as iron sharpens iron. A true God-friend can help keep you sharp in the Spirit, let you know when you are getting too far off track, help you get through and make sense of some of the downswings that can occur in your walk, confirm and help bear witness when you are on the right track, give you pep talks when needed, and help keep you in the game when you start to get too mad and too frustrated when things do not go your way.
You each serve to help keep each other up in the Lord so that you both can continue to stay on the straight and narrow road that God now has you set up on. You can also help each other out if one starts to be tempted to do something they should not be engaging in. Here is the verse:
As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.(Proverbs 27:17)
A true God-friend will always be honest and straight forward with you. You cannot help keep each other up and sharp in the Lord unless you are both willing to be totally honest with one another.
4. Do Not Be Unequally Yoked With Unbelievers
These next seven verses will tell us not to be yoked together with unbelievers, foolish men, dogs, evil workers, those who are disorderly, reckless, contentious and always causing trouble and strife.
There is one verse in particular that tells us that “evil company corrupts good habits.” This verse perfectly shows us what can happen to any of your children if they start hanging out with the wrong type of people.
Here are 7 good verses telling us to stay on our side of the fence, and to stay away from all of the bad apples who have no desire for God or anything that He stands for.
Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?(2 Corinthians 6:14)
He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.(Proverbs 13:20)
The mocker seeks wisdom and finds none, but knowledge comes easily to the discerning. (Proverbs 14:6)
Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. (Philippians 3:2)
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us.(2 Thessalonians 3:6)
I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. (Romans 16:17)
Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character.(1 Corinthians 15:33)
All of these verses are giving us major warnings that we are to stay away from all of the bad apples in this life who will do nothing but try and bring us down to their lower way of living in this life. Many Christians have had their lives totally ruined and destroyed as a result of marrying the wrong people or choosing the wrong kinds of friends to hang out with.
Conclusion
Just as God saw fit to create Eve for Adam in the Garden of Eden when He first created the first man – God still places an extremely high value on personal friendships, and He will make sure to bring the right people and the right number of people in your life so you can each help each other out to go farther and fly higher in the Lord.
When Jesus first started to send the 12 apostles out to walk with His anointing, He would always send them out two-by-two.
Once you enter into a real supernatural walk with the Lord, you will go nuts if you do not have someone to share your walk with. There are simply too many good God things that will start to happen in your life and you will need others to talk with, to vent with, to share with, to learn from one another, and to help keep each other on track.
I believe Jesus was giving us a major piece of revelation when He started sending the apostles out two-by-two instead of by themselves.
For those of you who have not been matched up with a good God-friend at this time – just go to God the Father in prayer and ask Him to bring you the right friend that would be best suited for you at your present level of spiritual development in Him.
Unless God is keeping you all to Himself for a reason and a season, there is no reason that God will not want to move on this request to bring you a true, special God-friend in order to help accelerate your spiritual growth in Him.
Stop, drop, and roll do not work in Hell. Therefore, we need to make sure that we all have fire insurance. That insurance of course is having Jesus as your personal savior. You are truly in good hands with God.
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(4/5 stars)
