August | 2011 | Done with Religion

Archive for August, 2011

Take Me to Your Leader

Posted in christian living, tagged Christ, Christianity, Holy Spirit, leader, servants, truth on August 31, 2011|

Matthew 23:10 – Do not be called leaders; for One is your Leader, that is, Christ….

Do you notice how we Christians get so caught up on which pastor, evangelist or Christian leader becomes our focal point? We listen to this one, or that one, read books from this guy, or listen to tapes by this woman. We attend a fellowship because we like the pastor, or we will drive miles to listen to a popular TV or radio evangelist.

But wait a minute, doesn’t God’s word say that we are all brothers and sisters in Christ, all fellow-servants. We are not to be called leaders, no one is higher up than anyone else. We don’t need anyone to teach us because we have the Spirit of Christ within us, the true living Word lives in each of us (1 John 2:27).

In Christ, we are all His children, no one should be looked up to or revered more than anyone else. True, we can learn from one another by the way Christ works in each of our lives, but we should stop putting our hope in other people and start listening to the Holy Spirit that is within us for truth and guidance.

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Faith and Works

Posted in christian living, tagged Bible, disciple, faith, grace, Jesus, law, teacher, word, works on August 23, 2011|

James 2:18 You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works…..

I have always read this verse with the thought of works being things I do to earn what God has given me, salvation. Maybe not earn, but pay back for what God has done. After thinking a little about this, I think that what is being said isn’t paying God back by doing good things. Our works are a result of our love for Christ and what He did for us. Our works are our actions that we do day by day. Our actions are a result of spending time with Christ and learning from Him.

We need to truly be His disciples. A disciple is one who spends time with the Teacher, listens to His every word, watches how He acts, spends all his time with the Teacher, eating, sleeping, talking, traveling, learning, just like the disciples of Jesus. It is then that our actions will mimic those of Christ. The Bible says we can be no better than our teacher, but when Christ is our Teacher, we have the best.

When our actions are the same as His, people will no longer see us but they will see Jesus. Our actions, or works, then show the love of God to the world. Our ‘good’ works as far as we normally think of works, and our words do not mean a lot, but our actions speak louder than either.

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Our Teacher

Posted in christian living, tagged Christ, fellowship, Holy Spirit, relationship, Spirit, spiritual, teacher, truth on August 18, 2011|

1 John 2:27 But as for you, Christ has poured out his Spirit on you. As long as his Spirit remains in you, you do not need anyone to teach you. For his Spirit teaches you about everything, and what he teaches is true, not false. Obey the Spirit’s teaching, then, and remain in union with Christ…….

This verse talks about the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within each of us as followers of Christ. He is there to comfort, teach and lead us.

This talks about a common problem we who follow Christ seem to have these days. We talk about Jesus as a person from the past and seem to find out about Him from books, pastors, and the so-called ‘spiritually educated’. We know it in our head, but do not act on the fact that Jesus is alive and it is His Spirit that lives within each of us as followers of Christ. We have a living relationship and fellowship with Him through His Spirit.

The Bible says that He gives us His Holy Spirit and we do not need anyone to teach us. The Spirit will guide us into all truth. We need to let that get into our spirits and quit looking to only books and people to tell us what they think about Jesus and ask the Holy Spirit to teach us and lead us into His truth.

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Love One Another

Posted in christian living, tagged Christianity, disciples, faith, fellowship, follower of Christ, God, grace, love, non-believers on August 9, 2011|

John 13:35 – By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another….

This verse is one of the main points of Christianity, next to loving God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind. The way we are to be noticed as being Christ followers is by the love we have for other Christ followers. I think this is an area where we modern-day believers have gotten off track.

The early followers of Christ were of one mind and one purpose, loving God, loving others and spreading the Good News. They took care of each other, supplied for each other and were generally concerned for the well-being of each other. Today we are divided up into so many different groups and denominations because we can’t agree and get along on basic points of our Christian faith. Non-believers watch us and see all the arguing and back-biting among Christians, and they don’t want anything to do with us.

It is time for the body of believers to get past their differences and start truly acting in love and concern for each other. This is the way that those outside the Christian faith are going to see a real difference and start asking what it is that we have. It is then that we will have a real impact for our faith in God.

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Bad Company

Posted in christian living, tagged Christ, Christianity, company, evil, Garden of Eden, God, grace, morals on August 3, 2011|

1 Corinthians 15:33 NASB – Be not deceived, bad company corrupts good morals.

Have you noticed that you never read ‘good company produces good morals’? It’s always bad company corrupts good morals. Seems like in this world, evil easily wins over good. Why is that? Could it be because during the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, satan was given authority of this world? Now it’s more natural to do evil than to do good.

This isn’t saying that evil wins out over God, but over good morals. Morals are the distinction between right and wrong, or the rules of right conduct. Unfortunately in our world, evil is more easily done than good.

This also is not to say we should avoid bad company. Jesus was known as the friend of sinners. How will people see and feel the love of God if we stay away from them.

As Christians, we need to constantly be in close fellowship with our Father and allow the power of the Holy Spirit to work in us and produce good morals in our lives. Not that good morals save us or make us better than others, but they help us to live in a way that is more becoming as a representative of Christ.