A Message To The Bots

 I discovered that AI bots have been scouring my blog looking for free content. My blog are my thoughts and nothing is copywritten. So steal my words. God's word does not return void. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Unless you are a machine. Machines do not have souls.

The Love Based Error

 I never heard about the church being loved based before. That love is to be the motivating factor in everything we say or do. Evidently, this is what motivates churches to feed the hungry or to house the homeless or to ordain women or to accept sodomites. According to this doctrine, God loves people unconditionally and without prejudice.

People who believe this are missing the point of agape love. Yes, love motivated the Father to send His son to the cross. But not romantic love or emotional love. And the love that God has for humanity is ancient. He loves people because they belong to Him as His workmanship. 

Love does not excuse sin. Love does not excuse immoral behavior. Love does not excuse rebellion. Love does not excuse error and false doctrine. Love may motivate God's desire to help people, but He expects to see some gratitude from those He helps and He expects to see obedience to truth from those He helps.

God loved Adam and Eve, but He threw them out of the Garden. God loves His people Israel, but He hated the way that they rejected Christ, His son. God may love sinners, but He hates their sin.

When love becomes the reason for excusing the inexcusable, you do not understand love. You think that you are more loving than God because you accept GLBT people. You think that you are more loving than God because you run a food bank. You are wrong.

"For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men..." 2Cor. 5:10-11

This is why the first word of the Gospel is not love. It is repent! Obey the Gospel whether you feel anything or not.

Speaking In Tongues

 "And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." Acts 2:4

There are a few important things to see in this verse. Every Pentecostal believer needs to understand and practice what this verse teaches us.

First, they all were filled. No exceptions. No exclusions. Every believer that was present was filled. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is for everyone.

Second, the evidence of the baptism in the Holy Spirt is speaking in tongues. It's not a warm fuzzy feeling or an inner glow. It is the unmistakable sound of speaking in an unknown tongue. The tongues of men and angels. Speaking directly to God.

Finally, it is a work of the Holy Spirit. As the Spirit gave them utterance. Every time you speak in tongues, it is a work of the Spirit of God.

The big question is, why do you not speak in tongues as the Spirit gives utterance? I'm glad that I was Spirit filled before I found out that God doesn't do anything anymore like He did back then.

"For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off.." Acts 2:39

The Truth Shall Make You Free

"Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not." Jer. 5:21

"Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not; they have ears, but they hear not; noses have they, but they smell not; they have hands, but they handle not; feet have they, but they walk not; neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them; so is everyone that trusts in them." Psalm 115:4-8

When we read these verses we automatically think of idols; images and likenesses of other gods. Idolatry is a counterfeit faith that worships a phoney god.

I know something else that resembles a lifeless god. AI is mostly artificial and has no natural senses to navigate through life. It cannot think, it cannot feel emotions, it cannot move on it's own. It has no intellect or conscience. It is a machine that is counterfeit human. And those who build it and those who love it are just like it. Phoney. Artificial, and immobile.

You become like the gods that you help create.  Or you become like God if you serve Him. Do not be fooled into a false religion of machine centered worship. Call on Jesus Christ and He will help you.

"If you continue in my word, then you are my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:31-32

Why Is There Light?

 I saw a video by a physicist asking the question Why is there light? I am not a college graduate and I certainly do not have a PhD like this presenter. But I know why there is light. So do you. It was the first thing that God created out of nothing.

"And God said, let there be light: and there was light." Genesis 1:3

Light did not travel to get here. It just appeared. Light came before the sun, moon, and stars. Light was there while the earth was still without form and void. Light is, whether you understand it or not.

Note that there were day and night before the sun was created.  The sun was on day 4. Light was on day 1. Try to figure that out Mr. or Mrs. scientist.

Let God be true, and every man a liar.

Never think that the first chapters of Genesis are a child's story. 

God Is God.

 My friend shed some light on the question of whether Jesus will be there to greet each new arrival to heaven or not. I admit that this is hard for our finite minds to comprehend. But here goes.

First, Christ died for people. He cares about people. He is invested in people. So He has an interest in who stayed faithful and made it to Heaven.

Second, God knows the hairs on our heads and He sees each sparrow that falls. He can know each person that has ever lived all at once. He is God, not just a really smart man.

Third, blessed in His eyes is the death of His saints. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. So it seems that God not only know the length of life, He knows the time of our death. He anticipates each person who dies in the faith.

Fourth, there is no waiting room or an angel with an appointment book to see who is next to enter in. It is a personal place and a personal greeting.

Finally, God is God. He can run the universe and greet each arrival all at the same time. We cannot do that, but He can.

Iron sharpens iron, My friend gave me something to think about.

Old Wells Redug

 "And Isaac digged again the wells of water which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father;" Genesis 26:18

If you are a Bible student you no doubt are familiar with the story of how after the death of Abraham, Isaac his son redug the wells that his father had dug. Wells were not only for water, but they implied ownership and control of that area. There are spiritual lessons to learn for us who get our water from a faucet in the kitchen.

I know that we cannot live in the past. We cannot live reminiscing about past accomplishment or past victories. But, there is great value in remembering the past and studying the lives of those who have gone before us. Abraham did not write a diary, but he did dig some wells.

Some things in the past are just old. Old methods, old ideas, old issues. Even old victories. But doctrine never gets old. God never grows old. The Bible is always fresh and current. Wisdom is knowing what in the past is important today, and what needs to be filed away and forgotten. 

One lesson to learn is this; When the way ahead is not clear, you can review the past looking for answers. Those older than you may have some good ideas that you never thought of.

Note in our text how it was the Philistines who plugged up Abraham's wells.

"for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham." Gen. 26:18

Evidently the devil knows how valuable the old wells were. Thankfully, God watches over His word to perform it. No matter how much the devil tries to plug it up.

God, give our leaders wisdom to know what is valuable and to know what is important.