Category — scripture application

Today marks the close of our One Week in the Word Series. Whether you commented or not, we hope that you have been blessed, encouraged, enlightened and strengthened by the articles posted by our team of writers. Our purpose has been to cultivate a deeper appreciation for the eternal Word and the Giver of the Word.

Did you know that you don’t have to wait until Wednesday night bible study or Sunday morning sermon to get into the Word of God? Each believer is strongly admonished to “study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth” 2 Tim 2:15. You should study, meditate, recite and memorize scripture on a consistent basis.

Feel free to take time and review all the bible study articles this week or our past ones for your own edification and equipping. The result of consistent, honest study of God’s word is a tremendous benefit to you.

Our prayer for you is that you grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. As always, your questions pertaining to any of these posts are welcome.

Behold, I come quickly

Seek and ye shall find me

Can you praise me now?

A fountain still flows

The blessings of justification

Good news for a bad world

Five promises from God you can believe in

I am the Lord and I change not!

I will not forget you

Knowing the will of God

In time with God

Purpose driven Joy

A beautiful conversation: talking with God

Loving you when you’re bad

Strive for mastery

Ready to live in a wealthy place?

Personal productivity: just do it

Walking in the Spirit

Understanding Church and Kingdom, part I

Understanding Church and Kingdom:Violence cometh, part II

Understanding Church and Kingdom, part III

Psalm 24:6,  2 Chronicles 7:14

The prolific 18th century Christian author and preacher Charles Spurgeon wrote:

[...]“true seekers are very dear in God’s esteem, and are entered upon his register. Even seeking has a sanctifying influence; what a consecrating power must lie in finding and enjoying the Lord’s face and favour! To desire communion with God is a purifying thing. Oh to hunger and thirst more and more after a clear vision of the face of God; this will lead us to purge ourselves from all filthiness, and to walk with heavenly circumspection.”

Seeking God, his face and the kingdom of God is a welcome and open invitation to all who truly desire to know God.

The drama in this story is so crazy it sounds like some cable TV reality show. But its not, its true, recorded in Genesis 29:16-35; 30:1-12 Note: the scripture doesn’t tell the story in true chronological form.

In summary, a man has got two women —two sisters— but he’s playing one of them. Having babies by her but not giving her the love she truly wants from him. She’s definitely not the woman of his dreams. Even after popping out healthy kids for him, she still cant get his love. His heart is with the other woman. The beautiful younger sister takes his breath away. But wait, there’s a problem. The other woman isn’t as sexually fertile as the one he doesn’t love. It gets so crazy between the three of them, even other women are brought in to be surrogate lovers.

Amid the many larger than life narratives in the Old Testament, the story of Jacob, Rachel and Leah is perhaps one of the more poignant ones. They are all, in a way, caught up in the drama, victimized and in the process passing on the hurt, pain and mistrust even to their offspring.

In the end,  the lesson learned by Leah and its revelatory resolution sticks out as one we all can take a moment to pay attention to.

The hurt inflicted upon Leah is obvious. Of no fault of her own, she is diminished and rejected despite her attempts to give Jacob what she thinks he wants. But from the beginning, Jacob never wanted to be with her.

When morning came, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn’t I? Why have you deceived me?” vs 25

You probably know people in this situation right now as youre reading this. You may have been there yourself. Trying to please someone, doing your best, but when you look in their eyes you can tell they aren’t happy. I’ve been there. You see it in the church as well as in the world. People are wasting away trying to get something that will never produce what they think it should.  It doesn’t matter if its a family member, friend, spouse, a pastor or a child some people will never be satisfied with you or what you do to win their affection.

This can cause a tremendous amount of emotional pain and lead to patterns of  broken relationships.

This may be more about learning who truly matters and who truly loves you more than anything. In our hearts, there is a place that can only be filled by the love of God. Its a place where the pains of our past must give way to praise because we finally realize that nobody can love us like Jesus can.

Verse 31 says that when GOD saw that Leah was unloved he caused her to concieve, but Rachel, the apple of Jacob’s eye, remained childless. Leah’s focus wasnt on God (like many of us) it was on getting a man to love her. When their first son was born, she knew that things would change

Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben,[b] for she said, “It is because the LORD has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now.” vs 32

But it didn’t and eventually bitterness overtook her.

Don’t think that Rachel was unaffected just because she had Jacob’s affection. Not being able to bear him children, ate her up inside. Despite Jacob’s love she attacked him about it. It was considered a shame upon a woman not to be able to bear children for her husband.

When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die!” Jacob became angry with her and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?” Gen 30:1-2

Sometimes it takes us having to go through something to experience an irrevocable shift in our understanding.  We come to the end of ourselves. That’s what happened for Leah.

33 She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “Because the LORD heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too.” So she named him Simeon.

34 Again she conceived, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “Now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” So he was named Levi.

35 She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “This time I will praise the LORD.” So she named him Judah.  Then she stopped having children.

When will you learn what God is trying to show you? Will you continue pursuing people, things, places, positions, popularity, giving up your body, your heart your soul to someone or something that will not love you back? And please don’t think this is a woman thing. Many men are emotionally and relationally broken as well.

If you can see what Leah finally saw, you can come to the same conclusion. Finally she realized that she could release herself from pining after Jacob and began praising God.

Some people think that praise is some sort of religious get out of jail free card.  While there are examples in scripture of praise releasing people from certain threats and bondages, its still not the purpose of praise. Praise isn’t intended to stop a problem, what it does is reposition your mind on God who is greater than your problem, whatever that might be. If God stops an entire army after you praise him that’s great. But even if he doesn’t do it, He’s still worthy. That’s what praise teaches you, no matter what happens or doesnt happen, God is still worthy to be praised.

Praise ascribes the worth to God for his mighty works. The benefit you get is that in the praise you (not necessarily your situation) are transformed.

That’s why King David had such a reputation as a man who gave God the praise. His life was riddled with troubles and issues. But in the midst of it all he blessed the Lord out of his soul, indeed all that was within him.

Remember Jacob still didn’t love Leah when she decided that she would praise God, but guess what?  Seeking his love was no longer her objective. Her focus now was exalting God who was greater than Jacob and greater than her past pain.

Hebrews 9:11-14, 14-22

[...]one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. John 19:34

I’m sure for those who stood at the cross watching this particular scene live, it must have been excruciating and horrifying to behold. But now that we know how deep his love for us was to shed his blood, it is a glorious thing see in the spirit.

First the natural

Blood has tremendous significance –and application— in the Word of God. Its meanings involve profound aspects for our spiritual lives. To wit, through the blood of Jesus,  supernatural transformation occurs for anyone who has been born shackled to the oppressive sin nature.

To understand spiritual implications, let’s look first at some functions of blood in your own body.

In one aspect, blood, in the most intimate way, is a unique factor associated with sustaining life. If a person loses his blood, he loses his life. When an individual’s blood becomes tainted by disease, the body and life again are threatened. Unless a tranfusion of new blood comes, life will surely end. Our blood performs many functions that help to keep our bodies healthy. For example,  blood dutifully transports nutrients from the digestive tract to the body’s many cells. It also moves hormones and assists in regulating the body’s temperature. If these functions were inhibited in any way, the consequences would set off a dangerous chain of reaction, which for the body,  could prove fatal.

When the blood encounters problems (whether genetic or otherwise) several medical anomalies could arise:  blood clots, HIV, sickle cell, leukemia to name a few. No one wants diseased blood.

Its no wonder then that the physical functions and significance of the blood finds a specific parallel to our spiritual life. Jesus’ blood was uniquely pure, innocent and had no diseases or defects. In order to redeem mankind from under the weight of sin, it took blood untouched by the disease of sin (Gal 5:19-21).  The blood of Jesus bridged the wide chasm that existed between sinful man and a holy God.

In the text, John writes that  blood and water gushed out of Jesus’ side as a result of his body being pierced by a soldier’s spear.  As brutal as that sounds to our sensibilities, the bible declares that it had to happen to fulfill the scriptures. You must understand that without the shedding of his blood, there could be no remission (or forgiveness) for sin.  Had the blood not been shed, we would be forever bound to sin’s deadly power with no hope of recovery.

Think about it. For every war that has been waged, it has cost the blood of someone’s life to gain victory and freedom. Its the same in the spiritual. The war between sinful man and holy God could only be satisfied with the price of blood. Someone who would give his life to save us all. Someone who’s love was of the highest order who would willingly take our sin upon himself and receive the punishment, so we could go free.

Thats why I’m glad right now, today on August 2nd, that there is still a fountain filled with blood and it still flows from our Savior’s veins. Sinners can still plunge beneath that flood and lose all their guilty stains. Its amazing that as dark as our sins are, his red blood can wash us white as snow!

If you want to stop right here and tell the Lord how much you love him for washing all your sins away, do it.

According to Hebrews 9, the blood of Jesus supercedes and surpasses the old system of sacrifice. Its greater than and more perfect than the blood of goats, bulls and birds. By virtue of his own sinless blood our High Priest was able to enter into the holy place and obtain eternal redemption for us. In plain words, he got the job done.
That’s why the blood will never lose its power and never cease its flow.

It has an equal opportunity flow and equal opportunity power. For the sick, for the diseased, for the homosexual and the prostitute, for the liar and the murderer, for the thief and the atheist. For me and for you it reaches to the highest mountain and flows to the lowest valley. I was one who almost 22 years ago came to Jesus sick, diseased, choking and drowning in an ocean of sin. But his blood made me whole.

Blood washed benefits

When the blood of Christ flows over you, the benefits are phenomenal.

1. It redeems you 1 Peter 1:18-19
For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect

2. It cleanses you 1 John 1:7
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

3. It justifies you Romans 5:8-9
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

Look around you and if you haven’t noticed, everybody is talking about love.  People adore it, idolize it, romanticize it, sing about it and write best selling books about it. But what about hate? Why is hate treated like the bubonic plague, like some alien concept no human being should ever be associated with? Why is love treated as the great uniter, while hate is seen as the great divider?  Perhaps the only time you publicly hear about hate is when the homosexual movement and its hypocritical allies are in serial screed mode screaming “thou shalt not hate” at the rest of the world.

In contrast, the contemporary church and in particular the image whores who psychobabble on Christian television every week would NEVER talk about hate because it would ruin their carefully manicured images of love and acceptance.

But what does the Bible teach about hate? Are we allowed or even expected  to hate certain things and certain people? Does God hate people? Is all hate a sin? You’d be surprised to find out that hate has gotten a bad rap by bible haters.

Have you noticed that while those who continuously call for “NO H8″ and put silver tape around their mouths then take model shots don’t have a problem showing their hate and disdain for truth and those who advocate for the truth about homosexuality? Remember the popular bumper sticker  —”Hate is not a family value”— that the political inclusionistas sported when the nation was debating a constitutional amendment against same sex marriage? It generally was put on a gay rainbow flag background so there was no mistaking who the so-called “hate” was being directed at. And the unspoken inference was that homosexual “love” was a family value  Proponents contended that people “hated” homosexuals because they feared what they didnt understand. If that logic is good for one side, shouldn’t it be applicable for the other? The reason homosexuals hate and fear the truth is because they don”t understand it.

Because people use the word hate in ways that seem only to benefit their presuppositions, it has spawned all types of language weapons such as: “hate crimes”, “hate speech” and the dreaded “homophobia”.

Desplendering hate

Truth is we live in a world system that misunderstands and misapplies hate primarily because they misunderstand God and his word. Jesus said,  “The world will hate you because they hated me” (Mt 10:22, Mark 13:13, Luke 21:17, John 15:18).  And isn’t it interesting that he used the word hate, not dislike. And isn’t it interesting that he said the world would never love us because we identify with and tell HIS truth?  The world eschews hate only when its to their benefit to do so.

Hate has various uses and definitions which must be applied appropriately if we are to have an honest conversation about it.

Its impossible to list all the shades, variations and nuances of hate.  Like legion, they are many. Some hate is morally neutral while some hate is morally sinful. For  example, I can say that I hate cole slaw (and I really do) and no one would blink an eye. But if I said I hate Barak Obama (and I don’t), some people would be ready to call the secret service. Some hate causes people to stay away from dangerous things while some hate causes people to commit dangerous acts.

Thus, not all hate is wrong. The variations of hate can fall into one of the following three main categories:

Since GCM Watch began investigating and documenting the biblical and moral errors of the gay christian movement (gcm), over time, it became clear that this movement was the spiritual replica of HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) in the body of Christ. A movement riddled with heresy, the parallels are quite stunning.

HIV, like all other viruses, has proteins that are indigenous to itself. These proteins are called “antigens”. Antigens have diverse functions in viral replication. In the case of HIV, a combination of two antigens, gp120 and gp41, allow the virus to hook onto T cells and infect them. The virus pretends to be a healthy cell,  thus fooling the healthy cells to accept it. The consequences are devastating for the body:

HIV eventually destroys many of the white blood cells, which protect us against disease.

HIV invades and attacks helper T cells, the very cells that direct the body’s defenses. By destroying helper T cells, HIV disables the entire immune system that protects us against diseases.

HIV infection leaves people helpless against many other serious infections and cancers.

Likewise gay christian doctrine, using the cloak of love, acceptance and peace, presents itself as true and has fooled many unsuspecting Christians into accepting the very thing that destroys relationship with God and sexual integrity in the body of Christ. SIV (Spiritual Immunodificiency Virus) has infected entire denominations and wreaked havoc all over the Christian Church. But instead of fighting the disease with biblical truth and public information, church leaders have coddled it and exposed their members to certain spiritual death.

Seven foundational truths you can’t afford to compromise

We’ve identified seven key foundational truths that the gay christian movement (the little c is used to indicate a false christian) have compromised and/or denied. You can see examples of this here, here and here. These truths are central to our faith and  cannot be compromised. We caution you to arm yourselves with truth, protect your spiritual health and do not accept any doctrine or teaching which detours from the faith once delivered to the saints. Even if an angel from heaven comes and preaches any other doctrine, let them all be accursed.  It only takes a little leaven to leaven the entire lump! Brothers and sisters, that’s how serious this is.

Let no one fool you: orthodoxy and doctrine are important indicators of a person’s spiritual bearing. Alone, they can become the source of ritualistic legalism, but when advanced in the power of the Spirit and love, it forms a solid foundation under the feet of the believer.

I. The inerrancy and authority of scripture Rom 15:4; 2 Tim 3:16, 1 Pet 1:24,25; 2 Pet 1:20:21

What it means: The authority of Scripture cannot be separated from the authority of God. Whatever the Bible affirms, God affirms. And what the Bible affirms (or denies), it affirms (or denies) with the very authority of God
Why its important to you: The scriptures are your first consult and last check as to whether your actions, words, thoughts are in line with what God says pleases him.
What can happen if you compromise this truth Without the scriptures as your guide, you will be left to your own devices, logic, righteousness and ultimately create your own god who will approve whatever actions, thoughts and words you tell him to. Rm 1: 21-22

II. The identity and divinity of Christ Jn 8:58;10:24-33, 1:1-3, Psalms 90:1

What it means:  Jesus Christ is God who came in the flesh. By his suffering and death, he completely paid for the sins of the world. Consequently those who believe in Him will have eternal life and escape the wrath of God to come.

Why its important to you:  his identity and divinity is important because he uniqueness distinguishes him from others who claim to be him
What can happen if you compromise this truth:  Failure to recognize Christ as God come in the flesh places you at risk for certain deception.

III. The definition of sin Gen 6:5; Ps 53:3, Prov 28:13, Col 3:5-6, Romans 3:23

What it means:  Sin as defined in the original translations of the Bible means to “miss the mark”. The mark in this case is the high standard of perfection established by a holy, sinless and perfect God and evidenced by Jesus (Heb 4:15).  Sin, then is a transgression of God’s standards whether intentional, unintentional, by commission or omission, whether in thought, word or deed.

Why its important to you:  Viewing sin in its biblical definition you will never excuse or justify your actions, words or thoughts when they are in conflict with God’s standards. Rm 3:23 The desired result is a repentant heart, thus maintaining a meaningful relationship with God.
What can happen if you compromise this truth:  If you change the biblical definition of sin, self righteousness is inevitable.

IV. The significance of the Cross Phil 2:5-11, Eph 2:14-16

What it means: The cross is a symbol of ultimate deliverance which comes from the ultimate sacrifice

Why its important to you: You are expected to sacrifice as Christ did to help others find deliverance
Luke 22:31, Rev 12:11, Luke 9:23
What can happen if you compromise its truth: You will live in fear never fulfilling the purpose of God for your life.

V. The resurrection of the dead Lu 24:45-47; Jn 21:26,27; Acts 2:23,24; Rom 10:9, 1 Cor 15:13-14

What it means:  The resurrection is the hope of every believer that death will not have victory over us.
Why it is important to you: The resurrection is the cornerstone belief of our faith. If it is not true, then nothing we believe is true.
What can happen if you compromise this truth:  We lose our unique identity as Christians.

VI. The promise of Christ’s coming Mt 26:64; Luke 21:27, John 14:1-3

What it means: Christ promised that he would return and take away all those who believe in him to a place where he now resides. John 14:1,2 His return is imminent and will be without warning.
Why it is important to you: It should cause you to live your life in a state of readiness
What can happen if you compromise its truth: You can become cold, lazy and foolish thus missing his return.

VII. The standard of holiness 1 Thess 4:1-7, Hebrews 12:14, Leviticus 10:10-11, 1 Peter 13-16

What it means: Holiness is a commanded standard of living made possible only through sustained right relationship with God.
Why it is important to you: Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. God commands that we live holy as it is the only accurate spiritual reflection of himself. 1 Thess 4:7
What can happen if you compromise its truth: You open yourself up to believe and accept every wind and doctrine as valid and lose out on eternal life with Christ.

Endnote: Some gcm include elements of the above (holiness, baptism,  Spirit, resurrection, etc)  in their teachings, but it is taught from a perspective relative only to their view that homosexuality being acceptable to God. See one example here.