Read God's Word Daily

Satan works in subtle ways. One very effective way I have discovered is "busyness." If he can keep you busy with trivial things in this life, it will keep you from the more important things - Bible reading and prayer are at the top of the list. Every high profile preacher that has publically fallen from grace has stopped those two things prior to their fall. Another attack related to this is to convince people that they have "all kinds of time," yet we have no idea when our end will come.

We need to be reading our Bibles and obeying what we read, and praying continually. When are you going to talk to that neighbor or friend or coworker about their eternal salvation as we are instructed to do by the Great Commission? Don't wait around for God to tell you who to witness to, He has already given us the command. It should really be the opposite, you should speak to everyone you meet unless God specifically tells you NOT to.

Back to the devil's subtle ways. Satan doesn't care who or what you worship - as long as it's not the one true God of the Bible - and he doesn't want you obeying what you read, either, especially when it comes to evangelism. He doesn't want this Message to get out. There are methods that he uses in an attempt to prevent it. If he can keep you from even reading your Bible, it will effect your life in many areas.

Keeping you from God's Word leaves you more susceptible to the influence of sin. And it keeps you from obeying what is written in it, namely witnessing to others about the Gospel. This is because you feel like a hypocrite for not even knowing the Bible. You cannot answer any questions skeptics might have and this hurts your own faith even more. Pride sneaks in under the guise of fear, but what you're really afraid of is of looking foolish, because there is no serious, life threatening persecution going on in America at this time. We're also lazy, so instead of studying and learning more, we just shy away from even talking about it.

But there are some who are more passionate and don't give in that easily. There are not many of those, but the devil must do something about them anyway, because they can be very effective.

If Satan can tie Christians up in silly arguments amongst themselves, they will not be using their time wisely in reaching out to the unsaved. Debating which day to worship on, what we can eat or drink, or conspiracy theories, which brings us to the subject at hand. If he cannot keep you out of the battle through busyness, fear or pride, then he will create useless arguments to keep you on the sidelines. Unimportant conspiracies such as the KJOnly movement. This has no basis to it at all, and if a person would seriously look into it, it becomes painfully obvious that the allegations made against all the "modern" translations are simply irrelevant.

KJOnlyists claim that the deity of Christ is taken out, the virgin birth is down played, the doctrine of the Trinity is hindered and some verses are removed completely. However, I find no one adhering to heretical doctrine solely due to using a version other than the KJV. Quite the opposite, I find many theologically sound Bible teachers, many who have studied the original languages even, that use a wide variety of versions. Why aren't they KJOnly?

The supposed results of these "dangerous translations" simply do not hold up, which in itself proves the allegations unfounded. But when confronted with this fact, the typical KJOnlyist will ignore the evidence, maybe give some lame excuse that you must have somehow been influenced by the KJV, and continue to tell you about all the problems with your particular version of the Bible. All this while they overlook many of the same issues in their own favored version. This kind of reminds me of the speck in your neighbor's eye contrasted with the plank in your own in Matt 7.
In the end, I am convinced that this entire argument is just another tool of Satan to keep believers busy arguing among themselves, and possibly even preventing them from reading the Bible at all.

So, pick a major translation that you will read - it's all God's Word, except for a few minor versions such as the New World Translation used by the Jehovah's Witnesses, or the "gender neutral" version which is simply political correctness run amuck. Choose the NIV, NASB, ESV, HCSB, NLT, NKJV, or the KJ version, if you prefer. Just choose one that you will read daily and can understand. Then obey what you read.

Carnal Christians?

When someone claims, "I still sin everyday, I am a man, ya know?" The next question should be, "Do you hate it? Or do you embrace that sin?" It almost sounds as though he is proud of it, and obviously not convicted or repenting of it. If we feel that we are not subject to God's moral Law, we may have a problem (Rom 8:7, Col 1:21, Col 3:6, 2 Tim 2:19).

There should be a battle with sin and when the possibility of sin in their life is brought to a believer's attention, they should not get defensive and call you "judgmental" or "legalistic." Maybe a better response would be, "Is that what you see in me?"
A true believer should be sensitive to sin in their lives, and take any such accusation seriously, contemplating if this could be true or not. This is important to a believer! We don't want to be in sin. It may take some study and prayer, but if there is no struggle against sin, that's a bad sign.

Discussing this subject with some Christian brothers caused me to consider how this affects my life and my walk with the Lord. This post may end up with more questions than answers.

Now I believe there is no such thing as a "carnal Christian" as defined by today's standards. When Paul is speaking in 1 Cor 3:1-3, he is strongly rebuking them as spiritually ignorant, immature, acting as unbelievers, not condoning what they're doing. Rom 8:6 tells us where that leads, and Heb 10:26-27 states this fact clearly.

We won't be perfect this side of heaven, but should be striving for it. We still sin, yet not willfully, there should be a struggle, a conflict within ourselves regarding the sin still in our lives. We should hate it, not embrace it. But do we really sin against our will, unintentionally? Maybe, but that's a blurry line, isn't it? Aren't we still responsible for our own actions? How exactly do we "sin against our own will"?

Take pornography for instance, that's hardly against our will. We have to get the pornography, find the time and then be able to view it. It takes some planning ahead, I don't think that a person can just "slip" into this one.

How about speeding? The Bible tells us that we are to follow the law of the land (Rom 13:1-7) as long as it doesn't contradict God's Law. So, when we set our cruise control for 10 mph higher than the speed limit, are we not willfully sinning?
Do we really just pick and choose which things we like from the Bible, as unbelievers so often accuse us of?

Are we sensitive to sin in our lives? What happens when someone brings it to your attention? Is your first thought an attempt to justify yourself, or is it to repent of that sin that you hadn't really thought about before? It should be the latter, but I often find that it's the former.

Paul's words in Romans 7:18-20, do not give us the right to continue in sin. There should be a battle against it (Rom 6:12), and we should be making progress towards eliminating sin in our lives if we are truly in Christ (Rom 8:1). We will walk according to the Spirit (Rom 8:4), not to GET saved, but because we ARE saved, no longer willing to fulfill our sinful lusts (Gal 5:16).

Whatever ways these sins may manifest in our lives, whether it's lusting glances at women walking down the street, habitually speeding, or foul language, one of the tests of salvation is that we are growing in holiness (1 John 2:29 ). We should be more holy than we were last year at this time, and continuing in the sanctification process, not stagnating to see what we can still get away with in the ways of the world (1 John 2:15 ). Otherwise, we may find that we're not yet saved at all, and need to examine ourselves with Scripture (2 Cor 13:5, 1 John 5:13).

Group Emails

I recently received an email from a Christian friend, with another right behind it, apologizing because he had forgotten to hide everyone's email addresss.

I understand that it's the politically correct thing to do these days, when sending out a group email, to hide everyone's email address. I can see the point in this at times from a worldly perspective, but should we need to do this as Christians?

Why would Christians be upset that their email address was not hidden in an email going out to other like-minded Christians?
I’ve even heard of people that were actually angry that their email address wasn’t hidden went someone sent one out.
I don’t get it. As Christians, shouldn’t we have nothing to hide, to be transparent among other believers and held accountable?

On the other hand, I was told that someone used an emailing list like this to solicit funds for a business venture. Now, why would someone do that? We shouldn’t abuse our friendship among fellow believers. When asked to be removed from solicitation, the person refused. Is that a Christian way to act?

So, what's your opinion? Do you want your email address hidden when someone sends out a group email? If so, what are some of the reasons for doing so?

I prefer the email addresses to be visible, because then I know who else received the same thing and I don’t forward it to them again. If my email address gets misused, I’ll simply throw away the solicitation. I get lots of spam anyway.

Comments? Different points of view? What do you think?