Truth or Lie

Posted by anointedplace on April 1, 2011 · 2 Comments 

Is church today about the Gospel of Jesus Christ or self affirmation?  This question kept coming back to me since I finished reading the Book of Acts.  I’m now studying 1 Corinthians and again the state of the Gospel message within the church community arose.  So how much value do we place on Christ?  How much of our time is spent with him?  How much of our free time spent learning of him?  Are we actually renewing our minds? Are we running from sanctification?  Does the Gospel impact how we live at all?  Is the Christian fellowship changing?  Our we truly worshiping God in spirit and in truth?  How much of the service is about Jesus and how much is it about us living an abundant life?  I’m not saying the Jesus doesn’t want us to live fully, He does, he wants us to live fully for Him not for ourselves.  Remember, to be His disciple he calls us to lose our life for his sake (Luke 9:23-26).

But in reading Corinthians, I wonder how true are our statements.  I wonder that with all of our call and response, and repeating how much is real.  It is one thing repeat Jesus is the Son of God and another to mean it.  To say it, and mean it says that you believe that he is God in the flesh.  It says that you believe that you are fallen and in need of a savior.  It says that you have sinned and will probably sin again.  It says that there is no good in you and that you are selfish plus prideful.  It says that you recognize that on your own; you cant get in heaven,find God, fix yourself or even think about obeying the Father and live righteously.  To say Jesus is the Christ, literally puts the murder weapon in your hands well standing in front of the judge and jury (case close).  But then Jesus speaks up and says I’ll go in your place.  No man  gives up his life willingly, it has to be God working on the inside.  We have to been born again through the work of the Holy Spirit, this is the gospel.

 

1 corinthians 12:³ Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

1 John 4:2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,

Knowing all of this how can we profess christ and live any kind of way?  So what we do is cling on being human, not judging and deeds.  Next we replace the gospel with self affirmation which tells us how great we are and that God wants us greater.  In this gospel the Christ is just Jesus.  he made it possible for us to be great.  We mention his name in worship only but not in teaching or preaching.  The teachers we have gathered don’t demand us to follow Christ.  They simple ask us to speak it into existence because that is what God wants.  These teachers always talk about God and us being children of God.  This new gospel grasps for the Father well avoiding the Son because they can’t recognize Him as God in the flesh. Just as it says in 1 John 4:2, they are not of the spirit.

1 Timothy 6

³ If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, ⁴ they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions ⁵ and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.

⁶ But godliness with contentment is great gain. ⁷ For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. ⁸ But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. ⁹ Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

2 Timothy 3

¹ But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. ² People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³ without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, ⁴ treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— ⁵ having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

⁶ They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, ⁷ always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.

 

So what is it that they teach?  The gospel they preach is boastful, proud and loves the collection of wealth and influence.  This is the same gospel that was preached by Satan himself to Adam and Eve in the garden (Genesis 3).  It was the same gospel Satan tempted Jesus with in the wilderness.  And its the same gospel, they preach with a big smile on their faces…  Its all about the words they say, self affirmation that is.

The theory of self-affirmation is a psychological theory that was first proposed by Claude Steele (1988) with the premise that people are motivated to maintain the integrity of the self. The ultimate goal of the self is to protect an image of its self-integrity, morality and adequacy. On the whole, integrity is defined as the sense that one is a good and appropriate person and the term “appropriate” refers to behavior that is fitting or suitable given the cultural norms and the salient demands on people within their culture. This theory explains why people respond in such a way to restore self-worth when their image of self-integrity is threatened.

Affirmations are positive statements that describe a desired situation, and which are repeated many times, in order to impress the subconscious mind and trigger it into positive action. In order to ensure the effectiveness of the affirmations, they have to be repeated with attention, conviction, interest and desire.

They try to replace the work of Christ and the regeneration of the heart by the work of the Holy Spirit with human effort.  Yet, Jesus told Nicodemus that flesh will only produce things of the flesh and that can’t enter the kingdom of God.  But this false gospel is very appealing and it doesn’t offend you.  This false gospel says that there is good in you and calls God a liar (Romans 1, 3:9-18, Romans 8:1-8, 1 John 1:7-9).   The moment we start trying to gain a form of salvation or rightness without Christ, we began to roll down hill.  The moment we start to try and find happiness outside of Christ, we have already set ourselves up for depression.  We run to the quick fix every time because its hard work to be a true believer.  Some of us have been lied to about the Christian life.  No one on their own chooses Jesus Christ, it is by God’s grace alone and through faith alone in Jesus are we saved.  And it is God who works to keep us that way. John 6:‎37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.  But we can’t control God and that drives us crazy so we search of religions that we can control.

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