Jesus and Me

Here's another pretty significant change I've been noticing lately in my life...

Since I've been very young I've always talked to God, I was a very shy child and I considered him my best friend. I had a perpetual conversation going on with him most of the time, I still do! But the older I got, the more I avoided reading the Gospels and missed out on getting to know God the Son, Jesus.

You see, under law, the Gospels are very discouraging and frightening to read! Jesus actually takes the typical human understanding of God's law and raises the bar incredibly and impossibly higher. I had always been taught that we were to follow Jesus' example of perfect obedience to the law, or a modified 'new covenant' version of the law that did away with the ceremonial parts but clung to the ten commandments merged with other so-called New Testament commands. But the good news, I was told, was that as a believer I now have the Holy Spirit who will empower me to obey this 'new covenant' law. If (or much more accurately when) I happened to break one of these commandments or another commandment of Jesus (or other NT writer), then I could repent *AGAIN*, confess my sin to God *AGAIN*, and be washed clean *AGAIN*, and start over with a fresh slate, all with the 'help' of the Holy Spirit.

There is a fatal error in this kind of teaching. God does not replace Old Covenant law with New Covenant law, he replaces law, an inanimate mediator, with a living mediator. We now live by faith in Jesus and a perpetual intimate communion with him by his Spirit in us. Nothing can ever separate us from him again!!!

Here is an extended quote of Joseph Prince preaching at Hillsong conference "Grace and Favour" ( if you can get a hold of these messages, they are great! you miss out reading him when hearing him is so much better!) , how we respond immediately after sinning is crucial:

"That's the point where the rubber meets the road. What do you do then? That the time when the devil comes to you and says: " You call yourself a believer? Look what you just did!" He's the accuser of the brethern. And that's the time you must recieve the gift of righteousness and the abundance of unearned undeserved favour all over again. Hallelujah! That's the time to say "I am the righteousness of God apart from my performance. And I tell you this, I've done it--you will rise above your anger. Hallelujah! Effortlessly, amen! You have not lost your righteousness, you cannot lose it! You see, the blood of bulls and goats in the Old Testament gave the people temporal forgiveness. The blood of the Son of God, the eternal blood of the Son of God, gives us eternal forgiveness!!! We are forgiven of our entire life of sin. Amen. You know for many years I was under the impression I only had my past sins forgiven, until I read in the Bible, the Bible says "in whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness" --we have it!-- "the forgiveness of sins"--watch this now--"according to the riches of his grace..." Not according to the poverty of my repentance, not according to the poverty of my confession, I cannot remember all that I did. But according to the riches of his grace! The day you can measure the riches of his grace, that's the day you'll know how much you've been forgiven! We have forgiveness of sins, we're not trying to get it, we have it. It was given to us at a great cost, the blood of Jesus Christ was shed. Without the shedding of blood their is no forgiveness, amen church?"....

"The prophecy of Daniel says Jesus would come to bring in everlasting righteousness. If you sin and you lose your righteousness and you have to be re-righteous, it was not permanent, it was not eternal. Even the Jews under the blood of bulls and goats have it better, at least they are made righteous or they are forgiven for one year. For us believers under the New Covenant, we are hardly forgiven completely for one day! Something is really wrong. We are dishonoring the blood of Jesus, bringing it lower than the blood of bulls and goats. If the blood of bulls and goats gives temporal redemption, temporal forgiveness, the blood of Jesus Christ gives you eternal forgiveness. Amen."

I love that! The blood of Jesus is more than enough for me and all my sin. And my sin has been taken care of once for all! Jesus did not come to condemn me but to save me, not to lay heavy burdens of law on me, but to fulfill the law and cancel the codes that stood against me, the letter that was killing me. He came to give me rest and fill me with his gift of righteousness, and from him will flow every good thing through me as I just believe and receive.

Since understanding grace, I have come to know the Holy Spirit more and more. You can't receive the Spirit through works of the law! Our efforts are not only worthless in drawing near to God, they actually drive us further from him. The law will always stand between us and God, that is why we needed Jesus to set us free from it! Not through abolishing the law, but by fulfilling it, and dying through it and to it in our place. Through union with him, we too have died through the law to the law! WE HAVE BEEN SET FREE FROM SIN AND THE LAW, WHICH IS THE POWER OF SIN. This is just Scripture I'm putting together here. Read Romans 7,8 and Galations 2. If you struggle with reading any of this, please read and reread Romans and Galatians over and over and over and ask God to reveal truth and grace to you. You NEED this truth to live!

Ok, got a little sidetracked as usual! Since I've come to know the Spirit of God, he's been revealing Jesus to me more and more. I see and hear Jesus everywhere these days and I really love him! I've missed out on so much joy by fearing him! I can't wait to know him more and more and more.

The Hybrid 'Gospel'

A hybrid is the combination of two or more different things, aimed at achieving a particular objective or goal.

I was recently listening to Rob preach the gospel...again...and as I was thinking about the differences between the Old and New Covenant, it struck me that much of the church is teaching (and I was taught some variation of this in many different churches) neither Old or New Covenant but a different 'covenant' altogether, a mongrel hybrid. This is more than just mixing a little Old with New, it's almost a permanent breed of religion that is stripped of even the fading glory the Old Covenant had (see 2 Corinthians 3:7-18). I would venture so far to say that it is a false and heretical religion, based on doctrines of demons.

What am I saying? Well, if we taught only Old Covenant, at least there are still some blessings available...right? I mean, as someone once commented to me, mercy was built into the law, there were sacrifices and provisions made for sin so that some blessing was still attainable, albeit in order to obtain them a person still had to have faith in God and his love. If we teach the New Covenant, it is only a million times better, since there is a permanent provision made for us to receive one blessing after another with no chance at all for receiving any curse since the foundation of everything in the New is the perfect righteousness of Jesus. He fully fulfulled the law--that is, he both rightfully earned every single blessing, as well as received every single curse and punishment,even death!

But men have not been satified with either covenants God has offered us, so they have taken it upon them selves to draw up a new contract thinking God will be impressed. Because the gospel is foolishness in their eyes, they have mixed the old and new together and produced a monster, a weapon that all the hordes of hell have taken up with joy and are using to maim and slaughter millions of people, believers and unbelievers alike.

This covenant says we must obey some of the laws of the Old, especially the 10 commandments, but they make it harder, adding in Jesus' sermon on the mount, so now we must not even hate our brother in our hearts or it is murder, we must not look at someone with lust or it is adultery...and they go on to apply this logic to the rest of the 10 commandments. If we fail, of course God will forgive us! IF we repent, show appropriate godly sorrow, feeling appropriate guilt and shame (to be differentiated somehow from the condemnation of Romans 8...), confess our sin sincerely, crawl to the throne of grace where Jesus reminds us of the nails that we personally drove into his hands and feet and beg mercy, which of course he will not deny us--that's the good news!!! We are forever and eternally indebted to him for his sacrifice, his 'free gift' comes with eternal strings attached and we are his pitiful puppets. Now worship him you dirty rotten worms!!! Where's your joy??? What's wrong with you people??? Aren't you thankful?

Can you see the twistedness of mixing the two covenants in this way, taking both the new and old testament out of context? This kind of teaching is neither Old or New Covenant, but 'another gospel', a gospel that is no gospel at all! (Galatians 1:6-7) I'm amazed at how often proponents of this legalistic religion want to turn this verse and point it at the ones preaching a new covenant grace message! How sadly ironic! The whole book of Galatians is aimed at man centered legalistic perversion of the true Gospel. When Paul says "this gospel is no gospel at all" he's saying plainly, "your 'good news' is not good news at all!".

There is a simple litmus test to know if you're hearing the true gospel. Is it simply and clearly the best news you've ever heard? If it is and you receive it ,it will naturally begin to produce all the glorious fruits of the Spirit in your life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, and self control. Those fruits of the Spirit are listed in GALATIANS, that is no coincidence! They are FRUITS of the Spirit, NOT WORKS OF THE FLESH, which are also evident: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. (Galatians 5:16-26)

This hybrid 'gospel' is no gospel at all, it is mostly bad news with a little bit of patronizing 'good news' mixed in to confuse the people who've bought into it. This 'good news' is used to make people feel guilty so that they're easier to manipulate and control. Their gospel is that you are terribly dirty all the time, but Jesus still condescends to love you and give you the occasional blessing, but if you suffer from disease and poverty and your marriage falls apart and your children die, it is no less than you deserve, being the lowly worm that you are, and Jesus has no obligation whatsoever to bless you so be thankful for the few he has given you and stop whining. IT'S A LIE. It sounds very humble and spiritual, but it is not humble to not boldly come to the throne of grace and receive everything we need, choosing to suffer instead, IT IS UNBELIEF.

The Father is obligated to bless us, to save us, to heal us, to love us, to comfort us, to provide everything we need, because he has obligated himself, HE HAS PROMISED. What is the requirement on our part to receive all this? It is believing in Jesus and asking in faith. NOW THAT'S GOOD NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will not be ashamed of the Good News! I will joyfully preach it anytime I get a chance, and it is so refreshing to my soul when I do. I haven't written anything like this for a long time it seems, but it feels really really good...and I know it will stir some people up a bit. Trust me, I hope it does stir some of you up...to faith!

Watch Out For Catholic Drivers!!!

I'm serious. The vatican has apparently issued a 'ten commandments' for drivers.

Taken from the article linked above, they are as follows:

The "Drivers' Ten Commandments," as listed by the document, are:

1. You shall not kill.

2. The road shall be for you a means of communion between people and not of mortal harm.

3. Courtesy, uprightness and prudence will help you deal with unforeseen events.

4. Be charitable and help your neighbor in need, especially victims of accidents.

5. Cars shall not be for you an expression of power and domination, and an occasion of sin.

6. Charitably convince the young and not so young not to drive when they are not in a fitting condition to do so.

7. Support the families of accident victims.

8. Bring guilty motorists and their victims together, at the appropriate time, so that they can undergo the liberating experience of forgiveness.

9. On the road, protect the more vulnerable party.

10. Feel responsible toward others.

Let's just leave the whole issue of who has authority to put law on God's people alone...well, for now anyway...

Are you expecting 60 million or so Catholics to make a dent in the problem of road rage all over the world? Well, I'm sure many of them don't drive but still there must be a significant number of drivers. Yes, they will make a difference. Mostly, they will become worse drivers than ever. That's what the law is for, to increase sin! (Romans 5:20, see below)

Don't tell me you haven't experienced this principle at work. Make a rule for yourself and you will immediately break it and then some. Or maybe you are of the rare 'strong willed' group. Maybe you're more like Paul, and can spout of your own version of "... circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness, under the law blameless..."
(Phil. 3:5-6) You are living a lie if you think you can handle obeying the law well enough. 'Well enough' means absolutely perfect obedience just as Christ achieved. If you can pull that off, then you're right, you don't need Jesus. Paul goes on to say in Philippians 3:

"But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith..."

That word 'rubbish' is more accurately translated 'dung' in the KJV. Or as Rob Rufus says, 'poo'. All your precious works are no more than one big pile of , well , you know. Don't get upset with me, take it up with the Spirit of Christ. He's trying to get through to us! What Jesus did here on earth behalf of sinners was not a pleasant walk in the park. It involved incredible sacrifice and immeasurable suffering, yet we don't think it was really enough. We prove that every time we come up with a new rule or plan to please God our Father.


I've listed below some passages from Romans that talk about what the law is for. I hope to study this more in depth throughout the whole Bible myself over the next few months.

"For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin." (Romans 3:20)

"For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression." (Romans 4:13-15)

"Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
(Romans 5:20-21

"For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace."
(Romans 6:14)

"Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit."
(Romans 7:4-6)

"But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 1The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me." (Romans 7:8-10)

"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." (Romans 8:1-4)

If you still don't believe that law makes us sin more, I challenge you to give it a try. Make a rule for yourself, or just pick one out of the original ten commandments (applying Jesus' interpretation involving your heart). Try to keep it perfectly for one week. I was going to suggest some but God stopped me. I don't want to be responsible for provoking anyone to sin!

Women in Islam

I've just finished re-reading a little booklet called "Women in Islam"(by P. Newton and M. Rafiqul Haqq) that I got quite a while back from Voice of the Martyrs.
Even though it can be maddening to read some of the views of women, I think it's important to learn about other religions, especially one that is so pervasive and influential in the world today. This booklet is basically full of quotes from the Qur'an, The Hadith, and other textbooks and commentaries by Muslim scholars both traditional and contemporary. The authors' comments are kept brief "so that the reader can come to his own conclusions, rather than be influenced unduly by our interpretation". Also, the authors state in the beginning that, "It must be recognised that neither every Muslim, nor every Muslim nation follows all of these teachings." So keeping that in mind,here are a few quotes from the book:

"Man is more perfect than the woman in creation, in intelligence, and in the religious sphere, such as the suitalbility to be a judge, and a leader in worship. Also, the testimony of the man is twice that of the woman. So that whoever is given great responsibilities must be given correspondingly great privileges. As the woman is deficient in intelligence and of great lust, if she is given much money, much corruption will be the result." (Razi,commenting on Q.4:11)

"His saying 'created for you' is a proof that women were created like animals, plants and other useful things, just as the Most High has said 'He created for you what is on earth' and that necessitates the woman not to be created for worship and carrying the Divine commands. We say creating the women is one of the graces bestowed upon us and charging them with Divine cammands to complete the graces bestowed upon us, not that they are charged as we men are charged. Women are not charged with many commands as we are charged. Because the woman is weak, silly, in a sense she is like a child, and no commands are laid upon a child, but for the grace of Allah upon us to be complete, women had to be charged so that they may fear the torment of punishment and so follow her husband, and keep away from what is forbidden, otherwise corruption would be rampant." (Razi, commention on Q. 30:21)

"Righteous women are therefore obedient, ...And those you fear may be rebellious,admonish, banish them to their couches, and beat them." (Q. 4:34)

"If blood, suppuration, and pus, were to pour from the husband's nose and the wife licked it with her tongue, she would still never be able to fulfil his right over her." (Suyati,commenting on Q. 4:34

"When Dauda bint Zam'ah (one of Muhammad's wives)became old, the Prophet of Allah wanted to divorce her. However, she preferred to remain amongst his wives, so she said, 'Keep me, and my day shall belong to 'Aisha, and he did, and thus she died as one of his wives. Ibn Abi Malikah declared that this verse was revealed regarding 'Aisha. And in this verse is the answer to those light headed fools who say that if a man took the youth of a woman and she became old he cannot replace her. So praise be to Allah who lifted such burden and made an escape from such dilemma." (Ibn al-'Arabi commenting on Q. 4:128)

While my natural tendency when reading things like this is to get angry and self-righteous, by the Holy Spirit I am given love and compassion towards those in bondage to these demonic lies. I find reading things like this, especially in conjunction with testimonies of those who have been saved out of Islam ( such as "Into the Den of Infidels") to be very helpful by giving me a desire to pray for both the masses of lost people and the individuals I meet or see in my daily life. In a strange way, it also enforces my understanding of God's love for women, and also his love for his Bride, the church. As I read such blatant lies that so obviously originated from the pit of hell as an attack on everything God holds dear, I am reminded of the beautiful truths of God's word that stand in stark contrast to these evils. Christ loves us and laid down his life for us. He is washing us and making us perfect for himself and he will stop at nothing to show us his amazing redeeming love and joy in his Bride. This is wonderful, amazing grace such as no other religion or belief system in the world even tries to compete with.

You wouldn't believe the difficulty I had getting this posted! It was erased once ( I still don't know how), then my computer shut down and I lost part of it again, and lots of other things kept happening such as windows went crazy and kept opening window after window clickclickclick until I finally got the whole thing closed and had to login in all over again. So, I hope someone gets something out of this whole thing. I'd love to hear any testimonies of people who have been saved out of other religions, as well as any other comments.