Category: Christianity

Weak Faith Versus Faith Confusion

Is your faith weak? Or do you have no idea what faith is?

“And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

Hebrews 11:6

“The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’”

Luke 17:5

“He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.’”

Matthew 17:20
Confusion

Is your faith weak? Or do you have no idea what faith is? What many individuals in the Church have done is they have confused faith with an emotional state.

Faith is not emotion, it is action.

Action then in turn creates the emotions commonly associated with faith. Do not confuse what you feel for genuine faith. In the same way that you should not confuse what you feel emotionally towards another person for genuine love.

You think your faith is weak because you have thousands of questions about the nature of God.

You wonder why He is the way that He is.

Why He chose to destroy people in the Old Testament or execute a furious vengeance on people who did not obey Him.

You question your own salvation and wonder if the grace of God is enough to save even a soul like yours.

You are not sure if you will be saved because you are confused by God’s justice and the way it differs from man’s justice.

You wonder if you are wasting time in the Church, wasting time in your faith and giving up on pleasures of life solely for the purpose of faith.

All these thoughts are the attacks of the enemy on your faith.

You hold fast to the faith even when you do not feel like it, when you do not want to or even when you think everything about it is wrong. You hold fast the faith through discipline and focus because that is how a disciple behaves. This is true faith. Staying in the Church when your emotions pull you away from it is faith. Doing what is right even when it is inconvenient is faith. Faith is trusting in God’s plan even though it looks wrong to you. Faith is maintained despite everything you feel. Real faith is not an emotion, it is an attitude combined with an action.

Faith is the attitude of relentlessness, knowing you will never give up the faith. Then following it up with the action of maintaining that faith. Christianity is very difficult, very Spartan. It is not for the faint-hearted. Modern culture has made it possible to have a weak faith and be faithful because there are no real consequences to being faithful right now. When the times arises for the true warriors of Christ to rise and resist a violent persecution, the weak will fall away. The strong and faithful will remain.

All of your questions will not be answered in this world.

You will not get to the bottom of the way you feel and you will not know if your sacrifices in life have been worth it until the very end. You will not know if giving everything up in life was worth heaven. You do not even know if you yourself are going to heaven.

This is not weak faith, this is a faith that is being refined by fire.

Your faith is tested and tried through all of these assorted evils. The most faithful will survive to the end of the gauntlet and be rewarded. Maintain your faith. You do not have weak faith, you have a faith that is under assault, there is a huge difference.

Faith is action and Attitude.

Application:

Recognize that every thought, fear and worry you have in your mind regarding your faith is merely a test. The strength of your character, mind and discipline are being tested against the evils of this world.

You have to make large sacrifices of pleasure in order to hold the faith. You will not know if it is worth it, but you must maintain the faith nonetheless. You must hold fast to the disciplines that you know and blot out the evil thoughts of the adversary that pollute your mind. This life is a game of endurance, all you have to do is endure to the end and you will be victorious.

Do not question your faith if you are having great difficulty in your life, for this is merely the fire that is turning you into the strong individual that you want to be.

Every great person that you admire, whether in the faith or in the world, has undergone this transformation. A valuable gold cannot be refined without a hot furnace. Endure those moments of refinement and you will understand that your faith is not weak, it is being built into something great.

Prepare your mind for the siege of the enemy. Gather together positive thoughts and ideas that you will contemplate when you are attacked by the enemy. Create the best possible mental image of heaven to motivate yourself to that goal. Resist every evil thought of the evil one. You can win this war, it is only a matter of time.

Strengthen your mind.

American Collapse Will Not Happen in One Day

Rome did not fall apart in a single day. The fall came over time, fueled by decadence and hedonism.

People are panicking about the state of the country. That is fine, the concern may actually be a good thing. But there is much more hope than people realize. There are still thousands of individuals “who have not yet bowed to the Baals”. If American collapse is coming, it will not happen overnight.

We will not wake up one morning to overwhelming tyranny and government regulated living and think, “I wonder how we got into this situation”.

The majority of countries fall apart slowly over time.

They decay slowly instead of combusting spontaneously. This is how Rome fell: slowly over time, instead of overnight in mass hysteria.

Historians have generated hundreds of theories as to why the Roman empire fell. The real reason could be any one of those theories or any possible combinations of various theories. However, the primary point to be noted is that Rome did not fall apart in a single day. The fall came over time, fueled by decadence and hedonism.  

The citizens focused on pleasure and the enjoyment of life, causing them to become soft and weak. The empire was only as powerful as its people. The people only as powerful as their minds allowed them to be. The fall happened slowly.

The fact that there is panic about the state of the country actually provides some positive facts.

1 – We the People are Aware of what is going on in the country.

We are aware of the decadence and the destruction of core values that made America a world power. As long as we are aware of the problems, we can stave them off. Destruction and death happen to the people who are unaware of them. Countries are destroyed by apathy and stagnation.

The American people are fully aware of the condition that the country is in and the direction that it is headed. Because of this awareness, there is hope. Awareness is the foundational principle and key to all improvement and change. As long as we are aware of the evil that exists, there is still plenty of time to change it.

There also seems to be a delay in how nations decay when they have solid religious foundations. Many historians are shocked that the Roman empire lasted as long as it did. It could be because of the heavy Christian presence there. Just speculation, something to think about.

When Rome fell, Christianity went elsewhere, finding a home in other European countries.

Britain would become a world power much later in time, and Christianity would find its base there. It seems that whatever the world power is, it is infused with faith. And this faith preserves the nation because the nature of God is merciful.

God would have spared Sodom and Gomorrah for the sake of 10 people. That is less than 2% of the population of those two cities alone, not counting the other two cities that were destroyed (if historians are correct about the population of Sodom and Gomorrah being around 900-1200 people).

The American country will be spared as long as there is righteousness in it. And as long as we the people are still panicking about the state of the country, then we have enough righteous souls to spare the nation. We are aware enough of the evil to keep it at bay for a few more years. There is hope for the country yet.

Correcting Hypocrisy: Garbage Intake

“There is nothing wrong with watching the news and being politically aware, but when it starts to negatively impact our faith, we need to consider taking a step back.”

Colossians 3:2 – “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”

John 15:19 – “If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

We have been told for years to be wary about what we put in our minds.

garbage

Older Christians have made it a point to tell us this and to tell us to guard our hearts. The information that enters our minds through our senses is going to determine how we think. Our actions are the cumulative effects of our thoughts, therefore we must be very mindful of those thoughts.

The older generations have warned us about the effects of music and other media on our perceptions and thought processes. They have warned us about the fact that we will become like the people we talk to and hang out with. They give us all this valuable information yet they live in hypocrisy.

The older generation sits in front of the television set watching the news constantly. They take in all the outrage media outlets and become extremely emotionally involved with their perception on the world. They do not realize that they are only getting a brief glimpse of the world through the filter of whatever news station they are listening to. Through this they become entangled with the world and depressed about its state. They think the world is coming to an end, just as older people have thought for decades now. They are disillusioned to the state of reality.

Even in all their wisdom, the older people do not realize that they are committing the same evils that they have warned against.

They are allowing the state of the world to affect their faith. There is nothing wrong with watching the news and being politically aware, but when it starts to negatively impact our faith, we need to consider taking a step back.

Remove any impediment to God that exists.

Application

You may find yourself living in hypocrisy. You tell others to avoid putting garbage in their mind because you know it will damage your faith, yet you still put different garbage in your own mind.

Reduce the amount of negative, outrage media that you ingest. The world will keep spinning even if you pay a little less attention to it. If you are too deep in an addiction to outrage (which is why many people watch the news in the first place) then you need to fast from media for a determined period of time. Maybe a week, maybe a month, it depends on how severely you have twisted your mind. You have forgotten that God is in control and nations will rise and fall based on what He has determined to be right.

Remember that everything that will happen is already known in the mind of God. Remember that we know how our story ends, with good as the victor and with all evil eliminated.

Correct your thoughts.

Purge your mind of worldliness.

Redefining Hypocrisy

“Hypocrisy is preaching a standard that you do not practice. It is telling others how they should live and then consciously choosing to live in the opposite way.”

The Problem with Hypocrisy is that is has not been clearly defined.

Matthew 7:1-5 – “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”

Romans 2:3 – “Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God?”

Titus 1:6 – “They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work”

Hypocrisy is a term that is thrown around as if it means nothing. We have forgotten what this word means because it is so overused. We accuse everyone and everything of being hypocritical without first defining the terms of what hypocrisy is. Here we define terms.

hypocrisy

Definition: What Hypocrisy is NOT.

Hypocrisy is not having a high standard and failing to live up to it. That is called being a human being and making a mistake.
Hypocrisy is not committing sin.
Hypocrisy is not failing to do something we know we know we should, nor is it doing something we know we should not.
Hypocrisy is not a single failing or even a batch of failings.

Definition: What Hypocrisy IS.

Hypocrisy is preaching a standard that you do not practice. It is telling others how they should live and then consciously choosing to live in the opposite way.

Examples

1 – If a man promotes the standard of abstinence until marriage, yet he fails in this and has sex, he is NOT a hypocrite.

If the same man tells others to be abstinent and yet willing goes out and has sex repeatedly, he IS living a hypocritical life.

2 – If a man promotes sobriety, the avoidance of alcohol and other substances, yet he stumbles and has a drink because he has little self-control, he is NOT a hypocrite.

The man who preaches sobriety and maintains a lifestyle of constant drinking and drunkenness IS a hypocrite.

3 – If a man believes that is is wrong to curse, yet one day he accidentally loses control of his mouth and says a word he considers to be a sin, he is NOT a hypocrite.

The hypocrite tells others not to curse and then goes out and uses whatever language he wants without even trying to restrain his tongue.

The difference is that the man who is not a hypocrite stumbles and makes mistakes, while the man who IS a hypocrite lives a constant, conscious lifestyle of evil that is in direct opposition to the lifestyle he wants others to live.

A person trying to live a “green lifestyle” (heaven help you) but every once in a while drives a gas burning car or needs to take a plane somewhere is not a hypocrite. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez IS a hypocrite because she wants everyone else to live a green, inconvenient life while having the rules not apply to her

The hypocrite dictates rules to others that do not apply to him. He is very aware of what he is doing. He usually attempts to disguise or bury it so that he can live the way he wants to while still attempting to appear as an angel of righteousness.

All men make mistakes and stumble, the hypocrite willingly lives the lifestyle he preaches against.

Some may even unknowingly live in hypocrisy. However, these individuals are hypocritical to a lesser degree because they do not actively choose to do what is wrong (We will examine these in detail later).

This is the difference.
This is true hypocrisy.
To require a person to never commit any of the wrongs he is opposed to is unreasonable and illogical.
We are still men in the flesh.
We will fail, but we will not willingly live in evil.

Hypocrisy is a choice that we will avoid.

Application

Correct your perceptions about what you think hypocrisy is before you begin another day. Do not allow the false notion of what the weak call hypocrisy delude you to reality.

Do not require perfection from people who hold high standards. No man can reach perfection. However, that does not mean that man cannot have very high standards for himself. Those standards will only press him on to more greatness and improvement.

If you are wallowing in hypocrisy, purge it from yourself immediately. There is no need to contribute to the bad name of hypocrisy that Christians have built for themselves already. Eliminate your vices and replace them with strength and honor.

Control your mind.

Treat Your Faith Seriously

“The older generations enjoy pointing fingers at the younger generations and complaining about them. They forget that they are the ones who are responsible for raising that younger generation.”

serious


There is a disease growing in the Church. It is complacency combined with irreverence which together form an overall lack of seriousness regarding religion.

The Church has become a social club where individuals focus primarily on their own enjoyment with little thought for anything else. Young men show up to Church dressed for a backyard barbecue while young women show up dressed like they are going out clubbing.

What happened? Parents thought that simply being Christians and bringing their kids to church a couple of times per week would be enough to keep them on the path of spiritual discipline.

This is not the case anymore. The young see the lack of seriousness from their parents and carry on the tradition of lackadaisical faith in their own lives. The older generations enjoy pointing fingers at the younger generations and complaining about them.

The older generation forgets that they are responsible for raising the younger generation.

They have three fingers pointing back at themselves.

When a young child behaves poorly, it is a reflection primarily on the parent, not on the child. We all know and understand that children are born uncivilized. It is the responsibility of the parents the teach them how to behave in a civilized society.

Thus when we see a lack of seriousness in the Church, we need to look at the parents who did not firmly instill values into their children to determine the root cause of the problem.

The lack of seriousness we see in the Church is the result of poor parenting. It is evident that our perception of God and the Church is a reflection of our perception of our parents, primarily our fathers when it comes to how we view God.

If the father is a strict disciplinarian, the child views God as the Punisher of evil who gives no grace or mercy to anyone, and who is viewing earth from heaven just waiting for someone to sin so that He can destroy them.

If the father is too merciful, turning a blind eye to a child’s poor behavior, the child views God as handing out never-ending grace and mercy no matter how evil an individual is. The child will then convince himself that everyone is saved because God is all love.

If the father is absent, either because of work or because he is literally gone, the child views God as absent and distant and will likely end up as an atheist.

Our idea of the Church reflects our mothers and their relationships with our fathers.

If marriage is to reflect Christ (the husband) and His Church (the wife) then we can see how seriousness has faded over the years. Children have less respect for their parents and in turn, they have less respect for the Church. They speak to their mothers however they please, and thus view the Church as something not to be respected.

Marriage itself has become less respected and revered and is seen as an empty contract that can be cast aside at a moment’s notice for any reason.

Therefore, the relationship between Christ and the Church has become less respectful as well. This respect must be restored to the Church.

We forget that we are coming to a memorial service for Christ.

No one would show up to the funeral of their father or mother in shorts and a t-shirt.

Then why do we feel free to show up to the memorial service for God the Son dressed like we are headed to a birthday party?

Unacceptable.

We need to reverse this lack of respect and seriousness in the church by instructing our children about the seriousness of the faith we hold. They need to understand that a lackadaisical approach to faith and Christianity is no better than having no faith at all.

The lukewarm church is spewed from the mouth of God. Education begins at home. “Raise your children in the way that they should go so that when they are grown, they may not depart from it” ~ Proverbs 22:6.

Treat your faith with seriousness and respect. Worship God with reverence and Godly fear, for He is “a consuming fire” – Hebrews 12:28-29

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