The Horror of Sin

This is a photo of dross. It is the mass left over from the refining
 of silver, gold, aluminum, among other metals. It is worthless and
is discarded after being removed from metals. The removal of
dross is necessary to make the metal as pure as possible.
Dross is literally defined as worthless rubbish.

"Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer." -Psalms 25:4

We all know how disgusting and wretched sin is but for the Believer in Christ, we never become immune to this fact. Although we were once filled with dross of sin, once Christ removed it, we became turned completely off from such state of being.





I was on Twitter earlier today and I saw "retweets" from people selling their self help books, audio sermons and other paraphernalia from their ministries. I could not help but to get upset. I was so disgusted with the SELLING of The Word, which is indeed a sin. The bible warns all people of this in 2 Corinthians 2:17:


"You see, we are not like the many hucksters who preach for personal profit. We preach the word of God with sincerity and with Christ's authority, knowing that God is watching us."

However, so many refuse to remember that Jesus Christ is watching EVERYTHING that happens on this earth. Even we as Believers must remain sober that we must represent the God we serve with thoughtfulness, being certain in all things we do to exalt Him and anything that does not correctly represent His character should not be done.

Have you ever thought about how horrid sin is?

I mean REALLY thought about how sin sweeps up anyone seeking to dip just a little into it... How sin creeps up on the unsuspecting and spiritually unguarded... How sin even tries to get those that are fully armored by the Word of God through human desires that aren't immediately subdued...

I want to revisit Sodom & Gomorrah because although it is an Old Testament event, this is one of the examples that Christ uses when He ministers in the New Testament and compares it with that present time and future (Matthew 10:15; 11:24).

A believer in Sodom & Gomorrah would be completely out of place in their way of thinking. For one, they'd have to constantly be on guard so they would not in anyway compromise their belief in Christ, even in the seemingly everyday leisure activities. Sodom and Gomorrah had plenty. These cities lived very well and enjoyed leisure more than work. The typical citizen saw sin as freedom and it was definitely part of their everyday life, seen as normalcy. The citizens of Sodom & Gomorrah had no regard of the Living God, did not respect those that did and tried to corrupt anything left that had a hint of righteousness. The only use these people would see of God is if they could make a profit of financial gain, from His Word.

When the LORD made known His plan to destroy these cities (Genesis 18:20-21), Abraham was worries about his nephew Lot and his family, that they would be destroyed as well. The LORD promised that even if it were only 10 righteous, He would not destroy the cities (Genesis 18:32).

However, we find that the angels the LORD sent to these two cities did not even contain 10 people that were righteous. How wretched sin is, that it consumed the population of two cities.

Not only was the righteous less than 10, we find that it was really only ONE. When Lot warned his son-in-laws that these cities were going to be destroyed, they thought he was joking and ignored the warning. Then once Lot, his wife, and two daughters made a safe escape - Lot's wife ignored the warning of the angels that told her do not look back. As a result she turned into a pillar of salt. Then Lot's daughters showed their distrust in God and took it upon themselves to commit incest and  "preserve the seed" , having sex with their father to get pregnant. As a result, knowingly or not, even Lot sinned. Therefore, we can say there was not ONE PERSON absent of sin in Sodom & Gomorrah!

I say that to tell you this: No matter how our flesh comes up with what appears to be a grand idea to do righteousness, we MUST TEST THE SPIRIT IT IS DONE IN!

I believe that Lot's daughters sincerely thought they were doing right when they tried to preserve their family lineage. But Satan was crafty in the way he presented this to them, causing them to sin in the process. They did not wait on instruction from the LORD and as a result, they birthed sons that became the fathers of wicked groups of people ( The Moabites and Ammonites).

The same goes for if you have an idea to go out and minister the Word of God. You may have started with the purest intention, but somewhere along the way, it turned into a tainted deed. You MUST go to the Word of God and in prayer, to see if the path you are taking is aligned with His Will. Selling books (among other products) on bible prophecy and spiritual inspiration is NOT WHAT GOD WANTS HIS CHILDREN TO DO. I don't care HOW RIGHTEOUS IT APPEARS, we are to go by faith, not by our lying sight. Our standard of righteousness is the Word of God and anything less, is not worthy!

The LORD wants to clean that dross from us, He seeks to remove the impurities from our hearts so that we may be made perfect in His sight. However, He cannot do that if we are holding on to our desires and plans to do His Work! We cannot please Him with OUR STANDARDS... We can only please Him with HIS STANDARDS!

The Apostles' Names Tell a Story!

I was reading the Book of Matthew for a couple of days and this morning I started chapter 10. It starts with saying that Jesus Christ sent His 12 apostles out, giving them power of unclean spirits, with the ability to cast them out and to heal all manner of sickness and disease. Then it goes on to formally introduce the 12 apostles, in order.

I looked at the first name which was Simon Peter. I knew that Peter meant "Rock or Stone" and then I wondered if I look up all of the names of the 12 apostles, what story it would tell. So I decided to do that!

It is amazing how God's Word is layered with so many deeper meanings and the order of which His Word is designed just blows my mind. Here is what I found (with commentary):

1. Simon Peter – He who hears/has heard; Rock or stone
When I found this definition, the first thing I thought about was How Yahweh heard the children of Israel calling out for him to save them while in Egyptian bondage. But as I am typing this, I'm thinking of an earlier time that Yahweh heard his children. When Abel was killed by Cain, the bible tells us that Yahweh came forth and questioned Cain because Abel's blood cried out to God from the ground! God hears and He does not forget to answer. Just as the LORD exacted judgment and vengeance on Cain for murdering Abel, He saved mankind through Jesus Christ because there was a need and a call to Him for a Savior. Isaiah 59:16 says that Yahweh saw that there was no one that could intercede for mankind and therefore He reached His hand (Jesus Christ) to the earth to bring salvation to mankind. Simon Peter was the first apostle because it gives us the beginning of the fulfillment of a New Covenant. Yahweh heard the cry of man to save us, so He sent a part of himself (Jesus Christ) to be that Salvation.

2. Andrew – Man Warrior, manly
The perception of Christ is often displayed through paintings and other subliminal symbolism or writings to be our society's definition of feminine. Yes, Christ is humble and meek. However, He is also The LORD of Armies! Our Savior is a fighter and He does not shy away from protecting His children. Isaiah 59:17-18 says " For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak.
¹⁸ According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompence to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompence."

Our LORD is ready for battle! It is wonderful to see the manly or masculinity of our Savior! Death (the result of sin) is STRONG and we MUST have a force stronger that it to OVERCOME IT! Jesus Christ is the ONLY one that could do this job! We must remember that our Savior is a Warrior!

3. James, Son of Zebedee – He who Supplants/Abundant Portion
This brought me to tears because the synonyms for the word supplant is the following:

• annul
  
• overrule
  
• set aside
  
• discard
  
• remove
  
• replace
  
• takeover

We must be so grateful to know that our LORD gave mercy to make a New Covenant through Jesus Christ because we broke the Old Covenant. Jesus Christ supplants.... He overruled the Old Covenant for our sake to save all who come unto Him from eternal damnation! This goes back to Isaiah 59:16-18. When God saw that nobody else could fulfill the Old Covenant but Himself, He did it! His Word is perfect and He knows it. Yet, because we are imperfect, He loved us enough to bring Himself  a little lower than the angels (Psalm 8:5, Hebrews 2:7) in physical form to do what we had no power to do, although it was our disobedience that made us helpless in the first place!

Zebedee means Abundant Portion (Existing or available in large amounts), which speaks strictly about the Salvation that Christ is. He is overflowing with room for everyone. No matter how great the sin is that any human has committed, Christ is Salvation enough to overcome it and give everlasting life. Again, how great is that Salvation to overcome something so powerful as death? The Greatest!

4. John – Graced by Yahweh (God is Gracious)
We've already covered how gracious our LORD is... But to explore the characteristics of the word Gracious, it will further show each component of who Christ is. Consider the following synonyms:

• accommodating
  
• considerate
  
• merciful
  
• mild
  
• tender
  
• loving
  
• compassionate
  
• pleasing
  
• easy
  
• charitable
  
• approachable
  

No matter how wicked or righteous anyone has been, God has given his grace to us. Making a New Covenant in place of the Old Covenant can be explained with no other word but accommodating. Our Heavenly Father was clearly considerate when he chose to come to earth in a physical human form to feel ALL of the temptations and emotions that we deal with everyday. Our sin separated us from God. The only way for God to be reconnected with us was to conquer sin, but also come in our fallen state and experience life as we would. The mercy displayed in this act is undeniable. Even after accepting Christ, mankind sins. Although we are conscious about it and repent and pray for change within us, we still are not perfect but Jesus is so mild and tender toward our condition yet he does not have to be! He gently chastises His children by reminding us not to be judgmental toward others that have yet to accept Him because we were once the same as them. He is so loving and compassionate toward everyone at all times and He calls us to be the same. Remember, our Savior WEPT when Mary and Martha lost their brother Lazarus. He feels our pain and meets us where we are, JUST to feel as we feel. How could this type of person be anything less than pleasing? Whoever is not pleased with such a gentle God, is not worthy of Him. He says that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. When we receive Christ's salvation, we no longer have to carry the world on our shoulders. We realize that He has overcome all of the problems we had and will ever have. The bible tells us that with this knowledge of who God is, we can boldly come to the throne. Knowing that we will be heirs to His Kingdom because He is truth; we can believe that He has done all that He says. There is no other God as powerful, yet so approachable. Christ has given us His charity in love, having pity on all mankind. This is being Graced by Yahweh.

5. Phillip – Greek: Lover of Horses; Hebrew: War Like

• Job 39:19-25 tells us the character of a horse. We are shown that they are unafraid, knows when battle is near and does not back down from it YET they fully obey the command of their captain. Jesus Christ was obedient to Yahweh. Although He did not desire to lay His life down, He still did. The bible says Christ prayed so hard in the Garden of Gethsemane, that the sweat from Him was as BLOOD! So we are aware that if Yahweh told Jesus Christ that He did not have to fulfill the mission, Christ would have walked away. However, when Yahweh made it clear that He must carry out the purpose He was physically born, Christ did so. To the human mind, this may seem as if Christ didn't put up a fight. But actually, Christ's obedience shows His spiritual armor was strong and He went into battle by keeping the Will of His Father. Like a horse prepared for battle, Christ carried out the Will of the Father and used His power to do so. Gives a whole new perspective to the duty of horses in battle right?!

6. Bartholomew – A Son that Suspends the Waters; Abounding in Furrow
   

I was absolutely astonished at how this spoke volumes of Christ. Suspend means to "Temporarily prevent from continuing".... Which is what Yahweh did with the Old Covenant in preparation of the New Covenant. A Furrow is a long narrow trench made in the ground by a plow for planting seeds or for irrigation (supplying dry land with water)... In other words, when Yahweh suspended the covenant between Him and man, He was preparing for a New and more effective covenant for us. Only to reinforce that He IS the WAY and that He would plant the seeds of righteousness among mankind, replenishing life (waters) in dry land (our hopelessness before we received salvation). Tell me this isn't mind blowing?!!!

7. Thomas – Twin
At first glance, one could be confused with the meaning of Thomas, thinking it had nothing to do with Christ. However, if you look at some of the synonyms for twin, you can clearly see the connection:

• joint
• same
• matching
• like

Yahweh and Jesus Christ are joint. They are the same and match/like. We are to know that Christ is a piece of God in the flesh and that everything He teaches us through the bible with the Holy Spirit is exactly what God the Father wants. Remember, Jesus Christ IS "The Word". Therefore, we are communicating with Christ himself when we read the bible with the Holy Spirit as our teacher OF that Word.

8. Matthew – Gift of Yahweh

A gift is something given willingly to someone, without payment; present. Some words associated with gift is

1. favor
   
2. offering
   
3. charity
   

Isn't this exactly what salvation is? Yahweh willingly gave us the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, without receiving anything in return. We could never conquer death. If we could, it would've been done without Yahweh having to sacrifice a part of himself for our safe return to him. Mankind was kidnapped from Yahweh by Satan. The only way to get us back was to pay a sufficient ransom. That ransom was Jesus Christ. The sacrifice of His very life and power to rise again, forced Satan to release us back into the hands of Jesus Christ. Remember, the favor of God is not anything we can buy, or earn. It is willingly given and it is up to us to accept it.

9.  James, Son of Alphaeus – Changing

• substitute
• swap/switch
• in place of
  
  

 As you see, the synonyms for "changing" shows what Christ did for us. To keep us from receiving eternal damnation, Yahweh swapped/substituted/switched our payment with Jesus. Yahweh had Christ to physically die in place of us! When Christ physically died, He made us exempt from having to.... Now, we can pass from death to life. If Christ had not done this for us, once we physically died, there would be no possibility of receiving life again.

10. Thaddeus – Valiant or Wise

• fearless
• courageous
• brave
• discerning
• prudent
• aware/sober
• knowledgeable
• understanding
• sane
• sharp
  
  

Again, the above synonyms of Valiant and Wise makeup the character of Christ. He was fearless in paying the price that we could not and courageously died in our place. The bravery of being treated poorly by those that He created just to save us and them (if they received this salvation) is incomparable. The LORD's discerning made Him overlook the ignorance of mankind treating Him poorly and choose to be noble in saving us no matter how we mocked Him. The awareness of this fact makes Him rightfully called the Living God. I want to speak about the sanity of God because in this world, we wrongfully define sanity as the standard by which society lives. However, true sanity is of God and it has NOTHING to do with social constructs and EVERYTHING to do with truth. Our LORD's reasoning is perfect and shown through His perfect plan that mankind is still trying to accept and comprehend. Let us NEVER believe that we know the mind of Christ. We will forever be the created, not the creator. Let's stay in our lane, amen!

11. Simon, the zealot (zealous or having zeal)

• Extremist
• Radical

When Jesus Christ physically walked this earth and taught, no doubt was He looked upon as an extremist or radical. He introduced the people of that time to the Word that although was here years before, was intentionally misunderstood by members of mankind for generations. Jesus Christ IS purpose and He shared that purpose when He taught. Therefore, His zeal in truth and of spiritual things was not embraced by flawed humans. Christ was either faced by adversity or awe, but this is clear: Until he physically died and sent His Holy Spirit to dwell with mankind, nobody truly understood anything about Him.

12. Judas Iscariot -

This was tough because no matter how much I looked, it did not have a rooted meaning for this name! The meaning was always shown to have appeared AFTER he betrayed Jesus Christ. Therefore, the true meaning of the name PRIOR to betrayal cannot be placed on this blog because I cannot find it. As a result, the only meaning I found for this name was traitor, which fits.

 I did was find the meaning of the disciple Matthias, which replaced Judas in the Book of Acts. The name Matthias is a variation of Matthew... See above for meaning.

Sorcery in the Apocrypha

Many argue that the Apocrypha (accepted text by the Catholic Church and various religious organizations) is believed to be inspired writings and missing books of the bible. However, upon evaluation of these supposed lost books, you will see that the Apocrypha is a book of necromancy, divination, witchcraft and sorcery. They COMPLETELY contradict the Word of the Bible and is a plant by the enemy himself to distort the truth.

The Catholic Church canonized the Apocrypha as part of THEIR bible (although this has never been accepted by Jews nor Protestants) in 325 A.D. at the Council of Nicaea. During this time, the pagan practice of Easter was agreed upon. This council was created by Constantine the Great, Emperor of Rome, four years after pronouncing SUNday for worship of the SUN god ("Sol Invictus" yes, this is ALL paganism). If the Apocrypha is inspired by the Holy Spirit as the bible is, then it should not have any errors.  But since it does have errors, as you will see below, then you will know without a doubt, that it is a LIE.


The Apocrypha is made up of the following books:
1 Esdras 2 Esdras Additions to Esther 1 Macabees 2 Macabees Tobias Judith Wisdom Sirach Baruch Epistle of Jeremiah Susanna Prayer of Azariah Prayer of Manasseh Bel and the Dragon Laodiceans
  

Problems in the Apocrypha

When we look into the apocrypha itself, we find numerous problems.  For example, we see it advocating magic where the smoke of a fish heart on a fire drives away devils. 

Condones the use of magic

Tobit 6:5-7, "Then the angel said to him: Take out the entrails of this fish, and lay up his heart, and his gall, and his liver for thee: for these are necessary for useful medicines. 6 And when he had done so, he roasted the flesh thereof, and they took it with them in the way: the rest they salted as much as might serve them, till they came to Rages the city of the Medes. 7 Then Tobias asked the angel, and said to him: I beseech thee, brother Azarias, tell me what remedies are these things good for, which thou hast bid me keep of the fish? 8 And the angel, answering, said to him: If thou put a little piece of its heart upon coals, the smoke thereof driveth away all kind of devils, either from man or from woman, so that they come no more to them."

Is it true that the smoke from a fish's heart, when burned, drives away evil spirits?  Of course not.  Such a superstitious teaching has no place in the word of God.

Teaches that forgiveness of sins is by human effort.

Salvation by works:

• Tobit 4:11, "For alms deliver from all sin, and from death, and will not suffer the soul to go into darkness."  
• Tobit 12:9, "For alms delivereth from death, and the same is that which purgeth away sins, and maketh to find mercy and life everlasting."

We know from Scripture that alms (money or food, given to the poor or needy as charity) does not purge our sins.  The blood of Christ is what cleanses us, not money or food given to poor people.  "but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin," (1 John 1:7).

Money as an offering for the sins of the dead:

2 Maccabbees 12:43, "And making a gathering, he sent twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection."

Can anyone truly accept that money isn't offering for the sins of dead people?  Such a superstitious and unbiblical concept has no place in Scripture.

Historical Errors

Wrong historical facts:

• Judith 1:5, "Now in the twelfth year of his reign, Nabuchodonosor, king of the Assyrians, who reigned in Ninive the great city, fought against Arphaxad and overcame him."
• Baruch 6:2, "And when you are come into Babylon, you shall be there many years, and for a long time, even to seven generations: and after that I will bring you away from thence with peace."

The book of Judith incorrectly says that Nebuchadnezzar was the king of the Assyrians when he was the king of the Babylonians.1
Baruch 6:2 says the Jews would serve in Babylon for seven generations where Jer. 25:11 says it was for 70 years.  "And this whole land shall be a desolation and a horror, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years."

Conclusion

Obviously the apocrypha has serious problems.  From magic, to salvation by works, to money as an offering for the sins of the dead, and blatant incorrect historical facts, it is full of false and unbiblical teachings.  It isn't inspired of God.  Likewise, neither is the Roman Catholic Church, which has stated the Apocrypha is inspired.  This shows the Roman Catholic Church is not the means by which God is communicating his truth to his people, and that it is infested with man's false tradition, rather than God's absolute truth.

Do You LIKE Christ?

All believers in Christ say it, many that are non believers say it but how is the distinction made between those that mean it, and those that do not. Have we closely considered what this phrase truly means? Have we examined our feelings toward Him and weighed everything to where it results in this phrase being true?

In 2 Corinthians 13:5, the bible tells us "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?"

 So, let us examine ourselves and test our OWN spirit, seeing if we are in the Faith.


So often, we hear and say "I love Jesus Christ!" And due to the lack of self examining, we never find out if we even LIKE Him.

According to Merriam-Webster, the word LIKE means "1. to be suitable or agreeable to and 2. to feel attraction toward or take pleasure in."

In other words, when we LIKE Jesus Christ, we are in agreement with Him. As Amos 3:3 says "Can two walk together lest they agree?".. The answer to this is no. So, the only way we can walk with Christ is if we agree with Him.

When we LIKE Jesus, for us, He is enough. When Christ says My grace is sufficient, it is automatic that we accept this to be true.
In LIKING Christ, we are satisfied in Him and we delight in the fullness of Him. As in Philippians 4:11-12 "Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need."

There is nothing about Him that would make us disregard Him. We must be drawn to Jesus!

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: - John 10:27

I am aware that when we first come into the Light of Jesus Christ, many of the things He reveals to us about ourselves can be heartbreaking. Nobody wants to hear that they are wicked & that their ways of doing things is terribly wrong. The flesh hates being reprimanded! Christ knows this, and that is why although He is Holy & Perfect, He is also fully aware of our pain in revelation. Yet, He is there to help us change, through our trust that He will refine us and mold us into righteousness. This is why prayer is SO important. We need Christ to help us to be obedient & trusting as He reveals to us our sins. We study His Word because it teaches us that the ways of the World & how we once believed the earthly standards of righteousness are all wrong! We have to be willing & open to our spiritual palette changing, becoming aligned with the ways of Christ, no matter how much our flesh wants to fight against it. Over time, our flesh will become less & less in charge, and the Holy Spirit will rule it & place the flesh in submission. Yes, the enemy & his demons will always revert to tempting our flesh to take charge again, but the fruit of the spirit will overcome this, everytime.

Galatians 5:22-23
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."

So examine yourself, do you LIKE Jesus Christ? If you don't, you can't truly love Him.