I receive persecution by other “believers” almost daily for what I do, because God has called me to preach repentance and Bible Prophecy..and to warn of His imminent return! The below video says it best!
To be called to preach repentance and separation is one of the most difficult messages to deliver. Those of us who have this calling on our lives are persecuted, accused, mocked, and scorned by people who don’t want to hear the truth! Instead, they want the watered down message delivered to their unrepentant ears.
What’s more, they feel those of us who preach the way John the Baptist preached are hateful and wrong, when all we do is preach directly out of the Word of God. We don’t pick out scripture and ignore the rest, because the Bible is a whole living being. Yes! It is alive! It can not be taken out of context, and to do such a thing in order to uphold your own personal deception is a great sin!
If a part of your body was cut off or removed, would the whole body not suffer? How then, can we, as believers, take and remove parts of the living Word of God? For to do this causes great harm to the Body of Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior! There will be less repenting for sin, because truth brings conviction, and conviction brings repentance, and repentance brings salvation! People may never be brought to repentance, a necessary part of our salvation, if they are not convicted!
I hope many of you reading this can see how the enemy, Satan, is using this great perversion of “love” ministering today; he is using it to halt the body of Christ, preventing it from doing that which it was called! To win souls and save them from hell! If someone loves you, do you prefer they lie to you, or tell you the truth? Is it truly love and respect to lie to the one you love? Heavens no!
I’ve been lied to A LOT by people I have loved, and it hurts. When they came forward and told me the truth, I was sometimes hurt by the truth, but it set me free from bondage! The truth is an act of love. If you saw your child about to ingest something poison, would you quickly scream to get their attention, and yank the poison from their hands, explaining to the child they were about to do harm to themselves? Or, would you just stand there and watch them kill themselves?
This is the same spiritually when we do not tell those who are in bondage to the enemy the truth of God’s Word. When we water it down and sit by, saying little to nothing, we are no different from a person who watches a child ingest poison. Friends, this great deception is spirit killing, soul stealing poison! It is toxic!
Hebrews 4:12-13 says:
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
When I think about all of the people who are persecuted, tortured, held hostage, and killed for our Lord Jesus Christ daily, I am ashamed and appalled that we, who still retain many of our freedoms, are so afraid to speak truth for fear of rejection or offense! Shame on those of us who do not obey God in speaking boldly the truth! Shame on those of us who have perverted His Holy Word, or have been deceived by false doctrine! Shame on those of us who have neglected the call on the life of every believer–to go forth ‘boldly’ and proclaim the truth!
You don’t have to be perfect to tell the truth, because none of us will ever be perfect until we are finished with this corrupt body called the flesh. But you are commanded to witness, with love being at the center. We are commanded to correct error when we see it. I am saying nothing here that is not in the Bible. In fact, I urge you to put all commentaries and study guides away and study this in the Bible, because the Bible tells us to study in order to show ourselves approved..a workman who needn’t be ashamed, rightly dividing the truth!
Remember this: soon…very soon…we will all kneel before God and give account for everything. There are things we’re all going to be ashamed for, but let us not be ashamed before God about this.
Here is a passage I find myself having to quote often as of late:
Revelation 3:15-16, I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.
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Spoken from the heart Lyn.
I often shake my head as I hear all sorts of ‘man-thoughts’ about God and of life after death – all spoken of as fact! Can we ignore them? Not if we have the love of God in us. We want them to know The Truth. We want them to have the peace and security of life in Christ. We are Christ’s ambassadors, given the ministry of reconciliation, and we MUST speak His Word as He gives us utterance.
Are we judging them by saying they are wrong? No! They are already judged by God Himself. There can be only ONE truth. There can be only ONE God. Are we declaring we are ‘better’ than they? No! But we are declaring the fact that God CHANGES people; that He lives in His blood-bought, adopted children and continues to mould them into His own likeness.
Keep up the good work in the ministry to which He has called you. I know He will continue to use you to reach and bless many as you continue to follow His will for you.
Thank you sister for the encouragement. I need it. I receive hate posts regularly from people. One today on my front page, which i trashed…saying that the jews are the antichrist because they never accepted Jesus and I don’t know my Bible…etc etc. Anymore, people coming looking for an argument I won’t bother with them. They will not hear the truth. Those with a humble spirit who disagree, I will try to help…but someone who blasphemes and insults must have their heart softened supernaturally by God before they can receieve.
On a different note, I have been receiving emails from all over the world..from missionaries in India…a Christian woman in SriLanka (probably spelling that wrong) where the blood red rain fell the other day..she confirmed it and told me they have no red sand there or chemical that could mix with the atmosphere..that she saw it herself and it was very weird..had a weird smell. I am receiving emails from people who tell me they are at work and read some of my posts and close their office door and cry, praying to God to help them be more like Jesus… those emails bless me so much!
And in truth, the nasty ones are also a blessing. Persecution lets me know I’m doing something right. The devil doesn’t bother you when you’re serving Him, but he attacks those who are a threat to his dark kingdom.
God bless you Angela, and thank you for your kind words and for blessing me today with them. I am praying for you and your husband always!
PTL: My post is talking about being persecuted for telling the truth. and how people reject the Word of God, just as it says would happen during these times.
We are together on this Lyn- when we preach sin and judgement, those who do not want to accept God’s forgiveness and judge themselves will face the wrath of God. With guilty conscience or a hardened conscience and because of their obstinacy. they persecute the messengers of God hoping to do away with the message that tugs at their heartstrings.
It was probably just one of those language barriers or something ptl, I’m sure, because I know you know exactly where I stand on these things
I know you have to use a program to interpret some things, and it probably doesn’t always say exactly what you are trying to say.. no problem. God bless you.
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.- if he sow sin he SHALL reap the penalty of sin, which is death , eternal separation from God and punishment in hell. Truly impotrtant warning Lyn.
That is very true ptl. This, I believe, is what God is trying to tell His people right now because Christ’s return is so near. He wants to save them from hell and from the wrath of God that is going to be poured out soon… He loves us very much! The problem is that people aren’t accepting His call, they’re hearing it but not listening..and they’re rejecting the real truth….
That verse you just quoted..if I were to quote that to the type of person I am writing about here in this post..they would reject it and tell me I was being judgmental “JUST” for quoting that verse..and they would throw one at me about love. This is exactly what I mean by people misusing the Bible, perverting it, and watering it down.
God bless you and thanks for adding this passage to the message I’ve posted. It fits in perfectly, and I appreciate it.
For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.
Judge Yourself!
Who likes to be judged? I know that I sure don’t! But judgment happens to everyone, one way or another. The good news is, we have options regarding who will judge us, and how we will be judged. In fact, we have the option of judging ourselves! And if we judge ourselves, we don’t come under the judgment of others. The bad news is, judging ourselves is not easy. To judge ourselves we must look at ourselves objectively and detect our own shortcomings and sinful condition. That is very painful indeed, and everything in our human nature rebels against it.
Receive the Discipline of the Lord
The next option is to be judged and disciplined by the Lord. Due to our sinful natures, in many, many cases, this is the level we come to out of necessity. At this level, God, after judging us, brings us into a time of chastening. Chastening has a few meanings. Consider the following: it means to be instructed, or caused to learn. It means to be corrected, and to have our character molded by others through reproof and admonition. Finally, it is many times accomplished through the affliction of evil and calamities. None of that sounds pleasant, does it? But it is certainly preferable to the third option.
Or Be Condemned with the World
If we fail to judge ourselves, and if we do not yield to the chastening of the Lord, the final option is to be condemned with the world. To be condemned with the world means to receive judgment that is worthy of punishment, together with the ungodly multitude, which includes all of humanity who are estranged from God and hostile to the cause of Christ. That is such a sobering thought.
Consider your options. Which type of judgment would you rather receive?
http://christianity.about.com/od/topicaldevotions/qt/judgeyourself.htm
We should NEVER judge anyone. God is the only judge. Judgment belongs to God and God alone. I am not speaking of judging anyone here. I am talking about witnessing the truth..and people perverting speaking God’s Word..in truth and love…into judgment when it is not. My post here does not condone the judging of others. Judging others is wrong and we are told NOT to judge others.
This post is about the perversions today of God’s truth..that it has gotte so bad, that when we tell others the truth of God’s Word, we are instantly accused of judging. We are told in the Bible to preach the truth…and that is what we should do.
The above video I posted here says EXACTLY what I mean. However, I was not saying we should judge anyone..ever. This is not what my post means.
Reblogged this on servehiminthewaiting and commented:
Amen and AMEN!
Thanks Greg. And God bless you! I didn’t know you follow Greg Laurie..I publish his posts all of the time..have many on my site now. I wrote to him and asked if I could and he was thrilled for me to do so. He’s awesome, huh?
What I see is people ‘innocently’ disagreeing..meaning, instead of saying they disagree, they pick out verses about love and disregard God’s judgment, his hatred for sin (He loves us), and the verses that tell us that correction is a form of love. The Word of God must always be viewed as a whole living being, and never, eve just in parts or segments.
You are correct in what you say here Lyn. I find it very disturbing how people who call themselves Believers can just take the parts of the Bible they do not like and call them stories, or fiction, or “those things were meant for back then”. How ludicrous…in other words they are in effect saying that God did not see “today” coming. I would say “what God are you believing in?”…it surely is not the one I believe in.
The truth is true, whether we like it or not. As Greg Laurie says…”If you don’t agree with something in the Bible, you are wrong, change your opinion”.
Blessings to you Lyn in speaking the truth, may we all do so in our lives.
Greg