Even from among your own number, men will arise and teach perversions of the truth, in order to drag away the talmidim after themselves. Acts 20:30
For I am not ashamed of the Good News, since it is God’s powerful means of bringing salvation to everyone who keeps on trusting, to the Jew especially, but equally to the Gentile. Romans 1:16
The main point today is nothing new, but the words hit home strong. “It is a decision!” Your life and its good and bad is your decision. The problem comes in when other people try to take your rights to your decisions away. Even God does not take away your rights to your own decisions. However God does have the same judgment for everyone, Jews especially, but equally to the gentiles.
Which brings up the first point, because so many “christian religions” tell us that there is a different doctrine for the Jews and the gentiles, and that Paul was the head of the gentiles. But there is nowhere in the bible that says anything like that, and many verses like the one above where it is “equal” for the Jews and gentiles. When Paul taught, he did not change the message for one group over the other. The message is the same, hear and obey Yeshua. Most of his teachings were to convince the people that the Lord Yeshua is the promised one written about in the scripture. He made his arguments or stated his case as to why he was and how he fulfilled scripture. Some listened and converted and then were baptised by water and fire and received the Holy Spirit. But in every case he did not make himself their leader, he made the Lord God their leader in telling them to hear and obey the Lord.
The message the Lord gives me to tell anyone listening is the same message. Do not make a man your mini god, no one, Not me, not a preacher telling you what your itching ears want to hear. No one, except God. The only purpose for hearing someone like Paul of myself is for 2 reasons. First to come to understand this simple truth, that we must hear and obey the Lord Yeshua. Because nobody teaches this, not one religion. But it is the only way to the Father.
Second is to help the newbies in the Lord to understand how God works so they know when they are following the Holy Spirit or the evil spirit who clothes himself in light trying to pretend to be the “way” when he is leading you to hell.
It is a decision, the decision is not to sin or not sin. It is to follow the Holy Spirit or not to follow the Holy Spirit. The decision is to spend time listening to God every day, like I do. When the rest of the world is watching tv, listening to people on social media, having coffee or drinks with friends… It is a decision how you spend your time. Even with me spending time writing what God shows me, it is a decision. I could do many other things with my time. I can repeat the lies the other men tell so people love me and the message I tell because it is what they want to hear instead of truth, but then again no I cannot.
The reason I cannot is because I know God and his truth, he has purified me, washed me clean in the blood of the lamb. He has taught me many things, things I am extremely grateful for. Things that are for you to come to know, so you also will be grateful for. Things that work out your salvation in fear and trembling.
The decision is to tell you the truth because I know how incredible it is in the truth even though people hate to hear the truth. They prefer to live in a lie and play the poor little old me card.
The past few days my wife’s relatives were here in our home, and a story for it to make a point. One of them was a young man of early 20s, a nephew. He lives in the Bay area of CA. He works at Mc Donalds, his mom worked at Mc Donalds. And his dad has lived here in Rosarito for around 15 years, he was deported. So they grew up poor.
When he walked into our home, his first comments were “WOW” as he looked over the high vaulted ceilings, and the glass slides to the ocean. He walked out to the deck and looked at the views and was amazed. He barely said hi and nice to meet you.
He also then started talking about the poor little old me attitude and because his dad was deported he had only his mom, and she worked at Mc Donalds for minimum wage all her life…
His dad, my brother in law also has made his decisions. He decided to drink a beer in public and was arrested for open container (nowadays in CA you can do drugs in front of police in the streets without any problem). So they deported him. We have had him work for us in the past, he does good handyman work. But he keeps getting drunk and high, and stealing stuff. Last time I hired him he took a $30 hand saw. So for $30 he lost his opportunity to work for me. My father in law, the same thing, he had done a few cabinetry jobs for us, and one day I bought him all the equipment he needed to do all the wood work in a home we were building. That weekend he decided to sell it all and get drunk for a few days straight. That was the last time he worked for me, and really the last time I talked with him. Not because I was mad and hate him, but because he made a very poor decision to do evil instead of good and he remains in his sin. He never repented.
My decision is to let only people who are on the right path and seeking the truth in Yeshua into my life. Or the ones God gives me that might not be on the right path at the time, but will be, and I am to help them.
My decision is to obey the Lord and pray for everyone including my enemies, but to also know which are ready to be harvested and which will never bear good fruit. With many things it is hard, because many times your family is not going to bear the good fruit, yet maybe you have to deal with them. Like my dad is disabled and needs 24 hour care and I am responsible for him. He does his catholic thing, his friend calls him daily and says it is time for our “spiritual” moment which is reading from the catholic bible, talking about their feelings on it and then done. There is NO spirituality involved in it, no one seeking the Holy Spirit and his truth and light he gives. Only talking about how they see the written words which have already been twisted., And many times I hear them talk and it blows my mind how far off they are. Mostly the friend because my dad does not speak much, just listens.
When I do spend time with my dad it is artificial time, watching sports and talking about things of no importance to his salvation because he does not believe and listen. He is SOOOO ingrained in the catholic doctrine he cannot see nor understand anything I say. I also see from what the Spirit is showing me he won’t change. He could not understand what I was saying before his stroke and certainly won’t now. He has even made the fatal mistake of calling the Holy Spirit and evil Spirit because of what I told him about watching tv, especially sports in that God told me not to anymore. I did not tell him he had to stop, I simply told him what God told me to do, and he said I was listening to an evil spirit.
Well, if I am, it is not going to hurt me as there is no evil or sin in not watching tv, especially sports. But on the other hand there are things from watching sports and tv which are and can be evil. We just ignore them.
For me and my competitive nature, sports make me crazy and I can and normally do start yelling and screaming and cursing like a wild man. It is a reason to go and drink heavily. It did me no good, and caused me to do evil. So it was a “decision” to obey the Holy Spirit and stop watching tv. After the Lord showed me who I was when watching these things, now it is easy to not let myself get involved like that, but I still do not watch much tv at all. A little here and there. And I am very selective in what I watch, if it is evil in nature I walk away. Because on the other side it takes time away from the things I should be doing. Spending time with God and with my family. I have a “decision” to spend time with my dad, watching tv and him barely speaking and even ignoring me when I speak. Or maybe he is just zoned out too much to hear me. Either way, if I am with him I am not alkaline with my family or God which is where my real devotion belongs and rightfully so. My family is teachable of the things of God, and if I am with my dad ignoring them, they will not grow in the Spirit. My dad won’t grow in the Spirit if I am with him or not.
Same with decisions with other people, especially neighbors. I have talked about what God has shown me about dealings with some of my neighbors, and how other neighbors accused me of not being “christian” because I refuse to talk in depth with one of them who is a noisy gossiping neighbor who has to be in everyone’s business.
To me I would rather be an “asshole” to them in setting my boundaries to keep from being around and participating in gossip and other destructive behaviors. Then to join in and be “christian” and lose my salvation to please men. It is a decision!
Lets circle back to the nephew and him working at Mc D’s. It is a decision to do that instead of other things in life where he can make good money, have a career. In his mind he has no other options as he is not educated. But the education system is the one telling you this, and there are many options to make good money and the majority do not require education. It requires knowledge and wisdom which is learned from other people who have done it successfully. But it does not require a college education, and actually in the vast majority of the people the college gets in the way of the wisdom of God to be your own boss. And in many situations we do things wrong because we listen to the wrong people who have been somewhat successful but still lack.
As an example, with me and real estate sales. Many realtors spend a lot of money on offices and maybe even a name brand like Remax. They get new cars every year and high end ones. I never did, my overhead was almost zero, a cell phone which I would have had anyways, and the cost of gas in my car which was mostly or totally offset by the mileage deduction on taxes. Promotional or advertising was really my only expense and it was around $1,000 a year.
I always sold my share or more of properties without these things. When I was with a company they used to ask me how I was doing so well (as I was 50% of their income with 8 agents and doing 3 times as much as the next best agent which had much more support than me, she was the boss’s wife). When I told them, they would roll their eyes and just keep on doing what they always did thinking somehow they would achieve the results I did doing it the same way.
One thing I learned a long time ago is you cannot keep doing things the same way and expect different results. “Do not be fooled, you reap what you sow.”
It is a decision to be rich, to have a good family life, to Love like God Loves. Not like man loves, because man’s love makes you do evil things in the sight of God and keeps you in sin and dysfunction. Man’s love keeps you from being an “asshole” but it also keeps you in dysfunction and sin. It not only accepts sin, it supports it and causes you to participate.
My neighbors want me to participate in the gossip and being a noisy neighbor involved in everyone’s business. My dad wants me to watch the sports with him and get all involved and ignore my family and spending time with God. The religious people expect me to go to their church and not “forsake the gathering of the church” because in their minds even though many will tell you that their teaching is not 100% accurate. We must gather. So in their minds I am not a “christian” unless I do so or act the way they think I should act.
And they are right, I am not a “christian” because I am a follower of the Lord Yeshua and the true believers worship in Spirit and truth! Not in a religious doctrinal belief system, but I act and do my works in obedience to the Lord Yeshua. And in doing so my works produce good fruit. I have a patience and peace no one can explain or understand. I have deep faith they do not understand because their faith is in their religion and what they are taught, not in God and his word to me. I exhibit all the fruits of the Spirit, yet am attached as doing wrong because the ways of the Lord do NOT line up with the doctrinal beliefs of the religious people. Nor did Yeshua’s, because if his doctrine he taught did line up they would have loved him and not killed him. Same with Paul and the other disciples, they killed them because their teachings went after the doctrinal beliefs of the lie they followed, and they did not like it. In their minds the disciples and Yeshua were “assholes” because they told and stayed in the truth instead of going along with the majority’s opinions.
Here is where it gets interesting, because the ruler of this world has a very strong grip these days and is doing things to destroy the truth and way of Yeshua. He always has, but his plan is working very well. More than ever because of the many so-called achievements of men. Things like electricity, computers, internet, AI and robotics, digital money… As well as the fake food, and how they change everything. It is getting to the point where you cannot eat healthy even if you choose it anymore. I saw the other day that 90% of our fruits no longer have seeds, they have been genetically modified. And it is true, it is very hard to find an orange or watermelon with seeds anymore. Even if you try to eat good food like eggs or beef (assuming you know they are lying about them not being healthy). It is still not real eggs and beef. They feed these animals trash foods to make them produce eggs and grow faster. They keep them in small spaces instead of free roaming. They give them shots of hormones and other bad things. And so the quality is really bad and unhealthy. It is getting harder and harder to find “real or organic” food. And anything in a package is trash, just read the label. Not too many years ago much was good, but it has changed over the years. Like a box of wheaties used to be wheat and salt. Now the list is long and I have no idea what most of the ingredients are.
They are also posing the minds of the people with school and religious doctrine. Telling them the food is good for them and the real food God created is not good for them. And that any man like me who tells truth about knowing God and obeying him is a liar and leading you astray. And that their religious doctrine is the truth and way, and it is much easier to obey them because then you are not an “asshole.”
So the way I see it, and the way I live. Is I prefer to be an “asshole” and speak out against the lies of the world because I know they keep people in bondage, working for Mc D’s for life, never knowing God and his righteousness and light or wisdom. Instead of joining in with the sinful men and being sinful myself and in bondage, running the rat race the people in the US run. And never paying attention to the fruit they are bearing. And then on top of it crying about their bad fruit and blaming God for it.
One last point, there are different levels of this dysfunction and sinful outcome and the price we pay for it. I see it in my dad and his disability of being half their and in a wheel chair because he choose to eat the foods they sell us instead of eating right. And he knew the truth because I told him and showed him. Same with the religion, I told him what Yeshua was showing me but he kept deciding to follow his “catholic” beliefs. I even had a bit of a spat with my aunt (my dads sister) and her thinking I am very wrong and hurting my dad by not taking him to the “catholic church system” so he can keep his salvation according to her. I made the point to her how wrong she is and how wrong the “catholic church doctrine” is even pointing out scripture. Their religious beliefs are the “way and truth” not the relationship with the Lord. It is also funny to me how people can read what they call the word, which is the bible, and it tells them clearly the truth yet they do the opposite and believe in the opposite. Look again at the verse above and the warnings Paul gave about bad doctrine, and how he told them the same message for Jews and gentiles alike.
I see all this more so with my wife’s family and watching some of them. Like her dad selling the tools to make him money so he had money to get drunk for a week straight. Or my brother in law and his choice to get drunk and high and take a $30 tool to do so. I look at their lives and how miserable they are, so much so they have to get drunk and high to get through the day, which then causes even more problems for them. I watched my brother in law with his kids here after 15 years and how he sat outside by himself most of the night instead of spending time with them. I did not get that one, if my older daughters came to see me, I would spend as much time as possible with them knowing it would be a short time. It is even worse when there is no religion involved because they have no morals or values and really go overboard.
It is a decision! Who are you going to obey? How are you going to spend your time? The simple and best decision is to hear and obey Yeshua and let him lead you into all righteousness and truth.