Saturday Afternoon Blog with Pastor Williams
Posted on June 23rd, 2006 by TADCCBLOG
Pastor Williams will be active on this blog site Saturday afternoon from 2 to 3pm immediately following the WRJD 1410AM broadcast of “Christian Perspective Today”. Please suggest topics or questions for discussion.
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Episcopal Church
Bishop Gene Robinson of the Episcopalian church in their convention stated that he is “not an abomination”.
He is referring to his lifestyle of sin being in contradition to the Word of God. Leviticus 18 and Romans 1 both state that homosexuality is a sin.
The question is how could the church allow someone living an openly sinful life even reach the office of Bishop. How can we say that we are the church but refuse to stand for anything. If homosexuality is not a sin, what is? If homosexuality is not a sin at what point do we separate ourselves from the Word of God in deciding what is and is not sin.
This is what the church is currently going through. People are trying to rewrite the Word of God to fit their lifestyles. Whether it is homosexuality, fornication, prejudice, witchcraft or any other sin, what is the authority that determines it is a sin.
Antimoniasm is the concept that there is no right or wrong. Good is what feels goods to you. This is where the church is heading. The Bible has to become the central authority on issues pertaining to life. If not each person can write his own personal version of the Bible.
God declares we are all sinners. The question that each person should ask then is, what sin brought you to Christ? There that would have you to believe they came Christ because they wanted to do good work or help the community. However this is not the reason Christ Jesus died. He died to deliver sinners from their sin. Every person has to admit that he has committed at least one sin.
If we then are to admit that we have committed sin, where do find the information on what a sin is and is not. The central authority is the Holy Bible.
Galatians 5, Romans 6, I Corinthians 6 and Leviticus are all good places to discover what specific sin you have committed. In each istance of sin God either said He would destroy the people or they would not inherit the Kingdom of God. In other words they will spend eternity in hell.
After you acknowledge your sin, repent and turn away from it to the true and living God.
Pastor, what does it mean to truly repent? I realize you recently gave a sermon on this very topic, but I would like to read your beliefs on what the process of repentance involves. I realize that we are all sinners, and even Christians have our moments when we make mistakes. After repenting are we expected to lead a life of perfection. Is this even possible? How do we deal with everyday temptations to sin?
Shayala,
Repentance means to turn away from the thing you know to be sinful. It is not just a confession of the mouth, but it is a change of lifestyle.
The only way it can truly happen is that a person must believe how exceedingly sinful sin is. Many people do not like reading the Old Testament because it deals with a lot of death and destruction. The Heavenly Father shows us through the Old Testament what He thinks of sin. The world was flooded because of sin. Seven cities including Sodom and Gomorrah were totally destroyed due to sin. The walls of Jericho fell and men, women and children were all destroyed. Why? Because God wanted to give us an example of how exceedingly sinful sin is. (2 Peter 2:6)
However, since God knew that we are weak in the flesh and prone to sin He sent His Son to provide us Grace. (John 1:17) It is grace that saves us. “By His grace we are saved through faith”. (Ephesians 2:8,9) Grace is God working in us to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
Temptations may be great but God’s grace provides a remedy by directing us another way. Or, the Holy Spirit convicts us about the sinful thing we think to do. Once we have been redirected or convicted by the Holy Spirit, then we prove our love for God by refraining from the sinful act.
In other words there is still a part we play in our salvation. We have to be willing to show God that we love Him more than the pleasures of sin by taking the open door God has provided for us even though our flesh does not want to leave the pleasures.
God looks on the heart. Whenever we truly purpose in our hearts to turn away from sin, even though we may fail at times, God’s grace saves us because He knows that in our heart the intent was to do right. Our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus said as a man thinketh so is he. If you truly purpose in your mind to turn away from sin, you will find the area in which you are weak will no longer be a weakness to you.
If you look at your life there are only a few sins mentioned in the Bible that applies to you. Most people think they have hundreds or thousands of sins. In reality it is usually two three things that most people are asked to give up to come to Christ.
For the rich young ruler in the Bible it was his riches. The woman caught in the act of adultery she was told to go and sin no more. No one person is ever given in the Bible hundreds of things to get rid of before coming to Christ. However, every person has at least one thing that pulls on the flesh that God asks ypu to give up for Him.
Do not be deceived, there are only a few things that may be a stronghold in a person’s life. Get rid of those few and you will find serving God on a daily basis is easy.
Go through the list given in the chapters I mentioned in the previous blog. Find out how many are related to you. Determine the few that will be difficult to give up and ask God for His grace to give you strength in those areas.
There are some sins that are manifested through generational curses, or playing with accursed things, etc, ouiji boards, horoscopes, psychic hotline and being a part of a false religion. For these types of sins demons may need to be caste out to give a person freedom.
In the name of the Lord Jesus even demons will be cast out.
God is faithful. If you commit it to Him He will deliver you. But you must act on His Word.
How then do we stop sinning?
2 Corinthians 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of.
Re
Today, I read an article about Creflo Dollar’s recent service at the RBC center which drew thousands. I am very disturbed by his philosophies regarding material things and his general lifestyle. I feel it goes against what the Bible teaches us and Christ’s teachings. What do others think about this subject?
1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Money is not bad, it is only when it becomes our pursuit. We should pursue God. In the Book of Jude Balaam in the Book of Jude is considered a false prophet. Not because because he propehsied falsely, but because He did it for gain (money). Christ Jesus our Lord said you cannot serve God and mammon (money) too. There has to be a decision made as to who you are going to serve.
Money speaks to the things of this world. Ecclessiates 10:9 says that money answers to all things. Therefore people pursue because it answers the type of car you drive, the house you purchase, school you attend, even the clothes you wear are determined by the money you have.
Christ Jesus said to seek Him and all these things would be added unto us. However, some have put it in the reverse order. God knows that for many of us pursuit of money would consume our lives and not allow us to focus on Him.
In the Book of Acts the disciples brought all their riches and laid them at the apostles’ feet. In this way every person had all things in common. It would be difficult for us to do that today because we have allowed money to determine our worth.
What is the role of a father? With Father’s Day having past, this is something we need to examine. Is the mere ability to make a child all it takes to be a father?
To understand the role of a father we must look to the origin of fatherhood and what the original attributes of a father are.
Genesis 1, states that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. This same God that created the heavens and the earth, our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus called our Heavenly Father in Matthew 6. Therefore we can see that the orginal attribute of a father is to create a good place for habitation as our Heavenly Father did.
The next question is what should fathers create. After each creation created by God the Father He made the pronouncement that the creation was good. We as earthly Father should create good places for our offspring to exist. Whether it is a solid stable home, food to eat, clothes to wear or a trustworth relationship; we as fathers should create it.
Another original example given to us from Genesis is instruction. God forbade Adam to eat from the tree of good and evil. And because of this act of disobedience in eating from this tree man was cursed. Why was he cursed? God knew that man was not able to handle the good that comes along with the evil. He knew that man was still developing in his wisdom.
We as good fathers should give good instructions to our children. Many fathers feel guilty about the life they lived and therefore feel they are not qualified to instruct their children about righteousness. They feel they would be a hypocrite.
This is why we are to instuct our children from the Word of God as said in Ephesians 6:4. The Word of God will never mislead. All of us have made mistakes, but it is the Word of God that shows us how to correct those mistakes and start a new life. This is what we as fathers should offer to our children. Life experience along with the Word of God are powerful tools to direct a child.
After Cain slew his brother Abel in the Book of Genesis, God pronounced a curse upon him and made him a vagabond. Cain was terrified, because he thought others would seek to slay him. Therefore God set a mark upon Cain so that if anyone killed him they would be answerable to God.
Just as God protected Cain, fathers should be the protectors of their home. The buck must stop with the father. God created him to be the intercessor between the family and the world. No one else should have the control of your house. The one caveat is that man cannot control or proctect his home without seeking and living for God.
How do you raise children in homes where fathers are not present in the home or are not involved in their child’s life, and/or are not Godly examples for their children? How should a single mother provide the same stable environment, instruction, and protection for her children?
ANW,
The injunction given in James 1:27 to visit the fatherless should be practiced by the Body of Christ. It is difficult, if not impossible, for a woman to raise a boy to be a man. It is also difficult for a man to raise a girl to be a lady. This is a serious problem in Black families where some statistics show that 2/3s of these homes are headed by a single parent. Society, for the most part, has the woman being the primary caregiver in homes where there is only one parent.
Therefore it is the responsibility of the church, especially the men in the church, to play the surrogate father role. This is what the practice was for the first three centuries after the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus. The church saw it as their responsibility to seek out children that had been abandoned. The Essenes, a Jewish group that many believed John the Baptist was a member of, saw their numbers grow through taking in children that were poverty stricken, destitute or abandoned.
A single mother should seek out a good church with Godly men and allow them to assist her in the raising of her son.
As the saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child, the Bible in a paraphrased way states that it takes the church to raise a child.