Superior Christian... what's that?

When I mention "Pharisee", I usually refer to the Pharisee's common attitude during the time of Christ's time. Pharisee magnifies the faults of others and diminishes their graces, while it diminishes the faults and magnifies the graces of their doctrines. In other words, like in the days of Pharisees, People are now twisting the Bible to promote pride and self-esteem. Pharisees closed their minds to everything that was happening around them so they grieved others by burdensome legalism. By focusing on what Christians ought to get, they forget the burden of loving help which we are commanded to give to others: "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2). We have the responsibility "for each one should carry his own load" (Galatians 6:5). We should not be looking around for some other way to gain superior but rather be humble while serving God. God has given us His gifts, power and help that we need to serve Him that He distributed the gifts according to His will and plans that lightens the burdens for all believers. This makes it possible for every believer to smooth carrying out of His purposes among believers in unity.

Our Bible

We are to Honor the Word (not the Bible). Studying the scriptures requires the Holy Spirit which is inward, not outward. The Holy Spirit is within us believers, Christ dwells in our hearts, and "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27) is the burning core of the Christian faith. When placing a big claim on the Bible, there is a danger of idolatry. The seduction of idolatry have been very strong and very successful since the days of the Old Testament books. Throughout the Bible, God have warned people to be careful of idolatry because we could slip into it almost without noticing it. Idolatry is an excessive devotion or reverence to an object or objects (i.e. Bible). Idolatry is what God is saying something like this for today's Christians, "You have committed adultery by worshiping idols instead of worshiping Me. Your hearts have been unfaithful to me because you are loving yourselves more than you love Me. Your hearts longs for something from Me and that is idolatry. Worship means: All I want is your hearts alone and adore me for Who I am.” My Bible is my authority but at the same time, I will never put my Bible ahead of God, the Author. Spiritual growth requires us to understand the Scriptures and get to know our God the Father, our Savior the Son, and our comforter the Holy Spirit. “Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” Ephesians 6:17 (NLT) (READ your BIBLE and KNOW the Word of God). As a Christian, I must understand God's universal truth, translate it into my own particular situation and live it out. Am I studying the Bible for myself and observing God's Word? Is my personal Bible study a daily discipline for my spiritual growth? The purpose for reading the Bible is to change me as I read, believe and obey. Do I obey the Bible or do I obey the Author of the Bible?

How to Understand God's will

Basically understand what the Bible says what God's will and go from there. We don't know God's will specifically but we will know what directions we should be going. God's will. 1 Thessalonians 4:3 It is God's will that you should be sanctified (spiritual). 2 Thessalonians 1:5 All this is evidence that God's judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. Romans 8:27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Proverbs 16:33 The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD. All He wants from me is to love Him. He simply wants me to allow Him to be in my life by transferring my will to His will. That is true discipleship. To forget my own will because God's will is BETTER. I am sure we all know what it means when we are to present our bodies "as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God." When you give your body, you give everything it contains within your body. That means giving yourself completely to God and if you don't, God may not be able to use you or do anything for you. This is like the story of the potter and the clay, which illustrates the law of submission. The potter (God) has soft, yielding clay (us), but if the clay does not submit, the potter may not be able to do what we should be able to. The potter still could make anything except for useful and beautiful (spiritual fruitful) out of an unyielding blob of clay. If God is going to make those kinds of vessels out of clay (us), however, we are going to have to yield to the spiritual law of surrender. Give ourselves to God as a living sacrifice and let Him have us--all of us. God will guide you from your heart. When Jesus said that the Comforter is coming, He was saying: "The Comforter will not come to stand on His own, to speak on His own authority. He will guide you into all truth-He will speak and act on the authority of the divine Godhead: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If you do not yield and honor the Holy Spirit, your lives will not show forth the blessed fruits of the Spirit!" Someone has said "The wisest person in the world is the person who knows the most about God and place the Bible as the most important book in the world." So, I should be this wise Christian, who is committed into action of reading, putting faith in the Word, and surrender to the Holy Spirit so that I can learn from the heart.

Yoke

Matthew 11:29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Hebrews 5:7-9 During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him. 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. Throughout my sufferings, one of the beauties of having afflictions is that God has taught me through all the uncertainties in my life. The Scriptures clearly reveals that I can expect sufferings in this world. I need to put sufferings in the context of God's plan for my life, and I will understand what He is doing something beautiful. My faith and my life, I am a realistic person which means I am being realistic about my life. That I understand my role as a Christian. I like this quote by Paul Little "Faith recognizes the fact that God is in control of my life. Whether I believe it or not, it's a fact that God is in control of the world. If I don't believe it, I'm just robbing myself of the enjoyment of the fact." I have learned that I can never have much faith unless I am dissatisfied with the way I am now, and are longing for something better.

Doctrines over Love

Superiorism in regards to doctrines who have no compassion. Jesus in Matthew 15:1-3. Jesus said to the Pharisees, “Why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition (doctrine)?” What is the command of God? Jesus said later in Matthew 22:36-38 (New International Version) "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'This is the first and greatest commandment.

Endurance and Victory

Jesus is the Great Deliverer, through whom I have victory over sin, death and hell. In Christ I have all the power I will ever need. In our spiritual training of the Cross, certain number of distractions are bound to come to each one of us; but if we learn to be inwardly still these can be rendered relatively harmless. Grace of God will enable us to overcome distractions. God's promise is great, but it is as great as we experience spiritual growth from God's perspectives by cultivating the knowledge of God while at the same time cultivate our faith. As we are training for our spiritual growth, we look NOT AT our faith but in Christ of WHO we have faith in, who is THE author and finisher. "Let us run with patience the race that is set before us." (Hebrews 12:1). The Holy Spirit tells us to keep our eyes on Jesus not on others who are also running the race! There are important things each of us should know and understand about our struggles as the faithful people of God. Jesus provides both strong warning and loving encouragement, for there is always the danger of losing the race, but there is also the victor's reward awaiting those who run with patience and endurance.

The Bottom Line regarding doctrines and fellowship

The bottom line is that we cannot close our minds to everything that is happening around us because if we do that, others are grieved by burdensome doctrines that those who face them alone or put them in second class spiritual-citizenship based on appearance of not receiving what is taught by man. He distributed the gifts according to His will and plans that lightens the burdens for all believers. This makes it possible for every believer to smooth carrying out of His purposes among believers in unity. Spirit-filled Believers are those who are spiritual with spiritual attitudes of our hearts that we let the Holy Spirit do what He will through us. Spirit-lead is outlined in Galatians 5:22-23 "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." Ephesians 4:3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. QUOTE Humility is the only state of mind in which to approach the Scriptures. The Spirit will teach the humble soul those things that make for his salvation and for a holy walk and fruitful service here below. And little else matters. A.W. Tozer

Grace is Love

John 1:17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Adam and Eve only had ONE commandmand (law) and still, they broke that ONE (sounds like our kids? ) (Like your mother telling her kids: Don't put your hand in that cookie jar !!!) Through Adam, we are born spiritually dead. Through Jesus Christ, we are born-again spiritually. Romans 5:12 [ Death Through Adam, Life Through Christ ] Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— Unregenerated person means spiritually dead person. Sin is separation from God meaning spiritually dead facing eternal death. Born-again means spiritually alive facing eternal life. The concept is this: Sin,is where an unregenerate person runs away from God, meaning that a person called a "fugitive" that as a sinner, it is a person's inclination is to flee from God. Like when Adam and Eve sinned, they fled from God and hid. Satan to Eve: "Did God say, you shall not eat of any tree of the garden?" What God really said: "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat for in the day that you eat of it you shall die" (Gen. 1:16-17) Satan to Eve: You will not die. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (Gen. 3:4-5) What God really said: "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat for in the day that you eat of it you shall die" (Gen. 1:16-17) Result of the fall: Spiritually: Adam and Eve died since God broke away the relationship with them and kicked them out of Garden of Eden. Death is universal spiritually and also by nature. Physically we are born alive however spiritually dead. When we have Jesus Christ in our lives, we no longer spiritually dead but spiritually alive even though our physical body will continue to decay and will die someday. A spiritually dead person cannot will himself to live anymore than a physically dead person can will himself to come back to life. If the dead person (spiritually or physically) is to come back to life he/she will have to be resurrected by God. In the spiritual realm this means he/she must be born from above. A spiritually dead person is without the Holy Spirit, therefore we do not have the "ability" to get saved on our own. We need the Holy Spirit to prick and quicken us to be alive. Without the Holy Spirit is TOTAL DEPRAVITY". The Holy Spirit is the only person that can quicken people to be saved. 1 Corinthians 2:14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. Acts 7:51 "You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! 1 Thessalonians 4:8 Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit. John 6:63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. Romans 8:11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. 2 Corinthians 3:6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 1 John 3:4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. Romans 7:8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. Romans 8:7 the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. 1 Corinthians 15:56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. Understanding God's Holiness: Romans 7:12 (NIV) So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. 2 Corinthians 4:15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. The bottom line is that Grace is love. 2 Corinthians 13:14May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Ephesians 6:24 Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love. 1 Timothy 1:14 The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.