Eye Hath Not Seen

 Eye Hath Not Seen

We need the Holy Spirit 

 

 

“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”—1 Cor. 2:9

This verse in 1 Cor. is a quote from Isaiah,

“For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.”— Isa. 64:4

Isaiah this chapter is speaking of the power of God, and the wickedness of man. He speaks of our works of righteousness being as filthy rags, and of coming judgement. But, he also speaks of God molding us as clay, and begs for peace. He is speaking of our total depravity and God’s ability to solve it.

Paul in his letter to the Corinthians takes this one verse, and expounds on what it actually means.

What is this mystery that has existed since the beginning of the world?

Why is it a mystery?

God had a plan from the moment Adam and Eve fell.

God in His love allowed free will. Without free will, Adam and Eve would have been slaves forced to love God. That is not true love. True love must be a free choice.

But, what if they fell in their freedom?

There was a chance to fall, or else there would not be freedom.

God in His all powerful nature had a plan.

He would come and save them. He is love. Loves saves the lost. True love loves the fallen and the unlovable. True love sacrifices and works to mold them like clay, and love them as children.

The plan was Jesus Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the Earth (Rev. 13:8)

In the mind of God, the moment the fall happened, He already knew what He would do.

He kept this salvation hidden in plain site with pictures and allegories. So, that the princes of this world would fall into the trap. (1 Cor. 2:6-8)

Those princes, Satan and his fallen angels. Those demons, unclean spirits and human slaves.

That prince spirit of the air which works in the children of disobedience. (Eph 2:2)

Did not know the plan.

For had Satan known the plan, he would not have crucified Jesus and destroyed himself. (1 Cor. 2)

Paul tells us that this mystery has been revealed to us in these last days, because we have the Holy Spirit who leads us into all truth. (John 16:13)

The Holy Spirit helps us in the infirmity of our fallen nature and opens our eyes to see the deep hidden things of God.

Our flesh cannot see, nor understand the Gospel, nor anything of God.

This is why Jesus preached in parables.

“He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.

Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:

 For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.”—Matt. 13:11-15

Our salvation comes by turning to God in faith, confessing Jesus as our Lord and believing He rose from the dead. We must trust God and believe His Word. (Rom. 10:9-10, Eph 2:8-9)

We must hear His call and turn to Him. He won’t allow salvation by any other way.

When we do this, we are saved and the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us and teach us the deep things of God. He molds us.

Unsaved people without the Holy Spirit cannot fully understand the things of God. They remain in darkness and deception. Blind leaders of the blind.

Again Jesus said,

“If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?” (John 3)

We will not understand heavenly things, without faith, and the Holy Spirit. So, God shows us the truth in a picture; in mysteries so we will turn to Him in faith.

So, why does this matter?

Well, because if we refuse to hear the Spirit, or do not have the Spirit, we are not saved. We are lost. We might go to church. We might call ourselves Christians, but we have never really known Him.

If we have no interest in the deep things of God, or to serve the Kingdom to get people saved, that could be an indication of our spiritual condition.

If your church speaks nothing of the Holy Spirit, that is a red flag.

The Spirit of God will lead us to be about the Fathers work.

We will learn from Him and grow in Him and his fruit will develop in us and through us. It’s not about committing sins. If you are saved, your sins are washed away. But, saved people will follow His voice. They will serve the Kingdom.

According to the Apostles, these last days are going to be filled with evil and deception. The only way to endure to the end, is to abide in Christ.

Those who are saved, trust Him and hear His voice. Abiding means to remain with Him. If you are really saved you will abide and have the Holy Spirit and He will not let you go.

Those who do not endure and do not abide, never really knew Him. (whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. –Matt. 13:11-15 )

The scriptures indicate that there will arise a False Prophet. This guy will probably create the New World Religion, which will be a spirituality mixed with science and every religion on Earth. Unity will be the key.

This False Prophet will have all the answers, even so much that atheists will flock to him.

The deception will be so bad that “even the elect” will be deceived, if it was possible. (Matt 24:24)

The reason it’s not possible for the elect to be deceived is because they have the Holy Spirit and listen to Him. They believe God’s Word, not the False Prophet and his facts. Not AI and spirituality.

The False Prophet will endorse the Anti-Christ at some point.

He will call him the Christ.

Realize that “Anti” means “instead of” it does not mean “against”

So, this Anti-Christ will take the place of the True Christ, Which is Jesus.

The False Prophet and Anti-Christ will seem to embrace Christianity as well.

The Anti-Christ will be considered an incarnation of Spirit, like so many others.

It will be taught that these incarnations have come throughout history to help guide us in our evolution.

The New World Religion will teach that we are evolving in every way, physically, spiritually, mentally, financially, scientifically, socially, and politically.

They will teach that the incarnations, or men and women of great renown, have worked to guide us in this. They have all given their lives to it.

They will even rope Jesus into it, claiming He was one of the incarnations.

But, there will be a problem.

Those saints who refuse to accept. Those extremists who refuse to get on board.

Those saints of God who confess that Jesus is the Lord, and that there is no other name under heaven whereby men shall be saved. (Romans 10:9-10, Acts 4:12)

And there will be persecution in those days.

Anyone who refuses to accept the Anti-Christ as Lord will be cancelled, they will be fired, they will be locked up and re-educated, they will be killed. (Rev. 13:7. Dan. 7:25, Rev. 6:9-11)

And that’s when the great falling away will happen. The great falling away is a sign to the saints, not an indication of a loss of salvation for the apostates. They never knew Him. (2 Thess. 2:3) (whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. –Matt. 13:11-15 )

In the midst of great persecution, the people who go to church, but do not know Him, and do not have the Holy Spirit will fall away and turn to the New World Religion of the False Prophet.

This will be the Apostate Church. Those who knew who Jesus Christ was and saw Him, but still rejected.

They will join in the persecution, hunting down the Saints. (Matthew 24:48-49, Matthew 10:20-22, Rev. 13:7. Dan. 7:25, )

They will gladly accept the Mark of the Beast. (Rev. 13)

And all of this will occur as the Spirit has prophesied from the foundation of the world. All of it will work together according to Gods plan, which He prepared from the beginning.

And like Isaiah said,

“Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence,

 As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence!

 When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence.”—Isa 64:1-3

None of us know exactly how the last days will work out. God has given us clues, and signs. But, we cannot be exact. I’m am not claiming to have it all figured out. Because we cannot. There are many teachings.

But, this scenario seems to me to be very likely.

God will be with us.

He is in His saints, through His Holy Spirit.

He will never leave us, nor forsake us. (Heb. 13:5)

Are you ready for His return?

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Cover photo by Pexels.

What Is Jesus Worth?

 What Is Jesus Worth?

The Workers are worthy 

 

I have been in church and heard a lot of sermons. I’ve listened to preachers on the radio and TV for decades, and I can say that I have heard many sermons about how the employee needs to work harder.

“Work as unto the Lord! Work as though Jesus is watching you!”

Is the basic flavor of all these sermons.

“Don’t complain about your job. Be thankful you have one. Some people have nothing.”

Or

“The Bible teaches you that you should obey authority. That includes your boss…”

That’s the gist of thousands of sermons.

But I have never heard a sermon telling employers how to treat workers.

Are there no Christian employers?

We know there are because they let us know.

They have a fish symbol on their business cards. They let employees have Sunday off…etc.

But let’s flip the script.

What if Jesus was your employee?  How much is Jesus Worth?

Minimum wage?  One sick day with a doctor’s excuse? 

Would you complain that no one wants to work if Jesus showed up every day?

Consider where Jesus said “What you’ve done unto the least of these my brethren you’ve done unto me”.

Could it refer to your employees? Are they not poor? Are they not “The least of these”?”

What about that big house and new car? All bought by the cheap labor of Jesus at your store, or construction site.

How much money should we horde off the whip scarred back of Jesus?

Jesus+profits= new bass boat.

How much is Jesus Worth?  

Minimum wage? Unpaid sick days?  Can Jesus take his sick kid to the doctor? Can Jesus spend time with his wife and new born baby? Can Jesus not get sexually harassed today? Can Jesus get a mental health day? Can Jesus get insurance or maybe a vision plan? Can Jesus get stuck in traffic and show up late today? Should Jesus get ripped off on overtime? Should Jesus get fired for no real reason?

Just asking.

And I’m referring to Jesus the Lord. Not Jesus from Mexico City who cuts your massive lawn.

What is Jesus worth?

But, let’s go further because this is actually a very important subject.

Why do you think that sermons on how employers should treat employees are rare?

I think it’s because most churches employ people. The pastors are not going to preach about how they should treat their own employees.

Likewise, churches are full of business owners who pay tithes and don’t want to hear sermons that hit them in the wallet. 

So basically its the love of money. It’s choosing to serve Mammon over God. 

Too harsh?

Consider the book of Philemon.

Philemon was a rich Christian who owned slaves. One of his slaves named Onesimus escaped, and ran into Paul. Who led him to know Christ.

Paul writes  the church where Philemon attends and tells Philemon about it.

Paul talks Onesimus into returning home. And he tells Philemon “If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself. If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that on mine account;”

He took all of the burden upon Himself. He stood in intercession for Onesimus, against an employer or slave master.

Now consider Christ. Consider that Paul did this in obedience to Christ, and as a picture of what Jesus does for us. Do bosses consider that Jesus died for the employee too and they should be forgiven and treated with love?  Treated like they would treat Jesus or a friend?

So, let’s look at what the future holds for all this greed. James tells us, 

“Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.

Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.

 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

 Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.

Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.

Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.”— James 5:1-6

I consider that James is speaking of two events. 

One is in relation to the last days, when money will become worthless in response to the Black Horse of Revelation, which I think will be a global economic collapse.  (Revelation Chapter 6) 

The other is much more terrifying, because it relates to the return of Christ. When he says “What you’ve done to the least of these you’ve done to me.” and sends the goats off into hell.  (Matt. 25: 31-46)

If you are a Christian employer or boss and you do not bless your employees and treat them properly, you might want to check your salvation papers.

There will be huge amounts of “Christians” who find out they were never really saved on Judgement day. 

No oil in their lamp. Talents buried in the sand. Goats heading into darkness.

Works do not save us. But when we know Christ we begin to do things differently.

“But, I’ll go broke!” You might say.

Pray about it.

Jesus says,

 “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.”—Luke 6:38

You cannot out give God. You can give more to your employees, and there will be a return.

Jesus said,

 “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”— Matt. 6:33

When we put God first, He will take care of us.

Trust God. Love and bless your employees. Treat them better and watch what happens. You are free to do better than what the norm is. You can do better than what the law requires. 

God sees what you do, and He hears their cries for justice. 

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Cover photo by author.

Our Dirty Feet

 Our Dirty Feet

 We get dirty walking in this world

 

As followers of Christ, we live and walk in this filthy world. We see things, we feel things, we think things, and we do things that are sinful. It’s a fact. It says in 1 John 1:10 ” If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” So, if you cannot admit that you sin, then you do not know Christ.

Jesus is the Word. “The Word is not in you.” if you cannot admit your sinfulness, you have never known Christ or been saved.

We still sin as saved people but we are not viewed by God as sinners. He sees Christ, not us. Our sins are never brought back up. That’s what “we do not sin” means. Our sins are not imputed on us. We are righteous. (1 John 3:9)

In the Gospel of John, when Jesus began to wash the disciples feet. Peter was appalled. He could not let the God of the universe. The Holy One of Israel, do this for him. We often feel that way. We cannot bring ourselves to let God take care of us. It’s a pride issue. We think we can do it ourselves. This leads to false religions and false teachings of works based doctrines. Pride comes before a fall. (John 13)

Jesus said (to Peter) “if I do not wash you. Then you can have no part with me.” (John 13: 8-9)

Jesus is referring to the washing away of sin. He is talking about being washed in His blood and getting saved. When we are saved; our sins, past, present and future are gone. If we are not washed, we are not with Him.

Peter sort of understood, and told Jesus to wash ALL of him. Peter wanted to make sure he was with Christ. He wanted to show that he was all in.

But Jesus knew that Peter was already washed. He knew Peter was already saved. 

Peter had been called, and accepted the call. Peter believed, and had already confessed Jesus as God, and his Lord. He had turned to God. Salvation was not the issue. When Jesus asked “Who do you say that I am?” Peter said, “Thou art the Christ the son of the living God.” This is the foundation of salvation. Confessing Jesus as The Lord, or God. (Matt. 16: 13-19, Rom. 10:9-10 )

Next Jesus says (to Peter), “all you need is for me to wash your feet.” (Verse 10)

 As we walk in this world we get dirty, and we need to be washed. Not for salvation if we are already saved, but as a means of removing the filth of this world, so we don’t spread it every where. So, we don’t carry it with us. So, it doesn’t begin to impact our lives. So, we can feel better. Often talking about something with God or another person can help us.

So, how does this happen?

In 1st John it says to confess our sins and He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness. We pray and confess our sins to God, and He forgives. As we do this, we find that He works to help us overcome, more and more. Sometimes, it doesn’t feel like He hears us. But, we must believe that He does. Sometimes, prayers of confession can be a struggle. (1 John 1:9)

This is not just a spiritual activity. When we pray to the Lord, and ask Him to forgive us our sins, we need to try to be specific. When we do, we can see Him moving to not only cleanse us in the spirit but to remove things that are against us in our lives as well. He cleanses us of ALL unrighteousness. Not just some spiritual thing.

When we are saved, the Holy Spirit works in our lives. We often struggle with things. The Holy Spirit teaches us and brings us into ALL truth. So, lets say that we confess to the Lord that we lied. He forgives us. But, He also starts working to help us over come that thing in our lives. He might show us that we lie quite a bit. So, we start confessing that specific sin more often. Then He shows that we lie at certain times or toward certain people. So, we start being more aware, and seeing our sin more, and confessing more. He might reveal that we lie because of fear. So, it’s actually a lack of trust in God that is the problem. So, He starts working on that. And on and on. This is the renewing of our mind. This is how deep change occurs. (Romans 12:1-3)

It could be any sinful behavior in our lives. Confess it and watch God forgive you and work in you and around you. This part of the relationship. It builds faith. It grows us and changes us.

It all starts with confessing it to Him. When we confess to Him in prayer we are showing that we need Him. We are seeking the relationship with Him. The Holy Spirit shows us what to confess, but we must do it. We destroy our pride and submit to the Lord. Every thought of our being is filled with sin, we are totally depraved. The fall of Adam corrupted us so entirely that we do not even see how bad we are. When we refuse to submit to God and let Him do it, we are in a very bad place. That is why pride is the worst sin.

When we submit and turn to God, confessing to Him. He saves us, forgives us and starts working to change us. This depravity is why our minds must be renewed. Renewed to what God originally created, and desired.

In James, it says to confess our sins one to another, and pray for each other. This can be very difficult when you have no one you can trust or you fear repercussions. This is why it’s fine to simply confess to the Lord. There are some churches where gossip will destroy you. The purpose of confessing, is to heal and get cleansed. It is not to allow humans the chance to destroy your life. (James 5:16)

Find people you trust, and who understand the truth of confessing. Churches are full of all kinds of people. Many of the folks there are not saved. They have never really accepted the Lord, or have a relationship with Him. Just because they are a pastor doesn’t mean they are saved or love you.

But, you must do as the Holy Spirit leads you. If you feel that you need to publicly confess, or confess to others, then do it. But, you must weigh the amount of damage you might cause, and do it in a way that does not hurt others. We are called to Love. Learn to be led by the Spirit and he will guide you.

When we hear of someone struggling we must pray for them. Do it immediately, either silently or with them. If you wait, Satan will make sure you forget. Do it now. Don’t gossip about it. Don’t use it to destroy someone. We all have sins. We all have pasts. Pray for them and follow the Lord. Let God do the chastening. Follow the Spirit. (Proverbs 3:11-12)

This is Foot Washing, as it pertains to spiritual matters. Of course, there’s the act of washing others feet in reality. This is a very humbling experience, the Lord can use it to grow us.

Turn to God. He is with us.

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Cover photo by pexels/Nishant Aneja

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