Monday, November 26, 2018

God Forbids Christians Being Confrontational Which Yields Quarrels And Divisions

Frequent Quarrel Equals Hatred

“Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:1-2 ESV).

Recently, two brethren in the Lord were involved in a heated argument and sharp exchange of words filled with anger and hatefulness. We say hateful because the words carried that spirit of hatred they had for each other. According to one of the brethren, this was not the first, second or third time they had such heated exchanges, this is indicative of a lack of love and respect. You may ask how this relates to our message isn’t it? Well, some of the reasons advanced that led to such quarrels were every time as a result of a confrontational spirit (Proverbs 3:30).

Why Some Of Us Are Confrontational?

What leads us to being confrontational? While we might not have all the answers however, what commonly drives the spirit of confrontation are our emotions and this is often based on our experience(s). In other words, what we felt would drive our response and instead of inflicting emotional scares leading to divisions, the Word of God commands us to add gentleness (Galatians 6:1) to retain and build our fellow brother or sister in Christ our Lord.

Based on some experiences we had, we learned that when a brother or sister in the Lord throws ‘jabs’ of blaming, false accusations and gossiping, we abandon love for our fellow brethren, and as custodians of the truth of our Lord Jesus Christ, our actions are displeasing to Him as we are no longer bearing one another’s burdens, on the contrary, our aim is to condemn and destroy our brother or sister’s faith (Galatians 5:15) and this goes against the Word of the Lord (Matthew 12:30) to build and encourage each other in our faith (Hebrews 10:24-25). As we know, love balances our spiritual well-being against that of another and when love responds all the holy fruits of the Precious Spirit of God are present to execute His will (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). Therefore, once love has been felt, peace is present and embraced, unity in Christ would make us one (John 17:22) and we all arise as one to Glorify the Lord (Psalm 34:3).

Conquering The Urge To Condemn

Like we acknowledged above, if there is some emotional attachment in the way we relate to our fellow brethren, there would be either some motivation to reject or accept a person in our lives. We also further acknowledge, while it would be impossible to forget an experience good or bad, scripturally, we are urged to show brotherly kindness in a spirit of corrective love (Colossians 3:14-15). If we accept a fellow brother or sister in Christ with a grudging spirit, how can we enjoy the fruit of peace and claim to obey the Lord Jesus (John 13:35). As often as we give others another chance in our lives to love, we grow them and give them the beauty of belonging and appreciation.

In our final encouragement to you, don’t allow anger, grudges, hateful feelings, ungodly perceptions with an evil motivation to drive you when God gives you the honor to dispense real love and Godly kindness when correcting YOUR BLOOD BROTHER OR SISTER IN CHRIST. In a humble and respectful attitude, don’t speak down but encouraging to win, win your fellow brother or sister over (Matthew 18:15). There is NO reason to be blatantly confrontational, we risks driving our brethren away from the Lord.

 If you desire to accept Christ as Saviour and Lord we have a suggested Prayer of Sincere Repentance to get you started on a new way of life leading to Eternal life and for any questions or comments on this article or our ministry, you may please contact us.

Monday, November 19, 2018

Who's Voice(s) Are We Following?

Who Are We Listening To?

"My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me" (John 10:27).

As Christians, we only have one Voice to listen to and that is the Voice of our Lord Jesus Christ through the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Spirit. As it is, God in His Wisdom has not hidden the message of His Word to be ‘unlocked’ by specially gifted people but so that it may be understood even by the simple minded (1 Corinthians 2:1; Psalm 119:130). However, today, many people wants to be associated with a pastor or preacher who delivers a certain message that appeals to them and what they believe even if it is false and this was evident by the countless false predictions we received in recent years (2 Timothy 4:3). Are some of these not voices we ought to be careful about? We should discern!

How To Recognise The Voice Of The Lord

Like I indirectly allude above, we don’t a special skill to hear and understand the Voice of the Lord. We do, however, need the Holy Spirit of the Lord to be able to recognise the Voice of the Lord (1 Corinthians 2:14; Romans 8:9). Thus, if we need the Holy Spirit, we should just ask by a simple faith and the Lord who will see our desire for the Holy Spirit would give us (James 1:5; Luke 11:13) Therefore, the Voice of the Lord will always leads us to salvation and correction (2 Corinthians 7:10; 2 Timothy 3:16). Based on the aforementioned Scriptures, this is then the perfect guidance from the Lord which if we obey could lead us to a sinless life in Christ. As we know, the Voice of the Lord would not lead us astray or cause us to stumble into sin, instead God is preparing us for His Kingdom and into sinless obedience (James 1:13). Additionally, we always have the option to listen to the Voice of the Lord or to disobey Him and such disobedience would have been as a result of some other voices.

Other Voices

A few weeks ago, a friend shared with me how he was led astray by voices of lusts and he ended up indulging in pornographic material and dating other women after joining a dating site. However, by the Lord’s grace the Brother confessed that He felt a strong urge and Hand restraining him not to get involved with any of the women met on the dating website. Having said this, the Lord revealed to us that there are countless unfaithful Christians who are flirting on dating websites and this is displeasing to the Lord. We encourage you brethren to resist the lustful voices of the flesh (Galatians 5:19).

Furthermore, voices other than the Lord’s finds its origin in sin and disobedience. In other words, these voices sets us up against the will of God which leads us being rebellious Christians (1 Samuel 15:23). As a Good Father, it greatly displeases the Lord if we act rebelliously, stubbornly and purposely against the teachings of His Word. From previous articles on this website, we have shared how a man who confessed to serve the Lord ended up in Hell for disobediently living in sin and when he died he was utterly surprised that he ended up in Hell after he was a Church regular, tither, fund raiser and serving on Church board meetings (Matthew 7:21-23).

In conclusion, which voice or voices are you listening to and remember the voice you listen to is the voice you will follow. Like the Bible says, the Voice of the Lord leads to life and eternal joy and the voices of rebellion leads to destruction (Romans 2:5-10). We should not forget, the Lord is near and our salvation is priceless, let us listen to His Voice!

To begin a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, please start by praying this Prayer of Sincere Repentance. For any questions or comments on this article or our ministry, please contact us.

Blessed Grace,

Brother Glenn.