Monthly Archives: September 2015

Learning To Be A Son – Chapter One – Sonship God’s Original Design

Book Reviews, , , ,

LEARNING TO BE A SON

CHAPTER ONE

Sonship – God’s Original Design

God’s dream was to create a family, sons and daughters who would resemble Him and be one with Him and who would be His vice-regents to rule over the earth. His plan was that all people would be His children. Even when Adam fell and was driven from God’s presence in disgrace, he was still God’s son, just as the prodigal in Jesus’ story remained the son of the father even when he rebelled and left home.

The father in the story did not disown him. He waited for his erring son to return and welcomed him home with joy because his lost son had been found. No matter how far God’s human family runs from Him, we can never be “unborn” because, as the offspring of Adam, whom Luke described as “the son of God”; (Luke 3:38), we are all sons and daughters of God.

Paul acknowledged this by quoting a Greek poet in Acts 17: 28 – We are all His offspring.

The older son was equally “lost”, not because he ran away but because he was estranged from the father by having a slave-mentality. Like the Pharisees who despised “sinners”, the older son refused to rejoice when his brother returned home because he was more concerned about his brother’s behaviour than his standing as a son.

God had reasons for creating the human race. Apart from His desire to give His love to a family, He had to sort out an issue with Satan. God created the angelic host to be “sons of God’, but Lucifer, the highest of the angelic beings who became Satan, had designs on God’s throne. He was evicted from God’s presence and thrown down upon the earth. It was his plan to entice the human race away from love and loyalty to the Father to exert his rule over the earth through them.

Through the nation of Israel, it was God’s intention to reveal His true nature to the entire human race and to prepare them to receive His Messiah who would redeem humanity from slavery to the devil and restore and reinstate them into the family of God. Israel failed to fulfil its mission, but God always preserved a faithful remnant through whom He would send His Son.

Through judgement and discipline God dealt with Israel’s waywardness. He never gave up on them because Israel was His firstborn “son”. From the beginning He had planned and promised that He would send His Messiah to rescue them from bondage to sin.

But God’s promises to Israel extended beyond the boundaries of one nation. God’s love was for the whole world. His promises were made to the Gentiles as well. Not only did He call Israel His son; Egypt and Assyria, symbolic of the worst of Israel’s enemies, were to be included in the promise of blessing (Isa. 19: 24-25).

Can it be, then, that God has included the whole world, even those who reject Him and worship false gods, in His family? The Scripture concludes that all are potentially the sons of God, sons by birth and relationship but estranged from God through sin, rebellion and unbelief. Those who have received Jesus and believed on His name have been given the right to become children of God experientially (John 1:12), but the door is open for everyone to take their rightful place as His children through His mercy and forgiveness in Christ.

Through Jesus He set up His rescue plan so that those who are at enmity with Him may be reconciled through Jesus’ blood shed on the cross. Those who refuse His offer of mercy must accept the consequences of their choice, but it is their choice, not God’s that they face eternal judgment and destruction instead of the love of God’s eternal family.

 

Jesus Did Not Say That The Wheat And Chaff Were The Godly And Ungodly

Apologetics, , ,

JESUS DID NOT SAY THAT THE WHEAT AND CHAFF WERE THE GODLY AND UNGODLY

In actual fact, it was John the Baptist who said of Jesus:

I baptise you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor, gathering His wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire. (Matt. 3: 11-12)

Why is it that we are so quick to interpret these words as referring to the end times and as the separation of the ungodly from the godly so that the ungodly can be sent to hell?

John used a familiar agricultural picture to explain the work of the Messiah whom he came to introduce to his people. John recognised his calling to be that of the one prophesied by Isaiah.

This is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah:

“A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him.’” (Matt.3: 3)

It was John’s role to create a picture of the Messiah so that the people would recognise Him when He came. Once again, we must understand his words from a Hebraic perspective. John referred to “fire” twice in this description. Was he meaning a literal fire or did he imply something else? Hebrew people would ask the question, “What does fire do?” Fire can either purify as with metal, for example, or it can destroy.

Was it Jesus’ intention to destroy people? No, a thousand times!

‘. . . For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.’ (Luke 9: 56 – New American Standard Bible)

What, then, is the significance of John’s use of the imagery of wheat and chaff? Chaff is the hard protective husk that covers the grains of wheat. It is inedible. The process of winnowing was to separate the chaff from the wheat by beating it off the wheat grains and then tossing the wheat into the air so that the wind would blow the lighter chaff away while the wheat fell into a pile to be gathered up for later use. The chaff would be burned because it had no further use for the farmer.

Just as the chaff was separated from the wheat and burned, so the Holy Spirit would separate what was useless in the lives of Jesus’ followers (i.e., sin), from what was of value. The “fire” of the Holy Spirit would purge out that which was worthless, purifying their hearts and setting them apart for God.

That brings me to a second thought regarding the work of Jesus. Unfortunately, there has been bred in the minds of many believers an escapist mentality. What Jesus came to do on earth has been narrowed down to one thing – that He came to save us from hell and take us to heaven. Believers are taught to “hang on” until Jesus comes, a sort of “white-knuckle” club. If we can just “endure to the end”, we shall be saved.

How does that match with Jesus’ statement that He came to give us abundant life? Does that only refer to life in the hereafter? Is that what salvation is all about? Are we just to endure this life so that we can enjoy heaven forever? Did Jesus just endure His few years on earth so that He could go back to heaven to be with the Father?

If we read the gospels correctly, we see a man who loved life. In spite of what He had to endure from His opponents, He was described as a man of joy, more joyful than any other person who had ever lived (Heb. 1: 9). He came to reveal the Father and to live a human life that made “up there” come “down here”. He wanted His disciples to understand how to bring heaven to earth by living like He did, in fellowship with the Father, doing His will and serving those who needed Him.

No, Jesus did not come to separate the ungodly from the godly, but to invite all people into a life of great happiness by following Him and becoming like Him. It was His passion to set people free from the sinful ways that destroyed them so that they could enjoy life to the full. He promised them His love. His joy and His peace to replace the fear, guilt and shame that burdened their consciences and kept them from coming to the Father. He paid the debt of sin so that people could be forgiven and reconciled to God.

Jesus’ focus was always on this life. Yes, those who followed Him would be with Him forever, but it was His desire that His people would represent Him on earth so that those who did not know God would recognise Him in them and leave their ungodly ways to follow Him.

We must broaden our understanding of salvation to mean much more than going to heaven when we die. Salvation, to the Hebrew mind, is another word for wholeness. The Holy Spirit, whom Jesus sent from the Father to replace Him when He left, has an all-consuming task on earth, to restore people to wholeness. How does He do it? By leading us into all truth (John 16: 13); by revealing Jesus to us (John 16: 14-15) so that we can be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Rom. 12: 2).

Whole people are those who unselfishly and willingly give themselves to the service of others as their Master showed them. They express the righteousness of Jesus by their generosity with their resources and with who they are. They recognise that this life is an apprenticeship for the next. They follow Jesus because He promised to take them to the Father.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Watch this space. My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, will soon be on the bookshelves.

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

 

 

 

Jesus Did Not Say That We Will Live With Him In Heaven Forever

Apologetics, , , ,

JESUS DID NOT SAY THAT WE WILL LIVE WITH HIM IN HEAVEN FOREVER

As much as we like this idea, the assumption that we are going to be in heaven for eternity is just not true. God created the earth to be a perfect home for man. It was His intention from the beginning that the human race, perfected in holiness and righteousness as His sons and daughters, will live in union with God and rule over the earth in partnership with Him.

Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over all livestock and wild animals and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ (Gen. 1: 26)

Adam’s rebellion did not change God’s plan. It was a part of His plan since God was not taken by surprise. How else would He reveal His mercy and grace to the entire universe including the fallen angels, if He did not have a plan to redeem and rescue mankind from the consequences of sin?

The erroneous idea that Jesus will take His church to heaven and then destroy the earth and all its ungodly inhabitants, flies in the face of the entire drift of Scripture. Both the Old and the New Testaments bear witness to a God who does not destroy but renews and restores everything that was broken by the Fall. He did not destroy the entire human race and begin again when Adam fell. His plan of redemption through Jesus was already in place before the beginning of time.

All the inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast – all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world. (Rev. 13: 8)

God has always preserved a remnant for Himself – people who are faithful to Him in the midst of apostasy and ungodliness. It was through the remnant of faithful Jews that Messiah came; Zechariah and Elizabeth bore John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Messiah; Mary and Joseph – Mary chosen to be the mother of Jesus and Joseph, a godly man, together with Mary, chosen to raise Him in a godly home; His disciples who believed in Him were groomed to continue His mission on earth after He left.

Throughout the Scriptures God’s intention is clear. Using the picture of a geographical kingdom, God taught His people that they were to rule over their territory in righteousness under His protection and guidance as a witness to the surrounding nations that He alone is God and that His nature is love expressed in mercy and compassion to all. That they did not get it and fell into idolatry over and over again did not cancel out His plan.

Both Paul and John clearly understood that Jesus’ death accomplished much more than forgiveness of sins. Just as the disobedience of Adam had cosmic repercussions, so the death of Jesus, the last Adam, brought about the reversal of the devastating effects of Adam’s sin.

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. (Rom. 8: 18-22)

John was privileged to have glimpses into the future when Satan will be vanquished forever and Jesus will be established as God’s rightful king over all creation. John witnessed the end result of redemption – a renewed heaven and earth which came together under the rule of God. In picture language he described heaven coming down to earth, symbolising the final union of heaven and earth with God taken His place among His redeemed and perfected people.

Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’ for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’ (Rev. 21: 1-4)

What did John mean by the words ‘a new heaven and a new earth’? Did he mean that God will utterly destroy the earth and start all over again? This interpretation is not consistent with Scripture. Peter gives us a glimpse into the meaning of a ‘new heaven and a new earth.’

But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and the destruction of the ungodly. (2 Peter: 3: 5-7)

To be consistent, we must interpret the destruction of the earth by fire in the same way as the “destruction” of the earth by water. Destruction did not mean annihilation by water in Noah’s day, and therefore it cannot mean annihilation by fire when Jesus comes. “Destruction” in Scripture is often used in the sense of purging, i.e, the removal of everything corrupt and evil. Take John’s testimony about the Messiah, for example.

I baptise you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor, gathering His wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire. (Matt. 3: 11-12)

What is God’s intention, then? Just as He created (i.e., reshaped and filled a formless and empty earth) the heavens and the earth by His word through the Word – Jesus – so He will purge His creation from evil by His word through the Word so that it will be His dwelling place with His people forever.

We shall continue this study tomorrow.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Watch this space. My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, will soon be on the bookshelves.

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

 

Jesus Did Not Say That The Ungodly Would Be Left Behind

Apologetics, , ,

JESUS DID NOT SAY THAT THE UNGODLY WOULD BE LEFT BEHIND

Amazing how biblical expositors can twist the Bible to mean what they want it to mean, and even more amazing that thousands of people believe them without checking the facts!

Take the popular theory that Jesus will take believers to heaven when He comes and that the ungodly will be left behind. “Left Behind” is even the theme of a series of novels which have garnered millions of dollars in royalties but do not have a shred of truth in them. Many have even based a false hope on the idea that they or their loved ones will get a second chance to believe in Jesus when the church is “raptured” and the antichrist takes over the world. Where in the world does that idea come from and how can they justify it from the Scriptures?

Now let’s look at what Jesus did say.

As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the Ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. (Matt. 24: 37-39)

“As it was . . . so it will be” is quite clearly a comparison. Just as it happened then, so it will happen now. That is clear, isn’t it? So what happened then? God told Noah to build an ark because it was going to rain. The people of the earth had become so corrupt that God decided to purge the earth of its evil and rescue only one family, Noah’s. It had never rained before because the earth was watered by a mist (see Gen. 2: 5-6).

While Noah and his sons constructed the ark, Noah warned the people of coming judgment.

. . . If He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others . . . (2 Peter 2: 5)

Whether his preaching was verbal or silent, Peter did not say but, what he and his sons were doing was enough to alert his neighbours that something big and catastrophic was about to happen. But they obviously refused to take him seriously because they carried on living the way they always did until the flood came.

What was God’s provision for the Noah family? He did not rapture them to heaven. He protected them from the flood in a well-constructed boat. Here again is what Peter had to say about the event.

. . . To those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water . . . (1 Peter 3: 20)

Peter compared what happened to Noah and his family when God rescued them from the flood by protecting them in the ark, to what happens to those who are baptised, implying that they have been identified with Jesus’ death and resurrection and have been initiated into God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The very water that took the lives of the ungodly in Noah’s day was the water that saved him because he was in the ark.

Jesus’ comparison falls flat if we insist that it was the ungodly who were “left behind”. Clearly Noah and his family survived the flood when everyone and everything that was not in the ark perished. God did not destroy the earth with the flood. He re-established it in another form. Everything was changed by the water which fell from above and burst out of the ground.

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month – on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. (Gen. 7: 11-12)

At the end of the catastrophe, who emerged from the ark onto a transformed and purged earth? Who was left behind? Many thousands of corpses and one living family, Noah’s! God had accomplished His goal. He preserved a righteous man and his family to start all over again.

Where, then, does the idea come from that Jesus will whip the righteous from the earth and leave the ungodly behind to carry on as normal? Before you get hot under the collar and point me to the “rapture”, we have to examine the big picture. This is only point one. Jesus did not say that He would take the church out and leave the ungodly behind. He did say that, just as Noah was saved in the ark when God poured His judgement on the earth and its corrupt inhabitants, so those who are “in Him” will be protected when He brings judgment on the earth and its corrupt people once again.

As the writer to the Hebrews testified:

See to it that you do not refuse Him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on earth, how much less will we if we turn away from Him who warns us from heaven.  At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, ‘Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.’ The words ‘once more’ indicate the removing of what can be shaken – that is, created things – so that what cannot be shaken may remain. (Heb. 12: 25-27)

Tomorrow we’ll examine point two of what Jesus did not say and what He did say.  

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Watch this space. My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, will soon be on the bookshelves.

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

 

Jesus Did Not Say That We Must Bind The Devil

Apologetics, , ,

JESUS DID NOT SAY THAT WE MUST BIND THE DEVIL

Oh what a mess we make when we assume that Jesus said what He did not say!

He was on a mission to teach His disciples a valuable lesson.  He took them to Caesarea Philippi – to us only a name on an ancient map. But what did it mean to Jesus and His disciples?

It was Israel’s “red light district”, a no-go place for respectable and orthodox Jews. It was both a city built in honour of Caesar which had in it a temple dedicated to the worship of Caesar, and a region where there was the site of pagan worship of the worst kind.

A huge rocky cliff had niches carved into the base in which the images of pagan gods were placed for worship, the most prominent being the goat-god Pan, and a pagan temple. There was a grotto at the base of the cliff from which a spring flowed, joining the snow melt from Mount Hermon to form the source of the Jordan River.

Pagan worshippers believed that evil spirits used the cave as their portal through which they retreated into the underworld in the winter and returned in the spring. Their worshippers would entice them out by having sexual intercourse with goats. This cave entrance was known as “the gate of hell”.

It was there, in sight of these depraved and disgusting goings-on that Jesus asked His disciples the question, “Who do you say that I am?” The disciples’ response was crucial. If they acknowledged Jesus only to a prophet or a great teacher, as did many others, they would have missed the significance of His identity, and would have had no clue about the purpose of His visit to the region.

Their mission as His disciples hung on their understanding of who He was. If they saw Him as no more than another rabbi, what He came to do would have evaporated like a vapour because He depended on them to continue His work when He left them, based on the conviction that He was indeed the Son of God.

Jesus was elated when Peter, as spokesman for the group, assured Him that they recognised Him to be the Messiah, the Son of God, even though Peter did not understand the full implication of his confession at that moment. It was on the strength of his confession, and in the environment of the worst of human depravity that Jesus commissioned them to bind His yoke on those who were destroying themselves by their ungodly lives because of the yoke of paganism that they had embraced.

. . . On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. (Matt. 16: 18-19)

We must interpret Jesus’ commission in the culture and religion of the Jews, not from our western imposition on the text. What did it mean to “bind and loose” in the context of Judaism in Jesus’ day?

In His extended explanation of the character and behaviour of kingdom citizens (called “the Sermon on the Mount”) Jesus made it clear that His purpose was not to set aside the Torah but to fulfil it by living it out according to God’s intention so that His disciples would understand and do as He did. The foundation of the Torah was the character of God, expressed in His mercy – the weightiest part of His character. It was His intention that, in all their dealings with one another as God’s covenant people, they would treat one another with mercy.

The ancient rabbis with sh’mikah, those who were acknowledged to have the authority to make pronouncements on God’s intention regarding the details of His instructions, i.e., the Torah, had missed the point and piled rules upon rules governing their behaviour until the people were burdened with impossible expectations on how to “keep” or live a Torah-compliant life.

Jesus declared that He had the authority to dispense with all the rigmarole of His predecessors and take His people back to God’s original intention – mercy and compassion because these were the weightiest or most important aspects of God’s nature (see Exodus 33: 18-34: 7).

It was this yoke – the mercy and compassion of the Father – that would set people free from all other yokes, including the yoke of both paganism and Pharisaism, that would change people from the inside. At the very spot where the disciples witnessed what pagan beliefs led to – “on this rock” – Jesus declared that He would build His church – the visible representative of His kingdom, and nothing, not even the false beliefs about demons and hades, would be able to resist.

At that very spot where the disciples were witnessing the behaviour of idol-worshippers, Jesus gave His commission and the authority to “bind” His yoke on people and “loose” them from all other yokes which ensnared and enslaved them. No amount of useless “binding” the devil or demons can do what Jesus does in the hearts of people when they embrace the truth of who He is and allow Him to rule in their hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The city of Ephesus was a case in point. When Paul and his companions went to Ephesus, it was a city in the grip of Diana-worship, the many-breasted goddess of fertility who was worshipped by people interacting sexually with her temple prostitutes. After Paul had preached the gospel in that city, many Diana-devotees embraced the truth, brought their demonic paraphernalia and burnt it in the middle of the city.

So powerful was the yoke of Jesus that Diana lost her influence and had to be “defended” by the silversmiths led by Demetrius because they had lost their business making and selling “Diana”-relics. Their protest caused a riot in the city which almost cost Paul his life.

There is no evidence in Luke’s record of “Jericho” marches or prayer walks; of discerning of spirits or “pulling down” altars or strongholds; of “binding” demons and “loosing” the Holy Spirit or whatever people “loose” by their “spiritual warfare”! It was repentance (changing their minds), following Jesus and obeying the truth that set them free from the power of Satan.

Jesus died to defeat the devil.

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive in Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness which stood against us and condemned us; He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (Col. 2: 13-15)

We have only one response – to stand on the truth of what He had done.

Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armour of God so that, when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. (Eph. 6: 12-13)

God has not instructed us to wage war against the devil and his minions. Jesus did that and overcame him through the cross. We can add nothing to what He has done. He calls us to hold fast to the truth of the gospel and its effects in our lives (put on the whole armour of God), and to declare the good news of forgiveness and freedom in Christ to those who are ensnared by Satan’s yoke of lies in whatever form they are held captive.

Idolatry or even denominational yokes which have added to or removed anything from the yoke of Jesus, hold people in bondage. Only when we believe and embrace the truth of God’s mercy in Christ and the finished work of Jesus on the cross, can we be loosed from the yoke of bondage and set free to worship God in spirit and in truth without fear because perfect love drives out fear.

How much time is wasted in useless so-called “spiritual warfare” praying instead of preaching the gospel to those who have never heard because it is the power of the cross that is able to save and deliver men and women from the devil and his snares! True spiritual warfare is done by telling people the truth and allowing them the opportunity to respond in faith. It is the work of God to set them free.

For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Col. 1: 13-14)

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Watch this space. My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, will soon be on the bookshelves.

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com