But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; I Peter 3:15 NKJV
sanctify [v. a.]:
P 1. Make holy, cleanse from sin. 2. Consecrate, hallow, purify. 3. Sanction, justify, ratify.
I am always emphasizing the importance of words we use ,pure transformation starts with a change of vocabulary . Your perspective of God should change first ,you can't have a fulfilling relationship with God you don't understand ,seek to understand him in the Bible his personality doesn't change from the beginning of time in the days of Adam to date he has been consistent with his character.
He changes not ,but we due to fear and misconceptions we end up viewing him as a personality bend on punishing evil doers, Adam hid himself after commiting sin ,he didn't understand that he is a forgiving God too.Adam did not beg for forgiveness instead he blamed Eve ,and Eve blamed the snake.How many times have you blamed other people or circumstances for your actions instead of taking full responsibility??
It is your responsibility to sanctify God in your heart but how you might ask ,by the confession of your mouth. Your tongue and your mind ,must be under control .
“Teach me, and I will hold my tongue; Cause me to understand wherein I have erred. Job 6:24 NKJV
My tongue shall speak of Your word, For all Your commandments are righteousness. Psalms 119:172 NKJV
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit. Proverbs 18:21 NKJV
God is omnipotent ,he provides our every need . I call him God of restoration whatever you might have lost ,he is preparing something better. He has favoured me ,at one stage I lost everything but he restored my identity.
The best decision I made with my life was to give my life to Jesus Christ ,man it was worth it .My life has been restored.
He gives wisdom to the meek,God who gives identity to the lowly in society , God who gives hope to the hopeless.Jesus washed me clean from all the infirmity .I am glad to be identified with Christ.
And it came to pass, that, as Jesus sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples: for there were many, and they followed him. And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Mark 2:15-17 KJV
Welcome back it's been a while since I last posted anything on this page but today I felt the urge for us to discuss on this topic.
Jesus here is being judged obviously by the Pharisees for eating and dining with sinners ,this type of group you always find them in the church they always find fault at anything new or anything they don't approve. We notice here that Pharisees and Sadducees were the law ,they represented the Mosaic law ,whatsover they didn't approve would lead to punishment.
In the church doctrine ,has led us to have such people in our midst they have studied and mastered church doctrine but have forgotten that Jesus gave us one instruction to make disciples all over the world ,that's the main goal of every Christian to make disciples . Making disciples is the goal and teaching them what Christ taught us.
If every one of us would bring one soul to Christ that would please the Lord .,but people are so bend on proving each other wrong that the church on its own is pushing people back into the world . I am not against doctrine but I believe that once we stick to the main goal of making disciples all over the world some problems we are facing will end.
One of my favourite pastor once said that we are living in an era whereby Christians are moving from church to church ,there are confused , instead of sinners coming to Christ leaving the world , believers in church A are leaving their church to join church B ,which brings us back to our main goal Are we being effective at the task Jesus left us.????
It's now a common site for Pastor A to use his pulpit telling the world that Pastor B is leading them to hell ,in actual sense he is telling congregants in Pastor B's church to join his church if they want to go to heaven . Pharisees were in a dilemma Jesus was gaining momentum and had many followers ,Pharisees were loosing ground so to maintain their authority they wanted to prove to everyone that Jesus was doing things wrong .Their approach was to question him in public ,now you see ,they always questioned him in public so that he would loose followers or so that the masses would stone him to death. I am sure this approach you have noticed it also where you come from .
For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. But we will not boast of things without our measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you. For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure, as though we reached not unto you: for we are come as far as to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ: Not boasting of things without our measure, that is, of other men's labours; but having hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly, To preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man's line of things made ready to our hand. But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth. 2 Corinthians 10:12-18 KJV
The world need to know about Christ not people ,The aim is to glorify God not humans when you preach you are making disciples for God and not for yourself . The Pharisees mentality it strives to get the attention to self and not to God . Glory belong to God and Jesus Christ the only way to God. We are witnesses to God's love we confess what we have witnessed for once we were worshipping dead things ,we were slaves to things fashioned by men , we were slaves to superstitions ,we were worshipping the sun and moon but now we are saved from that bondage. For JESUS'S blood cleansed us , he created a new heart in us .Jesus deserves all the glory ,we are bodies used for his purpose and he takes pride in working through us not because we deserve it NO because of his righteousness .God sees Jesus's righteousness in us and he worked his miracles through us.We are so privileged.
And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand: And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand? And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. Matthew 12:25-28 KJV
Jesus once was accused of using evil spirits to cast out demons , isn't it funny history always repeats itself ,how many times have u heard pastors accusing other pastors of using evil powers from the devil.
Child of God let's remain focused on our purpose to preach the word of God to the ends of the Earth... Paul's approach was different to Peter's ministry , until Peter recieved that revelation One body different functions . Whatever you do let it be to glorify God .
Shalom be blessed and please feel free to ask questions or add anything .
