Then I said, “I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand.” (Job 29:18)
Job was saying that he didn’t dare stray out from his position of safety, where all his friends and family stood with him in his dogmas and teachings. If you are ever passing through the high mountains and look up to see a mother eagle tearing her nest apart and pushing her chicks over the edge, you would think that is really cruel, but it is kindness at its best. That little eagle will never learn to fly sitting in the comfort of that nest. We will never soar like an eagle as long as we continue to scratch in the barnyard with the chickens. The TRUTHS in GOD’S WORD run deeper than just under the surface, so we have to dig down to the “SOLID ROCK.” The problem with most churches are their feet are stuck in the mud so deep they will not and cannot allow themselves to venture too far from “John 3:16.” The often quote of today is, “I believe that the work JESUS did on the cross is good enough for everyone.” That may sound good, but the fact remains HE wasn’t working, HE was dying. IT IS HIS BLOOD THAT SAVES US, NOT THAT WOODEN CROSS.
I am reminded of the little boy that caught a city bus right in front of his own home to get to school. One day he got on and said to the bus driver, “If my Daddy was a Male Dog and Mom was a Female Dog, then I would be a puppy.” The bus driver didn’t know what to say. The next day the little boy said, “If my Daddy was a Tom Cat and my Mom was a Female Cat, then I would be a kitten.” The bus drive was kind of fed up with such a smarty little boy, so the next day as the boy got on the bus the driver said, “Son if your Daddy was a Horse and your Mom was a Donkey, then what would you be?” The little boy didn’t hesitate, for he smiled and said, “Then I would be a mule-headed bus driver.”
In the Book of Judges, there are two verses exactly alike, for these people were living under their own authority. “In those days there was NO KING in Israel, but every man did that which right in HIS OWN EYES.” (Judges 17:6 and Judges 21:25) And so that is how the Book of Judges ends, just as it began, after it covered 305 years of Israel’s existence. The main question of today is still: “Why are we proud members of being called by some denomination, when we haven’t really checked to see where we came from?” Most of us loudly proclaim, “I’m Baptist!” or “I’m Methodist!” or “I’m some other well known denomination”, up to and including some of us call ourselves “Oneness Pentecostals.” Sad, sad news. Did you know Pentecost was instituted out in the “Wilderness of Sin?” It happened 50 days after “Passover.” Okay, now I have stirred up the “comfortable nest.”
JESUS prayed and asked HIS FATHER to make us all as ONE, as HE and HIS FATHER are ONE. Well, here we are some 2000 years later and instead of being ONE we are now thousands. It surely seems as if we are “walking after our own lusts.” Let us look at what Paul said to the Church at Corinth:
“And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in CHRIST. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered; BUT GOD GAME THE INCREASE. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; BUT GOD THAT GIVETH THE INCREASE. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: AND EVERY MAN SHALL RECEIVE HIS OWN REWARD ACCORDING TO HIS OWN LABOR.” (I Cor. 3:1-8)
This type of thing also goes back to the time Israel was out in the Wilderness. Moses warned the people about keeping company with those who would subvert the TRUTH and call for the people to follow them instead of listening to the WORD of GOD from Moses and Aaron, GOD’S CHOSEN Mouthpieces. “And he spake unto the congregation, saying, ‘Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, AND TOUCH NOTHING OF THEIR’S, LEST YE BE CONSUMED IN ALL THEIR SINS.” (Num.16:26) Paul also wrote to the Church at Corinth saying, “Wherefore come out from among them, AND BE YE SEPARATE, SAITH THE LORD, AND TOUCH NOT THE UNCLEAN THING, AND I WILL RECEIVE YOU.” (II Cor.6:17)
Either the scriptures mean absolutely nothing at all or else they mean everything related to our salvation. At Corinth we see the people demanding the right to divide among themselves according to their personal preferences. People today still have what I have always termed as “Preacher Religion” for that is where they blindly follow some person who makes claims to have direct words from JESUS HIMSELF. That kind of belief is termed as “Sectarianism” and we find Paul denied that right to the Church of Corinth. Paul’s answer to this was, “Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?”
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