Showing posts with label Church. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 2, 2025

JESUS' Teachings That Most Churches Depart From

If there's anything Jesus zeroed in, it's radical lowliness. Not the religious lowliness that is pretended in church to attract people to membership or to stay in the membership. This lowliness is fake and masks the real rottenness within which surfaces mostly in money matters---especially if you give away church money to the poor just like that witout ROI (which Jesus taught in his Beatitudes). Or, if you try to touch their personal money, like borrowing it from them.

Photo by john ko on Unsplash.

Jesus Christ emphasizes radical generosity, selflessness, and unconditional love. However, the modern church teachings often seem to diverge from these principles, prioritizing material wealth, institutional growth, and self-preservation over selfless giving. Central to Jesus’ message is the command to give up our possessions and care for the poor. In passages such as Luke 18:22, Jesus tells the rich young ruler to sell all he has, give to the poor, and follow Him. Yet, many churches today hoard wealth in the form of vast properties, luxurious facilities, and impressive programs, seemingly neglecting Christ's call to radical generosity.

Jesus also taught us to give to anyone who asks and to lend without expecting repayment (Luke 6:30-35). This reflects God's boundless mercy and grace—giving freely, even when it is undeserved. Yet, contemporary Christian practices often favor calculated generosity, extended only to those who can reciprocate or prove their "worthiness." This selective compassion contrasts with the unconditional love that Christ modeled and commands His followers to embody.

True believers are called to live out the two greatest commandments: to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves (Mark 12:30-31). This love is not theoretical or limited to rituals and sermons—it is active, practical, and selfless (it's not "sacrificial" where you lose something and gain nothing. It's "selfless" because this giving kills the ego but rewards your soul).

It means intentionally obeying Jesus' teachings, even when it challenges our comfort or societal norms. Radical living, as exemplified by the early church in the Book of Acts, involved selling possessions and distributing to anyone in need (Acts 2:44-45). This model of communal generosity and selflessness demonstrated the essence of Christian love and faith in action.

Denominations that accumulate immense wealth and invest in opulent buildings may inadvertently stray from Jesus’ example. Such resources could instead be directed toward alleviating poverty, aiding the needy, and embodying the kingdom of God on Earth. The church must evaluate whether its actions and value system align with Christ’s teachings or reflect worldly priorities.

In a world riddled with inequality, intentional obedience to Jesus’ radical call to generosity is crucial. Returning to His teachings means relinquishing attachment to material possessions, giving selflessly to anyone in need, and living a life that demonstrates love for God and neighbors in tangible ways. The true church reflects Christ’s heart—a heart that always gives and never holds back.

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Studying and meditating Jesus give us deep insights on potentials, life, family, success and failures, all tied up to our relationship with Jesus Christ.

SURRENDERING TO JESUS

Ask forgiveness and repent of your sins. Believe God's forgiveness. It is promised in the bible. Receive Jesus Christ into your heart as your sole Savior and Lord. Then be assured of heaven, not because of anything you have or do (not your good deeds or religion or church), but because of God's grace and mercy through what Jesus Christ did on the cross.

In Jesus alone is salvation. Jesus is:

‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ 12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other Name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” [Acts 4]

Surrender to Him by intently studying the bible daily (ask guidance from the Holy Spirit) and applying in life everything you learn. And then pray that God lead you to the right person who'd disciple you, one who is totally surrendered to Jesus and living His Word in the bible.

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Turning to Another Gospel

There's another gospel. As early as Paul's time, "another gospel" was suspected to exist and hit hard on the Galatian church. It looked authentic that even if the church started right in the Holy Spirit, it was now abandoning being entirely Spirit-led and comfortably settled with being entirely led by the flesh. And they really thought they were doing right and dealing with Jesus' Gospel.

Photo by Mikołaj on Unsplash.

They probably even felt so spiritual because they were working so hard in the ministry with all their efforts. That's characteristic of being flesh-led---everything is by man's effort, design, smartness, programs, strategies and direction, all done "for God's glory." Man's effort is legitimized by that phrase, "for God's glory." But Jesus had it so differently. He said his ministry was all the Father's effort in him, not his own.

Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. [John 14.10]

Once you get out of that pattern and do things your own smart way, you follow "another gospel," which was exactly what the Galatians were guilty of. Man's effort in ministry looks glamorous and probably the reason why the Galatians were "bewitched" by it and threw anything genuinely of the Holy Spirit out the window because they saw how man's effort gave them quicker results that highlighted their geniuses. Like how the modern church today mocks the supernatural of the Holy Spirit as superstition and subscribes to what looks systematic, scientific nd respectable.

I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: [Galatians 3.3]

So Removed

Paul said the Galatians were "so soon removed." The word "removed" here is a big word. They removed themselves from anything of the Spirit of God, and didn't know it because they were bewitched, or as NLT puts it, "cast an evil spell on." Abandoning the Jesus Way and turning to another way or gospel is demonic, it has to do with the occult. And that's what God calls it---abandoning or deserting. Metatithesthe is the Greek which means among other things, not simply changing sides but perverting.

What the Other Gospel Does to Us

1. Throw us into confusion [1.7]. Probably why we have a lot of denominations with different doctrines that say some portions of Scripture do not apply to us anymore---or some of God's Word are already obsolete today 😂. Nope, God's Word is always fresh, like his steadfast love and mercy that never cease but are new each morning.

They reason that even with our different denominational doctrines we're all united in our basic faith in Jesus, and that's all that matters. But Jesus is the WORD of GOD, and that tells us we cannot just agree on some things in God's Word and disagree on the rest. Is Christ divided? I follow this portion while you follow another portion? I follow Paul, you follow Silas?

2. Pervert the Gospel [1.7]. Try to teach people about Jesus honestly using the bible (without denominational presuppositions or presumptions) and you'd see how "believers" find the real Jesus strange, odd, extreme, even cultic. Why? Because the modern church has been preaching "another Jesus," a tame one. They also don't understand how it is to be genuinely Spirit-led but just rely on how their church or pastor interprets God's Word for them according to the theology or hermeneutics of man. That's a clear perversion of Scriptures, giving undue preference to what man can give instead of total reliance on the Holy Spirit.

17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood (by man), but by my Father in heaven." [Matthew 16]

Teachers in church should be genuinely led by the Holy Spirit, relying solely on how HE gives supernatural understanding, not on things learned from endless seminars on how to do things.

3. Under a curse [1.8]. What we often understand by "under a curse" is suffering poverty or financial insufficiency. Why? Because of the church's money-value system, that anything not translating into church income is useless. If what we do does not grow church membership, it's nothing because church membership translates into income and income grows churches. So we think poor believers or churches are "under a curse."

But Paul gave the Galatians a good idea of what it is. It has all to do with being bound to people's approval and to pride. That's the curse from turning to another gospel. Thus, his opening statement was an emphasis on being called by God, not man.

Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father.

Then he added.

10 Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

11 I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. 12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

If you're a man pleaser, that's among worst curses to be punished with. The scary thing is that pleasing people makes you likely to fall into the hands of false believers who want you to remain a slave to the world. No wonder a lot of pastors today are hostage to the whims, fancies and impulses of their church boards or the church itself. They obey the will of the board even if it thwarts God's will because they fear losing their jobs.

This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. 5 We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. [Galatians 2.4]

SURRENDERING TO JESUS

In Jesus alone is salvation. Jesus is:

"‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ 12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other Name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” [Acts 4]

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Monday, March 6, 2023

Even Now the Reaper Draws a Wage

The context is Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman about eternal life at Jacob's well. In short, it's evangelism. He said the reaper draws or gets his "wage" or pay or reward. The reaper is the one guiding the unsaved to finally and actually receive eternal life by surrendering fully to Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Photo by Brienne Hong on Unsplash.

When you reap or harvest a soul, you're given a "salary," as it were, by heaven. From the same passage, we see how this is something spiritual when Jesus said "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work," [John 4.34]. Obviously, he was talking of spiritual food, not physical. From that, we also safely deduce that the "wage" (pay or salary) that harvesters get is something spiritual. It's not a salary in the form of fiat money.

What's the "wage" for?

It's connected to what Jesus said about storing up treasures in heaven, particularly about the "purses" (plural) he said we need for storing treasures. The word "purses" suggests storing small amounts which we later transfer to our heavenly account [Philippians 4.17] where we amass Kingdom wealth. The small amounts are the wages given us each time we harvest souls or obey other instructions in the Word.

Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. [Luke 12.33-34]

Not that I desire your gifts; what I desire is that more be credited to your account. [Philippians 4.17]

In the Philippian passage above, Paul was referring to church giving and financial support, clearly showing that our obedience gets "credited" to our "account." There is an account in heaven where "credits" from our spiritual investments here get deposited (and, I believe earns residual interests as people we disciple also disciple others or plant churches). In fact, Paul said the Holy Spirit is the initial deposit guaranteeing our inheritance.

What's the Kingdom wealth or treasure for? It's for furnishing our mansion in heaven. Jesus said he will prepare a place for us in his Father's place (or "house") where there are many mansions. As he "prepares" our mansion, he uses the treasure we have accumulated in our heavenly account for the materials and furnishings. The more treasures you store, the grander your mansion will be. This is why some will be called great in the Kingdom, some will be called least. There will be a hierarchy in heaven, a citizenship status in the New Jerusalem and on the New Earth, and we need to invest spiritually now.

Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. [Matthew 5.19]

The Hard Work

Not many believers and church pastors understand that the hard work is done by the sowers who do not get to reap the harvest themselves. They do the plowing and sowing but seldom get to take part in the spectacular activity of harvesting. The reapers do that glamorous part and enjoy the limelight. They are the ones seen in public with the membership increase, church growth and mega churches. Everyone congratulates them and have them as authoritative speakers on church planting and church growth.

Sad part is when the reapers become myopic, thinking it's all due to their brilliance, programs, strategy and hard work and look down on the sowers because they very seldom get to have a harvest, if any. They often have small churches and stay behind the scenes, their "hard work" almost never recognized. A lot of reapers fail to see that what they thought was their hard work from start to finish is really just a harvest from somebody else's earlier work.

Some unknown, faceless, low-profile individual or church had planted the seed in people's hearts a long time ago and prayed for it. That was reinforced further by others, also unknown and low-profile, who shared testimonies to them or shared a Word from their hearts. This happened a lot more times until these people's hearts had become ripe for the harvest, and then a reaper-church was sent by God to harvest. But most reaper-churches don't see this. All they see is their efforts and achievements and think they alone did the hard work and are therefore greatest in the Kingdom.

Jesus said, it's the sowers that quietly do the hard work in the dimly lit corners, not the harvesters, and he stressed that reapers should realize this, probably foreseeing how some reapers are prone to get all the glory for themselves and belittle the sowers.

"I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.” [John 4.38]

Jesus said, sowers and reapers should realize that they are both part of the one body of Christ. The effort and gains of one is the efforts and gains of the other.

...that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. [John 4.36]

Does the Sower Get Paid, Too?

It's not indicated in the John 4 passage, but we know how GOD is just and fair. If he gives harvesters their wages, he will surely give sowers their wages. This ensures that both of them "may be glad together."

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