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Taking Up the Cross? What Does that Really Mean? Cross Objects?

Drag a wooden cross around?

Did anyone in the New Testament canon do such? Not one.

This message in no way insinuates that these men who carry wooden crosses are not saved but rather it seems to show biblical proof that they are misled.

“And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. 24 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.” Luke 9:23-24

“Luke 9:23-27
R. Invitation to Take Up the Cross (9:23-27)
9:23 Having outlined His own future, the Lord invited the disciples to follow Him. This would mean denying themselves and taking up their cross. To deny self means willingly to renounce any so-called right to plan or choose, and to recognize His lordship in every area of life. To take up the cross means to deliberately choose the kind of life He lived. This involves:

—The opposition of loved ones.
—The reproach of the world.
—Forsaking family and house and lands and the comforts of this life.
—Complete dependence on God.
—Obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
—Proclamation of an unpopular message.
—A pathway of loneliness.
—Organized attacks from established religious leaders.
—Suffering for righteousness’ sake.
—Slander and shame.
—Pouring out one’s life for others.
—Death to self and to the world.

But it also involves laying hold of life that is life indeed! It means finding at last the reason for our existence. And it means eternal reward. We instinctively recoil from a life of cross-bearing. Our minds are reluctant to believe that this could be God’s will for us. Yet the words of Christ ‘If anyone desires to come after Me” mean that nobody is excused and nobody is excepted.’ Believer’s Bible Commentary

Not one person, not one eternal soul has ever nor ever will be saved as a result of someone dragging around a wooden cross.

Jesus commanded His people to “Go ye into all the world and PREACH the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15), and not drag around a wooden cross. The preached Gospel is “the power of God unto salvation” (Romans 1:16).

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.”

What Never Comes Back Void?

“So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” Isaiah 55:11

“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” 1 Peter 1:23

People are saved, born again by the WORD being preached. God then convicts them via the preached incorruptible seed of His Word which never returns void but always accomplishes that for which He sends it…. and He sends it via the preaching of His Word, not a physical object being dragged around.

Saving faith, the faith to be saved comes by the WORD, not seeing someone carrying a wooden beam.

“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:17

The preached Gospel, the Gospel, when it is preached, is “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.”

More on How Saving Faith Comes

NO one is going to get saved because of you carrying a wooden cross around or wearing one on your tee shirt or around your neck. No, people repent and believe on Christ unto eternal life when “the MESSAGE of the cross” is preached to them (1 Corinthians 1:18)! Saving faith doesn’t come by people witnessing some guy toting a wooden cross around but rather saving “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).

To repent, believe and be saved, people must have the Word of God planted in their hearts and as they choose to turn to the LORD by faith, He will save them (Acts 20:21).

“For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:18

“For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” 1 Corinthians 1:21

God is not proud or pleased with you for doing something HE never asked you to do.

“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. 7 Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.” Proverbs 3:5-7

Putting GOD first instead of self is absolutely essential to victory in Christ.

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33

You live by truth, which is by faith born out of divine truth – and not by how you feel.

“For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. ” Colossians 3:3

This day you declare that you have sentenced yourself to death that Christ might live and reign in and through the life He gave you.

“But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:” 2 Corinthians 1:9

By which means are men born again?

“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” 1 Peter 1:23

Such activities as wearing a cross around ones neck or toting a physical cross around town are misguided at best and a waste. Jesus only carried His wooden cross to go die on the altar of that cross for the sins of the world (John 19:16-18). He alone could have borne the sins of the world and such He did on that cross in order to take away the sins of the world (John 1:29; Isaiah 52:13-53:12). Christ told no one to go make and drag a cross around. The apostles nor early church practiced no such thing.

This all makes us wonder what the motives are of those who do such today.

Some might say “But brother the wooden cross represents, symbolizes how Christ died for us.” True and yet, do we have even one instruction to carry around a cross to make Jesus known? No. Do we have even one example of the apostles of Jesus or the earliest followers doing such? No.

“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Proverbs 14:12

Human reasoning or rightly obeying?

“And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.” 1 Samuel 15:22-23

Saved by Grace Through Faith

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9

And that saving faith comes from the hearing God’s Word (Romans 10:17).

“The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.” Psalms 19:7 

“Preach the word.” 2 Timothy 4:2

How did Philipp lead the Ethiopian eunuch to Jesus?

“26 And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. 

27  And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, 

28  Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet. 

29  Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. 

30  And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? 

31  And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. 

32  The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: 

33  In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth. 

34  And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man? 

35  Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. 

36  And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? 

37  And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 

38  And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. 

39  And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.” Acts 8:26-39

WHEN Jesus commanded us to deny self, take up the cross, and follow Him…. what did He really mean by that?

“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” Matthew 16:24-25

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Abiding

Antichrist or Christ? [podcast]


Recorded at a fellowship in Colorado.

Who is truly reigning in my heart?

“But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.” Luke 19:27 

Am I an antichrist?

Are there professing Christians who have “the spirit of antichrist” reigning in their hearts, their personal lives?

“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; 4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4

Sitting upon the throne in the heart of this temple would make me an antichrist.

Anti as in antichrist means in place of: It’s the “spirit of antichrist” working through Satan’s false ministers that robs the glory from Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 11:12-15; Colossians 1:18; 2:8-10, 18-19; 1 John 4:1-3, etc.).

anti – a. Against, opposed to. b. Before, predating. c. Usurping, in place of.

“Deceived people have no idea that they have been deceived, so they fight those who attempt to direct them back to the truth of the gospel.” Jim Borge

Those not excited for Jesus to return simply love this fleeting world and are not ready to meet the KING! Jesus is coming

We know when “that spirit of antichrist” is working through a rebel when he speaks contrary to God’s Word (John 8:47; 1 John 4:3). “That spirit of antichrist”anti (in place of) Christ is anything that contradicts what God’s Word says, working to subvert divinely stated truth while posing as Christ’s minister (2 Corinthians 11:12-15).

“That spirit of antichrist” is witnessed in the human agents, possessed by devils who make it all about something, anything but Christ. The emphasis is taken away from Jesus Christ (Colossians 2:18-19). They make it about the church, Zionism/Israel, a nation, a genealogical people, a mere pastor, a man or men, an organization, a creed, a fraternal order, etc. This becomes clearer as the word “antichrist” is broken down. Anti means in place of.

Read Colossians 1 and 2 each morning this week.

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 2  Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3  And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. 4  Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” 1 John 4:1-4 

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Apostasy

How Has Women Leaving Their Homes Hurt Culture?

by The Transformed Wife, Lori Alexander

Many women despise my teachings on women being keepers at home. They will often give me names of all the great and powerful women who left their homes and did good things in order to back up their defense that women don’t need to be keepers at home. They will tell me that I am shaming women for teaching these things. They confuse shaming with conviction. God’s Word convicts them. If they feel shame, they are really feeling conviction. If they are doing what they know is right, no one would be able to shame them.

How has women leaving their homes hurt culture? It has hurt culture in many, many ways. Children are no longer being raised by their own mothers. They are being raised by daycare workers and teachers. “The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame” (Proverbs 29:15). Children need a lot of teaching, training, and discipline. They aren’t receiving this if their mothers are away from them most of the day. These mothers are giving their best to others instead of to their children. These children are bringing shame to their mothers as they grow up. We are told this in God’s Word. All of the people we see rioting and burning down buildings were most likely not raised by a mother full time.

Women leaving their homes have hurt marriage. Women now initiate divorce 70 percent of the time since they no longer need to depend upon their husbands but can instead take half of what he owns and have them pay child support for many years. They are often too tired to put much time or energy into their marriages due to their careers. Marriage and raising children is FAR more important than having a career. There is nothing more important than raising the next generation, and children need a mother and father under the same roof and involved in their lives.

Women leaving their homes has hurt the old people. Old people no longer have their daughters around to help and give them comfort because their daughters are pursuing their careers. Young mothers hurt because they no longer have their mothers help because they have careers and they don’t have any older women involved in their lives due to careers. Neighbors don’t have people they can call on when they need help when all of the women are working away from their homes.

Women are more depressed and suicidal than ever before. They can’t expect anything different when they leave the clear path that God has chosen for them to pursue their own paths. God is our Creator and He is good. His ways for us are good. Women have been affected negatively since leaving their homes. Children have been abandoned and have been hurt the most. When the least among us is hurt the most, then we must carefully examine the path that we are on and switch course.

God-fearing women, I encourage you to go back to the paths that the Lord has laid out for you. If you think you can’t afford it, step out in faith in Almighty God. He tells us that His commands are not burdensome and that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. He wants you home full time. This is where He has given you to work and minister. Your work at home is not worthless! God will use you in powerful ways as you obey Him. He will bless you abundantly and the older you get, the more you will realize this.

Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein. Jeremiah 6:16


GOD’S STATED WILL FOR YOUNG WOMEN – AND THE ULTIMATE WAY TO LIVE FULFILLED

“I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.” 1 Timothy 5:14

— marry
— bear children
— guide the house

The Role of the Woman – to bring new life into the world, to raise the next generation. Could there be a more noble calling?

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Articles

Was Jesus the “One and Only Son” OR the “Only Begotten Son”? [podcast]


Why was the virgin birth of Jesus Christ an absolute necessity, essential?

WHAT does the Bible word “begotten” mean to salvation? Everything! Remove it and there is no salvation and God lied!

AND you still don’t think the changes made by satan’s agents in the new fake “bible” versions doesn’t change essential doctrine? You better think again.

What are the 2 central, essential reasons Jesus had to be born of a virgin – “begotten of the Father” in the womb of a virgin? (John 1:14)

  1. Because the Messiah had to be sinless in order to be the perfect sin offering to expiate the sins of fallen men (Hebrews 7:26; 1 John 2:22, etc.).
  2. In fulfillment of Messianic prophecy (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23).

“Begotten of the Father” is the only way the virgin birth could occur and the only way Jesus could be sinless (John 1:14).

One writer notes:

“The woman cannot transmit the sin nature to her offspring. The male DNA chromosome is the carrier of Sin that passes it down. Jesus could not be born to an earthly father.

Jesus had to partake (participate) in our plight (Heb 2:14) for us to participate in His resurrection, ascension and session. He was willing to take our sin condition in exchange for His victorious righteousness and glory. He came down to earth and even went under the earth to rescue us to the top of heaven. Eph 2:6.

Jesus demonstrated that it would never be by military might, control, threat, coercion, violence or killing that He would deliver us but only by becoming a helpless little embryo in the woman’s womb then a weak little baby lying in a filthy manger between the ass of ignorance and the ox of self-will. And then a carpenter.

The weakness of God is stronger than man. In the divine economy, power is perfected in weakness.”

John 3:16 compared:

King James Bible

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

NIV

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

NLT

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

To say Jesus Christ was “the one and only Son” of God contradicts Holy Scripture

Unlike the new “bibles”, the King James Bible uses “only BEGOTTEN Son” as is correctly translated from the Majority Manuscripts.

Jesus Christ is unique in all history in that He alone had a divine Father. He was begotten (generated) of Father God in the womb of a virgin. This miracle has never nor ever will happen again. a virgin conceived and bore the “only begotten son of God.”

From now on, when you hear someone quote that Jesus is “the one and only Son,” you will know they are quoting from one of the many fake news “bibles.”

In John 3:16, the Devil’s new “bibles” say “his one and only son” instead of the “only begotten Son” which is essential to the plan of God, the Messiah, the church, and the people of this world for whom Jesus died. Make no mistake: This is a frontal attack on our LORD and Savior by His arch enemy. First off, Jesus was not the “one and only son.” That is a contradiction. How could Jesus possibly be “the one and only son” when the Bible says – “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God…” (1 John 3:1)?

This is a robbing of the glory of God which is the work of none other than Satan himself. If Jesus weren’t the “only BEGOTTEN SON” then He wasn’t born of a virgin and isn’t the Messiah. Biblical truth 101 ! The Bible says that we, His people, are “the sons of God … Beloved, now are we the sons of God.” (1 John 3:1-2)

Webster’s 1828 Dictionary:

BEGOT’, BEGOT’TEN, Procreated; generated.

After Adam, only one human being in History was procreated, generated by the heavenly Father. Jesus. ALL other men, women, had an earthly father whose blood was contaminated by sin (Romans 5:12, etc.).

Hundreds of years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, God’s prophet Isaiah foretold that the Messiah would be born of a “virgin.”

“Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14

Jesus Christ, if not “the only begotten of the Father”, is not the Messiah and is a fraud. There could be no more essential doctrine to the Christian faith.

If Jesus is not God He’s not the Messiah. Jesus says: “if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.” (John 8:24 )

Isaiah told us that the Messiah would be born of a virgin, “begotten,” and the “mighty God” and “Immanuel”, “GOD with us.” (Isaiah 7:14; 9:6-7; Matthew 1:21-23)

What are the 2 central reasons Jesus had to be born of a virgin – “begotten of the Father” in the womb of a virgin? (See John 1:14.)

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” John 1:14

Only by being both deity and humanity could Jesus Christ bridge the sin-caused chasm that divided the two parties after the first man sinned (John 1:14; 1 Timothy 3:16).

“No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” John 1:18

The “spirit of antichrist” denies that Jesus came in the flesh which means He was born of a virgin, begotten of the Father, and therefore divine.

“Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” 1 John 4:2-3 

Holy Scripture informs us that “God was manifest in the flesh” and that was only possible by way of the divine Father God who begot Him in the womb of a virgin. “Immanuel” means God with us (Matthew 1:21-23; 1 Timothy 3:16 etc.).

There cannot possibly be a perfect sacrifice without a virgin birth executed by divine operation.

One writer notes:

“The DNA/chromosomes of the Sin Nature (“Sin” Rom 5:12) I believe can only be passed down thru the male.  The woman cannot pass it down.  Therefore the woman could be impregnated by the Holy Spirit and the child, Jesus, did not receive from Mary a sin nature or flesh.  He was 100 % human but without a sin nature.  God with sinless skin on.  He maintained this state of sinless perfection all his life and had no sin nature until He drank and absorbed the cup of Sin right before He died.  He was “made sin” in order that we might get rid of sin and become the righteousness of God having received the life of God in this very real exchange that happens at the cross.  2 Cor 5:21.”

Jesus’ blood had of necessity to be sinless, and it was. This is exactly why He had to be begotten, generated by God the Father in the womb of a virgin – one who never knew a man:

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” Leviticus 17:11 

“And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.” Hebrews 9:22

“The Blood”

“The Blood”

“The Blood”

“it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” (Leviticus 17:11) Say that out loud beloved of God.

Jesus Christ is God

Anyone who doesn’t believe that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, begotten of the heavenly Father, and is divine, is a Christ-denying unbeliever and not saved.

Saints, let us return to the King James Bible and burn the enemy’s counterfeits. Check this out. Watch how the real Bible uses the phrase “the sons of God” referring to the people of God, the born again disciples of Jesus:
 
“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the SONS OF GOD, even to them that believe on his name:” John 1:12
 
“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the SONS OF GOD.” Romans 8:14
 
“For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the SONS OF GOD.” Romans 8:19
 
“And because YE ARE SONS, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” Galatians 4:6
 

“That ye may be blameless and harmless, the SONS OF GOD, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;” Philippians 2:15

The Only Begotten Son of God [podcast] | Fake News Bible Versions Exposed

God knew that wicked men, posing as His representatives, would appear throughout history to change His Word, as if it were a living, malable document. Not. This is why He told us He never changes and that His Word is “settled in heaven” and will never change by way of Him (Psalms 89:34; 119:89; Malachi 3:6; Mark 13:31, etc.). The LORD who “changeth not” specifically attached highest price tag, most severe punishment, to anyone who dare add to or take away from His words (Revelation 22:18-19). Satan himself is the one who influences wicked me to change God’s Word – “Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word.” (Mark 4:15). This description is not limited to and yet definitely applies to the “bibles” which are peddled by seminarian salesmen as being “easier to understand” and yet, these vile deceivers never mention how the content, the text of Scripture has been butchered.

For the above mentioned biblical reasons, we know of a certainty, that any person who participates in or justifies the changing of God’s Word, is of the devil (Proverbs 30:5-6; John 8:47, etc.). Beware.

Personally, I cannot endorse what are clearly Satan’s cheap subsitutes and counterfeits of God’s Word and therefore cannot recommend and definitely discourage any and all believers, not matter the maturity level, to read the King James Bible.

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