Blessings

We live in a warped Christian culture, tainted by poor Biblical knowledge, poisoned by Satan's usage of men whom appear to be the best of the best of the best in Christianity!  Only problem?  They are so far being Christian that there is no hope for them - short of God doing a smack down on them.  And there is another problem, lots of Christian flock to them because these men of lies tell them what they want to hear.

2 Timothy 4:3

For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

Do I need to give you examples?  Pick anyone in the Health and Wealth gospel road show, Blab It and Grab It, Positive Confession, Motivational speakers and on and on and on.  There is almost no end to the contortion Satan is willing to raise up men of free tongue and questionable ethics to literally fleece the flock ....

Yes, one of my favorite topics from defunct but still around Thoughts From The Little Apple.  And those posts generated the attacks which brought down Blogger and the Little Apple numerous times!  Yeah, I backed off naming names just to not bring on any more attacks.

But, locally here are people such as Casey Treat, long ago labelled a heretic in the media and books.  Does not seem to matter where you go, they are already there, dishing out their swill and calling it Christianity and their superiority to those "unknowledgable losers".  You know Christians like you and me, willing to wait on God and serve Him, not ourselves.

Turn on the TV and there they are Treat, Copeland, Hickey, Hinn, on and on the list goes, national and local figures are serving up the poison of Satan - placing ourselves before others, going for the outrageous, anything to stay new and relevant as Christians are pushed further and further from Jesus.

You remember, Jesus, the one whom was the willing servant to all men and even died for them.  Broken body, deserted by all, dead.

Think about Paul, Peter, John, Andrew, any of the apostles.  Yeah they were real overcomers as they lived in poverty, served their fellow man to their dying day!  All they overcame was death, through Jesus ......

And all of the Christians of the first and second centuries.  Yeah, lots of healthy, wealthy, knowingly smug Christians fed to the animals ... NOT!  They were the poor, the broken, but Christians will to sacrifice their life as their Jesus had.

No Blessings are none of these things ...

That car that might have hit you and missed - God's hand and blessing?

That money you found just at the right time - God's hand and blessing?

That call or visit when you were down and needing - God's hand and blessing?

That high pressure job loss, just before you heart acts up - God's hand and blessing?

etc ...

Getting the idea here?  God can use material goods, wealth and health - but they are not necessary for or of any value to Him.  In our suffering for Him is found our witness to a lost world. 

You can love your Joel Osteen's and his ilk, just do not rely upon his teachings to lead you to Jesus or to strengthen you in Jesus - those are unpopular concepts with this crowd.

And well, Jesus is the goal, He is the one whom counts in the end and the more you know of Him and are able to emulate Him, the closer you will grown in Him.  And that is only possible in and through study of the Bible.

Got the Book, open it!  If not get a Bible, open it and study ... like your eternal life depends upon it!