“Monday’s Life In Him”–Believe Him or Doubt Him?

Happy Monday Everyone! Who wants to join in “Monday's Life In Him”? It’s easy… Just grab this button below & post it somewhere either on your blog post or on your main page. Then… Write a post about HIM (Jesus) Sometimes I just post a verse, sometimes I share a short story or sometimes I write a short study.Either way… Let’s spread His Word and His Love! <a border="0" href="http://wedonthaveitalltogether.blogspot.com/search/label/Life%20In%20%27Him%27" target="_blank"><img src="http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab13/jacquiblogger/danielle/buttonlifeinhim1.jpg" width="125" height="125" /> </a>

^{Here is what I have for today:}

Faith and Wisdom

² My brothers and sisters, when you have many kinds of troubles, you should be full of joy, ³ because you know that these troubles test your faith, and this will give you patience.⁴ Let your patience show itself perfectly in what you do. Then you will be perfect and complete and will have everything you need. ⁵ But if any of you needs wisdom, you should ask God for it. He is generous to everyone and will give you wisdom without criticizing you. ⁶ But when you ask God, you must believe and not doubt. Anyone who doubts is like a wave in the sea, blown up and down by the wind.^7-8 Such doubters are thinking two different things at the same time, and they cannot decide about anything they do. They should not think they will receive anything from the Lord.

So what I am pulling out of this for ME today is faith. Faith and patience. If you’ve read my other blog this morning, you will see why.

So I need to be patient and have faith, that God will take care of us in HIS time. Not mine. (Psst! Hurry up Lord!) <----- Joking.

I believe that He is working in our lives. He is going to get us out of this house and the home He puts us in will be what is best for us. I believe that He will bring me more income (childcare). And I will not doubt. I will stand firm. And hopefully He gives me some peace when it comes to this topic… because I am stressed out to the max!

Sin, Sin, or Sin?

 

Sin. What is sin anyway?

I am not asking for the typical definition of sin… I am speaking of sin in a different way.

When you see a verse like this, what do you think?

• James 4:17 - “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin”
• Matthew  1:21 - “And she shall bring forth a son, and you shall call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins”
• 1 Peter 2:24 - “Christ carried our sins in his body on the cross so we would stop living for sin and start living for what is right”

Now these verses have much deeper meaning than what I am going to bring out, but that’s ok.

SIN, SIN or SIN?

There are 3 words that are so important to understand in our Christian walk:

• SIN- (hamartia in Greek) - this is a noun meaning THE SIN [NATURE] that we are born with because of Adam’s fall. When we get saved, the power of this sin nature is broken & no longer has control of us ONLY IF we have faith in Jesus & what He did on the cross - This is the only way the Holy Spirit can work in our lives… is through this faith.
  • Sin ‘Nature’ – We are born in sin. This is why we need to get saved or born again. Don’t believe me? Put two babies in a crib with only one bottle. See what happens.  This is the sin nature. 
    
• SIN - ( hamartanō) - this is a past tense verb. A past ACTION. This is one single act of sin that happened in the past. This is the kind of sin that a Christian does. Once. Past. “I sinnED yesterday.”  It should be a mistake that does not happen regularly & continously.
  
• “To Do Sin” - The last word is prassō - This is a PRESENTS TENSE VERB - meaning "To habitually practice sin" – that is continually happening.
  • A  sinner habitually sins. A Christian habitually lives for Christ.

Let’s take Galations 5:19-21:

• The wrong things the sinful self does are clear: being sexually unfaithful, not being pure, taking part in sexual sins,²⁰ worshiping gods, doing witchcraft, hating, making trouble, being jealous, being angry, being selfish, making people angry with each other, causing divisions among people,²¹ feeling envy, being drunk, having wild and wasteful parties, and doing other things like these. I warn you now as I warned you before: Those who do these things will not inherit God's kingdom.

"They which DO these things will not inherit the kingdom" – in other words, if we do these things we will not make it into heaven?

No.

This word “do” is prassō – this is the ‘continual, habitual practice’ of a sinner.  A Christian should not be ‘practicing’ any of these sins as a continual habit. Of course Christians are not perfect… so we will mess up & sin. But this should not be a habit. As I said above, a Christian should be habitually living for Jesus.

My point to all of this ‘sin talk’?

Before you go throwing scripture around… know what you are talking about because these words are very important.

If you want to do a study on the Greek or Hebrew scriptures I recommend the  free download called e-Sword. You can download free bibles (many, many translations), dictionaries, concordances, commentaries, and many other historical books like Josephus.

Ghosts!

Satan, Demons, ‘Ghosts’… OhMy!

Let’s talk about the spooky stuff! Why not?

Everyone falls into 3 categories on this topic: 1) Don’t believe at all & probably don’t want to hear about it, 2) Believe it but don’t know much… but have lot’s of their own theories, or 3) Believe it & know the truth. If you are in another category, sorry. I didn’t mean to leave you out.

{This topic is one of my pet peeves. It bothers me that there are so many that don’t know the truth about “ghosts”. People want to believe that these ‘ghosts’ are long lost loved ones that will watch over them like angels. Or they believe that their house is haunted by a ‘nice ghost’… so it’s ok. This drives me NUTS! The bible is very clear: When we take our last breath here on earth, we close our eyes & die & open our eyes in eternity. This is a fact. The bible is also very clear on the fact that once we wake up in eternity (whether heaven or hell) we STAY PUT & do NOT COME BACK for any reason! (Luke 16)  UNDERSTAND THIS PEOPLE!!! Ghosts are NOT dead people that come back to earth for any reason!!!}

Ready? Let’s get started!

The Greek words daimonion and daimon means “evil spirits” or “devils”. These words are used 77 times referring to demon spirits (‘ghosts’). There is also the Greek word diamonizomai which means “to have or be possessed by a demon”

The Greek word diabolos means “Satan” (The Devil), which means adversary, false accuser, slanderer. It is used 34 times regarding Satan.

There is a HUGE difference between these two different things: Satan & demon spirits. There is only one prince of devils but many demons.

Satan in an angel. He has an angelic body & can NOT enter bodily into anyone. Demons are DISembodied spirits & are not able to operate in the material world except through possession of the bodies of men & animals.

Other words used in the bible meaning “demon” (same Greek word, just different translation): familiar spirits, unclean spirits, evil spirits, seducing spirits.

Some general information about demons: They are subject to Christ and made subject to believers by the atonement, the name of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit (Mt. 8:16-17; 12:28; Mk. 16:17; Lk. 10:17; Acts 19:15; 1Pet. 3:22) This means that IN THE NAME OF JESUS demons have to flee. Now don’t misunderstand – YOU MUST BE A CHRISTIAN in order to use the name of Jesus. The demons KNOW if you are saved or not!! {Acts 19:13-16  - ¹³Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, "In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out." ¹⁴Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. ¹⁵(One day) the evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?" ¹⁶Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.} You don’t mess with demons unless you are covered in the blood of Christ because the demons KNOW who belongs to Him!

Here’s the kicker: Demons have been roaming this earth since BEFORE Adam & Eve! Yes, yes… Adam & Eve were NOT the first beings on the face of the earth. Before Adam & Eve there was a whole kingdom here on earth! Lucifer (aka Satan) was created by Christ along with other beings, principalities and powers in heaven and earth (Job 38:4-7; Ez. 28:11-17; Col. 1:15-18) Lucifer fell through pride over his own beauty (Ez. 28:11-17; 1Tim 3:6) and trying to exalt himself above God (Isa. 14:12-14). Anyway… Lucifer had a kingdom on earth long before the 6 days of Gen. (1:3-2:25) and the creation of Adam. These passages reveal that he fell, led an invasion into heaven and was defeated. At that time the earth was cursed and all life destroyed by the first flood, (as in Gen. 1:2… whole other story), NOT Noah’s flood. 

Soooo…. demons were roaming around before Adam & Eve between earth & hell… they know everything that has ever happened here on earth! They have seen every person who has ever lived. They have seen every person die.

Above I mentioned one of the names of demons is “familiar spirit”. This is what we call “ghosts”. We may see a ‘ghost’ that resembles our long lost great-grandpa that died in the attic. This ‘ghost’ looks like great-grandpa…it MUST be great-grandpa! NOT!! This is a “familiar spirit”!! These demons are so devious, they can make themselves look like any person who has ever been on this earth. People fall for this in other ways too. They see this ‘ghost’ that looks like some person who has lived back in the 1800’s or some other far away time period… and they look it up in history & find out this ‘ghost’ was a real person! Yes, demons CAN do this.

What WE need to do… is NOT BE IGNORANT to this! Don’t think these evil things are innocent ‘ghosts’ of dead nice people. The dead nice people are either in heaven or hell… and can NOT come back!!! Regardless if these things are scaring us or not – harming us or not – THESE THINGS ARE DEMON SPIRITS! No matter HOW you want to look at it – THEY ARE EVIL!! You do not want these things around! I think one reason for this is people want to hold on to some kind of hope that their loved one is coming back to visit or something. But this is impossible. It is impossible that our loved one comes back from eternity. This is the Word of God in scripture!

I really want people to understand how powerful the name of Jesus is. Demons know their destiny! In James 2:19 it says the demons know God and TREMBLE! They know that Christ has ALL POWER over them. They know their fate… that at the end of time they will be cast into hell for all eternity!

Demons also know who belongs to Christ. Us believers have the power over demons THROUGH CHRIST! Jesus gave us His permission to use His name to cast out demons, to heal the sick! 

Hollywood (and a lot of regular people) think you need to call in a priest or minister to pray over your haunted house or to do an exorcism… NOT TRUE! Jesus gave us His permission to use His name to do His work!! You just have to be a Christian. A believer. A born again, washed in the blood, child of God!

Luke 9

¹Then He called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases.

²And He sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Are YOU a child of God? A believer? Are YOU washed in His blood?

You have to believe that Jesus is God’s only son who died on the cross for your sins… and He was raised from the dead on the 3rd day. (Romans 10:9)

If you believe this, then talk to God. Tell him you are sorry for your sins & you want to be saved. Tell Him you believe in His Son Jesus, that He died for your sins & you believe He has risen!

After you have done this…

YOU ARE SAVED!

You are a child of God!

You are washed in the blood of Christ!

Life With Him

James 2:19 (New Century Version)


You believe there is one God. Good! But the demons believe that, too, and they tremble with fear.

This is an interesting one. I don’t think anyone can say it’s not. Demons? Come on! The topic on demons in the bible is such an interesting topic! And there is TONS of info on demons (in the bible) It KILLS me to read peoples’ FB status’ or stories about “ghosts” because everyone is sooo curious! Well it’s all answered in the bible. There IS a such thing as the paranormal. There is a perfect explanation to all the spooky stuff that happens. It can be backed up with science along side of the bible. And the answer: DEMONS! Demons have been around longer than Adam & Eve. They have roamed this earth forever. FYI – Adam & Eve were not the first people on this earth. There was a whole race before them. Interesting, huh?



Anyway back to the verse… The demons know God. They know Jesus. They know what is going to happen to them at the end of time. That’s why it says the demons tremble with fear! Funny how the demons know God but so many of us deny Him. This verse basically says this: Soooo many people “claim” they ‘believe’ in God. Big deal! The demons ‘believe’ in God too. That doesn’t mean God is going to spare them at the end. To ‘believe’ in God – is to have a relationship with Him. It would be like me saying, “Hey, do you know that guy that lives down the block at the corner? Yeah, I ‘know’ him” Well kinda the same with God. When you have a relationship with Him, you are considered “His”. You are a “child of God”. Part of His ‘family’. You can claim to ‘know’ God – but it won’t get you into heaven unless you really KNOW Him!

Life With Him

James 4:14 (New Century Version)


"But you do not know what will happen tomorrow! Your life is like a mist. You can see it for a short time, but then it goes away."

This is so true. I have seen so much life end in the past year or two. Life that was taken MUCH TOO SOON. So many died of cancer, accidents, unknown heart problems. Young people that had so many years left in them.

This makes me think of Shannyn. Shannyn is Mike’s daughter who passed when she was 3. She passed back in 2002. She would have been one month older than my daughter Emma. Emma is 11. I can’t imagine having Shannyn right now. I can’t imagine what she would be like. We named Gracie after her. “Gracie Shannyn”

God has a day for us. We don’t know when that day will be. There is nothing written in stone that says we are going to live to be 80 years old. Our day to end our life here & start our life in eternity may be tomorrow. Are we prepared for eternity?