ADMINISTRATOR’S NOTE:

“STUDY TO SHOW THYSELF APPROVED UNTO GOD, A WORKMAN THAT NEEDETH NOT TO BE ASHAMED, RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH.”

2 Timothy 2:15

We, who profess to live in faith, who profess to believe on the Son of God, Jesus Christ the Lord, Jesus of Nazareth, ought to be able to get to the point where we say, “Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth” (1 Samuel 3:9), but to do so and have God speak to us – so we can understand and receive the light of discernment – we must be right with God, and be willing to accept His will, accept what we hear.

And we hear by searching, reading, meditating upon, and praying upon the pure, inerrant living Word of God.

Permitting God’s Word to enter our hearts and for us to believe in and be led by the Holy Spirit. Without that it amounts to only reading, if it amounts to that at all since so few spend any time with Scripture in our time.

We must learn to follow, accept, believe; increase in wisdom, faith, understanding – discernment. To become mature. To grow.

Sadly, as is my experience at times, I hear and see those following this world and its ways as they profess to be men or women of God. They are not even true disciples let alone able to teach the truth. Today I was at an eatery getting a simple lunch, and at a nearby table I could not help but hear what one man sitting at that table was saying. There were four people at that table, but he was the only one speaking. He dominated everything. And his speech was sewn together by ego, self-praise, and boasting. And this man was a preacher. Bragging about how he was speaking someplace and a visiting minister was praising him and telling him how he had to come and preach at his church, and he continued on talking about the angels touching him and he could feel them and people coming up to him and touching him and being jolted and dropping from the force, and the dancing in the spirit that took place, and the wonderful, charismatic experience they all had, and how wonderful and great he was. Because the people told him so and he kept telling himself so in the thread of his words.

I did not hear a man speaking for God, or even about God,  but for and about himself. I heard a man mentioning more than a handful of things that go against Scripture, yet he, and those he was speaking to were unfazed by these discrepancies, these false teachings. They were instead mesmerized by the man.

It was no different from listening to an actor or entertainer boast about a performance. No different from any other worldly conversation. No mention of God. No mention of Christ. Just self-aggrandizement. Self-praise. Self-worship and boasting about how wonderful a preacher he was, and how the people loved him, and he was in such demand. And how the people wanted to touch him.

This from a modern-day professed Christian minister.

I am no apostle. I am just a man, a follower of God, Christ the Lord, and the Word of God, and I am no expert on all contained within the Word of God – other than it all is the breathed words of God, is all true, and is His will and we can learn and know all there is possible to know according to our measure, if we are right with Him, and if we ask and seek, and if we have complete faith in the Holy Spirit to guide and instruct us – not relying upon our self, or the way the world understands things.

But when I sit eating a chicken sandwich and hear such a conversation only feet away from me?

Is it any wonder the flocks are led astray this day? That in the end there will be many more goats than sheep? And at any given time there is but a remnant of righteous people on this earth?

Where are the disciples? The TRUE disciples when all imagine themselves apostles 0r greater? Or so many allow themselves to be so misled?

Disciples And Apostles

by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

“And when it was day, He called unto Him His disciples: and of them He chose twelve, whom also He named apostles” (Luke 6:13).

Many people fail to distinguish between our Lord’s disciples and His apostles. They suppose they are the same. This is incorrect, however, for our Lord had a multitude of disciples while He had only a few apostles. His apostles were chosen from among His disciples, as we learn from the above message from Luke’s gospel.

A disciple is a follower; an apostle is a “sent one”. A disciple is a learner; an apostle is a teacher. There is a great lesson here for us all to learn.

We must come before we can go. We must follow before we can be sent. We must learn before we canteach. We must listen to the Lord before we can speak for the Lord.

“Thus saith the Lord”, was the familiar phrase with which the Old Testament prophets began their messages. But at the head of the long list of Old Testament prophets we find Samuel, a young lad, saying:“SPEAK LORD, FOR THY SERVANT HEARETH” (I Sam.3:9).

Before we can do or say anything for God, then, we must listen to God. This explains why the reading and study of the Word of God is so important.

First, salvation itself comes by hearing and believing God’s Word, especially about Christ, and His death for our sins. Romans 10:17 says:“Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God”, and I Peter 1:23: “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever”.Then, having been saved, we can serve God acceptably only by diligent study of His Word. Perhaps the most important passage in the Bible on this subject is II Timothy 2:15:

“STUDY TO SHOW THYSELF APPROVED UNTO GOD, A WORKMAN THAT NEEDETH NOT TO BE ASHAMED, RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH.”