When I fully recognized a few years ago, that God was calling me back to my calling of teaching His Word, it was this phrase that He kept putting in to my heart, and I realized it because I kept finding myself in situations, up close and personal, with people that I, in my own flesh, was typically very judgmental of, even to the point of just making sure that I didn’t find myself in contact with them. “Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin. . .”
When the light bulbs came on, I had begun to submit God in my calling, by twice a year, I was teaching a class on King David to the “Jobs for Life” group that had been started in Comanche, and if it was convenient, and fit into my schedule, I might teach one of the other classes during each semester.
This was in the spring of 2014, and later in that year was when I had the opportunity to go to Israel. While my mom and I were there, we saw God move in mighty ways in both of our lives, it was awesome, and it was during the course of that trip that I was presented with a study book that brought all the “I am’s” out in to the light for me, and the fact that we need to be praying God’s Word.
Over the course of the past two years, I have come back to teaching God’s Word weekly. When I started out, I was teaching other people’s lessons on the Bible, but with a growing feeling of God was really calling me out to step out on faith in Him that the Holy Spirit will guide us through what He wants to reveal to us at this time.
Just recently God has tied some of these loose ends of “I am’s” and literally praying His Word over our life situations together with this next verse from Amos. It has been in several of our studies over the past couple months.
Amos 3:3 (KJV) 3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed?
Obviously, the answer to this question is no. The Lord was giving justification for His judgment on His people. He had been faithful to them, but they had been unfaithful to Him. They left Him no choice. He wouldn’t change the direction He was walking. They would have to follow Him. However, they refused to do so.
This applies to more than just our relationship with the Lord. We can’t truly be united with people who aren’t walking the same direction we are in our thoughts, values, and desires. We can love people like that, but something is wrong if we can become one with people who are against everything we are for (2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1).
Andrew Wommack's Living Commentary.
Hosea 4:6 (AMP) 6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you [the priestly nation] have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you that you shall be no priest to Me; seeing you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.
Everything that pertains to life and godliness comes through the knowledge of God (2 Peter 1:3), which comes from God’s Word (2 Peter 1:4). What we don’t know is killing us.
The context of this verse is important. Hosea 4:1-2 describes the lawless actions of the people that brought this destruction.
Andrew Wommack's Living Commentary.
This past week, we had a very dear friend pass on, and as part of the grieving process, I was thinking on 1 Peter 2:24 which says “By His stripes we were healed.” Thinking about the studies that we’ve been doing, “who we are in Him,” “what we are in Him,” “believe, confess, receive,” and I couldn’t help but get a little bit down with, “God, what are we missing?” “Why, does it seem we have so much trouble standing on Your Word?” Our friend was a Christian, and I had been asked to say a little about him at the funeral, and give the family some comforting scriptures. And in thinking of Pablo, and the man that he was, I came up with an analogy of a tool box, and how the Bible is much like a tool box. God filled His Word with tools to make our lives easier and He gave us instructions also in His Word on how to use His tools. But much like a toolbox if we don’t understand what is in it and figure out what it’s for, it will do us no earthly good. So the funeral was over, but I was still thinking on these things and God literally said to me, “go back to creation.” And, so knowing that I have sat under teachers that were teaching about teaching say, the first thing people have to believe is creation. . . I spent a few days, mulling this over, saying well, we talk about Adam all the time, so we are talking about creation. He said, no, creation.
Psalm 11:1-3 (KJV) 1 In the LORD put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? 2 For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart. 3 If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
Those who trust in the Lord don’t need to flee as a bird to the mountain (Psalms 9:10, 56:10; and Isaiah 26:3).
Psalms 11:2
Note on Psalms 11:2
Psalms 10:4 reveals that pride is the motive behind the wicked people’s actions. They are only thinking of themselves and will take advantage of anyone in any way that works to their advantage.
The wicked may bend their bow and make ready their arrows, but so has God (Psalms 7:12-13). God’s bow is bigger and stronger. He will prevail.
The wicked specifically target the upright in heart. It’s not just liberal versus conservative, or right versus left. The bottom line is that it’s wicked versus upright.
Psalms 11:3
Note on Psalms 11:3
The previous verse states that it’s the wicked against the upright. That’s at the core of all social ills. This verse is stating that if the ungodly win this battle, the righteous are in trouble.
So it is today. The bottom line of all social classes is godly against ungodly. It’s a moral battle. And if the society goes with the ungodly, the righteous will suffer.
Andrew Wommack's Living Commentary.
“Love the sinner, hate the sin.” God, Jesus is our savior, what does creation have to do with this? And, I kept chewing on the fact that I have had so many of the people that God has put me in the midst of to minister to, say in my presence, that “Oh, church people are all hypocrites.” Last spring, ML asked for us to pray specifically for our young people because we just really seem to be losing them. And, I thought ok.
So, let’s take a look at “creation,” straight from the Word of God.
Genesis 1:1-31 (KJV) 1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. 6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. 9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. 10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. 11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 13 And the evening and the morning were the third day. 14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: 15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. 16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. 17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. 19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. 20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. 21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. 23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. 24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. 31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
I finished reading the chapter and I have to say, I felt a little like Peter at the campfire, God asked me, do you believe in creation? I said, you know I do Lord. He asked me again, have you always agreed with creation? And, I began to understand, as He called to memory conversations that I had had with people about the possibility of a “day” being thousands or millions of years. . . He also called to memory my childhood, and how I would go outside, and just gleefully wonder over all the things that God created, the grass, the flowers, the trees, the squirrels. . . And then, at how when my earthly father would say something, that it was a yes sir, ok, that was that, that was how it was. I am the youngest of three, the only girl, and a few years younger than the brothers. I don’t think I personally ever had the earthly daddy “burning bush” explanation directly at me, but I’m pretty sure that I witnessed it somewhere along the way. I had a good dad, one that loved us, and wanted only what was best for us. And when he spoke, he left no room for argument. God set up the sanctity of marriage and families to mimic the relationship that we should have with Him.
I still was like ok God, I can and do believe that when You said six days, You meant six days, but I’m not sure why that particular subject is one that we need to argue over. And He said to me, “My people,” which you have personalized to be “your people,” because you have lost a loved one prematurely are not standing on the Word of “You were healed,” because they are failing to stand on the Word of “six days.”
2 Peter 3:3-7 (NLT2) 3 Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. 4 They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.” 5 They deliberately forget that God made the heavens by the word of his command, and he brought the earth out from the water and surrounded it with water. 6 Then he used the water to destroy the ancient world with a mighty flood. 7 And by the same word, the present heavens and earth have been stored up for fire. They are being kept for the day of judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed.
With just a little research on where the thought process of, “well a day may not have been a day,” comes from. We quickly will find that it is coming from man’s belief in evolution. And so, it goes back to the original sin of “fully believing what God truly said, and knowing it.” Remember, that was the same thing that Eve fell for in the garden.
2 Peter 3:8 (NLT2) 8 But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day.
People often reference this verse, when discussing the Genesis 1 day, but there are a couple of things going on here. The point of this verse is, that God IS, He is timeless, the passage all together, is talking about when Jesus comes the second time. In Genesis 1, which is written originally in Hebrew not Aramaic, when it says “day” it means “day.”
We have good Christian people, even pastors and theologians that are writing books used in Christian colleges today, who will say that Genesis chapter one may have actually covered thousands or millions of years. Our children go to school and are taught millions of years, forms of evolution, and big bang theories in the class room, and then they come home and we want them to make good grades in school but we also want them to simply believe that God is God, and He created the world and all that was in it in six days. We wonder why we are losing our young people, and why so many people, both young and old, refer to the churches as “being full of hypocrites.”
As He was talking to me, I was in my home office, which is also a relatively large home library, I started around the shelves to the books that are similar to text books, and pulled two down that had to do with timelines of history. These are books that I have read, and have read to my kids, and have kept available for reference use for my kids. They are similar to encyclopedias. . . The very first part of the books make reference to millions of years, and when man similar to us first came up in history.
I then went to my Bible reference materials and pulled out a Biblical Timeline of History. . .
You see for us to believe Jesus, and all that He did for us on the cross, we also have to believe God the creator, and the creation, and that God’s Word is infallible. The Word became Man and dwelt among us.
Jesus said, “I Am the Way. I Am the Truth. I Am the Life.”
Matthew 12:30 (AMP) 30 He who is not with Me [definitely on My side] is against Me, and he who does not [definitely] gather with Me and for My side scatters.
I want to challenge you today that we all have some “stinkin thinkin” that we have allowed to creep in from the culture and society around us. And it’s not just that Jesus came to fulfill the law, to do away with the curse of the law. He did do that, and grace is free, but in order for us to be able to put on the full armor of God, and to use all the tools that He gave us to fight the battles that we run in to right now, here on this earth, we have to first be standing solidly on the rock, the foundation that He gave to us.
What you believe about your origins impacts so many things such as why there is life and death, why we live in family groups and why there is a need for law and morality.
In order to reach the point where we truly believe that “Jesus healed them all,” and “by His stripes you were healed,” we must believe that the Word of God is infallible. It has to be kept in it’s context, in the context of who it was written to, is under the Old Covenant, or the New Covenant, what was happening during the time frame it was written in. All of that is relevant as we study God’s Word. We must remember that half-truths and lies that sound really good, are what Satan uses from his own toolbox to try to make a way in to steal, kill and destroy the lives of God’s people.
2 Peter 1:3-4 (KJV) 3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: 4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
1 Peter 3:15 (AMP) 15 But in your hearts set Christ apart as holy [and acknowledge Him] as Lord. Always be ready to give a logical defense to anyone who asks you to account for the hope that is in you, but do it courteously and respectfully.
2 Peter 3:17-18 (NLT2) 17 I am warning you ahead of time, dear friends. Be on guard so that you will not be carried away by the errors of these wicked people and lose your own secure footing. 18 Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All glory to him, both now and forever! Amen.
Make sure that you’re standing on solid ground, on a firm foundation, and study Genesis chapters 1-11 again this week. Read them and mull them over, have you let the world and its opinions infiltrate what God actually told to Moses about our beginnings? Have you taken your scissors and tape and glue and put it back together in a way that agrees with the world view, but varies from God’s account? If you have, it’s time to repent of the world opinions and believe God and His Word.
Extra
1 Corinthians 3:11-20 (AMP) 11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is [already] laid, which is Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One). 12 But if anyone builds upon the Foundation, whether it be with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 The work of each [one] will become [plainly, openly] known (shown for what it is); for the day [of Christ] will disclose and declare it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test and critically appraise the character and worth of the work each person has done. 14 If the work which any person has built on this Foundation [any product of his efforts whatever] survives [this test], he will get his reward. 15 But if any person's work is burned up [under the test], he will suffer the loss [of it all, losing his reward], though he himself will be saved, but only as [one who has passed] through fire. 16 Do you not discern and understand that you [the whole church at Corinth] are God's temple (His sanctuary), and that God's Spirit has His permanent dwelling in you [to be at home in you, collectively as a church and also individually]? 17 If anyone does hurt to God's temple or corrupts it [with false doctrines] or destroys it, God will do hurt to him and bring him to the corruption of death and destroy him. For the temple of God is holy (sacred to Him) and that [temple] you [the believing church and its individual believers] are. 18 Let no person deceive himself. If anyone among you supposes that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool [let him discard his worldly discernment and recognize himself as dull, stupid, and foolish, without true learning and scholarship], that he may become [really] wise. 19 For this world's wisdom is foolishness (absurdity and stupidity) with God, for it is written, He lays hold of the wise in their [own] craftiness; 20 And again, The Lord knows the thoughts and reasonings of the [humanly] wise and recognizes how futile they are.
“Love the sinner, hate the sin” Love them, don’t agree with them.
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