General Articles

Hebrews Lesson 54: Conduct as God’s Children Pt. 2 :: By Sean Gooding

Published on: by RR10

Chapter 13: 7-17

7 “Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 9 Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. For it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them. 10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. 11 For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp.

12 Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. 13 Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach. 14 For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come. 15 Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. 16 But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. 17 Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.”

I pray that you are helping and supporting your Pastor. So many of us are tired as we try to serve a lot of people. We worry about failure, and we stress over those that are lukewarm or nominal Christians. We wonder what we can do better; better sermons, more time, more effort, and on and on we go. We live in constant fear of losing our children as they feel like they live in a fishbowl, never allowed to make mistakes and fail like every other kid without fearing that dad will lose his job or be called up to the front to be made a spectacle of. Many pastor’s kids walk away from the faith after they see the way their families are treated by supposed ‘Christians.’ They simply want nothing to do with it. If you have a godly, loving, and servant pastor, then praise God for him and do all to support him.

Over the last decade or so, maybe a bit longer, the idea of ‘progressive Christianity’ has crept into too many of our churches. There is no such thing as progressive Christianity. God’s ways do not change with the times, and He is not swayed by popular trends. We in the Lord’s churches need to be careful not to fall into this false doctrine. There are hundreds of thousands of people in ‘progressive’ churches that have never heard the Gospel in its true ‘naked’ form. They do not understand nor have they been taught about God’s love, even though they talk about love all the time. And they seem entwined in a ‘religion’ that never calls them to change; rather, it validates their sinful lives. So let us explore a bit of what Paul has to say here.

  • Jesus has not changed, verse 8

Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. When God identified His name to Moses in Exodus, he called himself ‘I AM.’ He is the ever-present. There is no turning with God. God never has to be corrected, and He has never and will never make a mistake. From Genesis 3:15, Jesus was coming to the cross. In fact, before the creation, Jesus was coming to the cross.

Jesus is still the only way, the narrow gate, and the only name whereby we must be saved. People still have to repent of their sinfulness, still need to admit they are sinners, and trust only in Jesus. People need to come to grips with just how sinful and far from God they are. People need to understand that they deserve Hell and all its fury, and only Jesus got in the way, and only He offers salvation. God is not tolerant of other religions, and NO, we do not all worship the same God. Jesus is the same all the time.

  • Learn true Doctrine, verse 9

Sadly, too many of us spend way too little time in the Scriptures. We have so many other things that take our focus away, and we find ourselves unable to discern between truths and lies. We chase everything that says Jesus and never stop to see if it is the real Jesus or some fake Jesus that is leading us astray.

There are many ‘professional’ teachers in the churches, and thus too many of us are not forced to study so as to teach a Sunday School class or lead in a discussion. I love our mid-week discussions, and I love hearing the people I pastor talk about encounters with Jesus, and we always seek to align what we feel with what the scriptures say; if not, those feelings need to be challenged.

Islam talks about Jesus, Mormons talk about Jesus, Catholics talk about Jesus, JW talks about Jesus, even Buddhism mentions Jesus, and on and on we can go. Other religions, like Conservative Jews, avoid Jesus altogether, and still others have this Jesus that does not even exist. He is some kind of wishy-washy person that loves everybody and affirms everybody. Hogwash! The Word of Faith’ religion’ led by the likes of TD Jakes, Creflo Dollar, Joel Osteen, and many of their ilk talk about a Jesus that wants you to be rich, and you get there by making them rich. Fundamentally, if they have been on Oprah, they are often not teaching the truth about Jesus.

You and I are to ‘search’ the scriptures (Acts 17:11), and we are to take responsibility for knowing the truth so that when falsehoods come along, we can see them, acknowledge them, and hopefully move out of their way and take our loved one with us.

Too many churches are dependent upon programs to attract people and not just the plain teaching of the Bible. This is not to say these programs are bad, but in the New Testament, Paul often taught into the wee hours of the morning so that, one night, a fellow slept, fell, and died. Paul healed him and kept preaching.

What we are seeing is a clear division between the false and true churches here in real time. Those that embrace the LGBTQ2 agenda and blaspheme Jesus with their doctrines are not of God. They never were, and unless they repent, they won’t ever be in the future either. The real eye-opener is to see how many ‘churches’ have embraced this doctrinal abomination. It saddens me because I realize that Satan has built a lot of counterfeit churches, and true Christians are a hated and maligned minority.

Too many pastors give pep talks and do not really dig into the scriptures to find the doctrines, the foundations of Jesus our Rock. Jesus’ words brought conviction, Stephen’s words in Acts 7 made them want to kill him, and Paul’s words got him thrown in prison. Sadly, too many of us do not speak these doctrinal truths; we are simply made to feel good, never called to repentance, and never challenged to be more like Jesus.

Let me leave you with these words of God found in Micah 6:8.

“He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

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A Lot of Fear :: By John Lysaught

Published on: by RR10

There’s fear all around. It’s like a bad odor lingering about. Been this way for some time now. Even before COVID, there was this sense of impending and crushing fear in the air. Yet, during and then with the aftermath of the lockdowns and all the other prophetic-related events happening, this fear is amplified and grows every day.

Why Do We Fear?

Why do we fear? First, let’s frame this in the context of the fear of the current situation of politics, fearmongering about climate change, and, yes, the continuing and lingering effects of the COVID thing and other potential pandemics that have gripped the world with a daily dread of impending doom.

The main suspect is Satan and the propaganda put out by those under him who control the narrative. The fear swaying people are those emotions attached to their heartstrings. It’s like watching a sad movie scene being amplified by accompanying music pulling emotions out for the sake of the moment.

The topics of morality, life, death, right and wrong, and the greater good are just a few examples of what people are being inundated with each day to cause a reaction of fear. The effect of this fear is to conjure up illicit compliance and control to the government by those who control policy from the top down.

Why? Because the world system wants people to believe the government knows what is best for them, not God. Satan and his world system need complete control of people. The only way they can do this is to convince people to surrender their individual rights and autonomy to man. They do this through fear under the guise of safety, security, and to save the earth, of course.

Unfortunately, the chords being played by those behind the scenes to affect this compliance are mostly successful. The population at large is throwing their individual and collective rights at the feet of those who have convinced them that they need the government to save them from all the bad in the world.

Why are those controlling the world successful?

This is a simple answer. Satan, the great deceiver, the prince of this world, has pulled the blinds over the eyes of the unsuspecting and non-discerning Christians.

The excuse for those not part of the Body of Christ is that they have no knowledge of the Truth of the Word about Christ yet, or through their blatant denial of this Truth. For those who are falling for these schemes of Satan that are believers, the blame goes to both the individual believer’s lack of effort and those in the pulpit not fulfilling their job.

Satan has convinced unbelieving people that the God of the Bible does not exist, and therefore the answer to long life and security is the government. For Christians, Satan has twisted and tweaked the Word of God to deceive them enough to have blatant or lingering doubts about the inerrancy of the Word and the sovereignty of God. This is done through decisively placed propaganda, social programming, and agents of evil placed in churches and other Christian institutions to skew the facts and truths found only in the Word of God.

Why Discerning Christians see through the lies.

Through the chaos and noise happening all around, the voice of the Holy Spirit is speaking to believers all the time about the truth and validity of what the world is saying and doing. The issue is a vast number of Christians do not hear His voice because they are not attuned to His voice.

If you have ever been in a crowded and noisy room with your spouse or your child, when one of them cries or calls your name, you immediately know who it is and what direction they are speaking from. This is because we recognize and are attuned to their voice. This is how Christians need to hear the Holy Spirit in the noise of the world.

If, in that same room, a stranger called your name, you would not notice or react to it because you are unfamiliar with their voice. This is the same with the Holy Spirit if we are not tuned into His voice.

The Holy Spirit is always talking to us and giving us guidance. That voice in your heart that is pulling you to the things and ways of God is always active. The issue is that some are not familiar with His voice, so they do not pay attention or respond. Therefore, when the world system and those pushing the world agenda speak, the voice of the Holy Spirit that gives discernment to recognize the obvious and subtle lies is not heard.

Christians that have and continually grow in discernment clearly hear the Holy Spirit as He guides their minds and hearts to the truth of those things contrary to the ways and things of God. To be attuned to the Holy Spirit comes through knowing, internalizing, and acting upon the Word of God in Christ-like ways.

Through reading, hearing, and studying the Word of God, the foundational principles of our faith are sewn in our hearts and minds. Our maturity in Christ can only grow and move forward by doing this. This, in turn, gives us Christians the power of discernment. With the power of discernment, we can know when the world is trying to scare us into their beliefs and compliance with their ways.

Wrapping it all up.

In the Bible, there are many examples of men trusting in God in moments where fear could be easily experienced. But they didn’t. These men were not more human than any other human. They did not have special powers but had something available to all of those who believe in God. These men, as normal as you and me, had trust in God. They had faith that God would see them through whatever obstacle was in front of them.

In Hebrews 11:27, the author said of Moses, “By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen.” By faith and not fear. You see this? Two principal aspects that are as true today as they were when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt. We do not need to fear!

Fear of mere man is not necessary. In Matthew 10:28, Jesus tells us, commands us, to not fear man but to fear God. Why? Because He says man can only kill the body but not the soul. Another way to look at this is that no matter what a person does to you physically, emotionally, financially, etc., that person cannot take your salvation away.

I know this is easier said than done; we all know this from personal experience. But it takes faith. Even just faith the size of a mustard seed is all we need.

This world can do a lot of bad things to us. Evil people can hurt us, isolate us, turn on us, and deny us anything that is in this world. They cannot take your faith away from you, though! They cannot take Jesus away from you! Why? Because when we put our trust in Jesus, we became sealed in Him by the Holy Spirit.

Knowing this fact, then, when the world tries to scare us to do their will, our stance in Christ gives us the assurance to not fear but to trust in the plan of salvation and eternity God has emplaced through Jesus.

If anything, remember this when you face the world and what it tries to scare you with. Knowing this will make you stand out in the crowd of unbelievers who are stressing and fearing everything going on:

Psalm 118:6, “The LORD is for me; I will not fear; What can man do to me?”

John Lysaught

johnflysaught@gmail.com