Am I Worthy Enough?

       Am I worthy enough to be accepted by Christ and even be a part of His Church? I have done so many bad things in my life, and continue to do these things, that I am not the type of person that Jesus is looking for. How many times have we either heard this or probably even said this about ourselves? Many times, when we are in this position and feel this way, people will tell us "Give it to God", or "He will take care of you", which is absolutely true, but it doesn't really answer your question. Am I worthy enough? The answer is...no. Shocking? Well, if any of us were worthy, Jesus would not have had to die on the cross for each and every one of us. This is why it is said we are saved by the cross. God however, in all His great knowledge, knew that man would still struggle with this concept, so that is why there are so many examples of man committing horrible sins, yet God still tells us all we need to do is repent. "If God truly knows what I have done, He won't forgive me." Please don't ever feel this way, because as we are about to see, some of the greatest people of the Bible did atrocities that we would never even dream of doing, yet they have eternal salvation. One even arrested Christians and had them executed, and he was made an apostle and was the greatest preacher in history. Let me give you some examples.
       We can go back to the very beginning, back to Genesis. Adam and Eve were the first and only people God created, and they were the only ones who were perfect, yet they were deceived by Satan and ate of the tree of knowledge. Because of their sin they were expelled from the Garden of Eden and forced to work for their food, go through the pain of childbirth, and suffer in their lives like the rest of us. Yet God was forgiving to them. He blessed them with many children to start the age of civilization, and they continued to walk with God. Later on, we come to Moses, who we know God loved very much, even speaking to him one on one in many occasions and giving Moses His law to give to the Israelites. Moses however was still a man, and just like all men, decided to do something other than what God commanded. In Numbers chapter 20, the people were crying for water and God tells Moses to speak to a rock and water will flow from it. Moses, with all of his worldly knowledge, hit the rock twice, and water flowed. God was not pleased that Moses decided to do his own thing, and punished Moses with never being able to live or enter the Promised Land (Num. 20:12). Moses did however repent, and because of God's great love for him, He showed Moses the land, and even buried Moses Himself in Deut. 34:6.
       Of course we can read the whole story of David who had many ups and downs with the Lord. He basically committed murder after he committed adultery, had many wives, raised children who were anything but faithful, yet he repented, changed his heart, and became the first king of Israel. And God loved David, so much so Jesus was a direct descendant of the Davidian line. We can also learn much about the Jews in the Old Testament, and how time and time again they went against God, worshipping idols and even other Gods, yet no matter how many times they did this, God allowed them back into His fold. In Jeremiah chapter 3, the northern kingdom of Israel has fallen away and is committing horrible sins against God, which He has promised they would be punished for, but read what verses 12-14 say. He is begging them to come back to Him, repent of their ways, and be one with Him again. Think about that. God is begging men to stop sinning against Him and return. It didn't matter what their sins were, just come back and start anew.
       Then we can look at the New Testament and the amazing story of Paul of Tarsus. Before he became Paul, he was named Saul, and his job was to hunt down Christians and arrest them. Many, if not all of those arrests ended in execution, just like the martyrdom of Stephen. It was Saul who actually convinced the high priests to include women and children in the arrests as well. Yet Christ approached Saul on the road to Damascus, where he was travelling to arrest more people. Saul was blinded by the Spirit, and changed his ways, becoming baptized and preaching the lessons taught by Jesus. When he became baptized, his past sins were completely washed away, and he was born again into Christ, changing his name to Paul, becoming an apostle and spreading the Word like no one else has ever done.
       We are all imperfect and commit sin every day. We are all far from worthy of God and His forgiveness, but He sacrificed His only Son for all of us. Jesus died for our sins, no matter how great or small, each sin is the same and is forgiven, IF we repent in our hearts and try to change our ways. When I say try, that means with the full intention of doing so, but it will take hard work, and we will fail from time to time, like Israel did. Here are a couple of examples of what I'm trying to say. Some ask me if it is possible that a child killer can go to Heaven. Absolutely, if they repent and are baptized, after all, Paul was a killer. What about the alcoholic or drug abuser? Well, baptism does save, but it is not magical, and an addiction will not just disappear when you come up out of the water will it? You will still be addicted, and need to get to help, but God knows this and knows what's in your heart and if you try to quit with all your might, you eventually will, and God will be waiting for you. Christians aren't perfect when we are saved, we were saved because we realized we are broken and need God to help us. According to all that He wrote in the Bible, He cares not what sins you commit, and you will, He just begs you to repent and come back to Him and live in eternity with Him. We are not worthy to have such an amazing and wonderful God, but He has done this for us, so it is the least we can do for Him.

Liars and False Teachers

       The biggest problem facing the Word of God today, are false teachers spreading lies or adding their own beliefs to produce mass followers. These evil men and women will say or do anything to get people to come to their services, watch them on T.V., and give huge amounts of money to put in their own pockets. This is by far not a new phenomena, in fact it dates back to the Old Testament and is prominent in the New. I'll give examples of this and the warnings that our Lord gave us to watch for these "wolves in sheep's clothing", but we are also told the best way to know who these false teachers are, and the lies they tell is by knowing the scriptures and proving the Word of God, and if need be, defend it. 2 Timothy 2:15 tells us to "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." The truth of the Word, scripture, "is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.", (2 Timothy 3:16). God is telling us that anything other than His doctrine is unrighteous, and it is up to us to know the difference.
       In Paul's second letter to his friend and young preacher Timothy, Paul says to him to preach the Word at all times because a time will come when the people will not listen to sound doctrine, but will change the Word to follow after their own lusts, change the truth and follow false teachers (2 Timothy 4:1-4). This occurs in all churches today, just as it did then. Paul knew that God had given us His Word, and all we need to know to be saved and to save others is in the scriptures, proving that if any allow themselves to worship or teach something other than the Word is wrong. We will be lost if we think it is okay to worship God however we want as long as we worship God. If this were true, the Bible would indeed be very short and simply say, believe in God and you'll be fine. So why did God bother to give us so many commandments, examples and inferences on everything from daily living to the way we should worship? Because He knew that man would very shortly begin perverting the Bible and doing what he wanted to make it more pleasing to him.
       In Paul's second letter to Peter, in chapter 2, Paul describes what a false teacher does and why he/she does it. They do it many times for money, and fame. Think of all the T.V. evangelists. What they say might make you feel good, and might inspire you to go out and help people, or pray, or just do something good for someone else, and that's fine, but is it still fine if it took a lie to get you to do it? In 2 Peter, Paul reminds us that the angels who were tricked and followed Satan were chained in darkness and must suffer punishment. If angels were condemned, what makes us think we are safe if someone tricks us? We must know the truth that someone is teaching us. I have heard there are some churches who's ministers tell the congregation that it is impossible to fully understand the Bible, and that it takes a trained person to help you understand. Think about this, that is the most perfect way Satan might be able to trick a Christian, after all, he was able to trick Eve while she was still perfect. Three to four hundred years ago, the Catholic Church told the people they could not even study the Bible without being in the presence of a priest, and this is of course why Martin Luther broke away and struck out on his own. He understood that the Bible could be understood, and this is why God inspired men to write it. After all, what author ever wrote a book that he didn't intend the reader to know what he was talking about?
       So what are these false teachers teaching us that is not true? Well, where could we possibly start? Paul admonishes the Galatians in chapter 3 for following doctrine other than Christ's. He also tells the Corinthians that he thanked God he was not the one who baptized them for they would follow him and look to him as their leader instead of Christ. So basically anything that is not found in scriptures would be false teaching, and must be avoided at all costs. As I said, this happens in all churches and normally is the reason for churches to split and new doctrines created, so the only way to be sure to get it right is to study scripture and know what God is telling us. More and more people are leaving the churches today and becoming less spiritual than ever before because I believe, and this is just my opinion here, that when they attend a "modern" church, deep down they know this is not what God intended or can be happy with. Multi-million dollar buildings, ministers living in million dollar homes, driving luxury cars and then preaching about how humble they are is just plain wrong! Some issues that are falsely taught are what are to do during worship. Yes, the Bible lays out a plan on what we should do during worship, so we could start there and by using scripture, see if you're church is following what God said to do. Don't forget that He was very specific in the Old Testament, and the Jews were often punished for disobeying, and the same is true today. My next post will be about what the Bible says on the pattern of worship and what He expects from each and every one of us.
       We can understand all that is written in the Bible (Romans 16:25-26), and must do as He commands, which really is not as hard as some make it out to be. And that is ALL that we should do, for adding OR taking away is a sin, (Revelation 22:18, Deut. 4:2, Proverbs 30:5-7) and the one who does so, is a liar according to Him (Proverb 30:7). As always, this was written with the hopes that those who read it might change if what they are doing is different than God, for their soul depends on it.