Good teaching!
Context is everything
2 Corinthians 5:20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.
Make sure that the light you think you have is not actually darkness. Luke 11:35
Sold to Christ to Bring Him Glory...I Am Not My Own
κατέχει ο θησαυρός
Yeah, take that you, you, you mayor of Lancaster!
Now, which city of Lancaster is it? Ca, Pa, Tx, Wi, Oh or SC?
On a more sober note, I would point to some verses that seem to linger in my mind while watching the Bezel333 clip:
Mat 5:43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
Mat 5:44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
Mat 5:45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
Mat 5:46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
Mat 5:47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
Mat 5:48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
and
Luk 9:49 John answered, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he does not follow with us.”
Luk 9:50 But Jesus said to him, “Do not stop him, for the one who is not against you is for you.”
Luk 9:51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.
Luk 9:52 And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him.
Luk 9:53 But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem.
Luk 9:54 And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”
Luk 9:55 But he turned and rebuked them.
Luk 9:56 And they went on to another village.
Luk 9:57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
Luk 9:58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
Luk 9:59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”
Luk 9:60 And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
Luk 9:61 Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.”
Luk 9:62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
and these next I say are most apropos
Joh 18:33 So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”
Joh 18:34 Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?”
Joh 18:35 Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?”
Joh 18:36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”
Joh 18:37 Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world–to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”
Joh 18:38 Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him.
Bezel333 makes a fairly good case for finding some guilt in that mayor!
So I say, we tar and feather him and run him out of office on a rail!
I believe we need to start teaching people what Christianity is Michael. Where this idea came from that cities and nations can be Christian, is beyond me. The bible doesn’t teach it.
You know what is frightening Michael, that all these folks who make these type of claims must not have any understanding of what it means to be born again. If they did, they could not believe that having ‘some’ Christians living in a city [or nation] makes it all ‘Christian’.
Hi PJ and all
This a must read.
http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/Psychology/amr/camer.htm
kelli
your article corroborates the Apostle Paul percentages:::>
1Co 1:22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom,
1Co 1:23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,
1Co 1:24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
1Co 1:25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
1Co 1:26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
1Co 1:27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;
1Co 1:28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,
1Co 1:29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
1Co 1:30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
1Co 1:31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
The 17% seems a bit high to me?
But, in any event, Christ died for the ungodly and sinner, the sick and the hopeless, not the well educated and well bred and mighty. Those too, He died for, but, as Jesus said, it is a bit harder for someone with something to give it all up and become a nothing, a child in the eyes of God and become His disciple.
By the way, the child in those days was counted as a necessary pest, a non-contributor of the affairs of men.
It is so today. In America and other more civilized countries, with political correctness. Not so among many poor of the poor third world countries, is a child consider nothing more than a useful opportunity.
We must become nothings, useful opportunties to Christ in and among the civil affairs of men so that Christ becomes everything!
1Ch 16:31 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice, and let them say among the nations, “The LORD reigns!”
In this godless nation these days, the USA, the superbowl seems to king!
Soon enough, the focus will be on Vancouver and the Olympics!
And, then, what after???
Hi Michael
It grieves me that the political system of the world is trying to achieve godly people through a religious system without Our Lord indwelling them, a lie from the deceiver of this world. Satan has already been defeated but there are many who are fighting for this world and its system. Come out of the world system of Babylon.