Firstly, the Holy Spirit will guide our actions in each circumstance, it is clear that there is no one correct answer. But even if we are lead away to shake the dust off our feet; there is no reason to stop praying for God to be the shepherd in the life of the lost sheep. Actually this is likely to be more effectual than any amount of discourse anyway, for we know that faith even as a mustard seed will move mountains.
I am lead by the Spirit of God in me and by his Word, if I follow a pastor I may be deceived. I firmly believe that divergences in what different churches teach come via a spirit of dissension from the enemy. There is only one Holy Spirit just as there is only one true Church, if two members of the same body disagree one or both must not be right with God, this is clear. This is why we must first seek God in all that we do and say, for only wickedness comes from the heart of a man who is not of Christ. We must in all humility seek not that which will glorify us, not that which will puff us up, not that which will set us above those around us; but that which God reveals to us, for he has prepared those deep things for us which ear has not heard nor eye seen.
It has historically and recently rather successfully, been a mission of lucifer to impersonate God,(Lk4:7) do we think our greatest enemies in this modern world call themselves satanists? Or even atheists or other religious titles? No, our greatest enemies call themselves Christians! We spend too much of our time fighting against people who openly curse our God and spend too little time fighting against people who secretly curse our God. Do we not have faith that God can open our eyes and show us who the wolves in sheep's clothing truly are?
They are our greatest enemy for they create so many millions of false converts that it is difficult to number and these poor sheep, once indoctrinated, are often harder to convince of the true gospel than unbelievers! They 'buy a ticket' to a better life here on earth because that's all they ever went to church for, and when a born again Christian tries to witness to them, of course they don't want to listen!
What a travesty the body of the Most High God of Israel has become! Leaders puffing themselves up and proclaiming how the Grace of God can do such wondrous things in the lives of his children, whilst all but removing the paramount message of repentance! Well, how are they going to increase their flock (and line their pockets) if they offend their sin loving congregations?(Jn:19) Many Pastors continue to use the God given gifts of the Holy Spirit to prophesy, interpret and praise the Almighty on a Sunday morning, but commit all manner of debauchery on a Friday and Saturday night, why not let grace abound? God forbid, that's why!
Oh they're not ignorant of whom they truly serve, they run and chase after the lusts of the flesh, making the Lamb of God, who saved them all that time ago a liar, all the while nailing him again and again to the cross; doing satans bidding and suckering countless numbers of Gods little children into joining them in hell. And what do the true saints do in retaliation? Stay in the church and pretend it's not happening, or else leave the church and try to find a 'better' one!
Our battle is in the spirit my Brethren, or have we forgotten, let us intercede and petition that the Lord loose his terrible anger upon those who pervert his gifts of Grace!(Ps 66:3) We can no longer sit on the sidelines and pretend it's enough to work out our own salvation. Do we not think Jesus is able to help us on our own journey toward the promised land whilst we intercede on his brides behalf? We ought to know that we not only store up treasures in heaven when we help our fellow members in Christ, but we also release more grace for ourselves in doing so. Or do we not realise that the more we do Gods will on earth, the more he will do for us?(Ps 126:5)
Take up your God given Shield and Bucklers oh peculiar generation,(1Pe 2:9) hold on to the sword of truth and wrestle with the principalities and powers which take his glorious church hostage; never forgetting that when the last trump has sounded and we have been gathered together, our Lord will ask of us quite simply...what works have we done as branches of his vine, in his stead, in this fallen world.
May the Lord God Almighty have mercy on his children and vengence on his enemies.
Is Thanksgiving Pagan?... Should You Celebrate Thanksgiving Day?
Posted : 21 Oct, 2015 06:08 PM
Very interesting article, thank you so much for sharing Ella
I especially liked the quote from John Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts, I think it deserves another showing:applause:
"We must delight in each other; make others� conditions our own; rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, as members of the same body. So shall we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. The Lord will be our God, and delight to dwell among us, as His own people, and will command a blessing upon us in all our ways, so that we shall see much more of His wisdom, power, goodness and truth, than formerly we have been acquainted with.
We shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies; when He shall make us a praise and glory that men shall say of succeeding plantations, "may the Lord make it like that of New England." For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill.
The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world. We shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God, and all professors for God's sake. We shall shame the faces of many of God's worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us till we be consumed out of the good land whither we are going."
Actually you'll notice that there's a little bit more here.
I found the original sermon here http://www.hisglory.us/DOCUMENTS/a_model_of_christian_charity.htm
Haven't had a chance to read it yet, but I will do, if it's half as good as this extract it's well worth it!
May we all thank the Lord daily for all of the blessings he's bestowed upon us!
The colours Red, Scarlet and Crimson are mentioned in all manner of circumstances throughout the Bible, and even in many cases in a positive light, as in sometimes to describe finery.
But I feel that when they are used in a positive way, it is very clearly in a worldly context, and when negatively it is used in a spiritual context.
Ge 25:25
And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.
Why mention he was red all over at all?
Ge 25:30-34
And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom. And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.
So we can see that Esau, being covered all over with red hair; sold his birthright, his inheritence, his right to Gods promises to Abraham - for (red) soup. Again, why are we told that it was red soup?
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Ge 38:29,30
And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold, his brother came out: and she said, How hast thou broken forth? this breach be upon thee: therefore his name was called Pharez. And afterward came out his brother, that had the scarlet thread upon his hand: and his name was called Zarah.
I find it interesting that Christ descended from the son of Judah whom the midwife had not put the scarlet thread upon, why mention the colour of the thread anyway? (Mt 1:3)
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Ex 14:21
And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.
The Red Sea, probably the biggest physical barrier between Israel and the Promised Land was parted by God.
God makes mention of delivering Israel from out of Egypt a number of times throughout the OT but it is noticeable the amount of times he specifically mentions how he brought Israel past the obstacle that was the Red Sea, I counted ten.
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Nu 19:2
This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke:
Chapter 19 in Numbers describes Gods instructions for the preparation of 'water of separation' otherwise translated as 'water of purification' (NKJV), 'water of cleansing' (HBFV, NIV), 'water to remove impurity' (NASB).
So a red heifer is entirely burnt up, including its excrement and its blood, outside the camp in order to create a 'cleansing water' from its ashes.
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Ps 75:8
For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and he poureth out of the same: but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them.
Gods Wrath is likened by the author to red wine, all the wicked shall drink of it down to its dregs.
One may say that the wine is just a metaphor and any drink could have been used, Interesting he didn't use milk (as in the land of milk and honey) which is of course white!
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Isaiah 1:18
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
Hardly needs any interpretation, but essentially; Christ will make our sins, though scarlet, as white as snow. And though red like crimson, he will make as wool, which is usually white.
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Matthew 27:28
And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe.
They robed Jesus in scarlet to mock him, because this was considered finery. But clearly this was the point where it seemed he was defeated, it was just before he was to take Gods wrath upon himself. Scarlet should not only be seen here with merely worldly eyes, as a royal colour, but also with spiritual discernment, as the colour of wickedness and of Gods wrath. Has Jesus ever worn any other colour but white?
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Revelation 6:4
And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.
Revelation 12:3
And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
Here the wrath of God and satan are described as red. Neither of which I want to be involved with!
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Revelation 17:3,4
So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
Revelation 18:12
The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,
Revelation 18:16
And saying, Alas, alas that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!
Clearly scarlet is important!
There is a reason why Christians historically have been wary of the colour red, we should not let go of this wariness!
I'm not saying there should be no red in church or on our bodies, but really, we should sense in our spirit if it is being used for spiritual purposes and not just merely for decoration.
We know there will be false teachers in the end days, and many would agree with me that we are in the end days. For a moment, play devils advocate, if you were against God and wanted to lead his children astray, what colour would you have more of in your church?
Firstly I don't think that God will judge soldiers who sincerely believe that what their country is doing is in line with his will.
But I do concur with the OP. With regards to most countries, Gods will is not being done, certainly NATO countries (chief among them US/UK etc). These have a largely satanic/NWO/Illuminati influence and only God can save us!
Some may view this as simplistic at best (paranoid at worst), and I'm certainly not going to get into a big discussion about it here. In any case now that I'm born again I take the battle on in prayer as in Ep 6:11-18, so believe me, I am not against armed forces, for protection. But not world economic conquest, puppet regimes, sanctioned assassinations of world leaders, politically expedient arms deals to terrorist regimes and false flag attacks; what we have had for decades or centuries.
So God bless our troops who are being led like sheep to the slaughter, but I pray their eyes are opened and that our Lord rescue us from this mess soon!
I am trying not to get drawn into either side of the discussion, as I agree with many others on this thread, we cannot know for sure yet.
However, though one interpretation of that scripture is metaphorically about Jesus, one should always first read any scripture literally and meditate on whether there can be any meaningful interpretation in this sense.
In any case, I certainly have before heard interpretations of these passages to be a return to the original state of paradise, as well as a metaphor for the marriage supper.
