Sin, Transgression, & Iniquity...what's the difference?

We are made up of Spirit, Soul, & Body and 1 Thessalonians 5:23 - "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Ephesians 4:23 - Be renewed in the spirit of your mind;

The spirit is the part of man that gives him God consciousness through his mind. The soul is where the Flesh (body) interacts with the Spirit creating desires and emotions.

Exodus 34:7 - keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”

This verse clearly shows there is a difference between, iniquity and transgression, and sin.

Romans 3:23 -  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God.

Sin - Soul
Transgression - Body
Iniquity - Spirit

Isaiah 53 v 5,10 “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: ……thou shall make his soul an offering for sin…”

Let us all continue our journey to having 'GOD CONSCIOUSNESS'.  Choosing to have daily presence with our Lord and Savior, trusting in the Lord  In the midst of a fleshly decision, STOP, and recite this verse:

BUT SEEK FIRST HIS KINGDOM AND RIGHTEOUSNESS AND ALL THESE THINGS WILL BE GIVEN TO YOU AS...
(Matthew 6:33)

Thank you Jesus...for all of us fools...that through YOU and ONLY YOU...you have promised us ETERNAL Life.  By accepting YOU, there is no longer condemnation.  With YOU...a TRUE believer will slowly become SELFLESS...turning away from the world's desire to fulfill our flesh and needs...your peace comes upon our spirit.  We, who believe in You, Lord Jesus, will continue to be hypocritical in the eyes of the world and even with each other...it don't matter what the world thinks...What you think is ALL that matters! 

God is good ....ALL THE TIME....and all the time...GOD IS GOOD!

FREEDOM...

Many, including myself, was privileged to be a part of the Hawaii Pacific District Church of the Nazarenes:  

• ENCOUNTER - PENIEL ( So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared." )
• PRODIGAL SON - REPENTANCE & RESTORATION                        
• THE POWER OF THE CROSS
• THE POWER OF THE RESURRECTION
• SEXUAL PURITY FOR WOMEN
• SEXUAL PURITY FOR MEN
• FORGIVENESS: THE POWER FOR INNER HEALING
• SET FREE
• SANCTIFICATION

GOD'S CHISEL REMASTERED

FROM THE SKIT GUYS

DESCRIPTION

When God chisels the dead weight out of our lives it can be quite painful. In this new high quality, remastered version of their most requested skit, Tommy and Eddie give a very creative look at a typical believer having to go through the process of discipline.

The writer of Ephesians says “For we are God’s workmanship” (Eph. 2:10). Elsewhere we’re described as a “poem.” God views us as being his original masterpiece.

WATCH THEIR VIDEO: http://skitguys.com/videos/item/gods-chisel

Want Freedom...(Pastor R.J. of Living Waters Church said...)

• Be in 'Daily Presence' with the Lord

John 15:4 - Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

• Have Passion (abiding)
• Character (spiritual growth)
• Mission (John 15:7-8 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.)
• Significance (1 Corinthians 15:25  For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.) 
• Greater Things (John 14:12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.)

Steps to becoming entirely sanctified: (by Superintendent Robert Killen)

1. Remove all barriers
2. Request / Ask (Luke 11:13  If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to.)
3. Receive by faith on the basis of Gods commands / promises.
4. Release by faith (1 Thessalonians 4:3   One final word, friends. We ask you—urge is more like it—that you keep on doing what we told you to do to please God, not in a dogged religious plod, but in a living, spirited dance. You know the guidelines we laid out for you from the Master Jesus. God wants you to live a pure life. Keep yourselves from sexual promiscuity.)
   
   
   (Hebrews 13:12 -  And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.)
   
   
   (Acts 1:8 - But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”)
   
   
   
   
   TRUST, OBEDIENCE, BELIEVE, FORGIVE, LOVE, HOPE & ABIDE DAILY! (thanks sista Ruby)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

TASTE AND SEE THE THE LORD IS GOOD...

Pastor Gordon Wong of the Bridge Church taught us that our time with God can be 'SAVORING'.  


Merriam Webster Dictionary defines Savoring: 

1. Taste (good food or drink) and enjoy it completely.
2. Enjoy or appreciate (something pleasant) completely, esp. by dwelling on it.

Pastor Gordon showed the congregation a delicious photo of a salmon appetizer from his family cruise to Alaska.  They were able to savor that dish as well as all the other well prepared food. 

We all make the time to eat our daily meals and surely an overly abundance of snacking, too.  Perhaps, when our appetites desires snacking or drinking, we should choose to grab for the BIBLE and practice SAVORING the word of God.  

 

CHOOSE...

THANK YOU PASTOR GORDON!

THANK YOU JESUS!

BOUNDARIES -VS- BONDAGE

Pastor Gordon Wong of 'The Bridge Church Hawaii' shared a lesson on:

                              "ARE YOU READY FOR FREEDOM?"

Luke 15:11-24 Talks about the 'Prodigal son'. 

Q: What does the word Prodigal mean?
A: Spending money or resources freely and recklessly; wastefully extravagant.

Q: Do we have similar traits as the Prodigal person?

A: Honestly, I read the story and saw the traits of the 'Prodigal person' in other people.  Never connecting that trait to me.  Deception is so sneaky!  As Pastor Gordon spoke, I saw those similar traits of the 'Prodigal person' in me!  YIKES!

As teens or young adults, we simply look forward to the so called, life of 'FREEDOM'.  We can't wait to escape the rules and regulations of our parents, guardians, teachers, coaches, the 10 commandments.   We want to live under our rules and go outside of our foundational boundaries and 'PARTY'!

Sounds like fun? Yeah...right, I'm sure.
 
When we go outside of the Boundaries that the Lord has put around us, then we surely will suffer the consequences.
Consequences are waiting for us. 
Consequences smile upon our intentional wrong choices in life.   

Jeremiah 17:5-8 says,

⁵ Thus says the Lord:

“Cursed is the man who trusts in man
And makes flesh his strength,
Whose heart departs from the Lord.
⁶ For he shall be like a shrub in the desert,
And shall not see when good comes,
But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness,
In a salt land which is not inhabited.

⁷ “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
And whose hope is the Lord.
⁸ For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,
Which spreads out its roots by the river,
And will not fear^[a] when heat comes;
But its leaf will be green,
And will not be anxious in the year of drought,
Nor will cease from yielding fruit.

Remaining connected to God is his desire.  We do not want to be independant from God but be totally dependent on God.  Our God is a God of relationships and we need to desire that relationship with God. 

^{Galatians 3:26-29 - 26} So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, ²⁷ for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹ If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

As we become more responsible, God grows our boundaries. 

ONE FALL....

Relaxing on this beautiful Saturday morning, I watched this movie, 'ONE FALL'.  It mentioned how this fellow James received this supernatural healing powers.  It's a movie that was released in 2011, probably did not make it to the top of the movie popularity charts.  It's a 'quirky' movie, but at the very end I was literally in tears and bawling!  We learned that as believers in Christ, nothing is of a coincidence.  Well, I had to wonder why the tears? I googled, "ONE FALL" & lo and behold:
Ecclesiastes 4:10 -  If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!


Ecclesiastes 4:9 - Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work.  


Ecclesiastes 4:11 - Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? 

We've heard the adage, "Life is a mystery".  Really, life may appear to be a mystery, but trusting in the ways of the Lord makes lifes, 'FAST BALL or CURVES' or circumstances, easier to 'OVERCOME'. 

Daily praying, reading, going to church to learn, and simply making the daily decision to know that every breath we take, every situation we're in that our awesome God, cushions that, "ONE FALL". 

FOR THOSE WHO ARE LED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD ARE THE CHILDREN OF GOD (Roman 8:14)

Gnosis: Having the intellectual knowledge of God's Word

Epignosis: To become thoroughly acquainted with or knowing God's word & truly living and applying it in our lives. 

William James, Harvard's most distinguished professor psychology wrote: If you wish to be learned you will be learned.

What does all the above have to do with the title...read on.

I learned that as followers of Christ and His teachings we believe in the Holy Spirit (The Holy Spirit is the third person in the Trinity. He is fully God. He is eternal, omniscient, omnipresent, has a will, and can speak. He is alive. He is a person. He is not particularly visible in the Bible because His ministry is to bear witness of Jesus (John 15:26).

Regarding the Holy Spirit, believers can be divided into 3 categories:

1. Believer's that understand how to be led by the Holy Spirit & have testimonies and lives that cause many to be saved.
2. Believer's that knows the word of God, but operates out of the emotional realm and who have consequently never learned how to operate our of their spirit man.  This is Gnosis and knowing what God's word says, but not applying God's word.  Therefore, the battle of the mind & emotion is like a roller coaster ride with many ups and downs. 
3. So called Believer's that don't acknowledge any form of divine leadership at all.  They don't believe that anyone can be led by the Holy Spirit and that God has abandoned them.  As far as they are concerned, God exists and they are going to heaven. 

Hosea 4:6 - My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. 

Life Through the Spirit
¹ Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, ² because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.

Remember that Satan has gone through a lot of trouble to keep believers in Christ, confused, using every deception at his disposal to make sure the keeps us walking down the wrong road.  Satan does not want us to reach our potential to be led by the Holy Spirit.  He uses the same tactics over and over again on saints around the world, therefore, believer's in Christ stumble and fall, only to get up and repeat the same mistakes.

Q: How does Satan do this to believer's in Christ?
A: Neutralizing us to indoctrinate us into a program where we look to our emotions or outward circumstances as a basis for God's leadership and direction in our life instead of yeilding to the Holy Spirit's inner witness in our spirit man. 

Q: How can you tell if we've been affected by satan's deceptive ways?
A: If we look to these believers as role models of being led by the Holy Spirit, we easily become confused.  Although they claim to be divinely led, they go through one situation after another, suffering defeat again and again.  The bottom falls out of everything they do as they make bad decision after bad decision. 

Q: Why is the devil so avid in his oppostion to our being led by the Holy Spirit through the inner witness?
A: Just the fact that Satan fights it so hard ought to tell us how powerful and how dangerous to his kingdom this divine leadership can by!

We must continue to crucify our flesh, daily!  Thank you Jesus!

Thank you Pastor Mel & Tim (The Bridge Church Hawaii)

 

Did you know that we become what we idolize? Do you also know that our Lord is greater than all our problems?

^{Psalm 115:2-8}

² Why do the nations say,
   “Where is their God?”
³ Our God is in heaven;
   he does whatever pleases him.
⁴ But their idols are silver and gold,
   made by human hands.
⁵ They have mouths, but cannot speak,
   eyes, but cannot see.
⁶ They have ears, but cannot hear,
   noses, but cannot smell.
⁷ They have hands, but cannot feel,
   feet, but cannot walk,
   nor can they utter a sound with their throats.
⁸ Those who make them will be like them,
   and so will all who trust in them.

PUT GOD FIRST AND HE WILL PRIORATIZE OUR LIFE! 

Most of us are thinking, "Yeah, right...easier said than done". 

Every person on the face of this earth is experiencing adversity - YOU ARE NOT ALONE!

• Relationship problems with our -
• Spouse
• Children / teens / young & old
• Parents
• Friends
• Enemies
• Financial problems
• Health problems
• Career problems
• Bullying problems
• Identity problems
• Anger problems
• Deceptive problems
• Gambling problems
• Addiction to drug problems
• Addiction to alcohol problems
• Addiction to food problems
• Addiction to pornography problems
• Stealing problems
• Unforgiveness problems

PICK ONE OF THE ABOVE - THAT'S YOUR IDOL & THIS IS WHERE YOU ARE CONSTANTLY PUTTING YOUR TIME & THOUGHTS & ENERGY INTO.  

YOU HAVE BECOME EVERYTHING AFFILIATED WITH THAT PROBLEM! OMG!

THE SOLUTION & YOUR CHOICE: READY

BUT SEEK FIRST HIS KINGDOM AND RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND ALL THESE THINGS WILL BE GIVEN TO YOU AS 

Matthew 6:33