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Man looks on the outward appearance (this is what the scribes and Pharisees were concerned with), but the Lord looks on the heart (1 Sam. 16:7). Jesus looked on men's hearts. The Old Testament laws concerning washing served a secondary purpose of hygiene, but as stated in Colossians 2:16-17 and Hebrews 9:1,9-10, their real purpose was to shadow or illustrate spiritual truth.
Defiled food may hurt our bodies, but it cannot reach our spirits (Jn. 3:6).
The scribes and Pharisees missed the principle of spiritual purity taught by the Old Testament ordinances and became obsessed with strict adherence to their rituals. While they relentlessly enforced the laws dealing with the physical realm, they had become completely corrupt in the...
PEOPLE HAVE ASKED ME HOW I KNOW THAT JESUS ROSE FROM THE DEAD. I TELL THEM THAT THE BIBLE SAYS HE DID AND I BELIEVE THE BIBLE. ALSO, I KNOW BECAUSE HE IS ALIVE AND FELLOWSHIPS WITH ME. I CAN FEEL HIM WITH ME. I ALSO KNOW BECAUSE HE HAS HEALED ME OF MANY THINGS. I KNOW BY FAITH.
Jesus is stating that our spirit, not our flesh, is where our life comes from. These people were so dominated by their physical lives that they were missing all the spiritual significance of His words. Although God's Word does benefit our physical man, the Word is spiritual and must be understood through the spirit. God's Word is spirit and it takes our spirit to illuminate its truths to our minds.
The Word of God is not paper and ink. Jesus is the Word, and He existed in spiritual form long before any words were inspired to be written down by the Holy Ghost. The Bible is simply a physical representation of Jesus and spiritual truth. It is inspired of God and therefore, totally accurate and reliable, and yet, until we...
This scripture, as well as Matthew 15:12, reveals that people will be offended by the Gospel. As much as possible, however, we should make sure that it is not ourselves that are offensive. But we cannot labor under the deception that everyone will receive the Gospel, even if the truth was presented properly. We know that Jesus represented His Father perfectly and yet most people rejected His message.
In these two instances, when Jesus realized He had offended the listeners, He didn't apologize and try to make concessions to gain their acceptance. Instead, He got harder. This hard message of commitment is not only beneficial to those who receive it, but it serves a dual purpose in that it exposes the "tares among the wheat."
It is important to be...
I WAS JUST THINKING ABOUT WHEN I BECAME BORN-AGAIN AND THOUGHT I WOULD SHARE A COUPLE OF THINGS WITH YOU. I KNOW, NOW, THAT I WOULD HAVE BECOME A CHRISTIAN SOONER THAN I DID IF I HAD KNOWN THEN WHAT I KNOW NOW. I WAS BROUGHT UP IN THE BAPTIST CHURCH SO I KNEW WHO JESUS WAS AND I EVEN BELIEVED WHAT THE BIBLE SAID ABOUT HIM. WHAT I DIDN'T KNOW IS THAT I DIDN'T HAVE TO BE DOWN FRONT OF A CHURCH IN FRONT OF ALL THOSE PEOPLE TO ASK FORGIVENESS AND RECEIVE JESUS AS MY SAVIOR. DOING THAT TERRIFIED ME AND FOR MONTHS I KNEW I WANTED TO BE SAVED BUT WOULD NOT STEP OUT IN THAT ISLE AND GO DOWN FRONT. HEAVEN FORBID THAT I WOULD GET DOWN THERE AND START CRYING. IF I HAD ONLY KNOWN.
Many thought that Jesus was speaking of cannibalism, but He was speaking of the spiritual man. Just as the physical man receives life from the food he eats, so the spiritual man receives life as he partakes of Jesus, the life of men (Jn. 1:4; 10:10; 14:6) or the "Bread of Life." Just as the life of a root is found in the soil, or a branch in the vine, or a fish in the sea, so the believer's true life is found to be in union with Christ.
The Bible presents salvation as a life transforming experience. Change is one of the distinguishing characteristics of a true believer. Yet, failure to understand that this change takes place in the spirit first, and is then reflected in the outward thoughts and actions, proportional to the way we renew our minds, has caused much confusion....
WHEN I WAS PRAYING ABOUT SOMETHING TO WRITE, IT CAME TO MIND THAT EVERYONE HAS THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. OVER THE YEARS I HAVE TRIED TO FIND A WAY TO CONVINCE YOU NON BELIEVERS THAT GOD IS REAL AND THE BIBLE IS HIS HOLY WORD AND ROMANS 1:18-19 TELLS US THIS "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them."
The Old Testament prophets prophesied of a new covenant where we would all be taught of God. This is speaking of revelation knowledge that comes from within, through our spirit. Under the Old Covenant, God dealt with the Jews through the outer man. He did this because an Old Covenant man (who was not born again) could not perceive the spiritual truths revealed in the New Covenant by the Spirit (1 Cor. 2:14). This difference between the old and new covenants is the reason why there had to be two covenants.
The Old Testament man was comparable to a child in his ability to grasp spiritual truth. It is impossible to explain spiritual truth to a young child, and yet, a child must be restrained from...