Is your faith based on religious beliefs or on a real relationship with God? Is God just God to you or is He your Heavenly Father – your Abba Daddy? As you read today’s Psalm, does it mean something to you or is it just dry reading? To the true born-again believer, these words are like gold – they are precious and full of meat. The born-again believer reads, studies, gleans and applies God’s Word to his life. Is this true of you, dear catholic?
~Psalm 1:1-6 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. (1) But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. (2) And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. (3) The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. (4) Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. (5) For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish. (6)
Examine your own heart, my friend. Can you sit here truthfully and say that you meditate in God’s Word and you delight in it? Or have you allowed your religious leaders to guide and direct you? How do you know what they teach you is from God’s Word? How can you be certain? Do you double check to make sure?
~Nehemiah 9:34 Neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our fathers, kept thy law, nor hearkened unto thy commandments and thy testimonies, wherewith thou didst testify against them.
How can one be certain that he is being taught the truth? You can’t just “hope” that you are being taught the truth, my friend. You, alone, will be held responsible for your own spiritual condition.
~Proverbs 16:25 There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
What would seem right to a man as it relates to his spiritual condition? I believe that this means that a man’s religion seems right to him but God warns that his religion is the way of death.
What is religion according to God’s Word? The word “religion” is only used five times in the Bible. The number five represents grace in God’s Word. How appropriate it is that God’s grace saves us from religion!
~Acts 26:5 Which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.
~Galatians 1:13 For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it:
~Galatians 1:14 And profited in the Jews’ religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.
~James 1:26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.
~James 1:27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
Wow! Even Paul, being in the strictest sect of Judaism (a Pharisee) considered his religion wrong. Surely the Pharisee fulfilled James 1:26-27! However, something was different in this born-again “religion.”
Do you keep yourself unspotted from the world? How can one possibly do this? In the flesh, one cannot. As an unsaved person, one cannot fulfill James 1:27 because he is dependent upon his own works to do so. For example, as a catholic I fulfilled visiting the fatherless and widows but that did not save me. Why not? Because I also did not keep myself unspotted from the world. I did as the world and then went to confession. These were my own works and they did not bring peace. I was depending on myself, not on Christ’s complete work on the cross!
The Word has all that we need to guide and instruct us, my friend.
~Psalm 119:18 Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.
The born-again believer desires God’s Word so that he may learn and grow spiritually. This desire draws him closer to God.
~James 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
As a catholic, I was desirous to grow close to God. However, the way that I was taught to do so only drove me further from God. What was I doing wrong? I was not cleansing myself through the Word. I was double minded in my religious beliefs. I believed what the catholic church taught me but I never once opened the Bible to find out whether these teachings were of God. God will teach us. God will “spank” us when we are doing wrong. We do not need the penances of the catholic church.
~Psalm 94:12 Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law;
The catholic church has made God’s law void. They want the poor catholic members to rely on the church rather than rely on God’s Word.
~Psalm 119:126 It is time for thee, LORD, to work: for they have made void thy law.
The Bible promises that God’s Words will not go out void, however. That is why I have dedicated my life to this blog so I can reach the dear catholic who has depended on his church to save him.
~Isaiah 55:11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
My friend, God’s Word is never ending. He has not left us to our own devices. He has provided us truth in the Bible. He has provided us instruction in righteousness and truth. Christ, the Word of God, has given Himself for us. He removes all doubt – He removes all debt – He replaces it with eternal life!
~Psalm 119:142 Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.
Turn to the Bible today and read it. Let Christ show you salvation as He intended it to be. God wants to set you apart from the world. He wants you to be different. He wants you to be born-again, not the words spoken when you were baptized as a baby. Born-again is a newness of life – no longer following after the works of darkness. Search the Scriptures whether these things be so, dear catholic!
~John 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
Maranatha - Awaiting Christ's Return 