John 16:12-15 Amplified Bible
12 “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear [to hear] them now. 13 But when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth [full and complete truth]. For He will not speak on His own initiative, but He will speak whatever He hears [from the Father—the message regarding the Son], and He will disclose to you what is to come [in the future]. 14 He will glorify and honor Me, because He (the Holy Spirit) will take from what is Mine and will disclose it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine. Because of this I said that He [the Spirit] will take from what is Mine and will reveal it to you.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Can we bear to hear what the Spirit of Truth is saying?
12 “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear [to hear] them now.
Can you handle the truth?
Can I handle the truth?
Can the Body of Christ, the Church, Christ’s Church 2024, handle the truth?
Your doctor tells you, after an MRI scan, that there are spots on your lungs.
The Cardiologist tells you that your Widow Making Artery is 99% blocked.
You receive an Email from your Corporate CEO that says Your company must soon file for bankruptcy after you have given them 45 years of loyal service.
Your teenage or your young-adult new graduate must live with you because the job market has flat-lined – after you just received notice of your job collapsing.
Let’s be honest, the truth can sometimes slam us in the gut with the might of Hercules and send our lives reeling into places we never would ever imagine.
We have to admit that the truth is hard to handle without help.
But Jesus helps by providing a helper, the Spirit of truth.
Jesus was preparing to leave his disciples and return to his Father, and his disciples were afraid.
They imagined themselves spending much time with Jesus, learning about his kingdom and having many fruitful years with Jesus finding their places in it.
The truth they could not handle was that Jesus had to leave them. Their lives had to transition from the God they could see to the God who would be in them.
But Jesus gave them truth they could handle.
The Spirit of God would remind them of the truth of Jesus as the only Savior whom they—and we—will ever need.
The Spirit takes us by the hand and helps us to live into the words and actions of the Father and the Son.
Do we have the spiritual capacity, spiritual maturity to handle that truth 2024?
Has the Spirit of Truth been speaking to you this past week, month, year?
Am I, are you, is the Body of Christ, the Church, Christ’s Church, taking his counsel to heart? Letting the Spirit lead you, guide you every step of the way?
Is Our Heart Broken or Strengthened By the Truth?
John 14:1-6 Amplified Bible
Jesus Comforts His Disciples
14 “Do not let your heart be troubled (afraid, cowardly). Believe [confidently] in God and trust in Him, [have faith, hold on to it, rely on it, keep going and] believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you, because I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and I will take you to Myself, so that where I am you may be also. 4 And [to the place] where I am going, you know the way.” 5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going; so how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “[a]I am the [only] Way [to God] and the [real] Truth and the [real] Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
Through the Twentieth Century, church membership in America stayed at roughly 70% of adults.
In the last two-and-a-half decades, church membership has declined from 69% down to 48% today.
This shocking schism, this people leaving Protestant denominations, has a direct correlation with politics issues: LGTBQI, morally right or morally wrong; sin or not a sin, ordination of gay clergy, same sex weddings, parental control, parents have a say in what schools teach versus educators making all of the decisions; authority, national versus state control of rights; family formation, live together versus marriage; the right to life, pro-choice versus anti-abortion.
Rather than settle these disagreements (by Philippians 2:1-4) the Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist and Lutheran denominations have chosen to divide their churches. Many are the laity and pastors that ask, “What to do next?”
Last night, I read a stark quote from one Reformation leader, Martin Luther, “The sin underneath all our sins is to trust the lie of the serpent that we cannot trust the love and grace of Christ and must take matters into our own hands.”
Luther was writing about the Roman Catholic Church losing its way.
Do we Protestants have a similar problem today?
Is the schism because some Protestants have trusted in “the lie of the serpent” and taken “matters into our own hands” (Isaiah 53)?
Is the schism about what the scriptures say versus what some want them to say?
To answer these questions, I looked at the denomination with which I have spent my last couple of decades, the United Methodist Church.
In 1786, John Wesley, the foremost leader in the Methodist movement, said,
“I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. However, I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this undoubtedly will be the case unless they hold fast both [to] the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out.”
In my well or ill considered (depending on whose theology you ask) opinion, John Wesley’s fear is now real; we have abandoned “the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out.” We are guilty of defection, apostasy.
John and Charles Wesley, both clergy in the Church of England, started a movement within that church based on the idea being a real Christian rather than a nominal Christian required more than attending church on Sunday.
Real Christianity required “simple living, ministering to the poor, the infirmed and the incarcerated.”
After much thought, after much prayer and study of the truth revealed through the Scriptures, after much conversation with my wife, a ‘fired’ local Pastor in the United Methodist Church, it pains us greatly to accept that our beloved United Methodist Church has moved much too far away from the Methodist movement started by the Wesley brothers and their Holy Club.
Reverend John Wesley’s Stance: Scripture is the primary source and standard for Christian doctrine.
Wesley said, “If you need no book but the Bible, you are got above St. Paul.”
We have gotten above St. Paul.
I am now going to address briefly some of the questions leading to this schism.
There are several articles posted online by some in the United Methodist Church saying that Paul’s words from Galatians 3:26-28 make LGBTQI lifestyles okay.
Galatians 3:26-28Amplified Bible
26 For you [who are born-again have been reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, sanctified and] are all children of God [set apart for His purpose with full rights and privileges] through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ [into a spiritual union with the Christ, the Anointed] have clothed yourselves with Christ [that is, you have taken on His characteristics and values]. 28 There is [now no distinction in regard to salvation] neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you [who believe] are all one in Christ Jesus [no one can claim a spiritual superiority].
My findings:
In that scripture Paul writes, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Scholars have long disputed to what extent the verse actually means to negate all those differences between Jews and Greeks, women and men, and so forth.
However, there is near unanimous agreement that this scripture certainly means that all people who believe have the opportunity to become Christians.
Just Leave it all to God?” Does Galatians 3:26-28 also make LGBTQI “okay?”
Some pertinent illustrations counter this absurdity:
A man engaged in adulterer confesses Christ and joins a church. Is the church to say, if feels good to know that the church says to keep on committing adultery?
A gossiper confesses Christ and joins a church. Is the church to say, you do not have to give up your gossiping, after all, it is amusingly, certainly entertaining.
A person practices one of the LGBTQ lifestyles confesses Christ and joins a church. Is the church to say, continue in that lifestyle?
Thomas a’ Kempis summed up our current dilemma 600 years ago,
“Many people, although they often hear the Gospel, feel little desire to follow it, because they lack the spirit of Christ.”
Look at what the scriptures say about LGBTQ for yourself.
Here is one example:
Drag queens, Deuteronomy 22:5, “A woman shall not wear a man’s apparel, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment, for whoever does such things is abhorrent to the LORD your God.”
Also, look the following up: Leviticus 18:22, Leviticus 20:13, Deuteronomy 23:1, Romans 1:26-27, I Corinthians 6:18-19, I Corinthians 7:2, I Timothy 8:9-11 and Jude 1:7-8. I Corinthians 6:9-12 addresses the very seriousness of not regarding these texts:
“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”
The Bible is clear, Matthew 16:24,
“Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.’”
I am not citing LGBTQI activities because they are different from other sins, no worse no better, but because these are culturally trendy in our time. Do not feel high and mighty because you do not committee these particular sins.
Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
Paul makes this hardcore in your face statement of truth knowing that Jesus gave every sinner a goal, “Go and sin no more”.
After we have accepted Christ, Baptized into the faith, one of our goals is to stop sinning. We, sinner all, are to do our best to grow in sanctification.
Acts 26:17-18 records what Christ told Paul,
“I will rescue you from your people and from the gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.”
God calls us to be sanctified and open the eyes of others that they may be turned from darkness to light.
Are We “too busy being too rigid” in our Orthodoxy?
Matthew 23:1-12 Amplified Bible
Phariseeism Exposed
23 Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples, 2 saying: “The scribes and Pharisees have seated themselves in Moses’ chair [of authority as teachers of the Law]; 3 so practice and observe everything they tell you, but do not do as they do; for they preach [things], but do not practice them. 4 The scribes and Pharisees tie up [a]heavy loads [that are hard to bear] and place them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves will not lift a finger [to make them lighter]. 5 They do all their deeds to be seen by men; for they make their [b]phylacteries (tefillin) wide [to make them more conspicuous] and make their [c]tassels long. 6 They love the place of distinction and honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues [those on the platform near the scrolls of the Law, facing the congregation], 7 and to be greeted [with respect] in the market places and public forums, and to have people call them Rabbi. 8 But do not be called Rabbi (Teacher); for One is your Teacher, and you are all [equally] brothers. 9 Do not call anyone on earth [who guides you spiritually] your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. 10 Do not let yourselves be called leaders or teachers; for One is your Leader (Teacher), the Christ. 11 But the greatest among you will be your servant. 12 Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be raised to honor.
Are we so “heaven bound that we are no earthly good” to our Good Shepherd?
Are we too rigidly legalistically “earthly good that we aren’t heavenly bound?”
That we too soon forget the truth of these words spoken by our Good Shepherd?
John 10:11-18 amplified
11 [a]I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd [b]lays down His [own] life for the sheep. 12 But the hired man [who merely serves for wages], who is neither the shepherd nor the owner of the sheep, when he sees the wolf coming, deserts the flock and runs away; and the wolf snatches the sheep and scatters them. 13 The man runs because he is a hired hand [who serves only for wages] and is not concerned about the [safety of the] sheep. 14 I am the Good Shepherd, and I know [without any doubt those who are] My own and My own know Me [and have a deep, personal relationship with Me]— 15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father—and I lay down My [very own] life [sacrificing it] for the benefit of the sheep. 16 I have [c]other sheep [beside these] that are not of this fold. I must bring those also, and they will listen to My voice and pay attention to My call, and they will become [d]one flock with one Shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My [own] life so that I may take it back. 18 No one takes it away from Me, but I lay it down voluntarily. I am authorized and have power to lay it down and to give it up, and I am authorized and have power to take it back. This command I have received from My Father.”
Looking carefully, studiously at verse 16 I have [a]other sheep [beside these] that are not of this fold. I must bring those also, and they will listen to My voice and pay attention to My call, and they will become [b]one flock with one Shepherd.
Who exactly did Jesus have so deeply, futuristically, weighing on in mind?
In 2024 and beyond, Who exactly do we think and/or believe are all of those;
“other sheep that are not of this fold, whom he MUST bring, who will then listen to his voice and pay attention to his call and become one flock with one Shepherd?”
Do we too easily forget that Jesus entered the taboo vigorously hated Samaria to talk to the woman at the well about the severe gravity of her sins and invited her
JOHN 4:7-14 AMPLIFIED
The Samaritan Woman
7 Then a woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink”— 8 For His disciples had gone off into the city to buy food— 9 The Samaritan woman asked Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me, a [a]Samaritan woman, for a drink?” (For Jews have nothing to do with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew [about] God’s gift [of eternal life], and who it is who says, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him [instead], and He would have given you living water (eternal life).” 11 She said to Him, “Sir, [b]You have nothing to draw with [no bucket and rope] and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? 12 Are You greater than our father [c]Jacob, who gave us the well, and who used to drink from it himself, and his sons and his cattle also?” 13 Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. 14 But whoever drinks the water that I give him will never be thirsty again. But the water that I give him will become in him a spring of water [satisfying his thirst for God] welling up [continually flowing, bubbling within him] to eternal life.”
That when she acknowledged this as truth, that she was known by Jesus even in the depths of the long taboo region of Samaria, she went and told others of Him.
john 4:19-26 amplified
19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I see that You are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place where one ought to worship is in Jerusalem [at the temple].” 21 Jesus replied, “Woman, believe Me, a time is coming [when God’s kingdom comes] when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You [Samaritans] do not know what you worship; we [Jews] do know what we worship, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But a time is coming and is already here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit [from the heart, the inner self] and in truth; for the Father seeks such people to be His worshipers. 24 God is spirit [the Source of life, yet invisible to mankind], and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ—the Anointed); when that One comes, He will tell us everything [we need to know].” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you, am He (the Messiah).”
The taboo Samaritans already knew that “Messiah is coming, He who is called the Christ-the Anointed, was coming, who would tell them everything they needed to know” but the message of that truth would not be coming from the Jews because it was strictly taboo, strictly forbidden, strictly “all hands off.”
Not caring one inch about was is strictly taboo, strictly forbidden, strictly “all hands off,” Jesus entered beyond that border straight into “no man’s land!”
And Jesus calmly said to her:
26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you, am He (the Messiah).”
If as the Body of Christ are covenanted by God, revealed through the indelible authority of His Holy Scriptures alone, to imitate, to be Imitators of Christ;
1 corinthians 4:14-17 Amplified
14 I do not write these things to shame you, but to warn and advise you as my beloved children. 15 For even if you were to have ten thousand teachers [to guide you] in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers [who led you to Christ and assumed responsibility for you], for I became your father in Christ Jesus through the good news [of salvation]. 16 So I urge you, be imitators of me [just as a child imitates his father]. 17 For this reason I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my way of life in Christ [my conduct and my precepts for godly living], just as I teach everywhere in every church.
1 Corinthians 11:1-3 amplified
Christian Order
11 Imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.
2 I praise and appreciate you because you remember me in everything and you firmly hold to the [a]traditions [the substance of my instructions], just as I have passed them on to you. 3 But I want you to understand that Christ is the head (authority over) of every man, and man is the head of woman, and God is the head of Christ.
Should there exist any place which is taboo, forbidden, untouchable, hands off, to mission and ministry as commanded by Jesus Himself (Matthew 28:16-20?)
You, Me, Church: Confronted by the Spirit of Truth
Matthew 16:13-15 Amplified Bible
Peter’s Confession of Christ
13 Now when Jesus went into the [a]region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they answered, “Some say John the Baptist; others, Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah, or [just] one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Considering what has just happened within the United Methodist Church, with disaffiliation, the truth of what has happened with the Methodist Church of the Ivory Coast, birth and beginning of the coming together of the Global Methodist Church denomination, the unquestioned complexities and divisiveness of those issues which has vigorously brought us to a point in the history of the Church,
We, who are the current manifestation of the Body of Christ, the Church, of whom Jesus Christ is the only head and the only single absolute authority,
For the sake of all those generations of “Great Clouds of Witnesses” yet to be;
Hebrews 12:1-8 Amplified Bible
Jesus, the Example
12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of [a]witnesses [who by faith have testified to the truth of God’s absolute faithfulness], stripping off every unnecessary weight and the sin which so easily and cleverly entangles us, let us run with endurance and active persistence the race that is set before us, 2 [looking away from all that will distract us and] focusing our eyes on Jesus, who is the Author and Perfecter of faith [the first incentive for our belief and the One who brings our faith to maturity], who for the joy [of accomplishing the goal] set before Him endured the cross, [b]disregarding the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God [revealing His deity, His authority, and the completion of His work].
3 Just consider and meditate on Him who endured from sinners such bitter hostility against Himself [consider it all in comparison with your trials], so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
A Father’s Discipline
4 You have not yet struggled to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; 5 and you have [c]forgotten the divine word of encouragement which is addressed to you as sons,
“My son, do not make light of the discipline of the Lord,
And do not lose heart and give up when you are corrected by Him;
6
For the Lord disciplines and corrects those whom He loves,
And He punishes every son whom He receives and welcomes [to His heart].”
7 You must submit to [correction for the purpose of] discipline; God is dealing with you as with sons; for [d]what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 Now if you are exempt from correction and without discipline, in which all [of God’s children] share, then you are illegitimate children and not sons [at all].
As believers, as the Body of Christ, the church, looking and considering and studying and praying the Word of God, at the forbidden borders of Samaria,
Regardless of personal Ideologies and Theologies, alongside, standing with the disciples on the hill top or the mountain top, looking at Jesus, listening to Jesus, ‘hearing’ Jesus looking down and into the [a]region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
Are we able to truthfully answer the question of “Who do we say Jesus is?”
Whether a “faked, foolish, fraudulent, fabrication of our culture?” (Psalm 14)
Whether “John the Baptist (with and without his head attached)?”
Whether “Jeremiah or some other Prophet, free, or imprisoned in a cistern?”
Or as Peter so courageously confessed at the prompting of the Holy Spirit,
Matthew 16:16-17 Amplified Bible
16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed), the Son of the living God.” 17 Then Jesus answered him, “Blessed [happy, spiritually secure, favored by God] are you, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood (mortal man) did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
Then, regardless of our Ideologies and Theologies accept the responsibility, under the authority of God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, accountability;
Matthew 16:18-19 Amplified Bible
18 And I say to you that you are [a]Peter, and on this [b]rock I will build My church; and the [c]gates of Hades (death) will not overpower it [by preventing the resurrection of the Christ]. 19 I will give you the keys (authority) of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind [forbid, declare to be improper and unlawful] on earth [d]will have [already] been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose [permit, declare lawful] on earth [e]will have [already] been loosed in heaven.”
Without regard for our personal Ideologies and Theologies, without completely melting down, or at the will of God, surrendering unto God, then melting down, handle the weight, the burden of what truth is revealed by the Spirit of Truth?
Without regard for our personal Ideologies and Theologies, can we Koinonia?
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 51 New American Standard Bible 1995
A Contrite Sinner’s Prayer for Pardon.
For the choir director. A Psalm of David, when [a]Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
51 Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness;
According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity
And cleanse me from my sin.
3 For [b]I know my transgressions,
And my sin is ever before me.
4 Against You, You only, I have sinned
And done what is evil in Your sight,
So that You [c]are justified [d]when You speak
And [e]blameless when You judge.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
And in sin my mother conceived me.
6 Behold, You desire truth in the [f]innermost being,
And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.
7 [g]Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
[h]Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 [i]Make me to hear joy and gladness,
Let the bones which You have broken rejoice.
9 Hide Your face from my sins
And blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create [j]in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew [k]a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from Your presence
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation
And sustain me with a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
And sinners will [l]be converted to You.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation;
Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness.
15 O Lord, [m]open my lips,
That my mouth may declare Your praise.
16 For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it;
You are not pleased with burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
18 By Your favor do good to Zion;
[n]Build the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then You will delight in [o]righteous sacrifices,
In burnt offering and whole burnt offering;
Then [p]young bulls will be offered on Your altar.
Psalm 139:23-24New American Standard Bible 1995
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me and know my anxious thoughts;
24 And see if there be any [a]hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 