“…there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” 1Tim.2:5
There is ONE mediator between God and man, and it is not the pastor or that authoritarian, domineering, loudmouthed, oppressive, hateful, lying, hypocrite self-appointed Christian cult leader who tries to lord it over you.
Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. Acts 3:6
Silver and gold have I none, but what I have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk free from what hurts, deceives, confuses, cripples, binds and hinders you: that 501c3 Government controlled State Church. You are now free to follow Jesus Christ!
You are now free in Christ! You are released from bondage and lies! Be healed in the name of Jesus Christ!
You are now the temple of the Lord!
You are healed: rise up and walk on out of that Babylon Church!
Walking leaping and praising God! Jumping with joy!
(Please see video in comments.)
Jesus never told us to lift up the cross symbol. He said HE would be lifted up. Who lifted up the cross symbol? Constantine, the one who established the formal, official Church-State System Christianity. Constantine saw the symbol in a satanic vision in the sky, when a demon told him, “With this sign, conquer!”
For centuries since Constantine, many Christians lift up various cross symbols, symbols not of Christ, but of the conquering System Christianity that is a kingdom of this world.
Cross symbol
Chi-rho
IHS
Cross & Crown
crossed keys
iron cross
the cross on swords, shields, helmets or armor
Christian flags
victorious lions, dragons, unicorns, eagles, with crowns
They are all related; symbolizing the world conquering Church-State of “Christendom”, which is a satanically inspired kingdom of this world.
When Jesus was lifted up from the earth, He died a cruel death for others, to give them life.
Constantine lifted up a military cross of war and killing, of State-loyal, institutional man-controlled religion. He lifted up his sign of loyalty to the kingdoms of this world (his personal empire). He lifted up his sign of spiritual and physical death. When Constantine and the rest of Dominating, controlling, crusading, religious, truth-denying, power-seeking, self-glorifying, flesh-driven, Church-State Christendom lift up themselves, and their governments, and their institutions, they kill others, giving them death.
But the lifting up of JESUS brings life. It brings loyalty to His kingdom, and freedom from lies, spiritual bondage and death. And it brings love for God and neighbor. As we exalt Jesus, lifting Him up as it were, in our witness of Him, glorifying Him in our witness of Him, we also die with Him, dying to self, giving and sharing His life with others, giving them love.
I can no longer “buy” into all the fancy glittery earthly “stuff” (garbage) that you, Babylon that great and mighty city, “sell”..Rev18:10-13… I just ain’t buying it anymore…..(alas for you)……..and you, Babylon, can no longer make me your commodity to do with me what you will…..for you, religious Babylon, no longer own my body or my soul…Babylon, so fine and rich, so proud, so admired and praised and lusted after, with self-exalting, self-important purple and scarlet, with fake gold and fake precious stones and fake pearls…goodbye…I have left you to your judgment, and shall rejoice.
When I was a Roman Catholic, I listened to the priest and he told me to do everything The Church says to do (all the sacraments, holy days of obligation, Mass, etc) for the rest of my life (to earn salvation). When I was a Neo-Evangelical, I listened to my pastor and he told me, (after rebuking my discernment my use of my unapproved spiritual gifts) that I was to do what they (and only they) decide I should do as service to the Church. When I was a Reformed Calvinist I listened to my pastor and he told me that it is my own fault that I was exhausted by helping(loving) “needy” people and that I should put up boundaries so they don’t burden me with their problems and take my time and energy.
Then the Lord Jesus called me OUT of that hot mess and put me in the wilderness where is was quiet. There, for the first time since I met Him, before I was “Churched” and put under the obligation to listen to and obey the Ordained Priests of Christianity, I heard His voice, the voice of Jesus. I started hearing Him all the time. The last time I heard Him was when He first called me way back in 1985. Now He was speaking again! Maybe He was all those years, I just could not hear Him. I was not listening. I was listening to the voice of my priest and my pastor tell me what to do and “how to be religious” and “how to be a proper Church Christian”. Now I could hear Jesus again. I began listening to HIM again. Guess what? The things He said to me were very different from what the priest and pastors told me. Jesus told me what He wanted me to do.
Now I do not listen to those men in The Church. They did not advise me according to the Way, the Truth and the Life. They did not advise me according to Love. They did not advise me according to the true will of God, by the Holy Spirit. They were false guides. Jesus is The Way and He is my Guide. He is my Shepherd and He speaks to me, and not only guides and comforts, helps and encourages me, but He tells me what He wants me to do. Now I know what He wants me to do, He tells me. I encourage you to not listen to men in The System, they do not know what Jesus wants you to do. They really are not concerned with that, anyway. I encourage you to listen to JESUS and do what He says.
Resurrection Power of Jesus Christ
Religion killed me.
By the power of God, He raised me from the dead, with Christ, on the third day. It is the power of God that brings salvation.
***
“You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” Acts 10
Christian Religions completely leave out the “with power” part. They told us that we receive the Holy Spirit when we are born again (that is what they taught me) but never a word about THE POWER. Never a demonstration of it either. God anoints His witnesses WITH POWER, spiritual power, to be spiritually alive AND to be dead to sin and religion in the resurrection power of Jesus Christ.
But…not seen by all the people, but seen by us, His witnesses….we who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead.
We are His witnesses… if …we have been with Jesus, if we ate and drank with Him (have had intimate fellowship with Him) after He rose from the dead.
then, their witness (to those people) is done.
Church attendance, the song service, “showing up to the service”, Church traditions, Church socializing, listening to the sermon, studying systematic theology, debating, learning doctrines, getting a Theology degree, hearing or saying much talk or many “words” (the words may or may not be true, but “words” in and of themselves are not the Kingdom)…………….(etc)…….
but in POWER.
Religious people were a problem for Jesus. They interfered with His work of redeeming and freeing people. He worked around them.
Jesus was a problem for the religious people. He interfered with their work of keeping people in bondage to their religious conformity. They decided to kill Him.
Acts 7:55-58
Proclaiming the real Jesus and the true gospel, defending and contending, discerning false gospels; if you desire to be faithful with “Grace and Truth”, you will be encouraged by this interview.
Audio: The Jesus You Can’t Ignore: An Interview with Phil Johnson and John MacArthur
“Rachel” is a woman I have known for at least 10 years. I first met her at the store when our children were little. Every few years I bump into her on shopping trips. Well currently our sons are on the same soccer team, and we see each other every week. The Lord is letting me know that it is past time to witness to her.
I struggle with witnessing to “peers”, friends or even those “acquaintance” friends I see only once in a while. It is fear of man, fear of being labeled and rejected. It is easier to witness to strangers than to those with whom you have a relationship. Even so, I seek out and desire relationships with these that the Lord puts on my heart. He gives me a love for them and a great desire for them to know, follow and worship Him. I feel this way about “Rachel”.
Today at the soccer game, we were talking about our children’s schooling, and then our conversation moved to the topic of her education in Israel and her memories of learning a little bit of Bible in school. Pretty soon we were discussing God’s revelation of Himself as recorded in the Tanakh, particularly the physical manifestations of God to Abraham and Jacob, and the words of the prophet Isaiah. I was very nervous (and felt quite inadequate as usual) as she said she has decided to go on without God, and make personal happiness and goodness her life philosophy. I listened to her talk about all the reasons she has decided to be basically a secular Humanist, including abuse from her ‘religious’ family, the death of a close relative in the 1967 war, the manmade religion of the ultra-Orthodox, (chickens?) and frustration with war and death between Jews and Muslims in her homeland. These things caused her much pain and confusion. She decided to make life about finding personal happiness.
Resisting the temptation to be too fearful to speak, I offered, with as much compassion as I could express to her, that though these experiences are painful, the issue is not one of temporary personal happiness, but one of righteousness before God. I asked her about the whole sacrificial system in the Tanakh: what was the purpose of it? What was God showing the people? Did it not have some very important meaning that God was communicating- over and over again? I brought up how it is almost Yom Kippur. We talked about that for a while; how the Bible teaches that sin makes us unrighteous before the holy God, how the sacrifice and the blood of the innocent lamb showed need for covering for sin. We talked about how it was presented by the High Priest to God at the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies. She pondered these things.
She knows in Whom I believe. She may already know what I’m getting at, and yet, she may not. I hope this is the first of our conversations on this topic. As we were leaving she excused herself from all she heard: “Well, everyone chooses their own way to believe; whatever makes them happy.” But she knows these things we spoke of are in the scriptures. I pray she will come to believe on the One who fulfilled and accomplished God’s salvation plan.
God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished… Rom.3:2
Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the things pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people. Hebrews 2:17
Witnessing Encouragement 