Destress the Damsel

——————————————————————————

Children and adults alike would do well to remember this classic nursery rhyme. We must keep in mind that, just like the king in the nursery rhyme, our own King will not let unrepentant sin go unpunished. What amazes me is how the King knew exactly who the thief was in a day with no camera recordings 🙂

There is an old saying: “what Momma don’t know won’t hurt her”. Now without going into the error of that particular philosophy, let us ask ourselves if we ever use the same line of thinking about God. Do we think that there is anywhere we can hide from our all-seeing King? We may be able to pull a fast one over “Momma”, but God is not so easily fooled.

Friends, we often make generous excuses for ourselves – we might excuse ourselves into thinking that our sin really isn’t all that bad, or maybe that we are more righteous than we really are. Oftentimes our excuses can kid others as well as ourselves, but you can’t kid a kidder: and you certainly can’t kid the King!

Since the beginning of time people have been trying to kid God, hiding away from His correction in guilt and dishonorable cowardice. We meet our Lord like a dog with it’s tail between it’s legs, hoping our master will not see the mess we have made. Ladies, do we ignorantly think our wise master so blind to the truth?

Jeremiah 23:24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD. 

————————————————————————
Let us look at a few biblical examples of those who tried to kid the king….

Adam and Eve – they couldn’t hide their shame in the garden. (Genesis 3:9-10)

Jonah couldn’t hide in the boat. (Jonah 1:3-4)

The Scribes couldn’t hide their evil thoughts. (Matthew 9:3-4)

Peter couldn’t hide his denial. (Matthew 26:33-35)

Judas couldn’t hide that he was the betrayer. (John 13:25-27)

I could go on and on! All those who try to kid the King have a 100% failure rate, 100% of the time!

Hebrews 4:13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. 
————————————————————————

Our congregation has been doing a bible study on the sovereignty of God. We have been reminded that God is not only a father and a friend (though He is both of those things), but He is also a most Holy King! We can not lose sight of God’s holiness and sovereignty or we will become lackadaisical Christians living far-too-comfortable lives….never stepping outside our comfort zone and reaching the lost; or even confronting the sin in our own lives!

We are called to be vigilant and on the alert. Do not try to kid the King with fraudulent “name-tag-only” Christianity – He knows us better than that!

Let’s be honest…where are our hearts, truly?

Are they locked into God’s word? …Are they growing?

Or have we grown lackadaisical in our spiritual life and forsaken our first love?

Psalms 69:5 O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee. 
——————————————————————————

Friends, how easily we become distracted by the things of this world…

It is to our shame that we allow rubbish to enter into us when we have known the truth of Jesus Christ and all He has done for us. If there is an unresolved sin in your life, I would urge you to confront it. Scripture says to be sure that our sins will find us out. With that kind of warning, perhaps we would be wiser to find our own sin before it “finds” us….am I right?

Job 34:21-22 For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings. There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves. 

In our poem, the knave of hearts began a foolish man but finished a victor over his sin. The same can happen for us when we let God correct us and make us new. Let us (like the knave) also vow to steal no more….

God bless, and take a chill pill!
Mrs. Dustin Bolks

These are statements we frequently hear from liberals these days who demand “tolerance” of their chosen lifestyles – from people that expect our acceptance of blatant sin. Now I will concede that there is an element of truth that judging is wrong. – BUT – I also know that there are different types of judgment. Want to find out which ones are acceptable, versus which ones are not? Keep reading….

Friends, scripture tells us in John 7:24 that we are to judge righteous judgment. What does this mean? First, let us consider what it is to do a thing “righteously”. Some of the synonyms of “righteous” include: good, virtuous, honorable, principled, honest, upright, and decent. Therefore righteous judgment means good judgment, honorable judgment, honest judgment, and so forth. On the other hand, to judge unrighteously would obviously be bad judgment, dishonorable judgment, false judgment.

Human judgment can come in many forms. Judging is a very sneaky sin, because oftentimes when we judge unrighteously, we believe it to be from righteous motives. We must remember though, good intentions aren’t everything! We have to be very careful with our judgment, because if we forsake mercy, mercy will eventually forsake us. Today I would like to consider three variants of unrighteous judgment we would be wise to avoid, plus three righteous solutions.

——————————————————————————-

Avoid Hypocritical Judgment

It has been said that we should be easy on others, and hard on ourselves. Instead, we tend to be easy on ourselves and hard on others! This is nothing new; evidently hypocrites have been around for thousands of years. Frankly, it’s so much easier to see sin in others than in ourselves! I would guess this is because we have to live with ourselves, so in order to not lose sleep at night we become unconditional friends with our sin. Somehow though, I don’t think God is quite so prone to justify hypocrisy as we are:

Romans 2:1 Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.2 But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.

3 And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?

While we will not find the bible saying never to judge and discern character, we will find it explicitly stating that we have no right to judge others if we ourselves are doing the same things we are condemning.

Solution: Make sure your own doorstep is swept before complaining about your neighbor’s. You just might find your neighbor far more willing to listen to someone who has proven sin can be conquered, than someone who is just as messed up as they are. (Read Matthew 7:4-5)

——————————————————————————

Avoid Hasty Judgment

The pharisee in Luke 18:10-12 portrayed hasty judgment with his prayer…he proclaimed himself better than the nearby tax collector (presumably a stranger) on the mere fact that the man was, well….a tax collector. Granted, many tax collectors had a bad reputation as dealing dishonestly with the public, but how did the pharisee know whether or not this man was like that? How could he have known whether this was an honest or deceitful man, a loving or harsh person, a peaceful citizen or a rabble-rouser, just by looking at him? Most likely, he couldn’t. He was pulling only from the minimal information he had on the tax collector (his job title) to make him out as a monster. It is as unfair as saying that all lawyers are crooks, or all doctors are quacks. It’s simply not fair to make such broad stereotypes based on one or two bad experiences. But that’s just what hasty judgment is….drawing maximum conclusions based on minimal facts!

Leviticus 19:15 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour.

We’ve all heard the expression “don’t judge a book by its cover”, and this is not only true of books, but also of people. We are not to judge by man’s standards – bur rather we are to judge as God judges; and He judges based on the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7) The main difference between human judgment and The Lord’s judgment is this: God has all the facts. As much as we would like to think we are in the know about every situation, more times than not we simply don’t have all the information we need to judge as God does. We have to be very careful not to make false assumptions about others, lest we receive the same form of judgment. (Matthew 7:2)

Solution: Look past the superficial. Really get to know people – get to know them for them. Not for what they look like, or what you think they’ve done, or what you think they could do, or what someone else thinks of them! When you’re not sure about someone or their motives, it is better to err on the side of believing the best in people, than to be merciless. (Read Matthew 5:7)

——————————————————————————-

Avoid Hyperbolic Judgment

The third type of judgment to avoid is the kind that makes mountains out of molehills. A judgment that is condemning, absolute, and unchangeable in nature belongs only to God.

James 4:12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

Don’t misunderstand the words…the verse is not stating that you may never point out error in people’s lives and warn them of the consequences of sin. In fact, The New Testament is quite clear that we are are to rebuke, reprove, and exhort people away from evil.

1 Corinthians 6:2 Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? 3 Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?

While at first glance it seems these two passages contradict one another, I think the balance is this: judge actions and be sure to warn people where they are headed if they do not change. At the same time, do not make a final judgment on the spirit of the person. You do not know whether the person will repent and be forgiven, neither do you have the power to forgive sins or condemn a soul for eternity. That power belongs solely to God.

Solution: Give the burden to The Lord. Preach the word in due season. Plant, water,and then let God provide (or not provide) the increase. He is sovereign, and He will ultimately make the best decisions when it comes to judgment.

——————————————————————————-

Ladies, before ever making any judgment calls on a person – check to make sure you are not being hypocritical, nor hasty, nor hyperbolical in your discernment. In all things, we want our attitude to be swift to hear, and slow to speak. (James 1:19) We must try to look at others from a spirit of humility, realizing that we all fall short at times…but God does expect us to pick people up and dust them off. Complete tolerance of others is not love, but warning them of eternal fire is!

God bless, and take a chill pill!
Mrs. Dustin Bolks

One of the students turns to his friend and asks, “What are ‘ignorance and apathy?'”

The other student, bored, restless and wanting the speech to end says, “I don’t know and I don’t care.”

——————————————————————————

“I don’t know” and “I don’t care” unfortunately represent some people’s view towards Christianity. And I’m not just talking about atheists: there are even those who go to church regularly, have love for their neighbors, and live morally upstanding lives – (all these things are of course expected from each of us) – but yet they are still missing something. What, might you ask?

See, I believe there is a great plague in the world today: It is “hand-me-down religiosity” or as I am calling it, “inbred ignorance”. What I am talking about here is a lack of independence when it comes to our faith. There are too many of us who aren’t reading our bibles and truly seeking God’s will for our lives. We think that “what’s good enough for Grandma and Grandpa is good enough for me”…

Unfortunately, “Grandma and Grandpa” don’t always have it right. All too often we borrow someone else’s beliefs without actually looking for the true answers ourselves. Beliefs get passed on from generation to generation, and tradition becomes “truth”. But friends, we MUST find out for ourselves what it is God wants from us, lest He spit us out of His mouth.

We can’t rely on someone else’s beliefs to carry us through life, and God’s not going to give us a sign. God expects us to use our own minds!

– Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. (‭Colossians‬ ‭2‬:‭8‬ KJV) – 

A doctrine that I am convinced that many err on, is that of salvation. Ask, and you will get a hundred different answers to the age-old question “What must I do to be saved?”. Some will say you need only to believe, another “say this prayer”, while yet another insists infant baptism washes away sins. Friends, we cannot afford to get this wrong! If we don’t even know how and by what we are saved, how can we be sure we are saved?

– Teach me good judgment and knowledge: for I have believed thy commandments. (‭Psalms‬ ‭119‬:‭66‬ KJV) –

Maybe up until this point you have borrowed your religion from your parents, your minister, or another respected person. You are not alone – this is a mistake that has been made by millions. We’ve all been guilty of this! But I am telling you right now, it is not too late to learn the truth! As a wise friend once told me “It’s not always in the learning, but in the re-learning”. Stick around, and let’s re-learn some things together. God’s word will be our guide….

– The heart of the prudent getteth knowledge; and the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge. (‭Proverbs‬ ‭18‬:‭15‬ KJV) –
—————————————————————————–

“What must I do to be saved?”

The first steps – Hearing/ Believing –

Friends, it is undeniable that salvation is rooted in faith. Now that is not to say that faith is our only means of salvation, but it is definitely a crucial element. To be saved, we must first….

—  Hear, understand and believe the word of God.

– Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. (‭Isaiah‬ ‭28‬:‭9‬ KJV) –

(Reason for yourselves: is a child capable of this? If the answer is no then *just maybe* infant baptism is a false doctrine)

– He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. (‭Mark‬ ‭16‬:‭16‬ KJV) –
——————————————————————————

“What must I do to be Saved?”

Step 2 – Confess (submit your life to God) and Repent (turn away from your sin)

Some false teachers out there say that faith alone will win us citizenship in heaven. They claim that God doesn’t really demand anything from us – “just only believe and you will be saved”! My friends – do not be deceived, but search for yourself whether or not God demands a change in our lives. If we keep thinking John 3:16 is the complete summation of the Bible and never read any further, I really fear for our souls.

– Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. (‭2 John‬ ‭1‬:‭9‬ KJV) –

Confession and repentance go hand in hand. You simply can not have the one without the other. If you are submitting your life to God, then you will turn from your sin! On the other hand, what person is going to turn away from sin without first submitting their life to God?

– He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy . Proverbs 28:13 –

(Note that it says confess AND forsake – a confession is never legitimate to our Lord without repentance)
——————————————————————————

“What must I do to be saved?”

Step 3 – Be baptized (greek; baptizo = immersion)

While I assume nearly everyone teaches that you must believe to be saved, and also many will encourage a change of lifestyle, baptism has become one of the most controversial topics in the religious world. Unfortunately it is a widely accepted belief that baptism is just an optional step that a Christian can take: an outward sign of their already established walk with Christ. I beg to differ with that view, and rather am firmly convicted that baptism is an essential step one takes before they will be accepted into God’s kingdom. Here are a few reasons why. I would encourage you to read each one of these passages and discern whether or not baptism is essential to our salvation.

— Jesus (our ultimate example) was baptized (‭Luke‬ ‭12‬:‭50‬ KJV) 

— Those in the first century A.D. that “gladly received His word” were baptized, and added into the church!  (‭Acts‬ ‭2‬:‭40-41‬ KJV) 

— In Jesus’ day, “all who heard him justified God and were baptized” but the Pharisees and lawyers who rejected baptism were a disgrace. (‭Luke‬ ‭7‬:‭29-31‬ KJV) 

— *If* we have been baptized into Christ, we have put on Christ. (‭Galatians‬ ‭3‬:‭27‬ KJV) 

— All who have been baptized are baptized into Christ’s death. If we are not baptized, we can not be partakers of the gift of the cross! (‭Romans‬ ‭6‬:‭3-7‬ KJV) 

— Baptism is “answering with a clear conscience to God” and “baptism saves us!” (‭1 Peter‬ ‭3‬:‭20-21‬ KJV) 

— Jesus said “we will be baptized with His baptism”…if we are His, we will follow in His footsteps. (‭Matthew‬ ‭20‬:‭23‬ KJV) 

— Jesus said we cannot see the kingdom of God unless we are baptized. (John 3:3)

— We must believe *and* be baptized to be saved. (Mark 16:16)

— Baptism “washes away sins”. (Acts 22:16)

— Baptism is “for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38)
——————————————————————————

My dear friends who are reading this – have you truly been saved?

Sometimes in life we must forget what we have been told. You and I must put away our preconceived notions and let go of all the traditions of man! If we do this, we may not be the most popular or have the most friends, but we will have something many don’t have. We will have God’s word! We will have it in fullness. And God’s word has the answers, if we are willing to look.

It teaches that we must hear and believe the word of God. We must confess Christ daily by submitting our lives to Him. We must turn from our sins through repentance. We must be baptized (immersed in water) for the remission of our sins. After we have submitted ourselves to God’s plan of salvation (forsaking man’s way) – it is at that point we have become adopted as a child of God. We know from scripture that there are those claiming Christ that are not truly saved. May we not be counted among them!

– Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. (‭Matthew‬ ‭7‬:‭21‬ KJV) –

– This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. (‭Matthew‬ ‭15‬:‭8-9‬ KJV) –

Remember the student in the gymnasium.  Don’t let his academic path be the same as your religious design.

Where we are ignorant – let us search for wisdom.

Where we are apathetic – let us search for purpose.

It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.(Proverbs 25:2 KJV)

God bless, and take a chill pill!
Mrs. Dustin Bolks