Articles | Articles |
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| Written by Montagne McDonald | |
| Friday, 25 January 2008 | |
Blog Links  A closer look at Proverbs 23:7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he..... -Proverbs 23:7
Proper interpretation is essential to teaching sound doctrine. One scripture that is widely recognized yet grossly misinterpreted and misquoted is Proverbs 23:7. Many, including me, have taught this scripture says, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." This may seem like an insignificant paraphrasing but lets look at this a little closer. To say, "as a man thinketh," is to say the subject of the passage is unknown and can be taken to mean as anybody thinketh. This passage then becomes a statement that talks about self esteem. We then get a message from this passage that was not intended when it was written. To say, "as he thinketh" is worlds apart from the former. "He" in this sense denotes a specific person. Who is "he?" To answer that, we must go to the 1st verse and make our way down to the 7th verse. This chapter starts with a ruler being the main subject of the text. We are warned to be careful if we are invited to dine with such a man. Verse 6 gives us more insight on the type of ruler the writer is referring to. He is a stingy man. The purpose is to warn the reader that a man is truly what his motives are. The ruler in question has another agenda for inviting you in the first place. It's not that the ruler thought himself to be stingy so be became stingy. The ruler was stingy from the beginning and we are warned his true purpose for the invite to dinenr will soon come to light. It is so important that when we study the world, we use proper interpretation. The Word only means what the author meant for it to say. We must be careful not to use fanciful interpretations that sound good to the ear but err in sound doctrine. Pastor Montagne
Part Time People If you are a person looking for a full time relationship, quit settling for part time people. What are part time people? Part time people are the ones that only have time for you between 11:30 - 2:00 at night. A part time person is someone who doesn't take the time to even care about your dreams or asperations. A part time person doesn't care about your destiny, your desires or your spiritual well being. A part time person doesn't even have respect for your moral values. A part time person only wants what they can get out of the relationship, not what they can give. Look at a person with a part time job. They don't work there for the benefits, they don't work there for a career. They are there to fill a need until something better comes along. You are nothing more that filling a carnal need. That's how a part time person feels about those who has given them a job being a lover or a friend. Once you get to know a person for more than a day you can see the signs that warn you if the person you are dealing with is a part time person or a full time person. If you are a woman and you have kids, does he ever ask you about them? Does he even take an interest in them? If you are a guy and you take her out, does she flirt with every guy she comes across? It sounds simple but you'd be amazed at how many people are so blinded by their lust that they can't see the mistake they are about to make. Many people who want to find someone is not taking applications for part time work. They may start out on a part time basis until they are proven trustworthy to become a full time employee. However, you don't accept applications hoping that you haven't found the right one. You want it to work out or else you wouldn't waste your time. Don't be ashamed to have that person on probation. You need time to make sure they are a perfect fit. This message is not just for people seeking mates but even for people seeking friendship. You can't waste your life on people who only want to use you. Friendship is precious and you can't just open your heart to anybody. For those seeking relationships, why would you want to give your body over to part time people that has no dedication to you. This is why sex is made for marriage. Marriage is 2 full time people devoted to one another. Sex outside of marriage is two part time people hoping it will work out yet sharing their most prized treasures with people they are unsure of. That's not good business. Pastor Montagne www.myspace.com/pastormontagne No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. ... Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. -John Donne
We are Conquerors in Christ See: Romans 16:8, 8:31-39; Genesis 3:15; James 4:7
In this life we have an enemy. No, not your boss at work. It's not the cashier at the grocery store that never speaks. It's not that person that spread the rumor about you at school. We have an adversary that seeks more than merely making us angry or sad. He seeks to turn us from the Truth. He seeks what he sought for Job; for man to curse God. In our cursing our creator, he would then make his point that we are not worth saving and God is ultimately wrong. The word of God says we have an adversary, the devil, who roams like a lion, seeking whom he may devour. The key word, however, is "may." Remember when we would ask our mother for something to drink and we would say, "can I have something to drink?" Mother, being the scholar she is, would correct us and say, "I don't know, "can" you?" Then we would remember the proper use of words and say, "May I have something to drink?" "Yes you may," mom would reply. The word "may" denotes requesting permission. Satan cannot truly devour without man opening the door for him to do it. God warned Cain of this when he became angry that God approved of Able's offering but not his. God told Cain, "sin is crouching at the door and it's desire is for you, but you must master it." NASV In that conversation, we see that God is telling us that we are capable of conquering sin and Satan in our life. The issue is, man will leave the door open and give way to a seducing devil. When we entertain feelings of greed, anger, jealousy and lust, we leave the door wide open and invite sin in. We must lead a chaste life, not so we can look holy or religious but that we may fend off our enemy and be obedient to our loving God. In Luke 10:17, the seventy who followed Christ at that time, marveled that demons were subject to them in the Name of Jesus. God, through the Holy Spirit has given the authority to cast out devils to those who trust in His Name, seek His will and have the Spirit of God in them. In this authority, we are more than conquerors. In Romans 8:37 we see the Greek word, hypernikao. This word means to thoroughly conquer or to go beyond conquest. We are more than conquerors because, for one, we conquer by default because it is God in us doing the conquering. Romans 16:20 says, "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet." God does the crushing and He places him under our feet. . We win without firing a shot. Jesus fulfilled the promise to Eve given in Genesis 3:15 and crushed the head of Satan with His heel and because we walk in His Name, we also have the devil under our feet as long as we stay in the will of God. As believers we become the caretakers of the Kingdom on earth. It then becomes our responsibility to police the Kingdom. To give in to our lusts and our carnal mind loosens the grip and we allow our adversary to recover and devour. To bring this home, I will speak of the practical. Once we begin to police our own thoughts and desires we can overcome our sinful nature. We can no longer say "the devil made me do it" or "It's impossible to live right." The key is in our hand, we must decide are we going to bind or loose. Will we continue to bow to our sinful man or do we learn to be sensitive to the Spirit of God and walk in victory over Satan and ourselves? Now, May the devil devour you? Shout he may not!!!! Pastor Montagne McDonald 5/20/07
Causality and the Consciousness Montagne McDonald Cause - noun - Latin: causa - Anything producing an effect or result. Causality - noun - The interrelation or principle of cause and effect. Taken from Webster's New World Dictionary The principle of cause and effect is widely known and accepted. Why shouldn't it be? Nature itself proves the principle to be true. To every effect, there was a cause. The two cannot be separated. The principle has been proven to be immutable. Everything we see in nature and everything we experience in society and even in the choices we make, has a cause and effect. A bird is alive because it has parents that produced it, a child fails a class because he did not study, a marriage ends because of infidelity. You could say it's the same principle that is widely accepted among Christians as reaping and sowing. Well, it is to a point. More precisely, to every omega there is an alpha. All things in nature shows to have a beginning, even those that have not had an end yet. The earth, whether you be an evolutionist or creationist, is agreed to have a beginning. The dispute is in how it began. Was there some random act, an explosion, that birthed our universe and eventually our planet or was there a higher life form that created this universe and this Earth? The debate may rage on and I am in no way joining the fray in this essay. However, in looking at the questions we have about the existence of God or the metaphysical, I can't help but think about the principle that we all hold to be true; cause and effect. There are many theories about the origin of man and I've heard most of them. However, there is a question that entered my mind and I'm sure it mirrors the questions of others. If the cause of our existence is due to a big bang, millions of years of evolution from slime to fish, to badger, to monkey, to man, what is the cause of our consciousness? Where did it come from? There is a quote from philosopher Rene Descartes that says, "I think, therefore, I am." He was saying, he knows he exists because of his awareness (consciousness). We are natural creatures with awareness of ourselves and others. We also have emotions, character and personality. What caused those things to manifest in us? Simple, natural creation, no matter how we slice it, cannot explain the genesis of our consciousness. These things in us cannot be measured or seen through a microscope. We may be able to study emotions, character and personality in a lab with test subjects but all we could hope to do is understand why we do what we do or act the way we act. We cannot, however, explain through any amount of tests and research where our consciousness came from. If we are to examine the cause and effect of awareness, we cannot leave of out the possibility of God. I say this because of all the options we have to go on to find the beginning of awareness, God is the only logical choice. Some may disagree and feel that the belief in God is in itself illogical. However, if you bear with me we may be able to shed light on how the belief in God could be in actuality, logical. Imagine that! Causality says that you cannot have an effect without a cause. It stands to reason that there must be a cause to our awareness. God told Moses when he asked God who should he say sent him to the people of Israel, God said, "Tell that I Am sent me." I Am is a powerful word. It denotes existing. It's in the present tense so it hints to the eternal. It also shows something that we all have; self awareness. This being who spoke to Moses was aware of Himself and aware of others. Jehovah shows in this brief sentence that He has a consciousness. Some may dispute the fact that we have no proof of the validity of the claim that this encounter even happened. My answer is twofold. First, there is no evidence against it, and second, we have an eye witness; Moses himself. He should at least get the benefit of the doubt considering there is no conflicting reports neither historically or archeologically. To be honest, there is no other explanation given concerning awareness that we have to draw from at this time. We have plenty of conflicting reports and evidence for our creation as creatures, yet no other evidence given for our consciousness. The logical conclusion would be that someone had to give us consciousness or we had to have inherited it from someone. Some may disagree on who that is, yet one would be hard pressed to find another explanation outside of a higher power. My belief is that it was God's doing. Planting the Kingdom of God Matthew 13:31-32“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field and it is smaller than all the other seeds but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and nest in it’s branches.”
Jesus in teaching of the Kingdom of Heaven, likens it to a mustard seed. A mustard seed is very small but when it matures into a tree, it eventually becomes one of the largest trees around. Matthew 17:20 tells us if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, it is enough to move mountains in our life. I, at many times of my life, wondered about that scripture. How does the story of a mustard seed translate into a metaphor for the kingdom of God? The man in Matthew 13 is the one who receives the truth of the Gospel and he then hides it in his heart. This revelation of truth then germinates and grows within him to the point where he bears fruit and his nature becomes evident. Many can find rest with this man and his fruit that he bears will help to nourish others. So you see when God plants the Kingdom in us, we begin to grow in God and the influence of the Gospel may start out small but it then begins to grow to the point where it overshadows all of our problems, all of our past hurts and all of our sinful ways. Philippians 1:6 says, “He who began a good work in you shall perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” In other words we are growing daily in Christ just like the mustard seed. Matthew 17 shows us that the same faith that we get at the beginning is enough to move any mountain in our life. We don’t get more faith but our faith grows from glory to glory. However, we cannot even receive the seed until the “fallow ground” of our heart is broken. In the planting of a garden, the ground must be broken up to become ready to receive the seed. A man was on TV explaining that the consistency of the dirt should be the same as instant coffee before the ground could be considered good ground. We can receive the Kingdom instantly when our hearts are no longer stony but broken, humbled and open to receive the Savior. Then once we receive we must allow the workers in the vineyard to water and nurture the seed until we become mature enough to bear fruit (see Ephesians 4:11-14). The wonderful part about bearing fruit is that the fruit is not borne for the tree but for others to eat of the fruit. Then once others are fed by your fruit then they are equipped with seeds of their own to plant within their vineyard and God starts the process all over again with those who are fed by the fruit you bear. The planting of the Kingdom of God then becomes a harvest. Within the preaching of the Gospel is a seed ready to be planted in good ground, ready to be nurtured to grow and impact and impregnate someone else. This is the Kingdom of God and it is still spreading like this today. Is it planted in you?
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