Things That Accompany Salvation

"If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it." Luke 9:23-24 

I was thinking this morning how the Church leaders, along with a bunch of fanatics’ out there, love separating salvation from Luke 9:23-24. I know there are a great number of them, when they do that, their intend, is to please the mass. When you learn to see Salvation from God’s point of view, meaning when He gives you a peak to the big master plan that He alone put together, you cannot help but come up with a different point of view. You know for sure that, holiness, spiritual maturity, intimate relationship with God, engaging His heart, yearning to be like Christ day in day out, true discipleship, surrendering to Him as your Master, and losing yourself to Him and so much more, are all a continuous blessing string of His grace. They are the work of our faith and evidence of our Salvation. To truly understand these things, you have to learn to live and walk in the Spirit, which also is an after effect of Salvation. Salvation is complete and not lacking anything at all. It is like receiving a beautiful and expensive necklace made of pearl. 

This is not my first post on this issue and it will not be my last, simply because I lived out with God what He meant to do with the “real Salvation,” not the one we have become accustomed to in the last century. We went on revamping Salvation with our common sense, and we took so much away that we are left with a counterfeit of God’s true Salvation. Yes, it is true that He worked a new life “in” us, at the moment we truly receive Him into our hearts, but we have to allow Him to work it “out.”

 What gives God great pain and cause Him to lament for us, is because we chose to take one single pearl out of the whole necklace and we are content with what we have with an attitude that He should accept our will. Imagine you are living in the sewers and one day, the king who has deployed everything in His power to find his long lost son or daughter, found you. Then you are informed that you are royalty and the King, who is your Father has been looking for you and wants you by His side. Now, you are over the top with this news. Once you reach the King’s palace you are told to clean up, get rid of your dirty and smelling clothes and put on the royal garment, then a guard will come and get you to lead you to meet with your Father.

 During the time of preparation, you look around you and decided this life is not for you. Not because you do not like it, but it is going to take too much work, discipline, and way too demanding. So, you decide to find a way out of the palace and go right back to living in your sewers. All the while, you are proud of knowing you are royalty and shout it out to everyone who is willing to listen to you.  To what extend are you royalty?  In deploying all resources out there to find you, the King had a plan in mind which involved a different quality of life, a place for you, next to Him, and an intimate relationship with you. What have you done with His generosity and His love? In choosing to live in the sewers, where is your allegiance?  How is the King suppose to feel about your decision and rejection of the offer of a relationship, His heir and a transformed life? Your decision to live in the sewers tell your new found Father, “well, I am glad to know I belong to the King, but, I have no intention of being taken up with your interests and purposes for me.” In saying that, aren’t you changing the terms between you and the King? We seem to be spending more time telling Christians how they cannot lose their salvation, than teaching them how to walk in the spirit, how to surrender and how to live a life of obedience to God.  

This practice is dangerous simply because we do not know their reasons for accepting Christ to begin with. Especially, if you are able to tell through your close relationship with the Spirit of God, that some of your Church members are not showing evidence that a major work took place on the inside. This means, the Spirit of God has to help you bypass the Church attendance, the regurgitation of Bible verses, the empty service on His behalf and all the outward religiosity.  Even when you find out through the Spirit, your job is not to judge but, if you are a leader, you ought to examine yourself first and to what extent He is the main instrument behind all that you do. Then, you come alongside those that He showed you are not part of the flock, or those that have taken a long detour and are not quite aware of their need to come back. (various way: preaching, prayers, counsel, different Bible study group etc.,but, only through the Spirit's leading, if done in the flesh you will keep failing them.) Majority of Christians, even after years of being in the Church, trample Salvation under their feet. In the meantime the Church, which is the body of Christ at large seems to missed that. We go on proudly with our own interpretation of a lot of verses in the Bible, while many claimed to have been saved by faith but simply not interested or incapable of walking by faith. What kind of godly relationship and faith are we promoting?

 Not long ago, I was following a conversation on Linkedin where some people believe that this Christian life will happen to us through osmosis and if we have to do anything, then it is no longer grace. For the life of me, I cannot understand why these people cannot see that they have been brainwashed into adopting the wrong attitude, as such, they are rejecting God’s grace on a daily basis. They misapply and misappropriate the word grace along with God’s intention and divine purpose, yet not aware of it. But, doesn’t the Bible tell us that we have to diligently stand with Him? Or to make every effort?  If there is no need for us to do as He said and embrace all that is in the Bible, instead of choosing to decipher things on our own and put words in His mouth, then we are doing the same thing Adam and Eve did when they let themselves be tempted by Satan. Furthermore, Christ could have done the same thing to His dad and say, well, I am not leaving the comfort of heaven, you are God and you can do things differently without me going down there. He could have bargained His way out of it, yet He was obedient unto death. He honored His Father’s way, His process and divine purpose.

 We have to stop living like the unbelievers with a spirit of entitlement. We need to let the Spirit guide us in what we write, say and preach so that the impact we make on weaker Christians, will not affect them the wrong way. Some say they keep reminding people about the fact that they cannot lose their salvation, because Satan the accuser could rob them. Not only it is the wrong way to rationalize things, it is the wrong focus and it is also an insult and blasphemy to God. In fact, the wrong focus might cause these weaker Christians to be in greater danger as they adopt the wrong attitude and message, and GET SET IN THEIR WAYS. So sometimes, in trying to prevent Satan, we are the very instrument that he uses to get his work done. Our focus is wrong because while Satan is powerful, but my Lord and Savior is bigger than Satan will ever be. He is Stronger and Mightier. He is also able to keep those who have been entrusted to Him by God. What He wants from us, is to allow Him to use us as we live and walk in abandonment to Him, in the Spirit.

 As I write my posts, it is not my job to please people or tolerate our disregard for the true Christian life. It is not my job to encourage the lack of walk in the Spirit that is being displayed within the body of Christ. Doing so, would be applying some sort of misguided love that has nothing to do with the true love Christ wants us to use to reach out to others, Agape Love.

Don't Study the Counterfeit

John Eldridge could not have said it better. This is why you do not see me writing about Satan. Because as far as God is concerned, if we truly focus on Him, the rest is simple and really easy to deal with because you know who you are and Satan has no power over you. Every attempt, he makes on you is met with defeat and you just put him in his place as you go about God’s business.

As the matter of fact, I know enough to say that there is no such thing as Christian being possessed by the devil because if you are possessed by the Holy Spirit, there is no room for the devil to come in and kick the Holy Spirit out.  Yes, we can be in bondage in certain areas in our lives, but if we are truly His, it is a matter of time as God deals with us through the process, to be freed. I learned enough from God to know Satan keeps us busy in casting him out that we have no idea we left the path and we have actually been so busy with him we neglected the true God. Another thing that we do is that we put all the blame on him for our sinful nature and stubbornness in following the true God. As long as Satan is to be blamed, then we are in the clear, all of the sudden, it is his fault not really ours.

By the way, when Eldridge says: “believing and agreeing with the truth” in the last paragraph, he does not mean the kind of belief that is only on the lips, but in our heart and walk with Him

 I am going to stop here, I would rather you read John Eldridge….

In order to recognize a lie, we need to know the truth. Experts in counterfeit money don’t spend their time studying counterfeits. They study the real currency. In the same way, to engage in the spiritual battle raging around us, we don’t shift our focus to lies or to the Devil. We focus on Jesus. We marinate in the truth of who God is and who he says we are. Then and only then we will be able to quickly recognize a lie. And though there are some areas of bondage in our lives where truth is not going to be enough to set us completely free, we will never get any freedom at all without it.

Remember when Jesus was in the wilderness and the Devil came to tempt him? Jesus didn’t reason with the Enemy. He didn’t engage with him in a dialogue; he simply refuted him with the truth. “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).

So, Spiritual Warfare Level One: you have an Enemy. You are hated. Evil exists. Satan exists. Foul spirits exist. Peter writes, “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8 NIV 2011). Devour, not tempt. Devour as in shred, maul, kill, destroy. James commands, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).

If we do not submit to God, the Devil will not flee. If we do not resist the Devil, he will not flee. There is no reason to fear or strive. But we do need to submit to God and resist the Devil. We enforce the freedom Jesus has won for us by believing and agreeing with the truth. This is a big, big part of “shake off your dust; rise up, sit enthroned, Jerusalem. Free yourself from the chains on your neck, Daughter Zion, now a captive” (Isa. 52:2 NIV 2011). Time to rise up, girl.

Courtesy of http://ransomedheart.com/

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Christian Progress - Part 8 Last Part

It is now 1:00 AM and I have to be up and running in about 4 hours and a half. I decided to put my blog out very early just so that I do not waste time.

As I am reading the questions John James is suggesting that we use to examine ourselves I am covered by a sense of sadness. Why you might say? Because this is the Christianity I have learned at His feet.

I am no better than anyone else, in fact my life is so lousy that I do not want to talk about it. Also, I am truly what you would call an unlearned, yet I have no idea why He chose to teach me in the way He taught me. I have no idea why He chose to reveal so much of Himself to me. I promise you that anyone of you who meets me in heaven, since nothing will be hidden, then you will know how much at one point I begged Him to stop revealing Himself to me because all I wanted was Him. I am telling you the truth, I actually begged Him to take this unlimited grace and pour it on someone that would be more useful to Him like my pastor. I prayed and begged because I felt those experiences would be wasted on me.

Why am I telling you all these things? Because I am trying the only way I can to make you understand how much so many of us misunderstand Christianity.  I can see the danger so many of us are in, at the same time I feel powerless because at the end of the day, the next step belongs to you. You would be wise to consider John's  questions, take them to heart. Take them to God. Don’t lie to yourself because God will be God and you would end up hurting yourself with your lies

When we go to God with our doubts and unbelief, it does not matter Satan knows them, if our hearts are open to God and we are truly seeking Him at any cost and by any roads, then Satan cannot hurt us with the information. The only time he has power to hurt you is when he knows you want God but you have your own agenda that you want Him to take into consideration and you are not willing to budge on them. Open up your heart and trust Him. Please do not make the wrong choice.

I love you all and I leave you with John’s last reading

                                                           John A James, 1853


                                ADDRESS TO THE READER
Reader, this is an unspeakably important chapter for you to ponder. You must not pass from it in haste—but linger, and muse longer and deeper. You must now take up the candle of the Lord, as I have said, and go down into the very depths of the soul, to search its hidden recesses. Nor should you trust to your own inspection and scrutiny. Like David, you should earnestly pray to God to search you, and reveal your real state to you. "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. 

Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life." He knew how prone we are to self-love and self-deception; how sin lies hidden in the folds of the heart's deceit, and therefore he begged the trial and scrutiny of eyes more piercing and less partial than him own. So must you. We are all liable to judge too favorably of our own case. Do, do, consider the fatal, the dreadful, the eternal consequences of a mistake on this subject.

Oh, the idea of imagining we are going on to heaven, when step by step we are advancing to hell! Is this possible? It is! And the very possibility should awaken our alarm. Is it probable? It is! And this should increase our alarm. Is it certain? It is! And this should raise still higher our anxiety. Is it common? It is! And this should carry our solicitude to the highest pitch. What did Christ say on this matter? Read with awe and trembling. "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 

Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'" Matthew 7:21-23. Read, I say, this passage in which our Lord with his own hand, sounds the alarm through the whole church. Ought you not to examine? Is not there need of it? Is it not all but madness to go on without it? Mistake! What in such a matter as salvation? Mistake! What in a matter in which an error will require, as I have often said, an eternity to understand, and an eternity to deplore it!

Are you quite sure this is not your case? Take up the subject, then, and put the following questions to your soul.

Am tolerably sure that I am truly converted to God? Am tolerably sure that I am a real Christian?

If I am a true Christian, am I really an advancing one—or am I mistaking a declining state for an advancing one?

Am I mistaking a lengthened time of profession—for a genuine growth in grace?
Am I putting an increase of knowledge, and of ability to talk about religion—in place of an increase of holiness?

Does it satisfy me to grow in knowledge and lamentation of my corruptions—without mortifying them?

Am I mistaking sectarianism—for true piety? Am I mistaking attachment to some preacher—with love to the truth? Am I mistaking zeal for some favorite doctrine—with real love for the gospel?

Is my mortification of sin confined to some one corruption, which interest, ease, or reputation may require me to surrender; or is it directed against all sin?
Is my religion a mere excitement of the emotions, and my growth only a greater excitability; or is my will more and more determined for God, my conscience more tender, and my life more holy?

Inquire, I beseech you, into these things. Be determined, by God's grace, to know the real state of your soul, and to be under no mistake. Be this your prayer, "O God of truth, you who search the hearts and examine the thoughts of the children of men, you know I would not for ten thousand worlds be deceived about my spiritual state. 

You know me through and through. Make known to me what I really am in your sight. Painful as it would be to find out that I have been deceiving myself, this would be infinitely better than for me to go on in error until the mistake is past being rectified. I want to know my real state. Even if I am a Christian, and yet mistaking declension for progress, I wish to know this also. Let my spiritual insight be clear, my self-acquaintance be accurate. Do not allow me to deceive myself—as regards my spiritual progress or decline.

The Obedient Life

I have to confess, sometimes I am tempted to write simple things that are easy to swallow, that do not demand much of Christians.

When these thoughts come into my mind, it is because I am somewhat in a stage where I want to please more people and give them what they want. It is because I know the average reader is not interested in anything that call for leaving the comfort zone, as such they learn to weed you out. But, I also know, this would not be me, it would not be the true ministry God had prepared me for and it would throw away all those years of hardships that I had to go through to be where I am with Him.

So, when I am tempted, I find great comfort reading those writers that I know have been through God’s university and curriculum. I find comfort, because as I read them, I can easily recall many of those moments that were created by the Holy Spirit for me to learn His process. I also find comfort in reading these writers because they too seem to be drastic in their approach to Christianity. But, really, it is not a question of being drastic; it is rather a question of living the truth that we learn directly from Him. We tend to appear drastic because the God we have come to know is a drastic God and we know He has no tolerance for shoddy Christianity. I know, if I were to uphold a lesser truth in order to appease people, I would not be true to myself and I would offend God!

From the above paragraph, I am not saying that I am the in the same caliber of those past writers. Far from it and I have no illusions, although I aspire to become a servant of Christ, like them. For example, right now in my walk with God, when I am separated from His Divine nature, often I do not seek to re-establish the communication for a day or two. But, Andrew Murray was known as the man who would stand in the middle of the street, just to re-establish communication with His divine nature at the very moment he became aware of such interruption.

What Am I Telling You All This?

Because I need to prepare your mind for this Itsy Bitsy piece of truth written by Andrew Murray. Do not dismiss it. Don’t’ take it lightly! It is my deepest desire that you would ponder on those words. Go to God directly, pray and ask Him to set you apart to live His truth in the recess of your heart and soul.

Andrew Murray In:

The School of Obedience

THE ENTRANCE TO THE LIFE OF FULL OBEDIENCE

'Obedient unto death.' -Phil. 2:8.

After all that has been said on the life of obedience, I purpose speaking in this address of the entrance on that life.

You might think it a mistake to take this text, in which you have obedience in its very highest perfection, as our subject in speaking of the entrance on the course. But it is no mistake. The secret of success in a race is to have the goal clearly defined, and aimed at from the very outset.

'He became obedient unto death.' There is no other Christ for any of us, no other obedience that pleases God, no other example for us to copy, no other Teacher from whom to learn to obey. Christians suffer inconceivably because they do not at once and heartily accept this as the only obedience they are to aim at. The youngest Christian will find it strength in the school of Christ to make nothing less from the commencement his prayer and his vow: OBEDIENT UNTO DEATH. It is at once the beauty and the glory of Christ. A share in it is the highest blessing He has to give. The desire for and the surrender to it is possible to the youngest believer.

If you want to be reminded of what it means, think of the story in ancient history. A proud king, with a great army following him, demands the submission of the king of a small but brave nation. When the ambassadors have delivered their message, he calls one of his soldiers to stab himself. At once he does it. A second is called; he too obeys at once. A third is summoned; he too is obedient to death.

'Go and tell your master that I have three thousand such men; let him come.'

The king dared count upon men who held their life not dear to them when the king's word called for it.

It is such obedience God wants. It is such obedience Christ gave. It is such obedience He teaches. Be it such obedience and nothing less we seek to learn. From the very outset of the Christian life let this be our aim, that we may avoid the fatal mistake of calling Christ Master and yet not doing what He says.

Let all who by these addresses have in any degree been convicted of the sin of disobedience, listen as we study from God's Word the way to escape from that and gain access to the life Christ can give-the entrance to the life of full obedience.

The Gifts of Discernment & Wisdom

I know I talk a lot about people in the Church who are not truly Christians and they do not know about it. I decided to write this post to shed some light on the matter because the people that are just dabbling with Christianity and those that are in it for a little corner of heaven tend to feel offended when they hear certain comments. Granted the internet is full of people going on and on about Christ, and they are willing to condemn everyone even the real Christians. They usually hide behind the fact that they are doing it just to defend the faith.

In fact, I can think of someone who has been very popular on the internet for years now. While this person appears knowledgeable to others who are not spiritual, what they do not know about this guy is that he himself has not been saved yet. In fact that is why there is so much rage and zeal in him to accuse everyone of apostasy. While the word Jesus is found everywhere on his site and he uses the word love a lot in his writings you would think that he is working for the real God that we Christians know. But the reality is that he is not. I am aware of his site because I was impressed with him about twelve to thirteen years ago. I have now been a Christian for fifteen years and I can say without fear of repercussions from God that this guy is not a Christian, but he does not know it. Satan knows the Bible by heart and can have lengthy conversations about it too. Demons too, believe, and they have more fear of God in them than some so called Christians.

Throughout my book “Apprehended & Apprehending” I tried to help readers about the type of questions they should honestly be asking themselves in order to examine their walk with God. But for some, I know it will be useless simply because Satan’s bondage can be so blinding that you cannot see what is right under your nose. You cannot see what is obvious to everyone else, even unbelievers have radar to spot those who are not truly Christians. Christ did not quote Mathew 23:15 just to hear Himself talk. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.”

This crime Christ accused the Pharisees of, is also our crime today. We go around putting strenuous effort into getting people to come to know Jesus. We have not left one stone unturned just so we can find converts for our churches. Then instead of doing it for God’s glory we do it to satisfy our ego. (Just saying we are doing things for God's glory does not make it so) So we brag about the size of our Church, how it grew under our administration, we pad our resumes as if all these things make us real Christians. But, often what we fail to realize is that this is just the end result of running a business. At the end of the day, we fill the pews and pulpits with people who embrace our sects.

These people reject the true Gospel in favor of living out perverted doctrines. They have no idea what it means to ever be spiritually mature, you talk about things like brokenness, surrender, regeneration, holiness, the victorious life, Godly repentance and so on, they are totally in the dark. Some of the more educated one go about formulating some hypothesis on these subjects but never truly become real Christians. But, blessed be to God for scouting the Churches and single out His chosen ones.

So, when we are living a full Christian life, embracing the whole Bible as being God’s mercy, love and grace it is not difficult for us to decipher who is who. Through God’s grace, as you become Spirit filled mature Christian, you are like  a teacher standing in front of his class, he is able to tell which one knows the subject he is teaching, which one needs help which one is in the wrong class all together, and which one is completely out to lunch.

Sometimes we are able to see these things simply because of the gifts of the Holy Spirit which is discernment and/or wisdom. In my opinion, having those two gifts together is a little bit much for someone who is not in any kind of leadership position in Church business. It can be overwhelming, frustrating, sad, and so many emotions at the same time. These emotions seem to come from the fact that you feel so powerless with the information at your fingertips. But, like all the gifts we receive from the Holy Spirit, they grow with us, and we learn to use them better. Nevertheless, I find what does not go away is the need to sometimes be able to shut it all off and be “average” for a while.

Even if God has provided the gift of wisdom without the gift of discernment, I find with the gift of wisdom alone you can look at people and see right through them. You are able to let go of the shell on the outside and penetrate them deeper. To your mind, the outside looks like clear water. At first, I remember finding it a little bit like invading people’s privacy. But, I realized soon enough even if I close my eyes it does not change anything because you are dealing with the Spirit’s eyes. In fact this gift cannot even be contained by space. With your spiritual eyes, you are seeing with the mind of the Holy Spirit and you can be sure you are seeing what you are seeing for a good reason. I find that no matter how you turn it around, He shows you these things just so that you can see the need of the body of Christ.

I also find that sometimes God blocks Christians that He feels are not my business to see for now and sometimes He also blocks Christian leaders just because He wants to use this person in my life for a little while. Once it is done, it seems that He unblocks everything! The bottom line is that you would be surprised to see as you grow spiritually how the Holy Spirit is not stingy at all.

- IF YOU HAVE TIME -

THE REMAINING OF THIS POST IS ABOUT QUOTES RELATED TO THE POST THAT COULD BE USEFUL

Read what Oswald Chambers said:

A person who has not been born again by the Spirit of God will tell you that the teachings of Jesus are simple. But when he is baptized by the Holy Spirit, he finds that “clouds and darkness surround Him . . . .” When we come into close contact with the teachings of Jesus Christ we have our first realization of this. The only possible way to have full understanding of the teachings of Jesus is through the light of the Spirit of God shining inside us. If we have never had the experience of taking our casual, religious shoes off our casual, religious feet— getting rid of all the excessive informality with which we approach God— it is questionable whether we have ever stood in His presence. The people who are flippant and disrespectful in their approach to God are those who have never been introduced to Jesus Christ.”

Read what J.C Ryle said:

“I think there can be no question that there is an immense difference among those who profess and call themselves Christians. Beyond all dispute, there are always two classes in the outward Church—the class of those who are Christians in name and form only, and the class of those who are Christians in deed and in truth. All were not Israel who were called Israel, and all are not Christians who are called Christians. "In the visible Church," says an article of the Church of England, "the evil be ever mingled with the good."

Read what James Smith said in 1859:

There is much spurious religion in the world. Many pass for Christians—who are not. This fact places professors in solemn circumstances. When there is much counterfeit coin in circulation, people in trade are doubly cautious. They look at the proffered piece carefully, they rub it, ring it, weigh it, and test it in a variety of ways. No one will take base coin—if they know it. Nor will people take what is suspicious without examination.

Friends, have we any religion? If so, are we sure it is the genuine article? Many are deceived, and deceived to the last! The foolish virgins were. The multitudes referred to by Jesus were, when he said, "Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, and in your name cast out devils, and in your name have done many wonderful works? Then I will profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me you that work iniquity."

There was Never a Choice for True Christians in the US Election

I scoured the internet almost in vain, during and after the US election in the hope that I would find Christians willing to stand alone.  I know the hard way that standing alone is never easy but I expected to see the true Christians in North America taking a firm stand not for mere appearances but for God’s sake.  In these days and age it seems like every cause is louder than true Christianity. While we are called by God to be all things to all men and to yield to others, we have also been taught not to stand with man in their sins.

It has been painstaking all throughout the US presidential election as I watched one Christian after another taking a stand for Christianity through Mitt Romney or Barack Obama. Don’t get me wrong, we are all called to do our civic duty to vote. But, when you hear that Christians voted because they found one or the other candidate somewhat more pleasing to God you know Christianity has become a travesty and the diluted Gospel has permeated the hearts of North Americans “Christians.”  2 Corinthians 10: 12 say: “we do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.”  

It is awfully sad when you find some people who are considered to be a pillar of the Christian community like Franklin Graham not making the difference either. He has chosen to speak out through various ways. One of them was the OpEdNews, in an article written by Dr. Brasch an award-winning syndicated columnist, the Grahams told the Christian community what was the Christian things to do, (I paraphrased there) yet cowardly hide behind words expressed through their spokesman that he and his father did not endorse neither candidate.  “However, Billy Graham reportedly told Romney he would do "all I can to help you," and removed Mormonism from a list of cults on one of their web pages. In February, Franklin Graham, who earns about $600,000 a year as head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, declared that Obama had plans to create "a new nation without God or perhaps under many gods." Here is the link to the full article. It is like saying, I do not endorse anyone but read my words and observe my actions. When I put everything into context, I realize the Grahams, mainly Franklin do not think much of the people who see them as leaders.  My personal opinion they missed out on a great opportunity to educate those who believe in them as leaders and pillars of the Christian community. But, then again we can only lead as far as we have been with Him.

In the end the choice was between two men holding partial Christian beliefs and while they look great in our human eyes, spiritually speaking none of these two men have their identities grounded in Christ. Anyone with an ounce of Godly wisdom can tell you that.  Now this is not to say this might not happen to them one day, before they die. But for now that is not the case. If anything I would be inclined to say that both of these men hold something very common with most of us living in the western culture is that they believe in their own beliefs much more than believing in Christ. After all the Bible tells us in Matthew 7:15-16 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.  You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?”

President Obama lost clarity of moral fortitude; he ended up sacrificing his principles to hold onto power. As for Mitt Romney, he changes spots like a chameleon to reflect the mood and ambient temperature. The man cannot tell a truth from a lie how did he end up being a Christian choice is beyond me and deeply sad. Unless we look at sin as if it was a pimple instead of what it is in God’s eyes. Both men political standards say who they are, what they believe in, and what they are made up inside. Fundamentally these two men have immoral characters.

We know Christianity is in big trouble when you have a “The Rev. Jerry Priscano, a Catholic priest from Erie, Pa., said Obama was the anti-Christ.” This quote also has been taken from the OpEdNews article as stated in the paragraph above. When I read the comments of this Catholic priest it makes me almost want to say: ‘look who's calling the kettle black.’

Quote from the Fellowship of The Unashamed: “…. I am part of the “Fellowship of the Unashamed.” I have Holy Spirit power. The die has been cast. I've stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I am a disciple of His. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure. I am finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tame visions, mundane talking, chintzy giving, and dwarfed goals! …. I am a disciple of Jesus. I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till all know, and work till He stops. And when He comes to get His own, He’ll have no problems recognizing me. My colors will be clear.

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