C
cj
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The book of Galatians.....
The books of Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians form a cluster of Epistles which make up the heart of the divine revelation in the New Testament. Therefore, these books are very important. Ephesians covers the church as the Body of Christ, whereas Colossians deals with Christ as the Head of the Body. Galatians is concerned with Christ, and Philippians, with the experience of Christ. In Colossians and Ephesians we receive a clear view of the Head and the Body. In Galatians and Philippians we see Christ and the experience of Christ.
Just as there are four seasons in the year, so there are seasons in our Christian experience. This means that in our experience with the Lord we pass through winter as well as summer. The winter experiences are helpful, for they prepare us for a new beginning, which comes in the spring. During the winter season the various kinds of life are reduced. Through the reduction that takes place in winter, life is prepared to grow again. Because in our spiritual experience there is the need for us to be reduced, we must be ready for winter at the appointed time. We may say that Galatians is a winter book, a book that reduces us and eliminates everything that should not be permanent. However, this reduction serves a very positive purpose: it prepares us for further growth in life.
We all need to be reduced. We need to be reduced not only in things that are natural or worldly, but even in the various aspects of our spiritual experience. For the sake of further growth in the Lord, we need to be reduced. Certain things in our Christian life may be very good, scriptural, and spiritual. But as long as these things are not Christ Himself directly, they should not be given a place with us very long. Only Christ Himself should have a permanent place in our Christian life. All other things, even the most spiritual experiences, must be reduced. In order for this reduction to take place, God ordains winter. We should never expect to have an endless summer in the Christian life. On the contrary, we should expect the recurring cycle of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Whenever we come to a winter in our experience with the Lord, we should be encouraged that spring and summer will follow in due time. Therefore, we should be encouraged to be reduced in order to have another new beginning. It is my hope that these messages on Galatians will serve this purpose.
(Excerpt taken from The Life Study of the Book of Galatians.)
A major undoing in our Christian walk is our unwillingness to allow the Lord to reduce us. Yet, it is the way, the principle, the worked out wisdom by which God accomplishes what He desires in each of us.
The SDA institution, as well as other denominated so-called Christian institutions, have taken an anti-reduction stand against the work of God. And this wickedness is clearly exposed in the resulting division that is seen throughout the apostate walls of man-made Christianity.
God's work issues in God expressed,...... and God is one.
This is not to say that the believers who are within these walls are not saved, as a man's salvation can occur in any sinful environment. But it is to say that the working out of the salvation of those within the walls is severely limited, though not for all, as in the book of Revelation we find situations whereby the Lord can gain overcoming believers even from within these apostate environments.
The Lord's mercy and grace know no limitation.
But back to the matter of the undoing...... ministry, or lack of ministry is the reason.
Paul, the apostle who was given the COMPLETING MINISTRY by God, declares to us that he (meaning more importantly, his ministry) was abandoned by most of the known Church at that time. And the issue of this apostasy/falling away from Paul's ministry, which is to say, falling away from God's completing ministry, is continuing today...... hence apostate institutions such as the SDA.
And don't for a moment attempt to sugar-coat it..... the SDA is an apostate institution, teaching that which is against Christ snd His building up of the Church.
Satan since the beginning has used the method of the counterfeit as a way of moving man away from God. And his attempts at this take on all sorts of outward appearances.
"Did God not say?"........ "If You are the Son of God, cast Yourself down; for it is written,.....''
Satan has no problem is using God's words against God. And Satan has no problem preaching Jesus in a way that will never bring a man to the fullness of Christ.
And this is what the lack of Paul's ministry results in, a believer never being completed, a believer never being perfected and brought to the fullnes of God in Christ in this life.
And if there is no group of believers expressing God on this earth, then where is the built-up Church that our Lord declared He would build?
What sort of bride do you think the Bridegroom is returning for,.... a divided, immature, anemic (oil-starved) bride? I think not, for if the Father knew how to prepare Rebecca for Isaac, would He not do at least the same for His beloved Son?
The majority of believers today, suffer because they have very little light regarding Paul's completing ministry of God.
The other day I ask a believer of over 30 years if he knew that we could hasten the Lord's return, he told me he didn't. Yet, he is in the word daily.
2 Peter 3:12
"Expecting and hastening the coming of the day of God, on account of which the heavens, being on fire, will be dissolved, and the elements, burning with intense heat, are to be melted away?"
Paul's ministry, worked out in believers, is the only way that our Lord's return will be hastened.
Satan knows this, therefore, even though his judgement has been declared, he also knows that he can delay the execution of this judgement by delaying the Lord's return. Hence, his utmost effort is found in the keeping of believers away from the ministry of Paul. For Paul's ministry worked out in believers brings in the execution of God's judgement over Satan.
And so, we have many groups of saints who have been deceived by God's adversary, and brought into the prisons of false teachings, of which the SDA is only one of these many.
In love,
cj
The books of Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians form a cluster of Epistles which make up the heart of the divine revelation in the New Testament. Therefore, these books are very important. Ephesians covers the church as the Body of Christ, whereas Colossians deals with Christ as the Head of the Body. Galatians is concerned with Christ, and Philippians, with the experience of Christ. In Colossians and Ephesians we receive a clear view of the Head and the Body. In Galatians and Philippians we see Christ and the experience of Christ.
Just as there are four seasons in the year, so there are seasons in our Christian experience. This means that in our experience with the Lord we pass through winter as well as summer. The winter experiences are helpful, for they prepare us for a new beginning, which comes in the spring. During the winter season the various kinds of life are reduced. Through the reduction that takes place in winter, life is prepared to grow again. Because in our spiritual experience there is the need for us to be reduced, we must be ready for winter at the appointed time. We may say that Galatians is a winter book, a book that reduces us and eliminates everything that should not be permanent. However, this reduction serves a very positive purpose: it prepares us for further growth in life.
We all need to be reduced. We need to be reduced not only in things that are natural or worldly, but even in the various aspects of our spiritual experience. For the sake of further growth in the Lord, we need to be reduced. Certain things in our Christian life may be very good, scriptural, and spiritual. But as long as these things are not Christ Himself directly, they should not be given a place with us very long. Only Christ Himself should have a permanent place in our Christian life. All other things, even the most spiritual experiences, must be reduced. In order for this reduction to take place, God ordains winter. We should never expect to have an endless summer in the Christian life. On the contrary, we should expect the recurring cycle of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Whenever we come to a winter in our experience with the Lord, we should be encouraged that spring and summer will follow in due time. Therefore, we should be encouraged to be reduced in order to have another new beginning. It is my hope that these messages on Galatians will serve this purpose.
(Excerpt taken from The Life Study of the Book of Galatians.)
A major undoing in our Christian walk is our unwillingness to allow the Lord to reduce us. Yet, it is the way, the principle, the worked out wisdom by which God accomplishes what He desires in each of us.
The SDA institution, as well as other denominated so-called Christian institutions, have taken an anti-reduction stand against the work of God. And this wickedness is clearly exposed in the resulting division that is seen throughout the apostate walls of man-made Christianity.
God's work issues in God expressed,...... and God is one.
This is not to say that the believers who are within these walls are not saved, as a man's salvation can occur in any sinful environment. But it is to say that the working out of the salvation of those within the walls is severely limited, though not for all, as in the book of Revelation we find situations whereby the Lord can gain overcoming believers even from within these apostate environments.
The Lord's mercy and grace know no limitation.
But back to the matter of the undoing...... ministry, or lack of ministry is the reason.
Paul, the apostle who was given the COMPLETING MINISTRY by God, declares to us that he (meaning more importantly, his ministry) was abandoned by most of the known Church at that time. And the issue of this apostasy/falling away from Paul's ministry, which is to say, falling away from God's completing ministry, is continuing today...... hence apostate institutions such as the SDA.
And don't for a moment attempt to sugar-coat it..... the SDA is an apostate institution, teaching that which is against Christ snd His building up of the Church.
Satan since the beginning has used the method of the counterfeit as a way of moving man away from God. And his attempts at this take on all sorts of outward appearances.
"Did God not say?"........ "If You are the Son of God, cast Yourself down; for it is written,.....''
Satan has no problem is using God's words against God. And Satan has no problem preaching Jesus in a way that will never bring a man to the fullness of Christ.
And this is what the lack of Paul's ministry results in, a believer never being completed, a believer never being perfected and brought to the fullnes of God in Christ in this life.
And if there is no group of believers expressing God on this earth, then where is the built-up Church that our Lord declared He would build?
What sort of bride do you think the Bridegroom is returning for,.... a divided, immature, anemic (oil-starved) bride? I think not, for if the Father knew how to prepare Rebecca for Isaac, would He not do at least the same for His beloved Son?
The majority of believers today, suffer because they have very little light regarding Paul's completing ministry of God.
The other day I ask a believer of over 30 years if he knew that we could hasten the Lord's return, he told me he didn't. Yet, he is in the word daily.
2 Peter 3:12
"Expecting and hastening the coming of the day of God, on account of which the heavens, being on fire, will be dissolved, and the elements, burning with intense heat, are to be melted away?"
Paul's ministry, worked out in believers, is the only way that our Lord's return will be hastened.
Satan knows this, therefore, even though his judgement has been declared, he also knows that he can delay the execution of this judgement by delaying the Lord's return. Hence, his utmost effort is found in the keeping of believers away from the ministry of Paul. For Paul's ministry worked out in believers brings in the execution of God's judgement over Satan.
And so, we have many groups of saints who have been deceived by God's adversary, and brought into the prisons of false teachings, of which the SDA is only one of these many.
In love,
cj
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