M
MrVersatile48
Guest
Another wacky, winsome & wise circular from St Louis' own Bryan Hibberts, to wow & enthral your friends on this cold, wet, windy Monday..
with many more in his archives click...
SheepTrax - Bryan Hupperts
Subscribe Unsubscribe Change E-mail View Archive
Christian Cannibalism
Bryan Hupperts
Mar 23, 2006
Christian Cannibals
Bryan wrote a wonderful book called A Raven's Gift. Click here to order: http://www.sheeptrax.com/products.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi, SheepTrax!
Ahhh…. The Caribbean, the desired vacation spot of the Western world. As I am always curious about word origins, I looked the word Caribbean. The islands were named after the Caribs, indigenous people who were, by most credible accounts, cannibals. The Caribbean Islands are really the Cannibal Islands.
And you thought your neighborhood was tough?
Cannibals are people who eat other people; they dine on human flesh. The scientific word for folks with a hankering not merely to Eat At Moms, but to Eat Mom, is anthropophagites, but so what? Most condemned prisoners are offered a final meal. In cannibal society, the condemned are the last meal!
So can you be a Christian, one who is commanded to love his neighbor, and also be a cannibal?
Put down your fork and knife 'cause the answer is a resounding "No!"
God has quite a bit to say about devouring one another.
There is cannibalism that devours the flesh, and then a kind that devours a person whole. Curious, isn't it? Both types of cannibalism have to do with a misuse of the mouth. One kind of cannibalism devours the flesh; the other kind devours the human spirit in effort to ruin someone's confidence, influence, and reputation.
God issues a dire warning concerning Christian cannibalism: Galatians 5:14-15, "The entire law is summed up in a single command: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other."
The word "destroy" means to soundly defeat, to consume, to overcome and to bring to total ruin. These are devilish acts. 1 Peter 5:6, "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour."
What Paul told the Galatians Christians is that they were acting like devils when they were using their wayward mouths to bite and devour each other. The end result is that everyone who participates in this sin is assured of mutual destruction.
Jesus taught, in Mark 3:25, "A house is divided against itself… cannot stand." A physical body that is working against itself is said to be sick, diseased. It is unhealthy and in need of a physicians' attention. So it is with the Body of Christ.
There are Vampires For Jesus (but not the real Jesus) who seem to thrive on sucking the very life out of unsuspecting people. If they kill you, fine. Worse, if you've been bitten, you can allow a root of bitterness to take root in your heart over their godless attacks until it finally strangles the fruitful word within...
and you morph one of them...
the living dead; those who have, according to Revelation 3:1, "A reputation of being alive, but… are dead."
Scary.
The cure for Christian cannibalism is to change your diet. Stop devouring one another. Decide that you will stop making carnal judgments against others; stop undermining your brothers and sisters, repent of slander and gossip. Take your godless appetite for the flesh of others to the Cross of Jesus and let him deliver you! In other words, start loving one another.
Matthew contrasts two kinds of Christian professors as sheep and goats. To those who love, he will say, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." To those who do not love, but bite and devour others, he will say, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me."
How important is this? He finished his discourse on the sheep and goats with this admonition: "They (the devouring goats) will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous (those non-biting sheep) to eternal life."
Got the munchies for your brothers' hide? Jesus' warning stands clear: If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out! Your eternal life depends on it. He takes how we treat each other very personally.
Bryan Hupperts
Copyright 2006
SheepTrax Media
PO Box 270256
St. Louis, MO 63127 USA
bryanhupperts@hotmail.com
http://www.SheepTrax.com
http://www.sheeptrax.injesus.com
Duplication and re-transmission of this writing is permitted provided that complete source and website information for SheepTrax Media is included.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'll never forget my wise, missionary veteran 1st Bible class teacher's advice on how to seek what George Verwer's classic book calls, 'A Revolution of Balance'
He said, 'It's so easy to get so consumed by what you are reading right now in the Bible, that the enemy of souls can get you off-balance & obsessed with just 1 part of the whole truth of God's Word, so always ask the Lord to show you if there is a Biblical corollary to what you've just read'
What came to mind is that Brian writes in the outspoken USA culture
We Brits are often rank cowards when it comes to Biblical church discipline
Ezekiel 2-3 was where God told his prophetic watchman how to be a prophetic watchman
It includes faithfully passing on the warnings of God
As Paul told Timothy, we need to do that gently
But firmly
In case the whole church, inc we ourselves, are poluted & corrupted
What 1st came to mind as I read Bryan's latest was the Proverb "Man sharpens man as iron sharpens iron'
The Biblical motive is to edify & build up the whole church in 'the faith once-for-all delivered to the saints' - in Man's Maker's Manual, the Bible
So that the character of Christ is 'fully formed in us'
& we all 'come to full maturity in Christ'
'Equipping the saints for works of service'
How?
See 2 Timothy 3:16-17
2 Timothy 3:16-17 (New International Version)
16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Let's determine, as Paul did, to 'declare the whole counsel of God'
God bless!
Ian
with many more in his archives click...
SheepTrax - Bryan Hupperts
Subscribe Unsubscribe Change E-mail View Archive
Christian Cannibalism
Bryan Hupperts
Mar 23, 2006
Christian Cannibals
Bryan wrote a wonderful book called A Raven's Gift. Click here to order: http://www.sheeptrax.com/products.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi, SheepTrax!
Ahhh…. The Caribbean, the desired vacation spot of the Western world. As I am always curious about word origins, I looked the word Caribbean. The islands were named after the Caribs, indigenous people who were, by most credible accounts, cannibals. The Caribbean Islands are really the Cannibal Islands.
And you thought your neighborhood was tough?
Cannibals are people who eat other people; they dine on human flesh. The scientific word for folks with a hankering not merely to Eat At Moms, but to Eat Mom, is anthropophagites, but so what? Most condemned prisoners are offered a final meal. In cannibal society, the condemned are the last meal!
So can you be a Christian, one who is commanded to love his neighbor, and also be a cannibal?
Put down your fork and knife 'cause the answer is a resounding "No!"
God has quite a bit to say about devouring one another.
There is cannibalism that devours the flesh, and then a kind that devours a person whole. Curious, isn't it? Both types of cannibalism have to do with a misuse of the mouth. One kind of cannibalism devours the flesh; the other kind devours the human spirit in effort to ruin someone's confidence, influence, and reputation.
God issues a dire warning concerning Christian cannibalism: Galatians 5:14-15, "The entire law is summed up in a single command: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other."
The word "destroy" means to soundly defeat, to consume, to overcome and to bring to total ruin. These are devilish acts. 1 Peter 5:6, "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour."
What Paul told the Galatians Christians is that they were acting like devils when they were using their wayward mouths to bite and devour each other. The end result is that everyone who participates in this sin is assured of mutual destruction.
Jesus taught, in Mark 3:25, "A house is divided against itself… cannot stand." A physical body that is working against itself is said to be sick, diseased. It is unhealthy and in need of a physicians' attention. So it is with the Body of Christ.
There are Vampires For Jesus (but not the real Jesus) who seem to thrive on sucking the very life out of unsuspecting people. If they kill you, fine. Worse, if you've been bitten, you can allow a root of bitterness to take root in your heart over their godless attacks until it finally strangles the fruitful word within...
and you morph one of them...
the living dead; those who have, according to Revelation 3:1, "A reputation of being alive, but… are dead."
Scary.
The cure for Christian cannibalism is to change your diet. Stop devouring one another. Decide that you will stop making carnal judgments against others; stop undermining your brothers and sisters, repent of slander and gossip. Take your godless appetite for the flesh of others to the Cross of Jesus and let him deliver you! In other words, start loving one another.
Matthew contrasts two kinds of Christian professors as sheep and goats. To those who love, he will say, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." To those who do not love, but bite and devour others, he will say, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me."
How important is this? He finished his discourse on the sheep and goats with this admonition: "They (the devouring goats) will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous (those non-biting sheep) to eternal life."
Got the munchies for your brothers' hide? Jesus' warning stands clear: If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out! Your eternal life depends on it. He takes how we treat each other very personally.
Bryan Hupperts
Copyright 2006
SheepTrax Media
PO Box 270256
St. Louis, MO 63127 USA
bryanhupperts@hotmail.com
http://www.SheepTrax.com
http://www.sheeptrax.injesus.com
Duplication and re-transmission of this writing is permitted provided that complete source and website information for SheepTrax Media is included.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'll never forget my wise, missionary veteran 1st Bible class teacher's advice on how to seek what George Verwer's classic book calls, 'A Revolution of Balance'
He said, 'It's so easy to get so consumed by what you are reading right now in the Bible, that the enemy of souls can get you off-balance & obsessed with just 1 part of the whole truth of God's Word, so always ask the Lord to show you if there is a Biblical corollary to what you've just read'
What came to mind is that Brian writes in the outspoken USA culture
We Brits are often rank cowards when it comes to Biblical church discipline
Ezekiel 2-3 was where God told his prophetic watchman how to be a prophetic watchman
It includes faithfully passing on the warnings of God
As Paul told Timothy, we need to do that gently
But firmly
In case the whole church, inc we ourselves, are poluted & corrupted
What 1st came to mind as I read Bryan's latest was the Proverb "Man sharpens man as iron sharpens iron'
The Biblical motive is to edify & build up the whole church in 'the faith once-for-all delivered to the saints' - in Man's Maker's Manual, the Bible
So that the character of Christ is 'fully formed in us'
& we all 'come to full maturity in Christ'
'Equipping the saints for works of service'
How?
See 2 Timothy 3:16-17
2 Timothy 3:16-17 (New International Version)
16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Let's determine, as Paul did, to 'declare the whole counsel of God'
God bless!
Ian