Devo Can’t stand before your enemies? Part 1
Revelation 2:14-16 (NIV) 14 Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality. 15 Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. Numbers 31:16 (NIV) 16 “They were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord in the Peor incident, so that a plague struck the Lord’s people. Balak king of Moab hired Balaam a prophet to pronounce a curse on Israel, but God would only bless them. Balak offered Balaam large amounts of money so he come overthrow Israel, but Balaam tells Balak he can’t curse what God has blessed. We are blessed of God through His son Jesus. Satan can’t curse what God has blessed. It is then out of wanting that large reward that Balaam devises a plan to turn God against His own people. He tells Balak that he must turn God against Israel by enticing them to be unfaithful to God, so Balak sends in women to entice the Israelite men into sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to Moab’s Idols. The Israelites did just that and ate of the forbidden fruit, so to speak. This turned God against them, and God cursed them with a plague. They could not stand before their enemies, because of their unfaithfulness, not the power of Moab or the Satan. Satan had no power over them except through sin. Satan can’t curse what God has blessed. We are blessed of God through Jesus Christ our Lord and savior, returning to our vomit takes away our defense. It was not until they purged the sin from among then repented did the curse stop. If you are lost return to the cross and repent all over again. If God is for you who can be against you, but if God is against you who can be for you. Pastor Jeff Lane Devo Law and confusion part 3
Colossians 2:13-15 (NIV) 13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you[a] alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. First Jesus forgave us our sin. Why would we want to return to that which God has set us free from its bondage? We will talk about this more later. He also set us free fro the regulations of the temple worship and all that went with it. Circumcision, what we can eat and drink, the regulations that pointed to Christ coming. All gone. They had a form of Godliness but no power to set us free from our sin. Pastor Jeff Lane Devo Law and confusion part 2
Colossians 2:8-12 (NIV) 8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. 9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. 11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self-ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. When Christ said he was the fulfillment of the law he was talking about this for example. Under the law we had to be circumcised. This was part of the old covenant. Blood is spilled so that we might come under the old covenant law. Christ spilt His blood for us and He brings us into the New Covenant through His death and resurrection. You see to be released from a covenant one party must die. Take marriage for instance. Marriage is a covenant with God that we make to live with one another for life and not to look upon another. It cannot be broken until someone dies. There has to be a death of one of the parties or a change of mind. Jesus even says anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Divorce does not do away with a marriage it simply allowed them to live apart until someone dies. God is not a man to change His mind so someone had to dies so the old could be done away with and the new come. Jesus like Adam represented the whole race. He became man and died so we could be set free from the old and could come to God under the new covenant which he gave His blood to enforce it. We go into the grave with Him when we are baptized and resurrected with him when we come out of the grave. Praise be to God. Pastor Jeff Lane Devo Law and confusion Part 1
Colossians 2:8 (NIV) 8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. His is one of those studies you will have to follow to the end to fully appreciate. I here a term in the body of Christ that has been used as a license to sin and in some cases to live in sin. What is it? “You are under the law.” What is meant by it? Simply put I have the freedom to live as I want because Christ took me out from under the law. Truth or fiction. The answer is yes, both. Confused? Well stick with me and we will stop the confusion. Confusion is from Satan. There is order in the Spirit of God. We need to understand what Paul is talking about. We can become slaves to false doctrine which can make us slaves to sin again. The Jews had all kinds of writings and man-made laws that had a form of Godliness to them. They developed traditions & philosophies that also made people slaves to them and took away the joy of serving and knowing God. It became so bad that when the living Word stood in front of them they could not know or serve Him because their master was these man made doctrines that enslaved them. These were based on the worlds and Satan’s philosophy that brought spiritual death not life. You can usually spot these lies by how defensive people get or angry. They serve man not God. They leave you lifeless, hollow, dead inside, confused, prideful, condemning, without love, blind, and you tend to say all these things about those who don’t swallow you traditions. They bring only death. Pastor Jeff Lane Devo Give God the praise due Him
1 Kings 12:27-30 (KJV) 27 If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah. 28 Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. 29 And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan. 30 And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan. God of course was the one who brought the Israelites out of Egypt and set them free from their Giving slavery. Now King Rehoboam was trying to save his own skin because he feared the people more than God. The people gave glory to false gods from what God did for them. God does not share His glory. I see people giving Glory to others for what God has done. Be careful to give God all the glory for all he has done in your life. Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. glory to others for God’s work is a sin. Many will not give Him the glory for healing them and so insight His anger against them. Jesus healed people and said go and sin no more. Pastor Jeff Lane |
Pastor Jeff Lane
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