Factionalism is a danger, but factionalism is not the same as having a following.

Many people are quick to bring up Paul’s warning in 1 Corinthians about those who said “I follow Paul” or “I follow Apollos.”

1 Corinthians 1:10-17

10 I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. 12 What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. (ESV)

1 Corinthians 3:4-9

4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?

5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. (ESV)

But Paul is rebuking the church for divisions (1:10) and quarreling (1:11), not for having teachers. Being drawn to a certain preacher does not by itself mean you are committing the sin of factionalism. If you think your favorite teacher is the only one worth listening to, if you are passionate about following him rather than following Christ, if you get into pointless arguments for the sake of defending your teacher, then you are making the mistake Paul warned about.

In spite of all the legitimate warnings against “hero” worship, I want to raise a point of support for holy emulation which includes realistic admiration. Hero worship means admiring someone for unholy reasons and seeing all he does as admirable (whether it’s sin or not). Holy emulation, on the other hand, sees evidences of God’s grace, and admires them for Christ’s sake, and wants to learn from them and grow in them.

This theme is strong in the New Testament.

• “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1).
• “Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us” (Philippians 3:17).
• “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:9).
• “And you became imitators of us and of the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 1:6).
• “[Do] not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Hebrews 6:12).
• “You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness” (2 Timothy 3:10).
• “Continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it” (2 Timothy 3:14).
• “Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity” (Titus 2:7).

The old Puritan Thomas Brooks comments on holy emulation in The Secret Key to Heaven:

Bad men are wonderfully in love with bad examples…. Oh, that we were as much in love with the examples of good men as others are in love with the examples of bad men. Shall we love to look upon the pictures of our friends; and shall we not love to look upon the pious examples of those that are the lively and lovely picture of Christ? The pious examples of others should be the mirrors by which we should dress ourselves. He is the best and wisest Christian…that imitates those Christians that are most imminent in grace…. It is noble to live by the examples of the most eminent saints.

It is right and risky to aim at being worthy of emulation. It is more foundationally right to aim at being helpful. It is essential in both that we be amazed that we are forgiven through Christ, and that we serve rather than seek to be served. This does not answer all my personal questions about this topic, but it is a start.

We really need to pray hard for the many lukewarm brethren among us. If you stop and think about the amazing God we serve and what He does for you daily you could maybe stop whining and start praising every moment you get to spend with Him. Get out of lukewarm and get on fire for Him.

I see people come back from their amazing conferences and talk about how moving it was, but they act the same as before a day later. Experiences are great, but stop depending on them, and dependon God. His experiences will change you forever in ways you can't ignore. Make time to know God, don't expect one emotionally charged event to do it for you as a nice shortcut. Remain lukewarm and you will be spit out. This is not an empty threat from me, it is from the word of God.

Revelation 3:15-20

15 “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. 17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. 19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. (ESV)

Be happy when we reproves and disciplines you. At least you know you are being refined for His work. Don't complain when a sermon runs longer than your 22 minute, TV generated attention span. We need to get over ourselves, and focus back on Him. He died for you, the least you can do for your eternal salvation and His love is stop complaining that someone might beat you to the buffet line.

John 3:30

30 He must increase, but I must decrease.” (ESV)

I pray we can all become less to the point of nothing. Sometimes I can't help but to pray for persecution of the church in America as it will force you to put or shut up. You won't be hiding behind your comfy little façade as a false believer.

I hope will each stop and pray today for a realization of how much God truly loves us and how much he does daily. ;Pray we can get over ourselves and completely be absorbed into Him. ;That's what this is about folks… Living each day coram deo, before His face, you can't hide any part of your fake follower ship of Christ. You will be called out as fakes and phonies on that day, don't think you going to slide under the radar like you do on Sunday mornings as just a face in the crowd. Every single one of us will be singled out and judged according to whether our name is in the lamb's book, and if you don't truly know Him as Master, King, and Savior you will be very disappointed with yourself on that day.

Matthew 10:37-39

37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (ESV)

So get to losing your life for Him.

Stop worrying about

• your time… which isn't yours.
• your money… which isn't yours.
• your friends… which aren't yours.
• your life… which isn't yours.

Focus on the things of God and you will see real change in yourself and the world around you.

Matthew 3:2

2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (ESV)

Luke 13:5

5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” (ESV)

Get over yourself, and get on you knees before God. Spend some one-on-one time today.

This moment is all you are certain to have to honor God, don't waste it. There may not be another in this life.

[bibleblock]1 Timothy 2:8[/bibleblock]

So if prayer is the goal, let’s examine it a bit.

What is prayer?

Prayer is a privilege. Prayer is a direct line of communication and communion with our Father, the God of all creation, being facilitated by the perfection of his Trinitarian being. The Spirit helps us convey our prayers even when all we can let out is a sob and a tear, or we are so confused and scared we don’t know what to say to God. Our Lord Jesus Christ takes the prayers of an unholy sinner and covers them with his blood and forgiveness making them worthy to present to His Father. Our Father God receives these prayers as a loving Father who listens to His children in pure and perfect love. I pray because I want to talk to my Father in Heaven, not only out of Biblical commands, but also out of Joy that I am allowed unlimited audiences with the highest authority in the Universe.

(Read on …)

If one idea could be used to express the idea of how we should live our life as righteous Christians, what would it be?  Some may say to live every day as if it were your last.  Some may say it is the golden rule.  In my personal opinion the singular idea that can express how we should live as Christians is “Coram Deo”. What does it mean?  Well, it is obviously a Latin phrase, let’s take a moment and dissect it.

• Coram (preposition which takes the ablative case) = in the presence of
• Deo (ablative of DEUS, as CORAM takes the ablative) = God

So the combined idea here is “in the presence of God”.  I believe that if we understand and apply this one concept the rest falls into place; the golden rule, the commandments, everything.  We are to live every moment of our life as though we are living in the presence of God (Coram Deo).  Every thought, every action, every word said, every second of our existence must be lived in the presence of, under the authority of, and to the honor and glory of God.  You cannot compartmentalize your life having one portion for the  religious “God stuff”, and one portion for everything else.  If you try to do this you are missing the entire point of being one of His chosen people.  You either live your entire life and existence with God’s will and grace in sight, or you live none of it in His will or grace.  Does this mean you’re not allowed to mess up?  Not at all.  He expects it and always has the exact portion of grace needed to cover it.  You, however, are called to live a righteous and Godly life, period.  You are not called to make everyone happy, have tons of friends, and live in a nice four bedroom in the suburbs.  You are to be aware of the presence of God and also to be acutely aware of His sovereignty.  He alone is God.  Your friends are not God, your job or career is not God, your family and relatives are not God, but He does work through and in all those areas.  Especially when you live your life in a pleasing and glorifying manner to Him.

Coram Deo means that if a person fulfills his or her vocation as a farmer, attorney, or homemaker coram Deo, then that person is acting every bit as righteously as an evangelist or pastor who fulfills his vocation.

To live all of life coram Deo is to live a life of integrity. It is a life of wholeness that finds its unity in the majesty of God. A fragmented life is marked by inconsistency, disharmony, confusion, conflict, contradiction, and chaos.  God is not a God of chaos, but of order (1 Cor 14:33).

We are to consistently live the same life as if we are doing to before God himself (because we are).  You should be the same person out of church that you are in church.  Everything you do should be done as if you are doing it, not just in His presence, but for His glory and honor.  We are to live a life of humility and principle under the constant guidance and teaching of the Holy Spirit.

Living life coram Deo makes all the trifles in our day-to-day life seem very insignificant and helps us rightly realize God’s love and compassion to have a real relationship with us.  Be like Enoch and walk with God Coram Deo (Genesis 5:22,24).

I pray Shalom to you as you strive to live a Righteous Godly life Coram Deo.

What is God’s grace and how does it relate to salvation?
This is such a large topic; I will attempt to begin to scratch the surface of it in a method as worthy to God as I can while gleaning from many resources what I can to present this in an understandable method.

The word translated as grace in the the New Testaments of Scripture comes from the Greek word χάρις (charis [khar'-ece]). The Apostle Paul uses this word to refer to the unmerited and freely given favor and mercy which God bestows upon the sinner in salvation. Through this grace, the sinner is delivered from sin and judgment. Even though it is given freely this grace is very precious and costly since it was bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross. A person who is saved by grace has no basis for boasting in his salvation for he has done nothing to earn or merit it. There is no amount of good works or lawful behavior that can earn salvation by this grace.

The gospel of grace is the only true gospel.

(Read on …)