You Fools! You Hypocrites! You Snakes!

[Gina]

http://bible-truths.com/fools.htm

This has to be one of my favorite papers. 

[Rhys 🕊]

I do agree indeed. Will have to have another read of the whole thing shortly.

Love this bit at the end:


"For this is GOOD and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; WHO WILL HAVE ALL MEN TO BE SAVED, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth" (I Tim. 2:4).

This IS the "desire and good pleasure" of God Almighty, and "My counsel shall stand, and I WILL DO ALL MY PLEASURE" (Isa. 46:10) despite what all the clergymen in the world teach to the contrary. They hate, and loathe, and despise these plain and simple declarations of God. But their time is very short. This is just a part of the 'GOOD NEWS GOSPEL' that precious few on earth have ever heard or experienced.


Rhys

[Gina]

Yeah, when you think about it, their time is very short.  For me it was like a walk in the park because I came to these truths when I was about 38.  Not a moment too soon either.  It saved my life.  I was so depressed.

What I wasn't prepared for was how miserable I was going to feel after coming to the truths because as Ray said, that's just a part of the Good News Gospel.  There's the chastening grace and the truth and the lessons to be learned and ALL the people and friends (AND THINGS) you have to actually be willing to forsake -- !!  Ahh but my flesh wants so badly to be liked and loved by people.  Oh how a deceitful, weak heart just craves attention and admiration.  I don't want to die like Jesus (spiritually speaking - you know)  -- looking like some stupid fool in the eyes of those whose admiration I seek!   Physician heal thyself.  ha!  Here's a robe and your crown, Queenie!  Punch!  Jab!  But isn't that what the cost of all this is?  It's petrifying when you really stop and think about it!  Absolutely PETRIFYING.  Having virtually NO one understand you, and having to be so alone in this world, so if I come across as a little nutty sometimes, I just figure -- well, so did Jesus.  And He was perfect.  Wow.  I'm like so far from perfect with this unicorn horn stickin out of my head.

But then I'm not alone because we have a Comforter.  God provides.  God is so good.

I pray he provides for each and every one of you and lifts each and everyone of your spirits.

[Rhys 🕊]

I too felt the same way after reading for some time on bible truths. It's quite a tough process to go through. I wish it would get easier but at least for me it doesn't seem to be that way. The feelings of being alone and not being understood gets me a bit depressed now and then. I wonder where to turn sometimes, But I'm glad the Lord is there and that we have others here to converse with. I like how the following verse puts it:

Micah 7:8  Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me.

I'm sure Jesus did come across a bit nutty. From the same paper as Ray mentions:

When the Pharisees asked Jesus, "Why do your disciples...?" Jesus didn't softly answer their question, rather He retorted back with, "Why do YOU...?" Jesus was never on the defensive, but always on the offensive. Using the vernacular, He was "IN THEIR FACE!"

I like the line "In their face". I get the feeling he was right up into there face as well.

Luke 13:31  The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying to Him, Go out and depart from here, for Herod will kill you.
Luke 13:32  And He said to them, You go and tell that fox, Behold, today and tomorrow, I cast out demons and I complete cures, and the third day I will be finished. (MKJV)

He he - I love that He calls him a fox. 

Even Ray says he wasn't as hard on the religious turkeys these days as Jesus was and he gets condemned to hell because of exposing their heresy. Boy they must of loved Jesus in that case. Can you imagine Pastor Jesus in the church today. I would love front row tickets to that little show.  Popcorn anyone - Oh yes please! 

Having a unicorn horn out of your head sounds painful, must be like this giant plank in my eye.

Blessings

Rhys

[Gina]

Well, you can imagine how close we've come to seeing the "show" right here in B-T and Ray's email exchanges.  I mean, how clearer of a picture can you get.  And then there's the face to face with "friends" and "loved ones."  ha  It's quite the battle.  I'd say we've a gotten a little taste of the "good fight."

Well, the unicorn horn is a birth defect of sorts.  It wouldn't be a problem except I keep poking people in the eyeballs.  I don't mean to!  And it's not like I don't have a sign hanging from it saying: KEEP YOUR DISTANCE -- THIS THING WILL PUT YOUR EYE OUT!  They hate that and then they turn around and scream at me.   Good thing I was born deaf.   

[Gina]

Well, if anyone wants to know the truth and story behind that paper...  Once back when Ray had gotten an email from someone who said they thought he should tone down his sarcasm, Ray responded, "I'll think about it."  I wrote him an email and said, "NOooo, don't tone down your sarcasm.  I repeat, DO NOT tone down the sarcasm."

And so he was inspired to write that paper.  (Not that I inspired him to write it, because he had been wanting to write it before my email; God inspired me to make my request to not tone down the sarcasm and God used that as the nudge he needed to write it -- if you want my my humble assumption.)  He asked me if he could mention my name, I said yes initially.  But then after the forum initially opened and I saw exactly what he was undertaking (but making what he was going through and doing look soooooooooo incredibly easy), I got the wind knocked out of me, and I asked him to take my name off the paper.  There was a while there where I didn't like him or that paper at all!   See, because then I came to the assumption that he was just being highly egotistical (but that's because I was seeing my own reflection in the way he wrote).   I got angry and wrote him and said, WHY DO YOU SPEAK THIS WAY TO THOSE PEOPLE!???  (Just like the pharisees did to Jesus.  Then I had THAT hanging over my head.)  I looked and looked and looked and looked and searched diligently for something, ANYTHING to pin on Ray so I could be in the right, but I couldn't find anything.  Oh, my ego wanted so badly to be right about him and his ego.  But boy was I wrong.  (Could you imagine if he actually LISTENED TO ME and tried to accommodate me and my wishes?  The thought makes me shudder to think.  He didn't listen to me at all.  Thank God for that!  haha!)

So yeah, that's why that's one of my favorite papers.

This is a very lonely, lonely road we walk.  Can you imagine being a nobody from Hoboken, New Jersey and then all of a sudden having people flocking to you?  Imagine how easily that would go to your head if you didn't have the spirit of God working and operating in you, or making you not very attractive (as was Jesus) so that no woman (or any man for that matter) would desire you for themselves -- never mind that you were going around saying things like, Let the dead bury their dead and you come and follow me.    Or like you mentioned, "Go tell that fox...."  Imagine having everything and then giving it all up so you could stoop to help a bunch of whores and tax collectors who Jesus probably got to know quite well during his stint as a carpenter in Hoboken -- er Nazareth (can anything good come out of Nazareth?) -- and then saying to the pharisees:  Prostitutes and tax collectors will be entering the Kingdom of heaven ahead (not instead -- as so many mistakenly believe) of YOU!  Imagine being a pharisee and hearing those cutting words!  The axe was truly at the base of the tree. 

Timberrr!  All fall down.

I mean, Jesus spoke the very words most of us would speak if we had the God given brains and the nerve, and wherewithal to withstand the constant attacks.  But no, we cower and think, hmmmm ... but then no one will like me.  And people will be mad at me and how am I going to feed myself and the list goes on... till one day you're being murdered and laughed at and humiliated. 

I'm telling you if I was in Ray's place, I would have packed it in after about the first 100 or so emails.  I know it takes the spirit of God to operate in someone to be able to do all that he did.  We are witness to a miracle.  There's no doubt.

[Rhys 🕊]

Very interesting story. I'm glad you were wrong about Ray too . I never knew that Jesus was a carpenter in Hoboken, perhaps some further study on my part is required.

This passage speaks to me quite a lot. It's no easy thing to become like Christ and yes how we need the spirit of God if we have any show of getting there.


Jesus told the truth. Jesus called a spade a spade. And many people thought He was a contemptuous smart aleck! He was not. It was the Truth of His words that cut them; not just the tone of His voice. However, the tone of His voice and the selection of words and analogies that He used were not only highly offensive to those to whom He spoke, but are likewise offensive to people hearing this same approach used today by God's servants. It is unscriptural foolishness to retort that, "Well, YOU ARE NOT Jesus!" Oh really? And what happened to,

"...because AS He [Jesus] is, SO ARE WE in this world" (I John 4:17),
and
"Let this MIND be IN YOU, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5)?

Naturally I don't want to offend people but maybe that's what it takes instead of a lot of the patting on the back of each other (speaking in terms here of what I experienced in the church). I wish sometimes that other believers would just tell me the truth but I guess they don't really know the truth so how could they. Still be nice if they just opened up the bibles and said well this is what God says like Ray does, not too difficult surely. Maybe I too can look forward to offending more people in the future and if that's God's will then so be it. For now I just like to learn more. I read God's word then pray and read Ray's material and pray and then pray some more. It gradually does bring a change in my life but not easy. And by the way once I've done that then I do it all over again. Sometimes it just gets harder but I'm glad that God is taking me by the hand and leading me.

Rhys