Brothers and sisters, If you are like many of the people I know, you will offend people. You will offend them deeply. The offense will cause them internal distress and maybe pain that they will resent you for. But sometimes God won't be grieved by this. In fact, He'll be pleased.
Off the top of my head I can recall many times when I have offended people. Some of the time afterwards, I confessed and repented of my sin. But then there were other times when I didn't feel remorse, nor did I repent. In fact I praised God for His grace in the situation.
Hold up, before you throw away all your Reach Records CD's, and write blogs with titles like "Trip Lee Lost His Mind!" or "Christian Rapper Apostacizes!" , let me clarify what I'm talking about.
Two Kinds of Offense
[These two are not the only kinds of offense known to man, but this is the distinction I'll use in this brief discussion.]
1. Offense due to sin
If you are like me, you probably can't even begin to count the number of times you have hurt someone because of sinful words or actions. I've hurt friends, family, even strangers during my life. I've been cold to a loved one, treated strangers with partiality instead of love, as well as countless other things. But by the Lord's grace, He has worked compassion and remorse in my heart. And I strive every day not to sin against my brothers and sisters, or anyone I run into for that matter. The Biblical command is to love one another, "Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.- 1 John 4:11", and to love the world as well.
2. Offense due to commanded boldness
There is another kind of offense that is not sinful. It is evidence of grace in your life. It is obedience to the command above (1 John 4:11; John 13:34). The Bible is clear about the fact that if we stand for truth, we will offend people. The crazy thing is that it doesn't treat it like a possibility, it speaks of it as if it is a fact. And it goes as far as to say we will be hated!
In Matthew 10 the Lord Jesus says this:
"Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues... you will be hated by all for my name's sake."
It is pretty rare in our country that we are flogged or injured for Jesus, but when we offend, we are indeed hated. Did you see why we he said that they would be hated though? For His name's sake. We see that Peter refers to Jesus as "a stone of stumbling and a rock of OFFENSE." The offense is the message of the Gospel, the truth of the Scriptures.
So then, this second category of offense isn't wrong at all. It's a result of preaching Jesus. This type of offense has nothing to do with the messenger, but has to do with the message. Some people are too abrasive, or condemning, or self righteous and they add offense to an already offensive message. This is what we must avoid. We are to lovingly present an offensive message to those who need to hear it. This includes Christians and non-Christians.
As a matter of fact, I have talked with some within the body who have been offended by me and my brothers hard stances on biblical truths. For some, we've hurt their feelings *[see below]*. And while I strive to speak with them lovingly and graciously, I am not apologetic. That is unless I'm shown that I've misunderstood what God said in His Word. I strive to proclaim truth boldly even if it offends man, because to shy back would be to offend God. That's the other mistake we must avoid- not standing for truth in fear of offending others.
Conclusion
I say this at the risk of someone misunderstanding and thinking that the purpose is to offend people. So I will say it clearly. THE POINT IS NOT TO OFFEND PEOPLE! DO NOT SET OUT TO OFFEND PEOPLE! YOU ARE NOT SPIRITUAL BECAUSE YOU MAKE FOLKS MAD! The point is to stand for the truth of the Scriptures fam. With that said my question is this: If you aren't offending people, what in the world are you doing with your life!!?? It sure isn't loving your neighbor as yourself. If you do stand for biblical truth, offense is inevitable. And if you aren't offending anybody it's probably because you aren't loving others as you should.
Romans 1:16, live it out fam.
In reference to offense among the church...
*Especially the prosperity Gospel piece. We all know it's controversial (And to be fair there are different persuasions within this movement). But the prosperity Gospel is simply not in the Bible and seems to be due to misunderstanding. To suggest that we can presently experience everything that Jesus purchased on the cross is simply not true. This is part of why we await His return for His bride. Jesus will indeed restore us to perfect health, prosperity, and remove all sufferings for HIs people (Rev 21), but we await that while we await His return and final redemption. In fact, it looks like the Bible promises a very rough life for Christians. This is just one example of something that offends, but we stand against it because we believe it to be unbiblical
Comments
I think in our everyday lives when we as Christians are faced with situations like that we need to remember that we NEED to tell people the truth because it is our duty, its our responsibility, its or mission to be unashamed of the gospel of Christ. We need to always remember those duties and if ever we need encouragement remember that bible says: "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind"(2 Timothy 1:7)
Blessings and Peace :)
-Jordy
His servant, Zach
Awesome line that we all need to act upon as followers of Jesus. The wise man is the one who fears God not man.
Your fellow bond-slave of Christ.
chris
God bless you guys at Reach, you've all been INCREDIBLY edifying in my life! Praise the LORD for y'all! May the LORD give us strength to speak His truth in love!
-David
*God Bless.
Grace and peace to you my brother!
Romans 5 talks about glorying in tribulation as it works patience. Psalms 1 says that a person who doesn't hang with sinners or get counsel from the unGodly will be blessed and prosper in everything. Psalms 112 tells us that a man who delights greatly in God's commandments will have wealth and riches in his house.
Personally, I believe the prosperity gospel is Scriptural but has been slanted too much towards the bling type riches of cars, houses, and clothes without enough of a balanced perspective of prosperity being based on where you start in God's eyes(parable of the talents).
Christians need to understand that our enemy is not other Christians with different focuses in their doctrine that we may not agree with. We need to work harder to get together with each other to fight our common enemy who is working hard against us and laughing at us when we have the division we have.
I would like someone who doesn't believe in the prosperity gospel to ignore everything the prosperity preachers have taught, take Psalms 112, Psalms 1, the parable of the talents, the parable of the sower sows the word, Phil 4, and come to the conclusion that God has not make provision for his children to be prosperous in everything including but not limited to finances.
I say this as part of a hopefully peaceful Scriptural debate.
[1] Praise ye the LORD. Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, that delighteth greatly in his commandments.
[2] His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed.
[3] Wealth and riches shall be in his house: and his righteousness endureth for ever.
The New Testament refers in many places about how unrighteousness will keep people away from the kingdom of God/heaven (i.e. God's system of doing things). The parable of the talents of Matthew 25 has Jesus telling how the kingdom of heaven IS where he describes a men ending up with 10 and 4 talents as good and faithful and a man who has the same 1 talent he started with is wicked and his 1 is given to the man who had 10. Jesus himself gave this parable of how the kingdom is by describing a rich man getting more and a poor man getting less. How then can we say that Jesus doesn't have any standard of faithfulness based on what people have and continue to produce?
Again, I'm not trying to disprove what Bishop XYZ, or Pastor ABC has said. I'm sharing Scripture for a peaceful debate over a fundamental principle that has caused discord among the brethren which the Father hates.
I reiterate that the way the prosperity message has been taught to me has been slanted too much towards the opulent prosperity which may be true for some but for others, they are no less a good and faithful servant if they get off welfare and end up paying all of their bills in an apartment with a paid for economy car.
In short, the prosperity Gospel, as evident in the name, puts prosperity ahead of the Gospel, or at best gives prosperity in this life more emphasis than it deserves.
Lotus, your noted scriptures compliment the scriptures on the parable of the talents. Scripture doesn't contradict itself. We can't look at someone and say they must have done something to be in their current state as we don't know their story or where they came from. People start out with different lots in life. The parable of the talents talk about what you do with what you have over time. Do you exercise seed, time, harvest or do you keep your seed in the shed. In particular, in Matthew 25:19 Jesus says
[19] After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.
So they all started with something different but after a LONG time two of the servants had harvest on their seed and one didn't. The 2nd servant ended up with less talents(4) than the 1st servant started off with(5) yet he was called a good and faithful servant the same. God is looking at what we do over time with what we have. I believe the perception of the prosperity movement could then be overly slanted towards the guy who got 10 talents(big house and Benz) and not enough for the guy with 4 talents(small paid for house and economy car after starting on welfare). They should get equal time but we can't throw either scenario out so blasting dudes who teach it is counterproductive to God's mission.
Since HHH is anti-secular hip hop, I understand the anti-money slant. We need to realize though that Christians are not our enemy and not throw the baby out with the bath water. For me, I listen to many Christian preachers, eat the hay, spit out the sticks.
At best, this subject is too debatable to be such a source of discord in the body of Christ which God hates.
Wealth
Old Testament Hebrew Definition:
01952 hown {hone}
from the same as 01951 in the sense of 0202; TWOT - 487a
AV - rich 11, substance 7, wealth 5, enough 2, nought 1; 26
n m
1) wealth, riches, substance
1a) wealth
1b) price, high value
interj
2) enough!, sufficienc
and riches
Old Testament Hebrew Definition:
06239 `osher {o'-sher}
from 06238; TWOT - 1714a; n m
AV - riches 36, far 1; 37
1) wealth, riches
The definition in that Scripture wasn't specific and exclusive to spiritual riches. Faithfulness and obedience to God and his full gospel over time will have us taking our resources, making more and being good and faithful servants or taking our resources not making more and being considered slothful. Jesus said this himself.
Our enemies are not believers who believe Jesus wants us to prosper over time. Jesus said it himself in the parable of the talents. Our enemy is the person who told us that other believers are our enemy. Some of the prosperity teaching goes overboard on the type of prosperity that God wants us to have. We still have Jesus in common and can spit those sticks while we eat the hay.
Trip continue to represent......
God's peace be with you, and be blessed.
~ Romans 1:16~
Name:John T. Washington
Age: 11
I'm only 11 and I can discern this stuff. Amen and Glorify God and Christ.
I love listening to people who know what theyâ??re talking about and recently my ears tuned into the words that proceeded out of the mouth of a seasoned minister, as he shared the story of his quest to fulfill his God given vision to reach out to the world with the Great Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It was during his journey from the small town of his birth to a much larger and diverse city located in the southern part his native Philippines that he entered into one of the most perplexing struggles of his life. .
His statement was â??As I fought through the jungle, I was met with a greater enemy than the merciless terrain, for it was fear and doubt that pounded my mind and spirit trying to quench the fire set by God Himself. Did you really hear from God, what if you fall flat on your face and what will people say when you fail? (Paraphrased)?â??
Wow, I was blown away by his statement, for I knew its spiritual significance was not derived from a text book, but originated through experience which can only be found in the spiritual realm of Faith.
Many potentially great movements have never become more than just a great thought, for they were annihilated by doubt and fear before they could even materialize. Scripture says â??For the dream comes through much effort (labor)â?¦â?¦. (Ecc. 5:3).â??
THE BATTLE FOR OUR MIND
Billions of dollars are invested annually on advertising by various interest groups seeking to take possession of a piece of prime real-estate the size of two clenched fists and which only weighs about 3 pounds. This piece of prime real- estate is located safely within the human cranium and is called the Cerebrum or commonly known to us as the brain. Holy
Scripture reinforces its significance for in Prov. 23:27a, we are told â??For as he (mankind) thinks within himself, so he isâ?¦.â?? Itâ??s been said that â??It only took about 10 days for God to physically take the Israelites out of Egypt, but it took Him 40 years to take Egypt out of the Israelites.â?? The reason being is that they had 400 years of slave mentality instilled into them and at the first bump on the road to freedom they instinctively begged to return to their prior meager existence (Read to Book of Exodus).
With that in mind, does it really surprise you that those in our present-day secular society are relentlessly bombarding the worldâ??s media super highway in an attempt to pollute and conform the minds of our youth and general population to their Godless agenda. Sadly the end product of this scheme is the mental transformation of a people whom God Himself has called a great and mighty nation (Gen.18:18)â?? into mere beasts of burden (read â?? Rom.1:18-28 - 2 Peter 2:18-22 - 2 Tim. 2:26
TAKING IT HIGHER
Though my writings paint a realistic portrait of our societyâ??s condition, nevertheless this doesnâ??t portrays the whole scope of Godâ??s plan for His creation, how vain for any nation to believe that itâ??s government policies can somehow dethrone the creator of the universe (read â??Rom 9:21- 1 Peter 1:25 â??Matt. 24:35). It is for that exact reason mankind is put in check regarding their equality with their maker, â??For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, for it is written, He takes the wise in their own craftiness (1 Cor. 3:19).â?? Again He says, â??For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,â?? declares the Lord. â??For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts (Isa. 55:8, 9).â??
Let the history books speak for themselves as they reveal how all the seemingly invincible earthly empires have crumbled as they tried to shut the mouth of God. Now letâ??s just say that every Born Again Believerâ??s mouth was slammed shut â?? now what? Well Jesusâ?? reply to that is, â??â?¦, I tell you, if these (mankind) become silent, these stones will cry out (speak with a loud voice)! (Luke 19:40).â?? And once again the Words of Jesus reiterate the immortal destiny of His church, â??â?¦â?¦and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades (Hell) will not overpower it (Matt.16:18),â??
PUT ON THE MIND OF CHRIST
It is when we strip off the polluted ideologies of this earth, and allow ourselves to be transformed into the same mental attitude which was also in Christ Jesus (read â?? Phil.2:5), that we as followers of Jesus Christ will continue to be that bright light that shines in our dark world and an unstoppable voice proclaiming the redemption story of the Life, Death and Resurrection of God incarnate (Matt. 5:14-16 â?? Matt.24:14).
In closing, let me share with you something that has always excited me since I first stepped into the super-natural realm of Faith. Itâ??s been there that Iâ??ve been privileged to serve along side many simple-ordinary people (just like you and me) who through faith continue to give of their talents as they serve as teachers, ushers, greeters, musicians, preachers, food ministries, missionaries (foreign and domestic) and the list is endless. These are great warriors of today who are fulfilling the great commission (Matt. 28:19).
Over the years, I have witnessed many of my contemporaries (myself included) drop the ball and wrestle with the idea of being worthy enough to get back into the game. But letâ??s bury that issue today! For the answer you have been seeking is found in Godâ??s love letter to you and me and it serves to remind us of our secure relationship with Him who has purchased us with His precious Blood,
; so be encouraged,â?? For the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable (Rom 11:29).â??
There are hundreds of reasons (trials) why people never experience their God given purpose, but to the true Faith fed servants of God these trials only enhance their resume by 9 priceless words, which were originally pinned by the Apostle Paul, â??â?¦and out of them all the Lord rescued me (read â?? 2 Tim. 3:11)!â??
Your friend always on this journey called life.
Rev. Joe A. Rivera
PRESSING ON FAITH MINISTRIES
Temecula,Ca. 92591
7-7-09
God Bless
Don't know if you'll read this, or if the issue is resolved for you, but just thought I could encourage you...
If you track back a little, you will see Jesus was addressing His disciples. Yes, it's true we are His disciples, but we were not one of the 12 apostles. What I'm saying is, for Christ to challenge them to sell what they had and give to the poor is not a mandate that every saint should sell everything and give the proceeds to charity as a good work, but rather that the apostles were about to enter into an itinerate i.e travelling lifestyle, where they were to depend on God for their provision - giving the proceeds to the poor was a sacrifice that Christ challenged them to make, so they could only trust God for their provision and well being.
In a moderm context I could liken it to my pastor saying that he is gonna send me to a city to start a work for God, then challenging me personally to sell all I have and give it to charity, then depend on God to open doors for work/housing/a church building in that city...
Hope that helped. Stay obedient to your headship, but continue to cultivate a sacrificial heart. The best gift to the poor is the gospel.
Peace and blessings.
This poison, this shadow of death
Gets thicker with every breath
Outside my window, down on the street
Multitudes walk by, ignoring the beat
of their heart, that God provides,
Then they wonder why
Their soul and sins collide.
Men are ignoring the facts
that cover their back:
Christ was nailed bleeding and bare.
In this city, this darkness,
His light is air.
The hearts attatched to the gold-watched hands
holding leather briefcases and future plans,
are breaking with every breath,
as the suffocating poison descends,
this subtle, silent, shadow of death.
The perfect painted faces of women so still
hide empty souls that long to be filled
Unmask your face,
your crumbling faith, and breathe
slowly, fully and free.
For you:
Christ was nailed bleeding and bare.
In this city, this darkness,
His light is air.
Now this is the story: Gods light
is His will, His ways, His Glory.
Light shines in the darkness
but we don't understand,
We blindly live like the Son of Man
We still treat this land that were walking
like it is our home,
have we doubted His strength over death,
that He's shown?
Isaiah tells of a city always bright, with air so clear,
With no violence, emptiness, death or fear.
The sun never sets, the moon never wanes,
there are walls of Salvation and gates of Praise.
Although you have been hated, despised, forsaken
The Lord will make you into a mighty nation
His people will worship him, rightly, forever,
They will be His pride, His joy, His splendour.
You see, he defeated death,now we can sing,
This shadow, this poison has lost its sting.
So brothers and sisters, Arise and Shine
For His light has shone,
now is the time,
to show a breathless world in need
That only Jesus is the key
to living, walking and breathing free.
Maybe we will offend people, but also maybe, people have to be offended by the truth. They have to be shown they are suffocating before being offered the air to breathe freely.
PEACE out. In Him.
Justin Doss
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