-I take issue with
some so-called 'spiritual' people who go to church every week and yet live
far less than exemplary
lives otherwise.
It has been said that religion
is the best cloak
and being honest with one's self the best armor! Ephesians
6:11-13; 1Corinthians 15:18,19.
There are many
hypocrites
in all religions who
believe
that they are spiritual, however their
works.convey
something else entirely:.Titus
1:16; Colossians 2:18.
The 'educated' religionists
in the time of Christ on Earth in the individual of one
called Emmanuel, were typical of closed-minded
viewpoints. These were the Pharisees,
Sadducees, lawyers, doctors and scribes and the sycophants
who followed them. Emmanuel
dealt with the likes of them all the time.
Many are duped
into selfish concerns, so much so that they are seemingly
frozen in that state of being. These
are the spiritually blind.staunchly.obstinate,
carrying in mind an unmalleable
and unmoving intellectuality.
These are those who are static
spiritually, the frozen chosen, not having any spark of spirituality
in them igniting
a love for the true God and the
knowledge necessary to progress spiritually.
Living as
they please.(Isaiah
30:10),
attending
church regularly, perhaps influenced
by a wrong message leading them to shrink from deeds
of compassion due to complacency,
this life and their presence in it supersedes
some necessary efforts toward a great everlasting reward.
They are the walking dead.
For these people, putting
the Creator on a pedestal.renders
personal action toward spiritual growth unnecessary, as they probably think
'God sees all and would surely let us know what to do when we are supposed
to do it; we'll wait till then'. And so, they become the
frozen chosen. Action is needed and action
is needed now.
Living
a
vision of self contentment.(2Corinthians
10:18 "For not he that commends himself is approved, but whom God commends."),
study, prayer and thinking time over how to gain the high eternal reward
obviously seldom enters some minds. These are the 'frozen chosen', the
mentally lazy lukewarm so-called
'spirituals':.Revelation
3:15.
They give new meaning to
the scripture phrase."dead
in Christ" and maybe this is why they may read what is written here:.1Peter
4:6. I speak facetiously.
It is the attitude of Christ
in us that leads us to do works of righteousness. It's our
good works that count for a reward and it's God's work in us that gets
us the position where our reward is able to function. Like a house.(in
my house are..).pwithin
which you live and is your basis for expression in the physical life, a
reward is what's received for getting out of the house and around others:.John
13:15-17. This is living in
the spirit.
1Timothy
4:12 "...be you an example of the believers, in word, in conversation,
in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity."
1John
2:6 "He that says he abides in him ought himself also so to walk, even
as he walked."
God put a mark on Cain to
protect him from those who would want to slay him, as the news of him murdering
his brother Abel probably would spread rapidly:.Genesis
4:15.
Jude
1:10-16 "But these speak evil of those
things which they know not and what they know naturally, as brute beasts
in those things they corrupt themselves. Woe unto them! For they have gone
in the way of Cain.(Genesis
4:1-12; Cain was thought to be a son of Adam and Eve, but the devil
had got his finger in the pie early. How?
Cain, who murdered
his brother is typical
of the way of selfishness, hate, resentment, jealously and dislike. Murder
is the way of Cain. Murder for anything he felt he deserved to do, such
as venting his jealousy by killing his brother, because as they say, 'the
devil got to him', but how
and why did such evil start?).and
ran greedily after the error of Balaam
for reward.(the
selfish 'me first' and 'me only' way of getting {ever been to a settling
of a family will, which can elicit
the ways of low consciousness?}).and
perished in the gainsaying
of Core.('Core'
is an alternate spelling for Korah, a seditious.ringleader
who turned others against Moses and
Aaron
and perished doing so:.Numbers
16:1-35). These are spots in your
feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without
fear; clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose
fruit withers, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. These
are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts and their mouth
speaks great swelling words, in order to have men's persons in admiration
because of advantage.(they
love 'brownnosers' they can take advantage of)."
The rebellion of Korah and
his company was a claim to exercise the ancient
priesthood.(when
it was still extant;
but now done away).as
Aaron was exercising it:.Numbers
16:1-15. It was an attempted takeover, basing the reason for it on
dissatisfaction towards those whom God put in charge. Moses and Aaron were
handling things a certain way and these others didn't like it that they
were not in control.
So, atonement
was to be made for this rebellion of the people, this rebellion caused
with the guidance of a man named Korah:.Numbers
16:46-49.
The people however,
even after all this.(the
scriptures in the above two paragraphs),
went after their
idols. Moses said."they
sacrificed to devils, not to God":.Deuteronomy
32:17;
Ezekiel 20:16. Those were the gods
of their affections, whom they chose. The true God had taken
Israel back then for His people and had become their God on the condition.(Exodus
19:7,8).that
they should not become friends with those of evil.
People have less of life
because they fear what more of life would come with. Preferring instead
to retain as small a footprint in life as is possible, in order to sort
of 'slip by unnoticed', they have decided to not be strong enough to risk
being hurt by results of decisions.
Often wasting their substance,
biasing
and prostituting
emotional wealth, they are unable to be moved by the plight
of others less fortunate than themselves. Perhaps sensing a kind impulse,
yet by restricting acting toward its expression, any responsibility felt
to assist another in need is bypassed for immediate selfish concerns usually
involving fear:.Genesis
4:8,9; Matthew 22:37-40;
*.
When decision to avoid a
decision occurs, it freezes us into inaction and we become unable to participate
in empathy.
We thereby leave
off opportunity in assisting one to avoid further frostbites in life, leaving
the other to handle things on his or her own.
Some spiritual individuals
stop at the first stage, virtually
putting the responsibility for their salvation on to the 'truth' disseminators
in the pulpit.
They need to think about:.Philippians
2:12 ".....work out your own
salvation with fear and trembling"? And.Ezekiel
33:30-32 "Also, you son of man, the children of your people still are
talking against you by the walls and in the doors of the houses. And speak
one to another, every one to his brother, saying: Come, I pray you and
hear what is the word that comes forth from the Lord.(many
are zealous for their church but not for the well being of others {'come
on to our church and hear this great speaker anointed of God' [maybe yes,
maybe no]}). And they come unto you
as the people come and they sit before you as my people and they hear your
words, but they will not do them. For with
their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after their covetousness.
And, lo, you are unto them as a very lovely song of one that has a pleasant
voice and can play well on an instrument. For they hear your words, but
they do them not." Matthew 13:30
"Let both grow together until the harvest and in the time of harvest I
will say to the reapers: Gather you together first the tares
and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn."
There are some individuals
who do not like to hear about giving anything in order to effectively
help others. These are the ones who prefer sitting in religious comfort
rather than being a living sacrifice deeply moved by compassion.
Such are the frozen chosen.
These are the ones who would
rather hear fables about 'a smooth life':.2Timothy
4:3,4 "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine,
but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having
itching ears and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall
be turned unto fables.(or,
'turn aside to fables' which are comfortable for them)."
Isaiah
30:9-11 "That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children
that will not hear the law of the Lord, which say to the seers: See not.
And to the prophets: Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth
things, prophesy deceits.(in
effect saying... 'we want only to hear that which fits with our emotional
state of self-comfort' or, 'don't ruffle me'),
get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One
of Israel to cease from before us.".(or,
'we do not want to hear any spiritual stuff':.Jeremiah
44:16,17)
Those with fire
in their hearts for God confidently
move
beyond, into doing what seems necessary
spiritually and physically to gain a reward
for themselves and for others:.Romans
9:3. In this way Creator-God's words become life to them:.John
6:63.
Not being
a
spiritual individual hot to do good, puts one on dangerous ground.(1John
3:10; Psalms 106:36,39;
Revelation
3:16).as
far as their ultimate eternal reward is concerned.
SelfIshNess
increases dullness of hearing, where one just does not
want to listen and learn. That's because one's love of a larger self
precludes
the learning. Most learning is to become creative and more assistive to
others in some way. Not listening and learning from life can be dangerous,
as it was for this young
man. We need to be of mind to have attention to our feelings and to
not talk about or think about the
evil things which are opposed to the way of love.
