You have no religion?

You say you don't believe in religion? Then you don't believe in living your faith. Religion is just the

restraint and liberty that are the result of what you believe. I go to church because I believe in Christ

who commanded it. I believe in living the best I can by the Ten Commandments, because Christ

commands it. I am not saved by my religion and you are not damned by yours; you are saved ...by

faith in Christ and damned by believing other stuff, but your religion reveals what you believe. Can't

help it.

"Religion" is derived from the Latin word for "tie, or fasten." Don't trust a man who says he has no

religion: he cannot be trusted for he has no restrain upon his actions; he does as he pleases.

The Scriptures: Self Validating

Neither the Father, nor the Son, nor the Holy Spirit gave me a vision, a dream, a voice or any such
thing that convinced me that the Scriptures are the word of God.

I was convinced by the Scriptures themselves; not from the claims that Scripture makes [though it
does], but because they are the truth, discerning the thoughts and intents of my heart, penetrating the
lies that my own heart fabricates in defense, and leaving me naked before the eye of the Creator and
showing the folly of my own thoughts and the thoughts of all those who try to deny.

The Scriptures are as self-validating as the sun to those with eyes; as the song of the birds to those
with ears; as roses to those who can smell; as the honey to those who can taste; as the warmth of a
mother's love to those who can feel.

But beware: they are life unto life to those whose senses are exercised by the Spirit of God, but they
are death unto death to those who rebel and fly in the face of God.

2Cor. 4:3,4: "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who
is the image of God, should shine unto them."

A Period of Cleansing?

It very well might be that the American Church needs a period of cleansing and testing, a shaking so
that which cannot be shaken may remain. The winds, the rain, the storms come to all houses and they
reveal the foundations, whether sand or the eternal Rock, as Jesus said. Matt. 7:21-29. I do not know
that, for only God knows His own mind, but I do fear His words, which stand forever.

It is not those who say, "Lord, Lord," or even those who do mighty works in the name of Christ who
are of the kingdom of God. The Kingdom consist of those who do the Father's will. [Matt. 7:21ff]

Houses built upon the sand [hearing His word and doing it not, Matt. 7:26] will come tumbling down,
with their homosexual marriages, their feminist rebellion, their male pride and arrogance, their
arrogance of foolishness, and transgressions of the law of God, their irrational and frivolous worship,
their turning the house of prayer into a den a theives, their fornication, their adultery, their theft and
greed, their pretended love that makes merchandise of the poor to advance their power and ambition;
their slaughter of their children on the altar of convenience and pleasure; all come tumbling down, for
disobedience at the foundation of the house destroys the house, and the corruption of the missionary
message into Arminian humanism. You can count on it, according to the word of the Son of God,
whose words will never pass away.

For the Son of God will come in the day you think not [whether in temporal judgment or in the Last
Day], and judgment will begin in the house of the Lord. 1Pe 4:17 "For the time is come that judgment
must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not
the gospel of God?" If the salt has lost its savor, it is fit for nothing but to be cast out and trodden
underfoot.

Heb 12:26, 7 "Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I
shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of
those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may
remain."

Meditation and Prayer on 2Timothy 1:13

2Tim 1:13 "Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which
is in Christ Jesus."

Dear Heavenly Father, I confess that in Jesus Christ I have found faith and love that I could not have
imagined, for I have nothing that can reach so far into the heavens to lay hold on these immense
treasures. Your love has followed me all the days of my life, even when I was not aware of Your
presence.

This love and faith came to me only because of the words of the Gospel that were told to me by
people in whom your love and faith lived. They told me of Jesus and His love for sinners like me.
The story gripped my heart, dear Lord. I did not know how. Later I learned that it was your Holy
Spirit, but I was just a child and only knew that the story was true. I hungered to know more of this
faith and love.

Thank you for raising up your faithful apostles, including Paul who wrote this epistle to Timothy.
The apostles spoke words that you gave them, not words which human wisdom taught them, but
words which the Holy Ghost gave them. These words have meaning, the meaning that you chose to
place under them, so that when we heard the words we would know of your faith and love, and be
constrained by your Spirit to enter into the fellowship of the Gospel through the words of the
Apostles.

We confess, O Lord, that sound words are important, and we should not constantly trying to invent
new ways of saying these precious things, for they came to us in sound and clear words, words that
carried the meaning that You had revealed to us about the faith and love in Christ Jesus.

May we take the time and labor to teach people the meaning of these precious words so that your
message of faith and love is not confusing to the mind. You, O eternal Word and Wisdom of God,
our Lord Jesus, chose words very carefully and taught us their meaning in the Holy Scriptures. These
words have been carefully translated into our languages and we thank God for faithful men who did
this work so that we might have sound words and understand these things. We thank you for the great
creeds of the church that have carefully defined the words in our languages also, so that we might not
go astray in such an important matter.

Teach us, O Lord, to hold fast the form of sound words. Form means as “a lively picture”: the words
must not blur the meaning, but must be chosen carefully and used consistently until people know
what they mean and can rely on the great message of the gospel.  

We thank you, especially, in our day for the clarity of words that we have in our language that, if we
are diligent, we can know the meanings of them and so not go astray from the Gospel of faith and
love which is in Jesus Christ. May we not be guilty of shifting words so that people are not rendered
confused about the Gospel. 

We desire, O Lord, to communicate the Gospel, the same Gospel, that our fathers in the faith
conveyed to us. We want to be able to talk to one another in familiar, sound words that are not being
redefined again and again, according to the fashion and opinions of shifting public opinion.