Thank you for visiting this website. Presumably you are here as a result of reading a tract or booklet you were handed on the street. This website hopes to clarify, in greater detail, some of the truths touched upon in what you read. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!
Note: I copied this article in its entirety from a friend. The message really resonates with me; I wanted to share that with those of you viewing this site.
System honesty majors on not stealing pens from the boss or not cheating on your income tax. But Christian honesty majors on being honest with the ones who really count: God and yourself.
One of the worst names you can call a person is "liar".
But this is, in itself, a hypocritical, unspoken lie. The truth is that we all deceive people at times. We do so to avoid embarrassment, to keep from hurting people's feelings, to keep information from people we do not trust. Even when we refuse to answer, we are hiding some truth. Deception is what lies are all about.
Like the person who "commits adultery in his heart" all of us are liars at heart, because all of us deceive. Yet we make scapegoats of the person who is caught in the act of lying, like the Pharisees did with the woman caught in the act of adultery.
Organisations which used to smuggle Bibles into communist countries often bragged that they didn't lie at the border checks (like some rival smuggling organisations did) and yet they still managed to get Bibles through. How silly! Deception is what it's all about. A few good honest lies might be just what they need spiritually.
Why deceive ourselves into thinking we are more honest than we are? If we could learn to be more honest about our dishonesty (and deception) we could probably discover other truths about ourselves as well. We could face fears and bitterness that we've tried for years to pretend didn't exist. We could confront our pride and greed, laziness and lust. (Hands up everyone who has ever looked at a girlie magazine!) And all of this would probably make us much nicer people to be around, since it would make us less harsh on others who have not been as clever as us in hiding their sinfulness.
When people aren't able to confront the truth about themselves, they overload their subconscious with all the information that the conscious mind does not want to deal with. Mr. Hyde is forced to accept all the nasty truth about Dr. Jekyl that the good doctor doesn't want to take responsibility for himself. Jekyl, of course, never tells lies or cheats on his income tax despite all of this lying to himself.
Christians should be able to face the truth about themselves more than anyone else; because we know that God (who knows the worst about each of us) still loves us and forgives us. If God can forgive us and accept us as friends despite our sinfulness, then why worry about what others will think?
This sort of honesty will make us more whole individuals and bring freedom and understanding in every area of our lives. (James 5:16, John 8:31-32)
“Cash is going to be around for a while but I do think demographically you’re going to see a big change.... Cashless is going to be in two to three generations I’d say.” (Nick Dryden, chief executive of Sthaler.)
You may have noticed that we are moving quickly toward a cashless society, where physical money is used less and less. According to the Reserve Bank of Australia, less than 40% of payments made in 2016 made use of physical cash. The Spice Alley in Chippendale, Sydney - home to six Asian eateries - already doesn’t accept physical cash for payments. You can’t deny that a cashless society is definitely the way of the future. But did you know that it was predicted?
Revelation 13:16-18 says this:
He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.
So, as we see, this prophecy predicts that in the future, people will need some sort of ‘mark’ in their hand (or head) to buy and sell. Now consider the concept of human-microchipping. Already in Sweden, over 3,000 people have had human microchips imbedded under their skin, which they use to enter buildings, book train tickets, and even pay for shopping. A man in Sydney (Meow-Ludo Disco Gamma) made headlines in 2017 when he discarded his Opal Card, and had the RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) chip at the heart of the card implanted into his hand. That may seem eccentric now, but the time is soon coming when that will be the norm; and those without such implants will be seen as “behind the times”.
But back to the prophecy from The Revelation cited above… it says that all will accept the cashless mark. That’s a big prediction; it’s worth considering how that could be.
I believe people will accept that form of technology (probably including you reading this, I dare say) because they have been conned into thinking they can’t live without money. They have bought into the “money makes the world go round” myth, failing to see that we humans created money - not the other way around.
Jesus said that we can’t work for God and money at the same time. (Luke 16:13) He said that we would hate the one, and love the other; be loyal to one, and despise the other. (Matthew 6:24)
If you were honest with yourself, who would you say you love more: God, or money? Probably 95% of you reading this right now would have to admit you love and are more loyal to money than you are to God (i.e. Love). And that is exactly why most of the world - including you, sadly - will accept the Mark of the Beast. (Revelation 14:9)
That said, there is a way out. There is an alternative to the whole “rat race” of money and materialism that encompasses what my friends and I like to call “the system”. What Jesus taught about not worrying about food and clothes, but rather working wholeheartedly for love instead, is a radical alternative to help us live outside the system; and to do so with great joy and satisfaction. (Matthew 6:25-34)
If you would like some practical advice on how to work for love instead of money, then please write today to the following address: jaykwatruthandlove@gmail.com
Thank you.
There are millions of churches around the world, and literally thousands of denominations. These churches and denominations disagree on so much, it’s hard to believe they all call themselves “Christian”. If Jesus wanted His church to be united, then we have to ask ourselves how this could be. (John 17:21)
One important difference between “churchianity”, and real Christianity as Jesus taught it, has to do with obedience. And in particular, obedience to the teachings of Jesus. Despite the millions of churches around the world, I would challenge you to find one that is teaching people to actually obey the teachings of Jesus.
Most churches teach that we don’t need to obey Jesus. They say that this is equivalent to “working our way to heaven”. But what we need to ask ourselves is this: did Jesus teach this? Is this a phrase that Jesus, or even any of the Apostles, ever used? Or is it a tradition of man, which has been passed down over generations, effectively making the real Word of God of no effect? (Mark 7:13)
In reality, Jesus did speak on the topic of obedience. Take a look at John 14:15. Jesus said, “If you love me, you would obey me.” Again in verse 21: “Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me.” And even in Matthew 7, at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says:
Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundations on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. (Matthew 7:24-26)
Just looking at those passages in particular, do you think Jesus does, or doesn’t, want us to obey Him?
Assuming, like me, you think Jesus
Psalm 118:22 says “the stone which the builders have rejected has become the chief cornerstone”. Jesus quotes this psalm in Matthew 21:42; the Bible says that the chief priests and Pharisees knew He was talking about them.
What I’d like to argue here is that this scenario was not just the case for the chief priests and Pharisees in Jesus’ day. This is the situation even now, where the religious leaders have all set Jesus & His teachings aside for the sake of their own interests. They have used a mask of religious piety to mask their insincerity; but their real motivation has been greed, i.e. the love of money. (Matthew 23:14, 1 Timothy 6:5)
There is much more I’d like to say on this issue; and I hopefully
Thank you.
What is your first thought if someone tells you God speaks to them? Wouldn’t you think they’re crazy?
Most people would, and yet there are two questions I’d like to raise in this article: Is God alive? And can He speak to people?
I personally believe that God IS alive and real, and that He DOES speak to people. The real question, though, is this: is anyone listening?
Moving on from there, I’d like to quickly outline eight ways through which God speaks to people, today. Pray for wisdom as you consider the different ways mentioned, and see if God could be using any of those ways to speak to you now.
Jesus is God’s Word sent to earth. (Revelation 19:13) There really is no better way to put it. So if we want to know God’s will, then He is the first and best place to start. (John 14:6-7)
If Jesus told His followers to do something, then we should seriously consider doing it too. We can’t really say we are followers of Jesus if we are not, in fact, following what He has told His followers to do. (John 14:15) So if we are considering doing something that goes against what Jesus taught, then we should seriously question it. It's that simple.
While Jesus gives us excellent guidelines to build our lives around, however, the Bible doesn’t give instructions for specific circumstances we often find ourselves in. So that’s where the other seven ways to hear from God (listed below) can be helpful.
Our conscience is almost as important as the teachings of Jesus. Bear in mind, though, that one’s conscience can be ‘trained’ - for good, as well as evil. (1 John 3:20) So sometimes we need to use the teachings of Jesus to ‘train’ our conscience. As we study the teachings of Jesus, we will find that they speak to our conscience. God’s Spirit, speaking through our conscience, will tell us that what he is saying is true. (John 14:26) We need to heed that voice and not sear our conscience by listening to arguments against what Jesus has said. (Romans 1:18-21)
The next five categories are all similar in importance. Problems can arise with any of them, if any one of them is followed to the exclusion of the others.
We need to listen to the advice of godly people, like those who wrote the Bible; or people around us who have proven themselves to be trustworthy spiritual advisors. (Proverbs 12:15) It’s easy to become a “loose cannon” and want to do things “our own way”. But by accepting advice from others, we can get a “second witness” about God’s will for us. (2 Corinthians 13:1)
One problem with listening to God this way is that someone we’ve trusted in the past could give advice contrary to the rest of what God is saying. What they say may go against (or at least seem to go against) our conscience or against the teachings of Jesus. St. Paul said, for example, that if he or an angel from heaven should say anything contrary to the gospel of Jesus then we should reject it and curse him in preference to rejecting Jesus. (Galatians 1:8)
God can speak to us through dreams, visions and prophecies. (1 Kings 3:5-15, Acts 10:9-16, 2 Peter 1:21) We should take the time to listen to what God has to say. Ask God to give you dreams when you go to sleep; each day when we pray, we should take time to clear our mind of its busy thoughts and allow God to speak to us.
When we do this, we may see a picture, have some words come into our head, or have a little daydream which we have not consciously created ourselves. In direct revelations God often speaks in ‘parables’. This way, He can get a message through to us that we may have resisted when it came through other means.
Once we have the revelation it is important to ask God for an interpretation of the lesson behind it, and then to pray for an application of that lesson in something that has been happening in your life. We need to do so with a willingness to accept the truth of the revelation, no matter how difficult it may be, as often the things God most wants to tell us are the things we are most likely to resist.
One weakness with direct revelations is that they could just be an expression of our subconscious, or in the case of dreams, they could actually be an attack from the devil (e.g. nightmares). A dream that is from God will provide a solution, and will not cause us to experience irrational fear. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7)
A combination of methods three and four (godly advice and direct revelations) can be quite reliable. If several godly people receive similar revelations in a group setting, where we are all opening our minds to direct revelations from God, then we can feel pretty confident that it is from God.
God can engineer circumstances to help us do the right thing. Let us refer to those as “open or closed doors”. Circumstances can often make God’s will quite obvious. If, for example, we think God wants us to walk on water, but we try it and it doesn’t work, then He probably wasn’t the one telling us to walk on water in the first place! Easy!
A problem with this approach (if followed exclusively), is that there is a chance that God will want us to persevere under difficult circumstances and the devil will tempt us to give in, just on the grounds that it is too hard. Or the devil could tell us that a golden opportunity to do something that is wrong amounts to circumstances that have been sent from God when it isn’t at all. We can’t just rely on circumstances, or we’ll end up just doing whatever is easiest.
Coincidences are a lot like circumstances, except they are a lot more subtle. It has to do with the timing of a circumstance more than the significance of the circumstance itself. For example, if you’re considering visiting relatives and you happen onto something in the Bible (or elsewhere) where it talks about families drawing closer together, you could take it as confirmation from God that you should go. Under other circumstances the same passage in the Bible would not have had the same meaning for you.
It’s easy to get side-tracked by coincidences though. There are some crazy people out there who spend their whole lives looking for God to speak to them through coincidences for every little thing they do. We don’t need to create the coincidences. They will happen by themselves when they are from God, and it should be clear when they are.
God can speak to us on an emotional level through his Holy Spirit. This may be expressed in subtle ways, like an interest in a particular activity. God wants us to enjoy what we do, and we will do best what we enjoy doing most.
This one is similar to conscience (when we feel a strong conviction to do or not do something), but it’s more passive. If, for example, you like working with kids, there is a chance to do so, and God does not use some other direction to stop you from doing that, then you shouldn’t feel bad about doing what you like doing.
The weakness with this is that the devil can tempt us by making sin look enjoyable. Our interest, or motivation, in doing things won’t always be pure; and we need to recognize when that’s the case. So following our desires should only be used when it doesn’t contradict other leadings from God.
God can choose to use a supernatural experience to reveal His will to people. Occasionally in the Bible people asked God for a ‘sign’ to confirm His will for them (e.g. Gideon, in Judges 6:17, 36-40). But it seems best to avoid doing this, since it can easily turn into ‘tempting’ God - something people have been punished for. God seems to have only tolerated people asking for signs at times when He was asking them to do something that went strongly against their natural reasoning.
Jesus warned that an evil generation seeks a sign. He said that rather than seeking signs or miracles, we should rely on the words of God’s messengers to know God’s will. (Matthew 12:39) If God has already spoken through other means, then it’s wrong for us to demand that He do a miracle to confirm it.
When trying to hear what God is saying, it can be helpful to list all eight ways He could speak, and compare them. There won’t always be unity between all eight ways (and some ways won’t even apply in certain situations); but there should be a fairly strong leaning in one direction or the other, if we do a comparison.
It’s important that we seek God’s will honestly and sincerely, with a willingness to do anything God asks of us, no matter how hard it may be. These eight different ways can offer an overall idea of what God is leading us to do, and then we need to act on it. If we do that, then God will do His part. Jesus said that if we ask for the Holy Spirit (his ‘voice’ in the world today), it is like a child asking her father for a fish. He won’t give us a serpent. (Luke 11:11-13)
If, however, we consider only one way of hearing from God, to the exclusion of others, we can easily delude ourselves into thinking God is saying something He is not.
Once we know what God is saying to us, we have a responsibility to follow it. If we ignore what God says to us, then we are likely to gradually stop hearing from God at all (because we would have destroyed our ability to hear Him); and we will become dead spiritually. (1 Timothy 4:2)
Let’s tune in to what God wants to tell us today!