Lay it to Heart

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THE PRESENT	THE FUTURE	THE END
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The church needs to take the Bible to heart, or as the old English says, Lay it to Heart

Revival starts with the heart. Revival can't happen unless the pastors take God's word seriously, or as the Bible says, lay it to heart. Jeremiah 12:10-11 says, "Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourneth unto me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart." God is looking for the harvest of souls but if the vineyard is full of weeds the harvest is difficult for the laborers. Pastors want to harvest the souls but not tend to the vineyard. We need to look at the sins of the church that are like weeds choking the vineyard. Revival won't start if Christians accept the authority of men over the word of God. For revival to happen we must recognize and follow the true word of God. Malachi 2:7 says, "For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts." Preachers are preserving tradition and not just truth. Revival must be a way of life but it can't be when pastors expect Christians to follow a backwards work and worship schedule. Preachers have added to God's word and taken other parts away. Men are trying to make God's ideas mans' and mans' ideas God's. They make the epistles out to be the opinion of man or what man says. In all essence, some are living in sin from the pulpit. They have replaced God's word with translations that have errors instead of using the Hebrew and Greek we have today. Believers today lack a clear understanding of what happened in the past, they are not led in the right way today and fail in a vision for the future. Real scholars use the Bible first and foremost. Revival requires a sole reliance on scripture and not tradition. It is important to make ready the way of the Lord for the tribulation. The church now may not have much hope now but the events of the future can help change the world. Search the scriptures for yourself.

The Beginning - Our understanding should begin with the Bible and not other sources

We must start by accepting God's word as the basis for all that we believe. Jesus Christ must be the cornerstone of our faith. Without him there is no salvation. Without God's word there is no hope of understanding what God expects of us. To live a victorious life you must accept Jesus as your saviour and live according to his word. The problem starts with confusion about the word of God. God has preserved his word in copies of the Hebrew and Greek that we have today. The King James Version of the Bible is just a translation. It is not the inspired, inerrant, infallible, perfect, preserved word of God to the English people as some teach today. The KJV is not perfect but the neither are other translations used today and some have many more problems. The problem does not stop there. Christmas songs and other hymns provide false doctrine to the church. Some scholars question the real Bible. For example, some teachers question whether Solomon wrote the Book of Ecclesiastes. Christian artwork is often not really Christian. Bible maps can be unreliable and really no more than tradition. Finally, a large group of scholars disregards the Bible and hold to tradition contrary to God's holy word.

The Past - The mistakes of the past lead to more mistakes today.

Unless we teach history correctly, we cannot fully understand the present. What do we really know about the past? Not everything the church teaches about the past is right. Some doctrine today is based incorrect teachings about the past. The result is Christians worship on the wrong day of the week, hold to the wrong work week, celebrate man made holidays, ignore holy days given by God and provide and inaccurate account of what happened in the past. Scholars looking back at source writings and physical remains ignore what the Bible says about it. What is taught about the age of the earth is wrong. What some Sunday School teachers share about Adam's rib is mistaken. The order of creation is messed up. Children don't know how many animals of each kind were on the ark. Adventurers and archeologists are looking for Noah's ark in the wrong place. Ministers cannot figure out how old Terah was when he died. Behemoth is not a hippopotamus. The Leviathan is a not crocodile. David did not write all of the Psalms. The Bible does not tell us Solomon had seven hundred wives. Scholars teach that God had a double standard for time known as the Prophetic Year and cannot understand chronology or prophecy properly as a result. Cyrus gave the order to restore Jerusalem and the temple as referenced in Daniel chapter 9. The innkeeper at Jesus' birth was not necessarily a cruel or greedy man. College professors who refer to the apostles as big burly fishermen are speaking presumptuously. The location of the last supper is wrong. When called, pastors cannot give an answer for how the apostle Judas died. The Shroud of Turin , a great historical forgery, should never be accepted. The location today of the room where the apostles waited for the filling of the Holy Spirit is made up. When pastors preach from the pulpit they are not perfect. Even the apostle Paul got his testimony wrong. All that Paul said that he did not put writing was not necessarily correct but what he did put in writing was. Yet educators like to say "what Paul says here" as though it was Paul writing instead of God. The temple mount today is not the one that existed in Jesus' day. The Western Wall at the temple mount today is not the one in Jesus' day, either. What people call the temple mount today is not really the true temple mount. The legend of the apostle Peter death is questionable. The historian Flavius Josephus cannot be trusted for anything yet is embellished by the "learned". Professors have a false account of the apostle John's death. There is not really an truthful account of the emperor Constantine becoming a Christian as many would like you to think.The essence of Foxes Book of Martyrs is mid evil gossip. Israel was partially re-established in 1917 and fully returned in 1967 yet most teach it was restored as a nation 1948. The church is not handling accurately the word of God.

The Present - Some teachings about the present are incorrect

How should we worship and live today? Many churches worship on Sunday because they believe that Jesus rose from the grave on that day. The real reason churches meet on Sunday is to uphold tradition, not scripture. Jesus could not be crucified on Friday and raised on Sunday. Palm Sunday really should be Palm Friday. So now Christians work when they worship and worship when they should work. The Lord's day is not really from the resurrection and the Sabbath is not honored. In some cases tradition has become more important to Christian scholars than Biblical truth. The celebration of the Lord's Supper in many churches has succumbed to convenience. The church today is forsaking God's commandments towards women. It is not upholding the requirements for pastors. It brings in new teach like the pagan renewing of wedding vows. Worship today has other practices that are holding the church back or are displeasing to God. Pastors' prayers are not good enough so the pianist or organist has to supplement them. Sometime the sermons are not good enough so pastor preaches in prayer to make up for it. Parents let kids treat pews in a way which would appall the parents if it happened at home. Some churches put Bibles in the pew that have commentary which is wrong. Pastors cut and paste scripture to their like when they baptize new Christians but wonder why Christians don't memorize more scripture. They won't consistently interpret the Great Commission. The bulletins used today cut and paste scripture as well, leave off references or are taken out of context. Some pretend to reverence God's word by standing to reading his word in the beginning of the service but do not go back to the Bible during the service or ignore such reverence later. Preachers tell people how they should obey the rule of government but do not follow the fire code with respect to fire extinguishers, fire exits and occupancy limits. They remember how Jesus threw the money changers and their merchandise out of the temple but allow merchandise to be sold in their own church. They tell everybody they should come to all the church services but are unwilling to get the air conditioning or heating set properly. They wear suits and ties which in some cities are no more than modern day Pharisee robes. They preach against immorality but never rebuke inadequately dressed women. People are destroying their bodies with tattoos and pastors are still mute. God had standards for the priests with respect to their beards and they won't touch that subject. People take on inappropriate names and the pastors preach on. Are we living right today? God's new year isn't January first. Church have replaced God's day. They skip God's holy days and bring in alternative one like Easter and Christmas. Jesus was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, gave his life on the cross for our sins and rose the third day but in accordance with how it is taught today. Don't expect God to defend the church's unfaithfulness. Don't teach a lot of error about Jesus' birth and expect the lost world to revel in your teachings. The world may have long haired men and short haired women but it doesn't mean the church should. Tradition based on the world starts some people's meals but tradition based on God's word goes out the door when it comes to pork and seafood. They just want a good feeling They want to be still and know that he is God but taking it out of context. Are you? Are you really giving a tenth of your income to the church or are you forgetting something? There are things that just aren't right in the church today. While it is not necessary for salvation, there are many things necessary for obedience that the church is ignoring. The catch all cop out for church leaders is to call any mention of these problems as legalism.

The Future - Prophecy is not being handled correctly and other teachings are just missing

What's in the future and why does it matter? The end times are coming upon us now. What we do now will affect those who experience it. The church is not prepared to leave behind the correct message for those in the tribulation. Scholars of prophecy inaccurately claim the mid east conflict is struggle between the descendents of Esau and Jacob. There's more to it than that. Damascus is not part of Esau's descendents but it will be destroyed. Gaza came from the Philistines. It is not safe either. America is not immune. Isaiah 18 appears to prophesy the destruction of America. You need to know and understand what is to come. The second temple, not the the third temple, is not described Ezekiel chapters 40-46. What happens in the tribulation may not be according to how many see it. Rome means Rome no matter how hard some writers try to say otherwise. Mystery Babylon is clearly described in Revelation and it is not in Iraq or the USA. People claim they do not need to worry about these things. The people in danger need to worry. As watchmen on the wall Christians have an obligation that many forget.

The End - When this life is over, how will it end for you?

Where are you really going? Without salvation, nothing else matters. You do not need to be saved or forgiven from someone's else's sins, you need to be saved of forgiven from you own sins. Today is a good day to repent and it may be your only day. If you were to die tonight, go to heaven and stand before God, what would you say if he asked why he should let you in? Most everyone will not tell you, or even know, the truth. In the future, many will miss the rapture but if they do there is still hope if they are living, which may not be long. People can get saved in the great tribulation. Some scholars say anyone who has heard the Gospel message prior to the rapture will not be able to get saved afterwards. This is simply not true. There are many things people will tell you that you need to do to get to heaven but it is not true. Do you know the meaning of life? What matters the most in life is that in the end you go to heaven.

Lay it to Heart

2 Timothy 3:16 says, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:" The verse means all scripture is inspired by God and all scripture is profitable. Preachers prefer to forget that all scripture is profitable. Don't ignore God's word. Read the Bible don't read into it. Obey God's word. The reason to obey is not for salvation. We obey because we are saved and not saved because we obey. Malachi 2:1-2 tell us, "And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you. If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart." If you are Christian are you really serious? If we are responsible for everything, we should be studying everything. It's not good enough to practice what you preach, you need to study what you teach.