fév. 2, 2013, 4:43 après-midi -  kevin

Coucou les Dokimos. J'ai traduis votre article en anglais. Mais comme je suis loin de maitrisser l'anglais parfaitement, cette traduction risque parfois d'être approximative. LET US EXAMINE OURSELVES! The Bible teaches us that the humility precedes the glory (Proverbs 15 33). The humility, it is the feeling and the state of mind of somebody who is conscious of his inadequacies, his weaknesses and is carried to decrease his own merits. Every child of God has to cultivate this quality first of all because he was saved by grace, what excludes every merit, and then because it will be wholesome to him. Indeed, a humble person cannot be satisfied by herself. This dissatisfaction will urge her to persevere in the sanctification and soul-searching. God likes this kind of attitude and invites us to preserve it throughout our Christian walking not to be disapproved. "Return in yourselves, examine yourselves" (Zephaniah 2: 1)! It is written in the Bible but very few Christians put into practice this word because contrary to appearances and to what it would be advisable to make, many get big-headed when they put the feet in the Christian sphere. Furthermore, a great deal of persons fell into the trap of this false doctrine according to which it would be impossible to lose the salvation: " saved a day, saved forever "! Then why to examine itself? Dear friends, that we have one, five, ten or twenty years of conversion, a self-examination is imperative because the stakes are enormous! Times are rough, the Lord is at the door, let us not play with our eternity. ARE WE IN THE REAL FAITH? IS JESUS REALLY IN US? “ Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? ” 2 Corinthians 13 :5. Two billion persons refer to the Christian faith in the world among which there is approximately: - 1 026 501 000 Catholics - 316 445 000 Protestants - 213 743 orthodoxes - 63 748 000 Anglicans - 373 832 000 Christians stemming from other movements. And nevertheless the Bible teaches us that there is only a single Lord and a single faith (Ephésians 4 5). When we observe attentively the followers of all these denominations, we notice that they have in common only " Christian's " name. Everything divides them and all swim in an ocean of confusion. So, it exists one thousand and one Jesus. Jesus-God, Jesus-angel, Jesus-man, Jesus-prophet … Jesus who came and the one who did not come yet. Jesus who has to return and the one who will not return … Or still the Jesus who is always there on earth, more or less “incognito” … And what to say of their reading of the Bible? Some people believe in heaven and hell, others consider that the hell does not exist but that the sinners will return to the nothingness whereas others else speak about the purgatory … Which sadness to see so many people underestimating the person whom they claim to adore. The Bible teaches us that the real faith comes from what we hear and what we hear comes from Word of Christ (Romains 10: 17). Many Christians consider that it is enough to go in a building named "church" and to listen to a man or a woman to speak about Jesus Christ to have the faith which saves. So, enormously follow naively men without giving the effort to verify in the Bible if the Christ whom we preach them is well the one of the Bible. It brings us to make a horrifying report: the immense majority of the Christians go to hell. The Christian faith can be resume in these few verses. « Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures » 1 Corinthians 15 :1-4. « Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.» Acts 4 :12. « For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God Not of works, lest any man should boast. » Ephesians 2 :8-9. « For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus » 1 Timothy 2 :5. The Bible warns us moreover against the false Christs, the false pastors and the false preachers. « I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also. » 1 John 2 :21-23. « But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.» Galatians 1 :8-9. In what Gospel did you believe? What Christ did we present you? Is the sanctification preached and done lived in your assembly or is it a subject absent in preachings? Read your Bible and compare: does your church work according to the biblical model? Does she contain within it the diversity of ministries? Do we exercise the spiritual gifts there? Is your assembly livened up by the life of the Spirit? That we do not deceive you, the miracles, the deliveries, the healings have to be the everyday life of the church and not an exception. «And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.» Mark 16 :17-18. Jesus did not change, he stays up his Word to accomplish it. Many leaders of assemblies will plead that miracles stopped with the death of the last apostles, what would explain doubtless also make that all the ministries quoted in Ephésians 4: 11 stopped being functional, in the exception of course of that of the priest / pastors. All this is only pure lie because it is written nowhere in the Bible that God stopped acting. Moreover if such was the case, what's the use to continue to call upon him? Jesus is the tree of life, the source of running water, if your church is dead it is not of its fault but that of the leaders and maybe also yours. Indeed, your passivity, your resignation, even your accommodation in front of the spiritual drought of your assembly makes you collusive and thus responsible for the apostasy reigns there. CHILDREN OF GOD OR RELIGIOUS PEOPLE? If the real Gospel and the real Jesus is not at the heart of your assembly, there is strong possibility that it is also absent in your personal life, and it is true without you even kwon it. While what can motivate your implication in the assembly which you frequent? The answer is simple: the religion! The religion is a pure human invention. Jesus did not come to establish a religion but a personal relation with him. Christianity, with the diversity of its names, is a religion and thus contains all the vices of her own: idolatry, legalism, formalism and hypocrisy. « Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.» Matthew 23 :25-26. Verify: do you really adore Jesus or icons, statues, your pastor, your church, your ministry? Is your worship to God made in spirit and truth? Is it the result of the revelation and the personal communion which you have with the Lord or then he amounts in a daily succession of identical and repetitive rites? « And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.» Luke 18 : 9-14. The religious lives out of the grace of God and counts on his works to be justified. The religious is incapable to question himself because he thinks that he is pleasant to the Lord. Furthermore, even if he made a self-examination, criterias that he uses to examine himself are not good because he compares himself with the others. Our model, our perfect reference has to be in the first place a Jesus Christ and not our brothers and sisters in the faith and even less the heathen. Indeed, many religious have a better lifestyle than heathen. : they do not steal, do not kill, do not drink, do not smoke, do not hold unrefined comments … And nevertheless, they are not saved. « For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. » Matthew 5 :20. WHY DO WE FOLLOW JESUS? The immense majority of those who were converted to Lord Jesus made it mainly because they wanted to escape the hell, what is normal. Then, the logic would like that we pursue this walking with God not only to keep our salvation but also by love and gratitude to the Lord. Unfortunately, in time, many children of God deviate from this objective and follow the Lord for personal and purely carnal interests. The Bible gives us several examples. The apostle James and John had a moment of distraction by visiting Jesus to try to bribe him to obtain important posts during the messianic millennium (Mark 10: 35-40). Nine of ten lepers that Jesus had healed looked only for the healing (Luke 17: 12-19). Judas was worried by the lure of gain (John 12 : 1-6). Many of those who follow Jesus simply wanted to eat: « Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. » (John 6 :26). Unfortunately many use Jesus to obtain what they would never have been able to have in the world: healing, marriage, children, fame, prosperity … A lot of our assemblies are filled with Christians who come to look for blessings instead of the one who blesses them nevertheless so generously. They forget however that without a personal relation with God, person cannot be saved. IS THE FLAME OF THE PUPPY LOVE ALWAYS INTACT? « Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.» Revelation 2 :1-7. At first sight, the Christians of Ephesus seemed perfect. They carried out good works by fruiting certainly the talents which they had received from God. They hated sin, thus they sanctified. They were attached to the holy doctrine and persevered in the faith in spite of the persecutions. There is thus no problem EXCEPT THAT their love for Jesus had cooled. Their relation with the Lord had been doubtless transformed a kind of routine devoid of passion there. Jesus was not any more the love of their life, but any person who was a member of their everyday life. Jesus cannot accept it, he cannot content himself with this kind of relation because we do not have to forget that God wants that we love him more than anything, in the madness. « And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. Mark 12 :30. Beloved, if our relation with God became boring, if we feel no enthusiasm to go to his presence, if we stopped looking for him with heat, one more time, our salvation is in danger. If we arrived at this sad report it is because at the bottom we underestimate God and because we are sorely lacking his revelation. If we do not know God, it will be difficult to us to obey his Word, to make his will and to love him as he wishes it: for what he is and not for what he can give. The self-examination which we suggest you making is absolutely necessity. Naturally, it is important to answer these questions with seriousness and honesty because the eternity is closer than we believe it. As we saw, it happens that we are in the error everything in sincere state in our faith and we can be on the wrong track without being aware of it. It is thus important that this self-examination is made in God's presence, eyes fixe to his Word. “ For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. “ John 3 :20-21. Thus let us take courage and let us ask directly to the Lord to draw up the examination for us. And if ever we got lost, pray so that he also gives us the strength to return humbly towards him.