WHAT THE HOLY SPIRIT WANTS TO SAY ABOUT THE LOVE THAT COVERS A MULTITUDE OF SINS. Josimar Salum

WHAT THE HOLY SPIRIT WANTS TO SAY ABOUT THE LOVE THAT COVERS A MULTITUDE OF SINS. Josimar Salum

The saved community is merciful, more forgiving than condemning, and exceptionally welcoming.

“If your brother sins, go and point out his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won him over." Matthew 18:15 

This is the purpose for you to seek out your brother who has sinned against you, so that you may win your brother.

In what context did Jesus say these words?

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish." Matthew 18:10‭-‬14 

“My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins." James 5:19‭-‬20 

The Father's heart means to convert those who have strayed from the truth.

“I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." 1 Timothy 2:1‭, ‬3‭-‬4 

When an presbyter sins the Holy Spirit teaches that he is to be rebuked in the presence of all. By who? The presbyters. So that the other presbyters may also have fear. It's not in the presence of everyone, of the church. Any conclusion that leads to saying that it is before the church is not supported by the text. The hermeneutically analyzed text easily determines that these are presbyters and not the whole church.

“The presbyters who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor (double salary), especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. For Scripture says, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages.” Do not entertain an accusation against an presbyter unless it is brought by two or three witnesses. But those presbyters who are sinning you are to reprove before everyone, so that the others may take warning." 1 Timothy 5:17‭-‬20 

I have watched young men and women being pushed out of the church and I know of many sons and daughters of pastors who have left the Church because of reproofs and harsh disciplines that are not supported by the Bible. Many were disciplined while many wrong behaviors in the church were tolerated. The church became an environment of partiality, hypocrisy and judgment that helped to hurt so many lives that today walk away, because the Love that heals and restores was lacking.

If your son or daughter, if your brother or sister has sinned, has committed what is sinful, he must be treated with great love so that he will come to repent and be forgiven, so that he will be restored.

The willingness of many to deal with the sin of the brethren with severe discipline, without compassion and mercy only adds to the ranks of those who leave the church wounded.

“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins." 1 Peter 4:8 

What is this love that covers or forgives a multitude of sins?

We sympathize with the wicked, immersed in the vilest behavior and we accept them in the community of saints because they professed Jesus, but we harden with those who are brothers and sisters and treat them with rigor when they commit sins.

At no time should we agree with the sin and error of those who have not repented and do not want to repent. We must not accept into the bosom of the church one who has not heard the admonition and wants to continue on his wrong path.

“If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector." Matthew 18:17 

But what scares me is to have seen people like these being disciplined with joy and celebration as if such discipline was an act of purification for God. The Father's heart for those who are lost remains full of mercy and love.

The command of the Holy Spirit is to love one another ardently which will lead us to seek the sinner's restoration and not his condemnation. This love is what covers a multitude of sins.

#ASONE

OPEN LETTER TO THOSE WHO HAVE ABANDONED NATURAL RELATIONS WITH WOMEN Josimar Salum

OPEN LETTER TO THOSE WHO HAVE ABANDONED NATURAL RELATIONS WITH WOMEN. Josimar Salum 

DO NOT DOUBT THE LOVE OF GOD!

Never doubt that the Lord loves you individually, personally.

Not only do not doubt, but never, ever doubt that our Heavenly Father loves you.

“Long ago the Lord appeared to me, saying: I have loved you with an everlasting love; also with a loving kindness have I drawn you.” Jeremiah 31:3

“But God proves his love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

“Have I become your enemy by telling the truth?” Galatians 4:16

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:14 

“Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: 

Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 

And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 

Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? 

You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies." 1 Corinthians 6:9‭-‬11‭, ‬18‭-‬20 

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed —a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” 

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness , 

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 

They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. 

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 

In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. 

Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.  

Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 

They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. 

They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.” Romans 1:16‭-‬18‭, ‬21‭, ‬24‭-‬29‭, ‬32 

““All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. 

Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.” Ephesians‬ ‭2:3-5‬ ‭‬‬

“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister. 

The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before. 

For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. 

Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit." 1 Thessalonians 4:3‭-‬8 

“Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” Revelation 21:7‭-‬8 

“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. 

Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. 

Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon." Isaiah 55:6‭-‬7 

“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus." Acts 3:19‭-‬20 

“Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” Proverbs 28:13 

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us." 1 John 1:9‭-‬10 

“My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world." 1 John 2:1‭-‬2 

#ASONE

MANY MEN OF GOD IN HISTORY HAVE FAILED AND SINNED. Josimar Salum

Many men of God in history have failed and sinned.  But it was not their faults and sins that defined them in God.  They fell, but were not prostrate.  They sinned, but repented.  A man of God, consciously, cannot live in the practice of indecency, immorality, injustice, in adultery, stealing God's people with his calls for more offers and tithes.  If he remains doing anything on this list, he is not a man of God and his followers are as lost as he is.  It is scandalous someone who sings and preaches on Sundays, but during the week lives in the practice of sin.  It is sinful in the highest degree who sings and preaches on Sunday about holiness, but lives in adultery.  Whoever does these things is impious, wicked, immoral, adulterous, hypocritical, dissimulating, he may even deceive his followers, but he will perish in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, he will never inherit the Kingdom of God.  Whoever lives in the practice of sin is of the Devil, was not born again ... It is necessary to be born again to enter the Kingdom of God.  —- Josimar Salum # ASONE

THE WORST THING THAT CAN HAPPEN TO A MAN... . Josimar Salum

 

“The worst thing that can happen to a man is to sin and still be happy.  This is a sign that God has abandoned him.”  - Charles Spurgeon

 #JSalum 

#ASONE 

5 - Grace Quiz: Sinful cycles of religion by JSalum & Paul Taylor

Sinful cycles of religion by JSalum & Paul Taylor 

Burgeon means sprout, flourish, bloom. 

The old life is fine, the new life sprouts!

The old life is fine for many Christians and it includes all religious obligations. Many live in the same way they lived before. If they were Catholics they use to confess the sins to the priest and the next time they would confess the same sins. 

Many Pentecostals are in the same way! Adventists! And many others! Many are always struggling with the old life while trying to live the new one, as if the new life would be lived by their own endeavor.

They act like this! I have to pray! To read the bible! To come to church every day! If I go to church every day I will be more holy, I will sin less, and so forth.  

There are Christians that if they missed a Sunday service they feel so guilty for the rest of the week!

The old life was a cycle: sinning, asking forgiveness, then sinning with the same sins, then asking forgiveness. And then after they became Christians they sin, feel guilty, then go to the "altar at the church" to ask for prayer, then sin again! What a miserable life! 

Jesus wants to set you free from this cycle! 

Burgeon means sprout, flourish, bloom. 

The old life IS GONE, the new life sprouts!

You don't have to make any effort to bear fruits of righteousness in the same way a mango tree doesn't sweat to bear mangos! 

Dr. Salum, 

You were just describing my life. I was raised to be in church as often as the doors of the church were open. If my family and I were on vacation camping, I would make everyone get around the campfire and we would have our service.  The guilt would be unbearable.  So great to be free and getting freer every day. Amen 

Dr. Taylor

“What does it means the concept that God transcends time and space?”

Josimar Salum

 We all are limited by time and by space. Time is a consequence of the Sin. The space - the earth, creation - was cursed by God because of men’s Sin. The whole universe was "contaminated" by sin. Even the heaven where God is it is not His exclusive dwelling as Satan has access to it. (See Job 1)

 Being transcendent, in our ordinary language, is extending or lying beyond the limits of ordinary experience.

 What is concept? It is something conceived in the mind: a though, some notion, an abstract or generic idea generalized from particular instances.

 There are no concepts in the Revelation of God. God doesn't work with concepts. God shares the Truth.

 Concepts are imaginary and vary from individual to individual; they cannot be communicated, because they never can be understood. What is a specific idea for me if I share it may become a total different idea for someone else.

 The Word is the Truth; as we meet Yeshua and surrender to Him there will be an eternal journey with the One Who has no beginning and no end and His Sons in Him, through the Eternal Life He give shall never end.

 When I say God transcends time and space, it is more than He being Eternal. He was before time and space. He was in Himself. God is a part of everyone and everything He created, but not with His sons.

 In fact God does not exist, He is beyond existence. There were no heavens, God was.

 Before Sin, Adam was limited by space, but not by time, as time begun only to exist after the Garden. From Sin came death and because of death time came.

 As God became flesh the Son submitted Himself like the first Adam into space, whoever differently from him, also into time when He became Sin on the Cross of Calvary.

 The first Adam would always be limited by space, the reason God set up boundaries around the Garden He ordained Him to work with; but not the second Adam - Yeshua. He said: “Before Abraham I was.” John 8:58.  Yeshua transcended time.

 Even limited by time; Jesus said “Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners”. Mathew 26:45

 He never ceased to be who He was and if He did He would not be God. Indeed 

He was God before time and He was still God in His time.

Hebrews chapter 1 declares: “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being.”

 In fact, the Son is the Glory of the Father-God, His First born and all the others.

 Jesus died and was buried in with earthly body, but He was resurrected in a heavenly one. 

 We, as His sons, will also die and be buried with an earthly body, so we may be resurrected with a heavenly body, exactly like He is.

 God is Spirit, but God also has a Heavenly Body: we, the Church, are the Heavenly Body of God.

 Surely we, those who “sleep” in Heaven and all who are still alive at the coming of Yeshua will be transformed into His Body, time will cease to exist, the present creation will be no more, a New Creation already prepared by God will inaugurate for us a new age while death, the last enemy will be overcome. 

 Why? Because there will not be any more Sons of God to be raised from the dead.

 In eternity there are no limitations of either space or time, like God always has been we will be with Him.

 That is reason we were sealed with that Spirit of promise, not simply as a guaranteeing deposit for our salvation of sins, but much more, the seal is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession. We, God’s Sons are His possession. (Ephesians 1:13-14)

Why? Because the Holy Spirit has made men of God to oversees, to watch over and feed all the flock, the Church of God which He has purchased with His own blood. And because of Him Himself and to the Word of His Grace, Jesus Christ, He is able to build us up, and to give us an inheritance among all those which are sanctified. (Acts 20:18-32)

 All God's children shall be like His Firstborn Son as He is with the Father with will are with Him that all of us may be ONE, finally a Perfect Unity We, at this time have a destiny to be transcendent like God is.

 “For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man; for as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.

 But each in turn: Christ, the first fruits; then, when He comes, those who belong to him.

 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after He has destroyed all dominion, authority and power; for He must reigns  until He has put all His enemies under His feet. (and we reign already in Life through Him - Romans 5:17)

 The last enemy to be destroyed is death, for He has put everything under his feet.

 Now when it says that “everything” has been put under Him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ.

 When He has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to Him who put everything under Him, so that God may be all in all.” 1 Corinthians 15:21-8

 As Jesus Himself has already made subject to God, His Body that are all the God’s Sons already spontaneously is following suit so that God may be all in all.

 And as there will be nobody else and nothing else to subjugate we will be fully in unity as Jesus prayed more than two thousand years ago.

 What does it mean that God may be all in all? As God the Father is one with God the Son, we all shall be One.

 “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

 That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 

 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is His body; the fullness of Him Who fills everything in every way.” Ephesians 1:18-23

 What does it mean that God placed all things under His feet and appointed Jesus 

to be Head over everything for the church?

 It means that the Church - His Feet – and not only Jesus, the Head, will rule above everything.

  ”Here is a trustworthy saying:

 If we died with him,

    we will also live with him;

If we endure,

    we will also reign with him.

If we disown him,

    He will also disown us;

If we are faithless,

    He remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.” 2 Timothy 2:11-13

 “Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.” Revelation 20:6

 “Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” or the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 

 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. 

 They will be His people, and God himself will be with them and be their God” Revelation 21:1-3

 “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city.

 On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month.

 And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. 

 The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 

 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.

 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. 

 And they will reign for ever and ever.” Revelation 22:1-5

 He shall reign for ever and ever and we shall reign with Him.

 Why? As there is not a body without a head, the Body is the Head and the Church.

 This is what means that His body is the fullness of Him Who fills everything in every way.

 “We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 

 No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 

 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” (1 Corinthians 2:6-8­)

 What or who is this mystery that has been hidden that God destined for our glory before time began, that the rulers of this age didn’t understand, that if they did, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory?

 The Mystery of God is His Sons. They crucified the Son, not knowing that through His death and resurrection He would give birth to millions and millions, a multitude and nobody can count of Sons like Him.

 “It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. 

 But there is a place where someone has testified:

 “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him? You made them a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor and put everything under their feet.”

 In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them.

 Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them.

(The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. Romans 16:20)

 But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because He suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

 In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered.

 Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family.

 So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.

 He says, “I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters; in the assembly I will sing your praises.”

And again, “I will put my trust in him.” And again He says,

“Here am I, and the children God has given me.”

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death— that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

For surely it is not angels He helps, but Abraham’s descendants.

For this reason He had to be made like them, fully human in every way…” 

Hebrews 2:5-17”

… So we, His brother, may be like Him.

“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.” 1 John 3:2-3

 The first Adam wanted to be God and cease to be a Man. The new Adam became a man without ceasing of being God.

 God loved us so… no words can describe – that He without us, He would not be Who He is.

 “What no eye has seen,

    what no ear has heard,

    and what no human mind has conceived”

    the things God has prepared for those who love him. 2 Corinthians 2:9 

 Worcester May 2, 2013