BIBLE

UNDERSTANDING SCRIPTURE
Being brought up in a fundamental, evangelical, bible-believing home, I have always been aware of bibles in close proximity. I even did what was expected of me, and read the bible from cover to cover at a young age. But very sadly, my home’s dwellers did not walk the walk, but talked the talk. As was the case for the members of the little ‘bible chapel’ we attended faithfully every Sunday, and as us kids got older, every Wednesday evening for ‘bible study’ meetings. Our father read a portion of the bible every evening after we had eaten our meal, then the ‘Daily Bread notes,’ then prayed a long prayer that was more of a sermon to us sons as well as his wife.
For some reason, I learned to hate hypocrisy, and was not a happy camper all the while I lived in that house. That was not the case for my three brothers, because they grew up to be just like our father. They have all been in church leadership positions for decades. As I have ‘evolved’ back into church communities over the years I have very sadly witnessed the exact same thing. Nobody seems to be even embarrassed or ashamed of their evil conduct, attitudes, or hypocrisy.
I left home when I was eighteen and sought the world’s fun/enjoyment/entertainment, etc. for several years. Then I married a gal with two sons, and made an oath to myself that I would be the best dad and husband to these folks as any man could possibly be. Their story was not a nice one at all. Far worse than my own!
Sadly, in spite of my determination to have God at the center of our home, rather than what I had experienced, that never happened. We did attend a Baptist Church faithfully, and I ‘followed the rules’ almost to the letter, but I had inherited a massive dose of testosterone from my father, and that is what controlled my life, rather than the Holy Spirit, as I knew the bible assured me would be the case for all God’s kids.
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Ezek. 36:26-27
But I passionately desired to meet my goal for my family, and I actually learned to use correct language, far different from what I used as a motor-cycle gang member. I gave up smoking and drinking, because I knew I did not want my sons to follow in my footsteps, and I was made aware of the damage those things did to a human’s body or intestines. I believe I was living a sin-free life apart from my desperate struggle against that brain between my legs. I can tell you without any exaggeration that I spent hundreds of hours crying out to God for release from this addiction. I told Him I had repented from this sin, so many times!! I was permanently tormented by this sexual addiction, and I despised myself more and more, the longer I failed to be rid of it. I turned to an elder and a pastor for counsel, and was told by the elder that I was being too hard on myself. I actually watched him checking out the more scantily attired young ladies sun-bathing on the beach not long after that, and knew why he told me what he did. The pastor told me I was failing to fulfil my physical duties to my own wife as a result of my lusting after other young ladies. My wife and I had a happy sex life, so I had no clue what that pastor meant, unless he thought I was masturbating as I fantasized having sex with the ones I had lusted after, rather than enjoying sex with my wife. I’ll never know.
But it was not until my four sons [we had two of our own] had left home that I truly began to search for the truth in bibles that would set me free. I literally spent house every day studying bibles. After several months, without any success, I suddenly realised that my whole motive for doing this was selfish. I desperately wanted to be free from guilt, shame, self-hatred and strong frustration at my failure. So, I started all over again with a passionate desire to know God, so I could know what His plan and purpose form my life was. I had read Jer. 29:11-14 enough times to know that the knowledge of God was a truly important part of spiritual maturity.
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”
That passage made such an impression on me that I knew it was what I needed to do to be set free from captivity to testosterone/Satan.
Many moths later I had a real understanding of who God is, and what His desires for and demands on me were. I was fully aware that my sin separated me from Him, and that shocked, troubled, frightened, and empowered me at the same time to be aware that I was on the broad road that leads to hell.
Shortly after coming to such knowledge, I lusted after some female or masturbated again [can’t remember just what it was], and immediately I was overwhelmed with shame, remorse, self-loathing and despair, because I had turned away from the God I had got to know, and there was a huge gulf between us! I literally broke down in tears, severe grief, deep inner mourning, and emotional pain. Of course, I cried out to God desperately, hoping He would forgive me and trust me to never go there again. Not long after that I distinctly remember being tempted to lust after some gorgeous female, and all I thought of was the painful event I had recently experienced, and I told Satan where to go!!
That was the moment I truly understood James, when he wrote this to the recipients of his letter: to each of us….
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. Js. 4:7-10
This, I suddenly knew, was the New Covenant’s event of repentance. The saints of the Old Covenant had to strip, put on sackcloth, sit on dung heaps, and throw dung dust and ashes over themselves for days without eating or drinking. I can well imagine the next time Satan crept up on them to tempt them in some discretion, they remembered fully how bad that event had been, and immediately told Satan where to go.
That is my testimony, but I am very sadly aware that millions of ‘Christians’ of today are under the control of Satan, as I was, but desperately trying to feel better by ‘drawing on faith,’ that assures them that their sins were all washed away by the blood of Jesus, so they simply needed to ask for forgiveness, probably as they went to bed each night, and they were okay with God again. If they stopped for one minute and asked themselves what reasonable judge would keep repeating his ‘innocent’ verdict day after day, with people coming to him after committing the same old crime every day!! That would be insanity on steroids!! There would never be a justice system on this planet that would allow that, except the system in the USA has been very close to that for the past four years.
However, this article is about understanding the bible. In the decades that I wasted in fantasy-land, believing today’s ‘gospel, I truly struggled with that concept. I seemed to be so different from every other ‘brother or sister’ I attended church with. If I tried to open up such a subject with any of them, they got on the defence rapidly, and even got quite angry with me. I was a thorn in their side, according to them. But in my search for God, I became aware that the bible is God’s autobiography. At least the Old Testament is exactly that. The story of the Israelite nation is not so much about doctrine or conduct, but about the character and the personality of a holy God. God clearly displays His attributes all through His dealings with that nation right up to Calvary. We can see that most church attendees of today love to post verses from the Old Testament on social media as if the words are relevant for themselves, just because they attend a church. There is very little that was relevant for the conduct of those folks that is relevant for born again believers of today. They all lived under the Old Covenant, right up to Calvary, and the ascension of Christ. They were blessed by God ONLY if they obeyed the Ten Commandments, plus the Mosaic Law. They suffered incredible hardship as a result of disobedience to God, over and over again. Through all of this, if we so choose with passionate determination to get to know God, He will reveal Himself to us….guaranteed. That knowledge will empower us to know God’s deep hatred for sin enough to emulate that, and to stop sinning. Paul ordered us to hate what is evil and cling to what is good. Rom. 12:9. David told us that those who love the Lord hate evil. Ps. 97:10 Of course that is true no matter which Covenant you live under. There are no conditions attached to that truth. Another truth David left us with is:
For You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil; with You the wicked cannot dwell. The arrogant cannot stand in Your presence; You hate all who do wrong. You destroy those who tell lies; bloodthirsty and deceitful men the Lord abhors, Ps. 5:4-6
The New Testament is teaching what is valid for all who live under the New Covenant. It is very similar to the Old Testament in that it teaches us that to be a child of God, one must obey everything Jesus commanded us.
Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matt. 28:19-20.
Very sadly, the churches have preached a false gospel for a very long time. They make it all about Jesus. The bible does not do that. In fact, Jesus Himself assured us that it is not all about Him.
Not everyone who calls me Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Matt. 7:21
Paul and John both agreed with Him, as did the whole of the Old Testament.
but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Gen. 2:17
If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” Gen. 4:7
You need to persevere, so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised. Heb. 10:36
The world and its desires pass away but the man who does the will of God lives for ever. 1 Jn. 2:17
Jesus actually told us that all sinners go to hell!
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’
But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. Matt. 5:27-30
If you sin you are a slave to sin and cannot remain in my family. Jn. 8:34
Paul teaches us that slaves to sin cannot be Christians.
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin----- because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.
The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.
Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.
For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
Slaves to Righteousness
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means!
Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?
But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance.
You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. Rom. 6:1-18
We must know that Paul was personally taught by Jesus Christ as to how to teach His gospel. This is Paul’s obedience to that well after Jesus shed His blood on the cross. Paul was NEVER aware that the blood had dealt with sin for ever!!
Jesus commanded us:
Be perfect as God is perfect. Matt. 5:48
Be afraid of God. Matt. 19:28
Do not sin. Jn. 8:34, Lk. 13:3 & 5
Go now and leave your life of sin. Jn. 8:11
Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you. Jn. 5:14
Repent or perish. Lk. 13:3 & 5.
Repenting is NOT asking for forgiveness of sins each night. Repentance is a very emotional event that can never be repeated.
It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. Heb.6:4-6
The word ‘perfect’ came from a Greek word, ‘teleios,’ which literally means to be spiritually mature, finished. There is not an entity/creature/being in the universe who is more spiritually mature than God. But according to Jesus, we can be equally spiritually mature as Him. Y’all know what the involves.
If Jesus knew that we poor humans could not stop sinning, He would be a sadistic monster if He commanded a man or woman to stop sinning, when the whole bible assures us that sin results in hell.
Jesus knew that fear of God is essential for anyone to work out their salvation with fear & trembling. He was fully aware of all that the Old Testament taught us.
Moses said to the people, do not be afraid: God has come to test you so that the fear of God will be with you to stop you from sinning. Ex. 20:20
Blessed is the man who always fears the Lord. Prov. 28:14
Through the fear of the LORD evil is avoided. Prov.16:6
The fear of the Lord leads to life: then one rests content, untouched by trouble. Prov. 19:23
Humility and the fear of the LORD; its wages are riches and honor and life. Prov. 22:4
The fear of the LORD teaches a man wisdom, and humility comes before honor. Prov. 15:33
Whoever fears the LORD has a secure fortress, and for their children it will be a refuge. The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, turning a person from sin. Prov. 14:26-27
The Peter began to speak, ‘I now realise how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear Him & do what is right. Acts 10:34-35
So we can see that the Old Testament is where we can get to know God really well, and the New Testament is where we learn what salvation means to those under the New Covenant. Interestingly enough, God’s message of salvation has never changed. It has always been: Obey Me and live, or don’t and don’t!! It has nothing to do with Jesus, personally. Jesus did, however demand that we obey everything He commanded to be His disciples [Christians.] So He brought the same message that His Father gave us though the Old Testament. Nothing surprising about that. For Gentiles, it is not possible, if Jesus did not come and do what He did. That is why He could say: “I am the way, the truth and the life and no man comes to the Father but by Me.” When a sinner repents, as a result of getting to know God well enough to learn to fear Him, the work Jesus did on our behalf is applied to that sinner’s heavenly spiritual account, and his/her name written in the book of life. John details very simply how that happens. Please remember that all sinners live in darkness.
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 1 Jn. 1:5-7
I researched ‘American Christianity’ across the USA from 1992 to 2011. That was as a result of my family spending three moths traveling around the continent on vacation in 1989, and being invited to stay in ‘Christian homes’ where we witnessed wicked behavior that broke my heart.’ My passionate desire was to help people like that to learn God’s truth so their families could experience unity, peace, love and godliness.
I wrote a book on my return to New Zealand, sharing God’s true message of salvation, and His plan to bring total healing to the nation. ‘A Nation Broken by Colin J Stitt’ is available from Amazon. I had to scroll down the search results to find the 2024 version bc the 2013 one came up first, and it is is not available . I very strongly encourage you to get a copy and read it with an open mind and hungry heart. Donald Trump is NOT able to bring healing to America. A massive spiritual awakening is required!!