GOOD AND BAD INFLUENCES
GOOD AND BAD INFLUENCES
Have you ever stopped for a moment and asked yourself, whether you have a good or bad, or positive or negative influence on others? In a way we each have an influence on others: some of us have a huge influence on others, and others don’t have so much. Parents have a massive influence on their children, whether they know that or not. Some parents like to think that they are influencing their kids by the way they speak, train, discipline or teach them stuff. The very sad truth is that parents’ strongest influence on their kids is the way mom & dad interact with each other, and with each child. The saying that actions speak louder than words is NEVER truer than with little children in their home environment.
This same truth spreads out into the community, and the social life of the parents. I was brought up in a very ‘fundamental evangelical’ home, and was forced to attend church services from the time I could speak or probably well before that. My memory does not go back that far. I was taught repeatedly by my father that if I admitted to Jesus that I was a sinner, and asked Him to forgive me and to come into my heart to be my Savior, then I would not be left behind when He returned to take His disciples ‘home’ to heaven. They always reminded me that Jesus could come back at any moment, so I went through that little parody every night because I was afraid I would wake in the morning with no parents. The saddest part of all of that was that my parents and older brothers did not live the life Jesus lived, so all the evangelizing from dad was of zero affect. My three brothers and myself were all addicted to sexual lust, and I knew in my heart that I could never honestly profess to love God all the time I was lusting after young ladies or fantasizing about being with them as I masturbated. I realized where that problem came from as I traveled with my parents and saw my father’s eyes working in very certain directions when some scantily dressed young lady was present.
At the age of eighteen, I left home and church services. I wallowed in a life of sex and alcohol for some years before I met a young lady and married her. I will not go into my life after that because it was not an easy time for me. But I want you to know that to really influence another positively, one must act, rather than speak.
We must understand that it’s not just human beings who are influenced by something. The weather is influenced by atmospheric conditions. The oceans are influenced strongly by weather conditions. The rivers are influenced dramatically by the amount of rainfall in the catchment area. Society is influenced by the conduct of the people who make up that society. The culture within any society or community is influenced by the attitudes, priorities and goals of those people. When a certain portion of any society is driven by some ideology, and make it their goal to be strong activists for their ideology, they can influence that society. When Christ came to this planet, His task was solely to revolutionize society. He wanted to give sinners the opportunity to deal with that problem, and to make it possible for Gentiles to become God’s children, as well as Jews. He preached repentance everywhere He went [ Please see REPENTANCE on Substack to see what that word means] Once a certain portion of the population around Judea, Galilee and Samaria, followed His teaching, and became disciple of Christ, they had a huge influence on society, and many others were drawn to Christ’s teaching through the apostles and disciples, once Christ ascended to heaven.
Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers. Acts 9:31
Their lives, living in the fear of God, attracted many to their teaching. and many joined them, growing their numbers greatly. They had a strong influence on society and the culture at that time. When the Founding Fathers came from England to begin this planet’s greatest experiment, by creating a government ‘for the people and by the people’ they influenced much of America’s citizens for a time, and Christianity was a strong force in society, bringing incredible advancements in all forms of human life. America became a ‘shining city on a hill,’ and other countries envied this New World’s accomplishments in science, engineering, agriculture, business, machinery, infrastructure etc, so much so, that France sent a philosopher/historian to the USA to find out how she had become so successful in such a short time. On his return to France, he told them; ‘America is great because Americans are good, and if Americans ever cease being good, America will cease being great.’ He had visited churches across the country and witnessed the ‘pulpits being aflame with righteousness,’ in his words. Christians at that time lived holy, righteous lives. They did God’s will, which is what makes anyone a Christian.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Mat. 7:21
The sad fact that a war broke out across the continent, with brothers killing brothers and fathers killing their children and vice versa at times. When Christian men were called up to put on the uniform of either the North or the South, they were forced to either kill somebody in that other uniform, or be killed by that one. They knew that was sin, which God’s kids do NOT indulge in, but their choice was kill or be killed. I am sure glad I was not one of them. What a choice to make: lose one’s eternal security or die right there and go to heaven. How many of them do you believe ‘stood strong in their faith?’ After that war, very few Christians were left in the country, if any at all. The pastors started preaching a watered down ‘gospel’ that made it so easy for anybody to ‘become a child of God.’ That has continued to this day. No preachers ever mention ‘doing God’s will’ when they preach their ‘gospel’ to the pew-warmers.
So, during the 140 years, since that awful war, Satan has been VERY busy setting up his own kingdom in America. I am not afraid to tell you I agree totally with the learned historians who assure us that it has been the Democratic Party who has been used by Satan to bring chaos and incredible evil to America. Their failure to fully implement their new religion of Wokeism while Obama was supposed to be ‘fundamentally transforming America’ was put on hold for four years while Trump was POTUS, and the party ideologues were extremely upset with this, and a hard core and deep hatred for Donald Trump was injected into the culture. In my opinion, it was those folks who ‘rigged’ the 2020 election. And it is them who have forcefully indoctrinated the children in schools from kindergarten through college for many years now. Hence, the Woke culture spreading through corporations, media, sports, entertainment, government, and yes, churches of today.
The very alive and ardent activists for this new order where boys can be girls, and girls can be boys, men can get pregnant, one can choose to be any one of multiple genders, men can have sexual relations with men, and women with women, and the list goes on. I studied homosexual sex when I found myself sharing the night shift with another desk clerk at a hotel who was openly gay. What I discovered was alarming to say the least. Here is a link to a report that has been written years after the one I read, but it shares the same truth with us. The article I found was deleted from that web site not long after I saw it, I guess due to strong influence of the LGBTQ+ crowd. It was years after that another very similar study was done and reported, which is this one.
If you have been watching evil rapidly spreading through society, you will have noticed the very strong part the LGBTQ+ community plays in this. It is quite strange that many of the homosexuals from the past are now screaming about the transgender faction of their movement. They demand that we not hold them all in the same closet. This is clearly all nothing but the work of Satan in his attempt to destroy America. His new religion has far outpaced that of Christianity. In fact, churches have lost many millions of adherents over the past two decades, and still lose them in droves today. Yet, the LGBTQ+ and trans. communities have grown rapidly in numbers, and therefore in influence.
-Once you read the report you will understand how mental health plays a major role in these communities. If you have been watching or reading real news you will be aware that mental health is one of the major causes of homelessness, as well as most, if not all mass shootings, and many other crimes we see today. My many decades of close involvement with churches, have taught me that if a person gets to know God, that person will learn to fear Him. He is what He says He is: ‘a God of wrath.’ The bible actually assures us that He even hates all sinners.
For you are not a God who is pleased with wickedness; with you, evil people are not welcome.
The arrogant cannot stand in your presence. You hate all who do wrong;
you destroy those who tell lies. The bloodthirsty and deceitful you, LORD, detest. Ps. 5:4-6
This is so foreign to preachers and pew-warmers of today that they throw up their hands in ‘righteous anger’ when I tell them this is in God’s inerrant, Holy Spirit-inspired word. But there it is, coped and pasted straight from my NIV bible. It is very true, when one cares to study a bible and see what agape means. You see, agape is the love that the New Testament talks about, and it is an active love, rather than an emotional love. God ‘makes an active choice with His will to choose for our highest good, regardless of personal cost’ of all people. That is the love He demands from His kids as well, for each other, and for Him. So, God can make such a choice for sinners, and hate them at the same time. Why wouldn’t he hate sin? He went to the trouble of creating a man and woman which enjoyed absolute harmony with God, each other, within themselves, and with all of nature. Then they chose with the free will He gave them to disobey Him, which prevented that harmony of existing in any of those areas. I would hate sin too, if it was me who had done that. Actually, I do hate sin, because I am a child of God, and live the life Jesus lived, as God demands of all His kids.
We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands.
Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.
But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in Him must live as Jesus lived. 1 Jn. 2:3-6
Did you notice that after a sinner knows God, and obeys His word, love for God is truly made complete in them? That is when we can make that active choice with our wills to choose for the highest good of God, regardless of personal cost. We will know without any doubt, once we get to know God, and learn to fear Him, that sin prevents us from doing anything for His highest good. Simply due to His real hatred of sin, and how it always separates us from a holy God.
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. Col. 1:21. [sin is always evil behavior]
He does command us to hate sin, [Romans 12:9] and to stop doing it, by repenting. He gives us a great example of what that word means in this passage:
Therefore, son of man, say to your people, ‘If someone who is righteous disobeys, that person’s former righteousness will count for nothing. And if someone who is wicked repents, that person’s former wickedness will not bring condemnation. The righteous person who sins will not be allowed to live even though they were formerly righteous.’ If I tell a righteous person that they will surely live, but then they trust in their righteousness and do evil, none of the righteous things that person has done will be remembered; they will die for the evil they have done.
And if I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ but they then turn away from their sin and do what is just and right—
if they give back what they took in pledge for a loan, return what they have stolen, follow the decrees that give life, and do no evil—that person will surely live; they will not die.
None of the sins that person has committed will be remembered against them. They have done what is just and right; they will surely live. Ez. 33:11-16
I can certainly imagine how a large percentage of a population living like God commands them to would influence the rest of that population considerably. In fact, that is what the ‘Church’ did in Samaria, Judea and Galilee. That same Church would do the same in 2023, but she does not exist today. She is described by God as a ‘radiant bride, without any stain, wrinkle, or any other blemish, holy and blameless.’ Eph. 5:27 But every ‘Christian’ I have asked, has admitted to being a sinner, and even worse, their pastors keep telling them that he and all of them are sinners.
John wrote some letters to the Christians of his day, in which he gave them an incredibly clear teaching of how sin has no place in a Christian’s life. Very sadly men who compiled the modern versions of the scriptures added some words to this passage which has allowed false teachers to spin this truth to make it a lie. The KJV still has it right though. Here it is from my NIV, minus those added words.
Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.
But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.
No one who lives in him sins. No one who sins has either seen him or known him.
Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.
The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.
No one who is born of God will sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot sin because they have been born of God.
This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.1 Jn. 3:4-10
I would strongly encourage you to get ‘A Nation Broken’ from Amazon or B & N which I wrote after spending from 1992 to 2011 researching ‘American Christianity’ across the states. When sinners get to know God, learn to fear Him and repent, they will become ‘new creations, with all the old gone, and everything being new.’ 2 Cor. 5:17 As Americans do this, the real Church will be re-birthed, and a massive spiritual awakening will begin, as a wave of righteousness will spread across the United States of America. Wouldn’t you like to be a part of that?