Calling a sin a sin! by Brad Freeman

From the very beginning, God did not want man to be an expert on how to "call a sin a sin" -- the knowledge of good and evil. In the garden, He did not want Adam and Eve to know, or be concerned with, the difference between "good and evil". He commanded them to stay away from it!

When it comes to Jesus, the church needs to "call a Savior a Savior" and trust Him for our righteousness and salvation! Believe that He took away ALL of your sin! Believe that faith has placed you firmly in Him and that He is your wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption and peace with God! (1 Cor. 1:30).

When it comes to the Spirit, the church needs to "call a Teacher a Teacher" and trust Him to write on our hearts and minds, comfort us, speak of Jesus and guide us into Truth! Listen to Him. When He tells you what to do, do it!

When it comes to God, the church needs to "call a Father a Father" and know that He will correct us when we need it, be merciful to our iniquities, remember our sin no more and never leave or forsake us! Know He loves you! Have faith in Him.

God not only loves you but He really really likes you & enjoys you

"The greatest thing that ever happened to me, that literally changed everything for me, was when I got the revelation that God not only loved me but He really really enjoyed me & liked me. When I got that & realized that was true, literally all those little games I used to play with myself just fell away. I never ever went back to it. I don't go to bed at night & say "I'm sorry." And I did that for years, that's all I ever did. My whole prayer life was a series of forgive mes & I'm sorrys, that's all it was. It was just simply the revelation that God likes me that changed that.

Most of us have this idea of how God sees us because we're monitoring our sins. So we've got all these things in our mind that we're struggling with. You ask any Christian, "How you doing?" "Well I'm struggling brother. Pray for me." And he's usually got a list of 3 or 4 sinful things. They've got these little lists in their minds & know if Elijah were to appear & give them a word from the Lord it would be about one of those things.

That is kinda what happened to me. My friend Jay Dillon told me that he had a word for me. This guy is like always dead on. I had a list in my mind. I was freaking. I was so scared, I was doing nothing but praying night & day before I met him that he wouldn't reveal anything in front of my wife. That's how scared I was, I was terrified. I was sure he was going to say, "You're demonically oppressed. You are.." I had things I just knew he was going to say. When we met all he did was look at me straight in the eyes & say, "You have the heart of God. You love people. You have the heart of God."

Then I realized God is not looking at the things you think He is looking at. Church has taught us to be sin conscious. You cannot be sin conscious & ever know that you are loved by Him at the same time. They don't go together. The truth of what really happened at the cross is that your sins are no more. But we still keep counting them & trying to stop sinning. When you go down that sin conscious road you can't ever get the revelation of His love until you are willing to let that sin consciousness go. When you do it changes everything." -Darin Hufford

Transcribed from the Into the Wild Podcast Just Let It Go

Excerpt from Redemption by Andrew Wommack

Most people, including Christians, see the forgiveness of sins as something that God can do, and continues to do, but not as something He has completed. From that comes the false concept that we must constantly confess our sins, which makes and keeps us sin conscious. The New Testament presents the forgiveness of sins as something that is already accomplished and that the effect of this redemption is that we are not even to be conscious of sin (Heb. 10:1-2).

Ask yourself, what produced the forgiveness of sins and when did that happen? Jesus was the Lamb of God that took away the sins of the world (John 1:29). It was through the shedding of Jesus’ blood that you received redemption, which is the forgiveness of your sins (Eph. 1:7 and Col. 1:14).

When did Jesus die and shed His blood for our sins? About 2,000 years ago. He will never die again (Rom. 6:9-10). He dealt with the sins of the whole human race once, for all time (Heb. 9:25-28 and 10:10-14). Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins is already an accomplished work.

We don’t have to ask Jesus to forgive our sins; He’s already done it. Paul didn’t tell the Philippian jailor to ask Jesus to forgive him; Paul told him to believe on what Jesus had already done and he would be saved (Acts 16:31). We confess the Lord Jesus, not our sins, to receive this gift of salvation (Rom. 10:9).

We have received eternal, not momentary, redemption (Heb. 9:12). One sacrifice was made for all sin forever, and we have been perfected forever.

Whole Article found here http://www.awmi.net/extra/article/redemption

Excerpts from The Myth of Christian Leadership by Frank Viola

See Full Post Here:  The Myth of Christian Leadership

• There’s no hint of the clergy/laity or minister/layman schema in the history, teaching, or vocabulary of the New Testament. This schema is a religious artifact that stems from the postapostolic disjunction of secular and spiritual.
• In the secular/spiritual dichotomy, faith, prayer, and ministry are deemed the exclusive properties of an inner, sacrosanct world. A world that is detached from the whole fabric of life. But this disjunction is completely foreign to the New Testament ethos where all things are to bring glory to God—even the stuff of everyday life (1 Cor. 10:31).

• Leadership contains these elements:
• Persuasion & Influence
  
• Leadership is really nothing more than influence.
• Giving direction
• Leadership is showing others “the next step,” which goes along with persuasion and influence.
• Leadership “leads” or “points” to something/someone
• For the Christian, it always points to Christ. Either in faith or action. As Christians we lead/point/guide/direct people (both Christian and non-Christian) to the ultimate Leader, Jesus.

• All aspects of leadership are accomplished by teaching and/or example.
• If you’ve ever given direction to someone and they’ve heeded it, you were leading.
• If you’ve ever corrected someone, and they received it, you were leading.
• If you’ve ever led (brought) someone to Jesus Christ, you were leading.
• If you’ve ever written a blog post, article, or book, and you influenced someone to take an action or adopt a viewpoint, then you were leading them.
• If you’ve ever persuaded another human being to do anything, be it your spouse, child, parent, friend, co-worker, employee, etc., then you were leading them.
• We all lead in various and miscellaneous ways and arenas. We just differ in the kinds of things into which we lead others.
• Some people influence more people than others based on the size of their “platform.” “Great leaders” are people who by virtue of their lifestyle and wisdom have many followers who safely trust their guidance. But the fact that they have large followings doesn’t entitle them to wield the special title of “leader” at the exclusion of everyone else. Unfortunately, many Christians obsess over being a “leader” today. Some to the point of frenzy. Some will give their souls for the title of “leader.” 
• Is it possible that much of Christianity today is focused on being a leader when it should rather be focused on how to follow an indwelling Christ?
• Focus on following Jesus and you will be leading others naturally by your example, let alone by the things you say.

10 Things to Consider
Here are 10 things to consider about “leadership” and why the common idea that some Christians are leaders and others aren’t is a myth in my view:

1. The New Testament never uses the term “leader.” In some translations, you’ll find the word “leader” only in a few texts. Hebrews 13:17, 14 and Romans 12:8, namely. But these are questionable translations of the Greek words. Those words are better translated as “guard,” “give care,” or “guide.” It’s the verb, not the noun. These texts almost certainly have in view the more spiritually mature overseers and elders. Overseers/elders are not “the” leaders of a local assembly. They simply lead in a specific capacity that’s different from the other members of the assembly.
2. Overseers (also called elders and shepherds/pastors in the New Testament) are part of the DNA of the assembly, but we have misunderstood these functions as “offices” that have inherent authority over other Christians. Overseers/elders/shepherds certainly lead, but so do prophets, apostles, evangelists, teachers, exhorters, those who have gifts of mercy, helps, and every other function in the body of Christ. Christians have authority only in so far as they are revealing the mind of Christ is the authority. Again, all Christians lead according to their specific gifting. That’s the argument of 1 Corinthians 12.
3. Jesus Christ turned the common idea of leadership on its head. He did this in two ways.
1. He took dead aim at the positional/titular view of leadership that was common among the Jews (Matt. 23:8-13).
2. He took dead aim at the hierarchical/top-down view of leadership that was common among the Gentiles (Matt. 20:25-28; Luke 22:25-26).
4. Many Christians and assemblies have adopted the business model of leadership over/against the New Testament vision of leadership. Properly conceived and functioning, the ekklesia is a spiritual organism whose source is divine life. It’s not a human-constructed institution. Once this is fully understood, our understanding of leadership changes dramatically.
5. The New Testament doesn’t emphasize leadership. It emphasizes following Jesus (who is now in the Spirit) and living as a servant of Christ and a servant to others. According to the New Testament, all are gifted, all are servants (“ministers”), all are priests, and all have ministry as members of the body. In addition, all are called to be examples of Jesus.
6. None of the many words used for “office” in the Greek language are ever employed to describe a function or role in the assembly. New Testament scholar Robert Banks makes an indisputable case for this in his seminal book, Paul’s Idea of Community.
7. The doctrine of “covering” was invented in the post-apostolic period, and it has no biblical merit. See Reimagining Church, Chapters 11-13 (entitled “Who is Your Covering?”) for details.
8. The modern obsession over leadership isn’t helpful. If Christians spent their time focusing on following Jesus Christ and sharing whatever He has given them with others (= functioning as a member of the body), opposed to obsessing over how to be a “leader,” the Kingdom of God would be better off. So it seems to me anyway.
9. Hebrews 13:17 confirms the idea that leadership is linked to persuasion. In that text, some translations have, “Obey them that are over you.” The Greek word for “obey” in this passage is not hupakuo, the garden-variety word for obedience used elsewhere in Scripture. It’s peitho (middle-passive form), which means to yield to persuasion. The author of Hebrews was simply saying, “Allow yourselves to be persuaded by those who are more mature in Christ than you are.” The word “over” and “rule” in some translations is a horrible reflection of the Greek. And according to Peter and Luke, elders/overseers aren’t over the flock, they are among it (1 Pet. 5:1, NIV; Acts 20:28, NASB). See Reimagining Church, the lengthy Appendix for details.
10. Throughout the New Testament, only Jesus Christ is said to be the “head” of the assembly, which implies both source and rule. All leadership flows from His headship organically when a member of His body reveals His mind and will in a given situation. Christ has the power of speech, and He speaks through His body (this is the argument of 1 Corinthians 12:1ff.). And we all share the mind of Christ. His mind is not the exclusive property of a few.

From the Comments Section

• Spiritual authority was exercised *when* and only when the mind of Jesus Christ was being revealed. The authority was spiritual/organic, rooted in the life of Christ which was seasoned in some (like Paul). But it wasn’t official, i.e., invested in a certain office irrespective of what the person did or said. That’s why the writer of Hebrews says “allow yourselves to be persuaded.”
  
• The few times when Paul “commanded,” he did so “in the Lord Jesus Christ” or he referred to something the Lord Himself said. Most of the time, he pleads, beseeches, admonishes, exhorts, encourages, and even requests. Paul did not have a hierarchical top/down relationship with the assemblies he cared for. In fact, in some of his letters, he submits to the assembly itself. Even saying that if he preaches or teaches anything contrary to Jesus Christ, let him be cursed. Paul’s relationship to the assemblies is summed up in his words in 2 Corinthians 1:24, “Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy.”
• We are called to minister to one another . . . and to the world. We are called to lead/guide one another (as well as the world) to Christ.
  
• There is one HEAD. But all who share His life lead under the one HEAD pointing to and expressing the Head in different ways. All lead in different ways … in different capacities … and through different giftings and functions. Re-read 1 Cor. 12 in this light and you’ll see leadership in a new way.
• What do you say about Paul telling Timothy and Titus to appoint elders in the assemblies. Doesn’t that mean they were offices that had authority?
• There is no question that certain people were endorsed for certain tasks in the NT. Take Acts 6 for instance. The seven men selected in Acts 6 weren’t given some kind of unilateral authority over everyone else, nor where they installed into a social construct (“office”) that had intrinsic authority regardless of the persons who populated it.
  
  Rather, the seven were selected for a task based upon their spiritual maturity and wisdom. The same is true for those places where Paul endorsed elders (which wasn’t in all the assemblies, by the way). In the OT, Moses publicly acknowledged elders who were *already functioning* as elders, the Scripture says. Moses just made it public.
  
  In the same way, when someone endorses a book of mine publicly they aren’t giving the book authority. They’re simply acknowledging an authority that they perceive the book already possesses. The problem with us viewing the endorsement of elders in South Galatia, Crete, and Ephesus as “installment into office” is that we are imposing the Western idea of “office” as having an authority irrespective of the individuals who populate those offices.
  
  In the NT, rather, the idea is that spiritual authority is based on spiritual maturity and wisdom — a la, expressing the mind of God. And in some cases, that’s endorsed publicly and in other cases, such individuals are given certain tasks. If a person … be it elder or apostle … is teaching something that goes against the will and mind of the Head (Christ), they have no authority in what they’re saying. All authority comes from Christ. 
• I don’t view elders/overseers/shepherds as a *modern office* — by that I mean a sociological construct that has authority independent from the people who populate it, like the “office” of President. Doesn’t matter if you have a buzzard or a noble man in the white house, he still wields the authority of the Presidency. The authority is inherent in the office. In the NT, we don’t see elders working in that same way.
  
• The many Greek words for “office” are never used of them or any other function in the assembly.
• The spiritual authority they express is by virtue of their wisdom and spiritual insight which comes from growth in Christ’s life (hence elders can be translated “seniors” — they were the older, aged ones in the OT).
  

Commentary on Romans 7 by Andrew Wommack

In Romans 7 Paul was expounding the impossibility of serving God in our own power, whether lost or saved. The flesh is unwilling and unable to fulfill the Law of God, and if we as Christians try to fulfill the righteousness of the Law through our own will power, we will fail just the same as unregenerate people would. Paul was describing the futility of trying to obtain favor with God through our own goodness whether Christian or non-Christian.

Paul only used the term "spirit" once in Ro 7 (Ro 7:6), a chapter that described the hopelessness of people to ever keep the righteousness of the Law in their own strength. In contrast, the word "spirit" (or "Spirit") is used twenty-one times in Ro 8, a chapter that gives the answer to the hopelessness of Ro 7.

In these verses of Ro 7, Paul was not describing warfare that wages between the new man and the old man. He was contrasting the complete inability of people to save themselves because of their corrupted flesh versus the life-transforming power of Christ described in Ro 8.

The Apostle Paul was not living a life of constant failure where the good that he wanted to do, he was unable to accomplish, but the evil that he didn't want to do, he did. He wasn't living that kind of life because it was no longer him living, but Christ living in him (Ga 2:20). Christ in Paul was manifesting holiness in Paul's life that was second to none.

However, if Paul had abandoned his dependency upon Christ and had started trying to live the Christian life out of his own resources, then the condition described in Ro 7:15-24 would have been his experience.

Our flesh has been corrupted through sin, and though we can renew our minds through God's Word (Ro 12:2), we can never elevate our flesh to a place where it can fulfill the Law of God. Hence, the good news of Ro 8 that what the Law couldn't do, because of the weakness of our flesh (Ro 8:3), God did for us, and all we have to do is receive by faith.

"I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwells no good thing" (Romans 7:18)
When Paul used this parenthetical phrase, "that is, in my flesh," he was specifying the natural (physical) part of his person. He was stating that in himself, apart from his born-again spirit, there was no good thing. He had to include this explanation, or his statement would not have been accurate, because in his spirit there was a good thing (Christ). Many times scripture speaks of "Christ in us." Paul clearly separates the flesh & the spirit in this scripture.

Paul says that "with the flesh he serves THE LAW OF SIN" in Romans 7:25 but in Romans 8:2 he says, "Christ Jesus MADE US FREE (past tense) FROM THE LAW OF SIN." To summarize all this, We are free to walk by the spirit but if we try to walk by the law we will be walking by the flesh. You can choose to serve the law of sin with your flesh (offer your members to the flesh) or you can choose to serve the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (offer your members to righteousness & put to death the deeds of the flesh).

Our old self WAS (past tense) crucified with Him (Ro 6:6)
The old self is dead and gone, but it left behind a body with attitudes and emotions that still influence us until we renew our minds. We are not dealing directly with the "old sin nature" but with its influence that is still being exerted through our unregenerate flesh. So the Christian life is a renewal of our minds to who we HAVE BECOME in Christ, not a hatred for who we are in our "old self."

Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (Romans 7:24)
Paul didn't say, "Who shall deliver me from this death?" for the Christian has already been delivered from the death that is the wages of sin. He made special mention of the body of this death. The terminology "the body of this death" corresponds to what Paul called "the body of sin" in Ro 6:6, "Our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our BODY of sin might be done away with". He was not speaking of the sin nature itself, for a Christian no longer has a sin nature, but he was rather speaking of the lingering influence of the sin nature that still exerts itself through the un-renewed mind. So death, or the "old man/self," is gone, but the body that it left behind (i.e., the thoughts, attitudes, and emotions) still poses a problem to us as Christians. How do we overcome this flesh? The answer is stated in Ro 7:25 (God through Jesus Christ our Lord) and then explained in Ro 8.

Taken from http://www.awmi.net/bible/rom_07. Some words are my own.

Bible Q & A

Answer the following questions with what first comes to your mind. Please refer your Bible after answering it. It will be fun.


Psalm 130:4 (NKJV)
But there is .............................. with You (God), That You (God) may be feared.
    1) wrath and punishment
    2) forgiveness

Romans 5:20 (NKJV)
Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace ....................
    1) lessened
    2) abounded much more

Romans 5:17 (NKJV)
For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who .......................................................... will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
    1) fast, pray and show more zeal for God
    2) receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness

Romans 1:16,17 (NKJV)
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the ....................................... is revealed from faith to ...............................; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith."
    1) sinfulness of men, works
    2) righteousness of God, faith

Romans 2:4 (NKJV)
Do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the ................................. of God leads you to repentance?
    1) wrath and punishment
    2) goodness

1 Corinthians 11:24,25 (KJV)
And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of ............................
After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of ...........................................
    1) your past week's sins
    2) me (Jesus)

Ephesians 1:7 (KJV)
In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the .....................
    1) faithfulness in confessing your sins
    2) riches of his grace

Romans 4:5 (KJV)
But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ..............................., his faith is counted for righteousness.
    1) godly
    2) ungodly

Romans 6:14 (KJV)
For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the ........................., but under ..........................
    1) grace, law
    2) law, grace

Romans 8:1 (NASB)
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who ........................................
    1) don’t sin
    2) are in Christ Jesus.

1 John 4:17 (KJV)
Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because ......................
    1) we don't sin and we do all the good works
    2) as he is, so are we in this world.

1 Corinthians 15:56 (KJV)
The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is ........................
    1) grace and freedom.
    2) the law.

Hosea 4:6 (KJV)
My people are destroyed for lack of ...................................
    1) holiness, prayer, and fasting
    2) knowledge

Hebrews 10:10 (KJV)
We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ .............................
    1) until the next sin
    2) once for all.

Hebrews 8:12 (KJV)
I (God) will be ............................. to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember ...........................
    1) angry, until they confess
    2) merciful, no more.

John 16:8,9 (KJV)
When he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
Of ........................., because .............................................
    1) sins (plural), they always sin.
    2) sin (singular), they believe not on me.

Taken from Alfred Scott via Marc Allan, thanks brothers!

Sin Offerings were Made to Sin Not to God by Darin Hufford

Excerpted from Who Killed Christ?

A “sin offering” is not made to God, but to sin. Sin is a beast who wants to devour you. Imagine camping with your family and you come across a grizzly bear out in the wild. First off, let me tell you that if this happens; you had better come baring gifts! You had better have an offering for that bear, or it’s you he will devour. Christ basically threw himself in front of the beast of sin and allowed it to devour him instead of us. He saves us from sin. 

Most think that the old covenant sin offering was to God so that He would overlook their sins and refrain from killing them one more day. If you really think about that theology, it doesn’t follow through very nicely. What we’re saying is that God set up a system where people could pay Him off when they sinned. It’s like God was selling indulgences. This is silly on several levels. First off, it implies that there is a price in God’s mind that would make sin worth it for Him. If that price was paid to God, He would be satisfied and the sin wouldn’t matter anymore. Could you imagine there being ANY price where sin would be okay from a fathers standpoint??

Know this; to God there is nothing in this world that would ever make sin worth it. Sin takes from people. It depletes them and leaves them hollow and empty. It strips people of their identity and basically devours their bodies. God would NEVER put a price on that because there is no price that would make it okay for Him. It would be like me agreeing tome allow a man to molest one of my children for the right price. There is NO price that I would accept for that. 

Yes, it appears that the people in the Old Testament brought their “sin offerings” "to" God, but it wasn’t an offering that was “for” God. The sin offering was “for” sin. In other words, God didn’t accept the offering and overlook sin because the price was right. He took the “sin offering” and gave it to sin.

It's interesting to note the amount of times in the Old Testament where it says to take the sin offering outside the camp and burn it. It’s almost as though God were saying, “I don’t even want it mixed in with my stuff, take it away and burn it.”

The real answer as to whether a sin offering is for God or for sin, is answered when the truth is revealed in the New Testament. When we read that “when sin is full grown, it gives birth to death” we begin to see that it was sin itself that kills and therefore the slaying of the animal in the Old Testament was to the one who required your life; sin. If scripture said, “when sin is full grown, God will give the sinner the death penalty,” we would know for sure that the Old Testament “sin offering” was meant to appease God. It wasn’t that way though. 

The issue wasn’t how to put God’s inevitable wrath on the sinner off another day. It was, how to keep sins inevitable devouring nature satisfied until the time of Christ in order to save the life of the person. This is almost the complete opposite of what most of us have been taught.

So who was it that killed Christ? Was it God or was it sin? The bible says, “The wages of sin is death,” not “The wages of God is death if you sin.” The wages are paid to SIN; not to God.

The rest of Scripture points this way as well. If we look at the James 1:14-15 verses it clearly shows the progression of it. “Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then , after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” It is SIN that gives birth to death. It was SIN that killed Christ; NOT GOD. 

Romans 6:10 puts it so simply and beautifully:  “When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But the life he lives, he lives to God.”