My Greatest Fear

[Brother Price]

I posted this on my blog, "Reaching Thoughts" this morning, and wanted to share it with you.

I want to share with you the greatest fear I have when it comes to my walk with the Lord.

Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy (every evil, abusive, injurious speaking, or indignity against sacred things) can be forgiven men, but blasphemy against the [Holy] Spirit shall not and cannot be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Spirit, the Holy One, will not be forgiven, either in this world and age or in the world and age to come. {Matthew 12:31-32}

I have this fear that I, if I had continued in the pattern I was in, was going to commit blasphemy of the Holy Ghost. I was going to ........ to Hell believers and state that the working of the Spirit in the lives of those whose ’standards’ did not live up to mine own was indeed of the devil. I am afraid that, if I had not stopped, I would have committed this horrible deed against the precious Spirit of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. However, as of late, I have watched an elder I have admired in and out of the conservative movement, do exactly this in the arena of cut hair on women. Now, I will not copy/paste his words on here, but to summarize, he said that if a woman has cut hair, she is damned to Hell, and any church which allows the cutting of hair is not a Church of God (true church).

Now, I am not sure, but that is, IMHO, very, very close to blasphemy of the Holy Ghost. I am a minister in a church which sees such things in relevance, and thew Spirit moves very freely in GloryLand Church. I have witnessed miracles, signs, wonders, and the supernatural occurring. For this elder to say what he said, he came close to saying that the move of the Spirit we see in our churches is not of God. He did not come right out and say it, but he came awfully close, and way too close to the edge of the abyss for my liking.

DO NOT judge and criticize and condemn others, so that you may not be judged and criticized and condemned yourselves. For just as you judge and criticize and condemn others, you will be judged and criticized and condemned, and in accordance with the measure you [use to] deal out to others, it will be dealt out again to you. Why do you stare from without at the very small particle that is in your brother’s eye but do not become aware of and consider the beam of timber that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, Let me get the tiny particle out of your eye, when there is the beam of timber in your own eye? You hypocrite, first get the beam of timber out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the tiny particle out of your brother’s eye. {Matthew 7:1-5}

We are in a season where too many are majoring on the minors, and minoring/ignoring the majors. We need to stop and look around us for a moment. We have a world going to hell in a hand basket, and we are concerned with makeup, rings and jewelry, and hair length. God help us to see that we, as His people, need to reach out to the lost and dying with the Gospel, and stop all this immature bickering over foolishness.

It is not holiness in physical appearance, but in ALL areas of life.

[MissBrattified]

Bro. Price, with all due respect:

1. Withholding judgment (of a brother) must also extend to cons and ultra-cons. For you to accuse another brother of blasphemy is no different than someone accusing a brother of any other sin.

2. If a man or woman believes something is sin, and therefore places others in danger of hell, they have no choice except to state it, whether you think they are correct or not. If you *know* something will cause someone else to be LOST, and you keep it to yourself, are you expressing love for them? I would venture to say, that would be an impossible choice for any Christian.

Right, wrong or indifferent, we not only have the "right", but we have an obligation to speak what is truth to a lost and dying world. Even if someone else is blatantly in error, scripturally, I will NOT fault them for sincerely preaching what they truly believe is necessary for salvation.

The problem is we go around judging everyone else's "truth." And that goes both ways, liberals judging cons, cons judging liberals, NONE of it is profitable to the church.

[Brother Price]

Originally Posted by MissBrattified

Bro. Price, with all due respect:

1. Withholding judgment (of a brother) must also extend to cons and ultra-cons. For you to accuse another brother of blasphemy is no different than someone accusing a brother of any other sin.

2. If a man or woman believes something is sin, and therefore places others in danger of hell, they have no choice except to state it, whether you think they are correct or not. If you *know* something will cause someone else to be LOST, and you keep it to yourself, are you expressing love for them? I would venture to say, that would be an impossible choice for any Christian.

Right, wrong or indifferent, we not only have the "right", but we have an obligation to speak what is truth to a lost and dying world. Even if someone else is blatantly in error, scripturally, I will NOT fault them for sincerely preaching what they truly believe is necessary for salvation.

The problem is we go around judging everyone else's "truth." And that goes both ways, liberals judging cons, cons judging liberals, NONE of it is profitable to the church.

But, MB, whatever happened to walking in the fear and awe of God's judgment. We all know what sins are sins, no question. That is what all will be judged on. However, when one starts saying things like, "Such and such is not a true church because they believe women can cut their hair.", that borders on blasphemy against the Spirit moving within the Church.

Remember also, I said it SEEMED to me borderline blasphemy, a line I do not want to get no where near. When we judge those who have a sincere walk with God, and do not align with our standards, that is a step I refuse to cross. Un un.. way too close to the edge for this man.

As touching speaking the truth, we do this. We judge sin as sin. But, remember, we must also beware not to condemn our brethren for not being a clone. One should preach against sin, not against the brethren.

[Cindy]

Brother Price,
I believe we just have to pray for those we think to be in error. Right or wrong we will all stand before God and give an account of our lives. And God is the only righteous judge. We just have to make sure our own hearts are right. And not accuse each other.

[Brother Price]

Originally Posted by cneasttx

Brother Price,
I believe we just have to pray for those we think to be in error. Right or wrong we will all stand before God and give an account of our lives. And God is the only righteous judge. We just have to make sure our own hearts are right. And not accuse each other.

And this is the whole point! We want to judge if certain people are of God by the 'standards', and when they do not measure up, they are judged as not of God. This is borderline, if not full blown, blasphemy of the Holy Ghost!

[TRFrance]

Originally Posted by cneasttx

Brother Price,
I believe we just have to pray for those we think to be in error. Right or wrong we will all stand before God and give an account of our lives. And God is the only righteous judge. We just have to make sure our own hearts are right. And not accuse each other.

Very good post my sister.
Your spirit is much appreciated around here.

[Cindy]

I do not want to argue or debate, but we all tread on dangerous ground when we judge others for any reason. Even when we judge others for judging. That is not what we are suppose to be about. I do understand your frustration, but we can only overcome by prayer and supplication before the throne.

[dizzyde]

Originally Posted by cneasttx

I do not want to argue or debate, but we all tread on dangerous ground when we judge others for any reason. Even when we judge others for judging. That is not what we are suppose to be about. I do understand your frustration, but we can only overcome by prayer and supplication before the throne.

HOMERUN Cindy!!!

[bishoph]

Originally Posted by Brother Price

I posted this on my blog, "Reaching Thoughts" this morning, and wanted to share it with you.

I want to share with you the greatest fear I have when it comes to my walk with the Lord.

Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy (every evil, abusive, injurious speaking, or indignity against sacred things) can be forgiven men, but blasphemy against the [Holy] Spirit shall not and cannot be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Spirit, the Holy One, will not be forgiven, either in this world and age or in the world and age to come. {Matthew 12:31-32}

I have this fear that I, if I had continued in the pattern I was in, was going to commit blasphemy of the Holy Ghost. I was going to ........ to Hell believers and state that the working of the Spirit in the lives of those whose ’standards’ did not live up to mine own was indeed of the devil. I am afraid that, if I had not stopped, I would have committed this horrible deed against the precious Spirit of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. However, as of late, I have watched an elder I have admired in and out of the conservative movement, do exactly this in the arena of cut hair on women. Now, I will not copy/paste his words on here, but to summarize, he said that if a woman has cut hair, she is damned to Hell, and any church which allows the cutting of hair is not a Church of God (true church).

Now, I am not sure, but that is, IMHO, very, very close to blasphemy of the Holy Ghost. I am a minister in a church which sees such things in relevance, and thew Spirit moves very freely in GloryLand Church. I have witnessed miracles, signs, wonders, and the supernatural occurring. For this elder to say what he said, he came close to saying that the move of the Spirit we see in our churches is not of God. He did not come right out and say it, but he came awfully close, and way too close to the edge of the abyss for my liking.

DO NOT judge and criticize and condemn others, so that you may not be judged and criticized and condemned yourselves. For just as you judge and criticize and condemn others, you will be judged and criticized and condemned, and in accordance with the measure you [use to] deal out to others, it will be dealt out again to you. Why do you stare from without at the very small particle that is in your brother’s eye but do not become aware of and consider the beam of timber that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, Let me get the tiny particle out of your eye, when there is the beam of timber in your own eye? You hypocrite, first get the beam of timber out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the tiny particle out of your brother’s eye. {Matthew 7:1-5}

We are in a season where too many are majoring on the minors, and minoring/ignoring the majors. We need to stop and look around us for a moment. We have a world going to hell in a hand basket, and we are concerned with makeup, rings and jewelry, and hair length. God help us to see that we, as His people, need to reach out to the lost and dying with the Gospel, and stop all this immature bickering over foolishness.

It is not holiness in physical appearance, but in ALL areas of life.

Bro. Price,

In the world of Lib/Mod/Con/UC Apostolic Pentecostalism, we constantly hear the cries of those proclaiming their new found liberties, and the woeful warnings of those who caution against liberating ourselves out of fellowship with God. Yet Jesus addressed the pharisees of his day (they exist both in the liberal and the con arenas) and told them that they had gotten so caught up in the rules of the law that they had forgotten/abandoned love, judgment, mercy, and faith. This is the cry I so often hear from the liberal camp. Jesus did not end his discourse with this rebuke, rather he reminded them that while they need the latter the should never abandon the former.

We must possess balance.

[Cindy]

Brother Price, I have done a lot of thinking since I posted this morning and wanted to leave some thoughts for you here.
The enemy of our souls already has all the sinners, but what I believe he wants more than anything, is to get believers fighting amongst themselves, and so gain a foothole to get us sidetracked, and maybe he will have a chance to turn us away from our goal. We cannot let differences get to the point where we are in danger of becoming so caught up in them, that we forget our common goals, which should be to see souls born into the kingdom.