Good morning and welcome to everybody. Today, we are going to take a look at a passage of scripture, but before we do that, I wanted to tell you a little story.
Many years ago, I flunked out of a class and I was going to be held back unless I went to summer school. It was a beautiful summer that year, and for 6 weeks I rode my bicycle 35 miles to school and back, in order to pass the course. At 6:00 a.m. each morning, I would wipe the dew from my seat, check the air pressure in the tires, get on my 10 speed, and begin the 18 mile trip to town. Sometimes the wind was contrary, and I would have to pedal as hard as I could, but I always seemed to get there on time. Exhausted, I would sit down, put my elbows on the desktop, and began to listen as the teacher began his lecture. Many times I would drift off and imagine myself swimming and sailing at the beach with my friends. I would think about jumping off of the raft into the cool water, or tubing across the lake. But no matter how much I imagined being somewhere else, nothing could change the fact of where I was. For the next 6 weeks I had to deal with the reality of the situation,….completing summer school.
This reminds me of the Christian Life
No matter how much you imagine something, or want it to be true, that doesn’t make it real. Riding my bike to school each morning for the next 6 weeks and passing the course, that was the reality.
2 Corinthians 10:5 “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;”
When you imagine something it means to form a mental image of something in your mind. It’s to think about something, but it’s not actually happening. It’s fantasy. You might imagine how good the food is going to taste at a certain restaurant, but when you finally get there it isn’t at all what you expected. Some people may imagine what heaven’s going to be like, but might be in for a rude awakening at judgment Day. We don’t have to imagine what heaven is because these things are revealed to us through the teachings of sacred scripture. They are explained to us by men who walked in the very presence of the one who created all things, God’s only begotten Son Jesus.
The Apostle Paul was a man who would cast down imaginations by telling people the truth about God. Many people have certain vain imaginations about what God is to them. They want God to be what they want Him to be, rather than accepting the facts of who God really is. They want God to conform to them, rather than conforming themselves to the will of God. This is one of the reasons why there are so many false religions and heresies in the world today. They want God to fit into their mold, rather than submitting themselves to the truth.
Romans 1:21-25 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
There is only one God, the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and the only path to God is found in His Son Jesus. This is the reality. This is not some vain imagination created by unspiritual people who are still abiding in their sins. It is the truth, and we must reject the world’s version of God, for the facts. Many people are living in a make believe world. In their own mind they like to form an idea or concept of what they think God is or should be to them, but it is the Apostle Paul who set people straight, correcting them of their false beliefs.
Imaginations are not always harmful, unless you falsely imagine. When you do this you’re believing a lie. For example, you might imagine that there’s green cheese on Mars, but it’s a lie. You might believe that a cow can actually jump over the moon, but it too, is a lie. You might envision Santa Claus jumping down a 6-inch wood stove pipe, and eating all your cookies and finishing off the eggnog, but these are all fantasies, because they really don’t exist. Each day, children are raised in these false and vain imaginations. They are taught to believe a lie as though it’s true. They are only false narratives and fictitious fables.
Numerous people who profess to be Christian preach a false Jesus, not the embodiment of the true and living God who is found in the teachings of scripture. They want to believe that they are going to heaven, but their concept of paradise, and what one must do to attain it, is skewed beyond belief. To imagine means to visualize something or to form a picture in the mind’s eye. Vain imaginations means fruitless fantasies, ones that are false and misleading. When we become a Christian, we must give up any ideas of what God might be to us. We must dispose of man’s opinion of spiritual things. We must reject the religious concepts that we have been erroneously instructed in throughout our lives, and receive the things of God that are freely given to us through scripture.
1 Corinthians 2:9-14 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Natural man does not accept the things of God’s Holy Spirit. So what they do, is they develop their own false religions, rather than accepting the truth. At one time the Corinthian Church imagined that serving idols would get them to heaven. They were carried away by their own fraudulent concepts of God.
1 Corinthians 12:2 Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.
The Apostle Paul was standing in direct opposition to these false beliefs and helping explain who and what God really is. He was preaching and teaching the truth in Christ. He was re-educating the Spiritually uneducated. When we become a Christian, we begin to be filled with knowledge. We understand how the world is going to end. These are not imaginations, because they are based on the truth. Someday this Earth and everything in it will be destroyed. These are not imaginations because they are based on the truth. In the church we are given great understanding and a vision of future events but they are not imaginations, they are reality. Instead of allowing people to believe these vain imaginations about God, the Apostles would correct them, and point them to the truth.
1 Thessalonians 1:8-9 For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing. For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;
Grace is given to us through Jesus Christ so that we can become new obedient creatures. Heaven is a final reward for those who take advantage of this free gift, and repent of their sins. Those who continue to rebel and live in disobedience, will perish in their sins. God is a respecter of no persons. Whether they claim to be Christian or not, they will be cast into a lake of fire for rejecting God’s kind act of mercy, and receiving His grace in vain.
You might imagine what God might be, just like I would imagine being at the beach in the summer, but this isn’t heaven and it isn’t the beach. Each of us needs to stop pretending and open our eyes up to the reality of God, the reality of His will, and the reality of His purpose. It is found throughout the teachings of the New Testament. Salvation is going to require getting on the bike each morning, learning the materials that we need to know, and whole-heartedly submitting ourselves to the will of God, if any of us are ever going to complete…..
………Summer School
Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by searching, tlkjbc where you can find our diaries distributed through various platforms. We are not associated, nor affiliated with any other religious groups. You can get our entire podcast feeds directly, along with transcripts at tlkjbc.com or I suppose that you could find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Peace to you all, and Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody.
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