Our Independence as a Christian People! Re: 4th of July

Our Independence as a Christian People!   Re: 4th of July    

By Kelly Durant                        (Original 7-5-08)   Re 7-1-18

John 8:36

36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

Gal 5:1

1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

3.How many of you here celebrate the 5 de Mayo? Yeah! Yahoo! It is good to remember the day your country won victories or were liberated from the oppressors!

Here we have the 4^thof July. When do you celebrate? Name a few countries and dates…Venezuela, July 5^th! And more… Did you know it is Biblical to remember when you as a people were liberated? In the O.T. we see the clear example of the Jews remembering the Passover, the day that marked when they were set free.

4.That highlighted the day that pharaoh decided to let those enslaved people go with Moses to the Promised Land. Even today, the Passover is celebrated as a very holy day for the Jews. We should always reflect on the O.T. because it teaches us parallels to the life of Christ. We learn about oppression and freedom.

5. Easter for the Christians is our day of liberation, the liberation from death, and did you recall it happened the next morning after Passover? Jesus resurrection brought freedom from death! The Jews then and even today still remember their freedom which was about 1,500 years B.C.. from their slavery in Egypt!

Christians celebrate obtaining their freedom from the slavery of death at the same time the Jews got liberated from Egypt, which is a total fulfillment of the shadow of God’s parallelisms in revelations! It is okay to be patriotic and share in the roots of your people and believe me, knowing the history Latinos have educated me on, I am very glad that Mexico, and South America did not remain under the domination of the Spanish. Spain freed them from the slavery of the Mayans, Incans, & the rest but then Spain made them slaves. 

6. In English a famous saying is, “God and country!” and the supposition is that you reverence God first then your country. That is an ideology and it would make a more perfect world if every man reverenced the hierarchy in that order. We must remember these traditional phrases as they teach how things should be.

7. In the Salvation Army there were a few good men that after they got out of the service in WWII, joined the Salvation Army. Many people have served country and then God. We are God’s Army, and there exists two totally different organizations and ideologies here. Our fight is to free and souls doing all the work we can to liberate the spiritual captives. The soldiers of the world keep us free from outside oppressors. Let’s look up a part in the scripture where Jesus gives his very first message in his mission: to give people freedom! 

8. Isaiah. Isa 61:1

61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

God and his son are very interested in the liberty and spiritual freedom of each of us! When you first repented and received Jesus that was your Independence Day of sin, and death, and it was your rebirth into the family of God with eternal life!

9. Apart from everyone knowing the date from which your country was liberated from the oppressors, do you recall the date you personally were liberated from the oppression of the devil who would have destroyed your soul?

My date is the same as my birthday 3-24, because it was coincidently then when I was 21 that I began a training to go abroad with a Christian mission group, and I left 6 months later to serve the Lord in Brazil, and then in other countries for 14 years! I think God I did that instead of staying bound in the world of sin I was in!

So now let me hear yours. When were you saved Let me hear some of you, when was your independence day? (Others should speak out loud their dates)

10.How may of you have read the history of countries that get free from oppressors? Liberation and independence is a gift from God! 

But how many people do you know who could be free, remain captive?

How many of you have know of a young woman who wishes to escape the heavy abusive oppressing control of her father or mother, only to marry a man that does the same thing, that is, oppress and dominate? Or have you seen a woman leave a marriage from a dictatorial man, and with her freedom rejoice she could start again only to see her end up with another man who dominates her the same as the first one did?

11. Why does that happen in life? Why can’t we just live out the verse we read in the beginning, how if the son makes us free, then we are free indeed? Sometime we will do an in depth study into Galatians but what was happening here in 5:1 was that the common people who were being converted to being a Christian were being told by the Jewish Christians in control that they had to now submit to all the Jewish laws and customs. That’s not freedom but slavery.

In other words, Jesus came to free each of us from sin and to fulfill the law, and we are to obey His commands to love God and our neighbor and preach the gospel and serve others, but we will never be made perfect by legalism, be it Jewish or from some aberrant church! With Jesus, for 2,000 years now being “the way” to heaven, communicates that there is no other way or rules that will save you!

12. In vain the church in Galatians was tying to obtain perfection by legalism, and what it turned out to be was a church full of oppression! How many of you have darkened the door of Christian churches that are full of oppression?

I have visited many of them and I have questioned this matter extensively, why do people choose to attend there if there most of what they offer is a dark, unloving, oppression? Is it fear? Is it that they are too weak to stand up and proclaim what is right? Do people, or do you read the scriptures to know wrong from right,? 

13. My conclusion is this; many people live years under the fear and oppression of Satan. However, when they accept Christ they experience a new strange feeling, freedom!

This is true independence!

They feel freedom from fear, a clean conscious, and a warm strength within, but soon the Enemy comes back to tell them, this is too good to be true, this is uncomfortable, this is not normal! But security comes not from some domineering and controlling devil. 

So since the devil often cannot persuade a person to stop believing in Christ, he persuades them to go to a church that is not a loving holiness Christian church like the Salvation Army, but rather a church where they will be dominated by fear and oppression! Those with false doctrines, those who are deceivers must be unmasked and shut down. Today we see apostacy everywhere!

14. Remember our salvation and freedom does not come by the completion of heavy works or rules, (Ephesians 2:8,9) and it is not by deceptive feelings either! So if you feel uncomfortable that there is freedom in Christ that is a good thing! Get use to it! That is what Jesus came and died to do for you, to liberate you for now and forever! 

Venezuela, Mexico, Bolivia, and dozens of countries, were liberated in the past, but many are falling back into oppression, either from a Satanic government, or by the oppression of the rich. Examine your own life well. Are you being oppressed? Jesus truth can free you! 

Evil rules with dark spiritual forces. It can be coming from a coworker, a family member, a political group, or even your own mind! You can make your own self miserable when not fully transformed under the liberty of Christ! You can be your own cruel oppressor as in the case of addicts, those who allow in demons, or propagators of false religions or enslaving political ideologies.

Freedom is not anarchy; In our church, we need organization, and rules, in order to function, but those are for our own protection and good, but they are not our main message. Our message is Jesus Christ’s love! Amen? Let’s pray now for you personally to be free in Christ! Free from oppression & fear! Remember If Christ has made you free, you are free indeed! 

Christian, Are You A Part of The Collective Body?

Christian, Are You A Part of The Collective Body?       Kelly Durant

Acts 2:44-45⁴⁴ Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, ⁴⁵ and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.

2. Have you ever seen two kids fight over a toy? One will scream, “It’s mine!”, The other one screams back, “No, it’s mine!” And they pull and throw the toy doll or truck back and forth red in the face and angry. How terrible it is but they would rather see it break before letting the other one have it! 

We observe these things as adults and want to teach our children to share but it is a long slow process. Here is the reality of our selfish human nature, no authoritative person can ever change our selfish heart by physical punishments, abstinence from the toy or what is demanded, or by verbal threats and manipulations. So how do we solve the “me first” individualistic flaw of everyone’s nature (you and I included) which is predisposed to sin? Some role models teach character development, but outside controls only slow down the evil heart but it does not clean out the evil so it remains throughout all adult lives unless a heart change happens.  We all need a heart change, right?

Just think how many professionals and crooks make big money off of individuals who are greedy, deceptive, lying, and individually motivated? I am referring to lawyers over divorce and altercation cases, over politicians who throw entire communities into poverty for bribes and agenda money, and medical and drug consortiums whose motive is not to cure, but to create dependent clients. The list goes on and on! Are you not shocked by what a realm of injustices we live in!  

3. All the world’s destructive evils are administrated by whom? Satan! Do you recall how when Jesus was tempted that the final temptation by Satan was that he would share with Jesus his power over all the earth he controlled? What a usurper and liar! Satan is the embodiment of your typical prideful, me first, power hungry, controlling, oppressive despot; he would never share his glory with God!

Matthew 4: 8 “Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. : 9 And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ 11 Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.”

Basically, every individual you meet, unless they are a mature holy living saint of God, has a part of their lives being controlled by some deviance from Satan! Have you ever noticed that? People notice things and talk, ‘Oh he’s nice but he has a terrible temper, oh she’s a great decorator and organizer but she’s very possessive, oh he’s intelligent with ideas to help but sneaky and manipulative.

4. Can we not conclude every person has their own internal weaknesses, a part of them that appears from time to time to harm them and everyone else? Are not most damages and offenses carried out due to a person’s lack of respect towards others, which is in essence a lack of respect towards God’s precepts in the Word? 

Jesus taught us to, ‘Do unto others as we would have them do unto us’…but this golden rule seems to be forgotten, even by some Christians by what we can observe today! If a person is not practicing ‘loving God and others as their selves’, could we not conclude that they are just pretending to be a Christian and are not authentically renewed with the Holy Spirit to have a new heart?

What we have in the world’s societies today are not communities of like-minded persons working together for a common good and goal benefiting all, but rather an individualistic ‘climb the corporate ladder’ type of mentality and this is what is bringing about the destruction of us all. It is Satan’s divide and conquer method which is manifested in individual people demanding their individual interests be at the top of the list: and their list is to legitimatize their authority to flaunt pride, greed, lust, and disrespect towards God and His people! 

5. We live in a crumbling society today, divided by the exercise of powerful spiritual forces in high places exalting evil individuals with Satanic agendas, but here is the hope, Jesus gave us the solution to exit this destructive game.

The answer is in the verses of today of Acts 2:44-45. The solution is basically to drop out of the world’s game! To be a practicing Christian, as Jesus taught, you must eliminate from your own self your own individual self-interests. You must deny yourself to do Jesus mission, which means you must die as a seed dries up, you must cut off the hand you offend with, you must stop being who you are and become a person with God’s loving collective nature that cares for all equally. You leave your old fishing business to become a fisher of men like the disciples did.

How can you lose yourself and become what you are not? By becoming a part of a strong collective, by being together with people who are serving Jesus having all things in common with them. Not your will but His and His people in your life!

6. And here is the radical part which very few Christian communities practice, 45:and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. I have experienced living with others who have sold everything just to serve Jesus but obedient people on this level are very few. They are either missionaries, pastors, servants, or a person so loving and pure that they are like a living saint!

Applying this practice to the church today it means that a Christian would consider the church’s needs (the body), the needs of a brother or sister, as what comes before the needs of any individual in the group. Do we see the wealthy sharing their riches with the poor in the church in general? Some do, most don’t.

I am thankful for the Salvation Army that has a group of ministers that does not allow any individual to make more salary than the other, Commissioners and Lieutenants make about the same pay. And the church was founded on the principles of attending to the needs of the poor, which implies getting yourself and the community to share the wealth so everyone has their needs met.

7. There was a sci-fi movie of Star Trek not long ago where there was a population of robotized people, the ‘Borg’. They were an aggressive conquering machine like race that absorbed everyone into the “collective” forcefully and everyone lost their identity and were programmed to be another copy, another Borg robot. This illustration is quite illuminating because this simulates what is happening today. Frighteningly, this scenario is becoming plausible with Artificial Intelligence!

Today we see that individuals with certain interests, some carnal or others more noble, joining their selves with people that have similar and goals as their purpose. There are many ‘pro’ or ‘anti’ groups communities, political parties, and religions; additionally all types of people are connecting through the internet as for good or evil as well. So what is happening over time? 

Over a period of time their individual minds start becoming one mind under the persuasive umbrella of the social engineers and organizers of these groups. And many of the agendas today are subversive and destructive to the soul as you incrementally leave behind all previous morals and values of your conscious voice in order to fit into the larger group. This reveals how collectives are going awry!

8. But here is something interesting about joining groups. God is in the same business of recruiting others! God is absorbing us into His collective mission so that we adopt the mind of Christ so we do His will. We have read it in the scriptures, to be ‘renewed’, to become ‘new creations’, and for all of us to ‘speak the same thing’ and to become like Jesus. We must become one in the Lord!

The devil, the imitator, always copies God’s plans for His sinister purposes. It actually was God’s original idea to bring together all his sheep into one flock to feed them all the same, to put into families those that have no family, to bring together all nations and tongues under one eternal bliss, under the practice of the Word of God. Jesus wants to be our shepherd guiding us into all truth as He is the good shepherd.  But the requirement is that we all must be choosing to be in His flock connected to Him, learning from Him daily by the study of His Word, and getting together with His people in the Corps or church.

The idea is that Jesus takes you in, dirty with your sins and He purifies you day after day. He is in essence cleaning you and remaking you into a different person once you are connected to His vine. He is reprogramming you to be like Him and moving into the trash file all that was a part of your past shameful, sinful life. We must allow ourselves to be rewired into God’s collective loving Kingdom!

9. So the proof of being a Christian as God intended, as it was by the first example in the second Book of Acts, is to be sharing all, helping, serving, and not allowing anyone to not have their needs supplied. You are collectively one with your brothers and sisters.  

Are you that loving? Are you that compassionate? I pray you are striving to get there because that is true obedience and holiness ‘loving your neighbor as yourself’. Come and pray and ask God to break you, to burn away with the Holy Spirit any selfishness or pride so that you will fit into His collective heaven one day soon!