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THE BODY OF CHRIST

1 Corinthians 12:12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

JESUS' PRAYER FOR BELIEVERS

John 17:23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

THE BODY OF CHRIST

1 Corinthians 12:28 And God hath set some in the Church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then the gifts of healing, governments, diversities of tongues.

My FIL is a pastor of a small church and he writes off SO much as a tax exemption 😒

Too many ministers have the idea that success is nothing more than the carnal “American Dream” - advancement, fame, fortune - and their model for success is someone wearing $400 sneakers, living extravagantly, and hanging out with celebrities and politicians. What they call “great” is actually a sign that they’ve lost their way.

Jim Cymbala

Unite in prayer for peace!

Awesome Father above, we call upon Your power and Your desire for peace to bring peaceful resolution to the conflicts between Ukraine/NATO and Russia, Israel and Palestine, India and Pakistan, North Korea with its seeming hatred of all nations, China’s imperialism, and all the other conflicts and skirmishes that are abounding. As You know, there are wars and rumors of wars across the entire globe, Father. Please bring peace throughout Your world. Help mankind to practice agape love worldwide. Remove from the leaders of this world their propensity for warmongering, hatred, and violence. Before it is too late, please prevent any use of nuclear weapons which would contaminate Your creation with radiation and take or disable countless lives. Bring peace, Father. With so many war fronts around the world today one would begin to believe that we are in the grips of World War III. Please let it not be so, Father!!! Help all of mankind to be brothers and live as one family with You, our Father.

Pray with me and share! Let's start a prayer chain and bring down the power of Almighty God!

Links & Quotes

Some links and quotes that caught my eye this week.

” A great mental health strategy: focus on what is happening today. Trying to fix yesterday or worrying about tomorrow robs you of the peace God wants you to have. Check out the full series of mental health strategies I shared here. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel. “Compromise and commitment cannot coincide. … Conviction leads to commitment,…

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*New Video!* - Section 3 of 5: BITTER DOCTRINE - "CHURCH LEADERS, LET MY PEOPLE GO!" -> -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RWvKkC7Ltw&list=PLE8FlkxQPQkP4Ljrix_obl1uYSx1VNyqE&index=27 <- <- "Therefore, thus says The Lord: My anger is kindled against you, O churches of men! My discipline is prepared and made ready and shall be most severe, on account of all this blasphemy I have heard from your lips, and because of all these heresies of which you have readily accepted from all these haughty scholars, teachers, pastors, preachers, ministers and priests, who have set themselves up as an authority, who as the Pharisees of old have lifted up their heel against Me! CHURCH LEADERS, LET MY PEOPLE GO! No more feed them, for I alone shall feed them! Let them go, so I may purge them and make them clean! LET THEM GO! Let My children come out and worship Me in a place set apart. For they are My treasure and I shall surely steal them away, even all in whom I see of Myself, those who have received of Me in sincerity and in truth, humble and penitent, with a new heart and a contrite spirit."

Excerpt from: https://www.thevolumesoftruth.com/Churches_of_Men,_Hear_The_Word_of_The_Lord

Be Careful of Who You Associate With as a Christian

Over the last decade or so Christian artists as well as church pastors have become more progressive in their faith. So much so that they have become more accepting of behaviors and beliefs that the Bible clearly speaks out against. Many Christians out there are being steadily influenced by the philosophies and doctrines of many of these people due to a lack of understanding the biblical narrative.

We at Feeding the Flock Ministry always want our brothers and sisters in Christ to be cautious of such things, and therefore be careful as to what artist or preacher you listen to and share content from. It is wise to know where an artist or a pastor has there head space at, as well as who has influenced them.

Even a pastor that is influenced by someone who lived 700 years ago and has been preaching for 50 years should be questioned. Do not fooled by fame or popularity someone has among other believers, but instead know your Bible and what those people taught that are in it.

For here are some warnings from the scriptures to keep in mind as follower of Christ.

“Do not presume that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter shall pass from the Law, until all is accomplished! Therefore, whoever nullifies one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you that unless your righteousness far surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus in The Sermon on the Mount

“Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.” Jesus was speaking on being loved and accepted by everyone. If a pastor or Christian artist is loved by the world, then run away from them. Their message is most likely filled with darkness and deception.

“Do not be mismatched with unbelievers; for what do righteousness and lawlessness share together, or what does light have in common with darkness? Or what harmony does Christ have with Belial, or what does a believer share with an unbeliever? Or what agreement does the temple of God have with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I WILL DWELL AMONG THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE. “Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,” says the Lord. “AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN; And I will welcome you. And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me,”Says the Lord Almighty.” Apostle Paul in his second letter to the church at Corinth.

“I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people; I did not at all mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the greedy and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to leave the world. But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is a sexually immoral person, or a greedy person, or an idolater, or is verbally abusive, or habitually drunk, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a person.” Apostle Paul in his first letter to the church at Corinth.

Paul is telling us that we should not hang out with none believers or believers that continue in sin or are accepting of it. We are all influenced by those that we spend time with. Most believers today do not even read the Bible and at best rely on pastors to tell them what it says. Therefore they are typically under the influence of pastors and musicians that “cherry pick” the scriptures in order to make a sermon or song that is easy on the ears and heart of todays Christian population.

Many pastors and musicians when asked about whether homosexuality is a sin or not will find ways around that question or simply say they do not believe it is. But let me tell you here and now homosexuality, adultery, fornication, witchcraft, murder, lying, stealing, rape, child molestation, human sacrifice, devil worship, taking the mark of the beast, worshipping the anti christ or his false prophet, prophesying false prophecies, fortune telling, suicide, believing there is more than one way to heaven, believing Jesus was a progressive teacher or a homosexual man, that God is a she not a Him, selling books or videos based on biblical teachings for personal profit, and so on is all sin.

You might find it strange that I should say some of the things I just did, but these are all taught and practiced in various places among those that call themselves teachers or preachers of the biblical narrative. Many of their congregations take it in like ice water on a hot summer day not realizing it is snake venom they are drinking.

It is so very important to read or listen to the entire Bible as often as possible these days for yourself before listening to others interruptions of it. There is far to much deception and corruption in churches today. To much division, slander, accusations, and fighting going on among churches and denominations. Those are all warning signs of people you should avoid.

For Apostle Paul wrote this about such things, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit, by whom you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, quarreling, and slander be put away from you, along with all hatred.”

Peter also said something similar by saying this, “So get rid of every kind of evil, every kind of deception, hypocrisy, jealousy, and every kind of slander. Desire God’s pure word as newborn babies desire milk. Then you will grow in your salvation. Certainly you have tasted that the Lord is good!”

So when you see a preacher or Christian artists being accepting of sinful behavior, not accepting the totality of scripture as the Word of God, slandering other people or passing condemnation and calling for a punishment to be passed on them, preaching something that is not biblically sound, or makes a place for sinners and unbeliever to influence others through their own ministry have nothing to do with them. For the world we live in is far more corrupt and dangerous than we are even aware of.

Last night, me and my family were listening to a church sermon, but the pastor kept on saying, “bad guy,” and “good guy,” but earlier, I was watching a bunch of stupid memes about The Bad Guys, and I was trying so hard not to laugh.

I need professional help.

POWER-TRIPPIN' PASTORS -- a poem by Bill Kochman A poem by Bill Kochman. Visit my poetry page at https://www.billkochman.com/Poetry/ to see all my poetry, along with related Bible study resources, all in one place, and organized by poem category. Thanks! To see other poems related to this one, please go here: https://www.billkochman.com/Poetry/index.html#Corrupt-Churchianity Article: "Churchianity or Christianity: Which Do You Practice?": https://www.billkochman.com/Articles/church-1.html Article: "Are You Just a Baby Huey?": https://www.billkochman.com/Articles/babyhue1.html "Christian Servant's Attitude" KJV Bible Verse List: https://www.billkochman.com/VerseLists/verse012.html "Test Doctrines for Scriptural Validity" KJV Bible Verse List: https://www.billkochman.com/VerseLists/verse329.html "False Doctrine" KJV Bible Verse List: https://www.billkochman.com/VerseLists/verse016.html "Mass Deception" KJV Bible Verse List: https://www.billkochman.com/VerseLists/verse186.html Article: "Humility in Our Understanding of God's Word": https://www.billkochman.com/Articles/Humility-in-Our-Understanding-01.html "Spirit of Truth" KJV Bible Verse List: https://www.billkochman.com/VerseLists/verse294.html "Led by the Spirit in Our Understanding" KJV Bible Verse List: https://www.billkochman.com/VerseLists/verse479.html "Taught by Revelation of the Holy Spirit" KJV Bible Verse List: https://www.billkochman.com/VerseLists/verse319.html "Taught by No Man" KJV Bible Verse List: https://www.billkochman.com/VerseLists/verse465.html Article: "Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth": https://www.billkochman.com/Articles/ritediv1.html https://www.billkochman.com/Blog/index.php/power-trippin-pastors-a-poem-by-bill-kochman/?feed_id=28881&_unique_id=63e923a72ea04&POWER-TRIPPIN%27%20PASTORS%20--%20a%20poem%20by%20Bill%20Kochman

Encourage Your Pastor

Holy Land Take 2!

It’s been three years since I had the opportunity to travel out of the country and now I’m finally heading off: back to the Holy Land! I’m excited to be sharing this trip (and probably most of my future trips) with my new travel buddy, I mean husband, Jonathan.

Here’s a cute wedding photo because how can I not share one!

We’ve done some traveling together locally and down to Disney World but this will be his first appearance on the blog as its our first out of country excursion, and his first trip to the Holy Land!

As this trip is not for a class like last time, I likely won’t blog about it the same way I did in 2019. If you want to revisit those posts, check here. Since this is a continuing education trip for work, I will try to share as I am able to, just no guarantees for in-depth posts. Even though I’ve been before, I’m wait to go again because it’s going to be so different. The trip comprises of pastors and their spouses so we are going with our friends Zach, Ana, Dan, and Alina. It will also be different because I’m in my second year of pastoral ministry and have spent more time in the Bible for fun (not just for class) so I feel like I will experience the places differently. I’m also going into the trip eager to watch as Jonathan experiences it all for the first time.

The itinerary for the trip keeps changing but here’s a rough outline for where we will be going and what we will be doing.

January 3: Departing from Newark, NJ around 6:20 pm

January 4: Arrive in Tel Aviv and overnight in Tiberius

January 5: Cana of Galilee, Nazareth with the Basilica of the Annunciation (my favorite!!! Read about my 2019 fascination with Mary’s house here)

January 6: Capernaum, Mount of Beatitudes, boat ride on the Sea of Galilee

January 7: Jericho

January 8: Bethlehem!

January 9: Jerusalem: Mount of Olives

January 10: Jerusalem: Temple Mount & Old City

January 11: Travel Home :(

We are just about packed and I truly cannot think of what we are forgetting, but I’m sure (I hope) we will think of it between now and our flight. Until I post again, please pray for us and all those traveling with us on the trip, as well as all the people of Israel and Palestine.

by Mike Christ | The exact moment when I sensed the inadequacy of my understanding of sanctification is engraved in my mind. It occurred in a small-group meeting, while discussing the dynamic between our actions and the work of the Spirit in the process of becoming holy. As these conversations often go, people were sharing what helped them grow—or at least what they learned in church about what ought to help them grow—you know, reading the Bible, praying, etc. At the same time, everyone steadfastly maintained that the Holy Spirit actually did the work of sanctification. Finally an honest woman blurted out...

Our Sunday message for 04/14/24 from the Social Gospel Worship & Learning Center with Minister Paul J. Bern; Here's my take on why churches are losing members, and how to turn it around https://medium.com/@greatestservant62/the-implosion-of-churches-the-real-jesus-and-the-quest-for-truth-f44841406e26 #membership #faith #loss #clergy #pastors #church #churches #leadership #realjesus #realChristianity #truth

It’s funny the things we think are “irreplaceable” 🤣 Pulpits aren’t mentioned in the Bible. As far as we know, neither Jesus nor any of the leaders in the first Church used them, and yet they are still considered “biblical” by some people. This was a part of a discussion I had with some other pastors as we talked about some of the other non-biblical things pastors and church leaders have to navigate on a regular basis.