Pam Padgett - teacher
In recent messages Joan has shared the following verses with us:
1 Timothy 4:7 But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.
Colossians 3:2 Set your affection (what influences us) on things above, not on things on the earth.
A worldly (profane) teaching I was taught and which influenced me most of my life is "if you can't say something nice, say nothing". But this is not the way of God.
By saying nothing we pretend to accept, think, or believe what someone
has said even though we don't accept, think, or believe it. This is
hypocrisy, and is not the way of God.
James 3:17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then
peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good
fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
And God has promised to give us what to speak which our adversaries cannot oppose or resist.
Luke 21:14 Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate
before what ye shall answer: 15 For I will give you a mouth and wisdom,
which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.
The word God gives us to speak often does not seem "nice" to evil-doers, for it exposes
evil rather than approving it.
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Another worldly teaching is that we need to be concerned about saving
"enough" money so we'll have what we may need in the future. Jesus
taught us another way ...
Matthew 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate
the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and
despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your
life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body,
what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than
raiment?
26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not,
neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father
feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the
lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not
arrayed like one of these. 30 Wherefore, if God so clothe
the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the
oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat?
or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32 (For
after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father
knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the
morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the
day is the evil thereof.
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Because we belong to God and have the Holy Spirit, we are able to refuse
ways of this world and set our affection on the ways of God, choosing
to be influenced by, and go in the way of, the word of God.