Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet
The previous week, terrorists attacked Paris. Sunday night I tuned into a news summary of the Paris attacks presented by CBS news / 60 Minutes.
The show opened with the newscaster standing on a bridge with Notre Dame Cathedral in background. It was a night scene, very dramatic with the cathedral lighted. Bells were solemnly tolling from cathedral in background.
All this is what the people of the world consider to be religious.
Then there was scene where people were lighting candles and placing them on ground.
The news person said the mothers were teaching their small children how to show respect to the dead.
There is no real power in any of these things: Bell ringing / lighting candles / putting flowers at scene of death or on graves.
No real power: This is all just fleshly thinking of man.
Paul says ... I Thess. 1 ... 5 For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance;
Those things in the Bible come with power for us who believe ... There is a power when we act in charity toward another person. I Cor. 13 ... There is a power in prayer when we pray believing. There is power when we choose to do the instruction of a specific scripture.
The real kingdom of God for us now, on this present earth, has power when we believe what God says and do what God says to do.
Therefore, I just turned the secular news program off my TV and quit watching this worldly production.
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We, who are of God, experience power of God in this present life. It is real power. It is power to control our own flesh. It is a focus on that which is real rather than tears and other fleshly emotions.
Mk 8 ... Jesus says ... Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. 7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. 8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups:and many other such like things ye do. 9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
We need to examine everything by what does the Bible say about this, thus holding fast to what God tells us to do in Bible and setting aside those things not told us in Bible.
- tolling of bells
- lighting of candles
- putting flowers at graves
None of these are in Bible. These are doctrines of men and have no real power.
We need our "religion" and our "religious acts" to be based on the power of God, not on the tradition of man.
Therefore, I reprint the following exhortation on this subject:
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Building your house on the Word of God
Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet
The apostle Paul said: 7 But refuse profane (secular) and old wives 'fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. I Tim. 4
During the time when I would go to lunch with that Catholic woman, she would frequently state some superstition as fact.
I would counter by saying: "That's not in the Bible." (Showing
the Bible is that which I build my house on. It is a foundation that
is sound and true. I do not want to build on anything that is not in
the Bible.)
She would become angry and say, "I know that ..." (but she didn't know that for she was filled with superstition, often religious superstition, and that is what she believed.)
Paul warned Timothy not to take in "profane" things (secular things) nor "old wives tales" (fables).
Many untrue things are out there. Refuse them, says Paul.
Many times I "reject" profane sayings, saying of man based on their own wisdom and superstitions.
Often I cry out at the TV: "That's not true ..." (rejecting what they say)
And I do the same thing with people when they speak worldly wisdoms and superstitions of man... "That's not true ..." (rejecting these profane concepts)
Ephesians 4:21 If so be that ye have heard HIM, and have been taught by HIM, as the truth is in Jesus: (The WORD is truth.)
We can build our house on the wisdom of this world ... or we can build on what the Bible says.
Preventive medicine?
Luke 5:31... And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.
Bodily exercise?
I Timothy 4:8 ... For bodily exercise
profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having
promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.
Planning for future?
Matthew 6:33 ... But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Matthew 6:34 ... 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.
Trusting in man?
Philippians 3:3 ...For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus (The Word), and have no confidence in the flesh.
Psalm 118:8 ... It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.
Psalm 146 ... 3 Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.
4 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth;
in that very day his thoughts perish.
5 Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help,
whose hope is in the Lord his God:
6 Which made heaven, and earth,
the sea, and all that therein is:
which keepeth truth for ever:
Success in life?
Joshua 1:8 ... This book of the law shall not depart out of
thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou
mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then
thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good
success.
Psalm 1 ... 1 Blessed is the man
that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,
nor standeth in the way of sinners,
nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord;
and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,
that bringeth forth his fruit in his season;
his leaf also shall not wither;
and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
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John 18 ... My kingdom is not of this world.
Col.
3 ... 1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are
above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2 Set your
affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For ye are
dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our
life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
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Freedom from troubling thoughts of the past:
II
Cor. 5 ... 17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new
creature:old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus
Christ (The WORD)
Phil. 3
... 13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended:but this one
thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth
unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
15 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded:
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These are truths from God which I am trying to build my house on, rejecting profane (secular) sayings of man.
But
it takes work to live in these truths from God. Man is always trying
to get us to accept sayings of man, profane (worldly) sayings, secular sayings and
live by them. But I want to build my house on what God says. I see
that as safe.
Mt. 7 ... Jesus says ...
24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them,
I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:25
And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and
beat upon that house; and it fell not:for it was founded upon a rock.
26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not,
shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the
sand:27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew,
and beat upon that house; and it fell:and great was the fall of it.