Hebrews 6:4-6

Let’s use our usual interpretation of verse 6 and look at what we mean.
Heb 6:6 NLT
6 and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.

….Now our explanation would be “if the person backslides, and don’t repent, the person has lost his salvation, but if the person repents, he is re-born again”

With this we miss one very vital word there: IMPOSSIBLE.
Look at what the author wrote again

6 and who then turn away from God. It is IMPOSSIBLE to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.

It means that whatever he meant that happened to the brother, in our own interpretation: even if the person comes back, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO BRING SUCH A PERSON BACK TO REPENTANCE.

So its like this in the example you gave: IF that sister comes back to her senses and removes the Hijab, we should throw her out, she cannot be brought to repentance again

NOW; notice am still speaking with the eyes of the popular interpretation we give this place.

So the one who preaches:” when you sin, and u have backsliden you lose your salvation” and uses this place as back up should also preach “you cannot be brought back to repentance”

The same verse says both.

I hope that is clear.
Now because we know a backsliden person can be restored, we know that is not what the Author meant

And since we have seen what it is not, let us  study to see what it is….

Wait lemme show scriptures that shows how we treat a brother that is lost before I go on
Galatians 6 NLT
1 Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. 2 Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.

3 If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important.
4 Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else.

5 For we are each responsible for our own conduct.
Our conduct is important for the message: to restoration not to condemnation
We r to pay attention to our own conducts and help anyone who is OVERTAKEN in a fault.
And be careful not to make d same mistake we just got smone out of

Why??? FOR THE GOSPEL’s SAKE.
This happened in the Corinthian church
I ll jst show verses that shows: the fault, paul’s initial judgment(out of anger) and then what he said when his head was calm, just follow
1Cor 5 NLT
1 I can hardly believe the report about the sexual immorality going on among you—something that even pagans don’t do. I am told that a man in your church is living in sin with his stepmother.

Then his punishment…..

5 Then you must throw this man out and hand him over to Satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed and he himself will be saved on the day the Lord returns.

*deliver him to satan(throw him out)
Delivering to satan is throwing him out
I ll explain if it is necessary with anyone.

Let’s move on……
Then he said these

9 When I wrote to you before, I told you not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin. 10 But I wasn’t talking about unbelievers who indulge in sexual sin, or are greedy, or cheat people, or worship idols. You would have to leave this world to avoid people like that.

11 I meant that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or is a drunkard, or cheats people. Don’t even eat with such people.
12 It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning.

What he was saying was: don’t condone this sin, quickly note that this guy is not hiding it, he did not fall into it, he did not try and stop
He is living (continuous tense) with the mum
Paul said: put him out first……

Now this has made people put people who just stole money in church once out of the church or worse, put them in so much condemnation that they had to stop coming to any church…..

Let’s see if this is Paul’s final verdict on this bad fornicator
2 Corinthians 2 NLT
4 I wrote that letter in great anguish, with a troubled heart and many tears. I didn’t want to grieve you, but I wanted to let you know how much love I have for you.

He was emotional and wrote out of it, Paul is a human and also sincere about it

Then…….
5 I am not overstating it when I say that the man who caused all the trouble hurt all of you more than he hurt me. 6 Most of you opposed him, and that was punishment enough. 7 Now, however, it is time to forgive and comfort him. Otherwise he may be overcome by discouragement.

Bring Him back, opposing him was punishment enough
Go and unDeliver him from satan.
8 So I urge you now to reaffirm your love for him.
9 I wrote to you as I did to test you and see if you would fully comply with my instructions. 10 When you forgive this man, I forgive him, too. And when I forgive whatever needs to be forgiven, I do so with Christ’s authority for your benefit,

Then he said something that struck me when I read it
11 so that Satan will not outsmart us. For we are familiar with his evil schemes.

KJV renders
‘We r not ignorant of the devil or his devices’
What would be ignorance here??

Letting someone in this mess wallow in so much guilt and be lost
Lost from fellowship, and become useless eventually to the church

So you see: restoring the person is God’s device in the situation
Putting out and using the brother as topic on sunday is the devil’s device

How much we act ignorantly at times trying to protect God.
So you see the antidote is same in both places

RESTORE.
His first attitude would show you that Paul who preached Grace so much is not condoning sin
But thank God he is not condemning a believer either in other to prove his point.

Nowadays Christianity would ask: what if he comes back and does it again??
We worry a lot for God

Walk in Love first,
Let God take charge of handling His church.
Hope that was clear!?

Now let’s go and look at what Hebrews 6:6 meant….. This is why we read in context
We would get the understanding of what’s impossible by taking the chapter in context from verse 1.
Let’s go
Hebrews 6 NLT
1 So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God. 2 You don’t need further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

3 And so, God willing, we will move forward to further understanding.

Paul starts of with what he called ‘the basics teachings about Christ’
These teachings should really be basic

Basic means any believer should be able to answer and teach these things, they are the basis of their faith.

What are those things??
*repenting from evil deeds: what are evil deeds?? this would be understood in the next statement…….something that doesn’t make us place FAITH on God.
Placing Faith on God is believing in Jesus, evil deeds is the opposite of it.
Again….. Let’s not divert from the course if need be, we look at that statement in isolation and study it

Next
*baptism
*laying of hands
*resurrection
*eternal judgment

All these are termed BASIC TEACHINGS.

So if a believer is taught about putting Faith in Christ(Salvation)
Baptism of the Spirit by laying on of hands
Hope in resurrection of the dead and
How we have been saved from wrath in eternal judgment

(All I just said can be found in scriptures individually)
They can now move on to better things.

It means this person fully understands HOW they are saved and THE HOPE and ASSURANCE of their salvation.

So Paul said, stop preaching it to believers again and again and getting them resaved again and again via altar calls again and again: so in the end one person is saved like 30times in one year
Its not Jesus that saved that person…he is saving Himself

Jesus said: John 10 NLT
26 But you don’t believe me because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, 29 for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand.

30 The Father and I are one.”

Then if a believer grasps these basic teachings and then the next thing happens……..
Let’s go on.
Let’s start from beginning again
Hebrews 6 NLT

1 So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God. 2 You don’t need further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.
3 And so, God willing, we will move forward to further understanding.

……Move on
4 For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come—

This place summarizes how a believer is meant to be
The author just said it is IMPOSSIBLE TO BRING A BELIEVER BACK TO REPENTANCE……..
The whole things he used as adjectives and experiences sums up the believer

Let’s pick it from verse 4 again
Hebrews 6: NLT

4 For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come—

6 and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.
It is impossible to bring them back to repentance
So let’s stop pushing it

These men already understand what repentance entails, let’s stop teaching it to them and move on

Bcos it doesn’t profit anyone
They have already REPENTED so you cannot restore them to REPENTANCE again once they fall away.

Now if our definition of repentance is forsake your sins, be remorseful and proise never to do them again with a serious face.
Then we need to redefine it

I would use Acts 2 to define it
Acts 2 NLT

37 Peter’s words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”
38 Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

You see repent and turn away from your sins,
What did Peter tell them that pricked their heart??

He told them that the one they didn’t believe in and killed was the Messiah(read from verse 1), and then they were pricked, then he said they should turn away and repent from their sins…….
And when they do they would get what the disciples just got
And there and then they repented

They just believed on what Peter spoke about (JESUS)
So repentance is changing a way you used to think, it affects your belief, your mind.

See direct greek definition

Original Word: μετανοέω
Part of Speech: Verb
Word Origin
from meta and noeó
Definition
to change one’s mind or
purpose

……..
So you see that their repenting is to change how they knew Christ and now believe and it was easy to do.
Check what Peter preached, NOT ONCE did he mention the people(ie their behaviours and how some of them are drunks etc)…he just spoke about a Messiah, a promise
THE MESSAGE IS CHRIST.

Let’s return to Hebrews 6 with this definition of repentance and let me end
Hebrews 6 NLT
1 So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God. 2 You don’t need further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

3 And so, God willing, we will move forward to further understanding.
4 For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come—

6 and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.

So the author was saying: the only reason we keep preaching these basics is because someone has fallen away and then we r trying to make them rerepent
But let’s move on to better things because we cannot make them rerepent, they already know and believed the messiah
And were born again
And have the Spirit

You cannot reborn again them.
If they have fallen away, they can return

They can be restored if they need help
But we cannot bring them back to repentance

Their behavior is synonymous to renailing Christ on the cross. I.e disgracing the Faith…..

Let’s move on to better teachings.

Knowing that their minds have been changed and they have believed and seen that Christ saves…let’s move on to better things

Well, we r still teaching basics in the church today aren’t we?

When a man begins to know more than God.
Am no more careful to answer.

The Authorities of what to follow is in scriptures.
ANYONE that preaches that Christ didn’t save once and for all is against why Christ came, the person is against the WHOLE BIBLE.

See the words of a man
Some teach that once saved you are forever saved and there is no need to work out your salvation with fear and trembling as the Bible says in Philippians 2:12.”

SEE THE WORD OF GOD
Hebrews 10 NLT
’”8 First, Christ said, “You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings or burnt offerings or other offerings for sin, nor were you pleased with them” (though they are required by the law of Moses). 9 Then he said, “Look, I have come to do your will.” He cancels the first covenant in order to put the second into effect

10 For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time.
12 But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand
14 For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy.

15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. For he says,
16 “This is the new covenant I will make
with my people on that day, says the LORD:
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.”

17 Then he says,
“I will never again remember
their sins and lawless deeds.”

18 And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices.

……………
Be careful when a man happens to know more than God

Hebrews 9 NLT
12 With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever.
15 That is why he is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant.

27 And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment,

28 so also Christ died once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him.

HEBREWS 8 NLT
6 But now Jesus, our High Priest, has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood, for he is the one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God, based on better promises.
7 If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second covenant to replace it.

8 But when God found fault with the people, he said:
“The day is coming, says the LORD,
when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel and Judah. 9 This covenant will not be like the one
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
and led them out of the land of Egypt.
They did not remain faithful to my covenant,
so I turned my back on them, says the LORD.

13 When God speaks of a “new” covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete. It is now out of date and will soon disappear.
LOL!!!……. A man said, NO!!!
We want the old bcos that is where his tight is been paid…..(Sacrifices recoined to fool some believers)

And it hides under a cloak, Full time ministry….
With FEINED WORDS, they would make merchandise of you

2Peter 2NLT
1 But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them. In this way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of these teachers, the way of truth will be slandered.

3 In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago, and their destruction will not be delayed.
…………Smiles, is there a way feigned teachings are taking hold of your money??? Who is the false prophet??

A man who tells you to give how you can or the one who tells you to pay tithe or things ould be tight?
And you pay but after, things are tight??

Paul spoke of his full time ministry to the thessalonians

1Thess 2 NLT,…now people feed from the flock and tag it anything, it was not so……
3 So you can see we were not preaching with any deceit or impure motives or trickery.
4 For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts. 5 Never once did we try to win you with flattery, as you well know. And God is our witness that we were not pretending to be your friends just to get your money!

6 As for human praise, we have never sought it from you or anyone else.
7 As apostles of Christ we certainly had a right to make some demands of you, but instead we were like children among you. Or we were like a mother feeding and caring for her own children.

8 We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too.
9 Don’t you remember, dear brothers and sisters, how hard we worked among you? Night and day we toiled to earn a living so that we would not be a burden to any of you as we preached God’s Good News to you. 10 You yourselves are our witnesses—and so is God—that we were devout and honest and faultless toward all of you believers. 11 And you know that we treated each of you as a father treats his own children

---

False prophets would arise, they might deceive the very elect, they have their signs, I see them, DO YOU??

“Lastly:
Philippians 2:12-13 NLT

12 Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear.

13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

This is God’s empowerment not man’s strong will.
Think on these
The words of a man, or the direct words of God?

Hebrews 13 NLT
7 Remember your leaders who taught you the word of God. Think of all the good that has come from their lives, and follow the example of their faith.
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

9 So do not be attracted by strange, new ideas. Your strength comes from God’s grace, not from rules about food, which don’t help those who follow them.

When the bible speaks of meat and drinks or food, it speaks of the OLD TESTAMENT LAW, their law was food and drinks.
Their covenant was in meats and sacrifices

Stay in Grace, BE NOT ENTANGLED AGAIN with the yoke of bondage.
Galatians 5:1 NLT

1 So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.

YOUR CHOICE: God’s words, or a man claiming to protect God.

Not many [of you] should become teachers (self-constituted censors and reprovers of others), my brethren, you know that we [teachers] will be judged by a higher standard and with greater severity [than other people; thus we assume the greater accountability and the more condemnation]; we all often stumble and fall and offend in many things. And if anyone does not offend in speech [never says the wrong things], he is a fully developed character and a perfect man, able to control his whole body and to curb his entire nature.

If we set bits in the horses’ mouths to make them obey us, we can turn their whole bodies about.

Likewise, look at the ships: though they are so great and are driven by rough winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the impulse of the helmsman determines.

Even so the tongue is a little member, and it can boast of great things. See how much wood or how great a forest a tiny spark can set ablaze!

 And the tongue is a fire.

[The tongue is a] world of wickedness set among our members, contaminating and depraving the whole body and setting on fire the wheel of birth (the cycle of man’s nature), being itself ignited by hell (Gehenna); every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea animal, can be tamed and has been tamed by human genius (nature). But the human tongue can be tamed by no man. It is a restless (undisciplined, irreconcilable) evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who were made in God’s likeness! Out of the same mouth come forth blessing and cursing. These things, my brethren, ought not to be so.

Does a fountain send forth [simultaneously] from the same opening fresh water and bitter?

Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine figs? Neither can a salt spring furnish fresh water.

Who is there among you who is wise and intelligent? Then let him by his noble living show forth his [good] works with the [unobtrusive] humility [which is the proper attribute] of true wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy (envy) and contention (rivalry, selfish ambition) in your hearts, do not pride yourselves on it and thus be in defiance of and false to the Truth.

This [superficial] wisdom is not such as comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual (animal), even devilish (demoniacal); wherever there is jealousy (envy) and contention (rivalry and selfish ambition), there will also be confusion (unrest, disharmony, rebellion) and all sorts of evil and vile practices. But the wisdom from above is first of all pure (undefiled); then it is peace-loving, courteous (considerate, gentle). [It is willing to] yield to reason, full of compassion and good fruits; it is wholehearted and straightforward, impartial and unfeigned (free from doubts, wavering, and insincerity).

 And the harvest of righteousness (of conformity to God’s will in thought and deed) is [the fruit of the seed] sown in peace by those who work for and make peace [in themselves and in others, that peace which means concord, agreement, and harmony between individuals, with undisturbedness, in a peaceful mind free from fears and agitating passions and moral conflicts].

If I Give Tochi a bag of Gold and put scorpions inside,
So that when she puts her hand inside the bag the scorpion bites her, then on her death bed ‘I had staged to meet Courage in a burning bush’ then Courage tells Tochi I can save her and she brings me and I heal Tochi, and she gives me praise.

Later, they got to find out I was the one who put the scorpion in the first place, would that make me a good person??

NO!!

Don’t be afraid to ask ‘God-questions’ on scriptures that contradict what you have come to know about God and get a thinking CAP, I have one and I use it.

You have to know God from Jesus,
It is so so so so so IMPORTANT in understanding and interpreting scriptures.

If you don’t look from Jesus, you are sure to miss it.

And also, these questions help you understand that some words used in verses of scriptures actually teach something entirely different and we lose focus because of what our minds have been programmed to.
I always emphasize reading in context.

2days, ago in a discussion with someone I told her she would not make heaven, who am I?? Jesus gateman??

But it was in an argument to show her what she was doing to herself.
If you take that word out of the context and say that I said that someone will not make heaven.

You would be lying against me, but you would also have ‘scriptural backing’ for it.

Since birth, you have learnt use of English, then you got better and more skillful with it.
Yet we don’t try to put half as much effort in studying scriptures that much.

Its in Reading that it becomes clear and established in your heart,
Teaching might open your eyes a bit, but when faced with a person who has also been taught wrongly, you ll realize that checking it and establishing it from scriptures would have done you a lot of good.

I have a disciple who is very zealous, when I teach her, she goes out and mention it, then sometimes she gets hacked and return with disappointment, I give her answers to those hackings, why??? Because what I taught her is just a tip of what I have studied on that topic.

NOBODY can teach u everything they know. But you can know everything your teacher knows, by reading what He reads

If you have seen me handle scriptures and you admire it,
Let me tell you the things I used in order of priority

the King james Bible
*an APP with 27 different Translations
*rarely *Greek concordance to check root words (but when I do this I come back to establish it in the scripture)

I have found root words that confuse more self,
So I stay safe in scriptures and scriptures alone.

I have also read books of people that bless me deeply
Kenneth Erwin Hagin is one of them

I love him so much that there is hardly a book of his on print that I don’t have
I go hungry and trek just to get his books at times

BUT, I hack him always with scriptures.
I have seen him misinterpret a verse in the bible.
And he himself has admitted to doing so before, he repented (sincerity)
So it comes back to one book

THE BIBLE.

Read it, read it and keep reading.

Let me say something I don’t usually say because its nobody’s business

I HAVE NEVER GONE THROUGH THE WHOLE BIBLE ONCE.
It means I haven’t read the whole bible before

I know people that do it at least once every year, he is my friend, and I teach him.

When I pick the bible to read, I read it.
I have been on Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians and the book of John 7-11 for days now
I found them particularly interesting

Paul spoke well of Christ’s coming to the Thessalonians
And then many things in John 7-11 is not recorded in other gospels.

So I get curious,
WHY???

These things don’t come from doing morning devotion and running off.
I don’t like being hacked in scriptures, it is important that I know about this eternal life I have gotten

And before you brush it off as ‘Their thing’
I got saved in 2010 and got to know about God’s grace barely a year ago, August last year to be precise

So it hasn’t been a year yet
How much growth you can see in a little time depends on time given to scriptures
If it is the morning devotion, don’t make it a routine, learn something,
Tackle questions that come up
Don’t brush them off

This life we have been called to is important
Just pray for understanding,
Pray and study, then pray again
Ask questions, keep at it

Paul gave Timothy a recommendation that I want to have someday

2Tim 3 NLT
14 But you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know you can trust those who taught you. 15 You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus.

From Childhood, Timothy have known and has been taught scriptures.

Please do same
You grow.

Take a ‘knowing God’ habit to scriptures
So when you are knowing a person, you can be sure what he can do and what he can’t do. If you find him exhibit two directly contrasting characters and you leave it

You have not known Him. Or let me say you have not come to take knowing Him serious.
For a believer, you find answers to life’s troubling questions from scriptures
You know things to believe and things to cast out @ first glance from scriptures

Hear what Paul told the Thessalonians

2Thess 2 NLT
1 Now, dear brothers and sisters, let us clarify some things about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and how we will be gathered to meet him. 2 Don’t be so easily shaken or alarmed by those who say that the day of the Lord has already begun. Don’t believe them, even if they claim to have had a spiritual vision, a revelation, or a letter supposedly from us. 3 Don’t be fooled by what they say. For that day will not come until there is a great rebellion against God and the man of lawlessness is revealed-the one who brings destruction.

4 He will exalts himself and defy everything that people call god and every object of worship. He will even sit in the temple of God, claiming that he himself is God.

Focus on verse 2

……. 2 Don’t be so easily shaken or alarmed by those who say that the day of the Lord has already begun. Don’t believe them, even if they claim to have had a spiritual vision, a revelation, or a letter supposedly from us.

Even if they claim to have had a spiritual vision.

But that is all the church knows about the second coming;
Visions of earring and trouser, and short skirts and tattoos

….and trumpet almost blown and Jesus shows His hands and God gives us time

Did the world get better after that?? NO
It grew worse

CHURCH THINK.
Hear Paul’s admonition to Timothy

I would show you this, and then show you how Paul did full time ministry

I don’t know why am saying all this but I think young ministers are here, take care on how you run…… Let’s hear what Paul told timothy

2Tim 3 NLT

1 You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. 2 For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. 3 They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. 4 They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God.

It goes on…..

5 They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!
6 They are the kind who work their way into people’s homes and win the confidence of vulnerable women who are burdened with the guilt of sin and controlled by various desires. 7 (Such women are forever following new teachings, but they are never able to understand the truth.)

It gets interesting…..

8 These teachers oppose the truth just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses. They have depraved minds and a counterfeit faith.

9 But they won’t get away with this for long. Someday everyone will recognize what fools they are, just as with Jannes and Jambres.

Then the admonishing

10 But you, Timothy, certainly know what I teach, and how I live, and what my purpose in life is. You know my faith, my patience, my love, and my endurance. 11 You know how much persecution and suffering I have endured. You know all about how I was persecuted in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra but the Lord rescued me from all of it. 12 Yes, and everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

13 But evil people and impostors will flourish. They will deceive others and will themselves be deceived.

Now see Paul’s ministry

1Thes 2 NLT
1 You yourselves know, dear brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not a failure. 2 You know how badly we had been treated at Philippi just before we came to you and how much we suffered there. Yet our God gave us the courage to declare his Good News to you boldly, in spite of great opposition.

3 So you can see we were not preaching with any deceit or impure motives or trickery.
4 For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts.

See how they showed themselves as men approved of God:

5 Never once did we try to win you with flattery, as you well know. And God is our witness that we were not pretending to be your friends just to get your money!

6 As for human praise, we have never sought it from you or anyone else.
7 As apostles of Christ we certainly had a right to make some demands of you, but instead we were like children among you. Or we were like a mother feeding and caring for her own children.

8 We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too.
……Examples worth emulating, it goes on

9 Dont you remember, dear brothers and sisters, how hard we worked among you? Night and day we toiled to earn a living so that we would not be a burden to any of you as we preached God’s Good News to you. 10 You yourselves are our witnesses and so is God that we were devout and honest and faultless toward all of you believers. 11 And you know that we treated each of you as a father treats his own children.

In your ministry, the choice to put God first or your belly first is yours.

Its not in the message with mouth, it is in the doing.

It is not out of place for the minister to also be the one giving people money seeing that they don’t have.
I say this now and I imagine

It is not out of place for Cedars to be the one giving honorarium when they are invited by a people who don’t have much.

Work and have money to do your ministry with

Let me stop talking,
Stay in Grace.

Because of the Truth which lives and stays on in our hearts and will be with us forever: Grace (spiritual blessing), mercy, and [soul] peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ (the Messiah), the Father’s Son, in all sincerity (truth) and love.

And now I beg you, not as if I were issuing a new charge (injunction or command), but [simply recalling to your mind] the one we have had from the beginning, that we love one another.

And what this love consists in is this: that we liveand walk in accordance with and guided by His commandments (His orders, ordinances, precepts, teaching). This is the commandment, as you have heard from the beginning, that you continue to walk in love [guided by it and following it].

For many imposters (seducers, deceivers, and false leaders) have gone out into the world, men who will not acknowledge (confess, admit) the coming of Jesus Christ (the Messiah) in bodily form. Such a one is the imposter (the seducer, the deceiver, the false leader, the antagonist of Christ) and the antichrist.

Anyone who runs on ahead [of God] and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ [who is not content with what He taught] does not have God; but he who continues to live in the doctrine (teaching) of Christ [does have God], he has both the Father and the Son.

If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine [is disloyal to what Jesus Christ taught], do not receive him [do not accept him, do not welcome or admit him] into [your] house or bid him Godspeedor give him any encouragement.

For he who wishes him success [who encourages him, wishing him Godspeed] is a partaker in his evil doings.
 Let your character or moral disposition be free from love of money [including greed, avarice, lust, and craving for earthly possessions] and be satisfied with your present [circumstances and with what you have]; for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!]

So we take comfort and are encouraged and confidently and boldly say, The Lord is my Helper; I will not be seized with alarm [I will not fear or dread or be terrified]. What can man do to me?

Remember your leaders and superiors in authority [for it was they] who brought to you the Word of God. Observe attentively and consider their manner of living (the outcome of their well-spent lives) and imitate their faith (their conviction that God exists and is the Creator and Ruler of all things, the Provider and Bestower of eternal salvation through Christ, and their leaning of the entire human personality on God in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness).

Jesus Christ (the Messiah) is [always] the same, yesterday, today, [yes] and forever (to the ages).

Do not be carried about by different and varied and alien teachings; for it is good for the heart to be established and ennobled and strengthened by means of grace (God’s favor and spiritual blessing) and not [to be devoted to] foods [rules of diet and ritualistic meals], which bring no [spiritual] benefit or profit to those who observe them.

So let’s go outside, where Jesus is, where the action is—not trying to be privileged insiders, but taking our share in the abuse of Jesus. This “insider world” is not our home. We have our eyes peeled for the City about to come. Let’s take our place outside with Jesus, no longer pouring out the sacrificial blood of animals but pouring out sacrificial praises from our lips to God in Jesus’ name.

Make sure you don’t take things for granted and go slack in working for the common good; share what you have with others. God takes particular pleasure in acts of worship—a different kind of “sacrifice”—that take place in kitchen and workplace and on the streets.

 So let it be clearly known and understood by you, brethren, that through this Man forgiveness and removal of sins is now proclaimed to you;

And that through Him everyone who believes [who acknowledges Jesus as his Savior and devotes himself to Him] is absolved (cleared and freed) from every charge from which he could not be justified and freed by the Law of Moses and given right standing with God.

…let no one sit in judgment on you in matters of food and drink, or with regard to a feast day or a New Moon or a Sabbath.

Such [things] are only the shadow of things that are to come, and they have only a symbolic value. But the reality (the substance, the solid fact of what is foreshadowed, the body of it) belongs to Christ.

Let no one defraud you by acting as an umpire and declaring you unworthy and disqualifying you for the prize, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, taking his stand on visions [he claims] he has seen, vainly puffed up by his sensuous notions and inflated by his unspiritual thoughts and fleshly conceit,

And not holding fast to the Head, from Whom the entire body, supplied and knit together by means of its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

If then you have died with Christ to material ways of looking at things and have escaped from the world’s crude and elemental notions and teachings of externalism, why do you live as if you still belong to the world? [Why do you submit to rules and regulations?—such as]… the person who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.

We [Christians] are the true circumcision, who worship God in spirit and by the Spirit of God and exult and glory and pride ourselves in Jesus Christ, and put no confidence or dependence [on what we are] in the flesh and on outward privileges and physical advantages and external appearances.

Though for myself I have [at least grounds] to rely on the flesh. If any other man considers that he has or seems to have reason to rely on the flesh and his physical and outward advantages, I have still more!

I therefore, the prisoner for the Lord, appeal to and beg‘’ you to walk (lead a life) worthy of the [divine] calling to which you have been called [with behavior that is a credit to the summons to God’s service,

Living as becomes you] with complete lowliness of mind (humility) and meekness (unselfishness, gentleness, mildness), with patience, bearing with one another and making allowances because you love one another.

Be eager and strive earnestly to guard and keep the harmony and oneness of [and produced by] the Spirit in the binding power of peace.

There is one body and one Spirit—just as there is also one hope [that belongs] to the calling you received—

There is] one Lord, one faith, one baptism,

One God and Father of [us] all, Who is above all [Sovereign over all], pervading all and [living] in [us] all.

Nothing is [so closely] covered up that it will not be revealed, or hidden that it will not be known.

You must know (recognize) that you were redeemed (ransomed) from the useless (fruitless) way of living inherited by tradition from [your] forefathers, not with corruptible things [such as] silver and gold,

But [you were purchased] with the precious blood of Christ (the Messiah), like that of a [sacrificial] lamb without blemish or spot.

It is true that He was chosen and foreordained (destined and foreknown for it) before the foundation of the world, but He was brought out to public view (made manifest) in these last days (at the end of the times) for the sake of you.

Through Him you believe in (adhere to, rely on) God, Who raised Him up from the dead and gave Him honor and glory, so that your faith and hope are [centered and rest] in God.

Since by your obedience to the Truth through the [Holy] Spirit you have purified your hearts for the sincere affection of the brethren, [see that you] love one another fervently from a pure heart.

You have been regenerated (born again), not from a mortal origin (seed, sperm), but from one that is immortal by the ever living and lasting Word of God.

For all flesh (mankind) is like grass, and all its glory (honor) like [the] flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower drops off,

But the Word of the Lord (divine instruction, the Gospel) endures forever. And this Word is the good news which was preached to you.