Marketing and Conditioning

“Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:1-6 ESV).

All of us who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and as Savior of our lives are to be ministers of the Lord in sharing the truth of the gospel with the people of the world, including with the worldly “church.” We are all part of his body, the church, and we are all to be ministers also to our fellow Christians in encouraging, exhorting, speaking the truth in love, comforting, showing compassion, helping, urging (with a holy urging), teaching, admonishing, and in singing psalms hymns and spiritual songs to one another, etc.

[Matt 5:13-16; Matt 28:18-20; Jn 4:31-38; Jn 13:13-17; Jn 14:12; Acts 1:8; Acts 2:14-18; Acts 26:18; Rom 10:14-15; Rom 12:1-8; Rom 15:14; 1 Co 12:1-31; 1 Co 14:1-5; Eph 4:1-16; Eph 5:17-27; Php 2:1-8; Col 3:16; Heb 3:13; Heb 10:23-25; 1 Pet 2:9,21; 1 Jn 2:6]  

And if we are truly serving Jesus Christ with our lives, in truth and in righteousness, and if we are spreading the truth of the gospel, and not the lies that so many people are spreading and believing today, and if we are refuting the lies of the enemy, as Paul did, then we are going to face opposition. We are going to be hated and rejected. We are going to be persecuted and thought of as evil because what we are teaching is not what is popularly being taught today, even though it is biblical.

And it will be because we have renounced disgraceful and underhanded ways, especially which are going on in the name of “church,” and in the name of “Christianity.” And if we refuse to participate in these fleshly market-driven “churches” incorporated under the state (the government) who are marketing the church to the world as though it is any other business, and thus they alter the truth of the gospel and the character of God/Christ and the nature of what is church, then we are marginalized.

But it is beyond just being marginalized. We are treated as though we are the evil one, as though we are out of the will of God, as though we are walking in disobedience to the Lord Jesus because we will not submit ourselves to people who are teaching lies, who are altering the gospel to make it more palatable for human flesh, and who are turning the church, the body of Christ, into a marketplace in order to attract the world to their gatherings, and who are telling us to let them be God’s voice to us.

That is not the church that Jesus Christ is the head of, his body. It is of human origin, and it is a conglomeration of the ungodly and the lukewarm and the worldly who are following after the ways of man and not of God, and including some who are righteous, in the eyes of God, in their gatherings, too. And they are businesses of men, and they are not functioning like Christ’s body biblically is to be functioning. So the Lord is telling his true church, his bride, to come out from among them and to not participate in their ungodliness and in their rebellion and in their ignoring of the Lord.

And, yes, we refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but we are committed to teaching the truth of the gospel of Christ and of his word even if it goes against what is largely being accepted and taught. We will be that single fish that swims against the stream (against the flow) even if we are hated and rejected and lied about and falsely accused of what we did not do. And we will do so because we are following Jesus Christ with our lives, and we are obeying what his word teaches.

And, yes, many eyes are blinded to the truth, and I understand if they have not been taught the truth that they would be blinded. But what grieves me is that so many people who profess faith in Jesus Christ are following after the lies of Satan, and even if you show them the truth from God’s word, they will refuse to even look at it. And that is because so many people today have been brainwashed and manipulated into accepting the lies over the truth, and into rejecting the truth as though they are lies. It is called conditioning.

So, what is the truth of the gospel? Jesus died that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, and for him, and no longer for ourselves. He gave his life up for us on that cross to buy us back for God (to redeem us) out of our lives of slavery to sin so we will now be servants of righteousness in walks of obedience to our Lord. And so sin is no longer to have reign over our mortal bodies. For if sin is what we obey, and not God, then we do not have eternal life with God regardless of what our lips profess.

[1 Peter 2:24; 2 Corinthians 5:15; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Romans 6:1-23]

And Jesus said that if anyone would come after him, he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin) and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to our old lives of living in sin and for self we will lose them for eternity. But if for Jesus’ sake we deny self, die daily to sin, and follow him in obedience, then we have the hope of eternal life. For not everyone who says to him, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one doing the will of God the Father in heaven (Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

So, please take this to heart. And if you are someone who is facing much rejection and persecution because you stand on the truth of God’s word, as is taught in the Scriptures, in context, and if you are following the Lord in obedience to his ways, and if you are living a holy life, pleasing to the Lord, in a day and time when immorality, especially sexually immorality, and lies, and misimpressions, and deceptions and the manipulation of human minds is rampant, in and out of the institutional churches, then know God is with you.

I Know Who Holds Tomorrow

By Ira F. Stanphill

I don't know about tomorrow,

I just live from day to day.

I don't borrow from its sunshine,

For its skies may turn to gray.

I don't worry o'er the future,

For I know what Jesus said,

And today I'll walk beside Him,

For He knows what is ahead.

Many things about tomorrow,

I don't seem to understand;

But I know who holds tomorrow,

And I know who holds my hand.

I don't know about tomorrow,

It may bring me poverty;

But the one who feeds the sparrow,

Is the one who stands by me.

And the path that is my portion,

May be through the flame or flood,

But His presence goes before me,

And I'm covered with His blood. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1puNvGPFiM

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