What do we do? as we continue to live on this present earth.
I go by these instructions which Paul gave to Timothy in the New Testament Bible:
I Timothy 4
13 Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.14 Neglect not the gift that is in thee ... (the spiritual gift which God has given us for the church)
16 Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.
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* to reading:
The New Testament Bible is filled with letters which the apostle Paul wrote to the church.
I've been re-reading these epistles in a single setting. Such as reading the entire letter to the Romans.
Then I read the next day the entire first letter to the Corinthians ... then the second letter to the Corinthians ... then the following days, reading the letters: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, etc.
I also focus on some of the meditation scriptures which I have accumulated for these build me up in the faith in God and help me to stay focused.
I read our blog daily: Jesus Ministries Exhortations
In my bathroom, I keep one of the ministry books that we have published on Amazon. (see Joan Boney)
These books are filled with scripture. I use paperback book for bathroom. You can start anywhere in any one of the books and be edified in things of God with many scriptures. I find re-reading these books helpful to me.
Often as I am reading, God will catch my attention on a subject for me to write that subject. For example, when I began reading I Corinthians 1:1-2 Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, 2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours: God got my attention on how we are all called to be saints.
I thought of how the Catholic church appoints certain dead men and women as "saints" and how they teach their people that these dead "saints" have certain powers to help them, which is abominable doctrine for they teach their people to trust in corpses rather than to trust in the living God.
I was stirred up by the Holy Spirit to write an exhortation to the church concerning the subject of "saints" according to the Bible meaning.
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* to exhortation
To exhort means to urge earnestly by advice and warning. We are to exhort one another in the faith in God and the Word of God. For the days are certainly evil and many evil concepts are spoken by humans on TV and in person.
I Timothy 4:7-8 But refuse profane (secular sayings) and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. 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.
A Catholic woman often visited me at my previous home in Texas. She spoke many "profane" sayings which were not in the Bible. I would just look at her and tell her I lived by the Bible and what she just said was not in the Bible. This is the way I "rejected" her profane sayings.
When you do this, they will usually depart from you and choose not to keep company with you any more.
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* to doctrine:
Doctrine is critical for us. Doctrine are the rules of God from the New Testament church. We live by doctrines, such as:
* The man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery. (Mt. 5:32)
* Flee fornication: Every sin that a man doeth is without the body but he who committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. (I Cor. 6)
* And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband:
But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife. (I Cor. 7:10-11)
* For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; (Rom. 1:26-28)
* Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. (I Cor. 6:9-10)
* For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? (Heb. 10:26-29)
* For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame. (Heb. 6:4-6)
* For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. (II Peter 2:20-22)
It is critical for us to keep reading these doctrines of Christ for this world and the churches today teach something very different from the New Testament Bible.
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So I have set myself daily to do that which Paul said to do: "Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine."
I believe doing this gives me a better opportunity to endure to the end of my time on this earth.
Jesus says:
Matthew 24:12-13 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
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