Category: Getting Free

Friends May Desert Us – Christ Never Will

On By Jeff CrippenIn Getting Free10 Comments

FriJob 19:18-19 Even young children despise me; when I rise they talk against me. (19) All my intimate friends abhor me, and those whom I loved have turned against me.

I bet you all can identify with Job, right!? This is one of the most painful facets of wickedness and evildoers – our “friends” ally with them and abandon us. Family turns against us and takes up with the wicked one, feeding his facade of “godliness.” In a real way, victims of evildoers are seen just as Job was – unpleasant and unclean as if they contracted some kind of leprosy.

Every real Christian is going to experience this betrayal in one degree or another. Jesus said it:

Mat 10:34-39 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. (35) For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. (36) And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. (37) Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. (38) And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. (39) Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

So, is this true or not? That is the question I would put to people who profess to be Christians and yet they insist on maintaining that this should never happen. That if “family” bonds are being threatened, they must be preserved at all costs. Is the cross the offense that Paul said it was?

Gal 5:11 But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed.

The question then is not this (which is so often put to victims of evil): “Why is there conflict and alienation between you and your family members?” but rather this (which is properly put to those accusing the victim): “Why do YOU not experience any of this in your own life in your relationships?”

I want to write in another article about something I call “the Judas Moment.” The basic premise is this: there comes a time in everyone’s life – particularly in the life of a person who claims to be following Christ – when the Lord puts a pivotal question to us. Will we follow Him regardless of the cost, or will we look back at Sodom longingly? Will we take up our cross and follow Christ, or will we have one foot in the world and one foot in His Way? He won’t let us do it, you know. It is Him or the world. It is Christ or family and friends.

Most choose the world and you can be sure that when someone makes that choice, they are not going to walk with you in Christ’s truth. They will go their way, looking for someplace where they can continue to deceive themselves and others about their standing with the Lord.

Is it worth it? I mean, is it worth being hated by family and friends? Well, Jesus said it – if we find our life in this world, we will lose it. But if we lose our life here, we will truly find life in Him – and that is life indeed.

Blind Leading the Blind – Don’t be led by them

On By Jeff CrippenIn Getting Free5 Comments

Luke 11:33-36 ESV  “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light.  (34)  Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness.  (35)  Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness.  (36)  If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.”

These verses have always been hard to understand, even though we all sang “this little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine” in Sunday School as children. That happens often by the way – children being taught songs and memory verses and so on without being helped to understand the meaning. And I maintain that children can indeed be taught quite deeper truths than we think. But then, that is another subject.

Jesus said “your eye is the lamp of your body.” You have to have a good eye or your body is going to wander around in the dark stubbing toes and so on.

Then Jesus moved to the real point here. He said, “therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness.” What did He mean? I can tell you.

Continue reading “Blind Leading the Blind – Don’t be led by them” →

Trusting Experience Over Scripture – a Common and Deadly Error

On By Jeff CrippenIn Getting Free2 Comments

Galatians 1:6-8 ESV  I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—  (7)  not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.  (8)  But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

Many people who claim to be Christians also claim to believe the Bible to be God’s Word and our authority for what we believe and do. And yet in my conversations with them, I find that few really do consult Scripture as their primary source of truth. Instead, they turn to the “bible” of their own experience.

Let me explain.

Continue reading “Trusting Experience Over Scripture – a Common and Deadly Error” →