Good Morning Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
When God called my wife Dianne and me to start the Ministry of Caleb’s Promise eight years ago, God has us start out with the ministry as one of teaching the inerrant Word of God. Six years ago, He gave us a vision of a large subdivision of single-family homes in which precious orphans will be raised in love, taught the Word of God, and shown The Father loves them dearly. God also called us to build a Christian school for the orphans and the surrounding community and to build a church and a Bible training center. God instructed us no orphan will share a room, no orphan will wear hand-me-downs or secondhand clothes, and no orphan will have any lack of any kind. Why? Because my Father, your Father said He will show these precious cast-offs that HE LOVES THEM AND THEY ARE VALUABLE TO HIM. And He will show them the world and its wisdom, power, and opinions are laughable before God. He is the source that has no end to love, healing, prosperity, protection, and deliverance. Not flawed man and his wisdom.
God also led Dianne to a plot of 107.7 acres of land which He said He would give to us in seven years for the orphanage, school, and church. We were praying together one Friday morning when God told Dianne to get in the car after the prayer and drive. He led her to a place she had never been and showed her the land. There was a “For Sale” sign posted, and Dianne started to call. God told her not to call or have any contact at all until God instructed her. Two years later God told me He would give us the land. I had assumed we were to buy it, and He would provide. God said to me if this were to happen, people would think Dianne and I came up with the money. He then said it would be given to us by someone that doesn’t know us, and we don’t know them. For this to happen, it could ONLY BE GOD. What an awesome testimony!
It has been an exciting time for us as we draw near to the seventh year. In the meantime, we’ve continued to teach and preach the Word of God to whomever God leads us to whether it be a church, a group, a family, or an individual. And this leads me to the golden text for this email:
Colossians 2:8
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
The Holy Spirit through Paul is warning Believers, then and now, not to be led astray by men or women, who are teachers, preachers, priests, bishops, pastors, evangelists, missionaries, elders, and the like, in ministry and the world, with false teachings based on philosophy and vain, or empty, deceit. This is what God called me to as a teacher and evangelist of God’s inerrant Word. Over the past three years God has directed me to become “strong and courageous” in taking on wrong teachings and preaching of God’s Word, in love.
Notice the Holy Spirit states, “after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world….” What are the traditions of men? Very simply, anything that is NOT in God’s Word. Does God’s Word tell me to pray to anyone other than The Father through Jesus Christ? No. And if one does instruct this, it is a manmade tradition, not one that is God made.
I Timothy 2:5
For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus;
Notice the Holy Spirit says there is ONE mediator between God and men. Not two, three, or more. One! The Man Jesus Christ. Don’t be led to pray to dead saints, living men and women, or dead relatives to speak to God for you or to do anything for you because they can’t. Only Jesus Christ can represent you and do things for you. Anyone or anything that says different is anti-Christ.
Can any man or woman forgive your sin or absolve you of sin? Absolutely NOT. This is pure heresy and manmade. Is there one man or woman on earth through whom God speaks to all the Believers? Absolutely NOT. Again, this is a manmade heresy.
I John 1:9
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness
There is one Mediator we pray to, Jesus Christ. And HE is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Not some man or woman on this earth or in Heaven. Only Jesus Christ.
In some churches and denominations, it is being taught men or women are born to be homosexuals, that it is a DNA trait. It is not a choice or a decision they’ve made, it is the nature they’re born with that causes it. Or men and women saying they are the opposite gender. A man saying, “I was born a woman.” This is being passed as pseudo-science. What does God’s Word say – The Truth – not some man-made philosophy or science?
Genesis 1:27
So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.
So, in one verse in the very first chapter of Genesis, we shot down a person being able to claim they’re the opposite sex. There is only male and female, and you are born one or the other – period.
Leviticus 18:22
Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
Romans 1:25-27
25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature [Satan and his works] more than the Creator, Who is blessed for ever. Amen.
26 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:
27 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.
God makes it perfectly clear He creates male and female and a male is to be joined to a female in marriage. If God declares something to be an abomination, yet He creates the very abomination, wouldn’t God be a liar? We are what we are because this is what WE CHOOSE to be. God gave us free will. God instructs us about our choices made based on the free will He gave us.
Deuteronomy 30:19
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
How much clearer can our Father make it. Death and the curse came into this earth through sin led by Satan. When Adam and Eve sinned, they ushered in death and the curse. However, God said you still can have life and blessing, but you must choose it with your free will. I urge you to read Deuteronomy 28. It contains the blessings in verses 1-14 and the curses in verses 15-68. If you don’t choose to live by God’s grace through faith, and enjoy the blessings, you automatically are under death and the curse. This is why God, our precious Father, says, “therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live:”. Live in peace and in blessings.
Have you been taught that healing, casting our demons, and raising the dead all passed away with the apostles? This is another lie.
John 14:12
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
Jesus tells us in John 14:12 that whatever He did we can do and greater works because He will live in us in the form of the Holy Spirit. “But Larry, Jesus is speaking to the disciples, and this was meant for them. When they died, this power, or charge from Jesus, died with them.” Where does it say this in the Bible? It’s not there. This philosophy, and that is what it is, is based on a lie. If we study as commanded in II Timothy 2:15, we will see, in simplest explanation, John 14:12 is written in the Greek perfect tense which means it is an action that occurred and continues to occur to the present day. Therefore, ANYONE that believes in Jesus Christ as their Savior, Redeemer, and King can do the works Jesus did and greater works because Jesus resides in us as the Holy Spirit. It is Jesus’ faith and power in us that enables us to do what Jesus did and to do greater works. An example of greater works is building an orphanage, Christian school, church, and Bible training center. Jesus didn’t have time nor was it His mission, at the time, to do this while He was on the earth. His mission in three and one-half years was to teach and demonstrate God’s love through Grace and the Kingdom of God on this earth. Part of the teaching and demonstration was the passion – the giving of Himself as a sacrifice for mankind to bring those that believe into right standing (righteous) with God.
Notice the Holy Spirit in Colossians 2:8 uses the term “spoil.” It means, ” to strip or rob.” “Philosophy” means, “a theory or attitude held by a person or organization that acts as a guiding principle for behavior.” “Rudiment” means, “A first principle or element; that which is to be first learnt; as the rudiments of learning or science. Articulate sounds are the rudiments of language; letters or characters are the rudiments of written language; the primary rules of any art or science are its rudiments.” “Traditions” means, “the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation, or the fact of being passed on in this way.”
Proverbs 3:6
In all thy ways acknowledge Him [God], and He shall direct thy paths.
The Holy Spirit, in simplest terms, is teaching us through Paul, “Believe only in God’s Word, not in the words of man.” For a Believer, if a man or woman, no matter their status in life, their position, their title, their degrees, their wealth, tells you something, are you to take it as gospel – in any subject? No. We are to go to God and ask Him if what they have said is Truth. This includes what you are reading right now. Don’t accept what I’ve said as Truth, search it out by asking the Holy Spirit to show you the Truth in His Word. If you do this, Proverbs 3:6 above will be true in your life – “He shall direct thy paths.”
John 6:63
It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the Words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are life.
Jesus is instructing us the Words He speaks is “Spirit” and life. So, what does this mean about man’s words? If man’s words don’t line up with God’s Word, then man’s words are anti-Christ and death. You see, you can’t have it both ways. Either you believe God’s Word, The Truth, or you believe man’s word, a lie.
If you want to know The Truth, we are instructed by the Holy Spirit what to do in I John 4:1.
I John 4:1
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
Jesus taught us in John 6:63 the Word is Spirit. I John 4:1 tells us to “try the spirits” or in other words, “try the words you receive.” The Holy Spirit is teaching us don’t just accept what you hear from the teacher, preacher, priest, bishop, evangelist, missionary, etc. Go to the Word and ask the Holy Spirit to confirm it. Because we don’t seek God’s Word and ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom and guidance, we have denominations among the Christian Church. There should be no such thing. There is one doctrine and one doctrine only. There is not a doctrine for this denomination and a doctrine for that denomination and yet a different doctrine for another denomination. Is Christ divided? Did Jesus teach one thing for one group and a different thing for another group? No. Then why is the Church divided? I’ll tell you why. Pride of man, pure and simple. It didn’t work for me; therefore, it must not be true or must not be in effect today. It’s not the Word that’s the problem; it’s the lack of faith and unbelief.
In closing, God loves all of us. He is not mad with us, He is not angry with us, He is not looking to zap or punish us. All His anger, wrath, and indignation was taken out on Jesus at the cross. He desires for His children to live at His very best for us. God has written His Word so we have the blueprint to who we are, what we do, how we do it, and what we do it with to be the success, ON THIS EARTH, God has called us to be. We will only achieve God’s best for ourselves and our family if we study God’s Word as commanded so we will know when we are being fed a line of boloney. God’s Word is infallible, inerrant, and all powerful. There is nothing, we as Believers, cannot do on this earth with the power of God’s Word spoken in faith. Remember, God’s Truth supersedes any facts of this earth. God’s Truth emanates from the Spiritual Realm which is superior to the physical realm. God’s Word, which is Spirit, spoken in faith, will destroy and overcome any word, or fact, of the world. Try it and see. God is daring you to become fully persuaded of His Word and His promises to you.
In Christ,
Larry