There simply cannot be enough said about the value of honesty

There simply cannot be enough said about the value of honesty. I mean true, deep honesty that most people do not even know exists. I'm talking first and foremost about someone being totally honest with themselves about themselves. One cannot go anywhere with God without this absoluteness of honesty with themselves first, and then with God. God knows all things, and he alone knows the totality of men's hearts (Jer. 17:9; I Kin. 8:39). Anyone who approaches God without total honesty of heart is insulting his intelligence, and will not be accepted by him (Prov. 21:27). The truth is, if you do not in reality have the fear of the Lord, you cannot and will not be able to attain unto total honesty of heart. Reason being is the fear of the Lord is what motivates someone to be honest about what is in their heart, because the fear of God knows that one MUST be PURE in heart in order to be saved (Mat. 5:8; I Jn. 3:3). Without the fear of God being firmly planted in the heart, there is no particular reason to be purified from anything. That is why Christianity has eliminated the fear of God from its so called 'gospel.' Real godly fear and the eternal consequence of disobedience is not being preached, and the result is a world full of "Christians" with an apathetic spirit produced by the comfortable Christian traditions that cater to the fleshly nature of men. The overriding spirit of it all is the mindset of "eternal security," manifested through the erroneous belief that one receives salvation upon an initial "confession" of faith in Christ. And even though the Christian traditions of "getting saved," "accepting the Lord," and "confessing Jesus," are not in the Bible; they are universally accepted by would be believers as being salvation, or the new birth, or whatever the heck you want to call it. Actually confessing Christ IS in the Bible, but as an exhortation to those who are ALREADY IN CHRIST to continue faithfully in the faith (Rom. 10:9,10; I Cor. 15:1-4; Heb. 3:6,14). The reason that these flimsy false doctrines are so widely accepted is because you just do not have to come fully clean before God to accept them. It really is that simple. That is why these teachings also carry the spirit of "once saved, always saved;" because that way you will NEVER have to come fully clean before God. And what is it that has been eliminated in this devlish process? The fear of the Lord and total honesty of heart, obviously. What happened to the new birth that is in the Bible? The one where you must repent fully of sin, and believe fully on Jesus, until he baptizes you with the soul cleansing power of his Spirit, with the accompanying sign provided from heaven, which is speaking in tongues? (Mk. 1:7,8; Jn. 7:38,39; Acts 1:4,5; I Cor. 12:13).

The elimination of the truth, and the subsequent religious inventions that have replaced it, is why we see so much religious intellectualism and such "a fair shew in the flesh" in Christianity, rather than a whole lot of humble, contrite folks manifesting the love and power of God in their lives. What we have today is a religion that typifies the exact OPPOSITE of what the scriptures convey to us about the faith of Christ: "Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word" (Isa. 66:1,2). There sure is more than enough of the former to go around today, but where is the latter? And again: "And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God" (I Cor. 2:4,5). In fact, ALL of Christianity's "faith" is in the "wisdom" of men, and even women for that matter; who are followed after rather than the power and truth of God's Spirit. But in truth there is more wisdom in the glass jar sitting beside me on my computer table than there is in the grand total of ALL of the supposed teachers and preachers of the gospel of Christianity. And how so? Because the glass jar referred to IS NOT TEACHING ANYTHING AT ALL, and they on the other hand are teaching falsehood in the name of the Lord! Yes my friend, in order to make up for the great lack of godly fear and honesty of heart in the Christian gospel, what we see is more deep, dark mysteries exclusive to certain affiliations, bigger and more beautiful buildings of "worship," more programs and "outreaches;" more exaltation of ceremony, etc., etc. And sadly, what we do NOT see is more of the holy love of God and his truth uniting believers in one mind in Christ, with "great power... [bearing] witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus" (Acts 4:32,33). And what is more my friend, we will NOT see these things until honest souls wax bold enough to forsake the man made hodge-podge of Christianity and choose rather to follow after God's Spirit of truth, and to follow with those who are courageous enough to do likewise. Amen.