Being born again into the kingdom of God is the beginning of a new life. There is more.
As mentioned in a previous post, it can be paralleled to a baby being born into a human family. It is a beginning. There is more. There is nuturing, caring, and training of the child. There is much more to come. That post is here.
Here is something the Apostle Peter wrote that indicates this.
II Peter 1:1 Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a like precious faith with us in the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: 2 Grace to you and peace be multiplied in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 seeing that his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and exceedingly great promises; that through these you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust. 5 Yes, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence; and in moral excellence, knowledge; 6 and in knowledge, self-control; and in self-control perseverance; and in perseverance godliness; 7 and in godliness brotherly affection; and in brotherly affection, love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to not be idle or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having forgotten the cleansing from his old sins. 10 Therefore, brothers,[a] be more diligent to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble. 11 For thus you will be richly supplied with the entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
The times we are living in are ones that cause us to stop, pause, think, study, and get more serious.
The world, at least parts of the developed western world such as the United States was headed in the direction of “let the good times roll”.
There was a focus on entertainment, movies, dining, pleasure, Facebook likes, selfies and a general non-serious trend in the country. Would anyone dispute that greatly? That element existed, wouldn’t you say?
The seriousness of the present time has caused people to start being more serious about studying and making choices. It is not enough to live life in a sloppy or blithe (showing a casual and cheerful indifference) manner any more.
If you don’t know what is going on and don’t make the correct choice, there can be serious consequences. If it hasn’t already happened to you, then it has probably happened to someone you know.
Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you,
that you may be no priest to me.
Because you have forgotten your God’s law,
I will also forget your children.
But Peter above said we should not live in an ignorant manner. We need to add to faith, moral excellence, knowledge and the other virtues.
Moral excellence is important because part of the problem of the times is that some entities, whether people or organizations or school boards or employers or corporations or governments are lying.
True facts can be presented by top-notch scientists and physicians, some of the best in the world, and the facts are ignored.
Instead, as one person explained it very effectively, we are told, “experts say”. We are not told “facts say”. We are told “experts say”.
Since when, for example, did Facebook or your local county judge become an expert in medical matters which it took top notch doctors and scientists rigorous study of almost a decade or more to learn? When the school board put that much study into science? When did your mayor put that much scientific study into medicine or epidemiology? When did your governor put that much study into the scientific research? When did they become the “experts”? How many years did they study?
We need to focus on facts, from people who have put in the time to gain the scientific knowledge, not “expert opinions” from “unnamed sources”.
Find facts from trained scientists who have not been paid off or threatened, of if they are threatened, are standing up against the threats.
It is so necessary to understand how much psychological warfare and lies are involved in today’s news. This is why President Trump called them the fake media, the lying media.
You have to realize that the pharmaceutical companies give a lot of advertising money to television stations. The television stations are unlikely to say things against those that feed them financially.
There is a saying, “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.” The corporations, universities, schools, and various places that have a monied interest are unlikely to speak out against those that give them money.
A lot of research is funded by the government. Institutions that want to keep that funding are unlikely to say anything other than what the government wants.
It really is a choice between God and mammon.
Luke 16:13 No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. You aren’t able to serve God and Mammon.
When Jesus walked the earth, and said the things He said, these truths are eternal. They are in existence now.
The problem for the modern mind is that they have been taught that this way of speaking was a folk culture way of talking, an old-fashioned way of talking, something peasants did long ago, and that it is not relevant to today. The modern school teaches that this needs to be relegated to something from the Middle Ages.
But this is a wrong way to look at it because terms change, but truth does not.
Terms change. It happens all the time. What used to be called a “secretary” is now an “administrative assistant”. What use to be called a “car” is now called a “vehicle”. What used to be called “gasoline” is now called “fuel”. What used to be called a cup of coffee is now called a “latte” or something else. What used to be called “dad’s chair” is now called a “laz-y-boy”. What used to be called a “man” or a “woman” they are (wrongly) trying to change into any number of varied definitions. Terms change.
Even publications of the Bible have had to be updated to modern terms because not everyone can read English as it is existed in the 1600s when the King James Version was made. We now say “you” for “thee” or “thou”. And there are many other modernized terms. Terms change, so we have to recognize that.
Here is John 3:16 in language even before the 1600’s; this is in language from the 1300’s.
Here is John 3:16 in King James English. It is more understandable.
Here is an even more modern translation.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
The point is, terms change. Vocabulary changes and is simplified, at least to us. I guess a person in the 1300’s would have trouble understanding our English. In any case…
Jesus said you cannot serve God and mammon. Mammon is that money force in the world where money is the determining factor behind a decision. You decide that you will serve money more than God, more than God’s laws, more than the morality of God’s laws, more than loving service to humanity, that you will make your final decision based on whether the money is good for you or not. And that is what is happening now.
Mammon exists today, just clothed in different terms. It is advertising or not advertising, depending on decisions about money. It is forcing employees to get shots because someone is threatening your administrative or CEO or managerial job. It is forcing children to wear masks because funding will be cut at your school if you don’t. It is not allowing natural vitamins and natural known substances to strengthen the immune system in order to push an experimental shot that has horrendous side effects. You have to realize that if there were any other type of way to deal with Covid, the experimental mRNA vaccine could not have been authorized by law. This is why they fought President Trump so much when he tried to talk about other possibilities.
There are billions of dollars at stake in this, and some people don’t care about lives, they care about money, they care about mammon more than anything else. Nine new billionaires have been made in all this.
Jesus said that you cannot serve God and mammon.
And so in today’s times, we need to pull out our Bibles, read them, and ask God to help us understand the terminology used in the Bible in relation to all the things happening around us.
The Bible’s wisdom is timeless. We just need God to help us understand how it applies to our lives today.
It is like gravity. Gravity existed 6000 years ago. It still exists today. It will exist tomorrow. Time does not change it.
The Word of God is timeless as well, even more so. Because gravity exists in a time-space field, but the Word of God is eternal. And we need to understand it for today.
Luke 16:8 … for the children of this world are, in their own generation, wiser than the children of the light.
You need to learn facts. Educate yourself. Shake off the tendency of this generation to sit around and wait for someone else to do it for them. That is the socialist mindset that has been creeping in…someone give it to me. Everyone must educate themselves and seek knowledge and moral excellence, as Peter says.
If you are concerned about learning about what is going on around you, there are a lot of facts here, at this site, about Covid, the shot, various reactions to it, and what scientists and physicians who are not afraid to speak out say. Link here.
As Saint Peter said, add to your faith, moral excellence, knowledge and more.