I understand clearly that I am not a very traditional minister. I do some strange things from time to time. I tell our church not to believe me just because I said something, but to check it out for themselves. I tell our church you ought not to be tithing. I refrain from the church language you are so accustomed to from spiritual leaders that you believe them when they tell you that God saved them a parking spot right in the front of Wal-Mart’s parking lot. One strange thing I do is race dirt bikes. Now I’m no spring chicken but let me tell you I can put a whopping on a lot of youngsters with a dirt bike. This old dog can teach the kids a thing or two about racing through the woods. There’s the old adage that you can’t teach an “old dog new tricks.” Oh, how I wish you could. My heart breaks over the people I have tried to help learn the mystery and the simplicity there is in Christ. I’m told that when you hear a lie told enough times it becomes the truth. Actually, a lie never becomes the truth, but millions of Christians have heard church tradition taught to them as fact for so many years that they refuse to objectively listen to anything other than what they think they know. Another old adage is: “you don’t know what you don’t know” Let me tell you this, I teach things every Sunday that Christians of 50, 60, or more years have NEVER UNDERSTOOD. It’s not because I am smarter than them, or even studied more then them. I am willing to be corrected by scripture. I am willing to believe the WORDS over the preacher. This does not make me special, just rare. I am willing to be an old dog learning new tricks. We were so blinded by growing up in church that we don’t even know the right questions much less the answers. I just started a new series of lessons on the kingdom. Most preachers have no idea about the clear and obvious differences between the kingdom and heaven. In fact, most preachers read kingdom verses in the gospels and then relate these verses to heaven every Sunday. The “kingdom of heaven” as used by Matthew is God’s rule and reign coming from heaven to earth to reestablish dominion on earth. This is God’s purpose for Israel, not you. You are to reestablish dominion he heavenly places that was lost when Satan convinced angels to follow his rebellion. Why is it that I could get many experienced dirt bike riders to take a little advice from me but the same men would have no interest is discussing spiritual things? I’ll tell you why, we were conditioned by our environment of church tradition to NEVER LISTEN to anyone but our group. This eliminated the possibility of the Holy Spirit being able to teach us anything more from then on. Our “teacher” was our tradition, NOT scripture. I’m 55, so I guess I’m not that old, I’m still chasing and even beating a whole lot of young whipper snappers around the cross-country track. However, I am willing to be corrected by scripture written TO ME. This is a trait you should make a conscience effort to let the Holy Spirit know you have. I tell God regularly that I am willing to change any stance at any time if scripture directs me. You?
Hope you got a kick out of the title of this blog. This title however makes an extremely important point I really want you to understand. God is not all that interested in your college degree or even your IQ quite frankly. I’m not saying a high IQ is not an aid in Bible study, but I am saying it’s not required. I will say that Bible college much of the time ruins a person for proper Bible study. God is primarily concerned with your heart. God primarily requires a proper attitude, motive, and demeanor as you study scripture. God requires a proper heart toward scripture. God’s concern for our heart is demonstrated over and over in scripture. I explain to people every Sunday that proper Bible understanding comes from a heart to learn and a willingness to change because you care most about truth. My biggest harp on denominationalism is the fact that they list their beliefs and then practically swear allegiance to their listed beliefs. This is the WRONG position! Swear allegiance to SCRIPTURE and then be willing to change your beliefs if scripture proves you wrong. Please notice there is no place for your pride in my position. In denominationalism all the effort is spent proving the statement of faith as correct. In my position all the effort is spent on just letting the scripture direct me and trying to have the courage to CHANGE as I find where I’m wrong. In my past experience in denominational Christianity, I can tell you there is not many quicker ways to get a Amen than to harp on the Catholic churches trust in tradition. Tradition is alive and well is any and all the denominational and Non-denominational churches as well. God wants our effort. God wants our belief and trust in his written words. God wants our obedience. God does not require a higher education, he requires a proper education. The proper education God requires is one built on HIS principles of proper study and not your favorite preacher’s ideas. I won’t argue that teaching God’s manifold wisdom can make you appear pretty smart. I’ll let you in on the secret. It’s GOD’S manifold wisdom! Understanding the mystery is the ONLY possible way to properly understand the Bible. God rewards proper Bible study. Time, effort, and a heart to learn coupled with your King James Bible and a willingness to allow yourselves to be wrong can change your life. No, I’m probably not that smart compared to many other people. Take note however that your heart plays a much bigger part than you might be giving it credit for.One way I enjoy studying scripture is to read a word or phrase in scripture that peaks my interest and then search for all the other occurrences of it. This, by the way, is the best Bible dictionary there is. Your King James Bible will define words for you all the time if you will take the time to find all the other uses of a word throughout scripture. Actually, most times the Bible will define the word in the same verse by repeating the hard word with other words. I started studying Romans 12 tonight and in verse one Paul uses the phrase “I beseech you” Just by reading the previous use of this phrase by Paul in Acts 26:2 you see the Bible helping define the meaning for you by Paul saying “I beseech thee to hear me patiently” when talking to Agrippa. So, it is obvious that Paul means to speak something quite important to Agrippa and is imploring him to listen and understand the gravity of the words. It looks like Paul uses the word beseech about 22 times but I’d like to point your attention to the use in I Cor 1:10.
1Co 1:10 ¶ Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. Although all 22 uses are important, personally I feel this use is especially pertinent for us today. Paul is imploring us to do 4 things all of which ARE POSSIBLE. Personally, I don’t think many Christians would agree with this statement. Can we ALL speak the same thing, with no divisions, be perfectly joined together in the same mind and judgment? YES! However, many Christians would say; “sure if you all join my church and believe what my pastor teaches” The Bible position would be; If you would all believe every verse literally, to whom it is addressed, in the age it is intended to be applied. A very simplified version of this principle is to read and apply scripture as Paul instructs by believing that scripture applies to “time past”, “but now”, and the “ages to come” (See Ephesians chapter 2) The false teaching that the Old Testament belongs to Israel and the New Testament belongs to the church is just one of the causes of the myriad of denominations and divisions today. Paul beseeches us to ALL speak the same thing. Only Paul instructs us as to how this is possible. We must rightly divide the scriptures by applying scripture as the Bible instructs and not how the vast majority of popular Bible teachers tell you to. We are to trust the Holy Spirit MORE THAN your favorite commentator. The Holy Spirit penned these words for you: 1Co 4:15 For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.16 Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me. Yes, this is your Apostle Paul, beseeching YOU to follow HIM. This is not because Paul is arrogant or a narcissist. This is because the mystery information Jesus revealed to Paul was not known prior to these revelations. Our doctrine must be based on the mystery revealed to Paul. If you refuse this plain and clear teaching you are rejecting the direct and clear teaching of the Holy Spirit. I am beseeching you to follow your Apostle so you can be pleasing to your Savior Jesus. There is no other way. I recently watched a series on TV called Alone. This series is about people dropped off in the wilderness with no food or water. They get some survival items supplied by the show and then 10 items of their choice with some limitations. They only get to survive with a bow, trapping and fishing although they don’t get a fishing rod. I don’t watch reality TV, but I gave this one a shot since someone said it was pretty good. I’m pretty familiar with this type of thing and I would say this show was pretty realistic. This show reminded me of being a right divider of scripture in a few ways. It can feel lonely at times believing your Bible literally and as written. You might feel like your out in the wilderness on your own trying to survive at times. Sometimes there’s an elephant in the room and you’re the cause. If you understand right division, then you understand exactly what I’m talking about. I must admit it was pretty easy to sit in a denominational church and fall in line. It was not survival to sit in a pew and ignore all my questions and wonder why no one teaches all the hard verses and stays clear of hundreds of topics I wondered about. It’s not survival to stick your head in the sand and pretend that you did not see so many things that did not make sense. Becoming a real Bible believer can make you feel alone at times. All I can tell you is this; It’s worth it. Understanding God’s programs is worth it. Understanding God’s purposes is worth it. Understanding God’s will is worth it. Understanding my actual ministry is worth it. Understanding the clear gospel is worth it. Is it hard when your friends are not interested? Yes. It is hard when family does not share your enthusiasm. Yes. Let me encourage you as best as I can. There is no feeling that compares to reading the Bible and having a clear understanding of what is happening and why. There is no feeling like reading portions of scripture that always puzzled you before and now they seem so clear and understandable. There is no feeling like having the confidence, boldness, and utterance to explain proper doctrine to people. There is no feeling like being stablished in proper doctrine. Sometimes it feels a little like survival. Sometimes you can feel like your out in the wilderness alone surviving on squirrels. No remnant had it easy in scripture. Jesus’s ministry ended with 120 in a room. Paul’s ministry ended with entire regions of churches falling back under bondage. I remind you of this; trusting the Bible above anything else is the answer your Christian friends need. Trusting you Bible above anything else is the answer that your unsaved friends and family need. Jesus told his followers that whoever lost his life for his sake would actually find it. There is sacrifice in this dispensation also. We should be willing to lose some things also. We might be few, but were not alone. God had to remind Elijah of this same principle while he was alone trying to survive. Sometimes we need the same reminder.
I knew it! With a name like this I knew you could not help but read this blog. Let me explain. I am a hunter. I started hunting because I love the woods. I don’t hunt anything I don’t eat. Well, other than a random pest or two. When you start cooking wild game you find out that you must prepare and cook wild game a bit differently than beef or chicken. One of my favorite ways to prepare deer is to can the meat. Yeah, I already see your nose curling up. Please bear with me in my folly. This is not like homemade Spam. When you can your own meat, it is cooked at high temperature for 75 minutes if your doing pints in glass canning jars. This is by far one of the best ways to eat deer meat. Super tender and it's just sitting on a shelf, no freezer needed for whenever you need a quick meal. You might be thinking it time for me to get to the point. OK, point number one. I would dare say 97% of people I tell about canned deer meat instantly think it sounds disgusting. Did you? I can guarantee close to 97% of the same people I could get to try my canned deer meat would think it’s a great way to eat deer and is delicious. Point number 2 is, it is very hard to get people beyond that initial reaction of “that sounds gross.” If I can get them to try it, I can pretty much guarantee they will not think it’s gross and will probably think it’s great. Still you’re asking; what’s the point? The point is that I sometimes must describe how great canned deer meat is before someone will try it. Our job as ambassadors is very similar. When you first explain to someone that God actually intends for them to be able to understand scripture themselves without running to commentaries and study Bibles, they many times are very skeptical. They were taught that they need highly educated men to explain the Bible to them. They were taught indirectly that they should just believe the preacher and stop asking all the questions. As a minister of the mystery, I must with patience and love explain how awesome it is to understand what God is doing. I must do my best to get people to get beyond the initial thought that they will never completely understand scripture. I need to take the time to help them see the value of becoming a Bible believer. I need to use examples and show them the clarity that scripture can have in their life. Much like explaining to people how great canned deer meat is regardless of their initial reaction to this gourmet delicacy. As a right divider, are you prepared to help people see the benefits of proper Bible study? Can you help people see what they are missing? Think about how you would describe something you know to be great, but others might not be privy to. I don’t mean to be manipulative, but to be able to describe the joy and excitement of truly understanding the Bible. Enthusiasm is contagious because it shows them you are truly excited share. God would have all men saved and then come to the knowledge of the truth. Christians will never come to a knowledge of the truth without understanding the mystery. Are you prepared to share the mystery with enthusiasm and excitement? Can you describe the joy and awe scripture can give when properly understood? If not, learn. If so, go get someone to try canned deer meat. It’s good stuff.
Paul uses an interesting word four times in scripture that we rarely utter. This word is “utterance”. Some might consider this word outdated or archaic. I call it a Bible word. When you read words in scripture that you don’t understand or use, read all the uses in scripture and let the Bible define the words for you. Paul uses this word twice in reference to praying for his ability to share information about two specific things. In Colossians 4:3 Paul ask for prayers for utterance that he might speak the “mystery of Christ”. In Ephesians 6:19 Paul is asking for prayer for utterance to “make known the mystery of the gospel”. Enquiring minds would want to know, why does Paul think Christ was a mystery (secret)? Jesus himself taught for 3 years and his disciples continued preaching about him. Secondly, Jesus himself taught a gospel and his disciples also continued this message. Yet Paul was asking those around him to pray he might make known the mystery of the gospel and the mystery of Christ. How about you? Do you have an enquiring mind? If you don’t rightly divide, you just read past these statements with no thought to them at all. Maybe you were not taught to pay close attention to every word. Maybe you were taught to look for the general thought or meaning and have never considered WHY Paul thinks Christ and the gospel are a mystery. For those of us that understand right division and understand every word matters, Paul say exactly what he says for a reason because words matter. The mystery information Paul reveals to us about Christ was not taught during Christ’s earthly ministry. The information Paul reveals to us about the mystery gospel of grace was not taught during Jesus’s earthly ministry. This is EXACTLY why Paul calls these a mystery. Paul also understands the weight and importance of the ministry that was entrusted to him. Therefore, he is asking for prayer for open doors and utterance to speak these unsearchable things. Why are we talking about this? I want you to understand that if you understand the mystery, then you cannot be silent about it. You are holding the key to a door that your Christian friends and family CANNOT open without you. They are not being taught the mystery in their churches. You MUST share the mystery regardless of the outcome. The few that will actually study and learn the truth will be eternally grateful. I want you to understand that if you understand the clear gospel of grace that only Paul teaches in scripture, then you MUST share it with your Christian friends and family. They are not hearing a clear gospel in their churches. YOU must be the one with the utterance to share the clear gospel with the confused Christians around you. The few that will compare scripture with scripture will be eternally grateful. Looks to me like there are 135 people that follow our Facebook page. I am praying for 135 people to have the guts to share the mystery with someone. I am praying for 135 people to share the clear gospel with someone. I am praying for your utterance! Go stir the pot a little.
We are working through the book of Romans right now and we just finished up chapter 7. The last verse of chapter 7 seams a little out of place at first. In verse 25 Paul says, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord”. Now that does not seem out of place unless you consider the first 24 verses. Paul has spent the chapter explaining the problems he has with sin and the constant battle with the old man, his flesh. Then he gets to verse 25 and thanks God. This is typically the opposite of our thought process. Context matters. Paul made an extremely important statement in 6:14 that is carrying through the context. He said, “For sin shall not have dominion over you”. I believe the point Paul is making for us is that we should be THANKFUL FOR THE STRUGGLE OVER OUR SIN. Do you realize where you would be without the struggle? You would be dominated by sin as unsaved people are. The fact that you have the ability to struggle against the flesh and the old man is something to be thankful for. I realize we don’t think about it this way, but Paul was thankful he could struggle over the flesh and is in the position to win this fight. Here is where I believe this chapter should motivate us in an amazing way. Paul struggled with sin every day and still accomplished amazing things for God. Why? Because he made the decision to MOVE FORWARD while in the midst of struggling over his sin. I can tell you this, if I would have waited to be perfect before starting our church, I would still be waiting. I will tell you this also; if you keep waiting to be perfect and you no longer struggle with sin to do something for God, you will NEVER accomplish anything for him. If you think you are not in a position to be used of God because you are struggling over some things, I challenge you to study Romans chapter 7 and its context closely. Paul is not saying that you should live in immorality and try to serve God at the same time. He IS SAYING, it’s important to keep “pressing towards the mark” while you are constantly fighting off the old man. If you feel like you are in a constant battel with sin, then you are in the fight just like Paul is describing in detail. Paul did not just focus on the struggle, he said he was thankful for it. Paul pressed ahead while in this battle and accomplished great things for God. YOU CAN TOO! Do you seriously think the preachers and teachers you have looked up to were perfect? They weren’t, and neither are you or I. We need to be thankful we can battle the flesh, and then get engaged in accomplishing something while we are here on the earth. The struggle should not stop you from serving, it should enable you to serve. Maybe if we would have heard a little less DO’S and DON’TS constantly in church and were told the struggle is normal, then we might have been engaged a long time ago. Proper doctrine matters! Understanding Paul’s doctrine about this struggle is a vital part of the Christian walk. Are you walking and working while in this struggle? You should be!
Confusion abounds in Christianity. I am not saying that Christians are ready and willing to admit this. Christians sit in their churches each Sunday listening to the same verses used over and over again to teach the truth as they see it. One of the most useful things I ever did is to study the doctrine of all the other denominations besides mine. I discovered that they also had verses to prove different conclusions than I held. In an honest Christian looking for truth this should cause pause at least and really should cause doubt. Thankfully I did not stick my head in the sand and pretend I never seen this elephant in the room. Thankfully I decided for myself that there must be an answer to the confusion. Thankfully I was willing to admit that I could be wrong. This trait is quite rare. In my experience, most Christians know they don’t really understand the Bible but are not willing to admit they could be wrong. I had a eye-opening experience that really made me realize the extent of the problem. As a Deacon in a Baptist church, I took part in revising a church constitution. Part of this project was to take a look at the Statement of Faith. What I studied during this project was the list of the “Fundamentals” or the “Baptist Distinctives” or whatever you want to call them. Here is what you most likely will find if you have the guts to try it, A statement sometimes followed by 20 or more verses to prove the statement. At a glance this seamed quite impressive. You would look at that long list of verses and think to yourself, this no doubt is an easily proven fact. Here is what I found out after helping to revise the Constitution and statement of faith in 2 different Baptist churches. You and I were being bluffed into thinking all those verses actually prove the statement. What I found was the first few verses were clearly about the context of the statement. But the further you got from the clear verses you found that most of the verses had little or almost nothing to do with proving the statement and were thrown in just to make a long list. Maybe your statement of faith does not look this way? Do you know? There was a period of time when I read the statements of faith of all the major denominations from many different churches. By and large I found this to be true over and over amongst all the ones I read. If you are sitting in a church Sunday after Sunday betting eternity on the chance you picked the correct church or were raised up in the right denomination, you are on thin ice no doubt. There are things you must figure out. These are things that WILL affect your eternity. If those verses listed are found in Israel’s Old Testament and Israel’s New Testament you are in a perilous position. Church doctrine for today comes primarily from your Apostle Paul. Yes, every verse in the Bible is true and accurate as written, but Paul was sent by Jesus directly to you with the message valid today in the age of grace. If your foundation is not built upon Paul’s doctrine, you’re just trusting in man’s opinion. Sadly today, most Christians are completely fine believing their pastor and church creed. They have more important things to do. I implore you to figure these things out for yourself. And when something smells fishy, is usually is. Stop, dig in and keep digging.
One of the responses I regularly hear after I attempt to share the mystery with people is that I am “worshipping Paul.” What I am actually doing is attempting to help people see that they were taught to demean Paul’s position to an unbiblical one. You most likely have been told that Paul is a “missionary” just like I was. Do you know that missionary is not a Bible word? It’s not in scripture. This “Paul the first missionary” myth has been perpetuated over centuries. What we actually should be doing is letting the Bible define Paul’s God given position, authority, and titles. The title given Paul by scripture and thus the Holy Spirit is “Apostle.” Paul no-doubt understood that men with an agenda would demean his character and authority. This is rampant today. We find Paul regularly defending his apostleship throughout his books. Scripture affirms Paul’s apostleship without doubt or debate. Scripture goes beyond this declaring Paul as the “Apostle of the Gentles” (Rom 11:13 + II Tim 1:11) Scripture proves Paul himself had the “signs of an apostle” (II Cor 12:12) Scripture uses the word “apostle” at least 16 times for Paul. What I do is give Paul the position scripture does. What I do is give Paul the authority scripture does. What I do is give Paul the respect scripture does, no more and no less. I am not concerned with the fact that modern Christianity has for hundreds of years not recognized or purposely not given Paul the position scripture does. Modern Christianity is wrong on dozens of points. God has always worked through men in scripture. Moses, Abraham, Judges, Prophets, and Apostles alike. The scriptural FACT is that Paul is the man of authority in this dispensation, because Jesus GAVE HIM that position. I follow Paul so I can be pleasing to Jesus my Lord and Savior. You will be ashamed someday if you do not follow this scriptural command to build upon what Paul built. (Rom 2:16, I Cor 3:10) Tradition has taken the place of proper direction today in churches. Agenda has taken the place of proper instruction in churches. Pride and arrogance keep Christians today from building upon what Jesus is doing through Paul in this dispensation. My intent and desire is for you to fulfill what God desires for your life today. You will NEVER accomplish this outside of giving Paul the place scripture does. He is YOUR APOSTLE. You are to follow HIM today to be pleasing to Jesus. This is the clear teaching of scripture. I pray you would see through all the haze of church agendas and find the liberty we have in Christ.
This past July 2nd was our 6-year anniversary here at Abundant Grace Bible Fellowship. Each year has brought challenges and opportunities. Challenges are to be expected. Paul tells us specifically to expect problems if you plan on sharing the clear gospel. The world is full of preachers promising earthly blessings and prosperity. Paul did no such thing. Preachers make millions of dollars telling people that God will pull you from tragedy and trials. Paul does no such thing. Paul tells you that if you plan on being a bible believer and actually teaching the mystery that you can expect the “afflictions of the gospel.” It’s no wonder many preachers steer clear of Paul’s books. There’s not much “good preaching” in his books. The reason you can glory in tribulations as Paul tells you to is that these can be an indicator that you are doing exactly what you should be doing. I often tell our church that you don’t need to pray for God’s will and then “wait” as I was told my whole Christian life. This is horrible advice. “Wait on the Lord” is horrible teaching in this age. God has a purpose, and you have the opportunity to help. God has a plan in place, and he is working out that plan right now. You sitting around praying for God to show you his will is a waste of time. This might sound harsh, but it’s something that drives me crazy that I was told my whole life to pray for God’s will and then wait for him to show me it when it’s actually very clear in plain English in the Bible that was sitting in my lap. God’s clear will at this time is to build a body. He is calling out a people to restore dominion in heavenly places. God’s will is for you to reconcile the world to Christ. God’s will is for you to come to the knowledge of the truth. God’s will is for you to make all men see the fellowship of the mystery. I promise you this. If you start DOING these things, you will never pray for God to show you his will again because you will be doing it. When the challenges come, don’t be surprised. When the opportunities come, TAKE THEM. Terry McLean once said when you hear the boos and jeers, ignore them and when you hear the cheers and applause ignore them too. Just keep moving forward doing the things you know to be right. GOOD ADVISE!! If you plan to get on board with God’s clearly revealed will, expect to use this advice.
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AuthorSteve Schoenberger is a student of the Bible and the teacher at Abundant Grace Bible Fellowship, A Mid-Acts Dispensational Bible church teaching the Bible rightly divided according the revelation of the mystery delivered to the Apostle Paul Archives
April 2024
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