(Underrated) Bible Scriptures - Part 4

Posted Tuesday 15th August 2021

Hey. It's been a minute!

Yes, this post is late, it was past midnight when I posted this. 

I've actually realised that this is the time for me. Even when I want to update earlier, it will still end up becoming this time somehow again. Even if I don't intend to do so.

It wasn't meant to be this late, nor was I supposed to update today but I've spent way too much time focusing on what this blog looks like than posting actual content.

I mean, can you blame me though?

Yeah, Diego Tinoco agrees with me and I do too.

I'm a very creative person, I love things that look neat and organised - and you can tell that I love media, there are by far too many GIFs here hahahaha. But I'm not removing them. People shouldn't tell you the way you want to live.

Likewise, I'm not going to allow anyone to tell me how to run this website!

After this day, it will be Underrated Bible Scriptures - Part 5. I hope you're ready for it.

You may have noticed the theme changed and all the fonts of this entire website. That wasn't planned either to be honest, I was just randomly thinking about it.

I even completely turned things around at some point and it looked awful. I hope none of you guys saw that. 

This is why I don't announce my website unless I updated something - as in a new post. In case I'm doing something behind the scenes that I think will benefit this blog but turns out to be very shambolic.

I love the black and gold theme I had earlier on and I still do, but I'm pretty indecisive and I really do like a lot of colours so I decided to merge them together.

Ideally, I was supposed to post on here the last time that I was on here. I didn't realise that me talking pretty vehemently about False Prophets was on this page. I thought it was on my posts page instead.

If you can remember, the last time I updated, aka on Sunday I believe, I mentioned 7 reasons why you should avoid false prophets. I said that I would do the last three on this page.

I also talked about how people were trying to get dirt on Jesus, mainly the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They really detested Jesus out of jealousy I believe.

I found some evidence on that, so let me share it with you guys. It can be found in Matthew 12:1-8 and then 9-14.

I didn't want to post what they said as it was pretty long, but God just changed my mind last minute.

Verse 1-8 says...

One Sabbath day Jesus walked through the grainfields. His disciples were hungry. So they began to break off some heads of grain and eat them. 

2 The Pharisees saw this. They said to Jesus, “Look! It is against the Law to do this on the Sabbath day. But your disciples are doing it anyway!”

3 Jesus answered, “Haven’t you read about what David did? He and his men were hungry. 

4 So he entered the house of God. He and his men ate the holy bread. Only priests were allowed to eat it. 
5 Haven’t you read the Law? It tells how every Sabbath day the priests in the temple have to do their work on that day. But they are not considered guilty. 

6 I tell you that something more important than the temple is here. 
7 Scripture says, ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice.’ (Hosea 6:6) You don’t know what those words mean. If you did, you would not bring charges against those who are not guilty. 
8 The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath day.”

Long story short, the disciples had done something that was against the Law, but they didn't really: The Pharisees and the Sadducees had just accidentally (on purpose maybe) read the Bible out of context.

Most people do this, you can read my  Commonly Misunderstood Bible Verses page that I wrote here but didn't write here at the same time. I posted it, but it was mainly from another website. I forgot what it was, although it probably had the same name as my post.

I'm still working on changing the font and editing this website, hence why the fonts aren't always the same. Just not right now though because it was past midnight when I posted this.

In Verses 9-14, Jesus wanted to heal a weak and twisted man, but once again, it was on a Sabbath day. If you've read my Dangers of Legalism page, it was against the law to heal the sick on a Sabbath Day. I didn't say that there explicitly but This was an Old Testament Law.

There's nothing wrong with following the Old Testament but you can't be placing Laws above other people's feelings all the time. That's what the Pharisees and the Sadducees did.

I'm always spelling Sadducees wrong. I spelt it right this time, and every other time, but when I was writing this, I messed it up almost every time.

God loves us more than Laws, even though he made them, and that's really saying something.

Without further ado though, let me quickly talk about the last 3 reasons as to why you should avoid false prophets at all time.

I would have finished this on the main page but then that would have been too long, I probably wouldn't even have read through everything, let alone another person. 

Also, I'm doing another topic there when I next go there (no not the Psalms 119 commentary yet. That's on hold for now as I talk about other Biblical things but I will get there this month), and I'm doing my hair on Thursday.

I don't have a specific length limit for any of these posts by the way, I just write as much as I can, although if it is too short then it does bother me a bit.

On to the 1st reason, or more specifically the 5th one.

5. False Teachers Gain From Their Followers

This was actually the 7th reason, but who said I had to do it in order, even if I did that on my main page? 👀

But yes, most false prophets out there like acquiring things and constantly do things to gain material goods for their own benefit.

I know because this is a Godly website, I post Godly song lyrics more than the secular ones I listen to, and I will continue to do that, no diggity (doubt). There aren't many godly GIFs I can use which are relatable to what I'm saying, hence why I don't use them much, but I will strive to do so in the future.

Anyway, I just so happened to be listening to my Afrobeats playlist, as I have listened to my Gospel one a lot this week, so wanted to reward myself, and one of the songs there was very relatable to this point. It is Oliver Twist by D'Banj.

I'm sure you've heard of Oliver Twist many times before. I haven't watched the movie, or read the book if there is one, but all I know is that he constantly wanted more.

In a way, False Prophets are the same thing. The more they gain from their followers, then the more they want.

They want to have them all, because they believe that bigger is better, even if it is not.

Essentially, it's barely even about God anymore. More so about them and their own needs.

Me talking about false prophets is not extensive. As in, it doesn't apply to everyone that's a false prophet out there. Some have even reformed and turned good.

As they should. 😇

 

The website I got this from (7 Characteristics of False Prophets) says and I quote - but I may have used a different Bible translation ifI didn't really understand what theirs was saying...

False teachers make "merchandise" of their followers.  They may not really see them as anyone else except from people only in their lives to make them look good.

2 Peter 2:1-3
But there were also false prophets among the people. In the same way there will be false teachers among you. In secret they will bring in teachings that will destroy you. They will even turn against the Lord and Master who died to pay for their sins. So they will quickly destroy themselves.

 
2 Many people will follow their lead. These people will do the same evil things the false teachers do. They will cause people to think badly about the way of truth. 

3 These teachers are never satisfied. They want to get something out of you. So they make up stories to take advantage of you. They have been under a sentence of death for a long time. The God who will destroy them has not been sleeping.

They eye your goods more than your good; and mind more the serving of themselves, than the saving of your souls. 

So they may have your substance, they care not though Satan has your souls (Rev. 18:11-13). 

 False teachers are the great worshippers of the golden calf (Jer. 6:13).

Everyone wants to get richer and richer,
    from the least important of them to the most important.
Prophets and priests alike
    try to fool everyone they can. Jeremiah 6:13

They base their worth off of their followers instead of God, basically. I don't know why they do this. They just do.

Numbers don't define you. It doesn't matter what kind.

 They just don't, so never think they do. You are worth more than a number.

6. False Teachers Strive to Win People to Their Opinions by Winning Debates

What a long title. Hence why I copied and pasted it from the website instead of just writing it directly like the other one.

The website says...

False teachers strive more to win over men to their opinions, than to better them in their conversations.

Matthew 23:17

You are blind and foolish! Which is more important? Is it the gold? Or is it the temple that makes the gold holy?

They means Pharisees and Sadducees. I spelt it right finally.

The website accidentally wrote Matthew 24:17. But I realised that Matthew 24:17 didn't link to this at all so I therefore found the right scripture for you guys.

Last time I also mentioned Jeremiah 45:5, which mainly talks about not seeking pleasure for yourself unless you want God to be unhappy with you.

 Doesn't say that explicitly but it's something related to that anyway.

"So should you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them. I will bring trouble on everyone,” announces the Lord. “But no matter where you go, I will let you escape with your life.” Jeremiah 45:5

Also Colossians 3:2

Think about things that are in heaven. Don’t think about things that are only on earth.

Yeah, false prophets don't really do that. It doesn't seem that way anyway.

Not just them though, most people in this life, me included sigh. I need to work on detaching from this world, some days are inevitably harder than others but I know with God, I will overcome.

False prophets out there busy themselves most about other people. 

Their work is not to better men's hearts, and mend their lives; so in this they are very much like their father the devil, who will spare no pains to gain people's souls.

And last but not least - number 7. 7 is the number of perfection! Come to think of it, that's probably why they did 7 reasons and nothing more or less.

7.  False Teachers use Clever Language and Appearances to Disguise Themselves

False teachers cover and colour their dangerous principles and soul-impostures with very fair speeches and plausible pretences.

They simultaneously use high notions and golden expressions. 

Many in these days are bewitched and deceived, via illumination, hypocrisy and then some. 

As women paint their faces, and deck and perfume their beds, their main purpose to allure and deceive simple souls (Gal. 6:12; 2 Cor. 11:13-15; Rom. 16:17,18; Mat. 16:6,11,12; 7:15).

This is so false teachers will put a great deal of paint and garnish upon their most dangerous principles and blasphemies, that they may the better deceive and condescend poor ignorant souls. 

They know sugared poison goes down sweetly; they wrap up their pernicious, soul-killing pills in gold.

I guess I'm using afrobeats today, and the song I was listening to just now was Million Pound Girl by Fuse. The main lyrics were

(She badder than bad) She phenomenal, she motivates and she elevates

This is repeated four times.

My point is, false prophets are the opposite. They're not phenomenal, they don't elevate you, and they don't motivate you either. Stay away from them. 

Some of them could even be women, not all false prophets, let alone normal prophets are men.

If anything, should a false prophet read anything that's supposed to encourage them, all they'd most likely think is...

They don't really like being anything lower than the best.

That is the end, it is almost three o'clock.

The only time I don't mind  long posts are these pages, as it's more than one day on one post, unlike the main page.

I shall see you again in Underrated Bible Scriptures - Part 5. 

Not just that, but hopefully on the main page as well. Look out for my next topic, it will be called This Is Your Life - and how we all have a purpose. 

Don't try to live someone else's. Everybody's race is different.

Till next time, Lola xx

Posted Sunday 8th August 2021

It's Lola back again, I haven't been here in ages

My life has been so busy I haven't updated these pages

But it's okay now, because I'm here so let's start

I'm going to be talking about false prophets today, and it's coming straight from the heart

But for real though, hey!

(Liza Koshy)

It's been so long and I'm so sorry about that. This is probably the longest I've gone without updating, the pages post anyway. I know I did a new post yesterday.

I hope God has blessed you this week though.

Normally I do scriptures here and I analyse them, but today I'm going to be talking about just one thing.

And ideally, that's for the Post of Encouragement page, the main difference between this and that is that they will have subheadings but these won't.

But for the posts of encouragement page, I have to do part 4 of this, then 5, then 6. 

Then I have to go back to it, as the first Posts of Encouragement page is too long already.

And I can't wait that long. This post will be about false prophets though, like I said earlier.

I need to confess something though: today I've been kind of procrastinating.

God told me many times to come on here earlier today and post something but I was hesitant. And I guess I was waiting until the end of the day or close to it to post, as there are no distractions, however I'm here now!

Beware of False Prophets

This lingered in my mind for a long time so here we are.

Other things lingered in my mind a lot today too (like On My Block, re-watching it right now), but this mainly.

From Google, a false prophet is...

A person who falsely claims the gift of prophecy or divine inspiration, or to speak for God, or who makes such claims for evil ends. 

I knew what it meant without Google, but I can't say it as sophisticated as that.

The Bible is against false prophets, because why would you want to falsely prophecy to people?

What's the point of deceiving people when you can lowkey just tell them the truth?

Being a false prophet isn't necessarily just lying to people, it could also be twisting the truth around. As it's pretty late, in the next post after this, I will talk about how you can actually identify a false prophet. 

For now though, I'm just talking about why you should be aware of them. 

I will be using Biblical scriptures to back this up so it doesn't seem as though I'm just talking without evidence, or making things up.

Some false prophets out there twist the truth around to stay popular within the congregation.

For example, you know how loving the world is against God?

 Some false prophets would probably tell you that "it's okay to love both God and the world at the same time" -  which is completely against 1 John 2:5 and 15.

 5 But if anyone obeys God’s word, then that person truly loves God. Here is how we know we belong to him. 

15 Do not love the world or anything in it. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.

I was actually supposed to type verse 15 solely, then I accidentally typed 5. I realised that they linked a bit so I joined them together.

There are some people out there in life that are better far away than up close, and I've had my fair share of these kind of people, not pointing names.

In this scenario, false prophets are exactly like that.

In fact, there is this song I know that tell you what false prophets say.

Not exactly, but it still links. Yesterday, I know I said I'd only be mentioning Godly songs- I may do secular songs here and there too, as long as it relates to what I'm saying.

The song is by Wande Coal but because it's not Godly, I won't mention the song title. Just whoever the artist(s) may be.

False prophets behave like this:

False Prophet:

*Rambles on about goodness knows what, mixing some Bible truths with lies. Mainly lies though.*

So do  you guys believe me?

You: 

So why... why should I believe you?

False Prophet: 

*Song I was talking about*

♫ No need to ask no questions, just follow my lead 

To make sure I don't lose you, keep your eyes on me

Me, me, me, me, me, me ♫

No, don't follow their lead.

Don't follow their lead at all. 

Unless you want to set yourself up for destruction, and it's very likely you don't.

Why would you?

It doesn't matter if a false prophet leaves you, know your worth and walk away.

Not just that but don't keep your eyes on them, keep your eyes on anything but them.

Let me give you an example of a false prophet. I learnt about this in Sociology a few years back.

It's a bit dark but it's just a warning. It's called Jonestown.

From Google (hence the numerous hyperlinks), as I knew almost nothing about this - just remembered it.

The poisonings in Jonestown followed the murder of five others by Temple members at Port Kaituma, including United States Congressman Leo Ryan, an act that Jones ordered. Four other Temple members committed murder–suicide in Georgetown at Jones' command.

Until the September 11th attacks, the tragedy in Jonestown on November 18th, 1978 represented the largest number of American civilian casualties in a single non-natural event. 

It is unfathomable now, as it was then, that more than 900 Americans – members of a San Francisco-based religious group called the Peoples Temple – died after drinking poison at the urging of their leader, the Reverend Jim Jones, in a secluded South American jungle settlement. Photographs taken after the carnage forever document the sheer enormity of the event: the bodies of hundreds of people, including children, lying face down in the grass.

 Nearly 40 years later, the infamous and horrific event continues to fascinate us through numerous books, articles and documentaries.

The story of Jonestown begins with Jones, a white minister who preached unconventional socialist and progressive ideas to a predominantly African-American congregation, called the Peoples Temple. 

At the height of its popularity during the 1970s, the Temple had a membership estimated in the thousands and was courted by local politicians in San Francisco, including Harvey Milk. 

But by 1977, Jones had grown paranoid from the media scrutiny over the Temple’s suspicious activities, so he and his numerous followers moved to an agricultural settlement (a.k.a. Jonestown) in Guyana, the remote country east of Venezuela.

Yeah, I'm not posting everything, let alone posting the pictures that they were talking about.

If you're interested though, you can always visit the website I got all this information from:

Jonestown Massacre 1978

If you're confused, long story short, a false prophet called Jim Jones had kind of forced the members of the congregation to drink cyanide.

Some people survived by escaping but almost 1K people died.

Here was what someone had said about him from the same website.

“I thought Jimmy was a really weird kid,” Jones’ childhood friend Chuck Wilmore recalled in the 2006 documentary Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple. “He was obsessed with religion; he was obsessed with death. A friend of mine told me that he saw Jimmy kill a cat with a knife.” 

According to Jeff Guinn’s book, The Road to Jonestown, Jones also had an early fascination with Adolf Hitler. “When Hitler committed suicide in April 1945, thwarting enemies who sought to capture and humiliate him, Jimmy was impressed,” he wrote.

In the nicest way possible, Jim Jones is most likely rotting eternally in Hell right now. As he should.

And I don't wish this on anyone, not even my enemies (as in going to Hell) but what he did was completely unforgivable as so many lives were lost.

False prophets are terrible people in general that should be avoided at all times, but driving them to death- that's the worst thing you could ever do to someone.

There can be hope for them but they seriously need to change their lives for the better if they want that to happen.

Before I close, here are some Biblical references about false prophets, including but is most certainly not limited to...

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Matthew 7:15

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 1 John 4:1

False messiahs and false prophets will appear. They will do great signs and miracles. They will try to fool God’s chosen people if possible. Matthew 24:24

But there were also false prophets among the people. In the same way there will be false teachers among you. In secret they will bring in teachings that will destroy you. They will even turn against the Lord and Master who died to pay for their sins. So they will quickly destroy themselves. 2 Peter 2:1

The first 2 passages are the ESV version and the next two are NIRV instead.

Like I said, next time I will talk about exactly how you can identify them.

Finally posted before midnight, let's say it was 11:10PM when I posted this.

Have a good day or night, depending on when you are reading this. And I shall hopefully see you next time. Peace!

Posted Saturday July 31st 2021

 Hello and happy Saturday! It's finally the weekend!

I love the man in this video so much, this is a whole new level of not caring what people think. It's good though. Wish I could dance like that - most especially in public.

Speaking of loving things, I love this new theme. I might stick to it forever but let's see how things go. 😁

I actually posted earlier today. But when I did it was between 2 - 3am I believe so inevitably, I was pretty tired.

I know I post at weird times or when I should be sleeping but I function better at night. Plus there are hardly any distractions there anyway.

 What can you say?

I said that I would continue with the Underrated Bible Scriptures at the end of the Posts of Encouragement page, or somewhere there but I'm not sure. Either way, I said it there somewhere so here we are again.

Scripture #24

Here's one we probably all know and love. Matthew 7 vs 1-2. And it says

“Do not judge other people. Then you will not be judged."

2 You will be judged in the same way you judge others. You will be measured in the same way you measure others.

Realistically speaking, you should always be encouraging Christians to have a personal relationship with God.

You don’t count people’s sins. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new Creation. Old things have passed away and everything has been made new. 2 Corinthians 5:17.

This is why you shouldn’t judge others.

I mean, think about it. How many times have you looked at someone and you've instantly judged them based on how they look and/or speak and/or dress and/or what shoes they're wearing?

Funnily enough some people actually do judge others based on what shoes they're wearing - as well as everything else that I've just mentioned too.

You've probably done it a lot of times in your life, knowingly and/or unknowingly.

I certainly have and it's not good. I believe I said in this website somewhere that I've judged some people to be rude just based on the way they look and they're actually one of the nicest people you will ever meet.

If you don't want to be judged by others then simply stop judging. Anytime you realise that you're doing that - change your thoughts to something else. Something more positive if you have to do so.

There is this quote I know and I will add right now. It's not from the Bible and it's kind of contradictory to everything I've said but I'm going to explain what the quote means afterwards.

Some people will judge you and they will act like they know everything about you even if they don't. 

Some people are so good at making others seem bad that they forget that they themselves are not perfect.

This especially happens when you disagree with something everyone else agrees with. Kind of like Christian beliefs against unbelievers beliefs. I have definitely been a witness of this.

For example, there might be a popular song out there that almost everybody likes but you don't. Whilst they only like the song because it's catchy, you're actually listening to the lyrics of the song and it's not Christian like at all.

It's using euphemisms (talking about something indirectly) for committing crimes and fornication (so as not to be too explicit), and it's got so much swearing in it that you're wondering how everyone can obliviously ignore something like that as if it's no big deal.

Even if they're using the clean version, it doesn't matter. It's still wrong.

You get a lot of shade thrown at you for it, with people laughing at you as well. In this scenario, don't stoop to their level. Just ignore them, move on and let God deal with them.

This has kind of happened to me before online earlier this month but I don't want to get into it. It wasn't a song though, it was something else probably even worse than that. Plus it's getting sorted anyway.

But yes. Don't judge others unless you yourselves want to be judged. Some people themselves can't help to judge others however you yourself don't have to be a part of them.

Only God can judge because he knows everybody's situation fully. We only know a part of it, especially on social media.

As God’s people, we must always be able to look at people and their circumstances from the viewpoint of the Lord. 

Even if someone does actually tell you what's been going on in their life, do you really think they'd tell you everything? They may even twist the truth around and edit the bad bits. 

Not everybody is like this of course but it could happen so be careful.

Scripture #25

Hosea 6 vs 6  For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

Some books of the Bible are so unopened that you sometimes forget they even existed. Hosea is kind of one of them.

And a few minutes ago from writing this sentence, I was just thinking of the book Philemon. I said to myself

"Oh yeah, Philemon is a book in the Bible!"

I've never really been asked to open that book in my life. Don't think I've read it either.

I missed Bible Study from my home church on Wednesday because I was working and I caught up today. They made reference to the verse I just mentioned and I found it very powerful in general.

If you have to decide between showing mercy to people instead of making a sacrifice, choose showing mercy.

Jesus advised his disciples (and us too, in real time) that we should forgive each other 77 times or 490 times a day, depending on what version you're reading. Either way, the text is taken from Matthew 18 vs 22.

New International Version
Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times."

New Living Translation

“No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!"

If you can't physically forgive someone ie say they're no longer in your life, they're in your life but you don't have contact with them or they've sadly passed away - you can always pray to God to forgive that person on your behalf.

Unforgiveness is a sin and it could be a potential hindrance to prayers.

Others I can think of but is most certainly not limited to are sin and impatience etc.

Your relationship with God is more important than your overall church attendance. This is putting mercy over sacrifice.

Sacrificing your time for God to go to church is good, but you could be going to church for all the wrong reasons. 

I can think of many reasons as to why this is the case which I'm not going to mention now - this is better as  a separate topic really and it deserves a whole new post for it.

On the other hand, if you have a genuine relationship with God then you’d be with him for all of the right ones instead.

When you show mercy, you are offering a greater sacrifice than sacrifice itself.

The Holy Spirit himself will not allow you to be wicked to people, and you shan't be amen.

#Scripture 24

Last but not least for today is Lamentations 3:22

The Lord loves us very much.
    So we haven’t been completely destroyed.
    His loving concern never fails. Lamentations 3 vs 22

God has still kept you alive because he's not done with you yet.

Those that have died is mainly because God is done with them in one way or the other. 

I mentioned somewhere in this website again that I feel like if you die painfully then you're going to Hell but if not then you are going to Heaven instead.

God will always love you until the day you die. He might even still love you afterwards, but I'm not sure if God still remembers the deceased or not.

Take advantage of the fact that you're still alive today, in a good way of course.

Don't do things that you know God won't necessarily like, or hang out with people you know he doesn't approve of either.

If you feel like someone is a bad influence on you because you're shady about their behaviour, but you're not sure - that's exactly what the Lord is for.

That's all I've got to say for now, but I'll see you next time, which will be

Don't want to make any promises! xx

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