Wednesday – 5/14/2014

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Speakers:

• Robin Atherton
• Ann Eutsler
• Karen Hocker
• Megan Atherton

Scriptures used:

• Ephesians 4:17-19
• Proverbs 3:5-6
• John 15
• Ephesians 4:20-32

Subject:

• Vanity of their Mind.
• Commanded not to walk after other gentiles which in this context is an unbeliever.
• Mind: Intellect.
• Vanity: Transientness or moral depravity. Empty, profitless and vain.
• Transeintness: Passing with time, not enduring, temporary, momentary and uselessness.
• Vanity of the mind: Uselessness of the intellect, Moral depravity of the intellect, emptiness of the intellect, profitlessness of the intellect.
• Understanding: deep thought, mind imagination, darkness, to obscure, hidden.
• Alienated: to estrange away, to cause to be hostile.
• Ignorance: to ignore through disinclination.
• Blindness: Stupidity or callousness or hardness
• Lasciviousness: Licentiousness, ludeness, immorality or filthy
• Uncleanness: impurity
• Greediness: inordinate desire.
• Without studying the scriptures people believe empty useless teaching that have no relation at all to scriptures. In their mind they are vain, it comes down to being stupid.
• So much emphasis is put on intellect and education now, the only education we need is the Word of God. It’s not wrong to get an education as long as it doesn’t become more important than getting to know the Word.
• The Scriptures are very simple, read the word of God as is. When you can trust the Lord and have faith in Him you find it is very simple to understand.
• The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom, Knowledge and Understanding. So if you don’t have the fear of the Lord all of it is vain it has no foundation.
• The scripture calls us to lean not on our own understanding.
• Until we knew Christ every thought we had falls into this category, the ones outside of Christ continue in that. But we are to not continue in that.
• To try to reconcile your life before Christ to fit with Christ will not work. He says very clearly that our ways are not His ways. Let us cease from walking in those ways.
• The intellect lifts us up in pride, the gospel humbles us. Through it we are reconciled to a God who does know everything.
•  Put off our mind and put on His. We can’t do it if we have to validate it and make it okay. It is not okay.
• We are to walk in that humble and meek state. What makes us think we are to be high  and mighty and somewhat. Jesus humbled himself.
• We learn His ways through obedience to those He has put over us.
• Jesus spoke a lot about the hardness of people’s hearts. That is blindness.
• We negate the simpleness of the gospel because of our emphasis on our own intellect. You have faith in your own intellect not in the Lord.
• We can not serve two masters, you will love the one and hate the other. When we serve other masters we alienate ourselves from the Lord.
• The gospel is so powerful, we want to make it more complicated than it is, in that we are stroking our pride. We have to put ourselves out to the way.
• Our boast is the Lord, he is our hope and our salvation. He should be our everything.
• We need our paths directed by God. We do evil.
• That means we need to get out of agreement with ourselves and into agreement with Him.
• Fellowship is food for the soul.
• The focus on most education is caught up in intellect and not on God.
• The Kingdom Age was a false teaching that shows the Vanity of their mind.
• Adam was in the world with no sin and was only given one commandment and couldn’t keep it. Jesus later came into a world laden with sin and committed none, it was a choice Jesus made to do nothing but that which His heavenly father told him to do.
• People would rather trust in the things a man says then to trust what the Word of God says. We are to read and study the word of God for ourselves not take man at their word.
• The Bible calls the people that go to Seminary Pharisees.
• When you are obedient to the Lord in His word he will provide you with all you need; wisdom, skills, provision, etc…
• There is nothing wrong with an education but don’t put it before the knowledge of Christ.
• If we rationalize the word of God, we are conforming the word to what we want it to be.
• We can’t hide our sins from God and we will be accountable.
• Let the Lord shine the light where we do rationalize the word to fit our own ways.
• We should be hanging out in the truth of the gospel, not giving place to those things not in line with the Lord and fellow-shipping in it.
• Our understanding is evil, but God has given us an opportunity to put His on which is not evil.
• We are accepted in him because of what he did. Now we need to learn a new way in service to him.
• Put off that which is not of him. Let’s submit and let Him fix us.
• We tend to think we are better than we really are. We think we are righteous. We are only righteous in Him. The only thing we have done is accept Him and strive to walk in His word.
• Renewed meaning the whole course of life is flowing in a new direction.
• Stop the old behavior, that is up to us. We can not look to God to do it all, we have to put it off. That is standing in faith and obedience to His word.
• We stand in hope when we believe him.
• Do we hear Him, are we taught of Him?
• There is no justification for our ungodly behavior. In faith and knowledge that the blood of the lamb is sufficient to cover all sin. We have to come into agreement with it by faith.
• We can do it!
• We are the body of Christ and are called to do and stand as He did.
• Starting your day by submitting to the Lord, calling upon him and reading the word are beneficial to this.
• Pray for one another.