“Is Christ Divided?” Asked the Apostle Paul

Obviously  not.  And neither are the true members of His spiritual body, the church.  Yet, in Christendom divisions abound, as they did in Paul’s day.

“We are the true church,” say the Roman Catholics.  “No, we are,” say the Baptists.  “We are the Church of Christ!”  “No, we are following Luther.”  “We are following Wesley.”

Please.  2,600 different denominations, each with a different take on Christ.  Divisions abound.  And they all claim to be following the words of the Bible, yet they do not obey its words: “I beseech you…that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you…that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” (I Corinthians 1: 10).

The same mind.  Whose mind?  The mind of Christ.  Since Christ is not divided, then those who really have His Spirit will not be divided either.  “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His” (Rom 8: 9).  If we are His, then we will have His Spirit.  And if we have His Spirit, we will have His mind, and we will not be divided.

Because of the divisions, Paul said that he would have to teach them the basics: the preaching of the cross.  This is what is lacking in Christians today.  They have not been taught that they must surrender their own egos to the death of the cross.  They must identify their sin with the dying Christ who took upon Him the sin of the world that day at Calvary.

“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.  For he that is dead is freed from sin” (Rom 6: 6-7).   The old heart dies with Christ, and then He gives us a new heart by faith in His resurrection.  If we can believe that Christ was raised from the dead, can we not also believe that His Spirit is now raised up in us, thus freeing us from sin and sinning?

If all Christians had this experience of deliverance from sin and sinning, then the divisions would evaporate.  We would all join hands in grateful fellowship, sharing His Spirit among us.  For “there is one body, and one Spirit” (Eph. 4: 4).  That one body is Christ’s one body of believers, which have His Spirit.

And that Spirit only comes into us after we believe that our old self  has died on the cross, and then believe that He has been raised up again in us!  That will get rid of all the divisions.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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Jeremiah Wright and Black Liberation Theology: No Biblical Basis

     When I first heard Jeremiah Wright scream, “Not God bless America; God damn America!”  I shuddered and said to myself, “Is this a sermon in a church?”  Yes, it was.  The Trinity United Church of Christ.  And as the hateful rhetoric spewed forth, I asked, “How could they call this hate doctrine Christ-like?  We have one Master, even Christ, who we are to emulate.  Would He have delivered those sermons that Wright gave?   I don’t think so.

     They call themselves the church of Christ.  The church is His very body in the earth.  It is where He resides.  It is his house, and there is no hate in His house.   “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar…and he that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness…(I John 4:20; 2:9). 

     The church is a spiritual entity of called out believers who have His Spirit and who love one another.  And “by this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one toward another.”  These are Christ’s very words.  

     We are “new creatures in Christ.  Old things are passed away.  Behold all things are become new.”  We are a new spiritual being with a new heart of love for our fellow human beings.  Old hatreds, strifes, and envies are put to death with Christ on the cross when the true believer is delivered from sin and death.  Old prejudices are dead, too. 

     In the spiritual body of Christ (the church) “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.“  We are one in Him.  One.  Race is not an issue.  A person’s flesh is not the criteria whether we are accepted by God into His fellowship.  It’s the heart.  It’s the spirit you are of.  Another American black preacher once longed to be “judged by the content of his character and not the color of his skin.”  That is all any of us can ask.

     This theology prides itself on helping their own poor, and this is commendable.  These “things ye ought to have done and not left the other undone,” Christ said.  “And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor…and have not love it profiteth me nothing” (I Corinthians 13:3).  Without the love from above flowing, though, it is all vain in God’s eyes. 

       Christ said, “Bless and curse not…Love your enemies.  Pray for them that despitefully use you.”  The church, the body of Christ, is not created to take vengeance.  “Vengeance is mine, saith the LORD.  I will repay.”  We are made to forgive and love.  But Wright’s congregation is told that white people are basically the great Satan.  Are there not a few white people on the face of the earth who have the Spirit of Christ in them?  To include them in a sweeping hateful judgement  is wrong, for “do not call good evil and evil good.”

     My question to Wright and his followers is this:  Why drag Christ into your religion?  Hey, you have freedom of religion.  God bless America for that!  But Christ’s teachings have nothing to do with this vitriolic hatespeech.  To the contrary.

     All I can say to Wright and his congregation, which includes Barack Obama, is this:  Love white people and save the world.  The very one you can’t stand is the one you must learn to love, in order to please God.  You have to forgive and move on in His love.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock  

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Studying to Be a Prince and Princess of God

     Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales and heir to the throne of Great Britain, believed that he was in that position and has prepared himself for it.  Most future monarchs do just that.  They take their station in life seriously and prepare themselves to rule.  And so should the sons and daughters of God, His princes and princesses.

     For we are no different than the natural princes and princesses like Charles and Diana.  How do they prepare?  They study.  They avail themselves to learn the royal way.  They study what is expected of them and do it. 

     But Prince Charles did not study and prepare in order to receive the position of prince.  No.  He first believed that he was a prince and then he began to learn what that position entailed.  Now if we want to know what all he has done to prepare himself to be king, we can go to the Wikipedia.  But that is not my point.  The point is belief came first, then he studied so that he could be approved to become king.

     It is the same for us spiritually.  We must transcend mortal earthly doubts and negative thoughts about our future and believe what our Father has given us.  We are a “royal priesthood.”  We are the sons and daughters of God.  We are His princes and princesses.  That is the truth of the matter.  That is how He looks at us.  But before we can reign with Him on His throne (see Revelation 3 to those who overcome Laodecia), we must take his gift of sonship and daughtership seriously and study, seek, and search.

     “Study to show thyself approved unto God…”

     “Seek and ye shall find; knock and the door shall be open; ask and it shall be given…”

     “Search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, but these are they that testify of Me…”

     And this exhortation to study cannot be legislated or demanded.  The urgency to study will come into a person’s heart in God’s own time.  ”Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights…”  Our calling to be his sons and daughters is a good and perfect gift.  But we must “make our calling and election sure.”  We can only do that by studying our Father’s letter to us, the library of holy books, the Bible.       

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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From “Highway to Hell” to “Immortality Road”

           

      Hello, and welcome to my blog.  My name is Kenneth Wayne Hancock.  My friends call me Wayne or “Wayneman.”  I am living proof that God still works miracles because 40 years ago I was a self-destructive druggie rocking on down the highway to hell, long before AC-DC coined the phrase.  And my wife and child were choking to death in my dust and smoke.  But that selfish young man no longer lives.  That guy with that old sinful heart was crucified and put to death on the cross with Christ, and now a new man walks the earth in that earthly body. 

 

     Yes, He put my feet on a right path that’s heading to that Immortal City.  So that’s why I’m calling my blog “Immortality Road” because as children of the King, His chief promise to us is immortality.  The desire to “live on” is in our human genes.  Philosophers, prophets, and kings have “desired to look into” these “exceeding great and precious promises” that lead us on down this road to immortality.

 

     For those of us who are called to walk with Christ, we seek a path not trodden by many.  He has given us an “earnest,” a downpayment of His Spirit, and He commands us to walk in His Spirit.  And now we find ourselves on a pilgrimage, following the Great Invisible Shepherd by faith.