The Tithingman

Church services are not always the most thrilling events. Everyone knows this, especially pastors who are in charge of such events. You can’t be on your A Game all the time.

You all have it pretty easy today. Most periods of church history had much longer church services. Marathon sermons and prayers that took up a large portion of your Sunday.

What’s a pastor to do if church services are boring and they last a long time?

Invent a new church office: The Tithingman.

The Tithingman’s job was two-fold.

First, he made sure people actually showed up to church. If he caught you somewhere other than church on a Sunday, or saw you walking through town, he’d jump out and drag you into church. How he did this while being in church himself is still beyond my mental capacities.

Secondly, he made sure people in church were behaving, or as was more likely the case, not sleeping. He was given a long stick. One end was sharp and the other had a softer thing on it, like a feather or rabbit’s foot.

A Tithingman and his stick of discipline. Amen.

The Tithingman would go ahead and whack a sleeping man or an unruly child. Women got the soft end and a little nudge. Either way, they woke up. If you persisted in your disrespect to the church, the Tithingman had the right to punish you, often with time in the public stocks.

Although we often look back at history as darker times and people who were backward, the Tithingman seems like a really good idea. I’m all for it.

Careful Outraged Christians; Your Lack of Faith is Showing

Some of the most freeing verses in the Bible speak of living for a better country, having our conversation/citizenship in heaven, setting affections on things above, and putting our treasure in heavenly places.

These ideas are all over the Bible. The Book of Ecclesiastes has no other theme.

These verses speak of true freedom and liberation from all that entangles people. You cannot break away from sin unless you reject conformity to the world. You cannot overcome by faith if you are walking by sight.

Although this concept is stated in so many ways on so many pages of Holy Writ, and even though so much freedom and peace is promised for those who obey, we sure seem to hate it.

At every opportunity we chuck this concept and go back to minding things of this earth and living for this country.

I’m amazed at how many Christians are upset over NFL anthem protests. Except I’m not, because this is what we always do.

We pay lip-service to Biblical Truth, but when the next earthly distraction comes along (elections, boycotts, protests, presidential tweets, etc.), we’re fighting for our things in this world.

The only way protests would upset you is if your treasure was on earth.

The only way elections would rile you up is if you were minding earthly things.

Boycotts are not only having a problem with an earthly institution, but also using an earthly means to make the point!

I would not kneel during the anthem, but I also wouldn’t get upset if someone did. The anthem is a song (and not a very good one either). It’s about a hunk of land organized by some people.

None of this is eternal.

Yet Christians are taking a stand (no pun intended) on one side or the other about an anthem in a football game.

We’re letting our particular point of contention (politics in football, trampling the flag, disrespecting veterans, etc) trump our concern for individual souls.

Why do we take stands on general issues that will put up hurdles to the Gospel? The Gospel is hard enough for people to like, why do we insist upon making it harder?

If you have to be upset, be upset in the quiet of your own home. Don’t go public with your tirades. It’s not coming across well.

If you’re concerned about the treatment of veterans, then go help them. If you’re concerned about the treatment of blacks, then go help them. Outrage is the lazy person’s uniform.

For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
–James 1:20

If seeing someone kneel during a song gets you upset, you may want to get some of that peace that passes understanding.

It’s peace because it guards your heart. It keeps you thinking on what is good and right and eternal. The more you think on what is good and right and eternal, the more your heart is guarded, and the more peace you have.

(A possible side bonus is that you will actually start caring about things that actually matter, like the spiritual condition of your own family and church.)

Want peace? Want release from the bondage to anger and worry?

Then let go of this world and lay hold on eternal life.

Always Doubt “Prominent” Theologians You’ve Never Heard Of

I’m reading a book written to show that Muslims, Jews, and Christians should all be able to get along since we all hold Abraham highly. We just need to agree on Jesus and everything will be fine.

The book is written by a Muslim, so the majority of the book is written to disprove the idea that Jesus Christ was actually God in the flesh.

If Christians would stop saying Jesus was God, then Jews and Muslims and Christians would be at peace.

One slight problem: if Christians did that there would be no Christianity. Christ being God is kind of our thing.

While attempting to disprove the deity of Christ, the author pulls up many texts and theological books to cast doubts on the person of Christ.

This is not my first theological book I’ve ever read. I’ve been around a while now. I’m adept at spotting signs that a guy is puffing up a weak point.

One tactic he uses frequently is in quoting a theologian (always one who is doubting the divinity of Christ) he says “noted theologian” or “prominent theologian.”

I’m a well-read Christian. I am familiar with all prominent and noted theologians. I’ve heard of just about everyone. If I haven’t heard of them, trust me, they aren’t noted or prominent.

In fact, those are superfluous words. If a theologian is prominent or noted, people would already know them. “Prominent” means “immediately noticeable, widely known.” If you have to inform us he’s prominent, then he isn’t prominent.

This is by no means unique to this particular author. I’m sure the reason he does this is because he’s writing primarily to a non-Christian audience who wouldn’t know a Christian theologian if he smacked them in the face (not that a Christian theologian would ever do that). But I’ve seen this many times, and never once have I read it about a theologian I’ve heard of.

There are a lot of bad theologians out there and a ton of false information. Be skeptical of quotes from “prominent” and “noted” people.

–Written by Jeff Weddle, prominent moron

Sunday Sabbath and Letters From Jesus

The Catholic Church, like many churches, have invented their fair share of new doctrines. Convincing people to buy into these new doctrines was not always easy.

One of the ways employed several times to convince people was to suddenly find or receive a letter from Jesus Christ telling people to do exactly what it was the Catholic Church had been telling people to do! Pretty handy.

There was one letter, received from heaven, telling people that Sunday was the Sabbath day and should be a day of rest.

Although Constantine had made Sunday the official day for Christian worship (although it was hard to tell who he was actually telling people to worship), tying in Jewish rules of rest into Sunday’s was a much later idea.

Initially, Sunday Sabbath didn’t catch on too well. Until, lo and behold, Jesus done wrote us a letter!

Here are the contents of Jesus’ letter from heaven telling people to not work on Sundays.

                 A LETTER OF JESUS CHRIST.

WHOSOEVER worketh on the Sabbath-day shall be cursed, I command you to go to church, and keep the Lord’s Day Holy, without doing any manner of work. You shall not idly spend your time for bedecking yourself with superfluities of costly apparel, and vain dresses for I have ordained a day of rest.  I will have that day kept holy that your sins be forgiven you.  You shall not break my commandments, but observe and keep them, write them in your heart, and steadfastly observe that it was written with my own hand and spoken with my own mouth.  You shall not only go to church yourself, but also send your men-servants and your maid-servants, and observe my words and learn my commandments; you shall finish your labour every Saturday in the afternoon by six o’clock, at which hour is the preparation of the Sabbath.  I advise you to fast five Fridays every year, beginning with Good Friday and continuing the four Fridays immediately following, in remembrance of the five bloody wounds which I received for all mankind.  You shall diligently and peaceably labour in your respective callings, where in it hath pleased God to call you.  You shall love one another with brotherly love; and cause them that are baptised to come to church and receive the Sacrament, Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper, and to be made members of the Church, in so doing I will give you a long life and many blessing; and your land will flourish and your cattle bring forth in abundance; and I will give unto you many blessing and comforts in the greatest temptations, and he that doth to the contrary shall be unprofitable. I will also send hardness of heart upon them till I see them, but especialy upon the impertinent and unbelievers. He that hath giving to the poor shall not be unprofitable, remember to keep holy the Sabbath day, for the seventh day I have taken to rest myself.  And he that hath a copy of this my own letter, written with my own hand, and spoken with my own mouth, and keepeth it without publishing it to others shall not prosper; but he that publisheth it to others, shall be blessed of me, and though his sins be in number as the stars of the sky, and he believe in this he shall be pardoned; and if he believe not in this writing, and this commandment, I will send my own plagues upon him, and consume both him and his children, and his cattle. And whosoever shall have a copy of this letter, written with my own hand, and keep it in their houses nothing shall hurt them, neither lightning, pestilence, nor thunder, shall do them any hurt, and if a woman be with child, and in labour, and a copy of this letter be about her, and she firmly put her trust in me, she shall safely be delivered of her birth.

The letter didn’t go over too well. But it does show the growth of the idea that Sunday was the Sabbath and that Jewish laws must be kept on that day.

Anytime someone has to get “new revelation” to prove their point, you can rest assured they are making stuff up. Don’t fall for it.

For more information on the subject of Sunday, check out this book I am currently reading.

The Apostle Paul’s Use of “Faith”

The Apostle uses the word “faith” in his own peculiar and pregnant sense. But this is naturally led up to by the way in which it was used by Habakkuk. The intense personal trust and reliance which the Jew felt in the God of his fathers is directed by the Christian to Christ, and is further developed into an active energy of devotion.

“Faith,” as understood by St. Paul, is not merely head-belief, a purely intellectual process such as that of which St. James spoke when he said “the devils also believe and tremble”;

neither is it merely “trust,” a passive dependence upon an Unseen Power; but it is a further stage of feeling developed out of these, a current of emotion setting strongly in the direction of its object, an ardent and vital apprehension of that object, and a firm and loyal attachment to it.

—Ellicott’s Commentary on Romans 1:17

Idolatry, Money, and Justification by Faith

The Old Testament is filled with warnings about idol worship and falling into false religion. Story after story tells about Israel going after false gods to their destruction and how stupid this is.

The New Testament does not seem to be nearly as concerned with this. Ever wonder why?

The big threat to us today is not Baal, or Molech, or Dagon, the big threat is money.

Colossians 3:5 says:

Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:

Wanting more stuff is the idolatry we have to look out for. Wanting money is the big threat today.

When Israel came out of Egypt, they were at the foot of Mount Sinai while Moses was taking forever up there talking to God. They got bored. They brought together their precious metals, their money, and threw them in the fire and “out came this calf.” They worshiped the calf, being told, “Behold your gods which brought you out of Egypt.”

The odds that you’re going to melt down your jewelry and make an idol to worship are pretty slim. The odds you’re going to want more shiny stuff is pretty high.

Covetousness is idolatry.

Paul says in 1 Timothy 6 that while people pursue riches, they err from the faith. Going after riches means you won’t be going after faith. You can’t have faith and money.

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Just in case you’re still resisting the idea that money and faith are direct opposites, read Hebrews 11, the great chapter on people who had faith.

Every single example shows faithful people turning on earthly things to follow God and obey Him. They turned their backs on this world and lived for the Better Country.

Every single person in Hebrews 11 turned on something earthly: wealth, power, prestige, family, loyalty to country, etc, for the sake of faith in God.

If you are living for the things of this world, you will not be living for God. If you love money, you won’t have faith, you will be doing all evil. Money is a snare and a trap. While pursuing money, faith gets choked out.

People love hearing about how we’re justified by faith, because in our minds faith is easy. “Cool, I believe Jesus rose from the dead, just like I believe Santa Claus will bring me presents Christmas morn.”

We think faith is merely agreeing about something. But faith in the Bible is very active, very practical, and very hard.

Paul tells us to “fight the fight of faith.” Most are confused as to what’s so fighty about it? You just say the prayer and then carry on.

Paul says this phrase in the midst of 1 Timothy 6, an entire chapter devoted to the dangers of money. The immediate phrase is this, “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life.”

You can’t lay hold on eternal life while grabbing all you can in this life. Your hand will hold one or the other.

Your eternity is based on whether you want this world or the one to come. Live now as though you wanted the next world more than this one.

That is justifying faith.

Money and Justification By Faith

Romans 4 is the essential passage to understand justification by faith. The main character of Romans 4 is Abraham. In fact, when the Bible talks about justification by faith, Abraham is The Guy the Bible uses as Prime Illustration.

“Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness.” Paul and James, who many imagine disagree on justification by faith, both use Abraham as their prime example of justification.

Seems to me we should understand the character of Abraham’s faith, since it’s an example for justifying faith.

There are four main tests of Abraham’s faith, four big times when Abraham showed faith.

Move—Abraham had riches and social position. Then God showed up and told him to move. Leaving was a turning of the back on what he had attained to follow God. He didn’t know where he was going, or even why. God just said “move,” and Abraham moved.

Settling in—Abraham took his possessions and flocks, but he was detached from them and didn’t let them cause friction. This was shown when Abraham let Lot choose land first. Lot picks the best land. Abraham moves into a land that is not suitable for flocks and herds rather than fight for the good land. Abraham’s faith is detached from worldly means of success.

Promise—Since Abraham renounced the better land on his own, he receives the promise that his inheritors would possess the good land. Abraham trusts God for provision, to expand his family and inheritance, not by common sense, human means, but by faith in God. Abraham will only take substance from God, not anyone else. When he is offered reward by nearby kings, Abraham refuses lest they think they made Abraham rich.

Inheritor—Abraham, despite a little bit of weakness and goofiness, finally gets an heir. So then God asks Abraham to sacrifice his heir! Abraham shows ultimate faith when offering his son, his heir, the one who would possess the land Abraham was promised. Abraham is turning his back on all earthly means, all possessions, in his demonstration of faith.

Each major area of Abraham’s faith has to do with earthly things.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Earthly things are the opposite of faith.

Faith means turning on earthly things, instead setting your affections on things above and laying up treasure in heaven.

Faith is the opposite of living for this world and this life.

The sooner you understand this point, the more sense justification by faith will make to you based on everything the Bible says.

James hits the rich hard. He hits respecting persons because of their appearance hard. He hits this stuff hard right in the same passages he talks about justification by faith, which certainly includes the work of letting the things of this world go–like Abraham did when he went to sacrifice his heir.

Faith or riches. You can only live for one.

Why People Don’t Like the Rich Young Ruler Conversation

The Bible’s account of Jesus talking to the rich, young ruler is not liked by many people. Modern readers critique every line of the conversation.

Here are the lines of the conversation and the critical responses I’ve heard from people.

The conversation starts with the RYR asking “what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
CRITIQUE: Seriously? You don’t do anything to inherit eternal life, you just get it. If you had to do something, then salvation would be by works. We’re human beings; not human doings, man. Wrong question.

Jesus responds, “Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor thy father and thy mother.”
CRITIQUE: Wow, did you blow that one Jesus! Not only did Jesus not correct him for asking what to do to get eternal life, He then tells the guy salvation is by keeping the Law! Has Jesus never read Paul? Everyone knows no one is justified by deeds of the law. What is Jesus thinking? He doesn’t know what grace is!

The RYR takes Jesus seriously and says, “All these have I kept from my youth up.”
CRITIQUE: Whoa, whoa, whoa. This conversation is completely off the rails now. This guy actually thinks he’s kept the law. No one has ever kept the law. What part of “no one” didn’t this guy get? Jesus better nail him for that answer.

Instead, Jesus takes it further, “Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.”
CRITIQUE: OK. Wow. Where do we begin? Come on Jesus! This is the time to drop guilt on this guy, to question his honesty, to give him a lecture about legalism and self-righteousness. He hasn’t kept the Law, Jesus, who knows everyone’s heart, has to know that. But He just let that go. Even worse, He drops more works on the guy. It’s as if Jesus actually believes people are saved by works. What is up with Him? Where’s grace and that whole ‘gift of God’ talk? Where’s Paul when you need him?

People conclude that Jesus is teaching salvation by works. I’ve heard people explain that Jesus is under the Law and people under the law are saved by works. That Jesus was not preaching the Gospel. That Jesus didn’t know grace.

Here’s the deal: when a passage of Scripture doesn’t fit your theory; it’s better to conclude that your theory is wrong rather than concluding the Bible is wrong.

If you know how people get saved more than God, the Judge of all souls, does, you might want to double check your theory.

There’s a little secret that solves the dilemma of salvation by works or faith in the Rich Young Ruler conversation. If you read the Bible, it’s no secret at all; it’s located in every book of the Bible. If you listen to Christians, you’ll rarely hear this:

Jesus’s answers are all about faith.

The verses immediately before the conversation with the RYR are about the disciples preventing little kids from coming to Jesus. Jesus says “Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.”

He’s talking about how to enter in the Kingdom–how to get eternal life. His answer is to have the faith of a child. Little kids can’t do anything, they are completely dependent upon someone else to take care of them. They cry all the time. Crying is a sign of helplessness. I can’t fix this so I scream my head off so someone else will come fix it.

This is faith.

The Bible frequently talks about how rich people have a hard time getting saved. Rich people don’t need help. They just buy stuff and people to fix their problems. They don’t understand the concept of dependence, helplessness, and desperation.

Line up the two phrases about entering into the Kingdom and notice that there is a point as to why these accounts follow each other in Luke 18:

“Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.”
“It is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”

Jesus is talking about faith in both passages. Earthly things like wealth and power keep people from faith. A Rich Ruler has wealth and power. Never been in need–he’s young, which points out this has been his entire life experience. He doesn’t understand faith. Get rid of your stuff and faith will be found right quick!

Jesus is not telling people to earn their salvation, nor is He teaching some aberrant gospel of works. He’s preaching faith the way the Bible has taught faith since the beginning.

Identity Politics and Unity in Christ

Our divided and angry populace is obsessed with identifying with a group based on an external criterion.

People identify by race, political party, gender, sexual orientation, handicap, income level, and who knows what else.

The more we eliminate higher things, spiritual things that call us to live for something better, we are left to identify with ourselves. No God? Fine, I’ll make it all about me. No focus on God leaves to focus on self.

We focus on our unique identifying trait and gang up with those like us, resulting in an Us vs. Them mentality. Eventually your group wants money and power, which must be taken from another group.

Being a legally blind person, I know blind people that want handouts from the government, so they petition for funding and recognition. Who cares what your needs are, we’re blind, we need stuff cuz we’re blind.

Every group lobbies for their rights. Thus we fight, cuz when others get their rights, they take money we otherwise could have had!

So blacks hate whites. Straights hate gays. Women hate men. And vice versa. They threaten our group identification and are seen as the enemy because they aren’t US.

Christianity, which speaks of unity all the time, is the only alternative. It’s vital for us to know the meaning of Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 5:16:

“Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.“

Because of the death and resurrection of Christ, because He’s not just a flesh guy we’re identifying with but a possessor of a resurrected, spiritual body, He gives us a new identity. We’re born again. We’re born of the Spirit.

Since we’re new spiritual creations, as Christ is, fleshly identifications are done away with. There is neither male nor female, bond nor free, Jew nor Gentile.

Our main identity is with Christ. That’s it! And Christ is now risen and has an incorruptible, spiritual body. We’re viewing ourselves in Him as spiritual creations.

Therefore, no Christian should fight over identity politics. We shouldn’t belong to groups that divide over externals.

This would be easier if everyone else weren’t so stuck on their identities! Identities are constantly being shoved down our throats, people don’t drop them easily.

But Paul doesn’t tell us to make other people stop doing that. Paul says to see people in Christ. Whether you are black or white, Republican or Democrat, rich or poor, gay or straight, I primarily see you in, or potentially in, Christ, and will refuse to fight you.

My primary concern for you is not for you to leave your group, or to defeat your group, or defund you; my primary goal is to see you come to Christ. To get you to a place, by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, where you no longer identify yourself with some external criterion, but instead see yourself and all others in the Spirit.

If you’re in Christ, you won’t fight over externals because there are no externals worth fighting for. We wrestle not against flesh and blood.

This is the only hope for human unity. As long as we view ourselves after the flesh we will be fighting. So, stop it! See yourself in Christ, as alive from the dead, and as new spiritual creations in Christ.

Sixteen Precepts for Attaining Knowledge

Thomas Aquinas, a rather intelligent individual, was once asked how one should go about attaining knowledge. Here are his 16 pointers, all worthy of reflection. Keep in mind he was a monk with all stereotypical monkish behaviors. Not sure you need to go to that level, but in general, there is sound wisdom here.

1. Advance up the streams, and do not all at once plunge into the deep: such is my caution, and your lesson.

I bid you to

2. Be cautious of speech,

3. Slower still in frequenting places of talk:

4. Embrace purity of conscience,

5. Pray unceasingly,

6. Love to keep to your cell if you wish to be admitted into the mystic wine-cellar.

7. Show yourself genial to all:

8. Pay no heed to other folk’s affairs:

9. Be not over-familiar with any person, because over-much familiarity breeds contempt, and gives occasion to distraction from study.

10. On no account mix yourself up with the sayings and the doings of persons in the outside world.

11. Most of all, avoid all useless visits, but try rather to walk constantly in the footsteps of good and holy men.

12. Never mind from whom the lesson drops, but

13. Commit to memory whatever useful advice may be uttered.

14. Give an account to yourself of your every word and action:

15. See that you understand what you hear, and never leave a doubt unsolved:

16. Lay up all you can in the storehouse of memory, as he does who wants to fill a vase. ‘Seek not the things which are beyond thee’.

Limited Atonement and Loving Your Enemies

If Limited Atonement (Christ only died for the elect) is true, then God does not love His enemies.

When God tells us to love our enemies, He is asking us to do something more than He did. He’s calling us to a higher morality than His own.

If we did love our enemies, our love and morality would be of a nobler quality, thus making us better than God.

You either conclude that, or you conclude that Limited Atonement is in error and God is calling us to be like Him, who loved His enemies and laid down His life for them.

Praying for Geographical Regions

Every time there is a natural disaster, and there is a new one at least once a day, we are told to pray for the place where it happened.

Pray for Houston
Pray for Texas
Pray for Florida

It just got me thinking: Why? What does this mean? Where does praying for a geographical region come from?

I’m honestly not trying to be snide here. I’m trying to understand something. Getting to the root. In no way am I trying to encourage people to pray less!

The closest thing I can see from Scripture is Psalm 122:6, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” Mixed in with this psalm is a longing for The Kingdom and the Davidic promises fulfilled. “Peace in Jerusalem” means the Messiah came. It’s a longing for Messiah, not some sort of generic prayer for a geographic region.

Every other usage of “pray for” in the Bible is directed at people. No doubt “Pray for Houston” means pray for people in Houston. But then again, I don’t pretend to know what any Christian means by any of the words they use.

There is an idea within Christianity that the more people who pray for something, the more likely it is to occur. People assume that if so many people pray the same thing, God will hear the prayer and act.

I have no idea where this is from Biblically. The closest I can come is that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much, so your odds of getting one of those to pray increases with the more people who pray!

Other than that, I see nothing in the Bible that if Christians all agreed to pray really hard for some geographical location that disasters would go extinct there.

The Bible is pretty clear that disasters happen to the righteous and the unrighteous. Time and chance happens to them all.

Again, I’m not telling you not to pray! We don’t pray enough as it is. I’m rather encouraging people to pray more specifically. Pray for the church in Houston, for specific believers there, to show the love of Christ. Pray for people you actually know who are affected.

Quite frankly, I don’t normally pray for places where I don’t know anyone. I’m not telling you to follow my example, I just have a hard time throwing out a general request for a general group of people that I’ll never know if it was answered because I’m not even sure what I actually requested!

More than likely, if you don’t know anyone in the affected area, you’ve moved on to the next geographical location and the latest disaster the news decides to cover, leaving last week’s disaster survivors on their own.

It is ironic that the only disasters we pray for are the ones the news tells us about. There are disasters happening on your street, few of which will be on the news. Why not pray locally more?

Remember James’ warning that saying nice things for someone without doing anything to help is worthless. How can you be doing this for every geographical region the news tells you a disaster happened in?

Also wondering how plastering #PrayForSomeplace all over the internet is consistent with that whole pray in your closet and don’t let others know what you’re up to command. When you post this, are you actually praying, or are you virtue signalling? But alas, I imagine I’ve stepped in it enough for one day.

Anyway, not trying to be obnoxious. Just thinking a thing through. Pray. Pray more. Then pray some more. At some point it’s helpful to pray for something you actually know about and can help. Don’t let your prayers be driven by the news; let it be driven by the Holy Spirit and God’s Word.

I’m willing to be wrong. Any verses I’m missing on the issue?