April 1, 2025

April 1   1 John 4
Not every message that claims to be from God truly is from God.  There are people who will use God's name to try to get their message across.  God has spoken to us through the Bible.  This is the standard by which we evaluate other messages reportedly from God.  
First, God is not going to say anything today that contradicts with Scripture.  There are statements sometimes that will say that God is trying to teach us something different today that goes against Scripture.  If a statement today does not line up with God has already said, then that message is not from God. Mormons are not a Christian denomination.  They are a whole different religion and one of the main reasons is they added a whole book to supplement the Bible called the Book of Mormon.  They use a lot of verses from the New Testament, but when you look at what they really believe they are not Christians. 
Second, be wary of people taking verses out of context to try to change the meaning.  Chapters and verses were added to the writing later to help us navigate through and find what we need. It also makes church a lot less complicated in a sense because it gives us sections for teaching and preaching.  Imagine if there were no chapters and verses and you come in on Sunday and I say today we are going to look at Acts.  Perhaps without chapter and verse we would be looking at that whole thing that Sunday, it would be a really long service.  I personally would find that to be a great experience, but I am sure the congregation would get awfully tired. Context is very important to know what a verse truly means.  It also will be looked at in the context of whole Bible.
Lastly, we need to be aware of opinions taking the place of Scripture.  When we read God's Word the first question is not "how do I feel about this"? or "what does this mean for me"?  The first question must always be what God is saying.  We are not seeking to create a truth for the text, but rather we are seeking to learn what the plain truth of the text already is.