November 30, 2007 at 7:15 pm (Ministry, Perseverance, Salvation, Secularism, Works)
Tags: Revenge, Truth
- Pluralism: Truth is NOT in one entity
- Synchronism: blending of multiple entities
- In these mindsets there is always room for another God
- The Roman Empire when Paul preached was a pluralistic society
- Then why did they kill Christians?
- Because Christians would not just add Christ to the gods, Christians hold true that Jesus is the only way to salvation
- We live in a pluralistic culture today
- They (society) call us arrogant for saying that there is only one way to be saved
- But it is not arrogant if it is true
- If it is not true then it is just stupidity
- We should not preach Christianity on its pragmatic benefits, we preach on its truthfulness
- Pluralists can only tolerate pluralists and they are unmercifully intolerant to those who are not pluralists
- Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and nobody comes to the Father except through Him.
- John 14:6 (New Living Translation):
- 6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”
- They (pluralists) cannot handle this.
- Christianity did not come to us, except through a great cost, ie the persecution of Christians throughout the ages. And Christianity will not go forward without a great cost.
Continued from “Good News, Bad News, Part A” – When you suffer unjustly:
- Do not be surprised.
- Do not be mistaken that all will be well if we give our lives to Jesus
- Romans 8:28 (New International Version):
- “28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,[a] who[b] have been called according to his purpose.”
- Do not give up
- “Do right because it is right to do right.
- When things go bad we will not whine and despair
- Do not take revenge
- 17Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”[d]says the Lord. 20On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. 0n doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”[e] 21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
- Don’t miss the chance to help others
- Example of the depressed professor who was visited by a friend who told him to think back through the years and make a list of all those who have helped him and pick one and send a thank you letter
- He picked a school teacher who taught him the love of reading and wrote a thank you letter and it moved the teacher’s heart
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November 29, 2007 at 7:10 pm (Will - God's)
- People want to know God’s will for their life
- The #1 secret for knowing the will of God in your life is my inward willingness to obey the word of God when He shows it to me.
- This willingness cannot be learned from reading or listening to sermons or running from counselor to counselor or from going from friend to friend
- The only way to learn this willingness is spending time with God and His word
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November 29, 2007 at 7:06 pm (Providence - God's, Trials and Suffering, Trust, Weaknesses, Will - God's, Will - Our)
Tags: Knowledge
When you suffer unjustly:
- Do not be suprised.
- Do not be mistaken that all will be well if we give our lives to Jesus
- Romans 8:28 (New International Version):
- “28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,[a] who[b] have been called according to his purpose.”
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November 28, 2007 at 6:40 pm (* Favorites, Atonement, Love)
Tags: Jesus, Messianic Secret
- Peter’s declaration in Mark is the last thing you would expect him to say
- 27 Jesus and his disciples left Galilee and went up to the villages near Caesarea Philippi. As they were walking along, he asked them, “Who do people say I am? 28 “Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say you are one of the other prophets.” 29 Then he asked them, “But who do you say I am?” Peter replied, “You are the Messiah.[b]” 30 But Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.
- b: Or the Christ. Messiah (a Hebrew term) and Christ (a Greek term) both mean “the anointed one.”
- Messianic secret
- Expectations of the people were for overthrow of the Roman empire, power, glory, and to the overall wonders of God’s Kingdom, but Jesus came to suffer and die
- He came instead to receive rejection, humiliation, and shame
- Because his being a Messiah is not according to what the apostles and the people know a Messiah should be.
- Yes, indeed he was the Messiah, but his being a Messiah involved suffering and great hardship.
- It was after Peter’s declaration, that Jesus started to preach about why he came and how it was all going to go down
- Peter says we cannot have you (Jesus) suffer and die and Jesus states that He came to undergo rejection, humiliation, and shame and if we are to be His disciples we should do the same
- Disciples had to wrestle with this question: If God in His love longs to forgive sinners and longs for reconciliation, yet at the same time in His justice he cannot ignore our rebellions and our sins and they have to be punished, how can He display His love and execute His justice?
- The Great Question has a Great Answer – at the cross of Jesus Christ.
- At the cross Jesus is an emblem of the Father’s wrath.
- If He (God) were simply to ignore sin, He would not be true to Himself in the perfection of His Holiness, therefore sin must be punished.
- But because of His infinite love, God executes His justice on His son so that those who deserve that judgement may find in His son their forgiveness and His love and their life.
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November 28, 2007 at 4:15 pm (* Favorites, Providence - God's, Trials and Suffering, Trust, Weaknesses, Will - God's, Will - Our)
Tags: Knowledge
- Knowledge over feelings
- What is this knowledge?
- God’s Providence
- We know in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose
- Romans 8:28 (New International Version):
“28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,[a] who[b] have been called according to his purpose.”
- We cannot accept trials for their own sake as a source of joy
- Trials are painful, but may become the occasions of joy if we respond from the right perspective
- Unless we think correctly we cannot respond properly
- Paul in Romans – transform your minds
- Romans 12:2 (New International Version)
- “2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
- Society teaches us to think that when we do not have trials then we have joy and so if we spend all our time removing trials, then we will have joy
- Now this is difficult, but God would not ask it if it were not attainable
- Gold will provide for us and is willing to do so
- Trials are inevitable, they are not unusual
- Jesus said “in the world we will have tribulations, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.
- 33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will[d] have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
Why are there trials, a few reasons are offered:
- Faith rationalization
- We are unfit for heaven and by Jesus’s death on the cross he has made heaven available to us
- So that we may trust unreservedly in Him
- Trials are the means by which our faith is tested
- It is easy to be faithful when everything is going “rosey-posey”
- It is when the wheels come off then we discover if our faith is genuine
- Is our faith growing?
- Perseverance
- By the means of the testing we develop staying power
- God knows how much we can take
- We are forced to learn in practice what we know in principle
- Look into the eyes of a person with soft eyes, ie a caring grandmother or a sensitive youth and you can guarantee they did not come to that point without persevering trials
- Perseverance when it finishes, renders as its product: maturity, completion, and lacking nothing
- We do not get the crown without perseverance
- We become mature, like Jesus through this process
- Trials are part of God’s program to make us more like Christ.
- Puritan writer:
- “The winds of tribulation blow away the chaff of error, hypocrisy, and doubt, leaving the element of Christian character.”
- More progress is made through disappointment and tears than laughter
- Spurgeon:
- “Look at the weather beaten sailor and he would not have gotten toughness if he stayed on the shore.”
- “You may go to school, but you cannot learn endurance there.”
- If we believe all this then it will dramatically affect how we respond to trials
- Trials hurt and may panic us, but we consider them pure joy because endurance and sacred toughness come down that road and not down the road of easiness.
- If we lack wisdom, ie if none of this makes sense, then ask God and He will get us sorted out -> PRAY
- It is a supernatural response that James prescribes and without God’s intervention, ie the Spirit’s power, we will never even come close to realizing it.
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November 28, 2007 at 4:02 pm (* Favorites, Faith, Trials and Suffering)
Tags: Knowledge
- James is written to show believers how to live in the world
- The Christian experience is not revealed in a far off heavenly place, but it is revealed in the rough and tumble of everyday life
- Our lives are crowded in upon by trials and tribulations
- Tears, doubts, trials, etc will come upon us
- One of greatest illusions of life is to look to another person and wish we were them
- James says have joy in trials – why?
- Because you know (see below)
- Bring how we feel under the dictate of what we know
- Knowledge over feelings not feelings over knowledge
- People are so used to the Christian success story
- 14:36 Christianity is a big cover up
- We all have wheel barrels full of sorrow, trials, and tribulations
- What do we know
- Testing of faith produces perseverance: Faith itself does not
- Just like a muscle, if not stressed, faith too will atrophy
- In shunning trials, we shun blessings
- Perseverance produces maturity
- In the creed we say we believe in the father, but we don’t really know we believe until everything collapses
- Until the day it appears He has left us, until the day it seems He does not even hear our prayers, let alone answer them
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November 28, 2007 at 3:42 pm (Holiness of God)
- As believers we are different
- If we lose the vision of the holiness of God, we fall to sin
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November 28, 2007 at 3:03 am (God's Plan, Providence - God's, Will - God's, Will - Our)
- God gave us free will but our will cannot affect God’s plan
- Our will will affect our eternity
- It is God’s will to have a heaven and a hell and for us to choose (11:42)
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November 28, 2007 at 2:41 am (Trials and Suffering)
- Start at 27:00
- God chooses to use suffering to develop perseverance
- God uses sufferings to bring us to maturity
- In suffering Jesus perfected the visibility of His humanity
- In shunning trials, we miss blessings
- We should not run from things God uses to fashion us according to the image of His son
- Suffering ensures our sonship
- Share in His sufferings and share in His glory
- Every son the father loves, He disciplines
- God uses suffering to prove the genuineness o our faith
- To develop in us humility
- To keep us on track
- To deepen our insight into the heart of God
- Opening chapters of Hosaih
- To enable us to help others in their trials
- Sometimes we should not speak when someone is suffering because we do not have “soft eyes”
- ie, we cannot appreciate the extent of their affliction
- God reveals what we really love
- Example of a softball player developing a brain tumor
- In order that we may display God’s glory
- We do not seek suffering
- We do not become monastic
- This externalism does not transform the soul
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November 27, 2007 at 2:38 am (Sovereignty - God's)
- Sovereignty of God
- Absolute power of God, absolute authority
- It does not matter what someone else says about some one as much as what that person says about themselves
- There is nothing we can do to make God love us more
- All the attributes of God are controlled by His sovereignty
- Ephesians 1:11 “God accomplishes all things according to the counsel of His will”
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November 27, 2007 at 2:34 am (Trials and Suffering)
- Suffering does exist and it does hurt
- Laws of physical nature and being human are not suspended for the redeemed
- Suffering comes in many different ways
- Even a human lifetime is nothing in terms of eternal life
- Suffering is limited in its timeframe
- God is always with us through suffering
- “Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
- Suffering in of itself does not lead to a deeper relationship with God, but it may
- God is glorified in the death of His saints (ie, believers)
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November 26, 2007 at 2:33 am (* Favorites, Trials and Suffering)
- 18:10 Part A
- Please see 8/12/08 entry for Part B discussion
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November 23, 2007 at 11:17 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: Thanks
The things you are thankful for are not as important as to who you are thankful.
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November 23, 2007 at 10:58 pm (Giving)
Tags: Submission
- Cannot expect God’s blessing when we give Him the leftovers
- We must give: time, energy, and money
- When we spend more time and money on our leisure activities than what we do for God – we offend God
- Harvesting of grapes analogy: The basket must always be open and be very close to the fruit cutter
- Spurgeon: “The Grace that does not change my life, will not save my soul.”
- Jesus:”unless you abide in Me, you will bear no fruit.”
- You cannot read and study enough to earn your blessing
- When we come to God with an open basket and receive His will for our lives, then we will be at our best
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November 21, 2007 at 10:24 pm (Dependence)
” I am the vine, you are the branches, He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
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November 21, 2007 at 10:15 pm (Perseverance, Trials and Suffering)
16Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
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November 20, 2007 at 10:14 pm (* Favorites)
We must keep the conditions in order for God to answer our prayers.
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November 20, 2007 at 10:02 pm (* Favorites, Evil, Weaknesses)
Tags: Devil, Satan
- To receive the power of the Holy Spirit on a daily basis, we must have the following mindset:
- Admit your Achilles’s heel
- Avoid your enemy’s ambush
- Devil will say: “By faith you are saved, but be realistic, you have to use the mind God gave you. You can’t run your life by faith – be practical.”
- Seeking the power of the Holy Spirit to avoid unpleasantness in life
- Bible teaches continuance pouring of the Holy Spirit to overcome life’s unpleasantness, ie we will face adversity even though we are believers
- Beating yourself up
- Feeling of inadequacy when things don’t go your way is not a time to beat yourself up, it is a time to beat your knees on the ground.
- Whenever you focus on your inadequacy, other than confessing it and moving on, you are putting yourself before God
- you are taking the spotlight off God and putting it on your inadequacy
- 2 Cor 12:9
- “My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”
- Stop talking about our strengths and start talking about our weaknesses because it is not our strength but God’s strength in us
- When we are weak, we are strong, because Christ’s strength is perfected in our weakness
- Why does God then give us natural strengths?
- the natural gift needs God’s power, ie plant analogy: gift is the plant, but needs water (God).
- Only God’s power can help us overcome sin
- The Devil will reinforce our own independence to overcome sin
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November 20, 2007 at 9:58 pm (Holy Spirit)
17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (liberty).
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November 19, 2007 at 9:25 pm (Faith, Perseverance)
- Berkhoff’s definition of the perseverance of the saints: “Perseverance is that continuous operation of the Holy Spirit in the believer by which the work of divine grace that is begun in the heart is continued and brought to completion.”
- Saints refer to those who believe in Jesus
- Perseverance of the Saints is the perseverance of God : perseverance = Preservation
- There is no perseverance without faith and it those who have faith who persevere
- Alistair revisits the question of 11/14/07 – a believer cannot be lost
- Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
- Faith is a gift from God
- To persevere: do not look to yourself, do not look to others, look ONLY to Jesus
- Packer: “You are not strong enough to fall away as long as God is resolved to hold you.”
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