True Christianity

There are 3 people groups which we see in the Bible that God really seems to watch over: the alien, the orphan, and the widow.

“The Lord watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.” Psalm 146:9

“A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.” Psalm 68:5

As Christians, God would also call us to do what we can to help those who are widows and fatherless.

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27

Religion that is pure and faultless to God, or to put it in the common vernacular, what God considers to be a true expression of our religion is to help after orphans and widows while they’re going through tough times and to keep oneself free from worldly pollutions.

Know any widows or orphans that need Christ’s love shown to them? Can you think of practical ways that you are able to help them?

Been a bit sick

Sorry that I haven’t had another post up yet, but we’ve all been sick this past week.  I hope to have something up soon.  Until then, God bless.

Moving on to Maturity

There’s a lot of maturing involved in growing up.  A child tends to look at the world through the eyes of “what can I get now?”  It takes a lot of maturing to realize just how selfish that attitude is.  It is as we get older that we come to savor relationships for more than what we can get out of them; it takes maturing to come to appreciate the relationship for the value of the person we share the relationship with. 

I believe the same is true of the Christian walk.  Our relationship with God needs to come to that place where it is more than what we can get or receive from God; it needs to come to the place where we enjoy the relationship for the sake of the One we have been privileged to have the relationship with.  The preachers who impress me the most are those who are able to really bring home and inspire their listeners to want to have a closer relationship with God.  I feel so inept at conveying my point sometimes.  For reasons I will never really understand, God wants a relationship with us.  That’s all this Christian walk is about.  God created us with the purpose of having a relationship with Him.  When we sinned and severed ourselves from God, He sent His Son to die for our sin so that we could be restored unto Him.  Walking with God, coming to know Him for Who He is, learning to love Him: this is the very essence of what the Christian life is meant to be about. 

If your focus is on trying to see how much sin you are allowed and still keep your salvation, I would say to you: your heart isn’t right and it is time to repent. 

If your focus is on what you can from God in terms of “spiritual gifts” or “spiritual experiences”, I would say: you’ve really lost sight of the goal and the target.  It is okay to desire spiritual gifts.  It is okay to want those times of deep spiritual fulfillment.  This is never to become our focus, though.  Our focus should be on God, seeking to know Him, growing in love for Him, and finding from His Word how we can please Him. 

May this be our heart’s cry:

“O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” Psalm 63:1

Suggestion Box

My hopes for this blog were to have a place where the Scriptures could be studied and where topics and questions pertaining to the Scriptures could be addressed. In this hope, I have set up a suggestion box so that the reader could have a place to submit their questions and suggestions for topics. So if you have any questions or suggestions, here is just the place for you to submit them.

Romans 8:38-39: Nor any other creature

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:35-39

Awesome passage.  This passage was written to a church under heavy persecution.  I love reading it myself and knowing come what may, come the legions of Hell itself, nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. 

Sadly, though, those words of encouragement are taken and misconstrued to try to support the doctrine of eternal security.  Eternal securists point to the words “nor any other creature shall be able to separate us” to say that nothing can separate us from Christ’s love, not even us since we’re creatures too.  I personally think that’s scraping for evidence for the doctrine, but nonetheless, we’ll address that argument. 

In John 15, Jesus says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.  I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.” John 15:1-10

Points from the above verses:

1. Jesus likens Himself to a vine, us to branches, and the Father to the gardener (or husbandman).
2. The branches that are unfruitful are cut off by God the Father. 
3. The cut off branches are gathered and burned. 
4. They way to remain in Christ’s love is to obey His commands.

To recap, the eternal securist argument from Romans 8 is that no created thing can separate us from Christ’s love, but in John 15 we see that it is the Father (He’s not created) Who removes the “unfruitful.”  John 15 also declares that the way to remain in Christ’s love is to obey His commands.  So from this we can see that the passage in Romans wasn’t making a declaration of eternal security, but rather reassuring us that nothing could force us from Christ.  That’s not to say that those who refuse to obey Christ’s commands are assured of salvation.  To the contrary, Jesus says that the Father will cut them off.

Grandpa

Eternity calls the one I call Grandpa.

The years given him, he did surely waste in sin.

God is merciful and full of grace, and so yet there may be hope,

There may yet be hope that he has alas responded to God’s grace.

He has stepped out into the river that joins life and death,

And so is neither alive and neither dead as his body lies in coma.

Friend I would remind you today of our years, how few they truly are.

This place is only a holding place or a layover to the next.

Then the pages we write upon the book of our lives comes for review.

Live for God, stay the course, for in the end this is all that really matters,

For the day that eternity calls one of us is here before we know it.

 

Update: Grandpa passed from this life into the next on this day, June 6, 2008.

Christian Leadership

Who among us does not wish to be great, especially in things that matter to us?  For the Christian, God is to come first.  What Christian does not wish to do what he can to be great in God’s sight and to please Him?  This definitely describes my wishes.  Maybe this is why I find the verses in Matthew to be so profound:

“But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave– just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:25-28

Most of us do not think of serving others as a sign of greatness, but this is exactly what we are called to do as Christ’s disciples, just as Christ Himself did.  Of course that in itself blows my mind that my Creator and King would lower Himself to live humbly as a man and then to die for me?!?  Just the thinking of such thoughts makes me feel compelled to say, “Lord, but I’m not worthy!”

Ephesians 1:13, 14: The seal

The fact that people who have been saved can reject their salvation (Salvation) and hence be cut off, is clearly shown in several passages from the Bible, a few of which we have already discussed in my other posts. (Christ is Salvation, The Necessity of Abiding in Christ, Loss of Salvation: The Process, and Covenant)

Something that many people tend to get confused on is the Bible’s promises and assurances to the believer.  This goes back to our recent discussion on Covenant.  God does make promises to the believer, but they are conditioned on the believer abiding in Christ.  It would be a pretty lopsided arrangement otherwise, if God sent His Son to die for us, gave us all the strength and grace we needed to overcome sin, yet we reject Him and choose to live in a life of sin, should we then still expect God to reward us with eternal life?  No, and that’s what the warnings in the Bible are meant to address is the fact that God will not reward such a person, but will punish them with the rest of the ungodly. 

One of the most commonly referrenced verses to try to prove eternal security is Ephesians 1:13,14.  

“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.” (Ephesians 1:13, 14)

Eternal securists put the emphasis on the word “sealed”.  When I began examining the verse, the first First I looked at what the word for seal meant exactly, so I looked its definition up in a concordance and from what I can tell it has two possible implications in this context. Briefly stated, 1) a mark, in this case it would be a mark put on us by God’s that we are indeed His. 2) It said that another possible use for a seal would be as security from Satan.  I think that definition #1 fits the context the best, though let’s discuss definition #2 first.  We are indeed kept by the power of God and are not under the control of Satan, but of course this doesn’t change the facts 1) we are tempted by Satan, though God gives us the power to overcome that temptation and 2) we still have the free will to choose to sin, which I would say also has the implication that we have the choice to even choose to go back to a lifestyle of sin as well.   

I think that definition #1 fits best, though as I will explain.  Let’s take another look at that verse: “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.” (Ephesians 1:13, 14)  Notice very carefully the language employed here; Paul is using legal terminology.  The seal of the Holy Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance. 

This brings us right back to our discussion on God’s covenant with His people.  God more than lives up to His part of the bargain by providing us His Son, His Spirit, His grace to overcome sin, and eternal life to the faithful.  However, we still have a part in this process because God still allows men the freewill to choose whether they will serve Him and follow His ways or whether they would choose follow a life of sin.  So the seal that God gives us is the mark that we’re His and the earnest of our inheritance, but if we choose to break our covenant with Him, God Himself cuts us off from salvation (John 15:1-6 and Romans 11:17-22), which is His right and would be so even in the manner of human transactions. 

So it is God Who puts His seal on us and it is also God Who has the right to remove it as well. 

 “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ and again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:28-31)

“But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.” (Hebrews 10:39)

Great Article on Unity

I really enjoyed reading an article written by Josh Hitchcock on a meeting he recently had with us.  He of course disagrees with our views on soteriology, but despite this, he did not let it keep him from fellowshipping with other believers.  In the article he wrote describing his meeting, he reminds us all to remember love one another and remember what our ultimate goal is: to please God and live a holy life before Him.  Kudos Josh!  Keep up the great work!

Covenant

My husband and I needed and purchased a car during our Christmas vacation 2006. When we bought it, we contracted ourselves to repay the bank for lending us money to get the car from the dealership. Sure we drove it off the lot, but the car was only ours as long as we kept our agreement with the bank. If at any time we defaulted on our payments, since it was the bank who ultimately bought it, the bank would have had every right to repossess the vehicle. These kinds of legalities are a common part of our day to day existence and we’ve come to understand them.

Salvation is much the same really. I’ve mentioned before that Christ is Salvation and as such that it is necessary to abide in Him. Another aspect that I’d like to discuss is that this salvation, this eternal life that we’re promised is also contractual or to put it Biblically, a covenant that we enter into.

“But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven?” (Hebrews 12:22-25)

When we accept Christ, our Salvation, we not only enter into an unfathomable relationship with the Divine, but we also enter into covenant with Him. Now the awesome thing about a covenant with Christ is that God gives us absolutely everything needed to live up to our end with the strength and grace to overcome sin and live for Him and even the mercy to forgive our shortcomings.

“May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (Hebrews 13:20, 21)

We are still given a choice, though, as to whether we will serve Him or whether we will serve sin. Now if we breach our contract or covenant with Him by choosing not to live for and serve Him, God is released from obligation of any promises that He has made. Just as it was the bank bought the car and had the power and right to repossess it for breach of contract, in the same way God is not obligated to give salvation or eternal life to those who would not keep their covenant with Him.  To the contrary, in Hebrews 10 God calls those who break covenant with Him (those who were sanctified by the blood but deliberately keep on sinning) enemies and promises judgement and “raging fire”.   

“If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ and again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:28-31)

Loss of Salvation: The Process

Many people, especially opponents of conditional security, question most the process of falling away. The most common question is: how many sins does a person have to commit to lose their salvation? Will God send a person to Hell for committing one sin? I do not believe that salvation is unconditionally secure nor do I believe that it is easily lost; the truth lies in between.  I do not believe that one sin will necessarily send you to Hell but that this loss of salvation comes when we willfully choose that we’d rather live in our life of sin over our walk with God/relationship with Christ.

“For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.  He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.  It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:26-31)

“Now the just shall live by faith: but if [any man] draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.  But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.” (Hebrews 10:38, 39)

Christians do sin, though, true Christians sin, but then when conviction comes they repent of their sins and make it right with God. 

“My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:1, 2)

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ” (1 John 1:7-9)

On a side note, I’d like to say that I don’t buy the “we have to sin everyday” philosophy, Scripture clearly shows that to be false.

“For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 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.” (Romans 6:5-7)

I just wanted to list one quick reference though there are more that could be cited.

I believe that it is a matter of the heart.  It is a matter of Whom or what we’d rather serve.  Will we choose to live for God and to seek to please Him or would we rather live in sin and pursue the “lusts of the flesh”? 

ParentalRights

I visited the site ParentalRights.org today. There’s some scary stuff happening out there that I think that parents should be aware of. What disturbed me the most was a video that was posted under the article, We Cannot Trust the Parents. They’ve also got some other interesting articles. Check it out and remember to be vigilant in prayer for our children and our country.

The Necessity of Abiding in Christ

From cover to cover, the Bible is the story of God’s relations with man. From the Garden of Eden to the plagues and destruction in Revelation, I see a God Who is reaching out and calling to man to have a relationship with Him. Though God can change our wills, He rarely does, preferring instead to allow us free will and giving us the choice to willingly come to Him. The same God Who does not force us to come to Him initially does not force us to stay in Him and with Him either. In my previous post, I discussed Christ Is Salvation.  Here are some Scriptures which stress necessity of remaining in Him.

“Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father. And this is the promise that he hath promised us, eternal life.” (1 John 2:24, 25)

“If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.” (John 15:6)

Besides the verses I just quoted there are also exhortations given by the apostles and the calls to persevere that further lend credence to this concept that abiding and continuation in the faith is not automatic.

“Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.” (Acts 13:43)

“Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.” (Paul speaking to disciples from Lystra)(Acts 14:22)

From these appeals to continue (as well as stated consequences for not continuing), we can see that perseverance is conditioned on the Christian choosing to use the grace that God gives to remain in the faith. 

Expelled: Coming to theaters this week

For those of you interested, Expelled will be coming out this week, Friday, April 18. For those of you who haven’t heard, this movie has been made to address the academic persecution that scientists face who dare to oppose Darwinism. The official movie site is http://www.expelledthemovie.com

Dietary Commands for Christians

Most Christians don’t even know this, but though Gentile Christians, we do have dietary commands that we are to follow.  They are most decidedly scant, which is all the more shame that most Christians don’t even know them, much less concern themselves with keeping them.  God gave to Noah one dietary command for His people to keep which was reiterated by the apostles:

“Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.” Genesis 9:3,4

“For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay no greater burden on you than these requirements: You must abstain from eating food offered to idols, from consuming blood or eating the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. If you do this, you will do well. Farewell.” (Acts 15:28, 29)

What’s off the diet:

1) Food offered to idols.  Hardly a problem in this day and time.

2) Eating blood.

3) Eating the meat of stangled animals.

I know this will be a hard blow to those of you who like their meat cooked somewhat rare, but God doesn’t want us eating blood.  Honoring God is definitely more important than our meat preferences.  If what you like out of rare meat is having moist, juicy food, there are other ways of having moist meat than leaving it bloody.  Some ideas include:  using meat tenderizer or a good marinade, using some good sauce like steak sauce or barbecue sauce, or getting more tender cut of meat.  Always put God first in every aspect of your life and He will bless you.  God bless.  Rachael