Civilized?

No nation where changing your religion places your life in danger can be called civilized.

Resist

Resist the darkness the same way the midday Sun does.

Nationalism

If you want to be a Nationalist, think of it as a great responsibility to your nation, your people, rather than any stupid idea you are better than other nations.

Extremely rewarding

Pray for others, then rejoice in the answer. It’s extremely rewarding.

The true love of Christ is more about caring for others, praying for and helping them, and keeping oneself pure, than it is about singing long monotonous praise and worship songs.

Hero or idol?

Re-post:

The danger of spiritual hero idols, for true Christians, is that these are designed to take the place of Jesus as Mediator to God. The idol begins to have a higher place in their consciousness than Jesus does.

Two Israels, for now

I commented on FB:

Ephesians 2:12 says we Gentile believers are “citizens of Israel” (the commonwealth of Israel)

Romans 11:17 says we Gentile believers are grafted into the Olive Tree, Israel.

1 Cor. 10:18 speaks of Israel “after the flesh”, meaning, natural or fleshly Israel.

So, if there are two “Israels” currently in existence, and one is called fleshly or natural (by natural birth) then we take it the other is spiritual, and not natural (by second birth).

Then, at the Messiah’s return to earth the two Israel’s become perfectly the one body of Christ, because natural Israel is converted, born again.

In this way the church does not replace Israel, it is grafted into the Israel of God.

Gentiles, therefore, should be longing for the glorious day when natural Israel will be saved and come into the body of Christ.

Sodom could have been saved

…if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes…

… if the mighty works, which have been done in you, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day…

(Matthew 11)

This statement of the Lord means that the supernatural works of God can be a catalyst for morally degraded people to repent before God.

I realize a lot of people wouldn’t like that, but that’s what it means.

Renewing

(Romans 12:1-2) “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And don’t be conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

 

This text says that we are transformed when our minds are being renewed, and the transformed person comes to understand the perfect will of God.

 

If we present our bodies (including our mind) to the Lord as His property, He will do the transforming and renewing of our minds, as we genuinely seek to know Jesus Christ, heeding His word and Spirit.

Snowy white

“Come now, and let us reason together,” says the LORD, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as WHITE AS SNOW…” (Isaiah 1:18a‬)

For the true Christian, if they look back on their shameful past all they see now is snowy white, they are truly free from their past, liberated from their sins.

How you know

The only way you know for sure whether the God you worship really exists, or is merely a creation of your own imagination, is by reading the whole Bible.

On the cusp

I think a lot of Pastors are on the cusp of embracing the New Testament church pattern, but they’re of a double mind, on one hand they see it is plainly the pattern handed to us by the Apostles, and on the other hand they know that most of their congregation are nominal Christians, and they would be scared away by the reality of it, preferring the traditional format, where they never have to face reality.

Refuge, strength, help

(Psalms 46:1) “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble”

When God kills people

I commented on FB: Yes, when God commanded the Israelites to kill people it meant they were acting as His servants, carrying out His sentence upon them.

And, yes, the modern Christian finds it hard to come to terms with the fact that God kills people, that He wiped out the human race once (except for eight).

Living

Only the person who has the life of Christ in them is living.

(I John 5:11-12) “And this is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that has the Son has life; and he that does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

Wise

Perhaps the wise man is the one who appreciates that God is infinitely wiser than him.

He is God in the flesh

Jesus said, “before Abraham was born, I AM “.

It’s the same as saying, I am God!

And all of His life, death and resurrection from the dead points to what He said being true.

God’s way

Functioning by prayer is the way God has chosen for man – it’s God’s way, not man’s way.

And this is always the tension, do we function in God’s way or man’s way?

Strength

When you’re married, two become one, so you’re only as strong as your marriage.

Theology

Theology is good if it means one cares and thinks deeply about God and His word, but bad if it’s simply a vehicle for being clever with words.

Love

The most reprobate, filthy, evil sinner was saved because Jesus loved them when they were in that hopeless state, and they knew they were reprobate, filthy and evil, and they realized Jesus loved them enough to warn them of His wrath, revealing that He did not want them to perish, causing them to repent in deep gratitude.

 

The natural/carnal mind cannot understand that God’s loving someone does not necessarily mean He approves of what they do. God hates sin, and He loves sinners, but the love of God is either received or rejected. In the world we see the love of God has been rejected. In fact this proves God loves all, because they are judged for rejecting His love. And backsliders have not “kept themselves in the love of God” (Book of Jude) they have departed from His love. So, the love of God is not something random, which switches on and off.

 

There are many conditions given to promises in God’s word, many scriptures speak of God loving the whole world and Christ dying for everyone, demonstrating His love for sinners by dying for them, then, the condition of salvation is that His amazing love must be accepted, believed in, with the fruit of repentance, or they will perish.

 

God’s love is unconditional because scripture says He first loved us, when we were in our sins He died for us. Salvation is conditional upon faith, and repentance hinges on faith.

 

Human love is so fickle. We can think we love someone today, then lose our love for them by tomorrow. But God’s love is infinitely deeper than human love. It springs from His righteousness. He loves from a basis of Covenant, that is, keeping His own word.