Job maintained his own sense of honor. Repulsed by the deadly trio, he stood totally aloof of their accusations. However, as Peter Kreeft repeats, Job’s friends “do not listen to Job because they are too busy talking to him, and, Job does not listen to God because he is too busy talking to Him.” In other words, Job’s heart did not condemn him, but, “God is greater than the heart.” 1 John 3:20 Later on “…God shows up as Questioner, not as Ánswerer.” “God cannot be an object of our concepts.” “Faith comes from the deep eternal center of the person, the I, the will, not from feelings…” Kreeft from his book, “3 Philosophies of Life.” In a trial of our faith, God appeals to our sense of responsibility — what’s in there? God wishes for us to see, in its utter rawness, what, where, or what manner abides our…
Category: <span>Healing Cross</span>
“Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” “I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.” Philippians 4:11-12 I’m good at abounding but not so much with abasement. Why does God allow abasement? It means “to humble,” which conjures up thoughts of pain, so this is why most folks don’t get content with it. Yes, pain we cringe at, but humility itself brings something special. Paul became content since humility brings self-satisfying; it brings us closer to God . “The perfect meekness that comes from self-humbling brings with it an all-embracing concentration on the goodness and love of God.” “None of the acts of God, whether in…
According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, Ephesians 1:4 Why does God allow us to comprehend the fact of being chosen? Isn’t it confusing? — answer: to bless us with a sense of destiny — To bless us with the sense of our special calling — To give us a sense of value — and, because it is true. We are: Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. 1 Peter 1:2 Aha, I was in God’s foreknowledge. He knew me before I was born, He knew about my choice, when I was 25 years old, for Him . Can we say that God chose me based on His prior knowledge of my choice? Yes! …Through sanctification of the Spirit. God’s election was carried out as He snatched me out of this world, and separated me unto Himself, once for all. Hebrews…
Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner. Luke_7:39 What kind of prophet? An ethics policeman? Greg Boyd makes an insightful observation in His article on “The Point of the Book of Job.” “Most of us do not like ambiguity. Life is generally easier if we convince ourselves that everything is clear and simple. This, I believe, is part of our legacy of eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 3:1-7). In our fallen delusion, we feel it our rightphet, and within our capacity, to declare unambiguously who and what is “good” and who and what is “evil.” We are not omniscient, but having eaten from the forbidden tree, we have a fallen misguided…
“For then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. … And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many…” Hebrews 9:26=28 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth Romans 10:4 “But the end of all things is at hand.” 1 Peter 4:7 Have you ever thought about life this way: it ended before I was born? It ended 2000 years ago when a man shouldered it to ultimate oblivion. That man was Jesus Christ. What ended? — the cursed life, sin’s nature, death’s reign, the shadowy perspective, the religious searching for God. These all ended at the judgment, the one…
And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. John 1:16 “Grace is more than love, it is love set absolutely free and made to be a triumphant victor over the righteous judgment of God against the sinner.” “The grace of God belongs to the realm of the infinite. His measureless love and goodness are released from every restraint. They are unshackled and free.” “The supreme divine objective is then, that infinite love may manifest itself in superabounding grace.” Chafer –Grace The Glorious Theme “Grace is God acting freely, according to; His own nature as Love; with no promises or obligations to fulfill…” William Newell “Grace means the overflowing nature of God…we have no words to describe the lavishness of God.” Oswald Chambers ” The religion of legality is as though a man should decide to have an apple orchard and should try to make one by…
And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. John 1:16 “Grace is more than love, it is love set absolutely free and made to be a triumphant victor over the righteous judgment of God against the sinner.” “The grace of God belongs to the realm of the infinite. His measureless love and goodness are released from every restraint. They are unshackled and free.” “The supreme divine objective is then, that infinite love may manifest itself in superabounding grace.” Chafer –Grace The Glorious Theme “Grace is God acting freely, according to; His own nature as Love; with no promises or obligations to fulfill…” William Newell “Grace means the overflowing nature of God…we have no words to describe the lavishness of God.” Oswald Chambers ” The religion of legality is as though a man should decide to have an apple orchard and should try to make one by…
“As your fathers did, so do ye. “ A shattered and battered friend builds a barricade — outside goes the streets, parties, men, women — no challenges, no frank conversations, no vulnerable places; nothing gets in! — nothing but a safe little bungalow with a few other cocoon-spinning associates; — they are veiling their secrets together. Left out are also secret memories of raped or violated. God also is forfeited. Some add a convenient god to their project, but the True God gets the stiff arm; He represents unconcealed truth is why, and truth stings. Can God ever get in? He can if these self-shelters can be penetrated. We got a problem. God wants to preserve rights; rights of free will, rights to want, rights to self-government, as far as it goes. God doesn’t overrule the one created in His image or He violates their being, by becoming an antagonist God. So, how can it…
Then he sent her (Hagar) away with their son, and she wandered aimlessly in the wilderness of Beersheba. When the water was gone, she put the boy in the shade of a bush. Then she went and sat down by herself about a hundred yards away. “I don’t want to watch the boy die,” she said, as she burst into tears. But God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, “Hagar, what’s wrong? Do not be afraid! God has heard the boy crying as he lies there…. Then God opened Hagar’s eyes, and she saw a well full of water. She quickly filled her water container and gave the boy a drink. And God was with the boy as he grew up in the wilderness. Whose concubine despairs? Whose woman of incidental association bursts into tears? Nobody knows her, but God knows…
G.E. Pember lists several trends of the end times seen in the days of Noah. Some are these: A tendency to worship God as Elohim, that is, merely as the Creator and the Benefactor, and not as Jehovah, the covenant God of mercy… …disregard for the primal law of marriage. …consequent invention of many devises whereby the hardships of the curse were mitigated… An alliance between the nominal church and the World.. The rejection of the preaching of Enoch and Noah. The appearance on the earth of beings from the principality of the air. Ahem! Has Jesus Christ subtly lost popularity today ? Have folks decided to rightly honor our Great God and Creator, but at the expense of Christ? Have we chosen a wide and safe approach rather than the offensive bloody cross of Christ? If so, we forfeit the heart of God, grieved and angered at sin, now demonstrating…