Walking at my favorite hiking trail, I spied a large bird atop a great pine tree. Four times smaller in size was a pesky bluejay, which held its ground in the presence of the hawk. A pecking fight ensued regarding the jay’s nest of tiny eggs, and instinct dictated a need for mother to protect her helpless unborn. Without questioning or wavering, she attempted to irritate the red-tail into flying away. After some time the blue jay chased the hawk away. It dawned on me — that small creature never doubted her identity as a mom. Pastor Bob Brown wrote a booklet, “Don’t Forget Who you Are.” What a sobering possibility that men have — we can forget who we are. Are you kidding me? I can forget who I am? Yes, a bird never does, but I often do. In fact, I may have never ever realized who I…
Healing at the Cross Posts
Tribulation works out endurance, and endurance, approvedness. Then comes hope, the assurance of which we are not ashamed. Then love floods the heart? Wait! Peace comes first through justification in Romans chapter 5. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: ” Romans 5:1 “Justified” is Greek aorist participle, indicating an action done prior to the main verb. So before peace came justification. We were declared righteous at the point of salvation. “‘Peace’ means that the war is done, …God has nothing against us.” “This peace with God must not be confused with the peace of God of Philippians 4:7. Which is a subjective peace, whereas ‘peace with God’ is an objective fact — outside of ourselves. Thousands strive for inward peace, never once resting where God is resting — in the finished work of Christ on Calvary. “ All taken from William Newell…
“So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants…” Luke 17:10 “Can a man be profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself? Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that thou art righteous? or is it gain to him, that thou makest thy ways perfect?” Job 22:2-3 “We have not, as his servants, profited or benefited God at all.” J.F.B. Elihu repeats the same: “If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him? And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him? If you are righteous, what do you give to him? Or what does he receive from your hand?” Job 35:6-7 What’s the point? Have you ever struggled with your identity? Do you see that identity as connected intimately to your performance record? I dare say, many do —…
Mystery surrounds everything we call life, the Christian life is no exception. With the simple Bible concept, “peace that passes understanding — shall keep your heart and mind,” we get the idea of mystery. “Love passing knowledge” eclipses the world of concrete imagination. In our Bible we have “knowledge of mystery,” “fellowship of the mystery.” Are we exchanging the precise for the abstract? We read, “mystery of God, mystery of Christ, mystery of marital union, of the church, and of the “Rapture” of the church. The Apostle Paul had a revelation of “The Mystery,” and tells us of the mystery of the gospel. “A mystery does not lie in the obscurity of a thing, but in its secrecy. It is not in the thing, but envelops it.” Vincent Consider these: the mystery of “faith in a pure conscience.” and, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” The “Mystery of godliness,”…
“As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him.” Romans 14:1 -3 ESV Simple to the Christian, yet profound in application, the verses pertain to the faith-convictions of believers. Guard your faith, O Saint, but do not qualify brother or sister’s faith according to your personal prejudice. Neither scorn or dispise your counterpart. Paul applies this to food choices, observance of days, and then life and death of both weak and strong. “Henry Alford commentary remarks: there is, (even in Christianity), “a want of broad and independent principles, and a consequent bondage to prejudices.” Vincent adds, “Censoriousness is the peculiar…
‘It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honor of kings is to search out a matter. ” Proverbs 25:2 Louis Sperry Chafer, founder of Dallas Theological Seminary defines for us a difficult but “searched out” matter: contrasting Law with Grace. “When the human obligation is presented first, and the divine blessing is made to depend on the faithful discharge of that obligation, it is of and in conformity with pure law.” “When the Divine blessing is presented first, and the human obligation follows, it is of and in conformity with pure grace.” “The varying orders under law and grace may be stated in the words, ‘do and live,’ or ‘live and do.’” “In the case of law, it is, ‘do something with a view to being something:’ In the case of grace it is ‘be made something with a view to doing something.’” “The law said,…
We face perilous times. These times include harassments, distractions, risks and threats. However these perils are nothing more than statues on a lawn, pictures on a door, costumed children at our house for “trick or treat.” Though very real to those who “keep” their life, they fade away to those “losing” their lives — to those “dead” and hid with Christ in God. see Colossians 3:3. Let’s consider 2 Corinthians 5:14-15, “For the love of Christ overmasters us, the conclusion at which we have arrived being this–that One having died for all, His death was their death, and that He died for all in order that the living may no longer live to themselves, but to Him who died for them and rose again. — Weymouth translation. You see, ” For, with me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” was Paul’s striking testimony in Philippians 1:21. He saw…
He picked up the heavy bowling ball, intent on following the pattern of the others. A half grin revealed his sincerity but his every move resembled nothing of a bowler. Turning right to left, he positioned himself catty-corner to the pins. With a series of gyrations and twists he placed the ball on the lane, somehow propelling it toward its goal. Slowly the rock found its way to the destination, and, low and behold, knocked over some large ten-pins. Over the next hour, again and again, he did something identical, showing not a randomness but a marked repetition. In his mind he was bowling. He was autistic. After several years, some adventures at bowling alleys returned to my memory as a dawning came — all of us interpret life uniquely. We all do life with our individual faculties and skill, and much like our autistic friend, varied results may happen,…
Virtue is the supernatural, unfathomable, perfect love of God. Pastor Carl H. Stevens “It is perfect because it is not our love, but love that is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit ” (Romans 5:5).God’s grace is inexhaustible; it depends upon the Giver and never the receiver. His forgiveness is incomprehensible; His mercy is eternal; and His love is unconditional. It is this quality of love—‘virtue love’—that sets captives free, because this love never demands a response from its object. Dr. Carl H. Stevens Unfortunately, the best love that man can produce falls way short of what Peter tells us to add to our faith in 2 Peter 1:5. Our love often reeks with subjective overtones, self-centeredness, and often is defensive. Way back in the garden, the human race in Adam and Eve, twisted love toward their own self interest because of fear. Privately interpreting how God…
“Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? ” Hebrews 9:11-14 How do we gain awareness of life? What are “dead works,” as described in Hebrews 9:14? What does a purged conscience look like? What does it mean to serve the living God? First, we operate by the mercies of God. see Romans 12:1-2. Eleven previous chapters of the epistle of Paul to the Romans explains the mercies of God. In Chapter 1, God’s righteousness is said to…