The unthinking Christian may believe we need no Christian evidences, since faith in God is enough. The egotistical humanist won’t believe, however compelling the Christian evidences.
The former is educated to “simply trust God”, needing no proof to bolster his faith. The latter, typified by Bertram Russell, never stops demanding MORE evidences. That continued the consistent sin of every Jewish generation, Christ’s own the worst of all. The skeptic has a faith of egotism that won’t believe until the evidence satisfies him. Meaning he’ll never believe, since questions and mysteries in the spiritual life abound, beginning with GOD! The believer has a faith of ignorance that no matter how true or false faith in God may be, he still believes! Both have confidence in ignorance: the one who trusts God despite not knowing; the one who trusts his doubts, not God’s word. However, God distinguishes between the believer and skeptic. He has mercy on the Christian who over-trusts HIM but condemnation on the skeptic who over-trusts himself. For who are we to posit our few years on earth as sufficient time to investigate all the evidences God has sown like plants in the field: each bearing fruit and together piling high a harvest of confidence in God’s trustworthiness. Believers stake their hope on FAITH in evidences we KNOW God provides. Skeptics put their DOUBT on questions that never materially affect the spiritual issue that we’re all sinners needing the forgiveness that reveals knowledge that resistance to God never provides. Make no mistake: “without faith it is impossible to please God” Hebrews 11:6a; “because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists....” 11:6b. “...My righteous one will live by faith” 10:38a.
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Being unaware of a process that upgrades a product certainly eliminates the expense required to improve it. Being aware of the process, but balking at the cost, also eliminates the required expense. The first problem can be corrected through education; the second only by painful costs to the corporation.
The Gillette Corporation continued to stay competitive in the marketplace by studying options available and paying the price to acquire them. Any number of retail giants have seen their market share dip or disappear by either refusing to stay abreast of shopping trends or by relying on past reputation to keep their customers. Now...here is good news for the Church: preachers must not fall into the secular world’s manufacturing and advertising dilemma. We DO NOT modernize to meet the challenges of an evolving society. Liberals continually beat the drum to “bring the church into modern life.” And what do they claim we must do: accept homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle, living together as equal to marriage and the ordination to leadership of those openly homosexual/lesbian. Other ministers refuse to comply with such satanic machinations, but always look for the latest book to give ideas on how to meet human need and evangelize the lost—in essence to give the church the best “possible public face.” A long time ago I read a book by E.M. Bounds called Prayer. He made a single statement I still remember. We keep looking for better methods while God looks for better people. Those who preach can learn that. Pray more, depend on the Holy Spirit’s guidance more, read the Bible more. All this will make better Christians and better ministers of the Gospel. It’s always easier for Christians to mask Christ’s glory from the unsaved than to reveal his glory in OUR lives! While we have a direct order for the latter, we don’t have even a single example of the former II Corinthians 3:7-18, especially verse 18. All the church has to do in any age to relate, to be relevant, to be powerful, is to PREACH GOD’s WORD: simply, if necessary, more deeply if possible. But never to seek Spiritual Power anywhere but in the Holy Spirit working in God’s Word! It isn’t that we don’t know this. It’s simply that we’re still looking for something WE can do to solve the problem of Christians facing a profane, secular, Christ-hating society. God doesn’t care what society does, or doesn’t; what it believes, or disbelieves; what it wants to hear, or doesn’t. God’s command to his preachers is found in II Timothy 4:1-5. Preach the Word, as Dr. Carl Menninger repeated in his book Whatever Became of Sin?. When the time is right and isn’t. When it will be accepted and won’t. We know God’s word. Are we willing to be the few obeying him, regardless, when many seek other ways? Fini Whatever we accept as our Spiritual Authority determines whether we continually strive to change, mature, or improve in Christian obedience. Christ’s didache alone, with equally strict adherence to the Holy Spirit’s presence, provides the stimulus disciples need for progressive maturity in faith.
The little orphan Oliver Twist had only to summon his empty stomach for the courage to ask Mr. Bumble, “Please, sir, I want some more.” In turn the beadle refused the request. But Jesus doesn’t wait for us to ask for more power to achieve more fruitfulness. He offers it readily, insists we take it willingly and actualize it successfully. The nature of Christian discipleship demands we DESIRE to grow in it. We can’t simultaneously want Jesus to save us completely while we obey him partially; to save us to the uttermost of his ability, then allow us to spiritually serve him to the least of ours. That post-modern nonsense will lead us into a religious dead-end of ritualized church membership that convinces no one, not even its practitioner; and keeps the church a tame, harmless kitten, not cubs of the Lion of Judah. Christian astronaut James Irwin found God’s way to growth while on the moon. He had a problem with his Moon Rover. He puzzled over it, speculated about it, tried every possible mechanical way to fix it. Then, not knowing what else to do, he prayed for guidance and heard a voice say, “Get on your knees.” He did, saw the problem and fixed it. There’s a parable in Irwin’s story. If we, in our pride, our education, our careers, our programs, continue looking for the POWER to be dynamic Christians making a difference in life, God will let us continue to fail. But if we PRAY for his help to grow in Christ-likeness—“Get on our knees,”—his mercy never fails; he helps continually; he instructs flawlessly; he inspires potently; he empowers profoundly. The strongest position any Christian can take is KNEELING before God in Christ. End Part III Growth in the Christian faith, whether quick or gradual, sudden or incremental, must characterize Christians. With the Bible, particularly the New Testament, emphasizing the life of Christ, the fundamental quintessential person in history and of our spiritual life.
The Bible remains true, whatever our view. It’s true even when unceasingly, though unavailingly, bitterly, though unreasonably, opposed, even by those pledged to Christ. Consider Jesus in John 7:16-18. He taught the model scripture, proving that the Jews would never accept him as he presented himself. And he would never deny himself, or change himself or question himself, in order to make himself palatable to their taste. That illustrates the historical struggle between God’s revealed TRUTH, whether through Moses, the prophets or Christ, and the human ego demanding the right to evaluate, alter, compromise or deny whatever we choose. In I Corinthians 1:20-25, 30-31, for example, Paul noted that the Jews demanded miraculous signs instead of FAITH, though they neither believed nor obeyed the signs. While Greeks desired human wisdom (philosophy) over FAITH, shifting like sand dunes in the winds though it proved to be. Because they wanted mortals to be in charge of THIS, and, the NEXT world. Instead, God remains sovereign of all and everyone and has relegated both Jewish and Greek obsessions to the manure pile of history. He disregarded the philosophy posing as wisdom to reveal HIM and the insatiable appetite for miracles that only titillated the emotions without convincing the Jewish mind. He chose instead the MESSAGE understood and accepted by those with spiritual clarity: who believed a crucified Savior mocked the death that seemed to mock him Colossians 2:13-15, Revelation 5:5-6. The classic “foolishness of God”...‘wiser than man’s wisdom and the weakness of God...stronger than man’s strength’” I Corinthians 1:25. Thus, the speaker at a liberal Midwestern university revealed his spiritually blind mind when declaring the Cross an inconsequential irrelevancy. He proved only that liberalism’s addiction to human knowledge, at the expense of faith in God, has two results. It renders us incapable of hearing God, and ever-less capable of believing God. Understand, however. Our desire to live by knowledge in ourselves never causes God to re-think demanding that we live by FAITH in him! End Part II In 1923 the Gillette Razor Blade Company faced increasing competition from American and British companies. The Gillette board discussed adapting a costly means of improving the grinding and sharpening process of their product. Should they buy the machinery? Could they afford the investment? How long would it take to recover it? Would the new process be profitable in the long-term?
Then-Chairman John Aldred resolved the issue with words later Gillette boards would remember: knowing how to make a better blade demanded its use whatever the cost. Gillette, 140 Knowing how to do it demanded the action necessary to produce the highest quality razor blade. The very spiritual principle Jesus established in Matthew 12:39-42. Christians must apply it. If we produce at level five, for example, but have the potential of reaching level 8, God holds us accountable for the greater giftedness, whether or not we employ it in his service. Indeed, his parable of the evil spirit, 43-45, illustrated the principle. Once the spirit returned, he found his former host a house swept clean but unoccupied. In the context, it means that Jesus cast judgment on his generation for knowing his superiority but rejecting the spiritual life he brought to replace the Mosaic religious life observed for 1500 years. The principles of Opportunity and Production apply to the Christian as to the business life. They either reinforce or weaken, complement or cancel, each other. Should opportunity be seized, production (growth, increase, profit, etc.) flourishes. If opportunity is overlooked, production falls. It isn’t always true that opportunity won’t come again; it may not come as propitiously again. It’s certainly true that spiritual opportunity overlooked can lead to the diminution of whatever spiritual life has been gained, a truth individual Christians and churches cannot overlook. Should we fail to see the opportunity, God may graciously send it again when we have more knowledge. But if KNOWING we reject it, we’re like ancient Israel all over again. And that AIN’T good Matthew 23:38. Applied to daily discipleship, it means there can be no chance of substandard Christian lives when the Holy Spirit empowers us. We need only the willingness to obey his empowerment. While never completely achieved, indeed hardly achieved by us now, growth in Christ’s likeness remains possible, necessary and achievable. There should never be a decrease in our spiritual life simply because we overlook opportunities to GROW IN CHRIST! End Part I. Learn an essential spiritual truth. At the very beginning of human history God demanded forgiveness of any sin as the condition of fellowship with him. Christians must understand that before they urge repentance on their unsaved associates, friends and relatives.
The detailed Mosaic emphasis on that necessity continued in Christ’s life, with a specific difference: the SIN offering being a person, not an animal; and offered once for all PERFECTLY, not continually by incompleteness. Still, the most ancient rule applied: the SOMEONE worthy to offer forgiveness had to die before effecting it. Hebrews repeatedly stressed this truth 1:3, 2:10, 7:27-28, 9:11-14, 10:1-4, 11-17. Thus, in selected scriptures, we see Matthew 1:21: the Sacrifice would be named Jesus because he would save his people from their sins. Luke 1:46-47: Mary admitted being a sinner by needing a Savior. Luke 2:11: the Savior is Christ the Lord. Mark 10:45: Jesus came to serve God by giving his life to pay the price of our forgiveness. Luke 23:34: “forgive them,” Jesus prayed for all involved in his crucifixion. Matthew 27:50-53: the death of Jesus opened the Presence of God to all seeking forgiveness. Acts 2:38: the first Gospel message demanded repentance and baptism for forgiveness of sin. Hebrews 2:1-3 and 10:26-31: warns all humanity that rejecting Christ’s sacrifice exposes the unforgiven to God’s wrath. No mortal can ever soften this harsh truth, let alone eliminate it. Separation from God results when we appear before him unforgiven. This writer once told a congregation that no good people would be in Heaven. This shocked everyone: they were going to Heaven and they were good people. I explained: only forgiven people will be in Heaven, only those accepting Christ are forgiven, only those forgiven can be perfected, and only the perfected can be Glorified, and only the Glorified will be with God Philippians 3:20-21, Revelation 1:12-18. All of which means forgiveness of sin is essential, and Christians must urge the unsaved to accept Christ’s sacrifice for their sins and his Lordship of their life. He alone prepares them to face GOD! Why does this series refer to scripture after scripture in both testaments? Because it emphasizes what God said about sin: nothing impure, incomplete, imperfect will ever enter his presence. Because we need to understand what Jesus did about sin: he offered the one and only perfect sacrifice to overcome and remove sin. And we must believe in and obey Jesus to have our sins forgiven! If we don’t believe God’s Word teaching all this, why would we believe a writer writing it, a preacher preaching it, a saved person saying it? Fini (Note: my apology for putting the same information in Part I and Part IIA. Poor editing on my part. Virg)
Every scriptural truth has practical lessons for our discipleship. Consider just two of other ways Adam and Eve’s single sins tutors us. First, the depth of evil potential in a single sin. Think of Abram’s first lie to the Egyptians about Sarai’s identity Genesis 12:10-20. It nearly cost him his wife’s future. Or his second single lie about her to Abimelech. AFTER God had appeared to the patriarch in Mamre, and AFTER being told that his wife Sarah would bear the promised son Genesis 18:1-15, Abraham very nearly had her sexual purity contaminated in Gerar Genesis 20:1-18. The people of Shinar committed a single sin—exalting themselves in building a city with a tower on which they would build a temple to themselves Genesis 11:1-9. And it cost humanity the single language that united them and divided them into a multiplication of tongues and competitive, territorial, often-predatory nations determined to out-think, out-build, out-grow and OUT-GUN all others. Or think of David and Bathsheba’s single sin. A night with the king turned his entire family into a dynasty of immoral murderers, seducers and conspirators, with three potential successors to the throne dead by violence. One sin! Second, once sin is committed, it must be forgiven here, not in the hereafter. Henry Mencken lived as a confirmed secularist and agnostic. He joyously attacked whatever offended his tastes. While he treated individuals with respect, and had mercy on friends, he had harsh words for groups, including preachers, churches, service clubs, academicians, the government and the “fundamentalist South.” He had his own credo, of course, and a plan after death if he had been wrong. He’d appear at Judgment and be surrounded by the Twelve Apostles. To them he would deliver his well-practiced apology: he had been wrong! Readers Digest Most Unforgettable Characters, 376 However, to show that he hadn’t read the Bible, or didn’t believe what he read—the latter is as dangerous as the former is useless—NO ONE appears before the Apostles for judgment. Everyone appears before the Great White Throne Judgment of God Revelation 20:11-15. And any admission of guilt is TOO LATE! According to II Corinthians 5:10 and Revelation 20:11-15,in-life behavior seals our future state and nothing afterwards changes it. End Part IIB Believers look to the Godhead when confronting humanity’s questions, doubts, procrastinations, temporizings and sins. Wherever mortals start, continue or end, disciples know that God’s Word remains constant, dependable and sure in any situation.
When God instructed the first pair in what he expected, he gave them a choice: obey his word or die. Had God he been a liberal theologian, he would have second-guessed himself: maybe he didn’t make himself clear; maybe he should give his mortals a second chance to obey. But God knew he made himself clear and that Adam and Eve understood the rules: eat every fruit from any tree and live—except one. Eat that one and you surely die! No second chance! Satan of course lied. First, they surely wouldn’t die Genesis 3:4. The con man’s hopeful denial of the facts—God didn’t mean that! Second, he blasphemously claimed that God didn’t want mortals knowing as he knows. Then...sensing that his listener had become interested, even thinking along with him, Satan casually wondered if God had a bigger fear in the prohibition: that Eve would find the wisdom hidden in the forbidden fruit—to think for herself, to determine her own destiny, to make her own rules. Obviously our common parents didn’t appreciate the enormity of the change that had occurred in disobedience. Adam for one lived for nearly a millennium, dying at 930 years Genesis 5:1-5. Nor could they anticipate that the “jungle” outside Eden would demand “sweat of their brow” effort to clear and cultivate—when all their previous work in Eden had involved none. Most importantly, Eve had no idea that her one sin had so altered her spiritual genome that every descendant in every generation would inherit her instinctive attraction to temptation, not the instinctive abhorrence God designed and demands. The original sin, then, wasn’t a contamination of every newborn, demanding baptism by sprinkling for forgiveness of Eve’s sin. That erroneous doctrine ignores the scriptural truth that sin is attributed only to individuals capable of making a CHOICE between God’s Word and human opinion. The original sin remains the ongoing sin of each person of accountable age, however. By nature “objects of wrath” Ephesians 2:3, our instinctive disposition--Eve’s sin as enticement—considers temptation favorably, with positive results, not in hostility, knowing its deadly end Romans 6:23a. Only the converted nature, and that not without effort, sees the real horror behind the mask temptation wears I John 2:15-17. Remember: Jesus didn’t say that evil thoughts enter the heart/mind, as if some unknown doctor of wickedness injects wrong thoughts into us. No, Jesus said OUT OF the Heart/Mind—the factory where evil is produced, wrong is produced, mistakes are produced, failure is produced—OUT OF it wickedness flows, gushes, floods. End Part IIA Sorry, we've not had the blog for a few weeks. Judy had surgery, doing fine now, so we're back in business.
Christians must learn, believe, defend and proclaim four seminal Bible truths. The first is God’s direct creation of humans in his image. The second is God’s judgment against all sin, in every generation, in any person of accountable age. The third is Christ’s forgiveness of sin in every person accepting him as Savior and Lord. The fourth is God’s refusal to allow any unforgiven sinner into his Presence. As unpopular as the terms sin and sinners are, Christians must fearlessly proclaim that all people of accountable age, 12-14, but particularly adults, must be either forgiven by Christ or be subject to God’s wrath. No third alternative exists. When Adam and Eve chose Knowledge over Faith—their opinion over God’s word, they roused a deadly egotism in their descendants crucified only by Christ’s demand of self-denial. Where Faith in God would have led their innocence into eternal life, zeal for Knowledge that they misinterpreted as wisdom altered their genes and infected every generation afterwards with arrogant pride! Genesis 3 summarizes the entire Fall from innocence into guilt and from sin into forgiveness. They knew the rules: they could eat from any tree in Eden but ONE. Had God been a liberal theologian, he would have blamed himself for not making his position clear—the charge Bertram Russell leveled against God. But God gave clear rules, the duo understood them and had one chance to get it right. And when they chose their will over God’s word, the first response was SHAME with each other followed by GUILT before God. Not at all what they expected. They felt no awareness of nakedness in innocence. We understand that. Like children unaware of their bodies, Adam and Eve felt comfortable being unclothed. But being a sinner in the company of another sinner instantly became SHAME! And both felt GUILT when hearing the previously comforting footsteps of the Incarnate Jesus “walking in the Garden.” Both shame and guilt continue in humanity. When we see ourselves AS WE ARE, not as we PRETEND, shame proliferates and guilt deepens. Even men and women who publicly and shamelessly bare their bodies don’t readily admit their inner guilt. No, the privacy of our inner self, so important to our individuality, becomes a vault in which we secrete what we want none to know, and sins we dread confessing even to God—though he knows it all and wants to forgive I John 1:9. Like politicians, we boast of strength and deny weakness, though God has mercy on all who deny any strength and admit all weakness. All of this is why God forbade eating the fruit. He knew that once humanity replaced FAITH in his word with KNOWLEDGE of themselves, guilt and its shame would result. Which we see in everyday life any time our opinion replaces God’s truth. And in our fig leaf-excuses or explanations, we cloth ourselves in humanity’s oldest response to disobedience: fear, flight and furtiveness. Followed by shifting blame. Only Eve admitted being deceived. Which offered no defense at all since God’s clear instructions gave her every reason to resist the tempter. End Part I |
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