An armory bristling with weapons:
A Marine in Okinawa in WWII found a terrified Japanese mother and her child. He responded by consoling and feeding them. Young Moslem men guided planes loaded with fuel into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and, kept by passengers from flying into the White House, crashed in a Pennsylvania field. All because their love of Islam created hate for others. While humanity's perverted nature distorts God's love, humanity's fallen nature limits our desire to express God's love. The heat that leaves the sun's surface at 1,800,000° kisses the earth with but ½ of a billionth° of warmth, something like 50¢ out of a Billion dollars. That 50¢ worth keeps humanity alive, earth spinning on its axis and the season in their beneficent appearance. The little love of God getting into small human minds and stubborn hearts makes daily life possible and worthwhile. Thank God for 50¢ of heat from the sun. Solar surface heat would burn all to a crisp or annihilation. BUT... Glory...the more of God's love we experience, the more benefits we receive, the more delightful, embraceable, understandable and empowering it becomes. We never have TOO MUCH of GOD's LOVE.
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In this Thanksgiving Season, I pray God's benediction of Jude 24-25 on you and yours. Blogs will resume November 29, 2021. God Bless.
A LONG time ago, as a student at Lincoln Bible Institute, this writer heard a chapel message from Brother Enos Dowling called--Love Is Like That. The writer remembers the Title, but recalled only an illustration of a cat neutralizing a dog's natural animus by approaching and arching her body against his legs in a reconciling gesture. That illustration DIDN'T get in the writer's book Love Is Like That. The essential teaching of the book is the same as the Bible's: the Godhead of Father, Son and Holy Spirit embodies the Source and definition of True Love. Many lesser loves exist, among them:
God's genius alone reveals love's incomparable, unconquerable and immeasurable nature in two letters: SO, as in God SO LOVED John 3:16. The words encompass more of God's love than:
To correct all fallacies about love—the incomplete, contradictory, corrupt or unbelievable—God calls us to: .distinct .unparalleled .original .peerless love and to the principal of FIRST USE. That is, how Love originated determines its highest, positive, helpful use in humanity. Acts 14:1-7 records the preaching of Paul and Barnabas in Iconium, today's Konya in SW Turkey. Their experience repeated what Jesus established, with few exceptions, in his ministry.
The very powerful principles in the text prove:
Leaving this challenge to God's people now:
Numbers 22-24 records a fascinating interlude between Israel's wanderings and her occupancy of the plains of Moab prior to invading Canaan. Read all three chapters to appreciate God's sovereignty over human fear, desperation, greed and immorality. Don't fail to read Chapter 25 to discover how satan's defeat by God can turn into a success against God's people when they fail their calling. A warning to Christians today.
The essence of the three chapters involves a future privilege seen without being a personal participant. God gave the heathen Balaam, renowned in his time as an expert in the satantic acts of sorcery and divination, amazing insights into Israel's future. He didn't allow Balaam the pleasure of participating in it. Balaam's the model mortal who sees God's truth, knows that truth, even admits that truth, but never appropriates that truth. Many like Balaam exist today. They "stand amazed in the Presence of Jesus the Nazarene", but do not wonder "how he could love them, sinners, condemned, unclean." They do not by faith in his sacrifice, and by experiencing his resurrection, EVER personalize his Presence. God's offer remains a challenge to every person: don't let your sins keep you a veiled bystander of God's Glory in Christ II Corinthians 4:6. Turn to the Lord so "the veil is taken away," II Corinthians 3:16, so all penitents can be transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory" II Corinthians 3:18. No limit exists to the ways we can be in AWE of Almighty God in Christ. But only one way exists for us to participate in his Glory: offer repentant faith in the Lord's Gift of forgiveness of sin. Why would we live with our guilt when Christ's perfect sacrifice assumed ALL guilt, of ALL penitents, in ALL generations? Fathers ruled during the Patriarchal Age. With Gentile Job as an example, 1:4-5, he protected his children's religious life by sacrificing animals in case they sinned. Which was likely, given the time they spent feasting and partying with their closed family. They could always say, when doing something wrong, "Don't worry. Dad will cover us."
With Hebrew Abraham as an example, all his descendants depended on his worth before God to save them. While failing personally as God's people, they could always say, "Abraham has enough merit to cover our shortcomings." John the Baptist punctured both assumptions. "I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham" Matthew 3:9. An indictment, by the way, of the pleasure-driven life of Job's children and the stony hearts and closed minds of Abraham's descendants. Jesus reinforced John's teaching. Matthew 10:34 records his detonation of corporate religion. Faith in God would no longer be by Group, but always of the Person encountering God in Christ. Cancelling that centuries-old belief constituted one of Christ's most unsettling teachings in that generation. The nature of the spiritual life accounts for the dramatic change. Communal religious life could meet the ceremonial needs of Jewish people Hebrews 9:10, 13, 23. When Jesus outlined his world conquest, Matthew 28:16-20, he demanded nothing less than spiritual warfare against satan's entrenched religious bureaucracy in the entire Gentile world. Promised in Jeremiah 31:31ff, that Spirit-filled life could be realized only in Christ's incarnation as God-in-the Flesh, his universal personality and his once-for-all sacrifice as Savior of the world Hebrews 10:5-25. One further thought. Nothing but personal faith in Christ now suffices as fruitful discipleship in a diverse world. False belief, with all its lies, exists. True belief, leading to Christ-likeness, also exists. While satan can counterfeit religious observances, he has no answer for Jesus Christ's Powerhouse Personal victory over him, death, sin, Hell, accompanied by the original, new, stalwart converted Christian life he inspired. That also is the secret of a CHURCH of strong CHRISTIANS. As each specifically and deeply committed disciple adds himself to others, a BODY of people LIKE the INDIVIDUALS in it emerges. The question each disciple must ask himself is: if each member reflected my example of Christ, would the BODY of Christ be more ANVIL or HAMMER? Would it be changing life or being altered by culture? Would our CHURCH be more or less capable of contesting and conquering satanic influence? Would the CHURCH be an undeniable witness of the Risen Christ or another shabby example of a mere religious life? Paul could forget God's earlier promise of appearing before Caesar, Acts 23:11, by experiencing an existential threat to his life in heavy winds and heaving seas. How many of us have felt like giving up when:
However, once turning from passenger to prophet, from having a common despair to offering an uncommon hope, Paul changed gloom to glow, and hopelessness to heroism. In the same way we have merit before our skeptical, godless world. As he possessed a winsome personality bolstered by an absolute faith that God had:
We discover that our sins and bodily and intellectual shortcomings only HINDER, not PREVENT, our successful witness if we have our life anchored there! Then, with a life that at least:
Christians have for too long used our failed humanity as an excuse not to proclaim Christ's perfection. As if the spiritual battle is between us and satan, not between Christ's Truth and satan's lies! Christians, the integrity of God's Word and God's Son stimulates our witness if we admit to being only saved sinners who must, despite our failures as Christians, proclaim Christ Alone as our Savior and Christ Alone as humanity's HOPE. But take heart, Christians. We do not lose our integrity as witnesses of Christ:
Note: the contents of this blog came to mind early this morning 11/9. Part III follows tomorrow.
We understand that all Christians are saved by Grace Alone through Faith, though never by Faith Alone. However, Christians serve effectively as Christ's witnesses to the unsaved by proving our spiritual merit. Since our fallen body inhibits our spirit's desire to serve Jesus, Mark 14:38, we must pray oftener, if not longer; seek the Spirit's presence more, our wants and needs less; desire Christ's glory in us to be dominant, our desires in service recessive. Taking the apostle Paul's spiritual struggles as examples, our bodily limitations need not weaken our witness if accepted, admitted and find us faithful to Jesus regardless. Consider: In II Corinthians 2:3, he felt distress by the spiritual immaturity of the Corinthians. In Galatians 4:11, he felt greater distress by fearing he wasted his effort on the Galatians. Indeed, he experienced spiritual pain over their spiritual immaturity akin to a woman in childbirth Galatians 4:19. In II Corinthians 2:12-13, he lost his peace of mind through lack of Christian fellowship. In Acts 27:20, with all other passengers on the ill-fated ship, he and other Christians aboard lost hope of being saved. And so on. Why, then, did God let circumstances carry even his chosen servants to the brink of despair? Why let their robust faith fade to infirmity? Why let their bruising confidence in Christ be bruised into doubt? It's all part of God's plan to create merit in his witnesses. End Part II n the best tradition of the sea, and in the only account of its kind from the ancient world, Dr. Luke relates the spellbinding tale of:
Nearly two weeks of endless battering by wind and waves:
During the 14th night sailors sensed a distant landfall and sounded for depth:
Panic reigned: obviously, at the mercy of the elements, the ship blew uncontrolled through the dark towards some unknown shore. And even the practiced seamen could only:
How did Paul, heretofore only a prisoner of Rome, suddenly become a prophet of God speaking for Jesus Christ? End Part I Christians delight in Christ's grace-driven benevolence. We often falter before his duty-filled demands in discipleship. Let's mention but one way.
We love:
We reluctantly accept:
We often substitute:
Jesus instead made us cities on hills:
Jesus called us salt:
We have the:
All that's lacking are Christians willing to experience Philemon 6 by actively sharing their faith. Fini The Christian life can be seen in the two relationships we have with Christ. He is our Savior and he is our Lord. Each has a special meaning to our discipleship.
In Christ as Savior we benefit:
- sexual-nature - secular-nature Into a spiritual nature. In Christ as Lord, we serve:
We have few problems with Christ's Saviorhood and its grace-driven benevolence. We have substantial difficulties implementing his direct orders to be his WITNESSES to the lost Matthew 28:18-20. End Part I |
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