Russian imperialism in Ukraine continues a historic trend. By the early 19th century it laid claims on land in North America from Alaska to the northern border of America.
At the time our nation had the good fortune of John Quincy Adams as Secretary of State. He knew from personal knowledge what American presidents and diplomats of the 20th century learned by experience,…Russians made extreme claims, hoping to secure a minor gain. Adams, therefore, pre-empted their boast with America’s own: forecasting the later Monroe Doctrine, he declared all the North American continent free of any encroachment from European powers. The spiritual lesson from this story encourages Christians and warns unbelievers. Christians to boldness in teaching God’s word; unbelievers to take seriously what the Bible says. What God once said God continues to mean what it meant then. What he called Right at the beginning of history remains Right as we near its end. What he at first declared WRONG, remains wrong NOW, no matter how many want it to be Right. Written before, read again this assurance: no decision made in Heaven can ever be annulled by any decision made on earth.
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By a count of 61-36, the United States Senate has publicly declared war on God by passing legislation legitimizing same-sex marriages. They could profitably remind themselves what happened to the Roman Senate when it decided to enforce Emperor worship and persecute Christians for refusing to pinch incense at Caesar’s bust.
Contrary to Biden’s statement that “love is love”, love of the wrong kind will damn as the right kind will redeem. Self-love is the oldest lie Satan ever told. He used it successfully on Eve, assuring her that God had selfish reasons for denying them access to the TREE Genesis 3:4-5. “Therefore, eat the fruit”. And sin entered the world. He used it again on Jesus in the Wilderness. “You have to live if you want to implement your plan. Therefore, turn this stone into bread.” Only to feel Christ’s heated rebuttal blowing in his face: “Never put any love above your LOVE of God!” And forgiveness came to sinners. Homosexual lust is nothing but perverted self-love. It arrogantly puts human desires first in life…whatever…whomever…including God. All they care about is what they want! Therefore, since homosexual love is self-based, it can never be right because it denies God’s creation of Adam from dust, and Eve from Adam’s rib. No other sexuality exists. The transgender garbage is nothing but the homosexual lobby’s effort to so confuse sexuality that no inviolate standard exists! To their dismay and condemnation, GOD determines sexuality, not they. He has the first, the intermediate and the ultimate WORD on every subject, including human sexuality. The U.S. Senate, and doubtless the Biden-controlled House, will pass the Senate legislation before the Republican control begins in January. Thinking that’s the last word. For what can even God do when it’s a law on the books? A clue: only to make everyone who supported it wish that they had never been so depraved! Nothing humanity says changes God’s definition of sexuality. No truth ratified in Heaven can every be annulled by an earthly decision. All the Senate’s decision does is to increase depravity in America that always finds ways to spit in God’s face. California declared war on God long ago. Other nations have declared war on God over the issue of same-sex marriages. All that accrues from these egotistical decisions is God’s horrendous wrath! Never forget. God cannot be mocked. It isn’t that we shouldn’t mock him. We CAN’T! It’s impossible. He’s the Sovereign of all history. All that any Congress or action discovers in declaring war on God is their absolute humiliation and destruction. Which raises a question: how many Democrats and Republicans, who pretend they believe God, voted FOR this anti-God legislation? They made war on God to keep peace with a corrupt political theory! Don’t be deceived, America. The Senate decision has brought God’s wrath Closer to us. In two symbolic acts at the death of Jesus, God personally predicted the beginning of a new covenant between himself and humanity. Read Matthew 27:50-53 for the account.
First, the great tapestry that shielded the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies began to tear at its top and cleanly slashed its way 90 feet to the floor. Without saying a word, God declared his openness to all humanity:
Second, the equally symbolic, but publicly evidential, earthquake broke open the tombs of “many holy people” long or recently dead. Properly symbolic, they “came out of the tombs:”
However, properly sequential, they went into Jerusalem only after Christ’s resurrection proved theirs a FACT, not an ILLUSION, and:
There, seeing God on his Great Throne, with Jesus beside him on his equally Great Throne, our High Priest forever representing and interceding for his people eternally. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! And until you do, empower your people to evangelize widely and broadly, doing our part to increase that host ascending. The unilateral decisions by God Almighty have caused more than a few to pause and catch a breath. His execution of Uzzah, guilty only of excessive zeal for the Ark, offers one example II Samuel 6:7. The Master’s denunciation of a fig tree with leaves but no fruit is another Matthew 21:18-19.
The short answer to Uzzah’s death is obvious: God repeatedly warned the Israelites to treat his sacred objects with scrupulous reverence. Numbers 4 records a number of warnings against:
In that sense, and for a distinctively historical reason, GOD warned Israel, “Touch me not.” However, the shorter answer is:
That’s a warning to our culture:
Furthermore, and a warning to Christians:
Indeed, the one temptation to which we should never fall is to:
Saved humanity has a single advantage over the unforgiven: we, like King David, can:
Which leads us to believe that God alone is the judge of what God does, says, promises or threatens. That leaves us confident to believe, without apologizing, for any exercise of God’s sovereignty in history. That he can do whatever he sees fit and it will always be RIGHT! A lobsterman Charles Kuralt met in Boothboy, Maine, told of being with his father from a young age.
But what he remembered from those days were:
Like other people, including the unsaved, Christians face adversity. What distinguishes believers from unbelievers is our trust in God the Father:
Our Father in heaven continues to love and care and carry us “through it all” to robust, formidable witnessing of Jesus Christ. Romans 8:31-39 never ceases being our spiritual bulwark no circumstance alters, disappointment shatters or personal or national catastrophe weakens! Yours for an indomitable discipleship by having God as our Father, Christ as our Savior, Lord, Elder Brother and Advocate at God’s Throne and the Holy Spirit’s never-failing inspiration and guidance in daily life. Amen. -Being only a student of God’s WORD, and not educated in all the sciences that pretend to know when life begins in a woman’s womb, I suggest readers consult Luke 1:39-45.
Jesus could have been no more than a “tiny ball called a blastocyst” in his mother’s womb when a servant answered her knock at Elizabeth’s door. Nevertheless, when Elizabeth heard Mary’s voice, the 6-month-old John in her womb leaped in ecstasy. That simple statement means that Jesus LIVED at the time, and with SUCH FORCE of PERSONALITY that 6-month John recognized Christ’s August Presence, Authority and Lordship! That shouldn’t surprise us since Jesus as God Almighty always exercised his God-nature. Verses 41-44 assure us: human life begins at conception. That’s the only part we play in conceiving a child—and that’s no claim to fame. Since God, in his mysterious genius, and hidden from human sight, molds and attaches and stitches every part of the body in perfect harmony with every other part, HE as Creator determines the purpose of the human body when it emerges from the womb. Conclusion: it’s unrealistic to expect from a product we buy what the manufacturer doesn’t promise for it. We understand that. We don’t buy pitchforks to dig a trench; we do rent pile drivers, however powered, to punch steel foundation beams into the grounds. Yet, without any reason than our desire to be free of God, and in the worst possible illusion we can suffer, mortals want to determine HOW TO govern our bodies. God never promised we could do so. He did warn, repeatedly, that only HE could do so. Fools we are, and fools we’ll continue to be until we fall down before and knee our way to Christ, seeking forgiveness and enlightenment. Amen. Fini Who has the RIGHT to determine how humans use their body? The question certainly envelopes the abortion issue; and surpasses it, relating to each person’s life.
As the first blog noted, manufacturers build into each product how it functions; what the buyer can expect of it when used; how he can assure long-term satisfaction when used; and how any defect or malfunction can be repaired and the product restored to usefulness. To make a longer story short enough for this blog, consider a single essential FACT: no human had anything to do in creating our body. GOD alone stitched it in the womb to achieve his purpose. As every Old Testament and New Testament text proves, it’s only in obedience to every specification his WORD built into us that achieves his purpose. Since sexual immorality doesn’t, God forbids it. Since homosexuality and lesbianism don’t, he condemns them. Since worshipping other illusory deities, including humanity’s ego, blasphemously claims to KNOW what to do with the body, God damns it! Human pride guarantees our destruction, not fulfillment. The only use of the human body that God accepts, honors, and blesses is that which makes a temple to God of our physical frame, with its brain, limbs, genitals and behaviors I Corinthians 6:19-20. It’s unrealistic to expect results from a product that the manufacturer doesn’t promise. That’s why we’re smart enough not to buy pitchforks to dig trenches or mow grass. And why we do use pile drivers to pound steel beams deep into the earth for foundations of skyscrapers. Yet, completely basking in the worst possible moral illusion, many expect God to let us determine how we use our body. Then, declare that it doesn’t matter what he expects, it’s what we WANT. End Part II. Part III discusses when personality begins in the womb. Whoever manufactures machines, medicines, vehicles, locomotives, et al, create them with specific capabilities and for specific purposes. Ignoring the instructions by imposing our opinion when using them will:
A man purchased a build-your-own-airplane kit. He followed instructions to the letter when assembling it. However, he either didn’t read, or ignored the warning that, the kit-airplane had no ability to fly stunts. For he forced it into a stunt somersault in his maiden flight. And last flight. No one blamed the manufacturer. He specified limits he built into the parts making the plane. The illustration relates to the abortion debate. Those demanding freedom of abortion repeat as a hackneyed platitude “a woman has the right to use her body as she sees fit.” Which, when translated into behavior, means she’s as free to abort an unwanted child as she is to have sexual relations with anyone she chooses, any time she pleases. The debate over abortion sizzles over one issue: who has the right to determine how humans use their body? End Part I I Kings 17:4 and 9 include interesting asides. In verse 4 God told Elijah, “I have ordered the ravens to feed you there.” In verse 9 he told Elijah, “I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food.”
We have no ability to explain God’s orders to his creatures. As merely one example, how does God empower monarch butterflies—the apparently most vulnerable of his winged creation—to fly thousands of miles South each Fall; then the same thousands of miles North each Spring? We have only marginal understanding of his sovereign will over humans. Especially when the widow in Zarephath didn’t seem to know God had commanded her I Kings 17:12. However, her initial response to Elijah’s request for food plus water may give a clue. Remember that the woman resided in an aggressively pagan culture. She may have been one of the moral persons in that fanatically immoral religion. That makes sense. Knowing her background, God would make it easy as possible to obey him. He therefore could have given her what to say when a Jewish prophet—always identified by bold visage, distinctive dress and mysterious spiritual presence—arrived and asked for a drink…then added, “and bring me, please, a piece of bread.” Notice the courtesy Elijah used, a sure evidence of God’s command. And…after allowing the widow the right to express her limitations, and her lingering doubt, hearing Elijah’s counsel “Don’t be afraid,” with the reason: God would provide removed any barrier to obedience. All of this could have happened, but not necessarily. Now…this has a lesson for our discipleship: God may not so clearly identify someone he wants us to help; but the Holy Spirit will bolster our confidence to do so by our faith that God wouldn’t send someone to us outside our disciple-depth or spiritual-giftedness. Therefore, while we may find excuses why we “can’t serve, can’t witness, can’t help,” we have one reason we should: God has prepared that person, that situation, that crisis for our testimony and labor. He makes no mistakes when bringing the spiritual need to the spiritual source. Will we rise to the opportunity to be Christ’s witness? Mark 3:13-18 joins a host of other Bible texts that teach significant kingdom of God truth in very short order. A few samples: The Creation in three chapters; the entire Mosaic tradition in 10 Commandments; four slim volumes that reveal the Glory of Jesus Christ in simple words what no words at all can hardly express. One slender volume that details the spread of Christianity from one Israelite city to the major cities of the Empire, even to Rome itself.
The first feature of that brevity was, Jesus recruited the Twelve to watch him at work. The second, that he sent them out to preach a message that surprised everyone: Christ crucified to offer God’s forgiveness of sin; resurrected from death to declare his sacrifice had achieved God’s purpose. It all seemed foolishness to the unconverted, but to “those whom God has called…the power of God and the wisdom of God” I Corinthians 1:21-25. That message of Christ, preached in the Spirit of Christ, still wins the unsaved to forgiveness and builds the saved into re-producing witnesses. The third, “and to have authority to drive out demons.” They replicated Christ’s very own presence in their preaching tours: sovereign over demons, sickness, disease, broken and shrunken limbs and death. Demon-possession poses no significant risk where the Gospel has been sovereign in human life. But Satan’s venomous nature still expresses hatred of Christ by seeking to weaken the Gospel message from God’s Power to human pleasure. Any compromise with Gospel teaching diminishes the church’s witness. As a result, churches lose incentive, growth and outreach. Not because the Gospel is now less effective, but we are less sufficient in trusting it to achieve God’s purpose. Thus, relying on our failed methods, we find God’s judgment active against the church today: more public than ever before, with less spiritual potency. Meeting in million dollar buildings while preaching a cheap gospel that makes people comfortable. Chasing ever-larger numbers while seeing ever-fewer convictions and conversions. Fini |
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