Thursday, February 25, 2010

A Paradox of Faith

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Heb. 11:1)

“Substance” is that which we can hold in our hands; it is tangible physical matter, but it is also something of practical value, and perhaps moral value. Faith is substance; it is of practical value; it has worth.
This entire verse is a paradox; one wonders how faith can have substance and be felt or touched or held in the hands? When you think of it, there is no substance in hope--it is a mere longing for, or excitement for something. That is the paradox, but there is another in this verse also, and that is that something unseen can be evidence! “Evidence” is that with which we would use to prove a fact; again, one might ask, “How can that which is unseen be valid evidence?” I do not know the answer to that, but I do know that faith is the evidence of things unseen.
The Bible clearly states this mystery, and it is a fact, whether we understand it or not, because without faith, the Bible says, “it is impossible to please Him” (God). Hebrews 11 goes on to verify the wonderful acts of faith, and faithful men; it is a wonder-working faith that moves mountains, and yet, Nothing is impossible with God (Lk. 1:37)

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Forgive us our Trespasses

This partial sentence teaches us a lot about forgiveness, and confession. Let’s clarify one thing though before we begin…

Our sins are gone because of Christ and Calvary. We do not obtain more forgiveness through the confession of sin, because we have no sin in God’s sight; He has taken care of that for us long ago. So, why confess? Because we still live in this old world and must interact with our fellow man. You see, sin is seen in two ways in the Bible, as is true with many other things; we were “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1) at one time, and it is here that we see the distinction. In 2 Chronicles 33:19 we see the same distinction: “His prayer also, and how God was intreated of him, and all his sin, and his trespass, and the places wherein he built high places, and set up groves and graven images, before he was humbled: behold, they are written among the sayings of the seers.” Note that in both passages, God inserts the little word “and”; “and” separates the two, as two distinct and separate categories of sin. So when we ask the Lord to forgive us our sins, we are only asking Him to forgive our trespasses, which are encroachments upon our fellow man, and not transgressions against God only. If this were not so, why bother with Calvary? Please don’t slight Calvary by thinking that 1 Jn. 1:9 is the way we obtain forgiveness for all sin, but realize that we are forgiven our “trespasses” (against others) through continual confession and reconciliation, while our “transgressions” (directly against God’s Person) are already forgiven at Calvary.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Abel’s Death

Abel’s Death

The question is asked, “If God had a plan from the beginning for the redemption of man, why allow Abel to die, and have to replace the lineage through Seth?” This is to clarify, mostly, only one point, that the grace of God is given freely, and is not “owed” to any of us. God does not have to grant us His grace, but distributes it according to His will. We ought not to expect grace from a demanding viewpoint, and “obligate” our Lord to give it, but we should beg for it, and earnestly seek it from a loving and merciful God. God has a plan; He will accomplish His plan by some means, as well as bless His children also. He is a God of multi purpose. It is up to Him to execute His plan according to His design, and we are not to question or dispute it. I do not know the reasoning behind Cain and Abel, except that God almost always chose the younger instead of the elder to do His bidding and to accomplish His will.

Perhaps there was something that God did not tell us about Abel, after all, there is no reason to tell us his faults; our Lord need not explain or answer to us anyway, He does what He wills, and we are to accept it. “Blind Faith” you say? Exactly, but faith in a most trustworthy God who is able to do above all that we could ask or think. Abel was a sinner like the rest of us, but God had chosen Seth instead of Abel to usher in the holy seed, and to give Christ a heritage in the human sense. It really matters not why.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

The Gospel In Isaiah

Isaiah 53

We see here a clear presentation of the Gospel, even way back in Isaiah’s time. In this short chapter we see a certain progression that is important in the understanding of the sacrificial death of our Lord. The narrative begins with his life before Calvary; it "peaks" in v. vs. 7-9, and then reigns victoriously toward the close of the chapter. The Gospel is clearly seen in these verses.
We have first: the people whom the Lord is seeking, (v. 1):

The obscurity of the “seeker”, (v. 2): The rejection of His deity by men (v. 3):
The prophetic message of the Messiah, (v. 4):

The message of the sacrificial Lamb for all mankind, (v. 5):

The wretchedness of man and his need for redemption, (v. 6):

The suffering, death and resurrection of Christ on our behalf (vs. 7-9):

The invitation to man (v. 10):

The victory of the Savior and man over sin, (v. 11):

And the will of God completed to His own glory, (v. 12)

What a blessed and prophetic chapter that speaks of the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Just Musing

Just Musing

It is an amazing thing that we are all a product of our environment. I do not agree with the humanist in this statement, but what I mean is that we are like a product that has many elements, and each one plays a part in the development of the finished product. I think of food (of course!) and how the recipe, when followed correctly, will produce the desired results, and the food is satisfactorily received. If an ingredient is missing, the finished product suffers in the end, either in quality or in precision.
Now, look at your life; you are the total sum of all that you have grafted from others. You may have your parent’s charm; your sibling’s looks; your mentor’s brains, etc, but you are a unique individual nonetheless. Our idiosyncrasies and our “quirks” seem odd sometimes to others, but we had developed them from someone or something that we had come in contact with, and according to our understanding of it.

At birth, we barely had a personality, and that which we did have was mostly inherited. We learn from those around us, and develop habits according to that which we are exposed to; we have no habits of our own aside from natures’ habits that work through the miraculous body of creation, and even that is introduced to us as we grow; we learn to regulate it through training. Now, our God gives certain gifts, and they are not to be ignored, but we often attribute them, most unfortunately, to nature, and not to the Lord. In all we are the sum total of the people we meet and the things we have learned either by the ear, by the eye, or by experience, and that weighed in the scale of “scruples” and our estimation of right and wrong, and even that is a matter of learning. This being true, we are destined, to some extent, by others, in personality and in purpose; we are a product of those books we have read, that teach us to mentally reflect and weigh the knowledge of facts learned, and put them together according to the understanding we have of them, then we choose our way in life. If we are mesmerized by the deeds of outlaws of old, we will be somewhat rebellious, and outlaw of sorts in our thinking and in our walk; if we are impressed by the intellectual, and the accomplishments of science, we will be studious and self confident, and somewhat of a recluse to our studies; we will be an oddity in our society of gaiety and pomp. If we are taken with the wiliness of others, and the debauchery of their deeds, we will seek this power over the multitudes, as they seem to have; all this is generally speaking, of course. Do you see my point? Why should I be proud of what I am, if anything at all, when I am a little bit of so many others rolled into one? Yet those same ingredients are not found in exactly the same mixture and the same proportion in anyone else, because of all the mitigating factors; hence, I am unique in what I am, and so are you, my friend.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Christian Service

Christians nowadays put a lot of emphasis on our own works. What I mean is that we feel that the busier we are running to and fro, and doing the things we do “for the Lord” is our service or worship to Him. My friends, worship is a personal thing; it is an intimate relationship between us and our Savior. Our service may show that we believe; it may exalt us to certain heights, and gain us favor and position, but many times, it is simply a dead end when it comes to worshipping our Lord. Perhaps this is why we sometimes “burn out” for the Lord, we are too busy working to worship!

“Worship” is defined as:
“1. To adore; to pay divine honors to; to reverence with supreme respect and veneration.”
2. To respect; to honor; to treat with civil reverence. Etc.

This we do in our hearts, and not in our actions. Jesus said “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” (Jn. 4:24) I believe that this is what the lord was speaking of. The key word is “adoration”; when we truly adore someone, they are consume all our thoughts all the time, yet sometimes we get so busy serving the Lord, we do not take time to adore Him! Adoration is defined thusly:

“1. To worship with profound reverence; to address with exalted thoughts, by prayer and thanksgiving; to pay divine honors to; to honor as a god or as divine.
2. To love in the highest degree; to regard with the utmost esteem, affection and respect; as, the people adore their prince.” (Definitions from Webster’s Dictionary of American English, of 1828)

We worship the Lord in our “closet” rather than in our outward acts.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Billboards for Christ

Deuteronomy 22:5

Our bodies are the temple of God, but to “defile” the body is not a matter of what we eat, or how we let ourselves go, as much as it is that we use the body against which it was created for. In other words, “defilement” is a moral term, not a physical one. “Defilement” refers more to fornication and abuse of the body for purposes against God’s commands, than it does as to what we eat that is not “good for us”. Our bodies then, become a “billboard” for Christ. We are a living, moving, breathing advertisement for the Lord, or for the devil! You see, we can also defile the body by allowing it to advertise satanic messages, and “anti-Christ” things. For example, when we write all over our bodies, and promote witchcraft or violence, we advertise for the devil. We advertise for him when we defile ourselves with jewelry that promotes the world and witchcraft of some sort. For men to wear earrings is of the devil, because it promotes that which God gave to women for beauty and adornment. It confuses the distinction that He made between the sexes. That goes for necklaces, and any “wearing of that which pertaineth to a woman.” As seen in Deuteronomy 22:5. It is abomination to God. It promotes homosexuality, and defies the very core of creation in distinguishing between the genders. The same is true, by the way for the ladies; they are not to wear that which pertains to a man, and cut their hair like a man, or anything that is contrary to the normality that God intended. In so doing they become billboards for Satan. We need to be careful to advertise that which is right and proper, and not criticize the flesh for obesity, eating right, and other ways we interpret defilement of the body. Christ Himself said: “Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.” The defilement then comes from motive and not from what we eat or drink (although, in some cases, that too could reflect motive).