“If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”  (Galatians 5:25)

“He that saith he abideth in [H]im ought himself also so to walk, even as [H]e walked.”                                                                                                                                              (1 John 2:6)

 

The Christ-ian life or rather the healthy Christ-ian life revolves around (3) three basic actions and they are 1. Prayer  2. The Reading of Scripture and 3. The fellowship of the saints or in other words, other Christ-ians. Other things one can do to deepen their faith is to listen to Christ-ian music, sing songs to self and God,  and preach to self.  These actions are means to bathe yourself in the faith. The more you interact with the faith the more it will grow and become part and parcel of your person. In this article we will give practical counsel concerning the (3) three actions from above.  By bathing yourself in your Christ-ian faith you will grow in your faith and you will become more like Christ.

By bathing I mean burying yourself in your faith or as Paul said, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” St. John adds that we ought to walk as [Christ] walked and we know He lives and walked in the Spirit. If we are to be like Him, we too, must walk “even as [H]e walked.”  Christ said that he does “always those things that please the Father.”  Pleasing God should be our sole motivation as it was our Lord’s focus. Now, on to the (3) three actions that will allow us to live a healthy Christ-ian life.

1. Pray:  Beloved, prayer is to your spirit what air is to your body. It is written concerning Paul, “[B]ehold, he prayeth…”  This was said by the risen and already ascended Christ to Ananias, a disciple.  Paul, then called Saul, was a new Christ-ian and as a new Christ-ian, “he prayeth…”   I have been blessed by God with a trinity of daughters. I was present at their births and when they exited the womb and entered the world they all took their (1st) first breath outside the womb and they cried. When a sinner is born again, born anew, or born from above s/he, like a newborn baby, cries out to God and behold s/he prayeth.

Like the Geiko commercials say, “If you are a Christ-ian you pray, that’s what you do.” Beloved, the Christ-ian is a person of prayer. David said in one of his Psalms, “I [am] prayer.” He saw himself as prayer personified. We should be prayer personified. Paul exhorts us to “pray without ceasing” and to be “instant in prayer.” To be instant in prayer implies that the pray-er is already in the spirit of prayer or is already fellowshipping with God. To pray without ceasing is to remain in the spirit of prayer and that means we should consciously walk with God as Noah and Enoch “walked with God.” Another way to explain this ceaseless prayer is to use the word state. A Christ-ian can and may enter into a state of perpetual fellowship with God through a constant awareness and acknowledgment that God is Present and your thoughts are towards Him.

A simple acknowledging of God’s Presence and your cognitive awareness of the Blessed Presence is silent and wordless prayer. An analogy to help: When (2) two strangers are in each other’s company, whether in a car or a small office space they tend to make small talk in order to alleviate the awkwardness and the silence. I’m sure you know of what I speak. When you are with someone you know and are comfortable with the silence does not produce awkwardness. The silence is fine, this is what it is to dwell perpetually in God’s Presence and to remain in the spirit of prayer.

Our formal prayers should be full of thanks and praise to God. Our prayers should have in them our confessions of sin and our petitions. This is the format Christ gave us in John six. However, to dwell perpetually in God’s Presence we should speak to Him often as one would speak to a revered and beloved friend. We should speak to Him as if He were actually present because beloved, He is.  I am exhorting you to treat your Lord as being very present…if you burp, ask His pardon. If you receive news of any kind, ask the Lord for His thoughts upon the subject. To fellowship with God is a state of perpetual awareness can be likened unto a child with an imaginary friend, the difference is your Friend is not imaginary…your Friend is Almighty God.

2. Read your Bible: We do not read the Bible like we read other books. Other books can be picked up and read without any preparation. The Holy Scriptures, however, are not picked up and read, the Scriptures are to be engaged as one engages a friend. If you desire to benefit from your Bible reading, I mean really benefit in a great way you will read it prayerfully. You will read your Bible interactively.

Before you engage the Scriptures ask God to bless your reading of His inspired and inspiring Word. As you read the Scriptures you will come a cross exhortations and commands, at these points, stop reading and pray in regards to the exhortation or command. For example: “Be ye holy for I am Holy.” At that command stop reading and look to God and tell Him of your desire to be holy like Him. Ask Him to grant you the grace that you might grow in holiness.

If you happen to be reading about Elijah, you might stop reading and ask God for a spirit of boldness like Elijah has. Maybe you are reading the (4th) fourth Psalm and you read,   “[T]hou hast enlarged me when I was in distress…” You might then and there call upon God and ask Him to enlarge you so that you might also face your whatever as David did. As you read through the book of Acts you will find the Apostles saying, “For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” After reading those words you might ask God to grant you the grace and boldness to speak of the things you have seen and heard from Him.

As you read the Word you will become familiar with the men and women in the Word. You will learn of their exploits and adventures; you will learn of their character traits. You will see the attributes that make them the person they are. When you find a trait that is good and you realize that you do not have that trait, ask God for that trait. If you read about someones’s bad trait or traits, you might realize that that trait is in you too. Then and there pray and ask God to help you curb that trait or mortify that trait altogether.

When you are reading the Gospels and you behold the courage, compassion, charity, and the character of Christ, fall upon thy face and beseech God to conform you to His Likeness… Tell Him that you want to be a little Jesus and that you want your light to so shine before men so that they will glorify your Heavenly Father.

 

3.  Fellowship with other Christ-ians: This is essential to a healthy Christ-ian life as are the (2) two actions above. If you take a charcoal out of the grill it will soon cool off. Likewise, a lone Christ-ian will cool off if s/he is alone, especially a new believer, in fact, God said from the very beginning that it is not good for man to be alone. Christ-ian fellowship, whatever the form, is that which will edify you. The author of Hebrews exhorts us to provoke one another unto good works. In order to provoke one another we must be in each others company. The wise man said, “Iron sharpeneth iron” or in other words, Christ-ian edifies and encourages Christ-ian. If you want to benefit from your faith and grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, your Lord, you must engage the faithful and be engaged by the faithful…it’s that simple.

To summarize: “[L]ittle children,” as John calls us, Pray, read your Bible and fellowship with your holy family and you will find that you are holy and healthy.

Godspeed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“But you shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and you shall be witnesses to me…” (Acts 1:8a.)

“For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”  (Acts 4:20)

 

There are pre-requisites to witnessing to the Lord.

1. You must be saved and indwelt by the Holy Ghost.
2. You must understand the doctrine of salvation and be one with the Gospel for you are part of your message and your message is part of you.
3. You must know that you will be rejected or rather Christ will be rejected through your rejection.
4. You must know that some will come to Christ.
5. You must know that witnessing can be a (10) ten second Gospel presentation to someone you meet as they are living life or a many year endevour as you witness to a single person.
6. You must know that one plants the Gospel seed, another waters that Gospel seed, but it is always the Lord that gives the increase.
7. You must know that prayer is absolutely essential before, during, and after a witness to Christ is given.
8. You must know that salvation is the Lord’s work and you are His instrument.
9. You must know the purpose of your witness. Our purpose in witnessing is of course the individual to whom we are speaking however, the greater and larger purpose is God’s glory.
10. You must know that to be a witness to Christ is a high and holy calling as well as a priviledge.

 

Once you meet these requirements you will develop your own style and method of sharing the Gospel. Paul calls the Gospel of Christ, “my Gospel.”  So it is with you and me; the Gospel of Christ is my Gospel…is your Gospel and with anything else you and I must become familiar with our Gospel and we must be completely persuaded to it’s veracity and it’s power to save.

In a discussion with Pastor Ron Ruben of LightHouse Baptist Church on this topic he said that one should begin with handing out tracts and getting comfortable with this style of witnessing and then move on to a more personal style. This seems to me to be a sound and painless method. Another way to witness is to make it known that you are a Christ-ian. This can be done verbally if one is of a bolder nature or it can be done quietly by taking a Bible to work and being seen reading it. One might put passages of Scripture at their work station or cubicle. By having these things seen is not a replacement for the personal one on one witness, however, once you are known to be “religious” it will be easier for you to share your faith and witness to Christ.

Another method that has been useful to me is the word Amen. I use the word Amen in place of nodding my head or other mannerisms one uses to acknowledge a person that is speaking. Amen lets the person know you might be a person of faith. One might use Scriptural language in everday discussions with others. I rarely leave a person without a “Godspeed” (Except Jehovah’s Witnesses…to wish them Godspeed is forbidden.) T-shirts are great witnesses if you are a t-shirt person. Instead of advertising for a television program or a sports team you could advertise for your Lord, the Lord, Who saved you from your sin and it’s penalty, power, and pleasure.

Another simple way to witness to Christ is by way of inviting a person to church.  You might say, “I’d like to invite you to Church this Sunday. Our Pastor talks about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Lord, and how He can save a person from sin and it’s aweful penalty.”  You might say, ” You should come to Church with us this Sunday and hear about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

When you witness to a stranger you probably will never see him or her again anyway, so what is there to lose? The alternative to the last sentence is the person may have ears to hear and may very well come to Church to hear more so there is everything to gain.

My method of witnessing to a stranger is this: I simply ask them if they attend Church and where. I ask them if they know Christ as their Lord and Saviour. If they answer in the negative I slant my head a bit, furrow my brow  and act as if I have come a cross a new species of human (my purpose is to cause them to feel like the odd man out and that it is right and normal to attend Church). I then suggest to them that they should attend Church because it is at Church where they can hear the Gospel of Christ’s death and resurrection and how He can save them.

Another method I use is challenging persons having a Bible study at coffee shops. I’ll ask them if they really believe in the man in the sky and then I begin to tell them that it sound ridiculous to me, by then the persons are defending their faith for all the other customers to hear. I then congratulate them on their steadfastness and reveal myself to be a fellow lover of Christ. We then pray over these persons and thank God for their faithful witness.

Another way to witness is to tell the person you are talking to what the Lord Jesus has to say upon the subject you are discussing. For example:

Person A, “This country is going to destoy itself.”

Person B, ” You know what…you’re right! The Lord Jesus said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

As you can see there are a myriad of ways to share Christ with the lost.  Let us be faithful to the One we love by speaking of Him, His Works, His Words, and His Ways.

“For it pleased the Father that in [H]im should all the [F]ulness dwell; And having made peace through the [B]lood of [H]is cross, by [H]im to reconcile all things unto [H]imself; by [H]im, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.  And you, that were sometime alienated and ememies in your mind buy wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled.  In the [B]ody of [H]is [F]lesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in [H]is sight:  If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel…”  (Colossians 1:19-23a.)

 

There is a very real danger in proclaiming  “Once saved always saved”  in the presence of a mixed multitude.  A mixed multitude is groups of persons and in these groups there consists the Biblically literate men and women in Christ and are striving to become more Christ-like. Also present in this multitude are those not in Christ but falsley profess Him anyway and still those that are in Christ but have fallen away for whatever reason. Another group that might be present is the men and women that are in Christ but are not yet born again…some of these may be pretending to be born again.

Each person that represents (1) one of the above mentioned groups in our mixed multitude will hear something different when a preacher proclaims “Once saved always saved.”

The Biblically literate hear a doctrine that has Biblical basis but is being presented improperly. This doctrine is being preached in such a way that might lead a false believer or a back-slidden believer to the false assumption that they can continue in their wayward state without consequence. The person who is not in Christ may hear this proclamation and though s/he is not under any Spiritual conviction “will receive Christ” just to play it safe. The other persons present will hear it however they will hear it but it will not be sound.

Further danger is realized when the preacher that proclaimed “Once saved…” approaches a church attendee and questions his or her non-Christ-like life style and the attendee responds with “You’re right, Padre, you’re right I should be better.” However, this person never does better and one could be assured that it is due to their lost condition and that dangerous doctrine that was improperly taught and proclaimed over and over.

How should the eternal security be taught and proclaimed? This doctrine of eternal security should be, must be taught as Scripture presents it.  We saw in our last article the words of our Lord, Who is eternal Truth, “He that endures until the end shall be saved.” We can cite other Scripture: “Your salvation is nearer than when you first believed,”  “Your salvation draweth nigh.” as well as the text from above. These passages rightly teach the perseverance of the saints.

Before we write upon the doctrine of the persevering saint allow us to define, “Salvation.” Salvation is more than the forgiveness of one’s sins by God.  The term, salvation includes the doctrines of Foreknowledge, election, the calling of God, justification and the predestination of the saint to become Christ-like and our coming glorification. Therefore salvation is both complete and continuing. Salvation is complete as God has determined it complete yet it is continuing as we continue to become more like Christ through the progessive and deepening sanctification of the Holy Spirit and our upcoming glorification which God states as past, “glorified” (Romans 8:30)

The doctrine of perseverance then is the saint continuing in salvation or working out one’s salvation with fear and trembling. This doctrine however, should not cause anxiety in the truly born again child of God for the child of God will continue in the faith grounded and settled and [shall] not be moved away from the hope of the gospel and s/he shall endure until the end. This doctrine should cause anxiety to the person that continues to live in sin after making a profession of faith and it should be a cause of anxiety for the back-slidden for often times very little separate the two in their lifestyles.

This doctrine of perseverance is an important tool in the minister’s tool box.  It is to be used when he reproves or rebukes a professing saint.  If the minister misapplies the “once saved always saved” the warning of perseverance is lost to him and impurity shall set in in the House of God.

The minister of God should hold high the standard of holiness that is a part and parcel of a person’s salvation.  “Be ye holy for [God] is holy” should ever be upon his lips. The exhortation to faithfulness unto the Lord should ever be proclaimed from the pulpit. The minister of God should always be aware of his example of holy living and it should be taken with the utmost of seriousness. The minister of God must “Take heed unto [himself] and His walk…perpetual, unceasing walk with God. He must “live in the Spirit,” “walk in the Spirit,”  “Be led of the Spirit,”  “War in the Spirit,”  and “Pray in the Spirit.” The minister of God must remember that he is part of the message he preaches. The minister, by his righteous life, should “condemn” the wicked around him as did Noah. The minister of God should encourage those that desire Christ-likeness.

Let us all be conscious of the things we say for people are listening. Let us all be certain that we are clear and correct upon that which we proclaim to be God’s Word lest we be false teaches, preachers, and prophets…God forbid.

Godspeed

“An I give unto them eternal life: and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of [M]y [H]and.”  (John 10:28)

[Nothing] shall be able separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (Roman 8:39b.)

“If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel…  (Colossians 1:23a.)

“He that shall endure to the end shall be saved.”  (Christ in the Gospels)

 

One can see plainly from the (4) four texts from above that the Scriptures teach (2) two opposing doctrines. Since there are no mistakes or contradictions in Scripture we have no choice than to believe the (2) two opposing doctrines.  We have taught in the past the difference between a contradiction and a paradox. A paradox is a seeming contradiction that is proven not to be after being studied.

The doctrines above are neither a contradiction or a paradox. They are both true while being different. The top (2) two passages teach that salvation is a gift that is without recall yet the following (2) two passages teach that salvation is kept by those that “continue in the faith grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel” and “that endure until the end shall be saved.”

We have a couple of choices in how we react to the above doctrinal teachings.  We can accept them as both true and seek to understand what that means or we can seek how we might explain one of the doctrines away so that our favorite remains.  Taking the second choices first: The person or denomination that seeks to explain a doctrine away does so in order to wrest Scripture away so that their favorite remains. Another reason one is taught while the other is evaded may be that both are simply not known due to an ignorance of the whole counsel of God. The person that seeks to understand how both doctrines can both be true in one that is true to Scripture.

The way this writer teaches these doctrines is that the person that continues in the faith grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel will endure until the end and they will be proven to be recipients of eternal life and they shall never perish and nothing shall separate them from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus the Lord.

These (2) doctrines can also be used by the pastor in his dealings with differing persons in order to meet their differing needs for example:  The person that is stuggling with their salvation yet they be faithful to God is in need of being comforted with the doctrine of eternal security and that nothing will separate them from God’s love that is in Christ Jesus [their Lord].  However, the person that is backslidden or is possibly not even saved is in need of the dire warnings of Scipture and the warning of not enduring until the end or the failure to continue in the faith grounded and settled in the gospel!!! For a pastor to teach “once saved always saved” to one that is not displaying a born again condition is a great danger himself.

The person that confesses and repents of a backslidden state proves to be one that may endure to the end and prove to be one of God’s own. The person that fails to repent may prove not to be one of God’s own.

The purity of the church and the spiritual well being is a most important responsibility of the faith pastor and minister of Christ. The means of keeping the church pure is by the sound preaching of the whole counsel of God and by being a faithful shepherd to the Lord’s flock which includes the disciplining of the flock. The minister is not fulfilling his responsibility to God or the church if he fails in any of these tasks regardless of the pain involved.

The above mentioned responsibilities of the minister should be in the oder listed and in they are faithfully administered they should take care of the next one.  The faithful administering of the whole counsel of God should take care of the flock and limit the need for disciplining.  While the one on one dealing with a backslidden believer the preaching of God’s Word should take care of most of the discipline.

May God bless this article to God’s faithful minister and to those that need to be reproved and possibly rebuked.  [Sidenote:  There is not a minister in mind as we write these words.]

“Ye have heard it said,… but I say unto you…”  (Matthew  5)

“But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.”  (Matthew 12:6)

“Or else how can [O]ne enter the strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except [H]e first bind the strong man…”  (Matthew 12:29)

“…[B]ehold a greater than Solomon is here.”  (Matthew 12:42b.)

“Being so much better than the angels…”  (Hebrews 1:4)

“How then doth David in spirit call [H]im Lord…”  (Matthew 22:43)

“Before Abraham was I Am…”  (John 8:58″)

I was in another mall today and saw another “Hot Topic” store. In this particular store the T-shirts were catorgarized by theme.  In this particular store there was not the image or conception of the Lord Jesus wearing “Terminator” glasses with the words, ” I’ll Be Back.” This is because our Lord does not fit into any human catagory. He is above it all.

The Lord Jesus Christ, Who is the First and the Last, Who is the Alpha and the Omega, Who is the The Beginning and the End, Who is the Firstborn of all things made that was made, Who is the Son of God,  Who is the Lord of the Living and the dead, Who is King of kings and Lord of lords, Who is eternal and immutable and Who sits in Heaven and does as He pleases is better than… and is (Christ > …) greather than…

To those who are blessed to be chosen and elect in Christ know that whatever follows the (…) elipses matters not to the eternal and everlasting equation. The Word of God says so, Christ says so, Theology says so, formal logic says so, His people say so, and I hope you say so as I know I do.

The Word of God says so: The Word of God declares Christ to be the Creator of all things and to be the Upholder and Maintainer of all things by the Word of His Power. Since Christ is Creator, Upholder and Maintainer of all things that are made, He is then greater than those things that were made. Scripture tells us He made the angels, the [H]eaven and the [E]arth and all that is under the heavens , on the Earth, in the earth and under the earth. We are told He created all that is visible and invisible, He created that which is good and that which became evil. The mountains quake at His Voice and at His Presence, nature hearkens to His command, Christ, Creatot of all things is greater than all His things.

Christ is greater than the Temple, Moses, and the Law: Christ is the Law-Giver therefore He is Author and Creator of all morality, and ethics. Christ is the reason we stand in line at the grocery store without cutting in front of others, He is the reason we do not take things from others, He is the reason we understand what fairness is.  He is the Creator of the human conscience that feels guilt when His Laws of morality and ethics are broken. Christ is greater than the Law that was written in stone tablets, for He created the Law and it’s letter that kills, and it’s spirit than gives liberty. Thinks me when Christ was confronted with the woman taken in the very act of adultery and kneeled down and wrote in the sand He was intimating to the Pharisee (plural) that He was, in deed and in fact, the very Writer of the Law they were trying to use against Him. The Christ-ian is greater than the temple too, for the Godhead inhabits the spirit of His certain man and certain woman and we, our complete person, is called the temple of God.

Christ is greater than (s)atan and the kingdom of darkness, sin and death. Christ is not deterred by the darkness for Scripture tells us that He sees through the darkness as if it were light. The Psalmist tells us that God dwells with in darkness, therefore, if He uses the darkness to His purpose then He is greater than the darkness that serves Him. From Matthew 12:29, Christ declares that He is stronger than the strong man, (s)atan, that takes [the lost] at his will (2 Timothy 2:25b.). He demonstrates His authority and ability to bind (s)atan when He expels (s)atan’s minions from His Holy Presence and the vessels they possess and torment. We, that are in Christ, know that He and His grace is greater than ous sin for He has forgiven us our sin, and has cast it far, far away because where sin did and does abound He and His grace doth much more abound!!! We also know He is greater than death for He has defeated death and He mocks it (1 Corinthians 15).

Christ is greater than the (2nd) wisest man in Scripture: “…a greater than Solomon is here,”  doth our Lord proclaim.  Christ is greater and Wiser than Solomon for Christ was Solomon’s Wisdom (Proverbs 8).  Christ is our wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:28) and Paul teaches that God gives wisdom liberally to those who seek it and doubt not that He can and will give it and to those that will not doubt the God-granted wisdom itself for, “the wisdom of God is wiser than the wisdom of man.”

[Sidenote: Christ said that the grass is adorned greater than Solomon (Lord Jesus knows this because He was present in Solomon’s day…He was implying that fact to push the buttons of His adversaries when He disclosed that fact.). Christ also said that we are more important to God and greater than the grass and it’s flower also. With that being said, we are also greater than Solomon too……”Wait!!! Wait!!! Wait!!!…What did he just say,” you might have just thought, but hear me out. The Holy Spirit, Who is Omniscient inhabits you and me, therefore, Omniscience dwells with in us and is relegated by measure and need through the channel of our conscious mind and our thoughts and it is called wisdom].

Our Lord’s adversaries beheld His Wisdom when He defeated, debunked and dismissed them and all their attempts to discredit Him or to put Him in a corner. The Gospels tell us that once the defeated and debunked adversaries realized that His Wisdom was far greater than their’s they departed and confronted Him no more….until they colluded with His other adversaries and sought to have Him murdered.

Christ is better than David: Our King and Lord is the King of kings and Lord of lords. David was a great king…the greatest over the unified kingdom.  Christ, however, is greater than the greatest king of all Israel. Christ is greater because His sovereign rule and reign is eternal. Christ is greater than the greatest king of all Israel because He has and, will again, defeat, dismiss and this time, dispatch all of His enemies as He dispatched your sin and mine.

The Lord Jesus is greater than Abraham for He was before Abraham and Abraham “rejoiced to see [Christ’s] day: and he saw it and was glad.”  Christ is more patient than Job and is more Just than Lot.

Our Lord Jesus is greater than you and He is greater than me for, “[T]he servant is not greater than his [M]aster.” Christ is greater than you and He is greater than me and He is greater than our fears, our concerns, our infirmities, and our sin. Christ is greater than…. (Christ > ………………….)

Godspeed.

 

 

 

“[The Lord Jesus] “left Judea, and departed again into Galilee. And He must needs go through Samaria.”  (John 4:4)

Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is no [O]ther [N]ame under [H]eaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”  (Acts 4:12)

“For [Jacob and Esau] being not yet born, neither having done good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calls…”                                                                                                                                  (Romans 9:11)

 

Beloved, the fundemental and foundational doctrine of divine election is fact. Election stands as God’s right to give life to whom He wills. Election is not based in or on works, as Romans 9:11 clearly states. Election is based in…

“*Him that calls” and  “*whom He called, them He also justified, and whom He justified, them He also glorified.”   “*Having predestinated [them] to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of [God’s] will, To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He has made us accepted in the beloved.”   “*He also did predestinate [us] to be conformed to the [I]mage of His Son, [so] that He might be the [F]irstborn among many brethren.”   “*[And] as many as received [The Lord Jesus], to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His Name.”                             (Romans 9:11b.; Romans 8:30; Ephesians 1:4; Romans 8:29; John 1:12)

We can see from the above passages that Election is, in deed, the very foundation to our salvation and this is reason to walk humbly and to praise and thank God forever. The doctrine of election should cause us to live with a spirit of perpetual gratefulness and thankfulness. Thanks and praise should be our starting point in all things. Thanks and praise to God should always be somewhere in our mind and heart. The Christ-ian is a Thanksgiver and is a Praiser and Worshipper of the Godhead.

Our God is the God of the individual person. He is the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. He is God to His people and peoples, and He is God to the “certain man” and “certain woman” upon whom He has “chosen to salvation” and upon whom He has placed His eternal and unconditional love.

From our text above we read, “He must needs go through Samaria.” These words present us with a question. “He must needs?”  This is a dilemma, readers, for the “He” in our text is God Incarnate  and it intimates that God “must [do something]” and “needs.”

We must look to a syllogism for this to get straightened out:

For God to be God He must be Self sustaining / If God is Self sustaining, He “must need(s) for nothing / Therefore, God “must need(s)” nothing.

But Scripture clearly says, “He must needs go through Samaria.”

Our Great, Good and Almighty God has, of His own free will, deigned or condescended to our low estate and became our Surety.  “What a Saviour is our LORD and God” Our God is the Elector and Keeper of the individual person….of His “Certain man and Certain woman”

Our Lord Jesus must needs go through Samaria because there was one of God’s certain women there. He went through Samaria so “that election might stand.” After meeting and disclosing His Person to God’s certain woman, she went and told others of her encounter with the God-promised Messiah and they came and met God Incarnate, too. He went through Samaria because He had certain persons to redeem.

From Acts 4:12, We see that “[W]e must be saved.”  The We is the same as the Us in 2 Peter 3:9; “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering toward us-ward, not willing that any of [us] should perish, but that all of [us] should come to repentance.” Further more, the We and the Us are the same as the Whom in our Electing Lord’s own words, “…the Son makes alive whom He wills.”

Another example or picture or type of God’s electing salvation is found in John 5:2-9; There was a pool in Jerusalem, that was a place of healing. The Scriptures state, “For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.”  The inspired narrative continues…”And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity (38) thirty and eight years.”  The Great Physician, “saw him lie” there in his disease, his lameness, and his depravity.

Lord Jesus began a conversation with the impotent, certain man, who was one among, “a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water.”  As the conversation deepened, the Lord asked the certain man, ” Will you be made whole?” The certain man answered, “Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steps down before me. Jesus says to him, “Rise, take up thy bed and walk.” and the certain man immediately was “made whole, and took up his bed, and walked…” After our Lord made whole the certain man, He was verbally assaulted by the Jews for working His miraculous work on the Sabbath. After the Lord finished with His adversaries, ” [H]e went over the sea of Galilee…”

From the recorded event at the pool, we see our Lord bring healing to only one man; a certain man. The attentive reader may wonder why only one man was the focus of our Lord’s mercy and compassion. The healing of the certain man is a picture, a type, a reminder of our God’s elective  and unconditional love, for He said, “I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”

Beloved, This doctrine of Divine, Merciful, and Compassionate election is the doctrine that would, that should, and that could quicken and mature your faith into hope and your hope into abounding and abiding love toward your God.

 

 

 

 

“A (1,000) thousand shall fall at [Y]our side, and (10, 000) ten thousand at [Y]our right [H]and; but the [arrow or pestilance] shall not come near [Y]ou.  (Psalm 91:7)

“O death where your sting? O grave where is your victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”  (1 Corinthians 15:55-58)

 

The quoted passages above fit the definition of rousing. Paul’s rousing and evoking words are second to no other. Paul’s words above, from 1 Corinthians 15, is the Christ-ian’s hope and battle cry. The Psalm from above also provokes hope and passion in the believer or it should.

Often times when my children and their friends leave our home I charge them with Paul’s words of steadfastness, unmovability and perpetual abounding.

One of the titles given to this article is, “The Aweful Promise of God.”  When most hear the word aweful they think bad or terrible or even horrible, however the Scriptures mean it as being filled with awe or amazement. In the Psalms we are encouraged to be in awe of our God….”Stand in awe of your God and sin not.” Those who know God’s greatness and big-ness know that “God is so big; so strong and so mighty; [and] there’s nothing [their] God cannot do.” Those who know God’s goodness and power know that He is “the God of the impossible.”

Those who are blest and allowed to know God intimately walk by faith and not by sight; they trust in the Arm of God and His Right Hand and do not trust the arm(s) of flesh. We that “know God or rather are known of God” look to Him and the promises made by Him in His Word. This writer has found, in all cases, God and His promises are to be trusted fully and without doubt, “As your faith is, so be it unto you,” said God’s Right Hand, “Your faith has delivered thee,” He says elsewhere, and He also said, “only believe.”  John the beloved teaches us that, “[our] faith is [our] victory.”

One of His promises is quotes above and is (1) one of out titles. Psalm 91:7 promised many shall fall at our side but we will remain and we will stand. This is an aweful promise. To be true to Scripture we must point out that Psalm 91 is a promise to Christ and refers to His resurrection and final, complete and utter victory over sin and death. But beloved, a promise made to Christ, our Head, is a promise made to us, His Body.

In (1st) First Corinthians 12, Paul teaches that the church and it’s many members are the many members of Christ’s Body. The inference taken from that is our earthen, and kingdom promoting activities and ministries are instructions delivered to us from our Head. We receive these instructions through the Nerve Center that is The Holy Ghost and God’s Word.

Christ said to us that “The gates of hell shall not prevail” against the Church, Christ’s Mystical Body. However, we see many ministries closing it’s doors in this “world that lies in [perpetual] wickedness.” Does this then contradict the Words spoken by Christ and the promises made by God?  The Body of Christ experiences the loss of beloved members all the time.  Christ-ians, our siblings, are being persecuted and killed in this “present evil world” everyday. It would appear that the church is being massacred before our very eyes!!!

“Only with your eyes shall you behold and see the reward of the wicked” (Psalm 91:8). Though we are seeing the Christ-ian church massacred in our very sight we must remember that we walk by faith and not by sight. Though we see the wicked gaining ground the promise of God still stands…we shall see the reward of the wicked. I for one believe Him and not what I am seeing and hearing.

How does one explain then the seemingly apparent assault and destruction of the church, whether by persecution or by atrophy?  The local church, the buildings, the human bodies, the outward works are all viewable by sight as is the persecution and the atrophy thereof. But beloved forget not, we walk by faith, we walk in the Spirit, we live in the Spirit, we are led of the Spirit. We are taught from inspired Scripture that that which is “seen is temporal and that which is not seen is eternal”  When we see the church being persecuted or seemingly vanishing away let us remember the Cross….The disciple saw their Friend, their Brother, their Master, their Savoiur die.

But behold, beloved, the disciples also saw Him raised from the dead as He declared victory over the grave and over sin. The Church…the mystical, invisible, eternal, Body of Christ will rise, will be raised…and will live in eternal victoy and the eternal one-ness between Christ and His Body of many members shall be made sight!!!

The abiding and divinely maintained hope that breathes within each member of Christ’s Holy Body is their salvation and is the foundation or their “greater works!!!” This abiding and driving hope is the grown up and matured faith of the believing member. This hope has been rewarded by it’s Giver and Maintaining many many times. We have many examples in Scripture. Moses and the Body of Israelites saved at the edge of the Red sea; Elisha delivered from a king’s wrath by the host of Heaven; Hezekiah and his kingdom protected by an Angel of God Who killed an entire army in one night; Peter and Paul, both, miraculously and divinely released from prisons; and Paul raptured to safety by Roman soldiers as a crowd of Jews sought to kill him.

We see from the above paragraph that God will use supernatural methods to aid His servants and He will use natural means to deliver His servants…both are of God and both are an answer to one’s God honouring hope.

Another method or means of safety that is used by God, is indeed and in fact, death. In Scripture death is known as the sting or result or reward of sin. However, death, like so many others means is (2) two edged. Sin entered our world and became intrinsic to all humans through the deception of (s)atan and the fall of Adam. ” For by one man” sin and death entered our world and reigned over all men. In the present sin continues to reign over man but not over all men. We know that sin and death yet reigns over many, as a Sovereign, because sin and it’s reward remains as part of the human condition or the old creation still in Adam.

“But God commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died [and rose again] for us” (Romans 5:8) …us being those that have, do and will believe. Also, God was not willing that any [of us] should perish, but that all of [us] should [must- Acts 4:12] come to repentance”  (2 Peter 3:9).  God uses the double edge of death to save, deliver, and bring His servants Home. God saves, delivers, and brings His servants home once they have, “finished [their] course” and after they have “fought a good fight”…the “good fight of faith[fulness].”

It is because of Christ Jesus the Lord of the Living and the dead that death has it’s (2) two edges,  “O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory,?” mocks Christ our Victor. Death is a dragon that Christ has broken and tamed. Death now serves Him and His body of many members. The world that walks by sight and stumbles due to it’s spiritual blindness sees the Body of Christ in the throws of defeat. The believers, the many members under Christ’s Headship, walk by faith and are seeing the salvation and deliverance of God….We see the aweful promises of God being kept and our hope being honoured, for God honours them that honour Him.

Therefore, Beloved, In light of this truth and our abiding hope; “be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord [The Work He has, by His Spirit, delegated specifically and especially to you], forasmuch as you know [Faith believes; Hope knows] that your labour is not in vain [that is wrought for and] in the Lord.”

Onward Christ-ian Soldier,….Onward and Upward to Victory and to Christ, Victory’s Champion and God’s King Eternal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Godspeed.

“Even a fool, when he holds his peace is counted wise: and he that shuts his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.”  (Proverbs 17:28)

“Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.”  (1 Corinthians 15:33)

“Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good and to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace to the hearers.”  (Ephesians 4:29)

“…[T]hose things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceeds evil…  (Matthew 15:18, 19a.)

 

I came a cross a website called Landover Baptist Church.org. The reason for going to that site was due to a headline I read while doing a search for something else. The article described how many persons are being evangelized in Cyber space. The article continued with some quotes from members of this church. Here is (1) one; [The site services] lots of sissy gay boys and fat little paleface wicca girls on the server so they don’t have to deal with their pathetic lives. When they hear someone loves them, even if it is the Lord Jesus Christ they always want to hear more.”

I admit that I may not have the greatest sense of humour, but this site seems to over the top. As I researched the Landover Baptist Church, I found that it is not a real church, instead it is a parody on the stereotyped legalistic church. The developer was a student of Falwell’s Liberty University in the (80’s) Eighties and was expelled from the university. The developer then produced this website that parodies the legalist church as an act of revenge, I would suspect.

I am familiar with the legalist mindset and it leans more toward the letter of the law than the Spirit of the law. This article is not about the legalism, however, this article (DV) will focus on the lost’s perception of the Church and the unknown spirit that lashes out against the unbelievers.

St. Peter tells us that judgement begins in the house of God. St. Paul encouraged persons to examine themselves to see whether or not they are truly born again and sanctified in Christ and to prove all things. St. John, the disciple whom our Lord Jesus loves, tells us to “Test the spirits…” In the beginning of our Lord’s public ministry He was teaching His (12) twelve disciples about the narrow way and the Strait Gate. He was discipling these men that had been Hand-picked by His Father in Heaven and given to Him to instruct and to prepare for a life lived for God.

John in these early days was stern and ready to avenge and judge anyone that would disrespect the Lord, his Lord. In (1) one case John was angered by the Samaritan people. The Samaritan people would not receive the Lord, due to His race (it seems) so John, with his brother James, asked the Lord, “[W]ill [Y]ou that we command fire to come down from {H]eaven, and consume them, even as Elijah did?”  Our Lord was aghast at John’s suggestion of murder and, “He turned, and rebuked [John and James] and said, “You know not what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” After this rebuke, “…they went to another village.” Our Lord is Longsuffering.

[Sidenote: Years later James, our Lord’s (1/2) half brother; not the same James from above, would be inspired to write, “…the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity…” and this uncanny similarity of words is one of the marks that shout, “the Scriptures are God-breathered,” due to the compelling consistency of the One Voice and the One Author and Finisher].

As I pondered the parody website and it’s over the top intentions to skewer legalism I thought of John’s early days with the Lord. I then recalled a discussion I had with an “evangelistic” atheist. This atheist spoke with me and told me about his interactions with Christ-ians. He spoke of being scratched, spit upon, and being condemned to hell by the Christ-ians that he would come a cross. To be fair and to be logical and critically minded, I think the atheist probably goated and instigated the persons he was telling me about; Atheists are no saints, especially the militant evangelical types. They seem to lie in wait for an opportunity to instigate believers into giving in to the flesh.

However, my ponderings caused me to think about the warnings of Solomon, Paul. and James in regard to our communicating with the lost. In the quoted texts above Paul said, “Evil communications corrupt good manners.” The word communications, in the greek, speak to companions but Paul also said, “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth…” which means unwholesome words.

The point Paul is making is persons of ill repute are not proper friends and when a person begins to speak unwholesome words, they are harming others as well as themselves. Our Lord also teaches us that evil speaking comes from the heart of the speaker. Paul also wrote, “The wrath of man does not work the righteousness of God.”

We read in John’s Gospel that Christ, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. I know the context of this passage yet I do see principle also. Our words can hurt like a fist and once those words are spoken they will dwell among the hearer(s) for ever.

Let us be like David and pray for God to put a guard upon our lips.

 

“{He is] I Am: and you shall see the Son of Man sitting on the [R]ight [H]and of [P]ower, coming in the clouds of [H]eaven.  (Mark 14: 62)

 

Recently my family and I went to a shopping mall.  I enter a store called, “Hot Topic” and in this store there was a plethora of t-shirts. The majority of the t-shirts were corrupt and ungodly. Before you ask yourself, “Self, why did he go into a store like that?” let me answer you. I go into stores like thatwith the intent of letting my light shine…I am a friend of sinners and publicans. Moving on……there was this one shirt hanging upon the wall amongst and in the midst of all the other shirts.

This one shirt that was hanging on the wall in the midst and amongst all the other shirts stood out. That shirt had a likeness of my Lord and Saviour on it. The image was what you would expect, a man with a beard and long hair. At the bottom of this shirt had the words, “I’ll Be Back.”  I think I was to infer from the image of the Christ, wearing sun glasses and the words , “I’ll be back” on the bottom of the shirt that the maker of said shirt was comparing Christ to the the “Teminator” from the Terminator movie franchise.

Your writer is a man that is compelled to draw the attention of others to God and when he sees a shirt like that he is compelled and he is in his element. ” You know,” said this writer to the persons in the ‘Hot Topic ‘ store, “That shirt…that shirt right there is a comfort to some and is a dire warning and threat to others.” To this the clerks, politely and without scorn, acknowledged the truth of the double edged sword of Christ’s coming. They seemed to understand that the coming of Christ is a factual event that is to come.

I was surprised by the reaction of the (2) two clerks. We then encouraged them to “Get Christ right” and suggested that they read the (3rd) third chapter of John. There is hope, readers…there is hope.

The coming of Christ….is it a comfort and blessed hope to you or is it a dire warning and threat? The coming of Christ….is that something you “wish” is still far in the future? Reader, that is a sign that you are not where you should be in your relationship and fellowship with Christ. The coming of Christ…reader, is that your blessed hope? Beloved, is He your blessed Hope?

“For as the body is (1) one, and has many members, and all are members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.”  (1 Corinthians 12:12)

In this article we would like to distinguish between Christ-ianity and Christendom. Christ-ianity is a name of our faith; the Apostles called it, however, the way. Calling our faith, the way points to Christ Jesus Who is the Way. Why do we not use the apostle’s use of the words, the way?  We cannot use that term because it has been hijacked and bastardized. “This is the way to…”  “All ways lead to God,”  “We do it this way,”  We don’t do it that way.”  Therefore, “The Way” is out as a manner of distinction. Christ’s, Narrow Way has been usurped, by the serpent, making it the broad way of which Christ spoke.

The enemy doesn’t change his ways or methods. The term Christ-ianity, like the Way, has been highjacked and bastardized. America is thought to be a Christ-ian nation…it is not. To be sure, America was founded upon Christ-ianity but, like Adam, the first man, America has fallen short.

Christ-ianity has yielded to Christendom.  Christ-ianity was the faith that was first delivered to us, not by flesh and blood, but by the Spirit of God; the Christ-ian faith was received as it was the Word of God. Christ-ianity was a faith of singularity, the faith had it’s own peculiar marks that distinguished it/us from other (s)atanically influence religions.

“And it came to pass” that the singularity of the common, yet parodoxically singular, faith was made broad. Christ-ianity has given way to Christendom. Christendom is a word that  takes in anything that makes claim to be Christ-ianity. The Catholic Church is part of Christendom, as are the mormons. Even, Gandhi, a great man, by human standards, thought and called himself Christ-ian, “I like your Christ, but I dont’t like your Christ-ians,” he was quoted as saying. Gandi would then be part of Christendom but not Christ-ian.

The parable of the wheat and the tares is a good example of Christendom. The tares grow among the wheat and imitate the wheat. Christendom is made up of all those that are imitating true Christianity, but are not…they have no part with Christ. Christianity is our faith; Christendom is anything and anyone that makes a claim to our singular faith. These false claims and impostors to the faith are necassary, as Paul said, to, show what is the true faith.

I have noticed that many are using the term, “Christ-follower” to describe their faith. The many do this because they do not want to be caught in the net of Christendom. The Christ-follower wants to be distinguished from the dregs and profane pretenders that profess piety. The Christ-follower want their light to so shine that others may see and glorify the Father.

As some or many are distancing themselves from the monicker of Christ-ian, due to it’s broadness, they are defining themselves with new  names, like Christ-follower. We would like to share some titles or names that might also distinguish us from Christendom.

1. Christ-ologist: A Christ-ologist, by the definition of the sussix, is a student of the prefix. To call one’s self a Christ-ologist is to define one’s self and one’s passion for the study of Christ Jesus. The suffix, “ology” speaks to the study of a subject, for example, a geologist studies the earth, a criminologist studies the criminal and the nature of crime, a psychologist studies the psychie or the mind. The prefix, then, defines what the study is focused on. In our case it is Christ, who we study. The purpose of diligent and determined study is to learn or to obtain or to gain knowledge that will effect something or someone. Therefore, the Christ-ologist is a student of Christ. The Christ-ologist seeks and hopes to be effected in some way by the study of the Man Christ Jesus. The hope of the study is to be like the Subject. The hope of the diligent study is to become like Christ. I am A Christologist, are you?
2. Christophile: The suffix phile denotes love as in Philedelphia…the city of brotherly love. A person who loves books is called a bibliophile. A person the loves all things British is an anglophile. Therefore, if one is a Christ-ophile s/he is a lover of Christ. Christ tells us that if we love Him we will keep His words and commands. John said, “we love the [Godhead] because He first loved us. John further teaches us that if we love God, we must also love: the Word of God, the Law of God, and our siblings of God. Therefore my diligent reader, A Christ-ophile is a person who loves Christ, keeps his words and commandments and loves the Word of God, the Law of God and their brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers in Christ.
3. Christ-Centered: That which flows from the Christ-centered person is pure, true, good, and holy….in other words, Christ-like. The Christ-centered are those that esteem others before self, they seek to bring or point to the glory of God. From the Christ-centered comes wisdom, knowledge, understanding, truth, encouragement, inspiration, aaaaaand reproofs and rebukes and instructions in righteousness. The Christ-centered has the deep reverence for God and it is seen and it is known. The Christ-centered is perennial in their acknowledgement of God’s good graces, their works and words and their worldview is Christ-centered.                                                The person who is indwelt by the Spirit of the Christ: studies Christ, loves Christ, and is Christ-centered and is centered in and by Christ.

I am a Christ-ologist; I am a Christ-ophile; I am, by grace, Christ-centered. What are you? Are you Christ-centered, are you a Christ-ophile, are you a Christ-ologist or are you some-thing Christendom in name only?