A Sobering Thought of Gratefulness

A Sobering Thought of Gratefulness

God is all powerful and all wise. God knows everything there is to know. In the scope of His righteousness and holiness, He can choose how to manage a scenario according to His influence and design.

With this said, consider the following,

When the Son of God went to the garden that night and bowed his head and said, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me:”, do you know what that means?

In all of God’s knowledge, and in everything that there is to know, God determined that there was ONLY ONE WAY He could justify sinners, and it was that his Son had to drink that cup, bear our sins in His body, and die on the cross.

In all of wisdom, creation, and time, that was the only way that God could remain just, but also be the justifier of the ungodly.

Rom 3:26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

What a sobering thought.
Oh Father, how grateful I am for your grace and wisdom.

Stop clinging to the law, and get filled with the Word

Stop clinging to the law, and get filled with the Word 

Rom 5:19-21 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. 20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: 21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

Sin and death entered the world throughout Adam's disobedience. In addition to sin and death, in Rom.5:20, Paul says, “the law entered that the offense might abound”. What does this mean? Simply this, that God gave the law for no other purpose than to reveal the sin that was already in us. Once the law is revealed, it highlights all your wretchedness! That's what Paul said in Romans 7, “O wretched man that I am…”. God's law revealed who Paul was in the flesh, and it continues even in this day, to reveal who we are in the flesh. God gave the law to reveal the sin that exists within us because of Adam's disobedience.

The Glory and Power of God’s Word within Us

The Glory and Power of God’s Word within Us

Paul provides some valuable insights into what will happen at our transition from these earthly ‘tents’ (flesh bodies) to our heavenly ‘building’ (spiritual, eternal bodies), 2Cor 5:1.

First, we must know that there are bodies for different purposes, for different environments, and which emit different levels of glory. Read the following passage to get the context,

1Co 15:39-43 All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. 40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. 42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: 43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:

First John is not a book for New Converts (as many pastors and preachers suggest)

First John is not a book for New Converts (as many pastors and preachers suggest)

In our modern denominational churches today, most pastors and preachers will point new converts and uninformed believers to the first epistle of John because it speaks of loving one’s brother, obeying the commandments, walking in the light, and that we are to overcome the world.

Dear friends, even though there are a few trans-dispensational truths in John’s epistle, that we can relate to in this dispensation of grace, the greater majority of first John is an intensely deep book, filled with Kingdom doctrine, which is specifically written for Jews living during the 7-year Tribulation and under the reign of the Antichrist. The advice and commands in this book are absolutely not relevant or appropriate to new converts or uninformed Christians in this age of grace. The content will throw most believers today for a wild loop and place them on a course that is definitely not suitable for grace living today.

Complicated Christianity is Not Biblical

Complicated Christianity is Not Biblical

2Cor 11:3  But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 

There are a few things this verse tells us.

First, Satan, through subtlety and craftiness will beguile people by enticing or luring them into a form of godliness, 2Tim 3:5, which appears genuine and sincere, but has slight deviations from the truth, consequently nullifying the grace of God and diluting the doctrine, Gal 5:3-4, like a little leaven that affects the whole lump, Gal 5:9.

Religion is one of the primary lures that deceives many. Religion focuses on an outward form of piety. All the rules, demands, holydays, observances, traditions, rituals, and practices, are all just a performance system that glorifies the flesh, or the outer man. There is such complexity in some of these religious practices that the Bible is utterly lost in all the theology and identity promoted by that institution.

Which law is Paul speaking of in Romans 3:31?

Which law is Paul speaking of in Romans 3:31?

The verse reads,

Rom 3:30-31  Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.  31  Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

The short answer for what is the law in this verse:

One could point to the original law, the Mosaic Law, aka, the moral law, which will suffice in the context of this verse, but it can also be extended to define any set of external rules or regulations that are enforced upon us in expectation of obedience, conduct, and performance. Law is typically what we DO in our own strength to appease the will of a governing power.