I hope you find this helpful in your search for truth and as you share the gospel with others. Dad
You mentioned how Israel came to God and then walked
away from God and came back and so on as an example that we can lose our
salvation. Romans 9 explains this. “ It
is not as though the word of God had failed.
For not all Israelites truly belong to Israel, and not all of Abraham’s
children are his true descendants; but …..this means that it is not the
children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the
promise are counted as descendants.” The nation of Israel may have fallen away from
God but not all it’s inhabitants fell away.
Being born again happens in a
moment. Becoming like Christ takes a lifetime. And finally through resurrection
at the second coming we will be changed in the twinkling of an eye-- immortal
imperishable. Once born again you can
not be unborn – this applies to both physical life and spiritual life. Sanctification is our daily walk with Christ
maturing process and we go through ups and downs in life and have families and
careers and makes friends and lose friends etc.
God molds us into what he wants us to be for his kingdom as we yield to
him. No one completes this process
perfectly but Gods word says : he who started a good work in us is faithful to
complete it
(Philippians 1:6). We must take God at his word for we have
nothing else – as Peter said after all Jesus followers had forsaken him but the
twelve & Christ asked if the twelve were going leave him also – Where shall
we go? Only you have the words of eternal life.
No truer words were ever spoken.
How can the clay say to the potter what are you doing? We must trust and
obey daily through the power of the the holy spirit living within us and stay
attached to the vine which is Christ. As
Paul said: to know the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his
suffering. To know Christ and him crucified.
All else I consider loss. And as
Job said: though he slay me, yet will I serve him.
Outward
appearances can be deceiving. Consider
Judas. For three years, he was part of
Christ’s inner circle. From all outward
appearances, he was a true follower of Christ.
Yet, Jesus characterized Judas as “a devil” (John 6:70). The book of Hebrews warns us that there were
Jews who, like Judas, tasted God’s goodness and yet turned from his grace. They acknowledged Christ with their lips, but
their apostasy proved that their faith was not real. Furthermore, we would do
well to remember that everlasting life means just that—life everlasting. This life does not begin when we die but when
we embrace the Savior who died in our place.
As our physical birth can never be undone, so too our spiritual birth
can never be undone, Christ said “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7), not “ye
must be born again and again and again.”
In Philippians, Paul praises God for the confidence that, “He who began a
good work in you will carry it on to completion” (Philippians 1:6)
Finally,
Scripture is replete with passages that testify to the security of the
believer. John 5:24 assures us that “he
who believes..has eternal life”; 1Cor1:8 promises that Christ will “keep you
strong to the end;” And Jude 24 guarantees that God “is able to keep you from
falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault.”
Moreover, Ephesians provides the surety that “you were marked in him with a
seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance
until the redemption of those who are God’s possession” (1:13-14).
Back to being born again I wanted to stress a few things
that happen at that moment: There is no
set emotional reaction to being born again except maybe the feeling of
forgiveness and a weight lifting off our backs and a peace of sorts related to
knowing you’re on your way to heaven.
Tears come for many but I personally did not cry. I remember actually being aware that I had
just given my life to Jesus and looked inward and reflected on my emotional and
physical state and wondered why I didn’t feel anything if the spirit of God had
just entered me. I honestly felt nothing
but the peace and comfort of knowing by God’s word that if I died I’d go to
heaven because of what Jesus did for me on the Cross. Obviously at that point in my walk I knew
close to nothing about God except that he loved me enough to send his son to
die for me. I remember actually feeling
like scales had fallen from my eyes and I couldn’t understand why others
couldn’t seem to see it or want it.
Christ had taken my broken worthless sinful life and was now going to
make something beautiful out of my ashes and dust. How could anyone turn this down. I always liked Joshua’s words --But if
serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day
whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River
Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites (today we could replace that with Humanism,
Darwinism, Scientology Muslim, etc), in whose land you are living. But as for
me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
ASSURANCE OF SALVATION:
A pastor once told me if we can lose our salvation then Jesus’ death on
the cross was insufficient. The Holy
Bible says that nothing can snatch us out of the Fathers hands once
we’re we’ve given our lives to Jesus - and since “we” are included in the word
“nothing” that means not even our own personal choice to walk away from God can
make us unsaved once we truly accept Jesus as savior. Being born again begins a process that cannot
be reversed. Hebrews 12:7 says It is for
discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is
there whom his father does not discipline?
This verse and many others like it have no meaning if you can just walk
away from God and become unsaved by doing so. Those who walk away from God and don’t have
the spirit hounding them to get right again obviously were never saved to begin
with or else the spirit would be disciplining them to get the back in
line. A true believer always wants to
please God and do his will -- the spirit of God has been called the hound of
heaven and will not let you rest until you repent and confess your sin and get
back in fellowship with him again.
Notice I said fellowship not getting born again again. Also the verses that talk about grieveing the
holy spirit make no sense if when we walked away from God we were no longer
saved and the spirit left us – its ridiculous we would have to worry every
second of every day whether we had blown it enough to be unsaved again. Where is the peace and joy in that. No – only
eternal security and knowing we are saved no matter what we do makes sense. Yes, some may take that as license to sin,
but not those who are truly saved. Shall
we sin that grace may abound? God forbid.
Even that verse make no sense if you can lose your salvation. I hope I’m making some sense to those finding
themselves reading this.
TRINITY
While it has become increasingly popular to suggest that the
doctrine of the Trinity is derived from pagan sources, in reality, this
Christina essential is thoroughly biblical. The word “Trinity” ---like
“incarnation”--- is not found in Scripture; however, it aptly codifies what God
has condescended to reveal to us about his nature and being. In Short, the Trinitarian platform contains
three planks: (1) there is but one God;
(2) the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God; (3) Father,
Son and Holy Spirit are eternally distinct.
The first
plank underscores that there is only one God.
Christianity is not polytheistic but fiercely monotheistic. “You are my wtnesses, declares the Lord, and
my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand
that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me”
(Isaiah 43:10).
The second
plank emphasizes that in hundreds of Scripture passages the Faterh, Son, and
Holy Spirit are declared to be fully and completely God. As a case in point, the Apostle Paul says
that, “there is but one God, the Fatehr” (1 Corinthians 8:6). The father,
speaking of the Son, says, “Your throne, O God, will last forever and forever”
(Hebrews 1:8), And when Ananias “lied to the Holy Spirit,” Peter points out
that he had “not lied to men but to God” (Acts 5:3-4).
The third
plank of the Trinitarian platform asserts that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
are eternally distinct. Scripture
clearly portrays subject/object relationships between Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. For example, the Father and Son
love one another, speak to each other (John 17:1-26), and together send the
Holy Spirit (John 15:26). Additionally,
Jesus proclaims that he and the Father are two distinct witnesses and two
distrinct judges (John 8:14-18). If
Jesus were himself the Father, his argument would not only have been irrelevant
but it would have been fatally flawed; and if such were the case, he could not
have been fully God.
It is
important to note that when Trinitarians speak of one God they are referring to
the nature or essence of God. Moreover,
when they speak of persons they are referring to personal self-distinctions
within the Godhead. Put another way, we
believe in one What and three Who’s.
We can apprehend this concept but not fully comprehend it. I would not worship a God I could fully
figure out. God has given us enough to
work with in this life – the next life is our hope and where we should be laying up treasure by
doing good works for Jesus and winning souls for the kingdom.
For further
study see James R. White “The Forgotten Trinity”, 2001
Matthew 28:19 “Therefore go and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit.”
ESSENTIAL CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE
The importance of essential Christian doctrine can hardly be
overstated. First these are the very
doctrines that form the line of demarcation between the Kingdom of Christ
and the kingdom of the cults. While we
may debate nonessentials without dividing over them, when it comes to essential
Christian doctrine there must be unity.
Hence the maxim: In essentials unity, nonessentials liberty,
and in all things charity.
Furthermore,
essential Christian doctrine is the North Star by which the course of
Christianity is set, Just as the North Star is an unchanging reference point by
which sailors safely guided their ships, so essential Christian doctrine has
safely guided the Church through the doctrinal storms that have sought to sink
it. Shooting stars light the sky for a
moment; following them, however, leads to shipwreck.
Finally,
essential Christian doctrine is the foundation on which the gospel of Jesus
Christ rests. From his deity to the
eschatological certainty that he will appear a second time to judge the living
and the dead, essential Christian doctrine is foundational to the gospel. All other religions compromise, confuse, or
contradict these essentials. Muslims,
for example dogmatically denounce the doctrine of Christ’s unique deity as the
unforgiveable sin of Shirk. They
readily affirm the sinlessness of Christ, but they adamantly deny his sacrifice
upon the cross and his subsequent resurrection as the only hope of salvation.
Essential tenets of the Christian faith are:
We should all inscribe the essentials on the tablet of our
heart around the acronym
D-O-C-T-R-I-N-E. It is my prayer that you will become so
familiar with essential Christian doctrine that when a counterfeit looms on the
horizon you will know it instantaneously.
Diety of Christ
Original Sin
Canon
Trinity
Resurrection
Incarnation
New Creation
Eschatology
Diety of Christ – Jesus in the eternal Creator God (John 1,
Colossians 1, Hebrews 1, Revelation 1)
Original Sin – Romans 3:23 all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God. While the notion of
generational curses and spirits is foreign to Scripture, there is a sense in which all people are cursed as a
result of Adam’s rebellion. The 2nd
Adam (Christ) took care of this problem. (Rom 5:12-21)
Canon - The Bible records
predictions of events that could not be known nor predicted by chance or common
sense. For example, the book of Daniel
(written before 530 B.C.) accurately predicts the progression of kingdoms from
Babylon through the Medo-Persian Empire, the Greek Empire, and then the Roman
Empire, culminating in the persecution and suffering of the Jews under
Antiochus IV Epiphanes with his desecration of the temple, his untimely death,
and freedom for the Jews under Judas Maccabeus (165 B.C.). It is statistically preposterous that any or
all of the Bible’s specific detailed prophecies could have been fulfilled
through chance, good guessing, or deliberate deceit. “A case for Christ” and “Has God Spoken” are two good sources for
further study.
Trinity – Though this word in not in the Bible it aptly codifies
the essential Biblical truths that there is one God and has three distinct
persons within the Godhead --the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit which are
eternally distinct—meaning one never becomes the other as some groups profess.
Resurrection – All four canonical gospels record the bodily
resurrection of Jesus fromm the dead.
The immutable fact of Jesus’ resurrection is the cornerstone of
Christian faith, because it not only vindicates Jesus’ claims to diety, it
ensures the future bodily resurrection unto eternal life of all who believe in
Jesus Christ as their Savior and proclaim him as Lord(1Cor 15, 1 Thess
4:13-18). The historical reality of the
resurrection can be demonstrated through the fatal torment of Jesus on the
Cross; the empty tomb—(early Christianity could not have survived an
identifiable tomb containing the corpse of Christ); the post—resurrection appearances
of Jesus; and the transformation of believers throughout the ages whose lives
have been radically altered upon experiencing the resurrected Lord.
Incarnation – The doctrine of the Incarnation is aptly summed up in
the words of the apostle John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God…And the Word became Flesh and dwelt among us,
and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full
of grace and truth” (John 1:1,14). The
clear testimony of Scripture is that, in the Incarnation, Jesus Christ was fuly
God and fully man; that is, He existed as the perfect unity in one person of a
divine and a human nature (John1; Colossians 1). As Theanthropos (“God-Man”), the spotless “Lamb of God” (John 1:29)
lived a perfectly sinless human life and died a sinner’s death to sufficiently
atone, once for all, for the sins of humanity (Romans 5:1-21; Hebrews
10:11-18).
New Creation – The essential doctrine of New Creation is aptly
codified in the words of the apostle Paul: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new
creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2
Corinthians 5:17). All who believe in
the resurrection of Jesus Christ and confess him as Lord are reconciled to God
and inherit eternal life in his glorious presence (John 3:16; Romans
10:9-10). Jesus’ resurrection from the
dead inaugurates the renewal of all things.
The new creation of faithful believers and the new creation of the
natural world will be consummated in the resurrection when Jesus returns bodily
to earth as the conquering king (Romans 8:18-25).
Eschatology – The study of end-times—its importance is difficult to
overemphasize. It is the thread that
weaves the tapestry of Scripture into a harmonious pattern. It is the study of everything we long and
hope for. Early in Genesis, Adam and Eve
fell into a life of constant sin terminated by death. The rest of Scripture chronicles God’s
unfolding plan of redemption. Although
Christians debate secondary aspects of eschatology, such as the timing of the
tribulation or the meaning of the millennium, we are united in the truth that
just as Christ came to earth once to bear the sins of the world, so too he will
return again to gather the elect and to usher in the resurrection of all things
(1 Thess 4:13-18; Hebrews 9:27-28). On that day, the just will be resurrected
to eternal life and the unjust to eternal conscious torment and separation from
the love and grace of God (John 5:28-29).
Paradise lost will become paradise
restored, and the problem of sin and Satan will be fully and finally resolved (Revelation
20-22).
1
Timothy 4:16
“Watch
your life and doctrine closely.
Persevere in them, because if you do
you will save both yourself and
your hearers.”
1If I speak in the tonguesa of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,b but have not love, I gain nothing. 4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Greater is he who is in you; than he that is in the
world.
WE are called to love others, not change them. If you struggle with pride Remember we are but dust and without Jesus we are hopelessly worthless
and lost. This world brain washes us to believe we should be self reliant and
have self esteem and self confident which are all completely the opposite of
what God says. When we are weak, then we are strong because we rely on Jesus. He tells us to cast all
our care on him, to be dependent on him like a child, and that we can do
nothing with him, and its not by our might or our power, but by his spirit the
battles are won daily. Yes god wants us
to be confident, but not in ourselves but in HIM and what he can do thru
us. The
world is constantly bombarding us with half truths and subtle lies to deceive
us and get us off track.
I know you're already a thankful and grateful
person, but I thought I'd share the following comment anyway. It helps
me when I feel angry or I'm mad at someone. – its impossible to
have a bad attitude and be bitter and hateful if you have a thankful and
grateful heart. It’s impossible – they
trump the bad attitude every time. Praying for a person or situation really helps as I'm sure you already know. It is
to your glory to overlook an offense.
God bless you all, Dad
Oh Olivia and I saw Hunger Games - Donald Sutherland played a bad guy. Olivia got mad how they manipulated the games.
No comments:
Post a Comment