Thoughts On The Last Battle
"The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
1 Corinthians 15:56-57
While the Bible is one of the most poetical of books, though its language is unutterably sublime, yet we must remark how constantly it is true to nature. There is no straining of a fact, no glossing over a truth.
However dark may be the subject, while it lights it up with brilliance, yet it does not deny the gloom connected with it. If you will read this chapter of Paul's epistle, so justly celebrated as a masterpiece of language, you will find him speaking of that which is to come after death with such exaltation and glory, that you feel, "If this be to die, then it were well to depart at once."
Who has not rejoiced, and whose heart has not been lifted up, or filled with a holy fire, while he has read such sentences as these: "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"
Yet with all that majestic language, with all that bold flight of eloquence, he does not deny that death is a gloomy thing. Even his very figures imply it. He does not laugh at it; he does not say, "Oh, it is nothing to die;" he describes death as a monster; he speaks of it as having a sting; he tells us wherein the strength of that sting lies; and even in the exclamation of triumph he imputes that victory not to unaided flesh, but he says, "Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
C.H. Spurgeon
For further Meditation: Death is no laughing matter, but for the Christian it need not be a crying matter either. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14)
Being once dead in sin, now raised by God's mere mercy, to newness of life.
Showing posts with label Bible. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bible. Show all posts
Friday, May 14, 2010
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Twisting Scripture To Fit Our Lives
I was taken to a homosexual web site while trying to view a news story about Ray Boltz who was a Christian music artist who "came out of the closet" last year. He went on to proclaim he was gay but that he was still a Christian. I was amazed at some of the different postings on that web site. How these people twist Scripture to make it fit their lifestyles instead of making their lifestyles fit Scripture. One woman called Bible believing Christians "nothing but scribes and pharisees" and went on to state that Scripture says nothing about homosexuality. Included below is my response to her diatribe.
Just wondering, you say Scripture says nothing about homosexuality. What about Romans 1:24-27,
"Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them. 25, For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever. Amen. 26, For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error."
Sounds a lot like Paul is talking about homosexuals here.
You also seem to be very judgmental toward those of us who hold to the inerrancy of Scripture. As Christians, are we not supposed to live our lives as best we can, according to the Scriptures?? Did Jesus not say, "Why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not do what I say?" Luke 6:46
We certainly should pray for Ray Boltz that the Lord would bring him to repentance, but no matter how you want to twist Scripture to make it fit your lifestyle, homosexuality is still a sin and needs to be dealt with. No one can call themselves a true Christian if they continue living in sin and think its ok. If they refuse to recognize sin as sin and are unrepentant, then they risk dying in their sins and spending eternity in the Lake of Fire.
All sin is an offense to God, from lying to sexual immorality to murder and we have all sinned. This is why Jesus came into the world - to save sinners. He lived the perfect life that we are unable to live, thereby fulfilling the law for us. Then he died a death he did not deserve, thereby paying our fine. What would take us an eternity to pay for in hell, Christ paid for in just a couple of days. Then He defeated death and now sits at the right hand of God and will return soon to judge the living and the dead.
So for all the folks at TurningPoint and anyone else who claims to be a Christian, it is very important to know that it is we who need to make our lives fit to what Scripture says and not try to twist Scripture to fit our lives. We are the ones who are sinful and need forgiveness. We can't run around saying, 'well that was 2000, 3000, 4000 years ago so it no longer applies to us today.' We may have changed but God and His word never change. God tells us to, "Be Holy for I am Holy." So lets make 2009 a year of repentance and lets work to live by the teachings of Scripture and not make Scripture live by the teachings of man.
God bless
Rob
Just wondering, you say Scripture says nothing about homosexuality. What about Romans 1:24-27,
"Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them. 25, For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever. Amen. 26, For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error."
Sounds a lot like Paul is talking about homosexuals here.
You also seem to be very judgmental toward those of us who hold to the inerrancy of Scripture. As Christians, are we not supposed to live our lives as best we can, according to the Scriptures?? Did Jesus not say, "Why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not do what I say?" Luke 6:46
We certainly should pray for Ray Boltz that the Lord would bring him to repentance, but no matter how you want to twist Scripture to make it fit your lifestyle, homosexuality is still a sin and needs to be dealt with. No one can call themselves a true Christian if they continue living in sin and think its ok. If they refuse to recognize sin as sin and are unrepentant, then they risk dying in their sins and spending eternity in the Lake of Fire.
All sin is an offense to God, from lying to sexual immorality to murder and we have all sinned. This is why Jesus came into the world - to save sinners. He lived the perfect life that we are unable to live, thereby fulfilling the law for us. Then he died a death he did not deserve, thereby paying our fine. What would take us an eternity to pay for in hell, Christ paid for in just a couple of days. Then He defeated death and now sits at the right hand of God and will return soon to judge the living and the dead.
So for all the folks at TurningPoint and anyone else who claims to be a Christian, it is very important to know that it is we who need to make our lives fit to what Scripture says and not try to twist Scripture to fit our lives. We are the ones who are sinful and need forgiveness. We can't run around saying, 'well that was 2000, 3000, 4000 years ago so it no longer applies to us today.' We may have changed but God and His word never change. God tells us to, "Be Holy for I am Holy." So lets make 2009 a year of repentance and lets work to live by the teachings of Scripture and not make Scripture live by the teachings of man.
God bless
Rob
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
The Gospel of John - Part 6
Part 6 begins in Chapter 6:16-21. This is the miracle when Jesus walked on water. After feeding the 5000, Jesus goes off to pray and the disciples get into a boat and head for Capernaum. Jesus then comes to them in the night, walking on the water.
In the second half of the video, Jesus proclaims to the crowd that He is the Bread of Life. In verse 44, Jesus says, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day."
Jesus then tells them that they must eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood in order to have life. This of course causes much grumbling among the Jews.
Then again in verse 65 Jesus reiterates what he said in verse 44, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father."
Can anybody see the doctrine of Election here?? Salvation is all of God and none of us.
God bless and enjoy
Rob
In the second half of the video, Jesus proclaims to the crowd that He is the Bread of Life. In verse 44, Jesus says, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day."
Jesus then tells them that they must eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood in order to have life. This of course causes much grumbling among the Jews.
Then again in verse 65 Jesus reiterates what he said in verse 44, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father."
Can anybody see the doctrine of Election here?? Salvation is all of God and none of us.
God bless and enjoy
Rob
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Believing is Seeing
I just wanted to share with you something from Pastor David's sermon this morning that really struck me. Again this week we were back in the Gospel of John 8:48-59.
Pastor David again talked specifically about verse 51 where Jesus says, "Truly, truly I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death."
Of course, as we've been learning, that is really an amazing statement. Yes, our bodies will die but for those of us who are saved it will be like stepping gently into the next life. No matter how violent are physical death is, our spiritual selves will be transported immediately into the presence of the Lord.
But this was not the thing that really got me today. Instead it was something Pastor David said almost as an aside that really struck me today. It was when he said, "...you've probably heard the saying, 'seeing is believing?' Well actually it should be the other way around. It should be 'believing is seeing.'"
Wow! I never thought about that before but when he said that I thought, how true for the Christian. You know how sometimes your eyes can deceive you? You think you see something one way and it turns out to be something totally different.
Its for this very reason that eye witnesses at a crime scene or accident can't always be used as solid evidence in a court of law. If you think about it, if you have 4 people standing on a street corner and they all witness the same accident, you'll get 4 different accounts. That's probably why when people say they saw a UFO or a ghost, most of the time its really easy to explain it away as some other natural or man made phenomina.
But how true for the Christian that believing is seeing. As Scripture says, before we are born again, we are dead in our tresspasses and sins. Eph. 2:1 This death means we are completely blind to spiritual things and cannot see until God regenerates our hearts and removes the scales from our eyes.
No verse in Scripture speaks to this more clearly than 1Cor 2:14 which says:
"The natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned."
Exactly! Why can an unspiritual person not see? Because he does not believe. And the only way he will ever believe is if he is first drawn to Christ by the Father.
"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day." John 6:44
"...This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father." John 6:65
That's why when any unsaved person reads the Bible, yes they are able to understand the words and grasp the meaning of the text. But they will never be able to see the spiritual meaning behind the text. NEVER - unless God first opens their eyes through salvation.
I'll never forget when God removed the scales from my eyes. I had just recently been saved and I opended up a Bible and started reading a passage I had read many times before and all of a sudden I almost literally felt the blindfold drop off my eyes. All of a sudden I was seeing things in the words I had never seen before. I wept for a long time that night in utter amazement at what I was seeing now that I believed.
Folks, when you read the Bible is it really just words on a page? Does you heart not feel an emotional stirring of joy and a sense of conviction when you look at God's word? If your reading of Scripture is dead as a door nail, let me encouage you right now to come to the Lord in prayer, repent of your sins and ask Him to reveal Himself to you in a new way. If you do, believe me, the next time you seek Him out in His word, you too will be utterly amazed and you'll come to realize that Believing really is Seeing.
May God bless you richly.
Rob
Pastor David again talked specifically about verse 51 where Jesus says, "Truly, truly I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death."
Of course, as we've been learning, that is really an amazing statement. Yes, our bodies will die but for those of us who are saved it will be like stepping gently into the next life. No matter how violent are physical death is, our spiritual selves will be transported immediately into the presence of the Lord.
But this was not the thing that really got me today. Instead it was something Pastor David said almost as an aside that really struck me today. It was when he said, "...you've probably heard the saying, 'seeing is believing?' Well actually it should be the other way around. It should be 'believing is seeing.'"
Wow! I never thought about that before but when he said that I thought, how true for the Christian. You know how sometimes your eyes can deceive you? You think you see something one way and it turns out to be something totally different.
Its for this very reason that eye witnesses at a crime scene or accident can't always be used as solid evidence in a court of law. If you think about it, if you have 4 people standing on a street corner and they all witness the same accident, you'll get 4 different accounts. That's probably why when people say they saw a UFO or a ghost, most of the time its really easy to explain it away as some other natural or man made phenomina.
But how true for the Christian that believing is seeing. As Scripture says, before we are born again, we are dead in our tresspasses and sins. Eph. 2:1 This death means we are completely blind to spiritual things and cannot see until God regenerates our hearts and removes the scales from our eyes.
No verse in Scripture speaks to this more clearly than 1Cor 2:14 which says:
"The natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned."
Exactly! Why can an unspiritual person not see? Because he does not believe. And the only way he will ever believe is if he is first drawn to Christ by the Father.
"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day." John 6:44
"...This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father." John 6:65
That's why when any unsaved person reads the Bible, yes they are able to understand the words and grasp the meaning of the text. But they will never be able to see the spiritual meaning behind the text. NEVER - unless God first opens their eyes through salvation.
I'll never forget when God removed the scales from my eyes. I had just recently been saved and I opended up a Bible and started reading a passage I had read many times before and all of a sudden I almost literally felt the blindfold drop off my eyes. All of a sudden I was seeing things in the words I had never seen before. I wept for a long time that night in utter amazement at what I was seeing now that I believed.
Folks, when you read the Bible is it really just words on a page? Does you heart not feel an emotional stirring of joy and a sense of conviction when you look at God's word? If your reading of Scripture is dead as a door nail, let me encouage you right now to come to the Lord in prayer, repent of your sins and ask Him to reveal Himself to you in a new way. If you do, believe me, the next time you seek Him out in His word, you too will be utterly amazed and you'll come to realize that Believing really is Seeing.
May God bless you richly.
Rob
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