God does not reconcile the whole world. What
good would the harsh words by the apostle Paul about being accursed
have the effect of reconciling two parties that are at odds? The
only ones that are reconciled to God are the ones who are in Christ who
has satisfied the wrath of God, so that the two parties at odds can be
brought together. The rest of the world stands in an unreconciled state
before God. Gods wrath remains on them, there is no hope for
satisfaction of His wrath unless it is in Christ. The church is
the place where that reconciliation is worked out in the society of
enmity. There is no way that a Christian can be at peace with all men in
a Christian sense. First because we are free, and we are in a society
where we have been given a mediator. Christ is our mediator, who speaks
on our behalf, protecting us against false accusations, and leading us
to be at peace with all men, as far as it is possibly in us. We cant be
equally friends with every one, let alone those in the church. We would
nt need Christ mediators role and the supernatural togetherness if we
could be naturally at the same friendship with everyone. The
church is the place where disputes are handled. What ever has already
been done in heaven will be done on earth. We are carrying our the
ministry of reconciliation, first to those who are in the fellowship and
then to the world. But we are human beings who are in need of a go
between who is personal familiar with what God has purposed for us and
who is our shepherd. These are leaders who have been placed by God as
our go betweens in disputes. They are personally given over to our
protection, and the encouragement we need to reconcile. This is a life
long process. If the standard of reconciliation would be extended to
everyone in the world then we would be extending it to a standard that
God has not determined since He is not reconciled to everyone. This
process is very personal, and very slow, being that the church is always
in the process of reconciliation.
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Forums / Prayer Requests / Re: OK,...I need some prayer and its pretty important...so I'm asking plz....
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on: November 04, 2007, 02:15:18 PM
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My personal experience in all of this, is that
most of the time i get in the way of God. So theres more to the gospel
than i can possibly relay to the lack of understanding. Some times its
in a small voice, of us not saying anything. Sometimes its a very
profound conversation mixing philosophy and gospel and really screwing
the message up, sometimes its just saying Jesus. Sometimes its in a good
deed. But whatever it is will be what it is. Usually your questioning
yourself about your bad attitude or some quick words or a very dull
persona. Sometimes the message is so negative that you feel like
crawling out of the room on all fours and after you are by yourself you
feel that it spoke to you more than them. The message is so big that it
consumes us as well. What ever you desire to accomplish in
the society of the world will be what God uses to bring others to saving
faith. It may be in just lending a shoulder. But you are a small cog in
the sovereign plan of God bringing people to himself. We deceive
ourselves by thinking that if we are the ones who actually observe the
new birth that it was some how our convert. But God uses so many ways.
And usually they are unexplainable . I mean how could God use such dull
,sinful creatures to bring a sinner to Himself? Wow!
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Forums / Prayer Requests / Re: OK,...I need some prayer and its pretty important...so I'm asking plz....
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on: November 04, 2007, 01:21:59 PM
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We do not like to talk about the coming
judgment, in which all of the elect will be standing in the blood of the
wicked. But its not just an OT concept, that there will be the final
judgment. It is hard for us to accept that the apostle actually
called those who preached another gospel other than the gospel of grace
should be accursed. In other words those who want to live by the law
will be judged by that law, and receive the full judgment that the law
required. Because Christ received the full wrath of the Father for law
breakers, so that rejecting Christ is rejecting the Judge who earned the
rite by a perfect obedience to the law to be the final Judge over mens
hearts. So that if you stumble on that Rock, it will be that you dash
yourselves on that offence in the cross that will ring throughout all
eternity as the ultimate object of our praise and adoration. There will
be curses in this life and eternity to all who reject the Judge.
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Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Food for Thought
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on: November 02, 2007, 10:05:18 PM
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Here's one for you guys...
Isaiah
50:10Who is among you who [reverently] fears the Lord, who obeys the
voice of His Servant, yet who walks in darkness and deep trouble and has
no shining splendor [in his heart]? Let him rely on, trust in, and be confident in the name of the Lord, and let him lean upon and be supported by his God.
11Behold, all you [enemies of your own selves] who attempt to kindle
your own fires [and work out your own plans of salvation], who surround
and gird yourselves with momentary sparks, darts, and firebrands that
you set aflame!--walk by the light of your self-made fire and of the
sparks that you have kindled [for yourself, if you will]! But this shall
you have from My hand: you shall lie down in grief and in torment. (amplified version)
Pretty much says it all huh?
Eric
Great
stuff Eric! Yes, the prime example of worshiping God in our own
strength. Which is according to our own design rather than letting His
word direct our worship. God is to be exalted not man. God alone gets
the glory for our working out our salvation. We have no strength,
perseverance, or wisdom to carry it out. I do not trust in my sword. Its
from His right hand that i can carry on rite down to my breathing and
my sicknesses. Thats what happened when the Egyptians had the Israelites
cornered at the Red Sea, and then out of that utter inability to be
saved God parted the waters , and then left them to cover the enemies
armies. So the problem was nt that they lacked confidence on the other
side, they saw God act, they were completely convinced that God alone
was great, but then they forgot, they complained and were fearful that
God would nt come through for them again. But God is the same yesterday,
today and forever. And when we remember the great act of parting the
Red sea, we live in that utter dependence knowing that it represents
Gods wonder in our lives. If He can part the Red sea then He surely has
the ability to do as He pleases with us. And we glory in the fact that
we can come to Him in prayer who alone works to renew our lives. What
experience of our lack and His ability is the essence of our
understanding of true prayer.
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Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Food for Thought
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on: November 02, 2007, 03:30:27 PM
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Thats a good story. I am sure these boys are
being chastened as well. It could be being elected. He He just kidding.
But success is not always the measurement of spirituality, but what view
of God we have. I am sure that if we were living in Sodom and Gomorrah,
the voice of Christ would look revolutionary. Unless you wanted to be a
pillar of salt. Sometimes standing against the tide is required. The
Lord says that unless you leave houses, fathers ,mothers wives, and
drink of His life, then you cannot be His disciples. So yes, there are
warnings to the child of God, but we live in full confidence because we
live in Christ work on our behalf.You ve got to be loved before you can
love. We have a nation that has one wicked generation, and
another wicked generation growing into adults. These are special days
for believers. Women and children rule, and everyone has his own idol.
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Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Food for Thought
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on: November 02, 2007, 02:21:23 PM
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Thanks Bill, Yes, and we live in a day that
has seen much declension in Christian circles about the doctrinal view
of life. We have defined God down so that self determination has added
to relational conflicts rather than giving man a true view of himself in
this universe that is been determined to be renewed in spite mans good
intentions. And along with this new human relational paradigm we have
lost the wonder of these eternal verities. As you know we are
born sinners in a world that is being renewed by the power of Gods
irresistible grace. We are so very small in the working out of this vast
universal change. But because we are darkened in sin we seldom live in
the wonder of the supernatural renewal . And yet these things are
determined to end in God having the sole authority , in which all men
will bow down and acknowledge Him as having the rite to be the owner of
all things both small and great. If it were left up to our own
strength then there would be no hope in Gods unfailing love that wills
whatever comes to pass.Thats why He takes no pleasure in the strength of
horses or the legs of men. Because we are cast into a world that is
running that is beyond our ability to understand the nature or strength
of Gods order from the beginning to the end. It is just too much for us
to understand. The truth is that the natural laws of the universe
are working by His word. We cannot change the process of renewal
because we are not able to over ride Gods decretive natural order. When
we think that we have enough strength to help God along, is when we must
be broken and humbled. We are compared to the stars in the sky,
who draw their illumination of lite from God. We are not only warmed by
the word of God, but the length of our lives are determined by Him, the
kind of quality of life we live is decreed from eternity by Him, the
protection we enjoy is strictly left up for Him to work out in our
lives. We enjoy being up held as shining stars strictly by His
predestined choice from eternity, while the unsaved are cast out of the
sky to the eternal fires of hell. They only enjoy the physical
sensations of Gods renewal of all things for a short time. There
is nothing we can do to change Gods ordering all things to work out for
His glory. He has given us His laws and decrees so that we will be made
holy by the power of His word. If we were to see the wonder in all of
this we would begin to understand our purpose in this life. Our problem
is not that we can make ourselves into a good moral person, but that we
are not lost in the wonder of what He is doing to bring all these things
to an end. If we could begin to give Him the praise and adoration He
deserves, we would begin to be sanctified by the awe of Gods bigness.
Lets begin to have such a devotion and longing for His return that we
would have an intimate knowledge of hoping in His unfailing love that
brings us to the paradigm of joy and wonder we were determined to live
out before Him in HIs presence!
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Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Food for Thought
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on: November 01, 2007, 04:42:04 PM
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Good points all around, Bill and MA and everyone else.
Putting
the gas in my car does not necessarily say much about the doing in my
obedience. I think that was your point. I mean if i "do" in order for
God to bless, then my next good action of putting gas in my car to run
may be for selfish ends.
The question is not whether i am
willing to put the gas in my car but what kind of desire i have in
putting the gas in my car. I can put gas in my car for the glory of God,
or for strictly selfish reasons or self determination. I mean the
desire to put gas in my car is not the end in fulfilling the end desire.
The reason i put gas in the car is to go to a destination. My stronger
desire for the destination may be the reason i choose to put gas in my
car.
So that the desire or the motive is the cause of the choosing. The focus is not on the next best thing but on the desire.
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7038
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Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Love - Jesus Style
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on: October 30, 2007, 02:42:38 PM
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God is love, and when He loves us we
experience it as a final satisfaction. If we love others out of willing
to love, then love is frustrated and earned. The reason is that we love
because we are loved first. The perfect love of God is given freely. If
we loved out of duty then we would wear ourselves out because our
purpose for loving would be out of an interest we have in our strength
of ability in the duty. Gods love comes to us freely and fully. It comes
to undeserving people. And since we are undeserving the love is
unencumbered to work on behalf of the good of the person out of the
fullness of the one loving. Love is first a desire that one has
for an object. The desire to love comes from our minds view of the
Person who has loved us freely. When we love because of the person we
view as deserving of our love ,by seeing the beauty of Christ then we
love from a purified motive. If we grit our teeth and love by a
determination then we will have a view of the self love that comes from
the imagination of our minds of a love that is purely from selfish
motives. If we think that we can love because we first "will" to love,
we "will" to love based upon how it affects us having our minds eye to
our determination and not by how we were loved by Christ. It will not be
from a correct motive. Love that is effective comes from a
heart that is inflamed by the beauty of Christ and is designed to come
out of that gracious affection for Him as the only reason for us being
spiritually alive. The unregenerate can have acts of unselfish love ,
and better than most Christians. But the love is not out of grace
because it is determined by the moral character of the person and the
return reward one gets out of that gift. The love is for the purpose of
self gratification. But we love because love is in our desiring to love,
because we see Christ beauty by a principle that is implanted in us by
grace. We have spiritual eyes that will effect our energy to love by the
beauty of Christ. We love from an inflamed desire. If you want to love,
you got to be loved.
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Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Galatians, Anger At Church
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on: October 29, 2007, 01:41:35 PM
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The Trinitarian essence in the revelation of
the word of God is self authenticating. Where ever the word of God is
spoken, it does not return void. The purpose in the word going out is
fully able to have the end that God determines it to be. This is
why human wisdom is in conflict with the word of God. Human wisdom is
opposed to the word of God, because those truths are not of divine
revealing but are from within the corrupted heart of man. They start in
the mind of man, and go no farther than mans wisdom. We are born as a
result of the word of God coming alive in us through the work of the
Holy Spirit. How we come to an understanding of divine truth is by the
will of God and not by our own ability to apprehend saving light. It is
by the will of God and through grace. Because of grace it is not by
human intuition or design. Our veiw of receiving divine knowledge comes
out of the teaching of the word of God that we are blind, sinful and
unable to receive truth of ourselves. The word of God is an
eternal word. It is the revelation of who Christ is as the second person
of the Trinity. It is more than a proposition of truth, but it is
through the word that God has determined from eternity past to be put
into effect in time so that all things might have their end in bringing
Himself glory. Situations in a persons life are not determined to be
brought about as a result of an illumination of that purpose, but a
person is brought into that purpose from eternity from his birth. As God
is absolutely sovereign so that what ever comes to pass is decreed, we
are brought under the power of His word by His will being determined by
that word spoken in what transpires in our lives. Its not what we bring
to the table in our understanding of that word. Nor is it what we plan
that determines our response to that word. Were ever the seed of the
word brings salvation ,the soul is brought under the power of the word
through irresistible grace so that the essence of the Trinitarian work,
as the Father loves the Son, so the Son has loved us, and has brought us
to the Father, by means of that oneness that is shared in the essence
of the Trinitarian work, it is in the glory being revealed in the Son,
that we receive that unity of the working of the word as it is decreed
to us. The word is not of human invention, but through the irresistible
grace of God as we look into the face of Jesus Christ through the word
ofGod.
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Forums / Main Forum / Re: Part Four: Off the top sof your head, what does God desire...
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on: October 25, 2007, 11:43:27 AM
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I agree, If you have money, then you usually
have a lot of friends. You spend it socially with others who are there.
Usually when the money goes then the good times are cut off, social life
turns to feeling of being isolated. I mean look a Jesus, the most
giving person in the world, yet He really suffered being alone and the
feeling of loneliness. And on top of that He was fully aware of His
impending death and suffering. So acquainted with it that it was said of
Him that He was a man acquainted with sorrow. It was like knowing that a
nightmare was coming up and there was really nothing that you could
humanly do about it. He really did not have a home, money, and most all
of the people who followed Him for the miracles left Him at the most
trying time in His life. Jesus did not set up camp in this world, He had
no where to lay His head. The people from His home town were not
impressed either. The only capital He had to spend was performing the
miracles, but the masses did not believe that they were from a righteous
objective but through magic of the devil. Oh well, if you have riches
then there will be many friends but if you are poor there will only be a
few really genuine friends.
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