Tuesday, December 13, 2011

REBUKE AND GRACE

How is it then that miserable men dare to be proud, either of their free will, before they are freed, or of their own strength, if they have been freed? They do not observe that in the very mention of free will they pronounce the name of liberty. But “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. ” If, therefore, they are the slaves of sin, why do they boast of free will? For by what a man is overcome, to the same is he delivered as a slave. But if they have been freed, why do they vaunt themselves as if it were by their own doing, and boast, as if they had not received? Or are they free in such sort that they do not choose to have Him for their Lord who says to them: “Without me ye can do nothing;” and “If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed?” 
– Augustine, On Rebuke and Grace, Chp. 52

Monday, December 12, 2011

Did God get much

When you go out of a Church meeting and say, "I didn't get much out of that meeting tonight." That's not the point! How much did God get out of it? Did He get worshipped? Did He get adoration? Our only business on earth is to glorify GOD
You don't worship God standing up... you worship God on your belly....worship is speechless adoration! How much time have you spent with Jesus today? When is the last time you've gone to Him and said, "I'm not going to ask you for a thing... I come to worship you in spirit and in truth." via. K.S.R.

Friday, December 9, 2011

PAGAN GODDESS

"The free will is a pagan goddess that the Church has worshipped for far too long." ~ Steve Lawson

Thursday, December 8, 2011

ESSENTIALLY ATHEISM

"Opposition to divine sovereignty is essentially atheism." ~ Charles Spurgeon

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

GOD PRODUCES ALL

In efficacious grace we are not merely passive, nor yet does God do some and we do the rest. But God does all, and we do all. God produces all, we act all. For that is what produces, viz. our own acts. God is the only proper author and fountain; we only are the proper actors. We are in different respects, wholly passive and wholly active.---Jonathan Edwards

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

WHO IS WITH ME

I am keeping the incarnation, perfection, substitution, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, reigning, returning, and exaltation of God in the public discussion. Who is with me?

Sunday, December 4, 2011

GOD IS ETERNAL

"Since nothing but God is eternal, nothing but God is worth the loving." - Stephen Charnock

Saturday, December 3, 2011

WONDERFUL WORDS OF JESUS

I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are wise and very beautiful; but I have never read in either of them: "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden." ~Augustine

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Puritan Prayers

Grant me never to lose sight of The exceeding sinfulness of sin, The exceeding righteousness of salvation, The exceeding glory of Christ, The exceeding beauty of holiness, The exceeding wonder of grace.
~The Valley Of Vision~Prayers of the Puritans

ALL OUR THOUGHTS

All our thoughts concerning Christ and his glory should be accompanied with admiration, adoration, and thanksgiving. For this is such an object of our thoughts and affections as, in this life, we can never fully comprehend,—an ocean whose depths we cannot look into. If we are spiritually renewed, all the faculties of our souls are enabled by grace to exert their respective powers towards this glorious object.

~John Owen

NORMAL OR STRANGE

"Worldliness is what any particular culture does to make sin look normal and righteousness look strange." ~ David Wells

Friday, November 25, 2011

UTTERLY PASSIVE

Arminians...

A [g]ospel which teaches that the difference between the man in heaven and the man in hell is something that the man in heaven did on his own steam and apart from the grace of God is a blasphemous parody of the True Gospel. The man in hell simply did not use his Almighty Will properly and the man in heaven did.... this is a man-centered works-based [g]ospel which is not good news at all.

Man does not find it within himself to properly coordinate his decisions and thus choose to save himself. A man is only saved if the LORD gives him the gift of faith. Arminians teach that faith is what man does independent from God and that God is waiting on man to straighten up and fly right. Scripture teaches that man is dead, in need of new life, and thus unable to help himself. Scripture also teaches that faith is a gift from God and not something that man must locate within his thoroughly wretched self. One [g]ospel is all about what man does and that system hates the fact that faith is given to man as a gift. The True Gospel is about what God gives to man as a gift, not what man chooses to do as an independent agent. One is works-righteousness and one is salvation by grace alone. The reason that faith is not a work is because it's not something that man does, but rather something that man receives as a gift. The rebel sinner who is guilty of high treason and who lives on death row has one option: receive mercy. Man is utterly passive in salvation, lest any man should boast.

In Christ,
Dennis Keesee

Thursday, November 24, 2011

ALL THINGS WHATEVER ARISE

"All things whatever arise from, and depend on, the divine appointment; whereby it was foreordained who should receive the word of life, and who should disbelieve it; who should be delivered from their sins, and who should be hardened in them; and who should be justified and who should be condemned." - Martin Luther

PREPARING

While Jesus is in heaven, preparing a place for His people, the Spirit is on earth, preparing His people for that place- Winslow

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

SHOULD BE ABANDONED

"The cliché, God hates the sin but love the sinner, is false on the face of it and should be abandoned. Fourteen times in the first fifty Psalms alone, we are told that God hates the sinner, His wrath is on the liar, and so forth. In the Bible, the wrath of God rests both on the sin (Romans 1:18ff) and on the sinner (John 3:36)." - D. A. Carson

Monday, November 21, 2011

CORNER-STONE, STONE OF STUMBLING.

Grace is only given to the sheep; The death angel was a blessing to jews, to be the final basis for their release. The death angel was a curse for the Egyptians, to be the demise of their evil. The same event, two different effects. Grace to one, judgment to the other. I think one Puritan made the same observation about the Red Sea, a means of life for the Jews, a means of death for the Pharaoh....one miracle, a purpose of grace, a purpose of judgment, God glorified in both.
 Noah's boat saved his family, and condemned the World. (Hebrews 11);
Jesus is the corner-stone, and a stone of stumbling.
Jericho's wall fell, a miracle for the Jews, a curse for the residents. 

Sunday, November 20, 2011

NO SENSE TO ELECT

Arminianism cannot make sense out of God's election. If God elects individuals based on His knowledge of those creatures choosing Him, there is no sense for God to elect anyone; since those creatures will choose Him anyway.

ULTIMATE TRAGEDY

"The ultimate tragedy of man's self-understanding is that he believes himself to be free, has all the feelings of a free agent, but does not realize that he is a slave to sin and serves the will of Satan." ~Sinclair Ferguson

WHATSOEVER

God determines whatsoever comes to pass:

Proverbs 16:1, 4, 7, 9, 33; 20:24; 21:1, Jeremiah 10:23, Lamentations 3:37, 38, Amos 3:6, Acts 17:26-27, Daniel 2:21; 4:35, Psalm 139:16, Ephesians 1:11, Romans 11:36 John 3:27, Job 12:9-10; 14:5

UNITED TO CHRIST

"We can no more unite ourselves to Christ, than a branch can incorporate itself into another stock; it is of Him, of God, His proper and alone work." John Flavel

NO BOX OF CANDY

"Grace is not like a box of candy that you can send back if you don't want it. Grace is divine favor, an attitude of God's own heart. We cannot stop him from loving us, if he chooses to do so. Nor can we stop him from giving us blessings of salvation: regeneration, justification, adoption, sanctification, glorification. His purpose in us will certainly be fulfilled, Phil. 1:6, Eph. 1:11." ~John Frame

WHO CHANGED YOUR HEART

Diagnostic Q: Who changed your mind? Who changed your heart? Who changed your nature? Who changed your will? #1. These are not about "general influence", but real change. Do you credit God and His Grace or your self?

Friday, November 18, 2011

Open Theism Again

If the Arminian is consistent, it is also "impossible for the elect to be lost" because God supposedly foresees down the corridors of time; and so why does the Arminian witness, I mean if I don't witness, God must have foresaw another dude witnessing to him; Arminians should admit how they hold hands with Open-theism.

ALL OF THE SPIRIT

As Christians grow in holy living, they sense their own inherent moral weakness and rejoice that whatever virtue they possess flourishes as the fruit of the Spirit.
D.A. Carson

Thursday, November 17, 2011

POWERLESSNESS

Believing the Gospel doesn't make you powerful. Believing the Gospel expresses your powerlessness.-- Jeff Holder.

DUSKY COLORS

God often lays the sum of His amazing providences in very dismal afflictions; as the limner first puts on the dusky colors, on which he intends to draw the portraiture of some illustrious beauty.--Stephen Charnock

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

SONGS ARMINIANS SHOULD SING

Your will put Jesus on the cross, and yet you trust it as the principle cause of your regeneration and salvation? How about writing a hymn with those lyrics and singing a solo before your congregation...."My will put Jesus on the cross, but my will can cause my regeneration." (everybody clap and shout Hallelujah now.); What a disgrace.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

JOHN NEWTON GREAT MATERIAL

1. I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith and love and every grace
Might more of His salvation know
And seek more earnestly His face

2. Twas He who taught me thus to pray
And He I trust has answered prayer
But it has been in such a way
As almost drove me to despair

3. I hoped that in some favored hour
At once He’d answer my request
And by His love’s constraining power
Subdue my sins and give me rest

4. Instead of this He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart
And let the angry powers of Hell
Assault my soul in every part

5. Yea more with His own hand He seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Cast out my feelings, laid me low

6. Lord why is this, I trembling cried
Wilt Thou pursue thy worm to death?
“Tis in this way” The Lord replied
“I answer prayer for grace and faith”

7. “These inward trials I employ
From self and pride to set thee free
And break thy schemes of earthly joy
That thou mayest seek thy all in me,
That thou mayest seek thy all in me.”

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Sarcastic Book

New book, "How to ensure that the Holy Spirit regenerates your child without fail."  Learn how you the sinner can be competent enough to guarantee your child's salvation.  If you would like to send a gift copy to the Arminian god so he can read it and become more successful in saving the humans he created, let us know.

TAUNT GOD

An Arminian man taunts me saying with ridicule...that my ministry to my 3 year old may all be in vain if God has not elected him; Which I think is odd. After all, this Arminian is completely fine with God's "ministry" to billions of sinners ending up all in vain. Yet it is somehow a tragedy if a sinner's ministry to another sinner be in vain. Why doesn't this Arminian mock God for trying to save billions and failing to accomplish what He intended. This Arminian should tell his god, "too bad you spent 74 years trying to save that sinner and he ended up rejecting you anyhow, didn't you know your efforts were going to be in vain." The Arminian thinks somehow he should retire the Holy Spirit, so his own sinful soul can take His place and secure a child's salvation by his own parenting.

Of course it matters

What does it profit if one says.
" God is." = (theism). 
"Jesus is God." = (Incarnation.);

yet say, "Jesus failed; thus, God failed." = (Impotence = atheism).
and say, "Our view of the atonement is irrelevant" = (Our view that God failed to save = Impotence = our atheism is also irrelevant"); 

Of course one's view of the atonement is relevant, of course one's atheism via idolatry is relevant.

EXCITEMTENT NOT DETACHMENT

My 3 year old boy is excited about his toy and is beaming to have me share that excitement. A good example of how we are to proclaim the Glory and Grace of God. No, it is not solely an emotional context, but witnessing the mount of transfiguration was not a detached informational documentary for Peter; The same could be said of Peter's swim to the shore. John 21:7.

Friday, November 11, 2011

TRUST ME

God says "trust me." The Arminian says, "I trust myself"

Does Providence Exist

If I am suddenly in the mood for coffee, and I decide to check out a coffee shop that I've never visited instead of settling for a home brew, and upon arriving I get into a discussion about the gospel, and God grants that person repentance and faith in Christ; Should the person say, "God better be glad you had a interest in coffee tonight, because it was purely your hunch to come, and purely God's fortunate turn of events, so there is no point in crediting God for the crossing of our paths. God gave a general call to evangelize, but all the specifics should not be counted as God's providence."
Arminians either do not have a doctrine of Providence, or else it is extremely bizarre, and can ultimately be distilled as "Man's Providence for God."
 
 

DIRECTLY INVOLVED

How directly, intimately, and personally involved was God in providing, securing, arranging, and determining your very first exposure to Scripture, and every solitary exposure thereafter?  Now, How directly, intimately, and personally involved was God in providing, securing, arranging, and determining the Amazon tribesman of 35 A.D. get exposure to Scripture?  Why the disparity on God's part? 

Genesis 6 Selective

Genesis 6:8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.; Why didn't all of Noah's neighbors find grace in the eyes of the Lord? Why does Noah need grace in the eyes of the Lord, can't Noah just up and decide to build a sturdy boat by his own choice?
 (Really???) God did not select Noah to build the Ark; God had made offers to everyone, and finally (luckily) found someone who would make a choice in line with God's hopes. Hopefully, one day God can find someone who will agree to play the role of virgin mother, and if it is not too much to ask, someone in the line of David. Still looking down the corridors of time hunting for her; rumor has it that some gal name Mary may say yes. fingers crossed.
 

EMBARRASSED?

Did the Father, Son, and Spirit try with all the Divine sovereign power, wisdom, grace, and effort--- to save the reprobate and fail? Why did the Triune God try to save the reprobate if He knew He would fail in His attempt to save them? When did it dawn on God that His Sovereign power, wisdom, grace and effort would fail? After He tried, during his attempt, or before his attempt? Is the triune God embarrassed that He tried to save and failed?

FOOLISH PRIDE

Is this your position?

"Before time began, God selected no one for heaven and no one for hell. Thus God creating preceded His purpose to elect and reprobate. It matters if we resist God's purpose for us, because our resisting or non-resisting is the determining factor if we go to heaven or hell. It matters what WE DO on earth. If we want to go to escape hell all our repentance and faith, etc. will get us to heaven. If we want to escape heaven all our unrighteousness will prevent God and God's grace from saving us from His eternal wrath. Thus since we are told to be righteous, we can be righteous all we want and that would be the logical conclusion to this philosophy. If God does not want to save anyone, but merely make salvation a possibility, and He has, there is no sense in missions or prayers, etc, because God will not save anyone no matter what; Just make it possible, which He has, and there is nothing more for Him to do, the rest is up to man to make the ultimate difference, a difference that God will not make."

(I hope not.)

BY DEFINITION

Arminians have no right to use the word "atonement" because their usage is one of ZERO effect. There is no such thing as "no applied atonement" that is an oxymoron and impossible by definition, it would be like saying an immaterial incarnation, where Jesus' birth made a physical incarnation possible, but now it is just a general incarnation and will become physical if Jesus decides to apply it to his birth.

 Exo 29:36  and every day you shall offer a bull as a sin offering for atonement. Also you shall purify the altar, when you make atonement for it, and shall anoint it to consecrate it.   

[NOT IN THE BIBLE--> 37. Let the altar know atonement was made available and then discern if the altar accepts my offer.  Tell the altar that the atonement will be applied to its impurity only if it accepts what I made available.  For I have made its atonement a possibility.]

Thursday, November 10, 2011

LUCKILY FOR GOD???

(Really???) Luckily for God Noah agreed, Abram agreed, Isaac agreed, Jacob agreed, Moses agreed, Joshua, Samuel, David, the 13 prophets, the virgin Mary, John the Baptist, the 13 apostles--- luckily for God these all agreed to cooperate. What an insane message. There is no good news. There is only sinful vanity.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

SEE THE DEAD RISE

When we shall see the dead rise from the grave by their own power, then may we expect to see ungodly sinners of their own free will turning to Christ. It is not the word preached, nor the word read in itself; all quickening power proceeds from the Holy Ghost. ~Spurgeon

Dispositions

- “Christians should be grave and serious, though cheerful and pleasant. They should feel that they have great interests at stake, and that the world has too. They are redeemed—not to make sport; purchased with precious blood—for other purposes than to make men laugh. They are soon to be in heaven—and a man who has any impressive sense of that will habitually feel he has much else to do than to make men laugh. The true course of life is midway between moroseness and levity; sourness and lightness; harshness and jesting. Be benevolent, kind, cheerful, bland, courteous—but serious. Be solemn, thoughtful, deeply impressed with the presence of God and with eternal things—but pleasant affable and benignant. Think not a smile sinful; but think not levity and jesting harmless. “ ~ Albert Barnes

TABLE INTO A SNARE

"Whatever poison Satan produces, God turns it into medicine for his elect." John Calvin commenting on Gen 50:20"...yet... [God] turns the food of reprobates into poison, their light into darkness, their table into a snare, and, in short, their life into death. If human minds cannot reach these depths, let them rather suppliantly adore the mysteries they do not comprehend, than, as vessels of clay, proudly exalt themselves against their Maker." via. Manuel K.

THE SOLE CAUSE

Calvinists insist that the sole cause of regeneration or being born again is the will of God. God first sovereignly and efficaciously regenerates, and only in consequence of that do we act. Therefore, the individual is passive in regeneration, neither preparing himself nor making himself receptive to what God will do. Regeneration is a change wrought in us by God, not an autonomous act performed by us for ourselves. Man’s status in regard to regeneration is that of a recipient, not a contributor. Man is spiritually, in relation to regeneration, what Lazarus was physically, in relation to resurrection: dead, passive, unable to do anything at all, wholly subject to the will of Him who gives life and breath to whomever He desires.
- Sam Storms

Saturday, November 5, 2011

HEART OF FLESH

He doesn't say, "I will remove their will of stone from their flesh and give them a will of flesh," but rather, Ezekiel 19 And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh;

The will in a heart of stone is bound by the nature of stone, the will in a heart of flesh is bound by the nature of flesh

Amos 8:11

(Amos 8:11) Behold, the days come, says the Lord Jehovah; that I will send a famine in the land; not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water; but of hearing the Words of Jehovah.

DQ3- Is God trying to save everyone by this act?

Friday, November 4, 2011

VIOLATION AND CAUSATION

The erroneous doctrine of "prevenient grace" as it is, would ALSO violate the supposed, "free-will" of man by turning it from "unable to trust" to "enabled to the possibility to trust" without the consent of the individual's will. So they teach an "irresistable-effectual prevenient grace" which is forced on a man's will who otherwise had no desire for this prevenient grace to be given him; So they laud, "violation and causation" upon the sinner's will when it comes to the "prevenient grace" but decry, "violation and causation" when it comes to saving grace; [yes, I know, God owns His creation, and thus in either case it is never a violation when He has Sovereign rights over it.]

ELECTION IN THE COMMON LANGUAGES

“At the very announcement of the text some will be ready to say, “Why preach upon so profound a doctrine as election?” I answer, because it is in God’s word, and whatever is in the Word of God is to be preached. “But some truths ought to be kept back from the people,” you will say, “lest they should make an ill use thereof.” That is Popish doctrine, it was upon that very theory that the priests kept back the Bible from the people, they did not give it to them lest they should misuse it.

“But are not some doctrines dangerous?” Not if they are true and rightly handled. Truth is never dangerous, it is error and reticence that are fraught with peril. “But do not men abuse the doctrine of grace?” I grant you that they do; but if we destroyed everything that men misuse, we should have nothing left. Are there to be no ropes because some fools will hang themselves? And, must cutlery be discarded and denounced, because there are some who will use dangerous weapons for the destruction of their adversaries? Decidedly not.

Besides all this, remember that men do read the Scriptures and think about these doctrines, and therefore often make mistakes about them; who then shall set them right if we, who preach the Word, hold our tongues about the matter?”

– C. H. Spurgeon, from sermon entitled, Election: Its Defenses and Evidences

FIRST THINGS FIRST

 “It [Election] probably ought to be the first thing you teach a young believer. Now that you’ve come to Christ, this is what I want you to know, you were saved by the sovereign grace of God who stepped into your life in the midst of your death and blindness and gave you life and sight and picked you up and brought you into His Kingdom. Sheer grace has done this for you. That, I think, is the first thing you should say to a new convert. This is, if in fact, you are faithful to the confession you have made, if in fact your love for Christ and desire to honor, to worship and to obey Him continues to grow, this will be an ongoing evidence that God has wrought a miracle in your life. And because of that, you need to know, this is really important, that you should live a life of gratitude for a work has been done in you which you did not deserve and did not earn.”
-- John MacArthur, Answering the Key Questions About the Doctrine of Election (Interview):
(source: monergism.com)

NOBODY HAS A CHANCE

Often, when discussing the issue of election, the question is raised: "Doesn't everybody have a chance?".  The answer is NOBODY has a chance apart from divine election. 
-Greg Crouse

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Enemies

"The friends of free-will are the enemies of free-grace." - John Trapp

Beliefs, or Christ, or Both.

People often say to the affect, "Salvation is not from our beliefs, but from Christ"; While this is true, the writer must inherently identify "which Christ" he is writing of, and is making his assertion based on a particular "belief in-or-about Christ"; The truth is, a Mormon claims to "look to Christ" and yet has erected a false Christ, and the Mormon's belief evidence such; There is no profit to make a vague Christ, which is obscured by the generalities you proclaim; Thus to truly preach Christ is to preach specifics, and those specifics entail a set of beliefs. Ironically, the writer is saying "focus on Christ, not beliefs." and yet that statement in itself is a belief.

NONE SEEK HIM, NO NOT ONE

"If there is to be a rescue operation for us children of Adam, aimed at bringing us to anything like God meant us to be, it has to overcome not only our sin and depravity, but the fact that sin makes us utterly uninterested in the solution. In fact, we would be repelled by it. C.S. Lewis spoke for us all: 'Amiable agnostics will talk cheerfully about man's search for God. To me . . . they might as well have talked about the mouse's search for the cat." 
Dan Phillips, The World Tilting Gospel.... via Scott F

IT ALREADY IS

Ligon Duncan on 2 Tim. 3:16,17 -- "Put in popular terms, the apostle Paul is saying that the Bible is inherently practical. It is not your pastor's job to make it practical. It already is. It's the most practical book in the world. And the only reason we think it's impractical to hear the Word of God expounded is that we're interested in other questions and other things. But I want to tell you this: it is the questions addressed and the things spoken of in the Word of God that are truly practical. And if we are interested in other questions and other things, we're interested in the wrong things, because there is nothing impractical in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation." (via. Scott F.)

Monday, October 31, 2011

THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE OF SCRIPTURE

"Concerning that this clown babbleth of free will, it is sufficiently rejected throughout the whole scripture." ~John Calvin

THE VERY ESSENCE OF ALL DELIGHTS

"Christ is the very essence of all delights and pleasures, the very soul and substance of them. As all the rivers are gathered into the ocean, which is the meeting-place of all the waters in the world, so Christ is that ocean in which all true delights and pleasures meet." ~ John Flavel; 
"Trace the sunbeam to the sun;
Trace the river to the sea;
Trace all pleasures to the One
Who is Pleasure perfectly."

DQ Numbers Mean

DQ1  = Diagnostic Questions on Total Inability.
DQ2  = Diagnostic Questions on Unconditional Election.
DQ3  = Diagnostic Questions on Atonement.
DQ4 =  Diagnostic Questions on Effectual Grace
DQ5=  Diagnostic Questions on Preservation of the Saints.

These Questions are geared to the Arminian.

Effectual Atonement

Do you profess Effectual Atonement (for whom Christ died)?  [diagnostic question; and a redundant one at that].   [There is no such thing as uneffectual atonement, and there is no such thing as an atoned person going to hell without sin accounted to him.]

Saturday, October 29, 2011

DQ on TOTAL INABILITY

Diagnostic Questions concerning Total Inability.

Is the will of fallen man free from: sin, the slavery of sin, the alienated mind, the corrupt heart, the nature of wrath, the captivity of Satan, the sovereign purpose of God, spiritual blindness, spiritual deafness?  What verses evidence such an assertion?  If such verses exist, then why is there even a need for the theoretical "prevenient grace".  What verses teach that such a system exists?   [diagnostic questions for the Arminian]

Friday, October 28, 2011

FIRST PRINCIPLES

It may seem a harsh sentiment; but he who in his soul believes that man does of his own free-will turn to God, cannot have been taught of God, for that is one of the first principles taught us when God begins with us,..
..Charles H. Spurgeon....

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

Love for God is the only sufficient motive for evangelism. Self-love will give way to self-centeredness; love for the lost will fail with those whom we cannot love…

Only our Love for God and, more important, His love for us will keep us from the dangers which beset us. When the desire for popularity with men, or for success in human terms, tempts us to water down the Gospel, to make it palatable, then only if we love God will we stand last by His truth and His ways. 
--- John Cheeseman.

FRONTLETS

Deut 6:8 ....they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

This is not some heavy, slavish, burdensome, and bashing drudgery from God which is intended to rival Pharaoh's whip for more bricks without straw (more Bible without rest); rather, this is a joyful nourishment of the soul. I can remember Thanksgiving as a teen and getting two large slices of Pumpkin Pie at once. The second slice was not some burdensome weight imposed by my Aunt, but a delightful eagerness desired by my stomach. You have heard the phrase, "his eyes were bigger than his stomach" in loading his plate with too much food; well here, our eyes are to be huge, huge on Scripture, hungry not for the tastiness of bread that perishes, but for the Living Bread of eternal life. A few months ago I loaded up a bowl with Chocolate Ice Cream and my wife chuckled at how large of a serving I had prepared; I simply said, "Well, it is good, what can I say." May God give us the same heart for Christ and Scripture, that we heap a large serving before our eyes from a joyful, delightful love for the God of the Word, and the Word of God.

THE POWER OF THE PARACLETE

The power of our apologetic is not in our penmanship or publications, but in the Paraclete; and He blows where He wishes.  Rest in Christ when He is not blowing, Rejoice in Christ when He is blowing.

FELLOWSHIP

Whose fellowship and attention do you desire most? Your spouse, your children, your parents, your boss or co-workers, your pastor or deacons, local Christians, or someone online.....or that fellowship and attention afforded by the prayer closet? from whence no one sees or hears, but God.
1 JOHN 1 The Word of Life
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life-
2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us-
3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
4 And we are writing these things so that our1  joy may be complete.  
 

ELECTION OF GRACE

Romans 11:5  Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.  (Is there a remnant according to the election of reacting to men meeting the condition and command of faith?)

Isaiah 40

Isa 40:1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

MORE THAN CHRIST

Did the Father need more (or require more) than the perfection of Christ in order to make certain the regeneration of your soul? [diagnostic questions]
 Do you profess Effectual Atonement (for whom Christ died)?  [diagnostic question; and a redundant one at that].   [There is no such thing as uneffectual atonement, and there is no such thing as an atoned person going to hell without sin accounted to him.]

CANNOT OBEY

"Sinners cannot obey the gospel, any more than the law, without renewal of heart."
- J.I. Packer

DEISTIC god OVER SALVATION

it seems to me that Arminians believe in a Sovereign God over creation, & a deistic god over salvation. It sounds almost like God set out the terms of salvation & is just sitting back waiting for men to make the right choice. This is such a sad view of the One Who is presented in Scripture Who is Mighty to Save!-- Shon D.

SPURGEON ON FREE-WILL

Free will doctrine – what does it? It magnifies man into God; it declares God’s purposes a nullity, since they cannot be carried out unless men are willing. It makes God’s will a waiting servant to the will of man, and the whole covenant of grace dependent upon human action. Denying election on the ground of injustice it holds God to be a debtor to sinners, so that if He gives grace to one He is b......ound to do so to all. It teaches that the blood of Christ was shed equally for all men and since some are lost, this doctrine ascribes the difference to man’s own will, thus making the atonement itself a powerless thing until the will of man gives it efficacy. Those sentiments dilute the scriptural description of man’s depravity, and by imputing strength to fallen humanity, rob the Spirit of the glory of His effectual grace: this theory says in effect that it is of him that willeth, and of him that runneth, and not of God that showeth mercy
- C.H. Spurgeon "A Jealous God"

SPURGEON ON THE WORLD

The whole world is gone after him.' Did all the world go after Christ? 'Then went all Judea, and were baptized of him in Jordan.' Was all Judea, or all Jerusalem baptized in Jordan? 'Ye are of God, little children', and 'the whole world lieth in the wicked one.' Does 'the whole world' there mean everybody? If so, how was it, then, that there were some who were 'of God?' The words 'world' and 'all' are used in some seven or eight senses in Scripture; and it is very rarely that 'all' means all persons, taken individually. The words are generally used to signify that Christ has redeemed some of all sorts—some Jews, some Gentiles, some rich, some poor, and has not restricted his redemption to either Jew or Gentile." 
--(Charles H. Spurgeon, Particular Redemption, A Sermon, 28 Feb 1858).

CREDIT

Do you give God credit for your election? Do you give God credit for meeting the condition of your election? or, Do you take credit for meeting the condition for your election?

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Thankful

We have a lot to be thankful for!  Have you thanked God today?  Have you thanked God for what He has done?  Matthew 11:25  At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children;

WRITING DOES NOT CHANGE HEARTS

If our writings in themselves good change the hearts of men, then we should dismiss all our armed forces and assign them to publishing houses, mailing books to the enemy in WWI, WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War, and such; If the book did not convince the leader, then surely reduce their forces in half. Christians march in peace and peacefulness, knowing the King shall come with a sword out of His mouth, and the blood shall rise to the horse's bridle.
Rev 6:15 Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave5 and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains,  16 calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb,  17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

THE HEART IS THE ROOT

Man is like a tree. His heart, not his will alone, is the root. There is no possible way by which the will can choose to produce fruit contrary to the character of the root. If the root is bad, the tree is bound by its very nature to produce evil fruit.  Man is like a person standing alongside his treasure chest. There is no possibility of bringing pure gold out of a box filled only with rusty steel. The contents of the heart determine what words and deeds may be brought out. Far from being neutral, the will must reach into the heart for its choices. Every thought, word and deed will partake of the nature of the treasure within.   Man is like a stream which cannot rise above its source. If the fountain is polluted, the outflow will be evil. If the source be sweet, the stream will not be bitter and cannot choose to be so.  These three illustrations alike contain the same lesson. What a man is determines what he chooses. Choices of the will always reveal the character of the heart, because the heart determines the choices. ~  Walter J. Chantry

DOWNWARD

"Growth in grace is growth downward. It is the forming of a lower estimate of ourselves. It is a deepening realization of our nothingness. It is a heartfelt recognition that we are not worthy of the least of God's mercies."
- A.W. Pink

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

THOROUGHLY CONVINCED

"Unless we are thoroughly convinced that without Christ we are under the eternal curse of God, as the worst of His enemies, we shall never flee to Him for refuge."
~John Owen

HAPPY TO GAZE ON JESUS

Happy were it, if puzzled and perplexed Christians would turn their eyes from the defects that are in their obedience, to the fullness and completeness of Christ's obedience; and see themselves complete in Him, when most lame and defective in themselves. - John Flavel,

MY HOPE IS IN WHOSE ABILITY

During your proclamation of Christ to a lost world, is your ultimate hope placed in the ability of the sinner to know Jesus, love Jesus, and hence place faith and repentance towards Jesus? Would you articulate that to the sinner? Well, ultimately my hope is placed in your ability to know Jesus, love Jesus, and trust Him. (Psalm 146:5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, )
  My laptop has an electrical cord, if the cord did not exist, nor the battery exist, the laptop would have no power. My mind, heart, soul, and body is a laptop and cord, but the power does not come from the cord, it comes from an outside source; the person of the Holy Spirit, uniting me to Christ; He is the Vine, His is the Power, and the Glory and Dominion forever. Who will dare say that the power comes from himself?
Some people have a theology which supports this, others do not; If someone seems uncertain of the claims of Scripture and Christ, then can you tell them, "I have good news dear soul, God has the power and grace to grant you faith, repentance, understanding, a new heart, humility, clarity, and trust in Him; a desire to pray, seek Him, love Him, and confess Him." others are simply left with saying, "Well, God has already done his part, and the rest is up to you to muster up your own faith, repentance, new heart, humility, love, and desire; I hope you press on and make the difference."
 
 

ENTIRELY DEPENDENT

When it comes to the salvation of your sinful soul, are you entirely dependent on the power and grace of God, even to acknowledge that your dependency came from God, not from your ability to make yourself dependent.

Contempt

The god of this twentieth century no more resembles the Supreme Sovereign of Holy Writ, than does the dim flickering of a candle the glory of the midday sun. The god who is now talked about in the average pulpit, spoken of in the ordinary Sunday School, mentioned in much of the religious literature of the day, and preached in most of the so-called Bible Conferences is the figment of human imagination, an invention of mushy sentimentality. The heathen outside of the pale of Christendom form gods out of wood and stone, while the millions of heathen inside Christendom manufacture a god out of their own carnal mind. In reality, they are but atheists, for there is no other possible alternative between an absolutely supreme God, and no God at all. A god whose will is resisted, whose designs are frustrated, whose purpose is checkmated, possesses no title to Deity, and so far from being a fit object of worship, merits nothing but contempt!" ~ A.W.Pink

CONTENTMENT IS

Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God’s wise and fatherly disposal in every condition.
Jeremiah Burroughs

Instead of complaining at his lot, a contented man is thankful that his condition and circumstances are no worse than they are. Instead of greedily desiring something more than the supply of his present need, he rejoices that God still cares for him. Such an one is “content” with such as he has (Heb. 13:5).--A.W. Pink.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

WHERE HE WISHES

I am observed years back, "We cannot put the Holy Spirit in a bottle, and think to shake him out like a genie upon presenting enough solid information in our preaching and conversations. He blows where He wishes, and though God can be very pleased with the sermon and sheep be nourished, yet the Holy Spirit may not wish to blow through that day for the purpose of regenerating anyone"; So while solid paper and pen presentations are great to an extent, they cannot be worshiped, because they do not possess power in themselves, and if we think they do, then we will observe years of frustration as the field continues to be barren and fruitless.

Monday, October 24, 2011

EVERYTHING IS NECESSARY

Everything is necessary that he sends. Nothing can be necessary that he withholds.--
John Newton -

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Man is not able

Helpful beginnings to church unity. We confess that #1. Sinful Man is not able in mind, heart, body, nature, or will to love God, trust God, please God, follow God, obey God, or prepare himself for such in any form to any degree.; (What professing Christian wants to say rather that: Man is able, after all I was able (...).
 
Helpful beginnings to church unity. We confess that #2. The bible presents a group of people called "the elect" whom God elected. Because Sinful Man is not able in mind, heart, body, nature, or will to love God, trust God, please God, follow God, obey God, or prepare himself for such in any form to any degree--we confess that those whom God elects, and calls the elect, were not elected by God because they the sinner met a condition or command of God, be it the 613 commandments, the commandment of repentance and faith in Christ, or any other condition or command.‎(What professing Christian wants to say rather that: Man must meet a condition of God, before God considers him elect, after all I was able to meet the condition of God so that he considered me elect on the basis of meeting His condition.)
 Helpful beginnings to church unity.  We confess that #3.  The bible presents the grace of God as that which is a working of the divine sovereign effectual power of God the Holy Spirit and is the effectual and sole cause of a sinners new birth, repentance, faith, changed: mind, heart, nature, will, and body.

Fattening the children of Perdition

Verily, we know not what an evil it is to indulge ourselves, and to make an idol of our will. Once I would make much ado, if I saw not the world carved and set in order to my liking; now I am silent, when I see God is fattening and feeding the children of perdition. I pray God, I may never find my will again.

Samuel Rutherford

SHAKING OUR FOUNDATIONS

"We turn to God when our foundations are shaking, only to learn that it is God who is shaking them." not sure of who said it, but found it on the wall of Rose Corpus.

PRINCIPAL CAUSES

Therefore the Christian heart, since it has been thoroughly persuaded that all things happen by God's plan, and that nothing takes place by place by chance, will ever look to him as the principal causes of things, yet will give secondary attention to the secondary causes in their proper place. 
~ John Calvin

Saturday, October 22, 2011

TROUBLED CONSCIENCE

"The faithful preaching of the gospel is never soothing to the impenitent, so that the removal of an outstanding preacher is commonly a matter of rejoicing for those whose consciences he has troubled." 
 --Leon Morris 'The Tyndale New Testament Commentaries' page 146

Thursday, October 20, 2011

THIS THUNDERBOLT

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD.

THIS, therefore, is also essentially necessary and wholesome for Christians to know: That God foreknows nothing by contingency, but that He foresees, purposes, and does all things according to His immutable, eternal, and infallible will....Martin Luther......By this thunderbolt, "Free-will" is thrown prostrate, and utterly dashed to pieces. Those, therefore, who would assert "Free-will," must either deny this thunderbolt, or pretend not to see it, or push it from them. But, however, before I establish this point by any arguments of my own, and by the authority of Scripture, I will first set it forth in your words....Martin Luther...(thanks Victor C.)

NOT MADE TO BEAR THEM

Many , even most, of our problems come from attaching our hopes to things that were not made to bear them - things that will sink like stones in water and pull us down with them. - Mark Dever
 

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

THESE TWO QUESTIONS

"All the disputes between us and the Arminians may be reduced to these two questions: 1. Is God dependent upon man, or is man dependent on God? 2. Is man a debtor to God, or God a debtor to man? ~ Augustus Toplady (1740-1778)

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Who am I

In 1507, Luther was ordained to the priesthood. When he celebrated his first Mass, as he held the bread and cup for the first time, he was so awestruck at the thought of transubstantiation that he almost fainted. “I was utterly stupefied and terror-stricken,” he confessed. “I thought to myself, ‘Who am I that I should lift up mine eyes or raise my hands to the divine majesty? For I am dust and ashes and full of sin, and I am speaking to the living, eternal and true God’” (Luther, cited in Bruce Shelley, Church History in Plain Language [Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995], 238)
quoted from:  http://www.ligonier.org/blog/fortress-truth-martin-luther/
 
 

Stick to John 10

Did you hear about the shepherd who went out looking for his sheep? He did his tee-totally best to find them, but it turns out they followed the voice of a stranger and escaped his best efforts to rescue them. So here we are today telling people what the shepherd attempted, instead of what the shepherd accomplished. Not me. I'll stick to John 10. All of it.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Heathen Philosophers

"They go and set up free-will with the heathen philosophers and say that a man's free will is the cause why God chooseth and not another, contrary to all the scriptures."
- William Tyndale (c. 1494-1536)

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Jesus accomplished

We don't go around telling people what Jesus attempted, we proclaim what Jesus accomplished. 
 Some OT passover Lamb was able to "secure the safety" of the infant he was slain for, and yet men today suggest that the real Divine Passover Lamb is not able to "secure the safety" of the children of Abraham. How can an animal do better than the God that made it.
 

Shine the Attention on Jesus

What would you think of someone who was a member of your congregation who said, "Our confessional says we believe in Jesus, and just as the confession says, I believe in Jesus;  but the past 7 years you keep on insisting that the Jesus we believe in is actually fully God, and I have never believed that and still don't believe that "detail", can't we just sit back and agree that we believe in Jesus, and let it go at that?"  Can this "Detail" about His Person be "generalized" and "accepted?"  Yet "true" Arminians do the same thing in regards to Sin, Depravity, Election, Atonement, Sovereignty, Regeneration;  Can we not just agree in the "general point" we are saved by grace through faith, and avoid your "details" of what that means,  Are we going to make a primary role of Christ "atoning for sins" to be something left to vague generalities that leaves enough wiggle room for us both, when we dare not leave wiggle room for those who deny his deity, and yet accept the liability for those who malign His work and accomplishment.

If Jesus saved everyone He died for, then give Him credit for it, if He didn't save everyone He died for then embarrass Him for it;  Why keep the accomplishment of Christ a mystery.  When you do that, you rob Him of the Glory that is due Him.  How can one grow in his boast of Christ, when he refuses to study the very cause of his boasting.  What good is getting this soul addicted to generalities to evangelize, when he cannot even boast of specifically what Christ accomplished, because He refuses to look into what Christ accomplished.   Be honest and say, "Trust in the same Jesus I do, he made salvation available for Goliath, but overall Jesus didn't make any other difference for that sinner;  either Jesus fell short, and my boasting wanes, or Jesus didn't intended to "truly save him" and thus Jesus may not have intended to "truly save you", but He did intend to make your salvation a "possiblity"

If Jesus saved everyone He died for, then give Him credit for it, if He didn't save everyone He died for then embarrass Him for it; Or else, be clear and own up to the fact you don't think Jesus died to "save"; Whatever you do, don't bury the accomplishment of Jesus as some fuzzy vague generality that we, in effect, cannot be proclaim clearly.
 
The savior is waiting to enter your heart?  Well, keep him.  My Savior didn't wait, He worked, and is working through the Holy Spirit, He will give a new heart, He didn't wait, He wrought;  He didn't die for Esau, and He is not waiting on Esau.  I proclaim to you, Trust the Jesus that accomplishes, not the Jesus that attempts and fails.  We don't go around telling people what Jesus attempted, we proclaim what Jesus accomplished.

So they will cling to Him.

(f) God permits the world to hate his own, so they will forsake the filth of the world, and cling to him. (Geneva Bible Footnote on: Gen 46:34 That ye shall say, Thy servants' trade hath been about cattle from our youth even until now, both we, [and] also our fathers: that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd [is] an (f) abomination unto the Egyptians. )

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

More Diagnostics

Many are called, but few are chosen; Narrow is the way that leads to life eternal; but no sweat, my will is reliable enough to place me among those few on the narrow way. (how foolish and how vain; Your faith and hope are placed in your own will);  Are you saying your will is reliable enough to place you among those few on the narrow way?

Saturday, October 8, 2011

AVOIDING GOD

As one insightful friend told me once (Scott T.) "Many men go to church in order to avoid God." (as it is some manner of hiding in a bush, or finding fig leaves).

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

rough draft

Arminians ask "Why witness if God has already determined who will be saved?"; But in reality such a question is that of an Open Theist! Because if God foreknows (using the foresee fallacy) who will say "yes" then our witnessing cannot "increase" those who will be saved; So why does the Arminian witness if it does not increase who says "yes"; To avoid open-theism, the Arminian must answer, "Because God knew before the foundation of the world who will choose Him, and God uses the means of witnessing to accomplish His end." Whereas the Calvinist answers, "Because God knew before the foundation of the world whom He has chosen, and God uses the means of witnessing to accomplish His end." The number of converts will be the same in either system, because God's knowledge is the same in either system. (unless of course one is really an Open Theist, and God's knowledge is mutable or wrong; as a side note, Arminians might not be aware that they make God's knowledge to be "deductive", where God is learning who will become elect by examination of results, which means at one point He was not omniscient.) Arminians might argue, "evangelism cannot increase the elect, and failure of evangelism cannot decrease the elect;" Such observations are skewed, for it could be equally stated to Arminians "in your system evangelism cannot increase the elect, and failure of evangelism cannot decrease the elect.", otherwise God's knowledge is wrong and mutable. (Hence the pathway to Open Theism, which one writer aptly called atheism in disguise) ------ Obedience to God is never a fool's errand. Obedience through the grace and glory of Christ is pleasing to God. God's pleasure is not based on human results. When God calls you to love your enemy, you obey, God does not determine your success based on the reaction of your enemy. God calls us to proclaim Christ, success is obedience to proclaim Christ; God does not determine your success on the basis of-- if men decide to meet the conditions of God for regeneration while you proclaim Him. (btw, Did you meet the conditions of God for regeneration, were you able to do that?)

outline list

IT IS GOD WHO: - draws people to Himself (John 6:44,65). - creates a clean heart (Psalm 51:10). - appoints people to believe (Acts 13:48). - works faith in the believer (John 6:28-29). - chooses who is to be holy and blameless (Eph. 1:4). - chooses us for salvation (2 Thess. 2:13-14). - grants the act of believing (Phil. 1:29). - grants repentance (2 Tim. 2:24-26). - calls according to His purpose (2 Tim. 1:9). - causes us to be born again (1 Pet. 1:3). - predestines us to salvation (Rom. 8:29-30). - predestines us to adoption (Eph. 1:5). - predestines us according to His purpose (Eph. 1:11). - makes us born again not by our will but by His will (John 1:12-13). IT IS MAN WHO: - is deceitful and desperately sick (Jer. 17:9). - is full of evil (Mark 7:21-23). - loves darkness rather than light (John 3:19). - is unrighteous, does not understand, does not seek for God (Rom. 3:10-12). - is helpless and ungodly (Rom. 5:6). - is dead in his trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1). - is by nature a child of wrath (Eph. 2:3). - cannot understand spiritual things (1 Cor. 2:14). - is a slave of sin (Rom. 6:16-20).

Monday, October 3, 2011

I am His

I am His by purchase and I am His by conquest; I am His by donation and I am His by election; I am His by covenant and I am His by marriage; I am wholly His; I am peculiarly His; I am universally His; I am eternally His. Once I was a slave but now I am a son; once I was dead but now I am alive; once I was darkness but now I am light in the Lord; once I was a child of wrath, an heir of hell, but now I am an heir of heaven; once I was Satan's bond-servant but now I am God's freeman; once I was under the spirit of bondage but now I am under the Spirit of adoption that seals up to me the remission of my sins, the justification of my person, and the salvation of my soul. ~ Thomas Brooks

Friday, September 30, 2011

Why Evangelize

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0tAfrPlNq8&feature=player_embedded

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Atonement Questions for the Arminian

#1.  Jesus' death on the cross, was His best divine attempt to save the world?   #2.  The Father sending His perfect Son to die on the cross, was His best divine attempt to save the world?  #3.  Did the Father and Son attempt to save the world at the cross?  #4.  Did Jesus atone for all the sins of every sinner and the Father send that sinner to Hell with all his sin's atoned for?  #5.  What sin of the reprobate did the death of Jesus not atone?;

First Cause

Question for churchmen: Are you the first cause of your faith, or is God the first cause of your faith? If you answer I am the first cause, then you deny Scripture. The faith described in the Old and New Testaments are GIFTS, and fruit of the Spirit, IMPUTED by God, Himself. If you answer that God is the first cause, but that He only DRAWS men, and then will leave them to their own free choice, or free will, to choose salvation, you, again deny Scripture. What does the Word say? "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I WILL raise him up at the last day." God does not ABORT what He begins. He is the AUTHOR and COMPLETER of our faith. ~ MarkMarissa Namirr

One Group

A covenant promise, a Deliverer of the enslaved, a Deliverance of the enslaved, a passover Lamb, a High Priest, a tabernacle for God to dwell among them, a Land to possess....all given to one set of infants, those of Abraham's seed; which was not given or "offered" to any other people. Are you of Abraham's seed: Christ, the true Isaac, born of God by the Holy Spirit and His Word endowed with living faith which too is a gift of God, and that not of yourself?  (thus evidence of election and limited atonement).

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Fail: Jesus intended to raise Lazarus, thankfully for Him, Lazarus was willing to be raised; I guess Jesus intentionally avoided calling men from the dead whom He knew would say no to His offer, otherwise Jesus would have been embarrassed that His divine intention failed.
I believe that every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or less than God wishes—that every particle of spray that dashes against the steamboat has its orbit as well as the sun in the heavens—that the chaff from the hand of the winnower is steered as the stars in their courses. The creeping of an aphis over the rosebud is as much fixed as the march of the devastating pestilence—the fall of sere leaves from a poplar is as fully ordained as the tumbling of an avalanche. He that believes in a God must believe this truth. There is no standing-point between this and atheism. There is no half way between a mighty God that worketh all things by the sovereign counsel of his will and no God at all. A God that cannot do as he pleases—a God whose will is frustrated, is not a God, and cannot be a God. I could not believe in such a God as that. ~ C. H. Spurgeon

Efficacious

IF limited atonement is NOT true then those in hell will have a good argument before God in saying, "but Christ died for ME!" (True or False?) via.Brian K.  ;;
In such a hypothetical, yes the damned would have a powerful argument; and what would the Father say in order to reject the efficacy of His Son's Divine Sacrifice. 

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Two Prisoners

‎"Paul was Nero's prisoner, but Nero was much more God's." ~ WILLIAM GURNALL

OVERTHROWS EMPIRES

'While I drink my little glass of Wittenberg beer the gospel runs its course and overthrows empires.' -Martin Luther

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

LEARN THIS

"Learn then this basic truth, that the Creator is absolute Sovereign, executing His own will, performing His own pleasure, and considering nought but His own glory. "The Lord hath made all things for Himself" (Prov. 16:4). And had He not a perfect right to? Since God is God, who dare challenge His prerogative?" (The Pinkster)

THE MARKET IS SACRED

Holiness consisteth not in a cowl or in a garment of gray. When God purifies the heart by faith, the market is sacred as well as the sanctuary; neither remaineth there any work or place which is profane - Martin Luther

Crown of Thorns

“They gave our Master a crown of thorns. Why do we hope for a
crown of roses?” -Martin Luther

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

THESE TWO ARE ONE

"God’s purpose for my life was that I have a passion for God’s glory and that I have a passion for my joy in that glory, and that these two are one passion." -Jonathan Edwards;

Sunday, July 31, 2011

NO POWER IN FAITH

‎"Never make a Christ out of your faith, nor think of as if it were the independent source of your salvation. Our life is found in 'looking unto Jesus,' not in looking to our own faith. By faith all things become possible to us; yet the power is not in the faith, but in the God upon whom faith relies."-Charles Spurgeon

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Dying to Self

When you are forgotten, or neglected, or purposely set at naught, and you don't sting and hurt with the insult or the oversight but your heart is happy, being counted worthy to suffer for Christ, that is dying to self-

When your good is evil spoken of, when your wishes are crossed, your advice disregarded, your opinion ridiculed, and you refuse to let anger rise in your heart or even defend yourself, but take it all in patient loving silence,- That is dying to self.-

When you are content with any food, any offering, any raiment, any climate, any society, any solitude, and interruption by the will of God, that is dying to self;

When you never care to refer to yourself in conversation, or to record your own good works, or itch after commendation, when you can truly love to be unknown,- That is dying to self-

When you can see your brother prosper and have his needs met, and honestly rejoice with him in spirit and feel no envy nor question God, whild your own needs are far greater and in desperate circumstances, that is dying to self-

When you can receive correction and reproof from one of less stature than yourself, and humbly submit inwardly as well as outwardly, finding no rebellion or resentment rising up within your heart, that is dying to self-

someone on FB named Kristen.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

ALL IN ASIA

2 Tim 1:15  You are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me,

SHARE

2 Tim 1:8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God,

2 Tim 2:3 Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

2 Tim 3:12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,

2 Tim 4:5  ...endure suffering

2 Tim 1:15  You are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me,

Thursday, February 24, 2011

VERY HINGE

“[It is] essentially wholesome and necessary, for a Christian to know, whether or not the will does any thing in those things which pertain unto Salvation. Nay, let me tell you, this is the very hinge upon which our discussion turns. It is the very heart of the subject” - Martin Luther

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

YOU CAN'T

I can't open your heart, but you can't shut my mouth. Jesus is King, Praise Him.

DESPISE THE BODY

Reading a powerful sermon, here is good excerpt: That is why Paul says, “...that their bodies might be dishonored among them.” You see, people that indulge in these types of activities dishonor their body. It literally means to treat the body with contempt, to despise it. (!!!) I never caught this implication before, insightful.

The lie is, people think, "oh but we love pleasing the body", well that is a lie, in reality your actions show that you love despising the body.

WHO IS ARBITRARY NOW

Is Almighty God bound to the arbitrary human standard of fairness or does God have the right to issue Mercy as He deems appropriate?--B. Bradley

DRAW NEAR TO GOD

The other day I was thinking about Hebrews 4:16 by vague recollection not by direct reading of it or study.  I knew what it said roughly, and here is what it says exactly...."Hebrews 4:16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

I was thinking with sorrow, "Yea, but my old nature is so vile, corrupt, and unclean, it seems extremely audacious for me to approach the throne in prayer, knowing how miserable my mind, heart, and actions are each day; and though I am a new creation, how even more appauling that I nonetheless fall so short of maturity in Christ...." and so I continued to mope.

Tonight, a thought hit me, and it was this, "Ok, yea, but which is more audacious to approach the throne of grace knowing your spiritual poverty...OR...viewing the life, work, perfection, purity, obedience, death, blood, resurrection of Jesus as unsufficient to bring you to the throne of grace?"  I then realized that my thoughts the first night were more foolish in overlooking the accomplishment of Jesus as the grounds for my access to the throne.  I could not think of the exact verse, but I was thinking about something in Romans 3, and now I know it was this:  Romans 3:26   It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

God is JUST towards Jesus, that it is proper and right to accept and honor His blood redemption of sinners.  Hence, it is also JUST for me to approach the throne on the basis of Jesus' work.  Not that I am in a position to judge Jesus, but that I surely must not....."trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing," 

Then as these thoughts blessed me, I decided to look at the original context of Hebrews 4, and this great introduction was made by the writer...the same point I needed to know concerning approaching the throne of grace.

Hebrews 4:14  Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. [15] For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

1.  We have a high priest.
2.  We have a great high priest.
3.  The writer goes at length in this letter to explain the superiority of Jesus as our High Priest.
4.  This short kernel sums it up:  He was in all points tempted like as we are, YET WITHOUT SIN.

And this introduces verse 16, which I was rembering out of context.

Hebrews 4:16   Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

We come boldly, but NEVER on the basis of our past, present, future--- performance, purity, ability.  The word "therefore" points us back to the Great High Priest who is WITHOUT SIN, and that is the basis for us approaching the throne.  We come boldy, and ALWAYS on the basis of our High Priest who is without sin.  He is the Priest, He is the Lamb, He is the Door, He is the Mediator of a Better Covenant.established on Better Promises;

Hebrews 7:19 (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.

Did I catch that?-- a better hope is introduced, THROUGH WHICH we draw near to God.
Praise God for Grace,  Jesus is Grace.

EAGER PRAYER

How do we view prayer/praying?  How eager are we to pray?    Do we view it as:

-something we "have to do", just like paying taxes?  But we murmur that we hope we "grace" will lower the tax, and increase our "free time" for ourself.

-something we need to do, like changing the car's oil every 4 months?  That we want it done and over with on one day, knowing it disrupts our normal day and week? 

-something we need to do, like a house chore?  Let's get the laundry done, vacuum, and pray, and quicker we get it done, the shorter our murmuring will be.

-something we "ought" to do, but begrudgingly like spending a day with in-laws? But you give a plastic smile, and a cheerful remark, still wondering when you can leave this irksome obligation.

-something that is just unavoidable, like seeing commericals interrupt our TV show, or sports show, or movie?  But hopefully we can move on back to our normal programming of earthly attention.

-something that God requires, so we better do it?  But in the deepest level of our veiled conscience we are thinking....'It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts?:  (Malachi 3:14)

-something that we will do if it has a drive through window?  There are days I am hungry but due to driving a long distance will not go sit for a steak, and since they do not have a drive through window, I'll go find a place which can get me a meal and get me moving on to my personal destination.
Is prayer, praying, prayer time....seen, pursued, with a sincere joyful eagerness as one who loves God? 

If Jesus rang your doorbell, would you talk to him for 5 minutes like he was proslyetizing with the local cult, but then be glad to shut the conversation down and send him on His way?

I've conciously turned my phone ringer off to ensure that I get a good nap with no interruptions, do I think about making preparations for a good prayer time?

May God grant us a new heart to have a eager desire to pray and fellowship with Him.  As Peter jumped from the boat and swam with joy to see the resurrected Christ, may we jump away from our temporal mindedness and pray with joy to rejoice in the greatness and goodness of God.