Archive for October, 2016
What Does Work Out Your Salvation with Fear and Trembling Mean?
Can you imagine if someone bought you a house, gave you the key and said, “This is yours! All you have to do is make monthly payments on it!” What kind of a “gift” is that?! Sure, they put the down payment on it, but you are now left with coming up with the monthly mortgage! It wouldn’t be a gift at all, but a true burden. Now if someone gave you a house where you owed nothing on it (no monthly mortgage or taxes), that would actually be a free gift. Certainly, you might be expected to keep the home up so that it did not go into disrepair. However, even if you did allow that to happen, the house itself would still be yours. No one could take it away from you because it was completely paid for by someone else, leaving you with absolutely no debt on it.
Psalm 2: Puny Man Waging War Against God, Part 3
People might rightly wonder about this. How could the Millennial Kingdom rule of Jesus not be a time of unbroken peace? Oh, it will be peaceful, but it will not be without its problems (implied in the need for Jesus to rule with a rod of iron). The main reason for that is due to the fact that people who have survived the Tribulation and enter it as well as those human beings born during it will still have sin natures. This is not excised from individuals (who are saved) until after death (or the Rapture). As long as we are living here on earth as human beings who have yet to die (or be Raptured), the sin nature is, unfortunately, very much apart of our lives.
What the World Needs Now is…TACT, Part 1
The art of being able to respond from the heart in a way that reduces hostility is something that all people – especially Christians – need to have and exercise. I think back over my life and remembering some of the ways in which I blurted out some sarcastic rejoinder to someone makes me shudder. I’m not saying that anger itself is never appropriate. I’m saying that as Scripture tells us, we should learn how to be angry and refrain from sinning (Ephesians 4:26). At the same time, as Paul notes in that verse, if we allow our anger to last long and into the next day, we are also doing something wrong (“…let not the sun go down upon your wrath,” v. 26b).
Government Keeps Giving Us More Reasons to Not Trust Them
Folks, if you are not aware, we cannot place our faith in government unless that government is headed up by Jesus (and that won’t happen until the Millennium). We cannot expect that government to do what is right because it has been doing what’s wrong for so long. At the same time, God is still directing humanity’s affairs to His preconceived conclusions and He does so for His glory. Yes, people will be held responsible for their actions in working against God just as Judas was held accountable for His even though Jesus came to die and willingly gave up His life for you and for me. Judas was the personal instigator who personally made Jesus’ death possible. He is culpable and is paying the eternal price for his sin. However, aren’t you glad that Jesus died?
Continue Reading October 5, 2016 at 12:33 PM Leave a comment
Psalm 2: Puny Man Waging War Against God, Part 2
By the time King David wrote the words of Psalm 2, much of what I’ve related was already behind him. Of course, the birth of the Messiah was yet in front of him, but the hard work of creating Israel from Abraham (and everything that included), was done! King David could understand Psalm 2 from his perspective knowing that God had already been faithful because of all the things He had promised and brought to the fore.
Psalm 2: Puny Man Waging War Against God, Part 1
During King David’s day (and he is the assumed author of Psalm 2 based on the testimony of Acts 4:25), the Holy Spirit prompted David to see a larger picture and gave him an eyeful about how desperate humanity is to throw off the “bands” and “cords” (Psalm 2:3) of God’s rule. This has been Satan’s goal since he first fell and after he managed to succeed in getting Eve and Adam to fall, he put his plan to use humanity to help him break free of God’s rule. That’s what it’s all about. Satan wants to be God (Isaiah 14:14) and he’ll use humanity in his attempt to make that happen. Will he succeed? Psalm 2 tells us he won’t.
StudyGrowKnow 