Posts filed under ‘salvation’
Surprised by Grief
The other morning as I ate breakfast, reading through 2 Kings 1, 2, 3, I found myself saddened to the point of tears. This is where Elijah goes to heaven in a chariot of fire and Elisha gets a double portion of Elijah’s spirit. My sadness was due to a number of things; the kings of Israel had an absolute lack of love for and loyalty to God to the point where one chose to seek information from demons. That king had an illness from which he died because he would not seek God for answers. That resonated within me because of what the leadership of the USA has been doing and continues to do by rejecting God completely.
Be Encouraged – Praise God
Babylon has literally come out of the closet and is in society’s face. Globalists smugly dare the world to try to push back against it. As Christians, do we need to be concerned about it? A quick glance at Scripture tells us that Jesus did not hesitate to tell His disciples and apostles what would happen to them at the end of the age (prior to His physical return). He didn’t sugar coat it nor did He hold back that information. He didn’t want them to dwell on it or live in fear of it, but He clearly wanted them (and us), to be aware of what would occur (Matthew 24:4-8, 25).
God Will Provide, But…
Folks, I believe this is what’s needed now for all Christians who seek God and His blessing. There are a plethora of verses that point out the covenant relationship we are in with God. It is an agreement. We have salvation through faith in Him and His finished work on the cross and that salvation grants us fellowship. We maintain our fellowship with God through our growing desire to be in obedience to Him and His commands. This is done not out of “duty” or “fear of retribution,” but it is done out of love and a fear of offending or grieving Him. I’ve written about that enough so that hopefully, readers understand what I mean by it.
Revelation 16: 6th and 7th Bowls
Today, we Christians must not be lulled into sleep by a “woke” world. We must remain true to God’s Word and His purposes. We cannot and dare not hate those in the world but we can hate what they traffic in and what they call “good” though it is “bad.” We need to call out the lies in a way that invites people to turn to the Lord in repentance. We must continue being lights to the world and preach the Gospel to the lost with our lips and with our lives. This is our calling and we cannot shirk it. If we do, we will end up being embarrassed when He does return. We will understand that we will have not lived in a way that brought Him glory.
Day of Vengeance?
In Romans 1:20-23, Paul goes onto explain that we can know God exists because His attributes are clearly seen in His Creation. It is inherent in each person. Because God knows His attributes are clearly visible (and He did that so there would be no excuse), it means that people who reject Him do so deliberately. Because of this, God is righteous and just in eventually giving them over to become fully enveloped by their growing delusion so that they cannot see truth at all.
Revelation 16: Bowls of Wrath
These seven bowl judgments of God are symbols of His power and justice. He is demonstrating that He is in control of all things. He is a just and righteous God and will not allow those who reject Him to go unpunished. God is love, but He is also a righteous judge who will ultimately bring justice to those who oppose Him. In the end, we must all stand before God and give an account of our actions. May we all seek to live our lives in a way that honors and pleases Him.
Honest Appraisal
To approach God, we must be honest. He sees our dishonesty anyway, through our lies and excuses just like Adam and Eve. The serpent is the only one who did not offer an excuse. In fact, never replied to God and note God never asked the serpent a question. Both Adam and Eve had excuses for their sinful behavior. Yet, God’s love was abundantly apparent. He gave them eternal hope that day in the garden, that they would be extricated from their circumstances and it would come through a Savior.
Like a Fungus…
I’m sure the powers that be intend to ultimately cancel God altogether and even lock that closet door with secure locks forcing all believers into the underground, out of mainstream society. While today’s society is little different from Sodom and Gomorrah or Gibeah of Judges that we’ve discussed, there’s a tremendous amount of violence and a growing percentage of it seems to be gratuitous, meaning it’s people attacking people based solely on race or culture or just because they feel like it. This is exactly what the residents of the three cities mentioned did. They went after people who were outsiders, because they wanted to send a strong message – “You’re not wanted here. Go away!”
Easy to Fall
Now Micah was by no means innocent and clearly deceived because he rejected God’s rule. He knew what he was getting and incorrectly believed that God would bless him because he now had a Levite in his house. He was clearly deceived into thinking this but why? It all started back in Judges 17:3 when we learned Micah had a habit of worshiping idols and using divination to gain knowledge and “wisdom.” Too many Christians can’t find their way around the Bible, but they all want God to “speak” to them and above all things, “bless” them.
Our New Default…
Before we became Christians, we had specific “defaults” in how we reacted to situations. These often stemmed from the way we were brought up, at least in part, as well as the personality we had and how that personality developed in us over the years. How things impacted us as a child and how we saw our parents react toward one another and God (if God was in that equation), created a pattern for the way we ourselves learned to deal with situations. Interestingly enough though, our default to the many situations we faced in life was a learned process. We may have seen how our parents handled stress for instance, and we began imitating that reaction so that it stayed with us and carried us over into adulthood. Now, that pattern may be firmly established within us so that we find ourselves reacting to stress nearly the same way our parents did and taught us through osmosis.
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