I suppose most people in redemptive history have developed a sort of philosophic idea in their minds and hearts of who God is [even atheists]. They may develop these ideas from something they read from somewhere else or from someone they have talked to. They may even claim to develop ideas on their own. For example, a Muslim believes that Allah is God Almighty. A Jehovah’s Witness believes that “Jehovah” is God but apart from the deity of Christ. The Buddhist believes in Karma and many rebirths or an ultimate Nirvana or “spiritual enlightenment” that comes from self-suffering or ascetic performance. The common denominator among most religions is not only man-centered and revolving around religious performance, but the God they claim to be “the true God” has also been molded and shaped into their fashion, as an idol. In this they attempt to free themselves from the law. False doctrine results in false epistemologies and fails to observe depravity of the human soul in its truest sense because it does not acknowledge the only perfect righteousness acceptable by God or the true heinousness of sin.
The Word of God [apart from Allah, the Watchtower and other non-canonized Scriptures] speaks for itself, apart from man. The true Word of God describes not only ultimate authority over man with propositions in the Scriptures, but His complete character is described simultaneously. In other words, not only is the true God the one who commands every man everywhere to repent, but that He also demonstrates His character in exalting His name. How does He exalt His name? He first and foremost does not look to man for affirmation in His exaltation because He is self-sufficient and self-existent. Not only is He perfect in Holiness, which makes Him perfectly righteous, but He is omnipotent, omniscient and unapproachable apart from His Sovereign decrees. He is not only an infinite number of things that man cannot understand with an infinitely wretched, feeble and worm-like mind, but He is simply incomprehensible. As He declares His name to be above all things, He declares not only repentance, but also reminds us that He has made everything the eye can see. He has made heaven and earth, the human body, all animals, the universe and single-celled organisms.
These things are only able to be explained by a human to other humans because God has made them. The fact that God made me reminds me of how he captures the entirety of creation with His Word. He reminds me that He has made heaven and earth, which is everything I can see and beyond my scope of comprehension. At the same time, He declares His own righteousness and that He is infinitely above all things. Because He has caused me to see that He is infinitely above all things, He also causes me to see who other religions acknowledge a great deal, but without reverence. This infinitely incomprehensible Holy God who has made heaven and earth has made Himself knowable in the person of Jesus Christ. He therefore strips any self-exultation of man. He brings him to nothing. He causes all insolent ascetic and non-Christ exalting religions to falter upon the rebellious and man-glorifying epistemologies that end in self-destruction. This God-Man is the very manifestation of God to man in the flesh as He declared Himself to be when He walked this earth. Muhammad never claimed to be God in the flesh. Neither did Gandhi. Jesus did not claim to be a good leader or just a prophet. He claimed to be God. This proclamation ultimately lead to His bloody death on the Cross. His power reverberates in the resurrecting power of the Gospel. The true Messiah claimed to be God. The true Messiah died. The true Messiah also rose again and ascended to the right hand of the Father. The true Messiah, Jesus Christ, came to save sinners who will not and cannot save themselves. The true Messiah is still incomprehensible, majestic, excellent and infinitely glorious beyond all measure. His unfathomable Mercy is heard throughout the land. He humbled Himself to be a man and to wash the feet of His disciples. Yet, He is also the Judge and Lord of Heaven and Earth; the maker of all things.
“But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. For it is God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
2 Corinthians 4:2-6
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
10 possible meditations for a devotion
1.) Jesus Christ actually walked this planet and historically died on the Cross. Meditate on the historical reality of Jesus’ birth, death and resurrection.
2.) The blood of Jesus’ being shed is the only forgiveness for sins that is possible. Not only that, the power of that blood is enough to forgive all sins forever and thus imparts eternal life of bliss and perfect fellowship from the Creator to the undeserved sinner.
3.) Singles should rejoice in this season to do the work of an evangelist and fulfilling the Great Commission to speak the words of eternal life to the dead and lost.
4.) Married couples should pray to love their spouses in a way that brings the most glory to God according to His Word. Husbands meditate upon the Love of Christ and how He sacrificially loves His church. Wives submit to your husbands in reverence for Christ.
5.) This life on earth is merely a vapor. Meditate on eternity and how losing your life for the sake of Christ makes this world less and less attractive. This world will pass. The Word of God lasts forever.
6.) Meditate on the fact that the Holy Spirit prays for you in your weakness. When you are weakest physically, spiritually and emotionally, then you are strongest in Christ.
7.) We are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, given life and the ability to be obedient to God. Meditate on how He has sanctified you with His Word and Spirit to be more like Him and thus preparing you to be with Him, face to face for eternity.
8.) Meditate on Christian persecution and what it means to be persecuted or killed for preaching salvation in Jesus Christ.
9.) Meditate on becoming a student of God’s Word. The very God who caused the new birth provided the very words that cause sanctification to understand Him more accurately and love Him more rightly until glorification. Know more of the doctrine of God.
10.)Meditate upon Old Testament Scriptures and read commentaries by respected authors to understand them.
2.) The blood of Jesus’ being shed is the only forgiveness for sins that is possible. Not only that, the power of that blood is enough to forgive all sins forever and thus imparts eternal life of bliss and perfect fellowship from the Creator to the undeserved sinner.
3.) Singles should rejoice in this season to do the work of an evangelist and fulfilling the Great Commission to speak the words of eternal life to the dead and lost.
4.) Married couples should pray to love their spouses in a way that brings the most glory to God according to His Word. Husbands meditate upon the Love of Christ and how He sacrificially loves His church. Wives submit to your husbands in reverence for Christ.
5.) This life on earth is merely a vapor. Meditate on eternity and how losing your life for the sake of Christ makes this world less and less attractive. This world will pass. The Word of God lasts forever.
6.) Meditate on the fact that the Holy Spirit prays for you in your weakness. When you are weakest physically, spiritually and emotionally, then you are strongest in Christ.
7.) We are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, given life and the ability to be obedient to God. Meditate on how He has sanctified you with His Word and Spirit to be more like Him and thus preparing you to be with Him, face to face for eternity.
8.) Meditate on Christian persecution and what it means to be persecuted or killed for preaching salvation in Jesus Christ.
9.) Meditate on becoming a student of God’s Word. The very God who caused the new birth provided the very words that cause sanctification to understand Him more accurately and love Him more rightly until glorification. Know more of the doctrine of God.
10.)Meditate upon Old Testament Scriptures and read commentaries by respected authors to understand them.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Eternal Protection
“Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.” Revelation 19:11-16
What a dreaded thought to be an enemy of the infinite Almighty God. To love hatred and to have an openly rebellious heart against the law of the Lord is to be under His wrath. The King of Righteousness is promised to return with a robe dipped in blood, due to wrath and establish righteous judgment upon unjustified sinners. The reprobates are gathered with all of their unregenerate thoughts and deeds and will serve their just punishment. Those who are proud in heart and spirit and who have cumulatively compiled all their sins will be judged with as He strikes the nations as the Word of God.
However, if you are one of His remnant that are broken hearted over sin and defilement of the flesh, then who better to defend your unrighteous deeds then the very One who built the everlasting bridge with His blood? Brethren, Jesus Christ, who is faithful and true according to His eternal promises, infinitely secures His chosen vessels of honor. There is nothing that can separate you from Him. Just as His Almighty wrath is an unstoppable and impenetrable decree, so is His Great Mercy on those whose sins He has graciously passed over and given them His Holy Spirit. If you hate sin and love the brethren, then you are in God’s army and are battling even now. His sword does not bring death and destruction to those He has given His very name and Righteousness. Justification is of an infinite kind and only given by an infinite being. Take courage, saved sinners. If you are fighting the tricks and wiles of the Devil in this world with your own sword, the Word of God, then Jesus Christ, the King of Kings has eternally secured your name in the Book of Life. Not even death itself will prevail.
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:
‘For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are account as sheep for the slaughter.’
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8:35-39
What a dreaded thought to be an enemy of the infinite Almighty God. To love hatred and to have an openly rebellious heart against the law of the Lord is to be under His wrath. The King of Righteousness is promised to return with a robe dipped in blood, due to wrath and establish righteous judgment upon unjustified sinners. The reprobates are gathered with all of their unregenerate thoughts and deeds and will serve their just punishment. Those who are proud in heart and spirit and who have cumulatively compiled all their sins will be judged with as He strikes the nations as the Word of God.
However, if you are one of His remnant that are broken hearted over sin and defilement of the flesh, then who better to defend your unrighteous deeds then the very One who built the everlasting bridge with His blood? Brethren, Jesus Christ, who is faithful and true according to His eternal promises, infinitely secures His chosen vessels of honor. There is nothing that can separate you from Him. Just as His Almighty wrath is an unstoppable and impenetrable decree, so is His Great Mercy on those whose sins He has graciously passed over and given them His Holy Spirit. If you hate sin and love the brethren, then you are in God’s army and are battling even now. His sword does not bring death and destruction to those He has given His very name and Righteousness. Justification is of an infinite kind and only given by an infinite being. Take courage, saved sinners. If you are fighting the tricks and wiles of the Devil in this world with your own sword, the Word of God, then Jesus Christ, the King of Kings has eternally secured your name in the Book of Life. Not even death itself will prevail.
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:
‘For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are account as sheep for the slaughter.’
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8:35-39
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