Okay, maybe I am exaggerating when I say that I am currently in a whirlwind of thoughts now as it is more like a breeze that you feel just before it rains, but indeed there are many thoughts and worries that contest for my attention, especially over these past few days. So bear with me if I appear to be rambling (as I usually do) and/or my posts appear to be disjointed and "non-flowing" (is there even such a word?) over the next few days.
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Supremacy of Christ vs Supremacy of Man (Voddie Baucham @ Desiring God Conference 2006)
Indeed in this Man-centered age, so often have many "Christians" and "churches" relegated God to be nothing more than a divine vending machine, where we go to to get our wishes granted. And so often has our evangelism been based on what sort of perks and benefits God can give you in this temporal world. Believe in God/Jesus and He will heal your backache. Believe in God/Jesus and He will give you a great job or top grades in your exam. Believe in God/Jesus and He will bless you with all the luxuries of this life.
What a travesty! Believe in God because He has sent His only begotten Son to die on a cross to save you from His Wrath! Believe in Christ because though you did not deserve mercy or grace, in His Love He came and drank down the Wrath of His Father so that you can be reconciled and redeemed to God! Don't you dare cheapen the Gospel Call to anything less than that.
But no, no. We want to know what God can do for ME. And it does not even cross our minds to ask ourselves how can a Holy and Just God not strike us down where we stand because of our crimes against Him.
Indeed if it were not for His Mercy, sinful Man would have been obliterated from the face of the Earth eons ago. If it were not for His Grace, Man would have no hope of being reconciled to Him. But yet, and in this is the beautiful mystery, He chose to Love us, and to demonstrate His Love to us by sending Christ down, and for Him to face His Father's Wrath in our stead. What else could you possibly want? What else could you possibly need? Is this sacrifice not sufficient for you, insignificant little you, to live out your days in complete Joy and thanksgiving come what may?
I too struggle with this question. I thank God with every fibre of my being for what He has blessed me with, yet my constant fear would be this, if one day God so chose to take away all the comforts of this life which He has given, would I curse God to His face as Job was tempted to. Lord I beg you for faith if that day should ever come.
To the Wind with your problems (Paul Washer)
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Having read this blog post from this blog, I too realize that so often felt a certain sense of self-righteousness based on my experiences. So often have I been like the Pharisee who despised the tax collector because I do this or believe that. So often have I thought that because I know this certain Truth or done that commandment of God, I must be somehow better than this other person in church, forgetting that all we like sheep have gone astray, and only that by God's Grace alone has He seen fit to reveal what little Truth so far to me compared with the fullness of His Glory. Indeed I so need to repent daily of this, and that it is only by His sustaining Grace that I should have breath in me.
All praise and thanks be to God
What Is the nature of entering into Temptation?
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by Mike Ratliff 41 Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into
temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Matthew 26:41
(LSB) 38...
6 hours ago
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