Ecc 2:17 - Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun [is] grievous unto me: for all [is] vanity and vexation of spirit.
this whole chapter is great! it does a really good job of reminding us that only a life lived for God is a full life. all else is empty and vain...
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Monday, October 1, 2007
ye who have forgotten ye where clean
2Pe 1:2-11 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall; or "sin", as the Latin Vulgate version rendered it. all men at some time or other fall in this sense of the word, this does in no way imply a final and total fall from grace. for though they fall, they shall rise again by faith and repentance, through the grace and power of Christ, who is able to keep them from falling: also, while they were exercising the graces within the text, and doing those duties, they will not fall; for these are the means of final perseverance.
perseverance also implied here in Ephesians,
Eph 1:14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
the earnest (down payment) of our inheritance being the Holy Ghost, meaning he lives within us keeping us until he comes for us or we go to him hence, "the redemption of the purchased possession". the Christian being the purchased possession a purchase made with his own blood.
now, lest we forget the awful case the man is in while he is not performing these graces let us look again to the text as it reads, "he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins". the blind fall in the ditch, they are bankrupt, they have to beg for money just to eat (this may have been true in the new testament days for the blind man as apposed to today, but the spiritual application applies in any time period) and can not prosper in any way. they have forgotten, forgotten they where clean of the former sins. forgotten what God has done in them, they have gone a whoring after strange God's.
Psa 44:20 -21 If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god; shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.
he shall search it out, for though we may forget. the LORD forgettest not! let us then praise he who does not forget us, he who has grace enough to forgive us. who goes past just forgiving to actively seeking his sheep and calling them, though they forget him from time to time.
finally, let us think on this; " Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure"
diligence will make our election sure, diligence in what? how do we make our election sure?
" giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity".
a check list of sorts, can your election be sure? it can, but we must give diligence to these things. it would be a worth while study to find out the biblical meaning of each one of these words... don't ya think.
for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall; or "sin", as the Latin Vulgate version rendered it. all men at some time or other fall in this sense of the word, this does in no way imply a final and total fall from grace. for though they fall, they shall rise again by faith and repentance, through the grace and power of Christ, who is able to keep them from falling: also, while they were exercising the graces within the text, and doing those duties, they will not fall; for these are the means of final perseverance.
perseverance also implied here in Ephesians,
Eph 1:14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
the earnest (down payment) of our inheritance being the Holy Ghost, meaning he lives within us keeping us until he comes for us or we go to him hence, "the redemption of the purchased possession". the Christian being the purchased possession a purchase made with his own blood.
now, lest we forget the awful case the man is in while he is not performing these graces let us look again to the text as it reads, "he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins". the blind fall in the ditch, they are bankrupt, they have to beg for money just to eat (this may have been true in the new testament days for the blind man as apposed to today, but the spiritual application applies in any time period) and can not prosper in any way. they have forgotten, forgotten they where clean of the former sins. forgotten what God has done in them, they have gone a whoring after strange God's.
Psa 44:20 -21 If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god; shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.
he shall search it out, for though we may forget. the LORD forgettest not! let us then praise he who does not forget us, he who has grace enough to forgive us. who goes past just forgiving to actively seeking his sheep and calling them, though they forget him from time to time.
finally, let us think on this; " Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure"
diligence will make our election sure, diligence in what? how do we make our election sure?
" giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity".
a check list of sorts, can your election be sure? it can, but we must give diligence to these things. it would be a worth while study to find out the biblical meaning of each one of these words... don't ya think.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
my thoughts today
Jhn 3:27
John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.
John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
just when you think you can not be forgiven...
we as humans always tend to think of God as one of us, we think that he feels and thinks the way we do. that's incorrect, God is 100% good, and 100% love and righteousness. people are fallen, and flawed at best. there are so many things i can not forgive myself for but i have faith that God has. i can have this faith because unlike people, God loves with out condition. the bible says that while we where yet sinners Christ died for us, you see we had not done anything to deserve to be loved yet he did the most loving act in the history of time. he sacrificed his son for people who hate him. he loved us when we where yet in our sin and rebels against God. we also must not try to reason from our point of view up, but we must try to reason from God down to us. you see, we can not forgive things that God has no trouble forgiving because God loves in ways we can not yet comprehend. when he gave his son on the cross he knew that there was not a single sin that this love could not wash away, no matter what it is, our death giving sin is not so much as even worthy to be compared to to the life giving blood of Jesus Christ. let's think on this next time we can not forgive, ourselves or others.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
sadness becomes joy
... and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.
yesterday would have been my best friends 29th birthday had he not committed suicide three years ago. it was a very sorrow filled day. after work i went out to meet his family at the grave site, again much sorrow. but the LORD started to turn things around for me there, the family came to me and asked if i would lead all of them in prayer. it was hard to do but i was happy to do it, also i felt some joy in that the family came to me to draw close to God in this time. the pain and sorrow of the day started to melt. after we went back to his mothers house. we talked about old times and new. through out the conversations i came to find out that his mother, grandmother, aunt, sister and brother in law have all come to know the lord as saviour. they are all in a local congregation and all very excited about their new found faith. the LORD took my sorrow and made it joy!! a thing only he can do.
i miss you john paul, rest in peace brother!
Friday, September 14, 2007
my thoughts on the promised land
anyone who was at f.b.b.c. for the mid week service will remember how pastor used the crossing over Jordan and entering into the promised land as a kind of picture of where the church is now and so on. i heard a different message altogether.
as the children of Israel leave Egypt and enter into the wilderness we see a kind of salvation there, but they have not completed the journey by far. 40 years spent wondering and wondering trying to get it right. i see in this the christian who has come to faith but is also wondering trying to get it right. so then after many years they arrive at the promised land, they cross over and it's easy street from there....right? NO, there is war waiting for them in that land. the difference is that now they have God to help them fight the battles. pastor said here, now that we are here don't just sit down and do nothing. it's time to go to war! time to win the battles. but i just thought of the christian who thinks that when he does find vital reality with God and he finally stops his wilderness wanderings, he thinks, oh man now i can relax, now its easy street. oh no my friends, the bible shows us when we become closer to God when the christian does find his way out of the world and into the light, the battles get heaver and they hit harder. we enter into his rest because now he is there to fight for us, not with us! but for us! for the battles are such as you and i on our own can never win.
as the children of Israel leave Egypt and enter into the wilderness we see a kind of salvation there, but they have not completed the journey by far. 40 years spent wondering and wondering trying to get it right. i see in this the christian who has come to faith but is also wondering trying to get it right. so then after many years they arrive at the promised land, they cross over and it's easy street from there....right? NO, there is war waiting for them in that land. the difference is that now they have God to help them fight the battles. pastor said here, now that we are here don't just sit down and do nothing. it's time to go to war! time to win the battles. but i just thought of the christian who thinks that when he does find vital reality with God and he finally stops his wilderness wanderings, he thinks, oh man now i can relax, now its easy street. oh no my friends, the bible shows us when we become closer to God when the christian does find his way out of the world and into the light, the battles get heaver and they hit harder. we enter into his rest because now he is there to fight for us, not with us! but for us! for the battles are such as you and i on our own can never win.
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