Friday, October 30, 2009

Bottom line of all sin . . .

Incredibly, the first sin of those whom God created took place in a perfectly holy environment: heaven. That would seem to be incomprehensible, given what Scripture tells us about heaven, the dwelling place of God.

Just as astonishing, Adam and Eve, who were also in a perfect environment and had yet to know sin, were seduced by the same sin as Lucifer ("light bearer"), later called Satan ("adversary") and "that old serpent" (Revelation 12:9; 20:2).

They chose self over God.

That is the bottom line of all sin.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

1812

Napoleon's retreat from Moscow.

"The only winner in the War of 1812 was Tchaikovsky."
- Solomon Short

YouTube - Tchaikovsky's famous 1812 Overture Part 1

Napoleon - French invasion of Russia, 1812

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

The fatal conceit. . .

Nobel prize winning economist F.A.Hayek called socialism "the fatal conceit."

Why conceit?

Because socialism's basic premise, according to Hayek, is that "man is able to shape the world around him according to his wishes."

Why fatal? Because, like all falsehoods and misconceptions, it leads to failure, and sometimes disaster.

(The Health Care Fatal Conceit
by Star Parker )

"the pillars of the earth are the LORD'S, and He hath set the world upon them" (I Samuel 2.8).

Monday, October 26, 2009

Predestined to what?

The only two chapters in which the word predestinate or predestinated is found is Romans 8:29-30, and Ephesians 1:5 and 11. You will note that there is no reference in these four verses to either heaven or hell but to Christ-likeness. Predestination means that someday all the redeemed shall become just like the Lord Jesus.

Nowhere are we told in scripture that God predestined one man to be saved and another to be lost. Men are to be saved or lost eternally because of their attitude towards the Lord Jesus Christ.

D.L. Moody used to put it very simply: the elect are the 'whosoever wills' the non-elect the 'whosoever wont's'.

This is exactly what scripture teaches. The invitation is to all, and those who accept it are the elect.

(Ironside on Calvinism)

Transformation of the real. . .

We know (I didn't know but assume the writer is correct) from 100 years of psychoanalytic investigation that an early trauma, often buried or unavailable to consciousness, is the motif that plays through our lives. We meet it again and again in different disguises. We are wounded again in the same place. This doesn't turn us into victims. Rather, we are people in search of a transformation of the real. - Jeanette Winterson, WSJ, October 17 - 18, 2009

I would say the gospel of Jesus Christ is the transformation of the real that every person needs:

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (II Corinthians 5.17).

Those of us who have experienced this transformation have a debt to those who have not found it. People are seeking transformation, and the world system has not answered the loss deep in the human psyche.

I can attest that the new creation found in Christ, is the new creation every soul is yearning for. I praise God for the day when the Holy Spirit witnessed to my spirit my need, and Jesus Christ's total provision for that need, which I accepted by faith. What a glorious transformation took place that moment.

Try it yourself, you'll like it!

Yes, and so much more. You will glory in it every day of your life.

Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul,
Thank you, Lord, for making me whole,
Thank you, Lord, for giving to me,
Thy great salvation, so rich and free.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

The immensity of the sea. . .

"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."

These timeless words of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the French author and aviator, sum up what it means to lead. How tight a ship do you run? Are you the mainstay for your organization or just a figurehead?

Idolatry

Anything that leads to the dethronement of God from the heart.

For example, covetousness (Ephesians 5.5; Colossians 3.5).

NT warnings to guard against idolatry (I Corinthians 5.10; Galatians 5.20; etc.).

Incontrovertible truth . . .

As Mark Steyn's hero and greatest Englishman of the 20th Century, Sir Winston Churchill once wisely observed many years ago.......

"The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is."

The plain thing . . .

“The plain thing is the main thing and the main thing is the plain thing.”

Alistair Begg, senior pastor of Parkside Church, Cleveland, Ohio, about reading the Bible.

Just wonderin...







I wonder as I wander out under the sky
How Jesus the Saviour did come for to die
For poor on’ry people like you and like I;
I wonder as I wander out under the sky

When Mary birthed Jesus ’twas in a cow’s stall
With wise men and farmers and shepherds and all
But high from God’s heaven, a star’s light did fall
And the promise of ages it then did recall.

If Jesus had wanted for any wee thing
A star in the sky or a bird on the wing
Or all of God’s Angels in heaven to sing
He surely could have it, ’cause he was the King

I wonder as I wander out under the sky
How Jesus the Saviour did come for to die
For poor on’ry people like you and like I;
I wonder as I wander out under the sky

Friday, October 23, 2009

A little lacking in Smack. . .


"The House at Pooh Corner" introduces us to our stuffed hero, Pooh, a teddy bear that belongs to a young boy named Christopher Robin. We also find a fussy Piglet, cynical Eeyore, a rambunctious Tiger, and a clever Rabbit, all living in the Hundred Acre Wood.

The book is full of not-quite-correct language that young children often use.

Reacting to the dutiful applause of his friends after reciting a poem, Eeyore says: "Unexpected and gratifying, if a little lacking in Smack."

Read a bit of Pooh's Corner to your kids and grands...you'll get more than a little Smack as you enter the lives of these wonderful friends.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Force

"Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." (George Washington)

Why is there something?

Why there is something and not nothing is one of man's basic questions, and one natural scientists cannot answer.

Man is unique. He, alone, among all creatures, attempts to understand the universe and all its aspects to give meaning to his existence.

Jacques Cousteau observed: "The happiness of the bee and the dolphin is to exist; for man it is to know that and to wonder at it."

(John F. Haggerty, October 19, 2009, WSJ)

Truth with tact...

Truth = (trooth) n. that which is true; a fact; reality.

Tact = (takt) n. good judgment in dealing with persons; diplomacy.

Lie = n. a falsehood; not according to fact; untrue.

Truth = God's way.

Truth + tact = It's a matter of survival.

Truth + lie = Man's way of escaping accountability.

"Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers" (Ephesians 4.29).

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Middle verse of the Bible

It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man. (Psalm 118:8)

Monday, October 19, 2009

What about Eve?


"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Genesis 2:17).

It was the easiest command God could give.

There must have been hundreds of varieties of wonderful and delicious fruit and this tree didn't necessarily have a different kind of fruit from any other trees. God is not robbing them of something. They weren't going to miss out on anything. It was a test of their obedience and their trust in God. It was just this tree-don't eat of this tree!

"And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3:4,5).

Eve did not have the same sin nature as you and I, as she had yet to sin. The environment was perfect. Everything about her life was perfect. Yet Satan introduces this thought and she takes it. She wanted what God told her she was not to have. She was deceived into thinking that this physical fruit has some capability of making a person wise that none of the other trees had.

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Psalm 111:10). and the wise thing would have been for her to obey God.

She was deceived. She believed the serpent rather than God. She ate.

Man (Adam and Eve) were made in the image of God and now they have fallen from that image because they have rebelled against God, and the spirit of God departs from them and they begin to slowly die physically.

This is our human condition. We need a remedy. Jesus Christ is God's answer to our problem. Him alone...not our wisdom or our good intentions, only Him.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Fossils. . .




It has been pointed out that circular reasoning is used to "date" fossils or strata. Strata is dated because of the fossils found within, while fossils are dated because of the strata they are in. Consequently, those fossils that are not found in the strata in which they ought to repose create a problem. See Morris, Henry M., 1974. Scientific Creationism, Master Books, pp. 95-96, 136.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Climbing higher. . .

On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow. -Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900)

Nietzsche & Christianity

L.
I wonder if Nietzsche had a Grace understanding of "rightly dividing the word of truth" if he would have found rest to his soul? Or if he had read THE SILENCE OF GOD by Sir Robert Anderson which was first published in 1907...oh, just a few years too late for Nietzsche. I'm sure he saw the cold orthodoxy of his day as "death". (Here I am trying to understand Nietzsche...what hubris.)

Monday, October 12, 2009

Linear thinkers . . .


While seasonality is clearly observable in history, the acceptance of cyclicality at the expense of linear progression leaves the believer with an incomplete historical paradigm. Mid-Acts Grace Believers utilize a strict linear model when teaching how to rightly divide the Word of Truth. When we speak about how God has worked in the past (time past), how God is working in the present (but now), and how God will work in the future (ages to come), we are utilizing a strictly linear view of history. Time originated in Genesis 1 and is advancing forward in linear fashion toward a prophesied end, the establishment of the new heavens and new earth. When the Dispensation of the Fullness of Time arrives the purpose for which God created time will have been fulfilled. One could argue that mid-Acts dispensationalists are the most linear thinkers around.

From Pastor Bryan's excellent article on his blog: Defense and Confirmation
Defense and Confirmation

No compromise. . .


Winston Churchill


“No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong.”

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Change, not annihiltion. . .

Death brings change, not annihilation. The resulting change is an eternal one--forever in the presence of God or forever separated from Him, forever living or forever in the state of dying.-- A.W. Tozer

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Urbane umber

PRONUNCIATION:(UM-buhr)
MEANING:noun: A natural brown earth, used as a pigment; a reddish-brown color.
ETYMOLOGY:Via French from Latin umbra (shade, shadow), which also gave us the words umbrella, umbrage, adumbrate, and somber. Umbria, a region of ancient Italy, has also been suggested as an origin for this term. The color burnt umber is made by roasting umber (From: A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg)

Another lovely autumn word. Enjoy the slow color fade to russet and umber. It seems Rembrandt used these colors so richly on his canvas as seen in his "Return of the prodigal son".

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

He who overcomes. . .

God gives us enemies for a reason, and He chastises those He loves.

Israel was enslaved by the Egyptians, conquered by the Assyrians, Babylonians and Romans -- did this signify God's blessing of Israel's conquerors?

God's chosen people were dispersed to the four corners of the earth after the destruction of the Temple. They were despised, oppressed and persecuted.

Had Genesis 12:3 been repealed? God forbid! For somewhere in all this misery and suffering, the Lord of Hosts had a purpose and a meaning.

Yet we see through a glass, darkly, and like Job's doubting wife, many will counsel us to "curse God and die." However, we know that the very name Israel can be translated "he who overcomes." ** (Above from blogger: The Other McCain )



**Israel is the name given to Jacob after his fight with the Angel of God.

The meaning of the name Israel is not clear, although Israel is most likely a compilation of the verb (sara 2287) and the noun (El 93a), the common abbreviation of Elohim.

The meaning of the verb (sara 2287) is uncertain and explained in many ways, chiefly because it is limited to contexts which discuss the struggle of Jacob with the Angel of the Lord, insinuating that where our language uses the common verb 'struggle,' the Hebrew uses a word that is specifically reserved for a certain action: the action of struggling with God. The verb (sarar 2295), rule, reign, act as prince is also often used as the meaning of the name of Israel.

We can not say with certainty what the name Israel is supposed to mean, although it seems to reflect a certain inability of the Almighty God, namely the not being able to defeat a man like Jacob. We can be sure that God doesn't lack the physical strength to eradicate any human being, so we must conclude that the destruction of Jacob would go against the very nature of God. Perhaps the name Israel denotes God's continuous effort to keep Jacob going, even though Jacob continues to fight God.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Hebrew-English Number Table



The English equivalent is below the Hebrew letter (in parenthesis).The number value of the Hebrew letter is below the English letter. The "vav" or English "w" or "6" is highlighted in yellow. Hebrew reads right to left.

"Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred three score and six (666)" (Revelation 13:18).

Don't sell truth. . .

"Buy the truth, and sell it not" (Proverbs 23:23).

It costs to embrace the truth and costs even more to stand for it. - C.R. Stam

A russet autumn. . .

PRONUNCIATION:(RUS-it) MEANING:noun:1. A moderate to strong brown.2. Any of various articles in this shade: a homespun cloth, apple, potato, etc.

ETYMOLOGY:From Old French rousset, diminutive of rous (red), from Latin russus, from ruber (red). Ultimately from the Indo-European root reudh- (red) that is also the source of red, ruby, rouge, rubric, robust, and corroborate (literally, to make stronger).

I like the sound of saying russet. It is a wonderful fitting picture-word for autumn, I think.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Hark! the Herald Angels Sing


Jesus, born at Tabernacles, fulfils the feast of Tabernacles, as He left His home in Glory and came to dwell in a frail mortal body that night in Bethlehem.

He is GOD in our midst.

Jesus is the Tabernacle of GOD. In Him all the fullness of GOD dwells (John 1:14). "For in Him (Christ) dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Col 2:9) .

The ultimate fulfillment will be His second coming to take us to our rest.

Until then He is the rest for our souls, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt 11:28) .

As believers in Christ, we should not be asking for Jesus to give us life - He is our life; not to give us rest - He is our rest.

Tabernacles/Sukkot (October 3, 2009) - Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Giving. . .

First Three Rules of Selling:

Love and believe in your product.

Stress benefit to the buyer not the seller.

Don't sell the sales force but sell the product.

Tiny, despised, fierce Israel...

"It is interesting to think that if America is brought low (a no-longer unthinkable notion, unfortunately) and the crazymen that we’re hot to appease in Iran, or North Korea or Venezuela get together to do crazy things, the only fully-functioning and war-ready Democracy left to help the world will be…Israel.

Tiny, despised, fierce Israel."

Friday, October 2, 2009

God is good because He is good...

“He hast not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities” (Psalm 103:10).

If He loved us while we hated Him, what will He do for us now that we have something approaching love for Him?

“For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life” (Romans 5:10) .

How can we understand such a God, but to say:

God is good because He IS good.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Opulent October


"October is the fallen leaf, but it is also a wider horizon more clearly seen. It is the distant hills once more in sight, and the enduring constellations above them once again." - Hal Borland, 1964

A harvest moon, and trees silhouetted in branchy shadow. Cold, sharp atmosphere that make the stars seem so bright and near you think you could almost reach your hand up and touch them. Opulent October returns once more, just as the Lord promised (Genesis 8:22).