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Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Be Encouraged to Draw Nigh to God

"Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you." (James 4:8a)  That is a promise from God that, as you desire and seek to get closer to Him, He will draw nearer to you.  So if that's what you're endeavoring to do right now: to get closer to God, then take comfort in that promise.  Your time is not wasted.

God's Word is full of promises.  God cannot break His promises.  They are guarantees -- set in stone -- "you can take 'em to the bank" -- they will not, cannot fail.  But, of course, in order to know what God's promises are, in order to become familiar with them, in order to be able to hold God to His Word when you're praying to Him, you have to be in His Word, reading His Word, memorizing His Word, studying His Word, daily, regularly.

"Heaven and earth may pass away, but God's Word endures forever." (Matthew 24:35)

Now ... Be encouraged ... in the LORD and in His Word!

Thursday, April 05, 2012

Pleasure Forever

Psalm 16:11 says that at God's "right hand, there are pleasures for evermore." Then later Psalms and numerous New Testament passages tell us that Christ is at God's right hand. Thus, our Lord Jesus Christ is Pleasure for evermore!

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Repentance

To repent basically means to change your mind, to change your way of thinking, to completely change from doing things one way to start doing them another way. When it comes to good moral behavior, however, you and I cannot really fundamentally change our ways. Because Jesus Christ says that all of our behavior and our actions come from our heart (Matthew 15:16-20 of the Holy Bible); and we cannot change our hearts. Only God can do that.

So if you truly desire to change (to repent), then ask God to give you a new heart. He promises new life, forgiveness of sins, abundant life, mercy that endures forever, peace that passes understanding, eternal life – and more – to those who believe His promises. (To believe does not mean to simply think something in your head but to actually live it out in your actions.)

So if you truly believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that He came to earth as God in the flesh, that He lived a sinless life, that He took your sins to the cross and to the grave (in His crucifixion and death), that He came back to life again 3 days later, and that He sits at God’s right hand as King of the world, then God will give you a brand new heart. God’s Spirit will move into your body to become one with your spirit. His Spirit will put to death your old way of living, thinking, desiring, behaving, and He will give you a brand new life, with brand new perspectives, brand new desires, and brand new behaviors. “Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

Then what God has worked into you, you must work out. As He has done inwardly, you must do outwardly. When He puts a new (clean, pure, wholesome) heart within you, you must put out new (clean, pure, wholesome) actions and behaviors.

That is repentance.

Thursday, January 05, 2012

Which Is Sovereign? God's Will or Our Free Will

Name something for which you can thankful but for which such thanks does not need to be directed to God. (I.e., if you're giving credit to whom credit is due for all the good things in your life, is there ANYTHING at all for which full credit could go to yourself or someone else and not at all to God? If your answer is "No, I can't do that," that's because God is sovereign, right? ... over all things.)

More specifically, think of this in terms of the free will argument. If I choose Christ -- if I'M the one doing the choosing, if I exercise MY free will to follow Christ, -- then I get the credit for that, right? But doesn't that immediately rub you the wrong way? (like, Wait a minute. God doesn't get credit for something good that happens? How can that be?)

Please know that I don't deny the existence or the exercise of free will; but neither do I think it is quite what many Christians make it out to be. I believe God sovereignly works through the means of my free will to accomplish His own will and purposes.