Archive for January, 2011

Is “love” God?

Posted: January 20, 2011 in Devotionals, Shared Thoughts
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Is “love” God?

Everybody enjoys hearing about how “Jesus is a God of love” and undeniably many sermons entitled “God is love” have brought much needed comfort to the heart of the truly repentant. Nonetheless, while these statements are certainly true, as believers we must remember that they are not complete statements of truth. An unwavering truth is that God is no respecter of persons and sometimes the holiness and righteousness of God requires a change in His posture with individuals, a concept some believers have a hard time believing. But consider the following two verses.

“And it shall come to pass, that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it,” (Deuteronomy 28:63).

“After the number of the days in which ye searched the land . . . ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise,” (Numbers 14:34).

Certainly, God is a God of love, yet in Rev. 2:6 Jesus said “. . . this thou hast that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate.” Again in Proverbs it says, “These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto Him: a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among the brethren.” Now, I am not trying to present God as a God of hate, just establish the fact that God is capable of hate.

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Fulfilling The Call To Holiness

Posted: January 16, 2011 in Coffee House, Devotionals, Shared Thoughts, Wake Up!
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The Bible tells us many truths we must embrace if we are to live a life of intimacy with our Redeemer Jesus Christ; that we are to “prefect holiness in the fear of God” and also “without holiness no man shall see God.”

Because these truths apply to everyone of us, the Apostle John tells us, “every man that hath this hope in God purifies himself, even as He is pure.”

Flee fornication . . .

Posted: January 14, 2011 in Devotionals, Shared Thoughts, Wake Up!
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That’s what God’s word tells us.  But many today aren’t “fleeing” from it, rather they are for all intents and purposes running madly to it. For some insane reason people are literally racing to expose and open themselves up to everything and anything sexual, as if somehow it is going to be the answer to their loneliness or boredom or their oppressive sense of rejection and insignificance. It has become so maddening that even some so called friends frequently engage in sexual immorality and openly make and accept challenges to do the most profane things with as many partners to see who can outperform the other. This is not only madness; this is as close as a society can get to mass suicide. Yes, you read it right, mass suicide.

Perhaps it is because people are just so willfully ignorant of God’s word or so insecure having grown up in such a self-centered generation where almost everyone seems infatuated with seeking their own gratification at the expense of whoever and/or whatever. The thought of it almost no longer shocks some people that there are those who are literally drugging their supposed “dates” and then raping them and then allowing others to rape them as well. These human beasts are literally doing this openly amongst their select group of perverted friends in a celebratory fashion. Packs of humanity who outwardly look like everyone else while actively preying sexually on others, and we’re not even off the subject of “straight sex!” All the while there are others in more acceptable positions that have established themselves as “respectable” in the community who are so slavishly engrossed in their own sexual decadence that they cannot but run to every opportunity of fornication regardless the risk to their families and careers . . . all for a moment of unbridled indulgence that promises only to send their world crashing to the ground all around them while the whole world sees and continues to be none the wiser. Do you really think these people started off this enslaved and wicked?

If this is touching you then please listen, God’s word tells us as plainly as it can, “Can a man carry fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Or can one walk upon hot coals and his feet not be scorched? So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife; none who touches her will go unpunished.” Man cannot indulge in sexual sins and not do serious harm to his own self, physically (STD’s), emotionally and spiritually.

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Coming to Christ and Baptism

Posted: January 10, 2011 in Uncategorized
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Since the fall of men it has been debated to the point of bloodshed what God requires of men to be found pleasing to Him. Some like Adam’s son Abel were not hesitant to offer the first born of his flock, as well as the fattest to the Lord as an offering, while Cain brought forth of his bounty from the earth as an offering. Yet it is clear from the scriptures that Abel’s offering was considered by God to be “a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.” God’s words to Cain regarding his offering was rather simple, “Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shall you not be accepted? and if you do not well, sin lieth at the door.”

Le 2:1 And when any will offer a meat [grain] offering unto the LORD, his offering shall be of fine flour; and he shall pour oil upon it, and put frankincense thereon: 2 And he shall bring it to Aaron’s sons the priests: and he shall take there out his handful of the flour thereof, and of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof; and the priest shall burn the memorial of it upon the altar, to be an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour [aroma] unto the LORD.

Now many have reasoned that the displeasure God had with Cain’s offering was that it was a bloodless offering, yet scriptures tell us that God accepted such offerings. So it is clear here that the problem was not in that which was offered . . . rather the trouble was with the one making the offering. Today however, God is not asking for us to make these types of sacrifices, He is however still looking for that which Cain obviously lack in his offering to God and that for which “the Lord respected Abel and his offering.”  But on this I will touch briefly a bit later.

Since the crucifixion of Christ when a sinner yields to the Holy Spirit’s conviction that their sins have caused them to fall short of God’s righteousness in their life, that simple acceptance of God’s judgment against them is sufficient to bring them to the point where true reconciliation with the Redeemer can begin through repentance. But this is only a starting place, the beginning of a new life, a new birth where they can continue on to grow in wisdom and stature before God.

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Hallowed Be Thy Name

Posted: January 9, 2011 in Uncategorized
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Hallowed Be Thy Name

This was a message God laid on my heart concerning the deity of Jesus the Christ, the Lord’s Prayer and its exhortation for us to petition that God’s name to be hallowed, revered and feared in this fallen world. God’s people need to recognize the necessity to daily seek first His kingdom and righteousness while the long-suffering of God’s waits as with one hand he holds His love and mercy while with the other hand holding back His coming wrath and judgment on a wicked world.



Judging righteous judgment

Posted: January 3, 2011 in Devotionals, Shared Thoughts, Study!
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This is a small study I put together on Judging and the need for the addressment of sin in the church.

Because the Word of God states, “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation,” it is of fundamental importance to endeavor to interpret the scriptures in their context, i.e., to whom where they written, what subject matter do they address and their time and place, etc., etc.

Since we are going to be dealing with the second letter to the Corinthians, and the third chapter in particular, it is prudent to examine the previous chapter in which Paul does make these comments, “I wrote this same unto you, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all . . . Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many. So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things.”

It is evident that Paul wrote something to them which he now refers them back to, and what was presented to them was done so in order that he “might know the proof of” them, whether they would be obedient or not. Is this obedience unto him? Or unto the precepts of God’s word? That of course which was first written is I Corinthians, in which Paul dealt with an issue of sin being committed by the same one Paul is now encouraging them to “forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.”

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