Something to think about.
Cornerstone
12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. Acts 4:12
Jesus is the name above any other name. Of course, it is not just the name but the man who possessed that name that empowers our salvation. This is the cornerstone of our belief system without it we are irrelevant.
Christianity is weird if you think about it. We believe in being born again. Of eternal life through the blood of one man. We believe in the unmerited redemption of mankind. We believe in a God we have never seen. We believe this same God is still active in the events of man. We believe in the resurrection of a man who had been dead for three days. We believe He left earth by other means than death. We believe and wait for His return. We believe in the Trinity. We believe there is an unmovable moral standard by which to live our lives. All that we believe is dependant on this one man.
Christianity does not exist if you remove Jesus from it. If you make Him a man, the actual son of Joseph he becomes a byline of a ridiculous cult. If you prove, He was never resurrected, again Christianity crumbles. If you can find His remains, Christianity is a farce. If you can disprove any of essential claims we make about Him Christianity is a waste. The cornerstone on which Christianity exists is Jesus. In every aspect, Christianity depends on Jesus.
As everything about Christianity depends on Jesus, so does our salvation depend on Him. He is the only one that can provide us with salvation. In Him resides the power of salvation, rebirth, redemption, forgiveness, and life and life eternal. Christianity is all about Jesus it is not about anything else. It is not a means to an end. It is not a social program, a political party. It is not a religious entity. It is not the good we do for one another. Or the beautiful things by which we express Christ. Christianity is not a what it is a who. Christianity is Jesus. From Him flows everything else. He is the bedrock cornerstone of what we believe. Without him, precisely in the center of our lives and belief system, we will miss the mark.
There is no other name.
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
Cornerstone
Monday, December 4, 2017
Nothing Hidden
Something to think about.
Nothing Hidden
13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Hebrews 4:13
If you ponder the beginning of this verse, you will arrive at astonishment, you'll be amazed and in awe of God. Every creature is naked and uncovered before God. God is so inconceivably powerful that every creature that has ever lived is bare before Him. There is not one that can hide from Him. What kind of power is that? How is it possible that God sees us all so completely as to be entirely naked. It is a power that can only be completed understood when God restores the earth.
Every knee shall bow. We will all stand before Him on the day of judgment, we shall all give the account of our lives. He will pass judgment on the entire world. He alone is the judge of all life. What power is that?
We confer power upon individuals through systems. Our president is elected, dictators are supported. Military power is a combined submission to a central idea. No power on this earth is derived from itself it is always accumulated through the will and support of people. Regardless of the government, there are aways systems created through which the power is exercised. The authority will cease to exist when the systems designed to support that authority vanish.
This is not the case with God. His power is not derived from the support of others. His power is derived from Himself. He is power. In the book of Genesis, it says he spoke the world into existence. He did not direct anyone or anything to do anything He merely spoke it, and it happened. The point is He does not depend on anyone or anything to carry out His will. He causes things to happen, to come into existence solely by the power within Him. This concept is foreign to us because there is virtually nothing we can do that is not person dependent. All people in power political, military, business, education are all dependent upon those who fulfill their will.
We cannot bend the will of God we cannot force His Hand we are impotent to remove His commands. Since He is not dependant on any source for anything nothing is able to assail Him. He is singular in His power. His power is what keeps the universe in place His power is what keeps the blood following through your veins. It is His power that enables you to think. It is His power that allows you to question Him. You are alive because of the power He has within Himself to create life. His power is complete, and we are naked before Him.