Completely Whole

Something to think about.

 Completely Whole

Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, Acts 3:19 ESV

And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses." Mark 11:25 ESV

Repentance, forgiveness, reconciliation, restoration, adoption words with such magnificent meaning and power. In an era of rights have we determined that we have a right to these words? That they are a birthright because we are human? Are we taking for granted the mercy, wonder, and grace of God? 

Every one of these words has a cost related to them. 

Repentance means; sincere regret or remorse. Regret or remorse in themselves suggest a substantial personal cost. God does not have to accept or recognize your repentance it adds nothing to Him.  

Forgiveness, Is the act of pardoning someone for something they have done. God does need to forgive you He would be fine condemning you.   

Reconciliation, One of the meanings I found is; the restoration of friendly relations. God does not have to take you back. 

Restoration, to bring back to full usefulness. God does not need to restore you. You are not that important.  

Adoption, to willingly appropriate all rights of the father to an illegitimate child.  God does not have to share His glory with you. 

Are you getting the point? God does not have to do any of these things for you. He does not have to take on the cost of reconciliation, forgiveness, restoration, repentance, and adoption.  The cost of all of these words is borne by God not us. He is perfect as He is. He does not need us to accomplish anything for Him.   

We need to get back to reality and understand that God does this because He loves us. He loves us with a love we have yet to fully understand. God is perfect, it means He is complete, lacking nothing. Which means He has no need of us. But still, he does all of these things because He loves us. It boggles my mind, a love that will bear the cost of our rebellion.  God who is entirely whole without us, is still willing and fully committed to paying for our sin.  

Why do we fight a love like that?

Leia Mais…

Just One More

Something to Think about 

Just One More

7 For nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in divers places.

Matthew 24:7

Matthew 24 deals with the end times. Jesus is describing some of the things that must happen before His return. When things such as earthquakes, pestilence wars occur. When people are fighting with one with the other, we take these occurrences as being signs of the end times. When we hear of such things the familiar refrain comes to the fore. "Jesus come quickly." I understand the rationale behind "Jesus come quickly." It is a cry for our salvation. To be delivered from the sin that assails us on every side. It is a request to do away with the evil one. To free us from His influence. It is a cry for peace and deliverance.

Then we have verses like these. So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. Hebrews 9:28

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. Romans 2:6-8

The verses concerning the second coming of Christ are wonderful. I long for the day of His return, but, Romans 2: 6-8 haunts me.

The first part is easy , welcoming and hopeful. But the last part is the one that unsettles me, "there will be wrath and fury." Who are those who obey unrighteousness, who are those that will receive “wrath and fury.”

I don't pray "Jesus come quickly." I pray delay as long as possible 10,0000 years would not be too soon. Why do I say that? Who is the one that will receive "wrath and fury?" It will be my son, my daughter, my sister, my brother. It will be my mother, father, aunt, cousin, uncle, friend and neighbor.

In the movie, Schindler's List near the end of the movie Schindler is lamenting the Jews He did not save. He is despondent and questioning himself if I had done this or that I could have saved one-two, possibly three more.

In Revelation 21:4 it says, And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

If we are in heaven why would there be tears? Why would God have to wipe our tears away? Could it be because we are regretful of those we did not reach those that were left behind? Those brothers, sisters, mother, father, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and neighbors that were left to receive the "wrath and fury" of God.

When we get to heaven will we lament the lives we did not touch the ones we did not reach? How will we handle the reality of knowing we could have done more. We could have reached out to more.

Today we need to be more conscious of one more. We need to stop praying Jesus come quickly and we need to start praying Jesus give me one more, Just one more.

Leia Mais…

Love Your Enemies

Something to think about.

Love Your Enemies

⁴⁴ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, Matthew 5:44

This is one of those really difficult scriptures.  We usually read this type of scripture gloss over it and move on. This is without a doubt contrary to our nature. What we would have preferred Jesus to say was something like hate your enemies. Because that would have been consistent with our nature. Have you ever considered what would happen if God were to bless our enemies? God will not facilitate or be the provider of evil. In other words, the blessing of God must be consistent with His character. Which means one of two things must happen for your enemy to be blessed. Your enemies must repent and turn to God. Or it is you that are in the wrong, and you must repent to receive the blessing of God. God is not going to condone of facilitate the evil of your enemy. His grace would cause your enemy to turn from His wickedness. Loving your enemy exemplifies the love of Christ. Praying for them invokes the righteousness of God on their lives. Praying for your enemy opens the door for repentance and restoration in their lives. Which if they walk through, will inevitably lead to forgiveness and acceptance into Gods family. 

Leia Mais…

You've Been Warned

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You've Been Warned

“If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.” Hebrews 10:26-27 NIV

Some people believe that they can wait until later in life to turn to God. They believe that they can enjoy the sinful things of this world and later turn back to God. They think once they have had their fill of sin God will still be waiting for their repentance. For those of you that may think that this is indeed possible, "no sacrifice for sins is left." Knowledge of the truth of God is not license or freedom to sin. Your opportunity for salvation is forfeited, and you have no further recourse if you "deliberately keep on sinning." This deception that you can later turn back to God is not possible.  The sacrifice of Christ is not a frivolous event that you can pick up and discard at will. It is the line in the sand, of your eternal existence and it will not last forever, and once it is crossed, it can't be undone.  The call of God may only come once in your life, and if you think you can pass on it until it suits you, God's offer may expire by then. God is not sitting, waiting with bated breath for your response.

Leia Mais…

The Lord Is God

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The Lord Is God

³ Know that the Lord, he is God!
    It is he who made us, and we are his;
    we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Psalm 100:3 (ESV) 

We, as much as we may desire on the contrary are His people. Every one of us good bad or in between are His people we can't opt out. We can not choose to be excluded from His people. We may choose to be sinful, rebellious and an outcast but we are still His people. We do not have the ability to extricate ourselves from Him.  As a result, we will answer to Him, we will not escape His judgment. He will judge us by His standard by His power by His will, none of those He has made will be exempt, and He has made us all.

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Separation

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Separation

1 Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God,and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. Isaiah 59:12

There are a plethora of people who say God no longer speaks to His people. Some people can't understand why it is that they feel God does not hear them.  Others believe God is no longer interested in humanity. Could it be that their sin has created an impenetrable wall of separation that prevents them from approaching, hear or seeing God? If you want to hear God, experience God, commune with God repentance is required. God can not hear sinners, for their sins drown out their voices.

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These Things

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These Things

“Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things.” Luke 24:46-47

We who believe in Christ are charged with the mission of proclaiming to all nations the resurrection of Christ and the benefits thereof. We are, “witness of these things.”

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