Trusting in the Sufficiency of Jesus
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Trusting In The Sufficiency Of Jesus
Trusting In The Sufficiency Of Jesus
Tag: Redemption
When God Grows Love…
The moment we respond in anger or hurt, we have dismissed love from our life. True love looks beyond the disagreement and builds a bridge that demonstrates the Christ with you.
One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; 30 and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32 The scribe said to Him, “Right, Teacher; You have truly stated that He is One, and there is no one else besides Him; 33 and to love Him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as himself, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” (Mark 12:28-33)
Two years ago I had the privilege of preaching through the Gospel of Mark in tandem with the senior pastor at the church where I was volunteering. It was a great experience for me. I was always a huge believer in expository preaching; but to actually explain the text verse by verse, was one of the most transforming experiences of my life. My walk with Christ radically changed during this period. You may find this humorous, but most of the sermons I preached, affected me. It seemed that every sermon preached was at myself. I began to wonder if the passages assigned to me were done out of an intentional purpose. Did the senior pastor see something in my life that needed to be changed? I found out later that it was all the work of the Holy Spirit and the pastor was oblivious to what was happening to me. One of the passages that was life changing for me was Mark 12:28-33.
It has been over three years and that sermon still stirs within me. It convicts, encourages and transforms. This passage teaches us how to love. It gives us understanding of how to accept the love of God and where true love comes from. This may take a few posts to explain, so I plan on keeping each post easy to read. (Yes I am A.D.D. and feel your pain.) The subject of love is important for a number of reasons. Our society has forgotten how to really love one another and how to love God. It has forgotten that God loves us and what that love truly looks like.
Jesus breaks this passage down in two ways, surrendering to God and loving God. In this passage we learn that Jesus is making an absolute statement, that the greatest commandment is to live in total love and to live a completely surrendered life to God.
One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?”
For many, Christianity is a list of rules that no one one can live up to. Most people view us as hypocrites. They despise our hypocrisy because they view our moral code as changing in order to meet our own selfishness. This is not supposed to be the case. Some people try to live by a moral code. But even the best moral code fails when there is no love. The scribe was seeking righteousness through moral living. God wants us to seek righteousness through surrendered living.
And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. (Mark 8:34)
So what does this mean?
Simply put, Jesus is asking us to deny selfishness in any form or behavior, lay your life down for others and follow His example of unconditional love. Think about how contradictory that is to what the world is telling us through social media and Television. Is it loving to be on your phone texting, when you are with someone else? Of course not! We have become so self absorbed as a society that we cannot even see when others are hurting. Self love is being promoted in the absence of genuine compassionate love for others. This is denying otherness. Jesus is calling us to deny oneness, selfishness, pridefulness and our egos. Our world has become so self centered, that anyone who breathes, must conform to the collective mindset or be destroyed. Selflessness allows others to foster opinions different from our selves; yet embrace those individuals with unconditional love. Jesus demonstrated that love to us, by dying for us even though our sins were contradictory to the nature of God.
“Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaint. As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” (1 Peter 4:8-10 NASB)
Recently, after an online Bible study, a young man asked the question, “Am I really saved?” After spending some time asking questions, it became clear that he was living with guilt and shame over his personal struggles with sin. The more we love God with our total being; heart, mind, soul and strength, the more God’s love, grace and forgiveness strengthens our resolve to follow Him in righteousness. We don’t have to worry about if we are saved, if we live in committed love towards God. We do not need to worry about our salvation, if others see the light and love of Christ in us. If our mind is dedicated to His word, and our soul to worshiping God, then our strength is in Jesus. When our heart belongs to Him, then our love will be pure and faultless. This is not earning salvation. This is living in the works of our faith out of gratitude for what Jesus did on the cross. Our salvation was earned by Jesus, as a free gift for us, but we must have the free will to receive it. The choice we make either brings us life or it leads to death.
“There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death. Even in laughter the heart may be in pain, And the end of joy may be grief. The backslider in heart will have his fill of his own ways, But a good man will be satisfied with his.” Proverbs 14:12-14 NASB
In the last eight years, the life I desire is to be a disciple of Jesus. I desire to be known by my love and not my anger, selfishness or tone. It is in my love for others that I demonstrate the reality of a fulfilled relationship with Jesus. My love is the proof of my faith.
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35 NASB
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The Bible, A Living Truth
The congruence of scripture, demonstrates the harmony of its writers with God’s plan of redemptive love. It flows throughout, singing of the joy of knowing a relational God full of grace and forgiveness, who has designed you with a purpose. God is love.
“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12 NASB
In the past few months, I have been asked, “Do you really believe that the Bible is true?” The answer is simple, “Of course I do.” The two reasons for my knowing that the Bible is true are love and logic. Yes it is an emotional understanding, that is illogical; because, when is love logical? It is also a logical reasoning that causes me to accept the Bible as true, yet moves me into an emotional relationship with God.
When you super impose the Old Testament with the New Testament, you find harmony, agreement, and corresponding prophecy and testimony that all point to the loving redemptive, and unchanging plan of God. So let’s take a look at the truth of the Bible through love and logic.
“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” 1 John 4:10-11 NASB
The truth of the Bible is revealed in love.
There are many times in a marriage that one spouse needs to rekindle the romance by pursuing the other romantically. In my own marriage, my own wife needed to know how much I loved her. I pursued her by knowing her, anticipating her needs, understanding how she wanted to be loved, and being extremely patient. This describes God and his love for us.
The love of God permeates throughout the scriptures, like a sweet fragrance, scenting every verse and chapter with a reckless and illogical desire to be relational. God’s desire to know us is embodied in His loving plan to rescue us from sin and to restore us to eternal life and peace with Him.
It starts with Genesis and how God clothed Adam and Eve, even after they rebelled against Him. It is demonstrated through the love story of Ruth and Boaz. His love is broadcasted by the emotional writings of David in the Psalms. It is prophesied by Isaiah and Zachariah and boasted by the marriage of Hosea. It is fulfilled in the Gospels by Jesus His Son, who on His own, obediently sacrificed His life on a cross for the salvation of humanity. It is bound in the free will given to everyone, so that they can choose to love God or reject Him. God’s love is free.
“Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” 1 John 4:15-16 NASB
It is by this example of unconditional love, that in my own life, I have tested it and found it to be true. When I have put aside selfishness and loved others unconditionally, have I seen this Godly love transform lives, create forgiveness and produce healing. God is relational and has designed us with a purpose. (Read: You Have A Purpose!)
The truth of the Bible is revealed in logic.
“Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”” Luke 24:44 NASB
These words were spoken by Jesus after His resurrection and just before His ascension. Jesus wants us to understand, that He is the main Character in God’s love story. He came to be the sacrifice to mend the broken relationship. There are two points that Jesus is making. The first point is that all scripture is relevant, because of the second point; which is that not every prophecy and scripture corresponding to Jesus has been fulfilled, because the full redemptive plan of God is not finished. The Apostle Paul specifically instructed Timothy that all scripture was relevant. He even argued that the sacred writings of the Bible, provide wisdom and lead to salvation through faith. This Salvation is because God wants to rescue us from sin.
“You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:14-17 NASB
The disciple Peter also reiterated this, when he wrote: “But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”2 Peter 1:20-21 NASB
It is because of this passage that we know that nothing in God’s word is irrelevant. The person who knows that the Bible is true and views it as an inspired love letter from God is a Biblicist. The Biblicist must examine all scripture as congruent, to be in harmony. The one who follows Jesus, allows God’s word to prove itself. He does not add to it, or take away from it. The real Christian lets scripture stand on its own merit. If done with humility and reverence, the life of the Christian will shine with God’s word, a Holy life, filled with the Holy Spirit, soaked with the blood of Christ and saturated with love. This is what a repentant person, joyfully changed by God’s love, looks like. The Psalmist understood this very well, when he wrote:
“The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether.” Psalms 19:7-9 NASB
It is through scriptures, that the Christian, can align their theology with love. It is through this harmonic relationship with God and His love, that one can answer the question, “How do I know the Bible is true?”
Voddie Baucham Jr, a famed author, preacher and theologian, simplified the answer in a Biblical manner.
“The Bible is a reliable collection of historical documents. (Verified by Archaeology) It was written down by eyewitnesses, during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. (1 John 5:13, 1 Corinthians 15:3-8, Deuteronomy 6:6-9) They reported supernatural events that took place, in fulfillment of specific prophecies. They claimed that their writings were Divine and not of human origin.” (Deuteronomy 29:29, Romans 15:4, Revelation 21:5)
The Biblicist accepts the supernatural, because Christianity is supernatural. The true Christian believes in God, who is supernatural and unchanging in His nature. Christianity is supernatural; because through the scripture it changes the heart, renews the mind and transforms the individual.
“So that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously” Colossians 1:10-11 NASB
The Christian does not just believe in the Bible, they know it to be true, because of the evidence that God’s word transforming their lives. They live with truth and love, choosing the way of a disciple. This is the proof of their faith.
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”” John 13:34-35 NASB
Thank you for reading, leave a comment and share the post.
Love,
Stephan
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You Have A Purpose!
God has a plan for your life. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” God imprinted His image on our DNA, so that we would know how much He loves us. The encoding information points to an Intelligent Design.
“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” Ephesians 2:10 NLT
Atheists often ask the question of Theists, “Where did God come from?” The better question to ask is, “Where did spontaneous generation come from?” Spontaneous generation is the belief that the universe came from nothing. Where in science has this theory ever been duplicated? It hasn’t. Something cannot come from nothing. The Big Bang theory is flawed for this reasoning, as well as the fact that no explosion has ever produced any kind of life, rather explosions produce death, destruction, and chaos.
Dr. Harold Morowitz, a world renown physicist from Yale University and author of Origin of Cellular Life (1993), stated, ‘The odds for any kind of spontaneous generation of life from a combination of the standard life building blocks are one chance in 10E100000000000.”(That is a 1 followed by 100,000,000,000 ZEROS.) Morowitz, Harold J. Energy Flow in Biology. Academic Press, 1968.
If the improbability of spontaneous generation coming from a combination of standard life building blocks is unlikely; what are then the chances that this would happen from nothing? The reasoned explanation is to conclude what the Bible says:
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.” Genesis 1:1-3 NKJV
God created the universe, He brought it together with His Word. The disciple John gave us greater insight into creation, when he wrote:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” John 1:1-4 NKJV
What John is telling us; is that the life force of the universe is Jesus, and that all life comes from Him. Since God created us then we can have can have the joyful understanding that we have a purpose. Compare this to the atheist philosophy.
When I see a quote like this, I am drawn to thoughts of my friend Jorri. No one I know is a more compassionate animal lover than her. She is particularly attuned to the suffering of animals. Her anger towards the indifference that others show to animals is only contrasted by her compassion and pity that she demonstrates to God’s creatures. Her disposition is not just another random act of the uncaring evolutionary process. Jorri’s purpose, design, emotions and characteristics were all carefully coded and imprinted into her DNA by a loving God. Jorri, as well as all of us were created with a purpose. This purpose was understood by The Psalmist David; he grasped the complexity in which he was created. David wrote these words:
“For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.” Psalms 139:13-14 NASB
Our cell structures are literally woven by our DNA. Only God could have revealed this to David 4,000 years ago. What was once called the simple cell, by evolutionists, is now being called complex. The incredible complexity of our cells and DNA, demonstrates the thoughtful engineering of an Intelligent Designer. It is a deliberate, robust and unique pattern. Contrast this with the theory of random chance; that somehow miraculously happens again and again. The blind faith of atheists in their religion, evolution, is astonishing and misguided. Science through the understanding of our DNA is disproving Darwinian evolution. Darwin practically predicted its inevitable downfall.
“If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down,” — Charles Darwin
Dr. Stephen Meyer argues this exact point. He believes that the encoding information of our DNA points to an Intelligent designer and not a random material process. It is too complex, too well organized and too intentional to be random.
“The DNA molecule is literally encoding information into alphabetic or digital form. And that’s a hugely significant discovery, because what we know from experience is that information always comes from an intelligence, whether we’re talking about hieroglyphic inscription or a paragraph in a book or a headline in a newspaper. If we trace information back to its source, we always come to a mind, not a material process. So the discovery that DNA codes information in a digital form points decisively back to a prior intelligence.”— Dr. Stephen C. Meyer (Meyer, Stephen C. Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design. HarperOne, 2010.)
In today’s world we are ignoring our need and purpose to engage in relationships. Society has become technology dependent, replacing human interaction, with texting. We have reduced relationships to social media comments. We delude ourselves with the lie calling this community. This is destructive and it is not our purpose!
The Apostle Paul, wrote this warning to us:
“Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.” Romans 12:9-10 NLT
Obviously, social media fails in this obligation. God made us to live together, in face to face relationships; to love, laugh, cry, and grieve with one another. This mirrors, how God desires to be in a relationship with us. God created us in His image, so our need to be relational must mean we received, this imprinted purpose, from Him by design in our very DNA.
“How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!” Psalms 139:17-18 NLT
So, what does this all convey to us? It is simply, that each of us was meticulously thought out and intended to live with a purpose. It demonstrates that God is relational, and wants a relationship with us. God loves us and built our genetic code to be a representation of His Image. We have a purpose! We have a reason to live. It is because of God’s love that I choose life. I choose to live a life that is pleasing to the one who created me. It is God who divinely planned humankind to have a relationship with Him. When life becomes difficult, it is in God that I trust and not a process. I do this because because He understands me. He created me with a purpose.
“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17 NLT
Thanks for reading, please leave a comment I will respond. Please leave a like if you enjoyed the post and as always share this post with someone else, it may change a life.
Final Note: Many geneticists and chemical engineers are now moving to Intelligent Design as a rational explanation of the complexity of our biology. (See the links below)
Intelligent Design Wins Another Nobel Prize
This Book Changed My Mind On Intelligent Design
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The Spread of Lawlessness (Part 1)
Humanists believe they can achieve their own morality and perfect man with out the need of God. They Never realize that a virus festers inside us all preventing perfection.
Recently a friend of mine asked, “What is sin and why is it so bad?” Simply put, sin is rebellion against God, a virus that infects all of mankind and mutates all of creation. The Bible says, Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.” (1 John 3:4)
This brief explanation does not do the subject justice nor does it answer the bigger question of, “Why is there sin in the world?” If you asked a Jew, living in the time of Jesus, this question he would give you three reasons. In order to please my wife, who reminds me that everyone has short attention spans, I will attempt to answer this question in three short posts. I really don’t want to nauseate you with theology but all three of these reasons will help you grasp a better understanding of Sin grace and of end times eschatology. For extra reading I recommend the book by Dr. Michael S. Heiser, “Reversing Herman”.
The first reason for why there is sin in the world, is because of the rebellion of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden.
Genesis 2:15-17 New King James Version (NKJV) 15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
It is pretty simple, they only had to live with two rules in order to please God. Tend and keep the Garden and do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What a life! Be a conservationist and don’t let the knowledge of good and evil out into the world. Sounds pretty good to me, although I might have just chopped down that one tree. Then something bad happens, Satan enters the Garden. Now the first thing Satan does is to create doubt about what God said. “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”(Genesis 3:1) Satan still does that today. Think about all of the doubt questions you may have had. Is the Bible really true? Does God really exist? Does God really love you? Why would God care about you? Is Bible prophecy real?
2 Peter 1:19 New American Standard Bible (NASB) So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.
What happens next is that Satan manipulates the situation in order to bring the curse of sin into the world. Adam and Eve both eat of the tree and become afraid and ashamed. Their guilt was so bad that they even tried to hide from God. Think about this for a moment. How many times has guilt, shame and fear controlled parts of your life. Satan uses this to control us. I wrote a post on this, it was the most read and shared post I have ever written. Destroying the Message of Guilt and Shame.
The problem that faced God was that Adam and Eve brought not only sin into the world but the curse (or virus) that came with it. When you read the Genesis 3, there are two things that you must pay attention to. (1) God is not bringing the curse on man, but is telling them that it is the consequence of their actions. In other words, because you exposed yourself to the disease, you now get the disease and its symptoms. God did not curse Mankind. Mankind cursed itself because it chose to believe the devil over God. (2) The virus of sin infects all of creation and mutates it. What was good is now corrupted by mutations. Animals, plants, soil, water, humanity and the planet are all affected by these mutations. God did not create the Black Widow spider, sin mutated it from its original purpose into its current scary state. It is why we have weeds in our soil, plagues and pestilence and other nasty thing. (Oh and let us not forget dirty diapers, they have to be part of the curse. Yes our newborn is doing great, but man does he fill the diaper pail, but I digress…)
Anyways, this is what Paul meant when he wrote:
Romans 8:22-23 New King James Version (NKJV) For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. 23 Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.
It is because of this virus that all of mankind was cursed. This death spread to all..
Romans 5:12 New American Standard Bible (NASB) Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—
God promised Adam and Eve a hope to restore them from sin and the curse of its mutations.
Romans 15:4 New American Standard Bible (NASB) For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
That hope is Jesus.
John 20:31 New American Standard Bible (NASB) But these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.
It is clear that God loves His creation and Satan hates it. Satan is the greatest environmental terrorist in history. He needed to bring sin into the world to destroy God’s creation. The good news is that God loves us and kept his promise to Adam and Eve by sending Jesus into the world. In the next post we will look at the second reason there is sin in the world. Keep the faith and remember redemption from lawlessness is a #proofofyourfaith.
