Efficacious Propitiation

Do you recall the wonderdul day when your son or daughter was born? I do. It was July 3rd 2006. The whole event gave me a new perspective of the distinctiveness of a Holy God. At the hospital later on that night on July 3rd me and my wife were taking full advantage of the free meals. I am paying a fortune a month for health insurance, so you better believe that I better not have a hungry tummy while in the hospital. Needless to say we ate well both days.
Anyway I recall the day a couple of months later when we had a baby dedication(not baptism) at my old church and how googly everyone was feeling inside. What if while you were at the altar the wolf or Pastor(depending where you go to church) asked you to kill your baby for one of your enemies in the congregation????? Would that not make you take your son and run out of the church and say Hades no!!!!!!!! Check this out though, this is what God did for us. Yes it is.

Romans 5:6-21
6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

Colossians 1
19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. 21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight-- (Emphasis added)23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.

We were enemies of God totally depraved and without the divine work of the Holy Spirit we would still be dead in our trespasses and sins. Apostle Paul makes this clear to the gentile, jew, and person who thinks they are a good in Romans chapters 1, 2, & 3.

Ephesians 2
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

Wow we were by nature objects of wrath. I don't know about you but that makes me want to just thank Him more and more. Why would a just God send His Son to die for me? God took the punishment for your sins even though he led a sinless life on this Earth. That is the type of love that us humans are trying to obtain in this earth but I believe that this type of love is definitely divine. More scripture:

Romans 5:7
Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!


How about a brain twister? Here is some Antinomical Confusion. For those of you who like to think. Let me define antinomical-a contradiction between two statements, both apparently obtained by correct reasoning. This is something to ponder. I have been reading The Sovereignty of God and Evangelism by J.I.Packer. It has been stretching my vocabulary a bit. I will blog on this later.

Proverbs 7:
15 Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent-- the Lord detests them both.

Are you pouring your life out to Christ? Living this life in a way that is glorifying to God? Think on these things. We serve a God that has chosen us before the foundation of the world.

Ephesians 1
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved.

A Hell-acious Reality

Luke 13:23-30 23 Then one said to Him, "Lord, are there few who are saved?" And He said to them, 24 "Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open for us,' and He will answer and say to you, 'I do not know you, where you are from,' 26 then you will begin to say, 'We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.' 27 But He will say, 'I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.' 28 There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out. 29 They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. 30 And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last."

In a village in South Africa a young couple and new born baby are walking across a bridge noon day. The day is young and there is not a care in the world, just a young couple taking a vacation in South Africa. Suddenly the bridge lets loose and the couple and baby take a 50 foot plunge to there demise in a fast flowing deep river. Not far from the disaster waiting to happen is a tribe of 80 local residents. They patiently watch the nightmare unfold before their eyes. The people in the crowd have the means to help but for some reason no one seems to help. After the disaster people are asked why they did not help. Some answers were, "I did not want to get wet", " I haven't swam for years", I just go my perm done" and the excuses went on and on.

Wow what kind of people are these people? Well this is the mainstream church today generally speaking. We have been given a lot of responsibility as Christians. We have the remedy for a lost world. Jesus spoke more about Hell then He did about Heaven. I know we say, "Yes we know that" But do we really understand how real our salvation is? I think not!! We live day to day and barely crack our Bibles open. We can find time for everything else but not for God. How is your TV time versus your Bible study time square up to one another. Has the TV become an idol in your life? How many people can hold their hand over a flame for more than 15 seconds? If you can that might be good practice for where you will end up if you do not take heed to the reality of the Bible.


Wow everything the Bible has proclaimed has come to pass and their are things still to come. GOD is flawless in His prophecies and not one has fell to the ground. What is funny is that people die everyday and all people know one day it will come to pass but we do not spend time looking at things from an eternal perspective. Why is this? I think the reality is we say we believe but do not spend enough time with controversial issues that will make an impact for eternity. Death has a rate of 1 to 1. Has anyone escaped the clutches of Death? Only 3 people I know. Enoch, Elijah, and our Precious Lord Jesus the Christ. Death no longer has its sting. We embrace death as the believer and do not fear condemnation.

Corinthians 15:51-57
51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed-- 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." 55 "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 8:1-9
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

Take time to analyze where your affections are set. How is your relationship with Christ? Do you have any sin the you place above the Lordship of Jesus Christ? Don't end up like the rich man in this parable:

Luke 16:19-31 19 "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 "The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24 So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.' 25 "But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.' 27 "He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.' 29 "Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.' 30 "'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.' 31 "He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"

Articulating The Faith

Colossians 3:12
Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. 14 But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. 15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

This is one of my favorite scriptures in the Bible simply because it puts in essence the Christian worldview that all who desire to live godly should adhere to. It is somewhat of a reflection of what Paul states in Galations.

Galations 5:22
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

This for me is incredibly convicting because I have fell short in many of these areas as I am sure many of you have as well. These attributes come through trial and tribulation to say the least. When we begin to follow Christ in our infant stages it is so important to have someone who is stronger in the faith to train you up according to the scriptures.

1 Corinthians 3
1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; 3 for you are still carnal.

When we first make a conscience decision to follow Christ we are coming from death to life as the scriptures tell us. In this process we do not instantly come to the full knowledge of Christ. If you are under good teaching you may get the basic understanding of what you are partaking in but the Bible is a weighty and it will take you time to come to a full understanding as far as the details of what this is all about. A lot of times in churches pastors ask people to come down the aisle and make a commitment based on an emotional high. They stand before the congregation and are led to believe that Christianity is all about what you can get from God versus what the Bible teaches. We become a slave to righteousness and we are no longer our own. In actuality we were slaves to sin, our own selfish desires, and children of satan.

I witnessed something this weekend that was extraordinary in the church I have been visiting. I think I have a better understanding of why Christianity typically has become so shallow in this country. Mainly because their is 1) No discipleship 2) Not making people articulate what they claim to believe. I have a good friend Lionel who's link you can see on my list, he was talking to me about discipleship and the more and more I think about it he was 100% right. Discipleship is lacking in he body of Christ. The great commission in Matthew 28 has not changed even though we are about 2000 years past that great command to all believers. It is our duty to win the lost in this wicked world. How many people since you have been saved have you taken under your wing and shown them the way since you have matured and you can obviously see they are babes in Christ? I fall under this conviction as well. I have made it a personal point of mine to do this by making myself available to those who God has enabled to respond to the Faith. This is an act of obedience according to scripture. You see the closer you get to the Lord the more He will reveal to you through His Word.

Secondly, being able to articulate the Faith. In church Sunday I was literally amazed beyond any comprehensible verbal articulation. I am a pretty composed person so I am sure no one could tell. I saw something that I had never seen in my entire life. Either I have been living in a box or have just been in some really bad churches. Pastor Steve and his lovely wife gave their testimonies which were great, but they are adults, I would expect a great testimony from them-no brainer. The amazing aspect was two of the daughters. One was the pastors daughter and the other was an elders daughter 14 and 15 in age. No exaggeration here, but they could articulate their faith better than the majority of adults I know-without a doubt. These babies in the Faith had to write papers of how they came to Faith. They had convictions about what we as a culture would consider small sins, cheating? Sin is sin to God, but I found out that what I would consider as a small thing; actually enormous in the eyes of a Holy & Righteous God. That is amazing. God's Word is powerful enough to convince a child and the adult alike.You see we have failed to make people thoroughly examine what they are getting in to. In that we have imposter's going around saying they are Christians and are not.

Christianity is not about what you know intellectually but about who you know and your total dependency in what He did for you. Just that simple. It does not stop there,but after you realize that-it should be natural to chase Him vigorously. He is our Savior-Jesus the Christ.

Luke
14:28
For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it--

Which Jesus do you believe?

• Matthew 21:13
  "It is written," he said to them, "'My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it a 'den of robbers.'
  John 2:13 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the moneychangers doing business. 15 When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables. 16 And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!" 17 Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up." 18 So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?" 19 Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." 20 Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?" 21 But He was speaking of the temple of His body. 22 Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.
  
  Your walking at the mall just doing some shopping for Mothers Day. As you stroll past the shoe store you over hear three ladies from your church mentioning your deceased mother's name. You casually get a little closer so that your ease dropping does not appear obvious. You act as inconspicuous as possible without giving yourself away. Finally you get within the general vicinity to hear the validity of their claims and the gist of their conversation. They are talking about your mother like a dog. They are telling stories about how she was not the virtuous woman of God that you knew her to be. You've known your mother on an intimate & personal level. You try to be calm and collective but the fact that they are talking about your mother to people who did not know your mother, made you furious. I would call it Righteous Indignation.
  
  So what do you do? You hold your tongue and say Father forgive them for they know not what they do or for the integrity of a godly woman, do you set the record straight? I would take the latter of the two. I hope that the majority of the you would speak up. How much more should you speak up for the integrity of the God of the universe. We live in a sinful world where people try to on a regular basis to destroy the infallibility of the Holy Bible.
  
  In our western culture or in American Christianity we see Jesus as this hippy chipper white dude who was loving and passive. We have become desensitized to sin and have become like the immature Corinthian church. The so called Christian pastors of our time have made the house of God a marketplace. Jesus has become marketable as if He were competing with The Power Rangers or Poke'mon. Jesus sells. When Jesus can pack out a arena of 30,000 people, you have to question is the Gospel being preached? Christ did say that if you lift me up I will draw all men unto me. This statement of course is true but the question is... In our day what Christ is being preached? Is it the Christ of the Bible or Another Christ? Most likely the people are getting their ears tickled.
  
  2 Cornithians 11:1 I hope you will put up with a little of my foolishness; but you are already doing that. 2 I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. 3 But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4 For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.
  
  
  
  

What is Gnosticism?

A group of ancient heresies, stressing escape from this world through the acquisition of esoteric knowledge. Also defined as the doctrines of certain pre-Christian pagan, Jewish, and early Christian sects that valued the revealed knowledge of God and of the origin and end of the human race as a means to attain redemption for the spiritual element in humans and that distinguished the Demiurge (A deity in Gnosticism, Manichaeism, and other religions who creates the material world and is often viewed as the originator of evil. ) from the unknowable Divine Being. Sounds like Word of Faith Churches right. They will tell you that you have the ability to speak death and life based on a contortion of Proverbs 18:21.

Gnosticism was very prevalent in the early Christian church and especially with the Greeks. Paul dealt with this on the regular basis, one example would be Acts 17. History does repeat itself. You see many people claiming they have more revelation aside from the closed canon-The Bible. What is canon you ask? The Canon are the books of the Bible recognized by any Christian church as genuine and inspired. Aside from the Bible their is no other revelation we can find, when we do find other revelation like the Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, Word of Faith Knowledge, Oneness Pentecostals, Bahai Faith, Scientology and a myriad of others. They are all derived from new revelation and we call this Heresy. Heresy is something aside from sound doctrine and contradicts the foundation that the Apostles already laid. (Eph 2:20)

Paul knew false teachers would come and earnestly prayed that they would not embrace them. If you study the book of Galations you will thoroughly understand what Paul was speaking about in detail. Judaizers came in preaching another gospel; that is one of works and not of faith in Christ substitutionary work on the cross alone.

If we understand Hypostatic Union(The essential person of Jesus in which his human and divine natures are united.) We see this is the God of the Bible, He was not the first created as the Jehovah's Witnesses say; He and the Father have always been one and this is what we understand as the Triunity nature of God. He has not and will not change his view of the wicked and of sin. This is what we understand as the immutability of God. (the quality of being incapable of mutation or change)

Heb 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Jesus was fierce with the wicked.

Matt 12:34 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.

Matt 23:33 "You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?

Psalm 5:5
The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you hate all who do wrong.

Exodus 20:7
"You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.


Do you get angry when Jehovah's Witnesses say Christ was not God? Does it anger you when the Mormon comes to your door and says Joseph Smith and Brigham Young received new revelation aside from the Bible. How about when Jesse Duplantis says he has been to Heaven and back and wants to sell a video and write a book about it. Or when Joel Osteen and TD Jakes get on national TV and say that Christ is not the only way. (John 14:6) How about when Paul and Jan Crouch ask you to sow into their ministry for healing? (Acts 8:13)

Some people tell me that.... hey buddy-"everybody is not going to be as passionate about this thing as you." Not the case at all. Christ the Savior died for you and you sit in your seat and say nothing for His names sake? What's the deal? Are we not God's children? Would you or would not be agitated if someone defamed your name or your close family members name? How much more zealous should you be for the Lord?

The only reason in the Old Testament that the Lord did not destroy the Israelites was because of His Names sake and the covenant that He made with them. God is serious about His name and about sin. Just think we are in the state we are in now because of one man's sin.

1 Corinthians 15 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.

Are you viewing sin through the eyes of our present culture or through the eyes of our Redeemer? Which Jesus are you following? The Ecumenical Jesus of our day of the Jesus or the Bible?