Faith

Walking Past Danger on a Chain

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pilgrim_s_progress__chained_lions_by_douglasramsey-d7i7hot“…There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold…” (1 Pet 1:6,7 NLT).

God is allowing something right now to happen in your life to observe and evaluate your confidence in the truth and promises of scripture. He wants to see if you can face life’s challenges that normally would cause depression, anxiety, fear, loneliness and guilt. The sense of danger always seems to be our reaction to serious problems. Hey, problems are problems and that never changes-but what is the solution? What is the way out? The Teacher knows the answers to the test He is giving and He grades you according to your correct or incorrect response. God knows how we will react, but we do not know.  We think we do, but we really don’t. What we believe is seen in how we react to trials just verbalizing our statement of faith.

As we trust him in the storms of life we will see more of his power and nature, not our achievements. God does not polish our trophies he purifies our being and shows us who He is. We say we know what it is to trust in God, much like knowing the answers to a test. God tests that assertion. God is in total control of the test and as a child of God, he is not out to destroy you but remove the unwanted element of self reliance. tested faith, perseverance in full blossom in the ratification of our faith. It is now faith with some muscle. It is my conviction that the test depends on what level you are, every test is adjusted accordingly-and you will walk past the real danger not realizing until later, it was on a chain.

I have paraphrased a story from the classic book Pilgrims Progress in which the traveler named Christian came to the top of a hill and saw two men running at full speed the wrong way. The name of the one was Mistrust (which means full of fear) and Timorous (which means full of doubt). They were on their way to the Celestial City but they had seen blood thirsty lions and were on their way back to their homes in the City of destruction.

Christian became afraid when he heard this, but there was no where to go. He knew the only place of safety was moving forward towards Celestial City. Mistrust and Timorous ran down the hill, and Christian went ahead. But realized he lost the scroll of God’s promises somewhere earlier that day. After a long search he found them but now it was dark and he still had to face those monsters of which Mistrust and Timorous had warned him.

As he walked he saw on the side of the road he saw a beautiful palace and as he began to walk toward it there was a narrow passage. Then he saw the Lions. They were growling and vicious. He did not know how he would get past them and he was about to turn around when a man named Watchful yelled to him, “Don’t be afraid of these lions for they are chained up and they are left here to test if travelers have genuine faith. If you stay in the middle of the path they cannot touch you.”

He walked right through them and they roared and clawed at him but did not injure him at all. Christian was not only relieved but he started clapping and shouting!

All of your trials and difficulties are chained. There is a divine restraint on your difficulties. That should bring great confidence in God. Oh trials are real, this is not a game, but they are on a leash. No matter how difficult the trial, God has restrained it from destroying you. Already you have seen others run away from something that you faced. You were no better than them, but you knew you had no other choice but to serve God. You thought, “I cannot go back because there is nothing to go back to.”  You kept your eyes on Jesus and walked past the danger on a chain. 

You went on thinking that you might fail but that did not stop you. You kept going and saw God was true to his Word.  You thought you might lose everything and instead you gained more than you could have dreamed. You even thought you might die, and you are still alive. All things are designed by God for his glory in your welfare and nothing that happens to you even though it hurts you will not harm you (Rom. 8:28). All God requires is forward motion. Keep going. Keep believing. Stay on the path. Walk past the danger on a chain. 

© 2015 Soul Health Care-give credit where credit is due. Thou shalt not steal.

WE HAVE LOST OUR WAY

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looking-at-map“My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray and turned them loose in the mountains. They have lost their way and can’t remember how to get back to the sheepfold.” (Jer. 50:6)

Jeremiah in his prophecy begins once again to lambaste the spiritual leaders of his day for misleading and abandoning God’s people. These men are supposed to be men who knew the truth and knew the right way yet still misled the people of God. They have the people of God so twisted up in knots that they don’t even know how to get back to the sheepfold or where a true fellowship is. A true place of fellowship is that group of people that has Christ as their center who believes in the power of God and its application to every need and they teach the scriptures incessantly. But like them we have lost our way.

People today really rely on navigation. GPS in the car we drive (Global Positioning System) is very popular whether installed by the manufacturer or after market devices. Being a glorified car jockey for a while I saw that this is a nice selling point. It’s a great invention and is a tool. Now practically all cars have navigation. I don’t think it will be that far in the future that our cars will practically drive themselves.  People don’t see the need for a paper map anymore.

I don’t want to betray my age complaining about “the way things used to be” but a whole generation is being raised up that wouldn’t know North from South or East from West. It used to be that you had the map out when you were traveling long distance and figure out those routes before you even began to travel.  Not so now. You just enter your address and there you go. But having a actual sense of direction I think is gone. We just don’t want to have to think about how to get to where were going. We would rather someone else do that for us or in this case some “thing.”  I’m wondering what would happen to a person who has no sense of direction if they got lost in another state or God forbid in another country. Maybe a person can figure out that the sun rises in the east and sets in the West but I wonder-what would they do they got really lost and were unable to rely on the technology of today? It would be pathetic.

A growing number of Christians have no sense of direction. I don’t care on how much they insist that they are led by the Spirit. They would much rather have someone do the thinking about directions when it comes to any of the challenges that they face in life. They would rather go to church and hear a person give them instructions on what to do about their marriage, finances, parenting, employment and spiritual life rather than read the Bible for themselves. They will insist once again that it needs to be practical and relevant, when truth is always practical and it is always relevant. Now, there is much to be said about good teachers of the word of God.  How much in this day in our do we need people who stick to chapter and verse of the scripture. Without it we have lost our way.

People are lost in the sense of being disoriented. How can I say that? Have you ever listened to an average Sunday with men and women preaching.  it always seems that they have “the message. ”  It’s gotten worse and worse.  Not that there are not great preachers. It just seems that they are all saying something different. But I cannot blame them. I think the people who listen to them are far more culpable. We criticize people for going to church is that has priests but it seems that we ourselves instead of relying upon our great high priest Jesus we have people in between us and him. We have a third-party relationship. When God himself has blessed us with his word. No one denies the gift of solid teaching both ancient and contemporary. But those who lead have a solemn responsibility to lead us to Christ.

The Bible is the word of God, the Bible is God’s voice to us God speaks to us and tells us what to do. The Scripture seems to indicate that when a person lives right, when they guard their hearts and they take captive their thoughts by pondering, studying and seeking to apply the holy Scriptures- that in of itself provides direction and guidance. I do not think this is an oversimplification.

But we are not immersed in the word of God. We have sinned in this matter. It’s a great sin. I see whole groups fighting to keep the public display of the 10 Commandments and yet the Christian of today seems to have a poor relationship with the Scriptures. We want so much to know God’s will but we don’t want to make the effort in reading his word. We have every excuse possible. We excuse ourselves from studying the word then complain about our losing our way. I think we deserve to be lost. It’s our nature to  drift, our propensity to get off track. We have lost our way.

People say, “I try to be good.”  But what’s the test of that goodness? Doing good and doing the right thing is always tainted by our own selfishness pride and evil desires. That is why we need the word of God. It tells us that the only way that we can deal with that base nature is first through trusting in Christ. Complete and total trust reliance and dependency upon Jesus. Without that we have nothing. Without that we are lost.

One time Jesus told his disciples that he was going to prepare a place for them.  He told them they knew where he was going. Thomas disagreed. He did not think that he knew where Jesus was going.  I have heard people praise Thomas for his question. People tell me there’s no such that is a stupid question. I don’t mean to be crass but I think Thomas Estes stupid question. But you have to give them credit for not being a hypocrite.

Why in the world would Jesus think they knew where he was going? Why because in some way shape or form he must have told them. Jesus has taught them that he would be betrayed he would be crucified and he would be raised from the dead. Jesus believed they knew. Why? He made it clear.  Jesus insisted, “I am the Way the Truth and the Life.”  now I know we take that Scripture and we plaster it in the faces of people who are of other religions who believe that there are other ways and other truths and another life. We insist on the definite article “the” way and “the” truth and “the” life.  But the bottom line is is he are only way our only truth and our only life.

The son of God would not have us lost. He is searching for people relentlessly as it were. His Father he said is seeking for worshipers. The Holy Spirit leads us in the direction that we need to go. God is not lost. We are the ones that get lost. Why? Because our focus is not on Christ. Our focus is not the word of God and I don’t mean some legalistic study of the word of God. I don’t refer to some method of man in how to study the word of God. I refer to the Scriptures as imbibing it like water consuming it like food. Just as Jesus said his words are spirit and life and that they are his flesh and blood. They must become our flesh and blood as we meditate upon the Scriptures. for without Christ being the sum total of all that we are, we will lose our way.

REALITY CHECK

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1367518065“So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’” (Luke 17:10 NIV)

We should be humble in whatever we do for Jesus and not delude ourselves into thinking that we can merit any favor or grace in any way.  

I totally concur with saying what the Word says about our identity in Christ.

We should say what God says about us.

But this passage really addresses those who teach there are higher levels spiritually that some reach and some do not. 

There is salvation by grace and there is growth in grace. Knowing Christ is how both take place. God does not owe us anything now that we are saved and obey him.

“When we realize all that God has done for us in Jesus, we want to serve Him out of gratitude. When our hearts are right, we live and act as if we are happy to have the privilege of being allowed to serve God.” (D. Guzik). 

Some people think because they have done so much more for God than others they think God owes them something such as: health, money and position. 

He does not. When he chooses to bless He has his glory in mind.

God is self sufficient. He does not need anything. The Bible is all about what God has done, is doing and will do. It is not about how wonderful we are.

The facts are, God cannot gain anything by what we do and is never in our debt despite how much we do for him.

God is self sufficient. All things come from him. What can we give back to him except what he has already given us?

He has no need of us, and anything we do does not improve his status in the universe because he is already perfect.  He is already God with or without us.

Sadly, much of what we do falls short anyway.

Do not respond to this with lengthy diatribes on having bad self esteem when Christ says we should call ourselves. “Unprofitable servants.”

His love for us is based totally in grace and he is not indebted to us in any way. This verse simply reminds us where we came from and not to forget that we are in a state of grace and no one will brag about anything when they get to heaven (1 Cor. 1:29).

Serving him is our privilege- for God is happy all by himself and we are a hot mess without him and find the grace we need and the peace we need because or who He is all by Himself. 

The Armored Brain

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“O LORD, I say to you, “You are my God.” Hear, O LORD, my cry for mercy. O Sovereign LORD, my strong deliverer, who shields my head in the day of battle— do not grant the wicked their desires, O LORD; do not let their plans succeed, or they will become proud.” (Ps 140:6-8).

Cry out to God today in the midst of the fierce battle you fight and and he will answer with his mercy. You and I are the objects of God’s undeserved, unearned mercy. He delights to rescue because you he delights in you (Psa. 18:19).  He loves and He likes you enough to save you and position you for victory in this battle (see 1 Chr. 28:4AV).

There is no doubt that there is a battle for the hearts and minds of men. In fact, this war is within the heart and inside the mind against spiritual and sinful desires and we are never free from this battle until Jesus comes and rescues us from the presence of sin (Gal 5:17).  It is a war of emotion and thought. That is where the bloodiest most vicious attacks of Satan take place. Here the armies of Faith and the reserves of Mercy battle with the massive hordes of hell with their Generals Anxiety, Fear and Doubt.

Yahweh is seen here as literally the God of deliverance or salvation who covers the warriors head.  The battle referred to here is actually the day of armor.  There is no doubt that this Psalm refers to the piece of armor called “the helmet of salvation.” (Eph. 6:17; 1 Thess. 5:8). It is this salvation “around the head” that gives us our focus on God’s ability to save and gives calm to a once troubled mind.  You have an armored brain. Your head is covered and no weapon formed against you will prosper. Praise God for that! When the mind of the child of God begins to reason and evaluate adverse circumstances with God’s salvation in view- that is when God gives them perfect peace of mind (Isa 26:3). Attempting to work things out in our own strength leads to anxiety, frustration and anger (Ps. 37:1, 8).

Salvation here is the child of God’s soul security despite adverse circumstances. The first thing the devil attacks is that you are loved by God and then he attacks your identity making you doubt that you are a child of God loved by God when things go wrong. The devil is a master deceiver and liar and he hates anyone God likes.

In this passage we also see how important for the child of God to see victory in their life because people who do not know Christ as Savior must see their need of God or they will become proud.  The proud person is one who is so conceited they mock God, and arrogantly make fun of people who have faith in Christ (Prov 21:24). In a world of countless political, social, economic agendas there are winners and losers. There are people in this Psalm that MUST LOSE so that they do not become proud and so that they see their need of God and are converted to Christ! The Christian MUST WIN and cannot accept anything less than victory and when God blesses his children with victory, “Many will see what he has done and be amazed. They will put their trust in the LORD.” (Psa. 40:3NLT).

© 2012 Soul Health Care Ministries, If you share this article just let them know about us and where it came from. 

Here Comes Christ the Warrior King!

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“Open up, ancient gates! Open up, ancient doors, and let the King of glory enter. Who is the King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty; the Lord, invincible in battle. Open up, ancient gates! Open up, ancient doors, and let the King of glory enter. Who is the King of glory? The Lord of Heaven’s Armies—he is the King of glory.” (Psalm 24:7-10NLT).

This psalm demonstrates clearly who is the rightful Owner, Ruler and Creator of the universe! The earth and all that is in it belongs rightfully to the thrice Holy God (24:1)!  We live our lives for the glory of God and the crown rights of King Jesus. “Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.” (1 Chr. 29:11). 

Jesus Christ is King of Glory is the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle seen in a human being (John 1:14). He only had clean hands and a pure heart. He only could ascend into God’s hill and stand in his holy place (24:3-4). He comes to open up gates that were barred to men and women since the fall of Adam. God was coming to earth in Christ opening up the gates that false religion and sin had closed. When John baptized Christ, “he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. (Mk 1:10).  The Warrior King’s battle cry was, “Open for me the gates of righteousness. ” (Psa. 118:19).

Charles Spurgeon says, “We know the might of Jesus by the battles which he has fought, the victories which he has won over sin, and death, and hell…”  The disciples saw Christ the Warrior King and even touched his wounds after his death in battle yet who rose again for them victorious over death (Luke 24:39; John 20:24-26). You also see Christ the warrior King coming to you by the reading of scripture and witness of the Holy Spirit. There you see his wounds and scars proving that He is your King of Glory, your Lord strong and mighty, your Lord who is mighty in battle who says, “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.” (Rev 1:17-18).

What are these ancient doors? These gates are the everlasting doors, the eternal gates of heaven.  Like the old portcullis gate and doors as seen in this article, so the doors burst open wide and the gate was lifted for Jesus Christ the overwhelming Victor. Here comes Christ the Warrior King back from Mount Calvary’s bloody hill of battle, the silence of the borrowed tomb, the earth shattering power of his resurrection and then his triumphant ascension to heaven to take the highest seat in the universe that only the God-man could keep without being dethroned.  He went out weeping and he went to plant the precious seeds of Calvary but came back with singing as he returned with the harvest, bringing back in chains those who enslaved the souls of people and disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He publicly embarrassed them by his victory over them on the cross (Eph. 4:8; Col. 2:15). 

Your warrior King has opened up heaven for you.  Right now a door is standing open for you in heaven. Christ opened it up for you and left it ajar (Rev. 4:1). The heavens are opened for you and God is waiting. “These gates lead to the presence of the LORD, and the godly enter there.” (Psa. 118:20).  Jesus says he is that door (John 10:9). Take his offer now, that door will not remain open forever.

© 2012 Soul Health Care Ministries, If you share this article just let them know about us and where it came from. 

When the Battle Seems to Go Badly

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“They were helped in fighting them, and God handed the Hagrites and all their allies over to them, because they cried out to him during the battle. He answered their prayers, because they trusted in him.” (1 Chr. 5:20).

Before there are battle cries of victory there are battle prayers. Please do not confuse what I am saying with all the spiritual warfare teachings being sold today.

There never seems to be a day that goes that there are challenges yet some setbacks are much worse than others. This may be a time for you to be where many things have gone sour all at once.  When the battle of life seems to be going badly and you think you are losing, begin to look to Christ your undefeated Heavenly Warrior and ask him for the victory and God will grant it.

In the midst of difficulty when God’s people cry out to him and when they, like Hezekiah, turn their face to the wall and weep bitterly, that is when God says, “I have heard your prayer and seen your tears.” (Isa. 38:2-5).

There are no special formulas or methods. Ask for victory in prayer and one every that asks will receive victory, he that seeks for victory shall find victory and the one who knocks on the door of victory shall have it. (Mt. 7:7-8). These are not levels of prayer, or different kinds of prayer just different ways of saying the word prayer. If you take  the first letters of the words-Asking, Seeking and Knocking it spells ASK.

It is that clear.

It is so gracious of God our Father to extend his mercy and care to us. He says when we talk to him in prayer  is like requesting, discovering and gaining entrance to his answer. It is God’s will that you win for his glory.

Now once we pray for victory, Jesus tells us, “Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” (Mk. 11:24). Start acting like you have the victory. This is not being hypocritical, it is not pretending, it is quiet confidence. I have asked and God has heard. God’s credit always good with me. What Jesus says and he will do. He always tells the truth and when he says in his Word he will do it. He answers your prayers because you trust in him, his strength, his ability and his salvation. It is his gift!

God will give you the strength of heart and soul to say, “He has answered my prayer!”

He will calm your mind with it’s anxious thoughts. Throw off your sackcloth and heaviness and get back in the fight knowing you have already won though Jesus.

© 2012 Soul Health Care Ministries, If you share this article just let them know about us and where it came from. 

Divine Skill and Strength

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“He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze.” (Psalm. 18:34).

God gives His extraordinary strength and skill to his children in spiritual warfare. He gives us his strength to fight the Battle, for as Paul says we are to “be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.” (Eph. 6:10).  There is no sane reason one can give to functioning and operating in one’s own powers of will, influence of wealth, mental effort and human talent.  We, “put no confidence or dependence [on what we are] in the flesh and on outward privileges and physical advantages and external appearances.” (Phil 3:3AMP).

God has given us his best weapons for the fight of faith and daily life: truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, the holy scripture and prayer in the Spirit. These are weapons he himself used for they are referred to as the armor that God wears (Eph. 6:11) and we are told, “clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Rom 13:14).

Christ himself not only bent but broke the bronze like weapons of Satan and confiscated his armor driving out demons by the power of the Spirit of God (Matthew 12:28-29). God in Christ leveled the mountains, lifted up the valleys and made a clear road to victory for his children (Isa. 40:1-3)!  He broke down the hellish gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron and plundered the enemies vaults where all the stolen items since Adam’s fall were stored and gave them back to his royal family (Isaiah 45:1-4).

© 2012 Soul Health Care Ministries, If you share this article just let them know about us and where it came from. 

God Will Encourage You!

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“But David found strength in the LORD his God.” (1 Sam. 30:6).

It appeared David and men had lost everything as far as family and possessions. There was no earthly resource to recover what David and his men lost, no army to help them fight to get it back, all seemed lost.

They were crushed, their souls and minds collapsed under the weight of this trial and they wept so much they had no more tears. There was only anger and accusation and bitterness. The once victorious army became a mob and wanted to pummel David to death with stones.

Sad to say, we have all been there, done that. Something precious to us has not only been taken but has been held back.  Your family seems irrecoverably lost in sin, your ministry seems irretrievable, your health seem incurable and your finances seem beyond repair. Hope becomes an enemy because faith has run away from your heart. Your despair has made you spiritually unreasonable.

The KJV says “David encouraged himself in the Lord.” He found inner strength when others would have given up. Ah, the advantages of having the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, the Comforter living within your heart (1 Sam 16:13)! There were other times people encouraged him or helped him find strength in his God (1 Sam 23:16), but this time the Holy Spirit alone would rise up within him and remind him of the promises of God or as the Aramaic puts it, “he strengthened himself in the Word of God.” (Gill). His past testimonies had no become God’s records in the libraries of  the acts faith.

He remembered when he held by the hair the head of his slain enemy Goliath and that he took his armor and kept them at his home (1 Sam 17:54) and later when he was on the run from his enemy Saul, the priests kept in the temple as a treasure to remember past victory the sword of Goliath (1 Sam 21:9). David took it from them because he has grown now and he himself is able to wield that huge sword.  Let me pause and say that these are not sentimental relics of better times for David but foundations for his faith now, the foundation upon which he stands for his present trials! Look at your treasures of victory in the past and let them be the basis for your belief that God has plans for you yet my friends! If God’s track record is so good for your past then we must declare that good things are going to happen for you now and in the future.

The fight of faith in your heart is much like when Israel fought Amalek, as long as Moses kept his arms up Joshua and Israel would win; if he lowered them they would lose. The fight for faith is back and forth, push and shove and a tug of war until like Moses the Holy Spirit holds up one arm and the scriptures the other and you watch your discouragement, doubts, fears, anxieties and unbelief pushed back further and further (Ex 17:8-15).

Today even right now you have found strength in the Lord, in your heart and spirit because you belong to God. God has spoken well of you (Eph. 1:3), and he commands  favor and honor and he will withhold no good thing from you (Ps. 84:10; Ps. 133:3). You shall recover my friends, trust and strengthen yourself in his very great and precious promises (2 Pet 1:4) and strengthen your faith which is holy to God by praying in the Spirit (Jude 1:20). Here the Holy Spirit of God speaks for you and prays for you and there is nothing that can stop you.

© 2012 Soul Health Care Ministries, If you share this article just let them know about us and where it came from. 

The Struggle with the Godhood of God

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The scriptures are very clear about the Godhood of God. The Bible says,

“That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.” (Isaiah 45:6).

All emotional reactions and experiences aside, He alone is God.  The very original and conventional sin of man is pride. It is self idolatry. Pride deifies man and makes him in control of his destiny and life. We are not only uncomfortable with the fact with the freedom of God’s power and “he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. ” (Ps 115:3) but we have an aversion to it.  He makes choices, he decides what is best and for us because he is God and whether we like it or not it is done. God is relentless and unstoppable. When it comes to salvation, God who is mighty to save them who are, “predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.” (Eph. 1:11).

Saying, I don’t believe something does not make that truth go away.  Being inept at explaining that truth does not make it wrong and being a Christian and still struggling with that truth does not you a bad Christian.

My issue is that Pastors and preachers feel God has called them to be a spiritual public relations person for Christ. It is despicable reinterpreting God in terms, “He meant to say this…” or, “When he did this he actually was…” We are called to be spokesmen for God, to say all he has commanded, not to decode the scripture into oblivion.

With all the talk about trusting God I really think we are suspicious of him. It seems his freedom to do things with which we do not agree with is intact.  I know I still struggle with my own uncertainties.  If I did not struggle, I would doubt my own salvation. For struggle is the very essence of spiritual life.

The Bible is clear, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” (Romans 8:29-30).

It is pretty scary predestination and all. It is at first terrifying and then comforting.  

Should all truth make us comfortable?

That is a joke.

Is that true faith? 

For people who decry lying, we sure hate honesty, yet honesty has a way keeping both feet on terra firma.

Perhaps faith is when you grapple with some truth and are afraid of it-is that not faith as well?  This is not a rationalization of being double minded and half hearted. It it about being able to explain genuine faith or explaining in terms of embracing the belief in one God who predestines all things.

Does the ability to explain or lack thereof effect your faith? I struggle everyday with trust in GOD’s plans and purposes for my own life. The calm assurance that I have at times is much more precious than trillions of bailout dollars.

 The logical conclusion to predestination is a strange mix and fear and confidence. But the Godhood of God is a fact. One may speculate and struggle with it but in the end when we see he has done all things well,  we submit in surrender to him.

GOD NEVER LOSES TRACK OF SIN

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Technology can’t even keep up with sin and those that commit them.

The other day according to the news an electronic monitoring system run by BI Incorporated maxed out its storage capacity that tracked the location of 16,000 sex offenders, parolees, substance abusers and other offenders leaving law enforcement blind for 12 hours. They questionably detained 140 offenders as well.  This is amazing because apparently the technology can hold over 2 billion records and they are working on expanding the threshold to a monstrous one trillion records.

This is scary stuff.

We no longer have to imagine or limit it to a sci-fi tale about  people having the power to track information about anyone at anytime. It is obvious we have that technology as imperfect as it is.  The idea of locating the whereabouts of incorrigible criminals is not what bothers me-but I wonder what it would be like if the government expands that power to any citizen.  I do not know of Orwellian conspiracies as of yet, but in the name of security freedom can be  lost. The search and seizure of information and the fourth amendment of the U.S. constitution must remain a precious right to us in this country.

I chuckled at the company’s name “BI.” Some of you will remember when we used to say as kids: “Its none of your BI business!”  We used to purposely misspell the word business as “bizness”  to emphasize and intensify the “stay out of my business” idea.  It is not childish to have privacy and we should all be careful, very careful about who knows what about us. Something to think about. 

The BI information grid broke down with this company and the law enforcement with which it works were blind for 12 hours to any criminal activities. 

But God will never stay out your business. He is never blind. He keeps track of sin. There is no right to privacy with him.

The Bible says that, “But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” (Romans 2:5).

Did I read that right?  People treasuring the wrath of God?

The archaic word treasurest is the Greek word thēsaurizō  and in Latin thesaurizas where we get the word thesaurus. This is not referring to the book we use that groups similar and differing words together. It comes from a  root word that means a place where valuables and riches are stored.  Paul teaches those that refuse to repent and  make an 180 degree turn from thinking about and doing those things that the All seeing and All knowing God hates  despite God’s tender goodness and kindness to them are actually accumulating wrath, adding to God’s anger that will be vented against them one day.  He never loses one byte of information.

I know we do not hear much about God’s anger against sin and there are those who actually teach he does not become angry today. But God witnesses and weighs out sin (Jer 32:10). God says of those who refuse to repent, “Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures? To me belongeth vengeance and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.” (Deut 32:34-35).  He keeps in reserve and under lock and key the sins of men and women who refuse to repent.

In fact, Hosea the prophet said of Israel that,  “The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is hid.” (Hosea 13:12). This actually can be translated that his sin has been collected and kept in storage for punishment!  “Ephraim’s wickedness is on record. The record of the people’s sins is safely stored away.” (GWT).

John Calvin states that, “that the ungodly not only accumulate for themselves daily a heavier weight of God’s judgments, as long as they live here, but that the gifts of God also, which they continually enjoy, shall increase their condemnation; for an account of them all will be required: and it will then be found, that it will be justly imputed to them as an extreme wickedness, that they had been made worse through God’s bounty, by which they ought surely to have been improved. Let us then take heed, lest by unlawful use of blessings we lay up for ourselves this cursed treasure.”

Frightening information. But there is hope.

Only Christ can save you from God’s just, inflamed anger against you.  Divine Justice demanded a payment for sin and Christ made that payment on the behalf of his people. It can not be extorted by doing good works, it cannot be ignored by changing the rules.

One day you will stand before God for all you have done and there will be no escape unless you have run with all your might to the only place of safety and the person who can save you-Jesus Christ. He will expunge the record of sin that is against you. He made payment by pouring out his blood, the only one in the universe whose blood was untainted by sin. God only accepts that payment for sin.

He will not be bribed by how much good you do and weigh it against the bad you have done and let you off the hook. No. It cannot and will not happen. Every day he has been kind and merciful to you and you have spurned his love. Put your faith and trust in what Christ has done alone or face the horrible withdrawal of your sins and God’s unbearable justice one day soon.