Encouragement For Perseverers

It’s been a while, so I’m going to try to ease back into the blog with something that I hope isn’t too controversial.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

Over the past four weeks at church, I have been teaching on the three ‘omni’s’ of God.  Omnipresence, Omniscience, and Omnipotence.  For those who may not know, the prefix ‘omni-’ means ‘all’.  So when we say that God is Omnipresent we mean that God is everywhere.  When we say that God is Omniscient we mean that God knows everything.  And when we say that God is Omnipotent we mean that God has all power.

Studying these three attributes of God have been a great comfort to me in my own petty afflictions and so I hope these thoughts will give greater comfort to His children who are suffering under more intense afflictions and even in the weight of those afflictions are persevering in the hope of eternal life.

First, God is ‘Omnipresent’.  He is fully and completely in all places, all the time, and in all times.  He is past, present, and future are all present to Him equally (Psalm 139).  He exists outside of time and space as well as within time and space and He is actively working to sustain the whole of His Creation.  So no matter what you are suffering, God is there with you.  More than that, God is working in your situation and He has promised to be with you.  Before Jesus ascended into Heaven He gave His followers a promise: “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)  What this means for us is that not only is God with us simply because He is everywhere, He is especially with His followers in a special way.  Jesus, who endured all the same kinds of struggles that we face is always present with you as a faithful High Priest ready to comfort you, strengthen you, sustain you, and plead for you before the Father.  God’s Omnipresence is a source of comfort for believers.

Second, God is ‘Omniscient’.  God fully knows all things, past, present, and future.  Far from being a Rolodex of information, God does not need to recall anything.  He knows all things perfectly at once.  God knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10).  He knows you and I, when we sit down, when we rise up, our thoughts, our paths, when we lie down, and our words before we speak them (Psalm 139:1-6).  God knows everything about us because He created us and also created the days allotted for us to live (Psalm 139:16).  The word ‘days’ here does not only mean the number of days that we will live, but also the contents of those days.  God knows all of these things because He ordained them to be so!  This would be a scary thought if we were speaking of an evil being ordaining our days, but with God we know that whatever He ordains is right.  The reason we know this is because God is infinitely Good, Loving, and Righteous.  But also because He is All-Wise.  The definition of wisdom is knowing the best goals and knowing the best means to accomplish those goals.  In the case of God, we know that whatever He ordains is in accordance with His infinite Wisdom.  He who knows all perfectly must perfectly know the best goals.  And the One who knows all perfectly must also know the best way to accomplish those goals.  God goal for those of us who trust in Him is to bring us to glory (1 Corinthians 2:7).  So, what ever situation you find yourself in, whether persecution, wealth, sickness, health, traffic, green lights, marital problems, marital bliss, life, or death, we know that God as an infinitely wise God has the best goal in mind for us and He is using this to bring us to glory.  Affliction is our friend, sent from God, to accompany us in this life so that we may be presented faultless before His throne with great joy (Romans 8:28-39, Jude 24-25).

Finally, God is ‘Omnipotent’.  God has all power and He’s not afraid to use it.  He has the authority and the freedom to use His power and He is willing to use it to accomplish His  wise goals (Isaiah 46:8-13).  The God who created the Heavens, the Earth, stars, planets, galaxies, and you and I is the same God with the same power to strengthen us when we suffer.  He can put our enemies in the dust, exalt us above our circumstances, bring life out of death, and whatever else you can imagine.  This is the God who loves us and cares for us.  Nothing will ever thwart His plan to bring us to glory, because He is the first cause behind all that happens and all that happens is designed for His plan for His people.

So whatever circumstance you find yourself in, be comforted in these three truths concerning your God.  He is Omnipresent, Omniscient, and Omnipotent.  He is always near, He hasn’t been taken by surprise in your situation, He has a plan, and He is using His power for your good (Romans 8:28).

Maybe I will start blogging again…

…but I doubt it.

What I Didn’t Post

I didn’t post that last entry, and I don’t know how it got into my feed, and it’s not here now.  Anyway, this is a good time to tell you that if you were coming or linking here through www.doxoblogy.com, I let that address expire.  Now the only way to the blog is through this address: www.doxoblogy.wordpress.com.  Thank you and good day.

The Venerable Bede on ‘God is Love’: L

The Venerable Bede on ‘God is Love’: Let no 1 say that when he sins he sins against other people but not God,4 how can U not B sinning against God when U R sinning against love?

Just signed up for HootSuite. Shouldn’t

Just signed up for HootSuite. Shouldn’t someone have told me about this before?

Benefits of the Gospel

1 John 1:1-4

The Gospel is a message about Jesus and how He has acted in history to bless all those who believe in Him.  The foundation for this message though, does not begin at the cross, or at the river Jordan, or in Bethlehem, or even in the virgin’s womb.  The foundation is laid in eternity past when the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit agree together, in perfect unity, to redeem a fallen humanity in order that the glory of the Godhead be known and praised.

Here’s a brief lesson on the Godhead: We know that God is.  He revealed Himself by the name, “I Am Who I Am”, to Moses.  We will read later in our study of 1 John that “God is love.”  For God to love there must be an object of His love and a joyful contentment with the object.  The object of God’s greatest love and joy in eternity past, before the worlds or angels or mankind is created is, must be the highest and greatest good, Himself.  His object of love is the Divine Being which is Himself but in order to be communicated, must also be distinct from Himself.  So the object of His love is the perfect image of Himself begotten by Himself.  In short, He loves the eternally begotten, perfect revelation of Himself, the Son, or as John describes Him in our text today, the Word.  The Father loves the Son perfectly and the Son loves the Father perfectly and of their perfect love, of infinite degree, for one another proceeds the Holy Spirit.  We speak of a ‘spirit of love’ or ‘fellowship’ between members of a family, church, or other kinds of organizations.  The Father and Son also have a relationship so great, perfect and infinitely active that a third Person, the Holy Spirit, actually proceeds from their love and enjoyment of one another for the communication of their love.  If then the Father is eternal and is love Himself, then His love for the Son can not preexist the existence of the Son or the Holy Spirit.  So we believe in an eternal Godhead, the Trinity.  The Father is eternal, the Son is eternal, and the Spirit is eternal, and all three are one.  This is a truth too glorious to behold, and yet, we are told that the Word became flesh, and the eternal Life was manifested so that John and the rest of the Apostles actually saw God in flesh.

Out of the great love that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit enjoy together, and in perfect unity, they agree together…The Father will give the Son a possession from among the nations, the Son will pay the price for this love gift from the Father, and the Spirit will mark them and keep them until they are fully redeemed.  This great purpose of redemption finds its fulfillment in Jesus, who brings all those who believe into a participation of the eternal life, eternal love, and eternal joy of the Eternal Godhead.  These are the three benefits of the Gospel that we want to address in our text this morning.

I.          What Jesus Did 1 Corinthians 15:1-5  Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you–unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

A.        Became Man

B.        Died

C.        Rose Again

D.        Ascended

E.         The Message Proclaimed

1 Corinthians 1:18-25  For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

II.        The Message Is A Proclamation Of Eternal Life

A.        The Life Of God Is Eternal Life

B.        All Of Life Comes From God’s Life

Genesis 1:26-27, 2:7

C.        The Life Of God Is Revealed By Christ

D.        The Life Given By Christ Is Eternal 1 John 5:10-13

III.       The Message Brings Us Into Fellowship With God

A.        God’s Love For Himself (Trinity/Baptism of Jesus)

B.        God’s Love For His World

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

C.        God’s Love For His Elect

D.        We Should Love God

E.         We Should Love Others

1.         Our Neighbor

2.         Our Brothers 1 John 3:16

F.         Fellowship With God

G.        Fellowship With God Means Fellowship with His People John 17:20-21

IV.       The Message Completes Our Joy John 17:13

A.        The Eternally Happy God 1 Timothy 1:11

B.        The Participation In The Divine Life Through The Spirit 2 John 12

Conclusion: Acts 4:19-20 But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”All who have experienced this life want to tell the story.  They see sinners who are facing unspeakable tragedy and trials and moved with compassion, because they too were once without Christ and now have experienced the joy of fellowship with God and eternal life, want to tell the story of Jesus and His love.

Jesus Came Preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom

Jesus came preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom.  Matthew 4:17-25 tells us of this beginning of Jesus’ ministry of preaching.  We see the topics of His message (verses 17, 23):

1. Repentance.
2. The Kingdom is at hand.

We see His disciples respond to this message (verses 20, 22):

1. They left their nets/boats/families.
2. They followed Jesus.

Finally we see the vindication of His message (verses 23-25):

1. He heals the sick.
2. Great crowds follow after Jesus.

These are necessary verses to put the Sermon on the Mount into its proper context.  When Jesus sees these crowds following after Him, He ascends up on a mountain, calls His disciples in close, and begins to teach them more accurately the good news of the Kingdom.  The good news is this (according to 5:3-12);

1. We are ‘Blessed’(supremely favored by God, we bask in the face of God as revealed in Jesus Christ, who for a time suffered the disfavor and ‘woe’ of God that we might live in this blessed state).
2. We have a present citizenship in the Kingdom.
3. We have a future hope of a revelation of the Kingdom.
4. Our circumstances here do not always reflect the true reality as God sees it.
5. Our present manner of life has eternal consequences.
6. Our present treatment by the world works for us a greater weight of glory.

Therefore…

1. We should respond to the call of repentance by renouncing all that holds us in the kingdom of darkness and follow our King, Jesus Christ.
2. We should have a joyful spirit which displays itself through the physical emotion of happiness even in the midst of poverty, mourning, hunger, thirst, and persecution.
3. We should conduct ourselves in a meek, merciful, pure, peacemaking manner in the midst of a world that seeks to dominate, threaten, defile, and separate us from the love of Christ.
4. We should be known by our joyfulness as we rejoice and are glad that we have been worthy to suffer after the manner of our Lord and Savior who endured such hostility from sinners so that He might redeem us from our sin and produce these marks of true religion in us.

Bowl Full O’ Sayings

The other day I saw a bowl full of folded-up, multi-colored scraps of paper on a co-worker’s desk.

I picked one up, read it, and saw it was an “inspirational” saying from Keanu Reeves. There was another one from Erica Jong. And a third from Tony Robbins.

And a fourth one which quoted the Lord Jesus. It was part of Matthew 19:26: “…,but with God all things are possible.”

Now, all things are possible with God. He is God, after all. But, in context, Jesus is speaking about salvation – not having a good day at work.

The words of Christ lumped together with an actor’s, a novelist’s, and a motivational speaker’s.

Sigh.

David

Boot Camp Evangelism

So, there I was in Air Force boot camp.

I don’t remember how the conversation began, but our whole bay was talking about who believed or didn’t believe in God.

I was one of the guys who wasn’t sure if God was real or not.

So, this one guy was a little…intense…gets right up in my face and says to me: “You don’t believe in Jesus!? I ought to punch you right in the face.”

I hope he’s calmed down since then.

David

Books

I love books.

I like to be around books. It relaxes me.

I think it’s strange to visit someone’s home and see there are no books anywhere in sight. Sometimes there’s nothing at all to read, at least that I can see. That, to me, is unfathomable.

I also do not understand it when someone visits my home and does not even glance once at the books on the shelves in my livingroom. Aren’t they even curious what I’ve read?

If you have books in your home I’m going to look at every title. I want to know what you’ve read or are planning to read. I think a person’s books tell you a lot about who they are and how they (likely) think.

So, now you know. If I come to your home I’ll be checking out your books – or lack thereof!

And now that I think about it…it just won’t be the same when everyone’s library’s in a Kindle.

Blessings,

David