tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33112581638924203062024-03-05T12:10:00.034-08:00Zealot A passionate quest for Biblical discipleshipAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06062040642614224512noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3311258163892420306.post-49091094349139024482018-11-02T08:55:00.001-07:002018-11-02T09:01:38.121-07:00Overcome<p dir="ltr"><br>
Romans 12:21(NKJV)</p>
<p dir="ltr">21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><br></p><p dir="ltr">Throughout the Bible we see the people of God endure great afflictions, perpetrated on them by others around them. Not always were God's elect able to throw off the evil oppression of the godless that sought to harm or destroy them, but neither we're they destroyed. <br></p><p dir="ltr">
Overcoming evil with good doesn't always look like a revolt or an ability to change the hearts and minds of others. Often it's staying so desperately dependant on God the Father and striving for His will each day, that we ourselves aren't crushed in spirit by the evil that surrounds us. <br>
God's goodness in us can preserve us and our faith through the evilest of storms. He gives us the miraculous ability to forgive, to be good to those that abuse us, protecting us from the evil we see around us. Yahweh, Yeshua, the Spirit of Truth, alone can and will defend us inwardly and spiritually, even if for a time, evil has overwhelmed us and oppressed us outwardly. <br>
He will only do this if we will willingly lay all at His feet. <br>
If we completely abandon ourselves to God, His Light resides within us, and His is a Light, no darkness shall ever overcome. </p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlouj2f6C_Cvrby_t1Uvo-2Kv1FcAOsSdIh2dimrbllAM0CiJiahzUUzuM0JPBLBCXZvWjbycj75WM_AWr3P92QaqO7q76ZvExvW9Gh51Tf54zHWgiGAaVMX7gW6IoI912-uD3m6k5kXOx/s1600/MagdaleneWashesJesusFeet.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> <img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlouj2f6C_Cvrby_t1Uvo-2Kv1FcAOsSdIh2dimrbllAM0CiJiahzUUzuM0JPBLBCXZvWjbycj75WM_AWr3P92QaqO7q76ZvExvW9Gh51Tf54zHWgiGAaVMX7gW6IoI912-uD3m6k5kXOx/s640/MagdaleneWashesJesusFeet.JPG"> </a> </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06062040642614224512noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3311258163892420306.post-30451662100822637512018-10-17T09:26:00.002-07:002018-10-17T09:26:51.386-07:00Knowing<div dir="ltr">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><i>Proverbs 8:17 ESV </i></span></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><i>I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">A wise and faith filled woman once said, in a Bible study I shared with her, that she knew many facts about Bill Clinton, where he grew up, went to school, his college years, but, she said, " If I were to walk up to Bill Clinton obviously he wouldn't know me at all" Her point was that knowing about God isn't knowing God. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">In a world full of lies and half truths about who and what God is and what that means about us humans, we must seek, dig, search out, the truth. <br />
I came to be a Christian because I didn't need to throw logic and reason aside to do so,(No you really don't). You will however need to be ready to discard most of what the world has taught you to believe.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">I was skeptical whether the claims of my current faith were true at all, but like many before me, in searching these things out I found the overwhelming evidence that the God of the Bible is who He says He is. I found that we don't live in a universe governed by chance mutation, just take a minute and really imagine what that would look like. I found that where we live, who and what we are, only make sense in a <i>theistic</i> universe, and makes no logical sense at all in an atheistic one. Indeed to be an atheist in this universe we live in takes much more faith and religious dedication than I, or most anyone is capable of.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><br />So in order to get to the truth of our reality, we must peel back many layers of lies our current wicked age preaches to us. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">Many learned men in our current society are chasing truth but have discarded God in doing so. Like a rainbow seen from far off but can never be reached, truth will forever allude those who have closed themselves off from God.<br />
So what they find and hold up to us as truth is actually a foolish illusion they've created for themselves. They beg for us to join them in their delusion, not because they are so sure it's true, but because they are seeking validation for themselves. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Today's scientists have substituted mathematics for experiments, and they wander off through equation after equation, and eventually build a structure which has no relation to reality. </i><br />
<i>Nikola Tesla</i></span></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">True science is about testing and observing and being willing to follow the logical evidence wherever it leads. In our current culture, the only science taught is of the nature that refuses to follow any evidence that might lead to a Creator. Therefore we get theory patched up by more theory that has little to do with the universe we actually live in, which was obviously created.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">Why would God tell us so often in His Word that we will need to seek and search Him out? <br />
Because of where we live. Lies propped up by half truths and deceptions is masqueraded as truth here. Why? Because fallen man wants nothing to do with God. <br />
In a place where mankind seeks to be his own god self delusion reigns supreme. <br />
Man goes about seeking from other humans what he now cannot get from his Creator, love, confidence, identity, and validation.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">Knowing God comes by persistence. We must not stop our search at the first answer our world demands we take, but we must press on digging through the deceptions and delusions of this current age. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">Not only learning about Him through His word, but each day taking time to find some stillness and allow our spirit to mingle and commune with His.As He promises us in His Word, if we honestly seek Him, He will disclose Himself to us.<br />
He will place His Spirit within us and then little doubt about God's identity will remain and the most paramount relationship of our existence can begin. </span><br />
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06062040642614224512noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3311258163892420306.post-65569308366613348402016-07-02T14:25:00.000-07:002018-10-10T20:38:35.094-07:00Slaves of Freedom<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "AR BERKLEY";"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Slaves
of Freedom</span><span style="font-size: 26pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "AR BERKLEY"; font-size: 26.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<h1 style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span class="passage-display-bcv"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.5pt; font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Luke 4:18<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">"The Spirit of the
Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He
has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the
blind, to set the oppressed free,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">There is much to be learned
just here in this verse alone not to mention the verses leading up to it and
just after it, we could literally be here all day, but what I want us to focus
on today primarily is just one word <i>freedom</i> and not just the word itself
but what Jesus meant by his use of that word and what type of freedom He offers
us here today. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">This is a powerful event Luke
has recorded.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">If we look further down in
verse 23 of this same chapter we can read that Jesus had already been in </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Capernaum</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">A portion of that verse
states- <i>'Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in </i></span><st1:city><st1:place><i><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Capernaum</span></i></st1:place></st1:city><i><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">.'"<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">So we can see that Jesus had
already created quite a reputation healing and teaching even though in the text
it would appear as though he had just emerged from his forty days in the
desert. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18pt;">So it looks like Luke placed
this account here not because of any chronological order but possibly because
it made a perfect kind of title to place here at the start of Jesus’ ministry
because it encapsulates what His </span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 18pt;">ministry
would be about.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">This was likely a synagogue
that Jesus frequented as a boy and young adult growing up in </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Nazareth</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">. At this time in synagogues like this one they would
often invite visiting Rabbi’s to teach but this wasn’t just any Rabbi, this was
a well known hometown boy returning to His local church. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt;"> </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Nazareth</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-size: 18pt;"> at this time is thought to have had a population no
larger than two thousand people and being the son of a carpenter and then being
a carpenter himself Jesus no doubt was well known by many here long before his
ministry began.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Jesus opens the scroll to
this portion of Isaiah that we now understand to prophesy of His first coming
and also His eventual return and He reads it aloud. He then takes His seat,
which was customary for a teacher to do before teaching or expounding on the
text read. He goes on to tell these folks that He’d known all his life, in no
uncertain terms, that He was the Messiah that the prophet Isaiah was speaking
of. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 18pt;">But as I said our focus here
today has to do with this proclamation of </span><i style="font-size: 18pt;">“freedom for the captives”</i><span style="font-size: 18pt;">
that was prophesied by Isaiah and begins with the coming of Christ into the
world and no doubt continues still today.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">So to begin to understand
this proclamation we should ask ourselves “What is freedom” and who are the
“Captives” Christ spoke about? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Well I believe if you were to
ask a Jew at this time in history it’s reasonable to assume that they would
tell you this portion of scripture meant the very real physical release of the
Jewish people from Roman oppression by a conquering Messiah leading an
Israelite army. We here today however know that’s not the case.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Many in this area of ancient </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Palestine</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;"> that would be freed and saved by Jesus were “Captive”
to the oppression of the warped use of the law and the lies being hoisted upon
them by the Pharisees, but what does this proclamation mean for us here
today? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18pt;">What is freedom? As modern
Americans living in an ever growing secularized culture we are again and again
told that freedom is the ability to do whatever </span><i style="font-size: 18pt;">we</i><span style="font-size: 18pt;"> want, however </span><i style="font-size: 18pt;">we</i><span style="font-size: 18pt;">
want to do it, with whom ever </span><i style="font-size: 18pt;">we</i><span style="font-size: 18pt;"> want, wherever </span><i style="font-size: 18pt;">we</i><span style="font-size: 18pt;"> choose.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt;"> </span><i><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">We</span></i><span style="font-size: 18pt;"> will work where <i>we</i> want, be friends with whom <i>we</i>
want, dress how <i>we</i> want, talk how <i>we</i> want, listen to what music <i>we</i>
want, be entertained how <i>we</i> want, and marry who <i>we</i> want.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 18pt;">I think if you were to walk
up to just about anyone on the street here in America today and ask them what
freedom is their answer would resemble this if not be dead on the same. But is
this real freedom, is this what God intends for us, is this the form of freedom
that Jesus came to give us?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Did Jesus come and live a
sinless life and then die the horrific death of being nailed to a tree paying
the penalty we owe for our fallen sinful nature so that we might be free from
the law to live a life of unlimited self indulgence and self exaltation? So
that we might be free to hoist high up on the ladder of priority our own
personal preferences and pleasures and follow <i>those</i> to our <i>own</i>
ends? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">I would submit to you today
that when we look at real freedom, this very real and authentic freedom that
Jesus is proclaiming here in his hometown church it looks very much the
opposite of what our society tells us freedom is, and it is also often this
real freedom that even we who profess to follow Christ reject for our own
lives. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Secular society preaches to
us a steady sermon of individuality and autonomy. We hear phrases like <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">“Be your own person, be true
to yourself, make your own way, and do it for yourself.” The voices on the
televisions and the radios tell us we must “Find out who we are and in finding
ourselves we will somehow find happiness.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 18pt;">According to our culture we
hold all our own truths, we alone decide our direction in life, and the best
thing we can do to make ourselves happy and fulfilled is to look inward.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Is it any wonder as we look
out on the current landscape of our society that we see so much depression,
suicide, drug addiction, divorce, violence, and promiscuity?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 18pt;">To hold ourselves to such a
high degree, to think all our answers lye in the truths we ourselves get to
create is nothing more than another delusional form of idol worship. Simply
indulging ourselves and being guided only by our own desires, pleasures, and
preferences leads to another very real form of captivity. One of the many forms
of captivity I believe Jesus comes to set us free from today.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18pt;">Truth is not something we as </span><i style="font-size: 18pt;">created</i><span style="font-size: 18pt;">
beings get to create. We can recognize it, we can utilize it and we can adhere
our lives to it but we did not and we do not create it, and the truth is we are
not independent beings at all, quite the opposite we are </span><span style="font-size: 24px;">dependent</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"> beings, and
we were created to be </span><span style="font-size: 24px;">dependent</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"> beings and going further we were created for a
specific purpose. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">So when we live as though we
are an end unto ourselves, as if all the answers and all the truth we’ll ever
need are to be found within ourselves or even found in another fallen sinful
human being, we get sick, we get lost, and we get imprisoned. When we remove God
from the picture and say we’ve been evolved by forces of chance into a being
that is totally self sustaining and completely independent we create a truly
unnatural environment for ourselves. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 18pt;">The idea that we are such
dependant beings is very counter cultural and something we ourselves don’t like
to here but the Word of God makes it abundantly clear.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Colossians </span></u><st1:time hour="13" minute="16"><u><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">1:16</span></u></st1:time><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"> <i>all things have been created through him and for
him.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Colossians 1:17</span></u><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"> <i>He is before all things, and in him all things
hold together.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">These are just a couple out of
the multitude of verses throughout the Bible that tell us that not only did God
create us but he created us <i>for</i> Himself and it tells us that He sustains
our very existence. The action of the atoms and molecules spinning around right
now to create a church pew of solid material for us to sit in is being
sustained through Him. Each breath we take is being given to us, willed to us
by almighty God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">We are created beings created
for a specific purpose and the Word of God tells us what that purpose is over
and over again. These are again only a couple verses out of a multitude that
tell us of our purpose throughout the Old Testament and the New. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Isaiah 43:21 <o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">The people I
formed for myself, that they may proclaim my praise.</span></i><u><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">1 Corinthians 10:31<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">31 So whether you eat
or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God</span></i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Here in his letter to the
Corinthians Paul is talking about foods some people abstain from but that
others eat and he instructs us that whatever we may be doing we should do it to
the glory of God. We were created for God not for ourselves, we were created
for His pleasure and purposes not our own, we were created to glorify Him and
be in relationship with Him and that is the freedom Jesus offers us, freedom to
be what we were created to be and do what we were designed to do. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Paul confronts this modern
self fulfilling type of freedom our culture preaches to us earlier in this same
letter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">1 Corinthians 10:23-24<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/10-23.htm"><span style="color: windowtext;">23</span></a>“I
have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I
have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. <a href="http://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/10-24.htm"><span style="color: windowtext;">24</span></a>
No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">In seeking to do good for
others we glorify our Father.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Have you ever used a knife
for a screwdriver, or a drill for a hammer? You break the tip off the knife
ruining it or you crack the plastic casing on your cordless drill, trying to
use these tools for tasks they are not designed for turns out to be bad news
for us and the tools involved. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Would it be possible to find
an electric drill out in the woods and come to the conclusion that nature with
billions and billions of years had put that drill together? Take a look
sometime at the mechanics and processes of the human cell and you will see
something far more sophisticated and advanced than the simple rudimentary
cordless drill. We have much in common though because we and the drill were
both designed for a specific purpose. Using these specifically designed tools
for uses other than they were designed for always leads to frustration and
brokenness. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Some might here a message
like this and think we’re speaking of following a bunch of rules and denying
ourselves the things we most want to do. But it’s when we have been indwelled
by the Spirit of truth and completely placed ourselves under the joyful
authority of God that what we want to do most is what we were designed to do,
it is then that we experience real freedom. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">We talk to Him, pray to Him,
have a deep continuous relationship with Him and what we want most is to be
about His purposes and His work. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">When we stop looking inward
and start looking upward we begin to know and thoroughly enjoy what authentic
freedom is. We ask Him where we are to work, where we are to live, and who it
is we are to be. And we begin the struggle Paul spoke much about. We train, we
run, and we strive to abide in the real and authentic freedom the Lord has
graciously provided. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">In <u>Galatians 5:1 </u>Paul
tells us<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">It is for freedom that
Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened
again by a yoke of slavery.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">In <u>John 15:5-8</u> Jesus gives
us a remarkable picture, He says<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><a href="http://biblehub.com/john/15-5.htm"><span style="color: windowtext;">5</span></a>“I
am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will
bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. <a href="http://biblehub.com/john/15-6.htm"><span style="color: windowtext;">6</span></a>If
you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers;
such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. <a href="http://biblehub.com/john/15-7.htm"><span style="color: windowtext;">7</span></a>If
you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will
be done for you. <a href="http://biblehub.com/john/15-8.htm"><span style="color: windowtext;">8</span></a>This is to my Father’s glory, that you
bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Jesus came to this planet telling
us He only does that which the Father wills and the purpose of His coming was
to make us one with Him as He is with the Father and once we have tasted of the
joy that is given when we are being made one with the Father through Christ
Jesus we know what true freedom really is, and we begin to see that those who
the Son sets free are free indeed! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06062040642614224512noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3311258163892420306.post-24287038836200894152016-02-21T18:11:00.003-08:002018-05-10T06:39:52.219-07:00Irreducible<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: "arabic typesetting"; font-size: 36.0pt;">Irreducible
<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8QasPq9g2pfcADLnWpnfNEbf-rh_C6aNbyTX5yOeFXKBwKhk6_757LXu1Dm8FNbOSEmXvLTjJH8TKggDHH64HgnQPuu7vIowG907lvc3uMameRdjAGCaY4fGHHb84q_RITK9XffaBGX6x/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8QasPq9g2pfcADLnWpnfNEbf-rh_C6aNbyTX5yOeFXKBwKhk6_757LXu1Dm8FNbOSEmXvLTjJH8TKggDHH64HgnQPuu7vIowG907lvc3uMameRdjAGCaY4fGHHb84q_RITK9XffaBGX6x/s400/images.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: "bell mt"; font-size: 16.0pt;">Complex orders fly
from the executive office to the factory floor. Raw materials are gathered from
the warehouse and brought to the production floor. This factory can fill orders
for products and parts needed for anything from its own maintenance issues
there in the plant to products needing shipped out to other locations, also it
produces parts for larger products being assembled there in the factory. Once
any order is finished it’s off to quality control to make any corrections or
final adjustments, then onto the packaging center where the parts will be
prepared for further assembly inside the factory or for transport out from the
factory. This factory produces its own energy derived totally from the sun and then
converts it into fuel for the production plant. It comes equipped with its own
maintenance crew that not only disposes of the waste materials but also finds
and replaces any deficient parts in the factory itself. This factory is in
perpetual production, never shutting down for holidays, repairs, or rest. It
must be because it's on a very tight deadline to replace itself. That's right
this factory gathers the raw materials, and then completely constructs another
factory just like itself, and it does this while still filling all its many other
production orders and responsibilities without fail. This amazing factory, while like the one pictured, is a single human cell. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "bell mt"; font-size: 16.0pt;">Over
recent decades with the advancement of technology the reality of the incredible
complexity in one single cell has been brought into clear view and what has
been found is a deeper much more complex set of systems than could have ever
been imagined. These systems are Molecular Machines. Machines that have moving
parts and that accomplish tasks, they capture solar energy, they build complex
protein structures, they bring in food, they allow the cell to swim, they act
as cables and pulleys, and haul cargo back and forth. These machines build
there own replicas and work to manufacture a complete duplicate of the entire
cell structure. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "bell mt"; font-size: 16.0pt;">The
question this raises is how does evolution stand up to such incredible
complexity at what should be such a basic level? In short, it just doesn’t. The
Theory of evolution stands silent at the view of the amazingly sophisticated
machinery that is working in such an immensely complex way as to keep
calibrated the reality of life that we enjoy. Each one of these vitally
important machines is in itself so complex they stand up to the modern day
machines we have around us and surpass even those in design and efficiency. Each
of these machines has an enormous amount of vitally important responsibilities,
it would be hard to imagine, even for the molecular biologist, how even one of
these workers could be removed from their station or how many billions and
billions of years one would need to “evolve” such an efficiently sophisticated
and tightly coordinated team of biological machines as we are seeing at the
foundations of life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "bell mt"; font-size: 16.0pt;">Darwin
himself is famously quoted saying- </span><i><span style="font-family: "bell mt"; font-size: 18.0pt;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "bell mt"; font-size: 16.0pt;">An
abundance of evidence opposed to the evolutionary theory exists but the
discovery of molecular machines is throwing up road blocks from such a myriad
of angles that even the very men doing the work to uncover them are calling it
engineering. After all these machines are not only complex themselves but are
working to build structures that must be precise in there design, so where’s
the blueprints, who’s giving the precise instructions, who is the conductor of
this tightly organized orchestra of assemblage? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "bell mt"; font-size: 16.0pt;">Even
the simple tasks we see being completed all around us every day require
information to get them started. When we learned to ride our bike, someone had
to impart that information for us to practice and complete that task, and we could
fail and try again. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "bell mt"; font-size: 16.0pt;">The
tasks being performed by these machines are so advanced our smartest minds are
left scratching there heads as to how they are able to pull them off, and with
these tasks there is no room for error, no practice and try again. When any of
these cellular systems isn’t precisely completed, and I mean precisely, serious
disease, dysfunction, or death follows. The organism fails with not much chance
to “evolve.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "bell mt"; font-size: 16.0pt;">Biochemist
and author Michael Behe is quoted saying-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "bell mt"; font-size: 16.0pt;">"The
complexity of life's foundation has paralyzed science's attempt to account for
it; molecular machines raise an as-yet impenetrable barrier to Darwinism's universal
reach."<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="backfn8"></a><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arabic typesetting"; font-size: 20.0pt;">Romans
1:20<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arabic typesetting"; font-size: 20.0pt;"> For since the creation of the world God's
invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly
seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without
excuse.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "bell mt"; font-size: 16.0pt;">I’d
like to end this rant with a quote by Dr. Robert Jastrow who holds a PhD in
Theoretical Physics was the first chairman of NASA’s Lunar Exploration
Committee for the Apollo missions and after became Professor of Earth Sciences
at </span><st1:place><st1:placename><span style="font-family: "bell mt"; font-size: 16.0pt;">Dartmouth</span></st1:placename><span style="font-family: "bell mt"; font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><st1:placetype><span style="font-family: "bell mt"; font-size: 16.0pt;">College</span></st1:placetype></st1:place><span style="font-family: "bell mt"; font-size: 16.0pt;">. He said this, which I love-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "bell mt"; font-size: 16.0pt;">"For
the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends
like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountain of ignorance; he is about to
conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is
greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for
centuries."<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06062040642614224512noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3311258163892420306.post-83835655359437996962016-02-20T05:12:00.001-08:002018-10-20T05:14:30.978-07:00Father!<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Bradley Hand ITC"; font-size: 36.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Arabic Typesetting";">Father!</span></i></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVXIcTSXvqR4deQ1sUj211EERH1vCdYz7PFyvCHzkGixpJjQjybVlKpWhY_DmR6L5vNwFHLsjrDNj-X4kpHRAZcNXEUIf4L2E6oicokIDXJTCsn4cBWZRDmibhxAhrwHi4WzjVADe2Zhuc/s1600/imgres.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVXIcTSXvqR4deQ1sUj211EERH1vCdYz7PFyvCHzkGixpJjQjybVlKpWhY_DmR6L5vNwFHLsjrDNj-X4kpHRAZcNXEUIf4L2E6oicokIDXJTCsn4cBWZRDmibhxAhrwHi4WzjVADe2Zhuc/s400/imgres.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><br /></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><br /></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Galatians 4:4-7<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"> 4 But when the set time had fully come, God
sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to
redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. 6 Because
you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the
Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no
longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you
also an heir.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Some of us have grown up
having a great relationship with our Father and some of us have not, others
haven’t known the presence of a Father in their lives at all. When we use this
title for God the Father we are really putting a very human label on a being
that is vastly superior to any human father we could ever know and we need to
understand that. Many times we can mistakenly take the experiences we have had
good, bad, and nonexistent and project those onto the Lord without even
realizing it. We can find ourselves expecting the same type of relationship
even. If you’ve grown up with a distant father that was very loosely involved
in your life you may find yourself expecting the same from the Lord. If your
father was involved but that involvement was negative or even abusive you may
think of God as an angry disciplinarian that is usually disappointed in you. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Think about being there that
day among the multitude of people that had walked with Jesus from many
neighboring cities as he healed the sick and lame, gave sight to the blind and
then stopped on a mountainside and sat down to teach. As he taught the crowds
there how to pray he instructed them to say “Our Father.” This was surely seen
as a radical teaching at the time, after all the Pharisee’s of the time viewed
any closeness with God as something that must be earned not freely given to the
masses. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Jesus is making a statement
asking the crowd to pray like this, he is suggesting all the people there in
that crowd can come to God and have a very close intimate familial relationship
with him. He is saying to this crowd and to us today that we can come to God as
a child comes to a parent. God is called father at times in the Old Testament
but not in the context Jesus is suggesting here on the mountainside. Jesus
through this prayer is offering an invitation on behalf of the living God. He
is expressing to those that will hear him the type of relationship God wants
from us by instructing us to regard him as “Our Father.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Are we to see our Father in
heaven as a disciplinarian? Is he a God that has set up a system of rules to
simply control us and force us into obedience? Is he a God that punishes when
we aren’t staying in line? Is God looking down on us with the disappointed look
of a parent wishing we’d get our act together? This is very typical
relationship between a human father and child so it’s no wonder many that see
our faith from the outside and view our God in this way, they will at times
even pull verses out of context from the Bible and tout them around as good
reason to not believe. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Then there are those <i>in</i>
the faith that spend years with this warped view of the Lord. They think of God
as having more authority than compassion, as a type of universal detective on
the hunt for your wrongdoing ready to administer justice rather than
redemption. I cannot help but think that this thinking is much more fueled by
the experiences they’ve had with there own parents rather than any real study
being done into the Word God has given us. Many can think that we should help
this God of condemnation by pointing out the sins of others around us. This is not
the Gospel. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Parental relationships are
commonly based on a system of work and reward, and rightly so, but we can also
carry this thinking into our relationship with God thinking that it’s what we
do that will gain his affection, attention, or even prosperity. Some false
teachers have zeroed in on this and are touting a message that the masses seem
to be flocking to, which is that God wants you to be rich, if you’ll only <i>do</i>
these certain things he will lavish you with material possessions, and if he doesn’t
it’s something your not <i>doing</i> that’s preventing it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">These false perceptions of
the Lord humanize him they bring him down to a lowly view in which he does not
belong. His Word tells us again and again that he is not like us, it tells us
that God is a being so grand and so deep we as his small creations will spend
an eternity gaining the smallest grasp on who and what he is. Jesus was not
telling us on the mountainside that he is much like a human father, no. He was
describing to us in a way that we might understand it the great love God has
for us and the very intimate relationship he wants to give us all. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">God has given us rules to
live by much like a parent yes, but he has not given us the law as a great set
of obstacles we must complete to gain greater affection or rewards from him,
no. Nor did he give them to us to produce feelings of perpetual guilt and
remorse. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">The Lord loved us when we
were still steeped in our sin before we ever came to him he loved us just as
much then as he ever will. He gave us the laws as a road map or an instruction
manual that would lead to <i>our</i> betterment for <i>us</i> not for him. He
gave us these laws out of his great love for us. God the Father certainly wants
to pour out rewards on us his children but he hasn’t then set up obstacles to
those rewards, no, there are ours for the taking, no conditions, no work to be
done, if we have accepted his son and fully committed ourselves to walk in
faith with him then we can now take and enjoy the full measure of what he wants
to give us! We need only to believe and enjoy!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">There are some in our faith
that have fallen into the thinking that through our obedience we gain these
rewards, no, that is not the Gospel, that is legalism and as long as we have
this incorrect and lowly perception of God we will not allow ourselves to enjoy
the entirety of what he offers us in the Gospel. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">We can think with our selfish
sin filled human brains “It can’t be that easy, surely we need to do more to
get more.” After all we have lived all our lives in a world that works just
like that, but it’s just not that way with the Lord, in fact it’s the opposite.
The love and rewards he pours out on us in abundance are the very things that
produce obedience in us not the other way around. If we do not allow ourselves
to believe and accept this gift he wants us to have than we ourselves are the
obstacles. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">We can say to ourselves “But
I don’t deserve it.” Your right we don’t and we never will but thankfully it’s
not about us, it’s about him, it’s not about what we do, it’s about what he has
already done! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">By saying this I am not
suggesting that the Christian life is an easy one, it is not and that is why
Christ calls us to count the cost. The Christian life however is going to be
much much harder if it’s based on you and your abilities rather than based on
the Father and what he can bring about in you. God the Father created all there
is then created us out of his great love so that one day he could adopt you as
his child and lavish you with his great love and joy. Not because you could do
something for him, not because you have something he needs, just because he has
it to give and wants to give it to you! And more than that he came to planet
clothed in flesh, lived in poverty, and died a terrible death being nailed to a
tree to buy you, to pay the price to purchase you back from sin, why? So that
he could love you for eternity. That is just who he is, so let’s not bring him
low and humanize him by suggesting his love comes with a set of expectations
and conditions, it does not. His love produces in us a great desire to grow
toward the likeness of his son, not to get his love, but because we already
have his great love. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">If we have truly accepted and
committed ourselves to Christ we have access to a joy and a peace that
transcends all understanding. He wants us to recline into his Forgiving hands
and know that he has forgiven all we have done, past, present, and future. He
wants us to recline in his Sovereign hands resting in the complete security of
his all encompassing control. He wants us to recline in his Loving hands
knowing that we are loved because of who he is not because of who we are. He
wants us to recline in his Fatherly hands knowing that he has adopted us as his
children and that all that is his is now ours. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Some might say “How can we
know we have been adopted by him, or that I am truly now his child?” Paul tells
us here in his letter. He will place his spirit in us that then cries out
“Abba, Father.” Once we have come to the Lord there is a longing of the soul
and of the spirit he has placed within us for the father’s closeness and
presence. We seek to grow closer and closer to him, we find ourselves clinging
more and more tightly to him like a child wanting to remain in the strong
secure arms of their Father. We run to him with our joys, we run to him with
our sufferings. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">We run to him like a child our
arms open, our heads held back, knowing he will lift us up, we will see his
face, and be pulled into his embrace our great Cosmic Father, our Daddy, our Abba! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06062040642614224512noreply@blogger.com