"Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God to receive glory..."

Acts 12:20-25

I read this passage this morning and in light of recent events it stood out to me more than it has in the past. Basically these people come before Herod because they want him to continue feeding them. He gives a speech and the people proclaim that he is no ordinary man but that he is actually a god. Instead of pointing out that he is not god and then directing the people to God, he allowed them to continue chanting and evidently was enjoying his fame. What happens next? He is killed by God. "immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died." I, for one, am thankful that God has not killed me in times of my own pride. I wanted to take the opportunity to encourage you all, (the three people who read this) to give God all the glory. I have recently been reminded again that I am a weak, sinful man. I can not move, breathe, think, love, worship, serve, see, hear, or anything else apart from the power of God on my life. I see more and more that I am a sinner and if not for the grace of God I would be completely and desperately lost. I have come to see that it is only when we see our failures and stand before God naked, admitting and confessing our sinfulness, that we can truly grow. We need to stop acting like we are good, stop acting like we have everything together, and stop acting like God owes us something. In other words, we need to stop acting like we are gods. Herod learned this lesson the hard way, but we can learn from his mistake. We must give God the glory for the good in our lives, and humbly come before Him, thanking Him for his goodness to us. We should all be dead but He has allowed us to live. He continues to give us breath, the very least we can do is give it back in worship and honor.

Revelation 4:11

"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness." - Abraham Lincoln in the "Proclamation of a Day of National Prayer and Humiliation" 1863

This was in a book on spiritual warfare I finished reading a couple of weeks ago. It served as a good reminder for me of how often I take wealth and success for granted. As I go through my busy life I quickly loose the sense of my need for God's strength. "Redeeming and preserving grace" is what I need to make it through every day, I just don't realize it when my day goes "well". Often I turn to God in time of need as though that were not my normal operating status. The truth is, I am in need every second of every day but I deceive myself. It is good for us to be reminded of our need for God, and I pray that I would not think of myself as being self-sufficient.

(Genesis 2:7)

Pilgrims

Jonathan Edwards - "We ought above all things to desire a heavenly happiness; to be with God and dwell with Jesus Christ. Though surrounded with outward enjoyments, and settled in families with desirable friends and relations; though we have companions whose society is delightful, and children in whom we see many promising qualifications; though we live by good neighbors, and are generally beloved where known; we ought not to take our rest in these things as our portion. We should be so far from resting in them, that we should desire to leave them all, in God’s due time. We ought to possess, enjoy, and use them, with no other view but readily to quit them, whenever we are called to it, and to change them willingly and cheerfully for heaven. A traveler is not wont to rest in what he meets with, however comfortable and pleasing, on the road. If he passes through pleasant places, flowery meadows, or shady groves, he does not take up his content in these things, but only takes a transient view of them as he goes along. He is not enticed by fine appearances to put off the thought of proceeding. No, but his journey’s end is in his mind. If he meets with comfortable accommodations at an inn, he entertains no thoughts of settling there. He considers that these things are not his own, that he is but a stranger, and when he has refreshed himself, or tarried for a night, he is for going forward. And it is pleasant to him to think that so much of the way is gone."

I've been reflecting on the brevity of life on earth. I thought Mr. Edwards had some good thoughts on the matter so I shared them above. The sermon at church Sunday morning was based on some verses in 2 Peter which got me reading through the book. I came across several passages that talk about the urgency that we should approach life with due to it's temporary status. These verses and others that I have been reading recently, have reminded me to reflect on my life. What am I doing that is important? What things am I doing that if Jesus returned right now I would be ashamed of? Am I growing in grace? Am I diligent about the things of God? On my guard against false prophets? I hope you will take the time to reflect on this as well. Remember the importance of living with the mind set of a pilgrim with your journey's destination as a vision before your eyes without being distracted by earth and the things in it.

"But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen."

2 Peter 3:10-18

Once Saved Always Saved

This phrase is one of great interest to me. "Once saved always saved." What does it really mean? I'm not an expert and don't have a seminary degree or anything like that. I've just been doing some reading on this topic and reflecting on it as well, and this is some of what I've found and some of my questions. I've been told many times over the past several months that this is a great Baptist doctrine. I find myself taken aback every time I hear this. The people using this phrase are not Baptists in the historical sense. The Baptists traditionally, along with the rest of the church, believed in a doctrine known as predestination. Along with predestination there is the doctrine of regeneration. The idea behind these doctrines is that man is dead in sin. Since a dead man can do nothing to make himself alive, it requires a supernatural work of God to bring man to life (regeneration). He gives us this life and enables us to respond to his calling on our lives. He calls those he has chosen before the foundations of the world without regard to our actions (predestination). Since it is God who calls us to himself and God who enables us to respond to His call, it makes sense that he will keep us until we get to heaven. (Plus God promises this in the Bible) A true Christian does not need to worry about losing his/her salvation. If we did not cause it to happen, then we can not undo it once it's done. People, who believe this, can truly say that they believe the idea of "once saved always saved". However, as I mentioned above, these people who keep using it do not believe this. Instead they believe that it is up to man to find God, and to understand the gospel and to do something (usually pray a prayer) to obtain their salvation. But what does the Bible say? It says that salvation is a gift and not something that we earn. These people believe that a person becomes saved because of praying a prayer and that after that then it is a sealed deal. I have a few problems with this but I won't go into to all of those reasons at this time. The reason I bring this up now is only to point out that if you obtain salvation because of a prayer at a certain time and place, then it seems to me that you could never have any security of your salvation. Did you pray the right words? Did you have the right emotions when you prayed? Did you really believe enough when you prayed? If your salvation depends on that prayer then it seems there are far to many variables for you to ever know if you were really saved. It also means that you could undo it by changing your mind later. So, the people who keep using this phrase really do not have the security that "once saved always saved" affords. Instead it seems that doubts, which could lead someone to true salvation, are put aside because of this phrase. But, my point is that these people shouldn't be allowed to use this phrase. I encourage you to confront anyone who says this and ask them what it means. Chances are, people may become Christians after they stop believing that they already are one.

I found this outline in an article and I think it points out what I am saying. As a note of explanation, Calvinism is aligned with the historic church doctrines and beliefs. Arminianism came about around 1600 and suffered defeat by the Calvinists. Then the Wesley's promoted their beliefs through the 1700s, establishing the Methodist church, meanwhile certain Baptists also began following the Arminian views during that time. The baptists I'm referring to are of the Arminian class.

http://gregscouch.homestead.com/files/eternalsecurity.htm

"1. Classic Arminianism

• - One must persevere in faith to be saved
• - True believers can lose their faith
• - Those dying without faith in Christ are condemned
• - The believer who loses his faith is damned

2. Classic Calvinism

• - One must persevere in faith to be saved
• - True believers can not lose their faith, since it's God's gift
• - Those dying without faith in Christ are condemned
• - Those who "lose their faith" never had it to begin with
• - God will preserve true believers and they will be saved."

Some references:
http://www.texarkanarbc.org/about-us/our-beliefs/
http://www.geocities.com/hbdoctrine/
http://www.reformedreader.org/history/pbh.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_of_Free_Will_Baptists
http://www.thirdmill.org/answers/answer.asp/file/99813.qna/category/th/page/questions/site/iiim
http://gregscouch.homestead.com/files/eternalsecurity.htm

First Time for Everything

I never imagined I would find myself writing a blog. I'm 99% positive I have made fun of people who write blogs at some point in my life. But I want to write more, and I hope this will encourage me to do so and to be more creative with writing. I guess we'll find out. I hope anyone who reads this will enjoy it, be challenged, and maybe even learn something along the way. I have a lot of things to write about, so I will have to decide where to start. Stay turned.