Todd becoming a biblical scholar??? I don’t think so!! Another part of the letter to the same friend!

The Lordship salvation vs. free grace is a faith vs. works discussion
correct? The question is whether we can just believe that I am a
sinner, God loves me and that Jesus Christ died for our sin, and rose
from the grave  and through him we can be saved or do we need to go a
step further and  submit to Jesus Christ as Lord of our Life to be
saved?

At first blush, my initial reaction was who cares… I then started thinking about my own experience and maybe it does matter.

I consider my spiritual birthday May 5th, 2005, but by the standard of free grace it would of been 10 years earlier. I believed in God all my life, I was probably the most religious person in my family. It was a very easy leap for me to go from believing in God to believing that I am a sinner, and believed that Jesus Christ died for my sin and rose on the third day. There were a couple of days of awe of the decision I did, and then within a week, I was back to being the same lying, stealing, manipulative, perverted,  pathetic piece of trash human that I always was (yes I am speaking kindly of myself). Great Christ died for me, all my sins are forgiven, great I am going to go out and continue living life the way I was, and every once in a while I will confess my sin and I will go to heaven. I continued driving my life straight into the ground. I drove my life to the point, where I was on the verge of losing my job, and ending up in jail.

My question to you, was I saved at this point? If I have died would I have gone to heaven at this point? My opinion is no. I don’t think so.

I think one of the sticking point in this whole debate is the word “believe”. I have heard it said that it is the action of faith. We have faith (noun) in Jesus Christ. We believe (verb) in Jesus Christ. I think both of those are synonyms. Nee talks about faith (believing)  is an active word, and he found in the Darby translation of the bible it uses the word substantiating. His discussion was from Hebrews 11:1.

Looking up the word faith from verses 3:21, 26 in Strong’s Dictionary implies to me more than just an intellectual understanding of the truth.

4102. pi÷stiß pistis, pis?-tis; from 3982; persuasion, i.e. credence; moral conviction (of religious truth, or the truthfulness of God or a religious teacher), especially reliance upon Christ for salvation; abstractly, constancy in such profession; by extension, the system of religious (Gospel) truth itself: — assurance, belief, believe, faith, fidelity.

The day you believe I think there has to be a desire to change your life, to nail the sin at the cross and start the sanctification process. I think that the belief that is required is a belief, a faith, a substantiating that JESUS CHRIST will change your life, will sanctify you. I think that the willingness to start that process is part of the belief at salvation. If you do not have the want/desire/willingness to change, then I don’t know if you are saved.

I did not have the desire to truly want to change until May 5, 2005. It is the day I believe I became a Christian. Does the belief that God has the power to change your life and the desire to have that happen constitute a work?

I am not necessarily saying that you must submit to God to be saved, but I do think the desire to change is necessary. I think this lands me in the middle some place.

“Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
(Romans 3:19-26 ESV)

Technorati Tags: Belief, Bible, Faith, Salvation

Last night the message was about that one of the purposes; of suffering is to help us focus on being silent and with God. It helps us let go of all the shallow, banal, unimportant things in life and to focus in on the important things; God.The text we looked at was Lamentation 3. It is amazing to me to see Jeremiah how he starts looking at his suffering and then moves into the comfort of the Lord. Jeremiah states after listing off how the Lord has made him suffer; he states that the Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord… Let him sit alone in silence… (Lamentations 3:25;28

I am one of those people who analyzes and questions everything.I would analyze and come up with EVERY single thing that could go wrong and count on it going wrong. This morning I ran across a verse that puts that to an end. What can I say to this?

Be still and know that I am God – Psalm 46:10

In just a few words, God ends our questioning of him, our futile attempts at telling God how to run our lives and reminds us who HE is. He is God.

It is really time that I shut my mouth and truly know that He is God!

Technorati Tags: Awe, Bible, God, Suffering

This post came from a question that came from a friend of mine during a Bible study we were having on Hebrews 11, especially in reference to Abraham. We were talking about if God came and said to you, “pack up your things and move to china” would we do it. We all answered, based on the knowledge that we assumed it was “God”. My friend took us back one step and asked a startling question “how do we know that this ‘voice out of the darkness’ is really God and not the devil?” Would we know if it is God or the devil telling us to do something? It was a question that I could not leave alone. Here is my answer? What thoughts do you have?

The problem is not that satan is going to ask us to kill someone as in the case of Isaac and Abraham. You would know to test that right away. The problem is that satan is far more insidious than that. He is not going to be that direct. He is far more subtle than that. He masquerades as an angel of light. Satan’s strategy is to wear us down. Satan is patient. Each time we succumb to the enemy’s temptation, it erodes what God has built in us, takes us further away from God, and all that we know true, until someday killing someone seems to be right and what God wants. This is a very slippery path. I think it is why we are commanded not only to confess our sins but to repent, turn away from them. We must close and lock the door to satan.

Satan tempts us in order to make us fail (and turn away from God). God tests us in order to confirm our faith or prove our commitment. (NIV NEW Study Bible).

I think our circumstances are quite different than that of Abraham’s in a couple of different ways. First, our relationship with God is not as direct as it was with Abraham. Secondly we have not only the Bible, the Holy Spirit and a personal relationship with Christ to counsel and guide us. Thirdly I think Satan’s hold on the world is far stronger. Lastly Satan knows he lost the war, but he wants to make Christ’s victory as costly as possible. Personally I think the last point makes him far more dangerous.

The more I look at this, the more I realize how important your statement is. We cannot believe that some “voice out of the darkness” is necessarily God. I don’t think it is lack of faith to test something (in fact if we don’t test it, it maybe disobedience to God). God not only gave us the tools, but he gave us the command.

This leaves two questions(actually I have about 200)…
What do I test?:
Everything… Being more practical, Test anything that looks to be questionable, to be good to be true, anything that is shortcuts and makes things easier, and offers that “expire”. God never said it was going to be easy living the Christian life. Personally it has been one of the hardest, challenging and painful things I have ever done. It also has been one of the most beautiful and fulfilling.

How do I test?:
Pray about it. Pray strong, persistently and ask God for his strong guidance and discernment. Talk to your friends, your mentors, your parents and pray with them. Read and trust your Bible. Using the tools of Ephesians 6. Lastly the thing I am learning is submitting to God. (this of course leads me to another discussion about how do you fight through submission, love, truth, etc, )

Let me explain that a little better, I am not talking about submitting to the “suggestion”. I am talking about submitting to our Lord, our King, our Father, our Friend, our Guide. The One we know. The more I force a situation because “I” think it is good the more I screw it up. It is why I have been TRYING to submit and let him guide me, instead of trying to run my life myself.

1 Thessalonians 5:21 – Test everything. Hold on to the good.

Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewsing of your mind. Then you will be test and approve what God’s will is – his pleasing and perfect will.

1 John 4:1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Matthew 4:3-4 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

Hebrews 4:12-13 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul, and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight Everying is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him who we must give account.

Technorati Tags: devil, discernment, fighting, War