Thanks Everyone!

Well, this is much later than it should be (probably because I've been putting it off), but I'm going to have to sign off from Blogger. Yeah, I know that's not what anyone wanted to hear, but not only have I not had time to do the changes I have been wanting to make to this blog, but I also don't have enough time to write for it.

Hopefully this will change in the future, but I figured I'd just be up front with everyone about why I haven't been posting. What with college, getting a part-time job, Lord willing going to a wed design seminar, and investigating future career options for when I graduate in January of 2009 (Lord willing!), I just can't devote the time and energy to this blog that I know I need to.

Like I said, my hope is to pick back up with this blog someday, but right now God is directing me elsewhere. My prayer is that the posts made thus far have been a blessing to everyone and that they will continue to be to those who may stumble upon them sometime in the future.

Thanks for all the interaction and thought-provoking comments everyone. God bless as you follow His will for your lives!

Because of Christ,

AMS

I apologize that there was no post for July-maybe I'll get two in one of these months-if not August, maybe September. Just in case anyone is/was concerned about my absence, nothing bad happened to me or anything-actually things have been going very well and are incredibly busy what with college studies and all. I'm thankful I've found a few minutes to share what's God has put on my heart with you thought, and I'm hoping to be able to continue doing this as long as He permits.

Just so everybody knows, I'm looking at doing some changes to the blog, graphic redesign and all that, nothing too fancy, but I want to make this site as user-friendly as possible. Lord willing, you'll be seeing some major improvements here over the next few weeks. No promises about that timeframe though. ;^)

One of the things I've decided to do is allow the body of the blog to be the major focus and use it just for the main post. I'm hoping to put links and other items of interest in the sidebar-we'll see how it goes. Anyway, thank you for taking time to read this and I pray that this month's post will be a blessing and encouragement to you in your personal walk with the Lord.-AMS

I Must do What to be Saved? Prove it! (Part 3)

As we look to the conclusion of our discussion of Paul's words uttered in response to the Philippian Jailer's probing question, "What must I do to be saved?", I think it would be proper for us to take a step back and look at the big picture. After all, we've been considering a very straightforward question to which the Apostle Paul gave a very clear answer, and it would be proper for us to keep that spirit of simplicity as we close out this "mini-series."

To summarize, the jailer in Philippi realized, as we all must in order to have a home in heaven, that he was in danger of eternal judgment because of his sin and needed saved. Paul told him that his personal responsibility was to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and that, as a result of believing, he would obtain the salvation he realized he so desperately needed. Last time, we looked at the fact that, not only was believing on Jesus something the jailer was responsible to do, it was also something that he was able to do.

Once again, some may get snagged here, honestly wondering if there is truly any way an unsaved man, such as the Philippian jailer, could exercise saving faith without some special enabling given to him by God, a raising to "spiritual life" that would graciously allow him to believe. Yet, there are some unavoidable problems with that sort of view.

First of all, if the jailer, or any other unsaved person for that matter, could not believe in Jesus as Savior without some special enabling by God or some "eternal decree" that would make him one of the "elect," then the command to, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ," is meaningless-after all, an individual would require some preceding action on the part of God in order to believe. Yet, Paul didn't say, "Be enabled, and then believe on the Lord Jesus Christ," neither did Jesus, when beginning His earthly ministry, begin to "preach, and to say, Be sovereignly regenerated and then repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Rather, Jesus simply preached, "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand", indicating that the responsibility to exercise the ability to repent was fully within the limits of the possible for His hearers.

Secondly, if there were some action that God needed to take before men and women could believe on Jesus and thus be saved, then those who don't believe and are not saved remain unsaved because of God, and not because of their own stubborn refusal to repent. This is only logical-after all, if I tell you to do something that is impossible for you to do without my aid, yet I don't aid you but still punish you for not doing what I told you to do, am I really being just? Of course not! Anyone who did such a thing would be considered a cruel tyrant, and definitely could not be the God who the Bible tells us is "love" (see 1 John 4:8b, 16b), let alone the God who declares, "As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die…?" (Ezekiel 3:11, emphasis added)

Finally, God, through the words of Jesus, does tell us that, "No man can come to me (Jesus), except the Father which hath sent me (Jesus) draw him." (John 6:44) Yet, the Bible also clearly declares, "If I (Jesus) be lifted up from the earth, (I) will draw all men unto me." (John 12:32) The word for "draw" in both these verses is the same in the original Greek (number 1670 in Strong's, if you're interested). Thus, we have no Biblical reason to conclude that God isn't already doing everything He can to draw "all men" unto Himself. As Christians, are we doing the same thing, doing our utmost to bring men and women to Christ? What a challenging thought to ponder.

Yet, we still have one more important point left to consider-if unsaved men and women can indeed believe on Jesus, then what does it mean to "believe"? After all, hundreds of people you will meet over the course of your life will tell you that they "believe" all sorts of things about Jesus, and some will even go so far as to say that they believe in Him. Yet, are they "saved"?

When considering this, it may be helpful to use an illustration. The story has been told of a man named Blondin who had an act in which he would walk a tight rope that spanned Niagara Falls. He impressed his audience by walking from the American side of the falls over to the Canadian side and back pushing a wheelbarrow. As he finished, and the crowd was cheering enthusiastically, Blondin asked if the crowd thought he could accomplish the same feat with a person riding in the wheelbarrow. Naturally, everyone excitedly voiced their belief that he could indeed perform such a daring deed. However, when Blondin asked for volunteers to ride in the wheelbarrow across the falls, the crowd fell silent as a graveyard. Thus, though these people said they believed in Blondin's abilities, their actions did not match their words.

This story is an excellent illustration of what it means to believe, or have faith in, Jesus-faith takes a step of action based on what it is persuaded is true. That's why Paul's words to the jailer are so important, for the jailer was not only just to "believe." Rather, he was specifically to "believe on the Lord (signifying Christ's authority and ability to save) Jesus (demonstrating that Christ was indeed Savior, which is what the name "Jesus" means) Christ (the prophesied Messiah of Israel, the Promised One God sent to save mankind from sin)." Thus, belief alone could not save the jailer, but the object of his belief could and would save him if he would believe-it's that simple.

Meditating on what God really is looking for from people, and what He truly wants to see from them to prove to Him that they are coming to Him for salvation, I couldn't help but be impressed by the fact that belief in Jesus is a very personal affair. No person can see another person's heart, so what we are left facing us is the question of what is really and truly in our own heart. Do we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Do we trust Christ, not our church, not our knowledge of Bible facts, not the dogmas, creeds, and codes of established religion we have been taught, but Christ, and Him alone, for salvation?

Believing in Jesus is so simple that it's entirely possible to begin to believe that God requires more of us than faith for salvation. The fact of the matter is though, He doesn't. This simple, child-like faith is the starting point from which all the other aspects of being a Christian flow. From being baptized, to church attendance, to living an honest, moral life, all that we say, all that we do, all that we are ought to be grounded in the Rock of Jesus Christ, rooted there by faith in His holy word and the exceeding precious promises that it gives to us.

This mini-series really is foundational stuff, concepts I'm sure that most readers of this blog are familiar with. However, my prayer and hope is that what has been written here will help realign your focus on Christ and all that He is and wants to be to you. May we all grow in grace and in the knowledge of our marvelous Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever!

I Must do What to be Saved? Prove it! (Part 2)

Last month, we were discussing the situation involving the Apostle Paul and Philippian jailer, who, through a series of amazing events, asked the apostle, “What must I do to be saved?” We discussed the importance of salvation, its nature, and why it is necessary to be saved in last month’s post. This month, we turn our attention to Paul’s answer to this all-important question. Paul’s unequivocal reply was,

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”

This straightforward answer evokes some searching questions, such as:

· What does it mean to “believe”?

· Is believing really all that is required for salvation?

· How do I know when I have really “believed” and am thus “saved”?

That belief is essential for salvation is one of the clearest teachings of Scripture. For example, John 1:12 tells us, “As many as received him (Jesus), to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” Jesus stated in John 11:25-26, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” He ended this declaration by asking, “Believest thou this?”

Why then, if the Bible makes it so clear that belief is essential for salvation, or eternal life, is there such confusion among professing Christians about “believing”? It would seem to be true that, if we get what it means to “believe” wrong, we automatically set ourselves up for problems in understanding the rest of Scripture.

What are some of the areas where confusion about belief in Jesus arises? Many issues stem from a misunderstanding of the nature of belief. For instance, many professing Christians will tell you that, yes belief is necessary for salvation, but it is not something which an unsaved person is capable of doing. They point to passages such as Ephesians 2:5, which states, “We (before salvation) were dead in sins.” “How then,” they ask, “Can an unsaved person, who the Bible clearly tells us is ‘dead’ in their sins, believe? After all, with dead people it’s not an issue of them being ‘unwilling’ to believe. Rather, they ‘can’t’ believe.” I hope that anyone espousing this viewpoint feels that I have given it a fair treatment.

Through the ages, this has been the opinion of many well-known Christians, such as “church father” Augustine, Reformer John Calvin, Reformer Martin Luther, Jonathan Edwards, a pastor responsible in large part for the Great Awakening, Charles Spurgeon, famous preacher and writer, Oswald Chambers, author of the beloved devotional “My Utmost for His Highest,” and, more recently, well-known teachers and preachers such as John MacArthur, Alistair Begg, John Piper, Doug Phillips, Gary DeMar, James White, and many others. Some even go so far as to say that any Christian who feels he or she is right and these other Christians are wrong has a problem with pride and is elevating him or herself to a position of “superior knowledge.”

Considering this list of Godly Christians, it can be quite intimidating to object to the very foundation on which the doctrines they believe and preach rest. Couple this with the fact that many acquaintances, friends, and spiritual mentors one knows and loves believe this, and raising any objections can be a down-right frightening thought!

However, and I do hasten to add “however,” neither you nor I can let the fact that literally multitudes of other people may disagree with us dissuade us from questioning the accuracy of what we are being taught. After all, isn’t this what the Bereans in Acts 17:11 did? Didn’t they examine the teachings of even that “great hero of the faith” the Apostle Paul in light of the Scriptures to make sure what they were being taught was accurate? And, if they were so careful as to examine Paul, a man inspired to write much of the New Testament, for the soundness of what he was teaching, can we do any less? The answer is, of course, we cannot. This leads us to examine the only authority Christians need consult for direction in life, the Bible.

Though the Bible clearly teaches that unsaved men and women are indeed dead in their trespasses and sins, as the passage from Ephesians unmistakably states, taking such a statement to the lengths some would take it is going too far, as the Bible clearly shows. In Ephesians 2:5, Paul is using death to illustrate what it means to be unsaved-it’s like being dead to God. Yet, what aspects of death does he intend to include in this statement? He certainly could not have been thinking of the idea of inability, for, while it’s true that dead people are not able to do anything that pleases God, neither are they capable of doing anything that displeases Him. Paul clearly means to use the idea of death to convey the idea of separation, which is really what death is.

Anyone who has lost a loved one, whether a close relative or an acquaintance, knows that the agony in death is the fact that we are separated from the one we loved for the duration of our stay on this earth. I know this firsthand-my Mom died when I was fourteen. What made this so hard was the fact that she would not be there when I got my driver’s license, she wouldn’t be with me on the day I graduated from high school, and she wouldn’t get to see my siblings and me grow up and have the joy of discovering God’s will for our lives. The abyssal chasm of death which separates the living from those that have gone on before them is a fissure only the hope of eternal life in Christ Jesus can bridge.

This has always been the message of Christianity-hope in spite of death. This is why Paul, the same man that wrote Ephesians 2:5, could exult, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”, and triumphantly cry, “Death is swallowed up in victory.” (See 1 Cor. 15:54-55) And where does this victory come from? Paul leaves no doubt, for he tells us, “Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor. 15:57)

Thus, the problem caused by sin is spiritual death, or separation, from God. The Bible speaks of man in this way to illustrate the hopelessness of his situation, not to negate his God-given ability to receive the Gospel and be saved, and that is exactly what believing is-it’s receiving God’s gift of eternal life, a topic which we will have to pick up in next month’s post. Until then, may God bless you.

Link for the Month of June 2008

Hmm…does the 101 things you never knew Google could do sound interesting to you? Maybe I better back up a little-if you’re not a total Google fan, then you need to be (wow, that’s convincing), because there’s no reason not to love Google (even more convincing?). In fact, I think there are, at least, 101 reasons to love Google, and this link will show you some tricks I bet even you Google aficionados aren’t aware of. Don’t believe me? See for yourself:

http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/features.html

Safe surfing!

Item of Interest for June 2008

Seeing as summer’s in full swing, in my part of the country at least, I thought that I’d share some quotes with you about one of God’s greatest gifts to man-nature. Enjoy!

“Does not all nature around me praise God? If I were silent, I should be an exception to the universe. Does not the thunder praise him as it rolls like drums in the march of the God of armies? Do not the mountains praise him when the woods upon their summits wave in adoration? Does not the lightning write his name in letters of fire? Has not the whole earth a voice? And shall I, can I, silent be?”

Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834–1892)

“God Almighty first planted a garden; and indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures.”

Francis Bacon (1561–1626)

“I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station through which God speaks to us every hour if we will only tune in.”

George Washington Carver (c. 1864–1943)

“Nature has perfections in order to show that she is the image of God, and defects to show that she is only his image.”

Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)

“Nature is but a name for an effect, Whose cause is God.”

William Cowper (1731–1800)

“The best thing is to go from nature’s God down to nature; and if you once get to nature’s God, and believe him, and love him, it is surprising how easy it is to hear music in the waves, and songs in the wild whisperings of the winds; to see God everywhere in the stones, in the rocks, in the rippling brooks, and hear him everywhere, in the lowing of cattle, in the rolling of thunder, and in the fury of tempests.”

Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834–1892)

“Think of the number of trees and blades of grass and flowers, the extravagant wealth of beauty no one ever sees! Think of the sunrises and sunsets we never look at! God is lavish in every degree.”

Oswald Chambers (1874–1917)

“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.” (Ps. 19:1-3)

(Quotes taken from Draper's Book of Quotations for the Christian World by Edythe Draper, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois.)