Free Republic

The Nature of Reconciliation " He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him " —2 Corinthians 5:21 Sin is a fundamental relationship— it is not wrong doing, but wrong being— it is deliberate and determined independence from God. The Christian faith bases everything on the extreme, self-confident nature of sin. Other faiths deal with sins— the Bible alone deals with sin. The first thing Jesus Christ confronted in people was the heredity of sin, and it is because we have ignored this in our presentation...

The Nature of Regeneration " When it pleased God . . . to reveal His Son in me . . . " —Galatians 1:15-16 If Jesus Christ is going to regenerate me, what is the problem He faces? It is simply this— I have a heredity in which I had no say or decision; I am not holy, nor am I likely to be; and if all Jesus Christ can do is tell me that I must be holy, His teaching only causes me to despair. But if Jesus Christ is truly a regenerator, someone who can put His...

The Nature of Degeneration " Just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned . . . " —Romans 5:12 The Bible does not say that God punished the human race for one man’s sin, but that the nature of sin, namely, my claim to my right to myself, entered into the human race through one man. But it also says that another Man took upon Himself the sin of the human race and put it away— an infinitely more profound revelation (see Hebrews 9:26 ). The...

Pope Benedict XVI will kick off a week-long reading of the Bible on Italian television starting Sunday, with readers to include three former presidents and Oscar-winning actor Roberto Benigni. Some 2,000 people will take turns reading the Bible's 73 books, from the Old Testament's Genesis to the New Testament's Book of Revelations, at Rome's Holy Cross in Jerusalem basilica. The pope will record the first reading at the Vatican. Senator for life Giulio Andreotti, former presidents Francesco Cossiga, Oscar Luigi Scalfaro and Carlo Azeglio Ciampi as well as several ministers in the centre-right government of Silvio Berlusconi including his top...

The Vision and The Reality " . . . to those who are . . . called to be saints . . . " —1 Corinthians 1:2 Thank God for being able to see all that you have not yet been. You have had the vision, but you are not yet to the reality of it by any means. It is when we are in the valley, where we prove whether we will be the choice ones, that most of us turn back. We are not quite prepared for the bumps and bruises that must come if we are...

The Place of Ministry " He said to them, ’This kind [of unclean spirit] can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting’ " —Mark 9:29 His disciples asked Him privately, ’Why could we not cast it out?’ " ( Mark 9:28 ). The answer lies in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. "This kind can come out by nothing but" concentrating on Him, and then doubling and redoubling that concentration on Him. We can remain powerless forever, as the disciples were in this situation, by trying to do God’s work without concentrating on His power, and by following instead the...

The Place of Humiliation " If You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us " —Mark 9:22 After every time of exaltation, we are brought down with a sudden rush into things as they really are, where it is neither beautiful, poetic, nor thrilling. The height of the mountaintop is measured by the dismal drudgery of the valley, but it is in the valley that we have to live for the glory of God. We see His glory on the mountain, but we never live for His glory there. It is in the place of humiliation...

The Place of Exaltation " . . . Jesus took . . . them up on a high mountain apart by themselves . . . " —Mark 9:2 We have all experienced times of exaltation on the mountain, when we have seen things from God’s perspective and have wanted to stay there. But God will never allow us to stay there. The true test of our spiritual life is in exhibiting the power to descend from the mountain. If we only have the power to go up, something is wrong. It is a wonderful thing to be on the...

Hundreds of Kosovar Albanians gather on Sundays to attend religious services in a still unfinished red-brick church in the Kosovo town of Klina. Turning away from the majority Muslim faith imposed by the Ottoman Turks centuries ago, these worshippers are part of a revival of Catholicism in the newly independent Balkan state. "We have been living a dual life. In our homes we were Catholics but in public we were good Muslims," said Ismet Sopi. "We don't call this converting. It is the continuity of the family's belief." Sopi has commuted 40 km (25 miles) every Sunday from central Kosovo...

Warren consistently used the language of a religious pluralist. He spoke of "mosques, temples and churches" as central to the life of villages in the developing world. He underscored the fact that there are huge numbers of people of faith in the world, and huge numbers of houses of worship in places where clinics, banks and schools don't exist. Those people of faith can be trained to be the arms and legs of any development plan, and those houses of worship can double as clinics, banks and schools. This is a big deal, because it signals an important turn in...

The Assigning of the Call " I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church . . . " —Colossians 1:24 We take our own spiritual consecration and try to make it into a call of God, but when we get right with Him He brushes all this aside. Then He gives us a tremendous, riveting pain to fasten our attention on something that we never even dreamed could be His call for us. And for...

The Awareness of the Call " . . . for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel! " —1 Corinthians 9:16 We are inclined to forget the deeply spiritual and supernatural touch of God. If you are able to tell exactly where you were when you received the call of God and can explain all about it, I question whether you have truly been called. The call of God does not come like that; it is much more supernatural. The realization of the call in a person’s life may come...

The "Go" of Unconditional Identification " Jesus . . . said to him, ’One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor . . . and come, take up the cross, and follow Me’ " —Mark 10:21 The rich young ruler had the controlling passion to be perfect. When he saw Jesus Christ, he wanted to be like Him. Our Lord never places anyone’s personal holiness above everything else when He calls a disciple. Jesus’ primary consideration is my absolute annihilation of my right to myself and my identification with Him, which...

Kiev, September 23, Interfax - The Ukrainian Orthodox Church leaves open the possibility to canonize the priest Gabriel Kostelnik who was the initiator of the elimination of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church and the unification of Uniates and Orthodox. The Church has already begun to work at appropriate documents, Archbishop Augustine of Lvov and Galicia said, cited by Religious Information Service of Ukraine. "According to our procedure of canonization, a martyr really had to suffer for Christ or for the Church, but not to die by chance. Moreover he shouldn't be a heretic or a schismatic. As for the pious, the...

Moscow, September 18, Interfax – The Russian Church points out to great potential for cooperation with Catholics, but warns against their unfriendly steps. “We have much in common with Catholics not only in teaching, but also in morals,” the Deputy Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin said on air of the Soyuz Orthodox TV channel. According to him, today “Catholic hierarchs and laymen actively opposes the problems actual for modern Russia: aborts, dilution of family, cult of permissiveness in private life, in sexual relations, in media, in education and so on.” “We fight...

The "Go" of Renunciation " . . . someone said to Him, ’Lord, I will follow You wherever You go’ " —Luke 9:57 Our Lord’s attitude toward this man was one of severe discouragement, "for He knew what was in man" ( John 2:25 ). We would have said, "I can’t imagine why He lost the opportunity of winning that man! Imagine being so cold to him and turning him away so discouraged!" Never apologize for your Lord. The words of the Lord hurt and offend until there is nothing left to be hurt or offended. Jesus Christ had no tenderness...

In Galatians, Paul boasts of boldly denouncing Cephas for allowing Judaizers from Jerusalem to bully Gentiles. This scene is often cited to undermine the claim of papal infallibility, asserting that Peter, whose was actually named “Cephas” by Christ, committed heresy. I’ve argued against this on the basis that the bible actually doesn’t tell us that Cephas proclaimed heresy, only that he committed the sin of allowing false teaching to go uncorrected. Certainly that is a common sin among recent church leaders. No-one disputes the fact that Peter was really named “Cephas.” The gospel of John makes clear that “Peter” (or,...

The "Go" of Reconciliation " If you . . . remember that your brother has something against you . . . " —Matthew 5:23 This verse says, "If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you . . . ." It is not saying, "If you search and find something because of your unbalanced sensitivity," but, "If you . . . remember . . . ." In other words, if something is brought to your conscious mind by the Spirit of God— "First be reconciled to your brother, and then...

Is the Roman Catholic Church a beleaguered underdog, fighting for a voice in secular Europe, or a still-mighty power, wielding its influence on European law through friendly center-right governments? : The church doesn't want European law to be at odds with church teaching, and he wants Roman Catholics to make some noise about it. This pope is looking to reconquer Europe, if not in numbers, then at the political table. "Let's not make mistakes, there are laws in Europe that the Vatican would like to change," said John Allen Jr., a columnist for the National Catholic Reporter in the United...

The "Go" of Relationship " Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two" —Matthew 5:41 Our Lord’s teaching can be summed up in this: the relationship that He demands for us is an impossible one unless He has done a super-natural work in us. Jesus Christ demands that His disciple does not allow even the slightest trace of resentment in his heart when faced with tyranny and injustice. No amount of enthusiasm will ever stand up to the strain that Jesus Christ will put upon His servant. Only one thing will bear the strain, and that...

The "Go" of Preparation " If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift " —Matthew 5:23-24 It is easy for us to imagine that we will suddenly come to a point in our lives where we are fully prepared, but preparation is not suddenly accomplished. In fact, it is a process that must be steadily maintained. It is dangerous to become settled and complacent in...

The Missionary’s Goal " He . . . said to them, ’Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem . . . ’ " —Luke 18:31 In our natural life our ambitions change as we grow, but in the Christian life the goal is given at the very beginning, and the beginning and the end are exactly the same, namely, our Lord Himself. We start with Christ and we end with Him?". . . till we all come . . . to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ . . ." ( Ephesians 4:13 ), not simply to...

LUTHERSTADT WITTENBERG, Germany (ELCA) -- The Sept. 20-21 kickoff of the "Luther Decade" here was significant for all Lutherans because it offered opportunities for evangelism and "deep theological conversation" among Lutherans and ecumenical partners, said the Rev. Mark S. Hanson. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and president of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), made the comments Sept. 21 during a news conference here. Hanson participated in a series of events marking the arrival here 500 years ago of Martin Luther, a German monk, whose writings were instrumental in the Lutheran Reformation. The Luther Decade is...

LUTHERSTADT WITTENBERG, Germany (ELCA) -- Repentance is God's gift to the world through Jesus Christ, and it is one central theme of the ongoing Lutheran Reformation, said the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, president of the 68.3 million-member Lutheran World Federation (LWF), Geneva, and presiding bishop of the 4.7 million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), Chicago. Hanson made the comment in remarks here Sept. 20 at a groundbreaking ceremony for a Luther Garden, a project of the German National Committee of the LWF. Lutherstadt Wittenberg marked the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's arrival here Sept. 20-21 with a series of...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--Early in my ministry, I found myself staring at the ceiling for hours each night, night after night. I had a decision to make, and I didn't know what to do. A couple, both of whom I cared about, asked me to officiate at their wedding. Neither of them were followers of Jesus. It was a torturous quandary because I wanted an ongoing relationship with them, as an inroad to the Gospel. This couple wasn't in disobedience to the Word of God. This wasn't the "unequal yoking" of a believer to an unbeliever. That would have been an...

The Missionary’s Master and Teacher " You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am . . . . I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master . . . " —John 13:13, 16 To have a master and teacher is not the same thing as being mastered and taught. Having a master and teacher means that there is someone who knows me better than I know myself, who is closer than a friend, and who understands the remotest depths of my heart and is able to satisfy them fully....

The Missionary’s Predestined Purpose " Now the Lord says, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant . . . " —Isaiah 49:5 The first thing that happens after we recognize our election by God in Christ Jesus is the destruction of our preconceived ideas, our narrow-minded thinking, and all of our other allegiances— we are turned solely into servants of God’s own purpose. The entire human race was created to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Sin has diverted the human race onto another course, but it has not altered God’s purpose to the slightest...

The Divine Commandment of Life " . . . be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect " —Matthew 5:48 Our Lord’s exhortation to us in Matthew 5:38-48 is to be generous in our behavior toward everyone. Beware of living according to your natural affections in your spiritual life. Everyone has natural affections— some people we like and others we don’t like. Yet we must never let those likes and dislikes rule our Christian life. "If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another" ( 1 John 1:7 ), even those toward...

Catholic Church Challenges Protestants on why they worship on Sunday when the correct Biblical day is SaturdayPart 1 Most Christians assume that Sunday is the biblically approved day of worship. The Roman Catholic Church protests that it transferred Christian worship from the biblical Sabbath (Saturday) to Sunday, and that to try to argue that the change was made in the Bible is both dishonest and a denial of Catholic authority. If Protestantism wants to base its teachings only on the Bible, it should worship on Saturday. Over one hundred years ago the Catholic Mirror ran a series of articles...

Are You Going on With Jesus? " You are those who have continued with Me in My trials " —Luke 22:28 It is true that Jesus Christ is with us through our temptations, but are we going on with Him through His temptations? Many of us turn back from going on with Jesus from the very moment we have an experience of what He can do. Watch when God changes your circumstances to see whether you are going on with Jesus, or siding with the world, the flesh, and the devil. We wear His name, but are we going...

Doctor Rowan Williams is to become the first leader of the Church of England to make a pilgrimage to the Roman Catholic shrine of Lourdes. The Archbishop of Canterbury flies to the shrine of Our Lady in the French Pyrenees on Monday, a week after Pope Benedict XVI made his own pilgrimage there. He will be part of a historic pilgrimage of ten Church of England bishops, 60 Anglican priests and 400 Anglican lay worshippers. The event shows how church leaders are committed to closer ties. Dr Williams will preach, take part in a number of Catholic celebrations and pray...

His Temptation and Ours " We do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin " —Hebrews 4:15 Until we are born again, the only kind of temptation we understand is the kind mentioned in James 1:14, "Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed." But through regeneration we are lifted into another realm where there are other temptations to face, namely, the kind of temptations our Lord faced. The temptations of Jesus had no appeal to...

Is There Good in Temptation? " No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man . . . " —1 Corinthians 10:13 The word temptation has come to mean something bad to us today, but we tend to use the word in the wrong way. Temptation itself is not sin; it is something we are bound to face simply by virtue of being human. Not to be tempted would mean that we were already so shameful that we would be beneath contempt. Yet many of us suffer from temptations we should never have to suffer, simply...

Praying to God in Secret " When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place . . . " —Matthew 6:6 The primary thought in the area of religion is— keep your eyes on God, not on people. Your motivation should not be the desire to be known as a praying person. Find an inner room in which to pray where no one even knows you are praying, shut the door, and talk to God in secret. Have no motivation other than to know...

Younger evangelicals split over Palin choice as VP Sun Sep 14, 12:50 PM EDT When Jessica Stollings learned on Facebook that John McCain had named Sarah Palin as his running mate, the 26-year-old from Bristol, Tenn., took the day off and picked up some campaign yard signs. Just like that, she went from "just a voter" to a McCain evangelist. "He's a lot more visionary than I thought," said Stollings, a blooming evangelical activist for her generation who believes God has raised up Palin "for such a time as this."Similar excitement built on the Virginia campus of conservative Christian Patrick...

What To Renounce " We have renounced the hidden things of shame . . . " —2 Corinthians 4:2 Have you "renounced the hidden things of shame" in your life— the things that your sense of honor or pride will not allow to come into the light? You can easily hide them. Is there a thought in your heart about anyone that you would not like to be brought into the light? Then renounce it as soon as it comes to mind— renounce everything in its entirety until there is no hidden dishonesty or craftiness about you at all....

Continuing the Saturday series on minority religions, a glimpse of Scientology: Spanning 129 countries and about 500,000 members, Scientologists rank 22nd among world religions. It may be difficult for a full count, as it is more applied philosophy than religion, and thus allows members to belong to other faiths and still fully practice Scientology. Half of Scientologists also report being Christians. The Church of Scientology was founded in 1954, based on the teachings of Louisiana-born author Lafayette Ron Hubbard. His family moved to Montana when he was 2 (1913), where he befriended Blackfoot Indians and began a personal spiritual journey....

Arguments or Obedience " . . . the simplicity that is in Christ " —2 Corinthians 11:3 Simplicity is the secret to seeing things clearly. A saint does not think clearly until a long time passes, but a saint ought to see clearly without any difficulty. You cannot think through spiritual confusion to make things clear; to make things clear, you must obey. In intellectual matters you can think things out, but in spiritual matters you will only think yourself into further wandering thoughts and more confusion. If there is something in your life upon which God has put...

After Surrender— Then What? " I have finished the work which You have given Me to do " —John 17:4 True surrender is not simply surrender of our external life but surrender of our will— and once that is done, surrender is complete. The greatest crisis we ever face is the surrender of our will. Yet God never forces a person’s will into surrender, and He never begs. He patiently waits until that person willingly yields to Him. And once that battle has been fought, it never needs to be fought again.Surrender for Deliverance. "Come to Me . ....

Going Through Spiritual Confusion " Jesus answered and said, ’You do not know what you ask’ " —Matthew 20:22 There are times in your spiritual life when there is confusion, and the way out of it is not simply to say that you should not be confused. It is not a matter of right and wrong, but a matter of God taking you through a way that you temporarily do not understand. And it is only by going through the spiritual confusion that you will come to the understanding of what God wants for you.The Shrouding of His Friendship...

Taking the Time to Act Like Christians by Deal W. Hudson 9/11/08 A few days ago I was asked to speak to a men's group in Atlanta about Catholics in politics. As part of my presentation, I talked about the possibility of greater Catholic and Evangelical cooperation. To illustrate my point, I told the story about the reconciliation earlier this year between Pastor John Hagee and Catholic League President Bill Donohue. I had never spoken in depth about the April meeting at Donohue's office and was surprised to find myself deeply moved in the telling of it. Perhaps it was...

Missionary Weapons (2) " If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet " —John 13:14 Ministering in Everyday Opportunities. Ministering in everyday opportunities that surround us does not mean that we select our own surroundings— it means being God’s very special choice to be available for use in any of the seemingly random surroundings which He has engineered for us. The very character we exhibit in our present surroundings is an indication of what we will be like in other surroundings.The things Jesus did were the most menial...

Missionary Weapons (1) " When you were under the fig tree, I saw you " —John 1:48 Worshiping in Everyday Occasions. We presume that we would be ready for battle if confronted with a great crisis, but it is not the crisis that builds something within us— it simply reveals what we are made of already. Do you find yourself saying, "If God calls me to battle, of course I will rise to the occasion"? Yet you won’t rise to the occasion unless you have done so on God’s training ground. If you are not doing the task that...

Do It Yourself (2) " . . . bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ . . . " —2 Corinthians 10:5 Determinedly Discipline Other Things. This is another difficult aspect of the strenuous nature of sainthood. Paul said, according to the Moffatt translation of this verse, ". . . I take every project prisoner to make it obey Christ . . . ." So much Christian work today has never been disciplined, but has simply come into being by impulse! In our Lord’s life every project was disciplined to the will of His Father. There...

Jeremiah 7:23 But I gave them this command: Obey Me, and I will be your God and you will be My people. Walk in all the ways I command you, that it may go well with you. Read Psalm 50 Who is God Mighty One. Righteousness. Everlasting. Creator. How many names of God can you think of? How many descriptions and titles are attributed to Him? There are dozens of words in the Bible God uses to describe Himself. Psalm 50:6 highlights one in the particular that should be kept in mind as this study on discernment progresses: God Himself...

Do It Yourself (1) " . . . casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God . . ." —2 Corinthians 10:5 Determinedly Demolish Some Things. Deliverance from sin is not the same as deliverance from human nature. There are things in human nature, such as prejudices, that the saint can only destroy through sheer neglect. But there are other things that have to be destroyed through violence, that is, through God’s divine strength imparted by His Spirit. There are some things over which we are not to fight, but only to...

Fountains of Blessings " The water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life " —John 4:14 The picture our Lord described here is not that of a simple stream of water, but an overflowing fountain. Continue to "be filled" ( Ephesians 5:18 ) and the sweetness of your vital relationship to Jesus will flow as generously out of you as it has been given to you. If you find that His life is not springing up as it should, you are to blame— something is obstructing the flow. Was Jesus...

The Far-Reaching Rivers of Life " He who believes in Me . . . out of his heart will flow rivers of living water " —John 7:38 A river reaches places which its source never knows. And Jesus said that, if we have received His fullness, "rivers of living water" will flow out of us, reaching in blessing even "to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8 ) regardless of how small the visible effects of our lives may appear to be. We have nothing to do with the outflow— "This is the work of God, that you believe. ....

Watching With Jesus " Stay here and watch with Me " —Matthew 26:38 Watch with Me." Jesus was saying, in effect, "Watch with no private point of view at all, but watch solely and entirely with Me." In the early stages of our Christian life, we do not watch with Jesus, we watch for Him. We do not watch with Him through the revealed truth of the Bible even in the circumstances of our own lives. Our Lord is trying to introduce us to identification with Himself through a particular "Gethsemane" experience of our own. But we refuse to...

Vatican, Sep. 3, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) recounted the story of the conversion of St. Paul during his weekly public audience on September 3. The Holy Father-- who traveled from his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo to the Vatican for the Wednesday audience in the Paul VI auditorium-- continued his series of talks on St. Paul with a discussion of "the decisive moment of Paul's life." This pivotal event is described at length by St. Luke in the Acts of the Apostles, the Pope observed. But we also have the perspective of St. Paul himself,...