Posted on 01/27/2008 7:56:14 PM PST by Manfred the Wonder Dawg
January 25, 2008
ESV Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
In recent days I have spent time in Lima and Sullana Peru and Mexico City and I have discovered that people by nature are the same. Man has a heart that is inclined to selfishness and idolatry. Sin abounds in the remotest parts of the land because the heart is desperately wicked. Thousands bow before statues of Mary and pray to her hoping for answers. I have seen these people stare hopelessly at Mary icons, Jesus icons, and a host of dead saints who will do nothing for them. I have talked with people who pray to the pope and say that they love him. I talked with one lady who said that she knew that Jesus was the Savior, but she loved the pope. Thousands bow before Santa Muerte (holy death angel) in hopes that she will do whatever they ask her. I have seen people bring money, burning cigarettes, beer, whiskey, chocolate, plants, and flowers to Santa Muerte in hopes of her answers. I have seen these people bowing on their knees on the concrete in the middle of public places to worship their idol. Millions of people come into the Basilica in Mexico City and pay their money, confess their sins, and stare hopelessly at relics in hope that their sins will be pardoned. In America countless thousands are chained to baseball games, football games, material possessions, and whatever else their heart of idols can produce to worship.
My heart has broken in these last weeks because the God of heaven is not honored as he ought to be honored. People worship the things that are created rather than worshiping the Creator. God has been gracious to all mankind and yet mankind has hardened their hearts against a loving God. God brings the rain on the just and unjust. God brings the beautiful sunrises and sunsets upon the just and unjust. God gives good gifts unto all and above all things he has given his Son that those who would believe in him would be saved. However, man has taken the good things of God and perverted them unto idols and turned their attention away from God. I get a feel for Jesus as he overlooked Jerusalem or Paul as he beseeched for God to save Israel. When you accept the reality of the truth of the glory of God is breaks your heart that people would turn away from the great and awesome God of heaven to serve lesser things. Moses was outraged by the golden calf, the prophets passionately preached against idolatry, Jesus was angered that the temple was changed in an idolatrous business, and Paul preached to the idolaters of Mars Hill by telling them of the unknown God.
I arrived back at home wondering how I should respond to all the idolatry that I have beheld in these last three weeks. I wondered how our church here in the states should respond to all of the idolatry in the world. What are the options? First, I suppose we could sit around and hope that people chose to get their life together and stop being idolaters. However, I do not know how that could ever happen apart from them hearing the truth. Second, I suppose we could spend a lifetime studying cultural issues and customs in hope that we could somehow learn to relate to the people of other countries. However, the bible is quite clear that all men are the same. Men are dead in sin, shaped in iniquity, and by nature are the enemies of God. Thirdly, we could pay other people or other agencies to go and do a work for us while we remain comfortably in the states. However, there is no way to insure that there will be doctrinal accuracy or integrity. If we only pay other people to take the gospel we will miss out on all of the benefits of being obedient to the mission of God. Lastly, we could seek where God would have us to do a lasting work and then invest our lives there for the glory of God. The gospel has the power to raise the dead in any culture and we must be willing to take the gospel wherever God would have us take it. It is for sure that our church cannot go to every country and reach every people group, so we must determine where God would have us work and seek to be obedient wherever that is.
It seems that some doors are opening in the Spanish speaking countries below us and perhaps God is beginning to reveal where we are to work. There are some options for work to be partnered with in Peru and there could be a couple of options in Mexico. The need is greater than I can express upon this paper for a biblical gospel to be proclaimed in Peru and Mexico. Oh, that God would glorify his great name in Peru and Mexico by using a small little church in a town that does not exist to proclaim his great gospel amongst a people who desperately need the truth.
I give thanks to the LORD for allowing me the privilege of going to these countries and broadening my horizons. The things that I have seen will be forever engraved upon my heart. I will long remember the pastors that I spent time with in Peru and I will never forget Adolfo who translated for me in Mexico. I will relish the time that I spent with Paul Washer and the others. When I think of church I will forever remember being on top of that mountain in Sullana at that church which had no electricity and no roof. I am convinced that heaven was looking down on that little church on top of that mountain and very few people on earth even know that it exist. Oh, God I pray that the things of this world will continue to grow dim and that God’s people will be caught up in his glorious presence.
Because of the truth: Pastor: J. Randall Easter II Timothy 2:19 "Our God is in heaven and does whatever He pleases."(Ps. 115:3) "He predestined us according to the good pleasure of His will."(Eph. 1:5) Those who have been saved have been saved for His glory and they are being made holy for this is the will of God. Are you being made holy? Spurgeon says, "If your religion does not make you holy it will damn you to hell."
No, it means he probably wouldn't push an old lady to her death in the first place.
But if he did, he would be ashamed of his sin, repent of his sin, ask God to forgive his sin, and ultimately, he would know even that terrible sin has been covered by Christ on the cross.
That's what Scripture says, and I believe it.
"But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." -- Ephesians 2:4-10
I know -- I am Catholic.
The short answer is yes.
It's cute how these discussions can be so one sided. RC's are always saying we fail to understand the depth of the meaning in their beliefs. Yet at every turn we see RC's misquote responses or come up with farcical situations.
Well, I was being facetious, responding to a farcical situation offered by Irishtenor in 4,537.
I understand the stuff about either repenting or not being “saved” in the first place. I think all it is a superstitious fear of “works salvation” leading people to such convolutions, but I do understand the convolution quite well, in all its ineffable subtlety.
My apologies then.
He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." -- Romans 8:31--39"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
When I "check my work" on theology and stuff, I think it good to "savor" every articulation, and to sniff out all the (apparent, if not real) tensions and seeming contradictions.
For example IF Jeremiah says (Lamentations 3:33) that God does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men, the sheer wonder of how an inspired prophet could make the suggestion that God does something "unwillingly" ought not, I think, to be explained away with a bunch o' talk about contingent will and this will and that will. That the Holy Spirit could think for a second that a good way to talk about God is to portray Him as doing something unwillingly, well... hush my mouth! That's amazing.
And so with God "cannot" lie. The strict sense of "cannot" is a limitation on ability, as though, well, He tried as hard as He could, but He just couldn't do it.
But a circle "cannot" have corners. That inability is, as it were, the glory of the circle - no matter how closely we look at it, it always curves with the same rate of curvature .... No jaggies.
So I am looking at the statement, God cannot lie, and trying to find another way to express the same truth without a suggested negative, is all.
No, it's okay. I LIKE lowering my head and running into brick walls. Sometimes I learn something, even if it's only, "Whoa! That there is one tough wall!"
And I think we agree about IHS and the obedience. 100% Man qua nacheral critter, with or without Fall, wants to live. 100% Man qua (allegedly) rational animal deduces that the fulfillment of all his desires is in God's Will, and wants what God wants. 100% unfallen or full of Grace, natural, rational, human-type personnel sees clearly what the merely rational Man sometimes deduces vaguely, and doesn't have to worry about rebellion of the "members" trying to talk Him into rationalizing disobedience.
And once again it seems that if we want to see what the fullness of God's wisdom, power, justice, beauty, and joy are, a man on a cross is NOT a man limited, but the Son of Man blossoming as one who came to do God's will.
NOT in any meaningful way a limitation.
At the end of the Memorare, a prayer to the virgin supposedly by St. Bernard - he of the brandy cask around the neck - no, maybe that's someone else, those of us who like furrin or dead languages pray: audi propitia et exaudi. Hear prayer and REALLY hear it. Which is usually translated hear my prayer and answer.
I mention this because "obey" is, at its heart, an intensive of the verb audire, so, "listen intently" (as a servant might listen to an exigent master.) The Word listens intently to the Father's words, and this is not a limitation but His Glory.
WM:The short answer is yes.
What am I missing here? I would have thought it depended on the old lady.
Just sayin'
Amen, sis.
“Doctor”,
I read Romans often,— I am Catholic.
Good point, HP. And I agree with you about the Muzzie problem, especially if a RAT gets elected.
Taking dictation is not a mental note. It doesn't necessarily require comprehension. Iy can be quite mindless.
God's "plan," however is an oxymoron. A plan involes actions anticipated for and in the future. To a transcendental God, there is no past, present or future.
LOL! So glad you noticed dear 'pipe!
A very ancient insight states that man is a synergistic resolution of "body" (i.e., matter) and "soul" (i.e., spirit). As Plato put it, for instance, man is zoon noon echon, the "ensouled animal who thinks."
Your wonderful analogy says that the soul (spirit) component is the "rider"; and the body (material) component the "donkey." Yet in the general disposition of nature, the donkey is usually stronger than the rider.
Well chalk that up, I guess, to the second law of thermodynamics: Any body (or closed system) left to its own devices will eventually fulfill the expectations called for it according to the laws of physical nature, as if the crittur in question was only a body, a riderless donkey. Which begs the question in the first place.
For this analysis leaves out the "rider" component of the question entirely....
Well go figure dear brother in Christ!
May He ever bless you and your dear ones!
The Donkey Rodeo does indeed have its clowns...
You know that reading the Bible for half an hour (with the “usual conditions”) is “indulgenced”? I think it’s a plenary indulgence.
Exactly... thats why what Jesus says and does in scripture is in view of and knowing about future events.. i.e. the cock crows thrice(comment to Simon peter)..
Also the Sheep pens in John ch 10.. are in view of the future.. almost prophecy.. maybe not almost..
They are mutually causative.
LOL!
Yeah, but you all quote from the Fathers all the time, which is fine, but you know they would carry as much weight with us (in terms of authority) as the Deuterocanonicals.
Off the top of my head, among the Deuterocanonicals we find the clearest textproof for prayers for the dead (for the Purgatiory itself we are fine with 1 Corinthians 3), the freedom of will (Sirach 15:14), the concept of the communion of saints, guardian angel, demonic possession and exorcism in Tobias.
I didn't know that, Alex. Thanks.
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