“If Heaven ain’t a gift then I ain’t getting in.”
–Lecrae
No Maverick Molecule-Sproul
If there is one single molecule in this universe running around loose, totally free of God’s sovereignty, then we have no guarantee that a single promise of God will ever be fulfilled.
RC Sproul, Chosen by God
Don’t forget to tell your kids why God does everything
I was reminded today that I should tell my kids not only to
- Do everything for the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31)
But also:
- God does everything for His glory
This is good news. When God does everything for His own glory it includes His love and actions of saving us from our sin. It is an expression of his glory and joy. And Joy is not complete unless it is expressed by praise, see CS Lewis:
I think we delight to praise what we enjoy, because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation (‘A Word About Praising’ in Reflections on the Psalms 95).
For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another. (Isaiah 48:11)
God’s goal in predestination, election, and adoption was to the praise of His glorious grace (for His own glory) (Eph 1:4-6, 12).
ESPN article “A Man of God” – racing legend Ayrton Senna
Pascal Rondeau/Getty Images
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/6741052/a-man-god
This is such an interesting article to come out of an ESPN company, but a very good read. For 90% of the article you see a wonderful man of faith, a man of God, who trusted God (and his mother too) and gave God the glory for his gifts and victories. But by the end of the article the author Chris Jones provides three options to his death: 1) God 2) the Devil or 3) the driver himself devoid of Higher Beings.
Or maybe, just maybe, Senna, like the rest of us, had been alone his whole life, and love and destiny had nothing to do with any of it. Maybe it all just came down to a driver made perfect by genetics and practice, trapped in a machine made imperfect by engineers and rules. Maybe there was nothing bigger at work that day than biology and physics. Maybe there never is.
Hebrews 9:27 says, “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” God appoints when people will die, he is the author of life and the sustainer. The answer is God! God did not look away, as the article suggests, but was involved in the actions to cause Senna’s death. This is not the time to say “God is not loving” because Senna’s in a better place.
We all die, some earlier than others, but Hebrew continues “so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him” (v. 28). God is real and Christ is God. He is trustworthy even in tragedy. SDG
The Glorious Gospel…in football terms
Do we “accept” Christ? No and yes. No we do not accept Christ because we can’t accept Christ, He is totally other, our sin keeps us from Him, and I really don’t want to have anything to do with Him (Rom 3:10-11). Nowhere in the Bible do we see the phrase “accept Christ.” There is one verse that says we “receive Christ” in Romans 5:17, but let’s look at the glorious grace in God in how we receive Christ in Romans 5.
Think of a football team. I’m a wide receiver. The ball is thrown to me time and time again. The gospel call is thrown in various ways to me, but I drop the ball, some don’t even come close. And then one day, I get it. I caught my first ball! Then I keep catching balls. This is fun. But then one day I realize that when I received the ball for the first time, I didn’t catch any balls before that because I wasn’t on the team. I was a stranger, an enemy, the opponent of the very team I wanted to be a part of. Then I realized the owner of the team handpicked me, he chose me.
He chose me despite my limited abilities. He chose me even though there were way better receivers out there. And the kicker of them all—no pun intended— through one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men… so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous (Rom 5:18-19). I was on the team because the owner paid my way on the team! Yes, I receive Christ because I’m on His team! I rejoice in my Owner and my glory goes to Him because He made it possible. I want to do well for the Owner and my team because it’s my joy.
I make conditional choices of receiving Christ and rejoicing in Christ but the Lord, the true maker-owner, makes unconditional choices about who is on His team. I find great strength and solace in the fact that I believe in a God who loves me and loved me that even though I was weak, even though I was a sinner, even though I was His enemy, adopted me and called me His son.
The Owner accomplished what He sent out to do, gather His children, by sending His own Son to die for their sins and drawing them to Himself by the Holy Spirit. I am glad he has involved me and my family in His plans.
The footballs of the gospel are still thrown to me to this very day, even though I caught my first ball over 12 years ago; I need to focus again to the life given gospel today.
Important Truth blogs from Pastor Nick
I’m taking a sabbatical for a while and hopefully will come back in a few months to resume writing again. But since I’m not writing I wanted to direct you to my pastor’s blog on our church website and in particular to a series of blogs titled “Important Truth.”
Important Truth #1: God is in Charge
Important Truth #2: God Shows Grace
Important Truth #3: Grace Can’t be Stopped
A Primer on Election
This is solid stuff that will help us know Christ more, what He did for us, and will hopefully lead us to worship Him. SDG
The best of Reformation Day blogs
Sunday, October 31, is Refomation Day. This year I thought I would put a link of all the Reformation Day blogs I’ve posted. Click here:
https://abidingbranches.wordpress.com/?s=reformation+day
You can find links to the 95 Theses, the movie Luther, an biography of Luther and a lot more stuff about Reformation Day. Soli Deo Gloria
Monergism Particular Redemption T-Shirt $9
This is one of my favorite T-Shirts, I have the picture on my desktop at work. This is also the cheapest I’ve seen it, $9 and shipping is free (usually $16 plus shipping).
Monergism.com calls it a “Particular Redemption” T-Shirt, which is the better way of saying Calvinist’s “Limited Atonement;” however, it’s a Bible verse unaltered, so it’s not like we’re trying to pull a fast one on you. I think it looks cool and is a great way to start conversations with people because it’s so Christ centered about what he did and accomplished.
Follow the link or click on the picture to buy it:
http://www.monergismbooks.com/Monergism-Particular-Redemption-T-Shirt-Charcoal-Gray-p-17221.html
The Sin of Omission
“So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin” (James 4:19).
Ouch. Have you ever felt the weight of the Holy Spirit convicting you to do something but you don’t do it? I’ve had that feeling all too often. There is a particular story I would like to share because when we do not do what are conscious is telling us to do, there are consequences.
The summer after my freshmen year in college, I go back home to be the youth intern at my church. I have a lot of college age friends from church that I hang out with and we all decide to go see the new Austin Powers movie, The Spy Who Shagged Me. (The title of the movie should have been a red flag). I saw the first Austin Powers movie in high school and thought it was hilarious. Mike Myers is a funny guy and the sequel looked funny as well. It is not long into the movie that I feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit to get out of the theater and stop watching this movie. I am not suggesting that watching PG-13 movies or Austin Powers 2 is a sin; however, my point is it is a sin to go against the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
There were very promiscuous dressed girls in the movie and sexual connotations that I felt convicted not to watch. I have to be careful what I watch because there are images that can lead me to places I do not need to go. Jesus said “Everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If you right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell” (Matt. 5:27-29). As far as I can remember, those images did not lead me to sin lustfully; in fact, I turned away when there was that kind of imagery in the movie. But Jesus’ command is to do whatever it takes not to fall into lustful sin because some people do not make it.
Needless to say, I did not follow the Holy Spirit and stayed through the whole movie. My flesh battled the Spirit and said, “I paid 7 bucks for this movie, I can’t waste that money. And what will my friends think of me if I walk out of the movie and they stayed?”
The sin of not following the Spirit lead to more sins. I could not be honest with my friends about my thoughts of the movie. I did not take the opportunity to glorify God and exalt Jesus. The sin that left the biggest scar was my influence on the youth group.
I may have shared some of my testimony already, but in short, I went to this church for the last two years of high school, quiet, reserved, shy, did not talk to anybody, not a Christian. But now, this summer, I was a Christian, an intern, a leader, I preached to the youth weekly, lead small groups, I just spoke—which is a miracle in itself— and I say all this to glorify God because God did the change not me. And the youth group praised God as well because they knew me as the quiet kid who sat in the back but now you could not shut me up about talking about Jesus. So, here goes my scar…
It was a Sunday night and some of the adults were car pooling the youth to an event with other churches. I was with one of my best friends, who was the music intern that summer. One of the youth asked us what we thought of the new Austin Powers movie and if they should see it. My friend spoke up first and said that it was funny and they could see it. The youth spoke back and said, “I don’t think it is a good movie for Christians to see.” To the response my friend was, “Brown saw it.”
“Brown Saw IT.”
Ouch.
What could I say? My witness and reputation was just destroyed with that statement. I could tell the youth that it is not a good movie to see and they could reply, “Then why did you see it?” How would I respond? “Yes I did see it but I felt bad about it.” This is great example I set for the youth, “sin, feel bad, and then everything’s okay.” I was stuck in religion world.
The great news is we have a great Savior who forgives us and a great God who gives us His Holy Spirit to help grow us and strengthen us in our plans.
Our Life is a Vapor
This past Wednesday in City Group we discussed James 4:13-17 and the pride in our planning.
4:13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist [or a vapor’s breath] that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
It matters to God whether a true view of life and God informs and shapes the way we think and how we speak about our plans.
Abiding Branches 