(I'm not going back)
Henceforth:
I will call Bible things by Bible names:
- Predestined, elect, justification, sanctification
I will not be a wuss about using "Reformed" terms.
- "Doctrines of Grace"
I have hesitated because - that's what Reformers called TULIP but I've been a bit timid about using the term...because I'm afraid of "Dave Hunt."
No more.
đ some of us have a "mid life crisis" - or "second childhood."
I may be having a "second cage phase"
I started this book once before and rarely do I find a book that is so antithetical to what I believe - that is presented as truth...that I am too distraught to read it.
"Allah - A Christian Response" is one of them
Three quotes:
What the Qurâan denies about God as the Holy Trinity has been denied by every great teacher of the church in the past and ought to be denied by every orthodox Christian today. I reject the idea that Muslim monotheism is incompatible with the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.
Let's start with the Doctrine of the Trinity
They do blaspheme who say: Allah is one of three in a Trinity, for there is no god except One God." (Qur'an 5:73)
Then: Jesus is the Son of God and **IS** God.
Christ the son of Mary was no more than an apostle; many were the apostles that passed away before him. His mother was a woman of truth. They had both to eat their (daily) food. See how Allah doth make His signs clear to them; yet see in what ways they are deluded away from the truth! (Qur'an 5:75)
I recognize that the author makes his statement in a squishy sort of way...it is difficult to prove a negative.
But what is essential is that neither religion AFFIRMS what the other religion teaches about their God.
Christians believe that Jesus IS God.
Muslims believe He was a prophet and no more.
Christian believe that we worship one God in Three Persons...blessed Trinity.
Muslims believe that is blaspheme.
The effort to show that we worship the same God is an effort in a slight of hand.
So...yup. Zero stars
Oh, my...this has been around a while...I'll add some to the end of it.
1 John 3:1-3: "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure."
Ephesians 1:5 ...he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and willâ
Mark 10:15 "I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."
Our sermon on Sunday was on the passage in Mark and the person who spoke gave examples of what that might mean.
Children are not by nature clean beings. My daddy always says, "a boy is a noise with dirt on it." On that day, when Jesus was speaking...nobody was clean. They had traveled on the dusty roads and had been sitting in the hot sun all day.
When we come to the Father, we come to him as broken and messy children. We may not have a clue where we're going, but like a child, the Father just picks us up and puts us where we should be.
Job 1:20 "Naked I came from my motherâs womb, and naked shall I return.
We don't bring our works, our faith, our love. All that we have, the Father has given.
Reason #3 - I'm not going back
My son was "Born With A Bomb" - he has this "thing" inserted into his DNA. It was there from birth, he inherited it from me. He went blind.
Everybody on the planet was born with a different bomb. We have this "thing" - a "sin nature" that we inherited from Adam. Because of this, we are blinded by the god of this age.
Tom cannot make himself "unblind." This is where he is. But there is hope. There's a physician (a group of them...best in the world) who have poured their lives into fixing this mess.
We cannot make ourselves unblind. This is where we are. But there is hope. There's a Great Physician who poured out His life, fixing this mess.
Tom's physician is the only one with the key to treating LHON. There is no other treatment available, and it is only available if you are chosen to receive the treatment.
The Great Physician is also the key to healing our sin nature. There is no other treatment other than Christ, and it is only available to those who trust Him.
But Tom cannot make himself unblind...
and just so, we cannot make ourselves unblind.
What happened in Sandy Hook yesterday was every parent's nightmare. I have no way to explain what was in God's mind when He allowed that to happen.
We question God. the painful cries of "why? WHY???" are in God's ears. The Holy Spirit is interceding with groans because there are parents who just don't know how to pray.
It struck me during this conversation that there is a difference between
1- questioning God's plan
2- questioning God's actions
3- questioning God's authority
The difference between "why are you doing this" and "how dare you do this?"
There is a peace in resting in the understanding that God is in control. Whatever happened yesterday, or the day before, or whatever will happen tomorrow...We are in the hand of God.
Whatever happens today, we have eternity.
God is sovereign over His creation and that includes us. That includes Lanza. And it includes the people who died yesterday.
(Romans 8:18-25
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Reason #2 - I'm not going back
OK - maybe not the whole thing. Taken one piece at a time.
A self-challenge. It just hit me today how comforting it is to believe that God has me. No matter what, who, how, where, when. God HAS ME.
I was listening to Matt Chandler. No matter what things come my way, if God's not in control, what good is suffering? If God cannot make this work out for good, why suffer?
Even if we cannot comprehend what good "this" could be...God does know, He has us in His hands.
Also reading Acts 9. Saul was minding his own business (of persecuting Jesus) when he was knocked on his butt. Not exactly consensual.
Later in the chapter, Peter raised Dorcas from the dead. Was she exercising her "free will"?
I need to touch base with the fundamentals. This challenge will be a cool start.
Yeah, "right to work" and "abortion" have a parallel.
Having a conversation with a liberal about "right to work" - I said it would be good to be able to choose whether to join a labor union. He said, "You do have a choice - you can choose not to work at a company that has a union."
?
Let's pop abortion in there.
đ
Liberal: "It would be good, even necessary, to have a choice."
Conservative: "You do have a choice. You can choose to not have sex, you can choose to use birth control and if you find yourself pregnant you can choose to raise the child or put him or her up for adoption.
See how they would reject that?
Liberal: choice for me...but not for thee....
Did Moses Write the Pentateuch?
A list of Scriptures that name Moses as the author from True Paradigm
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Bringing Marriage Back to Earth
by Brian Tallman, Ligonier Ministries
Common critiques of contemporary marriage in the West often include the recognition that marriage has become too sentimentalized. In light of Calvinâs comments, I wonder if the church isnât guilty of making marriage too spiritual.
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50 Things the Holy Spirit Does
What follows are 50 things the Holy Spirit does according to the New Testament. If you find this list helpful, share it on Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Via Adrian Warnock
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Why aren't we calling it the "royal fetus"? by Denny Burk
What is the difference between this âroyal babyâ and the unborn child in the womb of a mother in the waiting room of an abortion clinic? Thereâs no intrinsic difference in terms of their humanity. The only difference is that one is wanted and the other is not. Thus, the one gets the status of âbabyâ and the other is euphemized as a fetus, blastocyst, or blob of cells.
~~~
Microwave Suffering by Mike Leake (Borrowed Light)
It seems to me that some believersâmyself includedâthink that suffering is like the second type of microwave meal. When we are put into the furnace of suffering for a season we assume that we will come through the other end chiseled and no longer in need of suffering. It confuses us when the Master has to toss us around and then put us back into the kiln.
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We owe as much to God the Holy Spirit as we do to God the Son - Charles Spurgeon Quote, via "of First Importance:
Let us ever remember that Christ on the cross is of no value to us, apart from the Holy Spirit in us.
In vain that blood is flowing, unless the finger of the Spirit applies the blood to our conscience; in vain is that garment of righteousness wrought out, unless the Holy Spirit wraps it around us and arrays us in its costly folds.
The river of the water of life cannot quench our thirst, till the Spirit presents the goblet and lifts it to our lips.
All the things which are in the paradise of God could never be blissful to us, so long as we are dead souls â and dead we are, until that heavenly wind comes and breathes upon us, that we may live.
We do not hesitate to say that we owe as much to God the Holy Spirit as we do to God the Son.
I'm reading "A More Profound Alleluia" and it's worth the read. I have a hard copy somewhere, but bought the Kindle version, plus another to loan out.
This particular volume highlights arguably the most important connections that need to be made for worship to be well grounded - namely, the connections between our liturgical actions and our understanding of the God we worship. After all, as D. A. Carson has observed, "worship" is a transitive verb.'
What is important is not that we worship, but rather that we worship God. For all our talk about "grounding worship in theology,"most Christians (and even Christian leaders) actually spend very little energy working at it. By and large, most of us accept ideas about God, salvation, and the church that are in the cultural air we breathe, and we worship in ways that make us most comfortable.
The distinction between THAT we worship and WHO we worship reminded me of the words of Calvin - the human heart is an idol factory.
What/who do we worship? It's not a matter of whether or not we worship, it's whether we have God as the object of our worship.
How does our worship point to God? I know that our contemporary services don't leave room for "liturgy" - although we certainly have an "order of worship." I had been attending a Lutheran Church and I fell into the liturgy. Every single Sunday, I got the body and blood of Christ, every single Sunday, I said the Lord's Prayer with fellow believers all over the world. Every single Sunday I recited the "Apostles' Creed" with spiritual siblings all over the planet.
There is a solemnity - profundity - in these things that I miss. I love this new church, but I miss the profundity.
The phrase from the quote - "we worship in ways that make us most comfortable,"
we have now been trained to see "7-11" as the norm. Fluff, focus on self. Band "solos." The rape of hymns. I don't know how to get back to where this church was 6 months ago when I first went there. I don't know if I can, or should. I'm tired of feeling like I've been led to a church to be the sand in their eye and I don't want to do that or be that here!
Here's the "usual" morning.
Coffee maker is prepared the night before and on a timer. Cream is in the cup and in the fridge (plastic cup so the heat won't kill it)
My downstairs neighbors work 3rd shift and get home about 5 minutes before the alarm goes off (I can tell because the dogs get active) and that means I have a little bit of time to stretch and pray before I have to hit the floor. I've set the alarm to go off 30 minutes before I have to get ready for work (coffee,internet,pain time)
The alarm goes off and I swing my feet out of bed. My foot hits the floor and it starts. The place on my butt gets sore and my leg is tingly down to the knee. Before I get to the bedroom door, I'm tingly all the way down to my feet. By the time I get to the bathroom, the back of my leg feels like somebody's hitting me with a baseball bat.
Back in the kitchen: coffee in the creamer, neurantin (600 mg), ibuprofen (800 mg) and vicodine (5 mg) - at the worst of it, I was taking 5 Ibuprofen a day and 6 vicodine. I started with 300 mg. of the neurantin, working up to 6 pills (1800 mg a day, over three doses - five weeks to get there.) I have no clue if the neurantin is working, since progress comes after an injection, not after the dose increases. I'm experiencing some side effects, so I'm starting to ramp back down.
Back to the bedroom. By this time, my foot feels like it's in an industrial vise. I have a high bed, so I stand with my right (sore) leg up on the mattress (I call it the "flamingo stretch",) drinking my coffee and reading my iPad, giving the meds time to work before I get ready for work. Getting out of the shower, I sit on the edge of the tub to stretch and dress before I get my makeup on.
Last Monday, I had that cortisone shot into my piriformis muscle. They said 3-7 days before I really saw a difference. I've seen a little progress, but little enough so that I've made arrangements to get oral prednisone if I don't see wonderful progress before I have to drive up to Marquette to get Tom.
Today. No alarm đ
I sat up and instead of asking for strength for the day, I thanked God for my healing or cure. I thanked Him for relief from the pain. And if He chose not to give me that relief, I thanked Him for whatever He might have me learn from this process.
My foot hit the floor. That "spot" was tight, but no pain.
Bedroom door...a little tingle...still no pain.
Bathroom door...still no pain, and just a little tingly.
Coffee with real milk (the cream I bought yesterday had clots in it) and...the neurantin (half dose) and nothing else.
I put on shoes around 1:00 and felt it when I pulled wrong...and ended up taking a vicodine at 2:00, no ibuprofen (I'm scheduled for another epidural injection on Tuesday, so no NSAIDS.)
that's it.
Whether it's the injections, the exercises, the diet, the pills...or the grace of God.
Something's working