Answers in Christ

What does Jesus coming to earth mean Part 2

2009-12-29T10:19:00.000-08:00

First of all, it means that Jesus is necessary to salvation. When He prayed in the garden, He asked the Father that if the cup of His suffering could pass from Him. It didn't. There was no way of salvation, except Jesus going to the cross.
"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" John 14:6.
If there were salvation in any way other than Jesus going to the cross, the Father would have answered His prayer and he would not have gone through it.

But in His suffering, we find something else Jesus coming meant to us. It shows us the seriousness of sin. Not only can we not atone for our sins, which makes Jesus on the cross necessary, but his suffering shows a bit of hell on earth. The crown of thorns was not placed gingerly on His head. The beating he got from the soldiers were not little slaps on the face. His scourging did not give Him welts. The scourge was a flesh tearing instrument.
Jesus was so harmed by this ordeal that He couldn't carry His cross to Gethsemane.
And crucifixion is a horrible, torturous death.
That is what our sins do. Next time you are tempted to sin, try to recall the pain, blood, and suffering that your "little moment of weakness" caused Jesus.

What does Jesus coming to earth mean Part 1

2009-12-28T15:14:00.000-08:00

As John 3:16 tells us, God so loved us that he gave us His son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

It reminds me of the parable of the vineyard owner in Matthew 21:33-44. In this parable a man plants a vineyard and leases it out. When the time to get the fruits of the vineyard came, he sent some men who were beaten, killed, and stoned. He sent more, and the same things happened. Finally he sent his Son, whom they killed. It ended with those He told the parable to correctly stating that the land owner would send soldiers to kill the people and give the vineyard to those who would give the fruits.

This really represents God's love in the number of times that He has tried to reach us. Prophet after prophet after prophet, and finally His Son Jesus.

The Father is patient and kind and always trying to get us to repent and return to Him.

I couldn't have said it better myself

2009-10-30T12:59:00.001-07:00

http://www.itiswritten.com/tvprogram/episode/2009/10/1116

I have hit this point somewhat in my slideshow and blog, but this puts it better.
It is a religious program, you can read the transcript or play the audio or video.
The overall point is that it destroys Marxism and all philosophies based on his ideas (like the modern day "Progressives").
Marx and his followers today believe that if you reorder society, then you will change human behavior.
The reality is that people are self motivated. They lie, cheat, and steal not because of external corruption but internal (people will do what they believe is to their personal advantage).
It is that complete misunderstanding of human nature that dooms all forms of governmental and economic collectivism.

I just couldn't have said it better myself.

Does Creation prove God?

2009-10-20T13:55:00.000-07:00

The other day I was flipping through the TV channels and came across a science show.
It was a segment talking about planets that have been found in other solar systems. A statement was made that orbits similar to Earth's is rare, in fact they may not have found any with our type of orbit. Most planet's orbits are elliptical and markedly so.
This makes life about impossible. At times the planet would orbit close to the it's star and cook. Other times it would orbit farther away and temperatures would drop below freezing.
It made me consider the arguments of evolutionists.
The right kind of planet forms and unusually has the right kind of orbit. Temperatures are ideal. The right kind of atmosphere happens to form.
Next, RNA, DNA, and Proteins form. Organic forms from inorganic.
Then natural selection comes in to play.
Life starts to mutate and only the right mutations can survive.
The right forms of life form both plant and animal.
All of this forms a balanced ecosystem. Animals that breathe out carbon dioxide, plants that feed off carbon dioxide, insects that help fertilize plants, bacteria that helps decomposition, bacteria that lives in the animals that helps digestion, plant eaters to feed off the plants, predators to keep the plant eaters from overpopulation.
The balance is magnificent.
If the balance wasn't there, all would suffer.
According to evolutionists, this balance didn't have to happen.
All this balance came about by chance and natural selection is what we are told to believe.

19:1The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
2 Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.
3 There is no speech, nor are there words,
whose voice is not heard.
4 Their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.

From Psalm 19 English Standard Version

The temptation of Jesus and our hope.

2009-07-05T17:35:00.001-07:00

The book of Matthew starts with Jesus being led by the Spirit into the wilderness. There He fasts for 40 days and is tempted by the devil.
It always bothered me as to why His making bread from stones was something that was bad.
Well the answer is, it was God's will that He fast for the time. The scripture tells us that he was led by the Spirit. It just never got through to me.
The passage reminded me of the man of God from 1 Kings chapter 13.
The man of God was called by God to travel from Judah to the altar at Bethel. He was to prophecy against the altar (which he did). He was told to go by one route and back by another, and not to eat or drink anything until he returned.
Both stories have direction by God, and an order to fast. They also had tempters.
The man of God listened to the prophet that lied to him and not to the word that he received from God. He paid for it with his life.
Jesus, on the other hand, stayed faithful to his call from God even though He was hungry from prolonged fasting.
Matthew 6:33 tells us to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and the things of the world will be taken care of for us by God.
This is what Jesus remembered and the man of God forgot.
It is also what we should remember.
God is greater than the economy, domestic politics, international politics, or anything else in the world. We easily get distracted and sometimes have a very human centered view of religion.
Jesus told us something different.
Attend to spiritual things first. The Lord knows what you need. Commit yourself and your ways to Him first and he will take care of the rest.

Lessons from Pravda

2009-06-02T17:22:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to an opinion piece in the newspaper Pravda.

http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/107459-0/

The thing that stands out to me is this paragraph:
Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different "branches and denominations" were for the most part little more then Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the "winning" side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another. Their flocks may complain, but when explained that they would be on the "winning" side, their flocks were ever so quick to reject Christ in hopes for earthly power. Even our Holy Orthodox churches are scandalously liberalized in America
Paul tells Timothy:
4I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom:
2Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.
3For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;
4and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
5But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. 2 Tim. 4:1-5

The church has an obligation and a duty to preach sound doctrine, to boldly confront sin, and promote righteousness.
Churches that promote social change, try to make church more “relevant” to current times, promote politics, and whitewash sins have failed us all.
This admonition from Paul to Timothy is something all Christians need to take seriously, not just preachers, not just “Leaders”.
We must all hold our churches to these standards and all must stand up, enduring afflictions, and do the work that we don't see others doing.

Here is a link to a page with some good teachings.
Please check out the audio and PDF file on “The Social Gospel” for more on this.

http://www.colonialchurchofchrist.org/lessons.html

The Faith of Abraham

2009-05-14T19:03:00.001-07:00

Genesis chapter 22 contains the story of Abraham being called to sacrifice his son.
There are a few significant points that I'd like to point out in it's reference to salvation today.
First, there was a death penalty pronounced by God. Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of sin is death. Our sins put us in the place of Abraham's son. All we can expect is the death penalty for our sin and rebellion against God.
Second, through faith God provided a substitute sacrifice. In Ephesians 2:8 we find out that we are saved by God's grace and we have access to that grace through faith. The lamb provided by God to Abraham because of his faith mirrors salvation in Jesus Christ (the Lamb of God John 1:29). Without Jesus there is no sacrifice for sins and without faith there is no access to Jesus.
Third, faith did not remove the death sentence. It merely transferred the sacrifice from the one on whom the death sentence was pronounced to the sacrifice provided by God. Sin is not a trivial thing. It earns divine punishment. The question is whether your sins are punished in God's sacrifice or you take the punishment yourself.
When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsamane he prayed that if it was possible that the fate of the cross would pass from Him. He had to go through the arrest, beatings, and death because it was the only way for salvation to be made available to you, me and everyone.
If it wasn't the only way then God would have made the other way apparent. It wasn't. Salvation is only in Jesus.
If we could atone for our sins, then Jesus wouldn't have had to go to the cross. God could just send everyone to Hell until we paid the price for our sins then let us out.
But since Jesus had to die for our salvation, there is no release from Hell. Once you're in, you don't get out.
It amazes me sometimes how Christianity and salvation in Christ is portrayed so well in Abraham.
Galatians 3: 6-9 just as Abraham “believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Therefore we know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying “in you all the nations shall be blessed.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.

Faith and works

2009-04-21T17:42:00.000-07:00

From James Chapter 2:
14What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?
15If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food,
16and one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?
17Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
18But someone will say, "You have faith, and I have works." Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
19You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe--and tremble!
20But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?
21Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?
22Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?
23And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." And he was called the friend of God.
24You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.
25Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?
26For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

These verses make the point that faith isn't just believing. You believe in God, great. But how does that change anything?
Believing must be combined with action before it can be called faith.
One is saved by faith (Galatians 2:8), but a faith that does not obey the gospel will not save anyone. In fact, it makes you the recipient of God's wrath (2 Thess. 1:8).
Throughout the New Testament there was never an example of anyone being saved without water baptism. No sinner's prayer, they obeyed the Gospel by being baptized in the name of Jesus.
This will be decried by some as works based salvation. Unfortunately for them, it is not works based salvation if the “works” you do are ordered by God. If God says this is the way it is, then you obey Him in faith or you do not. If you obey Him it is not works based, but if you don't obey Him, it shows a lack of faith.

Read Galatians 3:26, 27:
26For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
27For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

The value of sin.

2009-04-01T17:32:00.000-07:00

“If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.” Matthew 5:29-30
Jesus uses some rather grotesque imagery to describe the reality of sin.
He is also saying something that some people really don't want to hear, Hell is real. It is an awful place. It is so bad that something like being maimed in this life is better than going there.
Sin is a deceitful master. It promises you pleasure, money, power, whatever-but it doesn't tell you about Hell.
Think about it, no one starts smoking in order to suffer and die horribly due to lung cancer. Nobody starts with alcohol in order to destroy their lives, health, and relationships.
The Bible gives light to our path (Ps 119:105). It is like high beams on our car that cuts through the dark and shows us what is up ahead. Just like tobacco and alcohol promise us pleasure now and doesn't show us the consequences, sin keeps us focused on the now and not to consider the end of our actions.
Remember what our sins cost our Lord Jesus. Our sins caused Him to be beaten, bloodied, scourged, have a crown of thorns placed on his head, nails driven through His hands and feet, and a slow tortuous death on the cross.
Sin brought our Savior nothing but pain and suffering and it will do the same for us.