READ, LINGER, PROCESS…
Life is a bummer of a blessing. Life is a repeat of wrong choices, bad and good decisions. With bad decisions there is a price to be paid; with good decisions, a reward is made.
We have given our full confidence to Christ. We have believed His Word regarding our sin. We have believed God that He sent His Son. The Holy Spirit has convicted us about our sin. The Holy Spirit has convinced us by God’s Word to trust in Christ Jesus Our Lord.
Proverbs 1:28-31; New American Standard Bible 1995 (below). Read it. Meditate upon it:
Proverbs 1:28-31
28 “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer;
They will seek me diligently but they will not find me,
29 Because they hated knowledge
And did not choose the fear of the Lord.
30 “They would not accept my counsel,
They spurned all my reproof.
31 “So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way
And be satiated with their own devices.”
It is necessary as we learn, meditate, and study God’s Word that as we increase in knowledge, we increase in humility, decrease in pride and arrogance.
The frustrations of life in the post-fall world are suffered under the curse of judgment (Genesis 3), but the answer is our restoration, as in Romans 8:18-22. Christ purchased our restoration to God while we were yet dead in trespasses and sin.
We live, since the fall outside of Eden, but at the “day of ultimate salvation” we will stand at the guarded entrance to Paradise, the Garden of God, and Christ will open the gate for all believers to come in. I love you, Lord. Thank you for the Cross.
The Judgment Day will resolve all the ambiguities of history since the fall – just as Christ paid for the sins which resulted from the fall. Judgment and restoration coming soon to the theater of life!
People come to church for a fix – a one-shot inspiration, a religious experience, the emotional music – and then they’re gone… off to do their own thing, leaving Jesus in the church until next time.
God is Master of understatements so that He can effectively communicate His Word to us (Ephesians 3:18-19).
God’s every cause for loving sinful mankind is never based on mankind, it is based from who He is – God is love. Not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:10). God literally causes the believer, the child of God, to become part of Himself. We are partakers of the divine nature and divine love (2 Peter 1:4; 1 John 3:1-2; Ephesians 2:2 and 5:6). Praise the God of Love for His great love for us (John 3:15-18; Romans 5:8). Nothing can separate the believer from God, not even the believer!
Sic transit gloria mundi – Thus passes away the glory of the world (Matthew 24:35).
All quotes are by C. S. Craig unless otherwise indicated.