"His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins" (cf. Matt. 1:21).
When Jesus was crucified the crowds taunted and mocked Him, admitting He saved others and wondered why He didn't save Himself! If Jesus had saved Himself, He couldn't have saved us! He loved us more than Himself and His life and paid the penalty we deserved. The crowds were convinced that He performed miracles and healed people, and even that He saved others; so why couldn't He save Himself? He deliberately chose to be Savior first, then King and His saviorhood was on His mind not His own well-being.
The crowds actually condemned themselves by admitting they knew He was the Savior and could save, because they never were saved themselves and applied what He taught--on His triumphal entry into Jerusalem on a donkey, they hailed Him as the King, and shouted "Hosanna!' or Lord, "save us now!" Perchance they had become disillusioned and thought He was not going to deliver them from the Roman rule after all.
We all can be guilty of the sin of vicarious faith. We can hear someone's testimony and see a miracle at work in their life and actually believe they are saved and have been transformed by the blood of Jesus, but not apply it to oneself. Believing Jesus saves isn't enough; we must believe He saved us! We must personalize our faith and not let it be second-hand knowledge. We must individually experience Christ and then authenticate it by sharing it and spreading the word by faith. The only way to keep our faith is to give it away! We may have family and friends with whom we are familiar and have personally witnessed them morph into new creatures in God's eyes, but that isn't enough to save us--we must personally receive Christ into our heart as its Lord and surrender ownership of our life to Him to even get to first base in the game of following Christ.
Jesus never encouraged the curious or the half-hearted trifler who wasn't ready for full commitment. He was honest enough to warn us of the trials and tribulations and adversities we'd face, to test our faith. Salvation is free but not cheap; it costs something to be saved (our ownership of our life), but it costs infinitely more not to be saved. Some people will never apply the equation to themselves and live their whole life vicariously admiring how God worked in other people's lives, but not witness personal transformation.
The Jews weren't interested in being saved from their sins! But that is precisely why Christ was born! The Jews wanted deliverance from Roman rule! When the geopolitical dreams vanished, so did the enthusiasm and false disciples. Jesus had no trouble gathering crowds, for His reputation preceded Him, and He even had to keep a low profile later on and stay out of the limelight, for the leaders often tried to kill Him. He wasn't going to die before His time and before completing His work and purpose to glorify the Father. In the final analysis, it's not whether He can save Himself, or whether you believe He saved others, but whether He saved you and you believe this!
In sum, Jesus wasn't the Messiah of conventional wisdom, but He was born to be a man on a mission extraordinaire to save His people from their sins ( cf. Matt. 1:21). Soli Deo Gloria!
To bridge the gap between so-called theologians and regular "students" of the Word and make polemics palatable. Contact me @ bloggerbro@outlook.com To search title keywords: title:example or label as label:example; or enter a keyword in search engine ATTN: SITE USING COOKIES!
About Me
- Karl Broberg
- I am a born-again Christian, who is Reformed, but also charismatic, spiritually speaking. (I do not speak in tongues, but I believe glossalalia is a bona fide gift not given to all, and not as great as prophecy, for example.) I have several years of college education but only completed a two-year degree. I was raised Lutheran and confirmed, but I didn't "find Christ" until I was in the Army and responded to a Billy Graham crusade in 1973. I was mentored or discipled by the Navigators in the army and upon discharge joined several evangelical, Bible-teaching churches. I was baptized as an infant, but believe in believer baptism, of which I was a partaker after my conversion experience. I believe in the "5 Onlys" of the reformation: sola fide (faith alone); sola Scriptura (Scripture alone); soli Christo (Christ alone), sola gratia (grace alone), and soli Deo gloria (to God alone be the glory). I affirm TULIP as defended in the Reformation.. I affirm most of The Westminster Confession of Faith, especially pertaining to Providence.
Thursday, August 22, 2019
How To Live The Good Life
"If I want to know how to live in reality, I must know what God is really like." --Plato
Most people have dreams and fantasies, maybe even a bucket list of things to do in life in order to feel fulfilled or complete. How about a bucket list of doing God's will? Achieving the American dream isn't the answer to life; you can have everything to live on and nothing to live for! The problem has never been dreams or wishes but in how to achieve them; most people end their lives in frustration have never "found themselves" or what God's will was for them. We must be purpose-driven to have an impact and focused on our goals with a chord that will vibrate for eternity.
Not just to be remembered, but to be a game-changer. According to the Bible, God has an intricate purpose and individual tailor-made plan for each of us, and if we are in God's will, walking by faith, we will find it to be the safest and most blessed place to be found. We are hard-wired to work in our calling and to worship God. He is interested in our whole being (heart, mind, body, soul, spirit) and its holistic health, not an unbalanced life that isn't worthy of our walk and has no testimony.
Even Christians can have a secular worldview and not think biblically. The goal in life is not just to be a goody-goody or to seek pleasure (you only go around once, grab all the gusto you can!), because God isn't primarily concerned with our "happiness," (which depends on happenings), but with us glorifying and enjoying Him. There are intrinsic rewards and incentives in finding wisdom, which is more precious than rubies (cf. Prov. 8:11). The result of the moral life is one of confidence and a good reputation, which is more valuable than riches too.
We all ought to seek a life beyond reproach so that the infidel has nothing evil to say about us (cf. Eph. 4:1). One blockage to good thinking is not to have a Christian worldview; we all need to get our thinking straightened out and learn to think clearly, which will result in sound discourse and dialogue. When we do find fulfillment and joy in life we become contagious and it shows. Many people claim inner joy but haven't told their faces!
Plato thought of three inputs to our will, which control our ways: desire, emotion, and knowledge. We must make sure that we seek truth and feed on knowledge, wisdom, and understanding and even have a thirst for the Word, and we must have worthy ambitions and desires in life, and also the fulfilled person has his emotions in check. But most people just are about as lazy as they dare to be and take the path of least resistance--the easy way out!
We must not ever pray for an easy life, but for God to increase our faith and strength. Remember, all a man's ways seem right to him, but the Lord weighs the heart (cf. Prov. 16:2). The study of ethics is about living the good life and we find it by practicing our ethics (putting our creed into action) and believing in miracles from God. What we do is expect great things from God, but we must attempt them too, as William Carey would say. Aim high, then!
God is the moral center of the universe and we all must have a moral compass and show moral fiber, for character counts! But there is a danger to reducing Christianity to a system of ethics, a rule book, a catalog of rules, or a list of dos and don'ts. We must never lose focus but keep looking onto Jesus and cultivate that personal relationship with Him. Our ethic shows our character and the faith we have is the faith we show: we demonstrate, validate, and authenticate our faith by turning it into deeds, otherwise it's suspect and spurious, even bogus and hypocritical. Turning our knowledge into action is faith, demonstrated in obedience. But avoiding sin and immorality is not all there is to Christian ethics; its summation is to follow Christ in full renewing, ongoing surrender. We must not only cease to do evil, but do good!
Upon following Christ, now we don't go by feelings, but when doing the will of God, we'll have a peace that passes all understanding. The person who really knows Christ knows how to live and live in reality. Knowing truth is a matter of repentance and of being oriented to reality--only God can set us free form delusion (cf 2 Tim. 2:25). Life in Christ isn't always a religious high or on cloud nine, but varies with the task, for God always fills us and anoints us for His work. We must know and learn the real formula for feeling good: know right, think right, do right, and finally, to feel right. Doing the right thing should make one feel right.
God is good, but being good without God is evil and a parody of the real thing. Now, I must conclude with the standard Jesus set (the Golden Rule): the highest ethic of all and the highest incentive to do it. We will never be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect--that's the standard, but the direction we go is the test! Remember, God has great expectations for us and wants us to attempt to move mountains with our mustard-seed faith! We all have unrealized potential and should actualize the innate worth we possess, not to let it be dormant and thus waste our lives. Soli Deo Gloria!
Most people have dreams and fantasies, maybe even a bucket list of things to do in life in order to feel fulfilled or complete. How about a bucket list of doing God's will? Achieving the American dream isn't the answer to life; you can have everything to live on and nothing to live for! The problem has never been dreams or wishes but in how to achieve them; most people end their lives in frustration have never "found themselves" or what God's will was for them. We must be purpose-driven to have an impact and focused on our goals with a chord that will vibrate for eternity.
Not just to be remembered, but to be a game-changer. According to the Bible, God has an intricate purpose and individual tailor-made plan for each of us, and if we are in God's will, walking by faith, we will find it to be the safest and most blessed place to be found. We are hard-wired to work in our calling and to worship God. He is interested in our whole being (heart, mind, body, soul, spirit) and its holistic health, not an unbalanced life that isn't worthy of our walk and has no testimony.
Even Christians can have a secular worldview and not think biblically. The goal in life is not just to be a goody-goody or to seek pleasure (you only go around once, grab all the gusto you can!), because God isn't primarily concerned with our "happiness," (which depends on happenings), but with us glorifying and enjoying Him. There are intrinsic rewards and incentives in finding wisdom, which is more precious than rubies (cf. Prov. 8:11). The result of the moral life is one of confidence and a good reputation, which is more valuable than riches too.
We all ought to seek a life beyond reproach so that the infidel has nothing evil to say about us (cf. Eph. 4:1). One blockage to good thinking is not to have a Christian worldview; we all need to get our thinking straightened out and learn to think clearly, which will result in sound discourse and dialogue. When we do find fulfillment and joy in life we become contagious and it shows. Many people claim inner joy but haven't told their faces!
Plato thought of three inputs to our will, which control our ways: desire, emotion, and knowledge. We must make sure that we seek truth and feed on knowledge, wisdom, and understanding and even have a thirst for the Word, and we must have worthy ambitions and desires in life, and also the fulfilled person has his emotions in check. But most people just are about as lazy as they dare to be and take the path of least resistance--the easy way out!
We must not ever pray for an easy life, but for God to increase our faith and strength. Remember, all a man's ways seem right to him, but the Lord weighs the heart (cf. Prov. 16:2). The study of ethics is about living the good life and we find it by practicing our ethics (putting our creed into action) and believing in miracles from God. What we do is expect great things from God, but we must attempt them too, as William Carey would say. Aim high, then!
God is the moral center of the universe and we all must have a moral compass and show moral fiber, for character counts! But there is a danger to reducing Christianity to a system of ethics, a rule book, a catalog of rules, or a list of dos and don'ts. We must never lose focus but keep looking onto Jesus and cultivate that personal relationship with Him. Our ethic shows our character and the faith we have is the faith we show: we demonstrate, validate, and authenticate our faith by turning it into deeds, otherwise it's suspect and spurious, even bogus and hypocritical. Turning our knowledge into action is faith, demonstrated in obedience. But avoiding sin and immorality is not all there is to Christian ethics; its summation is to follow Christ in full renewing, ongoing surrender. We must not only cease to do evil, but do good!
Upon following Christ, now we don't go by feelings, but when doing the will of God, we'll have a peace that passes all understanding. The person who really knows Christ knows how to live and live in reality. Knowing truth is a matter of repentance and of being oriented to reality--only God can set us free form delusion (cf 2 Tim. 2:25). Life in Christ isn't always a religious high or on cloud nine, but varies with the task, for God always fills us and anoints us for His work. We must know and learn the real formula for feeling good: know right, think right, do right, and finally, to feel right. Doing the right thing should make one feel right.
God is good, but being good without God is evil and a parody of the real thing. Now, I must conclude with the standard Jesus set (the Golden Rule): the highest ethic of all and the highest incentive to do it. We will never be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect--that's the standard, but the direction we go is the test! Remember, God has great expectations for us and wants us to attempt to move mountains with our mustard-seed faith! We all have unrealized potential and should actualize the innate worth we possess, not to let it be dormant and thus waste our lives. Soli Deo Gloria!
Tuesday, August 20, 2019
The Place Of The Everlasting God
"God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in time of trouble" (Psalm 46:1, NIV).
"GOD IS our refuge and strength, a very help in times of trouble" (cf. Psalm 46:1, KJV).
"You are my hiding place..." (Psalm 32:7, NKJV).
"You are my hiding place and my shield..." (Psalm 119:114, NKJV).
"Am I a God near at hand, says the LORD, 'And not a God afar off? Can anyone hide himself in secret places, So I shall not see him?' says the LORD; 'Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the LORD." (cf. Jer. 23:23-24).
"The eternal God is your dwelling place [refuge], and underneath are the everlasting arms" (Deut. 33:27, ESV).
"He is there, and He is not silent." --Francis A. Schaeffer
Abraham sure found out that God is never AWOL, or even MIA, but always the "God who is there," to borrow from one of Francis Schaeffer's books. He is the God "who was, who is, and who is to be": the everlasting God--El Olam. We can be assured that God is not some state of being (Is-ness), but a living Being (Is-ing) that is alive forevermore. Jesus was dead and is alive and is the eternal Son of the Father---He didn't become the Son upon birth.
"GOD IS our refuge and strength, a very help in times of trouble" (cf. Psalm 46:1, KJV).
"You are my hiding place..." (Psalm 32:7, NKJV).
"You are my hiding place and my shield..." (Psalm 119:114, NKJV).
"Am I a God near at hand, says the LORD, 'And not a God afar off? Can anyone hide himself in secret places, So I shall not see him?' says the LORD; 'Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the LORD." (cf. Jer. 23:23-24).
"The eternal God is your dwelling place [refuge], and underneath are the everlasting arms" (Deut. 33:27, ESV).
"He is there, and He is not silent." --Francis A. Schaeffer
Abraham sure found out that God is never AWOL, or even MIA, but always the "God who is there," to borrow from one of Francis Schaeffer's books. He is the God "who was, who is, and who is to be": the everlasting God--El Olam. We can be assured that God is not some state of being (Is-ness), but a living Being (Is-ing) that is alive forevermore. Jesus was dead and is alive and is the eternal Son of the Father---He didn't become the Son upon birth.
God's nature is permanent--we can sure count on God--and God is always in character--never capricious, arbitrary, or whimsical like we are; He is predictable in the sense that He is the Great Promise Keeper and can be counted on to live up to His Word, which He exalts above all His name (cf. Psalm 138:2). "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Heb. 13:8, NIV); this should give us comfort that He will never change His mind concerning us and our status in Him, though our state of fellowship may vary--we're still family to Him.
Abraham found out that God was still God no matter where He went and that He wasn't just some local deity that ruled Canaan. We cannot escape His sovereignty or power! God transcends time because He created it! The time-space continuum is relative to us and doesn't relate to God at all, for He is neither defined, confined, controlled, limited, nor improved by time itself. What is time but a corollary of space and matter, and if neither of these existed, neither would time! In our conception, things only go in succession--forward as they progress.
Therefore, we conclude that everything in the time-space continuum had a beginning or origin, even the universe--God is not in that continuum and therefore had no beginning. Scientists even speculate that time began at the big bang; Scripture references the inauguration of time in 2 Tim. 1:9 and in Titus 1:2. So theologians knew this before scientists "discovered time." Now, the concept to be understood, is that if God created or invented time, He cannot be subject to it nor controlled by it as its slave--God is totally free and self-existent, slave to nothing. God is outside time as it were and is able to manipulate it to His will--one year is as a thousand!
We can be assured of God's providence and guidance because He controls the future and also is able to know it by virtue of His sovereignty over time. Everything seems like NOW to God! He dwells in eternity and we live as the slaves of time. But what happened at the incarnation of Jesus, but that God the Son entered our dimension of time and lived in subordination to the Father, emptying Himself, known as the kenosis, of the independent usage of His divine nature.
This fact of the eternity of God may have been novel. Had it dawned on him that God is still God everywhere and isn't territorial or local? It was also in vogue to think that the more gods, the better! But having knowledge of the one true God was enough for him to feel secure and safe from his enemies. Abimelech told Abraham that God was "obviously" with him "in everything [he does]." The testimony of the eternal God is apparent even to the outsider as we witness to them.
It is the preaching of the Word that can brings conviction, not our brilliance or arguments (cf. 1 Thess. 1:5); 2:13)--Abraham kept his faith in God and it showed. Thanks be to God that we can count on Him always being in character and never out of harmony and sync with His plan (we can be on the same page of His will)--for He's not subject to moods, maudlin sentimentality, nor any human vulnerability. Soli Deo Gloria!
Abraham found out that God was still God no matter where He went and that He wasn't just some local deity that ruled Canaan. We cannot escape His sovereignty or power! God transcends time because He created it! The time-space continuum is relative to us and doesn't relate to God at all, for He is neither defined, confined, controlled, limited, nor improved by time itself. What is time but a corollary of space and matter, and if neither of these existed, neither would time! In our conception, things only go in succession--forward as they progress.
Therefore, we conclude that everything in the time-space continuum had a beginning or origin, even the universe--God is not in that continuum and therefore had no beginning. Scientists even speculate that time began at the big bang; Scripture references the inauguration of time in 2 Tim. 1:9 and in Titus 1:2. So theologians knew this before scientists "discovered time." Now, the concept to be understood, is that if God created or invented time, He cannot be subject to it nor controlled by it as its slave--God is totally free and self-existent, slave to nothing. God is outside time as it were and is able to manipulate it to His will--one year is as a thousand!
We can be assured of God's providence and guidance because He controls the future and also is able to know it by virtue of His sovereignty over time. Everything seems like NOW to God! He dwells in eternity and we live as the slaves of time. But what happened at the incarnation of Jesus, but that God the Son entered our dimension of time and lived in subordination to the Father, emptying Himself, known as the kenosis, of the independent usage of His divine nature.
This fact of the eternity of God may have been novel. Had it dawned on him that God is still God everywhere and isn't territorial or local? It was also in vogue to think that the more gods, the better! But having knowledge of the one true God was enough for him to feel secure and safe from his enemies. Abimelech told Abraham that God was "obviously" with him "in everything [he does]." The testimony of the eternal God is apparent even to the outsider as we witness to them.
It is the preaching of the Word that can brings conviction, not our brilliance or arguments (cf. 1 Thess. 1:5); 2:13)--Abraham kept his faith in God and it showed. Thanks be to God that we can count on Him always being in character and never out of harmony and sync with His plan (we can be on the same page of His will)--for He's not subject to moods, maudlin sentimentality, nor any human vulnerability. Soli Deo Gloria!
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