Ephesian 6:17

Scripture Meditation

Psalms 8:4 (KJV)  What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

Amongst the many songs we see in the bible, in this song, the Holy Spirit saw fit to inspire a question for us to ponder.

Why is God interested in man?

The answer is actually quite simple, but a bit nuanced.

The reason God is interested is because He loves man.

Now, a lot of people will say, "well of course He loves 'man'. He loves everybody", but that is where the nuance comes in.

The love that people automatically think of, is the love that is shown in the sacrifice of Christ.

As it is written...

Romans 5:8 (KJV)  But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

And elsewhere we see...

John 15:13 (KJV)  "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

This is the love we always gravitate to when we say God loves.

But that love is not directed to mankind as a whole.

God chooses whom He will express this love towards, and whom He will not.

That's why the Holy Spirit saw fit to inspire the following portions of scripture.

Matthew 25:11-12 (KJV)  "Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open to us.'

But he answered and said, 'Verily I say unto you, I know you not.'"

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Matthew 22:11-13 (KJV)  "And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: And he saith unto him, 'Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment?'

And he was speechless.

Then said the king to the servants, 'Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness';

There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

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John 10:11 (KJV)  "I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep."

John 10:14-15 (KJV)  "I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep."

John 10:26-27 (KJV)  "But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me"

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With that being said, if we aren't talking about love that saves, what other love can we be talking about?

The love that causes God to take interest in mankind and their affairs is because of the unique position man holds in God's sight.

That is to say... man is the only creature who was made in the image of God.

CREATURE FEATURE

All things in the heavens and earth was created and is sustained by the triune God of the scriptures.

John 1:3 (KJV)  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Colossians 1:16-17 (KJV)  For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

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As part of the creation of God, He has an interest in us as a reflection of His handiwork.

Like all of creation, we were born from God's imagination and intellect.

We are walking exhibits of the awe inspiring genius of the triune God.

We were created to give God glory.

On that basis alone, He cares about us and provides for us like He does with the rest of His creation.

It's this level of love that is referred to when we use the theological term... common grace.

Matthew 5:45 (KJV)  ... "that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust."

Luke 12:27-28 (KJV)  "Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith?"

Psalms 147:9 (KJV)  He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.

Psalms 36:6 (KJV)  Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O LORD, thou preservest man and beast.

Job 38:41 (KJV)  Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat.

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Generally speaking there is a level of attention and care that is provided to mankind simply because we are things that God created.

However, God's attention towards us is even more than that. This is specifically because we are made in His image.

Genesis 1:26a,27 (KJV)  And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness... so God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Being made in the image of God gives us the awesome responsibility of being the representative of God here on earth.

No other creature has this privilege given to them as an innate part of their being.

The result of being made in the image of God, man had dominion over all other creatures on the earth.

Genesis 1:26b (KJV)  ...and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

It's the image of God in man that causes God to pay special attention to mankind.

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But there is an even deeper truth to this.

The image of God in man has been marred due to man's love for sin.

Sin, all that which is contrary to God, has been joined to the image of God.

What is the response of God to the desecration of His image?

Just as in the beginning God sought to glorify Himself in and through man, He still seeks to do so.

Therefore, He arranges it so that He will receive glory in two ways.

On one hand, He will mete out justice.

Since man has become acquainted with sin and seeks to deepen that relationship, God punishes them for their wickedness.

They have earned this for themselves, as the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23a).

God will therefore receive glory for His righteousness in carrying out this action.

This is the natural lot of man. To live a life of spiritual condemnation with the judgement of God looming over their head.

However, we have the other hand to consider.

The other way that God receives glory from man is through the expression of His mercy.

While the scriptures tell us that God doesn't take pleasure in the death of the wicked (Eze 18), the scripture also says that it pleased the Father to put Christ to death for our sins.

Isaiah 53:1-10 (KJV)  Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?

For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

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With the plan of redemption set in motion, man became the object of God's love as well.

John 15:13 (KJV)  Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

John 10:11 (KJV)  I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

John 10:15 (KJV)  As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.

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So then, with all that being said, we return to the original question.

Psalms 8:4-8 (KJV)  What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

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What is man? Man is a creature whom God made in His own image.

Why does God visit man? To glorify Himself in the lives both the ungodly and the godly.

As it is written...

Revelation 4:11 (KJV)  Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

Amen

Scripture Meditation

Many believers today are suffering because they flock to the signs & wonders, while paying no attention to the doctrine (Deut 13:1-3, 2 Thess 2:8-13, Rev 13:11-15, Matt 24:24)

A Better Covenant

Recently there's been a lot of talk regarding the christian and their connection with the old testament,  specifically, the 10 commandments.

While this discussion is usually had in heady theological circles, it has recently come down to laymen circles due to false teacher Andy Stanley's comments about "unhitching the old testament from our faith".

While that is unbiblical and directly goes against what the scripture tells us to do, there is a point to take away from the nonsense.

Many christians look to the 10 commandments as the law governing their lives.

It's often referred to as the moral law and all commandments have been in effect since the beginning of creation and for all people everywhere.

That is the general position of believers today.

It is even the position held by the reformers and one cannot be considered reformed if they don't hold to this position.

Unfortunately, I do not hold to this position.

The reason for this is simple. The scriptures  does not present the 10 commandments as that.

Moses himself states that the patriarchs did not have these commands and that they were unique to the children of Israel.

Although I'm not looking to give a complete defence of my position here, I thought it would be helpful to look at a verse that I came across in my daily reading.

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Exodus 34:28 (KJV)  And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
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Here, we see that the words of the mosaic covenant, aka the old covenant,  are the ten commandments.

This is not the only place it says this.

So when scripture says the old covenant is done away with,  it Is indeed referring to the 10 commandments, and everything that comes with it.

This is clear and straightforward.

In instituting the new covenant, Jesus re-enacts the event of Sinai, by going on the mount and giving the law for the new covenant.

It's these laws that christians should be looking to rather than the 10 commandments in mosaic law.

It's not that we can't reference the 10 commandments, but that isn't the covenant that we are under today.

If one maintains that the 10 commandments haven't been done away with, are should be our focus, then they are saying that Jesus didn't do away with the old covenant.

It is still in effect and we are bound by it as we are not dead to it in Christ

This of course makes Jesus a liar, and we are still in our sin.

While this may or may not affect our daily christian walk, it is a theological position that we should understand.

What is the old covenant? What is the new covenant? How do they differ?

It's in understanding these things that we have a better grasp on what Christ has done for us and what God has been doing throughout history.

It also helps us to work out our salvation more accurately.

Maranatha

For the love of God

Quite often, we hear the phrase "for the love of God" used to express someone's stress or to put emphasis to the gravity of an action, i.e. "Stop! For the love of God"

While it's commendable to draw to mind our love of God and His love towards us when it comes to our actions, as with the name of Christ, the phrase has been turned into a common expletive instead.

It's not used to draw ones attention to God at all, but is become an off hand secular phrase.

However, in the hands of the christian, this shouldn't be the case.

Just like 'Oh my God!' shouldn't be used in a way that devalues God, to a believer, it should actually be used for a holy purpose.

Invoking God shouldn't be so commonplace that it loses its meaning. It should be intentional.

When it becomes commonplace, we are calling the Lord's name in vain.

To the unbeliever, this isn't an issue. That's because they don't love the Lord. They have no love for Him and they don't recognise any sort of the love from Him either.

To the believer, this should be a way to encourage one another and ourselves to good works.

We should always recall God's love towards us, and as recipients of His love, seek to love Him back.

We should identify where we are falling short in our love, repent, and walk upright before the Lord.

For the love of God, our King, our Saviour, let us caste off the sin that so easily ensnares us and walk humbly before Him.

Amen

No God? No Real Morals

I'll say it in many ways - but an atheist trying to build a case for objective morality is a stupid enterprise.

And subjective morality is an equally stupid enterprise

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The one who believes they can have objective morality without the existence of a God...

... is the one who believes their moral decisions are inherently superior to the moral decisions of everybody else

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without God, you're decision to not take the life of another person is no more moral than the decision of another person to take your life

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You're preference on what makes a thing moral or immoral does not negate another person's preferences on what makes a thing moral or immoral

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A thing cannot be determined to be objectively moral by popular vote

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For all of the various applications that the scientific process affords us, determining objective morality is not one of them

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The one who denies the existence of God while decrying religion as evil, is a walking contradiction

Equality?

The Declaration of Independence
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal..."

Within the first line of the declaration of independence, is a statement of faith.

The 13 colonies, who were fighting a war to be free from british rule, had as their foundation a theological understanding which served as the basis of their existence and rights that they could claim in opposition to the decrees of any monarch.

The religion that provided this framework? Biblical christianity.

Today however, the same nation who recognised and acknowledged the sovereign and living God, Christ Jesus, so many centuries ago, has been seeking to remove this foundation of their most basic freedoms.

While a certain amount of damage to this foundation has been self-inflicted, what with the sinful hearts of the christians of a bygone era blinding their minds to the clear biblical teaching on man stealing (kidnapping), enslavement, and hatred of neighbor being disregarded for mammon (wealth/power) - this has emboldened many to attack the religion that those backslidden men claimed to represent.

They now openly, and with reckless abandon, seek to remove the basis of their freedom from themelves and replace it with that which is self-evident to not provide the same freedoms - as its self-refuting.

- There are plenty of religions that teach that we all weren't created equal at all.

Hinduism, Mormonism, modern-day Judaism (which is pharisaism), and Islam being famous examples of this.

- If you remove religion from the table, saying that we weren't "created" anyway, this makes it worse, as then there is no basis to assume we have any value at all much less have equal worth.

As a matter of fact, there are many celebrated scientific minds that champion that we aren't equal.

One of the most famous being Charles Darwin.

Outside of a religious foundation, that is to say, without the existence of a being such as God who created everything and everyone, we lose all claims to any inherent "right".

There is no such right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that could be called upon to trump the authority of a monarch, dictator, etc.

After all, rights are determined by those who are in power/who have authority.

If there is no ultimate authority... i.e. God - who sets a universal standard for all, there is no authority one could appeal to in order to overthrow the authority of those currently in power.

There wouldn't even be any morality because there is no universal authority that could declare what is morally right or wrong.

As the bible puts it, everyone would simply do what's right in their own eyes.

Ones personal preference as to what ought to be done and what ought not to be done can not, in and of itself, trump the personal preference of another.

What would have to happen is that one would go to the authorities to rule - and whatever the authorities decide is the correct moral action - as there is no other standard than what the authority decides.

Many people today are happy for this society until it turns against them.

And there are many examples of this doing just that.

- Authorities once determined that black people weren't fully human. They were literally placed in zoos at one point. This was morallt correct because the authorities deemed it so.

- Authorities once determined that jews weren't fully human.

- In China, the authorities determined whether or not a mother could carry a child to full term. The mother had no inherent right to make that decision.

There are many more examples that one could pull from recent history.

Those who take umbrage with a person's claim to live a certain way that affects people around them/that they interact with... solely on the basis that its religious in nature... become hypocrites.

They love and enjoy the freedoms and rights that come from the establishment of that religious position, hate the actual position itself, while bemoaning the fact that they are losing the freedoms and rights that the position that they are tearing down gives them.

They are a walking contradiction.

The famous anti-religion evolutionary biologist, Richard Dawkins, has been quoted as saying that he is glad that the countries he's lived in had a christian foundation.

The reason? Because if it was an atheist foundation, or another religion, he would have been silenced.

Mr. Dawkins has also been quoted as saying that christianity is what stands between the west and islam.

Richard is outspokenly anti-religion. Although he claims to he an agnostic rather than an atheist, he goes to many lengths to disprove the existence of a god.

Even if that isn't enough to display his hypocrisy, he is even quoted as saying that his position does indeed mean that there are no objective morals. That there is no good or evil... while at the same time telling people religion is evil and what he does is for the good of the people.

He is indeed a walking contradiction.

In times past, the writers of the declaration of independence, and many others like them, were not all christians.

However, they recognised the hypocrisy in holding to practical atheism while trying to claim that there were inherent rights, good, and evil.

So a number of people held to deism.

Now deism doesn't actually deal with the morality issue, but at least they knew and vocally declares that a god not only does, but must necessarily exist.

Many today who claim to be "woke" or "inclusive", openly cast off and ridicule the religiously held beliefs of the bygone era.

They gleefully curse the roots of the tree they live in, and proudly seek to detach themselves by sawing off the branch that they are sitting on, while expecting not to fall.

Those who call out their folly are labelled as haters and bigots. They are more than happy to remove rights of the religious. Their voices should be drowned out. Their businesses shut down.

In their minds, they are truly not equal. And those who hold to a religious belief that bucks against their non-religious practice should be treated with utter contempt for not obeying when they are told to contradict their god.