If God is love and mercy then how do we understand His anger and wrath?
Judas hung himself when he could not make right his wicked actions, God was not angry because he had opposed God.s will. Instead it was his refusal of salvation.
Judas lost faith in the forgiveness and power to heal the broken that he had seen in Messiah; and not only seen but called to witness of. Even when he realized the hurt he caused his reaction was to try to justify himself by doing what he thought was right. His return of his gain by treachery was an attempt to set things right in his own way and on his own terms.
When his self willed actions had no good effect his heart would still not look to God as his maker. It has been said that the pinnacle of human pride is to reject God's forgiveness with the false humility of "God can never forgive what I have done." So Judas, lost in his own guilt and shame killed himself.
God set things in a certain order in His creation. Gravity pulls us down and the flesh can not survive without breathing oxygen are easily observed by us.
The wrath of God is seen in the course of nature; as sinful men refuse his salvation they reap in their flesh the result of their refusal to allow God to be their life.
This result was obvious in Judas but in our own existence we often experience loss, shame, and despair without recognition that the wrath of God against us is the natural result of our trying to live outside of our own ability.
His anger is at our refusal to let Him help us because He loves us.His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts so we make a grave error when we judge his wrath and anger after human wrath and anger
A true Christian life is about Jesus; the messiah God promised. The preacher to often teaches a systematic religion. Understanding the living word keeps us from being deceived by false teachers. The church lives by the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead.
Wednesday, December 13, 2017
Wednesday, August 23, 2017
The Meaning of Life
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Teachers of the scriptures, from ancient times, understood them as unified. This was despite the years between authors.
This brought a teaching that the first mention of a thing determined understanding. Each mention of the same subject afterward fleshed out details of the original.
This created a bible study method called "stringing pearls". Unlike the word studies we do in modern times. These studies focused on the entire picture of the subject in context.
The scriptures or show our understanding must be line upon line and precept upon precept. We must understand that the beginning and the end are one and the same. With this in mind let us consider what the scriptures call life.
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LIFE
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Gen 2:7
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: Deu 30:19
In the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death. Pro 12:28
Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith. Haba 2:4
Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life: Eze 13:22
Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; John 5:25-26
But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. Rom 6:22
The life of man is, has, and will be in THE Father. The existence Adam chose and we inherited is wickedness incarnate. Knowing both good and evil coexisting in us.
It is only by trust, dependence and expecting the Father's promise in us we can experience life. Our Adamic nature crucified in Christ we are a new creation living by the breath (Spirit) of our Father.
Sunday, June 11, 2017
Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus
Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 Timothy 2:1
My father in law Ed Cronin recently contacted me and my wife and asked us our opinion on the verse above. He told us he was asking several people he knew to share their understanding of the verse; both its meaning and how to functionally obey this scripture. This is my phrasing of his request so if I have phrased it incorrectly the blame is mine alone. my answer can be seen below.
ME: Ed
what an interesting question...as you can see from my response it got me thinking. I decided to use an email because it would take me a year to text this, also I did want to consider and pray before I answered as James warns all those who answer the call of teacher to do.
with most authors of bible books we have only definition of words and context to use for our understanding.
with your permission I would like to make this response a blog/post...if you so desire I can leave your name out of it.
we know that by definition grace means a gift.
and in context Paul is speaking of the futility of trusting in men, even those who are believers; so Paul's conclusion, despite the fact He is writing from prison, is the only thing which can be a solid support and strength for our living is a complete trust in the gift of God.
A clearer understanding of his statement can be had by an understanding of the thinking that goes along with the authors use of this word (Paul's personal definition of the word grace)
Imagine a person reading court transcripts one thousand years from now...if they were to read a witness saying my dog said he was going to kill that guy...without the understanding of how that witness calls his friends dog those in the future would interpret what he said very different.
we have a great privilege with Paul of having many different manuscripts by which to decipher his true meaning of the gift of God.
For Paul the word grace speaks of redemption...not salvation, forgiveness,mercy, or justification as the modern church interprets it. While these things are all related and part of the whole we see in Romans and Galatians that Paul uses this word to define the work by which God places our self generated life from inherited from Adam into His Son in whom that old man dies and a new creation is born where the life is no longer in the blood but in the Spirit.
For Paul grace is Gods life being made into our life as we become one...just as Adam was nothing more than formed earth until God breathed His own life into him making him a living soul.
Paul knows that just as Adam could be tempted and choose to become self reliant and self oriented so too a new creation in Christ can too. The result of doing such is a separation from the life of God and the beginning of a self generated life which God concludes and defines as death. Hence his strong warning in both Romans and Galatians that righteousness can only be obtained by trusting in the gift of life from God...and further when we see unrighteousness in our lives we should know we have frustrated the gift and placed trust in our self generation.
So considering this Paul is saying to Timothy that he must be vigilant to ever only put trust in the gift of Gods shared life in Him by which both he, Paul, and every other believer is made one with the Father the Son and their shared Spirit.
ED:I am reading it now again. Yes you can post it and with my name. I have asked many to tell me what or how to stay strong in Grace. This morning I noticed it is be strong. Though at this point mo one has said anything about it. I am looking at be vs stay strong as you texted me. Also, your reply is the longs yet. I plan to post each ones reply after all has done so. I giving all to Tuesday to replay. Is there a difference to how if the word be instead of stay. Thanks for replying. I am going to reread your answer again.In Jesus Name. Hey, in a few words how do we( be strong in the Grace ) of Him?
As I said I exchanged the word- be - with stay. Is there a difference in meaning? If so, would the how have a different how. Hope I said it so you understand what I am getting at. Thanks for input.
Monday, May 29, 2017
Why did Jesus call a woman a dog
The bible tells us of a woman who comes to Jesus and begs for her daughter to be healed. Jesus reacts to this woman in a way that most have a hard time getting their head around. At the first He simply ignores her, if that is not enough to cause us to pause He then goes on to call the woman a dog and declare that He has come for the children to have meet.
This reaction has been interpreted as hateful, racist, or as a testing of faith however these explanations are difficult to align with the rest of what we know of Jesus ministry. A better understanding can be had if we consider the way in which the divine power of God interacts with the earthly man.
When the earthly man finds himself in need of help from another his first recourse is to make a deal; in other words he appeals to the helper from a place of what said helper will gain i.e. money, acceptance, honor, fame, ect. When man has nothing of value to offer for the help needed they are forced to come from a place of weakness submitted to the helper and dependent on their mercy, kindness, and goodwill; we commonly refer to this as begging.
The Father in His wisdom does not allow himself to react to emotion for if He answered our desperation with salvation then it would be necessary to answer our hatred with cursing. The Father only allows Himself to react to our faith despite the fact that He cries when we cry and when we refuse Him.
The woman who comes to Jesus in desperation does have faith but it is clouded by her emotions. The interaction between her and our Lord is simply to make her have a clear understanding that the Father gives from His goodness alone as we trust in Him without any thought of making Him react by our actions.
Saturday, March 18, 2017
Few there be that Find it
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto
you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and
wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I
preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you
first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins
according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the
third day according to the scriptures: 1 Corinthians 15: 1-4
For as many as have sinned without
law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall
be judged by the law; (For not the
hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be
justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the
things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto
themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their
conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or
else excusing one another;) In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men
by Jesus Christ according to my gospel. Romans 2: 12-16
The list of
reasons for why we do not see in our church and in our lives an equivalent experience
to that of the biblical age saints is long and varied but in the end can be
reduced to two factors pride and ignorance. These two states come together to
form unbelief.
I assure you
that the writer of what you now read does not exempt himself from this
evaluation. As a rule we do not evaluate ourselves as spiritually ignorant or
immature and will ignore any evidence that may show we are. If we bear no false
witness of ourselves either we are experiencing in every way those things
witnessed by Messiah and His apostles as a matter of common living for a believer
or what they have witnessed is a lie.
Two of our
greatest enemies in a war against unbelief are sparks of the new creation and
assumption of knowing the truth. What I mean by sparks of the new creation is
like if I had a light and a switch connected by wire that did not have proper
connection.
If I flip
the switch I will see a bright spark and smell the burning ozone but the light
will only flicker leaving me still in the dark. This experience is like when we
see YHWH move to answer prayer, or prophecy, or give peace and so on. The
initial experience gives us light so intense that we see it even after its gone
but slowly it fades leaving us to wonder if it was real or not. These flashes
are caused by not having a sound connection; however they, by our own pride and
ignorance, cause us to ignore that we are not experiencing the light as an every
moment environment of our living. Yeshua testified His believers would live in
the light as He was in the light.
The second
major cause of unbelief is assumption. It is often the things we are certain we
know already that cause us to not hear and understand what is being said. As an
example if I were to ask any Christian “what is the gospel” the answer will for
the majority of people Jesus died so my sins can be forgiven and I can go to
heaven. Yeshua no doubt provided forgiveness and the promise of eternity with
the Father and Him but that is a only a result of the gospel. Yeshua and the
apostles teach about a forgiveness of past sins but this result is secondary to
trusting in the redemption provided by Messiah which frees us from sin. The
death of Messiah was not to settle an account of wrath but instead took the
fate of our sin on him that we could be free from sin.
The death of
Messiah is about binding the strong man inherent from Adam. The Adamic man we
were dies in the cross so that by faith in our redeemer we join Him in the
Fathers life. No man can have two masters; you cannot generate your life and be
given His life at the same time. Yeshua referred to this as the kingdom of
heaven and the heart of man while Paul spoke of the flesh and the spirit even
YHWH spoke of it to Moses as life and cursing but all concluded that the
solution is a complete giving of all that we are to YHWH and trusting,
depending, and expecting YHWH to be our creator.
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