Both Salt And Light

There is a constant debate about whether we are supposed to preach the gospel or do good deeds and influence our culture and John Stott has observed that both are taught by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. We can be salt which improves the flavor of the world and helps to preserve it. We also should provide light in a dark place and point people to God.

We must remain different to remain "salty." We must not hide our light in order to be visible.

A Wide Open Promise

The first thing you might want to ask is, "What's the catch?" This is a powerful promise and the only thing is we need to pray such that the Son can bring glory to the Father in order for this promise to hold. What power that gives us! I just want to think on this for a while and ponder what I could pray for that would help the Son bring glory to the Father.

Time - Procedure Combinations

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 NIV


Who is like the wise man?
Who knows the explanation of things?
Wisdom brightens a man's face
and changes its hard appearance.

Obey the king's command, I say, because you took an oath before God. Do not be in a hurry to leave the king's presence. Do not stand up for a bad cause, for he will do whatever he pleases. 4 Since a king's word is supreme, who can say to him, "What are you doing?"

Whoever obeys his command will come to no harm,
and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure.
For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter,
though a man's misery weighs heavily upon him.
Ecclesiastes 8:1-6 NIV

It appears that wisdom is knowing what procedure to do at which time. You also have to keep the will of the king (God) in the picture so that what you do pleases him. There is a proper time for every activity or procedure and there is an improper time for every activity or procedure.

Bearing Fruit - How To Please God

The fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians was something I remember hearing about as a kid growing up and not really grasping what it was. First of all, it is fruit. Jesus says we are to bear fruit and many times we think that means bringing a certain number of people to Christ. We really cannot bring anyone to Christ on our own, but that is another issue.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control

are fruit of the Spirit in and of themselves. They manifest God working in our lives. Fruit is what God is pleased with, so striving to bear this kind of fruit is significant and I am sure God is pleased with it.

Galatians 5:16-26

Predators

In case it is not clear what men are capable of:

Predators on Dateline NBC

Hundreds of men showed up at houses all over the country to molest / rape teenage girls they met in chat rooms online. They did not realize they were actually chatting with adults posing as teenage girls. The chart on the right side of the web page shows how many men showed up in just a few days at each location. The T.V. producers had to give them appointments at spaced intervals to try not to have them all show up at the same time.

Is it any wonder that God is disgusted with mankind and has promised a coming judgment. His willingness to forgive is beyond our understanding.

Real Peace Through The Second Adam

We do have real peace because of our faith in Jesus Christ. He brings peace and joy to us and very real salvation.

Jesus loved us in that he was willing to die for us while we were still unlovable. We were still sinners, yet he loved us and was willing to give his life for us.

Romans chapter 5

Romans five contrasts the first and second Adam. Jesus is the father of a new race of men who are alive spiritually, whereas the race that came from the first Adam was dead in sin and did not have a realtionship with God.

Romans Chapter Four - Abraham's Faith

Abraham was counted as a righteous man because he believed the promises of God. He lived before the Law of Moses came. He had conversations with God and was given promises from God that he would become the father of many nations, yet he had no son.

Romans chapter 4

God delivered on his promises to Abraham, but Abraham had ever increasing belief in what God told him. Like us, Abraham was a sinner on his own and had no personal righteousness. His faith in God was based on God's promise to him and not on any merit of his own.

This is very significant and is all important to us. We can have righteousness in the same way Abraham did: by trusting in God's promises in the Bible, not by obeying a set of rules.

The Need For Special Revelation

It is very important to understand Paul's letter to the Romans in order to understand God's plan of salvation for mankind.

Romans chapter 1

Romans chapter 2

Mankind lives in a state of constant sin when left to his own desires. All of mankind is included here and there is no exception except for Jesus. Natural Revelation (looking only at nature) is not sufficient for mankind to find God due to our being blinded by our own sin, but it is enough evidence of God's power to condemn all men for not seeking God on our own.

Since all of mankind has fallen seriously into sin and continues to live there, God says that man needs extra revelation in order to be redeemed. This is why the word of God was given. It is something completely unique and comes from outside of creation and springs from God's true nature of love.

This Special Revelation introduces God's perspective and power into man's situation. Now man has hope from God for reconciling the relationship.

It is extremely important to understand that salvation is entirely from God. We were lost and rightly condemned for not seeking God on our own simply from Natural Revelation. God sending Scripture into the world to reach us shows that he is now seeking us. We are not seeking him.

The Law was introduced and Romans explains this very complicated issue well. The Law shows us even more obviously to be sinners and shows us that we cannot please God on our own. Grace is introduced to illustrate again that salvation is from God and not from us.

Jesus himself is the ultimate Savior for us. He did everything for us on the cross when he died to carry our sins and we receive his righteousness in place of our sins.

Romans chapter 3

Eternal Words

Everything dies and decays in this world. Change is the only constant. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is the person called the Word of God and the Holy Scriptures are the written Word of God. They are both eternal.

Nothing else in this world measures up. Many people in the world have put their complete faith in this word. Many have tested these words and found them to be true in a way that other truths are not. They are eternally true. "Heaven and earth may pass away, but my words will not pass away" said Jesus.

Man is of such a temporary nature that he is compared to grass, a seasonal form.

We have so little power. We are made of dust and return to dust in a matter of seventy or eighty years. Did you know your grandparents? Did you know your ancestors going back six generations? Do you know where they lived? Do you know anything about your ancestors from a thousand years ago? Two thousand years ago? Three thousand years ago?

You get the picture.

This is why modern man has so much trouble realizing his place in the universe. He is here so briefly and changes so little of what is going on.