Faith/Facts

This is a great quote:
The injustice and suffering in Palestine two thousand years ago was certainly no less than the suffering in our world today. The revolutionary prescriptions of our time for the overcoming of such injustice and suffering are likewise not always so different from those proposed then. The idea that the present-day situation has become intolerable, so that revolutionary violence has become justified, even necessary, was widespread then as now – and it was not the most wicked who were proclaiming this idea. Those who justify violence today do not see that they are starting a vicious circle from which they can scarcely escape, and which – as is shown by the history of revolutions in Palestine in the time of Jesus and in Europe during the past two hundred years – will either corrupt them through abuse of their new-found power or, if they seek to preserve their ‘humanity,’ drive them into opposition and finally liquidate them as alleged ‘counter-revolutionaries.’ In the midst of an outwardly hopeless situation, Jesus taught his group of followers how to break out of this vicious circle; until the age of Constantine, the early church adhered unflinchingly to this refusal to use violence. It is part of the critical power of the gospel that this summons to freedom – which also means freedom from the inner law of violence – is still heard today, is in fact once again being heard more clearly. … Reflection on the message of Jesus against the background of the unimaginable brutality and injustice of his age could help us today better to understand the gospel, that is, Jesus’ summons to freedom, and to act accordingly.

Martin Hengel, Victory over Violence (London: SPCK, 1975), 83-85.

Matthew 6:9-13
While meditating on prayer today, I was drawn to the Lord's Prayer. Aptly named because Jesus gave the example but confusion arises when we think of it as a prayer. The disciples had just asked Jesus to "teach them to pray." That is exactly what Jesus does here. He does not pray as one may consider prayer, but teaches His followers how to pray. His lesson is quite amazing as we would expect. here's a few gleanings from this Lesson on Prayer.

Prayer exalts the Father as Holy. If we miss this, we often go astray with our petitions (v9). Not only is our heavenly Father Holy, He has a purpose for His world and especially His children (v10).

The Father’s will for His children is that they be content in their circumstances while recognizing their fallenness and total dependence upon His grace and mercy (12). Finally, the prayer is active in that it moves the believer closer to the Father’s perspective and away from our propensity to sin.

Jesus acknowledges an enemy is arrayed against us and communicates that our strength against self-absorption and the evil one is in the Father (13). Tucked between our need to be content (11), and the recognition of a common enemy (13) is the call for us to mirror the Father’s grace toward others. The phrase “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (12), points back to God’s will and forward to His protection from the enemy.

Peter surely understood this relational privilege when he penned in his first epistle, (7)"Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

(8) Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
(1 Pet 5:7-8).

Prayer is the compulsory open line of communication between the believer and the father. It is both an individual and corporate obligation. Let us prayer with purpose and hope.

The attributes of the Trinity are many. Some He chooses to share with humanity. Love, justice and mercy are those that He shows throughout scripture and these must exemplify our lives as well. We make Jesus attractive when we model His character. All His attributes flow from His goodness.
He is good.

David as a "man after God's own heart" means not that David was morally upright. Rather, David is a Yahweh follower with all his heart.
He had not arrived at perfection but he pursued God constantly and with singular focus. 2 Chron. 7:17-20. (Dr. Gonzales).
We fail often but let our pursuit for God never falter. When we fall (and we do) we must get up and continue to pursue Jesus with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

Our faith is something that is grounded in objective truth (the facts of Jesus life, death and resurrection), and in our affections.
A child can receive life in Christ without knowing all the facts. But something changed in the child's soul. Truth and affection are united in Christ.
A. Mohler writes:

"Over the centuries, the church has turned to a series of creeds and confessions of faith in order to define and defend true Christianity."
Here is where American Christianity is suffering. Our beliefs are leaving the historic teachings of the Bible and what the first Christians believed.
We are, in many spiritual disciplines, allowing our heart to lead. How do we bring together heart and mind? It is the fundamental question of the believer.
Finally, we must make it our goal to trust Christ with our mind by learning who He is, not merely facts about Him. As well, we must follow Him with all our heart. Our only responsibility as Christ-followers is to do these well. Everything that grows out of this commitment to Christ will be fruit produced by Gods Spirit. It is for our holiness, and His glory that we strive toward Him.

I learned great and wonderful theological truths at MBI and in Seminary. But how it applies directly (no longer theory) I have learned in life...face to face with God...through trials, pain, suffering, triumph, success and so on. We all are theologians whether theists or atheists- all have a belief about the existence of God. Theology is awesome, exciting and we all wrestle with its implications in some way. To me, this is living! we are not accidental. We can think, achieve, dream and most importantly--know Him.

Do you know yourself? Our knowledge of self will reveal what we believe about God. We filter everything we believe through our personal experiences...through our past experiences...through the scars that remain from those experiences. In order to know God we must know ourselves, because we are broken people and must realize this is our condition.
Moving forward as followers of Christ requires that we know what God has done, who we are and what God will do in us. He cares and loves us deeply. Reflect on that today. You are loved with an unconditional sacrificial eternal Love.

Today, Billy Graham lives now fully alive with Christ.
He told a story that I'll summarize here.
He said: "when I get to heaven, the Book will be opened and they will search for my name. After some looking, they will find it and tell me 'well done.'
Behind me will be an old woman who no one has heard of and when she gets to heaven the chorus will erupt and her name will be atop the list.
To her praises she hears the voices of heaven saying, 'you prayed for Billy Graham as he ministered, and selflessly ministered unnoticed and content.'
That is why my ministry was successful. It was because of all the people who prayed for me. It was never me, but Jesus working through me, and countless unsung heroes of the faith, who here and now, will never be noticed. But in the Life hereafter, will be famous for their faith."
Billy Graham knew humility and faithfulness. Worship Jesus for His wonderful blessing of allowing depraved people to know Him and find love in Him. It is always, All about Jesus. He really is a Big Deal.

On Being Gracious with One Another

Here's a wonderful short look at being gracious with one another from my son, David Flood II.
http://davidfloodii.blogspot.com/2018/01/on-being-gracious-with-one-another.html?m=1

davidfloodii.blogspot.com Five months ago, the birth of our fourth child went smoothly and without incident. This is why Audrey and I were shocked, when at a home vi...

The incredible story of how the Bible came into being, its miraculous preservation and continual revelation of the God who inspired it, is one of the most tangible illustrations of what faith comprises.
Faith is trusting without seeing. It is an anchor of hope in a seemingless hopeless world. It is the trust in a Person who died, yet lives forever. One to Whom every knee will one day bow, and every mouth declare He is LORD! Now or later, Every voice ever created will AGREE on one essential truth: Jesus the Christ is LORD.
Why is this such a big deal? Scripture writers have penned divinely inspired truths, but the great body of revelation we enjoy points specifically to a Person.
John 1.1, In the beginning was the word and the word was God. Colossians 1.15-17, by Him all things were made...all things were created by Him, for Him and through Him. Hebrews 1.3, by Him the universe came into existence.
Why is this important you ask? Notice an oft quoted passage in Romans. "therefore, all are without excuse, for Gods invisible qualities have been clearly seen by what He has made"(Rom. 1.20).
Who created this world? God the SON! Who died for this world? God the SON. Who will return to this world and destroy evil and reign for eternity? GOD the SON. Its no mystery that creation, science, nature, mathmatics, art, literature and everything we enjoy as believers points to GOD the SON.
"There is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we can be saved"(Acts 4.12). Yeah, Jesus, God the Son is a big deal! Therefore, alll people of all time from every corner of the earth are without excuse. God has cleary revealed Himself to His world.

The terms, sanctification and justification are biblical, yet we dont use these words much in our vernacular. Therefore, I'd like to touch briefly on the importance of understanding what sanctification means. We will cover justification later.

Sanctification is used 3 ways in scripture. Its most basic meaning is - to set apart, as in, to set apart for holy use. The past tense use defines what God did at the conversion of the believer. At a specific point in time, we were saved (set-apart), from God's wrath and judgment. We were saved from the penalty of sin. This is a finished work by God (Romans 8.1). This is also referred to as Posional Sanctification.

The present tense use is directed toward the believer being saved from the power of sin. Since the Holy Spirit indwells believers, He brings with Him the power to say no to sin. This too is the work of God (Romans 6). This is also called Progressive Sanctification.

The third use is known as future sanctification. Here, God fulfills all He began in the life of the believer. Romans 8.30, declares that believers are already glorified. We will be saved from the presence of sin.
This is referred to also as Ultimate Sanctification.

God will accomplish three stages in our sanctification process. He saved us from the penalty of sin, the power of sin and eventually from the very presence of sin. These are guaranteed. These are biblical teachings and promises of God. Live in His joy and peace. The world is not your home so lets not fear nor become entrenched in its philosophy, and teachings (Romans 12.1-2).

Bible Questions Answered

What does it mean when the Bible uses the term "to save," as in "God sent His Son 'to save' the world?"

The basic and simple answer is that God provided safety or protection. But, from what are His children protected and who are his children?

The answer is multi-layered yet consistent from Genesis to Revelation. His children are saved from Gods holy anger which demands punishment for sin. He is a pure and perfect Judge and jury. He never makes a mistake- Ever!
Our offense is against Him first and always, and His holy wrath must judge sin and the sinner. If God merely excuses sin, He's no different than other fickle creatures. All His attributes (love, holiness, wrath, justice, beauty, freedom etc.), live in unity and harmony without contradiction. Therefore, His decisions account for everything He is and All He possesses. To the point: His every decision is true and right.

To be saved from His righteous Justice, requires propitiation. He must be appeased and His justice satisfied. This requirement was realized in the death of His Son for sin, and the Son's resurrection to life. This life, when applied to those, who by God's grace through faith in the Son's satisfying work, trust in the Son for forgiveness of sin and new life in His substitutionary death. His death was a death where He died in our place.

For more on this subject, please visit Gotquestions.org.
It's a great site for finding answers to many biblical and theological questions.

gotquestions.org Bible Questions Answered by GotQuestions.org! Fast and accurate answers to all your Bible Questions!

There's one hero, super hero, greatest, best or any other adjective you can imagine.

Jesus the Christ; King of kings, Lord of lords, Creator of everything. God the Son who became man to save His world.

"What is propitiation?
If someone tells you the Bible never says "Jesus died for sin", they totally misuderstand propitiation.

The word propitiation carries the basic idea of appeasement or satisfaction, specifically toward God. Propitiation is a two-part act that involves appeasing the wrath of an offended person and being reconciled to him.

Christ came at Christmas (the incarnation), Christ appeased God the Father (at the cross- Easter), and reconciled people to the Father (at the cross and resurrection-Easter). Christ has done EVERYTHING. We receive this by God's grace, through faith in Christ.
Trust Him and live. Reject Him and endure separation from Him.

Christmas is celebrated as the birth of Jesus. But its so much more.
The shepherds to whom God revealed the birth of His Son, were those who took care of the passover lambs (pointing to the Son as the Lamb of God sacrificed for the sin of the world).
The gifts offered by the Magi, or wise men, or 3 kings, point to the death of the son, and His Kingdom.
Jesus' birth pointed to His death. Christmas and Easter are interconnected on purpose in the Bible.
Christmas is not merely a baby in a manger, but rather God the Son becoming human to redeem fallen sinful humanity.
Be thankful every day that God loved the world so much that He sent His only Son to die in our place.
Thank you Christ the Lord!!

Merry Christmas world. Youre in my prayers always. May Christ's grace, love and light shine upon you.

Merry Christmas to all because God sent His Son for all. Jesus is the All in All our salvation. To the praise of His glory.

In our day and age, I find its easier for folks to die for a cause than to live for one. Living for what one holds true and believes in requires submission, humility and faith in that cause. Its often easier to play the role of martyr than to live the role of servant.

https://youtu.be/3BxvFhFJ32E
We finish our study through the Old Testament. Journey with, as I conclude the OT Story and summarize the time from the Captivity through Malachi.

youtu.be

This week our Story explains how and why the Northern 10 tribes and Southern 2 tribes are taken into captivity. God is enforcing covenant discipline for His chosen people who rejected Him and the obligations of the covenant made in Deuteronomy.

https://youtu.be/K3ejwyj7BLU

m.facebook.com

Athanasius of Alexandria, a Dedicated Defense of Christology

Athanasius of Alexandria dedicates his life to defending orthodox Christology in the wake of political and spiritual opposition
https://youtu.be/J7kJx6km_HA

Athanasius ministered under four Roman Emperors and was exiled several times at some point in his ministry. He was fierce, hard and unthwarted in his defense of Christ as Divine. His book on the incarnation is a must read for followers of Jesus Christ.
(St. Athanasius on the Incarnation : the Treatise De incanatione Verbi Dei
London : Mowbray & Co., 1944, reprinted 1963.
Intro by C.S. Lewis.)

Athanasius stood firm in a time when Christianity had become the religion of the Roman Empire and its religious and political implications blurred the essential nature of Christ and His incarnation.

This short five minute faith talk is meant to encourage and inspire believers to remain true to their calling and hope in Christ. We will look each week at some person or event where God shows up to encourage and inspire His people.

youtube.com Athanasius of Alexandria Egypt dedicates his life to defending orthodox Christology in the wake of political and spiritual opposition https://youtu.be/J7kJx6...

Faith/Facts

To view all videos from Faith/Facts please subscribe here.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJVVFpQD2k8Q33TJWz8AaEQ?sub_confirmation=1

youtube.com On the spiritual journey called the Christian life, a believer may find oneself distracted, confused or ignorant of what results when God’s Spirit makes him ...

Faith/Facts