oh Lord help me to be hard on myself and gentle with others.
this is a wed night study that i did, that ended up with a theme of "travailing"
Col. 2:23 These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.
John 15:5
"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
Galatians 4:19 My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you–
Ephesians 3:10 so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.
What are you saved from?
Hard questions:
Michael Savage was on my radio the other night and he said, he can believe in a God who is omni-present, but not one who is omnipotent, and he gave the example of the girls raped and burned to death in Conn...”So that was God’s will for those girls??” , he yelled at the caller.
From a friends email, speaking of her brother, “He believes in God and Jesus but believes that God loves us so would never send anyone to hell and how could God ever send a murder that repented to heaven but a good guy to hell. Those kind of questions. Or like What about the Jews and what about the Muslims. Plus not 100% sold out that the Bible is to be taken literally or that it is Gods word. As long as we are all "good" people and try to love each other we make it in.
One aspect of praying for the lost.
Ezekiel 28:14
"You were the anointed cherub who covers,And I placed you there You were on the holy mountain of God;You walked in the midst of the stones of fire.
2nd Corin. 4:3,4 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
The parable of the ten virgins: Matthew 25
Why is He telling it? Foolish and prudent or wise.
God didn’t save
Abel
Naboth Zechariah killed between porch and altar
Luke 11:51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God; yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation.'
2nd Chronicles24:18 They abandoned the house of the LORD, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherim and the idols; so wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their guilt.
19Yet He sent prophets to them to bring them back to the LORD; though they testified against them, they would not listen.
Joash Murders Son of Jehoiada
20Then the Spirit of God came on Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people and said to them, "Thus God has said, 'Why do you transgress the commandments of the LORD and do not prosper? Because you have forsaken the LORD, He has also forsaken you.'"
21So they conspired against him and at the command of the king they stoned him to death in the court of the house of the LORD.
NT
James
11 of the apostles and Paul
and this is Romans study # 14 getting very close to the "good stuff" of Romans 5-8
and then the amazing truth of grace and election in Romans 9-11.
Romans Bible Study # 15
Romans 4:18-25
Hope
18In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, SO SHALL YOUR DESCENDANTS BE.
19Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb;
20yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God,
21and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.
22Therefore IT WAS ALSO CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.
23Now not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him,
24but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,
25He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification. NASB
God himself said to him, You're going to have a big family, Abraham
19-25Abraham didn't focus on his own impotence and say, It's hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child. Nor did he survey Sarah's decades of infertility and give up. He didn't tiptoe around God's promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good on what he had said. That's why it is said, Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right. But it's not just Abraham; it's also us The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless. The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us right with God. MSG
18 Staring the impossible in the face, Abraham chose to look beyond the impossible to the God who “brings life from the dead.” This is ‘hope against hope.” Beyond possibility, beyond visibility to the unseen God.
19 Abraham was not a delusional optimist, he knew exactly what the situation was before him. Genesis 17:17 says, Abraham fell flat on his face. And then he laughed, thinking, Can a hundred-year-old man father a son? And can Sarah, at ninety years, have a baby? Often the New Testament is kind to Old Testament saints, this verse overlooks the very understandable, honest appraisal of the situation and focuses on the next step in Abraham’s walk, his belief. Faith takes us beyond the visible world.
20 “grew strong in faith giving glory to God” Abraham’s belief going beyond all that he could see or hope for in this life. “Faith grips reason by the throat and strangles the beast.” Barth
“Faith takes us beyond this world and puts us in touch with the divine. When we choose to believe the words that God speaks, we “grow” the divine life in us. Where there is no faith, God is deprived of His honour; He ceases to be accounted among us wise and just and faithful and rue and merciful. Where there is no faith, god retains neither His divinity nor His majesty. Therefore, everything hangs upon our faith.” Barth God’s word to us will often be laughable, but He will then bring the thing to birth and name it “laughter,” like He did with Abraham.
21 “being fully assured”, this is a description of “real faith.” Faith like a rock that you can stand on, a chair that you can sit in. There was no hope (in this life) that what God had said would come to pass. This is the “poverty in spirit” that leads to real faith. There is no way “we” can bring this to pass, it is all on You God, to fulfill Your word and I believe you will. That is faith.
22 “Wherefore” speaks of the fact that Abraham was building his life on and around this “unseen truth.” Faith is not just one element in his character, it is the cornerstone upon which his life is built.
23 The righteousness that gets credited by faith is a truth that transcends time. The event happened in history, but the truth behind the event, goes on and on. Only when an event is ‘divine’ in origin can it be said to be done for our sake, thousands of years later. God is outside of time and this transaction with man that He is enabling applies to all of humanity that do as Abraham did.
24 Truth is powerful. Jesus was raised from the dead, because of the truth of God’s word. Jesus knew He was to die and He knew that on the 3rd day, He would be resurrected. Do you see it? That event was life out of death, and this pre-cursor event is Abraham believing that life can come from his dead body and Sarah’s dead womb. Believing that God can do what He says, is faith.
25 Faith is the only way we can connect to God. Only faith can see that Jesus on the cross is paying for my sins, and only faith can “see” that His resurrection results in my being placed in a secure position of right standing with God, able to receive the incredible gift of His Spirit and power to enable me to walk the Christian way.
HOPE - Psalm 39:7, Psalm 130:7, Joel 3:16, Romans 15:13, Col. 1:5, 1 Thes.5:8 The helmet of the hope of salvation protects our minds, because it fights against the doubt that Satan is trying to constantly have us to entertain. “Did God really say?” is his deceptively evil sentence.
1 Tim. 1:1, Titus 1:2, 1Peter 1:3,
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