Meditate in thy Precepts

Memorial Day Thoughts

Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus — Mon, 30 May 2011 15:03:04 +0000

The following is reposted from an email sent out by Pastor Bobby Mitchell, of MidCoast Baptist Church in Brunswick, ME.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————–

Dear friends,

The following is something I wrote for the church here that I thought might be a blessing to you too.

HONOR THEM, BUT WORSHIP, PRAISE, AND ADORE JESUS

Every American should honor those who died for our freedom. On Monday millions will do just that. Their sacrifice blessed us with temporal freedom and benefits. Their names should be known and their stories should be told from “sea to shining sea.”

Every soul that has ever lived should honor Jesus Christ Who died for our deliverance from sin and damnation. His sacrifice on the cross of Calvary was sufficient for all. His death and resurrection blesses all who trust Him with eternal freedom and benefits.

His name should be praised from pole to pole and “from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same.” His gospel should be declared unceasingly on every point of the globe by all who have been liberated by His blood.

Few are doing that.

The overwhelming majority of humanity have no gratitude at all for the price He paid to make their salvation possible. Many scoff outright at His laying down of His life and many more refuse to even hear of it and give it the least consideration.

Multitudes of others claim to thank Him, and even invoke His name in their lives and worship, but without true love for Him as they function in opposition to His commands. He clearly stated, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you” (John 15:13,14).

Praise the Lord, there are those who have put their faith in Him, and by His grace and poiwer they seek to serve Him from grateful hearts and with words of praise and thankfulness for giving His life for them. They cry with John of old, “Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever.” I thank Him, and bless His name that, by His grace, I can be counted in that number that has been washed from sin in His blood.

Someday, He will be acknowledged by all Creation. Someday, from sea to shining sea and all around this world, He will be praised. Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

From the frozen tundra of the Arctic to the steaming jungles of the Amazon, from the skyscrapers of Hong Kong to the to the slums of Haiti, from the rice paddies of Vietnam to the volcanic islands of the Pacific, from Rome to Romania, from Botswana to Brazil and all points on this planet, there is coming a time when the shout will ascend, “Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever.” The GREATEST sacrifice will be acknowledged and the One Who laid down His life for us will receive the glory due His Name!

So, this Memorial Day I encourage you to remember and honor those who gave their lives for our temporary freedom, but praise, worship and adore Him Who gave His life for our eternal salvation.

Whited Sepulchres

Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:18:18 +0000

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.” (Matthew 23:27)

Recently, I’ve been mulling over an issue which nobody really likes to talk about but which, if we’re honest, is not just a serious problem in unbelieving America, but within our churches as well – pornography. The impetus for this is an article which will be published this evening in Conservative Underground, a biweekly conservative newsletter that I edit and publish. The article was written by Dr. Judith Reisman, who has spent nearly the last three decades doing yoeman’s work against the legal inroads made by the Big Pornography industry. The article is entitled “Hello Bunny!”, and details the efforts made by Playboy magazine to “groom” teenage and preteen girls towards, ah, premature sexuality by drawing them in using imagery that is very, very similar to the “Hello Kitty” line of products that this particular demographic, for some reason, finds very appealing. This is done through products sold by Spencer’s Gifts, a chain of stores with no morals but many outlets in malls all across America. Chilling stuff, especially if you have, or plan to ever have, daughters.

This only served to illustrate, however, just how pervasive pornography is in America, that it can be openly “mainstreamed” in such a way. But yet, it’s not just a problem for “those outside.” We all know that porn is a problem within churches and among professing believers as well. If it wasn’t a temptation, we wouldn’t need internet filtering services such as CleanInter.Net. If we’re honest, we all can think of stories we’ve heard about pastors, or youth leaders, or deacons, or whatever, who have fallen from service because of an addiction to pornography. Pornography destroys ministries, and it destroys lives. Truly, as Scripture says,

“Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.” (I Corinthians 6:18)

It is an especially addicting sin because there is never a point where it reaches satiation. One can overeat, but reach a point where you can’t eat anymore. A drunkard can drink himself to oblivion, but will eventually stop when he passes out. Pornography doesn’t do that. It keeps demanding more and more of its addict, and a point can’t be reached where the body or mind is satisfied. Truly, it IS against one’s own body, because a person allows it to destroy his (or her, by the way) self.

My point here today isn’t to repeat the same old arguments about this issue. I’m assuming that most everybody who finds their way to this blog has already heard the Christian arguments against pornography and knows that Jesus said that looking upon a woman to lust is adultery, or that we are not to let fornication be named once among the saints, and that we should make a covenant with our eyes.

However, in connexion with my thoughts on the danger of this sin, I meditated upon the verse at the start of this post, Matthew 23:27, and find in it a warning from another angle.

I know what pornography looks like. What unsaved guy at a secular college doesn’t? I saw it back before I was saved. I know that the young women depicted in pornographic pictures are very appealing – they look very good. If that wasn’t the case, Big Porn wouldn’t be a multi-billion dollar a year industry. Yet, these women are spiritually dead. Within them is death and destruction, and that’s what those who look after them are bring to themselves. The Pharisees that Jesus criticised were, in their way, much the same – they looked good on the outside. In their case, they had a supposed “spirituality” that appealed to many as pious, yet Jesus knew that within, they were spiritually dead, and that those whom they attracted were being attracted to something that was spiritually destructive. The Pharisees, Christ said, would compass land and sea to win one proselyte – only to condemn him to spiritual death.

Likewise, the professing Christian who thinks he can partake of pornography without it affecting him spiritually is fooling himself. He is entering a whited sepulchre. The women may look good – but within them are dead men’s bones. They are drawing those foolish enough to partake into spiritual death – death to ministries, death to families, possibly even the death of perdition, if the one partaking truly isn’t saved and gives himself over to this sin.

So when you are tempted along these lines, consider also, along with all the other arguments about holiness and faithfulness, that to yield to this temptation is to ally yourself to death and uncleanness. That’s what you are feeding yourself, and are becoming. The Jews avoided graves ritually, lest they become ceremonially defiled by stepping on the ground surrounding a dead body. Let us always watch out, and avoid the dead men’s bones of pornography.

Songs from Scripture – Hark! the Herald Angels Sing

Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:37:20 +0000

Something I’ve wanted to do with Meditate in thy Precepts for a while now but haven’t is to occasionally feature a solid hymn, and examine it line by line, matching it to Scripture. One of the blessings of the Christian life is good Christian music that uplifts the soul and turns the heart towards God. The hymns that do this are the ones which speak Scriptural truths throughout.To get the ball rolling on this, and to be in tune with the spirit of the season, I’d like to take a look at Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, one of my favourite Christmas carols, packed full of wonderful truths.

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

Hark the heraId angels sing (Luke 2:13-14)
Glory to the newborn King (Matt. 2:11)
Peace on earth and mercy mild, (Isa 27:5; Hebr. 13:20; II Peter 1:2)
God and sinners reconciled (II Cor. 5:19-20, Eph. 2:16, Col. 1:21)
Joyful, all ye nations, rise, (Psalm 22:27, 86:9)
Join the triumph of the skies; (Luke 2:13-14)
With th’ angelic host proclaim (Luke 2:13-14)
Christ is born in Bethlehem. (Micah 5:2; Matt. 2:5; Luke 2:4-7)

Christ, by highest heaven adored; (Rev. 4:10-11, 5:11-14)
Christ, the everlasting Lord; (Isa. 26:4, 45:17; Hab. 1:12)
Late in time behold him come, (Gal. 4:4)
Offspring of the Virgin’s womb. (Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:25; Luke 1:34-35)
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; (Phil. 2:7-8; Hebr 2:9)
Hail the incarnate Deity, (John 1:14)
Pleased as man with man to dwell; (John 1:14; Phil. 2:7-8)
Jesus, our Emmanuel. (Isa. 9:6; Matt. 1:23)

Mild he lays his glory by, (Phil. 2:7-8)
Born that man no more may die, (John 3:15-17, 6:40; Rom. 6:23)
Born to raise the sons of earth, (Job 19:25-27, John 6:39, 11:25; I Cor. 6:14)
Born to give them second birth. (John 3:7)
Risen with healing in his wings, (Mal. 4:2)
Light and life to all he brings, (John 8:12, 9:5, 11:25, 12:46, 14:6; Rev. 21:6)
Hail, the Sun of Righteousness (Mal. 4:2)
Hail, the heaven-born Prince of Peace. (Isa. 9:6, 53:5; John 1:1, 14:27)

Come, Desire of nations come, (Hag. 2:7)
Fix in us Thy humble home; (II Cor. 6:16; Rev. 21:3)
Rise, the Woman’s conquering Seed, (Gen. 3:15; Gal. 3:19)
Bruise in us the Serpent’s head. (Gen. 3:15)
Adam’s likeness now efface: (Rom. 5:14)
Stamp Thine image in its place; (Ps. 17:15; I Cor. 15:49, 52-53; II Cor. 3:18; Phil. 3:21; I John 3:2)
Second Adam, from above, (I Cor. 15:45, 47)
Reinstate us in thy love. (II Thess. 2:16)

Sin IS a Doctrinal Issue

Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:07:55 +0000

“Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine...” (I Timothy 1:9-10)

Often when we think of the term “doctrine” we tend to think in terms of what might more properly be called “theology.” The Doctrine of the Trinity, the Doctrine of the Incarnation, the Doctrine of the Virgin Birth, and so forth. True enough, these are important doctrines, I would certainly not deny that.

But the verses above tell us that doctrine isn’t limited to the high and mighty theological expressions of the Christian faith. Sin is also a doctrinal matter, which is why Paul says that those who commit it are doing things that are “contrary to sound doctrine.”

I have a phrase I like to use, “Orthodox begets orthopraxy” – orthopraxy being, or course, right practice. The phrase is asserting that when a person has the right beliefs about the Scripture and what it teaches, that person will have the outflowing of right practice in their life. The obverse aphorism would be “Heterodoxy begets heteropraxy,” wrong doctrine leads to wrong practice, personally and in churches.

The statement about heretodoxy, we can easily see because of the cults around us. For instance, the Mormons, who have a number of wrong doctrines, do (or did) all kinds of unscriptural, wacky things – proxy baptism, polygamy, their strange hierarchical system, and so forth – because of wrong doctrine. Even things that are part of their religion that seem good, like having lots of kids (and as a pro-natalist who rejects the envirowacko “sustainable living” nonsense, I think having lots of kids is good, and hope to have several more myself), they do just a bit off, and it’s because of wrong doctrine – in this case, the unscriptural teaching on the pre-existence of the soul as “spirit babies” just waiting an embodiment. We could easily point to any number of unscriptural practices in many groups – the Russellites, the Catholics, etc. etc. ad infinitum – that exist because of their heterodoxy.

For a while, though, I had been revising my aphorism about orthodoxy with the qualifier, “Orthodoxy should beget orthopraxy.” The reason for this was because I was struggling to reconcile the fact that you can have people who are perfectly orthodox in their statements of faith, they’d be right on the money on all the “theological” type doctrines we could name….yet, many things that they do seem out of alignment with their profession, something just isn’t right. Hence, the “should” qualifier – you can be orthodox, but living right is a matter of bringing your practice into line with your profession.

But seeing the above verses again as I was reading through I Timothy recently helped to clear this up for me, I believe, as the clause in bold jumped out at me.

When we sin – we are being heterodox. Notice the order of that statement. I didn’t say that being heterodox is a sin. I said that sin is heterodox. When we do the things, or others contrary to Scripture, that are listed in I Timothy 9-10, we are acting contrary to sound doctrine. We are not orthodox, at that particular point in time, because when we sin, we are implicitly rejecting – in deed if not in word – something that the Scripture has said we should do or not do to be right with God. Even if we are right on the Trinity or the Filioque Clause or whatever else, but are allowing some sin into our life, we are exhibiting a wrong belief on some point of Scripture having to do with that sin. We’re saying that some part of God’s Word doesn’t really apply to us, or doesn’t mean what it says, or that it isn’t important, etc. And that is heterodox. That’s a wrong attitude and approach to the Scripture.

With this, there’s no need for the “should” qualifier. Orthodoxy begets orthopraxy. When we are right with God and desiring to live faithfully by His Word, then there will be that outflowing in our life as He works in us to will and to do His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13). When we’re leading divided lives whereby God has to share us with some selfishness or sin, then our heterodoxy is begetting heteropraxy.

This is why, then, open sin in the life of a believer is as much a cause for church discipline as is somebody trying to split the church by undermining the pastoral leadership or the introduction of some theological error. Sin introduces leaven that can split or damage a church as much as any other heterodoxy. The man in Corinth who was fornicating with his step-mother was defiling the church, and was providing an opportunity for others in the church – through their false idea of “love” through toleration of open sin – to also fall into error and to be puffed up about it.

What this means is that all of us – because of our sin nature – will fall into heterodoxy at some point, we will have a wrong approach to God’s Word on some issue that is the reason we’ve chosen to sin instead of resisting the temptation. While we may pat ourselves on the back for our orthodoxy, let’s have a little humility to recognise that we must be orthodox about sin as well

Some Thoughts for Thanksgiving

Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 03:29:01 +0000

“Forasmuch as it is the indispensible duty of all men to adore the superintending providence of Almighty God; to acknowledge with gratitude their obligation to him for benefits received…together with penitent confession of their sins, whereby they had forfeited every favor; and their humble and earnest supplications that it may please God through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of remembrance…it is therefore recommended…to set apart Thursday the eighteenth day of December next, for solemn thanksgiving and praise, that with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feeling of their hearts and consecrate themselves to the service of their Divine Benefactor…acknowledging with gratitude their obligations to Him for benefits received…To prosper the means of religion, for the promotion and enlargement of that kingdom which consisteth ‘in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost’.” – Samuel Adams, before the Continental Congress, November 1, 1777

Thanksgiving is perhaps one of the most desacralized holidays on the American calendar today. For many Americans, perhaps for most, this day will be about nothing more than engorging themselves on turkey and watching football games. Unlike Christmas and Easter, which have obvious overtones of Christianity, and therefore have to be relegated to the realm of non-existence, it is still possible in corporate America to wish someone “Happy Thanksgiving” without ending up in human resources. This has come, however, at the expense of understanding and acknowledging what the holiday is really all about.

As the extended quote from Mr. Adams above indicates, America is a nation that was saturated with reverence for God at her beginning. Despite the attempts by certain circles to deny this and to revise American history, any reasonable person who merely takes even a cursory glance at what our Founders wrote and said ought to be able to see this.

In turn, this is because our nation was founded upon religious freedom, upon being a haven for those who sought to worship God according to the dictates of their consciences. The first settlers, the Pilgrims, and later others, came here for this reason.

Indeed, they were these Pilgrims who instituted the first institutional time of thanksgiving to God. The Pilgrims settling in what was to become the Massachusetts Bay colony faced tremendous hardships – difficulties that would be almost beyond the comprehension of most of today’s fat Americans sitting down to watch their footballs games and eat their turkey. Half the Pilgrims who came over in the first wave died that winter. Of starvation and exposure.

Yet, they held on, and gave God the glory for it. They instituted a three-day holiday dedicated to praise, worship, and thanksgiving to God. Despite what the history books we learned from in school might say, they were not giving thanks to the Indians (though, of course, they did acknowledge and were grateful to them for their help and friendship). The Thanksgiving, however, was to God for His providence.

We live in a nation that is the richest and most blessed on earth. Any sane member among us must surely understand, however, that we do not deserve such blessing. The prosperity we have – in spite of the provocations that our nation, our government, our culture, our entertainment, our people, our churches, our seminaries make against Him – is due to the mercy and forebearance of the Almighty God of creation.

I urge us all to consider this as we go into Thanksgiving this coming Thursday. I do not mean for us to feel guilty about watching football or eating turkey. That was not my intention. But, let us think about the REAL meaning of the Thanksgiving holiday, not just the things that the world has tried to use to get our eyes off of that meaning.

Love and Obedience

Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:15 +0000

“If ye love me, keep my commandments.” (John 14:15)

I got to thinking about this verse the other day, and wanted to say a few words about it.

Typically, the way we see this verse approached is the opposite of what I think is the real logic of Jesus’ statement. Most often, I’ve seen commenters start with the latter clause, “keep my commandments,” and work backwards to the part about loving the Lord. In other words, keeping His commandments is something we do, and from that, the fact that we love the Lord is shown.

Okay. I can’t disagree with that line of reasoning, per se, though I do think the emphasis is a bit off. After all, what Jesus did is make an if-then statement. If you do one thing, then the other is shown. The starting point is the love, not the keeping.

The reason I am taking pains to make this point is because it is very easy for Christians to go from the backwards reasoning above, to a backwards outflowing in action. Rather than worrying about heart attitude, simply “doing” the right things becomes the focus. This was the same mistake that the Pharisees and the Jewish leadership made. They thought that they were pleasing God merely by going through the motions externally. For them, God’s law became 613 things you had to do just because. Because somebody would stone you if you didn’t, or you’d be put out of the synagogue, or be a social outcast and not be able to support your family. Loving God, as the Lord took pains to show when He confronted the Pharisees about their religion, was lost from the equation.

Now, this all being said, please understand that I am (emphatically) NOT criticising the things that, for instance, “young fundamentalists” and New Evangelicals will criticise when they talk about “love” versus “law.” Instead, I encourage us to consider that Jesus was telling us that the person who truly loves the Lord will WANT to keep His law. Not for salvation, but out of a heart-felt desire to please God. This is because – as we should understand very simply – obeying God’s Word pleases Him, while breaking it angers and hurts Him. It’s as simple as that. And therefore, if we love Him – if our heart’s desire is truly to bring as much honour and glory and pleasure and blessing to our God as we typically say we do with our mouths, then we MUST obey God’s Word. Anything less is a lack of love on our part. This begins with the heart attitude of love and gratitude – and therefore approaches Jesus’ if-then statement from the proper direction.

“Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors.” (Psalm 119:24)

“Behold, I have longed after thy precepts: quicken me in thy righteousness.” (Psalm 119:40)

Is this your attitude toward God’s Word? Is this my attitude? If not, it ought to be.

If it’s not, then we can’t say that we love God, because to love Him is to love His Word. To love Him is to be willing to obey even the least command of His scripture. To love Him and truly be submitted to Him is to be willing to accept that His commandments are not grievous. It is to be willing to obey even those “legalistic” standards that evangelicals and young fundamentalists hate so much – things like standards of dress that affirm God’s distinction of the sexes, or accepting that He has promised to preserve His Word and therefore we don’t need unbelieving scholars to “reconstruct” 95% of it for us. A person who is unwilling to heed the teaching of standards drawn from the application of God’s Word is a person who has already shown that they are not loving God in their heart attitude.

In short, complaining about “legalism” and using that as an excuse for antinomianism is not loving God, and shows that it doesn’t understand what love for God is.

Love for God is faithfulness with a purpose. It doesn’t keep standards and doctrines unthinkingly and by rote, nor does it reject those standards and doctrines out of a desire to give itself an excuse to please itself.

In a Position to Enjoy His Mercies

Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:12:59 +0000

I was continuing my way through the Psalms today in my devotions, and noticed these verses jump out at me,

“But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children; To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.” (Psalm 103:17-18)

These really drive home the demand that God makes on us for holiness, I believe. While God’s mercy is freely available to all, it is only had by those who remember His commandments to do them. The man or woman who keeps themselves from sin, and who positively seeks to live for the Lord, is the one who is keeping His covenant. There IS the aspect of a covenant relationship in Christianity – though it is not the Calvinistic notion of “the church replacing Israel” and becoming the heirs of the specific promises given to Israel. Instead, in our dispensation, each Christian individually enters into a covenant with God upon salvation, a NT analog (again, we’re talking about types and pictures here) to the covenant Abraham entered with God when He believed His promises and it was counted to him for righteousness. We, when we make the choice to trust on the Lord for salvation, and also making a covenant with God to devote our whole being to Him,

“What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (I Corinthians 6:19-20)

Maybe you’ve heard the old saw about “enlisting in the Lord’s army” when you got saved? That really is the case. We are not our own, we are bound to Christ by the covenant we made with Him when we repented, believed, and were saved. We now belong to Him, wholly and completely. We have turned it all over to Him, not just to rescue us, but also in that we’re submitting to His control and authority. Repentance is, in this sense, the choice made to turn the disposition of our lives over to Christ, to turn away from self-will and to accede to His work in replacing it with HIS will.

Hence, if we don’t walk with Him daily, if we backslide into some error and aren’t fearing Him and aren’t remembering His commandments to do them, then we are violating our end of the contract, so to speak. We can therefore not expect to have His special mercies day by day. Indeed, we can look forward to chastisement for correction.

I believe it is a biblical truism to say that God wants to bless us. In the Gospels, He is described as a Father who knows better how to give good gifts to His children than even an earthly father does to his. James says that EVERY good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights. I believe God delights in giving to us the things we need, and even many of the things that we don’t, but which are special blessings. I can think of times where God has stopped heavy rains, after I’ve prayed, just so as to allow me to walk inside the building at my place of employment without getting wet. It’s not because I’m anything special – it’s because He is gracious and kind and loving, even in little things.

But to enjoy these special mercies, we must not be under His chastisement – for that defeats the purpose. Indeed, in those times, the chastisement IS the mercy – the mercy of using it to call us back to fellowship with Him. To enjoy these special mercies, we must be keeping ourselves holy – separated TO Him, not just in salvation, but in our daily walks.

Using Prayer as an Excuse

Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:08:35 +0000

“Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” (James 4:17)

We had a guest preacher today at Calvary Baptist, since our Pastor is currently out in California attending the Word of Truth conference at Pastor Brandenburger’s church. Anywise, at one point while discussing the fact that Christians ought to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, Pastor Greene mentioned the fact that waiting for “specific direction” from the Spirit is often used as a copout for Christians to not do what they know from the Bible that they ought to do. The example he used was about witnessing, and people will not witness if the Lord “doesn’t lay someone on their heart.”

So true, and it strikes me that this is also often the case with prayer and witnessing. How many times have we heard someone say that they’re “still praying” about whether to witness to someone?

That, friends, is a cop out.

I submit to you that we do NOT need to pray about whether the Lord would have us to witness, whether to someone specifically, or “in general” such as when we go out on visitation. Surely, we need to pray that the Lord would give us boldness to witness, and wisdom, and the words to speak that He would use to draw them to Christ. But, praying as to whether we should witness in the first place? That is not a spiritual approach, that is simply an excuse to put off or ignore the Great Commission.

We have clear commands from the Scripture to witness. Anyone who’s been in a fundamental church for any length of time knows them. But, as James says, we can’t just know them. We have to DO them. And, when we have a clear command on something, we don’t need to pray about it, as if to use prayer as a “put off” to being faithful. Doing so, as James says in our passage above, is indeed sin that needs to be repented of.

Recommended: Studies in Ephesians

Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 22:22:15 +0000

For my readers, I haven’t put much up this month because the routine has been, ah, disrupted a bit. Hope to get better next month!

In the meantime, I’d like to link to and recommend that you check out Bro. Jerry Bouey’s three part series in Ephesians: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Enjoy!

God’s Anger for His People

Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:45:28 +0000

“In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, [even] into his ears. Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness [was] under his feet.” (Psalm 18:6-9)

You know what one of this things is that makes God angry? It is when injustice is perpetrated against His people. We must understand that, as God’s people, we are under His wings, and are partakers of His name and His glory. We are partakers of the divine nature, the Bible says (II Peter 1:4). We share in the glory that He possesses, and graciously gives to those who trust on Him,

“Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus…” (Ephesians 2:5-6)

The purpose, as Paul says further down in Ephesians, is that we might glorify Him throughout all ages, without end. By sharing in His glory, we are in fact testimonies TO His glory – and when satan and his forces attack us, it is not just we who are under assault, but really, God and His glory.

This is why God says that vengeance is HIS. Ultimately, He is the one being attacked, and He is the one who knows best how and to what extent to respond. But know this – He WILL respond. Even if it seems that His wrath against some particular evildoers bears long, we know that this person will, if they are not reconciled to God through Christ, will suffer God’s wrath for eternity in a Christless, fiery hell.

We have the obligation to seek to reconcile lost sinners around us to God through Christ, to be ambassadors. We must show love to them in this, and bear long in the face of oftentimes numerous provocations. Nevertheless, never forget that we serve a God who, if aroused to anger, is terrible in His wrath, into whose hands it is a fearful thing to fall.