A Great Reminder by Ravi Zacharias

 Ravi Zacharias reminds us that human beings are made in the image of God.

Transcript
“This first thing I want to remind you of this, is that we are told according to the Scriptures, prior to the resurrection story, that God is the author of human essence. God is the author, in the essential nature of our humanity. We didn’t come into being by accident. We just didn’t suddenly appear unconcieved or without any purpose in mind, but that God Himself is the designer and brought us into existence.

The Psalmist says, ‘When I see the heavens, the work of your hands, the sun and moon and the stars which you have made. What is there in man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you visit him?’ (Ps. 8:3-4) This fact of our creation is a vital source in enabling us to understand what it means to be human. It’s a vital source, giving us the generality of our essence, created in the image of God.

Some of you have probably heard me mention the simple conversation between Jesus and the one who was questioning him, trying to pit him against Caesar. And he looked at Jesus and he said, ‘Is it alright to pay taxes to Caesar?’ (Mark 12:14-17) The one question I wish so desperately Jesus had answered differently—then on April 15 you could be godly and rebellious at the same time. Jesus, so brilliant in his response, he says, ‘Give me a coin.’ And he took the coin and he says, ‘Whose image do you see on this?’ The man says, ‘Caesar.’ Jesus says, ‘Give to Caesar that which is Caesar’s, and give to God that which is God’s.’

The disingenuousness of the questioner is noticed in the fact that he did not come back with a second question. He should have said, ‘What belongs to God?’ And Jesus would have said, ‘Whose image is on you?’

Give to Caesar that which belongs to Caesar; give to God that which belongs to God. God’s image is on you.”

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In this excerpt from his message at Ligonier 2013 National Conference,

How Do You Apologize? (James A.E. MacLellan)

The current news out of Toronto involving Mayor Rob Ford raises the question, "How do you apologize?"  Back in 2006, Marvin Olasky, made some interesting statements about this.  For instance he wrote:

• "Requests for human forgiveness should be directed straightforwardly to the individuals sinned against.
• "Those who are caught should not plea bargain." (Some of what I said was true.)
• "It's not adequate to say, when criticized, I was just kidding."
• "It's also too bad when people to preserve their political or job status have to pretend they didn't mean what they meant."
• "Nor do two wrongs make a right."

The origin of the word 'apology' tended to lean toward self-justification, but today's cultural expectation lands more in the category of "saying your sorry." Marvin Olasky poignantly and brilliantly summarizes the best response to wrongdoing by a simple statement "to the offended human party and to God as well. 'I was wrong. Please forgive me.'"

My mother's sage wisdom taught me that when you say you are sorry, you are intent on not repeating it. Does this go without saying? She got that, I believe, from 2 Corinthians 7:10 [1]. In that passage, Paul, commended the Corinthians for their apologetic behaviour.  This is what he wrote:

“Just see what this godly sorrow produced in you! Such earnestness, such concern to clear yourselves, such indignation, such alarm, such longing to see me, such zeal, and such a readiness to punish wrong. You showed that you have done everything necessary to make things right.” (2 Corinthians 7:11, NLT) 

Did you see that?  "Do everything necessary to make things right."  That's a great standard for an apology.


  


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1. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

Not All Exaggerations Are Lies (James A.E. MacLellan)

When the fish story is exaggerated; and the white-tail buck scores bigger in the narrative than on the tape, that's a lie.  But not all exaggerations are lies.  Some exaggerations are called hyperboles. A hyperbole is a means of speaking that is intended to make a strong impression.  It is never to be taken literally. An hyper, hyperbole is immediately recognized by that reality. A hyperbole is an overstatement as compared to a situation that is understated. When you are stuck in the mud, up to the floor boards and say, "I think I'm in trouble here;" that is understated.  To bring in the groceries for your wife and say, "This bag weighs a ton;" is overstated.

"Jesus used a hyperbole to impress His listeners with the gravity of sin. It would be better to sever a member of the body than to keep it and go to hell." [1]

 ““Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’” (Mark 9:42–48, ESV)

Overstatements are not intended to minimize the situation, but to show its severity.  People who deny eternal suffering claiming that the Bible is just using metaphors fail to understand the role of the hyperbole.  But we who are Christians might also make a similar error.  Understanding grace and forgiveness may lead us to minimize the severity of sin.   "Jesus is not demanding the excision of our bodily members; he is demanding the cessation of the sinful activities of these members. Radical spiritual surgery is demanded. Nothing less is at stake than life, eternal life (cf. v. 47, where "kingdom of God" stands in parallel to "life" in vv. 43, 45)." (Expositor's Bible Commentary).

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1.  KJV Bible Commentary. 1994 (E. E. Hindson & W. M. Kroll, Ed.) (1988). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

How Do We Hear God?

"There's a fair bit of nonsense out there about how we hear from God. Some of it is superspiritual claptrap that devalues the Scriptures (as when people say things like, "Yes, that was a very nice talk, but I don't want information, I want revelation"). Some of it is plain arrogance ("God has told me this Bible passage, which the world's great minds have been studying and discussing for 20 centuries, actually means this"). Some of it is Gnostic bunk ("Yes, I used to think like that, but then God took me into his confidence about so-and-so"). Some of it doesn't make any sense at all (like the preacher I heard who referred to "the inner audible voice of God"). And some of it is downright destructive ("God has told me the reason you're sick/divorced/infertile/unemployed is because of this thing you did wrong"). Speaking as a pastor in a charismatic church, I understand the impulse to avoid such rubbish by avoiding "hearing from God" language altogether."

To read more click HERE.



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Andrew Wilson is a pastor and writer based in Eastbourne, UK. He is the author of If God Then What? Wondering Aloud About Truth, Origins, and Redemption, and you can find him on Twitter @AJWTheology.

5 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CATHOLIC THEOLOGY AND THE GOSPEL

With Reformation Day this week, it is a good time to remind ourselves of what exactly the differences are between the Roman Catholic Church and Protestants. Certainly on just about every single area of theology there are differences, but here are what I think are the five most glaring and significant issues that separate the Catholic Church from the gospel of grace:  

1) Justification
Evangelicals teach that sinners are justified on the basis of faith alone, and that ones’ faith is placed in the finished substitutionary work of Jesus on the cross, confirmed by his glorious resurrection, and that this is a gift based entirely on his grace.

To read more click HERE.

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Jesse Johnson is the Teaching Pastor at Immanuel Bible Church in Springfield, VA.

Pentecostal Pastor Supports MacArthur

"The issue of John MacArthur’s recent Strange Fire Conference (and forthcoming book) is all the rage in the Evangelical blogosphere right now. Truth be told, I’m impressed by the attention the whole thing is drawing. If you know anything about MacArthur you know he is a cessationist, and that he has promoted cessationism publicly for quite some time.

I gather the issue is not MacArthur’s cessationism, which is well-known. The issue is that MacArthur has thrown down the theological gauntlet. He’s not merely saying continuationism is wrong, he’s saying it’s wrong and dangerous. While I was not at the conference, reports I read had MacArthur likening Charismatics to Mormonism, saying that Evangelicals will challenge 14 million Mormons, but are silent in the face of half a billion Charismatics. This is inflammatory, perhaps even reckless, speech."

Pastor Joey Sweetswede is an associate pastor and volunteer staff member with Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, concentrating in Management with a minor in Philosophy. He earned his MAR in Biblical Studies from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, and is now enrolled in the MA in Apologetics program at Luther Rice University and Seminary.

To read more click HERE.

7 Arrows for Bible Reading

Matt Rogers is the teaching pastor at The Church at Cherrydale in Greenville, SC. His church has developed an interesting way to help their people read and understand Scripture within their small groups. I asked Matt if he would share about their tool and how it lines up with their discipleship objectives.

There is often a vast disconnect between the awareness of the need for disciple-making and practical tools that actually aid in this work. Three factors are essential: Scripture, relationships, and time. Discipleship happens when the life-changing truth of Scripture is infused into genuine relationships over an extended period of time.

Our desire was to create a simple, reproducible strategy that would facilitate this process. This led us to develop a simply strategy for small clusters (2-3 people) to meet together regularly and talk about the Scriptures and apply them to their lives.

The seven arrows of Bible reading were an attempt at developing a tool for proper hermeneutics to power these relationships. We did not want our people to simply talk about the Bible. We wanted them to understand the Bible and know how to apply it to their lives. Each cluster would read a predetermined passage of Scripture and discuss it using these seven arrows.

The goal was for the clusters to start by summarizing the main point of the passage as succinctly as possible, ideally in one sentence.

Next, the clusters sought to discern authorial intent for the passage by asking what it meant to its original audience. Since a text of Scripture can never mean what it never meant, it is necessary to begin by discerning what the text meant. Often this may require the clusters to consult other study tools or cross-reference other Biblical texts to arrive at the meaning of the text.

To read more click HERE.