4/16/14

From Jim McGuiggan... I like God


I like God

I sat around a table with some friends and asked them if they liked God. I'll spare you the details but the discussion that followed gave a lot of reasons why we "loved" God and were grateful to him and respect him. One person said they didn't really like to say they "liked" God because it seems to lower him or show disrespect. Though we knew there was a difference we had difficulty expressing the difference between the words, whether we spoke about God or someone else.

None of this was surprising, for don't we use words all the time that we "just know" the meaning of until someone presses us for a definition? I don't say that we should talk like suspicious lawyers and I don't even say that having a correct definition of the lovely big words we use is essential to enjoying fully what they mean. In fact, sometimes defining can be a blunder. As Percy Ainsworth somewhere said to a group of listeners, "I'd define that for you but I want you to understand it." (My suspicion is that we have over-defined the (especially) New Testament word "agape" and that it has lost a lot of its earthiness and contact with real life. Coming to Christ doesn't make us less human; it makes us more human.)

All the same, I'm sure you'll agree with our little group that "liking" and "loving" do have their own thrusts though they may now and then overlap or be used interchangeably. It's clear that like is a weaker and more limited word than love. But though that's true, the word like serves a purpose that the word "love" doesn't. It has it own peculiar province and we often hear it when we hear people say in a ruffled moment about someone they hold dear, "I love him but I don't like him." (I've heard it quite a bit when a parent is speaking about a child who at that time was being a sustained pain in the neck.) When we hear such a remark we know what the people mean even if we can't express very well the distinction.

I suppose it would be all right to say that to like someone means we find them pleasing, agreeable; that we enjoy being around them, that they strike chords within us that charm and delight us. These kinds of emotional responses need not take place in the absence of "love" but if we like someone we can experience those feelings even if we aren't committed to that person by a sense of duty or covenant or some more solemn and serious connection.

The word "like" is more surface, isn't it? And yet, it's not without its great depths. We don't honour the word "like" as we do the word "love" when "love" is used in its nobler senses.

In the movie the Man of La Mancha the squire (Sancho Panza) is delivering a message to Aldonza from his master Don Quixote. She thinks Don Quixote a lunatic and comes after the squire, pressing and demanding an explanation.

"Tell me, why do you follow him?"
"That's easy to explain. It's a...sort of crusade..."
"A crusade?"
"All those people in distress..." (he stammers)
"Tell me!"
"I'm telling you..." (more stammering)
"Why?"

He has no rational answers so he gives up and with a sheepish grin he tells the truth. "I like him. I really like him."
He goes on to say he's his squire and she asks how a squire squires. He says he follows after him, Don Quixote fights and he (reluctantly he admits) picks him up.
"And what do you get out of it?"
"Plenty, why I've already got..." (more baffled looks)
"You get nothing; so why do you do it?"
Beaten in argument but true to his heart he says and sings, "I like him!"

I think I have a real sense that God comes after us to redeem us from all that is evil and gloomy and that he means for us to live in holy fellowship but the idea that he doesn't "like" us, that is, find pleasure and delight in us—I won't believe it! I'll be hanged if I believe it! (I can too easily imagine Jesus laughing with his friends till his sides nearly split.)

Though I am and have been a great sinner I can't deny that I love God—that is, have made a covenant commitment to him in Jesus—but I can hardly wait until I mature to where I like him. I can't help thinking that somewhere down in the depths, beyond my grasp at the moment, that if we don't "like" God not only are we missing out on a profound pleasure we haven't matured in our love" because who can love someone or something and not find pleasure in him/her or in it?

From A.P. Staff... Watch the Archived Butt/Ehrman Debate

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From Mark Copeland.... When God Gets Angry At The Rich (James 5:1-6)

 
                         "THE EPISTLE OF JAMES"

                 When God Gets Angry At The Rich (5:1-6)
                                 
INTRODUCTION

1. Compared to many people in the world, we are indeed blessed; in fact,
   in comparison with most people who live now and who have lived in the
   past, we are VERY RICH!

2. Now, it is important to stress that God does not condemn the rich for
   being rich...
   a. Some of the godliest people in the Bible were rich
   b. E.g., Job, Abraham, Joseph, David, Solomon, Barnabas, Philemon
      Lydia

3. However, Christ does speak of the difficulty of the rich being saved
   - cf. Mt 19:23-26

4. And there are times when God is very angry at the rich, as in our
   text:

   1  Go to now, [ye] rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that
   shall come upon [you]. 2  Your riches are corrupted, and your
   garments are motheaten. 3  Your gold and silver is cankered; and the
   rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your
   flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last
   days. 4  Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your
   fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of
   them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of
   sabaoth. 5  Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton;
   ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. 6  Ye have
   condemned [and] killed the just; [and] he doth not resist you.
   (James 5)

5. As we consider this passage more carefully, we shall do so by trying
   to answer four questions:
   a. Who is James addressing in this passage?
   b. What is in store for these rich people?
   c. Why is God so angry at them?
   d. What applications can we draw from this passage?

[We begin, then, with the first question...]

I. WHO IS JAMES ADDRESSING IN THIS PASSAGE?

   A. ARE THEY CHRISTIANS?
      1. Are these rich Christians who had been guilty of oppressing
         their brethren?
      2. Possibly, but unlikely for several reasons...
         a. They are not addressed as "brethren" as is often done in
            this epistle - Jm 1:2,19; 2:1,14; 3:1,10; 4:11
         b. There is no call to repentance in this passage
            1) As there is throughout this epistle in those passages in
               which it is clear brethren are being addressed
            2) Here there is only condemnation!
         c. The brethren are not addressed until verse 7, in which
            THEY are told to be patient in light of what has just been
            said

   B. MORE LIKELY, THOSE ADDRESSED ARE RICH UNBELIEVERS...
      1. Who had been oppressing the Christians - cf. Jm 2:6
      2. This tirade of judgment upon them appears to serve the purpose
         of comforting the brethren who were being oppressed by them -
         cf. Jm 5:7
         a. The Lord has heard their cries - Jm 5:4b
         b. Judgment is coming upon these rich oppressors
         c. Therefore the Christians are told to be patient

[But even if this passage does not have direct reference to rich 
Christians, there are still things to which we should give careful heed.

And so, we ask...]

II. WHAT IS IN STORE FOR THESE RICH OPPRESSORS?

   A. MISERIES THAT WILL CAUSE THEM TO "WEEP AND HOWL"! (1-3a)
      1. So certain are these miseries to come, that James speaks of
         them already occuring!
         a. Riches are corrupted
         b. Garments are moth-eaten
         c. Gold and silver are corroded
      2. When this "corrosion" of their riches occurs...
         a. It will serve as a witness against them (that they were
            guilty of the things to be mentioned shortly
         b. It will eat their flesh like fire
            1) The anguish and misery of poverty usually affects the
               hardest those who were once rich!
            2) Thus, when poverty strikes, it will make them "weep and
               howl" as though they were on fire!

   B. THE MISERIES SPOKEN HERE MAY HAVE REFERENCE TO WHAT LATER OCCURED
      IN THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM IN 70 A.D.
      1. Not long after this epistle was written, Jerusalem was destroyed
         by the Romans
      2. Many of the rich Jews who had oppressed their Christian brethren
         literally "weeped and howled"
      3. What they had failed to realize was that they had heaped up
         treasure "in the last days" (Jm 5:3b)
         a. Like the man in the parable of the rich fool (Lk 12:16-21),
            they thought they were laying up riches for their latter days
         b. When in fact, it was the "last days" of the Jewish economy
            when they were so busy storing up wealth!
         c. Like some today, who store up for retirement and then die
            before they retire!

[The miseries that came upon these rich people were terrible indeed (as 
described by Flavius Josephus, an eyewitness of the destruction of
Jerusalem).

Even if it did not come in the destruction of Jerusalem, it certainly 
came upon them when they died, as it did upon the rich man in the story
of the rich man and Lazarus (Lk 16:19-31)!

This leads us to the third question...]

III. WHY IS GOD SO ANGRY AT THESE RICH PEOPLE?

   A. BECAUSE OF HOW THEY GOT THEIR WEALTH...
      1. It was through wicked means - 4
      2. Specifically, by withholding wages from those who had worked
         for them
      3. Just as some people today get rich through dishonest schemes or
         unjust labor practices!

   B. BECAUSE OF HOW THEY USED THEIR WEALTH...
      1. They hoarded their wealth - 3b
      2. They spent it on themselves with pleasures and luxury - 5
         (fattening themselves like cows for the slaughter!)
      3. They used the power that comes with wealth to oppress "the
         just" - 6
         a. Possibly a reference to Christ
         b. Or the Christian whom they also oppressed

[The manner in which they got their wealth and used it caused those who
were oppressed to cry out, and the Lord heard their prayers (4).  Now,
God who is just is about to bring judgment upon these rich oppressors!

Having examined this passage more closely...]

IV. WHAT APPLICATIONS CAN WE DRAW?

   A. WE NEED TO BE CAREFUL HOW WE OBTAIN OUR WEALTH...
      1. To do so at the expense of others will bring God's wrath upon
         us! - cf. Deut 24:14,15
      2. It is wrong to think that success can only come by stepping on
         others
      3. This might be an appropriate place to add what we learn from
         Paul in 1Ti 6:9-10
         a. It is not riches that are wrong, but the DESIRE TO BE RICH
            that is wrought with many dangers!
         b. Riches are not wrong if they are the BY-PRODUCT of our
            endeavors, not the GOAL of those endeavors!
            1) I.e., one may desire to be a doctor to help the sick, or
               a plumber because of one's skill or interest in such 
               matters, and receive riches as a by-product because of the
               value society might place on such services
            2) But to enter such professions solely because one's goal is
               to get rich thereby, then we are ensared by the love of
               money!
      4. So how do we obtain our wealth?
         a. If we do it honestly and in compensation for a job well done,
            then God is not displeased
         b. But if we do it by hurting others and by making wealth our
            primary object, then we are in danger of God's wrath!

   B. WE NEED TO BE CAREFUL HOW WE USE OUR WEALTH...
      1. To spend it on luxurious living when others are suffering...
         a. Is exactly what James has described in this passage
         b. Is an indication of the lack of the love of God - 1Jn 3:17
      2. According to the New Testament, the purpose of working is not
         to obtain wealth for our own gratification, but to help those
         less fortunate!
         a. As commanded by Paul - Ep 4:28; 1Ti 6:17-19
         b. As exemplified by Paul - Ac 20:34-35

CONCLUSION

1. Living in the country and society in which we do, we have much for
   which to be thankful

2. But we also have much of which we need to beware:
   a. We live in a society where it is quite easy to become wealthy
   b. We live in a society where covetousness or the desire to be rich
      are not considered sins
   c. We live in a society where heaping up treasures for our own
      gratification is considered an inalienable right!
   -- It is easy to be influenced by these values!

3. Perhaps we need to ask ourselves constantly:  Are we laying up
   treasure in heaven, or on earth?
   a. Those who lay up treasure in heaven are those who use their wealth
      to do good and help the poor and less fortunate - cf. Mt 19:21;
      1Ti 6:18-19
   b. Those who lay up treasure on earth are actually storing up for
      themselves miseries and wrath!
      1) Miseries...when their wealth fails them in their time of true
         need
      2) Wrath...from God in the Day of wrath that is yet to come

These are sobering thoughts worthy of our careful consideration...Have
you even begun to lay up treasure in heaven by obeying the gospel of
Christ?
Executable Outlines, Copyright © Mark A. Copeland, 2011

From Gary... blood moons... revisited



If you have been reading my postings for any length of time, you will have observed that I RARELY USE THE SAME PICTURE TWICE!!!  However, while I was reviewing facebook this morning, I noticed that brother Ed Healy had posted this (from the blaze).  And yes, I have used a very similar picture to this one in a previous post!!!  I guess what caught my interest most was the prediction of four blood moons falling on four Jewish festivals.  Coincidence? Well, maybe yes and maybe no. If no, then this is "much ado about nothing", isn't it? But, if yes- then God will do something extraordinary soon.  Either way, God still rules, life goes on and today is a new day!!!!  The thing is... people will always look for something sensational, something to liven up their humdrum lives. And other wish to take advantage of this!!!!  Consider what the apostle Peter has to say...

2 Peter, Chapter 3
  1 This is now, beloved, the second letter that I have written to you; and in both of them I stir up your sincere mind by reminding you;  2 that you should remember the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and the commandments of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior:  3 knowing this first, that in the last days mockers will come, walking after their own lusts,  4 and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”  5 For this they willfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth formed out of water and amid water, by the word of God;  6 by which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.  7 But the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.  8 But don’t forget this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.  9 The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but is patient with us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.  10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.  11 Therefore since all these things will be destroyed like this, what kind of people ought you to be in holy living and godliness,  12 looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God, which will cause the burning heavens to be dissolved, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?  13 But, according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. 

  14  Therefore, beloved, seeing that you look for these things, be diligent to be found in peace, without defect and blameless in his sight.  15 Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you;  16 as also in all of his letters, speaking in them of these things. In those, there are some things that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unsettled twist, as they also do to the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.  17 You therefore, beloved, knowing these things beforehand, beware, lest being carried away with the error of the wicked, you fall from your own steadfastness.  18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.
My advice about such things is that FIRST AND FOREMOST, we should ask ourselves- Am I right with God? If not, what am I going to do about it. People will say all sorts of things about God, the Bible and the future. The thing is... Let the Scriptures determine the path you should follow; NOT WHAT SOMEONE TELLS YOU!!!  The end of the world, judgment, signs in the heavens are really unimportant if you have obeyed the Gospel and have been given God's pledge of the Holy Spirit.  Consider, once again, Peter's sermon in Acts, chapter 2.  He makes mention of Joel, chapter 2 to show that we are in the last days so that those hearing his words would realize that it is time to make a choice. That is still true!!!!  SO, bring on the BLOOD MOONS, ALL OF THEM!!! God will do wonders with us as individuals and for that matter the whole world.

Remember this...

Romans, Chapter 8
 28  We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.  30 Whom he predestined, those he also called. Whom he called, those he also justified. Whom he justified, those he also glorified. 

  31  What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?  32 He who didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things?  33 Who could bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who justifies.  34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 

  35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  36 Even as it is written, “For your sake we are killed all day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”  37 No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,  39
 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Your day, your choice, your destiny- choose wisely!!!