Throw Out the Bondwoman and her Son

This is one of those sermons....one that I almost turned off because the speaker's voice "turned me off", however I was prevented from turning it off, and I listened, and I heard, and I was so very blessed by this message. The past week or so I've been dialoguing with Seventh Day Adventists, if you don't know who or what they are about, do a careful search about them and you will find that they are a heretical cult that tries to present itself as a harmless Christian denomination. It is not. They teach heresy, the worst twisting of scriptures to support a dead false prophetess Ellen G. White. Anyway, I'm getting side tracked. This sermon was like a refreshing cup of cool water after having the life sucked out of me by these heretics that refuse to see the falseness of their religion.

Please take the next 45 minutes to be blessed by this sermon, one that I know I will have to revisit often.

Morning and Evening Readings...

My morning and evening bible readings (I've been reading the Bible in the mornings and at bedtime since beginning of the year) have been a blessing. I'm in the book of 1 Kings right now, and notice things I haven't noticed before. The Bible is such an amazing and miraculous book! I am so humbled by all of the wisdom and paradoxes that are laid out for us to ponder and pray about. Until this reading I thought that the widow who gave Elijah the bread (her last) got bread and oil for the rest of her life. On this reading I see that the reason she was out of bread was because of the severe drought, and Elijah told her that the flour and oil would replenish itself UNTIL it rained again:



1Ki 17:14  For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the LORD sendeth rain upon the earth. 

https://wonderingpreacher.wordpress.com/2013/06/09/elijah-and-the-widow-of-zarephath-a-prayer/

The Pathology of False Disciples

John MacArthur nails it. Wow.

The Book of Acts

I just completed reading the book of Acts of the Apostles...again....and it was great to read it anew. There is so much packed into every verse in every book of the Bible that you cannot "get it" all in one reading, and often on the first reading you may focus on minor points that have no bearing on the main thrust of the message, and link various of these minor points together incorrectly and make a mess of the message, lol. That is why it takes years and several readings, and the gentle leading of the Holy Spirit, Who doesn't give us everything in one dose.

On reading it this time, I focused in on what the apostles were saying. What was their message? They were telling the people what they had witnessed in Jesus the Messiah, and that they were direct witnesses of His resurrection from the dead.

Here is a video of a young minister (he looks like a kid to me) expounding on the book of Acts. One thing that I enjoy from his message is the fact that many (just like the people of Jesus and Paul's day) were only interested in miracles and signs. This young minister, Caleb Schaller, says (24 minutes in) "the miracles were to confirm the message" (Acts ch 16) and "Christianity with no miracles would still have the message of sins forgiven through Christ, Christianity with miracles but no message would have very little to offer." Excellent point.

God Feeds the Ravens...

I love the way Pastor Dykstra preaches. He speaks honestly, and exposes that what God does is so different from how we would do it. He points out that the Bible says that God feeds the ravens, but doesn't do it in a way that we feed our pets. He makes the food available, and the ravens have to expend some energy to get it. God's love also requires something from each of us.

Listen to the whole sermon here:

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=923121784410

Yes He is merciful and kind, and yes He is HOLY (a very important part of God that many would rather forget about).

This sermon talks about worrying, the sin of worrying. We all do it, so don't flatter yourself thinking that you don't, lol. We all do it, me too, guilty. Thank the Lord, He provides these councils to help us not to hurt us. When we worry, we hurt ourselves. Everything He tells us about sin reveals that we abuse ourselves with our sin in one way or another. He shows us our sins not to be angry at us or because He hates us. He hates sin. He hates sin because sin destroys us. When He spanks us, it isn't because He is a hateful and angry God. Why is that our first reaction? Because we have a convoluted perception of who God is, and that He does what He does not because He loves punishing us, but because He loves us and wants to prevent us from heading for even greater harm.

 He requires something from us. Perfection? No.

 Trust.

 Trust gets rid of worry. Trust even in the most difficult of times. Trust even when everyone hates us or want to kill us. God still provides us through anything we will go through in this life, and in ways that we often don't give Him credit for because He provides for us indirectly. Trust that even though standing for what is right will get us hated, even by the most "loving" people....and God will see us through.

The Necessary Ingredient

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The past few days I've been cooking up a storm. Listening to a sermon given by Phil Johnson this morning on justification through faith, it suddenly dawned on me....faith is like "that" ingredient that makes the recipe. You cannot make roasted turkey without the turkey. There was an episode on "Everybody Loves Raymond" that brings this illustration to my mind. Doris (Raymond's mom) decided she would make a healthy Thanksgiving supper using tofu instead of turkey. She even shaped it to look like a turkey and made it look golden brown on the outside.

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 Raymond saved the day by ordering a real roasted turkey, and Doris had to admit that her tofu-"turkey" was a miserable failure.

*****

God gives us faith. Without faith it is impossible to be saved. Just like you can't have roasted turkey without the turkey, you cannot have salvation, no matter how much work you do to try to buy it or manipulate your way there, without the gift of God's faith. You might have something that you can make look like it. I've done some amazing things with tofu cutlets....but it was never turkey, and no matter how hard I tried to make it into turkey, it just wasn't. It might be something that looks similar, and it might even taste good, but it just isn't the same thing. So it is with a relationship to God. If that relationship is based on my works, my ability, my ANYTHING, it falls short of the glory of God and is unacceptable. It has to be me stepping out of the way and admitting my horrible condition, my depravity, my works earning hellfire, and that ability is from the Lord revealing this truth to me through the gift of His substitutionary life. The "not so secret ingredient" is provided by God to us for a true relationship with Him. 

If it isn't His life substituted for my sin I have no salvation, just like I couldn't have roasted turkey without the turkey.

You can hear Phil Johnson's sermon here at Sermon Audio.

Food

This blog is mostly for Biblical/inspirational posts....but food can be inspiring, and Jesus often used food as symbols for His spiritual messages, because He is about growing us healthy and mature and strong in our spirit in ways that nourish our spirit just as food nourishes our bodies. If you look to your right side of the screen you will find lots of my links, and toward the bottom there are links to sites that have to do with mostly cooking, and some that have to do with organizing and creative stuff for the home. One of the links is for the Big Red Kitchen. Hope you'll check some of these places out :) Recently (today) I see that Big Red Kitchen now has a Youtube channel! Yay! Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/bigredkitchen

Ok, maybe Bananas Foster isn't what you would eat for nourishment, but I am inspired to try this recipe...hopefully I won't catch my place on fire! :)