"O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey
the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth,
crucified among you? This only would I learn from you, Received ye the
Spirit by the works of the Law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so
foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the
flesh? Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain. He
therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles
among you, doeth He it by the works of the Law, or by the hearing of
faith?"-Galatians 3:1-5....
Let's talk a little bit of basic Bible doctrine here, OK? Justification by faith alone is as wonderful, yet simple a truth as there is in all of scripture. Think about it- You were separated from your Creator by your sin. You were helpless to do anything about it. God took the initiative in bringing you back to Himself by giving you His only Begotten Son as a propitiation for your sin. The word 'propitiation' means that Christ's death not only completely satisfied God's justice, in terms of the penalty for all of your sin being absolutely and totally paid, but also completely satisfies His wrath. It was all placed on His Precious Son.....
2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us, "For He hath made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." The sinless Son of God died on a cruel cross, then rose from the dead. Your sins- all of them- were taken away, and you were guaranteed eternal life by His very resurrection! Now what do we have to do in response? Does God intend for us to jump through some impossible hoops to somehow prove that we're worthy of His love and life? Nope- let's go back just a few verses in 2 Corinthians- It's so simple that we often trip over it! "....
God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:19)." OK, so what is our response to be to the God of all creation? The end of the next verse says simply, "BE YE RECONCILED TO GOD." How about that? There's nothing that we need to DO, we must simply agree with God that we are lost, and cannot help ourselves, and thus must rely ENTIRELY upon the death and resurrection of Christ. As you do that- fully and completely, with no attempt to help God out with your own 'works', you'll find yourself looking up often, and thanking and praising your Savior in utter wonder of His unfathomable Love, rather than constantly asking Him to keep on forgiving you, as if He hasn't already done so.....
The problem with the Galatians (in our first portion of scripture here) was that they began listening to and following the teachings of the Judaizers (Jewish Christians who taught that certain parts of the Law must still be observed by Gentile believers in order to be truly saved) who would visit churches that the Apostle Paul had founded, and attempt to refute the pure Gospel which he preached.
Of course, Paul forcefully defended the Gospel against this aberrant teaching, and while we would all like to think that we would do the same, in reality we still seem to think that Christianity is part Christ, and part our own works or effort. Just listen to believers as they talk about their walk with Christ- In many of us, there is a lack of depth, a lack of thankfulness, and a rather high opinion of ourselves- despite what God has clearly declared about our condition.
You know, you can almost smell self-righteousness. It has an unholy stench to it, a filth, a putrid stink. It is a rare Christian today who possesses the fragrance of the Rose of Sharon, who truly knows that it is all Jesus and none of themselves. These kind of believers exist, to be sure- but you have to look awfully hard to find one. When you do find one though, it is a beautiful breath of fresh air, and well worth the search, for in them, you will see Christ!
Our Savior longs to be seen and known in us- His beloved bride. It is all about allowing Him in- to the exclusion of everything else. Beloved, who or what do you want to present to this lost world- you, or the Law.....or Christ?
En Agape,
Jim Ewing
So you want to rearrange reality on an HD Vid? "In a development sure to send conspiracy theorists into a tizzy, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics (MPII) have developed video inpainting software that can effectively delete people or objects from high-definition footage. The software analyzes each video frame and calculates what pixels should replace a moving area that has been marked for removal. In a world first, the software can compensate for multiple people overlapped by the unwanted element, even if they are walking towards (or away from) the camera."
What did 1988 think that 2013 would look like? Here we are and there we were. Did we get it right? On April 3, 1988, the "Los Angeles Times Magazine" produced a special issue predicting what life would be like for a family all the way in the distant future of 2013. Believe it or not, the vision they painted was not that far off from the world we live in today.
Gav and Dan are at it again. The Slow Mo Guys placed a tuning fork in water and recorded the results at 1600 frames per second in their latest slow motion video. Science!
When a people are not grounded in the truth they will drift into all sorts of strange and unusual beliefs. Just the other day my friend called me up to tell me of a woman that we both know who has decided that the Bible is fake and that Jesus is made up. We both were amazed that this woman ended up in that mind set. Her journey there was gradual and yes it involves drug and sex abuse. Now here is a really strange belief that some people actually believe. They believe that penis snatching is on the rise. You read it right. These people think that someone can snatch your unit with just a hand shake!
TIL that in 1945 a man survived the atomic blast at Hiroshima, dragged himself to an air-raid shelter, spent the night, caught the morning train so he could arrive at his job on time - in Nagasaki - where he survived another atomic blast.
TIL In 1861 a slave took over on a confederate ship and delivered it to the Union. He later was given the ship to command during the Civil War. After the war he bought the house he was a slave in, and became a US congressman.
The largest banks in the United States face a serious political problem. There has been an outbreak of clear thinking among officials and politicians who increasingly agree that too-big-to-fail is not a good arrangement for the financial sector
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