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Wow, check it out.  I am just so absolutely completely blessed, and so unworthy of such an honor.  THAT’S MY PHOTO!  HEY THAT ONE TOO!  All praise and honor and glory to God, in my Lord Jesus Christ, who has been faithful to me throughout the past year of grave difficulty, even my utterly turning my back on Him for a time…

http://www.wibuilder.com/wb-may-09/sindex.html
http://www.wibuilder.com/wb-may-09/top-projects.html
http://www.wibuilder.com/wb-may-09/milw-city-hall.html

“What exactly IS Calvinism?”

A beloved sister in the Lord asked us that question a short time back, over a delicious feast of ham sandwiches and potato chips, just before our departure for Ligonier Ministries’ 2009 National Convention on “The Holiness of God,” which featured a pre-conference “mini-conference” celebrating the life, legacy and theology of John Calvin, given that 2009 is the 500th anniversary of his birth.

I explained to her that my response needs to be handled with great care, so as not to misrepresent the theological genius that was manifest, by God’s grace, in the reformed theologian John Calvin.  Many folks near and dear to us in the Christian faith don’t take care to faithfully research nor represent what he actually taught, and have therefore labeled his teachings as “heretical” — which, by the way, when taken to its basest form, is Christianity’s word for “worthy of condemnation.”  And so, you see, out of respect for the Word of God, and secondarily, to the man of God, John Calvin, I must take great care, since I absolutely don’t want to mislead anyone in any respect.

Any statement beginning with “I REFUSE TO BELIEVE IN A GOD WHO WOULD ________________” causes me to gasp with great pause, in fearful expectation of lightening bolts and thunderings sounding forth from Heaven, for while just such statements are more or less expected among those who have not experienced regeneration from death unto life in Christ, they should never dare to be spoken among those who should rather submit humbly to the Word of God, over clinging to their fleshly, humanistic preconceptions of the character of God.  Oh Lord forbid me from ever being counted guilty of preferring my image of God over the truth He has revealed in His Holy Word.  And yet, it is our natural, sinful inclination, into which we so comfortably settle.

BUT… VERY simply put, John Calvin was a Frenchman born in 1509 into a family deeply immersed in the Roman Catholic religion.  He was nonetheless gifted, and driven by God, prior to age 30, to immerse himself in the reading, comprehension and apprehension of the Holy Scriptures and to produce what is typically considered, among reformed Christians, to be the consummate reformed (i.e. Biblical, and not Roman Catholic) exegetical commentary on the Holy Scripture, the Bible… at some point during which (perhaps in 1533) he was converted by God to a saving faith in Christ, and granted repentance from his sin — and from Roman Catholicism — for which we, as Biblical Christians, are clearly mutually thankful to God.

Therefore, it would seem that to consider oneself a “Calvinist” in the very purest, most orthodox sense, is to claim to be in agreement that Calvin’s basic school of theological understanding of the entirety of the Word of God.  To that, we are unqualified to give “two thumbs up,” for we have not explored the depths of Calvin’s exegesis of the Scripture.  However, strangely enough, that is typically not what one means, in Christian circles, when someone refers to an individual as a “Calvinist.”  When someone is labeled a “Calvinist” it typically means that they agree with John Calvin’s [thereafter undeniably incitive] summation of the doctrines of soteriology; i.e., God’s salvation of lost sinners.  And with respect to Calvin’s soteriology… at least at this point in our walk with the Lord and understanding of the Scriptures, we would have to say we’d more than joyfully grasp doctrinal hands with those who would call themselves “orthodox Calvinist,” with respect to Calvin’s understanding of the Biblical revelation of soteriology.

In Christian circles, Calvin’s “doctrines of grace,” more commonly referred to as “the five points of Calvinism,” are represented by the acronym, TULIP (explanation to follow).  What most Christians may not realize is that Calvin himself never established “five points.”  What happened, to the best of my very simplistic understanding, is that, after the publication of Calvin’s exegesis of the Scripture (even after Calvin’s death in 1564) a group of professing believers, led by Jacobus Arminius, considered Calvin’s writings and responded vociferously against Calvin’s doctrine of soteriology, which was pervasive in many shapes and forms throughout his exegesis of the entirety of Holy Scripture, and in steadfast retort, wrote up and published five points of disagreement.  Those reformed Christians who had approved and supported Calvin’s teachings on soteriology, in response, came up with five arguments against the Arminian rejections of Calvin’s soteriologic doctrines, which, as I said, years after Calvin’s death, came to be known as the “five points of Calvinism.”  Those who stood with Arminius in rejecting these doctrines came to be known as “Arminian” in their doctrine.

These “five points” argued on behalf of Calvin’s Biblical theological teachings are as follows, and are those which were formulated to defeat the heresy of Arminius’ original “five points” of dissention against Calvin’s doctrine of soteriology.  And I must preface these definitions with the statement that these are my own words, based upon my understanding of the doctrines of grace, which may hopefully make it easier for those who are simple like me to understand…

1.) That mankind, dead in his sin and trespasses, is totally depraved (not meaning he is incapable of doing anything “positive,” but that every bit of him - soul, mind, spirit, affections, emotions, motives, desires — is all tainted, or contaminated, by sin — that every member of mankind is indeed at enmity with God and therefore completely unable and helpless to turn from sin unto God without God’s intervention);

2.) that God’s election of lost sinners unto salvation was unconditional (i.e. God’s determination to save a people for Himself cannot be thwarted by the limitations of sinful flesh or bondage to the control of Satan, which is our natural spiritual condition);

3.)  that the effectual (actual, predetermined by God) nature, or intention of the atonement of Christ was limited (not in its ability to save all, but) in the breadth of its intent and effectiveness to save only those who had been chosen by God for salvation (i.e. Christ did not die potentially for everyone ever existing, but specifically for those the Father had given Him before the foundation of the world, in order to absolutely secure the salvation of those that God had determined beforehand to save);

4.) the inward call of the Holy Spirit upon the soul of a sinner chosen to be saved is irresistible — i.e., that those who are inwardly called, or rather, commanded by the Holy Spirit to “LIVE,” actually come alive, spiritually, as is illustrated in the physical realm with the coming forth of Lazarus from the grave at Jesus’ command –  and thereby, through spiritual resurrection, are enabled by their own will, now alive toward God through divine regeneraton, to repent and believe; otherwise they would never have the ability, nor the inclination to do so; and,

5.) those who were predestined by God unto salvation, elect by God to be saved, called by the irresistible inward command of the Holy Spirit, and who therefore, would inevitably respond in a positive fashion to the outward Gospel call to “repent and believe,” will persevere in their saving faith (which is altogether an unmerited gift of God), unto final glorification, the consummate manifestation of the salvation that is from God.  For Salvation is from the Lord, who is both the Sovereign author and the Sovereign finisher of our faith, which is a faith that leads to ultimate salvation.

More commentary on each of these aspects of the doctrines of grace, as the Lord grants me time and strength…

As I mentioned in my previous post, on my flickr photosharing account, I briefly posted a handful of print-screen images from MSNBC’s live video coverage of the “Miracle on the Hudson” US Airlines incident this past Thursday, January 15, and for the description on each image, I said, simply, “Praise God — what could have been a horrendous disaster resulted in all lives saved.  Thank you Lord Jesus, King over all the Earth, for your gracious mercy upon the sons of men.”  One positive comment has been posted, a simple “Yes, Thank you Lord Jesus.”  What a blessing that was to my heart.  To that, all I can do is reply, “Amen.”

Another flickr member posted the comment, “Devons nous aussi remercier jésus pour les enfants palestiniens mort sous les bombes de Gaza ?”   My response (which includes the translation from French to English) was,

“Thank you for your comment. While flickr is a photo-sharing community, and not a forum for religious confrontation, you’ve asked me a question with respect to my thankfulness to God for His mercy, and I will respect your boldness, and respond accordingly, without animosity. Whether it is wrong or right to thank Jesus in this forum is not a matter of discussion, because it’s always appropriate to thank God, without Whom nothing else would exist.

Now, I don’t speak French, so please correct me if I’m wrong, but according to Babel Fish, this can be roughly translated: “Let us must also thank Jesus for the Palestinian children died under the bombs for Gaza?”   If I’m understanding your point, the root of the issue here is that if we’re going to give Jesus credit for doing wonderful things that make us happy, certainly we are justified in assigning blame to Him when we do horrible things to one another.

First of all, although it is mankind’s natural sinful instinct, one must never be so proud as to pass judgment on the Lord Jesus Christ. It must be said that NOTHING happens outside of the authority of Jesus, for as God the Son He is also the Almighty, having taken on human flesh and then glorified; He is perfect in wisdom, understanding, and judgment, and is sovereign over all of creation.

We must not be so proud as to assume that anything happening on Earth is out of His control; rather than snuffing us out when we puff ourselves up and believe we are wiser than God in any matter on the face of the Earth (including atrocities against humanity), He graciously grants us just such opportunities to instead, humble ourselves before the Him, the very One who has the absolute power to either prevent, or allow, the wrongful death of anyone throughout the world. That being said, the Lord Jesus Christ takes no pleasure in the death of anyone, even His enemies. Jesus has shown us weeps when those He loves die, and He is infuriated when one person murders another. He created us in His own image, after all.

People murder people because at our very core, we are all evil sinners against God. Jesus said that all murderers have reserved for them a place in the Lake of Fire, which He created for Satan and his angels. However, He also said that anyone who hates someone without cause guilty of murder himself.

Yet He also tells us we are all God-haters by nature. And so, because Jesus is utterly perfect and infinitely lovely, we have all hated Him and rejected Him without cause… we are all murderers in His sight. We are all at war with Him, and are His mortal enemies. That really puts us all between a rock and a hard place, given that He is also the Judge of all mankind.

And so we are all condemned, for we are all guilty of the murder of the One most precious to God the Father. But because of God’s great love for mankind, Jesus (God the Son) came to Earth to live a perfect, sinless life in human flesh, to be hated, mocked, rejected, tortured and, eventually, viciously murdered by the human race (which He created to love Him, and to be loved by Him).

After three days, He rose from the dead (demonstrating that His life and death were a perfect and acceptable sacrifice to God the Father, a complete payment for the sin of anyone who would repent and place their trust in Him). He then ascended into Heaven and the Father seated Him upon the Heavenly throne as Lord and King over all of creation. The absolutely horrific sacrifice of Christ was God’s only acceptable payment for man’s rebellion against God.

And He freely offers complete pardon, and everlasting life and love, to all who will repent of their rebellion and hatred of Him, humbling themselves and running to Him for mercy and forgiveness. In other words, He made a way for mankind to lay down its murderous arms of warfare against a supremely Holy God, and make peace with Him.

When one considers this, no matter how horrible one person can be to another, mankind’s rebellion against God is a far greater horror than any wicked act of war, even against innocent, precious children of any race, in any place. Repent of your sin and trust in Christ; your sin will be forgiven, and your own bloody warfare against God will be ended. That’s a mighty awesome promise made by a Mighty Awesome God, to a bunch of murderers like us…”

As I asked in my previous post, please pray for these folks, that the Lord would open their blind eyes to see the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus.

On my flickr photosharing account, I posted a handful of print-screen images I took from MSNBC’s live coverage of the “Miracle on the Hudson” US Airlines incident this past Thursday, January 15, and for the description on each image, I said, simply, “Praise God — what could have been a horrendous disaster resulted in all lives saved.  Thank you Lord Jesus, King over all the Earth, for your gracious mercy upon the sons of men.”  I inserted a hyperlink to the truthislove.org site where anyone who cared to could read a clear presentation of the gospel of salvation.

I am astounded that the images have received nearly 2000 views, and I have asked my brothers and sisters in Christ to pray He will use it for His glory.  One flickr member posted a comment under one of the images, simply saying, “Yes, Thank you Lord Jesus.”  What a blessing that was to my heart.  To that, all I can do is reply, “Amen.”

However, another flickr member posted:  “STOP with Jesus ….If it was the hand of god the air crash should not happen,that’s all,!!NO….  […] Thank you for the great professionalism of the crew and thank the safety airline training and the efficency of the entire crew […]  What could have been an horrendous disasterresulted in all lives saved by the self control of the entire crew (technical and commercial)” 

I was somewhat taken aback by such anger to my thanksgiving, and felt it necessary to respond,

“Thank you for your comment, wherein you (having determined to reject the truth of God’s personal involvement in all things) felt it appropriate to command me to STOP thanking God for His protective hand in saving the lives of the passengers and crew on Flight 1549. While flickr is a photo-sharing community, and not a forum for religious confrontation (which you initiated, and which I will take no further in this string*), you obviously have some strong opinions with respect to my thankfulness to God for His mercy, and so I will respect your boldness, and respond accordingly, without animosity. Whether it is wrong or right to thank Jesus in this forum is not a matter of discussion, because it’s always appropriate to thank God, without Whom nothing else would exist.

Jesus is the Absolute Sovereign Authority over everything in existence. It thereby goes without saying that He should be thanked, given that He is the One who formed the heroic crewmembers in their mothers’ wombs, gave them their capacity to learn and grow and be airline pilots, enabled them to have the ability to act in an incredibly skillful way in a gravely serious situation…

That’s not to mention how Jesus kept the pilots’ hearts beating, lungs breathing, and brains functioning through it all… oh, and created the water they were skillfully able to land in, and the air that allowed the pilots not only to breathe, but also to apply their highly refined skills to keep the plane steady throughout the heroic act.

Then there are the geese that He also made, whose interaction started the whole situation in the first place. Well, we clearly don’t see things the same way. I pray someday you will see that everything was formed by Jesus, and for Jesus, and nothing exists separate from Him — not even those who hate Him.

And imagine, despite your hatred of HIm, if you would lay down your arms, repent and beg Him for mercy for your rebellion, He would actually graciously forgive you and grant you eternal life, peace with God, and His unending love.

And you boldly command me to STOP with Jesus, when He makes such an offer to rebellious sinners like us…

* I more than welcome any further discussion at my blog, a forum designed specifically for posting more extensive verbal commentary on subjects of a spiritual nature: http://blog.truthislove.org

Please pray for these dear folks, who so desperately need the Lord’s salvation, as we all do.

At various and sundry times since God had mercy upon us and brought us to a knowledge of Him through the biblical gospel of salvation in the months following the attack on New York City in 2001, I’ve asked the Lord to enable me to love the souls of men and women the way He loves them.  And in many ways He has begun to do so, in tiny bits, as much as I have been enabled to handle at any given time.  And yet, I have to believe that at times the Lord “tapped the pedal” a bit to stretch me more in this understanding, to teach me more about His heart toward mankind, whom He created in His image, and moreover, to begin to reveal to me more of His own character, and teach me to humbly submit to His absolute sovereignty over all things.   And I must say, through many trials, toils and snares, this year has been one of the most crushing seasons of the lessons I’ve begun to learn thus far in my walk with the Lord.  We asked the Lord to help us love others the way He loved us, laying His life down for us.  We also asked Him to place on our hearts those with whom He would have us share the gospel of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.  We began praying specifically for opportunities to share the gospel with those whom He put on our hearts.  For God’s gospel of salvation — from our perspective, as ones upon whom He has had mercy — is the absolutely best news one who is being saved could ever hear from the mouth of his fellow man.

 

One of the lessons He has painfully begun to drive home is that it does not come naturally to me to lay down my life for another.  It actually comes only after a horrific battle with my will, and at great expense when I rebel against His command for me to love sacrificially.  However, the most dreadful thing that really became clear to me in the past year is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ really isn’t “good news” for everyone to whom we proclaim it.  In fact, most of those who will hear the message of Christ will hate it, and not only reject Him, but reject the one who has carried the message. When a disciple of Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, calls men, women and children to repent (from what God calls “dead works,” i.e., from religion — even “Christianity” — and good works performed in order to please God… or from their denial of God brought about due to their disdain for His holiness, absolute authority and judgment), the person to whom they are preaching (through their response to the message) will either be made alive, confirmed in their salvation, according to the merciful grace of God alone… or confirmed in their condemnation, dead in their sins and trespasses, according to the righteous, unwavering judgment of God. 

 

For it is written, and begun to be confirmed in my heart, in 2 Corinthians 2:15-17 (emphasis mine):  “For we are the aroma of Christ to God [both] among those who are being saved, and among those who are perishing; to one, a fragrance from death to death… to the other, a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.”

 

My humble admonition is that when a disciple of Christ asks Him, in faith, to help them love a soul as He does, they had better also ask Him to be prepared for a response to that prayer.  For, as I have learned through this experience, loving a soul that hates God and His Word is, other than my having come to a knowledge of my own sinfulness, one of the most painful experiences I’ve known.  Multiply that by the fact that so many souls believe themselves to be at peace with God because of what teachers of false gospels proclaim — and the assurances they receive from believing false teachings — and it is a recipe for absolute heartbreak in a disciple of Jesus Christ — or at least, it has been, in this disciple.

But for the grace of God I would have cast aside my faith a thousand times this year due to the anguish of my heart.  My prayer now is only that I would be lifted from the dust and begin to walk in faith again, knowing that God’s judgment, and His redemption, is perfectly executed by Him alone, and I am but a vessel that He has chosen to proclaim that message.  I pray I will stop seeing mankind’s rejection of the truth as my failure to proclaim it, but God’s righteous judgment upon them.  I pray I will accept His righteous judgment, as well as His perfect timing.  I pray that my life, and how others perceive me, will not be a stumbling stone for those God is bringing to faith, and that I will not “bear false witness” by portraying Christ in a way that causes others to believe false things about Him, and drive them further away from Him.  I pray my heart will not be carried away in its discontent with the wisdom of God’s judgment, when it conflicts with what I presently see before me.  I pray I will come to a clear understanding that He works all things according to His purpose, and in His perfect plan.  I pray I will embrace the fact that knowing these things, the things through which He has allowed me to endure have not been an utter waste; for I would otherwise be without hope.

And I pray that I will, with Godly sorrow, and joyful hope in the God of salvation, consider the message of the God-hater whose video message I quoted and offered for consideration on December 23 — “If you believe [as Jesus Christ, in the Bible, proclaims] there is a Heaven and a Hell, and people could be going to Hell… and not getting eternal life … How much do you have to HATE somebody, not to proseletyze [share the gospel of God’s salvation, and the truth of His righteous judgment for our sin]?”

Oh go ahead and try it — it’s fun.

 Milwaukee’s Roman Catholic Archbishop Timothy Dolan recorded four Advent messages which were aired during drive time on one of Milwaukee’s secular (non-religious) morning talk shows, to which I tune in for traffic updates on my way to work.  The first of the messages was entitled, “Our Blessed Mother,” and it so deeply grieved me that I really felt moved to unpack it and expose the error — I mean, this was broadcast on a 50,000-watt radio station during the morning rush hour, and sadly, this highly respected leader of his religion is responsible to God for what each and every News Radio 1130 listener heard that morning, whether Catholic or otherwise.  Mr. Dolan, a seemingly jovial, friendly, lovable, otherwise just-plain-regular guy in the Roman Catholic religion (appointed by its “infallable” head, the Pope), said,

“One person always a part of loving, warm Christmas memories is Mom. Now, that’s certainly true in our natural, earthly family, but it’s also true in our supernatural family, the church.  Mary, the mother of Jesus, the Messiah, is our spiritual — our blessed —  mother.  She was rather essential at that first Christmas in Bethlehem, wasn’t she?  Mary, our blessed mother, is on our Christmas Cards, our stamps, underneath our tree in our manger scene… we wouldn’t be having Christmas without her!  She holds out her baby to us.  We ask — as we do with any baby in the arms of his or her mom — ‘Can I hold him?  Can I carry him?’  And she replies, ‘Sure! That’s why he was born…’  A blessed Advent and Christmas — See ya at Mass!”

If Mr. Dolan had stuck to his initial subject of “Mom” in the physical realm, there’s really nothing more to say on the subject — I mean, who can argue with Mom being a loving, warm part of your Christmas memories?  But since he felt it necessary to drag theology into his commentary, I’m bound by the Word of God to respond. There’s just so much wrong with his proclamation.  Is Mr. Dolan, who is clearly an authority figure within the Roman Catholic religion, presuming that everyone within the broadcast area is Roman Catholic (and would thereby unquestionably agree with him, because it is more or less required that they do so)?  I have to assume not; his message is clearly one specifically directed toward Roman Catholics and perhaps a few other Catholic denominational strains that believe the same way he does on this topic — because as I see it (as a plain-old ordinary Christian who believes the Bible alone is the final word on everything), Mr. Dolan’s message is a horrible perversion of the Name of Christ as He has revealed Himself in Scripture.  And while I don’t want to sound fanatical, his portrayal of Jesus Christ qualifies as blasphemy. 

I mean, first of all, as a Christian [the type that is according to Biblical teachings], my supernatural family is the true Church, with Jesus Christ as its sole head (no archbishops, and above all, no popes), and is made up of living, breathing folks with whom I have the ability to rub shoulders on a day-to-day basis, should I so choose.  My “spiritual” family is comprised of all of my fellow [Biblical] Christians throughout the world… Anyone I’d affectionately consider a spiritual “mother” would be one who (like my sister in Christ, Sara, did upon my conversion) would play the role of a mother, coming alongside me the way a mother would, and nurturing me in the Scripture, the things of Christ.  And so the fact that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a fellow Christian, in all truth, makes her my spiritual sister.  But she died nearly 2000 years ago; I never met her, and I won’t have any sort of relationship with her until I’m living 100% in the spiritual realm, and eventually, physically, in the New Heavens and New Earth.  However, I’ve got no maternal affection toward Mary, the mother of Jesus, because I never knew her.

Would we have Christmas without Mary?  Well, Christmas is a well-loved holiday, that’s for sure — and yes, indeed, mankind had seen fit to shamelessly plaster “a wee little Jesus, and a GREAT BIG MARY” (thank you Alistair Begg)a ll over our Christmas cards and postage stamps.  And of course, we’ve also made little statues of her for our manger scenes — we had to, because if our manger scenes weren’t at least conveying some semblance of truth, what good are they?  Joseph and baby Jesus in a stable.  Hmmm… What’s that all about?  But in all honesty, the holiday of Christmas isn’t necessary.  As Christians, we’re to remember and meditate on Scriptural truths each and every day of our lives – it’s our very spiritual sustenance (spiritual food and drink, if you will, as opposed to the eucharist).  The birth of Christ to a virgin who was the descendant of King David, as a historical occasion, was absolutely necessary for God’s chosen people to both have, and identify, their qualified, chosen Savior.  Mary was the virgin of Davidic descent chosen to give birth to Him.  It could have been another godly Jewish virgin but God chose Mary.  And so, she’s incredibly special — not because of who she is, but because of Who her God is, the God who assigned her role in His plan of salvation.

All I know and believe about Mary is what the Bible has said… which isn’t much, but it is absolutely crucial, because God chose to reveal it in His Word – and the virgin birth had to take place in order to fulfill the Old Testament prophecy — and for Christ to truly be the Son of God.  If He had a human father, He would be a mere human, but He was (and remains) fully God, and fully man.  I can certainly acknowledge that, having been chosen by God to bear the infant who was God incarnate, she was blessed greater than any woman, ever — I mean, CAN YOU IMAGINE?  Her obedience and submission to God absolutely blows my mind — but she wouldn’t have been able to exercise that obedience without God’s grace making it possible — because according to the Bible… by nature we, as humans (and that includes Mary) are all haters of God and absolutely rebellious in every respect.

And so we can praise God for the fact that He worked all these details out just perfectly, to bring His plan to fruition.  But as a Christian — as I hold to the sole authority of God’s Holy Word, the Scripture — there is no question:  Mary is clearly not my spiritual mother.  She’s my sister in Christ, because, while she was yet a sinner, Christ died for her, and God chose to save her and use her for His glory, as He does everyone for whom He died.

The next part is the very worst:  “She holds out her baby to us.  We ask — as we do with any baby in the arms of his or her mom — ‘Can I hold him?  Can I carry him?’  And she replies, ‘Sure! That’s why he was born…’”  WHAT?!?!  No, Mr. Dolan, Mary does not hold her baby out to us.  We do not ask — as we would with any baby in the arms of his or her mom — “Can I hold him?  Can I carry him?” Mary died at the appointed time, and has completed her role in God’s plan of salvation.  The Lord Jesus Christ (the Almighty) is God’s Chosen King and Judge, exercising Supreme Authority over all of creation, and He COMMANDS all men everywhere to repent and obey Him.  He is the One who determines the eternal destiny of all of mankind - saying, “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes.”  (John 5:21)

The Lord Jesus Christ is the Eternally Existant One who took on human flesh in time and space, and was born into the world as a baby, for it was necessary for Him to experience everything mankind experiences, so He could stand before God as the Great High Priest reconciling sinners to God.  But He grew, both physically and in the wisdom of God, to a perfect man, who was executed, died, and rose again in fulfilment of the Scripture.  He was also the one who, at the beginning of time and space, spoke and the universe leapt into existence.  He is the one who controls the galaxies, who maintains the planetary system, who monitors our climate, who gives life and breath to every creature and sustains it all.  He is God Almighty and we do not go to Mary to ask her if we can cuddle Him.  And He was not born so we could hug and squeeze Him.  He was born because we (including Mary) are all sinners condemned to an eternal torturous hell because we have rebelled against Him, and there was no other way for any one of us to be saved from that condemnation.  Man needed a perfect substitute to live, die, and rise in our stead, because we are so completely defiled from within by sin.  And the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternally existent Son of God, was chosen for all eternity to be that substitute.  To take upon Himself the undiluted wrath of Almighty God in the place of all the Father had given Him, and to set apart a people for God, who will live forever with Him in perfect sinless bliss in the New Heavens and the New Earth.  For without Him, there would be absolutely no hope for humanity.  Let us set the record straight:  That is  why He was born, Mr. Dolan.  Repent and believe the gospel, and God will grant you eternal life, for the teachings of your system of faith would lead one who holds to the Scripture to believe that you are on the wide road that leads to destruction.

• enclosure: http://www.truthislove.org/static_images/2008Advent01.mp3 2402335 audio/mpeg

As I made my way downtown through a veritable dream world of lovely, giant snowflakes this morning, one of my favorite songs* began to play and I wanted to share a few lyrics which may be an encouragement to my brothers and sisters in Christ who may be as weary as I am in this walk.  The song was inspired by Isaiah 55:10-12, and though I’ve probably listened to it a hundred times, it hit me right where I am.  It’s a conversation between the Lord and His servant:

“As the snow falls from heaven, as it falls in swirling showers from the sky, So is my word.  As the rains bring the water to the earth that is thirsty and dry, so is my Word … And the Word of my mouth, it shall not return empty.  It will bless the earth wherever it is heard.  This is my Word…”

“O Lord, when I am weary, when I feel the days I’m living are in vain… My God help me be faithful to the Word You have given to proclaim.”

“Proclaim the Word, and you will go out in joy, and be led forth in peace, and the hills will break before you into song.  So be faithful, brave and true, for I will go before you.  And when your earthly journey here is done, I’ll say, ’Well done.’”

And the “Well done” will be to the praise of His glory alone, for so many times this year I’ve simply given up.  But God remains faithful.

* “This is my Word,” from Depths of Mercy (Soundforth, 2007)

Penn Jilette, of Penn & Teller fame (self-described “eccentric magicians with a psychotic twist) is an outspoken atheist who’s dangerously hostile toward God and the Bible.  However, he recently posted a video statement in which he briefly discusses his experience with an individual waiting to get his attention at the conclusion of a recent show.  Someone approached him with a Gideon’s Bible – a portion, including the New Testament, Psalms & Proverbs:

“I’ve always said that I don’t respect people who don’t proselytyze… I don’t respect that at all.  If you believe that there is a Heaven and Hell, and people could be going to Hell, or not getting eternal life, or whatever, and you think that, aahhh, well, it’s not really worth telling ‘em this because it would make it socially awkward (and atheists who think that people shouldn’t proselytyze – ‘just leave me alone, keep your religion to yourself’)… Aahhh… How much do you have to HATE somebody, to NOT proselytyze?  How much do you have to HATE somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible, and not tell them that?  I mean, if I believed, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that a truck was coming at you, and you didn’t believe it — and that truck was bearing down on you — there is a certain point when I tackle you, and this is is more important than that…”

I’d encourage you to view the entire video statement (it’s just a few minutes long) on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JHS8adO3hM; but first:  THEOLOGY ALERT:  The responses posted to this video are from a variety of individuals ranging from extreme atheists, to agnostics, to deists, to all sorts of professing Christians — and in the case of the professing Christians, a GREAT DEAL of them don’t have their Theology straight, especially with respect to who, and how, God saves sinful people.  Next, a quick PROFANITY ALERT:  The video itself is rated G… but keep the young’uns and the otherwise tenderhearted from scrolling down and reading the retorts posted by a few other atheists.  Penn’s warmhearted description of the character of the man who loved him enough to give him the Bible was a rebuke to me — could anyone with whom I’ve shared the gospel of Jesus Christ honestly say such things about me?   Well, Lord, may it be so going forward, and thank you for your forgiveness for all the times I’ve failed to truthfuly represent the character of Christ, and even profaned Your holy name by my conduct.

Reading and believing the Bible as God’s final word on what’s true and what’s not puts a whole new spin on listening to popular holiday songs.  The other day (chuckling) my husband called and asked me if I’d ever considered the lyrics of “Here Comes Santa Claus.” I remember singing this with gusto as a child but never gave any thought as to whether to question its claims.  Given, if the song would do its job and stick to relaying fantasy in a fun little holiday ditty, I’d have nothing to do but shrug my shoulders and say, “Whatever…” BUT, but since the writer went so far as to bring the name of the Lord into it, my Book says it’s fair game… so here goes, beginning with Verse One:

Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus, Right down Santa Claus Lane; Vixen and Blitzen and all his reindeer, Pullin’ on the reins; Bells are ringin’, children singin,’ All is merry and bright; Hang your stockings and say your prayers, ‘Cause Santa Claus comes tonight!  (Okay, fine, if someone is really feels they want to sing this song, it could thus far be considered a lighthearted, relatively harmless little fairy tale about festive happenings the land of make believe.)

On to Verse Two… Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus, Right down Santa Claus Lane; He’s got a bag that’s filled with toys, For boys and girls again; Hear those sleigh bells jingle jangle, Oh what a beautiful sight; So jump in bed and cover your head, ‘Cause Santa Claus comes tonight!  (Obviously “beautiful” is in the eye of the beholder; anyway, this is just more fanciful imagery about an imaginary giant gift-giving elf.  This could be a good segway for me to go off on the fact that in the tradition of Santa Claus, children are encouraged to be good because Santa’s watching, rather than being good because God is watching… however, that doctrine is not clearly stated in this tune.  Does it occur to anyone that this “jolly old elf” [imaginary as he may be] then bogarts the credit for bringing all the stuff that mom and dad actually toiled to provide — not to mention God who made it all possible?)

Beginning in Verse Three, the author determined to introduce some downright falty Theology and that’s where I’ve got to draw the line… Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus, Right down Santa Claus Lane; He doesn’t care if you’re rich or poor, He loves you just the same (It’s a feel-good, happy thought, that this imaginary elf loves everyone whether wealthy or destitute — and it even may make someone’s bummer wane for a season.  However, that does not negate the truth that Santa Claus doesn’t exist, and therefore can’t love me, so this consolation is utterly empty and useless to me in the depths of the December blues.  In reality, when I consider the truth that the living God knows everything I’ve ever done or thought, and even all of my sinful motives (all of which condemned me) – and still loves me just the same — not on account of anything I’ve done, or anything lovable in me, but because He chose to set His love upon me, on account of Christ alone… well, that’s a sound place to drop my anchor); Santa Claus knows we’re all God’s children, that makes everything right (First off, Santa doesn’t know anything because he doesn’t exist.  And besides, if he did, I’d have to claim that he’s got his facts all wrong.  It may not sound very “Christmasy,” but Jesus [God incarnate] Himself has made it abundantly clear that we’re not all God’s children… making some deeply sobering, even blood-chilling statements that most of us aren’t His.  I could give the song a hearty Amen if it said we’re all God’s creatures, but the fact is that it just doesn’t say that.  And so, no, what Santa claims to know doesn’t make anything right — because it’s not true.  That we are all God’s children is a flat-out, feel-good lie that gives little children a false sense of hope and peace, and serves to mask the conscience of really nice people who are in desperate need of making peace with God); So fill your hearts with Christmas cheer (Huh? Egg nog?  Hot toddy?  I digress), ‘Cause Santa Claus comes tonight! (Yeah!)

And finally, Verse Four… Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus, Right down Santa Claus Lane; He’ll come around when the chimes ring out, That it’s Christmas morn again (Whatever…); Peace on earth will come to all (no, that’s another lie because [once again, I’m departing from the “Christmasy” spirit] the Bible clearly teaches that peace on earth will not come to all — God’s abundant peace is only offered to those upon whom His favor rests), If we just follow the light (Light?  What light?  Rudolph’s nose?  We’re commanded to repent, obey and follow the Lord Jesus Christ — Who, in actuality, is the Light of the World, but the song doesn’t see fit to mention that tiny little [absolutely crucial] detail); So let’s give thanks to the Lord above, That Santa Claus comes tonight! (Why even waste the space, to call folks to thank the Lord for Santa coming… when Santa doesn’t exist and isn’t really coming?  Wouldn’t God be right in deeming one insane, who thanked Him for something like that?  Why not thank Him for all His actual blessings and provisions, of which we are all actually recipients, in reality — things like keeping the planet in its orbit, giving to us (and sustaining) our lives, providing food and shelter, sending rain upon the earth, for moderating our climate with the sun, moon and clouds?  And what about thanking Him that Christ is coming again one day to judge the world and take God’s children into their eternal rest?  Well, never mind that, right now we’re just having fun and thanking God for SANTA — because he loves us no matter what, and brings us everything we want.)

Seriously now… Why not rather thank the Lord that, He, God Almighty, humbled Himself to take on human flesh a little over 2,000 years ago in the form of His Son, The Lord Jesus Christ, born as a baby to a virgin in Bethlehem, in fulfillment of the prophetic Scriptures?

Why not rather thank God that He, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, condescended to come to this earth and live a sinless life in perfect obedience and submission, in accordance with His own Law and God’s required righteousness (without which no one will see God)?  Why not rather thank God that He, in the person of Christ, then offered Himself (through a gruesome execution on a wooden cross at the hands of evil men), as a substitutionary payment for the sins of all who would repent and place their trust in Christ?  Why not rather thank Him that because God accepted this payment and raised Christ to life again to demonstrate that in this one act of perfect righteousness, the debt was paid in full, once and for all — so that all who repent of their sin and trust in Christ (trading their condemning guilt toward God for Christ’s perfect righteousness), would instantly be granted everlasting peace with God, be adopted by God the Father as one of His own dearly beloved children, receive complete forgiveness and cleansing of sin and guilt, and rest in God’s fail-proof, unalterable, irrevocable promise of life eternal — with the wrath of God against them having been poured out completely and undiluted upon His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ?

HO HO HO… indeed.

I’ve begun to post some of the photographs the Lord has allowed me to take at the Milwaukee City Hall Restoration Project throughout the course of the past year as I’ve been learning to use the new digital camera.

The first installment focuses upon the workers themselves (the best part of the whole project, but sadly, I only began to focus on the worker photos in late March of 2008) and I’ve been feverishly adding to it as the project has now drawn to a close:  Here’s the link:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/truthislove_org/sets/72157607927413582/.

I have now begun to post photos of the building and work site, and will continue, throughout the coming months, to sift through my nearly 6000 photographs, and upload those you might enjoy, as the Lord grants me the time and strength, should it be His will that I continue to do so.  The “building and work site” photos are now in the set located at:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/truthislove_org/sets/72157610969289952/.

Love you all, and miss you… Paula

My mother recently came across a box of leaves she helped me preserve by dipping them in paraffin wax back in 1975 — 33 years ago — WHEN I WAS 8 YEARS OLD.  She laid them out and took a photo with her digital camera and sent it to me… Isn’t that cool?

A visitor recently asked how what I believe (i.e. the faith that brings salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ, which has been revealed in its entirety in the Holy Scripture of the Bible) differs from that of Mormons, Muslims and the like, given that they all claim that their holy writings are true.  I am thankful that he took the time to not only visit this blog, but to post his comment.  May the Lord draw him by His Spirit, if indeed he is truly seeking the truth, for it is written that a man or woman is only able to seek the one true God if that same God is already drawing them unto Himself. 

So, what IS the difference between all other religions and their “holy books,” and **Biblical** Christianity?  The Bible has proven itself true through its hundreds of specifically fulfilled prophesies (some 300 of which were fulfilled by Jesus Christ Himself); its historical consistencies and even through the continually revealed discoveries of geologists and other scientists. Not only that, those individuals who have heard the gospel of God’s gracious salvation and come to repent and place their faith in the Christ — who has been revealed in the Scripture in varying degrees since the foundation of the earth — have all experienced a change in their very nature… once ignorant and rebellious against the things of God, relishing in the things that bring about the wrathful judgment of God, they become sorrowful for their sin, their rebellion against Him. They hunger for the knowledge of Him through His written word, the Bible, and they find themselves seeking out others who are like-minded, the body of Christ. Faith in the Christ of God differs from all other religions (or irreligions, for that matter) in that religion is man’s desire to either perform acts to make himself pleasing to God, and irreligion is man’s determination to please himself through his own perceptions of reality, according to the passions and understandings of one’s own heart.  That being said…

Salvation from eternal condemnation through faith in Christ Jesus (i.e. true Christianity) is a God-given revelation of the utter depravity of one’s own nature through the preaching of His eternal gospel.  It is the realization that one has rebelled against an eternally holy and righteous creator God and is justly condemned for their transgression of His law. All human beings are born under the slavery of sin — we are unable to do anything but transgress God’s holy and perfect standard of righteousness as revealed in His Law. Because of this God has righteously judged us all as worthy of condemnation.  The Bible also teaches that this very law, or standard of righteousness with its ensuing judgment, has been written upon the hearts of all those whom God has created, and that His glory has also been physically manifest through what has been created — so that all men and women are without excuse.

The Bible teaches that before the foundation of the earth, God chose a people to be saved from this condemnation, by His grace alone. These people are completely undeserving of His salvation, but He decreed to save them so that throughout all eternity, they will worship Him and rejoice in Him for His grace and mercy. All others, who remain under His holy and divine wrath, due to their willing sin against Him, are passed over and allowed to face the eternal judgment that we all deserve due to our rebellion against our Creator.

The way that God makes this salvation possible is by having taken upon Himself the form of man, in the person of Christ Jesus. He Himself faced all of the temptations known to humankind, but was without sin. Because He was the chosen one of God, He then obediently offered Himself as an atoning sacrifice in place of all sinners whom God had chosen as His own. He submitted Himself into the hands of sinners, who mocked Him, whipped Him, tore the flesh from His bones, spat upon Him and after having fully tortured Him, finally, nailed Him to a cross, in fulfillment of the prophecies of the Bible, for the eternal forgiveness and salvation of all that God the Father had given to Him would repent, place their trust in Him and His righteousness, receive the promised Holy Spirit who marks us until the final day of judgment, and be eternally saved. That is the difference between religion and salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ.

For His Glory alone, I beg of you, be reconciled to God through repentance and faith in Christ, whom He has clearly revealed is our only hope of salvation from the sin that condemns us all.  All who repent and trust in Christ demonstrate that they have been chosen by God for salvation, and will be forgiven of all their sin, due to the righteousness of Christ, and eternally saved.

You profess faith in Christ.  But are you an “almost Christian” due to the fact that you have “believed” an incomplete or false gospel?  It is sobering to consider all the proclamations of the gospel in the New Testament that equate repentance with true saving faith… especially as we look out into the vast sea of American evangelicalism which preaches “just believe in Jesus” and you’ll be saved (or, for that matter, the denominational teaching – in which we both formerly placed our faith and hope — of “just be baptized into this denomination” and you’ll be on the path of salvation).

This sermon, preached by Dr. Steven J. Lawson, is an exposition of the New Testament gospel preaching of John the Baptist, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Apostles and other other inspired writers of New Testament Scripture, which clearly make REPENTANCE (a radical, supernatural change in mind… leading to a radical change in will (or heart/affections)… leading to a radical change in regular behavior) a necessary condition of, and an affirming fruit (consequence, or evidence) of true, saving faith wrought in God’s effectual, electing command that an individual “be made alive unto Christ” by the grace of God alone, through saving faith that God alone can provide.

• enclosure: http://www.christfellowshipbaptist.org/sermons/20040321_pm_lawson.mp3 11575296 audio/mpeg

As I was pulling a tarp off of some hay bales this afternoon I found a little garter snake basking in the warm darkness.  I’ve always loved worms and snakes and slugs and caterpillars and crabs and crayfish and newts and stuff like that.  So I asked my husband if we could keep him… and he said yes.  And I’ve called him Squishy because that’s the first thing that came to mind — “I will call you Squishy.”Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.  The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you WILL SURELY DIE.”  (Genesis 2:15-17, on the first Command of God)Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”  The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” The serpent said to the woman, “You SURELY WILL NOT DIE! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.  When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.  (Genesis 3:1-6… on the Fall of Man)

My husband and I don’t do a lot of “dating” as we really enjoy just being at home, and quite frankly, dining establishments tend to offer far much more audio-visual stimulation than I am able to stand, having been graciously plucked out of the wild life by the Lord.

But Paul felt impelled to take me on a date to the film, “FIREPROOF,” last night (talk about sticker shock — $19.00 for the movie tickets and around $20.00 for a teensy little [delicious] pepperoni pizza, an order of cheese fries, a small popcorn and two junior Pepsis!).  I highly recommend it to anyone who is married, or who is considering marriage (please act quickly as, because it is a somewhat low-budget Christian film, it will undoubtedly be forced out of the theaters soon due to low viewership).

By the way, this film is brough to us by the same folks who produced both Facing the Giants and Flywheel, and it stars Way of the Master co-host Kirk Cameron in a role much more realistic than the one he played in the fictional Left Behind series (which I don’t recommend, as I believe that the interpretation of “end time” Scripture it portrays thoroughly obliterates the original, glorious intent of the book of the Revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Just my humble two cents.)

Anyway, if you miss FIREPROOF in the theaters, I want to encourage you to consider renting or purchasing a DVD copy at some point.  Throughout the nine years of our marriage (and especially since God graciously and mercifully converted us to faith in Christ, despite our hearts’ radical inclinations in the opposite direction) my husband has loved me as Christ loves those who most often despise Him, as best as he has been able to, even through the most ugly and difficult times, when I have been most despicable and unlovable.  At more times than I can count, since the Lord God revealed Himself through His gospel around January of 2002, my husband’s sacrificial love for me has only been possible because Christ has loved me through him, a man who may otherwise have thrown in the towel due to my sinful tendencies [revealed undeniably through excruciating tests and trials].  And Christ has loved him through me, a woman who would otherwise have left him in the dust due to the sinful tendencies that still reside within him.

Here is a movie trailer link for FIREPROOF:  Never Leave Your Partner Behind: http://www.fireproofthemovie.com/; I strongly encourage watching the “Behind the Scenes” video sample as well.  Ah heck, check out all the video offerings there… it couldn’t hurt none.

 “This is the day the LORD has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it!” (Psalm 118:24)

 16For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

 18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

19For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

21For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

 24Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

 26For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

 28And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

 1Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. 2We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. 3Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God?

4Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? 5But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

 6 He will render to each one according to his works: 7to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. 9There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, 10but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. 11For God shows no partiality.

 12For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 13For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. 14For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them 16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

There’s hope — Read more…

Highly recommended listening for all who call themselves Christian:  Mike Corley, on his internet radio program yesterday, featured a recent sermon by his Pastor (Scott Reiber of Westminster Presbyterian Church of Vicksburg, Mississippi) entitled, The Grace of God and our Disobedience in which professing believers are exhorted to examine whether their “faith” in Christ is…

1.)  A saving faith, according to the truth of God’s Word, or

2.)  A deception, according to a gospel that does not demand a supernatural (Holy Spirit executed) radical change in the heart and mind of the believer in response to the preaching of the gospel.

• enclosure: http://www.wqbc.net/mcpaudio/mcp20080923.mp3 20111833 audio/mpeg

Over the past few weeks, we’ve noticed that tiny heaps of pea gravel and sand have been excavated from between our patio blocks.  This weekend we caught the culprit in the act…

O LORD, how many are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all; The earth is full of Your possessions. There is the sea, great and broad, In which are swarms without number, Animals both small and great. There the ships move along, And Leviathan, which You have formed to sport in it. They all wait for You To give them their food in due season. You give to them, they gather it up; You open Your hand, they are satisfied with good. You hide Your face, they are dismayed; You take away their spirit, they expire And return to their dust. (Psalm 104:24-29)

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me.  (Psalm 139:7-10)

Have you ever gone to the local gourmet market (oh, say, Brennan’s for example) and bought something you typically wouldn’t — and leave it on the counter, only to find it almost completely ruined by the precious yet carnivorous — er, omniverous – animals you willingly allow to dwell within your four walls?  We think it’s safe there… because it’s so high up, and they’re so short, right?

 

This is a post long overdue.  My [WORLD FAMOUS AUTHOR and] dear sister in the Lord, Kitty Foth-Regner (a former atheist/agnostic, secular feminist), has recently partnered with Thomas Nelson, Inc. in publishing the autobiographical tale of her conversion to faith in Christ, entitled, Heaven Without Her, detailing in a poignant memoir how our Sovereign God the Father drew her out of her condition of rebellion against Him, and by the power of the Holy Spirit granted her salvation through repentant faith in the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Kitty’s memoir welcomes the reader into a personal pathway of heartwrenching circumstances, centered upon the death of her dearly beloved mother, a devout Christian… a path upon which He walked alongside her until He brought her to a saving knowledge of Himself.

Kitty tirelessly investigated all the evidence provided by God through His Creation and in His Word, the Bible, and — by His divine providence, came to the conclusion that Biblical Christianity was the only possible Truth.  She was made alive in Christ, granted repentence from and forgiveness of her sin, and by grace, enabled to place her trust in Him as her only hope for salvation… and her life has never been the same.

Kitty is a beloved sister in the Lord to me, and while, admittedly, we have had our share of firey in-house debates on the finer points of soteriology and eschatology (the theological studies of the nature of God’s salvation and the timing of things conveyed in the Scriptural writings on “the last things”), her book was absolutely delightful and inspiring to me, and at so many points left me either roaring in laughter, or in tears… and it also provides a wonderful real-life narrative detailing (as well as a comprehensive bibliography of) challenging and edifying data pointing to the Truth that God has revealed not only in creation, but in His inspired and eternal Word, the Holy Scripture of the Bible.  

And not only that… (TOOT TOOT - Kitty’s made me a published writer!!!  No, seriously… I don’t want to be famous, I just want you to read Kitty’s book)! she granted me (a big whopping no one) the honor of providing “Words of Praise” in the Foreward of her book — alongside such honorable defenders of the faith as Ray Comfort, Mark Buchanan, Samuel Horn, PhD, John Morris, PhD, Ingrid Schlueter, Nancy Pearcy, And Shaunti Feldhahn.  Wow, I’m so very blessed and honored for this opportunity, as well as for the opportunity to be her new website editor. 

“The Lord gives, and the Lord takes take away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord.”  Godly Job, we read in Job Chapter 1, proclaims this after God has allowed Satan to take away everything in this world that was precious to him.  Job could only do this because he knew God intimately, because of the closeness of his walk with Him, and Job did not question His character nor His decrees.

Have you experienced a soul-crushing loss in your life?  Has someone hurt you deeply, or have you learned some terrible news about someone precious to you, or have you become overcome by sin and are suffering either the natural consequences or the heartbreaking chastening of the hand of God?  Be assured the Almighty God’s hand is in it.  Nothing happens outside of His jurisdiction.  No hope, no joy, no disappointment nor sorrow.  No blessing, no sin, nothing occurs outside of the sovereign decree of God.  If you have been born again of the Spirit of God, and know God and His character and His intentions for you, you can turn to Him, if you have been walking with Him — or turn back to him, if you have been walking in rebellion against Him — and find comfort and peace in Him, knowing that, according to Romans 8:28, in all things, God works for the ultimate good of all those who love Him, those who have been called according to His purpose.

If you are not certain that you have born of God, and therefore do not know God and His promises to those who are eternally His, you may believe that everything around you is out of control, or that you are simply experiencing the working out of the decisions of men and circumstances. But I beg of you, know this is not the case.  Almighty God is sovereign over all His creation, and nothing escapes His knowledge nor His jurisdiction, nor his divine providence. 

In either case, the appropriate response of every created being is the same, according to Isaiah 45 22-25, where God commands: “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other.  I have sworn by Myself; the word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness, and will not turn back, that to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance.  They will say of Me, ‘Only in the LORD are righteousness and strength.’  Men will come to Him, and all who were angry at Him will be put to shame.  In the LORD all the offspring of Israel Will be justified and will glory.”

Examine yourself — have you truly believed unto salvation?  Have you been granted the right to lean upon the promises of God to His chosen people, the people He is raising up in His Son’s name?  Do you have eternal life according to Scriptural standards?  Is there evidence of a supernatural, saving work of God in your soul?  Do you hate your sin?  Have you tested yourself according to the measuring rod of the Word of God? Or do you believe in the same way that demons believe?  Even demons fear the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.  I beg of you, consider these questions, seek after God while He may be found, and please, please listen to this YouTube presentation, entitled: Examine yourself — are you a true child of God?  This audiovisual sample of the deeply challenging preaching of Paul Washer has been condensed into about a 10-minuted presentation well worth a listen.

 

…For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him. (Colossians 1:16)

“Open your mouth wide and I will fill it… O that my people would listen to me… I would feed you with the finest of the wheat; and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.” (Psalm 81:10,13,16) 

Somebody help me here — I am in a quandary, in that I can’t decide which aspect of this roadside sign is most responsible for this irresistable desire within me, to attend the Immaculate Heart of Mary parish festival.  Before I knew the Lord, I was drawn to Catholic church festivals due to the countless opportunities throughout the summer months, to publicly (and relatively cheaply) get drunk, get roudy and shake my booty to my favorite local bands, all for a good cause — but now, in Christ — wherein does this irresistible temptation lie – the Food-Beer, the Games-Rides, or the alarmingly creepy clown?

 

 

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  (Psalm 139:14)

After [”Easter”] worship this past Sunday morning, whereat we celebrated in a particular way the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God Who humbled Himself by becoming obedient unto a gruesome, torturous death on a cross, according to the sovereign plan and foreknowledge of God the Father.  This substitutionary death, according to the Bible, would effectively pay the sin debt of all those who — while they had transgressed His Holy Law and deserved eternal condemnaion — would, by His grace and according to His sovereign election, repent, believe and be released from the curse of God’s Law (”the soul that sins, it shall die” Ezekiel 18:20)

My husband and I were making our way to a family member’s home when we passed a church sign advertising that JESUS CROSSED OUT YOUR SIN.  Perhaps the sign was this church body’s sincere attempt to evangelize by means of a catchy pun — (Ha!!! Get it?!?) — rather than taking the chance of offending anyone by actually preaching the gospel of repentance from dead works and faith toward God.

I’ll give these folks the benefit of the doubt… that they were at least trying to do a good thing — after all, this message clearly DOES apply to me, as well as all who have had their sin forgiven by God’s grace.  In stark contrast, however, I would shamelessly argue that openly advertising in such a way – to any given passerby, that is – that Jesus has “crossed out your sin,” is a dreadful misrepresentation of the truth laid out for us in the Scripture.  After all, if I were an unrepentant sinner under the curse of the Law of God due to my transgression — as I was all throughout my dogmatic adherence to Roman Catholic tradition, right on through my ensuing further rebellion — I can’t help but be concerned that such a message may merely serve to salve my conscience and further harden my heart against repentance, rather than striking fear in the depths of my soul so I would turn and cry out to God for mercy and have my sins forgiven – which I never happened until God converted me at the age of 34.

The gospel that Jesus, and all the prophets and apostles of the one true and living God preached was, in one way, shape or form, “REPENT FROM YOUR SIN AND PLACE YOUR TRUST IN THE ONE GOD SENT TO PAY YOUR SIN DEBT,” and your sin will be forgiven.  The message couldn’t be more clear — you have volitionally failed to adhere to the standard of absolute sinlessness set forth by the infinitely holy God Who created you to display His glory.  Therefore, according to the Scripture, you are guilty of transgressing the entirety of God’s Law, and you stand condemned by said same Law, and its Lawgiver.

Jesus has only “crossed out” the sin of those the Father has given to Him in this world — those who are IN CHRIST, whom God has made alive and allowed to repent and believe the gospel.  Only these have had the debt of their sin “canceled out” by means of payment by the precious blood of the Lord Christ, and these alone have God’s gift of eternal life.  Those who are not in Christ remain dead in their transgressions, bound under condemnation by the curse of the Law, referred to as the “Certificate of Debt” that each sinner owns as the wages of his sin.

I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument. For even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ. Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.   When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.   (Colossians 2:4-14)

For further consideration, I’d like to offer the following brief quotations by two reformed theologians, which I stumbled upon on at the very helpful “Definite Atonement” multimedia resources page at Monergism.com.

“…If Christ died for all of the sins of all people, that must include the sin of unbelief. If God’s justice is totally satisfied by Christ’s work on the cross, then it would follow that God would be unjust in punishing the unrepentant sinner for his unbelief and impenitence because those sins were already paid for by Christ.” – R.C. Sproul

“[If Jesus died for all men]…why then, are not all freed from the punishment of all their sins? You will say, “Because of their unbelief; they will not believe.” But his unbelief, it is sin, or not? If not, why should they be punished for it? If it be, then Christ underwent the punishment due to it. If so, then why must than hinder them more than their other sins for which he died from partaking of the fruit of his death? If he did not, then he did not die for all their sins.” -- John Owen

Although my husband and I now live in New Berlin, Wisconsin, I have worked in downtown Milwaukee since 1986, the year after I graduated from St. Mary’s Academy, a formerly thriving local young ladies’college preparatory high school, which has since gone bankrupt and become home home to a number of non-profit organizations.  Following graduation, I participated in the associate degree program for commercial art at Milwaukee Area Technical College in downtown Milwaukee for a year, and have also lived in the downtown area on and off since the age of nineteen.

I acquired an excellent academic education at St. Mary’s – and at MATC, an understanding (after having rubbed shoulders with a handful of transfer students from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design) that I was clearly out of my league with respect to my dreams for a successful career in the graphic arts field.  However, as far as coming to a knowledge of eternal truth, neither of these escapades in higher education proved fruitful.  On the spiritual front, they served only to provide a venue for confusion, false hope, and opportunities to stir up and cater to the wanton desires of my fallen flesh.

And so I brushed up on my typing skills and began pursuing secretarial work – making my way through various office jobs from receptionist to secretary, to legal process server, to administrative assistant (where I have remained since 1998), and have found it to be a most enjoyable career path.  First and foremost, however, I am a floundering disciple of Jesus Christ.  Next, I am a wife and homemaker.  I am also an amateur student of God’s Word, a servant to our hairless cats, and in my sporadic spare time, I have a little fun with such hobbies as gardening, website building, writing, graphic art and photography.

For perhaps the past ten years I’ve parked in the structure at 1000 North Water Street, two city blocks from my office, located on Wisconsin Avenue at Water Street.  Every weekday on my way to work, I walk southbound through the County Park’s ice rink at Red Arrow Park, past Starbucks, and alongside the Milwaukee City Hall. 

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The initial stages of a peer review report on what has since been established as a 42-month restoration project on Milwaukee’s historic City Hall were nearing completion at the time of the September 11, 2001 Islamic attacks on the Twin Towers in New York City — the very cataclysmic event that the one true God finally used to utterly rock my fallen world when He finally called my name and converted me to faith in Christ in early 2002.  My husband and I had recently moved out of our tiny downtown apartment on Mason Street at Van Buren, in April of 2001, to our present home in New Berlin.

At that very time, local architectural firm Engberg Anderson, along with national preservation experts and technical experts, were surveying this national landmark’s structure in view of an “exploration and remedial stabilization project [i],” which is intended to not only protect the citizens and automobiles of Milwaukee from falling structural debris but also, restore Milwaukee’s City Hall, originally constructed from 1893-1896, to a semblance of its original glory.  While the projected completion is December of this year, 2008, the project’s general contractor, J.P. Cullen & Sons, said of the project, at its beginning:

“Granite, sandstone, brick, concrete, terra cotta, ornamental metal and copper are the key materials used in the massive renovation and repair project for one of Milwaukee’s oldest historical sites, City Hall.  This enormous undertaking may be the largest renovation project the country has seen in the last five years and the largest terra cotta project in the last 20 years … In 2002, Cullen netted the entire building to prevent falling debris from hitting pedestrians and cars … With the project officially beginning the project on July 28, 2005, the first undertaking involved scaffolding the entire building, an eight-month process, now complete.  With the scaffolding in place, removing the terra cotta samples and the ornamental copper is next on the list.  The clock tower will be striped down to steel.  Everything visible now—copper, terra cotta, book tile, brick— will come down.  Once the tower is stripped, the walls will be rebuilt.  One thousand nine hundred windows will be replaced.  Thirteen thousand pieces of terra cotta are set to be replaced.  This includes the simple patch to the intricate detail of recomposing a dragon’s head or cherub’s body part that has deteriorated and fallen off over time.  Final tasks involve filling holes and replacing cracked brick while running a fine-tooth comb over the entire building. [ii]”

I have been fascinated with this project ever since I can remember the first number of days cautiously making my way through the new and unfamiliar tunnel of scaffold.  I wish I could say that my fascination was due to a deep-seated respect for the preservation of historical landmarks… but would you think me utterly strange if I were to say my fascination was with the scaffold?  Probably not if you knew me. 

My first twinges of wonder came as I mused as to why there had now been constructed steel pipe walls and a wooden ceiling over the sidewalk on which I had so confidently walked for so long.  Then, as the weeks and months passed, the ceiling of plywood and metal slowly began being woven into a complex cocoon that eventually encased the entire building, sans the north (rear) tower, from the ground to the flagpole on its south tower, 390 feet above the sidewalk.  Until spring of 2008, the building’s north tower had remained exposed, but in recent deliberations with the City of Milwaukee, the conclusion was drawn that this structure would be less expensive to renovate while the present system of scaffold is already in place, rather than in ten years, when studies have concluded the tower would likely begin to leak.  As such, the north spire is now also surrounded by steel beams and platforms.

As the project progressed, I would glance out the bleary trading desk window of my workplace, on the 22nd floor of the building on the corner of Water and Wisconsin, which is directly in line with the giant concrete cavity (a reconstruction of that which once held the infamous City Hall clock) marveling at the brave men climbing around, super Spider-Men apparently undaunted by the height, on the tiny metal pipes surrounding the tower.

Late in 2007, I really became fascinated with the whys and whens of the project, since it seemed to have been going on and on forever.  I was able to locate an August/September, 2005, Insight Milwaukee program [iii]  from the City of Milwaukee’s City Hall Restoration web page [iv],  which features video footage of the extensive structural damage and deterioration that is to be repaired, and the initial stages of the scaffold construction. I downloaded and saved the video at that time; however, as of this writing, it no longer appears to be available for download.  My mind was baffled at the terribly deteriorated condition of the structure of this massive building, as well as its foundation. 

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A little earlier in 2007, we became convicted that we needed to better prepare ourselves for the work of evangelism, and we began a book study with a tiny group at our home, of an evangelism course that seeks to direct disciples of Christ to obey the command of Christ to go and make disciples of all the nations, by using the evangelistic methods that Christ Himself employed — entering into the lives of those whose paths He crossed, and presenting the Law to the proud, and grace to the humble.  He also began laying on our hearts those with whom we should share the glorious gospel of salvation through repentance toward God and faith in Christ Jesus, a number of whom were those with whom we rubbed shoulders amidst the comings and goings of our daily lives.

Around the same time, the Lord also presented us with a “ministry of compassion” assignment that I was, under no uncertain terms, willing to accept.  In fact, His hand upon me through His Spirit, and His command through His Word faced hand-to-hand combat with my stubborn, self-centered will for a number of months as I journeyed through transmutations between self-pity, hatred of God’s will for me, threatenings, curses and pleadings for Him to just kill me rather than force me to perform the task He had prepared for me, brought me to a point where I was utterly useless to Him in the realm of evangelism.

Admittedly, musing at the City Hall scaffold wonder was a daily diversion from my quagmire of morbid self-introspection and running from God and His will for me.  Eventually, in mid-January of this year, His hand was so heavy upon me, and my emotional and mental state so hopeless, I finally began to succumb to His will, since despite my pleading, it had become obvious that He wasn’t about to extinguish my life as a means of rescue from the perceived misery held in store with respect to the task He had assigned to me.

However, He has begun to allow this otherwise eternally insignificant construction project to show me so many things of faith, of Himself, of the deterioration of all created things due to sin, and of His restoration of all things in Christ Jesus… and I’m hopeful that, if it be His will, I’ll be granted the time, grace and strength to share some of the things I have observed in days to come.

Until then I’ll continue to photograph and be thankful for this most fascinating restoration project and especially the workers… and at times, get to know the names and bits and pieces of the stories, directly and indirectly, of those such as dear “Big Joe” (as Dan called him), my dear friend and former scaffold foreman, who, for a time, answered all of my ignorant questions and listened to my preaching without strangling me; and his faithful partner, Augie, my brother in Christ and a devoted servant of the Lord, and his new partner, Bob.  And then there’s the austere J.P. Cullen project foreman Don B, with his intimidating presence; Matt on the forklift who served our country in the Army in Iraq and whom I’ve observed moving literally a ton of stuff around the work site; Wanda the former elevator operator in the fuschia hardhat, who brightened my day every so often with her smile; Tim the ever-diligent and inobtrusive [self-described] “mud mixer,” “working hard, every day”; Dwayne my friend with his ever cheerful greetings, smiles and waves from the South Tower and everywhere else (who, upon our first meeting, thought nothing of divulging to me my nickname, “The Stalker,” much to the dismay of Tim the mud mixer); ”Fuzzy,” with whom I’ve spoken a couple of times, who recently greeted me by name and I didn’t recognize him because his hair had grown back; Brandon the photographer and artchitecture enthusiast who actually stopped to “get the real scoop” on my photographic interest in the project; ”dreadlock Tracy” and his great smile; Ron my friend, the painter, so kind, friendly and loquacious;  “Tyler, the tinner” (as Joe called him) with the blue hardhat who has been doing the copper work on the North Tower (and the other guys helping him out, mostly with green and blue hardhats, whose faces I can’t make out from ground level); Dan the friendly elevator operator over by Number 3 who beckoned me,”make me a picture!;” scaffold worker Doug and Russell, the new scaffold foreman — who have recently both been so kind and willing to answer my questions; the ever-colorful Safway scaffold crew, headed up by foreman Jeff; diligent masons Vinnie, Brett and Travis; quiet John, with his wonderful smile; those brave roofers precariously perched upon the lofty heights… bricklayer Tom, and Guy and Luke, who have taken time to encourage me by e-mail; and all the rest whose names I have yet to learn, but whose souls are so precious to the Lord, for they all have been created in His image, to display His glory.

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http://www.engberganderson.com/#/portfolio/projecttype/14/87/; accessed 04/10/2008.
http://www.jpcullen.com/page.aspx?page_id=72; accessed 04/10/2008.
http://helix.milwaukee.gov/ramgen/ctyclkvi/tv25-home-pg/programs/cityhallconstr.rm?usehostname; accessed 12/11/2007.
http://www.ci.mil.wi.us/router.asp?docid=12618docid=12618; accessed 04/10/2008.

 

For the past several months, I have found myself in the midst of multiple weighty testings at the providential hand of God, to include His permitting the enemy to test me and tempt me in the depths of my discontent.  It would be a grave understatement to say that it has not been a pretty sight.

This morning, my husband Paul sent me a word of encouragement, out of the First Letter of Peter, that those of us who belong to God can rejoice in our trials and testings because, as we continue to stand upon the Word of God and His faithfulness (even amidst our own fleshly failings, minor setbacks, stumblings, shaking hands and wobbling knees), we will demonstrate that our faith is genuine in its saving and transforming power.  Because of the proven nature of our faith, we will have the divine assurance of His eternal protection, unto the saving of our souls.

Through our responses to each and every trial, while tainted with sin that continually besets us, we can see that we truly do love God — a wonder only possible, we are told, because He first loved us (1 John 4:19) — although our arguments with Him and His Word would more often than not seem to demonstrate our outright hatred of Him.   I can rejoice with joy inexpressable and full of glory when I witness that one morning I can wake up, after having been told by God directly through His Word that I am to do something, and having wrestled, kicked, cursed, screamed and cried out with tears to God and with my flesh, I find abundant, supernatural grace to perform a task that I would, before Christ, never, ever, find acceptable…  Or, conversely, after having been told by God directly through His Word NOT to do something, and having wrestled, kicked, cursed, screamed and cried out with tears to God and at my flesh… I find abundant, supernatural grace to resist the very temptation that I would, before Christ, never, ever, have resisted.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undeflied and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you greatly rejoice, even though now, for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:3-9)

As I was posting this, the Lord also brought to mind the great and precious promises in Romans Chapter 5, which gives us further confirmation of the same truth:

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.

And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. (Romans 5:1-11)

A Postcard:  How NOT to establish credibility in Christian ministry:
 

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In a catalog:  Celebrate Easter with Christian Family Stores!
Crown of thorns fifty bucks…

There was a report posted in Britain’s Telegraph on March 11, entitled, Dozens Blinded in India Looking for Virgin Mary, wherein we read,  “At least 50 people have lost their sight after staring at the sun hoping to see an image of the Virgin Mary.  Alarmed health authorities in India’s Kottayam district have set up a sign dispelling rumours of a miraculous image in the sky and warning of the dangers of looking into direct sunlight.”  A noble gesture.  The article continues that evidently, the leadership of local Catholic churches have “disowned the miracle” after having learned that dozens among the faithful have received photochemical burns to the retina.  However, that does not keep those desperate for a glimpse of a vision of Mary from “flocking” to the home of a hotelier in Erumeli in hopes that the vision will appear to them, no doubt fueled by the claims that a statue of Mary in said hotelier’s home (from which he has since moved away) had “been crying honey and bleeding oils and perfumes.”

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An individual who is familiar with the Word of God would know that God doesn’t hold the leadership of the local church responsible to determine whether that which its faithful are seeking after is “of God” by whether it either, a.)  makes them more zealous for spiritual things, or, b.) causes them irreparable physical harm.  All of this confusion could have been avoided if these poor, deceived folks had simply been commanded by their spiritual leaders to embrace the Word of God, which strictly warns us once through the Apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 4:6, “not to go beyond what has been written.”  In Proverbs 30:6, the Lord had long before laid out one of the consequences of going beyond the Scripture, warning, “Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.”
 
These poor blinded folks were obviously sincere in their desperate desire to gain for themselves a glimpse of Mary, the one their hearts were longing for — as clearly demonstrated by their determination to stare at the sun until their eyes were destroyed.  But were their motives honorable?  Was God pleased with them for their zealous devotion to their “heavenly mother,” even to the point of losing their sight?

As for whether God’s people are even to be seeking after Mary, or miraculous manifestations of Mary (or Jesus, or anyone else for that matter) in the sun or the sky, in statues or images, or in anything that has been shaped and formed by human hands or the corrupt human imagination, one needs only to seek the truth of God’s Word, as the LORD Himself has not left us guessing.  The will of God for such things was given, in another instance, in Deuteronomy Chapter 4 (read it for yourself here), in which we are given clear commands; reasons for and benefits of following His commands; warnings against altering the commands; and the consequences of seeking spiritual satisfaction in anyone or anything but the LORD God — by any means other than what He has set forth in His Word.  Here’s a brief overview:

Commands to God’s people regarding the Words of God: To listen to the statutes and rules Moses was teaching them, in the name of the LORD God, and to do them, and to refrain from adding to the Word commanded, or taking from it.

Benefits to God’s people who adhere to the Words of God:  They would keep the commandments of the LORD their God.  Those who held fast to the LORD their God kept their lives.  Holding fast to the statutes and rules commanded by the LORD would be the wisdom and understanding for the people of God.  God would be near to those who were wise and understanding, those who held fast to His commands.

Commands regarding the Words of God:  God’s people were commanded to take care and be very diligent not to forget God’s terrifying visible manifestation of Himself to them at Mount Sinai (preserved by God for us to behold in the Bible), when He gathered His people together to declare to them His Words.

Benefits of adhering to the Words of God:  So that they would learn to fear God all the days they would live on the earth, and teach their children to do likewise.

Consequences of not adhering to the Words of God: God’s people would forget His terrifying visible manifestation of Himself at Mount Sinai, when He gathered His people together to declare to them His Words.  They would not fear Him, and they would not teach their children to do likewise.

What naturally followed the consequences of forsaking the Words of God:  God declared that, in forgetting His Word, the people would begin to act corruptly, making carved images, in the form of figures of man, either male or female, or creatures of the land, air, ground, or the water.  They would begin to raise their eyes toward heaven, and seeing the sun, moon and stars, they would be drawn away, bowing down and worshipping things that had been created by God, rather than God Himself.

A further consequence:  God was angry and severely punished the man who had been assigned to lead and guide His people in the way of God’s commands — in this case, Moses.

Further command:  God’s people were not to forget the covenant they made with Him [to obey His commands], making carved images in the form of anything the LORD God has forbidden.

A GOOD reason for obedience:  “The LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” (v.24)

Reiteration of the command:  If those who were called by God’s name acted corruptly by worshipping false gods [i.e. anyone but HIM], doing what is evil in the sight of the LORD, so as to provoke Him to anger — heaven and earth were witnesses against them that they would all perish and be utterly destroyed.

Further consequences of forsaking the Word of God:  The people would be scattered, left few in number, and would be given over by God to serve gods created by their own hands, their own imaginations.

God’s glorious promise, revealed in Verses 29 through 40, is that all who repent of their own way, turning back to the LORD, seeking them with all their heart and all their soul, will return to the LORD their God and obey His voice, because the LORD is a merciful God, and His covenant with His people is sure.

“know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the LORD your God is giving you for all time.”  (vv.39,40)

When it gets right down to it, those who are true undershepherds to the Lord Jesus would not warn their followers against seeking blessings from Mary by staring into the sun by telling them that doing so will make them go blind.  True undershepherds to the Lord Jesus would urgently warn followers of Christ not to seek blessings from Mary because the LORD God commands us not to look to anyone but Himself, and warns of horrific spiritual consequences when we seek anyone but Him, as He has revealed Himself in His Word. And His great and merciful promise is that those who seek Him alone, will find what they are seeking. 

Thank you our Heavenly Father, for your gracious, perfect Word, which is a “lamp unto our feet, a light unto our path,” (Psalm 119:105), so that we can know we are walking in your ways, and not according to our own imaginations, or to the perverse imaginations of wicked men.  Thank you for making it clear, the vanity of, your hatred of, and the consequences of our following after anyone but you.

A concept that I never quite grasped throughout all the years I slaved to perform well and punish myself for my sins in order for God to be happy with me (and practice religion for the forgiveness of those sins), was that good works and religion performed in order to satisfy God’s wrath would never appease God.  The reality put forth in the Bible is actually quite to the contrary.  I never realized what an offense it is to God, that we humans feel that acts of religious and moral piety could qualify us to be forgiven by, and stand in the presense of, an infinitely holy God — nor did I have any idea what holy hatred He clearly verbalizes in the Bible, over such futile attempts to ward off His righteous indignation against our sins.

On my way to work, I was listening to a music CD my husband bought me for Christmas (”Depths of Mercy,” produced by the Soundforth Singers & Orchestra — the last track, “This is My Word” is now one of my very favorite songs), I was thrilled and humbled at the simple, Biblical message another song — “When Love Came Down” — conveys in so few words, “The punishment of God, on God, has brought me peace.”  Peace with God, when we repent from our own works and place our faith completely in God’s having poured out His infinitely righteous wrath upon His infinitely holy Son, our God and Savior Jesus Christ.  What an unimaginable plan.  What an utter offense to our self-righteousness and love for religion.

When Love Came Down, by Stuart Townend

When love came down to earth and made his home with men, the hopeless found a hope, the sinner found a friend.  Not to the powerful but to the poor he came.  And humble hungry hearts were satisfied again.

What joy, what peace, has come to us!  What hope, what help, what love!

When every unclean thought, and every sinful deed was scourged upon his back and hammered through his feet, the innocent is cursed, the guilty are released; the punishment of God, on God, has brought me peace.

What joy, what peace, has come to us!  What hope, what help, what love!

Come lay your heavy load down at the Master’s feet; your shame will be removed.  Your joy will be complete.  Come crucify your pride, and enter as a child; for those who bow down low he’ll lift up to his side.

What joy, what peace, has come to us!  What hope, what help, what love!

O LORD, rebuke me not in Your wrath, And chasten me not in Your burning anger.  For Your arrows have sunk deep into me, And Your hand has pressed down on me.  There is no soundness in my flesh because of Your indignation; There is no health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities are gone over my head; As a heavy burden they weigh too much for me.

My wounds grow foul and fester Because of my folly.  I am bent over and greatly bowed down; I go mourning all day long.  For my loins are filled with burning, And there is no soundness in my flesh.  I am benumbed and badly crushed; I groan because of the agitation of my heart.  Lord, all my desire is before You; And my sighing is not hidden from You.

My heart throbs, my strength fails me; And the light of my eyes, even that has gone from me.  My loved ones and my friends stand aloof from my plague; And my kinsmen stand afar off.  Those who seek my life lay snares for me; And those who seek to injure me have threatened destruction, And they devise treachery all day long.

But I, like a deaf man, do not hear; And I am like a mute man who does not open his mouth.  Yes, I am like a man who does not hear, And in whose mouth are no arguments.  For I hope in You, O LORD; You will answer, O Lord my God.  For I said, “May they not rejoice over me, Who, when my foot slips, would magnify themselves against me.”  For I am ready to fall, And my sorrow is continually before me.  For I confess my iniquity; I am full of anxiety because of my sin.

But my enemies are vigorous and strong, And many are those who hate me wrongfully.  And those who repay evil for good, They oppose me, because I follow what is good.  Do not forsake me, O LORD; O my God, do not be far from me!  Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation!

– Psalm 38 (NASB)

 

I have been having such a difficult time once again this first truly bone-chilling month of the year. It has taken me a long, painful, ugly road to come to this understanding (once again), believe me, but I am having such a difficult time because our loving Father has been disciplining me.  And discipline that brings forth the fruit of righteousness is painful when it is being inflicted.  But it is one of the greatest ways (I am being reminded) that I can know that I am adopted into the family of God.

If He hated me (like I often sinfully accuse Him of doing, when I am being lovingly, painfully crushed by Him), He would leave me as I was and would never inflict pain upon my flesh due to my rebellious heart, which manifests in my evil thoughts and disobedience.  Consider the Proverbs… He who withholds his rod hates his son, But he who loves him disciplines him diligently.  Proverbs 13:24; Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; The rod of discipline will remove it far from him.  Proverbs 22:15; Do not hold back discipline from the child; although you strike him with the rod, he will not die.  You shall strike him with the rod and rescue his soul from Sheol.  Proverbs 23:13-14. The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child who gets his own way brings shame to his mother.  Proverbs 29:15

Every so often, and especially right before the year-end holidays, the Lord uses circumstances in our life to lift the curtain so that I can see more clearly my utter depravity and bring me to further brokenness and humility before Him, and such is the case once again.  Ever since I have been saved I have gone into intense depression for about a month before Christmas and I have shared with a few, the year before last was when I finally went to the doctor due to those terrible anxiety attacks.  There is clearly a direct correlation with the holidays and I am coming to see, with the fact that I am repeatedly being thrust into situations that are absolutely unnatural for me, and in which I must completely trust in His grace.  And I fight like a mad dog in my soul, every inch of the way.

Also, a very challenging trial has beset our family which has me in a bit of a tailspin, and God is graciously and painfully revealing (once again) my uncompassionate heart — some people, by God’s grace alone, whether they acknowledge it or not — are in their nature so compassionate and merciful in spirit, truly finding fulfillment in laying down one’s life for his friend.  I, however, seem to have been granted absolutely no natural sense of compassion for my fellow man.  I am so judgmental, and so hard-hearted, and self-centered in every respect.  I plan to share the lessons the Lord is teaching me through this, but to go into it now would take hours, which I don’t presently have.  In any event, with respect to removing myself from any responsibility for any member of mankind, I am finding that all my arguments are dung, when one considers and deeply meditates upon the Gospel of Christ,

Who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:6-11)

And also, I know that due to my faithlessness, I have failed God in so many ways, in appointments He has placed before me where I have denied Him by failing to speak of Him, and by failing to pray for such appointments, because I’m certain that He’ll answer in the affirmative and I’m so terrified to speak.  Because I’m trusting in me of course, and not in Christ.

And my heart is overwhelmed with sorrow for those who do not know Christ, and for those like myself who do know Christ but who have lost their zeal. And for those who have professed faith in Christ but who do not demonstrate a passioinate love for His Word. And those professing faith, whose lives do not demonstrate any true repentance, new life or confident assurance in His faithfulness, forsaking confidence in flesh and the sacrificial offerings of the works of man.  And those aligning themselves with the name of Christ who joyously practice things in the name of God that He has declared are abominable to Him.  And for those like myself who have, for a time, taken their eyes off of Him and lost their hunger to know more of Him, and who have not tasted the greatness of setting aside the sundry things for true fellowship with Him and complete surrender to Him, this glorious God whom our hearts reject so vehemently and whose correction our flesh despises and curses at.

And I have not been appropriating His grace, and so I have been buried under the weight and guilt of my sins and shortcomings, which have been multiplying rapidly as I continually hide from Him Who can so easily lift the burden with a word from His mouth.  He does not delight in our guilt sacrifices of suffering and self-flaggelation, but that is what comes so naturally for us.  What He desires is humility, helplessness before Him, a broken heart and contrite spirit, and for us to confess our sins to Him — sins which are already forgiven in Christ, for those who are in Christ — so that He may cleanse us from the crushing burden of guilt…  We who have been chosen by God to be placed in Christ are so blessed, that He will never count our sins against us — all has been fully punished in Christ.  And now He deals with us as His children, not His enemies.  And He loves us His children enough to drive our foolishness out with the painful rod of correction, so that He can bind up our wounds and pour out His abundant blessing when the discipline has done its work.

But suffice it to say, it is so hard to pray for God to change my heart, when it means that I will be forced to deal with things that my sinful heart absolutely refuses to deal with.  In fact I can freely say that my heart is angry, even resentful toward God for even bringing these things out into the open and forcing me to deal with the sin buried so deeply in my heart.

But to pray for Him to change my heart is exactly what I must do.  I’m just so terrified of the consequences of such prayer.  But that is sin, because I am not trusting in a God Who has promised that because I have been chosen by Him, everything He brings across my path is another opportunity for Him to work out good in me, conform me to the image of His Son, humble me, thereby bringing me the deepest, greatest, most satisfying life of joy and peace… amidst all the heartache this world affords.

Oh glory to God, my beloved husband Paul has truly loved me as Christ has loved the Church over the past two months as I behold, with horror and amazement, my unveiled wickedness and rottenness of heart; he has loved me lavishly and sacrificially despite my deathly pallor and the grimace of disgust that seems to have been carved upon my countenance.

He shared with me the other day, 1 Peter 4:12-19:

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler;  but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name. For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? AND IF IT IS WITH DIFFICULTY THAT THE RIGHTEOUS IS SAVED, WHAT WILL BECOME OF THE GODLESS MAN AND THE SINNER? Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.

I am above all, truly blessed among women.

 

I thank God for faithful preachers of His Word.  Amidst my recent darkness of soul, by God’s providence, I came accross a sermon by a certain Don Fortner, who preached, “The Lord Has Put Away Your Sin.”  This servant of God, who has been walking by faith in the grace of God for more than forty years, began his sermon with the words that I, merely six years old in the Lord, so desperately needed to hear at this time:

“I suspect that you, like myself, struggle more than anything else, before God, with your own sin… the evil that’s within you. And sometimes, God leaves us to ourselves, for a little while, and lets the evil within break out.  And then, we have to struggle not only because of the evil that’s within us, but the shame and reproach we bring upon our Redeemer.”

Brother Fortner comments that Psalm 51 was written by King David, a man in whom “God typified His Son,” and,

“God called him, ‘A man after my own heart’ … who was just like us by nature, a depraved, vile, fallen son of Adam.  But he was chosen, and beloved of God, redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, born again, and called by the Spirit of God.”

Psalm 51, it is told us by the translators, was written by King David after the prophet Nathan confronted him with his sin of committing adultery with Bathsheba, and then murdering her husband to hide his tracks.  We who are chosen in Christ can rejoice when we pray a prayer of repentance such as that which was prayed by David, and utter such truths about the character of God, because we know that He will meet our supplications and confessions with resounding affirmation and grace.

Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.

Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, Let the bones which You have broken rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins And blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners will be converted to You. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation; Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, That my mouth may declare Your praise. For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering.  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

By Your favor do good to Zion; Build the walls of Jerusalem. Then You will delight in righteous sacrifices, In burnt offering and whole burnt offering; Then young bulls will be offered on Your altar.

 

Awesome… the account out of Exodus 34, wherein God presents Moses with the second set of tablets holding the Commands of God, Moses having broken the first set in anger, when he saw the Israelites had formed a golden calf to worship since it was taking too long for him to come down the mountain with the first set.

In the incredible Exodus Chapter 33, in response to Moses’ plea that God would show him His glory, the Lord tells Moses that He will reveal to him His Name (His divine nature) so that Moses could know Him in truth, witness His glory and trust Him to lead Moses as he led the people of God.  Chapter 34, Verses 1-9, conclude with Moses exercising the only appropriate response, and praying the only appropriate prayer:

Now the LORD said to Moses, “Cut out for yourself two stone tablets like the former ones, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets which you shattered. So be ready by morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to Me on the top of the mountain.  No man is to come up with you, nor let any man be seen anywhere on the mountain; even the flocks and the herds may not graze in front of that mountain.”

So he cut out two stone tablets like the former ones, and Moses rose up early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and he took two stone tablets in his hand.

The LORD descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the LORD.  Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”

Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship.  He said, “If now I have found favor in Your sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go along in our midst, even though the people are so obstinate, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your own possession.”

Peace to all who are in Christ Jesus.  Let us all bow down low before Him and worship Him. For He alone is our peace.

We have faced no small amount of amazement/displeasure from those nearest to us since our conversions to Christ and the ensuing zeal we exhuberantly poured forth…   In our “newborn” excitement, having offending many, sadly enough, we have at times been perceived to be self-righteous jerks (and indeed, that is putting it mildly).  The fact of the matter is that calling us “jerks” lets us off easy.  However, we must absolutely that we are NOT self-righteous.  In fact, we have come to be fully convinced that we are so completely unrighteous and defiled that our only hope is to be clothed with the perfect righteousness of Christ Jesus.  And in this cloak of Christ’s righteousness we stand before God confessing ourselves to be something akin to “snow-covered dung,” as the great reformer and theologian Martin Luther once so eloquently said.  We are fully deserving of nothing short of eternal condemnation and misery.

The fact of the matter is that by God’s enabling power of grace, we have seen and heard what God has said in His Word about us as members of the human race, and through trials and testings, God has personally proven His judgement upon us to be perfect and precisely correct.

Let us put the microscope on ME for a moment, shall we?  Let us see all that God Himself has said proceeds forth from MY HEART — the “heart” is God’s term for “everything that is uniquely me” outside of Christ — that is [I repeat: outside of Christ], the sum of my thoughts, desires, intents, wisdom, etc.  This is the “human nature,” also referred to in the Scriptures as “the flesh.”

Outside of Christ, I am utterly defiled because of what naturally flows out of my heart, to include evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness and slanders. The only thing that would restrain me from acting upon all these impulses is the grace of God.  Matthew 15:18-19

Outside of Christ, my heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.  In the shallowness of my understanding, I can’t even come close to fully comprehending the depth of my depravity.  Jeremiah 17:9

Outside of Christ, not even one good thing dwells within my flesh — nothing good comes from what I am.  Romans 7:8

Outside of Christ, even when I want to do what is right, the overpowering inclination within me is to evil instead.  But for the grace of God, it would be impossible for me to do anything that is pleasing to Him.  Romans 7:21

Outside of Christ, everything in my flesh rebels against the Spirit of God, and is at constant war against God.  Galatians 5:16-17

Outside of Christ, my flesh continually only wants to please itself; it wants nothing to do with the things of Christ Jesus.  Philipians 2:10

Outside of Christ, the sinful desires of my flesh are in a continual battle against my eternal soul.  1 Peter 2:11

Outside of Christ, my own heart is so wicked that I am a complete idiot if I listen to its counsel.  Proverbs 28:26

Outside of Christ, the thoughts and ideas that my heart contrives are mutually exclusive of God’s thoughts and ideas.  My thoughts are low and dark and wicked, and God’s thoughts are high and perfect and righteous.  Isaiah 55:6-9

Outside of Christ, I love myself above all things, and I don’t truly love others. I trust in my own resources, and those of the world around me, rather than on God; I am boastful and proud, arrogant, disobedient and disrespectful.  I am ungrateful.  I am unholy. I am cold-hearted, argumentative, and would prefer to hold a grudge rather than make peace with others.  I am a malicious gossip.  I lack self-control.  I am brutal and I hate what is good.  I am unfaithful, reckless and conceited.  I love tending to the comfort and satisfaction of my own flesh rather than submitting to the commands of God and choosing to desire the things that He desires.  I am a hypocrite.  2 Timothy 3:2-5

Outside of Christ, in my flesh (when I live according to my human nature, “following my heart,” or so to speak), I am completely unrighteous.  I have no understanding.  I do not naturally seek God, but rather, turn aside and prove myself to be useless to God and His purposes.  I can do nothing good.  I am deceitful, and the intents of my heart rise up out of me like a putrid stench.  Out of the overflow of my nature, my mouth speaks forth lies, poison, cursing and bitterness.  My thoughts are murderous and bring forth destruction and misery. I do not desire the ways of peace, and I boldly rebel against God continually, thinking my ways are out of His sight.  Romans 3:10-13

Outside of Christ, even though I know God, I do not honor Him as God nor give to Him the reverent honor for which He is worthy.  I am ungrateful for all that He is, and for all that He has provided.  The theories I contrive are useless, and my heart is foolish.  Because I disregard the counsel of God in my decisions, my heart wanders further from Him and I become increasingly unwise in my judgements.  I create for myself a God that is an image that is acceptable to me, that is like me, that approves of the things that I approve, and the more I continue to do so, the more God gives me over to my sinful ideas and desires.  If I determine to walk in this path, God will eventually completely release me unto complete wickedness and rebellion, the end thereof is my own destruction, which is the consequence of my sin and what I fully deserve, for it is the path that I myself have chosen. I am filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed and evil.  My heart is full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice.  I am a gossip, a slanderer, a hater of God.  I am rude, disrespectful, contemptuous, insulting, arrogant and boastful. I skillfully invent ways to do evil. I am rebellious to those in authority over me.  I am without understanding.  I am untrustworthy, unloving and unmerciful. Although I know the commands of God, and that those who practice the things that break His commands are worthy of death, I not only do them, but in order to justify my actions, I also tend give hearty approval to those who practice them.  Romans 1:21-32

On each and every one of these charges that God makes against me, I stand guilty as charged before the perfect and holy Judge.  God Himself has shown me that these things are all true, and that His condemnation of me is just and fair.  Therefore, I must cast myself at the foot of the cross of the Lord Jesus and enter my guilty plea, confessing His righteous am in hopeless, desperate need of a perfect Savior if I am ever to be made clean.  And glory be to His holy name alone, my Redeemer is faithful.  He has paid my ransom, and made me clean before a God whose eyes cannot behold even a whisper of impurity.

What joy and peace and thankfulness there is in knowing that Jesus did not come to save the righteous, but sinners like me.  I have been chosen by God Almighty since before the foundation of the earth, to be holy and blameless in His sight… can you imagine?

According to the Scripture…

God the Father gave me to the Son, and called my name.
Jesus Christ, God the Son, took on human flesh, lived a life of perfect obedience to God and His Law, in my place, and then offered Himself as a substitutionary sacrifice to pay the penalty for my sin.
God the Holy Spirit drew me, allowed me to believe and repent, and sealed me until the day of redemption.

I am so unworthy of such a calling, and I live so far beneath the standard to which I have been called.  God, forgive me, have mercy upon me and help me, a sinner, to bring glory to your name… and not disgrace.

Practicing Roman Catholicism for nearly 18 years as a religious hypocrite, and watching those who called themselves ”Catholic” living lives that were in most respects the same as those outside “the Church,” served only to harden my unregenerate heart against the things of God.  I have been told by a number of deeply offended Catholics with whom I have shared the true gospel of salvation that it is my own fault that I didn’t find spiritual satisfaction in Catholicism, because I was never truly devoted to the faith.  My lack of devotion was demonstrated when I ultimately walked away from “the church.”

Do I blame Roman Catholicism for the life of wickedness I chose to live up until God saved me from condemnation by His grace?  No, I myself am to blame for having chosen to reject for some 34 years the eternal truth that God has faithfully preserved in the Holy Scriptures of the Bible.  I was as guilty as every other human of having gone astray and gone my own way, considering the words of the Living God nothing short of worthless, ignoring the Holy-Spirit inspired words of God which had the power to convert my soul, make me wise unto salvation, and enlighten my eyes to the glory of God so that I may enter into His joy and find my ultimate satisfaction in Him.  (Psalm 119)

However, the understanding I had of God was crafted through having been “born into” Roman Catholicism and raised according to its spiritual traditions; therefore I obviously received Roman Catholic baptism as a newborn baby.  I was also granted the opportunity to spend some 15 years in the Roman Catholic educational system.  While I did spend one year in public kindergarten, beginning in pre-school, my entire education through high school was in Roman Catholic institutions.  My mother made certain that we attended Sunday Mass every week without fail (through age sixteen, I honestly recall missing only one Sunday Mass, due to a feigned illness), and throughout eight years of grade school we were required to attend Mass every Wednesday morning as well.   I performed my first confession, first holy communion, and confirmation according to the church’s prescribed laws and timelines.  I had a perfect “paper trail,” if you will, in the eyes of what I saw as an almighty authoritative church.

Nonetheless, the very moment I reached the age at which I received the authority to make my own spiritual decisions, I left Roman Catholicism as an angry, sensual, godless, self-focused young adult bent on rebellion, fleeing from the church like a cat out of a bath.  I left my parent’s house, with a determination never to be forced to attend another Mass.    However, throughout the ensuing years, I remained in bondage to Roman Catholicism and its well-engrained traditions and beliefs.  At age 24, in order to be married, I reluctantly submitted to the knowledge that I would once again have to unite myself to the church once again, so that my marriage would be acceptable before my mother, and before the authority of the church, which I ultimately saw as the very governing authority of God Himself.

Having come up with all the right documentation of fully completed sacraments, I was at that time granted the permission to once again join the membership of the parish where I had attended grade school for eight years.  We submitted to the prescribed Roman Catholic pre-marital counseling, and having bluffed our way through satisfactorily, were finally granted permission to be married in “the church.” 

After the sacrament of holy matrimony was completed according to all of its prescribed formulas, I was satisfied that my marriage was acceptable before my mother, and before the authority of the church, which for me was as good as God.  We attended Mass faithfully for several months and then, having lost all interest in what it had to offer, eventually simply walked away without looking back.

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Having been born and raised under the religious authority of Roman Catholicism, I recall that throughout my years during which I separated myself from “the church,” I long held two stark impressions in my mind. 

One deeply engrained image I long held of Roman Catholicism, despite my perceptions of its lifeless religiosity and compulsory staunch ritual devotion, was of a gigantic, thundering, oppressive, eternally rotating carousel, bejeweled and brightly colored, with organ pipes, chimes and bells, groaning under a colorful menagerie of horses and dragons and fantasy figures prancing stoically around a giant glimmering pedestal.  Stunning and glorious in appearance for most, but crushing and frightful in my eyes.

As I determined to live a life of years and years of immorality and utter rebellion against everything I understood to be right and good, I continually lived under a grave and dreadful understanding that if I were ever to be right with God, I would need to step back on to the terrible platform and clamber slowly atop a spritely petrified horse, or slump morbidly into a gilded gondola, and hold on for the rest of my life as the carousel went on revolving… on, and on, and on… and if I managed to remain in my seat and keep from falling off the platform, I may well have a chance at Heaven some day.

Another image in my mind, as I caroused through my young adult years, was that of my “safety net.”   Although I deliberately chose to live as I did, I was eventually held hopelessly captive to a life of foul-mouthed drunkenness, immorality, adultery, selfishness, pride, hatred, anger, sensuality, carelessness and hypocrisy. 

All those years while I was “holding my own,” remaining gainfully employed in a respectable position, always living in a comfortable and appealing home, managing never to get “killed or caught” doing the things I did, and maintaining a reasonable facade of respectability among my fellowman (by keeping my sins hidden, or so I thought), I was in tragic bondage to walking after the desires of my own wicked heart and doing whatever seemed right in my own eyes at any given period of time, all the while trusting heavily in my “safety net.”

My past adherence to Roman Catholicism and its traditions, and my understanding early on as a young child that because I had been baptised and had that menacing “little black spot” of original sin washed away from my soul, there was now a giant safety net called “Purgatory,” where fallen Catholics get to spend time after they die, being purged of temporal sins.  After the penalty for sin was fully paid in Purgatory, it was generally assumed that all Catholics inevitably made it to Heaven. 

And so I, in my twisted and perverted mind, simply found myself constantly calculating the value of each of my acts of rebellion against God, assuming a sentence of perhaps a year, or two for each large offense… or in cases of smaller sins, maybe just a few months, in increasing numbers, dangling over the flames of Hell until all the evil was cooked out of me and I would be set free to prance gleefully into Heaven.   Was a certain act of indecency worth another year baking over the flames  A year perhaps… but two?  Well, maybe two.  Yes, more often than not, it was worth even more time in Purgatory, just to satisfy my desire to live without any restrictions upon my life.

There came a point in my life, however, in January of 2002, when God opened my eyes to the truth of His Glorious Gospel, revealed clearly in His Holy Word, the Bible, that the wages of sin is not Purgatory.  No, not by any means!  Rather, the Word of God clearly states that the wages of sin is death — that is, eternal damnation — as we read in Romans 6:23… but that the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord… The truth  that God has clearly announced for all of mankind is that all have sinned, and therefore all are condemned (Romans 3:23 and John 3:18) — and that meant that I had spent my entire life absolutely condemned to an eternity in Hell!

But thanks be to God alone, His Gospel shouts clearly and gloriously that the Lord Jesus Christ purged my sins entirely on the cross so that, having been granted repentance from my old way of sin (including the sin of trusting in Roman Catholicism) and having trusted in the once for all final atoning sacrifice of the sinless Son of God (Romans 6:10, Hebrews 7:27, 9:12, 10:10; 1 Peter 3:18) I could stand blameless before God the Father on the Day of Judgment, having my sin debt to God Almighty paid in full through the death of His Holy Son, Christ the Lord.  As we read in God’s Holy Word, in the Letter to the Hebrews 1:3, Jesus came on the Father’s behalf, “who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,” having made a full and complete atonement in my place!

By God’s mercy, and His enabling grace to allow me to repent and believe on this One Perfect Sacrifice alone, God joyfully (yet justly) granted me eternal life and complete forgiveness of my sins — past, present and future — solely due to what Christ accomplished on the cross!  But I wasn’t able to come to this salvation until the Holy Spirit showed me, through the Scriptures He inspired, that I was utterly and hopelessly lost, and that nothing I could ever offer would satisfy the debt that I owed an infinitely Holy God for my sins against Him.

According to the Scriptures, God has justly exchanged my unrighteousness for Christ’s perfect righteousness, and condemned my sin in Christ upon on the cross.  Therefore, because I stand before God clothed in the perfect righteousness of His Son, and not in the defiled robes of human “righteousness” (religion and good works), I will never be condemned for my sins on the Day of Judgement, because Christ has satisfied God the Father’s wrath against me, having taking it upon His own body, undiluted, along with the sins of all who would believe among the entire world.  Mankind is offered to partake in this forgiveness according to God’s prescribed means — which is not according to Roman Catholicism, nor by living a sincerely moral life apart from religion — but only by God’s grace through a sinner’s God-given acknowledgement that they are rightfully condemned for their sin, when they repent and trust only on the person and fully accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles.  The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit… The LORD redeems the soul of His servants, and none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned.  Psalm 34:17-18, 22

The LORD is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation.  Psalm 118:14

“Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; For the LORD GOD is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation.”  Isaiah 12:2

And it will be said in that day,”Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us.  This is the LORD for whom we have waited; Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”  Isaiah 25:9

“Those who regard vain idols forsake their faithfulness, but I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving.  That which I have vowed I will pay; Salvation is from the LORD.”  Jonah 2:8-9

Israel has been saved by the LORD With an everlasting salvation; You will not be put to shame or humiliated To all eternity.  Isaiah 45:17

But it is not as though the word of God has failed, For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: THROUGH ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS WILL BE NAMED.” That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants…
For He says to Moses, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.” So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH.” So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.   Romans 9:6-8,15-18

 

Above all, we have created this blog, and the TruthISLove.org website out of thankfulness to Christ, because “…He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins … And although [we] were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled [us] in His fleshly body through death, in order to present [us] before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach…” (Colossians 1:13-14,21-22)

Next, when it gets right down to it, we created the TruthISLove.org website and this corresponding blog because our heart — for friends and family and people we meet, who have a certain understanding of God — beats in a similar way as that of the Apostle Paul, who spoke of his ancestors, the Jews, when he said, in Romans 10:1-4:

Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.  For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge.  For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.  For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Paul was speaking of devoutly religious people who sincerely believed they were the “Chosen People of God” due to their adherence to many religious laws and traditions set forth for them in both the Word of God and their own religious tradition that sprang forth from the Word of God.
  
Furthermore, we have established the website, TruthISLove.org and this blog, because through our searching of the Holy Scriptures presented by Almighty God in the Bible, we have been converted by God from trusting in Roman Catholicism to a saving faith in the substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God offered up once, on the mount of Calvary, as a complete payment for the sins for all who would believe.  Through the understanding of the Holy Scriptures, made possible by the Holy Spirit, we have been brought to the knowledge of the truth that Roman Catholicism, as it exists today, is NOT the true Church which was founded by, and which is continually built and established by, the resurrected, eternal Lord Jesus Christ.

After doodling around in the website-building arena for a few years with the skincats.com site… shortly after my conversion to faith in Christ around January of 2002 (I, Paula, was so overjoyed with God’s promise to me of forgiveness and eternal salvation), I created a site called, “My Testimony” which shared, in great detail, an overview of my entire life — from my Roman Catholic childhood through my gravely troubling adolescence and young adult years deeply immersed in utter and complete rebellion against my parents, drunkenness, profanity, anger, unforgiveness, self-centeredness, promiscuity, adultery and total disregard for the wellbeing of other people, much less the things of God — all the way through the point at which my heart and life were transformed through God’s gift of my conversion to faith in Christ.  However, an “interested party” was angered deeply that I had revealed too much of the personal details of my life, and threatened legal action if I didn’t remove the site immediately. I may be a fool, but I don’t need to be told twice.

The next site I began (at paulandpaula.home.mindspring.com, which now hosts a mirror of the TruthISLove.org site) was known simply as, “The REAL Jesus.” It was a relatively simplistic site that I never finished working on, since my work on the original TruthISLove.org eventually overshadowed it. However, its content, from the viewpoint of a [now] born-again Christian, born and raised in Roman Catholicism who was [at that point, a 37-year-old,] “3 years old in the Lord,” is incredibly important, so I thought I’d include some of it here — because it touches upon the real reason why TruthISLove.org exists.   It began like this, back in May of 2005:

“In this new web site, I am going to reveal some of the wonderful truths that God has lovingly and painstakingly revealed in the Bible through the obedient writings of His servants, the prophets and apostles. Why am I doing this?
 
My heart is burdened to share these teachings from the Bible because I always knew about Jesus and believed in His existence, as I was raised in a Roman Catholic home and was schooled in Roman Catholicism from pre-school through high school. Although I all but ended my relationship with the Catholic Church between the ages of 16-18, I still maintained a belief that Jesus was the Son of God who died and rose again for the sins of the world.  Along with that went a deep seated belief that, as a Catholic, the Roman Catholic Church was the supreme religious entity which had authority over all the important spiritual issues of my life, so even though I was disassociated with the Church, I still considered myself to be under its authority — witness my previous dependence upon its management of my “paper trail” of sacramental documentation — the official records certifying the completion of my baptism, first confession, first communion, confirmation, marriage, last rites, etc. so that I could be assured that I’d performed all of the legal steps, in the ascribed order necessary to assure that, one day, I’d go to Heaven because I had been a good Catholic.
 
After having satisfied most of the crucial hurdles, I had always tended to believe that if I were to simply maintain the verbal confession that I was a baptized “Catholic” (and if I could keep myself from murdering anyone) I was pretty well off as far as Heaven goes, except for the obvious after-death punishment I expected to experience in a dreadful place called “Purgatory.” Purgatory is the place where I, as a Catholic, was counting on suffering for the sins I hadn’t confessed to a priest (and for which I therefore hadn’t done penance), and for the sins for which I hadn’t yet suffered quite enough while I was alive. I guess these sins would be, therefore, those for which Jesus hadn’t already suffered on the cross.
 
Speaking from personal experience, that good old “Catholic guilt” so many of us joke about is a very real and serious issue indeed, when someone like me has been convinced that they must suffer to some towering, mysterious degree, in order to satisfy the demands of an angry God. Talk about living with crushing heaviness of heart and insurmountable guilt of conscience… Thankfully, while guilt is real, and God has given us guilt in order to drive us unto Himself in repentance, this is not how God wants us to live.
  
While I was familiar with, and “believed in” the Jesus about whom I was taught in the Roman Catholic Church, I now know with complete clarity that that I had never — in all those years I spent in the Catholic Church — come to a knowledge of Him to Whom I now lovingly refer as “The Real Jesus,” or “The Jesus I Never Knew.” The real Jesus is so much greater, so much more complete, perfect, powerful and glorious than I had ever imagined, and so much more awesome than I had ever been taught.
 
I came face to face with this Jesus I never knew when I was encouraged by some friends to begin reading the Bible shortly after Islamic fundamentalists attacked the Twin Towers in New York City on September 11, 2001 — an event which left me no other option for peace in my heart but to seek after God for relief from the terror and hopelessness that had overtaken me.
 
Because of His goodness alone, through the Holy Scriptures, God the Father saw my distress and had compassion for me, due to His perfect love.  He, by the power of the Holy Spirit, began to open the eyes of my heart to the real Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son, who has supreme authority over everything in all the Heavens, all the Earth, and over all of creation — through my desperate and hungry pouring over the Gospel of John, in a beat-up second-hand-store copy of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible.
 
As God opened my mind  to understanding the wonderful truths in the Bible, I fell passionately in love with the perfection of the real Jesus, and God graciously and personally responded by allowing me to experience an intense revelation of my own sinfulness, compared to His perfect Holiness. I repented of the life I had been living, and He granted that I would begin a personal, intimate relationship with God by placing my trust in the faithfulness, promise and power of the real Jesus, who is revealed by God in the Bible.  But that’s not all He revealed to me through His Word.
 
The truth is, many of the things I began to read in the Bible were deeply troubling to me, and were very, very different from the Jesus in Whom I had always believed before I had begun reading the Bible. As such, I had to face some incredibly painful truths about the ‘different’ Jesus I had believed in for so many years, including feelings of betrayal and confusion about exactly why the ‘old’ Jesus and the real Jesus didn’t match up in so many ways. And so I will be sharing some of these amazing truths with you, beloved, in hopes that you will come to know, and love, the real Jesus… And that by choosing to trust in the Jesus of the Bible, you will receive the assurance of eternal life through that faith, which is a gift granted freely from God, completely apart from religion or good works.”

You see, anyone who would humbly sit down and experience for themseves a plain reading of the Word of God, the Bible, will see clearly that the Roman Catholic “gospel” (which is no gospel at all) of “believing in Jesus + receiving sacraments + performing good works” stands in absolute rebellion against the gospel presented in the Holy Scriptures. It is completely foreign to, and negates the gospel presented by the true Church of Jesus Christ, and rather than saving souls, will most certainly seal the condemnation of the souls of all who believe in its “gospel.”

They would see that the office of the Pope of Roman Catholicism stands in absolute rebellion against the Holy Scriptures and has absolutely no authority over, and therefore does not speak for, the true Church of Jesus Christ. The Sacramental office of the Roman Priesthood stands in absolute rebellion against the Holy Scriptures, and plays absolutely no role in the true Church of Jesus Christ. The Purgatory of Roman Catholicism stands in absolute rebellion against the Holy Scriptures and does not exist in the true Church of Jesus Christ.  The Roman Catholic doctrine of spiritual devotion to its contrived version of Mary, the sinless mother of God and spiritual mother of all followers of Roman Catholicism, stands in absolute rebellion against the Holy Scriptures, and is completely foreign to the biblical Mary, who was a mere sinful human being, the obedient and submissive vessel of human flesh through which God the Son took flesh upon Himself in order to live a substitutionary life, die a substitutionary death, and rise again to eternal life as a sign of God’s acceptance of His sacrifice, for all who would believe.

They would see that no flesh will ever receive eternal life by submitting to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, its “Jesus,” it’s “mother,” its Pope, its priests, its sacraments, its prayers, or its sacramental practices, i.e. praying the rosary, offering novenas, purchasing indulgences, attending mass.  In fact, the Bible teaches that by submitting to any or all of these things — or by trusting in any religion or human effort — in order to earn salvation, one will find his soul eternally condemned to an unending, torturous hell which is described as a place where the eternal flesh will experience the misery of being separated from the glory of God, and a continual experience described as the sensation of burning flames and voracious worms devouring it throughout all of eternity.

They would see that trusting in the substitutionary life, death, resurrection and perfect righteousness of the living Lord Jesus Christ is the only pathway God has ever provided for mankind to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and it will always be the only way.