https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfmZZdRtaYg
I usually don't post links on this blog, but this song says it all.
Showing posts with label virgin birth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label virgin birth. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
You Didn't Build That
When President Obama addressed a crowd in Ohio during his election campaign this fall, he ventured off the teleprompter and spoke from his heart. Driving another wedge into his strategy of promoting class warfare, he admonished those who have been successful in business, stating that “You didn’t build that.” The President further stated that without the help of government provided infrastructure that included teachers, road building, and workers, their success would not have been possible. Obviously, the president truly believes that without government, nothing is possible. Obama’s true ideology was revealed in that moment of candor, exposing his belief that government rules first and foremost. Mitt Romney’s statement that 47% of the United States are beholding to government by virtue of entitlements or employment and would continue to vote to continue their benefits, garnered much negative reporting in the mainstream media. Other than in conservative talk radio, President Obama’s slip of the tongue was widely ignored as he was elected for a second term. While many conservatives were angered by his statements, what the President stated actually IS true. Unfortunately, his reasoning could not be more inaccurate. The concept that we cannot do anything without our Lord and Savior may be foreign to our president, but it is, in fact, true. Those of us who try to go it alone soon discover that without God we only get ourselves into a myriad of predicaments.
John 15:4-5, Jesus said, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Without our Lord and Savior filling our hearts, without placing our lives under His guidance, and without us giving Him the glory, we are simply nothing. All of our successes, and sometimes even our failures, are truly gifts from God. The God of all creation, who spoke the universe into existence and breathed life into everything that was, is, and is yet to come, deserves all the credit for everything that we can possibly accomplish. For without God’s infinite love of His children, we and the world we live in would not exist. God created everything for us. For us, His children!
The leadership of the ELCA, by invoking their doctrine of bound conscience, continues to lift up, what they call, “new things” that minimize our Lord’s role in their church. “God didn’t literally father Jesus”, “Mary wasn’t really a virgin when she conceived”, and “Jesus wasn’t resurrected in a physical sense.” While these self-proclaimed enlightened scholars attempt to diminish long held Biblical truths, they lift up the things of this world and proclaim, “God’s work, our hands” while their call to bring the world to Christ is largely abandoned. Humankind’s selfish proclivities are celebrated and joyfully proclaimed from the pulpits of ELCA churches and declared as right with God in numerous social statements. While their God is left in the dust, they continue to be obsessed with human sexuality, particularly the crusade to normalize homosexuality, in effect, thumbing their collective noses at God’s commands.
Matthew 7:24-27, Jesus said, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” The ELCA has torn down a church built upon a rock and created a misguided religion erected upon the loose sands of heresy. As more and more congregations leave this misguided denomination, it teeters closer and closer to the precipice.
Far too many of our brothers and sisters in Christ are fooled into believing that the ELCA is doing God’s work. Yes, many ELCA congregations remain in Christ, but all are at risk of falling into the trap set by the leaders of the ELCA. When Bishop Hanson does his little two step dance, placing the false gospel of radical inclusiveness on equal terms with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, far too many nod their heads in agreement. God did build that and everything that is. Pray that no more are lost to the false gospels promoted by the leadership of the ELCA.
John 15:4-5, Jesus said, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Without our Lord and Savior filling our hearts, without placing our lives under His guidance, and without us giving Him the glory, we are simply nothing. All of our successes, and sometimes even our failures, are truly gifts from God. The God of all creation, who spoke the universe into existence and breathed life into everything that was, is, and is yet to come, deserves all the credit for everything that we can possibly accomplish. For without God’s infinite love of His children, we and the world we live in would not exist. God created everything for us. For us, His children!
The leadership of the ELCA, by invoking their doctrine of bound conscience, continues to lift up, what they call, “new things” that minimize our Lord’s role in their church. “God didn’t literally father Jesus”, “Mary wasn’t really a virgin when she conceived”, and “Jesus wasn’t resurrected in a physical sense.” While these self-proclaimed enlightened scholars attempt to diminish long held Biblical truths, they lift up the things of this world and proclaim, “God’s work, our hands” while their call to bring the world to Christ is largely abandoned. Humankind’s selfish proclivities are celebrated and joyfully proclaimed from the pulpits of ELCA churches and declared as right with God in numerous social statements. While their God is left in the dust, they continue to be obsessed with human sexuality, particularly the crusade to normalize homosexuality, in effect, thumbing their collective noses at God’s commands.
Matthew 7:24-27, Jesus said, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” The ELCA has torn down a church built upon a rock and created a misguided religion erected upon the loose sands of heresy. As more and more congregations leave this misguided denomination, it teeters closer and closer to the precipice.
Far too many of our brothers and sisters in Christ are fooled into believing that the ELCA is doing God’s work. Yes, many ELCA congregations remain in Christ, but all are at risk of falling into the trap set by the leaders of the ELCA. When Bishop Hanson does his little two step dance, placing the false gospel of radical inclusiveness on equal terms with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, far too many nod their heads in agreement. God did build that and everything that is. Pray that no more are lost to the false gospels promoted by the leadership of the ELCA.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Justified by Faith Alone
John 14:6, Jesus Said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Our faith in the risen Christ is the only way to our salvation. There is nothing else we can do that will earn us the grace that God so freely grants to all those who believe. Romans 3:21-26, “But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood – 26 to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished – he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justified those who have faith in Jesus.” Because our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, suffered the punishment that was meant for us, we are freely justified and redeemed from the burden of our sin. In the Old Testament, animals were offered by the Israelites as a sacrifice to God to receive, symbolically, the punishment that the Israelites deserved. When Jesus died on the cross for us, He was punished, in our place, as a complete sacrifice to cleanse us from all sin. We need only to believe and have faith in the risen Christ to receive God’s grace.
Romans3:27-31, “Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of the law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. 28 For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from observing the law. 29 Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes of Gentiles too, 30 since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. 31 Do we, then, nullify the law by faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.” Paul asserted that faith in the risen Christ is the only way to salvation. He also wanted to make clear that he was not teaching to reject the law. Even though we are justified by faith alone, it is clear that our Father has rules of conduct for His children. If we disobey and break God’s law, will it affect our salvation? No, we have been forgiven all our sins by Jesus’ death on the cross. When we sin, we do need to ask for His forgiveness. God’s grace does not give us license to make up our own rules and conduct ourselves as we please. When we decide to give ourselves up to the Lord and trust in Him, we will gladly obey His law because we will want to please our Lord.
Why then does the ELCA persist in questioning God’s laws by promoting doctrine that contradicts God’s Word? By invoking the doctrine of bound conscience, they elevate man’s experience and interpretation of Scripture over God’s intent. Why does the ELCA question the validity of the virgin birth of Jesus and His bodily resurrection? ELCA/Resurrection and http://www.elca.org/What-We-Believe/New-or-Returning-to-Church/Dig-Deeper/Virgin-Birth.aspx are links to the ELCA website that explain what they truly believe, and teach in their seminaries, about Jesus’ birth and resurrection. Apparently, man has achieved the intellectual pinnacle and can begin to disregard all that we believe and profess in the words of the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed and the Augsburg Confession. Brothers and sisters in Christ, we must realize that the ELCA is going to a place that is departing from our Lord. While the ELCA continues to do good works in the world, their leaders are unconvinced that the Bible is truly God’s Word and question the very tenet of Christianity. We must continue to love and pray for those caught in the trap that the ELCA has woven. We must also open our hearts and minds to our Lord’s will while we pray and discern where God is leading us. Are we with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ as He leads us on a path to salvation or will we remain affiliated with a church body that casts doubt upon our Lord and diminishes His Word in an attempt to justify the values of this world?
Romans3:27-31, “Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of the law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. 28 For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from observing the law. 29 Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes of Gentiles too, 30 since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. 31 Do we, then, nullify the law by faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.” Paul asserted that faith in the risen Christ is the only way to salvation. He also wanted to make clear that he was not teaching to reject the law. Even though we are justified by faith alone, it is clear that our Father has rules of conduct for His children. If we disobey and break God’s law, will it affect our salvation? No, we have been forgiven all our sins by Jesus’ death on the cross. When we sin, we do need to ask for His forgiveness. God’s grace does not give us license to make up our own rules and conduct ourselves as we please. When we decide to give ourselves up to the Lord and trust in Him, we will gladly obey His law because we will want to please our Lord.
Why then does the ELCA persist in questioning God’s laws by promoting doctrine that contradicts God’s Word? By invoking the doctrine of bound conscience, they elevate man’s experience and interpretation of Scripture over God’s intent. Why does the ELCA question the validity of the virgin birth of Jesus and His bodily resurrection? ELCA/Resurrection and http://www.elca.org/What-We-Believe/New-or-Returning-to-Church/Dig-Deeper/Virgin-Birth.aspx are links to the ELCA website that explain what they truly believe, and teach in their seminaries, about Jesus’ birth and resurrection. Apparently, man has achieved the intellectual pinnacle and can begin to disregard all that we believe and profess in the words of the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed and the Augsburg Confession. Brothers and sisters in Christ, we must realize that the ELCA is going to a place that is departing from our Lord. While the ELCA continues to do good works in the world, their leaders are unconvinced that the Bible is truly God’s Word and question the very tenet of Christianity. We must continue to love and pray for those caught in the trap that the ELCA has woven. We must also open our hearts and minds to our Lord’s will while we pray and discern where God is leading us. Are we with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ as He leads us on a path to salvation or will we remain affiliated with a church body that casts doubt upon our Lord and diminishes His Word in an attempt to justify the values of this world?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)