Axioms of God

By / 4 minutes of reading /
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You may remember from your high school math class that an axiom is “a statement of truth that does not require a proof. The dictionary definition is a statement or proposition that is regarded as being established, accepted, or self-evidently true.”
There are a set of axioms about God. Every Christian needs to know these and understand that everything in the Bible and everything about your life, now and in the future, are predicated on these axioms of God.
Everything about the gospel of Jesus Christ rests on top of these axioms. Steven Lawson in his article on Divine Sovereignty does a great job with listing these fundamental truths. Here’s what he wrote:
From its opening verse, the Bible asserts in no uncertain terms that God is and that God reigns. In other words, He is God—not merely in name, but in full reality. God does as He pleases, when He pleases, where He pleases, how He pleases, and with whom He pleases in saving undeserving sinners. All other doctrines of the Christian faith must be brought into alignment with this keystone truth.
Divine Sovereignty
from Steven Lawson Jul 06, 2018 Category: Articles
Let me bullet-point Steven Lawson’s statement and back these axioms up with Scriptures from the Bible.
  • God is – Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
  • God reigns, not merely in name, but in full reality – Psalms 103:19 The LORD has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all.
  • God does as He pleases – Philippians 2:13 (ESV) for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Ezekiel 1:12 (ESV) And each went straight forward. Wherever the spirit would go, they went, without turning as they went.
  • God does when He pleases – Romans 5:6  You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Deuteronomy 1:6 (ESV) “The Lord our God said to us in Horeb, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain..'”.
  • God does how He pleases – Isaiah 55:8-9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Romans 12:2 (ESV) Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Matthew 11:28-30 (ESV) Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
  • God does with whom He pleases in saving undeserving sinners – Jeremiah 1:5 (ESV) “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Mark 1:1-5 The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet:“ I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way”— “a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’” And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
All other doctrines of the Christian faith must be brought into alignment with this keystone truth.
If I may expound on this statement, if you believe anything that does not agree with these axioms of God then you need to re-examine that belief. And, if you present your wrong belief to anyone as “truth” then you are teaching hearsay and that is a very dangerous thing for you, for God said in 2 Timothy 4:3-4, For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
 
These self-evident truths need to be ingrained within us so we have God’s most fundamental truths at hand to measure and decide, with the help of the Holy Spirit, what is of God and what is a lie.

Do you feel dead? Jesus is life!

By / 2 minutes of reading /

I was sitting on a bench in our backyard this morning when I noticed our hibiscus plant had withered and two bulbs that had started to grow were now dead. It was kind of sad and it got me thinking about my life.

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Withered Hibiscus Plant

There have been times in my life when I was a withered Christian. I had no fragrance*, no “bulbs”, no color. For the life of me, I couldn’t find God; heaven was as brass*. I would fervently pray but no peace could I find. Nothing I do changes anything in my life. I am reminded of Psalms 63:1: (CEV) O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

 

Nevertheless, I called out to Jesus. I asked my Lord to show me my faults so I could repent, to teach me how to obey His commands, and to transform me as Scripture says in Romans 12:2 (NIV) Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.

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Living Hibiscus Plant

Jesus did! It wasn’t in a day or a week or even a month, but He brought me out of my winter and into spring. Just like my hibiscus plant, I came alive, again, and what He did for me He will do for you for Jesus said:

John 10:10 (BSB) 9 I am the gate. If anyone enters through Me, he will be saved. He will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it in all its fullness. 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.…

 

*2 Corinthians 2:16 (BSB) For we are to God the sweet aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. 16To the one, we are an odor of death and demise; to the other, a fragrance that brings life. And who is qualified for such a task?

*Deuteronomy 28:23 (KJV) And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.

 

 

His vision is complete

By / 5 minutes of reading /

Last time we talked about the day eternity changed. This time I want us to fully understand that when God poured out His wrath on Jesus they had the complete plan of salvation worked out with exact clarity.

# His vision is complete
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It’s said that Mozart, the great music composer, never wrote down a single note on paper until he had his musical composition completed in his mind. When it was finished in his mind then, with fervor, he scored the musical composition, releasing all that was built up within him. I don’t know if that legend is true but my wife, for one, has that same proclivity, so Mozart had nothing on her.

My wife, Diana, is a creator of things. From bookshelves to stuffed animals, she can make them, and they are excellent. Curiously, she has said to me on more than one occasion, “I can’t start until I’ve worked the whole thing out in my mind.” Now I’m not saying she’s a Mozart, but there is a connection there.
This “see it all first” talent is a testimony to our God; it’s one of the countless human attributes from the image of God in which we were created. Scripture is full of examples of God’s way of “seeing all” and working within “His counsel” (**Ephesians 1:11**) to accomplish His will.
Here is a passage of Scripture that has meant a lot to me when meditating on the marvels of the “one true God” (John 17:3):
   Isaiah 48: (emphasis added)
    6 I foretold the former things long ago,
        my mouth announced them, and I made them known;
        then suddenlyI acted, and they came to pass
There is nothing in the universe that can stop the will of God. So, be encouraged when you read in Revelation 1:8, “I am the Alpha and the Omega,”says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”
For a moment, think about Jesus as the Omega (i.e., “the last”). He will have the last work, the last decision, and the last word.Moreover, take heart, “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6); Completion is “the last.”
You can’t see the whole you, your end from your beginning, but God does. God holds a “you” in His heart, and it is complete. There are no missing pieces. If we will only stop trusting ourselves and put our trust in Jesus as our Savior and Redeemer, if you will cast all our cares on Jesus, if you will live wholeheartedly and uncompromisingly for Jesus, if you will go as the Holy Spirit guides us, if you will make disciples as Christ’s great commission has told us to do. (**Matt 28:18-20**),
If you let God do His will in you, for you are free to choose good or evil, but if you chose God you can be that whole person He holds in His heart – all the good parts and none of the bad. That is the desire and intent of God. Our Heavenly Father has a vision of you, and He has already stored up all you need to become “you.”  Just let go of whom you think you want to be and give your life to Jesus so you can be the person you are meant to be.
Prayer: I pray this, and I hope you also do.
Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for completing the way of salvation that God the Father gave you to do. Thank you for calling me, saving me, and adding me to Your kingdom. I know nothing can steal my eternity with you for you said in Jude 1:24, “To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy.’
I pray You will teach me to disdain the world and not let it steal my joy. Why do I allow this world to turn my head? Teach me, Jesus, to keep Your commands. Thank you, my Savior, my Mediator, my Lord.
In the will of my Savior, I ask, Father God, for Your vision, Your plans, Your strength, Your endurance, and Your provisions through Your Grace to have free reign in me to complete the unique calling You have placed on my life.
It matters not whether my family or people of this world understands. I humbly prostrate myself before You, Almighty God. I cry out Your Word. I seek the council of your anointed disciples, for You said in Proverbs 11:14, “Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.” I rest in You for this work is Yours, and You share Your glory with no man.  (Isaiah 42:8) I rejoice that it’s not by my skill, talent, strength, cunning, or intelligence that Your call on my life depends. All of me rests on You, oh my God.
Thank You for seeing the end from the beginning. For assuring my place in You, provided, of course, I chose to live in You, for You have made all mankind free moral agents able to chose life or chose death.
Dear Father, I am so thankful, excited, and full of awe by what You’ve promised and what You’ve done and what You now are doing in and through me. It indeed is joy unspeakable. I reaffirm I pray this in the name of Jesus, the name above all names. Cause any part of this prayer that is not in alignment with You to be cast out, and I ask Your forgiveness for any selfish requests I have me.
Amen.

Let’s start when eternity changed

By / 4 minutes of reading /
I remember as if were yesterday when my mother grabbed my arm and dragged me out of a Sunday night church service. It was at Temple Baptist Church. I was six or seven years old. I had squirmed, made noises, refused to just lay down on the floor and sleep. I was in full rebellion mode and after about 30 minutes of this Mom had enough. If it were possible, steam would have been coming out of her ears.
Dragging me, Mom opened the side door in the sanctuary, pulled me through, and suddenly we were alone in the church’s hallway. The real punishment was about to begin but she “hid” it from the congregation. Oh, they could hear it but their eyes were shielded by the wall of the sanctuary. That was both merciful and even more painful, for this punishment was personal, from Mom to me. And, oh yes, I deserved it and so much more than she applied.
She was so angry she could hardly look at me. There was no “last nerve”; that was gone. Much in the past had been building up around my behavior and now I’d hit the tipping point. If not for her mercy, her wrath would have left me wounded in spirit as well as in body. No, neither of those occurred, although she spoke some unvarnished truths and I got my butt smacked, nothing worse occurred. Still, she got through to me and I never behaved that way in church again and I have never forgotten her anger and how I had hurt her by my actions.
Now, for a moment, let me take you back to when Father God poured His wrath out on His one and only Son, Jesus. It’s the day eternity changed for Jesus, the Son of God, never had and never would again Jesus be separated from God the Father. In all eternity this is a unique event.
Jesus is hanging, bleeding, suffering, on a cross. It is “The” cross. The wood is gone but we rarely pass through a single day without glimpsing, somewhere, sometime, a symbol of that cross. The cross of Jesus is where our salvation was bought.
The culmination of thousands of years of God’s wrath is now poured out, unrestrained, upon Jesus because He willingly took this unimaginable ordeal, pain, and punishment, as a substitution for the judgment and punishment you and I deserved.
We find a first-hand account of this the book of Matthew, chapter 27:45-46:
From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli,[c] lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).
God the Father hid this punishment from people. He caused darkness to cover the land from noon until three. Just like my mom’s punishment, people could hear but the punishment was hidden. This was a very personal matter which no one should watch. It was the fulfillment of what the triune God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, had planned in eternity past. It was a punishment that Jesus suffered beyond anything we ever could understand.
The Reformation Study Bible’s commentary says, regarding Matthew 27:46:
why have you forsaken me. Jesus’ desolate cry is a fulfillment of Ps. 22:1 showing the depth of His distress as He suffers separation from His Father. Later the apostles realized that Jesus was enduring the dreadful wrath of God’s judgment on sin. This was all the more agonizing to One whose relationship with the Father was perfect in love. The cry is Aramaic, except the Hebrew “Eli.” Mark gives the Aramaic “Eloi.”
The punishment that Jesus took upon Himself did not change Him but it did make the way by which you and I might receive forgiveness for sin. The completion of our way to salvation was fulfilled in Jesus Christ’s death. Our hope for eternal life was made real through the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus is now seated at the right hand of the Father awaiting His time to call His own to His marriage supper.
As for me, returning back to our pew after my behavioral adjustment was embarrassing because I knew I was too old to have behaved the way I had and to have received the punishment all in the congregation knew I’d received. No, I was not scarred forever, I needed no psychological therapy, and I still love my mother though she passed away a number of years ago. What she did was good for me. What God did was good for “…there is none good but one, that is, God…’ (Mt. 19:17)
© 2018, Gary Moore
Photo by Harley Upton on Unsplash

Finding Christ in Christianity

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Thanks to @theaaronburden for making this photo available freely on @unsplash

I decided to start this blog after one of my sons said he was struggling with his faith. Specifically, he felt the Scriptures do not align. So, he began calling himself a “red letter” Christian. He believes the words of Jesus that are in red, but he questions the veracity of everything else.

I completely get that, especially in our world where we have confidence that we can reasonably understand about anything just by Googling it and skimming a few posts. If we’re looking for a hotel review, the best deal to buy some new tires, or even learning about Lupus on WebMD, this approach is entirely valid. And, for most university courses the subject matter can be gleaned more quickly and more currently from the web than from a textbook. However, this is not the case when tackling 1st-century events that have two thousand years of commentary covering every nook and cranny of the divine Word of God.

So, instead of adding more verbiage and thereby moving us even further from the Truth of Scripture, I intend to take us on an expedition that unwraps as many layers of commentary as I can so we get down to the bedrock, or more specifically, the Rock, Christ Jesus. We’re going to be discovering, once again, Christ in Christianity.

You may come from a church background that teaches the Bible is not adequate, on its own, but it also takes the writings of the early Church Fathers for us to effectively understand God’s Word. As we excavate Christianity to find the Rock of our Salvation, we will tackle this teaching.

Ok, this is serious stuff but let’s be joyful. As Jesus said (red letter), “If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you” – John 15:10-12 (NIV).

 

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