Pages
- About
- Contact
- Dropbox
- Music
- News & Events
- Photos
- Programming
- Quotes
- Sermons
- Uncategorized
- Writing
Topics
Loading...
Login
Register
Retrieve password
Admin Links
Links
Upcoming Events
Now Playing
Recent Comments
God’s Love
Posted on July 23rd, 2008 by Brian.
Categories: Quotes, Writing.
“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. -Romans 10:8-9
“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” -Matthew 7:13-14
Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” -John 14:5-6
Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.” -Romans 13:1-2
As it is written:
“There is none righteous, no, not one;
There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.
They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one.”
“Their throat is an open tomb;
With their tongues they have practiced deceit”;“The poison of asps is under their lips”
“Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
Destruction and misery are in their ways;
And the way of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe.
For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. -Romans 3:10-26
But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. -Hebrews 11:6
“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. -Luke 11:9-10
On Keeping the Sabbath
Posted on December 19th, 2009 by Brian.
Categories: Uncategorized.
Harry Bethel
We must realize that all the Bible is God’s Word and inspired by the Holy Spirit. Having said that we must realize that the Bible consists of two covenants, the Old and the New. The Old Covenant (Old Testament) includes, of course, the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible).
The New Covenant (New Testament) is “a better covenant” (Hebrews 8:6 KJV). The New Covenant is better for at least two reasons: The Old Covenant applied only to the Jews and no one could keep it because they did not have the power to do so, and if any of the Jews broke the Law at just one point they were guilty of breaking the whole Law (James 2:10 NIV). The New Covenant includes not only Jews if they repent of their sins and receive Jesus Christ (are born again), but Gentiles also.
Anyone who is born again (unlike unsaved Jews) has the grace (God-given desire and power) to obey all the commandments of the New Covenant (approximately 180). “The Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).
God said in His Word, speaking of the Israelites after they left Egypt, “I gave them My sabbaths to be a sign between Me and them [the Israelites], that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them. But the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness” (Ezekiel 20:12-13). God gave the sabbaths to Israel (the Jews), not Israel and the other nations.
Now, having said all the above, and knowing that it is the New Covenant by which we establish our practices and doctrines, where in the New Testament does it say that Christians should keep the Sabbath? Also, for those who want to keep the Sabbath, where does it say how to keep it? The only place in which the Bible contains instruction on how to observe the Sabbath is in the Law of the Old Covenant that was given to the Israelites only (Exodus 19:6; 35:1, 4).
Some Sabbatarians argue that God required everyone to observe the Sabbath when He created the earth. While it is true that Genesis 2:3 says, “And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done,” this is the first mention of a type of the coming Sabbath (Jesus Christ) in whom we could find our rest. (God revealed this history to Moses when he wrote the Pentateuch two and a half millennia after the fact!)
It is not recorded anywhere in God’s Word that He imposed Sabbath-keeping on any holy men of God (or anyone else), nor how to keep the Sabbath before the Law of Moses was given about 1425 B.C., more than 2,500 years after Creation! Again, God never commanded anyone, including holy men of God, to keep nor did He give instructions concerning how to keep the Sabbath prior to the giving of the Mosaic Law, including Adam (who walked with God and enjoyed an intimate relationship with Him until The Fall), Noah, Enoch (who walked with God for 300 years before he was raptured), Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (Israel), Joseph (who became Prime Minister of the Egyptians who did not observe the Sabbath) and others. In fact, there is no mention whatsoever of the Sabbath day in all the history of the Book of Genesis covering the first 2,500 years after Creation, and the Jews heard nothing about the Sabbath until after the Exodus, as recorded in Exodus 16:23. These truths alone should be enough to stop the mouths of the deceived Sabbatarians who want to impose Sabbath-keeping on Christians and who do not even keep the Sabbath themselves.
Some of the commands concerning keeping the Sabbath are:
“Everyone is to stay where he is on the seventh day; no one is to go out” (Exodus 16:29). How many Sabbatarians break the Sabbath every week by traveling, even to go “worship” God on the Sabbath?
“Do not light a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day” (Exodus 35:3). How many Sabbaterians break the Sabbath by lighting a fire in their houses on the Sabbath to cook or to keep warm, or just to sit in front of a cozy fireplace?
“Whoever does any work on it [the Sabbath] must be put to death” (Exodus 35:2). A man was found gathering wood on a Sabbath day. “The Lord said to Moses, ‘The man must die. The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp.’ So the assembly took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the Lord commanded Moses” (Numbers 15:32-36). How many Sabbaterians obey God by the whole assembly taking a man out and stoning him to death for even gathering wood for a fire on the Sabbath?
We must compare scripture with scripture to arrive at truth and doctrine and practice under the new and better Covenant. Notwithstanding the fact that God, as recorded in Genesis by Moses after the days of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob (Israel), rested (ceased from His work) and blessed the seventh day and made it holy, it was a shadow or type of The Sabbath to come, which is Jesus Christ himself.
True Christians, whether born-again Jews or Gentiles, have entered the Sabbath Rest which is Jesus Christ. Jesus, himself, did not keep the Sabbath. On the Sabbath, “Jesus said to them [the Jews], ‘My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I, too, am working.’ For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill Him; not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making himself equal with God” (John 5:17-18). Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for He does not keep the Sabbath” (John 9:16).
Jesus did not sin, by not keeping the Sabbath, because He was, and is, sinless. Indeed, Jesus is The Sabbath, in whom Christians (saved Jews and Gentiles) rest. All those who have not been born again, whether Jews or Gentiles, have not entered into The Sabbath rest.
Unsaved Jews are still under the Mosaic Law and are required to keep the Sabbath, as well as the rest of the Law, and if they break the Law at just one point, they are guilty of breaking the whole Law.
Speaking of the Sabbath given to the Israelites (Jews), the writer to the Hebrews said, “For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God [born-again Jews and Gentiles]; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from His” (Hebrews 4:8-10). Jesus said, “Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Concerning the Sabbath, the Law says, “Everyone is to stay where he is on the seventh day; no one is to go out” (Exodus 16:29), but the apostle Paul and those Christians with him went contrary to the Law as revealed in this one passage alone, “On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river…” (Acts 16:13). Paul and those Christians with him were not sinning by not keeping the Sabbath. The great apostle knew that Jesus had taught him by the Holy Spirit that the Old Covenant sabbaths were a shadow and type of the coming Messiah and Savior who is The Sabbath. It is only in Him that we can truly find rest for our souls that have been laden with sin.
There was a period of transition for a good number of years between Judaism under the Old Covenant and Christianity under the New. The Jews who repented of their sins and received Christ as their Savior and Sabbath Rest would not readily let go of their traditions, etc. But when the apostle Paul was raised up, the Lord taught Jews and Gentiles more things that were not revealed during Jesus’ earthly ministry. Paul said, “One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord…Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another…So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God” (Romans 14:5-6, 13, 22).
When the Jewish Christians saw that God was granting repentance to the Gentiles, the leaders did not know what to require of them. So they met and decided not to tell them to keep the Sabbath, but rather to “abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality” (Acts 15:12-29). This took place at the Council of Jerusalem in A.D. 50.
The early Christians met in houses on the Lord’s Day which is the first day of the week. The Sabbath, which is the seventh day of the week, is still the Sabbath. The Sabbath has not been changed to the first day of the week, as some claim. The Roman Catholics did not institute worship on the Lord’s Day, contrary to their false claims. This is a deception not only taught by Roman Catholic theologians, but by others such as the Seventh Day Adventists (and similar cults). The Seventh Day Adventists and some other Sabbatarians are so deceived and so hung up on the Sabbath (which none really keep) that they go to the absurd extreme of claiming that worshipping on the Lord’s Day is taking the mark of the beast!
Much more could be said about the subject, but more than enough has been revealed for the Holy Spirit to confirm to those who have “ears to hear” that what has been presented here is, indeed, true.
Reprinted from this link.
My thoughts on libertarianism and anarchism…
Posted on August 19th, 2008 by Brian.
Categories: Writing.
In response to http://an-archos.com/about:
“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
Nice WP plugin. Interesting but (and forgive me) naive social philosophy. I don’t know if I have it in me to start a debate right now… not sure if I should — well — I suppose I could say that there is no such thing as true freedom in a material sense of the word. We can only approximate it, and even then it’s deceptive because it’s like a double-edged sword. On one side it plays into a libertine ideal with human creation and accomplishment as its seeming end, the other side leads to complete depravity and a loss of the will to the lusts of the senses and flesh. Ultimately the flesh wins out, because “freedom’s” ultimate goal is truly nothing more than to satisfy the desires of the flesh — which can never be accomplished. It simply enslaves the human spirit and soul into a never-ending battle with material and sensual need, which is something you are currently witnessing as your philosophy plays itself out as the political mantra of today’s culture and society.
Freedom has come to represent the human “right” to carry on selfishly and without any regard to morality or decency. Oddly enough, the worldly pursuit of it ends as a negation of the human will, the assertion of which was actually the goal it had initially set out for itself. At its best it will leave you living like a backwoods transcendentalist, which is a selfish and Godless pursuit if ever there was one. Humans are invariably a fallen and devolving creature, and without the intervention of God Himself, will ultimately lead themselves to doom — with, or “without” the influence of decent political leaders. True freedom — or the lack thereof — is a spiritual matter at its core. Liberty and “happiness” can and will only be found in having a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ, the messiah, The Saviour — however offensive that may seem to one’s intellectual sense.
Regardless, may God bless you in your search and I truly hope and pray that you eventually come to know what it is you are looking for. Thanks again for the cool plug-in.
Humbly and earnestly,
Brian
p.s. You truly cannot serve two masters at once, and to believe you are serving none at all is to be serving the devil, whether you believe it or not. Only God knows what is best for humanity and unless you know (and obey) His will, then you are simply shooting in the dark, no matter how good you believe your intentions and understanding to be.
p.p.s. Not that it matters, but I considered myself to be a libertarian and an anarchist in the past. I did study a fair amount of political philosophy and I remember it was disputed as to whether or not true anarchy, like true democracy, was even possible. It appears as if no matter how much society attempts to beset itself of leadership, leaders (or tyrants) just keep popping up out of the woodwork… like flowers or weeds I suppose…
p.p.p.s. “In terms of libertarian anarchism that would require every individual taking full responsibility for their own well being whilst always recognising a mutual benefit in the well being of others.” – Interesting statement, but communism shows us that humans in their natural state will often fail to recognize the mutual benefit in the well being of others when the self is seemingly put at risk. I say seemingly because perceived risk is a subjective thing, whereas most humans consistently see themselves as being “at risk”, we have this (although well-intentioned) objective rarely being realized in actuality. On the other hand, acting in an effort to realize some mutual benefit to oneself seems rather loveless to me. I understand the logic behind collective action, but it requires certain environmental conditions to be constantly met. In the absence of coercion, and in terms of game theory, the cheating individual always wins in a game where the winning strategy benefits the whole to some extent, yet the cheater to a slightly greater extent. Honestly, I’ll give you the fact that people appear to be “selfless” in this way when most, if not all of their basic needs are being met, but strip them of those comforts (or the possibility that they may never be realized in this lifetime) and the system breaks down entirely, and becomes one in which individuals are coerced into acting accordingly. …anyway, I’d rather not take any of these up as talking points… unfortunately, your ideals are based on a significant misrepresentation of whom and what we are as human beings, unless you assert that some of us are in fact “demigods” and are somehow exceptions to the rule… in which case I will tell you that you need to re-read what I wrote above (in my first postscript) a few times at least…. anyway, that’s a lot of p.s., and I feel like I’ve said a lot here. If you’ve made it this far, I appreciate you taking the time to read it. God bless you and forgive me if I’ve misspoken in some way.
One Heartbreak Away
Posted on August 13th, 2008 by admin.
Categories: Music, Writing.
Here are the lyrics:
Put your sorry head upon my shoulders
sometimes you gotta let things go.
I’ll be coming home when you get older
the devil never will catch me. No.
And I’ll store up all your tears
into a safe deposit box yeah where God keeps
those things
and the taste of salt will be on my mouth for years.
I love you like a drowning man.
And on holidays I’ll send you all
of your favorite things
like a pair of new running shoes,
so you can run your little feet on back to me.
I’m only one heartbreak away from you
and it ain’t that far it’s true
maybe a thousand miles.
Maybe love is like a bird
that’s been set out from a boat to find land on a
raging sea
where I’ll know you’re alright if you never come back to me
I’ll still help you find your way on home
’cause for forty days and nights I’ll be sending up flares.
I’m only one heartbreak away from you
and it ain’t that far it’s true
maybe a thousand miles.
And my loneliness is a weekend’s drive.
Maybe love is like a book
written especially for you in the blood of the prophets who’ve died
and as long as you read it you know you will be kept alive
and though you’d hate me I’d still want you to know
’cause you think of true love as a stamp on a mother’s day card
when your mom really wanted a call.
She’s only one heartbreak away from you
and that ain’t far it’s true
maybe a thousand miles.
Maybe love is like a Sunday service
that ends with a prayer where I find myself
speaking in tounges
and the Lord talks to me and I finally say: “I am here.”
You’ll always be my closest friend.
And I know that someday You’ll come back and wipe dry
all my tears.
I’m only one heartbreak away from You
and it ain’t that far it’s true,
maybe a thousand miles.
Maybe.