Spirit Filled Puritan

“You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. (1 Peter 1 : 18 – 19)  Secular people in the West, and more primitive people in animistic tribes, have this in common: They believe in the power of ancestral bondage. They call it by different  names. Animistic people may speak in terms of ancestral spirits and the transmission of curses. Secular people may speak of genetic influence or the wounding of abusive, codependent, emotionally distant parents.  In both cases there is a sense of fatalism that we are bound to live with the curse or the wounds from our ancestry. The future seems futile and void of happiness. When the Bible says, “You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers,” it is referring to an empty, meaningless, unprofitable way of living that ends with destruction. It says that these “futile ways” are connected with our ancestors. It doesn’t say how. The crucial thing is to notice how we are freed from the bondage of this futility. The power of the liberator defines the extent of the liberation.  Silver and gold are powerless to help.   No hex can hold against you, if your sins are all forgiven, and you are clothed with the righteousness of Christ, and you are ransomed and loved by the Creator of the universe.  Nor is any wound that was inflicted by a parent beyond the healing of Jesus. The healing ransom is called “the precious blood of Christ.” The word “precious” conveys infinite value. Therefore the ransom is infinitely liberating. No bondage can stand against it. Therefore, let us turn from silver and gold and embrace the gift of God.”

Reflecting on this  fact assures me that God transcends race, sex, socio-economic strata, culture, country, heritage, national boundary, genealogy, heredity, and every other man made category and label we stick on ourselves and others.  Each category has its own set of terminology and standards that define its members.  In many cases, these standards enslave people within boundaries, seemingly impossible to escape.   When Jesus redeemed those who have come to faith in him he broke all those chains of bondage.  Jesus is not a respecter of men or man’s ways.  He is the way the truth and life.  A new life, no matter what category you are in,  can be found in Him.

Questions:   Have you ever considered that Jesus death broke the bonds of slavery to your circumstances?   Do you feel trapped by something seemingly impossible to escape from?  Jesus broke the bonds of everything natural and supernatural.  All you need to do is receive His healing and grace.

Quote from “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.

Questions and reflections by me.

Picture – The cross at Mount Erebus, Antarctica, commemorating the 1979 Air New Zealand Crash near Mount Erebus.

“Christ became our Priest by the sacrifice of himself on the cross (Hebrews 9:26). He is our go-between with God. His obedience and suffering were so perfect that God will not turn him away. Therefore, if we go to God through him, God will not turn us away either. But it gets even better. On the way to the cross for thirty years, Christ was tempted like every human is tempted. True, he never sinned. But wise people have pointed out that this means his temptations were stronger than ours, not weaker. If a person gives in to temptation, it never reaches its fullest and longest assault. We capitulate while the pressure is still building. But Jesus never did.  So he endured the full pressure to the end and never caved. [T]he apostle Peter said, “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:22-23). Therefore, the Bible says he is able “to sympathize with our weaknesses” (Hebrews 4:15). This is amazing. The risen Son of God in heaven at God’s right hand with all authority over the universe feels what we feel when we come to him in sorrow or pain— or cornered with the promises of sinful pleasure.  What difference does this make? The Bible answers by making a connection between Jesus’ sympathy and our confidence in prayer. It says that since he is able to “sympathize with our weaknesses . . . [therefore we should] with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:15-16).   Evidently the thought goes like this: We are likely to feel unwelcome in the presence of God if we come with struggles. We feel God’s purity and perfection so keenly that everything about us seems unsuitable in his presence. But then we remember that Jesus is “sympathetic.” He feels with us, not against us. This awareness of Christ’s sympathy makes us bold to come. He knows our cry. He tasted our struggle. He bids us come with confidence when we feel our need.”

Reflecting on this  fact strengthens my faith.  I can enter the presence of God through Jesus because he is both God and man.  He’s not a wooden statue or idol of gold, nor a emanation of deity,  but God become man.  He knows me because he made me and he also lived a life of an simple man.  He was not arrayed with riches nor was he seeking power.  He was but a simple son of a carpenter; yet fully God.   He understood human tendencies, weaknesses, sufferings and emotions.  He felt life in much the same way I do.  Thus nothing that I struggle with seems trivial to him.  He is truly my advocate before the Father. 

Questions:   Did you ever consider that Jesus experienced everything it is to be human?  If you needed to select an advocate on your behalf, would you choose one who understood your condition or would you select one who did not?  

Quote from “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.

Questions and reflections by me.

Picture – The cross at Mount Erebus, Antarctica, commemorating the 1979 Air New Zealand Crash near Mount Erebus.

“One of the greatest phrases of Christian truth is “once for all.” It comes from one Greek word (ephapax) and means “once for all time.” It means that something happened that was decisive. The act accomplished so much that it need never be repeated. Any effort to repeat it would discredit the achievement that happened “once for all.” It was a gloomy reality year after year that the priests in Israel had to offer animal sacrifices for their own sins and the sins of the people. I don’t mean there was no forgiveness.  God appointed these sacrifices for the relief of his people. They sinned and needed a substitute to bear their punishment. It was mercy that God accepted the ministry of sinful priests and substitute animals. But there was a dark side to it. It had to be done over and over. The Bible says, “In these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin every year” (Hebrews 10:3).   But there was a silver lining around this cloud of priestly insufficiency.  If God honored these inadequate things, it must mean that one day he would send a servant qualified to complete what these priests could not perform—to put away sin once for all. That’s who Jesus Christ is.  He became the final Priest and the final Sacrifice.  Sinless, he did not offer sacrifices for himself.  Immortal, he never has to be replaced. Human, he could bear human sins. Therefore he did not offer sacrifices for himself; he offered himself as the final sacrifice. There will never be the need for another. There is one mediator between us and God.  One priest.  We need no other.”

Reflecting on this  I recall how I formerly offered up my own sacrifices to God, on my own behalf.  Whether that meant going to church, doing religious things, saying special prayers, abstaining from meat or other things.  Believe me, the list was very long!  In all of that, I missed the great insight that we are reminded of in the Book of Hebrews, a book not written for “Hebrews” but for Hebrew converts of Christianity.  In it the writer encourages these Christians to resist the temptation to return to a system of priestly ritual.  He explains to them that any ritual or offerings through a priest are pointless.  Why?  Because the “priest of all priests” has already offered a perfect sacrifice on their behalf.   Any return to a ritual is, in essence, a rejection of that perfect sacrifice.  After letting this sink in for years, it changed me forever.  I realized that my motive for making my “offerings” was to win favor from God.  The Book of Hebrews taught me that Jesus already took care of winning my favor with God.  All I needed to do was to believe and live in his obedience by grace.

Questions:   Have you considered there is nothing you can do to win favor from God?  Have you ever offered sacrifices to God?  What are your motives?  Why would God accept your imperfect sacrifices over the perfect sacrifice of His Son?  If the Bible says that Christ made atonement, once for all time, why would He need to be ritually re-sacrificed? 

Dr. Hywel Jones, a great Welsh scholar has an excellent study guide to lead Christians through a study of the Book of Hebrews .  It’s called Let’s Study Hebrews, published by Banner of Truth. 

Quote from “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.

Questions and reflections by me.

Picture – The cross at Mount Erebus, Antarctica, commemorating the 1979 Air New Zealand Crash near Mount Erebus.

“Kill me, and I will become the global meeting place with God.” That’s the way I would paraphrase John 2:19-21. They thought Jesus was referring to the temple in Jerusalem: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” But he was referring to his body. Why did Jesus draw the connection between the Jewish temple and his own body? Because he came to take the place of the temple as the meeting place with God. With the coming of the Son of God in human flesh, ritual and worship would undergo profound change. Christ himself would become the final Passover lamb, the final priest, the final temple. They would all pass away, and he would remain.   What remained would be infinitely better. Referring to himself, Jesus said, “I tell you,  something greater than the temple is here” (Matthew 12:6).  God met the people in the temple through many imperfect human mediators. But now it is said of Christ, “There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5).   When Christ died and rose again, the old temple was replaced by the globally accessible Christ. You may come to him without moving a muscle. He is as close as faith.”

Reflecting on this  I recall two years ago when I was studying Josephus, an ancient Jewish scholar and historian who acted as a liaison between the Roman Commander Titus and the Jewish Zealots in their battle for Jerusalem in 68-70 AD.  While in the midst of this terrible battle, Josephus recorded the horrendous events that transpired.  Ultimately, in the final siege, Titus invaded the city, upwards of 1 million people were killed and the holy Temple was burned.  Leaving theological implications aside, one of the greatest buildings of the ancient world was left in rubble.  Before its destruction, the greatness of this temple overshadowed all of Jerusalem.  It was it’s dominant feature.  It had essential theological significance to the Jewish people in the empire.  It was known throughout the Roman world as one of the greatest structures of their empire.  In all of this Jesus made the claim in Matthew 12:6, that something greater than the Temple is here.  He said this because he was the fulfillment of all that the Temple stood for.  The Messiah of and from Israel was about to overshadow not only the Temple in Jerusalem or every religion in the Roman empire but EVERYTHING; EVERYWHERE.  Whether you worship him or not, history is unanimous in the fact that the life and death of Jesus changed the world forever. 

Questions:   Have you considered that the fact that Jesus fulfilled the meaning of the Temple and its ritual?  Have you considered that the worship of God is no longer tied to a single location?   Have you considered that God is calling all to worship Him and that faith and repentance are the responses to His grace and mercy?

Quote from “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.

Questions and reflections by me.

Picture – The cross at Mount Erebus, Antarctica, commemorating the 1979 Air New Zealand Crash near Mount Erebus.

“One of the great mysteries in the Old Testament was the meaning of the worship tent used by Israel called the “tabernacle.” The mystery was hinted at but not clear. When the people of Israel came out of  Egypt and arrived at Mount Sinai, God gave detailed instructions to Moses about how to build this mobile tent of worship with all its parts and furnishings. The mysterious thing about it was this command: “See that you make them after the pattern for them, which is being shown you on the mountain” (Exodus 25:40). When Christ came into the world 1,400 years later, it was more fully revealed that this “pattern” for the old tabernacle was a “copy” or a “shadow” of realities in heaven. The tabernacle was an earthly figure of a heavenly reality. So in the New Testament we read this: “[The priests] serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, ‘See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain’” (Hebrews 8:5). So all the worship practices of Israel in the Old Testament point toward something more real.  Without Christ the holiness of God had to be protected from us. He would have been dishonored, and we would have been consumed because of our sin. But now, because of Christ, we may come near and feast our hearts on the fullness of the flaming
beauty of God’s holiness. He will not be dishonored . We will not be consumed. Because of the all-protecting Christ, God will be honored, and we will stand in everlasting awe. Therefore, do not fear to come. But come through Christ.”

Reflecting on this reminds me of the God’s holiness and God’s demand that I also need to be holy.   God is perfectly holy and he requires us to be holy if we are to live with him in heaven.  It’s easy for God to be holy.  He himself is the standard for all holiness.  However for sinners, holiness is an impossibility.  One spot on our record disqualifies us from being perfectly holy.  The moment we are conceived, we are not holy and no matter what we do, we can never achieve holiness.  That is why God’s plan to reconcile our unholiness and his holiness was created. 

Dr. R. C. Sproul, a fellow Pennsylvanian, talks about the holiness of God in this self titled series.  I heard him give a similar talk a few years ago at the Sovereign Grace Leadership Conference in Gaithersburg, MD.    In about 25 minutes, Dr. Sproul gives viewers a glimpse of the Holiness of God. 

Clips 2-4 can be found here

Questions:   Have you ever considered that when God justifies a sinner, that sinner is made positionally holy but in actuality, remains un-holy?  Have you considered that is why God continues the work throughout our lives to make us actually holy.  Are you pursing holiness in your life?  Is the Spirit leading you to become more holy?  If you can’t answer yes to these questions, you need to examine your life and faith and ask, is my heart oriented towards holiness? Hebrews 12:14.

For more on Holiness, read my October 2008 post on Thomas Watson’s book, The Godly Man’s Picture.

Quote from “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.

Questions and reflections by me.

Picture – The cross at Mount Erebus, Antarctica, commemorating the 1979 Air New Zealand Crash near Mount Erebus.

The reconciliation that needs to happen between sinful man and God goes both ways. Our attitude toward God must be changed from defiance to faith. And God’s attitude to us must be changed from wrath to mercy. But the two are not the same. I need God’s help to change; but God does not need mine. My change will have to come from outside of me, but God’s change originates in his own nature. Which means that overall, it is not a change in God at all. It is God’s own planned action to stop being against me and start being for me.  The all-important words are “while we were enemies.” This is when “we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son”  (Romans 5:10). While we were enemies. In other words, the first “change” was God’s, not ours. We were still enemies. Not that we were consciously on the warpath. Most people don’t feel conscious hostility to God. The hostility is manifest more subtly with a quiet insubordination and indifference. The Bible describes it like this: “The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot” (Romans 8:7).  But when we hear the gospel of Christ, we find that God has already done that [removed the guilt and punishment of sin]: He took the steps we could not take to remove his own judgment. He sent Christ to suffer in our place. The decisive reconciliation happened “while we were enemies.” Reconciliation from our side is simply to receive what God has already done, the way we receive an infinitely valuable gift.

Reflecting on this reminds me that salvation is all of God.  His grace is a covenant grace, one that is bestowed to reconcile us to the Father.  God is not patiently waiting or pining for me to do something.  Whatever I could do would not be enough to reconcile our differences.  As the Apostle Paul points out in Romans 8:7, we cannot do what it takes and nor do we want to.  Yet God loved sinners so much that he was willing to sacrifice his Son to reconcile sinners.  Isaiah the prophet spoke about this love in Chapter 53 of his book.  You can read it here

Questions:   Have you considered the love God showed that was spoken by Isaiah about hundreds of years before Jesus was born?  Have you responded to this love?

Quote from “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.

Questions and reflections by me.

Picture – The cross at Mount Erebus, Antarctica, commemorating the 1979 Air New Zealand Crash near Mount Erebus.

“The ultimate question is not “who” you are but “whose” you are. Of course, many people think they are nobody’s slave. They dream of total independence. Like a jellyfish carried by the tides feels free because it isn’t fastened down with the bondage of barnacles. But Jesus had a word for people who thought that way. He said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” But they responded, “We . . . have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”   So Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin” (John 8:32-34)  The Bible gives no reality to fallen humans who are ultimately self-determining. There is no autonomy in the fallen world. We are governed by sin or governed by God.  Most of the time we are free to do what we want.  But we are not free to want what we ought. For that we need a new power based on a divine purchase. The power is God’s. Which is why the Bible says, “Thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart” (Romans 6:17). God is the one who may “grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:25-26). And the purchase that unleashes this power is the death of Christ. “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). And what price did Christ pay for those who trust him? “He obtained [them] with his own blood” (Acts 20:28).  Christ suffered and died that we might be set free from law and sin and belong to him. Here is where obedience ceases to be a burden and becomes the freedom of fruit-bearing. Remember, you are not your own. Whose will you be? If Christ’s, then come and belong.”

Reflecting on this reminds me that I am not a boundless autonomous creature.  I am free to act here on earth, but my life, my actions along with the workings of the universe are ultimately  bounded by the will of God.   So by default, since I am an earthly creature, I belong to the world and serve the desires of the world.  And the world I serve is far from perfect.  My desire to serve what gives me pleasure, rules my life.  However, earthly pleasure leads nowhere.  The old adage, “you can’t take it with you” is very true.  King Solomon’s book, Ecclesiastes,  was a laboratory on life.  In it, he chronicles his earthly pursuit of pleasure, indulging in every pleasure money could buy.  The end result he discovered was that money or pleasure ultimately do not satisfy.  His conclusion was the even the wisest man will die a fool, if he serves the pleasures of the world and not God.  The good news is that God invaded the world with grace and mercy and bestows this grace and mercy on undeserving, even ill-deserving people.  This grace and mercy transforms sinners from slaves of the world to bond servants of God.  The grace and mercy shown was through the death of Christ. 

George Sarris,  a well-known voice-over artist on radio and TV, who I met a few years back, has an interesting little pamphlet on Solomon’s experiment with live and pleasure.  You can find more about it here  http://www.ecclesiastesbysolomon.com.  You can read George’s blog Engage the Culture here http://www.georgesarris.blogspot.com/

Questions:  Have you ever thought about the fact that you can only serve one whom you know?  Do you know God?  Who are you “really” serving?

Quote from “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.

Questions and reflections by me.

Picture – The cross at Mount Erebus, Antarctica, commemorating the 1979 Air New Zealand Crash near Mount Erebus.

“When all is said and done, God is the gospel. Gospel means “good news.” Christianity is not first theology, but news. It is like prisoners of war hearing by hidden radio that the allies have landed and rescue is only a matter of time. The guards wonder why all the rejoicing. But what is the ultimate good in the good news? It all ends in one thing: God himself. All the words of the gospel lead to him, or they are not gospel. For example, salvation is not good news if it only saves from hell and not for God. Forgiveness is not good news if it only gives relief from guilt and doesn’t open the way to
God. Justification is not good news if it only makes us legally acceptable to God but doesn’t bring fellowship with God. Redemption is not good news if it only liberates us from bondage but doesn’t bring us to God. Adoption is not good news if it only puts us in the Father’s family but not in his arms. This is crucial. Many people seem to embrace the good news without embracing God. There is no sure evidence that we have a new heart just because we want to escape hell. That’s a perfectly natural desire, not a supernatural one. It doesn’t take a new heart to want the psychological relief of forgiveness, or the removal of God’s wrath, or the inheritance of God’s world. All these things are understandable without any spiritual change. You don’t need to be born again to want these things. But the evidence that we have been changed is that we want these things because they bring us to the enjoyment of God. This is the greatest thing Christ died for. “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).”

Reflecting on this reminds me how I can easily miss the fact that the Gospel is not all about me, but about God.  In my early Christian days, I can recall the wonderful realization that I was not going to be eternally condemned.  That was good news to me.  However what I missed was that the Gospel wasn’t all about my wants and desires to be delivered but about God’s love and plan for sinners all over the world and throughout the ages.  I know of many people who believe and teach a message of freedom from one of man’s greatest natural fears;  death.    I believed this for many years.  But there is more, so much more.  The Gospel is not an antidote for my natural desires.  God is the Gospel and He transcends the natural and the supernatural.  God and His Gospel is the fulfillment of all that is good and holy and just.

This YouTube video articulates this better than I can.

Questions:  If you have “received Christ” do you see him merely as a quick and simple solution to one of life’s biggest worries?  Have you considered that the Gospel is not a list of facts or a ticket to heaven or merely a “good deal” from God, but that God Himself is the Gospel? 

I highly recommend this book – God is the Gospel

Quote from “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.

Questions and reflections by me.

Picture – The cross at Mount Erebus, Antarctica, commemorating the 1979 Air New Zealand Crash near Mount Erebus.

“Until we die, or until Christ returns to establish his kingdom, we live in “the present evil age.” Therefore, when the Bible says that Christ gave himself “to deliver us from the present evil age,” it does not mean that he will take us out of the world, but that he will deliver us from the power of the evil in it. Jesus prayed for us like this: “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one” (John  17:15). The reason Jesus prays for deliverance from “the evil one” is that “this present evil age” is the age when Satan is given freedom to deceive and destroy. The Bible says, “The whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19). This “evil one” is called “the god of this world,” and his main aim is to blind people to truth. “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:4).   Until we waken to our darkened spiritual condition, we live in sync with “the present evil age” and the ruler of it. The resounding cry of freedom in the Bible is, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Romans 12:2). In other words, be free! Don’t be duped by the gurus of the age. They are here today and gone tomorrow. One enslaving fad follows another. Thirty years from now today’s tattoos will not be marks of freedom, but indelible reminders of conformity. The wisdom of this age is folly in view of eternity. “Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God” (1 Corinthians 3:18-19).

Reflecting on this reminds me how I am drawn into the cares and things of this world.  As as Christian I am suppose to not be worldly, but I am.  I am in a way that I struggle with what God offers and what the world offers.  Yet I am not ruled by the world.  God’s grace has shown me something greater than the world and thus I struggle to achieve deliverance from the world.  Yet I don’t do this of my own strength but by God’s grace.  Jesus died to deliver us from the evils of the present age which is my strength.  Jesus sacrifice provides me with the grace to persevere and overcome but also guarantee’s ultimate  success.  It is sad to see so many people who claim to be Christian live a life indistinguishable from the world.  Such people are naive at worse and presumptuous at best.  God guarantees the Christian victory over worldliness and provides something infinitely better than what the world has to offer.   I hear some people say this is because they were never taught well, while other’s use twisted doctrine to justify it.    

Questions:  Have you considered that all the world offers is actually evil and detrimental to your soul?  If you are a Christian, have you ever considered that praying a prayer one-time in your life and then choosing to live a life, indistinguishable from the world can be found nowhere in the Bible and “choosing” this is actually condemned?   Have you really considered the good news that Jesus has already sealed victory over the world for those who would repent and believe.

See a related post on worldliness and a review of the book “Worldliness, Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World – here.

Quote from “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.

Questions and reflections by me.

Picture – The cross at Mount Erebus, Antarctica, commemorating the 1979 Air New Zealand Crash near Mount Erebus.

“In our happiest times we do not want to die. The wish for death rises only when our suffering seems unbearable. What we really want in those times is not death, but relief. We would love for the good times to come again. We would like the pain to go away. We would like to have our loved one back from the grave. We want life and happiness.  We are kidding ourselves when we romanticize death as the climax of a life well lived. It is an enemy. It cuts us off from all the wonderful pleasures of this world. We call death sweet names only as the lesser of evils. The executioner that delivers the coup de grace in our suffering is not the fulfillment of longing, but the end of hope. The longing of the human heart is to live and to be happy.  God made us that way.  We are created in God’s image, and God loves life and lives forever. We were made to live forever. And we will.  The opposite of eternal life is not annihilation. It is hell. Jesus spoke of it more than anybody, and he made plain that rejecting the eternal life he offered would result not in obliteration, but in the misery of God’s wrath: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:36). And it remains forever.”

Reflecting on this reminds me of man’s search for meaning in life and death.  Death is both an end and a beginning.  It is the end of an earthly existence but it is also the beginning of a spiritual eternity.  We are all not here by chance but we exist for for a purpose.  Purpose in existence gives our life meaning.  Man has searched for the meaning of life from the beginning of time, yet God in his kindness answered the question before it was even asked.  We exist for the glory of God.  We exist because HE WAS, IS and ever WILL BE.   Thus we find our purpose, not in ourselves but in God.  This is why he graciously shares his fellowship with mankind.  God’s offer of eternal life goes unheeded by most.  This tragedy is magnified not by God’s indifference but in man’s continued rejection of God’s steadfast love.   Read Psalm 78 to see how Asaph described this steadfast love in the face of rebellion.

Questions:  Have you considered that God calls all to eternal life, regardless of race, color, creed, religion, sex or any other man-made label or category?   God’s gracious call is for ALL to repent and believe in Jesus.   Why is it that you don’t believe? 

Quote from “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.

Questions and reflections by me.

Picture – The cross at Mount Erebus, Antarctica, commemorating the 1979 Air New Zealand Crash near Mount Erebus.