Archive for June 2010

Nice, but if God asked you . . .

Ever since I tasted Ben and Jerry’s Caramel Chew Chew I haven’t needed any training in how to tell others about it

[chewchew.jpg]

Or in the words of John Piper:
“you can’t commend what you don’t cherish” (p17).
Go read the rest of Jim Walford onBen & Jerry’s Evangelism Training.

A great point from my Greek brother

The comments that I receive, I think, could be missed and this is sad. The dialog that many choose to have with me is such a joy to my life.

My brother, Dimitrios responded to my post about the Sacrifice for Sins in the future Millennial Kingdom with an excursus on the Blood of Christ. Here is a quote:

In the NT, Pilate “took water and washed his hands saying ‘I am innocent of this Man’s blood.” (Matt. 27:24) But he wasn’t. That is a prime example of man-made religion. It is external for others to see; it has “the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion…but are of no value against fleshly indulgence” (Col. 2:23); it does nothing to “cleanse your conscience from dead works” (Heb. 9:14) Ironically, ALL the people answered Pilate and said, “His blood be on us and on our children!” (Matt. 27:25) Wow, what irony! The blood that they were demanding was the saving precious gift of God’s only Son. It was supposed to forgive them of all their sins, “for without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness”. (Heb. 9:22) Yet, they and all their offspring, and their offspring until this day are guilty of killing God. They have Blood on them, on their hands. The evidence is in. The weapons have been tested and its His Blood on them. They are guilty of sin against God. However, the redeemed, the reconciled, the atoned for (=made one with!!!) are wearing His Blood unto salvation. How can it be? The Blood both judges and saves? Yes!

You need to read the entire post here.

Thanks, Dim, for another scrape of the iron.

Final slides for Ezekiel

Here are the slides from this morning:

Ezekiel conclusion

Next stop . . . Wisdom Literature:

1. What is Wisdom?

2. How do we obtain Wisdom?

3. What does Wisdom profit?

4. Decision Making and the Will of God, part 1

5. Decision Making and the Will of God, part 2

6. Lessons from Wisdom Wasted

7 . . . . . Don’t Waste Your Life

Don’t Waste Your Life – get this in your head! Do it!

Again, I have to be grateful to God for brothers who introduce me to more great musicians to hang with and continuing transformation on every level. I recommend the entire album Rebel, by Lecrae. This song has pretty quick lyrics and this video is missing a section that is on the album, but you still get it. If you want to read the lyrics, go here.

Atonement for SIN in the Millennial Kingdom?

In this slidepack, (Ezek 38-48) we covered a brief overview of Ezekiel 38-48, merely to hit the hot buttons of the passages. One of the most profound issues in this section of the Text is the prophecy of the “prince” who will make sin offerings in the temple during the millennial reign of Christ. This has brought up so many issues that a myriad of thoughts (well, maybe not a myriad) and conclusions have arisen:

1. Maybe this is not the Millennial Kingdom

2. The offering could only be memorial

3. It’s not really a sin offering

4. Etc.

The main path that one walks to understand this passage is to remember that  what appears to be the problem – that there can be no atonement after Christ has made atonement, once for all. (Hebrews 7:17; 9:12, 25-28) It is of the utmost of importance to remember that the sacrifice of animals never atoned for sin. (Heb 10:3-4) They did not before Christ – they do not after.

Only the blood of Christ atoned for all before Him and all after Him – even for those who would believe.

So, why the sacrifice?

Read the rest of this entry »