A Thought for the Day – 075 – Part Three
I would imagine that Solomon is one of my favorite writers; I seem to
spend a lot of time searching out things in his books. I do not have any
specific reasons although you might dream up a few of your own which is okay by
me. But as I read the last verse in Ecclesiastes 5, I am reminded once again of
two issues on Solomon’s mind. One: He is conscious of God’s involvement in the
personal life of people, and Two: God loves to keep us busy with… joy of heart.
So what is in your heart today?
Comments and challenges
Yesterday
I wrote that mankind (you and me) have a sentence of death on our created
physical being and over the last two days I have used scripture to back that
up. In other words there is no way to get off of planet earth without the
experience of dying; it is the penalty of SIN and whether we like this or not,
it is Satan who has placed this barrier between physical life and spiritual life.
This flesh and blood body of ours cannot inherit the kingdom of God, the
apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:50 makes this clear.
Notice
with me if you will 1 Corinthians 15:56 – The sting of death is sin, and the
strength of sin is the law. Now it is your turn to say; (Oh no, I keep the law;
I do not steal, lie or commit adultery!) Good for you, but tell God that you
love Him with your whole heart, mind and soul, do you not see that the selfish
pride of saying that you do not steal, lie, or commit adultery omits the first
five commandments which need to be in place before the other five can be
fulfilled. Deuteronomy 5:5-22; note also Matthew 22:36-40. In the Matthew
passage the Pharisee lawyer was seeking to trip Jesus up with words, only to
find out that Jesus did not trip over this challenge, but the Pharisee did, as
do we when we seek to keep a part of the law and ignore the rest. (You and I cannot
fulfill this love of God this way; not without the Spirit of God living in us).
God,
knowing the fallen condition of mankind, placed His own Son (Jesus Christ) as
the ONE sacrifice that is ALL sufficient for ALL sin; THIS ACTION of God cannot
be explained in natural terms, it is a supernatural event, a ONE time event in
the history of the God’s created world. His one-time sacrifice is sufficient
for the everyday occurrence for the sins of all of the yesterdays the world has
ever experienced. His onetime sacrifice is all sufficient for all of the sin
which will be committed today and His onetime sacrifice is sufficient for all
of the sins that will be experienced in all of the future of life on earth.
Now in
my little mind… this is POWER! The life of God’s SON who takes away the STING
of DEATH also rose from the dead on the third day after dying this sacrificial death,
HE ROSE FROM THE DEAD. 1 Corinthians 15:1-58 is a very good read on this. Are you
not glad that your soul belongs to God and longs to be restored to the LIVING
GOD, Psalm 42:1-11 and Ecclesiastes 3:11.
Now I know
that many of you who read this are saved and this is sort of like preaching to
the choir (whatever we have meant that to be), but there are many of folks out
there who get this devotional who are religious, trapped in some religion that
is doom to go into hell, some of these folks believe that this is okay because
they will be prayed out of this darkness by the remaining parishioners.
Now;
for that verse in 1 Corinthians 15, the one that these folks cling to (1
Corinthians 15:29) the apostle is not affirming or confirming that we can pray
people out of the abyss, purgatory or any other “holding tank” that God is said
to have set aside for people who partially keep His Commandments. The apostle is
saying; that these people who do such a thing know that there is going to be a resurrection
in the final day and that they are seeking to circumvent the power of God in
the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, seeking to override God’s standard of
Righteousness by their own standard of righteousness. In other words these
folks deny the power of God by rejecting the Risen Savior.
There
will be a Part Four; I have yet to talk clearly about the Holy Spirit and His
work of Regeneration. This is like teaching the epistle of Galatians… (a
personal pun) it seems to never end, then again why should it? Since this is an
everlasting or eternal subject. The subject: Jesus Christ who fulfills the Law,
Matthew 5:17-20.
No comments:
Post a Comment