Humanity was created in God’s image and enjoyed perfect fellowship in right standing with God until the fall when sin entered in and humanity's condition changed from perfect and blameless to condemned and lost. Humanity would thereafter be separated from God. Yet, God promised in Genesis 3:15 that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent and thus restore humanity to a state of sinless and blameless fellowship with him through this seed that we know to be Christ. God sent his Son to serve as a perfect sinless sacrifice able to satisfy the wrath of God that was due to humanity because of sin. Jesus, “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” (Hebrews 1:3)
As Jesus was sent by the Father with the means of salvation, now those who received that salvation are sent or commissioned to take that saving grace, love, hope, and charity to those who need it in the entire world. The condition of the lost cannot be overcome without the efficacious grace of God. Without this grace, the lost are condemned by the depravity within them to spend eternity separated and estranged from God. Without grace there is no hope. Without grace there is no improvement of the condition. Without grace there is only darkness without even the possibility of light. Only by God’s grace can the lost be rescued from eternal spiritual death and damnation. Without grace, the unmerited generosity of God directed towards humanity, one would not be capable of desiring to be rescued. By faith in God’s ability to save and in the expectation of the availability of the grace and means by which salvation is made effectual, namely repentance, confessing with the mouth the Lord Jesus, and believing in the heart that God has raised him from the dead, the lost can be saved. (Romans 10:9) Hence the work of salvation is of God through the external means (the “doings” of the church) ordained by Him to those who are in turn entrusted with the responsibility of communicating this grace to the whole world. “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)
God pursues the lost because of his love for his creation and it is with this perfect love that he gets their attention and begins drawing them to himself. If the church is full of the fruit of the Spirit and walking in God’s love, only then can the church be a truly useful instrument in the service of God’s purpose. “The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” (Jeremiah 31:3)
Brian L Hunter is a ghostwriter, editor, literary critic, self-publishing consultant, music educator, and freelance writer. ~ The Ministry Of Writing Helps www.koalendar.com/e/meet-with-brian-l-hunter
Friday, November 20, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
A Short One
I'm breathing in fresh flowers that were planted in my soul by my beloved today.
Blossoming even after I was buried, dark, cold,
And waxing old in the wee small hours of a nightmare.
I am so happily not the man I used to be.
Not knowing what the clue was;
Sealed.
Interestingly and amazingly to me,
I could have been who I thought I was, now look at me.
And by His stripes, I am inexorable, and purely healed.
Blossoming even after I was buried, dark, cold,
And waxing old in the wee small hours of a nightmare.
I am so happily not the man I used to be.
Not knowing what the clue was;
Sealed.
Interestingly and amazingly to me,
I could have been who I thought I was, now look at me.
And by His stripes, I am inexorable, and purely healed.
A Little Prayer
A wonderful change has come over me! I am just a little nicer today, a bit less stubborn, and a tad more aware that I am less than nothing without the grace and mercy of God that I have experienced in my life. I desire more each day to disappear until only the image of Christ, my Lord, remains in this mirror. I have been such a vampire in my life thus far. And yet, because of Christ's love, I am not ashamed. The Gospel of Christ is the powerful detergent that is cleansing me and delivering me from all unrighteousness day by day. It is the glorious power of God and I am growing in grace. I am one day closer to the day I surrender the rest of my life to save another. Hopefully, and in faith, I am fortunate enough to be on my way to being conformed to the image of The One who was sent to pay my ransom. Lord, give me grace in suffering and spare me a life of ease. I accept my mission, Lord. As you were sent, and as you sent the Holy Spirit, so now I accept my marching orders. I will go and do as you have commanded. I will lay down my life and not look back. Like the Boys of Summer with a deadhead sticker on a Cadillac, I won't look back. I can never look back. Thank you for making tomorrow so much more relevant than yesterday. You are my beloved and I am yours. Hallelujah! I am so grateful to be closer to being wholly yours. In faith, believing that you are able to perfect that which concerns me, and, elated to know for sure that you are faithful and perfect in all of your glorious ways, I lay this at your feet and move onward through the night knowing that joy comes in the morning. "Uphold me according unto thy word, that I may live: and let me not be ashamed of my hope." (Psalm 119:116) In Jesus' name, believing that it is so. Amen and amen.
Don't Speak?
“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” (1 Corinthians 13:11)
Little children often say, “since you don’t agree with me, I am not going to speak to you.” How infantile and yet, what a natural stage in the development of all who were born into sin and shapen in iniquity (Psalm 51). We are all commanded to “grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18), “as newborn babes, desiring the sincere milk of the Word.” (1 Peter 2:2, 3) By all means, “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.” (Ephesians 4:29) And yet, as obedient Disciples of Christ, mature Christians brimming with the fruit of The Holy Spirit, called to isolate ourselves from others and communicate only with those who agree with us? How is that being a witness and how does that minister grace? Ministry is not meant to be comfortable... "For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me." (Matthew 25:35-37) Let us get off of our high horses and let's get about our Father's business; loving the unlovable and opening our mouths to speak the truth in love to all, no matter how we may differ in doctrine or opinion. Let's grow up saints.
Little children often say, “since you don’t agree with me, I am not going to speak to you.” How infantile and yet, what a natural stage in the development of all who were born into sin and shapen in iniquity (Psalm 51). We are all commanded to “grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18), “as newborn babes, desiring the sincere milk of the Word.” (1 Peter 2:2, 3) By all means, “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.” (Ephesians 4:29) And yet, as obedient Disciples of Christ, mature Christians brimming with the fruit of The Holy Spirit, called to isolate ourselves from others and communicate only with those who agree with us? How is that being a witness and how does that minister grace? Ministry is not meant to be comfortable... "For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me." (Matthew 25:35-37) Let us get off of our high horses and let's get about our Father's business; loving the unlovable and opening our mouths to speak the truth in love to all, no matter how we may differ in doctrine or opinion. Let's grow up saints.
The Suffering, The Reward, and The Responsibility
To the extent that we (our gifts) are being used and discarded, misunderstood, maligned, slandered, injured, or ignored by people, especially “friends”, we are suffering with Christ and we should rejoice. The lostness of humanity is an eternal reality and we, Christ's disciples, must be made broken bread and poured our wine in ways that are not so glamorous as standing before a crowd that agrees with us and may even praise us. No, the real work is at the place called Golgotha (which means the place of a skull). Yet, in the process of God's economy, "the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you." Hold on.
The best is yet to come. For now, let it suffice that we are baptized into Christ in His death (Romans 6:1-4) and resurrected with Him unto newness of life. Therefore we turn the other cheek and persevere with a grateful heart full of the love of Christ as, by God's grace, we are transformed into the image of His Son unto eternal glory. Hebrews 12 denotes the reward for persevering in this race until the end. May the grace of our Lord be with us as we run suffering towards the prize of our inheritance that is stored up for us," incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." (1 Peter 1:4, 5)
"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." (2 Corinthians 4:17, 18)
“But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?” (Matthew 12:48)
In kind, I would venture to say that it remains to be seen who our friends are. If it can be said that friends don't let friends drive drunk, how much more should we say that friends don't let friends perish for lack of knowledge? What are we talking about when it is promised that we shall give an account for every idle word?
The eternal condition of those lost without Christ is a death sentence and the Gospel is the only efficacious means of bestowing the grace of God that results in eternal life. Not many of us would fail to act if we saw an infant running towards a road buzzing with heavy traffic or reaching for a boiling pot of water. How much less then can we, as disciples, be driven to evangelism and missions by the knowledge that “Jesus came not to make bad people good, but to make dead people live.” (Ravi Zacharias Sermon, "The Lostness of Humanity")
Jesus alone is the exclusive way to the Father. I make myself a target for the violent terrorism of Jihad extremists and humanistic "good" people alike by stating the truth of God's Word, breathed from His own mouth just as He, Yahweh, breathed life into our nostril's when we became living souls. There is no other life raft. How can the lost not starve to death throughout eternity unless they accept the bread of life, and, how can they accept the truth of God’s Word unless it is offered to them so that they have a chance to be “saved by grace through faith” (Ephesians 2:8)? “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17 NIV) I believe that to the extent one has been fully persuaded of the truth of the gospel message and come to faith in Christ, that is the extent to which one is powerfully motivated to act responsibly in the areas of evangelism and missions. Hence, to Christ’s disciples, the lostness of humanity is to the heart a clarion call to action born of love.
The best is yet to come. For now, let it suffice that we are baptized into Christ in His death (Romans 6:1-4) and resurrected with Him unto newness of life. Therefore we turn the other cheek and persevere with a grateful heart full of the love of Christ as, by God's grace, we are transformed into the image of His Son unto eternal glory. Hebrews 12 denotes the reward for persevering in this race until the end. May the grace of our Lord be with us as we run suffering towards the prize of our inheritance that is stored up for us," incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." (1 Peter 1:4, 5)
"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." (2 Corinthians 4:17, 18)
“But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?” (Matthew 12:48)
In kind, I would venture to say that it remains to be seen who our friends are. If it can be said that friends don't let friends drive drunk, how much more should we say that friends don't let friends perish for lack of knowledge? What are we talking about when it is promised that we shall give an account for every idle word?
The eternal condition of those lost without Christ is a death sentence and the Gospel is the only efficacious means of bestowing the grace of God that results in eternal life. Not many of us would fail to act if we saw an infant running towards a road buzzing with heavy traffic or reaching for a boiling pot of water. How much less then can we, as disciples, be driven to evangelism and missions by the knowledge that “Jesus came not to make bad people good, but to make dead people live.” (Ravi Zacharias Sermon, "The Lostness of Humanity")
Jesus alone is the exclusive way to the Father. I make myself a target for the violent terrorism of Jihad extremists and humanistic "good" people alike by stating the truth of God's Word, breathed from His own mouth just as He, Yahweh, breathed life into our nostril's when we became living souls. There is no other life raft. How can the lost not starve to death throughout eternity unless they accept the bread of life, and, how can they accept the truth of God’s Word unless it is offered to them so that they have a chance to be “saved by grace through faith” (Ephesians 2:8)? “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17 NIV) I believe that to the extent one has been fully persuaded of the truth of the gospel message and come to faith in Christ, that is the extent to which one is powerfully motivated to act responsibly in the areas of evangelism and missions. Hence, to Christ’s disciples, the lostness of humanity is to the heart a clarion call to action born of love.
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