10.30.2009

Anniversary of the Reformation

This picture depicts the events of October 31, 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the door of The Caste Church in Wittenberg, Germany and flamed the fires of reformation. We would not have our protestant baptist, methodist, lutheran, pentecostal, community evangelical churches if God had not worked through his servatn Martin Luther to protest against the use of indulgences and fighting for the belief that Salvation is by Faith in Christ alone.


Luther on Justification:

"The first and chief article is this: Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, died for our sins and was raised again for our justification (Romans 3:24-25). He alone is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29), and God has laid on Him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6). All have sinned and are justified freely, without their own works and merits, by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, in His blood (Romans 3:23-25). This is necessary to believe. This cannot be otherwise acquired or grasped by any work, law or merit. Therefore, it is clear and certain that this faith alone justifies us ... Nothing of this article can be yielded or surrendered, even though heaven and earth and everything else falls (Mark 13:31)." [Luther, Martin. "The Smalcald Articles," in Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions. (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2005, 289, Part two, Article 1.]

Here is another great quote from Luther on spiritual warfare provided by my pastor, Akash Sant Singh:


"If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefields besides that one, is mere fight and disgrace if he flinches at that point." -Martin Luther




The 95 Theses - Read Luther's words that helped create the protestant churches of today.



http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/history/95theses.htm



10.29.2009

Because He is God

BECAUSE HE IS GOD

By: Akash Sant Singh

Associate Pastor of Community Bible Church, Reno, NV


Because HE is holy, His anger burns against sin.

Because HE is righteous, His judgments fall on those who rebel against Him.

Because HE is faithful, the solemn threatenings of His Word are being fulfilled.

Because HE is omnipotent, no problem can master Him, no enemy can defeat Him, and no purpose of His can be withstood.

Because HE is who He is and what He is that we now behold what we do - the gathering clouds of the storm of Divine wrath, which will shortly, burst upon the earth.

Because HE is almighty He is one who speaks and it is done, who commands and it stands fast. He is the One with whom "all things are possible" and "who works all things after the counsel of His own will."

Such is the God of the Bible, the God who throws out the challenge:


"To whom then will ye liken God, or what likeness will ye compare unto Him?" (Isaiah 40:18).


And as though that were not enough, in the same chapter He asks again:


"To whom then will ye liken Me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: He calleth them all by names by the greatness of His might, for that He is strong in power, not one faileth...Hast thou not known? Has thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?" (Isaiah 40:25,26,28).



God Who Can Be Known

God Who Can be Known

Akash Sant Singh

Associate Pastor of Community Bible Church, Reno, NV

How are we to know what a right view of God is? Who is to make the determination and how can we trust it when made? What standard do we apply? What measuring rod do we hold up as the plumb line to evaluate the personhood of the Creator of all things? Who is arrogant enough to say, "I know the mind of the Almighty." "I understand with absolute certainty the fullness of His character and attributes. Let me tell you about His ways, His acts, and explain Him to you."

We know, first of all, that the existence of God can be seen from His creation. "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse." (Romans 1:20)

But we only come to really know Him-His character and attributes-through one source alone: the Scriptures! The Bible is God's autobiography. It is the divine disclosure of the self-revelation of who He is and His redemptive plan for fallen man. Because He is God we don't have the right to redefine Him on our own terms.


Romans 16:25-27 "Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen."

Romans 15:4 "For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."

1 Tim. 6:3-4 "If anyone advocates a different doctrine, and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing;"


If you desire to know Him, to worship Him, to walk with Him, to love Him, to serve Him, to pray to Him, to fellowship with Him, to commune with Him, to adore Him, and to obey Him, you must come to His Word. We are not slaves to our instincts. We are responsible.

10.22.2009

Divine Appointment - Part 1

I want to share an astounding story about what happened to me the other night, but I want to take some time first to build up the frame work around a biblical concept. I’ll tell my story in the next post – Divine Appointment Part 2. There are a couple of common phrases that we Christians often say which can become meaningless when we over use them. These phrases, however, have roots in some seriously important theology. I understand that I may be a bit of a theology nerd and a doctrine junky, but I think these things really matter. I believe it is important to know what we believe and why we believe it. I believe that we need to be able to express our beliefs to others with clarity and confidence. Back to our sayings…

Have you ever heard a Christian friend say any of these (or said these yourself – we all say them)?
“Oh, you should have been there…it was a God thing.” “I’m sure it had to be a God thing.” “I guess God put that one together.” “Now that was a divine appointment!” I hear it all the time. What do these sayings or phrases mean to you? To most, I suspect, these sayings would mean that God has just done something miraculous, something big and obvious in their life…blessed them in some way. Maybe money showed up in the mailbox unexpectedly or maybe there was a conversation revolving around God that really touch the person or had one of ‘those’ spiritual conversations. Maybe you randomly bumped into that long lost friend that has been in your prayers. So, what does this saying really mean beneath the words? What message is our heart actually delivering? I think it reveals a belief that some things come from God and other things are random events that occur every day within our chaotic world. When we say “it was a God thing” we are also saying that there are things that are NOT a God thing. I believe that this question really dives to the core of how we see the structure of the universe. Does God work to fit His will, purposes, and events into a chaotic and random universe? Or are even the universe’s random events set in motion by God? My barometer is the Word of God, so let’s take a snapshot of a few verses:

Hebrews 1:3: “…he upholds the universe by the word of his power.” – Everything, all the time, is held up by Christ’s word.


Job 1:21 “And he said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” – Earlier in Job we see that the Father actually commands Satan to test Job and after Satan takes everything away from Job and this was his response.


Genesis 50:15-21 “15 When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” 16 So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died, 17 ‘Say to Joseph, Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 18 His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” 19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. 21 So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.” – This topic is too deep and powerful to discuss quickly here, however, look at verse 20. It is clear that God purposely caused and worked out everything we read of Joseph’s life in the Book of Genesis.

Ephesians 1:11 “In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will…” – God works out everything according to the purpose of his will. He does all things for his pleasure and his plan.

What is the point of these verses? Simply this: Everything is a God thing. The fact that you awoke this morning and your heart was beating was a God thing. The fact that you are reading this blog post right now is a God thing. These things have been ordained and predestined by God for his purposes – all things all the time. The fact that you were not run over by a bus on your way to work was a God thing; however, had you been hit by a bus on your way to work that would have been a God thing too! God orchestrates everything and there is no such thing as random events! As R.C Sproul wisely states, “There isn’t a maverick molecule in the universe.” Everything and every event are under God’s divine control and purpose down to the way the leaves turn colors and the way that the stars sit in the sky. Everything from how the spiders make their webs to who we bump into in the grocery store…and it is all meant for good.
God executed a divine appointment in my life the other night. Long ago God the Father set in motion a plan for that night’s events, he worked it out exactly as he had planned, and it was a great blessing.

Continued in Part 2…

10.18.2009

FORGIVENESS

Forgiveness


Occasionally we all have to deal with ugly things, and I encountered one of those things...i'll just call it drama for now. In order to deal with my own issues of forgiveness, I worked my way through these thoughts.

Forgiveness is very difficult in this society and time in human history. We inherently are much more concerned about ourselves and our own feelings…or what we deserve…or bla, bla, bla…me, me, me. It’s true. But once in a while we come up with the bold and honorable plan to be bigger than the other person and forgive and forget. We forgive and move on and feel that we did the right thing. We were the bigger person. This made me think about what this means.

Pondering such lofty thoughts can be dangerous to your health. It may even cause you to lose your life. Lose it to gain it again.

Why are we bigger than the other person when we forgive? I’m convinced of this: He who is in us (God in the form of the Holy Spirit) is greater than he who is in the world (Satan) (1 John 4:4) and we can be bigger than others in the ensuing drama because we have the power of God in us and we will overcome it all! This is so encouraging. If you believe in the one true God of the univers - the God of the Bible - then you are not of this world and are not bound by the chains of un-forgiveness and selfishness. We can actually be different…be bigger.

Better yet, logically we must forgive others because we have been forgiven. Not only are we forgiven but we are forgiven by an infinitely valuable and perfectly sinless God. If He can forgive us of much more heinous and ugly sins against him - who is an infinitely greater and more powerful being - can’t we forgive another hopeless fallen sinner? We are all in this together. (Luke 6:27-38, Matthew 18:22-35)

Ok, so I can forgive them of this or forgive them of that but isn't this is the real world with bad people? How many times are we to let them “wrong” us before enough is enough? Jesus tells Peter that we are to forgive seventy times seven…not a literal 77 times, but over, and over, and over again with true forgiveness each and every time! The point under the logical argument behind “forgive as you have been forgiven” means that you must continue forgiving indefinitely because that is what God does with us. (Matthew 18:22) Obviously, Godi s infinitely more forgiving and infinitely more patient then we are as well. We should thank God daily that He isn’t like us.

But why? Why do we care? Are we to let everyone sin against us and treat us poorly without recourse? No revenge? (his is a dangerous topic for another day) No paybacks? Why forgive indefinitely? The apostle Paul drops a bombshell with this one from the book of Romans 8:28-30:

"All things work together for good in the lives of those who love God and who are called his purpose which he predestined to conform to his image."

So, if we love God and are called by him to his purpose, we are predestined to conform to his image, which can be defined by infinite love and infinite forgiveness. When we actually conform to his image God is glorified! When we forgive, we are conforming to Christ’s image! We end up glorifing God and we point others to him. How amazing. We know that we can not forgive through our own earthly and selfish hearts. We have to desire something more and something supernatural. We need something bigger than us in our hearts. Our forgiveness of those who sin against us actually shines a light on God because he is the one working through us! I can do all things through him who strengthens me! (Philippians 4:13).


Praise God for his word and for using silly little things to reveal the great spiritual secrets of the universe. Do we have people in our lives to forgive? If so, let’s do it today.