God's presence among His people

This Moses did; according to all that the LORD commanded him, so he did... the tabernacle was erected. ...So Moses finished the work. Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.
Exodus 40:16-17,33-34.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14.

And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
"Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."
Revelation 21:2-4.

Publically Burning Our Sins

Always, those who follow Christ should be ready to part with whatever is sinful in their life and work, that Christ may be honored above all. Sins kept in the heart--poison the life, hide God's face, and shut out blessing. No matter what it may cost, our sins must be sacrificed, or they will destroy us!

"Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. A number of them who had been practicing magic brought their books and burned them at a public bonfire. The value of the books was several million dollars!" Acts 19:18-19

(J. R. Miller, "Paul's Message for Today" 1904)

Taken from the Grace Gem: The burning of these old Ephesian books!

Grace Gems: Beauty and Manliness

Ugly corners made beautiful

(J. R. Miller, "Christian Manliness" 1909)

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely . . ." Philippians 4:8

Beauty is another quality of true manliness. It is not enough for a man to be true, to live honorably, to be just, to be pure and clean--he must also have in his life, whatever is lovely.

All God's works are beautiful. He never made anything that was not beautiful. It is sin which spoils everything!

There are many lives that are not lovely in every feature. You see things in others which you cannot admire--things which are not beautiful.

Fretting is not beautiful.

Bad temper is unlovely.

Discontent, jealousy, irritability, unkindness, selfishness are unattractive.

It is the work of God's grace--to make lives beautiful. All that grace does in us--is toward the fashioning of beautiful Christian character in us.

On a florist's signboard are the words, "Ugly corners made beautiful". The florist had reference to what he could do to beautify an ugly spot or a piece of landscape. He would trim out the weeds, plant flowers and shrubs, and transform a wilderness into a garden.

That is what grace can do in our lives. Some men seem to think that the fine and graceful things are only for women, not for men. But Christ was a man--a perfect, complete man--and there was not a single unlovely thing in His life.
He was strong--but also gentle.
He was just--but kindly.
He was firm--but patient.
He was righteous, and his indignation burned like fire against all hypocrisy and injustice--but his tenderness never failed.

Fine manliness is beautiful, like Christ. "Yes, He is altogether lovely! This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend!" Song of Songs 5:16

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

We have posted J. R. Miller's insightful article, "Christian Manliness".

Earthquake in Haiti

I noticed through facebook, that many Dominican Christians are praying for their Haitian neighbors and doing what they can to help in various ways, but especially through prayer. To me, that is so encouraging to see, knowing that Haiti and the Dominican Republic have not always gotten along well.

I pray our LORD will be with those Haitians during this time, and that He will use Dominican and Haitian Christians to evangelize many people who are in such great peril of eternal judgment.

Christ came to seek and save the lost, and to gather the outcasts, bind up the wounded, heal the sick and raise the dead to life again. May He be with His people in Haiti and the Dominican Republic in a powerful way at this time of such great need and may the name of Christ Jesus be glorified.

The Foolishness of Preaching the Cross of Christ, part 1

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to proclaim the gospel, not in wisdom of words, so that in no way would the cross of Christ be made empty.
(1 Corinthians 1:17)

John Gill says in his commentary on this verse:

but to preach the Gospel; for which he was most eminently qualified, had peculiar gifts for the discharge of it, and was greatly useful in it. This was what he was rather sent to do than the other, and this "not with wisdom of words". Scholastic divinity, or the art of disputation, is by the (f) Karaites, a sect among the Jews, called חכמת הדברים, "wisdom of words": this the apostle seems to refer to, and signifies he was not sent with, or to preach, with words of man's wisdom, with human eloquence and oratory, with great swelling words of vanity, but in a plain, humble, modest manner; on which account the false teachers despised him, and endeavoured to bring his ministry into contempt with others: but this way and manner of preaching he chose for this reason,

John Gill made the point well, that Christ sent Paul to preach (the word is euangelizesthai to proclaim the gospel, to evangelize) without using the impressive words of what is considered wisdom by an unbelieving world.

The world thinks that they will only find truth by higher knowledge, intelligence, philosophical and logical wisdom, etc. But the gospel goes forth in plain, common, simple terms, so that even the uneducated can understand by the grace of God.

The simple message of the gospel is the proclamation of facts and belief in what those facts indicate. The cross of Christ was an event in history. Jesus, who is called Christ, was crucified under the authority of Pontius Pilate. The power of that death lies within God's purpose, that Christ would suffer the wrath in place of all who believe in Him as the fulfillment of the Scriptural Messiah (the Christ). His resurrection from the dead authenticated and produced real salvation for God's elect.

The foolishness of it all can be seen in that people are called to believe the only eye-witness accounts written down, which are the New Testament Scriptures. To the world this is not an expression of wisdom. However, to us who believe, it is the power of the cross of Christ.

From my personal study notes - Romans 1:17

Rom 1:17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith." (ESV)

The revelation of the righteousness of God is important to note. God is righteous and just, yet because of all the injustice and evil in the world, some conclude that He is not. It is in the gospel that God's righeousness is being revealed from faith to faith. That is, His righteousness is revealed to those who believe, and it continues to be revealed to believers in the gospel.

Not only that, but believers live by faith through the righteousness of God. God's righteousness is received as a gift by faith (Romans 3:22,24;5:17). The believer also lives as a righteous person before God (Romans 5:19,21), because God's righteousness is imputed to him or her by their faith or trust in Him (Romans 4:5). The only way for a sinful person to be made righteous before God, Pual tells us, is by faith alone in this gospel for which there is no reason to be ashamed (Romans 1:16).

Grace Abounding: Resource for getting a good Premillennial perspective

Being in alignment with reformed and calvinist teachings regarding Scripture (2 Tim 3:16), the absolute Sovereignty of God (Rom 11:36), agreeing very strongly with those doctrines known as TULIP (Rom. 3:12; Eph. 1:4; John 10:15; John 6:37,44; 1 Thes. 5:23,24), and enjoy the wealth of Biblical studies and books produced by reformed Christian leaders (see www.monergism.com), makes it very tempting to side with those same theologians on their views of eschatology simply because they say it is right.

In this post, I am simply presenting a resource I have found very helpful in considering a Biblical understanding of premillennialism from a Calvinist Christian perspective. I tend to agree more with the premillennial point of view, while possibly not agreeing with everything. My understanding of the return of Christ and the last times is not very big, but from what I see the Bible saying, I try to understand it correctly and then see who takes the Biblical perspective most accurately as far as I can tell.

So here is a link to some studies done by Fred Butler on his blog, Hip and Thigh, Studies in Eschatology for anyone interested in learning this point of view.

A Post for Atheists

God created everything

God owns everything

God explains everything

God judges everyone

God loves those sinners He chooses to save

God chooses who knows and experiences His salvation in Christ

The physical resurrection of Jesus from the dead is a fact

Genesis 1:1; John 1:1-3; Ephesians 1:4-7; Romans 9:16; 1 Corinthians 15:3-10

The World is not Worthy

a 23-year-old Christian, converted from Islam, that was killed earlier this month. He was reported to an Islamic militant group by a boy whom he had witnessed to. The statement of what happened to this brother is graphic:

"In an attempt to extract evidence against him and to gain information about other Somali Christians, the militants knocked out all of Yusuf's front teeth and broke several of his fingers. They then shot him twice in the head and discarded his body on an empty residential street."

...continue reading over at Thirsty Soul

Isaiah 61

Isaiah Chapter 61

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion-- to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.

They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.

Strangers shall stand and tend your flocks; foreigners shall be your plowmen and vinedressers; but you shall be called the priests of the LORD; they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God; you shall eat the wealth of the nations, and in their glory you shall boast.

Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion; instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot; therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion; they shall have everlasting joy.

For I the LORD love justice; I hate robbery and wrong; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Their offspring shall be known among the nations, and their descendants in the midst of the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are an offspring the LORD has blessed.

I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.

Grace Abounding: Premillennial/Amillennial Calvinism - I'm still learning

I'm learning that the debate over the return of Christ and the meaning of the 1,000 year reign (Revelation 20:4,5,6) is not one that is easily resolved.

I've considered both amillennial views and premillennial views of calvinism, and can say that both make a strong case.

I would say that Kim Riddlebarger (one of the lead amillennial Calvinists) and John MacArthur (Calvinist in favor of dispensational premillennialism) both have a lot of good points they are making. However, I see that both have the tendency to argue from their presuppositions without carefully considering the other side. I guess I could be wrong, I am only now learning from their messages. They are smart guys, but even smart guys can be mistaken. So I'm listening with care.

Whichever view most accurately represents the return of Christ, I want to say this, that we must always reform our understanding according to the entire Bible and look forward with eager longing for the eternal reign of our King and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

May His name be praised as Christian brothers sharpen one another through such debate.

Grace to all in Jesus Christ our Lord!

Contemplating Premillennial Calvinism

For a long time I was sort of a mix of amil/premil eschatology, depending on what passage of Scripture I was reading at the moment. That was long before I knew what amillennialism or premillennialism were about. Now I have had to think the issues over a little more.

Recently, I have been contemplating premillennial calvinism. Especially Why Every Calvinist Should Be A Premillennialist by John McArthur.