Romans 8:3-4: The Great Exchange

Last time we met, we broke down the first half of Romans 8:3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. Essentially we answered “What has God done?”, “If the law was not weakened, could the law fulfill what God has accomplished in His gospel?” and “How did the flesh, sin and essentially, us, weakened the law?” Now that we have answered those questions, let us put everything together and see what we get.

Romans 6:12-14: Who Is The Master?

Here’s the recording from tonight’s Bible study. The first 3 minutes or so of audio are low quality, but it gets better.

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Romans 5: The Journey

So now, you have this faith in the work of Jesus Christ. Now what? Jesus Christ sends the Holy Spirit into your heart whereas Holy Spirit, brings a lunchpail, some leather work gloves and begins to go to work on your heart and begins to transform your life from the inside out.

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What Is The Gospel

I am obsessed with the gospel.  Christ is the reason why.  Driscoll was used by God to light a fire under my butt.

Romans 4: By Faith Alone

How are we saved? How does God justified us? Nothing that we do. It is by faith alone that is given to us.

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Romans 3: All Have Sinned

We finish up the doctrine of sin by comparing our unrighteousness to God’s righteousness. It goes beyond God as the Creator that gives Him the right to judge the world.  God is set apart by any other mortal being or idea in that He is holy and righteous and by that alone, can He rightfully judge.

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It’s Christmas Time

I wrote this letter to my Bible Study group and I wanted to share it with you guys in the Internets. - Ed.

I truly hope that this week is a week that is good for you all. Spend time with family, eat good food, drink good drink, celebrate and give your time, energy and money away to those we love and should love.

I know you are going to be constantly reminded by every single pastor but just remember what we are celebrating.

We are not celebrating that some mere heroic, kick butt, awesome, epic warrior that would rile up a bunch of soldiers and go overthrow the oppressive reign of whomever ruled the little world some 2000 years ago. This is a Divine Being, whom existed before time began and all things were made through Him. He decided, in that moment, that now was the time to begin the true kingdom. The one kingdom that transcended boundaries, walls, rulers, kings, political offices, wars, treaties and weapons. The only kingdom that was ruled by a King, that would rule forever and thus, this kingdom would last forever!

That King is the same as our Lord and is the same as our Saviour and He was to be called Emmanuel, which  declared “God is with us” and the man, God in the flesh– was named Jesus Christ. In order for his kingdom to begin, He had to overthrow Death and Hell so that we might live. In order to do that, He had to die, descend into hell, take the power away from Death and Satan and ascend back to the Father.

For this to happen, He must first be born like a human. He started the entire process of making everything right standing with Himself by being just a little bitty baby, born to a virgin teenage girl for a mom and a holy man of God for a stepdad. He then, had to live like a human. Learning how to walk, talk, eat, toilet train, speak, write, read just like any other child that grows into an adult.

We celebrate Christmas because God made good on His promises. We celebrate because the kingdom of God is now and we are so blessed to live in it.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Ruth 3: I Am Asking You To Protect Me

We ask Jesus Christ to be our Lord and Saviour not only because He offered this free gift but He is the only One who can.

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Ruth 1: I Cannot Go Back

We have one of the most beautiful short stories of all the bible if not of all literature. Beyond a classic and heroic love story, this is a testament to the sovereignty and grace of an Almighty God, who is the author and perfector of our faith.

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Hells Bells by AC/DC

If you are at all familiar with my blog, then the title should not throw you for a loop.  Because of the vastness of my music collection, I will occasionally be inspired to use a song title as a fast and easy way to headline my posts.  Unfortunately, I cannot take credit for this blog title (even though I am familiar with song) because I was encouraged, inspired and otherwise fired up (pun intended) when I found out some of the details of a sermon from Perry Noble (Pastor, NewSpring Church in Anderson, SC) last year.

He goes a bit old school and talks about hell and nothing but hell in this particular sermon in his series, “Illuminate”.  Beyond the calling by God on Perry to see 1,000 people saved in his church, I stood and cheered when I heard he was doing a sermon on hell.  Somehow, in the last twenty years, I missed how preaching on hell became passé because such sermons don’t feel quite so good.

I don’t know how that trend got started (I will speak on filling pews later on) but this leads me to share my how I became saved on a cool December 1982 morning in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in a Baptist Church that would bus in kids from around the city.

The Children’s Pastor’s message that morning was simply: hell and how Jesus Christ came to the earth, died on the cross and rose again so that you wouldn’t go to hell:

John 3:16 (KJV)  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Up till that moment, I am pretty sure that I have never made any life changing decisions.   I’d had a lot of decisions made for me such as my mother saying goodbye to me for the last time when I was 5 years old or the fact I had to go live with my father who would abuse me and my brother for the next seven of the longest years of my life.

But the day I was saved, I will never forget.

So a choice had to be made: Did I want to go to hell (Romans 6:23)?  The answer is obviously no.  Was I a sinner?  I understood that I had done bad things in my life but absolutely no human was born perfect (except Jesus Christ) (Romans 3:23).  If I confess to be a sinner, the Lord will forgive me of my wrongdoings and remove all that is wicked and evil from within me (1 John 1:9).  If I believe that Jesus is my Savior and Lord and he was raised from the dead after being crucified (Romans 10:9), then I will be saved.

The rest, as they say, is history.

So what say you, faithful readers?  Share your testimony of salvation.