Solid Iron’s Ramblings

Response to Anonymous Comment

2011-10-16T14:16:00.006-04:00

Dear blog readers,

Nearly a year ago someone posted a comment on my “Everything Happens for a Reason” post. I have struggled with exactly how to respond to this and have decided it is finally time to stop trying to come up with the “perfect” response and simply reply. You can read the original comment here.

Dear Anonymous, first of all thank you for posting so openly and candidly on my blog. I hope you find this reply even though it took me too long to write it.

Your understanding of how things are with us and God reminds me very much of myself a number of years ago (and I am really not just saying that). And you are absolutely very right when you said that it is “very depressing”. In fact that depressing view of how things are between God and ourselves very nearly drove me to despair in my early twenties. I came to a point where I even seriously considered how much un-burdened I would be if I simply gave up even bothering to consider myself a “Christian”.

When you said that God “intended for this fallen world to come about […] because he wanted to use it to show how good He was at fixing it” that got me thinking... you see I have a little girl - just two years old. If I sneak up behind her and push her down just so I can show her how good I am at bandaging her knees then am I being a loving father? Or a cruel, manipulative tyrant?

This kind of view of God leaves you trying to love a god who, when you’re totally honest with yourself, seems to be a manipulative cruel tyrant. But that isn’t what God is like. Scripture tells us in plain language what God is like. Here are just a few passages:

Psalm 103:13, 2 Corinthians 1:3, Psalm 86:15, Psalm 103:8, Psalms 145:13, 1 John 3:1, 1 John 4:8-10, 1 John 4:16

There is a huge difference between God knowing that the fall into sin would happen and Him intending for it to happen. God does not cause both good and evil. In the Belgic Confession we say that He is the overflowing fountain of all good. He is not some fountain flowing with equal parts good and bad.

In Luke 6 Jesus says that we shouldn't expect to “pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers” and that “no good tree bears bad fruit”. In James 3:11 the apostle James says that fresh water and “brackish” cannot come from the same spring. In James 1:17 we hear that every good thing comes from God and in 1 John 1:5 we hear that God is pure light without a so much as a hint of darkness in Him. God is GOOD! He really is.

You also wrote that the fall into sin and our subsequent inability to cope with a sinful world is what makes Jesus and the Holy Spirit “necessary” and that this thus brings glory to God. The problem with this view it that it is (ironically) actually very man-centered.

You see it means that God’s glory depends not only on man’s existence but also on man's sinfulness. Is God’s glory really dependent on man??!?! Did God not have perfect glory from eternity before the creation of the world? Before the creation of man? and before the fall into sin? God will be glorified despite of the wickedness of man – not because of it.

You also wrote: “everything circles around Him and His glory”. Now I think you are right in that statement although I think you are misunderstanding that it means to bring glory to God. I get the sense that you view us as pawns on God’s chessboard. And God is arbitrarily moving the pieces about in some cosmic chess game designed to bring himself glory.

God did not create man because He was lonely or because He needed man to bring Himself glory. After all God had perfect glory before he created man. God does not need anything from man. God created man so that he (man) might have fellowship with Him (God). He created us to be the objects of His love and to even *share* in His glory (2 Thessalonians 2:14). God created man that we might live before Him and enjoy Him. Think about how you enjoy the sun on the beach… basking in it. Glorifying God is literally basking in His presence, enjoying who He is, reveling in His love – a love so vast we can scarcely begin to understand it.

Even though we broke that fellowship with the fall into sin, despite that God resorted it through the cross of Jesus Christ. In Christ we may now again enjoy free unfettered sweet fellowship with God, live plainly and openly before His face living unfettered lives of thankfulness day in and day out.

So go, glorify God with your entire life and love every moment of it!

I hope this makes sense and I hope it is helpful. Please let me know if you find this and if you comment again I will be quicker to respond.

Everything Happens for a Reason

2010-05-31T23:13:00.002-04:00

"Everything Happens for a Reason" is a very popular saying among Christians and it can often be misunderstood. It comes from the fact (and yes this is a fact) that God is in complete control of history. While this is true it sometimes leads us to the wrong conclusion.

Bad things happen in life. That much is a fact. Minor bad things like stubbing our toe or hitting our thumb with a hammer are common place. Major bad things like terminal illness, job loss, poverty, suffering and the death of loved ones can also happen – even to Christians. Sometimes when these things happen in a Christian’s life we may conclude that God is teaching us a hard lesson or even that He is punishing us for our sins (sins He has already punished in Jesus Christ). This kind of thinking can cause us to resent God because we feel like He is dragging us along through the most painful circumstances just to see what we are made of. This is not the case. God knows what we are made of (He’s the One who made us) and He knows that we are but dust (Genesis 2:7, Psalm 103:13-14).

Bad things happen in life because sin has entered the world. Sin was not part of God’s original design for us and neither are the painful results of it. God did not intend for us to live in a world of stubbed toes, bruised thumbs, terminal illness and death. He designed us to live in perfect harmony with Himself and enjoy everything good that He made (John 10:10).

We (human kind) invited sin into this world and now that it’s here we are experiencing the results of it. Can God put a stop to it? Sure He can and in fact He has already begun to do so. In sending Jesus Christ God broke the power of sin and the curse that rests on creation because of it (Romans 8:2). God is moving history toward the time when sin and all its consequences will be banished forever – but we aren’t there yet.

In the meantime we continue to experience bad things in life (although we also enjoy many good things). But God turns bad things around for His glory and our good. God powerfully and incomprehensibly uses even the most difficult circumstances to our benefit (Romans 8:28). In the midst of the worst hardships we may know that we are never out of God’s fatherly hand. Nothing happens to you or me that surprises God. The devil did not sneak some hardship into your life while God wasn’t watching. No! God is in complete control and continues to be our loving Father even in the midst of hardships (Psalm 145:16-18, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4).

Does God punish us for our sins?

2008-11-05T23:29:00.002-05:00

There are many Christians who think that God punishes us for our sins. For example they may think that if they smoke and get lung cancer that it is God's punishment on them for their sin of smoking. Or if they lead a sexually promiscuous life and contract an STD that it is God's punishment for their sinful lifestyle. Sometimes people even think that God punishes sin in totally unrelated ways. For example I used to think that if my car broke down it was for some sin that I committed 2, 3 or maybe even 4 weeks ago that I still felt bad about.

The problem is that this kind of thinking is contrary to the Gospel because it misses the point of the Cross. It also leads us to wrong way of thinking about sin, the devil and God. Instead of seeing sin as folly and the devil as the enemy we start to see sin as “fun” and God as a harsh father waiting to dole out punishment whenever we step out of line.

Now it is 100% true that God hates sin. We should never think that God is “soft” on sin. Sin is serious and God hates it. In fact He hates it so much that he could not leave it unpunished. But that is exactly why He no longer punishes us for our sins today – because he has already punished each and every one of them. Our sins have already been paid for. That's what the Cross is about.

Every sin you and I have ever committed or ever will commit has already been paid for by Jesus on the Cross of Calvary. Jesus suffered the wrath of God for the sins of the entire human race. So why would God go on punishing our sin now?

Sin has natural consequences. Smoking causes lung cancer. Promiscuous sex causes AIDS and a host of other diseases. Sin is destructive to ourselves and to those around us. Those natural consequences are part of the reason God hates sin so much. He hates what sin does to those whom He loves (you and me). God hates sin the way we might hate cancer. We hate to see our loved ones trapped, broken and suffering.

When the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) left home we hear nothing of punishment. The prodigal son experienced all kinds of hardships but if he had thought those hardships were somehow his father's doing it is unlikely that he would ever have returned home. The father didn't even “chew him out”. The father continued loving his lost son the whole time and when he finally returned home he celebrated with great joy!

Far from punishing us for our sins is has been my own experience that more often God shields us from the natural consequences of our sins. I have done many sinful things that never seemed to “come home to roost”. Have you ever driven drunk and got home safe? Have you ever done something wrong that would have hurt your relationships but no one found out? How often hasn't God put a hedge of protection around you?

We can damage our lives with sin. We can hurt ourselves and those around us and we can certainly miss out on the joy God has in mind for our lives but we can never change the deep love God has for us. Jesus said that the thief [devil] comes to steal, kill and destroy but that He [Jesus] has come that we might have life and have it to the fullest (John 10:10). The devil wants to burden you with sin and destroy you with the consequences. God wants you to live life full of joy, peace happiness and thankfulness.

Myth Buster: We should be afraid of God

2007-05-26T17:05:00.000-04:00

At the risk of becoming a rip-off artist :-) I am going to post another ‘Myth Buster’ from Don Francisco’s website. I got this in my email this afternoon and couldn’t really think of any better way to say it :-) The only thing I did was add a couple of text references.

For more stuff by my favorite Christian Singer/Songwriter visit www.donfrancisco.com

There is confusion about this concept because there are multiple words for "fear" in both Greek and Hebrew, and many of them are used in both a positive and negative sense. We are told that the fear of God is a good thing (Joshua 24:14), and then we are told that perfect love casts out fear! (1 John 4:18) And in many cases, the original language is using the same word both positively and negatively.

The simple resolution for this is that there is a positive fear, a respect, awe, or "reverence"; and a negative fear, dread, a lack of trust in God.

The reverence of God is a deep aspect of character, a God-given ethic, a way of perceiving and responding to the universe. This "fear of God" causes the humans who possess it to look up at the stars in wonder rather than in despair, to value life, people, and living things. It is a positive world view. The reverence of God lights up our existence, it goads us away from self-destruction. It is the foundation of success for individuals, and it is also the basis for peaceful societies and nations.

The negative aspect of fear is a very different thing. It causes us to freeze up in misunderstanding. Jesus talked about a man who buried his talents because he thought God was a hard master. God loves us and does not want fear to drive us away from Him.

Jesus was a tangible expression of God's love for us and a forgiving response to our sin.

Dead religion is much harder on us than God is. It probably creates most of our fear towards God. We also have a tendency to feel guilty, and guilt brings about fear. The guilt that most Christians feel results from a misunderstanding of the Cross. Jesus died to permanently remove our guilt before God so that we could enjoy a lifelong friendship with Him.

If you are afraid of God because you think you have failed Him, then welcome to the human race. We have all failed Him, and yet He loves us more than we can imagine. Fear melts into awe when we realize the magnificence of what He has done for us.

Myth Buster: ‘The penalty for sin is death’

2007-02-07T13:51:00.000-05:00

It might seem strange that I would quote Scripture and put the words “myth buster” in front of it. But some of you have realized there is something wrong with the above quote... it isn’t from scripture at all.

One of the most often misunderstood (and also misquoted) passages of Scripture is Romans 6:23. What it actually reads is “...the wages of sin is death...”

There is a huge difference in what those two phrases communicate. If we say the ‘penalty for sin is death’ it would seem to suggest God is paying out the penalty for sin. But when we attach this text (or partial text actually) to the rest of the verse and to the verses surrounding it we begin to understand what it is really saying. The rest of Romans 6:23 reads “...but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”.

Some understand this to mean that God is paying out death for sin with one hand and life in Jesus Christ with the other. Because death comes as the result of sin we conclude that what God pays out to us depends on our performance. This also is a misunderstanding of this text.

Attached to the verses surrounding it we see that Paul is personifying “sin”. Paul is talking about serving two masters and Sin is personified as a cruel slave master. A few verses earlier Paul writes:

“Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey - whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?” – Romans 6:16

Here we clearly see that sin and obedience to God are setup as two different masters. We can offer ourselves to either one or the other (but not to both).

Paul is telling us that if we make sin our master and offer ourselves to serve him we will end up slaving for him. We can slave for sin our entire life and in the end the wage that he will payout is death. We will carry around a heavy load of sin and suffer the consequences of sin our entire life and in the end sin will payout with death. We will have difficulty and darkness all through our lives if we choose to serve the slave master Sin.

Then there is a comparison...

God is giving a gift! The free gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ! The difference is clear. Sin pays a wage, a cruel wage. But God gives a gift, a glorious gift! A wage, by definition, is something you must work for. But on the other hand a gift is something you get for free - out of the goodwill of the one giving it. You don’t deserve it and you can’t work for it. All you can do is accept it.

There are two ways we can make sin our master. The first is to be drowning in self-destructive habits, drugs, sexual immorality, drinking, lying, stealing, etc... the list can go on. The second way is less obvious and often appears to be very religious and pious. That second way is to attempt to please God through good behavior. That will lead us into false religion and an un-winnable battle with sin which can only end one of two ways - in false pride and denial, or failure and sorrow.

Jesus has freed us from sin. In Jesus our sins have been defeated, paid for, and removed from us. Although we still struggle in our bodies, God loves us and already sees us as perfect. And since we are permanently forgiven, God's Spirit can dwell in us permanently without jumping out and back in every time we make a mistake and then confess it. The Cross was powerful, and Jesus never leaves us. The Bible says the cross of Jesus Christ was powerful enough to cover the sins of the whole planet.

The true Gospel brings a flood of peace, acceptance, healing, and joy into our lives. It is restful and invigorating. "Peace on earth, good will towards men!" This was the song of the angels when Jesus was born. We can rest in His gift, and enjoy the friendship with God which was purchased for us. It's a gift. If we allow sin to be our master and to control our lives, Satan will hurt, break down, and finally kill us. But God has a free gift, one which you don't have to work for - eternal, abundant, overflowing life.

Driving Nails and Gouging Spears

2007-01-31T13:12:00.000-05:00

There seems to be a trend in our Reformed circles to fight against sin by concentrating on just how sinful it really is. We concentrate on what a horrible thing we are doing every time we sin. To understand what I mean I want to use the following quote from a Reformed message forum.

“I think that if God gave up His only Son, then instead of driving the nails into His hands and feet doing what WE WANT to do instead of His will, that we should instead do our best to serve God according to HIS WILL.” – Anonymous

The idea here seems to be that if we make our selves feel bad about sinning we will do it less. While this may seem like a good strategy and may even appear pious on the surface it is 100% contrary to the gospel.

The gospel is about grace; God’s grace shown to us in Jesus Christ. God does not want us to live our lives motivated by guilt or a preoccupation with sin. He wants us to live our lives out of thankfulness and with a total focus on his abundant love and mercy. We need to direct our gaze to Jesus Christ and his finished work.

The idea expressed in the quotation above is that Christ suffering is ongoing and that by sinning we somehow add to Christ's suffering. The image tries to motivate us into sinning less by guilting us into lessening (or at least not worsening) Christ's suffering. The idea here is that we should avoid sinning because by doing so we continue (in some way) to drive the nails into Christ's hands and feet. This is a Roman Catholic idea and not at all Reformed (or more importantly Scriptural).

Please understand I am not picking on the Roman Catholic Church here. Nor am I saying that all Roman Catholics actually think this way about Christ’s sacrifice or that they live lives motivated by guilt. But in Roman Catholic theology the suffering of Christ is ongoing. This is symbolized by the Roman Catholic Mass in which the priest offers the true body and true blood of Christ over and over again each time. This is also why there is an ‘alter’ in Roman Catholic churches but not in Protestant churches.

Consider also how it is typically Catholic to see crucifixes with Jesus hanging on them while in Protestant circles we have crosses without Jesus hanging on it. This demonstrates the difference in that the Catholic church teaches the “ongoing suffering” of Christ while Reformed/Protestant theology teaches the “finished work of Christ”.

Our motivation for Christian living should never be guilt. It should be thankfulness for the salvation of God through Christ, once for all! Done! Finished! Finalized and sealed.

We do not continue to drive the nails into his hands and feet by our sins. Christ's death was offered "once, for all" and Jesus himself said "it is finished". This "finished work of Christ" is the cornerstone of our faith.

You cannot loose your salvation by falling into sin. And our sins don’t add to Christ's suffering either. So why not just go on sinning? Well when our theology causes us to ask that question we know we are on the right track. Why? You ask? Because that is the very question Paul was asked about his teaching. See Romans 6:1-2

“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” – Romans 6:1-2

Because our evil nature has been put to death with Christ and been buried with him. If we have died with Christ we no longer live in the sinful flesh. We have been made new with Him and are a new creation in Him so we need to live our new, reborn life in Christ Jesus.

The Atonement

2007-01-26T13:52:00.000-05:00

This article is not one of my own original works. I copied it from Don Francisco’s website. He is a Christian singer and song writer. I highly recommend his website and music. You can download his music for free from his website.

When Jesus was born, the angels sang, "Peace on earth, good will toward men". That is because Jesus came to be the ultimate sacrifice for our sin and to bring peace between people and God.

In the Old Testament, people would make an annual sacrifice as an atonement for sin. They would then rest for the remainder of the year in the knowledge that their sins were covered.

Of course, the sacrifice of Jesus was a much more powerful atonement for sin. Since Jesus became a sacrifice for our sin, we don't have to worry about it anymore. Jesus said, "It is finished". The work was completed.

Still, many Christians don't have as much peace in Jesus as an Old Testament believer had in the yearly atonement! Many of us feel guilty about the Cross and are still unable to have a face to face friendship with God because of guilt and the constant reminders of our imperfections.

Many churches teach that there are religious things one has to do to be worthy of a relationship with God. But the Bible says there is nothing we can do to improve our standing with the God who already loves us beyond what we can grasp, except to trust fully that the Cross has made us worthy.

We can still get hurt and hurt others by living outside of God's wise principles, but it is not God who hurts us. The father did not chase the prodigal son and throw rocks of judgment every time he did something wrong. The father didn't hurt the son-- sin hurt the son! The father just waited, and when the son came home, he placed fine robes on him without hesitation.

The biggest danger of missing the point of the atonement is that you begin to adopt a performance based dead religion as a false means to God. This is what the Bible calls dead works. If you don't believe that what Jesus did for you on the Cross is complete, you start to believe that there are things you can do to earn your own salvation. This produces people who are puffed up in false pride, or people who have left God altogether in defeat. It is impossible to please God through perfect living. We can't be perfect enough. If we try, we usually end up becoming snooty and judgemental.

God loves us so much it is hard to wrap your brains around it. He sent His Son as an atonement. He has removed our sins as far from us as east is from west - ALL of our sins, past present and future. Now nothing stands in the way of us having a close friendship with God-- except perhaps, our own misunderstanding of the Cross and how powerful and complete it is!

Thoughts on "TULIP"...

2006-07-21T13:36:00.000-04:00

Calvinism is one of the most hotly debated topics. I am Reformed and am so also a 5-point Calvinist but there is a lot of misunderstanding about what these five points mean. Now I am no expert in theology but here is my rambling thoughts on them and this is how I understand them...

Total Depravity:
Does mean: Every part of our being (spirit, mind, will, intellect, emotions, capacity for reason, body, etc...) is depraved. We are unable to do any works which merit toward our salvation.

Does not mean: We are absolutely wicked without any sense of right vs. wrong. Even unbelievers retain a sense of right and wrong called the ‘light of nature’ in the Canons of Dort.

Unconditional Election:
Does mean: God selected various people to be saved before the foundation of the world without any regard to their works. He did not look into the future and see who would “be a good boy/girl” and elect people based on foreseen “good works”.

Does not mean: People in the covenant (covenant children) or born into CanRC families are saved because of their pedigree. Also does not negate (or make unnecessary) our responsibility to respond and accept the Gospel with a believing heart. Does not remove the need to tell our neighbor about Jesus Christ!

Limited (particular) Atonement:
Does mean: Jesus died for me! Jesus died for sinners. Jesus death is abundantly sufficient to erase the sins of the entire human race thought all of history including the sins of people who never repent. People who end up in hell do so because they didn't repent and didn't believe in Jesus Christ. NOT because Jesus didn’t die for them. Jesus paid for your sins!

Does not mean: We need to first figure out if Jesus died for us before we can respond to the message of the Gospel which is clear and simple “...if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” – Romans 10:9

Side note: I feel a lot of people in the CanRC get hung-up on this and worry about if the “possibility” of salvation exists for them. Instead we must take what God tells us at face value, trust it! and place our hope firmly and squarely in Jesus Christ.

“Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” – John 11:25-26

Irresistible Grace:

Does mean: That everyone whom God chose to elect (see unconditional election) will irresistibly and unfailingly be saved. God does not start something and then leave it unfinished because man was too stubborn and resisted God. “...he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 1:6b

Does not mean: That we can’t sometimes be stubborn and resist God’s work in our lives. It also does not mean that we can’t sometimes resist doing what we know God wants us to do.

Preservation (perseverance) of the Saints:
Does mean: That once someone becomes a true born-again believer he or she will always be a true believer. Although true believers can fall into serious sins they will never fall beyond God’s grace and God will always bring them back to repentance (see David & Bathsheba). A true believer will never loose their salvation.

Does not mean: That everyone who ever looked like a Christian is necessarily a true Christian. Also does not mean that we can be careless about falling into sin because after all God will “force” us to repent. Also does not mean that being a member of the CanRC (or other Reformed church) means that we are necessarily a true believers simply because we say and know (in our heads) the “right stuff”.

Pharisaitis Test

2006-07-14T13:59:00.000-04:00

The National Heart Health Association has issued an alert.
"An ancient disease is on the rise, "Pharisaitis".

Symptoms:
Cranial swelling, atrophied heart, upturning of the nose, and blind spots.

Populations at Risk:
Those active in religious circles should take precautionary measures to avoid this disease, and be educated about early symptoms.

Prognosis:
Contagious - those with extreme Pharisaitis should be quarantined. Diagnosis is the most difficult part of the cure. Once the patient realizes he/she has contracted the disease, Pharisaitis often goes into remission. Left untreated, however, Pharisaitis will progress until blindness is complete, swollen head becomes difficult for the neck to support, heart shrinks and hardens with beats becoming shallow, and nose becomes so upturned it begins to catch rain.

The Pharisaitis Self-Diagnostic Test

Caution: This test is intended for self-diagnosis only (should not be applied to others)!

The following test may help identify the possible presence of Pharisaitis. Self examination can be difficult due to blind spots - proceed carefully. Most Christians display hints of Pharisaitis, so do not become prematurely alarmed. Consistent presence of symptoms may suggest advanced Pharasaitic infection.

	Danger signs	Healthy	Verse
1	"Truth" is more important than love.	Love is the most important part of truth.	Love is the greatest...1st Corinth 13
2	You feel you are above some people.	You do not feel above anybody.	The greatest among you will serve... Luke 22:26
3	You feel below some people.	You do not feel below anybody.	I have not called you slaves, but friends.. John 15:15
4	You see how people could improve.	You love people.. really really love them.	love one another:John 15:12
5	You don't know any nonchristians.	Nonchristians love to hang around you.	He visits with sinners: Luke 5:30
6	Non-Christians are scumbags.	You are a forgiven scumbag.	For you are saved by grace, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's a gift...Eph 2:8
7	Christians who sin (alcohol, divorce, gum chewing) are worse than non-believers..	You sin ... but when you do, you have an advocate.	Our righteousnesses are like filthy rags... Isa 64:6
8	We need to convict people of their sin.	We need to forgive people for their sins.	It is the goodness of God that leads you to turn around Rom2:4.
9	Non-Christians are to be avoided..	You love all people, especially the lost, and so reveal the heart of God to them.	For God so loved the world ...John 3: 16 & 17

How well, how did you do? If your life more closely matches the left-hand column, please adopt the following super-natural, organic prescription:

1. Check to see that your teeth are healthy. The meat of the Word MUST be thoroughly chewed up before being swallowed or it's nutrients will not benefit you. Start with the Love chapter, 1 Corinthians ...take tiny bites and eat slowly. Don't depend on anybody else to chew your food for you.

2. Drink plenty of Living Water to flush out legalism. You can't earn God's favor, it's a gift. Nobody else can earn it either. There is peace in the knowlege that Jesus has purchased us and the sin issue is closed once we are in Him. That's what the "Good News" is! The Cross has released us into a love relationship with God and people.

3. Don't clog your arteries with the world....apply moral fiber. The word "ekklesia" is the word we translate as "church", but it really means a group of people called out of the world. We are in it, but not to be of it. The world is afraid, but we are bold. The world thinks it has to use people, but we know better. We can love and serve fearlessly because in Jesus, our own needs are met.

4. Call God in the morning. This does not just mean "have a morning quiet time"... it means call on God starting right when you open your eyes and don't stop all day till after you close them at night. The alternative is trying to live Christianity in the flesh. That is Pharisaitis.

5. Have plenty of fruit. The healthy fruit of His Spirit in you is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, meekness and faith.

6. Eat lots of humble pie. Make sure NOBODY is lower than you in your own eyes...not different colors, races, young or old, male or female, saved or lost, rich or poor, pope or drug addict. What Jesus has done humbles our entire planet into the dust and also lifts those who are in Him up beyond what we can grasp ...He set us beside Himself.

7. Above all, do not grind this prescription into a white paste, and paint it on the outside of the body. It must be taken internally.

Christianity is all about loving God, and loving others. But some people use Christianity to lord it over, judge, or look down on others. That's the opposite of love.

In the story of the prodigal son, the son who stayed home had hardened his heart against his lost brother....he had taken the first steps to being like a Pharisee because he saw himself as more righteous. Although our lives have been changed, we must never imagine that His work in our lives has anything to do with our own efforts. If we do, we set ourselves up for becoming either proud and judgmental when we're "good", or for failing our own standards and believing that God has rejected us when we're "bad".

God's love surpasses all that. He loved the prodigal son AND the self-righteous son. He gently encouraged the self-righteous son to understand his brother's situation and to soften his heart.

Paul, the apostle, was originally so proud that he killed those whom he thought offended God! Even so, the Lord saw great things in Paul and called him. But first Paul had to stumble around blind for awhile until he got a picture of how God sees things.

If your life more closely matches the left hand column, do some heart-cleaning. Ask God to rekindle His fire and love for people in your heart. He will do it!

Just a few words about Christmas!!

2005-12-25T14:18:00.000-05:00

All too often I think we forget that Jesus is really and truly God Almighty. And what an enormous thing it was for Him to become man. I think sometimes we think of Jesus as being God but not really God the way that God the Father is God. We also think of Him as being man but not really man the way you and I are man.

The enormous and incomprehensible truth of the Gospel is that the man Jesus of Nazareth really and truly is the same Almighty God who once said “let there be light”.

There are many people who believe that when the Old Testament talks about “The Angel of the LORD” it is speaking specifically about the second person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God. If you look at instances in the OT where The Angel of the LORD appears it is very interesting. He appeared to Moses in the burning bush (which, interestingly enough, is where we get the name “Jehovah” or “Yahweh” from). He also appeared to Sampson’s parents before Sampson was born. God the Son steps into the picture whenever the people of God need deliverance. God the Son is the redeemer... He always has been!

And this God became man for us. As Michel Card would put it ‘eternity stepped into time...’ And he still has his human nature even now in heaven. As another Christian artist puts it ‘once, for all eternity, God became a man.’ What an awesome God we have. At the name of Jesus let every knee bow.

And as if laying His glory aside and taking on flesh and blood wasn’t enough this great God of ours surrendered to the cruel nails of a Roman soldier. He ‘even let his blessed body be nailed to the cross’... Why? To ‘cancel the bond that stood against us’. I know it’s the old, old message of the Gospel but let us never get tired of hearing it. Jesus died for you, and for me. He paid the price! He took upon himself the sins of the world and stilled God’s wrath. He secured for us the peace of God and newness of life. It’s done! It is His finished work! We no longer need to live in fear and doubt. But rather to walk in the newness of life that he secured for us and on our behalf.

Well everyone have a great Christmas, and yes, remember the reason for the season.

Welcome to my blog!

2005-12-07T14:34:00.000-05:00

I know just about every blog on the web starts this way but since I can’t think of a better way to start here goes... Welcome to my blog :-)

I am Solid Iron. I am a young man in my mid-twenties who is a member of a Canadian Reformed church. I am a born again Christian.

There is a lot of misunderstanding about the term “born again”. Some think it refers to people who used to live particularly sinful lives but have now cleaned up their act. Others think it is reserved for those Christians who have had some kind of “experience” or who can point to a single incident in time that turned their life around. I use it in the sense that all true believers who have the Spirit of Jesus Christ living in their hearts are born again Christians. In reality there is no Christian except the born again Christian.

I don’t consider myself to have had a conversion experience as such but I will say that the Lord suddenly and powerfully enlightened my heart and mind and caused me to surrender myself to Him and place my trust in Him.

I was born into a Canadian Reformed family and have been a member of these churches all my life. For most of my life I struggled with knowing whether or not I was a true Christian. I tried to make myself acceptable to God but I knew nothing of the ‘inexpressible joy’ that Peter talks about. I worked hard at being a good Christian but only because I was afraid of the consequences. In my heart of hearts I often questioned why being a Christian was supposed to be so wonderful and joyful. As far as I was concerned it wasn't at all but I supposed it was better then going to hell. I tried hard to convince myself that I was a child of God. I needed proof and I kept looking to myself for that proof. I would often despair and assume that I was probably reprobate and that there was nothing I could do about it.

I tried hard to live a “good Christian life” and for the most part (to the casual outside observer) I probably pulled it off. I certainly looked like a good Christian young man. Nothing I did was out of thankfulness but only out of fear and guilt. Fear of going to hell. Fear of coming face to face with my own sinfulness when facing the guilt I would feel when I did something really bad. I graded sins in my mind. Some things weren't so bad. Smoking, drinking... these were minor sins. Drugs, strip clubs and pre-marital sex... these were big sins.

I felt no thankfulness and knew nothing of the love of God that is in Jesus Christ.

I knew nothing of the Gospel. Somehow, despite my years of learning in the Christian faith, I didn't realize that the Gospel is all about Jesus Christ. It wasn't until I heard some music by my favorite Christian artist that I realized that Jesus had already paid for my sin. He had already paid the price to make me acceptable before God. All I had to do was put my faith, my hope, and my trust in Him. Suddenly everything I had been taught started to make sense. Expressions like “the finished work of Christ” started to click. It was all already done for me. I no longer had to strive to be acceptable to God. I only had to surrender, to accept and walk in the new life Christ Jesus had already obtained for me.

In retrospect I can see that right from the beginning God was at work in my life. It was precisely because God loves me and wanted me for himself that I was so wrestles and troubled by not knowing if I really was a Christian. God wasn’t going to let me rest until I found my rest in Jesus Christ.

Since coming to true faith in the Lord Jesus I have discovered a great deal of people, particularly young people, in the Canadian Reformed churches have this same problem. There is an entire generation (my generation and younger) who are somehow missing the Gospel.

2005-11-24T12:59:00.000-05:00

"As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." - Proverbs 27:17

2005-11-24T12:48:00.000-05:00

"With hope again rekindled I went at once to see if I could find a man named Jesus from a town in Galilee" – Don Francisco