The Two Universes – Audio Message

The audio sermon derived from these two posts: The Two Universes The Two Universes – More Thoughts [audio:http://thereforenow.com/dumpy/sermons/two_universes_64.m4a]

The Challenge of Forgiveness

Here is the audio of a message given at Dakota Creek Christian Center in Blaine WA on May 27 2012.   If you would like a copy of the powerpoint slides for this message leave a comment and I’ll send it to you.

Justification is greater than Forgiveness

21 But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of […]

One Thing

I woke up dreaming about this, so I’m going to write it up. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as […]

What was Jesus Thinking?

When Jesus was on the cross, suffering and dying, what was He thinking? When He said “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do,” did He really want to forgive them, or was He just saying that for posterity, while inwardly He secretly hated them for putting Him through all of that? On the […]

Assurance is reassuring

If we are going to use the word “assurance”, we should use it in a meaningful way. It means you are sure of something, you are confident of it. If you keep thinking that your salvation is unsure because you sin, that is up to you, but realize you are no longer able to talk […]

Enthrallment with sin under the cross

“If we bring only the aftermath of our sins to the cross, and not the whole of them, our very enthrallment with them, to the cross, then we create this division between justification and practice.” In this article: here, Dr. Rosenbladt has identified correctly that in the history of the church, this tension between grace […]

Easy Believy faith is the ONLY faith that produces virtue

What good is forgiveness if it doesn’t ‘work’ when you actually need it? I raised this question in response to some negative responses to this awesome blog post by David Zahl: The Subjective Power Of An Objective Gospel I thought the response was important enough to repost on my own blog, so I’m sorry in […]

hell and grace

OK, it’s finally time for the fire and brimstone! See, read all of these passages where Jesus teaches about hell! What do you have to say about that Mr. Grace and forgiveness?! Well, actually, I have quite a bit to say. 22 “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother […]

Maybe in Christ we are absolutely accepted

One of the things to understand about me is that I’m working through the idea that maybe, in Christ, we are really totally and absolutely forgiven and accepted. It is real. The single condition is belief in His favor and forgiveness, in the sufficiency of His blood. If that is true, what does the Christian […]