However, as believers in Christ we do not come together in assembly just because we are supposed to. We come together because the blood of Jesus brings us together. It is our community. We are all partakers of the grand scandal of forgiveness in Christ.
Think about it like a normal person for just a second: how can you say He was sacrificed for sins and then say that if you sin, the sacrifice is no good?
I don’t want Him to have to believe in me! I am glad that He knows up front that I am not to be trusted, and that I am a sinner, and that even all of my righteousness is selfishly and sinfully motivated. I need a savior who does not require my faithfulness and trustworthiness. I need a savior who sees me exactly how I really am at my worst and still offers Himself as the Lamb who takes away my sin.
Here is some counsel I gave someone who is a true and beautiful believer but who is having trouble, perhaps because of some bad teaching in their past, accepting that their faith in Christ is true: When Jesus died and said “it is finished”, it was finished. It is not dependent on some change in […]
“Someone died for this slightly off-base irritating brother. He is Abel offering his blood sacrifice, and love says I count his offering as sufficient.” From the book Grace in Community by Jim McNeely I wanted to return to the very powerful and fruitful story of Cain and Abel as it pertains to the idea of […]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi8rBkdHfvI&w=560&h=315] I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins. Isaiah 43:25 For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And I will remember their sins no more. Hebrews 8:12 He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our […]
This post is a reflection on Jacob Goff’s wonderful post on the power of the redeemed mindset. It is very much worth the short read: simulblog.com/2014/05/07/why-christians-cant-believe/ Really, read it and be blessed. I insist! Now, I reflect. Someone commented on Jacob’s article and said they struggle to maintain a redeemed mindset. The brilliant thing about […]
The Wonderful Promise of Atheism and Agnosticism Richard Dawkins sponsored an ad campaign a while back that said, “There’s Probably No God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.” Isn’t this interesting? Belief in God is seen to be a source of worry and an impediment to the enjoyment of life. Of course, without the […]
If you watch, read, imagine, or have a fleeting thought about God’s method of conceiving Jesus, there is no getting around the fact that it was absolutely scandalous. If your daughter came and told you that she was pregnant, but that the baby was conceived when she was overcome with the Holy Spirit, would you […]
5 This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; 7 but if we […]