muslim questions -2

We started yesterday with point number one that Jesus Christ was Himself God and that he came to earth and died so that we would not have to, thus, willingly becoming our propitiation.  The next question that was asked was why does the death of Christ change things? Why does his death pay for my sin?  This question is a little tougher but, I am going to try to answer it. the Bible tells us we are slaves to sin

Romans 6:5-16

5 For if  we have become united  with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old  self  was crucified  with Him, in order that our body  of sin might be done  away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he  who has died is freed  from sin. 8 Now if  we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised  from the dead, is never to die again; death  no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead  to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign ^R in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting  the  members of your body to sin as instruments  of unrighteousness; but present  yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments  of righteousness to God. 14 For sin  shall not be  master over you, for you  are not under law but under  grace. 15 What then? Shall  we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May  it never be! 16 Do you not know  that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves  for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin  resulting  in death, or of obedience resulting  in righteousness?

So, we are slaves to sin, our nature can not help but, to sin. In OT times if a person was in debt and owed more than they could pay they would sell themselves into slavery for a period of time that they would agree covered what was owed, but if a family member had the money that family member could become the “kinsmen redeemer”. This person had to meet certian familial and financial requirements.  Leviticus 25 has a lot to say about this.  Here is where Jesus comes in – we are Spiritually poor, unable to get to God. No man can pay our debt of sin because man is sinful, the debt must be paid by someone who has known no sin. God’s plan was to come to earth as a child, thereby making us family as we all descend from Adam and Eve. his outer appearance was that of a man, he was 100% man- but, his inner Spirit was God. He was 100% God. He became our kinsmen redeemer and paid the price of death for our sin. The law has been fulfilled. He paid a debt that I could not and that He did not not owe, because he loves us, and wants to know us.

So, to you my muslim brother, we both descend from Adam and we are family. may you know all of God’s greatest blessings. I live not in fear but peace because I know that my redeemer lives and loves me.

Questions from a Muslim man

I was recently asked about how the old testiment laws given directly from God could be over ridden now. He asked how everything seemed to be worthy of ” death, death, death…” It  was and is. Our sin is deserving a death.  romans 6:23 says ” for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life” . In those old testiment days the jews were instructed to regularly put thier sins onto a perfect animal, often a sheep, and then sacrifice that animal before the Lord. it comes down to the spiritual laws. God has a plan for our lives, but we can not know it because we are sinful.  You may have noticed that no one sacrifices lambs anymore. It is because the lamb of god offered a final sacrifice that covers our sins. Jesus, God with skin on, offered himself the as the ultimate sacrifice for sin. So, in this there are a few things that we need to address.

1.  Jesus was more than a man or a prophet he was God.  John 1 tells us

The Deity of Jesus Christ

¹ In  the beginning was the  Word, and the Word was with  God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All  things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. ⁴ In Him was life, and the life was the  Light of men. ⁵ The  Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend  it.

The Witness John

⁶ There came  a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so  that all might believe through him. ⁸ He  was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.

⁹ There was the true Light which,  coming into the world, enlightens every man. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and the  world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. ¹¹ He came to His own,  and those who were His own did not receive Him. ¹² But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children  of God, even to  those who believe in His name, ¹³ who  were born,  not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

The Word Made Flesh

¹⁴ And the Word became  flesh, and dwelt among us, and we  saw His glory, glory as of the  only begotten from the Father, full of grace  and truth.  ¹⁵ John testified  about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, `He who comes after me has  a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’ ” ¹⁶ For of His fullness  we  have all received, and grace  upon grace. ¹⁷ For the  Law was given through Moses; grace and truth  were  realized through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ No  one has seen God at any time; the  only begotten God who is in  the bosom of the Father, He  has explained Him.

We are deeply loved by God, so much so, that he sent his son to earth to pay the price for our sin, so that he can know us.  When we accept the gift of forgiveness, we are presented to God as though we are worthy of knowing Him. He has become our propitiation, or covering, and he offers us freedom to live for him, apart from the law. the New Covenant goes above the law, and lifts us to personal relationship with God Himself.

Sheople – baa

The one thing in this world I just really can not understand is people who follow with out  question.  It seems to be that more and more that if the main stream media says something than people believe it must be true.  it is so important that we find information for ourselves.  Especially, when it comes to the bible.  The thing about the bible is that so many people have some clue about it, that they quote what they think they know. For example the saying that money is the root of all evil.  The bible actually says that the love of money is the root of all evil. I actually had one woman tell me that the book of Ruth was a lesbian love story! about a woman who fell in love with her mother in law!  Out landish, of course that makes me wonder about Ruth getting married, how does that fit in? But, I digress, make sure that you are in the word, read it for your self. Study it. We have the benefit of being able to ask the author what he meant! IF you don’t understand, ask, God will provide answers.  I also, look to those who know more than I do, but I am careful that I trust only who my mentors trust. It is easy to be lead astray by well meaning people.

Share you faith

A recent comment really reminded me what this fight for life needs to be about. Not just the lives of the unborn, the elderly and the handicap, but the lives of our souls. We as Christians have been told that our opinions are innapropriate for the public forum and many have cowered and returned the the safety of their homes and churches. As I talk to more and more people it seems that while many will quote the Bible I find I meet very few people who know what it really says. Who have really spent time in the Word. If we will not teach them then who will? It amazes me to see how many people right here in our churches are pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, and pro-tolerance. Tolerance sounds good, but what they mean when they tell us to be tolerant is to shut up and keep our thoughts to ourselves. We are called to spread the Word of God. Mathew 28 gives us the great commission, but this does not aways mean leaving our country, it also means to tell the people the you see everyday, those within your realm of influence that Jesus has died to set us free. Have an answer for the hope that lives with in you and share it with those who are dying.  if you had the cure for cancer you would share it, wouldn’t you? You have the answer to all that ails people if you have hope in Jesus Christ. If you do not know the four Spiritual laws there is a link to the called God loves the world to the right. This is a concise way to share the laws, then just talk about what God is doing for you. God promises that His words will not return void, even if the person you are sharing with does not immediately decide to live for Jesus, seeds have been planted.

Being a Christian is not about rules – do this, don’t do that. It is about relationship with our Saviour.  It is not something that you can do your own - the Spirit must help you. If you are following all the rules, begrudgingly then you may not have a saving faith in God. The spirit does more than help you do what is right, He helps you want to. To want God more than everything else, to truly love GOD. Turn your eyes upon Jesus and the things of this world truly do become strangley dim. He is the greatest gift we can receive. Seek Him and you will find and you will want to share the glorious gift you have received.  We have the chance to meet, know and love the God of the all creation. He wants to know us, intimately.   Get to know Him and share Him with others. The Bible is His love letter to us, read it so that you can know the TRUTH. His word applies to all things in our lives. His word is the truth and when you know the truth it will set you free and you will want to help set others free.

Go Vote!!!

I have had countless well meaning Christians tell me that they do not participate in politics because they want to focus on higher things. our focus should definately be on God; however, we can not forget that earth is where we live. This is also where we must fight for our Lord, we must stand for our views or we may fall for anything.  I stand for life and family because it is true, we are raising a generation of Sheople, who just go where they are told and do not question. It is our duty to follow our Lord and fight for what we know is right.

1 Peter 2:13-15   Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supremeor to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good.For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men–
There is one candidate out there is who not the lesser of two evils, only one who stands 100% for life. Who believes in our first and second amendment rights, that  man is Mike Huckabee! Go out there and vote for a man who has good economic ideas and stands for the things that we do. Vote your concience!

Roe v. Wade

With last week being the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, I thought that I would address it with some facts that you may not know.  Jane Roe also known as Norma McCorvey, never did have an abortion. She now states that she was used as a pawn by the pro-choice movement.  After years of working in the abortion industry, she realized that abortion was indeed taking a life and is now pro-life. You can read about it in her book Won by Love. Another thing that you may not know is that there were no limitations in this decision, meaning that it allowed for any abortion at anytime, the limitations are state to state. This means that over turning the case would not end all abortions. 

Pro-life to me means all life. I wish to protect life. Scott Klusendorf, who lectures on bioethics says that there are four differances between a fetus and you and I. He uses the acronym SLED. Size – just because it is smaller does not make the fetus less human.  Level of development – a seven year old girl’s level of development is much less than a seventeen year old girl but, that does not make her less human.  We all grow and change with time, being less developed does not make it right to kill the fetus. Environment – the fetus is in the womb, you are in your office. You didn’t change who you are because you left home and the fetus didn’t fundementally change because it went from the uterus to the delivery room.  and Degree of dependance – being dependant does not make you less human. I have family members that are insulin dependant, with out that medication they will die. Many have elderly parents that are in need of a great deal of care, or that are very dependant.  Just becuase a fetus is dependant upon a parent for life does not make it morally ok to kill it. If this is the case then where do we draw the line? My brother is handicapped. He has a high level of dependance. does this make his life less valuable? Human life is valuable.  It is irreplacable. Ask anyone who has lost someone they loved.

It is time that those of us, who value human life step up and stand up for those who can not yet stand up for themselves. Dr. Singer of Princeton Unniversity, feels that handicap babies should be uethanized. The lines of where life should be protected are already getting blurry. We must stop this trend before others begin to say that people like my brothers’ lives are not valuable. Before there is a fight to euthanize the sick and elderly. I am not saying go shout at people at clinics, we must fight this fight with love and courtesy, but we must fight. One thing that I can suggest is make sure as this election moves foward to vote for a pro-life candidate. Personally, I am supporting Huckabee, as the only completely pro-life candidate. We must have the right people in power if anything will change.

Why reflecthim

My name and my goal are one and the same to reflect Him. Jesus said I am the way, the truth and the light. I shall endeavor to reflect His light and speak His truth! In this world of post modernism many have lost sight of the fact that some truth is absolute.  My hope is to share my pilgramage, and challenge people to run this race well. That at the end our Lord will say,”well done, good and faithful servant”.  He is the light of the of the gospel of the glory of God, the light that will peirce the darkness of this world.

2 cor. 4:1-6 Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart. We have renounced the shameful things that one hides; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God’s word; but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.