I thought I would share with you some of the neat things I learned at a recent bible conference in Richmond, VA.
First brother Farwell spoke on the word "all". He stressed how important it is to keep the context in mind. For instance 1 Corinthians 11:12 "...but all things are of God." Is alcoholism from God? We can not use this text as proof of the specific origin of evil. True, there may be grounds for an argument that God did indeed create evil, Colossians 1:16 being very convincing, however many times people take passages out of context to prove their point. One more example would be 1 Timothy 4:4 "...and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving." Really? What about cocaine? or a bribe? You get the point.
Another point brother Farwell made was that God can change His mind without upsetting His grand scheme. I thought this was encouraging considering our fatalistic attitudes we have regarding prayer. Why pray when God already knows what you want? Matthew 6:8 "For the Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him." And if God already has His grand plan in motion who can stop it or change it's course? Ephesians 1:11 "...who works all things according to the counsel of His will." Romans 9:19 "...For who has resisted His will?" But keeping these scriptures in context we understand that just because He has a plan B doesn't mean His final plan has changed at all. Here we have some great examples: 2 Kings 20:6 After Isaiah prophesied that Hezekiah would die, Hezekiah prayed and wept, God saw and heard his cries and gave him 15 more years. Jonah 3:4 Jonah prophesied that God would destroy Nineveh in 40 days. v 10 "Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way: and God relented from the disaster that He said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it."
God is amazing, beyond our comprehension, and He loves us and has made it possible for each one of us to have an intimate relationship with Him even though we are imperfect beings. You can't fall out of His grace,it's impossible.
Grace, MB
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3 comments:
That is so funny that you are talking about all things being from God. I was going to email you last night about a discussion that was happening on the radio.
The DJ was fighting for homosexuals to have the right to marry. And he was making fun of "bible thumpers" as he called it saying that we get upset for nothing. He said that God made all of us and loves all of us. Then he quoted the scripture about a man shouldn't lay with another man. But he said if you wanted to really read what the bible says then why don't we read Leviticus and Deutoronomy. A caller asked what those books said. The Dj said that in Lev. it states that if a women is not a virgin on her wedding day that the groom could take her to her father's doorstep and stone her to death. And DEut. says that you will go to hell if you eat of cloven hooved animals. The caller said, But that was the old testiment before Jesus came to earth and changed things. The DJ stated that the man laying with man was another old testiments law and why do we take this one so serious and not the others.
He claimed that people are born a certain way and if two consenting adults love each other they should be able to get married, it is their civil right. Who are we to decide their happiness. It's just like the whites deciding what the blacks are and are not allowed to do. Except that it is headro against homo. And there is supposed to be separation of state and religion so why do people get a chance to vote on an issue like this? I'm against it, don't like seeing it, but he did make a pretty strong arguement, and some gays seem truely happy together.
So, my thoughts are, people can be born with their hormones messed up and can even be born with two sexual parts, so couldn't it be true that some people are born in the wrong bodies and are gay?
Since God made us all and loves us all could he have changed his mind about this without upsetting his grand scheme? Does Jesus say anything about this situation in the new testement? I really don't know what to think. I Just want to know what is right.
Sorry, just opened a big can of worms that some might feel uncomfortable talking about or answering truthfully, but it was on my mind.
Romans 1 makes it pretty clear that homosexuality is not natural, never intended it to be, and is sinful. No one is saying that homosexuality is worse than any other sin however, James makes that pretty clear, if you stumble in one sin you are guilty of them all. Jesus didn't treat anyone sin as worse than the other, with the exception of the pharisees who He said were hypocrites, telling others what sin is and then turning around and committing the very same thing. They were two faced and Jesus couldn't stand it. Jesus never pointed the finger because He genuinely loved them. Never do we read of Him condoning sin of any kind however. When the pharisees confronted Him regarding divorse and how Moses permitted it, Jesus said it was permitted because of your hard hearts, but from the beginning it was never intended to be like this. So Jesus referenced the Old Testament as a standard which must be held to this day, knowing full well we can't hold to that standard, none of us, which is why the purpose of the laws is to show us we are sinners. So He died to save us because we couldn't save ourselves by following the laws, no one is strong enough to succeed at it. Homosexuality is covered by His blood, but make no mistake it was never intended to be this way, we know that from Leviticus. Go to biblegateway.com and do a word search or topical search on homosexual, see what the scriptures say. Don't hang your decision on philosophical arguments by practicing/promoting homosexuals.
THANKS...for the comments..I'll read up on it. I just hate feeling judgemental and it eases my mind to think of all sin being the same...good point.
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