Today, I am reviewing a book entitled "Why?" written by the Rev. Adam Hamilton. Hamilton is the senior pastor of the Church of the Resurrection which is the largest Methodist church in the United States.
In this book, Hamilton delves into the questions of why there is suffering, why is there evil, and why are prayers unanswered? He also tries to shed light on the question of does God have a specific plan for each person's life?
I must say that I found myself in much agreement with this book which surprised me greatly. Adam Hamilton is not an extremely liberal minister, but he is by no means a conservative. With that being said, he presents in this book ideas which are very similar to the one's I expressed a few blog posts ago.
Hamilton agrees with me that God does not send suffering, pain and horrible things on people. We both agree with the idea that God does not have a plan for each person's life that somehow includes little children starving or dying of some terrible disease. Like Hamilton, I am tired of hearing this whole notion that God caused everything to happen and everything happens for a reason.
I would disagree with Rev. Hamilton on his idea of how we collaborate with God through our decisions to create our future. I understand the point that he is trying to make, but this kind of thinking leads to open theism in my opinion.
I would highly recommend this book for those who struggle with the why questions. You may not agree with all that Adam Hamilton says in this book, but it will make you think outside of the box of much of current evangelical thinking on the subject which I believe to be highly flawed.
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Monday, February 9, 2015
Verses For the Week
John 14:27 -- "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Your heart must not be troubled or fearful."
Jeremiah 29:11 -- "For I know the plans I have for you, this is the Lord's declaration, plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."
Luke 10:22 -- "All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he whom the Son will reveal Him."
Jeremiah 29:11 -- "For I know the plans I have for you, this is the Lord's declaration, plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."
Luke 10:22 -- "All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he whom the Son will reveal Him."
Sunday, February 8, 2015
Thoughts On a Sunday Afternoon
I am sitting here in the library working on this blog and thinking about how much I don't want to go to work tomorrow morning. I am glad to have a job, but this is not going well. This is the first place I have worked where I feel as if I am being ostracized because of my Christian faith. That's hard, but it is not that big of a deal. This is most especially true when I consider the terrible persecution many Christians are enduring around the world at this time. I just heard a report on the radio this morning about the horrendous persecution believers are facing in the Middle East and in North Korea. I will be praying every day for these people, and I would ask you to do the same.
The hardest part of this new job is dealing with the extremely nasty people who I have to try to help. My new job is working for an insurance company. My job is to help people who are insured with our company to file claims. So far, over 75% of the people that I have dealt with have been very nasty. Several times, when I asked people to spell their names for me, they screamed at me over the phone. I really don't understand people at all. Why would someone want to be rude and nasty to you when you are trying your best to help them? The job that I had before this was working with customers face to face. I didn't have any trouble working with people at my old job at all. I miss my old job.
Tomorrow, I have to move into a more advanced level in dealing with claims. Of course, it involves more customer contact. I am so nervous right now that I am sick to my stomach. I am praying that the Lord Jesus will help me to face this hardship. As I stated previously, I've dealt with depression for many years, and lately, I've developed a problem with anxiety. I definitely need the Lord's help to get through the day.
With what is happening with the job, I am thinking about a different strategy in getting more involved in the ministry. I may just sell the house quickly and then just start with the funds I have relying on the Lord Jesus to supply what I lack. I am unsure of how to proceed. Please remember me in your prayers.
Something that has been troubling me greatly as of late is the terrible plight of children living in poverty around the world. I was listening to a report on the radio this week about the number of orphan children in Asia and Africa who are living all by themselves and homeless. So many pass by these children every day, and no one helps them. The governments of these countries don't seem to care about them at all.
I've been praying about trying to work on helping with this problem. Maybe, if things work out, I can go and work finding a way to help in this situation. Right now, please add your prayers with mine for the alleviation of the suffering of these children.
The hardest part of this new job is dealing with the extremely nasty people who I have to try to help. My new job is working for an insurance company. My job is to help people who are insured with our company to file claims. So far, over 75% of the people that I have dealt with have been very nasty. Several times, when I asked people to spell their names for me, they screamed at me over the phone. I really don't understand people at all. Why would someone want to be rude and nasty to you when you are trying your best to help them? The job that I had before this was working with customers face to face. I didn't have any trouble working with people at my old job at all. I miss my old job.
Tomorrow, I have to move into a more advanced level in dealing with claims. Of course, it involves more customer contact. I am so nervous right now that I am sick to my stomach. I am praying that the Lord Jesus will help me to face this hardship. As I stated previously, I've dealt with depression for many years, and lately, I've developed a problem with anxiety. I definitely need the Lord's help to get through the day.
With what is happening with the job, I am thinking about a different strategy in getting more involved in the ministry. I may just sell the house quickly and then just start with the funds I have relying on the Lord Jesus to supply what I lack. I am unsure of how to proceed. Please remember me in your prayers.
Something that has been troubling me greatly as of late is the terrible plight of children living in poverty around the world. I was listening to a report on the radio this week about the number of orphan children in Asia and Africa who are living all by themselves and homeless. So many pass by these children every day, and no one helps them. The governments of these countries don't seem to care about them at all.
I've been praying about trying to work on helping with this problem. Maybe, if things work out, I can go and work finding a way to help in this situation. Right now, please add your prayers with mine for the alleviation of the suffering of these children.
Saturday, February 7, 2015
Weekend Sermon -- I Peter 1:2
I am happy to be with you so that I can post another edition of the Weekend Sermon. Thank you for taking the time to read the blog. It is my prayer that these sermons help you to draw closer to the Lord and to learn more about His word.
I want to start today by thanking all of you for your prayers. Without your prayer support and the help of the Lord Jesus, it would be impossible to make it through the struggles of life. I would ask that you keep me in your prayers.
Over the last few weeks, I have found myself battling with the depression that I have struggled with for most of my life. Starting in my early teens, I began suffering from depression. During the years that Toby was in my life, I didn't have hardly any trouble with this. After he passed away, I went into a deep depression, and I have struggled on and off for many years.
For the past year, I felt OK. Not great, but OK. With all of the stress of this new job, I have found myself slipping deep down into depression again. I am so nervous going to work each day that I am actually sick. Please pray for me during this very hard time. I am also praying and asking Jesus to give me the strength just to make it from one day to the next.
During your prayer time this week, continue to pray for peace in the Middle East. Pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ who are suffering terrible persecution in Syria and Iraq. Also continue to pray for peace in Ukraine.
Last week, we began a new series of messages on the book of I Peter. We will be going through this book chapter by chapter and verse by verse just as we did when we went through I John and the Sermon on the Mount together.
In the last message, I went into some detail on the issue of election as this theological topic is raised in I Peter 1:2. This is a controversial topic. Believe me. I know that it can be divisive. My parents were Calvinistic Baptist Fundamentalists. They both disagreed with my interpretation of the Bible. However, I am firmly convinced from my study of the Scripture that what I presented last week is thoroughly Biblical. I urge you to investigate and study these matters for yourself to see what the Lord had to say about it in His word.
Today, we will continue in I Peter 1:2 as there are some other important theological concepts in this verse that I want to explore in some detail. I Peter 1:2 states, "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace and peace, be multiplied."
Sanctification is an important theological concept that I would like to explore today. To sanctify something means to set it apart. The word in the Bible also means to make holy. Let's look at the idea of setting apart first.
In the Old Testament, there are several examples of something or someone being set apart or sanctified for the service of the Lord. When the Tabernacle and the Temple were established, the articles in these structures where set apart for God's service. For instance, in Exodus 29, Aaron, his sons, and the altar were set apart for service to the Lord.
Jeremiah chapter one tells of how the Lord set Jeremiah apart (sanctified) him for service before he was born. Jeremiah 1:5 states, "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations."
Jeremiah was set apart to serve the Lord, and although he wasn't always happy about it, Jeremiah faithfully followed the Lord and did the work of a prophet that he was given to do.
The second idea behind the word sanctification that we see in the Bible is to make holy or to remove the sinfulness from. One very interesting occurrence of this is found in the book of Isaiah. In Isaiah chapter 6, Isaiah sees the throne room of Heaven and the Lord upon His throne. At this sight, Isaiah said in verse 5, "Woe is me! for I am a man of unclean lips." At this point, one of the seraphims in the throne room of God took a live coal from the altar and laid it upon Isaiah's mouth and said, "Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged."
Through this act, Isaiah's sins were taken away, and he was set apart for service as a prophet of the Lord. This act of sanctification took place immediately.
In His high priestly prayer recorded in John chapter 17, Jesus prayed that His followers might be sanctified. John 17:17-19 says, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As though hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth."
So, what does sanctification mean to us today. First of all, we are sanctified by the shed blood of Jesus Christ as is states clearly in I Peter 1:2. It is only through the grace and mercy of the Lord that we can have forgiveness of sins. It is only through His grace that we can be set apart from sin and given a holy purpose. Through God's grace and the inner working of the Holy Spirit, we are conformed to the image of Jesus Christ each day. We are sanctified to be holy and to not have sin reigning in our lives.
As believers in Jesus, we have been set apart. We have a holy calling that is our duty to fulfill. As we will see later in our studies in Peter, God has called us to be a peculiar people. This means that we are not to be just like the world. We are to be different. Just as God called Israel to be unique and a light to the nations around them, God has called His church to be unique and a light in this dark world that is filled with sin and rebellion against the ways of God.
Unfortunately, those of us in the church have often acted just like the people of Israel. For most of the time in the Old Testament, the people of Israel were not the light to the nations that God set them apart to be . They worshiped idols, and the behaved in a sinful manner just as those in the nations around them.
The church and its members often act in like manner. Instead of being an example of Godliness and holiness, the church is often just like the world. I will give you two examples that I just heard this week. The rate of divorce among evangelical Christians is the same as the rate of divorce among the general population in the United States. Sadly, the rate of abortion in the US is almost the same in the church as it is in the world. This is not the type of behavior Jesus has called His people to.
As followers of Jesus Christ, we have been called to live lives of holiness. We are to live in obedience to the teachings and commandments of Jesus. We are to be an example of Godliness to the world. We are to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Our mission is to bring others to the saving love of Jesus.
Now in the individual life of the believer, we have been called unto holiness. We are supposed to become more and more like Jesus each and every day. We are to live lives that are free from sin. I believe that the Scripture teaches sanctification in three ways.
Sanctification is a process. As we grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus, we become more and more like Him. This is a gradual process. However, each day we walk with the Lord, sin holds less sway over us.
I also believe that the Scripture teaches that, in some instances, sanctification can be an instantaneous work of grace. I do not believe that this happens all the time, but I believe we do see this happening in the case of Isaiah.
Thirdly, sanctification will be complete when we see Jesus face to face. When we die, we will be glorified in His presence, and the process of sanctification will be complete.
Our duty as believers in Jesus Christ is to live lives of holiness that are pleasing to the Lord. We must learn from the example of Jesus and from His teachings. We must lay aside the sin that so easily besets us and look to Jesus who is the author and finisher of our faith.
Each day, confess your sins, and ask the Lord Jesus to strengthen you by the power of the Holy Spirit to not do that sin again.
One way that I have found that helps me not to sin is to draw closer to Jesus. As you come to know the Lord Jesus more fully and deeply, the more you will love Him. As you grow in your love for Him, you will not want to do the things that displease Him and hurt His heart. You will want to do what makes the Lord Jesus happy.
Finally, I Peter 1:2 gives us a nice acknowledgement of the doctrine of the Trinity. We are elect according to the foreknowledge of God, the Spirit sanctifies through the shed blood of Jesus Christ the Son.
Next week, I will post the verse on Monday. I will try to do a review on Wednesday or Thursday. The sermon will be posted on Saturday. May God bless you . Amen.
I want to start today by thanking all of you for your prayers. Without your prayer support and the help of the Lord Jesus, it would be impossible to make it through the struggles of life. I would ask that you keep me in your prayers.
Over the last few weeks, I have found myself battling with the depression that I have struggled with for most of my life. Starting in my early teens, I began suffering from depression. During the years that Toby was in my life, I didn't have hardly any trouble with this. After he passed away, I went into a deep depression, and I have struggled on and off for many years.
For the past year, I felt OK. Not great, but OK. With all of the stress of this new job, I have found myself slipping deep down into depression again. I am so nervous going to work each day that I am actually sick. Please pray for me during this very hard time. I am also praying and asking Jesus to give me the strength just to make it from one day to the next.
During your prayer time this week, continue to pray for peace in the Middle East. Pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ who are suffering terrible persecution in Syria and Iraq. Also continue to pray for peace in Ukraine.
Last week, we began a new series of messages on the book of I Peter. We will be going through this book chapter by chapter and verse by verse just as we did when we went through I John and the Sermon on the Mount together.
In the last message, I went into some detail on the issue of election as this theological topic is raised in I Peter 1:2. This is a controversial topic. Believe me. I know that it can be divisive. My parents were Calvinistic Baptist Fundamentalists. They both disagreed with my interpretation of the Bible. However, I am firmly convinced from my study of the Scripture that what I presented last week is thoroughly Biblical. I urge you to investigate and study these matters for yourself to see what the Lord had to say about it in His word.
Today, we will continue in I Peter 1:2 as there are some other important theological concepts in this verse that I want to explore in some detail. I Peter 1:2 states, "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace and peace, be multiplied."
Sanctification is an important theological concept that I would like to explore today. To sanctify something means to set it apart. The word in the Bible also means to make holy. Let's look at the idea of setting apart first.
In the Old Testament, there are several examples of something or someone being set apart or sanctified for the service of the Lord. When the Tabernacle and the Temple were established, the articles in these structures where set apart for God's service. For instance, in Exodus 29, Aaron, his sons, and the altar were set apart for service to the Lord.
Jeremiah chapter one tells of how the Lord set Jeremiah apart (sanctified) him for service before he was born. Jeremiah 1:5 states, "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations."
Jeremiah was set apart to serve the Lord, and although he wasn't always happy about it, Jeremiah faithfully followed the Lord and did the work of a prophet that he was given to do.
The second idea behind the word sanctification that we see in the Bible is to make holy or to remove the sinfulness from. One very interesting occurrence of this is found in the book of Isaiah. In Isaiah chapter 6, Isaiah sees the throne room of Heaven and the Lord upon His throne. At this sight, Isaiah said in verse 5, "Woe is me! for I am a man of unclean lips." At this point, one of the seraphims in the throne room of God took a live coal from the altar and laid it upon Isaiah's mouth and said, "Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged."
Through this act, Isaiah's sins were taken away, and he was set apart for service as a prophet of the Lord. This act of sanctification took place immediately.
In His high priestly prayer recorded in John chapter 17, Jesus prayed that His followers might be sanctified. John 17:17-19 says, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As though hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth."
So, what does sanctification mean to us today. First of all, we are sanctified by the shed blood of Jesus Christ as is states clearly in I Peter 1:2. It is only through the grace and mercy of the Lord that we can have forgiveness of sins. It is only through His grace that we can be set apart from sin and given a holy purpose. Through God's grace and the inner working of the Holy Spirit, we are conformed to the image of Jesus Christ each day. We are sanctified to be holy and to not have sin reigning in our lives.
As believers in Jesus, we have been set apart. We have a holy calling that is our duty to fulfill. As we will see later in our studies in Peter, God has called us to be a peculiar people. This means that we are not to be just like the world. We are to be different. Just as God called Israel to be unique and a light to the nations around them, God has called His church to be unique and a light in this dark world that is filled with sin and rebellion against the ways of God.
Unfortunately, those of us in the church have often acted just like the people of Israel. For most of the time in the Old Testament, the people of Israel were not the light to the nations that God set them apart to be . They worshiped idols, and the behaved in a sinful manner just as those in the nations around them.
The church and its members often act in like manner. Instead of being an example of Godliness and holiness, the church is often just like the world. I will give you two examples that I just heard this week. The rate of divorce among evangelical Christians is the same as the rate of divorce among the general population in the United States. Sadly, the rate of abortion in the US is almost the same in the church as it is in the world. This is not the type of behavior Jesus has called His people to.
As followers of Jesus Christ, we have been called to live lives of holiness. We are to live in obedience to the teachings and commandments of Jesus. We are to be an example of Godliness to the world. We are to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Our mission is to bring others to the saving love of Jesus.
Now in the individual life of the believer, we have been called unto holiness. We are supposed to become more and more like Jesus each and every day. We are to live lives that are free from sin. I believe that the Scripture teaches sanctification in three ways.
Sanctification is a process. As we grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus, we become more and more like Him. This is a gradual process. However, each day we walk with the Lord, sin holds less sway over us.
I also believe that the Scripture teaches that, in some instances, sanctification can be an instantaneous work of grace. I do not believe that this happens all the time, but I believe we do see this happening in the case of Isaiah.
Thirdly, sanctification will be complete when we see Jesus face to face. When we die, we will be glorified in His presence, and the process of sanctification will be complete.
Our duty as believers in Jesus Christ is to live lives of holiness that are pleasing to the Lord. We must learn from the example of Jesus and from His teachings. We must lay aside the sin that so easily besets us and look to Jesus who is the author and finisher of our faith.
Each day, confess your sins, and ask the Lord Jesus to strengthen you by the power of the Holy Spirit to not do that sin again.
One way that I have found that helps me not to sin is to draw closer to Jesus. As you come to know the Lord Jesus more fully and deeply, the more you will love Him. As you grow in your love for Him, you will not want to do the things that displease Him and hurt His heart. You will want to do what makes the Lord Jesus happy.
Finally, I Peter 1:2 gives us a nice acknowledgement of the doctrine of the Trinity. We are elect according to the foreknowledge of God, the Spirit sanctifies through the shed blood of Jesus Christ the Son.
Next week, I will post the verse on Monday. I will try to do a review on Wednesday or Thursday. The sermon will be posted on Saturday. May God bless you . Amen.
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Book Review -- A Great Dog Book
This is another great week for dog books. The book that I am reviewing this week is entitled, "The Dog That Saved My Life" written by Isabel George. This book profiles several dogs who were heroes on the field of battle or who helped those who were in the front lines of combat.
The author does a fine job of telling the story of each dog and the person or persons impacted by the dog's life. As the title says, each of these dogs actually saved the lives of one or more persons. Some of them saved lives several times over.
One of the chapters in the book profiles Judy who I wrote about previously. This chapter makes good supplementary reading to the excellent book about Judy written by Damien Lewis that I have already highly recommended.
The chapter on the little dog named Rats was one of my favorites in the book. Rats looks to me like a cross between a corgi and a Jack Russell. He befriended the British troops who at one time patrolled Northern Ireland during the time of the intense trouble in that land. Rats enjoyed riding on helicopters and marching with the men on patrols. He saved lives by warning the men on several occasions of impending danger.
Another of the interesting chapters focuses on Caesar who served as a tracker dog for the Australian forces who fought in Southeast Asia during the height of the Vietnam War. People often forget that other nations aided the South Vietnamese in this conflict besides the United States. Caesar saved lives numerous times. One notable incident involved Caesar locating a mine that if detonated would have wiped out an entire platoon.
These are just a few of the dogs profiled in Ms. George's interesting and well written book. This book is highly recommended.
The author does a fine job of telling the story of each dog and the person or persons impacted by the dog's life. As the title says, each of these dogs actually saved the lives of one or more persons. Some of them saved lives several times over.
One of the chapters in the book profiles Judy who I wrote about previously. This chapter makes good supplementary reading to the excellent book about Judy written by Damien Lewis that I have already highly recommended.
The chapter on the little dog named Rats was one of my favorites in the book. Rats looks to me like a cross between a corgi and a Jack Russell. He befriended the British troops who at one time patrolled Northern Ireland during the time of the intense trouble in that land. Rats enjoyed riding on helicopters and marching with the men on patrols. He saved lives by warning the men on several occasions of impending danger.
Another of the interesting chapters focuses on Caesar who served as a tracker dog for the Australian forces who fought in Southeast Asia during the height of the Vietnam War. People often forget that other nations aided the South Vietnamese in this conflict besides the United States. Caesar saved lives numerous times. One notable incident involved Caesar locating a mine that if detonated would have wiped out an entire platoon.
These are just a few of the dogs profiled in Ms. George's interesting and well written book. This book is highly recommended.
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Update
The weather is supposed to be very bad tomorrow just as I am getting off of work. I do not plan to stop off at the library. I will post the review on Thursday instead of tomorrow, Lord willing.
Monday, February 2, 2015
Verse For the Week
Luke 6:45 -- "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil; for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh."
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