Jesus said I AM seven times. Satan said “I will” five times. There is a big difference between I AM and I will.
Jesus said,
“I am the bread of life. (John 6:35).
“I am the light of the world. (John 8:12).
“I am the door. (John 10:9).
“I am the good shepherd. (John 11:25).
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. (John 14:6).
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser” (John 15:1).
In Isaiah 14:14-15 it is said of Lucifer,
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart,
I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God:
I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will be like the most High.
Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. (Isaiah 14:14-15)
Jesus declared himself I AM out loud, before many, Satan said quietly in his heart. Jesus declares the reality, Satan declares his individual desire. Jesus is eternally I AM, satan was created and generated ambition later.
Jesus was, and is, and is to come (Revelation 1:8) and what He purposes will come to pass (Isaiah 46:10. Satan WILL NEVER, EVER, EVER HAVE ANY OF HIS WISHES, HOPES, AMBITIONS, GOALS, OR PURPOSES ULTIMATELY COME TO PASS. (Revelation 20:10).
Jesus did it all, He paid it all, it is finished.
Friends, remember, satan is a defeated foe. He is active, but moot. He is around, but vanquished. Those of us in Christ are victorious through Christ’s eternal act of submission, crucifixion, and resurrection, His love, and His will.
The post discusses Elihu’s perspective in the Book of Job, emphasizing his respectful listening and patience despite being younger than Job’s friends. Elihu criticizes Job’s self-justification and highlights that suffering may serve purposes beyond punishment for sin, as the other 3 friends insisted. Ultimately, Elihu encourages trust in God.
We are so undeserving of this reprieve. I am feeling extremely grateful. But let us make the most of it while we can. Below is what I posted on my social media today-
I am still mulling over the Steve Lawson situation. He is the man who was world renowned for expository preaching, a traveling teacher at Trinity Baptist Church, Ligonier, The Master’s Seminary, and Grace Community Church, in addition to his own ministry he founded, OnePassion. He engaged in a 5-year adulterous affair with a woman almost 50 years younger than himself, was outed by Trinity Church, fired, and subsequently Lawson hasn’t been seen or heard from since. The other ministries such as Ligonier and TMS etc fired him and OnePassion’s Expositor Magazine folded.
It was a shock.
There were a lot of hot takes, a lot of discussion, and there is even now, two months later, lingering chats about the fall of a once-seemingly solid Christian. Of the media I consumed about this issue, this one from With All Wisdom (WaW) was the most measured, informative, and gracious I have heard or read. They waited over 5 weeks to comment, and did much first-hand investigation and interviews to learn more.
One thing they discussed was Lawson’s preference for expensive things- ties, suits, hotels, food etc. They mentioned his salary and honoraria, and the tax returns. I took a look after the podcast ended to see myself and saw that according to the IRS 990 form for OnePassion, Anne Lawson, Steve’s wife, states that she worked for the ministry 1 hour per week and earned a $30,000 salary.
Interestingly, the With All Wisdom guys learned that Lawson was not listed as nor described as a pastor at Trinity Baptist, not an elder, and not even a member. He was listed in their leadership page as “Lead Preacher”. When Trinity Bible Church was asked by With All Wisdom if the church would go forward with church discipline, the church said no. They can’t. Lawson wasn’t a pastor nor a church member. Lawson was accountable to no one, and as the guys on the podcast said, this is errant ecclesiology and in all likelihood even led to the circumstances that allowed the scandal to erupt.
Interestingly though, the OnePassion IRS tax return lists Lawson as “a teaching pastor”. In my opinion, he and/or the church are playing with semantics. Because Lawson was not a pastor in any sense of the word. He was an itinerant teacher, trotting the globe (while living a shameful double life).
Based on the With All Wisdom podcast’s information, I now know why Trinity Bible Church isn’t issuing any further information. I will also stop looking for it.
Tune into With All Wisdom’s chat to hear wisdom and grace over the situation. For me, their teaching on lessons learned was invaluable. For example, the difference between ‘wrong information’ and ‘wrong impressions’ was a lesson I took to heart.
I like Owen Strachan’s writing. Strachan (pronounced Strachan, rhymes with ran) published an essay yesterday titled Morning in America Again: 7 Reflections from Trump’s Election. If you are of an age like I am, you remember the highly evocative and effective re-election campaign by Ronald Reagan called Morning in America.
“The Spirit of the Abyss” by Wilhelm Kotarbinski
Strachan’s thoughts essentially mirrored mine above but of course fleshed out and better. I think a lot of people are thinking along these lines:
We have all lived through a long and almost unbroken nightmare. We have been forced to contemplate not only our present darkness, but the possibility of still greater unleashing of darkness through the presidency of Kamala Harris. We have trembled at that reality; we have wept; we have felt great surging waves of fear, anxiety, doubt, discouragement, and hopelessness at times.
“We have all lived through a long and almost unbroken nightmare. We have been forced to contemplate not only our present darkness, but the possibility of still greater unleashing of darkness through the presidency of Kamala Harris. We have trembled at that reality; we have wept; we have felt great surging waves of fear, anxiety, doubt, discouragement, and hopelessness at times. But for now, we have been granted a reprieve, a temporary stalling of evil as driven by the modern political left.”
Strachan is Senior Director of the Dobson Culture Center and Host of Grace & Truth podcast. His essay was poignant about the election but also a call to arms, with a warning not to rest. But so encouraging to think, as he postulated, that woke ideology is waning, that the near future might actually have a positive effect on gender wars, that legacy reporting institutions are mostly dead… do read his wonderful essay!
And now we return to a world absent of glossy political fliers in the mail, our phones will calm down from incessant political ads, and hopefully our Bibles will be opened more frequently as we have stared into a world where fascism and oligarchy, not to mention Banana Republic, was looming over us like the Great Wave at Kanagawa. May we give proper glory to God for His kindness.
Today’s essay explores the notion that if Jeremiah, John the Baptist, and Paul had been Arminians, how would their testimonies sound? Using today’s vernacular, let’s see how it reads when these eminent Christians say they “chose God” of their own free will.
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Photo from Pixabay.com
The Sovereign call of Jeremiah to speak YHWH’s words becomes:
Jeremiah asking Jesus into His heart and making a career decision,
“When I was a youth, one night I couldn’t sleep. I walked around for a while outside, unfamiliar with this restless feeling. I felt young and inept at whatever I tried my hand. I remember clearly, it was the third of Tishrei, a cool September morning. I was at Sabbath at the synagogue. I was overcome with Avital’s lyre playing of the ninth repetition of “Just As I Am.” It all came together in my heart. I made a decision to walk the aisle toward the rabbi, and I knelt down and sincerely asked Messiah into my heart. Rabbi told me I was saved. Afer that, I decided I wanted to be a Prophet of God because I knew that God had a great plan for my life. When I came forward the priest had told me that. I became a prophet even though I was young and didn’t know how to speak. It was a God thing for sure. I’m so happy that day I walked the aisle and decided for the Savior.”
The powerful testimony of Christian Terrorist Paul on the road to Damascus becomes:
Paul meekly being led in praying the Sinner’s Prayer and choosing to change his whole life around-
Paul explained, “I was exceeding my peers in Law, at that time I was breathing out threats and fire against the Christians. I was at the peak of my career. I had the esteem of my colleagues, and I was young enough to have the world in front of me. Yet something lacked. Then one day while I was walking along the road to Damascus on an official Pharisaical mission to jail and execute followers of The Way, I felt a restlessness. Is this all there is, I wondered? Just being the best at everything and killing blasphemers, nice as that was? I spoke about it with the men who were walking with me, but most of them didn’t understand, except for one fellow traveler. He explained that I needed to decide to follow Jesus and that I should use my free will to choose Him. Of course! That was the answer. He led me in the sinner’s prayer. I’ve been saved ever since. You should decide for Jesus too, everyone should. I don’t know why they don’t. That I did is what makes me a great example of Christian self-decisional regeneration. Not to boast, though. Grace and peace to you.”
John the Baptist’s call as the last Old Testament Prophet, foreordained and empowered since the womb, becomes a lifestyle choice-
John the Baptist shares his testimony about accepting Jesus
“I didn’t get along with my parents, they were very aged and they just didn’t understand me or my generation. I felt so lonely, like I didn’t fit in with any of my friends. I went to live in the desert to try and find myself, and figure it all out. One day as I was roasting some locusts over the fire and sewing a new camel hair outfit, I realized suddenly that what I needed was Messiah. What I lacked was that I hadn’t accepted Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior! I decided to give my heart to Jesus. I also decided to stay in the desert. It’s a relationship, not a religion, so who needs church? I have peace about that.”
Don’t those Arminian testimonies sound ridiculous? We do not decide for Jesus. He decided long before the world was ever made or we were ever born. Now here is how it really happened, with the addition of the verses about God’s call to Jesus to become His Son.
The Call of Jeremiah-
Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
(Jeremiah 1:4-5)
Paul-
But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles,
(Galatians 1:15-16)
John the Baptist-
for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He shall never take wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb. (Luke 1:15).
Jesus-
I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you”. (Psalm 2:7)
And now says the LORD, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, To bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel might be gathered to Him (For I am honored in the sight of the LORD, And My God is My strength), (Isaiah 49:5).
I am not familiar with this author but I thought his explanation of the biblical truth of God’s sovereign choice of His elect was the clearest and most succinct I’ve read in a while.
Why is it important to understand that election is unconditional and individual? If we believe, as Arminians propose, that election is the result of God looking ahead via His omniscient foreknowledge to see who will choose Him and persevere in Him, we make God’s choice of particular people contingent upon their choice/faith in Him. This makes election a reward or an obligation that is given in response to foreseen faith. This is not the gospel of grace. Election in this view is not God independently choosing us; rather, we are choosing Him and He is merely ratifying the choice by calling “elect” those who have chosen Him. Again, this makes man, not God, sovereign in election, and dishonors God by diminishing His sovereignty.
Such a view also leaves a pocket for pride in the human heart. Since the choice to believe is supposedly made by the sinner independently, the one who chooses to believe and respond positively to the gospel offer has proven himself more “worthy” of salvation, with all its attendant blessings, than the one who rejects the gospel. Of course, such an exalted view of man is unjustified by Scripture.
We do not choose Jesus. If we did, we could – and would – boast. No, He chooses us. All the glory rightly belongs to Him.
the-end-time.org 