Thursday: Biblical Life, Counseling & the Bible https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87082894562?pwd=ZEQvRFNrdFpxaXpBbklweVVPK2o3QT09 Meeting ID: 870 8289 4562 Passcode: 859663

 

Intimacy with God

 

Intimacy with God depends on our Knowledge of God  Jeremiah 9:23–24 Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.”

 

Therefore Jesus prayed:  John 17:26 “I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

 

Colossians 3:10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

 

To Know How Much We have been Forgiven—>feeling Grateful: Luke 7:47–48 NLT “I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.” Then Jesus said to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.” (Must we become greater sinners?)

 

To know His love: Isaiah 43:1–2,4 …“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the  rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be…Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you…

 

To Know that He Suffers as We Suffer: Isaiah 63:8-9 And he became their Savior. In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. (Jesus wept?)

 

Romans 8:26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

 

Knolwdge of God-->Intimacy with God: 2 Peter 1:2–3 May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,

 

Knowledge of our Unworthiness-->Appreciation for Christ-->Intimacy

 Baptist To grow less in our self-estimation is to esteem Jesus More: John 3:27–30 …“A person cannot receive even one [good?] thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.” (Addiction to high SE; Anita)

 

1 Timothy 1:13–16 I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. (If you are haunted by past sins, what’s the lesson?)

 

Does Jesus want to build our SE? Luke 17:10 “So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’ ” (gratefulness? What if we thought ourselves worthy of God?)

 

Matthew 8:8–10 But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.”

 

 1 Corinthians 1:29–31 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, [Everything?] so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (Why? Boast in ourselves? Paul boasted that he was a nothing. SE-V Anita)

 

Numbers 12:3, 5–13 "Now the man Moses was very humble [No Self-confidence of worthiness] more than any other person on earth…And the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward. And he said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them, and he departed. When the cloud removed from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, like snow. And Aaron turned toward Miriam, and behold, she was leprous. And Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord, do not punish us because we have done foolishly and have sinned. Let her not be as one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother’s womb.” And Moses cried to the LORD, “O God, please heal her—please.”

 

Can We Lose Our Salvation? Are we safe in Him?

 

Dan Delzell has written against the Catholic denial that we can have assurance that we that we are eternally saved. In contrast he cites Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621): "The greatest of all Protestant heresies is assurance." (eastern Orthodox)

 

As another ex-Catholic  put it: "Learning about mortal sin in Catholic middle school religion class was the first step on my journey to atheism. I remember thinking: 'I could live my entire life as a devout Catholic, only to commit a mortal sin, get hit by a bus, and go to Hell.' I concluded that I wouldn't be able to keep up with the sacerdotal treadmill of mortal sin and confession; I would end up condemned anyway. The only hope, it seemed, was that God did not exist." (Assurance?) https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/other/apostle-peter-vs-modern-catholicism-whose-view-on-assurance-is-right/ar-AA22zVsw

 

However, Scripture provides an alternative hope: Romans 8:38–39 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (This also includes us.)

 

John 10:28-29 "I [Jesus] give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand."

 

John 3:16–17 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

 

1 Peter 1:4–5 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

 

Jeremiah 32:40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me.

 

John 6:39-40 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."

 

But are we saved? Luke 17:10 So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’ ” (Why then does He save us?)

 

Romans 10:12–13 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

 

But do I have enough faith? Hebrews 11:29 By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. (Can Jesus multiply our mustard seed? Context?)

John 3:14–16 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

 

How blessed we are that we can trust in our Savior and in His gift of salvation: Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Do we deserve salvation? Why then does He save us?)

 

If we refuse to trust in Christ and instead trust in our own goodness, we will either become proud or depressed as we observe the truth about our moral poverty.

 

Those who turn away from the faith: 1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

 

Demolishing Justice and Freewill

 

 

Is there such a thing as freewill? One atheistic friend confided, “Since we do not have freewill, we couldn’t have acted otherwise, and this “insight” has helped me to deal with my guilt and shame.” In essence, he was saying that he cannot be truly held responsible for rape or of breaking his wife’s arm.

Others who have adopted a cultural Marxist perspective denying justice in another way. They insist that what we call “justice” is no more than a repressive tool that the white ruling class has invented to maintain control and to protect their own interests. Consequently, there is no moral truth, no right and wrong. Everything is just an exercise of power.

Results: On Dec. 12, the outgoing president commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people, including a woman who killed two of her ex-husbands and another lover; a woman who stole $54 million from a small town in Illinois; and a Pennsylvania judge who sentenced minors to harsh prison sentences for petty crimes in exchange for kickbacks from the prison operators. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/dec/23/joe-biden-commutes-sentences-37-murderers-death-ro/?fbclid=IwY2xjawHff0tleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHT-7X5egS5mCBR8SmPoVHxER0255o52mTwxgucTLlZ_PxgfKYQc42j2w4A_aem_W1R6yMI0jl6DGCgRBZdPhw

Under CRT (Critical Race Theory), Justice is no longer about  individual guilt or innocence. A CRT founder, Derrick Bell, wrote, "The whole liberal worldview of private rights and public sovereignty mediated by the rule of law needed to be exploded." https://townhall.com/columnists/benshapiro/2021/06/23/the-movement-against-critical-race-theory-is-deeply-necessary-n2591397

Ibram X. Kendi, the author of the best-seller, How to Be an Anti-Racist, has ironically written that: “the only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.”—a great formula for mutual destruction!

Only power speaks. Therefore CRT will resort to violence and coercion. Even the cultural Marxist of the Frankfort School, Max Horkheimer, had written “It is not economics that creates oppression but rather the nuclear family, traditional institutions, and concepts of race, gender and sexual identity. These are the chains of tyranny which must be broken by revolution.” However, violence in its many forms is no longer tyranny!

 

Consequently, there is no such thing as justice and freewill. These are just inventions. Shelby Steele is a Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. In White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era, Steele argues that the black community now suffers more through paternalistic programs and the victimization narrative than from their Jim Crow legacy:

“What I've encountered in my life, most often in the white world, is good will, is people have who have wanted to help me. When I was younger and starting a career, people who mentored me, who really felt it was important to give me the best opportunity to pursue my dreams. And my sense is that that's really been an experience for most blacks who have tried to venture out and develop themselves…”

“One of the most remarkable things in all of human history is the degree of moral evolution, that white Americans have made from the mid-60s to this day. No group of people in history have morally evolved away from a social evil that quickly and to that degree in this sort of short span of time. And very often, in our calculations in thinking about race, we don't give whites credit for that.” 

The denial of Freewill: All our thoughts and actions are predetermined  by bio-chemical processes. 

Consequently, no one is guilty or deserves punishment, just treatment and love. No wonder there are judges who allow murderers to go free and mayors and governors who reject the truths of justice and declare their jurisdictions “sanctuary towns and states.” These ideas can only lead to chaos, violence, growing victimization, and destruction. 

However, Jesus never justified criminality or the rejection of God and traditional values: 

Matthew 23:37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” 

John 5:40 “yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. 

Genesis 4:6–7 The LORD said to the unrepentant murderer Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted?...” 

However, Jesus did acknowledge that many were held captive by their blameworthy love of the darkness and hatred of the light (of truth). (John 3:19-20)

WAS JESUS ANTI-NATIONALISTIC?

 

 

Progressive Christians regard Jesus as one of their own, a citizen of a borderless world:

Progressive Christians have long held the conviction that the whole Christian-America-thing is actually anti-Christian. Christianity has an implicit anti-nationalist bent. Jesus actively resisted the nationalist aspirations of his followers, which made him a disappointment to them — and ultimately cost him his life (initially!). https://www.onfaith.co/onfaith/2014/08/07/4-ways-christian-fundamentalists-get-progressive-christianity-shockingly-wrong/33537 

Was Jesus an anti-nationalist? Admittedly, He was inclusive of all who would come to Him (John 6:37), However, He did not initiate them into a borderless existence but into the Kingdom of God. 

This Kingdom is a Kingdom set apart from the rest of the world. It is exclusive but inclusive of any who will come. It is also a Kingdom with stringent requirements and boundaries: 

 “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33) 

Nor is this Kingdom universal but particular, for a particular people who would enter it: 

"Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” (Luke 13:24) 

Consistent with the particularism of His Kingdom, Jesus only prayed for a particular group of people:

“I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou hast given me; for they are thine:” (John 17:9) 

Jesus consistently affirmed the particularism of the Old Testament against progressive universalism. Likewise, He did not teach that we have equal responsibility for all parents but affirmed our overriding responsibility for our own parents (Matthew 15), children, and family (Matthew 24:43). 

This was a particularism reaffirmed by Jesus' authoritative commentators, the Apostles: 

But if any provided not for his own, and specially his own household, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever. (1 Timothy 5:8) 

Even though Jesus had fulfilled the Mosaic Covenant by bringing in the New, He never spoke against the former. Instead, He insisted that we should live according to it: 

But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”(Matthew 4:4; 5:17-19) 

Under Mosaic Law, Israel had been both a civil and religious state. While the Law provided for a separation of powers—prophet, priest, and king—a separation of religion and state had been unthinkable. God and state were to operate together. The state and its laws were partnered with religion, all under God, as a witness to Israel’s God to the surrounding nations. 

Israel did allow non-Jews to settle in Israel. However, they could not worship as they had before, nor could they proselytize. One law- the Mosaic Law - would apply to all: Leviticus 24:16 Whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death. 

There is a Biblical place for patriotism, at least for Christ-honoring expressions of patriotic concern. If we are to have an overriding love and concern for our wives, children, and even our block association or neighborhood, it is certainly not illegitimate to have an overriding and particular concern for our nation. 

The Church has, in so many ways, proved to be a vehicle of mercy to its community. What had been the fruits of America’s Christianity? Alexis de Tocqueville, French statesman, historian, and social philosopher wrote “Democracy in America” (1835). It has been described as "the most comprehensive and penetrating analysis of the relationship between character and society in America that has ever been written." According to Tocqueville, freedom and morality both found their American incarnation in Christianity: 

“In the United States the influence of religion is not confined to the manners, but it extends to the intelligence of the people.... Christianity, therefore, reigns without obstacle, by universal consent; the consequence is, as I have before observed, that every principle of the moral world is fixed and determinate.”

“I sought for the key to the greatness and genius of America in her harbors...in her fertile fields and boundless forests; in her rich mines and vast world commerce; in her public school system and institutions of learning. I sought for it in her democratic Congress and in her matchless Constitution. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.