The main goal of this blog is to hopefully feed your spiritual appetite. Any curiosities, confusions, or cravings to know more can be answered here. Please do not hesitate to follow or ask anything. No one is judged, no one is condemned. Everyone is...
Daughter of Zion - original art by The Worship Project
Zephaniah 3:14 ”Shout for joy, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! The LORD has taken away His judgments against you, He has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; You will fear disaster no more...”
Hey first off, I’m sorry you’re going through that. I remember getting bullied back in highschool (dont know if you are or not) but its not as easy to shake off as some people make it out to be. But here’s some practical advice.
Pray to God about it. Tell Him everything: how you feel, how you want it to stop, how you feel outcast. Ask for a change of heart in this person(s) that are harassing you, they are as broken on the inside as you or I. Jesus tells us to pray for people who persecute us ”But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” (Matthew 5:44)
Speak to someone IRL about it. As much as I want to help, I don’t know who you are or even what you’re getting bullied about. Please talk to someone you trust, and don’t let the internet be you’re only source of community.
I don't know what to do anymore. I'm fed up of this world. It seems like everyone is just accepting that WRONG is the new RIGHT. People are losing themselves in this world and conforming to it's sins. With people like that around me, it's hard to live my life sanely. I get disheartened at what today has become. I wish He would come soon. . .
Hey friend, I first want to sympathize with you and let you know that what you're feeling isn't out of the realm of the ordinary. The world as we know it is under sin and the fall. Even beyond actively corrupt people, there's disease, natural disaster, and famine.
Now, here's the thing, I don't want to just leave you there. There is peace, & there is hope. Jesus gave us the Spirit to persevere till the end.
Here are some verses in God's word that explicitly talk about these things.
More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Romans 5:3-5
Suffering has a purpose. There is no such thing as meaningless suffering. There is a promise given by the one who doesn't go back on His word. To better understand that we need to better understand the sovereignty of God.
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” Romans 12:19
This one is so key. Our God is not one who can overlook sin. Either He will deal with it on the cross, or He will deal with it on the last day. Know that your plea for justice does not go unheard. This however, should incite more love for those who are dying. The last thing you should do is scorn them, for you too were once just like them (Ephesians 2:1-10)
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Romans 15:13
Pray. Talk to God. Ask for the Spirit to fill you with hope. If you are His, He will not turn a blind eye. And know that He is GOOD
"I don’t feel safe around anything when Jesus is not the Lord of it. Calvinism without Jesus is deadly; it’s fatalism, it’s simply Islam. We need Jesus. When the precious doctrines [of Calvinism] are used to perpetuate gloom, severity, introspection, accusations, morbidity, slander, gnat-stringing, and more, the soul is not safe."
--Douglas Wilson
What does God do? He chooses people to be with him. He becomes a father to fatherless. Saves people from sin. Gives people mercy and grace. He now hears and acknowledges prayers. Giving them comfort through calamity, and power to become more Godly till the end.
Matthew 24: 31 - And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Mark 10:45 - For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Luke 18:7 - And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them?
Ephesians 2:5 - even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
Romans 8:15 - For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
Romans 8:33 - Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
Psalm 119:49-50 - Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 - Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.
Hebrews 9:13 - how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Hebrews 13:12 - So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.
WHEN DOES IT HAPPEN?
Before the foundations of the world. Before creation. Before a molecule, atom, or quark exists.
Ephesians 1:4 - even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love
Romans 8:29 - For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (if God is all knowing, and He knew before creation...)
WHAT CAN WE DO TO BE CHOSEN?
Nothing. God has no partiality, meaning His choices are not defined by the means of secondary qualities. There is nothing we can specifically do to be chosen because it is not from following the law or living righteously (this is something we don't do well anyway because of our wicked nature) but, it is only by God's mercy and grace that we are chosen. Both, the proof and result of this election is our faith in God's gracious gift, the death and resurrection of His son, Jesus; therefore if someone lacks faith in the Jesus' gift of grace, they also lack election.
Ephesians 2:8-9 - For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Romans 3:23-24 - for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
Romans 3:27 - Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.
Romans 9:11 - though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls—
Romans 14:23 - But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
Why is this good? Because in a situation where everyone deserved hell, He chose to take the punishment upon Himself.
1 John 3:8 - Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Ephesians 2:1-3 - And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Ephesians 1:3-12 - Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
What is the most common misconception about it? Fatalism- Since every decision is already decided, I'm not going to love God, His people, because I cant. Or I'm going to let go and let God. Or if God knows who will be saved I don't need to evangelize
Partiality
Gentiles Hear the Good News So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, (Acts 10:34 ESV)
For God shows no partiality. (Romans 2:11 ESV)
For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality. (Colossians 3:25 ESV)
Romans 10:14-15 - How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
Titus 1:1 - Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ to further the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness—
2 Tim 2: 10 - Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
2 Peter 1:10 - Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.
1 Peter 1:1-2 - Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father(when does it happen?), through the sanctifying work of the Spirit (what can we do?), to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood (anti-fatalism): Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
If the saints in the past believed in fatalism then there would be no Christians outside of Jerusalem. How do you explain then that there are twice as many Presbyterians today in South Korea as there are in the United States? or that in 1949 there were only 2 million Christians in China but now there are over 82 million.
What is election? It is Gods good decision to choose a people for Himself to redeem. A people who in and of themselves have no goodness in them, yet in love he adopts us as his children, not based on secondary pretenses (age, sex, race, income, intellect, strength, abilities, character, kin, morality, or even future morality) He chooses us for the praise of His glory.
WHAT IS THE TRINITY?
A question both Non-Christians and Christians share. Does it exist? How do we know? What's the point of even knowing? Etc. In our series of Frequently Asked Questions, we tackle this topic.
Any questions/additions to this are welcome by leaving it in the ask box.
(Note: Bible verses are NOT posted here so to follow along in scripture, please look it up yourself with your own Bible. Thanks!)
WHAT IS THE TRINITY?
It is not used in the Bible.
It's a term used to sum up what scripture describes as the one true God.
There are three essential biblical truths that form the trinity.
1.) There is only one true God
Old Testament (Genesis 1:1 / Psalm 86:8-10 / Isaiah 46:9)
New Testament (John 5:44 / 1 Corinthians 8:4-6)
2.) Scripture states that Father, Son, and Spirit are equally God
FATHER
He is so clear that even false teachers find it hard to refute this biblical truth (2 Corinthians 1:3 / Ephesians 1:3)
SON
He is called God by others, but what is more confirming is that He says it without apology or hesitation (John 10:30-38)
SPIRIT
Scripture declares he has the attributes of God.
Creator (Genesis 1:2), eternal (Hebrews 9:14), omnipotent (Micah 3:8), omniscient (Isaiah 40:13-14), omnipresent (Psalm 139:7). New testament clearly says he is God (Acts 5:3-4)
3.) The Father, Son, and Spirit are three distinct persons
FATHER AND SON ARE DISTINCT BUT ONE
John 10:30 & John 17:11
FATHER AND SPIRIT ARE DISTINCT
Romans 8:26-27
THE SPIRIT IS NOT A FORCE BUT A PERSON, AND JESUS RECOGNIZES HIM AS ANOTHER
John 16:7-14, omniscient
WHAT IS THE TRINITARIAN GOD OF THE BIBLE LIKE?
Loving, merciful, gracious, slow to anger, faithful, steadfast, everlasting love, forgiving, and just. (Exodus 34:6-7). LORD (Yahweh, YHWH, JeHoWah, Jehovah).
3 MAIN FALSE BELIEFS OF THE TRINITY
1) MODALISM
There is one God that manifests himself as Father, Son, or Holy Spirit
Too focused on the one-ness of God
People that believe is are UPCI
Biblical refutation (Matthew 3:16-17)
2) ARIANISM
There is one God who created Jesus and uses the Spirit
Again, it's focused on the one-ness of God
People who believe is are Jehovah's Witness
Biblical refutation (John 10:30 / Acts 5:3-4)
3) TRITHEISM
There are three gods that act on their own but are together
Too focused on the plurality of God
People that believe this are Mormons
Biblical refutation (Isaiah 46:9)
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY ON THE TRINITY
Christianity is centered on the gospel, and our changed lives come from our relationship with God
God has revealed part of Himself to us, for us, to better understand who we have a relationship with
PRACTICAL RESULTS FROM KNOWING THE TRINITY
WE ARE HUMBLED
We can't fully understand God & how He is triune, but the divine mystery humbles us.
WE LOVE
Understanding that love comes from a God who loves perfect causes us to love.
WE WORSHIP
THe trinitarian God allows us to worship the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit.
WE RELATE TO ONE ANOTHER
Being made in God's image, we are relational people.
WE ARE UNIFIED & DIVERSE
We are in a community as our God and displays perfectly.
WE ARE SUBMISSIVE
Just as Jesus submits to the Father, so can we by the Spirit.
WE ARE JOYFUL
In knowing the one true God, we are filled with the joy of His wonder.
Fear strikes in the eyes of the unaware
A terror awaiting its call
They don't even know
If they could only hear
If they could only hear
I've got five fingers on each of my hands to count all the commands that I've broken
Woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips
You set the coal upon my lips, and take away my shame
You cry whom shall I send
Well God, here am I
here am I (SEND ME)
Scriptures call "Awake Oh Sleeper"
But the Church doesn't hear
And the Spirit presses on our souls
But we close our hearts
You can send me
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