Friday, October 17, 2003
good afternoon peepz! well i gotta make this one short again... i'm like super-loaded with work today... got to finish this document to show to boss like latest by end of today.. so gotta finish it.. have been staring at it ever since i woke up and got to the office until i left for lunch!! and it is always never complete until the last minute.. oh well! that's my job for you..
well to my main thoughts today.. until now at least... I accompanied a friend to New Creation Church yesterday for the Bible Study... I kinda enjoyed the worship and all... but when it came to message... I was somewhat half interested yet half disturbed... ok to all you people from New Creation, no hard feelings, i don't think there's anything wrong with you people so yeah, but I left the service pretty much disturbed...
Ps Prince shared on the power of the blood of Jesus, moving on to the armour of God with prayer in the spirit being the 7th piece of the armour of God as found in Eph 6:18. He mentioned about the shield of faith, with which to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one (v16) which in the Greek is "the wiles of the evil one" or cunningness. The other time where this word "wiles" is mentioned in the Bible is in Eph 4:14 in the portion that says, "blown here and there by every WIND OF TEACHING and by the wiles of men in their deceitful scheming."
Thus, the devil uses teaching, theology, doctrines as weapons against us.
He moved on to Col 2:13-15.
v13 mentions that God has forgiven ALL your sins.
Does this mean God has only forgiven your sins up to this point in your life?
If that were the case then when the author wrote this letter to them, then it wouldn't apply for the sins after they've read it now would it? God has forgiven ALL sins, both in the past, the present and in the future. It was a one-time sacrifice that paid the price for ALL of mans sins, both in the past and in the future until eternity. In other ones, He has already forgiven you for sins that you haven't even thought of doing!
That's one thing for you to think about...
v14 means that God has erased His own Law, the Law that was written in His handwriting and He nailed it on the cross so that in Christ we would not be condemned by the Law. For the Law kills, but the Spirit brings life.
If we take v15 in context together with v14, we get this following statement:
When God wipes out the Law, principalities and powers are disarmed!
Thus from here we know that the devil uses the LAW to ACCUSE us and condemn us, because Satan is the ACCUSER of the brethren!
The most unsettling thing for me was in Heb 10.
v2: when we are cleansed, we would no longer be feeling guilty or have consciousness of our sins! Yet why is it that in today's churches we are preaching sermons that instil a sense of sin-consciousness in the lives of the congregation?
v11-12: Jesus was the one sacrifice for sins FOREVER! In the old testament, the High priest was constantly standing and moving around and working.. his duties were never ending, yet the Great High Priest paid ONCE for all eternity and then SAT down at the right hand of God the Father.
and then in v14 it is by that one sacrifice that we are made perfect FOREVER.
Ps Prince teaches on the doctrine of Forever Grace, once saved always saved. That grace is given and righteousness is a gift, not a reward. We will never lose our salvation until we reject and do not recognise the sacrifice that was paid for us.
Is this right? I agree that righteousness is not based on our works because they are nothing in God's eyes. Yet the concept of forever grace has been taught against in so many churches. Why is the church divided over the grace of God? Who is right, who is wrong? Does God's grace save us for all eternity, regardless of what we do, as long as we recognise that Jesus has paid the price for us all and we are perfect people in His sight, because Heb 10:17 says that the Holy Spirit is our witness that "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more."?
Teach us your ways O Lord that we may walk in your path...
~~derek~~ at 10/17/2003 01:54:00 pm
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