Archive for February 2011
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The Truth of God’s Word OR The Truth of Circumstances Pt 3
No comments · Posted by Peter Wilson in The Truth of God's Word OR The Truth of Circumstances.
Rom 1:17 For in the Gospel a righteousness which God ascribes is revealed, both springing from faith and leading to faith [disclosed through the way of faith that arouses to more faith]. As it is written, The man who through faith is just and upright shall live and shall live by faith. (AMP)
Read these words again and again; read them slowly and meditate upon them; ask the Holy Spirit to give you a ‘revelation’ of righteousness (right standing) by faith which is found in this verse.
For in the Gospel a right standing which God ascribes is ‘revealed‘……….. springing from ‘faith‘………
When we became born again, God by His grace gave us faith to believe that the blood of His Son Jesus Christ cleansed us from all sin; He also gave us the gift of righteousness (Rom5:17); that is, that we have right standing before Him.
So as a Christian we experienced faith/righteousness at salvation, but to progress we must have a ‘revelation’ of faith/righteousness, because the scripture goes on to teach that we must ‘live’ by faith/righteousness;
The righteous shall ‘live‘ by faith.
Unfortunately many of us experienced faith/righteousness at salvation but continued to live out our lives by our own strength, consequently we still struggle with judgement, condemnation, guilt, fear, shame etc.
Struggling with such things makes it impossible to believe God’s Word because we don’t believe we have right standing before Him; and if we are going to live out the truth of God’s Word we must, must, have this revelation.
Right believing produces right living.
Meditation point: The righteous shall live by faith.
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The Truth of God’s Word OR The Truth of Circumstances Pt 2
No comments · Posted by Peter Wilson in The Truth of God's Word OR The Truth of Circumstances.
Eph 4:15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. (NIV)
This verse teaches that one of the character traits of a mature Christian is being able to speak the truth in love; Ever hear the expression, ‘Win a battle but lose the war’, or, ‘ Win an argument but lose the person’.
In a dual with swords the only way to win is to kill your opponent, whereas, when we debate the Gospel with an unbeliever, we want to win our opponent not kill them. Let’s look at 6 ways we can do this:
1) We must give full respect to their argument. Sneering, looking down our nose or displaying a superior attitude will drive that person away. Nobody likes to be belittled or spoken down to.
2) Our tone of voice is also important. People immediately sense disrespect, animosity and dislike.
3) We must listen to our opponents viewpoint; Showing them respect by looking them in the face, where possible showing our agreement by a nod of the head or a smile and allowing them to finish their discourse.
4) We must use, ‘wisdom’; Prov 11:30 He/She who wins souls is wise. Using King James language, big sounding theological words or flowery speech will muddy the waters and bring confusion; As much as possible, use non religious language. Instead of saying, “The hand of the Lord was upon Paul”, say ” The presence of God was with Paul”.
Without realising it, some of us have adopted a form of Christianese which is a foreign language to an unbeliever. Therefore we must train our mind to substitute such words with speech they can understand.
5) If we don’t know the answer to a question or topic of debate, say so. Don’t try to cover up or change the subject. People respect someone who humbly acknowledges what they don’t know.
6) Finally, we must look upon them with love. Love can be seen in our body language, our eyes, our words and disposition.
Let’s remember we are there to win the person not the argument. It’s been calculated that most people are spoken to about Jesus Christ by approx 20 people before they come to know him as their Saviour. Most of the time we are a link in that chain so let’s remember to pray for them that what we have said will impact their life and prepare them for their next encounter with God.
Meditation point: Showing love and exercising wisdom will do more to win someone for the Gospel than the greatest theological argument.
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The Truth of God’s Word OR The Truth of Circumstances Pt1
No comments · Posted by Peter Wilson in The Truth of God's Word OR The Truth of Circumstances.
John 18:38 Pilate said, “What is truth?” (TM)
In this verse, Pilate is cross examining Jesus to find out who He was. The Jews were baying for Jesus blood and Pilate wanted to be sure he knew the background details to Jesus situation before deciding what to do.
Jesus declared to Pilate that He was a King and had come to proclaim the truth of his Father. Pilate immediately responded, “What is truth?”. Pilate was confused because the Romans worshipped many gods. They were also immersed in the Greek culture which had many gods and were obsessed with knowledge, reason and philosophy. Remember Paul on Mars’ Hill. Acts 17:23 I found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. (NIV)
The situation of Pilate’s time is not much different to our time. Today there are many gods and philosophies and society has developed a pick & mix approach to personal religion. “Let’s see, I’ll have a spoonful of new age, a drop of Islam, a squirt of astrology and I’ll mix it all together with confusion, oops! sorry, i meant Confucius”.
Christians can only counteract these untruths with the truth. Who is, ‘the truth’. The truth is Jesus Christ. John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (NKJV) Jesus is also called, ‘the Word of God’. John 1:1-2 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (NKJV) We can better understand this verse by substituting the word, ‘Word’ for Jesus: In the beginning was Jesus, and Jesus was with God, and Jesus was God.
So the, the Word (Jesus Christ) came to earth and proclaimed the truth; and as Christians we must settle it in our hearts that the Bible which contains the Word of God is the truth. How can we do this. We spend time meditating on scriptures such as Jn1:1, Jn 14:6 etc until the revelation of those Words are anchored deep in our hearts and minds. Otherwise we could be swept away by the powerful waves and winds of false doctrines and teachings that are being peddled in society.
Eph 4:14-15 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love……..
In my next blog I will discuss how we can speak the truth in love.
Meditation point: “Holy Spirit, you are the author of God’s Word. As I meditate on this Word will you bring the revelation of this Word and establish me in the, ‘truth’”.
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