Holy Days (In Remembrance of God's Promise in Christ)

 

The Rich Man

The Story

Imagine a rich man coming. He would come to you and say, “My child, I want to adopt you. I am giving you authority over my estate. Run the business with me. Travel all over the world. Live in the mansion with me.”

How would you feel? Happy, loved, thankful. Wow.

You would immediately abandon everything behind. Leave your job for you no longer have to work, you now have a lot of money. You can buy anything. You have a Ferrari. You have an airplane. You have so many servants who’d do as you command them. You are now a CEO.

“But in one condition,” the rich man says, “Follow my rules. Respect me as your father. No smoking. No drinking. No gambling. No parties. No women/men lovers. No wasting of money for expensive things you would not need. No selfishness. No greed. No arrogance. No swear words. No hating people. No turning your back on me when I tell you to do something for me. You have to listen to everything I say.”

However….You are already enjoying the rich life. No more worries and fear of poverty and suffering. But you still want to do things the rich man says No. You want to do your own way. You don’t want anyone to be a master of you.

You kill the rich man, your adopted father, who has given you the wealth you do not deserve, so you can do whatever you like with your unearned, freely given wealth.

However, there are witnesses. They report you to authorities. You are taken to prison with a term of 10 years and after 10 years, death penalty by electric chair.

One year later, you find that the rich man is alive. Should you be scared? Maybe he will lengthen your prison term to 30 years and your death penalty to beheading. Or whip you now or butcher you until you die. You should be scared because he is rich and he can do anything what he wants done.

A week after you’ve known he’s alive, he comes to visit you. Oh no. What’s he going to do?

The rich man says to you, “I am an honest and faithful man. I can pay what I want done to you….I can release you from prison now, but I follow the law. I have let my own biological son be put in prison for your sake. My son, whom I love so much, is willing to be in prison so you, my adopted child, can come back home with me. It hurts me to see you rot in prison for you are my own, you are my child. I am your father. I love you. Come back home with me.”

God the Father is like that. We disobey Him. We break His heart. We murder Him with our sinfulness. But He let His own Son, Jesus Christ, to take our punishment, to take our curse, so we can go back with God in Paradise.

Back to the story: You’re now back at the mansion. What are you going to do? You don’t to deserve to be back there. You don’t deserve to be released from prison. Moreover, you don’t deserve for someone, the rich man’s biological son, to take your place in prison. You’re going to obey the rules, follow the law. Do what the rich man tells you to do. You’re going to love him back, because he loves you. You’re going to want to get to know him more. And of all people, he chooses you.


Prayer

Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, Lord and Savior

Thank you for being our chief Prophet and great Teacher, for showing us the Father, for giving us your Word, for giving us the Bible to know you more and more.

Thank you for being our only great High Priest, for laying you own life, dying on the cross, a curse for criminals. You were neither a criminal nor a sinner like us, but you took our death, our punishment so you can bring your people back to you. Because you are perfect and sinless, you are God; you broke the curse of death by coming back to life and going back to heaven to intercede for those who call on you as their Lord and Savior.


Thank you for being our Lord and great King. You are not just an ordinary ruler of a country or the earth. You are a ruler of all things. You govern and you are in charge of our lives. You exercise all authority over all things in heaven and on earth. You are faithful. You will establish and guard your people to the evil one. You control everything in the world around us and through the power of Holy Spirit dwelling within your people.


God, forgive us. We are not our own. We are yours. Mold us to be like you.

Bless us, dear God, our jobs, this company, our leaders, our families, our friends, our churches, our country. Bless us and may we glorify you, praise you, and proclaim you.

Yours is your kingdom, your power, your glory.

In your name, Amen.

Luke 12:32

• Fear not, little flock [children], for it is your Father [in heaven, for it is his] good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 

D. Yam (The Great Commission)

Quotes from the sermon:

"We are here not to accomplish great things for Him, but we are here to make disciples."

"I cannot save souls, but I can proclaim the good news to souls."

More about Martin Luther

Martin Luther: The Man and His Mind (Robert Kolb)

"One of his monastic fathers counseled him to look to the blood of Christ. The head of his order for Germany, his good friend in the Augustinian brotherhood, Johann von Staupitz, assured him that God had chosen him unconditionally and washed his sins away in Christ's blood. But it took a long time for this message to sink in."
"...he struggled with his own depression over his alienation from God. With great energy he threw himself into the study of the texts..."

Martin Luther says to the Devil

"I am a Christian, of the same flesh and blood as is my Lord Christ, the Son of God. Settle your account with him."

"When the devil comes during the night to plague me, I give him this answer: 'Devil, I must sleep now; for this is God's command: Work during the day, sleep at night.' If he does not stop to vex me but faces me with my sins, I reply: 'Dear devil, I have heard the record. But I have committed far more sins which do not even stand in your record. Put them down too. . . . . ' If he still does not stop accusing me as a sinner, I say to him in contempt: "Holy Satan, pray for me! You never have done anything evil and alone are holy. Go to God and acquire grace for yourself. If you want to make me righteous, I tell you: Physician heal yourself."

"The devil has often raised a racket in the house and has tried to scare me, but I appealed to my calling and said, 'I know that God has placed me into this house to be lord here. Now if you have a call that is stronger than mine and are lord here, then stay where you are. But I well know that you are not lord here and that you belong in a different place - down in hell.' And so I fell asleep again and let him be angry, for I well knew that he could do nothing to me."

Ref: How Martin Dealt With the Devil

My Lingerings for Fighting w/ My Mind (a study of Martin Luther)

I wanted to know about Martin Luther and how he dealt with his mind. Having a weak mind myself, I wanted to know how he lived having to fight with his mind, which he described as a devil's snare against his beliefs. In the movie Luther (2003), I saw Luther to look demented or deranged but he was actually fighting against the devil. People might have thought of him as "out of his mind", just as Jesus was called by his family (Mark 3:21). I found John Piper's message on Martin Luther: Lessons from His Life and Labor. These are excerpts, taken only portions towards the last of Piper's message, of what answered my lingerings for fighting with my mind, and highlights what captured me most from Luther.

5. Which leads us to the next characteristic of Luther at study, namely, suffering. For Luther, trials make a theologian. Temptation and affliction are the hermeneutical touchstones.

Luther notices in Psalm 119 that the psalmist not only prayed and meditated over the Word of God in order to understand it; he also suffered in order to understand it. Psalm 119:67, "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep thy word ... 71 It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn Thy statutes." An indispensable key to understanding the Scriptures is suffering in the path of righteousness.

Thus Luther said: "I want you to know how to study theology in the right way. I have practiced this method myself ... Here you will find three rules. They are frequently proposed throughout Psalm [119] and run thus: Oration, meditatio, tentatio (Prayer, meditation, trial). And trials (Anfechtungen) he called the "touchstone." "[They] teach you not only to know and understand but also to experience how right, how true, how sweet, how lovely, how mighty, how comforting God's word is: it is wisdom supreme".

Physically he suffered from excruciating kidney stones and headaches with buzzing in his ears and ear infections and incapacitating constipation —"I nearly gave up the ghost—an now, bathed in blood, can find no peace. What took four days to heal immediately tears open again".

It's not surprising then that emotionally and spiritually he would undergo the most horrible struggles. For example, in a letter to Melancthon on August 2, 1527, he writes, "For more than a week I have been thrown back and forth in death and Hell; my whole body feels beaten, my limbs are still trembling. I almost lost Christ completely, driven about on the waves and storms of despair and blasphemy against God. But because of the intercession of the faithful, God began to take mercy on me and tore my soul from the depths of Hell".

On the outside, to many, he looked invulnerable. But those close to him knew the tentatio. Again he wrote to Melancthon from the Wartburg castle on July 13, 1521, while he was supposedly working feverishly on the translation of the New Testament:

I sit here at ease, hardened and unfeeling—alas! praying little, grieving little for the Church of God, burning rather in the fierce fires of my untamed flesh. It comes to this: I should be afire in the spirit; in reality I am afire in the flesh, with lust, laziness, idleness, sleepiness. It is perhaps because you have all ceased praying for me that God has turned away from me ... For the last eight days I have written nothing, nor prayed nor studied, partly from self-indulgence, partly from another vexatious handicap [constipation and piles] ... I really cannot stand it any longer ... Pray for me, I beg you, for in my seclusion here I am submerged in sins.

These were the trials he said made him a theologian. These experiences were as much a part of his exegetical labors as were his Greek lexicon. This has caused me to think twice before I begrudge the trials of my ministry. How often I am tempted to think that the pressures and conflicts and frustrations are simply distractions from the business of study and understanding. Luther (and Psalm 119:71) teach us to see it all another way. That stressful visit that interrupted your study may well be the very lens through which the text will open to you as never before. Tentatio—trial, the thorn in the flesh—is Satan's unwitting contribution to our becoming good theologians.

But at one point Luther confessed that in such circumstances faith "exceeds my powers".

6. Which leads to the final characteristic of Luther at study: prayer and reverent dependence on the all-sufficiency of God.

That the Holy Scriptures cannot be penetrated by study and talent is most certain. Therefore your first duty is to begin to pray, and to pray to this effect that if it please God to accomplish something for His glory—not for yours or any other person's—He very graciously grant you a true understanding of His words. For no master of the divine words exists except the Author of these words, as He says: 'They shall be all taught of God' (John 6:45). You must, therefore, completely despair of your own industry and ability and rely solely on the inspiration of the Spirit.

But for Luther that does not mean leaving the "external Word" in mystical reverie, but bathing all our work in prayer, and casting ourselves so on God that he enters and sustains and prospers all our study.

Since the Holy Writ wants to be dealt with in fear and humility and penetrated more by studying [!] with pious prayer than with keenness of intellect, therefore it is impossible for those who rely only on their intellect and rush into Scripture with dirty feet, like pigs, as though Scripture were merely a sort of human knowledge not to harm themselves and others whom they instruct".

Again he sees the psalmist in Psalm 119 not only suffering and meditating but praying again and again:

Psalm 119:18 Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Thy law. 27 Make me understand the way of Thy precepts, teach me, O LORD, the way of Thy statutes. 23 Give me understanding, that I may observe Thy law. 35 Make me walk in the path of Thy commandments, for I delight in it. 36 Incline my heart to Thy testimonies, and not to dishonest gain. 37 Revive me in Thy ways.

So he concludes that the true biblical way to study the Bible will be saturated with prayer and self-doubt and God-reliance moment by moment:

You should completely despair of your own sense and reason, for by these you will not attain the goal ... Rather kneel down in your private little room and with sincere humility and earnestness pray God through His dear Son, graciously to grant you His Holy Spirit to enlighten and guide you and give you understanding.

Luther's emphasis on prayer in study is rooted in his theology, and here is where his methodology and his theology become one. He was persuaded from Romans 8:7 and elsewhere that "The natural mind cannot do anything godly. It does not perceive the wrath of God, there cannot rightly fear him. It does not see the goodness of God, therefore cannot trust or believe in him either. Therefore [!] we should constantly pray that God will bring forth his gifts in us". All our study is futile without the work of God overcoming our blindness and hardheartedness.

.... Man is powerless to justify himself, powerless to sanctify himself, powerless to study as he ought and powerless to trust God to do anything about this.

This is why prayer is the root of Luther's approach to studying God's word. Prayer is the echo of the freedom and sufficiency of God in the heart of powerless man. It is the way he conceived of his theology and the way he pursued his studies. And it is the way he died.

At 3:00 a.m. on February 18, 1546, Luther died. His last recorded words were, "Wir sein Bettler. Hoc est verum." "We are beggars. This is true". God is free—utterly free—in his grace. And we are beggars—pray-ers. That is how we live, and that is how we study, so that God gets the glory and we get the grace.

However, this study of Martin Luther does not end here, I still have others to read. Now that I know what Luther did during these hard times, it's pray, faith, meditate, read, carry my cross. Why have I not listened to my spiritual parents that I have to go searching for answers and information? Because I fail to understand and my heart is still hardened....even to the Gospel despite my "faith" on it.

Like Luther in search for the true forgiveness of sins, I am in search for the truth and understanding of God and His Word, that include the Trinity, the Gospel, and the Kingdom of God.

I pray for forgiveness for my unbelief, lack of knowledge and understanding, hardheartedness, and for God not to forsake me and turn His Face from me, but to have mercy on me. I fear to lose God whom I waveringly trust. Enable me, Father. Give me strength, courage, and patience in this labor towards knowing You.

Dan Rather (A Teacher)

The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called "truth." ~Dan Rather

John Piper (Martin Luther: Lessons From His Life and Labor)

So he concludes that the true biblical way to study the Bible will be saturated with prayer and self-doubt and God-reliance moment by moment.......Man is powerless to justify himself, powerless to sanctify himself, powerless to study as he ought and powerless to trust God to do anything about this. -John Piper on Martin
Luther (Prayer and Reverent Dependence on the All-Sufficiency of God)

Ref. Martin Luther: Lessons From His Life and Labor

Accursed be Queen James Version

Queen James Bible.

It's a "bible" which changed 8 verses to "clean", or rather "clarify" homosexuality. This may have been introduced sometime late 2012 and I just heard of it now.

I'm not in the US. I don't know how rampant this strive to indiscriminate homosexual behavior and be protected by legal laws. But to change this doctrine against homosexuality?

I may know how homosexual feels when they are discriminated because I am bullied to have homosexual tendencies because of my eccentric behavior, but I am not practicing any homosexual behavior and I am not a homosexual. Homosexuality is not "born that way" or a gene. It's either an upbringing or a choice a person makes (whether a choice from a child or an adult...everyone can choose who they wish to become).

I can say that my eccentricity, my weirdness isn't my choice, but it's who I am. However, either way, homosexual or eccentric, is not an excuse to be exempted from following God, my Father, my Master, my Lord. I choose to follow God than my eccentricity.

Going back to the QUEEN James Bible. I didn't react immediately, hearing it first from this video and lead to QJV's website and the editor's note, where you can find the verses being changed or altered. I also read a biography of King James I and knowing that though he commissioned for the King James Bible, he had no relation to it spiritually. According to QJV's website and the biographies, King James I of England had men favourites, which was why QJV got majority of it's translation, again except 8 verses.

Just as the video said, they are removing a teaching about homosexuality.

How visibly corrupt this world already is since Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden?

What am I going to do but to continue reading in God's Word. Asking for wisdom and discernment from God. Know Him more. Worship Him and continue to proclaim His Name. May the Lord vindicate me.

For my brothers and sisters, "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." (Matt. 25:13; Matt. 24:24; 2 Thess. 2:9-12)

"I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed." (Gal. 1:6-9)

"I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book." (Rev. 22:18-19)

The QJB is a big, fabulous Bible. It is printed and bound in the United States on thick, high-quality paper in a beautiful, readable typeface. It is the perfect Bible for ceremony, study, sermon, gift-giving, or simply to put on display in the home or Church. &nbsp You can’t choose your sexuality, but you can choose Jesus. Now you can choose a Bible, too. - QueenJamesBible.com

Ten Big, Daily Reminders (Matt Reagan)

Ten Big, Daily Reminders
by Matt Reagan

1. God exists. 
2. God loves you. 
3. Jesus died for you, and the Father has now bound himself to give you only good things. 
4. God sees you as perfect. 
5. That is because of Jesus’ perfection, not yours. You deserve hell. 
6. You will die. 
7. You will live forever in the new heavens and the new earth. 
8. For now, you are an exile on the earth. 
9. Nothing on earth is truly worth putting your hope in. 
10. You have no right to be unhappy. 

Ref: http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/ten-big-daily-reminders

PRAYER 

Father, in heaven. 

You are mighty. You are sovereign. You exist. 

May you always be glorified. 

Father, how can we be saved if there is nothing good in us? 

We thank you for Jesus, Your Son. 

You have punished your own Son just do you can have us back. 

Though we have nothing in relation to you, You adopted us. 

Father, forgive us for our unbelief. Forgive our lack of faith. 

Forgive us of our constant and daily disobedience to you. 

Father, enable us with Your Spirit to know You more and more. 

May we be filled with gladness and thankfulness for all blessings and sufferings. 

Father, thank You for Your love, for disciplining us because we are yours; 

Molding us, shaping us, making us to become like Your Son, Jesus Christ. 

Father, how majestic You are. 

May you forever be glorified. 

Yours is Your kingdom, Your power, and Your glory. 

In Jesus’ name, Amen. 

True Faith (Can someone believe w/o being born again?)

Anyone can believe w/o being born again.. even demons believe.. (James 2:19)
But not everyone who professes faith is a True believer/truly born again (Matt 7:21-23)

And if I may say, we need the gospel to be preached to us constantly to feed us and remind us of what faith we believe we have in Christ, just as Jesus had been teaching about the gospel, the kingdom of God.. (Mark 1:15)

As Paul had said about the gospel, "it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes" and "for in it [the gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, 'the rightoues shall live by faith'." (Rom 1:16-17)

Faith doesn't come from us just as salvation doesn't come from us. Both are gifts from God himself. "..saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—" (Eph 2:8)

Faith comes from God and "faith comes from hearing, hearing through the word of Christ" (Rom 10:17)

"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?" (Rom 10:14)

Lord's Day 7

20. Q. Are all men, then, saved by Christ just as they perished through Adam?

A. No.

Only those are saved

who by a true faith

are grafted into Christ

and accept all his benefits. 1

1. Mt 7:14; Jn 1:12; 3:16, 18, 36; Rom 11:16-21.

21. Q. What is true faith?

A. True faith is a sure knowledge

whereby I accept as true

all that God has revealed to us in his Word. 1

At the same time it is a firm confidence 2

that not only to others, but also to me, 3

God has granted forgiveness of sins,

everlasting righteousness, and salvation, 4

out of mere grace,

only for the sake of Christ's merits. 5

This faith the Holy Spirit works in my heart

by the gospel. 6

1. Jn 17:3, 17; Heb 11:1-3; Jas 2:19.
2. Rom 4:18-21; 5:1; 10:10; Heb 4:16.
3. Gal 2:20.
4. Rom 1:17; Heb 10:10.
5. Rom 3:20-26; Gal 2:16; Eph 2:8-10.
6. Acts 16:14; Rom 1:16; 10:17; 1 Cor 1:21.

22. Q. What, then, must a Christian believe?

A. All that is promised us in the gospel, 1

which the articles of our

catholic and undoubted Christian faith

teach us in a summary.

1. Mt 28:19; Jn 20:30, 31.

23. Q. What are these articles?

A.I. 1. I believe in God the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.

II. 2. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only-begotten Son, our Lord;

3. he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary;

4. suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell.

5. On the third day he arose from the dead;

6. he ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty;

7. from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

III. 8. I believe in the Holy Spirit;

9. I believe a holy catholic Christian church, the communion of saints;

10. the forgiveness of sins;

11. the resurrection of the body;

12. and the life everlasting.

R.C. Sproul (What is The Gospel?)

What is the gospel?
Maybe you said something like this:

"The gospel is the good news that God love us and has a wonderful plan in our life."
"The good news is that Jesus can give purpose to my seemingly chaotic personal existence."
"The good news that gospel is that I can have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ."
"The good news of the gospel is that I can have my sins forgiven."

All of those things may seem to be true, but not. But not one of them, individually or collectively, is the gospel.

The gospel has a specific content. The gospel has an objective content to it as well as a subject of element added to it.

What the gospel is, in biblical terms, is the good news of the person and work of Jesus....

There is no gospel without atonement. There is no gospel without resurrection....

The gospel is about who Jesus is and what Jesus did.

~R.C. Sproul, What is the Gospel?

Kevin DeYoung (What is True Faith)

Faith is "knowledge and conviction." Here we have the proverbial head and heart of the Christian faith. True faith is knowledge: We must understand something and know something about God and the gospel; we are not saved by a content-less Christ. And true faith is conviction: We must trust and embrace and feel something of the glory of the knowledge we possess. Even the demons have good theology (James 2:19). Knowledge is necessary, but it is not enough.
Faith is also "a deep-rooted assurance." It is not arrogant, but it is confident. We should have mercy on those who doubt (Jude 22), but double is not the goal. We want a faith that is not constantly wandering and wondering but sure and established. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Heb. 11:1).
Faith is "created... by the Holy Spirit through the gospel." Genuine trust in God does not come by virtue of superior intellect or by luck of a credulous personality. It is the work of God's Spirit birthed in us through the hearing of the good news about Christ. The salvation we receive by faith is a gift, and so is faith itself.
Faith is humble. It puts an end to all boasting except in the cross, and puts to flight any thoughts of merit except that which was won for us by Christ.
Faith is personal. Faith is not trust in an abstract principle that God is love or that Jesus died on the cross for sinners. Faith is personal, believing that God loves me, that Jesus died for me. Faith trusts that God did not send His Son merely to do something wonderful for people out there in the world. He sent His Son to live and die in my place. Salvation is more than a concept, it's a conviction. True faith believes "I am forgiven, I am right with God, and I will live forever."

~Kevin DeYoung, The Good News We Almost Forgot

Charles Spurgeon (How did you come to be a Christian?)

"The thought struck me, How did you come to be a Christian? I sought the Lord, But how did you come to seek the Lord? The truth flashed across my mind in a moment--I should not have sought him unless there had been some precious influence in my mind to make me seek him. I prayed, thought I, but then I asked myself, How came I to pray? I was induced to pray by reading Scriptures. How came I to read the Scriptures? I did read them, but what led me to do so? Then, in a moment, I saw that God was at the bottom of it all, and that he was the Author of my faith, and so the whole doctrine of grace opened up to me, and from that doctrine I have not departed to this day, and I desire to make this my constant confession, "I ascribe my change wholly to God." - Charles Spurgeon