BULLET THOUGHTS

BULLET THOUGHTS

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Sex outside of marriage is the short cut to feeling like Super Man or Super Girl, but in the end, it’s kryptonite.

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We should notice that the sin nature has no limits. It is ruthless to the body that tries to satisfy it. We can often see that in the 30-year-old pagan who looks like 50. Then, contrast it to the 50-year-old Christian who looks like 30.

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We always get what happened in this verse backwards. 

 

“He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, 

how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” 

(Rom 8:32)

 

The Father did the “impossible” thing – He delivered his Son for us all. 

But we think that providing for us is the hard thing.

 

Providing for us is the easy thing.

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I just read Job 38 again when God challenges Job. 

I recall that real life hit Job square in the face and chopped his knees right out from under him. 

He lost all his possessions. 

He lost his family. 

And he lost his health. 

He lost his friends, and his wife told him to curse God and die. 

What hit him was more disastrous and real than what we have faced. 

You’d think that the best help he could get would be his possessions, family, health back again. 

Real, tangible, touchable, visible help. 

But what did his Creator offer?

A fresh reminder of Who his God was. That was more "real" than life itself. Our God is all we need. 

 

"Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding, (Job 38:4)

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A man who has no honor has no enemies until men with honor find him.

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Who are you kidding when all your spears are thrown to kill the awfulness of abortion and not one arrow shot at the sexual immorality that caused it. Moms and Dads, stay married; stay chaste and stay out of sin. Push that down to your children and watch abortion attrit itself.

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I can’t figure out why child pornographers are going to jail while drag queens in grades schools are heralded. They are actually disintegrating morality and acting out pornography to your children. They’re doing far worse than child pornographers by building a future crop of children for these child pornographers.

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They were with us then. They are with us now. Be discerning with whom you stand. Depart from those who would make you fall.

 

“Who is the man that is afraid and fainthearted? Let him depart and return to his house, so that he might not make his brothers' hearts melt like his heart.” (Deut 20.8)

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This “raw material” of the world that transfixed mankind into thinking they were their own creators forgot that it was God who created the raw material. Were they really their own creators, they should have started with their own dirt instead of manipulating God’s.

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For those who ponder or are convinced that there are aliens visiting this planet, stop wasting your energy. 

 

If there are physical beings from other physical worlds, then they are creatures of The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ created them for whatever reason untold to us.

 

They will have no need for redemption, or they are unredeemable, nor do they have any play in human history.

 

They have no need for redemption because the only Savior that has existed from eternity past is the God-Man, Jesus Christ – forever in the resurrected body of man…not in the body of an alien. Christ is the Redeemer for mankind. These “alien” beings remain undefiled before their Creator.

 

Should these beings exist from another physical world and are defiant to their Creator, then they are unredeemable. We know this because the only Savior saved MAN-kind. 

 

There will come a day when the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat and the domain of these beings will be gone…to where, unknown. (2 Pet 3.10-12)

 

The only other possible explanation for “aliens” is that they are a demonic entity enticing the imaginations of a lost world without Christ. They may well be the preparatory consort for the end times and its demonic activity.

 

If these are visitations of the demonic type in preparation for the last times, then The Body of Christ need not concern itself with this phenomenon because it will be raptured before then.

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We always get these Truths in reverse. We think God can "save" us in the general sense, but we can’t believe He can deliver us from the specific things like our despicable, besetting sins.

 

1. HE HAS DONE THE HARD THING: “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all…” 

 

2. THE EASY THING HE CAN DO: “…how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” (Rom 8.32)

 

The easy thing includes deliverance from sinful passions that war against the soul. This is the "freely gives us all things" part of what He has done on our behalf.

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For those who desire eternal significance and unconditional security in this life without Christ will find a substitute for it in power and pleasure which will ultimately end in violence and immorality.

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Of course, Jesus said, “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven.” He was refuting a ridiculous question posed by the Sadducees.

 

It did not mean that for those who have lost their spouse in this life would not have an exclusive relationship when they join them in heaven. Every tear, joy, and memory shared will not be dissolved. Every good thing will go with us to heaven.

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True freedom is not the right to do what we want. 

True freedom is the ability to do what we ought. 

This is the strength, peace and rest that the Christian has found in Christ. 

 

The struggle against God has ceased and the arguments of the soul to resist God has ended.

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For those who have convinced themselves that their Same-Sex Attraction (Prohibited Attraction) is involuntary, they have become confused. They voluntarily chose in a thousand little choices a life of autonomy with no bounds, and it is the outcome of those choices they did not choose. The consequences of their choices are the only thing that was involuntary, not the desires they voluntarily embraced.

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It takes huge mental energy to deny God. What we think is a mental disorder is really what is left of the conscious mind managing it's darkness and trying to survive life without God. 

 

When the majority of conscious thought is occupied suppressing the Truth, there is very little left to think straight.

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It's time to stop soft peddling the Savior.

We have allowed people to COPE with their enslavement to sin and not to be VICTORIOUS over it.

It’s become easier to constrain sinful behavior than to kill the desire for it.

Counselors are showing mercy to the sin, and not to the sinner.

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We struggle so greatly to give reasoned answers for significance and security to a culture lost in a non-transcendent reality. Yet, in the Old Testament, God simply gave the ultimate reason for His decrees, “I am the Lord”.

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Principle of Worship: One reflects in their own life the very thing one most admires. One’s whole life is shaped and geared to achieve and acquire what one “worships”. And in so doing, we mirror that desire in our lives.

If one craves the opposite sex, then one may become like the opposite sex and mirror what one worships. If one craves the attributes of the opposite sex, then one emulates them. This is the seed of the effeminate male and masculine female which has led us to “Transgenderism”.

Further...

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One reflects the very thing one most admires. One’s whole life is shaped and geared to achieve and acquire what one “worships”. We mirror the desire in our hearts.

 

St. Augustine: “The root of all evil is wrongly directed desire.” 

 

Becoming what you worship:

Job 8.4
“If your sons sinned against Him, Then He delivered them into the power of their transgression.”

PS 81.12

“So, I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart, to walk in their own devices”
Ps 115.8:
Those who make “them” will become like them, everyone who trusts in them.

 

We mirror the desire in our hearts. Fear God, Flee Idolatry.

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The Fix for 99% of all human misery in the coming year is this the Meta-Narrative:

 

“… the Christian gospel . . . tells how for the world’s redemption God entered into history, the eternal came into time, the kingdom of heaven invaded the realm of earth, in the great events of the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ.” F.F. Bruce

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Low self-esteem is the disparity one senses when their peers do not recognize their loftiness. 

Godly humility is when one peers at the loftiness of God.

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We must all resist the sense of immortality in this flesh since in our experience it is always the other person who dies. This is true for everyone. Be ready. 

“Lord, make me to know my end and what is the extent of my days; Let me know how transient I am.” 

(Ps 39.4)

 

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The diatribe to stop ominous violence as opposed to stopping drag queen shows for children is mythical. The violence one wishes to cease has its origins in the dissolution of the nuclear family which is exactly the goal of the “drag queen for children” phenomena. 

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If one thinks American politicians are the most corrupt people on the planet, consider this: 

 

Politicians are representatives. They represent the morality and values of the voters. 

 

Are Politicians really the most corrupt people on the planet when they are but a mirror image of those who elect them?

 

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Regarding Andy Stanley, has anything really changed? 

Then: Numbers 14.4.

Now: 2 Tim 4. 3-4.

 

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J Robertson McQuilkin: Living in the center of tension will be more uncomfortable than going to a consistent extreme. Often you will be shot at by Christians on each end if you try to hold a balanced biblical tension.

 

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Sin makes deep impressions as a heavy pen on a legal pad. In Justification, the incriminating print is removed as the impression on the underlay remains. As each page is turned, the impression becomes lighter and lighter. This is Sanctification. Glorification is the removal of the underlay.

 

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Churches confuse talents and gifts. Talented people in pulpits are not spiritually gifted by God. They manipulate emotions and inspire self-confidence, and man is glorified. Those gifted by God to teach or preach, inspire pure faith and eternal fruit and God is glorified. (Num 16.2-3,49)

 

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A Christian one minute prior to and one minute after taking communion should be the purest of saints ever to walk the earth…if we take seriously the warning given in 1 Cor 11.28-31.

 

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The serpents we confront in our life won’t go away, like, “Poof”. But our Savior from the serpents will always deliver us from the direst effects of the venom. Spend our energies looking upon Christ rather than our anxieties. (Numb 21.9)

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Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish exactly which form of God’s wrath is present and sometimes, not. It may be more easily discerned by observing whether his wrath is upon an individual or a nation. In our western culture, we see both. As for the individual, it is more likely the wrath of sowing and reaping. I call this “Consequential Living”. People do what they want discerning the least consequences. However, they do not realize that the principle of sewing and reaping means that what they sew, they will reap later and greater. (Hosea 8.7) 

They totally miss these core attributes of God:

1.      They disregard God’s Omniscience: they act as though God doesn’t know.

2.      They disregard God’s Righteousness:  they act as though God doesn’t care.

3.      They disregard God’s Justice:  they act as though God won’t do anything about it.

Be wise and Fear God.

 

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There was a train that wanted to be free of its tracks. Many months later after it jumped to its freedom and lay dormant, other trains passing by could hear from its rusted carcass, “I’m free, I’m free”. So, it is with those who dwell outside the sexual boundaries that God has so wisely laid for us.

 

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When Jesus said on the cross, “It is finished”, the entire system in sacrificial emersion of a nation vanished. 

For the church, it meant the entire emersion in the presence of God through Christ had just begun.

 

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It may be sobering to consider, but God’s reason for not quickening the death of the wicked is not always because He is not willing that any should perish. He has also said that their iniquities are not yet filled up.

(Gen 15.16; Dan 8.23; Matt 23.32; Rom 1.18; Rom 2.5; 2 Pet 3.7)

 

Heed the words of Luke and restore balance and urgency to your thinking:

“I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” Lk 13.5

 

“Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.” 

Gen 15:16

But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God” Rom 2.5

“In the latter period of their rule, When the transgressors have run their course,

A king will arise, Insolent and skilled in intrigue. Dan 8.23

“Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. Matt 23.32

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness Rom 1.18

But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men 2 Pet 3.7

“I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” Lk 13.5

 

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The crucifixion and resurrection of Christ changes our entire way of thinking about death. We are not concerned about how LONG we live, but how MUCH we live. Our Calendar mandates are replaced with Content mandates. Staying alive in the flesh is not all there is to living.

 

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There was a nuance in the military that the civilian culture at large has lost:

Military, “If I don’t do it, someone else will have to do it”. (I’ll do it)

Culture Today, “If I don’t do it, then someone else will do it”. (They’ll do it)

It’s hard to accept that this nuance was once brought to the military from civilians, but now from the military to civilians.

 

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What a strange loop to be in when a marriage is near divorce. People ask before they even divorce if they can biblically remarry. Can’t anyone see what is wrong with this question?

 

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“I identify as a cat”.

“I identify as a woman”.

Judge, “I cannot define what is a woman”. 

The rejection of Universal, Absolute Truth bears fruit of a failed worldview in chaos.

 

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We all inhabit the same world, under the same God, who providentially governs by the same inviolable laws of nature and logic. He is the God of Truth and reality.

This world is His house. 

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Those who reject God always seem to blame Him in Whom they do not believe for every evil they encounter.

 

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I am grateful to be created as God has so delighted, even if it is the despised “white man”. God is God and I am not:

 

“Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” Gen 2.7

 

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I have been deployed many times to various combat zones and have seen the providence of God favor our battles. It was simply an undeterminable favor of God. I fear His providence will favor against us soon enough. No nation has been given so much light to reject it so vehemently.

 

Deut. 8.17-18

“Otherwise, you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’

“But you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth…”

 

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“Gender Dysphoria” is nothing more than a false term from a worldly reservoir of fictitious clichés provided for an eager audience to accept and propagate homosexuality and unbridled immorality.

 

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This world is God’s and God’s alone:

 

1 Chron 16.31

Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; And let them say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.”

 

Job 42.2

“I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.

 

Ps 115.3

But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.

 

Ps 121.2

My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.

 

Prov 16.33

The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.

 

Lam 3.37-38

Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, Unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High That both good and ill go forth?

 

Isa 45.5-7

“I am the Lord, and there is no other; Besides Me there is no God. I will gird you, though you have not known Me; That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun That there is no one besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other, The One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being, and creating calamity; I am the Lord who does all these.

 

Jer 32.17

‘Ah Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You,

 

Col 1.16-17

For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

 

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Soft evil is a contributor to Hard evil:

Soft evil - “God whispers about homosexuality”

Hard evil - "Homosexual "Transgender" guns down children in a Christian school."

 

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“If once we prevail to quench the motions of his Spirit, our state will be awful beyond all expression: ‘Woe to them,’ says God, ‘when I depart from them’ (Hos 9.12)”

(Charles Simeon's Horae Homileticae)

 

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There’s a lot of talk about demonic activity today, especially since Nashville. Christians ought not be experts on demons but should be more prudent about it than anyone else. Satanic influence is a world system and demonic activity is the influence on an individual. Much like the tide verses the wave. One can go unnoticed while the other strikes like lightning. 

 

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“Cataclysmic” Homosexuality IS… Ps 115.8; Job 8.4; and Ps 81.12 at on steroids.

 

For the Male – “Trans-Development”:  Male mimics Female.

The male takes on the Female persona towards other Males. He is feminine or effeminate in demeanor and manipulates his body to his perception of the ideal female form that he has so worshipped. It is more than just crossdressing. It is immersing oneself into the very nature of what he believes his ideal female ought to be; whether ultimately submissive, abhorrently audacious or anything in between.

 

BUT, WHY?

 

Because he inordinately fascinates and worships the FEMALE. In so doing, he “Becomes what he worships”. And this is the wrath of God’s abandonment.

 

For the Female – “Trans-Development”: The Female mimics the Male and Takes on the Masculine persona toward other Females.

 

BUT, WHY?

 

She is becoming what she has been Deprived or becoming what she most Craved. The “Trans…. Development” or Mimicking the Masculine Gender which was deprived to Her (a male has actively or passively mistreated her in the past).Perhaps, too, she perceived herself invisible when in the presence of strong masculinity. She wanted to become visible. This is not the fault of masculinity; it is the fault of femininity not blossomed.

 

She worshipped masculinity to be shown to her, but when neglected, devastated, or injured by a male figure in her life….She becomes what she so desired to BE  shown – and adopts the masculine for her own self and mimics the masculine persona toward another female.

 

“I can be and do better than a man!!” It is defiance.

 

She is dwelling in a very ICKY, dark world of depravity.

This is not natural. We are not born this way!

 

This is IDOLTARY.

 

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Peter thought there were two universes, his and Jesus’. Peter was the professional fisherman and Jesus was the Spiritual Teacher. But when Jesus told him to cast the net again, he found out that there was only one universe . Luke 5.5f

 

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Though we have what appears to be mankind’s blatant sexual defiance toward God, the Trans-development cannot escape God’s eternal decree of two sexes: male and female. He who sits in the heavens laughs. (Ps 2.4; 37.13; 59.9)

 

PS 2.4 He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them.

Ps 37.13 The Lord laughs at him, For He sees his day is coming.

Ps 59.9 But You, O Lord, laugh at them; You scoff at all the nations.

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I had a Pastor who told us of the time he met the young man who came to pick up his daughter for their date. He offered him the keys to his own car to use. The young man was awestruck and couldn’t accept. The pastor said, “Giving you my car is nothing. Letting you date my daughter is everything.”

 

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Fathers, protect your daughters. Start something new with her that’s been around for decades. When a young fellow wants to date your daughter, have her tell him to ask your permission, first. Acquaint yourself with him and build a hedge of protection around your daughter.

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Fathers, protect your children. When they want to begin dating, don’t let them be alone together at a time in life where hormones are raging. You know what will happen. Encourage group dating, supervision, and accountability.

 

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Fathers what you are observing in our society is directly from your own home …what concupiscence you excuse in moderation, your children will abuse in excess.

 

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Fathers, it’s been in your power all along to keep a family whole and a nation strong. If you do want a Christ-centered family, then don’t live a self-centered life.

 

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Fathers, beware. A little laggardness, a little concupiscence, a little gluttony, and little social drinking demonstrates consent for this and more in your children. What you may excuse in moderation, your children will abuse in excess.

 

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So why does God let the Stanley types stay in the pulpit? Some possibilities:

1. They were never Christians – just apostates and their iniquity is not yet filled up.

2. They are Christians…They will either repent, grow weak and then sleep.

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The Imagination is a limitless, boundless gift from God. With it we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. When regenerated, we call it, “Faith”.

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When the imagination is unregenerate, it is still limitless and boundless, yet has potential to be destructive. It struggles to rectify its influence inside the limits and boundaries of real life. When an immoral thought life is at the helm of the imagination, real life crumbles.

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Grasp spending one’s life entirely gratifying one’s immoral imaginative thought life and then spending an eternity with no way to quench it whatsoever. That, in part, is Hell.

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Marriage represents the present relationship of Christ and the church. Our marriage is bigger than the both of us. We are about the business of bringing redemption to the world. Any question as to why there is such a horrendous and awful attack on marriage and family?

 

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And now, 2000 yrs. ago, as the stage was set and society structured, Christ, the Groom comes to His bride and the marriage institution finds its true meaning.

 

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When God instituted marriage, The Family was the presumptive epicenter for the Gospel Narrative yet to come. (Eph 5.22-33) For those in the church who are married, stay married and show the world the sustaining power of the Covenant of Christ.

 

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God gave us a Redemptive Structure in society that would point to the coming Redeemer in such a way that it would affect every aspect of our culture, every aspect of our thinking and every aspect of our entire lives – FOR ALL MANKIND- not just “Christians”. HE GAVE US MARRIAGE.

 

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The label, “same-sex attraction” is weak and misleading. It is just an echo of the world. Actually, the term, “PROHIBITED ATTRACTION” would be more suitable and biblical for this behavior and much more solution based when helping people to be overcomers.

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Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. (Matthew 24:12)

 

Though the worst of worse beckons to charm our delights, Christian, stay appalled at even the slightest err in all the world and even in your own affections. 

 

But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. (Matthew 24:13)

 

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Just because the darkness seems to be getting thicker and one’s very soul chokes for the next breath of righteous hope, one match struck in the doom of night is all we need to see. 

 

"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; (Matthew 5:14f)

 

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Lot of talk about pedophilia and Transgenderism these days. It means that parents need to get on the ball and beat Satan to the punch. “True Evangelism is with children; the rest is Salvage work”. (CEF)

 

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Females are better than men…at being women. Males are better than females at being men. It’s as clear as DAY AND NIGHT. The destruction of mankind is when both want to exist at DUSK.

 

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In C.S. Lewis’, The Screwtape Letters, the demonic figure Screwtape, says, “One of our greatest allies at present is the church itself.”

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When someone in the church talks about "radical love", our ears should tune in. The only time something is "radical" in this universe is when it is outside of God's harboring boundaries of Truth. The decrees of God are normal. Sin is radical.

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The Trans-development is a smoke screen for the annihilation of the nuclear family. Its surgical tool is the sexual exploitation of children.

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Transphobia vs Truth: “Truth is inimical to those who wish to embrace absurdity and deny reality, and they recognize it as such. But it’s not the case that Truth is transphobic; it’s that Trans is Truthphobic.” Mike Ricccardi

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When JMAC goes to heaven, there should be a mandatory memorial silence throughout the earth honoring a mighty man of God who from his labors rests.

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We know we ought to acknowledge the image of God in each other, but we don’t know how to do so when the psychologized man has created for himself another image altogether – one that is anti-God.

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I’ve never believed God to be so interested in the sin from which you want to repent. He is most interested in the sin from which you do not want to repent.

 

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If you open a room in your life to Christ, He will go straight to the locked closet.

 

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Many, many are on their second marriages with blended families. It is not over. You have a real marriage, again. The bird with the broken wing may fly again. Keep that covenant. God is the God of unending “agains”.

 

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Man has searched for the origin of life in evolutionary primordial goo. He has not found it. He now searches for it in extra-Terrestrial life. Man wants to be his own god. But only when man looks to the God-Man who is Transcendent will he find the reason and origin of life.

 

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One minute before marriage, sex is fornication. 

One minute after marriage, sex is edification. 

Who says one moment can’t cause a lifetime of ramifications?

 

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One who has rejected the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints lives as though he has very little to lose…since his life is of so little value to himself. (Ephesians 1.18)

 

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At no time should we ever think we married the wrong person. If that were possible, then a chain reaction would have caused everyone to have married the wrong person. The person you were meant to marry is the one to whom you said, “I Do”. It is a covenant union.

 

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When someone in the church talks about "radical love", our ears should tune in. The only time something is "radical" in this universe is when it is outside of God's harboring boundaries of Truth. The decrees of God are normal. Sin is radical.

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Just one of the benefits of these dark times in the closing of the ages may be God’s way of loosing the grip of God’s people from the delights of this life and increasing the affection they ought to have for the next.

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Have you ever heard anyone say, “Do you know who I am?!”

 

Sometimes that’s just boastful positioning, but what if it really made a difference? 

 

A titan reason why people disregard Christ is because they don't know who He is and they think something else is better. 

 

In John 4.7-10, there came a woman of Samaria to draw water. 

Jesus met the woman by a well.

Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 

She was amazed that a Jew would even speak with a Samaritan woman.

Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

 

Jesus asks, “Do you know who I am?!”

 

He asks us the same question every moment of every day.

 

It’s time to give Him your answer.

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Think about it...

Were it not for Adam’s sin, none of us would be here today. God in His providence has brought about a Chosen Race from a Fallen Race. In all of life’s sorrows and woes, would you rather never have been born? Now there lives Christ in us the Hope of Glory.

 

The generational trace of mankind would have taken an entirely different track than now exists. Imagine if there had been no sin, no death, no divorce, no children born out of wedlock, no Tower of Babel where mankind was thrust apart. The landscape of this present mankind; GONE.

 

The providence of God in this evil age gave me life both physically and spiritually. 

 

Hymn, “It Will be Worth it All”:

 

CHORUS:

It will be worth it all

when we see Jesus!

Life’s trials will seem so small

when we see Christ.

One glimpse of his dear face,

all sorrow will erase.

So, bravely run the race

till we see Christ.

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There were only two times in my life that I doubted the existence of God:

 

1. I got in from work at 11PM and had to be at work at 5AM the next morning. It was my turn to stay up with our screaming baby and let my wife sleep. The baby screamed and screamed. 

I prayed, “God, if you’re really there, please let this baby stop crying and go to sleep. The baby did neither. He cried for the next four hours. I had just enough time to get to work before my wife took over.

 

2. When I finally realized just how wicked my heart really was, I wondered if this God honestly knew me like I know myself, how could this God ever love someone like me. No way there could be a God like this. Now, I stand in awe through Christ.

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Pastoring is both nurturing and disciplining; yet the SBC is teaching pastors to outsource the discipline. We end up with half a pastor.

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When the SBC uses outside firms to handle their “dirty work”, they are emulating a dichotomization of how pastoring should be done. Pastoral ministry is creating and enforcing biblical standards. Pastors should be the ones emulating how to stand in hard times, not someone outside.

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The Pastor should ask his congregation as did Paul to the Corinthians, “What do you desire? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love and a spirit of gentleness?” 1 Cor 4:21. Why doesn’t the SBC teach pastors to shepherd like Paul?

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The Oneness of God’s nature:

 

“The Lord our God is but one only living and true God; “whose subsistence is in and of himself, infinite in being and perfection; “whose essence cannot be comprehended by any but himself; “a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions.” — 2LCF (1689), 2.1

 

In just this first sentence, the Reformed Baptists confess the oneness of God’s nature, along with the following divine attributes: 

1. Aseity 2. Infinity 3. Incomprehensibility 4. Spirituality 5. Invisibility 6. Incorporeality 7. Simplicity 

8. Impassability