To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion…
Posts tagged Life
Born Again to a Living Hope
0Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. – 1 Peter 1:3
There are times in our lives when what we are saved to might not be as present in our minds as the fact that we as Christians are saved. Oftentimes the beliefs that we don’t struggle with are ones that we are not confronting opposition to. There are times when our whole salvation can be called into question because of the opposition that we face. Peter opens his first letter to the church by reviewing what we are being saved to, and the rest of the book reviews the implications of that salvation. Peter solidifies the churches position on what they are born to.
Great Mercy
We are saved by mercy. Mercy is grace granted to believers. There once was a man named Jesus Christ who lived many years ago. He did not live as any other man but was instead perfect in all his ways. All men inherit a sinful nature from our forefather, Adam. Adam was a sinner as we are sinners. He was the first in a line of sinners that has gone through all of human history. Jesus was perfect. He was a spotless lamb who was sacrificed by sinners for sinners.
When Christ died he did so for sinners. However our mercy is not just found in Christ’s death. It is found in his glorious resurrection. When Christ died he did so that men could be raised. Christ was sacrificed so that sinners in the line of Adam might receive a new heart. We need only believe to be saved, because of the mercy of God.
Living Hope
When Christian’s die it is not the beginning of suffering or complete annihilation, rather we go to onto a greater life. This life with Christ is so great that the old life is put off. The greatest joys we experience on this earth are a foreshadowing of what will happen in heaven. When a Christian becomes a Christian his life is never over, simply goes through constant transformation. This transformation culminates in coming to be with God in heaven. This is a living hope.
No matter how hard life is we can trust in at least two things: the mercy of Christ and the living hope that we have in Christ. Those who come to Christ in faith have access to the great mercy of the Father and the living hope that is found in that mercy.
Easy Peezy Lemon Sqeezy
09 months ago
by Jack
in Common Misconceptions
One of the greatest disservices that our culture has done to us is to minimalize the reality of suffering by teaching us that our one worthy and complete goal is happiness. The fact is, we all suffer. The world is filled with millions of people who are suffering from various afflictions that can be boiled down into two related conditions: sin and death. These two conditions are just as much a part of humanity as blood and oxygen. If you breathe the air of this world you are breathing in death, and breathing out much the same. This world is a hard place, and the only real hope exists outside of us. No matter how hard you work in your life all that you pursue will war against you. There is only one relationship, one (triune) person that we can trust to always satisfy our deepest needs. Ladies and gentlemen, you will spend the rest of your life running from agony. Please, make the choice to run from agony into light, and not from agony to despair. In the United States we are extremely blessed in that poverty, for most of us, is something that we visit rather than exist in. Our most impoverished receive benefits and housing that elevates them to upper middle class in most other destitute countries. Our poverty line is at 48,000 dollars a year, which is five years wages in poor India if the particular worker is lucky enough. Like a bucket of cold water an a passionate sleeper, the tragic reality of the suffering of the world needs to be realized by Americans. Young children are sold into sexual slavery so that their families can eat. Shoes are a luxury in some parts of the world. One billion people in the world don’t have clean drinking water. Just under 1 billion people are malnourished. The earthquake in Haiti exposed how very impoverished that country is and now Cholera a completely treatable condition is killing thousands of people on that tiny island. In countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Iraq, and Iran, people (including many Christians) are martyred for things that they say or people they know. If the current record does not convince you of the evil and suffering of the world then we just need to turn to the historical record. President Mao Zedong of China reorganized farming in his country to make it more efficient. In the process, around 50 million Chinese commoners starved to death. (more…)
Building Cities on Dumps
0“Woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity! Behold it is not from the Lord of hosts that peoples labor merely for fire, and nations weary themselves for nothing? For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Lord as the waters cover the sea.” Habakkuk 2:12-13, ESV
When I was younger my parents owned a large house that was very old and required a lot of work. My brother, dad, and I worked on the house for the better part of 10 years. The best part of working on the house were the trips to the dump. After a time of working would pile up so much junk that we would have to go to the municipal dump and throw away a bunch of stuff. After getting over the initial stench of the dump, it was a lot of fun. There were plenty of glass sheets that needed to be broken by bricks so we would play extended games of toss and smash. Good times to be had by all.
Of course dumps are not all fun. At the dump you could see pipes with meters and wheels. When I asked my dad what those were he said that they were for the methane. As the combustible materials in the school broke down they produced a flammable gas. This gas would build up under ground creating a ticking time bomb. If that gas escaped into the open air it would suffocate any workers in the area. If there was an accidental flame at the dump then the gas would explode. These meters put in place to capture the gas so they wouldn’t kill anyone. (more…)