Short Articles of note

THE REAL THING

.

A genuine conversion experience has as its primary characteristic a divine illumination of the sinner’s conscience brought about by a supernatural message: the Gospel, from a supernatural book: the Bible. The primary focus of the devils energies on this earth is to keep the supernatural light of the gospel from impacting upon the darkened conscience of those who have never believed.

.

2 Corinthians 4:3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

.

One tool that the devil has developed to allow people to go through life religious but unconverted are man-made clichés. Man-made clichés like “ask Jesus into your heart”, “surrender to Christ” or “ask for forgiveness” are just a few of the many man-made clichés which people can perform, apart from illuminating power of the gospel, upon which they believe they can hang the eternal destinies of their souls. They are things that people can DO, instead of hearing and believing a messaging concerning something that the Lord Jesus has already DONE concerning their sins. 

.

In considering the event which causes people to pass from death unto life, there is no substitute for the illuminating power of the gospel impacting a receptive human conscience to illuminate a person to the point of being able to believe unto life. No man-made clichéd response to God will EVER substitute for such an event in a person’s life. It is only the illuminating power of a properly articulated gospel impacting a sinner’s receptive conscience which can function as the illuminating power of God unto salvation. 

.

The core essence of the Gospel invitation is that the Lord Jesus, on the cross, settled the sinners sin debt to the Fathers satisfaction, The satisfaction with which the Fathers views the work of the Son can become that which merits your eternal standing before God, free for the believing. Any evangelistic strategy which does not focus on this core principle of the Gospel message will lead to a counterfeit conversion experience. 

.

Do not fall for one of the devil’s counterfeit conversions. Seek out a place where you will hear the gospel, exposure your heart to its supernatural power and believe it. There is no other way to pass from death unto life. 

.

Romans 10:17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

THE TWO WORLD RELIGION

.

But you might say, but Dan there are hundred of different religions in the world, to which I would say,  when you boil them all down you basically come up with two religions and those two religions are DO and DONE.  

.

One religion tells us that if we are to be qualified for the life to come then we must DO certain things. 

.

One manifestation of this religion would teach us that if we are to secure a home in heaven, then we must faithfully walk the straight and narrow path , to another the strait and narrow might mean making a pilgrimage to a sacred city, praying 5 times a day. 

.

Another’s strait and narrow path may include a list of a whole lot of things that their faithful are not allowed to do. But one thing all these religions have in common is that securing a positive afterlife is all about what the worshipper is DOING. That is, a home in heaven is all about personal performance.

.

The problem with religions in which a home in heaven is based upon personal performance is that none of ours personal performance meets the perfect standard. I for one, in my personal performance moment by moment fall far short of the perfection of God’s character. 

.

Only one religion in the world states that the way to life is not contingent on the perfection of a person’s walk but rather something already DONE for the person. 

.

The Bible teaches us in Romans chapter three that we are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.  Now stop and listen to what that verse is saying. We are justified freely, that is we are declared righteous as a gift, by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. In other words the basis of a person’s relationship with God is not his personal performance, but rather Christ’s assumption of our sin debt.

.

His grappling with and payment for our sin debt to the Fathers satisfaction, is what matters. 

.

The bible does not tell us to do something to be set right with God. The Bible tells us that Christ has already accomplished something in our behalf which can commend us to God, which is ours by a simple act of appropriating faith. 

.

Is your relationship with God based on what you are doing, or is it based on what Christ has already done to make your peace with God???? 

.

The distinction is of eternal consequence.  

A Biblical solution for anxiety
.
Philippians 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
.
For years I have been making people in the mental health community angry by asserting that the Bible has an answer for our anxieties.
.
Understand this:  there is a multi-billion dollar industry which depends on people believing that brain chemistry causes anxiety.  However there is growing research that suggests that anxiety is the cause and not the effect of chemical imbalance.   In other words, drugs may mask the symptoms of anxiety, but they do not address the underlying cause of peoples’ anxieties.
.
It is the will of God that His children not have anxiety but rather   joy and peace.  The relaxed and peaceful temperament caused by being in fellowship with God  is a fundamental component of our  witness.  So Joy and peace are not optional for the child of God.   
.
However, anxiety is not an emotion that a person can control at will.  It is rather a result of a lack of communion with God.   When the child of God is participating with the Holy Spirit and His trajectory of Christ likeness for the believer’s life, a byproduct of that participation is joy and peace.  
.
Like the soul of a starving man craves food, thus the spirit within the child of God craves interaction with his Creator.  When such fellowship is inconsistent, the inner man of the child of God produces anxiety.  The longer this fellowship is avoided, the more severe is  the manifestation of this anxiety.
.
Isaiah 26:3 You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.

A NEW CREATION

.

The most fundamental reality of a genuine new birth experience which makes a person eternally secure in his relationship with God is the creation of a new person on the inside of the believer. This new person is created in the image of God as a baby, but a baby which is capable only of assimilating God’s truth that he might grow. Several verses can be brought to bear which demonstrate the creation of this new man.

.

1 Peter 2:2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,

.

Ephesians 4:24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

.

Also, when a person is born again, a spiritual surgery takes place during which that part of us that commits sins is disassociated from our eternal identity before God. 

.

Colossians 2:11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcisionof Christ,

.

Romans 6:6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 

.

“No longer  slave to sin” means that the old man is no long inextractibly linked to our identity before God but rather is scheduled to be sent to the grave when we die.

.

So from the above for contexts we see that a new man is created and the old man is put away. At this point the Father decrees that  this new man is our true, everlasting  identity before Him. 

.

This is why the Apostle Paul speaks like he does in Romans chapter 7.

.

Romans 7:15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

.

The reason that Paul can speak this way is because when a person is born again, a change of identity takes place. Notice Paul in the above context is still struggling with sin. The difference now is  that part of him which is still sinning is not his true identity before God, rather it is now his flesh which is destined to cease to exist up death or rapture.

.

The primary reason a person is secure in Christ is because this new man, created in the image of God, does not have the capability to sin. He is created in the image of God in a confirmed state of righteousness.

.

1 John 3:9 Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.

.

It is this new man, who is created in the image of God, who cannot sin, who will forever dwell in the presence of God.

D Lash 4/6/2021