Are we looking up to a broken system?

Yes! Ok so we all know that politics and Christianity can get way to played out about this time every 4 years or so. By this time and getting closer to November we are so tired of hearing the word politics that we can pull our ears off. So I do not want to go into this post with a political agenda. I want to tackle this issue of politics and the Christians proper view from a new angle that I don't think is touched on nearly enough.

Political anything in any country is a falling and failing system. Yes God appointed it and yes we are to be good responsible citizens of those offices. At the same time are Christians standing below the political "umbrella" looking up as if that is all we have or should we be above the system looking down?

Our hope is not in the outcome of this election (although we have hope for it) and our foundation is not in the Constitution of the United States (although we support it) but in the Word of God. Our hope is not in this world. We are to look down on a sinful fallen process and interject as much biblical input as we are asked but no more. That system does not belong to us and it never will. It belongs to the prince of the power of the air and as long as we are in this world it is yet another fallen system. We get so wrapped up with many secular humanist that we forget they are fighting for there life and hope. What are we saying when we get so vocal and so out of whack? That this is our only hope and its not. We have only a certain amount of time left. Use it and reach someone you don't know with the Gospel of Jesus Christ today.


Remind [the people] to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.

Worship Music

Worshiping God through Praise is an amazing thing and something to take with complete reverence. It is a fascinating subject and one that deserves our full attention. As I continue my wonderful study in Justification you can look for updates soon. I want to step back from that for a bit and talk about Worship Music. It just so happens to be the latest sermon series our Pastor is going through right now. You can listen to that message here...

http://www.mtmorriscommunitychurch.org/home/2259/2259/audio/Music%20in%20the%20Church.mp3

We are going through the book of Colossians verse by verse and this is such a fantastic subject. So many of todays "POP" Culture church services seem to be more bent on pleasing man in hopes that it please God by the effort rather than starting with what pleases God first and well ONLY. Once we see what it is that please God we should not wavier from that. Take the Biblical instruction and praise God in a way that He gets the glory.

Our churches get so up roared in what can be sung and what instruments can or cannot be used and we dont pay attention to the heart and the theology in the words. Contemporary churches seem to not want old wonderfully full hymnals and classic hymnal lovers dont want any contemporary biblical songs brought in. It is for God and both sides need to put there focus on Him with much prayer.

Here is an example of a very Biblical song that I think would not be brought into a church context and I agree it should not be. But for casual theological listening, this song is very edifying. Now it is a rap song and I will be the first to tell you that I am not into hip hop or rap or rock or metal Christian Music. I do think some of it is great but most of it falls very short. Please tell me what you think .

Well before I get more into the issue of Justification I want to update you on what has since happened with my Catholic Friend. He showed up to talk to me yesterday. He said that a leader of the church came up to him after mass and told him that what he brought up last week was very interesting and commented on the remarks I made about the necessity of the law and the inability to add work to justification. He asked him to tell it to him again and he again explained our conversation and told the guy that it is kind of strange because I take the Bible literally. The other man said he had been struggling with the point of the law and this helps clear things up for him. The other man told my friend that he would like to have more group talks about this subject. He was than told that I made the offer to come to the church and explain myself if desired. The leader (I don’t know the position) said that would be great but they both agreed that they needed to get the Priest Ok.

When he told me all this I was so blessed because I did not even imagine fruit like this would come to be. Then these two verses came to mind today.

Psalm 37:4†
Delight yourself in the LORD;
And He will give you the desires of your heart.

Matthew 6:33
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

What an amazing promise. When you look at your life and in your prayer time you count all your blessing. You are content with all that you have and could not ask for more. The only thing you want is more of God and He blesses you with fruit and obedience and you begin to walk in His ways. You act according the riches you have in Christ and speak. For all I know that man in that Catholic Church might be getting saved. I don’t know. I just thank God that he gives more than we could ever ask and blesses us so much. How can we not tell people?

Infused or Imputed??

I have been witnessing over the past year with a man whom I love dearly. He is a devote catholic and he and I have shared opposing views with much interjection from his current Priest. I feel as if I know this priest and I can almost foresee every swing back he will have toward me as he looks for spiritual truth. Over the years we have discussed the Law and its proper use, mercy, Holiness, and works. I knew our time together was coming to an end due to his soon retirement. I wanted to make sure he understood our differences and was clear on what the result would be according to scripture if he held his current views. I am sure I could have lead him to 100 "sinner prayers" but thank God that never happened. I knew if anything would save him it would be the word of God and the power there of. So I have been just knuckles down on the issues of Justification and if it is infused or imputed. I knew already what Scripture taught but I did not understand how Catholicism can come to some misunderstanding of infused righteousness.

Currently I am reading a book by Jonathan Edwards on Justification by Faith alone and it has been such a blessing to me. After going through several Catholic blogs I am shocked at the constant contradictions within the blogs. They say that works is necessary for salvation but there verses are ripped out of context and then seeing quotes for justification apart from the law is by faith. I just dont get it.

When we parted ways, I asked him if he would be willing to read Romans Chapter 4 and he declined. I asked why? He said he trust what the priest and myself tell him. I told him that we both could be leading him to hell and unless he checks for himself he will never get saved. He said he will be fine and I said no you wont not based on your goodness and he drove away and said "bye Gary". Be in prayer for him this week if you could. In the mean time I want to start tomorrow with a overview of Romans 4 and its clear unmistakable explanation of Justification by FAITH ALONE.

God Bless

On vacation

Will be back Sunday afternoon. Thought I would drop this promo....

Is your Family Worship like that of old?

How is your family worship? Do you and your wife with children in lap, worship the one and true God? How much time do you invest, husband-father, in the affairs of this life and forget all together to instruct the ones in whom God has placed the most trust to you over? Do you have no conviction that you neither care nor toil over the soul of your wife and children? You say to me, but they go to church and worship with me there? Has God made your Pastor or elders husbands over your wife's and children? Will they stand before God on your behalf? Sir, the arrows of the evil one are aimed from birth at the ones you tend to. Even your wife from birth was a target. God has now intending to shield her from the darts of the evil one by the washing of the word and yet you stand aside and say she is fine on her own. Well that may be but she will be stronger because of you or she will be FORCED to be stronger without you. STAND FAST!!!!

Lets dive into this as we look into the old paths (This is for us to grow together and may God bless us in this study) .....

2 Timothy 3:14-15
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

I want you to notice a few things in those verses. First lets of course consider context, context, context. Chapter 3 begins with Paul warning Timothy that the last days are coming and in those last days men will not only become lovers of themselves but also with resist the truth and they will lead many with them. Paul than switches back to Timothy after a descriptive prediction of the false teachers and says...

vs 14: But as for you, Continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from who you learned it

Who are the "those from who you have learned it" referring too? Is it Paul and the other Christian leaders? No! I qualify that with vs 15 which says...

and how from infancy you have learned the Holy Scriptures

FROM INFANCY. So who are these that taught Timothy the scriptures from Infancy?

Well for that we have to go back to 2 Timothy chapter one and a very familar verse to most...

I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also

So it was passed down from Timothy's faithful Mother and Grandmother and what was a great motivation???

Back to our home verse for this study....

2 Timothy 3:14-15
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

which are able to make you wise for salvation!
which are able to make you wise for salvation!
which are able to make you wise for salvation!


Folks, the Bible is what saves. It is by the preaching of the word that men get saved. Not by gimmicks, The gospel saves, the cross convicts. Teach these to your kids and bind them on your door post. Teach the scripture to your children so they are ready to receive when the word is preached to them.

Jonathan Edwards said,

Family education and order are some of the chief means of grace. If these fail, all other means are likely to prove ineffectual.



Christian Homelife Exemplified, 300 Years Ago


During the era of the 18th century Great Awakening, George Whitefield had the opportunity to stay in the Edwards home. Afterwards, Whitefield wrote: "Felt wonderful satisfaction in being at the house of Mr. Edwards. He is a Son himself, and hath also a Daughter of Abraham for his wife. A sweeter couple I have not yet seen. Their children were dressed not in silks and satins, but plain, as becomes the children of those who, in all things ought to be examples of Christian simplicity. She is a woman adorned with a meek and quiet spirit, talked feelingly and solidly of the Things of God, and seemed to be such a help mate for her husband, that she caused me to renew those prayers, which, for many months, I have put up to God, that he would be pleased to send me a daughter of Abraham to be my wife." The next year Whitefield married a widow whom John Wesley described as a "woman of candour and humanity."





A great book I suggest is Noel Piper's, Treasuring God in Our Traditions. You can read it for free at the Desiring God web site or you can just click on this link...
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/OnlineBooks/ByTitle/2438_Treasuring_God_in_Our_Traditions/

Randy Alcorn has a book we read over the summer called "Heaven" The children version, which went rather well. We also go verse by verse in the Bible and we are almost finished with Mark which has taken well over 2 months. We have some praise and worship and really try to limit all this to about 20 minutes although many nights have gone over. It is hard and we fail often and making it more constant but each failure I am hoping brings us closer to better structure and preparation.

Tune in again as we get into the subject a bit more and than touch on other subjects I have noted in previous post. May God Bless you as you grow in holiness and obedience to the word of God. Special thanks to oldtruth.com, Family Education Wordpress blog, Godtube and others.

In Christ,

Rounding the Corner

Continuing our seires from Challies dot com and info obtained from his wonderful blog as well as info obtained from GTY.org. This is part five of our series studying the differences between Calvinism and Arminianism. Please note that this is only a brief overview of a vast topic. A thorough discussion of this topic can (and often has) filled many books. At the conclusion of the series I will provide a list of helpful resources should you wish to pursue this study further.

The terms Arminianism and Calvinism are, of course, absent from the Bible. For that reason I tend to avoid defining myself as either one. I would rather be defined as a follower of Christ than a follower of the teachings of Calvin or Arminius. However, having said that, I do believe that one of their teachings is correct and the other is not.

It should come as no surprise that I adhere to Calvinist theology. I believe that Calvinism is little more than a correct interpretation of the Bible. It is not a radical theology; it is correct, Biblical theology! From what the Bible teaches and from what I have seen of human nature, I simply cannot believe that man can play any part in his salvation. A former pastor of mine used to say it like this: “Imagine you are in a river, the water is flowing quickly and you are sinking. You struggle, fight and thrash about but are unable to save yourself. As you are going down for the last time, you manage to extend your hand just a bit. As you extend your hand, someone grabs it and pulls you from the torent. That is Arminian theology. Calvinism says that you are a corpse - a dead, rotting corpse unable to even extend your pinky finger. But God brings that corpse to life.” The Irvins recently posted about light and asked how much light is enough to make a blind man see. The point is the same – a blind man can see no light just as a dead man cannot extend his hand. Until God brings us to life we are dead. Soli Deo Gloria.

My final word on the topic is this. To be a Christian I need only believe that Christ paid the penalty for my sins and to ask Him for forgiveness. Both Calvinists and Arminians agree on this. Therefore, whether I am Calvinist or Arminian in theology, I can and must have fellowship with those who adhere to the other viewpoint. Christian fellowship must extend to the whole body of true believers, regardless of theology

If you are interested in studying this topic further, I would suggest the following resources:

John Piper, John MacArthur, James Boice and R.C. Sproul are all prolific authors who have written books about Calvinism or from a Calvinist perspective. Calvin’s Institutes are widely available in print or online.

The 5 part video series below is a very compressive study of Romans 9. I think it will prove to open up Romans in a way that forces the exegetical study and exposition of the text.

God Bless,