Faithful and True

Next I saw heaven opened, and there before me was a white horse. Sitting on it was the one called Faithful and True, and it is in righteousness that he passes judgment and goes to battle.  Revelation 19:11 CJB 

 Whenever we hear about God what comes to mind? That He is Love? That God is always Good? That He is our Father? All of these are wonderful and amazing attributes of God. Have you ever heard though that He is Faithful? 

 We may have heard of this attribute of our Father, through hymns or a Scripture reading. However, through traditional religious instruction, it is possible we as believers have not fully grasped just how amazing this attribute of God really is. Let's explore this attribute of God further.

 The Faithfulness of God is an astounding and astonishing expression of God's Love, mercy, and amazing Grace. As men, we look at the failures, the falling, and the foul-ups of others or ourselves and conclude God must be finished with us. We look upon our circumstances or situation and see impossibility. Yet in the midst of it all, He is there shining bright and drawing us close. He is there turning things around for good, working miracles, and restoring all that's been lost.   

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,  for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” Lamentations 3:21-24 NIV

 God's Love and Faithfulness are there for us no matter what. This is what makes God so Good! That He is always keeping His Word. He doesn't make a promise to us and then fail to keep that promise. He is Faithful and true.

 The enemy, the world system, the religious traditions of men, and contradictory circumstances work overtime it seems sometimes to convince us that God is unfaithful and will not keep His Word. That He will let us fall, He will walk away if we mess up one more time. The temptation is to get us to quit believing that God is Good and Faithful and true.

 Look at Sarah;

By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. Hebrews 11:11 NKJV

 Sarah received strength by faith to trust God to conceive. Why? Because she counted God to be a Faithful Father! God's Word and promises are true. They are true not because we have experienced them. They are true because God, who is Faithful, declared them.

 We therefore can place our whole trust in God our Father no matter what we are facing. No matter the situation, we can trust Him. No matter what we are experiencing we can trust that He is there for us and there with us and will do what He said He will do.

 God's Faithfulness never ceases. His Love is steadfast and unending. No matter how far we've gone His Love is still there searching and finding us. God's Faithfulness and Love are what compels Him to leave the ninety-nine, and seek out the one. His Grace is inexhaustible. He is Faithful and true!

 In summation, no matter what you're going through, know God is there. He has not forgotten you or forsaken you. He is the One who holds you in His unfailing hands. He has engraved your name in the palm of His hands. There is nothing impossible with God and there is nothing you can do that could change or alter His Faithful Love for you. What a Loving Faithful Father He is. He is for you not against you, rejoice child of God! 

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay 

The Theology of sickness and disease: What does God call evil?

how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. Acts 10:38 MEV

Dear Friend, I pray that in every way you may prosper and be in good health,  just as your soul is prospering. 3 John 2 Mounce 

 God is an unchanging God. He is Love. He is Faithful and True! His love for us is unmatched in this universe. God is for us and never against us. 

 Many would quickly and passionately agree. However, when it comes to health, the sad reality of a fallen world, and sickness and disease, many have adopted a different theology. Through tradition, many have embraced a theology of sickness and disease. 

 This theology, this belief system, allows for God to willingly afflict people with sickness and disease. Or this theology says God, for some mysterious purpose, allows sickness and disease to ravish the bodies of His people. This theology of sickness and disease is prevalent throughout the Body of Christ. 

 When we see sickness and disease so common in the bodies of saints and sinners alike it is a challenge not to adopt and accept the theology of sickness and disease. The alternative seems only to stick our heads in the proverbial sand and ignore what is clearly in front of us. However, there is another answer. That is the theology of Jesus.

 Jesus is perfect theology. He perfectly demonstrated the eternal Love of the Father. He perfectly revealed the Goodness of God. He perfectly showed us the power of God. He perfectly made known the will of God concerning sickness and disease. He freely healed whosoever came to Him. Jesus is perfect theology, He perfectly showed us the Father.

 We have to embrace the Father's heart on a matter, not what we see through our natural eyes. We see sin abound in these days we live. Yet God says Grace much more abounds. Though sickness and disease seem prevalent, so also is His healing power!

 What is the Father's heart concerning healing? Through Jesus' actions, and the revealed will of God through Scripture, we can rightly conclude sickness and disease are considered evil by our Good Father. Look at this powerful event recorded in the Old Covenant, 1 Kings 17. 

 What a powerful demonstration of God's Love and Goodness. In the time of famine, God sustained Elijah and the widow and her son. God provided for His own. When the child became sick and died, God raised up the child.

 and crieth unto Jehovah, and saith, `Jehovah my God, also on the widow with whom I am sojourning hast Thou done evil -- to put her son to death?' 1 Kings 17:20 YLT

 Due to limited understanding and information available under the Old Elijah assumed God brought the sickness. Of course, God healing and raising up the boy from the dead proved that He didn't cause it or "allow" it. The focal point one could miss is the words Elijah used. He called sickness and death evil.

 Even under the Old Covenant, In a Covenant that is not as good as the New, God's prophet knew sickness and death are evil. Elijah, a prophet who only had the Spirit come upon him, not even dwell within him, a man who was not even born again, had enough spiritual discernment to know sickness and death are a curse and not a blessing.

 Today, instead of the man of God commanding death to leave and trusting God for a miracle, religious leaders would just counsel the widow on how it was God's will for her son to die. That God needed a little flower and heaven so God "plucked" her son from the earth. That God had some mysterious purpose, and God is in control, that she should just trust God knows what's best. 

 The fact that God raised the widow's son up from sickness and death, confirms Elijah's words. Sickness and death are evil. The Body of Christ should stand strong against sickness and disease. We should never accept it or welcome it in anyone's life.

 God calls sickness oppression from the enemy. God calls death an enemy, the last enemy to be destroyed is death. Jesus went about doing Good and healing all who were oppressed by the enemy. The theology of Jesus says healing is God's highest and best, and sickness and disease are evil, are a curse, are what Jesus bore on that Cross purchasing our Redemption.

 In summation, let's embrace the theology of Jesus. Let's reject the theology of religious men. Let's reject the theology of sickness and disease. God is always Good, and sickness and death are always evil. Let's look to and embrace the Love of the Father, let's trust Him and receive of all His perfect Redemption. God wants us well, healed, and whole!

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Is Salvation permanent once received?

 And he has entered once and forever into the Holiest Sanctuary of All, not with the blood of animal sacrifices, but the sacred blood of his own sacrifice. And he alone has made our salvation secure forever! Hebrews 9:12 TPT

  Throughout the world, we celebrated "Easter" or Resurrection Sunday a couple of days ago. It was truly an exciting celebration. Believers gathered around the truth that Jesus bled and died for all. The innocent died for the guilty. 

 A sense of unity is felt as the Church universal gathered. On that Cross, Jesus shed His perfect blood. It serves as a reminder it's only the Blood of Christ that purchased our Redemption. It's only the Blood that justifies. It's not about man's work or performance.

 Because of the Blood of Jesus, we have peace with God. Peace from a guilty conscience. Peace from the broken Law. Guilt and shame have no right or claim to our lives. All because of Jesus.

 On that Cross, we see that Christ did something else. His precious Blood procured our Redemption forever. He purchased a sustained and secure salvation. 

 When we speak of eternal security, many objections arise. What about when believers sin some object? What about those who claim Christ but live in sin? We still play a part. These are just a few of the objections from tradition. 

 If our Redemption could only be purchased by His shed Blood, then why do we think our work or efforts could maintain this Redemption? If it's only by the Blood, then how could our efforts, our performance, add to or take away from Redemption? If our behavior before we received this Redemption didn't merit it, to begin with, how could our behavior undo it once we received it?

 So is our salvation permanent once received? Some would argue, that it is secure so long as you're in Christ. This argument, though meant to sound balanced, opens up more questions and produces fear and anxiety in God's people. 

 How do I know if I am in Christ? How do I know if I still am in Christ? Can I get out of Christ? These are genuine questions that tradition can't or won't answer.

 For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3:3 NLT 

“I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. John 17:22-23 NLT

 We are clearly in Christ when we believed. Looking at all the in Christ Scriptures, you can't find a way out of Christ. Religious tradition has concluded though that our sin, that is too much sin, can cause Christ to depart from us and leave us "out of Christ." 

 They look at the sins and failures of believers and judge they are now lost. They see their shortcomings and unfaithfulness and declare they must have never been saved, to begin with. They conclude too much sinning means believers are shown the exit door "out of Christ." 

 What are we doing when we look at the sins and shortcomings of professing Christians and presuppose they must have never been saved, to begin with? What are we doing when see believers at their absolute worst and conclude that they are no longer saved? We are ignoring and overlooking the perfect, once for all time, sacrificial, substitutionary work of Jesus on the Cross. We are declaring the blood is insufficient to cleanse all sin, and presuming the Finished Work has its limits and another's sin is far greater than His Grace and forgiveness. 

 Sin is destructive. Sin hurts others and those in bondage and captivity to it. Yes, there are believers who have pursued adultery, sexual sins, lying, and defrauding others. Does that mean they are out of Christ? Does that mean that they were never saved? 

 Emphatically no! What it means is that some believers have not renewed their minds to the Word and are still conformed to the world in some areas of their thinking. It means that they fell for the enemy's lie when he brought temptation. It means there still exists unrenewed desires.

 That doesn't mean they are no longer saved or out of Christ. In light of the Cross, our sins are like throwing pebbles at a massive dam hoping to put a crack in it. Stand in awe of the Cross.

 When I survey the Cross, I see sinful man unable to save and redeem himself. I see a God who so loved us all that He sent His only Son to take our place. I stand in awe of the Cross and I am truly humbled, knowing I can never do enough to merit this Love and Grace. I see and understand that this and only this is what saves, forgives, heals, secures, and makes whole. 

 In summation, is our salvation permanent or temporal? Thanks be to God it is forever and eternal. It is unwavering and unchanging. Once received it cannot be undone and cannot be lost. Stand in awe of the Cross. It's only by the Blood, nothing we can do to earn it or merit it, nothing we can do to undo it or forfeit it. Salvation is forever. 

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay