Tag Archives: devotion

Does Nature Fully Reveal God?

“He made all things, and without him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:3)

I aim to answer the friend who says: That God is revealed in nature. Well, God has indeed revealed his creative powers in nature — this is true — yet it is a statement that needs qualifying. 1

Nature reveals the existence of God, but how little it tells of His character.

Nature manifests His natural attributes—His power, His wisdom, His immutability, etc.; but what does nature say to us of His moral attributes—His justice, His holiness, His grace, His love?

Nature, as such, knows no mercy and shows no pity. If a blind saint unwittingly steps over the edge of a precipice, he meets with the same fate as if a vile murderer had been hurled over it.

If I break nature’s laws, no matter how sincere I may be, there is no escaping the penalty. Nature conceals as well as reveals God. To acknowledge and reveal God, beyond nature, we need his insight found here in the Word of God.

“He made all things, and without him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:3).

How this brings out, again, the absolute deity of Christ! Here creation is ascribed to Him, and none but God can create. Man, with all his boasting, is unable to bring into existence a single blade of grass. Observe that the whole of creation is here ascribed to Jesus Christ, the Word—” he made all things.”

1 Arthur Pink, Exposition Gospel of John

Are you Standing Free in Christ?

“But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the LORD. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people”. – Jeremiah 31.33

Jeremiah noted the heart of stone would become a heart of flesh. This is a metaphor 1 of being reborn via the Spirit writing the Royal law on our hearts, thus radically changing it to love the Spirit-led way. Christ offered this to all at the cross, as his sacrifice instituted the New Covenant in his blood. (Jeremiah 31:33, Romans 8:14; Galatians 5:18, 22-25; Matt 26:28, Luke 22:20, 1 Corinthians 11:25, Hebrews 12:24)​  ​

If one then cannot find joy, peace and righteousness in each of the conjoined body, mind, and spirit that you were born with, there will be angst, an indication that one is giving way to darkness and disobedience is being potentiated. These are the warnings of the Holy Spirit: restlessness, joylessness, lack of confidence, confusion and zero peace. (Romans 14:17; Isaiah 48:22)

To achieve this confidence and freedom in Christ, call unto him for help to overcome any sin or obstacle hindering your walk with him. He is the author of your salvation and he will and he desires to help you. (Philippians 1:6; Revelation 3:20; Psalm 51:10)

Waste no time to submit to the Lord, call on Him to block the portals you’ve opened to Satan, wake up and stand guard over your soul. Obedience demands discipline of your entire being. Stand free in Christ, empowered by his indwelling abiding Spirit. May joy and peace be yours as you stand guard over your soul and your fellow believers. May God help you to never surrender to the dark side! (Luke 11:36; Jeremiah 31:33; Hebrews 9:15, 8:13; Ezekiel 11:19, 36:26; 2 Corinthians 1:12, 3:3; Acts 2:26)

1 A heart of stone pictures selfish uncaring, unkind arrogance. A heart of flesh pictures a heart with the capacity to be loving and free in joyful unity with others via the Spirit activating God’s guidance when the heart submits to Christ, born anew in the Spirit.

Do you ask: Why is this Pandemic such a trial?

There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name. This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus. Revelation 14:11-12

​Our current predicament calls for patience. The God of grace, who has established a covenant with his children, hears your cry and responds with a series of visions collected in a book called The Book of Revelation (The Apocalypse of John). The message carried by these visions is simple: While at this moment the children of God suffer in a world where evil appears to have the upper hand, God is Sovereign and Jesus Christ has won the victory.

Yes, you suffer as a resident of this world that bears the imprint of Adam’s sin. Yes, you experience persecution as a light-bearer of the gospel, but God the Father will preserve and protect you as well as each one of his children so not one true follower of the Lord will be lost. In addition, Christ will achieve ultimate victory over Satan and his hosts when he judges and punishes the wicked.

So, hold on. Don’t give up. Remain faithful to your calling as a child of God. Live by faith, not by sight, for your Sovereign Lord has defeated Satan. You will reign with Christ, for the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Sovereign Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ which will be very evident at the Second Advent of Jesus to this earth with all His angels on Judgement Day!

The Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words. 1 Thessalonians 4;16–18

The Ethics and Risks of mRNA Human Genetic Modification

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvellous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Psalm 139:13–16 (NLT)

The above text written by the prophet king David, informs us from the Bible, that we are created by God and under his Sovereign watch-care whilst we are forming in the womb from the very beginning of conception. David’s prophetic text expands to inform us that all children are allocated by God as know individual souls to be born into a human experience! — which is profound and illuminating. “You saw me before I was born”.

I argue that the aborted child is to be viewed with the same compassion and overarching joy that every single child of every single nation should be known as in fact, a wonderful image of our Lord’s kindness to humanity — to his Sovereign rule over all his creatures! oh my, the Love of God is so immense toward man and woman!

I believe it is imperative that the remnant of the sanctified church reckon with the glory of our Lord to be known when you look mindfully into a child’s eyes. Moreover, in Genesis 1:27, Moses as a great teacher of justice and mercy, reckons the truth that the child forming in the womb is: created in the image of God: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Knowing this, many born again Christians, are choosing to not receive any vaccine utilizing gene therapy based on human mRNA which would never have been achievable without historic abortions upon which the genetic coding used to make the mRNA vaccines are sourced. The theologian, Dr John Piper makes some observations for Christians who are pro-life here noted:  1, 2

Science Magazine, early on reported that at least five coronavirus vaccines under development in the States were created using one of the two human fetal cell lines. But thereafter it became clear that the two leading vaccines here in the States, those from Moderna and Pfizer — the vaccines currently being shipped — though they do not contain these fetal cell lines, they have indeed relied on the code discovered from two aborted fetuses.

In the case of Moderna, this claim has since been called into question. But in either case, it was later reported that both Moderna and Pfizer used the HEK-293 cell line in the testing phase of their vaccines’ effectiveness. So while there appears to be less of an ethical dilemma concerning the composition of the Pfizer vaccine, and possibly the Moderna vaccine, both raise yet another ethical dilemma for some pro-life people over the use of fetal cell lines in the testing phase.

As we record, ethically derived and ethically tested coronavirus vaccines (without the use of mRNA) are in process, but they are much slower in development and will likely be more expensive, rarer, and more difficult to get. That’s the prediction at least. So should committed pro-lifers get the fast, available, free vaccines? Or should they wait? Pastor John was asked: how do you think through these ethical dilemmas? His following observations are pertinent.

We should never do evil that good may come. First observation: in Romans 3:8, some of Paul’s adversaries accused him of “do[ing] evil that good may come.” Paul responded to this, that it was a slanderous charge. In other words, he distanced himself from that kind of ethical stance. And I think we should too. We shouldn’t do evil that good may come. God alone has the infinite wisdom to manage an entire world of sin in which he can turn horrible things for wise and good purposes. He never tells us that we have such wisdom; we don’t. We are to live our lives guided by the principles he reveals in his word, not by our calculations about how much evil we can conjoin for some greater good. So, if we really believe that the killing of unborn children is abhorrent to God and falls into the category of the shedding of innocent blood, for which God’s judgment fell, we should not think of turning this wickedness into a wonder drug to save our lives. We should not do evil that good may come.

We value Christ and his kingdom more than security or health. Second, God frequently, in the Bible, calls us to do things and avoid things that are very costly to us personally, in order to demonstrate that Christ and his ways are more precious to us than safety or security or comfort, and that we sacrifice in order to do what’s right. When we are told not to return evil for evil (Matthew 5:38–39), or that we should love our enemies (Matthew 5:43–44), or turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:39), or go the extra mile (Matthew 5:41), or do good to those who hate us (Luke 6:27), all of those kinds of commands are designed to show that we are not in bondage to this world, and that the deepest contentment of our lives does not flow from needing to avoid risk or show vengeance. By denying ourselves comfort or satisfaction or safety for the sake of testifying to Christ’s value to us, and testifying to the sanctity of another person’s life, or testifying to our hope for another person’s well-being, or testifying to our confidence in God’s reward beyond the grave, when we deny ourselves in that way, we aim to exalt Christ and his ways over mere self-preservation. So, if a scientist avoids using tissue and organs harvested from babies killed in abortion, or if an ordinary citizen avoids using a medication that they know has been developed specifically through such harvesting and research, the aim is that the Christian conscience is preserved and Christ is made much of as more valuable than any security or safety or health we might get through sin.

We testify to the sanctity of life. Third, avoiding such research and avoiding the use of the products of such research is only one way of testifying to the truth and value of Christ in the sanctity of the unborn persons. But another way that should be added is the proactive engagement in whatever way we can to speak and act against the taking of innocent human life in the womb and the use of those children for research and experimentation.

So, I’m saying renunciation (that is, the avoidance part of our ethics), which is being asked about — Do we avoid the medication? — the renunciation of the use of such drugs has value. Yes, it does. And supplementing that value should also be the proactive engagement of resisting and discouraging abortion and the use of aborted babies in research.

God blesses principled action in his name. And the final observation, the fourth one that I would make, is the one that’s most difficult to articulate, but may be the most important. The observation is that acting on principle — in this case, the principle that we do not want to be complicit in the desecration of dismembered human beings — acting on principle often does not look like the most obvious way to be a blessing to the greatest number people.

For example, if you try to act on the principle of not participating in the desecration of these children by avoiding medicines developed from their dead bodies, someone will say, “But look, look at all the good that is coming through the medication.” And they will say that they can’t see the good that may be coming from your principled action. So, what I’m saying here is this: God has ways of honoring and blessing and multiplying the effectiveness of principled action in his name, which, to the human calculation, may appear futile.

This is certainly the case with many martyrdoms in history, for example, or other kinds of sacrificial principled actions, which didn’t look like they were going to have any payoff at all for the suffering person or their family, or for the cause of Christ — just a dead-end street at the stake of suffering. The sufferers simply acted because their consciences wouldn’t let them do otherwise, while the world sees that as futile and foolish. “Just save yourself and your family and others and stop denying yourself the privilege of life or health or prosperity.”

And my point again is this: God is God. He honors integrity and principled action that is rooted in his truth and his beauty and his worth, even where the world cannot see the point. We have no idea what explosive effects, in the depths of God’s providence and purposes, our principled action might unleash by God’s grace.

So, I’m saying, let’s not act as researchers or as ordinary consumers in a way that desecrates the bodies of unborn victims and treats those children as though they can be killed and their tissue harvested for our benefit.

Media, politics, and the propagandist echoing complaints of the world.

Enter summer of 2021: The mainline media has been publishing many articles that blame conscientious Christians for the lack of success of the vaccines and new increasing cases of Covid 19. Their bully pulpit echoes the media-driven vilification lassos all of humanity who resist. This includes resisting due to the experimental nature of the vaccine, others who rely on the immune system or alternate protocols, those who will not partake of any drug-related mRNA code from aborted fetuses, and those who have a high risk of cardiovascular harm.

Unfortunately, this divisive propaganda-empowered voice is promulgating an Orwellian message worldwide — a narrative now shared by many vaccinated Christians who use dark sarcasm about their own Christian congregants via Social Media. They metaphorically relegate others to the whipping post for an alternate view depicting vaccine hesitancy — including politically conservative views. Only after this clear defiance of respect for the freedom of conscience within the enlarging gate of Christiandom, does it now seem that the wide-gate church is going neo-dystopian, following the world. This reminds me of Nazi Germany’s rising then voted by the masses into totalitarianism.

The Dim Hypothesis is that this vaccine has also become the current modus operandi for the sifting of the church. Oh Church, we must put on the eye salve of the Spirit that we may see the truth of this onerous agenda, and get out of Babylon by crying unto the Lord for freedom from having any part with this world’s tyranny. I trust that the Sovereign Lord will guide and lead us by revelations along the Allegiant  Way.

Let’s look at the mRNA Factual Dangers:

  • Robert Malone invented the mRNA and DNA vaccine core platform technology. He has grave concerns about the lack of transparency of side effects, censoring of discussion and the lack of informed consent that these bring.
  • Free SARS-CoV-2 spike protein is biologically active — contrary to initial assumptions —and causes severe problems. It is responsible for the most severe effects seen in COVID-19, such as bleeding disorders, blood clots throughout the body and heart problems. These are the same problems we now see in a staggering number of people who have received the COVID-19 vaccine.
  • The spike protein also has reproductive toxicity, and Pfizer’s biodistribution data show it accumulates in women’s ovaries. Data suggests the miscarriage rate among women who get the COVID vaccine within the first 20 weeks of pregnancy is 82%
  • Israeli data show boys and men between the ages of 16 and 24 who have been vaccinated have 25 times the rate of myocarditis (heart inflammation) than normal.
  • The COVID-19 injections have emergency use authorization only, which can only be granted if there are no safe and effective remedies available. Such remedies do exist but have been actively censored and suppressed.

To counter politicized groupthink of the media and the ensuing public echo, dedicate some serious time to listen to How to save the world, in three easy steps, or take a shorter 15 minutes to listen to the wisdom of  Dr Malone. mRNA inventor, as he discusses the bioethics of the mRNA vaccines with a PhD Bret Weinstein, and an entrepreneur, Steve  Kirsh about the flawed vaccines.

Proof of mRNA from aborted fetuses

One of the erroneous arguments that pop up in the news is that the abortions occurred due to a medical necessity; a potentially deformed or a child with a health anomaly; or a risk to the mother in childbirth. This is based on a misapplied term, “Elective Abortion” – a personal moral judgment masquerading as medical terminology. This use in the media is clarified by The Journal of Ethics, American Medical Association. Excerpts describe this ethical confusion when speaking or writing about mRNA used in the Covid vaccines.

  • Every abortion is elective. No pregnant woman with health problems is required to terminate her pregnancy—she can choose to deliver a baby with a disability or a terminal condition, risk her own health to deliver a baby, or decide the risks outweigh the benefits and choose abortion. But like women considering non-medical risks and benefits of pregnancy and parenthood, every woman analyzing medical indications for abortion also has a choice.
  • Alternatively, perhaps no abortion is elective. Pregnancy is a radical bodily change, and the risk of death from childbirth is 14 times higher than from abortion. Deciding whether to bring a new child into the world is a serious moral commitment and doing so can cause some women economic or interpersonal harm that could result in deeper or more sustained suffering than many medical conditions. Several physicians who perform abortions have told me that many of their patients do not perceive themselves as having any choice at all—dire social circumstances lead them to see abortion as their only option.
  • The term elective abortion or voluntary abortion presents a perceptive dichotomy — confusedly describes the truthful interruption of pregnancy before viability is at the request of the woman, but not for medical reasons.
  • Most abortions done today are elective, and thus, it is one of the most frequently performed medical procedures. Thus, using the term correctly an elective abortion is the interruption of a pregnancy before the 20th week of gestation at the woman’s request for reasons other than maternal health or fetal disease. Most abortions in the United States are performed for this reason.

Christian leadership advocating mRNA Vaccination

The USA and Canadian media such as the New York Times, CNN, and Vox, CBC, and Globe and Mail vilify those that oppose the vaccination. They focus on the American Republicans, the conscientious unvaccinated – both Christians, as well as properly informed individuals who will not go ahead and be subservient to the government.

In an Orwellian way, they have radically blacklisted 12 key activists as if criminals, for the waning number of people getting vaccinated. The latest is Vaccine Passports are coming to Quebec, supported by Trudeau to encourage the hesitant to get the vaccine now.

Social media giants like Facebook, Google, and Twitter continue to censor freedom of speech advising this view — that the whole truth is not being told, but rather hidden. Many clinical doctors are censored for use of alternative treatments such as Ivermectin, Hydroxychloriquine, and others.

Aborted Fetuses for Gene Modification Continues. The world has put a certain amount of trust in Dr Fauci who has had a great influence on the world’s politicians and lock-step viewpoint on mRNA. As noted in Nature, he is further funding the use of mRNA from aborted babies for ongoing experiments to humanize mice. 3

The inventor of mRNA defines Four Flawed Assumptions. Dr Malone, who is not anti-vax — but is rather vaccinated — created the mRNA technology, states that there are four problems that world politicians are unaware of, while the Biden Administration in the USA and Trudeau in Canada push the vaccine program overlooking grave concerns. Malone points out four flawed assumptions that raise ethical questions in his blog. 4

  1. The first is that universal vaccination can eradicate the virus and secure economic recovery by achieving herd immunity throughout the country (and the world).  However, the virus is now so deeply embedded in the world population that, unlike polio and smallpox, eradication is unachievable. SARS-CoV-2 and its myriad mutations will likely continually circulate, much like the common cold and influenza.
  2. The second assumption is that the vaccines are (near) perfectly effective. However, our currently available vaccines are quite “leaky.” While good at preventing severe disease and death, they only reduce, not eliminate, the risk of infection, replication, and transmission. As a slide deck from the Centers for Disease Control has revealed, even 100% acceptance of the current leaky vaccines combined with strict mask compliance will not stop the highly contagious Delta variant from spreading.
  3. The third assumption is that the vaccines are safe.  Yet scientists, physicians, and public health officials now recognize risks that are rare but by no means trivial.  Known side effects include serious cardiac and thrombotic conditions, menstrual cycle disruptions, Bell’s Palsy, Guillain Barre syndrome, and anaphylaxis.
  4. Fourth, unknown side effects which virologists fear may emerge include existential reproductive risks, additional autoimmune conditions, and various forms of disease enhancement, i.e., the vaccines can make people more vulnerable to reinfection by SARS-CoV-2 or reactivation of latent viral infections and associated diseases such as shingles.  With good reason, the FDA has yet to approve the vaccines now administered under Emergency Use Authorization.

1 John Piper: Can I Take The Vaccine Made from Aborted Babies?

2 John Piper, Desiring God, republished in Grace Proclaimed blog

3 Nature: Humanizing Mice

4 Dr Malone’s blog

 

Christ’s Pre-Ascension Message – Abide in Me

Jesus has two intimate calls to each of us: ‘Come to me.’—Matt. 11:28, and ‘Abide in me.’—John 15:4 

Perhaps you have heard and listened to the call of the Lord Jesus: ‘Come to me‘.  Just as important, is the ongoing invitation to stay close to the same loving Saviour and hear his admonition: ‘Abide in me.’ 

Many have never repented for not having come at the abiding call for a close union. You experienced that His Word offers the truth; all His promises He fulfils; He made you partakers of the blessings and the joy of His love. Was not His welcome to you most endearing, His pardon full, generously accessible, His love most sweet and precious?

Why do blessings we enjoy, the love and joy of your first meeting with your Saviour fade instead of deepening? Why do we become faint and feeble? 

What is the cause of our spiritual weakness?

At your first coming to Him, you had no reason to complain of disappointment: yet as time went on, somehow perhaps your expectations were not realized.  Often, you may wonder what the cause could be, that with such a Saviour, so mighty and so loving, your experience of salvation is still at a loss for a fuller true communing relationship. The answer is straightforward. You may have wandered from Him, or you may have rebelled.

The blessings He bestows are connected with His ‘Come to me’ and are only to be enjoyed in close fellowship with Himself. You may not yet fully understand, or did not rightly remember, that the call meant, ‘Come to me to stay with me.’ This union in a close relationship — was His object and purpose when He first called you to Himself. It was not to refresh you simply for a few days or months after your conversion, but with a continuum of the joy of His love and deliverance. He had destined you for something better than a short-lived blessedness — not an experience only to be enjoyed during one day in seven, or in times of particular need and prayer. We wander unbeknown in times due to stress, overwork, cultural influences, distractions, or of late: pandemic health fears.

We zig-zag emotionally at times, from desiring God to the pressing administrations of life’s business. Thus our joy diminishes or fully passes away. The anxieties and pressures of life can diminish our zeal.

Remember that Jesus has prepared for you a daily abiding indwelling of His Spirit. You can enjoy unbroken communion with His Spirit. It is this close fellowship He desired when he drew you tenderly: Come to me. Never forget that He added the conjoined call of loving Grace: Abide in me. — walking daily in close union, while allowing Christ’s Spirit to lead you. He will empower and direct you to live a vibrant, thriving life. As a result of this, the treasures of His presence will bring blessed rewards.

It was not that He said: Come to me and abide with me, but, Abide in me. Communion was not only to be unbroken but most intimate and complete. He opened His arms freely accept you, to press you to His bosom; He opened His heart, to welcome you there; He opened up all His Divine fulness of life and love, and offered to take you up into its fellowship, to make you wholly one with Himself. 

There is a depth of meaning to realize in His words: Abide in me.  He still pleads with a great lesson: Abide in me – without me, you can do nothing! By every motive that had induced you to come, did He not implore you and me to abide?

Was it the fear of sin’s curse that first drew you? The pardon you received by first coming can only be confirmed and thoroughly enjoyed while abiding in Him with all the blessings flowing from Him. Was it the longing to know and appreciate the Infinite Love that was calling you? Was it the weary longing to be made free from the bondage of sin, to become pure and holy, and thereby find rest, the rest of God for the soul? This entire calming union can only be realized as you abide in Him—only whilst walking in the Light with Jesus.

To enter into this promised inherited union in Christ is a foretaste of our promised glory. The presence of the Infinite One is granted only to those who abide in Him. This call is for you as it is for me: Abide in Him. You did well to come; you do much better to abide — share with Him in all the glory of His royal life and priesthood.

Some may have heard the words: Abide in me, yet did not know that such a life of abiding fellowship is possible and within reach. 

Others, though they believed that such a life was possible and sought after it, have never yet succeeded in discovering the secret of its attainment. And others, alas! will confess that it is their unfaithfulness that has kept them from the enjoyment of the blessing. When our Saviour would have kept them, they were not ready to stay; they were not prepared to give up everything and always, only, wholly to abide in Jesus.

What can you do now to abide in Christ?

To all such, now: in the name of Jesus, your Redeemer and mine, the blessed warning remains: Abide in me, lest you can do nothing. With its various aspects, the possibility, during wearying work and continual distraction, of keeping up with the world, instead of being kept in Christ’s abiding communion.

You and I cannot undertake to remove all anxious obstacles; this Jesus Christ Himself alone must do by His Holy Spirit via abiding close union with His Spirit to lead and guide you. Each man or woman must acknowledge the need, realizing that there can be no true allegiance to our Lord without simply and heartily accepting this as one of His commands.

Meditate on this word of His calling us into abiding union, with an eye fixed on Him alone. Let us set ourselves in quiet trust before Him, waiting to hear His holy voice,—breathing its quickening Spirit within us, as He speaks: ‘Abide in me.’ The soul that truly hears Jesus Himself speak the Word receives with the Word the power to accept and to hold the blessing He offers.

And it may please You, blessed Saviour, indeed, to speak to us; let each of us hear Your heavenly voice. May the feeling of our deep need, and faith in Your wondrous love, combined with the sight of the wonderfully blessed life You are waiting to bestow upon us, constrain us to listen and to obey, as often as You speak into our heart: ‘Abide in me.’ Let day by day the answer from our heart be more apparent and fuller: ‘Blessed Saviour, I do abide in Thee.’

This may also interest: What we have if we abide in Christ.

This study is a modern edit and expansion by Glen Jackman of Andrew Murray’s  Abide in Christ: Thoughts on the Blessed Life of Fellowship with the Son of God (pp. 13–20). (1895, now in the public domain)

What we have if we Abide In Christ

Here are a few of the results of abiding in close union with the Spirit of Jesus. What we have in Christ:

  • Answers to prayer. Jn. 15:7
  • Comfort, help and peace. Jn. 14:15–26
  • Increased confidence. 1 Jn. 2:28–29
  • Deliverance from judgment. Jn. 15:6
  • Discipline and correction. Jn. 15:2–3
  • Spiritual Fruit such as good works, and obedience to His Word. Jn. 15:5–8
  • Keeps one from sin., 1 Jn. 3:6
  • Power. 1 Jn. 2:24; 2:27
  • Salvation. Jn. 8:31
  • Unashamedness. 1 Jn. 2:28
  • The reward for abiding in Christ is confidence in the day of Judgement. 1 Co. 3:13–15

 Leadership Ministries Worldwide. (1996).

Words by which Jesus began His ministry

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.” — Isaiah 61:1 ESV
  • This blog text is written by Pastor Mark Johnson, a good friend of mine. Today he shared this thought on Facebook. These words of the prophet Isaiah were quoted by Jesus at the beginning of His ministry to redeem the human race. As we follow Christ, they will guide us as well. There are 4 significant thoughts that will influence how we live and make decisions:
  1. There is a focus on the poor. Throughout Scripture, this theme is sounded repeatedly. A good Sabbath afternoon activity would be to study what God says about poverty and how to relate to it. It may change our lives as we gather His teaching and act on them.
  2. The second emphasis is on the brokenhearted. There are a lot of hurting people around us. What if we planned to do something tangible each day to thoughtfully lighten specific pain for others
  3. Thirdly. Two words: liberty and captives. Offering freedom to those who are limited by personal evil is an important act of humility for each one of us.
  4. Finally: no limits. To anyone who has been captured by evil, the witness of the follower of Christ is “You’re free!”
As we look to Jesus, each of these becomes a reality. And what we offer to others on His behalf can be ours as well. What if each of us were to choose to live the reality of each of these victories continually in our pilgrimage?

The Baptism of the Holy Spirit

Baptism Of The Holy Spirit is prophesied in the old testament. (Isa. 32:15; Joel 2:28, 29; Ezek 36:27). It is promised by the Father and the Son (Matt. 3:11; John 14:16, 17, 26).

The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not to be confused with water baptism (which testifies to allegiance to Christ), which most of the disciples would have had John the Baptist do long before this occurred. Conversely, the initial baptism of the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost 50 days after the resurrection. Acts 1 says he gave proof of his resurrection for 40 days. Then he told the disciples to wait. The Holy Spirit came 10 days later post-Ascension. (Acts1:3-5, 9)

The Holy Spirit’s indwelling is a definite experience of the converted man or woman witnessed to, by the Spirit (Heb. 10:14, 15).  When I say converted, I mean the individual has exercised faith, has believed on the name of Jesus Christ as Lord by faith. Thus it is obtainable only by believers who are converted (John 7:39). And this belief is not class-specific, nor church specific, but a universal baptism of the Holy Spirit for all believers. (Acts 2:38, 39). Moreover, the indwelling Spirit is a necessity for true Christian living (John 16:13).

The Experience occurs Subsequent to Regeneration

Since it is given only to believers, one must be converted to receive Him (Acts 19:1-2, 5; Eph. 1:13). The Spirit dwells only in the individual given over to holiness and obedience by faith, and not in the unconverted man (I Cor. 3:16-17). There are several points that I would like to make:

The Resultant Signs of the Spirit’s Baptism are:

  1. It sanctifies, meaning purifies one from sin. (Acts 15:8,9; Rom. 15:16).
  2. Perfects in the unity of Christ’s love (Acts 4:31-33)
  3. Sheds God’s love into the heart (Rom 5:1-5).
  4. Gives spiritual power (Acts 1:8)

The Baptism with the Holy Spirit is promised:

This is baptism promised by Christ (Luke 24:49); promised just before Pentecost (Acts 1:5); it is a baptism coming evidenced as:

  1. A divine power (Luke 4:14 with Luke 3:21,22).
  2. A comforting power (John 16:7)
  3. Witnessing power (Acts 1:8)
  4. Power for spiritual boldness (Acts 4:31).
  5. Speaking power (Acts 2:1-4)

To Be Sought as a Divine Gift with Assurance:

We must realize God’s Willingness to Spirit-baptize us. (Acts 2:38,39). Activate your faith by looking up these texts by simply hovering over them:

  1. More willing than we think to give us this gift. (Luke 11:13).
  2. Visible tongues of fire symbolized its purifying effect at the original Pentecostal experience. (Acts 2:1-4).
  3. Oil symbolizes its spiritual healing (Rev 3:18) and illuminating power (Matt 25:1-4).

The effects of This Baptism of the Holy Spirit are several:

  1. The Holy Spirit’s offers inflowing availability, like rivers of living water. (John 7:38)
  2. Anoints the lips for verbal testimony. (John 15:26)
  3. Opens the soul for divine instruction. (John 14:26)
  4. Purifies the heart by faith. (Acts 15:8,9)
  5. Empowers us to walk obedient, keeping the divine statutes. (Ezek 36:27)
  6. Gives holy freedom and confidence through guidance. (Gal 5:18)
  7. Opens avenues for divine communion, as we call out to the Lord.  (II Cor 1:21-22)

The ethics of the Covid-19 vaccine

Several coronavirus vaccines developed in the States and globally were made from the cell lines of aborted children — healthy children who were murdered. Most notably, this includes a fetal cell line called HEK-293, from the kidney of a healthy girl aborted in 1972, and PER.C6, from the retina of a healthy boy aborted in 1985. Apparently, these and similar cell lines have been used since the 1960s to manufacture vaccines against rubella, chickenpox, hepatitis A, shingles, haemophilia, rheumatoid arthritis, and cystic fibrosis.

In June, Science magazine reported that at least five coronavirus vaccines under development in the States were created using one of the two human fetal cell lines. But by the Fall it became clear that the two leading vaccines here in the States, those from Moderna and Pfizer — the vaccines currently being shipped — do not contain these fetal cell lines.

Note: There are several clean vaccines NOT using aborted babies being developed currently. I am sure many anticipate using these alternative vaccines.

In the case of Moderna, this claim has since been called into question. But in either case, it was later reported that both Moderna and Pfizer used the HEK-293 cell line in the testing phase of their vaccines’ effectiveness.

So while there appears to be less of an ethical dilemma concerning the composition of the Pfizer vaccine, and possibly the Moderna vaccine, both raise yet another ethical dilemma for some pro-life people over the use of fetal cell lines in the testing phase.

As we record, ethically derived and ethically tested coronavirus vaccines are in process, but they are much slower in development and will likely be more expensive, rarer, and more difficult to get. That’s the prediction at least. So should committed pro-lifers get the fast, available, free vaccines? Or should they wait?

The following biblical logic is from John Piper, April 13, 2021, where he presents the ethical dilemma all Christians should acknowledge. 1

Let me make four kinds of observations, and hope and pray that these will give some guidance to our thinking and our feeling and our acting. And I think all three of those really matter, particularly in regard to the use of human organs or human tissue harvested from the killing of unborn children. And we need to say it with words like that; otherwise, we will conceal from ourselves what’s happened.

1. We should never do evil that good may come.

First observation: in Romans 3:8, some of Paul’s adversaries accused him of “do[ing] evil that good may come.” Paul responded to this, that it was a slanderous charge. In other words, he distanced himself from that kind of ethical stance. And I think we should too. We shouldn’t do evil that good may come.

“God alone has the infinite wisdom to manage an entire world of sin in which he can turn horrible things for good.”

God alone has the infinite wisdom to manage an entire world of sin in which he can turn horrible things for wise and good purposes. He never tells us that we have such wisdom; we don’t. We are to live our lives guided by the principles he reveals in his word, not by our calculations about how much evil we can join in for some greater good.

So, if we really believe that the killing of unborn children is abhorrent to God and falls into the category of the shedding of innocent blood, for which God’s judgment fell, we should not think of turning this wickedness into a wonder drug to save our lives. We should not do evil that good may come. That’s my first observation.

2. We value Christ and his kingdom more than security or health.

Second, God frequently, in the Bible, calls us to do things and avoid things that are very costly to us personally, in order to demonstrate that Christ and his ways are more precious to us than safety or security or comfort, and that we sacrifice in order to do what’s right. When we are told not to return evil for evil (Matthew 5:38–39), or that we should love our enemies (Matthew 5:43–44), or turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:39), or go the extra mile (Matthew 5:41), or do good to those who hate us (Luke 6:27), all of those kinds of commands are designed to show that we are not in bondage to this world, and that the deepest contentment of our lives does not flow from needing to avoid risk or show vengeance.

By denying ourselves comfort or satisfaction or safety for the sake of testifying to Christ’s value to us, and testifying to the sanctity of another person’s life, or testifying to our hope for another person’s well-being, or testifying to our confidence in God’s reward beyond the grave, when we deny ourselves in that way, we aim to exalt Christ and his ways over mere self-preservation.

So, if a scientist avoids using tissue and organs harvested from babies killed in abortion, or if an ordinary citizen avoids using a medication that they know has been developed specifically through such harvesting and research, the aim is that the Christian conscience is preserved and Christ is made much of as more valuable than any security or safety or health we might get through sin.

3. We testify to the sanctity of life.

Third, avoiding such research and avoiding the use of the products of such research is only one way of testifying to the truth and value of Christ in the sanctity of the unborn persons. But another way that should be added is the proactive engagement in whatever way we can to speak and act against the taking of innocent human life in the womb and the use of those children for research and experimentation.

So, I’m saying renunciation (that is, the avoidance part of our ethics), which is being asked about — Do we avoid the medication? — the renunciation of the use of such drugs has value. Yes, it does. And supplementing that value should also be the proactive engagement of resisting and discouraging abortion and the use of aborted babies in research.

4. God blesses principled action in his name.

And the final observation, the fourth one that I would make, is the one that’s most difficult to articulate but maybe the most important. The observation is that acting on principle — in this case, the principle that we do not want to be complicit in the desecration of dismembered human beings — acting on principle often does not look like the most obvious way to be a blessing to the greatest number people.

“God honors integrity and principled action that is rooted in his truth and his beauty and his worth.”

For example, if you try to act on the principle of not participating in the desecration of these children by avoiding medicines developed from their dead bodies, someone will say, “But look, look at all the good that is coming through the medication.” And they will say that they can’t see the good that may be coming from your principled action. So, what I’m saying here is this: God has ways of honouring and blessing and multiplying the effectiveness of principled action in his name, which, to the human calculation, may appear futile.

This is certainly the case with many martyrdoms in history, for example, or other kinds of sacrificial principled actions, which didn’t look like they were going to have any payoff at all for the suffering person or their family, or for the cause of Christ — just a dead-end street at the stake of suffering. The sufferers simply acted because their consciences wouldn’t let them do otherwise, while the world sees that as futile and foolish. “Just save yourself and your family and others, and stop denying yourself the privilege of life or health or prosperity.”

And my point again is this: God is God. He honours the integrity and principled action that is rooted in his truth and his beauty and his worth, even where the world cannot see the point. We have no idea what explosive effects, in the depths of God’s providence and purposes, our principled action might unleash by God’s grace.

So, I’m saying, let’s not act as researchers or as ordinary consumers in a way that desecrates the bodies of unborn victims and treats those children as though they can be killed and their tissue harvested for our benefit.

Audio version

1 John Piper (@JohnPiper) is the founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is the author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist and most recently Providence.

The meaning of the Fear of God

Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. Ecclesiastes 12:13

There are many today who have a false conception of the word “fear” used in connection with a healthy respect for the Lord.  The following excerpt puts the true meaning of “fear” into perspective.

Many words in the English language have several strikingly different definitions. For example, anger can mean unbridled temper or it can mean righteous indignation. Love can mean lust or unconditional commitment. Normally we think of fear as an unpleasant emotion tied to anxious concern or outright terror of being harmed. But there is another definition of fear that can lead to something good and wonderful. The fear of God is complete awe and respect for him, a realization that everything he says about love and justice is true. Because God is great and mighty, and because he holds the power of life and death in his hands, a healthy and reverent fear of him helps us to respond to him as we should. This draws us closer to him and to the blessings he gives. 1

1 Beers, Gilbert; Beers, Ron. The One Year Mini for Men (p. 117). Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. Kindle Edition.