How do you see God? In your mind’s eye is God the Father the mean one and Jesus the nice one? But look at this verse. “Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.” (John 5:19) So Jesus picks up a towel around his waist and washed the disciple’s feet. Jesus became a slave, but he only did what he saw the Father do. And who was the first to sacrifice the Father or the Son? How great is the love the Father has lavished on us (1 John 3:1)
Faithful and Just
Added 4/21/2010 Posted by Doug Seletzky at 5:39:11 PM
1 John 1:8-10
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
“Just” - this word has always bothered me reading or quoting this part of the Bible. How is God just when he forgives our sins? I was always taught that:
Justice is when you get what you deserve.
Mercy is when you don’t get what you deserve. And
Grace is when you get what you don’t deserve.
Justice: Do the crime = do the time.
Mercy: Do the crime = you don’t do the time.
Grace: Do the crime = you don’t do the time and your given 12 million dollars, a new housed with no taxes for life and lifetime free meals at your favorite restaurants for you and your friends.
So why the word just? Because the word “just” makes this passage on forgiveness even richer. Now I hope you can track with me on this. In our judicial system if you do a crime and are punished you cannot be tried for the same crime again. It would be un-just to punish someone twice for the same crime. So Jesus took the punishment you and I deserved on the cross and it would be unjust to punish Jesus and you. Here is how it goes Jesus our advocate speaks on our behalf, “father I was punished for his/her sin. so it would be unjust for someone to be punished again.” (1 Peter 3:18)
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! – Doug ><>
“The ultimate factor in the church’s engagement with society,” Oz Guinness says, “is the church’s engagement with God,” not the church’s engagement with the latest intellectual or corporate fashion. Contrary to what we’ve been hearing, our greatest need as twenty-first-century churches is not structural but spiritual. Our main problem is not that we’re culturally out of touch; it’s that we’re theologically out of tune.
From: “Unfashionable: Making a Difference in the World by Being Different” by Tullian Tchividjian
Did you see this?
Added 3/16/2010 Posted by Doug Seletzky at 4:51:53 PM
Paul, Jody and Ernie were instrumental in helping Raymond find sobriety and move out from under the bridge. For a while he came to our Lakewood Campus. God used our Lakewood campus in more ways than we will know.
Ok so recently I read an article in time Mag about Epigenomes called "Why Your DNA Isn't Your Destiny" These epigenomes are what "tell our genes to switch on or off, to speak loudly or whisper. It is through epigenetic marks that environmental factors like diet, stress and prenatal nutrition can make an imprint on genes that is passed from one generation to the next."
What they are discovering is that our choices can effect our future generations in a positive or negative fashion. And these choices can be hard wired onto our DNA to impact future generations. As I read the article this passage Numbers 14:18 about iniquity being passed on to the third and fourth generation kept coming to mind. I used to think of this passage, and others like it, in terms of situations where let’s say a girl grows up in a home where the father abuses the mother and then she will have a tendency to marry someone who is abusive. But what they are finding is that our choices have an even deeper a genetic impact on our future generation. And these choices impact the Epigenomes of those who come after us.
What do you think?
Numbers 14:18 (ESV) ‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.’
