Things will just get better. If it’s not, there will always be something else that bugs you because its craving to get your attention, affection. And if you don’t get that, you lose your pease and joy because that’s what you want, and that you put that thing above God. That’s what Augustine called as “Disordered love”. It is not that you don’t love God, but you love something else more than God in your life at times. At times, you are fine. It’s just something, you need to struggle through. Like career, passion, lust, money etc., definitely something to get right before God. There is no black and white answer, but it’s a heart condition and leading of the Spirit. That’s why love the Lord with all your HEART, not just mind.
Augustine struggled a lot over his anguish over his struggle over lust for women, to dedication to the Lord. He feels guilty and shamed about himself, and his anguish knows no bound. The intensity of that is pulpable.
If you are not struggling over your love for God or others at all, you probably have not stepped into the meaning of love the Lord with all your heart and mind. Struggle is common and a given in our carnal bodies and mind. Our hearts are depraved, we need the Spirit of God and grace of God working in our lives to deliver us. In fact I would argue that a deeper anguish and struggle in a person’s life over this, is probably a good indication of a deeper work of the Holy Spirit working in his or her life. Because it goes deeper, and hence the deeper struggle. However, a superficial struggle or no struggle at all, worse still, it’s not a good sign, it simply means that you haven’t opened up much tot eh Lord. He is not yet very much Lord over your life, in which case. If so, there is some meditation, retrospection to go through in your life, as we all are , from time to time, I am sure. So no shame, no guilt, but it’s something we need to acquire for sure. It’s for the soul sanity and peace.
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We have seen the absolute upheaval of US politics impact upon the evangelical church community. Catholic and Protestants alike are impacted and the call of Christ for the church to respond has manifested , ironically, in very different emphasis.
From racism, social justice to abortion, transgender, sexuality, we have seen a whole host of different responses.
While the Reformed churches have focused on the fight against racism, social justice, more in line with American liberals’ worldview, but the rest of the evangelical community like charismatics and the evangelicals have been on the lone vocal fight against abortion, transgenderism, sexuality LBGT more in line with the Catholics ironically.
There had been an uproar of hands up in the air, when the Trump administration showed racism in name calling of, example, Chinese flu, then China flu, that caused a backlash of racism against Asian Americans community. The uproar is pulpable. This is understandable and it’s a disgrace what we saw some of the racism against the blacks, Asians etc.
However, when we see the abortions pushed by Biden, sexuality transgenderism etc., there had almost been an eerie silence from the same church leaders, scholars that criticized Trump’s acts of racism, narcissism, and women down talking.
Christians are trapped in a tug of war for righteousness and justice divide depending on your denomination or background
Evangelicals and charismatics will fight the sexuality , religious rights , abortion and underaged condoms distribution in schools’ issues vehemently (righteousness), but not much on social justice and racism (justice).
While the reformed fights racism (justice) and a tiny bit abortion.
There you go. Our Christendom dilemma in America.
We should fight for righteousness and justice together as they are the foundations of our God
Psalm 89: 14 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Mercy and truth go before You.
That’s the Word of God. Christians will have to voice up against all the social, ills of our society to be a hill that shines in this world of darkness. To not to shine, is failure to witness for Christ. Jesus called us to shine in the world. To be in the world, but not of the world. To do anything less than that, is not being a good ambassador for Christ.
Abraham Kuyper will push for all out witnessing for Christ in our secular society. Though many disagree with him exactly how we do that, his famous quote “ Not a square inch of the land is not mine—Christ” is famously quoted all over. Kuyper is really calling for equality sharing of all secular power by all religions as in the Netherlands. This has good and bad. In our US scene, there is clearly a persecution going on in the submerging of our Christian views and ethos, by whoever is in power. Even among Christians, the interpretation of scriptures can be twisted to whatever they hearts crave. For the so called liberals, mostly among the Democrats, their call is very much in line with the liberal values like abortion, women’s rights, anti-racism. You see it’s a mixed bag. Anti-racism can be shared among all Christians with no problem. However, stuff like Critical Race Theory is so controversial that Christians are split. Even among, theologians themselves. It’s beyond the scope of this article to deal with it.
However, suffice to say that it is time for Christians to unite under the two brands:
“Righteousness” and Justice”, which are the foundation of the Lord our God
Psalm 89: 14 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Mercy and truth go before You.
I believe before we debate anything, let’s do sound exegesis from the scripture texts, not from some philosophy books, articles of the latest days. But let the scriptures of God’s words be our absolute final referee. Every one of us has to submit to the authority of the scriptures, or else there is no church.
There should be no choosing of between righteousness or justice. God is passionate about both, and we likewise will have to follow suit. We want to be the voice of championing for the poor, marginalized, as well as for the people who are created in the image of God in terms of skin color, unborn babies, and the sexuality as all are created by God. Similarly, we will have to do justice based on scripture, and not the latest fad.
Jesus healed the sick in the gospels, he raised the dead, he opened the eyes of the blind, he raised the crippled, he cleansed the leper, he did all these miracles!
He said “go and make disciples of all nations and teach them to do everything I’ve taught you”.
Matthew 28:19–20 19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
And he said “you shall do greater things than me! John 14:12 12 Truly, truly I say to you, the one who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I am going to the Father.
Did you see that? Jesus said, “greater works than these you will do.” Why is Jesus saying all these? He wants you to be moving in the supernatural! Folks!
Matthew 17:17–20 17 And Jesus answered and said, “You unbelieving and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.” 18 And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was healed at once.19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” 20 And He said to them, “Because of your meager faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.”
The disciples were trying to cast out demon from a boy who was demonized but couldn’t cast him out and when Jesus came , He cast the demon out with a word! They asked Lord why they couldn’t cast him out and Jesus said this kind only come out with prayer and fasting etc. and taught them about faith like a mustard seed.
The point is that Jesus wants his disciples to cast out demons; Jesus wants his disciples to lay hands on the sick and the sick to be healed.
Look at Peter ,James and John, look at apostle Paul everywhere he went he laid hands and healed the sick. He cast out demons by at a word to cast out of that woman that demonic spirit got out of the girl. Peter’s shadow healing people!
Some people argue though this is Apostolic age and we are not anymore. Okay give me a verse that says that Jesus said “You shall do all that I’m doing, you shall do greater things up till the apostles, and after that no more.”
Lol, I don’t see that in my Bible I don’t know which version you’re reading it isn’t in there.
My point is this there’s far greater significance then just healing the sick which is huge I mean if that person got cancer go and see all good doctors and can’t get the healing what do you do? The person goes to God ,only God can heal the person. What about blind people you know there’s so many problems in this world, we need the restoration of God, this mankind needs God’s restoration and who can do that restoration? Only the God who breathed life into us on the first place Genesis chapter 2 God used dust made into a man which is Adam and God breathed into that man and it became Adam.
Genesis 2:7 7 Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living person.
So my point is that the person who is going to heal us is going to be the one who created us. This is a lot of implications for us today. Reformed theologians and pastors have given in certain things like LBGT as just a given accepted fact in the name of the Kingdom of God, and you can’t help it. This is like inviting Christians to live in a semi defeated life in the face of the glorious promises of God in Christ Jesus. Try saying that to the crippled that Jesus raised, try saying that to th eblind that Jesus popend the eyes, try saying that to the woman bleeding for years whoim Jesus healed on an instant.
1 Now a certain man was sick: Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 And it was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. 3 So the sisters sent word to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” 4 But when Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness is not meant for death, but is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.”
John Chapter 11 Verse 11 says now there was a certain man who was sick Lazarus in the village of Marianne her sister mother so the sisters sent word to Jesus saying, “Lord behold he whom you love is sick.” When Jesus heard this he said the sickness is not to end in death but for the glory of God so that the son of God may be glorified by it.
Now this is very significant. Jesus talked like he’s so sure that Lazarus who was sick would not die. The question is how does he know? I would analyze it this way, Jesus it’s not about being sure, Jesus is about being the author of life. Jesus did not have to second guess what’s going to happen to Lazarus. In essence Jesus got to decide what is going to happen to Lazarus. This is very significant because it deals with the predestination of God and the sovereignty of God. You see in Genesis chapter one when God created the heavens and the earth, he came to the creation of man.
Genesis 1:26 (NASB 2020)
26 Then God said, “Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the livestock and over all the earth, and over every crawling thing that crawls on the earth.”
Moses wrote this that God said “let us make men in our image”. Who is us here? Who is our image? He can’t be talking about God talking to angels let’s make man in our image, because angels are only created being, and God is the creator. So it must be God talking to someone on par or inequality with he himself!
And that is God the Father talking to the God the Son and to God the Holy Spirit. Then the words let us make man in our image would make sense because Father Son and Holy Spirit are all equal in the Trinitarian godhead therefore they are the same. So it makes sense that God said let us make man in our image. Angels has no power to make men. They themselves are created beings like men. God cannot be talking to angels let us make men, no!
So Jesus spoke into being what’s going to happen to Lazarus. In fact after hearing the request to go to heal him, Jesus intentionally stayed two more days on his journey to see Lazarus. And that exactly accomplished his purpose. Because by that time Lazarus has been dead for four days by the time Jesus got there. We have to understand Jesus is the author of life. Have you heard the story of a group of people debating what Shakespeare means in his very profound deep literature in a room, imagine if Shakespeare walks right into the room and told everyone that this is what he means in his literature in his story. I’m telling you the debate is over, it is settled. Why? Because the author of the literature or story has just walked into the room. In the same way Jesus is the author of life, he is not just a helper of life, or healer of life. He writes our story. That’s why the word history is really His story.
I want to encourage you today; how important it is to see the absolute sovereignty and authority of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus intentionally waited until Lazarus gone dead, so that it gives him an opportunity to be glorified, so that God can be glorified because Jesus was going to raise Lazarus from the death. Next story I will share more but today be encouraged to know every time we pray to our God, he listens and he’s never surprised, he knows exactly what to do, in fact he determines the story, the overall big level scheme picture. He does not determine the finite details of our life of course, but he sets the destiny, the outcome of the world and our lives in this world.
One of the greatest statements I’ve learned from my theology professor, is that disobedience really comes from unbelief in God. And obedience comes from belief in God.
Now this is profound, because it explains the underlying reason why a Christian disobeys God and why a Christian obeys God. You see the reason why Eve disobeyed God when she was tempted by the devil, is because she had unbelief in God. It’s not that she or any one of us disobey for rebellious sake. She disobeyed because she doubted the goodness of the Lord as prompted and tempted by the devil whether God had the best for her. Devil tempted Eve and counter questioned her that if she took the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil she will be like God. At that moment of time, Eve was really flirting with the counteroffer, temptation from the serpent, immediately brushed aside the command of the Lord. By doing that, she postured herself immediately to make a decision to believe the devil’s half-truth or to believe God’s absolute truth but which requires belief and trust in Him no matter what. Our trust in God cannot be questioned or swayed by half-truths offer, or any sort. Because that fundamentally puts us in a questioning God mode. God gives all of himself in Christ Jesus to us, and therefore He expects and demands a total commitment of a bride relationship to a groom kind of a relationship, like in Revelation’s church is a bride to Christ!
You see the disobedience of Eve came from not believing in God not believing in the goodness of the Lord not trusting fully in the Lord, and therefore being swayed by the lies or half lies of the devil. It was tempting for her to want to be like God. Because God was silent about. This idea is foreign to Eve, and it’s like it came from nowhere. The reality is that it came from Satan, the father of lies. It is Satanic! God simply say don’t eat that and if you eat that you will die. So God expects Eve to trust in him. Eve and Adam really must trust in him even though they may not have the full knowledge of it. That will be the same for us all. Sometimes, we may not understand everything, and yet it is precisely that produces a childlike trust in God. Thats why Jesus said “Unless you become like one of these little ones, you cant enter the kingdom of God.”
Whatever it is obedience comes from faith in God in Christ. Without faith in Christ every one of us will be swayed with temptations in the world by the lies of the devil and our own flesh weaknesses. It’s time to deal with our own flesh and by putting all our trust in Christ! You see if Eve put all her trust in God, that question temptation from the devil to eat the fruit and become like God will never move Eve. Will never sway her mind because she trusts in God’s goodness. Though she may not know or understand everything but she should trust God and that’s what we should be.
Now comes to Adam. He really is the one should take the lead but he completely failed. That conversation narrative of the failure of Eve was completely driven by Eve and Adam seemed to be the follower of his wife. That is most disheartening, heartbreaking, when the man fails in his leadership over the marriage relationship. Seriously never marry a weak man who doesn’t believe or trust in the goodness of the Lord.
I want to urge everyone to really develop your faith in God by meditating upon the word of God day and night, and you would be like tree planted by rivers of life just like in Psalm 1. The Lord bless you.
20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said,
“This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man.”
O Palmer Robertson [1]writes, “ Paul states that the man was not created for the woman. Instead, the woman was created for the man (1Corinthians 11:9). The purpose of the man’s existence, as created, is not to be a help to the woman. But the purpose of the woman’s existence as created is to glorify God in being a help to the man.
The words “being a help to the man” in the scripture presents the woman in a marriage, as to be a helper. Corresponding to him, that means uniquely and specifically only for him. To put in a way that no one else can do the job. Genesis 2:20 says, “But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.”
“Fit for him” in Hebrew means corresponding to him.[2] This is a tremendously important statement because there was no one else compatible to Adam. And hence Adam was feeling lonely. And God came in and provided a specific helper to add his lonely life.
From here we can tell God is a God of Providence in a real way, a transcendent way, that no one else in the world can! He meets his needs, when Adam was lonely. God provided. As suitable helpmate for him. And the word “helper” in Hebrew language is a specific help that no one else can fulfill that role. It’s not a general help. But it’s a specific, unique, helpful Adam. You see God’s Providence? Is much better than your own. Provision for yourself.
Now the word helper for the woman to the man only happens in this world because when we all get to heaven there is no marriage. And the woman’s role as helper to the man will cease. The helping of the man is to fulfill the glorious call of God to glorify him in our culture in this world. Therefore man and woman in their marriage relationship has to glorify God in this world and that’s a calling of God for the couple together.
The Bible also says therefore a man shall cleave to the therefore a man shall leave his parents and cleave to his wife and become one flesh that cleaving can only happen to the woman that God has given to him.
Genesis 2:24–25 (ESV)
24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
There is no such thing as a man leaves his parents and cleaved to another man because that is against the divine order, the order of creation. And the reason man is cleaving to the woman is because first and foremost the woman was created from the man and therefore the man is going back to the woman and become one flesh just like in the original creation of God.
Genesis 2:20 says that no way in creation could be found a helper corresponding to the men. Only the woman as created from the man corresponding to him in a way that will make her appropriate help he needed. This is very significant. Because the role of woman is very unique and specific to the man that God has ordained for her. No one should downwash marriage. Therefore marriage is sacred because it’s part of the ordination of God. Anyone disrupting that created order will face the consequences of the judgment coming as in the book of Revelations.
Now it must be clear the distinctive of the woman indicates their role is no less significant than the man with respect to a person. Equally with the man she bears in herself the image and likeness of God Genesis 1:27. Only as equal in personhood could the woman correspond to the man.[3] Says Robinson. So therefore that corresponding to the man as created by God means they are equal in personhood in significance, even though woman is to be helper to the man. That helper is in the sense of doing the things that men cannot do perfectly in the call to glorify God in this world. Therefore the man needs the woman as much as the woman needs the men. This world tries to disrupt that divine order, and that would disrupt the perfect harmony God has created and ordained for this world. Creations would groan and moan because of that disruption, and there will be consequences.
Woman’s role as a helper to the men is for the purpose of bringing all creation to its consummation goal. In heaven, man neither marry nor are given in marriage Matthew 22 verse 30. O Palmer Robinson says once the consummate state has been realized, the woman’s role is helped the man would come to an end. Bearing God’s image in her own person, the woman should enjoy consummation in her own completeness. [4]
This is tremendously significant because woman would reach her own completeness independent of the man or with teamwork with a man. But I just want to emphasize the individual calling of God for both genders. These two genders ought to work together to subdue the earth to the glory of God. Eve joined Adam in his task of forming a culture glorifying to God the creator called me and that is the case till today in counting until the final consummate state with Christ returns.
Robertson wrote the ultimate condition of the woman finds asked a logical anticipation in the equality of men and women with respect to the gospel. There is neither male nor female with respect to the privilege and responsibility of responding in faith to the gospel of God Galatians 3:28. [5]
Now this is another significant statement by Palmer Robinson that in the end time logical anticipation of the woman is to reach in heaven when we all are married to the groom our savior Jesus Christ. For now we are responsible to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Marriage stands as the creation ordered intention for men, no contradiction must be seen when Paul says “it is good for men not married” in 1 Corinthians 7 one is set aside that creational “it is not good that man should be alone “genesis 2:18 on the basis of the necessary gift to remain in the single state, and due to the present stress in 1 Corinthians 7:28, A woman maybe may remain unmarried.
In creation God commanded meant multiplying, fill the earth this commandment contains significant implications to the role of men in the marriage relationship. Men must love and cherish his wife. He must care for her particularly as she fulfills her role in bearing children. Paul says husband is to love his wife even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for its Ephesians 525. He therefore has the responsibility of functioning as head in the marriage relationship. Yet he must function not as bloated head nor a domineering head but as saving head.[6]
1 Cor 11:11-12 “.. in the Lord neither is woman independent of a man, noise man independent of woman. First the woman originates from the man, so also the man has his birth through the woman, and all things originate from God. So the main owes his existence to the woman and vice versa the woman too.”
To cherish and love your wife is a very high calling as much as for the wife to submit to the husband it’s a high calling. That’s only possible because we serve the God of high calling. Eventually we will all be married to the bridegroom that is to come. Amen.
[1] O. Palmer Robertson, The Christof the Covenants, 80-83
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