Cultivate the Garden

We should take the time to cultivate the garden that is your family, Take care to see the divine lesson behind every challenge. The gratefulness you will find gives you the motivation to discover your inner power, perhaps yet undiscovered. Which is essential as followers of Christ to help others less fortunate in this time of need?

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet."   (Matthew 5:13 ESV)

In A.D. 252, a killing plague swept through the North African city of Carthage. The heathens threw the dead in the streets and fled the city in fear of their lives. Cyprian, leader of the church in Carthage, marshaled the saints and they began burying the dead and nursing the sick. Their action saved the city and thrust the church into prominence in the minds of its citizens.

Good people are salting the earth and preserving the creation of God. They are lighting the world and glorifying the God who made it.


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Laboring toward Justice

We should labor toward justice, we must remember that there is no perfect justice in this fallen world; no utopia; we will never find perfect fulfillment in this age; only glimpses. This is because we were designed for the age to come.

Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal."     (John 6:27 ESV)


Rely on God, rather than on people.


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Martin Luther

When Martin Luther the early reformer in Church History was dealing with The Black Death plague, he wrote these wise words that can help inform the way we approach things happening in our world right now...

“I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine and take it. I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance inflict and pollute others and so cause their death as a result of my negligence. If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me and I have done what he has expected of me and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others. If my neighbor needs me however I shall not avoid place or person but will go freely as stated above.

Luther's Works Volume 43 page 132 the letter "Whether one may flee from a Deadly Plague"

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Reformed Faith

The Reformers four centuries ago sought to humble man and exalt God. This objective has been carried on from the beginning of time until now by those who desire to know the Lord of hosts. Reformed churches believe that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Proverbs 9:10). They want to teach and share the word of God in and out of season so that Christ's church may benefit from the sound doctrine that exhorts a believer to a deeper appreciation of the God who is to be served.

The Reformed Faith is so important today because many "Christian" churches do not teach nor believe in the Bible. It's frightening to realize that many modern churches question such basic truths as the divinity of Christ and his resurrection.

One cannot merely say, "well, it doesn't matter what you believe - it's just important to believe something." No matter what the world would have us believe, the doctrine is important. What we believe is critically important. In the Book of Acts, the Bereans "received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so." (Acts 17:11).

It is certainly true that there are many churches that clearly teach the entire Word of God. It is not the intention here to imply that one can not be saved unless one is a member of a Reformed church. That is not true. The intention here is to point to a system of faith and theology which most closely follows the Word of God.

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PRESERVED IN JESUS CHRIST

All of God’s elect will persevere unto the end. When we say that, we are not talking about improving, becoming more holy or more righteous. In Job, we read those words, which are used often to state this truth “The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger” (Job 17:9). Those spoken of in this verse are not righteous in themselves. There is “None is righteous, no, not one;(Romans 3:10) These are called righteous because they have been made the righteousness of God in Christ. He is the Lord our Righteousness. However, they “ Yet the righteous holds to his way, and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger.” (Job 17:9) Their way is Christ who is “the Way.” These sinners saved by grace will surely fail and sometimes fall. They will sin again and again. They will have fits of unbelief and seasons of unfaithfulness. However, they will never become apostate and they will never finally fall away. They will never sin away the favor and blessing of God in Christ. They will persevere because He will keep them. They are “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Pet. 1:5). None shall pluck them out of the Father’s hand. God has given them eternal life and they shall never perish. God gives them the gift of faith and more faith and they increase in that strength. “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18) and therefore all are brought to confess of Christ, “To him be glory both now and forever” (2 Pet. 3:18). They glory not in their perseverance but in Christ’s preserving them by His unchanging power and grace. Nothing in God’s salvation depends on them, and the keeping of the sheep is the responsibility and glory of the Shepherd. It is His blood that cleanses us from all sin. Their continuing is not the condition of their salvation but the consequence of it! Sinners, reconciled through the body of Christ’s death, will be presented “holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight.” Paul writes on, “if (seeing that) ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;” (Col. 1:22,23). 

The gift of Eternal Life begins when the Holy Spirit fills and Seals Us and Never Ends! 

(Anything else is Not Eternal Life) 



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Spiritually Discerned

these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except for the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

(1 Corinthians 2:10-16)


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Do Christians go immediately to heaven when they die?

Historically, classical Christian theology speaks of what we 

call the intermediate state. That has to do with where we go 
immediately upon death, as distinguished from our state after the final resurrection.

Philippians 1:21-24 ESV

(21)  For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

(22)  If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell.

(23)  I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.

(24)  But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.

• This is what the New Testament indicates when Paul says that it was more needful for him to stay here for us, but to depart and be with Christ would be far better.
• He indicates that, as soon as we die, our souls go immediately into the presence of Christ.
• In the intermediate state, however, we are disembodied souls. We won’t have our glorified bodies until after the coming of Christ and the great resurrection. At that point, our souls will be reunited with our bodies.
• Even as disembodied souls, there will be a continued consciousness of our personal existence. The instant we die, we go into heaven in our soul-state, and then we await the final consummation of the resurrection of our bodies.
• Death is our graduation to glory and Eternal Life.
• To be in the immediate presence of the Lord was gain for Paul.

• The idea that Paul could consider death an immediate gain argues against the idea of “soul sleep.” This teaching says that the believing dead are held in some sort of suspended animation until the resurrection occurs.

• Paul's understanding that his death is considered gain also argues against the idea of “purgatory” which says that the believing dead must be purified through suffering before coming into the presence of God.

•                    The Answer is YES!

  
  

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