Biblical Transformation Ministries. Org

08/27/2024

https://www.intouch.org/read/daily-devotions
Worth a read!

Daily readings for devoted living.

01/01/2024

THE UNITED STATES HAVE LOST ITS INTEREST AND DESIRE TO OBEY "Christian Ethics"!

"Christian ethics is any study that answers the question, “What does the whole Bible teach us about which acts, attitudes, and personal character traits receive God’s approval, and which do not?”"
Scripture has the final authority to define which actions, attitudes, and personal character traits receive God’s approval and which do not. Therefore, it is appropriate to spend significant time analyzing the teaching of Scripture itself.

The basic reason that we should study ethics is to better know God’s will for us. The New Testament tells us in several places that we should live in obedience to God’s will. For example, Jesus taught that his followers should keep his commandments:

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." (Matt. 28:19–20)

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments." (John 14:15)

"If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. "(John 15:10; see also Rom. 13:9; 1 Cor. 7:19; 1 John 2:3–4; 3:22, 24; 5:2–3; Rev. 12:17; 14:12)

But in order to keep Jesus’s commandments, we have to know what they are and understand how they apply to us today, including their Old Testament background and their further explanation in the New Testament Epistles. That is the study of Christian ethics.
The New Testament Epistles also give instructions to readers that sound very much like calls to study ethics:

"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." (Rom. 12:2)

"Try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord." (Eph. 5:10)

"And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus

Christ, to the glory and praise of God." (Phil. 1:9–11)

"We have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God." (Col. 1:9–10)

"For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge." (2 Pet. 1:5)

"For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome." (1 John 5:3)

Wayne Grudem, Christian Ethics: An Introduction to Biblical Moral Reasoning (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018), 43–44.
Wayne Grudem, Christian Ethics: An Introduction to Biblical Moral Reasoning (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018), 38–39.
Wayne Grudem, Christian Ethics: An Introduction to Biblical Moral Reasoning (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018), 37.

01/01/2024

"Christian ethics is any study that answers the question, “What does the whole Bible teach us about which acts, attitudes, and personal character traits receive God’s approval, and which do not?”"

Scripture has the final authority to define which actions, attitudes, and personal character traits receive God’s approval and which do not. Therefore, it is appropriate to spend significant time analyzing the teaching of Scripture itself.

The basic reason that we should study ethics is to better know God’s will for us. The New Testament tells us in several places that we should live in obedience to God’s will. For example, Jesus taught that his followers should keep his commandments:

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." (Matt. 28:19–20)

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments." (John 14:15)

"If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. "(John 15:10; see also Rom. 13:9; 1 Cor. 7:19; 1 John 2:3–4; 3:22, 24; 5:2–3; Rev. 12:17; 14:12)

But in order to keep Jesus’s commandments, we have to know what they are and understand how they apply to us today, including their Old Testament background and their further explanation in the New Testament Epistles. That is the study of Christian ethics.
The New Testament Epistles also give instructions to readers that sound very much like calls to study ethics:

"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." (Rom. 12:2)

"Try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord." (Eph. 5:10)

"And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God." (Phil. 1:9–11)

"We have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God." (Col. 1:9–10)

"For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge." (2 Pet. 1:5)

"For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome." (1 John 5:3)

Wayne Grudem, Christian Ethics: An Introduction to Biblical Moral Reasoning (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018), 43–44.

Wayne Grudem, Christian Ethics: An Introduction to Biblical Moral Reasoning (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018), 38–39.

Wayne Grudem, Christian Ethics: An Introduction to Biblical Moral Reasoning (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018), 37.

12/23/2023

As I reviewed the news headlines just now, I noticed again how all things are being caused by people DOING WHAT IS RIGHT IN THEIR OWN MINDS (LIVING BY NATURAL INCLINATION OF THE HEART). Living by the natural inclination of the heart began immediately after Adam and Eve sinned. All people have lived this way ever since. It got so bad that God destroyed all living things except the seven people He put on the ark. The seven feared God and lived righteous lives. The remainder of humanity had hearts constantly thinking about and doing unrighteous deeds (sin). Their hearts were set on loving themselves and ignoring God… the way it appears most people today live.

One could say we all live, and then we all die, so what is the problem? What is so important about living the way you want to live? What is so bad about loving self and ignoring God? I am having fun doing exactly what I desire, and I do not feel guilty for ignoring God!

Answer:

People are eternal beings. Each has a material part, the body, and a spiritual part, the soul. The body will die, but not the soul. The soul is that part of humans that makes up who you are; your thinking self, your emotional self, and your conscience give evidence of an inner spirit. The conscience in the biblical context is an inner moral awareness that evaluates our thoughts, motives, and actions, guiding us toward proper conduct based on recognized values. This part of you never ceases to exist. You are an eternal being.
The God of the Christian Bible exists. There is no other God but the LORD (Yahweh). All other imagined gods are fantasies of the mind.
Every word in the Christian Bible is true because they are God’s words written as men were guided by the Spirit of God to document everything a man needs to live a righteous life.

Righteousness is an attribute that belongs to God, the Lawgiver and is manifested in His laws. No man can be justified by his own works (doing what is right in their life) apart from God’s ordinance. Therefore, righteousness is a wonderful gift from God to humanity through His love: the God-given quality imputed to man upon believing in the Son of God.

Unrighteousness is a biblical term that refers to wrong, unbiblical living and wrongdoing, unbiblical acts against our family, neighbor, and enemy. It is also used to describe people who do not love God or the things of God and who do not support His cause. Unrighteousness may consist of a single unjust act, but more generally, it denotes a habitual course of wickedness when applied to persons. The unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Entering or inheriting the kingdom of God is the privilege of those who acknowledge and live by the rule of God and have become part of the new order of salvation and righteousness in Christ.

According to biblical teaching, hell is the state where those who do not have faith in Christ, the unrighteous, are consigned to suffer eternally. Living by the natural inclinations of the heart has eternal tragic consequences.

Meanwhile, Heaven is the spiritual realm where God and celestial beings reside. In Biblical teaching, heaven is understood as the final destination of the righteous after death. Heaven can be described as living in eternal blissfulness.

God destroyed the world by a flood while saving seven righteous individuals to continue the human race on earth. All but seven people went to hell! He, Jesus, will return again to judge the righteous and the unrighteous. Their eternal destinations are determined by the way they have lived. Again, many will go to hell to eternal suffering, and many will go to eternal blissfulness in Heaven.

YOUR ETERNAL DESTINATION (HEAVEN OR HELL) IS YOUR CHOICE.

12/12/2023

John 3:3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

"For human beings the whole possibility of redemption lies in their ability to change. To move across from one sort of person to another is the essence of repentance: the liar becomes truthful, the thief honest, the lewd pure, the proud humble. The whole moral texture of life is altered. The thoughts, the desires, the affections are transformed, and the man is no longer what he had been before. So radical is this change that the apostle calls the man that used to be ”the old man” and the man that now is ”the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.” Yet the change is deeper and more basic than any external acts can reveal, for it includes also the reception of life of another and higher quality. The old man, even at his best, possesses only the life of Adam: the new man has the life of God. And this is more than a mere manner of speaking; it is quite literally true. When God infuses eternal life into the spirit of a man, the man becomes a member of a new and higher order of being."

A. W. Tozer. Essential Tozer Collection: The Knowledge of the Holy and The Pursuit of God (p. 63). Sanage Publishing. Kindle Edition.

12/11/2023

One year ago today, my 49-year-old son Matthew passed into eternity. Even though I still mourn deeply and miss his presence on earth, I am without despair. As David said in 2 Samual 12:23 after his son went into eternity, "I will go to him, but he will not return to me." He and I have this assurance that we will be together in heaven someday because he and I profess faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ!

"Christian theology teaches that when we die, our bodies decay, but we continue to exist as persons in God’s presence and will one day be raised to undying life with glorified bodies. The nature of the resurrected body is inherently mysterious. Still, we may say that it is genuinely physical, although animated entirely by the Spirit, and that it somehow maintains continuity with our earthly bodies and is wonderfully new (1 Cor 15:12–58).

Every human being who has died will be raised for the last judgment—the wicked for hell and the justified for heaven (1 Cor 15:12–58). There will be a new heaven and earth, which will come in the form of a new Jerusalem (Rev 21), which implies that human civilization will be redeemed and present in heaven. But as always, the general vision is clearer than the details, and we must be cautious about assuming too much based on our fragmentary evidence.

The picture we have is that of the saints gathered around the throne of Christ, praising him and focusing all their attention on him. This image, taken from the book of Revelation, clearly involves symbolic imagery; what we can say for sure is that after death, those who believe in Christ will go to be with him in eternity and they will no longer suffer, die, or fall away into sin."

Passages

KEY VERSES

• 1 Co 15:35–58
• Php 1:21–23
• Re 7:1–17
• Heb 11:39–40
• Ro 6:5–14

Gerald Bray, “Life after Death,” in Lexham Survey of Theology, ed. Mark Ward et al. (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018).

10/11/2021

To be born again, or born from above, is a work in which you play no role. Your birth happened to you; you had no part in it. And the same is true of your new birth. Christ is saying that it is entirely a work of God and God alone. This simple statement immediately obliterates all works righteousness. It crushes the notion that religion, ceremony, ritual, and sacraments make any contribution to the sinner’s new birth. Theologians call this monergistic regeneration. It’s not a work that you and God do together. It’s God’s work alone.

The Masters Seminary Journal, Volume 32 – Number 2 – Fall 2021, page 9

05/31/2021

Just read today's news headlines. I will not repeat them here because all are aware of what is going on in the world around them.

I think one headline would cover it all: "The World is in Moral Chaos (complete disorder and confusion)!"

11/03/2020

https://youtu.be/6NYz1heeW9A

Trust in God with all your Heart! Lean not on your own understanding!!