So, I hope you like today’s inaugural podcast. I have to decide on a schedule of writing and podcasting. I still plan on making daily updates, but whether it’s a 50/50 or a weekly podcast and 4 days writing, time will tell.

Please post some comments and check to see when the podcast will be available on iTunes!

For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,

Ephesians 2:8-10, 18-19

Dear Reader: This is a passage which is most freeing to the mind of one who lives a life trying to do their best to earn a place in heaven – something that cannot be done. Read each sentence slowly, and understand its meaning.

First, before doing so, remember and contemplate that the words of Scripture penned in the Bible and preserved throughout the ages is the Word of God, spoken for us, the people of God.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. By believing that Christ’s sacrifice is sufficient for the atonement of your sins, all sin: past, present, and future, you are saved from the wrath of God for all eternity. Welcome to the family! You are blessed by God, as a recipient of his Grace. If you put your faith in the work of Christ instead of your constantly rebellious and failing nature trying to earn your way in you now have an eternal Father and will share a place in His kingdom.

And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God. By our nature, since the fall of Adam, we are sinful and do not seek after the things of God. (Read Romans 1 and 3 for more on this.) We live our own lives, thinking of our temporal world and not the eternal. God gives us our faith: the only reason we seek God and seek to do His will is because he gave us our faith to begin with.

Not a result of works, so that no one may boast. God is God and He will get all the glory. God will share his Glory with no one. Answer this question: If God ordains someone to do something, do you think they can say no? Does a little human being have the power to say no to a command of an omnipotent God? Likewise, if God says “no”, do you think anyone can muscle their way against Him? Both answers are obviously no. For this reason, God gets the glory for giving you your faith and enabling you to come to Him: so that no one may boast. God chose you… you did not choose God. You cannot brag “I chose to follow God” when it was God who gave you your faith. Likewise, if you in your still sinful nature want to rebel and turn against God, that’s not going to happen. Once in His grip, He’ll never let go.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, Number 1: God made us for His glory, and no one else’s. He also created us (us believers, that is) with faith in His Son that we would do good works. Mind the parallel here: our faith enables us to do good works… we were already saved through our faith. We do not do good works in order to earn our way into heaven, dear reader… we do good works in response to the gratitude and love we show to God for calling us to be His own.

…which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Nothing is outside of the scope of God’s vision and work. Everything that happens, he has ordained to happen. Not a hair of your head goes unnumbered and not a cry of one of his children goes unheard. God prepared our lives and our good works before the dawn of time that we should walk in them and be His children, worshiping Him, and glorifying him for eternity.

For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. This is the most shocking statement for many: With our faith in Christ, there is no go-between necessary: no intermediary. There are no priests, bishops, or apostles standing between us and the foot of His throne. Just as a child can crawl into the lap of their father and gain his love, comfort, and attention, so we too have access to the lap of our eternal Father. No man stands between us and God.

Will you confess Christ as your savior, redeemer, and mediator? Well then… Welcome to the Family!

He told me to tell you that.

In His lap…

-Anthony

The Words of Christ: Matthew 5:13-16

One argument that the scoffers of today’s Christian community have is “Do you take the Bible literally?” They usually use this question to then argue certain passages such as Isaiah 55:12 where “the trees of the field shall clap their hands” and then ask if we are all silly enough to think all trees will grow hands before they start clapping.

There are parts of the Bible that are to be taken literally, such as the seven day creation (a topic for another entry) and other parts to be taken figuratively, such as Christ saying in John 10:9 “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.” We don’t expect Christ to have hinges and look like a three-by-seven piece of wood but we do expect to see us as having to go through Him (like a door) in order to be saved from God’s wrath at the end of time.

In the passage above we are compared to salt and light. We are the salt of the earth. What does this mean? Well, before preservatives things like meat were packed or pickled in salt to keep them from rotting, such as packing meat or jerky on a sea vessel going to voyage. Likewise, we are to be a preservative to God’s Word: preserving it through the ages and making it relative and life-giving, as the Word of God is life to those who hear it just as the salted meat kept the sailors alive on their voyages.

Secondly, salt on a wound, though it may sting, helps control infection. So, while it may be unpleasant, it can help the wound from getting worse and will accelerate or empower the healing process. Likewise, as salty citizens of this world, when we spread the Truth, it may hurt for some people to hear it, but it’s good that we tell them the truth. We may have to tell someone that their habitual drunkenness is jeopardizing the marriage or career. You may also need to tell them that unless they commit to turning from their sin and (re)committing their life to Christ they will be on the road toward excommunication from the church (following the process of restoration described in Matthew 18, of course).

Why don’t we want to tell people the Truth? Well, the truth hurts; The truth convicts; the truth exposes falsehood; truth divides (you’re either for the truth or you’re against it); and the truth subjugates: when you hear the truth you must obey its tenants (Gravity is true, no matter how you may want to believe otherwise or disobey, and if you try to jump out a window, you will be subjugated at the rate of 32.2 feet per second!).

Thirdly, salt adds flavor to food. Living in the world without Christ is a bland empty experience. We are to spread that salt on the earth and bring out the richness, the flavor, of all life has to offer through Him and to enjoy all of creation in His name.

As far as us being the light of the world, let me use a cosmic illustration: The sun is a radiant body, spreading warmth and light in all directions. The moon is a lifeless body: a dead rock with no atmosphere and no inner core activity. We see the sun at daybreak as it is: a radiant ball. We see the moon radiant at night too, but it’s not the moon that radiates that light… the moon only reflects light that is poured upon it and the moon then reflects that light to the earth.

We, as sinful creatures, have no spiritual light in us to project upon the world to give it any hope in the eternal future. Only when God shines His light on us, it not only illuminates our dead spirit, but it makes it beautiful to those who gaze upon it and draws them to Him like a moth to a flame. In a sentence, “When they see you lit, they want some of that fire too” and as one of my performance coaches once said, “When you’re on fire, everyone around will want to come and watch you burn!”

God illumines our life, and we are to shine that light to the world: to let them see God in us and draw them to Him. That’s evangelism 101: but first we must be lit before we can carry the flame. There are only two families in this world: The family of light (God) and the family of darkness (the devil). Likewise, every one of us is either a missionary or part of the mission field. If you don’t feel like sharing the gospel, rescuing others from an eternal separation from God’s love, mercy, and favor as a son or daughter for eternity because you might ‘hurt their feelings’ then you have to ask yourself if you’re really lit.

I needed to tell you that. It’s the truth.

I hope it didn’t hurt. If you’re angry and consider me an enemy, if you’re really a Christian I guess you’ll have to forgive me.

Pray for me too. (I need all I can get!)

He told me to tell you he told you that. (Matthew 5:44)

In His Light…

-Anthony

-Galatians 2:15-16, ESV

In keeping the main thing the main thing, the main thing about the Christian life is the relationship one has with Jesus Christ. Nothing else. It is not the things we do, the number of times we recite the Lord’s Prayer or how many times we run our fingers and lips around the rosary beads. The only thing that lets approach God’s throne and presence is the faith in Christ that He, God the Father through the Holy Spirit, gave us.

News Flash: Nothing that we do gets us into heaven. Christ died a death that we deserved, paying a price we could not pay, in order to make us equal with Him and in the family of God. Sounds Hard To Believe or too good to be true, doesn’t it?

No matter how many times we “try” to be good, we cannot. Our nature is to sin against and rebel against God and do what we please as opposed to what he purposes us for: to glorify him and enjoy him forever.

As the apostle Paul says in today’s verse: we are not justified (made just, made right, made approachable) by our works (the things we do), and nothing we can do will ever win us God’s favor.

But: the good news, the gospel, is that through faith in Jesus Christ, through the work that He did on our behalf, we are justified and made God’s children. Simple faith. He (God) doesn’t ask for much. He did all the work! By works of the law: by doing the ten commandments, by going to church, by doing good deeds, by saying our prayers, nothing we do will get us into heaven.

It’s all God.

In His Grip,

Till Next Time,

-Anthony