Keeping It Real, Pt. 2

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Keeping It Real, Pt. 2

Part 2, God's Reality

May 10, 2024 • Central Baptist Church

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May 10, 2024

Keeping It Real

Part 2, God’s Reality

Our world is convulsing, it is being torn apart, because of differing worldviews. These worldviews separate us into groups that are at odds, even at the most fundamental levels. One person’s “reality” varies so much from another person’s “reality” that they find it difficult, or even impossible, to live together on the same planet. So, what’s the answer?

A pervasive philosophy that has come about since the League of Nations[1] in 1920 is that this world’s complex problems can be addressed and even solved by cooperation (i.e., the Village, as in, “It Takes a Village”[2]), discussion, understanding, compromise, programs, education, benevolence, or by simple empathy. We might simplify this overall philosophy by saying, “Walk a mile in my shoes!” Many people truly believe that if we can just get into another person’s mindset and trudge down his/her earthly pathway, so that we can feel their pain, understand their ideas, and know what makes them happy, then somehow, this it would fundamentally change our world; it would make our planet a more sensitive and caring place, and in the end, solve many of our world’s ideological conflicts. It’s the utopian ideal portrayed in the famous “I’d like to buy the world a Coke”[3] commercial as if a common love of a beverage can erase age-old hatreds and animosities. But this philosophy is fundamentally flawed! It is ultimately naïve. It is as naïve as Chamberlain believing that giving the Sudetenland[4] to Hitler guaranteed peace in Europe.

Now, it is true that if I “walk a mile in your shoes”, i.e., if I experience what it’s like to live with hunger, or deal with a disease, or cope with prejudice, THEN it certainly will make me more empathetic, understanding, and a lot less judgmental. And I can, with great empathy, and even with genuine love, feed or cloth or heal a person, who holds to a radically different worldview. This response is what Jesus Christ taught and lived out. But moving from personal love and benevolence to embracing a worldview is an irrational jump. Jesus loved and still loves messed up people; He felt empathy for them. He healed their illnesses, He fed the hungry, he renewed their broken bodies, he exorcised their demons… but He never approved of or accommodated their often-sinful philosophies. On the contrary, He commanded, Go and sin no more (John 8:11). A simple act of love and humanity doesn’t resolve worldview conflicts, anymore than it kept Jesus from being crucified! If it is incumbent upon us to compromise our belief set to accommodate everyone else’s belief set, then everyone ends up believing everything, which reduces to nothing.

The real issue in our world is a fundamental disagreement on what is Real, Absolute, and Unchanging. I will call these PRINCIPLES capital-T TRUTH. If everyone insists that their truth is The Truth, then there is no hope for unity and cooperation. And then there are some who insist that there is No Truth at all. The bottom line is that without Universal Truth, a Truth that exists outside of and rises above the Human Experience or the Human Intellect, there can be no Reality; it all boils down to my conviction vs. your conviction, my preference vs. your preference. From these illogical irrationalities, we come up with oxy-moronic terms like “relative truth” and “alternative truth”.

Until this World accepts our Creator’s Truth as THE STANDARD, and His Written Word as THE PRINCIPLES by which all other ideas are judged, then we have no hope. Friends, God’s Word is Truth (John 17:17); it is Reality. And Jesus the Christ was the Author and the Embodiment of Truth. He proclaimed, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me (John 14:6). Until we accept that, we will continue to hate, fight, war, and kill. Mankind has not discovered the way, and he will never discover the way, because there IS no other Way than the Savior!

God bless and consider!

[1] A predecessor to the United Nations. It was the first international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Nations

[2] It Takes a Village. 1996. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Simon and Schuster, New York, NY. The book emphasizes the shared responsibility that society has for successfully raising children. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Takes_a_Village

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I 'd_Like_to_Teach_the_World_to_Sing_(In_Perfect_Harmony) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VM2eLhvsSM

[4] Pre-WWII German-speaking Czechoslovakia

The 4 P's, Pt. 2

June 14, 2024 • Central Baptist Church

June 14, 2024 The 4 P’s (A Purpose, a Plan, a Provider, and Paradise) Pt. 2, A Plan Our Creator, Jehovah God—the ONLY Deity—is the ultimate planner and provider. In our last installment, we spoke of God’s purpose in the Creation, especially in the creation of human beings, the only spiritual beings made in God’s tripartite image and likeness. In short, God is busy …bringing many sons unto glory(Hebrews 2:10) to the end that He might fellowship with us and receive our worship. He is worthy! And so, to accomplish His purpose, God had a plan… a wonderful plan! We read about the literal creation part of His plan in Genesis. God created space, the material universe, and life (including the first man and woman), in six, literal, 24-hour days. We say God created by “fiat”, i.e., a formal authorization or decree. Our Trinity God literally “spoke” the universe (and all it contains) into existence. We read the phrase, Let there be… several times in the Genesis account, and the Psalmist proclaims, For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast (Psalm 33:9). And then on the seventh day, He rested as an example for mankind. But there is an important part of God’s plan (a critical part in fact) that we often don’t think about or consider. I am speaking of God’s plan to redeem (buy back) a human race that was not yet existing or estranged! Our omniscient Creator pre-knew of Adam and Eve’s rebellion and fall in the Garden. And since God’s System requires that the penalty for rebellion and sin is death, then God’s justness necessitated a pre-planned solution for the sin-dilemma! We know this SOLUTION to be the marvelous Incarnation and the sacrificial death of the Eternal God-Man, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus’ sin-atoning sacrifice had to be in effect before SIN, or else the Just Nature of God would have required Him to judge humanity on the spot. And so, in the Counsel of the Pre-Creation Trinity, the Son of God became the, …Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). And Peter writes concerning Jesus the Messiah, Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you… (1 Peter 1:20). What a Purpose! And then, what a Plan! Our Creator has an overall plan for the race, and then an individual plan for every human being. Therefore, what a tragedy it is to refuse God’s Redemption Plan! But that is what men and women effectively demand, when in pride they REFUSE God’s redemption, when they, as Paul foretold in Hebrews 10:29, account the blood of Jesus an unholy thing, and do despite, i.e., they INSULT, the wooing Holy Spirit. Jesus was clear and frank. His precious blood can cleanse every sin… except for one! There is one sin that Christ’s blood will not assuage: the sin of unbelief. When men and women continually rebuff the wooing, convicting, pleading Holy Spirit, and then die in that state of prideful rebellion, there is no more remedy for sin, but only, …a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries (Hebrews 10:27). Solomon concurred in Proverbs 29:1, He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. What a horrific tragedy it will be to miss out on God’s glorious Plan. Jesus, His born-again children (his Bride), and the Holy Spirit all cry out, “Come!” Revelation 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. God bless and consider!

The 4 P's, Pt. 1

June 7, 2024 • Central Baptist Church

June 7, 2024 Four P’s (A Purpose, a Plan, a Provider, and Paradise) Part 1, A Purpose I’ve heard it said, “Everything starts with a plan!” And that’s good advice. We need a plan for every project we undertake and for life itself! The adage goes, “If you aim at nothing, that’s probably what you will hit!” But of course, there had to be a project before the plan. Instead of the word project, I’ll substitute the word purpose; there first had to be a PURPOSE. Your plan hopefully accomplishes your purpose. For example, if your purpose is to retire early with lots of cash, then your plan will likely be heavy on investments… all the while hoping for a bull market! If your purpose is to be healthy, then the plan, to the best of your ability, is to stay physically fit, eat right, and avoid putting chemicals into your body that will kill you. So, if we should be purpose-driven planners, would it surprise you to recognize that God also has a plan, and that it is, of course, purpose-driven? Paul explains in Ephesians 3 that God had and has an eternal purpose, which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord... (Ephesians 3:11). The scope of God’s overarching purpose is beyond us, however, He reveals at least parts. Moses wrote, The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law (Deuteronomy 29:29). A big part of God’s purpose in the Creation was human-centric. Humans and angels were God’s only created spiritual beings. But of the two, only humans were and are made in God’s Tripartite image and likeness. Furthermore, only men can be redeemed from their fall into sin! To that purpose, God incarnated Himself in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the Eternal Son, now a God-Man forever. And just as Paul wrote there in Ephesians 3:11, all of God’s purpose and plan is encapsulated in the God-Man, Christ Jesus our Lord. And through Jesus, God is bringing many sons (and daughters) unto glory (Hebrews 2:10). This speaks of His Savior-centric redemption plan. And then another part of God’s purpose is to live amongst His redeemed humanity upon a New Earth forever and forever. Throughout the Bible we see God’s plan unfold, and it gives us hints about His wonderful purpose, perhaps the chief two being fellowship with and worship from His Creation. So, our omniscient, omnipotent Creator has a purpose. The obvious question then is, “Do you?” “Do I?” Sadly, many people are living purposeless lives. They don’t know where they came from, why they are here on this ball of rock, or where they are going when they die. Science, so-called, has fed us a fantastic fable called the Big Bang and molecules-to-man evolution. This fable reduces human beings to chance accidents in a purposeless Universe, which itself somehow just happened! This fantastic fable called Evolution puts us on the same level as a mosquito, a flea, or an algal slick on a stagnant pond. We are all just chance accidents in an accidental universe. This secular, atheistic worldview (a.k.a., Naturalism) eliminates “purpose” in life. IF there is no God—and therefore no Divine Plan to give our lives reference and purpose—THEN we are just random accidents, living meaningless and purposeless lives, running on a hamster wheel called “life”, dying, and donating our carcass to fertilizing the soil. Now, isn’t that encouraging? Doesn’t that make you want to get up and go to work every morning? Friends, our consciences, and the God-given logic that programs our brains tell us that there must be more to life than the rat race, dying like a dog, and thereby going out of existence. God has built spiritual sentience—an awareness of Him—into every human soul (mind). God clearly teaches this in Romans 1:19-20. Romans 1:19-20 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed itunto them. 20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse… This spiritual sentience is like a homing signal. It leads us to our Creator. It guides us to find our purpose, which is a relationship, and then loving fellowship with, our God and Savior Jesus Christ. Christianity isn’t a religion; it’s a relationship! Only an eternal relationship with our Creator, Jesus Christ, can give us purpose and meaning in life. God bless and conside

Keeping It Real, Pt. 5

May 31, 2024 • Central Baptist Church

May 31, 2024 Keeping It Real Part 5, A Clear Conscience Toward God This month’s theme has been “Keeping it Real”, i.e., seeing ourselves as we really are. We have talked about self-deception, God’s view of reality, how to honestly see ourselves, admitting the truth and telling the truth in love, and now in our last installment, the end goal of “Keeping It Real”, a clear conscience toward God. It is a fact of life: we ALL answer to authorities. As children, we answer to parents. As adults, we answer to bosses, civil authorities, and governmental authorities. And ultimately every soul will one day answer to the Ultimate Authority, God, our Creator. When we stop and seriously consider the ominous truth of Hebrews 9:27—it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment—the priceless value of a good conscience toward God becomes obvious. And we know that a good conscience comes from obeying what we KNOW God asks of us. And so, what DOES God ask of each human being? First, God pleads with every human being to be redeemed, saved, or born-again. These are all Biblical terms that refer to being Divinely reconciled back to God. Every soul needs this Divine reconciliation because all have sinned (Romans 3:23), and our sins have separated us from God (Isaiah 59:2). But God is not willing that any should perish (2Peter 3:9), i.e., be eternally separated from Him in that spiritual prison called The Lake of Fire. Therefore, He sent the Second Person of the Godhead, the Son, to be incarnated in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth, a perfect God-Man, to die in our stead. The precious shed blood of Christ has made all sin forgivable but is only made efficacious individually when we cry out to God in contrition, repentance, and faith IN that wonderful Gospel (good news) of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. We appropriate Christ’s forgiveness by crying out for it in faith! It’s a heart thing! Yes, Jesus made every human being “savable”, but we must appropriate His wonderful gift of forgiveness by asking for it! Paul writes in Romans 10:13, For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Consequently, God issues many invitations to spiritual salvation in the Bible but one of the most beautiful was delivered through the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah 1:18 reads, Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. So first, God pleads with every human being to be saved or born-again. Second, God expects His redeemed children (the saved) to live “separated lives” for Him! But, separated from what? We are to be separated from the vain philosophies and wicked lifestyles of this lost and dying world! That “faith-applied” blood of Christ redeems and reconciles us back to God positionally. But since we ARE eternally saved, God expects us to practically “work out” our salvation (Philippians 2:12). This does not mean works can earn salvation or can keep our salvation (Ephesians 2:8, 9), rather we are to out-work it, i.e., use it, because we ARE saved (Ephesians 2:10). And God teaches in Romans 12:1, 2 that this separated life is our reasonable service. At the moment of salvation, we become soldiers of the cross. And as good soldiers, we are not to become traitorously entangled again with the enemy (the Devil) and the pollutions of this Fallen World system (2Peter 2:20). And so, will we end well, i.e., with a good conscience toward God? Friends, it’s more than just possible; it’s readily achievable for every born-again, Holy Spirit-empowered, child of God. Paul said by inspiration that he lived in good conscience before God (Acts 23:1). Will we stand before Christ and hear, Well done thou good and faithful servant (Mat 25:21, 23)? OR, as God-rejecting, proud Naturalists will we instead hear, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity (Matthew 7:23). The choice is ours! Jesus paid the price for our salvation; he did all the work. It behooves us to accept His sacrifice by faith, and then with a heart of thanksgiving, live our lives for Him as “living sacrifices” (Romans 12:1). God bless and consider!