Jeremiah 3:15-17 - The blog of pastor.ctj

 We as a culture value our opinions over the truth. That is because we are taught that truth is in fact relative, and subjective. The problem is that when this ideology is applied to the scripture, mayhem ensues, because the Word of God is just what it is: The Word of God, and when we run into things which are uncomfortable or in disagreement with our held views, we have three options:     a)    Bring our views in line with, and bow to, the Scripture     b)    Ignore the passage     c)    Change its meaning     The Option you choose makes ALL the difference.     Is your soul worth your momentary pleasure or comfort?

For me, this Passage in Philippians 2 continues to increase in meaning, better yet, increase in depth. Philippians 2:4-15 (HCSB) 4 Everyone should look out not ⌊only⌋ for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus, (what was his attitude/mindset?) 6 who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be used for His own advantage. 7 Instead He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a slave , (He relinquished his sense of entitlement, and if anyone EVER had a the right to a sense of entitlement, it was Jesus) taking on the likeness of men. And when He had come as a man in His external form, 8 He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross. (His submission to the will of another, which was a mental and emotional thing, was manifested in his body, expressed as obedience) 9 For this reason God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name th...

(note: This piece was written a while ago, I just never got around to posting it.)  I have had a very interesting time reading the commentaries, blog posts, articles, tweets and more that have risen up as a result of the 'Strange Fire' Conference. Full disclosure. I am a former charismatic. Yes, former . As in I   ‘used to be’ I do not believe in 'speaking in tongues' any longer, (yes I used to do it) at least as practiced by the Pentecostals and charismatics that I know and Love. I no longer believe in what they will define as 'The baptism of the Holy Ghost' (aka the second blessing, doctrine of subsequence, which differs significantly from the Biblical definition) Am I still saved? Yes , Sanctified? Yes . Holy Ghost Filled? Yes. Am I a cessationist, then? No, rather, not quite... (I will explain that in a later piece.) It is not for lack of experiences, mind you. Rather it is because I believe that my experiences/feelings are not evidence ...

'Intentionality' - "The state of having or being formed by an intention." The intentions (will) of the LORD are never thwarted. He makes His Will known to us via His Word, and we are bound, as His Slaves, to obey. We are His adopted children, and as such, via His Spirit, we are transformed by the renewing of our minds, and being conformed to the image of His Son. Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens. For He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love,   He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ for Himself, according to His favor and will, to the praise of His glorious grace that He favored us with in the Beloved. We have redemption in Him through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. He made known to us...

Granted this is an 'old' piece, but should be posted nonetheless...  A brother of mine asked me to listen to Mark Levin's podcast offering his thoughts on President Obama's response to the George Zimmerman verdict. As my dear brother is white, he wanted to know what I thought about it. After I listened, this is what I wrote to him... Ok brother, since you want me to listen and opine. I am not going to deal with the specifics of the Zimmerman case if I can help it, I am going to listen and opine on this statement. I will not edit before I send it either… Let me be clear, I despise pundits and punditry, they are hired killers, their purpose to divide and go as far to the extreme that they can, while hurling their turds at the other side, much as Gorillas do... 1) I am always put off by people who do not address the President by anything other than ‘President Obama’, or ‘The President’. It is disrespectful and done purposely. It is a common thing done on both...

(A Sermon Preached June 23, 2013)  We have been, in our church, working our way through the Bible, One chapter,  One book at a time for the last two years. In that time we have read the entire  New Testament, (yes, including the Revelation), and we are now reading through Genesis. We’re 22 Chapters in now. What that means essentially is that we’ve been spending a lot of time recently with Abraham and his family… Personally, I got stuck on Chapter 19, which means that I spent a Lot of time with Lot. I’d like to share with you what I learned from watching Lot and his drama. Lot was the quintessential ‘ordinary guy’’, the kind of guy that you tend to skip over. There is nothing special about him, nothing that makes him an ‘extraordinary man’. In many ways he’s just like us, and that actually makes him worth examining... Traditionally, we spend a lot of time studying the lives of the extraordinary people of the Bible.   People like David...

Note:   This piece came out of a debate that I was having on Facebook with a dear brother who is of the Arminian/Wesleyan/point of view... As I see it, the core problem here,  as always, is the sovereignty issue. Either we believe that salvation is a sovereign act of a sovereign God , or we believe that God’s will and salvific action is somehow secondary, or subordinate to man’s. So many believe that in fact God can only offer, in hopes that man will respond, but since they do not want to go quite that far, they’ll say that He, knowing that you would choose Him, chose you first. This is how most people try to rationalize Romans 8, and the doctrine of predestination. But it is, if you think about it carefully, quite silly actually. We ascribe complete sovereignty and omnipotence to God up until we get to man’s will. This appears to be God’s Kryptonite. He has the power to create and hang the stars, but cannot determine whether or not I’ll get sa...