Carnality and spirituality, rather than being categories or classes into which one enters in the Christian life, are characteristics or moral tendencies which one manifests in varying degree throughout the course of the Christian life. The ideal as set forth in Scripture is, of course, a progression that is always upward – away from manifestations of carnality and toward manifestations of maturity.
The Carnal Christian – Study of 1 Corinthians 3:1-3, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Carnality in the Christian, whenever and in whatever way it manifests itself, is a temporary condition. There is no basis in Scripture for the teaching that genuinely born again and justified Christians can persist, without great discomfort, in their sin (a discomfort, I might add, due to the promptings of the Holy Spirit or the chastisement of the Father, such as lead to repentance).
The Carnal Christian – Study of 1 Corinthians 3:1-3, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
What is “glory”?… Glory is the beauty of God unveiled! Glory is the resplendent radiance of His power and His personality. Glory is all of God that makes God, God, and shows Him to be worthy of our praise and our boasting and our trust and our hope and our confidence and our joy! Glory is the external elegance of the internal excellencies of God. Glory is what you see and experience and feel when God goes public with His beauty!
The Ultimate Aim of Theology, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
I simply define glory as the beauty of God unveiled. Glory is the resplendent radiance of His power and His personality. Glory is all of God that makes God God, and shows Him to be worthy of our praise and our boasting and our trust and our hope and our confidence and our joy.
One Thing, Christian Focus, © Enjoying God Ministries, 2004, p.34. www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
If we don’t know who God is and how He thinks and what He feels and why He does what He does, we have no grounds for joy, no reason to celebrate, no basis for finding satisfaction in Him.
One Thing, Christian Focus, © Enjoying God Ministries, 2004, p.81. www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Common grace [means] God not only restrains the full manifestation of the evil tendencies of the human heart but also, on a more positive note, enables the non-Christian to perform deeds of relative “good”.
Freedom and Depravity – Part I, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
The first aspect of common grace is what we might call negative or preventative. Its essential characteristic is that of restraint. Although the restraint that God places upon sin and its effects is neither complete (else no sin would exist at all) nor uniform (else all men would be equally evil or good), it is of such a nature that the expression and effects of human depravity are not permitted to reach the maximum height of which they are capable.
Sam Storms Freedom and Depravity – Part I, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
The second aspect of common grace is more positive in thrust. God not only restrains the sinful operations and effects of the human heart, He also bestows upon both nature and humanity manifold blessings both physical and spiritual. These blessings, however, fall short of redemption itself. The grace of God displayed throughout the created order is marvelous indeed (Psm. 65:9-13; 104:10-30; 130:25; 145:1-16).
Freedom and Depravity – Part I, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
The canon is closed, not because God has stopped speaking, nor because there are no more apostles, but because God sovereignly closed it. God simply ceased inspiring and preserving canonical revelation. Basing the finality of the canon on the cessation of apostleship is disastrous. How can the absence of apostles guarantee the closing of the canon when non-apostles wrote Scripture? Such a view would require us to assert, absurdly, that as long as there are non-apostolic Christians the canon is open!
Are Apostles for Today? November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
If we do not know who God is and how He thinks and what He does, we have no grounds for joy, no reason to celebrate, no basis for finding satisfaction in God. Delight in God cannot occur in an intellectual vacuum. Our joy is the fruit of what we know and believe to be true of God. Emotional heat (i.e., joy, delight, gladness of heart) apart from intellectual light (knowledge of God) is useless. Worse still, it is dangerous, for it inevitably leads to fanaticism and idolatry.
Arguments in Favor of Euthanasia:
1. Personhood – The argument is simple: someone in an irreversible coma is no longer a person but only a biological organism. The distinction is often made between a person’s biological life, or physical existence, and one’s biographical life, or the aspects of one’s life that make it meaningful. One’s biographical life is the sum total of one’s goals, desires, dreams, plans, accomplishments and relationships. Medical science has made it possible to retain one’s biological life after having lost one’s biographical life. Thus the individual exists only as a body, having lost the essence of what it is that makes him/her a person. Hence it is not murder to terminate what remains of one’s mere biological existence.
2. Quality of Life – In cases of unrelenting and unrelievable suffering where there is no reasonable hope of improvement, life ceases to be worth living. In such cases, an individual or his/her family ought to be free to say “enough is enough” and put an end to such incessant misery. No one should be compelled to live a life that they no longer regard as life worth living.
3. Mercy – We extend mercy to animals when we put them out of their misery. Why should we be less merciful to humans?
4. Utilitarian concerns – Most people cannot afford to underwrite the expense of keeping a terminally ill or comatose person alive. To do so places an unfair burden on other members of the family. Why should tax dollars and precious hospital space and technology be expended to perpetuate the life of someone who will never function in society again when there are other, potentially productive people, who cannot receive proper care?
Euthanasia, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Arguments Opposing Euthanasia:
1. The Sanctity of Life – Human life, because created in the image of God, is sacred. No measure is too extreme, no cost too high, to preserve what God has made.
2. Biblical prohibition vs. life-taking – Killing the innocent is condemned in both the OT and NT.
3. Hope – Medical history is filled with examples of people thought to have incurable/terminal diseases who were later healed when medical knowledge increased.
4. The value of suffering – The Bible says that people grow and mature and deepen in their understanding of and trust in God when they endure suffering. In other words, there is a sanctifying effect in physical suffering.
5. The biblical perspective on death – Death is the final indignity, no matter what form it takes. Death is the last enemy, to be resisted, not embraced.
6. Divine healing
7. The Slippery Slope – “Euthanasia will not be restricted to the terminally ill. Rather, it will be extended to people with varying quality of life circumstances. Opponents [of active euthanasia] fear that candidates for euthanasia will include the nonterminally ill, such as people with Alzheimer’s disease or other degenerative brain diseases, the severely mentally retarded, and handicapped newborns” (Rae, 173).
Euthanasia, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Men may live as if there is no God, but they cannot deny his existence.
General Revelation, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Before objecting to the doctrine of covenant or representative headship, remember this: only if Adam represents you in the Garden can Jesus represent you on Golgotha. It was on the cross that Jesus served as your representative head: His obedience to the law, His righteousness, His suffering the penalty of the law, were all the acts of a covenant head acting in the stead and on behalf of His people. If Adam stood for you in the garden, Christ may also hang for you on the cross.
Original Sin – Part I, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
10 Characteristics of Revival:
1. God draws near. God comes down.
2. Sin is sensed.
3. God’s Word is embraced.
4. The Church becomes the Church.
5. Evangelistic zeal is intensified. Love for the lost deepens.
6. Social justice is pursued.
7. Routine things occur rapidly.
8. God is enjoyed.
9. Worship is revitalized.
10. Shining faces!
Reflections in Revival, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Grace ceases to be grace if God is compelled to bestow it in the presence of human merit…. Furthermore, grace ceases to be grace if God is compelled to withdraw it in the presence of human demerit. Indeed, grace is seen to be infinitely glorious only when it operates, as Packer says, “in defiance of” human demerit. Therefore, grace is not treating a person less than, as, or greater than he deserves. It is treating a person without the slightest reference to desert whatsoever, but solely according to the infinite goodness and sovereign purpose of God.
Grace – Part 1, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
The most important thing to remember as we talk about sexual purity is this: God is for you! God wants you to win. People often view God as their adversary when it comes to sex: “He’s against me. He’s hates sex. I’m repulsive to Him. He’s ashamed of me for what I’ve done. And to be perfectly honest, I can’t blame Him much.” Misconceptions such as this only serve to convince us that our situation is hopeless and drive us farther away from the arms of Him whose love and support and affirmation are the only thing that will enable us to win this war with the flesh.
Sexual Morality, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Is it permissible to tithe? Not only is it permissible, I would strongly recommend and urge you to do so. In choosing to give 10% of our income to the Lord, we are honoring a God-given, Old Testament principle. In the absence of a prescribed percentage for giving in the New Testament, why not adopt the Old Testament pattern? This does not mean you are sinning if you don’t. To give only 8% or to give 12% is equally permissible. Not to give at all, or to give disproportionately to your income (which is the case with most Christians today), or to give grudgingly, is indeed sin. Let us be joyful and generous in our giving. After all, everything we own belongs to God anyway!
Tithing, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
There are several problems with the Arminian view:
1. The doctrine of prevenient grace, on which the Arminian view of conditional election is based, is not found in Scripture.
2. Note well that there is no reference in [Romans 8:29] to faith or free will as that which God allegedly foresees in men. It is not what He foreknows but whom.
3. [Arminianism] assumes that fallen men are able and willing to believe in Christ apart from the regenerating grace of God, a notion that Paul has denied in Rom. 3:10-18.
4. Would not this view give man something of which he may boast? Those who embrace the gospel would be deserving of some credit for finding within themselves what others do not.
5. This view suspends the work of God on the will of man. It undermines the emphasis in Romans 8:28-38 on the sovereign and free work of God who foreknows, predestines, calls, justifies, and glorifies. It is God who is responsible for salvation, from beginning to end.
6. Even if one grants that God elects based on His foreknowledge of man’s faith, nothing is proven. For God foreknows everything. One must determine from Scripture how man came by the faith that God foreknows. And the witness of Scripture is that saving faith is a gift of God (Eph. 2:8-10; Phil. 1:29; 2 Pet. 1:1; 2 Tim. 2:24-26; Acts 5:31; 11:18).
Excerpted from: Arminians and Prevenient Grace, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
If God truly desires for all to be saved in the way the Arminian contends, and if He knows what it is in the means of persuasion contained in the gospel that brings people to say yes, why doesn’t He orchestrate the presentation of the gospel in such a way that it will succeed in persuading all people to believe? The point is this: Surely the God who perfectly knows every human heart is capable of creating a world in which the gospel would prove successful in every case. And if God desires for all to be saved in the way the Arminian contends, why didn’t He?
Arminians and Prevenient Grace, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Since this drawing of people by the Father to the Son is always efficacious, it cannot refer to the so-called enabling grace of Arminianism. Do you recall what the Arminian believes? He believes that God restores in all men a power or an ability sufficient to enable them to come to Christ. Clearly this “universal enablement” cannot be the drawing that Jesus describes, Why not? Because millions and millions of men and women do not, in fact, come to Christ! And yet Jesus says that all who are given by the Father are drawn by the Father and shall come to Christ. There is no escaping the clear and unequivocal language of our Lord Jesus Christ: no one can come unless drawn by the Father; but if one is drawn by the Father he shall come.
A Defense of the Perseverance of the Saints – Part I, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
On the Arminian view, God’s justice makes it absolutely necessary that He do for one lost and undeserving sinner what He does for all. God was obligated by His own righteous character…to provide as much help, opportunity, and inducement unto salvation for Judas Iscariot as He did for the apostle Paul. Or, to put it in other terms, God is not sovereignly free to do for one sinner what He declines to do for another. He must do the same for
The Arminian Concept of Election. November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Why do we deny the possibility of redemption for fallen angelic beings?
1. There is no record of such in Scripture.
2. There is no record in Scripture of demonic repentance.
3. The impact of the cross on demons is always portrayed as judgment, never salvation (nowhere do we read of justification, forgiveness, redemption, adoption, regeneration, etc. being true of any angelic being).
4. Hebrews 2:14-17; Revelation 5:8-14.
Angels, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com, Used by Permission.
God created you for the first and greatest commandment, to be a lover of God.
One Thing, Christian Focus, © Enjoying God Ministries, 2004, p. 151, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
God created us so that the joy He has in Himself might be ours. God doesn’t simply think about Himself or talk to Himself. He enjoys Himself! He celebrates with infinite and eternal intensity the beauty of who He is as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And we’ve been created to join the party!
One Thing, Christian Focus, © Enjoying God Ministries, 2004, p.23. www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
The purpose of existence is the pursuit of enjoyment…in God! Our desires, affections, pursuits, all that we say and do, all that we love or hate, are to be measured by this single criterion and subordinated to this one end: happiness in God.
One Thing, Christian Focus, © Enjoying God Ministries, 2004, p.17. www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Why did God choose to create? Certainly not from the anguish born of need, as if creation might supply God what He lacked. God didn’t take inventory and suddenly realize there was a shortage that only you and I could fill up. So what prompted God to act? The source of God’s creative energy was the joy of infinite and eternal abundance! God chose to create from the endless and self-replenishing overflow of delight in Himself… God created us so that the joy He has in Himself might be ours. God doesn’t simply think about Himself or talk to Himself. He enjoys Himself! He celebrates with infinite and eternal intensity the beauty of who He is as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And we’ve been created to join the party!
A Christian Theory of Everything, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Creation in its totality exists as a means to the fulfillment of some specific purpose that terminates on and for the sake of Jesus Christ (see Col. 1:16; 2 Tim. 2:19).
Divine Decrees, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
I’m a hedonist because I believe it is impossible to desire pleasure too much. But I’m a Christian hedonist because I believe the pleasure we cannot desire too much is pleasure in God and all that He is for us in Jesus.
One Thing, Christian Focus, © Enjoying God Ministries, 2004, p.27. www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Your heart will always be drawn to whatever brings it greatest joy. Don’t apologize for it. This isn’t the result of poor nurture or genetic error or inadequate education. Far less is it the fruit of sin. God created you with a “joy meter” in your soul, such that you invariably choose whatever options in life register most loudly and most deeply. You may be emotionally bruised, perhaps black and blue, from beating up on yourself for wanting to feel good or for wanting to experience happiness and joy. Stop it! Don’t repent.
One Thing, Christian Focus, © Enjoying God Ministries, 2004, p.138-139. www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Your choice isn’t whether to passionately seek pleasure. Trust me, you do. Your only option is where you’ll look or whom you’ll love or whose offer of pleasure you’ll accept. I hardly need remind you, or perhaps I do, that the world will do everything in its power and employ whatever means necessary and spare no expense to capture the allegiance of your heart.
One Thing, Christian Focus, © Enjoying God Ministries, 2004, p.17. www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Inspiration… the related process whereby God preserved the biblical authors from error when communicating, whether by His voice or in writing, that which He had shown them. The Holy Spirit superintended the writing of Scripture, that is to say, He acted to insure that what the human authors intended by their words is equivalent to what God intended… The Spirit thus brought the free and spontaneous thoughts of the human author into coincidence with the thoughts of God.
Special Revelation I, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
I do believe in the salvation of those dying in infancy. I affirm their salvation, however, neither because they are innocent nor because they have merited God’s forgiveness but solely because God has sovereignly chosen them for eternal life, regenerated their souls, and applied the saving benefits of the blood of Christ to them apart from conscious faith.
Are Those Who Died in Infancy Saved? November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Calvinists insist that the sole cause of regeneration or being born again is the will of God. God first sovereignly and efficaciously regenerates, and only in consequence of that do we act. Therefore, the individual is passive in regeneration, neither preparing himself nor making himself receptive to what God will do. Regeneration is a change wrought in us by God, not an autonomous act performed by us for ourselves. Man’s status in regard to regeneration is that of a recipient, not a contributor. Man is spiritually, in relation to regeneration, what Lazarus was physically, in relation to resurrection: dead, passive, unable to do anything at all, wholly subject to the will of Him who gives life and breath to whomever He desires.
Order of Salvation, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Scripture does not portray people as merely sick or even confined to intensive care. They are spiritually dead. They are religious and moral cadavers! Yes, people are very much alive physically and mentally and emotionally. But they are dead spiritually. This is not to say that faith and repentance are unnecessary. If a man is to be saved it will be through faith, or not at all. But because he is spiritually lifeless (Eph. 2:1-2), he must first be made alive by the power of God’s grace before he is able to repent and believe.
Freedom and Depravity – Part II, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
What elevates the human soul and empowers it to live in the fullness of its created purpose is not religious intimidation or new rules or an anxiety induced by spiritual scoldings. It is faith in the promise that the enjoyment sin brings is fleeting and futile, but at God’s right hand, and in the presence of His radiant glory, are pleasures evermore (Ps. 16:11).
One Thing, Christian Focus, © Enjoying God Ministries, 2004, p.130. www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Satan’s “fiery darts” do not easily penetrate a mind captivated by the beauty of Christ. When our hearts beat with perpetual fascination and our thoughts are filled with the beauty and splendor and adequacy of God, little room is left for the devil to gain a foothold (see Phil. 4:8).
Tactics of Temptation, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Several inadequate definitions of miracles need to be rejected:
1. Some define a miracle as a direct intervention of God into the world. But “intervention…into” implies that God is outside the world and only occasionally intrudes.
2. Some define a miracle as God working in the world apart from means to bring about the desired result. But God often uses “means” or “instruments” in performing the miraculous, as in the case of Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000.
3. Others define a miracle as God acting contrary to natural law. But this implies there are forces (“natural laws”) which operate independently of God, forces or laws that God must violate or override to perform a miracle. God is the author and providential Lord over all natural processes.
Introduction to Divine Healing, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
The reason people do not come to Christ is not because they lack a will, or a mind, or feelings, or even lack opportunity and occasion. Their not coming to Christ is due to their moral and spiritual refusal to do so, a refusal in which they willingly and freely delight. If they cannot come it is not because God will not let them. It is because it is their nature not to want to come. In sum, their not coming is not because of a physical defect but because of a moral refusal.
A Defense of the Perseverance of the Saints – Part I, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
According to this doctrine [of total depravity], man in his present condition since the fall is so polluted with a principle of evil that every aspect of his being and personality is affected by it. The term depravity refers to the moral disposition or inclination of fallen man’s nature toward evil and against good. This principle of sin and moral pollution is such that man is by nature opposed to what is true and righteous. The inclination of his heart, the delight of his soul, the orientation of his will is toward wickedness. Nothing compels him to sin. He sins because he loves it. He revels in it. He has no taste for God, but relishes evil and pursues it with voluntary zeal.
Freedom and Depravity – Part I, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
When I speak of total depravity I do not mean that all men are as depraved as they possibly can be, nor that the depravity of their heart will always manifest itself equally in all respects at all times. Total depravity simply means that the whole of the individual, his heart, soul, spirit, and will, is affected by and enslaved to sin, thereby rendering him odious in the sight of God. What this means in terms of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that if left to himself a person will invariably, inevitably, and without pause reject the truth. Total depravity means that no matter how “civil” or “compassionate” or “industrious” or “law-abiding” he might otherwise be in his dealings with other people, he is utterly and willfully indisposed to all that Christ is and says. Merely preaching to that person will profit nothing.
Freedom and Depravity – Part I, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Adultery is an obvious violation of the rights of another. You are stealing what doesn’t belong to you.
Copied from: Pleasures Evermore: The Life-Changing Power of Knowing God by Sam Storms, © 2000, p. 231. Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.org. All rights reserved.
Worship is eminently practical because adoring and affectionate praise is what restores our sense of ultimate value. It exposes the worthless and temporary and tawdry stuff of this world. Worship energizes the heart to seek satisfaction in Jesus alone. In worship we are reminded that this world is fleeting and unworthy of our heart’s devotion. Worship connects our souls with the transcendent power of God and awakens in us appreciation for true beauty. It pulls back the veil of deception and exposes the ugliness of sin and Satan. Worship is a joyful rebuke of the world. When our hearts are riveted on Jesus everything else in life becomes so utterly unnecessary and we become far less demanding.
One Thing, Christian Focus, © Enjoying God Ministries, 2004, p.70-71. www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
[A believer’s judgment is] not penal, but retributive, not a declaration of doom, but an assessment of worth; eternal destiny not at issue; eternal reward is; an evaluation of faithfulness and service within God’s family; this judgment does not determine entrance into the kingdom, but rather the status of those already admitted.
Individual Eschatology, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
My conclusion is that the local church is to be governed by a plurality of individuals who are described in the New Testament as elders, insofar as they hold an office of great dignity and importance (perhaps even with an allusion to age or at least spiritual maturity), or bishops, insofar as they exercise oversight of the body of Christ, or pastors, insofar as they spiritually feed, care for, and exercise guardianship over the flock of God.
Men and Women in ministry: Should Women Serve as Elders in the Local Church? November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Five reasons why I believe expository preaching is superior to all other styles:
1. Expository preaching models and teaches the congregation how to read and study the Bible for themselves. Most Christians will mimic (in a good sense) the model they see and hear week in and week out in the pulpit. The way they see and hear their pastor approach and handle and proclaim the Scriptures will become, often unconsciously, the way they do so in their own study and devotional life.
2. Expository preaching is the most effective way to teach the content of the Bible. Exposition unpacks for people both the broad sweep of God?s activity in redemptive history and the particular principles and truths of theology so essential for growth in Christ.
3. Expository preaching is the most effective way for the preacher to learn the content of the Bible. The sort of preparatory study essential to preach expositionally enhances the preacher?s growth in the knowledge of the Word in a way that other forms of preaching do not. When one is compelled to preach systematically through a book of the Bible, the preacher finds that he must address a greater number of issues and problems than would otherwise readily spring to mind.
4. Expository preaching is a check against hobby-horse preaching. That is to say, preaching verse-by-verse through a book of the Bible guards the preacher from obsessive preoccupation with his own cherished themes, which are all too often remote from either the interests or needs of the congregation.
5. Expository preaching insures that the people of God will be fed a full, well-balanced diet of the Word of God. The Scriptures are such that consistent exposition will yield teaching on the full range of theological issues, ethics (both individual and corporate), family obligations, social responsibility, etc.
An Appeal to All Preachers: Why and How We Should Preach – Part III, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
We are now the Temple of God! If the inanimate structure of the old covenant trembled and shook at God’s presence, what is our response, we in whom this same glorious and holy God now lives? How can there be the slightest indifference or coldness or routine or mere ritual or mindless habit in our worship when this same God lives and abides in us?
Copied from: Pleasures Evermore: The Life-Changing Power of Knowing God by Sam Storms, © 2000, p. 140. Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.org. All rights reserved.
Don’t believe the propaganda the world is peddling. This is not God’s way of robbing you of fun and pleasure. It is His passionate desire to intensify it. This prohibition exists in order to protect and preserve the beauty and joy of marital sex. Our laws against theft and murder exist because of the high value we place on personal property and human life. So, too, with this prohibition against illicit sex. The purpose is to guard, preserve, and enhance something far more exciting and fun and full of pleasure, namely, marital love.
Sexual Morality, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
We become like that which we behold. We will never be transformed into the likeness of God or be conformed to the image of Christ Jesus until we learn how to behold His beauty. To see Him is to be like Him. As David beheld the beauty of the Lord, as he meditated on the glorious perfections and passions of God’s character, he became more like God. More than that, he fell ever more in love with God.
Copied from: Pleasures Evermore: The Life-Changing Power of Knowing God by Sam Storms, © 2000, p. 54-55. Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.org. All rights reserved.
Is a Christian couple free to take steps to avoid ever having any children? The issue here is one of motive: Wrong motives for being childless:
1. The world is over-crowded.
2. The world is too corrupt.
3. “We don’t like kids!”
4. “We want the money and time to spend on ourselves.”
Right motives for being childless:
1. If there is good reason to believe the parents would pass on a genetically fatal disease.
2. If you are physically able to have kids but physically unable to raise and nurture them.
3. If children would impede a clear call to ministry (missionaries).
4. If you are financially unable to provide for them (but this is only legitimate for delaying the bearing of children, not for not having any at all, ever).
Birth Control, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
My conclusion is that the Bible nowhere prohibits the use of birth control. But are there any texts that suggest or imply that birth control is morally permissible?
1. 1 Corinthians 7:5 – “While this passage does not mention contraception, it does carry important implications for the discussion. Here it seems evident that God’s will for the Christian couple is not “maximum fertility,” i.e., the maximum number of conceptions biologically possible during the course of a Christian marriage. By mutual agreement, sexual relations may be renounced for a time in order to pursue spiritual objectives – in this case, prayer. The larger principle would be that Christian couples have the right to choose to “override” the usual responsibility to procreate (Gen. 1:28) for a season in order to pursue a spiritual good” (John Jefferson Davis, Evangelical Ethics, P&R, 2004, p. 39).
2. 1 Corinthians 7:26-28 – Here Paul advises Christians to avoid taking on the responsibilities of family life due to the impending persecution.
3. 1 Timothy 5:8 – This text not only demands that we work or in some way provide financially and physically for our family, but also forbids us doing anything that would hinder such care, even if we are employed. We are forbidden to take on obligations, no matter how well intentioned, which would lead us to fail to provide basic necessities for those who are dependent upon us.
Birth Control, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
God’s decretive will [also called His hidden, sovereign or efficacious will] refers to the secret, all-encompassing divine purpose according to which He foreordains whatsoever comes to pass. His preceptive will refers to the commands and prohibitions in Scripture. One must reckon with the fact that God may decree what He has forbidden. That is to say, His decretive will may have ordained that event x shall occur, whereas Scripture, God’s preceptive will [also called His revealed or moral will], orders that event x should not occur.
Are There Two Wills in God? November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Perhaps the best example [of God’s two wills] is found in Acts 2:22-23 and 4:27-28. Here we see that in some sense God “willed” the delivering up of his Son while in another sense “did not will” it because it was a sinful thing for his executioners to do.
Are There Two Wills in God? November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
It strikes some as odd to say that Satan has a strategy. They mistakenly conclude that because our Enemy is sinful he must be equally stupid. Such reasoning has been the downfall of many in the body of Christ. He does not act haphazardly or without a goal in view.
Tactics of Temptation, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Whatever and whenever God blesses, Satan curses. What God creates, Satan counterfeits.
Reflections in Revival, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Satan will always claim to know more about God than God Himself has revealed. He will claim to have special insight into God’s motives for a command or a prohibition that God Himself has kept secret. In other words, he will sow seeds of doubt in your mind concerning God’s goodness; he will lead you to believe that God has ulterior motives in what He does designed to deprive you of blessings you might otherwise experience. “God is not telling you the whole truth. He can’t afford to.”
Confronting Spiritual Warfare, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Rarely, if ever, will Satan confront you as Satan. He will almost always approach you indirectly, disguised as someone or something who/that is more likely to win your trust (e.g., when Peter opposed Jesus’ going to Jerusalem in Mt. 16). He will come to you through something you hear or see, perhaps a movie, a lecture by a brilliant, articulate, but pagan professor, through a well-meaning friend, or as an angel of light. After all, if you knew it was Satan, you’d be less inclined to listen or say yes.
Confronting Spiritual Warfare, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
1. A person of integrity fulfills his or her promises. Being true to one’s word, especially when doing so is costly (in terms of money, convenience, physical welfare, and so on), is a core characteristic of integrity.
2. A person of integrity speaks the truth, is honest, and does not lie.
3. A person of integrity is a person of sincerity. That is to say, a person of integrity hates hypocrisy.
4. A person of integrity manifests a wholeness of character, including kindness, compassion, mercy, and gentleness.
5. A person of integrity is committed to the pursuit and maintenance of justice and fairness.
6. A person of integrity loves as, when, and what God loves.
7. A person of integrity is humble. He or she shuns pride and haughtiness.
8. A person of integrity is law-abiding. He or she plays by the rules, both in the Bible and the law of the land.
9. A person of integrity is fundamentally altruistic. That is to say, he is committed not simply to laws and rules but to people. Could a selfish person have much integrity? What about someone who is honest, law-abiding, and fulfills his or her promises but is self-absorbed and egocentric? Does the latter eliminate the possibility of integrity?
10. A person of integrity manifests a high degree of consistency. That is to say, he or she is not always changing the principles on the basis of which they live, unless compelled to do so by the Bible or rational persuasion.
Copied from: Pleasures Evermore: The Life-Changing Power of Knowing God by Sam Storms, © 2000, p. 245-246. Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.org. All rights reserved.
Often, if there is no risk of loss or painful consequences, one will never know if one has integrity. One will never know if what motivates you is moral conviction or moral convenience until you are forced to suffer loss for standing your ground or keeping your word.
Integrity, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
The external call may therefore be defined as the presentation of the gospel and offer of salvation to all sinners. This call or invitation to come to Christ to receive the forgiveness of sins is indiscriminate, which is to say it is not restricted to any one group, age, class, or nation. [It] is simply the command of God that all men everywhere should repent and believe in order that they might be saved (see Matt. 11:28; 28:19; Luke 24:47; John 16:7-8; Acts 17:30; Rev. 22:17). This call, because it is external only, may be resisted and refused (see especially Acts 7:51; John 16:7-11).
Order of Salvation, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
The “internal” call, on the other hand, may be defined as that summons by which God not only invites a woman externally in the gospel, but also internally enables her to respond to it. Thus the internal call is, in a sense, the external call with an added dimension. Attendant with the spoken word of the gospel is the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit which irresistibly secures a positive, saving response from the one called.
Order of Salvation, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Although the internal call which comes only to the elect is ultimately efficacious, it is not always immediately efficacious. Many of the elect hear the external call of the gospel for years and resist the summons in persistent, callous unbelief… But eventually, if they are elect, in God’s appointed time they will believe.
Order of Salvation, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
The first and possibly most fundamental characteristic of divine grace is that it presupposes sin and guilt. Grace has meaning only when men are seen as fallen, unworthy of salvation, and liable to eternal wrath… Grace does not contemplate sinners merely as undeserving but as ill-deserving… It is not simply that we do not deserve grace; we do deserve hell.
The Grandeur of God, Baker, 1984, p. 124.
If only for a moment, take your eyes off yourself and your circumstances, off the ways of this world and all rival claimants, and look at who God is. Ponder His mighty deeds. This isn’t to say your soul or circumstances aren’t important. It simply means that you are in the hands of an omnipotent God whose ability to act on your behalf is equaled only by His passionate affection for you as His child, whose strength is without end and whose sovereignty covers the expanse of the heavens. God’s desire isn’t to minimize your life and struggles and disappointments. His intent is for you to gain hope, knowing that nothing can wrench you from the loving arms of a God like this!
One Thing, Christian Focus, © Enjoying God Ministries, 2004, p.100. www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
God can do all He wills (and does) but need not do all He can (and does not). That is to say, God’s infinite power is manifested in the works of creation, but isn’t exhausted by them. God could have created more than He has, if He so pleased. What God has done, therefore, is no measure of what He could have done or can do.
One Thing, Christian Focus, © Enjoying God Ministries, 2004, p.119. www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
If you were to take every single, solitary grain of sand off of every square inch of beach on the face of the earth, you wouldn’t equal the number of stars in the galaxies of the universe. And your God made them all! More amazing still, He named them all! The psalmist declared, “He determines the number of the stars; He gives to all of them their names” (Ps. 147:4).
One Thing, Christian Focus, © Enjoying God Ministries, 2004, p.92. www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Often the person [wrongly] defines “Calvinism” as a rigid, fatalistic system of theology, devoid of life and joy, in which God is portrayed as a celestial bully who takes sadistic glee in sending people to hell whether they deserve it or not. “If that is what you mean by ‘Calvinist’, then I most assuredly am not one!”
What is Election? November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Worship without wonder is lifeless and boring. Many have lost their sense of awe and amazement when it comes to God. Having begun with the arrogant presumption of knowing about God all that one can, they reduce Him to manageable terms and confine Him to a tidy theological box, the dimensions of which conform to their predilections of what a god ought to be and do.
One Thing, Christian Focus, © Enjoying God Ministries, 2004, p.69-70. www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
This is the glory and miracle of grace, that God, through the Holy Spirit, is able to transform a stubborn, rebellious, and unbelieving will into a passionate, obedient, believing will without violating the integrity of the individual or diminishing the voluntary nature of one’s decision to trust Christ for salvation.
Order of Salvation, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Inwardly and subjectively, that is, beneath the level of consciousness, the Holy Spirit effects a transformation of the mind and will which inevitably and irresistibly issues in the conscious acquiescence of the person to the truth of the gospel. Prior to this effectual transformation, the person is unwilling to believe. Subsequent to it, he is willing to believe and, in fact, does believe. If God did not at some point make us willing to believe we would forever have remained unwilling and consequently lost. In this sense the grace of effectual calling and regeneration is, properly speaking, irresistible.
Order of Salvation, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
To obey God as though it were a matter of works is to obey out of your own strength with a view to your own merit. To obey God as though it were a matter of faith is to obey out of His own strength with a view to his glory.
Integrity, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
God limits the happiness and pleasure we have now precisely so we might not become attached to this world or dependent upon it or fearful of leaving it (dying), as well as to stir in our hearts a longing and yearning and holy anticipation for what is yet to come.
One Thing, Christian Focus, © Enjoying God Ministries, 2004, p.177. www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
The Bible teaches that all sin, past, present, and future, is forgiven through faith in the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Eternal destiny is sealed and set at the moment of justifying faith. Our depth of intimacy, fellowship and joy is certainly affected adversely when we fail to confess and repent of daily sin. But our eternal destiny has already and forever been determined. We must recognize the distinction between the eternal forgiveness of the guilt of sin that is ours the moment we embrace Jesus in faith, and that temporal forgiveness of sin we receive on a daily basis that enables us to experience the happiness of intimacy with the Father.
Suicide, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Human genius cannot account for the knowledge of God. Neither native abilities, education, nor human will power can attain insight into the character and heart of God. God is known by “a divine and supernatural light” (Jonathan Edwards). The youngest and lowliest of children can exceed the oldest and most elevated of scientists when it comes to the knowledge of God!
Divine Election: How and Why Does God Choose? – Part I, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
[Jonathan] Edwards bases this distinction on the difference between two ways of knowing. On the one hand, there is knowledge that is merely speculative, notional, a mere cognitive awareness of some truth. On the other hand, there is what Edwards calls “the sense of the heart” in which one recognizes the beauty or amiableness or sweetness of that truth and feels pleasure and delight in it. It is the difference between knowing or believing that God is holy and having a “sense” of or enjoying His holiness. “There is a difference between having a rational judgment that honey is sweet, and having a sense of its sweetness.” Thus “when the heart is sensible of the beauty and amiableness of a thing, it necessarily feels pleasure in the apprehension.”
Divine Election: How and Why Does God Choose? – Part I, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
So here’s how to avoid hypocrisy in fasting. If at any point, while fasting, you find yourself thinking, “God will love me more…God will surely be impressed with me now!” get in your car and go eat a McDonald’s Quarterpounder! If you are the least way tempted to believe, “God will bless me more…He will have no choice but to regard my righteousness!” go eat the biggest greasiest pizza you can find! If it crosses your mind, “I’m better than others who don’t fast, and I sure hope they recognize it as clearly as I do!” go to an all-you-can-eat smorgasbord!
Copied from: Pleasures Evermore: The Life-Changing Power of Knowing God by Sam Storms, © 2000, p. 181-182. Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.org. All rights reserved.
While in the body we do not literally see Christ…rather walk by faith in the physically absent and unseen Lord. Death brings us into spatial proximity and visible contact with Christ. Thus death, rather than severing our spiritual relationship with Christ, heightens and enhances it! Death brings us into the immediate vision of our Savior and the increased intimacy of fellowship which it entails.
Individual Eschatology, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
The basis for our security in salvation is not ultimately our righteousness or obedience but God’s promise, God’s power, God’s purpose, and most of all God’s passionate love for us in Christ. God is committed to preserving us in faith, for if we were to stumble so as to fully and finally fall away, God stands more to lose than we do.
A Defense of the Perseverance of the Saints – Part II, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
God’s goodness is but the inclination and resolve of His nature to promote the welfare and happiness of His creatures. This more general attribute of goodness may be manifested in the delay of penal judgment, in which case we speak of God’s longsuffering. God’s goodness as manifested in the restoration of the wretched is what the Bible calls mercy. Likewise, God’s goodness as manifested toward the guilty and undeserving is referred to in Scripture as grace.
Grace – Part 1, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
In respect to justification, grace stands opposed to works (Rom. 4:4-5; 11:6). However, in respect to sanctification, grace is the source of works. This simply means that whereas we are saved by grace and not of works, we are saved by grace unto good works. Good works are the fruit, not the root, of God’s saving grace (see esp. Eph. 2:8 -10).
Grace – Part 1, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
“I will never leave you nor forsake you.” If God really means that, then I don’t need to crave after money as the source of my security and identity and pleasure. I can find all that and more in the enjoyment of intimacy with the God who promises never to leave! The bondage to money and what it can do for us is only broken by believing that God can do far more. Money makes a promise. So does God. The question is: Whom will you believe?
One Thing, Christian Focus, © Enjoying God Ministries, 2004, p.155-156. www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
There are at least 3 kinds of Christian faith:
1. Saving faith (product of the new birth).
2. Sanctifying faith (the fruit of the Holy Spirit), which comes in two forms:
a. Our faith/belief in the truth of God’s Word (faith in the doctrines of the Bible).
b. Faith in the trustworthiness/goodness of God Himself.
3. Supernatural faith (a spontaneous gift of the Holy Spirit).
Ephesian 6 – Part 2, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com, Used by Permission.
The key to holiness? Eating and drinking and enjoying and delighting in all that God is for you in His Son. The key to holiness is falling in love with Jesus.
Copied from: Pleasures Evermore: The Life-Changing Power of Knowing God by Sam Storms, © 2000, p. 164. Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.org. All rights reserved.
[Jesus Christ] is the reason, the goal, the aim, the intent, the point, the purpose, the end, the terminus, the consummation and culmination of every molecule that moves (Col. 1:16).
One Thing, Christian Focus, © Enjoying God Ministries, 2004, p.107. www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Spirit-baptism is instantaneous (i.e., it is not a process), coincident or simultaneous with conversion, universal (i.e., all Christians are recipients), unrepeatable (one is only baptized in the Spirit once) [and] permanent (it cannot be lost or forfeited).
The Filling and Anointing of the Holy Spirit – Part I, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Spirit-baptism is a metaphor that describes our reception of the Holy Spirit at the moment of our conversion to Jesus in faith and repentance. When we believe and are justified, we are, as it were, deluged and engulfed by the Holy Spirit; we are, as it were, immersed in and saturated by the Spirit. [The] results:
1. We are made members of the body of Christ, incorporated into the spiritual organism called the church (1 Cor. 12:13).
2. The Holy Spirit comes to indwell us permanently.
Baptism of the Holy Spirit – Part I, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Legalism is the tendency to regard as divine law things which God has neither required nor forbidden in Scripture and the corresponding inclination to look with suspicion on others for their failure or refusal to conform.
Legalism vs. Liberty, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Is there anyone among you who truly thinks their salvation hangs suspended on the thin thread of your own will-power and commitment to righteousness? I know my own soul all too well. Were it not for God’s preserving grace I would have lost my salvation the day after I was born again. “If ever it should come to pass, that sheep of Christ might fall away, my fickle, feeble soul, alas! would fall a thousand times a day!” If you do not believe in the security of your soul in Christ, tomorrow should hold little but fear and misery and perhaps despair for you. For it may well be the day you commit that sin that will forever sever you from the Savior’s love. I can face tomorrow and the day after and the day after that with confidence, because I know that He “will never leave me nor forsake me” (Heb. 13:5).
A Defense of the Perseverance of the Saints – Part II, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
“And they shall never perish” (Jn. 10:28). Literally [we can translate this] they shall not, by no means ever, perish. This is an absolute, unequivocal, unassailable negative. Would Jesus have said this if in fact many of his sheep shall perish? If so much as one true child of God can ever perish, Jesus has deceived us.
A Defense of the Perseverance of the Saints – Part I, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
If the Father was pleased to make a gift of certain sinners to His most blessed Son, you may rest assured that the Son will neither despise nor deny His Father’s gracious generosity. [There is] the certainty of ultimate and absolute salvation for those who come to the Son… Their life in Christ is eternal and irrevocable because that is the will of the Father; a will or a purpose that the whole of Christ’s person and work was designed to secure, a will or purpose that shall ultimately be (Psm. 115:3; 135:6; Dan. 4:34-35; Eph. 1:11; Ac. 4:28). What did Jesus come to do? He came to do the Father’s will (Jn. 6:38). What is the Father’s will? The Father’s will is that all those He has given to the Son be fully and finally saved (Jn. 6:39). Oh, what a glorious thought it is!
A Defense of the Perseverance of the Saints – Part I, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
If a true believer could fully and finally fall away, what it would mean for God the Holy Spirit?
1. The Holy Spirit will have failed in his work of sealing (2 Cor. 1:21-22; Eph. 1:13-14; 4:30).
2. The Holy Spirit will have failed in his ministry as a pledge of the future consummation of our redemption (2 Cor. 1:21-22; 5:5).
3. The Spirit will have failed in his ministry as firstfruits (Rom. 8:23).
A Defense of the Perseverance of the Saints – Part II, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
One of the greatest mistakes made by those who deny the perseverance of the saints is in focusing on the strength of our will to rebel rather than the strength of God’s commitment to preserve us in faith. Do you actually believe that in His infinite wisdom and love and kindness and grace that He cannot figure out a way to overcome whatever rebellious tendencies you might have and keep you safe in His arms? Do you actually believe that you are able to outsmart Divine Omniscience?
The Persevering Power of a Father’s Love, November 7, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
The Bible simply records the occurrences of six suicides without making a moral evaluation: The case of Abimelech in Judges 9:50-57; the case of Samson in Judges 16:28-30 (although some are not convinced this is suicide in the strict sense of the term); Saul and his armor-bearer in 1 Samuel 31:1-6; 2 Samuel 1:1-15; 1 Chron. 10:1-13; Ahithophel in 2 Samuel 17:23; Zimri in1 Kings 16:18-19; and Judas Iscariot in Matthew 27:5. It is worth noting that in each of these cases the suicide is the end to a life that did not (at least in its latter stages) meet with God’s approval. Is there any significance in the fact that the only recorded instances of suicide in the Bible are of those in moral and spiritual rebellion against God?
Suicide, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Is suicide the unpardonable sin? People have often taken this view because suicide leaves no room for repentance; a person enters eternity with unconfessed and therefore unforgiven sin. But:
1. Nowhere does the Bible say that suicide is an unforgiveable or unpardonable sin.
2. The Bible teaches that all sin, past, present, and future, is forgiven through faith in the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Eternal destiny is sealed and set at the moment of justifying faith. Our depth of intimacy, fellowship and joy is certainly affected adversely when we fail to confess and repent of daily sin. But our eternal destiny has already and forever been determined. We must recognize the distinction between the eternal forgiveness of the guilt of sin that is ours the moment we embrace Jesus in faith, and that temporal forgiveness of sin we receive on a daily basis that enables us to experience the happiness of intimacy with the Father.
3. Numerous instances of sudden death may bring a Christian into eternity before he/she had opportunity to confess and repent. Common sense reveals that many, if not most, of us will die with unrepented sins.
Suicide, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Is suicide ever morally permissible?
1. What moral judgment do we make in the case of the soldier who falls on a live grenade to save the life of his friend?
2. What moral judgment do we make in the case of the destitute mother who stops eating what little food remains in order that her child may live?
3. What moral judgment do we make in the case of the POW who swallows a cyanide capsule, knowing that otherwise he will be brainwashed and tortured into divulging crucial information that will be used to the detriment and perhaps death of his countrymen?
4. What moral judgment do we make in the case of the husband with a lengthy terminal illness who takes his own life lest his medical expenses drain the meager financial resources on which his aged wife must depend for her future welfare?
5. What moral judgment do we make…of a soldier trapped in a burning tank from which there is no hope of escape. Is it morally permissible for him to end his life with a gunshot to the head rather than to die in agony in that fiery inferno?
6. What about the Christian in the third century who is given a choice: either deny Jesus or be thrown to the lions? By refusing to deny Jesus, the believer chooses a course of action that she knows will result in her death.
7. What about the Jehovah’s Witness who is accidentally shot by a robber and, because of religious convictions, refuses the blood transfusion necessary to save her life? She dies because of a deliberate choice on her part.
Excerpted from: Suicide, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
The biblical view of the body is…quite positive:
1. God created us as physical beings. We are both material and immaterial (Gen. 2:7).
2. The body must be distinguished from the flesh.
3. The importance of the body is seen in the fact that:
a. Our bodies were redeemed by the blood of Christ no less than our souls (1 Cor. 6:20).
b. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19).
c. Our bodies are designed “for the Lord” (1 Cor. 6:13).
d. Our bodies are members of Christ Himself (1 Cor. 6:15).
e. Our bodies are capable of being sinned against (1 Cor. 6:18).
f. Our bodies are to be used to honor God (1 Cor. 6:20).
4. Our bodies will be resurrected and glorified. In other words, we will spend eternity as physically glorified beings (Rom. 8:11, 23; 1 Cor. 15:35-49).
5. At the judgment seat of Christ we will have to give an account for what we have done in our bodies.
Introduction to Divine Healing, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Jesus will come bathed in radiant splendor, enveloped within an atmosphere of indescribable brilliance, surrounded by the ear-piercing praise of angels and saints. Scintillating light shining from His eyes. Irresistible power pouring from His hands. None will deny His beauty or escape its transforming energy.
One Thing, Christian Focus, © Enjoying God Ministries, 2004, p.187. www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Sin is the misguided and selfish determination to seek happiness in places where ultimately only emptiness and disillusionment are found. Spiritual hunger is not sin. Sin is declining God’s offer of filet mignon to fill our spiritual bellies with rancid ground beef.
One Thing, Christian Focus, © Enjoying God Ministries, 2004, p. 28, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Often we refuse to forgive others because we mistakenly think that to do so is to minimize their sin. “And that’s not fair! He really hurt me. If I forgive, who’s going to care for me and take up my cause and nurse my wounds?” God is. We must never buy into the lie that to forgive means that sin is being whitewashed or ignored or that the perpetrator is not being held accountable for his/her actions. It simply means we consciously choose to let God be the one who determines the appropriate course of action in dealing justly with the offending person… To long for justice is entirely legitimate, but to seek it for yourself is not. Let God deal with the offender in his own way at the appropriate time. He’s much better at it than your or I.
Forgiveness: What It Is, What It Is Not, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
[Forgiveness] is [often] deciding to live with the painful consequences of another person’s sin. You are going to have to live with it anyway, so you might as well do it without the bitterness and rancor and hatred that threaten to destroy your soul.
Forgiveness: What It Is, What It Is Not, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
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