Farmgirl Fare

I came accross this blog and realized this was the life I want. This is also what a 'blog' is supposed to be; clear, well written, fun, informative, intertaining and personal.

My rantings tend to be a bit pedantic and preachy and cover areas of life that this lovely soul would probably never need to concern herself with as I believe her life is probably quite full and complete with the living of life in its natural beauty. Yes, I am a bit jealous.

Take some time to spend on her site, get nostalgic, learn a few things and meet her barnyard companions. I know you will have a wonderful time.

"WE DON'T SEE THINGS AS THEY ARE, WE SEE THEM AS WE ARE." The Talmud

I came across this blog as it is the Blogsite of the Month for June at Blog Advance. I have not given much thought to this subject for a couple of years (although I am convinced the research clearly leans toward these conclusions) as I realized my giving energy to the emotions it was creating within me really had nowhere to be released.

You can generally convince people of small, seemingly inconsequential injustices being done to them, but to convince them of life and time changing plots against humanity on such a massive scale is too much for most people to even contemplate. It isn't a matter of researching and believing the government's line, it's a matter of it physically and emotionally hurting to even consider such a thing. It is easier to roll over and go back to sleep and force it out of our minds than to face the facts.

This became evident to me last week when the Pentagon released the videos from the gate taken on 9/11 showing the plane smashing into the side of the Pentagon. Why did it take them this long to release them when I have seen the exact same footage for the past 4 years on sites as proof of conspiracy?

Check it out and draw your own conclusions and then let me know what you think.

Canada Wants The Truth Too: Reopen 9/11 Investigations

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Go to KidSafeLand.com and watch the Canadian Television interview.

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The Actual Gospel of Jesus Christ (Part 5 of 5)
as presented by the early church

The gospel of God’s Grace.

Acts 20.24: “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me – the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.” (N.I.V.)

The English word grace translates the Greek word ‘charis’ which means ‘undeserved and unmerited favor’. However, more than merely God viewing mankind’s failings and saying ‘I forgive them’, charis denotes God acting to set things right, regardless of man’s sins. It is the hand of God extended in love to personally execute each stage of redemption, with the exception of forcing man to believe. Why, even the faith is a gift from God. (Eph. 2.8)

For the purposes of our study, we will limit ourselves to the relationship between the gospel message and God’s revelation of His grace.

In Acts 20, Paul is addressing the church in Ephesus before going on to Jerusalem. Verse 21 states, “…solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus verse we opened with, showing that he understood ‘the gospel of God’s grace’ to be almost solely concerned with tearing down the wall of division between the Jews and gentiles for the purpose of extending salvation to all peoples.

In the book of Romans, Paul expands and clarifies this issue throughout the first 11 chapters. It doesn’t take a degree in theology or 4 years of New Testament Greek to follow Paul’s logic; only to twist it to read the way dispensationalists force it to read.

If you can read English and have at your disposal a reputable translation of the Bible (or preferably several) then you will be able to understand exactly what Paul is trying to say.

Right off Paul states the issue clearly. In Chapter 1 verse 16, Paul says:

“For I am not ashamed of the good news (gospel), for it is God’s power for the salvation of everyone who has faith, of the Jew first and then of the Greek.” (Goodspeed) (also 2.7-16)

Romans 3.22-24 states:

“This righteousness from God comes through faith in Christ Jesus to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justifies freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (N.I.V.)

Furthermore, 4.16 says:

“Therefore, the promise (verse 13) comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring – not only to those who are of the law (2.17-24) but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.” (N.I.V.)

Please notice; Paul is stating that the promises to Abraham, which were given before the law was given through Moses, were meant for the Jews AND the gentiles and found fulfillment ONLY through Christ and ONLY in the church of God. This is not meant to sound anti-Semitic, which has been a term used against the Amillenialists form time to time. God has clearly included everyone under His condemnation as being sinful, Jew and gentile. He ahs also included everyone under His canopy of grace, Jew and gentile. The only requisite for inclusion in this grace is faith in Christ. Not bloodline, not national origin or religion; only faith in the resurrected Messiah.

I have touched only briefly and lightly in Romans. In order to receive the full brunt of the weight of what I am saying you will need to read the first 11 chapters, carefully and more than once. Not because the truths are hard to come by but because a faulty mind set is difficult to dispel. When I was introduced to this concept it was slow work, wading through the ocean of misconceptions I had learned in the 18 years I had been a believer. But once I realized I had been led astray of the full truth by the many (so called) Bible scholars I had trusted to teach me, the scriptures no longer held any mysteries or seeming contradictions. And you, too, will find it richly rewarding, if you take your blinders off and allow the scriptures to be their own interpreter.

We find an interesting statement in Galatians 5.4:

“You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.” (N.I.V.)

From this verse, as well as those studied in Romans, we see that the Jewish legal system, the Mosaic Law, is the antithesis of God’s grace. The law was given to the Jews through Moses; grace was given to the whole world through Jesus Christ.

According to Galatians:

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law…in order that the blessing to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.” (3.13, 14 N.I.V.)

“What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come.” (3.19)

“If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (3.29)

Listen to what Paul has said. Christ redeemed us in order that the blessing to Abraham might come to the Gentiles! Did Jesus fulfill all he set out to accomplish? Did Jesus leave some portion of his work of salvation to be consummated at some future date? Paul certainly didn’t think so.

· The gospel of the grace of God can be summed up like this.

· God revealed Himself to mankind through a few men in ages past.

· He chose a lineage for His son, the Messiah, to proceed through.

· In Abraham God found the blood line of the savior (Isaac, Judah, David, etc.) as well as the qualifying factor for salvation: Faith.

· The law was enacted to show how wicked the sinfulness of man was and to lead the Jews to Christ, and mankind with them.

· The grace of God was revealed in the act of God sending His son to die as penalty for our sins; the sins of all mankind, Jew and gentile.

The clear teaching of scripture is that salvation was always meant for all peoples, but God chose the children of Israel, Abraham’s descendants, to proclaim that good news. As Galatians 3.7, 8 says:

“Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. The scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”” (N.I.V.)

By the grace of God the ‘dividing wall of hostility’ was destroyed, Jew and gentile reconciled to God and a ‘new man’ created in Christ. (Eph. 2.11-18) This was God’s eternal purpose, (1.4, 5) and the Jews of Jesus’ time rejected it and bore the condemnation of Christ and the judgment of God.

“Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute form city to city, that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechia, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I say to you, all these things shall come upon this generation.” (Matt. 23.34-39 N.A.S.)

Now, and for the remainder of history, only a remnant of the Jewish nation will be saved, and that only through faith, just as the gentile nations.

“In the same way then, there has come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.” (Romans 11.5, 6 N.A.S.)

The Actual Gospel of Jesus Christ (Part 4)
as presented by the early church

The promises fulfilled.

Acts 13.23, 33 read, “WE tell you the good news: What God promised our fathers he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus.” (N.I.V.)

As gentile believers in the 20^th century, 2000 years removed from the incarnation of Christ, steeped in history and traditions far removed from the simpler Jewish lifestyle of that time, it doesn’t really surprise me that we tend to relegate most of the Old Testament scriptures to a time and a people either long gone or still in the future.

Deeply embedded in dispensational thinking is the idea that God had done something unique, almost unheard of, in building His church. One would get the impression from talking to them that the church was almost an afterthought, something God was pressed into because His chosen ones, the Jews, were rejecting His Messiah. Or that God, because of their rebellion, was forced to set them aside for a while to concentrate on the church, only to return to them after he was finished with the gentiles.

This simply is not true. This is contrary to the clear teaching of scripture and takes some pretty fancy footwork to make the Bible even LOOK like this is what is taught.

Using Acts 13 as a springboard, lets see what scripture has to say on the subject of the church and the Jewish nation, and what part this plays on our study.

Beginning at verse 13 we find Paul preaching on the Sabbath in the Synagogue in Pisidian Antioch. He addresses himself to the ‘men of Israel’ (v.16) and ‘children of Abraham’ (v.26) as well as the gentile converts to Judaism. He begins with an encapsulated history of the nation of Israel up to the advent of the Savior, his death at the hands of the people of Jerusalem and their leaders, and his being raised by God from the dead.

Verse 39 sums up the point of Paul’s message:

“Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the Law of Moses.” (N.I.V.)

Paul and Barnabas are invited back to speak on the following Sabbath, which is recorded in verses 44-48. This time news of Paul’s preaching had spread and almost the entire city came to hear him. This angered the Jews because this was a predominately gentile city in a gentile country, Galatia in Asia Minor.

Verses 45-47 read, “But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were very jealous, and they contradicted what Paul said and abused him. Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out plainly, and said, “God’s message had to be told to you first, but since you thrust it off and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we now turn to the heathen. For these are the orders the Lord has given us: I have made you a light for the heathen, to be a means of salvation to the very ends of the earth!”” (Goodspeed)

The message of Jesus’ birth, death and resurrection as fulfillment of prophecy is the good news, the gospel; but no less is the message that the good news of salvation was to be extended to the Gentiles as fulfillment of prophecy. All inclusive salvation, complete with birthrights and full privileges of sonship.

Acts 3.25, 26 reads, “You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ To you first, God, having raised up his Servant Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you you’re your iniquities.” (N.K.J.V.)

Peter here was addressing the Jews in Jerusalem long before his dealings with Cornelius and his revelation concerning calling anything unclean that God called clean. This is true. However, this narrative was compiled by Luke, a Gentile believer and close companion of Paul. Furthermore, although Peter may not have understood all the implications, he certainly knew God was desirous of somehow extending salvation to the Gentiles as he had surely heard the stories of the prophecies regarding the Christ (Luke 2.32, 3.6), his ministry before meeting Peter (Luke 4.24-27), as well as the years he spent physically traveling with Jesus, listening to his teachings (Matt. 8.10-13, 21.42-44, 23.35-39).

The importance of Acts 3.25, 26 is expanded in the teaching of Paul, not only in Acts, (26.6, 28.20, 28) but in nearly every epistle or letter he wrote he deals with this truth. However, possibly nowhere does he deal with it more bluntly or forcefully than in Galatians, written to the same people he was addressing in Acts 13.

Paul begins his letter by making sure the Galatian believers (most of whom were gentiles) understood how thoroughly believing his gospel and following Christ were intertwined. If you followed another gospel, a different gospel than taught by Paul in the beginning, you were turning away from Christ (1.6-9).

“I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you, and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even though we, or an angel form heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed.” (N.A.S.)

He goes on to state that the gospel he taught had not come to him through learning, not taught to him by men, but came to him be revelation of Jesus Christ (1.11, 12) with the purpose of outreach to the gentiles (v. 16).

Chapter 2, verses 11-21, give us not only an example of the deception of not being ‘straightforward about the truth of the gospel’ (v. 14), but also gives us some indication of the problem the Galatian churches were facing: Jewish legalism.

Paul destroys the arguments for legalism with his gospel, which in brief states:

· We have died to the law to live in Christ. (2.19, 21; 3.19)

· We are saved by faith and heirs of the promises of God through Abraham. (3.6, 8, 14-18)

· We, as believers, ‘are sons of Abraham’ (3.7), ‘sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus’ (3.26), ‘Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise’ (3.29)

What an incredible revelation. We, as gentile believers, are joint heirs with Christ (Romans 8.17), but even more:

“…as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” (Rom. 8.14) “…those who are the children of the flesh (the Jews), these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.” (Rom. 9.8) “Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.” (Gal. 3.7) “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Gal.3.29)

I hope you can see the importance of what Paul is saying. There are no promises or salvation for the nation of Israel outside of Jesus Christ! God has taken the believing Jews (the remnant) and believing gentiles and, through Jesus, has made a new man of the two, reconciling us both in one body through the cross. (Ephesians 2.14-22)

“For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.” 14-18 (N.I.V.)