A couple quotes from one of my favorite books. Religion Saves: And Nine Other Misconceptions

As a sinner by nature, I am..
Evil continually (Gen 6:5)
Impure (Prov 20:9)
Full of evil and madness (Eccl 9:3)
Wicked & Estranged (Ps 58:3)
Going my own way (Isa 53:6)
Rebellious (Isa 65:2)
Among those who have loved the darkness (John 3:19)
A slave to sin (John 8:34; Rom 6:20)
A child of the devil (John 8:43-44
A stiff-necked resister of the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51)
Having a hard and impenitent heart (Rom 2:4-6)
Without fear of God (Rom 3:10-18)
Hostile to God (Rom 8:7)
Spiritually foolish (1 Cor 2:14)
Spiritually dead and amongst the children of wrath (Eph 2:1-3)
Callous and given up to perversion, greed, and impurity o every sort (Eph 4:17-19)
Among the enemies of the cross of Christ (Phil 3:18)
Dead (Col 2:13)
Defiled and unbelieving (Titus 1:15)
Under the power of the evil one (1 John 5:19)
Foolish, disobedient, led astray and among the slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice, envy, hated by others and hating one another (Titus 3:3).
-Mark Dricoll, RELIGION SAVES: AND NINE OTHER MISCONCEPTIONS, pg 109.

Thus, I want to briefly define GRACE as best I can: grace is God the Father in love doing good for ill-deserving sinners through God the Son by God the Holy Spirit.
- Mark Driscoll, RELIGION SAVES: AND NINE OTHER MISCONCEPTIONS, pg 110.

Special grace [or saving grace] originates with God the Father (1 Cor 1:3; Eph 1:3,6; Titus 2:11), is mediated through the saving work of Jesus Christ (Rom 5:15; 1 Cor 1:4; Titus 3:6-7), and is made experientially real through the ministry of the Holy Spirit (Zech 12:10; Heb 10:29).
-Bruce Demarest, THE CROSS AND SALVATION: THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION, pg. 77
(quoted on page 113)

5 months ago  /  0 notes

That moment when you look your DEPRAVITY square in the face….

What happens then? You can’t run, it’s yours.. you can’t hide.. its right next to you at all times. It’s the most terrifying and hideous things inside of us. No matter how pretty we think we are, its still a heaping pile. Nothing we can do…

How do you respond then? Do you try to run from it, even though its attached to the hip? Do you try to ignore it, even though its 2 inches from your face staring at you? Do you try to fight through it, even though its like punching the wind? 

Or… or…..

or, do you turn to Jesus and ask Him to step in and handle it for you? See even though He asks you to “take up your cross daily” He also says His “yolk is easy and the burden is light.” 

What then? Do you accept the help? 

OR…

Do you look to the more attractive side of your depravity? YOUR PRIDE.

Your pride is the second face of your depravity that looks the best, smells the prettiest, and sounds the most attractive. Its that logic inside of you that explains that you, who can’t even add a single second to your life, can control a situation that you didn’t even create. That you don’t even understand fully. But that pretty side of your depravity tells you that, in your finite strength, can handle any situation, thus you don’t need someone who is stronger that you and that had the ultimate show of strength, beating death. 

SO WHAT DO YOU DO, when you look your DEPRAVITY square in the face?

What do you do……

6 months ago  /  0 notes