Friday, October 24, 2014
Thursday, October 23, 2014
What Does it Mean to Be "Called"- Rev. M.D. Rogers
The closest clue about the meaning of "called" in romans 8: 28 is verse 30 where Paul says, "And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified." What we learn from this verse is that God justifies everyone that he calls. He acquits them. He pardons them. They are treated as righteous. They are his children. "Those whom he called he justified."
Those Who Are Called Are Justified
This means that the call referred to here is not the general call that goes out to all men in the preaching of the gospel. If it were, then all who heard the gospel would be justified. For verse 30 says, "Those whom he called he justified." If everyone who hears Billy Graham calling them to Christ on the television is "called" in the sense of Romans 8:30, then they are all justified too. For "those whom he called he also justified." But Paul plainly teaches that not all who are called in this general sense are justified. "We are justified by faith!" (Romans 5:1). Not all who are called in this general sense have faith, and therefore not all are justified. Yet Paul says in 8:30 that "those who are called ARE justified!"
What Christ Is to Those Who Are Called
He clarifies this for us in 1 Corinthians 1:23–24. "But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24) but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." Notice carefully that Paul preaches Christ to Jews and Gentiles indiscriminately. In that sense all are called. But that is not the sense in which Paul uses the word. He says that out from among those who hear the general call there are those who are "called." And the difference is that those who are called in this narrower sense stop regarding Christ as a stumbling block and as folly. Instead they regard him as the power of God and the wisdom of God. Verse 24: "But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ [becomes] the power of God and the wisdom of God."
So Paul teaches that when the gospel is preached, God calls some so powerfully that their hearts and minds are changed about Jesus Christ and they embrace him in faith and love. That's why Paul can say in Romans 8:30 that "those who are called are justified," even though justification only comes by faith—the call of God produces faith; it opens the eyes of the blind to see that Jesus is the wisdom and the power of God.
The call of God that Paul has in mind is not like the call of a pet: "Here Blackie. Here Blackie. Come on girl." Blackie may or may not come. The call of God is like the call of Jesus to the corpse of Lazarus: "Lazarus, come forth!" The call contains the power to produce what it commands. It is an effectual call. That is why Paul can say in Romans 8:30 that all "those who are called are justified." The certainty of their justification lies in the fact that the faith by which men are justified is produced by the effectual call of God.
Therefore when Romans 8:28 says, "All things work together to good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose," it means that the beneficiaries of this massive promise are those who once did not love God but now do love God because God himself has called them effectually from darkness to light, from unbelief to faith, from death to life, and has planted within them a love to himself. The effectual call of God is the new covenant fulfillment of the promise in Deuteronomy 30:6,"And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
The reason that the beneficiaries of Romans 8:28 can have such certainty that God will indeed fulfill this promise for them is that God himself has effectually called them into his covenant and caused them to qualify for it. It is one thing if God sends out a mass mailing addressed "to whom it may concern" inviting all to the banquet where all things work together for good. But it is quite another if God himself drives up to your front door, walks in, picks you up, puts you in the car, drives you to the banquet of Romans 8:28, gives you the banquet garment of love, and then seats you at the right hand of his Son. Would not his own personal initiative in the second case give you a deeper confidence that God does indeed intend to pursue you with mercy all your days and work everything together for your good?
Why Paul Adds "According to His Purpose"
What is Paul's reason for adding this phrase: "according to his purpose"? I think it was to make perfectly clear and forceful that the call of God originates in God's purpose not ours. The call of God is not a response to anything we purposed to do. God has his own high and holy purposes that govern whom he calls, and his call accords with these purposes not with ours. He did not drive up to my door and pick me up and bring me to the banquet of Romans 8:28 because it accorded with my purpose of salvation, but because it accorded with his. Had he waited for me to have a purpose of salvation, I would still be watching television at home.
The Enemy Prevails Not -Rev.M.D. Rogers
Though the infirmities of Christians are many and great, so that they would be overpowered if left to themselves, yet the Holy Spirit supports them. The Spirit, as an enlightening Spirit, teaches us what to pray for; as a sanctifying Spirit, works and stirs up praying graces; as a comforting Spirit, silences our fears, and helps us over all discouragements. The Holy Spirit is the spring of all desires toward God, which are often more than words can utter. The Spirit who searches the hearts, can perceive the mind and will of the spirit, the renewed mind, and advocates his cause. The Spirit makes intercession to God, and the enemy prevails not. 
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
Saturday, October 18, 2014
A Difficult Conversation About Hatred and Race -Danielle Pennel
We were at a local swimming pool and saw a Caucasian man with a tattoo that read, “Love My Race” across his chest and another down his spine that read, “Hittler” (yes, this is how it was spelled). My sister-in-law and I were talking about how disgusting we thought that man was, when my son overheard us. A few minutes later he asked why those tattoos made me so upset. -
http://www.adoptivefamiliescircle.com/blogs/post/difficult-conversation-about-racism-and-hatred/
http://www.adoptivefamiliescircle.com/blogs/post/difficult-conversation-about-racism-and-hatred/
Yes, We Do Adopt
Talking with Black women about adoption became a routine part of motherhood for me, alongside diapers, homework, and the warmth I feel every time I look at my son. -
http://www.adoptivefamilies.com/articles.php?aid=2520
Thursday, October 16, 2014
History Extra explains... Why did Ancient Rome fall?
http://www.historyextra.com/feature/romans/history-extra-explains-why-did-ancient-rome-fall
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Romans 7:23-25
Romans 7: 23-25
But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God's law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.
But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God's law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.
Monday, October 13, 2014
Sunday, October 12, 2014
The Times - Rev. M.D. Rogers
We live in interesting times, do we not? Morally and spiritually, as well as economically and politically, it seems that everything has been turned on its head. And in the middle of these tumultuous times, the church seems to have been caught, as we would say where I grew up, ‘standing flatfooted.’ In other words, it appears that the church has been surprised by the sinfulness of sin, the increasing secularization of society, and the continual de-Christianizing of the Christian West in particular.Such changes have morphed into heated discussions on the redefinition of marriage, the viability of alternative lifestyles and orientations, and the legitimacy of the church itself…and the list could go on. People outside the church respond, ‘What’s the big deal? Religion is out-of-date, we’re more scientific in orientation and less focused on fables and myths.’ People inside the church, when they crawl out from under the rock where they often live, are absolutely shocked at the exponential explosion of anti-Christian, non-Christian, and secular developments.
But should we be surprised at these events? And should we not view the times in which we live as a God-ordained judgment on sin as well as a God-wrought opportunity for the power of the gospel? I, for one, think that the gospel shines best when it seems darkest. No place was more secular than the Athens of Acts 17. Yet, the Apostle Paul preached the gospel with blazing boldness. And what was the response? Some believed, some made fun of Paul and the gospel, and others said they would give further consideration to the gospel (Acts 17:32-34). Should we expect any less?
More importantly, Paul didn’t analyze culture through geo-political lens or through an economic window. He wasn’t discouraged by the sinfulness of sin and/or the secularization of culture. Paul viewed all things through the gospel of Jesus Christ. The results were amazing. Paul had more confidence in the gospel than he had in any potential discouragement he experienced from the sinfulness of sin and/or the secularization of culture. Further, the gospel burned a path across the Middle East and Western Europe, a flame that leaped across the Atlantic and for more than 200 years burned a path across a new nation called America. In essence, the spiritual fire produced by the gospel boldly preached was fueled by and burned up the dry, parched ground of sinful secularism.
What’s the point? We live in days of great peril as well as tremendous opportunity, depending on one’s perspective. The difference between the two is how one perceives either the efficacy or the impotency of the gospel. Those first century believers lived in perilous times, yet without the amenities we know from modernity they conquered the world because they radically believed the power of gospel of Jesus Christ to transform lives that in turn transformed cultures.
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