Posts Tagged Sin
Does God Ever Answer Prayer, “No!”?
Posted by Peter in Bible, Christianity, God on December 30, 2009
I threw my Hebrews Bible Study group for a loop when I raised this question.
I suggested that scripture says He does not. I also confessed that my initial reaction to this question is to say, “Of course He does,” but I cannot find scriptural authority for that answer. I should also say that just about everyone who I have ever asked this question also says He does. I’m just not so sure. I realize this goes against everything that is rational and against everything we have ever been taught, but it is something I’ve been mulling over for quite some time now.
Now, my assertion, or suggestion really, requires several caveats (just to name a few):
- God can only do what God can do. I don’t think God is able to answer a prayer that would harm one believer in favor of another, for example. Nor do I think God is able to answer prayer that is made sinfully (translated selfishly, impatiently, etc.).
- God will not go against His Word. If a prayer is contrary to scripture, or requires something unscriptural of others, it cannot be answered.
- God cannot heal, relieve you of, or deliver you from certain conditions brought about by unforgiveness, for example, or willful sin, without the requisite forgiveness or confession and repentance.
- God’s answers aren’t always the answers we expect. For example, an answer to prayer for financial breakthrough might include learning about budgeting, or saving, or giving as prerequisites to God handing someone a big fat check; but, if the one praying just wants the check without the means to handle the funds, whose really saying, “No”?
There are others, of course, but, rather than simply tell me how wrong I am, I would ask that you think about the example(s) you come up with and see if they do not fit into one of these categories first. Our group raised a few interesting examples, and I will try and treat the categories of answers in a later post, but I want to know what you, my dear reader, think.
More on Infant Death and the Afterlife
Posted by Peter in Bible, Children, Christianity, Genesis, God, Jesus, Law, New Testament, Old Testament, Theology on November 13, 2009
Earlier this week in What About Infants?, I directed my readers to TC’s post When Infants Die: Hell? Heaven? or Limbo?. As predicted, it generated a healthy discussion. I can’t definitively say who’s right or wrong, but I wonder if we shouldn’t be more worried about adults than the children.
Jesus said,
Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18:3 (NASB)
I have a strong suspicion that the children will be fine. We, on the other hand, seem to have a harder time getting it.
I think we get all worked up over sin and original sin, when our accountability begins, right and wrong, and the like. And that is the very problem.
God’s a pretty smart Dude, and when He forbade us from eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, it was for our own good. He knew we would spend the rest of our lives worrying about whether we did good or evil. If not because of our own shortcomings, then because the enemy would beat us over the head with it.
And as if that wasn’t enough, now we’ve got to worry about whether our kids will be held accountable. It’s too much to worry about. And God knew it.
That’s where we go wrong, in our need (or desire) to know. We were better off before the knowledge of good and evil, innocent like a child.
You People are Funny!
Posted by Peter in Bible, Blogging, Christianity, Humor on September 30, 2009
Map of the Seven Deadly Sins
Posted by Peter in Christianity on September 29, 2009
I can’t let this one go. Thanks to Jim for the heads up. Wired Magazine’s American Vice: Mapping the 7 Deadly Sins.
Greed
Lust
Envy
Gluttony
Sloth
Wrath
Pride
And as I mentioned to Jim, who is fond of picking on Texas and Texans, Texas isn’t so bad. We are either in church or in restaurants before and/or after church.
Hebrews Chapter 5-Study Notes
Posted by Peter in Bible, Christianity, God, New Testament, Old Testament on September 24, 2009
These are my study notes for Hebrews Chapter 5. I don’t know if they will make much sense to anyone else, but if they are helpful to anyone feel free to use them.
The scripture references and discussion notes should have aligned with the appropriate scriptures, but I lost that somehow when I loaded the table into my blog. On the left is, obviously, the Bible text, the center column contains the scriptures I referenced or wanted to reference, and the right-hand column has discussion topics.
| Hebrews 5 (NASB)
1 For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins; 2 he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness; 3 and because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins, as for the people, so also for himself. 4 And no one takes the honor to himself, but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was. 5 So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him, 6 just as He says also in another passage, 7 In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. 8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. 9 And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, 10 being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. 11 Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. |
Scripture Refs.: 5:5 – Psalm 2. 5:6 – Psalm 110; Gen. 14. |
Discussion Notes: 5:1 – “both gifts and sacrifices for sins.” Are “Gifts” above and beyond sacrifices for sin or are there “gifts and sacrifices for sin.”
5:3 – “he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins” vs. Jesus who was sacrificial. 5:4 – “No one takes the honor to himself,” is applicable across the board, not just priests. God honors the humble. 5:8 -Obedience learned through suffering – relate to message that suffering serves to mature Christians into image of God. What is this “suffering”? It’s not the suffering we bring on ourselves because Jesus brought no such suffering on himself. 5:9 – “having been made perfect,” born perfect or through suffering. 5:11-“Today”-promise is available today, right now for us to enter into His rest. 5:12 – “you need milk not solid food” true still to this day. Most of the church is still partaking of only milk. |
Hebrews Bible Study-Week 2
Posted by Peter in Bible, Christianity, Israel, Jesus, New Testament, Old Testament on September 23, 2009
I know it’s been three weeks since I published Hebrews Bible Study-Week 1, but the first Wednesday of the month our church has a church-wide Night of Worship, so there was no meeting that Wednesday. The second Wednesday, we had several out, either sick or ministering out of town, so last Wednesday was actually just our second real week of study.
We picked up on the theme of a lawyer building a case from Week 1. The author is making the case for “the Son.” In chapters 1 & 2, the Son is depicted as greater than the angels, which in the ancient Jewish culture would have been extremely significant. Now, in chapter 3, the Son is depicted as greater than Moses. This would have been just as significant, if not more so, than being greater than the angels given Moses’ status in the Jewish tradition.
Also, we are introduced to the Son, and the author for the first time asserts that Jesus is the Son. We are advised to guard against hard hearts, which are the result of unbelief, so that we may enter God’s rest, unlike the Israelites in the days of Moses. We also learn that sin lies. The very nature of sin is deception, which goes hand-in-hand with unbelief and hard hearts.
Chapter 4 confirms that the promise to enter His rest is still available, and this is one instance in which we are permitted to fear – the fear of not entering God’s rest. Actually, this is also one of the few things in scripture for which we are encouraged to labor. Thus, we are to rest from our works, but work to enter into that rest. A beautiful and thought-provoking paradox that makes perfect sense.
Thought for the Day-Rethinking the Cross
Posted by Peter in Bible, Christianity, God, Israel on June 22, 2009
Why do we use the instruction to, “take up your cross,” as an excuse for living a burdened or less-than-abundant life?
I don’t find anywhere in scripture where Jesus instructs us to take up His cross. I agree, the cross He bore was burdensome, shameful, heavy, dark, sinful, and condemning, but, because of that, our’s is not.
Jesus said, “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:30.
I think sometimes walking in liberty (for us) is more burdensome, so we try to carry the cross Jesus carried for us. When all you have known is bondage, the unfamiliarity of freedom can feel burdensome.
I remember studying in one of my political science classes the distinction between “freedom from” and “freedom to.” I think we as Christians frequently only get as far as “freedom from” this or that. However, the freedom Christ paid for by carrying our cross is beyond “freedom from” it is “freedom to” be what God has called us to be.
God freed the Israelites from Egypt’s bondage and freed them to take their promised land. But, a good chunk of the Bible is about Israel’s inability to walk in the “freedom to.” And they had a pretty hard time walking in “freedom from” also. How often did they want to go back to Egypt rather than continue on in the wilderness?
It’s an altogether human thing to try to make our freedom more burdensome than our bondage. Is this our cross?
Question: What if Adam had Repented?
Posted by Peter in Bible, Christianity, Genesis, God, Old Testament on May 29, 2009
Okay, so this is not just a simple question, but rather two questions (each potentially raising many, many other questions):
- What if Adam had just confessed and repented when the Lord came a callin’ in Genesis 3?
- Or, what if, immediately after Eve partook of the fruit, Adam had said, “No thanks, we’re not supposed to. Serpent, get away, and while we’re at it, Eve, why don’t you confess and repent”?
Would the course of human history be different? If so, how?
The Big Sin Meme
In the truly “better late than never” category, here is my answer to The Big Sin Meme started by Roger Mugs, who tagged TC Robinson (New Leaven), who tagged me, who tagged Kevin Bacon.
Money, sex and power seem to be among the most common responses, and I could very easily recite those here as well, but that almost seems like confessing that I need food, water and shelter to survive.
To be brutally honest, I would have to confess that my addictive personality would pose the biggest potential downfall. Not that having an addictive personality is a sin in itself, but the result thereof often is. I tend to become obsessive about the latest thing I get involved in, so it could very easily be any of the above, but it could also be spending, blogging, or even Bible study (I’m sure my wife will attest to the many hours I spent obsessing over ancient Hebrew).
It’s not that any of these things are sinful per se, but it is my neglect of other things while doing any of these that is my biggest potential downfall.
Thanks, TC for the tag, and I now tag HiScrivener (The Writing on the Wall) and Carl (The World According to Carl), not because I want their full confession, but so that my readers will check out their blogs as proof that Christian blogs can be fun and entertaining.
To Which Well Are We Drawn?
Posted by Peter in Bible, Christianity, God, Israel, Jesus, Law, New Testament, Old Testament on June 4, 2008
My wife, my mother and I were returning from a trip to Dallas a couple of weeks ago, and we began discussing John 4. The question was posed, “Why do we still thirst?” It’s clear from the text of John 4 that if we drink of the water provided by Christ, we will not thirst.
John 4:1 Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were), 3 He left Judea and went away again into Galilee. 4 And He had to pass through Samaria.
5 So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; 6 and Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
11 She said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? 12 “You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?”
13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.”
It has been my experience that most Christians I know try quite to hard drink of the water Jesus claims to provide, yet they still thirst (myself included). Therein lies the problem. We try really, really hard to drink of the right water, but our very effort indicates that we are trying to drink from the wrong well.
John 4 is so rich in symbolism and meaning, it’s easy to get lost in it, and it would take a whole series of posts to begin to cover it, but one point is key to the question posed (Why do we thirst?). And that point is this, we need to drink of the water that is freely given, not that we have to go and draw for ourselves.
This story of one Samaritan woman’s encounter with the Jewish Messiah is a beautiful portrait of law and grace. Here we have Jesus telling a Samaritan woman that she will never be completely satisfied by drinking from Jacob’s well, but only by drinking from the water that He will freely give.
How often do we retreat to drinking from Jacob’s well? Probably more often we would like, and certainly more often than is necessary. It is almost incomprehensible, especially to those of us who grew up in America, that we can never satisfy our thirst by our own efforts. We instill in children from a very early age to work hard, make good grades, and do the best that they possibly can, and I will do the same with my children. But, the lesson in our constant return to Jacob’s well is that we can never attain through our own efforts what we can attain through God’s gift of grace.
This truth is not limited to our efforts to achieve righteousness through obedience to the law, we simply cannot. It is through the gift of grace that we are made righteous and enabled to live righteously. This principle is applicable to every aspect of our lives.
It is no different for the study of God’s word. You can spend hours, days, or even years reading the Bible, commentaries, and researching and never comprehend a simple passage better than you will with a tiny drop of God’s grace in revelation. I often find myself praying about scripture after several days of struggling with something, only to find that a simple prayer for God’s help was all that was required. I wonder how much better my study would be if I intentionally begin by doing what I will most likely end up doing anyway.
If we all apply this principle of receiving freely before we begin doing, the doing part might get a whole lot easier and the receiving a whole lot better.
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