To Tell You The Truth I have finally moved my other blog. Come check it out. It's not much yet, but I'm workin' on that.
Earlier this week I was at work looking at a blog or two. During my reading I found a neat website on which you can sign up for free.
The website was a company which allows you to upload your logo/graphic/etc... to their site and you can choose what items you would like it on so you can sell them. You get a cut while they get the bulk of the money, but hey, it's free to you!
So here's my dilemma. We had a power blip at work and my 'puter shut off (obviously) and I lost that site. It even wiped it off my history in the browser. So, for anyone who saw this site, please let me know! I have some ideas for it ;)
My hunch was right on the money.
We're having a boy!
A great heritage awaits us in the Old Testament. But how do we unlock it? Christ Himself is the key that unlocks the riches of the Old Testament. Let us see how.First of all, Christ is the all-glorious Lord, the only Son of the Father, who from all eternity beholds the Father face to face, who is with God and who is God (John 1:1). Every word of the Old Testament is the word of God Himself (2 Timothy 3:16-17), and God is the trinitarian God--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Thus all of the Old Testament is Christ's word to us, as well as God the Father's word to us.
Second, the Old Testament teaches us about Christ. Such is one main implication of the story of Luke 24. Christ is the focus of the message of the Old Testament. He is the One to whom it points forward, about whom it speaks, and whom it prefigures in symbols.Third, Christ not only instructs us but establishes communion with us through His word. We abide in Christ as His word abides in us (John 15:7). As the Holy Spirit works in our hearts, we find that we are meeting Christ, and He talks to us very personally through the Bible, including the Old Testament.
Fourth, Christ changes us and transforms us through His word. As we meet with Christ and experience His glory, we are transformed into His image. The Bible says that we start out with a lack of understanding of the Old Testament, due to hard hearts (Luke 24:25; 2 Corinthians 4:4). This lack is like a veil over our hearts, keeping us from seeing it correctly (2 Corinthians 3:14-15). When we turn to the Lord, the Holy Spirit works in us and the veil over our hearts is removed (2 Corinthians 3:16-17). Then we see the true glory of Christ. "And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Fifth, as our hearts are changed we begin to respond to Christ in adoration, thankfulness, and obedience. Christ is our Lord, our master, and that means that we must obey Him. But Christ is also our beloved, and that means that we come to love to please Him and obey Him (John 14:15, 23). Our response ought not to be a reluctant, grumbling obedience, but joyful, enthusiastic obedience. And so it will be more and more, if we belong to Him and have fellowship with Him, because Christ writes His own law on our hearts (2 Corinthians 3:3, 6; Hebrews 10:16).
Thus when we read the Old Testament we should pray that Christ will both enlighten us and transform us. Because the Old Testament as well as the New is Christ's word, we should believe what God teaches there, obey what He commands, and give thanks for the blessings and communion that He gives. Above all, we should endeavor to search out how the Old Testament speaks of Christ.
We need to keep in mind two final key elements: humility and love. We are beset by sin and our understanding will be imperfect as long as we are in this life (1 Corinthians 13:12). We must be humble enough not to overestimate our abilities. We must realize that God's thoughts are above our thoughts (Isaiah 55:9), and that we will never come to the bottom of their unsearchable depths (Romans 11:33-36). In Christ "are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:3). We should come to Christ for all enlightenment. But when we do so, we also acknowledge "how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ" (Ephessians 3:18). Paul prays for us "to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God" (Ephessians 3:19). Truly Christ's love surpasses knowledge, and we adore Him in awe rather than come to a complete mastery of what we study.
Vern S Poythress - The Shadow of Christ in the Law of Moses
Long ago in Palestine two disciples of Jesus were walking along the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). A stranger joined them. He asked them about the things they had been through, and they began to explain. They were heartbroken because the master and friend in whom they had put all their hopes was dead. But the stranger said some strange things to comfort them. Instead of sympathizing, He said, "How foolish you are, and how slow of hearet to believe all that the prophets have spoken!" (Luke 24:25). The disciples' real problem was not with a dead master but with themselves. They did not understand the Old Testament. And so the stranger helped them to understand. "Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself" (Luke 24:27). The stranger, of course, was Jesus Christ, the master Teacher of the Old Testament. What did Jesus tell those two disciples? We do not know the details. But we do know the heart of His teaching: "Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" (Luke 24:26).Even before Jesus was finished, and even before He revealed who He was, a remarkable transformation began to take place in the hearts of the disciples. They said, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked to us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" (Luke 24:32). The Old Testament Scriptures began to open up to them, and they were awed, amazed, and overwhelmed all at once.
Later on Jesus appeared to a larger group of His disciples. He continued teaching along the same lines:
"Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures (emphasis mine). He told them, 'This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high." (Luke 24:45-49)Christ enabled the disciples to understand not merely the implications of a few passages of the Old Testament, but "the Scriptures"--the whole Old Testament. What do these Scriptures really say? Christ introduces His explanation with the words, "This is what is written" (Luke 24:46). That is He promises to give them the substance and heart of what is written in the Old Testament. What He says next contains His answer: "The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem" (Luke 24:46-47).
The whole Old Testament fiinds its focus in Jesus Christ, His death, and His resurrection. The Apostle Paul says the same thing in different words: "For no matter how many promises God has made, they are 'Yes' in Christ. And so through him the 'Amen' is spoken by us to the glory of God" (2 Corinthians 1:20). "These things [in the Old Testament] happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come" (1 Corinthians 10:11). Jesus says, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished" (Matthew 5:17-18).
Vern S. Poythress - The Shadow of Christ in the Law of Moses
When we fail to recognize the how's, when's, what's and to what extents of Christ in the Old Testament, we are in danger of viewing everything in the law as "what I must do because it is right" which is a falsehood in its fundamental foundation. Scripture is explicit in saying we can do nothing that will gain God's favor; absolutely nothing.
Yes, Scripture also says that the doing of the law is healthy and right, but if our fundamental motivation to do the law is because it is right, then how does the doing make us more Justified? Or how does the doing produce Sanctification?
The doing does not do either.
continued...
To Tell You The Truth, I'm having server issues. After blogging for 2 full years (wow - has it been that long??), it is a difficult task (or lack thereof) not to blog for a few days for issues out of my control.
For the unforseeable future, I will be breaking my "vow" (of sorts - but not really) that I would only use Propoundance for unoriginal to me articles and posts. To Tell You The Truth, I hope to have my other site moved and working properly soon (a very relative term). We shall see.
With all of this said, please forgive the bombarding of posts and articles which have been welling up in me and will be spewed out for your propoundance.
Like a wise master-builder Paul laid the true foundation– Jesus Christ; and built thereon a sacred edifice of heavenly graces, more valuable than gold and silver and precious stones. Those who study the nature of the Gospel, and live under its power, both know, and can enter into its blessed design. All its doctrines, precepts, and promises, are calculated to abase the pride of man, to exalt the glory of Christ, to reveal the malignity of sin, the beauty of holiness, the vanity of the world, the bliss of heaven; to show the sinner his utter helplessness, and to reveal to him an all-sufficient Savior- for proud man must be humbled, the idol self must be dethroned.
Hence; we find that human merit is altogether excluded from the system of Paul's theology. Being illuminated by the Holy Spirit, he preached the truth without any mixture of error. There are no disproportions, no disfiguring features in his portraiture of Eternal Truth. Perfection in all its parts bespeaks its Divine original. With uncompromising firmness he declares- that faith is the gift of God; that we are justified by faith; that Christ dwells in our hearts by faith; that we walk by faith; that we are the children of God by faith.
It was therefore to the faithful in Christ Jesus, that the Apostle wrote with such affectionate entreaty, "I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."
How powerfully does he inculcate the duty of universal holiness, "Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned from me and heard from me and saw me doing, and the God of peace will be with you."
With such exhortations to holy obedience, how strange that any reflecting mind should, for a moment, charge the doctrines of grace with having a licentious tendency. Yet, there were people, as we have already noticed, who were base enough to abuse the grace of the Gospel. The champion for the Truth hesitated not to call them, "the enemies of Christ, whose end is destruction." So carefully did he guard believers against those evils of our nature, which, when brought into contact with the Gospel, destroy its sufficiency by self-righteousness; its purity by antinomianism.
With peculiar emphasis, almost bordering on indignation, he asks these abusers of the Gospel; "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid! How shall we who are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" And then, after showing the sanctifying nature of true faith in Christ, he gives the believer this blessed assurance; "Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the Law but under grace."
In all periods of the Church, Satan has sown his tares among the wheat. This state of the visible Church, is declared by our divine Savior, in various parables of exquisite beauty. The good and bad fishes -the wise and foolish virgins- the fruitful and barren branches- the guests with, and the one without, a wedding garment; are all designed to illustrate this truth- that as they are not all Israel, which are of Israel, so neither are they all true Christians, who profess to be members of Christ. Paul, with his usual discrimination of character, has given us the distinctive features of these two classes; the one holding the Truth in unrighteousness; the other, holding the Mystery of the Faith in a pure conscience.