Josh’s Corner!

His Life and death matter ...

Thu, 7 Jul 2011 05:17:07 -0500

If we limit the work of salvation merely to the Cross, we don't get the whole picture. Of course, it was accomplished at the Cross, and without Christ' death and resurrection Jesus really would be just a nice teacher or even a prophet, like Islam says.

We must look at and receive Jesus' life, too. The claims He made, the works He did. He lived faithfully and obeyed His Father. He lived the righteous life, you and I could never live. So, we don't just need to receive Jesus' death; because that just makes us innocent. But also need to receive His life; because that will give us His righteousness. And that's what counts at the end. When God will look at us at the judgment seat, He will not just look for innocence but also righteousness.

We are saved because of Jesus' righteousness.
That really shows how much we depend on Jesus and how much we ought to be grateful to Him and worship Him with all our mind, soul, and strength. Today, may we open our hearts again and humbly receive His blood to make us innocent, and His faithfulness, which makes us righteous before God...

What are you worried about?

Tue, 24 May 2011 18:53:02 -0500

I have heard it said before, that "when you worry, you are dreaming with the devil...". Sometimes people misunderstand these verses here out of Luke 10 and even use it as an excuse to get out of working. "I'd rather be like Mary, just sitting at the feet of Jesus, than working in the kitchen..."

But Jesus didn't rebuke Martha at all for working in the kitchen. Jesus pointed out to her that all the worrying about so many things created confusion and altered her priorities. What we should really be really worried about, or better concerned about, is our relationship with Jesus.

Martha could have been in the kitchen praying in the spirit and singing worship songs. She could have had the time of her life, preparing a wonderful meal for the Savior of her soul. Instead she was bothered by Mary just sitting there and not doing anything. When we are bothered by the behavior of other people, our attitude then won't change anything. Matter of fact, it'll be unhealthy for us. That "being bothered" will then distract us from the things that really matter.

When we chose not be bothered by so many things, including the actions and behaviors of others or the lack thereof, but instead be connected with the heart of Jesus, then we have chosen the good part, and no one can take that away from us...

More Glory to God

Sat, 7 May 2011 14:42:01 -0500

"All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory."
2 Corinthians 4:15 (NLT)

In my mind, God's sovereignty and man's free will don't contradict each other at all. Some might connect God's sovereignty with a so called Calvinistic outlook on theology; whereas man's free will is associated with a more open view of God.

But why does it have to be in two different categories? Because I know that there is no life, no real morality, no meaning, and no genuine possibility of forgiveness an reconciliation apart from a divine, personal, and all-powerful God, it is my desire to bring glory to this God I love, who gave Himself completely to express and display that love for His creation. Based on this verse here we see what really brings glory to God. It's our mandate to tell the world about this God of love, because people need to hear that they all have the choice to come and find freedom by entering into relationship with this sovereign God.

God's transcendence and immanence are not in conflict with each other. There's no tyrant in heaven; and we for sure don't worship one. The God of love receives more and more glory, when the hearts of man are turned to Him. He is the way, the truth, and the life. In Him we find life, true morality, lasting meaning, and the genuine possibility of reconciliation and forgiveness.

Our problem is we rather live in a world without a God and without meaning, than having to surrender all to a supreme being. So we join Nietzsche and we say, "God is dead..." But if there's such a God of love and grace, as presented to us in history, scripture, and creation, than the most logical response is to surrender and submit to Him, because we've discovered - or better, it has been revealed to us - that living a life in relationship with Jesus Christ is the very best way to live.

God is dead? Really?

Sat, 2 Apr 2011 15:50:54 -0500

The Madman declares, “God is dead,” just because he couldn’t find him and because the opposition seemed so massive and irate. People are laughing at him as he runs in the marketplace looking for God. Frustrated, the madman smashes his lantern on the ground, crying out that “God is dead, and we have killed him, you and I!”

Nietzsche’s The Madman was published in 1882, and it was meant to be a sort of a prophecy that history, as it takes its run, will soon prove the idea of God to be superfluous. Is it reality now what Nietzsche predicted at the end of the 19th century? Through the developments of technology and knowledge have we now really brought ourselves to the place where God is an accessory we can do without? We say, “Now we can create ourselves; we don’t need a creator anymore.” Nietzsche’s position was that if you kill God, you must live up to that astounding act by doing astounding things yourself. “We are the new, the unique, the incomparable, those who impose on themselves their own law, those who create themselves,” he said.

Have the advances and the progress of our time killed God? If God ever existed, then this couldn’t be true, could it? No one can really kill God. By definition God is supreme, above all others in power, authority, rank, status, and skill, greater than any that have gone before. So, in Nietzsche’s mind, God never really was. He was just an idea, now an unnecessary idea. And Nietzsche always hated the idea of ‘God’. It seemed so restrictive to the human capacity. Is God just an idea? What if He is not just an idea?

What if we consider this: Have the advances and the progress of our time replaced God? Would we rather build our existence on something we have made ourselves than on another being somewhere out there to whom we have to submit ourselves? Is God somewhere out there? And what if He is? What if nobody has killed Him, but just tried to replace Him? If that were true, merely substituting Him for something else wouldn’t change the reality of Him being God, or would it? We just settled for much, much less because we didn’t want to admit and submit.

Maybe Robert Green Ingersoll was right when he alleged, “There can be but little liberty on earth while men worship a tyrant in heaven.” If God is out there, and He is supreme and a tyrant, what choice do we have? Would it really matter if we worship Him or not? He would still be God, and nobody could kill Him or repudiate His value as God. Should we just act as if we “killed” God, so that we can pretend to serenely build our lives on our own accomplishments, hoping this structure will hold up? Isn’t that really blind faith? Faith in what? Well, in the idea that God is dead. Because if God were not dead, this structure, this world made out of human hands, couldn’t hold up very long, could it? So, in order for me to be always right, to be the most intelligent being on this planet, for me not to have to surrender to anybody or anything, for me to be of prime importance, God must be dead. In other words, for humanism to even start to breathe, God must be dead.

So, I say, thank you Nietzsche, and thank you Ingersoll, for revealing to all of us the greatest issue and challenge in human history. The utmost struggle of mankind has always been and will always be the struggle between control and surrender. We don’t want to give up our rights, even if we don’t know where we received these rights from in the first place. “Don’t tell me what to do!”
That’s the real problem. As long as God is alive, the most logical response to this reality would be to surrender everything to Him and to trust in His goodness and in His supreme existence.
Bertrand Russell admitted that he could not live as though ethical values were simply a matter of personal taste, and that he therefore found his own views “incredible”. He said, “I do not know the solution to this!”

The solution to all of this is to recognize that the beginning of all life came from this supreme and self-sufficient God, who chose to share His perfection with us in love, and in His supreme wisdom He gave us the free choice to enter this love-relationship with Him. Timothy Keller says, “The moralist [someone who tries to live his/her life morally right] is forced into obedience, motivated by fear of rejection; a Christian [a lover and follower of Jesus Christ, who received His grace] rushes into obedience, motivated by a desire to please and resemble the One who gave His life for us.” There is no tyrant in heaven. There never was. We can try to argue Him away with theories and half facts of evolution or other attempts, but we’ll never get a satisfactory, adequately scientific explanation for the origin of life.

So, I invite you to really consider this. Sure, if God is dead, you can be the greatest human who ever lived, even though nobody can really fully explain to you where from you initially received this life you live. Or, we can evaluate our existence and seize the truth that you and I may have replaced God in areas where He ought to be elevated and exalted. Just because we have replaced Him doesn’t change the fact that He still is the supreme God. Jesus is not just a good teacher who can help the moralist to live a moral life, but He is our Savior. If this is true, the smartest thing you and I can do is to kill our humanistic pride, fix our eyes on Him, and let Him be OUR GOD.

Come, let us worship and bow down.
Let us kneel before the LORD OUR MAKER!
Psalm 95:6

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi - A New Seed?

Sun, 2 Jan 2011 17:33:17 -0600

click here to see the new entry:

http://jlanger.posterous.com/maharishi-mahesh-yogi-a-new-seed

Today, if you hear his voice

Fri, 31 Dec 2010 07:38:56 -0600

In Matthew Chapter 1 verse 20 we read about the angel showing up to Joseph to keep him from breaking up with Mary. The angel said pretty much, "Do not be afraid; the Lord and the Holy Spirit are in this, Joseph. Don't be afraid!!" When Joseph woke up from his sleep, he obeyed the angel right away. He could have been very content with this message from the angel. He heard from the Lord. He could have said, "I am set for life. The Lord has been spoken to me. I am good to go... I know what's going to happen now ..."

So often we think we can built our lives upon a word from the Lord from yesterday. But Matthew Chapter 2 verse 13 shows how important it is to ask and desire a fresh word and guidance from the Lord every day; to make sure we are still in the will of the Lord. The angel shows up again to Joseph and says, "Get out of here. Flee from here ... It is not safe here anymore!" Joseph could have said, "No, this can't be the Lord. I already received the word from the Lord. He spoke to me back then and told me that everything is fine. Now, this is contrary to what He said to me then ... This can't be right." But Joseph didn't say that. He remained in this position to hear from the Lord. It says that that evening Joseph and Mary obeyed the Lord's voice and leading.

We need to have our eyes and ears open to the Lord again and again. We, also, need to remain in this place where our we are open to the Lord. Religion and even tradition sometimes keep us from that place. Our relationship with the Lord is alive and dynamic. God is with us and He wants to lead us through life by His voice and His word. We miss Him sometimes when we become too content and comfortable with His word from yesterday; or if the fresh word from the Lord seems at first contrary to what He said before and we stay away from it.

The Bible tells us in Hebrew 3:15: "TODAY, if you hear His voice, don't harden your heart...!" That doesn't require of the Lord to speak to us every day. It is still up to Him when and how He speaks to us. But when He does, we need to be ready and open for His wonderful voice. It is so important to be in the will of the Father. Jesus said in Matthew 7: 21, “Not everyone who calls out to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.” The people who Jesus mentions here did all kind of miracles, but they were not in the will of the Father. Even in the midst of revival and especially when miracles happen and the Lord manifests Himself, we must continue to have open ears to hear what the Spirit may say to us TODAY.

Every morning let us search Him and make sure He knows we are ready to follow His voice again, no matter where it leads us today...

Have a wonderful start of the new year 2011!

New site for posts and blogs

Mon, 27 Dec 2010 22:49:33 -0600

Friends,

as the new year is around the corner, I hope and pray you had a wonderful Christmas and you are looking into a great 2011.

I started a posterous.com site. Please go there and subscribe for more posts and blogs.
Blessings

http://jlanger.posterous.com/