Seeing that the Law of God is Good

At the consecration of the newly built temple in Jerusalem, King Solomon pled to God for His people, Israel, that they would live according to Yahweh's commands. Then Solomon thought of foreign visitors, who evidently must have been many to merit mentioning in his prayer:

As for the foreigner who does not belong to Your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of Your great name and Your mighty hand and Your outstretched arm—when they come and pray toward this temple, then hear from heaven, Your dwelling place. Do whatever the foreigner asks of You, so that all the peoples of the earth may know Your name and fear you, as do Your own people Israel, and may know that this house I have built bears Your Name. 2 Chronicles 6: 32-33

 Historically, Jews have not evangelized. Israel's neighbors and those who heard of them from distant lands, were not impressed with Israel's charities, or community outreach outside of their own people. The foreigner didn't think, "Wow! Those Israelites are nice, warm, friendly people." 

In fact, it was quite the opposite. I am not saying they were mean-spirited, not at all. Few foreigners could get to know an Israelite in an intimate way because God's laws restricted interaction with non-Hebrew people. Israel could not live among the gentiles, for they would become unclean and unable to perform God's ritual laws. So they stayed separate, even when living in a diaspora city. 

The Talmud records how the Jews would measure off their section of town so they would be a certain distance from Gentile homes, and orient their windows, preventing interaction with non-Jews on Sabbaths and holy days.

In a general sense, if the non-Israelite was kept from being friends with the Israelite, how could they hear the people of God's heart-felt testimonies? Why would foreigners come from a long distance to worship Yahweh at His temple? 

Because in the Old Testament, God set up Israel's system of laws to announce the coming gospel. And rather than saying, "Look at the nice, friendly people of Israel!" the foreigner thought, "Look at the good laws of Israel!" 

The Torah itself spoke of the goodness of God. God was seen as a light unto the world through His commandments. The Old Covenant system itself proclaimed the character of God. Israel was a living example of the fruits of God's laws. In a sense they were performing, as if on a world stage, the Torah. 

The commandments cried out the glory of God as the humble people of Israel acted faithfully.  

The New Covenant 

Before Christ ascended into heaven, He gave the New Covenant and told His disciples to go out into the world and announce the good news. This was radically different than the way the gospel was proclaimed by Israel before Christ. Now, the followers of God were expected to go out and live among the gentiles and verbally tell the story of Christ while continuing to magnify the laws of God through acting with righteousness.

If you look at the modern evangelical strategies, you would think that the Great Commission was merely the spoken word. Our bishops, priests, Protestant pastors and laymen express faith as only what one says rather than what one does. The idea has disappeared that Christian obedience to God's New Covenant laws proclaim His glory equally with that of what we say. They go hand in hand. 

I fear it is because so many of our bishops and priests are embarrassed by the law of God. Rather than loudly live the glory of God through His just and merciful commandments, Christians uncomfortably demur and apologize that God has set such a high standard. We have hobbled our witness because we have defaulted into only telling the story of Christ. 

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“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Mahatma Gandhi

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Are we truly, deep down, convicted that God's call to holy living and sanctification is too difficult? Too harsh? Unreachable? Or even that His laws are mean-spirited? Is God judgmental and intolerant?

Is it possible that we are not convinced that God's commands to us are loving? 


What a tragedy! 
Christ's commandments are life! They are the way and the truth. Our living them is just as glorious a witness of the gospel. Christian morals and standards are the very foundation upon which our gospel stands. If we take the commandments out of the picture because we are embarrassed by them, we give the listener an experience whereby they may joyfully understand God's love for them and then rob them of the very netting that will catch them when they fall back into sin. 

His ways, His New Testament laws are good, very good. And as we live them, the foreigner will be drawn to the glory of God even if we kept silence! Because God made man to love His law. His laws will bring us the joy and peace we so long for. We do the unbeliever a great disservice when we recoil from presenting the joy of the obedience of faith. 

God commanded that we go and tell of Him. And that is wonderful. But let us never withhold the fullness of the Gospel. Let us never shirk to proclaim the goodness of God's morals both through our voices and through our lives. 

And we can only do that if we find His laws good and joyful! 

There is Freedom and Then There is Freedom!

Let me start with the fact that I agree with this guy. Please remember that: I AGREE with this guy. What frustrates me is that it seems no one gets the BIGGER picture. The bigger picture happens to be philosophical and not emotional--so people will tune out how to SOLVE this problem because thinking in a rational, analytical way hurts one's brain. We have A.D.D. as a nation and are too impatient to even focus for a few minutes on something we don't want to think about. Thinking hurts!!! But many people (not my family and friends, of course!) need to realize they must THINK PAST the pain.... it is so important for our future.

(Note: Any use of the word "you" is general--not intended for anyone in specific.)

I get why this man is saying that our freedom is threatened by politically correct language. I agree--a whole BOOK could be written about this subject. But to address it, we really need a higher perspective--historical, intellectual, philosophical and most important-- theological perspective.
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Number one: WHY are we feeling triggered in the first place?

TRENCH-LEVEL

ANSWER: Because the family has fallen apart. Because we no longer trust our authorities BECAUSE the family has fallen apart. We worship comfort and stability BECAUSE we have substituted food, entertainment, and fun for reality because reality hurts. Why does reality hurt? Because the family has fallen apart. Realize, I am not blaming these university kids. They are a product of their parents who are a product of their grandparents. In general, the blame points backwards.

Most people look at their family and think, "My family was okay." That may be true. I am not arguing the individual family. When the structure of a culture strains under the weight of the corporate collapse of the family, and when everywhere you look there are children of divorce, people who cannot hold down jobs, people who can't relate to others.... it will affect you no matter how perfect and functional your own family was.

No matter how wonderful we personally may be, we are swimming in a culture of depravity, corruption, vulgarity, emotional instability and despair BECAUSE the family has fallen apart. America has one of the top divorce rates on the planet. It is among the top in drug abuse, pornography addiction, materialism. Studies have suggested our nation is one of the most unhappy on the earth. Our prisons are overflowing. Think about this: When HALF of all adults are being medicated for emotional problems, we have a real crisis.

AND THIS IS IN THE CONTEXT OF WHAT IS CALLED A FREE SOCIETY!! Freedom didn't prevent this..... Freedom can't solve this. In fact, a fake freedom helped cause it.
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AIRPLANE-LEVEL

So why are the families falling apart? Because we live in a society that is driven by hedonistic, materialistic pleasure. Our god is money, emotion and comfort. We feel it is our God-given right to pursue happiness and live according to our own wills. We have wrongly conflated patriotic ideals with Christian ideals. Americans often believe that at the Founding Father's words were birthed from the Apostles' words. We actually ignore the

scripture that says that we must take up our cross daily, and sacrifice in love to live for others and try to fit that into a slice of "right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness." These two things are diametrically opposed to own another. You can't live for yourself and live for Christ. You cannot serve two masters. You are either living to make money so that one day you can retire and do what you want to do, or you are giving your life to serve Christ. It is impossible to do both.

More FREEDOM will not solve this problem. Christians need to choose this day whom they will serve.
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HEAVENLY-LEVEL

If you are living in sin you are not free. That's the bottom line. No matter what laws you put in place to protect rights, no matter how many lives are given for the idea of freedom, there is NO freedom outside of a holy life. Christ tells us the TRUTH will set us free--not a well-written, nor carefully enforced Constitution. Living in His Truth sets us free. And not immediately... but eventually as we learn to accept more and more of His forgiveness and grace. We become free AS WE BECOME LIKE HIM! (smile!)

Look at the mess we are in under all the false freedom and libertine liberty and riot-producing rights? Have we found peace as a nation? No. We have been lied to. Peace is not about getting to walk around and do what one wishes without impediments. Rights do not empower us, nor give us respect or value. Liberty was known, even to the ancient pagans and to the greatest Greek and

modern philosophers of all history, to be but a puff of smoke. And that is why you have the brilliant Nietzsches and Sylvia Plaths putting their heads in the oven and committing suicide. That is why the Freuds and the Hegels, who helped birth the nihilistic spirit of our age, have philosophically inspired three generations to plunge into the most hedonistic and narcissistic lifestyles unknown since the Imperial family of Caligula.

Real freedom; true freedom is not living in a country that flies a flag and tells us it is there to protect our freedom. Freedom comes--not from without--but from WITHIN US! Few people are authentically free, for they are enslaved in a system that has utterly imprisoned them in body, soul, mind and spirit.

People live their lives--without any meaning--as automatons moving about in a fake world in a little box run by Siri, who spend their evenings isolated and entertained, their days dutifully

responsible to the capitalist system awaiting that future moment when they can take their money and go find a little peace and pleasure.

This is the system we proudly call freedom. And it is a horrible lie. A Devilish lie. And it is why we are unhappy and we don't even know the source of our confusing and meaningless existence. Most people are not even AWARE of their own existence other than when their body calls out to be fed or rested or anesthetized.

Each soul longs for true freedom. But humans in every age and in every time have sought it unsuccessfully until they found it in Him. At the foot of the Cross. In humbly letting go of self and witnessing a God of such love that He was willing to die to conquer sin so that we could taste TRUE freedom. And that freedom is felt when we repent and turn from the sins that we believe give us so much comfort and pleasure, the sins that seem to give us so much power and respect. That freedom is an illusion. Do not allow the devil to fool you any longer--to make you stupid and keeping you blind and deaf and dumb.

Our freedom and our liberty can only be found in one place, and that is in Christ. Devotion and utter obedience to God will truly undo the shackles of narcissism, the meaninglessness of self-centeredness. In giving our lives to share in His Divine life through uncompromising devotion and the obedience of faith, we open up the vast eternal cosmos and we go from the darkness of deception to the true enlightenment.

In fact, we find there, underneath all the rubbish of false promises what our hearts and minds were yearning for. Love. Not a love that fades but a love that burns so brightly, it has the energy of a trillion stars. It is a love that burns sin from our souls and sets us free. And that is worth giving up a life time of illusory freedoms.

Can Christians Lose Their Salvation? Debate: Trent Horn vs. James White

I love to watch debates. What's wrong with me?

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