Note: Thanks to one of our confidential donors who sent in $400 for our Debt Retirement Fund. We are now just over $10,600 in cash and pledges toward our $20,000 goal. Please remember this is for Chains of Grace Ministry, a Christian charity intended to offer Re-entry helps to men coming out of prison. Our houses need to be self supporting and retiring our initial debt on the dwellings is one way to achieve our goals.
You can donate either of two ways.
Go to our website at www.chainsofgrace.org. You will find more than one Donate button on the pages. Click on the Donate button, enter your information and we will get your donation.
Or
Send a check for any amount to our hard site at
Chains of Grace
PO Box 1344
Midlothian, TX 76065
Thanks in advance for your help.
Now, to our subject.
Jesus,, the Christ, is the means of our spiritual salvation and the source of our life in the eternal heaven. The Christ is the predestined sacrificial mediator between God and Humankind.
Yes, I use the word predestined. The modern confusion around the predestination of the creation can be turned to a positive only if we see in it the desire of the human heart for the church to preach and teach Jesus.
The New Testament use of the word predestination is first used to describe the intentional ministry of the Christ. In Acts 2 and repeatedly thereafter in the Kerygema sermon school, we learn to accept the crucifixion of the Christ as the ultimate example of the Lordship of God and the responsibility of humankind.
In the Synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luk,e) the Christ is presented as the One intended )ok, predestined) to bring good news to all people through the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel. Humanity will follow God as a response to the repentant covenant people conditioned on their willingness to repent. This is the predestination of God for Messiah, the Christ and the covenant people of Israel.
Sadly, Israel dies not repent of its own artifices and turn (return) to God. So distant and distinct is Israel from its God they do not recognize God’s entry into human history in the form of the God-Man Jesus the Christ. God is intent on human salvation, so intent that divine providence (predestination, in which the Human History is bent toward God, from where it first comes) keeps its course.
God will save. God will save through Jesus. God will save Humankind through Jesus, a certainty conditioned on the willingness of persons to repent (remember Israel’s need for repentance).
Why do we see so little repentance in our day?
We see little repentance in the place we find ourselves as North Americans. Many persons around the world repent and come to Christ daily. We should not think God is not at work in our world. Divine Providence is being worked out around the world.
Why do we see so little repentance in our place. Can it be that our churches just do not talk about Jesus much? For all the good churches do in North America, our evangelistic fervor is buried deep under levels of self help, do-goodies and unhelpful “tolerance.”
Recently, even Pope Francis said all religions are just languages by which persons of different faiths come to God. All religions are much the same, he went on to say, and all are on a path to God.
He made no mention of Jesus. He made no mention of Christian salvation.
Please let me respectfully this one question.
If all religions are the same, isn’t the Crucifixion an extreme event?
If you and I are all OK and just struggling to find our “OK-ness” isn’t the Cross an extreme event?
So, we are face the old decision. Preach Jesus and risk alienation. Accept the predestination of the Christ as the means of sacrifice for Human failing, not divine failing, and, so, realize we are eternally in His debt.
Enough for one time. I will see you tomorrow, I hope.