How Do I Get to Heaven? Unlocking the Bible.

Graphic:  newriversinternational(dot)org

How do I get to heaven? The story of the thief on the cross makes the answers to this question crystal clear—this man had no works to offer, either before or after his salvation. His salvation was only by grace of God. A. W. Pink asks:

What could he do? [The thief] could not walk in the paths of righteousness for there was a nail through either foot. He could not perform any good works for there was a nail through either hand. He could not turn over a new leaf and live a better life for he was dying.[i]

Truth can always be twisted by perverse people. The wonderful truth that God saves by grace, through faith and without works is no exception. A man said to Spurgeon, “If I believed that, I would carry on in a life of sin,” to which he replied, “Yes, you would!”[ii]

But the redeemed heart loves Christ. The forgiven sinner has a desire to please his Lord.

If the thief had been rescued from the cross and lived another 30 years, he would have lived a new and different life, but he did not have that opportunity. The fact that he entered paradise shows us with great clarity where our salvation lies.

Our salvation in Christ involves three marvelous gifts—justification, sanctification and glorification. Justification is the gift by which our sins are forgiven, sanctification is the gift by which we grow in the likeness of Christ, and glorification is the gift by which we enter into the everlasting joy of heaven. If you get that, you get the Christian life.

Graphic:  wordblessings(dot)com

Christ Justified Us

Now think about what happened to this man. He was justified and glorified on the same day! He completely bypassed sanctification! This man missed out on the entire Christian life—no battles with temptation, no struggles with prayer. He was not baptized, he never received communion, and he did not become a member of any church.

Let’s return to our question: How do I get to heaven? Here’s what this story tells us: Entrance to heaven comes through justification, not through sanctification. You enter heaven by forgiveness and through the righteousness that Jesus gives you. You do not enter into heaven by the Christian life.

The New Testament repeats this theme again and again:

A man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. (Galatians 2:16)

He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. (Titus 3:5)

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

It’s always true that where faith is birthed, works will follow, but salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. This is the good news that your acceptance with God does not depend on your performance in the Christian life.

Where would you be if Christ said, “I forgive you, but I’ll be watching to see how you do from now on.” What kind of love is that? “I forgive you, but make sure you don’t mess up again.” When you read the words “not by works,” rejoice. If it wasn’t for this, you’d be sunk because your Christian life is not what you want it to be and neither is mine.

Christ Gives Complete Assurance

“Today, you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43)

Don’t you just hate the business of waiting for exam results? You do the test, hand in your paper, and then you have to wait. Can you imagine living your whole life waiting for the results? Imagine praying every day, serving every week, and then wondering, “Will I make it into heaven? Or will I spend eternity in hell?”

When the man says, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom,” Christ does not say, “We’ll have to wait and see.” He doesn’t say, “It’s rather late in the day for you to think about repentance now. Look at all the years you’ve wasted!” No, Jesus says, “Today, you will be with me in paradise!”

The Son of God brings the declaration of the last day forward for all who put their trust in him. Do you see how the gift of assurance flows from Christ saving us by grace, through faith, and without works? If our works were in any way involved in our gaining entrance into heaven, assurance would be impossible.

If salvation rested on our works in any way, all assurance would be arrogance because it would be saying “I’ve done the necessary works.” Salvation depends not on your works for Christ, but on Christ’s work for you. His work is finished. It’s perfect and complete. You can rest your life, death, and eternity on him with complete confidence.

Heaven Is Nearer Than You Think

Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). Christ is the Lord of paradise. He holds its keys. There can be no higher assurance than his promise. That’s why the apostle Paul says, “It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns?” (Romans 8:33-34).

Graphic: pinterest(dot)com

Death does not lead to a long period of unconsciousness. Nor does it lead, for the believer, to a long process of being prepared. For a Christian believer, death is an immediate translation into the joys of life at the right hand of God. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

Christian, heaven is much nearer than you think. “Today you will be with me in paradise.”

[This post was adapted from Pastor Colin’s sermon, “Breakfast with the Devil, Supper with the Savior,” the second sermon in his series, 7 Words from the Cross.][Photo Credit: Unplash]

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[i] A. W. Pink, “The Seven Sayings of the Savior from the Cross,” p. 34, Baker, 2005

http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Sayings-Saviour-Cross-Arthur/dp/0801065739/

[ii] C. H. Spurgeon sermon, “Election and Holiness” March 11, 1860

http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0303.htm

How Do I Get to Heaven? — Unlocking the Bible

Graphic:  thereshope(dot)org

Hat tip: Truth2Freedom’s Blog

We are not battling craziness, we are battling evil vs. Evolving narrative of conservative stupidity?

Here’s a lesson in two opposing ideologies.  The first one tells us that “we are not battling craziness, we are battling evil.”  The second one gives us an IQ lesson while instructing us in the belief of an , “evolving narrative of conservative stupidity.”

Graphic:  livingforeternityministry(dot)BlogSpot (dot) com

First, here’s an excerpt from, “Today’s liberalism isn’t merely “intrinsically uncivil,” but rather inherently evil.”

Ever since the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States, the American left has been – as my mother likes to put it – in “rare form.”  Such “form” these last two years has resulted in obscene fits by individual leftists and, yes, liberal mobs.  Someone should ask these petulant, angry leftists – as did my mother when she encountered a tantrum (usually from a child): do you get a fever with those fits?

The answer is no, because – in spite of what many have implied as they’ve witnessed the rage, violence, and vulgarities so often employed by today’s liberals – we’re not dealing with sickness or mere lunacy, craziness, stupidity, or even the deranged.  These characterizations are tempting – I’ve used them myself – and often accurate, but they fail to describe best what we are dealing with.

As Selwyn Duke alluded to recently, and others noted more directly years ago, modern liberalism – aided and abetted by the Democratic Party – is a dastardly tool of the enemy of all mankind.  It’s like a modern-day Mephistopheles luring hordes of Faustian fools with promises of worldly pleasure – especially sex – and perpetual provision from a paternalistic, godless nanny state.  Such dark pursuits consume their personal lives and thus their politics as well.  This is what results when one makes a god of government.

Speaking of “dark pursuits,” it seems that witches

Part of this coping involves placing hexes on Justice Kavanaugh.  New York City witches have an

As Rod Dreher implies, it’s no surprise that witchcraft attracts feminazis who wish to rebel against age-old family norms and anything remotely resembling Christianity.  Thus, it’s also little surprise that witchcraft fits so nicely under the tent of modern liberalism.

It seems Arizona Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, who’s battling Colonel Martha McSally – a former fighter pilot and combat veteran – for Jeff Flake’s seat in the U.S. Senate, has long been impressed with those who invoke the “dark arts.”  As the

It was during the height of the Iraq War when Sinema, then a far-left protest-organizer, summoned supernatural help to stop the war.

Emails obtained by the Washington Examiner show Sinema inviting a prominent coven of feminist witches in Arizona called Pagan Cluster to celebrate International Women’s Day and to protest the war in March of 2003.  Code Pink protesters wore pink, obviously enough, and the Women in Black wore black.  But Sinema encouraged the witches to wear “colorful clothing and come ready to dance, twirl, and stay in touch with your inner creativity and with the Earth.”

Today’s liberalism isn’t merely “intrinsically uncivil,” but rather inherently evil. What else would you call a cause so devoted to killing the most innocent and helpless among us? What else would you call a cause so devoted to keeping legal the gruesome act of killing the most innocent and helpless among us that they would stoop to the disgraceful display (including witchcraft) witnessed during the Kavanaugh confirmation?

What else would you call a cause that is so devoted to the perverse LGBT agenda?  What else would you call a cause that deliberately seeks to ruin Christian business-owners because they refuse to bow to the perverse LGBT agenda?  What else would you call a cause that refuses to acknowledge who is a male and who is a female – and makes expensive and oppressive public policy based on such absurdities?

Whether a baker, a florist, a coach, a campus speaker, an insurance company, a fast food chain, a Supreme Court justice, or the president of the United States, anyone or anything who stands in the way of the wicked efforts of American liberals to remake our nation into a pagan utopia has become a target of the angry, vengeful left.  Ugly mob tactics (which are encouraged by elected Democrats) and witchcraft (which, as noted above, was embraced by wannabe-elected Democrats) are just two of the despicable means employed by those corrupted by liberalism.

— Read on www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/10/were_not_battling_craziness_were_battling_evil.html

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But then…

If you own a blog here at Word Press, then you know that Word Press often automatically places two or more additional posts below a post that you are reading in the Reader feed – which (supposedly) are related to the original blog post topic.  Well…that’s not always the case, as I will demonstrate here by including a link to a post that appeared in my reader feed under Truth2Freedom’s post on the American Thinker topic above.

The evolving narrative of conservative stupidity (updated)

(Please read it at the link above, then return here.)

So…it all boils down to the ideas of liberal evil vs. conservative stupidity?

I hope that my more liberal relatives don’t think that I’m stupid for my biblical Christian faith and the conservative values that are supported in Scripture. Perhaps they do think that way about me and my beliefs. Oh well. That’s unfortunate, to say the least. However, I liked what these commenters wrote under the “Liberal IQ” link:

William Wildblood | August 8, 2018 at 11:22 AM

A few points. All higher education nowadays is liberal in coloring so those who go further in education will increasingly be indoctrinated in this ideology. Then, intellectuals often prefer abstract ideas to practical realities which suits the liberal position rather than the conservative one. Then again, liberalism is seen as progressive, of the future, even ‘cool’, and who wants to be seen as old-fashioned and uncool especially if you are ambitious and want to climb the greasy pole?
But the real difference is surely between those who acknowledge a Creator and those who don’t. Higher IQ people are often more likely to reject God due to self-satisfaction with their own intellectual acumen. Their atheism leads them naturally to liberalism. The more intelligent find it harder to be like the little children of whom the kingdom of heaven is made. They are too focused in reason to take sufficient account of faith, on the one hand, and imagination, on the other. Of course, a more rounded intelligent person does not have this problem but many high IQ people are correspondingly limited in other areas.
The ignorant and the wise often have common ground which the merely clever, lacking humility, fail to see. Conservatism isn’t the same as religion but it goes with a religious world view better than secular liberalism which is a thing completely of this world.

Yes…that fits with :

 

Rom 1:22 – Professing to be wise, they became fools,

(go to link and read it all – fits the narrative of many of the leftist mindset quite well!)

 

Another great comment:

Thomas F. Bertonneau | August 8, 2018 at 1:57 PM

“Higher IQ people are often more likely to reject God due to self-satisfaction with their own intellectual acumen.” I want to ask: Does the phrase “higher IQ people” really designate a group remarkable for its intelligence? “Self-satisfaction” is not, in my view, a correlate of intelligence; it is a type of moral stupidity. Maybe stupidity is not exactly the opposite of intelligence. Maybe it is something that often exists alongside intelligence. Maybe a person can be intelligent and stupid at the same time. By the same token, intelligence might be so narrowly exercised that it leaves around it a penumbra of ignorance, so that ignorance, which can only lead to error, might like stupidity be something that can coexist with intelligence.

Augustina’s comment below — to the effect that although liberals call themselves open-minded they are in fact about as closed-minded as one can get — links itself, I believe, to mine. Liberals are smarter than conservatives to the degree that their definition of being smart is valid. Liberals are smart, then, in their own conviction, because they are liberals.

And, a great reply:

William Wildblood | August 8, 2018 at 2:04 PM

I suppose you have to distinguish between intellectual ability which is measured by IQ and wider intelligence which perhaps is not so much. Or fall back on the difference between wisdom and knowledge. Just as good-looking people are more likely to be vain, so merely clever people are more likely to be proud though not necessarily so, of course. After all, the devil is the cleverest and proudest of the lot.

But I think you’re right and that a person can be intelligent or clever and stupid or lacking insight at the same time. We have plenty of examples, don’t we?

Hat tips to all links.

Graphic:  naturedesktopnexus (dot) com

Heb 11:6 – But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Pro 14:6 – A scoffer seeks wisdom and does not find it,
But knowledge is easy to him who understands.

The Belt of Truth

Isn’t it good to know that we’re not left defenseless in the arena of spiritual warfare? God has given us a full suit of armor!

Dr. David Jeremiah teaches about the first piece of that armor, which is designed to help us press forward into battle with the enemy.

In order to be armed with the truth, we must know the truth—the whole comprehensive counsel of God.

God has put everything He wants us to know between the covers of the Bible—everything He wants us to know about Himself, about His Son, about eternity, and about life. And when we study God’s Word, carefully analyze and apply its truth, we end up with power in our lives.

Now, you might never memorize the whole Bible, but make it a priority to know your Bible well enough to know that there are certain places in Scripture where you are going to find answers. The more truth we know, the better equipped we are to go into battle and be victorious. And when you take God’s truth to yourself, then you can embody that truth in your life, and God will begin to show you how you can be victorious on the battlefield.

One of the highlights of the message is when Dr. Jeremiah shares an analogy regarding truth. It’s the story of the three baseball umpires.

One umpire states, “There are balls and there are strikes, and I call them as they are.”

The second umpire states, “That’s arrogant! There are balls and there are strikes, and I call them the way I see them.”

The third umpire states, “That’s no better, why beat around the bush? Why not be realistic about what we do. There are balls and there are strikes and it ain’t nothin’ until I call ’em.”

The first umpire represents the traditional view of truth. Objective, independent of the mind of the knower; it’s there to be discovered.

The second umpire speaks for modern relativism. Truth as he or she sees it; according to each person’s perspective or interpretation.

The third umpire bluntly expresses the post-modern position that truth is there to be discovered? No. It is for each of us to create our own truth and to speak our own truth into the situation. They ain’t nothin’ unless I call ’em balls or strikes.

Dr. Jeremiah explains:

But as Christians, we cannot borrow from the philosophy of this world. As Christians, we must be set on the objective truth of God’s Word. Truth isn’t about our objectives or our perceptions. It’s always about reality.

A majority of us could agree that we would like gravity to be suspended tomorrow, but our vote would have no impact upon reality. Americans embrace Democratic rule which gives us a voice to declare what is truth. But the universe isn’t a democracy, and truth isn’t a ballot measure.

You and I can discover truth, but we cannot create it. What’s true is true, and what’s not is not – for all of us, all the time. Our culture sees truth as something inside of us, subjected to revision according to our growth and enlightenment. But Scripture views truth as something outside of us; which we can believe or not believe. But it is still the truth no matter what we do to it.

People say, “well, I don’t believe this.” And I get the impression that because they don’t believe it that it seems no longer to be true. Well let me tell you something – truth is truth whether you believe it or not! Truth is not touched by your emotions, your opinion, or by your perception. And that is what’s being lost in our culture today. Today, there is no absolute truth anymore. Today, your truth may be different from my truth, but it doesn’t really matter. Isn’t all truth …just a “kind” of truth? No it’s not!

In a world so confused about truth, many people say, “if you are Christians and you think that you know the truth, then isn’t that arrogant on your part? But it’s not arrogant to believe what the Bible teaches! In fact, it’s the opposite. Arrogance is when we try to tailor truth to our preferences.

Dr. Jeremiah tells the story about when a lady approached him one time and said that “her” God would never send anyone to hell. Dr. Jeremiah replied, “you are absolutely right – because your god doesn’t exist!” That god doesn’t exist because you don’t get to create the kind of god that you want and what you want Him to do.

If you found the God of the Bible and how He created, why do you want to spend all of your waking hours trying to discover truth that you already know? If you don’t believe that truth is in the Bible, then search on, my friend!

But if you are a Christian and you believe that God has spoken, and it is true, then why spend all this time trying to find “truth” that isn’t going to be true when you find it?

The Word of God is true. And satan is busy trying to deceive. He continually tries to throw things at us that aren’t true.

When you know Jesus and God’s Word, you can discern truth from error!

Amen!!!

Kavanaugh Protestors are Being Paid

via Kavanaugh Protestors are Being Paid

Many of us who are paying attention knew that the protesters were being paid by Georgevil Sorosatan! Nice to see photos revealing it as true!

Thanks to Pastor Ward Clinton for posting the photos at his blog!