Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Truth

Truth never shares its pedestal.
Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Simple logic. Jesus was one of three people. First we could suppose him a liar, bent on the worst evil and deceiving the world. He built a deception in his whole life that would unalterably change the world to accomadate a lie.

Don't like this Jesus? Good, because neither do I. Second, we could suppose Jesus to be crazy, a maniacal man bent on his destruction and the destruction of his people. He did what he did out of some mental disease and was unable to help himself. Indeed, not only did he end on the cross, he has followers by the thousands who have irrationally followed his madness.

I don't think that works too well either. Third we have the Jesus who was who he said he was. The Son of God come to redeem a lost world. As Lewis so aptly points out we are not ever, in strict logic, left with the idea that Jesus is merely a nice man.

Would that the world was better trained in simple logic! What do they teach them in schools these days? (Oops, that would be me!)

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Romans One and Two

Concluding Thoughts

Key verses:
Romans 1:32 and Romans 2:1 (NIV)

Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you who pass judgment do the same things.

Just a few brief thoughts to note hear. Verse 32 tells us plainly not to 1) do the sorts of things previously listed (including homosexuality) and 2) to definitely not give approval of those who practice them. But verse 1 tells us plainly that we are completely unfit to judge others without condemning ourselves because we do the same things.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus plainly sets a bar so high that it is impossible that we should reach it; rather it is only faith which can save us. Jude further tells us that “we are to snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.”
The walk of the believer then is most assuredly a narrow one. He is called to stand against sin, condemning it completely, shunning it and denouncing it as sin. At the same time he is called to stand with the sinner, being merciful and humble, hoping by any means that the sinner might recognize that he too is naught but a beggar in need of grace.