Repent or Perish

In Him we have . . . the forgiveness of sins . . .

—Ephesians 1:7

Beware of the pleasant view of the fatherhood of God: God is so kind and loving that of course He will forgive us. That thought, based solely on emotion, cannot be found anywhere in the New Testament. The only basis on which God can forgive us is the tremendous tragedy of the Cross of Christ. To base our forgiveness on any other ground is unconscious blasphemy. The only ground on which God can forgive our sin and reinstate us to His favor is through the Cross of Christ. There is no other way! Forgiveness, which is so easy for us to accept, cost the agony at Calvary. We should never take the forgiveness of sin, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and our sanctification in simple faith, and then forget the enormous cost to God that made all of this ours.-(My Utmost For His Highest Nov.20th)

Your Salvation does not come free. God does not just simply forgive, God is just and He is Holy, God doesn't merely forgive you because He is love. God isn't a big hippy in the sky

who is required to forgive you because all he knows is "love".

You can not earn salvation and Gods love, you are fallen

fallible man, you are horrible, you are wicked and the only

thing you deserve is GODS righteous just wrath, the only

thing you deserve is eternal punishment. Your salvation is

NOT FREE! the wrath and anger of our just God was poured

out onto God in the flesh Christ Jesus, only through the sacrificial lamb are you forgiven. It is only free in the sense

that you did nothing to deserve or earn such forgiveness,

and there is nothing you can do.

Christ was sacrificed, He accepted the cup, accepted the Fathers will.

"O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me;

nevertheless, not as I will, but as YOU will."

Matthew 26:39

He took the wrath of God that you deserve, paid the price

so you could be made clean. otherwise God couldn't even

look upon you.. because you're filthy and sinful in His eyes.

You can not humanize God, you can't put him in a little box

and make Him who you want Him to be,

You can't simply ignore that God is not just love,

He is also a God of wrath and isn't oblivious to open rebellion. You can't say God will just simply forgive me

because He loves me, there was nothing simple and easy

with Christ shedding His blood for you on the cross.

I have finished the work which You

have given Me to do —John 17:4

The death of Jesus Christ is the fulfillment in history of the very mind and intent of God. There is no place for seeing Jesus Christ as a martyr. His death was not something that happened to Him— something that might have been prevented. His death was the very reason He came.

Never build your case for forgiveness on the idea that God is our Father and He will forgive us because He loves us. That contradicts the revealed truth of God in Jesus Christ. It makes the Cross unnecessary, and the redemption “much ado about nothing.” God forgives sin only because of the death of Christ. God could forgive people in no other way than by the death of His Son, and Jesus is exalted as Savior because of His death. “We see Jesus . . . for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor . . .” (Hebrews 2:9). The greatest note of triumph ever sounded in the ears of a startled universe was that sounded on the Cross of Christ— “It is finished!” (John 19:30). That is the final word in the redemption of humankind.

Anything that lessens or completely obliterates the holiness of God, through a false view of His love, contradicts the truth of God as revealed by Jesus Christ. Never allow yourself to believe that Jesus Christ stands with us, and against God, out of pity and compassion, or that He became a curse for us out of sympathy for us. Jesus Christ became a curse for us by divine decree. Our part in realizing the tremendous meaning of His curse is the conviction of sin. Conviction is given to us as a gift of shame and repentance; it is the great mercy of God. Jesus Christ hates the sin in people, and Calvary is the measure of His hatred.

(My Utmost For His Highest Nov.21st)

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins

Ephesians 2:1

Repent or Perish

But unless you repent you will all likewise perish

Luke 13:3

Who Was Cain's wife?

Then God said, "let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;

let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air;

and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that

creeps on the earth.

So God created man in His own image; in the image of God

He created him; Male and Female He created them.

Genesis 1:26-27

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground,

and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became

a living being.

Genesis 2:7

And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and

he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.

Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman,

and He brought her to the man.

Genesis 2:21-22

And Adam called his Wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all

living.

Genesis 3:20

So I've been reading "Answers book 1" by Ken Ham,

he gives biblical answers to questions that most atheists or

even Christians themselves have (Good book).

I never really questioned myself, how man was created, to me personally

I always thought evolution (the opposite side of the proverbial coin) sounded

completely moronic( even when I wasn't a follower of Christ)

To me coming from apes or ooze or some random act of millions of years

just didn't make any freakin sense whatsoever, in fact it still doesn't.

Some Christians do tend to mix humanism and evolutionary thinking

and try to mix it with their believe system, but really you can't do that with the

word of God, you either take it for what it says/means or you don't, you can't

read into scripture and twist words around to make it fit whatever preconceived

notions you have.

Now I thought I would talk about Adam and Eve and their children,

simply because it is after all rather important to have a BIBLICAL understanding.

I don't think any Christian really questions Adam and Eve, a major question

that does arise however is WHERE did Cain's wife come from? Everyone

knows the story of Cain and Abel two of the children from Adam and Eve,

we all know Cain kills Abel out of jealousy and then it says Cain

is marked by God because Cain was scared people would kill him for what he

did to Able...

Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground;

I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on

the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me"

Cain to God- Genesis 4:14

first of all...what people? there were only Adam and Eve all human beings

came from Adam and Eve..right? the bible it self in Genesis 3:20 says

Eve was mother of all living, The word of God doesn't contradict itself,

humans surely contradict the word though.

Then Cain went out from the presence of the LORD and dwelt in the land

of NOD on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and

bore Enoch.

Genesis 4:16

So lets think about this, Cain was scared of "other people" and it also

says Cain and his wife "knew each-other"(In bible terms "had sex") and

they had a son named Enoch. I know when I was reading Genesis , every time

I got to that part about Cain dwelling in the land of Nod and "knowing his wife"

I was like, wait a second what wife? and where did she come from?

was his wife in NOD? did God create other people before or after Adam and Eve?

then I'd be like "meh whatever..." and continued reading, it really wasn't something

that I struggled with or something that made me question my faith, however

for plenty of people that and many other things cause problems, hence

why I started reading the book.

First lets establish the fact that NO.. God didn't create other human beings,

God Created Adam the FIRST MAN, and EVE the FIRST WOMAN,

and through them a genealogy was formed. As Romans says

Therefore, just as through one man(Adam) sin entered the world,

and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men

Romans 5:12

And so it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being."

The last Adam(Jesus Christ) became a life-giving spirit.

1 Corinthians 15:45

All men/woman of the world are descendants of Adam that is

how sin entered into the world and that is why we are all sinners,

who have no way of saving ourselves, we are wicked and if it wasn't

for the last adam (Christ) we all would get what we truly deserve

and that is eternal separation from God, obviously if it wasn't for Christ

we couldn't even begin to have the relationship we have with Christ.

We sin because Adam sinned, it is all we know..we are fallible creatures.

The bible makes it clear we all must come from Adam and Eve it is

how creation started, and again it says Eve was mother of all living..

For since by man [came] death, by man [came] also the

resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in

Christ shall all be made alive.

1 Corinthians 15:21-22

And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,

Acts 17:26

Can't stress enough how the bible states we all come from one fallible

man and that man being Adam. Now back to the issue with Cain's wife

we don't even read her name, we don't read about Adam and Eve having daughters, in fact the only names we get for Adam and Eve's Children

are Cain,Abel(who gets killed), and Seth( who the bible says is born after

the death of Abel)

And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth,

"for God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain

killed."

Genesis 4:25

And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his

own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. After he begot Seth,

the days of Adam were eight hundred years; and he had sons and daughters.

Genesis 5:3-4

So as you read in Genesis you do see Adam and Eve had daughters,

and more sons then just the three names that are given. In

fact the Jewish historian Josephus wrote that Adam and Eve

had 33 sons and 23 daughters.Now scripture itself doesn't say how many children total were born to them BUT Adam and Eve were commanded in

Genesis to be fruitful and multiply and we see ADAM lived 930 years,

yes...930 flippin years, plenty of time for ALOT of baby making.

So we don't know exactly when Cain married BUT we do know it was before

he went to the land of NOD(hence he didn't go to the land of NOD to get

married for he already was married) and two we know Seth(considered

Abel's replacement) was born when Adam was 130, more then likely

Cain and Able were 100 or more years old when Cain killed Abel hence

plenty of time for Adam and Eve to have had more children in that

time period and for their children's Children to marry and have Children of their own. For in Genesis before Cain kills Abel we read

"And in the process of time it came to pass"

Genesis 4:3

Now of course most people at this point are like...

"Wait a minute so sisters and brothers married?" uh..doesn't God say

that's wrong? indeed he did say that(it's wrong to marry close relatives), but God didn't say that until Moses(Leviticus 18-20)and by that time(thousands of years later) the earth would be populated that you wouldn't have to marry a close relative. It's only obvious if you GO by biblical account that the first generation would have to marry and have children with sisters and or close relatives.

This is probably another issue where people just put the pieces together

and say "well obviously Adam and Eve had a daughter whom Cain married"

but then they say to themselves "that would mean that's his sister and God says thats is wrong and so this doesn't make sense."

It's how life started at first, if all are descendants of Adam like the bible

itself says, it's how it would have to start. Further more like what I stated,

it wasn't wrong until God told Moses it was wrong and that some years later.

So hence if we go by the Bible we see Seth/Cain married close relations

because frankly that would be their only choice, we also see that Adam and Eve had sons AND daughters and we just only read about Seth/Cain and Abel. So we know where Cain got his wife and we know why

after he killed Abel he was scared "others" would kill him, obviously

because Adam and Eve had other children and there children had children

before Abel died and they would be relatives of Abel and would want to

kill Cain for killing Abel.

Now yet another issue some may bring up would be the fact by todays

standards if you had a child with a close relative there is a very good

chance that child would have some kind of deformity, and that is actually

a really good point. HOWEVER Adam and Eve were perfect creations in the

image of God, no defects...no anything..absolutely perfect until they sinned

and brought sin into the world, so if you think about it Adam and Eve and

their children wouldn't have received any imperfect genes, the effects of

sin were not fully formed they were minimal at that point and time, but

by the time of Moses the effects of the fall would have been much greater

so there would be a reason for God to forbid close relative marriages.

Let GOD and His word interpret your thoughts..

NOT

Your thoughts interpret GOD and His word.

Click here to find out more about Ken Hams book

Oblivious to Sin

Seek the LORD, all you meek of the earth, Who have upheld His justice. Seek righteousness, seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden In the day of the LORD's anger.

Zephaniah 2:3

Sometimes when we are seeking to be righteous we fall into

a place of self righteousness, which can lead to a very selfish

"proud" attitude and a judgmental demeanor.

Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him;

But the just shall live by faith.

Habakkuk 2:4

We (as followers of Christ) are called to be humble,

however this also can lead to a problem, As some mistake

the meaning of humble. Or maybe rather then mistake the meaning,

people let humbleness lead them down a path of a "Woe is me"

attitude. By the way just for the record I struggle with the following at times myself, I in NO way mean to elude that I am perfect.

I just see so many of us that hang on to the fact that we are all sinners,

and yes indeed this is true, but so many of us ignore seeking righteousness,

as if the fact that we are forgiven allows us to be oblivious of our sins,

oblivious to the fact that sin ANGERS GOD...Oblivious to what is right and what is wrong. How many have the attitude that "Yup..I'm a sinner, freely admit it, Christ saved me from them" and then therefore do not even seek to allow Christ to work through them and change their behavior, do not repent when they do sin because they do not think they need too, and don't even seek righteousness that can be found in Christ.

Sin very much so angers God, so much so that Christ suffered

and paid the price for it,as I've quoted before..

DO NOT think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets.

I DID NOT come to destroy but to fulfill.

Matthew 5:17

Christ was the only one who actually followed the Law perfectly,

and He came to be the sacrifice for US because we could

not and can not follow the LAW(without him), this everyone indeed agrees with...BUT Christ's forgiveness doesn't give us FREEDOM to sin..

This I feel really needs to be explained. I'm a horrible person, I'm a sinner,

this I recognize with a remorseful disposition "For the things I wish to do, those things I do not do, but the things I wish not to do, those I do"

I HATE my sins, I seek not Self-righteousness... BUT the righteousness that is found in Christ Jesus, I seek to live by his words as there is nothing else to even remotely live for, "Whom have I in heaven but you? and earth has nothing I desire besides you"

However it is in this seeking of righteousness that I must REMAIN humble as not to think I could ever save myself or to think that which I seek to do makes me better then anyone else.

Forgiven for being the failures that we are....yes indeed,

this however doesn't mean we blind ourselves into thinking

sin is ok, or that we do not warn those about the damaging

life of sin. If I do not seek to be humble in dealing justly with others,

you better believe the holy spirit will convict me of my own doings,

it is in this inward self examination of just how corrupt I am,

that without Christ... without His sacrifice, which led to Gods forgiveness, just how unworthy I'd be of any sort of relationship with Him, other then of course His wrath and anger...

If there be ground for you to trust, as you do, in your own righteousness, then all that Christ did to purchase salvation, and all that God did from the fall of man to prepare the way for it, is in vain.

Consider what greater folly could you have devised to charge upon God than this, that all those things were done so needlessly; when, instead of all this, He might only have called you forth, and committed the business to you, which you think you can do so easily.

-Jonathan Edwards

Does forgiveness mean we shouldn't realize what we are forgiven from?

If we should realize this fact, then why don't more of us know the Ten Commandments? many ignore them saying "We don't have to follow them"

indeed we are saved by Grace not works, but the fact is we have broken the law wether we think we have or not, otherwise Christ wouldn't of had to die for us. Shouldn't we know them, not for salvation purposes but to realize how fallen we are? NOT so we can "feel bad" or walk around saying "Woe is me"

but so we can see how amazing His forgiveness really is, So we can see

just how undeserving of His grace we are.

1."You shall have no other gods before Me.

2.You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

3.You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain,

for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

4.Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

5.Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.

6.You shall not murder.

7.You shall not commit adultery.

8.You shall not steal.

9.You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

10.You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.

Some might say; "gods? Idols? i've never done such a thing"

really? anything can be an idol, and anything can become your god,

for anything you put above God hence becomes your god..

I.E Money,Cars,Yourself,Music,Tv,Movies,Video Games ect...ect..

remember the man who came to Jesus in Matthew 19?

He said he has kept all the commandments since he was young(Liar)

and then jesus said;

"If you want to be perfect, go, give all you have to the poor,

and come follow me."

Did the man do it? who knows, all it says is he was very sorrowful,

because he had great wealth, if He wouldn't follow Jesus because he loved

His money more, he essentially broke the first/second commandment.

Even still some might say; "I've never murdered or committed Adultery!"

Really? Jesus said in Matthew;

You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.

But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.

Matthew 5:21-22

Hmm..Ever been angry with someone for no reason? had a bad day

and you chew someone out...just because? or whatever the case may be..

guess what? Christ says then you have broken the 6th Commandment.

You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Matthew 5:27-28

Who can say they have never lusted after someone before? If you have,

and YOU HAVE...then you also have broken the 7th commandment...

What is my point? my point is we all have sinned and fall short of Grace,

anyone who claims to be without sin is a liar and the truth is not in him.

There is no justification in sinning, there is no work you can do,

there is no mountain you can climb that will ever make you deserving of anything other then the wrath of GOD...

It's like what Paul Washer said in the video I posted on Facebook, Many people ask why do bad things happen to good people? When the question should be, Why does any good ever happen at all? For we are not "good people" and any good that we receive is more blessing and love that none of us deserve in the first place, for we are wicked.

Therefore humble yourselves under Gods mighty hand, and realize the price

has been paid for YOU, someone had to suffer for what YOU DID...and you will NEVER deserve that kind of love...