I’ve written about salvation and justification, in a couple of posts and in those posts I mention God’s Grace (as do all Christian theologians, ministers, and lay people). However I haven’t really expanded upon the beauty and unbelievable miraculous gift of His Grace.
God’s grace is simply defined as the unmerited or undeserving favor of God to those who are under condemnation. But that hardly conveys the enormous quality of that grace. In the New Testament grace means God’s love in action towards men who merited the opposite of love. Grace means God moving heaven and earth to save sinners who could not lift a finger to save themselves. Grace means God sending His only Son to descend into hell on the cross so that we guilty ones might be reconciled to God and received into heaven. ‘(God) hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Cor 5:21)
“For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!” (Romans 5:17).
Think about this for a moment. Scripture teaches us that as a result of the sin of Adam all mankind is born in a state of sin. The Cannons of Dordt explains:
The result of the fall is total depravity or corruption. By this is meant that every part of man is rendered corrupt. The Canons say that man “became involved in blindness of mind, horrible darkness, vanity, perverseness of judgment; became wicked, rebellious, obdurate in heart and will and impure in his affection.” There was no part of his nature that was not affected by sin.
I would point out that it is our nature that is sinful, it is not the sins we commit that makes us sinful, it is the state of our being, our nature. Lady Gaga sings that we ‘were born this way’, stating that we are all perfect because God made us this way and He doesn’t make mistakes. Perhaps Lady Gaga should read the scriptures. God DID NOT make us this way, and we are not made perfect. God did make Adam perfect and Adam screwed it up for the rest of us. He was MADE, he sinned, and through his sin we all are corrupted products of that original creation.
Romans Chapter 3 tells us with no equivocation that man is sinful in nature:
9 What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin.10 As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”[b] 13 “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.”[c] “The poison of vipers is on their lips.”[d] 14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”[e] 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 ruin and misery mark their ways, 17 and the way of peace they do not know.”[f] 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”[g]
19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.
I will not belabor the extension of our sinful nature as we all know that biblically ‘the wages of sin is death’. So now, what hope do we have?
Yep, we have the miraculous and encompassing Grace of God. His love for us is so great that He could not bear to spend eternity without us. Our difficulty is that God is perfect in every way and we are not. How does our God who embodies perfect righteousness and perfect justice look upon us with favor when even the ‘best’ of us fall woefully short of His righteousness? He displayed His perfect love and He gave us a way. An unmerited, undeserved, yet totally free way to be absolved of our sins, to be reborn in His righteousness. He gave us the free gift of His grace, His redeeming, saving Grace.
“This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:22-24).
“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace” (Ephesians 1:7).
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:8-10).
“For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).
“For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!” (Romans 5:17).
Hallelujah Amen! I am here with no hope of doing anything to earn God’s forgiveness, righteousness, and eternal life in commune with Him, but it turns out that because of His love for me He gave me the gift of His grace so that I am free of my sinful nature and am now an adopted heir of God. THAT is truly amazing!
I am guilty
Ashamed of what I’ve done, what I’ve become
These hands are dirty
I dare not lift them up to the Holy one
You plead my cause
You right my wrongs
You break my chains
You overcome
You gave Your life
To give me mine
You say that I am free
How can it be
How can it be
I’ve been hiding
Afraid I’ve let you down, inside I doubt
That You still love me
But in Your eyes there’s only grace now
You plead my cause
You right my wrongs
You break my chains
You overcome
You gave Your life
To give me mine
You say that I am free
How can it be
How can it be
Though I fall, You can make me new
From this death I will rise with You
Oh the grace reaching out for me
How can it be
How can it be
You plead my cause
You right my wrongs
You break my chains
You overcome
You gave Your life
To give me mine
You say that I am free
You plead my cause
You right my wrongs
You break my chains
You overcome
You gave Your life
To give me mine
You say that I am free
How can it be
How can it be
How Can It Be – Lauren Daigle
Songwriters
JASON INGRAM, JEFF JOHNSON, PAUL MABURY
Okay, so I’ve already given my last word on the Kapernick sitting protest during the National Anthem, and this post is not intended to belabor to that which I have already given voice.
However, some soul searching, and research, about national respect and protests have given me some insight that I will blather on about in this post…
I grew up as an “Army brat”, my father served a tour in the US Marines and a 20 year career in the US Army so I was raised mainly on military bases until close to high school age. At 18 I enlisted in the Army and am myself a disabled Veteran. Suffice it to say that I have had a long military background.
As a child it was common practice for us to cease all activities during Reveille and Taps (as “Reveille” is played, all U.S. Army personnel are required to come to attention and present a salute, either to the flag or in the direction of the music if the flag is not visible). Those of us who were not ‘Army personnel’ (ie; military families) were taught by our parents to stop, stand, and face the flag or music, preferably with our hands over our hearts. Trips to the movie theater on base were much the same because prior to the movie starting the National Anthem was played and everyone in the theater stood up, hands over hearts, until the anthem finished.
The one thing that sticks with me to this day is that this activity of standing during the National Anthem was never about showing pride in, or respect to, our flag or the anthem; it was, and is, about showing respect to our great Nation, for which the flag and anthem are simply representations.
Let me share what Mr. Kapernick said about his protest:
“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”
I suppose that this is what really irks me about the whole thing; Mr. Kapernick is allowed to protest as he sees fit as long as it does not harm others, however, his freedom to protest is given to him by the very nation (and those that defend it) which he is disrespecting. I honestly do not think he understands exactly what he is disrespecting. It is not the flag, or the anthem. It is the Nation that provides him the freedom he seemingly takes for granted.
I envision a parent who has toiled arduously to earn money to buy food, labored over a hot stove, after working all day, to prepare that food, and then lovingly set it in front of their child, only to have that child spit on it and push it away simply because it isn’t what he wanted for dinner.
So while I apparently take umbrage at Mr. Kapernick’s insult to the Nation I have willingly and proudly served (yes, I feel a bit personally insulted) I must remind myself that people get to decide, whether to stand still, keep walking, or sit. They can sing, even if they can’t hit any of the notes, or be quiet. They can put their hands over their hearts, or let their arms hang loosely. They can remove their hats or leave them on. They can cheer proudly, or even jeer. That’s what is so great about America. You get to choose. No one can order patriotism. You can’t force people to have pride.
FREEDOM IS NOT FREE
I watched the flag pass by one day.
It fluttered in the breeze
A young Marine saluted it, and then
He stood at ease.
I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud
With hair cut square and eyes alert
He’d stand out in any crowd.
I thought, how many men like him
Had fallen through the years?
How many died on foreign soil?
How many mothers’ tears?
How many Pilots’ planes shot down?
How many foxholes were soldiers’ graves?
No, Freedom is not free.
I heard the sound of taps one night,
When everything was still.
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.
I wondered just how many times
That taps had meant “Amen”
When a flag had draped a coffin
of a brother or a friend.
I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands
With interrupted lives.
I thought about a graveyard
at the bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves in Arlington.
No, Freedom isn’t free!!
Copyright 1981 by Kelly Strong
In this country everyone has the freedom, and the right, to protest what they see as injustice. I support that freedom and have served to protect that freedom, however, I do not agree with his form of “protest”.
You do not effectively protest what you believe is injustice through disrespect, and trust me on this, sitting down during the National Anthem is absolutely disrespect.
It spits in the face of this nation and all those who have worked, served, and sacrificed, to make America a country where a citizen can protest, can disagree, and can make change for the better.
If you want to see injustices and “oppression” changed Mr. Kapernick, then take some of those millions of dollars you have been given, through opportunities afforded to you, that you would only have in this “oppressive” nation, and do something constructive with it.
Educate, train, donate… Do something positive to make things better, do not sit on your entitled butt and spout nonsense.
When it comes down to the bottom line I think the whole “protest” thing is a bunch of malarkey. I think the writing on the wall in terms of his decreased ability as ‘premier’ QB and the end of his NFL career is probable due to his inability to perform at the level necessary to be successful in the NFL.
So when he does get benched, demoted to back up QB, or possibly cut from the team, he can whine about the “oppressors” getting rid of him for his political views instead of facing the truth of his poor performance on the field.
The following article by Todd Starnes is another example showing that our constitutional right to Freedom OF Religion is being eroded away piece by piece. In several instances which I have posted here we have seen that the State has persecuted Christians for exercising their biblical based spiritual and religious beliefs.
Bakers have been fined for refusing to make wedding cakes for gay weddings, children have been suspended and expelled for wearing crosses to school, or praying during their lunch breaks. A group of Mom’s providing free lunches and a bit of Jesus to children, off school property, have been harassed by school officials (read Jesus Lunch), and now this Doctor fired for his Sunday sermons among numerous other examples of religious discrimination.
With the strong push to enforce LGBT rights I spoke to the idea that their rights will supersede the rights of Christians to hold and express their biblical beliefs, and I have spoken to the very real idea that soon, with the legalization of gay marriage throughout our nation, it will become illegal for churches and ministers to refuse to conduct wedding ceremonies for gay couples. Let me reiterate what I stated:
I am a born again Christian, and an ordained Minister, my fear is that eventually this wave of LGBT rights trumping all other rights will put Ministers and churches in danger of the same governmental coercion that Christian business owners are now facing. My fear is that our right to freely practice our religion will be taken away in lieu of another’s demands that we conform to anti-biblical desires by trying to force Ministers to perform same-sex marriages. This coercion will come under threat of prosecution and/or legal or civic sanctions.
It will be the case, sooner rather than later, that our right to practice our religion free of government influence will be eliminated completely.
Bi-vocational pastors be warned – what you say from the pulpit on Sunday could get you fired from your public sector job on Monday.
Dr. Eric Walsh, a renowned public health expert who also serves as a lay minister, has filed a federal lawsuit against the Georgia Department of Public Health alleging he was terminated for delivering sermons on issues ranging from homosexuality to evolution.
“No one in this country should be fired from their job for something that was said in a church or from a pulpit during a sermon,” said First Liberty attorney Jeremy Dys.
First Liberty, one of the nation’s largest law firms defending religious liberty, is representing the Seventh Day Adventist lay minister.
They contend that the Georgia Department of Public Health assigned workers to investigate sermons Dr. Walsh delivered on health, marriage, sexuality, world religions, science and creationism. He also preached on what the Bible says about homosexuality.
“He was fired for something he said in a sermon,” Dys told me. “If the government is allowed to fire someone over what he said in his sermons, they can come after any of us for our beliefs on anything.”
First Liberty has accused the government agency of religious discrimination and retaliation.
“I don’t believe I did anything wrong,” Dr. Walsh told me in an exclusive interview. “This has been very painful for me. I really am a strong believer in the Constitution. But now I feel like maybe all these ideals and values that I was raised to believe – the ideals they country was founded upon – no longer exist.”
A spokesperson for the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) did not return telephone calls nor did they respond to email inquiries.
First Liberty said Walsh was hired as a district health director on May 7, 2014. A few days later, DPH officers and other government workers began investigating his religious activities.
“DPH officers and other employees spent hours reviewing these and other of Dr. Walsh’s sermons and other public addresses available online, analyzing and taking notes on his religious beliefs and viewpoints on social, cultural and other matters of public concern as expressed in the sermons and other public addresses,” the lawsuit states.
The behavior of the DPH was so egregious that its own counsel twice warned them on May 15 that “under federal law Dr. Walsh’s religious beliefs could play no role in any employment decision by DPH.”
But on May 16, the DPH announced it had rescinded the job offer that Dr. Walsh had already accepted.
“Today’s action by the department follows a thorough examination of Dr. Walsh’s credentials and background as well as consultation with the six local boards of health which comprise the district,” spokesman Ryan Deal said in a news release.
And the Department of Public Health wasn’t the only organization concerned about the pastor’s sermons.
The Georgia Voice reported that the Health Initiative, an Atlanta-based group committed to LGBT health issues, strongly opposed Welsh’s hiring.
“Dr. Walsh’s public displays of anti-gay propaganda and religious rhetoric will become symbols of the department and will further isolate an already vulnerable population. We believe this hire is detrimental to the wellbeing of our community, as well as to the effectiveness of the Department to conduct meaningful outreach to LGBT Georgians,” Executive Director Ellis told the publication.
Based on documents First Liberty obtained through a FOIA request, it is clear there was some internal concerns about how Dr. Walsh had been treated.
In spite of the DPH’s internal witch hunt against Dr. Walsh, at least one unnamed staffer wrote a memo warning that the entire controversy had been blown “impossibly out of proportion.”
“Not only is there no smoking gun, there is every reason to believe, even from his detractors own words, that he is the excellent health director we believed he would be,” the staffer wrote in a document obtained by First Liberty through a FOIA request.
“If we do not hire this applicant on the basis of the evidence of job performance and disqualify him on the basis of discrimination by those who seek to advance their own agenda and do him harm, I believe we are no better than they are,” the staffer concluded.
The unnamed staffer’s concerns were ignored and Dr. Walsh was terminated.
Dr. Walsh was catapulted into the national spotlight earlier in 2014 when he was invited to deliver the commencement address at Pasadena City College in California.
Walsh, who was then the director of the city’s public health department, came under fierce scrutiny from LGBT activists and students. He backed out of the speaking engagement. But critics persisted and he was forced to resign his post – after reaching a financial settlement with the city.
Dys tells me that what happened to Dr. Walsh should give every American the chills.
“The idea of those government employees dividing up the sermons is unthinkable,” he said. “Religious liberty means we should be able to find sanctuary in our own sanctuary.”
In recent days, the state of Georgia has become a battleground over religious liberty.
Governor Nathan Deal, a Republican, vetoed legislation that would have provided protection for pastors and other faith-based organizations from attacks by LGBT activists. The veto was levied under fierce pressure from big business bullies like Disney and Coca-Cola.
It’s unclear whether such a law would have protected Dr. Walsh.
“Any law a state passes that helps protect religious liberty – especially a law that allows pastors the right to preach and not lose their jobs – is a law we would certainly apply in this case,” Dys said.
It’s becoming clear to me that people of faith – people like Dr. Walsh — will not find safe refuge in the state of Georgia.
First, they silenced the sheep – and now they are trying to silence the shepherds.
America used to be known as a nation of ‘makers’. Production was the lynch pin of our economy and our place as the largest producer (of anything) in the world was the envy of the world. Sadly, this in no longer the case and our nation’s economy is built on a foundation of cards rather than stone.
No longer are we a nation of makers, we are a nation of service providers, and as a nation if we continue to base our economic future on buying and selling goods we do not produce we hand that future over as hostage to those that do produce.
At the turn of the century, factories employed more workers than education and health care combined or professional and business services. Nowadays the latter two groups of industries both employ millions more Americans than those making things.
While many positions in education, health care and professional and business services pay well, those often require a college or advanced degree or expensive specialized training beyond high school, and nowadays girls do better in school than boys. And the grimy environment of many factories was appealing to men, a lot of jobs in the abovementioned sectors are as attractive or even more appealing to women.
Hence it is no surprise that as the fortunes of women have been improving—the feminist revolution and rise in female labor force participation notwithstanding—and the nation now confronts a crisis of despondent men.
Nearly 7 million men, between the ages of 25 and 54, are neither employed nor looking for work
Manufacturing has been a victim of its own success—productivity growth in manufacturing has outstripped other sectors of the economy creating a natural migration of job opportunities from factories to service—but international and domestic policies pursued by presidents dating back to Kennedy have exacerbated the plight of men without a college degree.
Free trade agreements have been advertised as jobs creators but the facts simply belie that claim. Whereas exports create jobs, imports destroy even more of them. The United States has a trade deficit on goods and services combined exceeding $500 billion. That kills 4 million jobs directly and at least another 2 million including from lost spending of workers initially displaced.
Manufacturing accounts for the lion’s share of the trade gap—especially goods from China and elsewhere in Asia that are often subsidized by national governments and benefit from artificially undervalued currencies. Presidents Bush and Obama have talked about fixing those practices, but the trade agreements they bring home only make matters worse.
The South Korea Free Trade Agreement implemented on Obama’s watch has increased the trade deficit by more than $15 billion dollars and killed about 120,000 jobs—mostly in manufacturing.
Similarly, Washington has largely left assisting manufacturing to the states, which have fewer resources, while it has ramped up subsidies and shifted job opportunities to education and health care.
Peter Morici served as Chief Economist at the U.S. International Trade Commission from 1993 to 1995. He is an economist and professor at the Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, and a widely published columnist. He is thefive time winner of the MarketWatch best forecaster award.Follow him on Twitter @PMorici1.
I believe everyone should be able to earn a living wage, but this deal is stupidity incarnate.
It is also rather disgusting that the families of many of our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines are surviving on public assistance while some people will make more money each month working part-time and spending the rest of their day playing video games and smoking weed.
Today California passed the first $15 an hour minimum wage law in the nation. It assures that the people serving you fries, can have a “livable wage.” I didn’t hear the same politicians discuss the wages of our men an women in uniform. An Army E1 soldier is paid $8.84 per hour. Do you believe a fast food worker “deserves” to be paid almost twice as much? No offense to fast food workers, but it was never meant to be a career to support a family. Share this image if you agree that we need to get our priorities straight.
This is the moment of reality vs. The Land of Shoulda-Coulda-Woulda
The reality is that Donald Trump leads in delegates for the Republican nomination, but still has a difficult path forward to secure the nomination outright.
The reality is that John Kasich has no mathematical path forward to win the Republican nomination.
The reality is that if Donald Trump has the most delegates, though not 1,237, all the people saying Trump can still be stopped are fooling themselves.
The reality is that the only person now able to stop Trump from getting a majority or plurality of delegates is Ted Cruz.
In the land of shoulda-coulda-woulda, had Marco Rubio not competed in Texas, Cruz would have gotten all the delegates. Had Cruz not competed elsewhere, Rubio could have done well. Had Rubio dropped out after last Tuesday, it might have been enough to change dynamics elsewhere.
We can argue about all that stuff, but it is in the past. It is in the land of shoulda-coulda-woulda.
In reality, Donald Trump is still headed toward the Republican nomination. He must be stopped.
The past fights have to be set aside and everyone must focus on the future fight ahead. That requires, in reality, that Cruz and Rubio align and donors pressure Kasich to shut down.
It may mean that guys like me who were opposed to Kasich and even, at one point preferred Trump to Kasich, must also come to terms with reality that Kasich may have a role to play, though not be the Presidential nominee.
At this point, if we are all in this to stop Trump, we must get Cruz to win. That is reality.
Erick Erickson is a Fox News contributor. He is host of “Erick on the Radio” and founder/editor of The Resurgent. He is the founder of RedState.com. Follow him on Twitter @EWErickson.
Php 2:4-5 Let each of you esteem and look upon and be concerned for not [merely] his own interests, but also each for the interests of others. (5) Let this same attitude and purpose and [humble] mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus: [Let Him be your example in humility:]
