No matter what...

Though the fig tree may not blossom,

Nor fruit be on the vines;

Though the labor of the olive may fail,

And the fields yield no food;

Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,

And there be no herd in the stalls -- 

Yet I will rejoice in the LORD,

       I will joy in the God of my salvation.

Habakkuk 3:17-18 (NKJV)

The Bible does not support anything like Universalism where God will eventually make things work out for every human being and we all get to live together in “happily ever after.”  The Bible makes it plain that some people will finally gain their status as independent contractors who can go it on their own.  The difficulty with such a status is that it is known as Hell and not a special accommodation for those who reject Jesus. 

The Bible also explains that there will be a number of people who will be quite surprised at their status (Matthew 7:22-23) as evildoers when they thought that they had their ticket punched by doing great religious works. 

The Epistle of John was written to give believers an understanding of their eternal hope as it applies to life here on earth (1 John 3:20-21).  When believers claim Jesus and confess their relationship with Him, they are reassured of His care for them and His willingness to camp out in their back yard, so to speak (1 John 4:15).

There is a dangerous doctrine that tries to teach that God pre-selected all of the people who would be sent to Hell in advance of ever creating anyone: even before the first man had life breathed into him.  This calvinistic doctrine seems to have a logical basis but it has no basis in the Bible.  It was made up by men who were too proud to stop themselves at the place where they did not have enough information to continue describing God’s ways and works.  They forged ahead and left the Bible and the character of Jesus behind.  The reprobation (damnation) of the lost in advance of creation cannot be proved with the Bible. (Romans 1:25-28)

There are those nights when I wake from claustrophobic or abandonment dreams and tremble at the terrible picture that I am not bound for heaven.  Maybe I am what some calvinists describe me as being - reprobate and vile, worthless trash.  Maybe the fig tree and the vine and the olive tree are nothing but kindling and fire wood in me and I am the only wretched goat in my barn that holds no flock. 

Perhaps I have crossed a bridge over a chasm and heard the crash of that structure behind me, knowing now that there is no way home.

Maybe I will bow before His white throne and the words I long to hear will be pronounced over someone else…but not me. 

There may be no “Well Done Faithful Servant” for me. 

Maybe not.

But I hope that as the angels escort me to the side of the goats, I will be able to think to thank Jesus that He made a way for some…and that I led a few (never enough) to trust Him as their savior. 

Meanwhile, I will continue to claim Him even though He may have no place for me (Habakkuk 3:18).

Meanwhile I will believe that the Bible is true and as I confess my sins, He forgives me from the boundless beauty of His perfect justice (1 John 1:9).

Meanwhile, I will remind all that will read or hear that Jesus is God.  Jesus saves.  The cross is the place of salvation and salvation happens in time.

While there is time…

Come to Jesus.

Come to the Cross.

Very much God Himself

The LORD is a jealous and avenging God;
The LORD takes vengeance and is filled with wrath.
The LORD takes vengeance on his foes
            and maintains his wrath against his enemies.
The LORD is slow to anger and great in power;
The LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished.
His way is in the whirlwind and the storm,
            and clouds are the dust of his feet.  Nahum 1:2-3 (NIV)

Jesus is God. 
When Jesus was on the earth as the biological son of Mary, the wife of Joseph, He was God. 
Before Jesus created the universe and the world and all that is in it, He was God. (John 1:3, 10)
Jesus always is God.

When you read a verse or passage in the Old Testament and it uses the word "Lord," it is not improper to think, "Jesus." 

God is not some separate being that dwells in pristine, perfect, spit-shined heaven who sent His 'almost' God or 'sort of God' son, Jesus, to do a bunch of dirty work - like dying on a cross as a sacrifice for sin. 
Jesus is God.
God came here and got dirty and bloody and became sin for us.  Jesus did all of that. Jesus is God!

The ideas and imagination of calvinists have converged to compose a portrait of a being that is 'GOD' and a person who is Jesus...'almost God.'  Sinners and reprobates (reprobates are 'sort of human' beings who could never be anything but wicked, worthless trash) are punished and burned by 'GOD' but some of them are rescued by Jesus...well, 'sort of ' - they had already been pre-selected to be saved and Jesus did something to make that 'sort of ' become real.  It's all very confusing - impossible to accept with childlike faith...
If the calvinist ideas are correct, then Jesus didn't behave very much like the 'sort of God' that he was supposed to be.  Jesus did not affirm the pre-selected (Luke 14:16-18) in their positions of perfection.  He argued with them, yelled at them, cursed them ("brood of vipers...sons of the devil") and beat some of them deliberately.  How in the world can we explain the actions of Jesus who forgives reprobate, adulterous women and beats up on pompous, perfect, pre-selected Pharisees? (John 1:11)  Jesus didn't act very much like the 'GOD being' that calvin-followers keep trying to inflict upon Christianity.  Shouldn't Jesus have known who his real enemies were; after all, he prayed enough to keep in touch with the plan of 'GOD.'

Jesus is God.
Maybe the day will come when calvin-followers will get that through their thick skulls.

What Jesus does, God does, has already done, and always is doing.
Loving.
Calling to humans that are lost in sin and misery.
Dying on a cross to fulfill the plan that He and the Father had made to establish salvation for his people in time. 
As long as a person is alive in time, that human can hear the voice of God Himself calling from a bloody cross, "I am the way!"  Any other way turns away from Jesus and turns toward rejection, wrath and enmity where the voice of Jesus fades and love only applies to self.

Come to Jesus.
Come to the Cross.

Miséricorde pour Les Mis...

He hath shewed thee,

O man,

what is good;

and what doth the LORD require of thee,

but to do justly,

and to love mercy,

and to walk humbly with thy God?  KJV

(On t'a fait connaître,

ô homme,

ce qui est bien;

Et ce que l'Éternel demande de toi,

C'est que tu pratiques la justice,

Que tu aimes la miséricorde,

Et que tu marches humblement avec ton Dieu.)  Louis Segond

Micah 6:8

Although the Victor Hugo story of Les Misérables is beautiful and stirring, it is possible to discern those for whom our hearts should be stirred and even squeezed all around us.

All week, as I have pondered and sung the verse above, the french word for "mercy" has rehearsed itself in my mind.  "Miséricorde."  Heart Pain.  ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOHJghBU0XA ) To be squeezed in the heart because of some person or thing that needs help...especially les misérables...the smitten.  God joined Himself (hey calvinist! Jesus is God) to the smitten and became one with them (Isaiah 53:4); making it possible for Paul to explain to us that Jesus became sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). 

Who, among the human beings in the created order, is smitten?

Everyone! 

Who, within this realm where God has ordained work in time, is exempt from His mercy?

No one!

Who, in God's pre-planned work within time and space, is the source of Mercy?

Jesus!

A man with a bicycle was pushing it along beside the road near the Big Chicken in Marietta, GA.  On the back of the bike was a sign that said HUNGRY FOR SCRAP METAL TO SELL AND NOT FOR BOOZE.  The words struck me in the heart so I took him at his word and stopped nearby.  I unloaded a number of scrap metal items that I had been saving and gave them to him.  I shook his hand and asked him if he knew Jesus. He enthusiastically said "Yes, I do!"  His breath did not smell of booze.

I was not compelled to act because I am some well adjusted "adult of God." I am His child and He has access to my heart through the miséricorde of Jesus Christ; the indwelling Holy Spirit (Micah 7:18...the one who delights in mercy).  In Him we are all children -- you want to be adult then you are too full of yourself to know your own misery!

Where is the place of forgiveness and mercy: complete and available to all of les misérables?

Come to Jesus.

Come to the Cross.

Mooved to prayer...

⁵ So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them.  ⁶ Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes.  ⁷ And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water.  ⁸ But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.  ⁹ Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?  ¹⁰ Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.  Jonah 3:5-10 (NKJV)

I love the humorous picture that is portrayed in this account of the salvation of Nineveh from destruction.  Here is a hardened, wicked king who is so stunned by the message (and possibly the appearance) of Jonah that he immediately rips off his clothes, puts on potato sack and sits in the ashes outside.  Ashes – a picture that one is helpless and has nothing to offer.  Operating from the dust bin, the king orders that all of the people and all of the cattle be covered in potato sacks and not eat or drink until the doom either falls or changes to mercy.  The people cry out to God and goad their cattle to moan on their behalf.  It’s a funny picture to see the potato sacked cows mooing before the Lord.

It’s a strange picture that calvinists like to portray that God pre-selected massive numbers of humans to go to hell without access to mercy.  The reason the calvinists believe in their leader’s imaginary idea of reprobation is because they are devoted to evolutionary doctrine and Greek philosophy instead of the teaching of the Bible.  The Bible clearly teaches that God wants to have mercy on humans and can change His plan to bring harm upon them (Exodus 32:14).  Calvin decided to write a new version of the Bible that suited his need for superiority and logic rather than humility and compassion. (If you want to call yourself a calvinist, then I hope he is a good enough advocate (lawyer) to help you out in the judgment…good luck with that.  Most believers are humble enough to content themselves with being Christians in honor of the only one that can help them in the day of judgment (1 John 2:1-2)).  Apparently, God is the sort of person who takes into account the prayers of cattle: He mentions His mercy upon them to Jonah at the end of the book – Jonah 4:11.

Obviously, God is the sort of person (Jesus is God) who will go to extremes to save humans.  Condensing himself into that which fits into his own creation, he became one of us – truly human – and worked out a pre-packaged plan to provide salvation for humanity.  The Bible clearly teaches that no one is reprobate until after he/she has been judged at the end.  The Bible clearly teaches that Jesus has made salvation available to anyone who is human.  His love for us established his finished work on the cross as the gift of salvation that can be accepted (you can’t buy a gift…you either accept it or refuse it) by anyone.

Come to Jesus.

Come to the Cross.

Jesus - friend of sinners.

You should never have gloated over your brother
in the day of his distress;
You should never have rejoiced over the people of Judah
in the day of their destruction; 
You should never have boastfully mocked
in the day of calamity.
You should never have entered the gate of My people
in the day of their disaster.
Yes, you - talking to you!
Do not gloat over their misery
in the day of their disaster
and do not appropriate their possessions
in the day of their disaster.
Do not stand at the crossroads
to cut off their fugitives,
and do not hand over their survivors
in the day of distress. Obadiah 1:12-14

No doubt the children of Edom thought that they had chosen the winning side when they stood at the crossrosads (verse 14) and identified Jewish refugees to their enemies.

No doubt the sons of Esau trusted in some notion that they would be exempt from judgment since they were able to consider themselves more righteous than the children of Israel - it wasn't their judgment that mattered (verse 10).

No doubt the Edomites believed the distress of their brother, Jacob, was permanent and justified their "kick him while he is reprobate" stupidity.

calvinists - beware. Calvin was precisely that stupid.

Reprobates will be made known by Jesus (Jesus is God) on the last day.  They were not pre-packaged to be so - they, as humans, are welcome at the cross so long as there is time and they come into the presence of the God who loves so much that He will even turn His back on harm that He had planned.

That is Bible - not vain jangling imagination.

Come to Jesus.
Come to the Cross.

Revealing Jesus

Surely the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets.  Amos 3:7 (NAS)

When the calvinist imagination about how salvation is accomplished in the remote distance of “eternity past” and projected into time on lucky individuals is explained by Calvin, the result is laughable.  Literally.  Calvin mentions that no one can explain how the lucky recipient really knows whether he/she is saved. Salvation, to Calvin, comes by God’s secret counsel and not response to the gospel…BUT…response to the gospel proves that God’s secret counsel has been accomplished.  Since responding to the gospel proves nothing and everything at the same time, one hopes that Calvin will explain what he means.  He rebukes anyone who wants a reasonable explanation by accusing him/her of wanting to turn into a bird.  Biiirrds!!  Birds that stare at the sun and cannot tell if they are flying too high or diving too deeply into the abyss.  Sounds suspiciously like he has smuggled in the story of Daedalus and Icarus to flesh out his silly imagination.  Where’s Jesus in all of this complicated nightmare?  (calvinists! Jesus is God…stop saying things about God that you cannot prove through Jesus!) 

Amos tells the truth about the secret counsel of God.  It is revealed to the prophets.  Not just any idiot of a prophet who, like a clock that has stopped, can be correct twice a day.  God reveals His secrets to prophetic servants. (Since “servant” = “elect,” then one can call these “elect prophets” aka those that are trustworthy.)  God has assembled the works of the prophets into the books of the Bible, both Old and New Testaments.  Explanation of these works is appropriate and discussion is important.  No one can rework the teachings of the prophets into his own esoteric system in order to capture the souls of humans with impunity.  Calvin’s nonsensical picture of the secret counsel of God as to which sinful humans were “elect” and  those who had always been damned has no biblical basis at all. 

Of course, the most important prophet of all is the Lord Jesus Christ.  This same Jesus said outrageous things that even a child could understand.  “…whosoever believes in Him (Jesus) will not perish but have eternal life.”  Jesus did not construct complicated systems that only the elite and initiated could understand and provide admission for those whom they approved.  Jesus did not expect that someone would “make Jesus Lord over their life” and prove the effects of the gospel and good works before salvation was granted – if so, then what proof is there that the dying thief persevered?  Jesus favored women and children and Roman soldiers over his kinsmen who had established legalistic rituals (Matthew 23:13-36. He calls them snakes = devils) or were getting fat rich off of His Father’s house (Matthew 21:12-13).  Jesus Christ (Jesus is God) was completely in tune with the secret counsels of His Father and did not make it difficult for humans to understand Him or prevent any from coming to Him.  He did not chase them down in order to benefit them but called out to them and invited them to accept Him.  Jesus died on a cross to say, “I love you ______________________, with all that I am.” 

Come to Jesus.

Come to the Cross.

He doesn't do random...

"When Israel was a child,
   then I loved him,
   and I called my Son out of Egypt."   Hosea 11:1 (Matthew 2:15)

Matthew, in his New Testament gospel, claims the latter part of this verse as being fulfilled when the child Jesus returns from Egypt with Joseph and Mary, His earthly parents.  Since that claim is true, then the prophet is pointing out the way that God works in the realm of humanity.

Those who are enamored with the unbiblical system of Calvin try to teach that God does things on the basis of random choice (randomness philosophy = evolutionism).  They cannot explain why He does the things He does (Amos 3:7) and resort to pompous word usage such as "Sovereignty of God" as a trump card over honest questions asked about the inconsistencies of their system.  "Sovereignty of God", in their way of declaring it, usually means, "We don't have an answer to why we believe God chose to make humans that He always intended to destroy as reprobates and we don't care since we are saved... God does things because He wants to and who are YOUU that you dare to question Him or us who speak for Him??!!" 

I personally reject, in the name of Jesus, that calvinists speak for God (Jesus is God) since they don't recognize the clear picture in the Bible that God acts on the basis of love.  God loves Israel and He calls His own Son out of the relative safety of Egypt to go home to the land of Israel in order to suffer and die at the hands of people He loves.  That they hate Him and reject the offer of eternal life that He has made to them does not change His love for them.  He still makes it available to them...salvation was not pre-packaged before creation and delivered to them and certainly was not handed out to Gentiles.  Jesus is salvation and He makes himself available in time.

Jesus has perfect timing.  He fulfilled all the prophecies about Him on time and in time.  The Bible does not spell out any deal that was made by God before creation that guaranteed the salvation of any individual human (who did not exist at that moment) or the damnation of any, either.  The Bible teaches that salvation is based on the outrageous love of God that offers, in time, the Cross of Jesus.  No other provision has been made.  All other deals have been nullified (Hebrews 8:9-10).

Come to Jesus.
Come to the Cross.