Posted by Isaiah on July 9, 2008 – 18:58
John MacArthur
This article originally appeared here at Grace to You.
We’re going to turn to a subject in the New Testament that as I think about it is largely ignored and overlooked. And I’ve been made aware of that in recent months. It was not too many months ago that I was flying on one of those jumbo jets from Los Angeles to London, in the process reading a book that dealt with the issue of slavery in the New Testament time and in the New Testament text. It set me thinking in all kinds of directions. I actually finished the book on the flight I was so rapt in my attention to this particular theme.
Being a slave of Christ may be the best way to define a Christian. We are, as believers, slaves of Christ. You would never suspect that, however, from the language of Christianity. In contemporary Christianity the language is anything but slave language. It is about freedom. It is about liberation. It is about health, wealth, prosperity, finding your own fulfillment, fulfilling your own dream, finding your own purpose. We often hear that God loves you unconditionally and wants you to be all you want to be. He wants to fulfill every ambition, every desire, every hope, every dream. In fact, there are books being written about dreams as if they are gifts from God which God then having given them is bound to fulfill. Personal fulfillment, personal liberation, personal satisfaction, all bound up in an old term in evangelical Christianity, a personal relationship. How many times have we heard that the gospel offers people a personal relationship with Jesus Christ?
What exactly does that mean? Satan has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and it’s not a very good one. Every living being has a personal relationship with the living God of one kind or another, leading to one end or another.
But what exactly is our relationship to God? What is our relationship to Christ? How are we best to understand it?
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Posted by Isaiah on May 9, 2008 – 16:47
Marriage
Karen’s testimony on my old blog has been soliciting some interesting comments even though I’ve closed down the blog. One particular response caught my attention because the brother who wrote me faced the same situation as I did years ago when my wife was still a Roman Catholic and I a Protestant.
The brother, Mike, has given permission for his comment to be reproduced here, and I’ll also be sharing our email exchanges here in the hope that perhaps some of you who are better counselors than I am will be able to help. If you’d like to contact Mike directly, please write me and I’ll send you his email address.
He first wrote me with this comment:
Isaiah,
I think I am in the same situation you were in. I am in deep love with a girl who is a Catholic. (I am a Christian). She is an incredible person with high morals and a love for Christ as well. I decided to break off the five year relationship because of the differences between Catholicism and Christianity. Since the breakup, which has been almost a year I cannot seem to get over her. I have depression now and she is all I ever think about. She has inspired me in so many ways over the years, helped me achieve so many many goals, and has been an inspiration to me. She is that kind of person everyone loves who brings a smile into the room, one who is sweet and one who can be trusted. I have learned a lot from this, but my heart feels completely torn and broken since i am not with her. She still said’s to this day, “I am waiting for you” but I cannot wait forever. Hear she is able to accept me, but I am not accepting her. I learned it’s not about religion anymore, but if you believe in Christ as your savior. I am in between the rocks and would love to be able to speak with you about this situation. Hopefully by the grace of God you will read this posting or someone will pass this along to you.
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Posted by Isaiah on May 5, 2008 – 4:32
In the English Standard Version (ESV) translation of the Bible, there is always a notation beside the word “servant” that tells the reader that the word in Greek actually translates into “bondservant”. That got me thinking as to what difference it makes if the Greek word doulos (δοῦλος) is rendered as “servant” or “bondservant”.
Apparently there is a difference, it seems, when I checked the word in Strong’s Concordance.
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Posted by Isaiah on October 26, 2007 – 23:46
The Chinese character for family
It has been a really busy week at work and I do apologize for the lack of updates to the blog. And I must also apologize if I haven’t visited some of your blogs till recently because of the hectic schedule.
Being quite occupied with work doesn’t mean I haven’t got things whirling in my head on what the Christian life is and one of the things that spoke most to me this week was God’s plan for the family, which I shall share with you today.
Do you ever wonder why God made man and woman and ordained the institution of marriage, along with the commission to be fruitful and multiply, i.e. have children?
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