NO MAN IS BEYOND REDEMPTION

Can we call Paul a murderer?  Was he complicit in the persecution and death of Christians?  Can we say Paul had blood on his hands?  Was Paul a hopeless case?  Or did the Lord give us Paul as a pattern of His longsuffering and mercy towards anyone who repents?  I ask these questions of Christians.  No man is beyond redemption.  There’s a “level playing field” for all people before God, because God is not a respecter of persons.  That includes the Jewish people and the Muslim people.  God loves both equally and is willing that none perish.

Acts 22:4 And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women.

Acts 22:20 And when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him.

Acts 26:9-10 I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Which thing I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them.

1Timothy 1:16 Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.

Romans 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

REMEMBER THE BLOOD

Leviticus 17:11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.

Hebrews 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

remission

freedom; (figuratively) pardon:–deliverance, forgiveness, liberty, remission.

from Strong’s Greek Dictionary

Romans 5:9-11 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

1 Corinthians 11:24-26 And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.

JUDGE ALLOWS DISCHARGE FOR CHRISTIAN SOLDIER TO SAVE SOULS

This is a Christianity testimony that is rarely heard in our day.  It may be an unpopular testimony that few will give an “Amen” to, but it is Biblically sound and honoring both to the Lord and to the Gospel.

Excerpt:

“I have been trying to justify being a soldier and finding a way to do so while still being a Christian, because that is what I wanted to do since I was a kid,”

‘Barnes wrote in his request for conscientious objector status in December 2006.’

“But I can no longer justify spending my short time in this world participating in or supporting war. … I must try to save souls, not help take them.”

Source:  The Christian Post

WHY REVIVAL TARRIES by Leonard Ravenhill

Excerpt from … Why Revival Tarries by Leonard Ravenhill:

“Charlie Peace was a criminal. Laws of God or man curbed him not. Finally the law caught up with him, and he was condemned to death.  On the fatal morning in Armley Jail, Leeds, England, he was taken on the death-walk.  Before him went the prison chaplain, routinely and sleepily reading some Bible verses.  The criminal touched the preacher and asked what he was reading.  ‘The Consolations of Religion,’ was the replay.

Charlie Peace was shocked at the way he professionally read about hell.  Could a man be so unmoved under the very shadow of the scaffold as to lead a fellow-human there and yet, dry-eyed, read of a pit that has no bottom into which this fellow must fall?  Could this preacher believe the words that there is an eternal fire that never consumes its victims, and yet slide over the phrase with a tremor?  Is a man human at all who can say with no tears, ‘You will be eternally dying and yet never know the relief that death brings’?

All this was too much for Charlie Peace.  So he preached.  Listen to his on-the-eve-of-hell sermon.

‘Sir’ addressing the preacher, ‘if I believed what you and the church of God say that you believe, even if England were covered with broken glass from coast to coast, I would walk over it, if need be, on hands and knees and think it worth while living, just to save one soul from an eternal hell like that!'”  (Ravenhill, Leonard, Why Revival Tarries, Fires of Revival Publishers, Zachary, LA, 1973, p. 19)

2 Timothy 4:1  I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;

2 Timothy 4:2  Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

2 Timothy 4:3  For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

2 Timothy 4:4  And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

2 Timothy 4:5  But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.

2 Timothy 4:6  For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.

2 Timothy 4:7  I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:

2 Timothy 4:8  Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

2 Timothy 4:9  Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me:

2 Timothy 4:10  For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.

2 Timothy 4:11  Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry.

2 Timothy 4:12  And Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus.

2 Timothy 4:13  The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments.

2 Timothy 4:14  Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works:

2 Timothy 4:15  Of whom be thou ware also; for he hath greatly withstood our words.

2 Timothy 4:16  At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.

2 Timothy 4:17  Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.

2 Timothy 4:18  And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

THE SWORD – A Poem

Parents, brethren, child in the flesh,

Same family we do share,

God’s Word, His Sword, came to our clan,

Dividing wheat and tare.

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The nearest, dearest, ones we love,

Now keep quite far away,

But pray we will, and not give up,

They’ll join with us one day.

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The sword is real, though not of steel,

It separates in two,

Those who believe, and those who don’t,

It’s left for us to choose.

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Do we love them, oh yes we do,

But Christ we love much more,

If we turn back, once truth be known,

He’ll one day shut the door.

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It was foretold, in days of old,

This way that it would be,

For those of us, who love the Lord,

Who choose to follow thee.

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It’s plain that if we silent kept,

And never did we speak,

So many lost relationships,

Would still be ours to keep.

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We preach of sin, and saving grace,

Repent, believe, we say,

These words are what upsets them most,

They tell us, go away!

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My hands are clean, I’ve done my job,

Misunderstood I’ve been,

My great concern, without the Lord,

They will die in their sin!

Cathy White – 2007

Jesus said . . .

Matthew 10:34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

Matthew 10:35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

Matthew 10:36 And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.

Matthew 10:37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

Matthew 10:38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.

Matthew 10:39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

Matthew 10:40 He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.

See also  … SALVATION