Tuesday, January 5, 2021

James 4:7-8

Peace to you my brothers and sisters.

Today’s Bible Verse: [James 4:7-8 KJV] 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse [your] hands, [ye] sinners; and purify [your] hearts, [ye] double minded.

The five points of Calvinism can be summed up with the acrostic TULIP.

The “T” stands for total depravity; that is, we enter the world in original sin. We are all condemned to hell due to the sin of Adam. We are dead to God. More than that, the man or woman who is dead in sin hates God, and his "carnal mind" is "enmity against God.

[Romans 8:7 KJV] 7 Because the carnal mind [is] enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

We have a carnal mind from the beginning.

The “U” stands for Unconditional Election.

This means simply: God chooses to give some people eternal life, without looking for anything good in them as a condition for loving and saving them.

Before any man or woman is born -- in fact, before the world was made -- God decided who would go to heaven and who would not. Before they did good or bad, God chose some to be His people and rejected others.

God is sovereign; that is, He controls all. Creation is His to do with what He likes and that means He can create for salvation or destruction.

[John 15:16 KJV] 16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and [that] your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

As I said, God chooses whom He wants to save and there is nothing we can do to affect that.

How do we know if we are among the elect? There is a heart change. God reveals Himself to us. God gives us the heart change but there is always something that acts as a catalyst to it. With the heart change comes the Holy Spirit as your helper.

My catalyst, if you will, actually was COVID-19, of all things. I was studying Revelation before this thing hit but all the being inside has given me more time for study. The sources I was using; Dr. Kenneth Gentry and Gary Demar, led me to others that, along the way, really woke me up.

I honestly considered myself saved when I started getting into Hebrew Roots back in 2009 but I was still the angry sinner causing Torah terrorism and making Torah my idol. A truly saved person does not act that way.

Hebrew Roots did teach me to consider the truly Hebrew roots of our Bible and the societies under which the passages developed. As I studied Revelation, Gary Demar taught me to consider audience; that is who the passage was written to and time; that is, when it was written. Considering these things in my studies sent a shock wave of understanding through my studies.

I don’t get it all and probably will not until the day I die.

Going back to our verses:

[James 4:7-8 KJV] 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse [your] hands, [ye] sinners; and purify [your] hearts, [ye] double minded.

James is saying that even the unrepentant sinner should submit themselves before God; that is, repent and know the gospel; who Jesus is and what He did.

Resisting the devil is resisting evil. Resist sin.

Only the elect will truly draw closer (nigh) to God; all others will continue to reject Him.

[Luke 6:37 KJV] 37  Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:

We don’t know what is in the hearts of others so we should not condemn them for what we think is in their hearts. I pray that election is in yours.

We all have a job.

[Matthew 28:18-20 KJV] And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, [even] unto the end of the world. Amen.

All of the disciples of Jesus are to spread His word and the gospel.

This is the gospel:

[1 Corinthians 15:1-6 KJV] Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.

[Acts 2:22-24 KJV] 22 Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: 23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: 24 Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.

Go forth and spread this good news.

I pray that God has revealed Himself to you and that you have salvation.

I hope this has been a blessing to you. May the rest of your day be blessed. Peace.

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