Psalm 137 is gorgeous and some would say “almost perfectâ€. Lots of Psalms fall into that category in people’s minds: that Almost Perfect slot. You usually know where people feel any Psalm falls short during the Lord’s Supper when one of the brothers is sharing a Psalm and stops just short of the end. Surely the rest of the Psalm was right and nice…but that last bit really threw the whole thing off. Psalm 137 is, once again, a perfect example.
This all is a radical difference from our previous lives and Paul makes a point to set up the truly transforming nature of his gospel. We’re not to simply fall into the habits of this world around us by doing those things we previous did—we must be transformed in our minds.
Here some Christians will raise a banner that we need new thinking, chaste thinking: Christian Thinking. And in so doing a plethora of marketing merchandise comes out like wrist bands asking us What Jesus Would Do or fish bumper icons or a crown of thorn tattoo with the words.
Virginia Tech…32 dead: why? The question that always comes up after something like this is: how can there be a good God if there is so much evil in the world? How come he doesn’t stop it right now?
“How can It be wrong if God made me this way?” That was the quote from a recent Law and Order Special Victim’s Unit where a gay Christian young man realized that his pastor father had killed his lover. The young man was part of an extremist group of Christians who performed plays depicting sinners screaming and burning in hell. But his question got me thinking: was he on point?
We’re considering God’s righteousness and seeing how it works with mercy specifically in the case of the Jews. Thus far Paul impressed on us his sorrow that the Jews are not presently believers of the revealed Christ. Paul has been showing us how important a people they truly are and has taken us through history showing how and why God’s Word of Promise was established. We saw how they were kept from
Edom’s fate only by God’s mercy. Let’s look at this mercy.
Let me start an investigation of the third movement of Paul’s defense
by directing attention to Brother Russ’ series on
Calvanism. There are
many discussions that may arise based on very old arguments that I
don’t want to spend (too much) time discussing. Not that the
discussions shouldn’t be—but rather it detracts from my purpose of
going through the book of Romans. Calvinists and Arminians would both
agree that their respective stance is a systematic doctrine. These
camps do not establish their doctrine solely on the grounds of these
three chapters of the Bible so I will not limit my overview of these
chapters to those doctrines either. (Here’s a
link to the rest of the study.)
“Sexual abuse is disgusting, but it’s not as harmful as the grievous mental harm of bringing children up Catholic in the first place.” I’ve copied the rest of the article below to save it in case it disappears. (Originally posted
here and HT to
Jeremy).
What am I saying then: Is the Law actually sin? Are they equal?
No, come on now—of course not. I wouldn’t have known what I was doing was wrong
if it wasn’t for the Law telling me it was wrong. I wouldn’t have known that
coveting was specifically wrong until the Law told me I wasn’t to do it.
Therefore I knew: Coveting is Wrong.
We have seen how Cain was affected by Adam?s sin; weak worship, ignoring God?s word, giving himself over to the sin that awaited him and then lying about it. But that event was pretty close to Adam?s sin. We?ll have to cover a broader time span to figure out how Adam?s sin affects mankind and what it means to God?s promises.
God’s interrogation of Cain was as gentle as Adam’s: asking
questions without accusing until the need comes for that. It is the honest
seeking of a repentant heart—even though the black heart before Him would lie
and prance around the truth and finally whines upon hearing God’s righteous
judgment.
The meaty questions that we may get from looking at this chapter in detail: What are the implications of knowing good and evil in that experiential sense? What does it mean to future generations? How does separation from God affect man?s thinking and ability to act?
{{Genesis 4}} continues Adam and Eve?s story giving us more information on just what happened with Adam who was doomed to die yet was only driven from the Garden. What are the implications of knowing good and evil in that experiential sense? What does it mean to future generations? This death (we?ve noted) is a separation from God yet how does that affect man?s thinking and ability to act?
Here?s a post surveying some of God?s progressive revelation with Biblical references to Adam. Although Adam may not be focal point in some of these passages he may be a reference point. I?ll be working in reverse order.
