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 - Endorsed - Indifferent - Contested
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| The Nashville Statement
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Name:Daniel
Home: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
About Me: I used to believe that evolution was reasonable, that homosexuality was genetic, and that people became Christians because they couldn't deal with the 'reality' that this life was all there was. I used to believe, that if there was a heaven - I could get there by being good - and I used to think I was more or less a good person. I was wrong on all counts. One day I finally had my eyes opened and I saw that I was not going to go to heaven, but that I was certainly going to suffer the wrath of God for all my sin. I saw myself as a treasonous rebel at heart - I hated God for creating me just to send me to Hell - and I was wretched beyond my own comprehension. Into this spiritual vacuum Jesus Christ came and he opened my understanding - delivering me from God's wrath into God's grace. I was "saved" as an adult, and now my life is hid in Christ. I am by no means sinless, but by God's grace I am a repenting believer - a born again Christian.
My complete profile...
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Daniel's posts are almost always pastoral and God centered. I appreciate and am challenged by them frequently. He has a great sense of humor as well.
- Marc Heinrich
His posts are either funny or challenging. He is very friendly and nice.
- Rose Cole
[He has] good posts, both the serious like this one, and the humorous like yesterday. [He is] the reason that I have restrained myself from making Canadian jokes in my posts.
- C-Train
This post contains nothing that is of any use to me. What were you thinking? Anyway, it's probably the best I've read all day.
- David Kjos
Daniel, nicely done and much more original than Frank the Turk.
- Jonathan Moorhead
There are some people who are smart, deep, or funny. There are not very many people that are all 3. Daniel is one of those people. His opinion, insight and humor have kept me coming back to his blog since I first visited earlier this year.
- Carla Rolfe
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| The Lord has his way in the whirlwind... |
In Nahum 1:3 we read that the Lord has his way in the whirlwind and the storm.
My old pastor mentioned this verse to me to underline why he believed that God was not out to lunch during and after hurricane quatrain. Unlike those of a more fluffy faith, my old pastor is certain that God had his hand in it. He sites a homosexual convention, which was scheduled to be held two days before the hurricane struck, as the "straw that broke the camel's back." I respect my old pastor dearly, but personally hesitate to assign motives to God. I do believe that God was entirely sovereign in the whirlwind - but I don't say "God did it because of this or that."
Well, at least not specifically. Scripture teaches that as the world approaches closer and closer to judgment day, things are going to wax worse and worse - not just a rapid moral decay - but the earth also will suffer many things - the illustration scripture gives is that of a woman giving birth - the birth pangs will increase in intensity, and increase in frequency until they are coming one on top of the other, and extremely difficult to bear. So taking a macroscopic approach I see the attack against the twin towers as a sign, the recent Tsunami, and hurricane as testifying that the end is closer now than ever before. I don't carry a placard about on my chest declaring the end to be nigh - but I believe the scriptures that teach that the world is going to get worse instead of better.
However, I don't equate the recent hurricane as divine retribution over a gay convention - God certainly hates sin - not just the abominable sins such as idolatry and homosexuality, but all sin. Yes New Orleans is/was a cesspool - but there are many such cesspools upon the earth. God sovereignly chose to do what He did in New Orleans, but if we try and say it is because of one sin and not another, well, that is giving God a bias that I don't believe God has. Really, as Christ asked, "Do you suppose those upon whom the tower fell were worse sinners than any other sinners?" - no. God has the right to destroy all of us at any moment - that is, we all, being sinners, have forfeited our "right" as it were, to live. If lightning struck me and I died, God would not be unjust in allowing it, but fully justified - I deserve death just as every one of you reading this post deserves death. Our sin demands it. God therefore isn't evil or mean when he exacts from us the very life he has given us. So in this case, when God relaxes His mercy and grace in bearing with a sinful nation - and in doing so allows some people to perish, He is just in doing it, and I gain nothing by trying to determine what specific sin warranted this judgment.
The reality is that God did indeed have His will in the whirlwind and in the storm.
Yet this morning, as I was praying with one of the deacons in my church, I brought up this verse, not in connection with storms, but rather we were discussing how his unsaved neighbors had everything in life one could hope for - they were wealthy (able to retire), had many good friends, a loving caring family - yet they were not saved. When the woman in the couple became pregnant, and a complication arose, they called this deacon and asked for prayer. They were unsaved, yet they understood that God was possibly real, and their utter desperation caused them to pray as they did. God has his way in situations that cannot be answered by worldly things. If my neighbor offends me, I can call the police. If my house catches fire, I call the fire department - in fact, I rely on the police, the fire departments, the hospitals etc. Yet when all these are unavailable I have only one resource left - we all do - God. God will have his way with us, simply by taking everything else away from us.
I wasn't trying to deny the interpretation my pastor received - rather I found how it worked - God will allow helplessness - utter helplessness in order to cause his children to rest entirely in Him. He most certainly has his way when the rug is pulled out from under us - when we are "in the storm." |
posted by Daniel @
10:01 AM
 
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I originally had it saying Naomi 1:3... What was I thinking???
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I originally had it saying Naomi 1:3... What was I thinking???