KNOWLEDGE OF GOD AND HIS SON JESUS CHRIST

Here is Jesus in the temple with the Doctors of His day and he was disputing with them. Jesus was discussing Doctrine. The study of doctrine is the study of God and His Son Jesus Christ. A doctrinal study should be calming and re-assuring and renew out perspective on what is important. This study should refresh us and drown out the cares of life. it should be as calming as the sun or the surf or a mountain meadow.

Too often our doctrine becomes stuffy and simply a response to bludgeon people with and people shy away because they have a shallow understanding of doctrine and its purpose. Doctrine reveals to us who God is and His relationship to His Son. Doctrine reveals to us what God wants us to know about Him. ( A young man said to his friend, “I have found the girl of my dreams.” His friend ask him, “What color is her hair,” the reply, “I don’t know.” His friend asked him, “what color is her eyes.” The reply, “I don’t know.” The friend asked, “What is her favorite color.” The reply, “I don’t know.” The friend then said, “You don’t know any thing about her; you can’t describe her, you don’t know how tall, her complexion, her hair color the color of her eyes, or even whether she likes coke or pepsi and yet you say that is the girl you want to spend the rest of your life with?)  You and I both know that is ridiculous, yet there are those that have such a lack of knowledge of God and Jesus. Doctrine illuminates us as to who God is and who Jesus is.

Right doctrine is never theory alone. Water is a compound of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen; as surf on a beach, it is calming, as rain it is soothing and refreshing, as ice it is cooling. Doctrine is not theory alone but application of the truth that we glean from the doctrine. This truth about God and His Son must be combined with love. Love without truth leads to emotionalism or, at best, good intentions.

May we pursue doctrine that leads to truth about the one we say we love, Jesus and His father, God.

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DOCTRINE OF FOREFATHERS

We have our latest crop of theologians and I find they are inferior to the men that existed and promulgated the gospel over 200 years ago. Today’s young pastors have recently discovered “house churches” and they have always been in existence since the time of Christ. I have worshipped in some myself. The get that tingly feeling running up their leg over “emergent churches,” and churches have been emerging from other churches since the time of Christ. This goes back to the Word of God and the time that Jesus said,”All power is given unto me in heaven and earth, go ye therefore…”. Now I understand this is not the “emergent church,” of  today. Those emergent churches were never doctrinally devoid like today’s “emergent churches” are. May we learn to “… rightly divide the Word of truth…” that we might be obedient to the call and go in the Power of the Spirit to build as we are commanded to build.

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KNOWLEDGE OF OUR FOREFATHERS

I see within the statement of Benjamin Rush an intelligence that is often not displayed today by those that consider themselves the “elite.” Here is a man that in eloquent terms has captured the essence of life and living and with great ability has reduced it to a short paragraph and encapsulated the true means of life. Benjamin Rush understands that life does not exist in sipping wine to inebriation and critically commenting on art but knows that life consist in living, knowing there is a God that standards and Morals that are the basis of a life well led. Let us cling to the mission of Christ and never succumb to the wine bibbers of today. Amen.

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THE TREATMENT OF MISBELIEF

Sound doctrine is right thinking that reflects what the Bible says about ourselves, our God, and our world. Our challenge, therefore, is not to learn to talk and act like theologians, but rather to know and believe what God has said (I Timothy 1:3,10; II Timothy 3:10,16; 4:2,3; Titus 1:9; 2:1,7,10).

In God’s eyes, belief is more important than behavior. That’s not because what we do is not important. It’s because thoughts are the seeds of actions. Negatively put, misbehavior is usually an expression of misbelief. While physical factors may play a supporting role, misbehavior is usually rooted in the misbeliefs that occupy our souls.

Nothing cures wrong actions better than right thinking and sound doctrine. Without right thinking we follow feelings and desires into dark swamps of personal deception and eventual self-destruction.
Doctrine is far more than heavy words like:

• Pneumatology – the study of the Spirit.
• Soteriology – the study of salvation.
• Eschatology – the study of endtimes.
• Ecclesiology – the study of the church.
• Christology – the study of Christ.
• Hamartiology – the study of sin.

Doctrine is right thinking about our feelings, our desires, our relationships, our discouragements, our fears, our joys, and our hopes. it is right thinking about God, ourselves, others, and our world. Nothing is more urgent than learning to think and believe what is right. It has very little to do with feelings and is totally based upon doctrine as revealed by the Word of God.
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THE DEPTH OF THE DIG

Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. Isaiah 51:1

Notice the quarry where we were found. How deep the LORD had to dig to cut us out of the formation. Take to heart and mind that God pushed past the beauty that lay on top and cut through the capstone to reach the depth of granite to be harvested. He viewed the grain and saw the hidden beauty that we would be. He then drilled and blew us out of the comfort that we knew. With loving tender care, He hewed, sawed and trimmed us to a final shape and then began the polishing and buffing process that made us beautiful. Notice the roughness of the harvest and the tenderness of the polish and buff that has been applied. He Loves us with a love that is beyond comprehension and understanding. He makes us beautiful and a delicious work of love. How we should love Him.

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