Mac Digi

[Ray Comfort @RayComfort]

You Will Leave Everything

The most important day of your life will the day of your death. Think about that. On that day, nothing else will matter except what you have done for God and where you are going. Your house, your car, your money, your sports will mean nothing on that day. You will be leaving time and entering into eternity. Meditate on that breathtaking moment. In the exhale of one breath, you will leave everything you love. Your wedding ring. Your spouse. Your loved ones. Your vehicle. Your money. Everything. Tonight, God could say to you, "This night your soul is required of you." Let such sobering thoughts consume you. Let them drive you to use your life for what matters, to reach out to the unsaved and make a big dent in this sinful world.

There goes another minute. Gone forever. Go share your faith while you still have time.

[Mike Riccardi @MikeRiccardi_]

A paraphrase of John 3:16, from John Owen:

“‘God,’ — the Father,

‘so loved,’ — had such a peculiar, transcendent love, being an unchangeable purpose and act of his will concerning their salvation, towards

‘the world,’ — miserable, sinful, lost men of all sorts, not only Jews but Gentiles also, which he peculiarly loved,

‘that,’ — intending their salvation, as in the last words, for the praise of his glorious grace,

‘he gave,’ — he prepared a way to prevent their everlasting destruction, by appointing and sending

‘his only-begotten Son’ — to be an all-sufficient Saviour to all that look up unto him,

‘that whosoever believeth in him,’ — all believers whatsoever, and only they,

‘should not perish, but have everlasting life,’ — and so effectually be brought to the obtaining of those glorious things through him which the Lord in his free love had designed for them.”

[John Piper @JohnPiper]

“The wind and the sea obey him.” Mark 4:41

So physical compliance with God’s will is not a moral virtue in itself.

What is?

“You have become obedient from the heart.” Romans 6:17

[John Piper @JohnPiper]

“Christ sent me to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.” 1 Corinthians 1:17

The power lies in the reality preached not the rhetoric of the preacher.

[John Piper @JohnPiper]

“Awesome is God from his sanctuary; the God of Israel—he is the one who gives power and strength to his people. Blessed be God!” Psalm 68:35

Speak of him with joyful reverence. With serious joy.

Every longing you ever had, from the simplest chocolate to the highest ecstasy to the strangest terror, is in him.

[Douglas Wilson @douglaswils]

“The point of preaching is never to make Christ acceptable. But in a man-centered era, this is automatically thought to be the task of the preacher—somehow making God acceptable to man. The problem that confronts us in the Bible is actually quite different. The real problem is one of sin, and how to make sinful man acceptable to a holy God. The solution, which made holy angels stop their mouths, was the Incarnation, Cross, and Resurrection. That is how sinners are made acceptable to God” (The Cultural Mind, pp. 145).

[Mike Riccardi @MikeRiccardi_]

It is extremely important to distinguish between faith as the ground of our justification (wrong) versus faith as instrument of our justification (right).

Justification is grounded upon the obedience and satisfaction of Christ; that is the “stuff” of the righteousness we receive from Him. Faith is merely the (sole) instrument—the empty hand—by which we lay hold of His righteousness.

If you construe faith as the ground rather than the mere instrument of justification—if the stuff of our righteousness is our believing—then you make faith into a work and the Gospel into a new law.

This excerpt from Horatius Bonar explains this distinction well.

https://t.co/YqW8RBydPL

“Faith is not our saviour. It was not faith that was born at Bethlehem and died on Golgotha for us. It was not faith that loved us, and gave itself for us; that bore our sins in its own body on the tree; that died and rose again for our sins. Faith is one thing, the Saviour is another. Faith is one thing, and the cross is another. Let us not confound them, nor ascribe to a poor, imperfect act of man, that which belongs exclusively to the Son of the Living God.”

[Restore Britain @RestoreBritain]

A Restore Britain Government would defund the BBC.

[Phil Johnson @Phil_Johnson_]

“Struggle,” meaning to recognize it as sin, hate it, seek to mortify it, and be chagrined and frustrated with the persistence of the temptation? Yes—as the apostle did with the sin of covetousness (Rom. 7).

Embrace it blithely as a defining characteristic of one’s identity? No.

[Five Times August @FiveTimesAugust]

I am still amazed how quickly Covid got memory-holed. All the governments locking people in their homes, sending them to weird quarantine camps, businesses kicking people out for not wearing masks, masks that ultimately polluted our land and oceans beyond comprehension, being ostracized and labeled a "disease" if you didn't get the shot. People dying alone in hospitals for no reason. Terrible protocols that murdered people. Warp speeded shots injuring a maiming those convinced they were just doing what was right. So much made up and corrupt "science," complete nonsense dictating our lives while the truth was completely censored and suppressed online... so many lives destroyed from just so much evil taking place all at one time... it was truly crimes against humanity on a global scale. And not a one person ever questioned, tried, jailed, or held accountable for any of it anywhere.

Just one day... **poof** ... like it never even happened. Move along. It's all been swept under the rug. Are you still talking about that? Forget about it already. 😐

It's truly mind bending. I'll never ever get over it.

[Douglas Wilson @douglaswils]

“You may not be interested in colliding with the culture, but the culture is certainly interested in colliding with you. The secularists know that capturing the children is key to success. They know this and act accordingly. It is time that Christians gave a lot more thought to what it takes to keep our kids.”
Keep Your Kids, p. xi

[Robert A. J. Gagnon @RobertAJGagnon1]

Someone wrote me about my response to John Piper's citation of Lev 19:34:
//Robert, are you suggesting that if someone is an illegal alien then the moral obligation of Leviticus 19:34 does not apply? Because someone is an illegal alien, are Christians and non-Christians (all bearing the image of God) not obligated to “love [the undocumented/illegal immigrant] as yourself“?

The verse is not about how many people to let into a country. It’s about how we treat and love others. Are you suggesting we need not or should not love them as we love ourselves as the verse Piper quoted says? Surely you don’t mean that, right, brother?

If you’re saying that a nation has the right to secure it’s borders then that is fine but to rebut the verse Piper quoted which speaks of loving foreigners as yourself seems to confuse the issue and the moral obligation and ethic God calls us to from this (and other) Scripture(s).//

My response :

I recommend a careful read of my post. The focus of my remarks is on whether Lev 19:34 requires us to treat illegal aliens as though they were native-born citizens. 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭. And the answer to that is obviously no because the ger as a legal immigrant is given rights, privileges, and obligations similar to the native Israelite that other foreigners in the land are not entitled to. The quotes that I supplied from NIDB and Hoffmeier should have made that clear.

The expression "and you shall love him as yourself" (וְאָהַבְתָּ֥ לוֹ֙ כָּמ֔וֹךָ) is governed by the opening "As the native-born (full citizen) from among you shall be the legal alien (ger) who resides legally with you" (כְּאֶזְרָ֣ח מִכֶּם֩ יִהְיֶ֙ה לָכֶ֜ם הַג��ּ֣ר׀ הַגָּ֣ר אִתְּכֶ֗ם). "You shall love him as yourself" in context means to accord the legal alien the same rights, privileges, and duties that accrue to you as a native-born Israelite. This sense in context does not apply to the illegal alien who is not accorded the same.

Thus, if one argued that we should love the illegal aliens by according them the same rights, privileges, and duties that we want to be accorded as full citizens, one would be arguing out of step with what the passage states. One cannot reason, for example, that because I as a native-born full citizen of the US would not want to be detained and deported, therefore I should not wish an illegal alien in the US to be detained and deported.

We should love all as yourselves in a general sense but not in the specific sense that treats illegal aliens as those they were legal aliens or native-born citizens. John Piper's post suggested to me that he was blurring the distinction between legal and illegal aliens on the question of being treated as a native.

How we treat and love others varies with the situation. What should characterize our love for illegal aliens? A rejection of ICE agents being used to detain and deport those who are here illegally? Certainly not. That would be a misuse of Lev 19:34.

Similarly, if someone commits fraud, how should I love such a person as myself? By not holding them accountable for their fraud? No, that is not what Lev 19:34 is saying.

I am glad that you are not questioning "that a nation has the right to secure it’s borders." I hear many saying that but then they contradict themselves by opposing attempts to detain and deport illegal aliens who have not committed additional crimes in the US other than the crime of illegal entry (and sometimes even if they have committed additional crimes). And then, if they identify as a Christian, they may cite Lev 19:34 to justify this position. That may be what John Piper is doing. If so, then they (and he) would be misusing this text.

[Robert A. J. Gagnon @RobertAJGagnon1]

John Piper, is it too hard to distinguish between the legal alien (the ger in Lev 19:34) who is to be treated "as the native among you" and other types of foreigners who don't have the same status in Israel? The ger in our day is the legal immigrant, not illegal immigrants.

"Foreigners [including the nekhar, nokri, zar] had few rights in ancient Israel (Exod 12:43; Deut 15:2-3; 17:15; 23:20), in contrast to the sojourner (ger), who ... was subject to and protected by the law (e.g., Exod 12:19, 48ff.; Num 9:14; Deut 31:12)" (New Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, 2:478).

See further James K. Hoffmeier's The Immigration Crisis (Crossway, 2009; Hoffmeier is an OT professor emeritus from Trinity U International). According to Hoffmeier:

//Zar and nekhar indeed refer to foreigners or visitors, people passing through a foreign land. But ger or the verb gwr, which together occur more than 160 times in the OT, refer to foreign residents who live in another land with the permission of a host.

//A good example of this is found in Genesis when Joseph asks permission of pharaoh for his family to move to Egypt (Gen. 45:16-18). When they arrived, the brothers asked pharaoh if they could sojourn in the land (Gen. 47:1-4), and Pharaoh allotted them a section of the land of Goshen or Rameses (Gen. 47:5-7).

//The law is clear that ger is not to be oppressed, but to receive equal justice, and have access to the social support system of ancient Israel…. The ger in Israelite society, for instance, could receive social benefits such as the right to glean in the fields (Leviticus 19:9-10; Deuteronomy 24:19-22) and they could receive resources from the tithes (Deuteronomy 26:12-13). In legal matters, “there shall be one statute for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you, a statute forever throughout your generations. You and the sojourner shall be alike before the LORD. One law and one rule shall be for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you” (Numbers 15:15-16). In the area of employment, the ger and citizen were to be paid alike (Deuteronomy 24:14-15). In all these cases, no such provision is extended to the nekhar or zar….

//It is well known that within Israelite society, money was not to be lent with interest, but one could loan at interest to a foreigner (nekhar). These passages from the Law make plain that aliens or strangers received all the benefits and protection of a citizen, whereas the foreigner (nekhar) did not. It is wrong, therefore, to confuse these two categories of foreigners and then to use passages regarding the ger as if they were relevant to illegal immigrants of today.//

//And there was a provision for religious inclusion (of the ger), but they were also obligated to live in accordance with the laws just like the Israelites….

//In a sense, the ger were not just aliens to whom social and legal protections were offered, but were also considered converts, and thus could participate in the religious life of the community, e.g. celebrate Passover (Exodus 12:13) and observe Yom Kippur, the day of atonement (Leviticus 16:29-30). They were, moreover, expected to keep dietary and holiness laws (Leviticus 17:8-9 & 10-12).//

// The mistake of some well-meaning Christians is to apply the biblical laws for the ger to illegal aliens in America even though they do not fit the biblical legal and social definition.//

If you are in the US illegally, which is a criminal violation, the honorable thing to do would be to return to your country and apply to become a citizen of the United States through legal channels, including, if need be, application for asylum.

The US government has a right as a sovereign nation to determine how many people, properly vetted, may be allowed in the country on an annual basis. We already naturalize a half million or more new citizens each year. It is not as if the US is not already a generous nation in taking in many from around the world.

There is absolutely no verse in Scripture that requires us as a nation to let in not only the hundreds of thousands each year through legal channels but also everybody in the world who wants to sneak into this country illegally--all the more so in the era of the welfare state that guarantees those in it a minimum income, food and housing welfare subsidies, and medical care.

We simply can't take in the over 800 million people around the world who live in *extreme* poverty. And those whom we should least take in are those who show disrespect for our laws from the get-go by entering illegally.

[John Piper @JohnPiper]

“Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” Psalm 20:7

Practice pausing before your tasks and saying from your heart, “Lord, I trust you, not my doing, to make this task fruitful for your glory.”

[5 Solas @5Solas]

Everybody loves Jesus, as long as you don't define who He is....

[Creeds & Confessions @CreedConfession]

“You exist because of Him, and you exist for Him.” – Voddie Baucham

[John Piper @JohnPiper]

“We have, through the goodness of the Lord, been permitted to enter upon another year. . . . The welfare of our families, the prosperity of our business, our work and service for Christ may be considered the most important matters to be attended to; but according to my judgement the most important point to be attended to is this: above all things see to it that your souls are happy in the Lord. Other things may press upon you . . . but I deliberately repeat, it is of supreme and paramount importance that you should seek above all things to have your souls truly happy in God Himself!” —George Müller

[Mac Digi @Digital_Mac_]

The world pushes a counterfeit: a forced, false "unity" (among a plethora of religions and none) via a perverse globalist agenda.

True globalist unity is found in Christs identity alone. His faithful bride - the church - is made up of believers from every tribe, nation & tongue.