Welcome...
Our blog site (http://faithbibleministries.wordpress.com/), has been up for a year now, and while the interaction has fallen off (I still receive email correspondence and comments), the readership has soared. As is stated in the “Introduction” blog, “This blog site is a public Bible teaching blog site...,” and as such we are far more interested in believers reading the blogs/essays and digging into God’s Word; than the exchange of opinions (though we love to hear from others, and need correction ourselves from time to time). It is our desire to present the meat of God's Word to individuals that are hungry to learn. The blog link is located on the links bar. We hope and pray that the essays within this website and blog site will serve as tools to aid believers in searching out God's Word (Acts 17:10-11). If you have any comments or questions, you may contact me at: brent@faithbibleministries.com. Sincerely, Brent Bolin
Who Killed Him?
The following was written By Rocky Ellis
While pondering my Lords crucifixion I feel compelled, compelled that someone should be held accountable. I mean this was such an injustice. He was innocent of any wrong doing. His trials were illegal. He was taken in the dark of the night. Betrayed with a kiss by someone claiming to be a friend. Had that betrayer not have done so wickedly, had he not allowed Satan to beguile him into such deceitfulness; He would have awoken as the sun rose in Gethsemane - the beginning of another glorious day. Cursed be that traitor - Judas!
But then I thought, it was the Jewish religious leaders who took Him, they had sought His death all along, mostly out of envy, they so feared that the people would follow Him, and that they would lose their precious positions. It was their golden opportunity, and they seized the moment. So, without question they are to blame, it's therefore no wonder their plight has been so grievous through the years, certainly they had it coming – an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. Yes, surely it's them deserving the blame, cursed be the Jews!
Yet, when I think further of it, that was a Roman cross, was it not? Pilate, he was a Roman; he had the power to just release Him - but did he? No! He had Him beaten and flogged. His beard was ripped from His face as a Roman cat of nine opened His flesh. Mockingly, Pilate’s soldiers placed a thorny crown upon His head, "Look at the King of the Jews" they taunted. Oh, sure Pilate washed his hands in some menial gesture, as if that cleared him of any guilt. Pilate had the power to free Him, after all he had said himself; He was guilty of no crime. Pilate is without excuse, he gave them Barabbas in His stead, they crucified the innocent and freed the guilty, cursed be the Romans!
Then as they laid Him upon that cross; and "whack" drove those nails into the flesh of His wrists, His Blood began to flow ever more deeply. Then mercilessly again, "whack" into His legs as He now became as One with the wood. Without hesitation I'm sure they lifted and dropped the wooden pillar of death into a waiting hole - "Thud," as it slammed into the ground; ripping His flesh even further from the impact. There He was, the Creator of the Universe, bleeding profusely, beaten beyond recognition by the Romans; handed over by His own people, betrayed by a friend, but do you know who He saw? Me! All my sin, sin I had yet to commit, though He knew I would - I was not yet even born. Tears fall, He who sees the end from the beginning, looked down the corridor of time; He saw my plight. So very lost in my sin with no hope of reconciliation, none apart from Him. I know I wasn't here yet - but I can hear it as it comes from His lips, even now as I type, Him whispering my name, Rocky it's for you I died.
I'm the one that deserves to be cursed, instead I'm blessed. I deserve death, yet He gives me life. Is that fair? No, far from it.
So you ask me, why am I so big on grace?
Because I'm the one who's guilty....I killed Him -
I killed Him by my sin!
(Printed by permission of Rockman, my best friend and Brother in the Lord; bb)
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The Christian Walk...
The most successful enemy of the best is not the worst; it is the second-best when it draws attention to itself from the best. On Christian websites, it is common to observe a focus on people in an effort to display a central theme of fellowship and relationship. And while God has called us to enter into fellowship one with another, as well as calling us to be good husbands and wives, good parents, and good people; when these become the preoccupation of the Church of Jesus Christ, it starts down the road of dethroning the status of Jesus Christ in His preeminence as God incarnate, and Savior of the world. There is a place for teaching concerning families and relationships – yet never to be predominate to the ministry, or from the pulpit as the focus of the church; but in classes or studies - or to follow the example from the Bible in one-on-one mentoring - what we call discipleship. (Matthew 10:35-37;"37")
Due to God's wondrous design of man to love his children, each generation tends to make life better for their children than it was for them. And in an age when Satan attempts to make everything relative; and change the meaning of words, is it any wonder that everyone has a different definition of what "better" is? Better is more and improved stuff, better is easier and faster, better is happy as opposed to harder, better becomes immediate gratification, and in the end becomes synonymous with serving self. (Matthew 16:24-26)
However, becoming Biblically better is modeling Biblical Faith that keeps Jesus preeminent in all things, while teaching us to deny self (Luke 9;23 ~ which is "dieing to self" - where is that being preached today?) at the expense of putting others first, and doing so all in an effort to seek God's kingdom first, as opposed to our own pleasure and happiness. This is hard stuff - being a real believer, a real Christian. This is our calling, how we are to live, how we are to walk through life. Too many Christians believe that God put us here to be happy, or that we were created to be loved, rather than to glorify Him. (Isaiah 43:7)
It is when tolerance means compromise, when excellence means winning at any cost; it is when a society has learned to rationalize sinful behavior by neutering the Word of God, and the church follows suit, that the Church of Jesus Christ loses its potency. We have seeker friendly congregations which have taken Christ from His place as the best, and substituted the narcissism of proclaiming that becoming better people and having better lives is truly what Christianity is about. We give sacrifices of wood and stubble (I Cor. 3:12), rather than live in obedience because we trust Him, and believe what He tells us to do is right and just. (I Samuel 15:22)
It is a lie of the devil that we can glorify God by "being all that we can be," because that draws the attention away from Him and back on ourselves. Unfortunately, the self-centeredness of our age has gotten to the point that the masses are leaving the church either in an attempt to further foster the self-centeredness they have been taught to expect through experiential emotionalism as seen in such efforts such as the emergent church, or to leave in disgust because of the material and worldly presuppositions, along with the self-help psychology which centers on man as opposed to Jesus Christ - all of which flow freely from the pulpit. Therefore, if you are in a fellowship that truly teaches "all the counsel of God;" the complete and unadulterated Word of God – Rejoice! (Acts 20:27-32)
Biblical Faith means totally and completely trusting God (to the point of losing it all ~ Job 3:15a); rather than the perverse teaching of the day - that of the falsely named "Faith Teachers," wherein they twist and misuse Scripture (leaving out conditions, qualifications, and most of all omitting the plain teachings of passages, such as 1 John 5:14, which states: "And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us." "His will" is the focus of the grammar used here according to the Greek, not "we ask any thing."), teaching that faith is believing God will give us everything we ask for. Biblical Faith is believing that God is in total control of our lives, even when our lives seem to be a mess (Genesis 37:23-28 ~ Genesis 50:20). And that God, according to His Word is good, not an angry God, but loving to His children; seeking what is good for them in the long run (Romans 10:28-39), yet sometimes painful in the short (1 Peter 1:7; James 1:3). Biblical Faith is not simply to be seen as a tool to garner things and desires (and yes there is always a place for petition, but not as preeminent; trust is what is to be preeminent concerning faith); but instead means trusting God - that He is in total control of the believer's life, and that nothing can happen that God has not allowed. (Matthew 6:25-30)
Biblical Faith is the only sure foundation for the Christian walk. It is going back to the basics of understanding that real Biblical Faith is a complete reliance upon God for every need: that glorifying Him as preeminent is a fulfillment of our true purpose in life (as opposed to finding purpose simply as an extension of keeping the attention on ourselves, or focusing on purpose, as opposed to Him), that dying to self by putting others first is a sincere act of love; that of getting back to the authority of God's Word in every aspect of our lives - these are what is meant by getting back to Biblical faith. It is the purpose of this ministry in these Last Days to aid believers in getting back to Biblical Faith.
"Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." (Matthew 6:31-34)
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