Love, 8of9

~ Love and Judgment ~

                         

Man’s Judgment By Appearances  ~  “My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality.  For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, ‘You sit here in a good place,’ and say to the poor man, ‘You stand there,’ or, ‘Sit here at my footstool,’ have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?  Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?  But you have dishonored the poor man.  Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts?  Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?” (James 2:1-7). …

Man’s Judgment By The “Royal Law”  ~  … “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you do well;” (James 2:8). …

God’s Judgment By The “Whole Law”  ~  … “but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors.  For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.  For He who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not murder.’  Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law” (James 2:9-11). …

God’s Judgment By The “Law Of Liberty”  ~  … “So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.  For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy.  Mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:12-13).

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW

NOTES:

(1)     The current TOP 10 ALN posts are listed at the very bottom of this home page.

(2)     There is an INDEX of all ALN posts accessed by scrolling down the left column.

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Quote: Jim Elliot, 14

~ The Greatest Prophet ~ 

As a Prophet Christ Spoke of Judgment

The following is an excerpt from a book.

Now I know that we’ve had the Scripture doctored up to us in the last hundred years or so. We’ve been saying that Jesus Christ was a meek sort of a loving kind of a Savior, and that He didn’t talk to us about punishment, that He didn’t talk to us about fire and vengeance like the Old Testament did. But, my friends, get a hold of this. Jesus Christ told us more about hell than any other prophet in the world.

Jesus Christ talked more about hell than He did about heaven. He had the right and the authority to describe hell because He had been on the other side of death, before birth. He was the only One who could have come into birth and say, “I came into the world.”  He wasn’t just brought into the world in the sense that we’re brought into the world, by natural principles. Jesus Christ came into the world in the sense that He chose to come, and He came because He was God and was able to take upon Himself the form of a man. Now He has gone back into heaven. When He was here on the earth He described to us the things that are on the other side of our life. Jesus Christ was a prophet in the full sense. Not through visions, not through ideas that had come into His head, but because He existed on the other side of death! He could tell us what heaven and hell were like. He knew it because He had been there. That’s what He Himself claimed in this passage, we read, “I don’t speak for Myself,” He says, “I tell you what I’ve seen and heard.” And in the third chapter of John, “I’ve been there and I know what I’m talking about when I speak about hell. Or when I speak about heavenly things, I know whereof I speak because I’ve been there.”  Jesus Christ is the only One who can say that, my friend, and that’s why His Word is so terribly important. So terrifyingly important.

~ from “JIM ELLIOT: A Christian Martyr Speaks to You, pgs 103-104  (ISBN: 9781615797646)

Learn more about this important book at Amazon, the Publisher, or the Author’s website.

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW

NOTES:

(1)     The current TOP 10 ALN posts are listed at the very bottom of this home page.

(2)     There is an INDEX of all ALN posts accessed by scrolling down the left column.

(3)     You may LINK to any ALN posts on your own blog or website. 

(4)     You may COPY any ALN post, but please credit ALN as the source by prominently displaying the following statement:  Reprinted from “Abundant Life Now,” a free blog which offers inspiring moments, thought-provoking comments, and solid Biblical insight at http://RobertLloydRussell.blogspot.com/ .

3 Days

~ 3 Incredibly Important Days ~

Day Of Salvation  ~  “We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain.  For He says: ‘In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.’  Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:1-2).

comment:  Depending on which way each individual responds to the Day of Salvation will depend on which of the following two days they will face. 

Day Of Redemption  ~  “Therefore, putting away lying, ‘Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,’ for we are members of one another.  ‘Be angry, and do not sin:’ do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.  Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.  Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.  And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.  Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.  And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:25-32). 

Day Of Judgment  ~  “For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)—then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority.  They are presumptuous, self-willed.  They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord” (2 Peter 2:4-11). 

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW

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