Unless I am convinced by proofs from Scriptures or by plain and clear reasons and arguments, I can and will not retract, for it is neither safe nor wise to do anything against conscience. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.
Martin Luther
This is the glorious day we celebrate and rejoice because of the boldness and audacity of Spirit-led men such as Martin Luther, William Tyndale and John Calvin took a stand that no organization, church or man would dictate what the Word of God meant to you and me but rather it is the beauty and grace of the Holy Spirit dwelling in the body of believers that would reveal what His Word says.
Namely, that this beautiful book that is the Holy Bible is centered on Jesus Christ alone and no other name would be exalted above His.
We are saved by God’s grace alone by the very faith alone that God authored and perfected into us that was only made possible by the life, bloodshed, death and resurrection of Chrst based on authoritive, inerrant and sufficiency of the Scriptures.
P.S. Normally, I would be announcing this on October 31st but I gotta a post set aside for one of my most favorite holidays and no, it is not Halloween.
We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us. 1 Thessalonians 2:8 (NIV)
If you ever were curious about certain Christian terms that get passed around and didn’t know or wasn’t sure what they meant, this song is for you. I wish more praise songs were this wonderful. Proper theology will always bring overwhelming beautiful doxology. – Ed.
I thought it would be dope to chop it up about certain terms that we throw out a lot but never really define. So let me throw out some terms and you can give us the definition. Lets us start off with… who is God?
God is the universe’s Creator
And Sustainer plus the only Savior, there is no one greater
He’s triune, holy, omnipotent, omniscient, absolute
Loving, sovereign and righteous are a few of His attributes
How do we know this?
Well, we know this from the Bible
Where God has revealed Himself- anything else is just an idol
What’s the Bible about?
Man’s complete ruin in sin
And what God has done in Christ to bring us to Him again
What is sin?
Sin is the breaking of God’s law
Plus our condition, which means from birth we all got flaws
What’s the result?
The result is by nature we’re God’s enemies
And must pay the penalty unless God provides the remedy
What the remedy?
The remedy is the cross of Christ
Where He suffered all the strikes for the lawless type
I’ve been rescued by the Lamb, I’m convinced that He’s risen
And blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven!
Chorus
Just fall back, and with the eyes of faith
Behold the beauty of surprising grace
Because the Lamb has died, third day He had to rise
He’s magnified- God’s wrath is satisfied
Just fall back- there’s an atonement now
The cross of Christ is holy ground
Because the Lamb has died, third day He had to rise
He’s magnified- God’s wrath is satisfied
Verse 2
Alright, so we’ve seen how sin produces the need for the atonement. Why don’t we talk about the terms involved with the event and application of the atonement. Let start off with…
Regeneration- the Holy Spirit’s true work in His love
To the elect, who receive new birth from above
Expiation- expiation means God’s removed my filthiness
The old testament type was the goat into the wilderness
Redemption- we’ve been freed from slavery to sin
And His very own blood is the price He paid, my friend
Propitiation- Propitiation means since the Lamb has died
His work is finished- God’s wrath is satisfied
Adoption- adoption means God is now my Father
I got the hottest Poppa and by the Spirit, holler, “Abba!”
Reconciliation means there’s no more enmity
God is now a friend to me, we’re no longer enemies
Justification- God declares us righteous
Sanctification- we’re being made into His likeness
Glorification- that’s what happens at the finish
When God conforms believers perfectly to Christ’s image!
Verse 3
Okay, so we have seen the need for the atonement and we’ve talked about the event of the atonement. So now let’s talk about the atonement as it applies to us:
God’s grace is magnificent, He slayed His innocent
Son- through faith and repentance we get the benefits
What is faith? Faith is a gift from God- when we receive this
We trust and treasure the person and finished work of Jesus
Repentance? Repentance is turning from your sin
And trusting Christ as the Spirit cleanses you within
What is grace? Oh, grace is unmerited favor
Our inheritance major ‘cause we cherish the Savior
Right, and if I may quote again, we were doomed with Satan
But believers get Jesus’ righteousness through imputation
Imputation? God takes Jesus’ righteousness amount
Through faith He credits it into the Christian’s account
Anything else? Well, I guess this overview must suffice
But none of this is possible apart from union with Christ
And finally, once you know the ways of the Lord than the
only thing that you can say is Soli Deo Gloria!
Updated: October 22, 2009, 22:47 CST Singular ‘e’ works none too well even if you shut off all the other Ubiquity commands that start with an ‘e’. Also, fixed the ‘insert esv’ command that inserts plain-text verses, no nothing else. Just book, chapter, verse-verse and passage (sans verse numbers).
I don’t know if you are like me but I use web browsers as my primary means of getting things done. Email, Calendaring, Tasks, Blog, Bible Study, Social Networking, etc. are all done through web browser:
See those little bitty tabs (courtesy of Lifehacker)? Those are websites that I have to visit every time I go to work:
Needless to say, the web browser is very important to me. Thus, when I go to look up Bible verses in my web browser of choice, Firefox, I gotta do it in least number of keystrokes as possible and quickly as possibly.
Enter Ubiquity 0.5 for Firefox.
Essentially, it is a command-line tool for Firefox. When you install Ubiquity then the ESV add-on, all it takes is hitting Option+Space within Firefox and you can pull up, search, insert and link from anything in the ESV translation of the Bible.
The ESV Ubiquity Command is an update from the original command from ESV.org, updates it for Ubiquity 0.5, modded by duncanandmeg.org and myself by going into the code and adding search terms for all things ESV to be done with just an e.
For example, use the following Ubiquity commands to do the following:
esvverse/passage/keywords – Search for verses and passages based on specific book, chapter and/or verse or keywords. Results will appear in the Ubiquity pop-up window. Hit ‘Enter’ in order to see the results in a new tab at ESV.org.
insert esv verse/passage/keywords- Hit ‘Enter’ to execute and whatever text field (web form) that you have your cursor resting at, it will insert that passage into text field. This will insert verses in this plain-text format. Just book, chapter, verse number – verse number and passage sans verse numbers.
If you are hanging with me this far, here is how you get this gem installed.
Smooth Operator, Operating Correctly
