Image via Wikipedia
God is not Santa Clause. He doesn’t weigh our good works against our bad to determine whether we will go to heaven or not. Before our salvation our righteousness is worthless.
But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. – Isaiah 64:6
After salvation our good works have nothing to do with keeping our salvation.
I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. – Galatians 2:21
Salvation is a free gift of God that I’m so glad I didn’t have to earn, because I could not.
Image via Wikipedia
Jesus death I used to see as simply the only resolution between God’s love and God’s justice. God’s infinite love desired that all men be saved, but God’s infinite justice required a payment for sin. This sounds right, but it seems now as inaccurate. God’s love and justice would both have been served by sending sinners to hell without hope of redemption. It is God’s mercy that provided a way of salvation through Jesus Christ. It is the only way God’s love, justice, and mercy could all be satisfied. God’s love does not require his mercy. God is love whether or not he extends mercy. It makes his extension of mercy even more great because it was not required for his love.
This is great, except that they missed Option 3, which would look basically like an inverse of Option 2. With option 3 you would end with more than $1,500 in your bank account not to mention more free time.
Image via Wikipedia
I just ran the numbers and with Broward county being the 18th largest county in the United States, that gives it almost the same population as half of Alberta, Canada. This is with a land mass 146 times smaller. Needless to say, we are in a very populated area. You would think with all that population I would be able to find an Oracle Database Administration job. Well, I haven’t given up yet, but so far no results.
Image via Wikipedia
Image via Wikipedia
Image via Wikipedia
I just stumbled accross this site. I have no idea what else it may be teaching, but I did find this bit that is right on target.
Within this tiny egg, only about an eighth of an inch long, is an entire world of genetic information. It contains the instructions for the construction of the caterpillar with the intelligence it needs to operate all of its organs (eyes, antennae, legs, etc.), to maneuver within its environment, to digest leaves, to avoid predators, to know when and how to molt, to pupate, etc. It contains the instructions for the incredibly complex process of the final molting and formation of the pupa, including the amazing cremaster mechanism. It contains the instructions for the death and dissolution of the caterpillar into a biological soup and the reformation of that soup into a beautiful butterfly. It contains the instructions not only to construct the butterfly in all of its mind-boggling complexity (e.g., its proboscis, its compound eyes, its intricately shingled wings, its sensory organs, its reproductive organs) but also the instructions to create the butterfly’s brain and the intelligence needed to thrive within its environment, to fly, to land, to avoid predators, to find the right plants and flowers, to drink and digest nectar, to keep its cold-blooded metabolism in balance, to reproduce. It contains the instructions for a bewildering multi-thousand mile migration to a place it has never been and in the absence of any earthly guide. It would seem, in fact, that the genetic code within that tiny monarch butterfly egg contains a map of a large part of the earth. And it contains the information for constructing hundreds of copies of itself. If the butterfly evolved, then evolution is miraculous and has the attributes of Almighty God!
