future punishment; indictment

Romans 1
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.
20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,
21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,
23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image of corruptible man -- and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.

2009 is the year of Charles Darwin. Since his On the Origin of Species was published in 1859, men have been suppressing the truth of God in unrighteousness. Evolution is not proven fact, it is theory. It is not even scientific, as it is not possible to reproduce it in the laboratory, as scientific hypotheses are supposed to be. For a wonderful dose of Truth, meet Jobe Martin.

...changed the glory of the incorruptible God into...
here and here.

God's mysterious ways

God Moves in Mysterious Ways by William Cowper (1731-1800), a British poet.

God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill,
He treasures up his bright designs,
And works His sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints fresh courage take,
The clouds you so much dread
are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence,
He hides a smilling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan His work in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain.

Some further verses in Esther to check out:

Esther 5:2, 6:1, 6:2, 6:4, 8:17, 9:2.

the unseen hand of God

I have just reached the book of Esther in my Old Testament reading. I have a nifty Bible called the MacArthur Daily Bible, which is set up for 365 days with readings from the Old Testament, then the Psalms, the Proverbs and the New Testament for each day. I had never been successful in reading through the Bible, though I had tried. But with the Daily Bible, I am now reading through it for the 6th year in a row & it gets more wonderful each year!!

So back to Esther, a book in which God is not mentioned specifically. It is a short, very readable, exciting book to read, so if you have not read it, you should do so. The book takes place in the Persian capital of Sushan and Ahasuerus (486 BC to 465 BC) is the king. The Jews have been scattered far and wide by the Assyrians, the Babylonians and the Medo-Persians.

Ahasuerus had a Queen, Vashti, who...well read it and find out.

While God is not mentioned in the book there are a number of places where we see that His providential hand is a work:

1) Esther 2:8b ...the care of Hagai [a eunuch] the custodian of the women.
9 Now the young woman pleased him, and she obtained his favor;

2) 2:25b And Esther gained favor in the sight of all who saw her.

3) 4:14b Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this.

4) 5:2 [the kings sees Esther] ...that she found favor in his sight and the king held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand.

Here are four instances of God's providential intervention on behalf of the Jews, there are several others in the following chapters of the book. Comment me with them if you find them.

back to conversations

While believers are on the same spiritual wave length through the work of the Holy Spirit, it is true that there are topics of conversation that are interest to both believers and unbelievers ~ great literature, music, history, to name a few. However, there are also many topics which, while of interest to both believers and unbelievers, find them on opposite sides of the fence. For example, abortion, creation, justice to name another few.
While conversation with unbelievers on topics of mutual interest can be stimulating, ultimately, as believers, we should take every opportunity to share the gospel with them, this being the most important topic in all time and eternity.

Romans 10
13 For whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.***
14 How shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?
15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:

16 "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace,
Who bring glad tidings of good things!"

*** Romans 10
9 If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For with the heart ones believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

13 For whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.

hard, but safe

"Jesus showed us that confronting the world with TRUTH will never be easy, but that HE never changes and will be with us in ALL circumstances [both now and through all] eternity."

Matthew 5
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
10 Blessed are those who have been persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.
12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Matthew 28
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.

who gets along?

Believers are not plugged into the same circuits as unbelievers. In the competition in the early days of PCs and Macs, never the twain could meet. Windows software and Apple software did not speak to 'each' other. And even today all programs are not compatible with each other by a long shot. So unbelievers can get along with each other pretty well, while they find us difficult to be comfortable with, not easy to get along with.

John 15
18 If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.
19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.

hard hearts ~~ hard of hearing

Paul is now in Rome and as always he makes contact with the Jewish leaders first. They are unaware of all that has gone on regarding Paul up to this point and they would like to know. So he fills them in.

Acts 28
23 So when they had appointed him a day, many came to him at his lodging, to whom he explained and solemnly testified of the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus from both the Law of Moses and the Prophets, from morning till evening.
24 And some were persuaded by the things which were spoken, and some disbelieved.
25 So when they did not agree among themselves, they departed after Paul had said one word:

"The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers,

26 saying,

'Go to this people and say:

Hearing you will hear, and shall not understand;

And seeing you will see, and not perceive;

27 For the hearts of this people have grown dull.

Their ears are hard of hearing,

And their eyes they have closed,

Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,

Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,

So that I should heal them.'"

28 Therefore let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it!

29 And when he had said these words, the Jews departed and had a great dispute among themselves.