Ladies & Gentlemen Please Welcome...

Ladies & Gentlemen Please Welcome, Tobias Samson Zeubie II, about a month ago our dog Jasper died suddenly, he was sick on Monday and the doctor could not see him until Tuesday afternoon and Tuesday morning while we were out he passed away.
At this point we decided that we would not seek to get another dog right now, but did purpose in our heart a prayer that if God wanted us to have another animal, He would provide. Well, within a few weeks my former boss at the college library contacted us about a young lady who was moving into the dorms at our college, and how she could not keep her dog, we contacted her and took the dog for the weekend and fell in love with him. He is a Great Pyrenees mix, much like my dog Zeus who died at the ripe old age of 13, just before Christmas last year. In looking at Tobias and in getting to know him he reminds us so much, not only of Zeus but of my wife's dog Willy who also died at age 13. It is so neat how God has allowed this animal to come into our lives and how a little piece of each of the three dogs we have lost in the last three years is present in Tobias.
Tobias welcome to the family and we pray that you have a long and happy life with us.

Salvation, God's Plan Not Man's Part 2

What another phenomenal day! We awoke this morning to cooler temperatures and clear blue skies, the kind that says fall is in the air, ahh, I love this time of the year. Anyway, I need to get on with it, last week we left off with these three “Hearing, Belief, Repentance” as things that are in the scriptures when it comes to a plan of salvation, now as I told the congregation this morning do not get too hung up on order, as we go through this it appears the only things that require order is the first two, hearing and believing anyway, we looked at confession and how Jesus says we must confess Him before others and how He will do the same before His Father.
Next we looked at Baptism, which is probably the most argued point in all of Christianity. The scriptural teaching is reasonably clear, the scriptures command that we submit to baptism; it is a part of the salvation process and as much so as any other piece. Now, I am not arguing in favor of Baptismal regeneration, I am not arguing at all, I am simply stating the facts from scripture, for example, that word “for” is said to mean because so in other words, you are baptized because your sins are forgiven, (Acts 2:38) how ever if you were to turn your Bible to Matthew 26:28, you will find another “for” where Jesus said His blood was poured out for the forgiveness of sin, when you look to the original Greek text what you will find is this, εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν. The words are pronounced Ace, Aphesin, Hamartion, which in the English is for forgiveness “of” sins. OK, I know that is a lot to swallow, so I will refer you to the phrase study sheet which I have prepared. Anyway, the first word is the preposition “for” according to Thayer it means “to obtain” the second word Aph-es-in is a Singular Feminine Noun in the accusative case, the accusative case is the case of the direct object and it means “forgiveness” and finally Hamartion, which is a Feminine Plural Noun in the Genitive case, this case roughly corresponds to our English possessive case. The genitive expresses possession, and it means sins.
OK, Greek class is over, hang in there you are doing well, the only difference between the Acts passage and the Matthew passage is these two things which are both found in the Acts passage. In the Matthew passage, Jesus is referring to sin in general and at large, you know your sin, my sin, his sin, her sin and so on, while in the Acts passage, Peter uses the article “the” and the personal pronoun, “your” both in reference to a particular persons sin, yours, in other words “the sin of yours” Bottom, line is that there are five places where that phrase “for forgiveness of sin” occurs and in each and every case it is the same, so if we are to understand the Acts passage to read, the we are baptized “because” our sins have been forgiven then we must conclude that Jesus’ blood likewise was poured out “because” sin was forgiven. I simply can not do that because that really goes against everything the whole Bible teaches.
Next we moved to the last thing the scriptures say that lead to life and being saved and this my dear friends is perseverance, Jesus said just as He overcame we should also, for all practical purposes it works like this if Jesus can persevere against all He did surely we can manage in this life being faithful to the call and being faithful means, living our lives trusting that Jesus is who He said He is, that He will deliver on the promises He gave, and Obeying, this is lived out by following the commands of the scriptures and living life in a such a way as to say, no matter what because I love Jesus, I am going to do and teach what His word says.
Well, if you want to get a deeper understanding listen to both of the messages and look a the phrase study sheet, it is an excellent resource designed to strengthen and encourage you in your walk and growth in Christ Jesus. May the Lord Bless you in direct proportion to your study of His Word.

Salvation, God's Plan Not Man's Part 1

Have you ever looked at all the "Plans of Salvation" that permeate the internet? Well, when redesigning the Forgiving Grace Ministry website, I was torn about putting one on the site. It is not because I do not want to share with people how to be saved, because I desperately want everyone to know the joy and peace contained in a relationship with Jesus, a relationship that brings salvation can not be beat. I was reluctant because scripture in every case of salvation that it tells us about involves the telling (verbally) of the Gospel and then there is immediate action. So, my issue is that Salvation at least as presented in the Gospel is not a thing done in private, it is done in relationship. Now that is not to say that God can not move an individual to Salvation without the aid of another human, because He is sovereign, and He can do all things, Amen.
What really got me though was that I really felt that God wanted me to search out all the plans I could find, and when I did I came away astounded, and in some cases absolutely appalled, about what I was reading. One plan said that the whole idea of the Gospel teaching a need for repentance was absurd, yet Jesus said in Luke 13:3, 5 repent or perish, loose translation but you get the point. In Luke 15:7, 10 Jesus has told two parables one about the lost sheep and one about a lost coin, and He ends both with the idea that there is a party going on in Heaven when just one sinner repents. Now I do not know about you but how am I supposed to process these verses if we can be in our sin yet believe and inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. This is the one that really got me; another site said that just by acknowledging your sin and your need of a Savior you were repenting, now the last time I checked that was not good hermeneutics. In fact that would or should qualify as heresy, and that brings me here to that page and this 2 week sermon series.
Friends we need to mine the whole of the scriptures and if they say something leads to salvation we might just want to check ourselves and see if that is what we are teaching, it should not matter if we personally agree with it or not. Are you teaching what you are teaching because the Scriptures teach it or because your denomination teaches it? Read the Scripture for all they say and ask yourself, am I teaching what it says or what I want it to say or what I have been told it says. You know many times when I read the Word of God, I come face to face with His perfection, His Holiness and it shines a light on my imperfections and that usually causes shame, especially if I am not doing or living the way I ought to be living, and many people want you and I to think that, that shame is wrong and God does not want us to feel bad, Yet Paul, God's chosen vessel said that Godly sorrow produces a repentance without regret, leading to Salvation. Go figure, huh!
Well, we covered three things in this week’s message that the scriptures say lead to or bring one into a place of accepting salvation or being saved. So, check out the message and mine some of that Gospel treasure.

The Unconventional Faithfulness of God

It is not an ironic thing, just another testimony of the unconventional faithfulness of God. A week ago today our three year old American Eskimo, Jasper died unexpectedly, Thursday my wife had a cartilage graft done on her knee. So, I am having to be dad, nurse, cook, maid, driver and all the other duties that go into raising a family of four, when one spouse is down.
Sunday was a long day I left the house at 7:40 and got home about 5:40. I got to the church about 45 minutes before Sunday school so I could spend some time in prayer over the visitor cards as I placed them into the pews. I want to be the kind of minister that practices what he preaches, over the last month I have been preaching that as a people of God when we are faithful, obedient, and humble, that is when we could and really should expect God to work miracles in our midst. Well, as I was saying I was praying over the visitor cards and placing the in the pews, I finished with the cards that I had about 10 minutes before anyone arrived at the church, one of the elders was the first to arrive and I told him what I had been doing, we talked for a few minuted and then, I went on and finished preparing my material for the Sunday school lesson. Wouldn't you know it, just as we were getting ready to begin the song service, I turned and in walked two visitors. God is so Awesome, and He made a certain impression on the people, after the service I herd them telling each other about what had went on earlier that morning. I can take no credit, but I can say Thank You God for being so faithful. Even when it seems the whole world is falling in around me, God is there in our midst, faithful as ever and usually working miracles.
Well, during the message we were looking at the 1st and 2nd chapter of Hosea, we spent some time looking at the meaning of the names of Hosea's children. We looked at how God used the marriage between Hosea and Gomer, to give a reflective view of the marriage relationship between God and His people, see Gomer had gone astray and played the harlot and so too had the people of Israel, and when we look at the condition of the church at large today, so have we, in many aspects. Twisting the word, allowing openly sinful people into positions of authority in the church. Let's be honest it is spiritual harlotry and the church needs to turn form its many lovers and return before it is too late.
If you like to listen to the sermon in its entirety you may do so by either visiting our ministry web site or by clicking on the title of this post.
I pray that you have a blessed week and I can not wait to see what God has in store for us this week.

Sin; Reality, Results, Cure

I hate to keep sounding like a broken record, but, WOW another great Sunday! The first Sunday of every month we have a potluck and this Sunday we also had a business meeting following, so this has been an extremely long day.
The lesson today dealt with how in our society today and in the past 20-50 years there has been a societal push away from personal responsibility. People sin and in our day they are told "Oh,t it is not your fault," that you are this way or did this or that. Instead they are told to blame issues to their genetics, the upbringing everything but being told that they need to take responsibility for their own actions. Scripture is very clear we will have to account for our own actions, for the believer they will give an account for what they have done with their new life in Christ. For the unbeliever they will give an account of their sin. One thing is for sure this world wants you and I to believe that sin is just some outdated, antiquated idea, but the truth is that Sin is a reality, and it has most dire results, it will cost everything eventually, including the very souls of those who reject the free gift offered by God, which takes me to the cure. In short Jesus is the cure to the sin problem.
Well, like I said it has been an extremely long day so I am going to end this post this way. John 3:16 is probably the most quoted verse in all of Scripture, but most people do not know the following verse which has the power of verse 16, so I will leave you with John 3:17 "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him."


(As always the you can click on the title to this post to be take to the sermon) If you want to hear more sermons please visit Forgiving Grace Ministries and click on the Audio Sermons link on the home page!t