TGP / Volume 24 / Week 45
- A husband can have each of the three aspects of love for his wife:
- Phileo (Friendship) Love,
- Storge (Family) Love, and
- Eros (Romantic) Love.
- Only a husband's experience of AGAPE Love (God's Unconditional Value) for his wife has power to secure a happy marriage.
- I told wife Carole that I loved her. She said she knew that. I said how did she know. She said God told her.
- No, it is not true that America will survive if Socialists win the 2024 Presidential Election.
- The Sovereignty of God does not ensure that, whatever our choices, God will accomplish his Redemptive Good for us. Romans 8:28 means that God is always working to accomplish his Redemptive Good for everyone who responds to receive his Call to receive his Provisions of Grace.
- We won’t suffer Hell if we sit on the sideline and don’t vote our conservative Christian values. But America might. But neither will we have any reason to hold up our head and take part in the celebration.
- When we understand the Message of Grace, we will be supported for knowing how to vote.
Don/GraceRenewal
TGP / Volume 24 / Week 44
- Truth matters to God and to us who experience him.
- The stone (Truth) which the builders (performers) rejected has become the Foundation (Psalm 118:22).
- Truth is offensive to unregenerate / unsanctified minds.
- Truth is not opposed to different opinions being heard but different opinions are fearful of Truth / of it being heard. That’s because Truth will always prevail except when it is censured.
- We are not willing to die because of our need to be right, but we should expect to be hated because we are thought to be wrong.
- The evil in us hates / condemns those who disagrees with us. God’s Love is unconditional, even for those who disagree / reject him.
- The meaning of the Bible word fellowship is “mutual burden bearing” - the burden of
- our personal brokenness and weakness,
- the brokenness and weakness of others, especially of family, friends, and neighbors, and
- loneliness living in a sinful, uncaring, sometimes hateful world.
TGP / Volume 24 / Week 43
- Our inborn religious nature rejects Truth. “The Stone (Message of Grace) which the builders (religious performers) rejected has become (and is) the Foundation of Truth” (Psalm 118:22).
- Old movie synopsis: A new arrival to a wagon train informs the old wagon master of a better trail to their destination. The old wagon master tells the arrogant upstart that he is free to take it.
- Trouble will
- motivate us to make superficial pain relief choices that will compound our troubles or
- prepare our heart to seek God.
- Our service to others can be motivated
- by our experience of the Heart (Love) of Christ within us for the Redemptive needs of hurting people or
- by our experience of what it does for us.
- Our broken sinful nature tends to
- make choices that support our feel-good needs but
- neglect choices that support our health needs, especially that enable our ministry to others.
- We are supported for Christian life and ministry, not only by learning in school or Bible class what the Bible says, but mostly by our experience of Christ the Living Word to abide in our heart (2 Peter 1:3-4).
- Counseling provides support to hurting people for “coming and receiving” (Matthew 11:28-30). Preaching and teaching supports healthy people for “going and giving.”
Don/GraceRenewal
TGP / Volume 24 / Week 42
- Performance theology and the Message of Grace use the same words but load them with different meanings. Without understanding the meaning of Bible words from a grace perspective, we are left without a foundation for understanding the Message of Grace - for example the words believe, asking (in prayer), worship, praise, please (God), worthy, love (agape), honor, grace, mercy, forgiveness, redemption, saved, regeneration (born again), justification, reconciliation, sanctification, obedience, submission, authority, head (leadership), blessings (God’s), and honor.
- We don't insist our theology is right, but if our life and marriage are healthy and happy, we would have a hard time being convinced we are wrong. Truth
- supports health, holiness, and happiness, and
- sets us free from brokenness.
- A good predictor of long life is our interest in the redemptive well-being of others (Psalm 118:17). Codependency relationships will cut our life short.
- Our appetite for hearing the worldly/sensual (“moving and shaking”) sound of contemporary (“praise and worship”) church music will
- ruin our appetite (barricade/hinder our ability) for hearing and appreciating the Message of Grace and will
- give us an explanation for why we cannot understand Truth.
- God does not refreshour spirit (the inmost dimension of our trichotomous being); rather, he
- regenerates our spirit and
- refreshes (restores) our soul/heart (our inner man, the psychological dimension of our being [mind, emotions, and will]).
- God may be protecting Donald Trump from assassination in order
- to extend our opportunity before the Rapture to repent and believe the Gospel, also
- to extend our religious freedom to win others to Christ, and in order also
- so that, if we don't vote conservative values, we will be without excuse for the demise of America.
- Religion, politics, a conservative, constitutional government, and a good economy won’t make up the difference for not experiencing Christ. But our experience of Christ won't make up the difference for not voting conservative, constitutional values.
Don/GraceRenewal
TGP / Volume 24 / Week 41
- The Love (Agape / Unconditional Value) of Christ for his Bride, the Church, is the same Love which the Holy Spirit sows into the heart of husbands -
- first, for themself and
- then, for their wife.
- “Husbands, love your wives
- just as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:25) and
- “in the same way you love yourself." ("He who loves his wife loves himself.” - v. 28)
- Christ supports a wife’s expectation for her husband to meet her health and happiness needs. A husband’s health and happiness needs are met
- primarily, through his connection to Christ, the Vine (John 15:4,5) and
- secondarily, through the sowing and reaping return of his Redemptive investment in his wife.
- God’s Calling for a wife to be a “helpmeet” to her husband means primarily for her to be a bearer and mother of their children.
- God saves the best for last. Of course, that means our experience of Heaven
- in Eternity but also
- in this life through our experience of Christ to a fuller measure each day.
- Ophthalmologists perform a medical procedure that improves eyesight. But it requires many visits to the ophthalmologist, sometimes for long hours and after driving a lot of miles. But the result is worth it. Also, the eyes of our heart can be opened (Ephesians 1:18) in order for us to better understand the Message of Grace, but it requires long hours of waiting on God, sometimes driving many miles in order to remain connected to our support resources, and especially reading the Scripture during our Quiet Time worship in order to hear and experience Christ.
- Narcissism
- cannot tolerate waiting or rejection,
- identifies others as the problem.
Don/GraceRenewal
