What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

Jesus said "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law." (Matt 10:34-36) It is amazing that when the Resurrection and the Life rose Lazarus from the tomb, there was a decisive division amongst the Jews. "Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him. But some of them went their ways to the Pharisees..." (John 11:45-46a) When going in two opposite directions, as is true for these believers and the unbelievers, there is no compromise or middle ground, there is only a greater and widening divide. The unbelieving faction went so far as to desire the death of Lazarus. The depths of an unbelievers depravity has no foreseeable limit, nor should the depths of a believers compassion. With eyes to see each could say, "But for the grace of God, there go I." The progressive-liberal and the conservative Christian are going in opposite directions. The big-bang evolutionist and the born-again Creationist, believing in a 6 day creation, are going in opposite directions. The fundamental Muslim and the fundamental Christian, are going in opposite directions. There is no middle ground, and their can be no compromise. The believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, must arm themselves for a pending conflict. The primary weapon needs to be the compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the primary tactic, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, ... humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Onward, Christian soldiers.

An Essay for week #32 08/10/2014

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