Jake's Thoughts

       This week talks about something that I think about often. As a brotherhood in Christ, it is something that is often misperceived. There is difference to how the world perceives Christian brotherhood and how Christians should look at it. There is a deeper level when the body of Christ and the Holy Spirit are involved. It is a game changer. We are redeemed through and by Christ, whereas those who do not believe in God are not. Since there is that difference, we cannot just say we are all one brotherhood. That is a life defining feature, one that separates us. That does not mean that we do not love them, or hate them, but we have an obligation to our brothers and sisters in Christ within the church that we do not have towards them. On the other hand, we have an obligation to spread the Gospel to those who do not believe.      An important thing that often gets misconstrued with brotherhood and the body of Christ is that we should just accept peop...

       This week’s reading was on salvation. A key concept discussed was the true simplicity of our salvation as God’s people. A quote from Machen on page 100 says, “On the contrary, though it involves mysteries, it is itself so simple that a child can understand it. ‘We deserved eternal death but the Lord Jesus because He loved us, died instead of us on the cross’”. That sounds simple to me. I often question other’s ability to understand it and accept it. I do know that it does take the Holy Spirit to work inside them to convict and show them their wrong doings and to come to Christ. I was in that same spot a few years ago. It is a confusing spot, and I often look back and wonder why it was so hard to understand back then.      If it is so simple, why do we make it so difficult. Well, I believe it is because we are broken human beings. We are graced with a gift from God to have understanding and knowledge from His Word. Without that, we would be los...

     The reading this week was based primarily on the basis that Jesus is the object of our faith. Machen asked the question, “was Jesus really a Christian”? That is quite a good question. I think the answer is no. The point being made here is that liberalism does not accept Jesus as the object of their faith, rather he is an example for them to live their faith out. To me, that makes no sense. Our relationship with God and our place of eternity solely relies on who Jesus was and is. If he was just an example, then our salvation would have been nothing. Instead, Jesus was and is God and he came to down as the greatest example, yes, but more than that as God. He was both Human and God and did what no human could ever do. He took on the flesh of life and lived it perfectly. Not faulting once.      I recently watched a video made by a man who is from the LGBTQ community who claims to believe and have a relationship with God Almighty. I decided to watch this ...

     This week in chapter 4 of Machen’s Christianity and Liberalism , he states, “For Christian experience absolutely depends upon an event. The Christian says to himself: ‘I have meditated upon the problem of becoming right with God, I have tried to produce a righteousness that will stand in His sight; but when I heard the gospel message I learned that what I had weakly striven to accomplish had been accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ when He died for e on the Cross and completed His redeeming work by the glorious resurrection’” (Machen 61). Our human nature is to depend solely on ourselves. We think we can and need to do everything. Rather, we have opportunity to do the opposite. Throw away our broken nature and follow a God who is perfect, wise, and powerful. I can relate to this quote because three years ago I had the same realization. Up until the moment where the Holy Spirit convicted me and God accepted me into His kingdom, I was completely broken and worthless....