Monthly Archives: April 2010

Just Thinking About Faith, Part One

Posted on April 28, 2010 by mcalmond

Is it possible to have “a” faith in Christ Jesus that isn’t actually saving faith? Is all faith the same faith and the only difference is where this faith of ours is pointed or directed?

I mean there clearly seems to be a kind of faith that exists apart from God’s saving faith. We see it everyday in oh so many ways. We also see its fruit and success everyday as well.  Yet, is this what the Bible means when it is speaking of the kind of faith that saves us, that genuinely brings us to the point of truly being born again?

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Categories: A Simple Faith, Belief System, Believer, Confidence, Faith, God Faith, Growing in Faith, Questions, Standing in Faith, Truth, Word of God, Work of God | 7 Comments

Whose Word Is It? Part Two

Posted on April 21, 2010 by mcalmond

Continuing on from Pt One….

The Word of God is also then stripped of many meaningful words, nuances, images, poetry, mysteries, ambiguities, and other literary forms all breathed out by God for us all. This stripping the Word of God from its wide and many varied forms reduces the Scriptures down in such a way that all too often its beauty, splendor, grandeur, along with the sacredness of the text and the theological language are also stripped away leaving us with simply a shell of what the Word of God once was.

We’re dumbing Down the very Word of God, reducing it, rewriting it and doing it all over again and again. We simply add a new idea or image or thought here and there that we think belongs there or at the very least should have been placed there to begin with. We are reducing passages or texts with multiple possible meanings down to the one of our choosing and not always to the best or even most likely one, leaving no hint that there really was more, often much, much more. What manner of pride and arrogance is this, let alone carelessness?

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Categories: Anointing, Bible Translations, Bibles, Body of Christ, Church, Foundations, Inspiration, Ministry, Spiritual Warfare, Truth, Word of God, Work of God | Leave a comment

Whose Word Is It? Part One

Posted on April 18, 2010 by mcalmond

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (ESV) All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

In the last fifty or so years too many Bible Translators have radically changed their approach and philosophy concerning this revered and all too often under valued work. They have moved from the all too common, a half of century ago, word for word or essentially literal translation approach to what is currently referred to as the “functional equivalency (FE) or dynamic equivalency (DE)” approach. Another description for this later approach is “thought for thought” or “meaning for meaning” translation philosophy. The result of this is that we now have two streams of very different and yet definitely unequal approaches to translating God’s Word.

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Categories: Bible Translations, Bibles, Dependency, Ministry, Prayer, Protection, Truth, Word of God, Work of God | Leave a comment

Five Years, Eight Months, and Counting

Posted on April 17, 2010 by mcalmond

Yes, Abraham waited and waited upon the Lord God to fulfill His promise of a son to him and Sara for a very long time. The Word tells us that he did not waver, did not weaken in faith regarding the promises of God concerning him and his descendants. In hope he believed against hope that what the Lord God Almighty had promised him would indeed take place. You can find all of this in Romans the fourth chapter. Yet, in all truth, I am not Abraham. His walk is certainly an encouragement to me as are all of the true stories of faith within the Scriptures. However, I struggle in our season of waiting.

As of this very next week, we will have believed in hope for five years and eight months that the Lord Jesus was leading us into a new season of ministry. After our last and all too very trying season Pastoring, we believed we were being called out to something “new”, for us. We still, after all of this time, believe that the Lord Jesus is not finished with us yet and that our season of effectual and maybe not always effective ministry isn’t yet over.

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Categories: Calling, Dependency, Following Through, God's Faithfulness, Growing in Faith, Hope, Jobs, Ministry, Promises, Spiritual Warfare, Standing in Faith, Steadfastness, Stirrings, The Lord Jesus, Truth, Waiting on the Lord, Witness, Work of God | Leave a comment

The Lord Jesus Christ Becoming Formed In Us

Posted on April 11, 2010 by mcalmond

Gal 4:19 my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! ESV

Most of the Apostle Paul’s letters were written to correct or clarify issues as they arose within the church he had planted and oversaw. We see that the Epistle of Galatians is no exception to this.

When this epistle was written, Paul had not too much earlier left behind in Galatia a young body of believers, young in their understanding and experience of what it meant to be “in Christ Jesus”. A concerted effort from those in Jerusalem, Judaizers, most probably Christ professing Pharisees, was being made to undo the work that Paul had seen accomplished through Christ Jesus in Galatia. They wanted to bind the Galatians to living out their faith according to the Torah/Law. Their hope was to affirm their faith in Christ Jesus but also to call them into obedience unto the Torah, the Law. It was to be a faith in Christ Jesus plus an adherence to the Torah/Law that sealed their salvation in and before God Almighty.

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Categories: Believer, Body of Christ, Confidence, Core Values, Dependency, Exhortation, Flesh, Following Through, Foundations, God Faith, Growing in Faith, Holiness, Hope, In Spirit and In Truth, Old Blog Post, Perseverance, Prayer, Protection, Salvation, Spiritual Warfare, Standing in Faith, Steadfastness, The Lord Jesus, Truth, Word of God, Work of God | Leave a comment

Speak To The Rock

Posted on April 9, 2010 by mcalmond

Do you ever feel like things are swirling around with such speed and velocity that you just might get lost in the intensity of the moment, caught up in the hectic winds blowing so powerfully around you? Well, I have.

The winds of change that I am seeing around us, for me are just such a time, just such a season of life. The need therefore to be fully anchored down in the strength and unchanging reality of the Lord Jesus Christ is all the more paramount in these days. Such is the reality and power of these changing times and season.

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Categories: Breaking Forth, Confidence, Covering, Dad's Songs, Dependency, Faith, God's Faithfulness, Growing in Faith, Hope, In Spirit and In Truth, Perseverance, Prayer, Promises, Protection, Rock, Salvation, Spiritual Warfare, Standing in Faith, Steadfastness, The Lord Jesus, Truth | 1 Comment

Go Ahead, Get Out of the Boat!

Posted on April 7, 2010 by mcalmond

Matthew 14:25-31 (ESV) And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. 26 But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” 28 And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” 29 He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” 31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

All too often Peter takes the brunt of our criticism because of his lack of faith or limited faith as it were, which was all too clearly revealed here in this incident. However, I have another take on this and I believe that we can all learn from this incident and be challenged by it. At least Peter got out of the boat! Yes, he was confronted with the limitations of his personal faith, however, the truth simply is that he was way ahead of those who stayed in the relative safety and security of the boat. Peter, at the very least had the faith to take the risk and actually get out of the boat.

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Categories: Breaking Forth, Confidence, Dependency, Faith, Following Through, God Faith, Growing in Faith, Hope, Isolation, Lies, Ministry Motivation, Old Blog Post, Question, Questions, Self Destruction, Work of God | 2 Comments

What Is Crucifixion?

Posted on April 4, 2010 by mcalmond
A Medical doctor provides a physical description of a crucifixion:

The cross is placed on the ground and the exhausted man is quickly thrown backwards with his shoulders against the wood. The Legionnaire feels for the depression at the front of the wrist. He drives a heavy, square wrought iron nail through the wrist deep into the wood. Quickly he moves to the other side and repeats the action, being careful not to pull the arms too tightly, but to allow some flex and movement. The cross is then lifted into place. The left foot is press backward against the right foot, and with both feet extended, toes down, a nail is driven through the arch of each through the heel, leaving the knees flexed. The victim is now crucified.

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Categories: Believer, Confidence, Core Values, Crucifixion, Death, Easter, Foundations, God's Faithfulness, Hope, No Other Name, Old Blog Post, Open Ears, Open Eyes, Resurrection, Salvation, The Lord Jesus, Truth, Witness, Word of God, Work of God | Leave a comment

I Am Here

Posted on April 3, 2010 by mcalmond

Such encouraging and comforting words as these, you will ever find that bring such peace and calm to our hearts and lives, than the words being breathed into our spirits from our Lord and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is saying, I Am Here. It matters not where or even why we are where we are, for as the Psalmist says…

Ps 139:7-12

Where shall I go from your Spirit?

Or where shall I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there!

If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

If I take the wings of the morning

and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

even there your hand shall lead me,

and your right hand shall hold me.

If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,

and the light about me be night,”

even the darkness is not dark to you;

the night is bright as the day,

for darkness is as light with you. ESV

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Categories: Covering, Dad's Songs, Flesh, God's Faithfulness, Hope, Isolation, Lost and Alone, Salvation, Self Destruction, Songs, Standing in Faith, Steadfastness | 1 Comment

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