Praize Blogs

V.11- According to the eternal purpose of God. What is that purpose? It is that all will be saved. God mad a plan of salvation before the earth was formed, before Adam was born, and before the temptation came that made salvation necessary. Jesus did not come to die for the lost four-legged sheep, but for the human, two-legged variety that was created to worship Him. I don’t believe in predestination as it means God set the whole thing up, and we have no choice. He predetermined that we should be saved, but not that we would be saved. That would be interfering with free will, and God cannot do that. He promised to allow us to choose. “I set before you life and death, choose life” (Deuteronomy 30:19)! Predestination takes that right away from us. But, when He made His plan of salvation, He knew it would involve sending Jesus, and Jesus knew it too. There was no surprise.

V.12- So- God accomplished His plan in Jesus. Jesus is the One in whom we can have boldness. It is by His blood that we have gained access before the throne of God. We don’t need a high priest now. We have Jesus as our access, and we can come before God and make our requests known to Him, without fear! We have confidence! We know we can speak frankly, freely before God, and we will not be turned away. He wants to listen to our prayers.  God wants to be invited into every aspect of our lives. 

V.13- Paul wanted the Christians to remain strong, not losing the confidence they had in Jesus. They saw what Paul was going through, and could possibly have said the very words we say today, “Why does a loving God allow this to happen?” The asking Paul is doing is prayer. Let’s read Philippians 1:3-6, “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now; Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Paul was confident and wanted them as confident. Paul was telling them they could endure just as he had.  When God calls someone to ministry, and they are beaten and placed in chains, they will have the same power from on high to deal with it.  II Corinthians 1:6, “And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.”  He suffered for their salvation which became their glory, and now he wants them to know they can do the same for others, if they do not faint or lose heart.

We too need to learn to be strong in the face of the little persecution we face. How fortunate we are to have the blessed freedom to speak the name of Jesus and not get jailed, stoned, or killed for it. This is something we definitely should rejoice and be glad about.  There are people around the world being killed for the name of Jesus.  We need to shake off the apathy that keeps us down, and put on the breastplate of righteousness that God has given us, and tell the world about Him.

God be with you all through this week, and grant you peace and liberty in serving Him.

More studies at http://www.newbeginmin1.org/BIBLESTUDYOPENING.html