Archive for the 'Devotional Notes' Category

Genesis 9:4-7 - Loss of life, or loss of righteousness?

Saturday, August 28th, 2010

 4 “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. 5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man.
 6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man,
       by man shall his blood be shed;
       for in the image of God
       has God made man.

 7 As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.”
What a curious passage.  Not because it’s inconsistent with Christianity or Judaism or something I already believe however. It …

Genesis 6 - Who Regretted Creating Mankind?

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

 5 The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6 The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7 So the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.” 
Genesis 6:5-7 is an interesting passage.  Christians use it to teach how much God hates sin; skeptics use it to teach how …

Romans 3:10 - Preaching “no righteousness” is not the Gospel

Sunday, April 11th, 2010

Having spent over a year now blogging on righteousness, I came upon an interesting sight the other day, and it was just as I was starting 2 Peter 3… the very last chapter in the bible containing the word “righteousness”.  The sight was a group of Christians witnessing on a street corner with signs telling people to repent.  I was struck to core by the one that read:

Romans 3:10
There is no one righteous
I immediately pulled over.  I wanted to tell this person that this isn’t true, because people can be accounted righteousness through belief and obedience of God.  Something about that sign, I cannot remember what it was, told me that this person was sending the wrong message.  The …

2 Peter 3:13 - Righteousness is not of this World

Friday, April 2nd, 2010

13But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.
Here it is, the last verse in the bible with the word righteousness in it, and the where the first message in the Bible on righteousness tells us that credits us with righteousness when we believe, the second tells us our obedience is our righteousness, the last verse tells us where that we can only have true righteousness when we are in Heaven.

This explains a lot. It helps explain why Genesis 15:6 says that we can only be accounted righteousness… because the home of righteousness is not of this world.

It explains why Deuteronomy 6:25 says our obedience is our …

2 Peter 3 - Was Peter a Young Earth Creationist?

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

 3First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” 5But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water.
To my Young Earth Creationist friends, verse 5 is clear evidence that the earth is young.  Why?  Because Evolutionists do not believe that the earth was formed out of water and by water.  On the other hand, Genesis 1:2 says this about …

2 Peter 3 - Righteousness leads us to the next Creation

Sunday, March 28th, 2010

Wow.  I have been doing this word study on righteousness for nearly a year and a half, feeling at least in part like it is too much a distraction from Geocreationism to be posted on this blog… yet, perhaps out of laziness (I didn’t want to create another blog), I posted my entire venture through the verses on righteousness on this blog.  Now, I come to the last chapter in the bible that contains the word Righteousness, and I am simply floored.  What floored me?  Here is the last verse on righteousness, 2 Peter 3:13:
13But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.
It has been so easy …

2 Peter 1: Righteousness Leads to Christ’s Love Manifested in You

Monday, March 1st, 2010

In 2 Peter 1 - From righteousness to righteousness: Re-created in God’s Image I wrote,
When accused of wrong-doing, Christ said nothing to His accusers.  Having established for the scriptures that the judgements of evil-doers has no weight, He refused to take a defensive stand against them.  Though making it appear like He was legitimizing their judgement, it is defending Himself in their court that would have legitimized their right to make such judgement over Him.  He simply yielded to show the extent to which He would go for the love of His sheep, letting sinners follow through on their sin so that He could follow …

2 Peter 1 - From righteousness to righteousness: Re-created in God’s Image

Friday, February 26th, 2010

 1Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
      To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours:

 2Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
Peter is writing this letter to Christians.  He starts out with the clear message that we have received our faith from Jesus.  Knowing that our faith is our belief in God and obedience to Him, it would seem that we have received our rightouesness through God’s righteousness.  This confirms the writings of Paul, which tell us that by being accounted righteousness for belief, we have the opportunity to be just …

2 Peter

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

So, here are. The last book in the bible on Righteousness!  I always found it interesting that the very first verse in the bible on righteousness tells us how to get it… believe God, and the 2nd tells us how to use it… obey God.  From there, scripture simply uses the terms, only occasionally referencing back to these two verses.  It’s like God did not assume we knew what righteousness was, and so made sure those first verses would tell us.  This set the stage for the rest of our word study this last year.  Well, now we come to the last book on righteousness, 2 Peter, and wouldn’t you know… God assumes we know what righteousness is by now!

In …

1 Peter 2 - Saved for Obedience

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

The actual righteousness verse is 1 Peter 2:24, which reads as follows:
24He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.
It’s a simple verse, but there’s a lot to it.  Primarily, what does Peter mean by living for righteousness?  Is he referring to believing, or to obeying?  In short, to obeying, because he speaking to a crowd that already believes, as he opens in his letter (emphasis mine):
 1Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
      To God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, 2who have been chosen according to the …