Ray Ruppert's Blog, page 2

Evangelism 101

 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:6

Paul wrote this a few years afterpreaching on Mars Hill in Athens. There he used a rather apologetic style totry to convince the intellectual elite. Here, I believe, is what he learnedfrom that experience and wisdom given over the ensuing years.

Evangelism that is effective must includethe word of the cross because it is the power of God (1 Cor 1:18). People won't be wonby debate because that isn't how God has chosen to save people (1 Cor 1:20-21) or bysigns alone (1 Cor 2:4).

God chooses those He wants from all walksof life and it isn't up to them to choose. Otherwise, they could boast abouttheir wisdom to choose (1 Cor 1:29). The only thing we can boast about is that Godchose us and that isn't true boasting. It is admitting that we wouldn't believeunless he chooses us (1 Cor 1:26-31).

So don't worry about getting all thetheology right but present the basics of the gospel. Let the Holy Spirit workthen their salvation is in God's power and not in our persuasion (1 Cor 2:5).

There will be plenty of time to expand ondeep theological principles after a person is saved. It will be over theirheads if they aren’t saved.

Help me Lord, speak the gospel of thecross to unbelievers.

Copyright by Ray Ruppert

Art and Worship

Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present wentout to the cities of Judah and broke in pieces the pillars and cut down theAsherim and broke down the high places and the altars throughout all Judah andBenjamin, and in Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had destroyed them all. 2 Chronicles 31:1

In 2 Chronicles 31:1, the people wentthrough the cities and country to break the altars to other gods and cut the Asherimand tear down the high places. How would we view that today? We would probablysay that it was horrible that we were destroying art and history. We would beappalled. Think about trying to destroy totem poles in the Pacific Northwest ordisturbing sacred grounds in Hawaii. The public outcry would be great.

But some of the reformers tried the verysame thing with icons, statues, and breaking stained-glass windows. Luther hadto stop them. Why? Wasn't this the pattern or principle established in the OldTestament? Other reformers prevented musical instruments from being used inchurch; some still do that today. I think this boils down to 3 categories.

1.   Public – we arenot a Christian nation with rules that govern objects of worship as did Israel.So, we don't have the right to break down public idols, we can protest if theyare immoral such as some of art exhibits have been.

2.   Churches – sincethe only places this would happen now is if a church suddenly believed their stained-glasswindows were idolatry. They would have to see that it was leading to idolatryand if so, yes, they should destroy them.

3.   Personally – inour homes this is where each of us have all the authority to destroy art if itbecomes or is an idol. Some art such as Tiki Idols from Hawaii maybe consideredart, but why have one in your home?

While all three have their place inhistory #3 is what I must consider for my life regardless of what the world orchurch is doing. Lord, help me to always put you first and have no idols beforeme.

Copyright by Ray Ruppert

If Possible

 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all(Rom 12:18).

On the surface this sounds like an easy command to obey. Yetit takes everything we learn about Christ and to emulate him to be able to doit. The reason it is difficult is that no matter how much we put others beforeourselves, how much we strive to be kind to others, there will always besomeone who is going to have consternation with you.

Maybe not all the time, but because people are sinful, evenother believers may become abusive against you. Even members of your ownhousehold.

The key to remember and not become despondent or devastatedabout it is the small phrase, “so far as it depends on you.” How do you do that?Don't give others reasons for offense. But know that even then some will findyour behavior offensive. Just don't do it on purpose or go out of your way tomake it happen.

When it happens, don't look for vengeance (Rom 12:19) butstill treat them lovingly as much as possible (Rom 12:20). Wait for the Lord totake care of it. Of course if I'm at fault I must confess and ask forforgiveness. But even then, some may not forgive but I've done what I could doto be at peace.

Help me Lord, not to be overcome by evil but overcome evilwith good (Rom 12: 21).

Copyright by Ray Ruppert

Presumptuous Sin

 13 Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them nothave dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of greattransgression. Ps 19:13

I had to do a bit of dive on what it meant to bepresumptuous in general. There are different definitions, but this one isuseful when thinking about sin. “Behavior perceived as arrogant, disrespectful,and transgressing the limits of what is permitted or appropriate.” When Isearched for presumptuous sins, I got a smattering of different thoughts.

·                The sin of presumption starts out withcommitting small sins presuming that God will forgive them. But over time ourconscience will become dulled to sin and we will be led to presume that Godwill forgive our mortal sins. (https://www.catholic.com).

·                Presumptuous sin is intentional willful. It isdoing something boldly, brazenly, audaciously, arrogantly, rebelliously,defiantly. Remember verse 31 says that it brings despite on God's Word. And, ifwe commit such a sin, we are doing it in defiance of what God has said. (Refersto Num 15:30-31 KJV https://www.bibletools.org)

·                It is assuming or taking something for granted,guessing or hoping something is true on the basis of probability or mistakenbelief, based on wrong or incomplete facts, thoughts and ideas, rather thansolid facts including the correct interpretation of God's Word. (https://www.bible-dictionary.info)

I think the Catholic definition really hit it on the headeven if they distinguish between small sins and mortal sins. David recognizedthat if he engaged in sin, knowing it was sin, would be doing it defiantly andagainst what the Lord had forbidden. Then as these mount up (getting dominionover him) he would blameless of greater sins. Num 15:30-31 in currenttranslations uses the word defiantly instead of presumptuously as the KJV does.So the pattern fits with the first two explanations.

The third explanation comes from another definition ofpresumption. Presumption in that an assumption has been made before a course oflogic results in an action or attitude. You might say the whole of evolutionarythought is presumptuous. It certainly leads to wrong conclusions and a worldview that is anti-God and anti-Christ.

This is a big warning to make sure that I do not presume toknow things that will lead me to defy what God has said is should or shouldn’tdo. Lord, help me to keep from defying you and letting that attitude festerinto rebellion.

Copyright by Ray Ruppert

Our Temple

In Second Chronicles chapter 6 and 7,Solomon prays at the dedication of the temple. In the first part he prays thatthe promises given to David will be fulfilled as he praises God. The next part,which is the vast majority of the prayer, is asking for forgiveness when peoplehave sinned in various ways and the Lord has brought calamity on them for theirsins. He asked that when they pray toward the temple that God will forgive.Then he asked God to come down and God comes down and His glory cloud filledthe temple. Then fire comes down from heaven and burns up the sacrifice.

As I read this, I'm struck by the factthat Jesus is our temple now. Jesus came down but in humility not glory and wefind our forgiveness in Him when we pray to Him. There is evidence in the Biblethat there will be a temple built during the tribulation or just before thetribulation. I wonder about that simply because it will be a sham. BecauseJesus has come there doesn't need to be another temple. Then we also seeevidence that there will be a temple during the Millennium. So, what's thattemple for? It certainly will not be used for sin sacrifices because Jesus haspaid for our sins.

However, in eternity we definitely seethat there is a temple in the new Jerusalem in Revelation 21:22 it says thatthe Lord God almighty and Jesus are the temple. We will be in His presence andworshiping Him like no other time in history.

Thank you, Jesus, we can pray to you nowfor forgiveness.

Copyright by Ray Ruppert

Reckoning

22 That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” 23 But the words “it was counted tohim” were not written for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him whoraised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for ourjustification. (Rom 4:22-25)

The word counted in these verses is alsotranslated credited, reckoned, and imputed in different versions of the Bible.These words are used to let us know that our faith results in a reality that weare righteous. The Blue Letter Bible app in its Greek lexicon explains the useof the word this way, “This word deals with reality. If I reckon (logizomai)that my bank book has $25 in it, it has $25 in it. Otherwise, I am deceivingmyself. This word refers more to fact than supposition or opinion.”

Following this definition, I see that it is fact that I’mrighteous and it is the result of my requirement to believe in Jesus. I believethat Jesus took my sins when he was delivered up. But my justification isdependent on His resurrection. Without His resurrection, the transaction isn'tcomplete. Just like taking a check to the bank, it isn't in my account untildeposited. It took three days for the deposit to clear (so to speak). But, that'swhy I must also believe Jesus is raised from the dead. See how this fits with Rom10:9-11:

 9 Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believein your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes andis justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Thank you, Father for taking the depositof Jesus’ righteousness and reckoning it to my account and declaring mejustified.

https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexic...

Copyright by Ray Ruppert

Told you so, part 2

Paul stood up among them and said, “Men, you should have listenedto me and not have set sail from Crete and incurred this injury and loss. Yet now I urge you to take heart,for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. (Acts27:21-22)

Paul tells the crew of the ship that he was right and theywere wrong, but he doesn't stop there. He encourages them that there is still away out of the problem.

Yes, we can tell someone, “I told you so” when it goes badfor them after ignoring our advice. But if we want to be good ambassadors for Christ,we will do it only to show that there is still hope. This is especially truewhen our advice is about spiritual things, Kingdom living things, that havebeen ignored. We point them back to the Bible and let them know that there isalways opportunity for repentance and restoration.

Help me, Lord, to be an encourager even when my counselisn't heeded and be able to help steer a course back to you.

Copyright by Ray Ruppert

Told you so!

Paul advised them, 10 saying, “Sirs, I perceive that the voyage will be with injury andmuch loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives.” 11 But the centurion paid moreattention to the pilot and to the owner of the ship than to what Paul said. (Acts27:9-11)

What do you do when no one listens to you even when you knowyou are right? Then do you tell them, “I told you so” when it turns out thatthey should have followed your advice?

Paul faced that situation on his trip to Rome and not followinghis advice ended in shipwreck. And yes, he did tell them, “I told you so” inverse 21.

If I don’t have complete trust in the Lord, I can becomeangry and bitter when I’m not heard. I can have all sorts of negative sinfulfeelings. But if I trust the Lord, I will not go with those feelings.

The Psalms are full of questions such as, how long Lord. AndI may ask those things also when I feel dismissed and ignored. But, I know thatthe Lord has a plan and in the end it will work out.

Help me, Lord, to be patient and learn what you have for mein these situations.

Copyright by Ray Ruppert

Preaching to Philosophers

 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commandsall people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world inrighteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has givenassurance to all by raising him from the dead. (Acts17:30-31)

The setting for acts 17:30-31 is thatPaul is at the Areopagus in Athens, Greece. This is where the philosophers ofthe day debated. Paul gave a brilliant logical apology for the existence of theone true God instead of many gods created as idols. At the end he proclaimedthat God, the One he identified, will judge the world by a man that He raisedfrom the dead.

Only a handful of people responded, sowhy not more? Paul didn't mention the name of Jesus during his presentation. Iwonder if that may be the reason for the poor response. Maybe he was onlytrying to build a bridge of understanding from the Greek philosophers to a veryHebrew view of God. This is what many people say we must do with othercultures.

I'm not so sure that is correct. At leastin this instance. Putting myself in the place of these philosophers, knowingsomewhat of what they believed, I don’t think they understood what Paul meantby judging the world in righteousness. Their culture didn't have a view of whatrighteousness means, not according to Christianity or even Judaism. I think weshould see this as not a method of evangelism but as an example of what happenswhen the gospel is only partly preached. We can look at the results and comparethem to other times Paul preached and many came to salvation.

I’m not saying that we should never useapologetics to try to convince someone of the existence of God. There is aplace and time for that. However, if we do, we should also follow up withclarity about the gospel.

Lord, help me always preach Jesus even ifI have to use apologetics first.

Copyright by Ray Ruppert

Self-Control

Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. (Prov16:32) 

Where does true strength lie?

According to God it isn't in physicalstrength or political or military forces. It is in the ability of a person tohave self-control. This proverb first focuses on anger. Then it broadens thescope to all-encompassing self-control as it addresses my spirit. Do I controlmy anger? If so, that is good but that is only one aspect of self-control. Arethere any areas of my life that don’t need to be under my control? None, notone should be outside of my self-control. That is a tall order. How can Ipossibly have this kind of self-control without the help of the Holy Spirit? Helpme Lord, every second, minute, hour of every day.

True strength is found in self-control.#selfcontrol #weakness #spiritualcontrol #controlanger #holyspirit

Copyright by Ray Ruppert