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| Wow, a monthSo its been an entire month of me not Posting. Thats alot. So here is something to start it up again.
First off I am now a Shift Manager at Massillon Donatos. Alot more hours, alot more money, and so on. Secondly I am involved in Young Evangelicals atleast for the summer. (havent completely decided on the 2yr thing yet) I am really enjoying our material we are going over. (lets face it when we go over a book about Calvinism thats something I am interested in.) I think thats the only real personal stuff. My ankle is still a little messed up from a month ago... but its not too bad.
Now I am going to post the first of FIVE papers that I am doing on the Five Points of Calvinism for Young Evangelicals. They are written off of the matching chapter of the book "The Doctrines of Grace" by James Boice. So here is the first one on "Radical Depravity" the first point in Calvinism.
Monopoly Money
Radically Depraved. Thus is the state of all human beings from birth. Depraved from a relationship with the True God, depraved by Sin, depraved by the nature that defines them. This is the sad truth that is communicated in the Word of God. All human beings are born unable to choose righteousness. There Will, will always choose Sin and there is nothing they can do about it. This is the depravity that is so radical.
Lets start with the beginning shall we? Original Sin. That is the sin that ensured our depravity even before birth. Adam and Eve in Genesis chapter 3 sinned against the almighty God of all creation and were rewarded with Death, both Spiritual and eventually physical. This was the fall of man. And ever since that fall now all of humanity is born unable to seek the Truth of God.
Man is enslaved to Sin. It is our master. Although it may appear we are free to choose what we want we are not. No more free than a Bird with a broken wing who chooses to fly. We are unable to make the right choice. It is against our nature and thus impossible for us to do on our own. (Rom 3:10-13, There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.)
Now this doesn’t mean we don’t do good. In our own perspective we can do good. We can do good works in the eyes of ourselves and other human beings, but as Boice puts in his book, its like playing with monopoly money. You can own Boardwalk and Parkway and think you have all you need. But in the end its still just fake money and little plastic houses, that’s all our man-centered deeds are, they are fake money. They may make us look good on Earth but in Gods eyes we are still the hopeless sinners that we started out as. As long as we have our sinful nature no matter what we say we are doing everything for our own benefit, one way or another.
So we don’t have the ability to choose true goodness. We are unable to choose Righteousness. So how do we get it? Well that’s an easy question. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.”(John 6:44) God chooses us. He chooses His elect and its nothing we can choose. There is no act of man involved. There is no act of man that could ever be involved, because in our natural state we HATE God and we LOVE Sin. We can see this point clearly in Ephesians chapter 2 were Paul tells us as plain as day that we as sinners are DEAD. “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh filling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.”(Ephesians 2:1-3) Now when Paul says we are dead he doesn’t mean physically. Obviously we are physically alive, but spiritually we are as corps. We are so unable to choose God that we must first be giving life before such an act could occur. That’s right God gives us new life in order for us to truly follow Him.
In the end it’s all the Grace of God. We are evil sinners who can only choose sin. Just like a Lion will only choose meat over veggies. We will only choose Sin over God, unless God Himself chooses to change our entire nature from Sin to one of God. Lets turn in our Monopoly money and realize the importance of playing with the real stuff. Although we cannot do anything for our own salvation it is emphasized over and over again how important true humility and an understanding of our sinful nature is important, in the New Testament. Let us be like the Sinner women in Luke 7:36-39. In this context a sinner comes to Christ and washes His feet crying and worshiping Him. And as a self-righteous Pharisee is appalled at Jesus allowing such a sinner to even touch Him. Jesus tells the Pharisee that He came to save those who need saving. In other words He came to save those who understood they could not save themselves. None of us can save ourselves.
Thats all for me
James
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| sprained AnkleWell I sprained my ankle yesterday playing basketball. Its pretty bad. Its sprained on both sides. I am going to become a manager at work really soon... (sprained ankle is probably not good for that) and Megans wedding is Friday and I am in that. (sprained ankle DEFFINITLY not good for that)
Well thats a short but complete update.
James
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| A long over due postOk so I have not updated in awhile. So I guess its time to do that. So whats been going on.
Well lets see. I went to North Carolina last week with the Family. It was very relaxing and needed. The Beach was very nice. And our House we rented was pretty amazing. 7bedrooms 7 bathrooms and about 80 yards from the ocean.
Alright so yesterday I awoke with a rather large migraine. So it started to go away in the afternoon. And Chris and Randy wanted to play Basketball. I told them I didnt feel well and they said come anyways. So yeah... I shouldnt have gone. I ended up passing out and shaking on the ground. So I got to spend pretty much all of last night in the E.R. Not fun! They decided it must of been a Ashma attack because I was breathing irregularly. I had my Pacemaker checked out by someone who worked for the company that built it. She said it was working fine and I didnt need to worry. So thats good.
Well I have Josh's iMAC now. I am purchasing it from him. Its nice. I like it.
Thats all from me.
James
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| Yesterday was kind of... CRAZY!So whats up readers. Yesterday was kind of Crazy. For all of you who were in Second Service and are wondering what happened... Well that was my Grandfather. He overheated and had a faint spell. He was released from the ER yesterday afternoon and is scheduled for surgery on his Prostrate later this week. So please keep him in your prayers because he is not the healthiest right now.
Ok lets do a Life update. Havent had one of those in awhile. I am in the process of becoming a shift manager at Donatos. They are going to be understanding with my school and church needs. Or atleast they say they are. If not... then I will have to go else where.
Saturday is Movie Night at my house. My family is going out of town so the house is going to be empty. (this doesnt happen... ever.) Sunday Night is College Game Night. And Monday night is Heroes. Then I leave to join the fam on vacation Tuesday via AirPlane. (first time on a plane since before the Pacemaker so this will be an experience)
Red Book Study is going well. We are going to be in chapter 8 this week the chapter on Repentance. Pray for Gods Glory to be shown through the study.
Nick. Oh Nick. Nick is no longer with our household. He will be going to camp and he will be going to Megans wedding. And we are going to be getting him atleast once a month on weekends. Even though he is not part of this house he is still part of this family. He is my brother and nothing is going to change that. I pray that the Lord will soften Nicks heart. Because the only cure to being Dead in Sin is Jesus Christ.
Thats all for me
James
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| Its HardDecision, Decisions. People have to make decisions. Its something that happens everday, with everyone. Some decisions are small and dont really mean much at all. Others... others are enormous. They can and will change an entire life. Or atleast from our point of view.
Really decisions are not going to change anything. Because in the end God is in control. But still we dont know Gods plan. And that is why from our point of view we have to make decisions. And some of those decisions are huge.
Pray for the Branch family through decisions and pray that decisions are made for the ultimate end of God's Glory.
Ephesians
17that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.
Pray that a Wisdom will be behind Decisions, for the Glory of God.
James
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