Jesus Is Both Savior and Lord

Posted on September 2, 2023 by Stephen Nielsen

In the last one-hundred years there has been an effort to divide Christians into two groups: carnal and spiritual (Read 1 Cor. 2:14-3:3). And they have likewise said that many have received Christ as Savior, but not as Lord. They would be the carnal ones. They would be saved but not really committed to Christ.

And surprisingly, some have been okay with this, because they say that if they accept Him as Lord they would be guilty of human works.

But this is crazy, because that would be dividing Christ. For He is both Savior and Lord. And so, when we seek to be saved we must accept all of Him, in all that He is—Savior and Lord. He must be our Savior and our Lord. If He is not, we really haven’t accepted Him (the real Him) at all.

And, as far as being guilty of “human works,” Jesus tells us that true faith requires works (James 2:14-26); that without works faith is dead. And works is not something we do without His help. He is the worker in us. When we are saved He gives us a new life, a life that naturally does the work of God.

And by the way, if you are called a carnal Christian, you may not be a Christian at all. Because carnality is not of God. A carnal person is a person void of spirituality, or void of the Holy Spirit. So here it is: a carnal person is a pagan, not a Christian; and a Spiritual person is a Christian, because he walks by the Spirit and he does the works of God (Romans 8:9-11).

However, there will be periods in the Christian’s life when he takes the wrong road or gets off track. But that will be only temporary. God provides for him a way to get back on track—he will just need to repent of his sins and start again. And this will happen many times because we are still in our fleshly body. And God understands this—and so should we. But we endeavor to abide with Him from day to day failing along the way, but getting back up again and again. And thank God that He has provided for us constant forgiveness and cleansing (1 Jn 1:9).

We depend on His constant forgiveness and cleansing; yet we strive to abide with Him and trust Him more.

The Gospel According To Jesus

Posted on September 1, 2023 by Stephen Nielsen

This gospel demands our commitment, our obedience, our Lordship, and our turning from sin.

The title of this blog is the title of a book written by John MacArthur, Jr. in 1988. This book, I remember created quite a stir, and it is still having an impact. I have had it on my book shelf for a while and just now decided to read it again more seriously. This time I intend to blog through it.

The theme of the book is getting the true gospel clear—from Jesus’ teaching. It is also to refute the wrong, misguided way of salvation. MacArthur strongly refutes all those who bring “another gospel,” those who “distort the gospel of Christ” (Gal. 1:6-8).

In the first chapter MacArthur confronts all evangelists who have used gospel presentations such as …

“Accept Jesus as personal Savior”
“Ask Jesus into your heart”
“Invite Christ into your life”
“Make a decision for Christ”

MacArthur says that none of this terminology is biblical. And I have to admit that I have used all of it myself! It was how I was taught, how I heard it growing up in the 60’s and 70’s.

MacArthur rightly points out that “the gospel Jesus proclaimed was a call to discipleship, a call to follow Him in submissive obedience, not just a plea to make a decision or pray a prayer.” (p. 21)

Looking back at my own point of salvation, I am thankful that my counselor did it right. He pointed me to the Scriptures and also gave me the idea that conversion was the point where I was deciding to follow Jesus and to allow Him to be in the drivers’ seat.” That I was giving Him control of my life, that I was being submissive to Him, that I was beginning a new life of submission to His will.

But MacArthur points out that many evangelists of today, when they present the gospel, give no invitation to making spiritual commitments whatsoever, or to turn from sin. They insist that this would amount to human works and have nothing to do with faith (p. 22).

So apparently, some say that conversion is just a prayer said, just making a decision for Christ, and then letting Jesus bring that Lordship issue along later. Yes, I remember this being said. But it is wrong. Jesus demands Lordship and commitment from the start. He demands a life of obedience from the start. He says, follow Me!

We must believe that genuine assurance of salvation will come from seeing the Holy Spirit’s transforming work in the life—seeing the fruit. Hence, real salvation cannot be isolated from His work in us. There must be not only justification, but also regeneration and sanctification. Yes, there must be evidence of a holy life.

Hence, we must not dismiss holiness in the life. And we should not only point to a person’s salvation experience. We should not encourage a person to base his salvation assurance on the memory of a prayer, or walking an aisle, or speaking in tongues, or some other experience.

Faith that does not result in a righteous life is dead faith. A real and growing faith must have fruit—the fruit of righteousness, the fruit of the Holy Spirit. A true Christian must be able to look back and see that he has put aside his old life and is growing to be more like Christ, that he is growing to hate the world and to love God and His word. A true Christian loves to go to church and hear the word of God preached, and to sing songs of praise to God with others. A true Christian longs for heaven and to see Jesus; and he hates sin, sin in the world and sin in himself.

Swamp Water

Posted on August 30, 2023 by Stephen Nielsen

A Prayer For God’s Justice and Mercy

Posted on August 26, 2023 by Stephen Nielsen

Pray for the deliverance of all the nineteen innocent ones, who were only trying to make our elections fair. Pray that they would be safe in the Fathers arms, and safe from all evil. Pray that they would experience God’s wonderful love and protection through it all.

And pray that justice would be done—punishment for the evil ones and mercy for the innocent.

Duck Resting

Posted on August 16, 2023 by Stephen Nielsen

A rare picture of a duck resting in the grass.

Why do more and more Nations want peace with Israel?

Posted on August 12, 2023 by Stephen Nielsen

In the last few years nations have been more interested in establishing peace with Israel; more want to be a part of the Abraham peace accord. And now even Saudi Arabia is interested in peace.

What is happening? Surely, these nations are not turning their back on their own Muslim religion in favor of the Jewish religion. They still hate Israel. Yet they want peace. They are tired of war. And they surely don’t want war with Israel.

Also, what is happening is the confirming of biblical prophecy. It is all coming together. According to Ezekiel 38, Israel will soon, and more and more, be a nation where the people are secure, living in safety and a land that has recovered from war, and also a very prosperous and fruitful land (vv. 8, 11,12,14).

And so it is interesting that, as prophesied, the nations closest to and all around Israel are now more peaceful to Israel. But the nations further out from Israel will soon war with Israel. These nations in particular are Russia (or Gog), Iran, Turkey, and a few others. The leader of this group will be Russia. And the reason they will want to go to war with Israel is found in Ezekiel 38:12-13. They will be looking to plunder and steal her land and wealth.

I don’t think I will see all this happen in my life time. I think this (the war of Gog and Magog) will happen sometime after the Rapture. But isn’t it exciting to see things all come together—to see Israel become more secure than ever before; to see the popularity of the Abraham accord—even now with Saudi Arabia.

Christian, our time of Rapture is just around the corner. Keep looking up!

Update: It’s update time

Posted on August 7, 2023 by Stephen Nielsen

I’ve been struggling again with my perfection thing. Lately it’s been with my latest book publishing project—with getting the book cover perfect, centered. Now I’m trying decide whether I will just leave it, or send it back to the printer and try again. I will take another day or two to make my decision. But I just hate to be delayed again. This is why I hate publishing—delay, delay, delay. My painting is somewhat the same. I mean, I am a perfectionist on that too. I don’t want to see any mistakes. Oh, I long for my perfect, redeemed body when I shall see Him face to face and be like Him.

It’s Monday—new beginnings. A day when I like to read the comic Garfield. A day to be lazy and need my coffee. Laughing helps. I also have found some help this morning reading an article in the sports section of the newspaper about how my baseball team did. I enjoy reading how our newest pitcher, Keuchel, did—so encouraging to hear his positive words as to how he went about his pitching.

I’ve been reading the book Mayflower, by Nathaniel Philbrick. There is so much in this book that I didn’t know about how or country got started. There was so much tragedy and death that I had no idea about. And most people know hardly anything about what is called King Philip’s war in 1675-1676. This war, the English against the Indians, was so very brutal—even worse than the Civil War, but thank God it was short. This was all before the better things happened—like the writing of the Constitution, etc. But overall, our country still was born of much blood and strife and prayer.

And now it seems that our country is on the edge of great disaster and ruin. Much prayer is needed. We need to turn to 2 Chron. 7:14, to find the promise of God if we will pray. We who are Christians need to pray.

Things to stay away from: