by Walt Henrichsen | Nov 20, 2017 | Articles, Mentors Corner
In Romans 5:1‐11 the Apostle asks and answers the question, “Why does God treat His friends like they are His enemies?” He answers by noting that life is filled with tribulation, which God brings into our lives to purify our hope. All tribulation and opposition in life come from God. There are only two people in the universe that can hurt you, God and you. You hurt yourself when you sin. Otherwise, all pain, hurt, opposition, persecution, etc. originates with God. This, the Bible calls testing. James 1:12‐15 teaches that the difference between a temptation and a test is the believer’s response to it. God tests, and when we fail the test by sinning, it is a temptation. God never tests for the purpose of making people sin. People sin because they refuse to respond correctly to God’s tests. It seems that there are three fundamental areas in which God tests: 1) ‐ By asking you to do what you do not want to do, illustrated by God asking Jonah to preach to Nineveh. 2) ‐ By not letting you do what you want to do, illustrated by circumstances preventing you from completing your plans. 3) ‐ By taking from you something that you consider precious, illustrated by God taking away your health, your spouse, your child, etc. God tests His people, but is adamant in His insistence that we not test Him. Hebrews 3:8‐12 reminds the reader that at Kadesh‐Barnea God tested Israel by asking them to fight the giants. Israel tested God by refusing to fight. God had Israel’s best interest in mind when He asked Israel...
by Walt Henrichsen | Oct 23, 2017 | Articles, Mentors Corner
“Go thou near, and hear all that the LORD our God shall say: and speak thou unto us all that the LORD our God shall speak unto thee; and we will hear it, and do it.” Deuteronomy 5:27 When God gave His Law to Israel on Mt. Sinai, all the people heard God give the Ten Commandments. They then asked Moses to receive the rest of the Law and function as a mediator between them and God. They discovered that it was terrifying to hear God speak. The generation that began the Exodus exercised the option of accepting God’s Word through another rather than hear Him themselves. Today God’s people hear Him speak, by necessity, through God’s representatives who recorded His Word in Scripture. Are you grateful for this, or would you rather be a Moses, Jeremiah, or Apostle Paul? I confess that I am grateful that I don’t hear God directly, for if I did and heard Him say something seemingly different from what the Bible teaches (as did Paul when he said the New Testament saints don’t have to keep the Old Testament Law), I would have to stand without the affirmation of the Body of Christ. How could I know that I was not like so many kooks and heretics before me who said they heard God speak and then led people astray? Knowing my propensity for self-delusion, I would rather take my risk with Scripture than with a direct word from God. For more articles by Walt...
by Walt Henrichsen | Sep 4, 2017 | Articles, Mentors Corner
“…He saved them for His name’s sake, that He might make His mighty power to be known…And he saved them from the hand of him that hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy…They soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel…They forgot God who saved them, who performed great deeds in Egypt…So He raised His hand in oath to make them fall in the wilderness.” Psalm 106:8, 10, 13, 21, 26 You would think that when God delivered Israel from Egyptian bondage that He would have led them to happier circumstances. In reality the opposite seems to have been the case: They ate bland “manna,” experienced thirst, were led on long marches, and were given a set of harsh expectations from God (in the form of the Law) that they did not have to obey when in Egypt. How does this happen? It seems that the pattern is consistently the same: You cry to God in your need. He delivers you, and with His deliverance He establishes certain expectations. You, in turn, develop your own expectations of God. When these two sets of expectations clash, you are tempted to take things into your own hands, exacerbating the problem. Our immutable God does not change. When He delivers His people from the shackles of sin He does not guarantee happier circumstances. Often His people appear to experience a harsher life than before their conversion. This is, of course, not always the case. Many testify with the Psalmist, “The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.”1 But our...
by Walt Henrichsen | Jul 10, 2017 | Articles, Mentors Corner
God is Sovereign and Man is Responsible “…His works were finished from the foundation of the world.” Hebrews 4:3 God reveals in His Word, “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.” Ephesians 1:4-5 Again His Word says, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9 These two seemingly irreconcilable truths are anchors in every believer’s life. No one understands how both can be true, but all of Christ’s followers should be grateful that both are true. The responsibility of man means that you can decide to love God and be His obedient slave. God did not make you His robot; you are free to accept or reject His offer to become His. The sovereignty of God means you can have a relationship with the Creator God of the universe and live with Him throughout eternity. Because of your depravity, without His taking the initiative and electing you, you would surely go to hell. As the hymn writer stated it: “I sought the Lord, and afterwards I knew, He moved my soul to seek Him seeking me. It was not I that sought Thee Savior true; I was sought of Thee.” For more articles by Walt...
by Walt Henrichsen | Apr 10, 2017 | Articles, Mentors Corner
“Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men in whom he is well pleased.” Luke 2:14 You recall that these are the words the angels announced to the shepherds the night Jesus was born. When God sent His Son into the world, for the first time since the fall of Adam in the Garden of Eden, people had reason to be at peace. As the Apostle Paul taught, “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.”Romans 5:6 Now God could take sinners to heaven without violating His justice and making heaven dirty. All people acknowledge that the presence of peace is an important component in having a sense of wellbeing. The absence of peace results in anxiety, uncertainty, and insecurity, which in turn produces stress and ill health. Your peace is threatened by such things as fear of the unknown, unjust acts, pain, and broken relationships. The world offers a variety of solutions that will ostensibly bring you peace, but ultimately you will only find it in God. Three times in the opening of Paul’s pastoral epistles he says, “Grace, mercy, peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.” Peace is the product of God’s grace and mercy; you can find it nowhere else. You are wise if you seek it only in your relationship with Christ. For more articles by Walt...
Recent Comments