Frustration Exists yet Peace is Found in Jesus

John R. Houk

© November 9, 2018

I am a Christian, Conservative and Counterjihad blogger. The blogs I post more often than not are usually an expression of my frustration and/or annoyance with what I read, hear and view of events occurring in the public domain.

One disclaimer I offer in respect to my Christian faith is that I am definitely not perfect. I get cranky and I have little doubt the crankiness were expressed contrary to the way the Lord Jesus would prefer I respond. And as such I have stepped into sin for anything that God finds displeasing can lead to separating oneself from God. Adam and Eve discovered this terminal effect in the Garden of Eden. Yet God in His Mercy promised a path away from separation and a return to the Presence of God by a Promise within the curse pronounced on the Deceiver - Satan:

And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.” -- Genesis 3: 15 NKJV

This is a Promise of a Deliverer for the curse bought upon humanity by choice to restore Communion with God. In the Christian perspective this is Jesus the Son of God and Mary (in this case “the woman”). Jesus has both nature of God and the nature of humanity (yet born without the sin-separating curse bequeathed by Adam and Eve). Jesus’ sinless human nature is what qualified Him as a Deliverer to be a sacrifice to Redeem humanity’s lost-separated life with His sinless Life. AND in the death of Jesus the debt is paid for AND in the Resurrection to Life of Jesus transmutes humanity’s life restored with God via the Resurrected Life of Jesus the Christ yet by the choice to Believe in the efficacy of the Death, Burial and Resurrection.

The question becomes: How does a human person discover a choice exists that can restore one in Communion with God as Adam and Eve had before their Fall into a Separated state of existence in relation to God the Creator (which was the death alluded to by eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil)?

The answer: THE GOSPEL!

⁸ But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): ⁹ that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. ¹¹ For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”

¹⁵ And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:

 “How beautiful are the feet of those who ^[a]preach the gospel of peace,
Who bring glad tidings of good things!”

¹⁶ But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” ¹⁷ So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. -- Romans 10: 8-11, 15-17 NKJV (Bold text Blog Editor’s)

Call on Jesus and YOU WILL be Saved and find peace.

The inspiration for these thoughts is an American Family Association (AFA) email I received yesterday. Below is the linked version of the email which includes a Vimeo video.

JRH 11/9/18

In this current state of media censorship & defunding, consider

chipping in a few bucks for enjoying this Blog.

Please Support SlantRight 2.0

*********************

The Gospel

Email by Tim Wildmon, President AFA

NOVEMBER 8, 2018 @ 8:16 AM

American Family Association

THE GOSPEL

Though we deal with people, we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood.

We at American Family Association believe that God has communicated absolute truth to mankind, and that all people are subject to the authority of God's Word at all times. Therefore we believe that a culture based on biblical truth best serves the well-being of our nation and our families, in accordance with the vision of our founding documents; and that personal transformation through the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the greatest agent of biblical change in any culture.

The gospel is of first importance. Though we deal with people, we don't wrestle against flesh and blood. We know this is a spiritual battle for the souls of mankind. The manifestation of spiritual wickedness in God's world is real, powerful and deceiving. As good as we may be at times, the bottom line is we are all sinners by nature and by choice. But thanks be to Christ who is the sacrifice for our sins. Because of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus we can be born again with the promise of eternal life with God. To be reborn spiritually we must admit we are sinners and believe in our hearts that God raised Christ from the dead. There is no better feeling than to be grafted into the family of God.

We see God’s love for us through the sacrifice of His son. It’s because of God's love for us that we are compelled to share this good news with you and live a life consistent with a biblical worldview. Maybe you have heard this many times, but it has not drawn you to repentance. We want to invite you to do that today! Don’t wait any longer! Or maybe you have experienced salvation but needed a reminder of God's love for you to restore the joy of your salvation.

Vimeo VIDEO: Bert Harper | How do you become a Christian?

Please forward this email and/or share on social media with at least one person. We believe it is personal transformation through the Gospel of Jesus Christ that's the greatest agent of biblical change in any culture.

"For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve" (1 Corinthians 15:3-5).

__________________________

Frustration Exists yet Peace is Found in Jesus

John R. Houk

© November 9, 2018

_______________________

The Gospel

Copyright ©2018 American Family Association. All rights reserved.

Donate to AFA

Jim Caviezel tells university students to ‘stand out’ and ‘be saints’

Jim Caviezel is the actor who portrayed Jesus in Mel Gibson’s movie, The Passion of the Christ. Caviezel is a Roman Catholic that gave a talk to university students at a panel discussion at the University of Steubenville, Ohio discussing an upcoming film about the Apostle Paul.

Within the panel discussion Caviezel provided some rousing thoughts on Religious Liberty that included a warning that Christians are at war with the “most dangerous enemy”. Caviezel may be Catholic, but the thought should be heeded by all Christians.

LifeSiteNews.com actually has video of Caviezel near the beginning of the article, but I’m placing it after the article.

JRH 3/7/18 (H/T Breaking Christian News)

Please Support SlantRight 2.0

*******************

Jim Caviezel tells university students to ‘stand out’ and ‘be saints’

By Doug Mainwaring

Mar 5, 2018 - 4:37 pm EST

LifeSiteNews.com

Jim Caviezel at University of Steubenville March 4, 2018.

STEUBENVILLE, Ohio, March 5, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Catholic actor Jim Caviezel, who famously played Jesus in The Passion of the Christ, told university students on Sunday that they must set themselves apart from this “corrupt generation” and “be saints.”

“You weren’t made to ‘fit in,’ my brothers and sisters. You were born to stand out. Set yourself apart from this corrupt generation. Be saints,” he said. 

Caviezel made the comments during a March 4 panel discussion at the University of Steubenville, Ohio, where he discusses the soon-to-be-released film, Paul, Apostle of Christ, in which he stars. He was joined by EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo, host of The World Over, Dr. Scott Hahn, Chair of Biblical Theology and the New Evangelization at the university, and Eric Groth, executive producer of Paul, Apostle of Christ.

  

While the panel's dialogue on the film was fascinating, it was Caviezel’s concluding speech that made the crowd in an overflowing room rise to its feet in thunderous applause.

Caviezel told the students that they are at “war” with the “most dangerous enemy” who wants to strip them of their freedom, of having the right “to do what you ought.”

“Every generation of Americans needs to know that freedom exists, not to do what you like, but having the right to do what you ought,” he said.
  

Here is his concluding comment in full:

This message is for you. A great man once said that, ‘evil is powerless if the good are unafraid.’  But you and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We’ll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth – or, we’ll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.

We’re at war with the most dangerous enemy that has ever faced mankind in his climb from the swamp to the stars. And it’s been said if we lose this war, and in so doing, lose this great way of freedom of ours, history will report with the greatest astonishment, that those who had the most to lose did the least to prevent it from happening.

  

Well, I think it’s high time now that we ask ourselves if we still even know the freedoms that were intended for us by our founding fathers? Every generation of Americans needs to know that freedom exists, not to do what you like, but having the right to do what you ought.

You weren’t made to “fit in,” my brothers and sisters.  You were born to stand out.  Set yourself apart from this corrupt generation. Be saints.  God bless you.

The actor’s words were met with thunderous applause and a standing ovation.

Elsewhere during the panel discussion, the actor made bold statements of faith, for instance, asserting, “I believe the devil is more afraid of me than I am of him.”

When asked by a webcast viewer who had experienced conversion after watching The Passion of the Christ if Caviezel thinks his movie on Saint Paul will be similarly powerful, the actor explained this movie is different, but the message will be just as powerful.

  

"Forgiveness is everything. It’s forgiveness at all costs. And it does not mean weakness, it does not mean passivity.  It means meeting evil face to face with love. And that’s the power behind this movie.”

“Love and Forgiveness” is the theme running through the movie, he said.

In one of the film clips shown to the audience, Caviezel as St. Luke, says to a young Christian who proposes murdering Romans to avenge the deaths of members of Rome’s nascent Christian community, “None of us here have walked with Christ, but Paul has followed him longer than us all. I have watched him being beaten. I have watched him be stoned and flogged, and never once did he raise his finger against his oppressors. Let peace be with you. For we live in the world but we do not wage war as the world does.  Peace begins with you, Cassius.  Love is the only way.”

  

“Courage . . . is ardent love, noted the actor.  “Love creates change by igniting a passion in each one of us, one person at a time.  Paul is the spark that ignites a real revolution.  And that revolution is love.”

   

The film’s executive producer, Eric Groth, explained why this movie focuses only on the end of Paul’s life.

“To tell Paul’s entire life story would require a miniseries.  You look at the amazing conversion experience he went through.  From being Saul, the greatest persecutor of the early Church … to the greatest promulgator of the faith, and to look at that from the end of his life where he’s gone through that conversion, and all those experiences where he’s gained wisdom and yet we can still see a man who is very human, who knows he’s saved by the grace of God, and yet he still has those struggles with his humanity.  And I think that’s an important thing to be able to reflect on, to be able to say, ‘Hey, he’s a lot like I am.’”

Dr. Scott Hahn described the historical/Biblical context of this moment in Paul’s story.

  

“The Roman Empire, under Nero, fell into the deepest corruption.  The darkness was most likely demonic,” said the theologian.  “And so here is the Christian community—the Body of Christ—experiencing what Jesus’ body had just undergone a couple of decades before, back in the early 30’s.  And so you recognize this is the moment when it looks as though this empire, this culture of death, will snuff out the life of Christ’s Body."

  

“What I think this movie shows us,” continued Hahn, “reminds me of the old proverb:  “They buried us, but they didn’t know we were seeds.”

“We have got to buckle up and really pray and enter into the wisdom of Paul’s writings because we might not end up in prison, but our children or our grandchildren will, and they have a lot to learn from the lessons of this man,” said Dr. Hahn.

“You know, it’s said that Paul was such a zealous apostle because Saul was such a zealous persecutor,’ continued Hahn.  “God redirected all of that energy, and even though he’s aging in this movie, it is really refined and deepened.  And that’s the kind of wisdom we need now.”

   

“Theological speculation has a place, but that really practical wisdom in the face of death and suffering, this is where we learn life’s deepest lessons,” he added.

Paul, Apostle of Christ will be released in theaters on Wednesday, March 28, one day prior to Holy Thursday when Catholic celebrate the institution of the Eucharist.

Caviezel is a devout Catholic who has called abortion “the greatest moral defect of the western world.” He is also working on a sequel to "The Passion of the Christ" with director Mel Gibson that focuses on the Resurrection.

“This is the real deal.  It’s going to blow your mind.  It’s absolutely going to make you so proud.  You heard it here:  It’s going to be the biggest film in history,” said Caviezel. 

VIDEO: Jim Caviezel: 'Be Saints'

Posted by LifeSiteNews

Published on Mar 5, 2018

Catholic actor Jim Caviezel, who famously played Jesus in The Passion of the Christ, told university students on Sunday March 4, 2018, that they must set themselves apart from this “corrupt generation” and “be saints.”

“You weren’t made to ‘fit in,’ my brothers and sisters. You were born to stand out. Set yourself apart from this corrupt generation. Be saints,” he said.

Caviezel made the comments during a  panel discussion at the University of Steubenville where he discusses the soon-to-be-released film, Paul, Apostle of Christ, in which he stars. He was joined by EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo, host of The World Over, Dr. Scott Hahn, Chair of Biblical Theology and the New Evangelization at the university, and Eric Groth, executive producer of Paul, Apostle of Christ.  

Read full report on LifeSiteNews.

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