No do-overs

Yesterday (Sunday Aug. 24), we had a breakfast taco brunch in our adult learning class. I put a few questions up on the white board for those around the table to answer if they ran out of conversation. The last question asked, "What would you "do-over" in your life if you could?" I thought-provoking question, I thought. Well, the people around the table where I sat at did not like the question at all. They argued that if they were able to change something back in their lives, it would change everything. One person put it succinctly. She said she would not be in a (good) place now if she had not gone through the difficult time in the recent past. She would not have learned what she now uses in her life, her career! She is absolutely right.

What we go through in life affects us in ways we could not have learned otherwise. God uses all that we experience for good, equipping us to help and encourage others.

What does a true Christian believe, part 1

There are many who call themselves Christian. They use all the correct words, and may even act like they are believers, but when you understand what they believe, you are left wondering? Fortunately, God knows who are his and who are not his. There are some basic truths that true believers in Christ universally believe, though I think most of us do not reflect on these truths in such a way so as to communicate the truth plainly to others. One of these truths, or doctrines and they are known theologically, is concerning the person of Christ. Is he man or is he God? Here is a definition comprised by the early church explaining that Jesus Christ is fully man and fully God:

“He is perfect in godhead and perfect in manhood, truly God and truly man, of a reasonable soul and body, consubstantial with us as to His manhood, in all things like unto us, without sin;” Taken from Chalcedon Creed

If a person believes Jesus was a good man, that person is mistaken. If a person believes Jesus is God, and not man, that person is also mistaken. Jesus has (then, now, and forever) two natures in one person. Only in this way could he deliver salvation to us who believe in his sacrifice.