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Rick Bates
Charlestown, R.I. US

Posts: 198
Joined: January 2020

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Jan 14th, 2020

Recent Posts

News from Canada
by Anthony C. - Fri Aug 12, 2022 8:59 PM

The Lord God omnipotent reigneth
by chestnutmare - Thu Aug 11, 2022 6:58 AM

Foundation of Reckoning –Miles Stanford
by NetChaplain - Wed Aug 10, 2022 11:11 AM

Armstrong First to step on the Moon
by Tom - Sun Aug 07, 2022 7:48 PM

Christian Nationalism
by Anthony C. - Sun Aug 07, 2022 1:59 PM

Musings
by Anthony C. - Fri Aug 05, 2022 9:06 PM

News from Canada Tom Fri Aug 12, 2022 12:56 AM A few here in the past, were interested in what is happened in Canada. Particularly what is happening with the Trudeau government overreach and how he makes a mockery of our constitution.

If you listen to the left wing news media, they rarely cover many stories. Or they slant the stories, in a way that plays right into Trudeau's hands. They mainly do this, because they are subsidized by the government. Unfortunately, all too often people actually believe left wing media reports and when other question it, they are mocked.

I like to get my news from sources that are not subsidized by the government. Most of them, are treated badly not only by the Trudeau government; but police as well.
For example Rebels News, who are not subsidized and although are fully licensed, are not recognized by Trudeau as a legitimate news agency. Rebel News has had to on a number of occasions go to court, where they won every time despite long odds.

Many of their reporters have been assaulted by police on camera; which is supposed to go to court; but as far as I know their cases are yet to be heard.

Today, for those who are interested, I was sent something by Rebel News that might be of some interest.

https://www.rebelnews.com/ottawa_po...utm_medium=email&utm_source=therebel

Tom

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The Lord God omnipotent reigneth chestnutmare Thu Aug 11, 2022 10:58 AM The Lord God omnipotent reigneth. His government is exercised over inanimate matter, over the brute beasts, over the children of men, over angels good and evil, and over Satan Himself. NO revolving of a world, no shining of a star, no storm, no movement of a creature, no actions of men, no errands of angels, no deeds of the Devil—nothing in all the vast universe can come to pass otherwise than God has eternally purposed. Here is a foundation for faith. Here is a resting place for the intellect. Here is an anchor for the soul, both sure and steadfast. It is not blind fate, unbridled evil, man or Devil, but the Lord Almighty who is ruling the world, ruling it according to His own good pleasure and for His own eternal glory.

~Arthur Pink, "The Sovereignty of God

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Foundation of Reckoning –Miles Stanford NetChaplain Wed Aug 10, 2022 3:11 PM Reckoning on our life-union with the Lord Jesus Christ establishes us in the full assurance of salvation. On this foundation we are able to reckon on our eternal, unconditional security in Him. Until we are grounded in the truths of substitution and union, we are not prepared for the more demanding reckoning of our identification with Him in His death and resurrection—and on to ascension.

The believer who does not realize that he is eternally secure in Christ—a birth truth for babes—is certainly not going to be able to trust Him for emancipation from sin and maturity of growth. Those who begin weakly, and are not instructed concerning their position in the Lord Jesus, are apt to remain weaklings. They move mainly up, down, and backward, with rarely any forward spiritual progress and abiding growth. For the most part, they subsist on experiences and so-called blessings; they seem to go from one crisis to another, never really settling down to reckon on Christ risen as the source of their life here and now.

It has been felt necessary to share the following selected material on Eternal Security (author unknown). These truths may be of help to any believers who are attempting to enter on the reckoning of identification before they are settled in that of justification.

“If you recognize in the Word of Truth: that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Savior because He is God the Son who became the Son of Man, and as such bore in His body the sins of the world; and if you rest in Him in self-surrender for fellowship, relying with confidence on Him alone for deliverance from the guilt and penalty of your sins and from the power of indwelling sin, then there are twelve proofs that you can never be lost:

1. Because in the eternal, sure purpose of God, you are a ‘vessel of mercy’ and will finally be ‘conformed to the image of His Son.’ ‘That He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared into glory.’ ‘For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son’ (Rom. 9:23; 8:29).
2. Because God’s infinite power is no longer hindered by your sins, but can wholly keep you safe, for the Blood of Christ still removes you guilt. ‘He is the propitiation for our sins’ (1 John 2:2).
3. Because God’s love for you, supremely expressed at Calvary, can now be manifested ‘much more’ and so accomplish His every desire for you. ‘God commended His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being justified by His Blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life’ (Rom. 5:8-10).
4. Because of His delight in the Son, God can never reject the prayer of the Son asking Him to keep ‘them which Thou hast given Me.’ ‘I pray for them . . . for they are Thine.’ ‘Holy Father, keep through Thine own Name those whom Thou hast given Me’ (John 17:9, 11).
5. Because the death of the Son, having a value equivalent to the punishment demanded for all your sins, has paid also for sins you now commit. ‘There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.’ ‘Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us’ (Rom. 8:1, 34).
6. Because by the resurrection of Christ God has broken your connection with Adam and joined you to Christ for acceptance and life. ‘You, being dead in you sins . . . has He quickened [enlivened] together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses.’ ‘Yield yourselves as those that are alive from the dead’ (Col. 2:13; Rom. 6:13).
7. Because, although your sin could hurl you into hell, Christ as your Advocate defends you. ‘Christ is . . . entered . . . into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.’ ‘Now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself’ (Heb. 9:24, 26).
8. Because Christ ‘ever lives to make intercession’ for you, Satan has no power to unsave you. ‘He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intersession for them’ (Heb. 7:25).
9. Because the Holy Spirit has taken over your body as His personal, permanent home. ‘I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever’ (John 14:16).
10. Because the Holy Spirit has planted in you the very life of God, making God your real Father. ‘Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God’ (John 1:13).
11. Because the Holy Spirit has now united you with Christ and you are a very part of Himself. ‘For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one Body’ (1 Cor. 12:13).
12. Because the Holy Spirit in you is the seal that your salvation is a finished transaction. ‘Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption’ (Eph. 4:30).

“Though your present sins cannot unsave you, remember there are other penalties you can bring upon yourself, the least of which is chastisement at your Father’s hand.” “Do not faint when He corrects you; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines” (Heb. 12:6).

Further, “to accept and teach that a Blood-bought child of God can fall from grace is to conflict with the very nature, character, and sovereign purpose of God, as well as His justice and His love.

“Such teaching conflicts with the nature of God in that the believer is declared to be ‘partaker of the divine nature’ (2 Peter 1:4); ‘born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God’ (John 1: 13); and indwelt by the Holy Spirit God (John 14:16, 17).

“It conflicts with the character of God—His faithfulness and truthfulness, in that the life He imparts He gives His pledge to maintain. His promise is, ‘I give into them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man (self is also “any man”) pluck them out of My hand’ (John 10:28): ‘and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life’ (John 5:24).

“Also, the doctrine of ‘falling from grace’ conflicts with the sovereign purpose of God as set forth in Romans 8:28-30, where the believer is seen in the purpose of God in the eternity of the past, in His foreknowledge and predestination, and in the eternity of the future sharing the very glory of Christ (John 17:22-26).

“Then, it conflicts with the justice of God, in that God declares concerning the believer, ‘Your life is hid with Christ in God’ (Col. 3:3), and that there is now ‘no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,’ and no separation ‘from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Rom. 8:1, 37-39). Thus, we can thank our Heavenly Father for His justice because it is this which preserves the child of God form a second charge:
‘Payment, God cannot twice demand,
First at my bleeding Surety’s hand,
And then again at mine.’

Lastly, it conflicts with the love of God, in that God declares His love ‘an everlasting love’ from which nothing ‘shall be able to separate,’ for He is ‘able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy’ (Jer. 31:3; Rom. 8:39; Jude 24).”

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Thoughts on Backsliding ~ J.C. Ryle Rick Bates Sat Aug 06, 2022 12:23 AM Men fall in private long before they fall in public.

Backsliding, generally first begins with neglect of private prayer.

If we know anything of true, saving religion, let us ever beware of the beginnings of backsliding.

It is a miserable thing to be a backslider. Of all unhappy things that can befall a man, I suppose it is the worst. A stranded ship, an eagle with a broken wing, a garden covered with weeds, a harp without strings, a church in ruins — all these are sad sights, but a backslider is a sadder sight still.

I am trying, as God shall help me, to set the story of your backsliding in relationship to the spiritual and infinite. Shall I put that story in slightly different language? You corrupted yourself in that hour when you ceased your devotion to the God of your mother, and ceased to hand over your life wholly and absolutely to Christ. Your backsliding proceeded when you put into the place of Christ something else. It may have been your business. It may have been your very passion for knowledge. It may have been a far more mean and paltry thing than either of these, your pursuit of pleasure. You put something where Christ used to be. You who once took of your talents, and time, and strength, and poured them out in sacrificial service in the cause of Christ have been worshiping with all the soul, with all the heart, and with all the mind, wealth, fame, pleasure, I know not what. You know. There is your graven image. The result has been that this week, in the prosecution of your business, in the pursuit of your pleasure, you have done things which, if you thought I could proclaim them in your name from this pulpit, would cause you to blush and hurry from the building. You did not begin here. You began with the lowered ideal. You continued with the false deity, and the hour has come in which your hands in the sanctuary are unclean with deeds of evil, and you know your very heart has become polluted. That is the process of backsliding.

The Lord Jesus will not cast away His believing people because of shortcomings and infirmities. The husband does not put away his wife because he finds failings in her. The mother does not forsake her infant because it is weak, feeble and ignorant. And the Lord Christ does not cast off poor sinners who have committed their souls into His hands, because He sees in them blemishes and imperfections. Oh, no, it is His glory to pass over the faults of His people, and heal their backslidings, to make much of their weak graces, and to pardon their many faults.

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Assurance of Justification NetChaplain Fri Aug 05, 2022 2:59 PM Everything we have is founded on “position and “condition.” Our position in the Lord Jesus is who we are; our condition on the earth is what we are. Assurance of justification is established on our position in the Lord Jesus Christ, and is an imputation not an impartation. Our condition is that we are sinners, for the “old man” yet abides within (Rom 7:17, 20). Thus, we are to be careful not to base our justification on condition, but position—in the Lord Jesus; and this is why we are so “weighted” with “sin” (Heb 12:1), we are looking at ourselves and not Him. The equation is, position over condition, which equals innocent in the Lord’s justification. Everything that we are in Him must be imputed and therefore cannot be imparted, for God will not, yea, cannot mix the good with the bad.

Yes, we still possess the old man, the sin nature, but in spite of all this we are guiltless and will ever be so in the Lord Jesus; and do not think one can go in and out of this truth because it must always be justification and never anything else! Maintaining justification is established when we consider what God has done and said, and is never based on feelings, but His Word! The discouragements we encounter are the very food of our strength in His school of learning! Just know that all is for testing and learning, and nothing is to be refused.

When we stand on the promises of His Word it makes a difference in our lives, but eventually we begin to look at ourselves and take our eyes and minds off Christ—and it’s back to self-deliverance. Then gradually we don’t look or feel much saved, and then everything seems to be going out of sync, and our assurance is again on the block of wondering.

We eventually start to see what is going on and we realize it is because we are centered on our condition, which reminds us of what we are and not who (or Whose we are). We may begin to wonder why the failures and even maybe doubt our salvation, and that, while the Lord is with us.

In the Lord’s time our thoughts are brought back to our position, which never really falters, because God has taken all into account and has found us lacking. But be of good cheer, for his “acceptance” (Eph 1:6) takes everything into consideration, and He knows there is nothing that you would want to do to displease Him—because He “works” this in you (Phl 2:13).

“And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever” (Isa 32:17).

Don’t get hung up on your condition!

Note: This article is inspired by the book “The Green Letters” by Miles J Stanford, published by Zondervan.

MJS devotional excerpt for Aug 5

“Let my circumstances be what they may, if I can see them ordered for me unfailingly by One in whom infinite wisdom, power, and goodness combine, and whose love toward me I am assured of, my restlessness is gone, my will subjected to that other Will in which I can but acquiesce and delight.” --Frederick William Grant (1834-1902)
http://www.abideabove.com/hungry-heart/

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