"Quote" of the Week

"Jesus as the 'light' brings to this dark world true knowledge, moral purity, and the light that shows the very presence of God."  -Andreas Kostenberger

CAN YOU HAVE THE FATHER WITHOUT THE SON?

So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.  For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.  For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.  The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son,  that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.  John 5:19-23

There are some today who believe that you can have God and leave Christ out.  There are many, like the Pharisees of the first century who believe that one can be a follower of God without believing that Jesus is God and the only way to Him.  Muslims believe this; many Jews believe this along with many in the church. 

Scripture, however, is clear that if one rejects the Son, he or she necessarily rejects the Father because the Father sent the Son.  The Bible is also clear that because Jesus is God and the only way to Him, it is impossible to have one without the other.  The God we look to, believe in and follow is a Trinitarian God, who exists as Father, Son and Holy Spirit and who has revealed himself to us in the person of Jesus.  

"Quote" of the Week

I and the Father are one.  -Jesus, John 10:30

The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.  John 7:18

Of all the leaders and teachers on all levels throughout human history, there has been none whose motives have been purer than Jesus.  Though He rightfully deserved to be exalted and worshiped in every way, He set His glory aside when He took on flesh and came and lived among us.  Though He deserved to be served and glorified for who He is, instead He came to serve and lived out His earthly ministry, not for His own glory but for the glory of Him who sent Him.

Paul tells us in Philippians 2:5-8,

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

"Quote" of the Week

"Every phony baloney messiah, every false teacher, every charlatan, every crook, every false savior the world’s ever known has been in it for one of two reasons, money or ego."  -John MacArthur

Why do you seek the living among the dead?  He is not here, but has risen.  Luke 24:5-6

"Quote" of the Week

If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. -Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians 15:19