The New Day Experience Part Iii: The Young and Ever Growing Christian’S Journey
()
About this ebook
Related to The New Day Experience Part Iii
Related ebooks
Called to Be!: God Is Still Calling. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTRANSFORMATION: Living a Christian Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Kneeling Mind Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMy ID in Christ: building a resilient ministry, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPraying Earnestly with Faith Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGet Real: No Time for Games Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFocus on Reason: A Deist Speaks His Mind Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow Should I Live as a Christian?: What Is God’S Will for Us in the Many Aspects of Our Daily Lives? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBloom Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe 40 Day Experiment Achieving Intimacy with God Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRelationship Not Religion: Put God First Both in Private and in Public Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat God Said Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Church of the Living God Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Importance of Church Attendance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe New Day Experience Part Ii: Using the Shield of Protection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBring Me Back to the BIBLE Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConviction Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings31 Days to Living as a New Believer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsColossians: Verse by Verse Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Tithing Dilemma and the Triumphs of Love Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn the Midst of Deep Water, Your Light Will Make It Through Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLove, Grace, & Faith: God's Balance for Believers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLet's Take a Walk: A Fifty-Two-Week Journey into Intimacy with God, Meditation on His Word, and Fellowship with His Spirit Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Advance in the Kingdom of Heaven While Battling with the Sin Nature Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNice People Rob God Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMore Than Words: Moving Beyond Lip-Service Christianity to True Faith Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChristian Letters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMaturing in the Spirit of Truth: Truths That Some Ministers Will Not Preach or Teach Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFrom the Cross to Pentecost: God's Passionate Love for Us Revealed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Self-Improvement For You
Boundaries Updated and Expanded Edition: When to Say Yes, How to Say No To Take Control of Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Self-Care for People with ADHD: 100+ Ways to Recharge, De-Stress, and Prioritize You! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Big Book of 30-Day Challenges: 60 Habit-Forming Programs to Live an Infinitely Better Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Don't Believe Everything You Think: Why Your Thinking Is The Beginning & End Of Suffering Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chop Wood Carry Water: How to Fall In Love With the Process of Becoming Great Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Stolen Life: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Witty Banter: Be Clever, Quick, & Magnetic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wild at Heart Expanded Edition: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Less Fret, More Faith: An 11-Week Action Plan to Overcome Anxiety Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How May I Serve Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unfu*k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and into Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Four Loves Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Think and Grow Rich (Illustrated Edition): With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Running on Empty: Overcome Your Childhood Emotional Neglect Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Win Friends and Influence People: Updated For the Next Generation of Leaders Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Grief Observed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Child Called It: One Child's Courage to Survive Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Language of Letting Go: Daily Meditations on Codependency Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are so You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Mastery of Self: A Toltec Guide to Personal Freedom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5You're Not Dying You're Just Waking Up Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table: It's Time to Win the Battle of Your Mind... Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Reviews for The New Day Experience Part Iii
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The New Day Experience Part Iii - Daniel J. Coleman
© 2011 by Daniel J. Coleman. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.
First published by AuthorHouse 08/22/2011
ISBN: 978-1-4634-4747-2 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4634-4746-5 (ebk)
Printed in the United States of America
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
Contents
Will You Be Able To Say It
I Finished?
The Everlasting Thought
Author’s Note
Chapter One
PRAYER
Chapter Two
WORSHIP
Chapter Three
Revisiting Your Faith in God
Chapter Four
MIRACLES
Chapter Five
The Miracles of the Bible
Chapter Six
WORKS OF GOD
Chapter Seven
FORGIVENESS
Chapter Eight
Revisiting the meaning of the word Obedience
Chapter Nine
Knowing the WILL OF GOD and SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD
Chapter Ten
COVENANT
Chapter Eleven
NEW COVENANT
Chapter Twelve
ALL KINDS OF COVENANT
Chapter Thirteen
How Are we to View MARRIAGE, what does God want?
Chapter Fourteen
Gaining a Better Understanding And Real Meaning of LOVE and LOVINGKINDNESS
Chapter Fifteen
Who is Jesus Christ?
Chapter Sixteen
INSPIRATION, ILLUMINATION and REVELATION
Chapter Seventeen
Do People interpret what they see in us to be Inspiring?
Chapter Eighteen
What Does Freedom Mean According to the Bible?
Chapter Nineteen
What does the Bible say about Liberation and Liberty?
Chapter Twenty
What Does the Church Mean and do I need it?
Chapter Twenty-One
The meaning of the Gospel
Chapter Twenty-Two
Can a Man be saved by his Works?
Chapter Twenty-Three
Where do we stand in the Judgment?
Chapter Twenty-Four
Do You Know Your Enemies?
Chapter Twenty-Five
COMING OF CHRIST
Chapter Twenty-Six
Life in the PARABLES OF JESUS
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Gaining a Better Understanding of Idolatry
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The Eight Stages of the Fragmented Believer
Chapter Twenty-Nine
LEAVING YOUR FIRST LOVE and LUKEWARM BELIEVERS
Chapter Thirty
Gaining a Better Understanding about the Law
Something to Remember
Will You Be Able To Say It
I Finished?
I have learned that I have not always been able to establish and gather the true meaning of friendship. It is so rare these days to have someone in your corner who talks positive things behind your back. Someone who is interested in building you up instead of tearing you down is getting harder to find these days.
Strongholds need to be torn down so they won’t strangle our spiritual life and life out of us. Have you ever seen a building or an old dilapidated house that has been torn down; and how it looks when nothing replaces it? Notice that there is nothing but empty holes in the neighborhood and the value of that neighborhood goes down. Sometimes it becomes drug infested or it looks like a ghost town.
I have discovered on this long hard journey what happens when people tear each other down. Some start drinking, drugging and just stop caring about themselves and each other. Others move on to new relationships and friendships just to start the same process all over again; not caring who they hurt or tear down and use up.
Are you going to be a repeated offender or are you going to turn it around by rebuilding the old buildings and houses that you have torn down in the past and be the construction worker of new life for future relationships? If so you will need Jesus Christ. Jesus was a carpenter’s son and today there are enough people that need repair with skilled carpenters and construction workers to help them rebuild there lives.
One of the final words of our Lord and Savior to the Father while He was on the cross was It is Finished
. Some of us have a lot of unfinished business that we need to take care of because as sure as you were born you are going to die. The best way to stand when that time comes is to know that you have done all that you can to stand and in that standing be able to say It Is Finished
.
Ambassador Dan
The Everlasting Thought
Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper. [PSA 1:1-3]
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. [ROM 12:1-9]
But as it is written: Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.
[1CO 2:9]
Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.
For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Therefore I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know them, and are established in the present truth. [2PE 1:1-12]
Author’s Note
We have many great books that are in print today because we are living in the information age. You and I can go online and find just about find any or everything we want to know about. The Lord has allowed me to remember and look back over my life what happened to me when I was a babe in Christ.
I was young and very anxious and I did not have the patience to sit still and learn enough of the basic Bible doctrines and information about the good news. Before I could get in the door good it was bout the dos and don’ts.
Restrictions and more restrictions were a problem with me. Although I would enjoy the singing and the shouting and dancing and sometimes the preaching it did not give me the stability that I needed to stay in church. I needed to study and go over what I had learned that particular Sunday with much needed prayer and fellowship with mature saints. It is a good thing to study the Bible for yourself.
It was the later part of my life when I had learned that I was into a bunch of emotionalism. When the pressures of my life hit I was not able to stand and I continued to backslide which is reversionism [recession from any stage of spiritual growth], then became the problem of the hardiness of the heart which is scare tissue of the soul.
Here is an example of how scare tissue works; you get angry with someone in the church and you had the wrong expectations of what the church was suppose to do for you; what the you are supposed to be doing in the church and you stop going to church and stop praying, reading your Bible and after that there is the excuse of why you don’t need to go because you are living better than the one’s who go to church every Sunday and through the week. Plus you sometimes get an attitude when someone invites you to their church.
And finally the reason for writing this book: As babes in Christ we have plenty of questions about the Bible and how we are supposed to live and what changes we need to make in our lives. First of all we need Christ to change our lives and we don’t have the power to change our sinful nature. Come to Christ as you are and let the word of God change your mental attitude. We must learn what the bible teaches us. If you will read this book prayerfully you will receive encouragement that is needed in the great doctrines of God’s Word. What about Salvation?
God has been so good to me. Since I have been serving the Lord He has given me a new life filled with blessings. I had to start my life all over again and I didn’t know where or how my life was going to end up but I kept my faith in Jesus Christ and with perseverance, consistency in the faith God has supplied all of my needs above all I could ever ask or think and He is still doing that same very thing today.
I didn’t deserve anything from God but He decided to give me more grace. I have been drug free for twenty-eight years and God brought me out of a horrible pit and I have been living the New Day Experience
ever since. I didn’t even have a place to stay and God made a way for me to be able to live in a beautiful home like a king. I had food and clothing and a couple that gave me more love and encouragement.
If you believe that the Bible is right and the word of God then this will be a wonderful book for you as a believer in Christ. But if you don’t believe that the Bible is the Word of God then you need to ask God’s forgiveness and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for your salvation.
I am not stating that I am perfect but I am being perfected by God. I decided to write this book for the ever growing Christian and those that are coming to Christ.
In the beginning of my salvation I had many questions about the Lord and I don’t claim to have all the answers because the word of God is inexhaustible and we will be learning of Christ until He decides to take us home. God has changed my life through Jesus Christ.
I have received enough information to pass along to my new converts in the Lord. Do you have to be perfect to serve the Lord? Jesus told the Pharisees that the ones who where well did not need a physician but the one’s who were sick and at that time He was talking to the one’s who thought they were well but they were sick and needed a physician and did not know it because they were trying to keep the Law of Moses and did not understand the Grace of God. Come as you are.
God is a miracle working God and He is in the business of putting humpty dumpty’s back together again.
The Holy Spirit will help you to understand the do’s and don’ts of your walk with Him and give you some instructors in the faith that will not criticize and condemn you but help you grow in your walk with Christ in the Love Of Christ. I am so very thankful for God and for what He did through His Son Jesus Christ for my salvation.
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, hat the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. {ROM 8:1-4].
Today we have many preachers that have gotten away from teaching the scriptures. I remember a time when preachers were so intense into the scriptures that it inspired you to go home and look at them over and over again.
Now we have a bunch of emotional grab it and blab it and name it and claim it preachers that build us up emotionally. Your emotions will not get you through the week or life but the word of God will last forever. I am a very emotional person and I cry and laugh sometimes at the scriptures and myself but I often find myself being reproved and corrected and most of all instructed by the word of God.
Life is serious and we are not to take it likely when God decides to wake us up in the morning. God has given me joy in the mist of my battles with diabetes and my wife losing her job after twenty-three years of service. I have been at the Red Sea many times in my life and God has always opened up the Red Sea of my life.
We can depend on God’s word and it is up to us to get our daily bread. We are to be in love with the scriptures and rely on them to take us through our many trials and temptations. The reason for this book is to hopefully with prayer help the ever growing Christian to fall in love with the study of scriptures and learn of God’ unfailing love.
I went to a seminar some years ago and the professor was teaching us to pray to God in the blood of Jesus and that would open up the thrown room of God.
God honors His Son and when God sees us He sees us through the Blood of His Son Jesus Christ. We should always remember that we are blood covenant children of God. That makes our salvation serious.
The doctrines that you will be learning in this book will give you a better understanding and you will have a better appreciation for God’s word and plan for your life. If you don’t like reading and studying I would not recommend this book for you.
The more doctrine that you receive the better equipped you will be for the warfare you will be faced with. You don’t have to learn everything overnight and remember line upon line and precept must be upon precept and here a little and there a little.
Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. [PHI 3:13, 14]
Isn’t amazing how we have the tendency to hang on to things that we cannot benefit from? The Scripture above tells us to press forward. Pressing indicates that it is and sometimes it will be difficult to move forward. Of Course there is a process of moving forward.
It implies forgetting and sometimes means moving people out of your inner circle who don’t believe in you and meeting new people who are willing to trust God in you and believe in you. You will also see that the scripture states that a goal should be set and there will be a prize in the upward call of God in Christ Jesus Christ.
The upward call means we are not to be looking down but up and moving toward our future. The past has spots and wrinkles but the future is unspotted plus it hasn’t been polluted. I might have to let some people go who I think that are very important to me and they might be the main one’s holding me back and because of the trust that I have developed in them I am afraid to let them go.
I am not talking about a wife or a husband but people who are back stabbers and like to put your business in the street. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. It is about where God wants us to be.
We are living in a world where everything is now. If we want to buy something there is instant credit. You can be bankrupt and still get credit. Some places have literally taken away the lay-away plan. There is very little planning for some people and we have more debt than we have money. I have had to learn that everything I see I don’t need and I don’t have to keep up with the Jones’s. This is where doctrinal truths has played a vital part in my life. If I don’t have the money to spend I don’t spend and if I get the desire to have something that I want I try to think and remember; The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. [PSA 23:1]
Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, And your justice as the noonday. Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass. [PSA 37:3-7.
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. [PHI 4:8]
Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. [PHI 4:11-13]
We are hearing a lot about the economy theses days and people are talking about the President but if we will learn the art of using the Word of God it will cut down on all that stress. We must remember that: But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. [1TI 6:6-11]
If you are like me I like to share the good news of progress in my life but I have learned that you can’t share your ideas and dreams with everyone.
Some people get jealous because they haven’t thought of the things you have thought about and they don’t see what you see and hope for. It is true that we have some dream busters in our lives. We must have the Spirit of discernment. Everybody doesn’t and never will love you like Jesus. The devil isn’t going to like the idea of you walking in a new direction and not serving him. There are going to be some tremendous challenges but you will overcome them.
Some of my old friends wanted me to continue going in the same old direction but I was determined and I had a made up mind that I was not where God wanted me to be and it was a bad choice. You will begin to see the people fade from your life but don’t panic because God has a whole new family for you. Before getting ready for prayer let us look at the condition of our heart and Jer.17:9;
The heart was considered by the Egyptians to be the central organ of physical life. Since the Hebrews likewise held this opinion instead of taking the liver as the principal internal organ as all Mesopotamian people did, here is undesigned evidence of the long stay of the Israelites in Egypt. Thus the word heart
in both Heb. and Gr. came to mean that which is central. It is the seat of physical, mental, and spiritual life. It is seldom used of things, but when so used, it is in the sense of midst (Exo 15:8). Only rarely is heart
used of the physical organ (2Sa 18:4; 2Ki 9:24).
As a center of physical life, the heart
in the sense of the whole body may be strengthened by eating and drinking (Gen 18:5; Jdg 19:5; Acts 14:17; Jam 5:5). As the center of mental and spiritual life, the term is used in a variety of ways:
1. The inner man. In this sense, the heart has secrets and is unsearchable (Psa 44:21; Pro 25:3).
2. The mental center. The heart knows (Deu 29:4; Pro 22:17), understands (Isa 44:18; Acts 16:14), reflects (Luke 2:19), considers (Exo 7:23), and remembers (Isa 42:25).
3. The emotional center. It is the seat of joy (Isa 65:14), courage (Psa 27:14; 2Sa 17:10), pain (Pro 25:20), anxiety (Pro 12:25), despair (Ecc 2:20), sorrow (Neh 2:2), and fear (Deu 28:28). Fear is also expressed by being faint or wounded (Lam 5:17; Psa 109:22).
4. The moral center. God tries the heart (Psa 17:3; Jer 12:3), sees the heart (Jer 20:12), refines the heart (Psa 26:2), and searches the heart (Jer 17:10). Man may have an evil heart (Pro 26:23), be godless in heart (Job 36:13), and preverse or deceitful in heart (Pro 11:20; 17:20). However, the work of God gives him a clean heart (Psa 51:10) and a new heart (Eze 13:21; 36:26). The heart is also the seat of the conscience (Heb 10:22; cf. 1Jo 3:19-21)and that which receives the love and peace of God (Rom 5:5; Col 3:15). It is the dwelling place of the Spirit and the Lord (2Co 1:22; Eph 3:17). [Bibliography:Johannes Behm, Kardia, etc.,
TDNT, III 605-614. E. C. J.]
HARDNESS OF HEART
An expression found several times in the NT describing a certain moral attitude and firm set of mind. This stubborness, impenitence (Rom 2:5) and impenetrability of man’s heart as a condition is caused by wickedness and sin (Exo 9:34; Heb 3:13).
Jesus Christ was greived at the hardness (porosis) or callousness of the Pharisees’ hearts as He was about to perform a miracle on the sabbath (Mar 3:5). This callousness or ossification often resulted in inability to understand (Eph 4:18, blindness,
KJV: hardness,
RSV; cf. the verb poroo, Mar 6:52; 8:17; 2Co 3:14). Another Gr. term (sklerokardia) signifies the dryness or stiff, unbending quality of mind in the realms of both faith (Mar 16:14; cf. the verb skleruno used in Acts 19:9; Heb 3:8,13,15; 4:7) and practice (Mat 19:8; Mar 10:5).
In the Bible the act of hardening is attributed both to man (Exo 8:15; Heb 3:8) and to God (Exo 9:12; Deu 2:30; Jos 11:20; Isa 63:17; Rom 9:18).
Many of the passages referring to hardening the heart relate to the refusal of Pharaoh to let God’s people go out from Egypt The Heb. verbs qasha, make sharp, hard, obstinate
(Exo 7:3; Pro 28:14; 29:1); kabed, be heavy, insensible
(Exo 7:14; 8:15,32; 9:7,34; 10:1; 1Sa 6:6); and hazaq, make strong headstrong, stiff, unyielding
(Exo 4:21; 7:13,22; 8:19; 9:12,35; etc.) are used interchangeably, both of Pharaoh’s own action and of the Lord’s causing the hardness.
While the Lord told Moses He would harden Pharaoh’s heart (Exo 4:21: 7:3), seven times it is said the king of Egypt hardened his heart himself (7:13, properly was hardened,
RSV; 7:14,22; 8:15,19,32; 9:7) before God actually hardened it (9:12):
Thus both in the OT (1Sa 6:6, where even the heathen recognized the Egyptians and Pharaoh were responsible for their hardness) and in the NT (Rom 9:17-18) Pharaoh’s hardening is mentioned as typical.
The theological problem of who bears the responsibility for hardness of the heart is thus resolved by a close study of Pharoah’s example. Men, by acting in accordance with their own self-will, carry out God’s purpose in history.
The Lord finally confirmed Pharaoh’s attitude, lest out of sheer human weakness the king might give in before God had fully accomplished His will in judging Egypt.
Israel in the wilderness was responsible for hardening their necks (Neh 9:16-17, 29) in manifesting a lack of faith and a disobedient rebellious spirit (Psa 95:8; Heb 3:7-4:11).
Regarding salvation, it is well to remember that God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked and is not willing that any should perish (Eze 33:11; 2Pe 3:9; cf. 1Ti 2:4).
Nevertheless, the same manifestation of divine mercy softens the hearts of those who repent and find forgiveness in Christ, but hardens the hearts of those who resist and obstinately refuse to heed God’s invitation.
(Rom 9:14-18) is not specifically speaking of the sovereign grace that leads men to salvation, but rather that chooses certain men through whom God may advance His will on earth. [Bibliography: K. L. and M. A. Schmidt, Pachuno, . . . , Skleas, . . .,
TDNT, V, 1022-1031. J. R.]
Ambassador Dan
Chapter One
PRAYER
How often and for how long do you pray? In one of his sermon notes, Dr. Stanley explains why prayer should be motivated by a desire to fellowship with the Lord, and not simply because we want something from Him.
Introduction: How should you and I respond when God doesn’t seem to be answering our prayers? Maybe you have been asking Him to meet a