The Gospel of the Kingdom » Legalism http://gospel-of-the-kingdom.org Announcing that Jesus now reigns! Thu, 17 Jun 2010 01:51:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 en hourly 1 The Parable of the Pig and the Puddle http://gospel-of-the-kingdom.org/2010/04/the-parable-of-the-pig-and-the-puddle/ http://gospel-of-the-kingdom.org/2010/04/the-parable-of-the-pig-and-the-puddle/#comments Tue, 13 Apr 2010 23:27:29 +0000 admin http://gospel-of-the-kingdom.org/?p=149 How can you keep a pig out of the mud?

How can you keep a pig out of the mud?

The kingdom of heaven is like unto a farmer’s son who was raising a pig for a 4-H project. Fair time was approaching fast, and Pete (the boy) was having a hard time keeping his pet clean. As all pigs are wont to do, it would instinctively investigate every mud puddle that it happened upon—even immediately after Pete had given him a good scrubbing with firm instructions to stay clean!

Pete knew that he stood no chance of winning the blue ribbon if he took a dirty pig to the show. But try as he might, he could not get his pig to keep himself clean once he had been given a thorough scrubbing. Pete’s only place to keep his pig was in a pen in which one corner stayed dry, but 90% of the pen was a mud hole—much to the pig’s great delight!

Pete schemed for days about his dilemma. How could he save his pig from his own natural instincts? He could put his pig in a strait jacket, but what would the judges think when he arrived at the fair with his pig in a strait jacket? And how could he walk his pig to town in a strait jacket? Oodles of puddles lay in the path to town, and he knew, he just knew, that his pet could never detour a mud puddle!

Finally, the great idea came upon Pete. He noticed that Skimps the kitty hated mud puddles! It would cost the life of his only kitty, but if only …

So he tried it. With a deft operation, Pete managed to take the soul out of the cat and put it into his pig.

How changed the pig was! He still weighed 220 pounds. He still had a snout and a curly tail. He still ate breakfast. But how he hated mud puddles with a passion!

The day of the show came, and Pete walked his pig to the fair. People stared in wonder at the boy and his pig walking down the puddle-filled road. The pig detoured or jumped over every mud puddle, with the amazing agility of a cat!

And so the pig, which had been given a thorough scrubbing some days previously, arrived at the show shining clean. What few spots he had received on the way to the show were promptly licked clean … you know, just like Skimps used to clean himself! By this means, Pete won the blue ribbon. The soul of the kitty in the body of the pig had saved the day!

This parable is by no means perfect. Yet it explains how that man can avoid the “mud puddles” of fleshly delights which fill this world we live in. Not by strait jackets, but by a change of character. If we box ourselves out of society by moving to some remote island, we may avoid many temptations. But that is not true freedom. The real freedom comes from having the character of Jesus placed into our hearts by a new birth. When this happens, we will hate sin just like the pig with a kitty heart hated those mud puddles.

Have you been born again? Has the nature of God been restored in you? Although we know that Pete could never put a kitty soul into a pig, we know that God can put Christ within us, thus saving us from our sin.

Hallelujah, what a salvation! ~Mike Atnip

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 2 Pe. 1:4

]]> http://gospel-of-the-kingdom.org/2010/04/the-parable-of-the-pig-and-the-puddle/feed/ 0 The Church Drifts Along http://gospel-of-the-kingdom.org/2009/12/the-church-drifts-along/ http://gospel-of-the-kingdom.org/2009/12/the-church-drifts-along/#comments Tue, 29 Dec 2009 23:29:52 +0000 admin http://gospel-of-the-kingdom.org/?p=136 Carelessly drifting, the church drifts along,
All a church has to do to drift into worldliness is do nothing!

All a church has to do to drift into worldliness is do nothing!


For pleasure and folly, a gay, giddy throng;
Led on by the glitter, the pride, and the show,
So careless and thoughtless as years come and go;
Unheeding the voice of the watchman on high,
“O turn ye, O turn ye, for why will ye die?”
Carelessly drifting away from their God ,
Away from his people, away from His Word;
Bewitched and enchanted with sin’s siren song,
They plunge in the whirlpool of folly and wrong;
Forgetting the holy, the pure, and the true,
Still onward the byways of sin they pursue.
Carelessly drifting, the wise and the great,
The rich and the poor alike drift to their fate;
For gold and for silver, for honor and fame,
So blind and deluded their glory’s their shame,
Forsaking true wisdom and knowledge for dross;
They seek for mere bubbles—in hell they’ll be lost.
Carelessly drifting from Jesus and right,
Still farther and farther into the dark night;
The prayers and the tears of loved ones they crush,
Like filth in the streets as onward they rush,
Hard’ning their heart as an adamant stone,
Rejecting the blood for their sins to atone.
Carelessly drifting from heaven and home,
From bright fields Elysian forever to roam;
Far, far, from God’s mercy, His smiles, and His love,
To suffer forever ‘neath his wrath from above;
The blackness of darkness they choose for their fate,
They awake to their doom when alas ‘tis too late!
(Note that this poem originally started with the words, “Carelessly drifting the world rushes on,” but it fits the church so well, I changed it. The author is unknown.)

]]> http://gospel-of-the-kingdom.org/2009/12/the-church-drifts-along/feed/ 0 True Biblicism http://gospel-of-the-kingdom.org/2008/11/true-biblicism/ http://gospel-of-the-kingdom.org/2008/11/true-biblicism/#comments Thu, 27 Nov 2008 12:04:50 +0000 admin http://gospel-of-the-kingdom.org/?p=3 As an introduction to this blog, I am pasting the following, taken from an e-mail sent to me:

Ask the average “plain person” what he is patterning his life after, and 9.5 out of 10 will tell you the Bible is his pattern. This answer is great, in as far as it goes.

But we must go beyond mere Biblicism and pattern our lives after Christ. The one does not exclude the other, but following Christ is brutally spiritual in nature; while being Biblical may be nothing more than a theological exercise. And yet, those who follow Christ and focus on Him are the best Biblicists (whether they know it or not) that you can find.

Think of the Ephesian church. (Rev. 2)

I’m sick and tired of cheap spirituality, where people become merely “liberated, enthused and spiritual,” when real spirituality has the cross/death/discipleship (and Jesus) at its core.

And I’m weary of the opposite rationale that hinges everything on the fear of apostasy, legislates a form of Biblicism to keep the church faithful, and has a 50-point plan to keep the church “safe”.

Discipleship is neither of these—it’s personally (and then collectively) following Christ with commitment enough that all of life is ordered by that devotion. (And my wife and children will be the first to recognize it).

Revival can happen just as easily in settings that aren’t perfect positionally. In fact, our sense of already having everything right can be a real hindrance to revival. Being 100% “right” on baptism, dress, etc. is not the issue; following Christ with absolute commitment to doing his will is.

Being in the Truth is not having the right positions/doctrines on everything; being in the Truth is knowing Him that is the Truth.

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