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CR18Day_02 @ nkjv@Genesis:1 @ RandyP comments: If one does not believe that God created the heavens and the earth then one also cannot not believe that God made man (all men and women) in HIS own image. Human life therefore does not have the same imputed and imutable sanctity nor holiness. Yes one can respect human life, but the respect for life is a much different thing than the respect for God's very image. Later in kjv@Genesis:9:6 a postdiluvian prohibition is placed upon murder, the reason given = because we are created in God's own image.

CR18Day_02 @ nkjv@Genesis:1 @ RandyP comments: What does it mean to be made in God's image? Does it mean that we are god's in and of ourselves? No, it means that we are to be reflections of HIS light. Mirrored surface reflecting HIS holiness into this world. Image bearers. There is only need for one God to exist. More gods than that in any past/future respect is nothing but a defilement.

CR18Day_11 @ nkjv@Mark:8 @ RandyP comments: Ashamed of Jesus and His words, let's consider. An adulterous and sinful generation on the one hand, God incarnate preparing to obediently die and rise again for the remedy for our sins and adultery. Which is the greater? Can we deny that this is adulterous and sinful generation? I think not. Can we deny that Christ has died and risen now to redeem us from this our plight? Well it sounds logical but, many are either skeptical or don't see the need. Can we deny that He shall return in the glory of His Father with the holy angels? Well that is where it gets sticky because He hasn't yet and He hasn't for quite a long time. Is this what we are ashamed of? Consider that in the day people were expecting the Messiah to be a military/political leader who would immediately restore the nation Israel to world prominence, deliver them from Roman rule. When the critic harshly insisted, there was that to contend with. Today the public expectation is much different, it is to leave it alone to it's own beliefs, to not meddle or tattle or stand against or be preachy. All this talk of heaven and hell and personal accountability, talk of depravity and original guilt and original pollution, talk of truth and righteousness and holiness and virtue, this talk has no place in this time or generation. So when the critic harshly insists, there is that again to contend with. Is the shame that we have to contend for our beliefs at all? We are sensitive to how others feel about us. In a sense for all our religiosity and business we still yet do not percieve nor understand, our heart is still hardened, having eyes we do not see, having ears we do not hear, neither do we remember; at least not to the extent that we should. "Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me...". Ashamed? What does that mean? How might it present itself? Are we ashamed even if be in the least bit ashamed to deny ourselves and follow? Well then we certainly need to get to the bottom of that quickly.

CR18Day_12 @ nkjv@Psalms:4 @ RandyP comments: How long? That is the real question in a nut shell. We were created in God's image, to capably reflect HIS holiness glory and light but, for our desire to be wise in our own eyes reflect nothing but our own shame and guilt. We were created capable of love yet what is it that we love? Worthlessness in a word, something if anything that only gets eaten by moth and rust. Created to partake of God's truth yet all that is squandered away for a whole lot of falsehood. How long? That is the question. How long will this be the choice? How long will this be the consequence? How long will this be the blindness, the hardness, the casualty? Another year? Another month? Another day? "..know that the LORD has set apart for Himself him who is godly...". "Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, And put your trust in the LORD."

CR18Day_17 @ nkjv@MPsalms:11 @ RandyP comments: "For the LORD is righteous, He loves righteousness; His countenance beholds the upright". Here believe it or not we have the very picture of a compassionate God explained best by what HE is most compassionate about. Many would say no that this is the very picture of a judgmental God, a God who narrowly only cares about one certain thing (which by the way is largely impossible for any man to achieve). What the critic typically is describing is a non-judgmental God rather a compassionate God; they are equating compassion with being non-judgmental. This is a totally erroneous definition of compassion. A person is compassionate only when things matter deeply to him, when possible outcomes are weighed and the best and desired outcome is chosen, when both the end justifies the means and the means justify the end, when one stands firm on the grounds of what is true and good and complete and lasting. The prize you see is to have us HIS fallen creatures to be brought back into the glorious presence and favor of our Holy God, to be neath the wing of that presence and favor forever more. What glory and holiness would that prize be if God was to degrade down to the simple minded nebulous image of non judgmentalism (if there actually is such a thing), allowing that eternity to be pretty much what this corrupted life itself has become? Shall the compassionate God justify righteousness with HIS lasting presence and favor or shall HE justify the critic's more of the same corruption with it? As to righteousness, man himself indeed is unable to achieve it. It is not something that is meant for man to achieve. Christ has achieved man's righteousness, Christ is his righteousness received by faith. The man that receives the righteousness of Christ is changed by the effect of it upon him, but still it is Christ's righteousness alone. This is the righteousness God truly is compassionate about, for it satisfies all of HIS requirements and best intensions for the man whom HE created!