Tag Archives: Edward Fudge

Mar 28 2010

I Am Encouraged!


Mid afternoon today, Carol and I returned from Tulsa, Oklahoma and the Tulsa Workshop. The Tulsa Workshop is an annual gathering of Church of Christ people who meet for worship, including great singing and preaching, and a great exhibit hall filled with booths promoting Christian schools, children’s homes, missions, ministries, church architects, publishers, etc. and several sellers of Christians trinkets.

This was my second year to attend and I enjoyed it just as much as last year. Meeting friends I made last year and making new ones were highlights of our experience. It was very encouraging to have several people introduce themselves as Grace Digest readers. I was literally shocked when one very well-known preacher, one of the key-note speakers, told me “I read your stuff and really like it…“. It just shows to go you that you never know!

It was especially nice to meet Al Maxey, a New Mexico preacher and prolific writer and thinker. I have admired his work and we had corresponded a few times but I was delighted to meet him and hear him speak three times. He speaks as well as he writes and his messages were timely and much needed.

I was able to spend time with and share a meal with Edward Fudge, who has become a special friend and mentor, and one of the best men I know, relief worker Mike Baumgartner. Dr. Joneal Kirby the founder of Heart to Home Ministries, and her assistant Lauren Vincent were also at the table. Other friends to numerous to mention were there and we enjoyed their company and their ministries during those days.

In my view, the most encouraging and exciting thing about our trip to the Tulsa Workshop this year was the preaching. Everyone I heard speak lifted up the Lord Jesus Christ and made clear that He alone can save a sinner from their sins. Frankly, in some Church of Christ gatherings you are likely to hear more about the Church of Christ than the Christ of the Church but not this time. The message of grace is sweeping across the churches like a prairie fire and again and again God’s grace, demonstrated in Christ Jesus our Lord, was reinforced by each key-note speaker I heard.

Perhaps, just perhaps, New Testament Christianity is finally being restored! I love the ancient plea “We are only Christians but not the only Christians“. It is a theme I can embrace and wear with pride. I don’t completely agree with everything any Christian group teaches but I have found in the Restoration Movement some dear followers of Jesus with whom I expect to be in fellowship with eternally. Every group has its baggage, some history they would like to forget, and a scattering of knuckleheads that are at best troublesome.

I will quickly admit that I am not infallible, the needle on my sanctification gauge is not to the “full” mark, and far too often I don’t love like I should and still call myself a follower of Jesus. I and you are works in progress. On our way toward being like Jesus may each of us major on Jesus and minor on everything else and love everyone in his stead. Love them ’til they ask us why!

Thanks for reading Grace Digest. I sincerely hope it is a blessing and honors Christ.

Agape’

Royce

Dec 11 2009

Are Believers Secure? …more from Edward Fudge


True believers may know that they are securely in God’s care and keeping, and that no person, circumstance or unforeseen set of events can ever snatch them away to destruction (John 10:27-30; 1 Pet. 1:3-5). According to Jesus, those who believe in him have been given to him by the Father, and he will not lose one of them (John 6:37-40). This certainty is grounded in God’s faithfulness (1 Cor. 1:8-9; 1 Thess. 5:23-24; 2 Thes. 3:3-5), power (Jude 24-25) and love (Rom. 8:35-39). He will finish what he has started (Phil. 1:6). Our source of this knowledge is not Calvin, Luther or Augustine, but Peter, John, Paul, Jude and, ultimately, Jesus himself.

We learn from Romans 8:28ff that those whom God foreknew, he predestined to become like Jesus. And those he predestined, he called. Those he called, he justified. And those he justified, he glorified. We were not there when God foreknew and predestined. We are not yet glorified, though it is so certain that Paul speaks in the past tense. But we do know if we have been called by the gospel. We do know if we responded in faith and were justified. We do know whether we are being changed into Christ’s likeness. Since the same people occupy all these scenes of divine grace, if we see ourselves in some of the scenes we may know that we are in the other scenes as well (1 Thes. 1:4,5, 9-10).

The basis of our confidence is not anything that we learn, experience or do. We do not trust in our baptism, in our good works, or in our praying a ‘sinner’s prayer.’ Our confidence rests, always and only, in God’s faithfulness, power and love. We are secure because of the accomplishments of Jesus our representative, and because of God’s estimation of what Jesus has done (Rom. 4:25-5:1). Each new day we need to ask: “Do I acknowledge that apart from Christ, I am a sinner? Do I trust his atonement for peace and right standing with God? Am I sorry for my sins and determined to turn from them? Do I cling to the cross of Jesus as my only hope of forgiveness? If I sincerely answer “Yes” to these questions, I belong to Christ, and God will keep me to the end. Nothing can thwart God’s purpose. Nothing can defeat God’s power. Nothing can separate me from God’s love.

(more can be found on this subject and more at EdwardFudge.com)

Saved by Christ alone,

Royce

Dec 9 2009

Eternally Secure? Edward Fudge answers


A gracEmail subscriber in Africa asks for biblical insight regarding his present and future security as a believer in Jesus Christ, while a subscriber in China inquires about the scripture passages that warn Christians against falling away.

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Scripture contains many warnings and admonitions, and we must take them all very seriously. “He who has ears, let him hear” (Matt. 13:9). “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 7:21). “Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12). “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith” (2 Cor. 13:5). “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace” (Gal. 5:4). “Be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure” (2 Pet. 1:10).

In reading these statements and others like them, it is easy to miss the forest for the trees unless we keep the following larger picture in view. The books of the New Testament were written for the church on earth, not for the church in heaven. The church on earth includes two kinds of people: (1) believers, and (2) unbelievers who claim to be believers (Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43). This is why many will claim at the Judgment to know Jesus, only to be told that he has never known them (Matt. 7:21-23). Jesus told the parable of the wheat and tares to teach this very lesson (Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43).

Faith that is real is faith that endures. We are God’s household “if we hold fast” to the end (Heb. 3:6). Holding fast does not make us God’s household — it manifests our true identity. In the same way, a “faith” that is not genuine but is only superficial is sometimes demonstrated by permanently leaving Christ (Heb. 6:4-12; 10:26-31,39). Some scripture warnings do not concern final salvation but involve discipline, maturity or reward. Most, if not all, of the rest are telling us in different ways to be sure that our confession is genuine and our faith is real. The best evidence of all that, we will see in the next gracEmail, is that we keep our eyes on Jesus and entrust ourselves to him.

(to be continued)

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I received this teaching in today’s email from Bro’ Edward Fudge.

I agree completely and Edward, as usual, stated these truths in such a succinct and powerful way I felt compelled to share what he wrote.

Agree or disagree and why?

Thanks for reading,

Royce



Aug 31 2009

Four Vital Choices


ewfattyWhen I returned from a weekend trip I found this  gracEmail from Edward Fudge (http://edwardfudge.com). I quote it here and solicit your comments.

For Christians other than Lutherans and Calvinists, the four gospel slogans: “grace alone, Christ alone, faith alone, Scripture alone,” might sound less than obvious. The third expression (“faith alone”) sometimes even provokes a vigorous denial. But properly understood, the four Reformation motto’s well summarize biblical teaching about our salvation. How would you complete each of the following sentences?

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1. God saves us as a matter of: (a) grace alone (wholly a gift)? (b) grace partially (somewhat a gift; somewhat merited)? or (c) grace not at all (wholly merited)? We affirm that God saves us as a matter of grace alone (wholly a gift). Luke 17:10; Romans 5:8-10.

2. God is gracious to us because of the pleasing activity of: (a) Christ alone, as our representative (entirely his obedience)? (b) Christ partially (partly Christ’s obedience; partly our obedience)? or (c) Christ not at all (entirely our obedience)? We affirm that God is gracious to us because of the obedience of Christ alone as our representative (entirely his obedience). 2 Corinthians 5:18-21; Colossians 1:19-22; Titus 3:4-7; Hebrews 10:5-10, 14.

3. We receive, experience and enjoy God’s gracious favor and salvation through: (a) faith alone (wholly relying on God for it)? (b) faith partially (somewhat relying on God for it; somewhat relying on something else)? or (c) faith not at all (wholly relying on something/someone other than God)? We affirm that we receive, experience and enjoy God’s gracious favor and salvation through faith alone (wholly relying on God for it.). Romans 3:21-27; Romans 4:1-5, 23-25.

4. These principles are true because they rest on the authority of: (a) Scripture alone (our only appeal is to the Bible)? (b) Scripture partially (we appeal to the Bible in part; to other authorities in part)? or (c) Scripture not at all (our only appeal is to authorities besides the Bible)? We affirm that these principles are true because they rest on the authority of Scripture alone (our only appeal is to the Bible.). 2 Timothy 3:14-15; 2 Peter 1:16-21.

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Copyright 2009 by Edward Fudge. Permission hereby given to forward, copy and distribute in any quantity, so long as no changes are made, this paragraph is included, and no financial profit is involved.

I’m curious, how do you respond to these four statements and the questions Edward Fudge asks?

Some church of Christ people will balk at the word “Reformed” and dismiss the whole because of that one word. Do I believe what I believe because I have found it in Scripture or because someone said it’s true? I fear that far too many fall into the latter category.

Your thoughts?

Royce