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Showing posts from June, 2006

Friendship with God

“…and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’ —and he was called a friend of God.” James 2:23 Let us first look at James 2:23. It states that Abraham was called a friend of God. It is at the core of salvation to be able to be called a friend of God. If we were to discuss the essence of salvation, we could entertain two questions: From what are we saved? To what are we saved? If isolated from the other, each question leads us to something other than the gospel. Hopefully, the first question is answerable. If our response is hell, then we are again only partly right. The nature of hell is that the unrelenting wrath of an omnipotent and holy God is being poured out upon its inhabitants. The second question rarely receives proper address from the pulpit or any other venue. To what are we saved? Again the location is only indicative of something else. Therefore, heaven is only the beginning of the answer. If the wr