What to Think About this Holy Week

As we prepare for the coming week, let us be reminded again of this powerful message.

In the message "Believe and Be Restored" we considered our need to believe that what God said is true. He said the death and resurrection of Jesus was the final sacrifice for our sin, and that those who believe would receive the gift of eternal life.

Clearly, our Salvation is a gift from God; "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith" (Ephesians 2:8). We did nothing to earn our Salvation and there is nothing we must now do to keep it, we simply must believe; "there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1).

Though our sins are forgiven and Jesus is 100% sufficient for Salvation - though we walk in grace and are absolutely free of condemnation - sin in our life still causes temporary separation and tension in our relationship with God. Therefore, over and over in scripture, we are called to a life of holiness: "As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do" (1 Peter 1:14-15). Holiness is to receive top priority in our life; "Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy" (Hebrews 12:14).

So why such an emphasis on holy living? After all, if we are saved by grace, our effort toward holiness plays no part in our Salvation. The answer is found in examining our purpose for life beyond Salvation: "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship" (Romans 12:1).

2 Peter 1:5-7"For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love."

After we are saved, we live to worship and glorify God; but this can only be done by growing in our faith and presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice. For any sacrifice to be pleasing to God, the sacrifice itself must be pure, and the one who presents the sacrifice must be holy. So when we "make every effort" toward a life of holiness, we don't do so in order to earn or maintain our Salvation; we strive for holiness because we desire to truly worship our Heavenly Father with every heartbeat of our life.

We must never lose sight of God's wonderful gift given purely by His grace. But now our Father's plan is for us to be conformed to the likeness of His Son and live in a continual state of worship. His design for our life is that we mature in our faith and worship Him by living a holy life.

© Steve Troxel.2006

Abdominal Epilepsy?

The other day, I encountered an uncommon medical diagnosis, abdominal epilepsy. Maybe I was absent when this was taught in med school or maybe it was mentioned but it just didn't register in my memory bank. Anyway, for those colleagues who haven't heard of this as well, here's what I found out about it, so that next time you are faced with a weird abdominal pain, you will think of abdominal epilepsy as a differential. There are many medical causes of abdominal pain; abdominal epilepsy is one of the rare causes. From a medical perspective, the term epilepsy refers not to a single disease, but to a group of symptoms with numerous causes. The common factor in all forms of epilepsy is an excessive electrical excitability of the brain. The increased excitation is called a seizure and may manifest as a partial or total loss of consciousness and muscle spasms or other involuntary movements. Many conditions can produce epilepsy. For example, a genetic predisposition is...

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Tooth and ENT Doctor

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