Tag: Jesus

Restraint


I read an article recently on American Family Association’s website about the most amazing thing about Jesus. It wasn’t referring to His power or His glory or the fact that He gave Himself as the one and only sacrifice needed to pay for ALL of humanity’s sins. It was speaking of His restraint. I am not going to quote from the article since I placed a link to it in the fourth word/link above, but I must say that I have never considered this point before.

Featured Image -- 3119The reason for His restraint of course is that He did not and He does not have a human nature even though He was born to a human woman. His nature is God’s nature. Therefore, when we think of what we would do in a particular situation and compare it to Him, it really doesn’t apply. What we would do with that kind of power would be destructive, but we are talking about the Creator! When God spoke, the Son created!

A thought or even a word from Him in any of His situations during the night and day of His scourging and crucifixion could’ve saved Him pain and anguish and death, but He chose to endure it because of His love for us! So, the incarnate Word of God could’ve saved Himself at any time but He didn’t. That is the part of His actions and His life which we just can’t understand. Our human mind and our nature just can’t imagine going through this with the power that He possessed. Thankfully, Jesus was as much God as He was human and He chose to follow God’s directions in everything that He did.

He still is doing this because until God tells Him to come get the Bride of Christ, He will stay in Heaven on the throne. We serve a risen Savior Who used His power as the Father told Him to when He was here the first time, but when He comes back He will be the Lion of the tribe of Judah! The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords! His anger and His judgement will be coming with Him at that time and the whole world will know it. Amen!

An experience


trinity2Worship in a church setting is an experience. In some churches it may be more of an experience than in others, but an experience nonetheless. Some churches are very laid back and, for lack of better words, they are bland and dull. Some are downright giddy with the worship of God and His Spirit. Then there are some who fall a bit in the middle. A little more alive than dull but not running around shouting “Praise God!!”

How we experience God and Jesus and the Holy Ghost (Spirit), regardless of the church we attend, should be a personal and intimate relationship. It doesn’t have to be shouting unintelligible babble-talk and it doesn’t have to be sitting there looking like you died last week but haven’t had the good grace to get yourself buried yet either!

Living daily with Jesus as your Savior is enough for me, yet there are times when I would like more. Then there are those days or nights where His Spirit fills me to the point that I weep because I can’t take anymore. The joy and the blessedness that I feel at those times are even more than when my son was born. I can’t describe it to you unless you have felt it too, then I know that you know what I am talking about.

Life with God in Three Persons is part of the experience when you believe in Him and ask Him to come into your life and change you. It isn’t about how much you shout and dance in church or if you sit quietly and meditate on His promises and His love for you. He is nearer to you than your skin because if you have given your life and heart to Him, then He lives within you and through you and to experience His Life, we need to live our daily lives knowing that and living that way!

For some people a “Holy Ghost church”, whether it is Pentecostal or Church of God, is just too much. When you have been raised in a church like a Methodist or Baptist one, it can be an experience to say the least. The point that I am making here is that when we are open and free to experience our life and His Life through us and inside us, it doesn’t matter what other people think. If you sit and soak in His Love, that is fine. If you can’t sit still and you have to get up and shout and dance, that’s fine too.

God loves you no matter which way that you choose to worship, as long as you don’t turn the worship experience into something which represents God but isn’t really Him or His Spirit. If your performance or speaking in tongues or shouting is not from Him but is emotionally bringing out your own personality just to bring attention to yourself, then you are acting like those Pharisees which Jesus condemned.

If it really is from the Spirit, it will be known and real, not just babbling incoherently. God knows the language of your Spirit and it is between you and Him. If you feel inclined to let it be known to others, then by all means do it. But make sure that it is not for your benefit only but for the whole congregation and their enjoyment of the moment and the worship itself.

What is in a name?


Immanuel meaning “God with us”

Isaiah 7:10-16 King James Version

10 Moreover the Lord spake again unto Ahaz, saying,

11 Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.

12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord.

13 And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?

14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

15 Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.

16 For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.

Even today there are many men named Yeshua, Jesus, and other Biblical names but that doesn’t give them the ability to be that person. God foretold that Immanuel would be born and that He would be the Messiah, the Christ. In order to be the Messiah or Christ, He would have to be God in man’s flesh, there is no other way to do this! This only happened one time!

When you have or are given the name of a famous person, does that make you into that person? Of course not! A name is just a name, unless it is given to you by God Himself. Then it becomes a calling and a purpose for your life. God had seen this from the beginning and He knew that Jesus being born of a virgin would literally be “God with us”, as the prophecy had said that the seed of the woman would be our Savior. That is Who Jesus is and always has been!

Why did He have to come in this manner? Because, only a perfect and sinless sacrifice could cover the sins of the World and the only way for this to happen would be for this Man to have the Spirit of God in Himself, not the spirit of sinful man. God could’ve made Him a body of sinless flesh, but He chose to do it by natural birth by a woman because Jesus had to be born under the Law in order to begin a new Covenant with sinful mankind.

The day of His birth…


Most of us celebrate our birthdays, although many seem to worry about them as the numbers get bigger. Why worry about a number? It just means that God has given you another year, another day to live and enjoy your life here with friends and family! Yes, there are some who feel as if their life would be better if they didn’t have so many birthdays piled one on top of another, but let me ask this question: Without killing yourself, what can you do about the march of time and another birthday?

Blunt answer: nothing

God gives us the air that we breathe and the food that we eat throughout our lives, so what will you do with another day, another week or month or even another year? Will you glorify Him in your days, telling others about His grace and His mercy?

This is one of the jobs that we are all supposed to be engaged in, particularly if you are a follower of Christ. Why do we walk as though we don’t know Jesus? Are there some who do this? Yes, there are some who only come to church on holidays or weddings or funerals, what good does it do for you to come at these times? Do you truly listen to the message or did you come to be seen and be in the community?

If you are doing this for your personal gain, it is no good at all for your spiritual well-being. Like the Pharisee and the Tax Collector in the Temple:

Luke 18:9-14 King James Version 

9 And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:

10 Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.

11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.

12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.

13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

Jesus’ day of birth is celebrated in December not because that is when He was born but because it was easy to get pagans to celebrate a day that they already celebrated. Jesus was likely born sometime between the middle of September and October, in any case we do celebrate Him by giving gifts to each other, just as He was the ultimate gift to us. He came not to bring a kingdom down or to begin His reign as Lord and King, but to shed His blood as a perfect sacrifice for ALL of our sins! He died for the whole WORLD, not just for the Jewish nation but for all of the people on Earth and His sacrifice was necessary for us to be able to atone for our sins.

God loves us because that is what His Word says! He is not a liar nor a cheat, yet some people seem to feel cheated by Him because He doesn’t magically provide all of their needs or their desires. He provides for exactly what you need, WHEN you need it. Not more than you need or less, yet that is why many people don’t like Christianity. They seem to expect God to provide for them because He owes them something. God doesn’t owe you anything at all! If you are blessed by Him with riches and wisdom be thankful for it and help those who don’t have what you have been blessed with, as much as you can without offending them.

Why do I say this? Because many people don’t like charity. They don’t want you to give them something and to some it is insulting that you would even think of helping them. But, if they truly needed it I don’t believe the offer would be turned away. It is the same with salvation. It doesn’t cost us anything and we don’t have to do anything to get it. Sometimes it is because of this that people don’t see the value of coming to church and accepting Jesus as their Savior.

Was God created?


It seems to be a very silly question, yet many people seem to be asking this very thing. It sounds almost like the question, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?”

Was God created? The point is when you try to answer it, there is no answer except God.

It seems that this is a question that is asked by people who, for whatever reason, don’t believe in God. Rather, they think of Him as being a created being rather than the Creator! Our concept of God comes from the Bible, it doesn’t come from the church or the opinion of some pastor or other theologians. The very first sentence of the Bible, “In the beginning, God…”, God is there before the beginning and He will be there whenever it is time to come to an end of the universe.

Some people like to think that God is like us and that is false. We are created in His image and the only way that He can be like us is if we make Him that way. This is idolatry, because we are making Him in an image of us, an image which makes us comfortable with His being, with His ways because when we make God in our image we see Him as being like us.

God was not made, He just is, and He lives in a universe which is parallel with this one, but outside of time and our vision as well. This is the reason that our natural vision, which is limited to this “plane” so to speak, cannot see the spiritual forces around us. If we could we would most likely be frightened most of the time! After all, looking outside to see a demon hiding in a bush or one flying overhead would be enough to send plenty of people to church I would think.

The “realm” which God and all other beings like angels and demons are free to move about in, is here with us every day yet it is outside of our limited vision. We can’t see it unless God allows us to see it, which is probably a very good thing. Although, I believe if people could see the things in and around us everywhere, there would be such a massive revival of faith in God until it would undo much of the work of Satan in just a few weeks or months.

God is the Creator and it is He who created all of the beings, both human and angelic, whether they are fallen angels or humans who disavow belief in God, and it is because of this that He sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for mankind. It is not God Who condemns us to an eternity in hell, it is us! Each of us has a decision to make in life and that one very important decision is whether to believe in Jesus as our Savior or not. If you happen to end up with the “not’s” who don’t believe or don’t want to believe in Him, then you will be placed in hell with the angels who rebelled against God so long ago.

It is YOU who determines your eternal home, not God. It is your choice, your sins, your refusal to believe in Jesus and the atonement which is freely given IF you believe in Him which will send your eternal soul to hell and the lake of fire! God did not create hell for humanity, but if you decide that you don’t want Jesus then you are in the same camp as those angels who didn’t want to serve God, and you will get the same punishment!

Why do I bring this up today? Because many people need to hear this it seems. If only because of so many choosing to leave the church because they don’t want to believe in a god who would send people to hell, when the reality and truth of the matter is that it is YOU who determines your eternity, by your own choice! God doesn’t send you to hell, you just end up there because of your choice in this life to not follow Him.

One in Essence,Three in Person


This is a question that has been on my mind for a few days, because I was asked about it by a very sweet lady who happens to be a Pentecostal by way of her association. Our Creator is One in essence, yet three in Person. It isn’t a hard thing to understand unless you want to deny God being God! He is God, He is the Holy Spirit of God and He is the Living Word, the Son of God!

I don’t mean that God exists as three gods, He is God in Three Persons, yet all of them…each one is as much God as the other! It is a difficult doctrine to understand unless you have some help from Him!

“And now the Sovereign LORD (the Father) has sent me (the Son), with his Spirit (the Holy Spirit).” Isaiah 48:16

Even at the time that Isaiah was a prophet in Israel, God revealed to Him that He was and is three persons in One. Not three gods, but One God with three persons Who in each are also God. Each person of the Trinity is God, but each has a different function. Just as I am a husband, a father and at one time I was a son before my parents passed into eternity. Three functions in One Person is the most apt description of God as a triune godhead.

Just as all things in the universe have a three-fold nature, so does God. Matter has substance (mass) plus energy and motion; time is made up of past, present and future; space is made up of length, width, and depth or height. Their nature doesn’t make them any less than what they are, but take away even one of their parts and you don’t have matter, space or time anymore.

If you take this to a logical conclusion which many skeptics seem to be willing to overlook, the Son of God is also God the Son! The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the trinity and He is fully God, but His influence in our lives is more of a teacher and leader in spiritual things. It is He that resides in your heart and mine, if we have given our lives to Jesus and asked for Him to come into our lives and our hearts.

The Spirit of God was the Person of the Trinity hovering over the waters before creation. What were the waters? I don’t know, you will have to save that question for God Himself. In either case each part of the Trinity is just as much God as the Other. They perform different functions and do different things in this world and in the spiritual realm, but each of them is still God.

When God told Moses that “No man could see His face and live”, He meant that. Which is why when He hid Moses in the cleft of the rock and allowed him to see His back. Later, when Scripture mentions the Angel of the Lord with a capital “A”, this is the pre-incarnate Christ, not an angel. The Spirit or Holy Spirit is the person of the Trinity which carries out miraculous healings and resurrections and other signs like being understood by someone who doesn’t speak your language. He also prays for us in our time of anguish and doubt when we are so burdened until we can’t say what is necessary.

In reality, it took the intervention of all three to save each person who is a Christian. Think of it this way: God sent His Son to be the atonement for our sins, Jesus died as a human with the nature of God in order to pay the price for humanity’s sins, and the Holy Spirit convicted you of your need for salvation and brought you to the cross to meet Jesus. If it is too hard to understand, ask a little child. The only time that we will know the answers will be when we are standing in His Presence, and even then we may still not understand it.

Manna = bread of Life


The word above means “what is it?”. In truth it is angel food or bread from Heaven. The Israelites were fed by God for forty years with this and it sustained them for that time. Many of them did not like it and asked for meat, so He sent millions of quail into the camp and they feasted on that until they could stand it no more!

God knew that His bread would sustain them for the time that they needed it as long as they would follow His direction for using it. Some of them hated it, but it sustained them for the travels that they had before them.

Why am I speaking about this today? Because, our Lord and Messiah, Jesus the Christ IS THE BREAD OF LIFE! He provides the way to become adopted into God’s family. God sent Him to be the sacrifice for ALL of humanity. If you believe in Him and the atonement which He provided for us, then you can be and will be saved! Amen.

The bread of life is also the Word of God. It teaches you about God and His principles and His laws and the way to come to salvation. The Bible and the words in it will NOT save you and cannot save you! Sitting in church for forty years or more doesn’t make you a Christian. Getting baptized when you feel an urge to do what your friends are doing does NOT save you!

Only a broken and contrite heart and repentance from your sins will bring you to your knees and you will say, “God, I’m sorry for the way that I have lived. Please forgive me and cleanse my heart and my life. I ask Jesus to come into my heart and save me from myself so that I can be a servant of yours. Thank you, Lord. Amen.”

I am not saying that you have to recite this word for word, but a conviction from the Holy Spirit will break your heart and if you don’t respond to it…if you walk away from Him in that moment, then you may not get another chance. The Bible says that “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” Matthew 7:22, 23.” Many who think that they are saved have felt a feeling of relief and hope when they are baptized and for a while they read the Bible and pray. Then, after a while, they go back to their life, their sins, their way of doing things and some never return to the Word or to church…but they believe they are saved.

Not so. A truly changed heart, broken and reformed by the Holy Spirit cannot go back to sin without being convicted of that sin’s consequences. If you are a child of God changed by the Spirit you cannot go back to the mud and the mire of sin that you were in. It will be distasteful and you will know it. Yes, you can go back if you ignore the conviction over and over, but you will have quenched the Spirit’s work in your life. You may be saved, but your reward will be eternal life without reward or crown and if you live in the time when man is given a choice of taking the mark of the Beast and you choose it, then your salvation is forfeit.

God loves you and He has given you the manna of Jesus and the manna of the Bible. Eat of them, take them into your life and your heart so that you can and will be changed into the child of God that you were meant to be. The food for eternity is there, all that you have to do is choose to take it and make it yours…or not. It is your choice.

Alienated….


Does anyone feel this way today? There are days when I feel this way and it even encroaches upon lonely, even with friends and family around. Why is that? Mostly it is because, I think, of my disability. I don’t have a daily job to go to, I don’t work except when I preach at church on Sunday. My “self-worth” isn’t tied to a career or a job anymore.

The good news about this is that God sees me as being worth His grace and His love! Just as He sees you and every other person on this planet, He looks at us with eyes that have seen all of the good and the truly horrible in humanity, and He still loves us! Why is that?

Because He is God! He can do whatever He pleases and it pleases Him to love us!

His love is so far above what we know and feel until it won’t be known by us until we are in His Presence…if we are born-again Christians. If you haven’t given your heart to Him and asked His forgiveness for your ways, then you will face Him as a person being judged for their life, their words and deeds, and everything that you gave approval of in your life.

Alienation is loneliness but it can bring you closer to Jesus if you will seek Him in it. Depression can be overcome by Him in your life by seeking His guidance through prayer, and reading the Psalms. All of our hindrances and limitations can be brought under His strength and under His tutorship if we will let Him take the wheel of our life.

We weren’t meant to do everything alone and without Him in our lives. We try to do a lot before we find out about Jesus and we try to do it with our own strength, our own ideas, our way of fixing things. Until we find that most of the time, our way is not going to work. We still feel empty and inadequate, unable to meet the deadlines and the requirements with our strengths and our ideas.

What are we to do?

Submit your life to Jesus and ask Him to cleanse your heart and your life so that you will be part of the family of God. Believe that He died for your sins and took the punishment for them, then ask Him to forgive you and He will. The grace of God has been extended to you through Jesus, all you have to do is ask for it and it is yours. You won’t be alone anymore because a part of God’s Spirit will live in your heart from that point on!

The plans of Satan


I’m reading “The Third Heaven: The Birth of God” by Donovan Neal, Natalie Davis and wanted to share this quote with you.

This quote below is from a speech which Lucifer/Satan was giving to his followers, his fallen angels, regarding how they were to interact with humanity. His plan seems to have worked very well considering how our world is today, don’t you think?

“Follow the pattern that I have set, and make the male dominate the female, set young against old and use their hues and shade of skin to divide them. Raise up among them great ones, and those of low estate plant greed and envy in their ranks. Sow fear and distrust amongst them, that they never see unity of worship to El”

In our world today, there is no “unity of worship” toward God or almost any other religion. We are fractured and broken to a point of disagreement which staggers the imagination. Many divisions in the church such that there are approximately 38,000 denominations worldwide. How is this unity of worship, even though almost all of these are Christian churches? We split on disagreements between friends, deacons and the pastor and many other things it seems, sometimes we split over trivial things.

The church which started on the day of Pentecost, is not the church that we have today. Most congregations are more interested, it seems, in the number of people listed as members and the attendance on Sundays, as well as the amount given in the offering plates, than they are in serving the Lord and becoming more like Jesus!

To give you a bit of accuracy and credentials to back this up, here is a definition which will clear things up a bit:

“Denominations. A denomination is defined in this Encyclopedia as an organized aggregate of worship centers or congregations of similar ecclesiastical tradition within a specific country; i.e. as an organized Christian church or tradition or religious group or community of believers, within a specific country, whose component congregations and members are called by the same denominational name in different areas, regarding themselves as one autonomous Christian church distinct from other denominations, churches and traditions. As defined here, world Christianity consists of 6 major ecclesiastico-cultural blocs, divided into 300 major ecclesiastical traditions, composed of over 33,000 distinct denominations in 238 countries, these denominations themselves being composed of over 3,400,000 worship centers, churches or congregations.” (Barrett et al, volume 1, page 16, Table 1-5, emphasis added)   (http://www.philvaz.com/apologetics/a106.htm)

The church which began soon after the resurrection of Jesus, has splintered into so many pieces which have many differing views and rules and orders of worship, until it seems that it is no longer a unified body of believers at all. While it is true that most of them worship God and Jesus as His Son, some have a different viewpoint regarding exactly Who they are.

Some don’t believe in the virgin birth of Jesus, some teach that parts of the Bible, God’s Holy Inspired Word, are wrong or that it doesn’t apply to the “modern church”.

God doesn’t change and His Word is true today just as it was at the time that He inspired the writers to write it down. There are no parts of it which are wrong, unless you just don’t want to believe it because it offends you or someone you love. God’s Word is true because God doesn’t change and He gave the words to those who wrote it down, so why is it that people don’t want to believe it? Because, we don’t want to learn the rules or learn about God.

Many don’t want to become a Christian because they believe that the rules will keep them from enjoying their life. Why do you believe this? The rules in the Old Testament about food and the sacrifices needed don’t apply to us today! The Ten Commandments will condemn you because all of us have broken one or two or more of them and they do still carry the same punishment that they did when they were given.

If you won’t give your life to Jesus and ask Him to come into your life and change your heart into His, why not? Have you felt a hollow feeling in your life and have never been able to fill it with the things of this world? The reason is because that empty place is made for Jesus to fill and nothing else. All of us have felt that place inside us which we know is empty and we feel like something should be there, but we don’t know what. Some of us go for many years without finding out what fits in that place…well now you know. The Holy Spirit of God fits in there and He only comes when you ask Jesus to come in and cleanse you, making you whole and a part of God’s family.

Inner strength and beauty


Have you noticed that people who stay together the longest have these two in spades! Inner strength comes from your character and that is truly based upon your beliefs, whatever they might be. Strength on the inside is the kind which comes from outside yourself, it is not physical but spiritual and it is in contrast to your beliefs and your faith in that which gives you strength.

Is your faith in a “man-made” religion or god? If it is then your faith is in something which cannot last. We have many religions which are manufactured by man, although some of them seem to be based on the Word of God. Many people have taken a few phrases or verses from one chapter of the Bible and created an entire doctrine around it. It may not be what Jesus taught or even based on anything which He said, but it sounds good and it can be said to “be based on God’s Word” even if it is only based on one or two verses.

Man-made religions are not the same, even though to the outside world they appear to be the same. If you get enough people to follow your teaching and they like the message enough, then they will back you when it comes time to build a larger church. Sometimes, a sermon or a theology which is based on or around the words and teachings found in the New Testament is not very popular. Because…it is based upon the Truth of God’s Word! There will likely be fewer people who like your message, but those who do are committed to learning about Him.

Inner beauty is found in people whose character is shaped by their belief in God and Jesus Christ. Yes, there are some who are beautiful regardless of the religion which they follow or even if they follow any religion at all, but they are few in number. I am not speaking here of outer beauty, but the kind that is inside a person. Outer beauty comes from your parents but it doesn’t really last because as we grow older, out face will change and our body changes. We don’t look as “beautiful” or as “handsome” as we may have when we were younger. Beauty is fleeting and it is only skin deep as far as your outer beauty is concerned.

Inner strength comes from our faith in something or Someone greater than ourselves, like Jesus. The martyrs from the past, who were killed in horrendous ways like burning or being gored by bulls or ripped apart by lions, faced their deaths with dignity and strength that they drew from knowing that they belonged to Jesus! Nothing could separate them from Him because if they died, regardless of the manner of their death, they would be with Him!

Today, we all need strength from God more than we do anything else. Because of the persecution and the negative things which are said of Christians these days. In the next decade, it will likely get much worse than it is now and it is not something which your children are prepared for. We aren’t prepared for it! But…its coming. Lean on Jesus and learn about Him from the Bible, even if it is outlawed to possess a Bible, keep one hidden somewhere that you can read. Make sure that you have a place to go that is safe, if possible, because we are coming to a time when unrest is going to be everywhere.