Here am I

“As I was walking through the wilderness of this world, I came to a place where there was a cave. I laid down in that place to sleep and as I slept I had a dream in which I saw a man dressed in rags standing in a certain place and facing away from his own house. He had a Book in his hand and a great burden on his back. As I looked, I saw him open the Book and read out of it, and as he read he wept and trembled. Unable to contain himself any longer, he broke out with a sorrowful cry, saying, ‘what shall I do?’”

John Bunyan first seeing Pilgrim

Today, I wanted to open up to you the reader from a writer’s perspective and reveal a little about the process it took for me to write! I am opening up to tell you this not for my own gratification, but at the hopes it will help those who are at similar points in their life in trusting God and following His calling for them.

If you would have told me just a few years ago that I would be writing to an audience of thousands for Christ, I would have laughed and called you crazy! But here I am. Until recently, I never wrote anything outside of school reports. To the outside world my desires seemed elsewhere, my personal strengths were in human interaction and connection. Most would never have known my burning desire to write! Yet, living under the belief that I was not educated enough, my understanding of grammar being too simplistic, and my arguments to rudimentary for anything to be considered worthy, I stayed silent. I worked on reading great works and doing whatever I could to tell my friends, family, and anyone willing to listen what I was reading and learning about my amazing God.

As I grew older, the attraction of writing became stronger; but out of fear I stayed silent. All ideas of fear, ridicule, and judgement weighed me down to the point I would dare not imagine picking up the pen and write for Christ. I always thought to myself, “God has men of scholar, men of study, men who have words worthy of paper, not you Jl.” Even worst, I was worried that what I had to say would be incorrect and I would lead people astray, “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” James 3:1. I devoted my time to the study of the Word of God. Four to five hours a day was not enough, God orchestrated the very scenario needed for me to spend hours upon hours a day studying His Word and studying from men devoting their lives to Him. Looking back, I can clearly see that He had placed the desire and was now preparing me for what He had wanted. I started seeing the developments of the situations prophesied in the Bible being set up. Yet, I saw Christian after Christian giving up or being swept away by the Laodicea church ideology. I saw my generation failing to follow the previous generation and take ownership of our relationship with Christ, they were failing to stand on His Words and actions. God was still drawing me to what He was calling me for.

Thankfully, there came a day that the calling was too much to tolerate. I asked God to take the desire away, I wanted to be a Christian helping believers personally, using the gifts God had given me to help edify the church and spur them along towards Christ. I wanted to be done with the notion of writing and wanted to be serving in the immediate. For those who have read, The Haggai Project: Reorienting the Church back to its first love, you will know what transformation I went through, I had finally decided to give up and allow God to be the “I AM” in my life and lead where He wanted to lead me.

Seeing the world growing darker and the dwindling of Christian men wanting to stand up for the Word of God, I broke out in distress! I saw the need but was unwilling to move, unwilling to step out of my comfort. It was not until I was in my own personal study that I came across a passage of the Bible that hit me like a ton of bricks. Ezekiel 33 “And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, speak to the sons of your people and say to them, ‘If I bring a sword upon a land, and the people of the land take one man from among them and make him their watchman, 3 and he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows on the trumpet and warns the people, 4 then he who hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, and a sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head. 5 He heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning; his blood will be on himself. But had he taken warning, he would have delivered his life. 6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require from the watchman’s hand.’” Ezekiel 33:1-6.  I knew God was talking to me. I had seen the lateness of the hour within human history, the closing period of the Church Age, and knew I needed to do something. It was as if God was asking, “Who will go? Who will take up the calling and warn those who are willing to listen?” Suddenly I remembered, Isaiah “Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’” Isaiah 6:8a. Before I knew what was coming out of my mouth I heard coming from my very own lips, “Here am I. Send me!” Quoting the direct response that Isaiah gave, I simply did not care anymore what people would think of me, but rather only what He would think. Now in no way was I or am I equating myself to Isaiah’s level or even in comparison, but rather like Isaiah I was willing to be used in whatever way God wanted to. Whatever way He wanted me to tell people the Gospel and to encourage the saints to stay the course as 1 Peter 1:13 states, “Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”  I was willing to help. I was willing to run the race He had chosen for me.

My first fear immediately came quickly to challenge my intentions, “God has men of scholar, men of study, men who have words worthy of paper, not you Jl.” Yet, I quickly remembered that the very men I was afraid people might think I thought myself as or being called to act the same, men such as John Bunyan, A.W Tozer, C.S Lewis, Elmer L. Towns, Dr. Moody, and others were actually just like me. They were broken men willing to lay aside their fears and inadequate capabilities to allow Christ to use them in whatever way He wanted to use them. Any fear of my writing style, technique, or grammatical comprehension were immediately thrown aside with the perfect truth of God, “but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong.” 1 Corinthians 1:27. If God was willing to use me, than I would do whatever He wanted me to do, and if that was to write I would write!

Looking back now I see the resounding craftsmanship of God working in my life, orchestrating the needed time and effort for me to understand what He wanted me to do. What a unique journey this has been and one I will continue to pursue until God tells me no more.

On this amazing journey that God has brought me on, I want to share three lessons I have realized. First, my desire to please God must be my only aim, my biggest critics have been people in the Church refusing to adhere to the strict Word of God as our only compass. My response to them is, “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12 and “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17. We must stick to only the Word of God as our final authority on any matter. The simplest dot or mark must be adhered to with the grandest and most profound quotes in the Word of God. They are equal in weight and majesty lest they be in there at all.

Second, that the people I had not aimed to help, God had aimed to help. God, seeing the big picture, knew when and what I needed to write to help those who needed it at that moment. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28.  There is a scene in Acts that has always reminded me that there are moments that my intentions or plans in my writing might not be what God has planned, and I need to be ready to adhere to what He is calling. “Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. 27 And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” 30 So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:

“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter
    and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,
    so he opens not his mouth.
33 In his humiliation justice was denied him.
    Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.”

34 And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. 36 And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” 38 And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. 39 And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.” Acts 8:26-40.

Thirdly, I am a broken man and when I am at my weakest, Christ is at His strongest in my life. Each weekly post, each time I am asked about my written work, I find myself totally and completely in the need for Christ to be there to help me. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2nd Corinthians 12:9. “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Psalm 73:26.

I want to conclude with this, if you believe God is calling you to something, take it back to the Word of God. If you believe God is calling you to something, take it in prayer. If you believe God is calling you to something, DO IT! There can be no other greater calling in your life than to say these four simple words to God! “Here am I send me!” Finally, on a personal note about myself to you the reader, if you ever wonder or ever ponder about my actions through my writing or my life, I hope everything I think, say, and breath points you directly back to Jesus Christ. For I can do nothing outside of what Christ wants me to do, and yet, in Christ whom shall I fear? I am to please Him and Him alone! Take everything back to the Word of God and examine it for yourself! Nevertheless, please keep me in your prayers as Christ leads me on this grand adventure that He has for not only myself but for you!

Hold until relieved, our Blessed Hope is coming

JL

RE-POST FRIDAY

Today we want to look back and see what does it mean to have Noble Character! This is a great read to open up a discussion with parents and their children! CLICK HERE!

Breastplate of Righteousness

  As we continue our study in the Armor of God, we come to the Breastplate of Righteousness, “ 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,” Ephesians 6:14.  It is no coincidence that the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness are in the same verse.  We cannot have one without the other. If we do not know God’s truth as described in our previous post, then we cannot know what it means to be righteous and therefore, cannot act in a righteous manner. 

To be righteous means to live with integrity, holiness, and have purity of life.  One great example of this is Job, Job was a man who “was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil” Job 1:1.  God Himself even stated that there was no one else on Earth who was like Job, “8 The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.”” Job 1:8. The idea of being blameless, or righteousness, is not in the sense that we would immediately think of.  Job is not saying that he is without sin, for every man, woman, and child have sin “23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Romans 3:23. Job is aware that he is a sinful man, but Job can be described as righteous because he was committed to honoring God with his life, no matter the issues that might occur.  If you continue to read the Book of Job, you will see that he was put through many obstacles , but he never once turned from the desire to honor God and at the end Job’s sacrifices are rewarded double the amount as where he was in the beginning of the book.

We need to make something very clear, by putting on the breastplate of righteousness, we are not declaring our actions as to be living in a righteous life but rather we are signifying we are wearing Jesus Christ’s righteousness. For we can only wear the Armor of God if we are saved and born-again. Thus we are a new creation and can relate to what Paul says in Ephesians 2:10, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Additionally, we can relate to what Paul says in Romans, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:1. As a believer that peace is manifested through the truth that we, as believers, have Jesus Christ’s righteousness adorned and are His ambassadors on earth. So if we have His righteousness we are commanded to live holy lives because He is holy, “for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." 1 Peter 1:16.

We must live in a righteous manner, our actions should represent the righteousness that has been bestowed on us as a free gift in Jesus Christ. Now when we live a righteous life, we are desiring to put God above anything else which allows us to live a life that is honoring God.  We cannot lose our salvation thus we cannot lose Jesus’ righteousness, yet we cannot represent him in a pleasing manner and even ignore the trappings of armor given to us for our protection. When we forget the Breastplate of Righteousness, we open ourselves up to an attack on our very heart.  The breastplate was designed to protect the soldier’s heart and vital organs. In Christ, with His righteousness, we see that He is the one protecting us. His actions on the cross have caused those who call upon Him to be saved, justified, and adorned with His righteousness.

Yet that does not mean we cannot slip up and fail to properly show our breastplate. When we fail to have properly adorned the breastplate of righteousness then we leave our heart unprotected, and it is here that the enemy begins to plant ideas that are not Biblical.  More often than not, these ideas seem harmless for example it could be something as simple as a little white lie or maybe not informing the cashier that they did not scan an item in your cart.  On the surface these don’t seem like anything that would cause a person to stumble in honoring God, but when you look at the root of the problem you see that it leads to idolatry and other sins.  We have already seen in Genesis 3 that the enemy is crafty, after all the serpent only said “Did God really say?” and allowed Eve to walk into the snare that he was laying (Genesis 3:1-6).

When wondering if you are living a righteous life, I ask that you look at what you are doing when no one is watching.  The focus should not just be on your actions through, it also needs to be on your thoughts.  Are you spending time watching or listening to things that allow you to grow in the Spirit? Or are you watching and listening to things that have questionable morals?  How you spend your time when no one is watching is a great comparison to see if you are living a righteous life.  We are called in 2 Timothy 2:22 to “22 Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.”  When we were nonbelievers, our minds and actions stemmed from our unrighteous behavior, but when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are called to put away those desires and to pursue righteousness.  The only true righteousness in this world is Jesus Christ and as we grow in the Spirit we know more of the Belt of Truth and become more like Christ.  It is ironic how in the verse mentioned above that peace follows righteousness, for it is only after we know the truth that we can live righteously and therefore have peace.  “In the path of righteousness is life, and in its pathway there is no death.” Proverbs 12:28.

However, a righteous life is more than just a behavior modification, it is a change in the heart.  To live righteously is to live according to how God wants us to, not how the world tells us too.  We cannot produce righteousness on our own, we need God to produce it in us.  “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away” Isaiah 64:6. Any so called “righteous” action that we attempt to do on our own without Christ, amounts to nothing because we do not know the truth.  We can gain righteousness when we turn from our sinful ways and pursue God.  When we desire to be more like Him, spend more time in His Word, and to know Him more we are wearing the Breastplate of Righteousness.  “He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.” Psalm 23:3. Finally, the breastplate was used by many in a conflict to represent which side they were on to make sure they did not have friendly casualties. In like manner, if we are saved and have the breastplate of righteousness on, we will be identified by other believers not just through our own actions, but also by the world as being a follower of Christ. The very meaning behind our name “Christian” means to be “little Christ”, to be a representation of Christ. In days like these our Breastplate needs to be ever more evident in the world we live in.

Seek the Truth and encourage one another,               

Alex

A Spiritual Triage

“We were being told it would be a whole new world, a new start, a reset to the system, we were fooled!”

Author Unknown

My goal of this post was to veer away from a deeper subject like we have been covering in the “Before the Humble Arrival,” and open up to you, the reader, about the difficulties from an author’s perspective. However, during my prep time and research, I found myself convinced God was leading me down a different path. This path was to open up to you about a matter to which I see coming and Christian’s must be aware of.

In the first two chapters of the Bible, everything is right, everything is made perfect. There is no sin, there is no wrong, there is only exactly right. Yet, when we get to chapter three of Genesis, we see that our perfect story takes a horrible turn for the worst. The Serpent, which is identified as Satan in Revelation 20:2, “And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years” has come and tricked man into believing a lie in order to create something better. In verse 4 of Genesis 3 we see, “The serpent said to the woman, ‘you surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” Fortunately, this lie continues to be the oldest and most used lie against man today, it is easily identifiable. Unfortunately, this lie continues to be the oldest and most useful lie used against man to this day.

You might be wondering, where I am going with this, but I ask for your patience. When I was being trained in life saving skills and triage identification of the injured, I learned that when triaging you would have to identify as quickly as possible the level of injuries and in which order you would have to address them. Your decisions could cause life and death even when answered correctly. It was a sobering training; one I thankfully have only had to seldomly use. Nevertheless, I find myself today being tasked to identify the injuries to which the modern-day Christian has. For those who are alive in Christ, who have been reborn and now live in Jesus, I am starting to see a growing injury which I believe is the most critical injury for us to address in our spiritual triage process.

The Christian today has no discernment! This is our greatest injury that needs our attention!

We believe anything and will say anything foolishly, without thinking of the ramifications. We walk as fools aimlessly following any false shepherd who might be tickling the ears. In proverbs chapter 7 we read of a fool who is captured by an adulteress women, “For at the window of my house I looked out through my lattice, and I saw among the naïve, and discerned among the youths a young man lacking sense passing through the street near her corner and he takes the way to her house.” Proverbs 7:6-8. This allegorical scenario is not too far from the depiction we see many Christians in today. Currently the body of Christ is being caught up and captured by persuasive talk instead of turning to the Word of God, they lack so much discernment that they follow people who follow the doctrine of demons.

Peter warns the believer of such a scenario in 2 Peter, “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. 2 Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; 3 and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.” 2 Peter 2:1-3. There is no excuse for us to not have discernment, for God gives freely to those who are in need of His helping hand. This is highlighted with an entire book of the Bible being devoted to the teaching of wisdom and discernment. God instructs the believer to seek after God’s teachings in Proverbs 2:1-15.

“My son, if you will receive my words
And treasure my commandments within you,
2 Make your ear attentive to wisdom,
Incline your heart to understanding;
3 For if you cry for discernment,
Lift your voice for understanding;
4 If you seek her as silver
And search for her as for hidden treasures;
5 Then you will discern the fear of the Lord
And discover the knowledge of God.
6 For the Lord gives wisdom;
From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.
7 He stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
He is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
8 Guarding the paths of justice,
And He preserves the way of His godly ones.
9 Then you will discern righteousness and justice
And equity and every good course.
10 For wisdom will enter your heart
And knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
11 Discretion will guard you,

Understanding will watch over you,
12 To deliver you from the way of evil,
From the man who speaks perverse things;
13 From those who leave the paths of uprightness
To walk in the ways of darkness;
14 Who delight in doing evil
And rejoice in the perversity of evil;
15 Whose paths are crooked,
And who are devious in their ways;”

Yet, as we at Mill House Ministries review what Bible topics to discuss, to review, and to dive in deeper, I cannot help but notice the resounding injury found within the born-again believer across the world. As Christians on this side of the grave we are still with sin, yet we should have our aim as Titus 2:13 and 1 Peter 1:13 both tell us to do. We are to keep our focus solely on the Lord. We are not to look to the left or the right, but to have our aim entirely on the Lord. This can seem simple until you realize the catastrophic calling it is for us to keep solely on the Lord. We are to be “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, ‘YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.’” 1 Peter 1:14.

As Christians we need to recognize that not every person who appears and/or states that they are there to help, are actually helping or even part of God’s family. 1 John states, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” 1 John 4:1.

Our decisions in this life must be characterized in the Word of God. If “We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us” 2 Corinthians 5:20a, we need to act the part! The next coming months will be some of the most radically different that the world has ever seen. This world declares we are in need of a change, people call for a new system, a new way of life, one prominent leader claimed there were “darkening clouds coming” and our way of life would need to be rebuilt on a fertility of brotherhood. As Christians, we must be cautious of the times we live in! For Satan’s ancient lie has not changed, what he said to Eve has not changed, “your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Having Godly discernment allows the believer to identify the schemes of the devil and his minions. When someone tells us there is new revelation or a new truth for us to consider, we should be careful not to immediately accept what is being stated, but examine it to the Word of God. If the world attempts to rush you into supporting a group, we should slow down and be careful in understanding what they stand for. If you tend to open your mouth without thinking, you might want to step back and think before speaking or giving your advice. If you are in a leadership role, you should be careful to understand the ramifications of what you state. Yet, no matter how careful you are, there will come a time when a problem, scenario, or issue will develop and we will need to have everything that God is willing to provide for us in that time of need. These challenges are present, 2020 can be defined as a problem and those who know Bible Prophecy are able to see that it is only going to get worst. Once these challenges present themselves and are identified, we can apply God’s Word accordingly and act upon the situation we find ourselves in. 2020 should be known as the year Christians woke up and started to use God’s discernment, instead of being foolishly tricked and injured spiritually.

If a spiritual triage assessment were to happen today it would be apparent that many believers are being duped by the same trickery of the devil as Adam and Eve were. In this current time of 2020, we need to be asking God for discernment to know the season we live in and how to identify and act accordingly to the situation we find ourselves in. If believers only asked for this, we would see that the gates of Hell cannot prevail against us, we would see folly that is laid before us and understand that the trap can be simply outmaneuvered by God’s Word. I end on this note, if we have discernment why do we not have more Christians standing up against the radical ideology that is captivating so many born-again believers? Why do we listen to those who listen to spirits instead of God? Why do we practice the worship of gods when we have the living God living inside of us? I will conclude from the author of Hebrews who said, “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Hebrews 12:1-3.

Hold until relieved, our Blessed Hope is coming

JL

RE-POST FRIDAY

Today we look back at a Post where Jesus Christ gives an analysis of the Spiritual Journey of every person on earth! CLICK HERE!

Belt of Truth

For many, truth seems to be a relative thing.  One person’s truth may not be the same as another.  So how can the born-again Christian navigate the truth that is put out by the world?  Especially when the truth that is presented by the world seems to be so against the truth that is found in the Bible.  As we have already seen in our previous post on the Feet of Peace of the Gospel, we know that the peace that the world offers is different, and far less reassuring, than the peace that is offered by God.  With this knowledge, we can already see that the truth that the world provides is indeed opposing the Biblical truth, this is because the ruler of this world is opposite the one true God.

So what is the truth that the born-again Christian needs to understand?  The answer can be found in John 17:17, “17 Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” So, since God’s Word is truth, we can be rest assured that what He says He means, and it is applicable in our lives today. This is vital in understanding since real peace comes from having real truth. This truth is depicted by Paul as the belt “stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth,” Ephesians 6:14a. Historically, a belt would hold the weapons of a soldier. How ironic that metaphorically speaking the belt of truth holds the Sword of the Spirit. The truth that Paul discusses is not only the truth that is found in the Scriptures, it is anything that points back to God as the one true God. For example, nature declares the truth of God, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” Psalm 19:1. We have God’s sovereign Word and witness accounts to proclaim with even more vivid nature His divinity and absolute control. If His truth does not give peace, we clearly are not understanding His truth. This becomes even more important when we examine that God in His sovereignty has given prophecy. We are able to see that all the promises that God has given are kept, thus those promises that are made for future events should be taken as a matter of fact. It is why Prophecy should be studied in churches; it is part of God’s truth. It gives us hope, “looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of [a]our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus,” Titus 2:13.

What does truth provide the believer? As mentioned above, it allows us to know that God’s Word is true.  When He says that nothing can remove us from Him, we know that this is true because we are sealed to Him. “13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,” Ephesians 1:13

What is the point which we as believers can come and identify why knowing His truth is so important? The answer is quite simple, the more we know His truth, the more we are able to rely on Him being our peace. Each piece of the armor discussed by Paul are interconnected, you cannot have one without the other. We cannot have peace without knowing His truth, if we do not have peace we are identifying God as not being able to supply that peace and be in control. This goes directly against what He has promised in the Bible. This is a difficult concept for all believers to come to grips with. The more we study His Word, the more we understand God’s truth and see how what is being offered by the world brings no peace.  We then begin to change and become more Christ-like. “21 when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. 25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. ” Ephesians 4:21-25.

When we wear the belt of truth, we are called to grow in the faith not to remain as we once were.  Having the belt of truth means that we know God’s Word.  We can then differentiate between what is presented as truth by the world, which is really nothing more than crafty lies I encourage you to look again into Genesis 3 to see how crafty the enemy can be, and what we can know for sure what is the truth. When we focus on the Word of God, we can hear His voice more clearly and this allows us to differentiate between right and wrong.  When we have the knowledge of truth, we will not be swayed by what the world says.  “14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; 15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.” Ephesians 4:14-16

There are dangers when we do not wear the belt of truth.  Without a solid foundation in the truth, what the scriptures say, then we will be carried away by the battle we face.  When we do not wear the belt of truth we will begin to conform to the world. So many pastors today, people who should know the truth, have been swept away because they have conformed to what the world wishes.  When we wear the belt of truth, we will stand above what the world desires, “2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:2

Jesus identifies Himself as an agent of truth to Pilot when asked if Jesus was a King. “Therefore Pilate entered again into the Praetorium, and summoned Jesus and said to Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?” 34 Jesus answered, “Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about Me?” 35 Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered You to me; what have You done?” 36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.” 37 Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” 38 Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, “I find no guilt in Him.” John 18:33-38.

Simply put for a person to have real truth, you must have God’s truth, you must have Jesus. When Paul wrote about God’s truth being the belt of the believer, he was making a statement that many today miss the importance. The belt typically was not only larger than it is now, but it was relied upon more due to the ability to protect the organs as well as hook the rest of the armor to the waist when not being used. In short, Paul is stating that God’s truth rests all other parts of the armor. As believers, we must understand and know that God’s truth is our greatest asset when it comes to understanding that God is in control and we can have peace. With God’s truth we can understand that each of the other pieces of armor that we will discuss all rest on Jesus Christ being the truth, being God’s truth.

Seek the Truth and encourage one another,               

Alex

Before the Humble Arrival (VI)

“The answer to life’s greatest question is simply Jesus Christ. To have all of life’s answers and yet fail to have this one question correct, is to fail entirely.”

 Author Unknown

  It is without a doubt that during these times there are so many who are attacking the credibility of who Jesus Christ was. It makes sense, if you can remove Jesus as being God, you remove all claim, authority, and power that He has, thusly terminating Christianity. Nevertheless, the more we scrutinize the Word and examine the endless supply of evidence proving His deity, we are left with the unmovable question of who Jesus Christ is to us personally.

These last several weeks we have studied a few of the preincarnate visits of Jesus Christ, not to prove His deity, but to authenticate His statements made during the gospels. He made the claims Himself, and I feel in no part that I must defend Jesus Christ’s life. I am to only speak the truth and allow His own actions and words to orchestrate His own defense.  He claimed to be God, He claimed that He was the key to salvation, yet it was the fact that He proved through His actions prior to making these statements that causes us to look on in amazement. Only Jesus Christ could act upon His own statements as a man prior to being born. This man would have to be God to put such a plan into action. Many today scoff at the very idea of His humble arrival in Bethlehem, yet what they miss is His awesome actions proving His deity prior to Bethlehem. A virgin birth is nothing when you see the actions Jesus Christ had already done in the Old Testament. Jesus had already, through a multitude of people, proved that He was the Son of God. He used Abraham, Jacob, Nebuchadnezzar, and others to see the reality of who He was. As we have learned that His statements are backed up prior to Him saying them, we can take His statements of His future actions with one hundred percent certainty! This is a sobering fact, for Christ warned and proclaimed that He was the only way, the only truth, the only life that could cause a person to be saved. This points us back to our unmovable question of who Jesus Christ is to us personally.

Many today would argue that Jesus became the Son of God through His actions. Some incorrectly believe that Jesus Christ became God’s Son at the incarnation. They will use Luke 1:35 “He shall be called the Son of God.”

Others claim, Jesus became the Son of God at the baptism. They will use Matthew 3:17 “this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well please.”

Still others say that Jesus became the Son of God at the resurrection. They will use Romans 1:4 “Declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.”

Even others claim Jesus became the Son of God at the ascension. They will use Hebrews 1:1-4 and specifically point out the fact of “appointment” at His ascension.

Each of these groups fail to remember one of the most famous quotes in the Bible, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten SON, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 (Emphasis mine). Jesus Christ, has always been God, the second in the Trinity.  However, each of these groups fail to recognize the law of limit, to be God you must not have a limit, you must not have been created. Jesus Christ was not created but rather was before and was only briefly humbled, “but we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.” Hebrews. 2:9. I would ask you the simple question of this, based on Hebrews 2:9 how can a person be briefly humbled unless He is already at a station of authority? You cannot be briefly humbled if you are already at that station of place. Christ came to earth in humility to save us, any claim by scoffers to say He was only a man, ignores the facts of all His claims to be God and His previous actions before He arrived in Bethlehem.

But His actions prior to His birth, His earthly life, and the claims of His future events do bring us back to our unmovable question of who Jesus Christ is to us personally. For the past six weeks we have studied Jesus Christ, prior to His humble arrival. Yet, any study of Christ is void if we do not have the correct answer to our unavoidable question of who He is to us personally.

If He is anything other than your personal savior, you have missed the mark of who Jesus Christ is and who He wants to be in your life. When we see that eternal life and unity with God only comes through the sacrifice that He has given us in Jesus, we must humbly accept that Jesus Christ is who He claimed to be. His actions prior to His birth only solidify His right to claim what He stated in the gospels. Words do not compare the desire that I write to you today to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord! For no matter what you do now, there is a coming day to which you will recognize Him, for Philippians 2:11 states, “and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord.” Our only way to salvation is through Jesus Christ, on His actions, on His statements, and on faith in Him. We have more than just the four gospels to review such an amazing God. If you are truly wanting to know more about Jesus Christ, God will move heaven and earth to make sure you get the answer.

If you are looking for answers on salvation or have questions on any of the topics discussed about in this series, reach out to Mill House Ministries on our contact page!

 Hold until relieved, our Blessed Hope is coming

JL

RE-POST FRIDAY

This RE-POST FRIDAY we look at what the Bible details as the incorrect way to be a Biblical woman. CLICK HERE!

Feet of Peace

Peace is something that is hard to find today.  It is true that the world will tell you that peace no longer exists with so many different sides against each other.  There is so much fear and anger out there that we often forget that we do have peace in this world.  However, while the world claims that it can give you peace, we see time and time again how wrong that is, for true peace can only be found in Jesus Christ. As we begin our study in the armor of God, it is important to start at the base of the foundation which is “and having shod your feet with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace” Ephesians 6:15.

If you are like me, before going out for the day you will check to see what the weather is like to make sure that you are wearing the proper shoes.  This aspect of being prepared for the day applies as well to the armor of God.  In this case, the shoes that you must wear are the shoes of the Gospel of Peace. The Gospel is called the Gospel of Peace not in that it unites everyone, for in many cases it divides people as seen in Matthew 10: 35 “35 For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; “ if we have family members who do not belong to the family of God, it is often times a dividing factor.  The Gospel is hard to understand if you do not have the Holy Spirit to guide you and to teach you. 1 Corinthians 2:14 “14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.”  So if it is not uniting everyone together, then how can the Gospel be called the Gospel of Peace?

It is because the Gospel unites sinful man with Holy God.  It is with Jesus Christ that we find true and perfect peace.  When we accept that Jesus died for us, that He rose again, and is sitting at the right hand of God interceding for us today, then we receive the Holy Spirit.  It is through the Holy Spirit that we are convicted, and it is how we learn to understand the Scripture.  The Holy Spirit allows us to be seen as righteous to God and therefore, we are no longer at war with Him.  We can then receive the peace that He offers.  It is a peace much better than what the world offers! Christ broke down the wall that separated us from God by His actions on the cross.  He has united us with the God of Peace. “14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility”. Ephesians 2:14

By wearing the shoes of the Gospel of Peace we have a firm foundation in what the Scripture says.  This means that we will not be swayed by what the world tells us.  I can think of one aspect of this happening in my own life.  If you have read my introduction, than you will know that before I became a believer in Jesus Christ, I attended a church that told me to apologize to the men for bringing sin into the world as a woman like Eve.  With no doubt this was not taken well by me but because I did not have a firm foundation in the scripture, I could not rebuke those in leadership who were pushing something that is not Biblically sound.  So instead I left the church and thought I was leaving God behind.  Thankfully, God was not done with me and instead placed friends in my life who were able to show Biblically what it meant to be a Christian, one of these friends also turned out to be my husband who has continually encouraged me to bring everything back to Scripture and has helped me to have a deeper understanding of God.

The point of this story is that without a firm foundation in the Scripture, we are easily swept away from God.  We all need to be thankful that God does not chose to let us wander away, but will come after us “4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?” Luke 15:4. Now it is easy to see how a non-believer can be swept away with so many unbiblical teachings around today, but how does this affect the born-again believer?  If we fail to put on the feet of peace, not having a firm foundation in the Scripture, then we are still putting ourselves at risk for what the enemy would say.  Look back into Genesis 3, the serpent simply asked Adam and Eve a question which caused them to doubt God and sin. For a believer to be truly at peace we must understand the Gospel is our only source of assurance in this life, without Jesus Christ at the helm we are lost. Each part of the armor of God is vital but for those who wear the shoes of peace, they have a clear distinction when the rest of the world screams in dismay they have a solid rock to stand on.  

When we as believers do not have a firm foundation in what the Scripture says about the Gospel, then we are allowing the enemy to twist things.  This is how ideology that salvation comes from works and not by faith alone have been formed as well as many other ideologies that do not agree with what the Gospel says. When we fail to put on the feet of peace, then we leave ourselves open to a spiritual attack. History tells us that in any war there is mass confusion, yet God in His wisdom and understanding that in this spiritual battle we as believers need to be unified. When soldiers march in columns they are in lockstep cohesion, as Christians we need to have our shoes of the Gospel of Peace readily on so that we can stay united and moving in the direction that Christ wants us moving. Soldiers are always focused on keeping their feet ready for whatever war demands, part of that is the careful preparation and selection of boots, likewise as Christians we need to be focused on the Gospel to which will ready us for any demand that this spiritual war may send our way.  

In previous blogs, we have seen that the peace that God offers is not the same as what the world offers.  We as believers should be grateful that it is different for the peace that the world offers is hardly peace at all, especially with what we are seeing now.  While God’s peace is different it does not mean that we will not face trials.  “33 These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”” John 16:33. We can have peace in our tribulations because God has overcome the world. “16 Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.” 2 Thessalonians 3:16.  Christ is not only truth, but He is peace and grants us His peace in every circumstance.  The more time we spend reading His Word, the more we understand our God who is a God of peace. This allows us to build that firm foundation in the Scripture.

So why then do we need to put on the feet of peace?  It is a preparation act, when you are preparing something it means that you are getting ready.  In the case of the armor of God, you are preparing for a spiritual battle, a battle that will go on around you weather or not you are aware.  How you face that battle depends entirely on your preparation, which is why Paul states that you must put on the Gospel of Peace. This part of the armor allows us to have the peace that only God can offer, with firmly having the Gospel of Jesus Christ, a believer is able to not only be on God’s side but will be able to be used by God when and how He desires to use us in this world.   If you stand firm in the Gospel then peace can be found, if not then you will be swept away by the fears and worries of this world. “31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?” Romans 8:31

Seek the Truth and encourage one another,               

Alex

Before the Humble Arrival (V)

“If God had a beginning, He is not God. All beings who have beginnings must assume to the role of the law of limit. God has no beginning; therefore, He has no limit. His power has no limit, His presence has no limit, and His attributes have no limit in His character. In contrast the devil is a created being, he has limited power, limited presence, limited definition of who he is. There is no comparing the two as rivals. One is a doomed created being, the other limitless, endless, and forever in all ways and so much more.”

Author Unknown  

As we have been studying the preincarnate visits of Jesus Christ, we have been learning who Jesus was before His humble arrival in Bethlehem. We have been learning that Jesus Christ who claimed to be God, had proven He was God prior to arriving to make these statements. Elmer L Towns stated correctly, “When we consider that Christ would meet with men as He did throughout the Old Testament and then spend a life among men on earth, we cannot help but be impressed with the intense personal concern of Christ. He is intensely interested in our personal lives and takes a personal interest in the problems and decisions that face us day by day. As He existed in the past and demonstrated His interest in the affairs of men, so today He is interested in our problems. He desires to become involved in our lives.”[1] These visits reveal the character of Jesus as the Son of God and thusly God in precious ways. Our next event of Jesus on earth before His humble arrival in Bethlehem can be found in Judges 13.

“Now the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, so that the Lord gave them into the hands of the Philistines forty years 2 There was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren and had borne no children. 3 Then the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “Behold now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and give birth to a son. 4 Now therefore, be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing. 5 For behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines.” 6 Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, “A man of God came to me and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God, very awesome. And I did not ask him where he came from, nor did he tell me his name. 7 But he said to me, ‘Behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son, and now you shall not drink wine or strong drink nor eat any unclean thing, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.’” Judge 13:1-7.

Once again we have someone seeing God in the flesh and being able to recognize immediately that it was Jesus. In verse 6, Manoah’s wife identifies the man as God, “A man of God came to me and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God, very awesome.” Unlike our previous lesson of awesome power being shown, here we have the gentle arrival of Jesus, here He is wanting to deliver a message and giving hope to the Jewish people. The story continues,  “Then Manoah entreated the Lord and said, “O Lord, please let the man of God whom You have sent come to us again that he may teach us what to do for the boy who is to be born.” 9 God listened to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came again to the woman as she was sitting in the field, but Manoah her husband was not with her. 10 So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, “Behold, the man who came the other day has appeared to me.” 11 Then Manoah arose and followed his wife, and when he came to the man he said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to the woman?” And he said, “I am.” 12 Manoah said, “Now when your words come to pass, what shall be the boy’s mode of life and his vocation?” 13 So the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “Let the woman pay attention to all that I said. 14 She should not eat anything that comes from the vine nor drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing; let her observe all that I commanded.” Judge 13:8-14.

Here we see a clear stance taken by Jesus in the gospels already being portrayed in the Old Testament. He is listening to the Father. When God heard Manoah’s prayer, and the angel of the God came again. Jesus was sent back! He obeyed! This is in clear connection to John 5, “So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise” John 5:19. Yet, He is not done there, Jesus shows more of His character as He is patient to wait on those who doubt or need further clarification of who He is.

“15 Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “Please let us detain you so that we may prepare a young goat for you.” 16 The angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “Though you detain me, I will not eat your food, but if you prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to the Lord.” For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the Lord. 17 Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “What is your name, so that when your words come to pass, we may honor you?” 18 But the angel of the Lord said to him, “Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?” 19 So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering and offered it on the rock to the Lord, and He performed wonders while Manoah and his wife looked on. 20 For it came about when the flame went up from the altar toward heaven, that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell on their faces to the ground.

Many wonder and contemplate the scenario of what will happen when they first get to meet Jesus. If it is anything like many individuals in the Bible, we will fall flat on our face. Manoah and his wife are able to further signify this is Jesus by their actions of falling with their faces to the ground. While this is not the only sign of God, this sign shows the power of God and not of a man. No man can perform what just happened before them. Nevertheless, Manoah and his wife’s discussion helps highlight the restraint that Jesus Christ uses. He is controlling in whatever he does, He is self-controlled to a degree that Manoah and his wife come to the realization they would have been dead if the angel of the Lord had wanted it. “21 Now the angel of the Lord did not appear to Manoah or his wife again. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the Lord. 22 So Manoah said to his wife, “We will surely die, for we have seen God.” 23 But his wife said to him, “If the Lord had desired to kill us, He would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, nor would He have shown us all these things, nor would He have let us hear things like this at this time.” Judges 13:21-23. This is huge for us to understand, Jesus Christ’s restraint should never be looked at as weakness, but as complete sovereignty over any situation. He is always in control no matter how desperate it might seem. This confirms His statement in John 10, “No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded” John 10:18. Our God Jesus Christ, is someone who we can place all of our faith in, He is not only God, but man perfected, He is the Alpha and the Omega. For those who wish to diminish who He is, is to diminish who God is. That is why we need to take His words so seriously, as Manoah and his wife did. They were able to see God’s promise of a son come true, and Israel having a hero to help save them. “24 Then the woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson; and the child grew up and the Lord blessed him. 25 And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.” Judge 13:24-25.

As we study the Word of God, never forget the old saying, “scripture answers scripture!” So, for Jesus to make some crazy statements about Himself in the gospels, you can already assume His previous actions have backed it up. When you read the story of Manoah and his wife, remember that Jesus is not just all powerful, but He is in control of every situation.  We can rest assure that He is who He says he is, Jesus Christ is God in the flesh!

Hold until relieved, our Blessed Hope is coming

JL

[1] Elmer L Towns , Concise Bible Doctrines, PG. 122

RE-POST FRIDAY

Today’s RE-POST FRIDAY we review how the Bible is a great timeline within human history. CLICK HERE!

A Spiritual Warfighter’s Tools

If you are a born-again believer in these times, it may seem as if the world is attacking you.  In certain areas of the world this means a physical attack as well as an attack on churches with lock-downs preventing services.  While this may seem hard enough as it is, there is another attack taking place on the born-again believer, and it is a spiritual attack.  Sadly, this is the type of attack that many Christians are the least prepared for and yet is the most dangerous.  So how do we, as believers in the one true God handle all of this?  The answer can be found in Ephesians 6:10-18.

“10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”

Paul is reminding the Church in Ephesus that they need to be strong in the Lord, that their power comes from Him and not from themselves.  This is as true today as it was then!  Our greatest strength in this world has nothing to do with our physical capabilities or the political party that we belong to or any other materialistic thing.  Our strength comes from the one true God!  To believe that we are powerful enough on our own would be like the disciples in Matthew 17:18-20 who could not cast out a demon from a young boy but with one word Jesus Christ commanded the demon to leave.  Jesus then reminds the disciples that if they had greater faith they would have been able to cast out the demon.  This issue here was that the disciples did not believe that God was big enough to cast out the demon, there is nothing more powerful on this earth than our God!  God is the source of all of our strength!

But why do we need to be strong in the Lord?  It is because there is a war going on today, an unseen war, and that is a spiritual war.  We must be strong in the Lord and put on all of His armor so that we can stand against the devil’s schemes.  Our war is one that is “against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12. It is important to note here that there is no verbiage that states that putting on the armor is a one and done type deal. Just like knights who had to put their armor on daily, we to as believers must put on our spiritual armor each and every day. When we slack in putting on one aspect of the Armor, we leave ourselves open to attack.  This could come in confusion of a doctrine, believing that one version of the Bible is superior to others, division in the church, and so many other ways that are to numerous to count.  All of these ways can cause a believer to stumble.

It is important for us to wear the full Armor of God because of who we are fighting against.  While we can never be torn away from God once we belong to Him, “28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.” John 10:28-30 this does not mean that this warfare does not affect the born-again Christian. The old saying, “if you fail to plan you plan to fail” has more truth in this coming study than most realize. While we who are saved cannot lose our salvation, we can be caught in the devils schemes and hurt. This is especially true if we are not prepared. 2 Corinthians, Paul warns the believers in chapter 2 verse 11, “so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.” We need to be vigilant as our Father wants us ready for anything at a moment’s notice. We must remember what Paul states in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 “3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”.

As we will see in the next several weeks, God does not leave us undefended or unprotected from the spiritual attacks that we face. By studying the Armor of God, we will see how it can be applied to us today.  When we have the Armor of God, we are strong in Him and can stand against what this world will throw at us.

Seek the Truth and encourage one another,

                        Alex

Before the Humble Arrival (IV)

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic- on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg- or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse….you can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing non-sense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

C.S Lewis[1]

Unfortunately, today there is a growing problem in the so-called church! According to LifeWay Research, 30% of evangelicals believe Jesus Christ was only a good teacher and not God. How sad! “All total, 52 percent of Americans say they believe Jesus was a ‘good teacher, but he was not God,’ according to the survey. Although the poll’s finding about the general population may not be shocking, Ligonier said it is surprising that nearly a third of evangelicals (30 percent) affirm the statement and believe Jesus was a good teacher and nothing more.”[2] This highlights the need to not only study Christology (the study of Jesus Christ) but also study the preincarnation of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. These visits prove without a shadow of doubt that Jesus Christ is God! As stated last week, only Jesus could show His character through actions THEN BE BORN and make the statements of who He is. He does it in reverse to show His awesome power! No moral teacher, no religious zealot, no political leader, could pull this show of majesty and power as the Son of God could. Jesus Christ is who He said He is, “I am.”

Nevertheless, we want to today continue in part four of our seven-part series reviewing some of the preincarnate appearances of Jesus Christ before His humble arrival in Bethlehem. Today we review, one of the quickest but grandest demonstrations of Jesus Christ as the Son of God!

For this event let us to go to the book of Daniel chapter 3.

At the very start of the chapter we see Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon concocting a foolish idea, “Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, the height of which was sixty cubits and its width six cubits; he set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent word to assemble the satraps, the prefects and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates and all the rulers of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. Then the satraps, the prefects and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers the judges, the magistrates and all the rulers of the provinces were assembled for the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. Then the satraps, the prefects and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates and all the rulers of the provinces were assembled for the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up; and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Then the herald loudly proclaimed; ‘To you the command is given, O peoples, nations and men of every language, that at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, bagpipe and all kinds of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up. But whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire” Daniel 3:1-6. Nebuchadnezzar thought himself as God, he believed he was worthy of worship and the image that he had created was to be the focal point of the kingdoms worship. However, our three heroes in the story Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, refused to bend the knee and worship a false god.

As the story continues, we find out that charges are brought against the three who refused to obey the command to worship a false god, in doing so they declared their lives forfeit. They were more interested in following the true God, the living God, the ever-close God, Jesus Christ. “For this reason at that time certain Chaldeans came forward and brought charges against the Jews. They responded and said to Nebuchadnezzar the king: ‘O king, live forever! You, O king, have made a decree that every man who hears the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, and bagpipe and all kinds of music, is to fall down and worship the golden image. But whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire. There are certain Jew whom you have appointed over the administration of the province of Babylon, namely Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego. These men, O king, have disregarded you; they do not serve your gods or worship the golden image which you have set up.’ Then Nebuchadnezzar in rage and anger gave orders to bring Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego; then these men were brought before the king. Nebuchadnezzar responded and said to them, ‘Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up? Now if you are ready, at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery and bagpipe and all kinds of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, very well. But if you do not worship, you will immediately be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire; and what god is there who can deliver you out of my hands?” Daniel 3:8-15.

What a pompous statement made by Nebuchadnezzar! “and what god is there who can deliver you out of my hands?” Nebuchadnezzar could do whatever he wanted and to throw three individuals into the fire would be no issue at all. However, as we find out, there is a God who could deliver them out of his hands. Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego refuse to obey and declared their lives to the fire, Daniel 3:16-18. As expected, Nebuchadnezzar becomes enraged and has the furnace heated up seven times more than it was usually heated, “He answered by giving orders to heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually. He commanded certain valiant warriors who were in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego in order to cast them into the furnace of blazing fire. Then these men were tied up in their trousers, their coats, their caps and their other clothes, and were cast into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire. For this reason, because the king’s command was urgent and the furnace had been made extremely hot, the flame of the fire slew those men who carried up Shadrach, Meshach and Abedn-nego. But these three men, Shadrach, Meshack and Abed-nego, fell into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire still tied up” Daniel 3:19-23. These three who have refused to obey, have given over their lives, and have been thrown into the furnace. While they were being thrown in, the fire killed the ones that threw them into the flames. In almost any other case, we would say that this story was over, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego were martyrs to their cause for only worshiping the true God. But God has other plans! These three are about to experience the preincarnated Jesus Christ! How do we know? Just like Abraham’s, and Jacob’s encounter, Nebuchadnezzar has this revealed to him. We are not given how the conclusion comes to this, but apparently it was obvious to Abraham, Jacob, and Nebuchadnezzar. “Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astounded and stood up in hate; he said to his high officials. ‘Was it not three men we cast bound into the midst of the fire?’ They replied to the king, ‘Certainly, O king.’ He said, ‘Look! I see four men loosed and walking about in the midst of the fire without harm, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods!’ Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the furnace of blazing fire; he responded and said, ‘Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, come out, you servants of the Most High God, and come here!’ Then Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego came out of the midst of the fire. The satraps, the prefects, the governors and the kin’gs high officials gathered around and saw in regard to these men that the fire had no effect on the bodies of these men nor was the hair of their head singed, nor were their trousers damaged, nor had the smell of fire even come upon them. Nebuchadnezzar responded and said, ‘Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, who has sent His angel and delivered His servants who put their trust in Him, violating the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies so as not to serve or worship any god except their own God,’” Daniel 3:24-28.

What we have here is an incredible story of God saving the lives of His followers. While at first glance it would appear that God is only in one small part of this larger story, you would be mistaken. This story actually portrays much more of Christ than when first read. Remember only Jesus Christ can do the actions prior to birth and then be born and make the statement. In this story we see the subtle hints of Jesus Christ.

To better understand, we need to take a pause and reflect on what statements Jesus Christ has said is coming. We know from Daniel chapter 9, that there is decreed a special amount of time specifically for the relationship of God with Israel. This relationship has seven years to play out. These seven years have been called many things from “Jacob’s Trouble” to “The Tribulation” but in the end, it is a focus of seven years with God dealing directly with the Jews. Unfortunately, we do not have the time today to discuss further but in future posts, Lord willing, we will see more of the seven years of Tribulation. But for now, we know that the Bible is clear that it is coming and has not happened yet. We know from Revelation chapter 13, that a mark of the beast will be established and people will be forced to take the mark of the beast. This could be a literal mark of 666, symbolizing the Antichrist’s name, or they will die. While the actual mark is still speculative, we know from Revelation 13:18 that this mark is coming and one day it will happen, in verses 11-17 of Revelation 13 we see that it will be forced.

Now at this point you might be wondering to yourself, where I am going with this but bear with me. How odd is it that the three Jews, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego are given an ultimatum to worship the image which was 60 cubits high, 6 cubits wide, and with 6 listed instruments? How ironic that the number becomes 666! Furthermore, the furnace is heated to seven times its typical heat. Jacob’s trouble is for seven years! On top of all that, where is Daniel during this time? He is not even in the story, but why? Because he was not there! Historians and Biblical scholars believe that Daniel was either on an errand for the king and was out of country during this time, or the Chaldeans were afraid to mention his name due to Daniel’s high status. Either way, we know that he is not mentioned so he is missing from the story. When you look at all the scripture relating to the Tribulation, be it Old or New Testament, you will see no mention of the Church on earth during the Tribulation. Why? It is because we are gone. There are many who will claim we are here for the entire seven years, and/or we have to be here until God’s wrath comes. I would respectfully disagree and tell them to keep seeing the Word of God for what is says and not what man foolishly speculates.

So, we have a group of Jews who are refusing to bow down and worship an image that hints to 666 and are thrown into a furnace seven times hotter than normal. Nebuchadnezzar, not knowing Jesus, identifies Him with the best title he is able to give Jesus at that time, “Son of the gods.” Nebuchadnezzar is identifying this man as different, He had saved Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego and their garments were not only protected but the three didn’t even smell like smoke. We see that this person has the power to control earthly elements. Now the power to control fire does not mean you are God, nor does it mean you are a good person. Revelation chapter 13 shows the False Prophet will be able to call down fire from Heaven in front of the first Beast. So how do we know this fourth person is God? First, we can tell because of the number four. In my book The Haggai Project, I show through research the number four has strong significance, “4: Is the number of the gospel. There are 4 sides to a cross and four books in the Bible specifically talking about Jesus’ life on earth. There are 4 major Prophets in the Old Testament, ‘Judah, the messianic tribe from which David and Jesus descended, is the 4th tribe of Israel. The first 4 of the 10 Commandments deal with our relationship to God (the last six deal with our relationship to fellow man, hardly a coincidence since 6 is the number of man). Jesus told his disciples to spread the Gospel in 4 places, in Acts 1:8.’ God on the fourth day of creation created the physical elements for light. Some of have argued that another clue as to why the Jews should have known Jesus was coming was because of the argument of the fourth day representing 4 thousand years of mankind and just like on the fourth day, in the fourth century the light arrived. How ironic that the gospel is there for anyone to see but will only be found by those who are seeking God. What seems trivial to some as just numbers will be seen by others as the significance of God’s Word.”[3]

We also know this is Jesus because Nebuchadnezzar is not stopped by any of the three Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego when he proclaims the amazing attributes of God in verses 28-30. Jesus is not done here though, this representation shows that Jesus not only loves the individual, as we saw with Abraham and Jacob, but also the national group which is being represented by Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego in a future event. Jesus has the power to save anyone from anyone, thing, or cause. “ For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39. He still cares for Israel and will one day come back to them. How amazing is Jesus Christ who before His humble arrival has given us so many actions to back up His statements that He would make later.

Hold until relieved, our Blessed Hope is coming

JL

[1] Michael C. Bere, Bible Doctrines for Today, Pg. 140

[2] Michael Foust, Christian Headlines, Drifting Away from Scripture: 30 Percent of Evangelicals Say Jesus Was Not God, Poll Shows, August 27th 2020.

[3] Jon-Luke Thomasson, The Haggai Project, Pg. 96

RE-POST FRIDAY

Today’s RE-POST FRIDAY we see the remarkable actions of a courageous woman. CLICK HERE!

God Is Bigger Than Our Rejection!

In the last two weeks, we have looked at the two choices that is presented to everyone.  We can either humble ourselves and turn to God as Nebuchadnezzar did, or we can ignore Him like Balthazar did.  Everyone has this opportunity because God works in the lives of both the believers and the unbelievers.  There is nothing that can stop Him from using someone to complete His work, if we believe something is outside of God’s power to change we are limiting God with limits that He does not have. But what happens if you are one of His and you turn away from the faith?  Will He love you even then?  For that answer, we need to look at one of Jesus Christ’s own disciples, we need to look at Peter.

Peter was a fisherman and one of the first to be called by Jesus Christ to be a disciple.  One account of this can be found in Luke 5:1-11.  Jesus had gotten into Peter’s boat asking him to go a little way from shore so that He could teach the crowd gathered there.  When He was done, He asked Peter to place his net out who replied “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets” Luke 5:5. Peter was already beginning to see that there was more to this man, but he did not yet know who it was.  When Peter let down the net, there were so many fish that the net began to break.  Upon seeing this Peter responded to Jesus, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” Luke 5:8. Peter knew then that this was the one that was foretold about in the Old Testament. Even though Peter knew that he was a sinful man, when Jesus told him to follow he listened. “19 And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men’” Matthew 4:19.

From here Peter continued to follow Jesus throughout His ministry and was even one of the disciples who was there to witness His transfiguration as described in Matthew 17, and he was the disciple to recognize that Jesus was the Son of God, “13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ 14 They replied, ‘Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ 15 ‘But what about you?’ he asked. ‘Who do you say I am?’ 16 Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’17 Jesus replied, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’” Matthew 16:13-20.  In these verses Jesus Christ even states that Peter would be the rock that His church would be built upon! What an honor!

So how could a disciple such as Peter be the same one who would eventually deny Jesus Himself?  Peter often looked at the short term of Jesus’s ministries, he failed to see that Jesus came to save the whole world from sin.  This often caused Peter to be rebuked by Jesus, in one occurrence when Jesus was explaining the plan of salvation that God had, “21 From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. 22 Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, ‘God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.’ 23 But He turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.’”

Peter’s failure to see the bigger picture also caused Jesus to have a dire warning for him, “31 ‘Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; 32 but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.’ 33 But he said to Him, ‘Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!’ 34 And He said, ‘I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me.’” Luke 22:31-34. The man that Jesus was to build His church on, was being petitioned by Satan to be separated from the twelve!  It was only through the prayers of Jesus that Peter was not sifted away. While that is a powerful statement alone, especially when we understand that Jesus is currently at the right hand of God petitioning for us even now, there is a bigger aspect to these verses. 

If you look at verse 32 again, you see that Jesus knew that Peter would fall away.  However, if you look closer, you see that Jesus knew that he would return! With that knowledge, Jesus was already giving Peter his marching orders for after His death, and that was to strengthen fellow believers.  Peter did not understand the significance of what Jesus was telling him, he merely stated that he would never fall away and that he would follow Jesus to death. Again, Peter was looking at the short term instead of seeing the overall picture.  Just as Jesus stated, Peter did deny Him and when “Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had told him, ‘Before a rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.’ 62 And he went out and wept bitterly.” Luke 22:61-62. 

Peter can be an example to those of us who have been following after Jesus for a while, but for whatever reason have turned away from the faith and now have a deep conviction about what has occurred.  To make this clear, this type of conviction is only there for those who truly have made the 180 degree turn and have accepted the free gift of salvation that Jesus Christ offers to all.  While being a born-again believer does not make us perfect while on this earth, we are found righteous before God through the actions of Jesus Christ on the cross and it is through the Holy Spirit that we have this conviction.  It is this same conviction that caused Peter to go out and weep over his actions.  Let us continue to look at Peter though to see what God made of the man who denied Him.

Once Jesus was resurrected, He met with Peter and the other disciples on the shores of Galilee (John 21:4). The men did not recognize Jesus at first but upon His command to throw the fishing net to the right side of the boat, and the amount of fish they brought in, John recognized that it was Him which caused Peter to jump out of the fishing boat to hurry to swim back to Jesus. (John 21:6-7).  It was as they were all eating, that Jesus then puts a charge to Peter, to feed His lambs, to care for His sheep, and to feed His sheep (John 21:15-17).  And this is exactly what Peter does.  If you continue to read what Peter accomplishes, you will see that he had the ability to cause a lame man to walk (Acts 3:1-11) and raised a woman from the dead (Acts 9:36-43).  But more importantly, Peter had the ability to go in front of a crowd but this time he was not denying Christ, he was preaching about Him (Acts 2:14-41).  In this one occurrence, Peter led around three thousand to accept Jesus!  He truly was the stone that God built His church on!

If a man who denied God’s Son could be used in this way, imagine what God can accomplish through you.  If you are someone who may feel that they have ran from God, understand that God never leaves you.  What is even more is that your sins have been forgiven already!  Just as Jesus knew that Peter would deny Him, He also knew that Peter would return.  We all have our orders, “18 Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’” Matthew 28:18-20 and this order remains even if we have turned away.  We can be brought back and still be put to work by God.

Seek the Truth and encourage one another,

Alex

Before the Humble Arrival (III)

“I know men; and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not a man. Superficial minds see a resemblance between Christ and the founders of empires, and the gods of other religions. That resemblance does not exist. There is between Christianity and whatever other religions the distance of infinity…. Everything in Christ astonish me. His spirit overawes me, and His will confounds me. Between Him and whoever else in the world, there is no possible term of comparison. He is truly a being by Himself. His ideas and sentiments, the truth which He announces, His manner of convincing, are not explained either by human organization or by the nature of things….The nearer I approach, the more carefully I examine, everything is above me- Everything remains grand, of a grandeur which overpowers. His religion is a revelation from an intelligence which certainly is not that of man….One can absolutely find nowhere, but in Him alone, the imitation or the example of His life…I search in vain in history to find the similar to Jesus Christ, or anything which can approach the gospel. Neither history, nor humanity, nor the ages, nor nature, offer me anything with which I am able to compare it or to explain it. Here everything is extraordinary.”

Napoleon Bonaparte[1]

As stated over the last two weeks, many today are attempting to redefine Jesus Christ as being only a man. Some have gone as far as to question His existence entirely. Yet, for those who truly look at the accounts discussed in the Word of God, we can see how real Jesus Christ is! Jesus Christ is not just a man and not just a God but one hundred percent man and God at the same time, He is truly one of a kind!

When we study the glimpses of Jesus prior to His humble arrival in Bethlehem, we come to undoubtedly one of the strangest written events of Jesus Christ. Jacob, the second son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham, is certainly one of the most devious individuals in the Bible. He not only steals his brother’s blessing in Genesis chapter 27, but also runs away from dealing with his brother in Chapter 27-28.  The name Jacob even means “usurper.” Still the account found in Genesis chapter 32 can only be described as unique. Jacob meets angels of God and realizes that he is in the camp of God, Genesis 32:1-2. While there he wrestles with God.

“Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When He saw that he had not prevailed against him, He touched the socket of his thigh; so the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with Him. Then He said, ‘Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.’ But he said, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’ So He said to him, ‘What is your name?’ And he said ‘Jacob.’ He said ‘Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.’ Then Jacob asked Him and said, ‘Please tell me your name.’ But He said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And He blessed him there. So Jacob named the place Peniel, for he said, ‘I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved.’ Now the sun rose upon him just as he crossed over Penuel, and he was limping on his thigh. Therefore, to this day the sons of Israel do not eat the sinew of the hip which is on the socket of the thigh, because He touched the socket of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew of the hip” Genesis 32:24-32.   While our study is not over Jacob’s life, it is unique that he would do whatever it took to receive a blessing from God. Any person who has wrestled knows the amount of energy and focus such a task takes, to do it for such an amount of time as Jacob did is incredible.

In verse 30, Jacob gives us the credibility needed to connect this encounter as God wrestling with him. However we can further reason that the specific representation of the trinity in this situation from John 1:18, “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.” He as in Jesus Christ, has “explained” or in layman’s terms “revealed, shown or brought to light” God for us to see. Thus, based on this, we can connect this encounter of this Man wrestling with Jacob as only Jesus Christ. Elmer Towns stated rather eloquently, “Since Christ is the only one of the three persons of the Trinity to be seen, we are left to believe…Christ appeared to Jacob and wrestled with him during the night. Jacob recognized the next morning he had met with God.”[2]

Yet, we can further see the character of Jesus Christ in the Man who wrestled with Jacob. The Man wrestled with him when presumably at anytime could have dislocated his hip. He showed restraint against man, this is a subtle but vital clue in understanding that this is Jesus Christ. One must only look at all the encounters of Jesus Christ with the Pharisees and other confrontational incidents to know that Jesus Christ showed an amazing amount of restraint. Satan actually helps highlight the capacity of the power of Jesus Christ’s authority to order angels in Matthew 26. Here Satan has finally been given his permission to use Judas to betray Jesus and have the Son of God arrested. The very thought of God being arrested by man is laughable but Jesus, in submission to the Father’s plan, allowed it. During Christ’s arrest, He confirms that He is willfully restraining Himself from what He could do, “Or do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels? How then will the Scriptures be fulfilled, which say that it must happen this way?” Matthew 26:53-54. Self-control is in fact one of the best examples of God’s presence. He can do what He wants at anytime but He will resort to what is necessary for the sake of those He is working with, which in this case is Jacob. Jacob needed to understand that God has preserved Jacob’s life and the coming encounter with Esau was to be left in God’s hands.

Nevertheless, as we study the appearances of Jesus Christ before His humble arrival in Bethlehem, we must continue to find the relevance as to why this is important for us today. The subtle lesson of this encounter is a single event of the overall grander scale and nature of God with all of us. Jesus Christ is willing to do whatever it takes to help us come to grips with Him. In the case of Jacob, Jesus needed to wrestle and physically hold him back to get Jacob to trust Him with the coming encounter of Esau in Genesis chapter 33. Jesus’ willingness to do whatever it takes reminds me of the gospel of Luke in chapter 15 when Jesus sheds light on His actions as the Good Shepherd with those who He seeks, “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ I tell you that in the same, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” Luke 15:4-7.

We can see the loving character of Jesus; He will do whatever it takes to wake up the individual. In the grander scheme, Jesus, with humility and restraint, gave up His own life for us, so that while we were still sinners, He died for us! We can see from this preincarnate encounter with Jacob that Jesus’ love and commitment to doing whatever is necessary, is already there! His character is timeless! This means we can take hold of His never changing character and hold His promises as faithful and true! If He says He is coming back for us, we can take it to the bank, because He has never broken a promise and His character is that of loving to the point of restraining Himself to do what is necessary to get our attention. What an amazing God we have! Typically, a person would make a statement and then show their actions to coincide with those statements made. However, only Jesus Christ could show up prior to His birth in Bethlehem, perform such actions of devotion, restraint, love, and so much more and then be born of a virgin and make the statements/declaration about Himself. We can take what He says in the New Testament as a verified fact, because He has already verified it with His literal actions in the Old Testament. You would not know this unless you studied Jesus in the Old Testament to fully understand Him in the New Testament.

Hold until relieved, our Blessed Hope is coming

JL

[1] Michael C. Bere, Bible Doctrines for Today, Pg. 140

[2] Elmer. Towns, Concise Bible Doctrines, Pg. 121

RE-POST FRIDAY

Today’s RE-POST Friday we look back on the Christian’s greatest help! Click Here!

Two Choices Part 2

Last week we looked at Nebuchadnezzar who was a proud man and who thought that his reign was succeeding on his will alone.  He failed to recognize God’s authority in his life and that decision led him to become more like a beast than a man.  It was only after Nebuchadnezzar had bowed his knee to God and realize that God works in the lives of unbelievers as well as those who belong to him, did Nebuchadnezzar regain his kingdom and all the honor that went along with it.  We saw how God will use times when we are comfortable in our lives to send us situations that will either cause us to lean on Him or to turn from Him.  This week we will look at another man who had a choice to follow after God, but instead of turning to Him like Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar kept the idols that were in his heart.

Belshazzar was the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, he had heard of the events that occurred in Daniel chapter 4 but did not take Nebuchadnezzar’s lesson to heart.  Instead Belshazzar continued to be prideful and secure in his own castle. So sure, was Belshazzar, that he even held a feast for all his nobles while Babylon was under siege. He believed that there was no way that the Medes and Persians would break down the walls.  He knew that Babylon was fortified enough to last several years under siege, so he was comfortable.

Not only did he hold an elaborate feast, Belshazzar also called for the gold and silver cups from Jerusalem that Nebuchadnezzar had brought to Babylon to be used (Daniel 5:2).  Belshazzar and others who drank from the cup than began to praise false gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone (Daniel 5:4).  Belshazzar then saw something that caused him to become pale and his knees to tremble (Daniel 5:6).  A human hand appeared on the wall across from him and wrote out a message (Daniel 5:5).  Belshazzar called for his advisors to see what they could make of the message, none were able to decipher it (Daniel 5:8).  Belshazzar was then reminded of Daniel who had been able to help solve problems like this in the past (Daniel 5:12). 

Daniel was indeed able to decipher the message on the wall, but it was certainly not good news for the king.  Daniel reminded Belshazzar that even though he knew of what had happened to Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar had not humbled his heart and instead had put himself against God when he drank from the sacred cups and praised false gods (Daniel 5:17-23). Daniel then continues to rebuke the king, Belshazzar had honored gods who do not “see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored” Daniel 5:23.  Daniel then interprets the message for Belshazzar, “26 This is the interpretation of the matter: Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; 27 Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; 28 Peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.””.  Unlike with Nebuchadnezzar, God did not wait to carry out His sentence. That very night Belshazzar was slain and Darius the Mede took control of Babylon (Daniel 5:31).

Belshazzar can be used as an example for many in today’s world.  Especially if you are an American Christian, you have heard at one time or another different aspects of the Bible.  Just like Belshazzar who had heard of what had happened to his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar, we know the stories but we often ignore them, and thus we have a false sense of security that we can do things on our own.  We begin to build up idols in our hearts, and as is seen in Psalm 115:4-8 we become like our idols. “But their idols are silver and gold, made by human hands. 5 They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see. 6 They have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell. 7 They have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but cannot walk, nor can they utter a sound with their throats. 8 Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.”  We place our trust in idols of our own making, idols that have mouths, eyes, ears, and noses but all of that is worthless because these idols hold none of the power of the only true God who breathes life into His creations, ““The Spirit of God has made me, And the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” Job 33:4.  Our idols offer us a false sense of security, just as Belshazzar had with the siege going on behind his walls.  And just like Belshazzar, God will still reach us when we feel we are content in this world and who we are in it.  In Belshazzar’s case, it was a literal writing on the wall, for those today it may be a worldwide lock down causing you to reflect on what is truly important to you. 

Belshazzar had the opportunity to heed his grandfather’s lesson and humble himself to God, however, he chose not to.  This choice resulted in God turning against him.  Belshazzar’s kingdom was divided amongst the Medes and Persians, a fact that Daniel had predicted in Daniel chapter 2 (this was also why Daniel was not interested in being made the third ruler in the kingdom, he knew that the kingdom would be divided amongst the Medes and Persians, God had already shown Daniel this). Belshazzar’s false security failed him when confronted with God’s will.  By failing to humble himself to God, God was against Belshazzar.

We all have the choice to humble ourselves to God or not. As we saw last week if we choose to humble ourselves, we will be saved just as Nebuchadnezzar was.  But if we choose not to humble ourselves then we are choosing a path that goes against what God would will for us.  God wants all to come to Him and acknowledge Him “3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.” 1 Timothy 2:3-6. However, if we take on the attitude of Belshazzar then God will be against us just as He was against Jerusalem in Jeremiah 21.  What is interesting about this passage is that God used Nebuchadnezzar to bring His people back to Him.  We all have two choices we could make when the God breaks through our false sense of security.  We can either turn to God like Nebuchadnezzar, or we can ignore him and be separated from God forever as Belshazzar was.

Seek the Truth and encourage one another,

                        Alex

Before the Humble Arrival (II)

“The deity of Jesus Christ, is pivotal in Christianity, for without Jesus being God, His statements are meaningless.”   

There are many today who would claim that Jesus Christ was only a man and did not exist before He was born in Bethlehem. These scoffers are sadly found in churches and church leadership today. Yet, as we started last week in studying the preincarnation of Jesus Christ, we are seeing how very real He was prior to His humble arrival. Today in part two in our series, we focus on one of the most misunderstood and read over passages found in the Bible.

A promise by a visitor!

Now the Lord appeared to him (Abraham) by the oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day. When he lifted up his eyes and looked, behold, three men were standing opposite him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth, and said, “My Lord, if now I have found favor in Your sight, please do not pass Your servant by. Please let a little water be brought and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree; and I will bring a piece of bread, that you may refresh yourselves; after that you may go on, since you have visited your servant”. And they said, “So do, as you have said.” So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Quickly, prepare three measures of fine flour, kneed it and make bread cakes.” Abraham also ran to the herd, and took a tender and choice calf and gave it to the servant, and he hurried to prepare it. He took curds and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and placed it before them; and he was standing by them under the tree as they ate. Then they said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” He said, “I will surely return to you at this time next year; and behold, Sarah your wife will have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door, which was behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; Sarah was past childbearing. Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have become old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?” And the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, when I am so old?’ Is anything too difficult for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” Sarah denied it however, saying “I did not laugh”; for she was afraid. And He said, “No, but you did laugh.” Genesis 18:1-15.

Here we see several key points to help us understand who this individual is. Let us start first with the name “Lord.” This word in Hebrew is the proper name of God, it is “Yhvh.” The first time the word is used is in Genesis 2:4, “This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven.” Simply put, this verse is describing God, for only He can create anything. Thus, we now have a conundrum, we have two verses describing Lord in two different ways. Genesis 2 shows His power to create the known universe, while we also have Lord being used in Genesis 18:1-15 as being a man. The scripture describes this man as being tired. Abraham was allowed to prepare a meal to refresh the Lord, “and I will bring a piece of bread, that you may refresh yourselves; after that you may go on, since you have visited your servant” Genesis 18:5. So here we see two distinct natures that help identify the characteristics around the word Lord. Imagine, Abraham is sitting and attempting to cool down in the hot sun and suddenly he has three men in front of him, one of whom he identifies immediately as God.

How did Abraham immediately know? I have no idea, for the scripture does not say. But I can only assume that Abraham was permitted to know. Additionally, the Lord knows the thoughts of Sarah when she is not even in His presence. In verse 12, Sarah laughs to herself about being told by the Lord that she is going to have a son. When confronted by the Lord on the matter, she is afraid and then corrected again when she tries to say she did not laugh in verse 15. The Lord knows the thoughts, Jesus Christ is also identified as knowing the thoughts of people, “Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, ‘every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand” Matthew 12:25. The similarities continue to prove that both individuals are one. Nevertheless, this is not the end of the story. For we are about to see more evidence as to this man being God incarnate.

 “Then the men rose up from there, and looked down toward Sodom; and Abraham was walking with them to send them off. The Lord said, ‘Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed? For I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him.” And the Lord said, “The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave. I will go down now, and see if they have done entirely according to its outcry, which has come to Me; and if not, I will know.” Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, while Abraham was still standing before the Lord. Abraham came near and said, “Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will You indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?” So the Lord said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place on their account.” And Abraham replied, “Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord, although I am but dust and ashes. Suppose the fifty righteous are lacking five, will You destroy the whole city because of five?” And He said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” He spoke to Him yet again and said, “Suppose forty are found there?”  And He said, I will not do it on the account of the forty.” Then he said, “Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak; suppose thirty are found there?” And He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there” And he said, “Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord; suppose twenty are found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it on the account of the twenty.” Then he said, “Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak only this once; suppose ten are found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it on the account of the ten.” As soon as He had finished speaking to Abraham the Lord departed, and Abraham returned to his place.”  Genesis 18:16-33.

This helps outline the characteristics of the Lord, spoken in Genesis, is in fact, Jesus Christ. In verses 18 and 19, we see that the Lord is prophesying He would bless the nations through Abraham. Also, in verse 25, we see Abraham as identifying the Lord as the Judge of all the earth. There is no one who is capable of judging the World but God, “but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead” 1 Peter 4:5. Jesus Christ, is further shown to ultimately judge all those who are in the world found in Revelation, “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, everyone one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s’ name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” Revelation 20:11-15. We can tell just from these two clues that this person is God!

So out of Genesis chapter 18 we have identified the Lord as having specific qualities that will help identify if the Lord as described in Genesis 18, is Jesus Christ. Verse 1 identifies Lord as being God with His name. Verse 5 shows the Lord could get tired, when we examine John 4:6 we see Jesus being tired, “and Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.” Verse 17 shows the Lord as prophesying of what will happen to Abraham, we see Jesus Christ being referenced as a Prophet in Acts 3:22-23, “Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren; to Him you shall give heed to everything He says to you. And it will be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.” Verse 16 shows the Lord walking, look at any of the gospels we can clearly see Jesus Christ’s entire ministry was done on foot with Him visiting locations and stopping to give lessons, signs, and to fulfill specific prophecy.

I would lastly argue that this is Jesus Christ because of the nature of the Lord’s departure from Abraham in verse 33. When He was done talking, He just departs. Jesus in all of the gospels is quick to continue to where He is needed, and He is deliberate in His actions and concluding those actions.

Wrapping up, we are seeing the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as being God. Any argument of Jesus Christ being only a man is inherently wrong and lacks a clear and full study of all the scripture to see Him in completeness! He is fully man and fully God, we have His pre-incarnation visits to prove His authenticity as God prior to His humble arrival in Bethlehem.  But what is the take home value of knowing this? What is the “SO WHAT FACTOR” of the Genesis 18 account? The Genesis 18 account does two things for us in studying Jesus Christ, it shows His authenticity in His ability to prophecy (promises to Abraham and actions against Sodom and Gomorrah), but also with passing of judgment on individuals and whole groups within Sodom and Gomorrah. In Genesis 18, Jesus Christ is not bound by man’s limitations. Yet, during His 33 years of life, He chooses to orchestrate within man’s limitations. Hebrews testifies this in chapter 2, “But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone” Hebrews 2:9.

The second take away for us studying this is confirming Jesus’ own statements found in John 8, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.’ So the Jews said to Him, ‘you are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.’” John 8:56-58. This is vitally important; Jesus Christ’s statements are backed with previously written scripture. It is not one of His followers claiming His righteous character and actions, but rather those who came before! This shows Jesus Christ is in fact God! Moses, through the power of the Holy Spirit, wrote down what Jesus stated to Abraham. This helps confirm what Jesus did in the four gospels. His pre-incarnation visit to Abraham helps shed light our marvelous God.

Hold until relieved, our Blessed Hope is coming

JL

RE-POST FRIDAY!

Today’s RE-POST FRIDAY is a reflection going over the need for recognizing that when we are being busy, it can capture our attention away from Jesus Christ! CLICK HERE!