No End To The Increase

Isaiah 9: 6-7

For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us. 

So the child who will be born is the new thing, a baby. But the son is a Son from before Time, the Second Person (Lord) in the Godhead (Elohim). 

And the government will rest on His shoulders. 

He will be the King over the government in His Kingdom. 

And His Name will be called Wonderful Counselor,

The One Who has (is) all the answers to all our questions, to advise us.

Mighty God, 

He is the Lord God of the Old Testament. 

Eternal Father,

Not God the Father, but the progenitor, the maker, of all of humanity, from before the beginning of Time. 

Prince of Peace. 

He is the One Who will finally end all war and strife on this Earth, in the World of Mankind. 

He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom,

Because the Lord God gave David His throne. (See I Chronicles 29:23--Solomon sat on the Throne of the Lord as king in place of his father David.) 

When Israel rejected the Lord God as King over them and asked for a human King, then the Lord God gave His Throne to David and promised him that he would always have a man to sit on this Throne as King. And Jesus, humanly descended from King David, will resume His Throne to reign forever.

There will be no end to the increase of His Government and Peace. 

So when Jesus returns and sets up His Kingdom on this Earth (Revelation 6:16; 11:15-18; 16:17; 19:11-16; 20:1-6), then Satan is released and gathers the armies of the World to attack Him (20:7-9), and the Earth explodes and the Universe implodes (20:9; II Peter 3:7, 10-12); then that will only be the beginning! (Revelation 21 & 22). 

When the New Heaven and the New Earth comes, after this World is destroyed, and all our enemies are conquered, including Death; then we will reign with Christ and live in the very presence of Elohim where He lives. And this will be the start of who knows how many worlds to be made, throughout the forever of all eternity! His Kingdom, His rule, will never stop increasing!

This completely blows my mind! Our God is the most incredible God. He has told us the complete "history" of our Earth and Solar System and Universe, from beginning (Genesis 1:1) to end (Revelation 21:1). And this is only the beginning of the story, only the first page in God's Book, only one moment in the expanse of forever. 

This Bible tells us all we need to know to function in this World (II Timothy 3:16), then at the end of it will be another whole Universe; and all we know, all true Science, will be obsolete (I Corinthians 13:8-10, knowledge will pass away, the imperfect disappears). We'll be living and learning a whole new kind of existence! 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Two Cherished Promises

Joel 1-3

This whole book concerns the Day of the Lord.

It will come in two distinct parts: 

First the desolations.

Then deliverance.

2:32

And it will come about that whoever calls on the Name of the Lord will be delivered.

Calling on the Name of the Lord today is recognizing that they deserve death, and Jesus as God's Sacrificial Lamb died in their place on the Cross. 

He fulfilled the first chapter in the book of Leviticus, the personal sacrifice that the individual person would bring. The first sacrifice every person needed to bring first, admitting that the animal died in his place, the animal's blood splattered on the sides of the Altar to cover his sins. 

Jesus' sacrifice for each of us doesn't just cover our sins; it's God's own Blood that actually washes away our sins completely, removing every stain. That's what makes us fit to live with God where He lives.

The Old Testament saints only had their sins covered, so they could be forgiven, but not go to Heaven. Everyone died and went to Sheol, the place of the dead. Jesus gave us a picture of this place, as having two sides: the fire side we call Hell, and the Paradise side that Jesus called Abraham's Bosom. Jesus told the "good thief" on the cross beside His, that "today you will be with Me in Paradise," not Heaven (Luke 23:43). 

Now that Jesus has fulfilled that Sacrifice, our sins are completely washed away, into the deepest sea, never to cling to us again. So Jesus took that thief with Him into Sheol to carry the whole Paradise area into Heaven with Him. 

2:25

Then I will make up to you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the creeping locust, the stripping locust, and the gnawing locust; My great army which I sent among you.

God had sent His armies of locusts against Israel, and He allows all kinds of "locusts" in our lives, eating away the good that we would have enjoyed had we not made all those foolish choces. 

These are two promises that have been cherished throughout Christendom from the start.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Signing On The Dotted Line

Amos 1: 1, 9

V. 1

Amos was not a professional prophet, he was just a sheep breeder from Judah and God sent him to the Northern Nation of Israel to give them His Word.

V. 9

Against Tyre. They had a treaty with David and Solomon that included not selling Hebrews into slavery, which they did.

They had signed the agreement as a bond of brotherhood and good will, but broke it in delivering up "an entire population" to Edom as slaves. 

Now Tyre will have to suffer the consequences.

When we make an agreement we need to honor the terms of it, even if it means harm may come to us (Psalm 16:4). That's why we need to have discernment before signing on the dotted line. Once we've signed, then we're bound by the agreement. 

O my Father, please show me before I sign any agreement what the actual terms are, that I may understand my responsibilities to fulfill them.

Thank You, Father.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

Our Newlywed Husband

Hosea 1-3

God wanted Hosea to demonstrate in his own life the grief the Lord feels when His people Israel forsake Him for other gods. 

Then after it all, God will restore them in that Day.

2:16

And it will come about in that Day, declares the Lord, that you will call me "my Husband" (Ishi) and will no longer call me "Master" (Baali, Boss). 

Vs. 19-20

And I will betroth you to Me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will [intimately] know the Lord.

God loves what He made. He is in love with who He made. He has done everything possible and impossible to let us know Who He is and how He loves us passionately as a newlywed husband is enamored with his new bride, and how much He loves us, how deep, how wide, how broad, how high, how all encompassing us it is. He is above us, below us, beside us left and right, before us, behind us, inside us, and all around us, all the time. 

And His heart hurts when we ignore Him, reject Him, and turn to other gods, idols. He compares it to Hosea loving Gomer so much, and yet she leaves him for other lovers. But he goes to buy her back to himself, and keeps her for himself (chapter 3). 

And in that Day when the Lord Jesus returns to this Earth to set up His Kingdom in this World, then "Every eye will see Him" (Revelation 1:7) and will know this Jesus of Nazareth is none other than the very Lord God of the Old Testament and the promised Messiah. And all Israel will be saved in that Day (Romans 11:26), to reign with Him along with His Resurrected Church as His bride. 

And we will love Him in the righteousness and justice and love and compassion and faithfulness He loves us with; and we will "know" Him as a bride "knows" her new Husband on their wedding night; and the honeymoon will never end! 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Resurrection Day

John 11: 25-26

Jesus said to her, I am the Resurrection and the Life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?

Today is Resurrection Day. Easter. The day we remember the very basis of our faith. If Jesus had not risen from the dead, there would be no Christianity at all. 

Jesus was telling Martha Who He was and what He would accomplish on our behalf. Martha did believe, but her understanding was not complete. She knew that her brother Lazarus would be resurrected in that Day the prophets foretold, but, until it happened, she didn't know that Jesus would die and come back to life again in just a few days. 

Today we have the advantage of looking back to know that this did actually happen, and our faith is more complete than hers was then.

Because Jesus conquered death by rising in victory over it with Resurrection Life, now we know that we, too, will rise with that same Resurrection Life that He gives all who have died with Him in allowing Him to die in our place, individually, on the Cross. That is what is meant when people say He is their "personal Savior." 

He fulfilled that first sacrifice given at the beginning of the Book of Leviticus, the personal, individual offering. Just as that animal took the person's place in death on the altar, and its blood was splattered on the sides of the altar to cover his sins; so Jesus as the Lamb of God individually took each of our place in death, His Precious Blood splattering on the sides of His altar the Cross, to not just cover but wash away all the sin.

And to prove that God accepted His Sacrifice on our behalf, God raised Him from the dead. There is more historical evidence of His Resurrection than there is for the existence of Alexander the Great and Napoleon Bonaparte. It is a Truth we can confidently believe.

And if He had not risen from the dead, Peter would have gone back to fishing and there would have been no New Testament at all.

We would still be waiting for the Messiah, depending on animals' blood to gain forgiveness.

Thank God He sent His only Son to be our Savior! Thank God for His incredible Love for us, that He was willing to sacrifice Him in our place, so that He could give us His amazing Grace and Mercy. Thank God that Jesus was willing to go ahead and do it, and submit His will to the Father's. 

O my Father, thank You so much! O my Lord Jesus, my King, my Lover, thank You so much! O Holy Spirit, my Companion and Teacher and Strength, thank You! 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

God's Victory Through Jonah

Jonah 3 & 4

Now God again tells Jonah to preach in Nineveh, and this time he obeys. 

Nineveh is a huge city, so big that a visit would take three days to just hit the highlights. Jonah was no tourist, he entered the city gates and began to preach right off: Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned. 

I can imagine that Jonah's startling appearance among these middle-Easterners got their attention, so they all heard his street-evangelism. So the Ninevites believed God, they declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat down in the dust. Then he issued a proclamation: ...

When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, He had compassion and did not bring on them the destruction He had threatened. 

You would expect that a preacher whose message brought an entire city to its knees to be overjoyed. But Jonah became outraged and depressed. Why?

Jonah complains to the Lord that this is why he tried to run away. I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God Who relents from sending calamity. 

But the Lord replied, Have you any right to be angry? 

Jonah didn't answer God's question, but just went out & sat down to just see what would happen to the city. 

So God causes a vine to grow up beside him to shade him in the bright sunlight, but takes it away the next day. Then he complains again.

So God said to Jonah, Do you have a right to be angry about the vine? 

And he answers this time, I do, I'm angry enough to just die! 

He's not really angry about the vine, he's mad at God! He wants these horrible people to be destroyed, as they deserve. He wants to see God's vengeance satisfied on them. They've been mean and cruel, and he wants them to pay. 

But God relented. God gained the victory, even though Jonah didn't want to recognize it. God will always relent, because He will do what He says He will do. Always. Destruction is voluntary. Even when we deserve trouble, pain, and death, if we will only turn around our thinking (repent) and confess and forsake our rebellious and unloving ways, God will always relent and instead forgive. 

That's our God. He will extend His vengeance upon those who refuse to repent, because He is just, and we all deserve punishment, we all owe God that eternal debt that we can never pay off. And He did destroy Nineveh, a couple of generations later, when they refused to repent.

That's why Jesus came. Even before He created anything, He knew that He would need to come and be with us, so that He could pay our debt and cleanse us, to make us able to be with Him where He is.

That's how much God loves us. Jesus refers to Jonah's "three days and three nights in the belly of the fish" as an historical event that really happened, and as an illustration of the three days Jesus will spend in the Tomb (Matthew 12:40). 

Today (Saturday) is the day we remember that Jesus is in the tomb. Actually, His body lay in the tomb, He is elsewhere. (See my blog for April 17, 2017 to find out where He was and what He was doing.) 

This book of Jonah ends with this question: Shall I not be concerned for this great city? Should we not be concerned for all the people who have never heard about our God? 

God's plan for this Earth was to put Mankind here, redeem him when he'd gone astray, and fit him to spend Eternity with his Maker and Creator. God loves what He made, and He wants all of us to realize how much He loves us. 

We who know Him are charged to "Go and make disciples of all Nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." But we don't have to do it alone, He promised, "I am with you always, to the very end of the age." He will be continually, uninterruptedly with each of us as we obey His Great Commission. (Matthew 28:19-20.)

O my Father, thank You so much for Your love for all Mankind! Even though we rebel against You and believe the enemy that we don't need You; You still reach out to each of us to grant us the faith to believe You instead of being deceived. Thank You for Your wisdom and strength and sovereignty to do whatever You want to do; and what You want to do is for our good, because You are good, and I can trust You to always have my best in mind, even when life is not going as I would want. 

I know that Your love for me is beyond anything I can imagine, and the hard times that press on me is just You making a diamond out of the dust that I am. Keep me, Father, securely in Your hand, send me out to those who have never heard Your Name. Let me be one of Your diamonds that show the World how much You care. Let Your fragrance emanate from Christ in me to draw others to Yourself. 

And continue to work out Your Grand Plan of the Ages, using each of us and all of us to further that Plan toward the realization of Your Kingdom in this World on this Earth.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Jonah's Perils

Jonah 1 & 2

This is the story of Jonah. God called Jonah to preach in Nineveh, a city whose people were notorious for being very cruel and heartless, and Israel had experienced some of this cruelty. So Jonah, knowing how kind and forgiving God is, didn't want these people to repent and be forgiven, he wanted God to destroy them, as they deserved. So he headed off in the opposite direction. 

So God caused a great storm on the sea to push Jonah back into obedience, and all the sailors prayed to their own gods to give them relief. Jonah admitted that the storm was his fault, because he was running from the Lord, and to throw him overboard. They didn't want to do that, but they finally relented, so they picked up Jonah, threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging.

When the Lord God Who made the sea and the land instantly calmed the raging sea, they realized that He was much greater than any of their gods. Then the men feared the Lord greatly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. 

Even Truth proclaimed in the confession of an angry and bitter servant can be used by God. He really is sovereign and will perform His will, in spite of our rebellion. 

But God wasn't finished with Jonah. He had a big fish (not a whale) swallow him so he wouldn't drown. I've seen pictures of other men who had been swallowed whole by big fish, and its digestive juices would have bleached both his skin and his hair into a deathly white. God even used the fish for His purposes. No wonder he had such a dramatic effect on the Ninevites; his appearance added to the message of his words would be needed to push these coarse and jaded people into repentance. 

Jonah thought this must be the end of him, and prayed to the Lord from inside the fish. 

Then God miraculously had the fish vomit him out onto dry land, instead of at the bottom of the sea. If I was a fish with an upset stomach, I would get sick where I'd be most comfortable, at the bottom of the sea. But not this fish. And Jonah took off running! 

I am amazed at how God will do with His servants, His children, to have them carry out what He wants done. I've realized that most of His blessings in this World have human fingerprints on them, and I look back and notice that my own fingerprints have been on some of His blessings to others. God wants us to obey Him willingly, but even if we turn our backs on Him and run in the opposite direction, He is still sovereign and will do what He wants with us. 

Sometimes He must do to us and then in us in order to work through us to others. Just as He did to Jonah in being eaten by a fish, then in him turning back to God and praying for deliverance from death; then He worked through him to show the Ninevites His power and greatness and mercy on even the most egregious of sinners. 

O my Father, I praise You for Your greatness and power to do whatever You want with what You have made. You use our choices, that we make freely within Your parameters, whether in obedience or disobedience, You use anyway to accomplish Your will. In Your Love and generosity, you have made it so that no matter what we choose, You will still do what You have determined ahead of time.

Help me, Father, to always obey You in my choices, always decide to follow Your guidelines in all my ways, so that You will work in and through me more than You do to me to turn me back around. I want Your blessings to flow through me to others unhindered. But more than Your gifts, I want to know You, I want to love You because You have loved me first. I want the Giver more than the gift, I want the Blessor more than the blessings.

I want the fragrance of Christ in me to draw others into that circle of Your family. I want Your presence in Me to be seen and known among those who are still of the World, to pull them out of that bondage and darkness into Your glorious freedom and light. 

Father, keep me firmly in Your hand, to think Your thoughts not my own, say Your words not my own, walk in Your ways not my own.

Draw me ever closer to Yourself, Father, so that You can use me to draw others closer to You also. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!