Jeremiah 52
Vs. 3ff The Lord became angry with Jerusalem and Judah and threw the people out of His sight. King Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. On the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year of King Zedekiah's reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked Jerusalem with his entire army.
Then we read about how he and his Captain of the Guard destroyed everything, and deported a total of 4,600 people to Babylon, leaving only a few poor people "to work in the vineyards and on the farms," burning every important building, tearing down the Temple and the wall, and carrying everything of value to Babylon.
II Kings 24-25
Basically tells the same story, mentioning that King Nebuchadnezzar captured all Jerusalem, all the generals, all the soldiers (10,00 prisoners), and all the craftsmen and smiths (24:14). And he brought all 7,000 of the prominent landowners, 1,000 craftsmen and smiths, and all the men who could fight in war as captives to Babylon (24:16).
And he set up a puppet government in Jerusalem to maintain order (25:22).
These two passages both describe in detail the same account of the fulfillment of prophesy for the total destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple and the walls of the city that were all broken down.
God is always true to His Word. When Israel had obeyed God's rules, they experienced prosperity and peaceful relations with other Nations. But that didn't last very long.
When they turned away from the Lord, He sent prophets to bring them back, but they were enticed and deceived by all the other gods among them, the ideas and attitudes of the World around them.
So they persisted in their rebellion, and were destroyed, just as God said would happen. But that destruction was not permanent. Everything that happens on this Earth always "comes to pass," never to stay.
So God will bring His people Israel back to return to the Land, as they did under Persian King Xerxes and King Artaxerxes; and as we see has happened again today (after 2,000 years!). And He will build them up again if they obey His commandments. The cycle continues 'round and 'round.
God is still God, and His rules are still in effect on this Earth. Now we see the fulfillment of Jeremiah 31:33-34, that says that I will put My Law within them, and on their heart I will write it, instead of on tablets or parchment. Jesus fulfilled all those laws, and today we have the Principle of Love in our hearts, that underlies all the Law, as Jesus said in Matthew 22:37-40.
But He hasn't forgotten His people Israel. He will always do as He said He would. Not always the way we expect, or even desire, but just exactly as He said He would.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
Monday, July 23, 2018
Never Reject Israel
Jeremiah 33: 25-26
Thus says the Lord: "If My covenant for day and night do not stand, and the fixed patterns of Heaven and Earth I have not established, then I would reject the descendants of Jacob and David My servant, not taking from his descendants rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
"But I will restore their fortunes and will have mercy on them."
God had Jeremiah write specifically that He would never forget about the Hebrew peoples that have come down generationally from Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham; and that David would be the direct ancestor of the rulers over this nation.
When the Day-and-Night cycle stops cycling; when the heavenly bodies, the stars & planets & the other objects in the sky, in space, stop doing what they do; only if they can disobey God's directions and rules for them; only then will God be able to disregard the Children of Israel.
Some people are teaching that God has substituted the Church for Israel and has given up on them; but these verses refute that notion.
Jesus said, "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one fold and one Shepherd" (John 10:16), referring to the Gentiles who would hear the Gospel and be saved, forming the church, in addition to those of Hebrew/Jewish heritage.
(Abram [Abraham] was first called a "Hebrew" [ancient Habiru; Eberite, from Eber] in Genesis 14:13; and "Jewish" refers to the nation Judea, named from the tribe of Judah, who, with Benjamin, formed the Southern Kingdom of the divided Israel after King Solomon [I Kings 12:16, 20], and returned to the territory of Israel under the Persian kings Xerxes and his son Artaxerxes [see Daniel and Esther and Ezra and Nehemiah].)
So the "one fold" under "one Shepherd" is both Jews and Christians together as one family; recognizing Jesus as Messiah, Savior, and King.
Until Jesus returns, those Jewish people who become Christians (Messianic Jews) are part of the Church, and will be raptured with the rest of the church.
All this will come together on that Day when Jesus returns to this Earth, calls out all those who are His church (the Rapture, I Corinthians 15:51-52; I Thessalonians 4:15-17), bursts through the clouds and "every eye will see Him" (Revelation 1:7), and "all Israel will be saved" (Romans 11:26) along with all those who have not taken the Mark of the Beast (Revelation 13:16-18); and they will enter His Kingdom in their flesh bodies to re-populate the Earth.
So Jesus, descendant of King David in the flesh, will rule from Jerusalem (Revelation 20:6), and all the promises to Israel will be fulfilled. God never forgets a promise: He knows what He's going to do, promises to do it, and He does it. Not always the way we think He will, but exactly as He said He would. Every time.
Jesus is coming soon.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Thus says the Lord: "If My covenant for day and night do not stand, and the fixed patterns of Heaven and Earth I have not established, then I would reject the descendants of Jacob and David My servant, not taking from his descendants rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
"But I will restore their fortunes and will have mercy on them."
God had Jeremiah write specifically that He would never forget about the Hebrew peoples that have come down generationally from Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham; and that David would be the direct ancestor of the rulers over this nation.
When the Day-and-Night cycle stops cycling; when the heavenly bodies, the stars & planets & the other objects in the sky, in space, stop doing what they do; only if they can disobey God's directions and rules for them; only then will God be able to disregard the Children of Israel.
Some people are teaching that God has substituted the Church for Israel and has given up on them; but these verses refute that notion.
Jesus said, "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one fold and one Shepherd" (John 10:16), referring to the Gentiles who would hear the Gospel and be saved, forming the church, in addition to those of Hebrew/Jewish heritage.
(Abram [Abraham] was first called a "Hebrew" [ancient Habiru; Eberite, from Eber] in Genesis 14:13; and "Jewish" refers to the nation Judea, named from the tribe of Judah, who, with Benjamin, formed the Southern Kingdom of the divided Israel after King Solomon [I Kings 12:16, 20], and returned to the territory of Israel under the Persian kings Xerxes and his son Artaxerxes [see Daniel and Esther and Ezra and Nehemiah].)
So the "one fold" under "one Shepherd" is both Jews and Christians together as one family; recognizing Jesus as Messiah, Savior, and King.
Until Jesus returns, those Jewish people who become Christians (Messianic Jews) are part of the Church, and will be raptured with the rest of the church.
So Jesus, descendant of King David in the flesh, will rule from Jerusalem (Revelation 20:6), and all the promises to Israel will be fulfilled. God never forgets a promise: He knows what He's going to do, promises to do it, and He does it. Not always the way we think He will, but exactly as He said He would. Every time.
Jesus is coming soon.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Sunday, July 22, 2018
Today's Science In Ancient Times
Job 26: 7-8
He stretches out the Heavens over empty space, and hangs the Earth on nothing whatsoever. He holds the waters in His thick clouds, and the clouds don't split under its weight.
Some science here:
People used to believe that great pillars held up the Earth, or that Atlas held it on his shoulders, or some other support. But we know now that it really is suspended in "empty space."
And all the moisture in the clouds that hasn't rained down yet is very heavy, yet the clouds don't split or fall down with the weight, because, "A way to illustrate the relative lightness of clouds is to compare the total mass of a cloud to the mass of the air in which it resides. Consider a hypothetical but typical small cloud at an altitude of 10,000 feet, comprising one cubic kilometer and having a liquid water content of 1.0 gram per cubic meter. The total mass of the cloud particles is about 1 million kilograms, which is roughly equivalent to the weight of 500 automobiles. But the total mass of the air in that same cubic kilometer is about 1 billion kilograms--1,000 times heavier than the liquid!" [Scientific American].
Job most likely lived in the second millennium B.C. or earlier, before Moses or the Law. Even if the book was written later, Job still had knowledge of the Natural World that was accurate according to modern Science.
How can that be?
It's because the God Who made it so was still known in Job's day, and He caused His Truth to be recorded in this ancient manuscript.
Job lived not many years after Adam and Noah lived, so the people who wanted to know God did. It was later that all the other theories were recorded.
So God's Truth does not change, even though man's theories constantly change. True Science always is the search for God's Truth in the Natural World.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
He stretches out the Heavens over empty space, and hangs the Earth on nothing whatsoever. He holds the waters in His thick clouds, and the clouds don't split under its weight.
Some science here:
People used to believe that great pillars held up the Earth, or that Atlas held it on his shoulders, or some other support. But we know now that it really is suspended in "empty space."
And all the moisture in the clouds that hasn't rained down yet is very heavy, yet the clouds don't split or fall down with the weight, because, "A way to illustrate the relative lightness of clouds is to compare the total mass of a cloud to the mass of the air in which it resides. Consider a hypothetical but typical small cloud at an altitude of 10,000 feet, comprising one cubic kilometer and having a liquid water content of 1.0 gram per cubic meter. The total mass of the cloud particles is about 1 million kilograms, which is roughly equivalent to the weight of 500 automobiles. But the total mass of the air in that same cubic kilometer is about 1 billion kilograms--1,000 times heavier than the liquid!" [Scientific American].
Job most likely lived in the second millennium B.C. or earlier, before Moses or the Law. Even if the book was written later, Job still had knowledge of the Natural World that was accurate according to modern Science.
How can that be?
It's because the God Who made it so was still known in Job's day, and He caused His Truth to be recorded in this ancient manuscript.
Job lived not many years after Adam and Noah lived, so the people who wanted to know God did. It was later that all the other theories were recorded.
So God's Truth does not change, even though man's theories constantly change. True Science always is the search for God's Truth in the Natural World.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Saturday, July 21, 2018
Prosperous But Not Secure
Job 24: 22-24
... These people may prosper, but they will never feel secure about life. God may let them feel confident and self-reliant, but His eyes are on their ways.
Such people may be prosperous for a while, but then they're gone. ...
This life is only a moment in the great Scheme of things. In view of eternity past and eternity future, the whole history of this Earth is only a passing moment of time.
Each human life is only a breath, a disappearing vapor (James 4:14). We're born, and we die, and that little dash on our gravestone is our whole life.
Some people who are super-rich deny that God has anything to do with their lives. They think that they've earned and deserve all the material wealth they have gathered. But they can enjoy it only as long as they live, only this brief moment in time, then they're gone.
And even when they're here, with all their prosperity, they "never feel secure about life." The richest man in the World was asked, "How much is enough money?" His answer was, "Just a little bit more." Even with all his riches, he still didn't have enough.
Jesus said, "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole World, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mark 8:36-37).
The soul is the spiritual part of each of us that gives life to our bodies. Life is spirit, and when that spiritual part leaves, the body is dead.
So even if someone can amass great riches, he can only enjoy them while he lives, he can't take it with him when he dies. And even if he lives a long life, what is that in the whole time-line of this Earth? And he will have lost out on the most important part, his eternity.
Even Job knew that, way back in time probably before Abraham (Job is the oldest book of the Bible).
God had given Job great riches, then tested him by allowing Satan to take them all away, including his good health and his grown children. After Job passed the test, God allowed him to amass twice as much wealth, regain his good health, and even double the number of his children.
People to whom God gives the ability to gain wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18) can lose it all and regain it, sometimes repeatedly. Money is fluid, it flows in and out of a life. God gives the ability to gain wealth to those who live according to His ways, the ways He put into this Earth for the World upon it to operate, by design. And even when a person follows these ways, even if he doesn't know or acknowledge God, he will still experience the consequences of his choices, to either gain or lose wealth.
When the Israelites followed God's ways, they gained prosperity. But when they were comfortable, they got into the deception that they'd gotten it all by themselves, and began to make poor decisions, which resulted in the loss of their material possessions, and even under the tyranny of outside peoples. Then they turned back to the Lord, crying out to Him, and He sent a military leader to win back their freedom, and they went through the cycle again, over and over (see the Book of Judges).
This World is still running as it was designed, but Mankind has broken the cycle of blessing, so that most of those living in the World are poor materially. Many don't even have the necessities of life. This is because people have rejected God and His ways, and the people are suffering because of it.
Leaders of Nations lead unrighteously, having no concern for the people they rule, but sometimes telling them they do; putting scarcity in the place of plenty, and selfishly amassing wealth for themselves.
But it will do them no good if they have not recognized God for Who He is, having sent His Son Jesus to be our Savior and Messiah to rescue us from the deceit and unrighteousness of the World, and cleansing us of all that besmirches God's creation of us.
How much better for all of us to seek God and His righteousness in our lives, to share with those in our lives who may not know God yet, and to enjoy Him, along with His blessings. He is our prize; He is our reward; He is our dwelling place; wherever He is, is our home (Philippians 3:14; Psalm 91:9; Lamentations 3:24).
So whether the Lord gives you the power to get wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18), or He sustains you in your everyday life, He will never allow you to be destitute while you're following Him in His ways (Psalm 37:25).
The whole chapter 8 of Deuteronomy explains how vulnerable the people will be when they enter this good land and enjoy the prosperity it provides.
We are all vulnerable, as human beings, to the seductions to deception from the World, our own flesh, and our enemy the Devil. Especially if we come into wealth after being poor.
The most important, that should have First Priority with each of us, should be to get to know God, seek Him with our full focus, determined to follow His ways.
Jesus is coming soon, and whether I have great wealth with many possessions, or I'm living hand-to-mouth, I want to be ready to meet my Lord either in death or by Rapture, unhindered by things of this World.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
... These people may prosper, but they will never feel secure about life. God may let them feel confident and self-reliant, but His eyes are on their ways.
Such people may be prosperous for a while, but then they're gone. ...
This life is only a moment in the great Scheme of things. In view of eternity past and eternity future, the whole history of this Earth is only a passing moment of time.
Each human life is only a breath, a disappearing vapor (James 4:14). We're born, and we die, and that little dash on our gravestone is our whole life.
Some people who are super-rich deny that God has anything to do with their lives. They think that they've earned and deserve all the material wealth they have gathered. But they can enjoy it only as long as they live, only this brief moment in time, then they're gone.
And even when they're here, with all their prosperity, they "never feel secure about life." The richest man in the World was asked, "How much is enough money?" His answer was, "Just a little bit more." Even with all his riches, he still didn't have enough.
Jesus said, "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole World, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mark 8:36-37).
The soul is the spiritual part of each of us that gives life to our bodies. Life is spirit, and when that spiritual part leaves, the body is dead.
So even if someone can amass great riches, he can only enjoy them while he lives, he can't take it with him when he dies. And even if he lives a long life, what is that in the whole time-line of this Earth? And he will have lost out on the most important part, his eternity.
Even Job knew that, way back in time probably before Abraham (Job is the oldest book of the Bible).
God had given Job great riches, then tested him by allowing Satan to take them all away, including his good health and his grown children. After Job passed the test, God allowed him to amass twice as much wealth, regain his good health, and even double the number of his children.
People to whom God gives the ability to gain wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18) can lose it all and regain it, sometimes repeatedly. Money is fluid, it flows in and out of a life. God gives the ability to gain wealth to those who live according to His ways, the ways He put into this Earth for the World upon it to operate, by design. And even when a person follows these ways, even if he doesn't know or acknowledge God, he will still experience the consequences of his choices, to either gain or lose wealth.
When the Israelites followed God's ways, they gained prosperity. But when they were comfortable, they got into the deception that they'd gotten it all by themselves, and began to make poor decisions, which resulted in the loss of their material possessions, and even under the tyranny of outside peoples. Then they turned back to the Lord, crying out to Him, and He sent a military leader to win back their freedom, and they went through the cycle again, over and over (see the Book of Judges).
This World is still running as it was designed, but Mankind has broken the cycle of blessing, so that most of those living in the World are poor materially. Many don't even have the necessities of life. This is because people have rejected God and His ways, and the people are suffering because of it.
Leaders of Nations lead unrighteously, having no concern for the people they rule, but sometimes telling them they do; putting scarcity in the place of plenty, and selfishly amassing wealth for themselves.
But it will do them no good if they have not recognized God for Who He is, having sent His Son Jesus to be our Savior and Messiah to rescue us from the deceit and unrighteousness of the World, and cleansing us of all that besmirches God's creation of us.
How much better for all of us to seek God and His righteousness in our lives, to share with those in our lives who may not know God yet, and to enjoy Him, along with His blessings. He is our prize; He is our reward; He is our dwelling place; wherever He is, is our home (Philippians 3:14; Psalm 91:9; Lamentations 3:24).
So whether the Lord gives you the power to get wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18), or He sustains you in your everyday life, He will never allow you to be destitute while you're following Him in His ways (Psalm 37:25).
The whole chapter 8 of Deuteronomy explains how vulnerable the people will be when they enter this good land and enjoy the prosperity it provides.
We are all vulnerable, as human beings, to the seductions to deception from the World, our own flesh, and our enemy the Devil. Especially if we come into wealth after being poor.
The most important, that should have First Priority with each of us, should be to get to know God, seek Him with our full focus, determined to follow His ways.
Jesus is coming soon, and whether I have great wealth with many possessions, or I'm living hand-to-mouth, I want to be ready to meet my Lord either in death or by Rapture, unhindered by things of this World.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Friday, July 20, 2018
Mars Hill
Acts 17: 22-31
Paul's sermon on Mars Hill, the Areopagus.
V. 22 So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects.
This was a high compliment to the people.
V. 23 "For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.
He was going to tell them about the God they don't know yet.
Vs. 24-25 "The God Who made the World and all things in it, since He is Lord of Heaven and Earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things;
God is too big to be able to live in a building. And He is the Source of everything.
V. 26 "And He made from one man every Nation of Mankind
From Adam, the father of the whole Human Race.
to live on all the face of the Earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,
God is sovereign in having each people live in the portion of the Earth He determined they would live: Orientals in the East, Negroid people in Africa, Caucasian people in the West, and Middle-Easterners in the middle of them all.
V. 27 "That they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
(Jesus lived in the center of the inhabitable Earth, in Jerusalem. He is Savior of us all, everyone all around the center is called to come to Him.)
V. 28 "For in Him we live and move and exist,
We are God's imagination, so we have our being inside His thoughts; if He were not thinking about us, we wouldn't exist!
"As even some of your own poets have said, 'For we also are His children.'
Some of the Greek philosophers came to the conclusion that we are from God, as though He had a family of human children. He did make us in His image, after His likeness (Genesis 1:26-27).
V.29 "Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man.
Paul is indulging these Greeks in saying that all human-kind are God's children, to make the point that God is not less than Mankind, as if made of Earth's elements by the craft of Human intelligence; He is way above all that.
V. 30 "Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to man that all people everywhere should repent,
He's saying that they have no more excuse; now is the time for everybody to listen up and be turning their attitudes and thinking processes around to turn away from all the ideas and things and actions and lifestyles that draw us away from God and His ways and the great Salvation He has provided for us all.
V. 31 "Because He has fixed a Day in which He will judge the World in righteousness through a Man Whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the Dead."
Here is where Paul is introducing these Greeks to Jesus. They invite him to stay and teach them some more, and some of them joined him and became believers.
Paul has given us a good overview of how to witness to people who have never known God: Start from where they are coming from and draw them into the story of Redemption. Paul said that he wanted to be all things to all people so that by all means he would be able to bring some to salvation (I Corinthians 9:22).
As Christians we all should be able to give our personal testimony of how God drew us to Himself (Revelation 12:11), to be ready to share with anyone who asks us why we have hope in this hopeless world, or can be cheerful in the middle of the problem we're facing, or maintain joy in our sorrow (I Peter 3:15).
Paul told Timothy, who was a young pastor, to also do the work of an evangelist (II Timothy 4:5), even though he wasn't gifted to be an evangelist, but a pastor. So whatever our spiritual gift may be, each of us needs to also present the Gospel to everyone who is willing to listen.
I hope that you have been reading this continuing blog, and that it has been able to help you know why you believe the way you do, and to back it up with God's Word. To be able to explain these deep truths in a simple way that can be understood by the hearer.
I want everyone to know my wonderful God. He loves everything and everyone He made as Creator. And He is not willing that any should perish, but that all would come to know Him and His great Salvation through repentance and faith.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Paul's sermon on Mars Hill, the Areopagus.
V. 22 So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects.
This was a high compliment to the people.
V. 23 "For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.
He was going to tell them about the God they don't know yet.
Vs. 24-25 "The God Who made the World and all things in it, since He is Lord of Heaven and Earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things;
God is too big to be able to live in a building. And He is the Source of everything.
V. 26 "And He made from one man every Nation of Mankind
From Adam, the father of the whole Human Race.
to live on all the face of the Earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,
God is sovereign in having each people live in the portion of the Earth He determined they would live: Orientals in the East, Negroid people in Africa, Caucasian people in the West, and Middle-Easterners in the middle of them all.
V. 27 "That they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
(Jesus lived in the center of the inhabitable Earth, in Jerusalem. He is Savior of us all, everyone all around the center is called to come to Him.)
V. 28 "For in Him we live and move and exist,
We are God's imagination, so we have our being inside His thoughts; if He were not thinking about us, we wouldn't exist!
"As even some of your own poets have said, 'For we also are His children.'
Some of the Greek philosophers came to the conclusion that we are from God, as though He had a family of human children. He did make us in His image, after His likeness (Genesis 1:26-27).
V.29 "Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man.
Paul is indulging these Greeks in saying that all human-kind are God's children, to make the point that God is not less than Mankind, as if made of Earth's elements by the craft of Human intelligence; He is way above all that.
V. 30 "Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to man that all people everywhere should repent,
He's saying that they have no more excuse; now is the time for everybody to listen up and be turning their attitudes and thinking processes around to turn away from all the ideas and things and actions and lifestyles that draw us away from God and His ways and the great Salvation He has provided for us all.
V. 31 "Because He has fixed a Day in which He will judge the World in righteousness through a Man Whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the Dead."
Here is where Paul is introducing these Greeks to Jesus. They invite him to stay and teach them some more, and some of them joined him and became believers.
Paul has given us a good overview of how to witness to people who have never known God: Start from where they are coming from and draw them into the story of Redemption. Paul said that he wanted to be all things to all people so that by all means he would be able to bring some to salvation (I Corinthians 9:22).
As Christians we all should be able to give our personal testimony of how God drew us to Himself (Revelation 12:11), to be ready to share with anyone who asks us why we have hope in this hopeless world, or can be cheerful in the middle of the problem we're facing, or maintain joy in our sorrow (I Peter 3:15).
Paul told Timothy, who was a young pastor, to also do the work of an evangelist (II Timothy 4:5), even though he wasn't gifted to be an evangelist, but a pastor. So whatever our spiritual gift may be, each of us needs to also present the Gospel to everyone who is willing to listen.
I hope that you have been reading this continuing blog, and that it has been able to help you know why you believe the way you do, and to back it up with God's Word. To be able to explain these deep truths in a simple way that can be understood by the hearer.
I want everyone to know my wonderful God. He loves everything and everyone He made as Creator. And He is not willing that any should perish, but that all would come to know Him and His great Salvation through repentance and faith.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Thursday, July 19, 2018
When God Relents
Jonah 3: 8-10
... "Cry loudly to God for help. Turn from your wicked ways and your acts of violence. Who knows? God may reconsider His plans and turn from His burning anger so that we won't die."
God saw what they did. He saw that they turned from their wicked ways. So God reconsidered His threat to destroy them, and He didn't do it.
God never enjoys destroying the wicked. He would rather they turn from their wicked ways. Always.
God had called Jonah to go preach in Nineveh that God would destroy them in 40 days because of their great wickedness. They deserved it; Jonah had heard all the stories, and may have even witnessed, how cruel and violent these people were, in perpetrating unspeakable cruelty on those they conquered.
Jonah wanted God to destroy them, and he knew that if they repented that He wouldn't, so he ran in the opposite direction (4:1-2). While he was in the big fish's belly he cried out to the Lord, and He performed a miracle in having that fish vomit him up on dry land, instead of at the bottom of the sea (2:1-10).
I've seen a picture of a fish cut open with a man inside it. People who have spent any time inside a big fish have all their flesh and hair bleached white from the fish's digestive juices.
Can you imagine how stark Jonah must have looked there in the Middle East? That had to have had an effect on the Ninevites. Johah got only a third of the way through the city when they all decided to repent, from the king down to the lowest servant, and recognized the power of Jonah's God (3:5-9).
God does destroy the unrepentant evil people, and He destroyed Neneveh a generation later. But He will also always relent and forgive those who repent and turn away from evil.
God has told us His ways; His good, moral, kind, generous ways. Evil is always bad for us, it always hurts and harms us. Ourselves and those around us.
And God calls all people everywhere (Acts 17:30) to turn from their idolotries and thefts and murders and immoralities (Revelation 9:21), and turn to Him, to recognize that His Son Jesus is our Savior by taking our place in death as our personal Sacrifice (as He fulfilled that first chapter in Leviticus, the individual person's sacrifice). His Blood shed for our forgiveness actually takes away all of our sinfulness, from the grossest sin down to the "innocent" fib, and that Original sin that we inherit from Adam as our "flesh," our "sin-nature." This cleansing makes us fit to enter Heaven, because God will not tolerate any kind of sin to dwell in His Presence (see Habakkuk 1:13).
O my Father, You are so kind, so wise, and so powerful to have designed this Earth for us, to put in it everything we need, and to give us Your written Word so we can know You. Thank You for Your Holy Spirit in us to teach us Your Truth, and to be able to understand how all parts of Your Word fit together to tell one Story, the Story of Man, from before the beginning to beyond the end; the Story of our need and Your provision; about Jesus from beginning to end of the Book.
Thank You for Your great Love, wanting for everyone everywhere to repent and follow Your ways. That is how we can access Your bountiful provision here on this Earth, and be cleansed to spend our Eternity with You.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
... "Cry loudly to God for help. Turn from your wicked ways and your acts of violence. Who knows? God may reconsider His plans and turn from His burning anger so that we won't die."
God saw what they did. He saw that they turned from their wicked ways. So God reconsidered His threat to destroy them, and He didn't do it.
God never enjoys destroying the wicked. He would rather they turn from their wicked ways. Always.
God had called Jonah to go preach in Nineveh that God would destroy them in 40 days because of their great wickedness. They deserved it; Jonah had heard all the stories, and may have even witnessed, how cruel and violent these people were, in perpetrating unspeakable cruelty on those they conquered.
Jonah wanted God to destroy them, and he knew that if they repented that He wouldn't, so he ran in the opposite direction (4:1-2). While he was in the big fish's belly he cried out to the Lord, and He performed a miracle in having that fish vomit him up on dry land, instead of at the bottom of the sea (2:1-10).
I've seen a picture of a fish cut open with a man inside it. People who have spent any time inside a big fish have all their flesh and hair bleached white from the fish's digestive juices.
Can you imagine how stark Jonah must have looked there in the Middle East? That had to have had an effect on the Ninevites. Johah got only a third of the way through the city when they all decided to repent, from the king down to the lowest servant, and recognized the power of Jonah's God (3:5-9).
God does destroy the unrepentant evil people, and He destroyed Neneveh a generation later. But He will also always relent and forgive those who repent and turn away from evil.
God has told us His ways; His good, moral, kind, generous ways. Evil is always bad for us, it always hurts and harms us. Ourselves and those around us.
And God calls all people everywhere (Acts 17:30) to turn from their idolotries and thefts and murders and immoralities (Revelation 9:21), and turn to Him, to recognize that His Son Jesus is our Savior by taking our place in death as our personal Sacrifice (as He fulfilled that first chapter in Leviticus, the individual person's sacrifice). His Blood shed for our forgiveness actually takes away all of our sinfulness, from the grossest sin down to the "innocent" fib, and that Original sin that we inherit from Adam as our "flesh," our "sin-nature." This cleansing makes us fit to enter Heaven, because God will not tolerate any kind of sin to dwell in His Presence (see Habakkuk 1:13).
O my Father, You are so kind, so wise, and so powerful to have designed this Earth for us, to put in it everything we need, and to give us Your written Word so we can know You. Thank You for Your Holy Spirit in us to teach us Your Truth, and to be able to understand how all parts of Your Word fit together to tell one Story, the Story of Man, from before the beginning to beyond the end; the Story of our need and Your provision; about Jesus from beginning to end of the Book.
Thank You for Your great Love, wanting for everyone everywhere to repent and follow Your ways. That is how we can access Your bountiful provision here on this Earth, and be cleansed to spend our Eternity with You.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Wednesday, July 18, 2018
Our Generous God
Philippians 4: 17, 19
Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account.
And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Paul wasn't wanting only to have his own needs met, but that those who provided for him would be blessed. "Help me want the Giver more than the giving" (song: "More Than Anything," by Natalie Grant).
Then those who have been generous with their material goods will be blessed abundantly by God, according to His riches in glory. God is not stingy, He is very generous. He is the Source of riches beyond compare.
He is the Source of everything that exists, and He is extremely generous with everything He put into this Earth for our use and prosperity. To access this abundance, we only need to follow His ways, according to His purposes for each of us.
God wants us to prosper, but we don't because we violate His Love He has given us, rejecting it and Him, and do things our own way. Then we deny ourselves and others the good things He put here for us to enjoy by closing off the ways to access them. Governments do this, also businesses and individuals let greed overtake their attitudes. They believe the enemy who tells them that to have something it must be taken from someone else.
But wealth grows, just as trees grow, crops grow, and children grow. God has designed this environment for our sustenance and benefit; and just as the number of people grows, the capacity to grow what we all need is inherently in the soil and oceans and mountains and streams and our imaginations.
Whatever you need more of, give it away. God's ways are not our ways. When we hoard, we lose what we have, but when we're generous like God is, then He will multiply what we have to not only meet our needs but have more than we need to share with others. The more generous we are, the more we will receive. It's an upward spiral.
Most of us just don't trust God enough to try Him on this (Malachi 3:10).
I know I have given away some time when I was "running late," and ended up at my destination on time or even early. Now I try never to hurry, but consider that I will get there in God's time.
But Paul's talking about money here. Do I trust God enough to give away money for His work even if I think I won't have enough left? Do I tithe off of my top, or wait to see if I'll "have enough"?
If I wait, I won't have enough. My tithe must come off the top, to receive God's blessing to multiply the 90% to cover more than the 100% covered before. I don't know how He does it, but He stretches what I've tithed on. I have never gone hungry, or lacked a roof over my head or a place to sleep.
So Paul wanted those in the church at Philippi to benefit by sacrificially giving. Because He knew how generous God is.
O my Father, You are God. You are God Almighty. You are our Source for all wealth, health, and well-being. You have given us to one another so that we can love one another as You have loved us. When we care enough to notice what their needs are, and take of what You have given us to help them, then the World will know a little of Your character.
Father, I want others to get to know You, to get acquainted with how wonderful You are, and how You love us all. Help me, Father, to live out Your character in all my relationships with my family and friends and neighbors and clients and readers. And even the strangers I meet while I'm out.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account.
And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Paul wasn't wanting only to have his own needs met, but that those who provided for him would be blessed. "Help me want the Giver more than the giving" (song: "More Than Anything," by Natalie Grant).
Then those who have been generous with their material goods will be blessed abundantly by God, according to His riches in glory. God is not stingy, He is very generous. He is the Source of riches beyond compare.
He is the Source of everything that exists, and He is extremely generous with everything He put into this Earth for our use and prosperity. To access this abundance, we only need to follow His ways, according to His purposes for each of us.
God wants us to prosper, but we don't because we violate His Love He has given us, rejecting it and Him, and do things our own way. Then we deny ourselves and others the good things He put here for us to enjoy by closing off the ways to access them. Governments do this, also businesses and individuals let greed overtake their attitudes. They believe the enemy who tells them that to have something it must be taken from someone else.
But wealth grows, just as trees grow, crops grow, and children grow. God has designed this environment for our sustenance and benefit; and just as the number of people grows, the capacity to grow what we all need is inherently in the soil and oceans and mountains and streams and our imaginations.
Whatever you need more of, give it away. God's ways are not our ways. When we hoard, we lose what we have, but when we're generous like God is, then He will multiply what we have to not only meet our needs but have more than we need to share with others. The more generous we are, the more we will receive. It's an upward spiral.
Most of us just don't trust God enough to try Him on this (Malachi 3:10).
I know I have given away some time when I was "running late," and ended up at my destination on time or even early. Now I try never to hurry, but consider that I will get there in God's time.
But Paul's talking about money here. Do I trust God enough to give away money for His work even if I think I won't have enough left? Do I tithe off of my top, or wait to see if I'll "have enough"?
If I wait, I won't have enough. My tithe must come off the top, to receive God's blessing to multiply the 90% to cover more than the 100% covered before. I don't know how He does it, but He stretches what I've tithed on. I have never gone hungry, or lacked a roof over my head or a place to sleep.
So Paul wanted those in the church at Philippi to benefit by sacrificially giving. Because He knew how generous God is.
O my Father, You are God. You are God Almighty. You are our Source for all wealth, health, and well-being. You have given us to one another so that we can love one another as You have loved us. When we care enough to notice what their needs are, and take of what You have given us to help them, then the World will know a little of Your character.
Father, I want others to get to know You, to get acquainted with how wonderful You are, and how You love us all. Help me, Father, to live out Your character in all my relationships with my family and friends and neighbors and clients and readers. And even the strangers I meet while I'm out.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
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