No Excuses

Sometimes we wonder about people who are deep in the jungle somewhere who haven't been exposed to Christianity.  Do they have any responsibility to believe in God?  We may not know all of the answers to this, but some information is made quite clear in the Bible.  One such place is Romans chapter one:

18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. 21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools..

Here we see that they are without excuse, His "invisible qualities....have been clearly seen" since the "creation of the world."  Evidence of God and His existence are all around us and can be clearly seen.

Another passage that shows that God is the maker of all things is in Psalm 95:

 

1Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. 2Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. 3For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. 4In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. 5The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. 6Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; 7for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if only you would hear his voice,

All through the Bible we are shown that God is the creator.  But we see that in the world around us every day, in the night sky, in the workings of our bodies, in every facet of nature.  God expects us to see His handiwork everywhere.  And we all know that His handiwork is amazing.  Praise God!

Thanks for reading.  Feel the love.

The Gospel Unveiled

The principle of veiling and unveiling is taught in 2 Corinthians 3 & 4. Throughout the Bible there is use of veiling.  We see this in the Old Testament where God told His people to set up a worship place, the Tabernacle, and place in it a veil to set off the most holy place of it.  When Jesus was crucified, one of the unnatural major occurrences was the splitting of the veil in the temple.  This was to show the people that the old Jewish way of worshiping God was over.  There was no more Judaism, no more traditional temple worship, no more old law of the Jews.  This is mentioned in the following passage:

2 Corinthians 3:14-16New International Version (NIV)
¹⁴ But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. ¹⁵ Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. ¹⁶ But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

The passage follows with, "Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."  The gospel brings "liberty."  This means liberty from the old ways, the old law of the Jews, and from the old ways of sin.  When we follow Christ, we are freed from our old ways of living in sin.  Not that we will never sin....but that we will not live in sin. 

He continues in chapter 4:3, "But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing...."  Those who are true Christians do not have a veil, they/we have liberty.  But if there is a veil, it is with those "who are perishing."

And finally, the end of chapter 4 says:

2 Corinthians 4:16-18New International Version (NIV)
¹⁶ Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. ¹⁸ So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

As Christians, we see things differently.  We have no veil over our eyes, but we have liberty, freedom from destructive sin.  And we see beyond the temporary.....to the eternal.   What a blessing!

Thanks for reading.  Have a great week!

The Ascension

One of the most exciting and meaningful events of the Bible is the ascension of our Lord.  It is recorded in two places, Luke 24, right at the end of the book of Luke, and in Acts chapter 1.  In this blog we will take a closer look at these two passages.

First we note that the ascension, being recorded in two places only, are both written by the same author.  Luke wrote his book of Luke, but he also is the writer of the book of Acts.  In fact if the reader wanted to just read an account of the life of Jesus and the events that followed His leaving the apostles to carry on His work, just reading the books of Luke and Acts would be ideal.

Note the passage in Luke:

45Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things. 49I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” 50When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. 51While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. 52Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.

 

Here we have the final act of Jesus on earth, His leaving.  Then we can compare this passage with the one in the book of Acts:

 

9After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

 

We see that Jesus was very much alive upon being taken up to heaven.  It is there that He will sit at the right hand of God, and He reigns there as king until such time that He returns again in the clouds to call His people to Him.  As the king, He has a kingdom.  Note the wording of Colossians 1:13, "He has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love."  As Christians, we have been "translated" into His kingdom.  This shows that His kingdom is in existence now, that He reigns now, in heaven, and we get to be His subjects.

 

Thank you for reading about this such special event in the history of the world.  Jesus reigns!

 

 

 

Jesus the King

A great deal is said in the New Testament about Jesus being the king.  In fact the Old Testament described in many places that a Messiah and a king would be born who would  rule over the Jewish kingdom and all men.  It would be a mighty reign and a reign that would never end.  As a result of all the teaching about this subject that had been done over the years to the Jews, they were expecting a king to be born.

When the angel visited Mary before she was even married to tell her that she would have a son, he told her that he would reign.  Notice Luke 1:

30But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”  

We see here that He will be a descendant of the great king David.  It is interesting that the NT begins with the statement, "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David...."  In the Bible there are two great kings.  The greatest king of the OT is David.  No other king even came close.  In the NT, we find that Jesus is king, a descendant of David, but a much greater king.

The words of David are repeated in Acts 2 where he is describing the fact that Jesus would be a greater king; that He would not die or see corruption:

"Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.  Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption.  This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses."

David was a great king, but he died just as all men do.  But Jesus, a greater king by far, would not be kept in the grave but would live forever.  Jesus is our king, our Lord, our Redeemer who reigns forever and ever.  Thanks for reading.