God is an Exacting God.

We, the people of this earth, tend to make God out to be what we want Him to be.  We worship Him in ways that we want; we form our own opinions as to what He is, what He expects of us, what He will do with us when we pass from this life.  But the truth is contained in the Bible, His Word, given to us as a pattern to follow. 

We can learn a lot about God and what He wants of us by reading the Old Testament and the New.  What we find after doing that is that He is an exacting God.  He is God, and He has a right to make the rules, if you will.  Let's take a look at a couple of examples from the OT; and keep in mind that there are endless examples, but we will let a couple suffice. 

In Leviticus 10, there are a couple of priests who took it upon themselves to worship God in a little different way that they had been told.  They burned incense before Him in an act of worship.  The Lord was displeased and had them killed immediately by fire.  The point was clear that one doesn't worship the Lord in a false way, an unauthorized way. 

In 2 Kings 5, we read of a noble man from Syria who was told by a prophet in Israel that God would heal him if he did exactly as God instructed.  He was told to go dip in the river Jordan 7 times and his leprosy would be healed.  The man, Naaman, was very angry.  He said, "We have better rivers in Syria than this dirty river Jordan."  But his advisers convinced him that he should try it.  (If you don't know this story, read the details in 2 Kings 5--it is quite interesting.)  So he dipped once, twice, three times, and so on and nothing happened.  But on the seventh dip he was completely healed.  The point here is that we must realize that when God gives instruction, we must follow it exactly.  The Lord means business.

And God doesn't change.  He tells us in the NT, sometimes by example, what it is He wants from us.  We should take that seriously.....and do it His way.....not ours.  That is true in our worship, our lives, the church, and in every way that we read in the NT.  The NT is God's Word, His plan for man; and He tells us a lot there.  Yes, there are some things that require judgment; but there is a lot given for us to follow.  Let's do it His way.

Thanks  for reading.  Have a great week....and feel the love.

The End of the World

The New Testament talks a good bit about the end of the world.  Note these passages: 


1Corinthians 15: "Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and authority and power.  For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet.  The last enemy that will be destroyed is death."

1Thessalonians 5: For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.  For when they say, 'peace and safety!' then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman.  And they shall not escape.  But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief.  You are all sons of light and sons of the day.  We are not of the night nor of darkness.  Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.  For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night.  But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.  For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ..."

2Peter 3:  "But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.  The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.  But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.  There fore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness..."

These verses point out that just as God created the earth, He will destroy it.  It will not be destroyed by man, not by excessive emissions, not by global warming or wars.  It will be destroyed by fire, brought on by the Lord.  His summary point is: "Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness..."  We don't know when He will do this.....but we know that He will.

Thanks for reading again.  Have a great week.   

Why People Reject Jesus

There are lots of reasons that people reject Jesus.  With some effort we could name perhaps dozens of reasons.  But the first chapter of 1 Corinthians sums it up into two categories.  And to be fair, we must recognize that this is Paul writing to the Corinthian Christians, dealing with some of the problems they were facing.  Still, people are much the same today and have much the same problems.

We actually see three categories of people in 1 Corinthians 1; note this verse: "Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified; a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."

So it seems that Paul is summarizing these three categories of people:

Jews--They always wanted a sign.  But Jesus gave them plenty of signs; miracles that proved He was from God, that He was God.  Still, they wanted more.

Greeks--(non-Jews)--To them the Gospel of Jesus was just foolishness.  It didn't fit with their own thinking, their own reasoning.  And the Greeks were big into human reason; note Acts 17, when Paul went to Athens and spoke with them.

Believers--The above passage shows that, while Jews always wanted another sign (miracle), and Greeks called it "foolishness," there would be people who believed in Jesus, who knew Him to be the Christ, the Savior of the world.

The passage goes on to say, "For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength."  God has no foolishness or weakness, but this passage just shows that if He did, it would put man's to shame.  We need to recognize that God is God, He has the power, and He will use it on us.  He will use it to raise us up.....or to bring us down.  Let's be in the 3rd category that Paul was talking about.  Praise be to God.

Thanks for reading.  Feel the love. 

Church Unity

There is a great deal said in the New Testament about church unity.  This was important to God and to His Son Jesus.  We will look at a couple of verses that relate this point. 

In John 17, Jesus prayed there for the apostles and all of His people who would be left behind, that they would be unified in their faith and practices.  Jesus was about to leave this earth and He appealed in prayer to the Father that "they may be one" as He and the Father are one.  

The subject is well discussed by Paul in 1 Corinthians 1, where it has been reported to Paul that the Christians in Corinth were quarreling.  Beginning in verse 10: "I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.  My brothers, some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you.  What I mean is this: One of you says, 'I follow Paul'; another, 'I follow Cephas'; still another, 'I follow Christ.' Is Christ divided?"  Obviously, Paul is upset over what he has been hearing regarding the dissension going on in the church.  He is telling them to stop it.

When we look at this teaching of Paul to this Corinthian church, we realize that the truths he was teaching apply to us today.  When one looks at "Christianity" today, do we see splintering, division, and quarreling?  of course we do.  There must be over 1000 different denominations of so called Christians.  And it is all about division.  Would Paul be upset with what he would see in this regard today were he here?  You know he would, based on his teaching.

In the message of 1 Corinthians 1, we can see that Paul did not want different names put on Christians.  He said no Paul Christians, no Apollos Christians, no Cephas Christians; just Christians.  And it can be noted that he never wanted unity at the expense of truth, at the expense of doing His commandments, doing things His way.  But as he teaches here, we must seek to get along, agree, and not divide.

Paul wrote to the Philippian church, "..make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose."  This must be our goal.  We can start by just being Christians and wearing no other name. 

Have a great week!

The Commandments of God

God, and His Word, the Bible, is very clear that He wants and requires man to keep His commandments.  This is not a request, but a demand.  Obviously, people don't have to heed this demand; but He makes it clear that if we want to realize the rewards He has prepared for us, we must do things His way.

The book of Psalms begins with these words: "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.  But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night."

Psalm 112 says, "Praise the Lord.  Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who finds great delight in His commands."

Psalm 119 begins with this, "Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord.  Blessed are they who keep His statutes and seek Him with all their heart."

Psalm 119:105,  "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.  I have taken an oath and confirmed it, that I will follow Your righteous laws."

These are just a sampling of the hundreds of verses that are contained in the Bible regarding the importance of following His commandments.  And we know that Jesus said a lot about this subject.  He said in John 14:15, "If you love Me, you will obey what I command."  And in John 14:23, He said, "If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching."

Our lives will be better if we keep His commandments.  And doing so will bring eternal life.  There will be no fear of death, no sadness, or sickness, or pain, or tears in heaven.  Let's do this!

Thanks for reading.  Have a great week!

 

Openings

In Matthew chapter 7, Jesus talked of the ease of salvation....and the difficulty of salvation; and He did it by discussing "openings."  In 7:13 He said, "Enter through the narrow gate.  For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."  This statement by our Lord contradicts the common thinking of today.  All one must do is read the obituaries to see that almost everyone that dies didn't "die;"  they passed, or "went to be with the Lord" or "are in the arms of Jesus."  The thinking is that almost everyone is safe, saved and in heaven with God.  But in the aforementioned verse, we see that the gate is narrow and not many will enter that one.

One the other hand, we see in the same chapter just how easy it is to be in the right place after we die.  In verse 7, Jesus said, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."  This shows just how willing God is to have us follow Him.  The point, of course, is that the choice is ours; it is purely a matter of choice on our part.  God has done His part in sending His Son to die for us.  Now we must make the right choice.

And Jesus recognized the point that we see in the obituaries when He said in 7:21, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.  Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?'  Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you.  Away from Me, you evildoers!' "  This is a hard saying, but it shows that only the true followers of Jesus will enter the narrow gate, will knock on that door, will be accepted into heaven by our Lord.  Let's you and I be there!

Thanks for reading again.  Have a great week!

Victory

The Bible is all about victory.  All through the Bible we see people struggling in all kinds of ways.  In the Old Testament, there are struggles and difficulties from the first people, Adam and Eve, on.  And it can be said that the primary reason for all of the problems that people face is due to sin.  Sin entered the world during the time of Adam and Eve, and it has persisted in being a problem since.  We see this in the Jewish people of God throughout the OT; over and over they fell into trouble because they didn't put their trust in God.

When we come to the time of Jesus, as reported in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, we see that the Jewish religion is a mess.  They are not following the true Jewish Law as given to them by God; and Jesus was strong in telling them so. 

Then as people began to believe in Jesus, to follow Him, and to become Christians, as we read in the book of Acts, they started struggling with persecution.  The Jews and the Roman government were persecuting Christians in terrible ways; beating them, having them jailed, and often having them killed.  Persecution was a horrible and fearful thing for the Christians.

In the New Testament, we see many statements given to provide the Christians hope and strength in the face of all this.  It seems that the book of Revelation was written to give them confidence that victory was coming.  It would not be necessarily in this life, but it was coming.  The book shows the evil of Satan, the devil; but it shows that God will overcome for those who follow Him.

In Revelation chapter 7, beginning with verse 9, we see a strong statement made to show that victory is coming.  It shows God's followers eventually ending up in heaven, and describes those who are victorious.  Verse 14, "These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.  Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple.  And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them.  They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters.  And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."  Victory in Jesus......to those who follow Him.

Thanks for reading.  Have a great week.......and feel the love.