The Scriptures

The Bible is clear to give us instructions on what our system of beliefs should be based upon today. First we see that Jesus is the initial basis of all authority. Note Matthew 28:18, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and earth..." This is Jesus making just one of His many statements that He is the only way to heaven. But following this, we know that Jesus was not going to stick around for long; He was to leave the earth and ascend into heaven, leaving the apostles to carry on the work. He promised in John 15:26 that He would send the Holy Spirit back to help them. "But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me."

We, of course, do not have Jesus or the apostles today; but we do have the written word the Bible, to guide us. And it is this that we need to follow in order to know the right way. It says in 2Timothy 3:16 "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work."

Paul's instruction to Timothy in the passage above tells us many things; one is that we do not need to expect any latter day revelations. And the Bible, while written by men, is really from God who inspired these men to write...and what to write. Note this verse in 2Peter 1:20, "...no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." So we need to respect the Word of God, and try to live by it, for it is truly His Word.

Thanks for reading again. Keep the faith.

Confidence

We can have confidence that we are in the arms of Jesus, that we are true believers, that we have salvation through Jesus. There are two particularly strong verses that give us assurance of this fact:

John 20:30-31, " And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name." In this one verse we see the purpose of the signs and miracles, and the purpose of the record of these being written down. We learn here that many more were performed, but these were done and written for the purpose of belief. God sent His Son to the earth to do signs and miracles, that we might believe and have life "in His name." Jesus healed and did miracles to be kind and good and merciful; but the main reason that He did these things was for an everlasting reason: to help people of all time to believe, and believing have life.

Then we see even greater emphasis on confidence when we look at 1John 5:13, "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God." This is a very positive, definite statement. Not that we may think or wonder or hope; it is that we may know that we have eternal life.....if we are His followers.

But we have to be true followers. We can never forget the words of Jesus at the end of the sermon on the mount, Matthew 7, where He said, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!' " Wow; that is scary to me.

Still, we have God's promise that if we do His commandments, we will be saved....through the blood of Jesus! What a wonderful opportunity we have been given. He died for us; let's not blow this chance! Thanks for reading. Have a great week!

Prepare for Heaven

This could be entitled: "Eternal vs. Temporal," or "Spiritual vs. Physical." But let's just call it "Prepare for Heaven." The point of this blog is certainly not controversial; but it is one to which we all could stand to give more attention. We spend most of our lives, our time, focusing on physical, temporal things; for example, our jobs, our families, our chores, our food, clothing, housing, and on and on. And while these things do are necessary to a point, there is a greater need of greater importance, longer lasting importance.

Jesus taught us in Matthew 6;19-34, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.....Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on." Jesus knew that these things have to be dealt with; but He was stressing priorities. He wanted us to get our priorities in order.

Colossians 3:1-2 puts it in other words: "If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set you mind on things above, not on things on the earth." We all know this; but it is hard to follow through on a daily basis; knowing and doing are often different things.

And here is a challenge that Paul gave to Timothy, to challenge those that are rich: 1 Tim. 6:17, "Command those who are rich in this age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share.." We may not think of ourselves as rich, but we know that we are, in this country, in this time, compared to many of Jesus' day, and compared to many in the world today. Let us put our minds, our goals on Spiritual things.

Thanks for reading. Have a great week! (Here is further good reading if you have the time: http://thepreachersword.com/2012/02/12/a-spiritual-focus/ )

4:18 Prayer

I know a group of Christians who have decided to stop everything every day to offer a prayer at 4:18pm. Reason for the exact time is that it is based on a quote from 2Corinthians 4:18, which is: "..we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but things which are not seen are eternal."

The reason for mentioning it here is that if the reader chooses to join with us in this prayer time, you will have the knowledge that you are not alone. You will know that there are a good number of Christians with you at that very moment, praying to our Father.

I have already experienced the difficulty of this endeavor: remembering. There is no way that I can remember this. So after some looking I have found the alarm on my phone and am getting artificial, non-human help with the remembering process.

Quoting from 2Cor. 4:16 on, it says: "Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal."

Join with us at 4:18pm each day. I will be there with you....and so will our LORD!

Bless you!

Israel-The Promise Fulfilled

In Genesis 12, God promised Abraham several things: He would make of them a great nation (the Jews); He would give them a land (Canaan, or Israel); He would bless all of the earth through his, Abraham's, seed (Jesus). The land promise was fulfilled when the Jews left Egyptian captivity, traveled in the wilderness for 40 years, then conquered and occupied the land of Israel.

Many people today believe that the land promise is yet to be fulfilled; i.e., that Jesus will return to the earth to establish a kingdom headquartered in Jerusalem, a kingdom to last for 1000 years. They believe that it will be at this time that the land promise will be fulfilled, that Israel will finally have its land as promised by God.

The fact is, Israel got the land of promise as recorded in Joshua 21:43-45, "So the Lord gave to Israel all the land of which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it.....Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass. And later we read in 1Kings 4:21 that king Solomon reigned over all the land.

That Israel has lost some of its land, that Israel is chopped up and incomplete, is unfortunate for the Jewish nation. But there is no promise from God, nor does it seem to fit into His plan, for Israel to be guaranteed a restoration in today's world or in the future. Back in the time of Joshua God fought their battles for them insuring that they got their land in entirety. But to keep it, they had to serve God completely. That wasn't done. And there is no promise that Jesus will ever come to earth again to establish an earthly kingdom. Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this earth."

Thanks for reading. Have a great week!

1st Day of The Week

If there is one thing that most Christian groups/denominations agree on, it is that Sunday is the correct day of worship. The reason that this is so widely agreed upon is that the New Testament gives examples of this occurring in the early days of the church. Here are a few verses that show this example:

Acts 20:7 "Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread..." Notice that the main purpose of the worship was to "break bread," i.e., take of the Lord's Supper.

1Corinthians16:1-2 "Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you must do also: on the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come."

Jesus was raised on Sunday, the day after the Jewish Sabbath.

The church was started on Sunday, on the day of Pentecost; see Acts 2.
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There have always been people who were confused about whether we should hold onto the Jewish traditions and teachings; people who thought, for example, that we should worship on Saturday. But this is simply not the case according to the New Testament. Acts 15 is a conference with the apostles to discuss this issue. It is made clear in a number of places that the Jewish Law and practices are done and over with the coming of Faith in Jesus. Note:

All of the book of Hebrews covers this subject, but notice Heb. 8:13, "In that He says, 'A new covenant,' He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away." And Heb. 9:15, "...for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant..." Also, Heb. 10:24-25, "And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching."

There is much more said, like Galatians 3:24-27. But perhaps that is enough for now. Just know that we must follow the example of the early church and the teaching of the apostles in not only worshiping on the first day of the week, Sunday, but in all of our practices.

Have a great week!

Abraham-Great Example to Us

Abraham is referenced, more than any other, in the Bible as a great man of faith. Instead of "faith" we might use the word "trust." When we look at how much he trusted in God to take care of him, it just has to amaze. We'll look at a few passages and examples of the depth of Abraham's trust.

Hebrews 11:8-10 says "By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God." God had told him to leave home and go where he was directed; Abraham did exactly as God instructed him.

Then we read in Hebrews 11:17-19, "By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, 'In Isaac your seed shall be called,' concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense." We read in Genesis 22 about how God had instructed Abraham to take his son, Isaac, up on the mountain and sacrifice him. Then, just as Abraham was about to kill Isaac for the sacrifice, God stayed his hand, spared Isaac, and provided a ram instead. But the fact that Abraham had enough faith to carry out this command of God shows how much trust he had in God.

And of course, the point to us is that we need to trust God to take care of us. We often have the attitude that we must take care of ourselves. But we must know that if we follow God, follow His Word, do what is right, what we know that He would want, things will go well for us...Because; He is worthy of our trust and will not let us down. God is alive, and He will take care of us. This is what Jesus was saying in Matthew 6, toward the end. He said, "..do not worry....seek you first the kingdom of God.." There is a challenge for us this week.

Thanks for reading. Have a good week! Feel the love.