God Made Flesh

When we talk about Christmas, many times the conversation involves gifts, receiving and giving, love, the tree, mall or how much you plan to spend. This year a survey tells us the millennials will "out spend" all of us other significant shopping groups for Christmas.
The Christmas subject is, Jesus in the manager, or the story itself, but in this blog I want to focus on Jesus in a different way.

I want to look at him from eternity past to the manger.

In heaven, before creation, the Trinity consisted of God, the Word and the Holy Spirit. On earth, the ‘Word’ is called Jesus. God’s wisdom is made manifest or known to us through Jesus.
Jesus as the ‘Word” takes the mind of the Trinity and puts it in the form of the written word because it reveals to us the mind of our invisible God. As much as our words reveal to others our heart and mind and thoughts as people, so Jesus Christ is God’s ‘Word” to reveal His heart and mind to us. Since God is a spirit and Jesus, as the Word, is a spirit…Jesus' mission on earth was to become to us the visible image of the invisible God. That is what is meant when the prophet Isaiah said He is “Emmanuel- God with us.” That is what is meant in John 1:14, “and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The Word in heaven became flesh and blood. So God became flesh in the person of Jesus and lived among us. During that time, His mission was to demonstrate God’s love for us. When He spoke and taught, He told us of God’s great love for us. In both the demonstrations and the conversations, Jesus communicated to us that as human beings with a free will we are separated from God by sin. But through His life, death, and resurrection, He came to rescue us from the death that that sin causes. 

Billy Graham wrote, “Jesus came so we could know, once and for all, that God is concerned about the way we live, the way we believe, and the way we die.  God could have told us in other ways. Of course -He had - throughout the pages of the Old Testament and in the lives of his people. By His written Word he declared His love. But when Jesus the Word was born in Bethlehem of a Virgin maiden that glorious night in that desert manger, the ‘Word” became ‘the Living Word.” It bears repeating what we read earlier in this article, He was ‘Emanuel-God with us.’ 

Finally, of all the things that your life will be involved with this Christmas, remember the powerful message of that simple little stable….there…..God came in the flesh.

He is Altogether Lovely

Song of Solomon 5:10-17, gives us this comprehensive account of a bride explaining her Lord.
After the conclusion of her lengthly description and passionately cooing over every part of His body, she closes with this one last beautiful summary, "Yea, He is altogether lovely."
Now just as this bride sums up her Lord in this allegorical account, I would like to remind you that the patriarchs, all the prophets, all the apostles, all the confessors of yesterday, tomorrow and the entire body of Christ have left us with no lesser testimony of our Lord.
I want to add this as well, that since all the Bible has been pretty much sealed up and there will be no further additions to it…….. that all the saints since it was closed up…..on earth…..and in heaven, have continued to confirm the exact same declaration made by this charming bride of old……the verdict of each particular saint, and of the whole host of saints as a body, could still be summarized by her lovely words. From the sighs and groans of our suffering brothers and sisters in the persecuted church and from the songs free of groaning and suffering that perpetually come from those immortal tongues before the presence of our Most High God, I could put my ear to their testaments and hear this one-master chorus--- “Yea, He is altogether lovely."
Now I speak to you personally about this text…..I struggled to preach on it. In my thoughts and construction of this message, I felt that - “It is just to high a thought and I will never be able to wrap my brain around it or do justice to it.”
?How do you take so high a statement, with so limited a human ability, and bring it excellence? Or make something so perfect….. better, or something so brilliant….. brighter? Let me ask you as you are reading this….how would you improve on those five lovely words from your experience with your Lord……?

Well, God is good and He helped me in my thinking……….I was a little afraid of the volumes that I couldn’t say about this verse but I could at least approach it and start chipping away at it and see where  the Holy Spirit would take me.

·      After all ….I may not be able to grab hold of the whole ocean in my hand….but I can swim in a part of it and be refreshed by it….

·       I may not be able to hike the whole side of that huge mountain anymore but I can park the camper on one of those 20 x 20 campsites and enjoy a campfire, the birds singing and that beautiful chunk of earth…

·       I might not be able to understand how some of those magnificent stones were cut and placed so perfectly on beautiful buildings of old but I can at least stand outside, awestruck, and admire the architects, carpenters, and stone masons of old and walk through the splendid threshold of their magnificent doorways and be amazed at their effort and design...

 

·       And in relation to this scripture, I may never be able to understand the length and breadth of this verse, but by the gift of divine grace, God has chosen to put it in my path to stimulate my thought and encourage my desire to preach on it……… therefore, I need not fear to take it on as a project for the purpose of meditation.

 

So no matter what is said, I pray for you the same thing that I desire for myself, that as we walk our individual faith journeys and after all the experiences of life have taken place in our sojourning here...I pray that like this appreciating bride, you and I would be able to say of Jesus, "Yea, He IS altogether lovely."

 

 

 

 

       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Zoe Life

When the preacher is talking about life and sin, God and being blessed, we see that our lives, as we are living them from birth, are not really a blessing. Instead, we realize we come up short. Our eyes need to be opened to see ourselves in God's light and  then, we realize we are sinners.  Being born again means that we accept Christ's sacrifice for us and exchange the lifestyle we were living for the new life that God is going to help us walk in.

Lets talk about the life that God wants us to walk in; the life that belongs to God that becomes ours when we cross the doorway of Jesus and enter into a relationship with Christ.

It is not a duration, because this life is not limited by time, nor hindered by death. It is not a possession but rather an infilling -- God once again breathing His life into us.

 

Many of us, here today, don't truly understand living the abundant life that God wants us to live. Many are barely surviving. The influence of the" pre-Jesus life" still hinders the post-Jesus living. It is a shame and a tragedy that very few Christians have experienced the abundant life that Jesus came to bring us. The abundant life I am referring to is the life living the will of God.
Please do not get it confused with the, 'I will make money crowd, the I will drive a Lexus, build a $500,000 dollar house, exceed my income, hit the mutual funds lottery' crowd! No, it is not that.
It's living in the will of God and His will for your life crowd. A great example of a zoe life is the missionary doctor in the news the last couple of weeks, Dr. Kent Brantley. He is the doctor who has contracted the Ebola virus working with the people of Liberia. For him there is no money, car, house or lottery that can fulfill him and his purpose found in God, except by being on the mission field, in the totally bankrupt environment of Liberia.

In John 10:10, Jesus says, "I am come that they might have life,'. The word life used there is referring to the Greek as, 'Zoe'.  Zoe life is life in a fuller God-directed and satisfying way.
Do you remember the illustration Jesus used of the rich young ruler? The dude had everything and he boastfully told Jesus that he lived a life totally dedicated to the Law, but his one desire was to have eternal life. Well again the word 'life' in the original Greek language is zoe. It is the same word that is used in the Gospel of John when Jesus said,  "In Him (Jesus) was life (zoe), and the life (zoe) was the light of men."  Zoe is the very life of God. It is the essence of His being. It is the personification of His (Jesus) character. It is that which can only be received from Jesus because (pay attention to this) because He (Jesus) is the point of its origin. Since its fountainhead is Jesus Himself, then as it flows out to you  it will be His very plan and purpose for you.
When we were born we were given bios (physical) life.  When we are born again, we are given this  zoe life. Until we cross the threshold of Christ and enter into a relationship with God through Jesus, we may be physically alive but spiritually we are dead.  Jesus goes on to quantify this life as He says, "and have it to the full" (John 10:10). Depending on the translation you use, the word that is translated "full" in the NIV may be translated "abundantly," or "fullness," or "overflowing" in other versions of the Bible. But what is meant by this word? "Have it to the full" means to have a super abundance of a thing. To be a follower of Jesus, to know who He is and what He means, is to have a super abundance of His life. There is a new Spirit driving our vitality, a new spiritual meaning, a new spiritual energy, a new spiritual purpose, a new spiritual significance, a new spiritual outlook, a new hope, a new joy, a new spiritual life! check out 1 Cor. 2 & 3, it will be a blessing, also Gal.4.
Seriously, read these Scriptures. Don't take my word for it - stop and ask God, the giver of life, to open your eyes to this "life of fullness in Him"; this zoe life.

Duck dynasty and Phil Robertson part #4 of 5

3. The Prophets of the Old Testament speak against it.

Isaiah 1:9, “Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.”

Isaiah 3:9, “The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.”

Isaiah 13:19, “And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.”

Lamentations 4:6, “For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.”

Ezekiel 16:49, “Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.”

4. The New Testament speaks against it.

Romans 1:26-32, “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”

1 Corinthians 6:9-11, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”

1 Timothy 1:9-10, “Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;”

2 Peter 2:6, “And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;”

Jude 7, “Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”

(A very nice concluding comment by the author)

Revelation ({e}, the rapture part 2)

We've been talking about the rapture. One of the great promises of the church's rapture is given to us by the Lord, Himself, when He spoke to the Apostle John concerning the seven churches. He said something very significant to the church at Philadelphia, in Revelation 3:10, "Because you have kept my command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth."
This message represents Christ's very own words. It transcends that little church there in Asia because that church has long been extinct, and the hour "Which shall come upon the whole world" has not yet taken place.
It doesn't really matter, in context with this verse, whether you believe the seven churches represent seven types of churches, or whether you believe each church represents seven time periods.  What is important to us in this text is what is being said. I would like you to go back and read that scripture verse again and again so that you're familiar with it.
Now, the first part of the verse, "because you have kept My (Jesus) command to persevere", this is obviously speaking of Believers so we have a handle on that part of the verse. But in the next phrase the Master Himself says, "I (Jesus) also will keep you (the believer) from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world.'  I embolden the word 'from' because that word literally means 'out of.'  What Jesus is saying to John as he wrote this verse is "I will keep you 'out of ' the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world."  That word is derived from the Greek word "ek", and is a very ordinary word. It is used over 800 times in the New Testament. Every time it is used, it is translated 'out of.' It is always used to mean 'out of'.  (The only place it is used in another word form is Galatians 3:8.)
Revelation 3:10 teaches us that the faithful church-which will not deny His name, but will practice good works, evangelism, and missions-will be kept 'out of' the hour of trial (the Great Tribulation) that will test and try the whole earth. Everybody realizes that becoming a Christian does not save them from the ordinary tribulations that plague this world and those of us who dwell on it. History is filled with suffering saints and martyrs. Trials are not an option to this life, they are a standard part of existing in this fallen world. But Jesus tells us that the great tribulation is not a standard trial but would be a very specific judgment of God. Jesus said, "for then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened" (Matt 24:21-22).
Someone will say, "But Pastor, the church doesn't deserve to be saved from the wrath that will try and test the whole world". I have only one answer and it is supported throughout the Bible; none of us, not one of us, deserves the deliverance from the hour of wrath that Jesus is speaking of. But God deals with us on the basis of grace when we turn to Him in faith.  The church today, with all its carnality, worldliness, and sin, doesn't deserve to escape from the Tribulation; but typical of His sovereign grace, God will save us from the wrath to come, not because we deserve it but because of His great mercy. 
Think about it. Did Israel deserve to be saved over the Egyptians who were drowned? Not much later in the trip they acted so badly that God had to destroy some of them like the Egyptians. Did we deserve Jesus to lay His life on the cross in our place? Do we as American's deserve the great benefits of this wonderful country when in Africa, Syria, or Egypt our brothers and sisters in Christ are being tortured and dying for their faith? Do we deserve the Holy Spirit, or heaven? I think not.
Why, if we went on the merit of deserving something, we would be bankrupt of many things. It is because of the grace of God that we have so much that we don't deserve, and that includes escape from the great wrath to come.
(Another scripture concerning Revelation and the rapture of the saints)

Duck dynasty and Phil Robertson part #3 of 5

The balance of this article is going to be from an article by: Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., who serves as president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, he accurately presents it three ways and I will carry the whole article for your study:
1. The Law of God speaks against it.
Leviticus 18:22, “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.” (An abomination is anything that is disgusting to God.)

Leviticus 20:13, “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.”

Deuteronomy 23:17,28 “There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel. Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the LORD thy God for any vow: for even both these are abomination unto the LORD thy God.” The word “dog” means a sodomite or a male prostitute.

2. Biblical history speaks against it.

Genesis 19:4-12, “But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them. And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him, And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door. But the men put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door. And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door. And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides? son in law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place:”

is 19:23-28, “The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar. Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the LORD: And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.”

1 Kings 14:24, “And there were also sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.”

1 Kings 15:11-12, “And Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, as did David his father. And he took away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.”

1 Kings 22:41-46, “And Jehoshaphat the son of Asa began to reign over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel. Jehoshaphat was thirty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and five years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi. And he walked in all the ways of Asa his father; he turned not aside from it, doing that which was right in the eyes of the LORD: nevertheless the high places were not taken away; for the people offered and burnt incense yet in the high places. And Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel. Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, and his might that he shewed, and how he warred, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And the remnant of the sodomites, which remained in the days of his father Asa, he took out of the land.”

2 Kings 23:7, “And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the grove.”

I told you I would provide you with scriptures, didn't I?

Lets Go to Part #4

Duck Dynasty and Phil Robertson part #2 of 5

In Part 1 of my 'Duck Dynasty and Phil Robertson' articles, I said I would give scriptural references explaining why homosexuality is wrong according to God. Continue through the entire "parts" of the Duck Dynasty's articles I've written and you will find many scriptures.
This debate is itself, nothing less than a revolutionary development. Any fair-minded observer of Do we have a distinctive message in the midst of this moral confusion?

American culture and American churches must note the incredible speed with which this issue has been driven (or forced) into the cultural mainstream. The challenge for the believing church now comes down to this:
Our answer must be, "Yes".
The Christian church must have a distinctive message to speak to the issue of homosexuality, because the Bible has a distinctive message. Faithfulness to holy Scripture demands that the Church hold to the Biblical witness. Anything less is a road to theological oblivion.
Biblical Christianity represents the greatest obstacle to the normalization of homosexuality. The reason for this is quite simple — the Bible emphatically condemns all forms of homosexual behavior. If homosexual advocates are to succeed, with satan as their chief enthusiast, they must either marginalize or neutralize the Bible as an authority (which a dead church will allow).
The Biblical witness is very clear and accurate and cannot be changed without doing damage to the integrity of the Bible itself. Predictably many don't care as long as they can justify their sin. Fortunately this will never happen because when it comes to the homosexual and lesbian, the scriptures don't just speak, they yell. In any event, below is the beginning of the scriptural references I promised you:
Genesis 1:26-28
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created He them.
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. (KJV)

As Genesis 1:27 makes apparent, God intended from the beginning to create human beings in two genders or sexes — ”male and female He created them.” Both man and woman were created in the image of God (v.26). They were and are distinct, and yet inseparably linked by God’s design. The genders really are different, and the distinction goes far beyond mere physical differences, but the man recognized the woman as “bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.”

The bond between man and woman is marriage, which is not an historical accident or the result of socialization and cultural evolution. To the contrary, marriage and the establishment of the heterosexual covenant union is central to God’s intention — before and after the Fall. Look at this, immediately following the creation of man and woman come these instructive words: “For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”
 

Evangelical Christians have often failed to present this biblical truth straightforwardly, and so many of our churches and members are unarmed and unprepared for the ideological, political, and cultural conflicts which we are going to come up against. The fundamental fact upon which the church corporately, and Christians individually, must base any response to homosexuality is this: God alone is sovereign, and He has created the universe and all within by His own design and to His own good pleasure. Furthermore, He has revealed to us His creative intention through Holy Scripture — and that intention was clearly to create and establish two distinct but complementary genders or sexes. The Genesis narratives demonstrate that this distinction of genders is neither accidental nor unimportant to the divine design. “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make for him a helper suitable for him,” determined God. And God created woman. [It is not to be confused. When God said "husband" it means man, "wife" means woman.]
 

God reinforces His purpose of the man and women for each other in the cleaving of man to the woman [“his wife”] and their new identity as “one flesh.” This biblical assertion — which no contorted interpretation can escape — clearly places marriage and sexual relations within God’s creative act and design. How can you mess with this scriptural truth and justify homsexual behavior as acceptable? And we are only in our first scripture reference.

The sexual union of a man and a woman united in covenant marriage is thus not only allowed, but is commanded as God’s intention and decree. Sexual expression is limited to this heterosexual covenant, which in its clearest biblical expression is one man and one woman united for as long as they both shall live.

Therefore, any sexual expression outside of that heterosexual marriage relationship is illicit, immoral, and outlawed by God’s explicit command and law. That fundamental truth runs counter, not only to the homosexual agenda, but to the rampant sexual immorality of the age. I want to add this little note to our conversation as well. The Bible has much more to say about illicit heterosexual activity than about homosexual acts. Adultery, rape, bestiality, pornography, and fornication, for example, are expressly forbidden.  Sexuality because of the innate power of it, and because its desire is purposely woven into our instinctive fabric by our Creator, is clearly given ground rules to keep it morally, socially and behaviorally safe and beneficial to the good health of mankind.

(More Scriptures in Part 3)
(next article is more clear, 'don't do that,' than ever

Revelation (d) The Rapture

This part of my article is going to focus on part #2 only.
Remember Part #1 of the three-part division is "the things which thou hast seen,' (which was about Christ).
Part #3 is 'the things which shall be heareafter,' this is everything that happens after the church is raptured, which includes all the chapters from Rev. 4-22.
Part #2 of the three-part key to the book of Revelation (which is what we're looking at in this article, using Rev. 2 & 3)  is, "write the things which are," (those things concerning the churches at the time he was writing, and all the churches throughout the Church age up to the rapture.
Remember in the book of Revelation, the word "church", or "churches" isn't used after chapter 3 and then but once in chapter 22 and it is used only as closing remarks. Why is the word "church" or "churches" not used after chapter 3? It is Biblically simple and scripturally noted..... because it is raptured, gone, snatched away. 
This is the only part of the entire book of Revelation that is now being fulfilled.  Is that crazy or what? All of the two thousand-or-so year history of the church, and all of the many events and happenings of the church have taken place in only these 2 chapters.  Geez talk about brevity.
Ok, so let's move on. Since we are still here, it is safe to conclude that the rapture has yet to take place.  While we are all to look forward to the coming of the Lord, there is still a perspective that we must maintain as earth dwellers. So I want to put the rapture into a perspective.
The greatest thing that ever happens in the church is what happens everyday throughout the world---it's when a sinner receives salvation. Nothing can ever top that. That's the purpose of the church and is also the highpoint of the church. Bringing forth new life, birthing new believers!
But the greatest unfulfilled event that will happen to the church is the 'rapture' of the body of Christ.  Jesus coming forth in the heavenlies, and saints being lifted off the earth into heaven within the twinkling of a eye is an "off the charts" experience. It is also called being translated, snatched away, the parousia, the rapture of the church. The idea of God transporting people off the earth to heaven is not limited to the one New Testament event we call "the rapture"; no, things like this happened in the Old Testament as well.
The first and most astounding example of this involves a man named Enoch, in the book of Genesis.  He was such a friend of God and a man who was righteous and holy in his lifestyle that he "walked with God 300 years and then...." he was not, for God took him"(Gen. 5:23-24). He did not die, he was not killed. God took him. He was translated from earth to heaven without dying. Being a good boy for 300 years is unimaginable for someone like me. I really think Enoch must have been a very special man. How did he stay out of trouble for 300 years and, here I can't do it for 365 days. Geez!
Later on in the book of 1 Kings, there was another man, Elijah. He was a great prophet who was also taken back to heaven by God without the instrument of death.  When Elijah was taken, he and Elisha his servant had been walking together when a fiery chariot came down from heaven and snatched him from earth and away he went as Elisha stood there watching him vanish into the heavens. This event is unique in that it involves an eyewitness account, which is pretty neat.
In 1 Corinthians 15:50-53, the apostle Paul tells us; "What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These perishable bodies of ours are not able to live forever. But let me tell you a wonderful secret God has revealed to us. Not all of us will die, but we will all be transformed. It will happen in a moment, in the blinking of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, the Christians who have died will be raised with transformed bodies. And then we who are living will be transformed so that we will never die. For our perishable earthly bodies must be transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die."(NLT)
 Here the scripture tells us that the remnants or ashes of christians who have gone on before us will be translated into new, heavenly bodies and will be joined to their spirit which is in heaven with the Lord. At the same time, in the twinkling of an eye, all living Christians will also be translated immediately, with them, to meet Jesus in the 'clouds' and together they will go into heaven (1 Thes. 4:17). Is that kool or what?
Let's conclude this article with Hebrews 11:5, where the apostle Paul makes it clear that even in the Old Testament this translation (or ressurrection, rapture, snatching away, parousia) experience was dependent on one special factor - 'faith.' The verse says, 'By faith Enoch was translated so that he did not see death, "and was not found because God had translated him," for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God'.
Enoch & Elijah were just normal human beings, and in one second, God simply and suddenly
snatched them away to another place. It will not be any more difficult for Him to perform such an event for every living Believer - in the twinkling of an eye - as it was for them.
(the next Revelation (e) article will explain the difference between the second coming of Christ and the rapture).

Duck Dynasty and Phil Robertson? part # 1of 5

Is America trying to rewrite the Bible? Various groups and individuals made a stink over Phil Robertson's statement characterizing homosexuality as a sin. Many of the homosexual organizations are claiming that Phil didn't accurately represent the Bible or the faith he professes. This attack is the latest in a "pro-homosexual trend" to discredit the accuracy, infallibility and authority of the Scriptures.
The problem is that what they are doing is to invalidate the need for repentance, forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation through Jesus' death and resurrection.
A person speaking on behalf of a group called GLAAD, a leading lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy group, said: "Phil's lies about an entire community fly in the face of what true Christians believe".  Liars, liars are they.
So we have a group of people who represent a sin, which God calls an abomination, telling us what the Bible means. Interesting?
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said in a news release, that Robertson didn't represent "people who consider themselves followers of Christ." Are they now speaking for me? They never asked me, and I am a follower of Christ? I agree with Phil, he represents me on this matter.
The new push to get people to accept this sin, against God's law of marriage, is to say that we are misusing the Bible and that the true interpretation of the inspired Word of God is that it is pro-homosexual. (Really?) Or maybe, and more truthfully than I want to admit, the gays have figured out that many of the people who "say they are Christians", do not know their Bibles very well at all, and the reason they are able to say whatever they want is because most of those so called Christians don't know what it says anyway.
Throughout the Bible, homosexuality is absolutely forbidden. We are told that those who practice it will not inherit the Kingdom of God, and that they are hell-bound in their homosexual practices (1Corinthians 6:9-10).
The Bible clearly tells us, in no uncertain terms, how God expects man to conduct himself. He has never requested that GLAAD, or some animal group, or any group explain what He has clearly written. The men responsible for giving the world God's Word are His holy, called men. We are not called to interpret His Word, we are called to preach it as He gave it. To teach it as He gave it to us. We are an ambassador of His Word and an ambassador does not redefine who he represents, he speaks only what is said by the one he represents. An ambassador never speaks for himself, only for whom he represents.
The problem in the church today is that pastors have grown too accepting of sin. The church is ducking the moral issues and the silence is advancing our moral decline. There are sins of comission and sins of omission and I believe that many of these cowardly pastors will be held accountable to God for what they are not saying.  Many people will die and go to hell from that silence, and the blood of those individuals will be on those Pastor's hands. Those who are truly called men of God need to stand together and teach what God has truly said. Let the words fall however they will on the members of the congregation. God's Word is a sifting word. It will sift out the true believer from the unbeliever.  His Word does that. We should all be modern day Lots who, in christian love, vex our souls because of the sins of men.
God places what He has to say on whom He wants and trusts to say it, (Romans 10:14) "How can they hear without a preacher"? How can God's Word bring conviction if it is not applied to the transgression by holy men who speak for God, with His impressive and unflinching anointing behind them.
The Bible says that the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be an offense to many. It says that the message of Christ in 1 Pet 2:8 is "a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence." We can now ask, to whom is God's Word a stone of stumbling or a rock of offense? The answer is "even to them which stumbled at the word, being disobedient."  This applies to homosexuals or anybody that finds God's Word has no sympathy with their transgressions and sins.
 We must face the bad news of our sin and depravity before we can receive the Good News of His loving forgiveness through repentance and faith in Christ. We must, in love, find the sinner, teach them God's hope, pray and lead them to forgiveness, and then go back out and do it time and time and time again. (next message: a scriptural explanation on the subject).

Revelation(c) - The Key to Revelation

Rev 1:19 Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter (KJV).
The (NLT) says it this way....."Write down what you have seen-- both the things that are now happening and the things that will happen later."
   Everything we do has a key to it. Cars require it to be engaged before you can start the thing or even get into it. We use keys to lock up our valuables. Songs are written in it. Without the key to a song,  you don't sing or play it properly. Well, the book of Revelation is no different. When God had the Apostle John write the apocalypse He gave him a key. Like an automobile, this literary key will help you unlock this marvelous book and provide smooth intellectual and apocalyptic understanding of what God is teaching in this study.
Thanks for joining me in this walk through the Word. Let's put the key into the book of The Revelation and open it for our understanding. The key is the three part division found in Rev. 1:19. "Write down the things, (first) which thou hast seen, (second) and the things which are, (third) and the things which shall be hereafter."
Because the book of Revelation is a succession of consecutive events from beginning to the end, the events are to be taken in the order as God gave them, and not according to some person's own whimsical or preconceived idea as to their occurrence. God clearly uses His written 'key' to explain the three time periods of how things will happen, as well as what will happen in each time period.
  Part#1 of the key to Revelation is, the things "which thou hast seen.' This is what John was seeing at the time of this vision. I believe it was so that John knew with certainty and unmistakable conviction that what he was about to write was given to him from the mind of Jehovah God.  So John's first vision is meant sell him on the magnanimity of the Author Himself, and the dependability of that source. This is no menial dream, make no mistake about it.  Jesus is saying to John, "you are writing about Me, and you know Me, but the Me that you know will be an obstacle as we proceed.  What you know of Me as Jesus the Messiah, the earthly Savior, will obstruct you concerning the universiality of the apocalypse - and the apocalyptice events forthcoming." So, Jesus appears to John in so much grandeur, and with so much glory and power, (and blows him up inside is head). John sees the magnificent vision of Christ in the midst of the candlesticks (Rev.1), the beloved of the Lord saw the cosmic Creator, the Alpha, the yesterday, today and forever; maybe we can call it a glimse of the Shikinah glory, and it was magnificent to him. So this first division of Revelation is 'the things which thou seest.'  Rev.1:19; 4:1.
Part #2 of the key is, "write the things which are," that is, the things concerning the churches then and those which should exist throughout the Church Age up to the rapture. This Part #2 includes Rev.2-3.  Special Note: This is the only part of the entire book of Revelation that is now being fulfilled. When the church is raptured  before the begining of the fulfillment of any detail of Rev. 4-22, the messages to the churches that exist at this time will cease to apply to the those left behind from the Rapture. The Church age will be finished and the things which must be fulfilled after, will begin to be fulfilled.
Part #3, the last part of the key is, "write the things which shall be hereafter." These are the things that take place with the churches remaining who have not been raptured. Everything that starts from Chapter 4 to the conclusion of the Book is considered in Part 3 (which is quite intense and something, I am certain, that none of us want to be here for!!)

Revelation (b) - About the Name

It is startling to me, that so many commentaries, studies and books name the book of Revelation: 'The Revelation of St. John the Divine', (after a man instead of Christ). I guess many of those authors never noticed that God, Himself, named the book in the very first verse, Rev.1:1, 'The Revelation of Jesus Christ.' The word 'revelation' and the word 'apocalypse,' are synonymous and are both derived from the Greek work apokalupsis, which means 'to unveil, reveal or uncover, lay bear, make naked' {Lu 2:32; Ro. 2:5; 1 Cor.1:7; 2 Cor. 12:7; Gal. 1:12} and numerous other references. The Hebrew origin means 'to lift up a curtain,' so as to clearly show what has been covered.
The Revelation had its beginning in the very mind of the Godhead. The Godhead is the trinity and this consists of the Father, the logos (the Son, Jesus), and the Holy Spirit. So Jesus had a part of the revelation in eternity past. But when He was born in the manger as the, 'baby Jesus,' He took on human flesh, emptying Himself of His divine position.  The word used for this is 'kenosis' which means 'to empty'. Our Savior set aside His power, knowledge, authority, His position as the logos, the creator and maker of everything that exists. For a time here on earth in the flesh He (Jesus) had no heavenly authority, He was simply human in His nature.  The Son of Mary and Joseph the carpenter, was born in Bethlehem and lived in Nazareth, giving up His heavenly position for the purpose of Calvary, so as to become the human sacrifice for the sin of Adam in the Garden of Eden. The whole purpose of His birth was to break the curse of sin and death.
I chose two scriptures to help our understanding of this 'kenosis', this emptying. The first description is found in Hebrews 2:7, "Thou madest him a little lower than the angels," and the other in Hebrews 4:15, "but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin".  These aren't exhaustive but they do capture a little of what He did, the 'emptying' we are explaining. The following are some other references on this subject; Rom8:3; Gal. 4:4; Phil. 2:7-9; Isa. 7:14, 11:1-2; Heb. 5:3; Isa 53:2-10; and last but not least Heb.10:5, (Is that a boatload of periods, commas and semi-colons or what)?
 Those thirty three and a half years of His life here on earth are referred to as His "Sonship." Before those 33 1/2 years, from eternity, He was the Logos, the Word. (Read John 1:1-14). As God, in the Trinity, He had no beginning (Mic. 5:2; Jn. 1:1-2). But as a man, He had a beginning, was begotten, was born and had a birthday, and became known as God's Son. Many scriptures tell us that the prophets foretold a time when God was going to have a son and where he would be born.  It would be through a virgin in the 'fullness of  the time,' (Gal. 4:4). He would be the son of humans and emptied for a time of His divine everything.
Now, Christ will always be referred to as Jesus, and numerous eternal titles for Him such as Prince of Peace, Messiah, Lamb of God, will eternally reference His work as our Savior on earth. But when God, in His time, works out all the details for the consumation of the ages, Jesus will return to His glorious position in the Trinity as "logos", to be adored by the universal family as 'the King of Kings and LORD of LORD's, of which we belong.
What's in a name? Well, let's just say that at the name of Jesus, EVERY knee will bow! (Phil 2:10)
(Next: 'The Key to Revelation'.)

Revelation (a)

I will be writing this blog series intermittently along with my regular blog, but this will be as a series on the book of 'Revelation'.  I hope you enjoy this series of writings and that they help you to begin your life as a 'watchman'. Yes, a watchman. He is the one assigned the task of looking, searching and penetrating the nothingness in order to observe the predator who has moved within it.
 A watchman's job is to watch and warn so that appropriate measures can be taken with reasonable speed and preparation.  Without an observant watchman, the enemy can come down quickly and we would find ourselves unprepared to take the proper measures, whatever those measures would be.
   So the word for you today, dear reader, is to be a 'watchman'! You are to have your saved and sanctified eyes on Jesus. Everything you do in life is to make sure that if Jesus comes, your reservoir of oil is with you and your lamps are filled to the brim. 
?What are you watching for you may ask? It might be better to note some of the things you are not watching for......you are not watching the nations. The news will never hurt you so long as you're not in it. The Jews in Jerusalem, or your personal friends are also not suspects. You are watching for the most dangerous enemy you will ever encounter other than the devil's minions themselves.
The enemy you are looking for is the one who will fail you in trials, will abandon you when he has sworn to stay beside you, or has gone to sleep when he has promised you he would stand guard faithfully for you...that enemy is as dangerous and unscrupulous as Judas, as deceitful as Tamar, as controlling as Jezebel and as unpredictable as the Pharisees and Sadducee's. The enemy you have to watch is, 'you'.....
There are seven churches in Revelation 2-3, each one receiving various warnings, but common to each one of them is this fact: they are all filled with 'you's.'  Yes 'you'...the born again and many times Pentecost-filled believers. And to each church there is a warning of a blight with those dear ones in those churches. God has something He needs to straighten out within those houses of worship. The 'you's' have stopped watching, lost focus, something has captured them other then Jesus Christ.
In this present "Church age" (which I believe is drawing to a close), you are responsible to guard your heart; to endure to the end, to hold fast, run the race, gain the prize. The Bible is filled with phrases teaching us that we are to be responsible 'watchman' to 'watch' our personal faith so that it stays strong against predators. 
So, before we begin Revelation, the warning must be to you, that little in Revelation and the study of it matters if you are not transformationally sound. If you are not right with Jesus and have less than an intimate, personally close, deep and warm relationship with your God, your Savior, then it would be wise for you to sit down and forget Revelation and get right first with the God who wrote it.

(Next article is "About the Name".)

Missing Our Greatest Breakthroughs? part 2

We left Part I of this blog by asking if we could be missing some of our greatest needed breakthroughs because we fail to fast. Earlier in the article we had talked about a three-twain cord (Eccl. 4:12). Well if you turn to Mark 4:8, 20, you can read of another three-twain reference which starts with a 30, 60 or 100 fold return. I like to think of it this way, when we pray, we get a thirty-fold blessing and when we give and are generous we get a sixty-fold blessing but if we pray, give and fast as a normal part of our lives, the hundredfold return can be released. If that is the case, you have to wonder what blessings are not being released.  What answers to prayer are not getting through? What bondage's are not being broken because we fail to fast?
Matthew tells the story of a father who had a demon possessed son.  I am sure many of you readers know the story, but if you don't and want to refresh it in your mind, it is found in Matthew 17. There were years of suffering for that father who stood by terror stricken as he watched his son suffer with severe convulsions.  As the boy grew older, the attacks became so brutal that the boy would often throw himself into a fire or at times try to drown himself. A spirit of suicide tormented him constantly. The whole thing came to a crisis point where it was life threatening.  He brought the possessed son to the disciples but those men knew only what Jesus had taught them to that point. I'm sure they prayed the best and hardest and with the most compassion that they could muster but it was to no avail. They didn't have a full tool box. You can only do the things you know...what you don't know, you can't do. Enter a perfect teaching opportunity where Jesus is in the vicinity and the
desperate father takes his son to Him.  He approaches Jesus and says, 'Lord have mercy on my son: for he is a lunatic, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him" (Matt.17:15).
At this time, Jesus, His heart full of love and filled with compassion and just about ready to burst out with mercy, tenderly greets the father.  Now the father is on edge because Jesus is a rabbi, and he himself a lonely broken and worn out old man. Jesus comforts that father, and the father now is drawing strength from the warmth and tenderness of the Messiah who welcomed him. Jesus asks him what it is that he is so distraught and in tears over and the father looks at the Master with lips quivering and eyes weeping, turns and points to his son who is now in a state of agitation because the devil in him knows who Jesus is!! (Remember this "bondage maker" is a created being from yesterday past and this devilish thing knows exactly who Jesus is.) The Lord goes over to the boy, "rebukes the devil; and he departed out of him, (v.18).
But what made the difference? After all, Matthew 10:1 tells us that Jesus had given the disciples power to cast out evil spirits and to heal every disease.  So why couldn't they cast out the demon and cure the son from this terror? The disciples came to Jesus later that night and asked Him.  Lord, why not us? Jesus told them, "Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting" (Matt. 17:20-21).
OK, we have all read this section many times and if you ask most readers they will focus on the statement, "and nothing shall be impossible unto you." I have preached on this same thing before as well. Jesus told them they needed faith and with that, just the faith of a mustard seed. But that wasn't the whole of the matter.  A while before this incident at the beginning of Jesus' ministry the Holy Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert for forty days and forty nights. ?Do you remember that? What did Jesus do while out in that desert?  He prayed and fasted...He the Master miracle worker, the Creator of all things, was in the desert for forty days and nights fasting...giving up food and comfort. Yes, He just didn't give up food...he fasted companionship, a soft, comfy bed and blanket, He fasted social happenings and friends....come' on work with me here. What is out in the desert that's fun?
......"howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting."  For our Savior, casting out that stubborn demon wasn't impossible at all.
But here is the lesson for us...if Jesus could have accomplished all that  He came to do among men without fasting, why would He fast?  The Son of God fasted because it powered Him up! He was juiced after and during a fast. Supernatural things were released that way...The hundredfold was released in him so that what He did in private (fasting) was seen openly in (miracles).
see you in part 3of 4.

Missing Our Greatest Breakthrough part #1 of

We all have some things that cause us to miss the greatest breakthroughs needed in our lives. During this series of articles that I'll be doing during the weeks of January/2014, I will be blogging my little fingers off about fasting.
I believe in it...I believe it is a powerful tool to help God's people receive a bunch of blessings. Yeah....a bunch. Fasting is good for the body...it is tremendous to the soul, it is impressive to God and it is even better as a game changer in life.
Let's clear the air about what a fast is. Refraining from food is not a fast. That is a diet. But refraining from food for a spiritual purpose.....that dear one's is a fast. From a biblical perspective, fasting has and is to be a normal part of a strong and vital relationship with God. David, the Goliath killer,
communicates that to us in Psalms 42 where he credits fasting (42.1-3) as the means to having a deeper(42.7), more intimate and powerful relationship with the Lord.
When a person deliberately, and with a purpose for spiritual growth, eliminates food from his/her diet for a given period of time, that person's spirit becomes uncluttered by the things around them and super sensitive to God. As David stated, "Deep calls unto deep"(Ps 42.7). David was fasting. His hunger and thirst for God exceeded his basic desire for food. That kind of want for God made it so that he could find God's presence and comfort in any situation. Even when Absalom forced David into a short term exile from his God-appointed throne in Jerusalem.
For anyone who has ever experienced an intimate relationship with the Lord and the numerous blessings that come with His favor--your whole perspective of life changes. You are not a victim anymore and you will never be conquerable anymore. You realize that His favor has come, in a huge part, from fasting. 
During Jesus' ministry on this planet, one of things He did was to teach and demonstrate to His disciples the principles of the kingdom of God. If you've spent any reasonable time in your Bible, you know that those principles conflict with the worldly life of today - and of back then. Jesus taught a tremendous message titled 'the Sermon on the Mount' (Matt. chpt 5-7). In chapter 6, He teaches us the pattern by which each of us is to live as a child of God.  That pattern deals with three main issues of a Christian's duty: giving, praying and fasting.  The Bible records Jesus' words this way, "When you give..."When you pray"....and "When you fast." Making it perfectly clear to everyone, that fasting, giving and praying are to be a normal part of a Christian's life.
King Solomon, earlier in biblical history wrote a book for all of Israel to read and learn from. In that book he made a very special point about strength. He uses a rope(cord,wire) for his example. You can find this illustration for yourself in Eccles. 4:12, where Solomon says, "a person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord(rope, wire) is not easily broken" (NLT). And that is the way it is when giving, praying and fasting are joined together in the life of a believer. It creates a trilogy of actions and efforts, a three-twain cord that is not easily broken. Do you remember when Batman was on TV every week? They would put up the words; "Bang, Bam, Boom" when he and Robin were in a skirmish. These three words described-with excitement- Batman and Robin's conflict and their beating up on their opponents.
Well to the Devil,  it is not "Bang, Bam, Boom",  it is praying, fasting and giving. Through these three, we open the pathway to victory in our lives. To the victor goes the spoils, [so we get to drive off in the batmobile!] Could it be, oh lover of Christ, that we may be missing our biggest breakthroughs because we fail to utilize all three of these amazing tools? More specifically: fasting.
C u in part 2.