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