Murph
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Post by Murph on Apr 11, 2020 8:46:20 GMT -6
Lesson #20b We are near the end...and a new beginning. Remember those 2 important things. Pray, ask for illumination, read an entire passage, then go back and read it line by line and meditate on it. Let the Holy Spirit show you what He intend you to get from the passage...and 2. put yourself in the story. Now gather up your robes, make sure your sandals are on tight, pick up your walking stick... *First we go to Gethsemane. "And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.
Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.
But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee.
Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended.
Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the c**k crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.
Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also said all the disciples." Matthew 26:30-35They had just celebrated the Lord's supper...and they sang a hymn. The next time you take part in The Lord's Supper...and after sing a hymn, leave, remember "And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives." v.30 Dwell on that and where they were going. "When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples." John 18:1**The Lord is Arrested! "And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people.
Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast.
And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, master; and kissed him.
And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? Then came they, and laid hands on Jesus, and took him.
And, behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest's, and smote off his ear.
Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.
Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?
But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?
In that same hour said Jesus to the multitudes, Are ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves for to take me? I sat daily with you teaching in the temple, and ye laid no hold on me.
But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled.
And they that had laid hold on Jesus led him away to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were assembled." Matthew 26:47-56
"And Judas also, which betrayed him, knew the place: for Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with his disciples.
Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons.
Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye?
They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them.
As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground.
Then asked he them again, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus answered, I have told you that I am he: if therefore ye seek me, let these go their way: That the saying might be fulfilled, which he spake, Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none.
Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus.
Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?" John 18:2-11*** Now the Trials... These passages are also long... Matthew 26:57-27:31 and John 18:12-19:13,but show us a lot about the evil hearts of men...and so many other things. Most of all they show what the Lord was willing to do for us. The following link leads to a Study of the 6 trials of Jesus. The Website belongs to a friend and brother in Illinois, a retired Baptist Preacher...it is full of treasures, studies, commentaries, and books...it is a great on-line reference and library. You can spend hours there reading and studying! "The 6 Trials of Jesus" By John W. Lawrence. www.baptistbiblebelievers.com/Books/TheSixTrialsofCHRIST/tabid/121/Default.aspxIt is well worth the read... *****The Crucifixion It is the "third hour"...9am Wednesday. "And it was the third hour, and they crucified him.
And they bring him unto the place Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, The place of a skull." Mark 15:25-26
Remember we are there. Most of the disciples have fled...only a few follow. We follow. The Lord is stripped of clothes, His skin in shreds, muscle and bone exposed, bloody, bruised...A man, a Cyrenian we are told, carries His cross because the Lord can't. We watched Him fall and the Roman grabbed a man from the crowd to carry the cross for Him.
We follow to a hill on a main road just outside the city. He is nailed hands and feet...and the Cross stood up in a hole in the ground. He hangs there...and we cry.
******The Lord charges John with the care of His Mother.
"Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.
When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!" John 19:25-27
Mary remained with John and his family till her death, history tells us.
*******The Lord dies at "the ninth hour"...
It is now Wednesday at 3pm.
"When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost." John 19:30
One thing that strikes me is that the Lord said, "It is finished..." ..."He bowed His head"...it didn't drop in death...He "gave up the ghost"...and laid His own head down...He decided.
"The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him.
But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.
And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe.
For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.
And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced." John 19:31-37
********The Lord's hasty burial...
"And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.
And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.
Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.
Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid.
There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand." John 19:38-42
This is the hardest passage for me to read...because I read it thru tears every time. We go with Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus...some other are there also.
We lovingly lower that ugly cross to the ground and pull the spikes out of the Lord's hands and feet. We wash His body for burial. We wrap it in fine clean linen and anoint it with burial spices.
It all has to be done fast...it is almost sundown. We don't have far to go. The Sepulcher of Joseph of Arimathaea is close by, in a garden.
We put the Lord's body in the tomb...lay it down to rest.
We knock the cleats out from under the stone and roll it in front of the opening to the tomb. We linger there a little while...and we cry...not too long tho...
The Romans and the Jews are watching...and we are afraid. Night is coming so we go.
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Murph
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Post by Murph on Apr 23, 2020 8:22:57 GMT -6
Have been asking...Lord, in the prophecies where are we?
Answer kept coming like an echo down a long long hall bouncing off the walls and windows, bouncing off the ceilings and the floors...
"beginning of sorrows"..."beginning of sorrows"...
was reading about this virus...beginnings of sorrows. Reading about storms and earthquakes everywhere. Reading about the locust in Africa...beginning of sorrows.
So went to my Bible...knew just where to look...and sure 'nough, It was right where I left it.
"And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
All these are the beginning of sorrows." Matthew 24:6-8
Shhhhhh...Whose footsteps are those I hear?
Amen.
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Murph
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Post by Murph on Apr 29, 2020 18:46:19 GMT -6
We are starting a new quarter and have new books and lots of interesting looking lessons. The first lesson is Luke 3:15-22 and we are going to take a look at it. My thought is, as always, to teach the Bible passage and you figure out how to apply it...
Remember each passage in the Bible has one and only one meaning...but might have several applications. Go one step further and realize each verse in the Bible is couched on every other verse in the Bible...none stand alone.
Each of us is different and so our needs might differ. But unless you understand what the passage is teaching you won't be able to apply it regardless. So first we learn what the passage says...the Holy Spirit will show us how to apply it as needed in our lives moving forward. If you don't have a passage in your mind the Holy Spirit can't call it to your mind...because it isn't there.
So open your mind and lets learn what this passage says.
From the Day of Resurrection we are about 20 day out from the Day of Pentecost. The new series in our Sunday School books is going to take a look at the Holy Spirit's role in the life of Jesus and the early church.
We begin by looking at the Baptism of Christ in Luke 3:15-22. Matthew and Mark also wrote about the Baptism in Matthew 3:13-17 and Mark 1:9-11.
First we get our baring's...the who, what, where, why, and when...
Luke is the writer of both the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts. By profession Luke was a physician, and his medical knowledge is reflected in the many medical references in both Luke and Acts. Commentaries tell us that He may have studies at the University at Tarsus. Also part of the university was a school of philosophy and literature. It is very likely that Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles, and Luke met while studying at the University. Perhaps it was there they began their lifelong friendship. Luke was a gentile...not many people realize that.
Luke wrote for the Greeks who were known for their intellectual prowess. His writing is that of a polished and educated man...more literary and classical than the other Gospels.
Luke was with Paul till his death in Rome...
So Dr. Luke was a gentile who wrote to gentiles. In his gospel Matthew presents Jesus the King, Mark presents Jesus the servant, and John presents Jesus our God. Luke presents to us Jesus the man. Keep in mind that Jesus was 100% God, and 100% man, 100% of the time. Luke shows us Jesus the man and the Son of Man.
Dr. Luke wrote his Gospel between 63 and 68 AD.
In our first lesson in the new series we meet an interesting character named John the Baptist. He is a fascinating man and I look forward to meeting him some day.
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Murph
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Post by Murph on Apr 29, 2020 19:50:25 GMT -6
In Luke 3 we meet John the Baptist, so who was John the Baptist?
Luke goes thru a very elaborate description of the times, the people in power, the corruption, and undercurrents. Luke shows us an emperor, a governor, 3 tetrarchs, and 2 High Priests.
All to introduce a man who by all outward appearances was a backwards, desert preacher, dressed in camel hair garments, with long hair, who mainly ate locust and honey...you see the Baptist was a Nazarene.
But what a man! what a preacher! and what a message!
"The Word of God," Luke says, " came unto John...in the wilderness." Luke 3:2b. The Baptist grew up in the desert moving from place to place but never far from the Jordan river. Once he answered the Lord's call to preach he didn't go to the Temple. He could have. He was born into and dedicated to the Priesthood.
But no! He didn't go to the crowds...he went into the wilderness and they came to him. By all accounts he was a fiery and forceful preacher...and drew crowds wherever he went.
His message was indeed loud and clear, "Repent!" To prince or farmer, priest or publican, soldier or scribe, Pharisee or Saducee, harlot or wife, rabbi or thief, rich or poor, bond or free, Judean or Galilean...the message was the same,
"Repent!"
All of this was foretold in Isaiah 40:3 and Malachi 3:1.
"The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God."
"Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts."
When ever a person of note...kings, potentates, priest, important people traveled a crew was sent out to fill in valleys, straighten crooked paths, smooth over rough places. That was The Baptist's job...
He was meant to Humble mountains of pride, fill in great valleys of degradation and depression. Crooked people were to be transformed, and rough people were to be tamed...
Repent!
The Baptist baptized with water...and some had began to speculate that he was the Messiah Himself...but he put that speculation down.
He said..."...I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable." 3:16-17
"...he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire..." Keep that in your mind.
Sooner or later The Baptist's preaching was going to make for him some dangerous enemies. He had already denounced the wickedness of the rulers of Israel. Luke tells us he went on the incur the wrath of Herod Antipas.
The Baptist had denounced Herod for stealing his brother's wife. Herod was a sly man and full of cunning.
This sets the stage and it is time to put ourselves in the story. Put on your robe, latch on your sandals, and grab your walking stick. We are going into the wilderness down to the Jordan River to meet John The Baptist in person.
And we are going to meet someone else there too.
Luke 3:15-22...but before you take another step, go read that passage.
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Murph
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Post by Murph on Apr 30, 2020 11:46:17 GMT -6
We have heard of this man, John the Baptist, around town. People all over Judea and Galilee are talking about him. He is a powerful preacher we hear, dressed in camel hair robes gathered at the waist by a leather belt, long hair, living in the wilderness near the Jordan river. We have heard he has made many enemies in the Roman and Religious establishment. We want to go listen to this man.
We have heard where he is so packed a lunch, we will go today. There is already a crowd when we arrive. John the Baptist is preaching, we could hear his voice long before we saw him. There are all kinds of people in the crowd, poor people and rich, tax collectors and soldiers, Pharisee and Sadducee. We are there too, visitors from the 21st century. We are also in the crowd, come to hear this wild desert preacher man...
While we are listening and watching people being baptized...
A man walks out of the crowd. They say He is from Galilee, maybe a cousin of the Baptist. He walks up to the Baptist and asks to be Baptized.
"But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?" Matthew 3:14
but this man "...answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him." Matthew 3:15
The Man they say is named Jesus.
As we watch the Baptist prepares to dip Jesus below the water. Jesus is praying.
Before our eyes the heavens open wide and a Dove descends...we don't know it at the time but that Dove is the Holy Spirit.
And...there is a voice coming from Heaven, "Thou art my beloved son..." we hear, "in Thee I am well pleased." Luke 3:22
Here is the significance of that statement. It had taken Jesus 30 years to reach this point. The Voice we hear, that Divine Voice, and the Dove...Holy Spirit from Heaven...set their approval on every single moment of the Lord's life from the moment He stepped out of eternity to the moment He emerged from the waters of the Jordan...every thought, every action, every word was indeed immaculate. It was not proof to Jesus...but proof to us.
There are several reasons Jesus, who was sinless, was baptized...but the one that most strikes me is this.
Jesus' baptism showed He identified with us...sinners. His baptism symbolized the sinners’ baptism into the righteousness of Christ. We, when we are baptized, symbolically die with Jesus as we descend into the water, and are raised with Him into a life everlasting when we rise out of the depths...a new and amazing and eternal life with the Lord. His perfect righteousness would fulfill all the requirements of the Law for us who could never hope to do so on their own. Always remember tho, and this is important, baptism doesn't save...only Jesus saves!
Here is the problem with people who say Jesus did not have the Holy Spirit till he was Baptized. To say that Jesus did not possess the Holy Spirit before His baptism is tantamount to denying His deity from birth. It would mean that before the baptism He was just an ordinary man. Remember John, who had known Jesus all His life, questioned His need for one.
In the wilderness today...
We saw the praying Jesus, the Heavens open, saw the Dove, heard the Voice...WE saw the Trinity. We saw the Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit! Looking back now on that moment by the Jordan in the wilderness...we have no doubt, tho others may...
Jesus is the Son of God.
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Murph
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Post by Murph on May 6, 2020 19:24:20 GMT -6
Sunday School Lesson 05-10-2020
Part One
Prayer Luke 11:1-13
Today's Sunday School lesson is about the Lord's prayer and comes from Luke 11:1-12. It is also recorded in Matthew 6:9-13. It will be in two parts, both parts labeled so you will know where to start.
As before we will look at the passage line by line to learn what it says. We will ask the Holy Spirit for illumination. Then we will ask the Holy Spirit how to apply this passage to our individual lives.
The Lord's prayer...a beautiful prayer. My Dad taught me this prayer to our Father when I was just a child. Dad is with the Lord now. The prayer is still with me.
*** "And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples." Luke 11:1
The Disciples had been watching Jesus pray...so they asked Him to teach them how to pray, just like John the Baptist had taught his disciples to pray.
This is the 6th of 7 times in Luke's Gospel that we see the Lord at prayer. The 7th time...the last time, is in Gethsemane. The Lord knew what lay ahead of Him and He prayed. To me that prayer...is the most beautiful in the Bible.
The Lord didn't hesitate and immediately responded to the disciples. Actually He had already given them the prototype in the Sermon on the Mt, Matthew 6:9-13.
We are going phrase by phrase and look carefully at what the Lord said that day. It is as much for us today as it was for them. These are interesting times and getting more so everyday...so maybe it is even more important to pray what we have come to call "The Lord's Prayer."
*** We begin with the words, "Our Father" if we are Christians, children of God...John 1:11-13.
"He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." John 1:11-13.
Prayer is, after all, a God centered activity. It lifts our hearts and thoughts to Him.
*** "which art in Heaven," Heaven is a real place...it's God's home. Jesus came from there and when His days on earth were done, He went back there. Jesus wants us to lift our thoughts to Heaven God's home.
*** "Hallowed be thy name..." God is pure and His name is holy and reverend.
"He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name." Psalm 111:9
He exhaults His name and promises to punish people who take His name in vain.
"Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain." Exodus 20:7
When we approach God's throne in prayer...remember Jesus has made that possible, we come with reverence for our hallowed God and with great tribute to our God of holiness. We need to remember who we are, and where we are, and who He is.
We are in His house...He is "Our Father who art in Heaven. Hallowed be thy name."
*** "...Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth." v. 11:2b
Now to His purpose...it has always bee our Father's purpose to establish a glorious and righteous Kingdom here on earth. He created Adam and gave him dominion. But Adam surrendered his sovereignty to Satan. As a result we now live in a world where sin and death reign. Whenever you see the word "sin" in the Bible it is usually closely followed by the word "death." They travel together.
Then Jesus came and the Kingdom was offered to Israel as the representative nation. But Israel rejected Jesus and what He offered, and worked to have Him executed at the hands of the Romans.
The Lord saw beyond all that...He saw Calvary, the Church Age, and beyond that to the time the Kingdom would come. God's kingdom hasn't been canceled...only postponed, Romans 9-11.
So we continue to pray, "...Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in Heaven." Matthew 6:10
Make no mistake...it is coming...so in prayer we are occupied with these things.
*** "Give us day by day our daily bread." v.3
There is to be bread for today just like there was manna day by day for the Hebrews in the wilderness, Exodus 16.
We pray for our current needs, not for wealth, not for vast amounts of possession to store in vast barns like the rich farmer, Luke 12...but just for our needs for today. After all we live one day at a time.
"As thy days, so shall thy strength be." Deuteronomy 33:25
*** And then there is a pardon that goes two ways, "And forgive us our sins; for we forgive every one that is indebted to us."
Remember this, when we preach the gospel to the unsaved we don't say If you forgive you will be forgiven...we talk about unconditional salvation. We preach salvation full and free. There are no conditions or strings attached to salvations except to accept it...it is a gift.
But once a person is saved, has become a child of God thru grace, by Jesus Christ, and is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, is baptized into the mystical body of Jesus Christ, and has become an heir of heaven and a joint heir with Jesus Christ, much more is expected.
As Christians and part of the family of God we can't expect to receive forgiveness ourselves unless we forgive others. We must exhibit the Spirit of Christ. Many times it is not easy to do but it is commanded so we must eventually come to a point where we can forgive.
*** "And lead us not into temptation: but deliver us from evil." A better way to read it is "deliver us from the evil." We are talking the Evil One, from active harm. We need protection from Satan, his agents both demonic and human. We also need protection from the evil we carry around with us in our own fallen nature. When we fall into evil we disgrace ourselves, but more than that we disgrace the church, our testimony as Christians...and most of all our Father.
*** The closing we are accustomed to hearing is from Matthew, " For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen." Matthew 6:13b. The right kind of prayer praises God and credits to Him the kingdom and the power and the glory. Some people debate this verse from Matthew and claim it was not part of the original prayer but was added later, maybe by a scribe. My thought is this, if the Holy Spirit didn't intended for it to be there...it wouldn't be there.
The Lord's Prayer I think, has been neglected by us and not prayed often enough. It is also something we have read, heard, and repeated so many times that we have rubbed the edges smooth. Hope and Pray this walk thru the Prayer has sharpened the edges again for us all. It did for me.
Now on to part 2 of this lesson...The Lord is going to tell us a story.
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Murph
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Post by Murph on May 8, 2020 20:06:53 GMT -6
Sunday School Lesson 05-10-2020
Part Two
A Story...
Persistence in Prayer is the focal point of the first part of a story or parable, Jesus told.
"And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him?
And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.
I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.
And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." Luke 11:5-10
Imagine it is very late at night and a friend from out of town shows up at your house. He is very hungry and you have nothing to feed him so you go next door to a friend's house and bang on the door...asking for something to feed your visitor.
In those days people in middle and lower class families lived and slept in one room. About one third of the room was on a raised platform about 8 inches off the floor and contained a fire ring around which the family slept. The rest of the room housed the animals.
You can see why the man was reluctant to climb over his family and stumble thru the animals to answer the door...but eventually he did.
Jesus used this story to tell us that our Father never sleeps. "He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber." Psalm 121:3
And to say our Father never says, "Don't bother me." How much more would he be willing to answer or respond to someone who keeps asking, keeps seeking, keeps knocking.
Some people have a problem with this and wonder why do I have to keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking?
There's a reason. We need to persist in prayer because it helps us to determine what is important to us. We are very much like little children in may ways. We want what we want now...we want this to work, or that to happen, and we want it now.
Then 3 days later we want something else entirely. To pray persistently is a way to help us sort thru what is really important to us.
And maybe and even more fundamentally, we are to be persistent in prayer just because the Lord enjoys just being with us. And if He gave us what we asked for the first time every time, He knows us well enough to know we would just grab the goods and run.
The fact that we must come to Him repeatedly helps us to see that, in the end, it was His fellowship we craved all along.
"If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?
Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" Luke 11:11-13
The Lord continued his commentary on the goodness and generosity of God.
He used the behavior of a human father to illustrate. Jesus didn't have a human father, but He lived in the home of one. Joseph, the village carpenter, was His foster father. "If a son ask bread of any of you that is a father," Jesus said, "will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpant? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?"
A stone! A serpent! A scorpion? No! A man would be a monster to do such a thing to a child.
"If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?" v. 13
God is too loving and wise to give us harmful gifts. The greatest gift that God can give to one of His own blood bought people is the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the birthright of every believer since Pentecost and will remain so till the Trumpet sounds.
This lesson is very much in line with the sermons Pastor Ridge has been preaching concerning prayer. My prayer is that our look at the Lord's Prayer has taken something we have read, heard, and recited so often we have rubbed the edges smooth...
and that our study of this passage has put a new sharp edge on a very special prayer...the one the Lord taught us to pray so long ago.
Amen...
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Murph
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Post by Murph on May 13, 2020 11:05:50 GMT -6
Sunday School Lesson 05-17-2020
Acts 1:1-11
We are now 3 weeks into our new Sunday School books...and still the doors to our building remain closed, but much to Satan's dismay...the Church is still wide open! still spreading the Gospel...still alive, still burning bright in a dark and dying world! Amen!
We are about 2000 years beyond the book of Acts...our lesson this week comes from that book. It is a picture of the early church from the Day of Pentecost to the great Christian persecutions at the close of the book that began the spread of the Gospel all thru Asia and into Europe. It moves from a small early Jewish minority to a large and growing body of Christians, predominately Gentile, by the close of the book. It makes for a wonderful study. Several atheist have tried to disprove Jesus using the book of Acts only to end up Christians themselves because of the book of Acts.
The writer of the book is Dr. Luke. He picks up his history where the Gospel of Luke leaves off. The book is known as the "Acts of the Apostles" but is actually the Acts of the risen and ascended Lord thru the Holy Spirit. Luke presents to us the history, using multiple sources, many of them eye witnesses. When we read the pronoun "we" in his book it is because Dr. Luke was often with the Apostle Paul and was witness to events himself.
Every book in the Bible has a key that will unlock the book for us. In Acts the key passage is the theme for this series of lessons in our Sunday School book..."But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witness unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth." Acts 1:8
As with the past 3 lessons...We pray to the Holy Spirit for illumination, and then we will examine what the passage has to say to us today...in these times.
The human life of Jesus on earth thru His ascention to Heaven was just the beginning, and what a beginning!
It was the beginning of Jesus, who has no beginning...Jesus is eternal, self-existing, uncreated second Person of the Trinity, Who existed before time existed...the One described by the Holy Spirit as "the everlasting Father.
"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6
His human life was the beginning of a new mode of living...which the Lord will not relinquish for the rest of eternity. He has a battle scared and glorified human body in which He is now seated on the right hand of His Father's Throne in Heaven. His incarnation was the beginning of a new kind of living.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not...And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." John 1:1-5,14.
Can you grasp the ramifications of that? Jesus is the Word of God...made flesh. Until He was born...He had no body. Now He does and will forever. It is the only thing in Heaven that isn't perfect...you see, He has these scars.
I hope you have your Bible open to Acts 1:1-11 and have read it. The question asked by our lesson today is, "what is my mission?" Jesus is going to tell us. We are with Him and the disciples today...it is the day Jesus ascended back into heaven and we are there...on the hill side, the Mt. of Olives watching, visitors from the 21 Century.
Luke tells us what happened..."And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven." Luke 24:50-53.
From Mark we hear, "So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God." Mark 16:19.
We are there on the hillside...watching and listening.
We have followed this Man Jesus thru His ministry...and heard and seen all the things that Jesus began to teach and to do...but it isn't over. Even now that living, teaching, doing is still going on, which is what the book of Acts is all about.
Jesus didn't leave for home either until, "after that He through the Holy spirit had given commandments unto the apostles." The Gospels all record these commandments.
It is 40 days out from the resurrection. He has appeared to many over that period of time.
Now Jesus gives new marching orders...to His Apostles. They were to go back into Jerusalem and wait, "...for the promise of the Father, which, saith He, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." Acts 1:4-5
Waiting...is often the hardest thing to do. The excitement of the Lord's visits after the resurrection must have filled the Lord's disciples with excitement and fired them up with enthusiasm. They must have felt that their marching orders from the Lord would help them overcome anything.
But that enthusiasm didn't last. It was noble, and it was sincere, but it had no staying power, and certainly no saving power. It was born of the flesh...they needed the Holy Spirit. Their task was impossible. Even with the Great Commission in hand they would need more than willingness if the world was to be won.
In that upper room on the day of Pentecost, they could have no idea of the impossibility of the task, of the stubborn unbelief of mankind, of the power of human governments, commerce, and religion that would oppose them, or of the horrible persecution that was in front of them.
They needed "the promise of the Father." John best recorded in his gospel the Lord's long conversation with them in that same upper room about "the promise of the Father." He had said,
"I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another comforter..." John 14:16.
They would need that Comforter, The Holy Spirit. They would need Him to enlighten them, and to give them the energy to preach the Gospel, they would need the Holy spirit to encourage them...exactly the same way we do today.
"When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power." Acts 1:6-7
They asked the Lord a question that seems to us now to be out of context...they betrayed their lack of spiritual comprehension. It was not a bad question but they were still thinking of a secular kingdom not a spiritual one. There was so much in prophecies yet to be fulfilled, and an entire Church age in between. So, the Lord redirected their thoughts to the task at hand...world evangelism.
We are there now, standing in the crowd of Disciples and maybe some others on the hillside. Jesus is standing a little beyond us...looking at us. It is a beautiful day. The sun is shinning and there are huge white clouds in the sky. We listen as He speaks some of the last words He will utter on earth before He goes home.
Here is what He says,
"But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." Acts 1:8
We remember later as we recall that day...the very last words the Lord said before He left for heaven were, "The uttermost part of the earth." That is the Great commission. We are to tell the story to the untold millions still untold. Even today they are still out there and we need to go tell.
We are called to be witnesses...a witness simply tells what they have seen and heard. We tell what happened to us...we give our testimony. It is the Holy Spirit who does the pleading, convicting, and who calls for the verdict. We are just the messengers.
And we hear the Lord give His master plan for evangelism...we are to begin with Jerusalem, our own communities, Then we are to reach out to Judea, our own countries...then to Samaria...our own continent.
And finally..."the uttermost parts of the earth." "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations." Matthew 28:19. We are to teach from pole to pole, from sea to sea. The page is about to be turned right in front of us in the first chapter of a book that is not finished yet...
And as we look...what a moment. Do our eyes deceive us? As we watch Jesus goes home, angel escort and all, up thru the clouds, up thru the stars, back to Glory Land from whence He came. We are speechless.
But now He is different, now He has a body, a battle scarred, a resurrected, a glorified body.
We can almost see Him in that body. He arrived at the gates of Glory, which swong open before Him. In He went, into Glory, down the golden streets, watched by the saints and angels, up to the throne of His Father, and there He sat down on the right Hand of God.
A man in a human body is now seated on God's throne, because, as God the Son, second Person of the Trinity, and as co-equal with the Father, He has every right to be there!
Now consider this...the significance of the ascension. It means we now have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. We have a Mediator in Heaven, a great High Priest, touched with feelings of our infirmities, able to Minister on our behalf as that perfect Daysman for whom Job had longed ages before. Job 9:33
Hallelujah! What a Saviour!
Now as we stand there on the Mt. of Olives watching Jesus disappear into the clouds...something else happens.
"And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." Acts 1:10-11
We are so riveted on Jesus we don't notice them at first. Two men, newcomers, suddenly are standing by us. They are all dressed in white apparel. We have no doubt they are angels after all angels announced His birth, they had watched His temptation, they had strengthened Him in Gethsemane, angels had announced His resurrection...and now angels had come to escort Him home.
AS we all watch, the clouds close in in the skies...and they speak. "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye here gazing up into Heaven?"
Lord, after all had told us over and over that he is going to return...so why? The Lord has given us a job to do so we best be about our Father's business...
With that the messengers are gone but the message remains. The first coming is over. The second coming is now the goal. This same Jesus is coming again, coming in the sky in the rapture, to the brow of the Mt of Olives. But in the meantime we have work to do. Lord made us the feet and mouth pieces of the Gospel message, and He told us to go tell.
Amen.
This lesson certainly doesn't come close to teaching the beauty of that passage...so full of love, hope, grace, and mercy...the aroma of God, Salvation, and Heaven, but I pray it has whetted your appetite for study.
Go read, then go tell.
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Murph
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Post by Murph on May 21, 2020 11:03:33 GMT -6
Sunday School Lesson 05-24-2020
Acts 8:14-25
What does it mean to be baptized by the Holy Spirit?
This is good real lesson on how one verse, one chapter, and one book all are interlaced and overlapping. To understand any one verse, chapter, or book you need to understand what went before...
It is like an interlocking puzzle...to get the picture you have to put the whole thing together.
And it fits like a well worked dovetail joint...it interlocks in such a way that it strengthens and can't be pulled apart. A well done dovetailed joint is a thing of beauty to behold...The well worked joints of the Bible are infinitely more beautiful.
The Subject of the Holy Spirit is sometime a touchy one. We are going to try to make a careful look and see what it means to be baptized by the Holy Spirit.
A college professor in a theology class asked his student take out a piece of paper and for 3 minutes write down everything they knew about God...the class went to work and soon filled up both sides of the paper. Then the professor asked them to take a second piece of paper, and for 3 minutes to write down every thing they knew about Jesus. Quickly they again filled both sides of the paper.
He then asked the class to take out a third piece of paper and in 3 minutes write down everything they knew about the Holy Spirit...
No one was able to fill even half a page...
Hope by the end of this lesson we will be able to do better than that.
To get a picture of what is going on we need to go back to chapter 6 where we meet Stephen. He was one of 7 deacons appointed by the early church to "wait tables", Acts 6:2. He was a man "filled with the Holy spirit", Acts 6:5. It was a requirement for any kind of service or office in the New Testament church.
He was also able to so successfully present the cause of Jesus that his opponents decided they could not defeat him and it would be best to destroy him...one of those opponents was a fella named Saul of Tarsus.
So they took him before the Sanhedrin, gave him a monkey trial, and then handed him over to the executioners. Saul of Tarsus lent a hand in the stoning of the first martyr of the Church, Stephen, a dynamic deacon, filled with the Holy Spirit, who boldly declared that the Lord wasn't interested in a religion...but in a relationship!
But the martyrdom of Stephen had an opposite effect...it didn't stop the growth of the church. The martyrdom of Stephen instead of stopping the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ...seemed to give it impetus. At the death of Stephen, believers scattered in all directions taking the Gospel with them as the went.
Chapter 8 picks up the story. Philip the evangelist now steps forward to take the lead in the church. He was another of the seven deacons. He carried the Gospel down to Samaria, where none of the Apostles seem inclined to go. Samaria as you remember was not a popular place with the Jews. But Philip took the Lord's command seriously, "Ye shall be a witness...in...Samaria." Acts 1:8.
The prejudice against the Samarians went way back, but it couldn't stand against the Gospel. A tremendous revival broke out. It was so large that the church in Jerusalem decided to send its two leading Apostles, Peter and John, to see what was going on.
Philip then left to carry the Gospel message to a traveling black man, the Treasurer of Ethiopia. And we see the Gospel travel to Africa. With that Philip became the first foreign missionary of the first century Church.
We back up to Acts 8:14-25 for todays lesson. Hope you have taken a look to see what it says.
Again to understand exactly what was going on we drop back to verse 5. The early church members had scattered when Stephen was martyered...one of them was Philip. Like Stephen, he was one of the men chosen to serve the church family in practical ways when the dispute regarding Hellenist widows arose, Acts 6:5. He was one of those forced to flee persecution, Acts 8:1, ending up in Samaria.
After the Jews had rejected the gospel again, we see God extending the offer of salvation in Jesus out to other people, beginning with the Samaritans.
600 years before this, the Assyrians conquered this area of northern Israel and deported all the wealthy and middle-class Jews from the area. Then they moved in a pagan population from other localities. These pagans intermarried with the lowest classes of remaining Jews in northern Israel, and from these people came the Samaritans. The Hebrews considered these people half-breeds and hated them.
Yet, Philip preached Christ to them. Philip came presenting the gospel, with "signs and wonders." I suspect they turned to Jesus because of His previous ministry to them. When the people found Jesus thru the Gospel preached by Philip, there was great joy in that Samaria.
Now a man named Simon enters the narrative. Was he just a clever man? Was he a conduit for demonic power? We don't know if it was trickery or demonic power...but we do know that Satan was using Simon to keep people away from God. Philip came and preached the Gospel. Suddenly people began to realize there was hope, joy, a reason for living...and they responded to his preaching.
We then read, "...Simon himself believed also." v. 13a Simon believed, but he was not a born again believer. James 2:19 says that even devils believe in God and the tremble. But they are not saved.
Did you know a person can miss heaven by 18 inches...that is the distance between your head and your heart.
There is not one demon who doubts the reality of Hell. That is why James points out the fallacy of intellectual faith. Your heart must be touched. Your faith must affect the way you live..."faith without works is dead." James 2:17.
Faith without works?" you say. " I thought salvations was by faith." It is. It's not faith and works... It's not faith or works...It is Faith that works!!!
The Apostles in Jerusalem heard of the revival in Samaria so sent Peter and John to go see. When they arrived and saw it was real, they baptized, laid hands on the people, and the people immediately received the Holy Spirit.
Well Simon the Sorcerer...who had heard the Gospel, but was more impressed by the signs and miracles the Gospel...was watching all this with great interest. In Simon's world everything had a price and he wanted a piece of the action which he could get from the power he had just seem. His eyes must have gleamed...now this was power he thought!
So he says, "Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands he may receive the Holy Ghost." v.19 He put his covertness into words. He wanted to be able to buy and sell, to market as a mere commodity, the Holy Spirit of God.
Remember Ananias and Sapphira sinned against the Holy Spirit and were instantly executed as a warning...Now Simon Magus sinned against the Holy Spirit and was instantly excommunicated.
But Peter said to him, “Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money! You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.” v.20-23
In other words, Peter said to Simon, "To hell with you and your money." You can't buy salvation and all it offers...it is a gift.
What Peter said might sound harsh...and was. But he was trying to get Simon to see the truth in love, though it was hard for Simon and those standing by to hear.
But when Peter called Simon on the carpet Simon didn't show any change of heart...instead he prayed that he would be protected from the consequences of his sin...do you see the difference?
Little rabbit trail. Tradition says Simon went insane and buried himself alive, but not before he introduced the heresy of Gnosticism. Among other things Gnosticism states that matter being evil and spirit good, God could not have created the world out of matter, nor could Jesus have become a man and died for our sins.
From the way v. 25 is written it sounds like Philip returned to Jerusalem with Peter and John and along the way they preached the Gospel to many Samaritan villages as they went.
So, what does it mean to be baptized by the Holy Spirit? Let's break it down and make it as simple as we can. It is, first of all, a supernatural work...and it is the work whereby the Spirit of God places the believer into union with Christ and into union with other believers in the body of Christ at the moment of salvation.
"For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit." 1 Corinthians 12:12-13
"What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." Romans 6:1-4
"There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." Ephesians 4:4-6
"Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead." Colossians 2:12
Once again this small Sunday School Lesson doesn't even come close to explaining or describing the Third Person of the Trinity, The Holy Spirit, nor the work He does. My hope is that again your appetite is whetted for more study and you and I both will dig into the Bible and learn.
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Murph
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Post by Murph on May 27, 2020 11:05:26 GMT -6
Sunday School Lesson 05-31-2020
Happy Birthday Church! It's Pentecost Sunday!
We are going to leave the Sunday School lesson for today and go to Acts 2:1-4 instead. We are going to celebrate the birthday of the Church!
It has been said...on that day around 2000 years ago, 120 individual believers went up the stairs to that upper room...The Holy Spirit descended, and it was the Church that marched down the stairs! Hallelujah! What a Day!
Since Moses had instituted the feast of the Passover, y'all remember the Passover? Exodus 12, that day had come and gone about 1500 times...but now it would come to stay!
On the Day of Pentecost in the Old Testament, the Jews took individual grains of corn, ground then into flour, added oil and leaven, and made 2 loaves of bread. The loaves were then offered to the Lord along with the sacrifice of 7 lambs without blemish, one bullock, and 2 rams for a burnt offering...10 sacrifices in all. It was to symbolize the perfection and completeness of Calvary.
All of it symbolized what happened 50 days after the Resurrection of Jesus. Pentecost always fell on the first day of the week, symbolizing, even in the OT perspective, the end of the Sabbath and the consecration of a new day for a new Dispensation.
In my SS class we have talked about the dispensations and what they are...for you who are new to this term here is a simple definition of Dispensation or dispensationalism. It is a method of interpreting history that divides God’s work and purposes toward mankind into different periods of time. Usually, there are 9 dispensations identified, although some theologians believe there are more.
The oil speaks to the work of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, The inclusion of leaven in the loaves of bread was unusual. It was usually left out of other meal offerings because it represents sin. Leaven was included in the loaves for Pentecost because those loaves are representative of the church. The church has never been free from sin.
The burnt offering speaks to the sacrifice of Calvary. The sacrifice of a kid of the goats was for a sin offering, and the 2 yearling lambs for a peace offering...we have perfect peace with God.
At the Feast of the First fruits, individual stalks of grain were loosely bound together and symbolized the Resurrection of Jesus and His triumph over death...and ours. On the day of Pentecost the grains and stalks were replaced by one loaf of bread, one homogeneous body...to symbolize what would happen when the day of Pentecost was "fully come." We see a group of 120 believers bound together by Christ go up the stairs to the upper room "with one accord."
One body of believers came down...Individuals went up, the church came down, one mystical body, hence the loaf of bread.
The 2 loaves used in the OT ritual is also important. Now watch this...There was to be a second Pentecost in a way. It would happen in the house of Cornelius, Acts 10, which would bring Gentiles into the one body on an equal basis with the Jews. No Jews...no Gentile, just one body...one church! hence the second loaf of bread.
Do you see the types and shadows...the symbolism? What was about to happen in the upper room would fulfill all this...the coming of the Holy Spirit as promised by Jesus, and foretold in the prophecies.
That is one of the beauties of the Bible...all the rich types, shadows, the symbolism, and prophecies...but we are about to go to the upper room...visitors from the 21st Century. Put on your sandals, and robes, pick up your staff and lets go.
The apostles are there and about 120 others including Mary the mother of Jesus. We are in prayer with the rest...and ...
"...suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting." Acts 2:2
First we notice it is not a wind but the sound of a mighty rushing wind...like a hurricane. It is not an earthly sound...but one from Heaven, and it is symbolic.
It announces the presence of the Holy Spirit. The wind is one of the symbols of the Holy Spirit. He comes from Heaven, He fills the world, He moves at will...His comings and goings are according to fixed laws, but His sovereignty is not restricted by any. He is commanded by nobody. He is the Third Person of the Trinity and He is God.
He is at our service but He will do what He wants...not what we want. He is omnipresent and omnipotent...so the sound of rushing wind from heaven is perfect...
Remember what Jesus said to Nicodemus, He said, "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but can not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." John 3:8
The sound is fleeting...it comes and it goes...never to return.
You see it was a once for all occurrence. It is something we hear in the upper room and it arrests our attention. The sound is not heard outside...it only catches the ears of those of us in the upper room.
A new age is about to begin that would indeed be heard...it is the age of faith...faith that "cometh by the hearing." Romans 10:17.
Also notice we hear the sound, there was no other sensation. We hear the wind but don't feel it. There is no emphasis on feeling at all...it is Faith! not feeling! That is the hallmark of this new age. The Church Age...the Age of Grace!
And then we see the awesome fire!
"And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them." Acts 2:3
First we hear..."Faith cometh by the hearing."...and then we see. That is how it works and not the other way around. It is God's way.
And then we see the "cloven tongues like as of fire..."
Fire is another symbol for the Holy Spirit. Think about the comparison...
Fire can start as a small flame and grow into a 12 alarm fire. It has a judgment element associated with it. It illuminates...provides light. It warms...and it smolders. We can resist and put out of an ordinary fire...but the Holy Spirit can never be put out. It burns quietly in the hearts of some believers...almost to just embers but can be rekindled into a huge flame again. There are more parallels to the fire at Pentacost and it is a good symbol for the Holy Spirit and for the church age.
But again we note it isn't a literal fire...there is nothing to feel. This sign was not repeated nor was it seen by the outside world.
"There appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them." Acts 2:3
This was baptism of the Spirit...and it sat on each of them individually and equally. No one got a special baptism. Everyone in that crowd had just as much of a baptism , anointing, and filling, from the most notable to the unknown man or woman standing in the back of the room...
It was not a special work given to some and not others. God is no respecter of persons. The cloven tongue sat upon each one in the room...individually...equally...indiscriminately.
What we see in the upper room is spectacular...but it is passing. It came and it went...and it never came again.
We have seen a symbolic wind and a symbolic fire to usher in a new age and a change in dispensation. We see that "the day of Pentecost was fully come" and it sounded the death knoll for the old ritual Jewish Pentecost and it rang in the birth of the Church of God! Hallelujah and Amen!
"And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost..." Acts 2:4a
Now we are going to ride into some serious Doctrine. I think y'all are up for it...so put on your doctrinal hats, mount up, and let's ride!
There are 7 ministries of the Holy Spirit in the Church age...including the baptism, the gift, the indwelling, the seal, and the earnest. These are all sovereign acts of God given to the believer at the time of his salvation.. They are unconditional, sovereignty under God's control, and impartially given to every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ! Always remember in all things...the ground at the Cross is level. Maybe some day we can look at each one of the 7 ministries and see what they all are...one by one.
These ministries to us never need to be repeated, they are never withdrawn. They guarantee our eternal security and our wonderful standing in Christ! Hallelujah.."now if that don't make ya wanna jump up in a pew and shout Amen! ain't nuttin' will!" That's what I always say.
Now watch this...filling is different. It is conditional. Paul talks about it in Ephesians 5:18 when he says, "Be ye being filled"...and he uses as an illustration being filled with wine...a fluctuating state. The filling depends on the individual believer...who can be filled one moment and, because of some disobedience, empty the next.
The purpose of the filling is to change our temperament...to make us like Jesus in His nature, person, and personality so that we can reflect Him to a lost and dying world. The filling is always available but our realization of it depends on our cooperation with the Holy Spirit.
On the Day of Pentecost every one in the upper room was filled with the Spirit. The filling is available to every believer. There are no exceptions, and there is no excuse for not being filled. All believers are indwelt...but not all are filled all the time...do you see the difference?
We have one operation in our lives as believers by the Holy Spirit left to examine...the anointing for service. Keep your doctrinal hats on...In the OT prophets, priest, and kings were anointed for their ministries. Not all men were anointed for the same work. The Lord was always filled with the Holy Spirit, but He was not anointed until He began His ministry, Matthew 3:16; Luke 4:16-19. The word used for anointing in the NT is "unction." It refers to a believer's special ability to use the Word of God with power...
"...and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave then utterance." Acts 2:4b
This is a debated passage. We won't go into all that but will examine the passage in light of what happened later on that day. Acts 2:6,11 says..."Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language... Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God." There were people from all over the Diaspora, literally the Roman Empire, in Jerusalem for the Passover celebrations. They gathered outside the house where the 120 people were gathered in the upper room. The apostles went out and shared the gospel with the crowds, speaking to them in their own languages. They were speaking in tongues...or languages they didn't know. My thought is that the Apostles and Disciples were speaking in their language but the people in the crowd were hearing the message in their own language. Everyone in the crowd that day heard the Gospel message in their own language!!!
It was a wonderful day...the day the Church was born! The Lord had kept the Church a secret all thru the Old Testament and into the new. It came as a complete surprise to Satan...who was blindsided by it. By the end of the first Century the Church had spread thru out the Middle East and into Europe...
Satan, that old lion walking to and fro...breached the walls of the church early on and marched right up the center isle...by the end of the first century, 1,2,and 3 John give us a snapshot of a church already corrupted by sin...and falling away.
But Jesus said this about the church, "...upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Matthew 16:18b You see He always has a remnant, the true Church.
At times it has burned bright in revivals and at times it has been just smoldering ember but it has always been there...Satan has not and will not prevail against us. Lord said so!
The church includes everyone, all believers, from the Day of Pentecost till we hear a shout, the trumpet sounds...and we are all called home together...to march down the golden streets of Heaven to join Jesus and be presented to God the Father! The Bride of Christ, the Church! What a glorious day that will be!
We will all be there...we will actually be marching shoulder to shoulder with the 120 original members...and everyone else in between! Glorious, Awesome, beautiful...and we will all be there!
"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." 1 Corinthians 2:9
Happy Birthday Church!!!
May be the last one on earth..."...even so, come, Lord Jesus." Revelation 22:20b
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Murph
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Post by Murph on Jun 1, 2020 18:46:00 GMT -6
World is at present in turmoil...trouble everywhere and it is worldwide.
So many passages from the Bible are scrolling across my brain that sometimes it is hard to grab on and go with just one.
Just now was able to do that...grabbed on and slowed my brain down long enough to go with it.
We read in the Bible that before the world finally comes apart and enters the tribulation it will be...
"And as it was in the days of Noe..." Luke 17:26
"...in the days of Lot...But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Luke 17:28-29
The one that has caught my attention is..."as in the days of Lot..."
Read what Peter said...
"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; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds..." 1 Peter 2:6-8
We live in Southside Virginia...in the backwoods. We are watching the people in cities battle with a virus, and now in riots over what people view as the unjust death of a black man by a white Police officer. Have read now in several place how glad backwoods men all over the country are that we live in the backwoods...where we are affected but not like the cities...
So what about this Lot being so vexed thing...? Why was he so vexed.
To get a real good look at it we have to go back to the Old testament...my favorite stomping grounds. So we go back to Genesis 13. Abraham and his nephew Lot had journeyed to Canaan and had done quite well. They had great herds and great wealth...
But they were using the same lands to feed and water and fights broke out between their men. Abraham finally said the fighting was bad testimony for them. He told Lot to chose what land he wanted...and Abraham would take what was left.
Lot looked around and saw the land around the river...the Jordan. It was green and lush. Lot took the plains.
Abraham went up into the hills...dry, rocky...but doable. "Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom." 13:12
I suppose Lot's wife got tired of living in tents, and wanted the comforts of the city...so Lot moved into Sodom.
Y'all know the rest of the story.
We fast forward to Genesis 19...the two angels come to visit Abraham, tell him of their plans to destroy Sodom, and Abraham bargains for Lot and his family...
The angels did go to Sodom and we get a snapshot of the evil there.
Lot leaves with his family, fire and brimstone rain down, and destroy all the cities of the plains.
Now we see Abraham sitting on top of his mountain...looking down at the destruction.
"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." Genesis 19:27-28
Do you see? Lot was vexed becasue he was in the middle of the mess, violence, and evil going on all around him.
Abraham was in the backwoods...he can see the smoke and smell the sulfur...but he is not in the middle of it.
We can see the smoke and smell the sulfur but are not in the middle of it.
Now here is something else to note. As soon as Lot was out of the city...God destroyed the cities of the plains...nothing there to this day but salt flats.
Speaks to the Rapture...Lord isn't going to destroy anything till the Church is gone...but that is a story for another day.
Now the scrolling starts again...so much is going on hard to just pick one.
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Murph
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Post by Murph on Jun 4, 2020 18:17:34 GMT -6
Once again we are going to depart form the lesson in our Sunday School books and will take a look at something called "The Rapture."
It is not taught in the church today and that is a shame because it is going to catch many Christians by surprise.
Might be good to take a look at what the Bible has to say about this wonderful event. We are not going to get into any of the debates surrounding the Rapture...we are just going to take a straight forward look at what the Bible says. In addition, I believe what the Bible says...that we are not appointed to wrath, 1 Thessalonians 5:9, so am approaching from a Pre-Tribulation Rapture.
It is not an in depth look but I hope again it will whet your appetite enough to go study.
The most notable reference in the Bible is what Paul had to say in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 so let's start there.
(Another well known passage just for your information...is 1 Corinthians 15:51-54)
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"But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Wherefore comfort one another with these words." 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
I think that last verse is what drew my attention to this passage..."...comfort one another with these words." In the turmoil swirling all around us today "comfort one another...with these words."
Amen!
So we will take this passage apart and look at what it says to us today...I think we are very close to the Rapture.
Have a friend who is fond of saying, "Shhhhhh...whose footsteps are those I hear?" I believe the Lord is at the door.
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"But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope." 1 Thessalonians 4:13.
So what happens to Christians who die before the Rapture...right out of the shute Paul answers that question.
Death for those outside of Christ death is final, cold, cruel, callous, and absolutely uncaring. Paul calls it the "last enemy..." 1 Corinthians 15:26. When it arrives it is all over.
But for believers God says, all is well. "Ye sorrow not," Paul says, "even as others who have no hope."
We sorrow but we have God's word for it, that our loved ones are only asleep...it is a reference to the state of their bodies. Our souls don't sleep, our bodies do. Our souls are made of the same stuff as eternity. It never gets tired, or old, never gets ill, never sleeps. The bodies of our loved ones, brothers and sisters in Christ, are asleep. Remember what Jesus said about Lazarus...go read John 11:1-15 and see.
So we sorrow but not as those who have no hope. Reminds me of Abraham when Sarah died. Bible says, "...Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.
And Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spake unto the sons of Heth, saying, I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight." Genesis 23:2b-4...Abraham reminds us we are just pilgrims traveling thru...on our way home.
"For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." 1 Thessalonians 4:14
The "if" in this verse is not an if of doubt...read it "since." It is a fact...Paul takes it for granted and so should we.
Now comes a grand and glorious certainty! It is the rock on which our faith rests, and one of the mountain tops on which we stand!..."Jesus Christ died and rose again..." It is a central truth of the Gospel!
Paul cements Christ's resurrection in and then turns his attention to ours...what a beautiful and peaceful word picture it paints for us. "...them also which sleep in Jesus..." Here is the word picture...let your minds see this...
When evening starts to spread and bedtime comes, we gather our children around us...we give them a bath, tell them a bedtime story, we tuck them into bed, and turn out the lights. Nothing scary or strange about that. It is a comparrison to Christians dying. It is not to be any more feared by us than going to sleep.
No believer ever dies alone. Remember what Jesus said, Matthew 10:29, God attends even the funeral of a sparrow...when the time comes we will be safe in the arms of Jesus. He will tuck us in until morning comes. Then, when He comes He will take us home with Him.
"For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep." 1 Thessalonians 4:15.
Paul is about to give us something new in this passage that he got by direct revelation from the Lord Himself. He calls it "the word of the Lord..." and it is totally reliable.
It is a guarantee...made by God and thru the resurrection of Jesus, "...the dead in Christ shall rise..." 1 Timothy 4:16.
The truth of the Rapture is confirmed by the resurrection of Christ. On that we have the Word of God...His Word is his bond and God's integrity is beyond all question. As David Livingston said..."It is the word of a Gentleman of the strictest and most sacred honor and that's the end of it all." Have always loved that! "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God..." 1 Thessalonians 16.
The shout is for the Rapture of the church...it calls the church out. It summons the saints to glory!
For 2000 years God has been silent...it is this shout that breaks that silence. What a shout it will be...a shout that will raise the dead.
We hear this Shout 3 times in the Bible. The first one, Lazarus was raised from the dead, John 11...the 2nd one came from the cross, and many were raised from the dead and walked the streets of Jerusalem, Matthew 27. I can't wait to hear the third...it will summons us home!!!
It will be heard by the dead asleep in Christ...across 7 seas and 5 continents, from the mountain peaks to the depths of the oceans, thru the deserts, and the cities, thru the country sides and countless graveyards both known and unknown...
And the dead in Christ will rise!!!
"Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." 1 Thessalonians 4:17
We will come forth! thousands and thousands of Lazarus's out of the grave and those of us living when the shout comes...ten times ten thousands, times ten thousands...thousands and thousands and thousands again. Men and women, boys and girls, all washed in the blood of Jesus.
For the first time in history the whole church will be seen...militant, triumphant, universal! Christians, believers from the Day of Pentecost to the moment we hear the shout!!!
Every member will be present!!! and the Church will be perfect!!! meeting the Lord in the clouds!!!
I get so excited talking, and thinking, and reading about it!!! For me it is one of those stand in the pews, dance with joy, and shout Hallelujah and Amen times! Now consider this...
The shout of the Archangel signals something else too. That shout sends the Archangel and the Angels to war. The Rapture signals the end to amnesty when God has broken off all relations with a world that murdered His Son.
All Hell is literally about to break loose on earth.
But the Church will be safe in Heaven with the Lord at a marriage and a marriage feast.
"Wherefore comfort one another with these words." 1 Thessalonians 4:18
The exact time is not known but we have always known the Rapture is imminent which means it can happen at any time...
Because of certain events we now know the Rapture is probably becoming immediate.
"Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." Luke 12:32.
Again I hear my friend say..."Shhhhhh, whose footsteps are those I hear?"
Amen.
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Murph
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Post by Murph on Jun 17, 2020 10:41:42 GMT -6
Snapshots of God...
Old Testament Book of Esther never mentions God but His hand is all over it...
Love the Book of Esther, it has everything, political intrigue, despotic rulers, unjust laws, a love story, devout lovers of God, and the whole Jewish race of that day.
The main characters are a King named Xerxes, his wife Vashti, a ruthless chief minister of state named Haman, a beautiful Jewish lady named Esther and her uncle Mordecai, all the Jews of the lands, and God...He is there tho never mentioned by name.
We are going to zero in on Mordecai. Haman had it in for this fella because he was respected, close to the King, and was a Jew.
Hanam had hatched a evil plan to do away with every Jew living and he almost pulled it off...but that is a story for another day, or better still go read the book.
Back to Mordecai...Haman, knowing Mordecai wouldn't do it, issued a decree that everyone had to bow down to him as they passed by. Mordecai refused to pay homage to Haman so Haman hatched a plot to publically hang Mordecai. Haman built a special gallows ...but ended up being hanged on the very gallows he had built to hang Mordecai.
There is a lot more to this story...
But here is my point. Mordecai didn't bow to Haman...and Haman ended up hanging form his own gallows. People today are bowing to other people...
Christians, like Jews, bow to no one but God.
"But," you say..."God is not mentioned in the book of Ester...he is not in the snapshot."
"Well," say I..."Who do you think was taking the snapshot?"
Now go read the Book! It is a rainy day and a good day to curl up with a amazing and true story...
Amen?
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Murph
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Post by Murph on Jun 17, 2020 18:39:43 GMT -6
Snapshots of God...
My all time favorite snapshot of God is in Job and comes from this verse, "Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?" Job 41:5.
The passage is talking about an animal called a leviathan which is a dinosaur. They still existed, lived along side man, and Job knew what a Leviathan was...most likely had seen one tho by Job's day they were probably rare.
"No!" you say, "they were extinct by the time man appeared on the earth."
"Not so and I can prove it," say I.
Until Adam sinned death didn't exist...nothing died. It wasn't till after Adam sinned that things began to die, remember on the back of sin rides death. Every time you see the word sin in the Bible you see the word death in close proximity...
so it wasn't till after Noah's flood that the dinosaurs began to disappear from the earth. You see they mainly ate vegetation. Before the flood the world was sub-tropical...with lush vegetation every where. After the flood the climate changed...and no longer supported the veggies needed to support those huge animals...so they began to die out.
Job is the oldest book in the Bible. He may have been a contemporary of Abraham...and no doubt there were some dinosaurs still roaming the earth...
Small rabbit trail...Job either lived just before Abraham or was a contemporary...therefor not a Jew...not a Hebrew. Job was a gentile. Abraham was the first Jew.
God asks Job..."Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?" Job 41:1
Then the word picture... "Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?" Job 41:5.
No one has ever seen the face of God...so in my word picture I see God sitting at an angle to me, I can't see His full face, only a slight profile. He is sitting on a wooden stool playing with a dinosaur perched on His finger like a little yellow canary. His hair is solid white and long, and it glistens in the light. He is wearing a long robe tied at the waist with a rope of three cords twined together. He is sitting in a shaft of sunlight...it is beautiful and He is beautiful.
This is how I see God...and I love Him.
Amen.
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Murph
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Post by Murph on Jun 18, 2020 12:08:00 GMT -6
Snapshots of God...
The word picture is in Habakkuk today. It is not a peaceful picture and is going to make some of you very uncomfortable. But we are going to see another side of the God I love...
Habakkuk is a prophet and some commentators call him "the Doubting Thomas of the Old Testament." There is a lesson to learn from this fella because when he was faced with a problem he took it to God instead of abandoning his faith...as some do and as so many are doing today.
Here is briefly what was going on. Judgment was coming to the Jews and Habakkuk knew it. He was watching the Chaldeans, or Babylonians, rising in power. They were evil beyond words, and horrible violent people.
The Judeans had become wicked people too, but they were still the people of God. Habakkuk could see punishment coming for the sins of the Judeans. But when he looked at the Babylonians, the people God was going to use to chasten the Jews, he saw they were worse than the Judeans...much worse.
Habakkuk's problem is ageless and is as pertinent today as it was then. How Habakkuk took his doubts and problems to God and how he found his answers is the theme of his book...and contains a powerful snapshot of God.
The key verse in Habakkuk's book is, "The just shall live by faith." It is repeated in Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; and Hebrews 10:38. Habakkuk, like so many of us wanted to understand everything, but God showed him it wasn't going to happen. Instead he had to trust God...even in the dark. God isn't going to give all the answers in this life.
Once Habakkuk learned that lesson he discovered God could be trusted.
The world has a saying, "seeing is believing." But Faith replies, "believing is seeing." God showed Habakkuk that He would use the Babylonians to punish Judah, but that in due time He would visit the sins of Babylon on their own heads and He did just that.
Basically Habakkuk asked God why a nation even worse than Judah would be used to punish Judah...God Answered him and told him to watch what was going to happen. He showed Habakkuk that He is righteous and that His righteousness would be seen...
He told Habakkuk that all was well and He is still seated on His throne. This is an oversimplification...but again I urge you to go read the book.
We are now living in one of the darkest times in history. Our hearts are filled with fear and dread...full of doubt and questions...so it is a good time to go to the book of Habakkuk and learn and to see the power of God.
Peace comes to us when we read..."...the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him." Habakkuk 2:20
But it is the psalm, the prayer, in the 3rd chapter that I want to focus on...it is a word picture of God. It is not a pleasant one and is not meant to be...
To teach the Love of God and not His wrath is a lie...to teach the wrath of God and not His love is a lie...so we look at both and we learn and we see God.
Habakkuk saw God coming down to earth to take charge of the affairs of men. This passage not only looks to Habakkuk's day but to our own as well...judgment is coming.
We look and in our mind's eye this is what we see...
We ask God in His anger to remember His mercy...we look across the deserts and we see God coming down from the mountains, from the Heavens.
We have to look away...His brilliant splendor fills the Heavens and is blinding...more blinding than looking straight into the sun. Bright rays of light come from His hands...and we can feel the immense power coming from them.
He is approaching...pestilence rolls in front of Him and plagues follow close behind.
We see Him stop and the earth shakes. Is it in fear? At His gaze nations tremble, are they afraid?
With a sweeping pass of His hand He shatters mountains and levels hills...He is Almighty God. It is His earth. He is it's creator and it knows Him.
He pulls out his arrows and splays them out, opens up the earth and water spews out. As the arrows pass by, the mountains watch and tremble...He is their Creator and they know Him...the moon and the stars stand still...He is their creator and they know him...
As we watch God marches across the land in anger...His mighty horses race across the water and it piles up.
He rescues His people and crushes the heads of their enemies...and strips their skin from their bones...head to toe.
We are terrified when we see this, we see them die, we see their possessions destroyed...there is more, we look away in horror.
But then we remember He is our Creator, we know Him...
and we remember, "...the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him." Habakkuk 2:20
and we are silent, we are thankful for Him, we give thanks to Him...and we pray. Amen...
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Murph
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Post by Murph on Jun 20, 2020 11:02:14 GMT -6
Snapshots of God...
Yesterday's verse..."...the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him." Habakkuk 2:20
So what does God's throne and throne room look like.
Isaiah saw it...would you like to see?
Today's word picture is in Isaiah 6. It is a favorite chapter of mine. It is the first time I really realized what a gulf there is between God and me...and what Jesus did to build a bridge for me.
Isaiah chapter 6...
Isaiah...one of the Major Prophets. He lived thru a stormy era. He saw the Northern Kingdom of Israel being over thrown by the Assyrians, and its capital sacked after a long horrible 3 year siege. Some of his contemporaries were Amos, Hosea, Micah...they all warned the 10 tribes of coming judgment.
Isaiah prophesied thru the reigns of 4 of Judah's kings and was martyred during the reign of the 5th. He watched 4 kings ascend to the throne in the north by murdering their processor. And he watched as they just as quickly ascended into the night.
It was a horrible yet thrilling time...the wheels of history were turning and the prophets were there to watch, listen to the Voice of God, and fore tell...
Jesus Himself quotes often in the New Testament from Isaiah...it is a beautiful and terrible book all at the same time...full of passion and full of prophecies. One moment we are in the middle of a violent storm full of darkness and thunder...and the next a rainbow shines thru the mist and we get a glimpse of a golden age yet to come. It is also some of the most beautiful literature ever written...
We are going to focus on Chapter 6 and we are going to God's Throne room...
This is all happening the year King Uzziah died...Isaiah is about to be called to the ministry...
He is yet a young man and he is in the Lord's throne room...
I am there with him and in my mind's eye this is what I see...
I see the Lord on His Throne very high and elevated above it all. He is wearing a beautiful robe in my mind's eye of the deepest purple, is glistens, and it flows down from his throne where He is seated, and it fills the room.
I sees huge angels, Seraphim...they are emmence and they are magnificent. They each have 6 wings...2 are covering their faces, 2 are cover in their feet, and with 2 they fly.
They are calling out to each other...I clearly hear them say, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts...the whole earth is full of his glory."
Their voices are a loud rumbling that shakes the posts of the doors, one after another, as each Seraphim cries out the door posts vibrate from the sound...the whole building is filled with smoke that hugs the ground like fog.
I see a huge cavernous gulf between God and me. My thought is much the same as Isaiah's..."woe is me..."..."I am sinful and I live with other very sinful people just like me..."
and yet, I have seen God on His throne.
I see a Seraphim fly to the altar...near the throne and pick up a burning coal with tongs. He flies to me. But that is Isaiah's story...
I have a better one. Jesus died for me so my sins could be forgiven. That mighty God seated on that throne knowing there is no way I can reach Him on my own, and He loved me so much that He sent His only Son to die for me...a Son who rose again from the dead so I can go be in Heaven with Him forever...Hallejuah and Amen...
Now comes the question...I hear Him ask, "Whom shall I send as a messenger, and who will go for us?"
I tell Him I will...
Have now studied the prophecies in the Bible for over 40 years...and have spoken of them often, have taught Bible Studies about them, have urged people to make their decision to follow the Lord...declare for Him, repent, and be saved.
Time is growing short...
There was a man who when I told him Jesus was coming again soon, said that he would wait to follow Jesus...he would wait till midnight...what if Jesus comes at quarter of...?
too late then...saddest two words in any language...too late.
Amen.
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Post by Keith on Jun 20, 2020 14:21:03 GMT -6
Amen, beautiful, Marilyn!
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Murph
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Post by Murph on Jun 20, 2020 18:00:06 GMT -6
Thanks...Glory goes to the Lord...being guided by the Holy Spirit. Love writing about God! Not thru yet I don't think.
Got another one coming, maybe.
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Murph
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Post by Murph on Jun 22, 2020 8:36:30 GMT -6
"And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh..." Genesis 6:3
"Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen." Romans 1:24-25
"And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind" Romans 1:28
"Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts." Proverbs 21:2
"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. " 1 Timothy 3:1
Every time Jeremiah 13 comes to my mind...every single time, I call it "Jeremiah and the dirty underware story"... Every time it occurs to me I know the Lord is about to ask me to do or say something I really don't want to do or say because it is going to draw fire.
Here is the gist of the story. Lord told Jeremiah to wear his underwear till it got dirty and then to do bury it under a rock near the river. Then, after several days the Lord told Jeremiah to go dig it up, put it on and walk thru the streets of the city telling the people they are no better in His eyes than that dirty underware...
"This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing. For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, saith the LORD; that they might be unto me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear." Jeremiah 13:10-11
"A-Ha," you say..."that is about just Judah."..."Nay nay," I say, "...it applies to all of us."
Watch this...
"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." Isaiah 64:6
Now here is where this thing is going...to Jeremiah.
Did you know there comes a time when the Lord says...enough...won't even do any good to pray for this nation...or these people?
Look at this from Jeremiah,
"Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee." Jeremiah 7:16
"Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble." Jeremiah 11:14
"Then said the LORD unto me, Pray not for this people for their good." Jeremiah 14:11
Judah was circling the drain...Jeremiah had warned them over and over, judgment was coming...in 586 BC it came. Judah fell, Jerusalem was destroyed, and the Temple burned. The whole of the Promised Land passed from Jewish hands into gentile hands where it remained till May 30, 1948...
The Lord told Jeremiah in those 3 verses that it would do no good any more to pray for those people or their land...it was too late.
This country, our country, is now circling the drain and are in the same position as Judah...we have deserted our God...we are destroying our history...we are worshiping other gods...we are killing babies...we condone what is not natural. We are lovers of self, have no regard for the law, no respect for others or the property of others...are addicted to violence...I could go on and on.
We are...circling the drain...
I just told you a bunch of bad stuff. "But," you say, "We know all that, we are not part of it...we are Christians and God will protect us..."
Now watch this people, "...for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." Matthew 5:45b
He will protect your soul...but we are just flesh, vapors of smoke, flowers that fade and are gone.
If the shout and the trumpet doesn't sound first and this country goes down...we are going with it.
Is there still time to pray?...maybe. Is this a time to fight?...watch the mulberry trees...when we see them sway in the wind, 2 Samuel 5...it is time to fight!
"But," you say..."He is a God of Love and we are NT saints...we don't fight."
Wanna bet...watch this,
"Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one." Matthew 22:36.
Lord Himself told us to arm ourselves...know why? Common sense should tell you. Generations of my family have fought in the wars of this country...and being Christian should put a target on our individual backs...if not then we are doing something wrong.
We fight like the generations before us... with our Bibles in one hand...and just maybe our guns in the other. We certainly hope and pray not, but if we have to we will.
Now you see why Jeremiah was not a very popular prophet...and why when Jeremiah 13 occurs to me...I cringe a little. I know what's coming...am about to do or say something that is going to draw fire possibly from all sides. Go ahead...take your best shot, Ephesians 6, I got this armor and my back it to the Rock...
In the mean time...
Pray, pick up your Bibles, and lock and load.
Amen...
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Murph
Moderator
Be kind to your web footed friends. Amen?
Posts: 68,870
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Post by Murph on Jun 22, 2020 17:46:13 GMT -6
Snapshot of Hell...
Have been reading a conversation between some people bragging about going to Hell. Have been horrified by it...and saddened...
Have been especially horrified by the number of people professing to be Christians who say they are not afraid of going to Hell. One, much to my horror, said "in Hell love is everything."
"ye shall know them..." by their words they give themselves away...they are not saved.
So...let's take a look at Hell.
Ever see black fire...people in Hell will...
"But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Matthew 8:12
"Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels..." Matthew 25:41
The torment in Hell is physical..."And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame." Luke 16:24
"These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever." Jude 1:12-13
"And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name." Revelation 14:11
fire that burns forever, utter darkness, the constant smell of sulfur...dry...devoid of anything but heat and stench.
"And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence." Luke 16:25...the torment is mental...there is no escape...no way out.
"...In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power..." 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9...the unsaved will be separated from the presence of God forever.
"And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." Mark 9:33-34...lost souls on fire forever but never consumed...alone, and cut off from God forever.
The Word picture of Hell is a horrible place of black heat, constant fire, emptiness...and the constant smell of sulfur, people burning but not consumed...a lonely place from which there is no escape, separation form other human beings and worse of all separation from God. All this lasts for eternity...and that ladies and gentlemen, is a long long time.
The Bible has much more to say about Hell but this is enough to give you the idea...
If you want to spend eternity in a place like this...fine. That is your choice.
But if you would rather not, I know how to change your destination to Heaven. It is very simple. Call out to Jesus, repent, ask for forgiveness...and follow Him...straight into heaven.
It is that simple and that easy.
"But," you say..."He is a God of love...He won't send anyone to Hell." And you would be right, He doesn't. He simply gives us what we chose.
I chose Jesus and Heaven...how 'bout you?
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