The Lamb’s wedding series – part 2 January 28, 2010
The Wedding Feast, The Huppah, The Tribulation
In traditional Jewish marriage ceremony the marriage was consummated and the husband made the announcement to the wedding guests. This announcement would signal the beginning of the wedding feast.
Just as the Jewish bride remained hidden in the “huppah” for a period of seven days, so will the Church remain hidden for a period of seven. Both Daniel, in the Old Testament, and Revelation, in the New Testament, give the exact amount of time for this period. To read more click on Christ the Bridegroom – a study
The Great Prison Escape January 21, 2010
Everyone from birth are convicts in the prison of Sin punishable by the DEATH Penalty. Once inside the prison of Sin there is only one way out ALIVE – through JESUS.
I don’t know if anyone ever really escaped from any prison by smuggling in a file hidden inside a cake. But it makes a good illustration of how when we share the Gospel with people, we are giving them the means to their own escape from sin and death.
Dear friend, you are either inside the prison awaiting death or you are on the outside alive – only two options. If you are on the outside, smuggle in a file. If you are still inside the prison of Sin take hold of the Jesus today, now. He is the only one who can save you and free you from all your sins.
To view many more Joyful ‘toons, visit http://www.joyfultoons.com/toons.html
Salvation Message in our Blood January 13, 2010
Biblical Truth continues to amaze and strengthen me in my daily walk with God. Here’s something I am sure you’ll enjoy reading and strengthen you.
For many centuries learned men have argued about the statement “Life of the flesh is in the blood”.
[I have lost count of the times I have heard this verse from Leviticus 17.11 quoted, and I can’t say I have understood all the implications of this statement. Often I took the verse by faith mixed with the numerous statements that assured me that sin can be atoned for only by the shedding of pure, blameless blood, as represented in the sacrificial system of the OT and the final sacrifice of the perfect Lamb of God – Jesus. The word of God assured me that Jesus poured out his life blood to the last drop and paid the price for the sins of mankind including mine.]
Scientists have suggested various organs including the heart and brain carried this all important function. Blood was never even considered. In 1628, William Harvey an English Physician, proved that blood circulates from the heart and back to it, reaching all parts of the body thru arteries and veins. Blood circulation is a well known fact today.
Life-Sustaining Fluid
More recently, science has confirmed that the fluid called blood is uniquely life-sustaining. The statement ‘Life of the flesh is in the blood’, though written thousands of years ago in the sacred books of the Jews, is a scientifically sound and accurate statement. When blood is shut off from any organ, or group of cells, it results in the death of the organ or cells. Cells can neither live nor function without blood circulation. Blood provides cells with life-sustaining substances (oxygen, glucose, amino acids) and cleanses it of toxic substances (carbon dioxide, lactate, urea). If these toxic elements are not cleared from the cells, they would lead to the death of the cells. Indeed, the ‘life of the flesh is in the blood’.
Cleaning Agent
Blood is one of the most effective cleaning agents! (Bible students, does this ring any bell?) The cleansing process is a by-product of an exchange mechanism whereby the blood trades with the cells, life for death. (I hope the bells are ringing like crazy!)
The science of hematology helps us understand the amazing parallel truth in the Bible. Rev 1.5b says, ‘To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood’. This is no poetic language; this is spiritual fact describing the dynamic spiritual exchange process similar to the physical. When Christ Jesus shed His blood on the cross, He took our sins and sinful nature upon Him: 1 Peter 2.24 says, ‘He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree’, so that when we accept Him as our Lord and Savior we are cleansed from our toxic sin and receive instead His Life.
1 John 1.7 claims that “ the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin”
Salvation
Blood also cleanses the heart. When a clot blocks any artery that carries blood to the heart, life is endangered. Jeremiah 17.9 says that the, ‘heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked’. When cardiologists remove the clot, blood flows thru the cells of the heart and life is given likewise Jesus’ blood cleanses the wickedness of the heart and we receive Eternal Life.
Disharmony in Genesis? January 12, 2010
Creation accounts in the Bible never function simply to satisfy a childlike curiosity to know “how it all began.” The biblical writers’ concern with God as Creator grew out of their knowledge of Him as Redeemer.
The Function of Biblical Creation References : Genesis is a book about beginnings. The centerpiece of the book is God’s redemptive activity following the fall of man. God began by calling Abram out of Ur, by entering into a covenant with him, and by making promises to bless him and to bless all the families of the earth through him.
Genesis 1-11 serves as prologue to God’s redemptive purpose in calling Abram (Genesis 12:1-3) and to the patriarchal stories (Genesis 12-50). It sets a world stage on which God acted in choosing one man in order to bless all men.
Genesis 1-2 contain two accounts of creation, the order of man’s creation coming at the end in the first and at the beginning in the second. God’s creation, “good” as it was (Genesis 1:4,Genesis 1:10,Genesis 1:12,Genesis 1:21,Genesis 1:25,Genesis 1:31), soon became bad through human rebellion against God. The accounts of creation in Genesis 1-2 prepare the reader for the record of the first people being placed in the Garden of Eden, temptation by the serpent, rebellion against God, expulsion from the garden, and the degenerating effect of sin in society.
Genesis 1 & 2 : After reading the first two chapters of the Bible, some skeptics, in an attempt to disprove the Bible’s inerrancy, have accused the writer of Genesis of erring. They strongly assert that such disharmony by the author of Genesis proves that the Bible is not divinely inspired.
Does Genesis two present a different creation order than Genesis one? Is there a reasonable explanation for the differences between the two chapters? Or is this to be recognized as a genuine contradiction?
The main reason that skeptics do not see harmony in the events recorded in the first two chapters of the Bible is because they fail to realize that Genesis 1 and 2 serve different purposes. Chapter one (including 2:1-4) focuses on the order of the creation events; chapter two (actually 2:5-25) simply provides more detailed information about some of the events mentioned in chapter one. Chapter two never was meant to be a chronological regurgitation of chapter one, but instead serves its own unique purpose—i.e., to develop in detail the more important features of the creation account, especially the creation of man and his surroundings.
Some of the differences in Genesis 1 & Genesis 2 can be summarized as shown below:
Genesis 1
- Chronological Order
- Outline Creating
- Animals
Genesis 2
- Topical Order
- Details
- Naming Animals
How do You Percive God? January 7, 2010
When satan invades our mind and thought-life it alters and distorts our perspective of God. Let me prove it to you through some major events recorded in the Bible.
- In the Garden of Eden both Adam and Eve enjoyed God’s presence immensely. I think it is reasonable to assume that they had a fairly clear picture of God and His immutable characteristics (Omnipotence, Omnipresence, and Omniscience). Yet we see that after they sinned (satan messed with their minds) they ran to hide behind a tree! Did they think they could hide themselves from this Omnipotent, Omnipresent, and Omniscient God? Apparently sin had blinded and distorted their perspective about the very God whom they knew intimately till then.
Leave the Water Jar and Hurry January 7, 2010
Mother of Jesus, the man born blind, the royal official, the beloved disciple and the paralyzed man at the pool are all real characters and yet Apostle John was inspired by the Holy Spirit to record their life without naming them in his epistle. Though these people had their own identities and stories leaving them nameless lends emphasis to the symbolism in their stories.
The story of the Samaritan woman (John 4. 1- 42) made a strong statement about the role of woman in the early Christian community which remains relevant even in today’s ultra modern society.
(Click to read my earlier post Samaritan flashback for a more detailed background info and a brief study based on the story of the Samaritan woman. Alternatively copy and paste this link http://travancoreann.blogspot.com/2009/11/samaritan-flashback.html)
John 4. 27 ‘..his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman.’ Apostle John focuses our attention to the disciples’ surprise in Jesus talking to a woman. He is talking to a Samaritan, even though at the time that this even took place (around 30AD) the Jews viewed Samaritans with suspicion, by the time John wrote the gospel, this situation had changed and there were more concern about the inclusion of women in authority positions than about fraternization with Samaritans!
Despite the long running enmity between the Jews and the Samaritans, Jesus knowingly disregarded it and began talking to a Samaritan woman. But John forces his readers to consider that Jesus was also empowering a woman in a male dominant culture to be His messenger.
Verse 28 -29 The woman left the water jar she had and hurried back to the town Sychar. Here the woman told everyone about Jesus, even suggesting that he must be the long awaited Messiah.
‘Leaving the water jar’ may seem like trivial information, but no information in the Word of God is insignificant. This incident parallels other incidents in the gospels where various men left their fishing nets and tax-booths immediately in response to Jesus. The Samaritan woman did the same. She met Jesus, spoke to him, and believed in him. Immediately she recognized what needed to be done and on her own initiative did it – she went and told others about Jesus.
Seven Friends Of an Unclean Spirit January 6, 2010
Matthew 12:43-45 “Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. “Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. “Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.” (NASB)
- An unclean spirit like unforgiveness can bring seven more wicked spirits wicked than itself – resentment, ill-will, grudge, malice, retaliation, bitterness, and hatred. So we better forgive everyone everything every time, if we do not want our condition to be worse than before.
- It is high priority that an unclean spirit like unforgiveness does not find its previous home empty, but occupied and ruled by the Holy Spirit.
- Jesus warns us ‘that is the way it will also be with this evil generation’. So do not be surprised if you see this happening often but we have been forewarned. Let us be wise, and encourage others to be too.
Looking for God January 5, 2010
Some missed him.
Some miss him still.
We expect God to speak through peace, but sometimes he speaks through pain.
We think God talks through the church, but he also talks through the lost.
We look for the answer among the Protestants, but he’s been known to speak through the Catholics.
We listen for him among the Catholics but find him among the Quakers.
We think we hear him in the sunrise, but he is also heard in the darkness.
We listen for him in triumph, but he speaks even more distinctly through tragedy.
Let God define himself.
Blessed to be a Blessing January 2, 2010
Why is it considered a blessing to meet someone who belongs to Jesus Christ?
If you are born again, you are more than a blessed man or woman - you are actually a blessing. Most people of God agree that God has blessed them, but have yet to catch on to the revelation that they are the embodiment of a blessing.
The Bible tells us that the Lord God not only blessed Abraham but also made him a blessing. It is written, “I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, and make your name great; and you will be a blessing” (Genesis 12.2) This blessing however, did not end with Abraham for the Bible goes on to tell us in Galatians 3.29, that ‘if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise”
If you belong to Christ, it means you are born again, thus all the blessings God endowed on Abraham is now yours. You are a bundle of blessings and if the people of the world knew what a blessing you are as a Christian, they would be beating down your doors to get to you.
It makes no difference whether the Christian is conscious of it or not. This is because the spirit-filled Christian is a divine package of blessing. He is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3.16) which makes him the embodiment of the fullness of the blessing of God. For this reason it is a blessing to meet someone who belongs to Jesus Christ.
As for you: as a spirit-filled Christian, living with the consciousness that you are a blessing will eradicate every sense of need or lack from your life.
Watch out that you may not fall December 27, 2009
In spite of clear warnings from Scripture, the very thing that happened to the children of Israel is what is being repeated today, only this time in the name of Christianity by the ‘Inclusive Gospel’ advocated by The Emerging Church’.
Instead of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ that saves sinners from hell, the gospel has been redefined and totally nullified. The narrow pathway that Jesus proclaimed leads to heaven through faith in Him alone now has been broadened to permit open access for the sake of establishing the “kingdom’.
