Jesus said, "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs.”
Matthew 7:6
Whoa! On a scale of rude, that's right up there near the top.
Jesus was talking about people who are chronically antagonistic toward His message, His existence and His Father, our Father, Creator God.
Jesus was talking to those who want to pass along His message of salvation to these people.
He was saying, don’t waste your time on those who believe they are good without God. They may as well be in hell already. And since the gates of hell are locked from the inside, forget about em. If those to whom He was speaking had searched His face for any sign that He was joking, they'd have seen nothing. Jesus was a serious as He could be.
Jesus, our role model regularly hid the things of God from those who “were wise in their own eyes.”
To people who are humble, to people who are spiritual seekers, Jesus gives more than they ever ask for.
On the other hand, the self-righteous are deliberately blinded from finding the Truth, they're kept from finding Him. The dogs and pigs of whom Jesus speaks are those who absolutely reject their own or anyone else's hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Gentle Jesus. No wonder people want to kill him.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
All You Need Is Love
Wrong!
We can be as vulnerable and open and honest with others as is humanly possible. We can get 100% of the people in the world to try as hard as they can to love others, and there will never be a return to a world without war and hate and bigotry.
There is no going back to the way things were before the fall - not without the intervention of Jesus and our willing acceptance of His solution - dying to self and allowing Him to be Lord of our lives.
We are broken.
We cannot fix ourselves
God can and will fix us if we let Him.
We can be as vulnerable and open and honest with others as is humanly possible. We can get 100% of the people in the world to try as hard as they can to love others, and there will never be a return to a world without war and hate and bigotry.
There is no going back to the way things were before the fall - not without the intervention of Jesus and our willing acceptance of His solution - dying to self and allowing Him to be Lord of our lives.
We are broken.
We cannot fix ourselves
God can and will fix us if we let Him.
Monday, October 3, 2011
“My Body Is My Temple”
I can’t remember who is was, but some famous ball player, who was being accused of using steroids emphatically stated that he would never do such a thing because, “My body is my temple.”
This was eight or nine months before he confessed that he had in fact used steroids.
If you don’t know the Bible you might not know where his corrupted metaphor came from. You see, when God first chose the Israelites to be His people, (are the Jews hated because they’re God’s chosen people, or did God choose them because they’re hated?) God dwelt in a Temple (an elaborate tent complex) in a visible way so they could know that He had not abandoned them after leading them from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land.
Upon our entering into a healed and forgiven relationship with Jesus, our Lord, Saviour and Creator, His Spirit comes to dwell within us, making us His temple. Creator God takes us, His elected, predestined and chosen people, whom He has freed from slavery to sin and brought to freedom and He resides within us as He guides, counsels, comforts and corrects us on our journey from His advanced Kingdom here on earth now, to the new Kingdom in heaven. This will take place when Jesus returns to gather His own to Himself.
My body is not My Temple
My body is not A Temple
My body is The Temple of the Spirit of the living God
I had better treat it accordingly in all I think, say and do.
This was eight or nine months before he confessed that he had in fact used steroids.
If you don’t know the Bible you might not know where his corrupted metaphor came from. You see, when God first chose the Israelites to be His people, (are the Jews hated because they’re God’s chosen people, or did God choose them because they’re hated?) God dwelt in a Temple (an elaborate tent complex) in a visible way so they could know that He had not abandoned them after leading them from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land.
Upon our entering into a healed and forgiven relationship with Jesus, our Lord, Saviour and Creator, His Spirit comes to dwell within us, making us His temple. Creator God takes us, His elected, predestined and chosen people, whom He has freed from slavery to sin and brought to freedom and He resides within us as He guides, counsels, comforts and corrects us on our journey from His advanced Kingdom here on earth now, to the new Kingdom in heaven. This will take place when Jesus returns to gather His own to Himself.
My body is not My Temple
My body is not A Temple
My body is The Temple of the Spirit of the living God
I had better treat it accordingly in all I think, say and do.
Some People Never Get It :-(
Some who call themselves Christians think the key to salvation is to do the right stuff and avoid the wrong and if a person can pull that off, well then, you’re in.
Not so.
In the Garden of Eden, satan’s temptation was not some simplistic manipulation to get Adam and Eve to break a rule. Breaking a rule was the least of it. What satan was after and what we all struggle with from the moment of conception is outright rebellion to the idea that we are accountable to our Creator.
The motive behind keeping or not keeping of the rule is just a symptom of whether we are or are not in a healed and forgiven relationship with our Creator.
"You who are trying to be saved by doing good works have alienated yourselves from Jesus, you have fallen away from grace." Galatians 5:4
Not so.
In the Garden of Eden, satan’s temptation was not some simplistic manipulation to get Adam and Eve to break a rule. Breaking a rule was the least of it. What satan was after and what we all struggle with from the moment of conception is outright rebellion to the idea that we are accountable to our Creator.
The motive behind keeping or not keeping of the rule is just a symptom of whether we are or are not in a healed and forgiven relationship with our Creator.
"You who are trying to be saved by doing good works have alienated yourselves from Jesus, you have fallen away from grace." Galatians 5:4
Sunday, October 2, 2011
A Man of Few Words
While He lived on earth, one of Jesus’ closest friends was a very young man who we know simply as John. A dedicated follower and disciple of Jesus, as well as an eyewitness to the ministry of Jesus, John was so impressed with God in Christ, or as he describes, “The Word” that he’s certain he doesn’t need to offer very much evidence “so that you might also believe.”
Jesus ministry lasted ~ 1,000 days give or take. Out of that 1,000 days, John’s account covers no more than twenty days. When I think of all the evidence that atheists reject, a priori reject no less, it amazes me how John could say, “I wrote these things so that you might also believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.” Of course when you’ve been right there, in the midst of it all. When you’ve been a disciple of the Rabbi for a really intense three years (as Plato said, “A disciple is a vessel so tightly sealed that not one drop of your leader’s teaching leaks out”), it would be hard for John to comprehend how someone WOULDN'T believe what he’s experienced.
I’ve written pages and pages and pages of information. I’ve described it backwards and forwards. I’ve given citations and citations regarding citations. All in an attempt to show atheists that Jesus is not just a historical figure, but His life, death and resurrection are detailed by numerous extra Biblical writers. All to no avail. There is no evidence great enough or clear enough to convince those determined to deny the existence of God. Like those who wish to deny the holocaust, no amount of evidence, nor the quality of the evidence is enough to convince those who wish to deny Jesus. And yet, John, in all seriousness presents seven signs to “prove” that Jesus was and is Creator God. That’s all. Seven signs over twenty days that John believes should be enough to show the reader that Jesus was exactly who He said He was, God in human form.
1) John says Jesus’ first sign was performed in the town of Cana. This is where Jesus turned water into wine. He made the wine in twenty gallon stone containers that were made to hold ceremonial water. I’m sure the provocation was not lost on the Pharisees.
2) Next, John tells about Jesus healing an official’s son. A Roman officer’s son! Again, healing the enemy seems deliberately geared to alienate and offend.
3) Pushing the social envelope further, Jesus heals an invalid - on the Sabbath. It’s like Jesus was trolling for Pharisees.
4) Next, Jesus feeds over 12,000 men, women and children with a little bit of bread and a couple fish. In contrast to assuaging physical hunger, Jesus describes Himself “the bread of life” and states that those who come to Him for spiritual nourishment will never hunger again.
5) Everyone knows about Jesus walking on the water. It seems that John especially wanted to point out that, as only Creator God could, He who created matter out of nothing demonstrated power over the physics of matter. In fact, as many theologians have pointed out, the miracles, especially the healing miracles were not a case of Jesus messing with the norm, but instead He was bringing “reality” back to what was the norm before sin was allowed to enter into space and time.
6) Then, a man born blind from birth is healed, again on the Sabbath. By this time in His ministry Jesus is livid at the lack of compassion that religious leaders of His day, like many religious people of our day display. The desire of people to punish rather than heal is very, very disturbing to Jesus.
7) Finally, Jesus raises Lazarus after he’d been in the grave for four days. Again, He demonstrates not just power over the laws of physics as we understand them, now the One who creates, gives and sustains life demonstrates power over death itself.
Seven signs. That’s all. Seven signs that were enough for the officials of the time to plot to kill not just Jesus but Lazarus as well. None of the leaders were accusing Jesus of being a fraud, a shyster, a clever magician. They were furious because Jesus’ claims to be God were backed up with irrefutable proof by doing things that only the Creator of matter / energy, space, time and life itself could do. Jesus was stealing their thunder and they wanted Him gone baby gone. We have seven signs that John says should be enough to prove to us that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God - Jesus the Christ.
And if that isn’t enough, then comes Jesus' resurrection from the dead. An empty tomb that John himself inspected. Repeated post burial encounters with the risen Jesus are also described by John. He ate with Jesus, walked and talked and was taught by Jesus for about 50 days after His resurrection. So convinced were the disciples that they did a 180 from being hopeless cowards hiding behind locked doors to becoming powerful and almost fearless witnesses. So powerful and compelling was the evidence of the risen Jesus that the Christian Church was born out of Jesus’ resurrection. There is no other reason for these devout Jews to leave the religion of their family and of their community and sacrifice their lives to testify to the resurrection other than the truth of that event.
And then John writes, “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of His disciples which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.” John 20:30.
No amount of evidence is enough for atheists. They mock the people of Jesus’ day as being too primitive to know whether or not a virgin could become pregnant. A young girl, Mary, knew it was not naturally possible but atheists discount what women say. Atheists think the people were too ignorant to know that diseases don’t disappear at someone’s command or that limbs crippled from birth couldn’t be made to heal in an instant. Atheists derisively call these people “stone-age goat herders.” Atheists think that those people were so gullible that it was easy to trick them into believing that people can rise from the dead. Not one of the disciples believed it without empirical evidence. Yet atheists ignore that historical evidence. In fact, so compelling is the historical evidence that we have that, like others on the fringes of society who simply say, “the holocaust never happened,” atheists are now forced to say, “Jesus never existed.” Sad but true.
No amount of evidence is enough for those committed to atheism.
How much is enough for you?
Jesus ministry lasted ~ 1,000 days give or take. Out of that 1,000 days, John’s account covers no more than twenty days. When I think of all the evidence that atheists reject, a priori reject no less, it amazes me how John could say, “I wrote these things so that you might also believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.” Of course when you’ve been right there, in the midst of it all. When you’ve been a disciple of the Rabbi for a really intense three years (as Plato said, “A disciple is a vessel so tightly sealed that not one drop of your leader’s teaching leaks out”), it would be hard for John to comprehend how someone WOULDN'T believe what he’s experienced.
I’ve written pages and pages and pages of information. I’ve described it backwards and forwards. I’ve given citations and citations regarding citations. All in an attempt to show atheists that Jesus is not just a historical figure, but His life, death and resurrection are detailed by numerous extra Biblical writers. All to no avail. There is no evidence great enough or clear enough to convince those determined to deny the existence of God. Like those who wish to deny the holocaust, no amount of evidence, nor the quality of the evidence is enough to convince those who wish to deny Jesus. And yet, John, in all seriousness presents seven signs to “prove” that Jesus was and is Creator God. That’s all. Seven signs over twenty days that John believes should be enough to show the reader that Jesus was exactly who He said He was, God in human form.
1) John says Jesus’ first sign was performed in the town of Cana. This is where Jesus turned water into wine. He made the wine in twenty gallon stone containers that were made to hold ceremonial water. I’m sure the provocation was not lost on the Pharisees.
2) Next, John tells about Jesus healing an official’s son. A Roman officer’s son! Again, healing the enemy seems deliberately geared to alienate and offend.
3) Pushing the social envelope further, Jesus heals an invalid - on the Sabbath. It’s like Jesus was trolling for Pharisees.
4) Next, Jesus feeds over 12,000 men, women and children with a little bit of bread and a couple fish. In contrast to assuaging physical hunger, Jesus describes Himself “the bread of life” and states that those who come to Him for spiritual nourishment will never hunger again.
5) Everyone knows about Jesus walking on the water. It seems that John especially wanted to point out that, as only Creator God could, He who created matter out of nothing demonstrated power over the physics of matter. In fact, as many theologians have pointed out, the miracles, especially the healing miracles were not a case of Jesus messing with the norm, but instead He was bringing “reality” back to what was the norm before sin was allowed to enter into space and time.
6) Then, a man born blind from birth is healed, again on the Sabbath. By this time in His ministry Jesus is livid at the lack of compassion that religious leaders of His day, like many religious people of our day display. The desire of people to punish rather than heal is very, very disturbing to Jesus.
7) Finally, Jesus raises Lazarus after he’d been in the grave for four days. Again, He demonstrates not just power over the laws of physics as we understand them, now the One who creates, gives and sustains life demonstrates power over death itself.
Seven signs. That’s all. Seven signs that were enough for the officials of the time to plot to kill not just Jesus but Lazarus as well. None of the leaders were accusing Jesus of being a fraud, a shyster, a clever magician. They were furious because Jesus’ claims to be God were backed up with irrefutable proof by doing things that only the Creator of matter / energy, space, time and life itself could do. Jesus was stealing their thunder and they wanted Him gone baby gone. We have seven signs that John says should be enough to prove to us that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God - Jesus the Christ.
And if that isn’t enough, then comes Jesus' resurrection from the dead. An empty tomb that John himself inspected. Repeated post burial encounters with the risen Jesus are also described by John. He ate with Jesus, walked and talked and was taught by Jesus for about 50 days after His resurrection. So convinced were the disciples that they did a 180 from being hopeless cowards hiding behind locked doors to becoming powerful and almost fearless witnesses. So powerful and compelling was the evidence of the risen Jesus that the Christian Church was born out of Jesus’ resurrection. There is no other reason for these devout Jews to leave the religion of their family and of their community and sacrifice their lives to testify to the resurrection other than the truth of that event.
And then John writes, “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of His disciples which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.” John 20:30.
No amount of evidence is enough for atheists. They mock the people of Jesus’ day as being too primitive to know whether or not a virgin could become pregnant. A young girl, Mary, knew it was not naturally possible but atheists discount what women say. Atheists think the people were too ignorant to know that diseases don’t disappear at someone’s command or that limbs crippled from birth couldn’t be made to heal in an instant. Atheists derisively call these people “stone-age goat herders.” Atheists think that those people were so gullible that it was easy to trick them into believing that people can rise from the dead. Not one of the disciples believed it without empirical evidence. Yet atheists ignore that historical evidence. In fact, so compelling is the historical evidence that we have that, like others on the fringes of society who simply say, “the holocaust never happened,” atheists are now forced to say, “Jesus never existed.” Sad but true.
No amount of evidence is enough for those committed to atheism.
How much is enough for you?
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Profound Prayer 2
I didn’t plan this very well. October kinda snuck up on me, making Part One the last post of September. So . . .
Like all of us, atheists are prone to noticing events that confirm what they want to believe and ignoring what contradicts what they want to believe. For example, atheists discount all the times when God brings about change in our lives because of our interaction (prayer) with Him.
Mark 11:24 - “I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours.”
As I stated in yesterdays’s post, when you are in a right relationship with God you will be asking for things that are in God’s will - for example, “Father please protect and strengthen our marriage. Change me into the kind of husband that you want for my wife.” That kind of prayer will be answered with a “yes.”
=====
. Psalm 37:4 - “Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you your heart’s desire.”
What our heart desires most is a healed and forgiven relationship with our Creator.
=====
. Matthew 6:6 - “But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.”
As stated in yesterday’s post, prayer is about communication, not a show.
=====
. John 15:7 - “But if you remain in Me and My words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted!”
Praying in “Jesus name” is not repeating some words. Praying in Jesus name means that the one praying is similar in character to Jesus Himself. I am praying in mercy like Jesus, forgiveness like Jesus, in love like Jesus and in obedience to Jesus.
=====
. 1 John 5:14 - “And we are confident that He hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases Him.”
“Thy will be done,” is no idle comment. A person in close relationship with God will ONLY want to ask for those things that God wants; never will we ask for something contrary to the will of God.
=====
. 1 John 3:21-22 - “Dear friends, if we don’t feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence. And we will receive from Him whatever we ask because we obey Him and do the things that please him.”
This is very similar to praying in the character of Jesus and in the will of Jesus. If we are praying in the name of or character of Jesus we will be living in obedience to the will of God.
=====
In summary:
We are told in the Bible that the prayer of a righteous person is very effective. People that I know who seem to “have God’s ear” are those who are in a right relationship with both God and others. They have a merciful and forgiving heart. The fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) is evident in their lives. They exude the character of Jesus. These people do not out of ignorance purport to know whether or not God wants someone to live or die, to be healed or not healed. These people pray from a humble heart, allowing God to work in their lives and accepting on faith that whatever God wants is what is right and best in that situation.
Like all of us, atheists are prone to noticing events that confirm what they want to believe and ignoring what contradicts what they want to believe. For example, atheists discount all the times when God brings about change in our lives because of our interaction (prayer) with Him.
Mark 11:24 - “I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours.”
As I stated in yesterdays’s post, when you are in a right relationship with God you will be asking for things that are in God’s will - for example, “Father please protect and strengthen our marriage. Change me into the kind of husband that you want for my wife.” That kind of prayer will be answered with a “yes.”
=====
. Psalm 37:4 - “Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you your heart’s desire.”
What our heart desires most is a healed and forgiven relationship with our Creator.
=====
. Matthew 6:6 - “But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.”
As stated in yesterday’s post, prayer is about communication, not a show.
=====
. John 15:7 - “But if you remain in Me and My words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted!”
Praying in “Jesus name” is not repeating some words. Praying in Jesus name means that the one praying is similar in character to Jesus Himself. I am praying in mercy like Jesus, forgiveness like Jesus, in love like Jesus and in obedience to Jesus.
=====
. 1 John 5:14 - “And we are confident that He hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases Him.”
“Thy will be done,” is no idle comment. A person in close relationship with God will ONLY want to ask for those things that God wants; never will we ask for something contrary to the will of God.
=====
. 1 John 3:21-22 - “Dear friends, if we don’t feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence. And we will receive from Him whatever we ask because we obey Him and do the things that please him.”
This is very similar to praying in the character of Jesus and in the will of Jesus. If we are praying in the name of or character of Jesus we will be living in obedience to the will of God.
=====
In summary:
We are told in the Bible that the prayer of a righteous person is very effective. People that I know who seem to “have God’s ear” are those who are in a right relationship with both God and others. They have a merciful and forgiving heart. The fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) is evident in their lives. They exude the character of Jesus. These people do not out of ignorance purport to know whether or not God wants someone to live or die, to be healed or not healed. These people pray from a humble heart, allowing God to work in their lives and accepting on faith that whatever God wants is what is right and best in that situation.
Which Comes First?
All but one religion of the world tells us that if we are good enough, God will accept us.
The Gospel (good news) of Jesus points out that because God accepts us, we want to do good.
The same is true for repentance:
Anyone who has genuinely repented before God of h/her sins has been forgiven.
Anyone who has been forgiven has genuinely repented or h/her sins.
The Gospel (good news) of Jesus points out that because God accepts us, we want to do good.
The same is true for repentance:
Anyone who has genuinely repented before God of h/her sins has been forgiven.
Anyone who has been forgiven has genuinely repented or h/her sins.
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