Apr 2009
Holding on to the Promise
26/04/09 17:04
After three years of
Jesus teaching the disciples, you would think that
they had their hearts set on Him fulfilling the
promises that were foretold by the prophets and
patriarchs. And that’s just what we see in the
first chapter of the book of Acts. Jesus was
returning to Heaven and He gathered His apostles so
that they could know for sure just where He was going
–there would be no doubt!
Jesus gave them instructions to stay in Jerusalem until they received power from on high. But they interrupted Him and asked if He was going to restore Israel to her glory. Jesus said to them, “ It is not for you to know the times and dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.”
The comfort that these words of Jesus brings enabled the apostles to endure all that they were about to experience. And if we would, by the same faith, take His words to heart, they will also enable us to endure all things. And he that endures to the end, the same shall be saved! Jesus tells us that the Father has set the times and dates that He would restore Israel to her glory. We, like the apostles, should also be aware of that which the prophets have promised; that when Israel regains her glory, we shall rule and reign with Him.
For a thousand years Israel will be the home of the righteous and the law of God shall go out from Jerusalem. The earth shall be blessed and all the nations shall know that God is God, Yea, the earth shall be filled with the glory of God! Remember, God has set the time for this to happen. Jesus has promised that God has set the time for His return and for all things to be renewed! O, Praise God that it wasn’t just a fable, or that God was just kidding. God has sworn by His own Name and He will never change His mind. The promise is as good as the One who gave it!
So, when you are going through the valley, hold on to the Promise. When you’re sick in body, hold on to the Promise. When temptation tries you, hold on to the Promise. When trials assail you from every side, hold on to the Promise! The Promise is one of the greatest assets of our faith. The Promise encourages, strengthens and gives us hope. The Promise makes us to stand when everyone around us is falling. The Promise moves mountains and calms the seas of trouble.
Oh, by the way, the Promise was sealed with a grand affirmative when Jesus rose from the dead. The Resurrection means the Promise is good –and that is good news! So, you can see why the apostles asked Jesus what they did. The thing that is the hardest right now is waiting for what God has promised and set by His own authority. But child of God, it will come! It will happen! God is faithful, and what Jesus told his disciples, He tells us, “Hold on to the Promise.”
Have a great week! Pastor Jim
Jesus gave them instructions to stay in Jerusalem until they received power from on high. But they interrupted Him and asked if He was going to restore Israel to her glory. Jesus said to them, “ It is not for you to know the times and dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.”
The comfort that these words of Jesus brings enabled the apostles to endure all that they were about to experience. And if we would, by the same faith, take His words to heart, they will also enable us to endure all things. And he that endures to the end, the same shall be saved! Jesus tells us that the Father has set the times and dates that He would restore Israel to her glory. We, like the apostles, should also be aware of that which the prophets have promised; that when Israel regains her glory, we shall rule and reign with Him.
For a thousand years Israel will be the home of the righteous and the law of God shall go out from Jerusalem. The earth shall be blessed and all the nations shall know that God is God, Yea, the earth shall be filled with the glory of God! Remember, God has set the time for this to happen. Jesus has promised that God has set the time for His return and for all things to be renewed! O, Praise God that it wasn’t just a fable, or that God was just kidding. God has sworn by His own Name and He will never change His mind. The promise is as good as the One who gave it!
So, when you are going through the valley, hold on to the Promise. When you’re sick in body, hold on to the Promise. When temptation tries you, hold on to the Promise. When trials assail you from every side, hold on to the Promise! The Promise is one of the greatest assets of our faith. The Promise encourages, strengthens and gives us hope. The Promise makes us to stand when everyone around us is falling. The Promise moves mountains and calms the seas of trouble.
Oh, by the way, the Promise was sealed with a grand affirmative when Jesus rose from the dead. The Resurrection means the Promise is good –and that is good news! So, you can see why the apostles asked Jesus what they did. The thing that is the hardest right now is waiting for what God has promised and set by His own authority. But child of God, it will come! It will happen! God is faithful, and what Jesus told his disciples, He tells us, “Hold on to the Promise.”
Have a great week! Pastor Jim
|
When I see Jesus
19/04/09 17:41
Going though
life with all its disappointments and heartaches can
numb the heart and stagnate the passions. Folks have
even grown cynical or clinically depressed. I myself
find the fight against depression an ongoing battle
at times. Sometimes you think, “If I have to go
through one more battle…”
I am tired of hearing of all the violence, broken marriages and children coming up missing. I think I watch the news now hoping to see something that will correlate with prophecy and those feelings of excitement for the Lord’s return springs up and it is a little relief from the languor of life.
Please don’t get me wrong, I love life and I believe that Robin and I are living it to the fullest. We live in exciting times and count it a blessing to be working for Jesus in this capacity. But, what I am talking about is the wear and tear this life tries to oppress us with –believe it or not, the devil tries to beat the saints down so they’ll give up on the fight of faith and stop running the race to their Goal. I will not and neither should you!
So, at just the right time (because of the mercy and grace of God) we were blessed with an incident from a forty-eight year old Briton woman by the name of Susan Boyle. She is totally unattractive, somewhat “frumpy” and plain as plain can come. (I am speaking from a worldly perspective.) She has lived alone all her life taking care of her ill mother and she has never been kissed! When I think about it, Susan’s life should have never affected mine, we live in different parts of the world and neither one of us even knew or cared that the other existed. But God blessed Susan so she could bless the world and because of God’s mercy, I got to be one of those blessed. I first saw her standing on the stage of the Britain Has Talent Show. The three judges and the rest of the audience were all thinking the same thing, “What do we have here?” Really. This woman is as unassuming as a bowl of cheerios and just as bland –by mere appearances. But she wanted her chance to sing to the world and she got it! And she did! And she surprised everyone! This woman sang one of the most beautiful renditions of I Dreamed a Dream from the movie, Les Miserables. It moved me to tears. It brought up emotions that have laid dormant for weeks, months, years! I found myself shouting within my heart, “Bravo! Bravo!” The volcanic eruption of blessedness only found me looking for my next breath and a tissue to wipe my eyes. I remember wanting to touch Robin and rub her back, as we watched this scene unfold together. She was feeling the same thing and all we could do was sit in pure… I really don’t have the words to describe the experience!
And this is where my thoughts turned to Jesus. This is where I began to think about seeing Him for the first time and watching Him being crowned with many crowns, and hearing His voice shake the thresholds of Heaven, bringing every angelic being to bowed silence. What sort of rocket burst of emotions will we experience? What kind of breath-taking scene will we experience? I don’t know, but I can tell you this, it will be incomparably greater than anything experienced here on earth and in this life.
In fact, God has even planned to give us a new body so that we will be able to stand in His Presence and experience every last joyful emotion that this experience offers. I hope and pray that we all fight the fight and run the race together to the very end, and so, experience the beauty and majesty together on that great and glorious day!
I am tired of hearing of all the violence, broken marriages and children coming up missing. I think I watch the news now hoping to see something that will correlate with prophecy and those feelings of excitement for the Lord’s return springs up and it is a little relief from the languor of life.
Please don’t get me wrong, I love life and I believe that Robin and I are living it to the fullest. We live in exciting times and count it a blessing to be working for Jesus in this capacity. But, what I am talking about is the wear and tear this life tries to oppress us with –believe it or not, the devil tries to beat the saints down so they’ll give up on the fight of faith and stop running the race to their Goal. I will not and neither should you!
So, at just the right time (because of the mercy and grace of God) we were blessed with an incident from a forty-eight year old Briton woman by the name of Susan Boyle. She is totally unattractive, somewhat “frumpy” and plain as plain can come. (I am speaking from a worldly perspective.) She has lived alone all her life taking care of her ill mother and she has never been kissed! When I think about it, Susan’s life should have never affected mine, we live in different parts of the world and neither one of us even knew or cared that the other existed. But God blessed Susan so she could bless the world and because of God’s mercy, I got to be one of those blessed. I first saw her standing on the stage of the Britain Has Talent Show. The three judges and the rest of the audience were all thinking the same thing, “What do we have here?” Really. This woman is as unassuming as a bowl of cheerios and just as bland –by mere appearances. But she wanted her chance to sing to the world and she got it! And she did! And she surprised everyone! This woman sang one of the most beautiful renditions of I Dreamed a Dream from the movie, Les Miserables. It moved me to tears. It brought up emotions that have laid dormant for weeks, months, years! I found myself shouting within my heart, “Bravo! Bravo!” The volcanic eruption of blessedness only found me looking for my next breath and a tissue to wipe my eyes. I remember wanting to touch Robin and rub her back, as we watched this scene unfold together. She was feeling the same thing and all we could do was sit in pure… I really don’t have the words to describe the experience!
And this is where my thoughts turned to Jesus. This is where I began to think about seeing Him for the first time and watching Him being crowned with many crowns, and hearing His voice shake the thresholds of Heaven, bringing every angelic being to bowed silence. What sort of rocket burst of emotions will we experience? What kind of breath-taking scene will we experience? I don’t know, but I can tell you this, it will be incomparably greater than anything experienced here on earth and in this life.
In fact, God has even planned to give us a new body so that we will be able to stand in His Presence and experience every last joyful emotion that this experience offers. I hope and pray that we all fight the fight and run the race together to the very end, and so, experience the beauty and majesty together on that great and glorious day!
“Whom having not seen, ye love.
In whom, though now ye
see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”
Life Eternal
12/04/09 18:00
Easter is the
time that we celebrate the Lord’s resurrection
from the dead. Many people have doubted, but no
matter, He still arose. The resurrection was the main
theme of the early Church.
Peter, Paul and all the disciples preached that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, died and was buried; then on the third day, He arose from the grave. He conquered death and escaped corruption, giving everyone the hope of life eternal.
The difference between life and death is as unfathomable as the depths of the ocean. For many years the Church has evangelized with the thought that we were all going to live forever somewhere, so it would be wise to choose Christ and live forever with Him in Heaven.
Though this may be a great strategy to elicit thoughts of the eternal, it is somewhat erroneous and liable to leave many confused with the choice that they really have. What I mean is this; there are a lot of people who do not want any thing to do with God, Jesus, or especially Christianity. They look into the Church and see what they want to see; hypocrisy, greed, pride and immorality.
The Christian marriage is just as much in danger of divorce as is the secular. Ordinations of homosexuals and the constant bickering between denominations only adds fuel to the rationale that unbelievers are just as good as those within the Church.
And so when it comes to a decision to live forever somewhere, many unbelievers choose to live forever away from these “Christian” folks. But the choice was never intended to live forever where you choose. The choice as far as the Scriptures speak of is… “Choose you this day between life and death.” Death is the antithesis of life. This means death is life’s opposite and everything that we are blessed with in life, is not found in death.
For instance, there is hope in life but none is found in death. There is mercy in life, but there is no mercy in death. There is no love, no compassion, caring, generosity, nothing that we enjoy here and now. In death there will be an existence of eternal corruption where the pain and suffering will be immeasurable. (The eternal cannot be measured.)
Death is cast out from the presence of God who is Life. I fully understand that there be qualms about the temporary presence of evil and corruption within life as it is now, but God has promised that death shall be cast into the lake of fire, along with everything associated with it. Life eternal will be one of great bliss, for the corruptible in this life will pass away and shall not be remembered any longer.
God promises to change this order of life with a brand new one. We shall possess love, goodness and mercy without measure. Remember, the eternal cannot be measured. Love without limit! Charity and compassion, mercy and grace, all of these experienced forever within the Being of Him who defeated death two thousand years ago. Yes, we exist in life right now, but death has its claws within our experience.
Soon life shall be caught up into Heaven and death will be left to itself. As for me and my house… I will choose life!
Have a great week! Pastor Jim
Peter, Paul and all the disciples preached that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, died and was buried; then on the third day, He arose from the grave. He conquered death and escaped corruption, giving everyone the hope of life eternal.
The difference between life and death is as unfathomable as the depths of the ocean. For many years the Church has evangelized with the thought that we were all going to live forever somewhere, so it would be wise to choose Christ and live forever with Him in Heaven.
Though this may be a great strategy to elicit thoughts of the eternal, it is somewhat erroneous and liable to leave many confused with the choice that they really have. What I mean is this; there are a lot of people who do not want any thing to do with God, Jesus, or especially Christianity. They look into the Church and see what they want to see; hypocrisy, greed, pride and immorality.
The Christian marriage is just as much in danger of divorce as is the secular. Ordinations of homosexuals and the constant bickering between denominations only adds fuel to the rationale that unbelievers are just as good as those within the Church.
And so when it comes to a decision to live forever somewhere, many unbelievers choose to live forever away from these “Christian” folks. But the choice was never intended to live forever where you choose. The choice as far as the Scriptures speak of is… “Choose you this day between life and death.” Death is the antithesis of life. This means death is life’s opposite and everything that we are blessed with in life, is not found in death.
For instance, there is hope in life but none is found in death. There is mercy in life, but there is no mercy in death. There is no love, no compassion, caring, generosity, nothing that we enjoy here and now. In death there will be an existence of eternal corruption where the pain and suffering will be immeasurable. (The eternal cannot be measured.)
Death is cast out from the presence of God who is Life. I fully understand that there be qualms about the temporary presence of evil and corruption within life as it is now, but God has promised that death shall be cast into the lake of fire, along with everything associated with it. Life eternal will be one of great bliss, for the corruptible in this life will pass away and shall not be remembered any longer.
God promises to change this order of life with a brand new one. We shall possess love, goodness and mercy without measure. Remember, the eternal cannot be measured. Love without limit! Charity and compassion, mercy and grace, all of these experienced forever within the Being of Him who defeated death two thousand years ago. Yes, we exist in life right now, but death has its claws within our experience.
Soon life shall be caught up into Heaven and death will be left to itself. As for me and my house… I will choose life!
Have a great week! Pastor Jim
But, What about Me?
05/04/09 09:53
While Jesus
was teaching a very large crowd about the kingdom of
God and God’s care for man, there was a man who
spoke up asking the Lord to arbitrate what he assumed
was a simple case.
“Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.’” Luke12:13
At first glance is seems like a simple case to me. Two brothers and one inheritance; the law requires certain portions to each. Moses had given these laws to the Israelites because whether we like it or not, some folks are just plain stingy! It’s all about them and their “right” to their fair share in this life. And to make matters worse, usually the one demanding their fair share is looking to actually get a little more. This is how it works: It’s a heart thing and heart things tend to go bad if left to themselves. I have watched people argue and fight over the possessions of their deceased loved ones on the day they buried them! There have been permanent rifts in good families because someone thought they had the right to some “stuff.” Greed works best in disguise. It lives in the shadows of personal rights and should be classified as a communicable disease. People can easily diagnose it in others but rarely see the symptoms in themselves. Why? “Because it’s their right to have…” Have you ever watched a child receiving ice cream along with their playmate? He thanks appropriately yet, he slyly glimpses at his playmate’s portion. These are the first signs of greed. No one had to teach that little fellow how to assure that he received his fair portion. No one instructed him on the finer points of the fairness doctrine. He just knows that it is only right that he receives what is owed to him. Have you ever noticed that nobody really complains that they got more than the other guy?
Now, if you have a problem with injustice, who do you go to, to straighten out the situation? God; Of course! I don’t know anyone better to judge on these matters, do you? And so, this young man who felt slighted by his brother’s stinginess appeals to Jesus for justice. But while he was looking for justice, Jesus was seeing greed. While the man was looking at the outward circumstances, Jesus was looking at the heart. While the man was demanding treasures here on earth, Jesus was instructing that where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. If you look for your treasures here on earth, your heart will be susceptible to the greed that will grow like a cancer until it consumes every little bit of happiness that you have. Paul tells us that, “godliness with contentment is great gain.” And again, “The love for money is the root of all evil.” Well, Jesus tells the man in so many words: “Get over it! There is more to life than what you have your eyes on.” When we go through life… No, let me rephrase this. When we stand before God, I guarantee us all, that we will realize that it was not so much what we received in this life that mattered, but what we gave. The words of Jesus sums it all up here; “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” So, what about you and me? The axiom for a blessed life is simply to give your life away for the sake of Christ, and you will have treasure in heaven.
Have a great week! Pastor Jim
“Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.’” Luke12:13
At first glance is seems like a simple case to me. Two brothers and one inheritance; the law requires certain portions to each. Moses had given these laws to the Israelites because whether we like it or not, some folks are just plain stingy! It’s all about them and their “right” to their fair share in this life. And to make matters worse, usually the one demanding their fair share is looking to actually get a little more. This is how it works: It’s a heart thing and heart things tend to go bad if left to themselves. I have watched people argue and fight over the possessions of their deceased loved ones on the day they buried them! There have been permanent rifts in good families because someone thought they had the right to some “stuff.” Greed works best in disguise. It lives in the shadows of personal rights and should be classified as a communicable disease. People can easily diagnose it in others but rarely see the symptoms in themselves. Why? “Because it’s their right to have…” Have you ever watched a child receiving ice cream along with their playmate? He thanks appropriately yet, he slyly glimpses at his playmate’s portion. These are the first signs of greed. No one had to teach that little fellow how to assure that he received his fair portion. No one instructed him on the finer points of the fairness doctrine. He just knows that it is only right that he receives what is owed to him. Have you ever noticed that nobody really complains that they got more than the other guy?
Now, if you have a problem with injustice, who do you go to, to straighten out the situation? God; Of course! I don’t know anyone better to judge on these matters, do you? And so, this young man who felt slighted by his brother’s stinginess appeals to Jesus for justice. But while he was looking for justice, Jesus was seeing greed. While the man was looking at the outward circumstances, Jesus was looking at the heart. While the man was demanding treasures here on earth, Jesus was instructing that where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. If you look for your treasures here on earth, your heart will be susceptible to the greed that will grow like a cancer until it consumes every little bit of happiness that you have. Paul tells us that, “godliness with contentment is great gain.” And again, “The love for money is the root of all evil.” Well, Jesus tells the man in so many words: “Get over it! There is more to life than what you have your eyes on.” When we go through life… No, let me rephrase this. When we stand before God, I guarantee us all, that we will realize that it was not so much what we received in this life that mattered, but what we gave. The words of Jesus sums it all up here; “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” So, what about you and me? The axiom for a blessed life is simply to give your life away for the sake of Christ, and you will have treasure in heaven.
Have a great week! Pastor Jim