Happy Birthday Jesus! You are my Lord, Savior, and King!
May you all have a great celebration of our Savior’s birth.
God Bless.
Archive for the ‘Reflections’ Category
The Importance Of The Virgin Birth
24
Dec
For many young Christians the importance of the virgin birth of Jesus is overlooked. I remember the first time the importance was explained to me, it made a lot a sense, but had it not been addressed I wouldn’t have thought much more of it other than another miracle that could have only been from God.
It’s ture that a virgen birth seems even more like a miracle than a regular birth, but it goes much further than that.
For Jesus to be perfect, He needed to bypass the sinful gene that has been passed down through Adam after he fell in the garden along with Eve. Man passes this gene, not the woman, so the virgin birth bypassed it.
When Jesus died on that cross, He died as a perfect sacrifice for everyone who accepts His death in the place of theirs. He was God, and God’s Blood can wash away our sins. If Jesus was just another man entering in as a sinner, there is no significance of the cross.
By bypassing the sin gene, Jesus was God and Jesus was a perfect man.
Luke 1:28-35 – 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.
Why Do People Want To Keep Destroying The Jews?
22
Dec
It’s a small group of people with a long heritage. They’re probably the most popular and documented heritage when you figure in the Old Testament and the Bible is the most published book of all time.
Today all its Islamic neighbors would not only like to see them out of the land they occupy today, but want them totally annihilated. They want to drive them into the Red Sea.
Why?
Hitler just 80 years ago wanted to do the same thing. Used the excuse that they killed Christ as a reason, but clearly he had more issues than that with others he also killed. He ended up killing more Christians than Jews.
Why?
In the book of Esther in the Bible we read:
Esther 3:8-13 – 8 Then Haman said to King Xerxes, “There is a certain people dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom who keep themselves separate. Their customs are different from those of all other people, and they do not obey the king’s laws; it is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them. 9 If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them, and I will give ten thousand talents of silver to the king’s administrators for the royal treasury.”
10 So the king took his signet ring from his finger and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. 11 “Keep the money,” the king said to Haman, “and do with the people as you please.”
12 Then on the thirteenth day of the first month the royal secretaries were summoned. They wrote out in the script of each province and in the language of each people all Haman’s orders to the king’s satraps, the governors of the various provinces and the nobles of the various peoples. These were written in the name of King Xerxes himself and sealed with his own ring. 13 Dispatches were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces with the order to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews—young and old, women and children—on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods.
Haman tried to get Xerxes to kill all of the Jews.
Why?
Because after Adam and Eve fell in the Garden of Eden, they turned over the reins to Satan who had tricked them. God’s redemptive plan was going to come through Abraham, through the line of Isaac, and down through Jacob. Jacob is also known as Israel.
Satan has done his best to try and destroy this line of people and continues to, because even though Satan was defeated at the cross, he isn’t going to give up until his fate is sealed. He can’t accept defeat and feels that if he can still annihilate the Jews, then the book of Revelation might not come true. Nor any of the prophecies that promise that the Messiah will rule over the Jews and others forever. Most importantly he doesn’t like the sound of this one.
Revelation 20:10 – 10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Do you know who Satan also hates as much as the Jews? That’s right, Christians? Both remind him of his Creator that he wants to be in the place of.
The whole world functions as if everything is material, when in reality its 100 percent spiritual.
Keep your eye on Israel, Church. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. She does have one more go of it (the worst ever) before Christ returns, but in the end, they will finally recognize their Messiah.
Many have tried to destroy Israel and they have failed.
Why?
Because when our God makes a promise, He keeps it! All glory be to our God!
Pretend You’re Looking Through A Viewmaster
20
Dec
Pretend You’re Looking Through A View-Master
Do you know what a View-Master is?
When I was a little kid it was a neat toy. You stuck the disks in the binocular looking toy and you could look at the pictures. Then you could buy and rotate out the disks. It was a great marketing idea back in its day.
So let’s pretend to take the View-Master and insert a disk in it. You click the lever down and it goes back up and you see a picture of the earth. You click again and it’s a pretty view of a seascape. Continuing on you see a plush rainforest all green. Very scenic and pretty place is the earth.
Let’s change the disk out now and take a look. The new disk has a picture of a person lying on the ground after a car wreck. You hit the lever and it’s of a soldier who’s died on the battle field because of a land mine. The photo after that is of scientist trying to create a biochemical hazard that has no other purpose but to kill people with disease. You keep clicking it seeing pictures of the Holocaust and people starved to death. Others reveal slave camps where detestable things happen.
Most of would want to take out the second disk and burn it, because that doesn’t bring the vision of what we want to see. We want to see the heaven were trying to make on this earth. Burn it all you want, but the reality is that man is a fallen, sinful, selfish, being.
Romans 3:12 – 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
You see right now man’s biggest goal is to try and make everyone else respect each other. Try to make this world come together and all get along to create a big happy place, create a one world government. The problem is the ones at the top who are trying to make others do this; don’t even want to live under the same guidelines. Why? Because they are selfish people.
There isn’t a heaven on earth. Even in all our riches there is stress like you can’t believe. In many cases you have one person stabbing the back of another to get where they need to go. Others swindling others to get ahead or stealing what they can. This is what is going on is civilized countries. In uncivilized it’s atrocious.
What does God say about the subject?
1 John 2:15 – 15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.
Romans 12:2 – 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Our citizenship is in Heaven. We are not supposed to be putting it all on the line to make our lives for this world the best in history. The world hated Jesus and if you’re living for Him first it will probably hate you also.
John 15:18 – 18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.
Take the View-Master again. Plop in a disk of Heaven. What does it look like?
1 Corinthians 2:9 – 9 However, as it is written:
“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”—
the things God has prepared for those who love him—
We can’t even fathom in our humans minds of how great Heaven is? We are however, warned constantly throughout the New Testament especially, that we are to seek it and not ourselves or the world.
Have faith. It will be greater than any worldly day of your life. Seek the Lord first, not this world.
Quote – A W Tozer
19
Dec
A Pharisee is hard on others and easy on himself, but a spiritual man is easy on others and hard on himself.
A W Tozer
Why is a spiritual man harder on himself, because the most important thing to him is his relationship with the Lord. He knows it’s the most important thing that exists. He doesn’t want to discourage someone from finding the truth, but knows the truth must be spoken. He prays for others, shares the Word, and wants others to find their Blessed King.
The Pharisee was a person that wanted to be recognized as the Godly figure he was trying to portray. He would rather build himself up rather than a brother who also believed in God. It was a position of prestige. There was no forgiveness for wrongdoing, unless you were someone special, then they bent the rules. It’s easy to understand, since that is the way man is.
One chases after the Heart of God. The other chases at the idea of acting Godly for others to see.
Poor In The Eyes Of The World?
15
Dec
James 2:5 – 5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?
Poor in the eyes of the world?
What comes to my mind when seeing these words?
Humility for one. If the world is looking at someone like they are poor in the world I don’t sense a lot of worldly pride going on with these individuals. The world is full of pride. Satan was full of pride.
What’s the next thing I see when looking at poor in the eyes of the world in the above scripture? I see people looking at those sacrificing for the Lord and thinking to themselves I have a taste for the finer things in life to settle for less while I’m here. I am a hard worker and should be rewarded for being so while here on this earth.
Missionaries don’t bring in a lot of pay. Neither do most pastors. They should never get rich while they’re here and I think the ones who have will have a little chat with the Lord from what I read.
Do I think we all should be pastors? No.
Do I think we should all be missionaries? Absolutely. It starts with the home, your immediate family, and the ones you are close to.
I believe if you are capable of making a lot of money, you have two choices. You can spend it on yourself, or you can commit most of it after your needs (not wants) to the Kingdom of God and be “rich in faith”, like the scripture says. It does take a lot of faith to store away for what you cannot yet see.
Why do I bring up wealth? Because money and positions of power are really considered the areas of being rich in the world.
The scripture definitely falls under the “choose God not the world” category. We can’t serve two masters.
Perspective On Buildings
09
Dec
When it comes to the Jews building housing in East Jerusalem, which is their capitol, President Obama indicates that such a move is bad for peace.
Back in America, when it comes to building a mosque near ground zero, he’s completely silent on that issue.
IRONIC?
Quote – C. S. Lewis
04
Dec
There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, “All right, then, have it your way.”
C. S. Lewis
In short you’re either living for God, or your living for yourself.
If you’re living for yourself you’re probably not excited about the idea of Jesus coming back.
Put yourself in shoes of Jesus. How would you feel if you were coming back to call your own at the rapture and there were people that weren’t excited about the idea of you coming back?
We’ve been living for ourselves long enough. Time to say to God, “Thy will be done through me Lord. I want to live for You, not selfishly for me.
Pass It On
26
Nov
Today’s post is inspired by a campfire song that was popular in church camp growing up.
Pass It On – 1969 Bud John Songs, Inc -Words and Music by Kurt Kaiser
- It only takes a spark to get a fire going,
And soon all those around can warm up in its glowing;
That’s how it is with God’s Love,
Once you’ve experienced it,
Your spread the love to everyone
You want to pass it on. What a wonderous time is spring,
When all the tress are budding
The birds begin to sing, the flowers start their blooming;
That’s how it is with God’s love,
Once you’ve experienced it.
You want to sing, it’s fresh like spring,
You want to pass it on.I wish for you my friend
This happiness that I’ve found;
You can depend on God
It matters not where you’re bound,
I’ll shout it from the mountain top – PRAISE GOD!
I want the world to know
The Lord of love has come to me
I want to pass it on.
I’ll shout it from the mountain top – PRAISE GOD!
I want the world to know
The Lord of love has come to me
I want to pass it on.
It does only take a spark, especially when that spark is Holy Spirit. That spark not only works when it comes to reaching others, but in our own lives when we let the fire burn out.
Do you shout it from the mountain tops? Do you want your world to know? Are you letting your light shine or putting it under a bowl?
PRAISE GOD! I want the world to know. God bless you and let your light shine.
We Were Loved First – A Familiar Model
23
Nov
God has given us a model in many things in our lives. When we are children, we love our mother or father, or both. Why?
In most cases it’s because you were nurtured and loved by them first. It’s naturally easy to love someone back who has unconditionally loved you first.
1 John 4:19 – 19We love him, because he first loved us. NKJV
What happens if you are not loved by someone when you’re a baby and continuing on through the infant and toddler stage? Testing has shown that it really messes up people. They have a hard time loving and being loved.
This can happen, because those who are not obedient tend not to care about loving anyone but themselves first. Then the trait gets passed on and usually won’t get broken unless someone finds the love of the Lord.
We were made to love and be loved by our God.
Jesus and God have loved us from the beginning. They are right there. Right There!
So the question now becomes, well if they are right there how come bad things happen? I have a question for the question. If people are not going to seek God at all when things are going great, why would they ever seek to love God? Those tough times appear to draw us closer.
When children rebel at home, punishment should follow encouraging them to make the right choices. Yes, there is a right and wrong in this world and the authority is God. When we are not living right or for God, things need to become a little uncomfortable for you as a reminder that it’s time to seek the one who loves you and created you.
Hebrew 12:5-6 – 5 And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, 6 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”
The model is all around us. The Lord has made finding Him and understanding Him relatively easy, as long as the sinner repents and seeks to get back to his God and Creator.
He loves every one of us and has died so that those who choose His sacrifice will be saved. Who will you make as your Father?