Category: Bible Study
Law & Grace
Ephesians 2:8-9
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Sometime things are hard to see even if it is right in front of our eyes, but praise God he has giving us a Spiritual Mirror so we can not only see but understand his words.
Story: I once had a Boat named the Egabrag 1
You might ask what was so great about the Egabrag,it was no different then any other Vessel, but it had one of the most importance jobs in the Military working for the US Navy
Every day it preformed it job flawless, it never failed to do its job, too much was counting on it to fulfill its daily mission.
For almost 20 years it worked non stop, She was not much to look at but her Crew had great pride in running her
When she was decommissioned and I took her over, I just could not help but wonder, Who could of came up with a name like Egabrag 1 the name just did not made sense, until one of the Crew told me, people in California did not like a boat being called the Garbage 1 Egabrag backwards is Garbage
Sometimes the Bible is like that; but just because we don’t understand a topic in the Bible it does not mean we should just skip over or pass it by, for it is by studying God word that we uncover the true meaning of the hidden truth berried deep in Gods word.
Let Us Pray
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Are law’s importance?
Do laws put us in bondage?
Have you ever lived in a place where there were no laws?
What do you thing would happen to the USA if there were no law’s to govern the people?
Just think, if there were no laws; you could do whatever you want and no one would stop you. Except everyone else is doing the same thing as you, and there is no one stopping them either.
Do you see where a problem could come from?
What if I don’t like stopping for red lights, there are always a pain and turn red at the wrong times. So I am going to just drive straight through them from now on. I might not live long doing that; but remember there are no laws telling me I can’t.
Laws are not made to keep us from something good! They are made to keep us happy and safe. So everyone knows what to expect from the other person.
Were Gods Law’s to be a burden or a joy to mankind?
What about Grace if we have Grace Do we still need Law’s?
First we must understand What is GRACE?
We don’t have to earn it. It is the most valuable gift of all. The Scripture says in Ephesians 2:8, 9: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.”
Salvation does not come from any human effort. It is a free gift without money and without price, or let’s says with out cost to Mankind
In Revelation 5:9, the redeemed are pictured as standing before the throne of God, both the redeemed from the Old Testament times and from the New Testament times, singing glory to Jesus, the Lamb, “Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.”
A great, fundamental truth is expressed here—the only way a sinner can be saved is through the blood of Jesus. Since the time of Adam, sinners have been saved only by believing and having Faith in Jesus.
If men are saved through faith in Jesus Christ, where does the Ten Commandment law come in?
Throughout all the ages of controversy between Christ and Satan, the devil has sought to destroy the authority of God over man by casting the law aside and by preventing knowledge of the truth about God’s law.
The enemy of Christ brings this about by rejection of the law; or a wrong concept or understanding of the dispensation of the law as opposed to the dispensation of the gospel. This is what we call being one sided or not seeing the hold picture.
Satan could bring in the principle of salvation through works, and prevent the functioning of the law according to God’s design.
Kind of writing it out backward so that you see it but don’t truly understand what it is saying. Do you see the ECARG & HTIAF Grace & Faith
The role that the law fulfills in relation to the gospel is two-fold.
1. First, it is God’s standard of what is right and true. As a standard the law expresses the mind and the will of God, for in Psalm 40:8 it says, “I delight to do thy will, 0 my God; yea, thy law is within my heart.”
2. Second the law also declares man’s duty to God, for in Ecclesiastes 12:13 we read, “Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.”
How often I have heard Christians boast that they don’t care about those old laws of God. “Why”
Because they hide behind Romans 6:14, “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”
They say that since they are saved by grace, through the atoning blood of Christ, they don’t have to keep God’s commandments at all. Have you ever heard that theory?
BUT: You can not take just one scripture from the Bible and make a completed doctrine, that my friend is a very dangerous way to live. Because when you live your life that way you are not truly living it for Jesus, but for what fits your life style.
In Romans 6:15, the very next verse in the chapter, Paul says, “What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? Paul says God forbid.” The fourteenth verse has stated, “Sin shall not have dominion over us,” or “it shall not be our ruler.”
We are not under Sin or the condemnation of the law either, when we obey God.
Why?
Because we are saved by grace, But that does not license us to sin? “God forbid.”
When an individual is saved by grace, he is under greater obligation than ever before to keep the laws of God.
As it says in Romans 3:31, “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law.”
Are we licensed to break the law of God because we are saved by grace and saved by faith? God forbid. “Yea,” he says, “we establish the law.” The law is firmer than ever in our lives.
Question?
Who is under the law today in your city? Those who have broken it; they are under the law, and in jail.
The man who keeps the law, is the man who is free today.
The law breaker is under the condemnation of the law and doing time in jail.
Right here let us stop a moment and read the definition of sin in 1 John 3:4. “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.”
Are we clear on this. When a man sins he has transgressed the law.
Who’s Law; “GOD”.
Every sinner has broken the law. What is sin? “The transgression of the law.” When a man sins, what does he do? He breaks the law of God.
There must be a law, otherwise he couldn’t break it. We are not under the law unless we break the Law.
I would fear to be called a minister of the Lord today and tell people it is ok to break Gods laws.
Matt: 5:19: Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
How does God feel about man making his own laws and rules and teaching people to live by them instead of his commandment Law’s.
Matt:15:9: But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Is there danger in not keeping God Commandments?
You might say; Lord I am saved by grace I was told I don’t need to keep those old laws.
The governor of the state has life-and-death power. A man has been sentenced and condemned to die. He is under the sentence of death. Friends intervene; they present evidence to the governor, special factors involved in this case—contributing factors as to why this individual was caught in this particular crime.
As the governor investigates the evidence, he feels that this man deserves clemency; so he uses his official prerogative as the head of the commonwealth. He takes his pen and dips it in the ink and signs across those condemnation papers, “PARDONED,” and then signs his name.
That condemned man, my friend, has been saved by grace, not by his works or by his goodness.
He was doomed to die, and being ever so good in that death cell would never, never in this world save him. That is very obvious.
In other words, after an individual has broken the commandments of God, he cannot be good enough to save himself. The wages of sin is what? Death. We have all sinned, so are under the sentence of death. And there is only one way of salvation, through Jesus Christ.
Now the condemned man is pardoned. He can hardly believe his eyes as he sees the kindness, the stroke of generosity and love shown by that governor.
PARDONED. SAVED. FREE. You meet the freed man a little later and he says,
“Wonderful what that governor did for me, and wonderful this new freedom of mine.
Now I can break the law all I want, for the governor set me free from the law and from the sentence of death. I am saved by his grace.”
Did the governor pardon him so he could go out and become a greater law breaker? Shall we who are saved by grace continue law breaking? “God forbid.” We are under even greater obligation to keep the law because we are saved by God’s grace.
Matt:22: 36-40
36: Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37: Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38: This is the first and great commandment.
39: And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40: On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Love the Lord thy God it is the first four of the Ten Commandments;
Love thy neighbor it is the last six of the Ten Commandments;
Do we find any evident of keeping the old Jewish Ten Commandment Law in the New Testament Yes we do….
Matt:19:17: And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
Mark:10:19: Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother.
Luke:18:20: Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother
Luke:1:6: And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.
Over and over and over again we hear Jesus telling the people to keep his commandments.
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If you really Love the lord, and want to show him that you Love him, then do what?
Show him you love him by doing what he tells you to do.
I have heard some say, “Those commandments were only for the Jews.” Then a Christian can lie and steal, and murder people, and do anything else that he pleases. Is that possible?
Jesus says in ” John:14:15: If ye love me, keep my commandments.
It was because Gods Laws were broken that Jesus gave His life. If these were to be abolished, why not abolish them before Jesus came to die? Then His death would not have been necessary.
John:14:21: He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
John:15:10: If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.
Some people say, “Well, I can’t leave my church.” We’re not talking about church my friend.
We’re talking about following God. And if your church is in the way of you following God then you need to move out of it…….
Don’t look at the people. Look at the Light God is showing you.
We need to take one more quick glance here at what Jesus said. Matthew 7:21. “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”
Now notice verse 22. This is an amazing statement by our Lord. “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?”
Oh yes, miracle worked in the name of Jesus. Good so called Christian people who refuse to do one thing, and that was to keep God’s laws.
Don’t you see Christ’s answer now in verse 23. “Then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
Oh, this is one of the most sobering passages in the Word of God, because we’re led face to face here with an understanding which we can’t escape—that it makes a difference to God what we believe and how we live.
It isn’t enough to say, “Yes, I believe. I’m a church member.” Church will never get you to Heaven
It’s a matter of how you live and what you believe about God that makes a difference.
Many will say, “Lord, we’ve cast out devils. We’ve done miracles. We’ve prophesied.” And yet, they will be lost.
It makes a difference what we believe. Anchor your faith firmly, my friends, to the rock of Scripture “GOD’s WORD” and nothing else.
Christian can you say you know Jesus and not keep his Commandments
1John:2:3: And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
1John:2:4: He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
That’s not my saying brother and sister, for it is written in the book called the Bible, which is none other then God word.
1John:3:22: And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
People are always looking for bargains, for special discounts. Some churches advertise, “Come to us, we will give you a bargain, 10% off of the Ten Commandments.” But will that stand in the judgment?
Just because some great churches tell you that they will make it easy and only ask you to keep nine of the Ten Commandments, is that sufficient? Will you pass in the judgment day?
Has any church the right to discount the commandments of God? How do we dare imagine that we are on the high road to heaven when we knowingly break any of God’s commandments?
Matt: 5:19: Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
1John:3:24: And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.
1John:5:2: By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
1John:5:3: For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
So now we know that it is very importance to keep God’s commandments.
If you love God then who are you enemy with, That’s right the world.
For you can’t love God and the world!
What are we told will happen to God people because they love the Lord their God and claim to be his people. His people who keep his Laws and keep the testimony’s of his Son Jesus Christ.
Rv:12:17: And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Rv:14:12: Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
Rv:22:14: Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
If the world hated Jesus then you know it will also hate you, But don’t worry He Jesus will give you the power needed to obey
Some time ago one of the items of interest in the newspaper was about a cave-in in a mine down in Pennsylvania somewhere—I think you might remember it. There were some miners trapped but there was reason to believe they were still alive under ground.
There was no way to dig down through the mine shaft that had caved in so they were hoping the miners were off to the side of the main shaft in a little room in a horizontal shaft.
So they brought in a great drilling rig and started drilling down through that solid rock trying to get into that room where they felt they were probably entombed.
Hour after hour, day after day, while the world watched, virtually holding its breath, as the news media portrayed for us the picture of how they went down there 6 inches and then another foot and down finally to three feet.
The families camped at the mouth of the mine where the rescue operations were going on.
Finally the day came when that great boring rig bore through the ceiling of that room where the miners were trapped. Rapidly it was withdrawn and they lowered a microphone taped to a little speaker down that hole.
The man who was directing the rescue operation at the top spoke into his end of the microphone and said, “Are you alright? Are you alive? Are you there?!”
And then a voice came back from the heart of the earth. “Yes, we’re here. We’re alright.”
A great shout went up from the rescue workers at the opening of that pit. Then the director said this into the microphone. “What do you want the most?” There was a pause and then a voice came back, “FREEDOM.”
Oh friends, heaven is involved in the greatest rescue operation the world has ever known.
All the universe is watching. Day after day, week after week, year after year, for the last six-thousand horrible years,
God has been seeking to rescue those of us who have been entombed by the avalanche of sin.
What must it do to His heart by our procrastination, our idleness, our spiritual postponement of eternal things.
We send back a message and say, “Oh, we’re satisfied with the trinkets, we’re satisfied with the things, but thanks just the same.”
How shall we escape if we neglect so great a Salvation?
Have you every ask your self just what is GRACE anyway,
Well here it is in a nut shell
GRACE “God’s Riches At Christ Expense”
Elder Tim McNab Restoring Gods Truth Ministry
Reflections of the Christ
John: 15:13: Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
While a man was polishing his new car, his 4 yr old son picked up a stone and scratched lines on the side of the car. In anger, the man took the child’s hand and hit it many times; not realizing he was using a wrench. At the hospital, the child lost all his fingers due to multiple fractures. When the child saw his father…..with painful eyes he asked,
‘Dad when will my fingers grow back?’ The man was so hurt and
Speechless; he went back to his car and kicked it a lot of times. Devastated by his own actions……sitting in front of that car he looked at the scratches; the child had written ‘LOVE YOU DAD’.
The next day that man committed suicide. . . Anger and Love have no limits; choose the latter to have a beautiful, lovely life….. Things are to be used and people are to be loved, but the problem in today’s world is that, People are used and things are loved..
During this year, let’s be careful to keep this thought in mind: Things are to be used, but People are to be loved … Be yourself….This is the only day we HAVE. Have a nice day
Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits they become character; Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.
Let us Pray!
What is the most importance thing in your life? To many it is there Silver and Gold and the things they have in Life. I use to work at a Shipyard many years ago and sometimes we had work to do on some very expensive yachts. Some of them worth many millions of dollars and right as you go in they would have a sign hanging over head saying He Who Dies with the most Toys Wins. One time I had the opportunity to ask the man who own Sandals in Lost Vegas about his sign. I ask him how much is enough, he replied back till I have it all.
Till I have it all; what does the Bible teach about material things Matthew:16:26: For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Growing up I had to work everyday, I would go to school and right after school I would have to go to where my Dad worked to help him. He was a retired seaman and worked in a store selling discounted lube Oil back in New Orleans. One day my Mom and Dad got into an argument and ended up devoicing. Mom did all she could to teach us about God but Dad always thought that Christians were nothing but weak minded people. Dad moved back to the Islands in Honduras and Mom did all she could to keep the family together. But I was an angry young boy just about 14 years old when they separated and had no direction in life. About 6 months after my Dad left I was getting into all kinds of trouble on the streets of New Orleans and one day I decided to run away. So I planned very carefully and on Christmas Eve 1969 I packed my bags and got onto an airplane and left the USA for Utila one of the HondurasBayIslands.
Here I lived for the next 5 year and here it was that I learned why my Mother could no longer take living with my Dad. I loved him but he did not know how to give back love, his life was void of affection and full of hate. With the help of my older brother who was from my dad’s first wife and lived on the Island I made it until I was old enough to come back to the US and work.
Before I meet my Wife, my hold life was a life of nothing but living for the next day. At the age of 17 I started working in the Oil fields and moved to VeniceLouisiana. My cousin & I who was more like a brother lived doing nothing but drinking and smoking dope and anything else we could get our hands on. But I always had an empty feeling in my life and tried to fill that void with what everything I could. I got married just after I turned 18 to a very wonderful young Lady who was 21 at the time. She said that way she could finish raising me, boy she did not know what she was getting into. But guess what I did not know what I was getting either, but God knew, He planned it this way because of a pray I would pray. Asking Him Lord please bring a woman into my life that will make me a good wife and love me for what I am. I was not even a Christian then but God heard my prayers and answered them with a beautiful young Island girl who did not know the first thing about cooking.
A few years after we were married we had our first Child, a beautiful little girl who had my heart. I did not want for her to have a life like I had, so I decided I will make a change. I want in her little eye’s to see me as a loving father, but I did not know what a loving father was because I did not have one as a pattern. But I did remember my mother reading from the Bible about a Father God, so I started to studding about Him. The more I read about Him the more I started to change my life. I gave up drinking, smoking, dope and even started to change my vocabulary to words of a pleasant nature. I wanted to be to them what I never had a father who Loved me; I wanted them to see in me the Reflection of Jesus.
I wanted my Children to see the God I meet in me!
What are we showing others around us, do they see Christ in you or a Devil.
The Bible is a book of love it is a love letter from the God who has created this world. But something went wrong the man God created in his image rebelled because he believed a lie told to him in the garden. From the beginning we are told that everything God did was perfect in the Book of beginning called Genesis on the very first chapter 1: we have the story of God’s creation of His love.
24: And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
25: And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
26: And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28: And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
29: And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
30: And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
31: And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good
But the question, with giving Man so much freedom and giving him dominion over the whole world; would he remain faithful to his creator. So God planted in the middle of the garden a tree just one tree as a simple test to see if man who He created in his own image would love him. Genesis 2: 9: And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Genesis 2: 15: And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
16: And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
God told the Man and Woman who He created that everything was there, but that there was one restriction they were never to eat of this one tree. Why because God loved His creation and God knew that if man would eat of this one tree it would open his life to a life of sin and rebellion and life of pain, suffering, sickness, and death.
There was nothing different about this tree; it was just another tree in the garden that God created. But what it was was a test of obeying God word, God said not to eat of it and live or eat of it and die. It was a simple test that God took one tree and said don’t eat of it.
It had to be this way, why because God did not create the Man and Woman to serve His from force, God wanted man to serve Him out of love; the same love that God had in the beginning the same love that God has for all of us today. For freedom to be free it must be willing to let go, willing to take a chance, willing to show love in the hope of receiving love back again. The freedom of choice comes with a price and we all have been giving that freedom and we must choose whether we will serve God or man.
God knew that man might sin but that did not stop His love for man, God knew that if man sinned he would have to die, Why because one of Gods Laws were broken, But God had a plan.
Now sin has marred God’s perfect work, yet the handwriting remains. Even now all created things declare the glory of His excellence. There is nothing except the selfish heart of man that lives unto it self. No bird that cleaves the air, no animal that moves upon the ground, but ministers to some other life. There is no leaf of the forest, or lowly blade of grass, but has its ministry. Every tree and shrub and leaf pours forth that element of life without which neither man nor animal could live; and man and animal, in turn, minister to the life of tree and shrub and leaf. The flowers breathe fragrance and unfold their beauty in blessing to the world.
The plan for our redemption was not an afterthought, a plan formulated after the fall of Adam. It was a revelation of “the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal.” Rom. 16:25: Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,
It was an unfolding of the principles that from eternal ages have been the foundation of God’s throne. From the beginning, God and Christ knew of the apostasy of Satan, and of the fall of man through the deceptive power of the apostate. God did not ordain that sin should exist, but He foresaw its existence, and made provision to meet the terrible emergency. So great was His love for the world, that He covenanted to give His only-begotten Son, “that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Lucifer had said, “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; . . . I will be like the Most High.” Isa. 14:13, For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
But Christ, “being in the form of God, counted it not a thing to be grasped to be equality with God, but emptied Him self, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men. There is no other love greater then the love that God has toward man, we have sinned we have broken our relationship with our creator we have turned our back on Him but even then He did not stop loving us. He came to save the world and the world knew Him not; He came to his own people and His own people did not except Him; but hung Him on a Cross. Why because of God’s great Love, God has never stopped loving mankind.
When man sinned by eating of the Tree that God warned him not to eat there was a Law broken and that Law said in Ezek:18:20: The soul that sinneth, it shall die.
The King of glory stooped low to take humanity. Rude and forbidding were His earthly surroundings. His glory was veiled, that the majesty of His outward form might not become an object of attraction. He shunned all outward display. Riches, worldly honor, and human greatness can never save a soul from death; Jesus purposed that no attraction of an earthly nature should call men to His side. Only the beauty of heavenly truth must draw those who would follow Him. The character of the Messiah had long been foretold in prophecy, and He desired men to accept Him upon the testimony of the word of God.
With amazement the heavenly messengers beheld the indifference of the people whom God had called to communicate to the world the light of sacred truth. The Jewish nation had been preserved as a witness that Christ was to be born of the seed of Abraham and of David’s line; yet they knew not that His coming was now at hand. In the temple the morning and the evening sacrifice daily pointed to the Lamb of God; yet even here was no preparation to receive Him. The priests and teachers of the nation knew not that the greatest event of the ages was about to take place. They rehearsed their meaningless prayers, and performed the rites of worship to be seen by men, but in their strife for riches and worldly honor they were not prepared for the revelation of the Messiah. The same indifference pervaded in our world today. Hearts selfish and world-engrossed were untouched by the joy that thrilled all heaven.
In Psalms 23: we read these words
1: The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2: He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3: He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
4: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5: Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6: Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
“I am the Good Shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” “I am the Good Shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine. As the Father knoweth Me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down My life for the sheep.”
Again Jesus found access to the minds of His hearers by the pathway of their familiar associations. He had likened the Spirit’s influence to the cool, refreshing water. He had represented Himself as the light, the source of life and gladness to nature and to man. Now in a beautiful pastoral picture He represents His relation to those that believe on Him. No picture was more familiar to His hearers than this, and Christ’s words linked it forever with Himself. Never could the disciples look on the shepherds tending their flocks without recalling the Saviour’s lesson. They would see Christ in each faithful shepherd. They would see themselves in each helpless and dependent flock.
This figure the prophet Isaiah had applied to the Messiah’s mission, in the comforting words, “O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! . . . He shall feed His flock like a shepherd: He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom.” Isa. 40:11. David had sung, “The Lord is my shepherd; He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young
And the Holy Spirit through Ezekiel had declared: “I will set up one Shepherd over them, and He shall feed them.” “I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick.” “And I will make with them a covenant of peace.” “And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen; . . . but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid.” Ezek. 34:23, 16, 25, 28
Christ applied these prophecies to Himself, and He showed the contrast between His own character and that of the leaders in Israel. The Pharisees had just driven one from the fold, because he dared to bear witness to the power of Christ. They had cut off a soul whom the True Shepherd was drawing to Himself. In this they had shown themselves ignorant of the work committed to them, and unworthy of their trust as shepherds of the flock. Jesus now set before them the contrast between them and the Good Shepherd, and He pointed to Himself as the real keeper of the Lord’s flock.
We are the sheep of His pasture and God has called us to attend His flock and to lead them by His example. We are to do this by doing the things that He did and speaking the words that He spoke.
John:10:14: I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.
The life of every Father on earth is to be the leaded the priest of his family, we are to show our children the reflection of Christ living in us. We are to be to our Wife, family and others living around us a reflection of the good shepherd. We must follow His example we must study and read everyday and apply to our life the things we learn about being a true shepherd so that when the world sees us they see only the reflection of the Christ living in us.
Jesus gave us two great commandments to live by
Mark 12
29: And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
30: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
This commandment takes in the first 4 of the Ten Commandments, Mans duty to his creator
31: And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
This Commandment takes in the last 6 of the Ten Commandments Mans duty to his brother.
What a letter of love that God has giving to man that we might know the love of the Father through His Son Jesus.
I can only pray that my wife, my children and my grandchildren see only the reflection of the Christ living in me. Salvation is a free gift to all who by faith will except it, but it was not free to God’s Son Jesus he paid the price for our sins by His death. What a beautiful story about Love, how can anyone reject pure love so freely giving is a mystery to the heavenly host.
John 3:16: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Friend I hope and pray that you find in Jesus the love that God has giving for this world salvation. John: 15:13: Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. That is just what Jesus did, he dies to give you life, He took your sins upon Himself because He loved you with a Godly love.
There are many people that we meet each day in our world and you can always tell the ones that live with Jesus in there hearts. Just look for the reflection of His life in them.
God Bless and may your life also be a reflection of Christ living inside of you.
Elder Tim McNab
Truth about God!
We live in a world that is up side down, everything that was once right is now wrong and everything that was wrong is now right. We live in a world that you have to watch what you say because you need to be politically correct or you might offend someone. A would where people want to do as they please, watch what they want, eat what they feel like go where they please and in the end go to heaven. Never do they for once give thought about God until something bad happens in there life then they all want to blame God for it.
What is wrong with out world today where did we go off track, what happened to a Country that was founded on the very principal of God truth to believe that there is no God? How did we get from blessed to this moral decay; did you even wonder where did we go wrong.
Maybe just maybe we can find the Truth about all this in the Word of God in the book call the Bible
The Bible says in the beginning God! If the Bible said nothing else that would be enough, in the beginning God created, let’s read Genesis 1.
Genesis 1:
1: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2: And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Please understand the Bible is a small book, if it contained every detail of every act of God there would not be a library big enough to contain the material written about God. So we have only to go by what we do have.
The Bible says that the Earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. The Earth was probably here many, many millions of years before God started His wonderful work of creation upon it. As we view out into our solar systems today we can see many of worlds in the very form of being made. God created this process Billions of year’s before God ever decided to create man. When He was ready to create this world He just took one of the planets and moved it to where He wanted it and started His wonderful act of creation.
Once God was finished creating everything else it was time for His crowning act of creation. Genesis 1
26: And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28: And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Here we have the answer to man age old question, where did we come from, and how did we get here. God created us and created us in His very image and in His likeness that is why Man is different from all the other living created things. We were created by God to look like Him so we could communicate to God and show our love to God for what He has done for us.
We were made perfect direct from His hands of God.
Gen:2:7: And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Here we are told that God breathed into mans nostrils and he man became a living soul. We are a living soul of flesh and blood.
Gen:1:31: And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Gen 2:
1: Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
God finished His wonderful work of creating our World, and in it He put everything we needed to stay healthy and happy. There was no sickness, no pain, no suffering, no dieses, and no death, for all good came direct from the hand of our creator.
Gen 2:
3: And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
Here God blessed and sanctified or made holy a day, only one day, the day that came at the end of the other six days He blessed the Seventh day.
So what happened where did God go wrong, everything He did was perfect, how did we go from perfect to bad.
God gave to man the freedom of choice the same that God gives to all His living created beings, the freedom to choose to Obey and love Him God or not to Obey Him. So God put in the mist of the garden one tree, only one tree and told our first parent that everything He created was there to keep them happy and live forever. The only thing he asked is that they not eat of this one tree, why because it was there test, one simple test of obeying His commandments, and showing there love for Him. If they passed they would live forever but if they failed, well we know the rest of this story.
Gen:2:17: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Our first parents were warned about Lucifer the falling angle, they were told to be carful and not to depart from each other, but stay together. One day Eve busy in the day’s activity found herself alone and by the forbidden tree, and when she looked there was a serpent in it, how sneaky that Satan would take the form of a snake to disguise himself from what he really was.
Gen 3:
4: And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
6: And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
How crafty the old serpent, he told them just the opposed of what God said. God said you Will Surely Die the day you eat of this tree, and serpent said you Will not Surely Die, what; not surely die. Here our first parents sinned because they disbelieved what God told them and the curse of death came upon all that would live after them.
Ezek:18:4: Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.
Man does not have a living soul man is a living soul; remember man became a living soul. And God said that all souls are His they belong to Him because they came from Him, it was the breath of God in the dust of the Earth that made us into living souls. And God said that if we sin we shall die, we shall not continue to live in this world or in the spirit world, we Shall DIE, that is God’s word not Satan or mans word.
So what is death, it is creation is reverse, when we Die we do not go on living in some other spirit world in Heaven or Hell or some where in between as it is said by many of the Great World Religions today. They are telling the same lie that Satan told to our first parents back in the beginning. Our first parents believed it and so do they, that is why we are in this mess in the first place, no one believes what God said.
Eccl:12:7: Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
So the dust that God created man from returns to the ground from where it was taking, and the spirit or breath of God goes back to God who gave it. No where does it say we go on living, take a look with me to the book of First Corinthians.
First Corinthians: 15
51: Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
Here Paul is telling us that he is going to show us a mystery, what is that mystery it is about Death. He says we shall not all SLEEP, or die, and we who have believed will be changed.
52: In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
53: For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
What! This is not what the Big Religious Leaders and Churches are teaching, they are teaching when you die you go some place else, you keep living. But that is not what Paul is saying here. At the last Trumpet and the DEAD who had put there faith in the hands of Jesus will be raised from the dust of the Earth and will put on immortality. Right now man is Mortal that means that Man can Die, when Man puts on immortality that will mean that Man will no longer Die. Are you starting to see how Satan works, the same lie he told Eve is being is being taught by the Great World Religions today. Wow what a great Lie people still believe it today 6000 year later.
54: So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
55: O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
All God ever wanted was a people who believed in Him and what He said, a people who would keep His commandments and not mans. God does and will always have true believers, but they are not the majority they are the few the very few.
Look at what Paul has to say about this in the book of First Thessalonians 4:
13: 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.
Paul like Jesus called death a sleep, we sleep and we no nothing; until we who put our faith in God hear His voice coming for us who by Faith believed in Him.
14: For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
Here Paul is telling us, all that sleep in Jesus, God will bring with him. Remember the breath or Spirit went back to God at death, so He brings the spirit or breathe of that person with Him to united back with the dust of the earth, so that Man can become a Living Soul again. But this time when he unites us back with Dust & Spirit we will be changed. No longer will we be Mortal when we change we will then become immortal accordance to the Scriptures.
15: 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.
Here again Paul is saying we that are alive shall not go into heaven before the ones who are asleep
16: 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:
17: 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.
18: Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
We must learn to walk by Faith in Gods word not by what we see or what the world tells us. There are many of so called good men preaching the word of God, but are they really preaching the word of God or that of Satan. Are they preaching what God said or what they were taught to say by man that God said.
Look at Isaiah 8:
20: To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
If they are not preaching what is in the Bible and what God said in His word they are not preaching the truth, they are preaching the same lies that Satan told to our first parents.
Everything in our world is up side down all because people want it there way and not Gods way. They all want the best part of what God has to give but they want it at there convenes.
We cannot go by the world’s standards of God truth, or by people who tell us they are his representative. Look at them and see if they are following what the Bible says and preaching what the Bible tells. If so then they are preaching Gods word if not then they are faults teachers and representatives of Satan and his lies.
Look also at the day God blessed and made Holy.
Remember our walk with God is about a walk Faith, believing in what God said and not man. If we are to faithfully serve God then we need to be doing what God said to do, correct.
Look back again at Gen 2:
3: And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
Now look at Exodus: 20
8: Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
What day is God saying to remember and why is this the only commandment that is telling us to remember something that God did. Why because back in creation God did something and He wants to make sure we do accordance to His word. Let’s take a look at the rest of the commandments.
9: Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
God has giving man six day with in to do all his labor, and God knew that man needed a day of rest.
10: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
Here again we hear God saying the seventh day, we are told to remember the seventh day, why because back in the beginning God blessed it and made it holy.
11: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
God wants us to be happy even in this world of sin; God wants us to remember Him and what He did at creation for all Mankind. It was not His desire that sin should come into this world, that was mans choice.
Now go back with me to Genesis there is something very importance we must look at.
Look at Genesis 3:
14: And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
15: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
God here is giving us a promise but of who is He talking about, who is her seed that it is said of; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Thy seed “Satan” and her seed “Jesus”; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
As it was written God would send His Son Jesus, it would be Jesus to bruise the head of Satan and to take back the World that Satan stole away from our first parents by deception.
I was raised in the Catholic Church, I went to a CatholicSchool, I was a alter boy and had the desire to become a Catholic Priest. But one day God lead me in a different direction.
One day I had my Mother come stay with me for a few weeks just before she died, she did not like the fact that I left the Catholic Church and that I did not become a priest but she excepted it for what it was, I was still her Son. One day while we were talking about God. She told me that my problem was that I never learned to Love the Church like she did; and I said yes I know I learned to Love Jesus more then the Church or anything else in this world. She was silent for a while and I said to myself oh no what did I do now. Then she said to me, you know I think you are right, I said what, what do you mean I am right. She said the Sabbath I believe the Sabbath is Gods true day of rest.
Wow that really blew me away to hear my Mother say that, if ever there was a good Christian Woman she was it.
Turn with me one more time to the book of Revelation 14:
6: And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
What is the Everlasting Gospel? The word Gospel means the Good News. So here is an angle saying that he has the everlasting Good news to tell to everyone on the Earth. And what is that he is proclaiming that is the everlasting Good News, look at Verse 7
7: Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
The angle is saying Fear God and Give glory to Him, because the hour of Gods Judgment is come. Then the angle is saying something very importance, the angle is saying Worship Him who made the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. When was this all done, let’s go one more time to the book of Genesis 1: 1: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. God is the creator of all things, He was the one who made the heavens, the earth, the fountains water. The Angle that has the everlasting Gospel is pointing us back to the God of creation.
Now just one more thing Go to the Book of Exodus 20: and read the 4th commandment and notes verse 11
8: Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9: Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Verse 11 of Exodus sounds exactly like Revelation14: 7 Worship the creator God and then do what Remember, Remember what God told us to do. Worship Him on the day that He said to Remember and worship Him on, the Sabbath the seventh day of the week.
What did Jesus say to do in John 14::15: If ye love me, keep my commandments.
It was Jesus who gave to Moses the Ten Commandments and it was Jesus telling us if we love him to keep His commandments, why to show that we love Him. This is the Truth about God, this is the everlasting Gospel, the good news that the angle is telling the world
We don’t keep His Commandment to be saved we keep Him Commandments because we are saved, because we Love Him who died and took our place to give us eternal life.
Don’t be fooled by the deceptions of Satan and his false teaching and false day of worship, like he told Eve you will not surely die.
The Truth about God is that He loves us and wants us to be with Him forever and He gave us His truth to go by. All he asks is one thing, one simple little thing, that we Obey Him and do what He told us to do and believe what he has told us.
The truth about Satan is that he will deceive you no matter what it takes, because he hates Jesus. Satan knows that the only way he can hurt Jesus is by keeping you out of God kingdom. And he will do what ever its take to separate you and Jesus, no lie is too big a lie, no deception is too big a deception that he will not do just to hurt Jesus.
John 3:
16: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17: For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
Satan does not want you saved, so stop believing in man made salvation and come to know the Truth about God.
1John:4: 4: Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
May the God of out Fathers who have believed and put there faith and there lived into God hands be upon you in Jesus name Amen
Elder Tim McNab
Restoring Gods Truth Ministries
The Truth and Nothing but the Truth
To Tell the Truth was an American TV panel game show back in the 1950 era
The show features a panel of four celebrities attempting to correctly identify a described contestant who has an unusual occupation or experience. This true character is accompanied by two impostors (Fakes) who pretend to be the true character. The celebrity panelists question the three contestants; the impostors are allowed to lie but the true character is sworn “to tell the truth”. After questioning, the panel attempts to identify which of the three challengers is telling the truth and is thus the true character.
Three challengers are introduced, all claiming to be the true character. The announcer typically asks the challengers, who stand side by side, “What is your name, please?” Each challenger then states, “My name is [true character’s name].” The celebrity panelists then read along as the host reads aloud a signed affidavit about the true character.
The panelists are each given a period of time to question the challengers. Questions are directed to the challengers by number (Number One, Number Two and Number Three), with the true character sworn to give truthful answers, and the impostors permitted to lie, deceived and pretend to be the true character.
After questioning is complete, each member of the panel votes on which of the challengers they believe to be the true character, either by writing the number on a card or holding up a card with the number of their choice, without consulting the other panelists.
Once the votes are cast, the host asks, “Will the real True person please stand up?”
Life is not a game it’s for real, and being able to tell what is the truth from what is not the truth can be the difference between life and eternal death. So today we are going to find out what Truth is and what it is not.
Let us Pray!
__________________________________________________________________
What is Truth?
Many people have asked this one single simple question. In our world today it is hard to find the answer to what truth is, why because everyone says they are telling the truth. The Bible says there is a way that seams right unto a man, let’s read it
Prov:14:
12: There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
It is simply saying you can think you are Right you can think you have the Truth you can keep telling yourself it long enough that you will start to believe it. But what does it say will happen but the end thereof are the ways of death.
You see apart from God everything is nothing more then a Lie.
Remember Gods Truth is 100% Truth, Satan also uses Truth but he mixes it with a little Lie. So if something is not 100% pure Truth then it is a Lie no matter how much Truth is in it.
When Jesus came why did he not pick the Religious leaders of his day? Why did he pick simple men and at that Fishermen and Tax collectors to be his disciples.
The Religious leaders of Jesus time were the men entrusted with keeping the Truth, the Holy Scriptures, the Canon or Torah as it was called. They were the men who studied the Holy word of God day in and day out, they knew it back to front, page by page. They could repeat entire books of the Bible from memory.
So why did Jesus not pick any of these Truth keeper. Maybe because they were so well educated he could not teach them anything, because they had formed there own opinion. After all they had the Scriptures right there in front of them right, so how did they miss the Birth of Gods Son, maybe he did not come the way they thought he would. Did they miss reading this in the scriptures or did they just misunderstand what the scriptures said.
I find that is the same with many of the great Religious leaders today, they have there own opinion there own belief there own teaching of what the Bible says.
Mark:7:7: Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
How is it that the Religious leaders today teach the doctrines of thereChurch over what the plane Truth of what the Bible says?
Look at how the Bible describes the Religious leaders in Jesus time. Rich, well dressed, well educated, living in the move eloquent homes, and I am sure they road in the best cart and pulled by the best donkeys of the day.
Today our Religious leaders are just about the same, rich, well dressed, well educated, living in the move eloquent homes, and drive the best Cars made.
Now think, how did Jesus and His disciples live, how did they travel, what did they ware,
Lets Look at Matthew 2:
1: Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,
2: Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.
3: When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
4: And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.
5: And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet,
6: And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.
So the Religious leaders knew that Christ, the one who for 1400 years had been prophesies of coming to save them, was finally born, but they did nothing. Wow the Son of God born in a little town like Bethlehem and no one who was entrusted with keeping the Truth and telling others was there.
What happened how could they miss something as important as the birth of the Son of God. Easy He did not come the way they believe he should come, they were teaching something different, they were teaching the commandments of men.
What does the Bible say Truth is?
John:17:
17: Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
So the only real Truth is Gods Word
What did we just say was Truth; God Word right, lets Look at John 1:
1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2: The same was in the beginning with God.
3: All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4: In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
5: And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
Truth is that God loved His creation so much that even after he knew how we would treat Him, even after he knew we would spit in His face, and nailed Him to a Cross. He still decided to come and die in our place. Why to save us, what love God has for all who believe in him.
10: He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
11: He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
12: 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:
13: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
14: 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.
Satan can take away your health, he can take away your seeing your hearing your eating your ability to walk and feel well. He can take away everything; except he can’t take away the Truth of God word, because it is Gods character and like him it is Holy because God is holy.
Romans 8:
35: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36: As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
37: Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
38: For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39: Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
To tell you the truth I am not a Theologian I am not one of the great school learned scholars of the Bible. The truth is I am only a simple man with a simple faith, kind of like the disciples in Jesus day a simple fisherman.
It has been right at 2000 years ago that our savoir came and died for all of us. He left a massage of Love and how we should treat others. People who followed Jesus were called Christians why because they followed His teaching and they acted just like Jesus, so they were called Christ Like people.
Acts:11:26: And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.
When we look back at History we see people who called themselves Christians being anything but Christ Like. We see a legacy of killing in the Church all because someone would not go along with the traditions the Church was teaching. Because someone wanted to believe what the Bible said over what the Church said.
Why because anytime the Church is backed by the State and laws are made to enforce the Churches teaching you will find persecution. The Bible said that a time is coming
John: 16: 2: They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.
The scriptures here are talking about people, leaders in the Church. The ones who clam they have the truth, putting others out of the Church and putting them to death because they refused to accept anything but the Bible Gods words as Truth.
Matthew:24:9: Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.
If the so called Religious leaders would just humble themselves to the Word of God and study the Bible from Genesis to Revaluation and do as the Bible says to do in Isaiah:28:
10: For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
They would all come away with only one Truth and that is Gods Truth not mans
But God knows there heart, He knows that many will never come to know the truth just like the Religious leaders in his day, He could teach them nothing.
Matthew: 7:
21: Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22: Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23: And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
I never knew you, how sad. The Great men of our world the men that many people trusted to hold the Truth dear but were nothing more then fakes. Many people will be lost with them all because they too never took the time to let the Bible intrepid itself. It was too easy to just put that responsibility in the hands of Pastors or Priest so we could feel good and do what we wanted to do. I never knew you Jesus will say to them
Look at what Paul said would happen to the Church after he was gone. That men will rise up he called them grievous wolves, why because they would not care for the Church nor would they teach the Truth.
Acts:20:
29: For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
30: Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
Today people don’t go to Church for the Truth, they go to get a feeling, and if they don’t like the feeling they get in one Church they look for another. Truth has nothing to do with it; they are looking for a Church of convenience one that fits there life style not God.
People I tell you if we are to find what the Truth is then we need to look to and only look to Gods Holy Word, for it will never lie.
First look at Isaiah: 8:
20: To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
If what you believe, what you think, or what you hear from you Pastor, does not agree with what the Bible is teaching from cover to cover then it is a lie it is not the Truth. Truth is 100% anything less then 100% even if it is 99.9% truth and just .01% Lie, it is a Lie.
Look at Jesus own words in the book of Matthew Chapter 5:
Mt:5:17: Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
Mt:5:18: For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. He is not talking about laws made by man but the Ten Commandment law giving by God and wrote with his own finger on stone.
Lk:16:17: And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.
Gods Law is his character when you talk about His law you are talking about God. The only part of the Bible that God did not let man write was His Ten Commandments; God did that with his own finger, and right there on the 4th commandment God said Remember, Remember my Sabbath day. But the Religious leaders today are saying don’t worry it is OK to forget what God said to Remember and wrote with his own finger. We are all New Testament Christians and we keep Sunday because Jesus rose up from the grave on Sunday. The only problem with that is that no where in Gods word Old or New Testament does it say God changed his day of Worship. Sunday is an old pagan day of Worship the day the pagans worship the Sun God, not Jesus.
Look at what Jesus was telling the Religious leaders in John:7:19: Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me?
The Religious leaders got so far away from how to keep the true Sabbath that when Jesus who gave them the Sabbath came they wanted to kill him for not keeping it there way. The same is today we have again gotten so far away from the Truth of Gods Holy Word that this time as the Bible predicts the Religious leaders will make a law to Kill all who keep the Truth of Gods Holy Word in place of there false day of Worship.
Rv:12:17: And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
This is not non Church people here this is the Church ran by Satan killing God true worshipers who keep the commandments of God and not man. The same way Satan used the Religious leaders to kill Jesus he will again use the Religious leaders to put to death Gods people.
Rv:14:12: Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
If you are in a big Church organization today I suggest you find out what the word remnant means. It does not means Big is means Small there will be at the end only a small group of people who keep the Truth of Gods Holy word and obey His Commandments, his Ten Commandments not his nine Commandments plus Sunday.
Don’t be mislead by the so called Religious leaders of today and don’t be mislead thinking because you are in a big Church you are safe. The truth my friend is not popular, tell someone the truth and they will not believe you, tell them a lie and they will take it to the bank.
The Bible tells us that God true Church is not the large multitudes of people, they are the few. Today people want God in there lives but at there convenience and at a time when they can fit him in. The problem with that is God doesn’t work that way. God has giving man a day, a special day, a holy day, a day that God said I will be there with you. Why is that day holy, what makes it holy look at Exodus 3: 5: And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.
It is holy because God is there on the Sabbath day with His true Church, His true people who worship Him on the day he said to come and worship.
Remember John 1:
1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Jesus is God, Jesus was the one who gave us his Sabbath, he was the one who wrote it on stone with his own finger and said he came not to change Gods law but to fulfill Gods law.
If you want to do something to remember Jesus, do what he told you to do to remember Him. Luke:22:
19: And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Nothing about Sunday there.
Have you ever read this scripture in the Bible in the Old Testament, take a look at it. Isaiah 66:
22: For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain.
23: And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD.
This is a prophecy of Isaiah that has not yet come true, why because God has not yet created the new heaven and the new Earth.
Now read Genesis 2:
1: Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
2: And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
3: And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
If in the beginning God blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy and in the End when he recreates the Earth new we will all again come to Worship him on the Sabbath day. So if in the beginning we worshiped on the Sabbath and in the Earth made new we will be worshipping on the Sabbath. What day should we be worshipping on now Saturday the Sabbath or Sunday?
And if Saturday the Sabbath is Gods true day of worship, who are you truly worshiping on Sunday the day of the Sun-God. Look at Daniel 7::25: And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
People the most High is God, and God is telling us that in the end times (the days we live in) this false Church these false Religious leaders will lead the multitudes away from Gods Truth. To the point they will wear out the saints (Kill), and they will think to change Time and Law. Who’s Time, Who’s Law, Gods Time his Sabbath, Gods Law his Ten Commandments.
Remember there is no sitting on the fence, if you are not on Gods side you are on Satan’s side you cannot server God and serve Man
Lk:16:13: No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
What day was Jesus Disciples in Church teaching look at Act 13:
42: And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath.
43: Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.
44: And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.
Acts:17:2: And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures,
Acts:18:4: And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.
The Disciples were not teaching that Sabbath was now Sunday they were teaching on the Sabbath long after the Crucifixion same as they were while Jesus was here on the earth.
Look at what the Matthew Henry’s Commentary said about the Sabbath: “The form of the fourth commandment, Remember, shows that it was not now first given, but was known by the people before”.
Here also Jamieson-Fausset-Brown said: “Remember the sabbath day—implying it was already known, and recognized as a season of sacred rest. The first four commandments [Ex 20:3-11] comprise our duties to God—the other six [Ex 20:12-17] our duties to our fellow men; and as interpreted by Christ, they reach to the government of the heart as well as the lip”
Look at how decepting Satan will be, the Bible said in Revelation 16 that in the end times devils will be performing miracles in order to deceive people into believing it is the Spirit of God.
Revelation 16: 14: For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
How will you know the different how will you know the Truth. Read Isaiah:8:20: To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
You can’t go by someone working miracles because they could be doing miracles with the spirit of devils. I have had Cancer in my life and I live everyday in pain and suffering from the terrible side affect from all the treatment. I prayed many of times for God to heal me but he has not. I had people tell me they know of a Spirit healer who can cure me. A Spirit healer, who’s Spirit I question, I would rather be slayed by a God who loved me then to be healed by a Devil that hates me. Beware of Religious leaders and people who clime they heal in the name of Jesus by slapping you on the head backwards.
What does the Bible say Truth is John:17:17: Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. If it is not in the Bible and does not agree with the Bible from Genesis to Revelations it is because there is no truth in it.
There is no excuse to not know the Truth of Gods Word, like I said before I am only a simple fisherman I am not one of the learned Religious leaders of our day. I praise God that in my simple mind and simple faith, I read his Truth the way his Holy Spirit teaches it and not man.
If nothing else please remember this !
In the garden God Himself said to Man:
Genesis 2:
17: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Satan in the form of a snake said.
Genesis 3:
4: And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
It was all about one thing who is telling the Truth.
In our time again God said Remember My Sabbath Day and keep it holy.
Genesis 20:
8: Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Satan again in the form of some of the worlds top Religious Leaders is saying it is OK to forget what God said.
Who do you believe is telling the Truth
Remember Gods Truth is 100% all Truth, Satan also uses Truth but he mixes it with a little Lie. So if something is not 100% pure Truth then it is a Lie no matter how much Truth is in it.
Read the Bible you don’t need some Religious leaders to explain it to you. Just pray asking God to let his Holy Spirit come and lead you into all Truth. What is Truth, Gods Holy Word is Truth, the Truth and nothing but the Truth.
God Bless you as you seek to know and understand the Truth of God Word.
Elder Tim McNab
Restoring Gods Truth Ministries
The Gift
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
CHRISTMAS STORY: Pa never had much compassion for the lazy or those who squandered their means and then never had enough for the necessities. But for those who were genuinely in need, his heart was as big as all outdoors. It was from him that I learned the greatest joy in life comes from giving, not from receiving.
It was Christmas Eve 1881. I was fifteen years old and feeling like the world had caved in on me because there just hadn’t been enough money to buy me the rifle that I’d wanted so bad that year for Christmas.
We did the chores early that night for some reason. I just figured Pa wanted a little extra time so we could read in the Bible. So after supper was over I took my boots off and stretched out in front of the fireplace and waited for Pa to get down the old Bible. I was still feeling sorry for myself and, to be honest, I wasn’t in much of a mood to read scriptures.
But Pa didn’t get the Bible; instead he bundled up and went outside. I couldn’t figure it out because we had already done all the chores. I didn’t worry about it long though; I was too busy wallowing in self-pity.
Soon Pa came back in. It was a cold clear night out and there was ice in his beard. “Come on, Matt,” he said. “Bundle up good, it’s cold out tonight.” I was really upset then. Not only wasn’t I getting the rifle for Christmas, now Pa was dragging me out in the cold, and for no earthly reason that I could see.
We’d already done all the chores, and I couldn’t think of anything else that needed doing, especially not on a night like this. But I knew Pa was not very patient at one dragging one’s feet when he’d told them to do something, so I got up and put my boots back on and got my cap, coat, and mittens. Ma gave me a mysterious smile as I opened the door to leave the house. Something was up, but I didn’t know what.
Outside, I became even more dismayed. There in front of the house was the work team, already hitched to the big sled. Whatever it was we were going to do wasn’t going to be a short, quick, little job. I could tell. We never hitched up the big sled unless we were going to haul a big load.
Pa was already up on the seat, reins in hand. I reluctantly climbed up beside him. The cold was already biting at me. I wasn’t happy. When I was on, Pa pulled the sled around the house and stopped in front of the woodshed. He got off and I followed. “I think we’ll put on the high sideboards,” he said. “Here, help me.” The high sideboards! It had been a bigger job than I wanted to do with just the low sideboards on, but whatever it was we were going to do would be a lot bigger with the high sideboards on.
When we had exchanged the sideboards Pa went into the woodshed and came out with an armload of wood—the wood I’d spent all summer hauling down from the mountain, and then all fall sawing into blocks and splitting. What was he doing? Finally I said something. “Pa,” I asked, “what are you doing?” ”
You been by the Widow Jensen’s lately?” he asked. The Widow Jensen lived about two miles down the road. Her husband had died a year or so before and left her with three children, the oldest being eight.
Sure, I’d been by, but so what? “Yeah,” I said, “why?”
“I rode by just today,” Pa said. “Little Jakey was out digging around in the woodpile trying to find a few chips. They’re out of wood, Matt.” That was all he said and then he turned and went back into the woodshed for another armload of wood. I followed him.
We loaded the sled so high that I began to wonder if the horses would be able to pull it. Finally, Pa called a halt to our loading, then we went to the smoke house and Pa took down a hold side of a Deer and a fewTurkeys. He handed them to me and told me to put them in the sled and wait. When he returned he was carrying a sack of flour over his right shoulder and a smaller sack of something in his left hand.
“What’s in the little sack?” I asked.
“Shoes. They’re out of shoes. Little Jakey just had gunny sacks wrapped around his feet when he was out in the wood-pile this morning.
I got the children a little candy too. It just wouldn’t be Christmas without a little candy.”
We rode the two miles to Widow Jensen’s pretty much in silence. I tried to think through what Pa was doing. We didn’t have much by worldly standards. Of course, we did have a big woodpile, though most of what was left now was still in the form of logs that I would have to cut.
So why was Pa buying them shoes and candy? Really, why was he doing any of this? Widow Jensen had closer neighbors than us. It shouldn’t have been our concern.
We came in from the blind side of the Jensen house and unloaded the wood as quietly as possible, then we took the meat and flour and shoes to the door.
We knocked. The door opened a crack and a timid voice said, “Who is it?”
“Lucas Miles, Ma’am, and my son, Matt. Could we come in for a bit?”
Widow Jensen opened the door and let us in. She had a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. The children were wrapped in another and were sitting in front of the fireplace by a very small fire that hardly gave off any heat at all.
Widow Jensen fumbled with a match and finally lit the lamp. “We brought you a few things, Ma’am,” Pa said and set down the sack of flour. I put the meat on the table. Then Pa handed her the sack that had the shoes in it. She opened it hesitantly and took the shoes out on e pair at a time. There was a pair for her and one for each of the children—sturdy shoes, the best, shoes that would last.
I watched her carefully. She bit her lower lip to keep it from trembling and then tears filled her eyes and started running down her cheeks. She looked up at Pa like she wanted to say something, but it wouldn’t come out.
“We brought a load of wood too, Ma’am,” Pa said, then he turned to me and said, “Matt, go bring enough in to last for awhile. Let’s get that fire up to size and heat this place up.”
I wasn’t the same person when I went back out to bring in the wood. I had a big lump in my throat and, much as I hate to admit it, there were tears in my eyes too.
In my mind I kept seeing those three kids huddled around the fireplace and their mother standing there with tears running down her cheeks and so much gratitude in her heart that she couldn’t speak. My heart swelled within me and a joy filled my soul that I’d never known before. I had given at Christmas many times before, but never when it had made so much difference.
I could see we were literally saving the lives of these people. I soon had the fire blazing and everyone’s spirits soared. The kids started giggling when Pa handed them each a piece of candy and Widow Jensen looked on with a smile that probably hadn’t crossed her face for a long time. She finally turned to us. “God bless you,” she said. “I know the Lord himself has sent you. The children and I have been praying that he would send one of his angels to spare us.”
In spite of myself, the lump returned to my throat and the tears welled up in my eyes again. I’d never thought of Pa in those exact terms before, but after Widow Jensen mentioned it I could see that it was probably true. I was sure that a better man than Pa had never walked the earth. I started remembering all the times he had gone out of his way for Ma and me, and many others. The list seemed endless as I thought on it.
Pa insisted that everyone try on the shoes before we left. I was amazed when they all fit and I wondered how he had known what sizes to get. Then I guessed that if he was on an errand for the Lord that the Lord would make sure he got the right sizes.
Tears were running down Widow Jensen’s face again when we stood up to leave. Pa took each of the kids in his big arms and gave them a hug. They clung to him and didn’t want us to go. I could see that they missed their pa, and I was glad that I still had mine.
At the door Pa turned to Widow Jensen and said, “The Mrs. wanted me to invite you and the children over for Christmas dinner tomorrow. The turkey will be more than the three of us can eat, and a man can get cantankerous if he has to eat turkey for too many meals. We’ll be by to get you about eleven. It’ll be nice to have some little ones around again.
Brother Miles. I don’t have to say, “‘May the Lord bless you,’ I know for certain that He will.”
Out on the sled I felt a warmth that came from deep within and I didn’t even notice the cold. When we had gone a ways, Pa turned to me and said, “Matt, I want you to know something. Your ma and me have been tucking a little money away here and there all year so we could buy that rifle for you, but we didn’t have quite enough. Then yesterday a man who owed me a little money from years back came by to make things square. Your ma and me were real excited, thinking that now we could get you that rifle, and I started into town this morning to do just that. But on the way I saw little Jakey out scratching in the woodpile with his feet wrapped in those gunny sacks and I knew what I had to do. So, Son, I spent the money for shoes and a little candy for those children. I hope you understand.”
I understood, and my eyes became wet with tears again. I understood very well, and I was so glad Pa had done it. Just then the rifle seemed very low on my list of priorities. Pa had given me a lot more. He had given me the look on Widow Jensen’s face and the radiant smiles of her three children.
For the rest of my life, whenever I saw any of the Jensens, or split a block of wood, I remembered, and remembering brought back that same joy I felt riding home beside Pa that night. Pa had given me much more than a rifle that night, he had given me the best Christmas of my life. Count your blessings everyday, slowly and thoughtfully.
Let us Pray!
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When I was a kid, we enjoyed the Christmas time because it was wend we got everything we wore out that year.
So for the Christmas we got a pair of new; or sometime not so new hand me down shoes. We got new clothing and sometimes that too belonged to your older brother or sister the year before.
And last but not lease we got a Toy, oh yes a toy. Christmas was also a time of year we could eat as much as we wanted.
Why because Mom always cooked the biggest Turkey she could find, but the problem was we just got finished eating turkey sandwiches from Thanksgiving and now you got another month of eating it again.
Somehow Mom made Turkey in so many ways it was always good to the last bite.
Mostly Christmas was a time of family coming together, sometime aunts and uncles who you did not know you had would come and visit and they always gave you a piece of money.
I can remember one Christmas more then any; it was the one we had nothing.
My Dad had a farm in Florida where we were living at that time and he had gone back to work on the Ships. So it was just my Mother and oldest step brother with all of us 6 kids left on the farm to keep it going till Dad came back home.
Sometimes he would go for 6 months some times up to a year we would not see him so money was hard to come-by at times. There was enough just no extra money for anything that year;
Mom had to make due with what she had. But you know somehow that was the best Christmas we had because I can still remember it and none of the others.
About two days before Christmas my oldest brother went out and cut down a pine tree that we set-up in the house. Then he had a bag full of pine cones, we ask what are then for, he said to have fun with and he got out some old paint. So that is what we did painted pine cones any colour we wanted and when they were dried we hung them on the tree.
Mom as normal got my brother to kill the biggest turkey we had on the farm and my brother managed to sell a few others to the city people who came looking. So there was plenty to eat and the extra money from selling Turkeys sue came in handy that year. That was always like Mom pulling a rabbit out of the hat again and we all got a Toy.
Christmas is a wonderful time of year. It is a time of giving, a time that we can visit family and friend that we might not have seen all year long. It is a time of getting back together and just remembering the past as we look forward to the future.
As in our Story many times our parents sacrificed and did with out in order to give to there Children things that they needed not things that they wanted.
God gives us things we need, things like forgiveness and eternal life.
- John 3:16: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
When we choose to disobey God, when we turned our back and walked away from his love? When we rejected him and all his goodness, He still does not gave up on loving us.
When we sin and chose to die in our blindness and stupidly, God sent His Son his only Son to die in our place so that he could give us life once again.
For God so loved the world,
That little Verse of Scripture says a lot. In the days of Creation we are told that after God had finish his act of creation he looked out and saw everything he had make
In the book of Genesis 1: 31: we are told, God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.
God did not just through us into a dead old world; every thing that came from the Master hand came with the best intensions.
God gave of the best that heaven could give in the creation of Mankind, in that we were created in the image of God. What an honour God places on Man to be made in the likens of his Creator
The Scripture goes on to say that he also gave his only begotten Son,
Not only did God love us but he had also planned ahead that in the event man would prove to be unfaithful, there would be hope for him.
Just how would this come about; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
The plan for our redemption was not an afterthought, a plan formulated after the fall of Adam.
It was a revelation of “the mystery which hath been kept in silence through eternality.” Rom. 16:25, R. V.
It was an unfolding of the principles that from eternal ages have been the foundation of God’s throne.
From the beginning, God the Father and Christ knew of the apostasy of Satan, and of the fall of man through the deceptive power of the apostate.
God did not ordain that sin should exist, but He foresaw its existence, and made provision to meet the terrible emergency head on.
So great was His love for this world, that He covenanted to give His only-begotten Son, “that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
This could not be done by force. The exercise of force is contrary to the principles of God’s government; He desires only the service of love.
For love cannot be commanded; it cannot be won by force or by authority.
Only by love is love awakened. To know God is to love Him; His character must be manifested in contrast to the character of Satan.
This work only one Being in all the universe could do. Only He who knew the height and depth of the love of God could make it known.
Upon the world’s dark night the Sun of Righteousness must rise, “with healing in his wings” (Mal. 4:2). {RC 23.3}
17: For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
To all who have accepted Christ as a personal Savoir, the Holy Spirit has come as a counsellor, sanctifier, guide, and a witness.
The more closely believers have walked with God, the more clearly and powerfully have they testified of their Redeemer’s love and of His saving grace.
Romans 8:
39: Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
In the beginning, God was revealed in all the works of his creation. It was Christ that spread the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth. It was His hand that hung the worlds in space, and fashioned the flowers of the field.
“His strength settled fast the mountains.” “The sea is His, and He made it.” Ps. 65:6; 95:5. It was He that filled the earth with beauty, and the air with song.
And upon all things in earth, air, and sky, He wrote the message of his Father’s love for Mankind.
So I ask you this Christmas before you open the first present. Take time and thank God for all the gifts he has giving you.
Take time to thank Jesus for taking your place on the cross and dyeing in your place in order to give you the gift of eternal life.
We did not have all the things that Kids have today, but the little we had we knew and understood the price of what it cost. And that was the sacrifice of our parents
Instead of toys this year just give to your Children something more, give them a box of Love and let them see in you the Gift of Gods forever Love.
There is an old song I remember that went something like this; Iam getting nothing for Christmas Mom and Dad are made, Iam getting nothing for Christmas cause I ant been nothing but bad.
Truth is we were all bad, but God loved us so much he gave us the greatest Gift Heaven could give. His Son Jesus
God Bless and have a very marry Christmas
Elder Tim McNab
It’s closer then you think
Scripture Mt: 24:14: And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
STORY: Harley the Pit Bull,
Anyone have a Dog? Anyone have a Pit-Bull?
Pit-Bulls are about the most loving Dogs in the world, they are just giving a Bad name by people who miss-use them. Well I have a Pit-Bull named Harley; she was dropped off on my door step by my Children and never picked up again, but she is a very loving dog so she stayed.
Now and then she will do some of the strangest things, like getting in my way under my legs so I can’t move with out knowing she is right there. Then all at once she will be gone, now where did that crazy dog go I would say. So I would look all over the house for her and can’t find her, what is going on I would think.
I would start looking under the beds and no Harley; well I would say I know she did not just disappear. So again I would start the search room by room and then at last I would check the Bathroom, and when I pulled the shower curtain there she is right in the bathtub. Oh I would say you want aBathbut then I would notice in her eyes something strange. As I reach down to pet her she would be trembling and her tale between her legs in fear.
What is wrong I would say but just about then I would hear it outside. Thunder out side, I would go and look and see dark clouds with thundering and lightning. Where did this come from it was Sunshine just a little while ago. Oh that’s it she could hear and feel that there was a storm coming and did her best to warn me to take shelter in the bathroom. When I would not go she had no choice but to leave me and go her self. I would think that is remarkable that Animals know when something like bad weather is about to happen long before we ever hear or see it.
Let us Pray!
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Did you know that right before a Hurricane or an Earthquake Animals will start to act strange as if they somehow know something bad is coming!
Why is this, it is something left over from Noah days.
Let’s take a look at what happened back then in Noah’s time.
God told Noah that the End of everything was coming, to build a really big boat.
The question is why?
Genesis 6:
12: And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
The Earth was Corrupt with Sin and God told Noah to warned the people that the end is coming. Noah preached for right at 120 years, and what happened no one believed him.
Only the Animals believed and when the time came they went into the Ark and were saved while the world outside perished.
In the book of Matthew Jesus himself is telling us something very importance for the time we live in.
Matthew 24:
37: But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38: For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
It is sad but the Bible is telling us that our World today is no different then it was back in Noah’s time
39: And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Most of the signs about Jesus return have all been fulfilled except for a few.
Matthew 24:
14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
What did Jesus mean by all this?
There is a time coming that people will not believe there eyes if it were told them, in fact it is told them and they still will not believe.
The end of Sin out of Gods kingdom is soon to be removed forever, never to rise again.
But listen to what Jesus is telling us about how people will feel about his coming.
2nd Peter 3:
3: Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
4: And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
Are there scoffers in these last days?. There always has been scoffers but they are getting worse.
They are scoffing at everything including the nearness of the coming of Jesus Christ. You have seen scoffers. They are everywhere and complain about anything, listen to just a few
- “Everything that can be invented has been invented. I recommend that we close the US Patent Office.”– this was the statement of the director of the US Patent Office to President of the United States in 1889.
- Thomas J. Watson Jr. of IBM predicted in 1958: “There is a world market for no more than about five computers. There’s no future in it.”
- In 1896, one magazine author wrote: “The vast majority of people would prefer a smooth running, reliable steam engine . . . to the evil smelling dangerous, wasteful, and at best uncertain and unreliable gasoline engine.”
- In 1900, a spokesman for the granddaddy of the Mercedes Benz Co. said: “There will probably be a mass market for about 1,000 automobiles, that’s about it. And after all, there is a limit to the number of Chauffeurs who could be found to drive them.” And during the next seven years Henry Ford sold millions of Model “T”s.
- In 1903, a preacher predicted, regarding air travel, “it’s good for God and angels and the birds…”. – -his name? Bishop Milton Wright, father of Orville and Wilbur Wright.
- In 1948, radio pioneer Mary Summerville predicted: “Television will not last. It is a flash in the pan.” Newspaper editor C.P. Scott agreed: “Television? No good will come of this devise. For one thing, the word itself is half Greek and half Latin. Is isn’t going to amount to a thing.”
- In December of 1989, West German politicians confided to David Hasselhoff that the Berlin Wall would still be in place long after their children and grandchildren had died. Two weeks later it came down!
Scoffers! I tell you there are an abounding number of scoffers in our world today, scoffing, even in the Church, “you will hear people saying Jesus coming is a long way off. Don’t worry about it, just be cool we are all going to be raptured
The last days are not far in the future my friend; and I believe the last days are here just around the corner.
Scoffers are saying: the ground under Los Angeles is solid. We aren’t expecting any earthquakes in our life-time. We still have time to eat, drink and be merry.
But God says in Luke 12:40, “You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect Him.”
I think there are going to be many, many disasters in the last days, just before the coming of Jesus.
One type of disaster will be in bad weather. Look at Psalm 50:3 (NLT) Our God approaches with the noise of thunder and a great storm rages around Him..
Lighting and thunder.
- When God came toMount Sinaithere was a storm. Remember?
- When He appeared to Elijah there was a great storm.
- And just before the second coming, I think we are going to have great storms.
“Natural disasters, Ellen G. White says in Counsels on Health, “will be more and more frequence and disastrous.”
Come over here to Revelation 7 in your Bible. The first verse talks about the wind.
Revelation 7:1 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree.
In the last 20 years or so we have seen some of most devastating hurricanes ever.
Do you remember names like Mitch, Frances, Andrew, Katrina, Rita, Lili, Charley, Ivan, Jeanne. Those aren’t names that people are very happy with.
Those are big named hurricanes. Some of them coming and splitting and turning around and coming back again. We have the weirdest stuff going on. I think that eventually the angels will let go of the four winds.
What do these winds represent? They represent trouble, strife, wars, and all kinds of problems in the last days.
STORY: . **** Galveston Hurricane Report of 1900 ****,
In Galveston on the rain-darkened and gusty morning of Saturday, September 8, 1900, newspaper readers saw, on page three of the local Daily News, an early-morning account of a tropical hurricane prowling the Gulf of Mexico.
On the previous day Galveston had been placed under a storm warning by the central office of the Weather Bureau (now the National Weather Service) in Washington, D.C.a one-column headline announced, “Storm in the Gulf.” Under that, a small subhead proclaimed, “Great Damage Reported onMississippi and Louisiana Coasts-Wires Down-Details Meagre.” The story, only one paragraph long, had been sent out ofNew Orleans at 12:45 A.M. that same day, but it added nothing to the information presented in the headlines. Additional details were unavailable “owing to the prostration of the wires.” Beneath theNew Orleans report appeared a brief local story: “At midnight the moon was shining brightly and the sky was not as threatening as earlier in the night. The weather bureau had no late advice as to the storm’s movements and it may be that the tropical disturbance has changed its course or spent its force before reachingTexas.”
This hurricane had been first observed on August 30 in the vicinity of 15° north latitude and 63° west longitude, about 125 miles northwest of Martinique, proceeding westward. Galvestonians had been aware of the storm since September 4, when it was reported moving northward overCuba. From the first, however, details had been sketchy because of poor communications. Ships at sea, where oncoming hurricanes built strength, had no way of telegraphing weather observations ashore, and other nineteenth-century technical shortcomings interfered.
Except for the rain and wind, Saturday began in the city of 38,000 inhabitants much the same as any other weekday. People prepared for another stint in the routine of six-day workweeks then common; not even an encroaching tide disturbed them greatly. Galvestonians had become used to occasional “overflows,” when high water swept beachfronts. Houses and stores were elevated as a safeguard.
The tide kept crashing farther inland, and the wind steadily increased. The Weather Bureau official in charge locally, Isaac M. Cline, drove a horse-drawn cart around low areas warning people to leave. Comparatively few people had evacuated the city, before bridges fromGalvestonIslandto the mainland fell, many of the people along the beach waited until it was too late to seek shelter in buildings downtown, away from the Gulf.
Houses near the beach began falling first. The storm lifted debris from one row of buildings and hurled it against the next row until eventually two-thirds of the city, then the fourth largest city inTexas, had been destroyed. People striving to make their way through wind and water to refuge were struck by hurtling bricks and lumber and flying slate from roofs. The greatest wind velocity registered before the anemometer blew away at 5:15 P.M. was an average of eighty-four miles an hour for a five-minute period, but gusts of 100 miles an hour had been recorded, and weathermen’s estimates later reached more than 120 miles an hour. About 6:30 P.M. a storm wave, sweeping ashore in advance of the hurricane’s vortex, caused a sudden rise of four feet in water depth, and shortly afterward the entire city was underwater to a maximum depth of fifteen feet. This storm wave caused much of the damage. The lowest barometer reading was 28.44, recorded shortly after 7:00 P.M. Around 10:00 P.M. the tide began to fall slowly, and little damage occurred after that.
September 9 dawned on desolation. Most of the city lay in shambles. Between 6,000 and 8,000 people in the city ofGalvestonhad died, and estimated casualties for the entire island ranged from 10,000 to 12,000. Property damage was impossible to estimate by current standards, but contemporary figures ranged from twenty to thirty million dollars.
A high-water mark of 15.7 feet and high winds had destroyed a third of the city, including 2,636 houses and 300 feet or 1,500 acres of shoreline. The sixteen ships anchored in the harbor at the time of the storm also suffered extensive damage.
More violent and costlier hurricanes have struck coastal areas of the United States since 1900, but because of the death toll the Galveston storm that year was in the 1980s still called the worst recorded natural disaster ever to strike the North American continent.
They had signs, they had reports, but no one picked up on them.
The worse thing that can happen is when the warning is giving and no one pays attention until it is too late.
If hindsight was foresight our first parents would have never sinned
I think we will have great storms in these last days and I don’t mean just Hurricanes. The winds of strife are beginning to blow, and in the last days there will be great trouble raging all over this entire Planet.
Take care because there is hope in Jesus
Revelation 7:
2: And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,
3: Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
God will take care of his people in these times, we have nothing to fear if we put our faith and trust in the hands of Jesus
Psalm: 91:
7: A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.
8: Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.
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What are you doing to warn people of this soon coming End?
Look at what the Bible is telling us, we are the Watchman on the Wall we must tell the people. It is not our job to force them to hear or believe, but it is our job to let them know that it is coming and that it is closer then many people think it is.
There are many who have not heard, many who have not been told, many who have not been warned, and it is our job to warn them of what is coming.
Ezekiel 33:
6: But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.
7: So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house ofIsrael; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.
8: When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
9: Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.
We must tell the world that Jesus is coming back soon, and not just soon but very soon. .
We are the Watchman on the Wall; every little thing you do will find someone who is looking for the truth.
Look at what Jesus is telling us in the book of Isaiah:55:
11: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
We go not alone, Jesus is right there with us
Hope is in Jesus, we must tell the World that Jesus is coming
What are you doing oh Watchman?
Jesus said in Matthew 24:14, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come.”
How can we sound the trumpet? How can we let the people know?
There are many ways to share the Gospel, the good news about Jesus.
Everything thing we do will fall into one of three categories.
1. Direct Contact:
- a. Face to Face sharing the good news
- b. Visiting the needed
- c. Bible studies
- d. Volunteering
- e. Missionary work
- f. Your personal behavior, and that effects people more then you think.
2. Indirect Contact:
- a. Mailing; this can be anything from sending a card to say Thanks, Miss you, happy birthday, hope you get well soon.
- b. Leaving literature behind, tracks, free Bible studies cards, Health booklets,
- c. Finding people who are in need and directing them to help
- d. Sharing your resources, Time or Money
There are a lot of Christian’s right here in our Church that I know who minister, through Indirect Contact; God bless you for what you do in His name.
3. Prayer:
- a. Just that on your knee interceding in someone behalf.
- b. Nothing will get you closer to Jesus then through Praying for someone else.
The gospel is going to the world. And, many Christian denominations are out there preaching about Jesus. We’re doing a lot, but we’ve got a lot more to do and we need to keep at it.
God has richly blessed the spread of His Gospel.
We need to keep something at heart, When the Gospel goes to the entire world, we go home!
Is it going to the world, I think it is and I think Jesus coming is a lot closer then you think
What are you doing personally to help other prepare for His coming?
Friends, the last days are an Opportunity.
It is the last opportunity for a dying world to know its creator, an opportunity for us to preach the gospel, an opportunity for you to give your heart to Jesus Christ
I wonder if there is anybody here today who needs a saving relationship with Jesus. Are you closer to Jesus today than you were last year?
Do you truly have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ? If not would you like to receive Jesus as your Savior all you need to do is to invite Him in to your life?
If you want to know more details of last day events, I highly advise reading a very informative book called The Great Controversy, by EG White, especially the last chapters.
Friend: It is closer then you think.
May the Lord our God guide and Bless you as you seek for His Truth